Horseshit. My Belkin powered USB hub at home charges my iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 2G; my D-Link hub at work and two non-Apple car chargers do the same.

It's able to charge because it's a standard pinout. Go back to Best Buy or whatever it is you do that doesn't require you to know basic stuff like that. A real geek would be ashamed.

Perhaps you should educate yourself before spouting out a bunch of nonsense and insults, because you clearly don't know what you're talking about. The USB standard only allows for a device to draw a nominal amount of power unless the port tells the device it can draw more. Or in other words, a device can't just start charging because it sees 5V across the power pins if it wants to adhere to the specification. Now this presents a problem for a "dumb" charger, which was not considered when the standard was drawn up. The solution that many manufacturers use is to play various tricks with the unused pins in the charger, like put a resistor across them, so the device knows it's hooked up to the dumb charger and can draw more current. Of course, since this is not part of the standard, everyone does it differently, so you can't just pair up any old dumb charger with any old device and expect it to work. Especially when you have companies like Apple who realize that they can sell overpriced chargers this way.

The comma was indeed noted. I can also say with a 99.9% certainty that you are from Europe, and not a Cserve employee, given the project is in the 11K block. :) As for post AOL/WorldCom... I saw the stupidity on the wall more than 24 months before the acquisition/split, and have friends who are still working on both sides of that division, just as I have friends on both sides of the Avaya/Lucent split. But on the PPN... I have seen nobody mention what the underlying structure of the PPN is...

Now, back on the general thread... Generally, I would say that things like 'partyd00d420@foo' should not be considered. However, there are also just so many account names you can come up with on things like first initial and last name. So, then the question becomes how much can/do you deviate before you end up being considered as having a lame account ID? Here, I opted to go with my call-sign... is that lame? How about a name or nick-name which is not a typical spelling (in my case...Cinnion, which is the ancient welsh spelling for Kenyon)?

All-in-all..yes, it is a tricky matter. But at the same time, there is something to be said about getting 'tastefully creative' when you name is John Brown or Jane Smith (not the case here).

Seriously, this launch is a bit premature. Sure, such technologies exist, but with no market for it.

Unless they're requiring red and blue glasses, no one can watch it in 3D -- 3D broadcasting requires 240hz televisions alongside enough shutter glasses to cover a 20+ person sports gathering.

The American consumer is already tapped out on debt, since they maxed out their credit cards on flat-panel HDTVs in the age of subprime lending, and are probably only using them to watch low-res basic cable now that they have to pay the bills.

It'll be a good 10-15 years before 3D broadcasting will even be considered normal. Yet it's not entirely stupid -- in the business world, people still fall for the "Reagan Star Wars" tactic. Just convince the competition you're revolutionary and they'll waste all their cash trying to catch up to something infeasible...

As a western male living in Japan, I can attest that foreigners are (generally) accepted at capsule hotels.

The tattoo issue is one worth knowing about for visitors. I've never had trouble at capsule hotels, but at public baths and spas (sento and onsen) I've known most places to bar entry if you have visible ink. I find that most of them don't kick you out if you're already inside, though they might want you to be circumspect.

It was a test for the bomb sniffing dog. The policeman responsible for the planting 2 packs of explosives forgot about one :) (The airport had like 3 flights that day, it's not hard to forget something in that rush)

I have an alternative question.... how serious is the threat of terrorism?

The chances of you dying from heart disease is way higher. The chances of you dying from eating a peanut is higher.

But, I can throw around numbers and give ignorant analysis too.

AGW will produce a 4 degree net increase (no source cited) --- but will yield a 15 degree local increase in the middle east. This will drive the terrists from their homes and they will have no choice but to end up on the freedomland. God bless it. And then since they will be here, the terrism goes up 100 fold! OH NOES!

Also, the warm temperatures inspire Obama to relax enough to let it slip that he's a muslim... and then, not only that, but that he's a terrist! Then the hussein obama nukes us all!
OH NOES!

Go eat some peanuts.

I think part of the reason why American pizza gets no love, is because of all the New Yorkers who say "New York pizza is the best!"

New York style is hardly even tasty. You get this super thin crust that won't support the weight of any kind of delicious toppings, which forces you to fold it in half. It's greasy and bland. No thanks.

Not entirely true. Importation of refused-classification items is restricted, and Customs will confiscate any of those items they find being shipped in. Of course, they have more important things to do than check every package coming in from Hong Kong for a copy of AvP or L4D2, so there's a good chance it'd get through to you without a problem, but that whole "it's not illegal to buy it, it's only illegal to sell it" thing is not true.

Despite what you'll read all over the internet, that is not true. If an item has been refused classification in Australia, its importation is restricted, and Customs will confiscate any of that item they find in incoming packages. Admittedly, looking for banned games being shipped in from Hong Kong or wherever isn't likely to be a particularly high a priority for them, so there's a good chance you wouldn't have a problem, but it's definitely not the case that you are 'perfectly entitled to import a copy'.

Actually in my city the firefighters work 4 days and live at the station and then take the next 4 days off. They are paid for their time on duty. Its not like they get paid only when there is a fire as the lawyer wants to put it. If you are on call you should get paid at least something and it cannot be just any time outside of work. Period. If that is not the situation, it would probably be wise to reevaluate one's employer and consider seeking new employment.

Actually - you have it backwards. Let's say the SEER rating of your air conditioner is 12. This means you move 12 BTU(thermal) for every 1 watt-hours of electric energy used. The energy equivalent of 1 BTU(thermal) is .29 watt-hours. You therefore move 12 x 0.29 watt hours (thermal) for every watt-hour (electric) or 3.48.

I can see that the smudge of superiority on your rose colored glasses will keep you from ever seeing any other side of things. I have very poor friends in several countries in Africa and Asia. I've lived in Africa. I know what people have to struggle through. You don't seem to know of it except from what you've seen on TV.

The friends I have in Africa (because I lived there and was helping them because I'm conservative and do want to help people) try much harder than the average American because we don't have to. They work harder and for less money. People on welfare in America are still in the top 15% of wealthiest people in the world. Boohoo for us.

I do get a little irked (like you appear to be) when we Americans get all up in arms about not getting everything we want when we want it when 1.4 Biliion people are living on $1/day and 1.6 Billion on $2/day. I do know this because I know people in that situation, they don't want our hand-outs, they want to retain their dignity and simply be given a chance. In America, we don't just want a chance, we want it rolled out before us and as easy as it possible can be....then we might try a little.

With our modern obsession with applicability and utility, where nothing seems to mean anything unless it makes money, we need to remember what science really is. Science isn't just a collection of facts. It isn't just an engine of economic growth. Science is above all a method of exposing nonsense for what it is. Science provides a method for anyone to identify truth from nonsense. When a dispute arises over whose assertions about the physical world are correct, we all agree to look to the physical world as the ultimate arbiter of truth, not to a priest, nor a CEO, nor a minister. Science cannot prove truth. It can only disprove nonsense.

If we, as citizens of a democracy, lose the ability to tell nonsense from truth, then our civilization is in trouble.

So we pay top academics, the people who make improvements to the sum of human knowledge that will still be used a thousand years from now, all of $250k.

But on the other hand, we pay leeches who actually cause destruction far more than that for doing far less.

Our society is broken. Very, very broken.