Just to be technically specific, a high SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) is good. High signal, low noise. I think you meant the SNR on Engadget is so darned low.

Just happened to finish reading a good book about the history of deep sea exploration "Eternal Darkness", by Robert Ballard. He has been involved in this field since the 1970's & was former director at Woods Hole.

Anyway, the US Navy hired these guys to find the Thresher, and they did. He also discovered the Titanic. Great book, highly recommended.

Janis Joplin knew: "Tomorrow never happens. It's all the same fucking day, man."

Robots in the surveying industry.
A (very cool) computer with optics on a stick.

Yes! to own and touch (or even see) a Jimi Hendrix guitar...it's just a beat up guitar, but it was handled by a master. I could see mounting an author's IBM Model M keyboard in a glass case over the fireplace. Ever since mass production made things common, people have wanted the unique back again. Museums exist to display the patina and provenance of objects. It fascinates us.

When you grow up, you lose touch with friends. Not everyone is googleable 20 years later. You can only find some people when they come to Facebook.

The default security isn't bad, and don't play the stupid apps. I'd pay $39.99/yr to lose the ads, with that they could build infrastructure.

The recent Live/News feed debacle prompted me to buy a new dead-tree address book to fill in. I hope they don't go away, but want to remain in contact with a few good friends if they do.

A good FPS player will notice lags of a few ms.

The human ear is pretty good too, the average person should be able to hear a delay of this duration. Combine audio & visual inputs and now my screensaver is taking me places.

Will look into ReplayGain, never stumbled across it. Can tell you I have trouble with Pandora in this regard. A 'classical guitar' station always needs a boost for the xmitr to modulate well. It's also fairly common to play a CD through the thing so I can listen in another room and it just doesn't sound good. Either clips or sounds like mush, not enough incoming signal to drive the xmitr. This from cd's I wouldn't think are overly compressed.

Have a Squeezebox Classic which is I prefer. It will even scroll RSS feeds (like /.) in its display. You only get the headline and have to manually scroll through the story, but neat anyway.

Those look interesting, know if any 'auto level' the input? I am using two transmitters from CC.Crane http://www.ccrane.com/radios/fm-transmitters/fm-transmitter.aspx and they work well, but I am always having to adjust the input level pot on the side. Note, you can boost the RF output a bit by turning the trimpot hiding under the sticker on the bottom.

It might be tricky to find a clear frequency if you live in a metropolitan area. But you can set odd an odd spacing like 95.35 Mhz (assuming your receiver will tune that).

While pandora is not good for listening to a particular artist when you want to, it works well for something like this. I like classical guitar too but don't know many artists. Created an "Andres Segovia" channel and me and the baby are chillin' first thing in the morning.

Many towns and cities have been burned by spending millions on a proprietary system only to discover they can't talk to the next town over.

It would be nice if the DHS actually did something useful and put an end to that kind of crap.

This article http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2005/09/b1029179.html from 2005 stresses the importance ans suggests using WiFi. Maybe. But the most important aspect is "one digital protocol to rule them all", no matter what band you're on.

I think so, he was into "don't know know mind" right? He liked to hit people with sticks, the pain/confusion you felt when getting whacked by a stick out of the blue was your "don't know mind", if you could stay in that space, or go back to it at will, you are close.

He also was fond of saying buddha was everything and nothing, buddha is shit on a stick. I like this thought. It's kept me interested in this way of looking at life.

Here's a good margarita that doesn't use a strong mixer.
I'm no tequila snob, any decent silver will do, Jose Cuervo Classico is just fine, but this would probably just get better with the quality of the tequila.

in a rocks glass, pour

1-1/2 oz silver tequila
1 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
1/2 oz Grand Marnier (float on top, or stir in, both good)

serve over rocks (ice). Done and delicious.

You'll thank me later,
Cheers!