It doesn't hurt that In 'N Out hasn't changed their prices in a decade or so... the burgers just get smaller by microscopic amounts each year. Right now I think they've hit a point where they're gonna have to raise prices, as the patties are already too small. Hopefully they'll go back to bigger burgers at the same time, everyone will feel they're still getting their money's worth at the higher prices, and they can downsize the burgers for another decade before repeating the cycle.
I think an important factor here though is a very simple one: In 'N Out is NOT A FRANCHISE. Basically, you have to be family or friends of the founders to get a store. Because of this, there is heavy pressure to keep the quality consistent (in both directions -- you don't want one store selling bigger burgers for the same price) and to keep the original owners happy. Franchise owners just want to make the NUMBERS look good, while the food ends up looking like dog shit on a tray.
BTW, have you ever noticed the "JOHN 3:16" on the underside rim of every cup? As much as I despise evangelists, this doesn't bother me -- it's quite similar in principle to "praying in the closet".
--- And in about 10 years the same thing will happen, a new fad market will arise (legalized marijuana growth is my hope...) ---
No, the value of that will plummet as well in that case. The reason it pays relatively well is the relatively high degree of risk it necessitates.
Not that I think dealers making less money on weed is going to put any of them out of business (if it does, they suck)... but it will make it less enticing to those coming in.
It will be a huge boon for growing equipment makers. I'd set up a grow closet in hours if it weren't a legal liability. But I wouldn't be selling it.
Remember this when (not if) it does become legal. Don't speculate in the product, invest in the means of production. Invest heavily in hydroponics equipment manufacturing.:)
I've heard stories of manufacturers (of things other than golf clubs) being unable to buy some particular Unobtainium of the day on the commodities market, and had to fill their needs by buying clubheads, which they then melted down.
I don't think it's so bad if today's Unobtainium ends up in golf clubs -- they can be recycled when a newer, better material comes out. But putting it in golf BALLS means it's probably gone for good... at least with how many *I* get wet.
Besides, I think Boy-Named-Sue syndrome sets in for closeted gay athletes, at least in the stereotypically "macho" sports. Fear that they may be perceived as effeminate may well make them hit harder and play with more passion and drive.
I dunno, I just don't give a fuck about a person's sexual preference unless I'm hit on by him/her or considering hitting on him/her. Obviously it's worthwhile to know if a person is in your potential dating pool or not. Other than that, why SHOULD I care? I'm not harmed if a gay guy enjoys looking me over in the locker room (though this is unlikely), and I know how to say "no" if he belabors the point.
To be marginally on topic...
If a "gaydar" device actually existed, I think THAT would be a very bad thing for everyone, in and out of sports.
Golf, yeah. Technology shortens up courses and makes everyone hit straighter and longer. In return, the courses get tighter and longer. Unfortunately, it hasn't figured out a cure for the yips.
Tennis? I dunno... I think the switch from wood to aluminum, and catgut to nylon, were the big ones, as you finally had a racket that wasn't weather-sensitive. Now you knew what your equipment would do, which removes one variable. I think this is a good thing. And I don't think it's the rackets that are primarily responsible for how damn hard the guys (and some of the women) are hitting it. It's the ubiquity of weight training and cross-training.
That said, I don't think women's tennis has been hurt at all. On that side, they can still run down shots and return serves no matter how hard they're hit. But men's tennis is generally boring as hell (Federer at Wimbledon aside).
Everyone's about as strong as they're gonna get, and barring some miracle, they're about as fast as they're gonna get. The two are out of balance but what can be done? Make the court smaller?
Hockey: Composite one-piece sticks and modern skates are a GOOD thing. Very, very good. Now if only they'd do something about goaltenders' pads... but tape and padding aren't exactly new technology.
One very good thing modern technology has done for all sports is allow players to recover from injuries that would have left them broken for life 50 years ago. "Tommy John" surgery, arthroscopic surgery, and other techniques primarily used on athletes only 20 or 30 years ago are now quite reasonable options for the rest of us. Without all those athletes out there hurting themselves and each other, lots of these simply wouldn't have become everyday procedures.
The strip doesn't have an end, it just makes a U-turn on the surface like a luggage mover. This would also provide the return road. The poles would just turn right along with the belt (or separate plates riding on the belt).
This would also solve the potential synchronization problem of two belts as noted above.
Does the method of taping the Business Reply Mail card to a large cinderblock still work? Or are they liable only for the 55 cents or so they agreed to pay for each card returned?
I know what I've done with FAX spammers... I hit them where it hurts, and that's in the wallet. It's not hard to go through their removal service, noting each key pressed and the delay necessary. Program this into your phone and have it merrily auto-remove you... all day long. If you think it's harrassment to repeatedly remove your number (and maybe it is), just be helpful and remove every number you have the right to, whether it's a FAX number or not.
Better yet, if they have an option to cancel the number you've entered and start over, use THAT repeatedly. I've dragged out calls to FAX removal lines for half an hour this way, all pre-programmed in a loop.
Even after this, it took over a week for one particular fax-spammer to stop. Our trusty HP OfficeJet must have logged about 6 hours of dialing time in that week.
7.9 cents a minute times 360 minutes is $28.44. This probably won't work as much of a deterrent if I'm the only one doing it. But if EVERY pissed-off FAX recipient started doing it, not only would their bills skyrocket, they'd have to add more line capacity to accommodate all those overlapping calls.
Telespammers, fax-spammers, and e-mail spammers all have one goal -- to make more money than they spend. Make them spend more money and just maybe they'll take it upon themselves to avoid you.
I would like to know where I can obtain one of these mystical 21' CRTs... and more importantly, where I can keep something so large. I could probably get it into an open 26' trailer, but then how do I get it into the house?
--- Oh, and it used some really brain-dead software that refused to accept any filename longer than 8.3 characters, despite running on Windows 95 OSR2. ---
Mr. ajs318, we apolog~1 for any inconv~1 this may have caused you. Howeve~1, please see READ.ME for a comple~1 descri~1 of the workar~1 for this proble~1.
"For your daily commute do you drive an alternative fuel vehicle? They are readily available in North America and throughout Europe. If not, take a flying, hypocritical leap."
It's not hypocritical that I don't drive a hybrid or fuel cell or anything else... it's simple economics. I, like a lot of people in the "just getting by" income bracket, drive a used car. In my case, these are usually cars at the very end of their service life, though the last two cars have been an exception. (My previous car would undoubtedly be tooling along just fine if I hadn't smashed it into the center divider of the 110.)
This means that even if a hybrid with a cost comparable to a standard car came out RIGHT NOW, and got very popular, it would probably be at least 6 years before you'd see me driving one. Why? Because I buy $2000-and-under cars... usually $1000 and under. They're not hard to get, as long as you're not in a hurry. I'm steering clear of the "drive and dump" cars I've had in the past, the reliability issues make them not cost-effective, not to mention that you spend at least as much fixing them as you did buying them within the first year. And they usually crap out for good some time shortly after that.
The fact is, if you can't afford a $15000 car, you aren't going to be buying an alternative car any time soon. We have yet to see how these hybrids are going to hold up at the quarter-million mile mark, but there are many, many ordinary gasoline cars achieving that and beyond. If the hybrids don't live as long, they won't be trickling down to our market... and frankly I think we comprise about 50% of the driving populace. It's just that people who CAN'T buy a new car aren't worth marketing to, so automakers just don't think about us.
Mind you, I'm not saying the following represented a GOOD thing... it undoubtedly resulted in one or more extra drunks on the road...
Once I was at the local bowling alley at closing time. I was the least drunk of the group, and even I didn't want to drive. So we hung around the parking lot, trying to avoid the issue, when we noticed a guy visibly staggering, by all appearances falling-down drunk. He then proceeds to get into his car (new, though I don't recall exactly what type), and after missing the keyhole several times, starts the engine, BUCKLES HIS SEATBELT, and puts the car into gear.
Needless to say, he is immediately stopped and made to do sobriety tests and a breathalyzer the instant he leaves the parking lot. He passes all of them. The absolutely irate police are forced to let him go, as they can't even ticket him for a seatbelt violation! Meanwhile, everyone else has left while all cop eyes were on the Designated Drunk (who was, of course, completely sober).
Pissing off cops may not be a very good idea, but it's still legal if done properly.
Right after that, the cops hustled us into our car and made me drive it back to the nearest person's house (about two blocks) though I *did* have some alcohol in me. I didn't know if I should do it or refuse. Luckily, they weren't trying to set me up for anything, they just wanted us to go away, and we got back without incident.
It's a bit more complex than that (ask any goalie -- it's about positioning and cutting down angles so you don't HAVE to make spectacular saves, and also about not giving up easily returned rebounds), but yes, a lot of it can be taught as a method. These ideas have already been quantified and expressed in terms of probabilities, so having a computer decide which method to use should not be difficult.
Having it react to a player's tendencies would be a much more interesting task, but not inconceivable -- for example it might say "I did this five times and he beat me twice, maybe I should try something else" and pick something else close on the probability charts. After a while it might even remember that if a player is good at beating defense A, he's not likely to be so good against defense B.
Now if they port this to table hockey, which seems reasonable, I'd be interested in buying one. But computerized AIR hockey would be off the hook! Magnets in the table could allow a computer to position its paddle without motors. Also this would require the tracking of just three objects, rather than (I believe) 8 bars and a ball.
If the computer can tell what you're doing with YOUR players (and not just track the ball and its own movements), then it could conceivably learn how to do what you do.
You curve/bank/spin shots? Nice, but after the 10th such shot, don't be surprised if the computer starts to do it too. And since it can think faster than it can act, it won't have the human foible of actually having to practice something before using it.
All in all, I have to say this is infinitely cooler than soft-dart computers that just give themselves a score for you to compete with.
I can see a use for this, as it probably is a better way to implement what many people now use VPNs for. If all you really want is to be able to pull your home files from work and vice versa, it should be simple enough to fire up WASTE on both (or more) ends and go to it... no VPN routing to worry about, apparently no firewall hacking to worry about (I currently have to pinhole the company firewall with my cable IP, which does change once in a while), and I could set it up pretty easily for everyone in the company.
Not that everyone is taken by the concept that they could work from home at any hour... because they fear that they would be EXPECTED to. But since my boss really doesn't understand what capabilities this opens up, I doubt the people here have anything to worry about (except that I may not come in more than one or two days a week any more, choosing to stay home and save an hour and a half of daily commute).
I can also see this being very useful for companies that deal with a lot of paper documents going a lot of places. Now some $5.75/hr lackey can just dump them in a drum scanner (I know, I did exactly this for 3 months before they figured out I was more useful in a job that required two or more brain cells), and any business partners can view them on demand. Similar systems already exist, but this seems both simpler and more secure. Also, if the partner business adds an employee, or wishes to reassign one, they don't even have to consult you to give the new guy access. You just want to make sure you keep everything adequately compartmentalized so these partner businesses can't spy on each other through your documents.
What provisions are there for booting someone off your system even though another member considers them "trusted"? That's obviously a source of potential conflict in a business-to-business situation.
So it's not RISC/CISC, it's PPC/AMD/Intel... but the argument hasn't changed a lick. Only the names have been changed to protect guilty and innocent alike.
Drowning in your own blood while screaming "For the love of God and all that it holy, MY ANUS IS BLEEDING!" just might win you an Oscar, you never know.
Spoiler.
Mal-2
Slashdot Mirror
It doesn't hurt that In 'N Out hasn't changed their prices in a decade or so... the burgers just get smaller by microscopic amounts each year. Right now I think they've hit a point where they're gonna have to raise prices, as the patties are already too small. Hopefully they'll go back to bigger burgers at the same time, everyone will feel they're still getting their money's worth at the higher prices, and they can downsize the burgers for another decade before repeating the cycle.
I think an important factor here though is a very simple one: In 'N Out is NOT A FRANCHISE. Basically, you have to be family or friends of the founders to get a store. Because of this, there is heavy pressure to keep the quality consistent (in both directions -- you don't want one store selling bigger burgers for the same price) and to keep the original owners happy. Franchise owners just want to make the NUMBERS look good, while the food ends up looking like dog shit on a tray.
BTW, have you ever noticed the "JOHN 3:16" on the underside rim of every cup? As much as I despise evangelists, this doesn't bother me -- it's quite similar in principle to "praying in the closet".
Mal-2
---
:)
And in about 10 years the same thing will happen, a new fad market will arise (legalized marijuana growth is my hope...)
---
No, the value of that will plummet as well in that case. The reason it pays relatively well is the relatively high degree of risk it necessitates.
Not that I think dealers making less money on weed is going to put any of them out of business (if it does, they suck)... but it will make it less enticing to those coming in.
It will be a huge boon for growing equipment makers. I'd set up a grow closet in hours if it weren't a legal liability. But I wouldn't be selling it.
Remember this when (not if) it does become legal. Don't speculate in the product, invest in the means of production. Invest heavily in hydroponics equipment manufacturing.
I take it you haven't been anally probed yet.
I've heard stories of manufacturers (of things other than golf clubs) being unable to buy some particular Unobtainium of the day on the commodities market, and had to fill their needs by buying clubheads, which they then melted down.
I don't think it's so bad if today's Unobtainium ends up in golf clubs -- they can be recycled when a newer, better material comes out. But putting it in golf BALLS means it's probably gone for good... at least with how many *I* get wet.
Besides, I think Boy-Named-Sue syndrome sets in for closeted gay athletes, at least in the stereotypically "macho" sports. Fear that they may be perceived as effeminate may well make them hit harder and play with more passion and drive. I dunno, I just don't give a fuck about a person's sexual preference unless I'm hit on by him/her or considering hitting on him/her. Obviously it's worthwhile to know if a person is in your potential dating pool or not. Other than that, why SHOULD I care? I'm not harmed if a gay guy enjoys looking me over in the locker room (though this is unlikely), and I know how to say "no" if he belabors the point. To be marginally on topic... If a "gaydar" device actually existed, I think THAT would be a very bad thing for everyone, in and out of sports.
Golf, yeah. Technology shortens up courses and makes everyone hit straighter and longer. In return, the courses get tighter and longer. Unfortunately, it hasn't figured out a cure for the yips.
Tennis? I dunno... I think the switch from wood to aluminum, and catgut to nylon, were the big ones, as you finally had a racket that wasn't weather-sensitive. Now you knew what your equipment would do, which removes one variable. I think this is a good thing. And I don't think it's the rackets that are primarily responsible for how damn hard the guys (and some of the women) are hitting it. It's the ubiquity of weight training and cross-training.
That said, I don't think women's tennis has been hurt at all. On that side, they can still run down shots and return serves no matter how hard they're hit. But men's tennis is generally boring as hell (Federer at Wimbledon aside).
Everyone's about as strong as they're gonna get, and barring some miracle, they're about as fast as they're gonna get. The two are out of balance but what can be done? Make the court smaller?
Hockey: Composite one-piece sticks and modern skates are a GOOD thing. Very, very good. Now if only they'd do something about goaltenders' pads... but tape and padding aren't exactly new technology.
One very good thing modern technology has done for all sports is allow players to recover from injuries that would have left them broken for life 50 years ago. "Tommy John" surgery, arthroscopic surgery, and other techniques primarily used on athletes only 20 or 30 years ago are now quite reasonable options for the rest of us. Without all those athletes out there hurting themselves and each other, lots of these simply wouldn't have become everyday procedures.
The strip doesn't have an end, it just makes a U-turn on the surface like a luggage mover. This would also provide the return road. The poles would just turn right along with the belt (or separate plates riding on the belt).
This would also solve the potential synchronization problem of two belts as noted above.
This also means now they PAY people to come disrupt stockholder meetings!
Can't you guys see it? Microsoft is saving the Earth by paying off Dr. Evil!
Does the method of taping the Business Reply Mail card to a large cinderblock still work? Or are they liable only for the 55 cents or so they agreed to pay for each card returned?
I know what I've done with FAX spammers... I hit them where it hurts, and that's in the wallet. It's not hard to go through their removal service, noting each key pressed and the delay necessary. Program this into your phone and have it merrily auto-remove you... all day long. If you think it's harrassment to repeatedly remove your number (and maybe it is), just be helpful and remove every number you have the right to, whether it's a FAX number or not.
Better yet, if they have an option to cancel the number you've entered and start over, use THAT repeatedly. I've dragged out calls to FAX removal lines for half an hour this way, all pre-programmed in a loop.
Even after this, it took over a week for one particular fax-spammer to stop. Our trusty HP OfficeJet must have logged about 6 hours of dialing time in that week.
7.9 cents a minute times 360 minutes is $28.44. This probably won't work as much of a deterrent if I'm the only one doing it. But if EVERY pissed-off FAX recipient started doing it, not only would their bills skyrocket, they'd have to add more line capacity to accommodate all those overlapping calls.
Telespammers, fax-spammers, and e-mail spammers all have one goal -- to make more money than they spend. Make them spend more money and just maybe they'll take it upon themselves to avoid you.
I would like to know where I can obtain one of these mystical 21' CRTs... and more importantly, where I can keep something so large. I could probably get it into an open 26' trailer, but then how do I get it into the house?
Or do I just live inside it?
You mean like this "desknote"?
s kn ote.html
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/gooddealpc-store/de
---
Oh, and it used some really brain-dead software that refused to accept any filename longer than 8.3 characters, despite running on Windows 95 OSR2.
---
Mr. ajs318, we apolog~1 for any inconv~1 this may have caused you. Howeve~1, please see READ.ME for a comple~1 descri~1 of the workar~1 for this proble~1.
I suppose next you'll tell us that "R-type" stickers don't increase horsepower!
PROFIT!!!
Sorry, it was just begging to be said.
BZZZT... nope.
85% profit means they charge 185% of their cost, or 1.85 times the cost. Thus, the cost is 54% of the price.
"For your daily commute do you drive an alternative fuel vehicle? They are readily available in North America and throughout Europe. If not, take a flying, hypocritical leap."
It's not hypocritical that I don't drive a hybrid or fuel cell or anything else... it's simple economics. I, like a lot of people in the "just getting by" income bracket, drive a used car. In my case, these are usually cars at the very end of their service life, though the last two cars have been an exception. (My previous car would undoubtedly be tooling along just fine if I hadn't smashed it into the center divider of the 110.)
This means that even if a hybrid with a cost comparable to a standard car came out RIGHT NOW, and got very popular, it would probably be at least 6 years before you'd see me driving one. Why? Because I buy $2000-and-under cars... usually $1000 and under. They're not hard to get, as long as you're not in a hurry. I'm steering clear of the "drive and dump" cars I've had in the past, the reliability issues make them not cost-effective, not to mention that you spend at least as much fixing them as you did buying them within the first year. And they usually crap out for good some time shortly after that.
The fact is, if you can't afford a $15000 car, you aren't going to be buying an alternative car any time soon. We have yet to see how these hybrids are going to hold up at the quarter-million mile mark, but there are many, many ordinary gasoline cars achieving that and beyond. If the hybrids don't live as long, they won't be trickling down to our market... and frankly I think we comprise about 50% of the driving populace. It's just that people who CAN'T buy a new car aren't worth marketing to, so automakers just don't think about us.
Mind you, I'm not saying the following represented a GOOD thing... it undoubtedly resulted in one or more extra drunks on the road...
Once I was at the local bowling alley at closing time. I was the least drunk of the group, and even I didn't want to drive. So we hung around the parking lot, trying to avoid the issue, when we noticed a guy visibly staggering, by all appearances falling-down drunk. He then proceeds to get into his car (new, though I don't recall exactly what type), and after missing the keyhole several times, starts the engine, BUCKLES HIS SEATBELT, and puts the car into gear.
Needless to say, he is immediately stopped and made to do sobriety tests and a breathalyzer the instant he leaves the parking lot. He passes all of them. The absolutely irate police are forced to let him go, as they can't even ticket him for a seatbelt violation! Meanwhile, everyone else has left while all cop eyes were on the Designated Drunk (who was, of course, completely sober).
Pissing off cops may not be a very good idea, but it's still legal if done properly.
Right after that, the cops hustled us into our car and made me drive it back to the nearest person's house (about two blocks) though I *did* have some alcohol in me. I didn't know if I should do it or refuse. Luckily, they weren't trying to set me up for anything, they just wanted us to go away, and we got back without incident.
Having it react to a player's tendencies would be a much more interesting task, but not inconceivable -- for example it might say "I did this five times and he beat me twice, maybe I should try something else" and pick something else close on the probability charts. After a while it might even remember that if a player is good at beating defense A, he's not likely to be so good against defense B.
Now if they port this to table hockey, which seems reasonable, I'd be interested in buying one. But computerized AIR hockey would be off the hook! Magnets in the table could allow a computer to position its paddle without motors. Also this would require the tracking of just three objects, rather than (I believe) 8 bars and a ball.
If the computer can tell what you're doing with YOUR players (and not just track the ball and its own movements), then it could conceivably learn how to do what you do.
You curve/bank/spin shots? Nice, but after the 10th such shot, don't be surprised if the computer starts to do it too. And since it can think faster than it can act, it won't have the human foible of actually having to practice something before using it.
All in all, I have to say this is infinitely cooler than soft-dart computers that just give themselves a score for you to compete with.
How do you make the robot buy you a beer when you win? If you lose, what do you buy it -- a can of WD-40?
I can see a use for this, as it probably is a better way to implement what many people now use VPNs for. If all you really want is to be able to pull your home files from work and vice versa, it should be simple enough to fire up WASTE on both (or more) ends and go to it... no VPN routing to worry about, apparently no firewall hacking to worry about (I currently have to pinhole the company firewall with my cable IP, which does change once in a while), and I could set it up pretty easily for everyone in the company.
Not that everyone is taken by the concept that they could work from home at any hour... because they fear that they would be EXPECTED to. But since my boss really doesn't understand what capabilities this opens up, I doubt the people here have anything to worry about (except that I may not come in more than one or two days a week any more, choosing to stay home and save an hour and a half of daily commute).
I can also see this being very useful for companies that deal with a lot of paper documents going a lot of places. Now some $5.75/hr lackey can just dump them in a drum scanner (I know, I did exactly this for 3 months before they figured out I was more useful in a job that required two or more brain cells), and any business partners can view them on demand. Similar systems already exist, but this seems both simpler and more secure. Also, if the partner business adds an employee, or wishes to reassign one, they don't even have to consult you to give the new guy access. You just want to make sure you keep everything adequately compartmentalized so these partner businesses can't spy on each other through your documents.
What provisions are there for booting someone off your system even though another member considers them "trusted"? That's obviously a source of potential conflict in a business-to-business situation.
So it's not RISC/CISC, it's PPC/AMD/Intel... but the argument hasn't changed a lick. Only the names have been changed to protect guilty and innocent alike.
Drowning in your own blood while screaming "For the love of God and all that it holy, MY ANUS IS BLEEDING!" just might win you an Oscar, you never know. Spoiler. Mal-2