In Texas, they have many stores in the DFW area, at least two in the Houston area, and one in the Austin area. Which is great. (Especially since I live in Austin and it's not far off my commute.)
But for whatever reason they won't put one in San Antonio. That leaves Best Buy, Radio Shack, Altex (which has few weekend hours), and maybe Goodwill if they still have their computer-specific store there. To make it worse, for those who feel the urge to make a special trip up, the Fry's in Austin is on the far side of town, adding at least a half hour of travel each way, when traffic is good.
That is not what I'm getting at. I'm getting at that he decided to come up with something random, rather than at least trying to do something resembling something that previously existed. The people creating enormous redstone automata are doing it specifically because it wasn't meant to be abused to that scale, just like people who write programs in Brainfuck. And assembly language? That's fun for a while, but then it just becomes tedious.
I used to love writing me some 68K assembly language back in the day, then I got tired of writing 4-8 lines of code for the equivalent of one C statement, which is also harder to read than the C statement. And that was with a relatively well-designed instruction set.
I read this article yesterday when it was in Firehose. While it may be reasonable that this pesticide is causing the problems, the article failed to specifically show a link to HFCS as the source of the problem. In particular, they apparently made no attempt to test the HFCS itself for pesticide levels. It is more likely that bees would get the pesticide directly via the environment than via highly processed corn product. Not to mention that maize corn is inside a husk, which should reduce the amount of pesticide in the kernels to begin with.
It's the scientific equivalent of saying "smoking causes cancer" + "cigarettes are sold in grocery stores" = "you can get cancer from going to a grocery store".
On a related note, I would like to request an achievement for getting a +3 or greater Troll/Flamebait Mod.
I've tried (as a mod) to do this. Even if you use "Underrated", the title will change to a non-negative description when it hits +2. Or at least it will change to that of any previous non-negative moderation. I suppose if a post got modded Troll, then three or four mods chose Underrated, and nobody else mods it up other than with Underrated, it might be possible.
What's special is that NOTCH INVENTED IT DO NOT STEAL!
Seriously, why do we need people inventing random CPU architectures for insufficiently good reason? If he used an existing architecture (which I'm sure I would have heard by now if he had) or existing language (like Lua), then well, maybe, but just because Minecraft gets a few nutters who make whole computers out of redstone Rube Goldberg parts doesn't mean there's a general call for this.
inb4 server meltdowns from having to emulate people's badly written notchcode.
2: can has cheat sheet for Firehose color codes? There used to be a slider bar or something that had the colors in it, but that went away.
3: if it wasn't already part of the FAQ change, how about explaining how the fsck the new metamod works? I understood it when it was "mod is correct/mod is incorrect", but now there's just +/- buttons. Are those +/- it's a good/bad post or +/- it;s a good/bad moderation?
Being a somewhat typical software engineer I have trouble paying bills on time, for want of attention rather than cash. Like most cable companies (and unlike phone, gas, etc which have to observe regulated protocols), Comcast reacted by quickly cutting off my service.
That happened to me in 2000. Thanks, Time Warner, I needed just that little push to wean me from your teat.
And as for the GP post talking about padding subscriber numbers, when the previous cable system in San Antonio (Rogers) was going to sell to TW back in the '90s, apparently the price of the deal was based on the number of subscribers. So Rogers made a truly awesome offer of a six month subscription for some absurdly low price... three months before the sale went through. As you can predict, when those six months ended, the customers vanished back into the ether. I'm still surprised that TW's lawyers would have allowed such an obviously abusable clause in the contract.
Also, with an OTA DVR, you can catch quite a few interesting programs on PBS (and PBS Create) that are broadcast in those wee hours. For me, it's the local PBS.3 channel (KLRU-Q) that really kicks ass for all the DVR bait during those hours. Plus, there are repeat showings so you can save a DVR tuner during prime time. Of course this is all possible because of the guide data that's part of the ATSC signal to let you know something will be on.
Dream on. The only truly ad-free service is when someone records the show, chops out the commercials, and puts up a torrent. And even that doesn't stop blatant product placements.
I'm not technically old enough to "remember" the days when one of the major selling points of cable TV was the theoretical lack of commercials.
I'm old enough to remember that was never the selling point of cable TV. It was originally about being able to get all the local channels without having to put up an antenna, and with better picture quality than a random antenna in a random part of town. (Not to mention not needing an antenna rotator!) Then the '80s happened, and cable's selling point became all the random channels that the cable company could bring you that your antenna could never get. Most of which are junk, but there are a few media companies out there with a lot of cable channels that force the cable networks to carry them all, so you end up with "fifty-seven channels and nothing on".
My mom is a big fan of the local NBA team. Most of its games are only shown on a regional sports network that the local cable company gets. (She's also a golf fan, but the PGA still has a big broadcast network presence.) There's no point in torrenting a basketball game, because it'd already be over. I'm going to guess that Hulu, Netflix, etc. don't do live programming either.
I get basic channels for free, too. It's called an "antenna". Thanks to ATSC, all the channels are clear and solid except for one that's 100 miles away (watchable at night and early mornings only) and the local university's student TV station (craps out from time to time due to transmitter problems).
I even have one of those Channel Master DVRs which is okay except for its tendency to crash randomly every few hours (and then take 30+ seconds to reboot). The stuff I watch from the internet would never have reached cable TV anyhow. (basically torrents of fansubs of current anime in Japan) I don't even watch broadcast TV on my main screen, that's for the gaming/video PC in the living room. TV goes on a 23" off to the side, but its Dolby Digital does go to the amp.
But streaming? GMAFB. Low resolution video that skips due to bufferbloat, and you have to go out of your way to start it? Not even going to bother.
You know, those old games still (generally) work. Even if you don't want to pirate, there's few things better than a chipped Xbox and a Free McBoot PS2, each with a large hard drive, and rips from your own game library. (Substitute CFW PSP and 16GB memory card for portable gaming, which can also play PS1 rips.)
Many older system games work well through emulation, though unfortunately the kind of horsepower (or at least RAM) needed for N64 isn't available on the easily cracked consoles. Old PC games might have a problem with "too new" hardware or not being compatible with NT or later, but a good VM can help with that.
This is more like the computer games market of the '80s, not the 1983 crash, which was about consoles. The 1983 crash was due to low-priced crapware console games flooding the market, combined with failure of better console systems to take hold in time, which let cheap 8-bit "home computers" fill in the void. It would be like getting a good gaming PC today for $250-$300, making it competitive with the PS3 and 360.
The computer games market of that era was all about constantly upping the ante on copy protection, which is equivalent to what is happening today with constantly upping the ante on DRM. Not that people weren't copying disks left and right back then, even without the internet.
Great. So how are they going to convince retailers to sell the console hardware at nearly zero profit (as is the case today) when they aren't going to be the ones selling the games? PCs and tablets aren't sold using the razor blade model, ya know.
Assuming Facebook also has a "real names policy" (I don't know, I don't use either, but I have heard about Google's policy on/.), what happens when each decides to enforce said policy?
If Facebook bans you, all you can lose is your Facebook account.
If Google bans you, since they now want everything under the same sign-in, you're banned from everything (including your Youtube account... and did you have a non-real-name YT account before they forced them all into Google accounts? I did.) And it's even possible that if you have an Adwords or similar account attached, that would get banned too. Sure, you can try to keep your accounts separated, but it's a pain in the butt to do so. And what about pre-unification accounts that go against the policy? They still have to be converted to a Google account whether you make them different accounts or not. Thanks for doing no evil, Google.
As I heard it told a long time ago, back when "fanfic" meant you had to get it printed in a paper "fanzine", the first (Desilu) season wasn't "properly" copyrighted. And even though Phase II used his character, the fanfic writers back then would avoid Chekov because he wasn't part of the first season.
The other side of that argument is that science is telling folks that no, you can't use more than we've got forever... "So what. I only live once, screw the next generation, I want it all. Now!"
I sure wish we could get liberals to think that way about government spending.
The founding fathers of the USA hated corporations and predicted the current state of affairs would come about if corporations were not strongly limited. Look it up!
No, you look it up. It's your argument, you support it.
Why must the only reason to recover it be to reverse-engineer it? (Besides, we already have projects like the J2X for re-mainstreaming Saturn V technlogy.) Why must you ignore the possibility that the very act of recovering this historical object doesn't in itself advance science through developing the technology to recover it? James Cameron's "voyage to the bottom of the sea" improved deep-diving technology sufficiently that I'm sure more people will go down there in the next few years.
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In Texas, they have many stores in the DFW area, at least two in the Houston area, and one in the Austin area. Which is great. (Especially since I live in Austin and it's not far off my commute.)
But for whatever reason they won't put one in San Antonio. That leaves Best Buy, Radio Shack, Altex (which has few weekend hours), and maybe Goodwill if they still have their computer-specific store there. To make it worse, for those who feel the urge to make a special trip up, the Fry's in Austin is on the far side of town, adding at least a half hour of travel each way, when traffic is good.
That is not what I'm getting at. I'm getting at that he decided to come up with something random, rather than at least trying to do something resembling something that previously existed. The people creating enormous redstone automata are doing it specifically because it wasn't meant to be abused to that scale, just like people who write programs in Brainfuck. And assembly language? That's fun for a while, but then it just becomes tedious.
I used to love writing me some 68K assembly language back in the day, then I got tired of writing 4-8 lines of code for the equivalent of one C statement, which is also harder to read than the C statement. And that was with a relatively well-designed instruction set.
I read this article yesterday when it was in Firehose. While it may be reasonable that this pesticide is causing the problems, the article failed to specifically show a link to HFCS as the source of the problem. In particular, they apparently made no attempt to test the HFCS itself for pesticide levels. It is more likely that bees would get the pesticide directly via the environment than via highly processed corn product. Not to mention that maize corn is inside a husk, which should reduce the amount of pesticide in the kernels to begin with.
It's the scientific equivalent of saying "smoking causes cancer" + "cigarettes are sold in grocery stores" = "you can get cancer from going to a grocery store".
On a related note, I would like to request an achievement for getting a +3 or greater Troll/Flamebait Mod.
I've tried (as a mod) to do this. Even if you use "Underrated", the title will change to a non-negative description when it hits +2. Or at least it will change to that of any previous non-negative moderation. I suppose if a post got modded Troll, then three or four mods chose Underrated, and nobody else mods it up other than with Underrated, it might be possible.
What's special is that NOTCH INVENTED IT DO NOT STEAL!
Seriously, why do we need people inventing random CPU architectures for insufficiently good reason? If he used an existing architecture (which I'm sure I would have heard by now if he had) or existing language (like Lua), then well, maybe, but just because Minecraft gets a few nutters who make whole computers out of redstone Rube Goldberg parts doesn't mean there's a general call for this.
inb4 server meltdowns from having to emulate people's badly written notchcode.
Just off the top of my head...
1: make UTF-8 work properly!
2: can has cheat sheet for Firehose color codes? There used to be a slider bar or something that had the colors in it, but that went away.
3: if it wasn't already part of the FAQ change, how about explaining how the fsck the new metamod works? I understood it when it was "mod is correct/mod is incorrect", but now there's just +/- buttons. Are those +/- it's a good/bad post or +/- it;s a good/bad moderation?
If you're going to make an antenna from a coat hanger, at least make a Hoverman antenna.
Being a somewhat typical software engineer I have trouble paying bills on time, for want of attention rather than cash. Like most cable companies (and unlike phone, gas, etc which have to observe regulated protocols), Comcast reacted by quickly cutting off my service.
That happened to me in 2000. Thanks, Time Warner, I needed just that little push to wean me from your teat.
And as for the GP post talking about padding subscriber numbers, when the previous cable system in San Antonio (Rogers) was going to sell to TW back in the '90s, apparently the price of the deal was based on the number of subscribers. So Rogers made a truly awesome offer of a six month subscription for some absurdly low price... three months before the sale went through. As you can predict, when those six months ended, the customers vanished back into the ether. I'm still surprised that TW's lawyers would have allowed such an obviously abusable clause in the contract.
Also, with an OTA DVR, you can catch quite a few interesting programs on PBS (and PBS Create) that are broadcast in those wee hours. For me, it's the local PBS .3 channel (KLRU-Q) that really kicks ass for all the DVR bait during those hours. Plus, there are repeat showings so you can save a DVR tuner during prime time. Of course this is all possible because of the guide data that's part of the ATSC signal to let you know something will be on.
ad-free
Dream on. The only truly ad-free service is when someone records the show, chops out the commercials, and puts up a torrent. And even that doesn't stop blatant product placements.
I'm not technically old enough to "remember" the days when one of the major selling points of cable TV was the theoretical lack of commercials.
I'm old enough to remember that was never the selling point of cable TV. It was originally about being able to get all the local channels without having to put up an antenna, and with better picture quality than a random antenna in a random part of town. (Not to mention not needing an antenna rotator!) Then the '80s happened, and cable's selling point became all the random channels that the cable company could bring you that your antenna could never get. Most of which are junk, but there are a few media companies out there with a lot of cable channels that force the cable networks to carry them all, so you end up with "fifty-seven channels and nothing on".
2. That bothers me also but broadcast television really sucks. Being tied to a schedule not of my making is a horrible waste of human resources.
Ain't that the truth. Wouldn't it be great if, say, a computer could record it for you and then you could watch it later?
My mom is a big fan of the local NBA team. Most of its games are only shown on a regional sports network that the local cable company gets. (She's also a golf fan, but the PGA still has a big broadcast network presence.) There's no point in torrenting a basketball game, because it'd already be over. I'm going to guess that Hulu, Netflix, etc. don't do live programming either.
I get basic channels for free, too. It's called an "antenna". Thanks to ATSC, all the channels are clear and solid except for one that's 100 miles away (watchable at night and early mornings only) and the local university's student TV station (craps out from time to time due to transmitter problems).
I even have one of those Channel Master DVRs which is okay except for its tendency to crash randomly every few hours (and then take 30+ seconds to reboot). The stuff I watch from the internet would never have reached cable TV anyhow. (basically torrents of fansubs of current anime in Japan) I don't even watch broadcast TV on my main screen, that's for the gaming/video PC in the living room. TV goes on a 23" off to the side, but its Dolby Digital does go to the amp.
But streaming? GMAFB. Low resolution video that skips due to bufferbloat, and you have to go out of your way to start it? Not even going to bother.
You know, those old games still (generally) work. Even if you don't want to pirate, there's few things better than a chipped Xbox and a Free McBoot PS2, each with a large hard drive, and rips from your own game library. (Substitute CFW PSP and 16GB memory card for portable gaming, which can also play PS1 rips.)
Many older system games work well through emulation, though unfortunately the kind of horsepower (or at least RAM) needed for N64 isn't available on the easily cracked consoles. Old PC games might have a problem with "too new" hardware or not being compatible with NT or later, but a good VM can help with that.
This is more like the computer games market of the '80s, not the 1983 crash, which was about consoles. The 1983 crash was due to low-priced crapware console games flooding the market, combined with failure of better console systems to take hold in time, which let cheap 8-bit "home computers" fill in the void. It would be like getting a good gaming PC today for $250-$300, making it competitive with the PS3 and 360.
The computer games market of that era was all about constantly upping the ante on copy protection, which is equivalent to what is happening today with constantly upping the ante on DRM. Not that people weren't copying disks left and right back then, even without the internet.
Great. So how are they going to convince retailers to sell the console hardware at nearly zero profit (as is the case today) when they aren't going to be the ones selling the games? PCs and tablets aren't sold using the razor blade model, ya know.
rouge operator mistake
I'll bet he was red in the face after that mistake!
Assuming Facebook also has a "real names policy" (I don't know, I don't use either, but I have heard about Google's policy on /.), what happens when each decides to enforce said policy?
If Facebook bans you, all you can lose is your Facebook account.
If Google bans you, since they now want everything under the same sign-in, you're banned from everything (including your Youtube account... and did you have a non-real-name YT account before they forced them all into Google accounts? I did.) And it's even possible that if you have an Adwords or similar account attached, that would get banned too. Sure, you can try to keep your accounts separated, but it's a pain in the butt to do so. And what about pre-unification accounts that go against the policy? They still have to be converted to a Google account whether you make them different accounts or not. Thanks for doing no evil, Google.
As I heard it told a long time ago, back when "fanfic" meant you had to get it printed in a paper "fanzine", the first (Desilu) season wasn't "properly" copyrighted. And even though Phase II used his character, the fanfic writers back then would avoid Chekov because he wasn't part of the first season.
I was going to suggest Canadian Tire money, but according to Wikipedia, the smallest is currently 5 cents.
As long as you don't drop a few dozen pennies on them at the end of their shift and make them have to count them when they turn in the till.
The other side of that argument is that science is telling folks that no, you can't use more than we've got forever ... "So what. I only live once, screw the next generation, I want it all. Now!"
I sure wish we could get liberals to think that way about government spending.
The founding fathers of the USA hated corporations and predicted the current state of affairs would come about if corporations were not strongly limited. Look it up!
No, you look it up. It's your argument, you support it.
Why must the only reason to recover it be to reverse-engineer it? (Besides, we already have projects like the J2X for re-mainstreaming Saturn V technlogy.) Why must you ignore the possibility that the very act of recovering this historical object doesn't in itself advance science through developing the technology to recover it? James Cameron's "voyage to the bottom of the sea" improved deep-diving technology sufficiently that I'm sure more people will go down there in the next few years.