Each and every Marine, including our Lady Marines, qualifies at 500 yards. Every Marine is first and foremost a rifleman. The cooks, accountants, and even the officers - are all riflemen. There is no Marine who has not demonstrated the ability to qualify at 500 yards. Now, 500 yards is slightly less than 500 meters. However, many qualify at higher levels. The rifle team just won last year by picking off the *600* meter (not yards) targets first. Give me a few minutes and I'll put it in the black at 500 meters. I'll do it just for you - I will need a spotter and to be prone, I'll just use my own personal AR for the task, if you don't mind - but if you'll give me about an hour then I'll do it with any issued M16 or M4.
Hell, I'll even bet you money that I can do it. However, I'm gonna need a little practice time if we're gonna bet money on it. It is not easy to learn but once you learn, it's not bad. In fact, once you learn it is pretty easy to maintain those skills with just a few hours practice every couple of weeks. Yeah, I'm old - 58. Give me two hours to get acclimated and set up and I'll bet you $500 I can put 7 out of 10 in the black at 500 meters. Hell, we'll make it interesting - I'll give you 2:1 odds and I'll do it without optics (of course). We can even use standard issue ammunition. Find any service issue or I can bring my own AR and you can inspect it. We can go to the shop and buy a few hundred rounds of ammo so that you see I'm not using match grade.
I'm down for this wager but I am gonna need 2 hours to acclimate. Err... I'm kind of old and I've only been to a range and fired a sidearm seven times since September - I'm *very* out of practice (for me). We can even video tape it and show it here on Slashdot - you can humiliate me and win some money. I'm not even an "exceptional" shot. I just know how to follow instructions and I know what discipline is.
The person you replied to is an Anaco-capitalist. (No, that does not mean Libertarian. They're diametrically opposed views, in all actuality.)
What they said, including the violence, is in-line with their beliefs. If nothing else, they're consistent and you've gotta respect that. They're sincere held beliefs which is a lot better than many have. Don't get me wrong, I think they're insane (but probably not retarded or stupid) and I think that anarchy will never reach the plateau that is assumed. I also think that capitalism doesn't reach a state of equilibrium on its own, much like all pure political or economic ideologies. (Government, like life, finds a way and there will be governance, even if just at the end of a barrel.)
So, yes... Yes I think they're horribly misguided and don't realize the horrible failure their ideology will result in - if implemented (we've seen it on small scales, it seldom works well). But... I do respect their consistency and that they're truly held beliefs - and that they're willing to take the guff that comes along with holding those beliefs. However, trying to reason with them is an exercise in futility.
They war almost certainly wouldn't have been lost if you're father had been captured. The war wouldn't have even been lost if *all* of them had been captured. They were the ground soldiers. I guess you could say that the captured wouldn't have been in N. Africa but there were still plenty of troops if you look at the numbers.
To put N. Africa into scale and WWII numbers, the surrendering Germans were something like 225,000 - in pretty much one go. Would it have been tougher? Maybe, but probably not a hell of a lot. The folks from Dunkirk only made up something like 1/8 of the N. African soldiers.
Also, any American who holds such views about France is an idiot. We have our country because of France and some might say that gift cost the leader's heads. If they hold those views, they have no idea about WWII. If they hold those views, they sure as hell know nothing of the French Foreign Legion. I am American, by the way.
Lubuntu is an official flavor and it is awesome. I don't get crashes, I don't have problems. Well, I get an occasional lxpanel crash that fixes itself in short order and asks me if I want to report it. I usually report it just so they have the dump. I'm not sure that really counts as much of a crash considering that it's nearly immediate, no work is ever lost, and it repairs itself.
For the majority, just 'ubuntu-restricted-extras' will get you started but yeah, you'll need to do extra work for some DVDs and BluRay discs. All of them can be found by the name of the thing you want to play (blueray) and your OS (Lubuntu) and what the hell you want to do (play). 'play bluray lubuntu' seems to work just fine.
For the packages specific to your flavor, change Ubuntu to Lubuntu or Kubuntu or whatever official flavor you use. (Dunno about others.)
Hmm... For DVD it is: sudo/usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh
At least that's what's in bash_history from a few days ago.
> If I had kids I'd also want some kind of LEFTIEBLOCK software, to filter out that other evil in this world that wants to exploit them.
There is. It's called Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. However, the CPS frowns on intentionally making your children retarded. Some (certainly not all) of the ideas on the left are actually good ideas. But, if you want to raise a retarded child then I guess you can try getting your girlfriend pregnant by having her drink more coffee brandy than anyone else in the trailer park.
I kid... I kid... Mostly...
Seriously, some of the folks on the left have some good ideas. It might serve you well to listen to some of the more sane ones. And, to be honest and fair, the right has its share of kooks. The right has plenty of fine ideas too. If you'd all stop playing Politics like it's football or some other team sport, you might figure this out. I'm half convinced they keep you separated and fighting just so they can keep fucking but I'm not sure if most politicians are actually that smart.
I made it a point to try to avoid any and all animals and most of the plants. I'm not even afraid of normal animals. I just know that I don't know enough about Australia's flora and fauna to go randomly screwing with it. That's how you get hurt. We put most everything in the tent at night, just to make sure that nothing crawled in it and tried to kill me in the morning.
I'm not going in the water. I'm not going into the "bush" by myself. I just don't know enough and, well, I'd hate to kill the wrong thing. It'd be bad form to get frightened of a koala and beat it to death with a stick. I've since learned that some magpies hold a grudge - they'll attack the same postman every time they see 'em. Why? Because, fuck you - that's why! I saw one video of a postman swinging his bike around trying to fend off a magpie. It's apparently a ritual and happens for a period of time every year and it's the same one that's been trying to kick his ass for years now.
I will point out that a group of crows is called a murder. I have no idea what a group of magpies are. I'm not a small man and I spent 8 years in the Marines. I can hold my own. I'm pretty sure an emu can kick my ass. I'm damned sure of it. I've SEEN an emu. The kangaroo you mention? Yeah... I'm not gonna touch that either. I'm not even gonna go investigate it closely. I don't even know which one that is! (I'm guessing it's the big gray ones - I've seen those, they're bigger in real life than they are on television.) It doesn't matter. I'm not going to touch *any* of them - or get within kicking distance. Hell, I might not even get out of the "Ute."
If you've got to time it right to duck and punch a magpie to get to work, I'm gonna carry a stick. I have no idea how anyone could live in that environment and NOT be aware of the environment. Well, I suspect alcohol helps.
In all seriousness, I had a great time. Great country, great people, and beautiful (and unusual) scenery. I'm told that I've seen more of Oz than most citizens ever will. That's something to appreciate and it's very nice there. As I mentioned below, I later got an invite to live there - extended to me because I'd sold my business and, presumably, they found my snail mail address somewhere. I'm guessing I'd signed up for something because they were aware of my liking municipal bonds. I did not actually ask where they got my contact information from but they were legit.
It's a beautiful country with a neat history. Some bloke actually stomped all over the place, after escaping from a penal colony, and lived with the Aboriginals. He had an interesting tale to tell. The Aboriginal folks have a bunch of neat history and beliefs but I'm half convinced they're just pulling your leg to screw with you. I've seen 'em point to some of their old art and point out a "crocodile." Yeah, it looked more like a turtle crossed with duck.
I think they're just screwing with you - and it serves Oz right. If it were me, I'd call that picture something different every time someone asked. The lady then pointed to a picture of an extremely elongated stick figure and said that was one of her ancestors and she could tell because it looked just like her. She was old, plump, and short. Yeah, they're screwing with you. I bet they just made up the didgeridoo (spelling?) as an experiment to see how many people they could sucker into buying a log. It turns out, quite a few. Yes, yes I *do* own my Official Tourist Hipster Log. It was all too easy, they had shipping right there from the store... *sighs*
Beautiful country, beautiful people. Fantastic history.
This might amuse you but I actually enjoy troll banter. So, how about some fun, shall we?
You're not actually aware of what freedom is, and that's understandable - you're an idiot. You meant "liberty" and not "freedom" and, in that case, you'd still be wrong.
In 2013, January to be more exact, I got a snail mail letter from someone representing your government. I still have the ensuing email exchange archived. If you're curious, they were inviting me to come live there and wanting me to invest in your economy.
I'm guessing you don't know anything about your own government but, if you did, you'd be aware that that puts me into a rather select group of people, a group which can almost certainly afford to visit a dentist.
As an aside, I'm not retarded enough to think my country is all that great. I do prefer it to a State that's willing to remove liberties because of cowardice. It's unfortunate but it is what it is. You're entitled to be a coward, if you want. I'm smart enough to know that firearms are pretty much harmless. People, on the other hand, are pretty stupid. Some of them try to be smart and post witty troll replies but don't actually understand basic concepts like liberty and freedom.
The amusing part is that you're probably sitting there thinking you've done something witty. Really, you've just demonstrated that you're not that bright and get panicked over the idea of someone else having a hobby. Me? I find pants-pissing to be cowardice and regulating based on cowardice is never a good idea. The difference between us is that I don't *like* when my government does it.
You can actually do that with uMatrix. The author even made a Firefox version for those folks. Just block images and everything else at the default level (wildcard *) on the upper left. And you'll block all images from every site and then you can whitelist 'em as you want.
To be fair, phishing is a word - in English. It's jargon but it's still a word. There is also spear-phishing. That's definitely English, just not classic English but English is not a dead language.
For the American Heritage Dictionary definition: "phishing." American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. 2011. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company 24 Feb. 2016 http://www.thefreedictionary.c... For Collins English Dictionary: "phishing." Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014. 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014. HarperCollins Publishers 24 Feb. 2016 http://www.thefreedictionary.c... For Dictionary of Unfamiliar Words: "phishing." Dictionary of Unfamiliar Words by Diagram Group. 2008. Diagram Visual Information Limited 24 Feb. 2016 http://www.thefreedictionary.c...
I figure it's their property. If they ask, I leave. I do not disable my ad-blocking software. I leave their property. I figure they're saying, "You can use my property but to do so means you must also accept this." I say, "Thanks but no thanks." So far, it has been pretty good to me and I've been blocking ads since the mid 1990s.
I'm a guest, using their property. If they say that they want me to use that property in a certain way then I accept that it's their property and they get to make the rules about how people use their property. Usually, I just switch 'http' to 'cache' and that takes me to Google's cache - which is *not* their property. They've given their property to a new owner. The new owner doesn't ask me to disable my ad-blocking. I'm okay with that.
I did vote. I own no shares of Google in my "play" portfolio. Err... I think I have some non-voting shares in my real portfolio but that's managed on my behalf so I do not know what is in there right now - probably some is in there, there was the last time I looked but that was quite a while ago. I could find out but I'm really not that keen on paying attention - it makes me want to try to "correct" the person whom I am paying quite well to do things better than I can. That'd be just plain silly of me.
And they expect me to tackle that sort of shit without a firearm if I move there! Ha! It's a trap. It's even a giant island so there's no getting away from it.
Actually, I really do like it there - for the most part. The government would drive me batty but my own government does that just fine. I have an *extensive* collection of firearms. They'd think it was an invasion or something if I tried to move there with all of them. I don't even *know* how many I own. It's a crazy, crazy number and no, I'm not some sort of conspiratorial nutjob who belongs to a militia and wants to overthrow anything. I just like history, mechanical devices, and things that go boom. I'm not willing to give that up, nor to give up my role as protector of history, in order to move to Australia. I've got firearms that go back to the 18th century. I don't want to give that up. Hell, I don't even normally walk around armed. Even if I am armed, it's seldom loaded.
That makes some sense. I wondered if it might make a decent internal network. With filters on the windows, it might even be reasonably secure - for a while, at least. It's absolutely nothing that I can make use of, or would make use of, at this stage. However, I guess I'm not like many folks? I don't say, "Well, it doesn't solve everything and I don't need it, so it's useless!" I'm not even sure why people do that, to be honest.
To extend on that idea...
Oddly enough, I don't even *care* what browser you use. Nope, your OS choice doesn't bug me either. I don't even care what compiler OR languages you write software in. So long as those tools enable you to do what you want, in the manner that you're comfortable with, then go ahead and use 'em. Hell, I don't think I've even offered an opinion on emacs v. vi/vim!
At any rate, I think the behaviors are probably related to the same underlying cause. I suspect, but I am not a head doctor, that it's a matter of ego and a need for affirmation. I'm often curious as to what these folks interpersonal lives look like. "I don't like carrots, you can't eat them in this house! No! Not even if you BUY them yourself! No carrots!" I'm sure it's dysfunctional as all hell. And no, I don't think they're limited to basements - that's a whole lot of people!
Again, no I do not know why humans are like that but we seem to be. At least a good portion of us seem to be. I have no use for this device (right now or in any way I envision it to be used) but I can see a few potential areas for use. I also know people are more creative than I. They may think of all sorts of things to do with this.
Valid point. Now... Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?
I get that people like to make up words and call them cultural differences but that song's really keen on taking it to a whole new level. Well, a whole old level - it's kind of old, as I recall. However, the trend seems to be be ongoing.
I ended up visiting a small town out off Prince's Highway. It was Cann River and fun. I went back a second time (there was a lady friend there) and stayed for a couple of weeks and then we rented a "Ute" and drove all the way to the tip of the continent. I want to say it was in a national park? Buggered if I remember. I might have been a little drunk at the time. I remember hearing something about telegraph poles and looking at a bunch of animals including at least one snake that was deadly. We had a good time driving up. We only had four spares so it was kind of interesting but I'd rented a satellite phone for the trip.
Alas, I can not reside in Australia. I just can't do it. She can't leave her parents. She just can't do it. They don't want to move. I don't blame them, I guess. I find the idea of life in Australia to be unacceptable. So, we reached an impasse and our time together was shorter than it might have been. She was pretty cute, so there's that. She's not cute enough to make me change my mind.
Not long after our last parting, she got her ass kicked by a magpie. Seriously, it straight up kicked her ass. She ended up getting stitches and it messed up her face for a little while. We've sort of lost contact but the last time she sent a picture, she'd returned to her formerly cute self in short and good order. Still, I was amused by the ass-kicking handed down by the bird. It seems even the birds are out to kill you in Australia.
I have not only been to Australia, I've gotten drunk and mumbled along (with hearty chorus singing) a song about a dude who stole a sheep. He drowned and now his ghost haunts the area. Oh, it gets better. I swear, I must have heard 50 variations of the song. I like the area and whatnot but I could not possibly live there.
Like most things, there are exceptions.;-) Me? I've refined lots and lots of things, including my political views, based on conversations had online. It just doesn't seem like we're in the majority. It's like we're all afraid of being wrong or our egos are too big to admit it. No, I have no idea why humans are like that. The majority seem to fit that profile. It is unfortunate.
You want to run a wire to everything? While I agree with you - and I typically do run cable, I'm not sure we're the target for this product.
I have no clue why they're suggesting this will be good for replacing wireless... That makes no sense. However, pushing an update to a device might make sense. There's some security applications that can benefit. I'm sure there are other places. Someone speculated a wearable or augmentation device and pushing updates to it. Paired, individual and only individual, and needing to be right there within the specific range of the light does have some potentially interesting things to do.
Imagine all the things folks are using near-field for - but make it so you can push data to it at high speeds. Someone's bound to find a use for that. It's just not gonna be replacing wireless. And no, it's probably not gonna be replacing any wired stuff either. As light fixtures and with some planning - it might make an interesting internal network, probably a mesh, and that has some potentials. Hell, I'm not even *that* creative. I draw stick figures. I'm sure others can fathom a few better uses than I'm thinking of.
Not that long ago, I was looking up how much energy is in a lion. It's a long story but, no... I was seriously looking that up - I was on a mission to extinguish the Sun. Anyhow, I typed that into Google hoping for the best and, sure enough, someone had already done the math and cited the sources for their calculations on the energy contained within an adult male lion.
It was this revelation that made me realize exactly how great the world can be at times. We tend to get pissed about how we don't always get the search results we want. It's really remarkable that it works as often as it does. (I remember the old search engines like AltaVista.)
No, I haven't found a search quite that remarkable since. I suspect it's gonna be a while before I find another one.
I think I am using (I'd have to go check) about 2 GB. I do cheat and use POP3 for my email so that I just delete stuff off the local cache and it doesn't actually get deleted from the server. I think I can increase my use if I download all the map data. My 2 GB is including the OS. The missus' numbers are after the OS.
I'd use a dumb phone but I like browsing and emailing. Those are the only things I do. Oh, I've gone through the app store and looked at a bunch of them. There's just nothing there that inspires me to click the install link.
As for the missus, err... She's pretty young, actually. She's like forty years my junior - and cute. She's just in it so that she can have my stuff when I die. But, she must be an oddity - she doesn't seem to use much data at all. Lots of texting... Lots and lots of texts. She's always texting someone - and lots of pics but those get shoveled off to the laptop pretty quickly.
I'm positive we have different use-cases, and that's okay. To put this into perspective I have a Windows phone (don't ask - it's actually awesome and there ARE apps available for it) and I have exactly one* app installed that did not come with my phone. I email, text, browse, make phone calls, and I just used the GPS a few hours ago when I went out to see how high this house is as compared to the ocean. What apps have you got installed? I can't think of a damned thing that I'd want to install that that's size - I didn't even want to install any.
* My one application is a browser. It's the only app I found that looked interesting and added a benefit that I'd use.
Also, I know I'm not typical. The missus says she's "got about a gig" of apps and "umpteen" pictures - but she moves those to a laptop and then she's now got storage on my NAS so there are archives of everything back in Maine. She uses an Android. She's actually quite young. She's "got about a gig." She's on the phone often. 16 GB of apps???
Where's that apps guy? I'm guessing I'm some sort of Luddite. What am I missing?
Slashdot Mirror
Each and every Marine, including our Lady Marines, qualifies at 500 yards. Every Marine is first and foremost a rifleman. The cooks, accountants, and even the officers - are all riflemen. There is no Marine who has not demonstrated the ability to qualify at 500 yards. Now, 500 yards is slightly less than 500 meters. However, many qualify at higher levels. The rifle team just won last year by picking off the *600* meter (not yards) targets first. Give me a few minutes and I'll put it in the black at 500 meters. I'll do it just for you - I will need a spotter and to be prone, I'll just use my own personal AR for the task, if you don't mind - but if you'll give me about an hour then I'll do it with any issued M16 or M4.
Hell, I'll even bet you money that I can do it. However, I'm gonna need a little practice time if we're gonna bet money on it. It is not easy to learn but once you learn, it's not bad. In fact, once you learn it is pretty easy to maintain those skills with just a few hours practice every couple of weeks. Yeah, I'm old - 58. Give me two hours to get acclimated and set up and I'll bet you $500 I can put 7 out of 10 in the black at 500 meters. Hell, we'll make it interesting - I'll give you 2:1 odds and I'll do it without optics (of course). We can even use standard issue ammunition. Find any service issue or I can bring my own AR and you can inspect it. We can go to the shop and buy a few hundred rounds of ammo so that you see I'm not using match grade.
I'm down for this wager but I am gonna need 2 hours to acclimate. Err... I'm kind of old and I've only been to a range and fired a sidearm seven times since September - I'm *very* out of practice (for me). We can even video tape it and show it here on Slashdot - you can humiliate me and win some money. I'm not even an "exceptional" shot. I just know how to follow instructions and I know what discipline is.
Not sure if serious... In fact, I'm gonna go out on a limb and state that I doubt you've ever actually fired one.
That isn't to say that they do not ever jam, just that they do not jam "often" by any stretch of the imagination.
The person you replied to is an Anaco-capitalist. (No, that does not mean Libertarian. They're diametrically opposed views, in all actuality.)
What they said, including the violence, is in-line with their beliefs. If nothing else, they're consistent and you've gotta respect that. They're sincere held beliefs which is a lot better than many have. Don't get me wrong, I think they're insane (but probably not retarded or stupid) and I think that anarchy will never reach the plateau that is assumed. I also think that capitalism doesn't reach a state of equilibrium on its own, much like all pure political or economic ideologies. (Government, like life, finds a way and there will be governance, even if just at the end of a barrel.)
So, yes... Yes I think they're horribly misguided and don't realize the horrible failure their ideology will result in - if implemented (we've seen it on small scales, it seldom works well). But... I do respect their consistency and that they're truly held beliefs - and that they're willing to take the guff that comes along with holding those beliefs. However, trying to reason with them is an exercise in futility.
They war almost certainly wouldn't have been lost if you're father had been captured. The war wouldn't have even been lost if *all* of them had been captured. They were the ground soldiers. I guess you could say that the captured wouldn't have been in N. Africa but there were still plenty of troops if you look at the numbers.
To put N. Africa into scale and WWII numbers, the surrendering Germans were something like 225,000 - in pretty much one go. Would it have been tougher? Maybe, but probably not a hell of a lot. The folks from Dunkirk only made up something like 1/8 of the N. African soldiers.
Also, any American who holds such views about France is an idiot. We have our country because of France and some might say that gift cost the leader's heads. If they hold those views, they have no idea about WWII. If they hold those views, they sure as hell know nothing of the French Foreign Legion. I am American, by the way.
Lubuntu is an official flavor and it is awesome. I don't get crashes, I don't have problems. Well, I get an occasional lxpanel crash that fixes itself in short order and asks me if I want to report it. I usually report it just so they have the dump. I'm not sure that really counts as much of a crash considering that it's nearly immediate, no work is ever lost, and it repairs itself.
For the majority, just 'ubuntu-restricted-extras' will get you started but yeah, you'll need to do extra work for some DVDs and BluRay discs. All of them can be found by the name of the thing you want to play (blueray) and your OS (Lubuntu) and what the hell you want to do (play). 'play bluray lubuntu' seems to work just fine.
For the packages specific to your flavor, change Ubuntu to Lubuntu or Kubuntu or whatever official flavor you use. (Dunno about others.)
Hmm... For DVD it is: /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh
sudo
At least that's what's in bash_history from a few days ago.
sudo apt-get install cinnamon
That was awful and you should feel bad. You don't but you should.
> If I had kids I'd also want some kind of LEFTIEBLOCK software, to filter out that other evil in this world that wants to exploit them.
There is. It's called Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. However, the CPS frowns on intentionally making your children retarded. Some (certainly not all) of the ideas on the left are actually good ideas. But, if you want to raise a retarded child then I guess you can try getting your girlfriend pregnant by having her drink more coffee brandy than anyone else in the trailer park.
I kid... I kid... Mostly...
Seriously, some of the folks on the left have some good ideas. It might serve you well to listen to some of the more sane ones. And, to be honest and fair, the right has its share of kooks. The right has plenty of fine ideas too. If you'd all stop playing Politics like it's football or some other team sport, you might figure this out. I'm half convinced they keep you separated and fighting just so they can keep fucking but I'm not sure if most politicians are actually that smart.
I made it a point to try to avoid any and all animals and most of the plants. I'm not even afraid of normal animals. I just know that I don't know enough about Australia's flora and fauna to go randomly screwing with it. That's how you get hurt. We put most everything in the tent at night, just to make sure that nothing crawled in it and tried to kill me in the morning.
I'm not going in the water. I'm not going into the "bush" by myself. I just don't know enough and, well, I'd hate to kill the wrong thing. It'd be bad form to get frightened of a koala and beat it to death with a stick. I've since learned that some magpies hold a grudge - they'll attack the same postman every time they see 'em. Why? Because, fuck you - that's why! I saw one video of a postman swinging his bike around trying to fend off a magpie. It's apparently a ritual and happens for a period of time every year and it's the same one that's been trying to kick his ass for years now.
I will point out that a group of crows is called a murder. I have no idea what a group of magpies are. I'm not a small man and I spent 8 years in the Marines. I can hold my own. I'm pretty sure an emu can kick my ass. I'm damned sure of it. I've SEEN an emu. The kangaroo you mention? Yeah... I'm not gonna touch that either. I'm not even gonna go investigate it closely. I don't even know which one that is! (I'm guessing it's the big gray ones - I've seen those, they're bigger in real life than they are on television.) It doesn't matter. I'm not going to touch *any* of them - or get within kicking distance. Hell, I might not even get out of the "Ute."
If you've got to time it right to duck and punch a magpie to get to work, I'm gonna carry a stick. I have no idea how anyone could live in that environment and NOT be aware of the environment. Well, I suspect alcohol helps.
In all seriousness, I had a great time. Great country, great people, and beautiful (and unusual) scenery. I'm told that I've seen more of Oz than most citizens ever will. That's something to appreciate and it's very nice there. As I mentioned below, I later got an invite to live there - extended to me because I'd sold my business and, presumably, they found my snail mail address somewhere. I'm guessing I'd signed up for something because they were aware of my liking municipal bonds. I did not actually ask where they got my contact information from but they were legit.
It's a beautiful country with a neat history. Some bloke actually stomped all over the place, after escaping from a penal colony, and lived with the Aboriginals. He had an interesting tale to tell. The Aboriginal folks have a bunch of neat history and beliefs but I'm half convinced they're just pulling your leg to screw with you. I've seen 'em point to some of their old art and point out a "crocodile." Yeah, it looked more like a turtle crossed with duck.
I think they're just screwing with you - and it serves Oz right. If it were me, I'd call that picture something different every time someone asked. The lady then pointed to a picture of an extremely elongated stick figure and said that was one of her ancestors and she could tell because it looked just like her. She was old, plump, and short. Yeah, they're screwing with you. I bet they just made up the didgeridoo (spelling?) as an experiment to see how many people they could sucker into buying a log. It turns out, quite a few. Yes, yes I *do* own my Official Tourist Hipster Log. It was all too easy, they had shipping right there from the store... *sighs*
Beautiful country, beautiful people. Fantastic history.
This might amuse you but I actually enjoy troll banter. So, how about some fun, shall we?
You're not actually aware of what freedom is, and that's understandable - you're an idiot. You meant "liberty" and not "freedom" and, in that case, you'd still be wrong.
In 2013, January to be more exact, I got a snail mail letter from someone representing your government. I still have the ensuing email exchange archived. If you're curious, they were inviting me to come live there and wanting me to invest in your economy.
I'm guessing you don't know anything about your own government but, if you did, you'd be aware that that puts me into a rather select group of people, a group which can almost certainly afford to visit a dentist.
As an aside, I'm not retarded enough to think my country is all that great. I do prefer it to a State that's willing to remove liberties because of cowardice. It's unfortunate but it is what it is. You're entitled to be a coward, if you want. I'm smart enough to know that firearms are pretty much harmless. People, on the other hand, are pretty stupid. Some of them try to be smart and post witty troll replies but don't actually understand basic concepts like liberty and freedom.
The amusing part is that you're probably sitting there thinking you've done something witty. Really, you've just demonstrated that you're not that bright and get panicked over the idea of someone else having a hobby. Me? I find pants-pissing to be cowardice and regulating based on cowardice is never a good idea. The difference between us is that I don't *like* when my government does it.
You can actually do that with uMatrix. The author even made a Firefox version for those folks. Just block images and everything else at the default level (wildcard *) on the upper left. And you'll block all images from every site and then you can whitelist 'em as you want.
To be fair, phishing is a word - in English. It's jargon but it's still a word. There is also spear-phishing. That's definitely English, just not classic English but English is not a dead language.
For the American Heritage Dictionary definition:
"phishing." American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. 2011. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company 24 Feb. 2016 http://www.thefreedictionary.c...
For Collins English Dictionary:
"phishing." Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014. 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014. HarperCollins Publishers 24 Feb. 2016 http://www.thefreedictionary.c...
For Dictionary of Unfamiliar Words:
"phishing." Dictionary of Unfamiliar Words by Diagram Group. 2008. Diagram Visual Information Limited 24 Feb. 2016 http://www.thefreedictionary.c...
It appears to date back at least as far as 1991.
I figure it's their property. If they ask, I leave. I do not disable my ad-blocking software. I leave their property. I figure they're saying, "You can use my property but to do so means you must also accept this." I say, "Thanks but no thanks." So far, it has been pretty good to me and I've been blocking ads since the mid 1990s.
I'm a guest, using their property. If they say that they want me to use that property in a certain way then I accept that it's their property and they get to make the rules about how people use their property. Usually, I just switch 'http' to 'cache' and that takes me to Google's cache - which is *not* their property. They've given their property to a new owner. The new owner doesn't ask me to disable my ad-blocking. I'm okay with that.
I did vote. I own no shares of Google in my "play" portfolio. Err... I think I have some non-voting shares in my real portfolio but that's managed on my behalf so I do not know what is in there right now - probably some is in there, there was the last time I looked but that was quite a while ago. I could find out but I'm really not that keen on paying attention - it makes me want to try to "correct" the person whom I am paying quite well to do things better than I can. That'd be just plain silly of me.
And they expect me to tackle that sort of shit without a firearm if I move there! Ha! It's a trap. It's even a giant island so there's no getting away from it.
Actually, I really do like it there - for the most part. The government would drive me batty but my own government does that just fine. I have an *extensive* collection of firearms. They'd think it was an invasion or something if I tried to move there with all of them. I don't even *know* how many I own. It's a crazy, crazy number and no, I'm not some sort of conspiratorial nutjob who belongs to a militia and wants to overthrow anything. I just like history, mechanical devices, and things that go boom. I'm not willing to give that up, nor to give up my role as protector of history, in order to move to Australia. I've got firearms that go back to the 18th century. I don't want to give that up. Hell, I don't even normally walk around armed. Even if I am armed, it's seldom loaded.
That makes some sense. I wondered if it might make a decent internal network. With filters on the windows, it might even be reasonably secure - for a while, at least. It's absolutely nothing that I can make use of, or would make use of, at this stage. However, I guess I'm not like many folks? I don't say, "Well, it doesn't solve everything and I don't need it, so it's useless!" I'm not even sure why people do that, to be honest.
To extend on that idea...
Oddly enough, I don't even *care* what browser you use. Nope, your OS choice doesn't bug me either. I don't even care what compiler OR languages you write software in. So long as those tools enable you to do what you want, in the manner that you're comfortable with, then go ahead and use 'em. Hell, I don't think I've even offered an opinion on emacs v. vi/vim!
At any rate, I think the behaviors are probably related to the same underlying cause. I suspect, but I am not a head doctor, that it's a matter of ego and a need for affirmation. I'm often curious as to what these folks interpersonal lives look like. "I don't like carrots, you can't eat them in this house! No! Not even if you BUY them yourself! No carrots!" I'm sure it's dysfunctional as all hell. And no, I don't think they're limited to basements - that's a whole lot of people!
Again, no I do not know why humans are like that but we seem to be. At least a good portion of us seem to be. I have no use for this device (right now or in any way I envision it to be used) but I can see a few potential areas for use. I also know people are more creative than I. They may think of all sorts of things to do with this.
Valid point. Now... Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?
I get that people like to make up words and call them cultural differences but that song's really keen on taking it to a whole new level. Well, a whole old level - it's kind of old, as I recall. However, the trend seems to be be ongoing.
I ended up visiting a small town out off Prince's Highway. It was Cann River and fun. I went back a second time (there was a lady friend there) and stayed for a couple of weeks and then we rented a "Ute" and drove all the way to the tip of the continent. I want to say it was in a national park? Buggered if I remember. I might have been a little drunk at the time. I remember hearing something about telegraph poles and looking at a bunch of animals including at least one snake that was deadly. We had a good time driving up. We only had four spares so it was kind of interesting but I'd rented a satellite phone for the trip.
Alas, I can not reside in Australia. I just can't do it. She can't leave her parents. She just can't do it. They don't want to move. I don't blame them, I guess. I find the idea of life in Australia to be unacceptable. So, we reached an impasse and our time together was shorter than it might have been. She was pretty cute, so there's that. She's not cute enough to make me change my mind.
Not long after our last parting, she got her ass kicked by a magpie. Seriously, it straight up kicked her ass. She ended up getting stitches and it messed up her face for a little while. We've sort of lost contact but the last time she sent a picture, she'd returned to her formerly cute self in short and good order. Still, I was amused by the ass-kicking handed down by the bird. It seems even the birds are out to kill you in Australia.
Don't forget the man in a bunch of sheet metal.
I have not only been to Australia, I've gotten drunk and mumbled along (with hearty chorus singing) a song about a dude who stole a sheep. He drowned and now his ghost haunts the area. Oh, it gets better. I swear, I must have heard 50 variations of the song. I like the area and whatnot but I could not possibly live there.
Like most things, there are exceptions. ;-) Me? I've refined lots and lots of things, including my political views, based on conversations had online. It just doesn't seem like we're in the majority. It's like we're all afraid of being wrong or our egos are too big to admit it. No, I have no idea why humans are like that. The majority seem to fit that profile. It is unfortunate.
You want to run a wire to everything? While I agree with you - and I typically do run cable, I'm not sure we're the target for this product.
I have no clue why they're suggesting this will be good for replacing wireless... That makes no sense. However, pushing an update to a device might make sense. There's some security applications that can benefit. I'm sure there are other places. Someone speculated a wearable or augmentation device and pushing updates to it. Paired, individual and only individual, and needing to be right there within the specific range of the light does have some potentially interesting things to do.
Imagine all the things folks are using near-field for - but make it so you can push data to it at high speeds. Someone's bound to find a use for that. It's just not gonna be replacing wireless. And no, it's probably not gonna be replacing any wired stuff either. As light fixtures and with some planning - it might make an interesting internal network, probably a mesh, and that has some potentials. Hell, I'm not even *that* creative. I draw stick figures. I'm sure others can fathom a few better uses than I'm thinking of.
To be honest, this is one of those rare times where the word "literally" appears to have been used correctly.
> Would that all my searches were that easy.
I'll try to keep this short...
Not that long ago, I was looking up how much energy is in a lion. It's a long story but, no... I was seriously looking that up - I was on a mission to extinguish the Sun. Anyhow, I typed that into Google hoping for the best and, sure enough, someone had already done the math and cited the sources for their calculations on the energy contained within an adult male lion.
It was this revelation that made me realize exactly how great the world can be at times. We tend to get pissed about how we don't always get the search results we want. It's really remarkable that it works as often as it does. (I remember the old search engines like AltaVista.)
No, I haven't found a search quite that remarkable since. I suspect it's gonna be a while before I find another one.
I think I am using (I'd have to go check) about 2 GB. I do cheat and use POP3 for my email so that I just delete stuff off the local cache and it doesn't actually get deleted from the server. I think I can increase my use if I download all the map data. My 2 GB is including the OS. The missus' numbers are after the OS.
I'd use a dumb phone but I like browsing and emailing. Those are the only things I do. Oh, I've gone through the app store and looked at a bunch of them. There's just nothing there that inspires me to click the install link.
As for the missus, err... She's pretty young, actually. She's like forty years my junior - and cute. She's just in it so that she can have my stuff when I die. But, she must be an oddity - she doesn't seem to use much data at all. Lots of texting... Lots and lots of texts. She's always texting someone - and lots of pics but those get shoveled off to the laptop pretty quickly.
I'm positive we have different use-cases, and that's okay. To put this into perspective I have a Windows phone (don't ask - it's actually awesome and there ARE apps available for it) and I have exactly one* app installed that did not come with my phone. I email, text, browse, make phone calls, and I just used the GPS a few hours ago when I went out to see how high this house is as compared to the ocean. What apps have you got installed? I can't think of a damned thing that I'd want to install that that's size - I didn't even want to install any.
* My one application is a browser. It's the only app I found that looked interesting and added a benefit that I'd use.
Also, I know I'm not typical. The missus says she's "got about a gig" of apps and "umpteen" pictures - but she moves those to a laptop and then she's now got storage on my NAS so there are archives of everything back in Maine. She uses an Android. She's actually quite young. She's "got about a gig." She's on the phone often. 16 GB of apps???
Where's that apps guy? I'm guessing I'm some sort of Luddite. What am I missing?