Having a great camera and a great lens, such as those belonging to the interviewee, makes a big difference.

@Kin: I agree with you on scenario A. On scenario B, how the person gets a bomb on the plane is irrelevant, but I do see your point about people with that stop as their final destination.

@mike_311: You may not need to get off the plane—it could be a plane that stops in city A and then continues on to city B.

I can see where the airlines are coming from on this. If you get off in the middle of your itinerary, who's to say that you didn't leave something dangerous on the plane (either as checked luggage or a carry-on that you didn't take with you)?

I would like to free up some garden space by building a vertical garden along one side of the house. It would basically be a square foot garden type of setup, maybe 6 feet wide, 6 feet tall, and 6 inches deep. It would mostly be for greens. Any suggestions or links on considerations for this kind of setup—material…

There are lots of vegetables and herbs that are much better grown at home than purchased at the store, and onions are certainly among them. As r1 noted, reproducing patented plants from seeds or roots may be illegal (and with their genetically built-in homing devices, the onions will report you to Monsanto).

@TheFu: Thanks for the ideas. What I'd ideally like to do is setup a machine that can act similar to a TiVo (would be best if it could record more than one show at once), but can also play ripped DVDs, music, etc., as well as access the internet. It doesn't need to be able to run Crysis, but it should be able to…

So if I want a media center computer that can work as a DVR through a receiver, do I have to use Windows Media Center?

Really a great tip—I find myself combating this problem regularly. Thanks for a solution, and to all the commenters here for the additional ideas!

This is a good tip—and the disclaimer is also good: just make sure you check with your doctor before implementing this idea.

As a Kindle owner, I can say that the iPad's shortcomings as an e-reader are the very reasons that I like the Kindle. We read a lot. A whole lot. The Kindle is easy on the eyes. It doesn't need to be charged all the time. (In a related note, it doesn't have color, which is just fine—I'm not reading picture books…

@nixternal: I don't know...a good friend from Chicago got confused at a store out West when the cashier asked her if she wanted a sack for her purchase (don't ask me why she didn't say "bag"). My friend kept thinking the cashier was saying "sock". Other Chicago-area family and acquaintances have the same accent:…

Hmm, that name is going to cause confusion with some of my Chicago acquaintances, from whom the word "iPod" already sounds exactly like "iPad".

The grammar geek in me can't leave this one alone. I love The Oatmeal, and I love that he has some clever pieces about language and punctuation. However, there are a couple of small grammatical errors in these pieces.

Very cool—this is as good a replacement for a native app as I could have hope for. I have to get around to editing those hundreds (thousands?) of contacts that Google has collected for me, though, before I'm ready to sync my contacts with my phone. Google Contacts is still pretty mediocre, in my opinion.

The cheapest way to have fresh flowers throughout your house is to grow them yourself. I realize that this doesn't work year-round in many areas (including mine), or for many people with apartments, but if you have the space, you can't beat the price of perennials. A relatively small but well-planned flower garden…

While this would be great, it would also run counter to my experience. I don't think I've ever recovered an item that I left at a hotel (which, sadly, I've done on several occasions). I've left a phone or iPod charger in a hotel room a couple of times, and when I called to ask about it, all I got was a long time on…

When Gmail came out and offered far more storage than their major competitors, it was one of the reasons I wanted to switch. With a 1GB limit here, and very good alternatives out there, Google seems a little late to the party. Sure, I'll probably use it, and sure, there are some nice features here, but Dropbox will…

@bookgirl575: This may or may not be true, depending on the agreement that Lowe's has with the supplier. Nonetheless, if something "goes wrong" with a plant, it's probably your own fault or a problem with something in your environs. I've purchased plenty of plants over the years—last year, I had two large gardens…

It can be hard to narrow down the list of pictures you want to share, but it will make the sharing much, much better. The tips in the article are all good. Here are a few others: