Something Random

Mercutio

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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About a half hour ago I had the gob-smacking realization that the last time I paid a power bill was early May.

So I hastily called up the local power monopoly to find out what I need to do to make sure my power stays on.

Turns out, they had grossly overestimated my "budget billing", and I hadn't been getting bills because I had a huge credit. I don't have to pay for power again until December!
 
Mercutio

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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Northern Indiana Public Service Company.

Who, by the way, are even worse. There's no civic entity like Chicago to keep NIPSCO in check.
 
timwhit

timwhit

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I'm not positive, but I think ComEd checks my power usage remotely so I get a much more accurate bill. Don't worry we have plenty of problems with our utilities over here as well.
 
ddrueding

ddrueding

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I hate where this country is, and I hate most of the people in it. What I like about this country is the fact that the odds are high that it will change; and change without civil war.
 
Clocker

Clocker

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My wife's co-worker is in the same power situation. They based their power usage on an estimate of how much power was used. Problem is that the estimate was based on a time when construction was being performed on the house during the winter when a ridiculous amount of power was being used. The power company owes them $1,200.

This biggest BS is that they won't cut them a check. They just won't have to pay a bill for the next couple of years.
 
Mercutio

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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A while back I mentioned that I set up a profile on okcupid.com. I've had essentially zero lucky with it.

However, I told other people about it.
To date, I know of at least five people who have at least found dates through it, after I told them about it. Usually I get a comment like "Oh man, thanks for telling me about that site... I met this great girl/boy/whatever."

Most annoying of all, one of my students has gotten *engaged* to someone he met through it.

I'll be banging my head against a wall if anyone needs me.
 
Mercutio

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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RE: The Fat project.
The girl gained 23lbs and still looked pretty damned good to me.
The guy gained the full 30lbs by the end and frankly I would not have noticed at all without them pointing it out.

That's very interesting to me.

RE: Basic

Basic is still stupid.
If I wanted to get a young person interested in programming I'd probably start with HyperTalk or something appropriately web-ish. The main thing is, you can learn to do useful, cool stuff like manipulating graphics in those languages pretty easily. Middle-school+ I'd probably start them with Delphi or something like it.

FWIW, Microsoft DOES have a downloadable version of Visual Basic (Content Creator Edition, I think).

Also, the thing I learned Digital Logic from was a game called Robot Odyssey. Always fun thing to spring on a nerdy 10-year-old.
 
Mercutio

Mercutio

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The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion.

I am posting this because
1. I see RWIndiana is browsing the site at the moment. :p
2. I am not at a computer where I could easily read it entirely at the moment and
3. It seems like a very interesting treatment of a particular topic: What happens when the anti-choice people need to get rid of some inconvenient clusters of parasitic cells.
 
J

JSF

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The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion.

The selfishness of the women seeking abortion and the biased compassion of those providing the service is overwhelming.

In its entirety the article fails to mention the moral rights of the children who are cast aside. Given the choice, all of them would fight for their lives.

Joe
 
P

paugie

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The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion.
Click to expand...
If only the thing was about Life and Death it would be hilarious.

I live in a country where abortion is not sanctioned. Any woman who wanted an abortion just because the pregnancy was "inconvenient" has to gounderground. Many well-to-do women go to the USA or Europe for abortions to escape the stigma.

Reflecting on the article while typing this has gotten me thinking - An anti-choice woman in an abortion clinic shouting "It should be illegal" may very well be saying, "The state shouldn't make it easy for me to violate my convictions"
 
P

paugie

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gahh, I was looking for the edit button, couldn't find it.
First sentence should have read:

If only the thing wasn't about Life and Death it would be hilarious.
 
Mercutio

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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JSF said:
The selfishness of the women seeking abortion and the biased compassion of those providing the service is overwhelming.
Click to expand...

Selfishness? Why not give them some respect for saying "I am not at a point in my life where I can devote 18 years to the care of a child?"
A woman having an abortion is making a decision to be responsible for her life. Conservatives like the idea of being inflicted with pregnancy as a punishment for having sex.

Guess what? Not every child is wanted. Not every woman who gets pregnant was being irresponsible. Would you rather bring an unwanted child into the world, so that it can be a drain on society as a whole, JSF? Or would you rather give someone the opportunity to say "I am not fit to be a parent."

I know which I would rather have.

In its entirety the article fails to mention the moral rights of the children who are cast aside. Given the choice, all of them would fight for their lives.
Click to expand...

Good thing they're just non-sentient collections of cells lacking awareness and free will for even some time after birth then, isn't it?

For what it's worth, I'm not anti-choice. I'm Pro-abortion. I think we should do millions more than we do. There are too damned many people in the world already, and too many Americans in particular. We should ensure that children have two parents and a healthy living environment before they come out of the womb. Better that that bring another future crack addict or rap fan into the world.
 
Clocker

Clocker

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This whole topic cannot go anywhere good. Maybe we should move on to something else.
 
Explorer

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Jeez... I just heard something on the radio that made me take a double look that the speaker when I heard it.

There are people making 6-figure (US$) type of incomes playing computer games in tournaments! I could believe something like US$40K or 50K, but $100K, $200K, or more ??? These aren't people developing games, just pure players. Also, Koreans are the most plentiful of these professional computer game players, though the nationality mix is fairly global.


PS: I using my stereo system's Harmon Kardon TU-920 AM/FM tuner for the first time in since about... erm... probably February.

 
Mercutio

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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Explorer said:
There are people making 6-figure (US$) type of incomes playing computer games in tournaments! ... Also, Koreans are the most plentiful of these professional computer game players, though the nationality mix is fairly global.
Click to expand...

Those guys have been out there since the late 90s, anyway. Abit makes a line of motherboards endorsed by "Fatal1ty", who is some kind of FPS-playing person. Thresh, god of Quake, parleyed his success into his own gaming web site, firingsquad.com, which is still a fairly popular site. Stevie "Killcreek" Case was a plump, nerdy girl until she hooked up with John Romero, had tons of plastic surgery and got naked in Playboy as part of the Daikatana advertising push.

Koreans are queer from Starcraft, the least fun Real Time Strategy game ever made, and Lineage, the least fun MMO ever made. They also like Kim chee, and that says about as much about the Korean national character as needs to be said.

Another Korean gaming anecdote: City of Heroes was released in Korea a few months ago. One of the hallmarks of the game is the costume creator, which offers several trillion possible combinations in appearance. Korean beta testers consistently said that they would rather have everyone playing look exactly the same.
Welcome to the land of the pod people.
 
S

Sol

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Mercutio said:
Koreans are queer from Starcraft, the least fun Real Time Strategy game ever made, and Lineage, the least fun MMO ever made. They also like Kim chee, and that says about as much about the Korean national character as needs to be said.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree with you about Starcraft it's at least the most fun RTS ever made by Blizzard, the Koreans just don't seem to realise that other companies make RTS games at all... For Lineaghe I have to agree allthough your CoH anecdoet would suggest that maybe it's popularity is due to the fact that everyone looks exactly the same... Although that fails to account for the Starcraft thing, you'd think they'd go for Warcraft3 where all the sides are exactly the same...

oddly the preview is suggesting that Lineage is spelt with a h but the Message section lacks the h entirely... Strange and inexplicable...
 
Handruin

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I don't play any longer, but Starcraft was a fun game. It certainly wasn't the least fun as you suggested...it was one of the few RTS's that I completed the single player quests because it kept my interest.

There are people who are working on porting it to the warcraft III engine to update the look & feel.
 
.Nut

.Nut

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Here's something mildy hilarious. There are a LOT of these animations, so I only picked out a few of the 250++ or so:




9_Tandy 400!!!
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail9.html


79_Compy 386!!
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail79.html


90_Compy 386!!
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail90.html


135_Ladying_Lappy 486
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail135.html


Secret_Identies_Lappy 486
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail142.html


143_Technology_Lappy 486
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail143.html


CandyProduct_Lappy 486
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail149.html


VirtualReqality_Lappy 486
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail150.html


190_Oops! You bwoke it.
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail190.html





 
Mercutio

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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Almost as bad as rediculous or they're/their or its/it's or wierd or...

Gah. Can't type any more of them. Head hurting.
 
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