After conceding defeat in the gadget wars, Sony has teamed up with Apple to create the newest must-have gadget - the WalkPod. This combination iPod and cassette tape Walkman bridges the gap between older generations and today's kids, while tailoring to the recent trend towards retro designs.

Anyone have any good stories? Since I have a toddler, I need to live vicariously through others ...

We just hung out with neighbors, although this year we were actually able to stay up until midnight.

So what do you think ... here's a silly little joke:

What did one electron say to the other electron during their wedding ceremony?
How am I supposed to get close enough to kiss you if you're always being so negative!

One of the folks at a site I contribute to (Say No to Crack) posted that along with 4 or 5 other similar jokes. I thought it was kind of funny.

Strange, every once in a while my homepage on slashdot changes so that all the colors are purple instead of green. Very difficult to read this way. Not sure if it's my browser (although Firefox does it sometimes too) ...

Slashdotters often express strong opinions regarding U.S. policy decisions, particularly that we need less taxation and fewer regulations. Some would argue that this is pure wishful thinking (or Science Fiction), and that history would show that all governments trend towards tighter controls and higher taxes.

I believe (perhaps foolishly) that we must now have the ability to leverage technology to begin bestowing America's benefits on a far larger portion of the population, with lower taxes and less regulatory control, than we ever have in the past. My question to all of you though, is: how do we do this? What actions should the U.S. take to ensure we can maintain/improve our standard of living while reducing the role of government in our lives? Or is this vision simply not possible outside the pages of a Sci-Fi book?

So is it just me, or are there far less mod points being distributed over the past few weeks?

After 2 years of reading on slashdot, I decided to signup and post. My first month about 50% of my posts were modded up. Cool. But over the past couple weeks, it seems like all the mod points have dried up. Either that, or I've gotten much dumber and less insightful.

:)

With Halloween coming up, thought I'd send along something a little different, so here's a list of the Top 10 things not to do on slashdot:

• 10. Don't bash Linux
• 9. If you're going to bash Linux, bash Redhat.
• 8. If you don't know what you're talking about, admit it (moderators will probably even flag your comment as Funny)
• 6. Learn to spel and count
• 5. Don't make fun of kdawson for continually using the Enlightenment icon on interesting posts. He probably would add you to his blacklist, and who knows what he does with that
• 4. Don't angrily reply to a comment when someone flames you - just get even later when you get mod points
• 3. Don't try to be funny if you're not ... just copy and paste someone else's funny comment from years ago
• 2. If you are funny, say something insightful every once in a while to throw regular readers off ... some will probably try to figure out what's funny about your comment
• 1. Did I mention not to bash Linux?

After years of shrinking laptops to the point where they were almost unusable, laptop manufacturers now seem to be engaged in a race to sell laptops with ever larger screens. The biggest of these machines, the Dell XPS M2010, boasts a jaw dropping 20.1" screen and a weighs a monstrous 18.3 lbs. The reviewers love the machine's performance, but are a little less impressed by its heft.

Check out this somewhat humorous review of what happened when a CNET reviewer lugged this 'laptop' around the terrorism-sensitive London public transportation system. This laptop even has a built-in handle ... I wonder if the next generation of portables will be so large that they come with a built-in hand cart.

Once again, the media is demonizing the internet as the new millennium's upcoming addiction. Reuters reported on a Standford study that showed up to 13.7% of all internet users are addicts, defined as those who have trouble staying offline for more than a few days at a time. The article later clarifies the internet addiction label by stating that "a smaller number, 8.2 percent, said they use the Internet to escape problems or a bad mood, while 5.9 percent felt their relationships suffered because of excessive Internet use."

Based on the study's criteria, how many Americans are addicted to driving, eating, sleeping, personal interaction, or sunlight?