I don't know why everybody's pants are so twisted up over this - and it seems to me to be more a criticism of Apple's retail practices than a slam on individuals there. Apple's titles are pretentiously, over-the-top hip, and often it seems they care more about projecting an image than actually serving the customer.

I know I was pretty pissed when I bought my MacBook - they were upgraded the next day, and I had specifically asked about anticipated upgrades to the line. They told me straight-faced that there was no way to know, while I'm sure the new, fancier laptops were sitting in the back ready to be pulled out. I got screwed out of a faster processor, bigger hard drive, and a GB of ram. I understand these people were just following orders from above, but seriously, their return policies are draconian and the general attitude I got was that I should thank the gods that I was considered privileged enough to enter the store, much less expect any kind of customer service competitive with every other manufacturer out there.

I love OSX and the capabilities of my Apple, but I think they are somewhat full of themselves, and a little hyperbolic rant is well-deserved and appropriate in my book.

Arg - something about it rubs me the wrong way - it looks like a multiplication chart, and so I expect it to be. There are some interesting patterns, for sure, but still a little bit disappointing.

My online reading habits are starting to spill over into my print reading. Frequently now when I'm reading something in the newspaper or a magazine I get the reflexive urge to highlight/Google something that I want more detail on. I get frustrated with the linear and non-hyperlinked nature of the print format. Anybody else experience that?

I find myself getting frustrated even at websites that don't format things well, or search intelligently - for instance, after shopping a site with intelligent filters and a way to remove all items based on specific criteria, it seems ridiculous and wasteful to have to sort through a list based on an arbitrary item number - some modern sites still don't allow you to sort even by price!

I find myself feeling the same with all sorts of media - I get irritated when I have to look at things that the computer could sort out for me - and not because I'm easily angered. It is just becoming increasingly apparent how efficiently computers can organize things for us, and it is less and less excusable for a website, or any medium, to make me waste my time.

I still watch TV, but mostly only shows that I download, so I can watch when I want, where I want, with no commercials. I think a lot of the trend is about control - when I have tools at my disposal to instantly remove everything that doesn't interest me, why should I do differently? I am pretty defensive about who gets my little slice of mindshare, I guess.

One way or another I'm sure we will still get a creationism debate out of this.

I think it says a few things - first of all, many people are surrounded by amazing environments and just never seem to realize it. We are jaded by perfection, because we are subject to so much of it through the more popular visual media channels.

I'm shocked a lot of times by the art people seem to ignore - I am definitely in the "easily distracted" crowd, but I think just about anywhere there are amazing details to appreciate if you can drop your agenda for a minute.

@ #115, bardfinn

Ya, there are trainers - the protestant evangelicals. Honestly, don't hate too much, because Evidence isn't too nasty, and he/she probably really is trying to do the right thing.

The problem is that entire segment of the population is so stuck in a self-reinforcing bubble that they don't realize how ridiculous some of it is to the rest of the world.

"Evidence" is so far out there that I am really hoping it's someone's elaborate joke. But, having known people who argue that exact thing (and having been one of them) I'm afraid the conversation is all too serious.

Please be aware that characters like this do not represent the sentiments of all Christians, or, IMO, Christ's teachings. The whole evolution thing, in my mind, is absolutely not worth bringing into the picture.

The New Testament has much more to do with humility, selflessness, and personal responsibility than with winning arguments and making people bow to our beliefs.

"Evidence" is so far out there that I am really hoping it's someone's elaborate joke. But, having known people who argue that exact thing (and having been one of them) I'm afraid the conversation is all too serious.

Please be aware that characters like this do not represent the sentiments of all Christians, or, IMO, Christ's teachings. The whole evolution thing, in my mind, is absolutely not worth bringing into the picture.

The New Testament has much more to do with humility, selflessness, and personal responsibility than with winning arguments and making people bow to our beliefs.

Where do you draw the line between outing someone for a hateful piece of vitriol, and outing them for holding a controversial position? Let's say I sent a similar letter to an anti-gay church. Is it ethical for them to out me as being pro-gay-rights to my Christian boss?

I think the line is quite clear - does it really make it better or worse who you send hateful vitriol to? Just because your troll might be more aligned with popular bias doesn't make it less of an immature and rude rant.

Seriously, even bashing people like white supremacists is best done in a reasoned and thought out manner - sinking to their level doesn't help things at all.

Anybody else notice that she says "ohio" or something like it if you click the bell 3 times?

Kind of scary at first.

@ Scottfree -

I can't say I have ever tried on women's jeans, but I think I'd have a hard time - I'm 6'4".

This is so ridiculous I thought it must've been the Onion at first. Sure, I think guys wearing girl jeans and who own hair straighteners are kind of odd, but I can't imagine widespread violence based on little more than clothing.
Is there something more at play here - do the emos violate some kind of cultural norm? I could imagine they wouldn't sit particularly well with the male machismo types, but still, I just don't get it.

I'm not saying that we should condone intolerant behavior - but in order to be morally consistent, we can't judge Christians for being judgmental - we become what we hate. Homophobes loath gays, in just the way that liberals loath judgmental hypocrites. It's the same ugly emotion, just with different details. We can't allow ourselves to hate anybody, whatever side we are on, because that just propagates the problem.

Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.
- MLK

I understand that FSM is a hyperbolic satire of religion, but I am just arguing that the way it carries out the satire is disrespectful to the point of being unproductive - it doesn't invite a discussion, it points a finger.

Hate begets hate. If we want to really see an end to the intolerance, we must be tolerant - even of the intolerant.

I honestly don't really like the whole FSM thing, because it isn't used in a way that is inclusive or respectful to different religions - I might think astrology is a crock, but I won't make fun of you for believing it - there are a lot of unknowns out there, and there's every possibility that the atheists and evangelicals and the wiccans and the buddhists are all wrong. I generally find that most religious traditions have a lot of worth and significance, even just as a beautiful part of the human experience, and the essential message of FSM is that an arbitrarily decided imaginary being is somehow equivalent.

I think everybody should have more intellectual humility - why does it matter if everybody else believes as we do? Why don't we just live according to our opinions and let others do the same?

I know there's a lot of people out there that will try to push beliefs on you, but you can't treat hate with hate, or mockery in this case, while hoping to improve anything.

I have to second AMS' vote for the N800 - it's an amazingly capable device. I've got it connecting to the web through my phone's bluetooth, and it works like a charm. It will survive for days with light use, and even heavy usage will provide hours of life. Add in a few spare batteries and you could possibly manage without even a charger. Depending on how much photo editing you need to do, you could use the browser to do some web-based stuff, but I would consider using remote desktop to edit the pictures on your home computer. It might be a bit slower, but you will have all the capability of a home computer in a device that fits in your hand.

I have to say, even though you aren't planning on carrying your pack around the whole time, it might be pretty miserable to lug around with your constantly growing list. The kindle seems like an excess, if you could find something else to do the job.(N800 maybe...)

You'll want a good water filter - I would look for something designated as a "microfilter", because these will remove both bacteria and protozoa. A purifier or iodine tablets would also take care of virii, but in many areas they aren't an issue. I recently purchased a Katadyn Vario - they just came out - good filtration, fast, not too big. Very neat.

I didn't see a stove on your list. You could get by with just dry, cold food, but I imagine you might want something warm eventually. You can make a homemade pop-can stove that will run on alcohol, weigh next to nothing, and cost nothing at all. Or, if you want something more substantial, MSR makes a lot of good stoves. I use a Jetboil, it's an elegant, efficient set-up that spares you the need for an elaborate mess kit.