These days, a typical monitor is likely to be 16:9 or maybe 8:5 (aka 16:10).

In terms of viewing area, for the same diagonal measure an old-style 4:3 monitor has a larger viewing area than a widescreen. Basic math. Yes, a square would be optimum, but in recent years we have been heading in the opposite direction.

As someone whose ISP uses Yahoo for mail, I can report that they appear to block mailing-list messages that are marked as Bulk. As a product tester for Opera and also a moderator on their user forums, I am supposed to be on several of their mailing lists - but never receive any of them. However, mail from that server sent by individual Opera employees comes through just fine. Likewise mailing lists that do not mark there messages as Bulk (from other servers) come through fine - though several (not all) of those lists are actually on Yahoo's servers. (I've had Opera send messages I need to get to a webmail service.)

The server is not blacklisted as I do get mail from it, they are not blocking all mailing lists (other than their own) either, so it appears to be the fact the messages are listed as Priority: Bulk.

No one has talked about preventing people from going there ... just preventing them from coming here. Not necessary really - just isolate them for 21 days before they can return.

I have to conclude from the supposed difficulty that they store the metadata without noting which numbers are unlisted. Or more correctly, were unlisted at the time, since that status may change.

That was my first choice as well

Postponing the obvious quote for the moment, the question with any backdoor is what's to keep the bad guys from finding it. (Okay ... the other bad guys. Picky, picky.) If something is known to have a backdoor, the hackers will do whatever it takes to find it. Breaking in to some manufacturer's system, bribing someone, or just brute force - once they find it, they know what it is on all similar systems. If anyone has a backdoor then the supposed protection is meaningless.

The quote? Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Benjamin Franklin

Do devices count? Are calculators toys? Cars (other than some old beater you go to work and/or shopping with) or other vehicles? Firearms? Geometric (as in, solid) puzzles? While I do have a collection of the latter, I play with the others more often ... so are the puzzles not toys?

The name Algebra originally comes from Arabic, and likewise we owe the number zero to them. Fact is, they taught us the math of the ancient Greeks. And now they don't want it?

For some definitions of likely and usual anyway. In probability, "unlikely" generally has a specific meaning defined in the paper, hence "not unlikely" is not necessarily likely. Probably not unique anyway.

Does it have to be grief? One of the strangest features of XBasic is ragged arrays. It's sort of somewhere between a linked list and an array, as long as the types match you can access it as an array (as in, arrayname[x,y,z] ).

Full disclosure: since all the other official developers seem to have run off, I'm technically the lead developer at this point.

There are times when recording would be bad. They can't offer a potential witness anonymity if they are recording everything, can they?

Really, I'd like to explore another planet ... but that's not going to happen.

Safeties can be bypassed. No doubt there will eventually (if these things get off the ground) be some sort of hacker toolkit developed to allow either the owner or the equivalent of "script kiddies" to make the car do whatever they feel like. Just like rooting you phone and installing Cyanogenmod. It'll happen no matter what the FBI says - but hopefully require physical access. If the FBI/NSA try to get their own ... well, let's call it a rootkit, where they could override the software remotely even if it was hacked ... then anyone else will be able to as well. Someone will sell the secret to the Russian mafia or whoever, and all the criminals will have it.

The FBI's concerns may be valid, but are moot - just use a human driver.

I gather that "remote areas" somehow excludes deserts? Amazing ...

I do wear a watch, and can see uses for a smart watch - but almost all the stuff listed in the summary would be excluded! Music? Requires headphones or speakers, better to leave it on the phone. Pictures? Um ... how? Are you planning to use the screen as the viewer and thus have the lens wear the clasp would be? Sensor has to go with the lens ... seems it would be too prone to damage. GPS could work - already seen watches with a built-in compass, but navigation is probably a bad idea (small screen, and sound/voice would be better with headphones again). What watches are mostly for is telling time, so how about a watch that can sync with your schedule to remind you of appointments? A watch could reasonably display small amounts of text (like addresses or tweets) but input is rather limited - currently. Hmm ... install enough motion sensors that the watch could track your hand on a virtual keyboard or virtual mouse? But that's only one hand - and not even individual fingers - so would require some training to get it to work right. Looks like we'd better just stick to time and leave most of the "smart" stuff for the phones.