The earth always "points" the same direction, towards Polaris in the North. (Always is relative..., but in this instance, "always" defines a few human lifetimes)

So, since the center of the galaxy is located somewhere between Sagittarius and Scorpius, and those constellations are visible during the northern hemisphere's summer, I'm assuming that the Northern Hemisphere points away from the Galatic center, while the Southern Hemisphere points (slightly) towards the center.

Well, when Fahrenheit created his temperature scale, he made 0 degrees F the temperature that salt water (think the ocean) froze at. He used 100 degrees as the body temperature of a person. (Alas, he calibrated the temperature on himself, and I read that his metabolism was high...most people are 98.6 F)

I can think well using both units, so I don't care, but it wasn't like his numbers were completely random..

I personally pay everything electronically through my bank's website. Also, some people pay their bills using Quicken or some other online payment tool.

I'd love to go to a paper-less billing system...except for one thing...

Why can't the companies just email me a PDF of the bill I normally receive? It would contain the due-date of the bill and how much I owe. If I am splitting the bill with roommates, then it's easy to forward to each other. If I want to keep a record of what I've been charged for, then it's easy for me to store it, etc.

Currently the way "paperless" billing works is that I receive an email from saying my bill is ready to be seen. I then have to go to their website, enter my username/password (because they've written some sort of Javascript to prevent the browser from remembering it for me), click 3 or 4 times to find my bill and then discover that all of the information is located on 3 or 4 different pages.

To me, the hassle of receiving a paperless bill isn't worth it...

I agree. I've had some other sony devices that didn't live up to their billing. They've really become the GM of the electronics industry. They were once a great company that made lots of really high-quality products, but have lost their focus and now are approaching irrelevancy.

You're probably thinking about the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which is located off of the coast of Africa, and is believed to potentially cause a super-tsunami in the Atlantic.

In the medical industry, making even the smallest changes is often difficult. (I've heard stories of companies continuing to release medical software based on WinNT, and they will probably continue to do it.) When it comes to making changes to software (and hardware), there are lots of regulatory hurdles you need to meet. (The more "life-critical" a device is, the more stringent the regulations are) Obviously, it makes sense, because you don't want to go to the hospital today and find a Windows 7 Beta powered device responsible for your safety.

Also, many hospitals refuse to upgrade existing equipment to something newer. If it works, and it gets the clinicians the data they need to help the patient, then they don't want to take the risk of updating software/hardware.

One (small) issue I seem to have is with the auto-updating feature. Often, I'm connected over a (relatively) slow cell phone link. When I'm using this slow link, I'd prefer to not have Slashdot query the server for updated stories. I know I can press the "pause" button, at the top to stop the auto-updating, but if I forget to do so, then I'm annoyed by some other app responding slowly. Is there plans to make this feature configurable? (Note: Each time I load /., I need to remember to hit the "pause" button...the previous state is never saved)

Well, I do have good news for you. The comet will still be there tonight. (Assuming it's still clear at your location)

That being said, the new story approval process could use some work...

I know that just about everything posted by kdawson should be moderated as a "-1 Troll", but what good, cross-platform video codecs exist for streaming video? Obviously, Silverlight isn't that cross platform, Flash is proprietary, so I can't use it on a PPC linux box I have here, etc.

Open, Free Codecs that work everywhere are surprisingly non-existent. I'd like to see that change!

How about DRM on the movies/tv shows that Apple sells?

I believe that a few years ago, it was deemed that SIM locks are ok to break on phones. That way, you can use your phone with whichever wireless carrier you phone would support.

However, I think that jailbreaking an iPhone to run unauthorized apps would be considered a grey area at best.

Maybe I've been coding at the wrong companies, but I've consistently seen geeks use bad terms for variable names, function names, and even comments!