You have a point about warming up to episodes when you re-watch them, but it's still safe to say the show has declined.
I always liked the show until Season 9, when it started to show bad storylines. Shows like Apu having octuplets continued to demonstrate that the writers were 'running out of ideas', but it still had respectible writing. But then it just got worse and worse. When Ian-Maxtone Graham took over as exec. producer, we saw many things concerning the show that ruined the reputation The Simpsons once had:
The episodes have lost cohesiveness. Acts I, II, and III are rarely tied together anymore.
Computer-aiding drawing. Hand animators only draw key poses, and computers interpolate the rest. The result is very clean, but I think it's too clean. The Simpsons lost it's look and feel.
Other "look and feel" issues: The Simpsons' animators used to only use a limited palette of colors. We're talking one or two shades of light blue, and one or two shades of pink. Now, there's an overuse of colors. Classic examples include lighted/muted colors for background objects, and shadows everywhere - like the back of Lisa's hair - even when everyone's indoors!
Too topical: The Simpsons relies on jokes taken from current events. Yes, they did this in early seasons, but nowhere near as much as they do now. The timeless quality the writers put into the show in the past is gone now.
Producer Mike Reiss has been talking about this movie recently. Keep in mind that two weeks ago, he said the movie would most likely be live-action, a la Scooby Doo.
And frankly, that sucks. I've been a fan of The Simpsons show since the first episode in 1989, so I've seen it decline. At this point, the movie might not suck if it was 2D. But live-action/CGI won't cut it.
South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut did well, because it was an extention of the show. Imagine if the South Park movie was live-action: it would've tanked.
Hopefully Groening and co. will pull this off, but I have my doubts...
I'll agree with you on your post, but there are still ways to cause widespread damage -- have the worm spread, and then attack on a certain date. As more and more of these stupid worms spread, virus writers will get an idea as to how long it takes for virus-detection people to get their hands on a good analysis of the source code once the virus hits the mainstream networks. Christ, most/. readers knew about MyDoom at least a day or two before it started to hit their inboxes, yet it took 5 days before news reports found the source and started saying it'll slow down Feb 12th. Virus writes can write a program that'll act like a worm for say, 10 days, and then start formatting drives. Heck, an idea I've always liked is to have worm poll news sites (CNN, BBC, MSN, etc.) for stories that mention the virus' own name, and then dynamically change the "doomsday" date based on number of instances.
Doesn't work for a flash-embedded movie. I've got the SWF downloaded, and even have a SWF decomplier that lets me view images and other binary data, but I don't know how to export it. If anyone knows how to do this, I'm all ears. The decompiler is Sothink's SWF decompliler availabe here
I think using this vunerability will make it much easier, especially if you don't word your email like a total moron, which most scammers do. I'm ashamed to admit I actually got scammed like this earlier this year (I know, a/. user!). It was an email that looked just like the one that Bank of America usually uses. But it wasn't an obvious "we need to validate your password", but rather it mentioned a new feature, and asked us to log in to check out, and of course the form was on their server. I just never looked at the URL I was on... if I had, I would've never logged in. But if it can now say "bankofamerica.com", this scam will be much easier to pull off.
I installed a random quote generator on my site and filled it up with a few hundred Family Guy quotes. I've caught people simply refreshing the page over and over...
This is true. Since they are currently on after 11:00, they get away with a lot. The only edit I've found is when they recently showed the "banned" [from FOX] episode where Peter looks for a Jewish person to become his accountant. The only edit is the end of a song, where Peter says in a song "even though they killed my lord" to "I don't think they killed my lord" -- and Cartoon Network even informed viewers that they changed the lyrical content.
Even though FG might show at 9:00 on Cartoon Network, I'm sure MacFarlane will have as much, if not more, license than before. Very good news for us fans:)
I agree with this -- probably the best solution to date. I have the blacklist installed on my blog, but it has its weaknesses (the blacklist is hard-coded, and does not sync up with any master list).
Does anyone have any good links to this type of program? I haven't seen any packages available for people with little web programming experience (i.e., me). If nothing good exists out there, I'm sure someone from the/. community could type something up. All you need is a few dozen images, a random image placer (but make the filename appear the same each time), and a simple text form....
As the article points out, the error gets worse as the hard drive capacities increase.
2^10 = 1,024, so:
2^10 vs. 10^3 = 2.40% error
Likewise,
2^20 vs. 10^6 = 4.86% error
2^30 vs. 10^9 = 7.37% error
2^40 vs. 10^12 = 9.95% error
2^50 vs. 10^15 = 12.59% error
Anywho, if anyone cares, the relationship is not linear. The error grows expontntially. I've always wondered that, so I just figured it out (you can just subract 4.86 from 7.37, then 7.37 from 9.95 to see that the difference in the error grows). Just thought I'd share.
There will probably be a lot of posts like this one, but I must say I do consider the internet my primary source of just about everything.
News - Updated more frequently online than on TV, and it's easy to look up more details of the story, rather then what the local TV personalities decide to give you. I don't do newspapers because they tend to stay dormant on my doorstep.
Random questions - 10 minutes ago, I realized I wasn't sure how underwater tunnels were built. After a Google search, I found my answer. How would I have done this before? I could've asked around, and probably gotten a good answer. But I'd rather get a response from a tunnel-builder's article than a friend who a) has never built a tunnel, and b) would probably not be sure, or will wonder why I'm asking in the first place.
TV/Sports/Movie/Event schedules - Easy to find on the net, and is less time consuming than waiting to hear about it from TV/friends.
'How-to' items - Like random questions... you can find a lot of resources on the net you don't have casual access to anywhere. Sure, you can ride 20 minutes to a book store and spend $15 on a book, but it's not really needed anymore
So, for just about everything, I turn to the net. Even for my engineering work-related questions, I use the net more than the textbooks I have access to at work. Unless I need something immersive and/or complicated, the quick answers on the net usually suffice.
I think the poster is wondering if the car was recovered, because if your car is stolen with no sign of forced entry at the site (like broken glass), your insurance company damn well better pay your claim. My car was stolen two years ago with no sign of forced entry, and I was about to get the money for it when they found the car. Either way, the original poster got screwed, and needs a new insurance company. And even if you leave keys in the car, theft is theft.
I just wanted to pipe in. I'm a Windows user (I know, kill me), but like most people on this site, I hate Outlook and Outlook Express. Vehemently. So I've been using Netscape 4.x's aging email client, Communicator. This post is geared for those who are still using it. Since Thunderbird is by the Mozilla folk, it behaves and looks a lot like Communicator. So if you're using Communicator but hate the fact that a) it can't render some HTML email that your stupid drone friends sends you, and b) all links open in Netscape 4.x, which is almost archaic now, I'd suggest you download Thunderbird and give it a try. You'll be able to import you Address Book and old emails/folders. Not your mail filters though, which pissed me off at first. So I re-did several hundred of them. But then I found Thunderbird's great junk-mail filter. It works great. The other neat-o factor is that you can apply filters to flag messages as Personal/Work/Whatever, and it color codes the emails! Very cool. Anywho, if you like Communicator, try Thunderbird. Especially as it gets more stable...
Despite the wording of this article, this could still work very well against teams. The article talked a lot about individual players, but MindPlay still keeps track of the count, and correlates betting patterns, not playing decisions. So if you've got a numbers guy flat-betting and counting, and another guy at the table making big bets when the count goes high (he gets a signal from the numbers guy), the system will pick it up quick. It doesn't matter who does the counting, since MindPlay looks at bet vs. count (it may also check playing decisions, like plays that go against basic strategy, but almost all the money made by counters is by betting variations).
When you're shopping for your next phone, it's well worth it to go into the brick-and-mortar store and ask to see their coverage, because they do indeed have detailed maps. When I moved to a low-density area, I had to switch providers, so I went to T-Mobile and asked to see a detailed map of their coverage area. The rep went on the net and pulled up this great color-coded map of the surrounding area, with live signtal-strength data. It was really cool and I asked how I could get that type of data from home, and he told me you need a password and such. And no, he didn't give it to me... but I think most major providers have this, and it's always good to check to make sure you home/work areas have good strength.
Although individuality is part of the Mini culture, I wonder if Minis will be built to order when demand goes down. One reason it's easy to get a Mini built to your spec is because there's anywhere from a 3 to 6 month waiting list for them -- so they might as well build a car that they know will sell.
All in all, it was kind of cool ordering my Mini - you can even build it on their website and send the configuration to your nearest dealer. And it's true - out of all the Minis I've seen, I haven't seen two alike. Heck, out of the 50 or so I've seen, I haven't even seen any with my color combination!
[when Bart & Lisa go to military school, there is a speech given at graduation].....
% The Commandant addresses the graduating class.
The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea.
They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall
mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by
small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is
clear: To build and maintain those robots. Thank you.
-- Military school Commandant's graduation address, "The Secret War of
Lisa Simpson"
Just FYI, the sites that sell hacking equipment for DirecTV sell "glitchers" and "unloopers". They are devices that work as standard ISO smartcard readers, as well as standard ISO programmers. Nothing wrong there. In fact, many of the sites sell standard programmers for those that want to tinker with it. But to hack a DirecTV card, you need the "glitching" function. Basically, the glitcher will initiate communication with the DirecTV card. It then tells the card it wants to write to the card's memory. At this point, the card goes through a security algorithm. Since no one has found the right keys to hack the DirecTV cards, the glitcher simply cuts it's own power and throws the clock out of phase. It then supplies the normal 5V again. This all happens very quickly, so the security steps are simply skipped. It's obvious that this device is used to circumvent the card's secuirty, hence it's illegal to purchase, own, and use. Convenient for DirecTV, since they don't even have to prove you're stealing their signal. Simply buying one is a crime.
> 1. You can't port your number between providers.
This is true, and is a direct result of the FCC allowing different technologies to compete and develop on their own. It's easy to say cell infrastructure would be more advanced (and certainly more cohesive) here if the FCC had come up with a standard to use in the first place. However, by allowing TDMA, CDMA, GSM to compete allowed us (and you guys) to help figure out which one worked best. It also led to other advances, such as Qualcomm's use of orthongal codes and wave division multiplexing. Also, free and almost unbridled competition is something the U.S. has always prized itself on, even if it does have the disadvantage slowing down an overall infrastructure or idea.
> 2. You have to ditch your handset if you do switch providers.
Same as the last one. Which sucks. My phone has a SIM card (both T-Mobile and Cingular offer them now), but I agree, I wish more phones had more.
> 3. You have to pay for the priviledge of being contacted.
Yeah, not that we're getting ripped off -- the person being called is still using the phone companie's bandwidth. But like landlines, I would like to see the caller pay. We all just assume if this happened, the rates would double since you pay only half the time:)
> 4. Numbers are geographically fixed.
Keep in mind the U.S. has a lot of land area, so a lot of the older plans had this drawback, especially when there were a lot of smaller (regional) phone companies. But that's pretty much resolved now... although the first three numbers of our cell numbers are indicitive of where you purchased your phone, we still have nationwide plans readily available.
Anywho, yeah, the U.S. is behind just about every other nation. I'd imagine once a standard is reached between the big players (hopefully), we'll catch up quick. We just all need to adopt GSM...
I would have to disagree with this post to an extent. Patenting an idea without actually making it or putting it to immediate use does not preclude the patent from promoting or advancing science.
We can agree that patenting an idea simply to squat on it in order to get money out of corporations is stupid and is a burden on the system. But there are people who invest time and money into thinking of and developing ideas, procedures, algorithms and solutions that deal with modern problems. For whatever reason, not all of these ideas are put to use by the group or individual who originally thought of the idea. He or she may simply not have the money or the inclination to start selling the idea. Licensing out at idea is a wonderful solution for such people.
Keep in mind I'm not really talking about the type of people this article talks about. But the whole idea of the patent system is to give the original inventors some protection over their ideas (namely, give them time to recoup the losses that could have been spent developing their idea). If potential inventors thought that the USPTO would strike their patent dead simply because they did not have the resources to immediately capitalize on their idea, then why would they bother innovating at all?
I think the solution to all this is what others have been saying forever -- don't punish the inventors, just don't let them get away with stupid patents. One-click shopping is a perfect example. Non-obvious, my ass.
Since we all know portable RFID readers will become available commerically, what's to stop a thief from carrying around his reader and then summing up how much people in the street have in their wallets? Just wait around late at night, wait for some woman to walk by with $300, and then just rob her? I'd bet there would be more muggings if the average pay went from $40 to a few hundred...
Exactly. And why do rich people pay so much for artwork? Because if you pay $10,000 for a piece, and then keep it for 50 years, it's now going to be worth more to some other rich guy (especially if the artist dies of course). Expensive pieces of art, like land, tends to appreciate in value over the years. That's why rich people go for it so much.
Re:Am I retarded?
on
Making Change
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Nope, only cause I read the earlier post about $1.87, and tendering $2.12. I realized "hey, this guy is getting three quarters back cause the other guy that commented got one back!":)
I just hate coins. I throw all my pennies away and give away my non-quarters. My reasoning is I'd gladly pay someone the 20 cents or whatever if I wasn't forced to carry a bunch of noisy metal discs around in my pockets. I think it's cool you can carry around $500 and have it weigh less than an ounce. Paper is easy to manage (fold, slip into your pocket or socks), and is just so light you never notice it's on you.
Yeah, I can understand why people prefer fullscreen over widescreen. I'm sure that for most of us here, while we were excited to see widescreen, we were probably weirded out when we first started watching movies because of those black bars. I know it took me quite some time to get used to it. But now I love it, and I've gone an hour into a movie before even realizing that the bars were even there. So you can understand why some people are afraid to make "the switch".
The weird thing is, of course, now Pan & Scan drives me nuts. It used to be fine, and then I'd notice one or two scenes in a movie that looked bad because it wasn't widescreen (typically, two people talking to each other at opposite ends of the frame). But recently, I've noticed that I get pissed off every 5 minutes because it's so obvious that part of the frame is just missing. Oh well... the same thing goes for not being able to enjoy VHS anymore. Anyone else notice how when you get used to a higher quality, it's hard to go back? Same thing with computer monitor resolutions... I can't stand working on other people's computers set at 800x600... OK, I'll stop rambling...
Slashdot Mirror
I always liked the show until Season 9, when it started to show bad storylines. Shows like Apu having octuplets continued to demonstrate that the writers were 'running out of ideas', but it still had respectible writing. But then it just got worse and worse. When Ian-Maxtone Graham took over as exec. producer, we saw many things concerning the show that ruined the reputation The Simpsons once had:
And frankly, that sucks. I've been a fan of The Simpsons show since the first episode in 1989, so I've seen it decline. At this point, the movie might not suck if it was 2D. But live-action/CGI won't cut it.
South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut did well, because it was an extention of the show. Imagine if the South Park movie was live-action: it would've tanked.
Hopefully Groening and co. will pull this off, but I have my doubts...
I'll agree with you on your post, but there are still ways to cause widespread damage -- have the worm spread, and then attack on a certain date. As more and more of these stupid worms spread, virus writers will get an idea as to how long it takes for virus-detection people to get their hands on a good analysis of the source code once the virus hits the mainstream networks. Christ, most /. readers knew about MyDoom at least a day or two before it started to hit their inboxes, yet it took 5 days before news reports found the source and started saying it'll slow down Feb 12th. Virus writes can write a program that'll act like a worm for say, 10 days, and then start formatting drives. Heck, an idea I've always liked is to have worm poll news sites (CNN, BBC, MSN, etc.) for stories that mention the virus' own name, and then dynamically change the "doomsday" date based on number of instances.
Doesn't work for a flash-embedded movie. I've got the SWF downloaded, and even have a SWF decomplier that lets me view images and other binary data, but I don't know how to export it. If anyone knows how to do this, I'm all ears. The decompiler is Sothink's SWF decompliler availabe here
I like her "WWJD?" shirt. If Jesus were around today, one thing he would not do is annoy 40 million people with lousy penis-enlargemnet ads...
I think using this vunerability will make it much easier, especially if you don't word your email like a total moron, which most scammers do. I'm ashamed to admit I actually got scammed like this earlier this year (I know, a /. user!). It was an email that looked just like the one that Bank of America usually uses. But it wasn't an obvious "we need to validate your password", but rather it mentioned a new feature, and asked us to log in to check out, and of course the form was on their server. I just never looked at the URL I was on... if I had, I would've never logged in. But if it can now say "bankofamerica.com", this scam will be much easier to pull off.
I installed a random quote generator on my site and filled it up with a few hundred Family Guy quotes. I've caught people simply refreshing the page over and over...
Even though FG might show at 9:00 on Cartoon Network, I'm sure MacFarlane will have as much, if not more, license than before. Very good news for us fans :)
Does anyone have any good links to this type of program? I haven't seen any packages available for people with little web programming experience (i.e., me). If nothing good exists out there, I'm sure someone from the /. community could type something up. All you need is a few dozen images, a random image placer (but make the filename appear the same each time), and a simple text form....
2^10 = 1,024, so:
2^10 vs. 10^3 = 2.40% error
Likewise,
2^20 vs. 10^6 = 4.86% error
2^30 vs. 10^9 = 7.37% error
2^40 vs. 10^12 = 9.95% error
2^50 vs. 10^15 = 12.59% error
Anywho, if anyone cares, the relationship is not linear. The error grows expontntially. I've always wondered that, so I just figured it out (you can just subract 4.86 from 7.37, then 7.37 from 9.95 to see that the difference in the error grows). Just thought I'd share.
News - Updated more frequently online than on TV, and it's easy to look up more details of the story, rather then what the local TV personalities decide to give you. I don't do newspapers because they tend to stay dormant on my doorstep.
Random questions - 10 minutes ago, I realized I wasn't sure how underwater tunnels were built. After a Google search, I found my answer. How would I have done this before? I could've asked around, and probably gotten a good answer. But I'd rather get a response from a tunnel-builder's article than a friend who a) has never built a tunnel, and b) would probably not be sure, or will wonder why I'm asking in the first place.
TV/Sports/Movie/Event schedules - Easy to find on the net, and is less time consuming than waiting to hear about it from TV/friends.
'How-to' items - Like random questions... you can find a lot of resources on the net you don't have casual access to anywhere. Sure, you can ride 20 minutes to a book store and spend $15 on a book, but it's not really needed anymore
So, for just about everything, I turn to the net. Even for my engineering work-related questions, I use the net more than the textbooks I have access to at work. Unless I need something immersive and/or complicated, the quick answers on the net usually suffice.
I think the poster is wondering if the car was recovered, because if your car is stolen with no sign of forced entry at the site (like broken glass), your insurance company damn well better pay your claim. My car was stolen two years ago with no sign of forced entry, and I was about to get the money for it when they found the car. Either way, the original poster got screwed, and needs a new insurance company. And even if you leave keys in the car, theft is theft.
I just wanted to pipe in. I'm a Windows user (I know, kill me), but like most people on this site, I hate Outlook and Outlook Express. Vehemently. So I've been using Netscape 4.x's aging email client, Communicator. This post is geared for those who are still using it. Since Thunderbird is by the Mozilla folk, it behaves and looks a lot like Communicator. So if you're using Communicator but hate the fact that a) it can't render some HTML email that your stupid drone friends sends you, and b) all links open in Netscape 4.x, which is almost archaic now, I'd suggest you download Thunderbird and give it a try. You'll be able to import you Address Book and old emails/folders. Not your mail filters though, which pissed me off at first. So I re-did several hundred of them. But then I found Thunderbird's great junk-mail filter. It works great. The other neat-o factor is that you can apply filters to flag messages as Personal/Work/Whatever, and it color codes the emails! Very cool. Anywho, if you like Communicator, try Thunderbird. Especially as it gets more stable...
Despite the wording of this article, this could still work very well against teams. The article talked a lot about individual players, but MindPlay still keeps track of the count, and correlates betting patterns, not playing decisions. So if you've got a numbers guy flat-betting and counting, and another guy at the table making big bets when the count goes high (he gets a signal from the numbers guy), the system will pick it up quick. It doesn't matter who does the counting, since MindPlay looks at bet vs. count (it may also check playing decisions, like plays that go against basic strategy, but almost all the money made by counters is by betting variations).
When you're shopping for your next phone, it's well worth it to go into the brick-and-mortar store and ask to see their coverage, because they do indeed have detailed maps. When I moved to a low-density area, I had to switch providers, so I went to T-Mobile and asked to see a detailed map of their coverage area. The rep went on the net and pulled up this great color-coded map of the surrounding area, with live signtal-strength data. It was really cool and I asked how I could get that type of data from home, and he told me you need a password and such. And no, he didn't give it to me... but I think most major providers have this, and it's always good to check to make sure you home/work areas have good strength.
All in all, it was kind of cool ordering my Mini - you can even build it on their website and send the configuration to your nearest dealer. And it's true - out of all the Minis I've seen, I haven't seen two alike. Heck, out of the 50 or so I've seen, I haven't even seen any with my color combination!
% The Commandant addresses the graduating class.
The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is clear: To build and maintain those robots. Thank you.
-- Military school Commandant's graduation address, "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson"
Just FYI, the sites that sell hacking equipment for DirecTV sell "glitchers" and "unloopers". They are devices that work as standard ISO smartcard readers, as well as standard ISO programmers. Nothing wrong there. In fact, many of the sites sell standard programmers for those that want to tinker with it. But to hack a DirecTV card, you need the "glitching" function. Basically, the glitcher will initiate communication with the DirecTV card. It then tells the card it wants to write to the card's memory. At this point, the card goes through a security algorithm. Since no one has found the right keys to hack the DirecTV cards, the glitcher simply cuts it's own power and throws the clock out of phase. It then supplies the normal 5V again. This all happens very quickly, so the security steps are simply skipped. It's obvious that this device is used to circumvent the card's secuirty, hence it's illegal to purchase, own, and use. Convenient for DirecTV, since they don't even have to prove you're stealing their signal. Simply buying one is a crime.
> 1. You can't port your number between providers. This is true, and is a direct result of the FCC allowing different technologies to compete and develop on their own. It's easy to say cell infrastructure would be more advanced (and certainly more cohesive) here if the FCC had come up with a standard to use in the first place. However, by allowing TDMA, CDMA, GSM to compete allowed us (and you guys) to help figure out which one worked best. It also led to other advances, such as Qualcomm's use of orthongal codes and wave division multiplexing. Also, free and almost unbridled competition is something the U.S. has always prized itself on, even if it does have the disadvantage slowing down an overall infrastructure or idea. > 2. You have to ditch your handset if you do switch providers. Same as the last one. Which sucks. My phone has a SIM card (both T-Mobile and Cingular offer them now), but I agree, I wish more phones had more. > 3. You have to pay for the priviledge of being contacted. Yeah, not that we're getting ripped off -- the person being called is still using the phone companie's bandwidth. But like landlines, I would like to see the caller pay. We all just assume if this happened, the rates would double since you pay only half the time :)
> 4. Numbers are geographically fixed.
Keep in mind the U.S. has a lot of land area, so a lot of the older plans had this drawback, especially when there were a lot of smaller (regional) phone companies. But that's pretty much resolved now... although the first three numbers of our cell numbers are indicitive of where you purchased your phone, we still have nationwide plans readily available.
Anywho, yeah, the U.S. is behind just about every other nation. I'd imagine once a standard is reached between the big players (hopefully), we'll catch up quick. We just all need to adopt GSM...
We can agree that patenting an idea simply to squat on it in order to get money out of corporations is stupid and is a burden on the system. But there are people who invest time and money into thinking of and developing ideas, procedures, algorithms and solutions that deal with modern problems. For whatever reason, not all of these ideas are put to use by the group or individual who originally thought of the idea. He or she may simply not have the money or the inclination to start selling the idea. Licensing out at idea is a wonderful solution for such people.
Keep in mind I'm not really talking about the type of people this article talks about. But the whole idea of the patent system is to give the original inventors some protection over their ideas (namely, give them time to recoup the losses that could have been spent developing their idea). If potential inventors thought that the USPTO would strike their patent dead simply because they did not have the resources to immediately capitalize on their idea, then why would they bother innovating at all?
I think the solution to all this is what others have been saying forever -- don't punish the inventors, just don't let them get away with stupid patents. One-click shopping is a perfect example. Non-obvious, my ass.
Since we all know portable RFID readers will become available commerically, what's to stop a thief from carrying around his reader and then summing up how much people in the street have in their wallets? Just wait around late at night, wait for some woman to walk by with $300, and then just rob her? I'd bet there would be more muggings if the average pay went from $40 to a few hundred...
> ..what someone will pay.
Exactly. And why do rich people pay so much for artwork? Because if you pay $10,000 for a piece, and then keep it for 50 years, it's now going to be worth more to some other rich guy (especially if the artist dies of course). Expensive pieces of art, like land, tends to appreciate in value over the years. That's why rich people go for it so much.
Nope, only cause I read the earlier post about $1.87, and tendering $2.12. I realized "hey, this guy is getting three quarters back cause the other guy that commented got one back!" :)
I just hate coins. I throw all my pennies away and give away my non-quarters. My reasoning is I'd gladly pay someone the 20 cents or whatever if I wasn't forced to carry a bunch of noisy metal discs around in my pockets. I think it's cool you can carry around $500 and have it weigh less than an ounce. Paper is easy to manage (fold, slip into your pocket or socks), and is just so light you never notice it's on you.
The weird thing is, of course, now Pan & Scan drives me nuts. It used to be fine, and then I'd notice one or two scenes in a movie that looked bad because it wasn't widescreen (typically, two people talking to each other at opposite ends of the frame). But recently, I've noticed that I get pissed off every 5 minutes because it's so obvious that part of the frame is just missing. Oh well... the same thing goes for not being able to enjoy VHS anymore. Anyone else notice how when you get used to a higher quality, it's hard to go back? Same thing with computer monitor resolutions... I can't stand working on other people's computers set at 800x600... OK, I'll stop rambling...