Ronco record cleaners. Ronco pocket fisherman. And the best, the Ronco glass froster.
When I was little, I always thought the glass froster was the best thing. What if you had guests over for a party and you ran out of frosted glasses? Ronco glass froster and ozono-depleting CFC's to the rescue. Thanks to the power of Ebay, I have one....with the ozone-depleting CFC cartridge....man, those were the days....
I'm going to patent a game system where multiple facets of human health and behavior can be affected during game play. For example, if a character is ready for an encounter, he can take a special pill or cast a special spell to give him protection from the encounter. Damage will be much less or non-existant. Depending on whether or not the player is ready, his health, speed, sight, hearing, response time, etc. can all be affected at different levels.
I'll even make it non-linear for the AIs, based on past behavior. If a player helps or hurts another character in the game, that character will act differently in the future.
Man, I'm going to make millions. I better get to the patent office before anyone hears of this supergreat idea.
Have a computer play tic-tac-toe against itself as it also tries to discover nuclear launch codes. Have everyone run around in a panic, picking up phones and screaming orders, handing off papers, etc. Make sure you have a big red phone in the center. When it rings, answer, "Yes, Mr. President."
The moral is that you must take action to maintain a quiet theatre. You must contact the manager when things go bad. Let them know you're displeased. That will lead to a far more enjoyable movie experience.
Most managers take this stuff very seriously. Whenever I've complained about noisy people, bad sound, etc., the manager has always responded immediately. One time, a manager even followed me back into the theatre and waited "in the shadows." As soon as the !@$#%ing talking twerp opened his mouth, the manager was on him in a heartbeat.
The trick, though, is to find the manager. Don't just tell anyone working there. Most of the kids at the concession stand or the ticket counter don't really know how to provide good customer service.
Really, how can they patent this? My dad used to be an EW (electronics warfare technician) in the Navy. He used the SLQ-32, a machine that analyzed the radars used by ships, missiles, aircraft, etc. It helped an operator determine if a target was friendly or not.
On submarines, they have numerous systems that help both sonar operators and FTGs (guys who target objects with torpedos) identify targets and find what are called firing solutions. They even had software to help verify other solutions.
Even in combat situations, "command by negation" is used. This is where an officer directs actions while a commanding officer sits back and takes a look at the "big picture." The CO can override the officer if necessary.
While software may be a useful tool, nothing that they talk about here seems terribly revolutionary. Plus, I would prefer that people be able to do it *without* the software. The last thing you need is people being unable to function when the computer or software throws an exception and crashes.
I get this a bit on a server I run. I usually just forward a copy of the info from my logs to whatever technical contact I can find with a friendly note saying that someone from one of their addresses was trying something. That way, I have a nice record that I notified them.
If it keeps happening, I then usually block that address or range of addresses with my firewall. (I can do this since only a small number of users access the server, and I'll hear about it if they're having trouble accessing things.)
Keep in mind that you may never get a response... I'd say about only 10% of companies I notify even acknowledge my email.
If it was just some SSH login attempt, I'd send a friendly email and then ignore it unless it happens frequently. If it does, step up your notifications, e.g. email, then a phone call, then a formal letter on letterhead, then a letter from your lawyer, etc. That way, you've got a paper trail should things get nasty.
You should come to the US! We've enshrined our liberties through both a government of limited, defined powers and constitutional amendments prohibiting the government from trampling on your rights. The great thing about our government is that leaders on both ends of the political spectrum would never, never curtail those rights. They realize they're fundamental to our way of life and the progression of mankind.
Never in America would we allow such repressive, tyrannical tools such as extended/unlimited imprisonment without charges. Never in America would we start to monitor the reading habits of our citizens or start dossiers on political or religious groups for which we have no real suspicions or evidence. Never in America would we...uh, wait a minute, someone's knocking on my door...
They are moving to a higher voltage, but given the auto industry, it will probably take a while.
There is also talk of using high pressure CO2 for air conditioning systems. We're talking several thousand psi. While one may find efficiency or environmental benefits, I don't really like the idea of a system with that much pressure in my car....I've seen how US manufacturers build stuff like brake components, etc. I'd be very, very scared of something like this.
Face it, when talking about lossless codecs, they all do the same thing: enable you to recreate the music without any loss. There's nothing to compare in terms of sound performance. You could compare encoding/decoding speed, file size, etc., but I personally think it's a wash. For me, compression or speed doesn't matter when I'm storing my entire collection and converting only an album here or there.
Your concern, then, should be how you want to manage and convert your music. If you use a Mac and like iTunes, use Apple's lossless codec. If you want to run on just about anything and do not want to be tied down to any OS or standard, use something like FLAC. If you think Monkey's Audio sounds cool, use that. If you like some other lossless program, use that.
I put everything into FLAC and wrote a script to process m3u files to turn the FLAC files into MP3s. I did this mainly because my music resides on a FreeBSD machine (on a RAID system). I can automatically convert all 3400+ songs into MP3, OV, whatever. Then, if a better lossy codec ever comes along, I can convert my entire library by editing one script. Sure, it will take a while, but it can run over the weekend.
Why not a rocketraid 1640? They support 4 SATA drives and support (so they claim) Linux. I've run a Highpoint card under FreeBSD with no problems whatsoever...well, the management software won't work, but, hey, I can check things with the command line....
Given what people usually think of certification programs, here's what we might see as some questions on the certification exam:
1. How do you install a new software package?
A. make port
B. make sherry
C. make install clean
D. make love ^war
2. BSD stands for:
A. Bill Gates Steals our Dollars
B. Bitchin' System, Dude!
C. Berkeley Software Distribution
D. Berkeley people Smoke a lot of Dope
3. Which version of BSD is the best and why?
A. FreeBSD - because PHBs like the word "free".
B. OpenBSD - because the average user thinks clicking on free porn links in emails from Nigeria is safe.
C. NetBSD - because running it on grandpa's pacemaker gives new meaning to the kill command.
D. Dragonfly - because it sounds like a cool SciFi series.
E. Any of the above as long as it makes a Linux advocate feel insecure and act petty.
Convoluted process:
1. Burn music to CD.
2. Rip music back.
You've obviously never tried this at 128 kbps when ripping back to mp3 or another format. The sound is horrible.
I've stopped buying from iTunes. I can get CDs from yourmusic.com for $5.99 and get the whole album cheaper and get lossless quality when I rip to FLAC. CDbaby.com also has $5 CDs (if you buy at least 3).
Some people like to collect them and listen to them. My father-in-law has some very old vinyl records. I'm talking the old thick ones from people like Sinatra and musicals like Oklahoma. Stuff that he bought in the 40s. Listening to those things snap and crackle is listening to history. It's quite interesting, actually. One of these days I'm going to buy a turntable to play so he has to leave them to me....;^)
CD Baby has similarly cheap prices, depending on what you buy. You have to buy at least 3 albums, but once you do that, the price drops to $5/album (plus shipping). Obviously, not as cheap when you factor in shipping, but still pretty good if you're into independent artists. I find that this plus yourmusic.com is a cheap way to build a CD collection.
While this may sound like a neat project, there's one fundamental problem: You can't assign responsibility for damage. Suppose 3 people check out an item over a week. When the manager/IT guy/whoever checks it and notices damage, how do you know who did it? Obviously, if someone does something apparent, the next user will notice. But even then, the person who broke it can simply say, "Yeah, I noticed that when I checked it out. I forgot to report it."
You still need a human to check stuff in and out and verify the state of the equipment at check out/in. Otherwise, expect everyone to start pointing fingers. You could simply bill everyone, but that would just tick off everyone.
...meaning someone can set up a laptop outside the store and find out all the prescriptions that people are having filled.
On a less paranoid note, I wonder if they'll make it user friendly. Ever try scanning multiple items at self serve checkouts in places like Home Depot? If you want to buy about 2 dozen 1/2" SS worm gear hose clamps, be prepared to scan 2 dozen hose clamps one at a time.....
So basically, then, MI (and other states) aren't going to be able to do what they're doing for long. I imagine those people will just start buying tobacco from companies on Native American reservations.
Who knows, perhaps in 30 years time you'll be able to go to theme parks where you can pretend to be in 20th century America and experience the freedoms you once had?
I can see it now:
Free Press Tea Cup Ride: See how people used to become dizzy from the frightening array of free press outlets that used to question the government's actions. Thankfully, it's just a ride.
Privacy Rights Fun House: Careful on this one! Animatronic police, government officials, and private database company representatives will jump out at you and demand identification and information, but you'll be able to say no! Use an antique Constitution to beat them back. Please remember to return the Constitution and provide identification as you exit the ride.
Trial By Jury Rollercoaster: Experience the ups and downs suspected criminals/terrorists/bad guys once had to go through when they were foolishly allowed to plead their cases in courts. Feel the excitement of habeas corpus, public trial by jury, and access to lawyers. Not for children under 48", pregnant women, those with heart conditions, or people who support the founding principles of our country.
Slashdot Mirror
Ronco record cleaners. Ronco pocket fisherman. And the best, the Ronco glass froster.
When I was little, I always thought the glass froster was the best thing. What if you had guests over for a party and you ran out of frosted glasses? Ronco glass froster and ozono-depleting CFC's to the rescue. Thanks to the power of Ebay, I have one....with the ozone-depleting CFC cartridge....man, those were the days....
I'm going to patent a game system where multiple facets of human health and behavior can be affected during game play. For example, if a character is ready for an encounter, he can take a special pill or cast a special spell to give him protection from the encounter. Damage will be much less or non-existant. Depending on whether or not the player is ready, his health, speed, sight, hearing, response time, etc. can all be affected at different levels.
I'll even make it non-linear for the AIs, based on past behavior. If a player helps or hurts another character in the game, that character will act differently in the future.
Man, I'm going to make millions. I better get to the patent office before anyone hears of this supergreat idea.
Have a computer play tic-tac-toe against itself as it also tries to discover nuclear launch codes. Have everyone run around in a panic, picking up phones and screaming orders, handing off papers, etc. Make sure you have a big red phone in the center. When it rings, answer, "Yes, Mr. President."
That'll impress them!
Oh, and hire this guy for your center. He needs a real job. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001056/
The moral is that you must take action to maintain a quiet theatre. You must contact the manager when things go bad. Let them know you're displeased. That will lead to a far more enjoyable movie experience.
Most managers take this stuff very seriously. Whenever I've complained about noisy people, bad sound, etc., the manager has always responded immediately. One time, a manager even followed me back into the theatre and waited "in the shadows." As soon as the !@$#%ing talking twerp opened his mouth, the manager was on him in a heartbeat.
The trick, though, is to find the manager. Don't just tell anyone working there. Most of the kids at the concession stand or the ticket counter don't really know how to provide good customer service.
...and colorblind admins go on without a care in the world....
Really, how can they patent this? My dad used to be an EW (electronics warfare technician) in the Navy. He used the SLQ-32, a machine that analyzed the radars used by ships, missiles, aircraft, etc. It helped an operator determine if a target was friendly or not.
On submarines, they have numerous systems that help both sonar operators and FTGs (guys who target objects with torpedos) identify targets and find what are called firing solutions. They even had software to help verify other solutions.
Even in combat situations, "command by negation" is used. This is where an officer directs actions while a commanding officer sits back and takes a look at the "big picture." The CO can override the officer if necessary.
While software may be a useful tool, nothing that they talk about here seems terribly revolutionary. Plus, I would prefer that people be able to do it *without* the software. The last thing you need is people being unable to function when the computer or software throws an exception and crashes.
I get this a bit on a server I run. I usually just forward a copy of the info from my logs to whatever technical contact I can find with a friendly note saying that someone from one of their addresses was trying something. That way, I have a nice record that I notified them.
If it keeps happening, I then usually block that address or range of addresses with my firewall. (I can do this since only a small number of users access the server, and I'll hear about it if they're having trouble accessing things.)
Keep in mind that you may never get a response... I'd say about only 10% of companies I notify even acknowledge my email.
If it was just some SSH login attempt, I'd send a friendly email and then ignore it unless it happens frequently. If it does, step up your notifications, e.g. email, then a phone call, then a formal letter on letterhead, then a letter from your lawyer, etc. That way, you've got a paper trail should things get nasty.
You should come to the US! We've enshrined our liberties through both a government of limited, defined powers and constitutional amendments prohibiting the government from trampling on your rights. The great thing about our government is that leaders on both ends of the political spectrum would never, never curtail those rights. They realize they're fundamental to our way of life and the progression of mankind.
Never in America would we allow such repressive, tyrannical tools such as extended/unlimited imprisonment without charges. Never in America would we start to monitor the reading habits of our citizens or start dossiers on political or religious groups for which we have no real suspicions or evidence. Never in America would we...uh, wait a minute, someone's knocking on my door...
NO CARRIER
And in related news, Microsoft announced it was suing the following cites/towns/counties for trademark infringement:
Vista, CA
Vista, MO
Vista, FL
Vista, IA
Vista, MN
Vista, MT
Vista, NM
Vista, NV
Vista, NY
They are moving to a higher voltage, but given the auto industry, it will probably take a while.
There is also talk of using high pressure CO2 for air conditioning systems. We're talking several thousand psi. While one may find efficiency or environmental benefits, I don't really like the idea of a system with that much pressure in my car....I've seen how US manufacturers build stuff like brake components, etc. I'd be very, very scared of something like this.
Hi! It looks like you want to use your attack monkey! What would like to do?
Face it, when talking about lossless codecs, they all do the same thing: enable you to recreate the music without any loss. There's nothing to compare in terms of sound performance. You could compare encoding/decoding speed, file size, etc., but I personally think it's a wash. For me, compression or speed doesn't matter when I'm storing my entire collection and converting only an album here or there.
Your concern, then, should be how you want to manage and convert your music. If you use a Mac and like iTunes, use Apple's lossless codec. If you want to run on just about anything and do not want to be tied down to any OS or standard, use something like FLAC. If you think Monkey's Audio sounds cool, use that. If you like some other lossless program, use that.
I put everything into FLAC and wrote a script to process m3u files to turn the FLAC files into MP3s. I did this mainly because my music resides on a FreeBSD machine (on a RAID system). I can automatically convert all 3400+ songs into MP3, OV, whatever. Then, if a better lossy codec ever comes along, I can convert my entire library by editing one script. Sure, it will take a while, but it can run over the weekend.
Why not a rocketraid 1640? They support 4 SATA drives and support (so they claim) Linux. I've run a Highpoint card under FreeBSD with no problems whatsoever...well, the management software won't work, but, hey, I can check things with the command line....
Given what people usually think of certification programs, here's what we might see as some questions on the certification exam:
1. How do you install a new software package?
A. make port
B. make sherry
C. make install clean
D. make love ^war
2. BSD stands for:
A. Bill Gates Steals our Dollars
B. Bitchin' System, Dude!
C. Berkeley Software Distribution
D. Berkeley people Smoke a lot of Dope
3. Which version of BSD is the best and why?
A. FreeBSD - because PHBs like the word "free".
B. OpenBSD - because the average user thinks clicking on free porn links in emails from Nigeria is safe.
C. NetBSD - because running it on grandpa's pacemaker gives new meaning to the kill command.
D. Dragonfly - because it sounds like a cool SciFi series.
E. Any of the above as long as it makes a Linux advocate feel insecure and act petty.
Convoluted process:
1. Burn music to CD.
2. Rip music back.
You've obviously never tried this at 128 kbps when ripping back to mp3 or another format. The sound is horrible.
I've stopped buying from iTunes. I can get CDs from yourmusic.com for $5.99 and get the whole album cheaper and get lossless quality when I rip to FLAC. CDbaby.com also has $5 CDs (if you buy at least 3).
Some people like to collect them and listen to them. My father-in-law has some very old vinyl records. I'm talking the old thick ones from people like Sinatra and musicals like Oklahoma. Stuff that he bought in the 40s. Listening to those things snap and crackle is listening to history. It's quite interesting, actually. One of these days I'm going to buy a turntable to play so he has to leave them to me....;^)
Did anyone else read British Pornographic Industry? .. for a second there I was scared!
We all did. You're just the first to admit it.....
CD Baby has similarly cheap prices, depending on what you buy. You have to buy at least 3 albums, but once you do that, the price drops to $5/album (plus shipping). Obviously, not as cheap when you factor in shipping, but still pretty good if you're into independent artists. I find that this plus yourmusic.com is a cheap way to build a CD collection.
In a quiet room, in a meeting, this phone's gonna go off-- what are they going to hear?
If I'm a client (or her boss), she's gonna hear my foot in her ass. Why can't people put their friggin' phones on vibrate for a meeting?
It's not cute; it's not you personalizing your life; it's not you making a statement. It's you being rude and unprofessional.
it is explicitly opening the door to felons voting and I presume the mentally incompetent will be allowed also.
Given how a lot of people form their opinions on political issues, we can safely say that this already occurs.
While this may sound like a neat project, there's one fundamental problem: You can't assign responsibility for damage. Suppose 3 people check out an item over a week. When the manager/IT guy/whoever checks it and notices damage, how do you know who did it? Obviously, if someone does something apparent, the next user will notice. But even then, the person who broke it can simply say, "Yeah, I noticed that when I checked it out. I forgot to report it."
You still need a human to check stuff in and out and verify the state of the equipment at check out/in. Otherwise, expect everyone to start pointing fingers. You could simply bill everyone, but that would just tick off everyone.
...meaning someone can set up a laptop outside the store and find out all the prescriptions that people are having filled.
On a less paranoid note, I wonder if they'll make it user friendly. Ever try scanning multiple items at self serve checkouts in places like Home Depot? If you want to buy about 2 dozen 1/2" SS worm gear hose clamps, be prepared to scan 2 dozen hose clamps one at a time.....
So basically, then, MI (and other states) aren't going to be able to do what they're doing for long. I imagine those people will just start buying tobacco from companies on Native American reservations.
Who knows, perhaps in 30 years time you'll be able to go to theme parks where you can pretend to be in 20th century America and experience the freedoms you once had?
I can see it now:
Free Press Tea Cup Ride: See how people used to become dizzy from the frightening array of free press outlets that used to question the government's actions. Thankfully, it's just a ride.
Privacy Rights Fun House: Careful on this one! Animatronic police, government officials, and private database company representatives will jump out at you and demand identification and information, but you'll be able to say no! Use an antique Constitution to beat them back. Please remember to return the Constitution and provide identification as you exit the ride.
Trial By Jury Rollercoaster: Experience the ups and downs suspected criminals/terrorists/bad guys once had to go through when they were foolishly allowed to plead their cases in courts. Feel the excitement of habeas corpus, public trial by jury, and access to lawyers. Not for children under 48", pregnant women, those with heart conditions, or people who support the founding principles of our country.