What, like a sphere you mean?

Just looked at that. I particularly like the line:
Bribes. If you receive a bribe include it in your income.

Aren't bribes like illegal in the US?? on the other hand could be a typo - perhaps they meant brides?

The only problems is lack of choice of hardware and paying a premium for another OS:

From Dell (in the UK) if you want Linux, you are limited to exactly 1 laptop; and if you spec it the same as the equivalent Windows offering it works out exactly the same price (£249).

Which kind of begs the question:
Are Dell making more money on the Linux version? Or do they have to pay Microsoft for this laptop anyway?

I totally agree with your comment.

And why can't they sort something out about the bigger problem, namely that it is near impossible to buy a computer without any OS installed at all; so you get to choose whatever OS you want.

According to truecrypt (and my limited understanding). What you do is this:

1) Setup an encrypted volume (password=dummy)
2) Put some plausible files in the volume (secrets.txt - full of information you don't mind others seeing)
3) Create a hidden volume (within the first encrypted volume) (password=secret)
4) Put your real secret stuff in here.

When you use the partition you use the (password=secret) and get access to the hidden volume, should the police turn up tell them that the password is dummy, and all they see is "secrets.txt"

The clever part is that it is impossible to tell whether there is a hidden volume or not as the space that it occupies is normally full of random data anyway.

More details here:
http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=security-precautions

I unfortunately read the article...

He then created a cloned card, and with help from another technology expert, changed all the data on the new card. This included the physical details of the bearer, name, fingerprints and other information.

Lets hope this puts the final nail in the coffin for this stupid idea.

Federal agents at the Defcon 17 conference were shocked to discover that they had been caught in the sights of an RFID reader connected to a web camera...

erm... not quite what the Wired Article says:

But the device, which had a read range of 2 to 3 feet, caught only five people carrying RFID cards before Feds attending the conference got wind of the project and were concerned they might have been scanned

Still I suppose the Feds have probably hacked into the Wired Article and fixed that one...

Putting in 'traps' to catch plagiarism didn't work for Fred L. Worth.
He deliberately added some 'made up' facts into his "The Trivia Encyclopedia" including:
"Columbo's first name was Philip"

When this appeared as a Trivial Pursuit question, he attempted to sue, but it was thrown out of court on the basis that many sources had been used to make the questions. http://www.triviahalloffame.com/columbo.aspx

I guess it is a case of: Copy one source - plagiarism; Copy many sources - research.

Look, I admit that their claims sound unlikely, but you can't just dismiss all claims out of hand because "they break the laws of physics". The fact is that they break the current laws of physics.

Hell, there could be all sorts of unlikely explanations that don't even break the current laws of physics (like perhaps some mass is being converted into energy)

Real Science means conducting experiments and taking measurements. The 'laws' of physics are only as good as the experiments and measurements taken.

The fact is that the experiments have been conducted, and it appears that it doesn't work. It doesn't mean that the Jury are 'idiots' for trying to test it - it means that they are scientists.

I agree, plus we are effectively subsidising people who live outside cities - am I'm willing to bet that in general that the demographic of these people will not be towards the low end of the income scale.