This will be the first Presidential election cycle since Colorado started sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters. I'm curious to see if it affects turnout in the primaries.
I expect the answer is something like what I used to encounter during talks with equipment vendors that stretched out over a period of weeks. If they ranted that the questions I was asking on behalf of my company were nonsense, that only an incompetent would ask them, I knew that either (a) they knew the answer and knew how bad it was or (b) they didn't know the answer and were terrified of how bad it might be. Engineers who know they are selling you a solid system don't rant and rave, they just answer the question, or tell you that they don't know but will get back to you by a specified date.
So, lawyers who rant and rave and threaten know they have a weak position?
Physically, absolutely. There's a part of me, though, that says they goaded us into doing a number on some of the core concepts about what the US is. Take my shoes off to board the plane. If I want to write a check to buy the new car and it's larger than $X, there's a multi-day hold on the transaction because I might be a terrorist. We're debating, after they'd already started, whether the NSA ought to be able to record my every e-mail and who I called when on my cell phone -- where "me" is every US citizen.
Without going World Police Domination Force we can’t get rid of every friggin group of nutjobs who hate us.
Politics and morality aside, the price tag to make a serious attempt at this is already out of reach. And will be farther and farther out of reach as time goes on.
Many years back, at a "take your daughters to work day" session, I ran the daughters through a demonstration with lots of colored index cards about how the Internet works (ie, how data gets from one computer to another). The next day, I got lots of feedback from parents, which fell into one of two categories: (1) my daughter is insufferable because she knows how packet switching works and I don't, and (2) can you do the same demo for the senior vice presidents, please?
Apparently the memorable line in the demo was from out of order packet delivery, where a card or three went into my shirt pocket. Since we'd already done lost packets (tossed over my shoulder), someone asked if the ones in my pocket were lost. "No, just misplaced for a while."
A friend in Oregon tells me that warm weather started so early there this year that the craft brewers' pumpkin beers are already showing up. The Great American Beer Festival was this past week -- no gold medal was awarded in the pumpkin beer category.
After reading Saul's post, the article, and the comments, I have to admit that this is one of those times when I'm glad I'm the age I am. I did my undergraduate time at a big state school. The school paid upperclassmen to live in the dorms and make sure that incoming freshmen understood how things were supposed to work. Companies big and small sent recruiters to campus in the spring semester. Professors -- at least in my department(s) -- were serious about helping students get in touch with the proper people. That it wasn't an elite school wasn't a serious handicap in getting considered for (and into, in my case) an elite graduate department.
Of course, it's entirely possible that my memories are colored by my being a double major in math and computer science. At that point in time, that combination was an almost-automatic ticket into a job that paid well, even for a new graduate -- computing had just gotten cheap enough that everyone was finding ways to take advantage of it.
Most of the TV that I watch, I watch in a little window on my Mac while doing other things in parallel. Last weekend my video tuner/frame grabber died -- well, maybe it was more like manslaughter, since I was moving some things and set a table down on it. Direct replacements for it are pricey, so I ordered a refurbished Slingbox 350 to try. That arrived yesterday and there are experiments going on. The Mac player is a bit of disappointment for this day and age; OTOH, I can connect to the box from my Android tablet and carry that around the house in my back pocket.
I don't think this is the final answer, but I'm not sure what kind of device to try next.
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.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Why the D’s should thank God Almighty for the R’s”
This will be the first Presidential election cycle since Colorado started sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters. I'm curious to see if it affects turnout in the primaries.
On “Maybe most people don’t care about Trigger Warnings?”
...but a therapy weasel is a stretch.
Look, man, I've got have something to protect me from slaver wasps and revenants.
On “Litigating in “Easy” Mode”
I expect the answer is something like what I used to encounter during talks with equipment vendors that stretched out over a period of weeks. If they ranted that the questions I was asking on behalf of my company were nonsense, that only an incompetent would ask them, I knew that either (a) they knew the answer and knew how bad it was or (b) they didn't know the answer and were terrified of how bad it might be. Engineers who know they are selling you a solid system don't rant and rave, they just answer the question, or tell you that they don't know but will get back to you by a specified date.
So, lawyers who rant and rave and threaten know they have a weak position?
On “The Enemy of My Enemy is often My Despicable Friend”
AQ was not an existential threat to the US.
Physically, absolutely. There's a part of me, though, that says they goaded us into doing a number on some of the core concepts about what the US is. Take my shoes off to board the plane. If I want to write a check to buy the new car and it's larger than $X, there's a multi-day hold on the transaction because I might be a terrorist. We're debating, after they'd already started, whether the NSA ought to be able to record my every e-mail and who I called when on my cell phone -- where "me" is every US citizen.
"
Without going World Police Domination Force we can’t get rid of every friggin group of nutjobs who hate us.
Politics and morality aside, the price tag to make a serious attempt at this is already out of reach. And will be farther and farther out of reach as time goes on.
On “This weekend in kids’ science”
And yet, somehow, people are under the impression that network geeks have no sense of humor :^)
"
Many years back, at a "take your daughters to work day" session, I ran the daughters through a demonstration with lots of colored index cards about how the Internet works (ie, how data gets from one computer to another). The next day, I got lots of feedback from parents, which fell into one of two categories: (1) my daughter is insufferable because she knows how packet switching works and I don't, and (2) can you do the same demo for the senior vice presidents, please?
Apparently the memorable line in the demo was from out of order packet delivery, where a card or three went into my shirt pocket. Since we'd already done lost packets (tossed over my shoulder), someone asked if the ones in my pocket were lost. "No, just misplaced for a while."
On “Idiocy, One-Third”
A friend in Oregon tells me that warm weather started so early there this year that the craft brewers' pumpkin beers are already showing up. The Great American Beer Festival was this past week -- no gold medal was awarded in the pumpkin beer category.
On “Is Studying Too Much Bad?”
After reading Saul's post, the article, and the comments, I have to admit that this is one of those times when I'm glad I'm the age I am. I did my undergraduate time at a big state school. The school paid upperclassmen to live in the dorms and make sure that incoming freshmen understood how things were supposed to work. Companies big and small sent recruiters to campus in the spring semester. Professors -- at least in my department(s) -- were serious about helping students get in touch with the proper people. That it wasn't an elite school wasn't a serious handicap in getting considered for (and into, in my case) an elite graduate department.
Of course, it's entirely possible that my memories are colored by my being a double major in math and computer science. At that point in time, that combination was an almost-automatic ticket into a job that paid well, even for a new graduate -- computing had just gotten cheap enough that everyone was finding ways to take advantage of it.
On “Weekend!”
Most of the TV that I watch, I watch in a little window on my Mac while doing other things in parallel. Last weekend my video tuner/frame grabber died -- well, maybe it was more like manslaughter, since I was moving some things and set a table down on it. Direct replacements for it are pricey, so I ordered a refurbished Slingbox 350 to try. That arrived yesterday and there are experiments going on. The Mac player is a bit of disappointment for this day and age; OTOH, I can connect to the box from my Android tablet and carry that around the house in my back pocket.
I don't think this is the final answer, but I'm not sure what kind of device to try next.
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.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.