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Excellent! I had to google Natural Ice but you deserve your +5 Funny :-D

http://www.epinions.com/review/educ-Law_Schools-All-Thomas_M_Cooley_Law/content_133879139972

You just don't get it. Your putting your detached, logical, present day hindsight (who gives a fuck when they surrender, not gonna change anything) and western values in the position of Japan and ignoring the facts of both what happened, and interviews of leaders that tell us what their plans were. One thing is very clear, before the atomic bombs they had no plans to surrender unconditionally. After the atomic bombs dropped pro-war military elements actually tried to launch a coup against the emperor in order to prevent him from recording a message to surrender and instead issue an edict to CONTINUE fighting!! History channel has some good documentaries on this, you can also check out this book, The Last Mission.

Some of your confusion might be thinking that you end a war like that when your enemy can't launch attacks anymore. That's not the case. You end the war when your enemy accepts unconditional surrender. You NEVER leave an army in the field to deal with another day, and when a country declares total war on you and your allies you don't stop fighting until your troops control every inch of their soil because otherwise neither they nor their people feel beaten and like with Germany, in a couple of decades you'll be fighting the war all over again.

I'm not sure what better way you see of forcing an unwilling enemy to surrender with minimum pain and casualties (especially to your side). "Waiting" them out means just dropping tons (literally tons and tons) of conventional ordnance in daily and nightly bombing raids until they capitulate. All the while they can be building up forces and defenses and digging in making them even more prepared, secured, and confident that they don't need to surrender because they will be able to repel an invasion so effectively

The only reviews I take at all seriously are at epinions.com and ConsumerReports.org .

And I read only the negative reviews for anything, anyway. Once I'm looking at something reviewed, I probably already want it, so I'm looking for reasons not to get it. And negative reviews are harder to write convincingly without actually knowing something about the thing and its context, anyway. Anyone mad enough at something to go to all that trouble is itself an honestly negative review.

Unlike a lot of comments advocating savings in cutting the leased equipment, I am OK with continuing to lease the providers box and so on, after having tried OTA, boxless basic programming and using the box as prescribed.

However, likethis epinion review for US service says response times for digital boxes are horrible. They are the most easily noticeable problem even by visitors. Analog boxes are simple, have lightweight remotes and lack today's "lightshow" happy LEDs.

Today, the java-fication of everything has caused boxes that freeze, slow down and have unpredictable behavior mindful of home routers. At least home routers include power buttons. Our New York digital boxes from TimeWarner take 30 seconds and 5 minutes after being plugged in. That is more than most computers, on devices designed 10 years ago, where almost everyone still chose TV over their PC for daily entertainment. I mean, current overjava'd cellphones don't take that long to boot, DVD consoles don't take that long to load videogames, and even 1970 B&W TV's don't take that long from cold to tubes-warm-enough-for-an-image.

Having Cable Box competition will result in a mozilla-javascript-like war. Then CableCo's replacing their OCAP (java) OS so that faster startup and response times are back the way they were with our brainless analog boxes. You will have more attention paid to VCR-recording, picture in picture features, and even the stupid way the CableCo boxes REMOVE the date/time signal from the carrier, even though my equipment is capable of reading it when I remove the box and know the exact channel. And we will finally be able to upgrade every few years, instead of being stuck with just one or two rented box models for decades to come.

Oddly enough the diabetics I know were fat and actually lost weight once they got regular insulin injections. Type 1, not type 2.

http://www.diabetesnet.com/diabetes_types/whatype.php

" Type 1, called IDDM (insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus), now was recognized as an autoimmune disease that appeared primarily in childhood or adolescence. Near the final phases of the attack, the person stops producing insulin and requires injected insulin. At the time of diagnosis, such a person often has excessive thirst and urination, has lost a lot of weight, and has an extremely high blood sugar. This person is normal weight or thin when Type 1 diabetes starts and may stay relatively trim through life. Type 1 occurs in about 10% of all people who have diabetes. Treatment for this type revolves around adjusting the dosages and number of insulin injections to match diet and exercise"

The reason a high-carb diet is used for fattening livestock is because it's cheap, actually. Everything else is a happy side benefit for the farmers, but price is king.

I'll grant you it's cheap, but it's also particularly effective, and there is a real biochemical reason for it.

I'll challenge you to find *any* farmer that has successfully used protein and fat to fatten livestock, in the absence of carbohydrates - it simply doesn't work. You can blame the livestock for "getting full", but in the end, even if you force fed them, you simply can't fatten an animal without carbs.

I tried a low-carb diet for a while and no matter what you do, eating a 40oz steak will fill up your stomach and make you feel bloated, it's a simple question of mass.

A 40oz steak is going to fill up your stomach, but bloating is caused by water retention due to carbohydrate intake.

You're ignoring my point about the indiginous peoples of South America and Asia subsisting in good health on high-GI diets for thousands of years before western civilization came along.

That's not true at all. Agriculture in the new world was significantly lower GI, and most indigenous peoples were primarily hunter gatherers. Check your sources.

The only way you can eat 5000 calories per day without gaining weight would be if you shit pure liquid fat to get rid of the excess calories

http://www0.epinions.com/review/Merde_by_Lewin_Ralph_Books/content_16098954884

Considering an average of 200g of feces a day, for sure you're losing calories out that end. Add ketones in the urine (5 cal/gram), and you're talking a bunch of calories that don't get stored as fat. Again, basic biochemistry - fat does not get deposited unless you've got insulin around.

But I shy away from exercise regimes that like to bill themselves as revolutions, major giant breakthroughs etc., it smacks of sensationalism and infomercials. It may be a good regime, but why would it advertise itself like that if it was?

I agree, the whole "revolution" thing is overrated, but damn, it works. 30 minutes a week, and I keep getting stronger every week. You hit plateaus every once in a while, but it's great to stay strong without spending hours in the gym.

If I ate the exact same amount of calories as pure simple carbs instead? Yeah, I'd gain weight. I didn't say GI was completely irrelevant, but there are other factors which are far more relevant.

Well, quantify it - if you switched out 200g of what you currently eat for 200g of sugar, how many pounds would you expect to gain (keeping exercise constant)? Now, without switching out, how many extra calories do you think you'd have to eat in addition to gain that same amount of pounds.

Have you gotten a chance to listen to Mr. Taubes' lecture yet?

I pretty much agree with everything you just said, except the hammer part. :)

http://www.epinions.com/review/Stanley_Antivibe_16_Ounce_Rip_Claw_Hammer_51_942/content_133678534276
While I don't own one (since I don't use a hammer all that often), the first time I saw an ad for the Stanley FatMax Xtreme Antivibe Hammer, I was like, "whoa, that looks pretty darn cool for a hammer."

My guess is that the common person will be much more excited about a hammer than over FOSS.

"Wet surface. Sprinkle Ajax® freely. Rub lightly to make a paste with sponge or pad... "

Giggity.

What if it was already logged in?

Ex: Someone grabs it at an internet cafe, while you're ordering something?

How fucking big is this thing? The last one I saw is so small it'd fit in a raincoat pocket. If you're plugged into the cafe's AC, unplug it, go on battery for a couple of minutes, take it to the counter with you and order.

Or ask a waitperson to come to the table and take your order, then tip well.

Or -- http://www.epinions.com/review/cmhd-Accessories-All-DEFCON_3_Notebook_Security_Device_PA430/content_69380836996. Three levels of sensitivity. Really loud. With a couple of warning beeps to give the timid thief a few seconds to change his mind and haul ass.

Don't leave home without it.

Computers are getting faster MUCH MUCH more quickly than operating systems are getting slower.

Just one second on that rant - I've got an 8-year-old Dell XPS T600 that I still use to play Unreal Tournament. I use it because it boots faster, starts the game faster, and has just as good a frame-rate as my current, Dell/Vista machine.

If your assertion was true, then I would happily turn off my Windows 98 forever. Starting applications and using the OS has been getting steadily slower in the post-XP versions of windows, even with new hardware.

In my experience, of course.

Have her look into one of these. I got mine as a refurb for $40(they have them at Amazon for $36 used) and it is ultra light,has an FM radio with 20 presets,she can easily carry an extra AAA with her so she never has to worry about a dead battery(I get an average of 23 hours on mine) and best of all for her they come with an armband that makes it really easy to wear while exercising. and as far as lock in goes she can drag and drop her tunes from any OS. Oh,and it is built like a tank so she don't have to worry about dropping and breaking it while she does her workout.

Yes,but Apple not only has to complete with the clones,but due to the shear number of iPods they have cranked out they also have to compete with themselves. And folks are starting to realize they don't need the biggest MP3 player on the planet to enjoy it. So those that want the name can easily pick up a 2nd-5th generation really cheap,and those that just want an easy to use MP3 player can snatch up a Sandisk,Coby,etc.

As for anecdotes,I personally wouldn't give up my m260 for a half a dozen iPod Nano players. The thing is built so well I got my sis and her boys each an M series and they have yet to be able to kill them(and they can tear up a Sherman tank with a toothbrush) it gets 23 hours on a battery,and the deal sealer for me is if I run the battery out while I'm out and about I can walk into any convenience store and be bopping to my music again in less than five minutes. Why Apple refuses to make any iPods that run on a regular AAAs I'll never know.

But I have no doubt that given how tough my little Sandisk is I'll be bopping along with it in my pocket for many years to come. I have also talked several customers who came into the shop into getting a Sandisk over the iPod and not a single one of them has been unhappy. I recommend the m series for those that just want to play music,and the e series with rockbox for those that want video and extra goodies. Really great affordable and reliable players IMHO.

http://www.amradios.com/phonographs.html http://www.epinions.com/Turntables/skp_~1/dl_~1/search_string_~record%20players/adv_search_~1 I didn't check these very closely but they may be useful.

I was not saying it was costing Wal*Mart that much. I was in fact assuming that Wal*Mart's overheads for CD sales are virtually zero, so I can subtract that figure off from the original cost estimates. In a real record store, you have to set it up in a more expensive location than Wal*Mart, such as a shopping mall, and you hopefully will hire employees who have at least some knowledge of music, and who will actually want to help customers. Finally, you want to present your music in an attractive, well organized way so people will actually look at it. All of those things push overhead way higher than Wal*mart, which is the point I was trying to make.

The label's share of expenses was a lot more fair 10 years ago, when they actually had to provide very expensive recording studio time. I remember looking at the credits of Steely Dan's excellent "Gaucho" album and finding that something like 100 people and four different recording studios participated in this. I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that the label picked up the tab for all those flights from NYC to LA to Hawaii to make that recording, and the salaries and travel expenses of all those other nice folks who worked on the album. That was probably in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and of course after spending all that money the label deserved the lion's share of the income.

Now that you can block out a room in your house, buy a 2.8ghz 8-core Mac Pro and either Logic Pro or Protools(*), a microphone and a few other odds and ends and have a recording studio, I have to assume that the label's profit margins have soared. It looks like they must have put most of that soaring into overhead instead of profits, or they wouldn't be in such bad shape today.

D

(*) For the sake of all that is holy, don't buy Protools. My rant, but there are plenty of others.

If I remember correctly, the first portable mp3 players were portable CD players that could play CDs and mp3-encoded CD-ROMs. I am not sure which company first came out with them, but I remember purchasing the first brand named player (Phillips Expanium) in 1998. I still have it today. It works fine. I use my Archos 404 now, but still keep the old gal around, just in case. http://www99.epinions.com/content_6881185412

When was the last time you bought a microwave, however? Probably the last time your old microwave broke. There's no reason to upgrade your microwave until it stops microwaving- but that's just not true of computer hardware and never has been. If computers stop failing, and stop becoming faster because everyone wants them cheap and cheap means the same in mass quantity, which is basically what commodities are, it will slow the adoption of equipment which by its nature is only undergoing radical, rapid generational change because people keep buying it.

And yet, it is still possible to purchase microwaves like this crappy $50 number, but there is still a sizeable enough market for high-end microwaves to produce innovative products like this one.

I disagree with your premise entirely, because it is wrong. Just like high-end PCs and microwaves, there is a high-end, cutting-edge market for almost every piece of technology. Sony is only scared because the commodization of computers means the high-end market will probably stop growing, and possibly shrink...but it's not going away, no matter how loudly Sony whines.

Acknowledging that undergraduate advising and mentoring programs at the university fall "below the standards" set in other undergraduate education reforms, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education John Bravman announced several new initiatives that should significantly alter the experience for students and their advisers. ...
Although he emphasized that many students and their faculty or staff advisers enjoy good advising experiences, Bravman cited a number of issues that have contributed to disappointing experiences for many.
-Faculty participation in advising has dropped from as much as 48 percent in the late 1970s to 12 to 15 percent today, partly due to ever-increasing demands on their time.
-Some advisers complained that they were matched with groups of students with nothing in common with each other or their adviser and felt uncomfortable participating in the standard socialization events. He said some faculty also complained about having too much information to digest when they became advisers. ...
[Vice Provost Bravman said] "I think 15 percent is just a number that we should not be happy with. As a reasonable goal, I would love to get back to the point where we have half of our advisers who are on the faculty."

Meanwhile, faculty members have no trouble (or lack of time) to pursue their own interests, such as consulting for companies that sell services to Stanford. An article "Campus Brawl" by Deborah Gage (June 8, 2004) reported:

Stanford has spent more than seven years transferring its financial systems onto applications from Oracle called Oracle Financials. The project was supposed to be finished in 1999
. ..
Stanford has spent a lot of money on software and still has work to do. According to the university's annual budget plans, the board of trustees since 1999 has been asked to approve $93.4 million in capital expenditures for applications and infrastructure. The trustees had approved $60 million in 1994 to overhaul Stanford's entire administrative information systems, a project they expected would take five years, even though controller Susan Calandra says some of the projects in the original plan were never started.
What makes Stanford's troubles all the more ironic is the institution's proximity to Oracle and PeopleSoft. Stanford, with its gracious red-tiled roofs, and Oracle, with its gleaming metal-and-glass towers, sit just 10 miles apart along Route 101, the main thoroughfare through Silicon Valley. Three Stanford professors serve on Oracle's board of directors...

Serving on the board of directors is a paid position (at the very least $30,000 annually). Isn't it convenient that there are three professors paid by Oracle to serve on its board, and that the university then paid Oracle for $93 million of services? Apparently, the university's president John Hennessy i

Ha. You should see their computer version of Axis and Allies. I counted 17 bugs in the first hour of play. And not minor details. Drastic bugs, game-changing bugs, some resulting in complete crashes. I wrote a review and then found 11 more bugs.

They obviously do not care about their customers, as even the most minor concern and testing would reveal these problems and they would fix them before release.

http://www.epinions.com/game-review-1A33-207E645C-3A2C5887-prod2

My phone has no GPS. Three or four years ago, Qwest wrote me saying they were "upgrading" their network and my phone wouldn't work anymore. They sent me a free replacement -- was worthless because I used my phone in a semi-remote area in which the internal antenna was not beefy enough. I looked around for a good phone with an external antenna port -- brick shape because I'm hard on phones -- but found nothing. I then went to the Qwest kiosk and asked them to make my phone work (it was supposed to be tri-band blah blah blah compatible everywhere or something like that). They fiddled with it for a while and voila, it worked.

Last year, the keyboard numbers 8 & 9 stopped working. I bought the same phone off ebay for $3 and swapped keyboards. Perhaps I should buy a couple more spares for when other parts go -- I spent $180 on the phone originally and now I could probably get 60 of them for that cost. The phone has great battery life, a workable speaker phone, and an external antenna port. No camera, no gimmicks, and no GPS. It's worth holding on to, if for no other reason than bragging rights on the oldest cell phone still in use among anyone I know (5.5 years).

you are exactly right.

an MIT lipid researcher found this out well over a decade ago and the ZONE diet was born.

the zone is a moderate carb, moderate protein, moderate fat diet that is designed to optimize one's hormonal response to what they eat.

the calorie in, calorie out folks don't realize that the body acts upon what it is fed and that this can make a big difference in how the body repsonds.

for example, take two twins and have them exercise the same and eat the same. they should turn out similar, no? my guess is they would. until you introduce anabolic steroids (muscle building portion of testosterone). now, both eat the same calories and exercise the same and what happens? will the anabolic steroid user gain more weight on the same amount of calories? i think it is patently obvious that he would, otherwise, anabolic steroids would be USELESS as one would just have to eat calories to get the same effect. you can't do that, so anabolic steroid sales is big business.

the zone is the unifying dietary theory.

here is a diet comparison:

http://www.zoneliving.com/ZoneLiving/Zoneversusotherdiets/tabid/62/Default.aspx

read through these testimonials:

http://drsears.com/Testimonials/tabid/473/Default.aspx

here are some more:

http://www.zoneliving.com/Default.aspx?tabid=93

and more:

http://www.epinions.com/well-Nutrition-Diets-All-The_Zone_Diet/sec_~opinion_list/display_~reviews/pp_~1/pa_~1#list

manuel uribe lost 400 lbs on the zone. more importantly, he lost his hunger and depression - and you *know* a 1230 lb guy has to have sopme serious hunger!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6612719.stm

pbs scientific frontiers did a study on diets and robin was the zone participant. she lost 45 lbs in 6 months and her favorite part of the diet was that it made her feel GREAT!

http://www.pbs.org/saf/1401/features/robin.htm

dara torres, one of the original zone diet test subjects, recently set the 100m free swim american record with the second fastest time clocked this year.

AT 41 YEARS OF AGE (a 22 and 19 year old placed second and third)!

with just 16 months of training (after a 6 year retirement).

just 16 months after giving birth.

she does whatever makes sense to get that extra advantage - and she is a full throttle zoner.

the lady who recommended this diet to me was able to stop taking 12+ aspirin per day due to her repetitive strain injury. whe lost a ton of excess fat and had a ton of energy to do martial arts. her pain mostly disappeared.

a friend of mine who i turned onto the zone only had to wait one day for his multi-year acid reflux condition to completely vanish.

my testimonial is as follows:

1. i've lost 21 lbs since june (i'm about 5'10" and i dropped from 178.5 to 157.5).
2. after 20 years of ZERO weight training, i've gone from doing 10 lb flies to benching 175 lbs once on a day where i didn't feel so well (didn't eat a zone meal the night prior). i was doing 135 lbs 4 times in early september, i can do 145 lbs 8 times now. iow, i'v gained significant muscle mass while losing that net 21 lbs.
3. i've lost 3-4 inches off my waist. my chest, shoulders and arms have increased in size.
4. my lifelong allergy problem disappeared when i started supplementing epa and dha with ultra-refined fish oil.
5. at the ripe old age of 41, i'm closer to a six pack than i have ever been in my life. i wil

Yes."

Didn't you read Dr. Seuss as a kid? :-)

http://www.epinions.com/book-review-5010-304B70-392B4260-prod6

I suspect the boxes may negotiate for the best signal/compression they can, weighted against the signal they're receiving.

I bought one of these http://www10.epinions.com/content_129202687620 and it tremendously helped both my picture quality and my cable modem.

Acknowledging that undergraduate advising and mentoring programs at the university fall "below the standards" set in other undergraduate education reforms, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education John Bravman announced several new initiatives that should significantly alter the experience for students and their advisers. ...
Although he emphasized that many students and their faculty or staff advisers enjoy good advising experiences, Bravman cited a number of issues that have contributed to disappointing experiences for many.
-Faculty participation in advising has dropped from as much as 48 percent in the late 1970s to 12 to 15 percent today, partly due to ever-increasing demands on their time.
-Some advisers complained that they were matched with groups of students with nothing in common with each other or their adviser and felt uncomfortable participating in the standard socialization events. He said some faculty also complained about having too much information to digest when they became advisers. ...
[Vice Provost Bravman said] "I think 15 percent is just a number that we should not be happy with. As a reasonable goal, I would love to get back to the point where we have half of our advisers who are on the faculty."

Meanwhile, faculty have no trouble (or lack of time) to pursue their own interests, such as consulting for companies that sell services to Stanford. An article "Campus Brawl" by Deborah Gage (June 8, 2004) reported:

Stanford has spent more than seven years transferring its financial systems onto applications from Oracle called Oracle Financials. The project was supposed to be finished in 1999 ...
Stanford has spent a lot of money on software and still has work to do. According to the university's annual budget plans, the board of trustees since 1999 has been asked to approve $93.4 million in capital expenditures for applications and infrastructure . The trustees had approved $60 million in 1994 to overhaul Stanford's entire administrative information systems, a project they expected would take five years, even though controller Susan Calandra says some of the projects in the original plan were never started.
What makes Stanford's troubles all the more ironic is the institution's proximity to Oracle and PeopleSoft. Stanford, with its gracious red-tiled roofs, and Oracle, with its gleaming metal-and-glass towers, sit just 10 miles apart along Route 101, the main thoroughfare through Silicon Valley. Three Stanford professors serve on Oracle's board of directors...

Serving on the board of directors is a paid position (at the very least $30,000 annually). Isn't it convenient that there are three professors paid by Oracle to serve on its board, and that the university then paid Oracle for $93 million of services? Apparently, the university's president John Hennessy is not immune from the tempations of wealth -- or conflict of interest. An article by Amit Arora in the Stanford Daily, February 26, 2007, reported

The last DVD player that I bought from Toshiba lasted about 90 days - just long enough for it's warranty to expire. http://www99.epinions.com/Toshiba_SD_3980_DVD_Play er/display_~reviews I wouldn't buy any of Toshiba's cheaper DVD players. They all seem to have reliabilty issues.

Actually it's called the iMow, I have one, and it works great. http://www.epinions.com/hmgd-Lawn_and_Garden-Power _Tools-Mowers-Toro_iMow_Robotic_Mower_30050

What did customers expect? Fool me once... It's both the customer's and Apple's fault for this one. Customers (including my girlfriend) has consistent bad service and customer service from Cingular (now ATT). It's confirmed in so many news articles. It must be some pretty big kickbacks from ATT that convinced Apple to work with them despite Apple knowing about impending customer service problems. Do you think a company that big (Apple) wouldn't research that beforehand and decide to look away, distance themselves from their carrier while going after the bigger margin? Duh..that's how business works. By buying this phone we are voting with our dollar saying...yeah we want more of this...subscribe and support this lousy service more! http://blogs.mercurynews.com/consumeractionline/20 05/06/worst_cell_phon.html http://www.epinions.com/content_277319683716

Samsung has a low-end model with 2 big knobs. The time knob works like many egg timers; it just gradually rotates counter-clockwise until it clicks to 0, and then cooking stops. It doesn't work very well in practice, largely because time increments below 1 minute are impossible to gauge and it screws up if the time knob is bumped while it's running.

http://www.epinions.com/pr-Hamilton_Beach_40729 Seems to do the trick for me. Combine that with a slightly modified (used tinfoil as a shim to move the burs closer for a finer grind) http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-DBM-8-Supreme-Grin d-Automatic/dp/B00018RRRK then get some espresso beans fresh from NJ... http://www.coffeebeandirect.com/ and you have an espresso set up that is equivalent to some that cost thousands. Of course if your machine and grinder are better, then you will get better results, but you can't beat the price for that set up.

> Umm.... I'd doubt that an OLPC will survive much bashing either.

I invite you to purchase a LeapFrog-like laptop for any toddler and have him play "tag" with it, then give him the Compaq and the same instructions.

OLPC is built more like the Leapfrog device than the Compaq - a similar situation to cheap euro-cars that have excellent crash protection, and gigantic SUV's that kill everyone onboard if it brakes too quickly. :-)

I have an old Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook P1032 from ebay. It's 9 inches wide, comes with a touch screen, and happily runs Linux. It's a bit low on memory (128MB), but it comes with 8 hours runtime using an extened battery, and is great for watching movies on planes. Or coding, whichever you prefer. Sub-notes are neat, but certainly not new. Vapourware comes and goes, while Sony and F-S quietly keep producing them.

http://www0.epinions.com/pr-Fujitsu_LifeBook_P1032 _FPCM02053_PC_Notebook/display_~full_specs

http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/0d/33/502904-e lec_lg-resized200.jpg Qualcomm 2760 on Sprint. That was my first cell phone, like 5 years ago. It had no battery life, and the address book was comically limited, but once in a fit of rage I threw it as hard as I could against a concrete wall. It took a small dent on the corner and kept working just fine. The shell is made if 1/4" thick hard plastic. Can't do that with my Blackberry Pearl.

For whatever reason, either inside my office or right outside is a favorite spot for "heated discussion". Whenever I need to concentrate, I put on my pair of these:

http://www.epinions.com/content_178219683460

set my music low and I can get some work done. Yeah, these aren't the fancy Bose $300 headphones but Wal Mart (used?) sells them for less than $30 and the DO work. They're light, (the noise cancelling stuff is mid-cord, not in the phones themselves), well padded, comfortable to wear for hours and if you're stuck in the server room, essential.

I've tried the JVC version of the same thing, with all the cancelling stuff in the phones themselves but they lacked padding and didn't seal as well. For around $30, they're hard to beat; oh yeah and they're a lot more effective than "Computer Cooling Fan" sounds.

Story with a small picture of the 'designed' personal computers.
http://news.com.com/Barbie,+Hot+Wheels+PC+delivery +lags+in+holiday+crunch/2100-1017_3-234533.html

Epinion of the PC
http://www.epinions.com/kifm-Toys-All-Barbie_PC/di splay_~reviews

Here here. Also note the previous complaint that they bundled Windows Media Player killing sales of Realplayer, another bag of adware and bloat.

Acrobat installs several services and tries to phone home all the time and you will probably get more performance from your PC by being part of a botnet than running Norton.

Article about Norton here

I have seen the future, and it is filled with ducts.

http://www.johnmunsch.com/2001/08/calculator_rip_o ffs.html

http://www.epinions.com/content_62095134340

Some reporter out there please do a piece on the monopoly and marketing push by these calculator companies forcing students to buy expensive calculators. These things NEVER come down in price. Those arm processors are expensive?

More stuff to clog those tubes. Better get that two-tiered internet going quick. Otherwise, we will have to dump this stuff into our modems!

Here. I'm thinking about getting one of these myself, and found these reviews helpful. A few are from people that suffer(ed?) from RSI.

Nintendogs, which turns your DS into a $150 digital pet? Can you say Tamagotchi?

Nothing at all like Sony's $600 virtual pet.

Notice how the interviewer name dropped stanford, but Bing didn't take the bait.

Instead, Bing dissed stanford's undergraduate programs by name dropping Carnegie-Mellon and the University of Southern California as the must-have courses. Bing wasn't exactly a cheerleader for the stanford MBA curriculum either.

Guess what was said here is true http://www.epinions.com/content_73675148932.

Q. Who shot first?
A. Who cares, as long as you're not the one with a hole in you.

Considering that Lucas' "original vision" was for a 9 or 12-story saga ...
http://www.themovieblog.com/archives/2004/09/mark_ hamill_spills_some_dirt_on_star_wars_episodes_7_8_ and_9.html
http://www.epinions.com/content_4057571460

... I guess the force left him ...

Not to take away from what he's done in terms of pop culture, but it would have been better if he'd stuck to the original idea. The first two episodes of the prequil smack of trying to recapture the ET franchise.

The Belkin Wireless Pre-N (F5D8230-4) Router (F5D82304) has been out since October 2004, and gets good reviews at epinions.com

Eh, and when more than 20 faxes are sent to your eFax account in a 30 day window; and eFax starts charging your for the increased load & account upgrade; how is this a good solution?

Sure, give out your efax number to all these folks, and let them start sending you junk faxes - you will be incuring the same (or more) costs than the paper & toner!

Not a good sugestion or solution, IMHO.

Links to background info on eFax:
Reviews & rating of eFax on epinions.com
Replacing eFax with MaxEmail on db.tidbits.com
Blog entry on sippey.typepad.com with details on eFax billing issues
And of course, just hit up Google for "eFax sucks" for more good & bad stories...

FWIIW, I have had a free eFax account for a few years now; only using it for those emergency 'I need to get something now' or the customer/client does not have the capability to send via any other means. I have not had any billing issues, but it was a PITA to find out that the area code for your fax number changed - after spending a bunch of time trying to figure out why the number was no longer working. Thankfully I usually only get one or two faxes a month, so I have been able to stay under the magic 20 number.

YMMV - IANAL....

Eh, and when more than 20 faxes are sent to your eFax account in a 30 day window; and eFax starts charging your for the increased load & account upgrade; how is this a good solution?

Sure, give out your efax number to all these folks, and let them start sending you junk faxes - you will be incuring the same (or more) costs than the paper & toner!

Not a good sugestion or solution, IMHO.

Links to background info on eFax:
Reviews & rating of eFax on epinions.com
Replacing eFax with MaxEmail on db.tidbits.com
Blog entry on sippey.typepad.com with details on eFax billing issues
And of course, just hit up Google for "eFax sucks" for more good & bad stories...

FWIIW, I have had a free eFax account for a few years now; only using it for those emergency 'I need to get something now' or the customer/client does not have the capability to send via any other means. I have not had any billing issues, but it was a PITA to find out that the area code for your fax number changed - after spending a bunch of time trying to figure out why the number was no longer working. Thankfully I usually only get one or two faxes a month, so I have been able to stay under the magic 20 number.

YMMV - IANAL....

Take a look here:

http://www.epinions.com/Intelliflix_Online_Service /display_~reviews

After seeing your post, I looked into it and from what I read, I was VERY interested in switching from Netflix to Intelliflix. Then at the last minute I found this:

http://www.epinions.com/Intelliflix_Online_Service /display_~reviews

Almost everyone gave them 1 out of 5 stars. Their best rating is a 3 out of 5. After reading all the reviews at epinions, I wouldn't even think about signing up with intelliflix.

After seeing your post, I looked into it and from what I read, I was VERY interested in switching from Netflix to Intelliflix. Then at the last minute I found this:

http://www.epinions.com/Intelliflix_Online_Service /display_~reviews

Almost everyone gave them 1 out of 5 stars. Their best rating is a 3 out of 5. After reading all the reviews at epinions, I wouldn't even think about signing up with intelliflix.

http://www.mpio.com/product/productview_fg.html

43 hours off a single AA battery.

Reviews seem to back up the 43 hour claim:

http://www.epinions.com/content_172305911428
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MPIO/message/5192

If you think about it, it stands to reason that a similarly featured and sized flash-based player with no moving parts and using the same battery type is going to have better battery life than a MiniDisc player with moving parts would. Writing flash memory doesn't take a lot of power, and reading it takes even less. There's no reason for the remainder - LCD displays and MP3 decoder / audio circuitry - to use any more or less between the two devices.

This story prompted a visit to epinions. The online ranting of a dissatisfied costumer are not new but this one is particularly funny.

http://www.epinions.com/content_221413215876