Maybe someone from California can add some advice here. I've never thought about it much but it seems to me that the stairway in a large building would be a relatively safe place to be in an urban area. Wouldn't going out into the streets be comparatively more dangerous because of falling glass?

that's one complicated ski mask

That's great. So, large corporations won't advertise with public transportation organizations and public transportation just got that much more expensive. Grow up.

I installed CentOS on a VMWare Player on my Windows 7 machine. I like CentOS because it is just RedHat with the RedHat stuff stripped off so you are getting a really complete release. Using the VWWare Player, it is an easy install. The newest version of VWWare Player has a nice big window so if you have a…

@joe.glass: It's possible. Keep checking dice. There are a lot of people who work in IT who don't have a degree in anything. The problem is that right now in the Boston area there are a lot of IT out of work and they are all looking. I guess the good news is that there are more openings than there were a year ago.

@Brian Rupp: I found that wireless wasn't fast enough for some games. If you can, run a cable. What I ended up doing was buying one of those boxes that sends a network signal through the power line because my access point was on one floor and my PS3 was on another floor. I bought the Western Digital Livewire…

@orcim: I also remember the IT guys (MIS then) wouldn't help you with an undelivered message until the message wasn't delivered for three days.

@HowIsYourFlat: I still blame the user. You can't make any system completely fool proof because a bigger fool than you can imagine is always going to come along.

I remember in the mid eighties using a chart like this to send someone an email message. The address was the whole path the message would take. If you and the other person weren't right on the backbone, it would take literally days for an email to reach someone.

@HowIsYourFlat: When someone works from home with a laptop, they can only access a network drive?

The problem is that these uber users tend to be the type of people who take themselves way too seriously and they can turn into power freaks.

@HowIsYourFlat: So what is her IT department supposed to do, send out storm troopers to seize laptops and back them up?

I reduced my phone/internet/cable tv bill by signing up to get all three through Comcast. They gave me a 20M pipe, phone service and every channel they broadcast for $60 less than I was paying before.

@FriarNurgle: I've had it on my iphone for awhile. You or they have to turn it on and leave the app on to be tracked. I haven't seen this version but the iphone app isn't really a tracking app, it's more like a "here I am app". It is really handy though.

@LANjackal: I'm a little surprised at all the positive responses here. I tried all of the above and I've given up and I'm using a docking station now. Mostly, I didn't like the PS3 interface, it's pretty crude. Also, the beginning of songs would get cut off.

ahh, the glories of a misspent youth.

@timgray: The Xfinity app is actually really handy. You can filter a channel guide down to the channels you watch, read a summary of the shows and then either change the channel to watch the show or record it. You can surf through the On Demand stuff too.

I'm sure Hallmark is already working on an April 11th card.

@tetracycloide: I've got an 83" DLP and my kids play games all the time on it. It looks great.

@Unknown2U: I thought the Sony plasmas had better quality pictures but I went with a larger and very good picture. The bottom line is that you can research a purchase like this forever, but there's no substitute for going to the stores and seeing what they've got.