Matter of fact, I'm having a hard time identifying what kind of ship that is. Sizewise, it looks like a big frigate, like the Constitution, but sailwise, not a bit. Curious. Perhaps it's what they did in the mid-1800s, where my knowledge is woefully inadequate.
Metaphorically, I don't know as I'd compare Vista to even a heavy frigate- it's not near fast enough.

I really wish the nonsense with Buffalo would get resolved. Those are by far the easiest routers to make work, and they're bullet-proof. They were my preferred choice when hooking up neighbors, because the existing software was pretty decent, too, and there was flexibility.

That being said, I've had luck using the 54GL as cheap bridges to allow trailers to be connected to the main portion of a school. Works great, less cost, and we can put directional antennas on them if needed.

If netgear would allow detachable antennas, and put a gigabit switch in there, I'd trade out my WRT54GS. I can't kill the thing...

It's rather more attractive than the current case, by my reckoning. And I'd buy one if only they had made a way to put the external HD DVD player in it, too. The noise from that thing is even worse than the 360.

But the video is purty, if now obsolete.

Monkeyduck is pretty close to imagining what I've always thought would be advantageous. Perhaps he knows why it wouldn't be.

My father lost most of his hearing years ago due to large doses of an antibiotic. He now has a hearing aid and a cochlear implant.

Both of these devices are terribly sophisticated. I don't have any idea how much horsepower is in each, but it's pretty extensive, and it's moderately delicate. He loses at least one of the devices per year due to sweat.

Why, then, don't we have bluetooth headsets tethered to a PDA that does the DSP work? Yes, it's a step back, visually, from the smaller, less-obtrusive hearing aids we have now. But a best quality bluetooth earpiece surely can be had for $200, and a good PDA can be had for $400. Said PDA could do all sorts of audio tricks that the hearing aids can't do- for example, dad can't see movies because the reverberation from surround sound plays havoc. I would imagine audio modeling could be done to solve that- click on the right preset, voila!

Anyways, $600 hearing aids that are commodity and easily replaced. That's my dream. Somebody feel free and steal this idea and make a fortune, but just send my dad a set once you get it done...

Unrelated to the use of ellipses, Jack Davis is a genius. Guess which frat he went to?

Well, from experience here helping school districts, there's two factors at work here:
a) cost of the 'sled.' These suckers are different on just about every single projector I've seen, even from the same maker. So you've got these fancy devices, with low volume numbers, and expensive manufacturing costs. The only real purpose they serve is to precisely align the bulb. The secondary purpose is to keep you from touching the bulb, and thus shortening its life. If you're cynical, the real purpose is to make very expensive blades to the $500 projector. I can't completely rule this out.

b) low-volume bulb usage. Bulbs seem to be like RAM- they reach a sweet spot of cheapness and then go up. On some sleds, you can just take out the bulb, and pop in a new one- and that's usually no more than half the cost of the new sled/bulb combo. At one point, I could buy the bulbs in our sharps for about $25, $50 for the large bulbs. (Sharp seemed to pick bulbs that were used by other industries.) That's a good deal compared to the $300/$500 the new sled/bulb ran. I just replaced a bulb in one of our older conference projectors, that used to be $50, and it was $230ish.

It's not hard to replace just the bulb unless it's soldered in place, and googling the #s on the bulb can usually net you a replacement, usually from Japan. Take out the old one, disassemble, wash the sled, and the put on clean cotton gloves and put in the new bulb.

I have seen only one company that advertised 'replacement sleds' ala the ink refill places, but it strikes me as a profitable market.

Epson is advertising at trade shows the lower costs of their bulbs. Anecdotally, that seems to be the case. However, like elbiggus, I'm really waiting for the LEDs to get bright enough to take over the market. Quieter projectors, no need for filters, etc., are greatly desired here in the schools, and the LED based projectors aren't bright enough yet.