Regarding the NDAs that have been signed with Harris and the government not to disclose information regarding the Stingray devices - I was under the impression that a civil contract could not override state or federal law, and any such clauses requiring such are non-enforceable. These judges need to be finding every single one of the officers and prosecutors in contempt when they present "but we're under an NDA" as an argument in a court of law.

That's right, rather than keep my computer running through power outages, it was shutting my computer off during stable power.

I've had battery failures before as well, but they've never shut the power off. Only ones I've seen that will do that are true UPSs instead of the *much* more popular standby UPSs, which is part of the reason I bought standby units to begin with. There aren't too many anymore that can't switch to battery power fast enough to keep a PC up, and if you're using a true UPS that doesn't spit out a true sine wave (most are stepped square wave), it'll shorten the lifespan on your power supply considerably.

Which is why I roll my eyes at the people proclaiming their UPS goes on their cable modem and firewall, not their computer.

I have mine on both the computers and the DSL modem and router and some other hardware (not printers!), mostly because I run a PBX and VoIP phones, and don't want to lose a call in progress.

Most decent UPSs have batteries that can be replaced. As I mentioned before, I change mine out every two years or so. They're not expensive.

On the flip side, the two UPSs that I have running my boxes have both lasted more than nine years. I replace the batteries every couple of years and check the MOVs and coils at the same time. They've saved my bacon enough times to have been worth 10 times the expense.

The Federal government was to provide for the common defense, and currency, primarily.

And arbitrating disputes between the States, and regulating interstate commerce, which sadly has become a catchall to let them do practically anything they want.

I understand we also like being the "biggest fish in the pond", although I question the methods we use to achieve that status.

It's hard *not* to be the biggest fish in the pond when you're on a steady diet of fast food.

... is that they'd better have those units in the south range repaired by midday or there'll be hell to pay.

two words: Laurette Spang.

One word: Noms. Double noms for Maren Jensen, though.

I would much rather look at Katie Sackoff than Dirk Benedict. I would even say it again.

I liked Katee's Starbuck more than Dirk's as well. I especially liked her response to Dirk's criticism of the reboot and her character in particular: "If you add up the amount of time Dirk Benedict spent playing the character, not the years obviously but the number of episodes, I'm more Starbuck than he is, so put that in your pipe and smoke it."

Probably because it had excellent writing and a thoughtful take on the material.

That, and William Ware Theiss's awesome costumes for the female guest stars.

When it came on the air (over 36 years ago) there was nothing else like it on television. Nothing.

Space:1999 had gone off the air a couple of years before. Not the best writing ever (especially the second season), and there were some interesting issues with the science on the show, but the effects were quite good for the time.

Knock them out, apply suitable stimulus - say, a moderately painful electric shock plus a distinctive scent in the water.

Probably better to put the scent in before the shock. The conditioned animals will freak when they smell the shock coming, where the sedated ones will merely say, "cool scent".

Several years ago I had three procedures done back-to-back over about a week, and had the good fortune to have the same anesthesiologist for all of them. After the first one, I'd felt sick as a dog, so I told him about that when he visited me prior to the second one. He said, "Good to know, thanks for telling me - we'll try something different this time." After the second and third procedure I felt great (well, as great as could be expected). +1 for talking to your doctor when you're having issues.

And why do we need games for Google Glass?

Well gee, what else do you expect people to do when they're driving?