On Windows, DVDFab HD Decrypter [dvdfab.com] does a great job of ripping. Then use your favorite DVD burning software.
In a nutshell, this is how I do things:
1) Rent from Netflix, 2 at a time unlimited (all issues of throttling aside)
2) Rip discs as they arrive with DVDFab HD Decrypter
3) Compress with DVDShrink (I still have a single-layer burner and besides, the disks are cheaper - I just don't copy the extras or the French audio track, etc., so as to minimize compression of the main movie. This also strips off the ghey previews and FBI warnings. Snatch!) I have used both DVD-R and DVD+R; personal preference is DVD+R. YMMV.
4) Burn result with Nero. Keep files on harddrive for awhile until I'm sure the burnt disk is ok.
5) Whisk Netflix movies back next day. Watch burnt movie at my leisure.
~~
In case any of you were wondering, you can buy just one copy and install it on every machine in your network, without the worry of finding unique serial numbers. When playing LAN games DSII apparently does not check for unique serial number instances. (Unlike NWN.) My wife, being cool, likes Dungeon Siege as much as I and couldn't wait for II. We checked and sure enough we can play together on the home LAN without the need for another serial number. (Probably won't apply on the 'net, but we're stuck on dial-up anyways and don't play online.)
That's great as long as you keep the cat5(e) cables relatively short - oh, in my experience, 30 feet or less (despite claims to the contrary, I won't bore you with the how's and why's) As soon as I get around to it I'm going to recable my house with cat6.
You should look hard for wireless (not satellite) providers.
Yeah, Verizon has thier slow-speed wireless service available, but it is only marginally faster than dial-up but costs $80 a month. Just isn't worth it. Verizon is rolling the high-speed stuff, as you might guess, in some of the major cities. As far as wi-fi'ing from 15 miles, actually my brother is 5 miles away and does have broadband. However, that 5 miles is heavily forested and he's down in a low spot anyways:-(
There will for a very long time be rural areas that won't get broadband access. Their options will be wireless, satallite, or powerline.
It sucks to be me. I live at the end of two telephone trunks (The last pedestal for one remote c/o is in my front yard, the last pedestal from another remote c/o is in my next door neighbor's yard) meaning of course I have no hope in hell of ever getting DSL. I remember when the Bellsouth guy came to hook up my home for service he had to schedule a line repair crew to come by and patch up enough lines so that I could even get a dial-tone (all other good pairs in the pedestal having been already taken.) Cable won't ever be run to my place b/c I am on the the county line; Comcast has agreements with the county which is not even 100 feet from my front door, but nothing with the county I actually live in; there is no right-of-way coming the other direction to recieve a cable trunk from my home county at all (power comes from a right-of-way originating from the other county.) So satellite is the only reasonable choice for broadband, but I'll be damned if I'll pay $600 install, $80 a month for FAP'ped, hi-latency service. So until some new technology comes out, or Bellsouth decides for whatever reason to build a new remote c/o closer to my house, (New subdivision might do the trick,) I have no realistic options. Should I move? No, the no-broadband thing is a welcome trade-off to live in an area where the neighbors are friendly, no need to lock the doors type area, with acres and acres of woods behind my house for privacy. There are hundreds of thousands of people like me who lust for broadband but b/c we don't happen to live within 2 miles from a major metropolis will likely never taste the sweet fruit of broadband.
There is a MagLev test line under development in the Yamanashi perfecture, that can currently do 310 mph; it is quite a treat to watch, and if you get lucky you can get a chance to ride it. More information here in English, with some videos here. True, it's been around damn near ten years and they haven't started public service...
Why do some people think that one has to eat during a movie? Don't some people eat a regular meal like dinner or something before going to see a movie?
I haven't figured that one out either. Like they can't go two hours without eating. Plus, the general ambience of masticating jaws really doesn't lend itself well to the movie experience in my opinion. Not to mention, even the smallest drinks are bladder-buster sized and I just fail to comprehend why anyone would stock up on cola when the last thing you want is to have to use those less-than-lovely public urinals. Unless they're the types that look forward to peeing on the urinal cakes, and building up those wonderful kidney stones.
I pay the extra charge to use the stand-alone self-serve photo kiosks which stand right beside the cheaper 1-hour kiosks at Wal-Mart. The cheaper kiosk is handled by the minimum-wage goons behind the desk and is subject to review as mentioned by TFA; the instant kiosk, while more expensive, delivers perfect photos (I suspect it's using a dye-sub printer under there, I'm sure one of you know for sure) without any of your photos being peer-reviewed. I printed out a large number of my photos from my trip to Japan in April which a few could easily be construed as professional or maybe semi-professional. Being an introverted geek, I'll pay extra any day if it means not having to speak to someone, anyway.
I was just in Akihabara - my impressions
on
Tokyo's Geek Ghetto
·
· Score: 1
I went on a business trip just this past April, and among some of my wanderings, I visited Akihabara with my boss. I have some photos posted on flickr of a couple of the anime shops, the streets, and a street performer (who was heckled by a drunk old guy, much to everyone's amusement.) The streets of Akihabara are packed with merchants hawking their wares, and the small shops have so many people entering/leaving their places that they simply leave the doors open. One shop we stuck our head in had enough electronic components stocked to make a 1970's era Radio Shack weep. The prices in the shops, in my opinion, were not all that fantastic. In general they were all on par with what can be found in the States. I'll never forget turning a corner and staring in awe at the sea of pedestrian shoppers (both the boss and I, simple country people that we were, observed that we were about to become caucasion flotsam and decided to turn back towards the train terminal end of Akihabara.)
Seriously... I'm 6'5", which means that I'm taller than a good 95% of the people that I meet.
Being 5'6" myself, and ectomorphic in physique as well, I know all to well what you're talking about. I'm invisible. In any group setting, the "Alpha Male" is never me by default. If I am required to take a leadership role, I have to earn it, every time - it's never given to me. Having been small my entire life, I've observed the phenomena you're talking about keenly - from the other side. Fortunately, being an introverted geek I prefer invisibility anyway. I'd like to think I'm well-adjusted, however I've known other Lilliputian fellows with severe Napoleon complexes; you know the type, small and diminuative they demand attention and are generally the worst pricks you'll ever meet.
I'm very grateful so far for the advice, (I submitted this,) I should have mentioned that yes, I do not speak a lick of Japanese but will have a couple of bilingual assistants. Only one of whom, however, is fluent enough in English to be of any use. Also, he is a decent VB programmer in his own right and as you may guess, I'll be buying him dinner to keep him on my good side. Unfortunately, he's a busy fellow so he won't be dropping in to help, except sporadically. The only other saving graces is that the software will have limited users (all in house; not released to the public, so I can indeed babysit the application.) But the biggest tip I'm picking up is to learn at program inside and out while I'm there, around the original developers, so when I get it stateside I'll know intimately what it's supposed to do and what it's supposed to accomplish. That, and to pray and pray hard;-) Thanks, y'all
In addition to those fine 7 points, I'd add that to sucessfully web browse (or whatever) while doing those tricks you should keep Firefox un-Maximized, with whatever important-seeming app a mere task-switch, or quick mouse click away. Failing that, remember in Windows you can quickly minimize any app (Firefox, IE if so unfortunate) with a quick ALT+SPACE+N. Practice it. Get good with it. You'll be able to minimize that browser without the tell-tale mouse "wrist jerk and click" that people can see as they approach. (Everyone knows ALT+F4 but sometimes you want to finish what you're reading later, so you don't necessarily want to close the browser.)
M Night Shyamalan: *You find out in the end the main hero was in the computer ALL ALONG
*The bad guys in the story are weak vs. water, which COVERS 75% OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE for pete's sake.
*Protagonist sees webpages where the rest of sees 503 Forbidden's.
Ok, now your turn. Post what-ifs if directed by your fav director.
Keep it simple. Just stick an older PC case down in a somewhat ventilated cabinet on the opposite end of the room from the power equipment. (Do you really need the computer to be _right at_ the work area?) Older Pentium IIs and such don't run so hot that they can't deal with a little claustrophobia. Run your keyboard/optical mouse up top (a mouse with balls WILL clog in 5.6 nano seconds in a workshop.) A plastic dust cover for the keyboard is nice but I'm not using one in my shop. Sit the monitor up top. Network as required. (My shop is in the basement and my house is wired with Cat 5e but you can go wireless.) Unless your shop is really small you should have no problems. Couple times a year, visually check your case for dust bunnies. Vacuum as required. Total cost for me was $0, using by old equipment and a donated monitor from work.
But how about the rest of the world? Especially unindustrialized nations. They'll be using dial-up for years to come.
Otherwise known as RURAL AMERICA. I shake my fists at my dial-up at least once a week. Just move you say? Try convincing the wife/kids. Besides, the other benefits of country living (less crime, aside from the occasional meth lab, and low traffic and virtually no people congestion) outweigh even broadband. But I'd still sell a testicle for a solid non-FAP'ped broadband access.
... Trouble is, they won't build it. I, along with millions of others, would gladly jump on the broadband wagon, IF IT WERE OFFERED. A sizable percentage of people (along with myself) live in rural or semi-rural areas where broadband is just simply not available. And likely never will be, at least in my lifetime. And I don't want to hear the standard Slashdot reply of "Just move" because if I could "Just move" I'd "Just done it" a long time ago. Some of us are married. Some of us have kids in school. Some of us simply can't move for other reasons, at least not just for broadband. Until wireless broadband matures/becomes reasonably priced, satellite quits FAP'ping their overcharged users, or some other hithero undiscovered technology becomes available to bypass the "usual suspects" (Telecos, cable providers) the large rural segment of the United States will be left in the digital dark with just the flickering candle of 56k to go by.
Agree with you about FarCry. While HL2 is prettier in almost every regard, the wide openness and zero loading (except between levels, where it's acceptable) make the dis-continuity of HL2's constant "loading at a bad time" more apparent. Also I enjoyed the stronger role vehicles play in FarCry. But otherwise, both games will stay well-played on my system...
Re:Yes, flimsy paper masks!
on
Halloween Fun
·
· Score: 1
Rubber is definately the way to go.
What I hated the most as a young child trick-or-treating was wearing those plastic half-masks that only cover your face. Being the ugly duckling that I was, I had (well, still have) a disproportionally large head and so the damn rubber band (held in place on the mask with a single staple,) would always break after about the third house or so. Of course the solution was always to tie the two pieces together making the band ever smaller and even more prone to breaking.
Now if only they'd come up with a baby-scream jammer, popcorn-crunching jammer, and a candy-wrapper crunching sound jammer I'd be all set to go back to the movies!
But I am old enough to remember the early '90s MTV of grunge, late-night electronica, Beavis & Butt-Head, and quirky off-beat videos of music you wouldn't necessarily hear on mainstream radio
I'm 29, I remember when MTV actually played videos. In long blocks of time, too - not just as bumpers between the 40,000th repeat of Real World. I can vaguely remember such videos as Billy Joel's "Pressure," etc. but mainly I remember the cheesy hair bands. Warrant, anyone? What I missed the most was Head Banger's Ball. (Though I hear they brought it back later on.)
To quote the website which discusses Doctor Masahiro Mori's famous theory on why we reject the "nearly human" vs. the "obviously inhuman" - The Uncanny Valley, " This chasm -- the uncanny valley of Doctor Mori's thesis -- represents the point at which a person observing the creature or object in question sees something that is nearly human, but just enough off-kilter to seem eerie or disquieting." - Basically, we tend to "humanize" and accept as human objects which do not appear human at all (Shrek) but outright reject and even feel uncomfortable with objects which try to appear fully human (Final Fantasy Movie and this Wonderful Life animation.) It's actually a facinating read!
Quite reliable, true; but not 100% - According to wikipedia most usb drives will last a few million read/write cycles but at some point even they will deteriorate in performance. (Still, a few million cycles isn't bad!!)
I can't even begin to tell you of the number of times I've purchased a fresh box of floppies (for work) and have at least one out of the box have bad sectors. Whenever I am forced to use a floppy I always scandisk the damn thing and usually take a few extra copies just in case. I still keep old install disks when I find them (ironically, old AOL diskettes never seem to go bad, I honestly believe they'll hold their data until the Sun goes Nova.)
he was both cutting himself and was holding a gun (.45 to be precise, a shotgun) to their head
Not to be nitpicky (but this *is* Slashdot, afterall, where nitpickiness is a way of life) a.45 is not a shotgun, but rather a caliber of handgun. (ex..22,.25,.357,.38, 9mm, etc.) Shotguns are usually in the line of 10 gauge, 12 gauge, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
In a nutshell, this is how I do things:
1) Rent from Netflix, 2 at a time unlimited (all issues of throttling aside)
2) Rip discs as they arrive with DVDFab HD Decrypter
3) Compress with DVDShrink (I still have a single-layer burner and besides, the disks are cheaper - I just don't copy the extras or the French audio track, etc., so as to minimize compression of the main movie. This also strips off the ghey previews and FBI warnings. Snatch!) I have used both DVD-R and DVD+R; personal preference is DVD+R. YMMV.
4) Burn result with Nero. Keep files on harddrive for awhile until I'm sure the burnt disk is ok.
5) Whisk Netflix movies back next day. Watch burnt movie at my leisure. ~~
In case any of you were wondering, you can buy just one copy and install it on every machine in your network, without the worry of finding unique serial numbers. When playing LAN games DSII apparently does not check for unique serial number instances. (Unlike NWN.) My wife, being cool, likes Dungeon Siege as much as I and couldn't wait for II. We checked and sure enough we can play together on the home LAN without the need for another serial number. (Probably won't apply on the 'net, but we're stuck on dial-up anyways and don't play online.)
Runs 1000Mb/s over cat5(e)
That's great as long as you keep the cat5(e) cables relatively short - oh, in my experience, 30 feet or less (despite claims to the contrary, I won't bore you with the how's and why's) As soon as I get around to it I'm going to recable my house with cat6.
You should look hard for wireless (not satellite) providers.
:-(
Yeah, Verizon has thier slow-speed wireless service available, but it is only marginally faster than dial-up but costs $80 a month. Just isn't worth it. Verizon is rolling the high-speed stuff, as you might guess, in some of the major cities. As far as wi-fi'ing from 15 miles, actually my brother is 5 miles away and does have broadband. However, that 5 miles is heavily forested and he's down in a low spot anyways
There will for a very long time be rural areas that won't get broadband access. Their options will be wireless, satallite, or powerline.
It sucks to be me. I live at the end of two telephone trunks (The last pedestal for one remote c/o is in my front yard, the last pedestal from another remote c/o is in my next door neighbor's yard) meaning of course I have no hope in hell of ever getting DSL. I remember when the Bellsouth guy came to hook up my home for service he had to schedule a line repair crew to come by and patch up enough lines so that I could even get a dial-tone (all other good pairs in the pedestal having been already taken.) Cable won't ever be run to my place b/c I am on the the county line; Comcast has agreements with the county which is not even 100 feet from my front door, but nothing with the county I actually live in; there is no right-of-way coming the other direction to recieve a cable trunk from my home county at all (power comes from a right-of-way originating from the other county.) So satellite is the only reasonable choice for broadband, but I'll be damned if I'll pay $600 install, $80 a month for FAP'ped, hi-latency service. So until some new technology comes out, or Bellsouth decides for whatever reason to build a new remote c/o closer to my house, (New subdivision might do the trick,) I have no realistic options. Should I move? No, the no-broadband thing is a welcome trade-off to live in an area where the neighbors are friendly, no need to lock the doors type area, with acres and acres of woods behind my house for privacy. There are hundreds of thousands of people like me who lust for broadband but b/c we don't happen to live within 2 miles from a major metropolis will likely never taste the sweet fruit of broadband.
There is a MagLev test line under development in the Yamanashi perfecture, that can currently do 310 mph; it is quite a treat to watch, and if you get lucky you can get a chance to ride it. More information here in English, with some videos here. True, it's been around damn near ten years and they haven't started public service...
Why do some people think that one has to eat during a movie? Don't some people eat a regular meal like dinner or something before going to see a movie?
I haven't figured that one out either. Like they can't go two hours without eating. Plus, the general ambience of masticating jaws really doesn't lend itself well to the movie experience in my opinion. Not to mention, even the smallest drinks are bladder-buster sized and I just fail to comprehend why anyone would stock up on cola when the last thing you want is to have to use those less-than-lovely public urinals. Unless they're the types that look forward to peeing on the urinal cakes, and building up those wonderful kidney stones.
I pay the extra charge to use the stand-alone self-serve photo kiosks which stand right beside the cheaper 1-hour kiosks at Wal-Mart. The cheaper kiosk is handled by the minimum-wage goons behind the desk and is subject to review as mentioned by TFA; the instant kiosk, while more expensive, delivers perfect photos (I suspect it's using a dye-sub printer under there, I'm sure one of you know for sure) without any of your photos being peer-reviewed. I printed out a large number of my photos from my trip to Japan in April which a few could easily be construed as professional or maybe semi-professional. Being an introverted geek, I'll pay extra any day if it means not having to speak to someone, anyway.
I went on a business trip just this past April, and among some of my wanderings, I visited Akihabara with my boss. I have some photos posted on flickr of a couple of the anime shops, the streets, and a street performer (who was heckled by a drunk old guy, much to everyone's amusement.) The streets of Akihabara are packed with merchants hawking their wares, and the small shops have so many people entering/leaving their places that they simply leave the doors open. One shop we stuck our head in had enough electronic components stocked to make a 1970's era Radio Shack weep. The prices in the shops, in my opinion, were not all that fantastic. In general they were all on par with what can be found in the States. I'll never forget turning a corner and staring in awe at the sea of pedestrian shoppers (both the boss and I, simple country people that we were, observed that we were about to become caucasion flotsam and decided to turn back towards the train terminal end of Akihabara.)
Seriously... I'm 6'5", which means that I'm taller than a good 95% of the people that I meet.
Being 5'6" myself, and ectomorphic in physique as well, I know all to well what you're talking about. I'm invisible. In any group setting, the "Alpha Male" is never me by default. If I am required to take a leadership role, I have to earn it, every time - it's never given to me. Having been small my entire life, I've observed the phenomena you're talking about keenly - from the other side. Fortunately, being an introverted geek I prefer invisibility anyway. I'd like to think I'm well-adjusted, however I've known other Lilliputian fellows with severe Napoleon complexes; you know the type, small and diminuative they demand attention and are generally the worst pricks you'll ever meet.
I'm very grateful so far for the advice, (I submitted this,) I should have mentioned that yes, I do not speak a lick of Japanese but will have a couple of bilingual assistants. Only one of whom, however, is fluent enough in English to be of any use. Also, he is a decent VB programmer in his own right and as you may guess, I'll be buying him dinner to keep him on my good side. Unfortunately, he's a busy fellow so he won't be dropping in to help, except sporadically. The only other saving graces is that the software will have limited users (all in house; not released to the public, so I can indeed babysit the application.) But the biggest tip I'm picking up is to learn at program inside and out while I'm there, around the original developers, so when I get it stateside I'll know intimately what it's supposed to do and what it's supposed to accomplish. That, and to pray and pray hard ;-) Thanks, y'all
In addition to those fine 7 points, I'd add that to sucessfully web browse (or whatever) while doing those tricks you should keep Firefox un-Maximized, with whatever important-seeming app a mere task-switch, or quick mouse click away. Failing that, remember in Windows you can quickly minimize any app (Firefox, IE if so unfortunate) with a quick ALT+SPACE+N. Practice it. Get good with it. You'll be able to minimize that browser without the tell-tale mouse "wrist jerk and click" that people can see as they approach. (Everyone knows ALT+F4 but sometimes you want to finish what you're reading later, so you don't necessarily want to close the browser.)
If the remake is directed by...
M Night Shyamalan:
*You find out in the end the main hero was in the computer ALL ALONG
*The bad guys in the story are weak vs. water, which COVERS 75% OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE for pete's sake.
*Protagonist sees webpages where the rest of sees 503 Forbidden's.
Ok, now your turn. Post what-ifs if directed by your fav director.
Keep it simple. Just stick an older PC case down in a somewhat ventilated cabinet on the opposite end of the room from the power equipment. (Do you really need the computer to be _right at_ the work area?) Older Pentium IIs and such don't run so hot that they can't deal with a little claustrophobia. Run your keyboard/optical mouse up top (a mouse with balls WILL clog in 5.6 nano seconds in a workshop.) A plastic dust cover for the keyboard is nice but I'm not using one in my shop. Sit the monitor up top. Network as required. (My shop is in the basement and my house is wired with Cat 5e but you can go wireless.) Unless your shop is really small you should have no problems. Couple times a year, visually check your case for dust bunnies. Vacuum as required. Total cost for me was $0, using by old equipment and a donated monitor from work.
But how about the rest of the world? Especially unindustrialized nations. They'll be using dial-up for years to come.
Otherwise known as RURAL AMERICA. I shake my fists at my dial-up at least once a week. Just move you say? Try convincing the wife/kids. Besides, the other benefits of country living (less crime, aside from the occasional meth lab, and low traffic and virtually no people congestion) outweigh even broadband. But I'd still sell a testicle for a solid non-FAP'ped broadband access.
... Trouble is, they won't build it. I, along with millions of others, would gladly jump on the broadband wagon, IF IT WERE OFFERED. A sizable percentage of people (along with myself) live in rural or semi-rural areas where broadband is just simply not available. And likely never will be, at least in my lifetime. And I don't want to hear the standard Slashdot reply of "Just move" because if I could "Just move" I'd "Just done it" a long time ago. Some of us are married. Some of us have kids in school. Some of us simply can't move for other reasons, at least not just for broadband. Until wireless broadband matures/becomes reasonably priced, satellite quits FAP'ping their overcharged users, or some other hithero undiscovered technology becomes available to bypass the "usual suspects" (Telecos, cable providers) the large rural segment of the United States will be left in the digital dark with just the flickering candle of 56k to go by.
Agree with you about FarCry. While HL2 is prettier in almost every regard, the wide openness and zero loading (except between levels, where it's acceptable) make the dis-continuity of HL2's constant "loading at a bad time" more apparent. Also I enjoyed the stronger role vehicles play in FarCry. But otherwise, both games will stay well-played on my system...
Rubber is definately the way to go.
What I hated the most as a young child trick-or-treating was wearing those plastic half-masks that only cover your face. Being the ugly duckling that I was, I had (well, still have) a disproportionally large head and so the damn rubber band (held in place on the mask with a single staple,) would always break after about the third house or so. Of course the solution was always to tie the two pieces together making the band ever smaller and even more prone to breaking.
Now if only they'd come up with a baby-scream jammer, popcorn-crunching jammer, and a candy-wrapper crunching sound jammer I'd be all set to go back to the movies!
But I am old enough to remember the early '90s MTV of grunge, late-night electronica, Beavis & Butt-Head, and quirky off-beat videos of music you wouldn't necessarily hear on mainstream radio
I'm 29, I remember when MTV actually played videos. In long blocks of time, too - not just as bumpers between the 40,000th repeat of Real World. I can vaguely remember such videos as Billy Joel's "Pressure," etc. but mainly I remember the cheesy hair bands. Warrant, anyone? What I missed the most was Head Banger's Ball. (Though I hear they brought it back later on.)
To quote the website which discusses Doctor Masahiro Mori's famous theory on why we reject the "nearly human" vs. the "obviously inhuman" - The Uncanny Valley, " This chasm -- the uncanny valley of Doctor Mori's thesis -- represents the point at which a person observing the creature or object in question sees something that is nearly human, but just enough off-kilter to seem eerie or disquieting." - Basically, we tend to "humanize" and accept as human objects which do not appear human at all (Shrek) but outright reject and even feel uncomfortable with objects which try to appear fully human (Final Fantasy Movie and this Wonderful Life animation.) It's actually a facinating read!
I think the Mars people will get very tired of all that masturbation and gay sex well before 20 years.
::rimshot::
And those that don't will move to a tight orbit of Uranus
Quite reliable, true; but not 100% - According to wikipedia most usb drives will last a few million read/write cycles but at some point even they will deteriorate in performance. (Still, a few million cycles isn't bad!!)
I can't even begin to tell you of the number of times I've purchased a fresh box of floppies (for work) and have at least one out of the box have bad sectors. Whenever I am forced to use a floppy I always scandisk the damn thing and usually take a few extra copies just in case. I still keep old install disks when I find them (ironically, old AOL diskettes never seem to go bad, I honestly believe they'll hold their data until the Sun goes Nova.)
But we got your point