The right to defend your property only works in Texas and maybe one or two other places. Here in NJ, a person is legally required to take all possible steps to avoid use of lethal force. You're only allowed to use lethal force when you reasonably believe that your own, or another's, life is in danger.

Never heard of .DNG files.

-Tuxman (August 16, 2011, 12:18 PM)

It's a kind of RAW file. It used to be that every different camera (that can save RAW files) used its own, individual format. This is getting to be a problem for makers of image processing software. So Adobe stepped up and defined a standard RAW format, DNG (Digital NeGative), that is usable by all.

My Pentax camera gives a choice of DNG or camera-specific PEF filed. It seems to me that my chances of being able to read the files, say, 20 years from now is much better if I use a format backed by Adobe than a Pentax one that's (somewhat) specific to my camera model.

Let me throw in a balanced view [1]:

Don't go for the "keeping up with the Joneses" crap, periodically upsizing your home to a new one with granite countertops etc. Consider what you need, and how much you *know* you can afford without risk. Don't think that you "need" a bigger, fancier house just because the people you know are buying them. If you buy into a price range that has a risk that you'll run into payment problems, then these things can happen.

My wife and I bought a house 16 years ago, and have lived there ever since. We've watched friends and coworkers "upgrade", and we've seen them struggle to make payments even as the market price of the houses tumbled. Meanwhile, by being more practical and staying with what we had, my wife and I have no worries about this at all.


[1] Yes, the actions described above are deplorable. I won't defend their morality, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to keep out of trouble. Just like you wouldn't leave your wallet sitting out on the front seat of your car, don't court trouble here.