Unfortunately, unless we pass a law that eliminates the ability of Home Owner Associations to deny approval for solar energy devices, these are not likely to become widespread.

In related news, the same body has approved a special security packet encapsulator consisting of pigmented lipids that bond the rolled packet together, with a special imprinted signature to establish non-deniability of the transmitter and ensure the packet has not been intercepted and examined by third parties. The standard was submitted for approval in '02. That is, 0002.

Amazing! This was modded as informative!

The writer of this comment was clearly referring to wax seals - i.e., like those that were put on the back of envelopes in ancient times.

Should have been modded funny ..

Software that automatically changes menus or frequently-used options around as a "favor" to the user was bad UI practice five years ago in Windows and Office,

And the reason Microsoft had to come up with the Ribbon - because the vast majority of users (ie, the less computer savvy) never saw all the options on the menus, and so never knew the software could do so much.

If you think students are lazy these days, you should see the instructors. They demand new end-of-chapter problems, new quizzes, new tests. And they want it all automatically graded electronically. This can't be delivered by open textbooks.

This raises an interesting possibility. Why not contract with the book publishers to receive the same materials and then have tutors from India or Russia - each of which have a surplus of highly educated people willing to work for low wages compared to the West - tutor our kids online.


One could even imagine setting up charter schools around this concept. I would expect the kids to end up better educated, since the materials would be the same, but the teachers could be selected from a much bigger, much more qualified applicant pool.

Its possible that he is not so forcefully drawn to the game, but rather, that he's trying to avoid some other problem in his life. If you can figure out what that problem is, it might help you deal with the situation.

The fact that everyone at your place is studying for exams suggests one item: he may just not want to deal with studying for finals. The question is why? Is he in danger of flunking out? If so, get him to see the logic of meeting with the professor to see if he can take an incomplete and then take the final later - and then get tutoring pronto.

where's the stainless steel rat when you need him?

have to be careful with the ceramic mugs. Most of these are now manufacturing in low cost countries such as China and Mexico. China does not have any rules against using lead in the glaze used in ceramic dishes. Hot liquids like coffee leach the lead out of the mug; the human body is quite efficient at absorbing them in the gut ...

Wow - talk about a slash-vertisement!

Anyway, my two pet peeves with laptop bags:

1. If the manufacturers would consider the moment arm of the straps/bag, they might make the straps adjustable on both sides so that they can be adjusted to the shortest length. Most of the bags I've gotten have straps that are adjustable on only one side, so if I adjust them to the shortest length, the pad ends up at one end of the strap or the other instead of centered on the strap as needed for it to sit on my shoulder.

2. The laptop bags I see in stores seem to be designed for women. I wish I could find a bag that allowed me to CARRY (no rolling bags) my laptop, a couple of books, some files, a couple of gadgets and all the chargers/wiring I want to take with me when I travel. I'm a geek of average strength, but even I'm strong enough to carry all of this for reasonable distances. When I have to walk a long distance in an airport, I can place this bag on top of my rolling carry-on.

I have one old bag that I bought in ~1999 that meets these requirements. I haven't seen any good bags that fit these requirements in several years.

As an aside - my pet peeve with backpacks:
Our corporate annual safety training always stresses that heavy weight should be carried close to the body, and that the forces placed on the body magnify greatly when weights held far from the body. The backpacks I bought in the 80s were wide and flat against the back but still had the same capacity as the bags sold today. The backpacks sold today, however, are narrower and stick out far from the surface of my back. Harder to carry these all day!

We get more support requests for our software from China than from any other country - and we've never sold a single license there.

Just out of curiosity (since you didn't mention), is your product open source or closed source? If open source, do you charge for support?

If your particular product (1) has a very high piracy rate,(2)is closed source, and (3) is sold mainly into 3rd world countries at prevailing market rates there, it may be worth open sourcing your product instead and charging for support.

Interesting point about the banana.

As a fruit related aside:

I remember seeing on a documentary that bananas starting appearing in grocery stores throughout the continental US in the (1930s? 1940s? - sometime in the early-middle 20th century), and were considered exotic fruit.

Seems amazing now - but then I remember that when I was younger most people I knew didn't know what a mango was ("some sort of papaya?"), and had certainly never seen one. Now they are available in every grocery store.

Modern technological progress isn't restricted to computers!

That's one way to change the character of online comments. Watch for all the Best Buy Sucks comments to change to Best Buy fanboi-ism type of comments.

When people are paid to do it, and when they can do so anonymously, they can say just about anything!

Your analysis assumes that this is the only gene that leads to heart disease.

As there are a number of genes that affect cardiac function, and as the incidence / prevalence of mutations in each of those genes in each race is unknown, this analysis is - while technically correct - of little value.

Unfortunately, health insurance companies will probably raise premiums for all people of South Asian origin (Indians, Pakistanis, etc.) due to this finding, even though the overall risk of heart disease is likely to be highest for some other race once all genes affecting heart disease are considered.

Need to make noise about this in every public forum / newsgroup / polital meeting now.

From these events, it is obvious that the new administration either does not know about or does not care about the passion this community has for free ideals.

I shudder to think of any Microsoft friendly legislation coming before the new President - this is a clear signal that he will support MS over non-MS objectives.