It's pretty common these days that the Amplifier/Reciever for your audio system has inputs for video signals, and will switch them too.
My (slightly older) JVC amp has composite video, S-video, and Component inputs and outputs and it switches them when you select the video source. I've seen a newer model that includes HDMI switching.
So you run the cable box, DVD, and game system to the amp, then run a single HDMI from the amp to the TV, and everything Just Works.
I'm not sure just how important the cultural gaffes really are. I mean, they should be avoided, and it's good to learn and pick up on local cultural idiosyncracies, but I think most people are willing to give strangers the benefit of the doubt when it comes to things of that nature.
Don't get me wrong; better to be polite than rude. But I doubt that an obvious foreigner doing something culturally inappropriate is some sort of tripwire that leads to instant violence.
But misunderstandings in languages definately are. Hell, it took me months just to be able to hear the breaks between French words, never mind move to understanding the words themselves. And I've been in some conversations that goes like this:
"I'm sorry, I don't understand"
"I'm sorry, I still don't understand"
"Dammit, can't you see I can't understand you?"
etc....
You can defuse a cultural situation if you can communicate.
I went to school in a military college in Quebec. One of its aims was to make us fluently bilingual (French and English) and a lot of effort was spent on that. All communications outside the classroom switched language every two weeks, we got 5 classes of instruction per week, and we spent two months one summer on a full-bore language training programme.
And after 4 years of this, I was indeed fluently bilingual. (Je suis billingue)
BUT - it took 4 years of constant immersion to get there, French and English are reasonably similar (same alphabet, mostly the same sounds, a lot of shared words, reasonably similar grammar) and I still can't do a very good job of translating. In fact, I didn't really start to be able to function in French until I was comfortable enough with it to THINK in French (pense en francias). If I think in French, I'm fine. If I have to think in english and then speak in French (or vice versa) there's a kind of mental clashing of gears; it's like the speech centre and the comprehension centre are in one place, and the translation centre is in another.
So I can watch a French movie, no problem. But ask me to provide a running translation of the dialogue in English, and I can't do it - not without falling way behind. Translation is HARD.
Plus, from personal experiance, trying to communicate with somebody when you share very little language is very, very frustrating - for both of you - even in the most benign circmstances. It's a stressor. Now try it when one or both participants in the conversation are in fear for their lives... it's an easy way for tempers and emotions to get stoked way high.
And that's with French, which was relatively easy. Arabic reads right-to-left, has no shared alphabet with romantic languages, shares few sounds, and has a completely different grammar. I can't imagine how long it would take to be able to speak fluent Farsi or Pashtun - but yet, some day, my life might depend on it.
If we can develop a working real-time translator, it's going to make a lot of people's lives a lot easier. It will be a de-escalator when it comes to conflict resolution - and by far the best way to resolve conflicts is peacefully. Ask any soldier.
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.
That's the prologue to the Canturbury Tales, when written, in entirely correct English.
Thanks - although this is a race car, I got those wheels because they were the best tradeoff in strength, weight, size (offset mostly) and price at the time. Looks never really entered into it.
Since those pictures, I switched tire size from 275/17 to 285/18 ad so had to sell the wheels. The new wheels are Enkei RPF1 18X10
To oversimplify a complex subject, when you burn fuels in a spark-ignited engine, it is possible to get a kind of explosive combustion called "detonation" instead of a nice smooth rapid burn.
Detonation is also sometimes called "knock" and it is an engine killer. Detonation is Not Your Friend.
The things that tend to increase the liklihood of experiencing detonation are a lean fuel/air mixture, excessive ignition advance, localized hotspots in the combustion chamber, excessive static compression ratio, excessive intake temperature, or excessive intake boost pressure.
The measure of a fuel's ability to resist detonation is its "octane" rating. The derivation of the term is an article in of itself... bottom line is the higher the octane, the lower the probability of detonation.
My race car drinks 118 octane, because it uses a ton of turbo boost and a lot of ignition advance to make power. Most regular pump gasses are 87-89 octane, and premium runs about 91-94 octane.
Ethenol is an octane booster (Sunoco's 94 octane fuel has a lot of it) so all else being equal, it is safer to run higher boost levels when there is ethenol present in the fuel.
"Alright troops, drop your pants. Now remove your enema bag from its carrier. Grasp the flush bag firmly with the left hand in an all-round grip, and the irrigation tube in your right about 6 cm from the end...."
The Army has subjected me to all kinds of indignities, but at least it hasn't made me shove a hose up my ass yet. I'd rather it didn't.
I've actually got most of a short story written around a similar concept, but in my case (and I think in the real world too) such a thing would never work.
The reason being is that the concept of "ethnicity" is more tribial/social/religious than it is genetic.
I'm willing to bet that there is no set of genes that uniquely identifies a given ethnicity *right now*, and that as time goes forward, the probability of discovering a set of genes that identifies "most" of the population of a given ethnicity is steadily dropping, due to population intermingling and interbreeding.
Say, that reminds me of a story. I was walking down Main street with an onion tied to my belt (as was the fashion at the time) - not one of these fancy new-fangled Valincia onions, mind you, but a real stinky, bring-tears-to-your-eyes onion like I used to chop up on KP in the war and..........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... ...
Actually, you only have to shed about 120 mph (200 kph) worth of kinetic energy, given that the terminal velocity of a human in freefall is roughly 120 mph.
There's some math you could do to figure out how high up you would have to be to reach terminal velocity. I'll leave that at an exercise for the student.
Incidently, from terminal velocity, an impact that is spread evenly across the body and that took place over about a metre is completely survivable. Falling into powder snow would result in a metre deep crater and a live subject. If you can land on something that would crush with the impact, you might get away with it.
I'd also suspect that the single injury most likly to be immediately fatal would be a head impact. The broken bones and other internal trama on the rest of your body is going to be non-trivial, but I suspect that you could survive that if immediate medical attention could be had. That suggests that putting on a motorcycle helmet before jumping might significantly increase your probability of survival.
It's not the fall - it's the sudden stop at the end.;)
Then you want Neverwinter Nights (and the subsequent exapansion packs)
It comes with a phenominal world-building engine and some of the community-produced content for it is breathtaking. There's some very talented world-builders and storytellers out there.
Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, and Xenocide are three of the strongest, most powerful, best written books ever put to pen (for different reasons) but all else after that just goes to hell in a handbasket.
Slashdot Mirror
It's pretty common these days that the Amplifier/Reciever for your audio system has inputs for video signals, and will switch them too.
My (slightly older) JVC amp has composite video, S-video, and Component inputs and outputs and it switches them when you select the video source. I've seen a newer model that includes HDMI switching.
So you run the cable box, DVD, and game system to the amp, then run a single HDMI from the amp to the TV, and everything Just Works.
DG
Hey, cut him some slack. He's still in the "??" stage of his business plan.
DG
As a very long time Amiga guy, I went to Linux in 1997, and stayed there.
No Macs for me. I'm never going down the proprietary hardware/software path ever again.
The downfall of Chicken Lips taught me that. That whole "free as in freedom" thing is important, and that is the true lesson of Amiga.
DG
Dude! After this:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0202314/
you could be a consultant!
DG
... you're already posting as AC, and I'm curious: what market were you in that got hammered so badly?
DG
Given that skin cells are constantly being shedded and regenerating, wouldn't this (slowly) transform back into the recipiant's original face?
Or would a skin sample from the transplant area show different DNA for all time?
I'm genuinely curious. Is there a doctor in the house?
DG
I'm not sure just how important the cultural gaffes really are. I mean, they should be avoided, and it's good to learn and pick up on local cultural idiosyncracies, but I think most people are willing to give strangers the benefit of the doubt when it comes to things of that nature.
Don't get me wrong; better to be polite than rude. But I doubt that an obvious foreigner doing something culturally inappropriate is some sort of tripwire that leads to instant violence.
But misunderstandings in languages definately are. Hell, it took me months just to be able to hear the breaks between French words, never mind move to understanding the words themselves. And I've been in some conversations that goes like this:
"I'm sorry, I don't understand"
"I'm sorry, I still don't understand"
"Dammit, can't you see I can't understand you?"
etc....
You can defuse a cultural situation if you can communicate.
DG
...I totally agree - once it works.
I went to school in a military college in Quebec. One of its aims was to make us fluently bilingual (French and English) and a lot of effort was spent on that. All communications outside the classroom switched language every two weeks, we got 5 classes of instruction per week, and we spent two months one summer on a full-bore language training programme.
And after 4 years of this, I was indeed fluently bilingual. (Je suis billingue)
BUT - it took 4 years of constant immersion to get there, French and English are reasonably similar (same alphabet, mostly the same sounds, a lot of shared words, reasonably similar grammar) and I still can't do a very good job of translating. In fact, I didn't really start to be able to function in French until I was comfortable enough with it to THINK in French (pense en francias). If I think in French, I'm fine. If I have to think in english and then speak in French (or vice versa) there's a kind of mental clashing of gears; it's like the speech centre and the comprehension centre are in one place, and the translation centre is in another.
So I can watch a French movie, no problem. But ask me to provide a running translation of the dialogue in English, and I can't do it - not without falling way behind. Translation is HARD.
Plus, from personal experiance, trying to communicate with somebody when you share very little language is very, very frustrating - for both of you - even in the most benign circmstances. It's a stressor. Now try it when one or both participants in the conversation are in fear for their lives... it's an easy way for tempers and emotions to get stoked way high.
And that's with French, which was relatively easy. Arabic reads right-to-left, has no shared alphabet with romantic languages, shares few sounds, and has a completely different grammar. I can't imagine how long it would take to be able to speak fluent Farsi or Pashtun - but yet, some day, my life might depend on it.
If we can develop a working real-time translator, it's going to make a lot of people's lives a lot easier. It will be a de-escalator when it comes to conflict resolution - and by far the best way to resolve conflicts is peacefully. Ask any soldier.
DG
That's the prologue to the Canturbury Tales, when written, in entirely correct English.
Languages evolve.
DGNot to mention that Billy S. was writing for a popular audience, not for the annuals of liturature and lit professors.
He had theatres to fill and Groundlings to amuse. The PhD thesies on his writing came much, much later.
DG
Thanks - although this is a race car, I got those wheels because they were the best tradeoff in strength, weight, size (offset mostly) and price at the time. Looks never really entered into it.
g
Since those pictures, I switched tire size from 275/17 to 285/18 ad so had to sell the wheels. The new wheels are Enkei RPF1 18X10
See http://farnorthracing.com/newimages/2005_setup.jp
The car, BTW, is for sale. $22k USD takes it, the trailer, and ALL the spares (rain tires/wheels, tons of spare parts, etc)
DG
Welcome back.
DG
Disclaimer: I build and race turbocharged race cars http://farnorthracing.com/
To oversimplify a complex subject, when you burn fuels in a spark-ignited engine, it is possible to get a kind of explosive combustion called "detonation" instead of a nice smooth rapid burn.
Detonation is also sometimes called "knock" and it is an engine killer. Detonation is Not Your Friend.
The things that tend to increase the liklihood of experiencing detonation are a lean fuel/air mixture, excessive ignition advance, localized hotspots in the combustion chamber, excessive static compression ratio, excessive intake temperature, or excessive intake boost pressure.
The measure of a fuel's ability to resist detonation is its "octane" rating. The derivation of the term is an article in of itself... bottom line is the higher the octane, the lower the probability of detonation.
My race car drinks 118 octane, because it uses a ton of turbo boost and a lot of ignition advance to make power. Most regular pump gasses are 87-89 octane, and premium runs about 91-94 octane.
Ethenol is an octane booster (Sunoco's 94 octane fuel has a lot of it) so all else being equal, it is safer to run higher boost levels when there is ethenol present in the fuel.
DG
You have a gun.
You hear a distant sound of rending flesh to the SE
>
Oh boy, I can just see that.
"Alright troops, drop your pants. Now remove your enema bag from its carrier. Grasp the flush bag firmly with the left hand in an all-round grip, and the irrigation tube in your right about 6 cm from the end...."
The Army has subjected me to all kinds of indignities, but at least it hasn't made me shove a hose up my ass yet. I'd rather it didn't.
DG
I've actually got most of a short story written around a similar concept, but in my case (and I think in the real world too) such a thing would never work.
The reason being is that the concept of "ethnicity" is more tribial/social/religious than it is genetic.
I'm willing to bet that there is no set of genes that uniquely identifies a given ethnicity *right now*, and that as time goes forward, the probability of discovering a set of genes that identifies "most" of the population of a given ethnicity is steadily dropping, due to population intermingling and interbreeding.
DG
Here's the #1 feature I want in a phone (that I can't seem to find anywhere)
I want it to be TOUGH. I want to be able to drop it in the bathroom, have it carom off the bathtub, and land in the toilet, and still be functional.
Is there such a beast?
DG
Who?
......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... ...
Isn't it lunchtime yet?
Say, that reminds me of a story. I was walking down Main street with an onion tied to my belt (as was the fashion at the time) - not one of these fancy new-fangled Valincia onions, mind you, but a real stinky, bring-tears-to-your-eyes onion like I used to chop up on KP in the war and....
DG
Actually, you only have to shed about 120 mph (200 kph) worth of kinetic energy, given that the terminal velocity of a human in freefall is roughly 120 mph.
;)
There's some math you could do to figure out how high up you would have to be to reach terminal velocity. I'll leave that at an exercise for the student.
Incidently, from terminal velocity, an impact that is spread evenly across the body and that took place over about a metre is completely survivable. Falling into powder snow would result in a metre deep crater and a live subject. If you can land on something that would crush with the impact, you might get away with it.
I'd also suspect that the single injury most likly to be immediately fatal would be a head impact. The broken bones and other internal trama on the rest of your body is going to be non-trivial, but I suspect that you could survive that if immediate medical attention could be had. That suggests that putting on a motorcycle helmet before jumping might significantly increase your probability of survival.
It's not the fall - it's the sudden stop at the end.
DG
Yeesh... they are module titles. Anyone who has ever downloaded NWN modules would know this....
i l&id=3700
Try this then:
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Modules.Deta
Google is your friend as well.
DG
Try CC1 and CC2.
CC3 is due real soon now.
DG
Then you want Neverwinter Nights (and the subsequent exapansion packs)
It comes with a phenominal world-building engine and some of the community-produced content for it is breathtaking. There's some very talented world-builders and storytellers out there.
And the game can be played multiplayer with a DM.
Oh - and it runs on Linux!
DG
Nah, right after Xenocide.
Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, and Xenocide are three of the strongest, most powerful, best written books ever put to pen (for different reasons) but all else after that just goes to hell in a handbasket.
DG
With all this alarmism about the doubling of C02 levels, you do realize that the current C02 levels are roughly 360 parts per million, right?
That's an itsy bitsy teenie weenie fraction.
It's easy to double things when the starting value is so small.
DG
Cool! You got the door to open!
DG