I lived with my grandparents who worked at the Czechoslovak embassy in Lisbon. Spent my vacations and occasionally Christmas back home with my parents.

You dont have to look that far into the past. Back in the 1980s, I was flying about once or twice per year between Prague and Lisbon and back. Always used Czechoslovak Airlines. The plane was largely empty, so I got to sit in the front, in facing seats with a table between them. Even when I had to sit in the "regular" class (I hesitate to call it economy, because it was nothing like today's cattle pens), we got a stewardess taking orders for drinks and snacks. And we got linen napkins with the main meal...

Ok, enough nostalgia. I'm now at the stage where speed is secondary to comfort. I want my zeppelins back!

This would be true, if Megaupload willfully stopped paying Carpathia. However, they expressed the willingness to continue paying them for the servers, if they had the funds available. These funds, however, were frozen by the US government, who is thus responsible for Carpathia not getting paid, and as such has taken over the duty to maintain the data integrity. It's actually nothing new - authorities in the US have been doing similar things with physical property for a while, via asset forfeiture; the only difference here is that it's digital property. And that can be much more easily routed outside the authorities' reach in the future.

1. Take people's data, hold it hostage
2. Tell people to pay if they want to see the data ever again
3. Profit!

All this, of course, is contingent of the hostage taker having access to the data storage. Solution is simple: don't store your data in a country with such practices, or with a company with ties to said country. The Internet should finally recognize the US as damaged area and route around it.

Same here. I was never willing to spend the money for Photoshop, so I "grew up" with GIMP. And with Inkscape, instead of Illustrator. So when my company, where I designed the marketing materials as a side job, decided to "professionalize" and get me Photoshop and Illustrator (I believe versions C2), I struggled for a while with the UI and then decided to go back to my old software. I'm sure Adobe products are amazing - otherwise they wouldn't sell so well - but after all the time, it's difficult for me to readjust.

I'm glad Robby the Robot made the list, as the representative of classic robots. But I'd love to have seen Class M-3 Model B9, General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot, just to see how it messes up the poll layout.

My "bank" is called TD Ameritrade and the interest vehicle is commercial bonds. Still not much extra income - usually between $30 and $40 per year - but enough for a yearly supply of PC games via GOG ;)

Many people are happy when they get a tax refund. These people probably play the lottery as well. Personally, I always strive to owe as much as possible without incurring penalties ($1000 in the US). It may not be much, but this is a money that I have at my disposal throughout the year, to accrue interest or capital gains. It may not be much, but every penny counts.

I have productive environments, not times. It just so happens that the most productive time for me is early in the morning - not because of the time frame, but because I'm still alone in the office, without any distractions. Had my coworkers worked from midnight to noon, my most productive time would be in the afternoon. Generally, at least for me, an empty office (not home - too many distractions there) is my most productive environment. Time is unimportant.

Was the drone dressed like a pigeon?

I recently moved across the Atlantic. So it was in my best interest to compress all my belongings to the smallest possible space. I ended up just under 5 cubic meters, at around 10% of water density (500 kg).

As someone who grew up in a police state (communist Czechoslovakia), I find quite a lot of parallels between the Wall Street protests and the beginning of the anti-communist revolution in my country (I'm not implying these protests will spark a revolution).

On November 17, 1989, a massive student demonstration took place in Prague. This, by itself, was not all that unusual - another took place the day before in Bratislava, and others took place from time to time in all large cities. What was unusual, though, was the police brutality. They attacked the peaceful protesters to the extent that rumors started circulating that one of the students died. This sparked the "Velvet revolution" that overthrew the police state in Slovakia. What we see here is a similar scenario: instead of lack of basic freedoms we have an economic crisis that started a series of protests. Police is showing a comparable level of brutality. Fortunately, largely thanks to much more fragmented information system with mainstream media downplaying the protests (in Czechoslovakia, the only two TV stations sided with the protesters and informed the public about the police brutality), the brutality on Wall Street won't grow into a much larger movement.

And today it's supposed to hit only 68. God, I wish it was the weekend and I could go hiking instead of sitting in the office...

Anyway, I recognize the start of fall as the Day of Balance - when we get 12 hours of sunlight (approximation). It's one of the two holiest days in the year, the other being Vernal Equinox.