that'd be nice - but the setup above ain't gonna do it for you i don't think. You'd probably be better off with a Vornado fan (or one of those new Dyson ones if you wanna spend $$$) that has a more focused "beam" of air.

root distributions depend very much on the species of plant, of course. water in the upper soil provides moisture for the roots in that depth, and if you have a plant with roots there (and many plants will have roots there), then it's important to keep it wet. It's also the most vulnerable to drying, as i mentioned.

To everyone who thinks that the cooler is still a good idea: I'm remain totally and completely unconvinced. More air over the ice? bah. a fan blowing air over an open tray would melt them plenty fast. "Passively" radiating into the area? The air is circulating due to the fan any, so any cold air in the area is…

uh, why the cooler? to keep the warm room air from melting the ice packs? thereby cooling the room air? mcfly?

and the most important part: have the wicking shredded-tshirt hanging down into a pool of water below the pot.

@dagwud: Ever-more saturated indeed. You'll have mushrooms growing out of it soon (seriously).

Lightroom is unmatched. Picasa falls short of lightroom in a number of ways, but the most important one (last time I looked in 2008 anyway) was Picasa's lack of hierarchical tags (lightroom calls them keywords). This is indispensable in an app that is supposed to "organize" your photos.

i also *really* like its "MDI" interface. Much nicer than tabs I think.

What is amazing to me about all email clients is their consistent failing where IMAP is concerned. IMAP errors happen all the time, in all the IMAP clients I've ever tried. Thunderbird has annoying errors all the time where particular tabs, for example, will lose their reference to the message they're supposed to be…

sui is surely referring to the original, non-thunderbird-based Eudora. The thunderbird-based one is a waste of time and resources, and is a failed attempt to bring the qualcomm-ditched app into the modern age.

it'd be even better if you could just seal the bottom, and fill in the cinderblock holes directly with soil. The concrete of the cinderblocks holds moisture (kinda like terra cotta does), and so would make for an even healthier plant environment.

@SquaredCircle: here's my tip: buy a SIM chip when you get to CR. You can pick 'em up for $5 or so in the airport there. If you want, you can also use google voice and localphone to receive calls.

@Slacklinejoe: Regarding CD/DVDs, there are also aluminum-eating fungi out there ([www.nature.com] I've found many suspicious-looking eaten-away spots on my older CD's, and I suspect it's those little critters feasting.

@virgilstar: you're probably right. but we should also consider the time and effort required in combing through all the crap you have to find the gems you really need. I'd rather spend an extra $100 or whatever to save it all and make sure i don't lose anything, rather than spending a frustrating day figuring out…

@jbaranski: Agreed! [en.wikipedia.org]

which tags do people hide in their desktop email clients? The "All Mail" tag perhaps? I'm on TB, but haven't hidden any - perhaps I'm missing something?

[forums.macrumors.com]

I hit "window key + L" whenever I walk away from my computer. Super easy, super quick.

i actually like splashid. You don't have to sync it online - you can sync with your iphone just over the local network. Good for holding non-web numbers like frequent flyer and credit card #'s, for example (my impression of lastpass was that it wasn't good for that at all). Also, no password files stored anywhere…

@Euph0rik: free, yes. functional? well, functional *enough*. I use it and like it. But 'tis buggy! And hasn't been updated since, like, forever man.