Wikipedia has a nice, but tiny list of major recent flares, that will give you an idea. It looks like on a decade scale, X2 is pretty minor. Apparently they estimate the largest observed flare to be an X45.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_flare

Section 4.5 is what your looking for.

I would have no problem with this if it weren't for the fact that it costs me $30+ a month more to opt out.

I think the last thing anybody wants is one or more government's interfering with the Internet.

Perhaps the best solution would just be to define "Internet Access" as a utility that provides unrestricted use of an Internet connection. Just like the power
company can't introduce fancy tech to prevent me from powering a TV if it does something the electric company doesn't like, if I'm paying for a service, I
should be able to use it as I see fit. I personally think that companies shouldn't be able to advertise a service as "Internet" if they are blocking certain sites,
certain ports, or other services I may wish to access.

It is just ridiculous that to be able to connect to something on Port 25, I have to pay twice as much for a "business" account. What is happening here is that
corporations are trying to "Re-AOL" the Internet so that it conforms to their business models.

It is almost like they are bringing back "AOL Keywords" in a much more "under-the-radar" way. How long before ebay just says "type e into Google!" once they have the contract nailed down. Perhaps there will also be a subliminal effect- maybe not in with freaky effectiveness, but definitely enough so everybody who searches for something beginning with "e" will have Ebay, Expedia, etc. at the top of their mind when transitioning to the next thing to search for.

I'm sorry, but if you have a kid that for some awful reason, you've given an iPhone, and they are looking up dirty (F$#K!) in a dictionary app, and they are not of the age when they are hearing it on a daily basis from their peers anyway (11) then:

1. You have already failed as a parent. Please have your children report to the nearest hospital in Nebraska. Do not bring them there, they can safely traverse the distance- you cannot. A major meth incident is about to go down, and an infant can probably dodge strangers better than bullets. At least you can be confident that in 20 years, they'll have the knowledge and resources to ensure you don't get eaten by rabid animals. And frankly, you'll probably need the help.

or....

2. You are an uber-geek, your kids are probably uber-geeks. There's nothing you can do about it. Send them on the pilgrimage to Nebraska, and they'll end up starting a colony on Mars. Probably best to just let it go. They can handle a few dirty words- and still school the heck out of their peers. Congratulations- you'll never have to take the blame for a serial killer, and you'll be happy to take the credit when they nab the Nobel Prize.

So come on people, let's let evolution take its course. One dictionary at a time!

I've done a bit of B2B work, and eventually, most of my really successful clients start looking into technology investments, and like all tech-related business, they bring me in. I would say that out of the last 100 products I've reviewed for clients, 98 of which required having my lawyer parse through lengthy NDAs, 95 were "input devices", 90 were "mouse replacement" input devices, and 75 have failed- 20 are waiting to fail, 4 are **LONG** shots, and 1 has actually turned a profit. I'm just glad I recommended against everything but the profitable one, with the exception of one extremely qualified recommendation on one of the long shots- (i.e. you have a 2% chance of getting your money back, but if you make it through that lottery, it'll be 200 times what you put in)

Mice are like a gallon jug of milk. Everybody's got one, but they rarely stray from what they are used to when shopping, unless you can really blow somebody out of the water.

This is exactly correct.

It's part of my job's necessity to test things.

Bad DNS records for the purposes of advertising (paxfire, etc) make this impossible.

Since I am both oncall and use my home node as an 'outside' test vantage point, it was an issue.

I complained to Charter Communications numerous times with no resolution.

Finally, I gave them the finger and had AT&T install DSL with no phone service. It's cheaper and... as a bonus, unlike Charter, my modem didn't mysteriously reboot with a new IP bi-weekly, and didn't suffer random outages at unhandy periods of time.

And people wonder why they're going bankrupt! :)

-jre

So, the processors are arranged in "V Formation" layout on the board?

That seems... inefficient.

another case of genius marketing, because I8, P8, S8 or R8 (inline, parallel, staggered, random) wouldn't look as *crunchy* as "V8" does in the magazines... :-/

-jre

While many of your comparisons are inaccurate, alot of this does go on. Most of the GM models share a large quantity of componants, and usually the bodies are only slightly different. It's all part of making the manufacturing process less expensive. Just like huge metal presses can be fitted with different dies quickly to modify the output, many of the manufacturing lines themselves have the equivalent of a "Chevy / GMC" button on them.

One of the most impressive examples of this was a line that took the inner "sound dampening" portion of the hood, and attached it to the outer "looks nice" portion of the hood. Several different models could be produced by slightly changing the input material, and flipping a switch / pressing a button. The extra mile that goes into manufacturing the higher end domestic vehicles (Cadillac, in my experience) as well as the decreased tolerances for the parts really do make that extra dollar worthwhile. I remember when some cement was being removed from a shipping dock with several thousand 'Vette body parts nearby. A little dust got on them, and they had to be thrown away, no clean, no inspect, just melt 'em down and start over.