10/12   Anyone have an opinion on Austin Texas?  Preferably someone that
        has actually been there, and not "Bush and Texas suck!".
        \_ My older brother got his laptop stolen out of his rental car there
           while he was eating lunch.
           \_ He left his laptop sitting open on a seat with a sign that said
              "Steal me, my owner is stupid".  Austin sucks!
              \_ Actually it was in his trunk.
                 \_ Shit happens everywhere. BTW, I think the other day you
                    have mentioned this happened in San Antonio.
                    \_ Just reporting a data point.  Chill.
        \_ It's not a bad city. I drove through it and spent 3 days there.
           Austin would be the only city that I'd consider living in, in TX,
           and the biggest reason I wouldn't want to live there is that
           it's land-locked.
           \_ seconded.  it's the only livable place in texas for several
              reasons.  the weather is less hellish than typical texas weather,
              and the culture is not so monolithically texan.  The UT area
              of austin looks amazingly like berkeley.
              \_ I had a gf out there.  The city has a lot of very nice lakes,
                 so if you just need water, its very nice.  I would have
                 considered moving out there.
        \_ I have many, many coworkers who went to UT Austin. They all
           liked it a lot. Most did say it was the only place in Texas
           they would live. The majority went there for grad school and
           were not originally from Texas. Only one of them was from CA,
           though. I feel Californians have higher standards. Still, the
           guy from CA ended up settling there. Most of my coworkers have
           since left Austin, but talk highly of it. Me, I've never been.
        \_ Flew out of Austin yesterday (first visit since junior high).
           I was pretty impressed. Like other posters noted, it's by far the
           best place to live in Texas. Big tech industry, great university
           as the core of the town, really educated population, big live music
           scene. Probably as liberal as you'll get in Texas. It's probably
           the closest you'll get to Silicon Valley culture outside of
           Silicon Valley (although I don't think it's a whole lot like
           Berkeley, maybe more like Rockridge).
        \_ I once came up with the big 4 reasons to relocate to TX, when I
           considered it several years ago.  My 4 reasons were: 1. no state
           income tax, 2. concealed carry, 3. open containers in cars, and
           4. women with big hair.  Texas might have sissified in recent
           years, so I don't know how many of the reasons may still apply.