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The latest article on rollable E-Ink displays sounds an awful lot like the PDA video phones used in one of the Gene Roddenberry series. They just happen to be black and white prototypes, and still need some improvement on things like voice and touch-screen input. Tag in the biometric thumb scan security, and you'd have one interesting little overpriced device. :)

You know you've made a good discussion comment that strikes a few nerves when the ratings bounce from off-topic to insightful and round the bend to flame-bait in less than 48 hours. :)

There are few things so frustrating as having a dead power supply (I hope it's not the mobo), especially when the replacement has to be within 1/8" of the same size in order to fit. That is the last time I do a full watercooling kit! :(

Ever have those morning where you felt like yapping but had nothing new to say? *g*

Or rather, you'd already said everything you wanted to elsewhere?

Last year about this time, I was working in Mississauaga for a company that uses a large, high-volume website as their primary mode of business. It was challenging work, done with an incredibly skilled team collected from around the world. China, India, South America, the Middle East, and Middle Europe were "home" to many of the new Canadian citizens who worked at this company -- a truly global perspective on how computer technology is and can be used.

While I was there, I encountered what I believed to be an issue of excessive surveillance. For several weeks running, I could not even go for lunch in the Mississauga-Oakville area without seeing people wearing identical grey headsets, all the same brand and model. I'd go somewhere that has good food, and within minutes or shortly before I'd arrive, a table of 2-4 people wearing those headsets would be there. Even supper had the same problem.

Only last night did I realize there was another possible explanation for those headsets than surveillance by law enforcement or private investigators. These people were so obviously working with fleet purchase equipment -- tools and technology bought in bulk to reduce costs, something the government and very large corporations are notorious for doing.

But it doesn't take a large corporation to do a bulk purchase, which still garners discounts. Even a modest organization like RAD, one of the better companies I worked for over the years, did annual bulk purchases of company incentive and promotional products like sweatshirts (which I still wear 10 years later, as the quality was excellent and they still fit, if a bit baggier nowadays.)

I've looked into the possibilities of law enforcement involvement, even going so far as to expressly provide copies of a witness statement describing everything that had gone on around me during that period. I've been as cooperative as I could in trying to determine if what I'd seen might have been some sort of anti-terrorist exercises or training classes, even though I know Regina, Saskatchewan, not Mississauga, Ontario are the primary RCMP training divisions.

I've never seen such equipment here in Regina, though you can spot the training cadets if you know what to look for. If nothing else, keep an eye out for young, nervous cops. They carry a "police attitude", but aren't sure of themselves yet, and it makes them stand out a bit. :)

But what I'd seen with the headsets stuck out like neon to my eyes, as brilliantly glowing as some of the uniforms used by police in the UK. The equipment, particularly the headsets, were identical. Not one individual at those tables used a different style of headset or cell phone.

And why would they? The bluetooth headsets were really cool gadgets that their company obviously bought for them. Like anyone else in the tech industry, they like good food, and go to the same restaurants I was seeking out: ethnic eateries that do real homestyle cooking from around the world.

[Insert "Microsoft Drone Image" here.]

Help! Help! I've been freaked out for a year by corporate drones! :D