I had a Ford Escape rental once, and I was disgusted by the mileage. It was supposed to get 22mpg, but the best I ever saw was 20. (pure highway driving) In heavy traffic, it was 12mpg at the worst.
I take mileage figures with a lot of skepticism now. This was supposed to be a "small, efficient" SUV.
Surely there is a point where it is the owner's fault.
Let's say I drive a truck jacked up so the bumper is at typical head-level. Anyone that I crash into gets bumper through their windshield. Or say I put a 20' pole sticking out of the bed of my truck, unflagged, right at eye level. Perhaps I'll simply drive a tank, taking up 2 lanes.
Not that duh actually. Copyright laws are not new, and neither is laws against copying games, movies, and more. For many many years now (since VHS) there have been the FBI warning at the start of the movie warning against copying or playing in non-private use. For years people have heard about intellectual property laws.
It used to be legal to make unlimited copies for personal use. e.g. backups, high-use situations where the media could be damaged, copies for work & the car, etc. Since the DMCA we lost this right as long as there is encryption involved. Expect all future media to have encryption, so backups are no longer legal. Copies for the car or for work no longer legal. Giving children throwaway copies to chew on no longer legal. Copyright laws have changed. Many times. Including recently. We're losing rights like crazy, the public domain stopped growing, and I don't think it's fair.
I never knew about the BBC model B, thank you. Sounds fun and versatile.
It is sad to see easy-to-hack ports going away, but there are some nice developments too. At work we are using a cheap (US$200) usb io device with 8 analog inputs and 20 digital i/o. Ethernet devices are becoming affordable, and I'm really looking forward to that. Imagine the possibilities of a $100 ethernet device with a dozen analog & digital i/o, or wireless even.
The very first phishing email I saw was "from" ebay, about a $600 laptop I had bought. I though "oh shit, someone hacked my account!" and clicked on the link. Fortunately I saw that it was www.ebay.bfdsahu9.com and didn't enter my password.
As an aside, I recently had to write an app that controls pins on parallel ports. It works great on XP, although finding the proper driver library was the hard part. I ended up using porttalk.
It's fun to show off at cocktail parties by telling people how I interact with parallel ports...on XP. It works with serial too if that's your need. If you just need a handful of binary inputs/outputs this is a good way to do it.
I don't know what I'll do when parallel ports go completely away. Grudgingly buy a USB/whatever dedicated I/O box. Which absolutely suck to program with, in my experience.
That sounds quite efficient. It's too bad landfills are so cheap here in the US. Someday we'll be forced to throw away less, either because of higher prices for raw materials or simply running out of cheap landfills. Simply recycling cans, bottles, and paper is too hard for many here.
At my local grocery they sell milk in glass bottles, it is the same price as similar milk in disposable bottles. There is a $1 deposit, which you get back when you return the empty.
I saw the milkman wheel in a dolly of milk, wheel out a dolly of empties. It seemed brilliant - the guy made no extra trips, the milk truck doesn't travel empty.
I pretty much stopped reading popular science when I was 12. What do you mean by "the non-neocon one?"
My friend has a stack in the bathroom and there are a lot of military articles, some quite disturbing e.g. cool new domestic surveillance technology with a rah-rah attitude.
When they deregulated radio we ended up with 2 companies owning 30 stations around here. They're all the same, and I don't have any choice. Now there is massive consolidation in the music venue industry. My favorite ISP was bought by earthlink, and they're nothing compared to the biggies.
Seems to be the same with lots of things. Deregulate and a few behemoths buy up everything, and you're left with no real choice.
I don't know how to keep things from doing this. Market forces favor oligarchies forming in anything with nonzero barriers to entry, and supplying bits takes money.
I was hopeful that municipal internet would provide a bit of competition, but the established players are determined to prevent that. Competition is well and good until it might hit their bottom line.
We're in agreement, but this is too much fun to stop:
If your mom's computer works, she'll be happier and possibly healthier. A happy and healthy mom will:
Produce more offspring. They will share (on average) half your genes if you have the same father, a quarter if not. These people will then reproduce, thereby passing on your genes (which is pretty indirectly related to sex, but it's the same end).
A happy and healthy mom will also look after your offspring, saving your partner's time and energy, and therefore enabling you to have more sex.
My mom is 60. I'm adopted. She's not allowed to live within 1000 miles of me (too controlling and crazy) so babysitting is out.
She does want me to get married, but that is a recipe for far less sex. Oh, and anyone she introduces me to will be crazier and christianier than she is.
I think it's ridiculous to say you're acting immorally if someone doesn't profit from watching a show.
When I watch a show on a dvd from the library nobody makes a profit. Perhaps over time I will affect their purchasing pattern by a dvd or so, but fixing the scratched ones makes up for that. My behavour is legal. So these kinds of arguments are bullshit. What difference does it make if I watch a show for free with no commercials from the library or from a homemade tape or from downloading? No effective difference.
Sorry about that, I get all talky when people say that watching TV without ads is stealing.
Wow, I thought we were over this topic. I'm gonna remove folding@home as my "backup" for when seti doesn't have any work. Back to climateprediction for me!
I watched them by renting the discs from my local library. One of the discs was a little scratched so I fixed that for them, lengthening the amount of times the discs could be used.
Was what I did immoral? I don't want to rip anyone off.
There's lots of atheist-friendly charities. I like Bat Conservation International, since I think bats are really cool. I also like SETI, since that might settle certain debates. Most charities run by scientists are atheist-friendly.
All the atheists I know find something they care about and donate/volunteer accordingly. There's plenty for non-bible-bangers to do to feel good about -- helping other people, animals, the environment, advancing ideas, or advancing science.
I think all my spam is about sex. Porn is simply the most blatant.
Pills? Get harder, hairier, whateverer in order to get sex. Make Money Fast? Attract sex partners with all that dough. Fake rolex? attract idiotic materialistic sex partners with that bogus bling. Collidge Degree Quik? Attract the bookworm type with your misspelt diploma.
Seriously, can anyone think of spam that doesn't convert to sex?
I've been getting a lot of stock spam too. I checked several of them and sure enough, many of them go up the day I got the spam then down, down, down. Classic pump-and-dump. If only it were closer to 100% reliable I'd start shorting the stock when I get the spam.
Good point, but it's a bit of a sore issue for me. I got a $250 ticket for driving while wearing headphones. I was polite to the officer, had a good excuse, and wasn't doing anything dangerous.
The laws about donkeys wearing neckties are funny and all, but there are stupid laws that still get enforced.
Slashdot Mirror
I take mileage figures with a lot of skepticism now. This was supposed to be a "small, efficient" SUV.
Let's say I drive a truck jacked up so the bumper is at typical head-level. Anyone that I crash into gets bumper through their windshield. Or say I put a 20' pole sticking out of the bed of my truck, unflagged, right at eye level. Perhaps I'll simply drive a tank, taking up 2 lanes.
I've spoken with people who feel allofmp3 is lower risk.
It used to be legal to make unlimited copies for personal use. e.g. backups, high-use situations where the media could be damaged, copies for work & the car, etc. Since the DMCA we lost this right as long as there is encryption involved. Expect all future media to have encryption, so backups are no longer legal. Copies for the car or for work no longer legal. Giving children throwaway copies to chew on no longer legal. Copyright laws have changed. Many times. Including recently. We're losing rights like crazy, the public domain stopped growing, and I don't think it's fair.
It is sad to see easy-to-hack ports going away, but there are some nice developments too. At work we are using a cheap (US$200) usb io device with 8 analog inputs and 20 digital i/o. Ethernet devices are becoming affordable, and I'm really looking forward to that. Imagine the possibilities of a $100 ethernet device with a dozen analog & digital i/o, or wireless even.
The very first phishing email I saw was "from" ebay, about a $600 laptop I had bought. I though "oh shit, someone hacked my account!" and clicked on the link. Fortunately I saw that it was www.ebay.bfdsahu9.com and didn't enter my password.
It's fun to show off at cocktail parties by telling people how I interact with parallel ports...on XP. It works with serial too if that's your need. If you just need a handful of binary inputs/outputs this is a good way to do it.
I don't know what I'll do when parallel ports go completely away. Grudgingly buy a USB/whatever dedicated I/O box. Which absolutely suck to program with, in my experience.
That sounds quite efficient. It's too bad landfills are so cheap here in the US. Someday we'll be forced to throw away less, either because of higher prices for raw materials or simply running out of cheap landfills. Simply recycling cans, bottles, and paper is too hard for many here.
1. charge to ship goods
2. charge for a "weight loss ocean voyage"
3. profit!
I saw the milkman wheel in a dolly of milk, wheel out a dolly of empties. It seemed brilliant - the guy made no extra trips, the milk truck doesn't travel empty.
My friend has a stack in the bathroom and there are a lot of military articles, some quite disturbing e.g. cool new domestic surveillance technology with a rah-rah attitude.
Seems to be the same with lots of things. Deregulate and a few behemoths buy up everything, and you're left with no real choice.
I don't know how to keep things from doing this. Market forces favor oligarchies forming in anything with nonzero barriers to entry, and supplying bits takes money.
I was hopeful that municipal internet would provide a bit of competition, but the established players are determined to prevent that. Competition is well and good until it might hit their bottom line.
"Dear Lord, protect me from your followers"
My mom is 60.
I'm adopted.
She's not allowed to live within 1000 miles of me (too controlling and crazy) so babysitting is out.
She does want me to get married, but that is a recipe for far less sex. Oh, and anyone she introduces me to will be crazier and christianier than she is.
When I watch a show on a dvd from the library nobody makes a profit. Perhaps over time I will affect their purchasing pattern by a dvd or so, but fixing the scratched ones makes up for that. My behavour is legal. So these kinds of arguments are bullshit. What difference does it make if I watch a show for free with no commercials from the library or from a homemade tape or from downloading? No effective difference.
Sorry about that, I get all talky when people say that watching TV without ads is stealing.
Wow, I thought we were over this topic. I'm gonna remove folding@home as my "backup" for when seti doesn't have any work. Back to climateprediction for me!
Was what I did immoral? I don't want to rip anyone off.
this one is up and running!
All the atheists I know find something they care about and donate/volunteer accordingly. There's plenty for non-bible-bangers to do to feel good about -- helping other people, animals, the environment, advancing ideas, or advancing science.
2. Eating cheetos.
3. Fixing my mom's computer.
Other than that, it's all about sex.
Sports spectatorship and war don't have much of a sex-link, but are both huge business. I don't get any spam along those lines.
I'm skeptical, since real analysts publish shady findings in real publications and make illicit profits without getting busted. Much.
Pills? Get harder, hairier, whateverer in order to get sex.
Make Money Fast? Attract sex partners with all that dough.
Fake rolex? attract idiotic materialistic sex partners with that bogus bling.
Collidge Degree Quik? Attract the bookworm type with your misspelt diploma.
Seriously, can anyone think of spam that doesn't convert to sex?
I've been getting a lot of stock spam too. I checked several of them and sure enough, many of them go up the day I got the spam then down, down, down. Classic pump-and-dump. If only it were closer to 100% reliable I'd start shorting the stock when I get the spam.
The laws about donkeys wearing neckties are funny and all, but there are stupid laws that still get enforced.