I detest ringtones in the office, so my phone is always set to silent. My Pebble allows me to see my wife calling/texting me. This alone justifies the price. The Gear is overpriced for what it offers, and requires their phone to work. My Pebble works with android and iOS. (disclaimer, I only use mine with android) I can set the watch face to whatever I like, including the very useful Beer O'Clock face that a friend made.
I prefer to check the time with a watch. Till I got my Pebble, I usually wore one of several Invicta chronographs that I own. I don't like digging a phone out of my pocket to verify the time, especially when in meetings. A quick glance is sufficient to tell when I am going to be late getting home, without the rudeness of pulling my phone out and conspicuously checking time.

I've been told by AT&T reps for months that LTE is coming to the Salt Lake City area Real Soon Now. I didn't know what I was missing till a recent trip to a few LTE cities. I would love to have LTE, but I am not holding my breath. It was scheduled for Spring, then Some Time over the Summer, and now Maybe By the End Of the Year.

I stumbled upon /. late in 1998 and found it immediately useful. CmdrTaco, thank you for all of the stories, the news and the humor that this site has given me over the years. I wish you good luck in the future and beg you to write a book. I'd love to read it.

This bill got passed thanks to some legislative tomfoolery that is apparently quite legal in Utah. The legislative leadership can bypass the normal process for introducing bills if it happens in the last days of legislation. This bill got fast tracked and bypassed normal debate. Once it was passed, the outcry was enough to have the Governor and some others think that it was worth a repeal. The working group to re-write the bill will hopefully not screw it up a second time.

Nor does it mean that when they lose a leg of power that it will cut over nice and neatly. Got bit by that a while back. Their power bump put the air handlers offline. Ten minutes later all of our servers went into thermal shutdown.

A lot of companies expend a great deal of resources in order to conform to PCI-DSS. The need for extensive testing, Web App Firewalls and the like is a pricey and time consuming activities for merchants dealing with PCI. When seasoned developers often forget to mask PANs, I wonder what the novice developer will do. I hope that this service will include some PCI guidelines so small merchants won't get bit in the ass by the certification bug.

Ya know, that's been my sig here for years and I failed to notice it. Thanks for pointing it out.

And possibly a good example of how literature can inform the real world. Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org/ and H2G2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2 are both very similar to the notional Guide in HHGTTG.

You might consider that not only does the world around us inform the fiction that is written (consider Heinlein's social and political commentary in Starship Troopers) but that also Science Fiction informs our own world (see how innovation is sparked by what SciFi has given us. Also, the genres can be used to teach us about the past (Piers Anthony's Steppe) or give us a glimpse into the far future (Niven's Ringworld). There is quite a lot of SciFi in our daily lives, but our world is certainly present in our SciFi.

I want to know where this class was $Big_Num years ago. I would have jumped at the chance to participate in such a class.

Tourism is one of the largest industries in the state. Utah is home to many world class ski resorts. There are 7 of the top resorts in the world within an hour's drive of Salt Lake International Airport. Southern Utah brings many visitors from around the world to it's canyons and parks.

Utahn here. Here is a brief synopsis of what you can expect about drinking in Utah.

Taverns are bars that sell beer only. They do not require memberships, can only sell 3.2% alcohol content beer. Food is not required to be served. Pitchers of beer must be shared between at least two people.

Private Clubs are bars that can sell stronger beer and spirits. A membership is required, or to be the guest of a member. In practice many places don't pay a lot of attention to this requirement. Many offer a temporary membership for around $5. The average price for a year membership is $12. Only one mixed drink per person at a time can be served. Pitchers of beer must be shared between at least two people.

Restaurants. If a restaurant has a liquor license they can sell spirits and beer without requiring memberships. However, you have to purchase food at the same time. Some restaurants only have a tavern license and only offer beer pr wine.

Liquor stores are a state run monopoly. You have to go to the state package store in order to purchase wine, beer stronger than 3.2% or spirits. This is the only way to purchase these products.

I wrote this article years ago regarding drinking in Utah. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A279731