That's macro mode. It's super useful. I used to be like you, but now I have seen the light.

Quick version: press 'q' again to get out of macro mode.

Long version: press 'q' followed by a letter to start macro mode. Then press 'q' again to stop. You can press '@' followed by that same letter to replay your commands.

I like your username :)

Google voice does not support SIP directly, but through Gizmo5 which does not allow new user signups yet. And let's not get started about what your caller ID will show when you call someone else.

I think the GP could use wifi to initiate a call on google voice's web interface and then received the call through Gizmo5 with a SIP client (either his computer or phone could have a SIP client).

Sure you don't "need" to, but why wouldn't you want to?!

Does thunderbird have the same dns issue as firefox (network.proxy.socks_remote_dns)?

Dnsmasq has an option to "fix" this kind of dns redirection called bogus-nxdomain. The bogus ip address to block is 208.68.139.38. I wonder if comcast uses multiple addresses or will ever change it...

Maybe I'll just switch to using 4.2.2.[1-6] as many other people have mentioned.

I hope you're joking. About everything. Maybe you're even making some convoluted commentary about vim being impossible to use without knowing its secrets (but I think emacs is also guilty).

1) you can save directly from the scratch buffer
2) emacs --help clearly says use -nw for text mode (it's obviously also in the man page, but a little harder to find)

Maybe attempt #5 will work out better for you. I'm on attempt #3 myself. Perhaps try growing a giant unkempt beard or something. Good luck to both of us!