So worst case here, the PATRIOT Act renewal didn't take effect but will soon.
A bill that extends a law doesn't copy the law into a new law, it merely amends the expiration date that is written in the existing law. You can't amend a law that has expired, and a bill that is implicitly signed due to sitting for 10 days is not retroactive to when it was forwarded to the President, so it would have effectively become useless had it not been signed last night.
The fact they have never had a fatal crash (the only such major airline) is reason I would rather NOT fly with anyone else.
All major airlines never had a fatal crash until they had a fatal crash. The fact is that your chances of dying in an aviation-related accident are so negligible (several times less than driving your car anywhere at any time for any purpose) that taking such statistics into account when choosing an airline to fly is quite pointless.
I can't believe Boxer and Feinstein have been re-elected without fail by this state for almost TWENTY FUCKING YEARS. It doesn't matter how good or bad a politician is doing (these two morons are about the worst senators I've ever seen, by the way, and they're the only ones that have represented me in my adult life), NOBODY should be kept in office that god damned long.
Politicians are salesmen: they're going to give the customer what they want, not what they need.
Politicians take it a step further. They make people think they need what the politician wants. How else could somebody possibly be elected with a campaign entirely based upon Hope and Change? The problem with politics is that in order to make it you must be a slimy bastard. People can fantasize all they want about how they could go in and fix politics but the fact is that you're not going to get past your local city council without back room deals and backstabbing the public.
If you're not paying for a service, then you are the product being sold.
You write that as though being a "product" somehow dehumanizes you, and yet at the same time you're creating a false sense of self-worth. Why is it a problem if I'm the "product"?
This is not news at all, there are multiple of this same system all over the country and has been for a few years now. Even my crappy school in Nevada has had the same thing for almost 3 years now.
I'm building the new library renovation at San Francisco State, and they have a new system just like it, too. I wonder why Chicago's is getting so much press lately. The one at SFSU is pretty much exactly the same (also made by HK Systems).
Yes, but Vodafone's Verizon shares could be seized without impacting Verizon itself.
You must not know how shares work. Who would gain control of those shares? The government? A private party? Would they just be sold for cash value? Either situation would directly affect Verizon and be logistically challenging.
Why the hell is anybody even contemplating suing a foreign company for things they did in a foreign country in domestic courts? The notion of such a thing is simply retarded.
Space travel is still in its very infancy. This is mostly due to the fact that it's only been explored by governments. In the last few years, though, private enterprise has taken a liking to it and I'm sure that very soon we will see an explosion (pun not intended) in new technologies and especially new efficiencies. When cars were still new, they were completely unaffordable to most everybody. When air travel was still new, it was completely unaffordable to most everybody. When computers were still new, they were completely unaffordable to most everybody. The major difference between those industries and space travel is that those industries were STARTED by private enterprise looking to make oodles of money so things progressed much faster.
You mean like the supposedly unconscionable forced arbitration clauses?
No, not like that. Forced arbitration clauses are ridiculous, but I don't believe there is anything in the constitution or higher law that would make them illegal. You cannot, however, restrict a person's right to freedom of speech via contract. You can restrict what they may say in forums and locations owned by you, but you cannot restrict it elsewhere.
In an era where all space science is done by unmanned probes and robots, I think it says a lot that we are willing to preserve our heritage in manned space flight. These selfless men and women in their period costumes, devote their careers to re-enacting history, so that we can enjoy the spectacle. Very much like the royal family in the UK. I'm so happy that the US taxpayers are willing to spend billions of dollars each year to keep this history alive. It is almost as good as civil war re-enactments!
One day in the (hopefully) distant future, the human race will be forced by overpopulation to colonize other planets. If we don't spend any time developing ways to get PEOPLE into space, then that will never happen and we will all be fucked here on Earth.
I'm digging my HP zr24w - 24" of IPS goodness, matte surface, and standard color gamut. If I could find a 30" with a matte surface and standard color gamut, I'd probably get it, but I don't think they exist.
I was just looking at that on Amazon. My 1680x1050 Dell LCD has been showing its age (and generally-poor quality) for the last couple years now lol. Is the zr24w worth the $400? And how is the response time? I've read that S-IPS displays have a noticeable response time but HP claims that monitor is 8ms which is just fine imo.
I reckon it's better to let the pixels behind the black bars go to waste for a little bit while you're watching a movie then to never ever have them at all.
You a missing some basic geometry - if you have a 1920x1080 screen with HD aspect ratio, you can watch 1080p in native resolution taking up the entire screen. If you have the same size and aspect ration screen but 1920x1200 you cannot do pixel-for-pixel playback because the pixels are different shape, this means you have to either scale the image either way unless you don't care about stretched pictutre. In the case you chose to use only 1080 lines, you'll end up with bars all around the screen which reduces your screen size. Either way, scaling costs power (whether performed by the graphics chipset or by software which case it also costs you processing power) and that shortens the battery life of the laptop.
Stretched picture, shorter battery life and/or smaller viewable video size are things that some people care about.
You're missing some even basicer geometry. 1920x1080 is 16:9 and 1920x1200 is 16:10. There is no monitor manufacturer I would ever buy anything from that tries to squish the physical dimensions of a native 1920x1200 monitor into 16:9 because that would be utterly retarded. The pixels are the same shape no matter what the resolution. The only difference is that you get bars on top and bottom when watching 16:9 material on a 16:10 display and every graphics chipset that can handle processing 1080p source material can handle letterboxing with a negligible amount of added effort.
1080, on the other hand, is native HDTV, meaning I can do my computing at a perfectly useful resolution, and I can get pixel-perfect TV playback, with no letterboxing.
And... what's wrong with letterboxing? Take a 1080p monitor next to a 1920x1200 monitor with the same diagonal measurement, and the 1080p will be smaller in what is definitely the more useful dimension (height). So what if the 1200 will have some letterboxing when you're watching a video? The video will still be the same size as if the monitor was native 1080p (okay SLIGHTLY smaller), but you'll have that precious extra couple inches of vertical space for when you're using your computer for computer-like purposes.
To be fair, I have never had any malware with OSX and I'm certain I will not. OSX by its roots (BSD) means it doesn't get the kind of malware that plagues all those M$ Windows computers.
To be fair, I have never had any malware with Windows and I'm certain I will not. All (read that again, "all") operating systems are vulnerable to malice, and all (once again, "all") operating systems can be made mostly impervious to malice. All it takes is a little proactive prevention. In a system like Linux, it's configuring your security and permission settings properly and modifying software settings so they're not running on default ports, etc. And keeping everything up to date at all times. On Windows where things aren't so customizable, you are usually best off behind a hardware and/or software firewall with realtime and scheduled-scan antivirus software running. On Macs you haven't really needed to worry much because Macs have never been a target for widespread malice. On all systems, user incompetence can completely outdo even the strongest security configurations because all you need to do is download miley_cyrus_real_nude_pic.jpg.exe, run it, enter your root password, and hit Allow Forever on every antivirus popup that opens.
As the Mac market share increases, Mac malware will become more and more widespread. Just you wait. The only reason they have the least viruses (note that they DON'T have NO viruses) is because the market share has been so small that Windows has been a much more profitable target.
I forgot to add that the above steps will mostly protect you from automated attacks. A dedicated, knowledgeable, and well-versed individual trying to manually break your box can probably do so given enough time and just one slip-up on the victim's part.
To be fair, I have never had any malware with OSX and I'm certain I will not. OSX by its roots (BSD) means it doesn't get the kind of malware that plagues all those M$ Windows computers.
To be fair, I have never had any malware with Windows and I'm certain I will not. All (read that again, "all") operating systems are vulnerable to malice, and all (once again, "all") operating systems can be made mostly impervious to malice. All it takes is a little proactive prevention. In a system like Linux, it's configuring your security and permission settings properly and modifying software settings so they're not running on default ports, etc. And keeping everything up to date at all times. On Windows where things aren't so customizable, you are usually best off behind a hardware and/or software firewall with realtime and scheduled-scan antivirus software running. On Macs you haven't really needed to worry much because Macs have never been a target for widespread malice. On all systems, user incompetence can completely outdo even the strongest security configurations because all you need to do is download miley_cyrus_real_nude_pic.jpg.exe, run it, enter your root password, and hit Allow Forever on every antivirus popup that opens.
As the Mac market share increases, Mac malware will become more and more widespread. Just you wait. The only reason they have the least viruses (note that they DON'T have NO viruses) is because the market share has been so small that Windows has been a much more profitable target.
You can't legislate intelligence. Stupid people leave their guns in places their kids can get to them, and when their kids kill themselves or each other those parents are thrown in prison for criminal negligence. As I said before, you don't get murdered for no reason. Most murders are gang- or drug-related, in which case you had it coming. Cars kill many many times more people every year than guns. Should we make them illegal?
Freedom does not work like that. Freedom is the ability to do whatever you want without other people getting in your way. If you want to live in a gun-free society then move somewhere that is gun-free, nobody is stopping you from doing so.
You know what my answer to that will be but for the sake of debate and so you don't have the fuel to say call me a stupid hypocrite, I will continue. Bombs are used for blind destruction. Guns are precision instruments. There is a huge difference. Also, you ARE allowed to make and possess small explosive devices, and anything large enough to cause injury to anything but yourself can be possessed if you are trained and licensed in their use. You know that, but you just want to be an ass. What's that phrase people like to use a lot on this site? Oh yeah, "strawman argument".
Lol! I love it when idiots assume I'm a Democrat.
Well you posted AC so all I had to go on was "Tell that to your party then. Clearly they don't represent you."
So worst case here, the PATRIOT Act renewal didn't take effect but will soon.
A bill that extends a law doesn't copy the law into a new law, it merely amends the expiration date that is written in the existing law. You can't amend a law that has expired, and a bill that is implicitly signed due to sitting for 10 days is not retroactive to when it was forwarded to the President, so it would have effectively become useless had it not been signed last night.
Tell that to your party, then. Clearly they don't represent you.
A fair chunk of Dems voted yes, too... and our Dem president signed it remotely immediately after passing the house, remember?
Just because Republicans are the ones that introduced the PATRIOT Act doesn't mean that your beloved Democratic party opposes it.
The fact they have never had a fatal crash (the only such major airline) is reason I would rather NOT fly with anyone else.
All major airlines never had a fatal crash until they had a fatal crash. The fact is that your chances of dying in an aviation-related accident are so negligible (several times less than driving your car anywhere at any time for any purpose) that taking such statistics into account when choosing an airline to fly is quite pointless.
I can't believe Boxer and Feinstein have been re-elected without fail by this state for almost TWENTY FUCKING YEARS. It doesn't matter how good or bad a politician is doing (these two morons are about the worst senators I've ever seen, by the way, and they're the only ones that have represented me in my adult life), NOBODY should be kept in office that god damned long.
Politicians are salesmen: they're going to give the customer what they want, not what they need.
Politicians take it a step further. They make people think they need what the politician wants. How else could somebody possibly be elected with a campaign entirely based upon Hope and Change? The problem with politics is that in order to make it you must be a slimy bastard. People can fantasize all they want about how they could go in and fix politics but the fact is that you're not going to get past your local city council without back room deals and backstabbing the public.
If you're not paying for a service, then you are the product being sold.
You write that as though being a "product" somehow dehumanizes you, and yet at the same time you're creating a false sense of self-worth. Why is it a problem if I'm the "product"?
This is not news at all, there are multiple of this same system all over the country and has been for a few years now. Even my crappy school in Nevada has had the same thing for almost 3 years now.
http://knowledgecenter.unr.edu/libraries/kc/about/mars.aspx
I'm building the new library renovation at San Francisco State, and they have a new system just like it, too. I wonder why Chicago's is getting so much press lately. The one at SFSU is pretty much exactly the same (also made by HK Systems).
Yes, but Vodafone's Verizon shares could be seized without impacting Verizon itself.
You must not know how shares work. Who would gain control of those shares? The government? A private party? Would they just be sold for cash value? Either situation would directly affect Verizon and be logistically challenging.
Why the hell is anybody even contemplating suing a foreign company for things they did in a foreign country in domestic courts? The notion of such a thing is simply retarded.
Space travel is still in its very infancy. This is mostly due to the fact that it's only been explored by governments. In the last few years, though, private enterprise has taken a liking to it and I'm sure that very soon we will see an explosion (pun not intended) in new technologies and especially new efficiencies. When cars were still new, they were completely unaffordable to most everybody. When air travel was still new, it was completely unaffordable to most everybody. When computers were still new, they were completely unaffordable to most everybody. The major difference between those industries and space travel is that those industries were STARTED by private enterprise looking to make oodles of money so things progressed much faster.
Also, an argument generally involves dialog while abuse is generally one way.
No it isn't.
You mean like the supposedly unconscionable forced arbitration clauses?
No, not like that. Forced arbitration clauses are ridiculous, but I don't believe there is anything in the constitution or higher law that would make them illegal. You cannot, however, restrict a person's right to freedom of speech via contract. You can restrict what they may say in forums and locations owned by you, but you cannot restrict it elsewhere.
If a Soyuz has a bad launch, the command module ends up in Siberia. I know what I'd prefer to fly.
The shuttle? I'd rather die than spend a day in Siberia.
In an era where all space science is done by unmanned probes and robots, I think it says a lot that we are willing to preserve our heritage in manned space flight. These selfless men and women in their period costumes, devote their careers to re-enacting history, so that we can enjoy the spectacle. Very much like the royal family in the UK. I'm so happy that the US taxpayers are willing to spend billions of dollars each year to keep this history alive. It is almost as good as civil war re-enactments!
One day in the (hopefully) distant future, the human race will be forced by overpopulation to colonize other planets. If we don't spend any time developing ways to get PEOPLE into space, then that will never happen and we will all be fucked here on Earth.
I think it's worth the $400. I'm considering getting another one this year, assuming nobody comes out with a larger standard-gamut matte display.
As far as response time, I don't game, but I've not had any problem watching fast-action movies. The most in-depth review you're likely to find can be found here: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/content/hp_zr24w.htm
Haha, that is way in-depth. I'll probably get that screen. Cheers man.
I'm digging my HP zr24w - 24" of IPS goodness, matte surface, and standard color gamut. If I could find a 30" with a matte surface and standard color gamut, I'd probably get it, but I don't think they exist.
I was just looking at that on Amazon. My 1680x1050 Dell LCD has been showing its age (and generally-poor quality) for the last couple years now lol. Is the zr24w worth the $400? And how is the response time? I've read that S-IPS displays have a noticeable response time but HP claims that monitor is 8ms which is just fine imo.
I reckon it's better to let the pixels behind the black bars go to waste for a little bit while you're watching a movie then to never ever have them at all.
You a missing some basic geometry - if you have a 1920x1080 screen with HD aspect ratio, you can watch 1080p in native resolution taking up the entire screen. If you have the same size and aspect ration screen but 1920x1200 you cannot do pixel-for-pixel playback because the pixels are different shape, this means you have to either scale the image either way unless you don't care about stretched pictutre. In the case you chose to use only 1080 lines, you'll end up with bars all around the screen which reduces your screen size. Either way, scaling costs power (whether performed by the graphics chipset or by software which case it also costs you processing power) and that shortens the battery life of the laptop.
Stretched picture, shorter battery life and/or smaller viewable video size are things that some people care about.
You're missing some even basicer geometry. 1920x1080 is 16:9 and 1920x1200 is 16:10. There is no monitor manufacturer I would ever buy anything from that tries to squish the physical dimensions of a native 1920x1200 monitor into 16:9 because that would be utterly retarded. The pixels are the same shape no matter what the resolution. The only difference is that you get bars on top and bottom when watching 16:9 material on a 16:10 display and every graphics chipset that can handle processing 1080p source material can handle letterboxing with a negligible amount of added effort.
1080, on the other hand, is native HDTV, meaning I can do my computing at a perfectly useful resolution, and I can get pixel-perfect TV playback, with no letterboxing.
And... what's wrong with letterboxing? Take a 1080p monitor next to a 1920x1200 monitor with the same diagonal measurement, and the 1080p will be smaller in what is definitely the more useful dimension (height). So what if the 1200 will have some letterboxing when you're watching a video? The video will still be the same size as if the monitor was native 1080p (okay SLIGHTLY smaller), but you'll have that precious extra couple inches of vertical space for when you're using your computer for computer-like purposes.
Death to 1080p monitors.
See, I did say that the fossil fuel industry invests a lot in propaganda. You're buying it.
The Stop Global Warming industry seems to as well, and you're buying their's.
To be fair, I have never had any malware with OSX and I'm certain I will not. OSX by its roots (BSD) means it doesn't get the kind of malware that plagues all those M$ Windows computers.
To be fair, I have never had any malware with Windows and I'm certain I will not. All (read that again, "all") operating systems are vulnerable to malice, and all (once again, "all") operating systems can be made mostly impervious to malice. All it takes is a little proactive prevention. In a system like Linux, it's configuring your security and permission settings properly and modifying software settings so they're not running on default ports, etc. And keeping everything up to date at all times. On Windows where things aren't so customizable, you are usually best off behind a hardware and/or software firewall with realtime and scheduled-scan antivirus software running. On Macs you haven't really needed to worry much because Macs have never been a target for widespread malice. On all systems, user incompetence can completely outdo even the strongest security configurations because all you need to do is download miley_cyrus_real_nude_pic.jpg.exe, run it, enter your root password, and hit Allow Forever on every antivirus popup that opens.
As the Mac market share increases, Mac malware will become more and more widespread. Just you wait. The only reason they have the least viruses (note that they DON'T have NO viruses) is because the market share has been so small that Windows has been a much more profitable target.
I forgot to add that the above steps will mostly protect you from automated attacks. A dedicated, knowledgeable, and well-versed individual trying to manually break your box can probably do so given enough time and just one slip-up on the victim's part.
To be fair, I have never had any malware with OSX and I'm certain I will not. OSX by its roots (BSD) means it doesn't get the kind of malware that plagues all those M$ Windows computers.
To be fair, I have never had any malware with Windows and I'm certain I will not. All (read that again, "all") operating systems are vulnerable to malice, and all (once again, "all") operating systems can be made mostly impervious to malice. All it takes is a little proactive prevention. In a system like Linux, it's configuring your security and permission settings properly and modifying software settings so they're not running on default ports, etc. And keeping everything up to date at all times. On Windows where things aren't so customizable, you are usually best off behind a hardware and/or software firewall with realtime and scheduled-scan antivirus software running. On Macs you haven't really needed to worry much because Macs have never been a target for widespread malice. On all systems, user incompetence can completely outdo even the strongest security configurations because all you need to do is download miley_cyrus_real_nude_pic.jpg.exe, run it, enter your root password, and hit Allow Forever on every antivirus popup that opens.
As the Mac market share increases, Mac malware will become more and more widespread. Just you wait. The only reason they have the least viruses (note that they DON'T have NO viruses) is because the market share has been so small that Windows has been a much more profitable target.
You can't legislate intelligence. Stupid people leave their guns in places their kids can get to them, and when their kids kill themselves or each other those parents are thrown in prison for criminal negligence. As I said before, you don't get murdered for no reason. Most murders are gang- or drug-related, in which case you had it coming. Cars kill many many times more people every year than guns. Should we make them illegal?
Freedom does not work like that. Freedom is the ability to do whatever you want without other people getting in your way. If you want to live in a gun-free society then move somewhere that is gun-free, nobody is stopping you from doing so.
You know what my answer to that will be but for the sake of debate and so you don't have the fuel to say call me a stupid hypocrite, I will continue. Bombs are used for blind destruction. Guns are precision instruments. There is a huge difference. Also, you ARE allowed to make and possess small explosive devices, and anything large enough to cause injury to anything but yourself can be possessed if you are trained and licensed in their use. You know that, but you just want to be an ass. What's that phrase people like to use a lot on this site? Oh yeah, "strawman argument".
Hunting, recreation, competition, self-defense. Why does it matter? I've never killed anybody, so why should my guns be taken away?