I visited the USA, and spent about £2000. But I don't approve of lots of things in your country -- was I wrong to visit? Should I only visit the handful of countries I think are nicer than mine?
I'd like to visit North Korea, but not just yet. It's a long way away, so the flights are too expensive. I have some vague plans to visit Cuba with a friend though, although the travel agent she asked said she'll have problems as she has dual citizenship (here and the USA).
My cousin was crippled by mandatory military service in Egypt. He is now a permanent paraplegic and almost died. I'm not close - I haven't seen him in almost 3 decades but every time I think of mandatory military service and my children I get a chill.
A Greek friend-of-a-friend was doing his military service. He was the navigator for a tank doing some exercise at night. He told the driver to stop, as it was so foggy he could no longer see the road. The supervising sergeant said he knew the area and took over -- and a few minutes later directed the tank off a shallow cliff, which rolled it over, killing the sergeant and injuring some of the teenage soldiers.
If compulsory service is necessary I don't see any benefit in making that service in the military. Make them work for a charity for a while instead. (I still don't think it should happen.)
I'm not surprised a Microsoft shilling would think that.
Anyone got opinions theyre not being paid for?
If anyone doubts this, look at the timestamp. Story posted at 1:03, CmdrPony replies with a long comment at... 1:03. And his comment history is similar.
I don't care to argue -- there's little point, I expect we have radically different viewpoints, especially online.
"the rich *are* too rich. And the poor *are* to poor" is something pretty much everyone I know would agree with, and a very common view in my country. The disagreements come with how (or whether) to correct that. The previous government broadly favoured providing more services and payment to the poor (education, recreation, etc) and increasing government spending. The current government is removing those services, and reducing the payments, which is supposed to encourage people to get (better) jobs. Since they've reduced government spending, and there's not much private spending, I'm wondering where the jobs are supposed to come from.
No shit. My kid (who's a better than average swimmer) won't go to the State competition anymore as he's seen too many parents yelling at their kids. "How come you didn't win? You really screwed up!" - to a 7 year old.
The FA (Football Association) in the UK has a campaign targeted at parents to try and prevent that. Take a look, it's here. Maybe write to the swimming association (whoever accredits the competition) and see if they recognise the problem.
My dad's a coach, with ages ~11 to 20, and he has problems with pushy parents. Often it shows when he doesn't pick someone for a team -- in which case the child generally knows someone else is better, but the parent disagrees ("well, I'll take her to basketball instead, they'll put her on the team!" "Mum, I don't like basketball. I'll be good enough for the next race, it's because you wouldn't let me train over Christmas, I'm a bit unfit" ah...)
Trick, cajole, threaten, inconvenience, stress, discomfit, and a whole host of other verbs that come just shy of it, but not quite outright torture yet.
From the videos of what the US police have done this week I wouldn't be so sure.
Does France have any popular musicians? Does anyone outside of France listen to them?
Yes and yes, obviously.
I listen to relatively unpopular music, and if it's not obvious I'm often unaware of the nationality of bands. But I have a few tracks by Daft Punk, one by Justice, an album by Vitalic, and I know they're all French. (That's relatively popular, as far as I'm concerned. Anyone heard of Die Form? They're French.)
Students aren't untrustworthy, as far as I know. But thieves know they have lots of new stuff, like bicycles and computers, so they make an inviting target.
Assuming you have some space on your computer to store the transcoded files, I wrote a Makefile to transcode music to solve this. I can't access it right now, but I use a very similar Makefile for keeping all my photographs (at low resolution) on the phone, which is really useful for annoying people with holiday snapshots. I just changed it to work with music files.
~/.toPhone/Source/ (symlink to my photos) ~/.toPhone/Albums/ (this is rsynced to my phone with rsync for Android) ~/.toPhone/Makefile
PHOTOS = $(shell find -L Source/ -type f -name '*.jpg')
If someone asks what you do and you reply that you're a cobol programmer woring for a mortgage company, it's hardly likely to make you seem like the coolest guy in the room.
It might make you cooler than the salesman for the mortgage company. Some guys I met at a music festival who worked for a mortgage company told me my job was much cooler. I work for a museum, and after the usual "but why would a museum need a computer programmer?" response, it's easy enough to explain something to anyone, no matter what their education/job/age. Also, they've probably heard of the museum, which helps.
I reckon the scientists who work here have "cooler" jobs though, which are more interesting to talk about at parties.
I visited the US recently, and I felt less free than at home in the UK. I've read/. too much, so I was partly expecting not to see CCTV cameras, and partly expecting lots of security. There seemed to be more government controlled CCTV cameras in the US than the UK, although perhaps fewer private ones (in shops, etc). Lots of them were outside every state and federal building, even a state museum looked like a 1984-esque fortified building. Maybe they're just more visible, but that made me more aware of being watched. On public transport, except Amtrak, there was CCTV, on vehicles and in stations. There were less cameras, but there were posters advertising this as a measure to increase safety (more or less like in the UK), so I think it just reflects the age of the vehicles. Older train carriages have none, one or two cameras, new ones manage six or eight at the same cost. There was more overt security -- I often had my bag scanned going into museums. They seem to have stopped doing that in London, based on my experience going into two of the largest museums at the weekend to buy gifts. A couple of places inspected my ID, as if that somehow helped.
But, what I wasn't expecting was the profusion of signs proclaiming laws and ordinances, with big fines backing them up. I felt uncomfortable crossing the street -- was I jaywalking? Sometimes I wasn't sure. No drinking on the train -- does that include water? Am I allowed to give my unwanted travel pass to someone?
The value of the fines were rarely posted, but someone I asked said they would be around $200 "and a night in jail if the police don't like you". In the UK, where similar fines exist, the situation would be a verbal reprimand, and a £30 fine if the police don't like you (i.e. if you argue). But most things aren't enforced by law -- you can eat McDonalds on a bus, but it's impolite and most people wouldn't. There's no fine, you'll just be scowled at by other passengers.
The most relevant opinion is from the Information Commissioner's Office, the government organisation that enforces the privacy laws:
An ICO spokeswoman said the plans were "highly intrusive and unlikely to be justified".
So it's unlikely to happen.
Other articles (linked from the main one) suggest it's the taxi drivers who want this to "protect" themselves from drunk and rowdy passengers, though I'm not sure why that requires audio recording. It's hardly going to fix the problem though.
It's still just little random facts and trivia. That's not an IQ test. Change the subject from obscure scientists to footballers, from the mechanics of Windows and Linux to bits of cars, and from Heroes to some soap, and you've got exactly the kind of quiz that I would avoid at the local pub.
I scored 6 out of 20. I don't care, it's a test of random facts, not a test of skill.
According to someone who gave me and my housemate a ride home (and some confused looks) after clubbing on Saturday night, we're geeks since we were trying to work out something physicsy from first principles (I don't remember the details) while dressed, essentially, as humanoid robots from the future.
Slashdot Mirror
I visited the USA, and spent about £2000. But I don't approve of lots of things in your country -- was I wrong to visit? Should I only visit the handful of countries I think are nicer than mine?
I'd like to visit North Korea, but not just yet. It's a long way away, so the flights are too expensive. I have some vague plans to visit Cuba with a friend though, although the travel agent she asked said she'll have problems as she has dual citizenship (here and the USA).
My cousin was crippled by mandatory military service in Egypt. He is now a permanent paraplegic and almost died. I'm not close - I haven't seen him in almost 3 decades but every time I think of mandatory military service and my children I get a chill.
A Greek friend-of-a-friend was doing his military service. He was the navigator for a tank doing some exercise at night. He told the driver to stop, as it was so foggy he could no longer see the road. The supervising sergeant said he knew the area and took over -- and a few minutes later directed the tank off a shallow cliff, which rolled it over, killing the sergeant and injuring some of the teenage soldiers.
If compulsory service is necessary I don't see any benefit in making that service in the military. Make them work for a charity for a while instead. (I still don't think it should happen.)
You don't need to go to the Anarchist's Cookbook for nitrogen triiodide. I covered it at school.
Here are instructions for teachers to prepare NI3 and demonstrate the explosion.
(I don't think my teacher did that demonstration, though the other class did. We did something else... I can't remember what.)
I'm not surprised a Microsoft shilling would think that.
Anyone got opinions theyre not being paid for?
If anyone doubts this, look at the timestamp. Story posted at 1:03, CmdrPony replies with a long comment at... 1:03. And his comment history is similar.
I'm not surprised a Microsoft shilling would think that.
Anyone got opinions theyre not being paid for?
I don't care to argue -- there's little point, I expect we have radically different viewpoints, especially online.
"the rich *are* too rich. And the poor *are* to poor" is something pretty much everyone I know would agree with, and a very common view in my country. The disagreements come with how (or whether) to correct that. The previous government broadly favoured providing more services and payment to the poor (education, recreation, etc) and increasing government spending. The current government is removing those services, and reducing the payments, which is supposed to encourage people to get (better) jobs. Since they've reduced government spending, and there's not much private spending, I'm wondering where the jobs are supposed to come from.
They do have a legitimate point to make in any case, the rich *are* too rich. And the poor *are* to poor.
Seriously?
Are you seriously questioning that?
No shit. My kid (who's a better than average swimmer) won't go to the State competition anymore as he's seen too many parents yelling at their kids. "How come you didn't win? You really screwed up!" - to a 7 year old.
The FA (Football Association) in the UK has a campaign targeted at parents to try and prevent that. Take a look, it's here. Maybe write to the swimming association (whoever accredits the competition) and see if they recognise the problem.
My dad's a coach, with ages ~11 to 20, and he has problems with pushy parents. Often it shows when he doesn't pick someone for a team -- in which case the child generally knows someone else is better, but the parent disagrees ("well, I'll take her to basketball instead, they'll put her on the team!" "Mum, I don't like basketball. I'll be good enough for the next race, it's because you wouldn't let me train over Christmas, I'm a bit unfit" ah...)
Fortunately, the few times I've been surprised by an electric car following me, it's been doing just that: following me. Patiently.
If there are going to be problems, they'll come when the people currently driving BMWs, 4x4s and white vans buy hybrids.
What did they do wrong? Sit on a road?
"Freedom to leave at any time"? People like you are what's wrong with America (speaking as a foreigner).
I saw police walk over the "barrier". Don't see how they were being prevented from leaving.
I expect lot better from America. If that was Syria there'd be a protest outside their embassy.
Trick, cajole, threaten, inconvenience, stress, discomfit, and a whole host of other verbs that come just shy of it, but not quite outright torture yet.
From the videos of what the US police have done this week I wouldn't be so sure.
http://boingboing.net/2011/11/18/police-pepper-spraying-arrest.html for instance.
(I would call pepper spraying someone so much they're coughing up blood 45 minutes later torture, but maybe Americans call it 'discomfort'.)
Does France have any popular musicians? Does anyone outside of France listen to them?
Yes and yes, obviously.
I listen to relatively unpopular music, and if it's not obvious I'm often unaware of the nationality of bands. But I have a few tracks by Daft Punk, one by Justice, an album by Vitalic, and I know they're all French. (That's relatively popular, as far as I'm concerned. Anyone heard of Die Form? They're French.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:French_musical_groups
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to a gig/afterparty. Bands seem to be American, British and German.
Students aren't untrustworthy, as far as I know. But thieves know they have lots of new stuff, like bicycles and computers, so they make an inviting target.
http://yikebike.com/
I don't have one, as I'm holding off to see what my new job's commute will be like, but it looks pretty interesting to me anyway.
That has a pretty limited range. A normal electric bicycle at least lets you pedal if you decide to go further than you have charge for.
I don't think the EU has those laws -- the UK doesn't.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jun/23/primark.children
The only thing that stops companies is media/customer pressure.
Assuming you have some space on your computer to store the transcoded files, I wrote a Makefile to transcode music to solve this. I can't access it right now, but I use a very similar Makefile for keeping all my photographs (at low resolution) on the phone, which is really useful for annoying people with holiday snapshots. I just changed it to work with music files.
~/.toPhone/Source/ (symlink to my photos)
~/.toPhone/Albums/ (this is rsynced to my phone with rsync for Android)
~/.toPhone/Makefile
PHOTOS = $(shell find -L Source/ -type f -name '*.jpg')
SHRUNK = $(patsubst Source/%.jpg, Albums/%.jpg, $(PHOTOS))
PNGS = $(shell find -L Source/ -type f -name '*.png') .PHONY: all
SHRPNG = $(patsubst Source/%.png, Albums/%.jpeg, $(PNGS))
all: $(SHRUNK) $(SHRPNG)
Albums/%.jpg: Source/%.jpg
@mkdir -p "$(@D)"
convert "$<" -resize '800x800>' -quality 40 "$@"
@touch -r "$<" "$@"
Albums/%.jpeg: Source/%.png
@mkdir -p "$(@D)"
convert "$<" -resize '800x800>' -quality 40 "$@"
@touch -r "$<" "$@"
Then it's just:
nice -n 20 make -j 4
What is the weather like in Uzbekistan this time of year?
I reckon it's South West Australia.
http://www.antipodemap.com/
(Do you even know where Uzbekistan is? Opposite the southern middle Pacific. And south of Kazakhstan.)
If someone asks what you do and you reply that you're a cobol programmer woring for a mortgage company, it's hardly likely to make you seem like the coolest guy in the room.
It might make you cooler than the salesman for the mortgage company. Some guys I met at a music festival who worked for a mortgage company told me my job was much cooler. I work for a museum, and after the usual "but why would a museum need a computer programmer?" response, it's easy enough to explain something to anyone, no matter what their education/job/age. Also, they've probably heard of the museum, which helps.
I reckon the scientists who work here have "cooler" jobs though, which are more interesting to talk about at parties.
Good. No one knows what they are protesting anyway.
I liked this cartoon.
I visited the US recently, and I felt less free than at home in the UK. I've read /. too much, so I was partly expecting not to see CCTV cameras, and partly expecting lots of security. There seemed to be more government controlled CCTV cameras in the US than the UK, although perhaps fewer private ones (in shops, etc). Lots of them were outside every state and federal building, even a state museum looked like a 1984-esque fortified building. Maybe they're just more visible, but that made me more aware of being watched. On public transport, except Amtrak, there was CCTV, on vehicles and in stations. There were less cameras, but there were posters advertising this as a measure to increase safety (more or less like in the UK), so I think it just reflects the age of the vehicles. Older train carriages have none, one or two cameras, new ones manage six or eight at the same cost.
There was more overt security -- I often had my bag scanned going into museums. They seem to have stopped doing that in London, based on my experience going into two of the largest museums at the weekend to buy gifts. A couple of places inspected my ID, as if that somehow helped.
But, what I wasn't expecting was the profusion of signs proclaiming laws and ordinances, with big fines backing them up. I felt uncomfortable crossing the street -- was I jaywalking? Sometimes I wasn't sure. No drinking on the train -- does that include water? Am I allowed to give my unwanted travel pass to someone?
The value of the fines were rarely posted, but someone I asked said they would be around $200 "and a night in jail if the police don't like you". In the UK, where similar fines exist, the situation would be a verbal reprimand, and a £30 fine if the police don't like you (i.e. if you argue). But most things aren't enforced by law -- you can eat McDonalds on a bus, but it's impolite and most people wouldn't. There's no fine, you'll just be scowled at by other passengers.
The most relevant opinion is from the Information Commissioner's Office, the government organisation that enforces the privacy laws:
An ICO spokeswoman said the plans were "highly intrusive and unlikely to be justified".
So it's unlikely to happen.
Other articles (linked from the main one) suggest it's the taxi drivers who want this to "protect" themselves from drunk and rowdy passengers, though I'm not sure why that requires audio recording. It's hardly going to fix the problem though.
It's still just little random facts and trivia. That's not an IQ test. Change the subject from obscure scientists to footballers, from the mechanics of Windows and Linux to bits of cars, and from Heroes to some soap, and you've got exactly the kind of quiz that I would avoid at the local pub.
I found the print view
I scored 6 out of 20. I don't care, it's a test of random facts, not a test of skill.
According to someone who gave me and my housemate a ride home (and some confused looks) after clubbing on Saturday night, we're geeks since we were trying to work out something physicsy from first principles (I don't remember the details) while dressed, essentially, as humanoid robots from the future.
They'd fine the local council (owns the road, sort of). They've gone after several police forces, hospitals, etc.