Let's ignore the fact that spelling out acronyms upon first use is one of the most basic elements of good article writing. If I Google for DotA, I don't know that the first hit resolves to the intended acronym unless I already know what DotA stands for in which case I wouldn't have needed to Google it in the first place.

Here's a paper written by a fellow who's now a professor at U of I, Chicago which relates to the topic. The gist is that taxi's in a city were equipped with wifi and opportunistically connected to open access points as they traveled. The article won't revolutionize anything but it's certainly an interesting read and something worthy of building upon. One of the interesting parts is that the taxi-side wifi used a custom written utility to accelerate establishing a connection which didn't bother negotiating transmission speed but rather used a fixed 11Mbps as this was determined to be optimal for the setting.

If China can produce high quality print cartridges for, in some cases 1/10th the cost of American made, it points to the fact that most of the price is markup to "whatever we can get away with". And by "high quality", I mean "good enough for my graphic designer wife who's been in the industry for 15 years and can be a real nazi about print quality." HP can't afford to confirm how great the markup is. The backlash from their "competitors" (read "those in collusion") would be staggering.

I've never used Android but you seem to be telling me that it has opt-in gateway security and a local security model that's proven ineffectual to anyone unwilling to consider implications (re: Microsoft's UAC). For the average user, it sounds like Apple has the superior model.

When rich white folk start having to pay real money to legal citizens for what they deem "menial" jobs, that law is going to vanish with great rapidity. I'm not saying that I'm happy with that dynamic but there's not a whole lot I can do about it from here.

Anti-American? Wh...what? This movie was a criticism of greed in the form of unchecked capitalism. This movie was a criticism of warmongering. I don't know about you but the USA that I live in has an identity outside of those things.

The companies that supply American power (fossil fuels and nuclear) will not simply give up, throw in the towel, and retire to the beach when it becomes impractical to "get more fuel". They'll simply find another way to produce energy from renewable resources and sell it.

Looking at this would be strange enough. Now try to imagine being the guy who has to /draw/ this stuff.

Does this mean that the satellite will enter orbit but with an undesired geometry or will it achieve splashdown far earlier than expected? I suppose that there's another alternative that both amuses and appalls me: that South Korea just fired off millions of dollars of taxpayer money into deep space. I mean, they could have achieved the same result by wrapping up 100 kg of cash in duct tape and fire it into Jupiter, right below the sign that says "put litter in it's place" with a Neptune sized arrow that pointing at the red spot.

If you want a new laptop that "just works", buy an Apple. Some people enjoy taking their cars apart and rebuilding them. It gives them great joy to learn about how the engine fits together and how it works. Likewise, some people install and run linux because administration and tweaking give them great joy. It's the difference between a computer as a hobby and a computer as a tool. A laptop with OSX is a tool. A laptop with Ubuntu is a hobby. I might be flamed into oblivion for saying this but I don't care: Linux is a fine OS but it's not the answer to everything. I propose that with sufficient effort, a Linux box could be superior to any other proprietary OS in every way; however, the amount of effort required to achieve this result is far above what even most linux hobbyists would want to invest.

I guess that what I'm driving at is to use the right tool* for the job.

* - "tool" is used in a different context than it was previously.

The ancient greeks are rolling in their graves right now. If she's got two X chromosomes, just drop it. Hell, if it were up to the ancient greeks, they'd just want to know that she didn't have a prong in her trousers.

I see a lot of folks coming to the defense of the community of CoH players that found the researcher's apparently selfish refusal to follow generally accepted rules of in-game behavior reprehensible. What I find interesting is that never are these comments couched in the acceptance that what the players later did (threats of real-life violence!) was equally as socially unacceptable. If someone makes an appearance in my niche and rocks the boat, do I suddenly gain the right to pursue them out of my little niche and exact vengence -- physical violence -- against someone who did little more than frustrate me? Look at the proportion of researcher stimulus to elicited community response. This is clearly a case of abnormal psychology that needs to be studied.

Arsebook is my favorite but that's already a (surprise!!) porn site. ColongPling, however, seems to be free.

The proliferation of wireless access points open up possibilities that provide alternatives not only to cellular internet access but also to cellular voice communication. It may take 10 or 15 years (which means all you instant-gratification types are going to have to suck it up and deal) but I can see this being a viable alternative. When I'm sitting at my computer in my office, I get calls but they're always over ventrilo, skype, or gmail. If I have my laptop with me, I can video conference over gmail or skype. The point is that I don't need my land line or cell phone to do this. Once city-wide wifi initiatives (or even open APs) start taking off, I'll be able to take calls on my laptop in the park. Once wireless APs in most cities have sufficient coverage, how long do you think it's going to be until someone starts selling cell phone sized devices that do nothing but wifi communication? The whole point is that cellular is creating opportunities for competition in urban environments and the user always benefits from competition. Imagine what would happen socially if "cellular" became equated with rural settings?