It wasn't the very beginning of my hacking/coding/whatever career but my TI-85 in High School certainly was a highlight. I took a simple blockout game a friend found and picked it apart to find out how it worked and morphed it into a simple top-down shooter. I also spent a fair amount of time writing simple programs that would do my Calculus work for me. (Not just graphing, but writing a program that would produce the work I needed to show on assignments.) The teacher couldn't help but chuckle when another student showed him one of my programs. I think he may have even offered me extra credit for writing the programs. (He was also the CompSci teacher.) I was fortunate that he recognized me for what I was, lazy when it came to homework but bright enough to ace the tests.

Perhaps it's a quantum watermelon and the simple act of measuring the color on the inside turns it from blue to red?

"I sound my barbaric YORP over the roofs of the world."

In unrelated news, the record for "The man whose junk has been handled by the most strangers" has also been rewarded to Thomas Stuker.

I've found that the differences between DVD and Blu-Ray are not just in the picture. The sound sampling on a Blu-Ray is a step or two above DVD. Not only is it a 'larger/louder' sound on Blu-Ray, but I really get the feeling that you get more of the depth of sound. Little things that get lost in the compression to DVD. Of the half-dozen or so Blu-Rays I own, I've definitely heard a difference in the couple that I've 'upgraded' from DVD.

No, it's shiny and makes me look hip and it actually helps me do useful stuff in ways I couldn't before.

Like manipulate spreadsheets with your toes!

There are other options that individual server admins can leverage. I run a TF2 server that uses SourceMod with SourceBans to handle bans for our server. If any of my admins see a cheater and can verify by spec'ing, we ban them from our server. There's even options for non-admin players to initiate short term bans if enough people are complaining.

We're also protected by VAC but this gives us our own layer of protection. It's also handy because it allows us to rid ourselves of griefers who would never be caught by VAC but can empty out a full server just as quickly as a cheater.

I forget where I read this, but it was pointed out that the reason WB may be doing this is that they (WB) fear that sites like Pandora, etc. devalue each track. When a consumer can listen to it for free (0 cost to the consumer) they are less likely to see the value in purchasing the track themselves. (99 cents from the consumer)

Wasn't there that story a while back about some government docs getting shared out on some P2P network? Want to bet that the guilty party(s) just shared out their whole drive not knowing what it would do.

Wait for it, my story gets better, when confronted they must have swore up and down that they didn't share anything on their PC and that the *evil* P2P software must have a mind of it's own. (Pay attention during the install? Check the configs? Read the documentation? HA!)

Now, we have this being pushed into an act because it's apparently the latest "hot topic" to protect people from paying attention to what they are actually doing on the computer. Especially while they are at work.

So... I make that check out to Cash?

Oh please, they're going to tear it down in 50 years because they need space for another parking lot.

Throwing a novell box off a roof?

Hey. Didn't they make a ship a few years back that was sink-proof? (Unsinkable.)
 
How's that working out for them?

Why haven't we shot a probe through Saturn or Jupiter? You know, to see if it will come out the other side. Alternatively, it could catosrophically crash into whatever tiny solid formation is at the center, and think of all the fun that could be!