User: Lester67

Re:This reminds me of a joke

On: Peer Pressure Porn Filter

Here... just so you feel better.

Q: What's the difference between a Baptist and a Methodist?

A: A Methodist will say "Hi" to you in the liquor store.

If you Super Size, do you get 802.11g?

On: McDonalds to go Wireless?

Just wondering? :-)

Re:Might as well add the C130 to that list too...

On: Technologies that Have Exceeded Their Expectations?

Although not nearly as old as the DC-3, both are incredible birds. I don't know why, but prop aircraft look graceful when they fly. :-)

Too bad we don't have any B-26's left to say the same thing about.

Isn't this a clear cut case of Fraud?

On: My Short Life As An Unintentional Porn Spammer

It is one thing to open a fake email account, or use a fake ID all together.

But to represent yourself as being a living, breathing, person THAT YOU AREN'T. IANAL, but that looks pretty easy to tackle.

Re:And how do you flash a BIOS without a floppy?

On: Dell Dropping The Floppy

USB drives can be used *IF* your motherboard supports it.

Many vendors now make (sit down for this) Windows based bios updates. In many cases they don't work though. I had to rob a floppy from elsewhere (I didn't have one installed) to update the BIOS on my Intel motherboard. That sucked.

Funny: The Optiplex still won't boot from USB

On: Dell Dropping The Floppy

And the only thing Dell says about this is: "soon".

NASA flags at half-staff

On: Space Shuttle Columbia Breaks Up Over Texas

Just updating.

The real deal on how much it costs.

On: How Much Does it Cost to Produce a Recording?

I asked a friend of mine that has worn quite a few hats in the music biz, to answer this question for me. Is response is based on an independent band, going it themselves (IE: No Label support), but still trying to turn out a top-notch quality product. My criteria was an album of 12 songs. (Since that's the average amount of tracks a CD has these days)

He sez:
"for the most part, it can be a little or a lot... depending on your expectations, you could walk into about ANY studio, set up play live and get all 12 songs done in one day. of course it would SOUND like you did it in one day too!! as a good friend and collegue once noted, "you don't fart ROXY MUSIC ALBUMS OUT OF YOUR ASS! it takes HARD WORK and LONG HOURS to make a good cd...

oh! one moe note...it also kinda depends on how GOOD the musicians are...

so, let's look at a BARGIN cd.

Figure:

3 days on rhythm tracks (four songs a day) @ $500/day (average local price dfor decent studio)
3 days of overdubs (guitar/keys/horns etc) @ $500/ day 3 days of vocals (lead and bg vocals - guess what!! you can't sing as well as you thought) @ $500/ day 1 day of bells and whistles percussion, sound efx, etc) @ $500/day -remember TWELVE SONGS)

lessee, that's about $5,000.00 and you haven't begun to mix.

it takes on an average, about a DAY to mix ONE song that's gonna be able to compete with stuff on the radio - but since we're doing the BARGIN BASEMENT thing.....figure 3 songs in one day (you'll see where the extra time actaully contributes to the CD LATER...like AFTER you hear it on a local college station in between the FOO FIGHTERS and AMIEE MANN)

so, lets see...back to that TWELVE SONG THING AGAIN.... 3 songs a day, divided by 12 songs, carry the one - hmm...that's 4 days @ $500/song - another 2 grand...

Now we've got the "car" built and painted....now the final buff - MASTERING

figure mastering at 1 hour/song @ $75/hour - tha's another 900.00

now we're up to 7900.00 and we haven't even sent the CD to be duplicated.

what else? hmmm....art work....

if someone in the band is not COMPUTER LITERATE in graphic design, figure $500 for design and
implementation of artwork and films (not counting photos and supplies)

ok...now... $8400.00

NOW w'ere ready to send it to duplication..

figure about $3000 - $4000 for duplicating 5000 cds...there are some deals out there, and the more you order, the more you'll save....the rough price for 1000 is about $1200. but as i mentioned, you go up on quantity, you go down on price.... oh.... shipping aint free. Figure about 300-500 in shipping of 5000
cds...

ok, depending on what kind of deals you have managed to negotiate along the way, you're sitting around $12,400.00, give or take some...at the BARGIN PRICE of $10 each, all you gotta do is sell 1250 to break
even....

these are just rough figures, and as i said before, depending on your expectations...

my advice, if you don't have an un-limited budget, or a huge touring fan-base, cut the number of songs to 5 instead of twelve...you still satisfy all the reasons for releasing a cd...."

GOOD FOR THEM!

On: Mission: Infiltrate the P2P Network

The copyright part is bogus. But if you're going to steal from someone you have no right to bitch when they put an exploding ink tag on it.

Serial ATA

On: Wired News: 2002's Greatest Vaporware

Anyone seen a drive yet?

Problem is: everyone bitched about banner ads too.

On: IAB Recommends Larger Web Advertising

I'd love nothing more than a return to the 460x68 banner ad.

Not the fastest?

On: Tom's Hardware Review of Yamaha CRW F1

There is a consumer model that burns faster than 44x?

I've installed several of these in external cases at work, and they are awesome little drives. (Although the Yamaha site says nothing about a SCSI version, there is one, sort of. It is an IDE drive with a SCSI converter that plugs into the IDE connector). Works like a champ, and other than DiscT@2, it can burn a CD pretty damn quick.

Re:comparison

On: New Linux Worm Found in the Wild

So you are saying you've hit the peak number of infections?

That's a ballsy statement... considering this worm is only on its second variant.... so far.

No comes the part where....

On: Chip Makers Selling Fewer High-End CPUs

Microsoft releases Service Pack 2, and bumps up the system requirements for this REQUIRED patch.

Then everyone runs out and buys bigger machine to run it.

Hell if it weren't for Office XP, most of our company wouldn't need more than an 866.

(Before you start ranting about OpenOffice.org. I tried. I really, really tried.)

Have you ever considered...

On: Microsoft/HP to Market Crippled Entertainment PCs

This is being done to intentionally fail?

With slumping PC sales already, releasing this kind of product destined for failure, sets the stage for saying it can't be done to consumer apathy.

Something that runs cool, without fans.

On: Computers That Thrive in Salty, Humid Environments?

Just as an opening thought, I'd remove as many fans as possible since they would be the first to go.

Maybe something based on the Cyrix 933 processor? They run a lot cooler, and would require only a heatsinc.

The less moving parts the better.

GPS in a cave?

On: Robots Go Spelunking

That struck me as a little odd, and unrealistic.

Re:Clear Channel

On: Satellite Radio - XM vs. Sirius?

They have a $75 Million cut of the XM pie, so I'm sure they have some pull there.

What a rambling idiot.

On: RMS Replies to "The Stallman Factor"

This is a wonderful example of why it is taking so long for Linux to battle the M$ monopoly.

Alan, How would *YOU* spend $40 Billion Dollars?

On: Ask Alan Cox, Activist

Enquiring minds want to know.

Boot them out of the DMA?

On: DMA to Control Spam by DMA Members

Then what? They SPAM anyway, and don't have DMA dues to pay.

Great idea, nitwits.

THIS WASN'T SETI SOFTWARE

On: McOwen Case Settled

There... I said it.

Insecurity

On: Interview With Microsoft's Chief of Security

Well, the way you guys constantly dog out Microsoft around here it's no wonder it is insecure. A little TLC should get them back in order in no time.

Ripper? Chris Carter did that already...

On: Joss Whedon Is Creating a Sci-Fi Drama For Fox

It was called Millennium.

Re:My FOTR Review

On: Review:Fellowship of the Ring

Good review, until I got called a demon of fire and smoke.

Everyone has to make a statement I s'pose.