@grimjack28: That could be true. That article is not the first I have seen of the helium crisis, but I can't say I have seen any source that seemed to be backed by a proper study.

As much as I love the idea of futuristic lighter than air travel, I always wonder how this sort of plan is effected by the potential of a helium shortage. [gizmodo.com]

Makes me think of Jonny Quest. Will the Iranian Guard be dressed in appropriate frog man suits?

@Platypus Man: They probably use a referral. It can be done with the address, or with cookies. It is used a lot for advertising purposes (to track ad clicks).

Civ for .99 makes me happy :) Some of those games look fun, but it is probably good I only have a 3G... Might spend to much time playing games on it if I had a faster model.

My girlfriend got an e-mail about this this morning, but I use my gmail account for dropbox. Glad it is retroactive, that was a nice little boost.

@Liam Kinkaid: I just typed "Glenn Beck mur" and got suggestions to that effect. It makes sense that those would not be the first things to pop up for a name that is famous for other things, but even just the slightest further info gets you those suggestions.

@seishino: I'm sorry if I was not clear. I was referring to development cost, not end user cost. Most of the software you mentioned is very expensive because it is sold to a limited market and development costs must be recovered at a higher price point to the consumer. This does not mean more money was spent on their…

I would say the bigger problem is that apps are smaller, cheaper, and held to a lesser level of quality control.

I would say it is pretty egocentric to equate Netflix pricing schemes as "what happens in the world".

@Barnabus: Because we can run a wire into a jet engine and measure temperature from the outside. It turns out it is much harder to run a wire into a volcano :)

I think some clarification is in order here: We have had sensors that run at far higher temperatures for a very long time. The breakthrough they are talking about is running an electronics package at that temperature (to make data retrieval possible from those sensors).

@Mike Bartlett: Go check out BBC News videos. I get those here in the States and they also go to 11. They've done that for a very long time too, I don't even remember when I noticed that (though I just went and checked; it is still true).

I can imagine tablets taking over in the future. I can't imagine tablets having that much of an effect right now though... The iPad, shining example of the tablet future (and only notable seller at the moment) still requires another computer to be completely usable.

Is there any reason one would want an apple remote attached to their apple keyboard? My understanding is you can do all of the functions of the latter with the former.

Yes, with the caveat that I am talking about a "just phone" with modern amenities (bluetooth, good predictive text input, etc...).

At times I am using OS X, Ubuntu, or Windows 7. I prefer Firefox because it is cross platform, especially now with Firefox Sync. If I were primarily a Windows user, I would certainly give it some consideration.

I've always favored GSM conceptually because of the SIM thing, but I have only used that advantage a few times in my life.

Well, I have been thinking that no netbook around would convince me to replace my Dell Mini 9, but this could have potential.

@Kaiser-Machead v.2.1.2: Oh, I know they still exist, but there was something comforting about the uniformity of the grin. The fact that there was only that as an option created a very different feel to the situations you put those figures in. I guess lego figures that don't give you a blank smile don't feel properly…