In glorious soviet UK... This costs £145 per year...
I've always wondered how they actually monitor this. I have never been convinced of the usefulness of those so-callled "detector vans". I always suspected their Gestapo of banging on doors at random and telling occupants to "show us your TV, you scum!"
...but he is still supporting the show by purchasing the DVDs.
Indeed, I do exactly this. If a show is worth watching at all, it's worth buying a DVD of it to bypass the advertising.
What pisses me off, though, is when I have bought a legitimate copy of a DVD and I still have the frustration of having to sit through large sections of advertising crap before I get to see what I paid for.
I don't think it's even the advertising companies that are to blame.
I do. Advertisers have arrogated to themselves the right to pollute every single surface visible by humans with their inane excreta, and NOBODY is doing a damn thing to stop them.
One thing that's a bit sad about modern cinema business is the demise of the supporting movie. When I was young (back in the early 14th century), I spent many an afternoon in those grand 1930s cinemas (demolished in the late '70s to make way for car-parks and office buildings). Often the supporting film was vastly more memorable than the main billing.
One that sticks in my mind was the chilling Sredni Vashtar, a simple dramatisation of one of those many short stories by Saki (H.H. Munro). I read the original version many years later, but I remember the film giving my kiddie self the creeps for a long time.
Yup. My present 6-digit ID (not my first, since I occasionally get bored with my nickname) is 10 years old. Actually, I'm bored with this nickname too, so I'll probably ditch it sometime when I get around to it. I couldn't give a damn about losing my karma.
Thing is, even the crappiest Linux distributions are more "user-friendly" than Windows XP (with vastly better device support), and the best of them give Windows 7 or OS X 10.6 a good run for their money.
From the perspective of my personal home usage alone: I had a power supply fail on my desktop machine just last week. It cost me all of $25 to replace. I haven't had a CPU fail since 1990, but I have had several motherboards blow their capacitors. Whenever I replace a mobo, I tend to replace the CPU at the same time, since it is usually convenient and comparatively cheap, since I don't require bleeding-edge hardware.
Hell, I still know someone who is still running Windows 3.1. Now, if she were running it on recent hardware, it would probably rock. Instead, it just blows...
I'm not so sure that that is a limited view. Take this from the submission: "a sophisticated new Twitter-based research tool". Damn, that just sounds so convincing, those researchers deserve tenure.
Would that were true. Seems that for several decades of the 20th century, paint companies in Australia were only capable of producing a yucky mess known as "Mission Brown", easily replicated in RGB. And no, I'm not going to mention the code, because I want it obliterated from the visible spectrum.:-]
You only need more pixels when you need a larger image and you need to be closer than what the current number allows.
Of course, in a sense, nothing has changed here: back in the day when we all used cellulose film, we all knew that if we wanted an image that needed blowing up to a large size, we needed a larger-format negative. We used to swear by the 6x6 cm "medium" format (e.g. from Hasselblad or Rolleiflex) for quick work, but if we wanted really crisp resolution, we used 5x4" or sometimes 8x10" plates.
Although I occasionally miss the discipline of black-and-white (always with Ilford film), there's only one thing that has really disappointed me with the move to digital photography: the apparent failure of print media to approximate the luminous colour and definition of Cibachrome (now, I believe, known as Ilfochrome) colour prints created from positive transparencies. Many years ago, I used to do this myself, but now I don't even have a darkroom...
I buy my milk almost direct from the cow - at least, I get to pump the stuff from the tank at the dairy into my tanker. However, since I work in Australia, where dairy products have to be made from pasteurised milk, I am required to pasteurise it myself.
This is something I'm often asked about, especially by members of the Slowfood movement, and I make a point of demonstrating that a good cheesemaker has no difficulty in producing a worthwhile product from pasteurised milk. It's a matter of introducing strictly measured quantities of a variety of selected cultures to produce the effect that you want.
A lot of this comes from analyses of the cultures' by-products (apart from lactic acid fermentation, any number of polypeptides, esters, saccharides and other compounds are produced) combined with lots of experience. Since my cheeses do well by comparison with raw-milk products from overseas, I think I'm probably doing something right, and there's no risk of anyone getting sick.
Every now and then, I get the occasional wanker who insists that a "real" cheese should be redolent of the barnyard. This, to me, is a product that is tainted. Put bluntly, if it smells like shit, chances are it is probably contaminated with shit (or at least, E. coli, which amounts to the same thing). I make a practice of sticking my head into the manhole of the bulk tank and getting a good double-lungful of the aromas from the raw milk. That tells me a lot about how the animals are doing, including what they've been eating, how long since calving, and whether or not there is any hint of contamination.
I wouldn't argue about the experience with speakers - just the opposite. I was just making the point that you can get reference-quality headphones for just a few hundred dollars if you look around and don't get sucked in by snake oil, but to get anything equivalent involving speakers, you have to pay 20 times that to get something half as good. Cans are not always comfortable to wear (Grado for instance, despite being horrendously expensive) but the Sennheiser HD-650s are good. They also have the advantage of being comparatively cheap now that Senn have a new top-of-the-line model.
Here in Australia we don't (usually) feed cattle on corn, but the protein yield from corn would be much higher than that of grass, which would (other things being equal) lead to a a much faster growth rate.
Isn't cyanide organic? And I believe that uranium is 'all natural' too.
Yes, cyanide is organic, but uranium is not. It's little more than a convention, but "organic" primarily involves C, O, H and N (and yes, also P, S, Si and halogens).
Well, unfortunately, the family farmer who raises livestock is pretty much controlled by the corporations that contract the animals to him/her.
On the flip side, there are some farmers who are prepared to raise livestock with the long term in mind. (I've had very good results with local agricultural colleges.) I am a specialist cheesemaker, and am prepared to pay above the bulk rate for milk from cattle that have been properly looked after. I just build the cost ino the final price of my product (which is not cheap, but it sells).
I get to exert my own geekery by selection of cocktails of bugs to ferment and mature my products.
2) Some farmers let you just buy a side of a cow (or an entire cow).
...And the scary thing is, somewhere on my bookshelves, I have a '70s American book that tells you how to build a barbeque that will cook two whole steers in one go. I've just never been that hungry...:-}
This is a perfect example of unintended consequences
It's also a perfect example of stupidity. Human beings haven't really been around that long (in fact, according to some Morm^Hons, I was apparently born before the descent of Man), and evolves comparatively slowly.
Bacteria, on the other hand, can easily pick up scraps of extracellular DNA and incorporate it into their own, driving evolution effectively (i.e. where necessary) within a single generation of 15 minutes under optimal conditions. Bacteria might not be as smart as us (though I sometimes wonder), but their biochemistry can be seriously cool, and giving them the advantage in our food chain is just damn silly.
Incidentally, you mention death from disease in the 1800s: It seems to surprise many to be reminded that the Spanish Influenza pandemic (1918-1920) killed more people than the First ("Great") World War. It killed more people in a single year than the Bubonic Plague did in four, from 1347 to 1351.
While we're at it, could somebody tell MS that the error sound is way too loud and way too frequent.
Any number of solutions to this:
(1) Don't make so many errors
(2) If they're not your fault then use an OS that doesn't make so many errors
(3) Turn the sound off
(4) Say no to using Microsoft products (see (2))...
Slashdot Mirror
Proficiency in Latin was still an entry requirement back then.
:-)
Well, why not? Don't you people learn Latin in high-schcool any more? When I was a boy, it was compulsory.
But that was so long ago, I no longer know what the Latin is for "get off my lawn".
...in the notion that Windows Vista sucks (even though it doesn't)
;-)
You're quite right. It blows.
In glorious soviet UK... This costs £145 per year...
I've always wondered how they actually monitor this. I have never been convinced of the usefulness of those so-callled "detector vans". I always suspected their Gestapo of banging on doors at random and telling occupants to "show us your TV, you scum!"
...but he is still supporting the show by purchasing the DVDs.
Indeed, I do exactly this. If a show is worth watching at all, it's worth buying a DVD of it to bypass the advertising.
What pisses me off, though, is when I have bought a legitimate copy of a DVD and I still have the frustration of having to sit through large sections of advertising crap before I get to see what I paid for.
I don't think it's even the advertising companies that are to blame.
I do. Advertisers have arrogated to themselves the right to pollute every single surface visible by humans with their inane excreta, and NOBODY is doing a damn thing to stop them.
One thing that's a bit sad about modern cinema business is the demise of the supporting movie. When I was young (back in the early 14th century), I spent many an afternoon in those grand 1930s cinemas (demolished in the late '70s to make way for car-parks and office buildings). Often the supporting film was vastly more memorable than the main billing.
One that sticks in my mind was the chilling Sredni Vashtar, a simple dramatisation of one of those many short stories by Saki (H.H. Munro). I read the original version many years later, but I remember the film giving my kiddie self the creeps for a long time.
Oh, no. I'm reminded of a Boswell quote:
"He who would make a pun would pick a pocket."
Yup. My present 6-digit ID (not my first, since I occasionally get bored with my nickname) is 10 years old. Actually, I'm bored with this nickname too, so I'll probably ditch it sometime when I get around to it. I couldn't give a damn about losing my karma.
Thing is, even the crappiest Linux distributions are more "user-friendly" than Windows XP (with vastly better device support), and the best of them give Windows 7 or OS X 10.6 a good run for their money.
From the perspective of my personal home usage alone: I had a power supply fail on my desktop machine just last week. It cost me all of $25 to replace. I haven't had a CPU fail since 1990, but I have had several motherboards blow their capacitors. Whenever I replace a mobo, I tend to replace the CPU at the same time, since it is usually convenient and comparatively cheap, since I don't require bleeding-edge hardware.
Hell, I still know someone who is still running Windows 3.1. Now, if she were running it on recent hardware, it would probably rock. Instead, it just blows...
I'm not so sure that that is a limited view. Take this from the submission: "a sophisticated new Twitter-based research tool". Damn, that just sounds so convincing, those researchers deserve tenure.
Did anyone actually notice the outage?
No combination of RBG values will give you brown.
:-]
Would that were true. Seems that for several decades of the 20th century, paint companies in Australia were only capable of producing a yucky mess known as "Mission Brown", easily replicated in RGB. And no, I'm not going to mention the code, because I want it obliterated from the visible spectrum.
You only need more pixels when you need a larger image and you need to be closer than what the current number allows.
Of course, in a sense, nothing has changed here: back in the day when we all used cellulose film, we all knew that if we wanted an image that needed blowing up to a large size, we needed a larger-format negative. We used to swear by the 6x6 cm "medium" format (e.g. from Hasselblad or Rolleiflex) for quick work, but if we wanted really crisp resolution, we used 5x4" or sometimes 8x10" plates.
Although I occasionally miss the discipline of black-and-white (always with Ilford film), there's only one thing that has really disappointed me with the move to digital photography: the apparent failure of print media to approximate the luminous colour and definition of Cibachrome (now, I believe, known as Ilfochrome) colour prints created from positive transparencies. Many years ago, I used to do this myself, but now I don't even have a darkroom...
Do you buy and use pasteurized or raw milk?
I buy my milk almost direct from the cow - at least, I get to pump the stuff from the tank at the dairy into my tanker. However, since I work in Australia, where dairy products have to be made from pasteurised milk, I am required to pasteurise it myself.
This is something I'm often asked about, especially by members of the Slowfood movement, and I make a point of demonstrating that a good cheesemaker has no difficulty in producing a worthwhile product from pasteurised milk. It's a matter of introducing strictly measured quantities of a variety of selected cultures to produce the effect that you want.
A lot of this comes from analyses of the cultures' by-products (apart from lactic acid fermentation, any number of polypeptides, esters, saccharides and other compounds are produced) combined with lots of experience. Since my cheeses do well by comparison with raw-milk products from overseas, I think I'm probably doing something right, and there's no risk of anyone getting sick.
Every now and then, I get the occasional wanker who insists that a "real" cheese should be redolent of the barnyard. This, to me, is a product that is tainted. Put bluntly, if it smells like shit, chances are it is probably contaminated with shit (or at least, E. coli, which amounts to the same thing). I make a practice of sticking my head into the manhole of the bulk tank and getting a good double-lungful of the aromas from the raw milk. That tells me a lot about how the animals are doing, including what they've been eating, how long since calving, and whether or not there is any hint of contamination.
I wouldn't argue about the experience with speakers - just the opposite. I was just making the point that you can get reference-quality headphones for just a few hundred dollars if you look around and don't get sucked in by snake oil, but to get anything equivalent involving speakers, you have to pay 20 times that to get something half as good. Cans are not always comfortable to wear (Grado for instance, despite being horrendously expensive) but the Sennheiser HD-650s are good. They also have the advantage of being comparatively cheap now that Senn have a new top-of-the-line model.
All my dollar bills carries anthrax ;)
...and most of them carry traces of cocaine too - which is 100% organic. For what it's worth...
Here in Australia we don't (usually) feed cattle on corn, but the protein yield from corn would be much higher than that of grass, which would (other things being equal) lead to a a much faster growth rate.
Isn't cyanide organic? And I believe that uranium is 'all natural' too.
Yes, cyanide is organic, but uranium is not. It's little more than a convention, but "organic" primarily involves C, O, H and N (and yes, also P, S, Si and halogens).
Well, unfortunately, the family farmer who raises livestock is pretty much controlled by the corporations that contract the animals to him/her.
On the flip side, there are some farmers who are prepared to raise livestock with the long term in mind. (I've had very good results with local agricultural colleges.) I am a specialist cheesemaker, and am prepared to pay above the bulk rate for milk from cattle that have been properly looked after. I just build the cost ino the final price of my product (which is not cheap, but it sells).
I get to exert my own geekery by selection of cocktails of bugs to ferment and mature my products.
2) Some farmers let you just buy a side of a cow (or an entire cow).
...And the scary thing is, somewhere on my bookshelves, I have a '70s American book that tells you how to build a barbeque that will cook two whole steers in one go. I've just never been that hungry... :-}
This is a perfect example of unintended consequences
It's also a perfect example of stupidity. Human beings haven't really been around that long (in fact, according to some Morm^Hons, I was apparently born before the descent of Man), and evolves comparatively slowly.
Bacteria, on the other hand, can easily pick up scraps of extracellular DNA and incorporate it into their own, driving evolution effectively (i.e. where necessary) within a single generation of 15 minutes under optimal conditions. Bacteria might not be as smart as us (though I sometimes wonder), but their biochemistry can be seriously cool, and giving them the advantage in our food chain is just damn silly.
Incidentally, you mention death from disease in the 1800s: It seems to surprise many to be reminded that the Spanish Influenza pandemic (1918-1920) killed more people than the First ("Great") World War. It killed more people in a single year than the Bubonic Plague did in four, from 1347 to 1351.
While we're at it, could somebody tell MS that the error sound is way too loud and way too frequent.
Any number of solutions to this:
(1) Don't make so many errors
(2) If they're not your fault then use an OS that doesn't make so many errors
(3) Turn the sound off
(4) Say no to using Microsoft products (see (2))...
The challenge as stated in TFA is to define the regulation in a practical way that actually results in solving the problem.
No challenge. The hand that pushes up the volume button gets amputated with a rusty pair of bolt-cutters. Easy. Next story please...