No, those are neutrinos. Gammas would never reach Earth's surface, they would just destroy the ozone layer, allowing Sun's UVs to sterilize the planet.

Hey, my sedan runs on diesel, why should I pay more because most trucks also run on it?
It's the weight that destroys roads, not the fuel, so tax it instead.

I have an Asus RT-N66W (same as N66U, only white). The latest stock firmware is decent, and if you don't like it you can install a host of others. Asus develops the firmware as GPL, and is friendly to outside developers. I believe DD-WRT runs well on it, but I haven't tried, the stock firmware does what I need.

Good, because it shows. For your information structures (records, in Erlang parlance) are actually tuples, with all the performance characteristics of those. And I can only be amused by "nightmare of tail recursion" .... welcome to every functional language, ever. After a while, tail recursion becomes your second nature.

Interestingly though, this "hype" language is kicking ass when used in its intended domain, with people that know what the hell they are doing. In your case it was probably neither.

Been doing Erlang for the past 6 years. It is a small niche but the number of people who are really good is minuscule, much less than the demand. As a consequence, I get hit by recruiters for Erlang-related jobs every couple of weeks, with no advertising on my part other than my linked-in page. Looks like the biggest obstacle for the wider adoption of Erlang is the limited number of talent. Lots of companies would like to get into it, but are afraid they won't be able to attract people.

Actually Asus' firmware IS open source. GPL even. You can download the sources and play with them and improve them. Which is exactly what Merlin does.

You might want to educate yourself on the subject. Here's a starting point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Romania
Not much fundamental research happening over the past 20 years or so - probably because the best and brightest are all working abroad. But, before that, I believe Romania contributed more than its fair share.

You can go into an AT&T store, pay $25 and walk out with a paygo sim card with $25 credit. You can then choose the $2/day unlimited voice/text or $0.10 per minute/text plans. It's more expensive, but doable.

A teaspoon of The Hottest Fuckin' Sauce (600K Scoville) in my bowl of chilli, please.
Yeah, I'm a Ginger :)

I suggest you buy a local SIM, otherwise roaming charges will kill you. Think $1-2 per minute, or more, depending on your home carrier.
You will have to choose between AT&T or T-Mobile, they are the two (main) GSM providers. Both offer nationwide prepaid plans. Your N9 will work on both networks in 3G mode, your iphone will work on both networks in EDGE mode and on AT&T in 3G mode. In urban areas they're probably similar, but AT&T has significantly better coverage in rural areas. You can check their website for coverage maps. You can also check their website for pricing on prepaid plans (called gophone on at&t and pay as you go on tmobile).

I am more familiar with AT&T plans, since that's what I buy for my parents when they come to visit from Europe: the SIM costs $25 to buy, but it gives you $25 credit to your account so it is essentially free. Some clueless salesperson might want to convince you otherwise, but prepaid SIM card purchases are so rare they don't really know what's going on. You have a choice of plans, $0.10/minute, $0.20/SMS or if you're going to use your phone a lot, $2/day for unlimited voice/SMS access. You can also add a data package to this, which will cost you extra.

One thing you need to know about US cellular market is that you pay for incoming calls and texts at the same rate as for outgoing calls. This is compensated by the fact that rates don't differ if you're calling to a different network, either cellular or landline. Obviously, this does not matter if you decide to go for the $2/day unlimited plan.

T-Mobile's plans are different, I don't think they offer an unlimited option, and they are a bit more expensive, depending on your usage. Also, not sure you can get a data plan with them.

You are probably free to leave without paying an Early Termination Fee.

Yes.
Are you still paying different rates, depending on which network you're calling to?

Encoders often embed various metadata, such as timestamps, etc. Chances are same file, same software, same system, encoded twice, will result in different hashes.

Sprint is CDMA, there's no SIM card to be swapped there. Also Boost and Virgin phones are locked to their respective carriers, you can't buy from one and use the other for service.