It "works" OK in Moz 1.1 on Win98. Unfortunatly, the image is 1024x768 and every time I take my mouse off it to scroll left or right, all the text goes poof...;) Had to right-click and "View Image" while mousing over it to see the whole thing...
"H-h-h-h-h-h-i I'm-m-m-m-m-m-m Joe and I-I-I-I-I-I'm Fars-s-s-s-s-s-scap-p-p-p-p-pe." (By now, the video portion is halfway through the *next* person's speech...)
Or am I the only one who suffers from this Quicktime problem, where the audio skips and repeats like a record the cat used as a scratching post, while the video keeps playing merrily along, getting further and further ahead of the stuttering audio track?;)
Why not produce lifeforms that can (for example) consume greenhouse gasses and produce energy? That would certainly reduce the strain on the environment.
Do we really know what the long-term consequences of releasing such organisms into our ecosystem would be? Even if they are not deliberately released, if they are widely used, they're gonna get out sooner or later. Even if they're somehow designed to die outside the lab or CO2 processing plant, there's still the distinct possibility of a mutated strain that bypasses those controls.
Who knows? Create a CO2 eating microbe today...in five hundred years, or even fifty, 90% of the Earth's plant life may end up dead for lack of CO2 because these little buggers have multiplied and spread out of control.
The Earth is an incredibly complex, carefully balanced system. Trying to engineer it too excessively when we're really not sure at all what we're doing could backfire in a big way.
Hear, hear. Although, with gas taxes, etc., your example isn't very exact.
I don't have kids, but my taxes pay for the public school that babysits Mrs. Housewife's children five days a week. I use my land line a few hours a month, but my basic line costs pay for her to gab with her friends for six hours a day. I won't ever see a dime of my Social Security tax; it's all going to help pay for her parents' current retirement benefits. I only watch a few channels of TV, but I'm paying $50 a month for 60 channels I don't want so she can watch her Lifetime dramas all night. And she pays $40 a month for her Internet access so I can download a few dozen Star Trek episodes and Mike Oldfield MP3s every week at 1.5Mbps. That's how this stuff works.
To the people who are saying "I only use my $40 broadband connection to check email and look at eBay," I ask you...if you're so put out at having to spend $40 to subsidize my heavy use, why don't you go back to a $15 dial-up account? Then you won't have to worry about it any longer. If you don't really use broadband, then instead of complaining about the price being so high because of people who actually use what they were sold, why not save $25-35 a month and go back to 56K?
Currently, I'm on Sprint DSL, and they haven't said a word about caps yet. If they do implement an unreasonable cap, I'll look elsewhere for my service. If I can't find anything else, I'll go back to dial-up myself. I'll hate it, but it's better than putting up with a ridiculously small monthly cap for three times the price.
Yes, but if a poor player plays unpredictably, it may cause more problems for a computer than for a human expert. A human could adapt to an unorthodox style of play to defeat his opponent quickly. A computer may not be able to adapt as well, or at all. It will still win against a poor opponent, but in the process, it will probably make moves and decisions that weren't the best for the situation, and miss opportunities that a human opponent could see.
DennyK
Re:Grocery store business is dying, except for WMT
on
Step 2, Groceries
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I do all my grocery shopping at Wal-Mart these days. It's a little farther to drive than the other stores, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper. The same stuff (almost literally, same brands and all) that costs $100 at Publix costs about $70-75 at Wal. Winn-Dixie is closer to Wal's prices, with the "value card" (yeah, yeah, privacy, blah, blah...but they don't do address verification, you just fill out the sheet and get your card right there, so as far as they're concerned, I'm Joe Smith from 123 Main St. in Boise, Idaho...;) ) but it takes twice as long to shop there since half their inventory is a week past the expiration date (I swear to God one of their salamis tried to bite me once. Luckily it hadn't managed to grow any teeth. Yet...) Wal's also open 24 hours, which is nice for a night owl like me. Only downside is the aisles are crammed with pallets and carts of inventory at that time of night, so it can be rather hard to navigate...I had to walk half the length of the store one time when I found myself on the wrong side of the aisle and every space between the middle islands was blocked by pallets...
The other downside to Wal-Mart is their selection is somewhat limited, but they usually carry everything I'm looking for, so it's not a big deal for me. Oh, and they can't sell beer after midnight. Damn blue laws...
I think that's a big part of the problem...people go to the doctor expecting to get a pill to make the sickness go away. I am sure there are some doctors who will prescribe some antibiotic for a bad cold or flu to make it look like they're doing something useful, rather than just tell the patient, "There's nothing we can do. Just spend the rest of the week in bed and drink plenty of fluids."
But here's something odd I've noticed: In general, folk who think Windows is for multitasking (and abuse it like we do:) have very tidy, organized desktops, with icons neatly grouped by program type or function. Conversely people who only cope well with one window at a time tend to have shortcut icons randomly scattered all over their desktop, and seem to LIKE it that way
Interesting...I usually work with 12+ windows open almost all of the time, but my desktop is entirely covered with random icons in some random order. I guess I'm more of a "visual" person, since I usually memorize the location of the icons (and every time Windows hiccups and resets the order to some other random pattern, I spend the next week opening Quake when I want to check my email...;) ). At work, I always open my programs and windows in a specific order, and if they get out of order somehow, I usually close everything down and start all over...otherwise I get all twitchy...;-D
That said...I HATE wasted space in windows. Especially since I have to use 800x600 on a 17" screen or I can't see anything. Looking at those screenshots with those huge icons, and sidebars, and web panes or whatever the hell they're called, and window "titles" that take up 1/4 of the screen...*shudder* Not for me, thanks. I turned all that crap off in Windows 98 first chance I got. I've never understood who actually likes that stuff. Most newbies I've worked with just find it confusing as heck, and most experiened users find it useless. As for the colors and shapes, give me sharp corners and battleship grey dialog boxes any day. I also hate antialiased fonts myself...they look very blurry to me, and give me a headache when I try to read something like a PDF file or whatnot that "smooths" the fonts. I'd rather have pixelated fonts that are sharp and clear than smooth fonts that make me think my glasses are smudged when I stare at 'em too long...;)
If I know someone's "unpublished" phone number, is it illegal for me to publish it - say on my web site, or in my car window? (IANAL - I'm guessing "yes" it's illegal.)
I'd guess no, it's not illegal. An "unpublished" number is just a number that doesn't appear in any phone company directories. If you come by the number through some other means, I can't see anything illegal about simply "publishing" it or sharing it with others. It would certainly be rude, but I don't think it would be illegal.
If you have "Full window dragging" (or whatever it's called on your system) enabled, you can also grab a screenshot by hitting PRNTSCRN while you are dragging the RealPlayer window around. The image in the window switches from overlay to the standard video system while being dragged.
Problems? What they describe is physically impossible. To move data from Point A to Point B, there has to be some sort of "wired or wireless" connection. Even if the data is somehow being stored in the mouse itself and transferred that way, that's still a connection between the two machines...not a direct one, but a connection nontheless.
And if that is the case...WHY would you want to build a mouse that stores data? There are far easier and more reliable ways to move data from one computer to another.
Makes about as much sense as surround sound in a cube farm, I suppose...;-)
DennyK
Re:Down with specialized pieces
on
Lego Addictions
·
· Score: 2
I'll second that. I have the X-Wing and the Imperial shuttle (the "smaller" versions, not the "collectible" display models), and aside from the minifigs and accessories, there aren't any real Star Wars themed pieces in the sets. There are some special pieces (like the shuttle's canopy), but the ones that are in there are GOOD special pieces, like the old ones used to be...they can be used on a lot of models in a lot of different ways. The Star Wars sets are pretty much the only Legos I even look at anymore. I used to love the Castle sets, but now the few they are still selling are lousy (too heavy on the theme of the week, way too many special pieces, and the architecture is all open and flimsy...ick!). Whatever happened to the big castles with good solid walls and some generic knights and footmen?:-/
True...but it's easier for me just to block all scripts. I don't use IE for web browsing anyway, so I just leave it set to ask before it does anything. Then I can just tell Grokster "No" and the occasional IE-only site that I have to visit "Yes"...;)
I started having that problem with my (older) neutered version of Grokster. To fix it, I just turned off all scripting in IE. Grokster continues to work fine, but it no longer displays popup ads. I haven't tried the new version of Kazaa, but I'd guess the same trick would probably work with it.
If the parachute(s) are attached right, and there isn't too much wind or rough terrain, it should be possible to have the car land mostly on its wheels. You're definatly gonna need new struts and an alignment job after that, though...;)
I have an Athlon 600, 128MB of RAM, and a 16MB Diamond Viper V770 TNT2, and play at 640x480 with all the eye candy turned off or as low as it can go. The game runs slowly, the textures disappear, and eventually everything turns bright purple. W00t!
And my point would be..........that I have no point. Well, that and the fact I need a new computer. Feel free to send donations.;-)
No, actually, it was a licensing issue. There was also a Lamborghini Diablo in the Japanese version of the game that was removed for the U.S. release because of licensing.
There are actually quasi-Porsches in the game...they couldn't get a license agreement with Porsche, but they slipped them into the game under the RUF emblem, by stretching the definition of a "automobile manufacturer" a wee bit. RUF is a company which sells heavily modified Porsches.
In any case, the focus is not really on "import racing" so much as it is on street and road racing in general. Yes, there are a lot of Japanese cars...which is to be expected, since the game was designed in Japan.;) There are several American cars in the game, as well as European cars, and also many true race cars, including several Formula One lookalikes.
Don't be silly. It's not a bust. It was all arranged with the original builders (you know, those alien dudes) so that Fox could air a sequel! In fact, the entire shaft is filled with little stone plugs every few feet, with some cheesy artifacts and heiroglyphics here and there to keep audiences tuned in. Proceeds from the advertising will help fund the alien's continuing integration into our society.
Rumor has it that there may be some nasty traps inside the shaft also, so that in case the series doesn't work out, Fox will have plenty of footage for a few When Pyramids Attack! specials...;-D
The race was at Texas Motor Speedway, a 1.5 mile high-banked (24') oval track. During practice, the drivers were experiencing lateral G-forces approaching 6G in the turns, and several complained about various physiological effects (tunnel vision, vertigo, dizzyness, etc.) after just a handful of laps. Fearing that the extreme G-forces would lead to injuries and cause mayhem on the track over the course of the race, CART cancelled the event.
On a side note, the IRL (Indy Racing League) runs at Texas and its sister track, Atlanta, also a 1.5 mile high-banked oval. The IRL cars are a little slower than the CART vehicles, however, and don't generate the 5+ G that the CART drivers were experiencing. The stock cars (NASCAR) which run at the same tracks, of course, don't generate nearly the same forces, since they are far slower in the turns than the lightweight open-wheel cars.
Yes...but there is a real person behind each of those connections. Just because a community is made up of members who communicate with each other online (whether it be via a message board, chat room, MUD, MMORPG, or what have you) instead of meeting face-to-face doesn't make it any less "real" than any other community. People can (and will) argue endlessly about the "quality" of online versus in-person communities, but the fact remains that online communities are very much "reality", not fantasy.
In this case, a well known and respected member of the community passed away, and the other members of the community paid their respects. It baffles me that you find that "sick."
Hmm...only trouble I see with Ikea, in browsing their site, is you have to spend quite a bit to get an item that's not either (a) made of wicker, or (b) apparently designed by someone under the influence of LSD. Do people actually buy giant day-glo-orange barrels with seat-shaped depressions in them to sit on in their living rooms?;-)
Most of my furniture is secondhand (for the big items), or Wal-Mart flatpack (for shelves, tables, and the like). All of the flatpack stuff was pretty easy to put together. It's not all that pretty, but I prefer function over form anyway, and at least it doesn't look like a reject from a Picasso painting.;)
Those are somewhat relaxing, especially the slow ones. Unfortunatly, my pop-culture-soaked brain keeps cringing in anticipation of either the Survivor theme or a Foster's commercial everytime it hears one. Dammit...;-)
Slashdot Mirror
It "works" OK in Moz 1.1 on Win98. Unfortunatly, the image is 1024x768 and every time I take my mouse off it to scroll left or right, all the text goes poof... ;) Had to right-click and "View Image" while mousing over it to see the whole thing...
DennyK
Probably cause it's Quicktime... ;)
;)
"H-h-h-h-h-h-i I'm-m-m-m-m-m-m Joe and I-I-I-I-I-I'm Fars-s-s-s-s-s-scap-p-p-p-p-pe." (By now, the video portion is halfway through the *next* person's speech...)
Or am I the only one who suffers from this Quicktime problem, where the audio skips and repeats like a record the cat used as a scratching post, while the video keeps playing merrily along, getting further and further ahead of the stuttering audio track?
DennyK
Why not produce lifeforms that can (for example) consume greenhouse gasses and produce energy? That would certainly reduce the strain on the environment.
Do we really know what the long-term consequences of releasing such organisms into our ecosystem would be? Even if they are not deliberately released, if they are widely used, they're gonna get out sooner or later. Even if they're somehow designed to die outside the lab or CO2 processing plant, there's still the distinct possibility of a mutated strain that bypasses those controls.
Who knows? Create a CO2 eating microbe today...in five hundred years, or even fifty, 90% of the Earth's plant life may end up dead for lack of CO2 because these little buggers have multiplied and spread out of control.
The Earth is an incredibly complex, carefully balanced system. Trying to engineer it too excessively when we're really not sure at all what we're doing could backfire in a big way.
DennyK
Hear, hear. Although, with gas taxes, etc., your example isn't very exact.
I don't have kids, but my taxes pay for the public school that babysits Mrs. Housewife's children five days a week. I use my land line a few hours a month, but my basic line costs pay for her to gab with her friends for six hours a day. I won't ever see a dime of my Social Security tax; it's all going to help pay for her parents' current retirement benefits. I only watch a few channels of TV, but I'm paying $50 a month for 60 channels I don't want so she can watch her Lifetime dramas all night. And she pays $40 a month for her Internet access so I can download a few dozen Star Trek episodes and Mike Oldfield MP3s every week at 1.5Mbps. That's how this stuff works.
To the people who are saying "I only use my $40 broadband connection to check email and look at eBay," I ask you...if you're so put out at having to spend $40 to subsidize my heavy use, why don't you go back to a $15 dial-up account? Then you won't have to worry about it any longer. If you don't really use broadband, then instead of complaining about the price being so high because of people who actually use what they were sold, why not save $25-35 a month and go back to 56K?
Currently, I'm on Sprint DSL, and they haven't said a word about caps yet. If they do implement an unreasonable cap, I'll look elsewhere for my service. If I can't find anything else, I'll go back to dial-up myself. I'll hate it, but it's better than putting up with a ridiculously small monthly cap for three times the price.
DennyK
Yes, but if a poor player plays unpredictably, it may cause more problems for a computer than for a human expert. A human could adapt to an unorthodox style of play to defeat his opponent quickly. A computer may not be able to adapt as well, or at all. It will still win against a poor opponent, but in the process, it will probably make moves and decisions that weren't the best for the situation, and miss opportunities that a human opponent could see.
DennyK
I do all my grocery shopping at Wal-Mart these days. It's a little farther to drive than the other stores, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper. The same stuff (almost literally, same brands and all) that costs $100 at Publix costs about $70-75 at Wal. Winn-Dixie is closer to Wal's prices, with the "value card" (yeah, yeah, privacy, blah, blah...but they don't do address verification, you just fill out the sheet and get your card right there, so as far as they're concerned, I'm Joe Smith from 123 Main St. in Boise, Idaho... ;) ) but it takes twice as long to shop there since half their inventory is a week past the expiration date (I swear to God one of their salamis tried to bite me once. Luckily it hadn't managed to grow any teeth. Yet...) Wal's also open 24 hours, which is nice for a night owl like me. Only downside is the aisles are crammed with pallets and carts of inventory at that time of night, so it can be rather hard to navigate...I had to walk half the length of the store one time when I found myself on the wrong side of the aisle and every space between the middle islands was blocked by pallets...
The other downside to Wal-Mart is their selection is somewhat limited, but they usually carry everything I'm looking for, so it's not a big deal for me. Oh, and they can't sell beer after midnight. Damn blue laws...
DennyK
I think that's a big part of the problem...people go to the doctor expecting to get a pill to make the sickness go away. I am sure there are some doctors who will prescribe some antibiotic for a bad cold or flu to make it look like they're doing something useful, rather than just tell the patient, "There's nothing we can do. Just spend the rest of the week in bed and drink plenty of fluids."
DennyK
But here's something odd I've noticed: In general, folk who think Windows is for multitasking (and abuse it like we do :) have very tidy, organized desktops, with icons neatly grouped by program type or function. Conversely people who only cope well with one window at a time tend to have shortcut icons randomly scattered all over their desktop, and seem to LIKE it that way
;) ). At work, I always open my programs and windows in a specific order, and if they get out of order somehow, I usually close everything down and start all over...otherwise I get all twitchy... ;-D
;)
Interesting...I usually work with 12+ windows open almost all of the time, but my desktop is entirely covered with random icons in some random order. I guess I'm more of a "visual" person, since I usually memorize the location of the icons (and every time Windows hiccups and resets the order to some other random pattern, I spend the next week opening Quake when I want to check my email...
That said...I HATE wasted space in windows. Especially since I have to use 800x600 on a 17" screen or I can't see anything. Looking at those screenshots with those huge icons, and sidebars, and web panes or whatever the hell they're called, and window "titles" that take up 1/4 of the screen...*shudder* Not for me, thanks. I turned all that crap off in Windows 98 first chance I got. I've never understood who actually likes that stuff. Most newbies I've worked with just find it confusing as heck, and most experiened users find it useless. As for the colors and shapes, give me sharp corners and battleship grey dialog boxes any day. I also hate antialiased fonts myself...they look very blurry to me, and give me a headache when I try to read something like a PDF file or whatnot that "smooths" the fonts. I'd rather have pixelated fonts that are sharp and clear than smooth fonts that make me think my glasses are smudged when I stare at 'em too long...
DennyK
If I know someone's "unpublished" phone number, is it illegal for me to publish it - say on my web site, or in my car window? (IANAL - I'm guessing "yes" it's illegal.)
I'd guess no, it's not illegal. An "unpublished" number is just a number that doesn't appear in any phone company directories. If you come by the number through some other means, I can't see anything illegal about simply "publishing" it or sharing it with others. It would certainly be rude, but I don't think it would be illegal.
DennyK
If you have "Full window dragging" (or whatever it's called on your system) enabled, you can also grab a screenshot by hitting PRNTSCRN while you are dragging the RealPlayer window around. The image in the window switches from overlay to the standard video system while being dragged.
--DennyK
How 'bout MyDirectActiveSX Explorer XP.NET# 2003? I think that about covers everything... ;-)
DennyK
Problems? What they describe is physically impossible. To move data from Point A to Point B, there has to be some sort of "wired or wireless" connection. Even if the data is somehow being stored in the mouse itself and transferred that way, that's still a connection between the two machines...not a direct one, but a connection nontheless.
;-)
And if that is the case...WHY would you want to build a mouse that stores data? There are far easier and more reliable ways to move data from one computer to another.
Makes about as much sense as surround sound in a cube farm, I suppose...
DennyK
I'll second that. I have the X-Wing and the Imperial shuttle (the "smaller" versions, not the "collectible" display models), and aside from the minifigs and accessories, there aren't any real Star Wars themed pieces in the sets. There are some special pieces (like the shuttle's canopy), but the ones that are in there are GOOD special pieces, like the old ones used to be...they can be used on a lot of models in a lot of different ways. The Star Wars sets are pretty much the only Legos I even look at anymore. I used to love the Castle sets, but now the few they are still selling are lousy (too heavy on the theme of the week, way too many special pieces, and the architecture is all open and flimsy...ick!). Whatever happened to the big castles with good solid walls and some generic knights and footmen? :-/
DennyK
True...but it's easier for me just to block all scripts. I don't use IE for web browsing anyway, so I just leave it set to ask before it does anything. Then I can just tell Grokster "No" and the occasional IE-only site that I have to visit "Yes"... ;)
DennyK
I started having that problem with my (older) neutered version of Grokster. To fix it, I just turned off all scripting in IE. Grokster continues to work fine, but it no longer displays popup ads. I haven't tried the new version of Kazaa, but I'd guess the same trick would probably work with it.
DennyK
If the parachute(s) are attached right, and there isn't too much wind or rough terrain, it should be possible to have the car land mostly on its wheels. You're definatly gonna need new struts and an alignment job after that, though... ;)
DennyK
"This Space Intentionally Left Blank"
;)
DennyK
I have an Athlon 600, 128MB of RAM, and a 16MB Diamond Viper V770 TNT2, and play at 640x480 with all the eye candy turned off or as low as it can go. The game runs slowly, the textures disappear, and eventually everything turns bright purple. W00t!
;-)
And my point would be..........that I have no point. Well, that and the fact I need a new computer. Feel free to send donations.
DennyK
No, actually, it was a licensing issue. There was also a Lamborghini Diablo in the Japanese version of the game that was removed for the U.S. release because of licensing.
;) There are several American cars in the game, as well as European cars, and also many true race cars, including several Formula One lookalikes.
There are actually quasi-Porsches in the game...they couldn't get a license agreement with Porsche, but they slipped them into the game under the RUF emblem, by stretching the definition of a "automobile manufacturer" a wee bit. RUF is a company which sells heavily modified Porsches.
In any case, the focus is not really on "import racing" so much as it is on street and road racing in general. Yes, there are a lot of Japanese cars...which is to be expected, since the game was designed in Japan.
DennyK
Don't be silly. It's not a bust. It was all arranged with the original builders (you know, those alien dudes) so that Fox could air a sequel! In fact, the entire shaft is filled with little stone plugs every few feet, with some cheesy artifacts and heiroglyphics here and there to keep audiences tuned in. Proceeds from the advertising will help fund the alien's continuing integration into our society.
;-D
Rumor has it that there may be some nasty traps inside the shaft also, so that in case the series doesn't work out, Fox will have plenty of footage for a few When Pyramids Attack! specials...
DennyK
The race was at Texas Motor Speedway, a 1.5 mile high-banked (24') oval track. During practice, the drivers were experiencing lateral G-forces approaching 6G in the turns, and several complained about various physiological effects (tunnel vision, vertigo, dizzyness, etc.) after just a handful of laps. Fearing that the extreme G-forces would lead to injuries and cause mayhem on the track over the course of the race, CART cancelled the event.
On a side note, the IRL (Indy Racing League) runs at Texas and its sister track, Atlanta, also a 1.5 mile high-banked oval. The IRL cars are a little slower than the CART vehicles, however, and don't generate the 5+ G that the CART drivers were experiencing. The stock cars (NASCAR) which run at the same tracks, of course, don't generate nearly the same forces, since they are far slower in the turns than the lightweight open-wheel cars.
DennyK
Doh...and now we come along and force the ISP of said faster server to pull the plug... ;)
DennyK
Yes...but there is a real person behind each of those connections. Just because a community is made up of members who communicate with each other online (whether it be via a message board, chat room, MUD, MMORPG, or what have you) instead of meeting face-to-face doesn't make it any less "real" than any other community. People can (and will) argue endlessly about the "quality" of online versus in-person communities, but the fact remains that online communities are very much "reality", not fantasy.
In this case, a well known and respected member of the community passed away, and the other members of the community paid their respects. It baffles me that you find that "sick."
DennyK
Hmm...only trouble I see with Ikea, in browsing their site, is you have to spend quite a bit to get an item that's not either (a) made of wicker, or (b) apparently designed by someone under the influence of LSD. Do people actually buy giant day-glo-orange barrels with seat-shaped depressions in them to sit on in their living rooms? ;-)
;)
Most of my furniture is secondhand (for the big items), or Wal-Mart flatpack (for shelves, tables, and the like). All of the flatpack stuff was pretty easy to put together. It's not all that pretty, but I prefer function over form anyway, and at least it doesn't look like a reject from a Picasso painting.
DennyK
Those are somewhat relaxing, especially the slow ones. Unfortunatly, my pop-culture-soaked brain keeps cringing in anticipation of either the Survivor theme or a Foster's commercial everytime it hears one. Dammit... ;-)
DennyK