MattPie

Mr Wildcard, tear down this bunker.

I get what you're saying, but to a degree "that's life". Almost all the beef in the US is supplied to McDonald's' standards because as the 800-lb gorilla they dictate what they'll buy and everyone follows. Sport motorcycles generally align to racing classes; you used to be able to buy 750cc sport bikes from everyone but now that there's no 750cc racing class, they're all-but gone. Things change at the top and it trickles down to the lower levels.

Legend has it, when Kaleta needed a number, Rip tossed him #36 saying, "here, I think this one fits".

I did it once, I missed an 8AM Emag test. I walked up to the professor and said, "I screwed up and missed the test, is there any way I can fix it?" He told me he'd take my grade on the final project and use that for the test. I was astounded; maybe he appreciated my honesty.

Yep, that's all correct. For reference, my work computer (HP 9470p ) is very nice but pricey. I can run a couple VMs (RHEL7, Mint, Windows 7, though I generally don't run all three at once) on it with GUI without getting into too much trouble. It has 8GB, Intel i5-3437U, and an SSD. In terms of disk performance, even with the software-based disk encryption on my work system (which slows down everything), disk is still faster than the non-encrypted hard disk on my home laptop. Very nice to have indeed. This model is a few years old so I think a new system with similar performance (and not the fancy "business" model) would come in a lot cheaper than the $1000+ it was new. Once you get it narrowed down, I'd check on whether the boot loader is unlocked and how well the network card works in Linux (since you mentioned running it). Luckily, Linux drivers for the network will only come into play if you run Linux on the laptop natively; if you run Windows on the hardware and Linux in VMs the Linux only needs to know about the VM "hardware" so there's no driver issues. Both my work HP and home Dell can boot Linux fine; I've even played around with an Android boot for the home machine. Android-x86 isn't very polished, but it was kind of fun to have a 13" Android tablet for a day.

Crucial.com has been around forever, and was/is my go-to for looking for memory upgrades. I will say that once in awhile it'll have a limit fo XGB for a device but if you do put more memory in it'll work. Granted, that was a long time ago so I'd hunt around the Google for other reports on your model before you go buy a 16GB DIMM for a machine that says it only accepts 8GB. :)

Chrome will eat whatever memory it can allocate. But in Wildcard's case, he's a developer (IIRC). At some point, I'm betting he'll need to run VMs to test code on or whatnot, that's why I'd recommend 8GB for him. Not required, but it's nice to have a couple VMs up when you need them. I find it a lot easier than installing "server" software directly on the base OS.

I think you can just go sign up and they'll give you a new number, test, and then port the exiting cell number over if it works for you. One slight "hassle" is calling out. You can either set the phone to use one number to call out all the time, or ask each time. Initially I thought "ask" would be a good solution but if you dial using your car (or probably voice recognition or whatever) you'll have to find your phone and tap which number to call out with. I ended up switching back to dialling out with my cell number all the time. On a side note, you can set Google voice to ring other numbers too, so you could have it ring your home phone or other phones in addition to your cell. And, you can call/answer via your computer (although I've had issues with it).

I didn't think to post it here, but a couple weeks ago a tornado came through Amish country 10 miles from my house. I happened to drive through a couple days later and it was crazy how many people (both Amish and English) were out cleaning up. They had a new barn framed and roofed already to house the animals that were in a barn that didn't make it. http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/community-hundreds-of-amish-helping-to-rebuild-after-tornado-damages/article_a7eea0a4-dca1-11e5-a7ec-b7c91e410a6b.html

Go out of the box and give him "NB" for noob.

Depending on how Google-phobic you are, and if your work iphone isn't restricted, you might look into Google Voice and have your existing cell number ported over. Once you install the google voice app on the phone (and maybe a bit of web-based set up), calling either number, your work or former cell, will ring your new iPhone like usual. For texts, I'm not sure how it's handled on iPhone, but on Android I have the option to handle text in the Google Voice app or they all get merged into Hangouts. When start a new Hangouts text conversation with someone, I can choose either number, and replies to incoming text are sent from the number they sent the text to. I use Google voice to have a local 610 number as well as my cell's 607 number I've had for 15 years.

That's not always the case these days. Some of the ultrabook systems have hard-soldered memory and don't take DIMMs, or only have one memory slot so you can't do 4+4GB, you'd have to buy an 8GB DIMM and replace the existing 4GB.. If you get narrowed down to a couple models, dig around on the vendor's support site and see if you can find a service manual for it. You don't really need to read it per se, but looking through the topics will hopefully give you an idea what can be upgraded and what cannot. The Dell manual for my laptop is mostly pictures anyway so it's pretty easy to follow.

They retired that number NA - sports-wide for me.

00.

There's a pretty good one (or was a few years ago) off Elmwood. Betty's, on Virginia just west of Elmwood.

I was out in my yard digging a hole for most of the game, I could just keep going...

I think 42 is reserved for centers. ;)

Nope, but I'd should give them a shot some day. I see them (or something similar) at Wegmans. when I make smoothies I put a TBSP of chia in it, so texture is a little odd but you can't beat the nutrition.

On Linux and Windows: some laptops newer make it pretty difficult to install Linux (in the traditional way) as they lock the boot sequence (for your safety, of course). I'm not saying it's impossible, but you might need to look at other boot methods. I briefly had an AMD-based Dell laptop that I gave up on trying to get it to boot off anything other than the internal Windows disk. Crazy, I tell you. I ended up with another Dell, an Inspiron 13.3" 2-in-1 which is pretty nice. 1920.x1080 screen, 8GB RAM. 500GB HD which holds it back a bit, but at least I can drop an SSD in at some point and solve that. I got it on sale last year for $650, regularly $750 (surprisingly, Bestbuy beat Dell.com). My rule of thumb for that purchase was screen is important, memory is important (unless you can upgrade it later, which is hit and miss with current laptops), and then processor (avoid Celeron or other lower end CPUs for what you're doiing). Those are the things you can't always upgrade later. Disk you can upgrade most of the time (but check to make sure) or use external drives. If you're going to use a monitor a lot, you could cut back on the screen to save some case.

This thread is going to be awesome to revisit when he signs with Columbus.

You know, you're right. I'm nuking mine too.

Hahaha, that would explain it. (and to clear up: if I have to explain the joke, it wasn't funny to start with. :) )

My wife loves their stuff, and I tend to agree. Deschutes and Rogue were her favorites when she lived in Oregon. The Black Butte Porter, Obsidian Stout, and Fresh-squeezed IPA stand out for me, but I haven't been as adventurous in my sampling lately so it's been awhile since I've had the others. Dogfish Head's Romantic Chemistry: like many odd creations of Dogfish beer, you look at the label and read the ingredients and think, man, that's crazy I have to try it. Then when you do, it's OK. Maybe it's the excitement of trying something new, maybe those things didn't really belong together in the first place. In either case, I'm left thinking I'm glad I tried it, but I should have bought a case of something that was less of an experiment. http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/seasonal-brews/romantic-chemistry/index.htm

Huckleberry, glad to hear you're OK. Joke: unless there's been a string in addition to what I wrote, it's just a joke. For some reason, all the puppets made me think of GWAR, and the idea that GWAR would become some sort of family-friendly act made me chuckle. You know what they say when you have to explain a joke... :)

My MAN!