Why not just hook a microphone on the inside of the computer to pick up the fan noise, and use that as a random source? I'm sure there's some entropy in there.

That's why whenever I don't recognize the phone number, I'll pick up but don't say anything. If it is a human on the line, they will eventually say hello.

For that to happen, the charging would have to be via beamed RF energy instead of magnetic induction. What I'd rather see is a return to devices that only needed charging or battery replacements once per month or so. Like the old 2-way pagers I used to carry.

Personally, I've started syncing my files to a USB hard drive running off a Beagle Bone, via wifi, that sits in my vehicle. It syncs at night after I pull in. Now there is the possibility that the house will burn down, take my vehicle in the garage with it, but I figure I'm covered for a large part of the time when I'm at work (since my car is with me then).

Well here's a strange thought. If you don't have enough daylight after work, how about going to work an hour early, and getting out an hour early? Nothing really gets done early or late in the work day anyway, so co-ordinating with others' time in the office shouldn't bee that big of a deal (as long as everyone is there during a core 5-hour period).

I believe that for the most part, people don't have a "natural" talent for what they are good at -- instead, they have a strong desire for it, which makes the many hours of work they put in seem more like fun than work. In order to be good, you have to put in many hours (4 hours a day, for 10 years) of progressive practice -- constantly working at the edge of your current skill, and pushing that edge slowly forward. It is that way with programming, math, music, art, etc. But to dedicate 10,000 hours, you have to be able to somewhat enjoy what you are doing, or you will give up.

That is one thing that really gets under my skin -- when I am visiting with someone (i.e., I took the effort to go over to their space, whether it is a co-worker's office, or visiting with family), and their phone rings. No matter what we're in the middle of talking about, that phone call always gets priority.

I never understood why Star Trek ships had to establish a "standard orbit" to begin with. They have enormous amounts of power available along with the magic warp field. So why couldn't they keep themselves suspended in one spot above a planet, regardless of gravity?

Many ISPs will give you the same DHCP address if it sees the same MAC address. Often times the only way to get a different IP is to change your MAC.

However, if you are going through a home router, you have to change the MAC that the router advertises on the Internet side. Hopefully that's what he's doing. Some routers will also have the option of cloning your PC's MAC address for the Internet side.

I had problems initially with the adapter that came with my Nokia phone -- it was labeled as 1.5 amp. Got a bunch of errors on boot if a keyboard, mouse, and ethernet were all plugged in. Then I switched to the adapter that came with my Samsung galaxy nexus -- rock solid.

What I'd like to know, for anyone else having problems, does switching to a "known good" power source help? And what other good power sources are there that are readily available (such as maybe one of the Apple usb chargers)?

Possible that the person had a radio transmitter in Washington, to send out a single pulse to indicate whether to make a trade or not. Not hard to get a low bandwidth / low latency radio signal from Washington to Chicago.

The 6kps speed is due to the gravity of Mars pulling the spacecraft into it. From a pure orbital mechanics standpoint though, once the object gets to Mars's orbit, if the planet isn't there to catch it then it will fall into an elliptical orbit about the Sun, with the high point at Mars's orbit and the low point at Earth's. So the trick is to to have it meet Mars at the right time, so that it captures the spacecraft in it's planetary orbit. At that point, the only energy needed is to break orbit and land (which as you pointed out is about 6kps). (I was wrong to use the analogy of "landing softly", I should have been more clear that it was referring to getting to Mars's orbit without breaking).

My wallet is in my back left pocket, and sits to the side. I don't actually sit directly on the wallet. My keys and coins are in front left, and phone in front right. Pen is in my shirt pocket.

The ability to make instant decisions and execute them on the spot is a good start. The robots have to be pre-programmed and try to function semi-autonomously due to the time lag. Even if we put humans just in orbit around Mars so they can remotely control ground-based robotic vehicles, much more would get done much faster.

There is no need to slow down once you get to Mars (due to the Sun's gravity and orbital mechanics). It's called a transfer orbit. Think of it like throwing an object up on the roof of a building. If you toss it just right, it will land softly. This is also why it takes so long to get to Mars -- if you go any faster, then you would have to "put on the breaks" when you get there.