Sounds like a good idea - but, you would first have to mention the monitoring to those around you, I believe (something having to do with wiretap laws, I think).
They make "lipstick" size cameras that are cheap, and also audio/video transmitters. Clip one of those to your glasses (or make a headband mount if you don't wear glasses) and an omnidirectional mike on your lapel, add the transmitter in your shirt pocket. Put the receiver in your car with the computer digitizing and storing everything.
I know I have simplified this greatly (one question that comes up is how to get the transmission to your car if you are far away, or in a concrete style building - would 900 GHz work?), but you get the idea.
I think something like this could be built for around $500.00 (US). I think you could even do a similar full version of the UJP for around $1000.00 - just don't use the latest/greatest tech.
1. Use a pair of i/o glasses for the display ($300 on eBay). 2. B/W lipstick camera taped to side of display (around $100, various distributors). 3. Old Pentium laptop in a backpack - around $500 on eBay. 4. Large HD for laptop - $300 on eBay. 5. Linux - free.
Notice that eBay supplies a lot of this, but you could also shop around at various used/surplus dealers for the stuff as well (one was offering the VictorMaxx StuntMaster for $60.00 - could be used as well). Also, you will need a way to get video in/out of the laptop for the HMD/camera - and the laptop will need multimedia capabilities. But the fact is, this can all be done CHEAPLY. It doesn't have to cost $30,000.
if this is what you mean, 'cause I haven't gotten to Neal Stephenson's stuff yet (so faaar behind in my reading)...
I came across a piece of software at Fry's the other day called "Face3D" or something like that - basically, it allowed you to take a couple of pictures of your head (front and side shots) and make a 3D model with your face mapped on...
Now, of course, this was all for Windoze shit - but anyhow, the resulting head texture would have been symetrical - so it probably wouldn't look totally correct. Couple this with an age morphing filter of some sort.
It is also possible to take a scan of your face and crop it to fit to a Poser model's head (for Poser 3, I think - the older Poser software didn't have enough resolution for the maps to handle it properly). Some guy did this not too long ago - check out my links for more info (in another earlier posting).
This whole virtual character thing makes me think of things like "Running Man", where they faked the video of the main character (played by Arnold) doing something real notorious to get him into the "game" (can't remember if it was the same in the short story or not). I would imagine we are close to the day where we could do this now (maybe not real time, but in the studio)...
Believe it - it is far from over - I had a lengthy email conversation with a spokeswoman over at Unisys about this issue - they are real assholes who just don't get it...
Do you really record off the radio onto a CD? This is the only way to compare the two. Recording onto cassette is much better for radio. The quality of cassettes is just fine for radio, and they hold more music than cds do. The same can be said of DVD/VHS and TV.
Well, to be honest, no I haven't - not yet, anyhow - heck, I don't even record off of the radio to tape anymore (gave that up after high school). However, I am planning on re-recording some tapes I have that me and a friend made to MP3 format, just to get them off of tape and onto a more "permanent" media...
Unless you have a digital satilite, a dvd recording is not going to give any better quality. Now, it won't deteriorate over time, so that is a plus.
I wasn't looking so much for better quality or longer recording times, but more for a longer lasting end result - I mean, I have some old tapes from when my dad got a VCR back in 1983 or so, and they are starting to go bad. I am hoping to be able to avoid that with a recordable DVD (unless they don't last as long for some reason either). I don't have digital satelite, either - but I can get digital cable in my apartment...
People who say that DVD isn't a good idea until you can record are the same as those that said that CDs wouldn't take off until you could record. This just isn't true. The factors are even better for DVD then they were for CD.
I never said it wouldn't take off - it is too late for that anyhow, as it has already taken off! For the record, I didn't switch to CD's until around 1994, when I got fed up with my cassette walkman eating my tapes (plus sounding funny on low batteries). I didn't get rid of my tapes, though - cause I could record on them. Only recently, now that I have a CD-R drive, have I been giving thought to giving up on tapes...
1) The players were cheaper from the begining. 2) The difference in quality is more apparent then it was for cassett/cd. 3) The selection is growing faster than it did for cd. 4) It has been integrated into computers faster. 5) The consumer base is growing faster than for any other electronic appliance.
I have to agree with you on all these points, from my limited experience with DVD. However, I still would rather have the play and record features in one box, rather than two (or having a DVD player and a VCR), mainly because my entertainment center won't hold anything else!
If you haven't sat down and watched a movie like True Lies, or 5th Element on a 27" Tv, with Dolby 5.1 sound and kick ass speakers, then you really have no frame of reference for whether or not DVD is worth it.
Well, I have a 27" TV, and a 100 watt per channel stereo (don't have room for the extra speakers or wires, as I live in an apartment - plus my girlfriend hates the speakers I already have, and I don't have the money to shell out for smaller ones) driving two speakers, each having a 12" woofer in them, 20-20,000 Hz, EQ, etc. Not the best system, but I have cracked walls with it before. Never got it past 25, at that point my ears were hurting and the china was shaking at my parents house (the day I cracked my bedroom wall). So yeah, I have some point of reference. I know what dolby surround sounds like, so I think I can imagine how it all fits. Do I think it is worth $300 for play-only? No.
I think next time I need a new car I will build it all myself - up to and including coming up with new metal alloys, just so I can say it was all mine...
I remember seeing somewhere once a guy got a PIC to do "graphics" in black and white on his TV by toggling one of the output pins real damn fast, and hooking that up to the composite video in on the TV (I don't think it was a direct connection, but more of a level shifting transistor driver connection circuit) allowing him to create a game of pong. From what I understand, the output wasn't great, but it worked.
I know this isn't what you want, but it may be fun to try!
I have been thinking about this myself, though I have a slightly easier channel - I bought one of those "Game Zapper" converters years ago when I had a 486 and Windows 3.1 - I used it to hook up a Victormaxx Stuntmaster to my PC for REND386 - now I want to do the same thing under Linux. Unfortunately, the "driver" was a DOS TSR program. The way I believe it works is by just changing the output frequency of the card, and the adaptor converts that to NTSC composite video. I have been thinking about mucking with it for a while to see if I can get something cheesy to work - I have also tried to contact the manufacturer for info (for the source, actually), since it is no longer manufactured, but I haven't got anything out of them yet...
I remember seeing somewhere once a guy got a PIC to do "graphics" in black and white on his TV by toggling one of the output pins real damn fast, and hooking that up to the composite video in on the TV (I don't think it was a direct connection, but more of a level shifting transistor driver connection circuit) allowing him to create a game of pong. From what I understand, the output wasn't great, but it worked.
I know this isn't what you want, but it may be fun to try!
I have been thinking about this myself, though I have a slightly easier channel - I bought one of those "Game Zapper" converters years ago when I had a 486 and Windows 3.1 - I used it to hook up a Victormaxx Stuntmaster to my PC for REND386 - now I want to do the same thing under Linux. Unfortunately, the "driver" was a DOS TSR program. The way I believe it works is by just changing the output frequency of the card, and the adaptor converts that to NTSC composite video. I have been thinking about mucking with it for a while to see if I can get something cheesy to work - I have also tried to contact the manufacturer for info (for the source, actually), since it is no longer manufactured, but I haven't got anything out of them yet...
By this logic you would say you should only record music to a tape, and not to a CD, correct?
While I have given thought to just keeping my VHS deck and getting a supplemental DVD deck (or reader for my PC), I figure that if DVD is going to replace VHS, then it will have to "record". ReplayTV is a good idea, but it can't record for unlimited hours (like my X-Files collection - 30 tapes @ 6 hours each = 180 hours - and that is just for X-Files. I also have the complete collection of Millennium Episodes - about 10-12 tapes, another 60-70 hours). I would consider buying copies of the episodes (I do have a few of the X-Files tapes) - but for most series they aren't offered, and some shows it would be impossible to get.
I wonder if a DVD can have video streamed to it for recording in real time - I would think it can, but I haven't got any experience with these devices, so I don't know.
Besides the quality, the one thing having DVD's would mean less space taken on the shelf for the movies... This I like...
You know, only after the post did I find out that it was a movie - my bad. However, I am still going to tape it, as well as see the movie. Then I will try to get a tape of the movie...
When I was in high school, and for a while thereafter, I hardly weighed anything - I was 5'9" and weighed ~150 pounds. After HS, I came to Phoenix (AZ) to go to a tech school (boy, there was a waste of money), and I rode a bike everywhere (didn't have a car or a license). I would eat basically frozen burittos and frozen box (Banquet) fried chicken, and drink Coke exclusively (except when I found some Jolt). But I never gained weight.
I stayed about the same weight until I was 21 - I finally found a girlfriend, and rather than eating the crap I was eating and biking everywhere, she cooked me meals and drove me work. Soon thereafter I got a car and a license, and the pounds began to pile on...
Earlier this year (January or so) I weighed 247 lbs - same height. It seemed every year I not only needed new pants but a new belt as well. My girlfriend was also overweight, and decided to go on a diet, supervised by a dietician. The dietician put her on what was basically a low carb/low fat diet, with minor exercise (30 minutes of walking). She also told my girlfriend to try to get me to do it as well - for support. I agreed to (note: If you have a girlfriend trying to diet, diet with her - she will love you for the support). Within three months I lost 23 lbs - and two pant sizes. I knew I had done good when I had to make a new hole on my belt to cinch my pants tighter!
Low carb, low fight - minor exercise. It was hard finding the foods that met that plan. Lay's WOW brand chips were good - so were Hershey's Sweet Escapes. Mostly, just eating right was the way to go (we used to go to Jack in the Crack or Mickey D's every night) - and the exercise was no problem at all. Always found a parking place, too - just parked in the back! I am not saying it was easy - the first two weeks we were starving, but we kept at it. Also, I stopped drinking as much Coke, and drank water only (I was doing 3-4 Cokes a day, with one of those being a 32-48 ouncer from the fast food place). The last thing we did was on the weekend, allowing ourselves to "splurge" - eating a normal sized meal, but it could be whatever we wanted wherever we wanted - JITB, MickyD's, Fried Food Night, Steak - whatever. A reward for doing good during the week (this is more for the psychological reasons than anything else).
How am I doing now? Well - here is the funny thing: For about three months now I haven't been doing much of anything - I don't have "second helpings" anymore, we don't have fast food every night, we drink a ton more water. We eat good meals at home and when we eat out. We haven't exercised since it got hot, but in the winter we will go back to it. I haven't gained any more weight, but I haven't lost anymore, either. While I am not rail thin - I still think I acomplished something. I haven't reached my goal weight yet (180 lbs), but I did reach my interim goal weight (225 lbs) - which is OK with me.
Some of my pants are baggy now - and many of my shirts fit me again! I still think if I was riding my bike and walking everywhere I could get my size down more - but I would reek of sweat whereever I went, so to me it isn't worth it.
I thinks it sucks that this is happening with The Matrix - I will be doing the "wait until it becomes previewed" thing for the VHS copy. A similar thing happened with the movie PI - VHS cost something like $70.00 US (though I later found it for $30.00) - while the DVD was $13.00! Though I think it had more to do with budget, maybe...?
When I can record on DVD, then I will buy one (and I am not talking about the other two "recordable" DVD formats that are incompatible with each other and normal DVD!). Why? Because I seem to be the last individual on the planet that likes to record things - I have all of the episodes of the X-Files recorded on VHS - all total about 30-40 tapes (at SLP - ~6 shows per tape) - and I want to be able to continue to tape this or any other series/movie off of TV I wish (one I am taping tonight off of SciFi - The Blair Witch Project - I doubt this is going to be available at the local video store any time soon).
Until the recordable DVD format is standardized, don't expect me to buy one.
We might see the same thing happen to them as is happening now with MP3 encoded music.
I can imagine there being books "published" on the web, then extreme copying all over hell-and-back - publishers whining, etc. just like what is happening now.
You know, I come across this a lot - that a programmer wants to create something that he himself will use, and that plot-based games (ala Myst, Zork) don't seem to fit the bill.
While true in a general sense, from my experience (which isn't great - a couple of cheesy text adventures), the fun came from creating the game - think of the creation of the plot-style game as a wierd godsim - I had fun designing the worlds, making the creatures/NPCs act correctly, placing clues, building rooms, etc - maybe I am strange, but this is what I found fun, even though I knew how to beat the game when it was all finished.
Others might not like this - so perhaps we would need to redefine what and how a plot oriented game is/works - maybe better AI, at both the NPC level, and the world level - so that we could define a world, but the game would automatically evolve based on NPC and user actions, as well as world based actions (say, it rains the next day in the world, erasing tracks left behind by the killer?).
This sounds damn complicated - perhaps such an engine would be so good you would feel it should be closed. But if something like this were started, then opened for others to expand on, the complications from creating such a system could be overcome perhaps...
Has anyone here actually ever seen liquid carbon dioxide? What I mean is, dry ice is carbon dioxide in its solid state - take a piece, and let it sit - does a puddle form around it of liquid CO2 like water from a normal ice cube? No. It changes into the gaseous CO2. Now I know, at some point, it has to change into the liquid form (before going to gas) - but how do you store such a liquid (which has such a small temp/pressure range for the liquid state)? Anyone know?
Wasn't it Cugnot? Anyhow, this is correct - from what I know his was the first "steam carriage" or whatnot. The thing was HUGE - the boiler (on the front, driving the front wheel - the chassis was a tricycle arrangement, two back wheels undriven, one front driven steering wheel) was something like 8 feet in diameter (there goes those imperial mesurements again)! The thing was meant to haul cannon, and was pretty slow. Funny thing was, he crashed it into a stone (or brick) wall on its initial run - and that was that!
Nice idea - would be easy to implement, but may suffer from other problems. Doing what I suggested would resolve these issues - though you have to be very careful...
1. Cut the grill open with a Dremel. 2. With an X-Acto knife, cut the cone away from the surround. 3. Carefully cut the coil away from the cone. 4. Carefully unwind the coil. 5. Cut the winding in half. 6. With a lighter, burn away the laquer insulation from the ends. 7. Do the same with other speaker and patch in!
I love the scene in The People vs. Larry Flynt where Flynt asks which is obsene, a woman's body or a dead corpse (which nobody is too concerned about a child seeing).
Personally, I consider neither obscene - they would both be human bodies. I would consider obscene to be:
A dead woman's corpse being raped...
Now that would be pretty obscene.
However - some might consider otherwise. If that is the case, I would not dare impose my definition of obscenity onto them, just as much as I would not want them to impose thier definition on me.
The largest problem with what Mrs. Dole is asking for is the fact that she wants libraries to censor both children and adults. Let's take a couple of your comments, for instance:
I would not want to view a porn site and find photos of my oldest daughter. Would you?
If I happened upon photos of my oldest daughter on a porn site, providing she was of legal age, I would think nothing of it, and move on to another picture, or another site. Why? Because she would legally be an adult, who has made the decision to allow herself to be photographed nude, perhaps even having sex. I don't find depictions of nudity or sexual acts to be offensive, providing those acts are consensual and are between legal age adults - even if the act did involve my daughter. To think otherwise would be hypocritical.
What I want to instill is WHY there is little value to porn (or bomb-building, or whatnot).
Instilling values into your children is a good thing. One should also instill the concepts of logical and rational thought into them as well. This would allow them to see that there is value in these things:
Porn - Alternative sexual "positions" may be learned from porn. Porn tends to also teach that masturbation is OK, that both men AND women do it (from talking with various female friends, most learned masturbation late in life), and that it is a healthy alternative to sex (which might cut down on teen pregnancy - this has yet to be studied, I think).
Bombs - Learning how to build a bomb, and having the knowledge afterward, can give a person the sense of how to do things the right way, the first time (because when building a bomb, if you do it wrong the first time, there is usually NO SECOND CHANCE).
Drugs - What is needed here is a little honesty on drugs. I think parents are afraid that thier kids might get the truth about drugs from research on the internet.
Violence - Knowing about violence, and about the detrimental effects of violence, can help prepare a kid should he witness it (ie, the kid won't become catatonic).
Above all, these things shouldn't be left to the kid - the parents need to talk to thier kids about these things openly, without reserve (I find it amusing that parents would find it difficult to talk about sex to thier kids - like it was a dirty thing to do or something)...
Slashdot Mirror
I meant 900 MHz...
Sounds like a good idea - but, you would first have to mention the monitoring to those around you, I believe (something having to do with wiretap laws, I think).
They make "lipstick" size cameras that are cheap, and also audio/video transmitters. Clip one of those to your glasses (or make a headband mount if you don't wear glasses) and an omnidirectional mike on your lapel, add the transmitter in your shirt pocket. Put the receiver in your car with the computer digitizing and storing everything.
I know I have simplified this greatly (one question that comes up is how to get the transmission to your car if you are far away, or in a concrete style building - would 900 GHz work?), but you get the idea.
I think something like this could be built for around $500.00 (US). I think you could even do a similar full version of the UJP for around $1000.00 - just don't use the latest/greatest tech.
1. Use a pair of i/o glasses for the display ($300 on eBay).
2. B/W lipstick camera taped to side of display (around $100, various distributors).
3. Old Pentium laptop in a backpack - around $500 on eBay.
4. Large HD for laptop - $300 on eBay.
5. Linux - free.
Notice that eBay supplies a lot of this, but you could also shop around at various used/surplus dealers for the stuff as well (one was offering the VictorMaxx StuntMaster for $60.00 - could be used as well). Also, you will need a way to get video in/out of the laptop for the HMD/camera - and the laptop will need multimedia capabilities. But the fact is, this can all be done CHEAPLY. It doesn't have to cost $30,000.
if this is what you mean, 'cause I haven't gotten to Neal Stephenson's stuff yet (so faaar behind in my reading)...
I came across a piece of software at Fry's the other day called "Face3D" or something like that - basically, it allowed you to take a couple of pictures of your head (front and side shots) and make a 3D model with your face mapped on...
Now, of course, this was all for Windoze shit - but anyhow, the resulting head texture would have been symetrical - so it probably wouldn't look totally correct. Couple this with an age morphing filter of some sort.
It is also possible to take a scan of your face and crop it to fit to a Poser model's head (for Poser 3, I think - the older Poser software didn't have enough resolution for the maps to handle it properly). Some guy did this not too long ago - check out my links for more info (in another earlier posting).
This whole virtual character thing makes me think of things like "Running Man", where they faked the video of the main character (played by Arnold) doing something real notorious to get him into the "game" (can't remember if it was the same in the short story or not). I would imagine we are close to the day where we could do this now (maybe not real time, but in the studio)...
'Nuff said...
If you want the real scoop on virtual models, take a gander at what people are doing with Poser by Metacreations.
Here are some links to get you started:
RATTERS.COM - Poser Links
A Mess of Poser Links
Poser Props Guild
Greylight Internet - Poser Stuff
Baumgarten Enterprises (Poser Stuff)
Paul Hafeli Poser 3 Inspirations - Great Poser Work
The Blacksmith - Poser Props
Paul Hafeli Poser Tutorials
Bushi's Graphics Homepage - Poser Stuff
Digital Puppet Magazine (Poser in Movie Making)
Poser Forum
This is where the real action is...
Believe it - it is far from over - I had a lengthy email conversation with a spokeswoman over at Unisys about this issue - they are real assholes who just don't get it...
Do you really record off the radio onto a CD? This is the only way to compare the two. Recording onto cassette is much better for radio. The quality of cassettes is just fine for radio, and they hold more music than cds do. The same can be said of DVD/VHS and TV.
Well, to be honest, no I haven't - not yet, anyhow - heck, I don't even record off of the radio to tape anymore (gave that up after high school). However, I am planning on re-recording some tapes I have that me and a friend made to MP3 format, just to get them off of tape and onto a more "permanent" media...
Unless you have a digital satilite, a dvd recording is not going to give any better quality. Now, it won't deteriorate over time, so that is a plus.
I wasn't looking so much for better quality or longer recording times, but more for a longer lasting end result - I mean, I have some old tapes from when my dad got a VCR back in 1983 or so, and they are starting to go bad. I am hoping to be able to avoid that with a recordable DVD (unless they don't last as long for some reason either). I don't have digital satelite, either - but I can get digital cable in my apartment...
People who say that DVD isn't a good idea until you can record are the same as those that said that CDs wouldn't take off until you could record. This just isn't true. The factors are even better for DVD then they were for CD.
I never said it wouldn't take off - it is too late for that anyhow, as it has already taken off! For the record, I didn't switch to CD's until around 1994, when I got fed up with my cassette walkman eating my tapes (plus sounding funny on low batteries). I didn't get rid of my tapes, though - cause I could record on them. Only recently, now that I have a CD-R drive, have I been giving thought to giving up on tapes...
1) The players were cheaper from the begining.
2) The difference in quality is more apparent then it was for cassett/cd.
3) The selection is growing faster than it did for cd.
4) It has been integrated into computers faster.
5) The consumer base is growing faster than for any other electronic appliance.
I have to agree with you on all these points, from my limited experience with DVD. However, I still would rather have the play and record features in one box, rather than two (or having a DVD player and a VCR), mainly because my entertainment center won't hold anything else!
If you haven't sat down and watched a movie like True Lies, or 5th Element on a 27" Tv, with Dolby 5.1 sound and kick ass speakers, then you really have no frame of reference for whether or not DVD is worth it.
Well, I have a 27" TV, and a 100 watt per channel stereo (don't have room for the extra speakers or wires, as I live in an apartment - plus my girlfriend hates the speakers I already have, and I don't have the money to shell out for smaller ones) driving two speakers, each having a 12" woofer in them, 20-20,000 Hz, EQ, etc. Not the best system, but I have cracked walls with it before. Never got it past 25, at that point my ears were hurting and the china was shaking at my parents house (the day I cracked my bedroom wall). So yeah, I have some point of reference. I know what dolby surround sounds like, so I think I can imagine how it all fits. Do I think it is worth $300 for play-only? No.
I think next time I need a new car I will build it all myself - up to and including coming up with new metal alloys, just so I can say it was all mine...
I remember seeing somewhere once a guy got a PIC to do "graphics" in black and white on his TV by toggling one of the output pins real damn fast, and hooking that up to the composite video in on the TV (I don't think it was a direct connection, but more of a level shifting transistor driver connection circuit) allowing him to create a game of pong. From what I understand, the output wasn't great, but it worked.
I know this isn't what you want, but it may be fun to try!
I have been thinking about this myself, though I have a slightly easier channel - I bought one of those "Game Zapper" converters years ago when I had a 486 and Windows 3.1 - I used it to hook up a Victormaxx Stuntmaster to my PC for REND386 - now I want to do the same thing under Linux. Unfortunately, the "driver" was a DOS TSR program. The way I believe it works is by just changing the output frequency of the card, and the adaptor converts that to NTSC composite video. I have been thinking about mucking with it for a while to see if I can get something cheesy to work - I have also tried to contact the manufacturer for info (for the source, actually), since it is no longer manufactured, but I haven't got anything out of them yet...
Has anybody had any experience with this device?
I remember seeing somewhere once a guy got a PIC to do "graphics" in black and white on his TV by toggling one of the output pins real damn fast, and hooking that up to the composite video in on the TV (I don't think it was a direct connection, but more of a level shifting transistor driver connection circuit) allowing him to create a game of pong. From what I understand, the output wasn't great, but it worked.
I know this isn't what you want, but it may be fun to try!
I have been thinking about this myself, though I have a slightly easier channel - I bought one of those "Game Zapper" converters years ago when I had a 486 and Windows 3.1 - I used it to hook up a Victormaxx Stuntmaster to my PC for REND386 - now I want to do the same thing under Linux. Unfortunately, the "driver" was a DOS TSR program. The way I believe it works is by just changing the output frequency of the card, and the adaptor converts that to NTSC composite video. I have been thinking about mucking with it for a while to see if I can get something cheesy to work - I have also tried to contact the manufacturer for info (for the source, actually), since it is no longer manufactured, but I haven't got anything out of them yet...
Has anybody had any experience with this device?
By this logic you would say you should only record music to a tape, and not to a CD, correct?
While I have given thought to just keeping my VHS deck and getting a supplemental DVD deck (or reader for my PC), I figure that if DVD is going to replace VHS, then it will have to "record". ReplayTV is a good idea, but it can't record for unlimited hours (like my X-Files collection - 30 tapes @ 6 hours each = 180 hours - and that is just for X-Files. I also have the complete collection of Millennium Episodes - about 10-12 tapes, another 60-70 hours). I would consider buying copies of the episodes (I do have a few of the X-Files tapes) - but for most series they aren't offered, and some shows it would be impossible to get.
I wonder if a DVD can have video streamed to it for recording in real time - I would think it can, but I haven't got any experience with these devices, so I don't know.
Besides the quality, the one thing having DVD's would mean less space taken on the shelf for the movies... This I like...
You know, only after the post did I find out that it was a movie - my bad. However, I am still going to tape it, as well as see the movie. Then I will try to get a tape of the movie...
When I was in high school, and for a while thereafter, I hardly weighed anything - I was 5'9" and weighed ~150 pounds. After HS, I came to Phoenix (AZ) to go to a tech school (boy, there was a waste of money), and I rode a bike everywhere (didn't have a car or a license). I would eat basically frozen burittos and frozen box (Banquet) fried chicken, and drink Coke exclusively (except when I found some Jolt). But I never gained weight.
I stayed about the same weight until I was 21 - I finally found a girlfriend, and rather than eating the crap I was eating and biking everywhere, she cooked me meals and drove me work. Soon thereafter I got a car and a license, and the pounds began to pile on...
Earlier this year (January or so) I weighed 247 lbs - same height. It seemed every year I not only needed new pants but a new belt as well. My girlfriend was also overweight, and decided to go on a diet, supervised by a dietician. The dietician put her on what was basically a low carb/low fat diet, with minor exercise (30 minutes of walking). She also told my girlfriend to try to get me to do it as well - for support. I agreed to (note: If you have a girlfriend trying to diet, diet with her - she will love you for the support). Within three months I lost 23 lbs - and two pant sizes. I knew I had done good when I had to make a new hole on my belt to cinch my pants tighter!
Low carb, low fight - minor exercise. It was hard finding the foods that met that plan. Lay's WOW brand chips were good - so were Hershey's Sweet Escapes. Mostly, just eating right was the way to go (we used to go to Jack in the Crack or Mickey D's every night) - and the exercise was no problem at all. Always found a parking place, too - just parked in the back! I am not saying it was easy - the first two weeks we were starving, but we kept at it. Also, I stopped drinking as much Coke, and drank water only (I was doing 3-4 Cokes a day, with one of those being a 32-48 ouncer from the fast food place). The last thing we did was on the weekend, allowing ourselves to "splurge" - eating a normal sized meal, but it could be whatever we wanted wherever we wanted - JITB, MickyD's, Fried Food Night, Steak - whatever. A reward for doing good during the week (this is more for the psychological reasons than anything else).
How am I doing now? Well - here is the funny thing: For about three months now I haven't been doing much of anything - I don't have "second helpings" anymore, we don't have fast food every night, we drink a ton more water. We eat good meals at home and when we eat out. We haven't exercised since it got hot, but in the winter we will go back to it. I haven't gained any more weight, but I haven't lost anymore, either. While I am not rail thin - I still think I acomplished something. I haven't reached my goal weight yet (180 lbs), but I did reach my interim goal weight (225 lbs) - which is OK with me.
Some of my pants are baggy now - and many of my shirts fit me again! I still think if I was riding my bike and walking everywhere I could get my size down more - but I would reek of sweat whereever I went, so to me it isn't worth it.
I thinks it sucks that this is happening with The Matrix - I will be doing the "wait until it becomes previewed" thing for the VHS copy. A similar thing happened with the movie PI - VHS cost something like $70.00 US (though I later found it for $30.00) - while the DVD was $13.00! Though I think it had more to do with budget, maybe...?
When I can record on DVD, then I will buy one (and I am not talking about the other two "recordable" DVD formats that are incompatible with each other and normal DVD!). Why? Because I seem to be the last individual on the planet that likes to record things - I have all of the episodes of the X-Files recorded on VHS - all total about 30-40 tapes (at SLP - ~6 shows per tape) - and I want to be able to continue to tape this or any other series/movie off of TV I wish (one I am taping tonight off of SciFi - The Blair Witch Project - I doubt this is going to be available at the local video store any time soon).
Until the recordable DVD format is standardized, don't expect me to buy one.
I think if my ISP allowed this, I'd be finding a different ISP...
We might see the same thing happen to them as is happening now with MP3 encoded music.
I can imagine there being books "published" on the web, then extreme copying all over hell-and-back - publishers whining, etc. just like what is happening now.
Main reason is no specs for the format being easily available...
But the greater problem is that of there not being any low cost MPEG-2 encoding hardware (in order to do it fast enough to make it worthwhile).
When I can get an MPEG-2 video encoder card for the same price as a sound card ($15 - $100), then we will see DVD cracked.
Ha! I thought at first you had to be out of your mind, so I looked...
This is the truth! I couldn't believe it! But there it was in front of my own eyes!
To think this guy got a free drive for this!
You know, I come across this a lot - that a programmer wants to create something that he himself will use, and that plot-based games (ala Myst, Zork) don't seem to fit the bill.
While true in a general sense, from my experience (which isn't great - a couple of cheesy text adventures), the fun came from creating the game - think of the creation of the plot-style game as a wierd godsim - I had fun designing the worlds, making the creatures/NPCs act correctly, placing clues, building rooms, etc - maybe I am strange, but this is what I found fun, even though I knew how to beat the game when it was all finished.
Others might not like this - so perhaps we would need to redefine what and how a plot oriented game is/works - maybe better AI, at both the NPC level, and the world level - so that we could define a world, but the game would automatically evolve based on NPC and user actions, as well as world based actions (say, it rains the next day in the world, erasing tracks left behind by the killer?).
This sounds damn complicated - perhaps such an engine would be so good you would feel it should be closed. But if something like this were started, then opened for others to expand on, the complications from creating such a system could be overcome perhaps...
Ok, maybe I am stupid, but...
Has anyone here actually ever seen liquid carbon dioxide? What I mean is, dry ice is carbon dioxide in its solid state - take a piece, and let it sit - does a puddle form around it of liquid CO2 like water from a normal ice cube? No. It changes into the gaseous CO2. Now I know, at some point, it has to change into the liquid form (before going to gas) - but how do you store such a liquid (which has such a small temp/pressure range for the liquid state)? Anyone know?
Wasn't it Cugnot? Anyhow, this is correct - from what I know his was the first "steam carriage" or whatnot. The thing was HUGE - the boiler (on the front, driving the front wheel - the chassis was a tricycle arrangement, two back wheels undriven, one front driven steering wheel) was something like 8 feet in diameter (there goes those imperial mesurements again)! The thing was meant to haul cannon, and was pretty slow. Funny thing was, he crashed it into a stone (or brick) wall on its initial run - and that was that!
60 Hz hum, who knows what else...
Nice idea - would be easy to implement, but may suffer from other problems. Doing what I suggested would resolve these issues - though you have to be very careful...
1. Cut the grill open with a Dremel.
2. With an X-Acto knife, cut the cone away from the surround.
3. Carefully cut the coil away from the cone.
4. Carefully unwind the coil.
5. Cut the winding in half.
6. With a lighter, burn away the laquer insulation from the ends.
7. Do the same with other speaker and patch in!
RIAA - Kiss my ass!
I love the scene in The People vs. Larry Flynt where Flynt asks which is obsene, a woman's body or a dead corpse (which nobody is too concerned about a child seeing).
Personally, I consider neither obscene - they would both be human bodies. I would consider obscene to be:
A dead woman's corpse being raped...
Now that would be pretty obscene.
However - some might consider otherwise. If that is the case, I would not dare impose my definition of obscenity onto them, just as much as I would not want them to impose thier definition on me.
Life is not a one way street...
The largest problem with what Mrs. Dole is asking for is the fact that she wants libraries to censor both children and adults. Let's take a couple of your comments, for instance:
I would not want to view a porn site and find photos of my oldest daughter. Would you?
If I happened upon photos of my oldest daughter on a porn site, providing she was of legal age, I would think nothing of it, and move on to another picture, or another site. Why? Because she would legally be an adult, who has made the decision to allow herself to be photographed nude, perhaps even having sex. I don't find depictions of nudity or sexual acts to be offensive, providing those acts are consensual and are between legal age adults - even if the act did involve my daughter. To think otherwise would be hypocritical.
What I want to instill is WHY there is little value to porn (or bomb-building, or whatnot).
Instilling values into your children is a good thing. One should also instill the concepts of logical and rational thought into them as well. This would allow them to see that there is value in these things:
Porn - Alternative sexual "positions" may be learned from porn. Porn tends to also teach that masturbation is OK, that both men AND women do it (from talking with various female friends, most learned masturbation late in life), and that it is a healthy alternative to sex (which might cut down on teen pregnancy - this has yet to be studied, I think).
Bombs - Learning how to build a bomb, and having the knowledge afterward, can give a person the sense of how to do things the right way, the first time (because when building a bomb, if you do it wrong the first time, there is usually NO SECOND CHANCE).
Drugs - What is needed here is a little honesty on drugs. I think parents are afraid that thier kids might get the truth about drugs from research on the internet.
Violence - Knowing about violence, and about the detrimental effects of violence, can help prepare a kid should he witness it (ie, the kid won't become catatonic).
Above all, these things shouldn't be left to the kid - the parents need to talk to thier kids about these things openly, without reserve (I find it amusing that parents would find it difficult to talk about sex to thier kids - like it was a dirty thing to do or something)...