Having worked on cruise ships for several years, I can offer some advice if you'll be there a while (not just your average passenger): * We were warned about Coast Guard inspections days in advance. The contraband was placed into film canisters, and those film canisters were washed thoroughly. They were then hidden in PUBLIC areas of the ship -- if found, it would be difficult to determine just who had put them there. As far as I know, none were ever found. * Make friends with security. Remember that when you are on shore having fun in port, they are standing in the doorway checking everyone. They don't get to go shopping, or out to shoot pool or hit nightclubs. Something as simple as doing their shopping for them once in a while could net you one very valuable ally.
Other points should work for anyone: * If you are trying to take goodies back OFF the ship, separate these goodies from anything personally identifiable. The way the dogs mark the bags to be checked is to piss on them, so if you see your bag is wet or sitting in a puddle at the pickup point, just walk away. * If you are bringing goodies ONTO the ship, you should only bring enough to last you until your first port, not the whole trip -- this should make it easier to keep them on you personally and not in your luggage. Re-stock once outside the U.S. where the inspections will be much less intensive. If going to Mexico, the guys who will weave a wristband with your name in it for $5 will also happily set up a transaction for you for an appropriate fee. * Take one more bottle of booze than you are entitled to, and DECLARE IT. Nothing looks more like cooperation than voluntarily paying $3 in taxes. If you want to take more than that, feel free -- the one extra is just a minimum to make sure you have something to declare, and even with taxes you'll generally pay less for a liter bottle on-board than for a 750ml bottle of the same thing on land. Spread the most expensive bottles around, one to a person, to be their "freebie", and pay taxes on the cheaper ones.
When sites and places ask for personal information ("where were you born", "first car", "first person you dated"), use false facts, but simply remember them.
This isn't hard if you use common elements that are easily researched if forgotten. If you were born within a year or two of some major event, make that event your new "birthday". This way anyone seeing your "age" isn't too far off the mark (and a year doesn't matter when you're 30 the way it does when you're 20), and it's easier to remember the event itself than the date. If forgotten, just look it up. Your pet's name doesn't have to be your own pet, it could be the one your grandfather always told you was the best dog ever, but even your friends would not know the answer. For a phone number, 867-5309 remains popular among people named "Jenny". Where were you born? I was born in East L.A.! (No, this is not one of my answers, but you can have it if you like.)
If your entire "profile" is actually a bunch of pop culture references, you can always research that which you cannot remember.
Yes, and I think that was the whole point. It is referring to an event that occurred precisely because of the way that adjective was loaded. You are being reminded of this point. As a person of the appropriate ancestry to bitch and moan about it, I do not find the statement offensive and do not believe it was intended to be. Shocking, yes, but not offensive.
I haven't had any explode, but I've had a fair share bulge and die. One Socket A (Abit), one P4 (MSI), probable cause of death of two power supplies (I post-mortem the damn things for shits and giggles), and one video card (admittedly long, long ago). So it does happen.
It's not "imaginary money" -- they will sell off profitable divisions for hard, cold currency, which will be used to repay the debt. I would be VERY surprised if it takes anywhere near the two years of the note. Maybe the buyers will be using imaginary money, but that's not AIG's problem.
It's called a "bridge loan", and the taxpayers are not on the hook for anything -- AIG is good for the money. It's just that they, like a lot of other institutions (and people) don't keep it in the form of cash or rapidly convertible securities. What the $85bn buys them is TIME, and they will have to slice and dice some of the most profitable divisions to raise that cash in time to retake control of the company. Oh, you didn't read the part about the Feds taking 80% control?
I don't have a problem with a short-term loan, especially when the assets are there to back it up many times over. I do have a problem with dumping money into companies that cannot and will not repay it.
Umbrella liability policies usually require underlying Primary insurance (such as the homeowner's) or have a high deductible when there is no underlying policy in place -- usually $10,000. This is still far better than nothing, but there is another option.
Trade shows with exhibitors make the exhibitors provide proof of their own liability insurance, or point them to their preferred agent who will sell them the correct limit (usually $1m, but that is a trade show, not a LAN party) for somewhere around $75. I have to imagine (though I cannot check right now) that it would be lunch money for something more appropriate like $100,000 in limits per person. Maybe lunch-and-a-movie money.
Note that you DO NOT need to check if the "proof" is in fact valid -- it is not reasonable to check up on each and every person's Certificate of Insurance. If some of your attendees prefer to fabricate them rather than paying the cost of three Bawls, and shit happens, on their own heads be it.
I am an insurance agent, but I do not deal in per-event liability policies such as these. I just know they exist because every time I am asked to provide a certificate for a trade show, they are offered for exhibitors who do not have insurance in place.
There is nothing to stop you from using solar energy to reach temperatures beyond that of the surface of the sun -- you just won't be able to do it over an immense area. Concentrating energy into useful gradients is what the post-Industrial Revolution world excels at.
This also makes the assumption that life can only evolve on planets, and not on the satellites of planets that may be far more habitable (and naturally less massive).
You want drivers who are paying attention? Bring back the manual transmission! It's almost impossible, even at 5 mph or stop-and-go conditions, to operate such a vehicle without constant attention to the surrounding conditions.
Driving a stick shift in bumper to bumper traffic sucks, but I sure as hell don't find myself falling asleep at the conn any more.
How about black eyeliner? Should be sticky enough to prevent problems, and a bit easier to control than a crayon. Just like you, I didn't think of it sooner because I am neither female nor a goth.
The marker/paint idea has been used on large, expensive lenses for some time. The idea is that a black line will pretty much get diffused out because of its distance from the focal planes, where a scratch produces nasty diffraction effects. Some contrast is lost either way, and of course any light blocked is equivalent to a smaller aperture (only without the depth of field increase), but this is generally done on BIG glass. Also the paint lines will start to show up more clearly the more you stop down, but generally if you intend to stop down, you aren't carrying big, heavy, expensive glass to start with.
On a CD I think I'd try it with a black crayon, because it would be fairly simple to remove any that doesn't really need to be there, or clean it all out and start over if need be.
Cable modems equipped to also provide VoIP service have battery backup built in so that your phone still works when the power goes out (assuming of course that the upstream router's power didn't also go out). I was told this battery holds enough charge for two hours of standby (less if you're actually on the phone), though I have never tested it.
Human Pamplona Virus (HPV) is thought to be solely responsible for cases of cervical cancer.
I believe you meant papilloma (a virus that induces warts and similar growths), not Pamplona (a town where you can be an idiot and get yourself gored by a bull).
I find it ironic or at least counter-intuitive that it's necessary to create one of the coldest spaces to look for particles that flourished when things were at their hottest. It makes sense once explained, but I doubt Joe Sixpack would stick around long enough to hear it, let alone grasp it. They just think this thing is going to make a black hole that eats the planet.
I heard it was actually an attack of tiny bubbles that did him in, to save the rest of the world from one more reincarnation of this affront to humanity!
Hawking's voice is as identifiably his as the "T-Pain effect", though neither one is too hard to simulate. I can understand why he'd want to just let it be. Besides, like the T-Pain Effect, his voice has brought him critical acclaim for his rap career, and it just wouldn't be fitting to abandon it now.
(Yes I'm kidding -- but the fact that he CAN be impersonated proves that he has an identifiable "voice".)
If people can run their own servers, perhaps Linden will be more inclined to shout down the "undesirables", such as the BDSM and Dolcett clubs, telling them "you can run your own damn server, get off of ours". While that may not be so bad in the short term as the existing users migrate, it would be bad for their sustainability as other people who might be so inclined can no longer find them over the SL servers.
And who is to say when YOU will be one of the "undesirables"?
If these dyes can be made to block and collect only non-visible wavelengths (and there's no reason to think they can't), they could be applied to the huge vertical glass surfaces of buildings without affecting the occupants' ability to look out. Even if they collect only a small portion of the possible energy, they would make up for it by virtue of reclaiming a huge collection area that would otherwise be going unused.
Even better, this energy would be produced exactly when it is the most useful -- for obvious reasons, peak production would correlate pretty closely with peak demand. We could finally have buildings that air condition themselves from their own generated power. That alone would take a huge load off the grid.
How ironic that the natural sound of the planet being broadcast into space sounds incredibly like Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music. Aliens listening in might come to the conclusion that the inhabitants of the planet are all in possession of electric guitars, amps that go to eleven, and lots of high-quality cannabis.
I really hate when I CTRL-Click a bunch of links, and suddenly there is a hodgepodge of unintelligible sound as the Flash ads and/or videos on those sites all start playing at once. I want the ability to:
* tell which tabs are making noise at any given moment (a little flashing bubble on each tab would do fine) * mute a tab's sound * "solo" one tab with a maximum of two clicks -- all other tabs producing sound are muted
If I could pan/mix each tab independently, that would be even nicer, though most of the players that cause this problem in the first place do allow for individual control.
Another nice feature would be "anything you can see, you can save", negating the need to pile on plug-ins to capture flash video, but I can see why they might not want to offer this by default.
Another one with a somewhat fuzzy target would be "stop loading crap like this". If a site keeps pushing pop-unders from AdultFriendFinder, I want to be able to say to the browser "I just don't want to see their crap, don't even load it" no matter what domain it comes from. As I said, a moving target, but it would be nice.
Finally, it would be nice if I could move tabs between multiple browser windows.
Slashdot Mirror
Everything not in line of sight to either L4 or L5 should be in the line of sight of L2. It just requires two hops to get back to Earth.
Mal-2
Having worked on cruise ships for several years, I can offer some advice if you'll be there a while (not just your average passenger):
* We were warned about Coast Guard inspections days in advance. The contraband was placed into film canisters, and those film canisters were washed thoroughly. They were then hidden in PUBLIC areas of the ship -- if found, it would be difficult to determine just who had put them there. As far as I know, none were ever found.
* Make friends with security. Remember that when you are on shore having fun in port, they are standing in the doorway checking everyone. They don't get to go shopping, or out to shoot pool or hit nightclubs. Something as simple as doing their shopping for them once in a while could net you one very valuable ally.
Other points should work for anyone:
* If you are trying to take goodies back OFF the ship, separate these goodies from anything personally identifiable. The way the dogs mark the bags to be checked is to piss on them, so if you see your bag is wet or sitting in a puddle at the pickup point, just walk away.
* If you are bringing goodies ONTO the ship, you should only bring enough to last you until your first port, not the whole trip -- this should make it easier to keep them on you personally and not in your luggage. Re-stock once outside the U.S. where the inspections will be much less intensive. If going to Mexico, the guys who will weave a wristband with your name in it for $5 will also happily set up a transaction for you for an appropriate fee.
* Take one more bottle of booze than you are entitled to, and DECLARE IT. Nothing looks more like cooperation than voluntarily paying $3 in taxes. If you want to take more than that, feel free -- the one extra is just a minimum to make sure you have something to declare, and even with taxes you'll generally pay less for a liter bottle on-board than for a 750ml bottle of the same thing on land. Spread the most expensive bottles around, one to a person, to be their "freebie", and pay taxes on the cheaper ones.
Mal-2
This isn't hard if you use common elements that are easily researched if forgotten. If you were born within a year or two of some major event, make that event your new "birthday". This way anyone seeing your "age" isn't too far off the mark (and a year doesn't matter when you're 30 the way it does when you're 20), and it's easier to remember the event itself than the date. If forgotten, just look it up. Your pet's name doesn't have to be your own pet, it could be the one your grandfather always told you was the best dog ever, but even your friends would not know the answer. For a phone number, 867-5309 remains popular among people named "Jenny". Where were you born? I was born in East L.A.! (No, this is not one of my answers, but you can have it if you like.)
If your entire "profile" is actually a bunch of pop culture references, you can always research that which you cannot remember.
Mal-2
Yes, and I think that was the whole point. It is referring to an event that occurred precisely because of the way that adjective was loaded. You are being reminded of this point. As a person of the appropriate ancestry to bitch and moan about it, I do not find the statement offensive and do not believe it was intended to be. Shocking, yes, but not offensive.
Mal-2
I haven't had any explode, but I've had a fair share bulge and die. One Socket A (Abit), one P4 (MSI), probable cause of death of two power supplies (I post-mortem the damn things for shits and giggles), and one video card (admittedly long, long ago). So it does happen.
Mal-2
It's not "imaginary money" -- they will sell off profitable divisions for hard, cold currency, which will be used to repay the debt. I would be VERY surprised if it takes anywhere near the two years of the note. Maybe the buyers will be using imaginary money, but that's not AIG's problem.
Mal-2
It's called a "bridge loan", and the taxpayers are not on the hook for anything -- AIG is good for the money. It's just that they, like a lot of other institutions (and people) don't keep it in the form of cash or rapidly convertible securities. What the $85bn buys them is TIME, and they will have to slice and dice some of the most profitable divisions to raise that cash in time to retake control of the company. Oh, you didn't read the part about the Feds taking 80% control?
I don't have a problem with a short-term loan, especially when the assets are there to back it up many times over. I do have a problem with dumping money into companies that cannot and will not repay it.
Umbrella liability policies usually require underlying Primary insurance (such as the homeowner's) or have a high deductible when there is no underlying policy in place -- usually $10,000. This is still far better than nothing, but there is another option.
Trade shows with exhibitors make the exhibitors provide proof of their own liability insurance, or point them to their preferred agent who will sell them the correct limit (usually $1m, but that is a trade show, not a LAN party) for somewhere around $75. I have to imagine (though I cannot check right now) that it would be lunch money for something more appropriate like $100,000 in limits per person. Maybe lunch-and-a-movie money.
Note that you DO NOT need to check if the "proof" is in fact valid -- it is not reasonable to check up on each and every person's Certificate of Insurance. If some of your attendees prefer to fabricate them rather than paying the cost of three Bawls, and shit happens, on their own heads be it.
I am an insurance agent, but I do not deal in per-event liability policies such as these. I just know they exist because every time I am asked to provide a certificate for a trade show, they are offered for exhibitors who do not have insurance in place.
Mal-2
There is nothing to stop you from using solar energy to reach temperatures beyond that of the surface of the sun -- you just won't be able to do it over an immense area. Concentrating energy into useful gradients is what the post-Industrial Revolution world excels at.
Mal-2
This also makes the assumption that life can only evolve on planets, and not on the satellites of planets that may be far more habitable (and naturally less massive).
Mal-2
You want drivers who are paying attention? Bring back the manual transmission! It's almost impossible, even at 5 mph or stop-and-go conditions, to operate such a vehicle without constant attention to the surrounding conditions.
Driving a stick shift in bumper to bumper traffic sucks, but I sure as hell don't find myself falling asleep at the conn any more.
Mal-2
How about black eyeliner? Should be sticky enough to prevent problems, and a bit easier to control than a crayon. Just like you, I didn't think of it sooner because I am neither female nor a goth.
Mal-2
The marker/paint idea has been used on large, expensive lenses for some time. The idea is that a black line will pretty much get diffused out because of its distance from the focal planes, where a scratch produces nasty diffraction effects. Some contrast is lost either way, and of course any light blocked is equivalent to a smaller aperture (only without the depth of field increase), but this is generally done on BIG glass. Also the paint lines will start to show up more clearly the more you stop down, but generally if you intend to stop down, you aren't carrying big, heavy, expensive glass to start with.
On a CD I think I'd try it with a black crayon, because it would be fairly simple to remove any that doesn't really need to be there, or clean it all out and start over if need be.
Mal-2
Cable modems equipped to also provide VoIP service have battery backup built in so that your phone still works when the power goes out (assuming of course that the upstream router's power didn't also go out). I was told this battery holds enough charge for two hours of standby (less if you're actually on the phone), though I have never tested it.
Mal-2
I believe you meant papilloma (a virus that induces warts and similar growths), not Pamplona (a town where you can be an idiot and get yourself gored by a bull).
Mal-2
I find it ironic or at least counter-intuitive that it's necessary to create one of the coldest spaces to look for particles that flourished when things were at their hottest. It makes sense once explained, but I doubt Joe Sixpack would stick around long enough to hear it, let alone grasp it. They just think this thing is going to make a black hole that eats the planet.
Mal-2
I heard it was actually an attack of tiny bubbles that did him in, to save the rest of the world from one more reincarnation of this affront to humanity!
Mal-2
Hawking's voice is as identifiably his as the "T-Pain effect", though neither one is too hard to simulate. I can understand why he'd want to just let it be. Besides, like the T-Pain Effect, his voice has brought him critical acclaim for his rap career, and it just wouldn't be fitting to abandon it now.
(Yes I'm kidding -- but the fact that he CAN be impersonated proves that he has an identifiable "voice".)
Mal-2
That's Pittsburg (no h),California, 30 miles northeast of San Francisco. Even if the housing is cheaper, that commute will break you.
Mal-2
If people can run their own servers, perhaps Linden will be more inclined to shout down the "undesirables", such as the BDSM and Dolcett clubs, telling them "you can run your own damn server, get off of ours". While that may not be so bad in the short term as the existing users migrate, it would be bad for their sustainability as other people who might be so inclined can no longer find them over the SL servers.
And who is to say when YOU will be one of the "undesirables"?
Mal-2
If these dyes can be made to block and collect only non-visible wavelengths (and there's no reason to think they can't), they could be applied to the huge vertical glass surfaces of buildings without affecting the occupants' ability to look out. Even if they collect only a small portion of the possible energy, they would make up for it by virtue of reclaiming a huge collection area that would otherwise be going unused.
Even better, this energy would be produced exactly when it is the most useful -- for obvious reasons, peak production would correlate pretty closely with peak demand. We could finally have buildings that air condition themselves from their own generated power. That alone would take a huge load off the grid.
Mal-2
Q: What's the difference between a violin and a fiddle?
A: The nut holding the bow.
How ironic that the natural sound of the planet being broadcast into space sounds incredibly like Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music. Aliens listening in might come to the conclusion that the inhabitants of the planet are all in possession of electric guitars, amps that go to eleven, and lots of high-quality cannabis.
Mal-2
Cool, so I'm not the first person to think this was a good idea. Maybe it'll get integrated into the core at some point.
I really hate when I CTRL-Click a bunch of links, and suddenly there is a hodgepodge of unintelligible sound as the Flash ads and/or videos on those sites all start playing at once. I want the ability to:
* tell which tabs are making noise at any given moment (a little flashing bubble on each tab would do fine)
* mute a tab's sound
* "solo" one tab with a maximum of two clicks -- all other tabs producing sound are muted
If I could pan/mix each tab independently, that would be even nicer, though most of the players that cause this problem in the first place do allow for individual control.
Another nice feature would be "anything you can see, you can save", negating the need to pile on plug-ins to capture flash video, but I can see why they might not want to offer this by default.
Another one with a somewhat fuzzy target would be "stop loading crap like this". If a site keeps pushing pop-unders from AdultFriendFinder, I want to be able to say to the browser "I just don't want to see their crap, don't even load it" no matter what domain it comes from. As I said, a moving target, but it would be nice.
Finally, it would be nice if I could move tabs between multiple browser windows.