This style of HUD has been available on Corvettes for over a decade...

It kicks ass!

I've had 2 cars with HUD. Both C5 generation Corvettes, and the difference in windshield price is about 2x-3x as much for a HUD windshield vs non-HUD. I had to have the windshield replaced in my old C5 and it ran about $1500 for the HUD windshield, whereas a standard windshield was around $800 (no-deductible glass coverage is a no-brainer). Granted, these are not LASER setups, but it will still require different optical properties for the plastic layer in the glass compared to standard. Note that with current offerings, some polarized sunglasses greatly affect the appearance of the HUD.

I should have waited and found an STS with the HUD, as I find the lack of a HUD to be distracting now. It is very nice to see Speed, engine RPM and fuel level (or oil pressure or coolant temp) in your field of view as you drive. Adding navigation to such a setup would be nice, assuming it can only be set up while not in gear (as my current factory nav setup is).

I've not had the opportunity to drive a C6 with HUD yet, but it is improved over the version in my current C5 Z06 with the addition of G-force and more colors.

Once you've driven with a HUD, you don't like to drive without it, in my experience.

"This (central Illinois) may be the only place in the world where you can have snow storms, ice storms, rain, hail, sleet, and tornados all in the same week!"

We've had that in the same day here in MN; last spring, as a matter of fact. For interesting weather, there is a lot to be said for the upper midwest. Now, about the fault lines running through here... we're hosed when they let loose considering nothing here is built to withstand that sort of stress.

Try more like 14% to education in fiscal 2009 and 13% to defense. http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/index.php#usgs302a

You fail to lump total spending together, because, you know, the states pay nearly all of the education expenses. For instance, here in MN, K-12 gets ~25% of the state budget.

You can massage numbers many ways, and only using the federal spending on education tells a very different story from how much is actually spent when you factor in state, local, and federal money.
 

• Intel D945GSEJT http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/D945GSEJT/D945GSEJT-overview.htm
• 500 GB laptop harddisk
• 2 GB RAM
• 12V PSU

Eats about 10 watts on idle.

I was thinking the same thing.

It's like buying a new car with higher fuel economy (only) to save money on gas.

Keeping the old, presumably paid for vehicle is cheaper (unless you drive 100k miles a year and own a Range Rover, I suppose).

(Yeah yeah ... I know, car analogy. But I was trying to explain this math to someone the other day who was going to buy a new car that gets 30mpg while theirs gets 22mpg, is paid off, and in fine condition).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856119011&cm_re=RS-233-_-56-119-011-_-Product

Basically a netbook in a box, for about $170US (each) i built a pair of small linux servers to handle all my chores...1.6Ghz Atom Procs, 2GB of RAM, 500GB 5400RPM drives.

The only downside i've found thus far is no gigabit, but they have a single PCI slot if you really need it, gig-e cards are cheap.

I have 0 complaints thus far, one box has been running since July, another i just brought up last week. The temperature in my office dropped 5 by turning off the box I replaced, and I went from about 120-130W constant draw to about 60W.

Its not as good as a Mini as power consumption, but I have two machines, and still have less than even the low-end mini in them in up-front costs.

I have been working on lowering my power consumption for just over a year now, with a lot of success (reduced my power bill by 20-30%). I did a couple of somewhat lame writeups on my website about my server upgrades and the power consumption changes:
http://www.peelman.us/wordpress/2009/08/01/new-server-pollux/
http://www.peelman.us/wordpress/2008/10/29/file-server-upgrades/

How about a BeagleBoard?

You can connect an external drive over USB2.0. I couldn't find its wattage on the page, but it should be pretty low. Its's $149 and can be powered over USB. I've seen it run the ARM version of Ubuntu.

I get a whopping 35 Watts used running SETI@home on my Mini... That is with a bus powered FW external HDD for Time Machine hooked up and not spinning down the disks when idle.

A Mac Mini uses nowhere near the power you claim, unless you've got a case where both cores, the GPU, the HDD, and the DVD Burner all all running full tilt at once; a pretty tough thing to do with the use described by the submitter, I'd say.