Jon implies in his article that the real theft is the music companies who charge exorbitant prices for their product, $16.95 for a CD that costs $0.50 to make. That doesn't tell the whole story at all. Sure it costs 50 cents to stamp a CD, coat it in plastic, jewelcase it, stick in a cover, and shrinkwrap it. Factor in a 100% distributer markup, factor in the cost to advertise the latest "pop hit", pay the middleman etc, etc, etc. Suddenly that $16.95 doesn't seem *that* ridiculous. Sure, I wish CDs were cheaper, but people are obviously willing to pay that $16.95, so by the simple laws of demand, record conglomerates can sell it at that price with no qualms.
If you want to get your music cheaper, don't buy from the gigantic record companies who mass distribute primarily mediocre and watered-down music. You think their extorting you? Buy direct from the artist with indie record companies that charge maybe $8 a CD. The music is often better too. Indie record labels have been increasing for years, and there are some really great bands out there who remain loyal to the music and not the money.
As far as MP3s go, I can totally understand why the record companies are suing illegal MP3 distributers. They are fronting the cash to advertise these records, hype "artists" and so forth, and the consumers aren't even purchasing from them! They illegally download an MP3 of the overhyped artist instead. What record companies really need to do, is bite the bullet, and embrace the new means of distribution, so that they can continue to profit from music they distribute and advertise.
Actually I was subtly making fun of Intel for once claiming that their chip naming system was not sequentially numeric.
They claimed this in a suit against chip maker Cyrix, who made a 486 clone, and heaven forfend! called it a 486. Intel tried to make their chip "names" a trademark, since *obviously* they weren't sequential version numbers (286, 386, 486, makes sense too me;-) ). Ironically, to make a trademarkable name, they came up with "Pentium" which is clearly derived from the greek word for five, which pretty much totally disagrees with their previous statement that chip numbers weren't going in a sequential order. Anyway, this is all old history now:-)
I'm kind of confused as to what you mean here. You are saying you don't get better quality for the higher price you pay for the empeg.
What they don't realize is the US market is way different than the EU Well perhaps we get better prices on drives with all the drive companies in the US. But why doesn't the UK buy from the US? Sure there are some import taxes, but it can't be any more expensive then what they pay for japanese drives now.
Me personally, I would look to team up with the people who are testing the StrongArm (LART) based computers that run linux (similar to Empeg) and license the "technology" both to large companies, but to general public as a hobby. Definitely a very cool idea. I've thought of doing something like this myself based on some dated (cheap) laptop hardware. In other words x86 processors that run Linux.
I look at this as almost a computer. So why not make it modular so it can be upgraded In a good MP3 car unit I'd like to see a modular hard drive perhaps, so that the storage can be upgraded, and of course some way of recieving software updates. Any more "modularity" then this is probably more trouble (cost) then its worth.
Well at least sort of have a story to the name. From the article for the readers who don't read the story
The processor's name, Duron, was derived from the Latin word "durare," which means "to last."
Well, its a dumb name. But at least its not a "Pentium" which we swear, has nothing to do with 5. Its just a crazy coincidence. Then of course they start numbering from there. Pentium II Pentium II, oops I mean Pentium III. Those Intel dudes need to get on the ball. Here's one to try:
latin root: volo, volare - fly Intel chip name: volentium!
I'm sure I could think of more, but its been a long time since I had latin and the only other word I can remember is "dominus - master". Probably not exactly the image Intel is going for;-)
Because of Mr. Newton (and to a limited degree Mr. Einstein), the chances of a collision with the Earth during this fly by were approximately 0%
not to argue too fine a point here. But it most certainly is a finite percentage chance that the Cassini spacecraft could hit the earth, all that had to happen was for it to have a trajectory that brought it slightly to low in earth orbit, where the upper atmosphere would slow it down. As long as those NASA engineers calculate everything right, no problem, but we know they have a bit of the problem with the whole yard/meters thing;-)
I care that when you copy and distribute his mp3s, you are breaking the law
And I bet you never ever speed right.
I don't have any compunction about downloading a song by some artist I don't know well, to listen to it, and decide if I want to buy the album. I rate this about the same as doing 45 in a 35 in good weather with light traffic. Sure its "against the law" but some of us have a higher morality that is not purely based on the "by the book" legality of an action. Instead I am capable of making a practical judgement that is in the best interest of myself, without harming the interest of others. I am offended that someone as wealthy as Dr. Dre and Metallica feels the need to sue college students (who are primarily poor) for enjoying the "artists" music. I am even more offended that they are suing Napster, which is simply providing a service, albiet one that can be missused for illegal purposes. If this has a valid legal precedent then why haven't gun companies been sued out of business by the families of people who have been killed by guns, which is undoubtably a *far far* more heinous crime.
The fact remains, that Metallica and Dr. Dre have far more to lose by paying for this lawsuit, and angering fans, then they will gain by winning, which i might add, seems at least somewhat unlikely.
Considering everything that is relevant to this game involves large masses and velocities that are well below.7 times the speed of light, its not necessary to use relativistic calculations to achieve a better then.1% error. Which hardly seems significant in a video game
As far as quantum mechanics goes, one of Bohr's fundemental principles stated essentially that large systems modelled using quantum theory essentially appear the same as a classical (read "Newtonian") result. So again, its not necessary to make calculations based on quantum mechanics.
Yes I realize that this post was probably a joke anyway. But I guess I just don't have a sense of humor:-)
First of all, the shuttles are supposed to be replaced within a few years (hopefully).
Nope. The video in the link says that the glass cockpit is just one of the updates to make the shuttles last for another 20 years (been about 20 already).
Maybe they will build a new shuttle in the meantime, but the ones we have now (Atlantis, Columbia...) will stay in service.
I'm sure some of us recall the production difficulties that nearly killed AMD when it first went up against Intel, the K5. Granted the K5 barely got out the door, and the Athlon has been shipping for some time now in various flavors. However, this could still really hurt AMD, because with Athlons not available, the sales are going to go to Intel, and if Intel takes advantage of the delay... Well intel will have yet another victory against a superior processor.
Also, unfortunately for consumers, the shortage could cause the price of Athlon chips that are already in stock to go up. Yet the higher price will not benefit AMD, only the distributers.
Its been out on DVD for a while too, I rented it one day, first time I ever saw it. Now they are reviewing the box set, which must have been released not too long ago now. I'll have to add this too my DVD wish list.
Now if only Braveheart, and the first 3 Star Wars movies would be released, and ___ and ___ and ___. Get with the times people, we want DVD!
I am of course reminded of the movie Gattica. A rather grim 1984ish prediction of the future, done Hollywood-style. Still it was a good movie, and raised some interesting points.
Even though it was "illegal", as it is in America today, for companies to discriminate based on genetic information, it still happened. Genetic information was so easy to get, people litteraly leave their genetic information everywhere they go in the form of tissue that is continually being shed (hair, skin, etc...). Just as today, discrimination still occurs based on race and sex, even though its illegal, discrimination can still occur. I think that it is very likely that, as technology advances and allows tests to be performed on minimal tissue very cheaply, this kind of test will become quite common in the business world. As the main character in Gattica states, and I'm paraphrasing, "why spend all that money training an employee who will die 10 years later of a heart condition."
All I can say is that I hope I have a healthy DNA record, for my children's and children's-children's sake.
It doesn't matter if you encrypt your data. The point is they know where you are going. It doesn't mean just porn either, though I'm sure you'd prefer to not be in some company's database as a daily visitor to reallyillegalvirginteens.com. It also allows them to track what political sites you go to, if you've been researching homeade explosives, if you like to purchase chinese torture implements on ebay, what stocks you look up at cnnfn.com. Who knows, whatever you are into from weird to normal, private or not, if you go to a website about it, it will appear in some companies database.
The purpose: targeted marketing. Thats what all these information schemes are all about. No longer are companies content with knowing just your age, marital and financial status. They want to know everywhere you visit. And tracking you online is just one quick partnership with your ISP away. Then they have an address, a phone number, a credit card number, and a comprehensive database of everything you view online.
I have a Palm III and I love it. As a student it does everything I could ever want it to do. Sure color/audio/wireless is alright, but at the cost of size/price/battery life? No thanks.
Basically even if MS comes out with a perfect "Palm killer" that has all of the above hardware features and none of the drawbacks, I will still remain with Palm because of:
A) Brand trust (that still matters doesn't it?) B) Linux/Beos/whatever-alternative-OS-I-may-play-with compatability.
And of course we all know, that Palm and company (Handspring, etc.) are going to sit idly by while Microsoft tries to invade their space. Hopefully by the time the Palm IX (I just made that up, don't get excited) is out, I can afford a new one on my student wages (read: none):-)
You can always kill external frames on your website with some javascript. I know its not ideal, but it hardly seems worth the trouble too sue them, and as other posters have pointed out, deep linking is legal, and its not like they've skipped an outer frame that identifies what site it is, or the copyright information. If you don't like their ads appearing on the top, which I can understand, just remove their frame, forcing them to link directly or not at all.
Spyky
Re:Bees? I would understand if I could...
on
AskJeeves Interview
·
· Score: 1
Actually its not really a pumped up eliza. I wrote an eliza program back in an AI class a number of years ago, in LISP. It had the basic eliza elements, it could convert persons, so it could repeat back what you just said as a question. It kept track of keywords so it could ask for more about them, and come back to a previous subject after discussing something else for a while (this always suprises people). And of course, the necessary "punt" when you just couldn't understand the statement so it says something nonsensical and avoids the question. Basically Jeeves doesn't have any of these features, which depend upon a flow of conversation, which Jeeves has no need of. It simply picks keywords from your sentence using some sort of natural language algorithm (that obviously isn't terribly effective) and provides standard search engine results for them, unless you happen to ask something which it has a built in response too, or points you to a category or something.
Basically I've found Ask Jeeves to be essentially worthless when compared with other search engines, it has a long way to go before it can answer natural language questions. But it sure is fun to ask silly questions to see what whacky response youg get:-)
...but as higher capacity drives become ever more affordable, and high speed connections more common, higher-bitrate codecs will become more popular. Most people can't tell much of a difference between MP3 audio and a CD on generally poor quality PC soundcards and speakers (it is there however). But as more and more PCs are becoming part of high-end audio/theater systems with DVD drives and nice home speaker systems, if you really want to use them as a music jukebox as I'm sure many here already do, it would be very nice to have a higher quality (higher bitrate) codec. So basically, it doesn't just depend on the sucess of DVD-Audio and SACD (Sony Audio CD) which has already been released, and sounds phenomenal, but also on the constant developments in storage technology and PC performance.
I find the web-development example weak. The difference between a monopoly on software, like Microsoft, and AOL-TimeWarner, is pretty vast. The major thing I see is this: its pretty simple to set up a web server and make your own pages. I have a server set up next too me, and I'd hardly call myself an expert. On the other hand, if I had no choice about what desktop software to use, between Microsoft's and making my own. Well, lets say I'd probably end up using Microsoft's.
So basically, I don't understand how a huge company can get in the way of web development. Its never going to be as possible to control web content, simply by the fact that it is so easy to create.
Also, one has to consider marketing tactics. So far, nothing AOL/TimeWarner has done has been as distasteful as M$ tactics to create a monopoly and stifle the competition, such making it nearly impossible for PC vendors to ship with non-M$ OSes, etc. the list goes on and on. I think AOL/TimeWarner is far more likely to play by the rules. After all, we've already seen M$ get burned for stretching them, hopefully they won't get off lightly.
Oh yeah! I have a Sony 21" Trinitron, runs 1600X1200 at 85Hz perfect. This monitor is actually the same depth as my 3 year old 17" trinitron, so its even pretty good space wise. Anyway, I've never seen a better monitor, and until LCDs can compete with the sheer brightness and clarity of this monitor, i won't be switching for years to come.
Additionally, I bought a fairly pricey computer when I bought the monitor (PII 400 approaching 2 years old now), but i skimped somewhat on the PC in favor of the huge Sony trinitron and it was worth it. While the PC is somewhat dated compared to the fastest machines out there now, I will be using and enjoying this monitor for years to come as my primary display.
For a decent indie/used record store (not a huge selection, but...) try Record Convergence, at the intersection of Route 50 and 29/236, right behind Office Depot. Its been there forever (as long as I remember anyway). Maybe I'll run in to you sometime
Why have a talking head on screen? Thats about as useful as the dancing paperclip in everyones favorite office suite. If thats all you are going to do with the screen, why just not have a screen. I suppose the screen could be used for displaying data, but please, no talking heads when there is no data to display.
tunnel rollerblading:-) Seriously, all those steam tunnels have really smooth concrete, and they usually come out into random academic building basements. The best (and most fun) part is when you are nonchalantly skating around a corner and a campus safety (campus police) officer is standing there. Good thing you are on skates:-)
Slashdot Mirror
Its for all the non technical people out there (which this product is aimed at), because it doesn't stop playing music everytime winblows crashes ;-)
Spyky
Well theres the food room and the human waste room. Other then that, yeah you're right :-)
Spyky
Jon implies in his article that the real theft is the music companies who charge exorbitant prices for their product, $16.95 for a CD that costs $0.50 to make. That doesn't tell the whole story at all. Sure it costs 50 cents to stamp a CD, coat it in plastic, jewelcase it, stick in a cover, and shrinkwrap it. Factor in a 100% distributer markup, factor in the cost to advertise the latest "pop hit", pay the middleman etc, etc, etc. Suddenly that $16.95 doesn't seem *that* ridiculous. Sure, I wish CDs were cheaper, but people are obviously willing to pay that $16.95, so by the simple laws of demand, record conglomerates can sell it at that price with no qualms.
If you want to get your music cheaper, don't buy from the gigantic record companies who mass distribute primarily mediocre and watered-down music. You think their extorting you? Buy direct from the artist with indie record companies that charge maybe $8 a CD. The music is often better too. Indie record labels have been increasing for years, and there are some really great bands out there who remain loyal to the music and not the money.
As far as MP3s go, I can totally understand why the record companies are suing illegal MP3 distributers. They are fronting the cash to advertise these records, hype "artists" and so forth, and the consumers aren't even purchasing from them! They illegally download an MP3 of the overhyped artist instead. What record companies really need to do, is bite the bullet, and embrace the new means of distribution, so that they can continue to profit from music they distribute and advertise.
Spyky
Actually I was subtly making fun of Intel for once claiming that their chip naming system was not sequentially numeric.
;-) ). Ironically, to make a trademarkable name, they came up with "Pentium" which is clearly derived from the greek word for five, which pretty much totally disagrees with their previous statement that chip numbers weren't going in a sequential order. Anyway, this is all old history now :-)
They claimed this in a suit against chip maker Cyrix, who made a 486 clone, and heaven forfend! called it a 486. Intel tried to make their chip "names" a trademark, since *obviously* they weren't sequential version numbers (286, 386, 486, makes sense too me
Spyky
A couple of issues.
It's not quality or anything like that it's price
I'm kind of confused as to what you mean here. You are saying you don't get better quality for the higher price you pay for the empeg.
What they don't realize is the US market is way different than the EU
Well perhaps we get better prices on drives with all the drive companies in the US. But why doesn't the UK buy from the US? Sure there are some import taxes, but it can't be any more expensive then what they pay for japanese drives now.
Me personally, I would look to team up with the people who are testing the StrongArm (LART) based computers that run linux (similar to Empeg) and license the "technology" both to large companies, but to general public as a hobby.
Definitely a very cool idea. I've thought of doing something like this myself based on some dated (cheap) laptop hardware. In other words x86 processors that run Linux.
I look at this as almost a computer. So why not make it modular so it can be upgraded
In a good MP3 car unit I'd like to see a modular hard drive perhaps, so that the storage can be upgraded, and of course some way of recieving software updates. Any more "modularity" then this is probably more trouble (cost) then its worth.
Spyky
Well at least sort of have a story to the name. From the article for the readers who don't read the story
;-)
The processor's name, Duron, was derived from the Latin word "durare," which means "to last."
Well, its a dumb name. But at least its not a "Pentium" which we swear, has nothing to do with 5. Its just a crazy coincidence. Then of course they start numbering from there. Pentium II Pentium II, oops I mean Pentium III. Those Intel dudes need to get on the ball. Here's one to try:
latin root: volo, volare - fly
Intel chip name: volentium!
I'm sure I could think of more, but its been a long time since I had latin and the only other word I can remember is "dominus - master". Probably not exactly the image Intel is going for
Spyky
Because of Mr. Newton (and to a limited degree Mr. Einstein), the chances of a collision with the Earth during this fly by were approximately 0%
;-)
not to argue too fine a point here. But it most certainly is a finite percentage chance that the Cassini spacecraft could hit the earth, all that had to happen was for it to have a trajectory that brought it slightly to low in earth orbit, where the upper atmosphere would slow it down. As long as those NASA engineers calculate everything right, no problem, but we know they have a bit of the problem with the whole yard/meters thing
Spyky
I care that when you copy and distribute his mp3s, you are breaking the law
And I bet you never ever speed right.
I don't have any compunction about downloading a song by some artist I don't know well, to listen to it, and decide if I want to buy the album. I rate this about the same as doing 45 in a 35 in good weather with light traffic. Sure its "against the law" but some of us have a higher morality that is not purely based on the "by the book" legality of an action. Instead I am capable of making a practical judgement that is in the best interest of myself, without harming the interest of others. I am offended that someone as wealthy as Dr. Dre and Metallica feels the need to sue college students (who are primarily poor) for enjoying the "artists" music. I am even more offended that they are suing Napster, which is simply providing a service, albiet one that can be missused for illegal purposes. If this has a valid legal precedent then why haven't gun companies been sued out of business by the families of people who have been killed by guns, which is undoubtably a *far far* more heinous crime.
The fact remains, that Metallica and Dr. Dre have far more to lose by paying for this lawsuit, and angering fans, then they will gain by winning, which i might add, seems at least somewhat unlikely.
Spyky
Considering everything that is relevant to this game involves large masses and velocities that are well below .7 times the speed of light, its not necessary to use relativistic calculations to achieve a better then .1% error. Which hardly seems significant in a video game
:-)
As far as quantum mechanics goes, one of Bohr's fundemental principles stated essentially that large systems modelled using quantum theory essentially appear the same as a classical (read "Newtonian") result. So again, its not necessary to make calculations based on quantum mechanics.
Yes I realize that this post was probably a joke anyway. But I guess I just don't have a sense of humor
Spyky
First of all, the shuttles are supposed to be replaced within a few years (hopefully).
Nope. The video in the link says that the glass cockpit is just one of the updates to make the shuttles last for another 20 years (been about 20 already).
Maybe they will build a new shuttle in the meantime, but the ones we have now (Atlantis, Columbia...) will stay in service.
Spyky
I'm sure some of us recall the production difficulties that nearly killed AMD when it first went up against Intel, the K5. Granted the K5 barely got out the door, and the Athlon has been shipping for some time now in various flavors. However, this could still really hurt AMD, because with Athlons not available, the sales are going to go to Intel, and if Intel takes advantage of the delay... Well intel will have yet another victory against a superior processor.
Also, unfortunately for consumers, the shortage could cause the price of Athlon chips that are already in stock to go up. Yet the higher price will not benefit AMD, only the distributers.
Spyky
Its been out on DVD for a while too, I rented it one day, first time I ever saw it. Now they are reviewing the box set, which must have been released not too long ago now. I'll have to add this too my DVD wish list.
Now if only Braveheart, and the first 3 Star Wars movies would be released, and ___ and ___ and ___. Get with the times people, we want DVD!
Spyky
Police scanners, radio shielding, encryption devices, all for the truly paranoid :-)
Spyky
I am of course reminded of the movie Gattica. A rather grim 1984ish prediction of the future, done Hollywood-style. Still it was a good movie, and raised some interesting points.
Even though it was "illegal", as it is in America today, for companies to discriminate based on genetic information, it still happened. Genetic information was so easy to get, people litteraly leave their genetic information everywhere they go in the form of tissue that is continually being shed (hair, skin, etc...). Just as today, discrimination still occurs based on race and sex, even though its illegal, discrimination can still occur. I think that it is very likely that, as technology advances and allows tests to be performed on minimal tissue very cheaply, this kind of test will become quite common in the business world. As the main character in Gattica states, and I'm paraphrasing, "why spend all that money training an employee who will die 10 years later of a heart condition."
All I can say is that I hope I have a healthy DNA record, for my children's and children's-children's sake.
Spyky
It doesn't matter if you encrypt your data. The point is they know where you are going. It doesn't mean just porn either, though I'm sure you'd prefer to not be in some company's database as a daily visitor to reallyillegalvirginteens.com. It also allows them to track what political sites you go to, if you've been researching homeade explosives, if you like to purchase chinese torture implements on ebay, what stocks you look up at cnnfn.com. Who knows, whatever you are into from weird to normal, private or not, if you go to a website about it, it will appear in some companies database.
The purpose: targeted marketing. Thats what all these information schemes are all about. No longer are companies content with knowing just your age, marital and financial status. They want to know everywhere you visit. And tracking you online is just one quick partnership with your ISP away. Then they have an address, a phone number, a credit card number, and a comprehensive database of everything you view online.
Scary ain't it?
Spyky
I have a Palm III and I love it. As a student it does everything I could ever want it to do. Sure color/audio/wireless is alright, but at the cost of size/price/battery life? No thanks.
h compatability.
:-)
Basically even if MS comes out with a perfect "Palm killer" that has all of the above hardware features and none of the drawbacks, I will still remain with Palm because of:
A) Brand trust (that still matters doesn't it?)
B) Linux/Beos/whatever-alternative-OS-I-may-play-wit
And of course we all know, that Palm and company (Handspring, etc.) are going to sit idly by while Microsoft tries to invade their space. Hopefully by the time the Palm IX (I just made that up, don't get excited) is out, I can afford a new one on my student wages (read: none)
Spyky
You can always kill external frames on your website with some javascript. I know its not ideal, but it hardly seems worth the trouble too sue them, and as other posters have pointed out, deep linking is legal, and its not like they've skipped an outer frame that identifies what site it is, or the copyright information. If you don't like their ads appearing on the top, which I can understand, just remove their frame, forcing them to link directly or not at all.
Spyky
Actually its not really a pumped up eliza. I wrote an eliza program back in an AI class a number of years ago, in LISP. It had the basic eliza elements, it could convert persons, so it could repeat back what you just said as a question. It kept track of keywords so it could ask for more about them, and come back to a previous subject after discussing something else for a while (this always suprises people). And of course, the necessary "punt" when you just couldn't understand the statement so it says something nonsensical and avoids the question. Basically Jeeves doesn't have any of these features, which depend upon a flow of conversation, which Jeeves has no need of. It simply picks keywords from your sentence using some sort of natural language algorithm (that obviously isn't terribly effective) and provides standard search engine results for them, unless you happen to ask something which it has a built in response too, or points you to a category or something.
:-)
Basically I've found Ask Jeeves to be essentially worthless when compared with other search engines, it has a long way to go before it can answer natural language questions. But it sure is fun to ask silly questions to see what whacky response youg get
Spyky
...but as higher capacity drives become ever more affordable, and high speed connections more common, higher-bitrate codecs will become more popular. Most people can't tell much of a difference between MP3 audio and a CD on generally poor quality PC soundcards and speakers (it is there however). But as more and more PCs are becoming part of high-end audio/theater systems with DVD drives and nice home speaker systems, if you really want to use them as a music jukebox as I'm sure many here already do, it would be very nice to have a higher quality (higher bitrate) codec. So basically, it doesn't just depend on the sucess of DVD-Audio and SACD (Sony Audio CD) which has already been released, and sounds phenomenal, but also on the constant developments in storage technology and PC performance.
Spyky
I find the web-development example weak. The difference between a monopoly on software, like Microsoft, and AOL-TimeWarner, is pretty vast. The major thing I see is this: its pretty simple to set up a web server and make your own pages. I have a server set up next too me, and I'd hardly call myself an expert. On the other hand, if I had no choice about what desktop software to use, between Microsoft's and making my own. Well, lets say I'd probably end up using Microsoft's.
So basically, I don't understand how a huge company can get in the way of web development. Its never going to be as possible to control web content, simply by the fact that it is so easy to create.
Also, one has to consider marketing tactics. So far, nothing AOL/TimeWarner has done has been as distasteful as M$ tactics to create a monopoly and stifle the competition, such making it nearly impossible for PC vendors to ship with non-M$ OSes, etc. the list goes on and on. I think AOL/TimeWarner is far more likely to play by the rules. After all, we've already seen M$ get burned for stretching them, hopefully they won't get off lightly.
Okay, I'll stop rambling now and go eat breakfast
Spyky
Oh yeah! I have a Sony 21" Trinitron, runs 1600X1200 at 85Hz perfect. This monitor is actually the same depth as my 3 year old 17" trinitron, so its even pretty good space wise. Anyway, I've never seen a better monitor, and until LCDs can compete with the sheer brightness and clarity of this monitor, i won't be switching for years to come.
Additionally, I bought a fairly pricey computer when I bought the monitor (PII 400 approaching 2 years old now), but i skimped somewhat on the PC in favor of the huge Sony trinitron and it was worth it. While the PC is somewhat dated compared to the fastest machines out there now, I will be using and enjoying this monitor for years to come as my primary display.
Spyky
A whole lot of indie/just starting bands release 3-4 songs on a CD, sell it for $3-$6, just like a 7 inch.
Spyky
For a decent indie/used record store (not a huge selection, but...) try Record Convergence, at the intersection of Route 50 and 29/236, right behind Office Depot. Its been there forever (as long as I remember anyway). Maybe I'll run in to you sometime
On the screen is a talking head
Why have a talking head on screen? Thats about as useful as the dancing paperclip in everyones favorite office suite. If thats all you are going to do with the screen, why just not have a screen. I suppose the screen could be used for displaying data, but please, no talking heads when there is no data to display.
Spyky
tunnel rollerblading :-) Seriously, all those steam tunnels have really smooth concrete, and they usually come out into random academic building basements. The best (and most fun) part is when you are nonchalantly skating around a corner and a campus safety (campus police) officer is standing there. Good thing you are on skates :-)