My computer can already do all of this, without some fancy package from Intel.
Is your computer as easy to operate as a TV or VCR/DVD? What is the bootup time of your media center? Keep in mind the average user gets confused setting up a VCR.
Gateway circa 1997 or so released their own media center Destination series in the $5000 price bracket. It included a huge VGA TV 27 to 35 inch and Harmon Karmon sound system. The TV wasn't worth writing home about as its dotpitch was too low for 640*480, even models sold later didn't include and the system was too slow to record video in real time. But the major complaint was the fact that people had to wait for windows to bootup to watch TV (no one could figure out you could jack the cable directly into the TV). Channel surfing was slowed down made the whole experence of watching TV more complex requring a huge keyboard sized remote.
I thought the days of single online providers (Compuserve) was over but now it seems like Google wants to be the entire internet. They 'own' web searching (and therefore in the current state of affairs the web itself), they 'own' image searching and Usenet. Instead of loging onto the 'net it's becoming increasingly the case that you boot up Google instead.
Like it or not Compu$erve was less a monopoly and more of a pioneer. What other services other than private networks and BBSes offered electronic mail circa 1979? Or online chat circa 1980? Off peak rates were about $6.00/hr for 110/300baud, about $12 for 1200/2400 and $24 for 9600 before a major rate drop in the 90s. Outlandish by our standards but they were actually onpar with long distance rates. There were other services that were available in the 80s such as GEnie [General Electric Network for Information Exchange], The Source, Prodigy (founded 1984), and AOL (founded 1985 as Qlink). Compu$serve never really enjoyed a monopoly but did enjoy the benifits of being there first.
I think you might be confusing an EGR valve with a smog pump... smog pump simply feeds fresh air into the exhaust manifold in an attempt to help burn off any fuel/combustible gases exiting the pistons.
You could be right. What I was refering to was an extra mechanical pump linked between the exhaust manifold and the air intake. Smoke did flow through it as shown by my air filter.
Any vehicle can be made to seem less polluting if you feed fresh air into the exhaust stream.
This could be true as well... but I remember that the only two tests I peformed on my 1976 had 0% CO .
OK, I'll tell you what. I'll pull my 98 Explorer with 90,000 miles on it up to the nearest emissions testing station, in any condition you choose (hot, cold, whatever). You pull up in your non-catalytic equipped, reasonably similarly engined vehicle. We'll put $500 apiece down, least emissions takes all. Are you willing to take that bet? 'Cause I'm willing to take your money.
I say this often.
I had a 76 Toyota corolla non-cat but with a smog pump.
I had a 79 toyota corolla with a cat but no smog pump.
The non-cat always tested with lower emissions than cat. Why? Because catalytic converters burn out over time. But a smog pump which recycles exhaust gasses back into the engine will work consistently well over a longer period of time than a catalytic converter. Perhaps when the 79 was new and the catalytic converter wasn't carbon fouled it might have been equal or better. But after 100,000+ miles they become pretty useless.
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For laughs I have run my 1966 ford f-250 with the 352 engine against newer 1990s ford f-250s with the 351 engine. I won't say the 1966 pre-cat did better than cat. But they were about equal. I welcome you to compare your Explorer with early 70s fords with the same engine. You may be suprised.
I think they should look at remaking the British Sci-Fi series "Space 1999". I'm sure with todays effects and technology, Im sure it would give a few good seasons. I'd like to see what knockout vixen they'd cast to play that shape-shifter Miya.. Thats my 2 cents.. I'm punching out..
I don't remember space 1999 very well. IIRC correctly there was a nuclear dump on the moon which exploded and set the entire moon out of orbit through random solar systems each week with wacky consequences. The moon base is was clearly equiped with an unlimited supply of Eagles as at least one was destroyed each episode. Early on they encountered an alien who must have liked the rogue moon nuclear waste dump flying around the galaxy meeting random hostile Eagle hating species that she decided to live on it.
So what you are saying you want someone to recreate this? I guess it would be a laugh.
The fact is that a large number of drug busts happen as a result of pulling over speeding cars. I won't attempt to guess the psychology, but I've been told that long-haul drug runners frequently drive at excessive speeds (and we're talking seriously excessive here). Thus, there is a very definite connection between speeding and drug dealing.
The psychology is simple.
People on drugs tend to drive poorly. Try driving games after you've had a few and check your research and see the number of people pulled over who were found with drugs were also DUI.
Add the fact that drugs are very popular and *boom* random encounters with police result in more drug arrests.
They searched a vehicle that was pulled over for a violation of the law. IMHO, this is simply investigation of a crime scene.
Violation of the law? There is violation of the law in a simple traffic stop. It is a "non-criminal offense". Next time you get a ticket read it. It's not a crime... it's an infraction... so it can't be a crime scene because no crime was commited.
You can say that a cop as the right to search a car if he suspects the person driving is under the influence of something. There are very valid saftey reasons why this is done. You are at least suspected of a crime. But it's still NOT a crime scene unless they know for a *FACT* a crime has been commited.
But going 10-15 over the limit, failure to stop, failure to yield, broken tail light, all of these are not crimes. They are ticketable infractions but not crimes.
My apologies, then, I guess I misread to some degree. However, it does illustrate the point that it's not GPS' fault, nor does it decrease the system's utility that someone can still screw that one up on paper.
It's hardly screwing up on paper when the paper is correct and your vessel is in the wrong spot. A passage is two bits of land with water in the middle. An inlet is two bits of land with water in the middle often a bay or a cove. To pass through a passage, you go between two bits of land. Not to be confused with these other two bits of land that mark an enterence to a bay with a crap load of land at the end.
To make the point clear... let's say the passage in question was marked clearly with a lighthouse/lightship. You see it on the chart and pass on the approperate side. Or better still, a pair of light houses/light ships that mark the passage. That's going to be hard to miss even in heavy fog. If left unmarked... it's going pass between two bits of land that are next to these other two bits of land that you can't pass through.
I.e. the lighthouse is not obsolete. It does not replace man made landmarks in places where ships tend to crash. Its accuracy is subject to weather conditions as with all radio devices and subject to water sometimes full of salt spraying around and killing electronics and shorting batteries. It's wonderful tool that tends to be more accurate than other systems employed by humans. But it does not replace a beacon telling you "don't go this way you'll run aground!"
I wouldn't want some cartoon devil character showing up on my company's computers either. It looks unprofessional and odd. I work in a real estate office. Would I want to have Bugs Bunny as the boot logo on all the machines in our computer room?
I can see where this is a problem.
Office 2000 had Clippy and it seemed to be universaly hated.
Worse yet WinXp's default cartoonish character is Rover direct from Microsoft Bob no less. Merlin, Courtney, and Earl are even worse. What's worse is these popup on your desktops and are not confined to the server room.
None of these silly animated cartoon images are approperate for a professional setting like a real estate office.
That's not an error due to GPS, that's an error due to someone failing to consult a chart.
Hmmmm... I hate to say it but you can still consult a chart and still mistake an inlet with a passage when from the sea they look alike and are right next to each other. As you said "broad reckoning".
Lighthouses have a number of uses. Manned lighthouses provide local emergency services. If your boat sinks, a lighthouse will indicate the general direction of the shore (very useful when your GPS is 50 feet underwater). Also, of course, useful when your GPS has died all of a sudden.
This would be nice if lighthouses on the whole were still manned. Most are not. Dispite the fact that lighthouse operators continued to provide emergency services to people washed ashore it was not deemed to be a good use of resources.
You're talking about something which happened 5 years ago.
Was this 5 years ago? If it was then after VIII was aired circa 1999 they were nice enough to show them all for 1 year weekly, and show them all daily.
According to TV tome, there are 52 episodes. If they showed the new season in March of 1999 then repeated them weekly, it would bring us up to March of 2000. Then airing them daily twice for a year would bring us up to March of 2001. I *could* have been 4 years ago they stopped but I don't honestly know. I thought it was 2 years ago as i'm sure there was a nice pause between showing it weekly and daily, but who's to say.
My point is they showed these outside of the marathon. You could have watched them. You didn't. How many times do they have to repeat something for your benifit? You can buy the VHS videos from the channel 9 store for $15 per season. You can wait for the DVDs if you like. They are a touch more spendy. Or you can make friends with someone who's nice enough to tape them.
The way I see it KCTS went out of their way to show this and make it available to you. Show me another network in America that would carry Red Dwarf fresh off the presses... and repeat it. Show me another network that would go out of its way to carry the tapes so you don't have to wait for mail order.
But if this still makes you unhappy... subscribe to cable and get BBC-America and request Red Dwarf be shown. If they do it won't be comercial free.
Lighthouses have been obsolete since radar came to be.
Radar isn't infallible. Rain and fog banks can show up on radar. More so at night when the pilot house has its lights off and the radar hood off. Worse yet... mistake land for a fog bank.
Depth finders are not infallible. A ship can't stop on a dime.
Neither are GPS nor Loran. They are damn good tools but once you reach coast you're going to navigate by site and not instruments.
A big ass spinning light where ships tend to crash is a brillent safty measure. A strong argument to keep lighthouses manned was a place where ships tend to crash is a place where you're going to have people in need of help.
Lighthouses are not obsolete. I've seen ships crash even with radar and nice map software with GPS maps in areas where an inlet looks kinda like a passage resulting in a ship plowing into someone's house.
In Europe I would assume the country code is easier to deal with that in the US, since each country could be treated like a US state (almost). It would just be a part of the number like the '1' is a part of the US number. The US international prefix is 011 (?), while most European countries is just 00. (Trunk is 0 instead of US 1)
It's not a question of ease. 01-1-(country code)-(number) is easy. But that does not change the fact that if you give someone in the US an international number with the correct syntax, they will have NO idea what to do with it. If you give someone 01-1-(123)-45-555-123 they won't understand they dial it as it is. They will be confused... might try a 1 in front of the 01-1... or be too afraid to attempt it for fear of massive call rate.
On a side note... US syntax is as follows
0-operator 00-international operator x11- As in 911-emergency. In the past many regions offered 411 for infomation/directory assistance *some* pay phones offered taxi service and towing on a x11 number. But since we no longer offer free directory assistance i've not seen 411 used in sometime except on mobiles. The x11 standard seems to be carrier specific.
1-{area code}-xxx-yyyy Long distance/toll call 0-{area code}-xxx-yyyy Operator assist/collect call/legacy calling card call 1010-(carrier code)-1-{area code}-xxx-yyyy where you could choose to use any long distance carrier. Use of each 1010-code results in additional taxes. 01-1-(country code){city code} number
You may beable to swap out the 1 with a 0 for international operator assist or carrier specific call but I've never tried it. The only times it might have been needed were countries that don't permit direct dialing. Long after the breakup of AT&T the cost of operator assisted calls skyrocketed. Very few people I know of use 0 to make a collect / calling card call.
And back to the pizza thing, what other country has a national number that will automatically go to the local store? These are "One3" numbers.)
In our defense... what other country offers national numbers that will do everything in their power that will automaticly avoid the local store? This is how I felt dealing with the national cable companies.
I know some of the national pizza chains offered 1-800 numbers that would either route your call to the local store or manualy. I don't know if this is still offered nor have I tried it as I don't typicaly order pizza from national chains unless I have a really cool coupon which would have the local number. In all fairness most 800 numbers these days are voice menu from hell systems.
One3 sounds nice but costs ya a quarter and I imagine is dependent on land lines. Don't get me wrong it's a good idea just I doubt it would fly in a country like the US. Even if I don't have a phonebook handy toll free directory assistance is still free (800-555-1212) and I can call it and ask for the national pizza chain, then call that number and get the local number. Not as quick as one3 but free.
KCTS. The only time they show Red Dwarf or Blackadder is when they want money.
I know KCTS. I watch KCTS. I know they showed season VII VIII about the same time they stopped showing Voyager on KCPQ. I.e. they have shown this stuff outside of telethons.
I think their method is most accomidating. In fact they do bend over backwards to make sure you get a chance to watch things in 4 ways.
1. Shown Weekly (yep, they have shown all 64 episodes or so weekly) 2. Shown Daily (yep, they showed these daily late night) 3. Telethon (all at once) 4. Buy the DVD at the KCTS store
Of these I find the telethon the coolest because they show entire episodes before the break. You can record it and not have to buy the DVD. And heck toss them a few bucks for the trouble. Keep in mind it's your own fault for missing it in the first place. If you were on the ball you could have tapes of the origional theme music.
Neither NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, UPN, nor WB are so cool.
If you have a glance at any old days movies, you'll see why we have 'area codes': -riing -"I want to make a call to chicago" -"yes sir, which is the number?" -blabla
and my number is
Beachwood 4-5789 You can call me up and have a date Any old time -- The Marvellettes
Imagine dialing dialing that chick on a rotery phone! Given the choice i'd dial the operator and have her hook me up. No wonder we switched to (xxx)yy#-#### where x = area and y did = city/neighborhood at some point.
I'm rather pro-area codes my self. There was much thought into the system of 3 digits for the area and 7 digits for the number... 7 digits being easy to recall. When I need to remember a number of someone I know in Richmond VA, I already know the area code is 804 and the rest is easy. Not only that but I know 804 is -5gmt so I don't end up calling there too late. Very handy these area codes.
While sure you can pickup and move a mobile / VoIP phone there is still a place most people call home. While I strongly approve of the idea of mobile / VoIP area codes I would humbly submit that they should follow the old school thought of at least being organized into timezone, state, and perhaps even city of your choice.
I think you underestimate people's ability to adjust.
Do French pizza shops feel the same way if a person orders a pizza from a Finnish mobile? I'm just curious. I know in the states it's difficult to use an international phone to order a pizza. Usually for two reasons. Firstly the cost... no one knows what the cost is but it sounds expensive even to those not familar with mobiles having a different rate. Secondly few people know how to dial internationaly.
Issues i've seen with US mobiles ordering a pizza out of the region have a different problem. You can subscribe to a landline and not subscribe to long distance service. This is becomming more and more common as mobiles offer LD as part of their monthly min plans and it saves you a few bucks in taxes. And a business that employs teens like a pizza place might not want their employees to make toll calls. Given that 10 cents/min what use to be Ma Bells evening rate circa 1982 is pretty damn close to minimum wage I can see the point. It is penny pinching but food service does have the lowest profit margin.
We've had free local calls for decades. It's natural to see resistance tward any system that costs money.
I will exchange a London number for a New York number... any takers...
I've heard rumors that Vontage is none too hip to this idea. While the advertise the fact that you can make a call from *anywhere* with an internet connection I've been told they crack down if you use the service too much i.e. if you were to buy a box with a New York number and use it only in London.
Assuming this is correct, which wouldn't shock me, you would need an IP that looked like the area you're getting VoIP service. When I get off my lazy bum I'll look into either proxy, VPN, or dish from Merida to the states and VoIP service state side.
A 300 baud old POS. Why? Because there isn't much data to send to the credit card company, and a 300 baud modem will work with the crappiest, noisiest POS phone lines.
And 300baud has the shortest handshake time. From dial to connect is typicaly under 15seconds in my experence where 1200/2400 typicaly under 30 seconds. 14.4k and above can be higher than 30 seconds.
But take the time to listen to those credit card terminals. Many of them i've noticed handshake on the second tone... i.e. 1200/2400.
And further... You can get mobile terminals that are cellphones onto themselves.
uh... correct me if I'm wrong, but in order to get it down into the martian atmosphere, we'd have to lift it up through ours.... on a flaming roman candle.
Not if the bulk of materials required can be found in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Most areas have test numbers you can dial. For example 253-565-0040 is a nice one that says "the call you have made requires a coin deposit. -0047 is the "The number you have dialed is not in service". They are worth sampling and playing to bloody telemarketers. I recently upgraded to voicemail software and the software is rigged to play "this call requires a coin deposit".
Also amusing is 3-way back to their own number and you get two telemarketers chatting with each other.
Last year someone thought it would be a good idea to change the sign on the Williamsburg Bridge to "Leaving Brooklyn: Oy Vey". Which I must say was a better idea than "Leaving Brooklyn: Fuhgeddaboudit!" Needless to say both ideas were rejected.
The problem with Henry Kloss is he always had his finger in a number of companies... but you could always tell it was one of his designs when it was marked Henry Kloss.
"Oy vey" (sometimes oy vay / oy way) is a Yiddish phrase and means roughly dear me or woe is me. Vey might actually have been adopted from the German "weh" which I believe is pain. Oy i'm not sure about. It should be an old Hebrew translated in the Christian bible as woe but who's to say. Where as "vay iz mir" (oy vay iz mir) is also a Yiddish expression for woe is me. Oy gevalt is a cry pain/suffering.
It's my belief that "oi yey" is some schlemiel's attempt to write oy vey resulting in ferklempt.
Personally, I look for gas milage, reliability and comfort, but each to their own....
I had an old 1976 Toyota Corolla at one point in my life. It used a smog pump rather than a catalitic converter. It used the traditional point system rather and virtualy no electronics. Its emmitions always tested lower than the 1979 model I had, as well as 1986 and 1992 Corollas. Its MPG was 40mpg on premium gas... or 30mpg on either leaded when it was still sold or regular unleaded.
Say "Zulu" (the international aviation alphabet word for "Z").
This is America! You say Zulu they write Zulu or ask if you are from Africa. You say Zed which is also the standard in other English speaking countries they write Zed, Said, Ted or ask what's a Zed. I enjoy much better luck with Zebra as that is the standard kindergarten icon on the alphabet chart here.
I agree that the international stanard for radio should be used for telephone but it's hardly useful if no one else uses it.
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My computer can already do all of this, without some fancy package from Intel.
Is your computer as easy to operate as a TV or VCR/DVD? What is the bootup time of your media center? Keep in mind the average user gets confused setting up a VCR.
Gateway circa 1997 or so released their own media center Destination series in the $5000 price bracket. It included a huge VGA TV 27 to 35 inch and Harmon Karmon sound system. The TV wasn't worth writing home about as its dotpitch was too low for 640*480, even models sold later didn't include and the system was too slow to record video in real time. But the major complaint was the fact that people had to wait for windows to bootup to watch TV (no one could figure out you could jack the cable directly into the TV). Channel surfing was slowed down made the whole experence of watching TV more complex requring a huge keyboard sized remote.
I thought the days of single online providers (Compuserve) was over but now it seems like Google wants to be the entire internet. They 'own' web searching (and therefore in the current state of affairs the web itself), they 'own' image searching and Usenet. Instead of loging onto the 'net it's becoming increasingly the case that you boot up Google instead.
Like it or not Compu$erve was less a monopoly and more of a pioneer. What other services other than private networks and BBSes offered electronic mail circa 1979? Or online chat circa 1980? Off peak rates were about $6.00/hr for 110/300baud, about $12 for 1200/2400 and $24 for 9600 before a major rate drop in the 90s. Outlandish by our standards but they were actually onpar with long distance rates. There were other services that were available in the 80s such as GEnie [General Electric Network for Information Exchange], The Source, Prodigy (founded 1984), and AOL (founded 1985 as Qlink). Compu$serve never really enjoyed a monopoly but did enjoy the benifits of being there first.
I think you might be confusing an EGR valve with a smog pump ... smog pump simply feeds fresh air into the exhaust manifold in an attempt to help burn off any fuel/combustible gases exiting the pistons.
You could be right. What I was refering to was an extra mechanical pump linked between the exhaust manifold and the air intake. Smoke did flow through it as shown by my air filter.
Any vehicle can be made to seem less polluting if you feed fresh air into the exhaust stream.
This could be true as well... but I remember that the only two tests I peformed on my 1976 had 0% CO .
OK, I'll tell you what. I'll pull my 98 Explorer with 90,000 miles on it up to the nearest emissions testing station, in any condition you choose (hot, cold, whatever). You pull up in your non-catalytic equipped, reasonably similarly engined vehicle. We'll put $500 apiece down, least emissions takes all. Are you willing to take that bet? 'Cause I'm willing to take your money.
I say this often.
I had a 76 Toyota corolla non-cat but with a smog pump.
I had a 79 toyota corolla with a cat but no smog pump.
The non-cat always tested with lower emissions than cat. Why? Because catalytic converters burn out over time. But a smog pump which recycles exhaust gasses back into the engine will work consistently well over a longer period of time than a catalytic converter. Perhaps when the 79 was new and the catalytic converter wasn't carbon fouled it might have been equal or better. But after 100,000+ miles they become pretty useless.
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For laughs I have run my 1966 ford f-250 with the 352 engine against newer 1990s ford f-250s with the 351 engine. I won't say the 1966 pre-cat did better than cat. But they were about equal. I welcome you to compare your Explorer with early 70s fords with the same engine. You may be suprised.
I think they should look at remaking the British Sci-Fi series "Space 1999". I'm sure with todays effects and technology, Im sure it would give a few good seasons. I'd like to see what knockout vixen they'd cast to play that shape-shifter Miya.. Thats my 2 cents.. I'm punching out..
I don't remember space 1999 very well. IIRC correctly there was a nuclear dump on the moon which exploded and set the entire moon out of orbit through random solar systems each week with wacky consequences. The moon base is was clearly equiped with an unlimited supply of Eagles as at least one was destroyed each episode. Early on they encountered an alien who must have liked the rogue moon nuclear waste dump flying around the galaxy meeting random hostile Eagle hating species that she decided to live on it.
So what you are saying you want someone to recreate this? I guess it would be a laugh.
The fact is that a large number of drug busts happen as a result of pulling over speeding cars. I won't attempt to guess the psychology, but I've been told that long-haul drug runners frequently drive at excessive speeds (and we're talking seriously excessive here). Thus, there is a very definite connection between speeding and drug dealing.
The psychology is simple.
People on drugs tend to drive poorly. Try driving games after you've had a few and check your research and see the number of people pulled over who were found with drugs were also DUI.
Add the fact that drugs are very popular and *boom* random encounters with police result in more drug arrests.
They searched a vehicle that was pulled over for a violation of the law. IMHO, this is simply investigation of a crime scene.
Violation of the law? There is violation of the law in a simple traffic stop. It is a "non-criminal offense". Next time you get a ticket read it. It's not a crime... it's an infraction... so it can't be a crime scene because no crime was commited.
You can say that a cop as the right to search a car if he suspects the person driving is under the influence of something. There are very valid saftey reasons why this is done. You are at least suspected of a crime. But it's still NOT a crime scene unless they know for a *FACT* a crime has been commited.
But going 10-15 over the limit, failure to stop, failure to yield, broken tail light, all of these are not crimes. They are ticketable infractions but not crimes.
My apologies, then, I guess I misread to some degree. However, it does illustrate the point that it's not GPS' fault, nor does it decrease the system's utility that someone can still screw that one up on paper.
It's hardly screwing up on paper when the paper is correct and your vessel is in the wrong spot. A passage is two bits of land with water in the middle. An inlet is two bits of land with water in the middle often a bay or a cove. To pass through a passage, you go between two bits of land. Not to be confused with these other two bits of land that mark an enterence to a bay with a crap load of land at the end.
To make the point clear... let's say the passage in question was marked clearly with a lighthouse/lightship. You see it on the chart and pass on the approperate side. Or better still, a pair of light houses/light ships that mark the passage. That's going to be hard to miss even in heavy fog. If left unmarked... it's going pass between two bits of land that are next to these other two bits of land that you can't pass through.
I.e. the lighthouse is not obsolete. It does not replace man made landmarks in places where ships tend to crash. Its accuracy is subject to weather conditions as with all radio devices and subject to water sometimes full of salt spraying around and killing electronics and shorting batteries. It's wonderful tool that tends to be more accurate than other systems employed by humans. But it does not replace a beacon telling you "don't go this way you'll run aground!"
I wouldn't want some cartoon devil character showing up on my company's computers either. It looks unprofessional and odd. I work in a real estate office. Would I want to have Bugs Bunny as the boot logo on all the machines in our computer room?
I can see where this is a problem.
Office 2000 had Clippy and it seemed to be universaly hated.
Worse yet WinXp's default cartoonish character is Rover direct from Microsoft Bob no less. Merlin, Courtney, and Earl are even worse. What's worse is these popup on your desktops and are not confined to the server room.
None of these silly animated cartoon images are approperate for a professional setting like a real estate office.
That's not an error due to GPS, that's an error due to someone failing to consult a chart.
Hmmmm... I hate to say it but you can still consult a chart and still mistake an inlet with a passage when from the sea they look alike and are right next to each other. As you said "broad reckoning".
Lighthouses have a number of uses. Manned lighthouses provide local emergency services. If your boat sinks, a lighthouse will indicate the general direction of the shore (very useful when your GPS is 50 feet underwater). Also, of course, useful when your GPS has died all of a sudden.
This would be nice if lighthouses on the whole were still manned. Most are not. Dispite the fact that lighthouse operators continued to provide emergency services to people washed ashore it was not deemed to be a good use of resources.
You're talking about something which happened 5 years ago.
Was this 5 years ago? If it was then after VIII was aired circa 1999 they were nice enough to show them all for 1 year weekly, and show them all daily.
According to TV tome, there are 52 episodes. If they showed the new season in March of 1999 then repeated them weekly, it would bring us up to March of 2000. Then airing them daily twice for a year would bring us up to March of 2001. I *could* have been 4 years ago they stopped but I don't honestly know. I thought it was 2 years ago as i'm sure there was a nice pause between showing it weekly and daily, but who's to say.
My point is they showed these outside of the marathon. You could have watched them. You didn't. How many times do they have to repeat something for your benifit? You can buy the VHS
videos from the channel 9 store for $15 per season. You can wait for the DVDs if you like. They are a touch more spendy. Or you can make friends with someone who's nice enough to tape them.
The way I see it KCTS went out of their way to show this and make it available to you. Show me another network in America that would carry Red Dwarf fresh off the presses... and repeat it. Show me another network that would go out of its way to carry the tapes so you don't have to wait for mail order.
But if this still makes you unhappy... subscribe to cable and get BBC-America and request Red Dwarf be shown. If they do it won't be comercial free.
Blackadder is shown on BBC America.
You have a choice.
Lighthouses have been obsolete since radar came to be.
Radar isn't infallible. Rain and fog banks can show up on radar. More so at night when the pilot house has its lights off and the radar hood off. Worse yet... mistake land for a fog bank.
Depth finders are not infallible. A ship can't stop on a dime.
Neither are GPS nor Loran. They are damn good tools but once you reach coast you're going to navigate by site and not instruments.
A big ass spinning light where ships tend to crash is a brillent safty measure. A strong argument to keep lighthouses manned was a place where ships tend to crash is a place where you're going to have people in need of help.
Lighthouses are not obsolete. I've seen ships crash even with radar and nice map software with GPS maps in areas where an inlet looks kinda like a passage resulting in a ship plowing into someone's house.
In Europe I would assume the country code is easier to deal with that in the US, since each country could be treated like a US state (almost). It would just be a part of the number like the '1' is a part of the US number. The US international prefix is 011 (?), while most European countries is just 00. (Trunk is 0 instead of US 1)
It's not a question of ease. 01-1-(country code)-(number) is easy. But that does not change the fact that if you give someone in the US an international number with the correct syntax, they will have NO idea what to do with it. If you give someone 01-1-(123)-45-555-123 they won't understand they dial it as it is. They will be confused... might try a 1 in front of the 01-1... or be too afraid to attempt it for fear of massive call rate.
On a side note... US syntax is as follows
0-operator
00-international operator
x11- As in 911-emergency. In the past many regions offered 411 for infomation/directory assistance *some* pay phones offered taxi service and towing on a x11 number. But since we no longer offer free directory assistance i've not seen 411 used in sometime except on mobiles. The x11 standard seems to be carrier specific.
1-{area code}-xxx-yyyy Long distance/toll call
0-{area code}-xxx-yyyy Operator assist/collect call/legacy calling card call
1010-(carrier code)-1-{area code}-xxx-yyyy where you could choose to use any long distance carrier. Use of each 1010-code results in additional taxes.
01-1-(country code){city code} number
You may beable to swap out the 1 with a 0 for international operator assist or carrier specific call but I've never tried it. The only times it might have been needed were countries that don't permit direct dialing. Long after the breakup of AT&T the cost of operator assisted calls skyrocketed. Very few people I know of use 0 to make a collect / calling card call.
And back to the pizza thing, what other country has a national number that will automatically go to the local store? These are "One3" numbers.)
In our defense... what other country offers national numbers that will do everything in their power that will automaticly avoid the local store? This is how I felt dealing with the national cable companies.
I know some of the national pizza chains offered 1-800 numbers that would either route your call to the local store or manualy. I don't know if this is still offered nor have I tried it as I don't typicaly order pizza from national chains unless I have a really cool coupon which would have the local number. In all fairness most 800 numbers these days are voice menu from hell systems.
One3 sounds nice but costs ya a quarter and I imagine is dependent on land lines. Don't get me wrong it's a good idea just I doubt it would fly in a country like the US. Even if I don't have a phonebook handy toll free directory assistance is still free (800-555-1212) and I can call it and ask for the national pizza chain, then call that number and get the local number. Not as quick as one3 but free.
KCTS. The only time they show Red Dwarf or Blackadder is when they want money.
I know KCTS. I watch KCTS. I know they showed season VII VIII about the same time they stopped showing Voyager on KCPQ. I.e. they have shown this stuff outside of telethons.
I think their method is most accomidating. In fact they do bend over backwards to make sure you get a chance to watch things in 4 ways.
1. Shown Weekly (yep, they have shown all 64 episodes or so weekly)
2. Shown Daily (yep, they showed these daily late night)
3. Telethon (all at once)
4. Buy the DVD at the KCTS store
Of these I find the telethon the coolest because they show entire episodes before the break. You can record it and not have to buy the DVD. And heck toss them a few bucks for the trouble. Keep in mind it's your own fault for missing it in the first place. If you were on the ball you could have tapes of the origional theme music.
Neither NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, UPN, nor WB are so cool.
-riing -"I want to make a call to chicago" -"yes sir, which is the number?" -blabla
Imagine dialing dialing that chick on a rotery phone! Given the choice i'd dial the operator and have her hook me up. No wonder we switched to (xxx)yy#-#### where x = area and y did = city/neighborhood at some point.
I'm rather pro-area codes my self. There was much thought into the system of 3 digits for the area and 7 digits for the number... 7 digits being easy to recall. When I need to remember a number of someone I know in Richmond VA, I already know the area code is 804 and the rest is easy. Not only that but I know 804 is -5gmt so I don't end up calling there too late. Very handy these area codes.
While sure you can pickup and move a mobile / VoIP phone there is still a place most people call home. While I strongly approve of the idea of mobile / VoIP area codes I would humbly submit that they should follow the old school thought of at least being organized into timezone, state, and perhaps even city of your choice.
I think you underestimate people's ability to adjust.
Do French pizza shops feel the same way if a person orders a pizza from a Finnish mobile? I'm just curious. I know in the states it's difficult to use an international phone to order a pizza. Usually for two reasons. Firstly the cost... no one knows what the cost is but it sounds expensive even to those not familar with mobiles having a different rate. Secondly few people know how to dial internationaly.
Issues i've seen with US mobiles ordering a pizza out of the region have a different problem. You can subscribe to a landline and not subscribe to long distance service. This is becomming more and more common as mobiles offer LD as part of their monthly min plans and it saves you a few bucks in taxes. And a business that employs teens like a pizza place might not want their employees to make toll calls. Given that 10 cents/min what use to be Ma Bells evening rate circa 1982 is pretty damn close to minimum wage I can see the point. It is penny pinching but food service does have the lowest profit margin.
We've had free local calls for decades. It's natural to see resistance tward any system that costs money.
I will exchange a London number for a New York number... any takers...
I've heard rumors that Vontage is none too hip to this idea. While the advertise the fact that you can make a call from *anywhere* with an internet connection I've been told they crack down if you use the service too much i.e. if you were to buy a box with a New York number and use it only in London.
Assuming this is correct, which wouldn't shock me, you would need an IP that looked like the area you're getting VoIP service. When I get off my lazy bum I'll look into either proxy, VPN, or dish from Merida to the states and VoIP service state side.
A 300 baud old POS. Why? Because there isn't much data to send to the credit card company, and a 300 baud modem will work with the crappiest, noisiest POS phone lines.
And 300baud has the shortest handshake time. From dial to connect is typicaly under 15seconds in my experence where 1200/2400 typicaly under 30 seconds. 14.4k and above can be higher than 30 seconds.
But take the time to listen to those credit card terminals. Many of them i've noticed handshake on the second tone... i.e. 1200/2400.
And further... You can get mobile terminals that are cellphones onto themselves.
uh... correct me if I'm wrong, but in order to get it down into the martian atmosphere, we'd have to lift it up through ours.... on a flaming roman candle.
Not if the bulk of materials required can be found in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter.
You're more creative than I am: I just hang up.
Most areas have test numbers you can dial. For example 253-565-0040 is a nice one that says "the call you have made requires a coin deposit. -0047 is the "The number you have dialed is not in service". They are worth sampling and playing to bloody telemarketers. I recently upgraded to voicemail software and the software is rigged to play "this call requires a coin deposit".
Also amusing is 3-way back to their own number and you get two telemarketers chatting with each other.
On a side note
Last year someone thought it would be a good idea to change the sign on the Williamsburg Bridge to "Leaving Brooklyn: Oy Vey". Which I must say was a better idea than "Leaving Brooklyn: Fuhgeddaboudit!" Needless to say both ideas were rejected.
Henry Kloss died in 2002 so it's not a problem for him anymore, especially since he used the bnrand name Tivoli Audio for his fabulous radio-sets.
Don't forget about Cambridge Soundworks which is now a Creative company. The Model 88CD Table Radio by Henry Kloss was still being sold until mid december of 2004. Not to speak of KLH (Kloss, Lowe, Hoffman) or Advent. See This small memorial for some more details.
The problem with Henry Kloss is he always had his finger in a number of companies... but you could always tell it was one of his designs when it was marked Henry Kloss.
What does "oi yey" mean? Google's doesn't know.
"Oy vey" (sometimes oy vay / oy way) is a Yiddish phrase and means roughly dear me or woe is me. Vey might actually have been adopted from the German "weh" which I believe is pain. Oy i'm not sure about. It should be an old Hebrew translated in the Christian bible as woe but who's to say. Where as "vay iz mir" (oy vay iz mir) is also a Yiddish expression for woe is me. Oy gevalt is a cry pain/suffering.
It's my belief that "oi yey" is some schlemiel's attempt to write oy vey resulting in ferklempt.
Shalom!
Personally, I look for gas milage, reliability and comfort, but each to their own....
I had an old 1976 Toyota Corolla at one point in my life. It used a smog pump rather than a catalitic converter. It used the traditional point system rather and virtualy no electronics. Its emmitions always tested lower than the 1979 model I had, as well as 1986 and 1992 Corollas. Its MPG was 40mpg on premium gas... or 30mpg on either leaded when it was still sold or regular unleaded.
Say "Zulu" (the international aviation alphabet word for "Z").
This is America! You say Zulu they write Zulu or ask if you are from Africa. You say Zed which is also the standard in other English speaking countries they write Zed, Said, Ted or ask what's a Zed. I enjoy much better luck with Zebra as that is the standard kindergarten icon on the alphabet chart here.
I agree that the international stanard for radio should be used for telephone but it's hardly useful if no one else uses it.