I don't know about the GP's Powerbridge, but I had a pair of Ubiquiti NanoStation Loco M5's providing bridge service between two of our offices that got real-world throughput of around 75 Mbps (Measured by transferring a 4GB file using Windows Explorer to another Windows box, and stopwatching the time). The offices were only a hundred yards apart, but I had the TX power cranked down to minimum.

I've measured similar on other wireless routers. Haven't tried on Gigabit connected routers. So on to the question: Yes, you can get 100 Mbit Ethernet speeds - but recognize that's only about 10 MBytes / sec.

If you don't have a felony conviction, or various other disqualifying issues, it takes anywhere from ten minutes to ten days, depending on the locality, to purchase a rifle or handgun.

I'll ask another question - how easy/difficult is it for an adult in your country to buy a knife/car/whatever that can be used to kill people?

These are horrific events, whether they happen in Connecticut or Scotland (http://news.yahoo.com/scottish-town-shares-agony-u-school-tragedy-182038462.html) with guns, or China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_attacks_in_China_(2010%E2%80%932011)) with knives and hammers. But they pale in comparison with the number and tragedy of single deaths that occur daily. Children are killed in car accidents, playground accidents, by parents, caregivers, and other children, in horrific and tragic ways. But, because they happen one or two at a time, they're a footnote in a local newscast and quickly forgotten. Nothing is done about them.

Heck, even the events of Sept 11, 2001 here in the US were a statistical blip - the 3000 people killed in the attacks are roughly the number of people who die every month in car accidents in the US. And yet we treat it as a national day of mourning, and disassemble our freedoms, to prevent it from happening again.

We as Humans grossly overreact to the extraordinary, and become accustomed to the ordinary. 20 Children killed with a Gun? Time to ban all guns. 40000 infants born in the US every year with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (http://fasdcenter.samhsa.gov/documents/WYNK_Numbers.pdf), and we show a few public service announcements on the TV. Which is the greater tragedy?

Your HTPC server consumes 350W? What the hell do you have in that thing?

Mine consumes less than 65W running full blast, serves files and 1080p video. I'd say you'd save a hell of a lot more money by downsizing that HTPC rather than just getting a more efficient power supply.

I'm pretty sure Arizona would be fine under that scheme also - we have a nice large Nuke plant, which sends (IIRC) 50% of it's power to California, and our desert is littered with small natural gas fired power plants built in the last 20 years to supply peaking power to California, because they won't allow power plants to be built in their state.

So rephrase #2 and add #0:

It seems clear that 1 or more of 4 possibilities are the truth.
0. He is innocent.
1. He killed his neighbor, possibly in retaliation for his dogs being poisoned.
2. He is being persecuted by forces within the Belize government and police department.
3. He is having or has had a psychotic episode.

The problem with hydrogen, of course, is that it burns at a wide range of concentrations - from 4 to 75%, according to Wikipedia. Gasoline only burns at between 1.4 and 7.5% in air. So a hydrogen leak is far more likely to catch fire or explode than a gasoline leak.

Why, thank you, as a professional in the field of biometrics it has never occurred to us that someone might try to create a spoofed fingerprint. And it has never occurred to us to attempt to detect those, and reject them.
By the way, do you happen to know the dielectric constant of common wood glue? Because I do. As well as gelatin (http://cryptome.org/gummy.htm), amongst other materials.

/frank

Well, by most generally accepted criteria I am an intelligent person, and I enjoy watching football. Of course, you don't know me so your statement may still be correct (though I doubt it). At a visceral level, there is a significant level of tension release watching people "beat the hell out of each other". (Actually, most of the guys on the field are pretty friendly to each other - guys on different teams talking and laughing between plays. Just don't go up for a reception over the middle on third and 5).

I don't particularly enjoy the fandom of football, and couldn't tell you what place in the standings my hometown team is (actually, for my hometown, that's pretty easy; even I know it). I can sit and enjoy a game, and walk away afterwards and not be able to tell you the score. I just don't care who wins or loses, but I do enjoy watching the strategy, the speed, the mistakes, and the raw athleticism on display. /frank

So, you watched Mythbusters once, and believe that it applies to all fingerprint sensors, everywhere, and that the state of the art never advances?

Well, we didn't design in any features to deal with hookers and blow, but your TAP isn't going to get you anywhere considering the fingerprint sensor establishes an SSL session with the laptop.

I have a very nice HP enterprise laptop with a fingerprint sensor. The hard disk is fully encrypted, and doesn't even spin up until my fingerprint is verified. No passphrase needed. I'd love to put a camera in the room and watch the operative try to install anything on that machine. /frank
n.b. I also happen to work for the company that designed and built the fingerprint sensor.

Wish I had some mod points for this post.

Well, as a regular reader, I'd say he's more "A first-rate hack who pimps his informative, entertaining (though over-focussed on AGW zealotry) blogs."

If you don't learn anything from his blog, and aren't simply blown away by the galactic imagery he links to, then you're simply dead inside.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy.html

/frank

What happened is that you got trolled. Go look at the link in the original story - a photo of Mardi Gras beads badly photoshopped onto the martian surface, and an accompanying story written at about a 10th grade level.

100% agree...Kill the penny, kill the nickel, kill the quarter, kill the $1 and $5 bills.

The dime (the physically smallest coin) becomes the smallest denomination. 10 of'em to the dollar. If you absolutely have to, create a 50 cent piece that's a bit larger than the dime.

Build a dollar coin that DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A QUARTER, goddammit. Even the gold Sacajawea dollars, after a couple of years, tarnished to look like an older quarter. Build it with an external polygonal rim, or put a hole in the middle of it,. Maybe make it about the size of a penny, or nickel so coin holders in cars, etc., will hold the new dollar. .Build a 5 dollar coin if you must, just a bit larger.

In my world, that'd be two coins ($0.1 and $1.0). The numismatists (who single-handedly keep the penny alive) would probably require 4 ($0.1, $0.5, $1.0, $5.0). Then, three bills - $10, $20, $50. Despite my misgivings about losing a cash economy, the ease of counterfeiting (especially at the nation-state level) probably means that making higher denomination bills is a poor choice.