That feature was a TSA requirement...

When I lived in an urban apt., I had fun making scary audio recordings, etc., but I live out so far now that in 13 years we've never had a single trick-or-treater visit us! So, if anyone visits us on Halloween, it'll probably be someone we know and, and they'll just be invited in for a visit, etc.

Ah yes, I have fond memories of my own long-running "pond water" brew. It was all well until I brought it to school, and my friend convinced me to fill a girl's desk with it. The nun wasn't amused... :-)

> there is no such thing as a "negative" tax bill.

Wrong. in the U.S. *most* federal tax credits are non-refundable, but not all. If you don't make a lot of money, but qualify for refundable credits, it's quite possible to have a negative FIT bill.
I need nothing deducted from my paychecks, because my FIT bill is negative every year. Now if you add in all of the other federal, state, and local taxes I pay, I still pay more than I get, but those are separate "bills".

Only two? I heard you had to be three sheets to the wind in order to survive a Canadian winter.

Finally! A tower for my ham radio antennas that'll let my signal out of this valley I live in! :-)

Perhaps. I'm a member of a smallish PUD, and though I'm not involved in the power purchase, we're regularly apprised of where our power is coming from and going to, and have statistics answering exactly that question. We don't have exact accuracy, but we can get a pretty good idea %-wise at any given time.

For "dead tree" books (I'm not counting [public domain] audio versions, which I always keep a few downloads ahead of my in-car reading), I'll break them into two classes:

1. Books purchased at retail outlets (always at a discount) because I specifically want to read that book: 90% not read
The vast majority of my library has been acquired opportunistically at 800-page book twice in one day, and yes I quizzed her after the 1st reading, and no I couldn't find any details that she'd missed) she'll clean me out pretty soon, though. At that point, I might have to start paying for a non-resident library membership to a big city....

When I receive a call from a toll-free number or unknown number, Asterisk plays the "disconnected" tone, which dumps most autodialers. If no phone#, then they have to enter a reasonable-looking one. THEN, anyone who calls has to press a number to reach an extension. Most *humans* don't even make it past that stage...

Nearly the only place I run Windows is in virtual machines, and W2k is a lot lighter and flexible. It's only serving as a compatibility layer for certain software/environments, so why do I want something heavier? Only now am I starting to run across Windows software that I may care about that requires XP.

I think it's a nice service to bleep stuff that appears on the front page. For one thing, many people *are* browsing it at work where they may find it nice to be able to browse the summaries without triggering content filters or otherwise being bothered by NSFW content. If, after seeing the abbreviated summary, they wish to climb in the manhole, they can click on the article and enjoy all it has to offer.

Sorry, guess if you want to get modded funny, you have to use smaller words. Regardless of which theory is true, though, I'm sure the event was a real gas....

Gives new meaning to the phrase "kill the lights", doesn't it?

...that Greenpeace emits too much CO2. :-)

The crazy thing about most banks in the US is that, like many other industries, they can't seem to abandon the old ways. They are presented with ways to save vast amounts of money (processing paper checks is expensive), but because their customers also see benefit from it, they feel the need to charge insane fees for it, thus discouraging its use.

Example: If I want to send money directly to someone's account electronically (much more efficient than processing a check!), I can log into my ING Direct account, send an "Electric Check" (or whatever they call it these days) for free, and it's done. Or, I can approach my other bank/credit union, and ask to do the same. They call it a "wire transfer" and charge me $20-40. Say what!??

Our small company currently offers direct deposit of paychecks (but not expense checks, etc.), but it's been off-and-on through the years, because every bank we've ever worked with charges for the privilege, and in many cases requires special software that is a pain to use (a small company isn't going to pay big bucks to develop a dedicated banking interface, so they use the junk that they're given). In some cases, the amount they charged was ridiculous; now the rate is lower (I don't know what; I'm not the CFO) and we have more employees, so it was deemed worth the cost.