Over the last few years, the network has delivered me books from all of the U of Denver, the U of Colorado, the U of Wyoming, Colorado State, and the Colorado School of Mines. While all of those are within (western) driving distance, and would let me buy a membership so that I could check things out, doing it through the county library is a whole lot cheaper.
The one thing I can't get easily is the technical journals since so many of them are now online-only resources. The DU librarian explained to me that the standard contract limits access to students and faculty. No one minds an occasional alum or even general public coming into the library and accessing the journals, but providing off-site access to people outside of the institute is not allowed.
Not sure about codpieces, but given just how much casual violence there seems to be in everyday life -- flying motorcycles! melee! -- I'd certainly put my cup on in the mornings...
My local public library is part of an interlibrary loan network that includes several campus libraries. Amazing what I can borrow if I'm willing to wait a few days for it to show up.
PDFs are typical for stuff that was scanned and OCRed from paper. Newer stuff seems to be in epub or mobi formats, which suggests they are cracked versions of kindle and nook stuff -- the kindle format is mobi with some DRM and the nook format is just an encrypted epub. Neither of the DRM methods are particularly good. Textbooks are an exception and the ebook is often the same PDF used to produce the printed version -- a necessity if you need consistent paging across all versions.
1) Yes, of course. That doesn't seem to have slowed the availability of pirated music, TV, and movies, does it? Interesting that up to a certain quality level, no one even bothers with trying to stop free music; look at what's available on YouTube. Most interesting, though, is that despite the claims from 20 years ago (for music) and 10 years ago (for video/movies), neither has gone broke. Rather, judging by this site, there's more good new music than people have time to pursue, and a golden age of new "TV" content. More about that in a minute.
2) It does, although it's getting easier. Film and video is a whole lot easier to find.
3) Looking recently, the gap between the pirate version and the legal e-book version is narrowing. For some types of content, the quality gap between the e-book and print versions is much larger than the difference between the legal and illegal e-book versions. 9x12-inch good color printing on high-quality coated paper is better than any screen around. Up to the point where you decide to zoom in on some corner of the "painting" to look at brush marks from a 3000-dpi scan :^)
Both music and TV seem to be settling into a model that's at least as old as Ben Franklin -- the private library. For a monthly fee within reach of almost everyone, you can access enormous amounts of old and new content. The TV end of it appears to generate sufficient cash flow that the "library" can afford to fund new content creation (eg, Daredevil, by Netflix). I've said for many years that print will eventually have to go that route, or something similar. Print per se will be something that you sell to aficionados who love the medium; the profits for most titles will come from getting a big enough cut from the "library" membership fee.
Interesting thoughts, but the gorilla in the room is piracy and that's not mentioned. I don't know how big the gorilla is -- and probably no one has any real idea -- but any time I look, I'm astounded at how much new content is readily available. Over at LGaM, Farley put up a cover for a new "future scenarios" book. Non-fiction, pretty specialized topic, not something you'd expect to ever sell very many copies. A high-quality pirated version is readily available.
Either way, I pretty strongly suspect that there will be a Speaker by 11/1.
So do I. Boehner's way, there's a single ballot on Nov. 1. The other way -- Boehner pushes the clean CR through and a privileged motion to vacate the chair passes -- there's all sorts of messy stuff goes on in public and eventually enough Republicans get behind a single candidate. To a solid Democratic refrain of "You believed these guys when they told you they were ready to govern?"
If my speculation over in the Linky Friday thread is correct, and Boehner passes a clean continuing resolution spending bill with mostly Dem votes next week, the far right's resolve will be somewhat stronger. That would be the second time he'll have pulled that stunt, DHS funding last March was the first. Announcing his resignation in advance has the advantage of keeping at least some of the nasty infighting behind the scenes for a while.
If I were a Dem member of the House, I would gleefully vote for the clean CR, and then vote for the privileged motion to vacate the chair brought by the far right, just to make the Republicans put on a show for the voters.
It's my understanding that come Nov. 1, the House won't be able to conduct any business until there's a new Speaker. So, assuming all 188 Dems vote for Pelosi, and 30 Republicans vote for someone(s) on the far right, then McCarthy can't get the majority he needs to be elected. Now there's a shutdown.
My bet on the "scandal" is that after the Senate passes a clean continuing resolution on spending, Boehner is going to bring it quickly to the floor and pass it with Dem votes and a small number of Republicans. That move would likely cost him the Speakership any way, and hanging around as an ousted Speaker certainly wouldn't be any fun.
My suspicion is that several trends are catching up with the NFL: the prevalence of the spread in college so that o-line players are less prepared for the NFL; my impression that injuries are up; free agency. For the first Broncos game this year, the o-line in front of Manning had never played a down as a unit, and they looked like it.
My impression is that o-lines all over the league have gone to hell this year. Tough for any running back to produce consistently if the blockers are getting beaten.
So, with a population of about 800 and an area of 109 acres, what do you want them to do? Taking in eight is about the equivalent of the US taking in 20-30 million.
Which side sent the National Guard in to enforce desegregation orders? OTOH, which side sent the military in to break various strikes earlier in the same century? Both sides are perfectly capable of violence when pushed far enough.
Drawing on my career(s), dressing -- as distinct from fashion -- is mostly about making the other people comfortable. I did technology demonstrations off and on for years, and how to dress was always on my check-off list. The Mayo Clinic board of directors got full suit and tie; stock analysts got slacks and dress shirt; university profs got my standard jeans and a less-dressy button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. They all fit, and (perhaps most) importantly, I was comfortable wearing any of them.
Although I have to admit that the most respectful hearing I ever got from a room full of suits was on a Monday after a combination of a weekend skiing trip and hideous weather on the return drive meant I made an unscheduled presentation in a flannel shirt and three days worth of beard. I always figured it was so bad the suits thought, "If the Labs management is willing to let him present looking like that, he must be really good."
In many states, statutory or constitutional changes were made around 1970 that restricted the ability of the biggest cities in those states to annex. Here in Colorado, the Poundstone Amendment confined Denver. In Nebraska, state law was changed to block Omaha from annexing the attractive suburbs on its south side. As Jaybird would be quick to point out, yes, these changes coincided with white flight out of the urban cores.
Interesting. BosWash is its own thing, with differences in the split between rowhouse versus condo/apartment. Detroit's probably its own thing right now -- pretty much anyone with a job can find a single detached house if that's what they want (and as I usually say, there's reasonable evidence that two-thirds or so of the population globally prefers that if price isn't a problem). The interesting thing in the western cities (my West, represented by LA and Seattle) to me is the near-disappearance of the non-detached but less than ten units range. Adding something from the Southeast -- Atlanta or Miami -- would have been useful.
When the cities had their big population booms is clearly important -- which reflects not just the auto, but also how rich we were.
But why go out in a pair of shorts and an old ripped t-shirt from a sporting event that was 20 years ago or some shirt that looks like it was just grabbed and not even looked at or tried on for it.
I'm not that bad, but shorts and a t-shirt that fits and is sans rips... because I'm running my errands on the bike and it's 80 and sunny already. Because I'm mowing the grass. Because I'm going to the hardware store to get parts to fix the broken toilet. Most importantly, because it's part of the culture here. If you want to "dress", that's cool. But most of the people of all ages you'll see walking across the parking lot at the grocery in the middle of the day at this time of year will be in shorts. Jeans when it's colder. Running shoes.
Work costume is different. Jeans and a button-down oxford shirt with the sleeves rolled up said "I'm a telecom tech weenie." Coat and tie said "I'm one of the legislative staff." 30-35 years ago there was more variety -- sometimes I'd wear a suit just because I wanted to look sharp (and knew that there was little chance that I'd be pulling cables under tables that day). Mostly what happened was a wife, a house, two kids, and the "costuming" budget got cut back sharply.
When I was working for the state legislature, coat and tie were mandatory when the members or staff were on the floor (corresponds to being in court for lawyers, I suppose). Women had some leeway about the tie, but were still required to wear a dress jacket of some sort. As there is no air conditioning in the Capitol, the person with the gavel would sometimes relax the coat rule. The budget staff director always said that the coat rule was never relaxed for his people -- as far as I could learn, it was a decades-old esprit de corps thing. Unlike the rest of the staff, the budget staff had offices in the building across the street. Late in the session, this led to the semi-regular sight of one of the staff sprinting across the street to handle an impromptu meeting on the floor, pulling their suit coat on as they ran.
You might be able to convince me if you say medium-term rather than long-term. But probably not.
I know how the following sounds in terms of bigotry and indifference to suffering and such. That makes me feel bad about believing it, but doesn't change my beliefs. The world lacks the energy resources to provide 7.5B people with a lifestyle approximating today's lower-middle-class life in the US or Europe or Japan. Optimistically, the world would need to produce twice as much high-quality energy as we do today. I go so far as to say that within the medium term (25-30 years), the US will struggle to produce the energy needed to support the population we will have at even 1% growth (on the order of 400M) in something like our present lower-middle-class lifestyle.
I know all the arguments about it only takes a fraction of the total solar insolation, or that fission could do the job for thousands of years. What no one has shown me is anything that looks even vaguely like a politically feasible investment plan to get us from here to there.
If they’ve noplace else to go, I think we do have an obligation to protect their quality of life.
Expand on this, please. Take the case of a Syrian subsistence farming family who were forced by the drought to leave their farm and go to an urban slum, who then fled the country because of the violence. Where and how do we protect their quality of life? And which quality of life? There are few places in the US, for example, where they could practice subsistence farming in the style they did in Syria. Or where a slum comparable to those in Syria would be tolerated. I'm not criticizing, I'm asking for clarification.
On “Linky Friday #132: Showtime!”
Over the last few years, the network has delivered me books from all of the U of Denver, the U of Colorado, the U of Wyoming, Colorado State, and the Colorado School of Mines. While all of those are within (western) driving distance, and would let me buy a membership so that I could check things out, doing it through the county library is a whole lot cheaper.
The one thing I can't get easily is the technical journals since so many of them are now online-only resources. The DU librarian explained to me that the standard contract limits access to students and faculty. No one minds an occasional alum or even general public coming into the library and accessing the journals, but providing off-site access to people outside of the institute is not allowed.
On “Saturday!”
Not sure about codpieces, but given just how much casual violence there seems to be in everyday life -- flying motorcycles! melee! -- I'd certainly put my cup on in the mornings...
On “Linky Friday #132: Showtime!”
My local public library is part of an interlibrary loan network that includes several campus libraries. Amazing what I can borrow if I'm willing to wait a few days for it to show up.
"
PDFs are typical for stuff that was scanned and OCRed from paper. Newer stuff seems to be in epub or mobi formats, which suggests they are cracked versions of kindle and nook stuff -- the kindle format is mobi with some DRM and the nook format is just an encrypted epub. Neither of the DRM methods are particularly good. Textbooks are an exception and the ebook is often the same PDF used to produce the printed version -- a necessity if you need consistent paging across all versions.
"
1) Yes, of course. That doesn't seem to have slowed the availability of pirated music, TV, and movies, does it? Interesting that up to a certain quality level, no one even bothers with trying to stop free music; look at what's available on YouTube. Most interesting, though, is that despite the claims from 20 years ago (for music) and 10 years ago (for video/movies), neither has gone broke. Rather, judging by this site, there's more good new music than people have time to pursue, and a golden age of new "TV" content. More about that in a minute.
2) It does, although it's getting easier. Film and video is a whole lot easier to find.
3) Looking recently, the gap between the pirate version and the legal e-book version is narrowing. For some types of content, the quality gap between the e-book and print versions is much larger than the difference between the legal and illegal e-book versions. 9x12-inch good color printing on high-quality coated paper is better than any screen around. Up to the point where you decide to zoom in on some corner of the "painting" to look at brush marks from a 3000-dpi scan :^)
Both music and TV seem to be settling into a model that's at least as old as Ben Franklin -- the private library. For a monthly fee within reach of almost everyone, you can access enormous amounts of old and new content. The TV end of it appears to generate sufficient cash flow that the "library" can afford to fund new content creation (eg, Daredevil, by Netflix). I've said for many years that print will eventually have to go that route, or something similar. Print per se will be something that you sell to aficionados who love the medium; the profits for most titles will come from getting a big enough cut from the "library" membership fee.
"
Interesting thoughts, but the gorilla in the room is piracy and that's not mentioned. I don't know how big the gorilla is -- and probably no one has any real idea -- but any time I look, I'm astounded at how much new content is readily available. Over at LGaM, Farley put up a cover for a new "future scenarios" book. Non-fiction, pretty specialized topic, not something you'd expect to ever sell very many copies. A high-quality pirated version is readily available.
On “And then a step to the right…”
I don't think abolishing the ceiling can pass in the Senate.
"
Either way, I pretty strongly suspect that there will be a Speaker by 11/1.
So do I. Boehner's way, there's a single ballot on Nov. 1. The other way -- Boehner pushes the clean CR through and a privileged motion to vacate the chair passes -- there's all sorts of messy stuff goes on in public and eventually enough Republicans get behind a single candidate. To a solid Democratic refrain of "You believed these guys when they told you they were ready to govern?"
"
If my speculation over in the Linky Friday thread is correct, and Boehner passes a clean continuing resolution spending bill with mostly Dem votes next week, the far right's resolve will be somewhat stronger. That would be the second time he'll have pulled that stunt, DHS funding last March was the first. Announcing his resignation in advance has the advantage of keeping at least some of the nasty infighting behind the scenes for a while.
If I were a Dem member of the House, I would gleefully vote for the clean CR, and then vote for the privileged motion to vacate the chair brought by the far right, just to make the Republicans put on a show for the voters.
"
It's my understanding that come Nov. 1, the House won't be able to conduct any business until there's a new Speaker. So, assuming all 188 Dems vote for Pelosi, and 30 Republicans vote for someone(s) on the far right, then McCarthy can't get the majority he needs to be elected. Now there's a shutdown.
On “Linky Friday #132: Showtime!”
My bet on the "scandal" is that after the Senate passes a clean continuing resolution on spending, Boehner is going to bring it quickly to the floor and pass it with Dem votes and a small number of Republicans. That move would likely cost him the Speakership any way, and hanging around as an ousted Speaker certainly wouldn't be any fun.
On “Fantasy Football: Week 2 (and Football Season open thread)”
My suspicion is that several trends are catching up with the NFL: the prevalence of the spread in college so that o-line players are less prepared for the NFL; my impression that injuries are up; free agency. For the first Broncos game this year, the o-line in front of Manning had never played a down as a unit, and they looked like it.
"
My impression is that o-lines all over the league have gone to hell this year. Tough for any running back to produce consistently if the blockers are getting beaten.
On “The ever changing face of political positions”
So, with a population of about 800 and an area of 109 acres, what do you want them to do? Taking in eight is about the equivalent of the US taking in 20-30 million.
On “One Jerk != Systemic Failure”
Which side sent the National Guard in to enforce desegregation orders? OTOH, which side sent the military in to break various strikes earlier in the same century? Both sides are perfectly capable of violence when pushed far enough.
On “A Defense of Fashion and Clothing”
Drawing on my career(s), dressing -- as distinct from fashion -- is mostly about making the other people comfortable. I did technology demonstrations off and on for years, and how to dress was always on my check-off list. The Mayo Clinic board of directors got full suit and tie; stock analysts got slacks and dress shirt; university profs got my standard jeans and a less-dressy button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. They all fit, and (perhaps most) importantly, I was comfortable wearing any of them.
Although I have to admit that the most respectful hearing I ever got from a room full of suits was on a Monday after a combination of a weekend skiing trip and hideous weather on the return drive meant I made an unscheduled presentation in a flannel shirt and three days worth of beard. I always figured it was so bad the suits thought, "If the Labs management is willing to let him present looking like that, he must be really good."
On “The Way We Live”
In many states, statutory or constitutional changes were made around 1970 that restricted the ability of the biggest cities in those states to annex. Here in Colorado, the Poundstone Amendment confined Denver. In Nebraska, state law was changed to block Omaha from annexing the attractive suburbs on its south side. As Jaybird would be quick to point out, yes, these changes coincided with white flight out of the urban cores.
"
Interesting. BosWash is its own thing, with differences in the split between rowhouse versus condo/apartment. Detroit's probably its own thing right now -- pretty much anyone with a job can find a single detached house if that's what they want (and as I usually say, there's reasonable evidence that two-thirds or so of the population globally prefers that if price isn't a problem). The interesting thing in the western cities (my West, represented by LA and Seattle) to me is the near-disappearance of the non-detached but less than ten units range. Adding something from the Southeast -- Atlanta or Miami -- would have been useful.
When the cities had their big population booms is clearly important -- which reflects not just the auto, but also how rich we were.
On “A Defense of Fashion and Clothing”
But why go out in a pair of shorts and an old ripped t-shirt from a sporting event that was 20 years ago or some shirt that looks like it was just grabbed and not even looked at or tried on for it.
I'm not that bad, but shorts and a t-shirt that fits and is sans rips... because I'm running my errands on the bike and it's 80 and sunny already. Because I'm mowing the grass. Because I'm going to the hardware store to get parts to fix the broken toilet. Most importantly, because it's part of the culture here. If you want to "dress", that's cool. But most of the people of all ages you'll see walking across the parking lot at the grocery in the middle of the day at this time of year will be in shorts. Jeans when it's colder. Running shoes.
Work costume is different. Jeans and a button-down oxford shirt with the sleeves rolled up said "I'm a telecom tech weenie." Coat and tie said "I'm one of the legislative staff." 30-35 years ago there was more variety -- sometimes I'd wear a suit just because I wanted to look sharp (and knew that there was little chance that I'd be pulling cables under tables that day). Mostly what happened was a wife, a house, two kids, and the "costuming" budget got cut back sharply.
"
Collectively, they are "peafowl".
On “The Value of Diluting your Brand”
What makes you think they were actual Red Wings rather than counterfeits?
"
When I was working for the state legislature, coat and tie were mandatory when the members or staff were on the floor (corresponds to being in court for lawyers, I suppose). Women had some leeway about the tie, but were still required to wear a dress jacket of some sort. As there is no air conditioning in the Capitol, the person with the gavel would sometimes relax the coat rule. The budget staff director always said that the coat rule was never relaxed for his people -- as far as I could learn, it was a decades-old esprit de corps thing. Unlike the rest of the staff, the budget staff had offices in the building across the street. Late in the session, this led to the semi-regular sight of one of the staff sprinting across the street to handle an impromptu meeting on the floor, pulling their suit coat on as they ran.
On “On To Germany… Or Somewhere?”
You might be able to convince me if you say medium-term rather than long-term. But probably not.
I know how the following sounds in terms of bigotry and indifference to suffering and such. That makes me feel bad about believing it, but doesn't change my beliefs. The world lacks the energy resources to provide 7.5B people with a lifestyle approximating today's lower-middle-class life in the US or Europe or Japan. Optimistically, the world would need to produce twice as much high-quality energy as we do today. I go so far as to say that within the medium term (25-30 years), the US will struggle to produce the energy needed to support the population we will have at even 1% growth (on the order of 400M) in something like our present lower-middle-class lifestyle.
I know all the arguments about it only takes a fraction of the total solar insolation, or that fission could do the job for thousands of years. What no one has shown me is anything that looks even vaguely like a politically feasible investment plan to get us from here to there.
"
If they’ve noplace else to go, I think we do have an obligation to protect their quality of life.
Expand on this, please. Take the case of a Syrian subsistence farming family who were forced by the drought to leave their farm and go to an urban slum, who then fled the country because of the violence. Where and how do we protect their quality of life? And which quality of life? There are few places in the US, for example, where they could practice subsistence farming in the style they did in Syria. Or where a slum comparable to those in Syria would be tolerated. I'm not criticizing, I'm asking for clarification.
On “Sunday!”
I will probably never get used to keeping track of whether I'm logged in to WordPress in a different tab. At least my gravatar remains unchanged.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.