MajesticTreeFrog

You just download the software. For hardware, you need a computer with speakers and a microphone. The software is free, and does a rather good job. You can also call 'real' phones, but that costs money.

See, I logged on, got your message, and of course saw that you had replied to this thread. I was thinking, "he is totally gonna post some pro MS/IE thing". And I was right. Welcome back Cryptonx. Anyway, go ahead and rile people up. I am too lazy to care unless you do something really stupid. Rawr. Or...something.

One thing to add: don't skimp on design classes. And I don't mean computer design. I mean graphic design and interface design. These skills will give you a VERY marketable polish, and will open doors to more industries. Another good skillset is web programming/web design. People still hire, and pay, good web designers. Out of college, you want as many good job abilities as possible. Right now CS has hiring issues, so, this is the best way to counter that.

I would like to post an addendum to my comment about drive partitioning. Drive partitioning is really just a good example of the knowledge you need and of whether or not you will be able to get linux really working, especially long term. Linux is improving, and I am installing/trying it once more to see if it is good enough to be worth my time. You still need a good bit of technical knowledge to get things running, unless you happen to be on a very friendly hardware setup (unlikely). For instance, my current battles involve getting linux to talk to my USB 802.11g NIC and getting my sound working (works using a kubuntu live cd, but not the install. Sooo weird.). I may still just decide it isn't worth it. And that is just the way it is.The other thing to ask yourself is why are you installing linux to begin with? Unless you are an enthusiast, a programmer, or a networking person, chances are windows will work just fine for you. The skill it takes to be a competent enough admin for your own box is well under what it takes to even attempt to setup a good linux distro. So, if you are fleeing windows problems, likely as not you are better served (short term) by learning how to secure (as much as that is even a real concept on windows) your Windows machine. The experience will STILL be helpful on linux, as you will learn a lot about such things as firewalls, networks, and user rights.

for PC, ubuntu. Yes, I know you had a bad experience an your mac, but its still the best distro for nubs, and I assume you WANT to put a new OS on your computer. Oh, and if it wipes your drive, its cause you don't know enough to touch linux. Seriously. You need a new partition to install the OS, and if you don't have a spare one, you have to make one. How do you make one?BY WIPING THE OLD ONES.

As a person in the medical community, please get your kids some exercise. And make sure they type correctly so they don't develop carpal tunnel (like I did, though not bad, and i was able to heal without surgery). Just, you know, don't be stupid. Make sure your kids get an hour of REAL exercise each day. After that, let em do whatever.

I switched to Dvorak about a year ago. Yes, it is a pain for about a month, but after that it is SO much better and more logical, especially for coding. SERIOUSLY. Granted, I do very little coding, but it is still easier. Just cause the punctuation and symbols are better laid out.

There are lots of sites that review laptops, and even sort them by price. My only question for you is: do you care to be runnig MS Windows?If you don't care, buy a mac. Seriously. It will be a lot less hassle over time. They get VERY good battery life, are VERY dependable, both in terms of hardware and software, their version of Office is actually better than the windows version, and can open all those files, etc. The only issue is whether or not your major will require you to run MS only software. Given that the mac can run a lot of unix/linux software, and my recent stent in college, this issue is unlikely.Seriously, after using a PC for years, and then getting a mac laptop, I will never go back to doing work on my PC. The difference and ease of GETTING STUFF DONE is like the difference between night and day.

nice one. Very usefull. I still plan on using allofmp3.com though. It is just easy and fast.

The best value I have found when it comes to mp3 players is the iaudio X5. It can play a tremendous number of formats, has video support, voice recorder, can be used as a portable hard drive on all OSes, has fantastic battery life, and costs the same as a similar ipod. They are also really well built.

For instance, Christmas itself comes from pagan winter celebrations.

As I see it, long distance travel will only happen one of a few ways:The first is teleportation using quantum entanglement.The second is coldsleep-research here is very positive. Travel doesn't happen fast, but it does happen.The third is any of the space bending ideas: worm holes, jump gates, space fold generators. Frankly, I think the first is the most likely method to be eventually used, as it is the only one we know that might work and is also fast.

This sounds a very good bit like karma, and the idea of rebirth. Or, if you believe in a soul, reincarnation.

The best player I have seen is the iAudio X5. Check it out. Same size as the ipod, nice color screen. All the functions of the ipod, but can play more formats like OGG (bout damn time). Good looking as well. Oh, and better sound quality.

Right now, decide if you need a laptop or not. If not, get the Mac Mini (the fast version) and give it at LEAST 512 MB ram. Yes, its more expensive, but OSX really likes the RAM. If you do lots of graphics stuff, go for the 1gb.

Well, photoshop, cause its well...photoshop.Firefox is still my favorite browser. It is more compatible and I like the interface better than safari 2. iJournal, cause I am a livejournal *****. and Mail 2. Cause its a fantastic mail client and I love it.Oh, adium. The duck is stupid, so I use a fireball, but as a chat client it rocks.

They probably would have gone with AMD, except AMD has one of the big problems they had with IBM: supply. AMD only has so much manufacturing capacity, and its already full. IBM just got a bunch of PPC contracts, so the chips apple needed(and were already on backorder) were slow in coming. Intel, on the other hand just got PASSED OVER on all those contracts IBM got, so they have TONS of capacity, and they have plenty fast chips (especially for the things Macs do) and moreover, are VERY reliable and trusted in the industry, which counts for a lot in some cases. Oh, and there is nothing to stop Apple from going to AMD in the future, once the x86 porting is done.

Just be aware that the 'powers that be' are now very aware of bittorrent. The crackdown will inevitably be coming soon. So, be careful what you download (and thereby upload) with bittorrent. Eventually, its all going to go on freenet.

Freedom to interpret is actually pretty recent when it comes to religion, at least in the west. For a long time, the Catholic church was very insistent on people taking its version, insistent to the tune of long sharp and pointy. The current protestant religious right isn't really any better. The leaders would happily go around skewering people if given the chance, with the recent pat robertson assassination issue a good example. I think the reason people feel that Christianity is so constrictive is due to figures like Pat being so visible and vocal.

I would like the world a lot more if everyone shared your view of the divine. As it is, I think you are the rarity, at least to the degree that you consider God a purely compassionate being.

Well, really, it depends on how much gaming I expect to do, beyond what I currently can do. If I want to play games with better graphics, desktop. If I don't care(like now), laptop. Laptops already get PLENTY of performance for everything else, and its only getting better. That, and now you can get them with 17 inch screens that are gorgous.But, they are much more expensive. So, yeah, if I HAD the money, I would totally get the laptop.

I found a free ear training soft that is rather good, though sadly windows only. There are two versions, basic and advanced. They are both free, and advanced just takes over after you have mastered basic (which could take quite a while if you have terrible ears like I do). http://www.miles.be/ have fun!

Well, this view makes sense only if there isn't a genetic component to homosexuality. If there is a genetic component, especially a strong genetic component, then it is very much like racial equality and women's rights.

Its not the tabs, or even the security that makes me love FF (though they help a lot). It is the extensions like adblock, flashblock, and stumbleupon. They just can't be beat.

Really, x86 has come a LONG way since its origin. The whole RISC vs CISC thing is really sort of a pointless argument in this case, because the x86 instruction set has been extended multiple times (SSE, SSE2, SSE3, MMX, 3DNOW!, etc). Each of these extensions made changes that made the x86 more and more RISC like. In any case, whatever the theoretical advantages of an architecture, those don't matter when you have PRACTICAL advantages taht can be messured, specifically SPEED. x86 has had FAR more money spent on perfecting it for desktop use, whereas PPC development was NOT done for such a purpose. This is why apple has had to work to keep up with Intel and especially AMD when it comes to performance.