I didn't say that the whole legal system of the USSR was good, just that the conditions in prison were such that if one was sent there (be it for an actual crime or for speaking out against the Party) after being released, they did not want to return there. Unlike today where we hear about complaints from prisoners that they do not get enough vitamins or that not being able to get their girlfriends to spend the night with them is torture. You beat somebody up severely or killed them (either deliberately or by driving drunk at 100km/h in the city (speed limit 50)), you do not get to spend your sentence by having fun.
There is a Russian movie about a guy who is likely to go to prison but does not want to (obviously). He sees on TV that some foreign country (forgo which, I saw that movie years ago) has TVs in prisons and good conditions in general, so he goes to that country and tries various sorts of low crimes (braking a window etc) to get arrested and sent to prison figuring that if he is incarcerated in that country, he won't spend time in a Russian prison.
As for the death penalty and mistakes - I think that the death penalty should only be applied in those cases where he proof of guilt is beyond any doubt (rather than the lower requirement used normally).
In my country, these crimes happened quite recently (and got a lot of media attention), the criminals were caught and convicted, but not all got life in prison. Maybe they should move to where you live after getting out of prison.
1. Two school students murdered a 17 year old girl (using an axe, a hammer and a metal bar) then cut her body up into very small pieces and threw those pieces outside, while keeping one piece i the fridge for eating later. During trial one of the murders said that what they did was not cruel because they killed the victim before cutting her up. They got 20 years, hopefully they are not released sooner for good behavior. 2. A girl (17 years old) was waiting for a bus when a car stopped and the two guys in the car offered a ride. The girl refused (smart), bu then thee guys just forced her into the car, raped her then put her (still alive) in the trunk and lit the car on fire. The ciminals were previously convicted on multiple lesser crimes. At least these guys got life in prison. And they probably will have a "great" time while in prison.
In both cases a noose or a bullet would have been more appropriate.
Or at least the prison should be how it was when my country was part of the USSR - no TV, no complaining that you do not like the conditions there and also hard work for some. When people got out of prison they did not want to return there at all, unlike some criminals now who get out of prison, start committing crimes again and go back to prison shortly after.
That test found that Samsung SSDs are the best, though we found that they are not good.
Had a couple of 840 Pros (512GB) in a RAID1 array. After some time the array would slow down. One drive became slower than the other (fio reports 7k random write IOPS on one drive and the number is constant, but the other drive gets 6k IOPS and the numbers sometimes drops to 400). OK, what about 850 Pro (1TB). Well, after some time the array became very slow due to one drive becoming slow.
No more Samsung SSDs for us. Obviously, 4 drives are not a a good sample, but two drives failing the same way out of four drives total is a good indication o not buy from that manufacturer anymore. Intel DC-S3500 works great, just that they are difficult to get (local suppliers almost never have them in stock, resulting in a long wait after ordering).
That fails if the file is stored on tape or a similar archive. Let's say that there is a big file server with tape storage attached to it and the server automatically moves files that were not used in some time to the tape to save on disk space. This is transparent to the user, so he sees all files and if he tries to access one, it either comes from disk or tape (with some delay).
But if the operating system tries to access all files every time the directory is listed just to determine the file type you get a problem. Or what if the user is connected to the file server with a very slow link (dial-up, GPRS).
Because it would be difficult to find a VPN service that could do 300-500mbps. Also because my ISP does not care that I upload a few terabytes per day.
My ISP does throttle me to 80-100mbps during peak hours, but I do not care (the average is still good enough) and the ISP would throttle me even if I used VPN.
So, why add another potential rape by trying to save a few euros for a bus ticket? I understand the really poor people doing it as buying the bus ticket may mean not being able to afford to buy food. But not someone who has a PC, internet connection and a smartphone with internet connection.
If the hitchhiker is a good looking girl the driver might be willing to giver her a lift to a nearby forest...
A very publicized case of this happened recently where I live. The girl arranged the ride trough Facebook (it seems to be the trendy thing to do among young people) and the driver raped and murdered her.
The city built fiber and then didn't use it? And I though the politicians in my country are corrupt.
At least the government in my country encourages competition, for example: 1. Most of the cables in cities were given to the telephone company. However, they are required by law to allow others to pull new cables trough their conduits at a set price. 2. If you build a cell tower, you are required by law to allow others to place antennas on it at a set price 3. The telephone company is required to lease the customer phone lines to other companies (so that there is more than one DSL provider even though there is only one POTS provider).
As a result we have multiple ISPs to choose from in the cities and up to 500mbps up/down for 23.14EUR/month (and this is from the telephone company - one of the more expensive and reliable ISPs, there are other, more local ISPs that provide cheaper service).
Instead of giving money to ISPs and asking them politely to connect rural areas to a fiber network (like I understand happened in the US resulting in the ISPs taking the money and doing nothing) the government in my country is laying the fiber cables itself and then leases it to anyone who wants to use it at a set price. Which means that if ISP A does not want it, ISP B will get it.
Yea, at least give an option of having either the classic look or the Windows 7 basic look. But then it wouldn't look like a tablet interface and not as modern. The look the primary reason for my hatred of Windows 8. I can get Start menu by using classic shell, I cannot get a proper interface though.
Why cheap oil is good for me (in no particular order):
1. The fuel for my car is cheaper, saving me money. 2. Hopefully other items get cheaper because the fuel is cheaper to make and/or transport them. 3. It pisses off the treehuggers. 4. It creates economic problems for Russia.
Really? I don't think any of my tape or cassette decks (or even MD recorders) have this function. Even if they had, it would not be difficult (in case of cassette and reel tape decks) to bypass it).
The old tube tape recorder I mentioned is a low quality device, probably even for its time. And yes, the Beatles and similar (essentially, the music that was produced and originally released as mono) sound better for me with the added distortion and limited frequency range. Maybe because it was mastered with a device like mine in mind (since it is similar to what people would have used to play their brand new records and tapes) maybe it's because I like the "different" sound for some music.
On the other hand, the tube heaphone amp I built sound more like a transistor amp and does not have that much distortion or limited frequency range.
Or I may want a reel tape, played on a tape deck that has vacuum tubes.
Yes, I fully understand that tubes have worse specs than transistors. A couple of tape recorders that I have (that use tubes) are objectively worse than my transistor tape decks. However, listening to older music (like the Beatles) is much more enjoyable on the tube devices, the sound is "different". At the same time, if I want to record a more modern song I'll use one of my transistor tape decks.
And yes, I am sure that with enough DSPs it would be possible to digitally produce the "tube sound", but then I have to ask - why would I want it? I already have the devices, I can use them and also it's not just the sound, it's the whole experience of playing a record or a reel tape that makes it "better" than digital for me.
Also, watermarking each individual record would mean cutting the master each for each record would be extremely expensive. The main factor that reduces cost for disc records (and why they won over cylinders) is that it is easy to mass produce them (and in those days it was not possible to stamp cylinders). If you make a master for each record then it would be much more expensive to produce than tape (including the cost of reel to reel tape still in production).
Why is a beat cop enforcing a state cigarette tax? Is that really what the local community is clamoring for?
Why wouldn't a police officer enforce the law? I do not get this. Or are you saying that the police should obey the popular opinion on what constitutes a crime and what should be enforced instead of the actual local law? If the "community" does not like the law, then try to get i changed. Then again, I live in a country that is not so fragmented.
And if they guy selling cigarettes resisted arrest or even tried to pick a fight with the cop (always a very bad idea) instead of just paying the fine then he is really stupid. Resisting arrest or even trying to run away will make the cop think that you have committed a more serious crime (well, he wouldn't run away just for the cigarettes, I bet he has some crack too or there is an active warrant for his arrest) and the cop will be that much more interested in arresting you.
Downloading - a few minutes of my time to start the download. Then after it finishes (which is very fast usually), I can watch the movie on whatever device that has enough processing power and a screen, at any time having full control of it.
Going to the cinema (in general) - need to drive to wherever the cinema is, at a specified time, watch it with a bunch of strangers (that may include screaming children), no control whatsoever - cannot pause the movie to go to the toilet, cannot rewind a few seconds to rewatch a scene I missed, cannot increase or reduce the sound volume, cannot even have a conversation with whoever I came to watch the movie (assuming I did not come alone) during a boring part. Forced to watch ads before the movie. Cannot bring the food that I want (that is not sold (at high prices) in the cinema). The movie has to be recent enough to still be showed in cinemas.
Going to the cinema (this particular movie) - All of the above but include traveling to the US, getting a hotel room etc.
Buying a DVD/Bluray - Better than going to the cinema, but still have to go to a store that sells them, have to sit through a bunch of unskippable ads.
Time from "Hey, let's watch a movie! Which one? [googles some previously unheard of movie] This one." to actually watching it: DVD: 30 minutes - 1 hour (assuming the store is open), days (if the store is closed). Cinema: 30 minutes - 3 hours (assuming the movie is being shown in cinemas and the cinema is open), days (if the cinema is closed), undefined (if the movie is not shown in cinemas). Download: 5 - 30 minutes (my internet connection is up to 500mbps).
Oh, and Netflix is not available in my country in case you were going to suggest it.
So, see, even if the tickets for the movie (or the DVDs at the store) were given away for free, downloading would be the preferred option.
The reason is that my country was part of the USSR until its collapse and there were no answering machines or voicemail in the USSR (or just nobody used it). My first experience with voicemail was when I got my first cellphone ~16 years ago. It looked neat, but not much use. I did have it enabled for a while, but I have not received a single proper voice mail message yet (people either just disconnected and called me later or I got a recording of somebody being confused and asking "what the hell is this?").
Did you google every CD you ever were thinking of buying to check if it contained a rootkit?
No, but 1) I do not buy a lot of CDs, mainly records and 2) I disable Autoplay/Autorun as part of installing Windows.
Did you check with every printer if you were able to add after market ink?
That's pretty much my main criterion for choosing a printer. That and how reliable it is. This is the reason why I use a 13 (probably) year old HP PSC 2500CM (that I got broken for almost free and repaired it myself) - the DRM does not work (as long as I do not download drivers from HP and instead use the ones that are part of Windows) and the cartridges are very easy to refill. After modifying the cartridge I only need a syringe to fill it and ink in bottles is quite cheap. I can keep filling the cartridges until the pump wears out or the cartridge starts leaking. Even original cartridges (HP No. 10) are not that expensive and are large - 69ml for black, 28ml for the others.
And if someone asks me for advice on a new printer, I first find a few candidates depending on what the printer will be used for, then check the website of an printer cartridge store to see whether third part cartridges are available and how expensive are they.
But I still can't grasp the why the fans are so obsessed with the "more of the same"?
Why not? Let's say I like a game or a TV show. I watch/play it until I have completed it. If I still like it by the time I complete it, I will want "more of the same" hopefully with some annoyances of the previous instance fixed. I personally do not understand why would a fan of a TV show (or a game) would not want "more of the same" but something different. If I like the original, I want more of the same, if I want different, that means I did not really like the original, did I?
Take a game like the Borderlands series for example. I like it, I played through the story multiple times, so I am happy when a DLC or a sequel comes out which is pretty much "new story for the same game", since I enjoy the game more when I have not already seen the story.
Probably why they went digital with Rosetta and all those Mars probes - not many 1 hour photo shops out there.
Not everyone can afford a million dollar space-grade digital camera. Then again, maybe the digital cameras have improved on this in the time since I read about it (I don't do much photography at -30C).
Going back to vinyl - for me, listening to records or tapes is much more enjoyable than listening to CDs or files, even if the audio quality is worse (scratched record, a very old poorly recorded tape) just because of the visuals (spinning reels are much better to look at than a progress bar on a MP3 player).
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I didn't say that the whole legal system of the USSR was good, just that the conditions in prison were such that if one was sent there (be it for an actual crime or for speaking out against the Party) after being released, they did not want to return there. Unlike today where we hear about complaints from prisoners that they do not get enough vitamins or that not being able to get their girlfriends to spend the night with them is torture. You beat somebody up severely or killed them (either deliberately or by driving drunk at 100km/h in the city (speed limit 50)), you do not get to spend your sentence by having fun.
There is a Russian movie about a guy who is likely to go to prison but does not want to (obviously). He sees on TV that some foreign country (forgo which, I saw that movie years ago) has TVs in prisons and good conditions in general, so he goes to that country and tries various sorts of low crimes (braking a window etc) to get arrested and sent to prison figuring that if he is incarcerated in that country, he won't spend time in a Russian prison.
As for the death penalty and mistakes - I think that the death penalty should only be applied in those cases where he proof of guilt is beyond any doubt (rather than the lower requirement used normally).
In my country, these crimes happened quite recently (and got a lot of media attention), the criminals were caught and convicted, but not all got life in prison. Maybe they should move to where you live after getting out of prison.
1. Two school students murdered a 17 year old girl (using an axe, a hammer and a metal bar) then cut her body up into very small pieces and threw those pieces outside, while keeping one piece i the fridge for eating later. During trial one of the murders said that what they did was not cruel because they killed the victim before cutting her up. They got 20 years, hopefully they are not released sooner for good behavior.
2. A girl (17 years old) was waiting for a bus when a car stopped and the two guys in the car offered a ride. The girl refused (smart), bu then thee guys just forced her into the car, raped her then put her (still alive) in the trunk and lit the car on fire. The ciminals were previously convicted on multiple lesser crimes. At least these guys got life in prison. And they probably will have a "great" time while in prison.
In both cases a noose or a bullet would have been more appropriate.
Or at least the prison should be how it was when my country was part of the USSR - no TV, no complaining that you do not like the conditions there and also hard work for some. When people got out of prison they did not want to return there at all, unlike some criminals now who get out of prison, start committing crimes again and go back to prison shortly after.
That test found that Samsung SSDs are the best, though we found that they are not good.
Had a couple of 840 Pros (512GB) in a RAID1 array. After some time the array would slow down. One drive became slower than the other (fio reports 7k random write IOPS on one drive and the number is constant, but the other drive gets 6k IOPS and the numbers sometimes drops to 400).
OK, what about 850 Pro (1TB). Well, after some time the array became very slow due to one drive becoming slow.
No more Samsung SSDs for us. Obviously, 4 drives are not a a good sample, but two drives failing the same way out of four drives total is a good indication o not buy from that manufacturer anymore. Intel DC-S3500 works great, just that they are difficult to get (local suppliers almost never have them in stock, resulting in a long wait after ordering).
That fails if the file is stored on tape or a similar archive. Let's say that there is a big file server with tape storage attached to it and the server automatically moves files that were not used in some time to the tape to save on disk space. This is transparent to the user, so he sees all files and if he tries to access one, it either comes from disk or tape (with some delay).
But if the operating system tries to access all files every time the directory is listed just to determine the file type you get a problem. Or what if the user is connected to the file server with a very slow link (dial-up, GPRS).
Because it would be difficult to find a VPN service that could do 300-500mbps. Also because my ISP does not care that I upload a few terabytes per day.
My ISP does throttle me to 80-100mbps during peak hours, but I do not care (the average is still good enough) and the ISP would throttle me even if I used VPN.
Or it means discriminating against the best qualified candidate if he's a white male and they currently have too few women hired.
So, why add another potential rape by trying to save a few euros for a bus ticket? I understand the really poor people doing it as buying the bus ticket may mean not being able to afford to buy food. But not someone who has a PC, internet connection and a smartphone with internet connection.
If the hitchhiker is a good looking girl the driver might be willing to giver her a lift to a nearby forest...
A very publicized case of this happened recently where I live. The girl arranged the ride trough Facebook (it seems to be the trendy thing to do among young people) and the driver raped and murdered her.
The city built fiber and then didn't use it? And I though the politicians in my country are corrupt.
At least the government in my country encourages competition, for example:
1. Most of the cables in cities were given to the telephone company. However, they are required by law to allow others to pull new cables trough their conduits at a set price.
2. If you build a cell tower, you are required by law to allow others to place antennas on it at a set price
3. The telephone company is required to lease the customer phone lines to other companies (so that there is more than one DSL provider even though there is only one POTS provider).
As a result we have multiple ISPs to choose from in the cities and up to 500mbps up/down for 23.14EUR/month (and this is from the telephone company - one of the more expensive and reliable ISPs, there are other, more local ISPs that provide cheaper service).
There is another reason (at least in my country).
Instead of giving money to ISPs and asking them politely to connect rural areas to a fiber network (like I understand happened in the US resulting in the ISPs taking the money and doing nothing) the government in my country is laying the fiber cables itself and then leases it to anyone who wants to use it at a set price. Which means that if ISP A does not want it, ISP B will get it.
Yea, at least give an option of having either the classic look or the Windows 7 basic look. But then it wouldn't look like a tablet interface and not as modern. The look the primary reason for my hatred of Windows 8. I can get Start menu by using classic shell, I cannot get a proper interface though.
Why cheap oil is good for me (in no particular order):
1. The fuel for my car is cheaper, saving me money.
2. Hopefully other items get cheaper because the fuel is cheaper to make and/or transport them.
3. It pisses off the treehuggers.
4. It creates economic problems for Russia.
Nice, so, the only thing left now is to get rid of the "flat" UI design.
Really? I don't think any of my tape or cassette decks (or even MD recorders) have this function. Even if they had, it would not be difficult (in case of cassette and reel tape decks) to bypass it).
The old tube tape recorder I mentioned is a low quality device, probably even for its time. And yes, the Beatles and similar (essentially, the music that was produced and originally released as mono) sound better for me with the added distortion and limited frequency range. Maybe because it was mastered with a device like mine in mind (since it is similar to what people would have used to play their brand new records and tapes) maybe it's because I like the "different" sound for some music.
On the other hand, the tube heaphone amp I built sound more like a transistor amp and does not have that much distortion or limited frequency range.
19cm/s is good enough for me. In some cases even 9.5cm/s is good enough.
Sometimes the vinyl releases are not as loud as CD releases, and loudness war is the main reason why CDs sound bad.
Or I may want a reel tape, played on a tape deck that has vacuum tubes.
Yes, I fully understand that tubes have worse specs than transistors. A couple of tape recorders that I have (that use tubes) are objectively worse than my transistor tape decks. However, listening to older music (like the Beatles) is much more enjoyable on the tube devices, the sound is "different". At the same time, if I want to record a more modern song I'll use one of my transistor tape decks.
And yes, I am sure that with enough DSPs it would be possible to digitally produce the "tube sound", but then I have to ask - why would I want it? I already have the devices, I can use them and also it's not just the sound, it's the whole experience of playing a record or a reel tape that makes it "better" than digital for me.
Also, watermarking each individual record would mean cutting the master each for each record would be extremely expensive. The main factor that reduces cost for disc records (and why they won over cylinders) is that it is easy to mass produce them (and in those days it was not possible to stamp cylinders). If you make a master for each record then it would be much more expensive to produce than tape (including the cost of reel to reel tape still in production).
Why is a beat cop enforcing a state cigarette tax? Is that really what the local community is clamoring for?
Why wouldn't a police officer enforce the law? I do not get this. Or are you saying that the police should obey the popular opinion on what constitutes a crime and what should be enforced instead of the actual local law? If the "community" does not like the law, then try to get i changed.
Then again, I live in a country that is not so fragmented.
And if they guy selling cigarettes resisted arrest or even tried to pick a fight with the cop (always a very bad idea) instead of just paying the fine then he is really stupid. Resisting arrest or even trying to run away will make the cop think that you have committed a more serious crime (well, he wouldn't run away just for the cigarettes, I bet he has some crack too or there is an active warrant for his arrest) and the cop will be that much more interested in arresting you.
Piracy is convenient.
Downloading - a few minutes of my time to start the download. Then after it finishes (which is very fast usually), I can watch the movie on whatever device that has enough processing power and a screen, at any time having full control of it.
Going to the cinema (in general) - need to drive to wherever the cinema is, at a specified time, watch it with a bunch of strangers (that may include screaming children), no control whatsoever - cannot pause the movie to go to the toilet, cannot rewind a few seconds to rewatch a scene I missed, cannot increase or reduce the sound volume, cannot even have a conversation with whoever I came to watch the movie (assuming I did not come alone) during a boring part. Forced to watch ads before the movie. Cannot bring the food that I want (that is not sold (at high prices) in the cinema). The movie has to be recent enough to still be showed in cinemas.
Going to the cinema (this particular movie) - All of the above but include traveling to the US, getting a hotel room etc.
Buying a DVD/Bluray - Better than going to the cinema, but still have to go to a store that sells them, have to sit through a bunch of unskippable ads.
Time from "Hey, let's watch a movie! Which one? [googles some previously unheard of movie] This one." to actually watching it:
DVD: 30 minutes - 1 hour (assuming the store is open), days (if the store is closed).
Cinema: 30 minutes - 3 hours (assuming the movie is being shown in cinemas and the cinema is open), days (if the cinema is closed), undefined (if the movie is not shown in cinemas).
Download: 5 - 30 minutes (my internet connection is up to 500mbps).
Oh, and Netflix is not available in my country in case you were going to suggest it.
So, see, even if the tickets for the movie (or the DVDs at the store) were given away for free, downloading would be the preferred option.
Voicemail was never alive in my country.
The reason is that my country was part of the USSR until its collapse and there were no answering machines or voicemail in the USSR (or just nobody used it). My first experience with voicemail was when I got my first cellphone ~16 years ago. It looked neat, but not much use. I did have it enabled for a while, but I have not received a single proper voice mail message yet (people either just disconnected and called me later or I got a recording of somebody being confused and asking "what the hell is this?").
Did you google every CD you ever were thinking of buying to check if it contained a rootkit?
No, but 1) I do not buy a lot of CDs, mainly records and 2) I disable Autoplay/Autorun as part of installing Windows.
Did you check with every printer if you were able to add after market ink?
That's pretty much my main criterion for choosing a printer. That and how reliable it is. This is the reason why I use a 13 (probably) year old HP PSC 2500CM (that I got broken for almost free and repaired it myself) - the DRM does not work (as long as I do not download drivers from HP and instead use the ones that are part of Windows) and the cartridges are very easy to refill. After modifying the cartridge I only need a syringe to fill it and ink in bottles is quite cheap. I can keep filling the cartridges until the pump wears out or the cartridge starts leaking. Even original cartridges (HP No. 10) are not that expensive and are large - 69ml for black, 28ml for the others.
And if someone asks me for advice on a new printer, I first find a few candidates depending on what the printer will be used for, then check the website of an printer cartridge store to see whether third part cartridges are available and how expensive are they.
But I still can't grasp the why the fans are so obsessed with the "more of the same"?
Why not? Let's say I like a game or a TV show. I watch/play it until I have completed it. If I still like it by the time I complete it, I will want "more of the same" hopefully with some annoyances of the previous instance fixed. I personally do not understand why would a fan of a TV show (or a game) would not want "more of the same" but something different. If I like the original, I want more of the same, if I want different, that means I did not really like the original, did I?
Take a game like the Borderlands series for example. I like it, I played through the story multiple times, so I am happy when a DLC or a sequel comes out which is pretty much "new story for the same game", since I enjoy the game more when I have not already seen the story.
Probably why they went digital with Rosetta and all those Mars probes - not many 1 hour photo shops out there.
Not everyone can afford a million dollar space-grade digital camera. Then again, maybe the digital cameras have improved on this in the time since I read about it (I don't do much photography at -30C).
Going back to vinyl - for me, listening to records or tapes is much more enjoyable than listening to CDs or files, even if the audio quality is worse (scratched record, a very old poorly recorded tape) just because of the visuals (spinning reels are much better to look at than a progress bar on a MP3 player).