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My understanding is that if you use a ham radio to [view] the internet you can't go to any web page with an [advertisement] on it.

In the US, at least, the regulations (FCC regulations Part 97.113 in the US) prohibit "communications in which the station licensee ... has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer..."

Viewing a web page that had a few ads over a D-Star or packet network is not a violation, but sending an advertisement, or solicitation would be against the regulations.

The biggest impediment to using the Internet over ham radio is the prohibition on encrypted content. So sending a PGP-encrypted message or viewing a website over HTTPS would be against the rules.

After my freshman year of college, my brother and I went on a several month road trip around the US. When we got to Montanta we saw a weird looking road sign up and when we got closer it turned out to be a speed limit sign. It said that the speed limit was "Reasonable and Prudent." (See it here) We thought that was a great idea and, since it was a bright sunny day with a nice, straight road (just some hills), and only an occasional other car out, we floored the pedal of our minivan and were shaking terribly as we got to around 105mph. To our surprise, a police cruiser rocketed past us like we were standing still. He must have been going at least 140. No sirens, no anything, just getting where he needed to go.

In retrospect, I see that -- considering the type of vehicle and condition -- even with a speed limit of "reasonable and prudent," we had broken the law =) Fortunately, the cop didn't seem to care.

Hams have used Packet Radio since 1980. Packet Radio is wireless transmission of ASCII messages, which is what RIM provides via Blackberry receivers. How is this not prior art?

What is packet radio: http://www.choisser.com/packet/part01.html
Wiki on Packet Radio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_radio

I agree that would be an interesting question.

I have a little rule that if God starts talking to me, and tells me to kill someone (my children, the president), I'm going to tell him to shut up and grow up. Then I'm going to see a shrink.

One of my pivotal "belief-moments" came when I realized how unreliable our brains are. Add a chemical, and suddenly you believe you can fly. People witnessing crimes can be Totally Positive about the perpatrator, and yet be Totally Wrong. Put a tumor in a certain spot, and you can hear voices. Some people can't see faces at all. Our memories change over time, and sometimes we can be convinced of things that never happened.

How well do you trust your senses? your memory? your thinking?

Could anything convince you that it would be safe to jump off a house believing you could fly? How about hearing the voice of God? If you grew up in a different country or family, what would you believe today?

Certain types of rock often fracture and wear along orthogonal lines like that. There are even weirder forms of rock in nature on this planet. Somewhere along the coast of someplace, maybe England, there are rock formations that look like hexagonal columns of varying height all fitted together like some sort of mechanically man-made sculpture.

Here's a link. And another link. And a third link. Nature is weird. Don't be too quick to jump to conclusions about intelligent life just because you see a repeating pattern.

There's actually a disorder that causes some people to not be able to identify faces, and many neurologists believe that it's a significant chunk of the brain devoted to identifying faces.Here's a page written by someone who suffers from Prosopagnosia(face blindness

Or maybe you could just join FidoNet, which tried to do the same thing back in the 80's -
Or maybe you could just set up a Packet Radio node.

But if you want to re-re-reinvent the wheel, who's to stop you?

That's been done, it's called Packet Radio.

IIRC, there is support for it in the more recent Linux Kernels (as a module).

I've seen some small Packet Radio setups but it doesn't seem to be as popular as it could be (for reasons a packet radio nut should probably explain)

There is a web site with interesting insight about this question as it applies to long hair, but many of the ideas apply to appearance in general.

A year or so ago, I found this little beauty: PassFace Technology [realuser.com] -- Give it a try. You click on people's faces to get in.

What was interesting was that in finding that URL, I went back to the site for the first time in over a year, and was able to log-in no problem. I remembered my combination of faces.

There's definitely something to this technology!

Unless you're face blind.

Combined with face-recognition software, this technology might be a great way to work around face blindness. My life would be a lot easier if people's names would hover over their heads :)

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I would expect the laser/retina trick to be more effective. I've never managed to superimpose one image on another by putting one in front of each of my eyes. And superimposing is pretty important (for me at least) because it would let me get my computer to recognize people for me to compensate for my face blindness.

I have a condition called prosopagnosia.. that basically means I can't recognize faces. As a result, it takes me a LOT longer to know 90% of the people in a group of 30 students, and by that time people are done introducing themselves to each other.

I can't wait until this technology is improved to the point where I can get a wearable computer with face recognition built in :)

A relavant link about prosopagnosia: http://www.choisser.com/faceblind/