2009 Year in Review

I did a decade in review first... then thought I might as well do a year in review as well.

January: Snowpocalypse! An ice storm forces us to spend a week with at Rubi's parents' house because ours was without power.

February: We got to come home!

March: uh... Daylight Saving Time began?

April: can't think of anything.

May: Duh, 15th wedding anniversary!

June: Massive remodeling project on the kids' rooms.

July: The kids spent a week with Rubi's parents. Awesome!

August: Rubi begins occasionally guest co-hosting Massively Speaking, the podcast from the website she will later become employed at.

September: Rubi gets hired on at Massively.com!

October: Rubi stresses over working two jobs, and her secratary job finally succumbs to the pressure. Kevin and Rubi start a podcast. Rubi's sister moves to Texas.

November: I have to work Thanksgiving. Again. The first episode of our podcast hits the feed.

December: We welcome Miss Kitty Fantastico into our home.

2009 Year in Review

Ahhh....

Days off are nice.

Ahhh....

This and That, or "Join up!"

Occasionally on my blog, I’ll post a few things and links to places I’ve been on the internet. I call them “THINKS”, a combination of the words things and links. It’s been months since I’ve posted any THINKS… It’s been months since I posted anything of substance at all. Lately it’s been random memes and questionnaires.

Here are a few THINKS, some related to my hometown – Evansville, Indiana. Others are just some things I find interesting.

Club Evansville is a brand new website, Evansville’s version of MySpace. Join up!

If you’re a Star Wars fan, the Evansville region has it’s very own Star Wars FanForce fanclub (look for the “Welcome New Members” thread and introduce yourself!). They have monthly book club meetings, monthly collecting meetings, monthly costuming meetings, monthly General meetings (all optional, you can pick and choose what you want to attend and what you don’t). They also have occasional “unofficial” get-togethers and movie outings. Again: Join up! Oh, and the club also maintains a MySpace page.

If you’re in the Evansville area and a fan of Joss Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity… you’re out of luck. There’s no fanclub for us Browncoats in the area. There is a website for Indiana Browncoats to gather though. Once again I say: Join up (even if you’re not in Indiana, we’ll take anyone willing to make a trek to Hoosierland ever now and again for Browncoat revelry – Louisville, St. Louis, etc.)!

Lately I’ve been playing a couple of online games, both are sort of “Space Strategy” games. In oGame, you start a colony on a planet and build up your production to produce fleets of ships, conduct research into new technology, colonize other planets, and maybe attack other players’ colonies to raid for resources. In Dark Pirates, you are a loan pirate raiding transport ships, convoys, and fleets, attacking other pirates, searching for resources, and working on space-stations to earn money to repair and upgrade your ship or buy a new ship. If you join up at either of these, please don’t attack me!

And to finish up, my sister (who does not live in the Evansville area) has started her own blog. She’s better at it than I am.

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This and That, or "Join up!"

Random Meme

Carrie at Mommy Brain posted a Five Random Questions meme. I commented, so she asked me 5 random questions as well, based on her reading of my blog.

1. What on earth is Guild Wars?
Answer: Guild Wars isn't on Earth :-) It's a computer game, a MMORPG, that takes place on a planet named Tyria. It's a Fantasy/Medieval setting: knights, dragons, magic, dwarves, etc. There are three chapters/games; each one is independent of the other (you don't need all three, and you can start with the 2nd or 3rd if you want). There is a 4th coming out at the end of this month that is an expansion pack - you have to have one of the previous chapters to play that one. It wraps up the story line and the game and ties you into the new Guild Wars 2 that is supposed to come out in a couple of years.

It's a pretty fun game. I play it, Rubi plays, and we let Elizabeth play too as long as she's with one of us or other people we approve first. There's even a podcast about the game that to which we listen.

We have two accounts in the game, and each account is in a different Guild (group of players that we play the game with). Rubi is an officer in both of those Guilds.

2. Which power from Heroes would you like to have and why?
Answer: Hmmm... Maybe Peter's ability to copy the power of others. That way, I could conceivably have a bunch of different powers. But if that's cheating, or it's not likely that I'd ever be near someone with powers, then I think probably I'd want either the ability to fly or the ability to teleport. That'd make my commute much easier.

3. What should the plot be for a sequel to Serenity (f there ever is one)?
Answer: I sure hope there is a sequel. The actors' contracts for a sequel supposedly expire in September. So we have hope until then. As for the plot of a sequel. Who cares? It's Serenity, and Joss Whedon would be writing it. It will be good!

4. What does a Public Safety Communications Supervisor do?
Answer: I supervise communications involving the safety of the public :-).
What? That's cheating? Oh okay. I oversee the day-to-day operations of my shift, making sure my dispatchers are doing what they're supposed to be doing (following SOPs). I handle any complaints regarding my shift. I'll take difficult callers if my dispatchers need me to handle it. I'll make decisions for them if they aren't sure of what to do in certain situations. I do emergency call-ins if someone calls-in sick. If needed, I answer 9-1-1 calls and calls on the administrative lines and enter runs into the computer if needed from those calls. I make telephone calls or handle radio traffic if needed (very rarely am I on the radio). I handle any equipment problems that might crop up during my shift - that could mean switching out a defective mouse or keyboard, or calling a technician in from a vendor to fix a problem with the phone computers. I also handle the content management for our department internet and intranet websites. And I'm the chair of the Morale and Recognition Committee.

5. What is the best sci-fi book of all time?
Answer: The one I haven't written yet :-) This is a hard question. There are so many good books. I guess I'd have to say the best SF book of all time would be the Increasingly Inaccurately Named Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Trilogy (since you can buy an omnibus edition, it counts as one book. Really.).

---
Carrie went on to post the rules of the meme:

The Rules of the Meme:

1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like [the food you hate most in all the world]. (oh... I didn't catch that about the food you hate the most the first time I read the rules. I just said the first word that popped into my head, which happened to be "Cheese". I definitely don't hate cheese. Cheese is good.) So
post something random. Whatever you like.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. You will update your [blog] with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.

Random Meme

I just don't know

Zachary Quinto (Sylar from Heroes) has been cast as a young Spock in the next Star Trek movie, which will feature younger versions of the familiar original series characters.

I think he'll make a good "young Spock". But I think the entire idea of movies featuring the original characters when they were younger is a bad idea. The ST movies (and the entire franchise) have been suffering for awhile. Voyager wasn't that great. Enterprise was just plain awful. Even when Enterprise was good, it still didn't compare to mediocre episodes of some of the other series. Even with the cheese factor all the series have.

Let the movies/tv side of the franchise rest for awhile - just continue to explore the universe in the novels.

Now Star Wars.... I am looking forward to the new SW cartoon and the eventual live-action series they have planned.

I just don't know

Words We Should Know

It's not really a meme... but feel free to take it and run with it.
From a press release comes the 100 words every high school graduate should know.
I'll bold the ones I, as a high school and college graduate know (or have somewhat vaguely heard of).

abjure
abrogate
abstemious
acumen
antebellum
auspicious
belie
bellicose
bowdlerize
chicanery
chromosome
churlish
circumlocution
circumnavigate
deciduous
deleterious
diffident
enervate
enfranchise
epiphany
equinox
euro
evanescent
expurgate
facetious
fatuous
feckless
fiduciary
filibuster
gamete
gauche
gerrymander
hegemony
hemoglobin
homogeneous
hubris
hypotenuse
impeach
incognito
incontrovertible
inculcate
infrastructure
interpolate
irony
jejune
kinetic
kowtow
laissez faire
lexicon
loquacious
lugubrious
metamorphosis
mitosis
moiety
nanotechnology
nihilism
nomenclature
nonsectarian
notarize
obsequious
oligarchy
omnipotent
orthography
oxidize
parabola
paradigm
parameter
pecuniary
photosynthesis
plagiarize
plasma
polymer
precipitous
quasar
quotidian
recapitulate
reciprocal
reparation
respiration
sanguine
soliloquy
subjugate
suffragist
supercilious
tautology
taxonomy
tectonic
tempestuous
thermodynamics
totalitarian
unctuous
usurp
vacuous
vehement
vortex
winnow
wrought
xenophobe
yeoman
ziggurat

Some of those I could define poorly but I'd be close! Some of the words I've heard, and even remember looking up at some point, but couldn't even come close to telling you what they mean now.

Words We Should Know

Which Heroes Character?

Your Score: D.L. Hawkins
You scored 37 Idealism, 45 Nonconformity, 33 Nerdiness

I ain't wearing no tights.Congratulations, you're D.L. Hawkins! You've got a bit of a past to overcome, but you are a strong person and you care very deeply about the people you love. You are good at getting out of tight situations, however, you're not quite as good at simple, practical things like making lunches. Your best quality: Getting yourself out of difficult situations Your worst quality: No culinary skills whatsoever, refusal to don tights

The Heroes Personality Test written by freedomdegrees on OkCupid Free Online Dating.

I enjoyed the Heroes finale that aired Monday evening. Lots of questions flying around the internet about it, "Why didn't Peter just fly? What about the radioactive fallout? Will Matt survive? Is Hiro his own great-great.... grandfather? Did Sylar turn into a roach?"

Really. I saw someone on a forum say they thought Sylar turned into the roach.

Now I have to wait several months for the 2nd season and the new series to start. I'll just have to be content with the online comic books until then.

Which Heroes Character?

Visual DNA

Wow... This is pretty spot on accurate.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Visual DNA

PodCast Review: The PodCulture Network

The Podculture Network, "Equal Opportunity Geekness", is a great podcast.


The show is currently recorded every other week, split into two parts and fed weekly. You get part "A" the first week and part "B" the second week. It is not a "professional" podcast with specific show topics and scripts. It's three friends sitting around "geeking" with microphones recording them.


Brad, Glenn, and Christina host Podculture and spend their time rambling about what they watch on TV, what's in their DVD player, their new "toys" and video games, comic books, and a couple of special segments called "Geek Cuisine" and "Glenn's Guilty Pleasures". Geek Cuisine has the hosts trying out a different snack and beverage each episode on-mic and discussing whether or not they like them and why. Glenn's Guilty Pleasures features Glenn talking about really bad old movies that he likes and thinks other geeks might like. Podculture also is friendly with other podcasts, and runs promos for those podcasts, and even has been "syndicating" sci-fi reviews from the excellent Firefly podcast, The Signal. The hosts also mention a little bit about their "real lives" during the show, as asides to whatever the current topic of conversation may be.


It's that little bit about their real lives that makes Podculture extra special. Through their rambling, you seem to get to know these three people more and more as you listen to each episode. Listening to Podculture makes it seem like you are right there, sitting on the couch in Brad's living room talking about the geeky stuff you've done over the past week - except you're the introvert of the bunch and you let everyone else talk while you listen.

Brad produces the show very well. He has each person miked and runs each mic into a mixer before running it into his computer for recording. He also edits in bumpers, promos, intros, outros, and music for the show after the initial recording session. Podculture has a clean, well-produced sound. There is no hiss or digital artifacting. It almost sounds like Brad runs the audio through a compressor - it's that clean.

The only thing I might suggest to them to make the show a little more "user friendly" would be to announce the title of the songs they play during breaks either before or after the break. This probably would involve more planning on their part, as the songs are probably edited in during post along with the segment intros and other pre-produced items. I know that information is usually available in the show notes. But I rarely check show notes for the podcasts I listen to. I'm also not sure about the split feed/two-part thing. I'm always behind in my listening, so it really doesn't matter to me. But it seems like they changed the order of the segments when they went to the two-part episode. I liked them having a set order for their segments. But I'm not completely against the change they've made. It does keep things interesting not knowing which segment is next. Oh, one more thing: Brad has mentioned in some episodes that he is a Christian. That's a cool thing for a geek to blatantly admit to the world. But Brad sure does curse frequently for a Christian. Glenn and Christina don't seem to curse as much as Brad. But now that I think about it - this goes along with the "being in the living room" with them. I know Christians that, when in their living rooms, occasionally curse to express or elicit emotion: humor, displeasure, disgust, etc. But they'd never do it out in public. I guess this is the same thing.

Podculture occasionally invites listeners to submit their own audio for inclusion in the show. They have "fan-made" voice-overs for bumpers for various segments. They also invite listeners to send them ideas for Glenn's Guilty Pleasures reviews, Geek Cuisine ideas, or a dollar.

You can find the Podculture Network at Podculture.net and their forums are hosted at Bluegrassbrowncoats.net, where you can find the rules for The Podculture Drinking Game and discuss episodes, among other things. Brad and Christina also host the Stargate Louisville podcast. Or so they say. Hosting Podculture and Real Life seem to be conspiring against new episodes of SGL.

If you're a geek, this is a fun show. Podculture is number three in my list of podcasts that I have to listen to, and I listen to many podcasts.

Crossposted at Kev's:

Gather

Live Journal

MySpace

PodCast Review: The PodCulture Network

THINKS for March 7, 2007

Blogger ate my last two mail-to-blogger posts - or rather, it stuck them in Drafts instead of automatically publishing them. So everything popped up today even though they are dated when I actually wrote them.
Blogger says they have that fixed, but we'll see. Maybe it's a DST issue occurring early.

I've been playing Guild Wars occasionally since I got it a couple of weeks ago - maybe eight hours total playing time. I rarely play for more than an hour or so. I haven't gotten into the "real" part of the game yet - I'm sticking in the "learning environment" part gaining experience and skills and just getting to know the game. I like it, it's fun, but it's a time-waster - as in: I could probably be doing more productive things instead of playing a computer game; like napping. I've gotta try to figure out how to play it while I walk on the treadmill Rubi and I bought yesterday.

Also, just to let you know: I think I have a terrible disease called Lethonomia. Really. I'm pretty sure there's no cure for it. Except for maybe flash cards with pictures.

As for the recent news from Marvel Comics - holy Cap! I can't believe they did that! Is Joss Whedon writing for them?

If you are, like me, quite fond of free stuff, or in other words, Free Stuff Rocks!, you might want to check out The Free Geek.

There's been much hype recently over the "discovery" of the "tomb of Jesus". Here's a good rebuttal to that.

You haven't bought a copy of Serenity on DVD yet? Are you nuts?! Well, wait a bit longer and buy the Special Edition! (or buy four copies and share them around.)

Sticking with the `verse, check out this Firefly video:



More Whedon: the Buffy Season 8 comic premieres later this month (next week I think). Here's a refresher of who's who if you need it.

Here's some disappointing news. Why are they actually going forward with that project?

I could have fun with this all day.

Have you wondered what would happen if an astronaut went crazy (while in space that is)? NASA has an SOP.

I guess that's it for now. Back to work.


THINKS: Kev's term combining the words Things and Links: an assortment of images, links, games, trivia, memes, minutia, and whatnot found while browsing and mentioned collectively in a blog or message-board posts.

THINKS for March 7, 2007

DST

ZOMG!! They changed when DST starts!!

This is worse that Y2K!!

Every computer around the world will simultaneously self-destruct and no one will know when they are supposed to be anywhere!

It's panic in the streets and pandemonium in my inbox!

DST

THINKS For February 23, 2007

Real Life has been Trumping Blogging lately. I've still found the time to surf the internet - but no real time to write about anything useful. I'm in the middle of three different books - One I'm reading for a review, one I'm reading that I got from the library because it sounded interesting, and one I'm reading because I want to (and I own it, so there's no deadline to have it finished by). Eventually, I'll post reviews. Actually, I did finish another book recently, I just haven't gotten around to writing about it. But I have been remembering to email myself interesting links and other things that I want to post.

Here they are:

Here's a video on preventing Identity Theft.

Old news now - but House and Bones have been renewed. Rubi and I get to watch more TV together!

Here's a funny story about a kid dropping his mp3 player in the toilet and his moms reaction.

From Stacy at Active Christian Media:

If you're interested in having the opportunity to win a free book every
week, I want to encourage you to sign up for my weekly newsletter. I only
send it out once a week and would love for you to join and tell your readers
about it.

If you join, you have to confirm you have joined by clicking the link it
will send you.

Sign up for our free newsletter at http://www.activechristianmedia.com/ - We have a free giveaway
weekly!

Interested in learning about quantum physics, or psychology, or biology, or leadership and management? MIT offers hundreds of courses for free on-line. You just can't take college credit or certificates or anything for them - they are strictly for self-improvement.

I'm sure I've read this before somewhere, but someone else has posted the beatitudes as written by the devil.

Sign up with PaperbackSwap, guess when the One Millionth book is posted, and win prizes!

And finally, Warner Bros. is considering a JLA movie!

Back to Real Life now.

THINKS For February 23, 2007

Firefly/Serenity Meme

Number of times you’ve seen the whole series (to your best estimate):
I'd guestimate at least 5. Not much more than that.

Number of times you’ve seen the movie:
At least 4 times.

Favorite character (and why, if you want):
From the main cast, I can't narrow it down. They are all great.

Least favorite character (and why, if you want):
Niska. You are a crazy old man. Go lie down and take a nap!

Favorite episode (and why, if you want):
Maybe "Jaynestown," maybe "Serenity" (the pilot) - almost all of them are just as good.

Least favorite episode (and why, if you want):
"The Train Job". This was my first introduction to Firefly when it premiered on Fox. I didn't think the show was worth trying to figure out when Fox was airing to keep up with it. I only came back to FF just before the movie came out because the fans were raving about it. Maybe "Heart of Gold", as the laser gun/horse riding thing was a little too out-there for me. Although that is surely a good definition for FF: horseback riding and laser guns.

Favorite quote:
Too many to name. Whedon is an awesome writer and can really turn the language on it's head to express feelings.

Favorite scene:
The dining room scene in "Out of Gas." The Firefly Talk podcast uses the audio from this as an intro and it's just so much fun. Definitely shows how the crew has become a family.

Your opinion of the movie: love it, shove it, or mixed feelings:
Mixed feelings. It wasn't long enough to showcase every character and introduced some new ones that we didn't really need. I loved going back into the `verse and continuing the story. But I want more!!

Favorite canon pairing:
Zoe and Wash.

Favorite non-canon pairing:
To quote KRAD, "This is a stupid question."

In brief, what got you hooked?:
The fans. The movie was about to come out and I kept hearing rumblings on the internet from general SF-fans (not the browncoat community specifically as I hadn't gotten into that yet). So I decided to jump on the bandwagon and see the series before the movie.

Your favorite theory on Book’s background:
I don't know what all the different theories are, so I can't say.

Your favorite theory on Inara’s reasons for leaving Sihnon:
Again: I haven't heard all the theories, so I can't say.

Will Mal and Inara ever get together?
If I know Whedon: yes, then no, then yes, then no, then maybe... then they'll be best friends.

Will Simon and Kaylee stay together?
Again: If I know Whedon: probably not, but I sure hope so.

Will River stay (or get) on the road to mental health?
Isn't that what happened at the end of the movie? I think she'll always be messed up because of the always feeling everyone's emotions - but much of her dementia came from the locked up and repressed knowledge of the Reavers. Now that that's out of the way, she can at least try to adapt to the psychic abilities.

Favorite Firefly fanfic:
Never read any. I've heard a few (on podcasts). I have to say "Old Wounds" was an excellent story.

Is Firefly your main fandom now?
Probably. I was never really "into" a fandom. But I'd say FF and Star Wars are my main fandoms that I'd get involved with. I like all kinds of things (the 'Gates, BSG, Heroes, etc), but as for the fan community - it's FF and SW for me.

What are your top 2 other fandoms?
Oh... I think I just answered that.

Firefly/Serenity Meme

MCFPerilous 2.11

More Answer from MCF requiring his readers to guess the correct answers for an as-yet-to-be-determined prize.
It's shorter this week, just ten answers.

1. A lot of the pages were completely redesigned.
Why was MCF staying so late at work in January?

2. Midol.
What did MCF take to alleviate the pain in his bizarre nap-related injury?

3. Growing breasts.
What is one side-effect he hopes doesn't happen from taking a "woman's medicine".

4. My yard.
What did MCF take photographs of because of his nap-related injury?

5. Peter's.
Who's secret origin does MCF like the best?

6. Hannibal, naturally.
Who is MCF's favorite member of the A-team?

7. Jelly Beans and The Carpenters.
What snack food and musical group kept MCF entertained while he was recovering from Nap-Elbow?

8. Lisa Loeb, Tina Fey, and Curt Happy.
Who are three people that recently had babies?

9. He returned the Twinkie.
How did MCF introduce himself to his first girlfriend?

10. A radioactive isotope, but I didn’t gain any powers.
What did the doctors inject MCF with to help diagnose his nap-injury, and why was MCF disappointed?

That's it for now - Real Life has been trumping blogging lately.

MCFPerilous 2.11

THINKS for Saturday February 10 2k7

I'm trying to post my THINKS more frequently than every few months or so. But it's just easier to post a no-brainer meme that takes hardly any time to fill out or to actually put into coherent words what's been going on in our lives. I do occasionally find things and links around the internet that I'd like to share. And sometimes I remember to email the links to myself to remind me to share them.

As I did with these items:

Here's a listing of SciFiChicks 13 Greatest SF Villains. And the response: (Note to kids: Don't click this link - foul language there) The 11 Least Intimidating Movie Villains - gotta agree with some of the commentary. Rubi adds: David Bowie not scary enough in Labyrinth? Let's make his tights even more tighter!! My favorite comment there?

"IT'S THE DALEK'S! Everybody walk away"

Disney's Kim Possible Season 4 premieres tonight on the Disney Channel. My kids are excited. I actually enjoy this show - it's quite witty and entertaining. BlogginBaby has an interview with the creators of KP.

Where can you find me on the internet? It's kind like a where's Waldo starring Kev.

You can find me at MySiteProfile, Ziki, Myspace, Gather, and LiveJournal.
What? You've never heard of MySiteProfile? Here's a short article from Lockergnome about it.

GeekMonthly has a four-part interview with Joss Whedon mostly about the upcoming "season 8" comic book of Buffy. Why is Dawn a giant?

Carrie found a link to a great video of a guy juggling. That description does not do it justice as this guy goes crazy juggling just three balls.

I'm really enjoying catching up on the Justice League/Justice League Unlimited cartoon series. Here's a website devoted to the entire DCAU with wallpapers, avatars, interviews with the creators, etc.

Here's another great website for cool comic-book wallpaper.

That's my list for now. Tune in for more pointless memes in the future.


THINKS: Kev's term combining the words Things and Links: an assortment of images, links, games, trivia, memes, minutia, and whatnot found while browsing and mentioned collectively in a blog or message-board posts.

THINKS for Saturday February 10 2k7

Book Review: The Ahriman Gate

The Ahriman Gate: Some Gates Should Not Be Opened by Tom and Nita Horn.

I've been hearing about and wanting to read The Ahriman Gate for more than a year. I heard about in the "Christian Conspiracy/UFOlogy" circles where I seem to remember it being highly recommended.

It's about an ex-Marine, Joe Ryback, seeking vengeance for the murder of his father at the hands of a group of people inside the U.S. government. That group, using technology from a crashed UFO, is trying to bring about the Biblical end-times so Satan will have control of the United States and a group of nations working with her - and inevitably - control of the world.

Joe, of course, is not strong enough by himself. Along the way he gets help from a hermit and the hermit's dog Tater. Joe's youngest sister gets involved over her head, a Biblical professor at a local college gets involved investigated Joe's claims of giants being gengineered at a local military installation - the college professor thinks the giants are really Biblical Nephilim. A computer hacker running an alternative news website helps out; and a high-ranking military man comes to the aid of Joe and his friends - even though he has goals of his own.

The story culminates with the crashed UFO being reactivated and Lucifer's fallen angels about to wage armegeddon with the angels of God, all while Joe is trying save his sister and outrun the Nephilim and their keeper who want to bring the AntiChrist into the world.

It's an average Christian Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi novel. It does do a good job of summing up the basic concepts and theories bandied about in the aforementioned "Christian Conspiracy/UFOlogy" circles.

If you're interested in more of theories by this author, he's been interviewed several times on PID Radio.

Book Review: The Ahriman Gate

New Windows Stuff Rocks!!!1!!!!

At least, according Bill Gates it does.
An article at Dailytech discusses Bill Gates' reaction to his users, and to the Apple advertisements.

"Internet Explorer 7, which is offered to all Windows XP users as an
optional update. According to Gates, less than a third of Windows XP users
downloaded the new browser, and even less take advantage of less advertised new
additions. So how many people have upgraded to IE7? “I would say it's less
than 30 percent,” Gates replied. “We’ve had this incredible desktop search
[available for download] that won every review, and I’ll bet that less than
10 percent of Windows users went and got that..."

I actually agree with this. The reason so few people actually upgraded to IE7 is because it is cumbersome to use, isn't as intuitive with the tabbed browsing as Firefox or even Opera, and they changed the UI around just because they could - moving (removing) frequently used buttons and menus from one location in IE6 to a completely different location in IE7. Some of the elements can be put back (the menus), but other buttons have been moved in the "upgrade" and you can't hack them back into place. The only option is to revert back to IE6.
Or switch to Firefox or Opera.

And that Desktop Search mentioned above? Why do I need that? I have 160GB HD and all my files are organized into directories and subdirectories. If I need a file, I either know exactly where it's at because I put it there, or I have a really good idea of where it will be and can find it in a matter of minutes. The only value I could see to a massive local search engine would be in a networked environment where you might have files spread across several different PCs and servers too. However, most home users don't have anything that complicated.

“And I don't know why [Apple is] acting like it’s superior. I don't even
get it. What are they trying to say?” Gates continues to express his disgust
with the Apple ads...

I'm a die hard Windows user. And I firmly believe the Mac OS is a better operating system. Windows is, always has been, and always will be bloatware. A massive amount of code to do simple things. From what I've heard and read and seen, the Mac OS is more streamlined, the code itself is revised instead of just added onto, and installing it doesn't slow down your computer. An operating system should make your computer use it's resources in the most efficient method possible. Windows does not.
Windows is relatively easy to use, because, for the most part, it hasn't really changed any in 15+ years. The multitudes of PC buyers are familiar with it and have gotten used to it, and don't want to try to something different.

“I don't think the over 90 percent of the [population] who use Windows PCs think
of themselves as dullards, or the kind of klutzes that somebody is trying to say
they are,”

Mr. Gates is right. We, the Windows users of the world, do not consider ourselves dullards. We're not. We're just afraid of change and risk.

At home, I could back up all of my files to DVD, wipe my hard drives, and install Linux on my PCs and then spend some time learning the ins and outs of that OS, and teaching it to my family. At work, our massive IT department could spend millions of dollars backing up every computer and server on their networks, wipe all the computers and install Linux.

It wouldn't cost be anything to do this at home, besides time and effort. Linux is free.
But as I mentioned, it would probably cost millions for my place of work to switch from a Windows OS to anything else. Time, manpower, training on the new OS. It all adds up to a hefty price tag.

For the time being, I'll stick with Windows. If I get a new computer while my kids PC still works, I might use the kids PC to tinker with a Linux installation and use that to learn on.

But I wouldn't just make the switch without a fallback.

New Windows Stuff Rocks!!!1!!!!