Actually Allen Fulmer - a professor of mathematics in Oregon designed and I built the prototype of a small computer years before any of these dudes. It used flip flops built on circuit boards using transistors. I designed the cards, etched them and soldered in all of the components by hand. It used as ASR 33 teletype machine as both and input / output and used paper tape for storage. It was finally manufactured by one Gamco Industries in Big Spring, Texas and sold to a number of schools. That was in the 1960's well before MITS, Altair, IMSAI and others. If interested contact me bud at dotnetchecksdotcom.

As a member of the weapon's effect test group in Eniwetok my buddy and I put on coveralls and walked a few hundred years to ground zero to kick around the glass slag. We weren't supposed to but that's been years ago. I'm now 84. Have COPD related to partly to smoking but aside from that I'm healthy as a horse. The dangers of radiation are overblown in the extreme in my view. Smoking is FAR more dangerous!

Funny - you may not but the vast majority will ultimately do that.

Oops! It's NOT free after all. My answer to the Palestinians - as someone else suggested - go fuck yourselves. One more reason I love Windows.

There's nothing feels as sweet as a horse's silky snout when he nudges your cheek. One of the sweetest mammals on the planet!

So you think some radical sh** might NOT put explosives in a babies diaper? Give it a fu****** rest folks - the world has changed sadly.

I've debated wasting my time here but will give it a shot. I'm almost 84. I went through Navy electronics school at Treasure Island (San Francisco) in 1946. I was living in military housing in a place called Midway Village on the outskirts of SF near Moffett Field (Navy blimp hangars). One night I went down stairs (second floor apartment) to empty the trash. I glanced toward Moffett field (like a few miles away) because I saw something that could have been a blimp with lights flashing it's entire length like a marque. I was fascinated because blimps I know don't have full length light displays. At that time Navy personnel went through fairly intensive aircraft identification courses so I knew the characteristics of most of the worlds aircraft. As I watched three "objects" appeared to detach themselves from the "object" I was watching and began moving toward me. Needless to say I was now very interested. There "flight path" was taking them directly toward me at what I would estimate at under 5 knots - very slow. As they resolved they appeared about the shape of what you might remember in The Day The Earth Stood Still. The undersides looked to me like the remains of a dying fireplace coal fire. I called up to my wife to come down and look. She came down (they were traveling slowly enough that they were overhead when she looks up). I said "What are those?" and she gasped and said "Flying saucers!' They WERE in directed flight whether controlled by onboard whatever or remotely. I can only report what I saw but the memory remains indellible!

Why didn't soulkil opt for "Tennessee Bill Helps Teachers Challenge Genesis" or "Tennessee Bill Helps Teachers Present Evolution" To the implication was that teachers could NOT teach evolution...

This drives me absolutely nuts! my email is budchief at gmail.com and I want someone to define the term "net neutrality" for me. It reminds me of Shawshank Redemption when the old con says "I have no idea what you mean by rehabilitated..." Just like rehabilitated I have NEVER had an adequate definition of net neutrality. It's just a made up word!

When I was young patents were issued to people who built something, presented a model (real piece as in my granddad's dripless molasses pitcher). Then came the software patent which - to me - is the epitome of stupid ideas. It doesn't really impact me but that's NOT what the patent system was supposed to be about.

So let me get this right - you'd prefer to be shot?????

Conversations like this piss me off. My daughter and her husband put their lives on the line every day as officers in the San Diego police. They would MUCH prefer that crimes didn't occur and at the worst of times will use the very minimum force required to take the bad people into custody. I'm sorry - an old saying goes "if you can't do the time don't do the crime!" Makes sense to me - you won't get tasered or shot if you abide by the law. It's really that simple.

Man I really needed to know how "rugged" the iPhone is! I'm so excited I could cry!

This really infuriates me. I have about 20 out of print books that would have netted me some nice cash but now a stupid judge says NO. WHY???? It would mean my books would be archived and I like that idea. They're never going to make more money in any event. And now I lose about $ 1200!!!!!!

This brought me back to one immutable fact. I get sensory input through my eyes, ears and other organs. It all goes into my brain. My total universe is, in absolute fact, contained between my ears in a meat brain. Going with that, I have absolutely no knowledge of what things look like to you nor do you have knowledge of what my universe looks like. Think about it. You and I agree that a particular color has the name green but you and I may actually see totally different things that we call green. We all agree that a physical universe exists and that we live in it but it's all in your brain. Question is - would the universe still exist if your brain died. We can answer yes but by god I dare you to prove it!!!!