You need to do some research. First, how many people have checks to cash while on travel? I would take care of that while home. But even if I did, I can go to any 7-Eleven in the U.S. and most credit unions in the co-op network and deposit a check. Getting access to money is easy.

My local credit union in Fresno has served me well even when I lived in the Bay Area for 12 years. It's amazing what can be accomplished with great customer service, even before ubiquitous online banking.

In casual conversation among people who wouldn't know the nuances of the various "programmer"-like terms, I do say, "I'm a programmer." It gets the point across simply that most people understand.

If I'm in a semi-professional setting of white collar adults, I usually say "software developer."

On a resume or among those who know the industry standard, I say "I'm a software engineer" because that's my title.

If it's tied to a conversation that might have career potential, I give the true classification at work: senior software engineer.

I don't see this as an inflation response, nor is it a fair comparison to Netflix. Redbox is a la carte. You subscribe to nothing. Use it a little, a lot, or not at all.

As they built out their system $1 was a simple price point, easy to advertise and a good entry point. Now they have a business model and usage metrics. $1.20 is a price point that they probably think is sustainable and will generate revenue and profit.

I like Redbox and probably use it 3-5 times a month. It's easy to grab something for the family and just as easy to return to about 10 different boxes within 2 miles of my home and shopping areas.

Once I started using Launchy that pretty much took away my need for the Start button.

Launchy plus the Quick Launch toolbar (for Windows XP) pretty much does the job.

Once in awhile I go to Start and am surprised by how much stuff I have installed.

During that heyday of competing desktop search products, I tried all that I could find.

I ended up settling on MS Desktop Search. It didn't seem to get in the way, searches were decent. To this day, it just runs on my work machines and comes in handy from time to time.

It's a very useful product when needed but not very sexy. I didn't RTA, but I presume Google got bored and couldn't monetize their version.

Yeah, that caught my eye too. My manager (woman), team architect (woman), staff engineer (woman) and last 3 dev hires (women) really depended on tools to empower themselves.

Maybe I need some male empowerment since the 3 women on my team of 5 outrank me. Or, that's just how things came together.

Well one of the GoDaddy girls at least has a day job if they change marketing themes: Danica Patrick, Indy Car/NASCAR racer.

I was in Vancouver for the first time a year ago. Lovely place. Friendly, welcoming people. The most "dangerous" people we encountered were the junkies in the alleys, but they were pretty much harmless.

The best view to survey the area is Top of Vancouver. It's a rotating restaurant. Don't pay the tourist fee of $15. Go straight to the restaurant and have a $15 drink instead.

Anyway, I was just discussing with my wife that there would have been some interesting view of the riots from that restaurant. Safe entertainment from afar.

If you go, visit the Salt Tasting Room. (It's in one of those alleys.)

I am a fan of many sports, hockey, not so much. I get that emotional rush of wanting a team to win and hating when they lose. But when it's over, it's over. Geez. Move on.

Really? I didn't even realize that product still existed.

The only thing worse than the attention to this ridiculous "story" is all the predictable jokes that come from it.

"I guess I don't to pay my bills since the world is going to end." If I had a nickel for every variant of that joke I've heard, ...

Get a life everyone.

May I ask why he said your teen sons need to be circumcised?

GV is my phone number for everything. It points to my T-Mobile prepaid (using Comet Android), my iPod Touch TextFree, and my office phone.

If I get a text it goes to the T-Mobile (okay, that actually does cost me 5 cents), TextFree, the GV account, and email. I then carry on the conversation from whatever device or app I happen to be near. I use the free apps if I'm in a wifi zone or at home where I work. I may carry the conversation on T-Mobile and pay the fees, but that might amount to $2.00 a month at the most.

For me a text conversation is useful for about 4-6 texts, then I go to phone call at that point. It's what works for me.

I've found the available workarounds are sufficient to the point that I could give a crap about texting fees. I use GoogleVoice and TextFree and they work great. My wife uses Virgin Mobile for $25/mo (that's it no extra taxes or garbage) and can text to her delight.

Just for the shock value that they exist and that someone is paying these prices.

Audioquest: 8 feet of speaker cable for $8,450

Pear Cable: 12 feet for $7,250

Here's 3 meters for $12,700

A voltage stabilizer for $11,500 (what is that?)

A turntable cartridge for $20,000

And here's the winner: 8 ft of speaker cable for $39,999

You can't make this stuff up

Here's the Scientology episode.

There's a reason I cannot find the Islam episode.