The egg, in theory, should work. Since the radiator fluid is quite hot it will immediately hard boil the egg. Since there is pressure in the radiator it will push the egg "chunks" to the cracks/holes therein filling them in. There are 2 problems with this, however, one being once the holes are plugged the pressure will increase to ~15psi which is probably enough to blow the egg chunks out through the holes (anyone make the mistake of pulling a radiator cap off a hot engine?)... The second problem is that of the heater core. If the heater was on it would be instantly rendered useless. In all actuality, if you tried this "at home" you'd probably completely plug the radiator and the heater core and possibly the coolant ducts within the engine. Causing an even greater problem of over heating the engine. In otherwords "don't try this at home" unless you're rich and have nothing better to do...
Back when I owned a couple Sony DAT players I always liked seeing the copy protection listed under "features".
Features Recording rates 28k, 44k, 48k Stereo input jack Digital copy protection...
Yeah, as if I don't want to copy MY recorded works more than 3 times...
Nedless to say, I don't own audio DAT hardware anymore. DRM really killed that platform (unless you wanted to pay >$1000USD for a "pro" level DAT.
I like the DVD format and buy most of the movies I watch because of the extras. I now have close to 500 DVDs that I've purchased over the past 3 years. As opposed to the less than 10 VHS tapes I purchased over 10 years. I have no intention of downloading movies so the fact that it won't work on my Mac doesn't bother me in the least. They are hurting themselves more by not supporting Macs because Apple makes some of the best displays on the market. But, I suppose, if you have $3500USD laying around to buy a 23" cinema display you'd proabably have a decent home theater setup to watch DVDs on.....
Correct, there are also a lot of other factors involved. You could be an "expert" player on your table at home and be an "average" player at the "pub". I play every Tuesday in a local 8-ball league and I can tell you what bars have better tables, etc... As the "felt" wears out it becomes "slippery", as the cushions get old they become either dry/hard or "mushy". This all affects ball dynamics and is something that takes time to adapt to. Better players can adapt within a game, others take too long to adapt (or aren't good enough to notice the difference) and lose matches because of it. "Mastering" pool techniques on a particular table won't help you "in the real world". It should, however, teach you enough to become a decent player. The rest comes with experience, as does everything else in life...
How many people were shot or killed by the police?
That, being the stupidest comment ever, warranted a reply. What, exactly, does that have to do with anything? The people intentionally shot by police are criminals. Does the rest of the World view the United States as being controlled by political vigilantes hell-bent on killing anyone in sight? The number of people executed every year is also illrelevent since these people were judged by a jury of peers of a crime so heinous as to warrant the death penalty. Only 2 people come to mind in recent history that were "wrongfully" put to death and were later proven innocent.
One of the greatest things about being an American is that we are granted the RIGHT to bear arms. This right was given to us by our forefathers to PROTECT the citizens of the U.S. from an overly oppressive government. There is no "revolution" looming in the near future.
The fact that you, "living in England", are "in constant civil-war" is because the government took your arms away. You now have no way of defending yourselves from your government or your own people... Good Luck!
It was stated that it depends on the accuracy of your measurement. Hence,.1 could be anywhere between.100 and.199 with a more accurate measurement. But,.100 IS.100 (or.1000 to.1009, or.10000 to.10099, etc...).
To put this in better perspective, if you wanted a 3.725' shelf and only had a ruler available with inch markings you would have to estimate half way between 3' 8" and 3 9". But, if your ruler was marked every 1/16th of an inch (as most (American) rulers/tape measures are) your shelf would be more accurate (within 1/16th of an inch rather than within an inch).
So, technically speaking,.10 micron is a more accurate description than.1 micron. This doesn't, necessarily, mean that.10 is smaller than.1 but it could be.
With my current love of OS X I could care less what's happening in the "WIntel" world. I'm the only one at my work that uses Linux on the desktop because we only have x86 based destop systems. I'd be more than happy to dump this system for a G4 dual 1GHz. I'm not knocking Linux at all, in fact I still love it for a server environment, but with all the "hoopla" over the GUI it needs to grow up a bit. I've been happily using Linux on my desktop for almost 10 years straight at work while everyone else has gone through the headache of upgrading Windows, and the ugliness that is XP...Hell, my 6mo old daughter could design a better looking interface. Anyway, I'm just not excited about anything on the x86 front anymore. How far off is the ia-64 from it's original release date? Wasn't it scheduled for release in 2000? Bah...
What always gets me is the proclaimed "expert" title. If we look at Webster we see that expert is defined as "one with the special skill or knowledge representing mastery of a particular subject" and "having, involving, or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience". So, this guy is either trained in video game playing or is experienced with video games which would then contradict his "study". Either that,or he's not an "official" "expert" and therefore cannot be trusted.
And remember, smoking kills, just ask the experts...
You must live in a very small town with few renters. I ALWAYS have problems with rented tapes. From tracking problems causing video or audio fluctuations to tapes broken in half. I've had tapes break during rewind and I pull out the scotch tape and screwdriver and splice it back together. I only rent tapes if they aren't available on DVD. Granted, a digital format would solve 90% of the problems with less used tapes, but I bet DVHS tapes can't be spliced back together so you'll always have issues with dirty rollers munging tapes and rewind/FF breakages, etc... I can't justify spending $10 on a video tape much less $35 that WILL break at some point. I have a large LD collection, and save for 1 with laser rot they all play like the day I pulled the wrapper off. Almost every one of my VHS tapes look like crap, most of which have only been played once or twice...
I recently taped my sister's wedding with D8 and before even playing it back once it will be transfered to my laptop... I wouldn't trust a once in a liftime event to last on tape media, would you?
This is exactly what Sega did with the Dreamcast. They guaranteed x number of sales. If the developer didn't sell x number Sega payed them the difference. MS can, and might, do this. I know Nintendo has a development fund that's tied to 3rd party developers to help them financially.
No matter how much money Microsoft loses on the X-box they will eventually have to drop it. MS is a publicly owned company and investors are not going to invest in a losing market. Remember "Bob" or the old Pen OS? Nobody bought into it even though they could have dragged them out forever at a loss. Unless they have some grand secret scheme cooking for the X-box it'll be eventually scrapped... Palm brought PDAs to the market. MS, yet again, played catch-up with WinCE and now Pocket PC. They don't dominate the PDA market and are always 2nd in line. They don't innovate a damn thing but they've built a $300B by playing "follow the leader" and "accidently" struck gold with Windows. X-box is not going to be their "golden egg", I view it as a test to see how blind consumers are.
Actually, it's worse than that. There's a good article in the local, bad, paper (MN StarTribune) about this very thing. End of year for 2001 MS sold 1.5 million units. My guess this is MS sales and not actual retail sales. They plan 4.5 - 6 million unit sales by the end of 2002 (total worldwide figures). PS2 plans 30 million by the end of the year and had 14.x million end of 2001.
What's really funny is the fact that X-box out sold the Dreamcast in Japan by only 300 units in one month and there is no more DC software coming out. The Wonderswan out sold the X-box and there are only a handful of games available for it.
MS is losing this game faster than imagined... I wouldn't doubt that 6mo from now they pull sales from Japan all together, they'll NEVER "take the living room" there...
Thanks for bringing up old memories. I loved Legacy... I think that was the first CRPG that I actually played from beginning to end. Might have to dust off the old//gs and hope my floppies haven't leaked bits over the years and play that one again...
I liked EA in the beginning, they had a diverse collection of games. Now it's mostly sports crap, and I have to agree with most everyone that Sega's sports crap is better than EA's. I had NFL2K1 for DC until I traded my DC in for GC games. Now I'm waiting for Sega sports games for GC... I refuse to buy an X-box and am continually frustrated that X-box is getting some of the great Sega titles like TJ&E III, Shenmue II (this might actually make it to GC) and Crazy Taxi 3. Though, Monkey Ball is awesome and the second one coming out later this year looks incredible so I'll keep funding Sega...
If you define value as price to performance. M3 gives you performance and comfort... I value comfort over price so an M3 would be a better value for me...
Do CD-rippers/burners/mp3-players have significant legitimate use for a deaf person? Would this deaf person not have significant legitimate use of a gun?
Yes, there ARE people that own guns for sport. I own 6 and have never killed anyone, or anything for that matter... I don't hunt, but I do enjoy target shooting.
Now, let me ask you this. If, for whatever reason, it was determined that ALL music was innappropriate and now banned would you be pissed? Would you willingly destroy all music and musical instruments in your possession to comply with the law? Would you willingly open your door to law enforcement to verify this? Remember, there is no Constitional right (in America or anywhere) protecting your music collection...but there is, in America, protecting my right to own a gun...
You mean like Metallica? I remember when they allowed taping at their concerts. Or Britney Spears who is only in it for fame?
Maybe, just maybe, if it were a requirement to have talent rather than blonde hair and implants people would actually still be buying music.
Lets go back a few years to the 70's with bands like Zeppelin, Floyd, Kiss, Priest, Walsh, etc... That created good to great music and had showmanship instead of the pure crap being spewed forth from the radio these days. It's kind of sad that 90+% of the music industry has sold out... At least there are a few bands that still care about music like Pearl Jam (at least they went up against Ticketmaster so you have to give them some credit), Phish, Shawn Smith, and a few others. My suggestion to you is start buying non-RIAA music, find some stuff you like and get others to buy it too.
Oh yeah, and stop pirating mus...Ah, never mind...
You'd never go thirsty on a long trip. We could drive to Mexico and bring our own water. No more paying ~$1/20oz at SA for nasty mineral water we'd be producing near pure water out the tail pipe...:)
Depends on drag coefficient. Cars of today are much less wind resistance so once you get over the inertia factor maintaining a cruising speed is much less difficult compared to cars of 30+ years ago.
Point to ponder:
BTW, since somebody brought up deforestation I'll point out that deforestation actually benefits the environment. The old tall trees block out all sunlight on the forest floor which causes vegetation to decay increasing methane, CO2, etc... When you cut these trees down you allow for new growth consisting of much greener vegetation which actually increases O2 production. I'm not saying that deforestation is a good thing, just that it's not half as bad as the environmentalists make it out to be...
Yeah, that's all well and good but you forgot 60-0mph both hitting the pavement and the rear end of a semi.;p And, lest I forget, 0-60 on snow/ice...
My '99 Voodoo Bokor has 1hp (human power) and goes 0-60 in 32ft/sec/sec down a vertical decline and gets about 2oz/mi with electrolytic fluid and/or water (dual fuel w/ no additional cost)...
Oh man, the Sit and Spin, those were the days. If only we could harness the power from these, like a rat in a wheel. Plop your kid in the back and they'll power you to daycare.:)
Luxury tax is on it's way out. It used to be 5% above a certain level (~$30K) and is being reduced 1%/yr until it's phased out entirely, 2 years yet, I think. This has absolutely nothing to do with the >$75K cost of a luxury automobile since it is an external cost based on selling price. Most Luxury autos are imported which adds a couple of thousand to the price for delivery, then add on import tarifs and you've bumped the price of that Benz up $10K at least. BMW has a few local factories which leads to lower costs and is why they can compete with American luxomobiles. The biggest cost for these manufacturers is R&D and labor. When you only build a few hundred vehicles a year and each piece of leather is hand stitched by grandpa Jones you have to make up for it somewhere. Add marketing, dealer markups, etc... and you can see why these things cost as much as they do. This is, part of, what you are paying for. If people didn't care about fit and finish we'd still be driving around Yugos and Chevettes. Personally, I wouldn't allow my 3mo old daughter to be driven around in a rusted out tin can. There is something to be said about big vehicles and safety... I'll gladly pay extra for fuel and a solid vehicle if it keeps my family safer. I've had accidents in larger vehicles that could have injured or even killed passengers in a lesser vehicle. After having the side ripped off of a VW Rabbit in High School (10mph collision) I will never own a tin can again...
That's well and good IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE. Want to see my choices for phone service? Lets see, I have not less than 10 choices, I'll list them here for you:
There's more but I forget their names. So yeah, I guess if choice number 1 doesn't work well for me I can always choose number 2 right?
How about cable? 10 choices there too, I'll only list 3 for brevety's sake: 1) Time/Warner 2) Time/Warner 3) Time/Warner
Yeah, I know what you're all saying, you wish you had as many choices as I do. Well, come live here in Minneapolis and you too can have these choices.
Fortunately, this is changing with other phone carriers coming to more areas but guess what...when you pay your bill choice number 1 gets most of the money cause they own the phone lines. The only way to boycott these companies is to not have a phone, yeah that sounds like an option...
Monopolism in a Capitalist society is just down right bad for the consumer...
Yes, I actually made one back in high school. Took a felt marker housing and glued a halogen bulb with a resistor to it then ran a plug out the back side. I photocopied the pattern out of Popular Electronics and it worked quite well. Incondescent does not work. Yes, there will be a slight flicker from incondescent but it doesn't turn on and off, the filament isn't fast enough. Another good example is car tail lights, some newer cars (later Lincoln Mark VIIIs, Cadillacs, etc...) have LED or flourescent third brake lights if you look closely they turn on and off faster than the side lights (we're talking milliseconds here but you can see it).
The human eye can only discern down to about 20 Hertz. American TVs are interlaced off of the AC signal providing only a 30 FPS display. Film, OTH is only 24FPS and if you're looking for it at the movie theater you CAN see flicker on bright white objects.
Heh, yeah, I think I ran into that guy a few weeks ago when I was looking for a Zio! smartmedia card reader. He spent half an hour wandering around opening the counter doors, sometimes checking the same one 3 times looking for the card readers. I just stood there and smiled. Finally, he pulls out 2 that weren't Zio! and explained that they didn't have any others in stock. That store also has to be the worst layed out store I've ever been in. It reminds me of K-mart back in the 70s, grungy!
Yeah, go ahead, mod this off-topic, at least it's about CompUSA...
JDK 1.4 has sped up Java considerably. Sure, you're not going to write the next Everquest client with it, but business tasks are quite efficient. Look at all the businesses that still run fine with COBOL, BBX, etc...
C# will only take over the Windows desktop, and at the rate MS is going that'll be much smaller in a few years. MS hates everything non-Windows so I doubt they'll put anything out on other platforms. Look at NT, only Intel now, used to run on Sparc and Digital. IE only runs on Windows and Mac OS/OS X.
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The egg, in theory, should work. Since the radiator fluid is quite hot it will immediately hard boil the egg. Since there is pressure in the radiator it will push the egg "chunks" to the cracks/holes therein filling them in. There are 2 problems with this, however, one being once the holes are plugged the pressure will increase to ~15psi which is probably enough to blow the egg chunks out through the holes (anyone make the mistake of pulling a radiator cap off a hot engine?)... The second problem is that of the heater core. If the heater was on it would be instantly rendered useless. In all actuality, if you tried this "at home" you'd probably completely plug the radiator and the heater core and possibly the coolant ducts within the engine. Causing an even greater problem of over heating the engine. In otherwords "don't try this at home" unless you're rich and have nothing better to do...
I did, and it was quite humorous. But then, some people think I'M psycho...
Back when I owned a couple Sony DAT players I always liked seeing the copy protection listed under "features".
...
Features
Recording rates 28k, 44k, 48k
Stereo input jack
Digital copy protection
Yeah, as if I don't want to copy MY recorded works more than 3 times...
Nedless to say, I don't own audio DAT hardware anymore. DRM really killed that platform (unless you wanted to pay >$1000USD for a "pro" level DAT.
I like the DVD format and buy most of the movies I watch because of the extras. I now have close to 500 DVDs that I've purchased over the past 3 years. As opposed to the less than 10 VHS tapes I purchased over 10 years. I have no intention of downloading movies so the fact that it won't work on my Mac doesn't bother me in the least. They are hurting themselves more by not supporting Macs because Apple makes some of the best displays on the market. But, I suppose, if you have $3500USD laying around to buy a 23" cinema display you'd proabably have a decent home theater setup to watch DVDs on.....
Correct, there are also a lot of other factors involved. You could be an "expert" player on your table at home and be an "average" player at the "pub". I play every Tuesday in a local 8-ball league and I can tell you what bars have better tables, etc... As the "felt" wears out it becomes "slippery", as the cushions get old they become either dry/hard or "mushy". This all affects ball dynamics and is something that takes time to adapt to. Better players can adapt within a game, others take too long to adapt (or aren't good enough to notice the difference) and lose matches because of it. "Mastering" pool techniques on a particular table won't help you "in the real world". It should, however, teach you enough to become a decent player. The rest comes with experience, as does everything else in life...
How many people were shot or killed by the police? That, being the stupidest comment ever, warranted a reply. What, exactly, does that have to do with anything? The people intentionally shot by police are criminals. Does the rest of the World view the United States as being controlled by political vigilantes hell-bent on killing anyone in sight? The number of people executed every year is also illrelevent since these people were judged by a jury of peers of a crime so heinous as to warrant the death penalty. Only 2 people come to mind in recent history that were "wrongfully" put to death and were later proven innocent. One of the greatest things about being an American is that we are granted the RIGHT to bear arms. This right was given to us by our forefathers to PROTECT the citizens of the U.S. from an overly oppressive government. There is no "revolution" looming in the near future. The fact that you, "living in England", are "in constant civil-war" is because the government took your arms away. You now have no way of defending yourselves from your government or your own people... Good Luck!
It was stated that it depends on the accuracy of your measurement. Hence, .1 could be anywhere between .100 and .199 with a more accurate measurement. But, .100 IS .100 (or .1000 to .1009, or .10000 to .10099, etc...).
.10 micron is a more accurate description than .1 micron. This doesn't, necessarily, mean that .10 is smaller than .1 but it could be.
To put this in better perspective, if you wanted a 3.725' shelf and only had a ruler available with inch markings you would have to estimate half way between 3' 8" and 3 9". But, if your ruler was marked every 1/16th of an inch (as most (American) rulers/tape measures are) your shelf would be more accurate (within 1/16th of an inch rather than within an inch).
So, technically speaking,
With my current love of OS X I could care less what's happening in the "WIntel" world. I'm the only one at my work that uses Linux on the desktop because we only have x86 based destop systems. I'd be more than happy to dump this system for a G4 dual 1GHz. I'm not knocking Linux at all, in fact I still love it for a server environment, but with all the "hoopla" over the GUI it needs to grow up a bit. I've been happily using Linux on my desktop for almost 10 years straight at work while everyone else has gone through the headache of upgrading Windows, and the ugliness that is XP...Hell, my 6mo old daughter could design a better looking interface. Anyway, I'm just not excited about anything on the x86 front anymore. How far off is the ia-64 from it's original release date? Wasn't it scheduled for release in 2000? Bah...
What always gets me is the proclaimed "expert" title. If we look at Webster we see that expert is defined as "one with the special skill or knowledge representing mastery of a particular subject" and "having, involving, or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience". So, this guy is either trained in video game playing or is experienced with video games which would then contradict his "study". Either that,or he's not an "official" "expert" and therefore cannot be trusted.
And remember, smoking kills, just ask the experts...
You must live in a very small town with few renters. I ALWAYS have problems with rented tapes. From tracking problems causing video or audio fluctuations to tapes broken in half. I've had tapes break during rewind and I pull out the scotch tape and screwdriver and splice it back together. I only rent tapes if they aren't available on DVD. Granted, a digital format would solve 90% of the problems with less used tapes, but I bet DVHS tapes can't be spliced back together so you'll always have issues with dirty rollers munging tapes and rewind/FF breakages, etc... I can't justify spending $10 on a video tape much less $35 that WILL break at some point. I have a large LD collection, and save for 1 with laser rot they all play like the day I pulled the wrapper off. Almost every one of my VHS tapes look like crap, most of which have only been played once or twice...
I recently taped my sister's wedding with D8 and before even playing it back once it will be transfered to my laptop... I wouldn't trust a once in a liftime event to last on tape media, would you?
This is exactly what Sega did with the Dreamcast. They guaranteed x number of sales. If the developer didn't sell x number Sega payed them the difference. MS can, and might, do this. I know Nintendo has a development fund that's tied to 3rd party developers to help them financially.
No matter how much money Microsoft loses on the X-box they will eventually have to drop it. MS is a publicly owned company and investors are not going to invest in a losing market. Remember "Bob" or the old Pen OS? Nobody bought into it even though they could have dragged them out forever at a loss. Unless they have some grand secret scheme cooking for the X-box it'll be eventually scrapped... Palm brought PDAs to the market. MS, yet again, played catch-up with WinCE and now Pocket PC. They don't dominate the PDA market and are always 2nd in line. They don't innovate a damn thing but they've built a $300B by playing "follow the leader" and "accidently" struck gold with Windows. X-box is not going to be their "golden egg", I view it as a test to see how blind consumers are.
Actually, it's worse than that. There's a good article in the local, bad, paper (MN StarTribune) about this very thing. End of year for 2001 MS sold 1.5 million units. My guess this is MS sales and not actual retail sales. They plan 4.5 - 6 million unit sales by the end of 2002 (total worldwide figures). PS2 plans 30 million by the end of the year and had 14.x million end of 2001.
What's really funny is the fact that X-box out sold the Dreamcast in Japan by only 300 units in one month and there is no more DC software coming out. The Wonderswan out sold the X-box and there are only a handful of games available for it.
MS is losing this game faster than imagined... I wouldn't doubt that 6mo from now they pull sales from Japan all together, they'll NEVER "take the living room" there...
Thanks for bringing up old memories. I loved Legacy... I think that was the first CRPG that I actually played from beginning to end. Might have to dust off the old //gs and hope my floppies haven't leaked bits over the years and play that one again...
I liked EA in the beginning, they had a diverse collection of games. Now it's mostly sports crap, and I have to agree with most everyone that Sega's sports crap is better than EA's. I had NFL2K1 for DC until I traded my DC in for GC games. Now I'm waiting for Sega sports games for GC... I refuse to buy an X-box and am continually frustrated that X-box is getting some of the great Sega titles like TJ&E III, Shenmue II (this might actually make it to GC) and Crazy Taxi 3. Though, Monkey Ball is awesome and the second one coming out later this year looks incredible so I'll keep funding Sega...
Ok, I'll take you any day on wet pavement, gravel, snow or ice... I'll even give you a 30mph head start...
If you define value as price to performance. M3 gives you performance and comfort... I value comfort over price so an M3 would be a better value for me...
Hooked by the AC Troll...
Do CD-rippers/burners/mp3-players have significant legitimate use for a deaf person? Would this deaf person not have significant legitimate use of a gun?
Yes, there ARE people that own guns for sport. I own 6 and have never killed anyone, or anything for that matter... I don't hunt, but I do enjoy target shooting.
Now, let me ask you this. If, for whatever reason, it was determined that ALL music was innappropriate and now banned would you be pissed? Would you willingly destroy all music and musical instruments in your possession to comply with the law? Would you willingly open your door to law enforcement to verify this? Remember, there is no Constitional right (in America or anywhere) protecting your music collection...but there is, in America, protecting my right to own a gun...
Just some food for thought...
You mean like Metallica? I remember when they allowed taping at their concerts. Or Britney Spears who is only in it for fame?
Maybe, just maybe, if it were a requirement to have talent rather than blonde hair and implants people would actually still be buying music.
Lets go back a few years to the 70's with bands like Zeppelin, Floyd, Kiss, Priest, Walsh, etc... That created good to great music and had showmanship instead of the pure crap being spewed forth from the radio these days. It's kind of sad that 90+% of the music industry has sold out... At least there are a few bands that still care about music like Pearl Jam (at least they went up against Ticketmaster so you have to give them some credit), Phish, Shawn Smith, and a few others. My suggestion to you is start buying non-RIAA music, find some stuff you like and get others to buy it too.
Oh yeah, and stop pirating mus...Ah, never mind...
You'd never go thirsty on a long trip. We could drive to Mexico and bring our own water. No more paying ~$1/20oz at SA for nasty mineral water we'd be producing near pure water out the tail pipe... :)
Depends on drag coefficient. Cars of today are much less wind resistance so once you get over the inertia factor maintaining a cruising speed is much less difficult compared to cars of 30+ years ago.
Point to ponder:
BTW, since somebody brought up deforestation I'll point out that deforestation actually benefits the environment. The old tall trees block out all sunlight on the forest floor which causes vegetation to decay increasing methane, CO2, etc... When you cut these trees down you allow for new growth consisting of much greener vegetation which actually increases O2 production. I'm not saying that deforestation is a good thing, just that it's not half as bad as the environmentalists make it out to be...
Yeah, that's all well and good but you forgot 60-0mph both hitting the pavement and the rear end of a semi. ;p And, lest I forget, 0-60 on snow/ice...
My '99 Voodoo Bokor has 1hp (human power) and goes 0-60 in 32ft/sec/sec down a vertical decline and gets about 2oz/mi with electrolytic fluid and/or water (dual fuel w/ no additional cost)...
Oh man, the Sit and Spin, those were the days. If only we could harness the power from these, like a rat in a wheel. Plop your kid in the back and they'll power you to daycare. :)
Luxury tax is on it's way out. It used to be 5% above a certain level (~$30K) and is being reduced 1%/yr until it's phased out entirely, 2 years yet, I think. This has absolutely nothing to do with the >$75K cost of a luxury automobile since it is an external cost based on selling price. Most Luxury autos are imported which adds a couple of thousand to the price for delivery, then add on import tarifs and you've bumped the price of that Benz up $10K at least. BMW has a few local factories which leads to lower costs and is why they can compete with American luxomobiles. The biggest cost for these manufacturers is R&D and labor. When you only build a few hundred vehicles a year and each piece of leather is hand stitched by grandpa Jones you have to make up for it somewhere. Add marketing, dealer markups, etc... and you can see why these things cost as much as they do. This is, part of, what you are paying for. If people didn't care about fit and finish we'd still be driving around Yugos and Chevettes. Personally, I wouldn't allow my 3mo old daughter to be driven around in a rusted out tin can. There is something to be said about big vehicles and safety... I'll gladly pay extra for fuel and a solid vehicle if it keeps my family safer. I've had accidents in larger vehicles that could have injured or even killed passengers in a lesser vehicle. After having the side ripped off of a VW Rabbit in High School (10mph collision) I will never own a tin can again...
That's well and good IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE. Want to see my choices for phone service? Lets see, I have not less than 10 choices, I'll list them here for you:
1) QWest
2) QWest
3) QWest
4) QWest
5) QWest
6) QWest
7) QWest
8) QWest
9) QWest
10) QWest
There's more but I forget their names. So yeah, I guess if choice number 1 doesn't work well for me I can always choose number 2 right?
How about cable? 10 choices there too, I'll only list 3 for brevety's sake:
1) Time/Warner
2) Time/Warner
3) Time/Warner
Yeah, I know what you're all saying, you wish you had as many choices as I do. Well, come live here in Minneapolis and you too can have these choices.
Fortunately, this is changing with other phone carriers coming to more areas but guess what...when you pay your bill choice number 1 gets most of the money cause they own the phone lines. The only way to boycott these companies is to not have a phone, yeah that sounds like an option...
Monopolism in a Capitalist society is just down right bad for the consumer...
Yes, I actually made one back in high school. Took a felt marker housing and glued a halogen bulb with a resistor to it then ran a plug out the back side. I photocopied the pattern out of Popular Electronics and it worked quite well. Incondescent does not work. Yes, there will be a slight flicker from incondescent but it doesn't turn on and off, the filament isn't fast enough. Another good example is car tail lights, some newer cars (later Lincoln Mark VIIIs, Cadillacs, etc...) have LED or flourescent third brake lights if you look closely they turn on and off faster than the side lights (we're talking milliseconds here but you can see it).
The human eye can only discern down to about 20 Hertz. American TVs are interlaced off of the AC signal providing only a 30 FPS display. Film, OTH is only 24FPS and if you're looking for it at the movie theater you CAN see flicker on bright white objects.
Heh, yeah, I think I ran into that guy a few weeks ago when I was looking for a Zio! smartmedia card reader. He spent half an hour wandering around opening the counter doors, sometimes checking the same one 3 times looking for the card readers. I just stood there and smiled. Finally, he pulls out 2 that weren't Zio! and explained that they didn't have any others in stock. That store also has to be the worst layed out store I've ever been in. It reminds me of K-mart back in the 70s, grungy!
Yeah, go ahead, mod this off-topic, at least it's about CompUSA...
JDK 1.4 has sped up Java considerably. Sure, you're not going to write the next Everquest client with it, but business tasks are quite efficient. Look at all the businesses that still run fine with COBOL, BBX, etc...
C# will only take over the Windows desktop, and at the rate MS is going that'll be much smaller in a few years. MS hates everything non-Windows so I doubt they'll put anything out on other platforms. Look at NT, only Intel now, used to run on Sparc and Digital. IE only runs on Windows and Mac OS/OS X.
I don't do Windows...