One of the best references I heard in years is when I took a CISSP refresher course before passing the exam. The instructer told the class "If you can watch TV or a movie and be able to distinguish between technology that exists or is used as a cheap plot contrivance tool, then you are well versed to take the CISSP exam." This tendency in a TV Show/Movie to place a small device next to a keyboard and then be able to download 15tb of data in under two minutes is not only obnoxious but sets unrealistic, dangerous expectations of computer users.

... you would have seen the MOST PATHETIC Japanese Steak House presentation I have ever seen. There is no wonder the food was under cooked. The "chef" should never have been given a knife. He dropped his tools MULTIPLE times and did nothing but pound metal on the side of the grill. It is obvious the management of that location location allows CRAP and should be brought to bear for the low quality, low-class presentation. Instead he now got WORLD WIDE ATTENTION to his "CON GAME." Pitiful, VERY Pitiful.

When I enter a mailing address, I want the deliver to go without a hitch so I generally enter the address all in CAPS. To consider that the CAPSLOCK key is only used to SHOUT is the most assinine thing since the DOT dot-head decided that technology to disable cell phones in cars wouldbe a great thing to do. Throw the baby out with the bath water is what seems to prevail. Are there any original thinkers left or do people just come up with knee-jerk reactions and feel all good about themselves for saving the WORLD from ourselves? Reminds me of the movie Idiocracy where they use used a "electrolyte-enhanced" prioduct instead of water because "Brawndo" is better than just plain water. DOH! Life imitating art. We only have ourselves though to blame if this type of thinking overwhelms us and we become complacant to just accept things rather than put up a fuss. "Eternal Vigilance Is The Price Of Freedom" and it equally applies to technology. We must "Protect Our Tech" and "Demand Quality." Yeah, this is a different rant but goes along the same lines of this conversation- When did we decide it was acceptable that our consumer products such as televisions should have a life expectancy of less than ten years? When growing up, my television lasted over 25 years, yet we have allowed the manufacturers to chepaen the quality to the point where it becomes necessary to buy an "extended one year warranty" to cover us a full two years on some equipment. GAHH!!!

If the doctor embedded a Bluetooth device that would remain undetected until he sent a special-coded signal, at which point it would seek to compromise blue tooth devices in the reachable area with a malicious payload, THEN it would be a news item. The current story is nothing but supermarket trash-paper ZOMG ZOMBIES headline.

In replacing the existing radar systems with GPS, this seems a very stupid thing to do. Clearly, the safety and security of the travelling public should be first and foremost. While GPS seems to have proven itself for a myriad of applications, does it mean we place all of our trust in that system of satellites? A more logical approach would be to merge radar and GPS to have a system that can tolerate the failure of either method and provide fault tolerance in the process.

Imagine a scenario where a plane is being directed to fly along a particular path that is being tracked by GPS and the radar system does not identify the object appropraitely? I more intensive triangulation can be done to determine the true location of the flight and take appropriate action. Ideally, this could be logged as a exception automatically while adjusting the Air Traffic Controlling system information to the most accurate data. There is true inherent value in having two separate and distinct processes that can maintain survivability independently, and the odds of a random occurrence taking out both at the same time (short of an engineered attack) would be highly improbable.

In addition, radar is more of an absolute method of measurement, meaning that detecting an object can be done without requiring any action (or equipment) being used by the object being tracked. I think that if GPS rules, then that will be the first thing that terrorists will assume absolute control over in a plane.

You're correct in that too many people on the left seem to think the purpose of stimulus is just to "save/create jobs." But too many people on the right use that to blind themselves and sit comfortable in the idea that the invisible hand will magically solve everything without that pesky gubmint stealin' their tax monies.

The primary benefit of stimulus should be infrastructure. Putting people to work and keynsian multipliers are all just gravy. Unfortunately infrastructure has become is all the more important in the modern era where fear of dinging a companies quarterly earnings report has choked of most private investment in the future. Keynes didn't get that either. You don't build something just to build it, you need to have an eye toward future value.

The railroads, telegraph, telephone, interstate, and internet were all funded, at least in part, with public money and those investments have paid for themselves many times over. As per your example, the Panama Canal was a publicly funded project that probably paid for itself (hard to quantify the cost of all those malaria deaths). Similar investments in domestic energy, and wireless communications should have started 20 years ago. There's nothing wrong, and a lot right, about the government building something and then selling or leasing it to private companies with an agreement to serve the public good.

Stimulus certainly can be a good idea. Now as for the way the current administration has been spending that money... Umm... Not so good.

Personal electronics ban is trying to regulate stupidity. Won't help, it will only hurt those of us who don't fly large aircraft which have working toys. I think Congress needs to do a bit of flying during the summer in singles or light twins while dodging thunderstorms with no onboard wx RADAR and see if that smartphone (or netbook) is worth it's weight in gold for near live RADAR updates.

I'd say this was the American crappy one, but really, a more correct description would be "individuals are treated as slaves whose money is for the insurance companies to plunder without returning anything in return".

What part of "voluntary transaction" sounds like slavery to you? Yes we have a stupid employer based insurance which should be abolished. There should be free competition between insurance companies which would quickly bring the price down. Take auto insurance. It seems like half the ads on tv here are from car insurance companies which are competing purely on price and without a great deal of regulation except to mandate 3rd party coverage. As a result, my comprehensive car insurance is something like $500 a year, how much is yours? I have full medical coverage (with high deductible which is how I want it, I don't mind paying out of pocket for small stuff) for $150/month, with access to probably the best health care in the world, no waiting lists. I live in a state with no state income taxes so my total federal taxes are in the region of 20-25% of my income including social security, how much are yours? 60%? Are you really so sure that your system would be better for me personally?

It might be better for those who are uninsurable and I'm all in favor of helping them but lets do that directlyg. Let the government pay for their care directly and bill the rest of us through taxes so that we know exactly how much we are paying. This new bill amounts to the same thing except that it obfuscates the true cost.

I mean, everyone thinks that ET will be some kind of Yang science-fiction saviour, (s)he'll cure cancer and possess a quantum computer to deal with them prime numbers very quickly and then there'll be No More War and then the future will shine with a glowing white light halleluhahaha ...

But what if ET shows up and it's just a gang of uneducated thugish assholes who've stolen a spaceship that they only barely know how to operate and they've crashed it here and then the Tough family welcome them into their homes and right away call the president or the US of A?

Doesn't anyone read Flannery O'Connor anymore? Or Stephen King, for that matter.

Salesman: "Is getting up off the couch to put a movie into your PS3 to much of an ordeal?" "Do you get out of breath walking to your car to go to the store?" "Do you enjoy the stunning quality of VHS movies?" "Do you have more money than commonsense?" "Well then we have the perfect product for you!...."

Why not use Unobtanium? Sure, it is more expensive right now but I have assurances we have located a tremendous cache of this on another planet. We should be able to mine it once we get rid of the pesky vegetation.

And if they didnt sign the exclusive deal with Apple, what do you think that growth would have been? Just saying they are complaining all the way to the bank on this one.