only the antarctic ice cap melting would raise sea levels -- the polar ice cap is made completely out of floating ice. as such, it already displaces its own weight of water.
VAIO notebooks are pretty, and powerful, but their batteries suck. a new laptop with the "complimentary" battery will get 45 minutes to an hour, and will deteriorate quite quickly to less than half an hour on full charge.
replacement batteries with a supposed 2 hour life run ~$180US last i was in the market.
helmet-mounted earbuds would be cool, provided you have a way to turn them on and off whout removing the helmet. being a music appreciator myself, i've been hurting a couple times listening to nothing but road noise. i've tried humming tunes while riding to and from work (an hour ride on the freeway), but i find it makes it too difficult to hear what's going on around me.
helmets already block out a lot of the noise of the cars around you (at least, if you wear a full face helmet). i believe that on a bike, your hearing is much, much more important than it is when you're in a car. i'd even go so far as to say that hearing is 40% of riding a bike.^W^W^Wstaying alive on a bike.
one other big thing i forgot to mention: if everybody rode motorcycles, there would be NO traffic on the freeways (you can fit three or four motorcycles in the space that one car takes up). traffic jams would be nonexistant (smaller vehiciles make for quicker moving traffic). parking would never be an issue (four, maybe five if they're all your friends', motorcycles can park in the space one car needs to parallel(sp?) park).
there really are a hundred different advantages to riding motorcycles. and most of the disadvantages only exist because those less evolved among us insist on driving cars...
i just recently (dangerous as fuck. even so, i'm a huge advocate for motorcycles. just on the merits of my enthusiasm and constant babbling about how awesome motorcycles are, no fewer than five of my close friends are now considering getting one.
why do motorcycles rule balls over cars?
-gas. in california, i'm very lucky to find premium unleaded at $2.35/gallon. on a full tank (3gal) + a 1 gallon "just in case" fuel can that i keep in my saddle bag, I get 200 miles. $9.50 for 200 miles -- 50 miles per gallon or just 4.5 cents per mile. to contrast, i have a friend who owns a jeep cherokee. HER full tank of gas costs her over fifty dollars, and she gets 400 miles out of it. 12.5 cents per mile -- and she doesn't get premium.
-fun. sure, i don't get the stereo and loud music, but all that's just a distraction to car drivers. the feeling of riding, however, is absolutely fantastic.
-style. doesn't this pretty much go without saying? let's move on.
-something to talk about. in new company? don't know what to say? ask that guy holding a helmet about his bike. he'll be glad to tell you alllll about it.
-reactions. a lot of people don't know how to deal with a motorcyclist. it's a foreign concept to them, and it puts them very slightly on edge.
-cost. my motorcycle cost me 1200$. i got it with ~18000 miles on it. i've since put almost 3000 on it and the only thing i've had to replace has been the rear tire (which needed replacing when i got it) and the oil. furthermore, there's less things to go wrong. only two cylinders. two spark plugs. no coolant (air cooled!), no serpentine belt, no AC. mine doesn't even have a chain (shaft driven).
among others, which iwon't enumerate because i'm running out of attention span.
the disadvantages to riding a motorcycle? i'm not going to put "danger" here, because even though motorcycles DO have a higher fatality rate, i am thoroughly of the opinion that they are largely the motorcyclist's fault for, as you said, riding outisde of the limits of a) the bike, b) the road or c) their skill level. that being said, disadvantages:
-you only get to take one passenger. however, if that passenger is a girl, and you are a guy, that girl is going to think you're the best thing since sliced bread -luggage. if you have saddlebags (which if you ride a crotch rocket, you won't), you have at VERY best 3-4 cubic feet of storage room. it's plenty to go to the store for more soda, though.
i know i'm way off topic, but you ignited my passion to babble about motorcycles.
homeworld is the best game series ever. (or at least in the top 10)
When i picked up my first copy in the store and said to myself, "that's an interesting design for a spaceship", i knew i was hooked. even before the tagline ("Your past is a lie. Your future is uncertain. And you're 10,000 light years from home") reeled me in, i knew i was going to buy it.
even the multitude of bugs and lousy support by sierra/relic couldn't turn me off.
Cataclysm was more of the awesome, but suffered somewhat from a couple of bad actors, repetition and cliches, and bad writers. (how many times does that matron of a fleet command say, "it's like nothing we've ever seen before!"?)
on the other hand, the way the captain says "burn!" when you fire the siege cannon gives me goose bumps.
homeworld 2 blew me away in terms of gameplay, but i didn't like the religious overtones. i didn't like the way they handled the hyperspace cores -- almost like religious artifacts. plus, Karan S'jet is fucking hot.
even though it had those few downfalls, i definitely think that the homeworld series is among the best ever in any genre. its story hits very close to home with the psychological need for home, shelter, belonging, history, etc.
All this SCO stuff is flying around so fast that I can't even keep the players straight anymore. is IBM a Good Guy(c) or a Bad Guy(c) in the whole affair?
In other news, america's sensationalization and hype step up to new levels to combat the desensitization to hype brought on by Fox News' continuous looping of the same six stories four times per day.
top headline right now: nobody cares! an eyewitness at the NASA command center shrugged and commented "It really doesn't matter, they still have two gyros left. Ooh! Gyros. I think I'll have greek food for lunch." the pudgy scientist then led twelve of his friends to Olive Garden.
Raw space isn't a problem anymore, but dependability is./blockquote?
I disagree.
circa 1997 (or somewhere thereabouts) that I built with my own two hands had a 6gb hard drive and a 2x CD-r. this was the one of the biggest drives around at the time! 8gb drives were on the market, but were rediculously expensive. if i wanted to, i could have backed up the entire drive with 10 CDs over the course of about 5 hours (back when CDs were decent quality and were about 2$ apiece, IIRC). today, if I wanted to back up my entire hard drive today (a 200gb hard drive) i would need 45 DVD-rs and almost a day of burning time?
ramble, ramble, ramble. my point?
7 years ago, removable media was on the order of 10% of readily available drive space. now it's closer to 2.25%. that is plain unacceptable.
honestly, how hard can it be to take a MD and record data onto it?
yet for some reason, sony seems unable or unwilling to release a minidisk drive for computers that works with the audio MDs that are available.
140MB isn't much, but it's a hell of a lot better than a floppy drive, and it's a hell of a lot more sturdy, too.
all i really want is to be able to slip a MD into my computer, drag and drop a couple files onto it, record a couple songs onto it (hell, i'll even use their shitty NetMD Simple Burner to do it), listen to the songs as i walk to my friend's house and then pop the disk into his computer and copy the files over onto his hard drive.
but no! that would be too plausible a business model for sony. they'd rather just plaster hello kitty all over the things they're already selling...
I completely agree with this, with one proviso: you don't have to join an intelligence field. There are plenty of communications fields that employers love to see. I was a tactical data network operator (mobile TCP/IP networks) for four years, and with the benefit of having a "secret" clearance (lowest level requiring an investigation), i slid into a job making 53k yearly (on hourly wage $25.40). i work alternating weeks of 3 days and then 4 days, on a 12 hour shift. Overtime pushes my yearly salary to just under 60k. little to no stress. Plus i have the satisfaction of working on one of the largest private networks, and THE larges active directory, in the world.
My cost of living isn't very high, either. living in southern california, in a large 2 bedroom apartment for which i pay 12 large per year, plus other various expenses (utilities, car payment, etc). about half of my income is expendable.
Another helpful tip: make sure you get in touch with as many headhunters as you can. In california, Tek Systems, based in la jolla, is a good jumping off point. For former military, Milvets Systems Technilogy is where I got my job subcontracted from. (plug)
You sound like two of my best friends and me all folled up into one (using ATT though, instead of Verizon).
I use TMobile now, and i'm happy as a pig in shit. (blame the french for that one). i switched after i saw how amazingly well my girlfriend's tmobile works -- good coverage pretty much everywhere here in socal (from LA to SSanD'oria -- er.. south san diego), lightning fast text messaging, minute usage quotes usually accurate to within an hour or so, good calling plans.
The only disappointment I had was being unable to switch to a 1000 "anytime minute" plan without gettinga new phone number, but I figure that's not so bad now that i can keep better track of my usage.
I was, unfortunately, an ATT wireless customer for only six months, and I hated it. their customer support was hand-tied and unapologetic about it. Their web interface plain sucks; there's no way on ATT wireless to check the number of "anytime minutes" you have used in a month; you'd better keep a stopwatch. Even when they cut you a deal to not double bill minutes you spend talking to your [wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend], they don't honor it; ny next door neighbor (and good friend for four years) got an 800$ bill for that very reason that he's still trying to iron out with ATTW nearly two months later. Another friend of mine had his plan switched for him by one of the retarded sales associates at a mall kiosk when his friend signed up and listed him as the referral -- and the salesman switched my friend's phone plan to the same one (with fewer "anytime minutes") as the new customer. cue over a thousand dollars in extra charges over two months -- which he was unable to straighten out because by the time he got back from I-FUCKING-RAQ the salesman who did it had long since vacated, his buddy had left the marine corps and moved home, and nobody had receipts left anyway.
I wouldn't have reccommended ATTW to anyone BEFORE the FCC declaration, and now I actively crusade AGAINST them.
Slashdot Mirror
only the antarctic ice cap melting would raise sea levels -- the polar ice cap is made completely out of floating ice. as such, it already displaces its own weight of water.
Distributed Delivery of Sustenance?
[complete agreement with parent]
VAIO notebooks are pretty, and powerful, but their batteries suck. a new laptop with the "complimentary" battery will get 45 minutes to an hour, and will deteriorate quite quickly to less than half an hour on full charge.
replacement batteries with a supposed 2 hour life run ~$180US last i was in the market.
[/complete agreement with parent]
helmet-mounted earbuds would be cool, provided you have a way to turn them on and off whout removing the helmet. being a music appreciator myself, i've been hurting a couple times listening to nothing but road noise. i've tried humming tunes while riding to and from work (an hour ride on the freeway), but i find it makes it too difficult to hear what's going on around me.
helmets already block out a lot of the noise of the cars around you (at least, if you wear a full face helmet). i believe that on a bike, your hearing is much, much more important than it is when you're in a car. i'd even go so far as to say that hearing is 40% of riding a bike.^W^W^Wstaying alive on a bike.
one other big thing i forgot to mention: if everybody rode motorcycles, there would be NO traffic on the freeways (you can fit three or four motorcycles in the space that one car takes up). traffic jams would be nonexistant (smaller vehiciles make for quicker moving traffic). parking would never be an issue (four, maybe five if they're all your friends', motorcycles can park in the space one car needs to parallel(sp?) park).
there really are a hundred different advantages to riding motorcycles. and most of the disadvantages only exist because those less evolved among us insist on driving cars...
LMMFAO!
mod parent up, funny!
hear fucking hear.
i just recently (dangerous as fuck. even so, i'm a huge advocate for motorcycles. just on the merits of my enthusiasm and constant babbling about how awesome motorcycles are, no fewer than five of my close friends are now considering getting one.
why do motorcycles rule balls over cars?
-gas. in california, i'm very lucky to find premium unleaded at $2.35/gallon. on a full tank (3gal) + a 1 gallon "just in case" fuel can that i keep in my saddle bag, I get 200 miles. $9.50 for 200 miles -- 50 miles per gallon or just 4.5 cents per mile.
to contrast, i have a friend who owns a jeep cherokee. HER full tank of gas costs her over fifty dollars, and she gets 400 miles out of it. 12.5 cents per mile -- and she doesn't get premium.
-fun. sure, i don't get the stereo and loud music, but all that's just a distraction to car drivers. the feeling of riding, however, is absolutely fantastic.
-style. doesn't this pretty much go without saying? let's move on.
-something to talk about. in new company? don't know what to say? ask that guy holding a helmet about his bike. he'll be glad to tell you alllll about it.
-reactions. a lot of people don't know how to deal with a motorcyclist. it's a foreign concept to them, and it puts them very slightly on edge.
-cost. my motorcycle cost me 1200$. i got it with ~18000 miles on it. i've since put almost 3000 on it and the only thing i've had to replace has been the rear tire (which needed replacing when i got it) and the oil.
furthermore, there's less things to go wrong. only two cylinders. two spark plugs. no coolant (air cooled!), no serpentine belt, no AC. mine doesn't even have a chain (shaft driven).
among others, which iwon't enumerate because i'm running out of attention span.
the disadvantages to riding a motorcycle? i'm not going to put "danger" here, because even though motorcycles DO have a higher fatality rate, i am thoroughly of the opinion that they are largely the motorcyclist's fault for, as you said, riding outisde of the limits of a) the bike, b) the road or c) their skill level.
that being said, disadvantages:
-you only get to take one passenger. however, if that passenger is a girl, and you are a guy, that girl is going to think you're the best thing since sliced bread
-luggage. if you have saddlebags (which if you ride a crotch rocket, you won't), you have at VERY best 3-4 cubic feet of storage room. it's plenty to go to the store for more soda, though.
i know i'm way off topic, but you ignited my passion to babble about motorcycles.
i added you as a friend, by the way.
When i picked up my first copy in the store and said to myself, "that's an interesting design for a spaceship", i knew i was hooked. even before the tagline ("Your past is a lie. Your future is uncertain. And you're 10,000 light years from home") reeled me in, i knew i was going to buy it.
even the multitude of bugs and lousy support by sierra/relic couldn't turn me off.
Cataclysm was more of the awesome, but suffered somewhat from a couple of bad actors, repetition and cliches, and bad writers. (how many times does that matron of a fleet command say, "it's like nothing we've ever seen before!"?)
on the other hand, the way the captain says "burn!" when you fire the siege cannon gives me goose bumps.
homeworld 2 blew me away in terms of gameplay, but i didn't like the religious overtones. i didn't like the way they handled the hyperspace cores -- almost like religious artifacts. plus, Karan S'jet is fucking hot.
even though it had those few downfalls, i definitely think that the homeworld series is among the best ever in any genre. its story hits very close to home with the psychological need for home, shelter, belonging, history, etc.
all around, awesome series.
All this SCO stuff is flying around so fast that I can't even keep the players straight anymore. is IBM a Good Guy(c) or a Bad Guy(c) in the whole affair?
[sarcasm]
it WOULD be nice to get them mooslim radicals to realize the error of their ways and become good, god-fearing christians.
[/sarcasm]
this is what you just said.
In other news, america's sensationalization and hype step up to new levels to combat the desensitization to hype brought on by Fox News' continuous looping of the same six stories four times per day.
top headline right now: nobody cares! an eyewitness at the NASA command center shrugged and commented "It really doesn't matter, they still have two gyros left. Ooh! Gyros. I think I'll have greek food for lunch." the pudgy scientist then led twelve of his friends to Olive Garden.
I sit corrected.
i don't know whether to laugh about this or hang my head.
I second you on that!
honestly, how hard can it be to take a MD and record data onto it?
yet for some reason, sony seems unable or unwilling to release a minidisk drive for computers that works with the audio MDs that are available.
140MB isn't much, but it's a hell of a lot better than a floppy drive, and it's a hell of a lot more sturdy, too.
all i really want is to be able to slip a MD into my computer, drag and drop a couple files onto it, record a couple songs onto it (hell, i'll even use their shitty NetMD Simple Burner to do it), listen to the songs as i walk to my friend's house and then pop the disk into his computer and copy the files over onto his hard drive.
but no! that would be too plausible a business model for sony. they'd rather just plaster hello kitty all over the things they're already selling...
Do you mean the level below?
probably in the same way a girl can get "a little bit" pregnant.
try 661 of my brothers and sisters. if you're going to wield righteous indignation, at least get your numbers right.
I disagree.
Shhhh! Don't give them any more ideas!
I completely agree with this, with one proviso: you don't have to join an intelligence field. There are plenty of communications fields that employers love to see. I was a tactical data network operator (mobile TCP/IP networks) for four years, and with the benefit of having a "secret" clearance (lowest level requiring an investigation), i slid into a job making 53k yearly (on hourly wage $25.40).
i work alternating weeks of 3 days and then 4 days, on a 12 hour shift. Overtime pushes my yearly salary to just under 60k. little to no stress. Plus i have the satisfaction of working on one of the largest private networks, and THE larges active directory, in the world.
My cost of living isn't very high, either. living in southern california, in a large 2 bedroom apartment for which i pay 12 large per year, plus other various expenses (utilities, car payment, etc). about half of my income is expendable.
Another helpful tip: make sure you get in touch with as many headhunters as you can. In california, Tek Systems, based in la jolla, is a good jumping off point. For former military, Milvets Systems Technilogy is where I got my job subcontracted from. (plug)
Any more information on this "really high end wifi equipment"? it sounds like something i'd be interested in.
Jack the sound barrier. Bring the noise.
Not to pick nits, but don't you mean the x86 desktop market? 386-class processors went out a LONG time ago, friend.
You sound like two of my best friends and me all folled up into one (using ATT though, instead of Verizon).
I use TMobile now, and i'm happy as a pig in shit. (blame the french for that one). i switched after i saw how amazingly well my girlfriend's tmobile works -- good coverage pretty much everywhere here in socal (from LA to SSanD'oria -- er.. south san diego), lightning fast text messaging, minute usage quotes usually accurate to within an hour or so, good calling plans.
The only disappointment I had was being unable to switch to a 1000 "anytime minute" plan without gettinga new phone number, but I figure that's not so bad now that i can keep better track of my usage.
Cheers.
I was, unfortunately, an ATT wireless customer for only six months, and I hated it. their customer support was hand-tied and unapologetic about it. Their web interface plain sucks; there's no way on ATT wireless to check the number of "anytime minutes" you have used in a month; you'd better keep a stopwatch.
Even when they cut you a deal to not double bill minutes you spend talking to your [wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend], they don't honor it; ny next door neighbor (and good friend for four years) got an 800$ bill for that very reason that he's still trying to iron out with ATTW nearly two months later.
Another friend of mine had his plan switched for him by one of the retarded sales associates at a mall kiosk when his friend signed up and listed him as the referral -- and the salesman switched my friend's phone plan to the same one (with fewer "anytime minutes") as the new customer. cue over a thousand dollars in extra charges over two months -- which he was unable to straighten out because by the time he got back from I-FUCKING-RAQ the salesman who did it had long since vacated, his buddy had left the marine corps and moved home, and nobody had receipts left anyway.
I wouldn't have reccommended ATTW to anyone BEFORE the FCC declaration, and now I actively crusade AGAINST them.
Worst. Celular phone company. Ever.