My wife is a nurse in a local burn and trauma unit. When she first started nursing, she read an article where the researchers swabbed the wedding rings of nurses and found several kinds of nasties present on the inside of the ring (where it contacts the finger). I don't know if they did any sort of non-nurse ring testing to quantify if this was an issue only in medical environments or not, but ffter she read that, she started leaving her rings at home on workdays.
I find it highly amusing that WMP must be unbundled because it is monopolistic for MS to bundle this with Windows, when the software required to view streaming content is dependent upon what the provider makes available (except in those cases where multiple formats are available). I use WMP, Quicktime, and Real (ugh) depending on what format the video or audio I am interested in is using.
I live outside (in a rural area) a town of 50K-60K, not counting the students at the local universities. I know one guy that all he does is Mac consulting work, partly because he's good at it and also because he's one of the few people in town with that skill. In his case, newspapers are big on Macs, so he got his foot in the door that way, then most of his customers arrive by word of mouth. He also does some light advertising of his services, which is a cheap method around here to let people know what he does and how to get hold of him (and has a webpage, of course).
Forgot to mention that I had survived about five layoffs prior to getting the axe, including one incredibly inept round. Our department (development, QA, tech pubs) met in our server lab. Our lead started reading people's names - if yours was called, you were to leave and go to a different conference room. When he called out "all QA", we knew then that everyone staying the first room was going to get axed. We had two stupid PMs from our HQ in California present as well. Once in the second room, one of them had an insipid smile on her face (nervous that one of us Midwesterners was going to shoot her probably). Another QA guy said "Wipe that smile off your face Nancy, this isn't funny" or something similar.
My wife and I had a small wedding, followed by a reception (read, pool party at the new house) several months later. I took vacation the week of the party to help prepare. My dept. lead calls me on Tuesday or Wednesay saying "Bad news, company decided to shut down the R&D dept. at our location (only profitable line of software they had). If you want, you can come in and "work" the last couple days of your vacation so you'll get more pay on your severance check. My response was "Is the company honoring the three-month severance letter they sent us a year prior? Yes? Well, I'll just stay on vacation until we all get laid off Monday."
Before I worked at my first "tech" company, one of the three co-owners was on vacation and came back to find a cubicle in his office with one of the tech support guys in it, phone, computer, and all.
A coworker at my current job goes to Haiti once a year to perform volunteer work. When he came back this year, I had switched my test machine with his development machine. Did I mention I ghosted that machine to French Win2K (I don't think there's a Creole Win2K, so that's as close as I could get it)? The best part was that we switched Windows domains the week he was out, so he and our site lead (who I swear I told I was going to do this) spent an hour troubleshooting why his machine had turned French, even going to the lengths of downloading a French keyboard map so they could type correctly before he realized that "his" machine didn't have the piece of paper taped to its side that should have been there.
I was a member of the ACLU (just renewed a couple months ago), but will be letting my membership lapse. The ACLU is one of the myriad parties to the lawsuit against the Federal Election Committee. Another suit that was consolidated with the ACLU's (and others) is composed of the so-called Paul plaintiffs (Ron Paul, Libertarians Carla Howell and Michael Cloud, Gun Owners of America, and a couple others). I've been supporting the Paul plaintiffs through RealCampaignReform.com and was upset when I heard that some of the other plaintiffs, including the ACLU, told the Supreme Court that only some plaintiffs, not all plaintiffs in the case, should have the right to address the Court in the alloted two hours. The Libertarian Party got suckered into supporting the so-called McConnell Seven, but the next day issued its support for the Paul plaintiffs to get 20 minutes to address the Court with their own legal tack. Interestingly, they are the only plaintiffs attacking "campaign reform" legislation on a First Amendment basis, something you would think the ACLU would support. The Court denied this motion, so the First Amendment argument will only be made via briefs, not before the Justices.
I contacted the ACLU through their website, asking why they felt an argument that could possible get rid of half-baked legislation should not be heard by the Court. I also stated that my future support of the ACLU was dependent on their response. What did I get? An email saying to contact my state organization. Like that makes a lot of sense. See ya later, ACLU!
Both my coworker and I have sites hosted by NoMonthlyFees.com and, with the exception of a poorly rolled-out upgrade a year or so ago, we've been pleased with their operation. Their "free" bandwidth is a little low for your needs (5 Gb/month), but you can purchase extra Gb of traffic if necessary. You'll need to check their site for the latest details, but I believe it is $200 upfront for the first year's service, then $70/year afterwards.
I have a small website (aspectscripting.com) that caters to users of Procomm Plus (terminal emulation software that I used to test and still use every day) and its ASPECT scripting language. I bought some ads through google.com, that combined with the regular Google cataloging of my site, seems to have done a good job of drawing users to my site (Google appears much higher as a referrer than other search engines).
https://adwords.google.ca/select/ is the Canadian version of the.com site I used to create and manage my ads. The ads offered here are not the higher-traffic ad that you posted the google.ca link to. The ads I have through google.com appear on the right-hand side of the Google search window, clearly marked as a sponsored link. You only pay for an ad when someone clicks on it, of course. Google debits my credit card monthly for the ads I have active, and I'm able to monitor the status of the ads nearly real-time. Google requires that your clickthrough rate be no lower than.5%, but I have only had that problem with one ad that was getting massive search hits but little clicks.
1. You see people carry these immense baby bags around whenever they are out of the house. While this is OK if you will be out and about the whole day, make sure you have a much smaller diaper bag that can carry a bottle or two, a couple diapers, wipes, and maybe a change of clothes. 2. If you have the funds, start investing in a 529 plan for your child's college costs. Make sure you check out your state's plan first, as it is usually tax-deductible (at least on your state taxes. See http://www.savingforcollege.com/ for more information. 3. I've seen a couple people mentioning getting the convertible baby seats. While I agree they are good and have one myself, I preferred the infant seat that doubles as an infant carrier and detaches from the car seat base. We borrowed one from a friend and used it for the first 9 months or so instead of the bigger convertible seat we had. Using this seat gives you something to put the child in when you are at dinner and so forth, and I also found it easier to put the seat (with baby) back into the base than trying to maneuver the baby into the larger convertible seat. 4. If you can find something other than TV to entertain your child, do it. My son isn't entranced by the TV like his cousins are, and won't be if I can help it. He either plays with toya, chases the pets around, or reads any of the several books I have in my office for him.
The first thing to realize is that your life, at least for the first six months after your child is born, will change drastically. Not necessarily in a bad way, but things will be different with the baby around.
Here are some hints that I was told and some I've picked up:
1. Buy things now. If you are going to use disposable diapers, buy a pack or two everytime you go to the store. Don't get just newborns, get size 1 and 2 as well if your budget allows. I used Huggy Ultra-Trims on my son, they worked well. I wouldn't recommend doing the same with formula as our son had to go through a couple types before we found what seemed to work best for him. 2. Along with number one, plan your budget accordingly. My wife missed quite a bit of work due to morning sickness, pregnancy-induced diabetes, and was induced a month early due to pre-eclampsia (don't think I spelled that right, but have to hit the door soon). This left us with less money than expected before our son was born, so we didn't have the baby bed bought and paid for, for example. 3. Make sure you have a comfy chair (Cardinal Fang) to sit in for the feedings. We had a rocking chair (not a glider) in my son's room, but it was not comfortable. A month after he was born, we bought a rocking recliner that made night-time feedings much better. 4. If you don't have it, find a way to get a camer/digital camera and/or camcorder. I didn't have one when our son was born, but Grandma and Grandpa did and we used it when visiting them to get those moments you don't want to forget. Also look into getting a baby book set up now. My wife's cousin promised us one but never delivered, so we don't have all of the usual things recorded that some people would like to have. 5. Beg and borrow as much stuff as you can. We got a bassinet from a family friend, my wife's co-worker garage sale for baby clothes, we borrowed a car seat from a friend, etc. Spend on what you must, but borrow what you can. People will offer. 6. Family can be a big help. My wife's parents babysit the boy at least every third week, which can be very helpful. 7. Definitely attend a childbirth class. Your local hospital likely has one that expectant parents can attend. If nothing else, do this.
I have not read Blaze's paper yet, but this does not seem too earth-shattering. I recall seeing this discussed in alt.locksmithing when I was in college (early to mid 90s), so this is certainly not new information, at least for those interested in lock[smithing|picking].
I taped the show so I could watch some playoff hockey, anticpating watching the show either later tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for ruining it. I hope you find half a worm in the next food item you eat.
Missouri's new anti-spam legislation should go into effect with the next couple of weeks but it's not going to be effective without more states getting involved.
Can you point me somewhere with more information on this? I wasn't aware an anti-spam law had been passed in Missouri.
My main complaint is that scenes and conversations were added to the film that detracted from Tolkien's original material. I think the main problem with the movie is they decided to "show off" some of their CG graphics kung-fu, instead of staying closer to the book. Spoilers below, you've been warned:
1. The whole Arwen-substituted-for-Glorfindel mess. If they wanted to show her in Rivendell and have the talk with Aragorn, that would have been fine (still more than is in the book). But they have her traipsing around, sneaking up on Aragorn and then riding against the Nine. Which leads to...
2. Frodo stood off the Nine at the Ford by himself, not with the aid of any elf, in the book. Much more powerful in my opinion
3. The cave troll in Moria. As someone else mentioned, it's an orc chieftain that stabs Frodo, not the cave troll. All we see of the cave troll in the book is an arm and a leg poking through the door. The rest of the encounter in Moria is different as explained by another poster (Gandalf doesn't try to hold the door, the ceiling of the chamber doesn't come down, they get surrounded by orcs that don't immediately kill them for some inexplicable reason, etc.). Also no dwarf bodies are found when they open the door to get into Moria. Gimli seemed like he would find Balin at home in Moria, I don't think he was that upbeat in the book.
4. On their escape from the Shire to the Buckleberry ferry, a Black Rider is chasing Frodo as the other three get on the ferry. Damn slow horses they have in Mordor, you would think he could have run Frodo down pretty easily.
5. Saruman's and Gandalf's Twister battle in Orthanc. Say what?
6. The whole end of the movie deviated from the book. Boromir never returns to the rest of the Fellowship to tell them that he tried to get the ring from Frodo. Aragorn talks to Frodo and Frodo tells them he is going to Mordor by himself. Pippin and Merry see Frodo as he is leaving and one of them, I guess for the benefit of the slow people in the audience, says "he's leaving." When Sam gets back to their camp, he doesn't see the "empty" canoe leaving by itself, since Frodo is not wearing the Ring. After Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli find Boromir, they return to camp and see that Frodo and Sam have just reached the other side of the river. In fact, one of the things that I thought would annoy people is that part of the Two Towers is told in the first movie since we see Boromir die. However, I think this is probably a better spot to end the movie than the book. I just had to explain to my wife after the movie - "Oops, I guess I should have had you read more than just the first book!"
7. At some point after Frodo was attacked at Weathertop, they were in the glen with the three trolls that were turned to stone in The Hobbit. I knew this scene would be in the movie based on a review somewhere and my wife noticed the trolls, but darned if I didn't. I don't know that a little dialogue here would have hurt so much, especially since Bilbo is telling the story to some hobbit children at his party.
8. At one point in Moria, Frodo thinks they are being followed by Gollum. Gandalf says yea, and you even see Gollum. In the book, you get references that Gollum is about, but Frodo doesn't speak his fears until they are out of Lothlorien.
9. At the Council of Elrond Gimli tries to destroy the Ring with his axe. Also, the Council seemed much more argumentative than the book. I think the film was trying to hint that the Ring was exerting its influence on the members there. Also Boromir's vision is not mentioned and there is not much background on Legolas or Gimli.
I think that sums up my main annoyances with the movie. Overall, it was a really good film if you had never read the book. It just took some liberties with the story that I couldn't understand and added material that could have been cut in favor of a "better" storyline.
IE is just as good as Netscape, maybe better, if you tweak it right. I have all scripting, ActiveX, etc. turned off in IE and I never get any popups, popunders, or this new Shoskele crap when I visit sites. For those few sites that require scripting and that I think are worth it, I add to my trusted sites list.
I've been angling for QA Overlord for my past couple job titles. No luck yet. One of the developers I work with is tried to be voted Dictator for Life, as well.
I don't know what show you've been watching, but IC isn't just about the food. We've seen:
Chen being challenged by the son of a woman who beat him in a battle several years prior.
Iron Chefs challenged by other groups of chefs (Ohta's Party of Heaven and Earth, Series A, etc.), claiming that the IC's approach is not correct or classical.
Chen taking on Chairman Mao's former chef.
Iron Chef Soap Opera where the challenger was read a letter from his separated wife during the cooking.
People who view Iron Chef as a cooking show instead of an hour of entertainment are missing the boat. I think "culinary experts" would have a different view of Iron Chef if they were to taste some of the dishes from the restaurants of the Iron Chefs and challengers. Iron Chef was not meant to educate viewers about food (who here eats foie gras, truffles, and soft cod roe every night?). If you want to learn about food, go to a cooking school.
I got accused of cheating or helping someone cheat in my intro Pascal course my freshman year of college, lo those many years ago. It was an exceedingly easy class - it was mostly write down the code the professor wrote on the blackboard, go to the mainframe lab, type it in, and debug his errors. We had an assignment or two at the end of the semester where we typed in a short SAS program/script/whatever that printed out some nice graph. The professor told us to add a line that read something along the lines of "SAS graph created by." I dutifully wrote this on the paper, with my name of course. A couple days later, one of the students in my class asked me for my paper since he had lost his and the assignment was due later that night. I gave him my paper, which he typed (including my name), and submitted it as his own. The TA called me in to his office the next day or so to discuss the assignment, but luckily I was able to explain to his satisfaction what had happened.
Maybe I'm stupid and Canadian, but in an urban population with a decent sized police force, there should be no good reason for people to have to carry around weapons.
Just how close is the nearest police station to your residence? I live in a town of approximately 80K people. However, I live outside the city limits, approximately 10 minutes from the sheriff's station. If someone was to break into my house, do you expect me to call the police and hide in my attic, hoping that the person rummaging through my fricking house does not find me before the cops show up? Get real, I say. Anyone who enters *my* house, the place where *my* family lives, deserves whatever force I can bring to bear on them. Better to be judged by 12, than carried by six as they say.
I mean, Jesus, I remember driving in LA on vacation and seeing a cop in her squad car with the shotgun holster mounted right in the front seat. I mean, holy shit, that thing's loaded.
If the shotgun wasn't loaded, what good would it do the cop if she pulled it out of the car ? The way some cops drive, you should be more concerned that the keys are in the car than the gun being loaded. Cars kill more people than guns, after all.
I try not to think about how many loaded weapons there must be if I enter into a family restaraunt in the states with my kids.
I never think about someone having a gun in a restaurant. I would be more concerned about someone leaving the restaurant drunk and killing someone on the road instead. It happens much more often.
Can't you see how this makes you all look like freaks to the rest of the world?!?
If having Constitutional rights that are non-existent in other countries makes me a freak, then let me know where the nearest sideshow is.
Slashdot Mirror
Since I didn't see it explicitly mentioned on the linked story: http://www.badnarik.org
My wife is a nurse in a local burn and trauma unit. When she first started nursing, she read an article where the researchers swabbed the wedding rings of nurses and found several kinds of nasties present on the inside of the ring (where it contacts the finger). I don't know if they did any sort of non-nurse ring testing to quantify if this was an issue only in medical environments or not, but ffter she read that, she started leaving her rings at home on workdays.
I find it highly amusing that WMP must be unbundled because it is monopolistic for MS to bundle this with Windows, when the software required to view streaming content is dependent upon what the provider makes available (except in those cases where multiple formats are available). I use WMP, Quicktime, and Real (ugh) depending on what format the video or audio I am interested in is using.
I live outside (in a rural area) a town of 50K-60K, not counting the students at the local universities. I know one guy that all he does is Mac consulting work, partly because he's good at it and also because he's one of the few people in town with that skill. In his case, newspapers are big on Macs, so he got his foot in the door that way, then most of his customers arrive by word of mouth. He also does some light advertising of his services, which is a cheap method around here to let people know what he does and how to get hold of him (and has a webpage, of course).
Forgot to mention that I had survived about five layoffs prior to getting the axe, including one incredibly inept round. Our department (development, QA, tech pubs) met in our server lab. Our lead started reading people's names - if yours was called, you were to leave and go to a different conference room. When he called out "all QA", we knew then that everyone staying the first room was going to get axed. We had two stupid PMs from our HQ in California present as well. Once in the second room, one of them had an insipid smile on her face (nervous that one of us Midwesterners was going to shoot her probably). Another QA guy said "Wipe that smile off your face Nancy, this isn't funny" or something similar.
My wife and I had a small wedding, followed by a reception (read, pool party at the new house) several months later. I took vacation the week of the party to help prepare. My dept. lead calls me on Tuesday or Wednesay saying "Bad news, company decided to shut down the R&D dept. at our location (only profitable line of software they had). If you want, you can come in and "work" the last couple days of your vacation so you'll get more pay on your severance check. My response was "Is the company honoring the three-month severance letter they sent us a year prior? Yes? Well, I'll just stay on vacation until we all get laid off Monday."
Before I worked at my first "tech" company, one of the three co-owners was on vacation and came back to find a cubicle in his office with one of the tech support guys in it, phone, computer, and all.
A coworker at my current job goes to Haiti once a year to perform volunteer work. When he came back this year, I had switched my test machine with his development machine. Did I mention I ghosted that machine to French Win2K (I don't think there's a Creole Win2K, so that's as close as I could get it)? The best part was that we switched Windows domains the week he was out, so he and our site lead (who I swear I told I was going to do this) spent an hour troubleshooting why his machine had turned French, even going to the lengths of downloading a French keyboard map so they could type correctly before he realized that "his" machine didn't have the piece of paper taped to its side that should have been there.
I was a member of the ACLU (just renewed a couple months ago), but will be letting my membership lapse. The ACLU is one of the myriad parties to the lawsuit against the Federal Election Committee. Another suit that was consolidated with the ACLU's (and others) is composed of the so-called Paul plaintiffs (Ron Paul, Libertarians Carla Howell and Michael Cloud, Gun Owners of America, and a couple others). I've been supporting the Paul plaintiffs through RealCampaignReform.com and was upset when I heard that some of the other plaintiffs, including the ACLU, told the Supreme Court that only some plaintiffs, not all plaintiffs in the case, should have the right to address the Court in the alloted two hours. The Libertarian Party got suckered into supporting the so-called McConnell Seven, but the next day issued its support for the Paul plaintiffs to get 20 minutes to address the Court with their own legal tack. Interestingly, they are the only plaintiffs attacking "campaign reform" legislation on a First Amendment basis, something you would think the ACLU would support. The Court denied this motion, so the First Amendment argument will only be made via briefs, not before the Justices.
I contacted the ACLU through their website, asking why they felt an argument that could possible get rid of half-baked legislation should not be heard by the Court. I also stated that my future support of the ACLU was dependent on their response. What did I get? An email saying to contact my state organization. Like that makes a lot of sense. See ya later, ACLU!
If SCO wants bought out and wants to be jerks about it, then IBM should buy them and layoff everybody immediately upon close of the deal.
Both my coworker and I have sites hosted by NoMonthlyFees.com and, with the exception of a poorly rolled-out upgrade a year or so ago, we've been pleased with their operation. Their "free" bandwidth is a little low for your needs (5 Gb/month), but you can purchase extra Gb of traffic if necessary. You'll need to check their site for the latest details, but I believe it is $200 upfront for the first year's service, then $70/year afterwards.
I have a small website (aspectscripting.com) that caters to users of Procomm Plus (terminal emulation software that I used to test and still use every day) and its ASPECT scripting language. I bought some ads through google.com, that combined with the regular Google cataloging of my site, seems to have done a good job of drawing users to my site (Google appears much higher as a referrer than other search engines).
.com site I used to create and manage my ads. The ads offered here are not the higher-traffic ad that you posted the google.ca link to. The ads I have through google.com appear on the right-hand side of the Google search window, clearly marked as a sponsored link. You only pay for an ad when someone clicks on it, of course. Google debits my credit card monthly for the ads I have active, and I'm able to monitor the status of the ads nearly real-time. Google requires that your clickthrough rate be no lower than .5%, but I have only had that problem with one ad that was getting massive search hits but little clicks.
https://adwords.google.ca/select/ is the Canadian version of the
A couple more things I thought of last night:
1. You see people carry these immense baby bags around whenever they are out of the house. While this is OK if you will be out and about the whole day, make sure you have a much smaller diaper bag that can carry a bottle or two, a couple diapers, wipes, and maybe a change of clothes.
2. If you have the funds, start investing in a 529 plan for your child's college costs. Make sure you check out your state's plan first, as it is usually tax-deductible (at least on your state taxes. See http://www.savingforcollege.com/ for more information.
3. I've seen a couple people mentioning getting the convertible baby seats. While I agree they are good and have one myself, I preferred the infant seat that doubles as an infant carrier and detaches from the car seat base. We borrowed one from a friend and used it for the first 9 months or so instead of the bigger convertible seat we had. Using this seat gives you something to put the child in when you are at dinner and so forth, and I also found it easier to put the seat (with baby) back into the base than trying to maneuver the baby into the larger convertible seat.
4. If you can find something other than TV to entertain your child, do it. My son isn't entranced by the TV like his cousins are, and won't be if I can help it. He either plays with toya, chases the pets around, or reads any of the several books I have in my office for him.
The first thing to realize is that your life, at least for the first six months after your child is born, will change drastically. Not necessarily in a bad way, but things will be different with the baby around.
Here are some hints that I was told and some I've picked up:
1. Buy things now. If you are going to use disposable diapers, buy a pack or two everytime you go to the store. Don't get just newborns, get size 1 and 2 as well if your budget allows. I used Huggy Ultra-Trims on my son, they worked well. I wouldn't recommend doing the same with formula as our son had to go through a couple types before we found what seemed to work best for him.
2. Along with number one, plan your budget accordingly. My wife missed quite a bit of work due to morning sickness, pregnancy-induced diabetes, and was induced a month early due to pre-eclampsia (don't think I spelled that right, but have to hit the door soon). This left us with less money than expected before our son was born, so we didn't have the baby bed bought and paid for, for example.
3. Make sure you have a comfy chair (Cardinal Fang) to sit in for the feedings. We had a rocking chair (not a glider) in my son's room, but it was not comfortable. A month after he was born, we bought a rocking recliner that made night-time feedings much better.
4. If you don't have it, find a way to get a camer/digital camera and/or camcorder. I didn't have one when our son was born, but Grandma and Grandpa did and we used it when visiting them to get those moments you don't want to forget. Also look into getting a baby book set up now. My wife's cousin promised us one but never delivered, so we don't have all of the usual things recorded that some people would like to have.
5. Beg and borrow as much stuff as you can. We got a bassinet from a family friend, my wife's co-worker garage sale for baby clothes, we borrowed a car seat from a friend, etc. Spend on what you must, but borrow what you can. People will offer.
6. Family can be a big help. My wife's parents babysit the boy at least every third week, which can be very helpful.
7. Definitely attend a childbirth class. Your local hospital likely has one that expectant parents can attend. If nothing else, do this.
I have not read Blaze's paper yet, but this does not seem too earth-shattering. I recall seeing this discussed in alt.locksmithing when I was in college (early to mid 90s), so this is certainly not new information, at least for those interested in lock[smithing|picking].
I taped the show so I could watch some playoff hockey, anticpating watching the show either later tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for ruining it. I hope you find half a worm in the next food item you eat.
Missouri's new anti-spam legislation should go into effect with the next couple of weeks but it's not going to be effective without more states getting involved.
Can you point me somewhere with more information on this? I wasn't aware an anti-spam law had been passed in Missouri.
Was this Porkins? I thought it was one of the leaders, maybe Gold Leader, that said this. I couldn't find the quote listed on IMDB though.
My main complaint is that scenes and conversations were added to the film that detracted from Tolkien's original material. I think the main problem with the movie is they decided to "show off" some of their CG graphics kung-fu, instead of staying closer to the book. Spoilers below, you've been warned:
1. The whole Arwen-substituted-for-Glorfindel mess. If they wanted to show her in Rivendell and have the talk with Aragorn, that would have been fine (still more than is in the book). But they have her traipsing around, sneaking up on Aragorn and then riding against the Nine. Which leads to...
2. Frodo stood off the Nine at the Ford by himself, not with the aid of any elf, in the book. Much more powerful in my opinion
3. The cave troll in Moria. As someone else mentioned, it's an orc chieftain that stabs Frodo, not the cave troll. All we see of the cave troll in the book is an arm and a leg poking through the door. The rest of the encounter in Moria is different as explained by another poster (Gandalf doesn't try to hold the door, the ceiling of the chamber doesn't come down, they get surrounded by orcs that don't immediately kill them for some inexplicable reason, etc.). Also no dwarf bodies are found when they open the door to get into Moria. Gimli seemed like he would find Balin at home in Moria, I don't think he was that upbeat in the book.
4. On their escape from the Shire to the Buckleberry ferry, a Black Rider is chasing Frodo as the other three get on the ferry. Damn slow horses they have in Mordor, you would think he could have run Frodo down pretty easily.
5. Saruman's and Gandalf's Twister battle in Orthanc. Say what?
6. The whole end of the movie deviated from the book. Boromir never returns to the rest of the Fellowship to tell them that he tried to get the ring from Frodo. Aragorn talks to Frodo and Frodo tells them he is going to Mordor by himself. Pippin and Merry see Frodo as he is leaving and one of them, I guess for the benefit of the slow people in the audience, says "he's leaving." When Sam gets back to their camp, he doesn't see the "empty" canoe leaving by itself, since Frodo is not wearing the Ring. After Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli find Boromir, they return to camp and see that Frodo and Sam have just reached the other side of the river. In fact, one of the things that I thought would annoy people is that part of the Two Towers is told in the first movie since we see Boromir die. However, I think this is probably a better spot to end the movie than the book. I just had to explain to my wife after the movie - "Oops, I guess I should have had you read more than just the first book!"
7. At some point after Frodo was attacked at Weathertop, they were in the glen with the three trolls that were turned to stone in The Hobbit. I knew this scene would be in the movie based on a review somewhere and my wife noticed the trolls, but darned if I didn't. I don't know that a little dialogue here would have hurt so much, especially since Bilbo is telling the story to some hobbit children at his party.
8. At one point in Moria, Frodo thinks they are being followed by Gollum. Gandalf says yea, and you even see Gollum. In the book, you get references that Gollum is about, but Frodo doesn't speak his fears until they are out of Lothlorien.
9. At the Council of Elrond Gimli tries to destroy the Ring with his axe. Also, the Council seemed much more argumentative than the book. I think the film was trying to hint that the Ring was exerting its influence on the members there. Also Boromir's vision is not mentioned and there is not much background on Legolas or Gimli.
I think that sums up my main annoyances with the movie. Overall, it was a really good film if you had never read the book. It just took some liberties with the story that I couldn't understand and added material that could have been cut in favor of a "better" storyline.
IE is just as good as Netscape, maybe better, if you tweak it right. I have all scripting, ActiveX, etc. turned off in IE and I never get any popups, popunders, or this new Shoskele crap when I visit sites. For those few sites that require scripting and that I think are worth it, I add to my trusted sites list.
I've been angling for QA Overlord for my past couple job titles. No luck yet. One of the developers I work with is tried to be voted Dictator for Life, as well.
I don't know what show you've been watching, but IC isn't just about the food. We've seen:
Chen being challenged by the son of a woman who beat him in a battle several years prior.
Iron Chefs challenged by other groups of chefs (Ohta's Party of Heaven and Earth, Series A, etc.), claiming that the IC's approach is not correct or classical.
Chen taking on Chairman Mao's former chef.
Iron Chef Soap Opera where the challenger was read a letter from his separated wife during the cooking.
People who view Iron Chef as a cooking show instead of an hour of entertainment are missing the boat. I think "culinary experts" would have a different view of Iron Chef if they were to taste some of the dishes from the restaurants of the Iron Chefs and challengers. Iron Chef was not meant to educate viewers about food (who here eats foie gras, truffles, and soft cod roe every night?). If you want to learn about food, go to a cooking school.
I would like to thank our fine friends from the UK for exporting Jamie Oliver (The Naked Chef) to the US. Argh!
What, you forgot about watching Iron Chef on Friday nights? Of course, they are reruns at the moment, but it's still a blast to watch.
I got accused of cheating or helping someone cheat in my intro Pascal course my freshman year of college, lo those many years ago. It was an exceedingly easy class - it was mostly write down the code the professor wrote on the blackboard, go to the mainframe lab, type it in, and debug his errors. We had an assignment or two at the end of the semester where we typed in a short SAS program/script/whatever that printed out some nice graph. The professor told us to add a line that read something along the lines of "SAS graph created by ." I dutifully wrote this on the paper, with my name of course. A couple days later, one of the students in my class asked me for my paper since he had lost his and the assignment was due later that night. I gave him my paper, which he typed (including my name), and submitted it as his own. The TA called me in to his office the next day or so to discuss the assignment, but luckily I was able to explain to his satisfaction what had happened.
Maybe I'm stupid and Canadian, but in an urban population with a decent sized police force, there should be no good reason for people to have to carry around weapons.
Just how close is the nearest police station to your residence? I live in a town of approximately 80K people. However, I live outside the city limits, approximately 10 minutes from the sheriff's station. If someone was to break into my house, do you expect me to call the police and hide in my attic, hoping that the person rummaging through my fricking house does not find me before the cops show up? Get real, I say. Anyone who enters *my* house, the place where *my* family lives, deserves whatever force I can bring to bear on them. Better to be judged by 12, than carried by six as they say.
I mean, Jesus, I remember driving in LA on vacation and seeing a cop in her squad car with the shotgun holster mounted right in the front seat. I mean, holy shit, that thing's loaded.
If the shotgun wasn't loaded, what good would it do the cop if she pulled it out of the car ? The way some cops drive, you should be more concerned that the keys are in the car than the gun being loaded. Cars kill more people than guns, after all.
I try not to think about how many loaded weapons there must be if I enter into a family restaraunt in the states with my kids.
I never think about someone having a gun in a restaurant. I would be more concerned about someone leaving the restaurant drunk and killing someone on the road instead. It happens much more often.
Can't you see how this makes you all look like freaks to the rest of the world?!?
If having Constitutional rights that are non-existent in other countries makes me a freak, then let me know where the nearest sideshow is.