The Windows XPerience is pure unsupressed pain. I have spent the last 3 hours rebuilding a laptop from the factory recovery CDs and I'm still not done.

All this began because the system decided one day that it would no longer join a workgroup. This started after installing a netgera ma-401 wireless card. There were time when this didn't matter because I could use other real (ie non-M$) protocols to move files around, but in an all windows installation I found I was out of options. The win2K file server didn't have ftp or http set up so I needed to use SMB to get the files I needed.

Odd because if this was a UNIX network I would have had no problems using scp or sftp or... the list goes on.

The worst of it is that getting the laptop back to a fully functional (for me) state is still not nearly complete. Especially since the windows installer has crashed and I have no clue if the patches were actually installed.

Right now I'm on my 4th reboot and there are still 7 critical updates to configure. Odd since Mandrake 9.1 is fully functional in 1 reboot. Knoppix is fully functional in 0 reboots.

I'll keep you posted.

Endgame: finally the wireless is working, mozilla is getting my IMAP mail from exchange (shudder) and I'm almost able to start working with this computer. 30 minutes and another reboot later...

My workmate Dan sent me this link which has helped me understand some of the real answers behind conservatism. I have always wondered why people woul buy into and support a dogma that is counter to their own self interests. The "Regan Democrat" phenomenon was the most boggling case of this recently. After reading this report, I have a better grasp on soem of the motivating factors.... But it still doesn't explain my sister-in-law :)

Mercury Interactive is always good for a laugh. From their website: Is this man clicking his heels or killing himself?

Now this is good news... Your choice, hairy palms or prostate cancer? I love this quote: "Prof Giles said previous reports had found an increased risk of prostate cancer among prisoners and Roman Catholic priests."

Translation: "Celibacy is bad for your health" must be time for the church to rethink some things.

As if the recent sex scandals aren't enough.

Bush lied, people died. I don't suppose you can get any clearer than that...

Here's a fun little gem: "The rumor has it that Microsoft is uncertain whether to charge a license fee for a hyperthreaded processor as one or two CPUs." found in Wonderful World of Linux 2.6

I'm sure that many companies have had to deal with answering the question; "what is a CPU now?" What do you charge for software that supports 100 users on one platform and 1000 on another?

Let me know if you have an answer :)

WWJB? or What would Jesus Boot? Funny question, The World Net Daily News has an answer; Linux check out this article