@fit4130: Seriously?! I guess I shouldn't be surprised... It's liek we're slowly developing "CitySpeak", from BladeRunner - a bizarre blend of various languages, acronyms and dialects.

@jsmorley: Yeah, the crazy truncated shit drives me crazy too. I find I text in complete sentences and even paragraphs..

@mobilejray: When I pick up an iPhone in December, I think this shift will become even more pronounced because of the PUSH email and teh functional browser.

@mobilejray: I agree. I've noticed my own subtle shift towards more data communications, less voice... I've been thinking about this change for a couple of weeks. I'm actually considering cranking my voice minutes down on my phone, and maxing out the data plan. I hate playing phone tag too... too inefficient and…

@Funtomas: Great idea... I'll give it a try as well.

@MrJenkins: True, but many people never even touch many of these apps that MS is stripping out. People like my Mother, who still doesn't get the fact that Google isn't "installed" on her PC...

I love how he keeps taking these little breaks, you know.... just to keep the proper pace and enhance the mood.

@Tobywuk: Slick deal with the house.

Sick, yet spartan setup. More power to the dude, Just keep studying and don;t let all the tech distract you.

Cool... I might have to try this on one of my machines...

@Admore: LOL!

that's just not right... not right at all.

NeoOffice... a slim, but functional open source alternative to the MS Office suite. Not too flashy, but it doesn't suck up processor resources and is regularly updated.

I smell a Top Gear episode.

Most of your "average" computer thieves don't give a damn what's on your computer... it's just something to sell or pawn, and the harddrive is someone else's problem. Protecting your data is important, but so might be physically securing your desktop or laptop with a laptop lock and mounting plates...

Spaces in Leopard suits my windows needs quite well, especially when I'm jumping between Illustrator and Photoshop in different assigned spaces. I really like concept behind UltraMod. Hopefully it will be ported to the Mac in the near future, it would save tiny slices of time throughout the day, and smooth out the…

@elsifer: Me too... I'm glad we both learned otherwise.

The more monitor real estate, the better. I use two small flat panels at work to juggle multiple spreadsheets, a browser, and Outlook. At home I have a 30 inch Cinema display with Leopard's Spaces to minimize the stacks of open windows and to better organize menu bars for apps like Illustrator, Apeture, and Flash…