Sure - use the new Rosetta Stone Hungarian software.

You're right except for limiting it to the South-West.

The kids and I were talking about Dora just last night and thought it was a good tie in for the hobbit.

"I'm the map. I'm the map. I'm the MAP! Rivendell, Misty Mountains, Lonely Mountain. Rivendell, Misty Mountains, Lonely Mountain."

"Saruman no swiping! Saruman no swiping!"

"Hobbitses. yum, yum, yum delicioso"

"Oh no! The dwarves can't find the door into the mountain! What will we do?"

How would any language after English help him as a programmer? Whatever your answer it's also probably true for Spanish.

Top that off with it's the language he has the highest chance of gaining a high level of proficiency unless he lives in close proximity to a group that speaks something else - and he's willing to really engage with those people.

It's not easy to learn a language you don't use. In the US spanish is being used all over - at the fast food joint, on tv and radio, in his neighbors homes. It's one that is practical in a wide number of ways and it he'll have a higher chance of success because he'll have the most opportunities to actually use it.

If I lived in the US I'd learn Spanish as a second language. It ought to be compulsory for all American school children. It's the second most spoken language in the U.S. It's the language of the majority of the Americas from Mexico down. And trends I don't see changing significantly seem to indicate it will only have a stronger presence in the U.S. over time. So that's what I'd focus on first, regardless of vocation.

I had the same reaction - but so far it's turned out better than I feared.

It is a decent chunk of time for the film though I don't consider the fact that there are 3 to matter from a time perspective. I'd have gone to some movie or movies next year, now the 2nd Hobbit movie will be one. Same for the year after that.

But I don't think any of this is life changing or of some greater/deeper value - so it's not like skipping them is a big deal.

It's funny because movies have followed books. They want to break them up now into series when they can. And like you said, to a point I can't blame them. It's like printing money.

It's got to be right up there. Not quite Nobel - but major.

I own a gun safe and it has a modest but decent collection of firearms in it. I enjoy target shooting and hunting and in the past I was a pretty outspoken advocate of an individual owning firearms without too many restrictions.

At this time that gun safe is at my brother's house because I couldn't bring them with me here to Hungary. I mean, maybe there would have been a way but I'm sure it would have been expensive and I didn't want to deal with it.

So here is all I have to add to the discussion and it's not much. I don't worry about getting shot here. I'm careful, there are other threats to my safety -- especially if I behave in a very stupid manner - but I don't miss my guns from a personal safety standpoint. In fact, and I was really surprised when I realized this, it's a relief not to have to worry about it. It's possible to restrict gun ownership and not have violent crime skyrocket.

I'm sure if I wanted to I could figure out a way to do some target shooting. My cousin in Slovenia is an avid hunter and owns a rather nice .30-06, a slick .357 revolver and an under/over that made me very jealous. So I know it's possible. I am just way too busy and have higher priorities for other things.

I don't have all the answers for the problem the US has with gun violence. I'm not sure I have any. But the picture painted by slogans like "If they outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns" and such is really not true. I think this is why there is a huge disconnect when discussing this issue with people who aren't US citizens. A lot of what is sold as the ramifications of restricting gun ownership is a lie.

Right now - and not just because of what just happened but for a lot of reasons - I've got no problem with much stricter gun ownership laws in the U.S.

At times the backgrounds were really blurry and the quick motion was hard to follow and I wondered if it were a product of our watching with the lower frame rate and/or the lack of 3d. I doubt I'll see it either way in a theater to be able to compare. Maybe the next film.

the real message is much harder to decipher -- and we'll never tell.

There is this known issue but switching to a static ip address didn't seem to correct the issue.

I've started to wonder if it is DNS related. I use DNS servers that run some of my traffic through proxy for geographically blocked content. It doesn't present any problems with my computers but I wonder if there is something about the setup that android doesn't like. I'll try switching to the google dns servers tonight and see what I get.

If that's the case I'm not sure what I'll do. I may just get a second router and have one using normal dns and the second using my proxy service.

I understand about the money. I do a lot of stuff with cash here.

I could probably get you a 10 and mail it to you - it just would be a matter of my finding someone traveling here from the U.S. I have friends who go back and forth pretty often. But I'm guessing it would be a month or two before I got it. Let me know what you think. And we'd have to work out a way to move the money - I don't have a bank account here - all my finances are in the U.S.

Right now the nexus 7 is causing me to pull my hair out. I wrote the JE above from work. When I got home I found that it has real trouble with my Cisco router. I always have a connection to wireless but actually getting out to the internet is quite often impossible. I've found a ton of theories and possible remedies on-line but nothing has worked yet. I had the same issue with my Galaxy SIII - but I just use 3g instead and don't worry about it. But the Nexus 7 is wi-fi only. It works perfectly at the office - but very poorly here at home. Very annoying.