I worked on an optical/ceramic-walled metallization furnace that started shipping a year ago. Apparently our US marketing people didn't come up with sufficiently catchy buzz to generate sales. I was laid off in September after documenting all the assembly procedures for our new plant in ... Shanghai :-(

I shall channel the master - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt3NfymWlss

Sorry, already trademarked!

It's partly because people don't understand the phone's noise cancellation feature, and partly because the feature doesn't work worth a damn. I can remember (distant past) hams with vox setups who said "uhhh" all the time to keep the mike active. It's a similar problem.

Knew a lobsterman who told me he'd steam for two hours, come up on his Loran set point - cut the throttle, stick his gaff out the port side of the boat and grab his trawl, without fail. In the dark. Sounds a bit better than 200 m. He had the lobsters to prove it!

Since prior art counts for little, has anyone rushed to patent disemvoweling?

they're doing it for the lulz

Well duh, all the best pizzas have eight slices!!

Sorry, the exhaust note from a six sounds like Felix Unger clearing his sinuses. You may haul ass, but there's no sex appeal in the way it sounds.

That reminds me, an agency compliance guru at a telco once commented "Those fancy plastic bezels you guys all design to differentiate your product? We rip them off and throw them away before the equipment goes in a rack."

Here's a good reason to do it three years early - http://www.globalorgasm.org/

Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom.

Brain Drain has most often referred to the draw the US has had for educated professionals from other countries, particularly Europe and the UK. It was quite pronounced from the late 40s to mid 60s, and I believe our old immigration laws encouraged it. Now it seems to be reversing, not a happy sign. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_drain

Just pot it all! Can't put my fingers on the facts, but non-operating hard drives are now close to triple-digit G ratings I believe, and SSDs should be pretty robust.

Ever seen a rack mount hard drive for a HP3000?