In the same stretch, you would have to classify yourself as an agnostic when it comes to the invisible pink unicorns that live at the bottom of your garden.
Why do you believe in your Abrahamic god and not, say, Odin, Zeus or Osiris? What makes your myth more believable than theirs? (I'm not trying to mock you here, it's a serious question)

I think you're misrepresenting atheism. I'm yet to hear someone say "I believe there is no God" in a serious context, what is usually said is "I don't believe in God", or "I'm not religious". Very different statements & like with the unicorn analogy, I'm not going to position myself on the fence & bother postulating that perhaps there *are* invisible pink unicorns at the bottom of my garden, I'll just assume there aren't until proven otherwise - ergo, I define myself as an atheist.

I also feel it worth pointing out that the god(s) most people believe in *can* be (dis)proven. The only infallible god, is one that has never interfered with the universe - that includes creating worlds, burning bushes, producing offspring with supernatural abilities, the lot.

There's a big difference in believing there is no God & not believing in a god. One is a belief, the other is the absence of a belief.
What's the quote, "When you understand why you discount the many other gods people ascribe to, you will understand why I discount yours." ?

Technically I'm an Agnostic, but I hate that term - it makes me sound like I'm still sitting on the fence, so I prefer to identify myself as an Atheist. I have no interest in holding convictions for something for which there is no tangible evidence.

Libel laws are frequently used by people & organisations to silence criticism. Regardless of the strength of your defence the legal costs can be prohibitive, so many people cave to the pressure.

There was, for example, a well known case here in the UK where the British Chiropractic Association tried to sue Simon Singh after he wrote an article pointing out how many of the claims made by the practitioners are a crock of shit.
He won the case, but he had to sell his house to back the costs.

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCA_v._Singh

Mod parent up.

The BBC article he's referring to is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19659801
...and more specifically on the topic, here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12597245

I was under the understanding the money was only withdrawn once the product had reached its funding target? An all or nothing kinda' thing?

You seem to be under the impression that the only reason someone would want to go somewhere, is if they're running away?
This might come as a shock to you, but I'm interested in seeing the world beyond my own front garden...

If I'd never left the comfort of my own home, I wouldn't have my comfy career (based on the experience only achievable in a large international city), I wouldn't have anywhere close to the number & variety of friends I now have, I wouldn't have the freedom speaking multiple languages brings, I wouldn't have had the facilities or community to do the sports I enjoy, I wouldn't have experienced...so many things. I wouldn't have met my wife.
That doesn't mean I don't miss the friends I've made throughout it all - I intend to see every one of them again one day.

Feeding the trolls, but I'm bored

Not at all. The parent (thetoadwarrior) sounds very much like many other tech associates I have, whose social reach doesn't extend much beyond "geek" circles.
I'm afraid the majority of people simply don't hold the same views (they're unlikely to even be aware of the subject matter).

The quality of the content on you get on the site, can be directly correlated with the type of people you add.
If I haven't even had the minimum of a conversation with you in real life, I won't be accepting your friendship requests. If you only post inane drivel - zap, you're gone.

As for it being "impossible" to have x number of friends, I'm afraid that's entirely subjective & dependent on your lifestyle.
I like to travel & I've lived in several countries. At certain times in my life (alas, not currently) I've also found myself socialising in many different circles & have been heavily involved in various sports.
By all means, if I'd spent my entire life living in the same area & my social group hadn't changed much since the days of school/university, my social reach would be far more limited.

In short, Facebook is great for keeping in touch with friends across large distances. Email simply doesn't compare when it comes to sharing & commenting on media/photos & for having real time discussions - all in one place. When I go $home, it's as if I'd never left.

For the most part, they're talking FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) here. Although the last hundred or so metres from the DSLAM is over copper coax & the users would need to upgrade to a VDSL compatible router.
You can check your local FTTC availability here.

I'm not sure where FTTH (Fibre to the Home) stands, beyond the current trail areas.

If those IPs were geographically diverse, I would expect a bigger separation between subnets. Splitting one subnet over multiple distant networks would not only be a pain, but make little sense, as it still allows for a single point of failure.

I've just run a traceroute to a selection of those IPs via different continents, and it does seem to suggest those servers are on the same network segment.

> Perfect example of someone thinking he knows better.
Back at'cha!

Last I heard, shooting moose in Alaska...

I just had a rather surreal picture of a moshpit full of Civil Servants...

...sort of.
This just reminds me of the time popular UK show Top Gear tried to make a space shuttle out of a Reliant Robin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b4WzWFKQ20

...the new £80m extension to Telehouse Europe in the Docklands, is also being built with a similar idea in mind & is scheduled to begin operations during the first quarter of 2010.

In fact, I seem to recall a discussion about this on here a couple of months ago about yet another project doing the same thing. The consensus was that whilst there was a lot of air pumped out, it wasn't exactly hot & it wasn't useful for much more than good PR for the host - far better efficiencies could have been made, spending the money elsewhere. (This statement brought to you by Slashdot whispers of an oriental nature.)

Link - http://www.uvnc.com/addons/singleclick.html

Simply configure it through the supplied flat-file & package it into a single binary via the tools provided. No need to install - they just click on the binary & it starts up a VNC server, making a reverse connection to the listening client on your end.
I've already got it setup with various family members & have it pointed to one of my servers, which I can then tunnel the connection through wherever I am.

If you're also using the uVNC client, you can use things like File Transfer.
AFAIK, it supports all versions of Windows - I've got it on XP & Vista systems.

Err...yeah. The ad slots cost upwards of €20,000 a day.
Run a search on TBP profit & turnover. Regardless of the inflated claims by the prosecution, even the chaps running it have boasted about the millions in annual takings.