Thanks David, you answered my question.

Also, good on you guys for being active in the thread.

@ Joel
I guess I wasn't trying to get at the sauce of this matter so much as answer a more general curiosity of whether a group consensus must be reached before something that materially changes content in such a manner is done. I expect that editors have a lot of leeway with what they can post and edit without calling in TEH COMMITTEE, and was wondering if this sort of thing crossed that threshold.

Of course, I can see that copping to whether this was or wasn't a group decision could strain things further.

@ Teresa
Not sure if you were responding to me, and if you were, I'm not sure if you meant that the un-publishing or the statement was a group decision.

Well, I'm glad someone said something. That metafilter thread was too hard for me to ignore, and frankly, I have work to do.

Regardless of what anyone says, it's a nice thing to try and keep personal problems from being blown out of proportion publicly - but hot damn, what a cluster.

I don't know what happened or exactly when the un-publishing occurred, and I know that hindsight is 20/20 and all that - but once valleywag and mefi hopped onto this a clear communication (even along the lines of "a statement is being prepared, stay tuned") would have been a good idea. Leaving the Internets speculating in lieu of throwing something out there begats loud raspberry.

Also, just curious - was this a group decision, or the action of a single or minority group of editors?

I doubt it's a hoax - looks more like a frustrated call center employee made presentation and sent it to his superiors. That same employee or his coworker friends are likely responsible for leaking it.

This sort of thing isn't infrequent in the desperate environs of call centers managed like by severely-disconnected-from-reality PHBs.

Nearly everyone has who has used Comcast has a story about craptastic service or other failures. Yet many people don't have much of a choice in providers, and are more or less stuck. I'm an example. Lovely mature trees in my yard block visibility to satellites, so Dish and DirecTv are out - not that it really matters, since I don't need/want a million channels. But for broadband, my only other option is Qwest DSL - at a blazing 128kbps (when it works).

I'm betting that "fundraiser" or "benefit/s" was inadvertently left off the label.

Still makes you wonder though.

Are the cookies *for* prostate cancer? In what way? Does that mean you should eat them, um, "backwards"?

Old ladies with arthritis have houseplants too.

Silent movies are a good idea, but I think the real slickness would entail a small camera on the front of the jacket displaying what's ahead of me on my back, and a camera on the back of the jacket displaying what's behind me on the front of the jacket.

Or perhaps X10 would pay me big money to jump in front of people while displaying ads.

How about a net-connected mic displaying conversation-context sensitive google ads?

[shudder]

Ditch the airport.
Get two routers capable of running DD-WRT or Tomato.
Make sure that the routers have multiple detachable antennas.
Upgrade the firmware.
Use the goodness of the new firmware to boost your transmit power.
Attach a simple cantenna or omni to one of the detachable antennas on each router.
Write an article about your super badass WAN.

OR

Buy a nice router for your house.
Buy two nice range extenders.
Meet the neighbor in between your house and office.
Find out what sort of technical help they need so that you can offer them some help with technology in exchange for plugging in a wireless repeater in their attic.
Connect second repeater at your office.
Get frustrated when the repeater in the middle needs an occasional power cycle.

I've been stuck using a sub-par Victorinox bag for a long time, since I find myself refusing buy yet another bag that only does one thing well.

In my perfect bag, I'd love solar panels and a battery - but also a plug for that battery that allows me to charge it (and everything attached) without having to carry a million AC chargers and irritating everyone by using all the outlets. A built-in (but removable) single LED flashlight would be nice too (as suggested in comment #1).
I also need TWO drink holders - one for a travel coffee/tea mug and another for a water bottle.

It would be wonderful if the bag could be made to stand on its own without demanding that bag take up as much space when containing a light load as it does when jam-packed full of stuff.

I'd like a "litter pocket" too. This pocket would be easily accessible from the outside and have a removable/replaceable silicone or plastic liner. When I'm walking while snaking and (or getting handed paper fliers on the street) I don't always want to immediately take a detour to find a trash can when I'm done - but I don't dig on the littering either. Let me stash some trash in a place that can be easily emptied/cleaned later.

The shoulder strap should have to wire embedded in it, to reduce the chance of catastrophic failure (anytime you drop your laptop bag, it can be catastrophic). If the wire could do something else, like have a little f connector like those used for external cellphone or wifi antennas, that would be pretty damn slick, though it would require a little antenna science to be worked into the wire.

Taking a line from my favorite pants (Carhartt double front dungarees), all seams should be triple sewn. My Carhartts last longer than anything else, and the burly seams definitely help.

Living in a wet climate (Portland Oregon) I prefer a top flap to an exposed zipper for the laptop compartment since zippers generally don't stop torrential downpours (but can if their taped/seamed zippers).

Hidden pockets. Why?
#1 Because we have the technology and means to own items with hidden pockets.
#2 Because part of me is still 8 years old, and this sort of thing is cool.
#3 Because sometimes you may want to hide something... Maybe it's a thumb drive filled with scans of your 9th grade doodlings of heavy metal logos that you don't want anyone to see, or maybe it's a gps tracker to help you find your bag after a theft (or long night of drinking).

Everything is removable! Let's say you want to board a plane with your bag of electronic gizmos - the security line is a pain in the ass if every item can’t be removed and repacked quickly. The laptop sleeze should come out. There should be another nylon sleeve in the bag that's the same size as the laptop sleeve - but it opens like a book, revealing two mesh pockets that can corral all your gear.

Wired pockets! If a pocket can hold a gadget, it should have channeling that makes it easy to run your own charging/headphone/data cables to a central distribution point in an inside pocket of the bag.

Mesh bulk bags. After you've got the laptop sleeve and all-purpose electronics sleeve filled up and inserted, you'll have extra room for clothing and other items. This extra space should be broken up into two or three mesh bags cut specifically for the bag, that way you can choose to use them to organize your other items/clothes even more - or you can leave them at home or balled up in a pocket.

If the bag was for my girl, I’d definitely include a little pocket on one of the chest straps of the backpack for a can of pepper spray. Regardless, at lest one strap should have a pocket for a cell phone or mp3 player.

Compression straps. Maybe I’ve stuffed the bag with two changes of clothing , a light jacket and some toiletries. The bag may be a bit more bulky than I want, so a few compression straps that would squeeze the clothes *without* obstructing exterior pockets would be nice.

If I used a 3g pcmcia or express card (instead of being a cheapskate and tethering my phone to my laptop despite AT&Ts best efforts to stop the practice), I’d love a special pocket for a small 3g router.

Landowner,

A prank shock deserves sterilization? I can totally see how that and the physical damage resulting from kicked in teeth are on par with a harmless prank. That's asynchronous moralization, tool of the fundamentalist.

I despise CIA torture as much as any reasonable and compassionate person should, but I hardly think that anyone who's shocked someone else using a prank toy has descended to the level of professional torturers, do you?

I don't suppose they asked for the locations of the 25 other bombs...

heh, just thinking about the existentialism of labeling a bomb "Y-Bomb" is very amusing. Perhaps that briefcase would be packed with dandelions and peppermints...

Chromal,

Let me know when you've managed to miraculously prevent kids (and adults) from being mischievous in addition to sharing your limited sense of humor. Until then, the best course of action seems to be not getting stressed out about joy buzzers.

For people that must stress out about something, I suggest:
World Hunger
Gerorge Bush
Dick Cheney
Macro Economics
Religion
Children too poor to afford shock toys
Dentists(!)

Wow, there's a surprising amount of granny-panties being worn today...

I just can't help but be silently stunned by the amount of people wetting themselves over what's basically a joy buzzer. The kind of toy that didn't injure or kill our parents, grandparents and-great grandparents.

Clever, but there's a small problem...
You'd better hope that you don't forget about it after you've tucked away your little battery in the glove box or trunk. Especially if you park outside in cold weather. Batteries drain a lot faster than you'd expect in cold weather.

Trying to jump your car with a dead battery is a sure-fire recipe for a sheepish and defeated call to AAA.

However, if you tossed this guy in the trunk (assuming it's not vapor-producing) and connected it to a solar trickle charger sitting on the rear deck of your car, well, you'd have an always charged backup battery. Of course, if you're going to go to that effort, you might as well connect the trickle charger to your main battery and be done with it.

Weak sauce. You can get these all over the place for less than $20.

On top of that, what if someone has a little sense about them and has decided to save their contacts and sms data on their phone's internal memory instead of the sim card so they can store more than simple (and limited) text?

There isn't anything on my sim card except the provider information necessary to authenticate to the network.

Cardboard cylinders stuffed with some fiberglass or paper insulation work well for avoiding the bass imbalance that can result from corner placement. Cheap, easy, and you can dress 'em up easily with a bit of fabric.

Better than that... Send them a good signal. A good receiver or amp between your sources (laptop, phono, radio, CD player) and you speakers is *the* way to go. Cheap-o amps and receivers will negate a lot of the good engineering that goes into high quality speakers.

Oh my! A Halloween costume!

There's no way this is as tasteless as mocking someone born with a developmental condition. Not even the same ballpark.

Besides, if this costume was seen outside the context of having a provocative title next to it; one could assume all sorts of different intentions and juxtapositions of such - intended or unintended by the wearer.

If I sold Halloween costumes, I'd probably offer a discount on the "panties-in-a-bunch" smock to the previous commenters.