Will the Wave Motion Gun be next?

Totally agree with you regarding photos. I use iPhoto to print out books of our family trips, then send copies to the grandparents. You have off site storage, and don't have to worry about finding the correct media player. The kids are able to read it whenever they want to. It's fun to watch my kids snuggle up with their grandparents on the couch with books, not as easy with a laptop or tablet.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/processors/the-truth-about-benders-brain I didn't realize that Apple would be responsible for Bender's MOS 6502 brain. Apparently David X Cohen programmed assembly for the Apple ][ in high school.

In light of the Stuxnet virus and Iranian centrifuge sabotage , I'm surprised that the Russians didn't drop Microsoft sooner.

I compared my wife's school (a Liberal Arts School in Western Mass) with my own (Pac 10 school in Puget Sound). The only thing the schools shared were the school colors. The difference is really the people you go to school with. I went to classes (with hundreds of students) lectured by Nobel Laureates, but in fact got the bulk of teaching by the TA's. My classmates were good people, looking for a professional career, but nothing spectacular. My wife, on the other hand, had no class bigger than 100. There were a lot of really bright people. It's really unnerving sometimes watching "The Daily Show" and my wife casually mention that the guest lived across the hall in the freshman dorm. I guess, if my kids have the brain and drive to make it at a school like that, I would definitely scrape together the money.

Posting from a Cr-48 right now. One question I have is how Google will get feedback from me. I suppose the machine will send back information to the mothership ever now and then. It's interesting experience using the machine right now. There are things that you expect to use on a regular linux laptop that is not available, like software. The experience is more like using an iPad, but without the apps. The apps are just html5 websites, I think. I would like to have a VNC app which would let me do some remote applications. We've seen many different types of "internet appliances", but this may be the best one yet. I have a whole bunch of internet appliances in my garage, including the 3com audrey and a FrontPath ProGear. (yes, I have no life) I can see Google giving these things out like razor handles.

What Matrix sequel?

It was Aloha Airlines flight 243, not Hawaiian. My mother fortunately missed flying on that airplane by taking an earlier flight.

It's not just the South. My female (blond) medical school classmates at Michigan State told me they would routinely say they were majoring in Hotel/Restaurant Management when bar hopping. Most men (at least those who go bar hopping on Grand River Ave) are fearful of attractive, smart women. I'm lucky to have married someone smarter than me... so I never understood that. My mother was very smart though, and that may make a difference. Hopefully, my boys will find someone smart like their mother.

this should be modded "insightful"

livescribe.com sells the Pulse Smart Pen. It can also record the lecture while transcribing your handwriting. the best thing however, is to get last years notes, and bring it with you. then you can read along. professors usually have the same script year after year.

Well, slashdot has to pay the bills too, ya know.

I agree. My wife has me driving whenever I go home to Honolulu (she's from Michigan). However, she knows the direction to every shopping center/mall within 30 miles of my parents house, and routinely goes on her own.