Pain_Man

Never underestimate the idiocy of the KGBPAA (there's a reason why I've nicknamed them thusly). This quote takes the cake for sheer and total stupidity : "Lucky and Flo?s immediate success in locating DVDs in transit offers us a new and highly effective means of detection for counterfeit discs." she said. The dogs didn't find a SINGLE counterfeit disk! All they found were pressed disks! So the claim that the dogs found "counterfeit" DVDs is absurd. Does anyone serious think Customs is going to open EVERY piece of luggage or parcel that might have a DVD in it? Especially since the ONLY thing the dogs found were pressed discs? I seriously doubt this. Customs is too busy a.) making sure that the dope they're being bribed to let into the country gets through and b.) as minty points out, looking for explosive, firearms, nerve gas, radioactive materials, et al.* Everyone in the UK should remember Pan Am 183 over Lockerbie, right? That was blown up by Ahmed Jibril's terrorist group (Libya's Gaddafi was NOT invovled! The Iranians paid Jibril $3M to blow up that plane, as revenge for the accidental shooting down of an Iranian passenger jet over the Persian Gulf by the USS Vincennes, this was proved by Israeli journalist Samuel Katz; in fact the Iranians tried to murder the wife of the Vincennes' captain not more than 20 miles from parents home!). You know how that plane was taken down? Explosives hidden in a Sony Walkman! It has a pressure detonator. When the plane reached 30,000 ft, it blew a small hole in the fuselage which destroyed the 747. Customs is not going to bust their balls looking for DVDs. Besides, and anyone correct me if I'm wrong, pressed DVDs and writeable DVDs are made from completely different materials. So if the dogs can only smell pressed DVDs then they may very well be unable to detect burned DVDs. So, gee what're the counterfeiters going to do? They'll simply switch disks. Further, I've never heard any evidence that there's large scale piracy in the US anyway. I seriously doubt they're going to be smuggled in. It would be far easier to make this disks inside the country. Finally, copies of personally owned DVDs are perfectly legal in the US. If I take a vacation to Britain and take a few DVDs along for the interminable plain flight and dogs were to find them, there'd be no crime because (according to federal district court judge Susan Illston's decision in the "321" case, copies of DVDs are perfectly legal, only the software which "circumvents" the Rights Destruction Technology is illegal. So, even if they do find your copies of your disks, THERE's NOT A FUCKING THING THEY CAN DO TO YOU! This is the kind of shit that pissed me off!! *Sadly, I'm not kidding or exaggerating this. I grew up in San Diego, which is the busiest border crossing on Earth (with Tijuana, Mexico). The Customs Agents were so corrupt it was an open joke. I had a friend whose brother was a MAJOR coke importer. He'd had numerous Customs agents on his payroll. They'd tell him which lane they'd be working, and he or his people would drive trunkloads of coke right through the border and payoff the Customs slugs later. Even IF this imaginary "counterfeit smuggling" existed--which it only does in the fevered imagination of the KGBPAA--the counterfeiters would do what the dope smugglers already do: pay off the Customs agents. It's an open secret they're for sale. And you're likely to draw a far lighter sentence for helping DVD counterfeiters than for helping dope smugglers. The whole thing is rank absurdity.

I just recently discovered, when I was inserting smileys into emails in Thunderbird, that the smiley gifs are animated. Minty said someone else had had a problem like this once upon a time. Said he thought it was some kind of configuration problem. I hope so, otherwise my machine may have bigger issues. (I hope not, still haven't gotten the wife convinced of the need for a newer, faster, better machine...) If anyone has any suggestions, pls...suggest!!! Thanks.

I finally got one of my favorite albums on CD. Though it came out in '85, it didn't make CD until 2002 (I've still got my cassette from 21 yrs ago). It was the Steven Morse Band's Stand Up. If you're a southern rock fan, you may remember Morse as the lead guitarist for a band called The Dixie Dregs. I made my obligatory back up copy (there was no copy protection and, anyway, it's black letter law, in the US, that consumers can make copies of CDs, tapes, LPs; I don't know about the UK; the US law is called "The American Home Record Act" of 1990--not sure of the date). Then I scanned the back up copy and the original. This strikes me as odd. I realize these are all "correctable" errors (tho' I don't pretend to understand how they are corrected by set-top or portable CD players). check it out: original, pressed disk: Pressed Disk - "Stand Up" Steve Morse Band (1985) Here's my back up copy: TY CDR; burned at 16x

Waters Returns to the "Dark Side" Can you imagine if Floyd did reunite? It would be the biggest tour of the year, outselling everyone. Probably the most expensive as well. I could see the cheap seats, nosebleeders even, going for $200. With the ""good" seats I could easily imagine $600+. But it would be great fucking show! The more relevant portion of the article, giving final numbers I'd been looking for for years... News of the tour comes as Dark Side marked another milestone. As of this week, the concept album became the first to log 1,500 weeks on Billboard charts. Released on March 17, 1973, Dark Side entered the Top 200 chart at number 95, the top debut of the week. And much to everyone's surprise, including the band itself, the LP with the rainbow prism remained there for a whopping 14 years--or 736 consecutive weeks--before finally falling off the charts in July 1988. The album briefly resurfaced on the Billboard 200, before the magazine broke up its charts and created a separate Top Pop Catalog Album list, where Dark Side logged another 759 weeks and counting. The 1,500 weeks is almost double the runner-up, Bob Marley and the Wailers' Legend, which has spent 845 weeks on various charts. All told, Dark Side, which contains the classic cuts "Breathe," "Money," and "Us and Them," has sold more than 40 million copies. It's been on the charts continuously since it debuted. The only reason it "fell off" was because of an arbitrary decision by Billboard. The album never left the charts. I remember when it was released on DVD in '86, for two or three weeks it ws the No. 1 album in the country.

this is my excuse most of the time... Give how many supercomputer brainac programmer experts on this site, that makes me feel better.

I agree, i don't think any other film has come close to matching that scene since, and no, you are not the only one to ponder that question Why wouldn't you drive off with the money? They weren't looking for her, had no idea what she looked like or that McCauley even knew her. Besides, he'd made her an unwitting accomplice to murder, robbery, all kinds of shit. They'd have thrown the book at her just because they had someone to throw it at. To just disappear with $6M in cold, hard cash. Turn it into bearer bonds, wire it to a bank in the Caymans, fly to Brazil, withdraw it, transfer it by hand to another Brazilian bank and spend the rest of your days working on melanoma in sultanic ease in Rio.

De Niro and Pacino: The Heat Is On Again Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, who appeared in their first scene together in 1995's Heat, are in talks to reprise their roles for a video-game spin-off ? either a prequel or sequel ? of the heist thriller. IMO, this movie has has the all-time best bankrobbery scene ever filmed. (The intro armored car robbery ain't bad either.) If only Mann had left that stupid subplot about Vincent Hannah's (Al Pacino) stepdaughter*'s attempted suicide. You could cut thirty minutes out by leaving that on the cutting room floor and have a much tighter, faster paced movie. Am I the only one that wonder's if Amy Brennerman's character drove off with the $6M in cash in the trunk of the car and just disappeared? Also, look closely for a cameo by Tom Noonan (the psycho-killer in the first filmed version, entitled Manhunter of Thomas Harris' Red Dragon, the book that introduced Hannibal Lecter to the world). Both are Mann movies, not coincidentially. *Played by the utterly delicious Natalie Portman before she was, ah, utterly delicious. Or Padme for that matter.

Interesting isn't it? And surely not a coincidence. I wonder why? I've watched this disk more than a few times and never noticed a problem with the image quality even on my HDTV. I still have yet to relate scan quality with video picture quality. My guess, an almost completely technically illiterate guess admittedly, is that scans are probably more predictive of disk longevity than (short-term) picture quality. And least my experience bears that out.

What I figured. But hey, I'm disabled and I don't work. Have to occupy myself somehow.

No more Irix?! Not really necessary since the SFX for Titanic was done with Linux. 16 PCs connected, running Linux created a kind of supercomputer. Don't ask the details I just remember the article. There was some buzz--I was working for a computer manufacturer who made supercomputers themselves--about using PCs to create "poor man's" supers. The Titanic was used as an example proving it could be done. You're blaming Ariana Richardson for SGI filing for bankruptcy? (Or was it Richards?) I first saw that at Purdue. They'd set up some screenings as fundraisers. My ex somehow got free tickets to a fundraiser (I know, sounds odd, she probably fucked somebody for them). When they showed that scene where the girl says that line, the audience, 99% college kids, broke out in hilarity. Christ, it wasn't that funny. Apparently the idea that a 12 yr old would know UNIX was thought to be absurd. No link? I'm surprised. Now I have to actually look for myself! (!) (!) (!) (!)

I'm no expert but doesn't the DIP need to physically scan the disc.....? Dunno. That's why I was asking. I don't have an, ah, proper image on my hdd at the moment.

In fact, here in the US, there are strict laws governing the dispoal of hardware. Same with batteries. We throw them away all the time when they're dead, but, we really can't. And, some batteries like those in UPS backups contained lead acid in them. In California, it's a felony. Funny story: I don't remember where, but some nitwit middle school teacher decided she was going to "save the environment" (and she's at least officially a grown up ). So she and her brainwashed skulls of mush, er, students, collected hundreds of pounds of batteries. Now this dumbass teacher has created a major hazmat (hazardous materials) situation for her school. It's illegal to store them at the school but its also illegal to transport the batteries and, as minty points out, you can't just throw them in the dump (10 million bazillion gazillion years from now some fish might catch a cold!!!). And paying a company to move them is hugely expensive. I love it. I laughed so hard when I saw this story. This is what you get trying to be a do-gooder when you have a double digit IQ. It's also an excellent example of environmentalist whackos caught in a Catch-22 of their own making! How can you not love this conundrum?

My laptop has a 15-pin VGA output; any laptop so equipped can be connected to a CRT monitor. I know people who've used laptop hdds inside small form factor desktops so it can be done. I wasn't aware, as Shamus informs us, that there's a difference in the connectors. Most of the laptops I've seen have the VGA output; I'd try that first. Also, I think your friend could replace the laptop's screen. Not sure about the cost though.

I don't understand what the solid blocks of red mean, but I figure it can't be good. It would be nice if there was an accurate help file for those of us who aren't as versed in this stuff. The present help file, to put it kindly, sucks kangaroo gonads.

Grain's gotten some slightly better ones. Must be the Canadian electricity. I hear it's real pure and clean up there. Surprised the shit out of me too. I put the fantastic scan back in the reserve case and put the crappy scan into the LR case for viewing. Here's a question...can you mount an image on an emulated drive and scan that with DIP? Be interesting to find out. I think I'll try to copy the TY and see what kind of result I get.

The brand name for the T02's is Fuji. Fujifilm to be complete. The Ricoh was a Memorex (!).

Now, how can I be held responsible for the truth? Huh? The song exists. I can't help that. But, to assuade your fears, rest assured I bore the ravages of the free clinic today (Surprisingly, only 4 people were there already.) and got my atenolol. Although why you care if my hypertension stays down or not is beyond me... Went to the free clinic a long time ago before when I didn't have health insurance. I didn't think they were gonna treat me because my Spanish was so rusty.

Jesus, he really has been nicking my meds!

Actually, we don't possess nuclear weapons. For about 20 years now, we've had nookular weapons. They're stored at our public liberies. Ah, the laziness of the public school system! Is that why the auditorium always smelled like rocket fuel?

No, he just nicks mine. No, I tend to stay away from sweet smelling medicines you must burn in order to take as prescribed. Unfortunately, that prescription while legal, is a bitch to get and insurance won't pay for it.

Yes, I, too, have been perplexed by this sudden generation of new blank Spam. I mean, if there's no come on, how does a Spammer make any money? My only guess is they hope you'll be so confused you have to wonder what is at the other end of that address and click it. Even weirder, most of the addresses are gibberish as well. Don't make sense.

I know that, mate. We developed the first fission bomb together in the Manhattan Project. Although the lion's share of the funding came from us, Britain contributed critical scientific knowledge. And you've more than a few. We sold you a complete Trident submarine including Trident missiles in the late 80s, delivered in the 90s. Now you have your own copy of the most powerful nuclear submarine ever built. The Trident, by itself, that single sub, can destroy all the world's major cities in less than 30 minutes. You think we'd ever trust the fucking Frogs with that kind of power? No sane person would. (!) The countries I listed have nuclear weapons but also import oil. Y'all have nukes but export oil; that's why the UK wasn't on the list.

Did a scan of my, ah, cousin Bruce's third triple-A game for the New York Yankee farm team, the Diehards (sponsered by the, ah, battery company). Sorry about the smudges, having a little trouble with Photoshop, its mucking up jpegs in the most peculiar places. Well, I just got the best scan ever. And it wasn't a Taiyo. It was a Ricoh. I used a Taiyo to back up cousin Bruce's moment (his brother in law Jules Windfield was there too). I believe these were done on my Memorex True8 (aka Pioneer 107D). Here's the Ricoh (pretty sweet for a disc burned more than TWO years ago!): Here's the copy: Needless to say I was rather shocked. Looks I'd better create a new back up.

We're gettting close. 50 cents of the price of every gallon of gas is Federal tax. Some tax-hell states like CA and MD add another 35 or 40 cents to that. Thus taxes, in many places, make up %25 of the cost of a gallon of gas. The kook leftwing dildos are demanding the oil companies "cut their profits." How 'bout goverhment cuts its profits with a tax moritorium!? Congress could cut the price of gas by 50 cents tomorrow if the aforementioned leftwing dildos (or is it dildoes? Have to ask Al Franken since he's the president of the club) would get the hell out of the way. Here's a concept: we have literally trillions of barrels of oil under our own soil. This is going to be a real shocker. Make sure you're sitting down.... Why not do what the Brits do, the Norwegians do, the Mexicans do and soon the Canadians AND DRILL OUR OWN GODDAMNED OIL?!?!?!?!. Two words: Liberal dildos! Fuck the environment, DRILL FOR OIL. If we got together with the Europeans, Japan and China and told OPEC, "You assholes will get $10 a barrel and like it" what would they do? OPEC can't drink it, can't eat and can't fuck it, what else are they going to do with it? Take what we're paying. But nooooo. We let the most pissant, miserable shit-hole countries (excepting Britain, Norway and Canada of course) dictate the price of oil to the richest, most powerful countries on Earth with three of them possessing nuclear weapons (US, France, China). In 500 years, hell in 100 years, books will be written called, "$70 a Barrel For Oil: What Dumbfucks Our Great-Grandparents Were"

Hey, I bought the right to that scam! It's mine. Hands off. I didn't pay $20,000 to get scammed. BTW, we'll close escrow on your 10% of the Brooklyn Bridge toll concessions Monday--esp since your check cleared Friday. One thing though, why is the name Mildred Bilschneckenheimer on your check? Oh well, FI. It cashed.