[...] the old IBM T42 non-pae clunker that I am writing this on is still very usable
Out of curiosity, which distro do you run on that machine? I'm asking this question because distros that do not have PAE as a requirements are rare birds, so to speak.
I recently acquired a Nexus 4 (yay for the Nexus 5 creating a more vibrant market in second hand Nexi) ans was slightly surprised about the lack of apps already installed compared to my old Samsung phone.
The plural of "nexus" in Latin in "nexûs." (Actually, the diacritic on the 'u' should be a macron, but alas, Slashdot won't display that character.)
My €0.02.
(...) because your 6 month old distro release (using a year old kernel) probably won't have the drivers for your newer hardware.
Ever heard of rolling release distros ?
Chez Henri" is pronounced "Shay Enri", which would normally be correct for each word but, when taken together it should be pronounced more like a single word "ShayzEnri"
It annoys you because you're not familiar with what the letter h actually does in French. Sometimes — remember, this is French, so you'll always have a nice list of exceptions to cram into your brain —, words that begin with an h (1) will mean that there is a glottal stop, word initially.
Try comparing the phrases "sept amis" and "sept héros" and you'll understand what I'm talking about. It's impossible for a native speaker to pronounce the latter "saitero" No, sir, they'll always say "sait'ero".(2)
That weird question mark-looking symbol is the glottal stop I mentioned above. Basically, you block the air going through your throat with your glottis, generating what is called a plosion in linguistics.
If that is still obscure, try comparing with how some English speakers pronounce the word "mutton." While most will say
I know... French is like, impossible to learn for foreigners. Good thin I'm a native speaker.
(1) Quite funny, huh? "An h..." no one would ever want to say "a h."
(2) Because I can't seem to make IPA work in the comments, Ichose to represent the glottal stop with an apostrophe.
Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make him pay cash. -- Lazarus Long