I know this seems a bit odd of a question but i always wondered what are the benefits of being staff at varisous levels. I see you guy doing cool reviews etc... do you guys get free hardware to review? I'm not trying to become staff because you guys are way way beyond anything i ever done. Im just a enthusiast at best. but was curious about you guys/gals.


btw thx for all the help too.

I have never received anything free. Sometimes a get thrown away parts to rebuild or experiment.
What you do get as "Staff" is the exposure to a variety of configurations and components, and a lot of meddling by users. You learn from all this stuff.
The only great teacher is hands on experience... on a lot of electronic devices, and ***** users... and, of course, the "Staff" get stuck with all the frustrating, non-heroic fixes, work around's, and bitchy whiners... where you learn under stress and pressure and time limitations.
It doesn't get better than that.
It is easy to work on the garage bench at home where you control everything. But you learn best from the staff bench where you control nothing, and some flake is stopping by every two hours to ask, "you done yet," or when is our PC going to be ready? We have to finish an important document for president Mugabwe!. The world may be coming to an end."

well it sounds like it has its up and downs i hope to one day know as much as your staff here the dual booting stuff sounds like fun.
i was reading the i-ram thread sounds really cool to boot a os in 7 seconds.

I was thinking about virtual machines and duel booting for a next thing to try to learn.