That's partially true. I am still hosted on RackSpace's "Slicehost" farm and under the "Slicehost" billing plan for the moment, but they will be forcibly converting my VM to their RackSpace farm in January. Of course, since the original question was in regard to creating a new VPS, you're right, Slicehost doesn't exist anymore for new customers.
They sent out a survey a month or so ago asking for thoughts on the RackSpace conversion, and in my response I raised the concern that the newer RackSpace plans would be more expensive (even though they tried to downplay that in the press releases), but I get the feeling the survey was motivated more as a PR stunt than out of any sort of genuine concern for the customers' opinions.

Slicehost has been great for me in the past, though now that RackSpace is absorbing their infrastructure, I'm not sure what they will be like in the future.

Thirded. Been with them since they were one of the first ICANN registrars outside of Network Solutions. Like their motto says, "no bullshit"

AML makes Linux-powered portable handheld computers with Wi-Fi and barcode scanning capability, and they'll give you their source disk with your hardware if you ask, so you can modify it as much as you like if their standard suite of applications don't suit you. You would also need to add a printer like the Epson TM-T88 and an RS232 magstripe-reader like the Unitech MS-240. For the actual card clearing, you'd probably either tie this system into your existing POS mainframe (if you have one) or you'd tie it into an Internet-based POS solution like Authorize.net, or if you are feeling ambitious, you can integrate over SSL directly with a clearing network like TSYS (formerly VisaNet / VITAL). Of course, your biggest expenditure is probably going to be paying someone to write the software to tie all this together for you (unless you can pull it all off yourself, in which case hats off to you!)

http://www.amltd.com/product.asp?pid=m7220
http://pos.epson.com/products/prodsPMOP.htm
http://ute.com/products_info.php?pid=211

P.S.
I have worked on the AML portable computers before. I have not specifically worked with the Epson printer or the Unitech magstripe reader, but both should work in conjunction with the AML unit's WiFi and serial capabilities respectively. You would probably need to custom-make a cable for the magstripe reader since the AML unit uses a non-standard RS232 connector (RJ45 if I recall correctly).

I got a chance to try the Imperial Stout from Nøgne Ø the other day - very nice! I haven't had anything from Levig yet, so no comment there. I live in the US, so it can be a little tough to get beers from the smaller foreign breweries who don't work with a big importer...

Well, if you want practical entertaining applications, then consider the possibilities for a home laser-projection television - maybe I'll finally be able to get something that I can afford and is less than the size of a refrigerator for gaming and movies in my living room at 4k resolution and 160 inches...

I'm curious if the "more than 100 times the world's highest output value" means that we will soon see a 100W version of the WickedLasers Spyder III...

http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/Spyder_III_Pro_Arctic_Series-96-37.html

Actually, I am sure that ANI is what is being spoofed here. (I have received calls from the same group myself.) ANI can be spoofed if the originating carrier allows, which is common practice for high-volume outbound automated calling campaigns. It is usually used legitimately to provide a number via which the called party can call back later if they miss the call or are disconnected.

(I work for a company which legitimately performs this sort of high-volume outbound calling.)

One other thing to note - this is actually the jursidiction of the FCC, not the FBI (at least not yet). As soon as you can prove that there is some sort of actual fraud going on beyond just violating FCC rules, then they might get involved.