EA had published a link to a forum post about redirecting you DNS queries to Google's servers; 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. I'd assumed that there was DNS change that needed to propagate and never looked any further.

As for PunkBuster, either it sucks or the vendors suck. I've been an avid FPS player for maybe 10 years, and I've never seen a game so shamelessly hacked. I don't know what kind of statistical analysis they're employing, but some guys cheat like they don't give a crap. People, including admins sniping with shotguns, 10-1 ratios in CQ fighting, pure hokeyness.

A functioning watch
Wifi to seamlessly resync with NTP servers
Advanced watch functions like alarm, stop watch and timer
MicroSD card reader
MP3 player
Desktop sync (through blue tooth?)
Maybe a battery cell band for increased power
headphone jack (you'll need a technique to secure the wire for joggers, exercisers, etc)
Simple notification system to receive texts, email, tweets, FB updates, etc., seriously doubt sending capability will work

Lose all the extended functionality like web browsing unless you plan on pimping a new ultra low-end mobile format for displaying web pages.

Yeah, somehow he's an empty suited cheerleader, yet he's been kicking his rivals' asses for 5 years now. When you guys figure that out instead of continuing with this "yuck yuck he's so stupid" meme, you might get somewhere.

Amen to that. People can't seem to figure out that Americans will NEVER be able to compete against a massive country that allows dumping in their environments, treats workers like slaves, and forces them to work in unsafe conditions. Our prioritizing of human, worker, and environmental rights is what created the economy that countries like China are exploiting.

Lots of life is about tradition and ceremony. The President uses the SotU to pose his major policies for the year with the biggest audience he'll have. Even if the proposals go nowhere, they at least start the debate and inject the topics into public discourse. I've been reading minimum wage threads everywhere. Would you prefer he email his proposals to each citizen?

Being dismissive and checking out doesn't make you cool.

Try them where? Last time we even suggested it, all the states called foul and started a "zomg a terrorist comin' to arr state" campaign. I think it was only NY that accepted a trial at a considerable "security upgrade" charge to the feds.

It was a projected surplus. Been a while since I followed all this, but because government accounting is so tricky and projects go out sometimes 10 years in advance, the surplus wasn't money in the bank, it was projected savings. Of course, there was a loud "give us our money back" campaign on the right which gobbled that all up and then some.

Steering something that size and that irregular shaped to a safe landing (on land, away from inhabited lands, yet not so remote as to be inaccessible) isn't trivial.

In that case, release it into the market quickly. Like at about 25,000 mph.

Our space program is going backwards. About the only salvation we have is the Chinese trying to land on the moon and inflaming nationalism.

That's the kicker w/ a hosted VM. Once you need more than one virtual machine, hobbyists are probably priced out.

If the interface doesn't have a low learning curve, they're probably not going to waste time with it. I was at a university that used Blackboard, which would be great if it worked as intended. But, it was slow (sucked for students) and apparently has a terrible interface that professors have to go through (I never heard a positive word from them). As a consequence, I'd guess about 1/3 of my professors didn't use it, 1/3 used it sparingly, and the other third made a graduated use of it with a handful relying on it almost totally. I don't think I had one professor that didn't have to rely on their own website to pick up the slack, and many just said "hey if I have to set up my own website anyway, why bother learning Blackboard on top of that?"

I second this comment. The "college is a waste of time" mindset seems to be popular on Slashdot and couldn't be further from the truth. If you can't understand how some of the formal learning you're getting in college doesn't help you as a developer, you're not thinking hard enough about what you're being taught. College isn't about teaching you to write a web page for a specific job. Formal education is teaching the best way to tackle fundamental problems the most efficiently.

I just completed a degree after about 14 years in the field and I took A LOT from my curriculum (and I mean in EVERY class).

I'm guessing the old one was on Windows XP; probably time to retire him anyway.

I find that hard to believe, seeing as both the Flintstones and Rubbles have young children with young, attractive wives.