* Posts by Glenn Amspaugh

227 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Mar 2007

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HD media future may be Blu, but it's not rosy

Glenn Amspaugh
Heart

Disks suck

Man, I am so over buying plastic spinning things. I've digitized all my CD's and am slowly working through my DVD's, ripping them to .mp4/removing region crap and setting them up on a home server so we can watch them on any computer in the house (and main TV via Mac Mini dvi<->hdmi). I really wish someone would make a household server (I'm running OS X Server on a G4 with 1.5 TB storage) specifically for house use, that can handle HD content. When a new movie comes out, I want to d/l (purchased, not rented) and have it available for my use. I feel no need to 'share the love' and pass out this copy to everyone and eat up my bandwidth at the same time. I also have no trouble paying for a real drm free download. Why do they hate the consumers?

Oh yeah, why won't they just make 42" HD monitors? Give me the option of picking up something that doesn't include stupid tuners and 10w cheap ass speakers. I've already got the gear for all that. I just want a decent picture making thingy.

Natasha Henstridge braces for Impact

Glenn Amspaugh
Gates Horns

Great Wal-Mart/Tesco movie

This pile of useless video tape sounds like it could give Mansquito a run for the money.

Because Bill approves.

Boffins ponder 100-year archive made of TOMES

Glenn Amspaugh
Coat

Does it need to be reinvented?

Isn't the constantly fluctuating mess of connected computers known as teh interweb already doing this? I mean, there's giffy girl images out there from 15 years ago, still showing up in Google Searches.

All we have to do is attach important data to porn and folks will keep it in play and active on the 'net forever.

Eye-o-Sauron™ man-tracker masts now fully online, says DHS

Glenn Amspaugh
Flame

What's the big deal with immigration?

I really don't get the scare over brown people crossing our boarders to work crappy jobs no one else will do. Besides, my family crossed over the Rio Grande and no one minds us being here. 'Course, we did come over back before Shakespeare set pen to paper but still, the point remains, the U.S. is a land of immigrants.

/refuses to live a life of fear

Smith says answer to knife crime is through the arch window

Glenn Amspaugh

What about books?

In 7th grade, I broke a kid's arm with a paperback copy of The Silmarillion. Kid had been picking on me for months, and, on this occasion, was holding on to a railing while shaking me by the shirt front. A quick smash down with the spine of the book onto his arm, near the wrist and he let go. Didn't find out until the next day he'd cracked something in there and I had detention. Nothing like a working class school for real life learning.

US boffins create GM 'supercarrot'

Glenn Amspaugh
Unhappy

GM=/= Chevy

When I saw the headline, I thought it was a carrot as big as a Chevy SUV.

D'oh!

BBC boosts staff morale with jelly

Glenn Amspaugh
Unhappy

Jelly Feet?!!! WTF?

Ok, I'm just a grunt on the ground; a desktop support tech. From where I stand, Work is something you do to get paid so you can go and drink beer. The more I work and the better I work, the better chance I'll have of getting paid more, which results in more beer passing my tonsils. Is pretty straight forward process to me.

WTF do strange jelly robot baby games have to do with work? What's with the last 20 years of 'team building' bull crap and consultants that seem to be little more than high paid dominatrix mistresses (aaugh, Lucy Lu...) masquerading as business process gurus?

Are top brass lives so boring that they need something more than beer, the tv, and a roll once a week with the misses? They seem to be a bunch of sick freaks and it's no wonder the west is in a downward spiral of stupidity and fascism. Meh. When can I emigrate to Mars?

Paris Hilton cavorts naked in middle of desert

Glenn Amspaugh

Meh.

Her torso to leg ratio is off (legs too short).

They need to spray paint more women and provide more choice.

Brit office Xmas parties going to the dogs

Glenn Amspaugh
Flame

Not just the U.S.

I've been working as a contractor to various mil-ind complex companies (make flying things and stuff that goes BOOM) for the last 20 years. Never saw so much as a cracker or glass of wine put out for us working grunts. I did take a few years off to work at a college and they had a rather tired afternoon nosh. The only place that ever really treated us employees right was a small mom-n-pop place that I worked at for two years. Both holidays, got a $500 bonus and a nice night out on the boss. We only had 7 employees but he sprang for a nice dinner and bar tab for all of us and partners. Pretty sweet. Really wish he hadn't been forced into bankruptcy for warranty fraud with most of the major pc makers.

Honda hits reverse on £50k fuel cell cars for '08

Glenn Amspaugh

Distribution costs

Ok, whether you're producing H2 at home or having to go to an updated service station to fill up, there's going to be a large cost to installing equipment for this. Currently, there's already an energy distribution system in place; electricity. Bio-fuels, H2, cooking oil, etc. are not as efficient for delivery as electricity. Push all the carbon emission stuff to power plants, where it can be effectively and cheaply trapped/dealt with. Electric cars are the way to go, at least in urban/suburban areas.

Writers' strike hits US talk shows hard

Glenn Amspaugh
Paris Hilton

Think of the cartoons!

Man, what's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spongebob">Spongebob</a> going to be like, sans writers? These things don't write themselves, you know. It's not like they could have a big ole' computer out there spitting out formulaic crap!

Honda offers FCX for '08, bitchslaps Google

Glenn Amspaugh
Go

Don't forget the infrastructure

One problem with Hydrogen is building up the infrastructure. Transporting H2 is difficult and will require a lot of reworking of equipment, all along the supply chain.

A much easier way of distributing energy, which is already set up, is electricity. Sure, generation is still carbon based but if nuclear is allowed to grow, that could take care of things.

DRM on steroids controls backfires on Blu-ray

Glenn Amspaugh
Thumb Down

Customer Serve-us

Man, I've always bought my movies and songs but shit like this is just about enough to make me turn to bit torrent. What a bunch of fucking shit peddlers the media companies are.

New euro coin stuffs Turkey

Glenn Amspaugh

Where's Texas?

Hell, where's America?

TV's iPod moment?

Glenn Amspaugh

Luxury!

<i>Certainly beats the (up to)8mb 'ADSLMax' product most of us have to put up with in the UK!</i>

You get 8MB? Damn. I'm stuck with 1 MB cable, living 20 miles up in he mountains outside of Albuquerque. Makes remoting into my machines a real pain.

'Happy slapping' vids prompt Brown to push net filters

Glenn Amspaugh

Smack your kids up!

Well, hell, why don't they just license people to be parents? Only let those who are obviously responsible enough to raise kids to have 'em?

Just last night, I turned the channel from a kid's show, where they played Candid Camera style pranks on kids. Wife and I had a discussion with 6 year old daughter on why we were turning off show. We've done this before and will continue to do this.

Daughter knows there's stuff out there we don't approve of but she also knows why we don't approve of it. I think too many folks don't take the time to try and make their kids know why some things are not suitable for them to view, until they are better able to understand them and put them in context. Doesn't mean you just outright ban things; we have classic violent cartoons that are hilarious but we also explain about cartoon violence, why it's funny and how to segment some things away from 'teh real world'. Just takes a hell of a lot of time and energy.

US gov's flying laser hit by delays, problems

Glenn Amspaugh

Stupid yellow car seen speeding from flight line

Two young computer techs wanted for questioning.

Oz mayor stole cash for Darth Vader voice distorter

Glenn Amspaugh

If Only...

I wish U.S. Corrupt politicians operated at this guy's scale. Hell, steal enough money for a new house and I'd be cool with that. Invading countries (and screwing it up), that's another matter...

'Suspicious looking' man hauled off translatlantic flight

Glenn Amspaugh

At least they diverted the flight...

From the headline, sounded like he was removed from the plane during the trans-Atlantic portion of the flight. That would suck.

Bretons turn on Britons

Glenn Amspaugh

Rising housing prices same here in states.

"I gather the same effect is happening in Eastern Europe now."

We see the same thing happening here in the States. Only reason I can afford to build in the mountains outside of Albuquerque, NM is because it's family land, handed down from Grandfather. Our family's always had the rule that you only sell property to other family members but finally, things have gotten so expensive (building permits, required site improvements (2 lane 24' wide road in our ) materials, wells, etc.) that a lot of family can't afford to build here. The first non-family sale of land will happen later this year. My cousin will then be able to build the next county over (with an extra 30 miles of commute to town).

Luckily, all the car fires and crime happen in town so moving further out doesn't seem that bad of a thing, to myself.

Gartner reaps iPhone backlash after making business case

Glenn Amspaugh

I don't want a phone

All I want is a mobile web surfing iPod. Or a Newton 3000. Where the hell's the stylus stored on this here iPhono anyways?

America wastes gazillions with always-on PCs

Glenn Amspaugh

We're testing this at work

After reading about <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/a-flick-of-the-switch-that-will-help-save-the-planet/2006/12/15/1166162323019.html?page=fullpage%23contentSwap2">Sydney's power down</a> last spring, my work place is doing three power down nights this summer, to see how much energy and money they save.

No big deal with my Mac, as it's scheduled to shut down at 5:30 PM and start up at 7:00 AM on weekdays (I work 7:30-5:00); it's always ready for a login when I come in.

My WinXP box, though, is a pain. Have to make sure I get in about 5 minutes early, in case any patches are waiting to go. I work hell desk and have to be logged on, taking calls right at 7:30 AM. And we're not allowed to install any third party cron software on our Windows boxes. Oh well, maybe tech dev will come up with something. Would be cool.

Two year old's IQ on a par with Hawking

Glenn Amspaugh

On circles

"Mind you, he could draw perfect circles on the blackboard with both hands simultaneously ..."

Those are called breasts.

2012 Olympics logo debuts to whalesong

Glenn Amspaugh

Trying to be remembered?

At least with this logo, they're assured a place in graphic design 101 books, under what not to do.

An yeah, it's a BJ.

"Suck it, London." /SNL Jeopardy: Sean Connery <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity_Jeopardy!_(Saturday_Night_Live)>

Hormonally challenged teens refrain from abstinence

Glenn Amspaugh

Teach them to play D&D

Get early teens interested in SF/F and D&D and they won't get laid until they hit college ("There's a time and a place for everything kids and it's called college." –Chef).

DRM-free music: EMI calls the tune and Apple takes the credit

Glenn Amspaugh

AAC is not an Apple format

For folks upset that Apple isn't selling songs in an open format like mp3, FLAC or Ogg, but is using the 'crippled Apple format' of AAC, um, AAC is an open standard. It's a variety of MP4 and is supported on players from Sony, SanDisk, several cell phone brands and others all play AAC files.

My diesel car doesn't use gasoline. Darn those stations that don't carry fuel for the car I chose to drive.

My Mac doesn't run .exe applications. Darn those developers that don't code for hardware I've chosen to use.

Electric cars may not be solution to all world problems

Glenn Amspaugh

250 mile limit no problem here in the states

In New Mexico, I commute 28 miles each way to work and back, 5 days a week. I might stop in town twice a week after work. On the weekend, I only go on a long drive (more than 50 miles from home) maybe once a month. Now, if they could just get the price of a Tesla down to what I paid for my '70 Impala ($3000), I'd be set. It can do 0-60 MPH in 5 seconds and a 12.3 quarter mile but only gets 10-12 MPH. Darn those 454 ci engines! And it only gets about 250 miles a tank of petrol.

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