Glad they removed it just in good taste. Seriously, that's one stupid, long-ass ad. Dumb jingle. Dumb tune. Dumb message. Should have been 4 minutes shorter.

Place your passwords into a secure repository (like KeePass) and keep it updated. Give the password to the repository and other containers (I keep my KeePass in a TrueCrypt container) to someone you trust to execute when you die. An attorney. A trusted friend. Etc.

If required, make the password a two-part thing and give each part to different people.

I think what the O.P. meant was that the handsets (millions of them) could be providing this feedback at all times with just small ancillary data on the uplink. Things like SNR, error rates, etc, could be reported in real-time at all times or selectively enabled by the towers when segments are being measured. This would composite all sorts of users, all sorts of chipsets, photes, locations, etc. With location services enabled, the phones can tell the towers where they are when these measurements come through.

Throw it all up on a fancy visualization and you can get a lot of information over different times of day, weather conditions, etc. No need for a bunch of trucks. Sure, the trucks can provide more information with better measurement equipment. But in many cases, lots of cheap devices can produce better data and fewer expensive devices as long as the proper statistical processing is applied.

Bummer. I sort of liked not knowing your real name all these years. Hemos is dead. Long live Jeffrey Bates.

My car is really fast. It goes over 500 meters!!!

Gotta agree here. To be successful, I think you need to manage two things:

1. Maximizing preparedness for opportunities when they are presented to you. (education, experience, etc)
2. Maximizing exposure to opportunities. (networking)

In most cases, success is primarily luck. Lots of people are as capable as those that become wildly successful. Luck is what differentiates the crazy success stories. But you have to play the game to get lucky (2). And you have to be prepared to execute when the opportunity is presented (1).

Sell it to American Express for a larger undisclosed sum.

Not a stupid question. In fact, you would have been justified asking this question back when Galois was doing his work on abstract algebra in the 1830s. Or when Fourier was doing his work on temperature a bit earlier than that.

Over a century later, the work of both Fourier and Galois has moved so far from the abstract and so deeply entrenched in the practical, consumer-applied engineering fields that it would be hard to name anything in technology that didn't at least consider the application of both.

Fourier analysis is now used in all sorts of detection and classification schemes. Its principles are applied to video and audio compression as JPEG and MP3. Galois' finite fields are the basis for a myriad of digital coding schemes for error detection and correction -- not the least of which is the venerable Reed-Solomon code used in compact discs (CD).

There may not be an immediate application for such abstract theory (finite fields in 1830???), but the advancement of knowledge plants seeds from which we reap the fruit for centuries.

Probably. This is called a modem.

Yes. The geek is weak in this one. If you waited this long for a smart phone, surely you can wait another decade for the best features of tablets to come out.

You've waited this long to buy a smart phone because you don't use your phone?

Just because it's called a "phone" doesn't mean that's the primary function. I make very little use of my "phone" to actually talk to people. You've missed out on years of great utility because of this ridiculous notion.

Surprising people are arguing that it can't be done.

Stations are obviously making commercials louder than the TV program. They could, then, make them the same volume.

The problem you attacked (if I understand correctly) is that of keeping the volume approximately the same without having the a priori knowledge of what separates a program from the commercial. The stations have this information. They're simply turning up the volume when a commercial hits. The solution is as easy as this: "Don't do that!"

Linux is by no means free.

First, consider that the cost differential between a new Linux-based PC and a new Windows-based PC is essentially $0 due to the difficulty in getting a PC without an OS unless you build your own.

Second, consider the complications involved in getting that Linux-based PC to interoperate with the various applications, networks, etc that might be found on your typical college campus and you've just opened up a huge can of wasted time.

I was a Linux user for many years. But let's be honest. Linux is great for serving but has almost no merit as a college student's OS.

There are loads of free things in this world, but that doesn't automatically imply that you should value them positively.

Because the market *should* be protected? Why you ask? Because the government has pushed people into investing in the market by way of tax-deductible retirement funds such as 401k and IRAs.

Personally, I think the tax-deductible retirement accounts are a scam to get people investing more money in the stock market. My preference would be to get rid of this ridiculous concept, but that's not going to happen. So, since the government has coerced the general public into investing in a market they have no clue about, the government should do what it can to protect that market somehow.

What we have now is essentially a government which encourages (by way of a 30% discount) people to hand their money over to blackjack players to gamble with their money.

Quants are fine as long as people are investing with that money. The problem is, the general public can't compete -- they're just along for the ride.

Portland has the highest number of strip clubs (per-capita) in the U.S.