I make only one resolution each year - That is to make no more resolutions until next year.

How would you prevent malicious use of the "do not send to the source/destination" packets?

While this is a nice list, are you prepared to to pay a lot more for every ticket in order to get the consistency that you want? Airline pricing is the way it is because it allows the airlines to make a mostly predictable profit under very thin margins. If the airlines are forced to adopt your list, they would still need to make a profit and would have to significantly increase ticket all prices to ensure their profit. This is because the current pricing model is vary dynamic (daily / hourly price changes) based on the expected number of passengers. You are suggesting the the pricing model no longer be dynamic. The airlines would not accept the risk of losing money and would have to increase the (proposed non-dynamic) prices.

There are plenty of credit cards out there that have no annual fees. If you pay your bill on time and in full each month, you don't have to pay any interest or other kinds of fees. If you can't manage to remember to pay your bill on time, you can pre-pay your credit card. You might have other reasons to avoid the general advice of using credit cards over debit cards, but "extortion fees" isn't really a valid reason.

No, you are just old.

I am glad someone got the joke. I considered talking about two modes of operation ("line of sight mode" and "make line of sight mode") instead of error correction algorithms, but I thought the error correction thing was more subtle and humorous. I guess it was too subtle. I don't plan on quitting my day job.

Not if you have the right error correction algorithm. If packet transmitted successfully, send next packet; otherwise increase power and try again. Repeat as necessary.

In concept making the .NET framework open source sounds cool. But, does making it open source mean that I can make a change to the framework, recompile it, distribute the binary framework along with my dependent application, and expect that someone else can just install my version of the framework and be good? Or does it mean that if I want to distribute a modified framework, I have to go through some sort of code signing process in order to allow it to run on someone else's computer? What would this signing process look like? In addition the assembly loader in .NET makes certain assumptions about version numbers of assemblies. It will be interesting to see how it works when due to multiple development paths, core assembly version numbers are not necessarily sequential / increasing over time.

My recommendation: Read the CC&Rs very carefully.

When I purchased my house, I wrote availability of high speed Internet into the contract. This was 10 years ago at a time when the phone company would not tell you in advance if a particular address has DSL service available; the only way to know for sure was to put in an install order. My real estate agent whined that I couldn't put that in an offer, but I said, "Yes, I can. It is a contract and I can put in anything I want." I put it into the contract, ordered the DSL service, and once the DSL was turned up (which it did), the deal was done. Fiber has since come to my area so life is even better now.

Point of all this is that in my case, high speed Internet had a huge impact on the property value to me. No Internet means the property value is zero in my mind. Sounds like I am not alone.

I would suggest adding a fee to each bill that is clearly labeled "Government surveillance charge" to drive home the point and to remind customers of what is happening.

The crazy homeless guy on the street gets his "equal" time in proportion to his audience and the reception of his message from his audience. He has (and generally receives) the right to stand on the street corner and express his point (within reasonable civility constraints). While his point may or may not actually be valid, society in general has voted that it is not valid (because he is called crazy and is standing on the street corner and not in a lecture hall or in a more formal public venue.) The only real difference from an opinion expressed by a crazy on the street corner, a creationist at a university lecture, and published peer reviewed scientist is the size and caliber of the audience - in general "society's" opinion or "vote" on the message.

This discussion here on slashdot and the controversy on campus about this particular conference are part of the process of society reviewing the opinion of creation. While I personally don't believe in creation, at least not in the last ten thousand years / biblical sense, I am fine with civil discussion and debate of the topic on a university campus. That being said, it does need to be a civil discussion and there must be room for debate.

Reading Slashdot?

Accurate altitude detection? GPS altitude isn't that accurate (at least on cheap consumer level GPS receivers). I have a hand-held Garmin GPS targeted at hiking and it has a barometer built in for more accurate altitude. Perhaps phones are adding them for the same reason.

An update to the Casio AT-550?