Carter - hated nuclear energy, irrationally enough to block the US from responsibly recycling fuel. Obama - continues and expands Carter's policies, ironically enough causing us to generate FAR more nuclear waste than we need to.
Carter - Believed that forcing the price of energy up was "good" for the environment. Obama - "Under my energy plan, prices will necessarily skyrocket."
Carter - campaigned primarily on nebulous "change" than concrete policy. Deliberately obfuscated policy whenever possible. Obama - campaigned on nebulous "change", avoided making concrete statements whenever possible.
Carter - believed that "talking to everyone" was good. Ignored the danger of legitimizing the illegitimate or insane. Obama - Believes in direct, non-preconditioned talks with Iran, Hamas, etc... is willing to legitimize anyone, no matter how illegitimate or insane.
Carter - had barely served a term in his state legislature before becoming a one-term governor. Obama - barely served (was absent more often than there) in state legislature before becoming a half-absentee, non-full-term Senator.
Carter - put Franklin Raines in as "assistant director of the White House Office of Domestic Policy." Obama - defended Franklin Raines and was one of the black Senators who stonewalled the investigation into Raines' cooking the books of Fannie Mae.
Carter - was a media darling and ran a cult of personality prior to his election. Obama - was a media darling and rana cult of personality prior to his election.
Carter - had ZERO foreign policy expertise. Obama - has ZERO foreign policy expertise.
Carter - believe that the US "leading by example" would stop others from doing things like making nuclear weapons. Obama - believes the same. Reality - How's that working out with India? Pakistan? Iran? North Korea? Red China?
Carter - is a raving anti-semite, as shown in his "books" of the past decade. Obama - Handed his first interview to an Arab news network which broadcasts video of horrific war crimes and rabid anti-semitic rantings, such as calling Jews and Christians "pigs and monkeys." Met in his first week with members of a Hamas front group. Supports legitimizing regimes which make statements like "Israel shall be wiped from the map." And let's not forget the racist church he not only joined, but raised his daughters in.
Carter - never would have been elected had the Republicans run a sane candidate against him. Obama - got to run against John McCain.
Carter - couldn't get his speeches straight even with his notes in front of him. Obama - hems, haws, um, er, eh, evades, and blows it when there's not a pre-scripted question and teleprompter to help him out.
I could go on, but you get the picture. Obama is Jimmy Carter 2.0, and just as dangerous for the same reasons.
More money is currently spent on research into skin treatments, breast augmentation, and penile enlargement/enhancement treatments, than neurodegenerative disease (like alzheimer's) treatments.
In other words, in 20 years' time the world is going to be full of 80-year-old people with firm skin, perky tits, big throbbing erections, and absolutely no fucking memory of what to do with them.
But then what would they have to froth at the mouth at? I mean, without the frothing-mouthed lunatic fringe out there, someone might actually pay attention to the destructive current Jimmy Carter 2.0 administration's constant mistakes...
Has to do with crap like this - the theory goes that you may WANT to have an autorun from them for legit reasons (movie on a "read only" flash disk, or a "plug this hard drive in and automatically launch Program X" setup).
Hell, without this, those "U3 Enabled" flash drives (yeah I know, gag puke awful crap software) are even harder to use too. They use a single partition with the U3 software, autoboot it, check for you entering your "password", and only they will it decrypt the OTHER partition on the drive for you.
When I was growing up, we used to have two choices for cable TV - Warner Cable (later became Time Warner) and Viacom Cable.
Warner was the "newcomer". They started running "specials", subsidized by their monopolies on OTHER cities. For a while, you got a basic cable package for $15/month and the pay channels like HBO for another $5 or so.
Then, Viacom folded. They couldn't compete any more, they were losing customers in droves to the "specials" because at that price, Warner was actually selling the service below cost (but claiming it was a "special" and a "sale", so getting around state laws against below-cost permanent pricing).
What did people find out once Viacom was dead? TW did what they do to everyone once they have a monopoly - they started running TV ads with the "happy king" declaring "I declare Warner Cable for my entire kingdom!" with a shit-eating grin on his face.
Meanwhile those "special" $15/month rates were expired out, and within 3 months the base price was $80/month.
Look at the prices you're offered for ISP service. If you are in a "competition" area, one of the lucky SOB's on a border (and the borders move as they put each other out of business), you can probably swing some ridiculously cheap pricing. Otherwise, what do you get? Comcrap pretty much has a monopoly on our area. DSL service is technically "available" if you want roughly the same data rate as a pair of 33.6 phone modems (no seriously: they haven't upgraded their equipment in 10 years or more).
Comcrap, 10 miles down the road, offers their "high tier" speed at $40/month. For us, "low tier" is $50/month. That's because 10 miles down the road, Verizon owns the lines and is offering FiOS to compete with Comcrap. Meanwhile, Comcrap's own internal memos show that they could double the speed to EVERY USER IN THEIR NETWORK, both up and down, for a mere $6/customer one-time cost, and they refuse to do it.
That's the kind of shit you deal with. They all want a monopoly so they can gouge the crap out of you.
Sorry, but whether you're an ATidiot or NVidiot, the same is true.
I used an ATi board up until I needed an Nvidia back (to get my old VRStandard shutter glasses usable again). Then NVidia fucked me over by making the "new" 3D glasses driver Vista-only and proprietary to their own fucking brand glasses, forcing me to choose between running an old driver (which won't work for certain games) or buying $500 in new hardware AND infecting my PC with Vista.
Bottom line is, if you're not doing something like that, you don't really care whether you have NVidia or ATi. Buy whatever is at the "sweet spot" in the pricing point. The 4770 for $99 certainly is a great price.
Oh, and one other thing to remember - Are you "Okay" with playing in 1900x1200? Fuck, man, I remember when 640x480 was stellar. When 800x600 at 30 frames was something to goggle at. To this day, I run a 21" CRT monitor that does 120 Hz at 1280x1024, I still have a NVidia 7800GS card (though I'll upgrade in a few months finally... after THREE AND A HALF YEARS on my current rig with no tears shed) and that's all I need.
Does anyone "need" 1900x1200? I doubt it. "High-end" graphics haven't been used by anyone but a few people who look more for bragging rights than fun in gaming for years. Hell, what are you going to play on it anyways - all the MMORPG's are still designed to run on 5 year old hardware, and anything "intensive" like Crysis is more of a fucking tech demo than an actual playable game anyways. The fun games, except for the MMORPG's, now come out on the consoles first and maybe get a PC port if you're lucky a year later.
Now that we've got the obligatory "is it real" crap out of the way, on to the important question:
How much did the MafiAA pay the judge to seal the records? And why would the transcript of talks held between the judge and MafiAA be sealed, if not that they reveal something that ought to make the now MafiAA-paid judge step down?
The basic problem is that "copyright protection", as used today (DRM, asshat lawyer scum, etc) is destructive to the geek/nerd/intelligent human being's basic desire to exercise their right to tinker.
We don't want to just buy something, then use it till it dies. We want to take it apart. Put it back together. Improve it. Repair it if it breaks. UNDERSTAND IT.
DRM on a digital movie - for one example - makes it harder to exercise our right to tinker. We can't easily pull a segment from it, or multiple segments, practice remixing it and splicing it and editing it and tweaking it and making something new, different, unique out of it.
DRM or "access protection" on a video game console - basically, a glorified computer - stops us from learning how to code new programs for it. From tweaking it to act as we want it to. From improving it - by adding storage, for instance, that reduces the crappy load times of disc-based consoles to something more bearable or that reduces the drain on the battery of a portable console.
Nintendo even wanted to get the US to outlaw the famous Afterburner mod - you remember, the thing they blatantly ripped off when it came time to create the Game Boy Advance SP, and the DS line?
The problem is, "piracy", or copyright infringement, is no different from other fields. Car geeks get to the point where they don't have to waste money on taking their car to a dealership or car shop. The car companies have in recent years tried to make this impossible by using proprietary shaped bits on certain fasteners in the engine, or packing things in super-tightly (in one case even making it impossible to change your oil yourself). The VW Rabbit, for another example, requires the removal of an entire wiring harness just to change a fucking headlight. And of course there are the "diagnostic computers", and the 5-year lag time during which the output codes are a "proprietary trade secret" to prevent non-Dealership car shops from being able to service them...
It's not just the copyright field. Freedom to tinker is something we should all have a right to, in EVERY field.
- Driving too fast for conditions (supposed to override "speed limits" with a "sanity check" - for example, if the cop sees you doing 75 MPH but it's icy/snowy/rain-slick roads, he can charge you with this, but it's entirely subjective) - "Reckless Endangerment" - "Reckless Driving" (as opposed to Wreckless Driving, which we much prefer). - Failure to Yield Right-Of-Way - Following Too Close
I'll take your opinion with as much weight as the your skill with the english language - in other words, none.
Lumines, as GPP pointed out, is a pathetic rip-off of a multitude of "puzzle games" over the years, the earliest and easiest to pick out is Columns. There is nothing "good" or "unique", and certainly nothing inventive, about it.
I had more fun playing NES Tetris on my PSP than I did "playing" Lumines.
Oh, and Kaz Hirai called. He says you can stop sucking his cock now. They found another fanboi to take your place.
#1 - You should never talk to the cops. Seriously. This is not about your being a "bad citizen" or something else. It is because what you say to the cops can be used AGAINST you, but not FOR you. It is because while the cops have one job, the prosecutors' job is to get convictions, and the prosecutor is perfectly allowed to take some little snippet out of context, ask the cop "did he say that", and you have no recourse.
#2 - Even the federal government can't tell you how many possible "federal crimes" exist on the books any more. And that's just at the federal level. "Ignorance of the law is no excuse" is one tenet of our justice system which might as well read instead, "fuck the people", because there's no way in hell you could EVER know what the entire body of law (and accompanying precedents, "or in violation of some bullshit treaty the US signed that you didn't get to vote on" clauses, "or in violation of some 'regulation' that Congress didn't vote on but was instead put forth by some unelected government bureaucrats" clauses, etc) says even if you eat, breathed, slept, and shit the stuff for your entire lifetime.
This doesn't mean you should go out of your way to ignore the law. And much of the law is pretty basic (don't park when there's a NO PARKING sign, don't be a dick while driving, etc). Still, you can NEVER be completely sure you're not breaking some law.
Which came first, the piracy or the lack of good games?
Piracy - e.g. the ability to copy a UMD game - didn't happen until long after the PSP was out. Remember, it was released in March 2005 (shit, has it really been 4 years???). It wasn't until a year and a half later that ISO loading was a reality.
The lack of good games has been a reality for the life of the console.
"Piracy" may screw with game sales, but will still have a number of the units sold (you can't play the game if you don't have the console).
PSP, on the other hand, sells like shit because there are no good games for it, UMD's suck battery life like no tomorrow (if I load a game image to the memstick I get 25% or more battery life ), and the very idea of buying a UMD movie instead of just encoding the DVD down for my memstick is fucking stupid.
I've had multiple friends ask me whether they should buy a DS or a PSP in the last year. Without hesitation, I pointed them to the DS. My PSP hasn't even been charged in the last six months, for chrissake.
Katrina flushed out a lot of the 'crap' and freeloaders from the city.
Yeah, they all moved in to fuck up cities like mine down the road.
Sorry. Visited it a few times. Can't say I like Nawlins one bit. Wish they would take their 'crap' and freeloaders (actually we call them Katrina Debris) back already. Or else boot out that bastard Nagin and get some real leadership.
Actually, yes. I was fortunate enough to go into a "hard science" degree, rather than the made-up "sciences."
I got enough of the bullshit during the "core curriculum" set, where the trick to getting a high grade was to regurgitate everything the prof said (or wrote in the book he wrote himself and then required, at $300/copy for, in his class) instead of challenging any of his ideas with contrary data.
You wonder why I say that the "soft science" professors can't make it in the real world? Here's a hint - they all write their "own" book, usually plagiarized from someone else wholesale, and then require it for their own course at an exorbitant cost. But not to worry, they have a captive audience; consider the yearly take when they sell books to 2000 or more freshman/sophomores per semester at $300 each, even after the printing costs. One of these ass-tards was so nasty as to require that we hand in the back cover of our book along with the final exam - that way, nobody could sell a book back to the bookstore, or buy a used book, and still pass the class.
1) Don't forget: the vast majority of college professors are unabashed liberals, if not outright socialists. This is because there are many fields where a doctorate is easy to get (take some surveys, fudge some statistics, write a "research thesis" paper that supports the groupthink of most of the people on the committee) and of no practical value outside of going into a career as a professor and then continuing the cycle of indoctrinating young minds into the groupthink.
College long ago stopped having any notion of teaching kids to think and research independently, and became about telling them WHAT to think instead.
The vast majority of undergrad kids idolize the professors. They're supposed to show up in class and regurgitate back the class content. Much like in the grade schools prior to college, independent thought isn't encouraged, it's something to be stamped out at all costs.
There was a time, of course, when it wasn't this way. Unfortunately, at some point the left wing realized that if they could control the schools, they could control young minds. The result? As written in "The Naked Communist" (by Cleon Skousen), and entered into the 1963 Congressional Record, I give you Goal #17 and 18:
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
Seen your college newspaper lately? You're in for an eye-opener or three. (While you're at it, look up the aforementioned goal and check out goals 26, 29, 40, and just for a lark, 44).
2) Most people today wouldn't know what libertarianism, liberalism, conservatism, socialism, or any other similar terms meant even if you slapped them upside the head with a dictionary open to the correct page. That's what you get when they come through the joke of a "public school system" we have today, which is void of any proper (read: unbiased and analytical) classes on governmental theory, civics, and economics.
Hell, we let people graduate from High School today lacking the basic (what used to be 3rd or 4th-grade level) arithmetic and reasoning skills to balance their own fucking checkbook, and then we have "social scientists" trying to come up with explanations as to why so many people got into bad loans and way over their heads in debt. Here's a minor clue: they are too fucking stupid and uneducated to manage their own financial affairs.
Most places have locker where you work at?? Interesting...I've only seen ONE place ever that had that. Mostly I'd say you have to change in the bathroom which doesn't sound like fun....Are you in the US? What places have you worked where they provide you with a locker in locker room and a big enough cube to store clothes and the like?
I'm in the US. Where I currently work, I have my own office (and can easily hang up/store a spare set of clothes if needed). We also have a staff gym, with lockers big enough to hang a spare clothing set. Previous places, even without a gym, they provided lockers (as much because people needed to store things like their company-issued ESD equipment as to allow bringing clothes, though).
The phrase "talk to your boss" comes to mind. Most places are pretty good about finding some accommodation.
And how many spare sets of clothes do I bring to work? I wear dress casuals every day, button down shirt (starched) usually, and slacks. I don't really have a closet or anywhere at work to store clothes, and there's always the chance if you leave something out, it can get stolen.
A button down shirt and slacks, properly folded, should EASILY fit into a briefcase and remain nice and neat...
I guess I just don't see it practical to bring clothes to change into when I get here.
Then what do you do if you spill your coffee or Big Gulp on yourself while driving in to work?
I scan the store ads weekly, and make one trip out to get the best deals on what I need that week. I also try on Sat. to hit some farmer's mkts for veggies. Luckilly my main grocery store here carries a lot of local produce and fish,e tc. But I don't just throw stuff in a cart. I look over ads and plan to make my weeks means based largely on what is on sale.
Then what stops you from driving only on the days you know you're going to shop, and using alternate means the other days? Think of how much you'd save once Obama passes his energy plan and gas is $5/gallon or worse, too! Remember, Obama Sez: "Under my plan, energy prices will necessarily skyrocket.""
And I still dont' know how you carry big stuff? I like to smoke things...so, when I see whole fresh hams on sale (22lbs) I buy 2-3 of them, and throw them in the deep freezer. I try to buy meats on sale, and I don't mind cutting up larger primals to smaller portions...again, I get more choice on quality, and I save money. I started grinding and stuffing my own sausages....I found a good price on a whole chuck roast....it was 20lbs...no way I'm able to fit that and anything else in a bike basket or in my backpack.
Again, did I say "sell your car and never drive again"???? FUCK NO. Drive when you need to, don't drive when you don't need to.
I mean as it is with how I work...I get up about 7am..walk the dog, get ready to work, pack lunch...go to work, leave work about 4:30-5pm..hit the gym for about 2 hours, then home about 6:30 or 7pm...walk the dog, cook/warm up food, eat...by then I'm about 8pm or so, I like to watch some tv..and get ready for work the next day.(pack gym bag, etc) or do some hobby stuff. I'm usually in bed by about 9-9:30pm and sleeping by 10pm or so....I like getting 8 hours sleep if possible.
Now...in all that...if I were to increase my planning load, and travel times...well, I just can't see enough positive ROI to justify adding that difficulty to my already busy life. And I'm lucky...I live fairly close to work, I can't imagine people living far away with traffic doing it...?
Interesting. Usually, improving one's planning skills increases the amount of "free time" one has available in the day. Why not try keeping a time diary for a couple weeks, and then add up what you're actually doing?
Again... you live in the Shitty of Nawlins. You might
Did I say carry it all, every single day? On the other hand, if you can't handle a backpack and a small gym bag, you need to work out a lot more than you currently are:P
What if you only drove in once or twice a week. If you have an office, put a spare set of work clothes in the closet. If you've got a cubicle, most workplaces have lockers where you could hang your stuff up.
As for the flooding... dude, you live in NOLA. I can't help that you live 10 feet below sea level.
How do you carry all that stuff around with you on a bus, train and changing buses and trains along the way. I do my shopping on Sat or Sunday...I usually hit 2-3 stores and maybe Sam's Club to get the best deals, and some things in bulk. I have to make about 2-4 trips to my car when I get home to unload all the stuff. How do you carry that much with no car?
The answer is: you don't. You get what you carry. When I had the chance to use my bicycle (with a nice set of baskets affixed on each side over the rear wheel) rather than my car, you know what I noticed? Being forced to pick and choose what I bought, rather than just throwing everything in the fucking cart, made me realize how much junk food I was eating. Then I left it behind. All of a sudden, not only was I eating healthier, my grocery bill for each month was half of what it had been before.
If you still want to shop in bulk for some things (and I don't fault you, there are plenty of non-perishables that it makes sense to shop for that way), maybe you should do that either (a) in the evening after coming home or (b) on a day you're not working or (c) drive only on the day you intend to go shopping.
Seriously, you don't have to use public transportation every single day of your life - but you could EASILY manage 3 days of your 5 day work week with a little planning.
I'm lucky that I only ahve about a 10 min. drive to work
No shit. Most people drive 25+ minutes. How insane is that? And before we get the whole "well you should fucking move closer to your workplace", it's hard when the choices for doing so are either (a) high-rise apartments that charge twice as much per month than the usual mortgage payment but with no equity gains, (b) overpriced apartments in dying buildings where you'll never sleep for fear of gunshots coming through the walls, or (c) sleeping on the floor in your office.
I'd LOVE to trade some of those days for 30 minutes or so where I can read a book instead of wondering if the drunk illegal mexican speeding down the highway is going to kill me in a car crash this morning.
You get on a train in the suburbs (I'm guessing your wife drops you off, or you drive to train depot and park. Once you get to the 'city', how do you get to/from your work site?
Bus, Taxi, or the good old "Model 0 Mark 1" (hoof it).
If you try to walk..what happens when weather is bad?
Check a weather report in the morning. Dress appropriately for the season. Maybe carry a change of clothes or stash some in the office if you need to. Stash an umbrella in your backpack/briefcase. You know... be prepared.
To me, especially living in the climate I do, that is the greatest impediment to any type of mass transit to go to work daily. It would take me much longer to catch and switch busses all over town, to get to my work...not to mention that there is not a bus stop very near either my home or office.
This is because the people who designed your local busing system are morons. If you are commuting to an urban center, the city bus shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to get you where you're going.
What if you need to go to the gym or shop after work on the way home?? How do you live like that without a car...I just have a hard time seeing how you do that and have any resemblance to a normal life and life schedule.
This is where public transportation needs to be viewed as a service instead of a profit-making business. The city/county/state population needs to decide, as a whole, that they WANT and are WILLING TO SUBSIDIZE public transportation such that it isn't only usable in a narrow band from 6:30-8:30am and 4:30-6:30pm with crapass route coverage the rest of the time.
IF they decide this - as most municipalities in Europe have - then the answer to your question is "eh, no big deal, I can take the bus to the gym/grocery store." Or there will be racks on the train/bus such that you can actually bring your bicycle with you (bike 5 min to train, get on train for 20 min, get off train and bike 5 more min).
IF, on the other hand, they treat public transportation as a "business" like most US cities do, then you get exactly what you expect out of a business that has a monopoly on the market and profit-taking interest; they will cut all but the "profitable" routes, leaving zero flexibility and crapass service.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's take stock and see:
Carter - hated nuclear energy, irrationally enough to block the US from responsibly recycling fuel.
Obama - continues and expands Carter's policies, ironically enough causing us to generate FAR more nuclear waste than we need to.
Carter - Believed that forcing the price of energy up was "good" for the environment.
Obama - "Under my energy plan, prices will necessarily skyrocket."
Carter - campaigned primarily on nebulous "change" than concrete policy. Deliberately obfuscated policy whenever possible.
Obama - campaigned on nebulous "change", avoided making concrete statements whenever possible.
Carter - believed that "talking to everyone" was good. Ignored the danger of legitimizing the illegitimate or insane.
Obama - Believes in direct, non-preconditioned talks with Iran, Hamas, etc... is willing to legitimize anyone, no matter how illegitimate or insane.
Carter - had barely served a term in his state legislature before becoming a one-term governor.
Obama - barely served (was absent more often than there) in state legislature before becoming a half-absentee, non-full-term Senator.
Carter - put Franklin Raines in as "assistant director of the White House Office of Domestic Policy."
Obama - defended Franklin Raines and was one of the black Senators who stonewalled the investigation into Raines' cooking the books of Fannie Mae.
Carter - was a media darling and ran a cult of personality prior to his election.
Obama - was a media darling and rana cult of personality prior to his election.
Carter - had ZERO foreign policy expertise.
Obama - has ZERO foreign policy expertise.
Carter - believe that the US "leading by example" would stop others from doing things like making nuclear weapons.
Obama - believes the same.
Reality - How's that working out with India? Pakistan? Iran? North Korea? Red China?
Carter - is a raving anti-semite, as shown in his "books" of the past decade.
Obama - Handed his first interview to an Arab news network which broadcasts video of horrific war crimes and rabid anti-semitic rantings, such as calling Jews and Christians "pigs and monkeys." Met in his first week with members of a Hamas front group. Supports legitimizing regimes which make statements like "Israel shall be wiped from the map." And let's not forget the racist church he not only joined, but raised his daughters in.
Carter - never would have been elected had the Republicans run a sane candidate against him.
Obama - got to run against John McCain.
Carter - couldn't get his speeches straight even with his notes in front of him.
Obama - hems, haws, um, er, eh, evades, and blows it when there's not a pre-scripted question and teleprompter to help him out.
I could go on, but you get the picture. Obama is Jimmy Carter 2.0, and just as dangerous for the same reasons.
More money is currently spent on research into skin treatments, breast augmentation, and penile enlargement/enhancement treatments, than neurodegenerative disease (like alzheimer's) treatments.
In other words, in 20 years' time the world is going to be full of 80-year-old people with firm skin, perky tits, big throbbing erections, and absolutely no fucking memory of what to do with them.
But then what would they have to froth at the mouth at? I mean, without the frothing-mouthed lunatic fringe out there, someone might actually pay attention to the destructive current Jimmy Carter 2.0 administration's constant mistakes...
Has to do with crap like this - the theory goes that you may WANT to have an autorun from them for legit reasons (movie on a "read only" flash disk, or a "plug this hard drive in and automatically launch Program X" setup).
Hell, without this, those "U3 Enabled" flash drives (yeah I know, gag puke awful crap software) are even harder to use too. They use a single partition with the U3 software, autoboot it, check for you entering your "password", and only they will it decrypt the OTHER partition on the drive for you.
See where this is going?
And there's the rub.
When I was growing up, we used to have two choices for cable TV - Warner Cable (later became Time Warner) and Viacom Cable.
Warner was the "newcomer". They started running "specials", subsidized by their monopolies on OTHER cities. For a while, you got a basic cable package for $15/month and the pay channels like HBO for another $5 or so.
Then, Viacom folded. They couldn't compete any more, they were losing customers in droves to the "specials" because at that price, Warner was actually selling the service below cost (but claiming it was a "special" and a "sale", so getting around state laws against below-cost permanent pricing).
What did people find out once Viacom was dead? TW did what they do to everyone once they have a monopoly - they started running TV ads with the "happy king" declaring "I declare Warner Cable for my entire kingdom!" with a shit-eating grin on his face.
Meanwhile those "special" $15/month rates were expired out, and within 3 months the base price was $80/month.
Look at the prices you're offered for ISP service. If you are in a "competition" area, one of the lucky SOB's on a border (and the borders move as they put each other out of business), you can probably swing some ridiculously cheap pricing. Otherwise, what do you get? Comcrap pretty much has a monopoly on our area. DSL service is technically "available" if you want roughly the same data rate as a pair of 33.6 phone modems (no seriously: they haven't upgraded their equipment in 10 years or more).
Comcrap, 10 miles down the road, offers their "high tier" speed at $40/month. For us, "low tier" is $50/month. That's because 10 miles down the road, Verizon owns the lines and is offering FiOS to compete with Comcrap. Meanwhile, Comcrap's own internal memos show that they could double the speed to EVERY USER IN THEIR NETWORK, both up and down, for a mere $6/customer one-time cost, and they refuse to do it.
That's the kind of shit you deal with. They all want a monopoly so they can gouge the crap out of you.
And if you were using agile tech, rather than static LCD, this wouldn't be a problem!
Sorry, but whether you're an ATidiot or NVidiot, the same is true.
I used an ATi board up until I needed an Nvidia back (to get my old VRStandard shutter glasses usable again). Then NVidia fucked me over by making the "new" 3D glasses driver Vista-only and proprietary to their own fucking brand glasses, forcing me to choose between running an old driver (which won't work for certain games) or buying $500 in new hardware AND infecting my PC with Vista.
Bottom line is, if you're not doing something like that, you don't really care whether you have NVidia or ATi. Buy whatever is at the "sweet spot" in the pricing point. The 4770 for $99 certainly is a great price.
Oh, and one other thing to remember - Are you "Okay" with playing in 1900x1200? Fuck, man, I remember when 640x480 was stellar. When 800x600 at 30 frames was something to goggle at. To this day, I run a 21" CRT monitor that does 120 Hz at 1280x1024, I still have a NVidia 7800GS card (though I'll upgrade in a few months finally... after THREE AND A HALF YEARS on my current rig with no tears shed) and that's all I need.
Does anyone "need" 1900x1200? I doubt it. "High-end" graphics haven't been used by anyone but a few people who look more for bragging rights than fun in gaming for years. Hell, what are you going to play on it anyways - all the MMORPG's are still designed to run on 5 year old hardware, and anything "intensive" like Crysis is more of a fucking tech demo than an actual playable game anyways. The fun games, except for the MMORPG's, now come out on the consoles first and maybe get a PC port if you're lucky a year later.
Now that we've got the obligatory "is it real" crap out of the way, on to the important question:
How much did the MafiAA pay the judge to seal the records? And why would the transcript of talks held between the judge and MafiAA be sealed, if not that they reveal something that ought to make the now MafiAA-paid judge step down?
Indeed.
The basic problem is that "copyright protection", as used today (DRM, asshat lawyer scum, etc) is destructive to the geek/nerd/intelligent human being's basic desire to exercise their right to tinker.
We don't want to just buy something, then use it till it dies. We want to take it apart. Put it back together. Improve it. Repair it if it breaks. UNDERSTAND IT.
DRM on a digital movie - for one example - makes it harder to exercise our right to tinker. We can't easily pull a segment from it, or multiple segments, practice remixing it and splicing it and editing it and tweaking it and making something new, different, unique out of it.
DRM or "access protection" on a video game console - basically, a glorified computer - stops us from learning how to code new programs for it. From tweaking it to act as we want it to. From improving it - by adding storage, for instance, that reduces the crappy load times of disc-based consoles to something more bearable or that reduces the drain on the battery of a portable console.
Nintendo even wanted to get the US to outlaw the famous Afterburner mod - you remember, the thing they blatantly ripped off when it came time to create the Game Boy Advance SP, and the DS line?
The problem is, "piracy", or copyright infringement, is no different from other fields. Car geeks get to the point where they don't have to waste money on taking their car to a dealership or car shop. The car companies have in recent years tried to make this impossible by using proprietary shaped bits on certain fasteners in the engine, or packing things in super-tightly (in one case even making it impossible to change your oil yourself). The VW Rabbit, for another example, requires the removal of an entire wiring harness just to change a fucking headlight. And of course there are the "diagnostic computers", and the 5-year lag time during which the output codes are a "proprietary trade secret" to prevent non-Dealership car shops from being able to service them...
It's not just the copyright field. Freedom to tinker is something we should all have a right to, in EVERY field.
And if ascertaining what the law says requires a full-time research staff just to answer SIMPLE questions?
Also Known As/Peripherally Related To:
- Driving too fast for conditions (supposed to override "speed limits" with a "sanity check" - for example, if the cop sees you doing 75 MPH but it's icy/snowy/rain-slick roads, he can charge you with this, but it's entirely subjective)
- "Reckless Endangerment"
- "Reckless Driving" (as opposed to Wreckless Driving, which we much prefer).
- Failure to Yield Right-Of-Way
- Following Too Close
I'll take your opinion with as much weight as the your skill with the english language - in other words, none.
Lumines, as GPP pointed out, is a pathetic rip-off of a multitude of "puzzle games" over the years, the earliest and easiest to pick out is Columns. There is nothing "good" or "unique", and certainly nothing inventive, about it.
I had more fun playing NES Tetris on my PSP than I did "playing" Lumines.
Oh, and Kaz Hirai called. He says you can stop sucking his cock now. They found another fanboi to take your place.
Basic things to remember:
#1 - You should never talk to the cops. Seriously. This is not about your being a "bad citizen" or something else. It is because what you say to the cops can be used AGAINST you, but not FOR you. It is because while the cops have one job, the prosecutors' job is to get convictions, and the prosecutor is perfectly allowed to take some little snippet out of context, ask the cop "did he say that", and you have no recourse.
#2 - Even the federal government can't tell you how many possible "federal crimes" exist on the books any more. And that's just at the federal level. "Ignorance of the law is no excuse" is one tenet of our justice system which might as well read instead, "fuck the people", because there's no way in hell you could EVER know what the entire body of law (and accompanying precedents, "or in violation of some bullshit treaty the US signed that you didn't get to vote on" clauses, "or in violation of some 'regulation' that Congress didn't vote on but was instead put forth by some unelected government bureaucrats" clauses, etc) says even if you eat, breathed, slept, and shit the stuff for your entire lifetime.
This doesn't mean you should go out of your way to ignore the law. And much of the law is pretty basic (don't park when there's a NO PARKING sign, don't be a dick while driving, etc). Still, you can NEVER be completely sure you're not breaking some law.
Which came first, the piracy or the lack of good games?
Piracy - e.g. the ability to copy a UMD game - didn't happen until long after the PSP was out. Remember, it was released in March 2005 (shit, has it really been 4 years???). It wasn't until a year and a half later that ISO loading was a reality.
The lack of good games has been a reality for the life of the console.
Too true.
"Piracy" may screw with game sales, but will still have a number of the units sold (you can't play the game if you don't have the console).
PSP, on the other hand, sells like shit because there are no good games for it, UMD's suck battery life like no tomorrow (if I load a game image to the memstick I get 25% or more battery life ), and the very idea of buying a UMD movie instead of just encoding the DVD down for my memstick is fucking stupid.
I've had multiple friends ask me whether they should buy a DS or a PSP in the last year. Without hesitation, I pointed them to the DS. My PSP hasn't even been charged in the last six months, for chrissake.
The Automobile was the "death" (well there are very, very few manufacturers any more) of the carriage and buggy whip industries too...
Katrina flushed out a lot of the 'crap' and freeloaders from the city.
Yeah, they all moved in to fuck up cities like mine down the road.
Sorry. Visited it a few times. Can't say I like Nawlins one bit. Wish they would take their 'crap' and freeloaders (actually we call them Katrina Debris) back already. Or else boot out that bastard Nagin and get some real leadership.
Actually, yes. I was fortunate enough to go into a "hard science" degree, rather than the made-up "sciences."
I got enough of the bullshit during the "core curriculum" set, where the trick to getting a high grade was to regurgitate everything the prof said (or wrote in the book he wrote himself and then required, at $300/copy for, in his class) instead of challenging any of his ideas with contrary data.
You wonder why I say that the "soft science" professors can't make it in the real world? Here's a hint - they all write their "own" book, usually plagiarized from someone else wholesale, and then require it for their own course at an exorbitant cost. But not to worry, they have a captive audience; consider the yearly take when they sell books to 2000 or more freshman/sophomores per semester at $300 each, even after the printing costs. One of these ass-tards was so nasty as to require that we hand in the back cover of our book along with the final exam - that way, nobody could sell a book back to the bookstore, or buy a used book, and still pass the class.
Let me boil down Steinberger's so-called "argument" for you.
Nanny-boo-boo if you're conservative you're a big stupid meanie-head.
To wit:
But Mr. Horowitz is a guest. We invited him here. Morally this doesn't mean we have to take his ideas seriously, and so on.
1) Don't forget: the vast majority of college professors are unabashed liberals, if not outright socialists. This is because there are many fields where a doctorate is easy to get (take some surveys, fudge some statistics, write a "research thesis" paper that supports the groupthink of most of the people on the committee) and of no practical value outside of going into a career as a professor and then continuing the cycle of indoctrinating young minds into the groupthink .
College long ago stopped having any notion of teaching kids to think and research independently, and became about telling them WHAT to think instead.
The vast majority of undergrad kids idolize the professors. They're supposed to show up in class and regurgitate back the class content. Much like in the grade schools prior to college, independent thought isn't encouraged, it's something to be stamped out at all costs.
There was a time, of course, when it wasn't this way. Unfortunately, at some point the left wing realized that if they could control the schools, they could control young minds. The result? As written in "The Naked Communist" (by Cleon Skousen), and entered into the 1963 Congressional Record, I give you Goal #17 and 18:
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
Seen your college newspaper lately? You're in for an eye-opener or three. (While you're at it, look up the aforementioned goal and check out goals 26, 29, 40, and just for a lark, 44).
2) Most people today wouldn't know what libertarianism, liberalism, conservatism, socialism, or any other similar terms meant even if you slapped them upside the head with a dictionary open to the correct page. That's what you get when they come through the joke of a "public school system" we have today, which is void of any proper (read: unbiased and analytical) classes on governmental theory, civics, and economics.
Hell, we let people graduate from High School today lacking the basic (what used to be 3rd or 4th-grade level) arithmetic and reasoning skills to balance their own fucking checkbook, and then we have "social scientists" trying to come up with explanations as to why so many people got into bad loans and way over their heads in debt. Here's a minor clue: they are too fucking stupid and uneducated to manage their own financial affairs.
Not even close! I'm in a different part of the country... amazing how similar things still are, isn't it?
Most places have locker where you work at?? Interesting...I've only seen ONE place ever that had that. Mostly I'd say you have to change in the bathroom which doesn't sound like fun. ...Are you in the US? What places have you worked where they provide you with a locker in locker room and a big enough cube to store clothes and the like?
I'm in the US. Where I currently work, I have my own office (and can easily hang up/store a spare set of clothes if needed). We also have a staff gym, with lockers big enough to hang a spare clothing set. Previous places, even without a gym, they provided lockers (as much because people needed to store things like their company-issued ESD equipment as to allow bringing clothes, though).
The phrase "talk to your boss" comes to mind. Most places are pretty good about finding some accommodation.
And how many spare sets of clothes do I bring to work? I wear dress casuals every day, button down shirt (starched) usually, and slacks. I don't really have a closet or anywhere at work to store clothes, and there's always the chance if you leave something out, it can get stolen.
A button down shirt and slacks, properly folded, should EASILY fit into a briefcase and remain nice and neat...
I guess I just don't see it practical to bring clothes to change into when I get here.
Then what do you do if you spill your coffee or Big Gulp on yourself while driving in to work?
I scan the store ads weekly, and make one trip out to get the best deals on what I need that week. I also try on Sat. to hit some farmer's mkts for veggies. Luckilly my main grocery store here carries a lot of local produce and fish,e tc. But I don't just throw stuff in a cart. I look over ads and plan to make my weeks means based largely on what is on sale.
Then what stops you from driving only on the days you know you're going to shop, and using alternate means the other days? Think of how much you'd save once Obama passes his energy plan and gas is $5/gallon or worse, too! Remember, Obama Sez: " Under my plan, energy prices will necessarily skyrocket." "
And I still dont' know how you carry big stuff? I like to smoke things...so, when I see whole fresh hams on sale (22lbs) I buy 2-3 of them, and throw them in the deep freezer. I try to buy meats on sale, and I don't mind cutting up larger primals to smaller portions...again, I get more choice on quality, and I save money. I started grinding and stuffing my own sausages....I found a good price on a whole chuck roast....it was 20lbs...no way I'm able to fit that and anything else in a bike basket or in my backpack.
Again, did I say "sell your car and never drive again"???? FUCK NO. Drive when you need to, don't drive when you don't need to.
I mean as it is with how I work...I get up about 7am..walk the dog, get ready to work, pack lunch...go to work, leave work about 4:30-5pm..hit the gym for about 2 hours, then home about 6:30 or 7pm...walk the dog, cook/warm up food, eat...by then I'm about 8pm or so, I like to watch some tv..and get ready for work the next day.(pack gym bag, etc) or do some hobby stuff. I'm usually in bed by about 9-9:30pm and sleeping by 10pm or so....I like getting 8 hours sleep if possible.
Now...in all that...if I were to increase my planning load, and travel times...well, I just can't see enough positive ROI to justify adding that difficulty to my already busy life. And I'm lucky...I live fairly close to work, I can't imagine people living far away with traffic doing it...?
Interesting. Usually, improving one's planning skills increases the amount of "free time" one has available in the day. Why not try keeping a time diary for a couple weeks, and then add up what you're actually doing?
Again... you live in the Shitty of Nawlins. You might
Did I say carry it all, every single day? On the other hand, if you can't handle a backpack and a small gym bag, you need to work out a lot more than you currently are :P
What if you only drove in once or twice a week. If you have an office, put a spare set of work clothes in the closet. If you've got a cubicle, most workplaces have lockers where you could hang your stuff up.
As for the flooding... dude, you live in NOLA. I can't help that you live 10 feet below sea level.
How do you carry all that stuff around with you on a bus, train and changing buses and trains along the way. I do my shopping on Sat or Sunday...I usually hit 2-3 stores and maybe Sam's Club to get the best deals, and some things in bulk. I have to make about 2-4 trips to my car when I get home to unload all the stuff. How do you carry that much with no car?
The answer is: you don't. You get what you carry. When I had the chance to use my bicycle (with a nice set of baskets affixed on each side over the rear wheel) rather than my car, you know what I noticed? Being forced to pick and choose what I bought, rather than just throwing everything in the fucking cart, made me realize how much junk food I was eating. Then I left it behind. All of a sudden, not only was I eating healthier, my grocery bill for each month was half of what it had been before.
If you still want to shop in bulk for some things (and I don't fault you, there are plenty of non-perishables that it makes sense to shop for that way), maybe you should do that either (a) in the evening after coming home or (b) on a day you're not working or (c) drive only on the day you intend to go shopping.
Seriously, you don't have to use public transportation every single day of your life - but you could EASILY manage 3 days of your 5 day work week with a little planning.
I'm lucky that I only ahve about a 10 min. drive to work
No shit. Most people drive 25+ minutes. How insane is that? And before we get the whole "well you should fucking move closer to your workplace", it's hard when the choices for doing so are either (a) high-rise apartments that charge twice as much per month than the usual mortgage payment but with no equity gains, (b) overpriced apartments in dying buildings where you'll never sleep for fear of gunshots coming through the walls, or (c) sleeping on the floor in your office.
I'd LOVE to trade some of those days for 30 minutes or so where I can read a book instead of wondering if the drunk illegal mexican speeding down the highway is going to kill me in a car crash this morning.
You get on a train in the suburbs (I'm guessing your wife drops you off, or you drive to train depot and park. Once you get to the 'city', how do you get to/from your work site?
Bus, Taxi, or the good old "Model 0 Mark 1" (hoof it).
If you try to walk..what happens when weather is bad?
Check a weather report in the morning.
Dress appropriately for the season. Maybe carry a change of clothes or stash some in the office if you need to.
Stash an umbrella in your backpack/briefcase.
You know... be prepared.
To me, especially living in the climate I do, that is the greatest impediment to any type of mass transit to go to work daily. It would take me much longer to catch and switch busses all over town, to get to my work...not to mention that there is not a bus stop very near either my home or office.
This is because the people who designed your local busing system are morons. If you are commuting to an urban center, the city bus shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to get you where you're going.
What if you need to go to the gym or shop after work on the way home?? How do you live like that without a car...I just have a hard time seeing how you do that and have any resemblance to a normal life and life schedule.
This is where public transportation needs to be viewed as a service instead of a profit-making business. The city/county/state population needs to decide, as a whole, that they WANT and are WILLING TO SUBSIDIZE public transportation such that it isn't only usable in a narrow band from 6:30-8:30am and 4:30-6:30pm with crapass route coverage the rest of the time.
IF they decide this - as most municipalities in Europe have - then the answer to your question is "eh, no big deal, I can take the bus to the gym/grocery store." Or there will be racks on the train/bus such that you can actually bring your bicycle with you (bike 5 min to train, get on train for 20 min, get off train and bike 5 more min).
IF, on the other hand, they treat public transportation as a "business" like most US cities do, then you get exactly what you expect out of a business that has a monopoly on the market and profit-taking interest; they will cut all but the "profitable" routes, leaving zero flexibility and crapass service.
Ever noticed how those weigh stations are ALWAYS CLOSED?