I guess Spinrad had to have been a very good writer to be able to turn out something that painfully bad on purpose.
Now Dalton Trumbo's "Night of the Aurochs", on the other hand, apparently was intended to be good (like a bunch of his other stuff) and unfortunately it really wasn't.
For a well-written book about Nazi's by someone who really knew his stuff, try William L. Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". Too bad it's not fiction.
You might want to inform Shure Bros., Pickering, Stanton, ADC, Grado, Dual, AR, Fisher, P.E., et cetera.
Re:Examples of crazy things Audiophiles do
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Insanely Audiophile
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· Score: 2
The amplifier's output stage may be single-ended or "unbalanced" (one hot, one ground), but after that the unsheilded wires in the cable are out in the air subject to magnetic and electrical fields from all over the place (the twisting helps keep them from acting as antennas, to oversimplify) and the speaker itself isn't "grounded" (even though the woofer, mid-range, tweeter, whatever, and the crossover network may use one side as "common"), so the speaker input is basically a "balanced" input.
If the electrical wiring in his house wasn't done with a sound system like that in mind, the refrigerator could make a difference. In an older house you could probably notice the lights dim slightly for just a moment when the 'fridge or a big window air conditioner kicks in. Now if the 'fridge was putting noise on the line that was getting through the power supplies of his various components and into the music, then the components are at fault for not beng properly shielded and filtered, and those external units he put in series between the wall socket and the components could be cleaning up the power enough to make an audible difference.
Of course at his age, after all those years around jet engines, for his hearing to still be that good is pretty impressive, if true.
Go into a bar. Look at the jukebox. There should be sticker on it somewhere with the name, address, and phone number of whatever company provides, stocks, and services said jukebox. Talk to them. They probably handled arcade games back in the day, might have something gathering dust in the warehouse, might be a source for parts or a source for names and addresses of sources for parts (make sure they understand you aren't going into the same business as them, that it's just a machine or two for personal use), might know another jukebox company in the next county over with something in the back room, etc.
Or they might be a bunch of jerks and tell you to buzz off. Won't know 'til you ask.
He explained it as "before the Christian era", no doubt for the benefit of those only familiar with B.C. and A.D., but did not define it as that, although anyone who needs it explained no doubt also needs it defined as "Before Common Era" (and should also be told that what comes after is "C.E.", or "Common Era", and that B.C.E. and C.E. correspond to B.C. and A.D., respectively), so he did screw up just a tad.
I hope this comes to pass, Jones County can certainly use the jobs, but I wonder if it might not be better for them to locate next door, so to speak, in Lenoir county, at the Global Trans-Park, which so far hasn't been quite the success it was hoped to have been.
Plus, that'll put them at least one county farther away from me in case they drop anything really heavy.
Letting you upgrade?!? They're doing it behind your back, with no warning and without your permission (kinda like MS would like to be able to do to Windows and Office users if they could slap a non-contestable charge on your credit card at the same time). Upgrades are not always improvements for everyone everytime. Especially unwanted and unsolicited ones.
"TiVo already profited from your unit before your bought it."
I can't begin to figure out how to answer that, but any business plan where the profit happens before the sale is even made must be connected with the internet somehow:-)
As I pointed out to another poster elsewhere, the "perform test call" option is a lot better than the serial port one--you don't have to know the software or hook up a separate computer--but it involves having the Tivo plugged in to the phone line, and the Tivo is pre-programmed to "phone home" while you aren't looking, without getting your permission in advance, whether you are a subscriber or not, and it's during one of those calls that the unwanted upgrade happened. So not only do you have to keep performing the test call to keep the time set, but you've got to plug it in to the phone jack, and then be sure to unplug it afterwards, each and every time. I wonder how strongly the owner's manual, much less the pre-sale literature, warned about that. Much more kludging around and you might as well keep on juggling VHS cassettes.
Tivo wrote the software that the units shipped with so that the units would phone home every night without asking the owner's permission, whether the owner was a subscriber or not. It was during these unauthorized phone calls that the "upgrade" was forced upon unsuspecting non-subscribers.
Only physically disconnecting the phone line would prevent this. That would make it rather difficult to utilize the second of the 2 choices you offer, the one that doesn't involve having to hook the unit up to a computer or having to know anymore about the operating system of your Tivo than you do about the (built-in to the hardware) operating system of your VHS VCR.
"If anything, I think it will result in a flooding of MS support channels from people complaining that their browser is "broken" because all the words have squiggly lines under them."
If they use MS Office they'll probably think it's the spellchecker.
"I bet if you got out your phone book and started calling around you can get a all non AOL/Time Warner internet and cable setup."
For most of us that would be a long-distance phone call to some far away community to which we would have to relocate to get that "...all non AOL/Time Warner internet and cable setup". Most places that have cable only have one cable company running along the right-of-way at any given address, and if that cable company doesn't offer "cable modem" service, you can't get it from anybody else. And chances are that the only local phone company doesn't offer anything faster than (or even different from) dial-up over POTS either.
It's called "must pay, must carry". The local cable company has to carry the local broadcast channels and must pay them for doing so. I didn't say it made sense. The NAB used RIAA-type logic to convince the FCC and the Congress that, in addition to being allowed to sell commercial time on their broadcast that uses public property (the airwaves), they should be allowed to force the local cable company to make them (the local broadcaster) available to even more viewers (allowing the broadcasters to charge more for that commercial time), and to be compensated by the cable company for being allowed to re-transmit the broadcaster's signal (which means a larger audience for the braodcaster and higher prices for commercials on that broadcaster's broadcast). There's a little room for negotiation, like UHF channels agreeing to be paid less to be carried on the cable in an available VHF (channels 2-13) slot.
It's sort of like you have to work overtime and your employer charges you 1.5 times your hourly rate for each hour of overtime you work while telling you with a straight face that they're doing you a favor by giving you the opportunity to gain extra practice and experience in your craft.
When cable channels, whether owned by the same company as owns the local cable company or not, run commercial breaks, some of the time is filled with ads sent along by that channel just like the program, and some of the time is empty space available for the local cable company to sell to local advertisers. These are the slots being denied to local ISPs who are in competition with some part of the business empire of the parent company of the local cable company.
"...and if the town/city sees that it's in the public interest to remove them or allow a second or third cable company in, they will do so."
Except, of course, for all those communities where the shareholders in the original cable companies that eventually got bought up by the big companies were the friends and relatives of the mayors and councilcritters and still are.
"Seriously, it's not hard to get Quake running on yer Linux box."
So maybe you'd like to share that knowledge with the rest of us?
Dreamcast ain't dead yet
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PS2 As PC
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· Score: 2
Check out this Register article about a company that's going to use the Dreamcast as the base for a "home gateway" that'll play games and do TV timeshifting, among other things.
As far as the PS2 being a PC killer, Cringely had a column about that 2 years ago.
Slashdot Mirror
I guess Spinrad had to have been a very good writer to be able to turn out something that painfully bad on purpose.
Now Dalton Trumbo's "Night of the Aurochs", on the other hand, apparently was intended to be good (like a bunch of his other stuff) and unfortunately it really wasn't.
For a well-written book about Nazi's by someone who really knew his stuff, try William L. Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". Too bad it's not fiction.
You might want to inform Shure Bros., Pickering, Stanton, ADC, Grado, Dual, AR, Fisher, P.E., et cetera.
The amplifier's output stage may be single-ended or "unbalanced" (one hot, one ground), but after that the unsheilded wires in the cable are out in the air subject to magnetic and electrical fields from all over the place (the twisting helps keep them from acting as antennas, to oversimplify) and the speaker itself isn't "grounded" (even though the woofer, mid-range, tweeter, whatever, and the crossover network may use one side as "common"), so the speaker input is basically a "balanced" input.
If the purpose is relieving the buyer of $140,000, I'm sure Microsoft would be glad to come up with something. :-)
Of course at his age, after all those years around jet engines, for his hearing to still be that good is pretty impressive, if true.
Buy stylii instead, they last longer. :-)
Or they might be a bunch of jerks and tell you to buzz off. Won't know 'til you ask.
That really should be "Grand and Exalted Poobah", by the way.
He explained it as "before the Christian era", no doubt for the benefit of those only familiar with B.C. and A.D., but did not define it as that, although anyone who needs it explained no doubt also needs it defined as "Before Common Era" (and should also be told that what comes after is "C.E.", or "Common Era", and that B.C.E. and C.E. correspond to B.C. and A.D., respectively), so he did screw up just a tad.
Plus, that'll put them at least one county farther away from me in case they drop anything really heavy.
Where have we heard that one before?
"TiVo already profited from your unit before your bought it."
I can't begin to figure out how to answer that, but any business plan where the profit happens before the sale is even made must be connected with the internet somehow :-)
As I pointed out to another poster elsewhere, the "perform test call" option is a lot better than the serial port one--you don't have to know the software or hook up a separate computer--but it involves having the Tivo plugged in to the phone line, and the Tivo is pre-programmed to "phone home" while you aren't looking, without getting your permission in advance, whether you are a subscriber or not, and it's during one of those calls that the unwanted upgrade happened. So not only do you have to keep performing the test call to keep the time set, but you've got to plug it in to the phone jack, and then be sure to unplug it afterwards, each and every time. I wonder how strongly the owner's manual, much less the pre-sale literature, warned about that. Much more kludging around and you might as well keep on juggling VHS cassettes.
Only physically disconnecting the phone line would prevent this. That would make it rather difficult to utilize the second of the 2 choices you offer, the one that doesn't involve having to hook the unit up to a computer or having to know anymore about the operating system of your Tivo than you do about the (built-in to the hardware) operating system of your VHS VCR.
(Although moderators without an appreciation of the original Rocky and Bullwinkle could explain a lot about the past several months)
If they use MS Office they'll probably think it's the spellchecker.
And Colin Powell's son Michael is one of the FCC commissioners.
For most of us that would be a long-distance phone call to some far away community to which we would have to relocate to get that "...all non AOL/Time Warner internet and cable setup". Most places that have cable only have one cable company running along the right-of-way at any given address, and if that cable company doesn't offer "cable modem" service, you can't get it from anybody else. And chances are that the only local phone company doesn't offer anything faster than (or even different from) dial-up over POTS either.
It's sort of like you have to work overtime and your employer charges you 1.5 times your hourly rate for each hour of overtime you work while telling you with a straight face that they're doing you a favor by giving you the opportunity to gain extra practice and experience in your craft.
When cable channels, whether owned by the same company as owns the local cable company or not, run commercial breaks, some of the time is filled with ads sent along by that channel just like the program, and some of the time is empty space available for the local cable company to sell to local advertisers. These are the slots being denied to local ISPs who are in competition with some part of the business empire of the parent company of the local cable company.
Except, of course, for all those communities where the shareholders in the original cable companies that eventually got bought up by the big companies were the friends and relatives of the mayors and councilcritters and still are.
Of course milk costs more than gasoline, have you ever compared the taste?
So maybe you'd like to share that knowledge with the rest of us?
As far as the PS2 being a PC killer, Cringely had a column about that 2 years ago.
The RS in RS-232 does not stand for Radio Shack, if that's what you were thinking. And 232 isn't the only RS standard.