I like the fact that in the summer, the dawn doesn't start to break at 4 in the morning. Or that it gets dark later than during the spring/fall/winter.
When Bush and Gore were head to head and the elections had to be repeated. And when Bush came up with millions of additional votes by raiding democrat villages and terrorizing and killing people there, Gore withdrew from the election and Bush got himself inaugurated as president. But later on, democrats and republicans got together and negotiated for Gore to be appointed the president of The Congress.
And during that negotiation, which is still taking place, Gore mentioned during his meeting with our alien overlords how it would be better if the Earth was not given alien technology (including holodecks, warp drive, cure for cancer, food replicators and the global climate adjuster) - just yet, as we are not yet ready for such advancements, being barbaric 0-worlders and all.
Unfortunately, Bothans got their grubby little hands on transcripts of those talks and beamed them directly to every satellite floating around this planet.
And I'm just guessing here, but I suspect that the solution would be to start killing Bothans.
WHAT?! At least my bullshit story has SOME relevance to the topic at hand.
Taken as a whole, however, a leak of this elephantine magnitude, which appears to demonstrate no misconduct by the U.S., is difficult to defend on any basis other than WikiLeaks' general disdain for any secrecy at all.
See... It is all about the USA.
It is A-OK to leak Pentagon Papers as they show how American people were fooled by their government - even if the secrets they held were FAR more sinister and serious than 99% of stuff in the Wikileaks cables. But that is THE RIGHT of Americans to stand up to their corrupt government. That's democracy at its finest.
But should the rest of the world get a taste of being aware they are being fooled by their leaders (or by other countries) - well shit, that can only destroy democracy. The same thing that is "defending democracy" in USA, makes no sense outside of USA - it must be the "general disdain for any secrecy at all".
And the last paragraph is simply disgusting.
Mr. Assange is no boon to American journalists. His activities have already doomed proposed federal shield-law legislation protecting journalists' use of confidential sources in the just-adjourned Congress. An indictment of him could be followed by the judicial articulation of far more speech-limiting legal principles than currently exist with respect to even the most responsible reporting about both diplomacy and defense. If he is not charged or is acquitted of whatever charges may be made, that may well lead to the adoption of new and dangerously restrictive legislation. In more than one way, Mr. Assange may yet have much to answer for.
We're doooomed!
The witch has turned the evildoers against us and we are powerless to defend ourselves against them. If we could only voice our disagreement with what the evildoers want to do to us, maybe they would be stopped somehow. Alas, we are mute.
So burn the witch for dooming us either way - if the witch floats we are doomed, if he sinks we are doomed. Doomed! DOOMED I SAY! DOOOOOOMED!!!
Also, as a FUCKING LAWYER Floyd (he doesn't mind when people call him that) should have SOME idea of who holds the actual culpability for the leaks or at least some common sense regarding the whole thing. Honestly, are we really supposed to believe that anyone would chase Assange across half the globe on supposed sexual harassment charges if anyone (else) anywhere in the world had anything bigger to pin on him?
Well, with a backpack version you don't need a spare battery or a charger. If you carry the backpack around anyway. Also, it is handy when a friend needs to charge his/her phone/pda/etc. - as long as you have the right adapter or it uses a micro-USB connector for charging. Also, you can get one of those USB chargers for AA batteries and pour you excess power into those.
As I do have one of those backpacks I can tell you that I don't use any of my chargers from spring to late fall. I could probably get by with solar only in the winter too - if I was living a dozen floors up or simply in a place with little less smog.
The solar-charged battery combination works very well for other such devices. It is actually exactly what you would want from a solar system - solar when there is sun, solar-charged battery backup when there isn't.
The problem with these pants is that they are hideously ugly, ridiculously expensive and utterly impractical. And with $175 for replacement panels it is clear that this is a product aimed at that consumer group much bellowed by sellers worldwide - fools with money.
I too have the last-year's model. Love what they did with making the solar panels detachable on the new model, although I personally would have preferred if they've kept the old 3-plate configuration. The new 2-plate one has somewhat less power and definitely less redundancy. 2 x 2 Watts instead of 3 x 1.5 Watts. Might be problematic with those devices that require to be charged directly from the panels as they need more than 600mA that the battery provides.
On the other hand, I don't really think that redundancy should ever be a problem with this backpack. Those plates are really sturdy. I've once slipped on a wet tile floor, and landed with all of my 85 kilos of weight directly on my back(pack). The fall knocked the wind right out of me but the plates were not even scratched. Or anything else in the backpack, including my sunglasses that were just tossed in.
Only complaint I have is regarding that small bag/pocket on the inside of the big compartment, right below the handle - it can be hard to access as it is jammed at the very top of the backpack. And I find that a perfect place for my USB sticks and other small items.
Also, their support is great. Adapters for my phone and PDA were not among the 10 provided with the backpack. I emailed them to complain about that, and to order the ones that I would need. But since their shipping form automatically selects the UPS Worldwide Express for the shipments to Europe, I emailed them again regarding that and to ask if the adapters I've found on ebay would be compatible.
And they send me two of each for free. Even though I bought the backpack from a seller on Amazon, and not directly from their store.
I don't think that it has been a "legal" thing in the US since the end of the Cold War. Or ever actually - per se. I feel that it has become more of a cultural programming to abhor red opininos and mark them as evil and poisonous like the red-and-black opininos.
But hey, that's just my view of the US red opiniono situation. I had the questionable "luck" to be raised on red opininos and to have almost every other color and flavor of opinino fed to me or shoved down my throat, so that whole US-thing with the red opininos seems to me... well... funny.
It is not as much the brand, as it is general quality control during the production - reflected in the price of the media. All those discs are from the time when a single CD was priced at about what an USB stick of a larger size than the CD cost now.
At the same time, I threw away hundreds of unreadable no-name, comes-on-a-spindle discs from the following decade. Particularly the ones that were burned at maximum speeds by people who wouldn't bother to notice that they were shaving off about half a minute per disc at best - while using discs that were not really intended to be burned at such speeds.
EVERYTHING is analog media. You just need a proper-sized chisel. And a true Scotsman to wield it.
On the other hand, it would be rather difficult to store analog data on a CD or a hard drive. Without a chisel, sharpie or some other hardware solution. It might be somewhat easier to do that with a floppy - but again, you would need a specific (non standard) hardware solution for that. I.e. a proper-sized chisel. Now... had you said Laser Disc - that would be somewhat more accurate, but not by much.
And just "storing" digital data isn't enough. It must also be digitally accessible and readable. When you print out an MP3 as a continuous string of ones and zeroes - it is no longer a digital recording of data. It is now completely analog. You have to digitize it in some way in order to be able to access the digital data which was converted into analog information.
At the same time, there is no such thing as random access (or write, delete, skip etc.) for ANY kind of tape media. Again, you are converting digital data to analog information. It will remain analog until you re-digitize it. While it is analog, you will be able to treat it like analog information - copy, access, delete it etc.
You can't really do that the other way around - unless you generalize "accessing data/information" as "looking at the hard drive" or something similar. Or unless you get a proper sized chisel.
So, there is analog, and there is analog. Tapes - analog. Hard drives and CDs - not really.
Oh, I don't mind other people's opininos as long as they are fresh and not all drenched in pesticides and other poisons.
They also go great with beer. Or any alcoholic beverage for that matter. Well, at least that is the general consensus, as so many people just can't keep away from opininos once they had a few drinks.
Personally, I find that practice rather dangerous, as opinino juice is soluble in alcohol and then it can affect your nervous system which can result in neck spasms. I've seen it happen. People walking around, not seeing where they are going, noses up in the air... I've even seen a couple of chronic cases, where people got their spine all contorted and end up with their heads up their rectums. Terrible thing opinino abuse.
Just like in the west, it is not "the goberment" that does the random picking. It is the parents. This article has a nice quote regarding that.
"If my children don't get picked to carry on in gymnastics," Li says, "I'll move them to diving."
Parents are the ones dead set at making their kid into the next [insert competitive activity here] prodigy. So they pack their kids to specialized training schools at the age when they are barely aware of the world around them. And yes, they don't put a gun to their heads - but that is purely because an adult doesn't really need a gun to make a 4-year-old do what he/she is told.
And you don't need to produce optimal results (which is a ridiculous goal in itself - they are aiming for SUPERIOR results) - or do you really think that there are hundreds of gold medals to be won in gymnastics at every Olympic? As the gymnastics teacher in one of those videos says - that is the thick bottom end of the pyramid. Only the super-best get to go to the Olympics. But every kid whose parents THINK that they can afford to ship him/her to one of those schools (Note that the entire family wears their coats when at home. Heating is for the western capitalist pigs.), WILL get the chance to start the training at the age of 4.
I just love that last part of the video, where you get to hear the little girl's mother talking about how she has "wished for a successful kid since she got married". And then how she speaks, while cluelessly smiling, about her 6-year-old daughter always complaining that she doesn't want to go the gymnastics school - yet she stands ready to go each morning, and when asked why she goes if she doesn't want to she replies "that if she doesn't go, she will have to run 30 laps as punishment". She often cries when alone in bed at night, but she says that her parents want her to go to the gymnast school - so she does. And in the evening, the girl studies English - so if all this doesn't pan out, she can at least be a doctor.
It is always wonderful seeing parents live their unfulfilled dreams through their children.
Right... Next thing you're going to say is that you were allowed to use rulers to align your hand-written code on paper so that it is nicely stacked and nested.
Cause we all know that you must close your brackets in the same column you've opened them in, and may god help you if you haven't properly nested your loops - your computer might just explode in your face if you haven't done that properly.
Slashdot Mirror
And no friggin' daylight savings.
I like the fact that in the summer, the dawn doesn't start to break at 4 in the morning. Or that it gets dark later than during the spring/fall/winter.
Is that you?
A construction job of that magnitude would require a hellova lot more manpower than the imperial army had to offer.
Read the last line.
When Bush and Gore were head to head and the elections had to be repeated.
And when Bush came up with millions of additional votes by raiding democrat villages and terrorizing and killing people there, Gore withdrew from the election and Bush got himself inaugurated as president.
But later on, democrats and republicans got together and negotiated for Gore to be appointed the president of The Congress.
And during that negotiation, which is still taking place, Gore mentioned during his meeting with our alien overlords how it would be better if the Earth was not given alien technology (including holodecks, warp drive, cure for cancer, food replicators and the global climate adjuster) - just yet, as we are not yet ready for such advancements, being barbaric 0-worlders and all.
Unfortunately, Bothans got their grubby little hands on transcripts of those talks and beamed them directly to every satellite floating around this planet.
And I'm just guessing here, but I suspect that the solution would be to start killing Bothans.
WHAT?! At least my bullshit story has SOME relevance to the topic at hand.
No, there's another word for that: diplomacy.
Tomaytoe-tomahtoe.
Taken as a whole, however, a leak of this elephantine magnitude, which appears to demonstrate no misconduct by the U.S., is difficult to defend on any basis other than WikiLeaks' general disdain for any secrecy at all.
See... It is all about the USA.
It is A-OK to leak Pentagon Papers as they show how American people were fooled by their government - even if the secrets they held were FAR more sinister and serious than 99% of stuff in the Wikileaks cables.
But that is THE RIGHT of Americans to stand up to their corrupt government. That's democracy at its finest.
But should the rest of the world get a taste of being aware they are being fooled by their leaders (or by other countries) - well shit, that can only destroy democracy.
The same thing that is "defending democracy" in USA, makes no sense outside of USA - it must be the "general disdain for any secrecy at all".
And the last paragraph is simply disgusting.
Mr. Assange is no boon to American journalists.
His activities have already doomed proposed federal shield-law legislation protecting journalists' use of confidential sources in the just-adjourned Congress.
An indictment of him could be followed by the judicial articulation of far more speech-limiting legal principles than currently exist with respect to even the most responsible reporting about both diplomacy and defense.
If he is not charged or is acquitted of whatever charges may be made, that may well lead to the adoption of new and dangerously restrictive legislation.
In more than one way, Mr. Assange may yet have much to answer for.
We're doooomed!
The witch has turned the evildoers against us and we are powerless to defend ourselves against them.
If we could only voice our disagreement with what the evildoers want to do to us, maybe they would be stopped somehow. Alas, we are mute.
So burn the witch for dooming us either way - if the witch floats we are doomed, if he sinks we are doomed.
Doomed! DOOMED I SAY! DOOOOOOMED!!!
Also, as a FUCKING LAWYER Floyd (he doesn't mind when people call him that) should have SOME idea of who holds the actual culpability for the leaks or at least some common sense regarding the whole thing.
Honestly, are we really supposed to believe that anyone would chase Assange across half the globe on supposed sexual harassment charges if anyone (else) anywhere in the world had anything bigger to pin on him?
About a decade ago you say?
Well, with a backpack version you don't need a spare battery or a charger. If you carry the backpack around anyway.
Also, it is handy when a friend needs to charge his/her phone/pda/etc. - as long as you have the right adapter or it uses a micro-USB connector for charging.
Also, you can get one of those USB chargers for AA batteries and pour you excess power into those.
As I do have one of those backpacks I can tell you that I don't use any of my chargers from spring to late fall.
I could probably get by with solar only in the winter too - if I was living a dozen floors up or simply in a place with little less smog.
How many Bothans have died to bring us this information?
The solar-charged battery combination works very well for other such devices.
It is actually exactly what you would want from a solar system - solar when there is sun, solar-charged battery backup when there isn't.
The problem with these pants is that they are hideously ugly, ridiculously expensive and utterly impractical.
And with $175 for replacement panels it is clear that this is a product aimed at that consumer group much bellowed by sellers worldwide - fools with money.
I too have the last-year's model.
Love what they did with making the solar panels detachable on the new model, although I personally would have preferred if they've kept the old 3-plate configuration.
The new 2-plate one has somewhat less power and definitely less redundancy. 2 x 2 Watts instead of 3 x 1.5 Watts.
Might be problematic with those devices that require to be charged directly from the panels as they need more than 600mA that the battery provides.
On the other hand, I don't really think that redundancy should ever be a problem with this backpack. Those plates are really sturdy.
I've once slipped on a wet tile floor, and landed with all of my 85 kilos of weight directly on my back(pack).
The fall knocked the wind right out of me but the plates were not even scratched. Or anything else in the backpack, including my sunglasses that were just tossed in.
Only complaint I have is regarding that small bag/pocket on the inside of the big compartment, right below the handle - it can be hard to access as it is jammed at the very top of the backpack.
And I find that a perfect place for my USB sticks and other small items.
Also, their support is great.
Adapters for my phone and PDA were not among the 10 provided with the backpack.
I emailed them to complain about that, and to order the ones that I would need.
But since their shipping form automatically selects the UPS Worldwide Express for the shipments to Europe, I emailed them again regarding that and to ask if the adapters I've found on ebay would be compatible.
And they send me two of each for free. Even though I bought the backpack from a seller on Amazon, and not directly from their store.
Lionesses can HAS prey!
Lionesses can HAS pray!
I don't think that it has been a "legal" thing in the US since the end of the Cold War. Or ever actually - per se.
I feel that it has become more of a cultural programming to abhor red opininos and mark them as evil and poisonous like the red-and-black opininos.
But hey, that's just my view of the US red opiniono situation.
I had the questionable "luck" to be raised on red opininos and to have almost every other color and flavor of opinino fed to me or shoved down my throat, so that whole US-thing with the red opininos seems to me... well... funny.
It is not as much the brand, as it is general quality control during the production - reflected in the price of the media.
All those discs are from the time when a single CD was priced at about what an USB stick of a larger size than the CD cost now.
At the same time, I threw away hundreds of unreadable no-name, comes-on-a-spindle discs from the following decade.
Particularly the ones that were burned at maximum speeds by people who wouldn't bother to notice that they were shaving off about half a minute per disc at best - while using discs that were not really intended to be burned at such speeds.
EVERYTHING is analog media. You just need a proper-sized chisel. And a true Scotsman to wield it.
On the other hand, it would be rather difficult to store analog data on a CD or a hard drive.
Without a chisel, sharpie or some other hardware solution.
It might be somewhat easier to do that with a floppy - but again, you would need a specific (non standard) hardware solution for that. I.e. a proper-sized chisel.
Now... had you said Laser Disc - that would be somewhat more accurate, but not by much.
And just "storing" digital data isn't enough. It must also be digitally accessible and readable.
When you print out an MP3 as a continuous string of ones and zeroes - it is no longer a digital recording of data. It is now completely analog.
You have to digitize it in some way in order to be able to access the digital data which was converted into analog information.
At the same time, there is no such thing as random access (or write, delete, skip etc.) for ANY kind of tape media.
Again, you are converting digital data to analog information. It will remain analog until you re-digitize it.
While it is analog, you will be able to treat it like analog information - copy, access, delete it etc.
You can't really do that the other way around - unless you generalize "accessing data/information" as "looking at the hard drive" or something similar.
Or unless you get a proper sized chisel.
So, there is analog, and there is analog.
Tapes - analog. Hard drives and CDs - not really.
Well, a green opinino CAN lead to a serious case of constipation. Intellectual and otherwise.
But that's what happens when people can't tell "fresh" from "not yet ripe".
At least it's analog.
But I am positive that the following reply should suffice:
Whooosh!
...that is positively ancient.
FFS I think I have DVDs from that time. Even 20+ years is ridiculous. I have CDs burned in 1997-1998 that still work perfectly.
30+ years is a minimum. Back when the common storage medium was a cassette.
Oh, I don't mind other people's opininos as long as they are fresh and not all drenched in pesticides and other poisons.
They also go great with beer. Or any alcoholic beverage for that matter.
Well, at least that is the general consensus, as so many people just can't keep away from opininos once they had a few drinks.
Personally, I find that practice rather dangerous, as opinino juice is soluble in alcohol and then it can affect your nervous system which can result in neck spasms.
I've seen it happen.
People walking around, not seeing where they are going, noses up in the air...
I've even seen a couple of chronic cases, where people got their spine all contorted and end up with their heads up their rectums.
Terrible thing opinino abuse.
I think that you missed the point of his comment about certain sport's similarity to warfare.
Just like in the west, it is not "the goberment" that does the random picking. It is the parents.
This article has a nice quote regarding that.
"If my children don't get picked to carry on in gymnastics," Li says, "I'll move them to diving."
Parents are the ones dead set at making their kid into the next [insert competitive activity here] prodigy.
So they pack their kids to specialized training schools at the age when they are barely aware of the world around them.
And yes, they don't put a gun to their heads - but that is purely because an adult doesn't really need a gun to make a 4-year-old do what he/she is told.
And you don't need to produce optimal results (which is a ridiculous goal in itself - they are aiming for SUPERIOR results) - or do you really think that there are hundreds of gold medals to be won in gymnastics at every Olympic?
As the gymnastics teacher in one of those videos says - that is the thick bottom end of the pyramid.
Only the super-best get to go to the Olympics. But every kid whose parents THINK that they can afford to ship him/her to one of those schools (Note that the entire family wears their coats when at home. Heating is for the western capitalist pigs.), WILL get the chance to start the training at the age of 4.
I just love that last part of the video, where you get to hear the little girl's mother talking about how she has "wished for a successful kid since she got married".
And then how she speaks, while cluelessly smiling, about her 6-year-old daughter always complaining that she doesn't want to go the gymnastics school - yet she stands ready to go each morning, and when asked why she goes if she doesn't want to she replies "that if she doesn't go, she will have to run 30 laps as punishment".
She often cries when alone in bed at night, but she says that her parents want her to go to the gymnast school - so she does.
And in the evening, the girl studies English - so if all this doesn't pan out, she can at least be a doctor.
It is always wonderful seeing parents live their unfulfilled dreams through their children.
Right...
Next thing you're going to say is that you were allowed to use rulers to align your hand-written code on paper so that it is nicely stacked and nested.
Cause we all know that you must close your brackets in the same column you've opened them in, and may god help you if you haven't properly nested your loops - your computer might just explode in your face if you haven't done that properly.