Wireless backhaul is no problem; a fair number of ham radio repeaters are equipped with autopatch, which allows any radio operator to make phone calls via the landline at the repeater by entering the DTMF codes for the phone number desired. Alternately, my county has a mobile backup communication center that can handle dispatch, 911, and such and has satellite Internet and phone access. Hook either up to a picocell and you've got cell coverage. The waiting in line code is a potential problem, but it could be handled by accepting a text requesting access to a specific phone number, and having the system call you (and the number you wanted with your caller ID data) when your turn comes up.

If you need the higher speed, HSMM-Mesh is designed for basically this purpose. We're doing webcam streaming and all kinds of fun things, all via amateur radio and Linksys WRT54gs units. Someone in your area might be working on a mesh already, which means you could take advantage of it in addition to your own gear.

Eh, they'll find a way.

But that would make sense, so obviously we can't do that.

1.21 gigadollars?

Well, if it's similar to graphene in ease of making and useful properties, then yes, it could beat graphene to market in actual consumer-type devices because it's easier to integrate into current manufacturing based around silicon. Yes, the headline is optimistic and smells a bit of propaganda, but anything similar to current stuff is more likely to get adopted quickly.

Steve Holt!

I'd look into adding a modulated carrier wave in either the sub- or supersonics and bury it a bit in the mix. If you use anything over 22kHz it probably won't survive any form of data compression unless it's really loud, but you also avoid nearly everyone's ears (except animals, the very occasional engineer, and perhaps babies). You might also consider using a specific element as an info medium, perhaps using a tambourine or a glock or toms to carry Morse code (or of course the high carrier could be used to transmit Morse, but that's much too simple and unlikely to be tampered with - DRM needs to be cumbersome and easily bypassed ;p).

Sure, piracy hurts the labels a bit. But you know what really takes the revenue away? Artists can now afford to set up a recording studio in their own homes, or rent them for practically nothing, and make albums by themselves. Studio engineers have been fired in droves over the last few years, no new ones are being hired, and the ones mixing the albums were almost always independent contractors anyway. The engineers no longer have a reason to support the labels, so music production is evolving away from the labels. It's pretty common now to have an artist record something in their bedroom or garage and bring it to an engineer to mix, edit, master, or some combination of those, then take it to a CD duplication company and walk out with an album to sell. It's trivial to send in a copy to the Library of Congress for copyright purposes, and as long as you have five to thirty thousand dollars to invest none of this is particularly difficult. The second album is even cheaper.

That normally happens to me, too. It doesn't help that the human ear will always prefer the louder (acoustically in the room, i.e. moving more air around, not necessarily the more compressed or closer to 0dBFS) version. But because compression sounds louder (and more even in volume), everyone likes it more (and/or mistakes consistency in volume with consistency in pitch, rhythm, or anything else). Unless they're the sort who hate hearing themselves, most will demand more compression. One album I'll be mixing next month has even set a goal to have every song the exact same volume. I've had the pleasure of working with a couple of artists who actually appreciate dynamics, though, and they're my favorite clients.

Try Kazakhstan. What India does with bikes, they do with cars and busses. It's a very interesting experience watching your bus jockey for position with five others and dozens of cars on narrow roads. Very interesting, indeed.

My house is not being sold, rented, licensed, or otherwise traded for value to members of the public. I make no contract with nor representation to others that they may use my property for any purpose or feel secure while so doing. I suspect that this was not the case with the ISP. While a large fine might not be in order (you'll note Sony got a slap on the wrist for their breaches last year, confirmed to have released millions of credit card numbers), something to discourage poor practices by commercial vendors isn't a bad idea. Think of it as a higher insurance premium for people known to be prone to break-ins who keep failing to lock their doors (or, if you prefer, a lack of a discount for a good alarm system and high-quality locks). Just because the person breaking in is unquestionably in the wrong doesn't make the corporation being broken into unquestionably in the right.

Mod parent up!

Yay! Someone else is preaching the sound gospel! As a film sound engineer, I often have to convince newer filmmakers that all their set dressing is worthless if it sounds bad (but that a good sound design can make any set feel alive). Another fun demonstration is to subtract frames from the video, more from each second at intervals of about ten seconds, and see when they notice. It's usually around four or five taken out - and these are filmmakers, people who should notice more than anyone else. But if I put just one sample of either zero or full scale audio into a dialogue track, they notice. It's impressive that our ears can detect 1/96,000th (or, at most, 1/44,100th) of a second of bad audio, and it never ceases to amaze me that our eyes do not detect even 3/24ths of a second being replaced with black or gray or white.

So in this case, if the counter-terrorists win, the terrorists win?