I'm an Amazon Vine member. I was told that I became a member by the number of "helpful" votes my comments got. Most of my reviews for things I buy are positive - but I research before I buy things.
As for Amazon giving me things to review; it's true. Each month or so, I get a list of things I can order (for free, with no shipping charges). As long as I review 75% of the items I receive, I can participate in the program.
I fully believe that the "top 1,000 reviewers" part is untrue. I can't see any way that I'm a top 1,000 reviewer. I just checked, and I'm in the top 8,000. However, I have over 300 helpful (out of about 400) votes.
1) They place a "Vine Voice" tag in my profile, and by each review - even if I pay for the product 2) They place a "Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program" by each review I do for Vine (free product)
Mostly I get *review copies* of books. These are pre-press, and the same ones that go to reviewers (hmmm). They are printed on cheap paper, are not hardbound, and clearly marked as "not final copy". I occasionally get a small electronic device, but usually a $10 to $20 item. The most valuable item I received was a popular piece of office productivity software.
I have no moral issue with receiving these items. It's the same as sending review items to book reviewers, bloggers, journalists, etc. The reviewed items are clearly marked that I didn't pay for them. I have given 5 star and 3 star reviews.
In order to be a land vehicle in LSR terms, the FIA rules require that the vehicle is ‘wholly and continuously controlled by the driver’.
Kind of crazy that a team developing an open-source supersonic car is afraid of using computer control assistance methods that have been around for decades!
Well, since they are trying to set a record, and the sanctioning body (FIA) says "human control only" for steering, then that's what they will do. Fear isn't part of the equation
There's many, many things that might make the car faster, or better, or whatever. Teams read the rule book, and try and find the "you can't do XXX" sections. Doing XXX will invalidate the race/record.
Every record that is set - number of hotdogs eaten in 20 minutes, largest weight bench pressed, fastest bicycle from LA to NY - has an official body saying that they certify the record. If you don't do it to those standards, it "doesn't count".
It's how these things work.
Automotive records, being 100 years old, have lots of rules. Land Speed racers deal with them..
Yes, but you can do it well. See "the Girl Who..."/Millennium Trilogy as an example of movies that translated well from paper to screen. LotR was was very well done. You can also do a terrible job, and there are too many examples to list.
I'd like to see a cast list. If it's the usual Hollywood mega-stars, the movie has a good chance of sucking. If it's even a little bit independent, it has a possibility of being good. In short, if it has to appeal to the masses to make enough money to pay back a billion dollar investment, I doubt it will be that good.
I'm hoping for the best, and expecting something worse than one of the latest Star Wars or Matrix II disasters.
...except I am always free to shop at a Walmart competitor.
That option does not exist in Apple's brave new world.
Walmart only makes it harder for competitors to survive. It doesn't BAN them outright.
I am free to buy a non-Apple phone.
I am free to shop at stores other than Walmart.
I have an iPhone. I like it. Would I like a bit more freedom with it? Sure! However, I'm an adult, and I get to make informed decisions. I could of purchased an Android phone, but I weighed the pros and cons of each, and made a choice to buy a closed device.
I also get to make a choice about which computer I buy. I currently own an Azsus and a Dell.
I compared a MacTV to an Azsus (Atom processor) with Windows, and decided that teh Azsus would be a better HTPC. I need to run SolidWorks and Inventor, so I got a Dell M90 rather than a MacBook Pro 17".
Can you imagine if HP, Dell, Asus, etc tried to tell you you are only allowed to install apps through their app stores on a computer you buy from them?
If they could make more money doing it that way, they would.
Those companies care about you just as much as Apple does. They want your $$, and they will do their best to extract as much of it as possible.
If Ford had any balls, they'd require you to buy Ford tires. They could, and would, if their product was so much better than the competition that you'd be willing to buy "special" tires. The iPhone is the phone that everybody* wants, so Apple can get away with it.
If you claim to be the fastest car, somebody needs to observe and certify that record. There are several groups that certify records, depending on which region of which country you are in.
I'm most familiar with the western US set of rules by the So Cal Timing Association (www.scta-bni.org) They sanction races at El Mirage dry lakes outside of Los Angeles, and the Bonneville salt flats.
There's lots of classes - depending on how stock vs modified your car is. Each car class is divided into multiple categories of engine displacement. Each body/engine combination is subdivided further - depending on fuel (gasoline or something else) and normally aspirated or forced induction.
That way, you don't have a bone stock Civic competing against a heavily modified (stretched, lowered, aerodynamically optimized) '32 Ford coupe with a 8 liter turbo'd alcohol burning engine.
There's similar classification/diversification for motorcycles, diesel powered vehicles, electrics, etc.
You can set to the world record *for your class* and be far slower than the outright world record.
One of the big peaks is the "fastest piston engine" class. The wheels must be driven by a "regular" engine with pistons. The "fastest wheel driven car" will have a turbine powering the back wheels. "Fastest car" just means that it has 4 wheels that aren't in a row (like a motorcycle). It doesn't have to be a "car" to be in the car class.
Because people have been setting (and failing to set) land speed records for longer than you or I have been alive.
When there's a record, there's another guy trying to beat that record. It could be the record for data transmission speeds over a certain distance, the gHz of a CPU, the number of hotdogs eaten in 20 minutes, span of the longest bridge, height of the tallest building... If it's there, somebody's trying for the record.
There's one one guy who can be the fastest (for a certain set of conditions).
Land speed racing is a drug for those who do it. It's also a great spectator sport, if your wallet isn't thick enough to play.
And, yes, it's utterly pointless. Just like football, the opera, TV, movies,. poetry, 99.99% of the content of the internet, music...
I've seen just about every type of racing on TV, and have seen in person (or participated in) in most forms of motorsports in the US, except NASCAR & the IRL. Land Speed Racing doesn't translate to TV at all. In person, however, it's a different experience. Certainly not for everybody, but there's nothing else like it.
I agree with you. Strapping a set of wheels on a rocket motor is pointless, even though the technical challenges are probably fantastic. In fact, generally speaking, breaking a record just for the sake of being in the Guinness book of records is pointless.
So is playing baseball or watching a movie. Humans with extra time and money have hobbies. It could be anything from knitting to painting to riding bicycles to setting land speed records.
Setting land speed records isn't your hobby, but it doesn't actually mean that it's "pointless".
There are many different record categories recognized by various sanctioning bodies. The ones that would probably interest you the most are the "wheel driven" or "piston driven" records, and not the "overall fastest".
Wheel driven records have been set by turbine engines, with the shaft running into a differential, and driving a set of wheels. Don Vesco has the record at 458.443
The piston driven records are set by a car with one or more HUGE V-8 engines. Al Teague went 405.976 in one such creation.
They are also over 300 mph slower than the the jet powered cars. There are no rocket powered cars in real competition for world records at the moment,
Which is stupid, because diesel cars are cheaper to produce and deliver equal if not greater efficiency. I could never understand the idea behind hybrids.
At about the same time, there were a few imports with Diesels. They weren't much better.
Because people remember crappy cars forever, most Americans think that a Diesel pukes black smoke, rattles and bangs, has no power and gas stations don't sell Diesel fuel.
It's also about using a car as something more than a boring beige appliance to go from point A to point B. I think that's what's happening in the US. We no longer care about the vehicle - the feel, the fun, the visceral experience. We just want to get from here to there and not be involved in the process.
As more and more people get automatic transmissions, ABS, turn by turn navigation systems, air bags, etc the need to control the car diminishes. As fewer and fewer people are interested in driving, drivers are getting less and less attentive. More phone calls, more texting, more eating, more things that are not driving are happening behind the wheel, and we are paying the price.
Take a ride with somebody who is interested in cars and driving as a hobby. Or take a ride in a car with somebody who rides a motorcycle frequently. Those people are going to be more aware of their surroundings, and chances are good that they will be a better driver because of it.
Drive your automatic Camry all you want. Just don't be an ass when other people actually care about the experience of driving.
Just click cancel before installation completes, or make sure that Wife 1.0 has a firewall.
Under no circumstances should you trust the installation of a firewall to Wife (regardless of version number). Wife has complete control of the uninstall process, and can be completed without your knowledge.
Let the guy do what he wants, but *selling* an album that is two artists' albums mixed together is 100% clearly a copyright violation. I don't care how talented the is, or people think he is. Being indignant about it just makes him look like a dick.
Sorry you and a few moderators missed the sarcasm in my previous post.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm an Amazon Vine member. I was told that I became a member by the number of "helpful" votes my comments got.
Most of my reviews for things I buy are positive - but I research before I buy things.
As for Amazon giving me things to review; it's true.
Each month or so, I get a list of things I can order (for free, with no shipping charges). As long as I review 75% of the items I receive, I can participate in the program.
I fully believe that the "top 1,000 reviewers" part is untrue. I can't see any way that I'm a top 1,000 reviewer.
I just checked, and I'm in the top 8,000. However, I have over 300 helpful (out of about 400) votes.
1) They place a "Vine Voice" tag in my profile, and by each review - even if I pay for the product
2) They place a "Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program" by each review I do for Vine (free product)
Mostly I get *review copies* of books. These are pre-press, and the same ones that go to reviewers (hmmm). They are printed on cheap paper, are not hardbound, and clearly marked as "not final copy". I occasionally get a small electronic device, but usually a $10 to $20 item. The most valuable item I received was a popular piece of office productivity software.
I have no moral issue with receiving these items. It's the same as sending review items to book reviewers, bloggers, journalists, etc.
The reviewed items are clearly marked that I didn't pay for them. I have given 5 star and 3 star reviews.
The process is pretty transparent.
In order to be a land vehicle in LSR terms, the FIA rules require that the vehicle is ‘wholly and continuously controlled by the driver’.
Kind of crazy that a team developing an open-source supersonic car is afraid of using computer control assistance methods that have been around for decades!
Well, since they are trying to set a record, and the sanctioning body (FIA) says "human control only" for steering, then that's what they will do. Fear isn't part of the equation
There's many, many things that might make the car faster, or better, or whatever. Teams read the rule book, and try and find the "you can't do XXX" sections. Doing XXX will invalidate the race/record.
Every record that is set - number of hotdogs eaten in 20 minutes, largest weight bench pressed, fastest bicycle from LA to NY - has an official body saying that they certify the record. If you don't do it to those standards, it "doesn't count".
It's how these things work.
Automotive records, being 100 years old, have lots of rules. Land Speed racers deal with them..
between a 300W $500 high-end gaming video card and a $500 "workstation" card that consumes half the power? What is missing from the workstation card?
What's missing from the card? Certification for SolidWorks, Inventor, etc is missing from the consumer card.
Yes, but you can do it well. See "the Girl Who..."/Millennium Trilogy as an example of movies that translated well from paper to screen. LotR was was very well done. You can also do a terrible job, and there are too many examples to list.
I'd like to see a cast list. If it's the usual Hollywood mega-stars, the movie has a good chance of sucking. If it's even a little bit independent, it has a possibility of being good.
In short, if it has to appeal to the masses to make enough money to pay back a billion dollar investment, I doubt it will be that good.
I'm hoping for the best, and expecting something worse than one of the latest Star Wars or Matrix II disasters.
In fact I have yet to meet a Democrat who actually knows what it was that they voted for.
You should leave mom's basement more often.
...except I am always free to shop at a Walmart competitor.
That option does not exist in Apple's brave new world.
Walmart only makes it harder for competitors to survive. It doesn't BAN them outright.
I am free to buy a non-Apple phone.
I am free to shop at stores other than Walmart.
I have an iPhone. I like it. Would I like a bit more freedom with it? Sure!
However, I'm an adult, and I get to make informed decisions. I could of purchased an Android phone, but I weighed the pros and cons of each, and made a choice to buy a closed device.
I also get to make a choice about which computer I buy. I currently own an Azsus and a Dell.
I compared a MacTV to an Azsus (Atom processor) with Windows, and decided that teh Azsus would be a better HTPC.
I need to run SolidWorks and Inventor, so I got a Dell M90 rather than a MacBook Pro 17".
Can you imagine if HP, Dell, Asus, etc tried to tell you you are only allowed to install apps through their app stores on a computer you buy from them?
If they could make more money doing it that way, they would.
Those companies care about you just as much as Apple does. They want your $$, and they will do their best to extract as much of it as possible.
If Ford had any balls, they'd require you to buy Ford tires. They could, and would, if their product was so much better than the competition that you'd be willing to buy "special" tires. The iPhone is the phone that everybody* wants, so Apple can get away with it.
*lots of people
WTF?
Stop watching 24.
If you claim to be the fastest car, somebody needs to observe and certify that record. There are several groups that certify records, depending on which region of which country you are in.
I'm most familiar with the western US set of rules by the So Cal Timing Association (www.scta-bni.org)
They sanction races at El Mirage dry lakes outside of Los Angeles, and the Bonneville salt flats.
There's lots of classes - depending on how stock vs modified your car is.
Each car class is divided into multiple categories of engine displacement.
Each body/engine combination is subdivided further - depending on fuel (gasoline or something else) and normally aspirated or forced induction.
That way, you don't have a bone stock Civic competing against a heavily modified (stretched, lowered, aerodynamically optimized) '32 Ford coupe with a 8 liter turbo'd alcohol burning engine.
There's similar classification/diversification for motorcycles, diesel powered vehicles, electrics, etc.
You can set to the world record *for your class* and be far slower than the outright world record.
One of the big peaks is the "fastest piston engine" class. The wheels must be driven by a "regular" engine with pistons.
The "fastest wheel driven car" will have a turbine powering the back wheels.
"Fastest car" just means that it has 4 wheels that aren't in a row (like a motorcycle). It doesn't have to be a "car" to be in the car class.
Because people have been setting (and failing to set) land speed records for longer than you or I have been alive.
When there's a record, there's another guy trying to beat that record.
It could be the record for data transmission speeds over a certain distance, the gHz of a CPU, the number of hotdogs eaten in 20 minutes, span of the longest bridge, height of the tallest building... If it's there, somebody's trying for the record.
There's one one guy who can be the fastest (for a certain set of conditions).
Land speed racing is a drug for those who do it. It's also a great spectator sport, if your wallet isn't thick enough to play.
And, yes, it's utterly pointless. Just like football, the opera, TV, movies,. poetry, 99.99% of the content of the internet, music...
Stop judging women based on movies and TV. Check out the midwest -- the average woman is 5'1" and overweight.
That's why I live on the coast.
IIRC, it's using some sort of devise to help count that's illegal.
Other than your brain, of course.
I can't help noting the number of digits in your ID, and have to note that was true about three years ago... I don't think so any longer.
3 years? That's a lot of credit you're giving "kids" these days. ;)
Laughing, as our ID numbers are so close together.
I can't help but laugh.
She whines about closing the business, but *damn* is her writing bad.
Learn to write.
Learn basic copyright info.
Try again.
I'd love to RTFA, but the site is down.
Good point. Let's just stay in mom's basement plugged into WoW.
It's safe.
You are painting with a pretty wide brush.
I've seen just about every type of racing on TV, and have seen in person (or participated in) in most forms of motorsports in the US, except NASCAR & the IRL. Land Speed Racing doesn't translate to TV at all. In person, however, it's a different experience. Certainly not for everybody, but there's nothing else like it.
I agree with you. Strapping a set of wheels on a rocket motor is pointless, even though the technical challenges are probably fantastic. In fact, generally speaking, breaking a record just for the sake of being in the Guinness book of records is pointless.
So is playing baseball or watching a movie. Humans with extra time and money have hobbies. It could be anything from knitting to painting to riding bicycles to setting land speed records.
Setting land speed records isn't your hobby, but it doesn't actually mean that it's "pointless".
There are many different record categories recognized by various sanctioning bodies. The ones that would probably interest you the most are the "wheel driven" or "piston driven" records, and not the "overall fastest".
Wheel driven records have been set by turbine engines, with the shaft running into a differential, and driving a set of wheels.
Don Vesco has the record at 458.443
The piston driven records are set by a car with one or more HUGE V-8 engines.
Al Teague went 405.976 in one such creation.
They are also over 300 mph slower than the the jet powered cars. There are no rocket powered cars in real competition for world records at the moment,
Please read and at least attempt to understand comment before replying, kthxbye.
Your sig is the most ironic thing I've read in a long time, as you obviously didn't understand what I was saying.
kthxbye
Which is stupid, because diesel cars are cheaper to produce and deliver equal if not greater efficiency. I could never understand the idea behind hybrids.
In the 70's GM released a bunch of Diesel powered cards. And boy did they suck.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GM_engines#Notes_on_GM.27s_automotive_diesel_history
At about the same time, there were a few imports with Diesels. They weren't much better.
Because people remember crappy cars forever, most Americans think that a Diesel pukes black smoke, rattles and bangs, has no power and gas stations don't sell Diesel fuel.
It's about control and feel.
It's also about using a car as something more than a boring beige appliance to go from point A to point B. I think that's what's happening in the US. We no longer care about the vehicle - the feel, the fun, the visceral experience. We just want to get from here to there and not be involved in the process.
As more and more people get automatic transmissions, ABS, turn by turn navigation systems, air bags, etc the need to control the car diminishes. As fewer and fewer people are interested in driving, drivers are getting less and less attentive. More phone calls, more texting, more eating, more things that are not driving are happening behind the wheel, and we are paying the price.
Take a ride with somebody who is interested in cars and driving as a hobby. Or take a ride in a car with somebody who rides a motorcycle frequently. Those people are going to be more aware of their surroundings, and chances are good that they will be a better driver because of it.
Drive your automatic Camry all you want. Just don't be an ass when other people actually care about the experience of driving.
Just click cancel before installation completes, or make sure that Wife 1.0 has a firewall.
Under no circumstances should you trust the installation of a firewall to Wife (regardless of version number). Wife has complete control of the uninstall process, and can be completed without your knowledge.
Nope. I don't have that desire or skill.
Let the guy do what he wants, but *selling* an album that is two artists' albums mixed together is 100% clearly a copyright violation. I don't care how talented the is, or people think he is. Being indignant about it just makes him look like a dick.
Sorry you and a few moderators missed the sarcasm in my previous post.
The height of lazy was taking two albums other artists recorded, mixing them together, and selling it as your own.
Defending it was less lazy.