There's no mention of kicking them to get a failing disk to spin up... Those come after asking nicely, and threatening. The last one actually works. :)

Nope. Google Images says that it looks similar to The Chain Reaction (1980, 5.4/10 stars). I think it really wanted to say Chain Reaction (1996, 5.3/10 stars). I can happily say, I missed both of them. :)

Actually, you should read what he wrote. That's exactly what he said. It is out of a sense of responsibility, and he does "sense" if they are driving.

if i get the sense i'm talking to someone who is driving, i will say "are you driving? i'll get off the phone"

it's not about being a hyperactive boy scout, it's not about the law, it's about living with myself. because if i am on the phone with someone while they are driving and i am AWARE of it, then i am responsible for continuing the conversation, and helping to keep the driver distracted

i have to live with myself. and i have to respect myself

    It's not your responsibility to make sure the other person is behaving properly. Do you ask if they just put the baby in the bath, or put a pan full of oil on the stove? I kind of doubt it.

    On plenty of occasions, I have answered to say "I'm driving, I'll call you back in a few." If I'm of the belief that where I am driving is too difficult to even do that, I let the phone ring. It's the difference between a long straight empty highway, or navigating city streets with other drivers around.

    What if your "sense" isn't right. For example, my mom drives a nice car, that's dead silent inside. Her calls go through via bluetooth to the cars sound system. I can't tell the difference if she's out somewhere, driving, or sitting at home and didn't get to the home phone first. She will tell me "I'm driving, let me call you back."

    The greedy part was suing someone who wasn't involved.

    If the guy was listening to talk radio, and something they said something that distracted him, would the radio station, or those talking on the radio be at fault? No. The argument is the same. They (those on the radio) have a reasonable expectation that people may be listening while driving. That's the only time a lot of us listen. Morning and evening commutes have higher advertising costs, because they know that's the peak time for listeners. They don't only expect it, they profit from it.

    Is it their fault for making the driver pay more attention to the radio than to the road around him? No. The fault was assigned properly in the beginning, with the driver who committed the action. Going anywhere beyond that is trying to profit from the incident. Will they continue on and sue the telephone manufacturer? the carrier? the vehicle manufacturers? the city/count/state highway department? any store front near the incident? owners and advertisers of any billboards that may have been visible? How about the girl jogging, she was clearly a severe distraction.

    You *can* sue all of them. You probably won't win any of them, and will make a lot of enemies along the way. That's one of the wonders of our legal system. You can sue anyone you want, any time you want, for pretty much anything you want. It doesn't mean you'll win.

    I have sympathy for the people who were injured. Life sucks. I know.

    I find, "Hey, you you doin'?" works fine.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43wkqM27z2E

    Sexual harassment accusations: 0
    Social interactions, followed by intimate evenings, accomplished: many
     

To all the posters chuntering on about "what a waste of money" etc. to something that is actually inspiring and gets people interested in engineering and aerospace, consider this.

Let's invent a new unit of currency: the Iraq War Dollar. One Iraq War Dollar = the cost of the Iraq war, or $800 billion which is the Department of Defense's estimate of the direct costs.

Cost of the entire Apollo program: 16 Iraq War cents (in 2012 dollars)
Estimated cost of research needed to get to the first working fusion power plant: 10 Iraq War cents
Current cost estimate for Mars rover Curiosity: 1/3rd of an Iraq War cent
Entire NASA budget for 2012: Just over 2 Iraq War cents
Cost of the ISS for its entire lifetime: 19 Iraq War cents

Five huge engineering projects, that inspire people and push technology and hardly kill anyone - and we're not even up to half of one measly Iraq War Dollar.

    Your traffic will usually give you away. For example, leaving your mail, IM, or other still things with identifiers, while connected to Tor can route your traffic over it.

    I once figured out who was on an open wifi, because they had some silly Windows applet running that sent their email address as their ID. They probably never thought twice about it, or the fact that they had connected to someone's wifi that was left open (someone else told them it was "easier" that way). I enabled encryption, and then sent them an email suggesting that they use their own line. :)

    Most people don't set themselves up with a clean environment to do such things.

I'm sure he meant "ever done it", like had boots on the ground. It's a lot easier to figure out how to wire solar panels to a rover, if you're there with a screwdriver and diagonal cutters. :)

On the other hand, my last computer monitor (a big 21 inch Trinitron) lasted 12+ years before it started going bad - I suspect it was bad capacitors (it had all the hallmarks), I didn't repair it because I wanted to upgrade to a higher resolution 16:9 LCD. (I don't know exactly how old it was, I bought it second hand about 11 years ago). I didn't have to do anything to that monitor the whole time I had it, it just kept going.

My Trinitron TV in my living room I bought new in 1993 and it's still working fine. It did get repaired once.