"That's a bit back to front, but we get the message. But the best way to enjoy a (good quality) recording is still to play a CD of it at home on the best stereo you can afford. That doesn't mean you have to take out a second mortgage on your home - a cheap setup can be a top-notch pair of headphones with an appropriate headphone amplifier and an OK CD player.
MP3s are most useful for any environment where there's lots of background noise, so any loss in quality just isn't noticeable. Having said that, I encode my own MP3s at a fairly high bitrate, since I have a 160GB iPod, so space isn't too much of an issue."
Agreed for the most part...but with some things in sound reproduction, you DO get what you pay for. Good headphones can give great sound, but for really the best you can get, I think really good quality loudspeakers are the best...you just can't get the range..especially not bass out of small headphone drivers.
I saved and over the years of building a stereo, I finally got MY definition of great speakers. Hard to beat a good set of Klipschorn's....super efficient, horn loaded...and I had to really save to buy a major subwoofer to just get lower than these loudspeakers do. I prefer them on a tube amp...but I swear with good music that is well recorded, I can close my eyes..and almost get a 3D like soundfield when listening to them.
Not cheap...but I bought and traded up all parts of my stereo since I was a kid.
And exactly where in the constitution does congress have the power to regulate this?
Or..just using the interstate commerce clause like they do for everything? I mean..what does a local commercial have to do with interstate commerce if it isn't transmitted beyond state lines?
"Personally, I like short girls for some reason. I don't know why, but I've always had a thing for girls that are 5'4 or below. I think it's because the short ones are usually zesty packets of spunk and attitude. Nothing like short-woman syndrome to make a girl the right balance of crazy and fierce."
Well, it does make it easier to manhandle them in the bed which is fun...I mean, you can pick them up, move them around...do some positions that you just can't do with a bigger girl..unless you are a body builder...
"Funny It used to be wide hipped lady's that used to consider attractive, Due to how many kids they could pop out."
Err..we're talking about women you want to lay...NOT having kids?!!??!
Ok, in the old days..you needed lots of offspring to help work the farm, but these days...not so much.
I guess some people want them, but I'd rather not have an anchor on my life dragging down my finances and time for fun activities...like getting laid!!
"Slender-ish arms are attractive and tend to look longer (although they are normally not actually longer).
Arm shape is one thing I look at to determine how healthy a woman is. Chubby arms on a thin woman indicate a potential fat woman in disguise. "
You gotta look for thick ankles too...that is a pretty sure sign she's gonna have good potential to blimp on ya.
Thick wrists are a decent sign too...but thick ankles, you gotta watch for those!!
"I never understood why you'd want digital displays and buttons on anything; my toaster oven doesn't need a clock. Who cooks in an appliance that has a clock?"
Well, it helps a great deal...especially when cooking multiple dishes, to keep them from over/undercooking, and to come out at the same time.
I like my timers on my crockpot...nice to set and forget, it cooks for x hours, and then goes into 'warm' mode.
Sunday is my cooking day, and I'm usually doing 2-4 main entree type dishes, salads and the like. Between work and going to the gym, I don't really have time to cook during the week, and I don't eat fast food, so I cook for my breakfast, lunch and dinner for most of the week. I'd rather save my dining out dollars for something a bit upscale, with good wines, and good service.
But when I have something on 3 or all 4 stove top burners, and something in the oven, I'm constantly using my timers I have on oven and microwave (just the timer, I rarely cook in the nuke machine)...and possibly the timer on my phone.
I guess it depends on the quality and quantity of what you cook. If you're only warming up store prepared frozen french bread pizzas in a toaster oven, no..I don't guess you're needing much in the way of clocks or timers. But if you've got a couple of chickens brining (don't want them to get too salty) while your shredding coleslaw, carmalizing onions...and have maybe a pot of chili or maybe reducing stock for a gumbo...etc....well, electronic reminders really are nice.
"Please feel free to post if you've found a source for reliable (as in 20 year life span) major appliances."
I've not been in the market for them in a LONG time...but what about brands like SubZero...for refrigeration, and for stove/ovens...Wolfe or Vulcan?
I've heard they aren't GREAT like years back, but I am to understand that they're still pretty good stuff. You pay a premium, but you do get what you pay for with some things.
"Even at the stores that don't charge for bags, I like Dad's idea of bringing plastic bins and small coolers to the store - sturdier, fewer objects to carry and prevents an unnecessarily large accumulation of those plastic bags."
I rather like getting the plastic grocery store bags.
I use them to bring my lunches to work in....and is a good poop bag when walking the dog...for when some neighbor catches you and starts to bitch about the dog crapping in their yard.
"I agree about the membership cards. I don't actually bother getting one because my local megamart is so eager to give me one they scan a new one every time I visit so I get all the benefits with no privacy issues."
Oh c'mon...you're missing out on an opportunity to mess with and skew their statistics.
Fill out the membership cards WRONG.
Actually down here...only one store is left that uses them (Winn Dixie)...other stores stopped them.
But as far as they know, I'm a 98 year hold hispanic lady named Helga, born in Sweden, currently resides in the Superdome...and regularly buys fresh veggies, lots of meat...tequila, beer, smokes and condoms.
I'd love to see the shopping profile that they have on me for that one...
:)
"(not hard to find a hamburger for less that $1)"
Where do you live where the store sells ground hamburger for less than $1/lb? I remember seeing it years back, but recently...best I can find, even on the fattier cheaper (and better tasting) stuff is like $1.20/lb on super special.
"I pay $2.00 each time I use an ATM that belongs to my bank, and up to double that for an ATM that doesn't belong to my bank."
Wow!! I've never heard of a bank charging to use its own ATM....
I'd change banks immediately...it ticks me off to no end to have to pay to get my own money out of the bank. I never use non-bank ATMs unless it is an emergency.
"I go back to Postres every now and then, but find that some module that I want to install only provides code for MySQL, and I end up having to go back. Most of the major modules will support either, but I've found a lot of "it'd be cool to have that" modules don't. YMMV."
Thanks for the reply...can you give any specific examples off the top of your head of modules that wouldn't play nice with anything but MySQL?
"MySQL (the de facto standard of Drupal) can be blamed for a great many things. PHP rockstars with no clue how to write efficient SQL being allowed to write SQL anyway, is not one of them."
I'm thinking of playing around with Drupal at home on some spare boxes....I was wanting to use Postgres rather than MySQL...would this be a PITA? Is Drupal more dependent on MySQL 'hooks' for lack of a better word, that say Postgres?
"I'm going to forward this to several of my Oracle-inclined colleagues so that they chuckle a little. That there are no manuals or reading material available for free (online both inside and outside of Oracle's sources) with which to study, nor material that you get when you pay for technical support SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO DO SO, that's just unsubstantiated baloney."
I have to laugh a little too.
I'm not Oracle certified....I did, take some cert. classes back for 8i and 9i, but never got around to taking the exams.
That being said, most of what I know was OJT. I just recently completed my first Oracle RAC....a 5 node cluster.
I just followed the documents and got it working.
I did the latest...11Gr2...which is not without its share of bugs, and I did have to use Oracle support on a couple of things that didn't work right...I've got one with them now of a bug with impdp they're trying to figure out.
But really...aside from a bug that was literally in their installer...it was as the documents said. That being said...they're documents can tend to be a bit hard to search and sometimes they have different versions for the same thing. But with a bit of persistance, it can be done with no special training, but make damned sure you READ it all through before you start.
I learned a bit about networking on this one...had to make sure to order from the network guys the new SCAN IP addresses, in addition to the VIP and IP addresses for each node. I got the sysadmins to give me root on the boxes while building them up...saved them and myself a lot of time.
But you hook to a SAN. You make sure you get the proper version of the ASM libs for your kernel (RHEL5 for me)...install the clusterware...then, install the database binaries and create your instances. It took awhile, had to read LOT, but I had no special Oracle training on installing clustering or Real Application Clusters....lots of info from Oracle's website, Oracle forums around out there...and lots of websites.
"I agree that there are situations where it is sensible to own a gun - living in the middle of nowhere where wild animals are a threat (or the police might as well be nonexistant)"
Your last point is the MOST important one. In most US cities...for all intents and purposes, the police ARE non-existent, at least when a crime is going down.
In most cities, you can call and get a pizza ordered faster than the cops will respond to a crime call. And that's IF you can get up and call the phone with someone invading your house at the time.
If you are lucky and the cops are in the area and you can get ahold of them to get there in time, of course, they will try to help and protect you, but with most crimes, that simply does not happen. For the most part, the police are there to investigate AFTER a crime has taken place.
99% of the time, it is up to YOU to protect yourself during a criminal situation. If someone breaks into my house, I feel threatened, and I will likely not bother to pick up the phone to call the cops until at least my 2nd clip is emptied into the home invader. Then, I'll call the cops and let them investigate and drag the carcass out....
"You seem misinformed. You do need to complete a background check in order to purchase a gun. "
Uh...nope.
I've never had any type of background check, nor does any official have any record of any handgun purchases I've done over the years.
I've always bought my handguns used (good shape mind you) from a private individual in a private transaction. I've never lived in a state where I was mandated to register a weapon.
The only time any state has had any official notice that I owned a weapon, was in a former state I lived in, where early on, on their concealed carry permits, you had to list the guns you wanted to carry and their serial numbers.
Since I moved from that state, you no long her to give the serial numbers of the guns you carry.
Even for new weapons, the laws for complete checks and all have lowered...I believe when many of the Brady laws hit sunset....?
But all my gun purchases have been anonymous and perfectly legal with respect to any govt. agency knowing about my transactions or gun ownership.
"which is the reasoning behind all this Tea Party stuff right now. I think they're mostly misguided, personally,"
Just curious...what do you find them misguided about?
I'm hearing they're mostly for smaller govt (more strictly ruled by the limited powers granted to them by the constitution)...for less govt. spending, more states rights...etc.
As for throwing all incumbents out of office? Sure, while I know only 98% of them give the good ones a bad name...I have no problem with throwing all of them out and starting over.
And personally...I'd like to see term limits introduced, so that we no longer have a ruling career politician class. I dunno if that last one is Tea Party or not, just how I feel.
I like these things I hear from them...what do you hear that is different or that you think they are misguided about?
If nothing else..I think both of the ruling parties are puzzled and slightly worried about this new grassroots type development. They sure are doing their best to smear them and try to portray the whole movements as wingnuts and whackos.
Frankly that convinces me that those in power are starting to get a little worried. At the very least I can't think of that as being anything but good for us, the general populace.
"they didn't seem to complain so much when the Patriot Act was being passed. Now, heaven forbid, the government is forcing people to, oh the horror, buy health insurance -- "grab yer gunz!!"
Well, at least THIS time, someone is (rightly so) challenging the constitutionality of the Feds mandating that US citizens buy something from a private company on penalty of fines, etc.
I do find it sad, that no one challenged the Patriot Act, but hey...maybe this challenge is a start of many to come?
I'm overly optimistic, I know...but man, sure would be nice if while challenging the Obama Care mandating citizens buy private insurance, that they address how the Govt has been really overreaching in power in general by bastardizing the Interstate Commerce Clause, to allow them to overstep their power for so many decades.
I like to hope..but then again, I might as well wish for a pony too....
"I don't think that armed attack on the US government is a good idea because we have a legitimate democratic republic with the rule of law. It is more effective and more moral to vote, demonstrate, etc. than to try to conduct a civil war."
Trouble is...due to corporate influence, and the political machines behind the candidates that are chosen FOR us to choose between....the "legitimately democratically elected republic", is becoming less and less responsive to the will and needs of the populace they are supposed to represent.
Time and time again...crappy candidates are put out for us to 'choose' from, neither of which really cares for or truly represents the people. If they try to go against the party machine and act on behalf of their constituents...they are quickly discarded for a more obedient robot.
At some point....what do you do when the populace finally figures out that their government is no longer answerable to them and their wishes?
LOL..I hear ya. Although my friend from NH, often liked to do anything to get away from the cold up there to visit down here.
Still hotter'n hell right now. Lows at night in high 70's...highs in daytime, upper 90's..and humid.
Supposed to have a front next week..which should drop the humidity a bit and start to make me remember why I like living here.
I generally spend the whole month of August making up new 4 letter words for NOLA.
Well, have a good time...place is back, better than before Katrina...many more restaurants than before the storm. There' still some signs the storm was here, but you have to look for them, and if you're on the normal 'tourist path', you'll likely never see any signs of the storm around.
I got caught up in the upgrade thing here recently.
I recently lost my old iPod Shuffle....decided to upgrade to the new nano for the gym.
I have my itunes on a G5 mac tower. I plug in the new Nano...says it needs iTunes 10.
No problem..I download iTunes 10...try to installs...says it requires OSX 1.5 or higher?!?!
I have 10.4 on it....the lastest Snow Leopard is intel CPU only....and I can't seem to find a copy anywhere really to buy of 10.5.
I see a few on ebay..but having to wait weeks for auction to finish, and hell, they're wanting over $200+ for a used copy of an older OS??
Hm...trying to find a friend with 10.5 to borrow...till I can find a reasonably priced real copy...if not, I guess I'm returning the Nano.
I'm a bit hesitant to use anything I found on USENET...figuring someone could slip something into that and just bork the setup I currently have.
Just kinda blows that I can't play with my new 'toy'...getting caught up with the PPC to intel switch...and I don't wanna buy a new fscking computer just to use an mp3 player.
Slashdot Mirror
MP3s are most useful for any environment where there's lots of background noise, so any loss in quality just isn't noticeable. Having said that, I encode my own MP3s at a fairly high bitrate, since I have a 160GB iPod, so space isn't too much of an issue."
Agreed for the most part...but with some things in sound reproduction, you DO get what you pay for. Good headphones can give great sound, but for really the best you can get, I think really good quality loudspeakers are the best...you just can't get the range..especially not bass out of small headphone drivers.
I saved and over the years of building a stereo, I finally got MY definition of great speakers. Hard to beat a good set of Klipschorn's....super efficient, horn loaded...and I had to really save to buy a major subwoofer to just get lower than these loudspeakers do. I prefer them on a tube amp...but I swear with good music that is well recorded, I can close my eyes..and almost get a 3D like soundfield when listening to them.
Not cheap...but I bought and traded up all parts of my stereo since I was a kid.
Or..just using the interstate commerce clause like they do for everything? I mean..what does a local commercial have to do with interstate commerce if it isn't transmitted beyond state lines?
Well, it does make it easier to manhandle them in the bed which is fun...I mean, you can pick them up, move them around...do some positions that you just can't do with a bigger girl..unless you are a body builder...
Err..we're talking about women you want to lay...NOT having kids?!!??!
Ok, in the old days..you needed lots of offspring to help work the farm, but these days...not so much.
I guess some people want them, but I'd rather not have an anchor on my life dragging down my finances and time for fun activities...like getting laid!!
You gotta look for thick ankles too...that is a pretty sure sign she's gonna have good potential to blimp on ya.
Thick wrists are a decent sign too...but thick ankles, you gotta watch for those!!
Although...I did have a strange feeling inside...as if millions of farmers had suddenly been silenced.....?
I shrugged it off as a side effect of lack of sleep from last night.
Well, it helps a great deal...especially when cooking multiple dishes, to keep them from over/undercooking, and to come out at the same time.
I like my timers on my crockpot...nice to set and forget, it cooks for x hours, and then goes into 'warm' mode.
Sunday is my cooking day, and I'm usually doing 2-4 main entree type dishes, salads and the like. Between work and going to the gym, I don't really have time to cook during the week, and I don't eat fast food, so I cook for my breakfast, lunch and dinner for most of the week. I'd rather save my dining out dollars for something a bit upscale, with good wines, and good service.
But when I have something on 3 or all 4 stove top burners, and something in the oven, I'm constantly using my timers I have on oven and microwave (just the timer, I rarely cook in the nuke machine)...and possibly the timer on my phone.
I guess it depends on the quality and quantity of what you cook. If you're only warming up store prepared frozen french bread pizzas in a toaster oven, no..I don't guess you're needing much in the way of clocks or timers. But if you've got a couple of chickens brining (don't want them to get too salty) while your shredding coleslaw, carmalizing onions...and have maybe a pot of chili or maybe reducing stock for a gumbo...etc....well, electronic reminders really are nice.
I've not been in the market for them in a LONG time...but what about brands like SubZero...for refrigeration, and for stove/ovens...Wolfe or Vulcan?
I've heard they aren't GREAT like years back, but I am to understand that they're still pretty good stuff. You pay a premium, but you do get what you pay for with some things.
I rather like getting the plastic grocery store bags.
I use them to bring my lunches to work in....and is a good poop bag when walking the dog...for when some neighbor catches you and starts to bitch about the dog crapping in their yard.
Oh c'mon...you're missing out on an opportunity to mess with and skew their statistics.
Fill out the membership cards WRONG.
Actually down here...only one store is left that uses them (Winn Dixie)...other stores stopped them.
But as far as they know, I'm a 98 year hold hispanic lady named Helga, born in Sweden, currently resides in the Superdome...and regularly buys fresh veggies, lots of meat...tequila, beer, smokes and condoms.
I'd love to see the shopping profile that they have on me for that one...
"(not hard to find a hamburger for less that $1)"
Where do you live where the store sells ground hamburger for less than $1/lb? I remember seeing it years back, but recently...best I can find, even on the fattier cheaper (and better tasting) stuff is like $1.20/lb on super special.
Wow!! I've never heard of a bank charging to use its own ATM....
I'd change banks immediately...it ticks me off to no end to have to pay to get my own money out of the bank. I never use non-bank ATMs unless it is an emergency.
Again...CHANGE BANKS.
Thanks for the reply...can you give any specific examples off the top of your head of modules that wouldn't play nice with anything but MySQL?
I'm thinking of playing around with Drupal at home on some spare boxes....I was wanting to use Postgres rather than MySQL...would this be a PITA? Is Drupal more dependent on MySQL 'hooks' for lack of a better word, that say Postgres?
--With respects to George Carlin
That's cool.
Hey, life is good down here most of the time....just gotta put up with some if the idiosyncrasies of this area.
I have to laugh a little too.
I'm not Oracle certified....I did, take some cert. classes back for 8i and 9i, but never got around to taking the exams.
That being said, most of what I know was OJT. I just recently completed my first Oracle RAC....a 5 node cluster.
I just followed the documents and got it working.
I did the latest...11Gr2...which is not without its share of bugs, and I did have to use Oracle support on a couple of things that didn't work right...I've got one with them now of a bug with impdp they're trying to figure out.
But really...aside from a bug that was literally in their installer...it was as the documents said. That being said...they're documents can tend to be a bit hard to search and sometimes they have different versions for the same thing. But with a bit of persistance, it can be done with no special training, but make damned sure you READ it all through before you start.
I learned a bit about networking on this one...had to make sure to order from the network guys the new SCAN IP addresses, in addition to the VIP and IP addresses for each node. I got the sysadmins to give me root on the boxes while building them up...saved them and myself a lot of time.
But you hook to a SAN. You make sure you get the proper version of the ASM libs for your kernel (RHEL5 for me)...install the clusterware...then, install the database binaries and create your instances. It took awhile, had to read LOT, but I had no special Oracle training on installing clustering or Real Application Clusters....lots of info from Oracle's website, Oracle forums around out there...and lots of websites.
Nice to see a virus at least aimed at some bad guys for a change.
Your last point is the MOST important one. In most US cities...for all intents and purposes, the police ARE non-existent, at least when a crime is going down.
In most cities, you can call and get a pizza ordered faster than the cops will respond to a crime call. And that's IF you can get up and call the phone with someone invading your house at the time.
If you are lucky and the cops are in the area and you can get ahold of them to get there in time, of course, they will try to help and protect you, but with most crimes, that simply does not happen. For the most part, the police are there to investigate AFTER a crime has taken place.
99% of the time, it is up to YOU to protect yourself during a criminal situation. If someone breaks into my house, I feel threatened, and I will likely not bother to pick up the phone to call the cops until at least my 2nd clip is emptied into the home invader. Then, I'll call the cops and let them investigate and drag the carcass out....
Uh...nope.
I've never had any type of background check, nor does any official have any record of any handgun purchases I've done over the years.
I've always bought my handguns used (good shape mind you) from a private individual in a private transaction. I've never lived in a state where I was mandated to register a weapon.
The only time any state has had any official notice that I owned a weapon, was in a former state I lived in, where early on, on their concealed carry permits, you had to list the guns you wanted to carry and their serial numbers.
Since I moved from that state, you no long her to give the serial numbers of the guns you carry.
Even for new weapons, the laws for complete checks and all have lowered...I believe when many of the Brady laws hit sunset....?
But all my gun purchases have been anonymous and perfectly legal with respect to any govt. agency knowing about my transactions or gun ownership.
Just curious...what do you find them misguided about?
I'm hearing they're mostly for smaller govt (more strictly ruled by the limited powers granted to them by the constitution)...for less govt. spending, more states rights...etc.
As for throwing all incumbents out of office? Sure, while I know only 98% of them give the good ones a bad name...I have no problem with throwing all of them out and starting over.
And personally...I'd like to see term limits introduced, so that we no longer have a ruling career politician class. I dunno if that last one is Tea Party or not, just how I feel.
I like these things I hear from them...what do you hear that is different or that you think they are misguided about?
If nothing else..I think both of the ruling parties are puzzled and slightly worried about this new grassroots type development. They sure are doing their best to smear them and try to portray the whole movements as wingnuts and whackos.
Frankly that convinces me that those in power are starting to get a little worried. At the very least I can't think of that as being anything but good for us, the general populace.
Well, at least THIS time, someone is (rightly so) challenging the constitutionality of the Feds mandating that US citizens buy something from a private company on penalty of fines, etc.
I do find it sad, that no one challenged the Patriot Act, but hey...maybe this challenge is a start of many to come?
I'm overly optimistic, I know...but man, sure would be nice if while challenging the Obama Care mandating citizens buy private insurance, that they address how the Govt has been really overreaching in power in general by bastardizing the Interstate Commerce Clause, to allow them to overstep their power for so many decades.
I like to hope..but then again, I might as well wish for a pony too....
Trouble is...due to corporate influence, and the political machines behind the candidates that are chosen FOR us to choose between....the "legitimately democratically elected republic", is becoming less and less responsive to the will and needs of the populace they are supposed to represent.
Time and time again...crappy candidates are put out for us to 'choose' from, neither of which really cares for or truly represents the people. If they try to go against the party machine and act on behalf of their constituents...they are quickly discarded for a more obedient robot.
At some point....what do you do when the populace finally figures out that their government is no longer answerable to them and their wishes?
Hell, down here in New Orleans...we can't even bury our fucking dead underground..water table is too high.
And no...we've not ever heard of a basement either.
Still hotter'n hell right now. Lows at night in high 70's...highs in daytime, upper 90's..and humid.
Supposed to have a front next week..which should drop the humidity a bit and start to make me remember why I like living here.
I generally spend the whole month of August making up new 4 letter words for NOLA.
Well, have a good time...place is back, better than before Katrina...many more restaurants than before the storm. There' still some signs the storm was here, but you have to look for them, and if you're on the normal 'tourist path', you'll likely never see any signs of the storm around.
Have fun!
I recently lost my old iPod Shuffle....decided to upgrade to the new nano for the gym.
I have my itunes on a G5 mac tower. I plug in the new Nano...says it needs iTunes 10.
No problem..I download iTunes 10...try to installs...says it requires OSX 1.5 or higher?!?!
I have 10.4 on it....the lastest Snow Leopard is intel CPU only....and I can't seem to find a copy anywhere really to buy of 10.5.
I see a few on ebay..but having to wait weeks for auction to finish, and hell, they're wanting over $200+ for a used copy of an older OS??
Hm...trying to find a friend with 10.5 to borrow...till I can find a reasonably priced real copy...if not, I guess I'm returning the Nano.
I'm a bit hesitant to use anything I found on USENET...figuring someone could slip something into that and just bork the setup I currently have.
Just kinda blows that I can't play with my new 'toy'...getting caught up with the PPC to intel switch...and I don't wanna buy a new fscking computer just to use an mp3 player.