How many of you idiots actually try this half-baked advice? Any normal music store will just say the-rules-are-the-rules-we-don't-do-refunds. The previous poster has the right idea. Don't buy these crippled discs.
Also, if they stop selling CDs, then I guess I'll have to get all my music through Gnutella. My computer *is* my stereo. I don't have a lot of physical space to work with, so instead of a normal system I got a decent soundcard and some nice speakers. (SB Live 5.1 and a Koss 4.1 surround set. Yes, I know full well it's not audiophile quality, but it's within my budget, so bite me.)
We Canadians do appear to neglect our military, but look at it this way. The only country we border is the US, which is a tad unlikely to invade us. Any other country would have to cross one of three oceans. A lot of us are just not worried about military matters. The national budget reflects this. We've got more important things to fund.
Also, our taxes are no higher than US taxes. What's wrong with social programs? I know I'd rather see my tax dollars go towards someone's chemotherapy or student loan instead of defence industry kickbacks.
On the bright side, the underequipped nature of the military can lead to humourous advertising campaigns, such as Greco Pizza's "More Subs Than The Canadian Navy!" tagline.
KJA took the storyline of Timothy Zahn's good "Heir To The Empire" Star Wars books and turned it into Star Trek-esque technobabble, "My goodness, how will Luke and friends save the galaxy today?" and "Oh, let the precocious little tykes fix everything" nonsense. That opened the floodgates for other Trekkish hacks like Vonda N. MacIntyre (yes, the same one that wrote a thousand bad Trek novels) to try their hand at Star Wars. Her "Crystal Star" was particularly wretched, even by the standards of her fellow (I know the word is overused in this post, but it's just so damn appropriate) hacks. Take your average Trek book, switch "Enterprise" for "Millenium Falcon" and throw in a stock "Leia's Children Go Missing Yet Again" sideplot, and that's what you end up with. More technobabble and less plot than your average Voyager episode.
Not even Michael Stackpole and Aaron Allston (best known for their original ideas in the X-Wing series) and Zahn's return could salvage the whole steaming pile that is "New Jedi Order".
And as for shameless exploitation of a franchise, I'd like to mention a few Foundation sequels being authorized by Isaac Asimov's estate (ie relatives who want to milk the old guy's corpse for all they can get). Poor Isaac. At least he'll never have to suffer through the eyesore that is "Foundation and Chaos".
Hey, I enjoyed this. Is there any chance for me to be a paid book critic? Anyone hiring?:)
You probably mean "...countries that have not done anything, except aggressively invade their neighboring countries, refuse to disarm, and use poison gas on their own inhabitants that warrent[sic] an attack."
There's been a lot of comments on interstate internet purchases, and hwo the buyer has to pay their own state's "use tax", but what about buyers from other countries? I'm specifically wondering about Canada. Usually when I buy a DVD or CD it's just mailed through the postal service. Are tariffs built-in to the cost of shipping to another country?
(Offtopic, but I'd just like to say that the Canada/US exchange rate royally sucks. After shipping and exchange, that nice ebay bargain you've just found usually doubles in price.)
Sorry, I should have been clearer. You're right that it's not a true static IP, but I meant in the context of NBnet's own network rather than the Internet as a whole. They've fixed the problems with connecting to other vibe users with global IPs, too.
I'd love to spring for a business-class connection with a true static IP, but the salesman refused because I don't have a business-class phone line at my house. Aside from that, I've been pretty happy with the service.
Vibe DSL doesn't have the cap anymore. At least, not on my connection. NBTel's not a bad ISP either. Granted, it's not as fast as some cable connections, and has some kind of funky pseudo-NAT setup, but it's pretty reliable, and relatively cheap. I've heard they require PPPOE for new customers, but my plain-old-static-IP setup is grandfathered in.:)
Oh my. I not flaming, but I feel I should say something. This really only applies to works of fiction. Maybe non-fiction is less prone to the kind of disasters I've heard about.
Some close friends of mine are involved in exactly this kind of thing. They're part of this Star Wars gaming club called Rebel Squadrons. Mostly they fly X-Wing Alliance or X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter matches against each other and against members of other clubs. They've also got this Star Wars writing group called Aurora Force, which is a "fleet" within the main RS structure.
It's pretty much like you describe. At least, the intentions of this group were like that when it was founded. In practise, personal politics and petty rivalries get in the way. Writers write themselves in as unkillable, godlike characters, and kill off characters created by rival authors.
People write about new superships, which leads other writers to create even more grandiose fictional ships. There's more technobabble than your average Voyager episode, and very little attention to plot more deep than "character shags every other character of the opposite sex, gains immense powers, and is basically a bad-ass mofo". A few people try to write with more attention to realistic (well, as much as SW can be realistic) characters and plots, but they're drowned in the noise.
And that's not even mentioning the personality cults that are rife within the whole RS. (Aside from the Mikez, of course. And any Mikez here, don't salute. This is a family website.)
And that's my indirect experience with collaborative writing. It's an extreme, but I felt I had to say something. Does anyone have any happier experiences?
Yeah, 'cause after all, our government is always in the habit of arresting visiting US citizens, shipping them off to Syria, and "accidentally" losing track of them.
I am less worried by this report than the fact that the director of the CIA is unable to support the claims made by the administration concerning Iraq.
The thought that the CIA director is being more truthful than all the other branches of the US federal government scares me.
And I agree on the "liberal press" comment. To any resident freepers: If the media is so liberal, why was Clinton crucified over getting a blowjob, and the Harken and Haliburton affairs totally ignored? Answer me that.
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How many of you idiots actually try this half-baked advice? Any normal music store will just say the-rules-are-the-rules-we-don't-do-refunds. The previous poster has the right idea. Don't buy these crippled discs.
Also, if they stop selling CDs, then I guess I'll have to get all my music through Gnutella. My computer *is* my stereo. I don't have a lot of physical space to work with, so instead of a normal system I got a decent soundcard and some nice speakers. (SB Live 5.1 and a Koss 4.1 surround set. Yes, I know full well it's not audiophile quality, but it's within my budget, so bite me.)
Oh, please. Democrats are not liberals. Just milder conservatives.
He was probably using Acadian Peninsula "Franglais". Flippez le switch, s'il vous please. And close the porte, c'est froid.
I swear, if any French or English professors ever visited Bathurst, they'd have a heart attack during their first conversation...
We Canadians do appear to neglect our military, but look at it this way. The only country we border is the US, which is a tad unlikely to invade us. Any other country would have to cross one of three oceans. A lot of us are just not worried about military matters. The national budget reflects this. We've got more important things to fund.
Also, our taxes are no higher than US taxes. What's wrong with social programs? I know I'd rather see my tax dollars go towards someone's chemotherapy or student loan instead of defence industry kickbacks.
On the bright side, the underequipped nature of the military can lead to humourous advertising campaigns, such as Greco Pizza's "More Subs Than The Canadian Navy!" tagline.
Did anyone else read that comment and hear Professor Frink's voice?
KJA took the storyline of Timothy Zahn's good "Heir To The Empire" Star Wars books and turned it into Star Trek-esque technobabble, "My goodness, how will Luke and friends save the galaxy today?" and "Oh, let the precocious little tykes fix everything" nonsense. That opened the floodgates for other Trekkish hacks like Vonda N. MacIntyre (yes, the same one that wrote a thousand bad Trek novels) to try their hand at Star Wars. Her "Crystal Star" was particularly wretched, even by the standards of her fellow (I know the word is overused in this post, but it's just so damn appropriate) hacks. Take your average Trek book, switch "Enterprise" for "Millenium Falcon" and throw in a stock "Leia's Children Go Missing Yet Again" sideplot, and that's what you end up with. More technobabble and less plot than your average Voyager episode.
:)
Not even Michael Stackpole and Aaron Allston (best known for their original ideas in the X-Wing series) and Zahn's return could salvage the whole steaming pile that is "New Jedi Order".
And as for shameless exploitation of a franchise, I'd like to mention a few Foundation sequels being authorized by Isaac Asimov's estate (ie relatives who want to milk the old guy's corpse for all they can get). Poor Isaac. At least he'll never have to suffer through the eyesore that is "Foundation and Chaos".
Hey, I enjoyed this. Is there any chance for me to be a paid book critic? Anyone hiring?
Excellent points all around. Welcome to my friends list. :)
The Pope isn't lurking /. with unlimited mod points.
Are you sure? Taco's been awfully friendly to him. As recently as when Geeks In Space aired, at least. Maybe Kurt's been given an editor account.
You would rather give someone an account on your machine than let them send you an email.
With braindead security ideas like that, I sincerely hope you don't work for my ISP.
The Lovecraftian horror of the combination of "Realone" and "alpha" in the same sentence is almost too much for me to take.
Yeah, walmart's go some crap, but there's an occasional gem. I picked up The Princess Bride, Army Of Darkness for six bucks each at the local one.
:)
And if you've got some friends into MST3K, it's a good, cheap source of raw material.
Got the reference (I LOVE YOU, TDTIAB!). Close enough, though some overly-pedantic twit will no doubt post the exact transcript later. :)
You probably mean "...countries that have not done anything, except aggressively invade their neighboring countries, refuse to disarm, and use poison gas on their own inhabitants that warrent[sic] an attack."
Well, damn. I'm glad to see that only Iraq ever does those things.
There's been a lot of comments on interstate internet purchases, and hwo the buyer has to pay their own state's "use tax", but what about buyers from other countries? I'm specifically wondering about Canada. Usually when I buy a DVD or CD it's just mailed through the postal service. Are tariffs built-in to the cost of shipping to another country?
(Offtopic, but I'd just like to say that the Canada/US exchange rate royally sucks. After shipping and exchange, that nice ebay bargain you've just found usually doubles in price.)
Sorry, I should have been clearer. You're right that it's not a true static IP, but I meant in the context of NBnet's own network rather than the Internet as a whole. They've fixed the problems with connecting to other vibe users with global IPs, too.
I'd love to spring for a business-class connection with a true static IP, but the salesman refused because I don't have a business-class phone line at my house. Aside from that, I've been pretty happy with the service.
Vibe DSL doesn't have the cap anymore. At least, not on my connection. NBTel's not a bad ISP either. Granted, it's not as fast as some cable connections, and has some kind of funky pseudo-NAT setup, but it's pretty reliable, and relatively cheap. I've heard they require PPPOE for new customers, but my plain-old-static-IP setup is grandfathered in. :)
Nobodies? You mean Bush (Harken) and Cheney (Haliburton) are nobodies? Are you on crack?
Oh my. I not flaming, but I feel I should say something. This really only applies to works of fiction. Maybe non-fiction is less prone to the kind of disasters I've heard about.
Some close friends of mine are involved in exactly this kind of thing. They're part of this Star Wars gaming club called Rebel Squadrons. Mostly they fly X-Wing Alliance or X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter matches against each other and against members of other clubs. They've also got this Star Wars writing group called Aurora Force, which is a "fleet" within the main RS structure.
It's pretty much like you describe. At least, the intentions of this group were like that when it was founded. In practise, personal politics and petty rivalries get in the way. Writers write themselves in as unkillable, godlike characters, and kill off characters created by rival authors.
People write about new superships, which leads other writers to create even more grandiose fictional ships. There's more technobabble than your average Voyager episode, and very little attention to plot more deep than "character shags every other character of the opposite sex, gains immense powers, and is basically a bad-ass mofo". A few people try to write with more attention to realistic (well, as much as SW can be realistic) characters and plots, but they're drowned in the noise.
And that's not even mentioning the personality cults that are rife within the whole RS. (Aside from the Mikez, of course. And any Mikez here, don't salute. This is a family website.)
And that's my indirect experience with collaborative writing. It's an extreme, but I felt I had to say something. Does anyone have any happier experiences?
What if the sniper is part of Operation Northwoods 2: The Sequel?
Yeah, 'cause after all, our government is always in the habit of arresting visiting US citizens, shipping them off to Syria, and "accidentally" losing track of them.
I am less worried by this report than the fact that the director of the CIA is unable to support the claims made by the administration concerning Iraq.
The thought that the CIA director is being more truthful than all the other branches of the US federal government scares me.
And I agree on the "liberal press" comment. To any resident freepers: If the media is so liberal, why was Clinton crucified over getting a blowjob, and the Harken and Haliburton affairs totally ignored? Answer me that.
I've never met one decent Go player who could come close to beating me at chess (I'm well under a Master)
And I've only met a few good Counterstrike players that are able to beat me at Street Fighter. What's your point?
Come on, trekkies. You know you can't resists the pedantic urge to correct the parent post. I dare you to prove me wrong.
- An ex-trekkie (B5 forever!)
The video is pretty damned interesting. Granted, with modern movie special effects it could be faked, but it looks very real.
You're not getting it. He doesn't need to defend it. He just needs to have it either attacked or not attacked.