The same as diamonds as far as resale goes. A diamond can be "worth" thousands of dollars, until you try to sell it. No buyers to be found.

+1 Insightful

I don't know if I was as dumb, when I was in my 20's, as the person who questioned your choices. But having a family, and all that entails, I've met far too many 20-somethings that have no clue about how much it costs to fund a modern lifestyle.

"The city links the 1,500 cameras that police have placed in trouble spots with thousands more... Even home owners can contribute camera feeds....
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704538404574539910412824756.html

If you link your camera to the city "highly trained crime surveillance specialists will have access" ...
http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/oem/provdrs/tech/svcs/link_your_cameras.html

IBM press release about it's Chicago's video analysis software that "detects suspicious activity and potential public safety concerns " ...
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/22385.wss

You sir, deserve all the mod points that I don't have to offer.

I'm 50 and you hit every point and more that I could have stated. There is so much more to building computer technology systems than learning a new programming language.

This nails it "...understanding the business, anticipating needs, inventing and delivering solutions, ideally by leading others."

"Their voting record reveals the truth. Complete lockstep, unwavering synchronization. Zero deviation among the ranks"

That would match the Democrat and Republican statistics. Most of our current "representatives" could be replaced with central party robots without anyone noticing.

+1 from me if I had mod points.

EXACTLY! The best security does not make entry/hacking "impossible", it makes entry/hacking "difficult". The steps for tracking this AC down is clear and possible, it's just difficult. I get tired of security "experts" that dismiss various barriers because the barrier can be penetrated with difficulty. Difficult barriers achieve security.

The same goes for anonymity on the internet. With enough difficult barriers, you have practical anonymity.

Replying to my own post about the LTCM bailout, let me add ...

"Some industry officials said that Federal Reserve Bank of New York involvement in the rescue, however benign, would encourage large financial institutions to assume more risk, in the belief that the Federal Reserve would intervene on their behalf in the event of trouble. "

Secret bailouts are not new, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-Term_Capital_Management

On the face of it, it appeared that private banks provided the bailout money, but many suspected that they were all backed by secret government loans.

I echo this poster's experience.

CLF are many times as expensive as incandescent, not as long lasting as claimed, not dim-able, not equivalent in brightness, etc.

Don't talk to me about penny energy savings for a product that costs many times more what it's replacing. And my house needs the extra heat in the winter time anyway. So no energy is not wasted by using incandescent.

I read this as a government request to gather evidence in advance of a crime being committed. Is there any precedence for this?

I realize that many companies have security camera recordings and other records that could later used as evidence after a crime has been detected. But those are not government mandated.

If you start flipping coins and it begins with an unusually large number of heads... it means that you probably slipped in a double headed coin. It's false to claim that "the sheer number of subsequent flips tending to be 50/50 swamps out the spike created by those early heads." A truly fair coin will not have statistical anomalies.

The police system described here is just the same as when police used to pay attention to crime: "there's a burglary crew working the Oakdale neighborhood, three homes his week, we should increase patrols in that neighborhood"

The use of motorcycle wheels reminds me of the pothole problem when riding a motorcycle. It's not pretty. I'm certain that this "roadable" car has almost no suspension, little maneuverability, and poor road visibility. That's makes it worse than a motorcycle when hitting a pothole. There is no way to make a public road as smooth as the surfaces of an airport.

It would be ever so nice of the Firefox install if it would tell you which of your plug-ins are going to fail - before the install is started. I hate finding out that my most useful plug-ins are toast only after the install in completed. Updating the plug-ins should not be an post-install afterthought.

Mozilla really NEEDS a Pre-Install Firefox Add-on Compatibility test! We users should have a way to test our favorite Add-ons BEFORE we install a new version!

They want to set a *.google.com cookie that contains identifying social data. That would greatly enhance their ability to data mine useful, and profitable, information from the combination of your social profile and your searches. It's a marketers wet dream: detailed demographic data with detailed personal interests (every search you do). All they need to do is sell ad space that matches you up with buying habits of people in your demographic and having the same interests. An advertiser would pay a lot for that high quality sales lead.