Yes. Technically, MakeMKV is a ripper, not a player, but once you have a disc ripped, you can play the ripped file with the player of your choice: VLC, mplayer, etc. You can also stream it over your network, transcode it to take less space, etc.

In kindergarten, I walked over a mile to/from the school every day unaccompanied. So did all the other kids in the neighborhood.

I walked to and from school in kindergarten. Google Maps says it was a little bit over a half-mile. The only issue that came up was on the first day of school, when not knowing what the buses were all about, I ended up on one. It didn't take long to get that straightened out, and it only happened once.

I suspect the events described in TFA are a consequence (not necessarily unintended) of our hyperlitigious society...consider, for instance, the sledding bans that have been popping up like metastatic tumors all over the place lately, or that you can't get someone to build you a pool with a diving board.

Better yet is H.L. Mencken's description: "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."

Because here on slashdot, the libtards here are proud of their ignorance, stubbornness, and obtuseness.

In other words -- they're lost causes and not worth any more of your time. They're dumber than dogs -- at least rubbing the dog's nose in his own feces will convince the dog to stop crapping on the carpet -- but these brown shirt liberals, no matter how bad things get, lie and ignore the reality.

They say "Unemployment down to 5.6 percent!!" but ignore the reality that the labor force participation rate is the lowest it's been since Jimmuh Cartuh. More Americans are unable to find work and given up looking at the highest rate since the 1970's and liberals cheerlead Obama and the unemployment rate that's intentionally deceptive.

It's just like when you (or I) point out the many failures and high body counts of socialism, it's brother communism, or it's cousin fascism -- they huff and puff and insist, nay, they demand that you admit that "true socialism" has never been tried.

Smitty -- I don't always agree with you, but I definitely like you -- you're a good person.

But I'd be less than honest if I didn't tell you that I don't think these morons are worth much of your time.

I realized years ago that they weren't worth much of my time, either.

Roughly the same sure, but longer nonetheless, and certainly not shorter as the post I replied to said.

Radio, on the other hand, even if you hear a piece of music that you like, the chance of actually being told the name of the artist is close to zero.

Many car radios at least will display artist/title information on FM, if the station provides it. If they don't (or if yours doesn't do that), you can fire up SoundHound or something similar and see what it says.

Data migration and expanding RAID containers is a major PITA. I absolutely loath the task!

That's why you don't use RAID. Instead, use something more flexible. I've been running Greyhole for a while now. Adding storage doesn't require shifting files around (unless you want to rebalance storage), you can use drives of different sizes, and you can control the level of redundancy you use (more for important files, less for stuff that's easily replaced). You can yank a disk out of a Greyhole installation and read all of the files off of it with standard file-copy tools.

Important stuff that doesn't take too much space (documents, Git repos, etc.) is backed up daily to Tarsnap. Less-important stuff (movies, music) and larger files (photos) get dumped to BD-R and are stored in binders in my desk at work; images are prepared with dvdisaster for added error recovery capability and are burned to single-layer BD-R HTL media.

My parents moved from Phoenix to Dayton a few years ago...they had gotten tired of triple-digit temperatures for 7-8 months of the year and, as they put it, wanted four seasons. As for me, I'm still in Las Vegas, 26 years after we moved here.

As for sounds you don't hear much anymore, try this: multi-engine prop planes with piston engines. The sound of a B-17 (or anything similar) taxiing or flying overhead is different from any airplane you're more likely to run across. There's no turboprop whine, and four radial engines sound nothing at all like the 4- or 6-cylinder boxers you'll find in smaller aircraft. (For a sample, pop in your copy of Airplane!, where they dubbed this kind of sound over 707 flight footage as a joke.) At this point, about the only time you're likely to come across it now is at the larger airshows where they can afford to bring in an old bomber or cargo hauler (they're more expensive to keep flying than fighters).

Let me stop you right there. Pretty sure Mars has longer days, and I could always use a little more sleep.

The Catholic League is not the Vatican. I am not a member of the League (though I am a Knight of Columbus).

Furthermore, what Donohue is saying is Biblical, about trying not to deliberately offend.

The reason for that is, obviously, if they're spitting mad at you they aren't going to listen to the Gospel from you.

That said... I support the right of comedians to offend whoever they want.

I called my congressman (Kenny Marchant) and left a message with a staffer, and send him a tweet asking him to support Gohmert for Speaker.

Sadly, Marchant voted for Boehnerdict The Orange. Oh well, don't blame me -- I voted for Grant Stinchfield in the last primary...

Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time.

My wife used to be a Protestant, and even joined BSF... when we left the Protestant Church I was attending with her, she went all Sola Scriptura in an attempt to convince me why I was wrong to remain Catholic.

What she found in the intense study of Scripture converted her to Catholicism.

This book reinforced it.