Sure with two or more drivers in a single speaker enclosure you can get something similar to stereo imaging. I believe this is what you are referring to in terms of a multi-directional speaker. However in a device this size I think the differentiation between drivers and speakers sort of breaks down and I suspect we are just talking about one driver. I will grant that if the "speaker" has two or more drivers then you can get limited stereo sound. Of course I would have expected the marketing guys to call this two stereo speakers in the first place. The only way I can think of getting some *like* stereo (but only the ambiance part not true imaging) out of single driver and coil would be with a Linaeum dipole or similar.

I don't know if I trust a company that prints the spec: "Speakers 1 high quality stereo speaker:"

The car analogy is very apt and applies to the IT/support side as well. This is why, despite being an IT guy, they can have XP when they pry it from my cold dead computers. This is also why the first thing I do is make XP look like Windows 2000* (a MS high water mark for me in terms of stripped down interface simplicity and speed). Changing things up is like the Ribbon "innovation". Sure the older interface may have been a little less than optimal but after using it for years just about everyone knew where to find the things they needed. To me an OS "upgrade" should largely be under the hood and almost always allow you to use older, and usually faster/simpler, skins.

Given that a decent 5 year old PC has enough horsepower for most of the non gamers out there, the increased reliability of hardware, the economy, etc. I wouldn't be surprised to see XP maintain this lead for quite a while. It will be interesting to bet when it will slip below 50%.

Anyhow, I admin over half a dozen PCs in my house and they will be on XP for many years to come. While I progressed over the years from C64s, to SunOS4.1.1 (and many flavors of UNIX then Linux), to OS/2, to Windows; the "novelty" of a new OS has worn off a long time ago. I just want security, stability, and reliability. XP is "good enough" when configured and used correctly and when you only need it to run a browser, a few office type apps, and play movies; it will continue to be for the foreseeable future. The computer is a more mature appliance/tool today, not a toy and again the car/driving analogy works well.

*PS. This is also why the Parent could probably convince his people running W2K to upgrade to XP which is still being supported.

I use the thumb button for "back" *all* the time. When I started a new job I tossed the corded, three button optical in drawer and plugged in a wireless with thumb button from home. I find it hard to use a mouse without one. I feel as if my thumb has been cut off. Once you know the speed and ease of browsing with a middle scroll button for tabs and a thumb button for back you will never go back.

I'm going to "me too" this. I would love there to be a legal alternative to buy non-drm files instead of purchasing the bloody physical media. I'd pay a decent amount to download a high quality torrent. The value to me is having a trusted source with a beautiful 10GB encode from the original. I'd easily pay $5 per movie, perhaps $10 for that. As far as I'm concerened the MPAA should set this up and watch their distribution cost plummet. Heck they could stick to torrents and have the customers help distribute. For TV the same thing goes. I'd download ones with commercials even if they posted them at the same time as they go to air. I'd probably even pay a modest subscription. Basically until they offer something like this they have no business going after "pirates" since their other option are so crappy. Once they do, all the power to them.

Now all they need to do is have an insurgent tax, IED levy, and require permits for any terrorist act and our security problems will clear away like second hand smoke.

Actually you've got it backwards. In many or most first world countries the majority of people wear glasses. It is possible that eliminating reading glasses may take the number under 50% but since I have seen it quoted as almost 2/3 perhaps not. In any event it is also for these people that the 3D glasses are a PITA since they have to go over the prescription ones.

Some have been mentioned already such as Lem (I really liked 'The Futurological Congress'). Another is 'We' by Yevgeny Zamyatin which influenced '1984', possibly 'Brave New World' (although Huxley denied it), and other dystopian works. You might also study an early work that first introduced the term "robot"; 'R.U.R.' (Rossum's Universal Robots) by Karel Capek. 'R.U.R.' also likely inspired some parts of 'Metropolis' (another good study in its own right).

Since you can easily buy 16 GB micro SD cards the Pigeon can do at least four times better. I'd actually bet they could carry several micro SD cards and do even better. Heck I predict a Moore's Law type curve when soon Pigeons will be carrying a TB of data across the country with impunity and much to the dismay of the RIAA/MPAA.

[quote]
This "Send Robots Instead" nonsense is just that -- Nonsense. Mankind's Manifest Destiny may have nothing but an unmarked grave in your hearts,
[/quote]

Your asserted conclusion does not make it so. We can, by leading with robots, learn much and learn it cheaply. We can then use it to eventually send humans AFTER we perfect doing the heavy lifting remotely.

Sending humans early on is an artifact of Cold War penis-waving coupled with the primitive technology of the times. Now, just as we are removing pilots from direct combat by using UAVs, we can remotely work in space. We need to improve robots much more than we need to rush prematurely to send tourists into space. Back in the days when people and wooden ships were expendable, using them to explore Earth made sense. Now, humans are a severe burden on tech development. Master space with robots, and we gain better robots we'll need anyway because space is hostile to humans.

Adventure? Fuck adventure. Pay a commercial outfit if you want to be entertained. This makes sense, because tourism is a powerful commercial incentive. Exploration is not, so leave that to NASA.