http://www.bose.com/shop_online/headphones/noise_cancelling_headphones/quietcomfort_15/index.jsp i can't believe i'm the first to mention it! maybe i can finally get some respect with the mod points now?

Replace the water guns with real guns and you have your first SkyNet robot. http://terminator.wikia.com/wiki/Series_T1

why are you multiplying by 4 instead of 2?

geostationary orbit is 35,786km above sea level.
so round trip would be 71,572km.
speed of light is exactly 300,000km/second.
(it's exact because the definition of a meter is based on speed of light)

300,000 / 71,572 = 0.23857333 seconds
or 239ms.

100ms equipment overhead? are you using a 1200b/s serial cable to connect to your satellite modem? i can ping google at 14ms. surely the backbone connection at the base station can beat my connection. 239+14=253ms theoretical speed. i expect no more than 300ms even during the busy time of the day.

yes! i agree! talking on the phone is SO inefficient! the problem is, both parties have to have free time, at the same time. this is good if both parties are not doing anything more than 50% of the time! I've considered hiring somebody just to talk on the phone and transcribe it to email for me. I have a hard time getting people off the phone without being rude too. yes, my grandmother is doing fine. yes, I'm staying busy.

my local college gave me the run around trying to graduate. i had over 100 hours and straight A's but they kept changing the degree plan until i dropped out without even a 2yr degree. I applied at every computer store around, which was only 3. they all laughed at me. that's when i started my own business. that was 10 years ago. since then, i have put them all out of business. and i did it without ever advertising. all word of mouth. i do all the work for practically every business in the city (a little over 100). it wasn't easy, sometimes i work 16 hours/day, 7 days/week. I'm so happy today, i wouldn't work for somebody else for twice the salary. now if i can just figure out how to get rich too...