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Good point. Again, I'm not an expert on this subject, but it seems that such concerns have been looked into scientifically:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=coercion+voting

I haven't read any of the papers concerning this matter, so in that sense I am not adding a lot to this discussion. I just believe that at some point in our future it ought to be possible to move away from colored pencils and pieces of paper as a means of voting.

As little as I like agreeing with ACs, this was my exact thought upon reading TFS. I know this is News For Nerds, but let's not pretend getting data centers back up is more important than rebuilding an area that's been severely decimated (and not in the Roman 10% way).

Take a look at this:

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=nws&sclient=psy-ab&q=+new+york+city+recovery+hurricane+sandy&oq=+new+york+city+recovery+hurricane+sandy

Over 200,000 articles and 3600 news sources covering NYC's recovery efforts. Surely there's enough space left on the Internet for a News for Nerds site to cover news for nerds?

If price of the electric car > Price of cheap gas fueled car + 200,000 miles of gasoline then don't buy

If economics are how you judge a vehicle, spending anything more than a couple grand on a used car is a bad decision for you.

If economics are your *only* consideration, maybe. Personally, I just bought a Nissan Leaf, and the evaluation was made primarily on economics -- but with the starting point that I was going to buy new, because I prefer to buy new and drive for many years. Given the available new car options, and my driving patterns and related requirements, and the available tax credits, the Leaf and the i-MiEV were the cheapest options. Many small gasoline-powered cars were much cheaper up front, but when you factor in 8 years of fuel, the electrics win hands down (for me).

If anyone is interested in my analysis, I did it in a Google Docs spreadsheet, which I'm happy to share: http://links.willden.org/electric

Note that if you dig into the calculations in the spreadsheet some of the cells contain insanely-complex formulas which are not obviously meaningful. My calculation was done by assuming a normal distribution of trip lengths, applying the obvious cost function to lengths and computing the expected value of the resulting random variable. That calculation is fairly hairy and the resulting formulas are expressed primarily in terms of the Gaussian error function. I used Mathematica to compute the expected value expressions and then converted them to spreadsheet formulas. The result works very nicely, but the functions appear to be insane. For example, the image I included on this Google+ post shows the expression for the expected cost of operating a plug-in hybrid.

This was a problem with electronic voting machines during the 2008 elections:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081029/0131342676.shtml

https://www.google.com/search?q=2008+voting+machine+screen+calibration

If you ignore for a moment that Android was bought over by Google whose raison d'etre is advertising, it's ironic that adware has become so acceptable on Android when it's synonymous with spyware on Windows and is flagged as such by decent antivirus programs.

Most of the ad supported Android apps ask for internet access in order to display ads. The problem is you have no idea what else they're doing with that internet access. I would be very leery of something like a task manager that's ad supported..something with sufficient privileges to kill processes and yet be able to do who knows what with its internet permission.
Rooting and installing an adblocking hosts file, (or using AdAway which automates the process) is one solution, but then it deprives the app devleoper of ad revenue (for something that's otherwise free).

Seems like Google ought to separate the permission for displaying ads from that for internet access - so if your app wants to show ads, it should only be allowed to connect to Google's ad servers and do nothing else. At least that way one has peace of mind that one's ad supported contact list manager isn't surreptitiously transmitting one's phonebook somewhere.

You want to root your phone and install LBE Privacy Guard.. This will alert you the moment an app tries to access private data (contacts, SMSes, GPS location, network location etc) and you can allow or deny the action permanently or temporarily.

I root my phone just for this and AdAway, which puts an adblocking hosts file.

Not quite what you were asking for, but this shorter google doc - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByJAC-sfXwumZzI2bVlON2VTMnFyYVZZSnpDYnNyQQ/edit?pli=1 - on page 5 shows the results of the last four GOP primaries, and only the one in 2012 displays the unusual behavior. If this were really a demographics thing I would expect to see such unusual behavior from the same county in previous years, especially since Mr. Romney was involved in the 2008 primary.

And while it's a little harder to tease out, this post - http://www.ukprogressive.co.uk/breaking-retired-nsa-analyst-proves-gop-is-stealing-elections/article20598.html - which has been reposted in a lot of places, alleges that the same effect has been seen in non-primaries, specifically the Barber vs. Kelly special election to replace Mrs. Giffords.

The current counter-hypothesis is that urban areas are more likely to vote for Romney and urban precincts are more likely to have more people, but if this were the case I would expect to see this phenomenon favor Democrats since their strongholds are typically urban areas.

I, too, would like to see something like the 2000 general election in some of these contested counties, and more general election results overall. Especially because there were no electronic voting machines or central tabulators during that election, which are the hypothesized methods for committing this type of fraud. This kind of information is supposed to be publicly available. Feeling ambitious, mate?

What you write - at least, if you are the same AC that has been defending roman_mir/udachny throughout - supports my point and thoroughly refutes yours.

No it doesn't. You're just repeating something and hope it becomes true.

Which may be why you are posting AC rather than signing up for an account...

Ah yes, attack me as my person instead of any actual argument. That's an emotional argument, not a rational one.

He stated several times that he wants people to not go to school, and go work for free instead. I cannot force you to read (or comprehend).

Nothing's forcing you to not take any action on your part, however. If he stated several times to what you say, maybe you could, oh I don't know... make a few select quotations, with some explanations to go with them? Like how I did, which allowed you to argue against it below (and then I can retort, and we have a discussion)?

Waiting for other people to prove to you that you're right is well... stupid (no offense)

Here, how about I give you these links? You go read those (ok, you need to type in some search terms too). Come back when you've convinced yourself how wrong you are.

The UofT he refers to is University of Toronto, which is a highly subsidized state school. What he paid for tuition and fees there is a small fraction of the total cost of his education. He wants all those subsidies to go away, which will result in many people not being able to attain an education regardless of their abilities.

None of that means he doesn't want people to go to school. Look, I can't sing if my life depended on it, no matter what system you propose to help me. Does that mean you don't want me to?

No, that's nonsense. Whether or not I end up being able to sing (or get an education in this case) does not reflect on what your desires are.

In other words, the statement shows that he so severely lacks empathy that he wants to take action to ensure that people cannot take advantage of the same government benefits that he himself has benefited from.

No, that's not "in other words". That's you putting words in his mouth. You're conflating the results of his actions with his wants.

I want a harem of sexy robot maids. That's my want. Nothing I usually do (my actions) will probably lead me to it. Might even take me further away from it. Doesn't change that's what I want: a harem sexy robot maids!

Why would someone who genuinely cared for "everyone" actively try to ensure that people cannot have the same benefits they had from society?

Why not? You think that just because you "genuinely" (sounds like a no true Scotsman there) care for something, that you'll come up with good solutions?

Again, I genuinely care and want a harem of sexy robot maids. So tell me when will my intense feelings for sexy robot maids will lead to me getting them?

Or at the very least, if taking away benefits such as education and health care, not try to offer a meaningful solution in their place?

Empathy isn't the same as coming up with meaningful solutions. Empathy just means you care. It's about your feelings. Having warm fuzzy feelings and being able to do something about it are two different things.

He is advocating for human slavery, oppression of the middle class, and elimination of economic mobility. All in the name of reducing his own tax burden. That does not resemble empathy in any meaningful way.

Wrong. He's for reducing the tax burden on everyone. He's against taxes in general. He thinks taxes are theft (especially income taxes). The one type of tax he thinks make sense is consumption tax, but ideally he would rather have no tax at all, none of everyone.

Anyone got a citation for this, that Congress does not have the power to limit patents which already have been granted?

It's a long-standing principle dating back to McClurg v. Kingsland, 42 US 202 (1843). But even if a patent could be retroactively invalidated by legislative fiat or effectively invalidated by making it (virtually) unenforceable, the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause would likely entitle the patent owner to just compensation.

Already done. In fact Google even put it together for us! Check it out.

Once humans die out or someone turns off the system, then these toads are toast.

Mmm, toasted toad...

Seriously, if an artificial misting system is needed to keep them alive, the chances of their survival is none. I give it max 20 years before it gets turned off for budgetary concerns or maintenance neglect, or conflicts with local people who wants the land and its resources.

http://www.google.com/search?q=failed+conservation+efforts+in+tanzania

Any which way, they'll croak.

This is straight from the Google privacy page:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/key-terms/#toc-terms-sensitive-info

Information we share

We do not share personal information with companies, organizations and individuals outside of Google unless one of the following circumstances apply:

With your consent

We will share personal information with companies, organizations or individuals outside of Google when we have your consent to do so. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information.?

Sensitive personal information This is a particular category of personal information relating to confidential medical facts, racial or ethnic origins, political or religious beliefs or sexuality.

Read that again. It's opt-in only if it's "sensitive personal information". For everything else, unless you "opt out" you've already given Google your consent and they are free to share your information with other companies. For the types of things that are included in that *everything else* is a hellofawholelot.

Tell me I'm wearing a tinfoil hat, that's fine. I know Google isn't the worst of all companies. The real problem is scale. They're everywhere. If you're comfortable with giving up privacy for free stuff, that's certainly for you to decide. Google is waiting with open arms for you.

As far as the default settings for Win8 being atrocious, I can't comment. You didn't provide any specific concerns about them.

Linus' squirrel: https://plus.google.com/u/0/102150693225130002912/posts/4tWgzbhGX2m

This is clearly a copy cat. This is simply too much like the time Lex Luthor stole 40 cakes for it to be someone with an original idea.

Is that why my family always sang that song when we drove past?

To be fair, if someone cares enough about time accuracy to understand why that's a dumb idea, they should probably be using a GPS receiver instead of a PC.

Or using both GPS and atomic clocks.

I would have thought it was obvious, but the middle of the city is where the telecommunications infrastructure is. It doesn't exist in a barn a hundred miles from any major city. And fuel has a shelf life. Diesel will slowly oxidize over time, and so the time you can keep it in the tank is about 12 months. You'll burn about 72 gallons an hour per megawatt (as a rough average). So a 2 megawatt data center will need about 3,500 gallons of diesel per day. A gallon takes up 231 cubic inches of space, so a single day's worth of fuel would need a tank with a capacity of 67,375 cubic feet. The average height of a floor in a skyscraper is 12.5 feet. In New York city, the average city block is 264 feet. That means that even if you filled an entire floor of a skyscraper with nothing but diesel fuel, you'd still get less than a week's worth of fuel guys. At a rate of perhaps $100 per month per square foot... you're talking about $83 million a year for a floor of an outlying area just to store that diesel fuel. Mind you, near Wall St., that price is probably going to be double or triple. The price of fuel is peanuts compared to this; 7 days of fuel for a 2MW plant would cost you only $94,000, plus transport costs.

While I agree with your point in general, your math is off. I can see our own 1MW generator and 3-day fuel tank from my office, which is no where near the size of tank you calculated -- it should consume around 1/4 of a city block using your figures.

A week of fuel (24,000 gallons) is 3200 cubic feet, with a 10 foot high tank, that's only 320 square feet, at $100/month that's still a pricey $384,000/year. But since that 2MW of power is enough to power 1000 servers (assuming 1000 watts/server, half the power goes to cooling), that's only $384 per server per year or $32/month per server.

Each server rack consumes around 6 square feet of space (allowing room in front and behind the rack), so that 6 square feet would cost $7200/year, or $171/server/year if you put 42 servers in a rack. ($14/server/month). So spending $32/month to provide a week of backup power isn't that out of line if you really want a server close to your office.

But $100 sounds pretty high for unfinished office space in Manhattan even in a class-A building. If you put your datacenter into a cheaper class-B or class-C building - rent would be closer to $40/sq ft.

Just so that you know in future, Florian has been fully discredited and some time later it turned out that he was taking money for a long time from the people he seems to support. He's also known to (have?) consult(ed?) for Microsoft.

There is plenty more where that came from.

pudÂdle (pdl) n. 1. a. A small pool of water, especially rainwater. b. A small pool of a liquid.
This word does not mean what you think it means.
see also: https://www.google.com/search?q=puddle&hl=en&rlz=1C1ASUM_enUS448US448&prmd=imvnsa&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=YuGSUNbSIMKDjAL1moG4Dw&ved=0CEwQsAQ&biw=979&bih=691&sei=heGSUJGSIK_tiQKR24DQAg.

The tablet version is even more absurd: USD504889

The broken lines show portions of the electronic device which form no part of the claimed design.

The only things that aren't broken lines? The basic shape of the housing.

There's a scam going on where people sell these big capacitor banks as "Power Savers" to reduce your electricity bill. They work on solid principles. Such things are used in steel mills where big driver loads run by heavy motors have a low power factor. Correcting the power factor greatly improves actual operating efficiency. Some of these mills shut down operations when the power saver fails because it's more expensive to operate without power factor correction than it is to idle the plant.

This is only half true. Industrial and large commercial customers are often billed based partly on their power factor. This is because poor power factors are less efficient for the utility. Residential customers are not billed by the power factor. Lousy power factors in residential areas are still less efficient for the utility, which is why they sometimes install capacitors on the poles. You have probably seen them and never noticed- google photos

Putting Power factor correction in the home isn't going to help your bill at all, since residential customers aren't billed by the power factor.

I like the uni-ball pens pretty well. They have very dark black ink, not the greyish squiggles that most pens leave. Plus, they write immediately without the dry tip that lots of pens have. It may leave a small glob at the start though and it takes a minute to dry so if you touch it right away it will smear.

The new pen I have found that I like pretty well is the Tul pen and pencil. I got the one with the cap, not the retractable. I think the retractable is a gel pen so I don't know how good it may be. The pen has a pretty good black, not quite as dark as the uni-ball, but not really a grey color either. It is a very fine line and it has no glob at the start, but there may be a slight bit of dry ink at the start of the writing. It isn't as bad as most pens that have that characteristic, but it does exhibit that problem slightly. I bet the glob vs dry tip are a trade off and it would be hard to find a pen that doesn't have one or the other of these traits. One of the things I love about the pencil is that the eraser holder has a screw thread that pushes it out further for when it gets warn down. Most mechanical pencil erasers are pretty useless as they wear down quick and then that's it.

I like the uni-ball pens pretty well. They have very dark black ink, not the greyish squiggles that most pens leave. Plus, they write immediately without the dry tip that lots of pens have. It may leave a small glob at the start though and it takes a minute to dry so if you touch it right away it will smear.

The new pen I have found that I like pretty well is the Tul pen and pencil. I got the one with the cap, not the retractable. I think the retractable is a gel pen so I don't know how good it may be. The pen has a pretty good black, not quite as dark as the uni-ball, but not really a grey color either. It is a very fine line and it has no glob at the start, but there may be a slight bit of dry ink at the start of the writing. It isn't as bad as most pens that have that characteristic, but it does exhibit that problem slightly. I bet the glob vs dry tip are a trade off and it would be hard to find a pen that doesn't have one or the other of these traits. One of the things I love about the pencil is that the eraser holder has a screw thread that pushes it out further for when it gets warn down. Most mechanical pencil erasers are pretty useless as they wear down quick and then that's it.

Yup. As a point of reference:

A typical FM station's power amplifier is Class C and can achieve 70-90% efficiency. BTW, the new digital "HD Radio" is a nightmare for these guys, as while the OFDM signal used only needs 1-10% of the RF transmit power to achieve the same range, with typical amp technology back in 2003 or so, that meant 15-20% efficiency at best.

For UMTS signals, which have a pretty high peak-to-average ratio, if a PA achieved 17-20% efficiency, that was REALLY good back then. There were a few tricks that had hope of pushing into the 20s around 2003, such as Doherty architecture amps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doherty_amplifier).

Another trick is outphasing (which sounds like it is part of what is being described here). With outphasing, you have two Class C amplifiers running full tilt, and their phases are varied so that they either add together or cancel out to achieve amplitude modulation of the output signal. It's also known as LINC - LInear amplification with Nonlinear Components.

The problem is how to combine these signals - with a traditional hybrid combiner, you have sum and difference outputs. Sum goes to antenna, difference has to go to a dummy load as wasted power. So you don't gain much efficiency over a Class A, B, or AB amp. However your power dissipation is now in a dummy load at the end of a coax cable instead of at the amplifier's transistor, so you do have a heat management benefit.

You can just connect the outputs together, but then you have VSWR mismatches when the amps are out of phase. If you construct a matching network right, you can have maximum efficiency at maybe 80% power, and good efficiency from 60-100% output power. This worked well for the aforementioned digital radio systems - if you combined the OFDM signal in the guardbands and a legacy FM signal, the signal envelope would never drop to zero, and would vary from 60-100% amplitude. You could get good efficiency with these signals and the lossless approach, but needed to compensate for distortion. Predistortion would do the trick - http://www.google.com/patents/US6930547 - This didn't work well for raw OFDM signals or CDMA signals such as UMTS back then. The zero crossings presented too much strain on the amps. Best case you had horrible efficiency, worst case you fried the output stages of the amps.

I haven't worked in that industry for nearly a decade, but it looks like this new approach combines another known trick with outphasing/LINC (TFA mentions both modulating the power supply voltage AND outphasing) - vary the amplifier voltage depending on the signal envelope, to increase efficiency at lower signal envelope operating regions (and keep the amplifier from blowing itself up).

You mean like these?
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=National+Museum+of+the+United+States+Air+Force,+Spaatz+Street,+Dayton,+OH&hl=en&ll=39.783951,-84.108362&spn=0.005684,0.008256&sll=40.365277,-82.669252&sspn=8.15936,16.907959&oq=dayton+air+force+muse&t=h&hq=National+Museum+of+the+United+States+Air+Force,+Spaatz+Street,+Dayton,+OH&radius=15000&z=18

I do have to agree though. Dayton would have been a much better place to store the shuttle than on the deck of an aircraft carrier in an inflatable hangar. It just makes so much more sense to put one in the National Museum of the USAF. It may not be the reality, but it definitely smacks of political favoritism.

Serious question, but how do you find such things as M-Theory or Quantum Mechanics to be the simplest explanation?

Because despite their complexity, no simpler theory has yet been proposed that matches the facts quite as well...

Plus, the jury is still firmly out on M-Theory (although I do admire the elegance, even if it turns out to be horribly wrong)

Also with regards to scientific research that strips away the mysticism, there is actually quite a bit of solid scientific research into meditation that has been going on the past couple years that have been pointing to a number of positive effects due to it.

Oh definitely - that's the sort of research I'm interested in. I have no doubt meditation can be extremely useful; but I'd like to understand the mechanisms and whys and wherefores without it all being tied up in mysticism.

...the simplest (and therefore best) definitions of reality...

Serious question, but how do you find such things as M-Theory or Quantum Mechanics to be the simplest explanation?

Also with regards to scientific research that strips away the mysticism, there is actually quite a bit of solid scientific research into meditation that has been going on the past couple years that have been pointing to a number of positive effects due to it.

This here sir, is the pen you are looking for. Anything else is just common garbage.

google search for Pilot G-Tec-C4

It comes in both 0.2mm and 0.4mm, although I would recommend 0.4mm on thinner paper.

It is a steel tip gel rollerball pen, and the ink dries fairly quick and writes evenly unless the tip is dirty,

which is a little difficult to clean. It can a fair amount of pressure while writing as well.

It somewhat recently became available in America and is available in multiple colors as well,

although I have been using them for years by importing them from other countries.

This is definitely what I would recommend too... the Pilot G-TEC-G4 (I use the 0.4mm). I've been using these for some time now and haven't found anything better yet.

Well, since 17" laptops no longer have higher resolutions than 1080p, why not just go with a 15.6" device with a 1080p screen? I'm typing this on a Thinkpad T520 right now, which is more or less what you describe, and has a very standard keyboard as far as laptop keyboards go. Separately grouped F1-F12 keys, grouped Home/End/PgUp/PgDn block and most important: Fully centered due to the lack of a num-block.

https://www.google.com/search?q=thinkpad+t520&hl=de&safe=off&client=firefox-beta&hs=hus&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=0kiSUKjiDsbLhAeltIHYDw&ved=0CGUQsAQ&biw=1002&bih=1025&sei=1kiSUP6eOM7Iswbm2YCYBA

The only thing that's missing is the higher-res screen - 2560x1600 on 15.6" at 100% (96DPI) scaling would be AWESOME...

This here sir, is the pen you are looking for. Anything else is just common garbage.

google search for Pilot G-Tec-C4
It comes in both 0.2mm and 0.4mm, although I would recommend 0.4mm on thinner paper.
It is a steel tip gel rollerball pen, and the ink dries fairly quick and writes evenly unless the tip is dirty,
which is a little difficult to clean. It can a fair amount of pressure while writing as well.

It somewhat recently became available in America and is available in multiple colors as well,
although I have been using them for years by importing them from other countries.

Nexus seems pretty difficult to get outside the main markets where it is sold. Where I live you can get them on the grey market.

Apple shipped 20 million personal computing devices in the fourth quarter to claim 17% of the total market, according to analysts at Canalys. The numbers include about 15 million iPads and 5 million Macs. That puts Apple ahead of former market leader Hewlett-Packard....

And yes, you can see the catastrophy that faces Microsoft, who once had over 80% of the computer market and also had 12% market share in smartphones with Windows Mobile. Microsoft could have been well poised to survive this transition into the newest computing era if it had nurtured its broad coalition to provide Windows based smartphones (which included Samsung, Sony, Motorola, LG, Dell, Lenovo etc and in 2011, Nokia too).

Just have a look through a few Post-PC articles and you will see plenty of people who believe that the Apple and the iPad will completely dominate the future of computing.

This viewpoint is not completely stupid. For most people in the world a tablet or even a mobile phone is a computing device capable of running all the software they would ever need. There are over 6 Billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide; in ten years time almost all of them will be "smartphones" in the old sense of being able to run software and most or even the vast majority will be proper modern smartphones.

Once that happens, most applications will just simply cease to take the desktop into account. At that point the future of computing is entirely determined by mobile phone and possibly tablet requirements. Apple is still the dominant manufacture of these when you include phones, tablets, iPods and so on. This used to change if you then added in PC sales, but it doesn't any more. Apple fans believe this sets them up for dominance. I don't agree.

I believe that Android or an Android related system will be the dominant system. However, up till now there has been two big problems with that argument which the Apple fans could point out. Firstly Android users have not been using their phones as computers. They user fewer applications and they do less web browsing. That changed with the Samsung Galaxy series. Secondly, Android has been failing to get into the Tablet market. The news that not just Samsung, but also ASUS are selling huge quantities of tablets changes this completely. Within not so many months Android tablets will be outselling iOS tablets and the mobile operators will have to direct their marketing efforts to save Apple so that they can have a chance to maintain a second eco-system to compete with Google. The fact that Google is dominating with a Nexus tablet which is sold direct means that there is nothing that operators can consider doing to directly damage Android.

Not so fast! http://www.google.com/patents/EP1921575A1?cl=en

Actually, didn't MS try Hexagons for WM6.5?

Darth Mickey?

How long before we see a T-shirt with Mickey holding a light saber and the text below it:
Minnie, I am your father.....

Uhh...

http://www.google.com/search?q=darth+mickey+t-shirt&hl=en&client=opera&hs=wkI&rls=en&channel=suggest&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=N2CRUNalJ6_xigLalYH4Cw&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1863&bih=1073

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=darth+mickey&qpvt=darth+mickey&FORM=IGRE

You folks never been to Asia / Chinatown before? I'm sure a lot of them are officially licensed versions also. Been around for many years.

After the horrors Lucas inflicted on us with the new trilogy I'm surprised anyone is complaining. New ones can't possibly be worse or even as bad, as long as he's not in charge of production/writing/design/etc. anymore.

They want to receive Google's indexing service free and they also want Google to pay them for the privilege of giving them free indexing services.

I thought they wanted Google to pay them for the privelege of using more of their content than can be justified by "fair usage", to the extent that people can read the excerpt on Google News and not even have to visit the original news website? Either I am misunderstanding something obvious here, or maybe I just don't believe that Google has the right to copy anything it wants for free and then make money from it.

Have you actually used the service in question? I use it regularly, and just looked again to be sure. Google gives a link to the article, and either a one sentence description or PART of a sentence. It seems like reasonable fair use to me. Here's an example news search for "fair usage": https://www.google.com/search?q=fair+usage&tbm=nws

Apparently, providing a way for ordinary people to discover information about reality is displaying a liberal bias.

For example, if you do a Google search on Ron Paul, the first thing you find is Ron Paul's campaign website telling you that "Ron Paul is America's leading voice for limited, constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, honest money, and a pro-America foreign policy." Those evil biased bastards!

If I understand what you think, you almost says that most part of google is not available on the internet. http://www.google.com/robots.txt

Do you actually carry multiple batteries?

Serious question. I hear people gripe about this all the time, but I don't know ANYONE who actually carries extra batteries. I only hear of people either carrying a charging cable or asking to borrow one.

I used to carry multiple batteries for my last two phones - an original G1 and a Nexus One. I cycle a lot, and use MyTracks to record my runs; when using GPS neither of those phones could go a full day. My present phone, an HTC One X, doesn't have a replaceable battery, so when doing a long run I have to carry a backup phone - not such a good solution.

Yes, the ideal solution would be a longer battery life in the first place!

If the nexus 7 is the most open tablet experience possible I have a terrible dystopian future for you. Now if it was running linux (i don't mean the advertising giant's linux re-imagined to track you, i mean something like plasma active) had a usb port, hdmi port and a sd card, then it would be a different story.

The Nexus does have a USB port; Oh, you say, but that's device only. No; just buy one of these cables and you have a USB host port you can connect to a hub.

Once you've got that + a version of Ubuntu which works on the device, getting Plasma Active running should be "trivial".

It looks like the distopian future does have an escape clause.

The Dutch are always trying new stuff with roads, like asphalt with noise reduction and better water management (reduced aquaplaning) (Google translate) which is used on highways here or fast and easy to install asphalt (sadly that failed, but they are finding ways of improving it)(google translate)

The Dutch are always trying new stuff with roads, like asphalt with noise reduction and better water management (reduced aquaplaning) (Google translate) which is used on highways here or fast and easy to install asphalt (sadly that failed, but they are finding ways of improving it)(google translate)

Truly badass players don't die anyway.

Yes, they do... the antibiotics abuse is to blame.

(grin)

This might be Nexus One touchscreen sometimes behaves oddly, which has been open for years now and encountered by hundreds of people. If it's a hardware problem, it's a widespread one.

They can barely keep the bugs out of the current hardware. Your problem is similar to the Nexus 7 touchscreen bug, which has hit hundreds of people. Maybe the magic 4.1.2 upgrade mentioned there will help you? (There is a bet I wouldn't take)

I live in BC, and I suppose you are right, most dams do look and work like that.

Last year, though, I visited the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington. They put on a laser show every Sunday night at 10:00 pm that's projected onto the spillway, which seems to be a giant overflow gate near the top of the damn. The result is a 1650ft-wide wall of water that's pretty amazing to watch fall down the dam as they open each gate one by one.

This is the only image I could find of the water before it all hit the bottom, but go to youtube for a clip of the laser show (or better yet go visit!)
http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/62017815.jpg

I recommend looking at the current solar powered aircraft - they're extremely light, look fragile, and barely carry anything. They generally look like gliders with some efficient propellers. Seems like it's a matter of efficiency and getting enough power from solar panels. I'm also betting they don't travel very fast (commercial aircraft travel above 500 MPH).
http://www.google.com/search?q=solar+power+aircraft

Source here: http://source.android.com/source/index.html

Factory Images here: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images

Not open?

You can unlock all of the newer nexus devices with the "fastboot oem unlock" command. You can also easily add root access (not that I have ever encountered a time when I needed it). Factory images are provided at https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images. I've set up and built my own OS for my Nexus 7 in an evening. This weekend I easily installed the current test image for Ubuntu on it too. And when I was done I switched back to android by using the aforementioned factory image. The only issue I've had was waiting on updates for my Galaxy Nexus on Verizon and that was easily fixed by easily unlocking and flashing a new image built from the source that Google released. I don't see what your problem is.

First of all, to call the Nexus truly open is farcical at best. Nexus devices are not open. They come boot loader locked, no root access, and no factory image restore. That is not open. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

1. When you buy a Galaxy Nexus or Nexus 4 from the play store it comes with an unlocked bootloader.

2. You can restore factory images quite easily, google provides all of them.

3. You are correct about no root access out of the box, you need to do that yourself.