Why can't people accept that maybe for whatever reason, puzzle solving and finger twitching might not appeal to most women, and that doesn't mean their any less equal to guys if it doesn't.
I don't know about this. Back in middle school, I got my friend's mom so hooked on Tetris that she had to get her own GameBoy to play it.
And if there is a game that better represents addictive finger-twitching puzzle-solver, I haven't played it.
I have been using an Epia M10000 board (single Nehemiah processor, previous generation chipset -- mpeg-2 hardware assist) as a PVR/multimedia computer with WinXP Pro for the past year and a half, and it is MORE than adequate. 512MB PC2100 DDR ram, 120+160GB IDE hard drives, Hauppage PVR250 tv-tuner PCI card, 90W power supply (used to be a 60W until I added the 2nd hard drive). For a system that can handle recording, pausing live TV, video editing, DVD burning, and yes, even WEB BROWSING, text editing, minor picture manipulation and instant messaging, I highly prefer my little shoebox sized system to some power-hungry behemoth that sounds like 747 at takeoff. I don't use Photoshop or modern 3D gaming on it, because I wouldn't use those period. I normally use the free utilities that come with WinXP and Pinnacle Studio that came with my DVD burner for video editing, because they are all I need. If I really want to screw around with something, I'll usually try running it first on my 450MHz K6-2+ WinME box (which, for reference, IS much slower than my mini-itx system) so I won't risk messing up my properly functional PVR setup.
If someone can build an equivalent system using modern Intel/AMD processors that requires only 2 small fans (40mm on the processor, 60mm case fan), and can operate flawlessly off of a 90W power supply, I'd like to see it (and hear it).
Mini-ITX, at least Via's approach, is not about cramming the most powerful components into a new motherboard form factor. It's about creating a platform that has enough capabilities and utilizes the smallest amount of resources (power, space) to get it done. For those of us who keep our systems on 24/7 in our bedrooms, low power/noise are a critical factor in deciding our computing platform. I'm thankful to Via for pushing along in the low power/density arena.
I knew having that old 5.25" floppy drive in my comp would come in handy eventually!...now if only I could find some media for it that's been made in the past 10 years.....
The backward compatibility of this thing is a farce.
You still need to buy a new DVD player to play the HD content!! Whats the point of that?
All this does is enable movie studios to print one DVD that has both HD and regular content.
For the consumer, it does nothing.
It allows the studios to produce one disk to deal with both markets: the HD early adopters, and those who will only own standard DVD until they no longer have a choice.
If the same (or at least comparable) content is given in both formats on a single unit, this will keep production costs down, will keep shelf space to a minimum (only need to stock one copy instead of two), and provides an easy upgrade path in a few years when standard DVD goes the way of VHS, and the few pennies dual-layer HD/DVD costs above plain HD-DVD will eventually be trimmed from the production costs.
Granted, final product costs probably won't drop noticeably from the consumer's perspective, but the ability to double-up on production and merchandising space lowers the entry costs for the content providers, thus making it a more appealing option to pursue.
I have not reviewed the differences between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, but it looks to me like the old VHS vs. Beta powerstruggle of a home-video generation ago. While Blu-Ray may have better capacity (as did Beta), the ability to get nearly-equivalent product (HD-DVD) onto the market at a minimum of expense will more likely prevail (any option where companies can save costs tends to be the preferred method, even at the expense of potentially superior product -- all bow before the capitalistic ideal where minimum cost/maximum profit decide what is best for the end user irregardless of anything else)
I've been there, done that. Worked as a 3rd-shift stockboy in the toy department a bit during college. (long family history related to working for the Meijer corporation) I can see how it's easy for someone to slip up and accidentally stock a game before it's official release date. If the employee doesn't follow headlines on their own, odds are they won't know about holds on certain products like that. I know I never knew about any during my time there. It was all "get as much on the shelf as you can so we can clean up before the morning customers show up."
And as for unionization, the state of Michigan allows them to pretty much take over at certain stores, and I remember having to join the union just so I could recieve my paycheck. About the only valuable thing they did for me was to lock my pay in at $0.25 above minimum wage (3rd shift premium), which ALMOST (but not quite) made up for the cost of Union Dues that had to be payed with every paycheck. I know unions do good work at times, but for a kid trying to make a couple bucks during the summer, it was more hassle than it was worth. I've heard stories from Meijer and similar stores in states that the unions haven't taken over, where if the store was non-union, occasionally union members would sneak in, pretend to be regular shoppers, but in reality just end up leaving big messes throughout the stores when nobody was looking and leave. A random cart full of ice cream left in the home improvement section for a couple hours, etc. I don't know the truth to such claims, but they didn't surprise me.
I'm from the area of Michigan where Meijer originated, they are similar to Walmart in some ways, but different enough to be distinctive if you look. They're both big-box sell-everything-cheaply type of stores, Meijer's been doing it for quite a while in that area of the US, and now that Walmart's been moving into that area in the past few years, they are becoming major rivals to eachother. Walmart started putting in stores next to the Meijer ones to try to drive them out, now when Meijer moves into a new area, they try to position next to a Walmart to attack them back. Walmart sometimes has lower prices that nobody can match, even the other big-box stores, but it also feels like the cheapest place in town to shop. Meijer may not be classy, but it feels a step up from Walmart (though that may just be personal bias). At least Meijer has a full, real grocery section to the store, and not just ramens and prepackaged cookies that most Walmarts carry (even though that's what I lived off of at the local Walmart back in college -- Meijer didn't arrive there until my senior year, when Walmart and Target were forced to upgrade to the SuperWalmart variation of the stores -- right next door)
I took apart a few recently-replaced 3.5" ATA drives a year or two back (did a major, multi-computer upgrade and had some leftovers), ranging from 20 to 40 GB, and took the tin snips to the platters. Most of them cut pretty easily, like thin metal, but the IBM (one of their first 40GB ATA drives from ~2000/2001) platters shattered when I tried to cut them.
Kerry lost largely on high voter turnout for those who opposed him on moral grounds, especially gay marriage.
As a non-American, that is what boggles the mind.
It boggles the mind of those of us stuck here to cower in fear for the next four years.
BOTH candidates were AGAINST gay marriage, in fact the only one of the 4 (V.P.'s included) who was not DIRECTLY against it was Cheney, an incumbant, who put aside his personal opinions to go along with party rhetoric to not cause dissention among the ranks.
The people claiming a moral obligation on gay marriage to influence their presidential vote really ought to have voted for Kerry, in that he was in favor of the individual states making the final decision, out of which 11 of 11 did so, rather than Bush, who supported the idea of a U.S. Constitutional amendment that he knew had no real hope of passing, and if it would have, it would invalidate the decisions of the states, and remove from their people the freedom and ability to think for themselves.
It boggles the mind to think that the Repugnantcans were able to abuse people's conservative religious faith to make them think that since Bush wanted the whole country on one standard (with little possibility of success), Kerry's less-extreme stance (even if by not very much, and actually more realistic to support such a moral ground) must be the opposite of Bush's and somehow Kerry was tied to the opposite of his personal viewpoint.
The abuse of faith and conservative viewpoints turned out to be the most underhandedly brilliant thing the Republican party managed to do in this election.
I don't think that will be a huge problem, as I am not aware of any financial incentives for W. to go to Chile, I doubt it would be on his schedule, if he even knows where it is. As he stated during the 2000 debates, and has subsequently shown in his actions, that he would only involve the U.S. in international events if there was some economic interest in it (the topic, IIRC, was something about the possibility of sending military force to troubled countries in Africa and the Middle East, wherein he basically implied that he would take on Iraq for the oil deposits)
But I'm not a political/military/rich bitch strategist, so my opinion doesn't really matter. I'm just the middle-class guy who's going to eventually have to pay for all of this (after a certain political party forgot that it needs to fund the projects it passes, and that government gets its funds through taxes, and shouldn't be treating my future as the world's largest credit card)
Or he has regular sized fingers and not dainty little child-like fingers.
On the second-hand PDA that I used to use, which didn't come with a stylus, I found that using my fingernail or a plastic pen cap (or retracted ball point pen) worked perfectly fine. And I most definitely do NOT have dainty fingers (one reason why I don't play the violin).
This is true. I've seen a friend's 1GHz Athlon brought nearly to it's knees by a moderately minor spyware infestation. I also fixed another computer for someone else which was virtually unuseable because of spyware and such (though also older, somewhere in the 500-800 MHz range, I think).
Me, I like running my trusty old K6-2+ 450. It keeps me happy for most things (word processing, web browsing, modest audio/video editing, DVD playing, CD burning, etc.) It works because I keep it clean. And I haven't had to pay to upgrade it (aside from newer/bigger hard drives) in over 3 years.
The major problem with people needing so much processor speed these days is because of all the junk that comes with everything that bogs everything down. I still run WinME on my main system, because I don't trust WinXP to be unbloated enough to run all my older hardware at a reasonable rate. Even WinME has it's own stability issues (because of being related to the Win9x line) that requires a complete reformat/reinstall every year or two of heavy use, but I am willing to accept the periodic inconvenience to have all my toys work the way I think they should to suit my needs.
If Joe 6-pack knows what he's doing, older hardware will work perfectly fine for most things. However, the typical computer ignorance of most Joe's will necessitate the use of faste and faster hardware or have a very good friend/relative or local geek to assist them when they overstep their abilities.
I have to agree with you, the cost of living will have a great impact on suitable salary ranges. I grew up in southern, non-metro Michigan, but have been working in the suburbs of Chicago since I graduated college 4 years ago. While I can afford to live comfortably with my salary (55-60k), I am single and have been living in rented apartments, as the aforementioned costs of housing in the area are absolutely ridiculous. The only reasons I currently would view for purchasing property in this area would be if I were to be starting a family and couldn't leave the area, and/or I found some insane deal on something in the area that actually made it affordable without forcing me to live off of ramen again. If I could get the same salary somewhere back home in Michigan, I'd be all over it in a heartbeat. Irregardless of what they pay me, Chicago shall never own me. I'm a Michigander born and raised.
The bigger the car, the lower the person's self-esteem.
I drive a tiny little 2-door Saturn.
And pointing out the way that you conveniently fall outside of your simplistic classification of self-esteem vs. vehicular choice makes you come off as egotistical.
I'm sure there has to be some people out there who like to drive big/fast cars simply because they like travelling fast or playing with big noisy machines, and could care less what other people think of them and their choices. Or maybe they don't want some itty-bitty thing that can easily get run over on the highway by other careless idiots drinking coffee and yakking on their cell phones in their honking monster SUV's.
For the record, what I drive is irrelevant to this conversation.
"How would you make a Metroid movie "kiddie" anyway? Give Metroids giant cartoon eyes or something?"
Oh, I'm sure someone could find a way. Given that most of the time in the game it's one human and a bunch of brightly colored monsters, I could see a Spy Kids 3D or Power Rangers-esque production.
I really, truly hope that such would not be the case, but it is not beyond the capacity of Hollywood to turn out such a travesty.
Re:Beware Emissions Inspection
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Hack Your Ride
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· Score: 1
The last time I was in for an emissions inspection (last summer), all they did was check the readout from the car's computer. Didn't even rev the engine at all. Changing your chip out for one day might not cut it anymore, if the chip messes with things enough to be a problem.
The previous time (two years prior) they put it in neutral and ran it for a few minutes (my car's an AWD, so they couldn't use their 2wd dyno). I was told they now only do this for cars that don't have sufficient computers onboard (the older couple in line in front of me winced in pain as the Emissions tech tried to figure out their early-70's era Corvette -- grinding gearboxes are not fun things when someone else has their grubby paws on your baby).
For me, all they did was plug it in, get the readout, and then scold me for waiting until 2 weeks before the deadline to get it checked.
Hopefully a Metroid movie will be closer to the Alien series of movies, rather than the farce that was the Mario Brothers movie. The setting of the games lend themselves to that sort of a dark sci-fi type of movie, but given that the plot comes from a Nintendo video game series, there is still the possibility the director could miss this entirely while attempting to make something funny/stupid for the kiddies to watch. Definitely something to watch the trailer for BEFORE dropping $10 at the theater.
Having 5 tv connections doesn't make people idiots. It could be due to rommates.
In my case, we have 5 analog video connections split off of the single cable line in our apartment between my roommate and I: 2 tvs, 2 vcrs, and 2 PVR computers. Most of the time I prefer to watch something different from what my roommate does, and sometimes I want to record one thing while watching another, and not disturb my roommate's choice in programming. (granted, the VCR's don't get a whole lotta recording time in these days, used primarily to feed signal to old TV's)
It comes down to a flexibility of viewing options. That's the main reason I have resisted upgrading to digital cable. I actually had digital cable a few years back, but got out of it as soon as the free trial expired -- too many poorly working remotes, too slow of reaction time to changing channels on the provided box, and limiting the viewing of such programming to a single location, so I can either watch or record something on any of the premium channels, but not both at the same time as I can now.
It's not my fault all the networks put the shows I want to see on at 8pm, leaving me with nothing that I'd bother with at any other time of the day. Why should I be penalized because I am interested in more than one thing shown in a particular timeslot, when nothing shown anytime else appeals to me?
Depending on the content provider, $1-5 for an eBook was a bargain. I have an REB1200, with content formerly provided by Gemstar, and their prices were generally within $1-5 of the full retail price of a hardcopy of the book, if discounted at all! Gemstar ceased selling content for eBooks in their proprietary format last summer due to poor sales.
As for me, I picked up a dozen or so books off of their service for free (special deal when I bought the book -- mostly old public domain works), and subsequently found information online for how to convert non-proprietary content into the proprietary format, and therefore my expensive toy isn't a complete waste of money.
In my opinion, the biggest tragedy with eBook readers is the tendency of the producers to want to lock the device down to use a single format that only they have the rights to use, and then think they can make money by forcing people to pay large sums to use it, thereby not allowing much if any incentive for the potential customer in terms of cost on content, especially after ponying up a hefty chunk of cash for the reader device.
Unlike a lot of the overachievers here, I find that I tend to go through about a dozen or less books per year, at least the last few years. But I guess the typical 3-8+ hours/day that I spend of my leisure time reading through things online tends to cut into my book habit, having supplemented electronic texts for hard copy in many cases. I have an REB1200 eBook that I picked up a year or so back, and I find that suits my needs quite well. Especially after I found a site with instructions on converting non-proprietary text information into the proprietary format that the REB can display. Given that Gemstar stopped selling content last summer, this is the only way to get new things on the book.
Hopefully Sony or other manufacturers using the E-Ink tech for new eBook devices will realize that locking expensive toys down to only display one specific proprietary format does not help sales of the device. I would love for there to be something in this size that could display.txt,.html,.pdf and other common file types without having to jump through hoops, for $499 or less. I got myself a tablet PC of about the same size as my eBook, but it costs more, and doesn't get anywhere near as good of battery life. In my opinion, a purpose-built device for reading (possibly also web browsing) without the overhead of WinXP would be all that many people would need, if the price was reasonable.
When I saw the title "Microsoft's Search Goofs" I naively thought they might be apologizing for deliberately redirecting any searches for "xfree86" to porn. Alas, I was not surprised to learn that they just want to send MORE ads our way.
MS has a long way to go before they can build a search engine that replaces Google in my regular use, especially if one of the main features of said engine is to send as many Microsoft ads at the consumer as possible. I use Google for its effectiveness and minimalistic site design. No popups, obtrusive banner ads, or flash ads to piss me off.
What a ridiculous company. They're pushing a poory-designed player and inefficient, ugly codecs. Who the hell would want to support them?!
I don't know. I haven't allowed Real on anything electronic that I own or have to use in a few years. There has probably been less than a handful of media things I've encountered since then that I was even momentarily interested in that were Real format only, so I haven't had any need to infect any of my systems with that hideous bloatware (and some people think Windows is bad...)
About the only times I am reminded Real is still out there is when it pops up here on/. that they are whining about not being included in someone else's success.
...this was modded funny!!! if you recycle one soda a day, you have 6kg metal to make a PC case.
How cool is that?
Not a bad idea for a custom PC case -- made entirely of empty soda cans. If I drank soda and had need for another PC case, I might almost consider that.
The big question would be: do you stack the cans as they are for a unique look, or pound them flat into metal sheets before fastening them together? Just make sure nobody mistakes it for trash and throws it out or turns it in for the 10-cent deposit.
"Mom, where's my computer?"
"What computer? I got $3.75 for taking care of all those empy cans in your room."
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Why can't people accept that maybe for whatever reason, puzzle solving and finger twitching might not appeal to most women, and that doesn't mean their any less equal to guys if it doesn't.
I don't know about this. Back in middle school, I got my friend's mom so hooked on Tetris that she had to get her own GameBoy to play it.
And if there is a game that better represents addictive finger-twitching puzzle-solver, I haven't played it.
I have been using an Epia M10000 board (single Nehemiah processor, previous generation chipset -- mpeg-2 hardware assist) as a PVR/multimedia computer with WinXP Pro for the past year and a half, and it is MORE than adequate.
512MB PC2100 DDR ram, 120+160GB IDE hard drives, Hauppage PVR250 tv-tuner PCI card, 90W power supply (used to be a 60W until I added the 2nd hard drive).
For a system that can handle recording, pausing live TV, video editing, DVD burning, and yes, even WEB BROWSING, text editing, minor picture manipulation and instant messaging, I highly prefer my little shoebox sized system to some power-hungry behemoth that sounds like 747 at takeoff.
I don't use Photoshop or modern 3D gaming on it, because I wouldn't use those period. I normally use the free utilities that come with WinXP and Pinnacle Studio that came with my DVD burner for video editing, because they are all I need. If I really want to screw around with something, I'll usually try running it first on my 450MHz K6-2+ WinME box (which, for reference, IS much slower than my mini-itx system) so I won't risk messing up my properly functional PVR setup.
If someone can build an equivalent system using modern Intel/AMD processors that requires only 2 small fans (40mm on the processor, 60mm case fan), and can operate flawlessly off of a 90W power supply, I'd like to see it (and hear it).
Mini-ITX, at least Via's approach, is not about cramming the most powerful components into a new motherboard form factor. It's about creating a platform that has enough capabilities and utilizes the smallest amount of resources (power, space) to get it done.
For those of us who keep our systems on 24/7 in our bedrooms, low power/noise are a critical factor in deciding our computing platform. I'm thankful to Via for pushing along in the low power/density arena.
I knew having that old 5.25" floppy drive in my comp would come in handy eventually! ...now if only I could find some media for it that's been made in the past 10 years.....
It allows the studios to produce one disk to deal with both markets: the HD early adopters, and those who will only own standard DVD until they no longer have a choice.
If the same (or at least comparable) content is given in both formats on a single unit, this will keep production costs down, will keep shelf space to a minimum (only need to stock one copy instead of two), and provides an easy upgrade path in a few years when standard DVD goes the way of VHS, and the few pennies dual-layer HD/DVD costs above plain HD-DVD will eventually be trimmed from the production costs.
Granted, final product costs probably won't drop noticeably from the consumer's perspective, but the ability to double-up on production and merchandising space lowers the entry costs for the content providers, thus making it a more appealing option to pursue.
I have not reviewed the differences between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, but it looks to me like the old VHS vs. Beta powerstruggle of a home-video generation ago. While Blu-Ray may have better capacity (as did Beta), the ability to get nearly-equivalent product (HD-DVD) onto the market at a minimum of expense will more likely prevail (any option where companies can save costs tends to be the preferred method, even at the expense of potentially superior product -- all bow before the capitalistic ideal where minimum cost/maximum profit decide what is best for the end user irregardless of anything else)
I've been there, done that. Worked as a 3rd-shift stockboy in the toy department a bit during college. (long family history related to working for the Meijer corporation)
I can see how it's easy for someone to slip up and accidentally stock a game before it's official release date. If the employee doesn't follow headlines on their own, odds are they won't know about holds on certain products like that. I know I never knew about any during my time there. It was all "get as much on the shelf as you can so we can clean up before the morning customers show up."
And as for unionization, the state of Michigan allows them to pretty much take over at certain stores, and I remember having to join the union just so I could recieve my paycheck. About the only valuable thing they did for me was to lock my pay in at $0.25 above minimum wage (3rd shift premium), which ALMOST (but not quite) made up for the cost of Union Dues that had to be payed with every paycheck. I know unions do good work at times, but for a kid trying to make a couple bucks during the summer, it was more hassle than it was worth.
I've heard stories from Meijer and similar stores in states that the unions haven't taken over, where if the store was non-union, occasionally union members would sneak in, pretend to be regular shoppers, but in reality just end up leaving big messes throughout the stores when nobody was looking and leave. A random cart full of ice cream left in the home improvement section for a couple hours, etc. I don't know the truth to such claims, but they didn't surprise me.
I'm from the area of Michigan where Meijer originated, they are similar to Walmart in some ways, but different enough to be distinctive if you look.
They're both big-box sell-everything-cheaply type of stores, Meijer's been doing it for quite a while in that area of the US, and now that Walmart's been moving into that area in the past few years, they are becoming major rivals to eachother.
Walmart started putting in stores next to the Meijer ones to try to drive them out, now when Meijer moves into a new area, they try to position next to a Walmart to attack them back.
Walmart sometimes has lower prices that nobody can match, even the other big-box stores, but it also feels like the cheapest place in town to shop. Meijer may not be classy, but it feels a step up from Walmart (though that may just be personal bias). At least Meijer has a full, real grocery section to the store, and not just ramens and prepackaged cookies that most Walmarts carry (even though that's what I lived off of at the local Walmart back in college -- Meijer didn't arrive there until my senior year, when Walmart and Target were forced to upgrade to the SuperWalmart variation of the stores -- right next door)
I took apart a few recently-replaced 3.5" ATA drives a year or two back (did a major, multi-computer upgrade and had some leftovers), ranging from 20 to 40 GB, and took the tin snips to the platters. Most of them cut pretty easily, like thin metal, but the IBM (one of their first 40GB ATA drives from ~2000/2001) platters shattered when I tried to cut them.
As a non-American, that is what boggles the mind.
It boggles the mind of those of us stuck here to cower in fear for the next four years.
BOTH candidates were AGAINST gay marriage, in fact the only one of the 4 (V.P.'s included) who was not DIRECTLY against it was Cheney, an incumbant, who put aside his personal opinions to go along with party rhetoric to not cause dissention among the ranks.
The people claiming a moral obligation on gay marriage to influence their presidential vote really ought to have voted for Kerry, in that he was in favor of the individual states making the final decision, out of which 11 of 11 did so, rather than Bush, who supported the idea of a U.S. Constitutional amendment that he knew had no real hope of passing, and if it would have, it would invalidate the decisions of the states, and remove from their people the freedom and ability to think for themselves.
It boggles the mind to think that the Repugnantcans were able to abuse people's conservative religious faith to make them think that since Bush wanted the whole country on one standard (with little possibility of success), Kerry's less-extreme stance (even if by not very much, and actually more realistic to support such a moral ground) must be the opposite of Bush's and somehow Kerry was tied to the opposite of his personal viewpoint.
The abuse of faith and conservative viewpoints turned out to be the most underhandedly brilliant thing the Republican party managed to do in this election.
I don't think that will be a huge problem, as I am not aware of any financial incentives for W. to go to Chile, I doubt it would be on his schedule, if he even knows where it is.
As he stated during the 2000 debates, and has subsequently shown in his actions, that he would only involve the U.S. in international events if there was some economic interest in it (the topic, IIRC, was something about the possibility of sending military force to troubled countries in Africa and the Middle East, wherein he basically implied that he would take on Iraq for the oil deposits)
But I'm not a political/military/rich bitch strategist, so my opinion doesn't really matter. I'm just the middle-class guy who's going to eventually have to pay for all of this (after a certain political party forgot that it needs to fund the projects it passes, and that government gets its funds through taxes, and shouldn't be treating my future as the world's largest credit card)
Or he has regular sized fingers and not dainty little child-like fingers.
On the second-hand PDA that I used to use, which didn't come with a stylus, I found that using my fingernail or a plastic pen cap (or retracted ball point pen) worked perfectly fine. And I most definitely do NOT have dainty fingers (one reason why I don't play the violin).
This is true. I've seen a friend's 1GHz Athlon brought nearly to it's knees by a moderately minor spyware infestation.
I also fixed another computer for someone else which was virtually unuseable because of spyware and such (though also older, somewhere in the 500-800 MHz range, I think).
Me, I like running my trusty old K6-2+ 450. It keeps me happy for most things (word processing, web browsing, modest audio/video editing, DVD playing, CD burning, etc.) It works because I keep it clean. And I haven't had to pay to upgrade it (aside from newer/bigger hard drives) in over 3 years.
The major problem with people needing so much processor speed these days is because of all the junk that comes with everything that bogs everything down. I still run WinME on my main system, because I don't trust WinXP to be unbloated enough to run all my older hardware at a reasonable rate. Even WinME has it's own stability issues (because of being related to the Win9x line) that requires a complete reformat/reinstall every year or two of heavy use, but I am willing to accept the periodic inconvenience to have all my toys work the way I think they should to suit my needs.
If Joe 6-pack knows what he's doing, older hardware will work perfectly fine for most things. However, the typical computer ignorance of most Joe's will necessitate the use of faste and faster hardware or have a very good friend/relative or local geek to assist them when they overstep their abilities.
I have to agree with you, the cost of living will have a great impact on suitable salary ranges. I grew up in southern, non-metro Michigan, but have been working in the suburbs of Chicago since I graduated college 4 years ago.
While I can afford to live comfortably with my salary (55-60k), I am single and have been living in rented apartments, as the aforementioned costs of housing in the area are absolutely ridiculous. The only reasons I currently would view for purchasing property in this area would be if I were to be starting a family and couldn't leave the area, and/or I found some insane deal on something in the area that actually made it affordable without forcing me to live off of ramen again.
If I could get the same salary somewhere back home in Michigan, I'd be all over it in a heartbeat.
Irregardless of what they pay me, Chicago shall never own me. I'm a Michigander born and raised.
The bigger the car, the lower the person's self-esteem.
I drive a tiny little 2-door Saturn.
And pointing out the way that you conveniently fall outside of your simplistic classification of self-esteem vs. vehicular choice makes you come off as egotistical.
I'm sure there has to be some people out there who like to drive big/fast cars simply because they like travelling fast or playing with big noisy machines, and could care less what other people think of them and their choices. Or maybe they don't want some itty-bitty thing that can easily get run over on the highway by other careless idiots drinking coffee and yakking on their cell phones in their honking monster SUV's.
For the record, what I drive is irrelevant to this conversation.
"How would you make a Metroid movie "kiddie" anyway? Give Metroids giant cartoon eyes or something?"
Oh, I'm sure someone could find a way. Given that most of the time in the game it's one human and a bunch of brightly colored monsters, I could see a Spy Kids 3D or Power Rangers-esque production.
I really, truly hope that such would not be the case, but it is not beyond the capacity of Hollywood to turn out such a travesty.
The last time I was in for an emissions inspection (last summer), all they did was check the readout from the car's computer. Didn't even rev the engine at all. Changing your chip out for one day might not cut it anymore, if the chip messes with things enough to be a problem.
The previous time (two years prior) they put it in neutral and ran it for a few minutes (my car's an AWD, so they couldn't use their 2wd dyno). I was told they now only do this for cars that don't have sufficient computers onboard (the older couple in line in front of me winced in pain as the Emissions tech tried to figure out their early-70's era Corvette -- grinding gearboxes are not fun things when someone else has their grubby paws on your baby).
For me, all they did was plug it in, get the readout, and then scold me for waiting until 2 weeks before the deadline to get it checked.
I prefer using the ice beam and an unwitting enemy to get the Varia Suit early.
Hopefully a Metroid movie will be closer to the Alien series of movies, rather than the farce that was the Mario Brothers movie.
The setting of the games lend themselves to that sort of a dark sci-fi type of movie, but given that the plot comes from a Nintendo video game series, there is still the possibility the director could miss this entirely while attempting to make something funny/stupid for the kiddies to watch.
Definitely something to watch the trailer for BEFORE dropping $10 at the theater.
And when the police question why the iPod blew up, just tell them the battery must have exploded.
Having 5 tv connections doesn't make people idiots. It could be due to rommates.
In my case, we have 5 analog video connections split off of the single cable line in our apartment between my roommate and I: 2 tvs, 2 vcrs, and 2 PVR computers. Most of the time I prefer to watch something different from what my roommate does, and sometimes I want to record one thing while watching another, and not disturb my roommate's choice in programming. (granted, the VCR's don't get a whole lotta recording time in these days, used primarily to feed signal to old TV's)
It comes down to a flexibility of viewing options. That's the main reason I have resisted upgrading to digital cable. I actually had digital cable a few years back, but got out of it as soon as the free trial expired -- too many poorly working remotes, too slow of reaction time to changing channels on the provided box, and limiting the viewing of such programming to a single location, so I can either watch or record something on any of the premium channels, but not both at the same time as I can now.
It's not my fault all the networks put the shows I want to see on at 8pm, leaving me with nothing that I'd bother with at any other time of the day. Why should I be penalized because I am interested in more than one thing shown in a particular timeslot, when nothing shown anytime else appeals to me?
Depending on the content provider, $1-5 for an eBook was a bargain. I have an REB1200, with content formerly provided by Gemstar, and their prices were generally within $1-5 of the full retail price of a hardcopy of the book, if discounted at all!
Gemstar ceased selling content for eBooks in their proprietary format last summer due to poor sales.
As for me, I picked up a dozen or so books off of their service for free (special deal when I bought the book -- mostly old public domain works), and subsequently found information online for how to convert non-proprietary content into the proprietary format, and therefore my expensive toy isn't a complete waste of money.
In my opinion, the biggest tragedy with eBook readers is the tendency of the producers to want to lock the device down to use a single format that only they have the rights to use, and then think they can make money by forcing people to pay large sums to use it, thereby not allowing much if any incentive for the potential customer in terms of cost on content, especially after ponying up a hefty chunk of cash for the reader device.
Unlike a lot of the overachievers here, I find that I tend to go through about a dozen or less books per year, at least the last few years.
.txt, .html, .pdf and other common file types without having to jump through hoops, for $499 or less. I got myself a tablet PC of about the same size as my eBook, but it costs more, and doesn't get anywhere near as good of battery life. In my opinion, a purpose-built device for reading (possibly also web browsing) without the overhead of WinXP would be all that many people would need, if the price was reasonable.
But I guess the typical 3-8+ hours/day that I spend of my leisure time reading through things online tends to cut into my book habit, having supplemented electronic texts for hard copy in many cases.
I have an REB1200 eBook that I picked up a year or so back, and I find that suits my needs quite well. Especially after I found a site with instructions on converting non-proprietary text information into the proprietary format that the REB can display. Given that Gemstar stopped selling content last summer, this is the only way to get new things on the book.
Hopefully Sony or other manufacturers using the E-Ink tech for new eBook devices will realize that locking expensive toys down to only display one specific proprietary format does not help sales of the device.
I would love for there to be something in this size that could display
When I saw the title "Microsoft's Search Goofs" I naively thought they might be apologizing for deliberately redirecting any searches for "xfree86" to porn.
Alas, I was not surprised to learn that they just want to send MORE ads our way.
MS has a long way to go before they can build a search engine that replaces Google in my regular use, especially if one of the main features of said engine is to send as many Microsoft ads at the consumer as possible. I use Google for its effectiveness and minimalistic site design. No popups, obtrusive banner ads, or flash ads to piss me off.
What a ridiculous company. They're pushing a poory-designed player and inefficient, ugly codecs. Who the hell would want to support them?!
/. that they are whining about not being included in someone else's success.
I don't know. I haven't allowed Real on anything electronic that I own or have to use in a few years. There has probably been less than a handful of media things I've encountered since then that I was even momentarily interested in that were Real format only, so I haven't had any need to infect any of my systems with that hideous bloatware (and some people think Windows is bad...)
About the only times I am reminded Real is still out there is when it pops up here on
...be considered a forest?
sorry, had to make the obligatory beowulf joke.
...this was modded funny!!! if you recycle one soda a day, you have 6kg metal to make a PC case.
How cool is that?
Not a bad idea for a custom PC case -- made entirely of empty soda cans. If I drank soda and had need for another PC case, I might almost consider that.
The big question would be: do you stack the cans as they are for a unique look, or pound them flat into metal sheets before fastening them together? Just make sure nobody mistakes it for trash and throws it out or turns it in for the 10-cent deposit.
"Mom, where's my computer?"
"What computer? I got $3.75 for taking care of all those empy cans in your room."