The parent is complete right. Also, once the publishers start losing money from their textbook sales, they are going to jack up the electronic access fees to their books. At that point, I doubt that there will be any price difference between hardbound books and electronic books.
Also, you are going to have a bunch of high school kids walking around with netbooks? Have you seen how they treat their phones and books? The repair/replacement rate of the hardware is going to be astounding.
Finally, and maybe this is because I started with paper books, but in my experience electronic files do not lend themselves to the same level of focus as paper files. It's easier to move around and find things in the electronic versions, but it is also easier to get distracted and experience eye fatigue. For hyperactive high schoolers, I doubt that is a recipe for high levels of comprehension.
I find the idea of rape completely sickening, and in real life, I'm actually rather conservative about sex (preferring to get to know a girl than just pick someone up at a club - and I have had offers).
Dude, those people "offering" only looked like women...
Here we go again with the "real world" paradigm. Would you rather he did pot, get drunk and have all sorts of cool stories to tell at parties? Or get a few dozen year-long dead end jobs before settling into his permanent cubicle? Although, you are correct in one respect - he should learn as soon as possible that the real world has too many idiots in it (not referring to parent since I don't know his views on this matter) who will devalue any of his intellectual accomplishments unless it can be made into a Lifetime movie while deifying pseudo-celebrities whose only contribution to society is an entertaining way to dig themselves out of shit holes of their creation.
Much better that he finds something he really likes, work really hard at it and build a career for himself. Just because most kids can't make up their minds until they are old farts who think they are still young doesn't mean that this budding genius should deliberately feign indecisiveness so that his peers feel good about themselves. (this last part was a response to several comments thrown around, NOT to parent).
I think the GP is right. I've know a couple of these kids who finish community college at 13. Most of them don't end up so well off. The kid is majoring in astrophysics, which is primarily a research field. As someone who works in a research field, my personal experience is that the kids that get good grades are not always the ones doing the best research. It's just an indication that they either have the basic mechanics down really well, or they are good at cheating on tests.
Also, a big part of being successful in a research or office environment is relating to and communicating with your peers. Persistence/perseverance is also a useful skill that is hard to gauge from undergraduate academic records alone. In general, these skills are not acquired at 11 (or any age) without a little experience.
I am not saying that the kid won't do amazing work in his lifetime. But just because mommy and daddy rammed him through school early (I know the article implies that they didn't... complete lies. ) and he could finish a few years at a community college that involved basic math doesn't mean that he will excel in a research field... especially if he is that weird guy who never washes his clothes and talks to himself all the time. A few parties probably wouldn't hurt him as there is a lot to be said for proper socialization. Of course, I know this is Slashdot, so that may not be of value here.
Yeah because *you never* had an erotic fantasy in your life, right ? Somethign you wished you could do, but didn't because it transgresses what "society" (whoever the fuck they are) considers "normal" behaviour.
Posting anonymously because you are full of shit.
"Society" is the organization that has setup the world you live in and provided you with the means to have electricity, your computer, police, laws, taxes and everything else. If you don't like it, go find some country with no effective government and no people (good luck) and see how that goes for you.
It is completely OK to have fantasies that transgress what "society" considers "normal." But if your idea of an erotic fantasy involves raping a 12 year old, than "society" will label you a sick fuck and put you in jail. Hopefully there, you can be raped by someone bigger and uglier than you too. I say this because you really are a sick fuck: Even from an evolutionary perspective, there is nothing advantageous about raping a woman that is not menstruating.
A couple of decades ago, Harry Chapin said something like "In a country where we produce enough food to feed the entire planet 6 times over, it's unthinkable that anybody shouldn't have enough to eat". Not much has changed in the interim.
Yeah, because everything else in the world is so efficient, so the US for distribution network should be too.
Here's a tip, nothing is 100% efficient, so give it up.
Most engines are about 20% efficient. Solar panels are about 15% efficient. The US congress is about -10% efficient and yet people expect that ALL the food generated in the US should be utilized with 100% percent efficiency.
And that is not considering the fact that in our capitalist economy, there is insufficient incentive to actually make sure everyone gets enough food.
Think I am wrong? How much food did you throw into the trash this week?
I am sorry that this woman died, but I 100% disagree with this fine. The woman was a research assistant who was working off-hours, alone in the room, and did not have the necessary protection on. She screwed up bigtime.
I find it hard to believe that she made it through all those years of schooling without knowing that (1) a lithium compound is pyrophoric and (2) she probably should have had protective equipment on. No amount of training that the UC system could provide can fix a lazy student with a key to the lab.
For someone with a PhD to make these mistakes is akin to a regular Joe forgetting to look both ways before crossing the street and then getting hit by a car. It sucks, but it is only the victim's fault.
Of course, it is never fashionable for politicians to blame the victim.
And women will be receptive to a random MMO junkie because _______?
Because they are good at performing repetitive motions with their fingers AND they can endure doing the same boring tasks week after week: "Tell me how your day was, honey?"
"Some people are expressing concerns about Mexico's stability in the face of drug-cartel related violence."
If that's the case, why doesn't the US just annex MX? I mean, we've already got about half the people here, why shouldn't we get the real estate too? Nice beaches, etc....
:)
I like that idea too. But honestly, Mexico would never, ever, ever become part of the US. They would give new meaning to the word insurgency.
What we really need to do is help bring the standard of living and policing up to US standards. Of course, that isn't realistic without the CIA putting some major behind the scenes work into the country. Or the Mexican government could actually try to govern effectively and not corruptly. Not that that will happen in our lifetimes.
Does anyone have any statistics or real info on what fraction of academics use latex, as opposed to word ?
In my personal experience, NOT one person I know uses latex.
My guess, latex is restricted to a small % academics, consisting of the partly overlapping set of retrogrouchs and math heavys
That's interesting. In my personal experience, ALL the respected scientists I have worked with use latex, and all the marginal ones used Word. But YMMV.
Obama better get himself reelected then. Because, you can bet if he loses to the Republicans the deadline for compliance to the 42 mpg average will be pushed back to the year 2167 lickity split.
And I don't mean that to sound partisan, because I hate both major political parties. But in my opinion, history has shown that the Republicans are definitely in bed with the oil companies. The Democrats might be too, but they keep it on the DL.
I really wish people would take the dangers of even small amounts of sleep deprivation more seriously.
Even missing an hours sleep could be enough to kill some poor sod who happens to be crossing the road at the same time as you miss the red lights.
In the modern world it seems to be macho to go without sleep. In reality, depriving yourself of sleep makes you less productive.
Then I hope you drive alone, with the radio off, ALWAYS keep your eyes on the road, don't drink alcohol to maintain optimal reaction at all times.
I'm less worried about sleep deprived drivers than I am about the ones who are talking on the phone, texting, fixing their hair, and yelling at their kids while hauling ass behind me in their SUV's.
Sue REI for not having any "no photography" signs posted but still allowing you to be arrested.
Sue the ATM people for assault and threatening behavior.
Sue the police for wrongful arrest and for forcing you to sign a trespassing admission in order to leave jail.
There are way to many law enforcement officials and security officers who think they are always in the right because they have guns and people died in 9/11. If they wanted some privacy, they should have put a fucking curtain up.
Sue them, get them demoted, and profit while doing so.
And finally, Walmart, err, I mean REI sucks on so many different levels you shouldn't be shopping there anyway.
How long is this state of matter stable for? That might be a good thing to tell the reader before expounding on how much promise this new material has. I am guessing that this new phase that it isn't stable except under heavy confinement. So good luck scaling up the quantities.
Also, I can help with wisebabo's question:
"I can easily imagine a material being compressed by some heavy duty diamond anvil to reach this density, the question is: what happens when you let the pressure off? Will it expand (explosively one would presume) back to its original volume?"
If it isn't in a stable state for its ambient pressure/temperature, it will undergo an expansion or phase change to a stable state. But it probably won't be explosive, unless the pressure is let off faster than the speed of sound of the material.
And I am assuming that you mean "explosive" in the loosest possible sense: explosive expansion. This would be a shock driven by only the energy stored in compression or phase change, because unless there is a nuclear reaction, pure deuterium isn't going to chemically react with itself, so no energy will actually be created.
I don't know if anyone else read the article, but my favorite quote was:
Last week, I was stuck on a runway for two hours. As I merrily worked away online, complete with YouTube videos and file downloads, I became aware that my seatmate was sneaking glances.
I am sure he was "working" on Youtube because he is a reporter. He was probably "researching" on Wikipedia too.
Anyway, I like how they keep emphasizing how easy it is to put that thing in your pocket. Cause I need another microwave source to irradiate my testicles...
Apple has met it's match... As Samsung, Motorola, HTC, and others bring more Android hardware to market and Verizon, Sprint and other carriers offer Android to their customers, the tide will turn quickly on software development as well.
People have been saying this since before the G1 came out, but the market numbers just aren't meeting these predictions yet. When are all these amazing phones going to arrive at my carrier (Verizon)? And how open is this Android thing really going to be? Google has already demonstrated that it is willing to pull certain apps that T-mobile doesn't like.
Verizon is one of the big players in the industry and last I heard, it was backing away from Android. But think of the carnage Verizon would wreak on an open-source platform. (We both know they would lock it down so hard you couldn't do anything useful with it anyway.)
AT&T is the other big player and they have a conflict of interest with their iPhone, for now at least.
Currently, Android seems a lot like Linux. It's theoretically open source, but it has limited industry support and is only available on (extremely) limited hardware. But the key difference is that the cell phone industry is dominated by the carriers, who don't seem fully sold on it yet and it's not like we can just go ahead and replace our phone's OS without voiding all sorts of warranties and support.
I do hope this changes with time though. And for what it's worth, I have emailed Verizon and urged them to adopt the OS, but I am not holding my breath.
I also ignore my voicemail. Big problem though: Mom.
Hearing "Hello you have reached 'Mother, please, we've been over this, do NOT leave a message, I'll call you back without checking my voice mail anyway, and voicemail is annoying'..." only makes her leave upset messages on my voice mail. Failure to set up my voice mail so that she can't leave any message only leads to that being the sole topic of conversation every time we actually DO talk on the phone.
I'm sure I'm not alone in saying "Please, let voice mail die faster so my mother can't leave extremely long rambling messages which I have to listen to or face the penalty."
Heh, mom's can be a pain, but you just need to learn to manage them properly. Just tell her to leave a short message that she called. Or better yet, if she leaves a long annoying message, delete it, call her back, and tell her that your voicemail is a little jacked and garbles long messages.
I feel bad for the buyer, but that said, he is definitely a little naive, which is surprising given that he works for Ebay (which I put on par with Alienware in terms of integrity).
Expensive and warrantied items are best purchased from reputable manufactures. Yes, you pay a premium on the price, but you are doing that so that you can have leverage with the company when something breaks.
If you go the second-hand route, you need to call the company first to figure out what you need to do to transfer the warranty OR be willing to deal with zero support.
I think of buying Alienware as buying a Ferrari. You're paying extra because: (1) It's a status symbol, (2) it looks nice, (3) in stock form it is faster than its competitors, (4) but it's going to require more money from the owner to keep it working than a regular car would.
I play paintball too. And I disagree with some of your statements.
It isn't "combat training" of any sort.
It can serve as a form of combat training, especially for close-quarters combat. I used to play with some soldiers on an Army base who would train with paintguns for just that reason. They said that the military laser systems were rampant with cheaters and they also wanted the soldiers to feel the sting of being shot. (This was 10 years ago, maybe they have improved the laser systems since then.)
Trying to aim a paintball gun using firearm skills or vice versa is a good way to miss. You need to lead a lot more, and correct for dip a lot sooner.
Paintball really honed my snap shooting skills and I have found that directly translates to shooting real firearms. I find that shooting trap or skeet with my shotgun is almost exactly like shooting a paintgun at a moving target. I also think that it improves defensive pistol shooting where you aren't carefully aiming at a target, but just trying to draw and hit it quickly.
Projectile velocity is around 240 fps
I know Germany keeps the velocity low (210??), but it's 280-285 in the US at insured fields, and a lot of people who play on their own fields turn it up to 300 fps.
That said, I totally agree that in paintball, cooperation is key. The angry or solo players are usually taken out early... unless they are really good.
TFA said that the crazy kid's dad had 15 guns, so I am betting that little Johnny was a pretty good shot... especially when matched up against an unarmed, unsuspecting crowd. Germany needs to reconsider their gun laws, not their paintball laws. I doubt that banning guns would deter a motivated individual anyway.
But you've got to remember that Germany has had a hard-on for paintball for a while. They have ridiculously low velocity limits, you can almost jump out of the way of the paintballs. Also, German paint markers have to be certified and F-stamped or they are considered unregistered firearms.
It kind of sucks for paintballers, but I think that the atrocities of WWII remain in the collective German subconscious to some extent. So it isn't unreasonable that they are hypersensitive about any activity that could even be construed as promoting violence.
I hope these retards enjoy their felony convictions. If you're going to steal some rocks, make them easy ones to move on the street, like diamonds. Or better yet, steal cash.
If NASA's hiring people like these, it's pretty clear why the US space program hasn't done anything interesting since the 1970's.
Good. We're past due for another big shake up. When was the last time a major nation-state was shaken up? Not elections that happen to pick the opposing party for once in 10, 20, or 30 years. But an actual revolution? The "White Western World"* is due for a good upheaval.
I can't believing that you are actually advocating the death of 7% of a country's population in the hope that it will change the power balance.
Do you really think that the people in power will be the ones to preferentially suffer the effects of the virus? I don't. They will be the ones stockpiling Tamiflu and enjoying military protection while the rest of us die. Events like this will only serve to solidify their power.
I'm glad to see they are staying with paper voting. I think that our society is not yet ready for important documents to exist solely digitally. Our governments and companies have not demonstrated the security necessary to keep them fully secure. Also, much of our society (especially the older ones) does not yet have the facility to use new electronic devices reliably
And kudos to the public officials that actually have the balls to scrap these voting systems they have invested heavily in to ensure a more trustworthy vote. Of course, better planning could have avoided the investment entirely, but lawyers (err, I mean governments) have never been good at long-term or large-scale project management.
If we can't actually go visit any aliens we detect because they are light years away, it is just going to drive us batty.
And I don't really want the aliens coming to visit us either, because that would mean they were more technologically advanced than humans. And the inferior species always seems to end up as food or raw material. Come on, even Hollywood has figured this out!
Slashdot Mirror
What the hell is going on with all the wacky names here?
A defendant called "Jammie," with a lawyer named "Kiwi" who studied under a guy named "Billion Dollar Charlie..."
They should copyright their names and then charge the RIAA to use them in legal documents.
The parent is complete right. Also, once the publishers start losing money from their textbook sales, they are going to jack up the electronic access fees to their books. At that point, I doubt that there will be any price difference between hardbound books and electronic books.
Also, you are going to have a bunch of high school kids walking around with netbooks? Have you seen how they treat their phones and books? The repair/replacement rate of the hardware is going to be astounding.
Finally, and maybe this is because I started with paper books, but in my experience electronic files do not lend themselves to the same level of focus as paper files. It's easier to move around and find things in the electronic versions, but it is also easier to get distracted and experience eye fatigue. For hyperactive high schoolers, I doubt that is a recipe for high levels of comprehension.
I find the idea of rape completely sickening, and in real life, I'm actually rather conservative about sex (preferring to get to know a girl than just pick someone up at a club - and I have had offers).
Dude, those people "offering" only looked like women...
Here we go again with the "real world" paradigm. Would you rather he did pot, get drunk and have all sorts of cool stories to tell at parties? Or get a few dozen year-long dead end jobs before settling into his permanent cubicle? Although, you are correct in one respect - he should learn as soon as possible that the real world has too many idiots in it (not referring to parent since I don't know his views on this matter) who will devalue any of his intellectual accomplishments unless it can be made into a Lifetime movie while deifying pseudo-celebrities whose only contribution to society is an entertaining way to dig themselves out of shit holes of their creation.
Much better that he finds something he really likes, work really hard at it and build a career for himself. Just because most kids can't make up their minds until they are old farts who think they are still young doesn't mean that this budding genius should deliberately feign indecisiveness so that his peers feel good about themselves. (this last part was a response to several comments thrown around, NOT to parent).
I think the GP is right. I've know a couple of these kids who finish community college at 13. Most of them don't end up so well off. The kid is majoring in astrophysics, which is primarily a research field. As someone who works in a research field, my personal experience is that the kids that get good grades are not always the ones doing the best research. It's just an indication that they either have the basic mechanics down really well, or they are good at cheating on tests.
Also, a big part of being successful in a research or office environment is relating to and communicating with your peers. Persistence/perseverance is also a useful skill that is hard to gauge from undergraduate academic records alone. In general, these skills are not acquired at 11 (or any age) without a little experience.
I am not saying that the kid won't do amazing work in his lifetime. But just because mommy and daddy rammed him through school early (I know the article implies that they didn't... complete lies. ) and he could finish a few years at a community college that involved basic math doesn't mean that he will excel in a research field... especially if he is that weird guy who never washes his clothes and talks to himself all the time. A few parties probably wouldn't hurt him as there is a lot to be said for proper socialization. Of course, I know this is Slashdot, so that may not be of value here.
Yeah because *you never* had an erotic fantasy in your life, right ? Somethign you wished you could do, but didn't because it transgresses what "society" (whoever the fuck they are) considers "normal" behaviour. Posting anonymously because you are full of shit.
"Society" is the organization that has setup the world you live in and provided you with the means to have electricity, your computer, police, laws, taxes and everything else. If you don't like it, go find some country with no effective government and no people (good luck) and see how that goes for you.
It is completely OK to have fantasies that transgress what "society" considers "normal." But if your idea of an erotic fantasy involves raping a 12 year old, than "society" will label you a sick fuck and put you in jail. Hopefully there, you can be raped by someone bigger and uglier than you too. I say this because you really are a sick fuck: Even from an evolutionary perspective, there is nothing advantageous about raping a woman that is not menstruating.
3,304 pounds of food per second. 263,013,699 pounds of food every day. 1.5 tons of food per year for every person in America.
A couple of decades ago, Harry Chapin said something like "In a country where we produce enough food to feed the entire planet 6 times over, it's unthinkable that anybody shouldn't have enough to eat". Not much has changed in the interim.
Yeah, because everything else in the world is so efficient, so the US for distribution network should be too.
Here's a tip, nothing is 100% efficient, so give it up.
Most engines are about 20% efficient. Solar panels are about 15% efficient. The US congress is about -10% efficient and yet people expect that ALL the food generated in the US should be utilized with 100% percent efficiency.
And that is not considering the fact that in our capitalist economy, there is insufficient incentive to actually make sure everyone gets enough food.
Think I am wrong? How much food did you throw into the trash this week?
I am sorry that this woman died, but I 100% disagree with this fine. The woman was a research assistant who was working off-hours, alone in the room, and did not have the necessary protection on. She screwed up bigtime.
I find it hard to believe that she made it through all those years of schooling without knowing that (1) a lithium compound is pyrophoric and (2) she probably should have had protective equipment on. No amount of training that the UC system could provide can fix a lazy student with a key to the lab.
For someone with a PhD to make these mistakes is akin to a regular Joe forgetting to look both ways before crossing the street and then getting hit by a car. It sucks, but it is only the victim's fault.
Of course, it is never fashionable for politicians to blame the victim.
And women will be receptive to a random MMO junkie because _______?
Because they are good at performing repetitive motions with their fingers AND they can endure doing the same boring tasks week after week: "Tell me how your day was, honey?"
Since she is your fiance, I am surprised you haven't figured this out by now.
Women cost money. Just buy her a computer. It will be a savings in the long run, because time spent gaming isn't time spent shopping.
"Some people are expressing concerns about Mexico's stability in the face of drug-cartel related violence."
If that's the case, why doesn't the US just annex MX? I mean, we've already got about half the people here, why shouldn't we get the real estate too? Nice beaches, etc....
I like that idea too. But honestly, Mexico would never, ever, ever become part of the US. They would give new meaning to the word insurgency.
What we really need to do is help bring the standard of living and policing up to US standards. Of course, that isn't realistic without the CIA putting some major behind the scenes work into the country. Or the Mexican government could actually try to govern effectively and not corruptly. Not that that will happen in our lifetimes.
Does anyone have any statistics or real info on what fraction of academics use latex, as opposed to word ? In my personal experience, NOT one person I know uses latex. My guess, latex is restricted to a small % academics, consisting of the partly overlapping set of retrogrouchs and math heavys
That's interesting. In my personal experience, ALL the respected scientists I have worked with use latex, and all the marginal ones used Word. But YMMV.
Too little to late Microsoft! I've already learned how to use the FREE program TeX. I am not going to waste more of my time and money on Word.
Go strangle yourself with your stupid ribbon! And shove Clippy where the sun don't shine while you are at it.
Obama better get himself reelected then. Because, you can bet if he loses to the Republicans the deadline for compliance to the 42 mpg average will be pushed back to the year 2167 lickity split.
And I don't mean that to sound partisan, because I hate both major political parties. But in my opinion, history has shown that the Republicans are definitely in bed with the oil companies. The Democrats might be too, but they keep it on the DL.
I really wish people would take the dangers of even small amounts of sleep deprivation more seriously.
Even missing an hours sleep could be enough to kill some poor sod who happens to be crossing the road at the same time as you miss the red lights.
In the modern world it seems to be macho to go without sleep. In reality, depriving yourself of sleep makes you less productive.
Then I hope you drive alone, with the radio off, ALWAYS keep your eyes on the road, don't drink alcohol to maintain optimal reaction at all times.
I'm less worried about sleep deprived drivers than I am about the ones who are talking on the phone, texting, fixing their hair, and yelling at their kids while hauling ass behind me in their SUV's.
You should sue everyone involved immediately.
Sue REI for not having any "no photography" signs posted but still allowing you to be arrested.
Sue the ATM people for assault and threatening behavior.
Sue the police for wrongful arrest and for forcing you to sign a trespassing admission in order to leave jail.
There are way to many law enforcement officials and security officers who think they are always in the right because they have guns and people died in 9/11. If they wanted some privacy, they should have put a fucking curtain up.
Sue them, get them demoted, and profit while doing so.
And finally, Walmart, err, I mean REI sucks on so many different levels you shouldn't be shopping there anyway.
How long is this state of matter stable for? That might be a good thing to tell the reader before expounding on how much promise this new material has. I am guessing that this new phase that it isn't stable except under heavy confinement. So good luck scaling up the quantities.
Also, I can help with wisebabo's question:
"I can easily imagine a material being compressed by some heavy duty diamond anvil to reach this density, the question is: what happens when you let the pressure off? Will it expand (explosively one would presume) back to its original volume?"
If it isn't in a stable state for its ambient pressure/temperature, it will undergo an expansion or phase change to a stable state. But it probably won't be explosive, unless the pressure is let off faster than the speed of sound of the material.
And I am assuming that you mean "explosive" in the loosest possible sense: explosive expansion. This would be a shock driven by only the energy stored in compression or phase change, because unless there is a nuclear reaction, pure deuterium isn't going to chemically react with itself, so no energy will actually be created.
I don't know if anyone else read the article, but my favorite quote was:
Last week, I was stuck on a runway for two hours. As I merrily worked away online, complete with YouTube videos and file downloads, I became aware that my seatmate was sneaking glances.
I am sure he was "working" on Youtube because he is a reporter. He was probably "researching" on Wikipedia too.
Anyway, I like how they keep emphasizing how easy it is to put that thing in your pocket. Cause I need another microwave source to irradiate my testicles...
Apple has met it's match... As Samsung, Motorola, HTC, and others bring more Android hardware to market and Verizon, Sprint and other carriers offer Android to their customers, the tide will turn quickly on software development as well.
People have been saying this since before the G1 came out, but the market numbers just aren't meeting these predictions yet. When are all these amazing phones going to arrive at my carrier (Verizon)? And how open is this Android thing really going to be? Google has already demonstrated that it is willing to pull certain apps that T-mobile doesn't like.
Verizon is one of the big players in the industry and last I heard, it was backing away from Android. But think of the carnage Verizon would wreak on an open-source platform. (We both know they would lock it down so hard you couldn't do anything useful with it anyway.)
AT&T is the other big player and they have a conflict of interest with their iPhone, for now at least.
Currently, Android seems a lot like Linux. It's theoretically open source, but it has limited industry support and is only available on (extremely) limited hardware. But the key difference is that the cell phone industry is dominated by the carriers, who don't seem fully sold on it yet and it's not like we can just go ahead and replace our phone's OS without voiding all sorts of warranties and support.
I do hope this changes with time though. And for what it's worth, I have emailed Verizon and urged them to adopt the OS, but I am not holding my breath.
I also ignore my voicemail. Big problem though: Mom.
Hearing "Hello you have reached 'Mother, please, we've been over this, do NOT leave a message, I'll call you back without checking my voice mail anyway, and voicemail is annoying'..." only makes her leave upset messages on my voice mail. Failure to set up my voice mail so that she can't leave any message only leads to that being the sole topic of conversation every time we actually DO talk on the phone.
I'm sure I'm not alone in saying "Please, let voice mail die faster so my mother can't leave extremely long rambling messages which I have to listen to or face the penalty."
Heh, mom's can be a pain, but you just need to learn to manage them properly. Just tell her to leave a short message that she called. Or better yet, if she leaves a long annoying message, delete it, call her back, and tell her that your voicemail is a little jacked and garbles long messages.
Or teach her how to send an email.
I feel bad for the buyer, but that said, he is definitely a little naive, which is surprising given that he works for Ebay (which I put on par with Alienware in terms of integrity).
Expensive and warrantied items are best purchased from reputable manufactures. Yes, you pay a premium on the price, but you are doing that so that you can have leverage with the company when something breaks.
If you go the second-hand route, you need to call the company first to figure out what you need to do to transfer the warranty OR be willing to deal with zero support.
I think of buying Alienware as buying a Ferrari. You're paying extra because: (1) It's a status symbol, (2) it looks nice, (3) in stock form it is faster than its competitors, (4) but it's going to require more money from the owner to keep it working than a regular car would.
Woah, woah, woah.
I play paintball too. And I disagree with some of your statements.
It isn't "combat training" of any sort.
It can serve as a form of combat training, especially for close-quarters combat. I used to play with some soldiers on an Army base who would train with paintguns for just that reason. They said that the military laser systems were rampant with cheaters and they also wanted the soldiers to feel the sting of being shot. (This was 10 years ago, maybe they have improved the laser systems since then.)
Trying to aim a paintball gun using firearm skills or vice versa is a good way to miss. You need to lead a lot more, and correct for dip a lot sooner.
Paintball really honed my snap shooting skills and I have found that directly translates to shooting real firearms. I find that shooting trap or skeet with my shotgun is almost exactly like shooting a paintgun at a moving target. I also think that it improves defensive pistol shooting where you aren't carefully aiming at a target, but just trying to draw and hit it quickly.
Projectile velocity is around 240 fps
I know Germany keeps the velocity low (210??), but it's 280-285 in the US at insured fields, and a lot of people who play on their own fields turn it up to 300 fps.
That said, I totally agree that in paintball, cooperation is key. The angry or solo players are usually taken out early... unless they are really good.
TFA said that the crazy kid's dad had 15 guns, so I am betting that little Johnny was a pretty good shot... especially when matched up against an unarmed, unsuspecting crowd. Germany needs to reconsider their gun laws, not their paintball laws. I doubt that banning guns would deter a motivated individual anyway.
But you've got to remember that Germany has had a hard-on for paintball for a while. They have ridiculously low velocity limits, you can almost jump out of the way of the paintballs. Also, German paint markers have to be certified and F-stamped or they are considered unregistered firearms.
It kind of sucks for paintballers, but I think that the atrocities of WWII remain in the collective German subconscious to some extent. So it isn't unreasonable that they are hypersensitive about any activity that could even be construed as promoting violence.
That story is hilarious.
I hope these retards enjoy their felony convictions. If you're going to steal some rocks, make them easy ones to move on the street, like diamonds. Or better yet, steal cash.
If NASA's hiring people like these, it's pretty clear why the US space program hasn't done anything interesting since the 1970's.
Good. We're past due for another big shake up. When was the last time a major nation-state was shaken up? Not elections that happen to pick the opposing party for once in 10, 20, or 30 years. But an actual revolution? The "White Western World"* is due for a good upheaval.
I can't believing that you are actually advocating the death of 7% of a country's population in the hope that it will change the power balance.
Do you really think that the people in power will be the ones to preferentially suffer the effects of the virus? I don't. They will be the ones stockpiling Tamiflu and enjoying military protection while the rest of us die. Events like this will only serve to solidify their power.
I'm glad to see they are staying with paper voting. I think that our society is not yet ready for important documents to exist solely digitally. Our governments and companies have not demonstrated the security necessary to keep them fully secure. Also, much of our society (especially the older ones) does not yet have the facility to use new electronic devices reliably
And kudos to the public officials that actually have the balls to scrap these voting systems they have invested heavily in to ensure a more trustworthy vote. Of course, better planning could have avoided the investment entirely, but lawyers (err, I mean governments) have never been good at long-term or large-scale project management.
If we can't actually go visit any aliens we detect because they are light years away, it is just going to drive us batty.
And I don't really want the aliens coming to visit us either, because that would mean they were more technologically advanced than humans. And the inferior species always seems to end up as food or raw material. Come on, even Hollywood has figured this out!