I ordered a mSata SSD that via Prime 2-day was scheduled for delivery on xmas eve. I got a notification that day (from Amazon) that UPS was overwhelmed and the package wouldn't be delivered on the "guaranteed" date.
On xmas day I received a (totally unsolicited) $20 gift card credit email from Amazon, that let me know $20 would be waiting in my Amazon account, no code necessary.
On xmas +1 the SSD arrived (and I ordered something else, taking full advantage of the gift card).
Result? At least in this regard, 100% satisfied customer...
Assuming all US$100 bills, an average sized briefcase (25" x 18" x 4") could theoretically fit about US$2,400,000. An average attache case (18" x 12" x 4.5") is good for about US$1,000,000.
>Oddly, budget and midscale hotel chains are more likely to offer free Wi-Fi, while luxurious hotels — already costing the traveler more — regularly ding us.
Not odd in the slightest -- the majority of said "luxurious" hotel rooms are being consumed by (in no particular order) #1 the price insensitive and #2 business travelers (arguably a great overlap, if not outright subset, of group #1).
Few of either group in covering a hotel bill for a few nights in San Francisco are going to care much if it's $845 or $885 with Internet.
Finally, those in group #2 are much more likely to have elite status with the hotel, which typically (at the higher levels) includes free internet -- making it a "valuable" perk for your brand loyalty...
See that little pipsqueek on the far right? That's what comes out of the "assault rifle" the killer from this story used. It is literally the size of 3 BBs glued together, with a few grams of powder behind it. Cartridge and all, it weighs less then 20 grams.
Yeah, no.
The round used by the primary firearm in this incident was, according to all the reports I've seen, the.223, aka the 7th round in your chart labeled "5.56 x 45 Nato." There's an important digit of distinction between a.22 and a.223. The projectile is only slightly wider, sure, but it has a lot more mass (approx double) and is moving at a much higher velocity (around 900-940 m/s vs 300-500 m/s).
For pedantics,.223 and 5.56 are not the exact same thing, but they're externally the same, i.e. the same size cartridge (casing and bullet). The interior volume of the 5.56 round is smaller, and can create slightly larger chamber pressures when fired in a gun designed solely for.223.
Not that it matters, but I'm a certified firearms instructor (certified to teach pistol, rifle, home firearm safety and personal protection) and strong advocate that the concepts being banded about for "gun control" are absolutely ludicrous at best, but that's not relevant to this specific bit of misinformation.
The reference to ISO compliance here isn't to the ISO9001 quality standard, but the ISO 27001 and ISO 27002 best practices standards for information security.
Congratulations! You just re-invented two factor authentication! Of course, what you're proposing is nothing as elegant or simple as market leader RSA's SecurID solution
And a good number of banks offer the use of two-factor authentication to protect your money, including the mid-sized midwestern financial institution where I currently work.
I saw RotS last night, at an industry screening (thanks to a contact within our local Pepsi distributor).
Disclaimer - because this is important. If the name didn't give it away, I'm a fanatic fanboi - I've owned the domain jedinite.com for an eternity and used to host some decent Star Wars related content there. I lost about a year of my life to Star Wars Galaxies, just because it said "Star Wars" on the box. I own and have read all the books. I've read and even written fan fiction. Total fanboi. But I'd now categorize myself as more of a "former fanboi" - Lucas pretty much lost me with Ep I and II. I hated them that much. Star Wars (specifically Empire if questioned) went from my default answer to "What is your favorite movie" to a place in my life normally reserved for that one bad eighties pop album you would never want to admit to your friends that you still listen to on a regular basis...
All that being said, Sith is GOOD. It isn't great. Its not a movie you'll walk out of going "it was AMAZING!!1!!1!!!one!". But compared to EpI and II it looks like Citizen Kane...
-----
SEMI-SPOILERS FOLLOW (detailed discussion of the flaws in the movie from my perspective)
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-----
-----
My biggest gripe with the movie is that its still not dark enough. It is dark, much much darker than Ep I or II. But it doesn't do a good job communicating emotion at all - there are very few times where I felt connected to Anakin or Padme. McGreggor's Obi-Wan is the only character that makes you feel emotionally involved in the story at any depth.
Ultimately, the biggest flaw is the fall of Anakin to Darth Vader just simply isn't done well. The storyline is there - Lucas has given us all the pieces. It makes sense if I sit here and explain it to someone who hasn't seen the movie or someone who's not familiar with the series at all (bear with me)
This kid has all sorts of abilities, and a serious attachment disorder because his only companion growing up is his mother. He's separated from his mother at a young age to train to further his abilities. He has a vision of his mother being killed, and he rushes to her side, but not in time to prevent her death. He blames himself for not developing his abilities quickly enough, for not being strong enough or powerful enough. He falls in to a forbidden love, and they marry in secret, and become pregnant. All this time he is being manipulated by an evil father figure and is put in the middle of a major conflict between his best friends and this evil father figure. And then he has another vision, identical to the one he had of his mother being killed, except its his forbidden love dying in childbirth. This vision combines with his acute fear of abandonment and slowly sends him over the edge, doing unspeakable things with the goal of saving his wife's life because he cannot lose the one other thing he's ever loved in his life...
Now how George Lucas shows this in Episode Three:
Anakin:(woodenly) I'm happy. Now I'm angry. Now I'm scared. Now I'm good, but wait I'm not so good. You're going to die! I can't lose you!
Padme:(completely disinterested, looking at her nails and chewing gum) oh Ani. Hold me like you held me on Naboo. Or whatever...
Darth Siddious: Even though every bit of your training says you're opposed to this, you should come over to the dark side. All the cool kids are doing it. Because its got, like, powers and stuff. And it could probably save your wife from dying. Seriously, it could. There was this one guy, one time, who could keep people from dying. Except I killed him, so he wasn't really that good at it I guess. But he TOTALLY had the real ultimate power to keep people from dying. So you should totally become a Sith Lord.
One example is the "glass" plate over the laser in the grocery barcode scanner: actually made from colorless "sapphire" because it is both harder and tougher than glass.
Likewise, Rolex uses artificial sapphire as the "glass" in their watch faces for the same reason...
Mostly asked and answered on a recent interview by *sigh* DarthBastard...
DarthBastard: We are hearing from some of the reviews of the film that some of the references to God (such as the second half of the babelfish description) are not in the movie. This is a shame but, given the current political climate in America, is perfectly understandible (though I'm glad the more subtle dig at organised religion - Humma and his sermon - is going to be there). What are your thoughts on this and will we see some of these references on the DVD?
Robbie Stamp: Good first question - there has been *no* pressure of any kind whatsoever to take out any of the " God" references. That Guid entry was cut because the pacing at that stage wasnt working. We had too many entries coming on top of each other too quickly. But there is still plenty of Douglas' atheism in the film and the whole Humma plot is right on the nose when it comes to organised religion. And yes look out for the DVD.
AlohaJoe: Is there anything that has been cut from the movie that you wish hadn't been?
Robbie Stamp: For me the "litmus" test scene was the whale - its the one that sums up everything that makes Douglas a genius. It comes at a moment when the movie should be driving towards the end but we go off on this digressioin that has not plot relevance. Its pure HHGG - invention, ideas and humour. Not a response about cutting I know but the honest answer is that there isnt really anything which I miss too much ( maybe one line but I'm not goint to tell you which one, though its been hinted at in an earlier question!)
Nellodee: If I dont get to be there later on, heres my question: First of all, hello Mr. Stamp, thank you for being here and for getting this project in gear! One question id like to ask you: Have you read MJ Simpsons negative review and if yes, how do answer? (Id like to add that I have full faith in the movie crew to give us a great H2G2 screen adaptation.)
Robbie Stamp: Yes I have read ( some) of Mike's review. I am genuinely sad that he feels that way, genuinely. I know how much he cares about HHGG and I am sure that he took no pleasure in writing that review. Having said that, I would be looking for a log cabin somewhere in Western Alaska if his was the only fan voice that I respect who has pronounced on the movie. But he isnt. In fact his is not the majority opinion. There are many fans whose opinions I respect just as much who loved the movie, genuinely loved it.
The lack of digital audio on the mac mini is pretty easily solved. My suggested solution is the M-Audio Transit, but there are numerous other USB soundcards which work just fine on the mac.
The big problem for me is the lack of a gigabit ethernet adaptor in the mini. Not a problem if you're not intending to move large video files around your network, but my intention with my hometheater PC is to be able to serve MP3s and MPEG4 to any PC on my gigabit backbone.
The lack of gigabit on the mini is almost unexcusable. I've got a mini, ordered on launch day, and I love it to death... but i'd pay +$100 for gigabit on it at this point...
True - however I think it would still be a noticable improvement over 100M I'd think, even though you'd be throttling the bandwidth thanks to the USB2 channel.
Firewire 1394b is 800 megabits per second, that would allow for even faster speeds if Apple (or someone) were to develop some kind of firewire gigabit adapter.
I am just amazed though that people will start clicking ads when they reach a site which is obviously the wrong one. How does an average person's thought process work?
Cue appropriate (and timely) Simpson's quote from this week's episode:
Homer visits the ePISCOPAL CHURCH website and clicks through to become an instant ordained minister (complete with print-out clerical collar)
Homer: "And now to close out the pop-ups. A talking moose wants my credit card number? Fair enough..." *types*
No question, if you're still in the pre-rough-in stages (i.e. no drywall up yet), wire your house.
Even if you've got drywall down, depending on your insulation type you may still be able to fish wires through, especially if your ceiling/floor is not directly insulated - you can easily run wire parallel to floor joice if its not insulated, cut a small hole at the ceiling, and fish through the insulated walls - assuming its a spray-in non-hardening insulation, which most people use these days - my house is blown recycled newspaper which is apparently a very common insulation.
In more detail, I just (this weekend) closed on my new custom-built house. I've got 1.26 miles of wire in the house (easily calculated since everyone sold me the wire I used by the foot). Cat5e for phone, Cat6e for data, speakerwire, multiple coax runs to almost every room (so I can RF-mod signals and broadcast them to any other room), and in appropriate places audio, video, even two 25' DVI runs and two 25' RGB runs. In fact, voice/data/coax terminates to a Futuresmart panel in my furnace room where signals can be routed...
As someone has already said, wireless is good for walking around with the laptop/etc. Not what you want for speakers. But not to mention when you've got the opportunity to build a gigabit backbone for the majority of the house, take it while you still can. Especially if you're serious about moving music or especially video.
My recently-received Mac Mini will be taking over as a media center in my home theater, and i'll be pulling MP3s and videos from my WinXP boxes via Samba (cut me some slack on the Windows comments, my dedicated server is BSD but XP still is my best machine for gaming and video).
I feel sorry for the guy, in a way; he used to be a computer geek just like so many others and he's cut off from part of the internet just by virtue of his success.
Yeah, I feel sorry for him, too.
Good thing he can spend his time screwing supermodels on top of piles of cash, that probably makes up for it in some small way.
Your analogy would be the RIAA releasing tagged files which somehow "phone home" to let someone know they've been downloaded. One way would be the RIAA running their own server, and then grabbing the IP of anyone who downloaded from it.
Valve's warez version of HL2, if it does indeed exist, destroy your computer or format your files or anything. According to TFA it simply bans the Steam account of the person trying to play it.
Slashdot Mirror
https://twitter.com/jquery/sta...
Indeed. Per TFA it's "only" $400M in cash and $1.6B in stock.
(and an additional $300M in earn-out based on undefined goals)
I was one of these customers.
I ordered a mSata SSD that via Prime 2-day was scheduled for delivery on xmas eve. I got a notification that day (from Amazon) that UPS was overwhelmed and the package wouldn't be delivered on the "guaranteed" date.
On xmas day I received a (totally unsolicited) $20 gift card credit email from Amazon, that let me know $20 would be waiting in my Amazon account, no code necessary.
On xmas +1 the SSD arrived (and I ordered something else, taking full advantage of the gift card).
Result? At least in this regard, 100% satisfied customer...
actually much easier than you think. $100k is only ten of these stacks (three pictured):
http://www.officialpsds.com/10000-Stacks-PSD63355.html
Assuming all US$100 bills, an average sized briefcase (25" x 18" x 4") could theoretically fit about US$2,400,000. An average attache case (18" x 12" x 4.5") is good for about US$1,000,000.
Calls in mind the scene from Dodgeball where they show a suitcase of $100k, namely:
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dodgeballmoney2.jpg
(although that's comically undersized for $100k)
Yet Another Information Security Professional, working in a sensitive information startup.
Of course, a lot of these have been in use long before the NSA revelations...
A few of my personal tools and our corporate-used tools:
All OSX shop configured with strict firewall, fileVault, and openVPN,
Browser plugins to block ads (adBlock Plus), scripts/flash (NoScript), popups (Adblock Plus Pop-up Addon), trackers (Ghostery), and enforce HTTPS (HTTPS-Everywhere).
GPG Tools for encrypting individual files / emails - https://gpgtools.org/
OTR for secure messaging (use Adium which has OTR support off the shelf) https://otr.cypherpunks.ca/
Silent Circle for encrypted voice and text - https://silentcircle.com/
Personal VPN for traffic encryption for browsing outside of corporate purposes, e.g. one of these:
https://www.bestvpn.com/blog/4809/best-vpn-service-top-10/
note that several offer payment methods that are anonymous, e.g. gift cards purchased with cash, i.e. http://www.paygarden.com/
Obligitory Schneier:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/05/nsa-how-to-remain-secure-surveillance
>Oddly, budget and midscale hotel chains are more likely to offer free Wi-Fi, while luxurious hotels — already costing the traveler more — regularly ding us.
Not odd in the slightest -- the majority of said "luxurious" hotel rooms are being consumed by (in no particular order) #1 the price insensitive and #2 business travelers (arguably a great overlap, if not outright subset, of group #1).
Few of either group in covering a hotel bill for a few nights in San Francisco are going to care much if it's $845 or $885 with Internet.
Finally, those in group #2 are much more likely to have elite status with the hotel, which typically (at the higher levels) includes free internet -- making it a "valuable" perk for your brand loyalty...
See that little pipsqueek on the far right? That's what comes out of the "assault rifle" the killer from this story used. It is literally the size of 3 BBs glued together, with a few grams of powder behind it. Cartridge and all, it weighs less then 20 grams.
Yeah, no.
The round used by the primary firearm in this incident was, according to all the reports I've seen, the .223, aka the 7th round in your chart labeled "5.56 x 45 Nato." There's an important digit of distinction between a .22 and a .223. The projectile is only slightly wider, sure, but it has a lot more mass (approx double) and is moving at a much higher velocity (around 900-940 m/s vs 300-500 m/s).
For pedantics, .223 and 5.56 are not the exact same thing, but they're externally the same, i.e. the same size cartridge (casing and bullet). The interior volume of the 5.56 round is smaller, and can create slightly larger chamber pressures when fired in a gun designed solely for .223.
Not that it matters, but I'm a certified firearms instructor (certified to teach pistol, rifle, home firearm safety and personal protection) and strong advocate that the concepts being banded about for "gun control" are absolutely ludicrous at best, but that's not relevant to this specific bit of misinformation.
The reference to ISO compliance here isn't to the ISO9001 quality standard, but the ISO 27001 and ISO 27002 best practices standards for information security.
see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_27001
Congratulations! You just re-invented two factor authentication! Of course, what you're proposing is nothing as elegant or simple as market leader RSA's SecurID solution
And a good number of banks offer the use of two-factor authentication to protect your money, including the mid-sized midwestern financial institution where I currently work.
All that being said, Sith is GOOD. It isn't great. Its not a movie you'll walk out of going "it was AMAZING!!1!!1!!!one!". But compared to EpI and II it looks like Citizen Kane...
-----
SEMI-SPOILERS FOLLOW
(detailed discussion of the flaws in the movie from my perspective)
-----
-----
-----
My biggest gripe with the movie is that its still not dark enough. It is dark, much much darker than Ep I or II. But it doesn't do a good job communicating emotion at all - there are very few times where I felt connected to Anakin or Padme. McGreggor's Obi-Wan is the only character that makes you feel emotionally involved in the story at any depth.
Ultimately, the biggest flaw is the fall of Anakin to Darth Vader just simply isn't done well. The storyline is there - Lucas has given us all the pieces. It makes sense if I sit here and explain it to someone who hasn't seen the movie or someone who's not familiar with the series at all (bear with me)
Now how George Lucas shows this in Episode Three:
Anakin: (woodenly) I'm happy. Now I'm angry. Now I'm scared. Now I'm good, but wait I'm not so good. You're going to die! I can't lose you!
Padme: (completely disinterested, looking at her nails and chewing gum) oh Ani. Hold me like you held me on Naboo. Or whatever...
Darth Siddious: Even though every bit of your training says you're opposed to this, you should come over to the dark side. All the cool kids are doing it. Because its got, like, powers and stuff. And it could probably save your wife from dying. Seriously, it could. There was this one guy, one time, who could keep people from dying. Except I killed him, so he wasn't really that good at it I guess. But he TOTALLY had the real ultimate power to keep people from dying. So you should totally become a Sith Lord.
Anakin: (in danger of being
One example is the "glass" plate over the laser in the grocery barcode scanner: actually made from colorless "sapphire" because it is both harder and tougher than glass.
Likewise, Rolex uses artificial sapphire as the "glass" in their watch faces for the same reason...
Mostly asked and answered on a recent interview by *sigh* DarthBastard...
DarthBastard: We are hearing from some of the reviews of the film that some of the references to God (such as the second half of the babelfish description) are not in the movie. This is a shame but, given the current political climate in America, is perfectly understandible (though I'm glad the more subtle dig at organised religion - Humma and his sermon - is going to be there). What are your thoughts on this and will we see some of these references on the DVD?
Robbie Stamp: Good first question - there has been *no* pressure of any kind whatsoever to take out any of the " God" references. That Guid entry was cut because the pacing at that stage wasnt working. We had too many entries coming on top of each other too quickly. But there is still plenty of Douglas' atheism in the film and the whole Humma plot is right on the nose when it comes to organised religion. And yes look out for the DVD.
Essentially asked and answered already...
AlohaJoe: Is there anything that has been cut from the movie that you wish hadn't been?
Robbie Stamp: For me the "litmus" test scene was the whale - its the one that sums up everything that makes Douglas a genius. It comes at a moment when the movie should be driving towards the end but we go off on this digressioin that has not plot relevance. Its pure HHGG - invention, ideas and humour. Not a response about cutting I know but the honest answer is that there isnt really anything which I miss too much ( maybe one line but I'm not goint to tell you which one, though its been hinted at in an earlier question!)
Asked and answered, your honor...
Nellodee: If I dont get to be there later on, heres my question: First of all, hello Mr. Stamp, thank you for being here and for getting this project in gear! One question id like to ask you: Have you read MJ Simpsons negative review and if yes, how do answer? (Id like to add that I have full faith in the movie crew to give us a great H2G2 screen adaptation.)
Robbie Stamp: Yes I have read ( some) of Mike's review. I am genuinely sad that he feels that way, genuinely. I know how much he cares about HHGG and I am sure that he took no pleasure in writing that review. Having said that, I would be looking for a log cabin somewhere in Western Alaska if his was the only fan voice that I respect who has pronounced on the movie. But he isnt. In fact his is not the majority opinion. There are many fans whose opinions I respect just as much who loved the movie, genuinely loved it.
A somewhat similar music service idea is discussed in Doctrow's newest book Eastern Standard Tribe. Good read, and an interesting idea for sure...
The book can be downloaded free, although I elected to purchase a signed copy to support his work...
No, there'd be a WebSphere in there somewhere.
BW/2 WebSphere Portal Edition, probably...
The lack of digital audio on the mac mini is pretty easily solved. My suggested solution is the M-Audio Transit, but there are numerous other USB soundcards which work just fine on the mac.
The big problem for me is the lack of a gigabit ethernet adaptor in the mini. Not a problem if you're not intending to move large video files around your network, but my intention with my hometheater PC is to be able to serve MP3s and MPEG4 to any PC on my gigabit backbone.
The lack of gigabit on the mini is almost unexcusable. I've got a mini, ordered on launch day, and I love it to death... but i'd pay +$100 for gigabit on it at this point...
True - however I think it would still be a noticable improvement over 100M I'd think, even though you'd be throttling the bandwidth thanks to the USB2 channel.
Firewire 1394b is 800 megabits per second, that would allow for even faster speeds if Apple (or someone) were to develop some kind of firewire gigabit adapter.
You are correct. Sadly, no gigabit NIC on the mini.
"Built-in 10/100BASE-T Ethernet and 56K V.92 modem"
I don't know of anyone offering a USB gigabit adapter...
Homer visits the ePISCOPAL CHURCH website and clicks through to become an instant ordained minister (complete with print-out clerical collar)
Homer: "And now to close out the pop-ups. A talking moose wants my credit card number? Fair enough..." *types*
I'd imagine its something like that...
No question, if you're still in the pre-rough-in stages (i.e. no drywall up yet), wire your house.
Even if you've got drywall down, depending on your insulation type you may still be able to fish wires through, especially if your ceiling/floor is not directly insulated - you can easily run wire parallel to floor joice if its not insulated, cut a small hole at the ceiling, and fish through the insulated walls - assuming its a spray-in non-hardening insulation, which most people use these days - my house is blown recycled newspaper which is apparently a very common insulation.
In more detail, I just (this weekend) closed on my new custom-built house. I've got 1.26 miles of wire in the house (easily calculated since everyone sold me the wire I used by the foot). Cat5e for phone, Cat6e for data, speakerwire, multiple coax runs to almost every room (so I can RF-mod signals and broadcast them to any other room), and in appropriate places audio, video, even two 25' DVI runs and two 25' RGB runs. In fact, voice/data/coax terminates to a Futuresmart panel in my furnace room where signals can be routed...
As someone has already said, wireless is good for walking around with the laptop/etc. Not what you want for speakers. But not to mention when you've got the opportunity to build a gigabit backbone for the majority of the house, take it while you still can. Especially if you're serious about moving music or especially video.
My recently-received Mac Mini will be taking over as a media center in my home theater, and i'll be pulling MP3s and videos from my WinXP boxes via Samba (cut me some slack on the Windows comments, my dedicated server is BSD but XP still is my best machine for gaming and video).
which they happen to refer to, in the video, as a putty knife?
welcome to my friends list.
:)
Best timed slashdot comment i've seen in ages.
Yeah, I feel sorry for him, too.
Good thing he can spend his time screwing supermodels on top of piles of cash, that probably makes up for it in some small way.
Your analogy would be the RIAA releasing tagged files which somehow "phone home" to let someone know they've been downloaded. One way would be the RIAA running their own server, and then grabbing the IP of anyone who downloaded from it.
Valve's warez version of HL2, if it does indeed exist, destroy your computer or format your files or anything. According to TFA it simply bans the Steam account of the person trying to play it.