Of course it didn't take long before they got sued over midi software. And now again over iTunes, will they ever learn ?
They, being apple records, or they being apple computers? When you talk about apple today, which apple do you think of, or do you think of some damn fruit company. Do Apple computers or Apple records have any protection from trademark infringement if some damn fruit company who deals primarly in apples decided to call them selves Apples?
So you like interesting names like Apple instead? How about Sun, Oracle, or Ford.
Apple had issues because of the UK record company, or wait, still has issues due to the Itunes thing.
Sun is again a boring name... i'm sure other Suns exist other than the sun we know and love.
Ford is a proper name.
Oracle is a common enough one to see in circles outside the software world.
So to have a trademark you have to have an interesting name
Sun Microsystems... Oracle Corp... Apple computers / Apple Records... Ford Motor Company
Any old joe can start a small business called Sun something or another, but not Sun Microsystems. Apple only has license to object when some other Apple does something sound / music related. Ford being a proper name isn't in it self a trademark, only in relation to automobiles as in the Ford motor company. It's the price you pay for having a boring name.
Lot's of Micro related stuff around, lots of...soft companies. Microsoft doesn't own any rights to either Micro nor....soft.
I am guessing that you consider zakezuke to be a very interesting name.
Actually, I do. It's unique, easy to spell, semi-proper name looking. It has a sence of balance as in yin/yang or your push you pull... and near as I can tell, i'm the only bugger who uses it, unlike Anonymous Coward.
Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, and the two other games which go into the same hardware (Cliff Hanger, and something else which I forget right now) use a Laserdisc player with serial control. I believe it is a Pioneer. They do not use the capacitive discs, it's just a plain vanilla laserdisc, and there's roms to go with it. Swapping them (and optionally the marquee) will turn one into another.
My mistake, I guess 1983 was the point the tech was new for the arcade... but not quite onsale at sears yet. Easy enough mistake to make as "video disk" vs "laser disk" may have been a major leap, but folk were still calling laser disks video disks as they were indeed disks with video on them.
I never got into the laser disk scene, was always happy to dub from someone onto super beta.
The funny thing is... Microsoft is such a bland name...
Micro - micro computer, as in desktop. Rather then a mini computer that's more like a desk.
Soft - Soft ware, as in stuff you run on a computer.
Micro - Soft - a company who picked the most generic name possible that communicated they made software for micro computers.
Why is it these companies pick such boring names and at the same time get granted the rights to hold them as trademarks? [old joke] They should shorten their name to MoF... at least then they will save megabytes of data with all those damn license agreements, and it would be unique in the computing world so people don't accidently step on their trademark. When your IT department asks you what you need on your PC, you can tell them "MoF Off" [/old joke]
I always wondered whatever happened to that format. Thanks for the link!
Umm, old style video disk had one problem... after a while the disks would skip. The stylus got clogged just like on a regular vinyl player and your quality would degrade. And it wasn't like it was an easy task to pop it open and clean the head, hell no!
"Dragon's Lair" was a coin up arcade game that used this video disk technology. It didn't use player missle graphics, but rather pre-recorded scenes and beeped when ever you needed to take an action. This was a beautiful if simple game, but fell to pot after it was in service for a few years and became unplayable. The video sequence would skip, quality would fall to pot, and generally would be totally useless.
It was GOOD for it's time period, but not built to last, not like Video Disk or DVD does.
I have to admit, the TV watch was pretty cool beans, except for the fact come about 1985-1989 everyone was on cable, and just about everything interesting was on cable, making such a device pretty useless.
That's what spy where should do if it was part of a media player.
Nielsen ratings are, by comparison, a fortress of legitimacy. If you want to get involved with that, do some research or send them a letter - I really don't know. Spyware is NOT your answer. It does NOT help you - it helps the distributors.
Nielsen near as I can tell is a "don't call us we'll call you" system. As far as researching the issue, it seems most difficult as any Nielson family who says they are one will be booted out of the program.
I have tried actually being part of an exclusive viewing of upcomming telivision in the hopes that I might see something good and beable to vote on it as being good. I was stuck for a couple of hours watching really bad sit-coms and decided it wasn't worth the wait.
I would not object if for example my cable box reported back what I watched (taped) during prime time... esp when cases like "Farscape". I could care less if my television habbits were spied upon. I only wish the folks at SCI-FI for example would see me activly switching the channel when ever they have their cheezy horror in favor of the preview channel (or other null vote channel).
Anyway, FastTrack isn't the network it used to be, the quality of its files is getting worse and worse, many times you'll download something to find out that it was something else but renamed, I've switched to eDonkey long time ago, much better file quality, yes it's slower, but that is just fine with me as long as the file quality is OK.
I've always felt that this has very little to do with the FastTrack network it self but rather companies who work under the authorization of the MPAA to try to make the network unuseable by releasing bogus misnamed, corrput, or just damned empty files. If what I suspect is true, then any other popular system of file exchange will suffer the same issue of bogus crap.
Now... I've always wondered if you were to download let's say "lord of the rings" and you got something like "ass master" instead. Is it legit if the MPAA approved it's use for the fast track network to discourage file downloads?
It's always been a mystory to me how to actually become a participant in the Nielsen ratings system. If 3rd generation p2p apps with spyware actually fed back information as to what I was downloading and watching... I would think that would be most spiffy, well except for that whole MPAA RIAA thing, but ignore that for a moment.
I for one would be perfectly willing to submit what I watched in the hopes that it would improve its ratings, so long as the process didn't lag down my system. I would also be perfectly willing to live with comercial content if it paid for the media.
I was just discussing this issue with my sister... basicly it had to do more with sexism at the mechanic. Basicly I decided to do a minor study... I'd say three mechanics. Brake job... new shocks... windshield replacement.
Test... Woman getting estimate man getting estimate man and woman getting estimate, followed by query.
In all three cases... the lady recieved estimates roughly 50% higher then mine. When confronted with the price diffrence... they basicly said, "oh, but her problem was diffrent then yours and required more work" When I pointed out it was the same damn car the nice mechanic said "must have been a diffrent guy". When I pointed out they were all signed by the same person... each responce was slightly diffrent, but basicly involved grunts.
While I didn't do a large enough sample to trully get accuracy... I was looking for some justification for my belief that women just get shafted by mechanics.
Brakes were most interesting, as the woman's estimated told her she needed rear shoes and stated they were 35% and should be replaced as long as it was there. Mine was 75%. The rear shoes were new... brand new, new drums shoes and piston.
I picked DVI because it is digital, and so repeaters should be able to regenerate the signal perfectly. Like you, I'm not sure what the max length for analog computer video is, but digital DVI should only be limited by how much you are willing to spend on repeaters.
To quote a site I just found [ http://faq.arstechnica.com/link.php?i=1293 ]
Now there are about two reasons for using coaxial BNC adapter cables. One, image quality is much better than with a normal monitor cable (DB-15 to DB-15), and two, you can generally have longer cable runs due to less interference as a result of the better shielding. As a general rule of thumb the max length is about 80' (24 meters). Any longer than that and the signal will start to drop. Having said that if you bought ultra high end professional analog coaxial video cables that were heavily shielded then you could lay them for longer lengths.
I'm not sure of the accuracy of the 24 meters, i'd have to find a better reference... but I know it's pretty damn long, more then adquate for a household application... unless you really need a run longer then a pool length.
Why bother with DVI cable? Why not go with coax R G G H V? My Sony 20e10 works just dandy with a three meter cable. I'm not sure the max length on it, but it's pretty easy converting a monitor to BNC connectors. While DVI gets points.... Coax is much more down to earth and they have the stuff at home improvment shops, the last time I looked. If 5 wires are too bulky, cut it down to three with sync on green.
I have thought about it actually... putting the PC in the closet, BNC connectors in the wall... exhost vent to the outside, USB run as well for jacking in various things. I decided to invest in a hepa filter instead. It's lower then my pc fans, so I don't hear them anymore, and I can still hear my hard-drives clicking away.
A watch is dependent on smallish pins strapped on my wrist. In theory, it's strapped there, should be pretty stable, but never the less... i've lost a few watches in the past.. three somewhat fancy digital watches, and a couple of analog ones.
A wallet kinda hangs out in my pocket... open at the top, dependent on resistance and being upright to remain there. Never the less... I've only lost a wallet once. I got all the cards back via US postal serverice who collected a small sum upon delivery... but the wallet it self and the cash were gone.
I've found wallets and such from time to time... always taken the time to find the owner, or at least bring it to the clerk at a store if I was pressed for time. My track record for taking the time to return the wallet to the owner it self is 100% due to the verbose amount of contact info within... but now I think about it, these were mostly purses at costco and I don't think they count.
I've found many more watches. I would think "oh pretty neet watch".... try to find the owner, but it being difficult as they typicaly are not enscribed with the owner's name. I think I've successfully returned one watch to the owner. What can you do besides taking an ad out in the paper and giving up after a year, and giving it to a friend who just lost their watch.
Based on my track record... my wallet wins as far as items most likely to be secured to my person. Your milage my vary, but my vote for anything that contains currency would be the traditional wallet.
You mean a 14k4 bps modem. Iirc those worked at 2400 baud, just like every modem above 2400 kbps.
Really, your high-speed modem works at 2400 baud? Have you tried this lately?
I've had major issues getting modern modems to handshake at lame speeds, 300/1200/2400 specificly. 300 baud specificly is used in some cases to transmit little spirts data as it's time from dial to handshake is really fast... anything 14400 and above typicaly takes 30 seconds or so from dial to handshake. 1200/2400 is still pretty swift to handshake in contrast.
If you've tested your modem at legacy speeds, and it works, yay. But don't assume my modem works at those speeds.
Bullshit. I can't speak to this particular rip since I haven't seen it, but in the last two days I've watched leaked Academy Award screeners of two high-profile movies, one was a dvd to svcd transfer that looks and sounds as good as anything on broadcast tv, the other was a dvd image burned to a dvd-r minus the back two audio channels. Both looked and sounded great.
First of all, it was humor, making reference to 2600 claims that it was more cost effective to buy pirate DVDs on the street then make them your self.
Secondadly, pirated video varries... I've gotten some farscape AVIs while being high resolution high quality files... it was so clear you could see some rainbow interfearance.. so great high quality video noise and static... spiffy!
Third... well loosing the last two audio channels might be acceptable for pirate standards, it's not acceptable for a good bootleg.
Lastly... the scarcasm was to illistrate the diffrence between pirate video.... and bootlegged video. Pirate being distributed freely... bootlegged sold for a profit without paying royalties to the copyright holders.
No mush. I've seen waterjets cut a fresh doughnut into 5 concentric rings. Perfect, clean cut. The water jet itself is very,very fine. Extremely high-pressure waterjets can cut through steel as well as cheese.
However, this is not to say it would be a good idea to cut cheese in your jacuzzi.
Exactly.... Remember the cardboard signs that you can put in your windshield to keep out some of the sun during the summer? There is a reason that in big letters on the back it says DO NOT DRIVE WITH SHADE IN PLACE!!!!
1. unwrap toothpick 2. insert between teeth 3. dislodge food --actual toothpick instructions from the local chineese resturant
"any civilisation that had so far lost it's head as to need to include a set of detailed instructions for use in a packet of toothpicks, was no longer a civilisation in which I could live and stay sane." -- Douglas Adams "So Long and Thanks For All The Fish"
This guy plays italian mafia in movies and TV? More proof that the MOB is involved in pirating!
Pirated video is of low quality, something you wouldn't give to your mother to watch.
M.O.B. Industries supports bootleging.... You pay us a small fee, we'll give you quality media, what ever you like at low discount prices, cheeper then what it would cost you to buy the blank disks. Just visit our retail Fly By Night locations.
I don't remember the exact name, but it is actually considered a 'complication' (e.g. show of skill of the maker) to get the minute hand to jump from one minute to the next as opposed to moving with the gears. Movado, Gucci, and a whole host of way to expensive watch brands do this in stanadard analog watches to show off.
That does make a fair mount of sence. I'm honestly not sure of the design rational... was it easier to make it thin, did it promote longer battery life, or were they just generally being cocky.
But it sorta obscures the definition of digital vs analog. It's digital in the sence of absolute values rather then descrete values, much like those pseudo digital wheel clocks of the 1970's where momevent was driven by an AC 60 cycle motor to spin wheels around, who's accuracy greatly depended on the frequency delivered by the local power grid. Ok, absolutly inaccurate in many cases, absoltuly variable on grids who delivered lower requencies during high peek times, higher frequencies at night so your clocks were not totally off.
Same for a real sweep second hand (e.g. a smooth movement as opposed to a clicking with the gears movement.)
I know the rolex ticks 6 times a second, again i'm not sure if that was a design consideration or just them being cocky.
As for looks... yeah never been a big Gucci fan, then again my current favorite is a self-winding Seiko Sportsmatic from 1968...
I like the entry level watches of Gucci / Mavado, the ones that are typicaly on special. My 3000M isn't gawdy, it's easy to read, uses gold plate for all the battery contacts, and had no issues with a toyota transmision falling upon it with the exception of getting a minor gash in the crystal
The Seiko Sportsmatic from 1968 is pretty spiffy as well, 17 jewel movement if i'm not mistaken with date. I don't know how strong the crystal is, but something I consider to be a very handsom piece.
1. Generally speaking digital watches are fugly. There's no Movado Digital Watch for a reason.
Well, Movado / Gucci are quartz driven, tick once a min. It's not the usual analog sweeping motion you normaly, there are no 1/2 min in the Movado Gucci world, it's a preciece readout.
And I know digital watches that are far less fugly then the current line of Mavado / Gucci. Perhaps you are thinking of the Museum Classic or Automatic, classic black face with stainless steel or gold body and simple leather strap. If you're talking the full metal strap, they are garish as sin!
Speaking as a Gucci owner... the vast majority of their line is a fucking eyesore, so much so an old timex is less offencive!
You are well within your rights to shoot the dog if it is on your property. You must, however, make sure that it dies there so that they can't say you shot it at their house. You can warn them that this is your intended action should the dog continue its harrasment of you by shitting on your property.
Ummmm... i'd have to do some research, but typicaly speaking you can't kill people or animals for tresspass, self defence yes, but not just to be a bastard.
I actually had a problem with a neighborhood dog that is aggressive toward people that decided my yard was it's domain. I have small children and this dog is one of those that preys on fear. We tried to get law enforcement to do something, but they refuse in our area - there is no way to deal with a vicious or annoying animal in rural Thurston County. So I told the neighbor that if it came back in my yard I was going to kill it and began accompanying the children and other people down our driveway with a 12 guage shotgun loaded with 00 buck shot, which would quickly dispatch any sized dog any closer than 50 feet. I also made sure that the neighbor was well aware of the fact that I was armed.
Diffrent story... aggressive animal could be a threat. An animal that just shits, well that's shitty but not a threat.
Whether this is legal harrassment i'm very fuzzy on. It's harrassment no if ands or butts about it, perhaps you were even justified.
It all worked out in the end. The neighbor realized that letting his dog run around was quite rude and endangered the lives of small children and has managed to contain it for the most part.
Actually, I suspect that the shotgun if used to murder a dog because it's threating small children would be a higher danger then the dog it self. If you are talking a.22 or.38 that's a slightly diffrent story. I can't think of any situation that i'd discharge a firearm around children, and there is no chance in hell i'd choose to use a shotgun.
n some cases, this is the one and only option a person has to protect their property and the lives of the ones they love. When the Sherif department itself tells you that this is your only option (shoot it if it comes back) then I think it only kind to inform your neighbor that this is what you will do so that they at least can't say you didn't tell them. They may decide that they love their pet enough to keep it off of your property; if not, well then thats just too bad because the dog is now going to pay the price of its owner's negligence.
I learned a long time ago, don't listen to the Sherif's department for advice. I mean, not that they are not trying to be cool helpful folk... but taking their advice as biblical legal truth is foolish, esp since you were threating to kill your neighbors dog.
I guess it would depend on how you phrased the letter, but at the very least, you isssued a threat, a very justified threat perhaps, but never the less a threat.
I'm not a lawer... i'd imagne that a judge, assuming you got sent to jail over this dog shooting, would ask you kindly to provide evidence that the dog was dangerious. You could be right, but good solid proof would be bite marks on small children. Without bite marks, it would be difficult in some people's eyes that the dog was dangerious.
I like dogs my self... I don't mind moderatly mannered dogs roaming free. I'd agree with you if there is a clear and present danger of the dog harming someone, and you had the means to elemenicate the threat, that would be moraly right. I've heard this story many times before actually. If there was a prior history of biting... oh without a doubt kill the son of a bitch. Legaly right (look out it's headed right for us) I don't know. But Sherif's department? I would think this would be a job for animal control.
But you describe a totally diffrent scenero. Shitting on the lawn isn't cause in it self to kill a dog.
IIRC you can't use phones purchased in OZ in North America unless you buy a ghastly expensive tri-band phone
The thing that always bugged me about buying dual band phones, rather then tri-bands, is the store staff never seems to know which bands they support. I mean, a dual band bought in Aus likely wouldn't work in america, and visa versa.
But I've noticed that some phones are offered are tri-bands and they are not all that gastly expensive at all here in america, here is one example
http://www.t-mobile.com/products/overview.asp?ph on eid=166753&class=phone Motorola V66 - (tri-band: 900, 1800, & 1900 MHz) $49.99 or free after mail in rebate.
Nokia 6610 900 / 1800 / 1900 mhz $149.99 or $99.99 after mail in rebate http://www.t-mobile.com/products/overview. asp?phon eid=191381&class=phone
Sony Ericsson T610.. which was free for many consumers with dockable camera, but now costs $199.99 or $99.99 after mail in rebate. http://www.t-mobile.com/products/overview .asp?phon eid=195350&class=phone
Other wise...
Get a pay as you go phone in your region of choice... In america I know that t-mobile offers gsm phones for $99.99... pop your chip in and hey.. victory
or
Hit a thrift shop in america... plenty of older dual band phones to choose from, for $5.00... victory!
So yea, if you want a tri-band based on my shopping today, you'd have to shell out a minium of $50.00 and might get that back in the mail.
I still do not understand how SCO can threaten companies with a copyright infringement without first testing their claim in court
It's hard to say if it's legal or not, the line gets blured with legal harrassment.
Let's say for example you have a neighbor with a dog that shits on your lawn.
Scenero a) You threaten to kill the dog if he continues to shit on your lawn.
This is harrassment, clear and simple!
Scenero b) You threaten to take legal action.
While this is a form of harrasment... I suspect that you can do this without any form of repercussion, as you indeed are well within your rights depending on local or federal ordinaces on dogshit. Bigger cities are more picky about shit then smaller ones.
Scenero c) You use the threat of legal action to extort money from your neighbor.
This is where it becomes really hazy... as it is indeed possible that a dog shitting on your lawn may cause damage to your flora.. assuming you have proof you might actually beable to sue them for it. You may elect to hire a professional lawn care pooper scooper specalist and ask your neighbor to foot the bill. Shokingly enough... while sitting around in small claims court, I actually did see people complaining about dogshit.
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In short, I don't honestly know where the line is between the threat of legal action and blatent harrassment / extortion is. I suspect it's up to the whatever judge happens to respect your case. As far as sco goes, while I personaly believe they are accountable for their shit... i'm not a lawyer, I have morals.
I had a compaq contura aero, righto a POS laptop when it was new, remarkable as it sold for the sub $1000 range, and served me very well for a number of years... well enough till the hindge broke... I believe compaq called it a clutch as it was a stiff hinge that kept the laptop upright.
In all fairness to compaq, I was actually able to talk to someone at some point who was able to give me the part number. This was after 4-8 hours navigating their voice menus, each person refering me to another department to people who didn't feel it was their job to look up laptop part numbers, me having to tell them in all honesty "look, they refered me to you". I was at it so long I got to know each department head by their first name. I was even more annoyed when i couldn't order the part number from them, but had to resort to ordering it from a local shop, and local shops varried in price by a good deal for this damn hindge clutch. $25 to $50 bucks, though the $25 people had a minimum order of $50, so I stuck with the $35 people as I didn't need anything else trivial from compaq.
I wouldn't order a compaq again, but this is because of their funky arse propriority software, not due to their parts department. It's slow, slugish, a whole bunch of no fun, but it was proven to be possible to order a trivial part from them.
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Sony Vaio celeron 500 range or so... MB blew but the screen seemed OK. Sony had replacement motherboards, they wanted $1200 or so for the motherboard, and basicly at that time, I think 2001, you could get a replacement laptop for that. Could order the part no problem, but it was just equal to the value of a new lame laptop.
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As far as a trivial piece of plastic is concerned.... I'd consider either consulting an auto body shop that can work with fiberglass, making it your self, or wait till someone has your part or a lame laptop. Making it your self you have the option to color it how you choose, an audobody shop will have access to epoxy paints with a flex adheasive that will really take a beating.
If it was me, i'd disassemble the laptop, mask off the areas where you don't want the fiberglass resin to stick either with tape, oil, or poor wax into it. poor in the fiberglass resin, let gravity do it's work to make a smooth plastic bit, and presto. sand, primer, paint to your taste. Don't blame me if you fuck up, double stick tape and spray glue are your friend.
www.repc.com in seattle is a really spiffy for trival parts, as are other PC recyclers as they love people like your self to buy trivial junk so they don't have to dispose of it. I've gotten many a trivial piece of plastic from there. Why not actually share the make / model of your laptop to see if anyone has a spare?
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Of course it didn't take long before they got sued over midi software. And now again over iTunes, will they ever learn ?
They, being apple records, or they being apple computers? When you talk about apple today, which apple do you think of, or do you think of some damn fruit company. Do Apple computers or Apple records have any protection from trademark infringement if some damn fruit company who deals primarly in apples decided to call them selves Apples?
So you like interesting names like Apple instead? How about Sun, Oracle, or Ford.
...soft companies. Microsoft doesn't own any rights to either Micro nor ....soft.
Apple had issues because of the UK record company, or wait, still has issues due to the Itunes thing.
Sun is again a boring name... i'm sure other Suns exist other than the sun we know and love.
Ford is a proper name.
Oracle is a common enough one to see in circles outside the software world.
So to have a trademark you have to have an interesting name
Sun Microsystems... Oracle Corp... Apple computers / Apple Records... Ford Motor Company
Any old joe can start a small business called Sun something or another, but not Sun Microsystems. Apple only has license to object when some other Apple does something sound / music related. Ford being a proper name isn't in it self a trademark, only in relation to automobiles as in the Ford motor company. It's the price you pay for having a boring name.
Lot's of Micro related stuff around, lots of
I am guessing that you consider zakezuke to be a very interesting name.
Actually, I do. It's unique, easy to spell, semi-proper name looking. It has a sence of balance as in yin/yang or your push you pull... and near as I can tell, i'm the only bugger who uses it, unlike Anonymous Coward.
Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, and the two other games which go into the same hardware (Cliff Hanger, and something else which I forget right now) use a Laserdisc player with serial control. I believe it is a Pioneer. They do not use the capacitive discs, it's just a plain vanilla laserdisc, and there's roms to go with it. Swapping them (and optionally the marquee) will turn one into another.
My mistake, I guess 1983 was the point the tech was new for the arcade... but not quite onsale at sears yet. Easy enough mistake to make as "video disk" vs "laser disk" may have been a major leap, but folk were still calling laser disks video disks as they were indeed disks with video on them.
I never got into the laser disk scene, was always happy to dub from someone onto super beta.
The funny thing is... Microsoft is such a bland name...
Micro - micro computer, as in desktop. Rather then a mini computer that's more like a desk.
Soft - Soft ware, as in stuff you run on a computer.
Micro - Soft - a company who picked the most generic name possible that communicated they made software for micro computers.
Why is it these companies pick such boring names and at the same time get granted the rights to hold them as trademarks? [old joke] They should shorten their name to MoF... at least then they will save megabytes of data with all those damn license agreements, and it would be unique in the computing world so people don't accidently step on their trademark. When your IT department asks you what you need on your PC, you can tell them "MoF Off" [/old joke]
I always wondered whatever happened to that format. Thanks for the link!
Umm, old style video disk had one problem... after a while the disks would skip. The stylus got clogged just like on a regular vinyl player and your quality would degrade. And it wasn't like it was an easy task to pop it open and clean the head, hell no!
"Dragon's Lair" was a coin up arcade game that used this video disk technology. It didn't use player missle graphics, but rather pre-recorded scenes and beeped when ever you needed to take an action. This was a beautiful if simple game, but fell to pot after it was in service for a few years and became unplayable. The video sequence would skip, quality would fall to pot, and generally would be totally useless.
It was GOOD for it's time period, but not built to last, not like Video Disk or DVD does.
I have to admit, the TV watch was pretty cool beans, except for the fact come about 1985-1989 everyone was on cable, and just about everything interesting was on cable, making such a device pretty useless.
That's progress for ya, from wireless to wired.
But that's not what spyware does.
That's what spy where should do if it was part of a media player.
Nielsen ratings are, by comparison, a fortress of legitimacy. If you want to get involved with that, do some research or send them a letter - I really don't know. Spyware is NOT your answer. It does NOT help you - it helps the distributors.
Nielsen near as I can tell is a "don't call us we'll call you" system. As far as researching the issue, it seems most difficult as any Nielson family who says they are one will be booted out of the program.
I have tried actually being part of an exclusive viewing of upcomming telivision in the hopes that I might see something good and beable to vote on it as being good. I was stuck for a couple of hours watching really bad sit-coms and decided it wasn't worth the wait.
I would not object if for example my cable box reported back what I watched (taped) during prime time... esp when cases like "Farscape". I could care less if my television habbits were spied upon. I only wish the folks at SCI-FI for example would see me activly switching the channel when ever they have their cheezy horror in favor of the preview channel (or other null vote channel).
Anyway, FastTrack isn't the network it used to be, the quality of its files is getting worse and worse, many times you'll download something to find out that it was something else but renamed, I've switched to eDonkey long time ago, much better file quality, yes it's slower, but that is just fine with me as long as the file quality is OK.
I've always felt that this has very little to do with the FastTrack network it self but rather companies who work under the authorization of the MPAA to try to make the network unuseable by releasing bogus misnamed, corrput, or just damned empty files. If what I suspect is true, then any other popular system of file exchange will suffer the same issue of bogus crap.
Now... I've always wondered if you were to download let's say "lord of the rings" and you got something like "ass master" instead. Is it legit if the MPAA approved it's use for the fast track network to discourage file downloads?
It's always been a mystory to me how to actually become a participant in the Nielsen ratings system. If 3rd generation p2p apps with spyware actually fed back information as to what I was downloading and watching... I would think that would be most spiffy, well except for that whole MPAA RIAA thing, but ignore that for a moment.
I for one would be perfectly willing to submit what I watched in the hopes that it would improve its ratings, so long as the process didn't lag down my system. I would also be perfectly willing to live with comercial content if it paid for the media.
I was just discussing this issue with my sister... basicly it had to do more with sexism at the mechanic. Basicly I decided to do a minor study... I'd say three mechanics. Brake job... new shocks... windshield replacement.
Test...
Woman getting estimate
man getting estimate
man and woman getting estimate, followed by query.
In all three cases... the lady recieved estimates roughly 50% higher then mine. When confronted with the price diffrence... they basicly said, "oh, but her problem was diffrent then yours and required more work" When I pointed out it was the same damn car the nice mechanic said "must have been a diffrent guy". When I pointed out they were all signed by the same person... each responce was slightly diffrent, but basicly involved grunts.
While I didn't do a large enough sample to trully get accuracy... I was looking for some justification for my belief that women just get shafted by mechanics.
Brakes were most interesting, as the woman's estimated told her she needed rear shoes and stated they were 35% and should be replaced as long as it was there. Mine was 75%. The rear shoes were new... brand new, new drums shoes and piston.
To quote a site I just found [ http://faq.arstechnica.com/link.php?i=1293 ]
I'm not sure of the accuracy of the 24 meters, i'd have to find a better reference... but I know it's pretty damn long, more then adquate for a household application... unless you really need a run longer then a pool length.
Why bother with DVI cable? Why not go with coax R G G H V? My Sony 20e10 works just dandy with a three meter cable. I'm not sure the max length on it, but it's pretty easy converting a monitor to BNC connectors. While DVI gets points.... Coax is much more down to earth and they have the stuff at home improvment shops, the last time I looked. If 5 wires are too bulky, cut it down to three with sync on green.
I have thought about it actually... putting the PC in the closet, BNC connectors in the wall... exhost vent to the outside, USB run as well for jacking in various things. I decided to invest in a hepa filter instead. It's lower then my pc fans, so I don't hear them anymore, and I can still hear my hard-drives clicking away.
My watch, or my wallet?
A watch is dependent on smallish pins strapped on my wrist. In theory, it's strapped there, should be pretty stable, but never the less... i've lost a few watches in the past.. three somewhat fancy digital watches, and a couple of analog ones.
A wallet kinda hangs out in my pocket... open at the top, dependent on resistance and being upright to remain there. Never the less... I've only lost a wallet once. I got all the cards back via US postal serverice who collected a small sum upon delivery... but the wallet it self and the cash were gone.
I've found wallets and such from time to time... always taken the time to find the owner, or at least bring it to the clerk at a store if I was pressed for time. My track record for taking the time to return the wallet to the owner it self is 100% due to the verbose amount of contact info within... but now I think about it, these were mostly purses at costco and I don't think they count.
I've found many more watches. I would think "oh pretty neet watch".... try to find the owner, but it being difficult as they typicaly are not enscribed with the owner's name. I think I've successfully returned one watch to the owner. What can you do besides taking an ad out in the paper and giving up after a year, and giving it to a friend who just lost their watch.
Based on my track record... my wallet wins as far as items most likely to be secured to my person. Your milage my vary, but my vote for anything that contains currency would be the traditional wallet.
You mean a 14k4 bps modem.
Iirc those worked at 2400 baud, just like every modem above 2400 kbps.
Really, your high-speed modem works at 2400 baud? Have you tried this lately?
I've had major issues getting modern modems to handshake at lame speeds, 300/1200/2400 specificly. 300 baud specificly is used in some cases to transmit little spirts data as it's time from dial to handshake is really fast... anything 14400 and above typicaly takes 30 seconds or so from dial to handshake. 1200/2400 is still pretty swift to handshake in contrast.
If you've tested your modem at legacy speeds, and it works, yay. But don't assume my modem works at those speeds.
Bullshit. I can't speak to this particular rip since I haven't seen it, but in the last two days I've watched leaked Academy Award screeners of two high-profile movies, one was a dvd to svcd transfer that looks and sounds as good as anything on broadcast tv, the other was a dvd image burned to a dvd-r minus the back two audio channels. Both looked and sounded great.
First of all, it was humor, making reference to 2600 claims that it was more cost effective to buy pirate DVDs on the street then make them your self.
Secondadly, pirated video varries... I've gotten some farscape AVIs while being high resolution high quality files... it was so clear you could see some rainbow interfearance.. so great high quality video noise and static... spiffy!
Third... well loosing the last two audio channels might be acceptable for pirate standards, it's not acceptable for a good bootleg.
Lastly... the scarcasm was to illistrate the diffrence between pirate video.... and bootlegged video. Pirate being distributed freely... bootlegged sold for a profit without paying royalties to the copyright holders.
Mom, can we have more cheese sandwiches shaped like Newt Gingrich?
No mush. I've seen waterjets cut a fresh doughnut into 5 concentric rings. Perfect, clean cut. The water jet itself is very,very fine. Extremely high-pressure waterjets can cut through steel as well as cheese.
However, this is not to say it would be a good idea to cut cheese in your jacuzzi.
Exactly.... Remember the cardboard signs that you can put in your windshield to keep out some of the sun during the summer? There is a reason that in big letters on the back it says DO NOT DRIVE WITH SHADE IN PLACE!!!!
1. unwrap toothpick
2. insert between teeth
3. dislodge food --actual toothpick instructions from the local chineese resturant
"any civilisation that had so far lost it's head as to need to include a set of detailed instructions for use in a packet of toothpicks, was no longer a civilisation in which I could live and stay sane." -- Douglas Adams "So Long and Thanks For All The Fish"
This guy plays italian mafia in movies and TV? More proof that the MOB is involved in pirating!
Pirated video is of low quality, something you wouldn't give to your mother to watch.
M.O.B. Industries supports bootleging.... You pay us a small fee, we'll give you quality media, what ever you like at low discount prices, cheeper then what it would cost you to buy the blank disks. Just visit our retail Fly By Night locations.
Just to be anal...
I don't remember the exact name, but it is actually considered a 'complication' (e.g. show of skill of the maker) to get the minute hand to jump from one minute to the next as opposed to moving with the gears. Movado, Gucci, and a whole host of way to expensive watch brands do this in stanadard analog watches to show off.
That does make a fair mount of sence. I'm honestly not sure of the design rational... was it easier to make it thin, did it promote longer battery life, or were they just generally being cocky.
But it sorta obscures the definition of digital vs analog. It's digital in the sence of absolute values rather then descrete values, much like those pseudo digital wheel clocks of the 1970's where momevent was driven by an AC 60 cycle motor to spin wheels around, who's accuracy greatly depended on the frequency delivered by the local power grid. Ok, absolutly inaccurate in many cases, absoltuly variable on grids who delivered lower requencies during high peek times, higher frequencies at night so your clocks were not totally off.
Same for a real sweep second hand (e.g. a smooth movement as opposed to a clicking with the gears movement.)
I know the rolex ticks 6 times a second, again i'm not sure if that was a design consideration or just them being cocky.
As for looks... yeah never been a big Gucci fan, then again my current favorite is a self-winding Seiko Sportsmatic from 1968...
I like the entry level watches of Gucci / Mavado, the ones that are typicaly on special. My 3000M isn't gawdy, it's easy to read, uses gold plate for all the battery contacts, and had no issues with a toyota transmision falling upon it with the exception of getting a minor gash in the crystal
The Seiko Sportsmatic from 1968 is pretty spiffy as well, 17 jewel movement if i'm not mistaken with date. I don't know how strong the crystal is, but something I consider to be a very handsom piece.
1. Generally speaking digital watches are fugly. There's no Movado Digital Watch for a reason.
Well, Movado / Gucci are quartz driven, tick once a min. It's not the usual analog sweeping motion you normaly, there are no 1/2 min in the Movado Gucci world, it's a preciece readout.
And I know digital watches that are far less fugly then the current line of Mavado / Gucci. Perhaps you are thinking of the Museum Classic or Automatic, classic black face with stainless steel or gold body and simple leather strap. If you're talking the full metal strap, they are garish as sin!
Speaking as a Gucci owner... the vast majority of their line is a fucking eyesore, so much so an old timex is less offencive!
You are well within your rights to shoot the dog if it is on your property. You must, however, make sure that it dies there so that they can't say you shot it at their house. You can warn them that this is your intended action should the dog continue its harrasment of you by shitting on your property.
.22 or .38 that's a slightly diffrent story. I can't think of any situation that i'd discharge a firearm around children, and there is no chance in hell i'd choose to use a shotgun.
Ummmm... i'd have to do some research, but typicaly speaking you can't kill people or animals for tresspass, self defence yes, but not just to be a bastard.
I actually had a problem with a neighborhood dog that is aggressive toward people that decided my yard was it's domain. I have small children and this dog is one of those that preys on fear. We tried to get law enforcement to do something, but they refuse in our area - there is no way to deal with a vicious or annoying animal in rural Thurston County. So I told the neighbor that if it came back in my yard I was going to kill it and began accompanying the children and other people down our driveway with a 12 guage shotgun loaded with 00 buck shot, which would quickly dispatch any sized dog any closer than 50 feet. I also made sure that the neighbor was well aware of the fact that I was armed.
Diffrent story... aggressive animal could be a threat. An animal that just shits, well that's shitty but not a threat.
Whether this is legal harrassment i'm very fuzzy on. It's harrassment no if ands or butts about it, perhaps you were even justified.
It all worked out in the end. The neighbor realized that letting his dog run around was quite rude and endangered the lives of small children and has managed to contain it for the most part.
Actually, I suspect that the shotgun if used to murder a dog because it's threating small children would be a higher danger then the dog it self. If you are talking a
n some cases, this is the one and only option a person has to protect their property and the lives of the ones they love. When the Sherif department itself tells you that this is your only option (shoot it if it comes back) then I think it only kind to inform your neighbor that this is what you will do so that they at least can't say you didn't tell them. They may decide that they love their pet enough to keep it off of your property; if not, well then thats just too bad because the dog is now going to pay the price of its owner's negligence.
I learned a long time ago, don't listen to the Sherif's department for advice. I mean, not that they are not trying to be cool helpful folk... but taking their advice as biblical legal truth is foolish, esp since you were threating to kill your neighbors dog.
I guess it would depend on how you phrased the letter, but at the very least, you isssued a threat, a very justified threat perhaps, but never the less a threat.
I'm not a lawer... i'd imagne that a judge, assuming you got sent to jail over this dog shooting, would ask you kindly to provide evidence that the dog was dangerious. You could be right, but good solid proof would be bite marks on small children. Without bite marks, it would be difficult in some people's eyes that the dog was dangerious.
I like dogs my self... I don't mind moderatly mannered dogs roaming free. I'd agree with you if there is a clear and present danger of the dog harming someone, and you had the means to elemenicate the threat, that would be moraly right. I've heard this story many times before actually. If there was a prior history of biting... oh without a doubt kill the son of a bitch. Legaly right (look out it's headed right for us) I don't know. But Sherif's department? I would think this would be a job for animal control.
But you describe a totally diffrent scenero. Shitting on the lawn isn't cause in it self to kill a dog.
IIRC you can't use phones purchased in OZ in North America unless you buy a ghastly expensive tri-band phone
h on eid=166753&class=phone
. asp?phon eid=191381&class=phone
w .asp?phon eid=195350&class=phone
The thing that always bugged me about buying dual band phones, rather then tri-bands, is the store staff never seems to know which bands they support. I mean, a dual band bought in Aus likely wouldn't work in america, and visa versa.
But I've noticed that some phones are offered are tri-bands and they are not all that gastly expensive at all here in america, here is one example
http://www.t-mobile.com/products/overview.asp?p
Motorola V66 - (tri-band: 900, 1800, & 1900 MHz) $49.99 or free after mail in rebate.
Nokia 6610 900 / 1800 / 1900 mhz $149.99 or $99.99 after mail in rebate
http://www.t-mobile.com/products/overview
Sony Ericsson T610.. which was free for many consumers with dockable camera, but now costs $199.99 or $99.99 after mail in rebate.
http://www.t-mobile.com/products/overvie
Other wise...
Get a pay as you go phone in your region of choice... In america I know that t-mobile offers gsm phones for $99.99... pop your chip in and hey.. victory
or
Hit a thrift shop in america... plenty of older dual band phones to choose from, for $5.00... victory!
So yea, if you want a tri-band based on my shopping today, you'd have to shell out a minium of $50.00 and might get that back in the mail.
I'm not sure what's up in Aus on the subject.
I still do not understand how SCO can threaten companies with a copyright infringement without first testing their claim in court
It's hard to say if it's legal or not, the line gets blured with legal harrassment.
Let's say for example you have a neighbor with a dog that shits on your lawn.
Scenero a) You threaten to kill the dog if he continues to shit on your lawn.
This is harrassment, clear and simple!
Scenero b) You threaten to take legal action.
While this is a form of harrasment... I suspect that you can do this without any form of repercussion, as you indeed are well within your rights depending on local or federal ordinaces on dogshit. Bigger cities are more picky about shit then smaller ones.
Scenero c) You use the threat of legal action to extort money from your neighbor.
This is where it becomes really hazy... as it is indeed possible that a dog shitting on your lawn may cause damage to your flora.. assuming you have proof you might actually beable to sue them for it. You may elect to hire a professional lawn care pooper scooper specalist and ask your neighbor to foot the bill. Shokingly enough... while sitting around in small claims court, I actually did see people complaining about dogshit.
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In short, I don't honestly know where the line is between the threat of legal action and blatent harrassment / extortion is. I suspect it's up to the whatever judge happens to respect your case. As far as sco goes, while I personaly believe they are accountable for their shit... i'm not a lawyer, I have morals.
I had a compaq contura aero, righto a POS laptop when it was new, remarkable as it sold for the sub $1000 range, and served me very well for a number of years... well enough till the hindge broke... I believe compaq called it a clutch as it was a stiff hinge that kept the laptop upright.
In all fairness to compaq, I was actually able to talk to someone at some point who was able to give me the part number. This was after 4-8 hours navigating their voice menus, each person refering me to another department to people who didn't feel it was their job to look up laptop part numbers, me having to tell them in all honesty "look, they refered me to you". I was at it so long I got to know each department head by their first name. I was even more annoyed when i couldn't order the part number from them, but had to resort to ordering it from a local shop, and local shops varried in price by a good deal for this damn hindge clutch. $25 to $50 bucks, though the $25 people had a minimum order of $50, so I stuck with the $35 people as I didn't need anything else trivial from compaq.
I wouldn't order a compaq again, but this is because of their funky arse propriority software, not due to their parts department. It's slow, slugish, a whole bunch of no fun, but it was proven to be possible to order a trivial part from them.
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Sony Vaio celeron 500 range or so... MB blew but the screen seemed OK. Sony had replacement motherboards, they wanted $1200 or so for the motherboard, and basicly at that time, I think 2001, you could get a replacement laptop for that. Could order the part no problem, but it was just equal to the value of a new lame laptop.
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As far as a trivial piece of plastic is concerned.... I'd consider either consulting an auto body shop that can work with fiberglass, making it your self, or wait till someone has your part or a lame laptop. Making it your self you have the option to color it how you choose, an audobody shop will have access to epoxy paints with a flex adheasive that will really take a beating.
If it was me, i'd disassemble the laptop, mask off the areas where you don't want the fiberglass resin to stick either with tape, oil, or poor wax into it. poor in the fiberglass resin, let gravity do it's work to make a smooth plastic bit, and presto. sand, primer, paint to your taste. Don't blame me if you fuck up, double stick tape and spray glue are your friend.
www.repc.com in seattle is a really spiffy for trival parts, as are other PC recyclers as they love people like your self to buy trivial junk so they don't have to dispose of it. I've gotten many a trivial piece of plastic from there. Why not actually share the make / model of your laptop to see if anyone has a spare?