Y2HH

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 11:11 AM) I gonna go with it mainly being about the ISAT testing and how bad that'd f*** the scheduling up compared to playing it safe for a day. eta: when I went to bed last night, the snow was still anticipated to start around 3am and get worse throughout the morning. If you're reasonably anticipating have issues with late buses, absent children or getting everyone home without an early dismissal, it's much more convenient for everyone to call it the night before so arrangements can be made. Yes, if only something like the Internet, or 24/7 news organizations existed to spread the word last minute in a very quick, efficient manner. Oh, wait...son of a b****, would you look at that, we actually DO have those technologies. Maybe we should actually use them instead of talking about using them and pre-canceling s*** like it takes 30 years for word to travel about school closings. Hell, even back in the 80's, we waited until THAT morning to see if school was closed. Excuses.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 11:10 AM) Alot of it is the child care issue. The are lot more dual income families now then "back then." The stay at home parent is not the norm anymore so there needs to be more planning otherwise they will all complain to the school about not being able to get childcare in time. That being said cancelling school before the snow even starts is ridiculous. We found out at 6pm last night and snow did not start falling here until 8am. There still isn't much on the roads and the school day is about 1/2 over. I agree. While safety should be taken into account, it seems like they're ready to jump the gun for any reason whatsoever, to delay or excuse education or anything that's inconvenient or hard in life these days. It's like were looking for additional excuses to make our kids even less educated/competitive with the rest of the world, and of course, we'll blame the lack of funding for it, despite the fact we spend more per child than any other nation on the planet, and continue to rank like 15th, if we're lucky. IMO, this is just another excuse. Oh, and that makeup day in June where the kids show up to school and do nothing all day...yea, that'll help them compete later in life.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 11:06 AM) Maybe he is just friends with a lot of teachers on facebook who never stfu about getting a day off on a random Tuesday with bad weather vs realizing they jsut lost a sweet ass beautiful day in June? God, those teachers never stfu. I'm friends with one, but he makes me sick with his summer vacations.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 11:04 AM) Someone's really upset they didn't have enough snow days as a kid. Not really, I actually got a good education. While, I admit, as a kid I would have loved for school to be canceled every day, or every time a few inches of snow fell, as an adult I realize that I'm better off that it wasn't. Also, when I was a kid, being that in the early 80's, we didn't have front wheel drive, or snow plows going down every city street all hours of the day/night, either. Yet somehow we made it alive. Like I said, wussification. Go buy yourself a trophy for being alive, not because you earned one.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 11:03 AM) So it has to be life-threatening to cancel school. OK. Hit yourself with a stick.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 10:38 AM) In general, we're a lot more worried about kid's safety/transportation issues, which is always a positive. Buses don't exactly cruise through the snow. It's also a lot easier to make a call and cancel it based on forecast and allow families to plan. If the kids are going to be home, you may need to stay home from work, find a babysitter, etc. It's a lot easier to do that night before or really early in the morning instead of playing chicken with them figuring out whether to cancel or not. It's also not too easy to have them get into school, have them call it an early dismissal day, and you either need to pick them up from school, or again, make arrangements for someone to be home for them after their long bus ride home. It's snowing right now, apparently places will get 4-8 inches and the worst part will be in the afternoon for the ride home. I don't really understand how canceling is such a "wussification" issue. Because it's not much snow? Maybe that's why. And busses, cars and all automobiles cruise through the snow much better and safer today than ever before. Standard modern over-reaction to something that while it's an inconvenience, it's also not a life threatening Blizzard. With how much salt they dump in cities/suburbs these days, it's practically a non-issue.

You are truly warped.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 09:04 AM)

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 08:39 AM) Dow past the closing and intraday highs. Jeffries puts a $1000 top on GOOG. The same Jeffries that had a 900$ target on Apple two months ago? Until it started falling for unsubstantiated rumors, some of which were created by them, and then they cut their "target" to 600. It's currently at 420. Jeffries and their s***ty analysts can suck a fat cock. They do nothing but momentum guess.

Guessing where the market is going to go is exactly that...guessing. If any of you actually *knew* where the market was going let alone when it was going there, you would and should be billionaires. With a B. Instead, you're here telling us you know. Shaddap.

QUOTE (kev211 @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 06:17 AM) Why is every single district closed, for absolutely no snow. And at the most probably 6 inches now? See the "wussification of America thread" in the Buster for your answer. When I was a kid, it had to actually, you know snow ... about 10+ inches for schools to be closed. In my ENTIRE K-8 "career", school was canceled 2 times because of snow. Today, the sheer possibility of snow cancels school...for a measly 6 inches...or 3 now. Ridiculous. And don't give me that, "when I was a kid" crap either...this isn't some absurd example of having to walk uphill (somehow), both ways in a blizzard. This is schools being canceled before snow even begins falling, despite it only being 6 measly inches.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 07:24 PM) Ive dealt with the letter a lot. Never had an actual company go beyond requesting the subpoena from the ip provider, but as y2hh said its basically playing russian roulette. You may never get caught, you may get caught on the first time. Your risk. I dont do it just not worth the risk/hassle/time My buddy got "busted" like this, completely flimsy lawsuit, but they asked for just less than it would have cost him to hire a lawyer and fight it...which includes the chance of actually losing the case to the tune of hundreds of thousands or even millions. He accepted the settlement to the tune of 2500$. Just ask that girl in Minnesota, Jammie Thomas, who shared a few songs and fought it in court after declining a settlement letter of $5000. She wound up losing the case, and after multiple appeals that went up and down from 222,000 to 1,500,000 over the span of YEARS, back down to a final of $222,000. Basically, for turning down a 5k settlement, she ended up being f***ed forever, for just 24 piddley songs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_v._Thomas Keep it in mind is all I'm saying. It actually happens.

QUOTE (Jake @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 07:00 PM) Usenet any good? Seems to help avoid some of the piracy cop concerns, but also isn't free It is, it's also encrypted and they don't keep logs unless requested and at that point they warn you. That's said, you still should never upload. Also, they're even cracking down on usenet now sending removal requests through usenet so things will appear and disappear quickly. The reality is, with more Googles that know everything you do every minute of the day, that means everyone knows. Piracy will never be impossible, but its getting easier and easier to get caught, and legally or not, they're abusing our lack of Internet laws to get you. When you do finally get that "give us 3500$ and we will call it even" letter in the mail, or come to court and defend yourself against our flimsy accusations, you've lost. If you do go to court it will cost more than what they asked for, and a chance to lose, albeit slim, exists. Until that practice is outlawed, I'd take every precaution against getting caught that you can. And if you think you're really a step ahead of them, that means they already have enough on you to send that letter but simply haven't because a computer hasn't randomly spit your name out...yet. Be careful. And if you can afford something, weigh that against the reality that what you just stole could end up costing you thousands. Meaning, get caught once because you think you won't, and you basically paid for everything you've stolen for the past few years.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 06:45 PM) They just don't bother. This.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 03:35 PM) I guess it depends in your definition of fast. I had the new episode of Walking Dead 10 minutes after it aired. I average 1.5mb's a second for most movies. It literally takes minutes to download a 2gb file. Piracy is like steroids, the authorities are always a step behind. Plus, I'm on a shared wifi connection all the time. Good luck with that. Hilariously incorrect.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 09:24 AM) P2P networks don't force you to do both, they just recommend you do both for the survival of the whole process. I'm a bastard, so I don't allow sharing of files I torrent anyway to preserve bandwidth. Only torrents I've ever been on were private, and they required you to share (they wouldn't allow you to shut off sharing at the time), but this was years ago...I wouldn't use a torrent today if someone paid me to do it. Stop torrenting, even if you aren't sharing, you're putting yourself on watch lists.

QUOTE (Jake @ Mar 3, 2013 -> 05:17 PM) Are VPNs effective at eluding the torrent cops? Not really. All a VPN does is encrypt traffic from endpoint to endpoint, but the endpoints still know who you are and where you're coming from. The issue with torrents, is that the basics of P2P mean you are directly connecting to multiple people, to send/receive small pieces of a whole, which will be reconstructed. The people who are trying to catch you simply have to be one of the many points you connect too and attempt to upload and/or download data from, even if they're just another person on a VPN doing so. The issue is also with sharing data, not taking it. They'd have a hard time busting you for downloading something that's "out there", as you'd have a leg to stand on...it's uploading of data that gets you in trouble. P2P networks force you to do both, which is the issue...if everyone was simply downloading off of P2P, the P2P couldn't exist in the first place.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Mar 1, 2013 -> 08:15 AM) You're not going to hear the difference between Flac's and 320 MP3's. I still only buy Flac's only because music isn't mastered for MP3's. I wouldn't go all the way down to 165 VBR though. Remember, you won't be able to get that back. Storage is cheap. Covert to 320k. Agreed on this...nearly my entire music collection is ripped at 320k...I mean, yea, it wastes some space...but who cares...I have multiple terabytes to waste...and drives are only getting bigger/cheaper. Rip them at maximum quality, and ignore the wasted space...you have it, and if you don't have it now, you will in short order.

QUOTE (Big Hurtin @ Feb 27, 2013 -> 08:15 PM) So, what do you think about the Six Strkes policy being implemented by the big 5 ISPs? http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/isps-w...s-system-213617 It's terrible. What's worse, if you do start collecting "strikes", even when/if you don't deserve them, good luck contacting someone at that ISP to have them removed. All this is, is a way in which they can legally kick heavy bandwidth users off of their networks. Anti-Piracy does NOT work. Period. They refuse to accept this truth, because it gives them a built in excuse to miss revenue targets. 1) A person that pirates your movie, music, or program was NOT going to purchase it anyway. 2) Anti-Piracy schemes, DRM, and other such things make life miserable/harder for the people that do pay for your product. 3) See #1. They weren't going to buy it anyway, so stop pretending it's a "lost sale". And it's ridiculous when your pirate friend has an easier time using said product than you do, when you actually bought it legally.

QUOTE (SexiAlexei @ Feb 27, 2013 -> 08:50 PM) I'm looking for some suggestions on 32" TV's. I'm looking to put something in my bed room. I currently have a 19" old school tube tv in there, and figured i should upgrade. I was looking at this; http://www.amazon.com/VIZIO-E320i-A0-32-in...ywords=vizio+32 I figured it had internet apps so I wouldn't need a seperate dvd player or anything like that. However, it's Vizio and I've heard mixed reviews. Anyone have any recommendations? Sure...here is my advice. Stay away from "smart tv's", because they're charging you a premium for a bunch of incredibly dumb versions of these apps, which are of poor quality, buggy and crash prone. Save yourself 99$ by buying a 'dumb tv', and spend that same 99$ on an AppleTV3...which will be able to do everything that smart TV can do, but more, and better. Such as Vimio, Hulu, MLB/NBA, iTunes Streaming from your PC/MAC, iTunes streaming from Apple servers, movie rentals, music, Netflix, Pandora, HBO...you name it. Or, if Apple isn't your thing, check out a Roku player...again, will run the same apps as that "smart tv", only it actually is smart.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Feb 27, 2013 -> 10:40 PM) I don't get it. Well, I run it on OSX, and on OSX, Firefox has been 64 bit for like 4 years now. You can download 64 bit versions on Windows too, but they may not be the default download it is for OSX.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 27, 2013 -> 12:17 PM) Yep. Actually one of the issues I have with it. I use Chrome mostly these days. I use Chrome also, but it [FF] being 64 bit isn't an issue...the fact that Firefox doesn't split processes is FF's biggest drawback at this point.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Feb 27, 2013 -> 08:08 AM) 64 bit version of Firefox. Firefox is already 64 bit.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 26, 2013 -> 11:47 AM) Couple questions. I've been thinking up some different things to do this summer. Smelt season is coming up. I am an amateur, as the questions below will attest. 1) Do you need a boat to smelt fish? 2) Can I just toss my nets in and retrieve them without a boat? 3) Is smelt fishing fun at all or is it like throwing lobster crates into the lake? Thanks. -Ben 1) No, it's done from shore, at least in Chicago. 2) Yes, you need a heavy net anchor to throw, obviously attached to a lot of rope, or a gun to fire the anchor out for you. Obviously, you need the rest of the equipment to hang and drop the net, too. 3) Yes, depending on who you go with. It's a lot of talking and/or discreetly drinking/bbq'ing while you wait to check on the nets, so in that regard, it is somewhat like throwing lobster crates into a lake and waiting. If the smelt are running, you can catch multi-hundreds of them in a few hours. If not, you can catch 2-3 in an entire outing. 4) It's not something you just jump into, you pretty much need to take someone that has the necessary equipment, and knowledge on how to set everything up.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 25, 2013 -> 12:54 PM) Really? WW1? WW2? Was it in the name of religion that atomic bombs were dropped? I believe more people have died from greed than religion. Whether a desire for land (Mexican-American War), profits from slavery (Civil War), Oil (take your pick of the past 50 years. Yes, there have been religious wars, but if you study all of the circumstances, greed is usually at the root. They may wrap it in a religious tapestry, but remove it and you see greed. That's fine, too...but religion is still involved, whether driven by greed or not.