For years now I have been reading Gutenberg/Baen Library/what-have-you books on my Samsung I730 (PPC/phone), and while the screen is small, landscape mode is perfectly usable. Now this requires both a tiny bit of technical knowledge (converting files, installing Cyrilics) and it may be a strain for some people's eyes, but on the other hand, the phone's with me everywhere, and the battery has easily lasted through a dozen of trans-Atlantic flights. And when I fail to properly prepare for a trip, I can still seek&download a.txt file from the Internet.
If I were to look for a more user-friendly alternative, or seek to impress those around me with a polished device, I would splurge for the Kindle. A laptop, as far as I concerned, is too middle of the road. Almost as uncool as my Samsung , and almost as expensive as the Kindle (the phone is more expensive, but I carry it anyway)
By the way my sister recently bought some Sony/Ericson phone/PocketPC with a much nicer screen, and on that one, even.pdf look damn good. What can I say, I believe in multifunctional devices and in keeping DRM off them.
Yes. He directly caused the deaths of at least two people, and he has destroyed at least a fraction of countless people's lives. If it were up to me, I would throw him to his victims, and absolve them for reducing him to a greasy smear on the ground. Then I'd make every single person who got one dime from him (wife, children, relatives, employees of his racket) pay back all they received from him. If they no longer have it, I'd sell their property and garnish their wages.
Yes, be happy that you do not live in a world rules by the likes of me.:-)
Depending on where you drive, it can be illegal to have an open alcohol container on the front seat, or even in the car, period. Same reasoning, I guess.
We all have our favorites. Personally I think that the Strugatski brothers had some awesome books, but after reading their English translations, I do not think that I could convince a Brookline Bridge buyer that this is the case.
Assuming you have 2 people on an email, there is only one possible connection, A to B. If it doubles, there is A to B, A to C, A to D, B to C, and C to D.
Any reason that B and D aren't talking to each other? The amount of bad math in this thread is amazing!
And you believe that you, personally, will follow this rule to the letter? I am not sure whether most soldiers are even expected to follow it... A robot may, you may, but I am not sure that I would, coming under fire.
If I have the choice between dying, and letting the bastard get away with it, and shooting back, and maybe killing more than my attacker, I know I would hesitate. Put someone I care about next to me, and make everyone around my enemy a stranger, and I will not even hesitate.
You are 'fairly certain' and wrong. You will not be charged with any crime, but whatever you paid will be forfeit unless the thief/seller is caught. The merchandise will be returned to the original owner.
Am I missing something, or did someone rewrite "I am a legend"? At the end of the story _I_ remember, the main character understand that he, the last human, has become a murdering monster to the race that has inherited our world. How exactly would that be "reversing the disaster"?
Mods were useless? Heh. I remember my sister taking a look at me playing, and wondering "Where did you get a rocket launcher, I never saw one!" It was just a sniper rifle with two damage mods and some explosive bullets that had splash damage. One shot would overheat it (three or four times over) but the damage was enough to take out everything but the big walking tanks in one shot.
Woops. Not 'killers per mile driven'. That's only the last two. Insurance claims per mile driven is the correct accusation. I guess the Caddy and the Chrysler do a better job at protecting the passengers. So I guess the spike in the steering wheel approach does not work either... surprise, surprise.
Do you realize that you just listed four of the top ten killers-per-mile-driven in the US? Talk about shooting an argument in the head. For those too lazy to look it up, the BMWs are the exception.
There are laws that explicitly state what lighting can be installed on your car, and where. Cabs, for example, need special dispensation. Interference with other drivers is the reason for the laws, but you will be still guilty of violating the letter.
That said, there are thousands of cars violating various laws (tinting, bumper height, lightning, ground clearance, etc...) Not a problem until your car is examined in details for some other reason. And then you are in a world of hurt.
A friend of mine T-boned a woman who ran a stop sign. His windshield was tinted, which is illegal in California. No police officer seemed to care about that before the accident, but in that particular case, it ended up costing thousands, when both insurance companies used it as a reason to refuse covering the damages.
I see your1998 Jedi Knight, and raise you a 1993 Netrek. 8 players per team, different classes of ships (no, destroyers do not suck), persistent player ratings, tournament ladders for both coasts, etc...
No, gaming had not gone that far in the last 11 years.
No kidding. My favorite place for lunch went through that exact same process. For three years I ate lunch there two-three times a week. I must have taken at least ten people there, and a few stuck with it. It was a Persian grill/kabob place, and it used to be packed at lunch time. I started taking my lunch break later in the day so I did not have to wait.
So, there comes an asshole, buys the place from the family that runs it, and during the last week they were still running the place chats up the customers while they are eating, telling them how he's going to make great changes... Even after I told him that I had been going there for years, and after he had seen me there for the third time, he still insisted telling me how he was going to be changing things, and how I would not recognize the place.
So the old Persian lady left, the good stuff slowly disappeared from the menu... and one day, the name of the place was changed to 'Between the bun' (sic) Well, within three weeks, the place was empty at lunch. I know, because I still walked past it every day. In two months, he closed it. There have been other restaurants in there, but no one held for more than an year, and right now it is vacant. A corner building on a nice little plaza with a fountain... a place that used to overflow even at lunch time, even on weekends.
> If 100% of women are repulsed by a song about rape, and 45% of men > find it to be offensive, then the song shouldn't be made.
> I think that if more than 10% of people find that a song IS NOT > offensive, then it should be allowed.
> How is that for a pretty liberal standard?
It is liberal, if by 'liberal' you mean 'harebrained'. The first two statements are irreconcilable.
100% of 52% + 45% of 48% = 52% + 21.6% = 73.6% Which is less than the 90% of all people your second statement requires for a ban.
Or are you talking about 90% of the supposedly offended group? Because I am not sure that Jesus Christ Superstar would have seen the light of the day if one had interviewed only christian fundamentalists.
But why the Hell am I discussing your post seriously? I find it abhorrent. If you were being sarcastic, it went over my head. If you were serious, I hope you never attain a position of power.
I had no papers to my name, and I started at 68,000 which got bumped to 73,000 on my 30 day review. And it was in '97. I did have a couple of solo programming projects, and an internship at an evil corporation...
I say an MIT grad could get 60k with a bit of effort.
Many games did. Many others did not. You could never tell until you tried. Two of my favorite games that would not work on 2000 for a long time, were Dark Omen and Fallout: Tactics. I kept a dual boot to 98SE for them.
You also must not forget that just because a game works with 2000 now, does not mean that it did when it was released. 2000 has been patched a lot since then. I am pretty sure that it took a while before DirectX started working well on 2000.
As for Vista, I think and deal with it exactly the way I dealt with ME. I installed it on one PC, made a half-assed effort to use it, got fed up, and waited for XP/Win7.
I can see the point when one is talking about SUVs... I disagree, but I can see how one could make an argument: people who need neither the carrying nor towing capacity of a large SUV are compensating for their physical shortcomings, and want to appear tough and intimidating.
As for sports cars... you are of course, absolutely right. If only because I have one or two myself. ("One or two", because my Supra was rear-ended and total'd by a police officer talking on his cellphone)
I do not see how the above is flamebait. Wrong, may be, but flamebait?
I also like most of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix better than almost all of the Beatles' songs. There's no accounting for taste. Pink Floyd are not really contemporaries, though. They were just getting going when the Beatles broke up.
I disagree. While you are right about stopping distance, i.e. that a good driver will stop better without ABS brakes on many surfaces, I think that the advantages of being able to steer while braking hard on a slippery surface can't be overstated. Now, some people may be able to achieve this by pumping their brakes, and what have you, but I seriously doubt many humans can beat a dynamic stability system and anti-lock brakes while figuring out how to avoid a multiple car accident.
As for people who take additional risks because of their blind faith in their cars' "techno tricks"... I am sure that they exist, I would not be surprised if they actually get in more accidents with DNS and ABS, and frankly, I do not give a fuck. I think that I am safer in a car with dynamic stability control and anti-lock brakes.
In my particular case, I own a AWD S60-R Volvo with all of the gadgets and a RWD Toyota Supra with none of them. There are things that I could do with the Supra that the Volvo could never do (getting on the 71 south from the 60 west at 90 mph) but the ghost in the Volvo has saved my butt in a situation when my driving skills and the Supra would have probably failed me. On a rather sharp right turn, in the rain, the guy driving in lane right of me lost control of his car, and spun it across my lane, to end in the grass on the left. I had to brake and steer at the same time, and did not expect to have to do it. I am pretty sure that in the Supra I would have lost control of my car.
I think that like most tools, ABS is better than no tool at all. Of course, bad judgment and overreliance on your tools can lead you into trouble. But people who say 'ABS are the evil!' would also probable say that learning martial arts is bad, because some retards think it's a good idea to kick at a muggers' knives.
Oh, and I will use this opportunity to mourn my Supra, which got totalled last month by a cop that was not paying attention, and rear ended me while I was stopped in traffic. I wonder what kind of techno gadget would have helped with that.
You know, a lot of what you say makes sense... on the surface, and maybe in general. But in the particular, it breaks down. I've heard that anecdotal evidence is no evidence and all that crap, but!
In the area where I drive daily, there have been one speed camera, two red light cameras, and two speed traps that I know of.
The speed camera is at the bottom of a lightly traveled hill. Two lanes in every direction, the road is in great condition, there are about two miles without lights OR intersections, and once the incline is past, there is a 'fake' traffic light with no purpose but to slow traffic down. The limit is 45 miles per hour. To keep my cars this slow, engine braking isn't enough. It's a perversion. In the last three years, there have been two accidents on that road. Both were single vehicle crashes by a drunk driver. I fail to see how the camera does anything but pad the city's pockets.
The two red light camera were introduced at the same time as the signs regulating the intersections were modified. One of the modifications made sense. No U-turn going north, and a green light right turn going east. It really helps with traffic. I assume that the camera does a good job enforcing this. But for two months, the 'No U-turn' sign was hidden by bushes. I got ticketed, went to court with 40 snapshots taken on the approach to the intersection, and the police officer did not contest it at all. I assume I was not the only one who did that. To be honest, the accidents on that intersection have gone way down after the "No U-turn" sign was raised so that it can actually be seen.
The other intersection with a camera underwent the exact same modifications... except that the street coming from the west exits a Amtrack station, has no traffic to speak of, and thus does not need the green light right turn. The street is immediately after a highway entrance on the wrong side (going north, to enter the 60 east, you go west. The signs and the camera are nothing but a gotcha. In the last three years (one before the changes) there are no accidents on record at that intersection.
There speed traps... well, This is getting long, so I'll just describe the one that is gone. There used to be one mile without intersections on a nice, twisty two+two lanes road. The limit was 55, and many were breaking it. Less than three month ago, 'The Commons', including at least three bars/breweries was opened there, adding two traffic lights. It became impossible to safely speed there. I have not seen a cruiser there for months (I drive there to get to work) There have been FOUR accidents in the last three months. My conclusion - the cruisers were there to catch the speeders, and don't give a rat ass reducing accidents by losers who are too drunk or too dumb to drive.
Slashdot Mirror
Dude, check your sarcasm detector. It does not seem to be working.
For years now I have been reading Gutenberg/Baen Library/what-have-you books .txt file from the Internet.
on my Samsung I730 (PPC/phone), and while the screen is small, landscape mode
is perfectly usable. Now this requires both a tiny bit of technical knowledge
(converting files, installing Cyrilics) and it may be a strain for some people's
eyes, but on the other hand, the phone's with me everywhere, and the battery has
easily lasted through a dozen of trans-Atlantic flights. And when I fail to
properly prepare for a trip, I can still seek&download a
If I were to look for a more user-friendly alternative, or seek to impress those
around me with a polished device, I would splurge for the Kindle. A laptop, as far
as I concerned, is too middle of the road. Almost as uncool as my Samsung , and
almost as expensive as the Kindle (the phone is more expensive, but I carry it anyway)
By the way my sister recently bought some Sony/Ericson phone/PocketPC with a much nicer .pdf look damn good. What can I say, I believe in
screen, and on that one, even
multifunctional devices and in keeping DRM off them.
Yes. He directly caused the deaths of at least two people, and he has
destroyed at least a fraction of countless people's lives. If it were
up to me, I would throw him to his victims, and absolve them for reducing
him to a greasy smear on the ground. Then I'd make every single person
who got one dime from him (wife, children, relatives, employees of his
racket) pay back all they received from him. If they no longer have it,
I'd sell their property and garnish their wages.
Yes, be happy that you do not live in a world rules by the likes of me. :-)
Depending on where you drive, it can be illegal to have an open
alcohol container on the front seat, or even in the car, period.
Same reasoning, I guess.
As an aside, that supermodel's name means 'Endearing' in about every Slavonic language.
Like the high probability that their entered Earth's
atmosphere at a different angle and/or speed?
We all have our favorites. Personally I think that the Strugatski brothers had
some awesome books, but after reading their English translations, I do not think
that I could convince a Brookline Bridge buyer that this is the case.
Assuming you have 2 people on an email, there is only one possible connection, A to B. If it doubles, there is A to B, A to C, A to D, B to C, and C to D.
Any reason that B and D aren't talking to each other? The amount of bad math in this thread is amazing!
And you believe that you, personally, will follow this rule to the letter? I am not sure whether most soldiers are even expected to follow it... A robot may, you may, but I am not sure that I would, coming under fire.
If I have the choice between dying, and letting the bastard get away with it, and shooting back, and maybe killing more than my attacker, I know I would hesitate. Put someone I care about next to me, and make everyone around my enemy a stranger, and I will not even hesitate.
You are 'fairly certain' and wrong. You will not be charged with any crime, but whatever you paid will be forfeit unless the thief/seller is caught. The merchandise will be returned to the original owner.
Am I missing something, or did someone rewrite "I am a legend"?
At the end of the story _I_ remember, the main character understand
that he, the last human, has become a murdering monster to the
race that has inherited our world. How exactly would that be
"reversing the disaster"?
Mods were useless? Heh. I remember my sister taking a look at me
playing, and wondering "Where did you get a rocket launcher, I never
saw one!" It was just a sniper rifle with two damage mods and
some explosive bullets that had splash damage. One shot would
overheat it (three or four times over) but the damage was enough
to take out everything but the big walking tanks in one shot.
Woops. Not 'killers per mile driven'. That's only the last two. Insurance claims per mile driven is the correct accusation. I guess the Caddy and the Chrysler do a better job at protecting the passengers. So I guess the spike in the steering wheel approach does not work either... surprise, surprise.
Do you realize that you just listed four of the top ten killers-per-mile-driven in the US? Talk about shooting an argument in the head. For those too lazy to look it up, the BMWs are the exception.
There are laws that explicitly state what lighting can be installed on
your car, and where. Cabs, for example, need special dispensation.
Interference with other drivers is the reason for the laws, but you
will be still guilty of violating the letter.
That said, there are thousands of cars violating various laws (tinting,
bumper height, lightning, ground clearance, etc...) Not a problem until
your car is examined in details for some other reason. And then you are
in a world of hurt.
A friend of mine T-boned a woman who ran a stop sign. His windshield
was tinted, which is illegal in California. No police officer seemed
to care about that before the accident, but in that particular case, it
ended up costing thousands, when both insurance companies used it as a
reason to refuse covering the damages.
I see your1998 Jedi Knight, and raise you a 1993 Netrek. 8 players
per team, different classes of ships (no, destroyers do not suck),
persistent player ratings, tournament ladders for both coasts, etc...
No, gaming had not gone that far in the last 11 years.
No kidding. My favorite place for lunch went through that exact same process. For three years I ate lunch there two-three times a week. I must have taken at least ten people there, and a few stuck with it. It was a Persian grill/kabob place, and it used to be packed at lunch time. I started taking my lunch break later in the day so I did not have to wait.
So, there comes an asshole, buys the place from the family that runs it, and during the last week they were still running the place chats up the customers while they are eating, telling them how he's going to make great changes... Even after I told him that I had been going there for years, and after he had seen me there for the third time, he still insisted telling me how he was going to be changing things, and how I would not recognize the place.
So the old Persian lady left, the good stuff slowly disappeared from the menu... and one day, the name of the place was changed to 'Between the bun' (sic) Well, within three weeks, the place was empty at lunch. I know, because I still walked past it every day. In two months, he closed it. There have been other restaurants in there, but no one held for more than an year, and right now it is vacant. A corner building on a nice little plaza with a fountain... a place that used to overflow even at lunch time, even on weekends.
> If 100% of women are repulsed by a song about rape, and 45% of men
> find it to be offensive, then the song shouldn't be made.
> I think that if more than 10% of people find that a song IS NOT
> offensive, then it should be allowed.
> How is that for a pretty liberal standard?
It is liberal, if by 'liberal' you mean 'harebrained'. The first two
statements are irreconcilable.
100% of 52% + 45% of 48% = 52% + 21.6% = 73.6% Which is less than
the 90% of all people your second statement requires for a ban.
Or are you talking about 90% of the supposedly offended group?
Because I am not sure that Jesus Christ Superstar would have
seen the light of the day if one had interviewed only christian
fundamentalists.
But why the Hell am I discussing your post seriously? I find it
abhorrent. If you were being sarcastic, it went over my head.
If you were serious, I hope you never attain a position of power.
I had no papers to my name, and I started at 68,000 which got bumped to 73,000 on my 30 day review. And it was in '97. I did have a couple of solo programming projects, and an internship at an evil corporation...
I say an MIT grad could get 60k with a bit of effort.
Many games did. Many others did not. You could never tell until you tried. Two of my favorite games that would not work on 2000 for a long time, were Dark Omen and Fallout: Tactics. I kept a dual boot to 98SE for them.
You also must not forget that just because a game works with 2000 now, does not mean that it did when it was released. 2000 has been patched a lot since then. I am pretty sure that it took a while before DirectX started working well on 2000.
As for Vista, I think and deal with it exactly the way I dealt with ME. I installed it on one PC, made a half-assed effort to use it, got fed up, and waited for XP/Win7.
I can see the point when one is talking about SUVs... I disagree, but I can see how one could make an argument: people who need neither the carrying nor towing capacity of a large SUV are compensating for their physical shortcomings, and want to appear tough and intimidating.
As for sports cars... you are of course, absolutely right. If only because I have one or two myself. ("One or two", because my Supra was rear-ended and total'd by a police officer talking on his cellphone)
I do not see how the above is flamebait. Wrong, may be, but flamebait?
I also like most of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix better than almost all of the Beatles' songs. There's no accounting for taste. Pink Floyd are not really contemporaries, though. They were just getting going when the Beatles broke up.
I disagree. While you are right about stopping distance, i.e. that a good driver will stop better without ABS brakes on many surfaces, I think that the advantages of being able to steer while braking hard on a slippery surface can't be overstated. Now, some people may be able to achieve this by pumping their brakes, and what have you, but I seriously doubt many humans can beat a dynamic stability system and anti-lock brakes while figuring out how to avoid a multiple car accident.
As for people who take additional risks because of their blind faith in their cars' "techno tricks"... I am sure that they exist, I would not be surprised if they actually get in more accidents with DNS and ABS, and frankly, I do not give a fuck. I think that I am safer in a car with dynamic stability control and anti-lock brakes.
In my particular case, I own a AWD S60-R Volvo with all of the gadgets and a RWD Toyota Supra with none of them. There are things that I could do with the Supra that the Volvo could never do (getting on the 71 south from the 60 west at 90 mph) but the ghost in the Volvo has saved my butt in a situation when my driving skills and the Supra would have probably failed me. On a rather sharp right turn, in the rain, the guy driving in lane right of me lost control of his car, and spun it across my lane, to end in the grass on the left. I had to brake and steer at the same time, and did not expect to have to do it. I am pretty sure that in the Supra I would have lost control of my car.
I think that like most tools, ABS is better than no tool at all. Of course, bad judgment and overreliance on your tools can lead you into trouble. But people who say 'ABS are the evil!' would also probable say that learning martial arts is bad, because some retards think it's a good idea to kick at a muggers' knives.
Oh, and I will use this opportunity to mourn my Supra, which got totalled last month by a cop that was not paying attention, and rear ended me while I was stopped in traffic. I wonder what kind of techno gadget would have helped with that.
I understood you the first time, but the guy messing with you is
essentially correct. "Means" can be misunderstood as "is the same as".
1. If A means B, then B means A (If A == B, then B == A)
2. If B follows from A, then A follows from B (If A -> B then B -> A)
3. If A then B, then if B then A.
While 2. and 3. are fallacies, 1. is perfectly true.
You know, a lot of what you say makes sense... on the surface, and maybe in general. But in the particular, it breaks down. I've heard that anecdotal evidence is no evidence and all that crap, but!
In the area where I drive daily, there have been one speed camera, two red light cameras, and two speed traps that I know of.
The speed camera is at the bottom of a lightly traveled hill. Two lanes in every direction, the road is in great condition, there are about two miles without lights OR intersections, and once the incline is past, there is a 'fake' traffic light with no purpose but to slow traffic down. The limit is 45 miles per hour. To keep my cars this slow, engine braking isn't enough. It's a perversion. In the last three years, there have been two accidents on that road. Both were single vehicle crashes by a drunk driver. I fail to see how the camera does anything but pad the city's pockets.
The two red light camera were introduced at the same time as the signs regulating the intersections were modified. One of the modifications made sense. No U-turn going north, and a green light right turn going east. It really helps with traffic. I assume that the camera does a good job enforcing this. But for two months, the 'No U-turn' sign was hidden by bushes. I got ticketed, went to court with 40 snapshots taken on the approach to the intersection, and the police officer did not contest it at all. I assume I was not the only one who did that. To be honest, the accidents on that intersection have gone way down after the "No U-turn" sign was raised so that it can actually be seen.
The other intersection with a camera underwent the exact same modifications... except that the street coming from the west exits a Amtrack station, has no traffic to speak of, and thus does not need the green light right turn. The street is immediately after a highway entrance on the wrong side (going north, to enter the 60 east, you go west. The signs and the camera are nothing but a gotcha. In the last three years (one before the changes) there are no accidents on record at that intersection.
There speed traps... well, This is getting long, so I'll just describe the one that is gone. There used to be one mile without intersections on a nice, twisty two+two lanes road. The limit was 55, and many were breaking it. Less than three month ago, 'The Commons', including at least three bars/breweries was opened there, adding two traffic lights. It became impossible to safely speed there. I have not seen a cruiser there for months (I drive there to get to work) There have been FOUR accidents in the last three months. My conclusion - the cruisers were there to catch the speeders, and don't give a rat ass reducing accidents by losers who are too drunk or too dumb to drive.