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[Although it was never seen again, everyone agreed that the rai must still be there, so it continued to be transacted as genuine currency]

Rai stones, any one?

"In one instance, a rai being transported by canoe was accidentally dropped and sank to the sea floor. Although it was never seen again, everyone agreed that the rai must still be there, so it continued to be transacted as genuine currency.[4] What is important is that ownership of the rai is clear to everyone, not that the rai is physically transferred or even physically accessible to either party in the transfer."

So was that the first Rai of Hope?

+1 for Fred Nerd

Make that +2 - As your spoiler synopsis perfectly summarizes why I have such unbridled contempt for the PC movement ... It simply exacerbates a problem that didn't need to exist in the first place.

Not so sure Xearth is a per se "screen saver".

Oh no, it's not a sceensaver. That's right. I had forrgotten that it was just a dynamic wallpaper

Hay, it's cool man - shIT happens - It actually gave me an idea given that live monitoring while one is away from the computer (e.g. SS mode) is a bit of a contradiction. So I just opened it in a browser on my second monitor and hit F11 (kiosk mode in IE) which works effectively as half a screensaver while letting me function normally on the first monitor. Give it a shot..(assuming you have multiple monitors of course)...I do believe it's exactly the effect we were after.

[Xearth]

Maybe you could learn from something like Xearth - a rather pretty and unique "screensaver" that can show realtime/live earthquakes from around the globe.

Not so sure Xearth is a per se "screen saver". The Windows version I found via your link was last updated in 1999, and changed my desktop wallpaper to the globe scene.

Was kinda nice really ... Just not clear how to shut it off. I used task manager to kill it and had to reset my wallpaper after.

But you're right, I did learn something: Stop clicking on shit before I read the instructions.

 

would make a nice screensaver..

That is tempting, but I don't think there is enough movement.

You'd have to put it in a smaller window and move that around quasi-randomly if you did. (That couldn't be easy.)

Hm... (actually...) That could work (with an IE control window), as there is already a MoveWindow function in the API. So screen coordinates and a timer feeding MoveWindow during WM_TIMER events with a SS framework and you're there.

Crap the last thing I need right now is another project (damn, damn, damn...).

would make a nice screensaver..

That is tempting, but I don't think there is enough movement.

It's an operating system...not the newest installment of a video game

  What you mean OS not a video game?? It best game of all! Users at work love to play it...and when they lose, they come to me to put their data back (because evil Trojan man "stole it"). Then they start new game. 


But seriously, the laptop in question sits by my chair in the living room so it's handy for any quick mentioned on TV lookups (e.g. when I'm most likely to be in brain dead end luser mode). And for the quick in-and-out stuff the new UI works just fine. I actually rather like it.

Also... I kinda doubt the daisies have the characteristic smell that hemp plants have. Those guys ought to be really, really ashamed :-)

Especially in Canada where 20 years ago 1/3rd of the population admitted to having smoked pot... Don't know what it's like now, but can't imagine it's less. It's not like you can actually get through life and not encounter it at some point. You really have to hide from it.

Now see...that's your problem right there. Only 1/3 of the population would cop to it 20 years ago. 20 years ago, in the US OTOH when the same question was asked, over 1/2 of the population simply replied "Shit man...I'm like fucking stoned off my ass now".

That would be a great visual for a client that didn't think hacking was real problem.

I fail to see what the controversy is here. We've seen the same thing with every OS since XP. XP was criticzed for a "fisher price look". Vista was criticized for UAC. 7 was criticized as what "vista should have been". 8 is now criticized with another major UI change similar to XP. It seems par for the course. You are never going to make everyone happy.

  I haven't switch to it full time on a primary machine yet, but I'm having a blast with it on my laptop.

LOL I like it!

^From above article^

Police were certainly convinced they had a huge haul of pot — and this was not the opinion of some lone rookie, frisky at the prospect of a big drug raid.
 
This was the judgment of veteran officers from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team — supposedly the best drug squad this province has to offer

Holy Crap...Seriously?!? So it was easy to confuse them because why? ...They are both green plants?? Damn...that's just pathetic. The fuzz needs to fix the guy's garden, drop the BS/CYA possession charge, fix his reputation, and then leave him alone.

[We should have a contest for some prize here on DC on how long it will take Microsoft to "fix" the UI in Win8 to revert back to [desktop] normal]

We should have a contest for some prize here on DC on how long it will take Microsoft to "fix" the UI in Win8 to revert back to [desktop] normal.
I give them one SP and seven months tops.

Okay, I don't think they ever will. I think people will bitch, scream, rant, rave, whine, cry, and then just figure it out. Yes those of us in the die hard old guard desktop crowd will have the hardest time with it. But (unfortunately...) the masses don't suffer our need for full access to everything. They just want to get/see/check X and go on...and that sort of (at-a-glance) consumption computing is quite easy with the new UI.

They look wicked cool - what's the link? I might get one even though I'm skeptic wrt. the whole scheme :-)

It's just a gimmick to sell copper at inflated prices. That's all. Copper rounds are insanely overpriced.

It looks pretty.

I'm with f0dder ...(damn the avoirdupois value)... Where can we go and get screwed out of $2 for one of these cool little trinkets. 

Also, impulse power does not use the dilithium. The dilithium was only involved when operating at warp speed, as it was used to focus the energy released by the antimatter reaction in order to effectively form the warp field.

That's what I was thinking (but didn't want to say). But it seems like (IIRC) dilithium was used for powering other things.

It didn't used to be rare, back when people had spines. Now our society has become hypersensitive about anything that isn't sugarcoated.

It's not about sugar-coating.  It's a good dose of respect, and the realization that if you do it, and it's done back, then you shouldn't get bent about someone turning your own vitriol against you.

(Quite true that respect is lacking) You're half way there. The problem is that the sugarcoating is being used as a substitute for respect. It's a pretend civility, because people are just trying to sound nice...instead of being nice. Kind of like self respect, folks what have it are generally never seen flopping around on the floor like toddlers. But the PC types will throw a flatout fit if one makes the "mistake" of using a "naughty" word in their presence.

What happens with GOTD programs if you ever have to reinstall, btw? I assume the original installer doesn't want to run after the GOTD-day

IIRC there is a special GOTD extractor that eliminates the installers builtin TB. It was mentioned here at DC awhile back, but I don't recall where or what its name was/is.

Well, unless the person can shrug it off and address the real issue, which is rare

It didn't used to be rare, back when people had spines. Now our society has become hypersensitive about anything that isn't sugarcoated.

A business conference I went to had an HR segment where the speaker stated that "the current generation of college graduates (were so PC that they) could not be criticised in the workplace ...(by the boss/even when flamingly dead wrong)... Because they would get upset and leave". What!?!

Am I the only one here who believes in the cleansing goodness of a good curse filled rage-based primal scream?

(I'm with ya!) Catharsis is a good thing. To many people these days try to internalize things (usually with medication...) instead of just letting go and getting it out of their system.

One time I was on such a loud tear that the neighbors come over to find out if someone was being murdered in my apartment.
I explained to them: "No, I'm a computer programmer."

Don't have neighbors that close...but I been there.


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Respect for letting the guy vent. Although it would behoove him to return with a calmer tone  - (hint to OP) - so that an amicable resolution could be reached.

I think their biggest problem was that they were too open with the wrong information.  If he had not *named* the printer company, I don't think they would have come after him.  It's the *knowingly* part that got him in trouble.

Perhaps. They could just as well ignored him though. He's not doing anything illegal.

The mere appearance of impropriety is enough to send some scampering back into the shadows as if they were burned by flame.

Perhaps it's a reaction (read CYA maneuver) to the historical tendency of manufacturers to be skimpy with the RAM. Kind of a (pass/fail) visual indicator for the can you do it, yes...should you do it, no hardware choices question.

A bunch of cheap RAM 3-5GB works ok, but trying to skimp with 1 or 2GB of top shelf RAM does not tend to fair well.

[is]

He must load his own rounds with reduced powder, otherwise the overpressure from the water in the barrel would cause the barrel to explode.

The shorter barrel on a pistol would mitigate that some...but yeah, I'd be inclined to at least hope he would go that route. Otherwise with the repeated excessive stress placed on the chamber failure is definitely an option.

You would have to hit something that was really hard, really hard, at just the right angle (A seriously one-in-a-million shot) to cause any damage to the hard drive. Chances are you'll much more likely crack the screen with a bad hallway bump. Now if you drop it off a 2nd floor balcony... 

Dropping it could kill the hard drive. Bumping into a door/wall not so much. It would have to be a really freak accident, with somebody running full speed into a solid object at just the right angle..

Forcing the drive to park while the OS is running OTOH ... That could do some damage.

FSekrit should run just fine on anything from Win2000 up.