It might be a fact that passenger rail service is subsidized in every country of the world - but that hardly means it's *impossible* to make it profitable.
It's obviously an expensive endeavour, and not one likely to turn a large profit for a private investor -- but I still think it's doable. The problem is, once you learn you can get a free govt. handout to help offset your business expenses, it's easy to quit caring about doing it without the assistance.
It just makes common sense that it's cheaper to transport a large number of people from point A to B in the same vehicle, rather than have all those people operate individual vehicles.
Meanwhile, you can charge considerably more than they'd pay to travel from A to B themselves, by offering conveniences and entertainment during the trip they'd have to do without otherwise.
It's a long, painful road -- but I'm convinced anti-spam filters can be made intelligent enough to pretty much kill off all incoming spam, other than the occasional advertisement that's out of the ordinary, and contains actual, pertinent information.
Right now, the best of the spam filters seem to be effective enough that spammers have to resort to badly garbling up their messages just to sneak them through. (They're putting lines of poetry between every line of their own text, badly mis-spelling half the words on purpose, etc. etc.) These are all signs that spam filtering is starting to win the war, IMHO.
You have to remember, spam advertisements generally only target certain lines of products and services. Most legitimate businesses realize that it does FAR more harm to one's reputation than it does good in additional sales - so they're highly unlikely to resort to mass emailings. This is going to be their downfall. Filters can and should be made smart enough to kill mail based on the topic - so anything hawking ink-jet cartridges/refills, drugs/pharmaceuticals, loans, extended warranties, porn/dating/matchmaking services, weight-loss, or insurance should be trashed automatically. If this is done effectively enough, I imagine that would reduce my spam by 2/3rds. or more right there.
The MT-32 was the synth of choice all the older Sierra games (and others) supported. When you ran their setup program, it was quite common to get choices such as EGA or VGA display, followed by the sound selections of "Internal Speaker", "None", "Adlib", "Soundblaster" or "MT-32".
Eventually, they started offering "General MIDI" as a selection - which was ultimately more useful and better sounding on the right hardware.... but before that, MT-32 was the one to have.
As strictly a music synth though, no, the MT-32 wasn't a unit you'd use for its stellar signature sounds or anything....
I don't know about that.... I think there should be a little "give and take" on both sides. Yes, people do expect their local print shop to provide some assistance in achieving their goals on the printed page. That means, if they've chosen color schemes that only work on a CRT but not on paper - the print shop guy/gal should gladly offer alternate suggestions and make it right. (Quite frankly, if it wasn't for this type of assistance, I'm not sure why most print shops would stay in business nowdays. I can buy a brand new Minolta color laser printer for about $400 after mail-in rebate right now, and for under $3000, have a top-of-the-line PowerMac G5 system to do my own desktop publishing on. The "hardware" isn't really *that* big a deal for someone to obtain if they want to do a lot of publishing. Print shops need to offer *knowledge* and *assistance* to keep customers!)
On the other hand, if you're too "computer-challenged" to figure out that text should be typed up in a word processing program, as opposed to a slide presentation program - you deserve to be told to go back and redo it using the right tool.
Actually, the best comment I read recently about all of this "anti-PowerPoint" hoopla was this:
"The key to making a good PowerPoint presentation is to state your conclusion in the very beginning. Then use the rest of your presentation to back up those conclusions and explain them to your audience."
Most people start in on a rambling presentation, showing numerous statistics and charts, and the audience is either asleep or totally confused by the time the last slides bring it all to a conclusion.
See, I think *that's* how things should really be. I love working at jobs like that, where I'm a big part of my own destiny. The corporate world loves to make empty promises along those lines, but in reality - when you work for them, you get what some bean-counter decided is in your "proper pay range" for that year.
Sure, you get the supposed "benefit" of a steady income, no matter how good or bad the company's sales are - but that's a facade. If it gets too hard for them to pay you, they'll just let you go at the drop of a hat - and then you'll have a BIG problem on your hands.
At least working for the little guys, you always know what's up ahead - because you're actively part of the operation, and YOU control much of it. You can't single-handedly change a bad economy, but you could opt to do things like help advertise for them, even though you're "off the clock", or put in some extra hours of work on customer's equipment that you don't bill them for - so they'll be pleased enough to use you again and again.
Last year, we decided it would be nice to take Amtrak for a visit to Chicago (from St. Louis, MO), rather than drive all the way up there.
I've always liked trains, though I almost never ride them. I was really looking forward to this opportunity, and was quite let down.
For starters, the train was at least 15 minutes late arriving at the station (in Kirkwood). Then, we were told that Amtrak trains to Chicago never really leave directly from Kirkwood's station. They have to first travel to the downtown station. (So in other words, more wasted time before we really got under way.) The downtown St. Louis Amtrak station is a disgrace. It looks like an old tin shack. Ever since our original station (Union Station) was decomissioned and turned into a shopping mall, Amtrak has never bothered to replace it with anything remotely decent-looking. Then, our train stopped out in the middle of nowhere for at least 30 minutes, waiting for the track to clear up ahead. (Perhaps another Amtrak train broke down? They never did explain.) Then, there were all of the scheduled stops at little stations where it seemed that nobody got on or off anyway. The train cars themselves were at best, in "average" condition. They reminded me of old seats on a bus that needed a good cleaning or reupholstering. By the time we finally arrived in Chicago, I was *very* glad to be off the train, and felt like driving would have been the superior experience. (I still had to get a rental car for the rest of our Chicago trip anyway.)
It's obvious that Amtrak has NO clue how to properly run a public transportation system - and they're rather perpetuate the belief that trains just aren't profitable anymore than take the steps needed to succeed. I really hope they do go bankrupt and govt. doesn't bail them back out. Maybe then, a private investor will buy up the right-of-ways and equipment and run it like a real business!
On the flip-side, though, show me *any* revolution or rebellion in history where most of the participants really understood all the ramifications of what they were doing - and truly did what they did for the "political dynamics".
No... What *really* happens is a few "leaders" speak out loudly and often. The masses like what they hear (even if it's just because it makes them feel better about their activities they're already doing), so they point to it as justification for their actions.
When the Colonists fought the British in the American Revolution, do you really think they all did it for the "greater good" and long-term goals? NAH! There was a recent History Channel special on the Boston Massacre, and among other things - it was discovered that the whole thing really started because a few drunk people came out of a pub, harassing the British guards. Eventually, they made a big enough scene that the guards got scared it was going to get ugly and a warning shot was fired. The rabble-rousers like Paul Revere twisted the story into a tale of the evil British firing upon the innocent crowd - and voila, instant anti-British sentiment was nutured and fueled.
Actually, it strikes me as rather funny that someone quotes a price of well under $600 for a complete computer system (monitor included) and people gripe that it's "overpriced" and "spendy"!
It wasn't that long ago that you just couldn't get into the personal computer market for under $1500 or so -- and you get SO much more computing power today than you got then.
I maintain that to a large extent, you still "get what you pay for". All that's really happened in the PC compatible world is the sheer volume of sales and competition has pushed quality down, in order to squeeze rock-bottom pricing out of a system.
I work on PCs for a living, and frankly, the build quality and overall design put into most name-brand PCs today is piss-poor. If I never have to work on a "consumer grade" HP or Compaq again, I'll be very pleased! There's no good reason you should have to remove the power supply just to upgrade the RAM, folks! Don't even get me started on eMachines systems.... And even the Sony Vaios are simply pretty cases with failure-prone components inside. (I have friends at extended warranty companies who say they get more claims filed on Vaios than any other brand they cover.)
Honestly, these days, I have to think long and hard when a customer asks me what to buy if he wants a "top quality PC", and says "I'm willing to pay more, as long as I get quality." The whole PC market practically ignores these folks nowdays. Thank goodness for Apple, who still believes in offering top-tier systems for discriminating consumers.
Even though this is getting pretty far off-topic - I know what you mean about the college education vs. reading/using the library thing.
I can say with absolute certainty that I learned more from my own reading than I ever learned in school.
On the other hand, though, the formal/structured nature of school forced me to learn about quite a few topics I would have chosen to skip over if I was simply reading the things I wanted to read.
Anyway, if you want to go the self-taught route and be a success minus the college degree, all I can say is: Work for yourself! Seriously, the corporate world will never give you a fair shake, no matter how knowledgeable and hard-working you are, because the respect for "the piece of paper" is too ingrained in the system. I've learned to accept this, and considering I don't have the financial means to start my own business, I compromise by working for individuals who did - and need that "top quality second or third employee" to help grow what they've started. Yeah, the corporate I.T. guys with the degrees earn more than me, but I do pretty well for myself - and know that my work is MUCH more appreciated than it would be in some corporate cubicle.
Actually, you could be right. But I know this was definitely a problem in the past. My wife grew up in Florida, for example, and specifically remembers the state fighting with the fed. govt. because they didn't want to reduce the speed limits on their highways, and consequently, were going to lose their federal funding.
I also know Montana has always been one of the most self-sufficient of the 50 states. I could easily see them simply posting a "reasonable and prudent" speed limit, rather than a number, no matter what federal govt. recommended to them. "What? We lose all of our federal funding? Ok, fine then! We'd rather have that than you telling us what to do!"
Heh... Yeah, I've been in similar situations. Perhaps the oddest such thing I remember was a get-together/party I attended 4 years ago or so. I was either friends with or on good terms with most of the people there, but one guy always irritated me. I tried to be civil to him, but he was obviously living the stereotype of "cool jock from high-school/college", and just rubbed me the wrong way with most of his comments and discussions.
Anyway, at one point (after a few drinks, which I guess loosened him up enough to start admitting the truth), he came up to me and said "You know something? I really hate you!" I laughed and said "Huh? Why's that?" He then proceeded to tell me (almost to the point of tears!) that he was never a smart guy, and was always frustrated that people like me knew so much about "useful things, like computers".
As I've gotten older (and I suppose, just started caring less what other people think of me?), I've come to realize that just about anything in life takes considerable time and effort to pursue. With the limited time we have, none of us are likely to become "good" at more than a select few things. The "jocks" made their choices to pursue their interest and enjoyment of athletics. By association, that brought a bunch of other "side benefits" with it, such as a perception of being "above average" in attractiveness to the opposite sex, an "above average" sense of fashion/style, etc. It also put them in a group of their peers, who could share their experiences and build friendships. So really, there was nothing "bad" or "wrong" about it! It's just that, unfortunately, it also burnt up enough of their "free time" that they missed out on learning about many more "technical" pursuits. Right now, the technical-minded folks have the spotlight (maybe for the first time!), so the other people aren't quite sure what to make of it.
In theory, you'd be absolutely right. The problem is that in the "real United States", things don't quite work as smoothly as they sound on paper or in theory.
The whole "speed limit" thing is very much a tool of govt. taxation. It gives federal govt. a manipulation tool to use on state govt. - for example. (EG. We declare that any state refusing to honor our recommendation of interstate highway speed limits being capped at speed XX will lose all federal funding for road improvements until they comply.)
At the local level, it gives municipalities ways to increase their tax revenue, too. (EG. We're short on funding for our police officers' salaries this year and need to find ways to make it up. Hey, let's take these small side-roads and reduce their speed limits by 5MPH. We can always use the excuse that it's for the safety of the kids playing outside. Then, we'll get to hand out tickets to all the cars going down that steep hill that don't keep their brakes on the whole time!)
There seems to be a line of thinking that "no matter what you set the speed limits at, people will exceed them". I largely disagree. People (generally) drive at speeds they feel comfortable and safe operating their vehicles at. The average car or truck built today handles quite well at speeds greater than the 65MPH (or even 55MPH) speed limits we impose on most of our highways. As long as that's the case, people will keep trying to exceed the speed limits. If speed limits went up to 80MPH tomorrow, though, for example, I doubt you'd see so many folks eager to go 90 or 100MPH. Smaller 4 cylinder cars are often barely able to maintain these speeds. Lots of folks don't have tires in good enough shape, or of good enough quality to make you feel safe changing lanes at those speeds either. Lastly, it's tough to see signs and interpret them before missing your turns at those speeds.
Govt. has very little incentive to make speed limits match the driving habits of the majority. They earn way too much money from not doing so!
Yes, but unfortunately, we're all paying (via tax dollars) for the time the spammer spends in prison. (Last I checked, that yearly expense was higher than the average cost of college tuition.)
The real motivation behind funding state and federal prisons in the first place was to keep certain types of people out of society. The public pays a certain amount towards this goal, and hopefully, the costs provide benefits that make it worthwhile.
I'm not so sure that there's a pressing need to keep someone completely away from society just because they decided to leverage the power of the Internet to mass mail a bunch of unwanted advertising to people?
That's the danger of having a knee-jerk reaction of "lock 'em up!" every time we want to punish someone. Sure, the potential of doing prison time is a strong deterrent, but is it really any more of one than the threat of taking away every dollar you earn for practically the rest of your life? Or even, perhaps, a threat of forcing you to do years of free labor for the benefit of society as punishment? Surely, those skilled enough with computers to forge addresses and mass email hundreds of thousands of spam messages could offer the govt. something in the way of free computer services?
Yeah, I feel pretty much the same way. I have fond memories of Battlestar Galactica, yet it's been so long since I watched the original show, I honestly forgot most of the details. (I remembered distinctly, for example, that Lorne Green played the commander, but I couldn't remember the names of most of the other people anymore. Of course, they all came back to me as soon as I heard them mentioned again - but I think this lack of recollection of details made it easier to watch this new show without being annoyed by some of the changes.)
Perhaps they want/expect most of the viewers to come into the new mini-series with this perspective? (As a kid, I think I was more fascinated by the space ships themselves and by the cylon robots than by any plot details -- and they've done a great job of bringing back the ships the same way I remember them.)
So often, the TV shows we remember as "really cool" as kids come across pretty lousy when we sit down and watch them again today. I think I prefer the idea of re-inventing the show to trying to accurately recreate the original. Keep the "better than reality" memories intact.
Frankly, I think the United States suffers from considerable corruption in all of its upper-levels of "law enforcement related" divisions.
The FBI, for example, has been bungling up cases left and right - but we largely seem to ignore it or excuse it as "honest mistakes anyone could have made". I mean, look at the recent case with the random shootings in the Northeastern states. Their top criminal profilers all described the culprit completely wrong! They've wasted large amounts of time and money chasing after such minor things as "illegal warez distribution" on computer bulletin board systems and the Internet. They seem to have a bloodlust for anyone remotely possibly doing anything somewhat related to child porn, too - and there's a really *good* chance lots of innocent people are sitting in prisons around the country right now over their overzealousness in this area.
The ATF, of course, has done a number of inexcusable things - including raids at night on the *wrong house address*, and stomping on people's pets and killing them as part of their searches for people and drugs. The Waco thing was simply the most televised fiasco of theirs, but far from the exception to the rule of how they manage to overstep their bounds and screw things up.
There is, of course, plenty of reason to suspect the CIA of doing very questionable things too -- but by their nature, it's harder to pinpoint them most of the time.
The old saying, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." certainly holds true.
I just bought myself a 40GB iPod as my big Xmas gift to myself. Yeah, I was bummed that I missed the day after Thanksgiving sale Apple was running -- but then again, that was also a horrendous day to try doing any shopping. All the crowds and hassles with parking, waiting in lines, etc. probably made it worth waiting and paying the extra 10%.
Another little tip I've heard, though, is to find a buddy working at a CompUSA store. Supposedly, their employee discounts on Apple products (of all types) come pretty close to the same thing as Apple's educational discounts. One of them should be able to buy you an iPod for at least $40 off or so.
Also, don't forget, Apple offers a number of discounts similar to the "educational discount". They have a lesser-known military discount, and a discount for govt. employees too. So you should be able to find *someone* who qualifies for one of those.....
In the grand scheme of things though, I figure an iPod is a pretty pricy little toy, any way you look at it - and if I was going to take the plunge and buy it, I'm not going to incur a bunch of extra hassle just to save less than $50 on the thing. I just paid what they were asking, got my instant gratification, and figure I'll make up for it by avoiding the urge many folks seem to have to waste money on useless iPod accessories (leather cases and the like).
Yep! The original poster is exactly right! What reason or incentive do you really have to give all of your money to a business, if they're not going to provide you with something in return for the ability to borrow your money to make themselves more money?
Banks thrive primarily because society has become addicted to the ease of paying for items electronically. We like the convenience of such things as "direct deposit" and credit or debit cards.
The question is, how long are these basic concepts going to keep the banking industry going? They sure seem to be experimenting to see just how many services they can take away or charge extra for before customers walk away.
Most checking accounts don't even pay interest anymore, unless you keep some huge amount of money in the account at all times. Even the "special services" we're accustomed to trusting banks to provide are diminishing. Just the other day, I needed to have a document notarized - so I called one of the larger branches of my bank to make sure a notary public would be available when I wanted to drop by. Guess what? It turns out they haven't had a notary public for at least several months now - and they could only give me the name of ONE branch in my city that still had one!
Another friend of mine needed some foreign currency before embarking on a business trip - and he had a nearly impossible time getting it. Only one bank branch was equipped to convert his funds to the currency he needed - and when he got there, he was told the foreign funds weren't actually on-hand. He had to give them 48 hours to obtain the money and then come back!
I agree that price per meg. stored is a little better with DVD-R/+R than CDR, but there are other things to consider.
For starters, almost every half-way modern machine in existance today has some type of CD-ROM drive installed in it. That means those CDR backups are readable in almost any computer. If your data is all on DVD-R, you're going to be much more limited as to which computers can directly access it.
Also, I have some concerns about potential for data loss with DVD-R/+R media. There's simply so much data stored in a small amount of physical space that a small nick or scratch can wipe out hundreds of megs. of critical data. At least with CDR media, a scratch or nick may just cause one or two files to be unreadable.
As a LONG time Verizon customer (was actually an Ameritech cellular customer originally, but stuck with them when Verizon took them over here in the midwest), I have to say I'm pleased with their service overall.
That said, there are a couple issues to be aware of with Verizon.
1. Their customer service reps. are notoriously clueless about promotions, service plan rate changes, and technical details of their network and phones in general. Twice now, I've needed firmware flash updates done to Verizon phones and nobody in one of their (large, full-service) stores knew how to do them. One time, they actually let me go in their back room and do it myself, using their PC, programming cables, and software on their hard drive. Verizon also just implemented a new policy that says if you buy any of their combo PDA/phones and need a warranty replacement, the local stores aren't allowed to do it for you anymore. It *must* be done by mail, after getting permission from people on their 1-800 cust. support number. (Problem is, I just needed this - and the 800# cust. service rep. told me to take it to my local store! They weren't even informed of these new rules yet!)
2. If you're interested in the new high-speed data services over digital cellular, Sprint has a much better deal - if you plan to use it much. Verizon's plans still hit you for at least $40 or so per month, additional, for the ability to use their high speed Internet. (I understand you can do this on Sprint PCS for as little as $10 extra per month on top of any existing monthly plan.)
Yes, I realize some would consider the passing out of flyers as "spam" of sorts. Yet, I think it's much less of an issue than email spam.
For starters, I'm the one incurring the costs of distribution. I have to spend money for gas to drive around and put out the flyers, pay for the paper and the printing, and put in my time to get each one delivered to a doorstep. Email spammers take advantage of flat-rate Internet pricing to dump hundreds of thousands of emails upon ISP's mail servers, and let everyone else deal with any problems that creates.
Also, my flyer appears at someone's house only once. If they don't want it, they throw it out and that's all there is to it. I'm not inconveniencing them by making them "unsubscribe" to keep from getting more advertising from me.
Yes, but your thoughts on electronic organs never sounding as good as the "real thing" is just a personal opinion.....
A number of the electronic organs used in 60's and 70's rock music are considered "modern classics" today, and had their own unique sounds that many people really like.
I'd agree that the boomy, room-filling sound of a pipe organ is something that would be very tough to reproduce perfectly accurately with nothing but electronics -- but I think a pretty good approximation can be done. Pipe organ music was "felt" as much as it was heard... so the proper amplification system is going to be key in making a believable simulation.
Most acoustic instruments are a challenge to electronically reproduce with near-perfect accuracy - because vibrations and resonance of the materials that made up the original are a big part of the sound. The larger the instrument, the more the materials and vibrations play a role in the sound. I believe this is one reason why there seems to be an ongoing quest to get the perfect grand piano sound out of a synthesizer. The more RAM and CPU power they can cram into a synth, the more samples they can store and play back at appropriate times, getting incremental improvements. But ultimately, they're still doing little more than playing back a recording of the real thing being played - and so they hit limits of how well it was sampled from microphones in the first place, plus losses in authenticity due to the speakers and amplifiers used during the synth's playback.
I can't pinpoint an exact URL to refer you to on this, but it's been often repeated advice I've gotten from salespeople when asking about big-screen TVs, as well as advice I've heard echoed amongst friends into technology and hi-fi.
As someone else posted here, maybe they're just referring to the old projection set technology with the CRT inside and mirrors? Either that, or maybe they're talking about the end nearing for non-HDTV ready big-screens. But with the price-drops I've seen lately on some of these projection sets, I can see how they're about to become the "low end" of big screens real soon. (For example, I saw Apex had a model out that sells for under $900. That's pretty darn cheap for a projection set!)
Does anyone know much about the technology JVC has in a new model of projection set where they claim to "smart scale" the resolution of standard TV images to HDTV resolution, for enhanced pictures from all sources? That sounds promising, if it works as well as it sounds. (After all, there are some pretty amazing scaling/zooming tools out there for Photoshop and the like. I could see how this might translate well to a feature integrated into an HDTV.)
Yes, but in some cases, you may substitute "cold calls" for flyer handouts, or really, any other opportunities you can donate your time in public while advertising your services/business.
EG. My wife wanted to start a small housekeeping business, and we had a VERY limited budget to work with. Most of it was spent on the cleaning supplies, and then we put about $30 per month into printing costs to run off flyers (on eye-catching pink paper). I religiously went out and placed at least 50 per night on people's front doorsteps/doorknobs before coming home after work each day. On average, we generated one new customer for every 200 flyers distributed. In most cases, one customer would want regular cleaning appointments that earned us at least $80-100 per month.
For my last employer, I helped refurbish old Apple Mac computers for resale as kids' machines. Some of the most effective advertising we ever did was simply me going to a local flea market weekend after weekend with several demo systems set up and running. I didn't sell lots of computers there, but handed out plenty of business cards and pamphlets - which eventually funneled down to people who WERE interested, and called to buy one of the computers later.
Ack! If the article you reference is correct, plasma TV's have a horribly short lifespan. Well under 3 years of run-time before they lose HALF of their brightness? If a standard computer monitor did that, people would scream and yell about the poor quality and tell everyone to stay away!
I was taking a really close look at large screen (42" and up) TVs this holiday season, considering an upgrade to my boring old 27" set in our living room. But the more I read, the less I'm impressed with anything out right now. Everyone's telling me the projection sets will likely be discontinued by this time next year, so buying one of them is investing in a dying technology. The plasmas finally seemed to be dropping to reasonable prices, but the technology apparently has some life-span issues. LCD TV's haven't reached their "prime" yet - with nothing but "promises" of larger sizes that compete with the average projection set. To top it all off, HDTV seems like it's about to become standard-issue, but the industry is trying to milk it for as much additional profit as they can squeeze out of it in the meantime. ($500 or so just for a satellite receiver that can get HD - so you can then view only a few special HD channels?)
Nah.... now, my old 27" is starting to look better again.
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It might be a fact that passenger rail service is subsidized in every country of the world - but that hardly means it's *impossible* to make it profitable.
It's obviously an expensive endeavour, and not one likely to turn a large profit for a private investor -- but I still think it's doable. The problem is, once you learn you can get a free govt. handout to help offset your business expenses, it's easy to quit caring about doing it without the assistance.
It just makes common sense that it's cheaper to transport a large number of people from point A to B in the same vehicle, rather than have all those people operate individual vehicles.
Meanwhile, you can charge considerably more than they'd pay to travel from A to B themselves, by offering conveniences and entertainment during the trip they'd have to do without otherwise.
Why can't this work?
It's a long, painful road -- but I'm convinced anti-spam filters can be made intelligent enough to pretty much kill off all incoming spam, other than the occasional advertisement that's out of the ordinary, and contains actual, pertinent information.
Right now, the best of the spam filters seem to be effective enough that spammers have to resort to badly garbling up their messages just to sneak them through. (They're putting lines of poetry between every line of their own text, badly mis-spelling half the words on purpose, etc. etc.) These are all signs that spam filtering is starting to win the war, IMHO.
You have to remember, spam advertisements generally only target certain lines of products and services. Most legitimate businesses realize that it does FAR more harm to one's reputation than it does good in additional sales - so they're highly unlikely to resort to mass emailings. This is going to be their downfall. Filters can and should be made smart enough to kill mail based on the topic - so anything hawking ink-jet cartridges/refills, drugs/pharmaceuticals, loans, extended warranties, porn/dating/matchmaking services, weight-loss, or insurance should be trashed automatically. If this is done effectively enough, I imagine that would reduce my spam by 2/3rds. or more right there.
The MT-32 was the synth of choice all the older Sierra games (and others) supported. When you ran their setup program, it was quite common to get choices such as EGA or VGA display, followed by the sound selections of "Internal Speaker", "None", "Adlib", "Soundblaster" or "MT-32".
Eventually, they started offering "General MIDI" as a selection - which was ultimately more useful and better sounding on the right hardware.... but before that, MT-32 was the one to have.
As strictly a music synth though, no, the MT-32 wasn't a unit you'd use for its stellar signature sounds or anything....
I don't know about that.... I think there should be a little "give and take" on both sides. Yes, people do expect their local print shop to provide some assistance in achieving their goals on the printed page. That means, if they've chosen color schemes that only work on a CRT but not on paper - the print shop guy/gal should gladly offer alternate suggestions and make it right. (Quite frankly, if it wasn't for this type of assistance, I'm not sure why most print shops would stay in business nowdays. I can buy a brand new Minolta color laser printer for about $400 after mail-in rebate right now, and for under $3000, have a top-of-the-line PowerMac G5 system to do my own desktop publishing on. The "hardware" isn't really *that* big a deal for someone to obtain if they want to do a lot of publishing. Print shops need to offer *knowledge* and *assistance* to keep customers!)
On the other hand, if you're too "computer-challenged" to figure out that text should be typed up in a word processing program, as opposed to a slide presentation program - you deserve to be told to go back and redo it using the right tool.
Actually, the best comment I read recently about all of this "anti-PowerPoint" hoopla was this:
"The key to making a good PowerPoint presentation is to state your conclusion in the very beginning. Then use the rest of your presentation to back up those conclusions and explain them to your audience."
Most people start in on a rambling presentation, showing numerous statistics and charts, and the audience is either asleep or totally confused by the time the last slides bring it all to a conclusion.
See, I think *that's* how things should really be. I love working at jobs like that, where I'm a big part of my own destiny. The corporate world loves to make empty promises along those lines, but in reality - when you work for them, you get what some bean-counter decided is in your "proper pay range" for that year.
Sure, you get the supposed "benefit" of a steady income, no matter how good or bad the company's sales are - but that's a facade. If it gets too hard for them to pay you, they'll just let you go at the drop of a hat - and then you'll have a BIG problem on your hands.
At least working for the little guys, you always know what's up ahead - because you're actively part of the operation, and YOU control much of it. You can't single-handedly change a bad economy, but you could opt to do things like help advertise for them, even though you're "off the clock", or put in some extra hours of work on customer's equipment that you don't bill them for - so they'll be pleased enough to use you again and again.
Last year, we decided it would be nice to take Amtrak for a visit to Chicago (from St. Louis, MO), rather than drive all the way up there.
I've always liked trains, though I almost never ride them. I was really looking forward to this opportunity, and was quite let down.
For starters, the train was at least 15 minutes late arriving at the station (in Kirkwood). Then, we were told that Amtrak trains to Chicago never really leave directly from Kirkwood's station. They have to first travel to the downtown station. (So in other words, more wasted time before we really got under way.) The downtown St. Louis Amtrak station is a disgrace. It looks like an old tin shack. Ever since our original station (Union Station) was decomissioned and turned into a shopping mall, Amtrak has never bothered to replace it with anything remotely decent-looking. Then, our train stopped out in the middle of nowhere for at least 30 minutes, waiting for the track to clear up ahead. (Perhaps another Amtrak train broke down? They never did explain.) Then, there were all of the scheduled stops at little stations where it seemed that nobody got on or off anyway. The train cars themselves were at best, in "average" condition. They reminded me of old seats on a bus that needed a good cleaning or reupholstering. By the time we finally arrived in Chicago, I was *very* glad to be off the train, and felt like driving would have been the superior experience. (I still had to get a rental car for the rest of our Chicago trip anyway.)
It's obvious that Amtrak has NO clue how to properly run a public transportation system - and they're rather perpetuate the belief that trains just aren't profitable anymore than take the steps needed to succeed. I really hope they do go bankrupt and govt. doesn't bail them back out. Maybe then, a private investor will buy up the right-of-ways and equipment and run it like a real business!
On the flip-side, though, show me *any* revolution or rebellion in history where most of the participants really understood all the ramifications of what they were doing - and truly did what they did for the "political dynamics".
No... What *really* happens is a few "leaders" speak out loudly and often. The masses like what they hear (even if it's just because it makes them feel better about their activities they're already doing), so they point to it as justification for their actions.
When the Colonists fought the British in the American Revolution, do you really think they all did it for the "greater good" and long-term goals? NAH! There was a recent History Channel special on the Boston Massacre, and among other things - it was discovered that the whole thing really started because a few drunk people came out of a pub, harassing the British guards. Eventually, they made a big enough scene that the guards got scared it was going to get ugly and a warning shot was fired. The rabble-rousers like Paul Revere twisted the story into a tale of the evil British firing upon the innocent crowd - and voila, instant anti-British sentiment was nutured and fueled.
Actually, it strikes me as rather funny that someone quotes a price of well under $600 for a complete computer system (monitor included) and people gripe that it's "overpriced" and "spendy"!
It wasn't that long ago that you just couldn't get into the personal computer market for under $1500 or so -- and you get SO much more computing power today than you got then.
I maintain that to a large extent, you still "get what you pay for". All that's really happened in the PC compatible world is the sheer volume of sales and competition has pushed quality down, in order to squeeze rock-bottom pricing out of a system.
I work on PCs for a living, and frankly, the build quality and overall design put into most name-brand PCs today is piss-poor. If I never have to work on a "consumer grade" HP or Compaq again, I'll be very pleased! There's no good reason you should have to remove the power supply just to upgrade the RAM, folks! Don't even get me started on eMachines systems.... And even the Sony Vaios are simply pretty cases with failure-prone components inside. (I have friends at extended warranty companies who say they get more claims filed on Vaios than any other brand they cover.)
Honestly, these days, I have to think long and hard when a customer asks me what to buy if he wants a "top quality PC", and says "I'm willing to pay more, as long as I get quality." The whole PC market practically ignores these folks nowdays. Thank goodness for Apple, who still believes in offering top-tier systems for discriminating consumers.
Even though this is getting pretty far off-topic - I know what you mean about the college education vs. reading/using the library thing.
I can say with absolute certainty that I learned more from my own reading than I ever learned in school.
On the other hand, though, the formal/structured nature of school forced me to learn about quite a few topics I would have chosen to skip over if I was simply reading the things I wanted to read.
Anyway, if you want to go the self-taught route and be a success minus the college degree, all I can say is: Work for yourself! Seriously, the corporate world will never give you a fair shake, no matter how knowledgeable and hard-working you are, because the respect for "the piece of paper" is too ingrained in the system. I've learned to accept this, and considering I don't have the financial means to start my own business, I compromise by working for individuals who did - and need that "top quality second or third employee" to help grow what they've started. Yeah, the corporate I.T. guys with the degrees earn more than me, but I do pretty well for myself - and know that my work is MUCH more appreciated than it would be in some corporate cubicle.
Actually, you could be right. But I know this was definitely a problem in the past. My wife grew up in Florida, for example, and specifically remembers the state fighting with the fed. govt. because they didn't want to reduce the speed limits on their highways, and consequently, were going to lose their federal funding.
I also know Montana has always been one of the most self-sufficient of the 50 states. I could easily see them simply posting a "reasonable and prudent" speed limit, rather than a number, no matter what federal govt. recommended to them. "What? We lose all of our federal funding? Ok, fine then! We'd rather have that than you telling us what to do!"
Heh... Yeah, I've been in similar situations. Perhaps the oddest such thing I remember was a get-together/party I attended 4 years ago or so. I was either friends with or on good terms with most of the people there, but one guy always irritated me. I tried to be civil to him, but he was obviously living the stereotype of "cool jock from high-school/college", and just rubbed me the wrong way with most of his comments and discussions.
Anyway, at one point (after a few drinks, which I guess loosened him up enough to start admitting the truth), he came up to me and said "You know something? I really hate you!" I laughed and said "Huh? Why's that?" He then proceeded to tell me (almost to the point of tears!) that he was never a smart guy, and was always frustrated that people like me knew so much about "useful things, like computers".
As I've gotten older (and I suppose, just started caring less what other people think of me?), I've come to realize that just about anything in life takes considerable time and effort to pursue. With the limited time we have, none of us are likely to become "good" at more than a select few things. The "jocks" made their choices to pursue their interest and enjoyment of athletics. By association, that brought a bunch of other "side benefits" with it, such as a perception of being "above average" in attractiveness to the opposite sex, an "above average" sense of fashion/style, etc. It also put them in a group of their peers, who could share their experiences and build friendships. So really, there was nothing "bad" or "wrong" about it! It's just that, unfortunately, it also burnt up enough of their "free time" that they missed out on learning about many more "technical" pursuits. Right now, the technical-minded folks have the spotlight (maybe for the first time!), so the other people aren't quite sure what to make of it.
In theory, you'd be absolutely right. The problem is that in the "real United States", things don't quite work as smoothly as they sound on paper or in theory.
The whole "speed limit" thing is very much a tool of govt. taxation. It gives federal govt. a manipulation tool to use on state govt. - for example. (EG. We declare that any state refusing to honor our recommendation of interstate highway speed limits being capped at speed XX will lose all federal funding for road improvements until they comply.)
At the local level, it gives municipalities ways to increase their tax revenue, too. (EG. We're short on funding for our police officers' salaries this year and need to find ways to make it up. Hey, let's take these small side-roads and reduce their speed limits by 5MPH. We can always use the excuse that it's for the safety of the kids playing outside. Then, we'll get to hand out tickets to all the cars going down that steep hill that don't keep their brakes on the whole time!)
There seems to be a line of thinking that "no matter what you set the speed limits at, people will exceed them". I largely disagree. People (generally) drive at speeds they feel comfortable and safe operating their vehicles at. The average car or truck built today handles quite well at speeds greater than the 65MPH (or even 55MPH) speed limits we impose on most of our highways. As long as that's the case, people will keep trying to exceed the speed limits. If speed limits went up to 80MPH tomorrow, though, for example, I doubt you'd see so many folks eager to go 90 or 100MPH. Smaller 4 cylinder cars are often barely able to maintain these speeds. Lots of folks don't have tires in good enough shape, or of good enough quality to make you feel safe changing lanes at those speeds either. Lastly, it's tough to see signs and interpret them before missing your turns at those speeds.
Govt. has very little incentive to make speed limits match the driving habits of the majority. They earn way too much money from not doing so!
Yes, but unfortunately, we're all paying (via tax dollars) for the time the spammer spends in prison. (Last I checked, that yearly expense was higher than the average cost of college tuition.)
The real motivation behind funding state and federal prisons in the first place was to keep certain types of people out of society. The public pays a certain amount towards this goal, and hopefully, the costs provide benefits that make it worthwhile.
I'm not so sure that there's a pressing need to keep someone completely away from society just because they decided to leverage the power of the Internet to mass mail a bunch of unwanted advertising to people?
That's the danger of having a knee-jerk reaction of "lock 'em up!" every time we want to punish someone. Sure, the potential of doing prison time is a strong deterrent, but is it really any more of one than the threat of taking away every dollar you earn for practically the rest of your life? Or even, perhaps, a threat of forcing you to do years of free labor for the benefit of society as punishment? Surely, those skilled enough with computers to forge addresses and mass email hundreds of thousands of spam messages could offer the govt. something in the way of free computer services?
Yeah, I feel pretty much the same way. I have fond memories of Battlestar Galactica, yet it's been so long since I watched the original show, I honestly forgot most of the details. (I remembered distinctly, for example, that Lorne Green played the commander, but I couldn't remember the names of most of the other people anymore. Of course, they all came back to me as soon as I heard them mentioned again - but I think this lack of recollection of details made it easier to watch this new show without being annoyed by some of the changes.)
Perhaps they want/expect most of the viewers to come into the new mini-series with this perspective? (As a kid, I think I was more fascinated by the space ships themselves and by the cylon robots than by any plot details -- and they've done a great job of bringing back the ships the same way I remember them.)
So often, the TV shows we remember as "really cool" as kids come across pretty lousy when we sit down and watch them again today. I think I prefer the idea of re-inventing the show to trying to accurately recreate the original. Keep the "better than reality" memories intact.
Frankly, I think the United States suffers from considerable corruption in all of its upper-levels of "law enforcement related" divisions.
The FBI, for example, has been bungling up cases left and right - but we largely seem to ignore it or excuse it as "honest mistakes anyone could have made". I mean, look at the recent case with the random shootings in the Northeastern states. Their top criminal profilers all described the culprit completely wrong! They've wasted large amounts of time and money chasing after such minor things as "illegal warez distribution" on computer bulletin board systems and the Internet. They seem to have a bloodlust for anyone remotely possibly doing anything somewhat related to child porn, too - and there's a really *good* chance lots of innocent people are sitting in prisons around the country right now over their overzealousness in this area.
The ATF, of course, has done a number of inexcusable things - including raids at night on the *wrong house address*, and stomping on people's pets and killing them as part of their searches for people and drugs. The Waco thing was simply the most televised fiasco of theirs, but far from the exception to the rule of how they manage to overstep their bounds and screw things up.
There is, of course, plenty of reason to suspect the CIA of doing very questionable things too -- but by their nature, it's harder to pinpoint them most of the time.
The old saying, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." certainly holds true.
I just bought myself a 40GB iPod as my big Xmas gift to myself. Yeah, I was bummed that I missed the day after Thanksgiving sale Apple was running -- but then again, that was also a horrendous day to try doing any shopping. All the crowds and hassles with parking, waiting in lines, etc. probably made it worth waiting and paying the extra 10%.
Another little tip I've heard, though, is to find a buddy working at a CompUSA store. Supposedly, their employee discounts on Apple products (of all types) come pretty close to the same thing as Apple's educational discounts. One of them should be able to buy you an iPod for at least $40 off or so.
Also, don't forget, Apple offers a number of discounts similar to the "educational discount". They have a lesser-known military discount, and a discount for govt. employees too. So you should be able to find *someone* who qualifies for one of those.....
In the grand scheme of things though, I figure an iPod is a pretty pricy little toy, any way you look at it - and if I was going to take the plunge and buy it, I'm not going to incur a bunch of extra hassle just to save less than $50 on the thing. I just paid what they were asking, got my instant gratification, and figure I'll make up for it by avoiding the urge many folks seem to have to waste money on useless iPod accessories (leather cases and the like).
Yep! The original poster is exactly right! What reason or incentive do you really have to give all of your money to a business, if they're not going to provide you with something in return for the ability to borrow your money to make themselves more money?
Banks thrive primarily because society has become addicted to the ease of paying for items electronically. We like the convenience of such things as "direct deposit" and credit or debit cards.
The question is, how long are these basic concepts going to keep the banking industry going? They sure seem to be experimenting to see just how many services they can take away or charge extra for before customers walk away.
Most checking accounts don't even pay interest anymore, unless you keep some huge amount of money in the account at all times. Even the "special services" we're accustomed to trusting banks to provide are diminishing. Just the other day, I needed to have a document notarized - so I called one of the larger branches of my bank to make sure a notary public would be available when I wanted to drop by. Guess what? It turns out they haven't had a notary public for at least several months now - and they could only give me the name of ONE branch in my city that still had one!
Another friend of mine needed some foreign currency before embarking on a business trip - and he had a nearly impossible time getting it. Only one bank branch was equipped to convert his funds to the currency he needed - and when he got there, he was told the foreign funds weren't actually on-hand. He had to give them 48 hours to obtain the money and then come back!
I agree that price per meg. stored is a little better with DVD-R/+R than CDR, but there are other things to consider.
For starters, almost every half-way modern machine in existance today has some type of CD-ROM drive installed in it. That means those CDR backups are readable in almost any computer. If your data is all on DVD-R, you're going to be much more limited as to which computers can directly access it.
Also, I have some concerns about potential for data loss with DVD-R/+R media. There's simply so much data stored in a small amount of physical space that a small nick or scratch can wipe out hundreds of megs. of critical data. At least with CDR media, a scratch or nick may just cause one or two files to be unreadable.
As a LONG time Verizon customer (was actually an Ameritech cellular customer originally, but stuck with them when Verizon took them over here in the midwest), I have to say I'm pleased with their service overall.
That said, there are a couple issues to be aware of with Verizon.
1. Their customer service reps. are notoriously clueless about promotions, service plan rate changes, and technical details of their network and phones in general. Twice now, I've needed firmware flash updates done to Verizon phones and nobody in one of their (large, full-service) stores knew how to do them. One time, they actually let me go in their back room and do it myself, using their PC, programming cables, and software on their hard drive. Verizon also just implemented a new policy that says if you buy any of their combo PDA/phones and need a warranty replacement, the local stores aren't allowed to do it for you anymore. It *must* be done by mail, after getting permission from people on their 1-800 cust. support number. (Problem is, I just needed this - and the 800# cust. service rep. told me to take it to my local store! They weren't even informed of these new rules yet!)
2. If you're interested in the new high-speed data services over digital cellular, Sprint has a much better deal - if you plan to use it much. Verizon's plans still hit you for at least $40 or so per month, additional, for the ability to use their high speed Internet. (I understand you can do this on Sprint PCS for as little as $10 extra per month on top of any existing monthly plan.)
Yes, I realize some would consider the passing out of flyers as "spam" of sorts. Yet, I think it's much less of an issue than email spam.
For starters, I'm the one incurring the costs of distribution. I have to spend money for gas to drive around and put out the flyers, pay for the paper and the printing, and put in my time to get each one delivered to a doorstep. Email spammers take advantage of flat-rate Internet pricing to dump hundreds of thousands of emails upon ISP's mail servers, and let everyone else deal with any problems that creates.
Also, my flyer appears at someone's house only once. If they don't want it, they throw it out and that's all there is to it. I'm not inconveniencing them by making them "unsubscribe" to keep from getting more advertising from me.
Yes, but your thoughts on electronic organs never sounding as good as the "real thing" is just a personal opinion.....
... so the proper amplification system is going to be key in making a believable simulation.
A number of the electronic organs used in 60's and 70's rock music are considered "modern classics" today, and had their own unique sounds that many people really like.
I'd agree that the boomy, room-filling sound of a pipe organ is something that would be very tough to reproduce perfectly accurately with nothing but electronics -- but I think a pretty good approximation can be done. Pipe organ music was "felt" as much as it was heard
Most acoustic instruments are a challenge to electronically reproduce with near-perfect accuracy - because vibrations and resonance of the materials that made up the original are a big part of the sound. The larger the instrument, the more the materials and vibrations play a role in the sound. I believe this is one reason why there seems to be an ongoing quest to get the perfect grand piano sound out of a synthesizer. The more RAM and CPU power they can cram into a synth, the more samples they can store and play back at appropriate times, getting incremental improvements. But ultimately, they're still doing little more than playing back a recording of the real thing being played - and so they hit limits of how well it was sampled from microphones in the first place, plus losses in authenticity due to the speakers and amplifiers used during the synth's playback.
I can't pinpoint an exact URL to refer you to on this, but it's been often repeated advice I've gotten from salespeople when asking about big-screen TVs, as well as advice I've heard echoed amongst friends into technology and hi-fi.
As someone else posted here, maybe they're just referring to the old projection set technology with the CRT inside and mirrors? Either that, or maybe they're talking about the end nearing for non-HDTV ready big-screens. But with the price-drops I've seen lately on some of these projection sets, I can see how they're about to become the "low end" of big screens real soon. (For example, I saw Apex had a model out that sells for under $900. That's pretty darn cheap for a projection set!)
Does anyone know much about the technology JVC has in a new model of projection set where they claim to "smart scale" the resolution of standard TV images to HDTV resolution, for enhanced pictures from all sources? That sounds promising, if it works as well as it sounds. (After all, there are some pretty amazing scaling/zooming tools out there for Photoshop and the like. I could see how this might translate well to a feature integrated into an HDTV.)
Yes, but in some cases, you may substitute "cold calls" for flyer handouts, or really, any other opportunities you can donate your time in public while advertising your services/business.
EG. My wife wanted to start a small housekeeping business, and we had a VERY limited budget to work with. Most of it was spent on the cleaning supplies, and then we put about $30 per month into printing costs to run off flyers (on eye-catching pink paper). I religiously went out and placed at least 50 per night on people's front doorsteps/doorknobs before coming home after work each day. On average, we generated one new customer for every 200 flyers distributed. In most cases, one customer would want regular cleaning appointments that earned us at least $80-100 per month.
For my last employer, I helped refurbish old Apple Mac computers for resale as kids' machines. Some of the most effective advertising we ever did was simply me going to a local flea market weekend after weekend with several demo systems set up and running. I didn't sell lots of computers there, but handed out plenty of business cards and pamphlets - which eventually funneled down to people who WERE interested, and called to buy one of the computers later.
Ack! If the article you reference is correct, plasma TV's have a horribly short lifespan. Well under 3 years of run-time before they lose HALF of their brightness? If a standard computer monitor did that, people would scream and yell about the poor quality and tell everyone to stay away!
I was taking a really close look at large screen (42" and up) TVs this holiday season, considering an upgrade to my boring old 27" set in our living room. But the more I read, the less I'm impressed with anything out right now. Everyone's telling me the projection sets will likely be discontinued by this time next year, so buying one of them is investing in a dying technology. The plasmas finally seemed to be dropping to reasonable prices, but the technology apparently has some life-span issues. LCD TV's haven't reached their "prime" yet - with nothing but "promises" of larger sizes that compete with the average projection set. To top it all off, HDTV seems like it's about to become standard-issue, but the industry is trying to milk it for as much additional profit as they can squeeze out of it in the meantime. ($500 or so just for a satellite receiver that can get HD - so you can then view only a few special HD channels?)
Nah.... now, my old 27" is starting to look better again.