I've come to the conclusion that it's different in different countries. In Japan, it's not how big your car is, it's how clever it is. Of course, there's all sorts of laws there preventing people from owning anything other than a very small car if they don't have their own parking space for it, but even so, it's all about how many acronyms you can get across the back end of your car there. Technology's high priority, so engine designs are cutting edge, but the cars can be a bit bland both inside and out, with perceived quality suffering in comparison to European competition.
In Europe, it seems to be about fit and finish and design - European cars are big on interior quality and interesting external styling cues. Engines are, relatively efficient and high-tech. American cars don't do well there, partly on size grounds, but mostly because they're relatively extremely shoddy quality-wise.
In North America, the status seems to be derived from the amount of metal you can put on your driveway, and the size of the engine. Cars are bigger across the board, and engines are huge and inefficient (no doubt helped by low fuel costs), but perceived quality's a lot lower than both European and Japanese cars in my view.
No, parallel parking's been in the test for donkeys' years. Parking in a car park space is a recent addition, though. I'd have been very glad of a driving instructor teaching me how to do it properly, it took me far longer than it should have to get the hang of it, for some reason.
Well, if you've ever seen how much an electric window winder motor weighs, you'll see what's lost - fuel economy. Is it really that much trouble to wind the window down by hand?
Ever been to Paris? Last time I was there I wondered why every single car on the roads seems to be dented in several places. Then, whilst out for a stroll one evening, I found out why. For there was a man trying to manoeuvre himself into a parking space which was clearly too small. So what did he do about it? He nudged the car behind him until it was far enough back for him to fit into the space...
Seems like in Paris, you either have a dirt-cheap runabout like a Twingo, that you're not too worried about getting wrecked, or else you drive around in a Mercedes S-Class and nobody messes with you.
It has to be able to get into the space in one go - it can't shuffle back and forward to straighten itself out. Apparently this is why the feature won't be offered in the UK - our metered parking spaces aren't long enough for it to be able to park itself neatly.
Anyway, it's an extremely cool feature and all, but is parking really that hard? Mind you, I'm the sort of automotive Luddite that thinks that power steering's a bad idea, so maybe I'm not the right man to ask.
That's like saying the XBox is a better buy than the PS2 because it's more powerful technically. Fact is, the PS2's got a far wider choice of games, and that's what matters to most people. Similarly, with GSM, you've got a proper standard for which anybody can develop devices, networks, applications etc. Which means that for Joe Public, it's a better system, as he has a wider choice of service providers and handsets, and he can be confident he's got coverage wherever he goes, be it in his own country or the other side of the world. Who cares whether CDMA's technically better if you can't roam between two cities in the same state?
I've seen them live myself. Jack White's great, but Meg's just a joke. She's got no sense of rhythm whatsoever, which can be a bit of a hindrance when you're a drummer. And why she bothered to "sing" on Elephant is beyond me. He'd be far better off getting shot of her and getting a decent band behind him.
They were in my class at Uni before they dropped out, y'know. Oh, yeah, what a class it was - Boards of Canada, Ian "Freenet" Clarke, and me!
(If you look through my previous posts and see me mention Keith out of the Office being in my class too, don't go thinking I'm a silly troll - I did joint honours and he was in my other class)
I don't really see the point of getting drawn into a debate on this, but have you ever seen Ricky Gervais when he's not playing David Brent? There's not really that much difference. It's like Brent's a magnified version of him, or what he could have been if he hadn't gone into showbusiness, or something like that. Tim and Gareth are definitely putting it on more, I'll grant you.
But yes, you're right that acting just a little bit is the mark of an accomplished performer, and they pull it off extremely well in that show.
Oh, I dunno. Ricky Gervais (the guy who plays the central character, David Brent, and also one of the scriptwriters, for those who don't know) is consulting on it, so they surely can't put it too far wide of the goal, can they?
Erm, don't mean to sound patronising or anything, but working in an office is slow and boring. Maybe it's just culture shock. It's not in your face like most American sitcoms (though you could hardly say it's subtle). Stop watching it expecting punchlines, and try to see the humour inherent in the characters themselves.
I mean, how can anybody watch Keith and not crease up?
(Interestingly, I've learned since graduating from university that Keith was in my class - and I didn't notice him, which amuses me immensely)
The Royle Family's very much in a similar vein, or at least was for about the first two series before it got really popular. I remember trying to explain this show to a French-Canadian girl: "Well, it's about a family who sit around watching the TV, and nothing ever happens. It's hilarious". Didn't have much impact... I did hear a while ago that they were making a version for America, called "The Kennedys".
Oh, yeah. I've been curled up in a ball with embarrassment on a few occasions myself ("Free Love Freeway", the management seminar thing, and of course the dance). But just wait till the two Christmas specials make their way Stateside (I'm assuming they haven't already). You might see poor old Brent in a different light.
The beauty of The Office is in the fact that the people are barely acting at all. The humour is in the fact that these characters are only very slight exaggerations of the reality of office life. We all know somebody who's a bit like David Brent, or Gareth, or Finchy, or Keith. Especially Keith. Every office has a Keith. The humour's in a glance, or a facial expression, or a moment of dead silence, rather than some familiar character running onto the set and uttering their catchphrase for the three thousandth time like you get in most sitcoms.
It's an absolutely ridiculous comparison to draw. Dilbert takes a sledgehammer approach to a load of heartbreakingly unfunny material about the minutiae of office life, and in my book it's usually rubbish. The Office has absolutely nothing in common with it other than that it's set in a boring office. It's about people, not procedures, and as a result it's touching as well as hilarious, and like so many other great comic characters (Fawlty, Rigsby, just about everybody in Porridge), David Brent is essentially a tragic figure.
Years ago, there was a dodgy Chinese clone called 0937. Not a very catchy name, you might think, but imagine those numbers stamped onto the bumpy bit of a Lego block and turned upside down...
Ha. I had the test car (Kit no. 8080 or 8800 or something, as I remember). Bet you're still jealous even now...
Thing is, I got it for Christmas one year, and woke up on Christmas morning to find the whole thing built for me, which took some of the fun out of it. My dad thought he'd get it started for me, got a bit carried away, and was up all night till he finished it...
I had the hydraulic bulldozer thing, too. Got that just after it came out. That was magic.
But of course, the real fun was in taking stuff apart and coming up with your own creations. Using all the hydraulic gear I came up with a box with a hydraulically-operated lid which could only be opened by setting three switches to the correct positions. All right, it's hardly Babbage's Difference Engine, but I was only a kid, and that sort of carry-on probably taught me all sorts of useful skills.
It's a distinctive sound all right. I remember waking up once in the middle of the night because of that sound. I had a big Lego box under my bed (didn't we all?), and there was a right racket coming from inside. Turned out there was a mouse rummaging around in the box. Maybe he was looking for one of those elusive window pieces for his house or something...
SuSE's default filesystem is Reiser, has been for a while. Don't know about XFS myself.
Re:Besides Debian, What distros have 2.6.x ?
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Is there any chance of them not doing an utterly half-assed job of it this time? I mean, what sort of self-respecting distro ships without any sort of video-playing software in this day and age, and expects you to spend hours in dependency hell cobbling together mplayer or whatever? It's a disgrace.
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I've come to the conclusion that it's different in different countries. In Japan, it's not how big your car is, it's how clever it is. Of course, there's all sorts of laws there preventing people from owning anything other than a very small car if they don't have their own parking space for it, but even so, it's all about how many acronyms you can get across the back end of your car there. Technology's high priority, so engine designs are cutting edge, but the cars can be a bit bland both inside and out, with perceived quality suffering in comparison to European competition.
In Europe, it seems to be about fit and finish and design - European cars are big on interior quality and interesting external styling cues. Engines are, relatively efficient and high-tech. American cars don't do well there, partly on size grounds, but mostly because they're relatively extremely shoddy quality-wise.
In North America, the status seems to be derived from the amount of metal you can put on your driveway, and the size of the engine. Cars are bigger across the board, and engines are huge and inefficient (no doubt helped by low fuel costs), but perceived quality's a lot lower than both European and Japanese cars in my view.
No, parallel parking's been in the test for donkeys' years. Parking in a car park space is a recent addition, though. I'd have been very glad of a driving instructor teaching me how to do it properly, it took me far longer than it should have to get the hang of it, for some reason.
Well, if you've ever seen how much an electric window winder motor weighs, you'll see what's lost - fuel economy. Is it really that much trouble to wind the window down by hand?
All the bloat in modern cars really annoys me.
Ever been to Paris? Last time I was there I wondered why every single car on the roads seems to be dented in several places. Then, whilst out for a stroll one evening, I found out why. For there was a man trying to manoeuvre himself into a parking space which was clearly too small. So what did he do about it? He nudged the car behind him until it was far enough back for him to fit into the space...
Seems like in Paris, you either have a dirt-cheap runabout like a Twingo, that you're not too worried about getting wrecked, or else you drive around in a Mercedes S-Class and nobody messes with you.
It has to be able to get into the space in one go - it can't shuffle back and forward to straighten itself out. Apparently this is why the feature won't be offered in the UK - our metered parking spaces aren't long enough for it to be able to park itself neatly.
Anyway, it's an extremely cool feature and all, but is parking really that hard? Mind you, I'm the sort of automotive Luddite that thinks that power steering's a bad idea, so maybe I'm not the right man to ask.
That's like saying the XBox is a better buy than the PS2 because it's more powerful technically. Fact is, the PS2's got a far wider choice of games, and that's what matters to most people. Similarly, with GSM, you've got a proper standard for which anybody can develop devices, networks, applications etc. Which means that for Joe Public, it's a better system, as he has a wider choice of service providers and handsets, and he can be confident he's got coverage wherever he goes, be it in his own country or the other side of the world. Who cares whether CDMA's technically better if you can't roam between two cities in the same state?
I've seen them live myself. Jack White's great, but Meg's just a joke. She's got no sense of rhythm whatsoever, which can be a bit of a hindrance when you're a drummer. And why she bothered to "sing" on Elephant is beyond me. He'd be far better off getting shot of her and getting a decent band behind him.
"Haha sound" by Broadcast. And if you wander over to the newly-opened Bleep.com, you can help yourself to lots of lovely DRM-free MP3s.
Here's the album.
They were in my class at Uni before they dropped out, y'know. Oh, yeah, what a class it was - Boards of Canada, Ian "Freenet" Clarke, and me!
(If you look through my previous posts and see me mention Keith out of the Office being in my class too, don't go thinking I'm a silly troll - I did joint honours and he was in my other class)
I don't really see the point of getting drawn into a debate on this, but have you ever seen Ricky Gervais when he's not playing David Brent? There's not really that much difference. It's like Brent's a magnified version of him, or what he could have been if he hadn't gone into showbusiness, or something like that. Tim and Gareth are definitely putting it on more, I'll grant you.
But yes, you're right that acting just a little bit is the mark of an accomplished performer, and they pull it off extremely well in that show.
Yeah, and of course your humdrum office in Dogshit, Nebraska is like a Victoria's Secret show, right?
It's supposed to be a fake documentary, for fuck's sake.
Oh, I dunno. Ricky Gervais (the guy who plays the central character, David Brent, and also one of the scriptwriters, for those who don't know) is consulting on it, so they surely can't put it too far wide of the goal, can they?
Erm, don't mean to sound patronising or anything, but working in an office is slow and boring. Maybe it's just culture shock. It's not in your face like most American sitcoms (though you could hardly say it's subtle). Stop watching it expecting punchlines, and try to see the humour inherent in the characters themselves.
I mean, how can anybody watch Keith and not crease up?
(Interestingly, I've learned since graduating from university that Keith was in my class - and I didn't notice him, which amuses me immensely)
The Royle Family's very much in a similar vein, or at least was for about the first two series before it got really popular. I remember trying to explain this show to a French-Canadian girl: "Well, it's about a family who sit around watching the TV, and nothing ever happens. It's hilarious". Didn't have much impact... I did hear a while ago that they were making a version for America, called "The Kennedys".
Not funny's the new funny, y'know.
Oh, yeah. I've been curled up in a ball with embarrassment on a few occasions myself ("Free Love Freeway", the management seminar thing, and of course the dance). But just wait till the two Christmas specials make their way Stateside (I'm assuming they haven't already). You might see poor old Brent in a different light.
The beauty of The Office is in the fact that the people are barely acting at all. The humour is in the fact that these characters are only very slight exaggerations of the reality of office life. We all know somebody who's a bit like David Brent, or Gareth, or Finchy, or Keith. Especially Keith. Every office has a Keith. The humour's in a glance, or a facial expression, or a moment of dead silence, rather than some familiar character running onto the set and uttering their catchphrase for the three thousandth time like you get in most sitcoms.
It's an absolutely ridiculous comparison to draw. Dilbert takes a sledgehammer approach to a load of heartbreakingly unfunny material about the minutiae of office life, and in my book it's usually rubbish. The Office has absolutely nothing in common with it other than that it's set in a boring office. It's about people, not procedures, and as a result it's touching as well as hilarious, and like so many other great comic characters (Fawlty, Rigsby, just about everybody in Porridge), David Brent is essentially a tragic figure.
Was there a Beagle 2 kit? 'Cos if there was, you could just leave it in pieces for that authentic look...
Years ago, there was a dodgy Chinese clone called 0937. Not a very catchy name, you might think, but imagine those numbers stamped onto the bumpy bit of a Lego block and turned upside down...
Is the answer "you can find Lego bricks" - invariably by standing on the fuckers barefoot?
Is there any pain that compares?
Ha. I had the test car (Kit no. 8080 or 8800 or something, as I remember). Bet you're still jealous even now...
Thing is, I got it for Christmas one year, and woke up on Christmas morning to find the whole thing built for me, which took some of the fun out of it. My dad thought he'd get it started for me, got a bit carried away, and was up all night till he finished it...
I had the hydraulic bulldozer thing, too. Got that just after it came out. That was magic.
But of course, the real fun was in taking stuff apart and coming up with your own creations. Using all the hydraulic gear I came up with a box with a hydraulically-operated lid which could only be opened by setting three switches to the correct positions. All right, it's hardly Babbage's Difference Engine, but I was only a kid, and that sort of carry-on probably taught me all sorts of useful skills.
It's a distinctive sound all right. I remember waking up once in the middle of the night because of that sound. I had a big Lego box under my bed (didn't we all?), and there was a right racket coming from inside. Turned out there was a mouse rummaging around in the box. Maybe he was looking for one of those elusive window pieces for his house or something...
Why not combine playing with Lego and faffing about with your computer? What more could a nerd want?
Download this
SuSE's default filesystem is Reiser, has been for a while. Don't know about XFS myself.
Is there any chance of them not doing an utterly half-assed job of it this time? I mean, what sort of self-respecting distro ships without any sort of video-playing software in this day and age, and expects you to spend hours in dependency hell cobbling together mplayer or whatever? It's a disgrace.