Better yet point the thing at a picture of goatse ;)

I really don't think it was simply the Internet that killed those multimedia encyclopedias.

That would imply that what had died was specifically the multimedia encyclopedia on CD-ROM... But I'm not aware of a whole lot of multimedia encyclopedia websites out there. The obvious one is Wikipedia... But most of those articles are just text with a few images - nothing printed page couldn't deliver.

Or you could suggest that the Internet as a whole has become the multimedia encyclopedia... Type your search into Google and you get tons of answers from all over the place - often with videos available if you want them. But most of the useful information is again text with some simple images.

If you recall those old multimedia encyclopedias, they were chock-full of completely gratuitous multimedia. Stuff that did absolutely nothing to facilitate learning. The whole point was simply show off the fact that you could have video and everything embedded in your encyclopedia.

Trained dogs and handlers are the best bet.

Dogs can be trained to not only detect certain substances but also detect fear responses. So something concealed in a body might make it through but the dog may still alert to the fear response so the person can be pulled aside for a more thorough search. Of course dogs aren't high tech so they can't be a solution in the US.

Any bets on how long it will take to crack this ill-considered DRM scheme? My guess is certainly less than 6 months from release. Why so long? Because they are likely using more robust encryption and it will take awhile to find the holes in it. In any case, the studios will still have to release content on DVDs for a long time, and that means it is less than 1 hour from release to wide availability on the internet... So, what does this buy the studios, content creators, actors, et al? More $$? NOT! Wider distribution of their work? Right... Can't get wider than universal access, which is what we pretty much have now. Such narrow-minded, short-sighted mavens of moronity should just shoot themselves and put us all out of their misery!

Make sure and try them out in store before you buy them (or commit). I thought I would prefer a real keyboard too, until I tried out one with a real keyboard vs. one with a touch keyboard. I found the touch keyboard on the Eris MUCH easier to use than the slide-out tactile keyboard on the Motorola Droid.

before we get to the g-spot, could someone tell me what this vagina you all keep talking about is?

People like flashy stylish objects as proved by Apple product line.

The problem with Bing is it's a flash useless object.

If they make it flashy and give excellent search results then people will start using it.

I didn't start using google because it was "cool". I started using it because it actually let you find what you were looking for. If another search engine comes along which give better results than google i'd start using that instead. But Bing so far atleast is not it.

Google created a great search engine. Matching those features is not enough you need to surpass it.

-use something like paper disk [http://www.paperdisk.com/] to print the data on paper made with a plastic. or maybe laminate it ordinary paper.
-Write the decoding algorithm using a very basic language like c and leave a printout of the code along with the encoded data. Even a hundred years into the future, people will be able to find C manuals. Even if no one uses it they will be able to either write a new C compiler or translate it to their language of choice.
-Your biggest problem would probably be about the data itself. once the extract the bitstream how do they decode it to information. Hopefully people will still be able to decode jpegs, mp3s, and text documents. if not you will need to give them algorithms to those as well. (but for 25 years i think this should not be a problem)