Whew, I thought I was the odd ball. That is exactly how I would describe what I see.

Right now my road bike is sitting on a stand in the basement, I'll ride 40-60 minutes a couple times per week for exercise. I only live 3 miles from work but I am also responsible for dropping my son off at daycare, so the bike is out of the question. There are also safety concerns given that most of my commute is on roads where the speed limit is 50 or 55mph and that I am in the office before the sun rises except for early summer. Too many people on cell phones for me to be comfortable on the busier roads.

During the warmer months I'm limited to recreation rides in the evening or on weekends. We have a decent bike trail system in my part of Ohio. I can go for a 100 mile ride (1 direction) with 90% of that being on a bike path.

So where were they prior to 2008? They never gave a (public) shit about the absurd level of spending Bush was doing.

I wish patents such as this required a working prototype and a marketing plan to actually sell the device. Don't actually bring it to market within 2 years, patent invalidated and you are not able to re-file.

Would it have been easier just to book his favorite band to play a private gig?

Haha, I get that same feeling when reading slashdot. I'm in a small mid-western town (20k residents when I was in high school, my graduating class had a little over 300 kids).

There were cliques, there was an occasional fight.. but honestly there was little drama and I never saw any forms of bullying. Sure, people would talk about others behind their backs but that's as far as I ever saw it go.

I was small, did not have much confidence, and I dressed myself really bad.. but that never made me a target.

I routinely chat with people from my class, I'm amazed at how well the class spread out around the country and what some people have accomplished. I guess I was very lucky to know so many wonderful people.

I wouldn't call my school years great but that is more on my own attitude and not how I was treated.

I know I would be extremely curious but also fearful at the same time.

Let's face it, we're not going to discover another intelligent species on our own for quite a long time so any contact would be almost entirely on the aliens. Their technology will be beyond our imagination and we'd likely be at their complete mercy. Explorers or survivors? My fear would be they came here to finish what we started, pillage the planet of valuable resources and move on.

Why is it wrong? I started walking to/from school when I was 5 years old. Sometimes I'd be with a friend, sometimes I would be alone. Hell, in 5th grade I was a crossing guard and would stand out at a 4-way stop, by myself, to allow the kindergardeners to get to school.

I'm not ranting against you, the story just pisses me off. I have a good friend who works for a similar service, he must respond to calls of abuse/neglect and decide what action should be taken. There is so much actual abuse out there.. letting a 6 and 10 year old walk home alone is not one of them.

Maybe they assumed those with Macs were willing to pay more to get the same experience as a Windows user... :)

It took me 6.5 years to get my Bachelor's degree. My path was 2.5 years at a state university, 1.5 at a local community college, then finally the last 2 years at a different state university. (my first 2+ years was in aerospace engineering, those classes don't translate well when transferring to business...).

I had all my loans paid off within 18 months. The key was that the community college was a very cheap way to get through all the gen ed courses. I was working part time and was able to save enough money to pay off my tuition at the university to avoid any additional loans. Had I gone the CC route at the beginning, I would have graduated with no debt at all.

I think this plan is a good idea. Hopefully it requires students to maintain a certain level of achievement to continue receiving free education.

I'm just curious, what do you think is the source of most electric generation in the US?

The ironic thing is, those d-bags that openly carry the assault rifles on their back to prove a point would be my 1st target if I were going to wreck havoc. Take them out, now I have my original weapon and an AR.

Disclaimer - I do not own any firearms and have no intention of ever wreaking havoc in a destructive way.

When I am bowling or golfing, there is an optimal amount of intoxication that allow me to relax but not get sloppy on my form.

I am actually looking forward to 40. My son will be 7, old enough to enjoy the experiences that my wife and I are willing to provide. The only reason we take him to Japan with us now is that he's not quite 2 and the flight is basically free (10% of ticket cost to sit on our laps).

I'm 35 now, at this point the career and family are established.. now I just sit back and enjoy what I've worked hard on for the past decade.

I can't check until tonight when I get home from work but are account regions locked? I know mine currently shows the US but when I travel to Japan next month, will it update?

The reason I ask is if VPN could get around this. For example, getting the NHL (ice hockey) package cost $150 in the US. My friend noticed that the cost through a European IP was only $100. He saved $50 just by masking his IP and there is no need to mask his IP when streaming the games live.

I am curious if something similar could get around the Steam issue.