I have purchased the entire galaxy known as NGC 1365. If you're interested in renting a planet, the price is $1.8M/month US. If anyone settles there without my permission, expect to be sued.

Further, I am leasing all the space between the Earth and the Moon. If you'd like access to the Moon, the toll will be set at $750,000 US each way.

For ownership verification please see the public records division on Alpha Centauri.

Thank you.

Here is the standard post, thought I'd help get it out of the way:

WHERE THE HELL WERE THE PARENTS!??!? *arrggghhh!*

If you're going to allow your children to use the Internet, understand that its misuse has the potential to cause serious psychological trauma. If your child is pre-disposed to suicidal thoughts to begin with, allowing unsupervised access to the Internet is potentially dangerous. Kind of like leaving your loaded gun within reach. What were the guardian's of this girl doing after the repeated harassment and torment caused by these kids?

Yes, the kids should not have done it. They now will face the consequences.
Yes, the teachers should have stopped it. Too bad nothing will happen to them. We wouldn't want to make the teachers responsible for anything.

However, the people with the ultimate responsibility are the people who brought her in to this world. Don't have kids if you can't be bothered to be responsible enough to do the quite difficult job of being a parent. That job includes engaging your child in regular communication, following up with teachers to know what is going on at school, and knowing what your child is doing (especially on the Internet). The parents will now have to live the rest of their lives asking one of two questions "Why didn't we do something?" or "Who can we blame for this?"

My cell phone is probably the single most important tool I use every day, for such occasions as:
- Using the camera to take a pic of the whiteboard, and sending it to everyone.
- Using the audio recorder to record a conversation or lecture in detail.
- Sending tweets as a to-do list.
- Shared calender functions let me set up meetings with people.
- Video recorder is available if I want to grab a clip off a multi-media presentation or demo.
- Using IM features to quickly touch others for information.
- Using google maps and GPS to see satellite overhead of where I'm at.
- Adding contact information for new people I meet.
- Making phone calls.
- Driving car salesmen crazy.

All in a pocket sized device with about 3-4 days of battery life. Oh, it syncs with the bluetooth in my car. Plays music. Is extendable by adding new apps. Works just about anywhere (wi-fi FTW!). And lots more. Future features look even more useful.

Just be sure to drop it in to silence mode before sitting in a meeting.

You mean to tell me that 44 percent of visitors to Google News aren't actually interested in the listed headlines, and therefore don't click through!? Let me put this to the test...

"Democrats see Mass. message: Jobs, jobs, jobs" - boring, pass.
"Alternate supply routes could open Haiti aid bottleneck" - just got all info I needed.
"Americans See Economic Recovery a Long Way Off" - no duh.
"Airstrikes Target al-Qaida in Yemen" - woot, bombs, but I'll pass.
"Netanyahu turns fire on Abbas as US envoy flies in" - whattahootey?
"Powers 'shifting to sanctions' in dealing with Iran" - invasion timer started.
"Intel chief concedes errors in Christmas bomb case" - and?
"Michelle Obama to launch initiative fighting child obesity" - by dressing fashionably?
"Alleged dinner crashers invoke Fifth Amendment" - reality TV series coming to NBC in spring.

Didn't click on anything, until I got to my custom filter:
"Twisted Physics: Scientists Create Knots of Light" - Oh wait, this is from fox news. Never mind.

This lead me to the Peek, which I hadn't looked at in some time. $20 for the device, and then $20/month. I picked one up for my 6 year old. There is a lot not to like, but I'll focus on why I got it:

Why the Peek?
* E-mail/text only (no phone, games, web, etc).
* Fairly durable device, good value.
* No long term contract.

What do I expect my 6yo to do with this?
* Communicate more frequently with those he loves in a non-intrusive way.
* Update his blog. You can argue that one. For my 6yo it has been a great thing.

What do I expect to get out of it?
* Teach responsible use of technology (what you post is sticky).
* Give him a fun opportunity to use his increasing language and reading skills.
* http://www.peekmaps.com/ - just because I've learned to be paranoid.

...then they started getting entries like this:

"this is your gun dont point hat ur face lol"
"ponies shoot the poniesll!LL!Lol"
"oh gawd they took my liver"
"dis is f'd up yo no one reads da stoopid books"
"tak ur POGEY BAIT and ASRAAM it up ur HOOCH! lol"

After they added the ID requirement they realized the person making all the edits was Dick Cheney.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123896664697090681.html

How did IBM go from seeing enough value in Sun to buy it, to claiming that Sun isn't worth it? IBM thinks that Sun is worth at least 7 billion dollars, that's a fact. It sounds like some IBM executive leadership got their panties in a bunch when they were rejected by the McNealy faction, and want bloody revenge. I would to if you turned around and found out Oracle swiped the deal right from under you. And it only cost Oracle song and a dance more than IBM was offering. Larry wins, Sam looses. Larry was always better at this game. Maybe Sam should go back to playing sax.

What if I bring my pet elephant to the pasta bar? He's a big fan of lasagna. He can down the entire bar in one trip. Mind the back end, it can get a little messy.

Your analogy would work if certain people were consuming 100 times the average person in pasta, but I doubt any restaurant is going to allow such a customer to stay. The problems many of these ISPs face is complex. They don't have the right people, technical culture, or budget. They simply do what they can with a typical mass-consumer grade service, aging infrastructure, and low budgets. What we want is someone to sell us a carrier grade connection to our homes. That'd be great, but at a few thousand dollars a month it is probably out of most peoples' reach.

Subsidizing the network with municipal investments seems like the right route. Around here though the 'good ole boys' lock up those lines nice and tight. They don't want anyone fiddling around with 'new services.' That's politics, and you might get somewhere by going the political route. In other words - what are you doing today to ensure that tomorrow you're one of those 'good ole boys?' Hardly any of my geek friends get this. They think there will be some kind of magical social awakening some day. It is almost like a religion. If we want to change, we have to get educated. I'm too lazy to care though, so let me know when you get on that. I need to go hide in my cave from the Swine Flu pandemic.

Mute button - 80% of the noise is from the crying when they get hurt.
GPS locator - They find their way home well enough around dinner time.
Sleep mode - It would probably act random, just like it does today.
Internal fusion reactor - Already installed.
Laser defense system - "Give me a cookie or I will melt your face!"
Bionic muscles - How would you catch them if they started running away? It is already too hard.
The cylons were created by man...- Isn't your kid already a robot?

Kevlar exoskeleton - Peace of mind my children will not be killed by my neighbor's Excursion when he backs out of his driveway at 40 mph.

Why does NASA have to spend money on new untested methods? If the old baloon method worked well for two previous rovers, why not use it again? It is hard to beat a 100% success rate. Does anyone know why they want to use this over other methods?

The sysadmin in me says: The more moving parts, the greater the chance something will break.