...I use my mouse for looking, as well as left and right click for forwards and backwards...
I'm glad I'm not the only one who uses my mouse that way, right/left click for movement, not shooting. My mouse is for moving and looking around / aiming, and my other hand is on the keyboard for shooting, weapons selection, using items, jumping/crouching/strafing.
I wonder if the GP meant mini-USB; I mix that up in conversation sometimes.
It is as big, by far more robust, you can get cables for it and you are not afraid to plug it in. And plugging in is easier, as the plug will "find" its way in.
I would take issue with the "robust" part of that. Granted, mini might be moreso than micro, but I've been sorely disappointed with mini itself lately on my cell phone. After a year-and-a-half of plugging in my phone nightly to charge it (and occasionally in my vehicle, but not nearly as often), I've had two cables fail to the point where they don't make reliable enough contact to charge the phone anymore. I thought it was the phone until I swapped the charger and had another cable failure.
Nothing appears to be wrong with the cables; no corrosion, tarnished contacts, bent pins, or whatever. I have various other cables that I plug into my laptop daily that have held up well. Maybe it's just the small form factor.
I haven't tried YDL yet, but I'm dualbooting my ibook with gentoo and OSX so there should be no problem.
I can beat that.:) I have OS X (Panther), Mandrake Linux 9.1, NetBSD 1.6.2, and OpenBSD 3.5. Four operating systems, five if you count System 9.2. It's a bit of a pain to boot the BSDs, but it all works.
Oh, it's an iBook dual-USB 600, upgraded to 640 megs RAM and an 80 gig hard drive (boy was THAT a pain).
That's what I remember most. Oh yeah, forgot to mention the big trucks coming the other way that own the road, period, and take however much room they need... lanes be damned.
I forgot to mention the flipped-over big rig we saw on the way back. We were cruising along later in the evening, about a half-hour away from Toad River, when this dude blows by us in a pickup. We were riding along the section of mountainous road where the trees aren't cleared back so far from the road shoulder (what shoulder?) like most of the highway. So visibility wasn't great, and anything could pop out of the woods and you wouldn't have any chance to react.
Five minutes later, down at the bottom of a hill and around a curve, beyond the twisted up and torn out guard rail, we spotted some sort of wreck still smoking at the bottom of the ravine. After stopping around the corner, I jogged up the hill to check it out. (I didn't want to leave someone dying in the middle of nowhere.) It turned out to be an 18 wheeler on its back. The rig was completely burned up, the trailer was basically shredded to pieces, and the whole mess was still smoldering. It was the kind of wreck where you said to yourself, "No way anyone could have survived that if they rode the truck down." There were no skid marks on the highway.
Once we got to the lodge and got gas, we were talking to another trucker to find out what happened. Apparently, a couple days before, the guy was cruising down the hill, came around the corner, and swerved to avoid a moose. The road caught his rig and took him over the edge. At some point on the way down, he had the good sense to jump out. He broke both of his legs, but he lived.
We slowed down and took it easy the rest of the trip.
Now if I were to do something like this and had to pick a highway... without a doubt, the AlCan. The Alaska-Canada highway was one of the longest and most beatiful drives I've ever been on.
Wouldn't you know, my wife and I just got back from that trip. We drove from Anchorage to Edmonton in three days, spent two and a half days at the West Edmonton mall (argued as the largest shopping mall in the world--it has an indoor amusement park, water park, ice skating rink, lake with scuba diving and submarine rides, and 800 shops/services--a wonderful place). We drove back in three more days.
We spent a total of 71 hours and 39 minutes in our vehicle driving (not counting stops for gas), drove exactly 4015 miles, and since we tent-camped and shopped for motel bargains, the whole trip came in at around a grand. We still ate out tons, bought a few souvenirs, a new tent, and some other stuff. Not a bad bargain for a fun vacation, and the Alaska Highway is a really pretty drive.
We also saw tons of wildlife, all from the road: bears, moose, elk, caribou, deer, a wolf chasing a lynx, bison, bald eagles, dall sheep, and a stray dog. Along the boardwalk at Liard hot springs, a small marmot scared the crap out of my wife.:)
On the way back, I saw a bumper sticker I couldn't pass up: "I drove the Alaska Highway--both ways, dammit!"
Back in High School, the teachers didn't necessarily understand the technology. Some profs would ban them altogether to prevent cheating. Others had no idea things like, say, ANSWERS and FORMULAE could be stored in them.
Heh, I had a TI-85 in high school, and one year I had a math teacher who would go around and erase the memory on everyone's calculator before tests to prevent cheating. Now, I had programmed a pong-like game on mine, and aside from other useful data I had stored on there, I didn't want to lose it every time we had a test. And finding a friend who had a matching calculator so I could either copy some programs or completely dump my calculator to his was a pain. Plus, the computer my family had a the time was still a Commodore 128, so no backing up to the PC.
So, I came up with a solution (tm). I wrote a simple program that walked through the steps of erasing the memory. All I had to do was start the program before the teacher arrived at my desk, and the teacher would walk through the set of keystrokes required to reset the calc. It would dutifully display the menus and appropriate responses, plus (unfortunately) the little moving line in the upper corner that indicate that a program was running. (I prayed he wouldn't notice.) The programming interface even had the ability to display menus and take F key inputs, but it couldn't do two level popup menus, so I even painstakingly drew (in graph mode) the two-level menu required at a certain point in the process. At that point in the program, instead of using the menus, it would display that stored image, and wait for the right keys to be pressed before continuing.
The first (and only, iirc) time I used it, I was scared to death. It worked like a champ, though, and I didn't lose my precious program until my batteries died a couple of weeks later before I had a chance to backup. So much for that.
I've been in the category of "Apple hater" for quite some time.
I can't remember the last time a new computer and/or OS offering really excited me...(Well, ok - I was pretty thrilled when OS/2 Warp and eventually 4.0 came out...)
Ha! You just described me! I could have easily been classified as an "Apple hater" as well, and still can't stand anything pre OS X for various reasons. I came across a good deal on a 600 mhz iBook about six months ago, and I figured "hey, I'm getting a good deal on a 12" portable DVD player that just happens to come with a computer." More importantly, it came with a Unix-based OS.
As I started becoming familiar with the thing, I found myself with exactly the same thoughts: I can't remember having this much fun using a computer since OS/2. I haven't totally jumped ship, and would not commit myself to being called an "Apple preferrer." Maybe a closet-mac user. There are things about the usability experience that still gripe me (some of that is fixed with third-party utilities, and I haven't used Panther yet), but the hardware is darn sexy, and I'd by another Apple laptop in a moment!
I've been told countless times by Best Buy sales people that they do not make any commission on the goods they sell. I happen to suspect, due to the extraordinary lengths they go to trying to sell extended warranties and service contracts that they must recieve a commission form these. Can anyone out there confirm or deny?
When I worked at Best Buy, salesmen were not commissioned. However, warranty (high margin items) sales performance was a big factor in grading how the store was doing, and I heard from several places that the managers received bonuses based on that performances. Thus, they pressed the employees to sell the warranties. Sometimes they'd have contests where the best warranty salesman in each department received a CD or gift certificate or something. That was probably at the store's discretion.
Honestly, when I was there, they hounded us so much about selling the dumb things that they should have made it commission just to be fare. "Because it's good for the company" just doesn't have the same effect as padding my own pocket. They're so pushy they needed to give employees that incentive. Otherwise it was very discouraging. I think things are still the same, and judging by the way I get hounded for them even more now, they're probably even more pushy.
Of course, it didn't help that the warranty price was $20 for a computer (maybe $10 or $20 more for a monitor) when I started but had jumped to $150 ($200 for in-home service) by the time I left the company. I just didn't think they were worth it. Service was terrible: you had to BRING YOUR COMPUTER IN to the store and have it shipped off for service. Typical turnaround time: a month. I can see doing without a VCR or stereo for a month, but a lot of people use their computers for school, work, important communication, etc. A month is unacceptible. (Of course, Best Buy really isn't the place to buy a mission-critical SOHO computer system, but a lot of people are looking for a deal.) So as you might guess, my warranty sales were not very good.
Heh, don't get me started on people that jump on the 1 or 2 year no interest financing with a computer system, make the minimum payments, and several years later end up STILL PAYING for a computer that's maybe worth $50 at a garage sale. I was a tech (which actually got me out of a lot of the warranty sales pressure) and people would bring me their 486s or Pentium 100s--that they didn't own yet--and get a new hard drive or something because the old one was either full or broken. This was back when a 400-500mhz machine was top of the line.
It should be noted that Anchorage sits on the coast upstream from some nice warm ocean currents, so our weather is much milder than other northern locations. In the Alaskan interior, cities such as Fairbanks get both colder in the winter and hotter in the summer than we do.
Anyone remember the word processor that was published in Compute!? I spent a weekend typing in the ML code, and then another three weeks trying to find the one typo. I used that program through high school, and then for all of my papers in college. Loved it!
Ah, yes. I pulled my first all-nighter on that baby, as a wee lad in the 9th grade. My folks had gone out of town for a couple of days, so it was just my brother and I, and I had JUST figured out how to enter in the weird character codes as listed in the BASIC converter required to type in the machine code. Previously I tried in vain to figure out where the "{" and "}" keys were to type in the "{CURSOR-UP}" and such commands, but I finally figured out that it actually meant to HIT the cursor up while enclosed in quotes. Once I got that, I was in heaven. I fell asleep in math class the next day, but it was worth it. I remember this one stretch for at least a half-hour around 2 a.m. where I went pages and pages without the computer beeping a checksum error at me.
I spent days typing in programs, including the word processor, a cool Arkanoid/breakout clone, and some others. Ah, those were the days.
employed, at the peak of the cleanup effort,
10,000 workers, and used over 1,000 boats
and 100 airplanes & helicopters
The small town of Valdez literally exploded
in size due to the army of people who
arrived to aid in cleanup efforts.
was fined $150 million in criminal
liabilities, of which $125 million was
forgiven "in recognition of Exxon's
cooperation in cleaning up the spill and
paying certain private claims"
paid an additional $100 million in criminal
restitution
paid another $900 million in civil
settlements over the next 10 years
Is Exxon interested in the bottom line? Sure, any company is. But complete disregard for the people of Alaska? I don't think so. Sure, they were required to pay these settlements (among other things) but they took a lot of heat for an accident that was essentially due to negligence on the crew's part.
What other consequences were there as a result of the spill?
Captain Hazelwood was fined $50,000 and
ordered to serve 1,000 hours of community
service. Incidentally, he was found not
guilty of the charge of operating the
vessel while under the influence of alcohol.
The ship was repaired, renamed, and now
hauls oil in the Mediterranean.
The ship is prohibited by law from
returning to Prince William Sound.
Moreover, a growing trend of relaxed attitudes by those involved in the oil shipping industry in Alaska at the time ceased. Basically, the accident boiled down to the crew becoming complacent to a trip through the Valdez Narrows, a voyage that had become somewhat routine and commonplace over the years. Tighter restrictions were enacted, ensuring future safety of ships, their crews, and the environment.
Furthermore, spill preparedness and response capabilities have increased drastically. I won't go into details (read the web site if you're interested), but the industry and local communities are much more capable of handling a similar accident today. Most importantly, they'd be able to contain it before it gets as out of hand as the Exxon Valdez spill did.
Was the accident a tragedy? Sure it was. But basically what you have is a big company taking the heat for what was basically the crew screwing up. Am I saying Exxon shouldn't have been held responsible? Not at all. But "complete disregard for the people of Alaska...", that's a bit far-fetched.
Here we are, over 14 years later, looking at a disaster some said at the time would NEVER reach any sort of decent recovery. For the most part, you can't find any obvious signs of the spill throughout the areas affected. Local fishing and other industries have been restored, and wildlife is on the mend. Many of the wildlife species still recovering are admittedly unknown in their progress, as environmentalists are unsure of pre-spill conditions and are unable to accurately guage their condition today.
Accidents happen. Sometimes BIG accidents happen. That's the price we pay for progress and modern conveniences. But the world didn't end. In fact, here in Alaska, things cleaned up rather well and there were several positive results that wouldn't have happened had the spill not occurred. Sure, we'd all rather these things not happen, but they do. I'm no corporate apologist, but I'm tired of the attitude that corporations are basically evil (except for the people they employ and the nice products they provide for us). I really wouldn't care to go back to the days where everything is handmade at home, grown at home, or purchased from the local general store. Hmm, let's go back 100, 200, why not thousands of years? Anybody?
I really only put it on the charger about once ever 4 days. And I do it when I turn off my monitor, before I go to bed.
I tried that, but not throwing the mouse on the charger regularly (meaning: every time) lent to me forgetting more often than not and I'd wind up with a dead mouse. So I just leave it on the charger when not in use.
First, isn't the little blinking red light that means "battery low" good enough for a battery indicator?
Well, not everyone has the same mouse, so like you said, a software meter is good for mice where batteries have to be placed. Besides, what if I wanted to make sure my battery was over half full before hauling the receiver, mouse, and my laptop, down to the other end of the building to use for a couple hours? I don't want to take my laptop power supply or the mouse power supply (the MX700 comes with an additional wallwart that must be plugged in to actually charge the battery, as you know, but others may not know). I can't wait until the thing starts flashing and dies, I want to know if I have better than half a charge before I hike down to the gym (or wherever). And incidentally, in my experience, once my MX700 starts flashing, I better quit soon and get it on the charger. I like not having to change batteries on the thing, but the life of the rechargeable battery inside certainly are limited.
(Btw, do other MX700 owners find that you had to retrain yourself to place the mouse in its charging cradle each time you stop using the computer? That's really not natural--usually I just set my mouse down and leave.)
Secondly, the extra buttons all work just fine without any drivers. Back, Forwards, scroll up, down, etc..
Again, different people, different uses. The Logitech driver allows me to remap my buttons. I don't want to use the defaults. For example, I changed my middle-click to close the foreground application. You can't do that with the default Windows drivers.
Those are just a couple of examples, but the drivers do sometimes offer other desirable features. They may be bloated (and now spyware ridden, apparently) but the can be useful.
I'd use flourescent lights but can't. Plus, they don't work in cold environments like the garage or outside here in MN.
Bah. I use a couple of flourescents outside here in Anchorage during the winter without any problems. They don't come on instantly (takes maybe three seconds from when you flip the switch), but they work at up to 20 below (according to the labeling). I haven't had a chance to test that here--last winter was pretty mild--but unless you're pushing colder than that (which IS possible in the northern lower-48, I realize) you should be fine.
It's been my experience here in Alaska that incandescents burn out at a much higher rate due to the lower resistance of the filament when cold. I must've replaced my entire house full of light bulbs once my first winter here, and the front porch light three or four times that same winter!
I work frequently with a detective from our local police department, and he pointed out that when the department investigates child porn and similar cases, they never find Macs. That has caused them to coin the phrase, "Perverts use PCs!"
Move to a different area. I live in Minnesota, and we have half our normal amount of snow. And since MN is north, and normally gets a lot of snow, we are not only better equiped to handle that much snow that many of those who got it, we also enjoy it. Many of my friends are complaining about lack of snow because they can't play in it. Since we normally have snow, expensive snow toys (snowmobiles) are worth the cost if you enjoy it.
Yeah, no joke! I live in Alaska, and here in Anchorage we've had maybe three snowstorms this year. I don't think it's been below freezing during the day for a month! For cryin' out loud! I moved up here for snow and cold!
'Course, if this year makes up for the weenie winter like last year did (fairly mild winter, but not as mild as this one, but we received a 30 inch snowfall *overnight* a few weeks before Easter) we're due for about 10 feet within a few weeks. Don't I wish...
or at least combs through the logs to look for patterns of suspicious PIN guessing
I don't know if all banks do this, but at one my wife used to work at, if you entered a PIN incorrectly 3 times in a row on one card, the ATM machine would eat the card and refuse to return it. The people emptying and refilling ATM canisters (one of the things my wife did) would find these cards and destroy them. The customer was forced to get a new one (which I think was free). That would at least limit PIN guessing, unless you really want to be diligent about visiting different ATMs...if you're looking to rip people off, there are probably easier ways.
I imagine many banks would flag a bunch of invalid attempts at least. And the above mentioned method obviously doesn't work in ATMs where you swipe your card, as opposed to inserting it into a slot.
Because, when you get right down to it, writing humor is a lot harder than writing something serious. Sure, Dave Barry's columns *appear* to be flippant and juvenile, but it is exceptionally difficult to create something like that.
You hit the nail on the head right there. It is difficult to write good humor, and write it well. I've seen many cheap knock-offs and attempts at doing what Dave Barry does, but very few that do it well.
Dave Barry, Art Buchwald, and another fellow whose name I disremember at present.
I'd throw Lewis Grizzard's name into the mix, though it's been awhile since I've read him. Pat McManus, too--he's quite the master of hyperbole. As someone else said, "milk out of your nose funny."
Actually I think ACLs are the reason why everybody is running as Administrator in Windows. They are just too damn complicated.
Properly-implemented ACLs are awesome--anyone who has ever managed Novell's filesystem can attest to that. Giving access to some users while not others, working with groups, etc, is a dream. Not only that, but you don't see what you don't have access to. I'm not necessarily in favor of that all around, but that was pretty slick and can make life easier for users who don't need to see more than what they use.
Of course, the big reason people run as Administrator in Windows is because Uncle Joes Marmot Chasing Brick Breaker game will say "You must be logged in with administrative priveleges to install this game." Norton Utilities? I understand that. Some shareware game? WHY?!?
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...I use my mouse for looking, as well as left and right click for forwards and backwards...
I'm glad I'm not the only one who uses my mouse that way, right/left click for movement, not shooting. My mouse is for moving and looking around / aiming, and my other hand is on the keyboard for shooting, weapons selection, using items, jumping/crouching/strafing.
It is as big, by far more robust, you can get cables for it and you are not afraid to plug it in. And plugging in is easier, as the plug will "find" its way in.
I would take issue with the "robust" part of that. Granted, mini might be moreso than micro, but I've been sorely disappointed with mini itself lately on my cell phone. After a year-and-a-half of plugging in my phone nightly to charge it (and occasionally in my vehicle, but not nearly as often), I've had two cables fail to the point where they don't make reliable enough contact to charge the phone anymore. I thought it was the phone until I swapped the charger and had another cable failure.
Nothing appears to be wrong with the cables; no corrosion, tarnished contacts, bent pins, or whatever. I have various other cables that I plug into my laptop daily that have held up well. Maybe it's just the small form factor.
I can beat that. :) I have OS X (Panther), Mandrake Linux 9.1, NetBSD 1.6.2, and OpenBSD 3.5. Four operating systems, five if you count System 9.2. It's a bit of a pain to boot the BSDs, but it all works.
Oh, it's an iBook dual-USB 600, upgraded to 640 megs RAM and an 80 gig hard drive (boy was THAT a pain).
I forgot to mention the flipped-over big rig we saw on the way back. We were cruising along later in the evening, about a half-hour away from Toad River, when this dude blows by us in a pickup. We were riding along the section of mountainous road where the trees aren't cleared back so far from the road shoulder (what shoulder?) like most of the highway. So visibility wasn't great, and anything could pop out of the woods and you wouldn't have any chance to react.
Five minutes later, down at the bottom of a hill and around a curve, beyond the twisted up and torn out guard rail, we spotted some sort of wreck still smoking at the bottom of the ravine. After stopping around the corner, I jogged up the hill to check it out. (I didn't want to leave someone dying in the middle of nowhere.) It turned out to be an 18 wheeler on its back. The rig was completely burned up, the trailer was basically shredded to pieces, and the whole mess was still smoldering. It was the kind of wreck where you said to yourself, "No way anyone could have survived that if they rode the truck down." There were no skid marks on the highway.
Once we got to the lodge and got gas, we were talking to another trucker to find out what happened. Apparently, a couple days before, the guy was cruising down the hill, came around the corner, and swerved to avoid a moose. The road caught his rig and took him over the edge. At some point on the way down, he had the good sense to jump out. He broke both of his legs, but he lived.
We slowed down and took it easy the rest of the trip.
Wouldn't you know, my wife and I just got back from that trip. We drove from Anchorage to Edmonton in three days, spent two and a half days at the West Edmonton mall (argued as the largest shopping mall in the world--it has an indoor amusement park, water park, ice skating rink, lake with scuba diving and submarine rides, and 800 shops/services--a wonderful place). We drove back in three more days.
We spent a total of 71 hours and 39 minutes in our vehicle driving (not counting stops for gas), drove exactly 4015 miles, and since we tent-camped and shopped for motel bargains, the whole trip came in at around a grand. We still ate out tons, bought a few souvenirs, a new tent, and some other stuff. Not a bad bargain for a fun vacation, and the Alaska Highway is a really pretty drive.
We also saw tons of wildlife, all from the road: bears, moose, elk, caribou, deer, a wolf chasing a lynx, bison, bald eagles, dall sheep, and a stray dog. Along the boardwalk at Liard hot springs, a small marmot scared the crap out of my wife. :)
On the way back, I saw a bumper sticker I couldn't pass up: "I drove the Alaska Highway--both ways, dammit!"
Heh, I had a TI-85 in high school, and one year I had a math teacher who would go around and erase the memory on everyone's calculator before tests to prevent cheating. Now, I had programmed a pong-like game on mine, and aside from other useful data I had stored on there, I didn't want to lose it every time we had a test. And finding a friend who had a matching calculator so I could either copy some programs or completely dump my calculator to his was a pain. Plus, the computer my family had a the time was still a Commodore 128, so no backing up to the PC.
So, I came up with a solution (tm). I wrote a simple program that walked through the steps of erasing the memory. All I had to do was start the program before the teacher arrived at my desk, and the teacher would walk through the set of keystrokes required to reset the calc. It would dutifully display the menus and appropriate responses, plus (unfortunately) the little moving line in the upper corner that indicate that a program was running. (I prayed he wouldn't notice.) The programming interface even had the ability to display menus and take F key inputs, but it couldn't do two level popup menus, so I even painstakingly drew (in graph mode) the two-level menu required at a certain point in the process. At that point in the program, instead of using the menus, it would display that stored image, and wait for the right keys to be pressed before continuing.
The first (and only, iirc) time I used it, I was scared to death. It worked like a champ, though, and I didn't lose my precious program until my batteries died a couple of weeks later before I had a chance to backup. So much for that.
I can't remember the last time a new computer and/or OS offering really excited me...(Well, ok - I was pretty thrilled when OS/2 Warp and eventually 4.0 came out...)
Ha! You just described me! I could have easily been classified as an "Apple hater" as well, and still can't stand anything pre OS X for various reasons. I came across a good deal on a 600 mhz iBook about six months ago, and I figured "hey, I'm getting a good deal on a 12" portable DVD player that just happens to come with a computer." More importantly, it came with a Unix-based OS.
As I started becoming familiar with the thing, I found myself with exactly the same thoughts: I can't remember having this much fun using a computer since OS/2. I haven't totally jumped ship, and would not commit myself to being called an "Apple preferrer." Maybe a closet-mac user. There are things about the usability experience that still gripe me (some of that is fixed with third-party utilities, and I haven't used Panther yet), but the hardware is darn sexy, and I'd by another Apple laptop in a moment!
Count me in.
But you just admitted that very thing to a thousand strangers. :)
</tongue-in-cheek>
When I worked at Best Buy, salesmen were not commissioned. However, warranty (high margin items) sales performance was a big factor in grading how the store was doing, and I heard from several places that the managers received bonuses based on that performances. Thus, they pressed the employees to sell the warranties. Sometimes they'd have contests where the best warranty salesman in each department received a CD or gift certificate or something. That was probably at the store's discretion.
Honestly, when I was there, they hounded us so much about selling the dumb things that they should have made it commission just to be fare. "Because it's good for the company" just doesn't have the same effect as padding my own pocket. They're so pushy they needed to give employees that incentive. Otherwise it was very discouraging. I think things are still the same, and judging by the way I get hounded for them even more now, they're probably even more pushy.
Of course, it didn't help that the warranty price was $20 for a computer (maybe $10 or $20 more for a monitor) when I started but had jumped to $150 ($200 for in-home service) by the time I left the company. I just didn't think they were worth it. Service was terrible: you had to BRING YOUR COMPUTER IN to the store and have it shipped off for service. Typical turnaround time: a month. I can see doing without a VCR or stereo for a month, but a lot of people use their computers for school, work, important communication, etc. A month is unacceptible. (Of course, Best Buy really isn't the place to buy a mission-critical SOHO computer system, but a lot of people are looking for a deal.) So as you might guess, my warranty sales were not very good.
Heh, don't get me started on people that jump on the 1 or 2 year no interest financing with a computer system, make the minimum payments, and several years later end up STILL PAYING for a computer that's maybe worth $50 at a garage sale. I was a tech (which actually got me out of a lot of the warranty sales pressure) and people would bring me their 486s or Pentium 100s--that they didn't own yet--and get a new hard drive or something because the old one was either full or broken. This was back when a 400-500mhz machine was top of the line.
It should be noted that Anchorage sits on the coast upstream from some nice warm ocean currents, so our weather is much milder than other northern locations. In the Alaskan interior, cities such as Fairbanks get both colder in the winter and hotter in the summer than we do.
Ah, yes. I pulled my first all-nighter on that baby, as a wee lad in the 9th grade. My folks had gone out of town for a couple of days, so it was just my brother and I, and I had JUST figured out how to enter in the weird character codes as listed in the BASIC converter required to type in the machine code. Previously I tried in vain to figure out where the "{" and "}" keys were to type in the "{CURSOR-UP}" and such commands, but I finally figured out that it actually meant to HIT the cursor up while enclosed in quotes. Once I got that, I was in heaven. I fell asleep in math class the next day, but it was worth it. I remember this one stretch for at least a half-hour around 2 a.m. where I went pages and pages without the computer beeping a checksum error at me.
I spent days typing in programs, including the word processor, a cool Arkanoid/breakout clone, and some others. Ah, those were the days.
Oh please. Do you know any facts about the Exxon Valdez oil spill, details of cleanup, or just how much money Exxon spent in the process?
Let's see, according to details found throughout the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council web site, Exxon:
- spent 2.1 billion on cleanup
- employed, at the peak of the cleanup effort,
10,000 workers, and used over 1,000 boats
and 100 airplanes & helicopters
- was fined $150 million in criminal
liabilities, of which $125 million was
forgiven "in recognition of Exxon's
cooperation in cleaning up the spill and
paying certain private claims"
- paid an additional $100 million in criminal
restitution
- paid another $900 million in civil
settlements over the next 10 years
Is Exxon interested in the bottom line? Sure, any company is. But complete disregard for the people of Alaska? I don't think so. Sure, they were required to pay these settlements (among other things) but they took a lot of heat for an accident that was essentially due to negligence on the crew's part.The small town of Valdez literally exploded in size due to the army of people who arrived to aid in cleanup efforts.
What other consequences were there as a result of the spill?
- Captain Hazelwood was fined $50,000 and
ordered to serve 1,000 hours of community
service. Incidentally, he was found not
guilty of the charge of operating the
vessel while under the influence of alcohol.
- The ship was repaired, renamed, and now
hauls oil in the Mediterranean.
- The ship is prohibited by law from
returning to Prince William Sound.
Moreover, a growing trend of relaxed attitudes by those involved in the oil shipping industry in Alaska at the time ceased. Basically, the accident boiled down to the crew becoming complacent to a trip through the Valdez Narrows, a voyage that had become somewhat routine and commonplace over the years. Tighter restrictions were enacted, ensuring future safety of ships, their crews, and the environment.Furthermore, spill preparedness and response capabilities have increased drastically. I won't go into details (read the web site if you're interested), but the industry and local communities are much more capable of handling a similar accident today. Most importantly, they'd be able to contain it before it gets as out of hand as the Exxon Valdez spill did.
Was the accident a tragedy? Sure it was. But basically what you have is a big company taking the heat for what was basically the crew screwing up. Am I saying Exxon shouldn't have been held responsible? Not at all. But "complete disregard for the people of Alaska...", that's a bit far-fetched.
Here we are, over 14 years later, looking at a disaster some said at the time would NEVER reach any sort of decent recovery. For the most part, you can't find any obvious signs of the spill throughout the areas affected. Local fishing and other industries have been restored, and wildlife is on the mend. Many of the wildlife species still recovering are admittedly unknown in their progress, as environmentalists are unsure of pre-spill conditions and are unable to accurately guage their condition today.
Accidents happen. Sometimes BIG accidents happen. That's the price we pay for progress and modern conveniences. But the world didn't end. In fact, here in Alaska, things cleaned up rather well and there were several positive results that wouldn't have happened had the spill not occurred. Sure, we'd all rather these things not happen, but they do. I'm no corporate apologist, but I'm tired of the attitude that corporations are basically evil (except for the people they employ and the nice products they provide for us). I really wouldn't care to go back to the days where everything is handmade at home, grown at home, or purchased from the local general store. Hmm, let's go back 100, 200, why not thousands of years? Anybody?
I tried that, but not throwing the mouse on the charger regularly (meaning: every time) lent to me forgetting more often than not and I'd wind up with a dead mouse. So I just leave it on the charger when not in use.
Well, not everyone has the same mouse, so like you said, a software meter is good for mice where batteries have to be placed. Besides, what if I wanted to make sure my battery was over half full before hauling the receiver, mouse, and my laptop, down to the other end of the building to use for a couple hours? I don't want to take my laptop power supply or the mouse power supply (the MX700 comes with an additional wallwart that must be plugged in to actually charge the battery, as you know, but others may not know). I can't wait until the thing starts flashing and dies, I want to know if I have better than half a charge before I hike down to the gym (or wherever). And incidentally, in my experience, once my MX700 starts flashing, I better quit soon and get it on the charger. I like not having to change batteries on the thing, but the life of the rechargeable battery inside certainly are limited.
(Btw, do other MX700 owners find that you had to retrain yourself to place the mouse in its charging cradle each time you stop using the computer? That's really not natural--usually I just set my mouse down and leave.)
Secondly, the extra buttons all work just fine without any drivers. Back, Forwards, scroll up, down, etc..
Again, different people, different uses. The Logitech driver allows me to remap my buttons. I don't want to use the defaults. For example, I changed my middle-click to close the foreground application. You can't do that with the default Windows drivers.
Those are just a couple of examples, but the drivers do sometimes offer other desirable features. They may be bloated (and now spyware ridden, apparently) but the can be useful.
Bah. I use a couple of flourescents outside here in Anchorage during the winter without any problems. They don't come on instantly (takes maybe three seconds from when you flip the switch), but they work at up to 20 below (according to the labeling). I haven't had a chance to test that here--last winter was pretty mild--but unless you're pushing colder than that (which IS possible in the northern lower-48, I realize) you should be fine.
It's been my experience here in Alaska that incandescents burn out at a much higher rate due to the lower resistance of the filament when cold. I must've replaced my entire house full of light bulbs once my first winter here, and the front porch light three or four times that same winter!
I work frequently with a detective from our local police department, and he pointed out that when the department investigates child porn and similar cases, they never find Macs. That has caused them to coin the phrase, "Perverts use PCs!"
Umm...yeah they do. They spend their money but don't take your jobs. I don't see how that's bad.
No.
Yeah, no joke! I live in Alaska, and here in Anchorage we've had maybe three snowstorms this year. I don't think it's been below freezing during the day for a month! For cryin' out loud! I moved up here for snow and cold!
'Course, if this year makes up for the weenie winter like last year did (fairly mild winter, but not as mild as this one, but we received a 30 inch snowfall *overnight* a few weeks before Easter) we're due for about 10 feet within a few weeks. Don't I wish...
I don't know if all banks do this, but at one my wife used to work at, if you entered a PIN incorrectly 3 times in a row on one card, the ATM machine would eat the card and refuse to return it. The people emptying and refilling ATM canisters (one of the things my wife did) would find these cards and destroy them. The customer was forced to get a new one (which I think was free). That would at least limit PIN guessing, unless you really want to be diligent about visiting different ATMs...if you're looking to rip people off, there are probably easier ways.
I imagine many banks would flag a bunch of invalid attempts at least. And the above mentioned method obviously doesn't work in ATMs where you swipe your card, as opposed to inserting it into a slot.
I would, but I have a hard time getting the peasants and countryside into the burninator slot...
"I said consummate V's! Sheesh."
You hit the nail on the head right there. It is difficult to write good humor, and write it well. I've seen many cheap knock-offs and attempts at doing what Dave Barry does, but very few that do it well.
Dave Barry, Art Buchwald, and another fellow whose name I disremember at present.
I'd throw Lewis Grizzard's name into the mix, though it's been awhile since I've read him. Pat McManus, too--he's quite the master of hyperbole. As someone else said, "milk out of your nose funny."
Properly-implemented ACLs are awesome--anyone who has ever managed Novell's filesystem can attest to that. Giving access to some users while not others, working with groups, etc, is a dream. Not only that, but you don't see what you don't have access to. I'm not necessarily in favor of that all around, but that was pretty slick and can make life easier for users who don't need to see more than what they use.
Of course, the big reason people run as Administrator in Windows is because Uncle Joes Marmot Chasing Brick Breaker game will say "You must be logged in with administrative priveleges to install this game." Norton Utilities? I understand that. Some shareware game? WHY?!?
Yeah, I just noticed the "rude solo light" on a Mackie board I installed downstairs the other day. Makes me smile when I see it...
"The monogram of My Name, formed of the two first letters when written in Greek, "X" and "P" [Chi and Rho],
That's just classic....check out this page if the above post didn't make sense to you.