As I tell my kids: "boredom is a choice." When I was in my 20's I decided I needed to learn the virtue of patience. Lineups suddenly became an opportunity to plan or daydream. Red lights are an opportunity to drum or fiddle with the stereo. Not having obligations is a release, not a burden. The only obligation is to better yourself.
Boredom is a "glass is half empty" situation.
Seriously, use the time to learn or create. At best, learn the skills you'll need soon. At least, blow off steam writing funny ascerbic useful commentary on protocol, policy, or management strategies, as a parting gift to your cow orkers.
Well, see that's the thing. I didn't know that. And it's true that you'll probably have less noise and/or interference way out in a remote location, but you can never be sure. It's tripped people up in the past, believe me. First line of the post you originally replied to. Guess you missed it.
But I'm still wondering what kind of interference to watch for... they don't have POTS, for instance, so no wireless handsets. Hand radios used by hunters...using 2.4 GHz? Stray satellite transmissions? These folks are in the BC interior mountains, nearest city is a long haul.
So use two 90 degree ( 90 deg horizontal, 30 deg vertial ) sectors Good suggestion, looks affordable at $75 ea.
Well, it really depends on how those nine houses are laid out. It's possible, use a sector antenna ( or two ).... So if you can use a sector antenna, you can tilt it down and not only get better coverage, you also don't have to worry about noise or interfernece from the area not covered by the sector antenna.
That's really the biggest issue with omni antennas. Since they're not only broadcasting but receiving in a 360 radius from the antenna, they pick up more noise and interference that you'd see with a more directional antenna. That's the problem, the layout. The AP is at one edge of a 3.5 km circle. They need about 170deg of horizontal beamwidth and 30deg vertical -- sector antennas get about half that.
I'm curious how much noise and interference you expect they'll get since they're up in the mountains and remote?
I have a bunch of clients in a remote valley (self-generated hydro, radiophones/skype) who are sharing a satellite connection via 802.11b. The setup is simple enough, a vanilla buffalo router connected to a line amp and omni monopole antenna raised 35ft at the highest residence--and at one edge of the reception area. Great. Farthest client is about 2km away across the valley, reception with a small panel antenna OK; worst reception is under the antenna (no surprise) and down the hill towards the river. Nine households and low budget (so setting up 9 direct antenna links too costly).
My question: would tipping the angle of the antenna towards the reception area improve the take-off angle enough to make a difference? No-one has given me a straight answer on this.
Anyway, I was surprised at how well this !cheap! system works when they asked me to check it out. It just needs some minor reception adjustments.
Howdy all, Charles Danforth here, author of the paper that spawned this news story. Sorry for the Anonymous Coward post, but I'm too busy to sign up for a/. acct at the moment. The press release is a bit confusing and it isn't being helped by some of the (wrong) information being posted here.
First of all, as has been pointed out, this isn't dark matter we're talking about here. This is ordinary baryonic matter (protons, electrons, neutrons) which makes up the 5% of the universe we understand. Dark matter is an entirely different beast (and makes up about 25% of the mass in the universe). We don't know what dark matter is, but we know a lot about what it isn't. It's definitely not dust.
The big deal here is that, of the 5% of the universe that is baryonic (i.e. normal) matter, we can now account for about half of it. 10% is locked up in stars and galaxies. 30% is located in intergalactic space as warm neutral hydrogen while another 10% is hotter gas (ionized hydrogen). The remaining 50% is probably locked up in gas that's hotter still or is in a variety of ways currently unobservable.
Finally, no, cosmologists don't refer to material from the Big Bang as dust.
I'm honestly astonished and pleased to see so much interest in this out there. Thanks for taking the time to tune in.
That's just it, I don't need quad xenons, I want a capable C2Duo extreme with gobs of RAM and video flexibility. I'm not doing long HD video projects or science computing. Basically, I want the iMac with dual monitors on a good 3d card.
I'm not alone. It'd be a great market--with lower margins than the Pros, so the company doesn't go there. I resent the obvious manipulation by Apple.
The $800 Psystar box would be about the same costs (not including extra setup time) as a refurb iMac from apple, once delivered and outfitted with a good 20" monitor and kb-mouse. Noisy, clunky upgrade uncertainty, company support yet to be proven. Not worth the trade-offs to get video card flexibility for me.
So you're saying that a professional is able to crack any AES? I don't think so.
And yes, stenography is good, but it's ultimately security through obscurity. I'll show them what they want to see for the sake of convenience, but ultimately, if they find me out, I'd rather be secure and scream about my rights. Yeah, 256bit AES should slow them down, right? I don't really know that much about NSA-style capabilities, so assume the worst. No-one at customs would crack any decent encryption anyway.
The comment was in response to how to be obscure, and we all know that's just one step in security. The most secure way, as many other posters have stated, is to not have the data to begin with, and get it later when needed. As I said, don't get found out. Kicking against the pricks (pun intended) is worthwhile only if it makes a difference. Real spooks, crooks, and paranoids won't find themselves in this jam. The thread is about avoiding stupid searches... I'd say your energy is better expended on your elected officials, not border grunts.
[theory, of course] What is this, people? Waving flags screaming "I'm hiding something!"
If I actually had something to hide, say, key NDA-restricted docs, and I HAD to carry them on me, I wouldn't put up red flags like obvious encryption or a partition with some weird-ass hippiecommie suspicious linux install. If you want to fly below radar, you need stealth.
First: a vanilla install of windows or macOS. Standard business apps, standard documents folder with typical usage, such as correspondence, presentations, expenses, etc.
Second: family photos. Friends on vacation, etc. Make them more than typical: lots of them, and innocuous. If you're too straightlaced to keep personal stuff on your computer, that's suspicious too.
Third: on a different computer, encrypt your files with decent encryption, AES or something, using strong password. Make sure the file name isn't interesting. Doesn't matter, if a professional gets the files, they'll be cracked; the point is to keep them unobserved, so this part's kind of optional.
Fourth: mask them inside innocuous files like the photos. Transfer them to your laptop. Now you're camouflaged. Smile, respect, make eye contact, be naturally a tiny bit nervous but with nothing to hide.
My stories to my friends now are really out there as they didn't follow the same path. How did you keep yours up? I just got tired one day and now feel more relaxed than I ever have. Where does the energy come from? Amusingly I forgot some: working in a mine with shovel and pick (that was atavistically weird), chainsaw operator, ski lift operator (3 seasons), food systems activist. Recently I considered a job waiting at a fancy restaurant, because I've never done that. It all sounds more impressive in retrospect.
It isn't any unusual energy or determination that made this crazy list my work history; I know many with much more focus or drive. What led me to such a variety of work was curiosity, and circumstance.
The circumstances are what makes this job history something I think is futuristic. I grew up in western Canada, where typically, my family moved every few years. I was nerdy and smart, and so always on the outside. It made me adaptable and non-conformist. I don't have economic ambitions, and I have the privileges of being an educated white guy in a society with a safety net, so no fears of destitution. The worst that can happen is our family lives in the bush in a tent for a while -- just another opportunity to grow.
Adaptability and lifelong learning is the key. I can learn things quickly, I can read people and meet their needs, negotiate happy endings (okay so maybe I'm not that nerdy). While I don't predict any great future for myself, I think adaptability, curiosity, and creativity will be the essential skills in a post-industrial society.
It doesn't mean young workers shouldn't specialize, just that living without a career can offer a different metric of success.
In the spirit of 'work to live' I have avoided careerism. Ten years ago I wondered if I was shiftless or a novelty addict. Now that I'm middle aged with kids, I realize that I'm just a stereotype gen-Xer and I hope they will be influenced by my dilettante ways.
I've been: a landscaper, fisher, youth care worker, performance poet (yah, for real), factory worker, journalist, university instructor, tutor, warehouse grunt, retail sales manager, documentary producer-director, web designer, database programmer, substitute teacher, administrator, driver, and IT hack at various startups, plus odd jobs and 'hobbies that pay.' Right now I'm carrying various IT contracts and getting ready to open a computer service and home theatre business in a small but underserved market.
Naturally, I'm better at some of those things than others, but I only suck at a couple of them and do well at most. Mostly, though, the kids have seen me with computers and cameras, and hear these strange stories about my past. Hopefully, what they'll get from it all at the least is a sense of independence and adaptability, and to focus hard on what is at hand.
What I really want them to get, though, is the ability to combine creative insight with technical facility, for I think you're partly right: in a mass-produced world, what is in short supply is well-executed creative expression.
Teach your kids to think clearly, to keep playing, and to adapt--because you can't predict the job market at this rate of change.
Right, and since Larry Leadfoot tends to drive faster than the legal speed limit, he may as well just steal his next automobile instead of purchasing it, seeing as he already broke the law regarding speed limit. Oh come on, that's just asinine. Speed limits are safety regulations encoded in public law. EULA`s are private contracts--imposed in varying degrees of fairness under an imbalance of power.
Ok, Where can I buy a PC that is as small and quiet as a Mac Mini This is a good point, relevant to the not-quite-low-end. I went to build out a very quiet Shuttle with similar specs to the mac mini; larger and not quite as silent, but with a desktop hard drive and jacks on the front where they belong. It was about the same price, and the mini seems really well-built; I had to skimp on some of the shuttle components. Plus, the mini could be mounted on the wall (SoHo server).
All-in-all, about the same price. Silence is Golden... literally.
Uploading is illegal here, but that's easy enough to turn off on most BitTorrent/file sharing clients. Not really: judge Finckenstein ruled in '04 that uploading via P2P is making available, not active distribution, and so not in his opinion copyright infringement. You wouldn't take the photocopier out of libraries, would you?
Thats right. Just stop buying their products. Don't pirate them either. The only legal way to buy blank CD's in Canada is by paying a levy (or applying for an exemption--major expensive hassle). So, you MUST buy CRIA products, if you burn your own backups, make recordings and give them away, pass files on to clients etc. Each blank sends 20cents or so to SOCAN, who then theoretically distributes it to recording artists.
Because of that, you can't pirate music even if you wanted to, since it's legal. Your only real option (if you're a canuck) is political agitation.
Unfortunately, this still wouldn't do much if anything to prevent movie or song piracy. There is no music piracy in Canada. There is a levy system which allows for private copying, codified as a right by law. It's only piracy if it contravenes the laws.
Damn, too quick with the submit button. File sharing music, non-obscene or hatecrime text, and linux distros etc. is legal. Movies and other art forms aren't legal to share unless copyright is given.
umm then why can they kick you off for file sharing? woah, really? Who did that? I suspect it's a company policy (like no shoes no service). File sharing is legal. Unfortunately, so is traffic shaping.
It's unclear as to whether making files available on a P2P network constitutes distributing, but it's been pretty well decided that downloading is ok. The current status of P2P is that having a copy on your computer is a bit like having books in a library where there's a photocopier. You're making it available, but not pushing it.
Federal Judge Konrad von Finckenstein [great name, eh!] also ruled that the CRIA [mafIAA du Canada] can't just go prying into people's privacy by harassing ISP's. Good for him!
See my post above quoting the Act itself. It doesn't care where you get the musical recording from, just so long as you don't broadcast it or profit in any way. As long as it's casual copying, that is, you haven't made a copy for the purpose of distribution or money [the uploading part of P2P is a controversial grey area in this respect], then you're abiding by the law as it stands. So, let your friend copy your copy, they paid the levy too. Just don't set up a vending machine.
Note that this covers music, not other art forms such as movies. But we'll see about that, eh?
1) Subject to subsection (2), the act of reproducing all or any substantial part of (a) a musical work embodied in a sound recording, (b) a performer's performance of a musical work embodied in a sound recording, or (c) a sound recording in which a musical work, or a performer's performance of a musical work, is embodied onto an audio recording medium for the private use of the person who makes the copy does not constitute an infringement of the copyright in the musical work, the performer's performance or the sound recording.
That is, as long as you aren't profiting off of the recording. So, since we pay about 22cents per blank CD, we have the right, nay, duty, to get our money's worth. I download about one album per 50 stack of CDR's, which is a pretty good deal for the industry.
This whole thing is about the right to not be offended. Well, it has turned out that way, but it wasn't supposed to be. The legislation itself is naively meant to prevent advocacy of, say, genocide, which can have pretty dire consequences if it gets out of hand (or even if it gets a little bump). Even lesser things like vilifying left handed people can lead to hardship like not getting a job or a place to stay; as americans well know, virulent prejudice can really muck up a society.
The key word there is virulent. Hate spreads. Now, I don't think this legislation is effective or even right-headed, but advocating violence based on prejudice (however subtly) is more than just simple expression, it's an act that can really screw things up for a lot of people. I don't have any answers about how to deal with it, short of educating children for rational judgments (being able to differentiate between assholes and those who are just culturally different, for instance).
I find censorship highly distasteful. I don't have a problem with preventing mass violence. Hate speech is a huge grey area in between. One edge of the area is about morality, and should be left alone; the other edge is about social stability, and should be attended to.
It's a cautionary tale: Steyn may be a prick, but I don't think he's telling people to build concentration camps. The law, in this case, is an ass, and I think laws like this are doomed unless VERY specific, sticking to the genocide side of the grey area.
About 15 years ago, I dialed 666-HELL just to see what happened. I got the Canadian Armed Forces Recruiting Centre! No joke. Canadian gov numbers used that exchange in the area (yah, what a brilliant idea).
I left a message from "Dr. Antichrist" congratulating them on their foresight.
A week later I tried again and the number had changed.
Re:It was about the network.
on
iMac Turns 10
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· Score: 1
If you don't remember the amount of bitching that happened when the iMacs showed up in computer labs without floppies, I dunno what to tell you. Oh, yes, I heard some moans, but only from those who had forgotten to email stuff. Even then, I didn't use sneakernet much, but there were plenty of other machines with floppies on the same networks. It was the public lab situations where all new iMac installs were done that the floppy stuff became an issue.
For my part, I've never seen IR printing adopted in any significant way in any place I've worked. That was an HP 5MP printer, IIRC. Worked like a charm. I had a laptop with an IR port that I used in a few different places that way, too.
It was about the network.
on
iMac Turns 10
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· Score: 1
If I recall correctly, at the time pretty much everyone ended up buying a USB floppy drive for these things anyway. I deployed quite a few of these at non-profits and educational sites in '98. Those sites were already networked, either with ethernet or LocalTalk or both (usually both, to support a mix of platforms and old machines).
None of them needed floppy drives. The floppy migration used old computers that were networked, since email was essential in '98. Once I used a terminal app over a modem to modem phone cord as a temporary network, though.
The cool thing about that first gen iMac though was its infrared port on the front. In one setup it was a connection to the printer (though the user had to lean over to get that to work, haha!). In another setup, I had the user's palm pilot syncing into a custom CRM database, email, offline web browsing, text docs, and sundry, with one button press as soon as he walked into his office. No amount of bluetooth dicking-around since then has been as cool or useful or seamless, it's still an IT high point for me--so thanks, iMac.
Slashdot Mirror
As I tell my kids: "boredom is a choice." When I was in my 20's I decided I needed to learn the virtue of patience. Lineups suddenly became an opportunity to plan or daydream. Red lights are an opportunity to drum or fiddle with the stereo. Not having obligations is a release, not a burden. The only obligation is to better yourself.
Boredom is a "glass is half empty" situation.
Seriously, use the time to learn or create. At best, learn the skills you'll need soon. At least, blow off steam writing funny ascerbic useful commentary on protocol, policy, or management strategies, as a parting gift to your cow orkers.
But I'm still wondering what kind of interference to watch for... they don't have POTS, for instance, so no wireless handsets. Hand radios used by hunters...using 2.4 GHz? Stray satellite transmissions? These folks are in the BC interior mountains, nearest city is a long haul. So use two 90 degree ( 90 deg horizontal, 30 deg vertial ) sectors Good suggestion, looks affordable at $75 ea.
That's really the biggest issue with omni antennas. Since they're not only broadcasting but receiving in a 360 radius from the antenna, they pick up more noise and interference that you'd see with a more directional antenna. That's the problem, the layout. The AP is at one edge of a 3.5 km circle. They need about 170deg of horizontal beamwidth and 30deg vertical -- sector antennas get about half that.
I'm curious how much noise and interference you expect they'll get since they're up in the mountains and remote?
I have a bunch of clients in a remote valley (self-generated hydro, radiophones/skype) who are sharing a satellite connection via 802.11b. The setup is simple enough, a vanilla buffalo router connected to a line amp and omni monopole antenna raised 35ft at the highest residence--and at one edge of the reception area. Great. Farthest client is about 2km away across the valley, reception with a small panel antenna OK; worst reception is under the antenna (no surprise) and down the hill towards the river. Nine households and low budget (so setting up 9 direct antenna links too costly).
My question: would tipping the angle of the antenna towards the reception area improve the take-off angle enough to make a difference? No-one has given me a straight answer on this.
Anyway, I was surprised at how well this !cheap! system works when they asked me to check it out. It just needs some minor reception adjustments.
First of all, as has been pointed out, this isn't dark matter we're talking about here. This is ordinary baryonic matter (protons, electrons, neutrons) which makes up the 5% of the universe we understand. Dark matter is an entirely different beast (and makes up about 25% of the mass in the universe). We don't know what dark matter is, but we know a lot about what it isn't. It's definitely not dust.
The big deal here is that, of the 5% of the universe that is baryonic (i.e. normal) matter, we can now account for about half of it. 10% is locked up in stars and galaxies. 30% is located in intergalactic space as warm neutral hydrogen while another 10% is hotter gas (ionized hydrogen). The remaining 50% is probably locked up in gas that's hotter still or is in a variety of ways currently unobservable.
Finally, no, cosmologists don't refer to material from the Big Bang as dust.
I'm honestly astonished and pleased to see so much interest in this out there. Thanks for taking the time to tune in.
Charles believable AC
That's just it, I don't need quad xenons, I want a capable C2Duo extreme with gobs of RAM and video flexibility. I'm not doing long HD video projects or science computing. Basically, I want the iMac with dual monitors on a good 3d card.
I'm not alone. It'd be a great market--with lower margins than the Pros, so the company doesn't go there. I resent the obvious manipulation by Apple.
The $800 Psystar box would be about the same costs (not including extra setup time) as a refurb iMac from apple, once delivered and outfitted with a good 20" monitor and kb-mouse. Noisy, clunky upgrade uncertainty, company support yet to be proven. Not worth the trade-offs to get video card flexibility for me.
Apple is a niche monopoly, and acts like it.
And yes, stenography is good, but it's ultimately security through obscurity. I'll show them what they want to see for the sake of convenience, but ultimately, if they find me out, I'd rather be secure and scream about my rights. Yeah, 256bit AES should slow them down, right? I don't really know that much about NSA-style capabilities, so assume the worst. No-one at customs would crack any decent encryption anyway.
The comment was in response to how to be obscure, and we all know that's just one step in security. The most secure way, as many other posters have stated, is to not have the data to begin with, and get it later when needed. As I said, don't get found out. Kicking against the pricks (pun intended) is worthwhile only if it makes a difference. Real spooks, crooks, and paranoids won't find themselves in this jam. The thread is about avoiding stupid searches... I'd say your energy is better expended on your elected officials, not border grunts.
[theory, of course]
What is this, people? Waving flags screaming "I'm hiding something!"
If I actually had something to hide, say, key NDA-restricted docs, and I HAD to carry them on me, I wouldn't put up red flags like obvious encryption or a partition with some weird-ass hippiecommie suspicious linux install. If you want to fly below radar, you need stealth.
First: a vanilla install of windows or macOS. Standard business apps, standard documents folder with typical usage, such as correspondence, presentations, expenses, etc.
Second: family photos. Friends on vacation, etc. Make them more than typical: lots of them, and innocuous. If you're too straightlaced to keep personal stuff on your computer, that's suspicious too.
Third: on a different computer, encrypt your files with decent encryption, AES or something, using strong password. Make sure the file name isn't interesting. Doesn't matter, if a professional gets the files, they'll be cracked; the point is to keep them unobserved, so this part's kind of optional.
Fourth: mask them inside innocuous files like the photos. Transfer them to your laptop. Now you're camouflaged. Smile, respect, make eye contact, be naturally a tiny bit nervous but with nothing to hide.
The secret to security? don't get caught.
[/theory]
It isn't any unusual energy or determination that made this crazy list my work history; I know many with much more focus or drive. What led me to such a variety of work was curiosity, and circumstance.
The circumstances are what makes this job history something I think is futuristic. I grew up in western Canada, where typically, my family moved every few years. I was nerdy and smart, and so always on the outside. It made me adaptable and non-conformist. I don't have economic ambitions, and I have the privileges of being an educated white guy in a society with a safety net, so no fears of destitution. The worst that can happen is our family lives in the bush in a tent for a while -- just another opportunity to grow.
Adaptability and lifelong learning is the key. I can learn things quickly, I can read people and meet their needs, negotiate happy endings (okay so maybe I'm not that nerdy). While I don't predict any great future for myself, I think adaptability, curiosity, and creativity will be the essential skills in a post-industrial society.
It doesn't mean young workers shouldn't specialize, just that living without a career can offer a different metric of success.
In the spirit of 'work to live' I have avoided careerism. Ten years ago I wondered if I was shiftless or a novelty addict. Now that I'm middle aged with kids, I realize that I'm just a stereotype gen-Xer and I hope they will be influenced by my dilettante ways.
I've been: a landscaper, fisher, youth care worker, performance poet (yah, for real), factory worker, journalist, university instructor, tutor, warehouse grunt, retail sales manager, documentary producer-director, web designer, database programmer, substitute teacher, administrator, driver, and IT hack at various startups, plus odd jobs and 'hobbies that pay.' Right now I'm carrying various IT contracts and getting ready to open a computer service and home theatre business in a small but underserved market.
Naturally, I'm better at some of those things than others, but I only suck at a couple of them and do well at most. Mostly, though, the kids have seen me with computers and cameras, and hear these strange stories about my past. Hopefully, what they'll get from it all at the least is a sense of independence and adaptability, and to focus hard on what is at hand.
What I really want them to get, though, is the ability to combine creative insight with technical facility, for I think you're partly right: in a mass-produced world, what is in short supply is well-executed creative expression.
Teach your kids to think clearly, to keep playing, and to adapt--because you can't predict the job market at this rate of change.
All-in-all, about the same price. Silence is Golden... literally.
Because of that, you can't pirate music even if you wanted to, since it's legal. Your only real option (if you're a canuck) is political agitation.
Damn, too quick with the submit button. File sharing music, non-obscene or hatecrime text, and linux distros etc. is legal. Movies and other art forms aren't legal to share unless copyright is given.
Federal Judge Konrad von Finckenstein [great name, eh!] also ruled that the CRIA [mafIAA du Canada] can't just go prying into people's privacy by harassing ISP's. Good for him!
See my post above quoting the Act itself. It doesn't care where you get the musical recording from, just so long as you don't broadcast it or profit in any way. As long as it's casual copying, that is, you haven't made a copy for the purpose of distribution or money [the uploading part of P2P is a controversial grey area in this respect], then you're abiding by the law as it stands. So, let your friend copy your copy, they paid the levy too. Just don't set up a vending machine.
Note that this covers music, not other art forms such as movies. But we'll see about that, eh?
Just to be specific, and because I expect many don't know what levy you're talking about, here's the actual law that allows private copying in Canada:
That is, as long as you aren't profiting off of the recording. So, since we pay about 22cents per blank CD, we have the right, nay, duty, to get our money's worth. I download about one album per 50 stack of CDR's, which is a pretty good deal for the industry.
The key word there is virulent. Hate spreads. Now, I don't think this legislation is effective or even right-headed, but advocating violence based on prejudice (however subtly) is more than just simple expression, it's an act that can really screw things up for a lot of people. I don't have any answers about how to deal with it, short of educating children for rational judgments (being able to differentiate between assholes and those who are just culturally different, for instance).
I find censorship highly distasteful. I don't have a problem with preventing mass violence. Hate speech is a huge grey area in between. One edge of the area is about morality, and should be left alone; the other edge is about social stability, and should be attended to.
It's a cautionary tale: Steyn may be a prick, but I don't think he's telling people to build concentration camps. The law, in this case, is an ass, and I think laws like this are doomed unless VERY specific, sticking to the genocide side of the grey area.
About 15 years ago, I dialed 666-HELL just to see what happened. I got the Canadian Armed Forces Recruiting Centre! No joke. Canadian gov numbers used that exchange in the area (yah, what a brilliant idea).
I left a message from "Dr. Antichrist" congratulating them on their foresight.
A week later I tried again and the number had changed.
None of them needed floppy drives. The floppy migration used old computers that were networked, since email was essential in '98. Once I used a terminal app over a modem to modem phone cord as a temporary network, though.
The cool thing about that first gen iMac though was its infrared port on the front. In one setup it was a connection to the printer (though the user had to lean over to get that to work, haha!). In another setup, I had the user's palm pilot syncing into a custom CRM database, email, offline web browsing, text docs, and sundry, with one button press as soon as he walked into his office. No amount of bluetooth dicking-around since then has been as cool or useful or seamless, it's still an IT high point for me--so thanks, iMac.