BabyDavey

That I didn't know. Hot cider is something I wish I could get. I should just buy some for the work machine.

Christine; I have no doubt you can make a better cup of coffee than I could with my fancy machine, but I've got to level with you: I'm lazy. I just want a quick, hassle free fresh cup of coffee when I want it. I'm the only one in the house that drinks coffee, so a single cup brewer make sense for me. DD; Nothing for T-Discs on Green Mountain - though we get it and Timothy's at work and it is good.

At work we have a Keurig - I like the coffee and selection of the coffee and other drinks available. There are some really good products from a great deal of companies. In my corner of Canada they cost roughly $0.50-0.60 each, which to me seems like a lot of money for a cup of coffee that you make at home, though. I was debating before the Holidays about which machine I would like - the selection for the Tassimo is less than stellar when it comes to traditional coffee, but the fact that it makes latte's and cappuccino makes it more palatable. When it comes to drinking plain old coffee, I typically don't stray too far from the basics - so the large selection that Keurig has to offer wasn't really a selling factor. My local grocer sells Nabob and Maxwell House for the Tassimo, and it costs a little more than half of what the k-cups cost. What really sold me on the Tassimo, though, was the Chai Tea Latte. I used to love these from Starbucks years ago. The Tassimo has a them from Twinnings Tea - It's a two step process, make the tea, and then use the latte cup to top it off. They're really good, though they cost about $1.00 each (helluva lot cheaper than Starbucks). Needless to say, I bought the Tassimo - and I'm glad I made that choice. The coffee is good and fresh every time and the Chai Tea Lattes are just wonderful! Any hey - the Tassimo machines are reasonably priced and are made my Bosch. It's my first Bosch appliance, but I've got some of their power tools. If I have the same luck with this machine as I do with their tools, I'll be one happy, caffeinated boy. Does anybody else have a Tassimo or Keurig? Likes, dislikes, suggestions? Does anybody know of any place they can buy the cups or discs online?

A friend at work told me about this one. I had never heard of the song before, but this "cover" is hilarious. It was on the Jimmy Fallon show. I didn't care much for the original, but I laughed pretty good for the cover. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpxZwbPcA38

We've got one of those Keurig machines at work. You can get quite a variety of coffee - Green Mountain makes some really good stuff. Black Tiger is good if you like a dark roast. There is also Jet Fuel, which is a bit too burnt tasting for me, but my boss drinks it like crazy. I'll have to put in a request for the Apple Cider - it'll be nice to have around the holiday season.

I just received my order today. Received it in less than 2 weeks, which is nice. I got training pants in both large and extra large, PUL pants, cotton covered pants and a velcro diaper. My initial opinion is the quality seems good. I'm wearing the L training pants right now and they seem like a good fit. I'm curious to try the velcro diaper - it's cute. I don't usually indulge my feminine side, but I splurged for the pink hello kitty ones. For me, price is right, shipping was quick considering I'm in Canada and they're in China, and, looking at the stickers they made a stop-over in the states somewhere. I'll try to remember to repost when I can comment on the absorbency.

You're close, but just a little off. 720p and 720i are both 1280x720, the p standing for progressive (each line of horizontal pixels is drawn 1 after another in every 60hz cycle) and i stands for interlaced (every second line is drawn 1 after another in every 60hz cycle) 1080p and 1080i are both 1920x1080 (the p and i once again standing for progressive and interlaced). With my HTPC, I need to be on either of those resolutions as those are the native resolutions for the TV. If I set it to 1280x768, I get... you guessed it, black bars. My TV has a mode to get rid of this, stretching the image to fit, but it doesn't do the picture any justice. Native resolution is the way to go. You still may need to set the refresh rate, but for me this usually works the best. To the OP: If the video card has an HDMI output it should support at least the 720p at the proper resolution. If it doesn't, update the drivers to the latest ones and go at it again.

Something to do with medical expenses? Hopefully not self-induced like x-rays cause you got something stuck somewhere it shouldn't have been... ... you know like raisins in your nose*.... (* actually had to go to the doc when I was a youngin' the first time for this very reason...)

Years ago I worked for a local PC shop. I was a tech turned sales. We did all the custom built systems. When customers would come in with a quote or specs for an HP or Dell, we could never compete with the price. We would always play the quality component and local service angle. At the time, Dell and HP you had to send away to a service centre for repair, unless you wanted to pay for premium service. Long story short, none of us technical people in the store liked the brand name PC's. The image was unreliable, unupgradeable and just plain not worth the money. Fast forward a couple of years (still a few years ago) the company I worked for bought into rights for a national franchise. Through this franchise, we had access to HP, IBM, etc. Most of the sales people shied away from them, thinking they were the crap that we always were taught to think they were. Being a tech-turned-sales, I grabbed an HP system off of the shelf, took it out back and opened it up. Guess what - the system had an ASUS motherboard (same brand we always promoted for the custom builds), and all standard components inside the case (no proprietary bits). I threw away my old views, ate crow and started selling them. Yeah, I wasn't getting the margins that I used to get, but I was selling more because the price was better. Now, a couple of observations about brands versus custom builds based on my experiences: 1.) Brand names tend to test all their components to ensure full compatibility - you don't usually have to worry about random screw ups and such because of hardware incompatibilities. Really, though, this isn't much of a problem anymore, but it still exists when the builder cheaps out on a power supply or RAM. Don't underestimate the importance of a good power supply. I've had some really weird inconsistent problems that you would more likely associate with RAM or heat, but turned out to be power issues. 2.) Brand names usually offer a 1 stop shop for downloading drivers and hardware information (in the case of an OS reinstall, etc...) 3.) Custom builds give you a large variety of parts to mix and match - if you're a heavy gamer, you've got a big pool of parts to choose from. Not to say that you can't do this with a brand, because most of them use the same types of components, but when you're buying something and immediately taking out something and replacing it with something better, it just doesn't seem worth it. These days, I have noticed that the small form-factor PC's that HP and Dell are selling are less adaptable than their mini/mid/tower brothers and sisters are. Things like power supplies seem to be non standard, though the connectors are the same, just the size and shape are different. With all this in mind, and if you don't mind a used PC, the company I work for sometimes buys pc's and laptops (mostly laptops for our field techs that are well-known for beating the hell out of them) from this place: http://www.offleasesystems.com/. We've had good luck with them, in fact I've got an off-lease laptop that my wife bought me a few years ago that I still use. It's working hard as a home server (Windows Home Server plug: Awsome!)

oOOOOOoo... Boobies! Now this is really getting interesting...

Right. Back in the day when a person could walk out of high school and into a good job and make a living wage? Hell, even walk out without even finishing school and earn a decent living. Reality is, for the vast majority of people, those days are over. Sure, you can get a job, move out and work your ass off to pay the rent and eat well, but if your parents are willing to help you out and give you a boost, what's the big deal? Seriously, though; You're on an AB/DL forum, living at home with Mom and Dad might be as close to reality that some people have of going back to or staying in their childhood.

Regarding the title - speak for yourself, I only made #1. XD

Oh, I hate that @ssh0/3 paper-clip! You've dredged up years of nightmares for me...

Are you purposefully perpetuating the stereotype that Mac users don't do any 'real' work? *sigh* I wish I could get away without doing 'real' work...

I'm all for OSS, but I don't care much for OpenOffice. The thing about MS office is it just works. I realise that it's Microsoft, and these days it's cool to hate them, but really - Office is leaps and bounds above its competition in this market. Perhaps I'm just drinking the MS Kool-Aid, but I really don't see OO as a serious competitor. The only real competitive advantage is that it's free. Also, before you label me a MS fanboy, I've tried, like and use a variety of MS, Apple and Linux devices and software, both OSS and retail. Sent from my Firefox browser.

I don't believe you'll pay duties and taxes on them - if they're made in the USA or Mexico, than NAFTA exempts them from that. At least that's why I assume I never paid tax on mine.

I'm all for Firefox, but speed is not one of it's greatest features - especially when comparing it to other modern browsers. It is adaptable, expandable, stable, OPEN, free, customizable... but (in my experience) it is no faster than IE, especially IE8.

Installed it this morning on my iPod Touch - it seems to work well. I only wish it was a bit more private... Oh well. Crackberry would be good, too - though if there is a mobile version, I suppose it doesn't matter.

It's funny - I don't see these ads. I do, however, run Adblock Plus, Flashblock and NoScript on my Firefox, so I tend not to get most advertisements while browsing the net. A lot of users don't even think about their browser to begin with, let alone know what one they're running. In my past career life as a computer tech, if people lost the 'e' icon on their desktop or launch bar they would think they "lost the internet". So, if some of these people see an icon that says 'optimized for IE8' or 'this website will work better when rendered in IE8' or 'your browser is out of date, we no longer support IE6' they might begin to ask questions and indeed get something better. IE8 is an excellent replacement for IE6 or IE7. In fact, I would almost go as far to say it is a vast improvement over its previous iterations. Google will advertise it's chrome browser on different websites - who is saying Microsoft shouldn't do the same? That, though, reminds me of the little icons people used to put on their geocities and tripod websites... "Best viewed in Netscape" or "Best when viewed in IE" - any way you looked at most of those sites, they still usually looked like crap.

Angela; I have a hard time believing whether or not you're being truthful in your post. I say this because your writing is entirely too clear and concise when compared to the normal 'truthful' posts found about the forum. J/K, of course. I always enjoy reading a well written post, whether or not it's truthful. I find it much, much easier to follow. Angela, I don't believe there is anybody else on this forum that writes more clear and concise than you. Even still, if you are presenting your information as fact (or experience), I believe it. Following this logic, I don't agree with the argument that the OP was posting fiction just based on the fact that it had perfect structure.

Security cameras can be tricky - They fit in to a whole lot of different places. We had one at a place that I worked at that was in a clock. Nanny cams and the likes have been known to be hidden in teddy bears. A good security camera installer can hide a camera just about anywhere, with the sizes of some of them, they're not hard to conceal. Chance are, though, if they have some concealed ones, they'll also have some right out in the open. (Front door, house facing garage, etc.)

I don't smoke - but even I could tell the difference between oregano and pot. You don't think someone who smokes pot wouldn't notice the difference between pot and oregano? Either; a.) it was some really low quality stuff, and you pulled the wool over their eyes, or b.) it wasn't low quality stuff and they noticed but didn't connect it to you, or c.) it wasn't low quality stuff, they did notice, and you have not been invited back to house sit. Any way you look at it, that was low. These people trusted you to look after their house and you took advantage of that. That doesn't say a whole lot about your character, does it?

I've got to say, this is quite an interesting statement. I run a 64 bit OS, and just the other day I attempted to install a 3rd party app for blackberry software updates. This was a DOS/Script based application. I received a warning message informing me that I could not run it, as it was a 16bit application. I was able to load it in a 32 bit OS, as it has kept the backward compatibility for _most_ 16 bit software. I am also able to install _most_ 32bit software on my 64bit OS. Simply put, modern operating systems don't retain the ability to run 4/8 bit instructions directly. Most computers still retain the ability to run these instructions, but you would have to load DOS (from a memory stick or boot disk or something) or some other alternative OS rather than windows xp, vista or 7. Now, you would be able to run a 4/8bit program in a virtual machine, which could explain the resource and memory hogging experiences people might have with this software. I suspect, though, that the program is actually native 32 bit code, and does not require the use of a VM. Here are my thoughts on Norton, and it's slow and resource hogging experience in the form of an analogy: It's 1988 and a company opens, they sell widgets. The staff and management is very efficient and effective. Over the years, these widgets catch on and become more popular. The company can't handle the amount of business they have without expanding, so they do. They build a larger facility and hire more staff and management. These new people aren't as invested in the company, but they're good employees. They're not as effective or efficient, but they still work well. Meanwhile, other companies spring up and offer the same kind of widget, but with other features. The original company struggles to adapt - adding new features to their widget, and in the process they expand their business again. They're not quite the well oiled machine they once were, but they're still moving ahead. This continues for another decade or so - expanding and adding to stay ahead of the competition, each time becoming less effective and efficient. More departments, more managers, more overhead, more real estate, more everything. Today that company is sluggish, full of bureaucracy. Just.Plain.Slow. Norton, like that company, has added may different features, services, monitors, all sorts of little things. I suspect that as these programs grew, they became a patchwork. The programs likely no longer contain any of the original code, but they still contain the processes, procedures and all that other fun stuff put in place in the beginning. This makes things sluggish, inefficient, resource hogging. If I write a piece of software to replace another, I can pick and choose the features that are included in said program. I can write it for the latest and greatest operating system, and I can make it as efficient as the OS will let me. I'm not limited to keeping features included in previous revisions of the software, as there were none. This happens in software, this happens in business, this happens in government, this happens everywhere. As a particular entity grows it becomes less efficient and requires more resources (money, food, fuel, whatever). Perhaps it's nature, I guess. So. Long story short: Norton is not 4/8 bit. It can properly handle 32 (and most likely 64) bit platforms. It's just too big and inefficient. There are many alternatives to Norton. Avast, as other members have suggested, is a good place to start. I'm no MS fanboy, but I've found MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) to work well for me. It's easy and seems light weight, which is a good thing. We use Vipre at work, also quite light weight and seems to work well. I've used kapersky (sp?) and wasn't totally thrilled, but that was just me - it could do what you want.

My current browser is Firefox, as it has been for a couple of years. I've tried chrome - don't like it. I've tried Safari - don't like it either, except on my iPod, where the only other (real) choice is Opera, which I also don't like. I use IE8 at work only for the sites that don't support FF, and FF for everything else. I've tried Opera, and I don't like it, either. Come to think of it, there are quite a few browsers I don't like. I looked at Flock before, but I prefer the pure Mozilla variant. I've been through quite a few browsers, though. NSCA Mosaic (IE before Microsoft) ------> Netscape ------> Internet Explorer ------> Netscape ------> Internet Explorer ------> Firefox ------>(The other guys) ------>Firefox Really, though - With the host of extensions firefox has available, surfing has never been better as far as I am concerned. Adblock Plus, Greasemonkey, NoScript. It's like all the internet you like without all the crap you don't.

I know a few people with the 650 and 800's... They drive the ever living $h** out of them. I've not witnessed any of them have any sort of engine problems. One thing I have noticed is that they seem to have entirely too much power for their axles. Though I think that it's a combination of lack of maintenance and weak engineered parts. To top it off, when you've got more power than anybody else, you're usually not too shy to show it off - that can contribute to a breakdown. Mine is a 400HO (Single) Carburated Rotax - works good, though it's a runs a little rough when its cold. I definitely work it through it's paces (hauling wood -lots of wood, trail riding, ploughing the driveway, etc.) and it's been quite reliable. I hit a stump (I think - I'm missing a couple minutes of memories of flying through the air) and flew off it the other year - when I got up the machine was coasting forward and looked alright, so I brushed my self off (embarrassed) and drove away. Over $6k in insurance claims later, it is mostly back (though not exactly the same)... New frame among other things... I was vigilant when I bought mine, and made sure that it was a Canadian made machine - not all of them are. I don't know if it makes any difference, but I wanted my money to go locally. I don't know if I'd buy another one, though - dealership issues. If I were going to buy a machine based on dealership and (friends) experiences alone, it would likely be a Yamaha... Too bad they don't have a 2up like the outlander. The old Citation is quite a beast as well - I wish I could buy a new track for it, though, but apparently they've been discontinued for a couple of years. Not a whole lot of sleds with that length track. Ah well.