obvio171

Link is broken (there should be no "/g" at the end).

tl;dr: They totally blew it by announcing the changes (and the backing out of the changes) through a measly blog post. They should've called the press, taken questions, given it their spin. Firing the low-end of the customers probably makes sense in their case though (no future for cost-conscious technology laggards in their business).

Yep, you don't need to be a citizen or resident to do that. I have a Brazilian friend (Diego Gomes, founder at EverWrite) who went through the whole foreigner-incorporating-in-the-US-without-living-here thing and is posting details about it on their blog (the next post is exactly about ITIN and merchant accounts): http://myeverwrite.com/blog/.

One lets you get a constant flow of strangers into your house and get paid for it. The other one helps you not go crazy over handling spare keys and revoking access. Integration anyone?

This is true. When you're a freshman you don't know anyone yet, but no one else knows anybody else either. So people are much more compelled to make friends. After a couple years your circle of friends kind of crystallizes, and those whom you don't know aren't that eager to stretch out of their little circles either.

I went through the "moving to a new place" experience a few months ago when I moved to Germany for 3 months. It was really odd, as it was the first time in my life when I really had to objectively think about how to make new friends.

And the best advice I can give about that is: DON'T go live on your own. At least not for the first few months. Go live with other people, particularly with people who value having a good vibe in the house, and not just living together to share expenses but never looking each other in the face (if you're going to Germany, look for "kein zweck WG" ;). You'll end up becoming friends with them, and meeting their friends that come over from time to time.

In fact, that's all the better if you let it run on battery. For me that caps my internet time at 2 hours.

You don't need two computers to do that: a laptop will do just fine.

Just make the rule that you can use the internet for as long as you want, but in a different (and preferably less comfortable) room/table.