*Sigh* I gotta agree. Look at the text on the translucent IE window frame. It's sort of hard to read. I'm running Vista, and I never noticed that before. And it's because Vista puts a white glow around the black text, so that it stands out no matter what the background is. 7 appears to have done away with the glow, so the text blends into a dark background. A little thing, but all those little things add up.
The Afghan government has very little authority outside of the capitol, the notion that they could shut down the poppy industry or institute any kind of agrarian reform is ridiculous. Punishing journalists and blasphemers, however, is well within their abilities.
If you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, that's about 3000 hits per week. If you get high twice a week on quality ganja, that's 8-10 hits a week, er, so I'm told.
Is it unhealthy? Sure, it's smoke. To a statistically significant extent? Highly doubtful.
I have nothing but respect for those unwilling to take that chance, and nothing but contempt for those who would not allow others to make their own choice.
"How exactly we go about convincing millions of people not to execute people is the unknown question. We can't even do it in some countries that claim to be civilized."
...some Steam games. Dark Messiah, for one. Checking various forums, I never saw anyone who got the Steam version to play off-line. 'Course, that title had plenty of other issues, although I enjoyed it.
I'm not crazy about Steam, but at least it has some advantages that offset its DRM-ness. I like the fact that all my games are stored on the internet, so I don't have to keep track of CDs. And patches get installed automatically. Yes, there is the potential that Valve can just cut you off, but they don't seem to have behaved very dickishly so far, compared to other publishers cough-Sony!-cough.
An interesting idea, stupid article, and even worse Slashdot summary. For those who couldn't read all 5 paragraphs of the article, the idea is that LEDs can be rapidly modulated, basically acting like an IR remote, only in the visible spectrum. And they can modulate so fast that it's imperceptible to the eye (AKA "vision ball")
The brake light idea that the summary innaccurately mocks would actually allow the brakes in your car to be activated when your car "sees" the brake lights on the car in front of you activate. While this is a phenomenally stupid idea, it is different from what the summary indicates. I don't know why that bothers me, should be used to that by now.
The article also states that this technology would allow devices in your home (assuming they're equipped with LEDs) to wirelessly communicate directly with you, but doesn't say how. Morse code, perhaps?
Easy:
Assigned parking with locked and metered outlets. Our utility already varies its rates, it's not real hard to figure out when the low-load times are.
PCs are about diving with sharks and saving polar bears? Sorry, I thought the ads were pointless. MS is lucky they have lots of money to burn. I thought the Amiga had forever set the standard for inane tech advertising, but congratulations Microsoft, it took 20 years but you've raised the bar!
"Give the Vista Home edition away to EVERYONE. make it free as a downloadable ISO without support on your website and overnight everyone will love you."
"You may now dismiss my opinion because I'm ignorant/incompetent/doin it rong."
No, I'd say you about got it rite. I personally don't feel that UAC is that bad, though there's plenty of room for improvement.
The hodge-podge UI, on the other hand, is beyond pathetic, especially when you consider that they had more than 5 years to get it right. Talk about asleep at the wheel!
Almost is bad is their taking a page from Photoshop's playbook and re-arranging menus and control panels just for the hell of it. Look, I don't mind learning a better way of doing things, but when it's different just for the sake of being different, well, I might as well just switch to Mac. You get the feeling a lot of people were justifying their jobs by moving stuff around for no good reason. I can't wait for the documentary--Vista: Triumph of the Bureaucracy. On second thought, might be a horror movie.
Yeah, the US loves free speech. That's why we set up fenced-in free speech zones at political conventions.
And how about the fact that in two years the FBI has issued more than 143,000 National Security Letters, that include a provision that makes it illegal for the recipient of the letter to discuss the letter with anyone?
America may love free speech, but its government, not so much.
I didn't just ignore them, I argued with them and got them to drop the charge on my account...three or four times. Each time they'd agree to clear my account, then I 'd get a bill and around we'd go. Finally did get it cleared and that was that. I've since bought a car with nothing down so I think my credit's OK.
But you're right, if I'd just ignored the bill I'm sure they'd have stung me.
I got into a battle with Verizon over termination fees years ago. After getting raped for going over the minutes in my plan, I opened an account with another carrier and moved my number. When Verizon tried to charge me for early termination, I explained that I had moved my number to a new carrier, which the courts had recently ruled was a consumer's right, but I would be happy to continue paying the monthly fee for my Verizon account ( I had a couple months left on my plan), and they could assign me a new number if they wanted to, although I wouldn't be using it.
They said it didn't work that way and I had to pay termination fees. I had three phones, and the termination charge was about $300 per phone. After about 6 months of harassment and threats they finally gave up. I'll never give those losers another dime.
Those declines--assuming they're real--are probably due to Smeed's Law and airbags--introduced in the mid 80s, about the same time as cell phones.
Not that I expect to convince anyone who believes chatting on a phone has no effect on their driving. I once had to grab the wheel from my wife and swerve to avoid an accident in heavy traffic on I-5 in Seattle. Her response when I told her to put the damn phone away while she was driving? "I wouldn't have seen that coming even if I wasn't on the phone."
Slashdot Mirror
*Sigh* I gotta agree. Look at the text on the translucent IE window frame. It's sort of hard to read. I'm running Vista, and I never noticed that before. And it's because Vista puts a white glow around the black text, so that it stands out no matter what the background is. 7 appears to have done away with the glow, so the text blends into a dark background. A little thing, but all those little things add up.
Exactly. I read the last line of the summary and was like, "WTF?"
The Afghan government has very little authority outside of the capitol, the notion that they could shut down the poppy industry or institute any kind of agrarian reform is ridiculous. Punishing journalists and blasphemers, however, is well within their abilities.
If you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, that's about 3000 hits per week. If you get high twice a week on quality ganja, that's 8-10 hits a week, er, so I'm told.
Is it unhealthy? Sure, it's smoke. To a statistically significant extent? Highly doubtful.
I have nothing but respect for those unwilling to take that chance, and nothing but contempt for those who would not allow others to make their own choice.
"How exactly we go about convincing millions of people not to execute people is the unknown question. We can't even do it in some countries that claim to be civilized."
We can't even do that in Texas.
You must live in the bad part of the country. Also.
...some Steam games. Dark Messiah, for one. Checking various forums, I never saw anyone who got the Steam version to play off-line. 'Course, that title had plenty of other issues, although I enjoyed it.
I'm not crazy about Steam, but at least it has some advantages that offset its DRM-ness. I like the fact that all my games are stored on the internet, so I don't have to keep track of CDs. And patches get installed automatically. Yes, there is the potential that Valve can just cut you off, but they don't seem to have behaved very dickishly so far, compared to other publishers cough-Sony!-cough.
They're still burning, and I didn't even watch the whole thing. May you burn in hell for posting that link!
An interesting idea, stupid article, and even worse Slashdot summary. For those who couldn't read all 5 paragraphs of the article, the idea is that LEDs can be rapidly modulated, basically acting like an IR remote, only in the visible spectrum. And they can modulate so fast that it's imperceptible to the eye (AKA "vision ball")
The brake light idea that the summary innaccurately mocks would actually allow the brakes in your car to be activated when your car "sees" the brake lights on the car in front of you activate. While this is a phenomenally stupid idea, it is different from what the summary indicates. I don't know why that bothers me, should be used to that by now.
The article also states that this technology would allow devices in your home (assuming they're equipped with LEDs) to wirelessly communicate directly with you, but doesn't say how. Morse code, perhaps?
Easy:
Assigned parking with locked and metered outlets. Our utility already varies its rates, it's not real hard to figure out when the low-load times are.
Download the email software? I don't have an internet connection, you insensitive clod!
"But, hey, if you can't be original, it's always a good idea to copy those who are."
If you actually saw these ads, you might not feel comfortable about using the word "always" in that sentence.
PCs are about diving with sharks and saving polar bears? Sorry, I thought the ads were pointless. MS is lucky they have lots of money to burn. I thought the Amiga had forever set the standard for inane tech advertising, but congratulations Microsoft, it took 20 years but you've raised the bar!
"Give the Vista Home edition away to EVERYONE. make it free as a downloadable ISO without support on your website and overnight everyone will love you."
You haven't actually used Vista, have you?
"One can only hope we've gotten smarter, we Americans, since the Seinfeld era..."
Afraid not. See Presidential Elections 2000 and 2004.
True, I just bought a new car and they clinched the deal by offering free tune ups, oil changes, and crushing for the life of the vehicle! Suckers!
Yeah, that explains why CBS news violated their own policies to cover up a McCain gaffe in an interview with Katie Couric.
"You may now dismiss my opinion because I'm ignorant/incompetent/doin it rong."
No, I'd say you about got it rite. I personally don't feel that UAC is that bad, though there's plenty of room for improvement.
The hodge-podge UI, on the other hand, is beyond pathetic, especially when you consider that they had more than 5 years to get it right. Talk about asleep at the wheel!
Almost is bad is their taking a page from Photoshop's playbook and re-arranging menus and control panels just for the hell of it. Look, I don't mind learning a better way of doing things, but when it's different just for the sake of being different, well, I might as well just switch to Mac. You get the feeling a lot of people were justifying their jobs by moving stuff around for no good reason. I can't wait for the documentary--Vista: Triumph of the Bureaucracy. On second thought, might be a horror movie.
Yeah, the US loves free speech. That's why we set up fenced-in free speech zones at political conventions. And how about the fact that in two years the FBI has issued more than 143,000 National Security Letters, that include a provision that makes it illegal for the recipient of the letter to discuss the letter with anyone? America may love free speech, but its government, not so much.
I didn't just ignore them, I argued with them and got them to drop the charge on my account...three or four times. Each time they'd agree to clear my account, then I 'd get a bill and around we'd go. Finally did get it cleared and that was that. I've since bought a car with nothing down so I think my credit's OK.
But you're right, if I'd just ignored the bill I'm sure they'd have stung me.
Sweet! thanks for the link!
I got into a battle with Verizon over termination fees years ago. After getting raped for going over the minutes in my plan, I opened an account with another carrier and moved my number. When Verizon tried to charge me for early termination, I explained that I had moved my number to a new carrier, which the courts had recently ruled was a consumer's right, but I would be happy to continue paying the monthly fee for my Verizon account ( I had a couple months left on my plan), and they could assign me a new number if they wanted to, although I wouldn't be using it.
They said it didn't work that way and I had to pay termination fees. I had three phones, and the termination charge was about $300 per phone. After about 6 months of harassment and threats they finally gave up. I'll never give those losers another dime.
I won't say it never happened,but I'd really like to see a link
Purely subjective, of course, but I'd agree with the parent, depending on humidity and wind conditions.
Those declines--assuming they're real--are probably due to Smeed's Law and airbags--introduced in the mid 80s, about the same time as cell phones.
Not that I expect to convince anyone who believes chatting on a phone has no effect on their driving. I once had to grab the wheel from my wife and swerve to avoid an accident in heavy traffic on I-5 in Seattle. Her response when I told her to put the damn phone away while she was driving? "I wouldn't have seen that coming even if I wasn't on the phone."