I have a pair of the Plantronics Backbeat Go 2. For a $70 bluetooth set, they are more than adequate. I have used them daily for nearly a year with no major problems.

Battery life is approximately 4-5 hours for phone conversations; slightly less with louder and/or bass-heavy music. Recharge time is slower than I'd like (about 0.5x discharge time), but they're not bulky, are fully flexible (no hard parts between the buds), and very comfortable in my ears. I wear them around my neck constantly so there's no risk of damaging them in pockets. I also run 5-10k with them at a stretch with no discomfort or real risk of falling out.

My only complaint is there's no way to disable the 'play' button functionality on android devices over bluetooth (only with wired headsets, argh), but overall they're as close to the holy grail of bluetooth talking/running phone/music buds as I've ever found.

I'd like to see your reference for this statement "A ton is and has always been metric".

As I understand it a "ton" is typically non-metric (either Imperial or US) whereas "tonne" is metric and "metric ton" is the term typically used in the US that refers to tonne. This has been my understanding for years but a quick check on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...) seems to agree, although I notice there is some confusion when talking about an Imperial ton (or long ton) and a tonne as they are very similar mass and therefore "ton" has been used interchangeably for both.

I am curious which country you are from and if you are familiar with the non-metric terms for mass.

So just to be clear... "Well it's better than nothing (so better than Canada)" are you saying that Canadians cannot unlock their phones? If so then either you or I need to update our information because as I understand it we can now request our phone be unlocked after 90 days (in contract) or immediately if you purchase the phone outright. Of course there can be a charge for getting the phone unlocked, unfortunately.
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/info...

Yes, except... if your machine still has updates outstanding then from what we have seen it is best if you "check for updates" again before installing them. It looks like if the patch was already downloaded then it will install unless you refresh by checking for updates again before installing.

After some investigation it looks like the update may not have been configured to do a silent install properly and actually hangs as it is waiting for user input on an invisible dialogue box.

If you have a machine that does hang we have found the following:
1. wait until there is virtually no disk activity (counting on you have a light that shows you) and then power the machine down, or
2. use either PowerShell remoting or psexec to kill the two processes involved in the update: "Setup" and "vstor_redist".
With PowerShell: Invoke-Command -ComputerName hostname -ScriptBlock {Stop-Process -Name Setup,vstor_redist -Force}
With PSExec something like this will work:
Psexec \\hostname cmd
Taskkill /im Setup /f
Taskkill /im vstor_redist /f
Exit

If the machine is doing a number of updates killing the two processes above will allow the machine to continue with the rest of the updates.

Of course the standard disclaimers apply: No guarantees the above will help and not harm you computer, your mileage may vary, batteries not included, objects in code are buggier than they appear, yadda, yadda.

Yep. I work in patents, where a small incorrect use of grammar or terms of art can mean losing millions of dollars. The classic case in point:

Patent A:
"A vehicle comprising 3 wheels and a motor."

Patent B:
"A vehicle consisting of 3 wheels and a motor."

Assuming it is 1700 or something and no prior-art exists,

Patent A can go on to claim 4-wheeled motorized vehicles (since a 4-wheeled vehicle does after all have 3 wheels), 3-wheeled vehicles with shark fins, whatever. "Comprising" is open-end and interpreted as "it has at least this," or as you say, "including."

Patent B is strictly limited to 3 wheels and a motor, no more and no less. If a competitor uses 4 wheels, or adds shark fins, or two motors, then it isn't covered by the patent. "Consisting of" is a closed phrase interpreted as "having exactly."

The incorrect grammar "comprised of" would be an ambiguity, and as such, interpreted in the strictest way -- limiting as in Patent B.

It may seem worrisome that scientists and engineers of all people -- some of the absolute worst butchers of language and grammar out there! -- are the ones who become patent agents or patent attorneys, but all-in-all, the ones who do so tend to be some of the smartest folks I've met. You need to be well-rounded to do the job.

There was a large amount of negative bias in your question. ("Why was he even...") Hence the negative reaction it garnered.

Try phrasing your questions in a more neutral manner and you'll see a lot of that disappear.

I presume by your use of the word "decimated" you mean to be reduced by 1/10.

It's too venerated a word to have its definition incorrectly memed.

A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

How about a nice game of chess?

Unless I am wrong (and I am never wrong), "blue" is the correct spelling of "blue" in English.

So the French 'sacré' and the English 'blue' yields an (intentionally) inherently mixed-language phrase.

If I'm not mistaken, most of the excluded countries are so because their copyright laws aren't on par with the United States (according to the mafiAA). So these works might be in the public domain in those places already...

Interesting point. And what other books should we censor solely at your recommendation while we're at it?

A friend of a friend has a car with one of these. It might be possible to bypass it, but blocking the signal isn't the solution. He parked his car in an underground garage, and when he came back it wouldn't start. Turns out if the disabler hasn't received a ping in a certain elapsed time it also disables the starter. He called the loan company, and they had to send a technician to get the car to start, and be able to drive out of the garage.

zmodem was SUCH an improvement over xmodem. The ability to re-start interrupted transfers brings a smile of relief to my face thinking about it to this day.

I think this leads to a more pressing question: How do you decide where to balance technical accuracy with accessibility for the majority of people who won't understand it? Does the show count on getting away with some minor mistakes, knowing that 99+% of the audience won't catch it?

I've noticed several mistakes myself (in the handful of episodes I've watched with my girlfriend, who loves the show), especially around quantum physics (my preferred subject of study). I always wonder if they're deliberately introduced, or if they are genuine mistakes by the writers and/or actors due to lack of understanding or knowledge.