Undersigned Affiant, Who After Being Duly Sworn By Me, On Oath, Makes The Following Statement:
I have good reason to believe and do believe that McConaughey, Matthew W/M (11-4-69)
On or About The 25th Day of October 1999, In the incorporated limits of the city of Austin, County of Travis and the State of Texas, did then and there commit the offense of:
Resisting Transportation - Class A
My belief of the foregoing statemetn is based upon personal knowledge. On 10-25-99 at about 2:37am I was dispatched to a DOC - Noise call at 2002 Meadowbrook Dr (final location was actually 2004 Meadowbrook Dr.) I had officer G. Stephenson #4071 riding with me. We were both wearing standard issue APD uniform with our badges prominently displayed.
On arrival to the location I could easily hear very loud music coming from 2004 Meadowbrook Dr. There was no apparent front door to the residence, but there was a path leading to a wrought iron gate on the south side of the residence. As we got closer to the house I could hear music along with what sounded like bongo drums and someone clapping with the music. We went throught the unlocked wrought iron gate looking for a door. After this gate there was a small set of steps that led to a door that was dark (no porch light and no light coming from inside.) There was also a half-wall on the left side of teh area and a wooden gate on the right side. I looked over the half-wall and could see a room on the other side. Through the window and the door was open(there was a screen door that was closed over teh doorway) I could see a nude, white male dancing and playing bongo drums. I decided to try to make contact with the subject to get him to turn down the radio and stop playing the drums. I went through the second gate (which was unlocked also) and approached the door. As I approached I could see that there was another white male in the room. He was dancing and clapping his hands to the music. The music was so loud that I knew they would not hear me if I knocked or hollered at them. I flashed my flashlight back and forth across the room about 8 to 10 times to try to get their attention. They did not notice the flashing light. From the door I could see what I recognized to be a marijuana bong sitting on the coffee table. It was filled with water and had black residue in the bowl. I then decided to make entry to the residence to get the music turned off and to identify the residents. I checked the screen door to see if it was unlocked. It was. I opened the screen door and started to enter the house. I could immediately smell a faint odor of marijuana. I stepped into the room. The naked subject saw me after I was already inside and he turned off the radio. He began yelling at us. He said, "You can't be in here! Get the Fuck out of the house! Why are you here?" The other subject was also yelling similar phrases. I told them that we had a complaint about the loud music.
I could tell that both subject were very intoxicated. They both had very slurred speach. They swayed while standing still. There was a strong odor of alcoholic beverage coming from both of them. While onscene I observed that they both had glassy and very bloodshot eyes.
At this point I was acting as if I had not seen teh paraphernalia in order to try to gain their cooperation with the DOC-Noise complaint. I asked who lives at the house and was met with more profanity. I asked for the subjects' identification. The nude subject yelled, "You're violating our rights! You can't come in my house like this!" I said, "I just need to see some ID from ya'll." Both subjects continued yelling phrases similar to those above. The subject nearest to me was moving around alot. He was stepping back adn forth and looking around. Due to the low light conditions (low lights and candles) I could not see very well around the entire room. There were shelves, tables, couches, a bed, and the drums that could all easily conceal any possible weapons. I decided taht due to the subjects' lack of cooperation I would put them both in handcuffs for our safety while i further investigated and tried to get them identified. I placed Hauser in handcuffs and quickly frisked him for weapons. I then asked him to sit down on the floor. He cooperated physically, but continued yelling that we were not supposed to be in the house and that we were violated his rights. I told stephenson to stay near Hauser and keep an eye on him. I then stepped across the room towards the nude subject.
While I was going across the room I glanced at the coffee table and observed a shallow bowl that had what i recognized to be marijuana stems and seeds in it. I also saw a "one-hitter", which is an item of paraphernalia that is commonly used to store marijuana. One side of it typically contains the marijuana and the other side contains a metal cigarette-like device that is used to smoke one "hit" of marijuana at a time. I asked the nude male several times to put some pants on (there was a pair of pants next to him on teh floor.) He responded by saying, "Fuck you." I told him that he needed to put on a pair of pants or I would have to put him in handcuffs with nothign on. He then reached out with his left hand as if to push me while saying, "Fuck You!" I deflected his hand by grabbing it and twisting it around behind his back. I then handcuffed him. I told him to sit on the ground (so he could not move around much while I tried to continue to investigate and identify teh subjects.) He would not sit down, so I pushed him down to a sitting position and then suddenly shot back up to a standing position. I again ordered him loudly to sit down. I pushed him down again and this time he got to a sitting position. I asked where his ID was and he said "Take the cuffs off and I'll go get it." I told him it was too late for that and that I needed to get his ID for him. I looked closer at the coffee table and observed a moneyclip. Some cash was wrapped around a TX Driver's License. I retrieved the DL and was able to identify the subject as:
McConaughey, Matthew W/M (11-4-69).
He asked why he was under arrest. I told him that he was under arrest for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. After another officer arrived on the scene I was able to wrap a long sleeve shirt around his waist to cover him. I decided to go ahead and take him out to the patrol unit. As I walked him along the walkway towards the front of the house he dragged his feet and tried to push backwards against me constantly. He kept yelling, "This is bullshit!" When we got to the wrought iron gate he put his left foot up against the door jamb and shoved backwards very hard. This caused his back to slam into my chest, causing me to nearly fall over backwards. I had to step back several steps and the other officer had to grab McConaughey's right arm in order to catch us both from falling. We then walked him to the patrol unit. I opened the back right door and ask him to sit in the car. He refused. He just stood there facing us. I then ordered him to get into the unit. He said, "Fuck You!" and jerked his body towards us. I had to take him by the hait and try to bend him down into the backseat. He put his foot on the bottom of the door jamb and pushed very hard against it. This caused his both to forcefully push into mine. His right shoulder struck my chest, causing me to be pushed backwards about a step. I had to use my knee to push him in the hip area to bend his body backwards into the seat. We were then able to push him into the unit.
McConaughey was booked into jail for Resisting Transportation. He intentionally obstructed a person he knew to be a peace officer from transporting him by using force against the peace officer.
Dell's Outlet is also probably a good place to look for higher end refurb machines. they have a few notebooks on there you might be interested in. you might end up paying the "microsoft tax", but at least you know you can install whatever the hell you want on your system and if something fails, you can return it and have them fix it for free.
i will love to see an office full of cubicles and people programming by talking to their computers... you try and convince me that the voice recognition software won't get confused by an office full of people talking. i don't know any company (well except microsoft maybe) that has the money to give everyone their own soundproof office so that they can talk to their computers and get their work done.
i don't see any drastic changes to computer keyboards coming in the near or relatively distant future. the world types on qwerty, it'll probably stay that way for a while. sure there's better key layouts, but you try giong from 100 wpm on a qwerty keyboard and learning an entirely different layout without killing your efficiency at work. it won't happen. what i do see happening is some company creating a keyboard with extra keys that do things like cut/copy/paste, maybe a single ctrl-alt-del key for windows users, and maybe a close program key. things taht we use 2-3 key combinations for right now. i used to have a crappy keyboard that had power buttons on it. it was the cheapest keyboard i could find at compusa. it had power, sleep, and wake buttons right under the del, end, and pgdwn keys. it was kind of weird. it had a function key in the upper right hand corner to use those keys and it also had volume symbols and lock/unlock on the function keys so i could raise and lower the volume and lock and unlock the keyboard. i thought that was kidn of weird and dumb. i don't think i needed to use the function button to put my computer to sleep, which got annoying because i woudl accidentally hit it.
the problem with creating a new keyboard design and layout is that the world is so used to what we have now that adding/changing anything won't make life easier for us unless we completely switch to it both at home and at work.
it'd be cool if someone added support for the windows keys into the kernel. i don't know what the keys could do, but i'm sure there's something that the guy complaining about his keyboard layout would want that they don't have now, but i guess we already decided from the parent of my parent that this guy isn't a *nix user since he has no use for the ~ or the ` characters. so i'm guessing he uses the windows keys regularly.
i'm an avid windows user, and i have no use for those keys, in fact, i find them to be annoying because i'll be doing something and hit the context menu key and i can't do anything until i get rid of the menu!
Re:Technology gives - and technology takes away
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Instant Concert CDs?
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· Score: 1
yes, but not the $15 liek the article says (actually, they're talking small clubs so the show would fit on one, maybe 2 discs). i'm talking about larger shows where it woudl require 3 discs, maybe 4. and i am also not talkign about paying $5-10 more if the show alraedy has highly inflated ticket prices.
Re:Technology gives - and technology takes away
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Instant Concert CDs?
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· Score: 1
the only problem with what you are saying is that recording the shows has to be ok'd by the artists. most artists don't allow recordings of their concerts. a lot of the reason for that has to do with their management and the RIAA. i don't think artists or the RIAA would ever allow a complete third party to record their shows and sell them without getting all or most of the money. and i don't think clear channel would be overly willing to give all or most of the money away, unless we start to see a major increase in concert tickets.
on a side note, i'd pay $5-10 more per ticket if i got a free CD of the show i just saw when i left. i think that woudl be really cool. but again, the artists, their management, and the RIAA would all have to agree to allow this.
well, then there's the other side of the case. clear channel obviously can't go and make recordings of concerts without the permission of the musicians and their management. all the bands i mentioned above allow people to tape their shows and trade them freely. they each have their own taping/trading policies, but they all allow the trading of audience copies of shows. the musicians you mentioned are not taper-friendly. if clear channel was to start recording their shows, they would be doing so illegally, and then to be selling them would be completely copyright violation and they could be prosecuted in a federal court.
so the only way you could really get copies of these shows are if they release them themselves or if they start to allow taping and trading. i'm sure there are bootleg recordings out there, but it's not legal to trade them. write to the management and press them to allow taping/trading. that's the only way to do it.
this is already done by several bands. pearl jam was the first that i know of to do this. they have been releasing a series of live shows from their archives. the who did this with their last tour. they would release the live recordings a few weeks after the shows. the entire tour was done taht way. the string cheese incident has their "on the road" series, same thing as the who with the current shows being released a few weeks after they happen. the greatest band in the world, phish, has done it completely differently. they have a live phish series, releasing shows on cd from their archives, but they also now have live phish downloads. this is a way of getting the shows out to people within 2 days after the show by way of download. they release them in a lossless compression format (shorten) and they even include printable jewel case inserts and cd labels for people who label their cd's. it's a pay per download thing, but the risk involved is huge since peopel can just trade these shows openly even though phish does not allow that in their policy. they are very proactive in enforcing that as they have removed their band from furthurnet because people were trading the downloaded shows there.
so this alraedy does exist for many bands, but a lot of bands aren't even worth listening to live unless you watch the show (britney, nsync, etc) because there's nothing different about the music except they do a little dance number with it.
skill labor of any sort is in high demand lately as people move more towards professional jobs. it's lots of hard work and takes some time before you can make the big bucks, but very few people move in that direction and it's easy to find work. i'm considering becoming a lineman for my electric company.
it comes with it's own cables and the dimensions aren't huge, so normal cables would probably be long enough anyways. no need to worry about drive cables.
i think the shape is pretty cool, and would make a nice case for people who build their own and enjoy interesting looking cases. i'd buy it for the looks.
it probably wouldn't fit in most computer desks that have that narrow slot for the comptuer, especially since all the external cables attach to the side in this one, and those slots are designed for the cables to come out the back. this is the only problem i see, but then again, most people who have those desks woudln't care about how cool the case looks.:)
i think it's a great case and would liek to see it on the market at a reasonable price. i'd buy one for my next computer...
with auto repair, it's a no brainer, the credentials should be there no matter what. with a salon, that also makes sense based on the use of hair chemicals and even using sharp objects near someone's head or ears. that can cause serious injury to people. with computer repair, it's a little less necessary i think. there's no immediate danger to people. sure, the investment is huge in a computer system. i wouldn't want some "know it all" consultant installing my $100,000 server. but there's certain responsibility on the consumer's part here. moreso than with auto repair or a salon. you can prefer to only use certified consultants and technicians and ask to see their credentials before hiring or paying for their services. just like you wouldn't walk into any old auto repair shop and just ask them to fix your car without knowing anything about them, you shouldn't just go and hire any old computer technician to repair or install your systems. if it's someone you know and trust, that's great, who cares if they have the credentials if they know what they're doing. but if it's someone you don't know or have no references for, no way of finding out who they are or how they perform, you wouldn't just go and hire them because they're less expensive. you do a little research. also, an important thing to find out is if they are insured. you're paying them to do a job, but if they have no insurance to cover any mistakes they make with your investment, anything that's their own careless fault, then again, you shouldn't hire them because that could be a huge investment down the drain and you have to go and spend the money all over again. but requiring all computer repair people and technicians to display their credentials is crazy, especially since the majority of us are not certified at all, but can still do the job. why should lack of expensive certification keep us from opening a small shop? i don't think the certification is required to repair joe schmoe's old desktop that keeps crapping out on him. i don't think it's necessary to have certification to install a hard drive or some other piece of hardware. that's a big portion of what the smaller shops do and i'd be willing to be that most of them do not have any certifications, because they don't need them. if the comptuer could blow up, then i'd say they should have it, but it can't. having insurance is another story. if they break it even more, they should pay for it no matter what, and even if they won't, you can take them to court and make them pay if they're a real business. for the corporate people, they should ask for the credentials. like a said before, it's a no-brainer.
Re:Mp3.com, EmergentMusic.com, others: lots of wor
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Discovering New Music?
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· Score: 1
actually, i have found mp3.com to be kind of cool and useful for certain things. i found some cool local bands that way. i lvoe finding new bands that no one has heard of and making my friends listen to them. i prefer to do taht with local bands and i found mp3.com to be the easiest way to discover local bands, other than listening to this radio show called local bands on WPLR 99.1 in the new haven area of connecticut. they play music from local bands for half an hour every sunday night at like 10 or 10:30. it's pretty good, although some of the bands suck.
another good way to discover other bands is to look at other bands members of your favorite bands have played with, or opening acts for your favorite bands. they usually have something in common (or sometimes don't, but that's rare). go to a small club or bar in your area and listen to a band or bands for like $5-10. go to the whole thing, not just the "headliner". a lot of times the openers (usually 1-2, sometimes 3) are decent bands. of course that doesn't always happen as i went to see psychedelic breakfast (i went to grammar school with their guitarist) one time at toad's place in new haven (they were opening for max creek that night) and the other opening band, spiral trace, was a high school band that absolutely sucked, so we just left, not seeing the other bands. we ended up getting drunk at yale instead, which wasn't a bad idea at the time.:) if you live in the new haven area, or anywhere in connecticut, toad's is a good place to check out. also pyschedelic breakfast and max creek are on mp3.com if they are new to you and you want to check out their music.
my last suggestion is to join any email discussion lists pertaining to the bands you like or the types of music you like. etree.org has a some discussion lists that pertain to taper/trader friendly bands. always a good way to find new music. so good luck on your music search, i'm sure you'll find a lot out there.
i was going to mention that. it'd be such a cool idea i think. everyone has that "cool room" in their house with a variety of interesting things. a pay phone would make it pretty cool. kind of like in the movie funny farm.:) and maybe you could invite some stupid friends over who'd actually pay to use your phone and you'd make some money. or it could just be a useful piggy bank.:) like those toy slot machines. you don't actually have to put quarters in it to use it, but you can if you want. they can just change the lock mechanism on it so that it uses a general key to open up the change compartment. i'd buy one.
first of all, etree.org doesn't distribute the music, it's just a site with some mailing lists that aid in the trading process. it's a good resource for all your trading needs and a place to post your list.
second of all, i don't know which came first, but i knew about pcp (people for a clearer phish) long before i heard of etree. it's a mailing list that discusses lossless digital phish trading. it was originally used to bridge the gap between trading analog cassette copies (remember those days) and trading cd-r copies of shows. the increased use of the internet basically made this easier and pcp started to dwindle to become a discussion list, and i find it to be a much nicer list than the etree lists for discussion of any jamband, not just phish. but phish holds a special place in their hearts. it was hard in the beginning to get copies because i didn't have a burner (remember when burners cost $300+?). then i got mine and it was easier, but people were helpful and i got really into trading and doing a lot of ftp trading (where etree came in for me). so i don't think etree should be really called the starter of all this. i'm srue a lot of other groups started around the same time. i thought pcp was teh coolest thing when i discovered it.
look deeper into sprint... i'm sure there's something there. i use verizon wireless and there's a form to send text messages from the webpage using the phone number, there's sending them from the phone using the phone number, and then there's an explanation of doing it using email. the email address would be 2035551212@some.long.complicated.domain.verizonwir eless.com. so unless with sprint, you get your regular email on your phone, you can also email your phone's email address which would be the phone number thing as described above. most wireless customers don't even realize they have this kind of capability, but it's there. there is also a limit to the number of characters you can send to the phone.
at my unnamed school, our ssn was our student id number. it kind of sucks that everywhere you go you're ssn is with you and all over the place for many people (sometimes unsavory) to have. i know the department that supported the residential network (i worked for them) used ssn's to identify students and stuff, and the support staff was all students. that's not safe. we had to sign a stupid form that says we keep info confidential, but whatever. it shouldn't be out there. the best was when i went to an interview for a job at another college and they said that it's against the law for college's to do that and they were surprised that a public university would do such a thing. i do know that my university made up ssn's for foreign students. they all started with 999, whcih i don't think is in any valid ssn's.
phish is my favorite band... however, i do happen like to have their albums. i haev a lot of their shows on cd too, but it gets so monotonous listening to it after a while and not being there. you know? that's why i suggested going to concerts, because with bands like phish, it's worthwhile, but others, it's usually not.
well, there is an answer to this... while it might suck to not get the newest album from an artist, attending their concerts is a way to provide them with support, while not supporting the recording industry. of course even doing that supports other evil corporations, such as ticketmaster. then there's those artists who don't have concerts who are still awesome. we can't boycott them because we won't support them or be able to hear them. all in all, it's a lose-lose situation. we need an alternative to come about or someone to start making some serious changes in the music industry. since all us geeks care so much, imagine the force it would have it everyone on slashdot that complained about the riaa or mpaa went back to school for film or music business and just invaded the industry... i think change woudl occur... that's one of the degrees on my list right now. so until there's another option to get the albums from my favorite bands, i still plan on supporting the riaa, because i love music too much not to.
Slashdot Mirror
how do you know you'll regret it if you're still a virgin? and how can you get pussy but not a girlfriend?
or rather... why do you think your older brother just got married? ;)
i don't know where you live, but in my state, public school teachers make a ton of money...
or you tell him to register it and sell it on ebay for lots of money...
Undersigned Affiant, Who After Being Duly Sworn By Me, On Oath, Makes The Following Statement:
I have good reason to believe and do believe that McConaughey, Matthew W/M (11-4-69)
On or About The 25th Day of October 1999, In the incorporated limits of the city of Austin, County of Travis and the State of Texas, did then and there commit the offense of:
Resisting Transportation - Class A
My belief of the foregoing statemetn is based upon personal knowledge. On 10-25-99 at about 2:37am I was dispatched to a DOC - Noise call at 2002 Meadowbrook Dr (final location was actually 2004 Meadowbrook Dr.) I had officer G. Stephenson #4071 riding with me. We were both wearing standard issue APD uniform with our badges prominently displayed.
On arrival to the location I could easily hear very loud music coming from 2004 Meadowbrook Dr. There was no apparent front door to the residence, but there was a path leading to a wrought iron gate on the south side of the residence. As we got closer to the house I could hear music along with what sounded like bongo drums and someone clapping with the music. We went throught the unlocked wrought iron gate looking for a door. After this gate there was a small set of steps that led to a door that was dark (no porch light and no light coming from inside.) There was also a half-wall on the left side of teh area and a wooden gate on the right side. I looked over the half-wall and could see a room on the other side. Through the window and the door was open(there was a screen door that was closed over teh doorway) I could see a nude, white male dancing and playing bongo drums. I decided to try to make contact with the subject to get him to turn down the radio and stop playing the drums. I went through the second gate (which was unlocked also) and approached the door. As I approached I could see that there was another white male in the room. He was dancing and clapping his hands to the music. The music was so loud that I knew they would not hear me if I knocked or hollered at them. I flashed my flashlight back and forth across the room about 8 to 10 times to try to get their attention. They did not notice the flashing light. From the door I could see what I recognized to be a marijuana bong sitting on the coffee table. It was filled with water and had black residue in the bowl. I then decided to make entry to the residence to get the music turned off and to identify the residents. I checked the screen door to see if it was unlocked. It was. I opened the screen door and started to enter the house. I could immediately smell a faint odor of marijuana. I stepped into the room. The naked subject saw me after I was already inside and he turned off the radio. He began yelling at us. He said, "You can't be in here! Get the Fuck out of the house! Why are you here?" The other subject was also yelling similar phrases. I told them that we had a complaint about the loud music.
I could tell that both subject were very intoxicated. They both had very slurred speach. They swayed while standing still. There was a strong odor of alcoholic beverage coming from both of them. While onscene I observed that they both had glassy and very bloodshot eyes.
At this point I was acting as if I had not seen teh paraphernalia in order to try to gain their cooperation with the DOC-Noise complaint. I asked who lives at the house and was met with more profanity. I asked for the subjects' identification. The nude subject yelled, "You're violating our rights! You can't come in my house like this!" I said, "I just need to see some ID from ya'll." Both subjects continued yelling phrases similar to those above. The subject nearest to me was moving around alot. He was stepping back adn forth and looking around. Due to the low light conditions (low lights and candles) I could not see very well around the entire room. There were shelves, tables, couches, a bed, and the drums that could all easily conceal any possible weapons. I decided taht due to the subjects' lack of cooperation I would put them both in handcuffs for our safety while i further investigated and tried to get them identified. I placed Hauser in handcuffs and quickly frisked him for weapons. I then asked him to sit down on the floor. He cooperated physically, but continued yelling that we were not supposed to be in the house and that we were violated his rights. I told stephenson to stay near Hauser and keep an eye on him. I then stepped across the room towards the nude subject.
While I was going across the room I glanced at the coffee table and observed a shallow bowl that had what i recognized to be marijuana stems and seeds in it. I also saw a "one-hitter", which is an item of paraphernalia that is commonly used to store marijuana. One side of it typically contains the marijuana and the other side contains a metal cigarette-like device that is used to smoke one "hit" of marijuana at a time.
I asked the nude male several times to put some pants on (there was a pair of pants next to him on teh floor.) He responded by saying, "Fuck you." I told him that he needed to put on a pair of pants or I would have to put him in handcuffs with nothign on. He then reached out with his left hand as if to push me while saying, "Fuck You!" I deflected his hand by grabbing it and twisting it around behind his back. I then handcuffed him. I told him to sit on the ground (so he could not move around much while I tried to continue to investigate and identify teh subjects.) He would not sit down, so I pushed him down to a sitting position and then suddenly shot back up to a standing position. I again ordered him loudly to sit down. I pushed him down again and this time he got to a sitting position. I asked where his ID was and he said "Take the cuffs off and I'll go get it." I told him it was too late for that and that I needed to get his ID for him. I looked closer at the coffee table and observed a moneyclip. Some cash was wrapped around a TX Driver's License. I retrieved the DL and was able to identify the subject as:
McConaughey, Matthew W/M (11-4-69).
He asked why he was under arrest. I told him that he was under arrest for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. After another officer arrived on the scene I was able to wrap a long sleeve shirt around his waist to cover him. I decided to go ahead and take him out to the patrol unit. As I walked him along the walkway towards the front of the house he dragged his feet and tried to push backwards against me constantly. He kept yelling, "This is bullshit!" When we got to the wrought iron gate he put his left foot up against the door jamb and shoved backwards very hard. This caused his back to slam into my chest, causing me to nearly fall over backwards. I had to step back several steps and the other officer had to grab McConaughey's right arm in order to catch us both from falling. We then walked him to the patrol unit. I opened the back right door and ask him to sit in the car. He refused. He just stood there facing us. I then ordered him to get into the unit. He said, "Fuck You!" and jerked his body towards us. I had to take him by the hait and try to bend him down into the backseat. He put his foot on the bottom of the door jamb and pushed very hard against it. This caused his both to forcefully push into mine. His right shoulder struck my chest, causing me to be pushed backwards about a step. I had to use my knee to push him in the hip area to bend his body backwards into the seat. We were then able to push him into the unit.
McConaughey was booked into jail for Resisting Transportation. He intentionally obstructed a person he knew to be a peace officer from transporting him by using force against the peace officer.
Dell's Outlet is also probably a good place to look for higher end refurb machines. they have a few notebooks on there you might be interested in. you might end up paying the "microsoft tax", but at least you know you can install whatever the hell you want on your system and if something fails, you can return it and have them fix it for free.
i will love to see an office full of cubicles and people programming by talking to their computers... you try and convince me that the voice recognition software won't get confused by an office full of people talking. i don't know any company (well except microsoft maybe) that has the money to give everyone their own soundproof office so that they can talk to their computers and get their work done.
i don't see any drastic changes to computer keyboards coming in the near or relatively distant future. the world types on qwerty, it'll probably stay that way for a while. sure there's better key layouts, but you try giong from 100 wpm on a qwerty keyboard and learning an entirely different layout without killing your efficiency at work. it won't happen. what i do see happening is some company creating a keyboard with extra keys that do things like cut/copy/paste, maybe a single ctrl-alt-del key for windows users, and maybe a close program key. things taht we use 2-3 key combinations for right now. i used to have a crappy keyboard that had power buttons on it. it was the cheapest keyboard i could find at compusa. it had power, sleep, and wake buttons right under the del, end, and pgdwn keys. it was kind of weird. it had a function key in the upper right hand corner to use those keys and it also had volume symbols and lock/unlock on the function keys so i could raise and lower the volume and lock and unlock the keyboard. i thought that was kidn of weird and dumb. i don't think i needed to use the function button to put my computer to sleep, which got annoying because i woudl accidentally hit it.
the problem with creating a new keyboard design and layout is that the world is so used to what we have now that adding/changing anything won't make life easier for us unless we completely switch to it both at home and at work.
it'd be cool if someone added support for the windows keys into the kernel. i don't know what the keys could do, but i'm sure there's something that the guy complaining about his keyboard layout would want that they don't have now, but i guess we already decided from the parent of my parent that this guy isn't a *nix user since he has no use for the ~ or the ` characters. so i'm guessing he uses the windows keys regularly.
i'm an avid windows user, and i have no use for those keys, in fact, i find them to be annoying because i'll be doing something and hit the context menu key and i can't do anything until i get rid of the menu!
yes, but not the $15 liek the article says (actually, they're talking small clubs so the show would fit on one, maybe 2 discs). i'm talking about larger shows where it woudl require 3 discs, maybe 4. and i am also not talkign about paying $5-10 more if the show alraedy has highly inflated ticket prices.
the only problem with what you are saying is that recording the shows has to be ok'd by the artists. most artists don't allow recordings of their concerts. a lot of the reason for that has to do with their management and the RIAA. i don't think artists or the RIAA would ever allow a complete third party to record their shows and sell them without getting all or most of the money. and i don't think clear channel would be overly willing to give all or most of the money away, unless we start to see a major increase in concert tickets.
on a side note, i'd pay $5-10 more per ticket if i got a free CD of the show i just saw when i left. i think that woudl be really cool. but again, the artists, their management, and the RIAA would all have to agree to allow this.
well, then there's the other side of the case. clear channel obviously can't go and make recordings of concerts without the permission of the musicians and their management. all the bands i mentioned above allow people to tape their shows and trade them freely. they each have their own taping/trading policies, but they all allow the trading of audience copies of shows. the musicians you mentioned are not taper-friendly. if clear channel was to start recording their shows, they would be doing so illegally, and then to be selling them would be completely copyright violation and they could be prosecuted in a federal court.
so the only way you could really get copies of these shows are if they release them themselves or if they start to allow taping and trading. i'm sure there are bootleg recordings out there, but it's not legal to trade them. write to the management and press them to allow taping/trading. that's the only way to do it.
this is already done by several bands. pearl jam was the first that i know of to do this. they have been releasing a series of live shows from their archives. the who did this with their last tour. they would release the live recordings a few weeks after the shows. the entire tour was done taht way. the string cheese incident has their "on the road" series, same thing as the who with the current shows being released a few weeks after they happen. the greatest band in the world, phish, has done it completely differently. they have a live phish series, releasing shows on cd from their archives, but they also now have live phish downloads. this is a way of getting the shows out to people within 2 days after the show by way of download. they release them in a lossless compression format (shorten) and they even include printable jewel case inserts and cd labels for people who label their cd's. it's a pay per download thing, but the risk involved is huge since peopel can just trade these shows openly even though phish does not allow that in their policy. they are very proactive in enforcing that as they have removed their band from furthurnet because people were trading the downloaded shows there.
so this alraedy does exist for many bands, but a lot of bands aren't even worth listening to live unless you watch the show (britney, nsync, etc) because there's nothing different about the music except they do a little dance number with it.
skill labor of any sort is in high demand lately as people move more towards professional jobs. it's lots of hard work and takes some time before you can make the big bucks, but very few people move in that direction and it's easy to find work. i'm considering becoming a lineman for my electric company.
it comes with it's own cables and the dimensions aren't huge, so normal cables would probably be long enough anyways. no need to worry about drive cables.
:)
i think the shape is pretty cool, and would make a nice case for people who build their own and enjoy interesting looking cases. i'd buy it for the looks.
it probably wouldn't fit in most computer desks that have that narrow slot for the comptuer, especially since all the external cables attach to the side in this one, and those slots are designed for the cables to come out the back. this is the only problem i see, but then again, most people who have those desks woudln't care about how cool the case looks.
i think it's a great case and would liek to see it on the market at a reasonable price. i'd buy one for my next computer...
with auto repair, it's a no brainer, the credentials should be there no matter what. with a salon, that also makes sense based on the use of hair chemicals and even using sharp objects near someone's head or ears. that can cause serious injury to people. with computer repair, it's a little less necessary i think. there's no immediate danger to people. sure, the investment is huge in a computer system. i wouldn't want some "know it all" consultant installing my $100,000 server. but there's certain responsibility on the consumer's part here. moreso than with auto repair or a salon. you can prefer to only use certified consultants and technicians and ask to see their credentials before hiring or paying for their services. just like you wouldn't walk into any old auto repair shop and just ask them to fix your car without knowing anything about them, you shouldn't just go and hire any old computer technician to repair or install your systems. if it's someone you know and trust, that's great, who cares if they have the credentials if they know what they're doing. but if it's someone you don't know or have no references for, no way of finding out who they are or how they perform, you wouldn't just go and hire them because they're less expensive. you do a little research. also, an important thing to find out is if they are insured. you're paying them to do a job, but if they have no insurance to cover any mistakes they make with your investment, anything that's their own careless fault, then again, you shouldn't hire them because that could be a huge investment down the drain and you have to go and spend the money all over again. but requiring all computer repair people and technicians to display their credentials is crazy, especially since the majority of us are not certified at all, but can still do the job. why should lack of expensive certification keep us from opening a small shop? i don't think the certification is required to repair joe schmoe's old desktop that keeps crapping out on him. i don't think it's necessary to have certification to install a hard drive or some other piece of hardware. that's a big portion of what the smaller shops do and i'd be willing to be that most of them do not have any certifications, because they don't need them. if the comptuer could blow up, then i'd say they should have it, but it can't. having insurance is another story. if they break it even more, they should pay for it no matter what, and even if they won't, you can take them to court and make them pay if they're a real business. for the corporate people, they should ask for the credentials. like a said before, it's a no-brainer.
actually, i have found mp3.com to be kind of cool and useful for certain things. i found some cool local bands that way. i lvoe finding new bands that no one has heard of and making my friends listen to them. i prefer to do taht with local bands and i found mp3.com to be the easiest way to discover local bands, other than listening to this radio show called local bands on WPLR 99.1 in the new haven area of connecticut. they play music from local bands for half an hour every sunday night at like 10 or 10:30. it's pretty good, although some of the bands suck.
:) if you live in the new haven area, or anywhere in connecticut, toad's is a good place to check out. also pyschedelic breakfast and max creek are on mp3.com if they are new to you and you want to check out their music.
another good way to discover other bands is to look at other bands members of your favorite bands have played with, or opening acts for your favorite bands. they usually have something in common (or sometimes don't, but that's rare). go to a small club or bar in your area and listen to a band or bands for like $5-10. go to the whole thing, not just the "headliner". a lot of times the openers (usually 1-2, sometimes 3) are decent bands. of course that doesn't always happen as i went to see psychedelic breakfast (i went to grammar school with their guitarist) one time at toad's place in new haven (they were opening for max creek that night) and the other opening band, spiral trace, was a high school band that absolutely sucked, so we just left, not seeing the other bands. we ended up getting drunk at yale instead, which wasn't a bad idea at the time.
my last suggestion is to join any email discussion lists pertaining to the bands you like or the types of music you like. etree.org has a some discussion lists that pertain to taper/trader friendly bands. always a good way to find new music. so good luck on your music search, i'm sure you'll find a lot out there.
i was going to mention that. it'd be such a cool idea i think. everyone has that "cool room" in their house with a variety of interesting things. a pay phone would make it pretty cool. kind of like in the movie funny farm. :) and maybe you could invite some stupid friends over who'd actually pay to use your phone and you'd make some money. or it could just be a useful piggy bank. :) like those toy slot machines. you don't actually have to put quarters in it to use it, but you can if you want. they can just change the lock mechanism on it so that it uses a general key to open up the change compartment. i'd buy one.
first of all, etree.org doesn't distribute the music, it's just a site with some mailing lists that aid in the trading process. it's a good resource for all your trading needs and a place to post your list.
second of all, i don't know which came first, but i knew about pcp (people for a clearer phish) long before i heard of etree. it's a mailing list that discusses lossless digital phish trading. it was originally used to bridge the gap between trading analog cassette copies (remember those days) and trading cd-r copies of shows. the increased use of the internet basically made this easier and pcp started to dwindle to become a discussion list, and i find it to be a much nicer list than the etree lists for discussion of any jamband, not just phish. but phish holds a special place in their hearts. it was hard in the beginning to get copies because i didn't have a burner (remember when burners cost $300+?). then i got mine and it was easier, but people were helpful and i got really into trading and doing a lot of ftp trading (where etree came in for me). so i don't think etree should be really called the starter of all this. i'm srue a lot of other groups started around the same time. i thought pcp was teh coolest thing when i discovered it.
look deeper into sprint... i'm sure there's something there. i use verizon wireless and there's a form to send text messages from the webpage using the phone number, there's sending them from the phone using the phone number, and then there's an explanation of doing it using email. the email address would be 2035551212@some.long.complicated.domain.verizonwir eless.com. so unless with sprint, you get your regular email on your phone, you can also email your phone's email address which would be the phone number thing as described above. most wireless customers don't even realize they have this kind of capability, but it's there. there is also a limit to the number of characters you can send to the phone.
at my unnamed school, our ssn was our student id number. it kind of sucks that everywhere you go you're ssn is with you and all over the place for many people (sometimes unsavory) to have. i know the department that supported the residential network (i worked for them) used ssn's to identify students and stuff, and the support staff was all students. that's not safe. we had to sign a stupid form that says we keep info confidential, but whatever. it shouldn't be out there. the best was when i went to an interview for a job at another college and they said that it's against the law for college's to do that and they were surprised that a public university would do such a thing. i do know that my university made up ssn's for foreign students. they all started with 999, whcih i don't think is in any valid ssn's.
i got shutout from nye... going to nassau... no job, couldn't afford anything else. :(
phish is my favorite band... however, i do happen like to have their albums. i haev a lot of their shows on cd too, but it gets so monotonous listening to it after a while and not being there. you know? that's why i suggested going to concerts, because with bands like phish, it's worthwhile, but others, it's usually not.
well, there is an answer to this... while it might suck to not get the newest album from an artist, attending their concerts is a way to provide them with support, while not supporting the recording industry. of course even doing that supports other evil corporations, such as ticketmaster. then there's those artists who don't have concerts who are still awesome. we can't boycott them because we won't support them or be able to hear them. all in all, it's a lose-lose situation. we need an alternative to come about or someone to start making some serious changes in the music industry. since all us geeks care so much, imagine the force it would have it everyone on slashdot that complained about the riaa or mpaa went back to school for film or music business and just invaded the industry... i think change woudl occur... that's one of the degrees on my list right now. so until there's another option to get the albums from my favorite bands, i still plan on supporting the riaa, because i love music too much not to.
we don't want anymore people dressing up in purple wearing black nike's again... that wouldn't be good....
you wanna hire someone who's unemployed??? seems like a good company to work for even though i have no idea what you do....