http://www.mini-lathe.com/

All the info you need to get you started. All those 7x10, 7x12, 7x16, etc. lathes come out of the Sieg factory in China then resold as Harbor Freight, Grizzle, Jet, and many other brand names. Slightly different motors & trim levels, but the same basic machine. Great starter machines that are pretty capable. Not as robust as industrial machines, but very capable none the less.

Sieg also makes some mills and lathe mill combo units. Good little starter equipment with a robust community around them.

Personally I'm restoring a Atlas/Craftsman 6x18 lathe that is older than I am... Half the fun is getting the machine restored as actually using it. You can get some pretty nice old lathes & mills for under $1k that work great after a little TLC.

First? I support the MILSTAR satellites, & they were designed decades ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milstar The military stuff may be cool, but it's more often than not very old rather than cutting edge, especially with satellites.

And most if not all of the Predators in Afghanistan are controlled from stateside air force bases, Las Vegas, Arizona & a few others I think.

No, there were some efficiency issues, but it did not compromise it's expected on-orbit lifespan.

"Finally, it speaks to the size and age of the U.S. space arsenal that the Air Force felt it had no choice but to rescue AEHF-1 instead of replace it with a back-up spacecraft. “The asset inventory is getting so tight that they spent months limping the heap to its proper orbit,” the insider lamented. "

Translation:

We spent tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands, heck maybe even a couple million on labor to save a $2,000,000,000 dollar satellite rather than build another 2 billion dollar satellite. You probably don't need a MBA to figure out the cost-benefit analysis on that one.

Yes, it used the same fuel source. There were some efficiency issues, but it did not alter the expected lifespan of the satellite on orbit.

I just finished rolling out my Windows Media Center with a InfiniTV 4 & the CableCard setup as well, it rocks. I haven't turned in my DVR & Cable Box yet, probably in a few weeks, but it will end up saving me $30+ a month, enough to pay off the InfiniTV 4 card & other parts in under a year.

I'm using a free Xbox360 as a media center extender, which works well. The thing that pisses me off is Microsoft requires me to spend $60 a year or something on an Xbox Live Gold account if I want to watch Netflix, onto of the Netflix account I already pay for. Netflix is great on my Media Center already, I just refuse to be gouged to watch it on a different device.

I believe you are talking about Datamancer's steampunk laptop. http://www.datamancer.net/steampunklaptop/steampunklaptop.htm

I wonder what this will finally do to the worthless security theater at our airports. Maybe they will finally realize corralling thousands of people together to go through useless screenings makes for a bigger juicer target than the airplanes on the other side. Dam bureaucrats always trying to put on a show about the last attack and not thinking about the next attack.

Actually, carriers should be making more money off of you in that situation. Their rates are structured around subsidized phones. You get a $600 phone for $200, and pay back the remaining over the course of your monthly bills for the duration of your contract. If you don't buy a new phone (and don't change carriers), you'll still be paying the same monthly bill, only this time the portion set aside to subsidize your phone is pure profit.

Not so much for the hardware vendors, they want you upgrading early & often.

I completely agree.... However I get these from Symantec, McAfee and other "good" vendors. Not that this discounts your theory about it being a scam, it's just not a flat out 100% scam, only a partial scam.