I think I saw you once on San Pablo ave driving North towards Richmond. You were in a PT Cruiser (if I remember correctly) with "Slashdot" on the sides. It's been much fun and I have wasted many hours of my previous employer's computer time here. :)

It seems to me you are assuming that the RFID is the only method being used to track someone. I don't track people but it seems trivial to me that a device that identifies a single person out of a mob would be extremely useful.

Instead of setting my head on a swivel and looking around suspiciously I need only keep my gaze directed at my open book (hiding my tracking device) while I walk around keeping track of my subject.

Yes, alone, the device is useless; however, people in the business might find plenty of uses for it that you and I cannot imagine.

The MPEG-LA claims patents in Europe just as in America. Here are some of the ones they have in Germany, following that link: 69129595, 69130329, 3767919, 50306371.1, 50305419, 50311129.5, 69127504, 69109346.6 . . . well, that's going up to page 8 out of 56, and I got bored.

Hey, maybe these are all so frivolous that the MPEG-LA wouldn't even bother suing. But I wouldn't bet on that unless a German patent lawyer has told you so. If the patent office granted them, you'd think a judge would uphold at least some of them, and you only need one to be in big trouble. Packman probably gets away with it because it doesn't have enough money to be worth suing, not because it's actually abiding by the law.

You might be right, but I think they are just following the recent trend in movie theaters

Movie theaters must move to 3-D! Television screens and sound systems are approaching the point where the theater experience has nothing to really offer the viewer. 3-D gives us a reason to go to the theater.

Totally anecdotal, but my wife actually went with me to see Avatar twice! We usually wait for movies to be released on DVD before we see it a second time if it was any good. We don't have 3-D so we must go to the theater.

With the popularity of 3-D soaring this last year - it was not just Avatar, there were many good 3-D movies: Monsters Vs. Aliens, Up and probably some more I don't remember right now - the television manufacturers AND the cable stations will all want to jump on the band-wagon.

Will it work?

At first thought it seems like the 21st Century version of quadraphonics to me, especially if I have to wear dorky glasses with a cable! The glasses I saw on the news this morning had a cable. That ain't gonna' wash with me or anyone I know.

Consider yourself fortunate that you are not on the invite list. Remember the dorks who bought the iPhone when it first came out? Remember those same dorks just a few months later when Apple dropped the price? :)

I suspect this invite only thing is just to drum up interest in the phone. Soon, everyone and his brother will be able to buy one just like Gmail.

I don't know about that. I am tempted to agree with you, but I have played plenty of video games where nothing was at stake...yet, my adrenaline levels got really high!

One example I could think of is if the ship's primary armament is a big gun running the length of the ship necessitating the entire ship be maneuvered to aim it.

One of the most influential battles of the United States Civil War arose from the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac. The Monitor had a turret which swiveled, thus freeing the Captain to manuever the ship as he wished while allowing his crew to aim and fire at the Merrimac without interruption. The Merrimac had fixed guns which required the ship to be aligned with the target for any effective firing. I read somewhere that the Monitor fired four rounds for every single round the Merrimac got off.

The battle was a draw because the munitions of the day could not penetrate the metal hulls, but everyone realized the superiority of the turret and adopted them into new ship designs.

I suggest you take a look at tank design from the first British tanks in World War I to the Soviet tanks used to breakout of Stalingrad.

The Soviets started the modern practice of using angles in their tanks to deflect munitions aimed at them. Boxes are easier to build, but they are also easier to score a hit against.

To differentiate myself from the lot of you bores I shall take a first name: Fah. From this point on I am Fah Q! :)

You don't "pay" for TV. Advertisers pay TV networks for subscriber eyeballs.

Please explain HBO, Starz, Showtime...etc.,

Also, please explain my monthly U-Verse bill!

While you at it, can you explain the name change from Sci-Fi to whatever that aberration is they changed their name to?