This one also had to reckon with Vladimir Putin, Russia's answer to Chuck Norris, it didn't dare strike Moscow.

Then let's consider Microsoft could actually produce office tools which make the best use of a Tablet or Smart Phone. I find their tools to be a challenge even with a keyboard and mouse - too much feature bloat.

Most likely just one of those tiny little things, the ones which we can't detect until they are nearly upon us.

Space is better armed and far sneakier than we'll ever be.

"Tony, I swear the suit shut down on my 32nd villain!"

"Ah, well, let's just see what the suit has to say about this."

"He's a lying sack of poo, he didn't fully charge me before going after the villains."

"... the suit ... it's lying, I swear it!"

"Suits. Do. No. Lie."

Considering how easy it is to monitor vehicle state, functions and location with a few added gadgets, all of which we have been hearing are being placed in some rental cars, beginning a few years ago, never mind this car is built around the corner from Silicon Valley Broder assumed they wouldn't be watching. Here's an education for future journos, keep it honest and keep your job.

I've bailed on Coffee again. I find too much caffeine makes me edgy and irritable. A light dose from Green Tea is sufficient for most work days. So I have Green Tea with Coconut or Green Tea with Apricot, saving Genmaicha for special days when I want something with a richer taste.

I had a major caffeine dependency in the mid 1990's, going through a pound of Kona in about a week to a week and a half. The stuff I drank was like tar and what I didn't have during breakfast went into a large travel mug with me to work, which I'd sip throughout the day. I was working 14-16 hour days and ruining my physical and mental health, with caffeine as the enabling agent. When I finally wrapped up the projects which were at the core of my labors I took a long weekend, without coffee and realized what I had sunk to and was allowing to happen to myself to meet other people's goals. I started looking for a new place to work, where I could put in 8 hours, get some sun and exercise, enjoy a bit of life and not spend Saturdays going through detox, only to restart the cycle on Monday mornings.

For my tastes Starbucks makes their coffee far to strong. A medium cup will usually last me 2 days. When I make my own coffee it's fairly thin as the first hit of caffeine has the greatest impact, with a declining rate of return on successive sips. Loading the body up with caffeine at some point has no other effect then to channel body energies into overriding it - which creates the physical wreck I once was.

It was a kids movie. Lucas even said so. This is like dissecting a Gumby show.

People overestimate the planning and intelligence of government technology infrastructured. So much of it is left up to contracters who know how to write a MOU which sounds good, but then they execute the implementation with a load of cheap tech monkeys. Believe me, I work with this stuff constantly. Fragile systems, systems with competing heads, ignorance run amok. I have talked with some people in positions in the government and they are very frustrated, but every contract goes to the bidder who knows how to win, but may totally be inept at implmentation.

It's fun to see government talk about cleaning this up, but without actually hiring experts and technical staff into government to do the job on government payroll, don't expect much for your money.

One of the things currently dooming the Postal Service is the fact they once gave full pensions to people who put in 20 years of service. I've worked 30 years and still can't think about retirement.

My dear old grandfather worked for the US Postal Service for 20 years, retired in his 50's and lived to be 90+ The math geniuses who figured the average lifespan of retirees really blew it. Think about the life expectancy of people who were physically active in their work, got plenty of exercise, so exceeded lifespan of the average person.

Saturday is usually the one day I can get my packages, so I hope the post offices stay open even if they do not deliver.

My local PO is open most days from 10 AM to 3 PM, which works poorly for me as I'm at work those hours.

As for parcel integrity and how well the USPS performs, I find the USPS is still one of the best, most reliable delivery services in the world. I personally dispise Fedex SmartPost, which works with the USPS, as they move things at a snails pace. Anything sent Priority Mail gets where it is going fast enough to suit me, for over ten years. If you don't like how a package arrives then pack better or tell the sender to - these things are loaded into large containers and may shift in flight or along the roads. I find UPS (which is not in any way affiliated with the USPS or federal government services) has a pretty average to below average record of delivering packages intact and undamaged - if you ship by USPS you may assume 1,000 pounds of books may sit on your box at any given time - the bulk of their business is Business, not residential.

My background has included work in the logistics and shipping industry, and a mighty good education it was. To many people how their mail or parcels are handled are completly invisible to them, assumed the worst, no matter how you ship. Twenty five cents worth of reinforced tape and good packing skills are a small price compared to value of contents or time lost due to damage or lost items. Make that label visible and pack one inside, in case something does damage the original label.

Stop putting every computer on the same network. Stop using Windows for everything.

Problem is, you divert a little here and a little there from the streams and rivers and you wind up with the Aral Sea.

Some places do get plenty of rain and could harvest from some collector system, say, around Seattle, and export it. There's an idea which will probably happen when the price of water gets high enough.

You sell it, duh!

Have you priced Sea Salt lately?

We still have operating salt ponds aorund the San Francisco Bay. Often easily identified by their giant piles of salt. Now if they trapped the water evaporated it would be a Win-Win.

As soon as I wrote that I was CEO of Shell Oil, owner of the US Treasury and as a imigrant from Jupiter, I lost all privacy. It is they who are cursed, not I.

In one drawer we have cans of beans, romulan noodles, micro popcorn, ketchup, wasabi amonds, sesame sticks, apricots, two baking potatoes, tea and bubble gum.

In another drawer we have pistachio nuts, two flavors (plain and chili lemon), spicy seaweed, lifesavers, candied ginger, vegie chips and lifesavers candys.

I don't snack often, but am well prepared for the repocalypse.