Imagine, if you will, your fish/crab season is exactly 48 hours long in the worst weather of the year, barely above freezing, in the ever loving sea with 6 foot seas. (That's the height from the peak to the trough of the wave, most boats don't go out in 3 foot seas)
Now picture a sadistic man (the boat captain) screaming a non-stop diatribe of obscenities at you while you work non-stop for that 48 hours without break, where any perceived slowdown (say caused by a mechanical failure of a net winch) is your fault and he is now 3 inches from your face screaming to fix or by god you will be thrown overboard.
Let's presume you survive said trip, make dock and discover some big commercial fishing boat has used an illegal net, and dumped a massive amount of product on the buyers, who instead of paying $3.00 a pound are paying $.15 a pound.
And you tiny little single share that was supposed to be $5000 becomes $250.
I believe these get advertised as "Seasonal Deckhand."
The Bering sea, for those of you nautically challenged, is way north of the pacific ocean between the coast of Alaska and Siberia.
I actually disagree. I like the design, because I never use the laptop in my lap. Generally when I use a laptop, it's sitting on table in a cafe, work table, or similiar surface. (Note that I seldom fly, so using it in airports is rare.)
Using one with the "the Gap" actually causes me pain, and I've been coddling my thinkpad with out the gap until something similiar came out.
I was even considering buying a new Toshiba convertible Tabletpc, because of the lack of the gap.
Well, personally I can vouch for him. Though how I can vouch for him without revealing my sick sad obsession with him and his CD collection is a little hard to explain.
Well, that and I don't know to what degree he allows personal information, but I can tell you that I knew both him and multiple coworkers of his at Timeframe (where he used to work.)
We also dated a lot of the same people, socialized in near overlapping circles.
I was aware of the situation about before he was slashdotted.
Only good experience I had was one who happened to also be former co-worker; although she might be technically called a recruiter.
She was previously head of the training dept of the Computer firm I was working for.
She later became a recuiter for a large multi-national IT consultation company, when she left she "recruited" several of her subordinates.
I worked part time as a consultant for them, and she was always careful to match my skills to the job.
Later when she moved up in the ranks she tried to aggrssively recruit me from my stable and good paying civic job, promising free certification, exotic travel, and signifigent pay raise (all true, my buddy had the same job.)
However, when they lost their largest account six months later, I was happy at my timidity. She, my buddy, and 300 other employees were "temporarily" laid-off. 18 months later... it's still temporary... (Certifications or no, I still have my job.)
I don't know what cold-clime area you live in, but I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, about as cold-clime as it gets in America, and about as cold and icy as an urban area gets.
Well considering where you live it is 72 today... http://www.weather.com/weather/local/USM N0503?lswe =minneapolis%2Cmn&lswa=WeatherLocalUndeclared&what prefs=
I'm gonna have to say that I also have some experience with urban winter driving. However you have the additional complication of having a lot more traffic congestion the I do.
And yes, I've driven in Minneapolis. My wife went to School in Bemidji, and I spent a lot of time tootling around MN in the winter.
- SUV drivers yapping on their cell phones while not providing any of your supposed extra stopping space or caution
I'd have to say this particular brand of stupidity is not limited to SUV driver, Pick-up drivers, or any other specific group. I tend to see a lot of beamers with cell phone-borg drivers, but that may be my reticular activation system going haywire.
- SUV drivers assuming that owning an SUV allows them to drive 70 mph on a highway with a foot of snow. I don't care if you have special tires, you're fucked at that speed no matter what
Yup. But, again I don't think that's limited to specific type of vehicle. I see just as many other cars driving to fast the road conditions. Not just SUV drivers. (I see a lot of AWD Subaru's driving like it was bare pavement, should we ban them too?)
- SUV drivers flipped over or in the ditch during snow storms. I'm not saying they're out of proportion, but enough that I don't see any safety advantages of the SUV.
I flipped my Rabbit over in a ditch once doing 35 in a 50mph corner. I hate black ice. It's not an SUV thing. I see all types of cars in the ditch, and depending on the circumstances upside down. The safety advantage of SUV in this case has to do with the rigid body construction and roll-cage style construction. Most SUV have additional bracing to prevent cabin crushing in the case of severe rollovers. Additionally, the rigid body construction prevents the car from crumpling on impact, protecting the occupants. Liberal members of congress attempted to ban this in drivers of SUV tended to survive accidents when other none SUV drivers died (irregardless of who was at fault SUV driver or otherwise.) So rather then force other auto-manufacturers to make their cars MORE safe they wanted to make SUV less safe. Incidentally some European cars address the crumple problem by making the whole passenger cabin free floating (relatively speaking,) but since I don't have an additional $40,000 to spend on a luxury German import...
- A couple of SUV rollovers on dry pavement every year
This summer I saw four motor homes, a pickup truck towing a fifth wheel and two full size vans rollover on dry pavement. I didn't see any SUV rollovers on dry pavement, nor have I ever. How many SUV rollovers did you see in proportion to SUVs on the road? 1/1000, 1/10.000? Both your and my observations are anecdotal. Since we both appear to lack any DOT data on the frequency of rollover, I would say that neither of us have a technical leg to stand on.
This is why I am not urging the banning of, nor particularly critical about, motor homes. Even though anecdotally they are evil. They block drivers view, their speed is seldom constant, the drivers are frequently elderly and have poor reflexes....blah blah... you get the idea.
The problem is I see a lot of personal opinions (not just from you) about why SUV are unsafe or dangerous. But the vast majority of the complaints I here I tend to n
I suspect we have a lower ratio of soccer mom's driving SUV then the national average. Or reverse it, we have a lot more SUVs. Whereas in other states I have visited Pick-up and SUV ar the exception here they appear to be the rule.
A quick glance out my office window and I count 4 SUV, a Mininvan, a full size pick-up and one celica-type with a massive wing on the back.
I also have the advantage of living on said corner, where people transition from a 65 mph highway, around a 50 mph curve, and onto a 45 mph city street. People drive the entire strecth at 75mph. Every winter outside my office (2 miles away from the corner) I watch people slide out of control through that intersection. While people from all walks of life (and car choice) appear to drive bad, most the slide-throughs I see are sedans, sport cars, and mini vans.
As far as ditch diving goes, you do see more SUV in the ditch here in the winter. However we have a higher proportion of SUV, so I couldn't tell you how it compares on stastical basis to ownership.
I agree that driving a bigger vehicle doesn't impart better driving skills or judgement. However, driving a vehicle better suited for your driving enviroment does provide for safer travel. Mitsubishi Eclipses, which I think are quite lovely, accelerate to fast and have to sensitive of of steering for an average person to be driving on snow and ice in the winter.
Frankly, males aged 16-30 in any car with acceleration scare me more then a soccar mom. Mom's are generally aware of the potential driving dangers, and have brood of kids to protect. Distracted as they may be, I view them as whole lot less dangerous the a boy with a fast toy who thinks he's invulnurable cause he suffers from the "I'm so bad, i won't happen to me" complex.
I've been hit by an SUV in my rabbit. The car was hurt, but I survived. By buddy, in his Nissan Pick-up, did not survive the 80mph eclipse that lost control.
Pet Peeve #843287: SUV drivers that whine about the price of gas. You bought that overpriced penis extension, learn to live with the consequences.
I counter your pet peeve with my pet peeve #3412! People who drive fragile little cars, who cut in front of other drivers, and expect thousands of pounds of car to stop magically on ice!
Because of the climate of where I live, greater then 50% of the population either drive pick-up trucks or SUV. I seldom see SUV drivers causing accidents, they tend respect the stopping distance needed in both inclement and friendly weather. The majority of accidents I see are impatiant people in sporty little imports driving to fast for the condiitons. (Like sunny days, with wet pavement, Zoom! 70mph in 50mph zoned curve... into oncoming traffic.)
And guess what, I drive an SUV. A Jeep Liberty. Which gets better gas mileage then my wife's VW Jetta, and gets better gas mileage then the VW Rabbit I replaced it with.
And presuming the lunatic fringe psuedo-greeneis stop blocking the import of super efficient diesel technology into the US, we might see a Diesel Liberty in 2005, in which case my gas mileage will improve even more. (I call them psudo-greenies because they are reactionary, and are fighting battles based on bad science. As opposed to the few enviromental groups made of enviromental scientists who have legitimate envirmental concerns, Like PCB, that get drowned out by the mob.)
Sad as it is for me to say this 90% (or higher) of my fellow geeks are completely and totally incapable of doing tech support in a meaningful fashion. Tech support isn't just about the computers. Tech supportis making the non-computer people (them with the checkbooks) feel confident about the skills and aventual positive outcome brought about by the geeks.
How not to do this:
1)Speak derogatory comments about their operating system/officesuite/computer manufacturer. They probably have no emotional attachment to any of those, but if you question their wisdom you back them into emotional position where they have to defend their position... even if they don't have one. This is bad.
2)Deliberatly use techno-speak or gobblygook when plain english will do. Or do you feel so threatened they may actually see through your bull?
3)Be a know it all. No one knows it all. At this point it is impossible to know everything about every piece of equipment or software. Besides humility is a virtue.
4)Treat your customers like morons. Everyday I support a group of 50 completely cluelesss computer users. They all also hold multiple doctorates in economics, social policy, or political science. Morons they are not.
Actually, Disney has similliar contracts that have been upheld in court.
Anything an animator or artist draws, scribbles on a napkin, oreven dreams is owned by Disney.
Watched a documentery on Tim Burton where he talked about it being a motivation for him quitting Disney. Didn't know he was former Disney employee did you...
Example (From a Disney executive contract)
To the extent permitted by law, all rights worldwide with respect to
any and all intellectual or other property of any nature produced, created or
suggested by Executive during the term of Executive's employment with Disney or
any affiliated Company or resulting from Executive's services shall be deemed to
be a work made for hire and shall be the sole and exclusive property of Disney. Executive agrees to
execute, acknowledge and deliver to Disney at Disney's request, such further
documents as Disney finds appropriate to evidence Disney's and/or any affiliated
company's rights in such property. Any confidential and/or proprietaryinformation of Disney or any affiliate thereof shall not be used by Executive or disclosed or made available by Executive to any person except (i) as required in
the course of Executive's employment or (ii) when required to do so by a court of law, by any governmental agency having supervisory authority over the business of Disney or by any administrative or legislative body (including a
committee thereof) with apparent jurisdiction to order him to divulge, disclose or make accessible such information, it being understood that Executive will promptly notify Disney of such requirement so that Disney may seek to obtain a
protective order. Upon expiration or earlier termination of the term of Executive's employment, Executive shall return to Disney all such information that exists in written or other physical form (and all copies thereof) under
Executive's control.
I've always agreed to the concept of voting with my wallet. If I don't the a company I don't buy their products.
The reverse of that is of course, companies that have a clue(tm) get my hard earned cash.
I picked up the new John Ringo book this Sunday and wrote John Baen a thank you e-mail on Monday.
As a matter of minor irony, if they hadn't had the CD in the latest Honor Harrington, I wouldn't have read the first John Ringo book, and wouldn't had subsquently dropped $25 for the latest. But, so far the e-book thing is working well for me. Ten of the last fifteen books I've purchased have been electronic versions from Baen online bookstore.
I second the Wil Mcarthy vote. Although I liked Bloom better, Collapsium was an excellent read in a classic pulp fiction sort of way.
Also I'd recommend Tad Willams, IMHO is the finest wordsmith since Shakespeare.
Here are some other suggestions (so far no-one has mentioned) classified by specific type:
Pure Fantasy: Garth Nix: Sabrial, Lirial, Abhorsen, Ragwitch, Shade's Children. Technically classified as Young adult fiction, but still an excellent read.
David Weber: War God's Own. From the same author who brought us Honor Harrington.
Steven Brust: Jhereg, Techla, Taltos... etc. A very rich and detailed fantasy world server up with wry humor. (Now the first three books are available in one volume)
Chris Bunch: The Seer King, The Demon King, and The Warrior King. Good solid classic fantasy.
Dave Duncan: Cursed, and King's Blades series.
Jane M. Lindskold: Through Wolf's Eyes, Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart. A "Wild child" tale that contrasts nicely with court machinations.
R.A. MacAvoy: Damiano, Damiano's Lute. Classic fantasy set in 16th century Italy.
Mary Gentle: Ash-The lost history of Burgundy (split into four books in the US) and Grunts. Grunts is the Tolkien wars told from the Orc's point of view, and Ash is probably the most realistic depiction of medieval life/war then you would ever want.
Jean Lorrah & Lacqueline Lichtenberg: Hard to find, but the Sime/Gen series they both worked on was an excellent what if...
Space Opera/Space War Fiction/or Science Fiction. David Weber: The Honor Harrington series, and to many others to list. Start with On Basilisk Station.
Allan Cole & Chris Bunch: Sten Series. Not a lot of depth but a fun, although quick read.
James Alan Gardner: Expendable, Ascending Commitment Hour, Vigilant, & Hunted. Most of them (except commitment hour) happen in the same persistent universe.
Time Travel/Alternate History: S. M. Stirling: Draka series, Lost in the sea of Time series, and The Peshawar Lancers (Which I'm currently reading.) He has an excellent grasp of the nuances of social-historical forces and their implications.
Cyberpunk: George Alec Effinger: When Gravity Fails, A Fire in the Sun. Besides Snow Crash, these are the best cyberpunk books I have read. (Yes, I've read all of Gibson's work.)
Ahem. I belive 3-inch media are called Minidisks. They are very cool and portable. Unfortunatly SONY shot themselves in the foot when if came to introducing the MD-Data disk.
They came out roughly the same time as Zip's did. Zips were 100mb disks were $25, the drives were $299 and included a scsi card. In contrast MD-Data disks 120mb were $50, the drives wer $800+ and did not come with scsi cards, and were frequently UW SCSI only.
SONY marketed them towards the professional music and broadcast industries almost exclusivly and never made it accessible to the average computer user.
My wife and I are both metal smiths and I made her engagement ring, and we (mostly me) made our wedding rings. We chose Mokume Gane (think damascus steel done in precious metal, or samurai sword construction)
There are master's of the art Steve Midgett http://www.mokume.com and James Binnion http://www.mokumegane.com
Additionally, there are dozens of less famous artisits that provide this service.
Obviously, I have an allready much dogeared copy of "I'm Just here for the Food", but I was wondering what books you'd recommend as staples for the cookbook bookshelf?
Here is the short list I've so far collected:
On Food and Cooking: Harold McGee Cookwise: Shirley O. Corriher (Great Book!) How to be a Domestic Goddess: Nigella Lawson The Science of Cooking: Peter Barham
Ummm... When 80% percent of American youths and adults can't meet the minimum standards set by the the Dept of Health 60 years ago, and only 20% failed then! Also remember when the guidlines were set America was gearing up for war and it was considered a crisis as Americans were being rejected in droves for being too out of shape.
Add to pile the fact that heart attacks, and complications thereof, are the sigle highest killer of Americans yearly.
I'm not saying we all need to be tanned, blond hair surfer dudes with perfect teeth running in slo-mo down the beach. But, americans (myself included) have become a nation of sedentary lardbutts.
Re:Are you smart enough to stand up for yourself?
on
Sean In The Middle
·
· Score: 1
Yes, up until the point they pull a knife on you in the hallway. At which point you put them through a plate glass window (or at least try to.. that imbedded wire mesh just makes them shatter the glass and bounce back.)
I had the exact same problem as Sean all through Junior high and High school (except I was short, pudgy, and nerdy.)
The summer before my senior year I had a revelation. Bullies are inherintly cowards and what the fear most 1) Loss of face 2) Getting hurt.
If the verbally teased me, I ignored it. If they touched me, I broke bones.
The word got out in very short order that I was going to take to a level they dared not follow.
I had more then one run in with school administrators, but simple words "He assaulted me, I defended myself, I would like you to call the police, I wish to press charges." makes them pee themselves quite effectively.
Remember the legal definition of assault.
"An unlawful threat or attempt to do bodily injury to another. "
"The act or an instance of unlawfully threatening or attempting to injure another. "
Slashdot Mirror
Imagine, if you will, your fish/crab season is exactly 48 hours long in the worst weather of the year, barely above freezing, in the ever loving sea with 6 foot seas. (That's the height from the peak to the trough of the wave, most boats don't go out in 3 foot seas)
Now picture a sadistic man (the boat captain) screaming a non-stop diatribe of obscenities at you while you work non-stop for that 48 hours without break, where any perceived slowdown (say caused by a mechanical failure of a net winch) is your fault and he is now 3 inches from your face screaming to fix or by god you will be thrown overboard.
Let's presume you survive said trip, make dock and discover some big commercial fishing boat has used an illegal net, and dumped a massive amount of product on the buyers, who instead of paying $3.00 a pound are paying $.15 a pound.
And you tiny little single share that was supposed to be $5000 becomes $250.
I believe these get advertised as "Seasonal Deckhand."
The Bering sea, for those of you nautically challenged, is way north of the pacific ocean between the coast of Alaska and Siberia.
I actually disagree. I like the design, because I never use the laptop in my lap. Generally when I use a laptop, it's sitting on table in a cafe, work table, or similiar surface. (Note that I seldom fly, so using it in airports is rare.)
Using one with the "the Gap" actually causes me pain, and I've been coddling my thinkpad with out the gap until something similiar came out.
I was even considering buying a new Toshiba convertible Tabletpc, because of the lack of the gap.
Good to know there are other options.
Well, personally I can vouch for him. Though how I can vouch for him without revealing my sick sad obsession with him and his CD collection is a little hard to explain.
Well, that and I don't know to what degree he allows personal information, but I can tell you that I knew both him and multiple coworkers of his at Timeframe (where he used to work.)
We also dated a lot of the same people, socialized in near overlapping circles.
I was aware of the situation about before he was slashdotted.
Dark Ages of Camelot has the Us vs. Them your talking about.
There are three realms, when you get high enough level (20 I think) you can lauch raids on the other realms, until then you are trapped inyou own.
Only good experience I had was one who happened to also be former co-worker; although she might be technically called a recruiter.
She was previously head of the training dept of the Computer firm I was working for.
She later became a recuiter for a large multi-national IT consultation company, when she left she "recruited" several of her subordinates.
I worked part time as a consultant for them, and she was always careful to match my skills to the job.
Later when she moved up in the ranks she tried to aggrssively recruit me from my stable and good paying civic job, promising free certification, exotic travel, and signifigent pay raise (all true, my buddy had the same job.)
However, when they lost their largest account six months later, I was happy at my timidity. She, my buddy, and 300 other employees were "temporarily" laid-off. 18 months later... it's still temporary... (Certifications or no, I still have my job.)
In the old Hebrew texts Raziel is believed to be an 'angel of the secret regions and Chief of the Supreme Mysteries'.
No clue where Malaciah as angelic name comes from. I've never seen it discussed as an angel, excpet in matrix threads.
Well considering where you live it is 72 today...
http://www.weather.com/weather/local/USM N0503?lswe =minneapolis%2Cmn&lswa=WeatherLocalUndeclared&what prefs=
and where I live is is 48 degrees...
http://www.weather.com/weather/local/99501?lswe= 99 501&lwsa=WeatherLocalUndeclared
I'm gonna have to say that I also have some experience with urban winter driving. However you have the additional complication of having a lot more traffic congestion the I do.
And yes, I've driven in Minneapolis. My wife went to School in Bemidji, and I spent a lot of time tootling around MN in the winter.
I'd have to say this particular brand of stupidity is not limited to SUV driver, Pick-up drivers, or any other specific group. I tend to see a lot of beamers with cell phone-borg drivers, but that may be my reticular activation system going haywire.
Yup. But, again I don't think that's limited to specific type of vehicle. I see just as many other cars driving to fast the road conditions. Not just SUV drivers. (I see a lot of AWD Subaru's driving like it was bare pavement, should we ban them too?)
I flipped my Rabbit over in a ditch once doing 35 in a 50mph corner. I hate black ice. It's not an SUV thing. I see all types of cars in the ditch, and depending on the circumstances upside down. The safety advantage of SUV in this case has to do with the rigid body construction and roll-cage style construction. Most SUV have additional bracing to prevent cabin crushing in the case of severe rollovers. Additionally, the rigid body construction prevents the car from crumpling on impact, protecting the occupants. Liberal members of congress attempted to ban this in drivers of SUV tended to survive accidents when other none SUV drivers died (irregardless of who was at fault SUV driver or otherwise.) So rather then force other auto-manufacturers to make their cars MORE safe they wanted to make SUV less safe.
Incidentally some European cars address the crumple problem by making the whole passenger cabin free floating (relatively speaking,) but since I don't have an additional $40,000 to spend on a luxury German import...
This summer I saw four motor homes, a pickup truck towing a fifth wheel and two full size vans rollover on dry pavement. I didn't see any SUV rollovers on dry pavement, nor have I ever. How many SUV rollovers did you see in proportion to SUVs on the road? 1/1000, 1/10.000? Both your and my observations are anecdotal. Since we both appear to lack any DOT data on the frequency of rollover, I would say that neither of us have a technical leg to stand on.
This is why I am not urging the banning of, nor particularly critical about, motor homes. Even though anecdotally they are evil. They block drivers view, their speed is seldom constant, the drivers are frequently elderly and have poor reflexes....blah blah... you get the idea.
The problem is I see a lot of personal opinions (not just from you) about why SUV are unsafe or dangerous. But the vast majority of the complaints I here I tend to n
I suspect we have a lower ratio of soccer mom's driving SUV then the national average. Or reverse it, we have a lot more SUVs. Whereas in other states I have visited Pick-up and SUV ar the exception here they appear to be the rule.
A quick glance out my office window and I count 4 SUV, a Mininvan, a full size pick-up and one celica-type with a massive wing on the back.
I also have the advantage of living on said corner, where people transition from a 65 mph highway, around a 50 mph curve, and onto a 45 mph city street. People drive the entire strecth at 75mph. Every winter outside my office (2 miles away from the corner) I watch people slide out of control through that intersection. While people from all walks of life (and car choice) appear to drive bad, most the slide-throughs I see are sedans, sport cars, and mini vans.
As far as ditch diving goes, you do see more SUV in the ditch here in the winter. However we have a higher proportion of SUV, so I couldn't tell you how it compares on stastical basis to ownership.
I agree that driving a bigger vehicle doesn't impart better driving skills or judgement. However, driving a vehicle better suited for your driving enviroment does provide for safer travel. Mitsubishi Eclipses, which I think are quite lovely, accelerate to fast and have to sensitive of of steering for an average person to be driving on snow and ice in the winter.
Frankly, males aged 16-30 in any car with acceleration scare me more then a soccar mom. Mom's are generally aware of the potential driving dangers, and have brood of kids to protect. Distracted as they may be, I view them as whole lot less dangerous the a boy with a fast toy who thinks he's invulnurable cause he suffers from the "I'm so bad, i won't happen to me" complex.
I've been hit by an SUV in my rabbit. The car was hurt, but I survived. By buddy, in his Nissan Pick-up, did not survive the 80mph eclipse that lost control.
I counter your pet peeve with my pet peeve #3412! People who drive fragile little cars, who cut in front of other drivers, and expect thousands of pounds of car to stop magically on ice!
Because of the climate of where I live, greater then 50% of the population either drive pick-up trucks or SUV. I seldom see SUV drivers causing accidents, they tend respect the stopping distance needed in both inclement and friendly weather. The majority of accidents I see are impatiant people in sporty little imports driving to fast for the condiitons. (Like sunny days, with wet pavement, Zoom! 70mph in 50mph zoned curve... into oncoming traffic.)
And guess what, I drive an SUV. A Jeep Liberty. Which gets better gas mileage then my wife's VW Jetta, and gets better gas mileage then the VW Rabbit I replaced it with.
And presuming the lunatic fringe psuedo-greeneis stop blocking the import of super efficient diesel technology into the US, we might see a Diesel Liberty in 2005, in which case my gas mileage will improve even more. (I call them psudo-greenies because they are reactionary, and are fighting battles based on bad science. As opposed to the few enviromental groups made of enviromental scientists who have legitimate envirmental concerns, Like PCB, that get drowned out by the mob.)
Althought the second one isn't available for the Mac (so far as I know) we just picked up 6 copies of the original for $5 each from the discount bin.
1 Mac and 5 PC.
Besides, I love the way the Mac Marine wimpers when you pounce and bite thier head off.
Sad as it is for me to say this 90% (or higher) of my fellow geeks are completely and totally incapable of doing tech support in a meaningful fashion. Tech support isn't just about the computers. Tech supportis making the non-computer people (them with the checkbooks) feel confident about the skills and aventual positive outcome brought about by the geeks.
How not to do this:
1)Speak derogatory comments about their operating system/officesuite/computer manufacturer. They probably have no emotional attachment to any of those, but if you question their wisdom you back them into emotional position where they have to defend their position... even if they don't have one. This is bad.
2)Deliberatly use techno-speak or gobblygook when plain english will do. Or do you feel so threatened they may actually see through your bull?
3)Be a know it all. No one knows it all. At this point it is impossible to know everything about every piece of equipment or software. Besides humility is a virtue.
4)Treat your customers like morons. Everyday I support a group of 50 completely cluelesss computer users. They all also hold multiple doctorates in economics, social policy, or political science. Morons they are not.
Bonus Item Bathe.
Watched a documentery on Tim Burton where he talked about it being a motivation for him quitting Disney. Didn't know he was former Disney employee did you...
Example (From a Disney executive contract) To the extent permitted by law, all rights worldwide with respect to any and all intellectual or other property of any nature produced, created or suggested by Executive during the term of Executive's employment with Disney or any affiliated Company or resulting from Executive's services shall be deemed to be a work made for hire and shall be the sole and exclusive property of Disney. Executive agrees to execute, acknowledge and deliver to Disney at Disney's request, such further documents as Disney finds appropriate to evidence Disney's and/or any affiliated company's rights in such property. Any confidential and/or proprietaryinformation of Disney or any affiliate thereof shall not be used by Executive or disclosed or made available by Executive to any person except (i) as required in the course of Executive's employment or (ii) when required to do so by a court of law, by any governmental agency having supervisory authority over the business of Disney or by any administrative or legislative body (including a committee thereof) with apparent jurisdiction to order him to divulge, disclose or make accessible such information, it being understood that Executive will promptly notify Disney of such requirement so that Disney may seek to obtain a protective order. Upon expiration or earlier termination of the term of Executive's employment, Executive shall return to Disney all such information that exists in written or other physical form (and all copies thereof) under Executive's control.
Ooops.
Well... he only lets his really close anonymous fans call him John. It's a stalker thing, you wouldn't understand.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I've always agreed to the concept of voting with my wallet. If I don't the a company I don't buy their products.
The reverse of that is of course, companies that have a clue(tm) get my hard earned cash.
I picked up the new John Ringo book this Sunday and wrote John Baen a thank you e-mail on Monday.
As a matter of minor irony, if they hadn't had the CD in the latest Honor Harrington, I wouldn't have read the first John Ringo book, and wouldn't had subsquently dropped $25 for the latest. But, so far the e-book thing is working well for me. Ten of the last fifteen books I've purchased have been electronic versions from Baen online bookstore.
The Cob builders Handbook is an excellent starting book. Search for Cob at amazon and you'll find it.
Me, I'm going to try a combination of rammed earth and fired clay (Gelfastan method taught at Cal-earth.)
I second the Wil Mcarthy vote. Although I liked Bloom better, Collapsium was an excellent read in a classic pulp fiction sort of way.
Also I'd recommend Tad Willams, IMHO is the finest wordsmith since Shakespeare.
Here are some other suggestions (so far no-one has mentioned) classified by specific type:
Pure Fantasy:
Garth Nix: Sabrial, Lirial, Abhorsen, Ragwitch, Shade's Children. Technically classified as Young adult fiction, but still an excellent read.
David Weber: War God's Own. From the same author who brought us Honor Harrington.
Jim Butcher: Storm Front, Fool Moon, Grave Peril, Summer Knight. Think Magic meets hard-boiled detective novel.
Steven Brust: Jhereg, Techla, Taltos... etc. A very rich and detailed fantasy world server up with wry humor. (Now the first three books are available in one volume)
Chris Bunch: The Seer King, The Demon King, and The Warrior King. Good solid classic fantasy.
Dave Duncan: Cursed, and King's Blades series.
Jane M. Lindskold: Through Wolf's Eyes, Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart. A "Wild child" tale that contrasts nicely with court machinations.
R.A. MacAvoy: Damiano, Damiano's Lute. Classic fantasy set in 16th century Italy.
Mary Gentle: Ash-The lost history of Burgundy (split into four books in the US) and Grunts. Grunts is the Tolkien wars told from the Orc's point of view, and Ash is probably the most realistic depiction of medieval life/war then you would ever want.
Jean Lorrah & Lacqueline Lichtenberg: Hard to find, but the Sime/Gen series they both worked on was an excellent what if...
Space Opera/Space War Fiction/or Science Fiction.
David Weber: The Honor Harrington series, and to many others to list. Start with On Basilisk Station.
Allan Cole & Chris Bunch: Sten Series. Not a lot of depth but a fun, although quick read.
James Alan Gardner: Expendable, Ascending Commitment Hour, Vigilant, & Hunted. Most of them (except commitment hour) happen in the same persistent universe.
Time Travel/Alternate History:
S. M. Stirling: Draka series, Lost in the sea of Time series, and The Peshawar Lancers (Which I'm currently reading.) He has an excellent grasp of the nuances of social-historical forces and their implications.
Cyberpunk:
George Alec Effinger: When Gravity Fails, A Fire in the Sun. Besides Snow Crash, these are the best cyberpunk books I have read. (Yes, I've read all of Gibson's work.)
Ahem. I belive 3-inch media are called Minidisks. They are very cool and portable. Unfortunatly SONY shot themselves in the foot when if came to introducing the MD-Data disk.
They came out roughly the same time as Zip's did. Zips were 100mb disks were $25, the drives were $299 and included a scsi card. In contrast MD-Data disks 120mb were $50, the drives wer $800+ and did not come with scsi cards, and were frequently UW SCSI only.
SONY marketed them towards the professional music and broadcast industries almost exclusivly and never made it accessible to the average computer user.
My wife and I are both metal smiths and I made her engagement ring, and we (mostly me) made our wedding rings. We chose Mokume Gane (think damascus steel done in precious metal, or samurai sword construction)
There are master's of the art Steve Midgett http://www.mokume.com and James Binnion http://www.mokumegane.com
Additionally, there are dozens of less famous artisits that provide this service.
Obviously, I have an allready much dogeared copy of "I'm Just here for the Food", but I was wondering what books you'd recommend as staples for the cookbook bookshelf?
Here is the short list I've so far collected:
On Food and Cooking: Harold McGee
Cookwise: Shirley O. Corriher (Great Book!)
How to be a Domestic Goddess: Nigella Lawson
The Science of Cooking: Peter Barham
Ummm... When 80% percent of American youths and adults can't meet the minimum standards set by the the Dept of Health 60 years ago, and only 20% failed then! Also remember when the guidlines were set America was gearing up for war and it was considered a crisis as Americans were being rejected in droves for being too out of shape.
Add to pile the fact that heart attacks, and complications thereof, are the sigle highest killer of Americans yearly.
I'm not saying we all need to be tanned, blond hair surfer dudes with perfect teeth running in slo-mo down the beach. But, americans (myself included) have become a nation of sedentary lardbutts.
Alaskan Driver's License has holographs, and has for 10+ years.
Unless you are counting on the fact that the wouldn't be that common.
Does any state NOT have a holograph/waterwark/whatever to prevent duplication?
Will McCarthy's Bloom
ISBN: 0345424654
In a nutshell: Nanites eat the earth and humans attempt to come to terms with their existance scattered among the other planets.
Deals heavily with what is humanity, what is life, what is Life, and what is randomness...
Played it, enjoyed it, work as the Network admin for my local office... scared (briefly) my cowerkers...
them "What are you doing?"
me "trashing the logs on some bank..."
them "..."
Incredible acting.
Classic story. (Shakespeare's Titanicus Adronicus)
Loooooong.
But Worth it.
I had the exact same problem as Sean all through Junior high and High school (except I was short, pudgy, and nerdy.)
The summer before my senior year I had a revelation. Bullies are inherintly cowards and what the fear most 1) Loss of face 2) Getting hurt.
If the verbally teased me, I ignored it. If they touched me, I broke bones.
The word got out in very short order that I was going to take to a level they dared not follow.
I had more then one run in with school administrators, but simple words "He assaulted me, I defended myself, I would like you to call the police, I wish to press charges." makes them pee themselves quite effectively.
Remember the legal definition of assault.
"An unlawful threat or attempt to do bodily injury to another. "
"The act or an instance of unlawfully threatening or attempting to injure another. "