...I've heard it called "bottom bricket," "bottom basket," "gearbox," and any number of other things. Every time one of these paragons of proper English pronouncia- err, customers left the store, everyone in the repair department would bust out laughing for a good long time. "My gearbox is broke." "My gears is stripped." ahh, I miss DC.
...I work in distribution for a regional bicycle parts wholesaler in the Southeast. If it was last available on a bike OEM at any point before 1999 or 2000, chances are it hasn't been in production since, and god help you if you go to a shop that hasn't been open as long as your bike is old. Best that a bike wrench can do is substitute something new that may or may not work, and will certainly not look original. Planned obselescence is almost as bad as the hardware/software industries, if not worse. It sucks.
On the other hand, the new stuff really is as good as the grandparent post suggests, compared to the old stuff. Go ride a bike. It ain't what it was even ten years ago.
When I graduated from college, there was no way I'd get a job in my particular field. Competition was on the lines of one opening for every 40-50 applicants, and if I had to put in the effort it would've taken to land that job, it would've made my life suck completely. So I did something else. I kept working at a bicycle shop and was fortunate to get enough of a raise to keep going... and earlier this year I got a career started with a distributor. Result? I make a bit less money than I would otherwise, but weekends piss me off because I like being at work so much. I've got an IRA, good health/dental/vision, and I pay about a third to half of what folks on the street do for bike parts, which makes me grin. Expand your horizons a bit, maybe make a hobby into a career - it worked for me!
Oh, and everyone else will say this, but most of the jobs I've gotten (from ice cream scooper at Baskin' Robbins to the current one), it wasn't what I knew but who I knew. The right references, and the right person speaking up for you when someone mentions an opening, make all the difference. If you aren't outgoing, then at least be pleasant towards those around you whenever possible.
...your hardware of choice is reflected in the doman! Surely that intangible is well worth all the money. Or at least, that's what Apple is banking on.
Mentioned in another post on this thread, but ref. http://www.crumplerusa.com for some near-bulletproof amazing bags. The "Very Busy Man" model looks like a bicycle courier bag, has gobs of padding, and holds my brother's compaq x1000 really well. The dude at the other end of the phone at Crumpler told me that it's the only bag they make for the really big laptops. I'm a convert.
I'm biased. I work at a bike shop that sells Crumpler courier bags. I got my brother that same bag (Very Busy Man) for his Compaq x1000 last August and he's thanked me every chance he's gotten since. Holds his 17" screened doodad snugly, pockets ABOUND, it's really well padded, completely waterproof (forget-it-by-the-side-of-the-car-in-a-rainstorm waterproof)... I could go on, but I won't. Buy online or find a dealer; anyone in/near DC, I can show you one if you e-mail me.
Only quirk: they've got some FUNKY color schemes. If you work in an at all conservative place, the green-and-fluorescent-yellow type stuff might not fly. Personally, I think they rock.
M.A.S.K., one of those great 80's cartoons, had a young kid character who rode around on one of these things, except that it was a robot also. If I recall, he did some pretty stupid stuff on it but never fell over. That must mean the design is sound, right?
...I'm now all but weaned from it; I can take it or leave it, doesn't matter. But when you really need it - for me, it was at 4am during a 24-hour mountain bike race - it's amazing what two consecutive $tarbucks Doubleshots can do to your motivation, metabolism, and energy levels.
Of course, I hadn't slept that night, and the drive home several hours later required a couple of Redbulls.
I've been at work all day. Retail, at a bike shop, helping people make bicycles work and maybe - if I'm lucky - letting them experience a bit of the wonder and thrill they first got as a child learning to ride. We got a customer in around quarter after ten who passed on word of the tragedy, and got our jury-rigged TV antenna to tune in to the local news station - it stayed there all day. It was constantly on in the background, while I was helping laughing kids and enthusiastic adults with whatever they were up to. The customers took my mind off of things, thankfully - and now that I have time to remember, and mourn, and weep, you've helped. Thank you.
John Barnes. Pure fun, and it raises some unique points. Mother of Storms, Kaleidescope Century, Candle, The Sky So Big and Black... the list of fun stuff goes on.
They are no more real than the lens-flare that's added to poorly designed computer games that attempt to make it seem like you're there by adding something you'd only see if you weren't there and were actually viewing the action via a camera. Irony, eh?
I'm sure I speak for more than a few of those of us here when I say that lens flare, etc are things that I, as a glasses-wearing non-20/20-vision-capable person, experience on a regular basis. d:
I spent from fa97-sp01 getting a bachelor of music degree on french horn performance. Granted, I have a lovely (psych major) girlfriend, college was a breeze, and I did what I loved... but for almost the past year, my job situation, from a profitability standpoint, has been limbo. There's a Navy Band audition coming up in June in which I will participate, competing against maybe twenty or thirty other people for one spot, which I will probably fail. If I make it, that's cool, I'm set for life, start at $40k, and can retire with full gov't pension etc at the ripe old age of 42. If I don't? Back to work at the bicycle shop for $8.50 an hour, which is enough to pay the car bills, keep me fed, and allow me to live in mom and dad's fucking basement. You have 1337 j0b skillz; I have a paper degree and another year of loan remaining on my '95 Hyundai.
re: It's all about WC2 for me. What a game.
on
HIstory of RTS Games
·
· Score: 1
I dunno, I liked Wing Commander four better... much more cinematic, and the plot twists were fun. Pity it didn't run too well on my 486/66.
Too much of a slight jolt and poof, your $350 drive is now a miniature collection of plastic and metal. They now make 1gb CompactFlash cards - solid-state, no problems with jitter... of course, they cost about 3x as much, but hey, we're talking an activity that doesn't treat mechanical failure with much tolerance.
I wholeheartedly agree. I've beta-tested a number of MMO games before (Subspace, right now Jumpgate, etc) and the entire reason to play a multiplayer game in the first place is interaction with other people. Without a keyboard, or any truly effective way to enter text, interaction has been totally hindered. Now, I can understand getting online and playing Quake3 or UT - where the point is to shoot stuff instead of talk - but RPGs? Space/whatever sims? I can't see it working very well.
Re:What we need is a Highway to mars.
on
On to Mars
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· Score: 1
...NASA is working on it, in a sense. The TDRSS network of satellites currently serve space missions for telemetry and such both between orbital and ground-based platforms - my father's been working on it at Goddard for the past - 10? 15? something like that - years, and now he's on a team that's working on doing the same thing - a network of comm satellites - for Mars. The idea is that we won't be able to lose communication with anything else if this works, and it will provide much greater bandwidth between Earth and Mars for future missions... imagine, streaming 10-20fps video straight from a mars lander! That would so rock.
Slashdot Mirror
...I've heard it called "bottom bricket," "bottom basket," "gearbox," and any number of other things. Every time one of these paragons of proper English pronouncia- err, customers left the store, everyone in the repair department would bust out laughing for a good long time.
"My gearbox is broke." "My gears is stripped." ahh, I miss DC.
...I work in distribution for a regional bicycle parts wholesaler in the Southeast. If it was last available on a bike OEM at any point before 1999 or 2000, chances are it hasn't been in production since, and god help you if you go to a shop that hasn't been open as long as your bike is old. Best that a bike wrench can do is substitute something new that may or may not work, and will certainly not look original. Planned obselescence is almost as bad as the hardware/software industries, if not worse. It sucks.
On the other hand, the new stuff really is as good as the grandparent post suggests, compared to the old stuff. Go ride a bike. It ain't what it was even ten years ago.
3.14159265358979323 - gah, that's all I got. Hmm, checking online... score! good enough for this music geek.
When I graduated from college, there was no way I'd get a job in my particular field. Competition was on the lines of one opening for every 40-50 applicants, and if I had to put in the effort it would've taken to land that job, it would've made my life suck completely. So I did something else. I kept working at a bicycle shop and was fortunate to get enough of a raise to keep going... and earlier this year I got a career started with a distributor. Result? I make a bit less money than I would otherwise, but weekends piss me off because I like being at work so much. I've got an IRA, good health/dental/vision, and I pay about a third to half of what folks on the street do for bike parts, which makes me grin. Expand your horizons a bit, maybe make a hobby into a career - it worked for me!
Oh, and everyone else will say this, but most of the jobs I've gotten (from ice cream scooper at Baskin' Robbins to the current one), it wasn't what I knew but who I knew. The right references, and the right person speaking up for you when someone mentions an opening, make all the difference. If you aren't outgoing, then at least be pleasant towards those around you whenever possible.
...your hardware of choice is reflected in the doman! Surely that intangible is well worth all the money. Or at least, that's what Apple is banking on.
Does this sound at all like the theory behind that supposed experimental torpedo that may have sunk the Kursk a few years back? Just curious.
Mentioned in another post on this thread, but ref. http://www.crumplerusa.com for some near-bulletproof amazing bags. The "Very Busy Man" model looks like a bicycle courier bag, has gobs of padding, and holds my brother's compaq x1000 really well. The dude at the other end of the phone at Crumpler told me that it's the only bag they make for the really big laptops. I'm a convert.
I'm biased. I work at a bike shop that sells Crumpler courier bags. I got my brother that same bag (Very Busy Man) for his Compaq x1000 last August and he's thanked me every chance he's gotten since. Holds his 17" screened doodad snugly, pockets ABOUND, it's really well padded, completely waterproof (forget-it-by-the-side-of-the-car-in-a-rainstorm waterproof)... I could go on, but I won't. Buy online or find a dealer; anyone in/near DC, I can show you one if you e-mail me.
Only quirk: they've got some FUNKY color schemes. If you work in an at all conservative place, the green-and-fluorescent-yellow type stuff might not fly. Personally, I think they rock.
M.A.S.K., one of those great 80's cartoons, had a young kid character who rode around on one of these things, except that it was a robot also. If I recall, he did some pretty stupid stuff on it but never fell over. That must mean the design is sound, right?
Step 1: Tax LANs.
Step 3: Profit!
...I'm now all but weaned from it; I can take it or leave it, doesn't matter. But when you really need it - for me, it was at 4am during a 24-hour mountain bike race - it's amazing what two consecutive $tarbucks Doubleshots can do to your motivation, metabolism, and energy levels.
Of course, I hadn't slept that night, and the drive home several hours later required a couple of Redbulls.
I've been at work all day. Retail, at a bike shop, helping people make bicycles work and maybe - if I'm lucky - letting them experience a bit of the wonder and thrill they first got as a child learning to ride. We got a customer in around quarter after ten who passed on word of the tragedy, and got our jury-rigged TV antenna to tune in to the local news station - it stayed there all day. It was constantly on in the background, while I was helping laughing kids and enthusiastic adults with whatever they were up to. The customers took my mind off of things, thankfully - and now that I have time to remember, and mourn, and weep, you've helped. Thank you.
John Barnes. Pure fun, and it raises some unique points. Mother of Storms, Kaleidescope Century, Candle, The Sky So Big and Black... the list of fun stuff goes on.
They are no more real than the lens-flare that's added to poorly designed computer games that attempt to make it seem like you're there by adding something you'd only see if you weren't there and were actually viewing the action via a camera. Irony, eh?
I'm sure I speak for more than a few of those of us here when I say that lens flare, etc are things that I, as a glasses-wearing non-20/20-vision-capable person, experience on a regular basis. d:
I spent from fa97-sp01 getting a bachelor of music degree on french horn performance. Granted, I have a lovely (psych major) girlfriend, college was a breeze, and I did what I loved... but for almost the past year, my job situation, from a profitability standpoint, has been limbo. There's a Navy Band audition coming up in June in which I will participate, competing against maybe twenty or thirty other people for one spot, which I will probably fail. If I make it, that's cool, I'm set for life, start at $40k, and can retire with full gov't pension etc at the ripe old age of 42. If I don't? Back to work at the bicycle shop for $8.50 an hour, which is enough to pay the car bills, keep me fed, and allow me to live in mom and dad's fucking basement. You have 1337 j0b skillz; I have a paper degree and another year of loan remaining on my '95 Hyundai.
I dunno, I liked Wing Commander four better... much more cinematic, and the plot twists were fun. Pity it didn't run too well on my 486/66.
Too much of a slight jolt and poof, your $350 drive is now a miniature collection of plastic and metal. They now make 1gb CompactFlash cards - solid-state, no problems with jitter... of course, they cost about 3x as much, but hey, we're talking an activity that doesn't treat mechanical failure with much tolerance.
Man... you checked out the price of a nice Steinway concert grand lately? You'd have better luck tossing a Bentley out the window.
ehhh, Fort Meade is in Maryland, last I checked. Drove by it last week on the Baltimore/Washington Parkway.
I wholeheartedly agree. I've beta-tested a number of MMO games before (Subspace, right now Jumpgate, etc) and the entire reason to play a multiplayer game in the first place is interaction with other people. Without a keyboard, or any truly effective way to enter text, interaction has been totally hindered. Now, I can understand getting online and playing Quake3 or UT - where the point is to shoot stuff instead of talk - but RPGs? Space/whatever sims? I can't see it working very well.
...NASA is working on it, in a sense. The TDRSS network of satellites currently serve space missions for telemetry and such both between orbital and ground-based platforms - my father's been working on it at Goddard for the past - 10? 15? something like that - years, and now he's on a team that's working on doing the same thing - a network of comm satellites - for Mars. The idea is that we won't be able to lose communication with anything else if this works, and it will provide much greater bandwidth between Earth and Mars for future missions... imagine, streaming 10-20fps video straight from a mars lander! That would so rock.