Re: How the hell has radio Shack not failed???
Living in the country it is nearly impossible to find tech help for anything to do with computers and it costs an arm and a leg to get someone from the city to come here. The best solution was to just go and learn how to do it myself, electronics and computer building and repairs is like so many "service industries", they use a lot of jargon to make what they're doing sound really technical, when in fact its quite easy to figure out.
I wanted to put a camera security system in the building at my business. Rang around and got quotes, the cheapest for 2 cameras and the gear to record them was about $3000. I then decided to do it myself, bought all the gear from ebay for less than $800 , installed it all myself and it goes like a dream, even have remote access at my house.
There is a down side to this, once your friends know that you have 'the knowledge' they're always bugging you to fix their computers or set up their wireless networks lol.
spud