Three things 3Com has that HP doesn't: a core switch, new edge routers, and a large chunk of Chinese market share.

I've been doing this at home for a couple years, and it works quite well (the audio stream is also lossless, I believe). I want to mention a couple things.

I know the OP wanted to avoid buying separate amps for each room. I use a pair of compact Fostex powered studio monitors in the bedroom that sound great and plug directly into the Airport Express. This might be an option (although each speaker needs to be individually switched on).

One other consideration relates to interference in the 2.4Ghz wireless band. If you have things like cordless phones and microwave ovens operating, the sound can and will cut out occasionally. Therefore, you may want to look into using the 5.0Ghz A/N band for streaming audio to get the most reliability. However, the 5Ghz band doesn't offer the same range as the 2.4Ghz band, so you'll have to make a decision there.

Really? I've been living in Japan for two years now (I'm a US citizen), and I absolutely dread going back to the States. Arriving in the US feels like a madhouse by comparison. As a Japanese multiple-exit visa holder (most long-term residents have this), I have a separate line at immigration that usually has no line. There is the fingerprinting and photo (which was a point of contention with the American Chamber of Commerce, I remember), but I've never been asked any background questions on any of my 10+ entries into the country. The entire process takes no more than 5 minutes as opposed to the hour-plus ordeal that I face at any US international entry point. You don't have to remove your shoes, and at least for domestic flights, it's no problem to bring a bottle of liquid (tea, etc.) right through security).

Actually, the compass is one of the main reasons I may upgrade to the 3GS from the 3G (the other being the fact that Softbank's pricing is very good and it would cost me hardly more than just keeping the 3G). Here in Tokyo, the streets are hardly arranged in any meaningful fashion, so it's often difficult to figure out which direction you're facing after popping out of a subway exit or going somewhere by bike. If the 3GS weren't cheap, I wouldn't purchase it, but I can think of many times that would have prevented me from walking in the wrong direction for a few blocks.

I agree that the thickness is important, depending on how you carry your gear around. Length and width are important factors too for traveling, unless you normally fly first class.

If it's any consolation, both BBC and the Wall Street Journal also feature Twitter's fortunate demise on their front pages...

It's certainly possible to make an appliance that does the page modifications on a proxy level, after the requested pages come into the router from the remote server (before getting NAT'ed to the hosts). You could sort the hosts by MAC or IP address to keep track of user settings, and this could be done with no local installation. The proxy-modified page would have controls for ad display permissions and switching it on/off could be done through a web interface. However, I'd guess that most companies would be concerned about circumventing the ads in this way for legal reasons...

Right. Also, naturally colored diamonds are seriously rare, depending on the color (I think red is the rarest, if I remember correctly). There's a great article (from 1982!) from the Atlantic about DeBeers and the diamond industry. Although it's almost 30 years old, it provides a good perspective.

Just make sure the vertical viewing angle is good on the display, as TN panels are designed to be looked at in a certain orientation. Putting an IPS display upright would certainly be no problem, though.

I was thinking the same thing, but considering NK's lengthy border with China and shorter one with Russia, the odds of cutting all the cables (let alone getting permission from China and Russia!) are slim.

Although if you look at the recent stock price of GS, you'll see that there hasn't been a big drop recently. This means that the shareholders don't think this leakage is a big deal.

You should consider getting a used CF-T5. It's a fanless Core Solo model that gets a realistic 12-13 hours of battery life with the regular battery. I used it once on the whole trip from Hong Kong to Berlin and still had battery life to spare! It's not as rugged as the CF-72, though.

From what I understand from the article, China only holds 95% of the supply because they are able to provide the metals for cheaper. If these Chinese companies took advantage of their "monopoly position" by raising prices significantly, then other countries/companies would simply mine their own rare earth metals. Right now, there's simply no economic incentive to increase the mining capacity.

Straight from Cisco:

"Digital subscriber line (DSL) is a modem technology that uses existing twisted-pair telephone lines to transfer high-speed data. Many types of DSL are used today; the most common are asymmetric DSL (ADSL) and symmetric DSL (SDSL). ADSL provides a higher downstream speed than upstream. SDSL provides the same speed for both upstream and downstream traffic."

You know, that link was woefully uninformative. I guess that's why you've been modded "Funny".