@lodown is waiting for MizJenkins: Best to avoid being in drunken brawls on subway platforms, too.

As a single guy living in San Diego, I'd have to say this is about right. I'm making about $53k per year now and I'm fairly content. $75k would make things a lot easier and would allow for more Toy purchasing!

@Kenneth Blaney: Very true. A person's happiness level is proportional the proximity of good beer!

My concern is not getting tech burn out, it's running out of money buying all these cool new gadgets that I gotta have!

On the TV show Bones they had an episode where some of the characters had signed up for a service called "Hate or Date" where when your cell phone was within so many feet (think it was 100) of another subscriber to the service, you would get a pop up on your screen with their picture and the choice to Hate or Date.

@DennyCrane: Same here.

@The Squid: Agreed. This is basically one of those "if you have to ask..." type of situations. The original Half-Life was THE game that got me into FPS games. Plus the amazing support for the modding community has kept a game that's 12 years old still relevant, hence this story where someone is remaking the entire…

Well, speaking as an IT guy at a medium size Defense Contractor, we really don't give a shit what's on the laptop when we get it back, mainly because we just don't have time to care. We used to make an image of the drive and keep it for 60 days just in case someone else needed the data. After the 60 days we would…

@SinisterBill dances the Sheik Yerbouti Tango: Surprisingly San Diego is becoming a pretty good micro brew community as well. We've got several really good breweries in the area.

"But in a few years, when I have kids and want to show them that obscure movie from the '80s starring Tom Cruise, Mia Sara and unicorns, what options do I have?"

Hey, if they need an IT guy to set up and maintain all the PCs they'll need for their developing, let me know!

@phatnacky: that makes two of us.

I have an iPad and I plan on getting an Android tablet of some kind when they're readily available.

@nuket74: I was there Jan 99-03

@Alan Rosenthal: [www.hackintosh.com]

@bardophile: Your cooling pad doesn't have a USB hub on it?

@icecreamman: If you have the XP SP3 disc, I would just suggest booting from that and running a Windows repair install. That only overwrites the Windows system files and doesn't touch your programs or data.

@tenio: I don't have any suggestions for schools, just wanted to say Congrats on that awesome ACT score! Good job!

@sam-a: Having a good media player will be pointless if you get crappy headphones. That's like getting a Ferrari then putting a golf cart engine in it: It'll work but you won't get as much enjoyment out of it.

@Jimmy From The Block: Pray that the cop doesn't show up for the court date!