Not so different than this 'new idea', and a whole lot cheaper. Pop in DSL or another lightweight Linux distro, or **heaven forbid** the original ThinkNIC software, and do much the same thing for a lot less money.
Looks like the software drivers to enable the feature require a M$ OS though.
As the owner of a dual Athlon MP motherboard with two of the hottest running power-sucking processors AMD has ever produced, I'd be extremely interested in this feature if it becomes supported in Linux.
Could probably save enough in 6 months of use versus my current rig to pay for the new mobo and CPU.
for the first time in history, machines with moving parts are more reliable than those without.The average PC is less reliable than the average car
You, sir, have obviously never been acquainted with my Dodge pickup and my Asus-based dual 2100MP system running Knoppix. The 2100MP machine has nothing to worry about in this contest, better uptimes than the Dodge are pretty routine.
"The fuel economy of automotive fleets sold in this country peaked in 1988 at 28.5 miles per gallon. Now, cars going off the road and out of service are more efficient than the ones coming on. At a time when gas prices are high and looking to stay high, our fuel efficiency is moving in the wrong direction.
The last major push for an increase in CAFE standards came in 1991. The political might of the auto companies was sufficient to put down that effort, and the auto companies themselves became perhaps the chief proponent of the strategy of energy policy by wishful thinking. It worked well for them, because the policy of wishful thinking allowed the auto industry to increase the size and performance of the average vehicle, while decreasing fuel economy, all with the cooperation of the federal government. Now American consumers are faced with prices two times the amount they paid for a gallon of gasoline a year ago. And chances are great that they drove to the pump in a sport utility vehicle that falls well below the CAFE average."
You have a point, which I could counter by asking how someone driving into a large empty parking lot could possibly avoid seeing a vehicle in the middle of it laying down rubber and doing 360's and fail to excercise the appropriate caution.
We can then discuss where one person's rights end and another person's rights begin, but the real point I'm trying to get across is that I don't know of, say, a public skidpad I can drive down to this afternoon and test out how my truck behaves in a slide and how I need to react to counter it.
It is completely ludicrous to me that we expect people to learn how to control a vehicle in a dangerous situation by giving them free reign to go out and get into that situation on public highways without any prior knowledge or training.
Like anything else, some people will have a natural affinity for car control and not have many accidents. Others will find it difficult to grasp the concepts involved and may have several wrecks a year. Both people could benefit from training before they hit the road at 75mph. The motoring public at large benefits as well.
When my stepdad taught me how to drive in the snow, we came to a long bridge with nobody else around. He told me to take it up to about 40mph, and then said abruptly, "Now jam the brakes." I did, and we slid for about a third of the length of the bridge before stopping. I still recall his next words to this day: "Remember how long it took to stop."
I'm not arguing for preventing anybody from driving. In my opinion, in much of the US today driving should be a right rather than a privilege. What I am arguing against is underskilled and unprepared people driving.
I have to take NRA safety classes before I get a hunting license to go out into the public (or other) woodlands to hunt game with a firearm.
I don't feel that car control training before a driver's license is issued to go out on the public roads with a three-ton SUV is any different. Don't even get me started on the parents that buy 16-year-old Johnny a 300HP Mustang and fail to enroll him in classes on how to keep it pointed straight.
Some accidents aren't preventable. Most are. Speed itself is less of a problem than driver error. Most driver error could be prevented with training.
I think everybody can agree that rumble strips on the side of roads are A Good Thing.
Unfortunately, it's the reaction that some drivers have when suddenly jarred awake that's the problem.
Not that the reactions of many drivers are much better when they aren't dozing. It amazes me no end how we give a person license to pilot a 5000-pound missle - day or night, and in all types of weather - when all they've proven that they can drive it around a small parking lot and answer a few questions.
Want to reduce accidents? Want to save lives? Mandatory driving skills and car control training before you get a license. As it stands, we're so concerned with car control here in the USA that you'll get a Reckless Driving ticket for doing donuts in a big empty parking lot while testing out the limits of your ride to see how it behaves in a skid condition.
Frankly, even though I'm certain that the construction of this site was some sort of keyword spamming and click-through ploy, the range of material linked to just boggles the mind.
Oh, I'd like to request that a radar trailer be dropped off at my home this afternoon, at which point I will connect it to the trailer hitch of my truck with a length of chain, pull it over, and go for a nice 'drag' around town.
Maybe I should check out the 'Encounters with Police' section before I head out of the driveway though, may come in handy.
Watched with amusement as the same thing happened at AZ one day, and RedHat 7.2 (Enigma) came up in the upper left-hand corner of the terminal screen when things were initializing. Didn't catch the kernel version, but late 2.2.x makes sense.
Come to think of it, I haven't been back to Checker since seeing that. I need a fuel pump soon and I'll be going to AutoZone.
I notice a big difference in installation and configuration difficulty between 'traditional' distros like Mandrake, RedHat, etc, and my Knoppix hdinstall.
I was a Mac (System 7, OS8, OS9) driver for more than a decade before I switched to Linux almost a year ago. Began with Mandrake and ended up with Knoppix on the hd. Knoppix gives few, if any, problems compared to the distros I've tried that require a more 'normal' installation - RedHat, SuSE, etc. I'm not saying all the interfaces are perfect or that things, CUPS incuded, don't bork once in awhile. But really, Knoppix is quite good. Much easier for a n00b who can use Google than the 'real' distros.
IMHO, the LiveCDs should be the first priority for GUI and interface improvement. They are, after all, the primary tools used to evangelize new Linux users and are much less intimidating to the uninitiated.
As I gained a little experience with Linux, I couldn't figure out why should I spend an hour wading through Debian's old text-based installer when I can literally have the entire Knoppix distro onto the hard drive and running in 15 minutes or so. Come to think of it, I still can't. I use apt-get all the time to install software (will never consider RPM again), and every peripheral I own plays nice with Knoppix, almost all right out of the box.
That includes a MacAlly USB KB, Logitech USB Trackball, SB Live, nVidia card with 3D drivers, Adaptec U160 card, 3COM Gigabit NIC, HP Scanjet 6200C SCSI Scanner, Apple Laserwriter 16/600 printer (local/parallel), and Olympus D-280 USB digicam.
When I read a mailing list detailing the plight of some poor slob trying to install some simple device unsuccessfully, one of the first things I think is, "Well, it usually just works on Knoppix." Perhaps we need to try and discern why that is the case.
I am very appreciative of the efforts of many folks that wnet into all the packages on Knoppix. Because of them, I'm composing this on a dual 2100MP box with a free OS that ended up costing about $1300 less than a G5 tower. I can't give you technical reasons why you as a programmer might want to build on or extend distros like Knoppix. What I can pass along is my personal experience that it was easier to configure and use than anything else, even if a few things could be laid out a more logically.
RTFM elitism aside, at the end of the day, that ease of use plus the overall stability is what keeps me using open source software instead of something from Redmond.
After living near the CO/NM border for a time and observing how the state of NM likes to set up unconstitutional road 'checkpoints' (fishing expeditions), I'd say you'd do well to avoid NM highways.
A shame, really, as I know some nice folks there and parts of the state are quite beautiful. The bottom line is that at the end of the day harassment is harassment, no matter where it happens.
I managed a crew of workers some years back at a mid-sized store fixture company that was later acquired by Leggett and Platt.
While I left before the acquisition by L&P was final, if the two companies are anything alike, this is not only poetic, but hardly surprising.
The corporate culture there was comprised of a bunch of new-agey, good-feeling, responsibility-shirking, issue-clouding, completely spineless Yes-Men spewing first class BULLSHIT.
I've decided today after reading that Leggett and Platt bought a SCO 'license' that there is such a thing as Karma. And it's delightful to observe it in action firsthand.
If this is anything like DirecPC was/is, the FAP makes it almost unusable. If you do much downloading at all, you'll find yourself back to modem speed in short order, and paying about 3x as much for the privilege. Cleaning snow off the dish is always fun too, it is much more sensitive to weather than DirecTV. I won't get into the Mind-Numbing tech support (I swear it was prison labor).
Maybe they've improved it since I had DirecPC four years ago, but be very certain of what you'll receive before you get locked into a contract.
Honestly, I'd build a yagi to receive broadband from somebody I'd befriended 5 miles away if geographically possible. Failing that, I'd just shotgun 3 modems before I'd ever consider having DirecPC again.
Also, you don't mention neighbor proximity. I know of one location in Southern Colorado that is 80 miles from a major city (if you consider Pueblo major), 10 miles south of a town of 10,000 people smack in the middle of NOWHERE that has a T1. It's a radio station antenna building on the top of a ridge at roughly 10,500 feet. Maybe you have 6 neighbors who are as fed up with dial-up as you. A fractional T1 would be affordable after the initial equipment layout if you create your own little ISP and serve your neighbors with wireless access.
I was actually helping a friend out. We needed to dig holes for concrete piers for some cabins. In November, in dirt filled with sandstone, on a nice windy 30-degree day it decided to snow.
18 holes had to be dug 18" in diameter and 30" deep.
Running a rented jackhammer in the mud wasn't so bad. Then I lost a glove in the mire. When you get down to 24" deep or so, you can't shovel the debris out of the hole effectively anymore, so you have to get down on your stomach (in the mud) and scoop it out. At 30", you're stretching your arms to get to the debris in the hole and your face is in the muck.
And then, when it couldn't get worse, you're squirming around in the mud on your stomach and get a bunch of Prickly Pair needles in the head of your........
Thankfully I don't do things like that for a living.
I can't. I had to get a connecting flight there once (en route to Denver from Pittsburgh!?) and I hope I never go back. This is pre 9/11 when the delays were mostly just incompetence.
Sat on the tarmac for 40 minutes and finally get loaded onto a bus. Finally make terminal, have about 15 minutes to get my connecting flight. I go to the gate printed on my ticket. A mechanic is standing there, looking at me strangely.
me: Where's the plane?
him: It's at gate 21.
me: Where the hell is that?
him: (smirking) At the other end of the terminal.
Ever seen those old OJ commercials for Hertz? That's what I did with two HEAVY carry-ons. It must have been a half mile. The attendant at the gate had to unlock the door to let me on the plane, where I happily loaded my baggage and plopped down to enjoy my now sweat-stained clothes.
If the rest of the city compares in any way to the airport, my heart goes out to you.
Since you seem to know me personally, perhaps you can offer a bit more detail. The last time I looked, Cox Cable requires neither a telephone or cell phone to provide internet service. I last had a cell phone in 1998 and last had a land line in the summer of 1999.
I had Ricochet wireless before hooking to the net via cable for the last three years.
Surprise! Less stress and still breathing after almost five years without telco service!
In your example, a spare tire AND a toolkit were useless. You point out that you had survival gear.
Which I would have had with me, cell phone or not, when driving about 460 miles in the middle of the night at 6000 feet elevation in December. Let's see your cell phone prevent you from freezing your weenie off. As to the uselessness of the toolkit, I suppose that I could have left the driveshaft intact and risked blowing the differential as well when Mr. Tow Truck Driver dragged my pickup onto the flatbed. When the tranny won't turn and the rear tires are trying, that spells bad things for the driveshaft and/or rear end. I'd prefer not to drop another $1200 on a differential rebuild when I just laid out a similar amount on a tranny. But I don't expect you to know this, since you are smarter than me.
By your own account, you could have avoided walking to town if you had your own cellphone to call
I could have avoided walking into town completely if the fine tow truck driver dispatched by AAA had actually fucking showed up as promised.
Cellphones are extremely useful for CONTINGENIES, you twit.
This twit can spell contingencies. And solve simple problems without the use of a cell phone, thank you.
Ok, wait until you need it when you have a flat tire but no spare, then tell me that it causes stress.
What kind of idiot travels without a spare tire? Or a toolkit?
I neither have nor want a cell phone. I had one (and at one point two) in the mid-90's and I like my life a lot better without them. Come to think of it, I don't have a regular phone either. You can only be stressed by that which you allow into your life. The net is on my terms and that's the way it will stay.
Two weeks ago, I completely blew the 5-speed up in my pickup. 75 miles from a major city, 9 miles from the nearest phone. Trucker parked on an on-ramp parked called on channel 9 and the State Patrol came out. This is about 3AM Friday morning on the side of an interstate in Bum Fuck Nowhere. The SP called AAA on THEIR cellphone for me, and they never showed up. At 8AM I stopped waiting and started walking, caught a ride into town, called AAA again, got picked up by the tow truck, loaded the pickup and got driven back home.
You're not helpless without a cellphone. But you can't expect to be utterly stupid and unprepared wihout one either. I had gloves, extra clothes, a North Face sleeping bag, a full toolkit, lights, food, drink, etc. I could have lived in the truck for three days if necessary. In fact, I dropped the back driveshaft while I was waiting for the first tow truck so he wouldn't do more damage dragging it onto the flatbed.
The next guy to jump ship should just tell it like it is. I've worked in at least one place where a particular individual ruined the morale of an entire shop, thirty to forty individuals.
This fine fellow was a daytime supervisor and found it his calling to belittle and berate anybody and everybody. In a personal way and to such a point I'm surprised that nobody sued the company.
Since I worked a different shift, I didn't consider him 'my boss'. There was 45 minute to an hour of overlap between shifts, so I did on occasion interact with him. If he gave it, he got it back from me. I tried to address the issue (and others) in a constructive way with no success. It got really bad and the CEO brought in a morale consultant that made us all do calisthenics together (I wish I was kidding).
Finally I found a different job with a jump up in pay. When the plant manager asked me why I was leaving, I figured I had nothing to lose and I laid it out for him over the course of 15 minutes.
The PM took it personally, invited me to leave a week early and was visibly angry, but a couple hours later he came back out of the office and decided to be my buddy before he went home. He couldn't (and didn't) refute anything I'd said.
After I left, I found out that eventually the 'problem' supervisior was transferred to the office (where he became YOUR boss, lol) and replaced by more reasonable soul. I always figured they did it that way to best protect against current and future legal liability from his harassment of others.
Sometimes it takes a bit of shaking up to change the channel on the upper management TV. Have somebody do it that isn't in a position to suffer the consequences.
Subject:orphic repulsive exhibit gordon autoclave
Body:STILL NO LUCK ENRGAILNG IT?Our 2 pcodruts will work for you!1. #1 Spupelment aavilable!
I've actually found it easier to manually DQ the 30 or so spam messages I get a day since this nonsense started being pumped into the Subject line. But at least if I ever want to enrgael it, I'll know who to call for some spupelment pcodruts.
Any fool with fast hands can grab a tiger by the balls, but it takes a real hero to keep on squeezing.
Slashdot Mirror
Not so different than this 'new idea', and a whole lot cheaper. Pop in DSL or another lightweight Linux distro, or **heaven forbid** the original ThinkNIC software, and do much the same thing for a lot less money.
Looks like the software drivers to enable the feature require a M$ OS though.
As the owner of a dual Athlon MP motherboard with two of the hottest running power-sucking processors AMD has ever produced, I'd be extremely interested in this feature if it becomes supported in Linux.
Could probably save enough in 6 months of use versus my current rig to pay for the new mobo and CPU.
for the first time in history, machines with moving parts are more reliable than those without.The average PC is less reliable than the average car
You, sir, have obviously never been acquainted with my Dodge pickup and my Asus-based dual 2100MP system running Knoppix. The 2100MP machine has nothing to worry about in this contest, better uptimes than the Dodge are pretty routine.
Because cars with more advanced engine controll computers will get better gas milage and pollute less
h tm
Then why is average fuel economy decreasing?
http://www.ase.org/policy/testimony/commercetest.
"The fuel economy of automotive fleets sold in this country peaked in 1988 at 28.5 miles per gallon. Now, cars going off the road and out of service are more efficient than the ones coming on. At a time when gas prices are high and looking to stay high, our fuel efficiency is moving in the wrong direction.
The last major push for an increase in CAFE standards came in 1991. The political might of the auto companies was sufficient to put down that effort, and the auto companies themselves became perhaps the chief proponent of the strategy of energy policy by wishful thinking. It worked well for them, because the policy of wishful thinking allowed the auto industry to increase the size and performance of the average vehicle, while decreasing fuel economy, all with the cooperation of the federal government. Now American consumers are faced with prices two times the amount they paid for a gallon of gasoline a year ago. And chances are great that they drove to the pump in a sport utility vehicle that falls well below the CAFE average."
You have a point, which I could counter by asking how someone driving into a large empty parking lot could possibly avoid seeing a vehicle in the middle of it laying down rubber and doing 360's and fail to excercise the appropriate caution.
We can then discuss where one person's rights end and another person's rights begin, but the real point I'm trying to get across is that I don't know of, say, a public skidpad I can drive down to this afternoon and test out how my truck behaves in a slide and how I need to react to counter it.
It is completely ludicrous to me that we expect people to learn how to control a vehicle in a dangerous situation by giving them free reign to go out and get into that situation on public highways without any prior knowledge or training.
Like anything else, some people will have a natural affinity for car control and not have many accidents. Others will find it difficult to grasp the concepts involved and may have several wrecks a year. Both people could benefit from training before they hit the road at 75mph. The motoring public at large benefits as well.
When my stepdad taught me how to drive in the snow, we came to a long bridge with nobody else around. He told me to take it up to about 40mph, and then said abruptly, "Now jam the brakes." I did, and we slid for about a third of the length of the bridge before stopping. I still recall his next words to this day: "Remember how long it took to stop."
I'm not arguing for preventing anybody from driving. In my opinion, in much of the US today driving should be a right rather than a privilege. What I am arguing against is underskilled and unprepared people driving.
I have to take NRA safety classes before I get a hunting license to go out into the public (or other) woodlands to hunt game with a firearm.
I don't feel that car control training before a driver's license is issued to go out on the public roads with a three-ton SUV is any different. Don't even get me started on the parents that buy 16-year-old Johnny a 300HP Mustang and fail to enroll him in classes on how to keep it pointed straight.
Some accidents aren't preventable. Most are. Speed itself is less of a problem than driver error. Most driver error could be prevented with training.
OK, I'm done now.
I think everybody can agree that rumble strips on the side of roads are A Good Thing.
Unfortunately, it's the reaction that some drivers have when suddenly jarred awake that's the problem.
Not that the reactions of many drivers are much better when they aren't dozing. It amazes me no end how we give a person license to pilot a 5000-pound missle - day or night, and in all types of weather - when all they've proven that they can drive it around a small parking lot and answer a few questions.
Want to reduce accidents? Want to save lives? Mandatory driving skills and car control training before you get a license. As it stands, we're so concerned with car control here in the USA that you'll get a Reckless Driving ticket for doing donuts in a big empty parking lot while testing out the limits of your ride to see how it behaves in a skid condition.
Won't Somebody Think Of The Children?
Neither MS nor Apple care about streaming to Linux.
For my money, they don't have to, so long as I can get the w32codecs deb for Xine.
A question posed in the curriculum of a company-sponsored management seminar I once attended.
I wish I was kidding about this.
I humbly submit the idea of applying Slashdot-style moderation to search-engine page rankings.
The search engine spam sites on the first page of a Google lookup are getting annoying.
Where else do you need to go? A quick perusal of the archived version of the Sheriff's site shows such topics:
Hallucinogens Marijuana Stimulants
Blood Alcohol Calculator
Concealed Weapons Permits
Employee Fingerprinting
Request RADAR trailer
Encounters with Police
Frankly, even though I'm certain that the construction of this site was some sort of keyword spamming and click-through ploy, the range of material linked to just boggles the mind.
Oh, I'd like to request that a radar trailer be dropped off at my home this afternoon, at which point I will connect it to the trailer hitch of my truck with a length of chain, pull it over, and go for a nice 'drag' around town.
Maybe I should check out the 'Encounters with Police' section before I head out of the driveway though, may come in handy.
Watched with amusement as the same thing happened at AZ one day, and RedHat 7.2 (Enigma) came up in the upper left-hand corner of the terminal screen when things were initializing. Didn't catch the kernel version, but late 2.2.x makes sense.
Come to think of it, I haven't been back to Checker since seeing that. I need a fuel pump soon and I'll be going to AutoZone.
I notice a big difference in installation and configuration difficulty between 'traditional' distros like Mandrake, RedHat, etc, and my Knoppix hdinstall.
I was a Mac (System 7, OS8, OS9) driver for more than a decade before I switched to Linux almost a year ago. Began with Mandrake and ended up with Knoppix on the hd. Knoppix gives few, if any, problems compared to the distros I've tried that require a more 'normal' installation - RedHat, SuSE, etc. I'm not saying all the interfaces are perfect or that things, CUPS incuded, don't bork once in awhile. But really, Knoppix is quite good. Much easier for a n00b who can use Google than the 'real' distros.
IMHO, the LiveCDs should be the first priority for GUI and interface improvement. They are, after all, the primary tools used to evangelize new Linux users and are much less intimidating to the uninitiated.
As I gained a little experience with Linux, I couldn't figure out why should I spend an hour wading through Debian's old text-based installer when I can literally have the entire Knoppix distro onto the hard drive and running in 15 minutes or so. Come to think of it, I still can't. I use apt-get all the time to install software (will never consider RPM again), and every peripheral I own plays nice with Knoppix, almost all right out of the box.
That includes a MacAlly USB KB, Logitech USB Trackball, SB Live, nVidia card with 3D drivers, Adaptec U160 card, 3COM Gigabit NIC, HP Scanjet 6200C SCSI Scanner, Apple Laserwriter 16/600 printer (local/parallel), and Olympus D-280 USB digicam.
When I read a mailing list detailing the plight of some poor slob trying to install some simple device unsuccessfully, one of the first things I think is, "Well, it usually just works on Knoppix." Perhaps we need to try and discern why that is the case.
I am very appreciative of the efforts of many folks that wnet into all the packages on Knoppix. Because of them, I'm composing this on a dual 2100MP box with a free OS that ended up costing about $1300 less than a G5 tower. I can't give you technical reasons why you as a programmer might want to build on or extend distros like Knoppix. What I can pass along is my personal experience that it was easier to configure and use than anything else, even if a few things could be laid out a more logically.
RTFM elitism aside, at the end of the day, that ease of use plus the overall stability is what keeps me using open source software instead of something from Redmond.
After living near the CO/NM border for a time and observing how the state of NM likes to set up unconstitutional road 'checkpoints' (fishing expeditions), I'd say you'd do well to avoid NM highways.
A shame, really, as I know some nice folks there and parts of the state are quite beautiful. The bottom line is that at the end of the day harassment is harassment, no matter where it happens.
no one would trust ebay. Trust seems like a big part of their business.
New here? I can't recall ever browsing a
All of you who want to use this ala Knoppix better be prepared to violate some EULA's and make some code changes. From TFA:
# Q: Does PE Builder remove the 24 hour time limit? A: No!
# Q: Does PE Builder remove the "can only start 6 processes" limit? A: No!
You can run 6 or fewer processes for 24 hours or less. On second thought, maybe that's not all that different from regular Windows........
knoppix@cool-dual-beast:~$ uptime
12:57:34 up 9 days, 21:49, 1 user, load average: 0.50, 0.38, 0.34
Guess Knoppix has this one beat.
I managed a crew of workers some years back at a mid-sized store fixture company that was later acquired by Leggett and Platt.
While I left before the acquisition by L&P was final, if the two companies are anything alike, this is not only poetic, but hardly surprising.
The corporate culture there was comprised of a bunch of new-agey, good-feeling, responsibility-shirking, issue-clouding, completely spineless Yes-Men spewing first class BULLSHIT.
I've decided today after reading that Leggett and Platt bought a SCO 'license' that there is such a thing as Karma. And it's delightful to observe it in action firsthand.
If this is anything like DirecPC was/is, the FAP makes it almost unusable. If you do much downloading at all, you'll find yourself back to modem speed in short order, and paying about 3x as much for the privilege. Cleaning snow off the dish is always fun too, it is much more sensitive to weather than DirecTV. I won't get into the Mind-Numbing tech support (I swear it was prison labor).
Maybe they've improved it since I had DirecPC four years ago, but be very certain of what you'll receive before you get locked into a contract.
Honestly, I'd build a yagi to receive broadband from somebody I'd befriended 5 miles away if geographically possible. Failing that, I'd just shotgun 3 modems before I'd ever consider having DirecPC again.
Also, you don't mention neighbor proximity. I know of one location in Southern Colorado that is 80 miles from a major city (if you consider Pueblo major), 10 miles south of a town of 10,000 people smack in the middle of NOWHERE that has a T1. It's a radio station antenna building on the top of a ridge at roughly 10,500 feet. Maybe you have 6 neighbors who are as fed up with dial-up as you. A fractional T1 would be affordable after the initial equipment layout if you create your own little ISP and serve your neighbors with wireless access.
Construction.
I was actually helping a friend out. We needed to dig holes for concrete piers for some cabins. In November, in dirt filled with sandstone, on a nice windy 30-degree day it decided to snow.
18 holes had to be dug 18" in diameter and 30" deep.
Running a rented jackhammer in the mud wasn't so bad. Then I lost a glove in the mire. When you get down to 24" deep or so, you can't shovel the debris out of the hole effectively anymore, so you have to get down on your stomach (in the mud) and scoop it out. At 30", you're stretching your arms to get to the debris in the hole and your face is in the muck.
And then, when it couldn't get worse, you're squirming around in the mud on your stomach and get a bunch of Prickly Pair needles in the head of your........
Thankfully I don't do things like that for a living.
I can't. I had to get a connecting flight there once (en route to Denver from Pittsburgh!?) and I hope I never go back. This is pre 9/11 when the delays were mostly just incompetence.
Sat on the tarmac for 40 minutes and finally get loaded onto a bus. Finally make terminal, have about 15 minutes to get my connecting flight. I go to the gate printed on my ticket. A mechanic is standing there, looking at me strangely.
me: Where's the plane?
him: It's at gate 21.
me: Where the hell is that?
him: (smirking) At the other end of the terminal.
Ever seen those old OJ commercials for Hertz? That's what I did with two HEAVY carry-ons. It must have been a half mile. The attendant at the gate had to unlock the door to let me on the plane, where I happily loaded my baggage and plopped down to enjoy my now sweat-stained clothes.
If the rest of the city compares in any way to the airport, my heart goes out to you.
Since you seem to know me personally, perhaps you can offer a bit more detail. The last time I looked, Cox Cable requires neither a telephone or cell phone to provide internet service. I last had a cell phone in 1998 and last had a land line in the summer of 1999.
I had Ricochet wireless before hooking to the net via cable for the last three years.
Surprise! Less stress and still breathing after almost five years without telco service!
In your example, a spare tire AND a toolkit were useless. You point out that you had survival gear.
Which I would have had with me, cell phone or not, when driving about 460 miles in the middle of the night at 6000 feet elevation in December. Let's see your cell phone prevent you from freezing your weenie off. As to the uselessness of the toolkit, I suppose that I could have left the driveshaft intact and risked blowing the differential as well when Mr. Tow Truck Driver dragged my pickup onto the flatbed. When the tranny won't turn and the rear tires are trying, that spells bad things for the driveshaft and/or rear end. I'd prefer not to drop another $1200 on a differential rebuild when I just laid out a similar amount on a tranny. But I don't expect you to know this, since you are smarter than me.
By your own account, you could have avoided walking to town if you had your own cellphone to call
I could have avoided walking into town completely if the fine tow truck driver dispatched by AAA had actually fucking showed up as promised.
Cellphones are extremely useful for CONTINGENIES, you twit.
This twit can spell contingencies. And solve simple problems without the use of a cell phone, thank you.
Ok, wait until you need it when you have a flat tire but no spare, then tell me that it causes stress.
What kind of idiot travels without a spare tire? Or a toolkit?
I neither have nor want a cell phone. I had one (and at one point two) in the mid-90's and I like my life a lot better without them. Come to think of it, I don't have a regular phone either. You can only be stressed by that which you allow into your life. The net is on my terms and that's the way it will stay.
Two weeks ago, I completely blew the 5-speed up in my pickup. 75 miles from a major city, 9 miles from the nearest phone. Trucker parked on an on-ramp parked called on channel 9 and the State Patrol came out. This is about 3AM Friday morning on the side of an interstate in Bum Fuck Nowhere. The SP called AAA on THEIR cellphone for me, and they never showed up. At 8AM I stopped waiting and started walking, caught a ride into town, called AAA again, got picked up by the tow truck, loaded the pickup and got driven back home.
You're not helpless without a cellphone. But you can't expect to be utterly stupid and unprepared wihout one either. I had gloves, extra clothes, a North Face sleeping bag, a full toolkit, lights, food, drink, etc. I could have lived in the truck for three days if necessary. In fact, I dropped the back driveshaft while I was waiting for the first tow truck so he wouldn't do more damage dragging it onto the flatbed.
It's just an attitude of preparedness.
The next guy to jump ship should just tell it like it is. I've worked in at least one place where a particular individual ruined the morale of an entire shop, thirty to forty individuals.
This fine fellow was a daytime supervisor and found it his calling to belittle and berate anybody and everybody. In a personal way and to such a point I'm surprised that nobody sued the company.
Since I worked a different shift, I didn't consider him 'my boss'. There was 45 minute to an hour of overlap between shifts, so I did on occasion interact with him. If he gave it, he got it back from me. I tried to address the issue (and others) in a constructive way with no success. It got really bad and the CEO brought in a morale consultant that made us all do calisthenics together (I wish I was kidding).
Finally I found a different job with a jump up in pay. When the plant manager asked me why I was leaving, I figured I had nothing to lose and I laid it out for him over the course of 15 minutes.
The PM took it personally, invited me to leave a week early and was visibly angry, but a couple hours later he came back out of the office and decided to be my buddy before he went home. He couldn't (and didn't) refute anything I'd said.
After I left, I found out that eventually the 'problem' supervisior was transferred to the office (where he became YOUR boss, lol) and replaced by more reasonable soul. I always figured they did it that way to best protect against current and future legal liability from his harassment of others.
Sometimes it takes a bit of shaking up to change the channel on the upper management TV. Have somebody do it that isn't in a position to suffer the consequences.
CCDs respond linearly to intensity and your eye is (somewhat) logarithmic
Is this responsible for the compressed range of contrast in digital and film also (5 vs. 14 stops for the human eye)?
Never read a satisfactory explanation for why we can't produce a film or imager that can see contrast as well as we can.
Subject:orphic repulsive exhibit gordon autoclave
Body:STILL NO LUCK ENRGAILNG IT?Our 2 pcodruts will work for you!1. #1 Spupelment aavilable!
I've actually found it easier to manually DQ the 30 or so spam messages I get a day since this nonsense started being pumped into the Subject line. But at least if I ever want to enrgael it, I'll know who to call for some spupelment pcodruts.
Any fool with fast hands can grab a tiger by the balls, but it takes a real hero to keep on squeezing.