A real community member would be proud to shell out the 10 bucks for the domain name nenewal and donate it back to the project.

A social security number is just a hash code to numerically identify a person. Kind of like a full name, except a little more precise. It was my student ID for both undergrad and grad school. It has since turned int a closely guarded secret, although it is included on the paperwork of pretty much anything you sign. There's got to be a better way.

Not to get too geeky with off-topic stuff, but this is slashdot...

The problem may be your USB charger rather than the cable. According to the USB standard, pins 1 and 4 supply power, while 2 and 3 (the data pins) are used to negotiate how much power may be taken. Some cheaper chargers leave 2 and 3 open, whereas the standard dictates that they should be jumpered together for charge-only devices. This didn't matter in the past. But a recent (last 6 months) update to Android (at least Motorola) switched from "take whatever we want" to "properly use the protocol". The fix is to jumper pins 2 and 3 on your charger.

According to the linked Slashdot article, Verizon had no way of knowing, and wasn't seeing any of the money. The guy was using Verizon's resources to scam Cisco.

'The service requests were fraudulent in that no parts needed to be replaced, and instead of placing the replacement parts into service in Verizon Wireless network, Baxter simply took them home and sold them to third-party re-sellers for his own profit.'"

Non-Linux:
TRSDOS - in 1978 on RS Model 1
MSDOS

Linux:
SLS - in 1992, Kernel 0.99 pl 9 on my i486. - 35 floppies
Slackware
RedHat
CentOs
Fedora
RHEL - Still using it at home and work

Sorry to repeat myself and lose more karma. But the interest is that the robot is:
1: Cheap, as in feasible for small companies that cannot afford massive assembly plants
2a: Easy to program, as in the "robotic technician (programmer)" is a job that can now be done by a less-educated worker. Skilled? yes. Highly educated? no.
2b: Easy to program, as in agile response to changing requirements.
3: Safe, meaning that a small business does not need an expensive factory with shielded cages.
Together, they bring automation to places where it used to not be feasible. Automation means increased productivity, and productivity is something that every business strives for.

Low-level US labor is not going to compete in price with China. But automation allows a single person, presumably in the US, to accomplish what would otherwise be done by a handful of menial laborers overseas. Once there is a factory, there are technicians, design engineers, parts people, management, cleaning staff, cafeteria, transportation, etc. In other words, a lot of jobs.

Come on! This was a 4-minute video demonstrating a brand new technology and showing how it works. I'm pretty confident that it is capable of going faster than what you saw in the video. If not, then the next revision will be. If all you saw in the video was a blur, it would be meaningless.

As stated in TFA, the whole point is that this is a relatively inexpensive robot that can be programmed by people without advanced degrees, and safe enough to use by small shops in diverse environments. This allows US labor to compete with the ultra-low-cost foreign assembly lines.

Of course, Dr. Brooks doesn't know how many different ways it can be used. But if you look at it from the other side, imaging having a shop where you have a repetitive task that's too low for the lowest payed employee. Finally, there is a solution other than doesn't involve outsourcing.

I still remember some of the hacks.
- Drill a hole in the cassette player above the head, so that you can insert a screwdriver and adjust for differences in tapes
- Make a template, and use a paper punch on floppies to use both sides. "flippy drive"
- Hard solder the modem connections, because the ribbon connector was always corroded
- Add a dial switch to the back of the printer, so that you didn't have to guess at font size with a POT.
- Using the cassette's on/off switch to generate telephone pulses for an "auto dial"
- A capacitor and a latch relay to detect ring pulse and auto-answer the phone
- Adding a speaker to the cassette's on/off switch for audio output.
- Running the disassembler on the 4k ROM and the DOS, and then hand commenting every line of code.
- Hacking the DOS keyboard handler, so that the shift key shortcuts typing of BASIC commands
Those are good memories.

Even with an armed audience, the shooter might have survived this one.

"Holmes was wearing a bullet-proof vest and riot helmet and carrying a gas mask, rifle, and handgun, when he was apprehended, according to police. "

source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/mass-shooting-colorado-movie-theater-14-people-dead/story?id=16817842#.UAlanjtwZvx

Only if off-grid with a local battery bank. Inverters are required to shut down when grid power fails.

You must live in a warm and dry climate.
1: My roof has a foot of snow on it, and there is more coming down as we type. Hence the need to remove the snow. Ever heard of ice dams? I suppose the next post is going to suggest that the trap door opens inwards.
2: My aluminum roof rake is 30 ft and barely gets to the peak. The long pole barely supports its own weight. A pole twice that size would be impossible to maneuver and would break under its own weight, let alone with a broom or mop on the end. That is, if you could even see what you were doing.

The GP asked rhetorically about dangers with solar. I pointed out that mine are real, and I doubt I'm the only person in this kind of situation. I'm still a fan of solar energy. But anyone who thinks that there are no dangers related to panel maintenance or upkeep are sadly misinformed.

In my case, that is not an option. My panels have to be as far north and as high as possible, in order to look over top of the south neighbor's trees. That means the rack of panels has to hang over top of my roof on the north side. That was my only choice and it is indeed a safety issue. If you have a mop that can reach over my house, onto a rack of panels hanging 20 ft high, then I like to see it. Of course, If you live in a land without mature trees you will have an easier time.

For me, it has been climbing onto a slippery steel roof to brush snow off in the winter, and washing the dust and bird plops in the summer.

Here http://arcticglass.blogspot.com/2012/01/south-pole-on-bike.html is the opinion of a gal who is very familiar with cold weather endurance riding. Snow riding has become very popular sport in Minnesota. Surly, Salsa, 9:zero:7, FatBack, Moots, and others all make bikes specifically for snow. None of them look like the one that Ms Skelton will be riding.