Posts by MeRp

I believe what he was saying is the latter; his passport had expired or was lost, and so he needed a new one to travel to another country. With the Federal government shut down (including, presumably, those who issue passports) he was unable to acquire a new passport; the question of whether he'd waited until the last "minute" and gotten an expedited passport, or had ordered it with plenty of time is moot, as if it was not yet issued when the shutdown began, he would not be able to get it until after the gov started back up (which hasn't happened yet).

When he said it isn't ordinarily a problem, I took it to refer to the fact that you can normally travel all about the US (which is probably the vast majority of his travels) without a passport. But he could have also been referring to the fact that you can normally get a new passport issued relatively easily and quickly (well, it takes a while if you don't pay for expedited, but even then it is a matter of weeks).

To be fair...

Compulsory Purchase in English/Welsh law is the same idea as Eminent Domain (referenced int he article) in US Law.

It still requires a process, and if the relevant governmental entity decides to squash it (as happened here), then it won't go forward.

I think Oregon State did it right WRT this situation; they have a law that not only stipulates that all beaches are publicly owned or have public easments, but any adjacent private property must provide public access to said beaches. If California had a similar law, this case would be open and shut; he's preventing free public access.

I think that sends, essentially, the exact right message. Unfortunately it does not send the message that NATO is likely to want to send. Of course, neither does their chosen anthem, so I guess, at least this one is catchy!

To be fair...

Woah, customer service lines in the UK are premium lines? That is crazy, and you must put a stop to it, immediately! In the US pretty much every company has a toll-free customer service line; even if they make you pay for service, you still call on a toll free line and give your CC, bill your account, whatever.

Some sort of call when no longer busy scheme seems to make a lot of sense here. Amazon does it, but other than that it seems pretty rare here as well.

Re: The largest note is always 'too big', the 2nd largest is OK.

Meh, $100 notes are pretty much universally acceptable now. Even convenience stores take them int he middle of the night now, for the most part. When you consider that filling up a pickup with diesel (or gasoline/petrol) costs around $100, it makes perfect sense that they'd take $100 notes.

Re: RRS Fluid Displacement, Usually.

It will always displace fluid; the usually comes in on whether it (and its contents) are displacing based on mass or volume. Every captain dreads the prospect of their vessel exchanging displacement based on tonnage to displacement based on m^3.

Re: NOT indicative of American attitudes

Well, it did go through Quebec city... I've heard that place is kind of crap. Also, notably, it almost immediately entered the US after its departure, travelled through my state (Washington), then re-entered Canada. Apparently the idea that entering the US near-immediately spelled the things death-knell is forfeit.

Re: "so far caused by human error and inattention"

Note to self; when returning to this Phils this December, absolutely minimize time in Manila. Oh, wait, already do that.

Re: What a handful

"pick any two" - except, don't pick fast charging... because even the fastest charging are not fast charging when compared to refueling an ICE vehicle.

Re: Why protect the companies at fault?

Absolutely agreed: what is the point of letting the hackers know that they've been found out while not letting the users know they've been compromised, so they can at least attempt to change passwords, etc?

I'm not sure if your comment could be taken to explain it, but I was wondering how Les Claypool fits into the metaphor. Is he like a microchip designer who ALSO does tech writing? Or maybe a tech writer who's articles, while still valid English pieces that are on topic, can also be compiled into micro-chip designs?

Surely you would then have grounds to argue that they would need to prove that there is a hidden volume, since it is also capable of NOT making such a thing?

To someone who makes tens or hundreds of millions of dollars a year, a $1000 is the same as the rest of us a couple quarters to something; it is not a major commitment.

The attitude that if you're not with me then you're my enemy pervades so much of society, but it is especially strong amongst "gay rights" advocates, it seems. Even if someone so much as disagrees with a single point, they are thereafter to be considered gay bashers who would be content if the laws advocated unlicensed nuisance hunts on homosexuals.

In case you couldn't tell, that was an exaggeration. But it was only slight. I have a friend who has this exact attitude, and, being that I'm pretty much moderate on the topic (ie gay marriage, to me is just like any other marriage: it shouldn't be any of the Fed's business), she comes off as thinking I'm Satan, only more evil. She uses the same argument; that if one doesn't care enough about gay people to let them marry, then they probably also don't care that there are crimes against humanity (targeting homosexuals) ongoing in Uganda. That is patently false.

As for America bashing; you will not see me doing it.

RE: Middle England's allotments become metric battlefield

Assuming you are referring to one or two specific former colonies (US and Canada), you are incorrect both semantically and in your assumption.

Semantically: in the relevant colonies they are called; baseball field and ice hockey rink. Here pitch is what the pitcher (akin, but not identical, to the bowler in cricket) does.

Problem with the assumption: While ice hock fans and basketball fans generally have some idea of the size of their relevant play environment, baseball fans do not. As a highly irregular shape, with widely varying dimensions, most would never think to try to use a baseball field as a relative measure.

Far more common than any of those, though, is the football field. It is a different size than a football pitch (similar, but not quite the same), and, usually, rather than being used as an area measure, it is usually used as a length measure. Very common for ships.

Re: Just monitoring you purchases

After watching that movie, my friend discovered that she had several copies of that book (including one in her bed's headboard shelf), but she had never read it. It kind of freaked her out.

Re: The Philippines

My wife is from the Phils; every time MILF is in the news in a noteworthy enough way that it bears mentioning to my friends and associates it draws a chorus of snickers and smiles. Everyone loves a good MILF.

Re: Outrageous

The trademark filing has it covering all kinds of non-software things. Notable in its inclusion is "Headphones," which retroactively makes Skullcandy headphones a violation of this trademark. I'm sure other instances could be found.

Re: coffee straw???

That hot straw thing is not what is usually meant by a Coffee Straw; usually it refers to a "stir-straw"; a straw that is actually not meant to be used to drink with (though it is occasionally used that way), but, rather, to stir your hot beverage in order to incorporate additives into the solution; e.g. sugar and cream or non-dairy creamer. They are typically red and quite thin, often two co-joined small straws in order to increase the surface area of the side.

Here is an example that is white, with a red stripe: http://www.webstaurantstore.com/suffixitem/48550/BX.html

Re: Waste of time

64K sounds great, but no one will ever need any more than 64K....

Re: what a superficial, dumb and negative article

Furthermore: tiling window managers.

Re: let me be the first to say ...

RE: "How about we redistribute your possessions against your will?"

If you can make unlimited copies of my possessions, still leaving me with the originals, and redistribute them to everyone who cares to have them, please do! I would love it if I could give my house to every homeless person on the planet, but still own it, that would be awesome.

Re: Always wondered if this is true

The second application of a decoder ring would have no additional benefit. Decoder rings are purely transitive, so 1st transform plus 2nd transform is equivalent to some 3rd (single) transform. I believe that even the 3DES method would not help; 3DES does DES, then reverses the output of that, and DES again on that, then reverses that and does DES one more time (thus: triple DES). Reversing it each time does improve its encryption for DES, but, I believe, it would not for decoder ring style encryption.

Re: Re: Nooooo....

That gizmodo article is kind of enlightening; I tried it with my Galaxy S3, and I could reach the whole screen when I held it with thumb in center (as the article shows), or all except an icon's size on the upper right if I held it in a natural way. That explains why the iphone feels so awkward for me; it is too small for my hands. I must have the hands of a 7ft human (according to the article); I use my phone one handed all the time.

I guess it just goes to show: there is no one right size for everyone, a variety of sizes and price ranges is better for the consumer than a very limited one, who woulda thought the economists were ever right?

@imanidiot Re: @proto-robbie

Speaking from first hand experience (ie, I have both a nuclear power plant AND a crap ton of windmills in my "back yard"), I have to agree that the nuclear plant is far less impactful on the aesthetic of the area. Windmills, when installed, have to be everywhere; every ridge of all of the surrounding hills/mountains (highly variable term based on the altitudes that you are used to) has to be covered in the windmills. If you happen to like the hills/mountains or the overall horizon, then, with windmills, you are out of luck.

Having lived next to two different nuclear plants, I can say; they need not be any more aesthetically unpleasant than any quirky architect's grand design.

Re: Gas?

The only Nuclear decommissioning I've any personal experience with is the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant in Oregon. It's decommissioning cost is estimated to be roughly $230 million (they still have some non-nuclear related buildings to remove, and of course the spent fuel to continue to store). Construction costs were roughly $500 million.

It seems that your rough estimate is inverted in this case; decommission costs roughly half of construction.