I turn everyone I know onto these Firefox addon utilities. I know 99% of you use them, I'm sure, but if you are really worried about this sort of behavior, just get Firefox, install the NoScript add-on, and make sure you never Allow facebook.com (or fbcdn.com). I'm fairly certain that will prevent the evil bad FB man from scanning your thoughts. It's like tinfoil for your browser!

Apparently everyone on my Facebook are all fake friends, sad teens, and lonely divorcees with nothing better to do than describe the minutae of their tedious lives to virtual strangers. And me too! Oh man, the realization of this makes me sad. If only I were a teen or divorcee, then I'd be extra sad.

The visual of bits of data about me flying around the Internet with nowhere to go is pretty funny. Now everyone out there knows what my favorite pr0n and news sites are! Oh nos!

Two UPS anecdotes:

1) Years ago I was hanging out at my favorite speedshop with my friends (the owners), and a UPS truck pulled up with varied car parts. One of them was an aftermarket fiberglass wing. The package (and subsequently the wing itself) had a round divet in it that looked very much like someone had stored it under a grand piano leg. And then stomped up and down on the piano. Of course the shop owners filed the "do not accept due to damage" form and the driver took it away.

2) I ordered a 22" Viewsonic P220F CRT monitor a while ago, back when they were "top of the line". When the UPS driver backed into my driveway and slid the box back to me, I eagerly went to grab it.... and noticed it was missing a corner. The box was missing an entire corner plus the styrofoam packing, a chunk about as big as a soccerball. The monitor itself was wrapped in plastic, but the corner was sticking out, and the screen itself in that corner was scratched several times. The driver looked at me and said, "Not going to accept it due to, I'm guessing?" Heh, yeah, no, didn't take it. Signed the electronic pad and he took it away. Another showed up a week later, this one the box still looked a little worn, but not like it had been dropped and clipped a shelf on the way down, and the monitor inside was new.

I've never had any issues with FedEx, DHL, or USPS, but those are just my anecdotes. Of the UPS and FedEx places I go to, the FedEx people are generally friendlier (a lot friendlier) but again, that's just my personal experiences with the two.

That's when you bring in animal control robots. Just make sure you program them to not be self-replicating... or at least, try to...

A made-for-TV horror/sci-fi movie coming soon to the SyFy network? Megaspider Silkworm Invasion!

Just like most if not all of you, I've dreamt of what I'd do if I were given some sort of incredible powers, powers at least great enough to keep from being taken down by modern police/military means. Essentially powers to step above the law. I have a few different ways I would handle it, but none of them would be inherently "evil". However, I think most of my intents would be "against the law", by the word of the law. And again, that depend a LOT on what country you're in too. I would probably do many things that would land me in jail in the US, but get me lauded as a hero in another country. I would gather physical evidence against any corporation or government official that was doing something to intentionally line his own pockets while harming the greater public in order to bring them to court... but we all know that using superpowers to do that would probably get said evidence thrown out along with the case, and would get me wanted for invasion of privacy and trespass, at least. And eventually I would wind up having to hide and take matters into my own hands, such as harming, if not outright killing, those "bad people". Very Batman-ish, I know, but that is exactly what I would do with such powers. Does this make me a super villian? I think so, technically, by the definition of the word... but how many people would secretly call me a hero?

See what I mean? Most of my "if I had the power" fantasies run in such directions. Never have I considered using it to harm other people, and no one can possibly convince me that I could/would. And I'm sure I can't be alone there.

Will you use your powers for good, or for awesome?

*retweeted*

You had me at household urine. Where do I sign up?

Yet another species to exploit to extinction! Yay!

Are they related to midiclorians? If so, I think I figured out why this really worked... it wasn't the tools the scientists were using, the bacterium were moving *themselves*! :-O

Insightful? Who the heck modded this Insightful? It's *funny* but I wouldn't call it Insightful, geez.

Thank you so much for that link, that other one to that original article site was so sketchy. Who the hell puts asterisks in a filename?

Fantastic, so we have a news story based on anecdotal evidence of a single person at a single hotspot? Not having an Android-based phone, or even coming into contact with one yet, I feel I am superbly qualified to pitch in on this discussion!

The reason I posted this under it's own header is simply because I wanted to say News Flash! even though I know if I scroll up I'll see it at least 50 times. But also, there wasn't any one post I could "reply" to, there were many that I could put this under. So many people say the same thing, "Works fine for me." Obviously the guy in the original article had some issue with his phone. I have a 20Mbps FIOS line at home too, I'm lucky if I get 80KB/sec and I get disconnects all the time. Why? My NIC card sucks (I'm guessing, everyone else on my network has no problems, and I recently put in an old D-Link card that works like a champ).

What is my NIC? It's an Intel CT Gigabit, very common and very well spoken of by reviewers on Newegg (5/5 eggs, 102 reviews)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106033&Tpk=EXPI9301CTBLK

BUT because it sucks on my system, that must mean that Intel NICs suck! Boo Intel!

Boo Intel! Boo Flash on Android! Yay individual anecdotes!

I'd've just said, "You can call me Al. But only if I can call you Betty."

Correct, you're thinking "Dianetics".