Well, needless to say, my last computer was one of the very first run of Intel MacBooks and it was fraught with problems. The case was replaced first for cracking (outer), again for yellowing (inner), and third (outer) for a questionable 'repair' job by the local Apple store in which they just "shaved off" the offending area. Due to persistent screen flickering, two batteries and three logic boards were tried to no avail. Finally, after the optical drive died and the screen flickering and case cracking had yet to be resolved, the guys at the local Apple store advocated for me/got sick of me coming in so I got a free replacement. Ironically, my G4 Cube benefitted from another dying MacBook's optical drive and, after some tinkering, still works like a champ.

Notre Dame has a new 1-year masters program called ESTEEM combining science, entrepreneurship, and technology. I've had a couple of friends go through it with various science and engineering backgrounds and really enjoy it, though I can't give you much more advice than that. The website is esteem.nd.edu .

El Hornero in Quito is fantastic, especially the corn and ham pizza - I've had pizza at most of the Chicago joints, across the east coast, and the vast majority of the rest of the Midwest and nothing compares. Then again, maybe I was just grateful to be eating again after recovering from food poisoning.

Great call on FIRST - I was involved in their high school program for three years and I started a regular FLL program at my K-8 grade school. We had to start including younger students (3rd and 4th grade) than our 5th and 6th graders in the regular program because they were solving the proposed problems too quickly and efficiently. Even if you do not know what to do with the kits or how to write a line of code, FIRST and LEGO provide excellent resources, the latter of which are not limited to the annual games that FIRST develops.

Disney has been using this stuff for a similar purpose for the past three years and they keep the information much longer than Heathrow's 24 hours (Disney officials state that the info is retained for as much as 30 days after the last use or expiration of a WDW ticket - your fingers aren't broken, I know you can do your own Google search to verify it). I guess if it speeds things up, and heaven only knows that Heathrow needs help in that area, then I have no problems with it.