Pain_Man

Tell us how you really feel. Sorry. I do tend to be faaaaar too restrained in expressing my feelings.

It does quite, doesn't it? :&

That's right...make me feel bad all over again. I feel your pain, bro. I feel your pain.

Sort of like when Movie_Junkie first posted on this. It just didn't feel "right" when I read it. Sounded like a too good to be true story. I wish I had thought of checking snopes then, but, it was spinningwheel, I think, who found it, initially. Let's see. Yeah. Credit where it's due. Sounded like a too good to be true story. Frankly I believed it because the fact is there were celebrations in Arab countries, especially the now infamous footage of Palestinians celebrating in the streets and handing out candy to children (an old Arab custom in times of celebrations). Other stories have since confirmed that the majority of the Arab world, in the words of one Lebanese, "...America got what it deserved." In a mean moment, the sight of those Palestinians made me wish that Hitler had invaded the Middle East.

I've always believed in buring slow. Back in the day, so did I. I burn my DVD5 discs at 4x and my DL's at 2.4. You're a far more patient person than I am. I did, once, unintentionally burn a DL at 2.4x. The IBG graph of the burn was extremely smooth. The bottom line is that I have had darn near 100% success rate in over 1200 burns. Most excellent. I've probably burned 400+ DVDs and I too have had a very low rate of coasters, and some of them were due to my error. And I've usually burned at the highest rated speed. However, except for the first few months of burning--so to speak--I've always used high quality media, nearly all Taiyos or Verbatims. The results have been commensurate with their reputations. But since I'm not in a hurry, and the scans do bear it out, I've slowed my speeds. I no longer burn "5s" at 16x, but rather 12x (there being no gain in scan quality by going to 8x). With CDDA back ups, I'm experimenting with burning @16x instead of my burner's maxes of 40 & 48x. So far I haven't detected any difference in sound quality. Be interesting to see what the scans report (and it'll be nice when DIP supports CD scanning!). On the other hand, as far as scans go, even on discs that have had atrocious scans, with one exception, I cannot see the difference in video quality on my high end HDTV.

KOW, have had no trouble with NBR. However, I have just experienced nearly everything else minty describes. Actually, I'm somewhat relieved to hear it. The installer acted as he described. It moved like motor oil in an Alaska winter, it disappear periodically, it flashed odd error messages that didn't affect the progress of the install. Just weird. Just trying to uninstall 7203 (before the 7203b release) fucked things up so bad that I had to install a backup image to set things aright. Seriously, they need to get deine schiese together over there.

I think he was also a press secretary. Yes, the wanker-asshole-bastard-choadswallower goes back along way before his reign of mediocrity over the KGBPAA. How could such a mediocrity, such a non-entity, such a doofus dipshit retain that job for so long? Easy. He had all of Hoover's secret files on the stars and executives in Hollywood. For a simple, an oral consideration, J. Edgar supplied him with the information he needed...unfortunately I can't post the video that proves this. The Company has put an IDOR order on it. (Instant Death upOn Release). Nothing I can do. (Fuckin' company!)

Indeed, you're write volvo. Hitler is the inventor of modern advertising. In Mein Kampf he laid down the basic principles of propaganda and modern advertising: "The message must be so simple that even the dumbest in the population understand it. It must also be repeated constantly, unceasingly. If is repeated often enough the people will begin to accept it without question." To the sorrow of the world, he was absolutely right.

It is continually asked: "How could the people who produced Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schiller, Heine, Goethe, Leibniz, Lessing, Kant, Schumann, Schubert have perpetrated the Shoah (Holocaust)?" There's a simple answer: World War I. It exposed 13.5 million German men to the largest occurence of industrialized killing in history (industrialized killing was, unsurprisingly, invented by the French with their Guillotine, tho' Dr. Guillotin thought he was doing the condemned a favor, instead he invented the first Assembly Line of Death). Of those 13.5M men, two million died. The best and brightest, the future leadership of Germany perished on the battlefields of Russia, Poland, Italy and, above all, on the deathfields of Flanders, Belgium and northern France. Then their entire way of life, their entire society collapse overnight, the Hohenzollern monarchy, creator of modern Germany and dominator of Germany for centuries vanished overnight. Germans were lost, utterly bereft. And 200,000+ civilians died of malnutrition due to the British blockade. Then the Treaty of Versailles, against all precedent in the great power wars of the preceding four hundred years, was imposed on them without negotiation. And Germany was never occupied. Germans tasted defeat, but they never experienced. Not a single enemy soldier set foot on Germany territory until after the war. The misery of the Depression, I was told by someone who lived through it, was beyond imagining. As Minty says, it was so bad millions were ready to obey anyone who would give them work and fill their bellies even if he stripped away their freedom, indeed, their very humanity. And, this man understood the German lust for revenge. They had the greatest army in history. The strongest economy in Europe. The best strategic position. HOW could they have lost? Unable to face reality, that they were not strong enough, that their generals had made tragic errors, that their Kaiser spent his time in champaigne fueled homosexual orgies, they had to blame someone and like most humans, it was not themselves they blamed. Hitler offered the Other. And the German people, nearly all, accepted it. By the time they realized that they had given themselves to an utter madman, it was too late. A corrupt and inefficient police state had them by the throat. True, it was nowhere near what Stalin had created, but it was efficient enough to destroy all resistance. Only twice did resisters have real chances to kill Hitler. And they failed. (the first time because the fuse in the British supplied bomb failed; the second failure is too well known to repeat). So, when Hitler ordered the destruction of Jewry, it was carried out by men who had scene the best part of an entire generation slaughtered by the machine guns and rapid firing artillery and gas of WWI. It was but a small step to slaughtering Jews and others on a massive scale with industrial processes and German efficiency. Nearly every catastrophe of the 20th century can be traced to the events that followed the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo (all because his driver made a wrong turn! Oh, how history would have changed if his driver hadn't made that fucking turn!). Gavrilo Princip's bullets set of a series of events that still affect all of us in every country in the world today. They caused WWI. They enabled a homeless pseudo-intellectual racist asshole to take control of the greatest country in Europe. They lead to the creation of the Soviet Union and the murder of 20M there. They lead to the deaths of 60M more in WWI and WWII. And they still haunt us today in some many ways. Why, oh why could a hail of machine gun bullets not have found Hitler in Flanders where he spent nearly all his time in WWI? Again, how history hinged on one man's luck--and the world's misfortune that turned on it.

Sort of like when Movie_Junkie first posted on this. It just didn't feel "right" when I read it. Sounded like a too good to be true story. I wish I had thought of checking snopes then, but, it was spinningwheel, I think, who found it, initially. Let's see. Yeah. Credit where it's due. Wheel's a smart dude.

Well, it's good for a good laugh, if nothing else. I don't know what's worse, that they write this shit at all or that they expect people to believe it! Can people in Iran be that fucking ignorant? Well, look at Nazi Germany. You had a highly educated population (probably the most educated population in the world at that time). Though the percentage of people with advanced degrees was about 8%, the illiteracy rate was 1 in 1000! (Russia's was probably 600 out of 1000!) Yet they swallowed Nazi horseshit hook line and sinker long before it became life-threatening to challenge it.

You didn't read it closely enough, I think (?) It's debunking the Tehran Times story...

Doubtless someone sent it to her. Perhaps one of my less than bright Texas relatives.

I admit, I got schnookered. And that's never fun. But I know you well enough to know there was no malice toward me or me Mum. In my defense, I had never heard a story like this (e.g. I'd never heard the "Dunkin' Donuts" story either). That made me tend to think it was true. If I had heard similar rumors I'd have been much more circumspect and done some research. Even tho' it WAS from my mother. Now that I know the truth, the conspiratorial part of my brain is starting to spin... As always, follow the money. Who has the most to gain from spreading rumors like this (assuming it isn't just racist dickheads)? Competitors of the business in question. If there's a Harry's Donuts across the street from the Dunkin' Donuts, that's the first place I'd look. If there's an AMPM Mini-mart or 7/11 across the street from this Bakersfield store, I'd look there first. After all, who wants competition? Nobody (in most cases anyway). So if you're a fellow small business dude and your competitors are Arab-Americans or Muslim-Americans are are perceived as either, and you have the ethics of Bill Clinton, what might you do? Ahhh, yes! Spread a rumor that Ahmed and Mahmoud were partying it up on 9/11 as they watched the video tape. You mention it to a few customers, a few neighbors. Only, naturally, you say, "You know what one of the delivery drivers told me?" Being careful, of course, NOT to mention the specific delivery driver... Now I have a handle on this and it makes much more sense. Real racists are usually idiots (not always but usually; thank god not all of them are Hitlers or Nathan Bedford Forrests, for our foreign friends, he founded the first incarnation of the KKK).

If you'd like a sample of SERIOUS bullshit check this out... Horseshit so deep you need SCUBA gear...

You should have posted this, imo:

Fuck it, Minty. It's the moral import of the story. Besides, who says it isn't true? Did Budweiser deny it? No need to take a swipe at my Mom. (I know you didn't mean it that way! )

That's exactly it. In 20 years, who's going to remember Jennifer Lopez was a "singer" (not without $3M of studio magic). There's a line from a Rush song (a dollar if you guess the song title, the album and the year it was released): Art as expression Not as market campaigns Will still capture our imaginations Given the same state of integrity It will surely help us along And that's the point. This music today is put together by comittee. It's like weirdass flavors of ice cream from Ben & Jerry's. It'll melt so quickly no one can possibly remember it. Music has to be from the heart, from the soul. Tha's why Zep, Rush, Yes, the Eagles, the Who, Floyd, Depeche Mode, the Cure, et al, are great bands. It's not about scoring the highest focus group numbers. It's not about the latest marketing model. It's not about the lead singer's Q-score. It's about MUSIC. It's about POETRY. MTV is what fucked it all up. The whole country suddenly had one top 40 radio station. If you weren't pretty enough, you had no chance of making it. How many ugly people are getting deals these days? I love Floyd and deeply respect Roger Water's music (his politics are total bullshit but hey, he's entitled to his opinion). But the dude is just shy of butt ugly (according to my wife anyway). But what does it matter when you can write a song like "Wish You Were Here"? If you can listen that song and it does NOT hurt your heart, then you've never lost anyone, never had any special in your life to lose. (The song, for the uninitiated, is about Floyd's co-founder--and namer of the band--Sid Barret; due to drugs and mental instability, he went completely insane about 1970; he was replaced by David Gilmour and Waters became lead singer and lyricist. One day, during the "Wish You Were Here" sessions, the band was coming into the studio when they found Sid Barrett waiting for them. Roger Waters said, "He was this great, fat, mad person." It depressed Roger so utterly that "Wish You Were Here" was ripped from his soul. Does anyone here think Madonna even has a soul?)

I think your confusing Britney (who still smoulders) with "KFed" Though she smoulders less after letting a nitwit like that knock her up (twice!) maybe it's true love(?). Way my love life's goin' I ain't exactly got room to preach.

We don't do too bad down here either, we've been there everytime you guys decided to sneeze. I do apologize for leaving y'all out. Your government's backed our polcies to the hilt and this is very much appreciated. You also fought just as hard as the Brits did, esp against the Japanese in WWII. Aussies are great fighting men. I meant NO offense whatsoever. Again, sorry. (Just so I don't cause anymore offense, the same applies to New Zealanders.)

Thanks. Is that a picture of you skydiving? That takes some brass ones. Hurling one's self at the ground at 120mph with just a thin layer of silk between yourself and DEATH .

I hope you succeed, Lightning. I can use all the help I can get with Art Music--or "Classical" if you will--names. Seems that 18th century composers didn't anticipate the naming restrictions of optical burning progs. I finally had to use renaming programs to reduce the names to reasonable sizes. Also because I use my set-top DVD player and surround sound as my primary stereo, and I listen to a lot of MP3s I have to have name's short enough to read the track name I'm listening to (with a five disc change I can load it up and have music playing all day without bothering to change it). Unfortunately, the screen display (and I have a 16X9 HDTV) allows pathetically few letters. So in order to see what track is playing, I have to completely rename the files and use lots of abbrivations. Fortunately, N.I.Y.O.W. is a pretty good renamer, makes my life much easier. Another, freeware program called "The Godfather" (why I have no idea; Nero is understandable a bad joke, but nay-the-less understandable) is also quite helpful, esp since it can generate file names based on the ID3 tag info.

Well "dick" is not the right word--'cept for your "mate." I suspect the bar was dark and you were drunk and your "buddy" took advantage of both those facts. Got a better story than that: One of my best friends (of 23 yrs, since the second semester of 7th grade; no idea what the Brit equiv of that is, were about 12) looks a lot like his brother (who's older by four years). One day my friend's at work when his mother calls him, "The Secret Service is coming to see you." My friend, Tony, was thinking, "What the hell?" The agents showed up and asked him if he'd been in La Jolla (about a 30 min from where he was in San Diego County) a couple of hours before and passed a fake $50 bill. Fortunately, my friend had been at work since 7AM and had 50+ witnesses to prove it. (One of those days you're glad you didn't ditch work to loaf on the couch!) Turned out his wonderful brother had swiped his driver's license and used it to pass the fake $50. Tony told the secret service this (of course, he'd missed his driver's license and knowing his brother it was pretty obviously where it was). The Secret Service (which investigates counterfeiting in the US) never did catch up with his brother...(however, he later spent 8 years in prison for attempted murder; a real, genuine thug). But think about it! Your brother does something that could have easily landed you five years in Federal prison! But his brother was always doing that kind of shit. When I was 14, he tried to get me to cash a stolen check for him at the liquor store up the street (which I visited all the time!). Sure, dude, sure. The problem was, his brother was (and is) faaar to tough to "teach a lesson to." In fact, he'd break you in half and laugh at your cooling corpse. Many guys like to brag about how tough they are when they're really just blowhards (sometimes literally). Tony's brother's the real deal. He worked for the Hell's Angels as an enforcer. So he pretty much always got to do what he wanted. And when he was in the joint, he ran the place.

I downloaded Nero 7.2.0.3 (on 25 APR) and it hosed my system. fortunately, I have Acronis TI and was able to completely reinstall the C partition in 20 minutes. Now I see they (after Minty told me) that they released a "b" version on 27 APR. I suspect I wasn't the only one with major problems. Oh yeah, downloading "b" right now but its crawling. Instead of the 500 to 1000KB/sec I usually get, it's down in the 100s/KB. Not cool. [/b]Has anyone else had problems with this update?[/b] Back to the story... I installed 7.2.0.3 and almost immediately started having problems. I was trying to install the Lightscribe writing module and it would work. Then I started getting messages: "Nero is hosed. Reinstall." OK, reinstall. Couldn't do it. I ran the "repair" didn't work. I tried to uninstall, no matter what I did it wouldn't uninstall. I even manually deleted the files, ran the Registry cleaners I have. Nero wouldn't go away from the Add/Remove Programs panel. Even though the program files were gone, I still couldn't get it to install. Well, except for images, I use Nero the most. I also have CopytoDVD but its a lot more finicker about goofy file names (I make a lot of classical CDs and burn MP3 collections so very long file names are the norm), often rejecting them. Nero, however, burns these same files to disk without objection (instead of quitting, like C2DVD, it actually modifies the names! Imagine that. Well, CopytoDVD is French...) So, Nero was screwed. Thank God for True Image. I popped in the Emergency boot CD and reinstalled the last image I'd made. It saved me many, many hours of work reinstalling dozens of programs and implementing countless customizations to get things they way I want them. So: warning to the group! Be ware of 7.2.0.3. I don't how the b revision is going to affect things. I'm not too worried. I can be up and running again in 20 minutes. for those who don't have their partition backed up, I'd be VERY careful, lest you be stuck manually reinstalling your entire system!

Absolutely no arguments, there. The SCOTUS case you site is the "Betamax" case of 1986. Don't get me wrong: I'm not in favor of these things. I personally do not use P2P or filesharing, but I have nothing against them. And I really detest the idea that ISPs should be held responsible for people actually engaging in piracy. It's aking to suing car manufacturers for drunk driving or gun-makers for murders. (This, thank GOD, has largely failed in US courts, but the goddamn lawyers and anti-gun nuts keep trying. They won't rest until we're as helpless and disarmed as the Chinese people or the old Soviet Union. I know they took handguns away in Britian--if they tried that in America most cops would refuse to do it, not only that there'd be a shooting war in the streets. The right to bears arms is the most important right there is. Second to that is the write to free speech. And the biggest threat is the danger from Rights Destruction Technology (aka "DRM" or "copy protection" bullshit). Downloading a copyrighted mp3 (for example) is different (in my book) to downloading something that has been ?free to air? tv. Even the US Supreme Court recognises that a program screened ?free to air? may be recorded using a mechanical device like a VCR and I?m sure the Australian Supreme Court does also. You can?t blame ISPs nor can you expect them to monitor traffic for every user. For example, let?s say that ISPs decide to cut down on torrent traffic by blocking port 1843 (I *think* this is the default for BitComet but I might be wrong), in an effort to close the torrent flood gates. The user then changes to port 80 or port 21 (default HTTP and FTP ports). What?s the ISP going to do? Of course it will. DRM (one version anyway) was cracked last year. There was a bit of fooking about to get around it but it worked. Media Player 9, I think it was. It already exists. Freenet comes to mind. There are others as well. http://freenet.sourceforge.net/ Or too slow to embrace the technology.