Diddley. It sucks when they do it in the movies (vs. shooting 3D in the first place) and I expect it to suck here. At least when they did it in the movies, there was a human technician guiding the process. I think that under fully automatic control, it will just suck more.

The "something worse is about to happen" effect, by the way, is called a "zolly". It's a pretty cool effect, really.

If you have VoIP service from Ooma, it includes the ability to create a blacklist of callers. You can then choose how to deal with them, choices being: (1) continuous ring (2) straight to voicemail, (3) call blocked message or, (4) my fave, line disconnected message.

Work laptop, journal, Common LISP reference guide, 2600 Magazine, my last performance review, MP3 player, Headphones and Micro-USB cable for same, bottle of eye drops, box containing Verizon aircard and other remote access bits and bobs, power supply for the laptop, 5m Ethernet cable, empty lunch containers that need…

@Mickets: Whoa!

@TTownTerrorist: Yeah, you'v got the idea.

@bobkoure: Even better!

You can also use an Ooma Telo or a Gigaset One to tie your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone into wired or cordless phones in your house, thereby getting something better for range than the 10m you can get from Bluetooth. Both of these devices also allow you to tie in a wired line, and the Ooma Telo is also a VoIP device.

@musiqrulez: I do take friends and family on as clients (I am a DJ, sound tech and computer consultant), and I communicate my expectations to them clearly in advance. If it sounds like the expectations won't be met (mine or theirs), then I will turn down the job.

@minneapolisite1: I use Sound Juicer under Ubuntu Linux and rip the content to FLAC format. Later on, I can batch-process these into MP3 if I so desire for compatibility with my five-year-old audio player.

@TTownTerrorist: Let me give you an analogy.

@pale_blue_eyes: Do keep in mind, though, that European electrical outlets deliver 3000W in the UK and 3500W in the rest of the continent, versus 1650-1800W in the US. You can get electric teakettles in the US, but they will take longer to boil water, possibly as long as the microwave.

My avatar photo was taken with the crappiest of crappy: A Polaroid Fun! Digital 320. That's 320 as in 320x240 as in 0.08 megapixels.

You might also find some "oasis" to cool off in. One of the universities in my area has a jet fountain in front of the main entrance to the academic portion of the campus. Quite frequently, you will see joggers and bicyclists (myself included) cooling off in that fountain. Beaches also work well if you live near…

I have found, in general, that the courts are very accommodating for date change requests, as long as it is clear to the clerical staff that you really do intend to serve and that you have just been asked at a horribly wrong time. Now, as far as that goes, my experience is limited to three Upstate New York counties…

Well, I could see this being a useful tool, if you find something that pleases you to look at, but isn't necessarily functional (the action figures in the illustration are a good example).

@David Simpson: As a general rule (and your mileage may vary, depending on whether or not any of your utilities are subsidized), it is less expensive to heat things up with gas than electricity. This is because the amount of fuel used to generate the electricity to produce x amount of heat is more than the amount of…

Of course, Apple could have made life much easier on their iSlaves by maybe making a device in which you could *gawsp!* change the battery!

@Bat21: +1 Insightful!

I recently stumbled upon a pair of Dynaco speakers built circa 1969. While the bass on them is a little anemic (which I fixed by equalization), they can reveal the shortcomings of lossless compression pretty easily. It is not, by any stretch, a disaster, but it is noticeable enough that I have started re-ripping my…