Thanks, that's very good to know. I don't think I need that at the moment, but if I ever do I'll know what to look for.

...but anyone can say "I think I smelled something" or words to that effect.

Example: I used to work a contract in a different city, coming home (200 miles one way) on weekends. Often I'd be on the road either going to work or coming from work in the wee hours -- 1:00 AM to 3:00 AM. I got pulled over often. The cop would check my papers and let me go.

When I asked why I was pulled over, they'd say "you were weaving" or "you did not signal a merge when your lane ended". (Which I don't believe you're required to do but I didn't argue.) Finally, when the same cop realized he had pulled me over three weekends in a row at 2:00 AM, he admitted they pull lone vehicles over during the wee hours "just to check them out", and they can always find some excuse to pull someone over if "they needed checking out".

There's a small additional step from there to "I smell something" or ...what is the latest law enforcement tool?... oh yes, "I observed debris".

My original point is that in a world where anyone can phone in an anonymous tip that leads to a vehicle being pulled over or a cop at someone's door, it inevitably follows, at least in some police departments, that cops will be phoning in their own anonymous tips. That the tip has no relation to the actual stop is a bonus. It only means the tip can be pretty much anything.

missile_guidance.exe has stopped working.
A problem caused the program to stop working correctly.
Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

But in this case, they did search. "I think I smell something".

No, don't go after Senators' spouses and children, go after their mistresses. Really hit them where they live.

> if it can be anonymous....then the police can phone in their own tips!

And that's the whole point.

These days, all you have to say is "I think I saw a gun".

Mod up.

There's a price for civil disobedience, but sometimes it's necessary.

Also, near the entrance to grocery stores.

> Be sure to use a payphone.

...if you can find one. And it hasn't been used as a lavatory.

How about a burner phone?

That was my first thought. It might be time for some civil disobedience.

The thing that worries me about porting to Google Voice is the articles that Google is going to kill Voice in the near future and bring some or most of the features into G+. Whether it's still useful for my purposes will depend on what they do with the changeover. What they did with Latitude made that feature unuseable and we ended going to a different solution. So I'll wait and see and take another look post-transition.

Again, it must depend on the area. Wife has an (older) Roku downstairs, and daughter has a blu-ray player with netflix upstairs, and they can stream simultaneously with no issues. The only time this is not true is if I'm downloading something massive.

I dunno, it must depend on the area. I got FIOS from Verizon when it first became available, and when they sold it to Frontier (apparently because Verizon Wireless wanted to enter into a business deal with Comcast) the only thing that happened to us is that the customer service became more responsive and more pleasant to talk to. What I've seen is that the "minimum" speed keeps going up (probably pressure from Comcast cable modem) and our cost has not increased.

Mind you, I do not buy cable TV from Frontier (or anyone). These days, cable TV is an unnecessary expense. I only get internet and phone. (And the land line is also unnecessary, really. I only keep it because we've had the same phone number since the late eighties.)