So says Ken Rockwell:

Your Camera Doesn't Matter
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm

I'd have to agree with him. Many beginners get too caught up with gear. I'm not a "pro" by definition, though I have won photo contests and my work has been published dozens of times. All of my work was done using "cheap", "inferior" cameras.

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/

Mainly covers DRM products, but this sentence from their website is relevant:

These products have been intentionally crippled from the users' perspective, and are therefore "defective by design".

Reminds me of an ex-colleague who said his hobby is "building furniture". I thought "Wow! A real craftsman!" until I found out that his definition of building furniture is buying stuff from Ikea and assembling it.

I didn't have the heard to tell him that his efforts would fall under the "cheap, low-skilled labor" category in third world countries. He seemed genuinely proud of the furniture he "built".

Probably overlaps with:
Twitter's List Of 370 Banned Passwords
http://www.businessinsider.com/twitters-list-of-370-banned-passwords-2009-12

Anyone have the actual Hotmail list?

Who TF puts up Windows logos? People paid by Microsoft, that's who.

That's an intriguing idea, and they wouldn't even have to buy the whole company. Plus, they could just use their personal money, and not Google's.

For instance, Vivendi, the parent company of Universal (the largest record label) has a market cap of $25.1 bil; 10% of that is "only" $250 mil. Warner Music has a market cap of only $1.1 bil.

Here's how I'd do it:
1) Buy a 10% stake in the "big four" labels right now.
2) Every month, for the next two years, buy another %1 stake in the labels.
3) Do not negotiate or meet with the labels at all.
4) Attend all shareholder meetings at the labels, but remain silent.

They'll eventually get the message.

Not sure if he wrote 99.8H or 99.84. It might be an FM radio station. Here's a list of MO radio stations: http://www.ontheradio.net/states/missouri.aspx

Can't you just block the servers used by Facebook games? e.g. Zynga, Mindjolt, etc. The domains and IP ranges should be easy to track down. That should eliminate a major time sink, while still allowing access to FB messages, events, groups, etc which could possibly be used for work.

But really, if you've got someone playing Farmville 6+ hours a day at work, then it is an employee problem, not a security problem...

1. Don't chew gum while tasting wine.
2. Delicate grapes on a vine can be a metaphor for your life / personality, or something.
3. If anyone orders Merlot, leave.

What kind of gathering would require a pure wi-fi solution? Is everyone using smartphones or tablet PCs? Do they need to move around? If this is your typical conference/meeting where people are rooted to one spot with their notebooks, you may want to consider wired connections, in addition to wi-fi. WAPs are cheap these days, but Ethernet switches are also cheap, and possibly cheaper. For e.g. you can buy well-known brand 16-port switches for about $60 ea. Plus you don't need to buy "enterprise-grade" switches either - any ole switch should be able to outperform an 802.11g WAP. There might be a bit of problem with providing Ethernet cables, but you could always ask everyone to BYOC.

Here's something else to consider. If you go as far as to turn your apt into an Faraday cage, use EMF shielding paint, or whathaveyou, you would probably draw the ire of the cellular co. Since your apt is so close to the tower, any shielding in your apt could affect other users "downstream" in a fairly wide radius. Plus, the apt is in Manhattan, so that could mean the tower serves hundreds or even thousands of users! The cellular co may accuse you of "cellphone jamming" or "blocking cellphone services", both of which are illegal in the US.

Well, you could weed out the countries NOT to emigrate to. The 2009 Failed State Index is out:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/22/the_2009_failed_states_index

I found their rating criteria exhaustive, but fair. It's basically a shopping list for what a good country should have.

I thought someone had created that Swan electromagnetic thingy from "Lost"!