Dr. Cox, is that you?

I must respectfully disagree. 5-6 years ago, I took delivery of a bottle of La Fée Parisienne and decided to break it open one evening. After a few tumblers of absinthe-and-water, I stumbled onto "Queen of the Damned" on HBO, and watched it raptly from start to finish. I mean, I was seriously focused. When the credits started rolling, I remember saying (out loud to myself), "Wow."

The next morning, I woke up, took a handful of Advil, turned on the TV, and saw that "Queen of the Damned" was on HBO again. I started to watch it, but it sucked so bad that I gave up after 15 minutes or so. I could still remember each and every scene, but without the green haze of way too much 136-proof absinthe clouding my brain, it became abundantly clear just how terrible each of those scenes was.

In other words, when the GP said of booze:

truer words were never spoken.

Yes - LOVE the VX Nano. It's a relatively simple little USB wireless laser mouse, but it works super smoothly & dependably.

As Curunir_wolf mentioned, the USB "Nano receiver" is very small - when plugged in, it only sticks out about 1/4", and is designed to butt up against the side of your laptop very snugly, so you don't have to worry about it wiggling or snagging on anything. The only time I ever need to remove it is when I'm working from home & want to use it with my work laptop.

Also as anakha said, the battery life is very good. I've had the thing for about a year, and have only had to change batteries twice. Luckily the little status light just below the scrollwheel starts blinking red when the juice is getting low.

I actually went out of my way to find a wireless mouse that was NOT rechargeable...I prefer incurring the cost of two AAA batteries every four months than having to charge my mouse every other day, then having to deal with its charge running low, etc.

Finally, some caveats:
- The VX Nano is a smaller-than-average mouse. If you have large hands, or are only comfortable cupping your entire hand over the mouse, this might not be the mouse for you. This mouse is definitely designed for the claw technique.
- The latest version of Logitech's OS X software (Logitech Control Center v2.7) is not compatible with World of Warcraft (if you play, that is). Everytime you try to use the scrollwheel in-game, the cursor will jump to one of the top corners of your screen. The solution is to download an older version of the LCC (2.1, I believe). There's a WoW forum thread that includes a (malware-free) link to the older LCC download, I've used it successfully in the past...I'd link it here, but I'm at work & WoW-related links are locked down.
- Many people who hate the LCC software (for the reason outlined above, among other things) have successfully gotten all of the VX Nano's features to work using SteerMouse (and other freeware OS X mouse utilities). Personally, I don't really care either way...I use LCC v2.1 with now problems. I have the center "search" button configured to activate Exposé's all-windows mode, and have the two small buttons by the left mouse button configured for page back and page forward.

That's easy:

"I already have swine flu, you insensitive clod!"

While I agree with you re. Sony (my Sony ES receiver is a champ, and my 2-year-old Sony ES DVD player is solid so far), I have to disagree with "Have you ever been to Japan? Apple looks like shit. Any laptop sold in Japan looks infinitely better than even the slickest apple product sold in the US."

A quick trip to CNET Japan's PC section (via Google Translation) reveals some very plain-looking laptops, with a mostly positive-sounding review of the Macbook Air prominently featured in the top section, in which I'm pretty sure the writer praises the design (can't be totally sure, Google's translation leaves much to be desired).

The overall CNET Japan front page has a link to Onkyo's new Sotec C103 netbook, which looks fairly nondescript & doesn't have very exciting specs.

I'm sure the Japanese market used to be flooded with products that we Americans could only imagined (or had only seen on TV shows that take place in the future and/or in space), but that doesn't appear to be the case anymore.

Also, my reading comprehension is clearly lacking - the "shut the hell up" part was you quoting the parent, not your sentiment, which means my crotchety tone was meant for that person, not for you.

Apologies :)

If the government threw a bunch of money at Google, would it be totally inconceivable that gmail/app/doc/chat appliances could be cooked up for use by government entities, with fairly little effort on Google's part?

Come on now, use a bit of logical reasoning here.

Then you run the chance of scoring the job solely because the HR guy celebrates your entire collection.

Wow.

I might have to steal this in the future when I get tired of my current sig.

If I understand this properly (and it's not 100% guaranteed that I do), this sounds like an excessively complicated solution that would yield relatively little benefit. The "sandwich" idea from TFA sounds especially counterproductive, if external power is required to keep the hot side hit & the cold side cold.

Instead of trying to harness waste heat to eke out a fraction of a percent of extra processing power, here's an idea: how about sucking that waste heat into a small insulated pipe with a low-voltage van, and running that pipe down to my feet? It's very cold near the floor of my apartment, and some warm air aimed at my tootsies would be greatly appreciated while I use my computer.

Maybe this pipe could have a little door I could close in the summer, when the additional warmth would be less welcome.

Personally (assuming the scammers didn't have any information that could result in them pursuing payment beyond e-mails, i.e. dinging my credit rating), I would remove that particular OpenOffice.org installation from my system and delete the install files. I would then disregard that and all subsequent communication from those scammers, and would go seek out the official, free installation.

Assuming she didn't give them any bank account, credit card or PayPal info (or any other type of payment info along those lines), what could they possibly do if she didn't pay? Keep sending her e-mails? Configuring e-mail filters to send them straight to the trash would quickly take care of that problem.

The fact that they allowed her to download & install the software before attempting to collect payment sounds like one could conceivably consider it to be "trialware", which would mean that deleting it in lieu of paying would be a totally legit response to being billed.

IMO, IANAL, etc.

I believe Steve Jobs would beg to differ.

I have nothing against Detroit. The only difference between Chicago and Detroit is that, rather than toiling in slaughterhouses and rock quarries, you twist nuts and bolts together on smokey, soot-encrusted assembly lines.

You see, I was originally born & raised in a hovel belonging to a grizzled old midwife in Flint, and my parents now live in Oakland County, not far from where you currently scratch out your meager, culturally-void existence.

Take heart, fellow prisoner of the vast, unforgiving wasteland between New York and California, for we are brothers in our misery.