Gandalf's horse was Shadowfax, not Equifax.

I'm pretty sure HIPAA laws (in the US, anyway) would prevent such activity, for the same reason(s) that California deemed it acceptable to retract their requirement that HIV-positive people disclose their situation with potential partners.

Well, if I'm not allowed to repair my machine on my own (if I'm so inclined), then I guess I don't have to worry about paying to have the broken product taken to the dump. I can just drop it on the sidewalk of these "authorised repair" facilities and get something else. They want to control the stupid thing that badly, they can take care of its disposal.

The other alternative is to jerry-rig a fix anyway. If they don't like it, too damned bad.

Enact VoterID.

We already need identification for all sorts of things in society: buying alcohol, tobacco, registering a car, getting a job... Proving who you are to vote is not difficult at all.

In a growing number of states, Real ID standards are mandated. Without a RealID-compliant license, for example, one cannot do something as routine as getting through airport security.

For certain political parties to claim it is "racist" to require ID to vote because certain minorities cannot get an ID is, in itself, racist.

The problems VoterID would solve would far surpass the crap ideas floated by the Democrats in the Senate.

That would be the house.

The only major problem there is I'm deathly afraid of heights. :( (Seriously, it's so bad that I start to have panic attacks in video games. You should watch me play Minecraft sometime. It's hysterical.)

I'm looking at different ideas for doing a vertical that I might be able to do from the house, or maybe a horizontal from the house to a tree that's on the property.

My name and call sign appeared in the FCC database last night, which means I can now transmit.

On the one hand, I'm looking forward to getting involved in the hobby. On the other, I have no idea what I'm going to talk about. :D

I've requested a "vanity call" for several reasons. I want to see if i can get my great-uncle's call, as a nod to him. If I can't have that, I have a few others in mind that are a bit easier to deal with as I learn CW.

That's me in a nutshell: Most of my interests tend to be fairly expensive. I don't know why that works out that way.

I'm looking forward to getting into HF, once I get a rig. I'm poking around now at ideas on how to build one. I've got an Electronics background, though it's largely unused for 20 years or so (except for what I might use in IT). I'm not expecting miracles overnight.

To get me started, my dad gave me a Baofeng BF-F8HP as an incentive to get licensed. It's good for 2m and 70cm bands. I can get local repeaters, so there's that.