dbminter

I am firm believer in a daily dose of news. It showed up on a news item, and, I decided to do some searching on it, as I wasn't too familiar with leap seconds.

Well, those 38 (When I checked the link.) million can be misleading. Since many are really just the same site with different links, subsites of the same place, and, mostly, places trying to sell you something. Which means selling you the same things, mostly. Just a small handful of utilities, actually. Now, the funny thing I've noted before (And it's amazing I'm still here. ) is it appears that if you SELL your special utility in this field, no one comes after you. Unless you're 321 Studios. So, the most logical conclusion to reach is this: if backing up DVD's is legal as interpreted from the 321 case, and if owning a backed up DVD copy is legal as interpreted by the same case, and only the TOOLS necessary to MAKE the backup are illegal, as interpreted by the same case, and mostly only the free utilities are targeted, the final leap of reasoning must be that those who aren't gone after pay some kind of licensing fee to the MPAA/whatever. IF you give your product away, there's no money pool to pull fees from. Hence, the free guys are usually the only ones targeted (I say 321 was an unusual case because they were the first ones with a product that SOLD and sold well.) because there can be no profits to get a license from. And, frankly, no one is going to make a freeware utility for anything if they have to pay a license for X part of the software. DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed by the author of this message are not necessarily the opinions of the message itself.

Now, the funny thing here is there was a guy on this rerun tonight who had been on Carson's final show of the 1980's. He's billed as the Piano Juggler. I actually taped that appearance from Carson when that guy was on! I taped nearly all of the Carson show monologues from 1988 until the final show. (Carson's final show aired the night of my high school graduation.) And, since none of the video releases of the final show have all of the footage that aired on TV, I'm glad I kept my old tapes. Back when Leno was Carson's backup host, Leno was actually quite funny! Probably because he was using material from Carson's writers. His own stuff, he telegraphs the joke from a thousand miles away. And, he keeps repeating punchlines after he delivers them. Headlines is what I watch for, hence, I watch once a week for 10 minutes. So, tonight, they put in LAST Monday's show!

Jay Leno has managed to top Johnny Carson only in one area. Tonight, he finally laid to rest the quest for that crown. Leno officially puts on more reruns than Carson. Tonight's was just appalling! A rerun from LAST week!

Remember, people, 2006 doesn't start exactly when you think it will. This year is a leap second year. A leap second must be added to the clock at precisely 23:59:60 on December 31st.

There's still 2 more hours left in Christmas in my corner of the Earth so, with that, I'd like to, once again, copy and paste one of the funniest bad to worse situations for Christmas time. The "lyrics" to Christmas Countdown, an urban legend that is usually attributed to Frank Kelly. He does do the best version I've read/heard. Day One Dear Nuala, Thank you very much for your lovely present of a partridge in a pear-tree. We’re getting the hang of feeding the partridge now, although it was difficult at first to win its confidence. It bit the mother rather badly on the hand but they’re good friends now and we’re keeping the pear-tree indoors in a bucket. Thank you again. Yours affectionately, Gobnait O’L?nasa Day Two Dear Nuala, I cannot tell you how surprised we were to hear from you so soon again and to receive your lovely present of two turtle doves. You really are too kind. At first the partridge was very jealous and suspicious of the doves and they had a terrible row the night the doves arrived. We had to send for the vet but the birds are okay again and the stitches are due to some out in a week or two. The vet’s bill was ?8 but the mother is over her annoyance now and the doves and the partridge are watching the telly from the pear-tree as I write. Yours ever, Gobnait Day Three Dear Nuala, We must be foremost in your thoughts. I had only posted my letter when the three French hens arrived. There was another sort-out between the hens and the doves, who sided with the partridge, and the vet had to be sent for again. The mother was raging because the bill was ?16 this time but she has almost cooled down. However, the fact that the birds’ droppings keep falling down on her hair whilen she’s watching the telly, doesn’t help matters. Thanking you for your kindness. I remain, Your Gobnait Day Four Dear Nuala, You mustn’t have received my last letter when you were sending us the four calling birds. There was pandemonium in the pear-tree again last night and the vet’s bill was ?32. The mother is on sedation as I write. I know you meant no harm and remain your close friend. Gobnauit Day Five Nuala, Your generosity knows no bounds. Five gold rings ! When the parcel arrived I was scared stiff that it might be more birds, because the smell in the living-room is atrocious. However, I don’t want to seem ungrateful for the beautiful rings. Your affectionate friend, Gobnait Day Six Nuala, What are you trying to do to us ? It isn’t that we don’t appreciate your generosity but the six geese have not alone nearly murdered the calling birds but they laid their eggs on top of the vet’s head from the pear-tree and his bill was ?68 in cash ! My mother is munching 60 grains of Valium a day and talking to herself in a most alarming way. You must keep your feelings for me in check. Gobnait Day Seven Nuala, We are not amused by your little joke. Seven swans-a-swimming is a most romantic idea but not in the bath of a private house. We cannot use the bathroom now because they’ve gone completely savage and rush the door every time we try to enter. If things go on this way, the mother and I will smell as bad as the living-room carpet. Please lay off. It is not fair. Gobnait Day Eight Nuala, Who the hell do you think gave you the right to send eight, hefty maids-a-milking here, to eat us out of house and home ? Their cattle are all over the front lawn and have trampled the hell out of the mother’s rose-beds. The swans invaded the living-room in a sneak attack and the ensuing battle between them and the calling birds, turtle doves, French hens and partridge make the Battle of the Somme seem like Wanderly Wagon. The mother is on a bottle of whiskey a day, as well as the sixty grains of Valium. I’m very annoyed with you. Gobnait Day Nine Listen you louser ! There’s enough pandemonium in this place night and day without nine drummers drumming, while the eight flaming maids-a-milking are beating my poor, old alcoholic mother out of her own kitchen and gobbling everything in sight. I’m warning you, you’re making an enemy of me. Gobnait Day Ten Listen manure-face, I hope you’ll be haunted by the strains of ten pipers piping which you sent to torment us last night. They were aided in their evil work by those maniac drummers and it wasn’t a pleasant sight to look out the window and see eight hefty maids-a-milking pogo-ing around with the ensuing punk-rock uproar. My mother has just finished her third bottle of whiskey, on top of a hundred and twenty four grains of Valium. You’ll get yours ! Gobnait O’L?nasa Day Eleven You have scandalised my mother, you dirty Jezebel, It was bad enough to have eight maids-a-milking dancing to punk music on the front lawn but they’ve now been joined by your friends ~ the eleven Lords-a-leaping and the antics of the whole lot of them would leave the most decadent days of the Roman Empire looking like “Outlook”. I’ll get you yet, you ould bag ! Day Twelve Listen slurry head, You have ruined our lives. The twelve maidens dancing turned up last night and beat the living daylights out of the eight maids-a-milking, ‘cos they found them carrying on with the eleven Lords-a-leaping. Meanwhile, the swans got out of the living-room, where they’d been hiding since the big battle, and savaged hell out of the Lords and all the Maids. There were eight ambulances here last night, and the local Civil Defence as well. The mother is in a home for the bewildered and I’m sitting here, up to my neck in birds’ droppings, empty whiskey and Valium bottles, birds’ blood and feathers, while the flaming cows eat the leaves off the pear-tree. I’m a broken man. Gobnait O’L?nasa

Is that now Sephiroth McFartfinger?

Well, just another reason to support Blu-Ray! IF HP backs it, stay away! The funny thing is they only backed off of Blu-Ray because they wouldn't support a PC change they wanted to higher rights control on content. Again, not looking out for the better consumer choice, but, looking out for the better interests of their pocket books.

Well, ever see that Rudolph special that airs every year? It accurately depicts how things haven't changed. Santa is the most bigoted person up there at the North Pole! Will only reward the good, will only punish the naughty, won't consider Rudolph for his team unless his father gets rid of his nose, there's apparently no dental plan for the elves because Hermey wants to be one and is ostricized for his life choice, everyone hates the Abominable simply because he exists, etc.

As for resizing, seems to me easier to just leave it as a blank line. When the user turns it on, the data appears. When the user doesn't, it's a blank line on the screen.

IF Seagate is smart, they'll shutter Maxtor's stuff. My only experience with them has been in Compaq machines. And, one that I had died within 30 days. I know some like Maxtor, but, I've yet to have a problem with any Seagates, even one I bought in 2002. That one is now only not used because I can't really mix SATA and PATA without some kind of slow down due to the older drive, and, I don't have an enclosure handy.

Santa keeps the elves around because he's a mean drunk. He needs some dwarves to punt.

I suppose it could be set up as a user option? If it can be removed, then, it can be set to be displayed or not, right?

That makes even less sense to me. How is frame defined for disc time then? It seems to only make sense when defined as a frame of video. Which, I never thought of it before, but, since as was said this was CD format, a frame on a CD begs the same question. Because it's not video at all.

Notice I said ABOUT half a second. It's not entirely half a second. Thus, the remainder has to spill over into the next iteration. Plus, I didn't make this goddamn system. I'd have done something a little more SENSICAL, like, say, use a 10 based system!

HA! I love it! The irony! The delicious, smooth, creamy, warm irony! Santas , protesting the commercialization of Christmas, mind you, not only get drunk , NOT ONLY DRUNK , but go on a RAMPAGE OF LOOTING! Utter hypocrites! I say drinks all around, then!

Ah, I wasn't aware of the 75 frames being 1 second, actually. So, any length that is under 1 second will be listed as frames. So, for DVD video, it makes sense since every 15 frames is about half a second. And 5 units of 15 make 75.

Makes you wonder if McDonald's would have the balls to make one of those movies "Super Size Me!"

I suppose it could be written to spin the disc at the fastest rate possible, then introduce quick stop commands and then start again and then eject the tray. The disc might then fly out like a helicopter blade, thus simulating ejaculating the disc.

I would LOVE for ImgBurn to have direct mammary access! I officially request that as a feature!

Yes, but IE's years don't mean anything when, for many of those years, it sat around with no updates. 3 browsers leaped ahead of it in terms of providing users what they wanted. People use IE only because they have to to access some sites, like Windows Update, because Microsoft imbedded it so deeply in Windows it cannot be removed, despite what they say, or people are weened on it like a baby bottle because that's what was given to them for free. As for Firefox being more secure, inherently, it suffers from the same chance of security holes as anyone else. What Firefox has done differently over the competition, mostly IE, is that they actually address (most) reported security issues right away. As opposed to labeling them "unimportant" as Microsoft does until someone threatens a lawsuit.

Yeah... you just keep believing that... and we'll all be happy... all it takes is for good men to do nothing, and I've WON...!

EXACTLY! The overlays turn black exactly as depicted in that second picture. I had attributed it to a memory leak, but, a GDI leak makes perfect sense given the cause. (Well, it's STILL a memory leak because it's eating up memory it doesn't have to. ) When this happens, closing Opera and refreshing the Window with black clears it up. Refreshing with Opera opened does not refresh the black areas.

How did you know about my secret experimental race of atomic super insects?! It's too soon! They're not stable enough yet to go into the world, spread a mighty army, and destroy the so called human civilization which has driven me into exile!

InstallShield's program updater is installed by many new apps now. InstallShield is, pretty much, a defacto installer now. Really, only WinAmp's and the Microsoft Installer are as prevelant. Anyway, that updater should, in theory, only work with newer apps that have been told what to do with it. HOWEVER, even *I* disabled it when I saw it installed by something that Macrovision didn't install. It can be configured to be totally disabled. Be aware that, in addition, InstallShield's updater also installs two services: "C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\UpdateService\ISUSPM.exe" -startup and "C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\UpdateService\issch.exe" -start The first is the Update Manager service and the second is the Update Scheduler. Disabling the scheduler through the Manager should work. The Update Manager interface is the same command line as the UM service starter above without the -starup switch. The Scheduler interface runs the same way, just remove its -startup switch. I just set up the thing to never check for updates. I forget what installed it. WinDVD 7? Easy Media 8?