Oh, I think you're absolutely right. Actually, as it happened, the police (and a lot of other people) believe the woman who committed the crime is a prostitute who gained access to the residential areas of the building through lax enforcement of rules; the rules state that you sign in, the person you're visiting is contacted, and once you're vouched for, you may go to that person's apartment. However, nobody ever checked (a) to ensure that people who went in came out again, or (b) that they actually went where they said they were going. There are Federal rules in place that ensure that you really don't know if your next-door neighbor is a retired schoolteacher or clerk, a retired pimp or drug dealer, or somebody "in recovery from drug addiction." Sadly for us, we weren't aware of any of this until it was too late.
Interest in the case escalated all the way up to the mayor and police commissioner; the crime was pretty heinous. Big-city police detectives aren't in the habit of going to that much effort to restore a doll to a little old lady. There was a bit of judicious media coverage (newspaper, television), in hopes that somebody would recognize the doll or the circumstances and bring additional information to light. Aged Mum couldn't help much because she could scarcely talk. But they wanted very much to catch this person.
I agree with you that attention to smaller crimes might put inroads into the bigger ones. In this case, an arrest or two for loitering, prostitution, petty theft, whatever--might have made a big difference. Unfortunately, it's not going to happen due to budgets and staffing.
Just to bring it all back on-topic, I do have to reiterate that eBay cooperated fully and immediately. But I have to wonder what percentage of it is a thieves' market--I really do.
My Aged Mum, who was then 80 years of age, lived in an apartment residence for the elderly. Two years ago (on Christmas Eve, no less) she was the victim of a ruthless home invasion. The thief had worked very hard to gain the trust of the elderly residents, and on the night she struck (yep, it was a woman), my mother admitted her to the apartment.
Mom's phone wires were cut her call bell was de-commissioned, and she was savagely beaten--actually unimaginably beaten, and left for dead on the floor in her living room. One of the items taken was an antique doll, quite distinctive and large, and also very valuable. It dated back to approximately the 1820's and had been handed down through the generations from mother to daughter for all that time.
Aged Mum survived, though with traumatic brain injuries that left her mental capacities greatly diminished. She grieved over that doll; perhaps it was irrational, but I grieved, too. While the police worked on finding the perpetrator, I began to haunt eBay. Each morning as I started work, and each night before I went to bed, I ran search after search, using every term I could think of. Three weeks after the crime, I hit paydirt; the doll was there. Because I had been so connected to it over my lifetime, I was able to supply an exhaustive description. (Unaccountably we had no photograph.) The police contacted eBay, the auction was stopped, they got a warrant, and next morning they served it on the seller.
As it turns out, he was legitimate; he had purchased the doll at a well known local flea market the week before. He had been on eBay for several years, selling vintage stuff and assorted items he found at local sales. He provided as much information as he could, and the doll was returned to us within 24 hours of my first locating it at eBay. The doll's porcelain head was undamaged, but her arms (which are kidskin leather) were in bad shape.
Stories like this really don't have good outcomes. In our case we've had to see an intelligent, lively old lady suffer the loss of her intellect in what should be a comfortable old age. The police have not located the criminal after two years, and additional violence has taken place at that facility where my mother lived. Aged Mum is in a much better facility now, and the doll is here with me--and has been photographed and appraised for insurance purposes.
I guess the lessons learned are these: (1) Ebay does cooperate with police, and the police know how to secure their cooperation--probably best to leave the interaction to the cops. (2) I had some kind of underlying certainty, which might have been irrational, that the doll would eventually show up on eBay, one way or the other. I searched diligently and regularly. (3) Document your valuables. (4) It may take a while for your items to turn up, and they may pass through several hands. It all depends on whether the scum who has robbed you is versed in eBay or has to use the traditional fences, flea markets, and crooked pawnbrokers.
Most (not all, mind, you but most) people are reasonably responsible about maintaining their cars. They learned about it at their daddy's knee, or from the coach who taught them driver's ed. They hear about it when they buy a new car. They see ads on television ("Be good to your car so your car will be good to you...") People neglected their oil, filters, and tires savagely back when pumping one's own gas became popular because nobody was there to offer to check for them--but then a whole new line of enterprise sprang up and Jiffy Lube was revealed to us. I'll bet nine people out of ten will tell you that it's necessary to change their oil each 3,000 miles even when it isn't--because Jiffy Lube wants us to.
So where, precisely, do people go to find out about maintaining their PC's in a secure fashion? Nowhere in particular that I've noticed. Most people hate spam. They're in it up to their necks, and they despair of being able to do anything about it. If they knew what to do, I suspect most of them would do their best to follow instructions or suggestions. Nobody's advertising this info, nobody that I know of is teaching it in schools. You can't find it in magazine articles. You can try to ferret it out on the Internet, but that's tough to do for people who don't even know where to begin. What have they got? There are the virus protection companies, I suppose--but they're drowning too, and their posts can be cryptic for the uninitiated.
I have a strong suspicion that if tomorrow, the Tide people began advertising a laundry detergent that would add five years to the life of your washer, people would line up to buy it. So who's advertising what to do when under threat from the spammers and their botnets?
Having been a CNE back in the day I can tell you that those stories abound. I've seen more than one forgotten server and was actually present at the death of one that had been running unattended, un-noticed, and un-backed-up for a number of years under a desk in a supply closet. Nobody ever thought about it until its network adapter began to go.
The sad part about it was that it didn't have to die. I got a backup and could have set it up on another box. The problem was that the diskette with the serial number (called the "gendata" disk) was missing. They managed to locate the 35-odd other floppies, but that one had been put away "in a safe place," and nobody could find it after all those years. Novell could be of no help because the version was so old--though actually it was the one I'd initially been certified on.
The decision was made, folks got their everyday files off it, we held a moment of silence, thanked it for its years of service, and just shut it off. Actually we accorded it the dignity of typing "down" on its dusty keyboard.
While I'm not surprised that humans can track a scent, and I'm certainly not surprised that civilization may have interfered with this ability, I'm just not sure it's one of our areas of specialization. Your average garden-variety scent hound has more scent receptors, packed into a much larger area, stashed inside that world-class smeller. His entire face, including his long, floppy ears and all those wrinkles (if he has them), is intended to funnel all that scent up into his wide nostrils, where he can interpret and act on it. I've long imagined that at the dawn of time, the human/dog interaction may have gone something like this:
Dog to Human: Wanna go get some meat? Human to Dog: Yeah. You run on ahead, don't forget to let me know where you are, and I'll follow along with this stick. I just figured out how to put some sharp flint on the end of it. Should do a good job of killing that gazelle or whatever it is. Dog to Human: AROOO! Later that same evening... Human to Dog: Get away from that! Let me hack it up with this sharp piece of flint. Dog to Human: Good job! If you don't mind, I'll just gorge myself on the leftovers so I can go home and regurgitate some for the wife and pups. Human to Dog: Yeah, I'm taking the good parts. My wife has been gathering some kind of green stuff, and she'll put it on the meat and apply fire to it. Good eating!
No wonder humans are generally so fond of dogs. We're hunting buddies from way back.
Flush cutters. I work with a a lot of fine-gauge precious metal wire, and I use flush cutters that are sharp and kept in very good condition. When I had to replace a pair, I saved the old ones. The sharp point pierces the plastic material, and the blades (still sharp, though no longer good for wire) work their way around whatever path I select. They seem safer than a straight blade (like a box cutter), and the cushioned grips are easier on the hands and wrists than a pair of scissors. Damned annoying though, and I've cut myself any number of times on the plastic shards. I think they should issue protective goggles with each plastic-wrapped item. Black and Decker is advertising power scissors that also look like they could get the job done.
I'm going to rain on their parade. I don't care what the apple looks like. I'd just like to be able to go into the supermarket and buy an apple that's crispy and doesn't present me with a mouth full of watery mush when I bite into it. All their engineering efforts at getting "perfect" apples to market have done is to take away the essential crispness of the fruit. I don't even want to think about what they do to preserve the average grocery-store apple.
Thankfully we still have farmer's markets and local pick-your-own orchards. A blemish or two doesn't count for anything against the crisp, sweet taste of a real, unpreserved apple. Too bad we may have a generation that thinks an "apple" is an improbably red, waxed object with the taste and texture of oversweetened oatmeal.
Not unless you allow him to invest the proceeds in all those hot Stocks in Play that are ready to explode/take off/blow up or whatever else they're going to do.
I think the article must be a joke. If they'd been even remotely serious, they might have found:
- Marie Curie, as has already been mentioned here. She is credited not with discovering plutonium but with discovering radium and with promoting, among other things, its medical uses--so she's also a pioneer in the field of radiology. Might've been nice to see at least a brief nod in her direction. - Hypatia of Alexandria. More about her here. A mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, she was actually martyred for her geekdom by the local contingent of fundamentalist Christians while they were destroying the library at Alexandria. - How about a group nod to the women "computors" of World War II? Their presence and skills permitted the male geeks to (I suppose) go off and do actual fighting. These jobs were the first real opportunity for women to exercise their math skills at something besides bookkeeping. - There's a pretty interesting exhibit at the Cryptology Museum about women cryptologists and cryptanalysts.
It would be interesting to compile a non-joking list.
Have you taken a look at TiddlyWiki? I cannot tell a lie: Somebody posted abut it here on Slashdot, and I've become a confirmed convert. By means of TiddlySpot if you are so inclined, you can open-source whatever aspects of yourself you'd like people to know about, while keeping the rest of it (like your naked pictures) under wraps. There are also numerous php implementations that allow you to upload your TiddlyWiki to your own server. TiddlyWiki ranks right up there with sliced bread, in my opinion.
One can count at least seven unsecured wireless routers, presumably sitting in peoples' houses since this is a fairly residential area. I'd have to say that for some folks, the least secure setting might be the one that literally offers all the comforts of homes. What can they be thinking? I guess the trouble is they're not thinking.
This project might be a lot more accessible to folks by using PMC (precious-metal clay). It's pure silver in a formable plastic base, much like modeling clay. A two-part mold could be created from Fimo, Premo, Sculpey, or some other modeling compound. The mold would be baked and dried and the PMC would then be formed within it. Once dried to a sort of rubbery hardness, the PMC can then be heated (called sintering) according to manufacturer's directions with a soldering or brazing torch. The clay base disappears There's some shrinkage involved in this process; again, manufacturer's directions should be followed. (The original mold should be made somewhat larger than the finished product, but there's a formula.)
A stray thought or two: Last week's market price for sterling silver was $12.50/Troy ounce. It can take as much as 20 OzT to create something the size of a man's ring. That's a lot of silver. If you just want to wear it to a Halloween party, you could get a reasonable effect simply by fooling around with some Premo.
Casting in silver by traditional methods would certainly yield a fabulous result, but your outlay in equipment and metals will be equally fabulous.
How do I know this stuff? Well, it's what I mostly do these days. These folks have everything you could possibly need for either method.
I had one of those. Most amusing experience was a taxi driver who assumed it was a portable sewing machine. It looked like one when closed up and weighed about the same as one. When he found out it was actually a portable sort of computer, he spent the entire drive from the airport into town trying to convince me of its great potential as a tool for bookies and other sorts of illegal gambling types.
Re:How About a Computer Mom?
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IT and Divorce?
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You may find that the "broke and tired" gives way to "plenty of money and too tired to spend it." I've come full circle back to "broke and tired," but I like owning my own business and would have a tough time rejoining the corporate world. I feel as though I could undertake our economic future if I had to. Work hard, and enjoy your spouse and kids.
I worked for over 20 years in information technologies, starting briefly as a programmer and moving into networking. For the last ten years of that time (or when our two kids were in middle grammar school through high school and college) I traveled between 60% and 80% of my time. One of my sons followed me into the business and jokes that in order to get his first gig, he showed them my resume and said, "This is my mother, and she taught me everything she knows. You gotta hire me." (Of course he did no such thing.) He has now far surpassed me in knowledge, capabilities, and skills. The other son went off in a completely different direction. One is married, both are in stable, loving relationships. I am more proud of them than I can ever express, and I believe both have actually become friends. I am still with the husband I married in my twenties, before I knew what a computer was. He, too, is a friend as well as a husband. He enabled me to accomplish all that I did.
The all-important key is that you have to set limits. Employers will want to wring as much work out of you as they can get. That's what employers do. What you have to do is to develop an ironclad determination that you are working to live, not living to work. You are a spouse first, a parent second, and a [insert job title here] third.
There are always trade-offs. A screaming, teething baby with an earache demands more time than a sunny, stable three-year-old. That extra time gets shaved out of the marriage, and it has to be put back later. A frenetic project on the other side of the country demands more time than a week of filing reports or doing proposal work. That extra time, too, gets shaved out of the marriage (and the parenting). It has to be put back later.
Think of it as a bank account. You can't keep making withdrawals without ever making a deposit, or you'll be broke. Since 2001 I have set off in an entirely new direction. My husband is still my main supporter. We don't have as much money, but we get to spend a lot more time together. Fortunately there is enough in the spiritual/marital "bank account" that we can actually enjoy this.
I think if more people would stand their ground on this subject with overbearing employers, more employers would get the message that employees with actual lives really have more of a stake in the game.
Golly! I'm moving to the UK! From what you're saying, if I get a traffic ticket, the cops won't be able to request my driver's license. And if I want to write a bad check, nobody will care who I am.
Must be nice to have that much liberty. But how in the world do they sort you out if you commit a driving no-no.
With all due respect, try having your driver's license stolen. It may be laminated plastic, it may have smart technology, but it still functions like a piece of paper, presentable on demand to all sorts of people from the cops to the people at the grocery store where you want to write out a check. Same goes for your passport, which possibly sports an impressive array of imprints made with a very old-fashioned rubber stamp. It's a technology that's as readily accessible in East BF as in North America and Europe.
I'm also thinking of the approaching elections. People in any number of states, having seen the unreliability of "e-voting" (and I use the term "voting" advisedly) are setting up a clamor for--you got it--old-fashioned paper ballots.
I think paper's going to be around for another little while.
Our two offsprigs have departed for homes of their own, taking an impressive array of game consoles with them. So whatever I play has to be available on my Mac.
To my utter delight, when I switched to the Mac four years ago, two "obsolete" games came back and revealed themselves to be utterly playable under Classic. They are Oregon Trail II and a piece of obscure insanity called Marco Polo, which I don't ever recall winning. Each is well over ten years old, and I'm so glad their CD's managed not to be thrown away.
I really enjoy the nostalgia and can actually be quite entertained. My Holy Grail of nostalgic games would be Miner 2049er. No telling if I'll ever find it, but I do look from time to time.
When I need to clear my mental decks, I do "evil" sudoku.
While I certainly agree with the wisdom of those advocating for open communication and trust with their kids, there are elements to this particular incident that don't fit. And they are scary.
This youngster was a congressional page, and the perpetrator, a congressman, was in a position of authority. These kids are taught that it's their responsibility to follow instructions. It's part of their jobs and tied up with the honor and perks of getting to be a page. That must have made it doubly difficult for the young victim to come forward. Add to that his possible thoughts that he would be going up against a respected congressman. I think the monitoring was a saving grace here.
There have been numerous recent, chilling incidents where abducted or molested youngsters were forced into line by simple assertions of power (If you say anything, I'll hurt/kill your parents/family...) or authority (Who are they going to believe, you--the insignificant kid--or me--the respected adult...?). Youngsters are easily taken in by these kinds of assertions, especially if they're already frightened.
I am thankful that my own two achieved adulthood before sinister people had found so many ways to abuse technology. We made it through in the CompuServe/AOL days by having the computer in an accessible area. Now I'm not so sure. As a parent, I might want more.
I'm with you, Anonymous Codger. I'm also in Merlin--Bawlmer to be exact. I am trying unsuccessfully to locate a Linda Lamone quote where she essentially said (in response to allegations of the hackability of our Diebold equipment) "Oh, that's impossible. Nobody's going to do that; it would be against the law!" (Or words to that effect.)
I also noted on a news broadcast the other night that maintenance costs for these systems have escalated from something less than a million originally to almost nine million dollars at this point.
I think we had better get through this election as best we can--then hold a few peoples' feet to the fire.
I work at home, where I spend about half my time hunched over a computer, the rest at a workbench hunched over a sketch pad or over little tiny parts which I'm assembling. Both are bad for posture. The second best investment I made was in a decent adjustable chair for my worktable. I'd always had one at the computer, but for the other work I sat in a kitchen or dining room chair, or a folding chair. No more. That helped a lot with back and shoulder problems.
The very best investment was in an eight-year-old beagle, a recycled and rescued hunting dog. He absolutely requires a long walk and some activity each day. Aside from that, he needs to be let out from time to time, and he has no shyness at all about letting me know--forcing me to get my butt out of the chair to let him out into the yard.
If you can't take your dog along to your workplace (and I never could), you can at least make time for a long walk and a few Frisbee or tennis ball tosses before or after work. You may find that the dog is actually better behaved and more obedient after a walk, and for you it will pay off in terms of relaxation, un-kinking of abused muscle groups, and possibly even better sleep.
I could do all of this without a Beagle, but somehow I could never be bothered. Having the dog turns it into an obligation.
I want to express this with all due respect to the grannies involved, as I'm certain this has come as a shock to some of them.
However (ahem). Today's sewing/embroidery machines aren't the straight-needle treadle-operated Singers of yore. They come equipped with flash drives, USB ports, CD/DVD drives, and network connections. Many are Internet-upgradeable. Even to buy in at the low end of the market, you have to come up with about $1,500 - $3,000. Upwards of $5,000 gets you a respectably flexible and powerful system. Manufacturers who formerly dealt only in industrial sewing machines (such as Juki) seem now to be involved in the home market. Manufacturers of traditionally high-end home machines (Viking comes to mind) have a glittering array of semi-professional options with price tags to match. They are also specialized, with machines available for embroidery, quilting, overcasting seams in garments--lots of features formerly available only in industry.
I guess what I'm saying is that you have to come up with a fairly substantial investment to get into this game in the first place. Maybe what we need is an open-source embroidery pattern movement (Tux would make a cute embroidery pattern), but a lot of these designs are licensed (such as Disney characters), and to me it stands to reason one would have to shell out substantial money for them.
It's also a bit of a slap in the face at the idea of the ditzy old lady bereft of any technical smarts at all. Not the case if she's just logged into Husqvarna for the latest update to her Viking SE.
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Oh, I think you're absolutely right. Actually, as it happened, the police (and a lot of other people) believe the woman who committed the crime is a prostitute who gained access to the residential areas of the building through lax enforcement of rules; the rules state that you sign in, the person you're visiting is contacted, and once you're vouched for, you may go to that person's apartment. However, nobody ever checked (a) to ensure that people who went in came out again, or (b) that they actually went where they said they were going. There are Federal rules in place that ensure that you really don't know if your next-door neighbor is a retired schoolteacher or clerk, a retired pimp or drug dealer, or somebody "in recovery from drug addiction." Sadly for us, we weren't aware of any of this until it was too late.
Interest in the case escalated all the way up to the mayor and police commissioner; the crime was pretty heinous. Big-city police detectives aren't in the habit of going to that much effort to restore a doll to a little old lady. There was a bit of judicious media coverage (newspaper, television), in hopes that somebody would recognize the doll or the circumstances and bring additional information to light. Aged Mum couldn't help much because she could scarcely talk. But they wanted very much to catch this person.
I agree with you that attention to smaller crimes might put inroads into the bigger ones. In this case, an arrest or two for loitering, prostitution, petty theft, whatever--might have made a big difference. Unfortunately, it's not going to happen due to budgets and staffing.
Just to bring it all back on-topic, I do have to reiterate that eBay cooperated fully and immediately. But I have to wonder what percentage of it is a thieves' market--I really do.
My Aged Mum, who was then 80 years of age, lived in an apartment residence for the elderly. Two years ago (on Christmas Eve, no less) she was the victim of a ruthless home invasion. The thief had worked very hard to gain the trust of the elderly residents, and on the night she struck (yep, it was a woman), my mother admitted her to the apartment.
Mom's phone wires were cut her call bell was de-commissioned, and she was savagely beaten--actually unimaginably beaten, and left for dead on the floor in her living room. One of the items taken was an antique doll, quite distinctive and large, and also very valuable. It dated back to approximately the 1820's and had been handed down through the generations from mother to daughter for all that time.
Aged Mum survived, though with traumatic brain injuries that left her mental capacities greatly diminished. She grieved over that doll; perhaps it was irrational, but I grieved, too. While the police worked on finding the perpetrator, I began to haunt eBay. Each morning as I started work, and each night before I went to bed, I ran search after search, using every term I could think of. Three weeks after the crime, I hit paydirt; the doll was there. Because I had been so connected to it over my lifetime, I was able to supply an exhaustive description. (Unaccountably we had no photograph.) The police contacted eBay, the auction was stopped, they got a warrant, and next morning they served it on the seller.
As it turns out, he was legitimate; he had purchased the doll at a well known local flea market the week before. He had been on eBay for several years, selling vintage stuff and assorted items he found at local sales. He provided as much information as he could, and the doll was returned to us within 24 hours of my first locating it at eBay. The doll's porcelain head was undamaged, but her arms (which are kidskin leather) were in bad shape.
Stories like this really don't have good outcomes. In our case we've had to see an intelligent, lively old lady suffer the loss of her intellect in what should be a comfortable old age. The police have not located the criminal after two years, and additional violence has taken place at that facility where my mother lived. Aged Mum is in a much better facility now, and the doll is here with me--and has been photographed and appraised for insurance purposes.
I guess the lessons learned are these: (1) Ebay does cooperate with police, and the police know how to secure their cooperation--probably best to leave the interaction to the cops. (2) I had some kind of underlying certainty, which might have been irrational, that the doll would eventually show up on eBay, one way or the other. I searched diligently and regularly. (3) Document your valuables. (4) It may take a while for your items to turn up, and they may pass through several hands. It all depends on whether the scum who has robbed you is versed in eBay or has to use the traditional fences, flea markets, and crooked pawnbrokers.
Most (not all, mind, you but most) people are reasonably responsible about maintaining their cars. They learned about it at their daddy's knee, or from the coach who taught them driver's ed. They hear about it when they buy a new car. They see ads on television ("Be good to your car so your car will be good to you...") People neglected their oil, filters, and tires savagely back when pumping one's own gas became popular because nobody was there to offer to check for them--but then a whole new line of enterprise sprang up and Jiffy Lube was revealed to us. I'll bet nine people out of ten will tell you that it's necessary to change their oil each 3,000 miles even when it isn't--because Jiffy Lube wants us to.
So where, precisely, do people go to find out about maintaining their PC's in a secure fashion? Nowhere in particular that I've noticed. Most people hate spam. They're in it up to their necks, and they despair of being able to do anything about it. If they knew what to do, I suspect most of them would do their best to follow instructions or suggestions. Nobody's advertising this info, nobody that I know of is teaching it in schools. You can't find it in magazine articles. You can try to ferret it out on the Internet, but that's tough to do for people who don't even know where to begin. What have they got? There are the virus protection companies, I suppose--but they're drowning too, and their posts can be cryptic for the uninitiated.
I have a strong suspicion that if tomorrow, the Tide people began advertising a laundry detergent that would add five years to the life of your washer, people would line up to buy it. So who's advertising what to do when under threat from the spammers and their botnets?
Having been a CNE back in the day I can tell you that those stories abound. I've seen more than one forgotten server and was actually present at the death of one that had been running unattended, un-noticed, and un-backed-up for a number of years under a desk in a supply closet. Nobody ever thought about it until its network adapter began to go.
The sad part about it was that it didn't have to die. I got a backup and could have set it up on another box. The problem was that the diskette with the serial number (called the "gendata" disk) was missing. They managed to locate the 35-odd other floppies, but that one had been put away "in a safe place," and nobody could find it after all those years. Novell could be of no help because the version was so old--though actually it was the one I'd initially been certified on.
The decision was made, folks got their everyday files off it, we held a moment of silence, thanked it for its years of service, and just shut it off. Actually we accorded it the dignity of typing "down" on its dusty keyboard.
Replaced next day with an NT server.
Sob!
While I'm not surprised that humans can track a scent, and I'm certainly not surprised that civilization may have interfered with this ability, I'm just not sure it's one of our areas of specialization. Your average garden-variety scent hound has more scent receptors, packed into a much larger area, stashed inside that world-class smeller. His entire face, including his long, floppy ears and all those wrinkles (if he has them), is intended to funnel all that scent up into his wide nostrils, where he can interpret and act on it. I've long imagined that at the dawn of time, the human/dog interaction may have gone something like this:
Dog to Human: Wanna go get some meat?
Human to Dog: Yeah. You run on ahead, don't forget to let me know where you are, and I'll follow along with this stick. I just figured out how to put some sharp flint on the end of it. Should do a good job of killing that gazelle or whatever it is.
Dog to Human: AROOO!
Later that same evening...
Human to Dog: Get away from that! Let me hack it up with this sharp piece of flint.
Dog to Human: Good job! If you don't mind, I'll just gorge myself on the leftovers so I can go home and regurgitate some for the wife and pups.
Human to Dog: Yeah, I'm taking the good parts. My wife has been gathering some kind of green stuff, and she'll put it on the meat and apply fire to it. Good eating!
No wonder humans are generally so fond of dogs. We're hunting buddies from way back.
You set it up in a layout table and use CSS to control what it can be relied upon to control consistently.
Flush cutters. I work with a a lot of fine-gauge precious metal wire, and I use flush cutters that are sharp and kept in very good condition. When I had to replace a pair, I saved the old ones. The sharp point pierces the plastic material, and the blades (still sharp, though no longer good for wire) work their way around whatever path I select. They seem safer than a straight blade (like a box cutter), and the cushioned grips are easier on the hands and wrists than a pair of scissors. Damned annoying though, and I've cut myself any number of times on the plastic shards. I think they should issue protective goggles with each plastic-wrapped item. Black and Decker is advertising power scissors that also look like they could get the job done.
I'm going to rain on their parade. I don't care what the apple looks like. I'd just like to be able to go into the supermarket and buy an apple that's crispy and doesn't present me with a mouth full of watery mush when I bite into it. All their engineering efforts at getting "perfect" apples to market have done is to take away the essential crispness of the fruit. I don't even want to think about what they do to preserve the average grocery-store apple.
Thankfully we still have farmer's markets and local pick-your-own orchards. A blemish or two doesn't count for anything against the crisp, sweet taste of a real, unpreserved apple. Too bad we may have a generation that thinks an "apple" is an improbably red, waxed object with the taste and texture of oversweetened oatmeal.
Not unless you allow him to invest the proceeds in all those hot Stocks in Play that are ready to explode/take off/blow up or whatever else they're going to do.
I think the article must be a joke. If they'd been even remotely serious, they might have found:
- Marie Curie, as has already been mentioned here. She is credited not with discovering plutonium but with discovering radium and with promoting, among other things, its medical uses--so she's also a pioneer in the field of radiology. Might've been nice to see at least a brief nod in her direction.
- Hypatia of Alexandria. More about her here. A mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, she was actually martyred for her geekdom by the local contingent of fundamentalist Christians while they were destroying the library at Alexandria.
- How about a group nod to the women "computors" of World War II? Their presence and skills permitted the male geeks to (I suppose) go off and do actual fighting. These jobs were the first real opportunity for women to exercise their math skills at something besides bookkeeping.
- There's a pretty interesting exhibit at the Cryptology Museum about women cryptologists and cryptanalysts.
It would be interesting to compile a non-joking list.
Oh, dear! It's a good thing that you're probably too young to remember the vaxen. They might have driven you to violence.
Have you taken a look at TiddlyWiki? I cannot tell a lie: Somebody posted abut it here on Slashdot, and I've become a confirmed convert. By means of TiddlySpot if you are so inclined, you can open-source whatever aspects of yourself you'd like people to know about, while keeping the rest of it (like your naked pictures) under wraps. There are also numerous php implementations that allow you to upload your TiddlyWiki to your own server. TiddlyWiki ranks right up there with sliced bread, in my opinion.
One can count at least seven unsecured wireless routers, presumably sitting in peoples' houses since this is a fairly residential area. I'd have to say that for some folks, the least secure setting might be the one that literally offers all the comforts of homes. What can they be thinking? I guess the trouble is they're not thinking.
This project might be a lot more accessible to folks by using PMC (precious-metal clay). It's pure silver in a formable plastic base, much like modeling clay. A two-part mold could be created from Fimo, Premo, Sculpey, or some other modeling compound. The mold would be baked and dried and the PMC would then be formed within it. Once dried to a sort of rubbery hardness, the PMC can then be heated (called sintering) according to manufacturer's directions with a soldering or brazing torch. The clay base disappears There's some shrinkage involved in this process; again, manufacturer's directions should be followed. (The original mold should be made somewhat larger than the finished product, but there's a formula.)
A stray thought or two: Last week's market price for sterling silver was $12.50/Troy ounce. It can take as much as 20 OzT to create something the size of a man's ring. That's a lot of silver. If you just want to wear it to a Halloween party, you could get a reasonable effect simply by fooling around with some Premo.
Casting in silver by traditional methods would certainly yield a fabulous result, but your outlay in equipment and metals will be equally fabulous.
How do I know this stuff? Well, it's what I mostly do these days. These folks have everything you could possibly need for either method.
I had one of those. Most amusing experience was a taxi driver who assumed it was a portable sewing machine. It looked like one when closed up and weighed about the same as one. When he found out it was actually a portable sort of computer, he spent the entire drive from the airport into town trying to convince me of its great potential as a tool for bookies and other sorts of illegal gambling types.
You may find that the "broke and tired" gives way to "plenty of money and too tired to spend it." I've come full circle back to "broke and tired," but I like owning my own business and would have a tough time rejoining the corporate world. I feel as though I could undertake our economic future if I had to. Work hard, and enjoy your spouse and kids.
I worked for over 20 years in information technologies, starting briefly as a programmer and moving into networking. For the last ten years of that time (or when our two kids were in middle grammar school through high school and college) I traveled between 60% and 80% of my time. One of my sons followed me into the business and jokes that in order to get his first gig, he showed them my resume and said, "This is my mother, and she taught me everything she knows. You gotta hire me." (Of course he did no such thing.) He has now far surpassed me in knowledge, capabilities, and skills. The other son went off in a completely different direction. One is married, both are in stable, loving relationships. I am more proud of them than I can ever express, and I believe both have actually become friends. I am still with the husband I married in my twenties, before I knew what a computer was. He, too, is a friend as well as a husband. He enabled me to accomplish all that I did.
The all-important key is that you have to set limits. Employers will want to wring as much work out of you as they can get. That's what employers do. What you have to do is to develop an ironclad determination that you are working to live, not living to work. You are a spouse first, a parent second, and a [insert job title here] third.
There are always trade-offs. A screaming, teething baby with an earache demands more time than a sunny, stable three-year-old. That extra time gets shaved out of the marriage, and it has to be put back later. A frenetic project on the other side of the country demands more time than a week of filing reports or doing proposal work. That extra time, too, gets shaved out of the marriage (and the parenting). It has to be put back later.
Think of it as a bank account. You can't keep making withdrawals without ever making a deposit, or you'll be broke. Since 2001 I have set off in an entirely new direction. My husband is still my main supporter. We don't have as much money, but we get to spend a lot more time together. Fortunately there is enough in the spiritual/marital "bank account" that we can actually enjoy this.
I think if more people would stand their ground on this subject with overbearing employers, more employers would get the message that employees with actual lives really have more of a stake in the game.
Golly! I'm moving to the UK! From what you're saying, if I get a traffic ticket, the cops won't be able to request my driver's license. And if I want to write a bad check, nobody will care who I am.
Must be nice to have that much liberty. But how in the world do they sort you out if you commit a driving no-no.
With all due respect, try having your driver's license stolen. It may be laminated plastic, it may have smart technology, but it still functions like a piece of paper, presentable on demand to all sorts of people from the cops to the people at the grocery store where you want to write out a check. Same goes for your passport, which possibly sports an impressive array of imprints made with a very old-fashioned rubber stamp. It's a technology that's as readily accessible in East BF as in North America and Europe.
I'm also thinking of the approaching elections. People in any number of states, having seen the unreliability of "e-voting" (and I use the term "voting" advisedly) are setting up a clamor for--you got it--old-fashioned paper ballots.
I think paper's going to be around for another little while.
Our two offsprigs have departed for homes of their own, taking an impressive array of game consoles with them. So whatever I play has to be available on my Mac.
To my utter delight, when I switched to the Mac four years ago, two "obsolete" games came back and revealed themselves to be utterly playable under Classic. They are Oregon Trail II and a piece of obscure insanity called Marco Polo, which I don't ever recall winning. Each is well over ten years old, and I'm so glad their CD's managed not to be thrown away.
I really enjoy the nostalgia and can actually be quite entertained. My Holy Grail of nostalgic games would be Miner 2049er. No telling if I'll ever find it, but I do look from time to time.
When I need to clear my mental decks, I do "evil" sudoku.
While I certainly agree with the wisdom of those advocating for open communication and trust with their kids, there are elements to this particular incident that don't fit. And they are scary.
This youngster was a congressional page, and the perpetrator, a congressman, was in a position of authority. These kids are taught that it's their responsibility to follow instructions. It's part of their jobs and tied up with the honor and perks of getting to be a page. That must have made it doubly difficult for the young victim to come forward. Add to that his possible thoughts that he would be going up against a respected congressman. I think the monitoring was a saving grace here.
There have been numerous recent, chilling incidents where abducted or molested youngsters were forced into line by simple assertions of power (If you say anything, I'll hurt/kill your parents/family...) or authority (Who are they going to believe, you--the insignificant kid--or me--the respected adult...?). Youngsters are easily taken in by these kinds of assertions, especially if they're already frightened.
I am thankful that my own two achieved adulthood before sinister people had found so many ways to abuse technology. We made it through in the CompuServe/AOL days by having the computer in an accessible area. Now I'm not so sure. As a parent, I might want more.
I'm with you, Anonymous Codger. I'm also in Merlin--Bawlmer to be exact. I am trying unsuccessfully to locate a Linda Lamone quote where she essentially said (in response to allegations of the hackability of our Diebold equipment) "Oh, that's impossible. Nobody's going to do that; it would be against the law!" (Or words to that effect.)
I also noted on a news broadcast the other night that maintenance costs for these systems have escalated from something less than a million originally to almost nine million dollars at this point.
I think we had better get through this election as best we can--then hold a few peoples' feet to the fire.
Shucks. Here I was thinking it was "Diebold."
I work at home, where I spend about half my time hunched over a computer, the rest at a workbench hunched over a sketch pad or over little tiny parts which I'm assembling. Both are bad for posture. The second best investment I made was in a decent adjustable chair for my worktable. I'd always had one at the computer, but for the other work I sat in a kitchen or dining room chair, or a folding chair. No more. That helped a lot with back and shoulder problems.
The very best investment was in an eight-year-old beagle, a recycled and rescued hunting dog. He absolutely requires a long walk and some activity each day. Aside from that, he needs to be let out from time to time, and he has no shyness at all about letting me know--forcing me to get my butt out of the chair to let him out into the yard.
If you can't take your dog along to your workplace (and I never could), you can at least make time for a long walk and a few Frisbee or tennis ball tosses before or after work. You may find that the dog is actually better behaved and more obedient after a walk, and for you it will pay off in terms of relaxation, un-kinking of abused muscle groups, and possibly even better sleep.
I could do all of this without a Beagle, but somehow I could never be bothered. Having the dog turns it into an obligation.
I want to express this with all due respect to the grannies involved, as I'm certain this has come as a shock to some of them.
However (ahem). Today's sewing/embroidery machines aren't the straight-needle treadle-operated Singers of yore. They come equipped with flash drives, USB ports, CD/DVD drives, and network connections. Many are Internet-upgradeable. Even to buy in at the low end of the market, you have to come up with about $1,500 - $3,000. Upwards of $5,000 gets you a respectably flexible and powerful system. Manufacturers who formerly dealt only in industrial sewing machines (such as Juki) seem now to be involved in the home market. Manufacturers of traditionally high-end home machines (Viking comes to mind) have a glittering array of semi-professional options with price tags to match. They are also specialized, with machines available for embroidery, quilting, overcasting seams in garments--lots of features formerly available only in industry.
I guess what I'm saying is that you have to come up with a fairly substantial investment to get into this game in the first place. Maybe what we need is an open-source embroidery pattern movement (Tux would make a cute embroidery pattern), but a lot of these designs are licensed (such as Disney characters), and to me it stands to reason one would have to shell out substantial money for them.
It's also a bit of a slap in the face at the idea of the ditzy old lady bereft of any technical smarts at all. Not the case if she's just logged into Husqvarna for the latest update to her Viking SE.