It is a journalistic standard in America to use commas in place of the conjunction "and" when writing headlines. This started because, back in the old days of printed newspapers, you tried to do whatever you could to save space in your headlines for the words that formed the meat of the idea you were trying to convey.

I'm not sure if you've noticed, but they go up--way beyond inflation--every year. The new healthcare law just gave the insurance companies a scapegoat.

Quite right. I should've read your post more carefully.

Why else? A thirst for power. That's more than worth the money to a lot of people.

And their Visa card, too? (Visa has also stopped processing donations.) You won't get far only carrying a Discover and Amex around. Your advice is impractical for the vast majority of people. The free market doesn't work when all the competitors bow down to the same government pressure.

I'll definitely check it out. Spybot has helped me get spyware off of various machines (owned by relatives) more than once, and I've never had a bad experience with it. Thanks for the tip.

Well, you definitely made me curious. What software package do you use to monitor the registry? I googled registry monitors and got a ton of hits, with no idea which solutions were good.

Haven't you forgotten T-mobile? They use GSM, just like AT&T.

The two books you mentioned are great. People should also check out 'Preacher'. It had a limited run and was allowed to die, but WOW, one of the greatest runs ever.

What he said was true--it wasn't in his plan. He didn't introduce this bill.

It's funny to see how pathetic the Obama-haters get in their criticism.

You've come the closest so far. Yes, you go up in steps, but the trick is that you decrease the size of the step each time you go up so that the worst case for each step remains constant. The worst case would be 14 drops. I'm disclaiming here that I didn't think this answer up myself; I'd heard the question and numerous answers myself sometime back because I was researching precisely these kind of (stupid) brain teasers in my quest to get a job.

Drop the first orb from floors 14, 27, 39, 50, 60, 69, 77, 84, 90, 95, 99, 100... (ie, move up 14 then 13 floors, then 12, etc) until it breaks (or doesn't at 100). Call the first floor at which it breaks n and the previous tested floor n'. Then try the intervening floors (n'+1 .. n'-1) with the other orb.

Worst case is if correct floor is 13,14,26,27, etc which require m drops with the first orb and 14-m drops with the second.

If you map it all out, you'll see that it holds together. I have yet to see a better answer, but would love for someone on /. to find one :)

Where's the "didn't get the joke" moderation?