further revelations in Jedi training.

I am used to working at a desk, even at home. I need a PC to be up and running all day long. To this end a desktop PC is fine. I have an old laptop that no longer charges the battery, it overheats and shuts down. I don't have experience running a newer laptop all day, I would hope they are engineered better. I have several desktops in my computer room, I can't use them all at once to any real advantage. So, I am thinking of putting one in the upstairs, one in the living-room.
This means I will have to get wireless cards so that I can avoid stringing cables all over the house and LCD screens (they take up less room). I plan to keep my working data on flash drives or devise a file server on the network.

There are advantages to being mobile, but I'm not in the habit of taking my laptop out into the public space. Laptops are energy lean and space saving, regardless. At home the desk is my peaceful place, other spots are too busy, I can't concentrate so good or feel I can stay without interruption.

Users are a strange lot, their PCs an extension of their personal strivings. I've met ones who retreat into a gaming closet, ones who game everywhere and  families of gamers. I've met small business owners and folks who bring work home. I know some IT people who seem more involved with networked systems than single PCs. And a few who are just plain geeks, like me.

Computers run cars and spaceships and weapon systems, I've met a few who are into those areas. The scariest people are the ones who don't need nothing but a cell phone or PDA. The iconic figure of a person hunched over a keyboard and staring into the glare of a monitor has nothing on a PDA/cell phone user seen everywhere. We have virtually invented the virtual phone booth. We are in a crowded mall, shoulder to shoulder, the cellphone rings (buzzes, clicks, chirps or jams), we evoke the cone of silence as if walls of glass surround us.

Mark my words, first the cell phone privacy force field, then the cell-portation device.  People will get lost in the network and their DNA recaptured on a server. Soon DNA sequences and digital technologies will be parallel, then merged. Doctors will convert you to a DNA stream, run you through a filter and reconstitute you healthy on the other side. All divergent DNA will beamed into space out of the galaxy via laser or stored in giant underground server bunkers. Prisons will be replaced by server farms. So behave yourself or you'll get the bits blasted out of you or you could wind up as a PC operating system in a robot.

Meanwhile, back at the Linuxville chateau, I am wondering how I got in this PC business in the first place.