At some point, most people would have had a "huh... what happened to that ticket" thing pop up in their brains, prompting action. As a counter example of justice prevailing, I had a judge set a default aside because I was on vacation when the notice came, so not all experiences are the same. I will bet $5 you didn't wear a tie to court.

I just remember a common rhyme, like 'mary had a little lamb' and make my password "mhall" which is easy to remember. Except I used longer sentances and don't post them on slashdot.

I certainly wouldn't count on this if you're dieting(!) but if you have a reall big eating day (like thanksgiving), you do excrete a LOT of unburned calories. I know when I was very rigorous about the Hacker Diet, and looking at every single calorie that went in, there were a couple days when I fell off the wagon big time (like large everything pizza big time -- maybe a 4000 calorie day) that simply did not affect me the way 2000 extra calories should have. Uh, you can't really make a habit of this, of course, if you're trying to lose weight!

You can over-simplify calorie counting, but it isn't a myth. Eat less calories and you eventually weigh less. You may be less healthy, but I guarentee, you'll weigh less! I read some woman's magazine article one time that was like "Eating less calorines doesn't mean you lose weigh!" I was like, "really, tell that to someone starving to death..."

Getting 150 calories from a Twinkie certainly is less beneficial than 150 calories from oatmeal, for the exact reasons you describe, but they both give your body 150 calories to use (or store...).

Also, don't forget if you start an exercise regime, you're replacing fat with muscle at some level. Muscle weighs more. (But it looks better and takes up less space.)

Hacker's Diet is the best way to lose weight IMHO. It explains the basics (consumer less calories than you burn), and offers some good strategies for eating and exercise and geeky tools (inlcuding a web-based tracker) to aid in your descent into fitness. I lost close to 30 lbs on the "diet" and while it wasn't painless, it was pretty straightforward. I did gain a good amount back 2 years later when I quit smoking, however.

This is a solution in search of a problem. If you're really worried about labels on your fruit, there's something I need to talk to you about, called Iran's Nuclear Program.

That aside, I do want to correct something -- most clerks (at least the good ones) actually memorize nearly all the fruits and all their code numbers. Check it next time you buy produce, they almost never look at the code before keying it in. Even with apples. It's actually pretty impressive how much cashiers at grocery stores have to memorize (they get paid better than you'd expect, too.)

What? I've never heard "steep" mean "easy" when refering to learning curves. Exactly the opposite.

Can a mac laptop drive multiple monitors? I believe that was also a requirement.

I do the same thing, but I'd kill for a BlackBerry or iPhone with a monochrome LCD display. It's the display that kills that battery, as much as the CPU and the wifi. Crap, in a few years an eInk display may be ready. Color is great, but I really just want email and twitter, forever, without charging.