Due to the prolific nature of these forums, poster aggression is advised.
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
251
Hardware, Software, and Other Imperialist Crap / Microsoft to open source geeks: "STFU"« on: January 15, 2004, 01:29:28 PM »
Well, that's how I keep reading it in every article that talks about SFU.
 Like this one on TheRegister. This kind of stuff makes me think that MS is starting to get a little scared about open source. 252
Hardware, Software, and Other Imperialist Crap / All right, I'll grudgingly admit it« on: January 13, 2004, 04:51:01 PM »
I've been using KDE.
 I know, I know. But it's been a couple of years since my last attempt at using KDE for anything. The version of it that came with Red Hat 7.2 was utter shite. It would do bizarre, random things. I'd boot up my machine, log in, start X-windows and go into KDE and one of my desktop icons -- a random one -- would simply be missing. It might be my shortcut to Opera, or Mozilla, or my Trash... the title would still be there, where the icon was, but the icon itself would be gone. I'd reboot and it would be back. Then the next time I booted, a different one would be mysteriously gone. And that was just the little stuff. One day, I couldn't get KDE to run at all. For no apparent reason, no amount of tweaking or troubleshooting could find anything wrong at all. It simply would not run, period. It would crash before the session even completely loaded. Then a couple of days later, also for no apparent reason, it worked fine. I eventually gave up on this and just stuck to Gnome. I like Gnome. It's familiar, more stable than KDE, pretty user-friendly, still pretty customizable. Well, that was Red Hat. Lately I've been using Slackware, created right here in good ol' Minnesota (and downloaded by a Finn living in Sweden, burned to CD's and sent via snail mail to yours truly -- back here in Minnesota -- in exchange for a US layout keyboard; thanks Kryzec!  ), which, being the most current release of the distro (it's Slackware 9.1), came with the most current version of Gnome as well as KDE and eight or nine other window managers.Well, sadly enough, some of the things I didn't ever like about Gnome are still present... for instance, file associations have never worked as long as I've been using Gnome. You can set them and reset them and reset them again, and it still will never associate file types with the applications you tell it to, no matter how many times you do it. I use Blackbox and Xfce sometimes, and I like both of them, and I probably spend more time in Windowmaker than anything else, but I still think it's nice to see what the box can do with a more Windows-like environment... so I gave KDE another try. I think they've fixed some of the flakiness, or at least it appears so. For the past week or so I've been using KDE on this machine (the same machine as before, when I was having all kinds of troubles with the earlier version of KDE), and it seems to be working just fine. In fact, I'm pretty impressed by it so far. It runs faster than Gnome does, and file associations work, and so far nothing flaky has happened at all.  Plus, I also have to admit that it's pretty customizable, and not too shabby to look at. I'll post a screenshot of it when I get a chance. I still spend more time in Windowmaker, but if KDE is going to play nice, I might have to reconsider my past criticisms of it. Anyway, I just figured I'd throw this out there, in case anybody was interested. BTW, here is a screenshot of my desktop in Gnome. In KDE it is actually a little more interesting. 253
Anarchy / RPG gamer site« on: January 09, 2004, 09:29:58 AM »
I know there are a couple of pencil-and-paper RPG gaming types here as well. I figured I'd point out a must-see site for those who are interested.
DoOrDice.com I was looking around the web for some things last night, and I found that they are consistently cheaper on every single thing I looked at, and they had a pretty good selection. I just ordered this bad boy from them last night, and it was $15 cheaper than if I had ordered it from the manufacturer's site. They sell Chessex dice cheaper than Chessex does as well. Anyway, I figured a couple of you would probably like to check it out for your gaming needs. 
255
Anarchy / Ovaltine or Nestle's Quik?« on: October 10, 2003, 11:52:26 AM »
Since we're posting food/beverage related polls...
Personally, I've always been an Ovaltine fan. Nestle's Quik is good, but Ovaltine has a more "malty" flavor to it that Quik is lacking in my opinion. 257
Anarchy / Scotland Pics« on: June 23, 2003, 11:45:15 AM »
Those of you who caught my Scotland Pics thread on HN can safely ignore this, as I'm just duplicating the post here.
All right, as promised, here are (finally) some pics from the trip that the wife and I took in Scotland on our belated honeymoon. I finally sat down and went through them and resized some of them to share. Anyway, take note that the wife had the digital camera, so (naturally) most of the pics we have are of me standing in front of touristy things. I had the video camera most of the time, so most of our video is of her standing in front of touristy things. A compromise, I guess. You guys don't get to see the video, I don't have enough webspace.  Because of the limitations of the forum and the number of images allowed per post, I'm going to be linking them. That'll make this thread load faster too, so don't bitch. They're all pretty much chronomological. This was taken the first day we were there. I think at the time this pic was snapped, I had been up for 27 hours straight and was beyond mere "tired". If I remember correctly, this was in Luss, on the western shores of Loch Lomond. Me on a pier on Loch Lomond Here's me and the wife. The pic was taken by (and as much as I hate to promote stereotypes, there are usually reasons for them) an Asian girl who was out there taking pictures of her friends. We snapped a group shot of them, and she agreed to take a couple of pics of us. Me and the wife on a pier on Loch Lomond This is a picture of my wife, driving on the wrong side of the road!!!! Wife driving the rental car on no sleep This is me standing near our rental car (a Vauxhall Omega) outside "The Little Mill Inn", near Dumbarton. Good ale, really good food. When you've had no sleep in over a day, that can be important... Me and the rental car The next day we went to Dumbarton Castle, which was about 15 minutes from where we were staying. It's on a big peninsula, between two rocky hills. This is the view from a fairly perilous perch over the top of the wall up on one of the higher points of the castle. Dumbarton high up view We went to Stirling next, and explored Stirling Castle. This is me in the middle of the "Great Hall" there. Stirling Castle Great Hall There was a great view over the wall from that castle... Stirling Castle view Stirling Castle view 2 Me and Robert the Bruce, in Stirling. Me and a big statue The day after that, we first went to Doune, to see the famed Doune Castle. This is where 90% of the castle scenes were filmed in "Monty Python And The Holy Grail". Doune Castle was Camelot, Castle Anthrax, the castle in the opening scene (where King Arthur has the discussion with a guard about coconuts and migration of swallows), and of course the first castle in which the French are encountered (where they are taunted the first time). Taunting Wall Some of the geekier of you may recognize this as the door that the giant wooden rabbit was taken in by the French... The front of Doune Castle Being the geeks that my wife and I are, we took a shot of the first page of the guest book there at Doune Castle... of Terry Jones' and Michael Palin's signatures... Sir Bedevere and Sir Galahad This is me in Doune Castle's "King's Hall", the only restored room in the whole place (and it was restored back in the 1840's or something). Me in the King's Hall The stairs in this place were fricken crazy. This was what most of them were like. Incidentally, I'm using this as the wallpaper on my file server... Keep in mind that the flash adds a lot of light. We actually went up and down these in almost total darkness. Scary ass steps Here's the wife and I in Doune, pic taken by some elderly Scottish couple that happened to be there, touring like we were. Me and the wife Later that day we went back to Stirling to see the Wallace Monument, which was really cool. Here's what it looks like: Wallace Monument I have some really freaky video of us in the shuttle van they have taking people to and from the top of the big ass hill that's built on... the guy driving the van hauled ass up this tiny, windy road, and pedestrians were dodging left and right to dive out of his way. The guy was a lunatic. The video makes it look pretty funny, but we were both pretty terrified at the time.... After leaving Stirling we stopped by the Deanston Distillery, one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland. I brought back a couple of bottles of their stuff. It's damn good too, I might add... Deanston Distillery The last full day we were in Scotland we took the train to Edinburgh. Here's a pic of me being a smartass in Edinburgh Castle... Me and some mannequins Hey, I can't help it. I'm a funny guy.... Another in Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh Castle (interior) Here's Edinburgh Castle from the street below. I think I took this one, from the top of a double-decker tour bus. Edinburgh Castle This pic turned out surprisingly well, considering it was taken on a moving train, at arm's length, by my wife: Train picture This was in Deacon Brodie's Tavern, at the end of a long day of wandering around Edinburgh. Mmmmmmm..... Tennant's Ale!!! Deacon Brodie's Tavern --- Anyway, we ended up getting a shitload of pictures.... over 300 in fact. Digital camera + portable hard drive with built-in smart media card reader == take pics of everything and sort them out later. Most of them turned out nice though... we're having some professionally printed so we can put them in an album. 258
Political Opinions / "By the people, for the people"????« on: May 05, 2003, 10:53:06 AM »
... more like "for themselves, and fuck the people".
Link Quote ... nine members of Congress -- Sen. Christopher Bond (Missouri), Rep. Thomas Davis (VA, 11th), Sen. John Ensign (Nevada), Rep. Doc Hastings (WA, 4th), Rep. Ric Keller (FL, 8th), Rep. Steve King (IA-5th), Rep. Michael Rogers (MI-8th), Rep. Bart Stupak (MI-1st) and Rep. Heather Wilson (NM-1st) -- accepted "tainted" campaign contributions from WorldCom/MCI and then failed to return them. This at a time when pensioners in their states lost over half a billion in retirement savings due to misdeeds at WorldCom.Bribery? Fraud? In the US government, things like "Integrity", "Honesty", "Honor", and "Duty" are dirty words. And yet the voters continue to elect the same crooks again, and again, and again. I say "shame on you" to the members of Congress that behave this way... I'm sure it's not limited just to those involved in this article, and not limited to just this issue. But I say "shame on you" even MORE to anybody that votes for these criminals. You made this mess. The rest of us just have to pay for it. 
259
Anarchy / Like to make prank phone calls?« on: April 04, 2003, 09:11:33 AM »
Then this is the thread for you.
If any of you here like fucking with people over the phone, I have a phone number for you. 320-291-2263 Feel free to call this guy at any hour of the day or night. Why, you ask? Because that's what you get when you call me at 1:30 in the morning and again at 6:30 in the morning when I have to get up for work. Feel free to dig around the web for telemarketing list sign ups to put that number into as well. That motherfucker.
260
Anarchy / Demo's post of pure, unadulterated EVIL!« on: March 12, 2003, 03:25:51 PM »
Here it is. Read it and weep. I think this somehow makes me more evil.
261
Anarchy / Okay, you're in a 10'x10' room and there are three orcs« on: February 05, 2003, 09:30:12 AM »
I know some here (Lacerda, for instance) actually still play pencil-and-paper RPG's.
Well I'm here to give a free plug for one that I've been testing lately, and I was wondering if anyone else here had played it. HackMaster! When I first found out about it, I was overjoyed, but then skeptical... would it truly be what they said it was? Well, I've GMed four sessions of it now, basically halfway through the first module in their series, and I have to say, it is all that and more. It is funny, fast-paced, challenging, nostalgic, intricate, but also familiar and simple on other levels. In short, I wish they had come out with this ten years ago. Discuss. 262
Anarchy / DVD Renting« on: January 31, 2003, 03:57:57 PM »
Gonna watch a couple of movies tonight on the ol' DVD player.
What should I rent? Keep in mind I'm a critic. I hate most movies. I like substance, but not chick flicks. I'm not against action films, but I don't like stupid ones that make me roll my eyes and totally disbelieve what they're trying to feed me. I like plot and storyline, but I like things to keep moving. If it's going to be slow-paced, there had better be some good reasons for it... suspense, character development.... and it had better pick up at one point or another. I like comedy, but not overly juvenile comedy. Silliness is one thing, but an hour and a half of poop and fart jokes wears a bit thin. Some examples of things I like versus things I don't: I liked The Others, and The Mothman Prophecies, but I thought Panic Room and Signs were teh suxx0r. I loved The Ghost and the Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness, but I hated the Scream movies, and I think that both Blade movies were ho-hum lame. I like anything made by Kevin Smith and Terry Gilliam, but for the most part anything with Martin Lawrence, David Spade, Damon Wayans, or any combination thereof will get a pretty immediate thumbs down from me. Python-esque humor always scores big in my book. I tend to dislike movies that try to seriously "tackle" any sensationalistic "social issues" (ala Erin Brokovitch, John Q, Traffic, et al). I have yet to see a Steve Martin movie that I dislike. I like war movies, but not overdone, sappy crap like Pearl Harbor, or overly-macho, jingoist, mind-numbing idiocy like Behind Enemy Lines. Examples of war-type movies that I've enjoyed include The Great Escape, U-571, Patton, Galipoli, Full Metal Jacket. On that note, I like pretty much every Kubrick movie I've seen, even A.I., and Eyes Wide Shut (both of which a lot of other people I know dissed). I can't stand Oliver Stone. Anyway, that's a pretty good indicator of my tastes. I'm not a "just guy movies" kind of guy... I like a lot of stuff... but I do have my standards. Suggestions for rentals for tonight? 263
Anarchy / I have teh ferst post in tihs f0rum!!! OMFGLOL!!!11111111« on: January 30, 2003, 01:37:41 PM »
I was just wondering where the comments went that were on the main page....
264
Anarchy / Stupid SHIT!« on: January 21, 2003, 12:35:49 PM »
I run a tight ship. I balance my checking accounts to the penny, I don't spend more than I have, and I have never had an overdraft.
I get paid by direct deposit. I got my direct deposit slip yesterday in my mailbox at work. It was the amount I was expecting (i.e., the same amount I always get paid). I balanced my checkbook using that amount as my deposit. I went shopping last night for a birthday present for my wife. I paid for it with my debit card. I got an email a few minutes ago stating "We have just received confirmation from the bank, that the direct deposits will not be in our employees accounts until tomorrow morning. As you can see from the e-mail below from the bank, we sent the file over Friday morning, but for some reason, it did not show up in their e-mail system until Friday night. According to Jesse at the bank, the cutoff time for them to process ACH's is by 4:00. Because they "received" and processed it after that time, it delayed the direct deposits by another day." Meaning? I'm almost certainly overdrawn right now on my primary checking account by over $20. That fucking pisses me off. 
265
Anarchy / Experiment: Please check this out« on: January 07, 2003, 12:23:26 PM »
Okay, 12AX7 and I have been pondering why he and I seem to be the only ones on the HN forums over the past couple of days, and he mentioned that he sees a DIFFERENT VERSION OF THE FORUMS when he's at home, as compared to the forum he sees from work.
That pretty much pegs fairly high on my Weird-Shit-ometer. Anyway, I figured I'd try an experiment and see what as many of you see as possible. So... go to Hackernetwork.com and click on the "Discussion Forums" link at the top of the main page, and come back here to tell me what the last post was over there that you can see. Make sure you refresh a bunch of times to make sure you're not looking at some cached version of it or something. Provide a link to it here in this thread, so I can see for myself and try it out. Then, let me know if you can see this thread, which I made yesterday, which apparently only 12AX7 and I can see... 266
Anarchy / Question for females« on: January 06, 2003, 11:34:05 AM »
Let me ask you women something.... how can some of you reconcile such blatant double standards when it comes to relationships?
My primary example in question here is the "what's hers is hers, and what's mine is ours", which I am currently having absolutely no luck in dealing with... while the wife apparently doesn't see the complete, utter contradiction in the stance she's taken. Point: It's okay for her to go spend $500 on new clothes, and it's okay for her to go get a new computer, and it's okay for her to go spend several hundred dollars on software for it... However, I buy a new laptop (which I had been talking about doing for a while anyway), and she fucking FREAKS because I did it "without consulting her" (even though she knew that I was planning on getting a new computer, and even though this particular laptop ended up costing me way less than I had been planning on spending). Hell, she was the one that pointed out the sale on laptops that the place was having to begin with, last week... Weird Tingly Feeling? I should probably add that the amount I'm putting away in our savings is actually increasing as of this month, so the whole financial planning thing isn't disrupted in the slightest by this... in fact, the reason the amount I'm kicking into savings is increasing is because I finally have her fricken ring paid off, and the amount I'm going to be paying for this new laptop turns out to be less than half the amount per month that I was paying on that goddamned rock she's wearing. And she never bothers consulting me on anything that she purchases, while apparently I'm supposed to get permission to upgrade my ancient, rickety computer that I've been bitching about for the past year... </rant> 267
Political Opinions / They must think the rest of the world is pretty stupid« on: December 05, 2002, 10:38:37 AM »
I just read this article and almost laughed out loud.
The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were part of a Jewish plot? Lol. What? The Jews of the world somehow managed to work with Osama Bin Laden for several years, planning the attacks? I guess his public calls for "death to Israel" and "the blood of all Jews" are just a ruse then? He's secretly supporting the Zionist cause to take over the world! Not to mention the Saudi hijackers that were involved. Almost all of them. Jews managed to convince a bunch of Saudi muslim extremists to work to their benefit, even dying for the jewish overlords? That is an impressive maneuver, a bunch of Judaistic conspirators, duping a bunch of innocent Muslim militants into being pawns in their dark game of framing the Saudis and Al Qaeda, and seeking world domination. Fie upon them! Pretty funny stuff. That Saudi minister should consider a career writing screenplays. He needs to work on making his stories a bit more believable, however. That story would never fly in Hollywood... 268
Political Opinions / How long?« on: December 02, 2002, 12:16:18 PM »
How long will it be before we start noticing people suddenly missing, never to be seen again?
"They came and took him," you'll hear someone say of his neighbor. "He was a nice enough guy. He had some unusual political opinions that he was never shy about voicing, and he was against the war, but he never did anything besides talk and write about them. Now he's gone, and nobody knows where he has been taken, nobody has ever given a reason." How long will it be before we become too frightened to even talk about it? How long will it be before someone you know is branded an "enemy of the state" and taken to an undisclosed location, with no warrant, no evidence, no hearing, no trial, no legal counsel? How long will it be before they decide to come for me? How long will it be before they decide to come for you? Link This article scares the bejesus out of me, kiddies. There are no checks and balances in a system like this, no rights, no appeals, no due process. This is a system in direct violation of the Consitution. Or would be, if they cared to follow it anymore. Someone call me paranoid and tell me there's nothing to worry about. Seriously. 269
Anarchy / Lighten the hell up!« on: November 27, 2002, 11:14:47 AM »
From this article, I gather the odd notion that there are still many countries in the world unfamiliar with the concept of SATIRE.
I guess they failed to notice that "The Simpsons" also portrays average Americans as fat, lazy, and stupid (which for the most part isn't far from the truth, but it's still satire), it portrays its own network, FOX, as being nothing but inane, sensationalistic crap programming (again, not far from the truth, but still satire), among many, many other things. I guess if they don't get it, don't like it, or don't understand it, they shouldn't watch it... 270
I thought this article was kind of cool and kind of scary at the same time... cool in that if you get into a horrible accident or a fire or something, this would mean that you wouldn't have to walk around the rest of your life with your face a mass of hideous scar tissue... but scary in that you would instead be walking around with the face of someone else entirely... creepy!
Quote Full face transplants are no longer science fiction fantasy, a leading surgeon has said, adding that they are technically feasible but ethically complex. 271
Political Opinions / Barbarians, Part Deux« on: November 26, 2002, 10:02:20 AM »
From this article:
Quote KADUNA, Nigeria (Reuters) - A Nigerian Muslim state said Tuesday it had issued a "fatwa" urging a death sentence for the author of a newspaper story on the Miss World (news - web sites) pageant that sparked deadly riots in northern Nigeria.My question is this: is your belief system so bloody weak that you feel the need to KILL anyone that so much as mentions it in a manner that might even SUGGEST irreverence? This is merely one example, because other religions are just as guilty of it (just not quite as recently... these backwards fucks seem to be the only major religion that is still stuck in the 12th century... 272
Political Opinions / Barbarians« on: November 22, 2002, 03:57:57 PM »
A couple of quotes from this article:
Quote Combine this kind of idiocy with the fact that nearly every government on the African continent is corrupt and 100% brutally self-serving, and it really makes one WONDER why the United States and other civilized nations of the world continue to waste their time pouring BILLIONS of dollars in aid -- not loans -- to these nations year after year. Screw them. I have no sympathy for a people who will resort to this kind of savagery and middle ages mentality. Christian, Muslim alike... I couldn't care less. I say we stop spending money on these animals and let them kill themselves off. Perhaps in a few hundred generations a civilized society might emerge from the rubble, but until then, they are not deserving of any of our aid, our sympathy, our attention, or our protection or interventionism. These are the kinds of people we find that have no qualms about blowing up a building or three for their religion. These are the kinds of people that resent the US intervening in their local politics, yet resenting the US even more when we don't give them handouts and don't take their side in their petty conflicts. I hate to sound isolationist, but screw them.. there are better things for the US to worry about than countries like Nigeria (and there are quite a few countries like them that we continue to hand fistfuls of money and other aid to). The more we stay involved with barbarians like this the more we will embroil ourselves in a sea of terrorism and irrational idiocy that will continue to lead to death and violence. 273
Anarchy / Tooooooo slooooooooooooowwwwwww« on: November 14, 2002, 10:29:38 AM »
Okay... HN is moving so slowly now that I've been waiting ten minutes for a thread in GD to load, and I'm still not at the bottom of it yet.
I say "FEH!" to the new server they moved it to. It never loaded this slow before that crash a couple months ago. Whatever server it was on then was fast, and solid. The one it's on now is slow to the point where it's impossible to do anything. I don't even remember which thread I clicked on.... Oh, and I'm not necessarily complaining to anyone in particular, or for any particular reason, for that matter. I'm just really bored while waiting for this thread to load, and figured I'd get it off my chest over on a forum that loads quicker. 274
Anarchy / Well, it's official: I finally have a fucking job« on: September 17, 2002, 11:26:22 AM »
I got a call on Thursday of last week from the Director of Operations of the company I used to work for, called EMR Innovations. She asked me if I would be willing to come to a meeting to discuss my coming back to work for them.
I went to that meeting yesterday, where they assured me that the two things I hated about my job have been eliminated. 1) No More Evil Supervisor They told me at this meeting that "we understand that you had some pretty major issues with Kathy while you worked here. Well, we would like to say that after you left, we realized that we had some issues with her as well, and she is no longer with the company." Cha-CHING! I feel quite a bit more avenged now that I have confirmation from the horse's mouth that she was canned with extreme prejudice. If only they could have done that about a year and a half ago, it would have saved me a lot of anger, hatred, and resentment. 2) No More Answering First Line Support Calls As some of you may know, I started at this company as a programmer, specializing in troubleshooting. I was attached to the Client Support department, and I handled any issues that involved the back-end code or data, and our support reps handled the clients themselves, because as everyone knows, programmers and customers really shouldn't (and don't) mix well. After a pretty good year of employment with EMR, my position changed, primarily because my boss (a guy named Mark) moved to a different department, and I was placed under the Evil Supervisor mentioned above. She decided that I was then to be a phone support person. My response to that was, "fine. Don't expect me to do any programming or handle any issues involving code then. I can't do that if I'm expected to answer the support phones (which ring every five fucking MINUTES)." Anyway, they have assured me that my position in the company is basically the way it was the first year I was there, which is fine by me. I like troubleshooting code, I know the software inside and out, and I hate talking to idiotic clients and resellers on the phone, so if it's as they are telling me, my job will actually be enjoyable again. They also offered me the salary I had when I was laid off, which I never had any problems with, and I am accruing time off at the same rate I was then as well (which is a pretty sweet deal, IMO). Anyway, I just wanted to make the announcement that I was officially extended an offer yesterday, which I have accepted. I start on Wednesday. Just in the interest of not completely fucking the mall job I work at now, I told my boss there that I would work tonight (since they literally have nobody else available tonight, and I was on the schedule for it), but after tonight they're on their own, unless they can triple my salary and ensure I never have to talk to customers. She said that she couldn't do that (I'm not sure if she thought I was joking or not when I said that.... I was actually serious about that) and she knew that I was still looking for a real job, so everything was kosher. No more being flat-ass broke. No more working in the FUCKING MALL. No more worry about whether or not I will be able to pay my bills. No more working in the FUCKING MALL. No more hanging around home all fricken day, bored off my ass. Did I mention I won't be working in the FUCKING MALL anymore?
275
Anarchy / Holy crap, a lot of you must be in school« on: September 06, 2002, 01:17:26 PM »
... because since Labor Day weekend, this forum has been dead until after 3:00pm Eastern.
*shakes cane* All you whippersnappers get offa mah lawn!!!!!! *wanders off down the street, mumbling incoherently about all the goddamn kids* 
|
