It was a quiet week from the TR community, but TROLOV — that’s TR Out Loud on Video — must go on! Take a look at the most active discussions and members on the boards, and then be sure to get involved for next week’s show! If you’re not a fan of video, you can choose to just listen to the audio file.

Notes:
Top discussion threads:

  1. Longing to escape from corporate world is not unusual
  2. Nigerian 419 scammers: What you didn’t know
  3. Is too much choice getting in the way of Linux’ acceptance?
  4. Poll: Which area of Linux could use the most improvement?
  5. Poll: What classic video game franchise should be revived?

Here are a few other links that you should check out:

If you’d like to contribute to the pics galleries, please send us your photos.

Also, don’t forget to sign up for the TechRepublic Community Central newsletter!

Most “Thumbs Up” in the TR Questions arena over the past week

  1. OH Smeg (8 thumbs)
  2. robo_dev, Darryl~, and Jacky Howe (6 thumbs)
  3. shasca (3 thumbs)
  4. Brenton Keegan, Peconet Tietokoneet, and Snuffy09 (2 thumbs)

Most Comments in the TR Forums this week

  1. Palmetto (115 posts)
  2. Deadly Ernest (113 posts)
  3. OH Smeg (105 posts)
  4. jck (101 posts)
  5. OldER Mycroft (98 posts)

TR Member participation

Thanks to Theron and Hal 9000 for participating in this episode of TROLOV.  These two fellas are eligible for some free swag!

Last week’s Question of the Week was sent in by TR member S!ick: “Have you noticed any trends in school where they’re requesting more electronics, gadgets, etc. than they have before?” Here is the only response we received:

Hal 9000: “Yes, they are most certainly. When I went to school, I wasn’t allowed to use a Slide Rule — and much more importantly, I had to be able to demonstrate that I could understand how to do something, as the correct answer wasn’t good enough without understanding how you reached that result. Today, the kids are all graded on answers and don’t have to understand how that answer is obtained. So, they are allowed to use Scientific Type Calculators to get the right answer, and their understanding is now limited to being able to punch in things from a keypad and hoping for the best. I don’t know if this is an improvement of a massive backward step, but if what I see that passed for graduates these days, I would have to say that the kids today are having a massive disservice done to them.”

Voice messages, e-mails, and photos = swag
If you’d like to earn some free TR swag, send in an e-mail with a Question of the Week, comments, photos, and/or original video clips to trol at techrepublic.com. You can also leave a voice message — our toll free number is (866) 414-CNET (2638) and our Skype ID is tr.out.loud.

We have lots and lots of swag. If you’d like a complete listing, shoot me an e-mail, and I’ll send a reply.