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A rare sunny day in New Hampshire. With all of the recent rain, a beautiful
80 degree day is just what the doctor ordered.

Mickey obviously agrees!

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I’m amazed by the number of folks that tell me Linux is not ready for the masses. Everything I can/need to do in Windows I can do equally as well here. Yes, it may be with alternative programs, and yes there are some native apps you cannot run, but when I try to think about what I can’t do, I draw a blank. I travel with it weekly, I use an express air card, BlackBerry tethering, WEP/LEAP/WPA wireless for my connectivity. I have Windows as well, through a vmware image, and I use that only for customer purposes and Lotus Domino Designer access.

What are your thoughts? What can’t you do in Linux that you need to? Do you even care about the operating system? What about MAC OSX users, are you there just for the Apple marketing and hardware or is it the operating system?

I have to say, from talking to folks, the hardware and applications are key and the OS secondary. I disagree, but that would not be the first time….

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DirecTV what are you doing?

I’ve been with DirecTV (DirecTV) since 1995, they have always provided great service but a recent change has really irked me. At first glance, the announcement that DirecTV was switching from Music Choice (MusicChoice) to XM satellite radio (XM). You were getting more channels, that people pay $12.95 a month for, for no additional cost. I was worried about losing Sounds of the Season, the old DirecTV channel 819. This channel played a great assortment of Christmas music continually from around 11/10-1/5. It was the perfect channel for decorating, Christmas parties and gift wrapping. XM does indeed have a few Christmas channels but they do not start until after Thanksgiving (not a big deal). So, I tune to channel 819 “Holly”, turn on the surround sound and go about decorating. Now the sound quality is not as good as Music Choice, but honestly, I’m not an ‘audiophile’ so I don’t really care, its good enough for my ears.

Commercial free? HA! That is bull! I’m decorating and after 2 songs I hear a bunch of people wishing merry christmas, happy holidays, stuff like that to their friends and family, then a number to call so I can do that, then a commercial that this station is brought to you by the United States Postal Service. How is that Commercial free? It’s annoying, it makes you stop and listen when franky all I want is some background music, not announcements. Hell, FM radio does this for free and better quality. Why DirecTV moved to XM we can only guess ($$$$$). Please DirecTV bring back MusicChoice!! I would not mind XM in my truck (my truck), however I already have Sirius (Sirius) in there. The disc jockeys don’t annoy me when I’m in the car or when I am listening to a talk station but when I’m home I want music, not talk.

DirecTV – Your going to be in some trouble. Verizon and their FIOS (Verizon FiOS) TV service is really going to put a dent in your base. I commend you on getting MPEG4 satellites up, but until you partner with a high speed internet provider and tie that back to your system for ondemand type of programming, your going to be losing customers. I’m waiting patiently, but Verizon is already here with FIOS internet, and TV is supposed to come online this Spring with DVR, HDTV & MusicChoice for less money…. it may be time for me to move from DirecTV after 10+ years.