Thanks - makes me feel a little better, I have a Scott Genius dual suspension from around the same era. Its kind of odd though - Novara bikes generally have a good reputation.

Out of curiosity, which brand of bike was this? Was it from their in-house Novara line, or one of their other brands they carry? (I know they carry Scott and Raleigh as well...). And yeah, REI's got some of the best customer service I've ever seen. I buy most of my outdoor gear from them even when they don't have the absolute best price just for the service.

Considering that MythTV has been around for nearly a decade now... yes, it might be a surprise. Most of the problems he's referring to have been around from the very beginning, and there haven't been many signs of them improving. I know its technically a "pre 1.0" version, but it doesn't appear they have any plans to move beyond 1.0 in the next 10 years, and in the meantime they do expect it to be used by end-users.

You're right on about the interior coating, although I'd go one farther and say the entire interior could use some improvement. I love my Saab, but the interior just isn't up to par with its competitors; GM's cheap plastic is everywhere, the leather isn't as high quality, and there are way too many rattles. More worrying is that the cheaper interior just doesn't wear that well; my two year old Saab looks far shabbier on the interior than my sister-in-law's 5 year old Audi.
If they fix that, I'd be supremely happy.

I think its fairly understandable - The N900, while a great piece of hardware, is still pretty unpolished software-wise. Like most of the Nokia N-tablets, it provides the basics, and then tells the community to "have at it". While I love that from a software hacker perspective, this also means your average user probably won't be as interested.
Its hardware also isn't without its shortcomings - the resistive screen bugs me more than I thought it would, and the keyboard can be annoying to use at times.
That said, it is actually getting a fair amount of media press. Both Engadget and Gizmodo have been tracking it pretty regularly for the past couple months, and I've seen several extensive write-ups / reviews lately. I think that its just not quite a mainstream enough device for the mainstream news to pick up on.

I'm pretty certain that's wrong.
According to Wikipedia, EDGE hits around 240 Kbps.
EVDO Rev A, on the other hand (which is what Verizon and Sprint use) can hit 3.1 Mbps. Which means EDGE is off by about a factor of ten for speed.
ATT is meanwhile in the process of rolling out 7.2 Mbps HSDPA - previously they'd been using 3.6 Mbps, which is pretty darn close to EVDO Rev A for speed.
To make things worse, it seems like real world testing shows wildly varying download speeds on ATT's 3.6 HSDPA, depending on the user load, etc. Which seems to be a common complaint amongst iPhone users.
For references, see http://www.gearlog.com/2009/05/att_rolling_out_hsdpa_72_faste.php or any of the various Gizmodo / Engadget articles about ATT's 3G rollout. You can also check Wikipedia's articles on EDGE and EVDO for bonus points.

(Anecdotally, I've noticed significantly faster browsing on my Spring HTC Hero compared to my HTC ADP1 running on both T-Mobile and ATT's EDGE networks.)

I believe the reason behind the step-through / low bar bicycle was originally to allow women to mount and ride bicycles while wearing skirts or dresses.
The reason you don't (generally) see that design in men's bikes, is that the design is less stiff and strong than a traditional frame. You also never see the step-through design on a racing bicycle for the same reason, regardless of whether the bike is designed for a female or male.
I did notice while I was in Germany that nearly every commuter bike had the step-through design, both for male and female (although they used oversized tubing on the bike to add strength). It makes sense as well; the bike doesn't need to be super light or stiff for performance, and the convenience of not having to swing your log over the bar is handy when you're carrying groceries, or your laptop bag.

Just to chime in here, you have a few facts wrong about the Kindle (which I do own).
You can mount it as a USB mass storage device, and archive your books or add books that you acquired separately from the Amazon store. Only the encrypted books you purchased from Amazon will be unreadable on any other device you may have (although theoretically you can crack the encryption on the DRM'd books). I believe you can even reload books that Amazon may have "revoked" from your backup and still be able to read them.
You can also load any book onto the Kindle that is in the .mobi format (the kindle format is just a drm'd mobi file with a different file extension). Mobi is about as common as ePub, and most major ebook publishers offer books in this format. In fact, most of the books on my Kindle were purchased / downloaded from baen.com.
I'm not exactly thrilled with the power that Amazon has over books you buy through them, but the device is not as tied to the Amazon service as many people think, and you can use it to read other books (even if Amazon were to die).

Well, the closest thing I can think of to what you're asking for would be one of the Android ADP Dev phones. I have the ADP1, which is basically an unlocked, rooted G1. I can put it on any carrier I want, and I can install any software I want, and I can even tweak the core Linux software to my hearts content. I have it on a T-mobile month-to-month plan (they offer contract-less versions of all their standard plans if you bring your own phone). I believe the ADP2 is going to be based on the HTC Hero even.
Only problem is you have to pay $400 for the unsubsidized phone.
PS It uses a standard Mini-USB cable for charging and to mount the phone as a mass-storage device. (Well, not standard. It has a couple extra pins for audio. But its compatible with standard USB).

I heartily concur with this advice. I spent several weeks traveling in England this summer, and lugging around my 13 inch Macbook is not something I'll repeat. Its too heavy, and too valuable, to really feel comfortable carrying around all day. I'd also recommend getting one of the pre-paid HSDPA modem for internet; Wifi (paid more often than not) does exist, but it ends up being about the same cost to get the cellular modem and the modem is far more convenient. Don't plan on using the computer that much though. I found myself only using it at night to look up the location of where I wanted to go next, and to send the occasional e-mail back home. There's far too many other interesting things to do.
As for transport in and around London, the Oyster card is by far your best bet. The travel / tourist stations in Heathrow can set you up with one, or you can get one at the manned Underground stations. They're cheaper to use than buying tickets on the Underground, although still not cheap (London has one of the most expensive public transit systems in the world). I rarely used the buses; Underground stops are all over the place and I often found that walking was easier (and more fun) when my destination was not directly next to an underground stop. The train system is an excellent way to get around the rest of England (and are another reason to get a cellular modem) and are not terribly expensive. I used them to go on day trips to other cities.
My final bit of advice is to just take some time to wander around. Its surprising the amount of stuff you can stumble across if you're just walking in London. There's a lot of history there, and some really neat sites. I also recommend trying to find some of the open-air markets; they have some great food and are fun to see.
Oh yeah, if you decide to see some of the "traditional" sights in London, be ready for some sticker shock. Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, and several of the other places tourists go to are very expensive. On the other hand, many of the museums are top-notch and completely free.

Wait, what? How does Green Hills enter into this? Green Hills makes their own RTOS; did you mean WindRiver?

I'm not going to make the argument that 4 million people dead is horrific, and that we need to do better. But equating that with a world war? You do realize that estimates for those killed in World War II range from 60-70 million? The Congo conflict is off by an order of magnitude from that.

The tank war in Europe is not quite so cut and dried as you make out; certainly by late war the Germans had some of the best tank designs (although a 10 to 1 kill ratio is pretty extreme). But earlier in the war, some US and especially Soviet tanks were at least their match. The Soviets built one of the finest tanks of the war: the T-34, which was far superior to anything the Germans had at the time. Only when Panthers and Tigers started to come into play did the Germans have something that was better (The Soviets up-gunned the T-34 after that, which made it nearly the match of the German designs). Likewise, the US designs were actually very competitive in the early-mid years of the war (in fact their light tanks were some of the best in World War 2). You are correct, however, in that in the last year or two of the conflict the M4 Sherman tanks the US relied on were heavily outclassed.

The Nokia N800 isn't a phone. It's a small web tablet (the size of a large phone or PDA) that runs Linux (not Symbian). It also, unfortunately, doesn't have a PIM suite or a lot of the features that would be necessary for use as a full-time PDA. I believe that's true no matter where you purchase it.

Isn't it odd how that works? When I was an undergrad (which wasn't all that long ago), I loved video/computer games and would spend as much free time as possible playing them. Now that I'm working on a computer all day, I would much rather go do something outside when I get off work. I actually have more free time now than when I was in school, but I do almost no gaming anymore...