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The Information Technology Association of America, or the Brain Injury Association of America ??

Why did you write Judeo-Christian instead of Jewish and Christian?

I used "Judeo-Christian" because Christianity is based on Judism. Jews believed a Savior or Messiah come to redeem believers. When Jesus, who was Jewish, was supposedly born some took him as the Messiah. They then took what he taught and started the Christian religion. So, I used Judeo-Christian because Christianity got it's start in Judaism.

Perhaps I should explain why I said "supposedly born" above. I used it because I don't believe or know if such a person was born. I am agnostic, "a", without and "gnosis" knowledge, I don't possess the knowledge on whether a soul or spirit exists and if there's life after death and I'm jealous of those who have faith.

As for when I said "most Judeo-Christian holidays, sacred days, and celibrations have pagan or Zoroastan roots", admittedly I was overbroad. Perhaps it would of been more accurate to say some Christian holidays may of come from previous beliefs such as pagan beliefs and some early churchs were built on sites that were spiritually significant to those who were there before. My use of "pagan" was also broad encompassing pantheism and polytheism such as wicca, and others. It was a poor choice of words, I used it as a shortcut or way to cut words out. But I've gotten comments from others saying less words are better, that using a lot of words leads to confusion (like I'm doing now?) and I didn't expect many ./ers to have much knowledge on the subject.

My OED dates its use to 1899

Ooh, what edition of the OED do you have? I'd love to get the full 20 volumn edition of the OED.

And I hope I didn't cause any discomfort, I didn't mean to, I sometimes "shoot from the hips". Your post I found well formed and I need to work making all of mine the same. Because of an injury I suffered, I'm a TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury survivor, amoung other things I have poor impulse control.

I just don't trust other people on the road enough to have my primary mode of transportation not have me surrounded by steel. I know quite a few people killed on cycles by the "other guy", either backing out without looking or blowing stop signs etc.

I know what you mean. Almost 9 years ago while riding my bike, pedal power, I was hit by someone driving one of those appartment mover vans and while I was in a coma the docs told my family it'd be a miracle if I lived. NOT!!! Now I'm a TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury suvivor. Witnesses to the accident said the driver who hit me was weaving all over the road and didn't stop when he hit, that some had to chase him down the road and force him to stop. He was a diabetic and supposely had a seizer while driving. Come to find out that he fled one state because the state issued an arrest warrant for him and that he had caused two similar accidents previously as well as had been hospitalised twice.

At the tyme of the accident I typically rode my bike about 100 miles a week but would put in 200+ during a week every few weeks. I rode it to school, work, shopping, and recreation. In the nine years since I don't know if I rode as much as 200 miles altogether.

For someone not "in the know", could you explain what's ironic about the G?

The "G" in Dreamworks SKG is Bill Gates. One of Gates' companies, Microsoft, spread FUD about Open Source Software. Meanwhile another of his companies, Dreamworks, works a lot with OSS.

Most people that I've seen on Slashdot accept that GIMP has features and quality comparable to Photoshop but a less user-friendly interface.

I've heard about how some don't like or have trouble using GIMP because the UI isn't like Photoshop. But in another story thread on /. maybe a few backs someone posted a link to a page for a version or plugin for GIMP that gives it a UI like Photoshop.

For my part, I only used Photoshop once

Never used Photoshop myself. GIMP and PSP, Paint Shop Pro, but not Photshop. Those and Quark Express about 15 years ago. I've got Deneba Canvas but haven't tried it yet and I don't know how or if it works well with photos.

GIMP is a free-as-in-beer download, so why not try it and see what you think?

I do have GIMP though it's not the current version. What I have is 2.0.4. As I said though I'd like to get a good book on it and work my way through the book I used to be able to just take a leap and dive into learning something, I prefered to learn that way. But now as I'm a TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury survivor it's hard for me. Especially remembering, my memory is real bad now. I may pick up and learn but if I don't use it I loose it. This presented a problem for me when taking Java. I did alright in Java I but in the four weeks between semesters and Java I and II I almost lost all I learned. If it weren't the few weeks of review in Java II I won't of been able to stay in class.

Your main cost in your scenario is maintenance... I guess I am just salivating to luck into a $500 a month maintenance contract on something as simple and maintenance free as a wifi setup. Hell if you arent going to charge for it, it just means a $39 wifi router and thats about it.
Technical problems with the proposed setup are between slim and none, barring a hardware failure.

I'm guessing now that you get my point, that it shoudn't cost much for a cafe to offer free WiFi.

Gee, my brother is en engineer for shell and my sister belongs in an asylum... and my brother in law is an aircraft mechanic, but what does that have to do with what I am talking about?

The reason I brought up my family is was to show that though I don't personally have experience starting or running a business other than when I was in the JA, Junior Achievement, I have access to those who do have business startup and financial experience. Your brother in law's an aircraft mechanic? So was my dad, he retired from the Air Force but while in he was a mechanic on B52s. Guess that's in part why I love flying and want to get my private pilot's license as well as build my own plane though I doubt I ever will.

You helpfully told me all about your family, but nothing about yourself?

Currently I'm a student. I'm just finishing a degree in web programming from a technical college. However I'm planning to transfer to my local university, UM Twin Cities. There I'll work on a multidiciplary major or Program for Individualized Learning where I can choose a major field of study, probably EE (electrical/electronic engineering), CE (computer engineering), or IT (information technology). Then one or more areas of minor study, maybe one or more of the following as I haven't decided yet what, business, economics, finance, international business, and international development. One thing I know I'll take there is Portguese as I want to go the Brazil as a study abroad student and the university's program requires 2 years college-level Portuguese or Spanish or 1 year Spanish + 1 year Portuguese.

Having said the above it may seem I'm a youngster but in fact I'm over 40. I'm in the difficult position of having to start my life over again after having an accident I almost died from (and it would of been better if I had). The accident left me with a TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury. As some of the therapists I had used to say, "you're alive because of stubborness", and I don't want to live a meaningless life.

The first application that leaps to mind is that regenerated cells could be used to replace damanged or aged cells somehow, but is that really possible?

Nope, neurons and glial cells can't be readily replaced. As shown by this webpage, the nervous system . Each neuron may have dozens synaptic connections via dendrites and axons to other neurons and humans have 100 billion neurons in thier brains. What happens is that each meuron sends out a number of dendrites that then can connect to a number of axons of other neurons. A new neuron may be able to "replace" another neuron but then it will have to make synaptic connections on it's own. These connections aren't exactly hardwired. Then as these connections are made new "learning" is required by the brain.

I'm in no way knowledgable about the whole thing, everything that's involved, but because I suffer from a TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury, the field is of interest to me.