Posts by PunkTiger 129 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Sep 2007
Now if there were only some way to get the Quadraphonic mixes of classic albums on 5.1 (4.1?) surround discs, that would be pretty nifty. Of course, they'd probably have to be remastered a bit more attentively than the original releases to get the separation just right.
@Chris C: "Why is it that when there's any article about hard drives, you have a load of people bashing the manufacturer or the drive... And why is it only hard drives that you guys do this for?"
Apparently, you haven't seen some of the Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux "discussions" around here. This HD bashing is baby tame by comparison.
@everyone else: And, OK, fine, I got my facts about the "DeathStar" crossed. Mea culpa. My only real complaint about all the TravelStar drives I have (2 6GB and 2 20GB) is that they're all fairly loud; even when they're idling. I stay away from them when I'm searching for replacement drives for that reason. If they've quieted them down (like the Samsung and *shudder* Seagate laptop drives I have... and I have my own misgivings about Seagate in general, but that's not important now), will someone please tell me? I'll be willing to give them a sporting chance.
Just because Safari is installed on people's machines doesn't necessarily mean they're USING it. I can see using it maybe once or twice to see what it's like, and then go back to their browser of choice. If their browser of choice happens to be Safari, good for them.
Penguin, because I run Debian on my main machine, and Opera as my browser of choice.
Thank goodness I already have Text Messaging totally removed from my phone service. The past 7+ years have been such a flaming failure in U.S. government leadership, that I can't take ANYTHING they have to say seriously. It's been nothing but fear-mongering, paranoia and chasing shadows.
It's as if they've never heard the tale of The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
I don't know how far this will get you, but if you're taking your lappy on holiday, perhaps some variant on this idea will work.
Bring along a CD of a live system of your choice (Knoppix, DSL, Mepis, etc.), making sure it will work properly on your laptop. The day before your flight back, move whatever sensitive information you'd need onto a convenient USB flash drive, then remove your lappy's hard drive and mail it back home using your carrier of choice (taking into consideration that if you're going to an area/land/country where you wouldn't trust the mail service as far as you could throw a stamp, then leave either the lappy and/or the hard drive at home) after you've Then put the live CD distro in the CD/DVD drive.
At the Airport, if the TSA wants you to boot up your lappy, the Live CD will boot. If questioned, say that the hard drive connection is "fried," so there's no hard drive in it. Explain that your lappy is very secure (because the system can't be written to), as well as undesirable (because of the "blown hard drive port") and you haven't seen the need to repair it yet. The TSA can't "plant" any dodgy URLs into your browser, because the system can't be written to. The laptop boots up and is fully functional. There's no danger of having anything untoward for them to find, so you should be home free. When you get home, maybe a day or so later, your hard drive is delivered safe and sound (hopefully) with all your sensitive information intact.
It's not a perfect plan, by any means, but it's at least one way to protect yourself from unconstitutional searches.
I wonder if it hurts your eyes to look at it.
If you had a 6-inch square of this carbon nanotube material on a brightly-lit table and looked at it, would your brain want to register it as a six-inch square void; making you want to look deeper into it in the hopes of seeing stars (much like 2001's Monolith)?
Just for a larf, I'm waiting for the stuff that will suck some of the ambient light around it so it "glows" black.
For an incorrigible Anglophile like myself, this is pure gold.
Say what you will about it; bash on the Queen and the Monarchy all you want, but I find the entire concept fascinating. Not because of the Royalty aspect, but by the fact these films and videos are being made available for the public view instead of wasting away in some archive somewhere where only a select few ever gets a chance to see them.
One of the films they have available is the Royal Wedding in 1923. Think about that. A silent film document of an event that happened in 1923. Who would think that an ephemeral piece like that (probably made for a newsreel of the time) would be viewed with interest nearly 85 years later? And the film itself (for its age) is in remarkable shape!
I would like to see the archivists in the U.S. government get their collective heads together and place archival films of Presidential inaugurations and special events of this quality on YouTube. Would there still be usable newsreel footage from the 1920s?
As much as I would go with the gun theory, I rather think that, as our British friends would say, the penny dropped. He's saying things here that many people have said all along; treating the customers as criminals, and the like.
Could this begin a change of heart, or is Warner's setting themselves up to be ostracized by the rest of the music industry and an RIAA lawsuit?
*shrug* Let's see if they continue with this line of thought a few weeks from now. Perhaps it's just the hangover talking.
Speaking as a furry, I wouldn't mind having a laptop with graphics like "Spotted Life" (although I would rather prefer tiger stripes, of course). Still, much like Dell's offerings of multi-coloured notebooks, anything that deviates from the realm of black-grey-white laptops is a nice thing to see.
This is all sounding very similar to the Windows 98se to Windows XP migration a number of years ago.
-- 98 is fast and stable, I wouldn't put that POS XP on my machine!
-- Bloat, bloat, bloat! XP is nothing but bloated crapware!
-- Driver support for XP? Don't make me laugh.
-- Windows XP <- The smiley says it all.
Sound familiar?
So what happened to XP? MicroSoft put out some service packs and updates that shored up its shortcomings, peripheral and device manufacturers started releasing more and more drivers that supported XP (once MS started spreading the specifics around, that is) and soon, people were happily migrating to XP. So, why can't the same be done with Vista?
Now, mind you, this is coming form a Linux user (yay Debian). Personally, I refuse to install Vista on any machine I own (laptop or otherwise) for a number of reasons, but the biggest reason is that DRM (in whatever pretty, sugar-coated form it would take) should NEVER, EVER, be part of a base OS. Period. Full Stop. End of file. But, if you don't mind having it, good for you.
A rugged little laptop I can take along when travelling (seeing as I don't have any children, but still want to support the project). Sure, it won't replace a more sophisticated machine, but for light-duty word processing and internet access for e-mail, it fits the bill quite smartly. I even love the colour.
Sign me up!
http://www.xogiving.org/
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
