I'd really like to see a Millennium Falcon simulator. Full sized cockpit, attacking Star Destroyers, rescuing amputees from weather vanes, the whole nine yards. That would be impressive. Most impressive.

My opinion only of course, but The Social Network is the best film of the year, followed closely by Inception. That opinion is not based on what anyone else says, that's based on me seeing it without knowing much about it when I went in. The reason why The Social Network comes first? Excellent directing, dense, rapid-fire, intelligent script, a great score, sharp, effective editing, and effective casting and performances all around. Hell, even the cinematography is excellent, especially when you see it on Bluray. There are few films that hold my attention all the way through. Most of them slow down or get down right boring during the saggy middle act. Not The Social Network. It was riveting all the way through. It's very difficult to create a good movie about anything, and it's damn near impossible to create a good movie that's mostly someone talking or typing on the keyboard, or telling a complex story cohesively. The Social Network does it all extremely well. I liked Inception, but I had difficulty following the plot. For that reason alone, it goes to my number 2 spot.

What manufacturer are you using? I only write to the drives once, and that's it, then they go into storage. I've been storing data for years this way (even from the very early models with a whopping 16mb of memory!) and I've never had a problem. Every once in a while I transfer data from the older drives to newer ones just to be safe, but I've had far fewer problems with them than hard drives.

Hope you wrap the drive in an ESD safe bag first. Would hate for all the static that bubblewrap generates to zap your drives!

The price of a couple of thumb drives is insignificant compared to the price of your vacation and the memories associated with the photos. I buy a thumb drive for every vacation and store them this way, in a medium sized fire proof safe. Yes, thumb drive storage is more expensive than hard drive storage, but I trust their longevity more than I would a hard drive.

Height is only one factor. There are many factors for using a sat system with an external antenna, including antenna type, placement on the airframe, cable type, length, termination quality, and so on. Cabling is especially important. What kind of system are you using? Is it Iridium based, or Globalstar, or another type?

I second this. I also work in the industry and people generally don't know that not only do you have to be outside, but you have to have a clear line of sight to the sky and not be near obstructions like buildings. Also, the higher off the ground you are, or the higher the elevation, the better. Even in the best conditions, the call quality can vary as a satellite goes over the horizon and passes your call to another satellite. Also, satellite calls are very expensive, and the hand held units, although getting smaller (like the Iridium 9555 handset), are still bigger than a large cell phone.

...some explosives inside an annoying crying baby, then they'd ban them.

to know that most people don't base their beliefs on facts. Like there is no evidience for Jesus outside of the Bible.