It might help if they didn't still use Emergency Broadcast System during the required weekly tests. If that's the name they use, I don't think its that outrageous to still call it that.

I think you bring up some really good points about fees that cell phone companies charge, but I think this is an easy case where you say the cell phone companies are not allowed to charge for these messages and that they by default go to all numbers although I could see allowing an opt-out list (i.e. we have cell phones on most of our vehicles to let them report location, speed etc to us, and the cell phones are in enclosure where the driver can't get to them, so the message notification could get annoying for the drivers). Overall I really think this is a good idea. Luckily we have pretty good tornado sirens where I live, but I've been at the pool on a beautiful day with the kids before only to have the tornado sirens go off and within 20 minutes there be a really bad storm. I've also really complained about the lack of traffic information; one day they closed S.R. 161 but they just had a police officer there directing you to not go on the on ramp without any explanation. They closed it as it was very icy and cars (including the salt trucks) were merely sliding off of it. My daughter's day care was on the corner of 161, so I wanted to know why the road was closed, for how far, expected open time etc. Another time this would have been useful was when a firetruck overturned in front of my apartment complex. It was just south of the entrance, so Columbus police were directing residents to approach if from the north while Blendon officers (who were there as a courtesy as its outside their jurisdiction although they share the department whose firetruck overturned) were threatening to arrest people who tried to approach from the North or who got out to tell them CPD was directing them there and did they have an ETA when they could go home (several of my neighbors were arrested and the situation didn't get better until wifes complained to CPD who used a parking lot to go around the accident and relieved Blendon).

Showing an ID is very different from giving them an address. I recently got a landline and I was not required to show any form of ID. This was around February of this year (2010) in Columbus, OH from AT&T.

Slight correction: date of birth is one of the census questions. I have received my census, but see item 7 on the following page for confirmation: http://2010.census.gov/2010census/how/interactive-form.php

You may not be using intel's compiler, but in the scientific community I knew people who wear by it and those same people spend a lot of money on hardware (adding hundreds of nodes to clusters annually).

Has anyone used any of the services that let you put your music into the online distribution channels without a label? Can anyone recommend one? I can google just like anyone else, so I'm not looking for a list so much as recommendations. Thanks, Bill

Thank you! My daughter used to love playing with toys traditionally associated with boys. A big part of this is that her mother used to frequently (6-7 days a week, 8+ hours) watch her male cousin who is only a year older. My daughter's ALWAYS had a girly girl component interested in jewelry, make-up, fashion etc, but her favorite toys were toys car/trucks, trains, playing in the dirt, and worms (although the girly girl portion hates bugs, but worms some how are okay) etc. Then during Kindergarden it changed. I first had the evidence needed when she tried throwing her toy cars away saying they were boy toys. I asked her why she was crying and she said because said girl can't play with cars. I of course called the teacher and when she insisted she wasn't sexist, I called the prinipal and said explicitly I'm not calling her a sexist, I AM saying that she made an impression on my daughter that she wasn't allowed to play with certain toys because they were for boys. All the principal would do was insist the teacher wasn't sexist. Frankly, if the teacher was, at least then I could understand the problem. If she isn't why is my request that she be more careful about what she says (this wasn't the first sexist problem; I'm a single dad and the teacher kept telling my daughter have your mom buy you a new back pack because I don't like this one even after I wrote her numerous notes saying I'm a single dad and day-to-day purchases and care are my responsibility) and sit down and tell my daughter it was just a misunderstanding and she can play with things like cars if she wants to. Its only been since her mom got her an EEE-pc for Christmas this year (First grade) that I've really seen a change. Suddenly she's interested in computers and asking me how our wireless internet works. If I'm on the computer, she asks if I'm fixing it and if so how. Or she found the astronomy program and she's wanting to look at stars. Or she used to be REALLY into biology since she saw her uncle gut a fish, and she's asking to look up things on what the insides of animals look like. I don't think I would have bought a first grader a laptop, but its brought my daughter back.

I know of several photographers who operate this way.

I first encountered this with my daughter's day care. Once a year they bring in a professional photographer who send home permission slips a head of time explaining they will be there to take pictures and the procedures for ordering copies. About 2 weeks after the pictures are taken, they show back up for two days with the prints for a package. You can either custom order, buy part of what they have, or if you buy the whole package (about $100) they also mail you a cdrom with the pictures and a letter explicitly assigning the copyright of the pictures to you (in case you try to get prints later and they give you a hard time). I was primarily impressed since I've always seen where school pictures where an order a head thing (and I had just done my daughter's through her school that way and they were horrible) so I really liked the idea of seeing before I bought. Second of all I was impressed that they were very upfront about the cd and the copyright assignment that would come with it.

The second place I know of where this is possible are the photography places in most Sears. My daughter's mom worked at one and their procedure was to take the pictures and then help you order prints (charging WAY too much for them). Then when you came to pick them up they would offer you "specials" which were basically the same print options you saw before but discounted (they figured you already spent the money you were budgeting up front, so now they try to offer you a deal to get the impulse buy). The one option they added was a cd of the images with a copyright assignment.

Finally, when my former co-worker got married the photographer explained the great lengths she went to keep backups of the pictures so that him not receiving an electronic copy was not a big deal. He countered how with things like digital pictures frames, wanting to share the pictures online, and the fact she could go out of business all made him not receiving the digital copies a big deal to him. After a bit of discussion in which the photographer was assured he would respect her copyright they came to an agreement that all prints would be order through her but he would get unlimited rights to digital copies. All-in-all not a bad deal and it only upped the price by about $100.

I'll concede my sister couldn't find a photographer willing to make the same deal (she's in a small town) but there are at least some of photographers willing to work this way. I know my daughter's mom dislikes the idea because she has an art degree and getting paid per unit time makes her a craftsman not an artist, but working at sears has diminished her ego enough to accept it. (She doesn't get the concept of a day job).