If smoking really made people less healthy and was a factor in the cost of health insurance and life insurance, then the insurance companies would charge higher rates for people who smoke. And if sugary drinks make people fat and that really made people less healthy, maybe insurance companies would check fat content to charge a higher rate to less healthy people.
Oh wait. They do.
The problem is that the government is getting into the business of providing health care. The goverment solution is to find creative ways to fund their unaffordable health care costs. I think a good solution would be for the government to not pay for health care costs and let smokers and people who drink sugar sodas get their own health care. Problem solved.
After I first played "Wii: Play" and Wii Sports I thought: 99% of free Flash games on the web are as good or better than these games, with far better controls.
Think about how much better $2 Flash and $2 mobile games must be compared to Nintendo's games!
If the stores would actually tell you the real "retail price" of sale items, I would be much more likely to buy things when they seem to be a good deal. But "10%" off usually just seems to mean that they jacked up the price 5-10% then marked off 10% of that. The last time I ever bought a BluRay from Borders, I had a 40% off one BluRay coupon, and they had Princess Bride at $40 (which seemed ridiculous, but it was inconceivable that I not buy it ASAP)... so I bought it for $24 and was happy as could be. Until I got home and saw the retail price everyplace else on the planet was $30 for exactly the same disk... and I could have got it for $18 on Amazon.
We were at Toys R Us a week ago when "ALL*" lego sets were on sale BOGO50% off... except two of of the four we tried to get of course. So we told them they could put back the Starwars sets and we would just get the last two... they rung up at $10 more than the price they had had on them just a couple days before when we were considering getting them. Turns out they raised the price of some (all?) of their legos ahead of the BOGO sale... we refused to pay the higher amount and a manager had to come authorize selling at their normal price... and 50% off of their normal price.
So yeah, I'm going to check prices at Toys R us and Borders... well, actually I've pretty much just stopped going to stores in the first place, but with my phone I can at least check if they are cheating me or not.
If they have trouble reading the DRM, all they will need to do is push the "Enhance" button on their Tricorder and the files will play back just fine, except maybe for some slight analog distortion some disgruntled code monkey added when coding the "Enhance" function.
I beg to differ, but Tivo seems to be considerably cheaper than Comcast.
Your Comcast also charges you around $65/month for service... assuming you also have internet and phone with them so they lower the cost by $10. (That is what I'm paying Comcast, we have nothing extra, just the bare minimum required to get local HD channels. With the "free" PVR also of course.)
Compare this to OTA which is free once you have the setup. So I would be getting the $800 box and happily paying the $13/month for OTA... I'll break even in a little over a year, and Comcast will probably be charging $80/month by then.
And when that is obsolete, I'll probably just buy a BlueRay player when they come down in price and get my TV from Netflix.
(I say "would" because here in Denver we have a group of NIMBY viewNazis who refuse to let the tv channels build a single HD tower where 4 SD towers stand now. The group in question is in Golden, one of our upscale suburban towns in the foothills. They all have the $100/month extortion Comcast wants for their better packages, and have change left over to hire gardeners and buy off the city council. So we get no single HD antennae... and poor signal quality if you even get a signal from the scattered HD signals.)
I have been using a Datahand for almost 10 years. My problems were from too much writing at school, 70 work weeks programming, and playing video games (more mouse) on top of it all. I had pain in my Ulnar nerver, running from my pinky/ring finger up my elbow to my neck. It was so bad I could not brush my teeth with my right hand. I pretty much gave up gaming for 2+ years...
While trying out 10+ different keyboards/mice, I got Dragon Dictate working pretty well with two dictionaries, one for writing and one for programming. After a year of that, I bit the bullet and got a Datahand (they were $2200 back then). I would not describe it as difficult to learn (it was easier than some of the 10 preceeding keyboards), but it definitely is different. My wife bought me a copy of Mavis Beacon, and after a day I was able to realize which mode I was in and start to relax typing slowly. After a week of using that in tandem with Dragon Dictate I was typing as fast as I did before my injury. After two weeks I turned off Dragon Dictate for the last time.
Anyway, I use it now for 99% of my computer use, using a normal mouse only for drawing/image editing. My original datahand has been retired to the closet (the new keyboard is much higher quality), but I have 3 new onese: one at work (purchased by my company), one on my gaming machine (Pro so I can remap keys), and one on my linux box (Personal).
My wife just upgraded her DS to a DS Lite. On the DS we started out with one of the Nintendo screen protectors, but it quickly got scratched up to where you could not see the lower screen through the mess.
To solve the problem we simply bought some high quality Palm Pilot screen protectors, then cut this to the right dimensions for the DS. It works flawlessly with the DS and the stylus, and looks better after use than the Nintendo protectors do new. This pad hardly shows marks at all, even after playing stylus intensive games. They are less than $1 each at your local office supply store.
Yesterday we picked up a DS Lite and the first thing we did was throw a Palm protector onto the screen. Works like a charm.
My DataHand http://www.datahand.com/ keyboard has only 50 keys, and unlike this "new standard keyboard", it really is ergonomic. Plus, it was easy to relearn and is actually faster to type on.
The pro version lets me remap keys, so I guess I can remap my keyboard to the new "standard" if it ever catches on.
Datahands are not that expensive compared to missing a week or two of work. I was typing 100% with Dragon Dictate (speach software) and couldn't even brush my teeth when I got my first Datahand. Within a week I was typing as fast as I ever had and within a couple months all my pain was gone.
I have 4 Datahands I've purchased over the last 8 years. 2 I purchased and 2 employers purchased... for $2000, $1300, $1100, and $650.
The first one ($2000) still works fine, but the newer models are better enough that when I saw the ProII for $650 a few months back I had to replace it.
Note: Rolfing has allowed me to go back to using a normal keyboard/mouse as much as I like.
Hear Hear.
I paid $250 for the full Rurouni Kenshin set on DVD... only to find out that the losers don't even have a Stereo Japanese (or English) soundtrack.
I guess I'm just spoiled. The $7/tape Fansubs I purchased 8 years ago on VHS were in stereo. I absolutely love the opening/ending songs on every episode of Kenshin (and Kodomo no Omocha, and Jungle Guu, and Last Exile).
This purchase may be the greatest reason I have watched more and more anime for "free" from NetFlix and BitTorrent. I purchased Last Exile (release here by Geneon) after watching it via BitTorrent and NetFlix... and all I can say is Geneon is lightyears beyond Funimation, VIZ, U.S. Manga Corps, etc.
If all releases were like Ghibli films (Spirited Away), Last Exile, and Haibane Renmei... high quality, wide screen enhanced video with stereo Japanese (and English if you like) soundtracks with good quality video compression... I would be buying far more anime.
As it is, I want my money back for Kenshin.
Similar procedure where I voted, except they checked our IDs and had us sign a voter card which they placed in a big pile of voter cards and then had us line up in a different line while we waited for them to verify our district. Then 30-40 minutes later a different person than the one that checked my ID called my name and had me leave the line to come up and get my "voting slip". The slips were given out in no apparent order, so it would not seem unusual to be delivering slips to people later in the line than someone who already had a slip. Our voting slip was a 2x2 piece of standard white copy paper with my district number ("11") written on it in sloppy black Sharpie Marker. The slip of paper clearly had been used several times before hand, and the line ranged all over with people getting in and out of line. (It was in a grocery store and they had an ad for the Deli in the middle of the winding line.) The lady four or so people ahead of me in line I never saw until just before we were to the front of the line. She had been sitting someplace else with her baby and her husband was holding her place in line.
Slashdot Mirror
he'll be lucky if he doesn't miss the earth
I have not succeeded yet but maybe Felix has learned the knack?
"There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." - HHGTTG
If smoking really made people less healthy and was a factor in the cost of health insurance and life insurance, then the insurance companies would charge higher rates for people who smoke. And if sugary drinks make people fat and that really made people less healthy, maybe insurance companies would check fat content to charge a higher rate to less healthy people. Oh wait. They do. The problem is that the government is getting into the business of providing health care. The goverment solution is to find creative ways to fund their unaffordable health care costs. I think a good solution would be for the government to not pay for health care costs and let smokers and people who drink sugar sodas get their own health care. Problem solved.
After I first played "Wii: Play" and Wii Sports I thought: 99% of free Flash games on the web are as good or better than these games, with far better controls. Think about how much better $2 Flash and $2 mobile games must be compared to Nintendo's games!
If the stores would actually tell you the real "retail price" of sale items, I would be much more likely to buy things when they seem to be a good deal. But "10%" off usually just seems to mean that they jacked up the price 5-10% then marked off 10% of that. The last time I ever bought a BluRay from Borders, I had a 40% off one BluRay coupon, and they had Princess Bride at $40 (which seemed ridiculous, but it was inconceivable that I not buy it ASAP)... so I bought it for $24 and was happy as could be. Until I got home and saw the retail price everyplace else on the planet was $30 for exactly the same disk... and I could have got it for $18 on Amazon. We were at Toys R Us a week ago when "ALL*" lego sets were on sale BOGO50% off... except two of of the four we tried to get of course. So we told them they could put back the Starwars sets and we would just get the last two... they rung up at $10 more than the price they had had on them just a couple days before when we were considering getting them. Turns out they raised the price of some (all?) of their legos ahead of the BOGO sale... we refused to pay the higher amount and a manager had to come authorize selling at their normal price... and 50% off of their normal price. So yeah, I'm going to check prices at Toys R us and Borders... well, actually I've pretty much just stopped going to stores in the first place, but with my phone I can at least check if they are cheating me or not.
If they have trouble reading the DRM, all they will need to do is push the "Enhance" button on their Tricorder and the files will play back just fine, except maybe for some slight analog distortion some disgruntled code monkey added when coding the "Enhance" function.
I beg to differ, but Tivo seems to be considerably cheaper than Comcast. Your Comcast also charges you around $65/month for service... assuming you also have internet and phone with them so they lower the cost by $10. (That is what I'm paying Comcast, we have nothing extra, just the bare minimum required to get local HD channels. With the "free" PVR also of course.) Compare this to OTA which is free once you have the setup. So I would be getting the $800 box and happily paying the $13/month for OTA... I'll break even in a little over a year, and Comcast will probably be charging $80/month by then. And when that is obsolete, I'll probably just buy a BlueRay player when they come down in price and get my TV from Netflix. (I say "would" because here in Denver we have a group of NIMBY viewNazis who refuse to let the tv channels build a single HD tower where 4 SD towers stand now. The group in question is in Golden, one of our upscale suburban towns in the foothills. They all have the $100/month extortion Comcast wants for their better packages, and have change left over to hire gardeners and buy off the city council. So we get no single HD antennae... and poor signal quality if you even get a signal from the scattered HD signals.)
I have been using a Datahand for almost 10 years. My problems were from too much writing at school, 70 work weeks programming, and playing video games (more mouse) on top of it all. I had pain in my Ulnar nerver, running from my pinky/ring finger up my elbow to my neck. It was so bad I could not brush my teeth with my right hand. I pretty much gave up gaming for 2+ years...
While trying out 10+ different keyboards/mice, I got Dragon Dictate working pretty well with two dictionaries, one for writing and one for programming. After a year of that, I bit the bullet and got a Datahand (they were $2200 back then). I would not describe it as difficult to learn (it was easier than some of the 10 preceeding keyboards), but it definitely is different. My wife bought me a copy of Mavis Beacon, and after a day I was able to realize which mode I was in and start to relax typing slowly. After a week of using that in tandem with Dragon Dictate I was typing as fast as I did before my injury. After two weeks I turned off Dragon Dictate for the last time.
Anyway, I use it now for 99% of my computer use, using a normal mouse only for drawing/image editing. My original datahand has been retired to the closet (the new keyboard is much higher quality), but I have 3 new onese: one at work (purchased by my company), one on my gaming machine (Pro so I can remap keys), and one on my linux box (Personal).
My wife just upgraded her DS to a DS Lite. On the DS we started out with one of the Nintendo screen protectors, but it quickly got scratched up to where you could not see the lower screen through the mess.
To solve the problem we simply bought some high quality Palm Pilot screen protectors, then cut this to the right dimensions for the DS. It works flawlessly with the DS and the stylus, and looks better after use than the Nintendo protectors do new. This pad hardly shows marks at all, even after playing stylus intensive games. They are less than $1 each at your local office supply store.
Yesterday we picked up a DS Lite and the first thing we did was throw a Palm protector onto the screen. Works like a charm.
My DataHand http://www.datahand.com/ keyboard has only 50 keys, and unlike this "new standard keyboard", it really is ergonomic. Plus, it was easy to relearn and is actually faster to type on. The pro version lets me remap keys, so I guess I can remap my keyboard to the new "standard" if it ever catches on.
Datahands are not that expensive compared to missing a week or two of work. I was typing 100% with Dragon Dictate (speach software) and couldn't even brush my teeth when I got my first Datahand. Within a week I was typing as fast as I ever had and within a couple months all my pain was gone.
I have 4 Datahands I've purchased over the last 8 years. 2 I purchased and 2 employers purchased... for $2000, $1300, $1100, and $650.
The first one ($2000) still works fine, but the newer models are better enough that when I saw the ProII for $650 a few months back I had to replace it.
Note: Rolfing has allowed me to go back to using a normal keyboard/mouse as much as I like.
I paid $250 for the full Rurouni Kenshin set on DVD... only to find out that the losers don't even have a Stereo Japanese (or English) soundtrack.
I guess I'm just spoiled. The $7/tape Fansubs I purchased 8 years ago on VHS were in stereo. I absolutely love the opening/ending songs on every episode of Kenshin (and Kodomo no Omocha, and Jungle Guu, and Last Exile).
This purchase may be the greatest reason I have watched more and more anime for "free" from NetFlix and BitTorrent. I purchased Last Exile (release here by Geneon) after watching it via BitTorrent and NetFlix... and all I can say is Geneon is lightyears beyond Funimation, VIZ, U.S. Manga Corps, etc.
If all releases were like Ghibli films (Spirited Away), Last Exile, and Haibane Renmei... high quality, wide screen enhanced video with stereo Japanese (and English if you like) soundtracks with good quality video compression... I would be buying far more anime. As it is, I want my money back for Kenshin.
Similar procedure where I voted, except they checked our IDs and had us sign a voter card which they placed in a big pile of voter cards and then had us line up in a different line while we waited for them to verify our district. Then 30-40 minutes later a different person than the one that checked my ID called my name and had me leave the line to come up and get my "voting slip". The slips were given out in no apparent order, so it would not seem unusual to be delivering slips to people later in the line than someone who already had a slip. Our voting slip was a 2x2 piece of standard white copy paper with my district number ("11") written on it in sloppy black Sharpie Marker. The slip of paper clearly had been used several times before hand, and the line ranged all over with people getting in and out of line. (It was in a grocery store and they had an ad for the Deli in the middle of the winding line.) The lady four or so people ahead of me in line I never saw until just before we were to the front of the line. She had been sitting someplace else with her baby and her husband was holding her place in line.