Yeah, but the poster is referring to a 500 Mhz job. Apple came out with the 450 Quadra at the end of 1998 for ~$4000 (US), so I was pretty much assuming expensive.;p
Well, I do single pass. But that faster than realtime can hold up if I have a few filters in place. If the video is non-anamorphic and I have to deinterlace, I can do a side-by-side blur, and keep just above 24 fps...
But uh... I just don't see how a good encode can look better than the source material. If the info isn't in the origional stream, it won't be in the rip.
If I show you how to gap your spark plugs, and then you still can't do it, then you probably shouldn't be using a car. I honestly think if we got rid of the bottom 25% of drivers ranked by skill, we'd do away with 90% of the accidents. But that's neither here nor there.
The same sort of thing goes to computers. If I make you (hi mom!) a dial up networking icon on the desktop, and you still can't click it after I show you how a few times, just stop, okay? Go listen to the radio. Seriously, not everyone 'needs' a computer.
Don't worry, this is the last of my time I'm willing to waste on you. Enjoy it whie you can, and don't expect any more followups to your amazingly illogical arguements.;p
I never said anything about fish or the long term.
Yes, you did. You think that all the plants will be dead from hydroxide in three months. That's long term. It's amazingly wrong, but it's certainly long term.
We both know how useful that explosion will be in mixing the entire lake volume so let's drop that one.
Yes, we do. I also know that in very little time (so much less than three months, it's not even funny) it will have mixed completely. One day with even mild wind will drum up the motion of a while lot of stir bars. Your thinking indicates that you think this lake is in a jar on your desk somewhere.
So again, thanks for calculating the final pH of the solution.
Funny. I don't remember doing that. Did I do that? Hell, I didn't do that.
I have tried an exercise, namely I have added concentrated solutions of NaOH to solutions of organic molecules (e.g. proteins, DNA) and seen _local_ denaturation/hydrolysis arising from amounts of hydroxide that negligibly alter the overall pH.
Okay, here's your experiment, if you're actually misguided, and not just being an idiot. Take 10,000,000 drops of water. Keep careful count! Then take one drop of NaOH. Give it a good shake, and water a tree with the results. If it's an apple tree, send me some apples, and I'll happily eat them. Don't hold your breath waiting for the tree to die, either.
I could count on you running from the challenge that I posed today, namely estimating the plume that would result from this explosion.
Gosh! Did I leave your childish demands off my to do list today? How strange. If you're really serious, send me a GPS map of his lake and the surrounding area, soundings of the lake as a one foot grid, as well as wind, humidity, heat, and every other conceivable condition for this day you'd like me to simulate. Also include a $500 in small bills for my time, and I'll cook some numbers for you for a day that will be nothing more than a rapidly dispersing cloud dropping to undetectable levels of NaOH after hours, if that long.
In the meantime, just beacuse I don't do your science homework for you doesn't mean I'm 'running from your challenge', eh?
The walk behind the car thing is just bizarre, I have no idea what you're talking about.
I think you do, but I'll explain anyway. You think things need some kind of magic miracle to dilute/disperse. They really don't. By your logic, standing 10 feet behind a car at the right angle is just as dangerous as having your lips to the exhaust pipe. It's not.
the flash and bang are nifty but they cause real environmental damage.
Not any more than say, walking across a field, trampling those poor defenseless blades of grass. And that's the whole point.
There is no other reason for you to use the sentence fragment, "Assuming the lake was distilled water," in that paragraph.
Well, there is. I used it because that would be the only way it would be a perfect 2 ppm solution of dissolved sodium in water. I thought that was taken care of by the very next sentence, which as you pointed out is: Very likely it wasn't.
For the record, it was supposed to be sarcasm. You know, yes indeed, a lake filled with distilled water. Okay there, buddy.
Contrary to what you and I know to be true, I *guarantee* you that many of these other people really expect dead acid-eaten fish. (I'm sure the explosion got one unlucky bugger though.) Postman, the bright boy that he is, keeps pushing the issue.
Summary? You're right. I'm right. We're right all around, just not talking to each other about the same thing. Let's just hug and make up, so I can get back to poking fun at environmental reactionaries, okay? =p
Yes, yes. Of course you're right. And if I walk behind a car, I'll just drop down dead from the carbon monoxide concentrations, right?
A) Fish swim. If they approach an area of water that makes them uncomfortable, they will turn around.
B) The sodium *explodes*. That may help in stirring, somewhat.
C) Oh please. Don't try to save yourself. You're the rocket scientist that wants to see pictures of this lake in three months. Now you're concerned about the short term more? Boy, you dropped your origional position like a hot potato and picked this one up pretty quick. I'm sure you've given it just as much thought as your first. Why don't you try a little excercise - reason it out, try to figure out what will happen, and why, and *then* join in the conversation, not before.
Mr Equilibrium thermodynamics indeed. Get that high school diploma, okay?
It appears that W.R. Grace is a fairly large chemical company.
What the poster neglects to realize is that as a large chemical company, if they were dumping sodium, they'd probably have an actual *statistically significant* ammount of sodium, and dump it in a non-private river, like the Mississippi.
Some people just really enjoy wearing blinders, I guess.
My source of irritation is that you used faulty analysis to support your conclusion...
This from the dumbunny who compared it to 3 pounds of chlorine in a swimming pool? At least I compared actual numbers of the actual things involved, illustrating that the ammount of water was more than five hundred thousand times greater than the ammount of sodium being introduced. What's faulty about that? How was it incorrect?
jlseagull: That's a ratio of 1.75e-6 OH-/H2O. Normal water has a concentration of 1e-7 OH-/H20, so add the two to get the total concentration C, and -log C = pOH = 5.73, so pH = 14-pOH = 8.26.
postman: Ask this super genius to post some photos of the pond three months from now, esprecially those plants we see in the background.
Anonymous Coward: Yes, it will raise the pH.
noackjr: Considering pH = -log(H+ concentration), a change of 2 ppm (2e-6) is *very* significant. This works out to a change in pH of over 1.3 to ~5.67 (assuming a start at 7)...
SmittyTheBold: If you're adding Sodium, the water's going to head toward alkalinity - so your number there should be "~8.33" not "~5.67."
And then...
dumbunny: Most of us aren't disputing the conclusion that the lake's pH won't change noticeably.
Lets see if you can find *my* source of irritation.
And by the way, clearly it's my fault for how my post got modded. Right?
Since your calculations were pretty much the best (though an AC did correct your final molar results), I'll reply to yours, rather than one of the other 8 people yelling at me.;p
The thing is, you're assuming distilled water. I admit to saying distilled water, but I wasn't really assuming his lake was distilled (for obvious reasons) but I meant that if you combined x sodium with y distilled water, you would end up with a z ppm solution.
A real lake, however, ain't.
I really do believe with the concentration of tannic acid, decaying organic material, and soil interaction of any normal lake, a PH measurement of a lake before throwing in a nice sodium rock and another PH measurement the day after would show a change of 0. It's amazingly hard to change the PH of organic rich water. I don't really have math to back this up, but I do have extensive fishkeeping experience. PH up and PH down are pretty much bunk as products, unless used *very* regularly, as the PH will find its way back to where it started really, really fast. And that's only in 30-100 gallons of water.
And yeesh, as far as excess salinity... I have to dump 7 pounds of salt into 25 gallons of water to recreate the ocean. That's a little bit more than 2 ppm. (though someone with the actual dimensions of his lake worked out.13 ppm.) So yeah, even less. I can't think of a single freshwater fish that can't acclimate (easily) to a teaspoon of salt per gallon.
Do you really believe a PH of 8.26 would result? Because... that's just wacky.
I like fire and explosion as much as the next guy, but this is out and out criminal. If W.R. Grace was found dumping metallic sodium into a pond Slashdot readers would whip themselves into a rabid frenzy. Ask this super genius to post some photos of the pond three months from now, esprecially those plants we see in the background.
Sigh.
First of all, thanks for being the one millionth customer with the same post. Yes, yes... three pounds of sodium. Indeed, a worldwide ecological disaster. I only hope people like you can save us.
Do you have the slightest idea what the effects of 3 pounds of sodium would be? Actually, lemme be more clear. Do you have the slightest idea what the effects of 3 pounds of sodium would be on 23,550 cubic feet of water would be? (I'm assuming 100 foot diameter lake, 3 feet deep. It's probably bigger.)
Hint: A cubic foot of water weighs 62.4 lbs.
3 pounds.
1469520 pounds.
Why, for the record, you'd have a 2 ppm solution of sodium. Assuming the lake was distilled water. Very likely it wasn't. Change in PH?
0.
NADA! NONE! ZEEEEERRRRROOOOO.
And that 0 change assumes that the lake is somehow a sealed system, and this sodium would somehow stay there forever. Where do you think the sodium came from, anyway? We imported it from Mars to cause danger to our planet?
It's all over the place! Honestly, he could have caused more damage to the long term health of that lake with three pounds of milk. Or even dead fish.
Okay, I'll go for the offtopic award of the day. Did you know that certain people are for some reason totally immune to crazy glue? Well, I mean, not totally immune. But I can pour the stuff on my hand, and slap it on a desk... and wait for a good long period of time, then just peel my hand off, with no pain, and very little resistance. And I leave a lovely hand print.
I'll round like a crazy man, so that's one meg in a minute... one meg/6 is about 170k. Either you have a really, really, really long phone number and address, or you're sending her three or four decent porn jpegs. Either way, you've got trouble.;p
That's a pretty strong thing to say since all you can back it up with is your feeling that he doesn't care about his business. I happen to completely disagree with you. I guess that means that you could not be more wrong.
Anyway, that's nonsense. It doesn't matter if he cares about his business or not. If people don't buy from his store, his store goes out of business. If his store goes out of business, he runs out of things to sue about once his current docket of cases clears up. And people will have no reason to badmouth a store that no longer exists, so he won't even have incidental fodder. It's that simple.
Take it even further. First of all, there's no reason why the company involved shouldn't be forced to pay you for your legal bills, and theirs. If they're going to spend a few million dollars to squash some guy in Arkansas, they should be prepared to pay him that ammount.
Of course, for something like the Pets Warehouse case, this doesn't change much, since Novak is representing himself pro se. But I still think it's fair. It's really the way courts are 'meant to be', but modern society has drifted away from that. Two ordinary people trying to settle an injustice. Not 18 guys in suits, with another 45 back home generating stacks of paper.
On the other hand, Dan was sued for $15,000,001. That's a huge ammount of money. The case was settled for $4,150. That should set off a red flag somewhere, and it should be someones job to investigate that. (Department of Justice, based on the name...) If a plaintiff believes that Fifteen million dollars worth of damage was done, why in the world would they settle for $4,150? And if they don't believe that $15 million worth of damage was done, wasn't the lawsuit bogus?
In my origional post, where I dared him to sue me, I said things that are similar to what Dan said. I compared price and service. Both are verifiable, easily. If you want something interesting, go to the Better Business Bureau website, and click 'check company'. Enter Pets Warehouse. They're rated unsatisfactory. Excerpts below:
Based on our files, this firm has an unsatisfactory record.
Closed Complaints Total number of complaints processed by the BBB in last 36 months: 23 Total number of complaints processed by the BBB in last 12 months: 4
That Pet Place (That Fish Place) on the other hand, has this record with the BBB:
Based on BBB files, this company has a satisfactory record with the Bureau. Any complaints processed by the Bureau in its three-year reporting period have been resolved. The number and type of complaints are not unusual for a company in this industry.
Not exactly glowing praise, but the BBB only has three raitings, satisfactory, unsatisfactory, and updating.;p And what about Drs. Foster & Smith?
Based on BBB files, this company has a satisfactory record with the Bureau. Same story.
Dan relates a tale how he ordered plants, and had to call six times to get yelled at. I ordered from That Pet Place, used the internet form, changed my mind, called their customer service, and was able to un-order a $90 item. The woman I talked to was sweet as pie, and they even asked me, since I'd selected federal express, if I'd like them to try to hurry the rest of the order so it could be shipped out today. If only other companies were so good.
I'd document price right now, but it seems that petswarehouse.com isn't responding. Anyway, the point is, how in the world can you sue people for this?!? I'd love to go off on a rant and yell and scream about how the system is 'broken', but I really can't think of any checks you could put in that couldn't be abused in the other direction. If you've read the Rainmaker, you can already picture it - you have a son, dying of cancer, and the insurance company defaults on the coverage. You need $200k for surgery and hospital bills. You sue for $15,000,000 for punitive damages, to 'fine' them in essence, so they think twice before screwing the next person. They offer to settle for $225k.
Your son is dying. What do you do? (It's a great book, by the way, and I don't think I ruined it for you.)
It's all so frigging complicated. I just can't find it in me to think of a better way to do things, though. I would really appreciate any suggestions, though. I think I'll start using my slashdot journal today.
I know that I'm amazingly late to this discussion, but I want to chime in anyway. The benefit of getting basic math training is not doing 257 * 7.32 in your head.
It's knowing to do (257 * 7) + (257/3) in your head, and saying "about" before the result. That's what you need to do in the real world. When you're in a planning meeting, you only need to know if it's possible for an x gigabyte disk to support y number of people, if each person has about z ammount of data. You can figure out exactly how much space everyone gets and how many disks to buy later, but in the meeting you need to know if you need to budget for one server or two.
It's a shame I left out the words "can see this" from the first line, even though I got all the HREF's right, and even closed my/B's and/I's... I'd sound like less of a tard if that part was readable...;p
Of course, I'm never going to get sued if he knows I want him to sue me. Hmmmm....
Lawsuits scare me to death. I cave in at the slightest legal threat, or even peer pressure. I have a room in the back of my house where I store loose shopping bags full of cash, and I would never speak to a good lawyer. I even paid a spammer for a penis enlarger.
Oh hell, that's too easy to figure out. He might... crack my code. Perhaps I could then sue under the DMCA!
Maybe I don't understand this whole thing fully. I read The Defense Fund and it seems like Dan Resler, the poor bastard that accidentally started this whole thing, actually ended up paying $4,150 to Novak. Of course, he was sued for $15,000,000, so percentage-wise he got off pretty well, but $4,150 isn't really pocket change either. And if you read Dan's origional post, it really just seems like he got some bad plants, overcharged for shipping, and customer service told him to go take a flying leap. You can read his origional post here. I'll even quote the relevant bits:
My 6th call was last week, and when they realized I was calling about a plant order they proclaimed "They will be shipped on Monday". Click.
On my order confirmation I was quoted a shipping price of $7.50. Nice... it was one of the selling points for me. Then the order arrived complete with an invoice stating that shipping was $18.50! When I called them today to straighten this out, they informed me that the original quote was wrong and that I was stuck with the $18.50.
Quoted without permission, of course. Christ, maybe Dan will sue me now. I argue fair use in advance. (Dan, don't! Slashdot is on your side!)
I mean, how in the world can you sue anyone over that? You want a bad analogy? I like Coke. (I actually kinda like Pepsi... so... frig.) Okay, I like Diet Coke. I *hate* diet Pepsi. I don't know why. I can say this:
Diet Pepsi tastes bad. I opened a can, tasted it, and said, "Yeeeech!"
Thank God for the Constitution. Thank God for the freedom of speech. Despite all the bad press, America is a pretty darn nice place to live.
Pardon me for replying to you, but I want this to be near the top, where everyone, especially ROBERT NOVAK, head meatball in charge.
Want to really make him hurt? Just point out that his store really is horrible. Service? Sucks. Price? Sucks! There are much better stores that have better stock, lower prices, and excellent customer service. Two such examples are:
(Note: I am not affiliated in ANY way with either of those stores mentioned. They had nothing to do with being written here. I put them here. They're not the droids you're looking for. I AM. All of the above is my very own personal opinion, and I stand by it.)
So come get me, big boy! Sue my frigging ass off for enjoying my first ammendment rights. I even live in New York. And I'm bored. It costs me just as much nothing to be sued by you as it does for you to sue me. Let's just frigging GO. =)
No MacOS webserver has ever been rooted or defaced in history.
Okay there, buddy. Stop frothing at the mouth. First of all, how the hell do you root a system that doesn't even have different levels of access? It's all root. In that sense, Mac OS 9 is just about as shiny and amazing as Windows 95. You don't even have protected memory. That's why you have vulnerabilities in your web broswers where just looking at a website can force your wonder machine to download and run any code the site designer wants, that's why doing a simple RDNS will shut your system down completely.
Oh, by the way. If your machine is a web server that RDNS's addresses, anyone browsing from, or spoofing 206.207.151.40, 206.98.128.14, 206.207.48.173, or 206.207.48.194 will shut your system down. Like, wave bye-bye down, since you again, have no protected memory. Wow. I'm sure in the HISTORY of Mac OS 8 and 9 webservers, no RDNS's have been performed.
Honestly, the system you're bragging about is fucking Mickey Mouse bullshit. Name the site and the date, indeed. The burden of proof is on you, friend. Nothing is secure. Why not show me some (any) respectable (non-geocities/mac zealot) links that agree with you?
Slashdot Mirror
Er, I meant 500 Mhz on the Quadra. It was the 450 Mhz PII that was out at about the same time. I hate it when I do that.
Yeah, but the poster is referring to a 500 Mhz job. Apple came out with the 450 Quadra at the end of 1998 for ~$4000 (US), so I was pretty much assuming expensive. ;p
I like XP OK, but can you run it on a laptop you bought in 1998?
Well, yes, of course you can. Why, did you think you couldn't?
Well, I do single pass. But that faster than realtime can hold up if I have a few filters in place. If the video is non-anamorphic and I have to deinterlace, I can do a side-by-side blur, and keep just above 24 fps...
But uh... I just don't see how a good encode can look better than the source material. If the info isn't in the origional stream, it won't be in the rip.
Well, I'll go out on a limb.
If I show you how to gap your spark plugs, and then you still can't do it, then you probably shouldn't be using a car. I honestly think if we got rid of the bottom 25% of drivers ranked by skill, we'd do away with 90% of the accidents. But that's neither here nor there.
The same sort of thing goes to computers. If I make you (hi mom!) a dial up networking icon on the desktop, and you still can't click it after I show you how a few times, just stop, okay? Go listen to the radio. Seriously, not everyone 'needs' a computer.
Okay, okay. As long as we're bragging. ;p
I'm running dual 1800+ MP's, and the whole encoding process to Divx pro 5 and 128 kbit MP3 goes faster than real time.
Don't worry, this is the last of my time I'm willing to waste on you. Enjoy it whie you can, and don't expect any more followups to your amazingly illogical arguements. ;p
I never said anything about fish or the long term.
Yes, you did. You think that all the plants will be dead from hydroxide in three months. That's long term. It's amazingly wrong, but it's certainly long term.
We both know how useful that explosion will be in mixing the entire lake volume so let's drop that one.
Yes, we do. I also know that in very little time (so much less than three months, it's not even funny) it will have mixed completely. One day with even mild wind will drum up the motion of a while lot of stir bars. Your thinking indicates that you think this lake is in a jar on your desk somewhere.
So again, thanks for calculating the final pH of the solution.
Funny. I don't remember doing that. Did I do that? Hell, I didn't do that.
I have tried an exercise, namely I have added concentrated solutions of NaOH to solutions of organic molecules (e.g. proteins, DNA) and seen _local_ denaturation/hydrolysis arising from amounts of hydroxide that negligibly alter the overall pH.
Okay, here's your experiment, if you're actually misguided, and not just being an idiot. Take 10,000,000 drops of water. Keep careful count! Then take one drop of NaOH. Give it a good shake, and water a tree with the results. If it's an apple tree, send me some apples, and I'll happily eat them. Don't hold your breath waiting for the tree to die, either.
I could count on you running from the challenge that I posed today, namely estimating the plume that would result from this explosion.
Gosh! Did I leave your childish demands off my to do list today? How strange. If you're really serious, send me a GPS map of his lake and the surrounding area, soundings of the lake as a one foot grid, as well as wind, humidity, heat, and every other conceivable condition for this day you'd like me to simulate. Also include a $500 in small bills for my time, and I'll cook some numbers for you for a day that will be nothing more than a rapidly dispersing cloud dropping to undetectable levels of NaOH after hours, if that long.
In the meantime, just beacuse I don't do your science homework for you doesn't mean I'm 'running from your challenge', eh?
The walk behind the car thing is just bizarre, I have no idea what you're talking about.
I think you do, but I'll explain anyway. You think things need some kind of magic miracle to dilute/disperse. They really don't. By your logic, standing 10 feet behind a car at the right angle is just as dangerous as having your lips to the exhaust pipe. It's not.
the flash and bang are nifty but they cause real environmental damage.
Not any more than say, walking across a field, trampling those poor defenseless blades of grass. And that's the whole point.
There is no other reason for you to use the sentence fragment, "Assuming the lake was distilled water," in that paragraph.
Well, there is. I used it because that would be the only way it would be a perfect 2 ppm solution of dissolved sodium in water. I thought that was taken care of by the very next sentence, which as you pointed out is: Very likely it wasn't.
For the record, it was supposed to be sarcasm. You know, yes indeed, a lake filled with distilled water. Okay there, buddy.
Contrary to what you and I know to be true, I *guarantee* you that many of these other people really expect dead acid-eaten fish. (I'm sure the explosion got one unlucky bugger though.) Postman, the bright boy that he is, keeps pushing the issue.
Summary? You're right. I'm right. We're right all around, just not talking to each other about the same thing. Let's just hug and make up, so I can get back to poking fun at environmental reactionaries, okay? =p
Yes, yes. Of course you're right. And if I walk behind a car, I'll just drop down dead from the carbon monoxide concentrations, right?
A) Fish swim. If they approach an area of water that makes them uncomfortable, they will turn around.
B) The sodium *explodes*. That may help in stirring, somewhat.
C) Oh please. Don't try to save yourself. You're the rocket scientist that wants to see pictures of this lake in three months. Now you're concerned about the short term more? Boy, you dropped your origional position like a hot potato and picked this one up pretty quick. I'm sure you've given it just as much thought as your first. Why don't you try a little excercise - reason it out, try to figure out what will happen, and why, and *then* join in the conversation, not before.
Mr Equilibrium thermodynamics indeed. Get that high school diploma, okay?
It appears that W.R. Grace is a fairly large chemical company.
What the poster neglects to realize is that as a large chemical company, if they were dumping sodium, they'd probably have an actual *statistically significant* ammount of sodium, and dump it in a non-private river, like the Mississippi.
Some people just really enjoy wearing blinders, I guess.
My source of irritation is that you used faulty analysis to support your conclusion ...
This from the dumbunny who compared it to 3 pounds of chlorine in a swimming pool? At least I compared actual numbers of the actual things involved, illustrating that the ammount of water was more than five hundred thousand times greater than the ammount of sodium being introduced. What's faulty about that? How was it incorrect?
jlseagull: That's a ratio of 1.75e-6 OH-/H2O. Normal water has a concentration of 1e-7 OH-/H20, so add the two to get the total concentration C, and -log C = pOH = 5.73, so pH = 14-pOH = 8.26.
postman: Ask this super genius to post some photos of the pond three months from now, esprecially those plants we see in the background.
Anonymous Coward: Yes, it will raise the pH.
noackjr: Considering pH = -log(H+ concentration), a change of 2 ppm (2e-6) is *very* significant. This works out to a change in pH of over 1.3 to ~5.67 (assuming a start at 7)...
SmittyTheBold: If you're adding Sodium, the water's going to head toward alkalinity - so your number there should be "~8.33" not "~5.67."
And then...
dumbunny: Most of us aren't disputing the conclusion that the lake's pH won't change noticeably.
Lets see if you can find *my* source of irritation.
And by the way, clearly it's my fault for how my post got modded. Right?
Since your calculations were pretty much the best (though an AC did correct your final molar results), I'll reply to yours, rather than one of the other 8 people yelling at me. ;p
.13 ppm.) So yeah, even less. I can't think of a single freshwater fish that can't acclimate (easily) to a teaspoon of salt per gallon.
The thing is, you're assuming distilled water. I admit to saying distilled water, but I wasn't really assuming his lake was distilled (for obvious reasons) but I meant that if you combined x sodium with y distilled water, you would end up with a z ppm solution.
A real lake, however, ain't.
I really do believe with the concentration of tannic acid, decaying organic material, and soil interaction of any normal lake, a PH measurement of a lake before throwing in a nice sodium rock and another PH measurement the day after would show a change of 0. It's amazingly hard to change the PH of organic rich water. I don't really have math to back this up, but I do have extensive fishkeeping experience. PH up and PH down are pretty much bunk as products, unless used *very* regularly, as the PH will find its way back to where it started really, really fast. And that's only in 30-100 gallons of water.
And yeesh, as far as excess salinity... I have to dump 7 pounds of salt into 25 gallons of water to recreate the ocean. That's a little bit more than 2 ppm. (though someone with the actual dimensions of his lake worked out
Do you really believe a PH of 8.26 would result? Because... that's just wacky.
I like fire and explosion as much as the next guy, but this is out and out criminal. If W.R. Grace was found dumping metallic sodium into a pond Slashdot readers would whip themselves into a rabid frenzy. Ask this super genius to post some photos of the pond three months from now, esprecially those plants we see in the background.
Sigh.
First of all, thanks for being the one millionth customer with the same post. Yes, yes... three pounds of sodium. Indeed, a worldwide ecological disaster. I only hope people like you can save us.
Do you have the slightest idea what the effects of 3 pounds of sodium would be? Actually, lemme be more clear. Do you have the slightest idea what the effects of 3 pounds of sodium would be on 23,550 cubic feet of water would be? (I'm assuming 100 foot diameter lake, 3 feet deep. It's probably bigger.)
Hint: A cubic foot of water weighs 62.4 lbs.
3 pounds.
1469520 pounds.
Why, for the record, you'd have a 2 ppm solution of sodium. Assuming the lake was distilled water. Very likely it wasn't. Change in PH?
0.
NADA! NONE! ZEEEEERRRRROOOOO.
And that 0 change assumes that the lake is somehow a sealed system, and this sodium would somehow stay there forever. Where do you think the sodium came from, anyway? We imported it from Mars to cause danger to our planet?
It's all over the place! Honestly, he could have caused more damage to the long term health of that lake with three pounds of milk. Or even dead fish.
Frigging super genius.
Too embarassed to admit you were wrong, eh?
That's okay. You probably won't have to define yourself by your ego all your life.
If you can't get used to slashdot's quirks, just take a walk, okay there fella?
That link is not dead. Is it so hard to take out the space that the slashdot lameness filter puts in?
Since you can't manage it, I'll provide the correct link for you here.
Yes, you're right. That was the worst math I've ever done. ;p
Okay, I'll go for the offtopic award of the day. Did you know that certain people are for some reason totally immune to crazy glue? Well, I mean, not totally immune. But I can pour the stuff on my hand, and slap it on a desk... and wait for a good long period of time, then just peel my hand off, with no pain, and very little resistance. And I leave a lovely hand print.
Anyone know why?
Lessee... 10 seconds at 10 Mbit...
;p
I'll round like a crazy man, so that's one meg in a minute... one meg/6 is about 170k. Either you have a really, really, really long phone number and address, or you're sending her three or four decent porn jpegs. Either way, you've got trouble.
You could not be more wrong.
That's a pretty strong thing to say since all you can back it up with is your feeling that he doesn't care about his business. I happen to completely disagree with you. I guess that means that you could not be more wrong.
Anyway, that's nonsense. It doesn't matter if he cares about his business or not. If people don't buy from his store, his store goes out of business. If his store goes out of business, he runs out of things to sue about once his current docket of cases clears up. And people will have no reason to badmouth a store that no longer exists, so he won't even have incidental fodder. It's that simple.
Take it even further. First of all, there's no reason why the company involved shouldn't be forced to pay you for your legal bills, and theirs. If they're going to spend a few million dollars to squash some guy in Arkansas, they should be prepared to pay him that ammount.
;p And what about Drs. Foster & Smith?
Of course, for something like the Pets Warehouse case, this doesn't change much, since Novak is representing himself pro se. But I still think it's fair. It's really the way courts are 'meant to be', but modern society has drifted away from that. Two ordinary people trying to settle an injustice. Not 18 guys in suits, with another 45 back home generating stacks of paper.
On the other hand, Dan was sued for $15,000,001. That's a huge ammount of money. The case was settled for $4,150. That should set off a red flag somewhere, and it should be someones job to investigate that. (Department of Justice, based on the name...) If a plaintiff believes that Fifteen million dollars worth of damage was done, why in the world would they settle for $4,150? And if they don't believe that $15 million worth of damage was done, wasn't the lawsuit bogus?
In my origional post, where I dared him to sue me, I said things that are similar to what Dan said. I compared price and service. Both are verifiable, easily. If you want something interesting, go to the Better Business Bureau website, and click 'check company'. Enter Pets Warehouse. They're rated unsatisfactory . Excerpts below:
Based on our files, this firm has an unsatisfactory record.
Closed Complaints
Total number of complaints processed by the BBB in last 36 months: 23
Total number of complaints processed by the BBB in last 12 months: 4
That Pet Place (That Fish Place) on the other hand, has this record with the BBB:
Based on BBB files, this company has a satisfactory record with the Bureau. Any complaints processed by the Bureau in its three-year reporting period have been resolved. The number and type of complaints are not unusual for a company in this industry.
Not exactly glowing praise, but the BBB only has three raitings, satisfactory, unsatisfactory, and updating.
Based on BBB files, this company has a satisfactory record with the Bureau. Same story.
Dan relates a tale how he ordered plants, and had to call six times to get yelled at. I ordered from That Pet Place, used the internet form, changed my mind, called their customer service, and was able to un-order a $90 item. The woman I talked to was sweet as pie, and they even asked me, since I'd selected federal express, if I'd like them to try to hurry the rest of the order so it could be shipped out today. If only other companies were so good.
I'd document price right now, but it seems that petswarehouse.com isn't responding. Anyway, the point is, how in the world can you sue people for this?!? I'd love to go off on a rant and yell and scream about how the system is 'broken', but I really can't think of any checks you could put in that couldn't be abused in the other direction. If you've read the Rainmaker, you can already picture it - you have a son, dying of cancer, and the insurance company defaults on the coverage. You need $200k for surgery and hospital bills. You sue for $15,000,000 for punitive damages, to 'fine' them in essence, so they think twice before screwing the next person. They offer to settle for $225k.
Your son is dying. What do you do? (It's a great book, by the way, and I don't think I ruined it for you.)
It's all so frigging complicated. I just can't find it in me to think of a better way to do things, though. I would really appreciate any suggestions, though. I think I'll start using my slashdot journal today.
I know that I'm amazingly late to this discussion, but I want to chime in anyway. The benefit of getting basic math training is not doing 257 * 7.32 in your head.
It's knowing to do (257 * 7) + (257/3) in your head, and saying "about" before the result. That's what you need to do in the real world. When you're in a planning meeting, you only need to know if it's possible for an x gigabyte disk to support y number of people, if each person has about z ammount of data. You can figure out exactly how much space everyone gets and how many disks to buy later, but in the meeting you need to know if you need to budget for one server or two.
It's a shame I left out the words "can see this" from the first line, even though I got all the HREF's right, and even closed my /B's and /I's... I'd sound like less of a tard if that part was readable... ;p
... it was one of the selling points for me. Then the order arrived complete with an invoice stating that shipping was $18.50! When I called them today to straighten this out, they informed me that the original quote was wrong and that I was stuck with the $18.50.
Of course, I'm never going to get sued if he knows I want him to sue me. Hmmmm....
Lawsuits scare me to death. I cave in at the slightest legal threat, or even peer pressure. I have a room in the back of my house where I store loose shopping bags full of cash, and I would never speak to a good lawyer. I even paid a spammer for a penis enlarger.
Oh hell, that's too easy to figure out. He might... crack my code. Perhaps I could then sue under the DMCA!
Maybe I don't understand this whole thing fully. I read The Defense Fund and it seems like Dan Resler, the poor bastard that accidentally started this whole thing, actually ended up paying $4,150 to Novak. Of course, he was sued for $15,000,000, so percentage-wise he got off pretty well, but $4,150 isn't really pocket change either. And if you read Dan's origional post, it really just seems like he got some bad plants, overcharged for shipping, and customer service told him to go take a flying leap. You can read his origional post here. I'll even quote the relevant bits:
My 6th call was last week, and when they realized I was calling about a plant order they proclaimed "They will be shipped on Monday". Click.
On my order confirmation I was quoted a shipping price of $7.50. Nice
Quoted without permission, of course. Christ, maybe Dan will sue me now. I argue fair use in advance. (Dan, don't! Slashdot is on your side!)
I mean, how in the world can you sue anyone over that? You want a bad analogy? I like Coke. (I actually kinda like Pepsi... so... frig.) Okay, I like Diet Coke. I *hate* diet Pepsi. I don't know why. I can say this:
Diet Pepsi tastes bad. I opened a can, tasted it, and said, "Yeeeech!"
Thank God for the Constitution. Thank God for the freedom of speech. Despite all the bad press, America is a pretty darn nice place to live.
Pardon me for replying to you, but I want this to be near the top, where everyone, especially ROBERT NOVAK, head meatball in charge.
Want to really make him hurt? Just point out that his store really is horrible. Service? Sucks. Price? Sucks! There are much better stores that have better stock, lower prices, and excellent customer service. Two such examples are:
That Pet Place
Drs. Foster & Smith
(Note: I am not affiliated in ANY way with either of those stores mentioned. They had nothing to do with being written here. I put them here. They're not the droids you're looking for. I AM. All of the above is my very own personal opinion, and I stand by it.)
So come get me, big boy! Sue my frigging ass off for enjoying my first ammendment rights. I even live in New York. And I'm bored. It costs me just as much nothing to be sued by you as it does for you to sue me. Let's just frigging GO. =)
No MacOS webserver has ever been rooted or defaced in history.
Okay there, buddy. Stop frothing at the mouth. First of all, how the hell do you root a system that doesn't even have different levels of access? It's all root. In that sense, Mac OS 9 is just about as shiny and amazing as Windows 95. You don't even have protected memory. That's why you have vulnerabilities in your web broswers where just looking at a website can force your wonder machine to download and run any code the site designer wants, that's why doing a simple RDNS will shut your system down completely.
Oh, by the way. If your machine is a web server that RDNS's addresses, anyone browsing from, or spoofing 206.207.151.40, 206.98.128.14, 206.207.48.173, or 206.207.48.194 will shut your system down. Like, wave bye-bye down, since you again, have no protected memory. Wow. I'm sure in the HISTORY of Mac OS 8 and 9 webservers, no RDNS's have been performed.
Honestly, the system you're bragging about is fucking Mickey Mouse bullshit. Name the site and the date, indeed. The burden of proof is on you, friend. Nothing is secure. Why not show me some (any) respectable (non-geocities/mac zealot) links that agree with you?
It is a concrete fact that that no MacOS based webserver has ever been hacked into in the history of the internet.
I bet you'd like to think you're right, but you're not.
Install a filter between you're brain and typing fingers, then come back, okay?