http://www.vacuumtubesinc.com/Catalog/CatalogDownloadPage.aspx

Having trouble tracking them down again but I've seen photos of a medical device that was essentially a concave hemispherical head on the end of a small pump, that was used to correct vision for a few hours at a time by suctioning the eyeball into shape. I'm pretty certain they're no longer in use.

Rubber-hose cryptanalysis has has a long and ouchy legacy.

stopputtingbutterinyourface?

Ergh, ignore that link, apparently it was a hoax. I saw the headline ages ago and never bothered to actually read up on it. Still, looks like it was a fairly successful hoax, which still supports my assertion to some extent.

The point of a rear touchpad (and this has been talked about hypothetically for PDAs/smartphones for ages without any actual results AFAIK) is that you have all the benefits of a touchscreen without obscuring your vision of the thing you're touching. It's less of an issue with resistive screens because a stylus is pretty skinny but anyone who's played a game (or typed for that matter) with thumbs on a capacitive screen has experienced the frustration of mistakes made because they can't see what they're doing.

I don't own an i/Android phone yet although I'm sure I will eventually, but my hands are freaking huge and the few times I've had to send sms from a friend's phone have proven frustrating at best. It appears I'm not the only one. A rear touchpad means a clear view of the screen at all times, which will make it a hell of a lot easier to see what you're doing, and to do it accurately.

Exactly. Normal coffee is meant to be consumed at 60C/140F, and no hotter than 70C/160F, and is generally served around 10-15C hotter and allowed to cool.

At 200F, you're looking at instantaneous 2nd/3rd degree burns. Knock 20-25F off that serving temperature and cooling factors such as airborne dispersal and time taken to soak through clothes give you at least a fighting chance of coming out of it without needing skin grafts.

Unfortunately male mosquitos don't bite people.

I'd never heard of this but I just grabbed the demo and it's awesome! Buying the full version next paycheque.

Thanks for that! I thoroughly broke everything sound related mucking around with stuff I shouldn't have in 8.10, so I'll be having another crack with a clean install of 9.10 when the release version comes out.

I've been trying (every now and then, but for longer than I care to remember) to achieve the same thing except with analog speakers and a bluetooth headset. No luck yet...

This paradoxically works out in favor of the trolley lines, given that they tend to attract economic development to them.

Perhaps I'm looking at it wrong but I look at it as saying the use of trolleys attracts economic development like the parable of the broken window, by breaking a window glass you're creating work for the glass maker. However in reality breaking the glass only diverts money when it can be used for a better purpose. Instead of the kid getting the shoes he needs the money is now spent on glass.

It also sounds like the line that using tax money to pay for a new sports stadium brings in new revenue for the area. Not one economic study I've heard of concludes this is true. Some conclude any benefit is smaller than what was advertised. Others conclude there is no benefit at all.

Portland, OR claims that its streetcar line has spurred billions of dollars of investment in the area surrounding it in a very short period of time.

They may claim it but do the numbers support that? Or is it a broken window parable?

Falcon

Oh, mind you I'm not arguing against improving mass transit, I support doing it, but I'd like to see the numbers crunched. It's easy to be over optimistic when you're not spending your own money.

'Cause I don't want ass prints on my new door!