What do you mean by "most popular."

I'm tired of hearing that "everyone uses..." No, they don't. MySQL is pretty popular with the open-source web-crowd but this is the same crowd that respects the engineering behind PHP. I've encountered plenty of people in that arena who would rather roll their own data-checks and treat the database as barely more than a key-value store than use the capabilities of the database and have to deal with handling exceptions. Bring up transactions, ACID compliance, data-integrity and the like at a PHP users group and you get blank-stares. The get-rich-quick-with-a-cute-kitten-website crowd cares not for such things (as an overgeneralization - there are plenty of high-traffic sites such as Instagram, hi5, Etsy and MyYearbook that run on PostgreSQL).

So where do you find PostgreSQL? Salesforce, National Weather Service, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph, Federal Aviation Administration, Sony Online Entertainment, TD Ameritrade, State of Wisconsin Courts, Afilias, BASF, Flightaware, Skype (a contributor of many PG utilities), Fujitsu, Launchpad (Ubuntu)...

And PostGIS is *the* go-to open-source geospatial database.

I've found the PostgreSQL community to be wonderful with opportunities to contribute at all levels. Answer questions on the mailing-lists, contribute to documentation, help at users-groups, give a talk at a conference. One always welcome contribution is doing testing and submitting results/patches during commitfests - and this gets you more involved with the code.

As to employment, it sounds like you prefer PostgreSQL. As such, PostgreSQL is by definition the most popular database among places you are interested in working. Do what you love.

My daughter loved tux paint and still occasionally uses it to make a card, poster or board for a game she is making up. I mentioned it to a friend and his son now loves it. Definitely worth a try.

Well, that's one way to build up a DNA database. Didn't the spooks recruit a doctor to get Bin Laden DNA under the guise of vaccinations?

I have an antenna. I get better quality than many people I know with dish or cable. I spend more than adequate time in front of the idiot box as is - why tempt myself with more.

There are a few premium shows I want to watch - Mad Men and Sopranos for example. But I've watched entire series on DVD for less than the cost of a month of cable.

Savings depends on your plan but compared to many of my friends and neighbors I am saving over a thousand dollars a year in subscription fees alone not counting the cost of the box and the power to run it (many DVRs are power vampires on standby). That pays for a week or more camping at a national park. Or a weekend at Disneyland.

When I first got a laptop with wifi I loaded Kismet and took the laptop with me on some errands. My favorite: HoneyPot_comeGetSnarf.

I enjoy the Kamado [komodokamado.com] type of cooker.

It's low-tech in that you don't need any fancy apps to keep the temperature just where you want and you can make some really great food. If basic air-control is too low-tech you can buy one of these [rocksbarbque.com]. And yes, it is hackable.

But the KomadoKamado is high-tech in the dual-layer isulation and CNC machined parts. (And there are *plenty* of geeks on the forum).

Back in another life when I worked in law-enforcement the correct term to use was "traffic collision." This is how you will see it reported on the California Highway Patrol incident page: http://cad.chp.ca.gov/

A commenter on NPR today made an interesting point. There is a lot of talk about "first private..." but NASA has relied heavily on private industry since the beginning. Lockheed Martin, Morton Thaikol, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, Raytheon, Rockwell Colllins, Teledyne, Honeywell, Kodak, Perkin-Elmer.........

And Falcon launched from a government built/owned/maintained launch-site.

What *is* different is the accounting. Instead of a bevy of cost-plus contracts there is now a single-point fixed-cost provider which, surprise surprise, seems to be able to deliver at a much lower cost/kg.

And no, this does not detract from their accomplishment. Getting to space is still difficult and risky. Congratulations to everyone involved regardless of who writes their paychecks.

It really depends on your style. It's hard to beat a pen and paper. A friend had a professor who swore that mental stimulation required special rubbing of a couple wrist bones that could only be achieved by sitting down and writing.

For keeping the essence of certain types of meetings, as well as for individual brainstoriming, I've found mindmaps useful. Freemind is open-source and quite intuitive so I can keep track of the thread of the meeting and go back and edit it later.

There is an old joke about campers hearing a bear outside a tent. One starts to put on his shoes and the other says, "don't be stupid, you can't outrun a bear." whereupon he replies, "I don't need to outrun the bear. I just need to outrun *you*."

Security is much the same. A friend bought a house. Upgraded the locks and alarm after a minor burglary. Next time, the burglars backed a pickup across the front lawn and smashed through the French doors, threw in the CD collection, stereo and other valuables and took off. They were probably long gone before any police dispatch would have gone out. You can't do a lot about that but you can make your house less inviting than those around you.

Trail cameras are relatively easy to set up but you do need to remember to change batteries, clear memory cards and such. Reconyx has some security models that will automatically overwrite the oldest photos but you still have to supply power. And no trail camera will be of use if it is stolen so get a security case as well. Reconyx is pretty pricey. I've left a cheaper Bushnell out front to at least see who is on my porch when away. Over the holidays there was a spate of thefts of packages left on the porch by UPSEx so I figured it couldn't hurt.

You can use a motion detecting camera like one of the many Axis models and set it up to automatically send pictures off-site.

Unless you spend $$$$, you are likely to be fairly unhappy with the quality of the photos - especially in low-light - but they are better than none at all.

Much better, however, to close the barn door rather than just having photos of the cows leaving. Your local PD is usually happy to offer a security assessment. Avoid some of the rookie-mistakes. I complained a few times to my wife about leaving purse-like things or keys in sight in the car. She wasn't worried since they weren't important keys and the purse didn't have valuables. She changed her practices when I pointed out that the thief will only discover that fact *after* smashing the window. Another rookie mistake is leaving garage-door openers in outside-parked cars. That's usually an easy way into the house. Once in the house, are your car-keys in plain sight or an obvious place? Then how nice of you to provide transport for your goods.

Make sure your doors close well, have decent deadbolts, your windows latch securely, your landscaping doesn't offer easy places to hide. Even fake security or video signs can be enough to send a burglar to another house.

Some people worry about getting the best pick-resistant locks. While you don't want one that is trivial to open with a bump-key, much more than that is overkill. Few burglars know anything about picking locks - they are looking for some quick cash to feed their addiction so they are more likely to go through the open window or unlocked door.

Finally, at the risk of making you more paranoid, some burglars like to return a couple months after the original crime. By then, your insurance has paid off and you have lots of shiny new stuff for them to steal.

My car has a manual transmission and no power steering. My arms and shoulders are relaxed so I can drive long distance in relative comfort.

I sit closer to the wheel than most people - a byproduct of the high-performance driving courses I took many years ago that taught to drive with your biceps and not your shoulders. Unfortunately in cars with airbags I have to remember to sit farther back than I prefer.

With hands at the bottom of the wheel I can turn it over a half-turn either direction in an instant without having to switch hands - enough to flip or skid at anything much over residential speeds.

I haven't done hand-over-hand since going through the Bondurant courses so I don't have to retrain myself on that one.

While I'm at it, here are a couple interesting additional parts of perjury:

119. The term "oath," as used in the last two sections, includes an affirmation and every other mode authorized by law of attesting the truth of that which is stated.

123. It is no defense to a prosecution for perjury that the accused did not know the materiality of the false statement made by him; or that it did not, in fact, affect the proceeding in or for which it was made. It is sufficient that it was material, and might have been used to affect such proceeding.

124. The making of a deposition, affidavit or certificate is deemed to be complete, within the provisions of this chapter, from the time when it is delivered by the accused to any other person, with the intent that it be uttered or published as true.

Just trying to help out the prosecutors...

Instead of fuzzy and non-attributed "laws", how about the specifics?

Gascon's comment that there was "no malicious intent" is simply ludicrous coming from the mouth of the official in charge of prosecuting criminal actions. It's not like someone said, "whoops, got the radar from the un-calibrated shelf by mistake - better make the appropriate report and nullify the incorrectly issued citations." This is a case people tasked with an important duty that rests at the core of investigating and prosecuting drunk driving instead wilfully and intentionally falsified reports for over half a decade. If Gascon were a competent prosecutor he would be familiar with California Penal Code section 118.1. Since he apparently is not, I quote:

"118.1. Every peace officer who files any report with the agency which employs him or her regarding the commission of any crime or any investigation of any crime, if he or she knowingly and intentionally makes any statement regarding any material matter in the report which the officer knows to be false, whether or not the statement is certified or otherwise expressly reported as true, is guilty of filing a false report punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for up to one year, or in the state prison for one, two, or three years. This section shall not apply to the contents of any statement which the peace officer attributes in the report to any other person."

Any questions other than how many counts they are guilty of or how the "miracle never-emptying bottle of calibration gas" went unnoticed by supervisors?