I thought you got one girl for each number in your UID?

I carry it in my hands, the same way I do when I walk around reading a book. I may read it on the bed, or in a chair, or get up to go to the car and continue reading it on my way. I treat the iPad 2 in the same way I treat a book or a magazine.

The laptop is provided by my employer, it cost me nothing. I also have an iPhone 4 as provided by my employer.

I don't just use the iPad on the plane, I play my exercise videos on it as I work out in hotel gyms. I read the morning "paper" on it. When I just need something simple, I can flip open the cover and it instantly wakes from sleep. I carry it around the hotel room with me, and I have it when I go out to eat at restaurants for dinner instead of a single book. My laptop I have to carry for work. Same with my smart phone ( I was able to choose my own phone ).

The fact is, for most entertainment purposes, my iPad has replaced magazines, my laptop, my cell phone/mp3, books' newspaper and TV. It is a singular go-to device while I travel. It makes the nature of my constant travel easier to bear, and face time is SO much better with the large screen, and that is extremely important to me as I am on the road so often.

I could use my free iPhone 4 to do many of these tasks, but the screen is small and battery life not as good, not to mention the keyboard. It is much easier to post to slashdot from this plane than from my iPhone. I don't have to hold the iPad up to my face to see my posts.

The simple fact is, that yes, I can do all these things with the gear that I already have, but I have been on the road doing this kind of work for a number of years, and I can say that my iPad makes my "road warrior" life much easier. FaceTime has also helped my personal life out as well. Easier than Skype, and I can pick up the iPad and walk around places while using FaceTime to stay in touch.

For someone like me that travels over 80% of the time for work, the iPad 2 is a godsend.

I would not say it is for everyone, but for me, I can easily afford it and it makes my personal life better and easier. Why wouldn't I want that?

Why bother being a fanboi of any kind? I am typing this on an iPad 2 right now, and I don't have to wait for anything. Why not buy the best product that is available when you need it at the best price? Right now that is the iPad 2. Should that change in the future, and my needs change I will change devices.

Your position on Android is the same as Apple Fanboi's are on Apple products, at least learn to think differently than they do.

Have you thought about why people really want these products? I am sitting on a plane at 32,000 feet typing this post on my iPad. As someone who travels on a regular basis for IT this thing is the bees knees. I have my laptop with me. It is off and in the overhead compartment. I have books, audiobooks, music, movies, email, Facebook and a whole bunch of other things at my fingertips that keep me entertained and in touch with friends and family. Take all that, give it a slick UI experience, incredible battery life, and a form factor that is smaller than my pen and paper journal set up and you have a winner in my book.

Apples products are not about being a better "X". They are about combining important devices. When the iPhone came out I knew I wanted one (had to wait some years) because it eliminated the need for me to have a palm pilot, iPod and cell phone ( I had a razr with bad mp3) and it replaced all those devices with a sexy GUI that has style. - you won't get laid if you have a palm pilot, phone and iPod strapped to your belt, but people ask me about the iPad all the time. It is about combining devices so you carry less *AND* having a device that is socially acceptable and cool. Apple devices have a similar allure to clothes for most non-geeks.

The iPad does the same thing as the iPhone did. It replaces my laptop for most liesure tasks and basics like email web etc. It replaces the need to carry a kindle, or issues of The Economist or whatever. It let's me watch movies, listen to tunes.... All that stuff that my laptop does, but my laptop is huge and heavy.

It also has no competition in this space. Everything else similar has worse battery life, higher prices and fewer apps. Plus, no one is going to come up to you and say "oh, honeycomb? Sexy!" (not anyone I want to meet anyways!)

It is likely that as Android improves we will finally begin to see better competition in the tablet Market, but that won't happen for a few years yet.

The tablet Market is not destined to fail, but explode like the smartphone Market after the iPhone defined the UI experience for it.

And if you did feel like the lack of parking spaces was not something to worry about, it was a sign that the terrorists had won.

It is like that great British slogan used now, but not during the war: "keep calm and carry on".

It is one thing to show respect. Do like many of us have and show respect by donating to the Red Cross. But not carrying on with your life? That does not help the people in Japan at all.

I am typing this on my "iFad" and it works well for what it does. I got it because of battery life, size, and the fact I can do web, email, music or video pretty much anywhere. I travel for a living, so this iPad 2 is awesome, especially for long plane rides, the 10 hr battery is what sold me.

Meetings? Sure, I use it when I can, but I do use pen and paper as well. It would be nice if I could use some sort of stylus to take meeting notes, but it does well enough.

Microsoft went after totally the wrong market with their tablets, and now they are getting eaten alive in the mobile space. Microsoft may be dominant on the desktop, but in many ways the desktop won't be around forever. This device has more power, storage and network speed than my first PC capable of running quake, and I could not carry that around.

The fact that I can type this while on a treadmill speaks to the fact that this device suits my lifestyle, and Microsoft does not see that side of it at all. Maybe it is not the best thing for meetings, but it is fantastic for most everything else.

Johnnycab: Please state the street and number.
Douglas Quaid: Drive! drive!
Johnnycab: I'm not familiar with that address. Would you please repeat the destination?
Douglas Quaid: Anywhere just go! Go!
Johnnycab: I'm not familiar with that address. Would you please repeat the destination?
Douglas Quaid: Shit! shit!
Johnnycab: Would you please repeat the destination?
Douglas Quaid: Aaahhh!

There are already more versatile underwater propulsion systems that do not require a tether. There is even a "dolphin" high performance submarine that is more suited to the task. Plus, couple that with the potential risk for an air-embolism if you descend or ascend quickly and you have a recipie for disaster. It makes considerable more sense (and fun!) to use above the water.

I think it is time to get rid of the Bill Gates "Borg" icon. While I believe it was relevant a few years ago, with his hero mod status I think he deserves a halo.

I am very cross. You shouldn't have run away from me. What are we going to do with those twitter posters?

I have an idea, but who would clean up the mess?

Well, yes. Clearly. After all, a company like Berkshire Hathaway is clearly a gamble....

Of course, they don't pay dividends because it would harm their value from a tax position. I would hardly call purchasing BRK.B or BRK.A to be a gamble in any fashion. Buffett and Munger have proved that they know what they are doing.

Buffett himself also invests in corporations that do not produce dividends.

Dividends are great, most of my holdings pay Dividends. But not all. I valuate a stock through the Ben Graham method, and then purchase when Mr. Market has a pointless fit.

you should be careful of dividends alone. Many companies pay them while burning through their cash. You must valuate the equity as a whole.

Or maybe, Cops are people like anyone else, and they make mistakes. There are good cops and there are bad.

You can't tar all cops with the same brush - just like Cops should not paint all suspects with the same brush either.

But people are people.

They should not be as uncertain and scared in situations like that? What? Are you suggesting Cops should be sociopaths?

How about this example - near my GF's house, 4 officers were shot in cold blood in a coffee house. They were drinking coffee. The assailant got away, and the assailant was known to have the "death by cop" wish. One of the dead officers was a friend of hers.

Think about that - some people want to die, so their solution is "death by cop" because they don't have the will to just commit regular suicide.

The assailant got away - and he had one of the guns from one of the officers.

My GF was afraid to leave the house to get into her patrol car - she did - that was her job. But how did she know that just leaving her house in uniform to get into her work car she could just be shot in cold blood by a person like that?

Are you telling me that things like that don't affect some one? Are you telling me that she should feel just "normal" like you and me while leaving her house - or even being at home? What if the attacker saw her come home, and waited to kill her later when she wasn't in uniform?

As it was, the attacker was killed shortly thereafter - in a justified shooting no less.

At another point, a friend of hers stopped by and chatted with her while they were on patrol - half an hour later that officer was shot and killed by an assailant - one block from where they chatted. My GF saw the killer before it happened, and if she had stopped the killer instead of the other officer, she would be the one who would have died.

This stuff affects people. The only people it does not change are not the kind of people I want to be cops!

But the point is this - there are people out there who just want to kill cops because "cops ain't like us". Think of the psychological effect that has on a person. Now think about the fact that most cops want to do a good job, and do their job well. Stuff like this has an effect on people.

There are no easy answers to these kind of problems.

The question that raises would we have more dead cops if they worried about trials even when they feel justified?

Would a jury of their peers be valid given that the peers would be civilians?

I am not saying I don't think courts and trials for shooting are a bad idea - on the contrary - but I am wondering how we come up with a situation where we can ensure fairness for everyone involved. I am not entirely convinced at this point that a trial jury is the right option yet.