A person blowing their nose, texting, chewing gum with ones mouth open, ect. Anybody can be distracted by something if they put their minds to it. I, personally, found having a computer with me at school a problem on a few different sides of the spectrum. Laptops 3 years ago definitely weren't of the size to take to class. Though much smaller than ever before at that point, they were still a bit heavy and clunky to take around. Technology still haven't come up with a way of easily and quickly making notations (or quickly enough for keeping pace with a speaking professor) on Powerpoint slides - especially if the PPT's are handed to you (some classes *do* pay for the paper to do so). Finally, AIM / Facebook in times of bored desperation were much bigger distractions than other peoples computers.

Suggestions for the student: 1- Ask the screensaver be disabled and instead put its screen to blank (turn it off) instead. It'll save more battery that way, anyways. 2- Sit further up in class. It might take a bit of practice if the person bringing their laptop gets there early and/or is in the front row, but typically they're not in the exact front, so maybe that's where you need to be. If it's that much of a distraction, you'll be happy you did it.

I'm typically not one of those that say, "ZOMG SUE THE CRAP OUT OF THAT PERSON", but that's GOT to be a significant cost to Google to have to repair that every time some idiot with a gun and a significant amount of boredom shoots the thing down.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say they'd probably be better suited to place cameras there first and if that didn't work THEN go the route they're going. People need to realize that shooting things indiscriminantly is not only stupid, but it's dangerous. What would happen if they were shooting at electric poles and accidentally severed a power line? I'm sure Oregon is a bit more humid and has a bit more rainfall than other places, but that downed power line has now created a wild fire and destroyed many acres of land (and possibly homes).

I'm all for carrying guns, having weapons at hand, and even having a conceal and carry license (in my state it's allowed, and I've many times considered getting one myself). That being said, having a gun and USING a gun are two separate things. People need to learn how to be responsible with things that are exceptionally dangerous (or at least dangerous in their hands)!

You have Adobe making a language that all phones can run, and it is being reported on its first iteration. NOTHING works perfectly. I've only viewed one video on my First Gen Moto Droid, and it was abysmal, HOWEVER, I didn't expect it to be fantastic. Some day these sites will employ some kind of standards and start optimizing them for mobile devices. Why? Because it's what WE want. If Apple were to go in the same direction and offer Flash as well, we'd see things change quite quickly. Alas they're unfortunately content in making enemies of their users. At least the network isn't Apples fault, right? My prophecy is that in the second and third editions it will improve markedly... I mean, really, it can't get much worse than it is right now lol

It's amazing. I'm 26yo and started tinkering w/ Win95 when I was ?8?. The speeds are taking such huge leaps that I now have to think to myself, "OK so 100GBps is something special??" I have a 100mbps / 1Gbps router, and am so used to the 100meg cables being the "norm" that the gbps is lost on me for a while. I actually have to think of what I HAVE vs. what they're proposing! To that I say, bring it on, bring it cheap, I'm ready for integration into my next round of systems/router *huge smile*

I can see how this is a GOOD thing to some people, though. Thinking of the privacy concerns, obviously. If you were at fault in an accident and you had a ford/gm/etc the insurance companies would own you in a day of reviews. Now if you had a Toyota / Honda, have fun ... delaying the game for as loooong as possible. Nice for the criminals, not for the general public in cases such as this, though.

That is actually part of the beauty of having VZW vs. ATT at least in my coverage area. There are places where there's just honestly crap conditions that are not at all conducive to cellular service. That being said, while ATT feels that coverage in only major metro areas and LARGE major highways (read: most turnpike areas and SOME 4 lane highways) is acceptable, VZW has made it so nearly our entire area has a nice covering of cellular goodness ... and it's all 3G ... and it has been for YEARS. Now going back to ATT, those same areas that are covered are NOT necessarily 3G nor EDGE, so you get to sit for an hour waiting. Oh and don't try driving while on their network ... it's not pretty. When I saw the ads of VZW's "we have a map for that" I said, "Yeah that's pretty much right." Anybody who has had or has ATT and/or formerly Cingular knows that at least where I am (NW OH), this is not only the case, but it's downright fact. If ATT got their collective heads out of their butts, they'd not be suing VZW, they'd be improving their network. Final note: From what I hear this isn't the (obviously) only area that this happens - I have a friend that resides in downtown Manhattan. While walking down streets INSIDE NYC - One of the if not THE most populated areas in the US - their coverage is not only spotty, but downright horrible. Come'on ATT. Seriously.

I unfortunately have to disagree. While they see it as "unsustainable", I see nothing but profit for them. Granted you will have a lot of people that will go way above and beyond what others use in bandwith, HOWEVER, many people will have a data package and hardly use ANY. Take, for instance, my parents and txt messaging. They just signed up for unlimited. They DEFINITELY don't use $15/month in text messages, however they like to have the ability to send as many as they want and not be nickle and dime 'ed because of it. I can see this happening with data, as well. They won't use it for much, but when they do they're glad they have spent $150 this year so far for a data package they have used twice. I think it's a horrible idea, and would be surprised if it did. With Sprint offering unlimited EVERYTHING for $69/month, something has GOT to give, and I hope it is the wireless providers' cheap a$$es... They make WAY too much money off of what they don't provide, and even more off of what they do!

Although, if you really think about how things work with this, when solar power customers are generating more energy than they are receiving, they're putting net energy ONTO the grid, thus keeping the costs of GENERATING power down for the power company. Once upon a time the energy company used to pay the solar energy customers that put more energy back into the network than they generated. These days most or all energy companies have stopped this practice. If that is the way they wanted, people need to start installing higher power solar panels and start sending the energy company bills for the energy THEY produced with the same BS fees and other such items that the energy company has been bilking ALL of us for such a long time now. In short, I hope the government intervenes with this idiocy, and tells that energy company to suck it.

Hmm... Sounds like SOMEBODY needs a cigarette! All kidding aside, there are many ways to stop smoking, and since this is a frivolous thing in many politicians eyes (as well as a burden to the tax payers that have to pay for uninsured people's health care when they get end stage emphasema from smoking their whole lives), you've got a better chance of having those taxes revoked as you are of getting uncensored internet in China. Translation: Ain't gonna happen. Chantix Nicotine patch Nicotine gum (they've improved the flavors a ton) Nicotine lozenges Others exist as well. As far as the Video game tax, it's not going to stop anybody from buying them, including parents that buy them for their 5yo children. What would make more sense is an all-inclusive video game tax, or better yet an "entertainment" tax so that you can get DVD's, CD's, BluRay, etc. Not saying I WANT this kind of tax since I just purchased a 360 not too long ago, BUT it makes more sense to be all inclusive and not blaming one genre of video games over the other. Makes just about as much sense as taxing Rock or Hip Hop / Rap for the same lame reason. Video games don't kill people, people kill people. Parents and schools need to take note that it's not necessarily all the kids faults ... they are partially to blame as well for some of the things coming down the pike. If the parents of the kids at Columbine took an interest in their kids, they would have noticed the explosives and explosive devices in the areas most often frequented by these kids. Unfortunately that didn't happen, and to make matters worse, they knew where the keys to the gun cabinets were (second extremely fatal mistake)

I've been waiting for a long time coming for IE to support some kind of USEFUL addons. If they get Foxmarks to flawlessly integrate into IE, I'm there. I love Firefox for filling the void that existed b/c of Microsoft, HOWEVER, I do NOT enjoy its (IMHO) lackluster performance vs the newer IE's... Not to mention it always seems my computers run a bit more on high power with Firefox than with IE...

What's even better yet is if it happens during the winter months, you'll have free heating for a few hours! *and* have that fresh campfire smell!

... I hope there's no Wraith :-(

Wireless would be a great option, however if they're relying on Fiber connections, wireless is probably not nearly speedy enough for what they're trying to do. There's also still security issues with wireless. While not as bad as before, and not as easily hacked, it is still possible. Wired connections would have to be directly plugged into, and thus nearly impervious to attack (unless they knew external IP's, then all bets are off)

I honestly think it's a brilliant idea ... until it comes time to upgrade to a new version of Linux... Still don't understand why you have to have a new download of 4+gb to upgrade from something like openSUSE 11.0 to 11.1 ... to me it doesn't make sense the upgrade can't be rolled into a concise package

The idiotic part of this mindset is that in hospitals they have to have 24/7 power for things like ventilators, etc. Ditto for 911/emergency services. Why doesn't the government say these 'important' places must employ emergency backups that will last indefinitely while fuel is supplied. There are now backup generators that run on natural gas that will last indefinitely while the natural gas is flowing. If there's an insane amount of energy required for cell towers in large areas, they could restrict its use for 911 calls only. It's scary that after ~24hrs you're hosed. Cost blah blah blah. Bullshit, I say. In an emergency during a poweroutage, this would be greatly appreciated.