Srsly. Since when does a piddly $54 scare away a bona fide nerd. Having tools like this around when you have an epiphany on the crapper is priceless. I mean, come on, any of you could wipe your ass with $54 and still have plenty where that came from...

Ohhh...wait....I just realized something

::cue Willy Wonka meme face::

some of them think playing D&D and working at Burger King makes them nerds...how adorable

Here's why...

Let's give a generous 5 cent discount, and let's say we drove in on fumes in a mammoth F-350 Super Duty with a 35 gallon gas tank.

Credit
35 * $3.55 = $124.25

Cash
35 * $3.50 = $122.50

Yield: $2.25

Meh...to make matters worse, my local bank branch is about 8 miles away round trip. If I were to drive there first to get cash..(1/20MPG) * 8 miles * 3.50 dollars/gal = $1.40

Adjusted Yield: $2.25 - $1.40 = $0.85

That adds up to about how much change I lose a week when I do carry cash.

That being said, I go out of my way to pay cash at local small businesses, and when I tip. Its just a courteous thing to do. And if you're a hard nosed bastard, those people probably own homes near yours, and if they go under they foreclose on their home, home values go down, and then the urban gentlemen start moving in. Before you know it, babies of a most peculiar character start coming out of your now drug-addled daughters...

You can't really argue the economics of using cash vs charge, since the banks have really done their math here and have made parity for the way most people live their lives. Using cash isn't practical, but it is the "right" thing to do.

What surprised me is that the prosecutor appeared to take the tampering seriously.

Well, read the summary again

which saw four men found guilty and fined €45,000

By my tally, I have: Government:45000, Lawyers:Untold thousands, MPAA:0, Joe Sixpack:0

In summary: Two parties come to court to squabble. The lawyers and the government walk away with all the winnings. Case is then closed.

This was a win for the people comrade! I find your lack of faith [in the courts] disturbing! </sarcasm>

Oh and before anybody gives me crud for the exuberant government spending comment, in the South voting party line actually does work how you would traditionally expect it to, as opposed to the North where the line is quite a bit more muddled.

Sports teams!...haha that is totally true, and the news media has really pushed that direction in the last 10 years. The whole "red vs blue" I think is a trite way of getting Joe Sixpack (the average person) to get interested in politics and increase viewership and voter participation, but oversimplifies it to the point of absurdity and really needs to go away.

But one plays nastier? Which one is that? Politics is politics, and the only politicians that are nice are the ones that either don't have to compete, or have no chance of winning. Politicians from swing constituencies tend to be more nasty, cold, and calculating. I live in a suburban Republican monoculture, and the reps have more of an "administrative" vibe..

I agree with the other comments, it would be nice if there were more variety allowed in the system like in, say, Sweden or the UK. I for one am a devout atheist and despise religious fruitbats, but I also despise overly exuberant government spending, and I'm not alone...but there is no option for that here, you have to take one or the other and that's it!

Pretty soon they'll be posting jaded comments from their laptop, laying in bed in their parents basement, just like me! Oh, if only times were better...

::Stares dreamily of poster of Bill Gates in his stunning 80's sweater, posing on his desk::

You could probably get a 35mm lens to focus on a larger CCD, and then trim out the "undefined" area outside of that. But most people aren't hackers like that...they'll see the different number, think "not compatible" and move on.

When you see "35 mm", think "8086 segmented real mode" (which was added for backwards compatibility with the 8080, FYI), which you'll still find in modern Core i7's or FXes. Just one of those things that is never going to go away due to so much capital invested in a specific platform with a long legacy.

Yeah, you might be able to get rid of it, but its not "35mm/x86" anymore!

Seriously! I like how humble he is. Please ask him if he's looking for an extra grandkid.

How is that supposed to work? "Excuse me, sir, can I live in your basement?"

::You look up and see an 83 year old man covered in acne puss, screaming like a little girl and running from something that could only be...Pizza the Hutt::

DOSBox sucks for Windows, though, you should probably just run a VM

I've tried this in VMWare and Virtual box, and the problem there is there is no Adlib or any other MIDI support. Are there any patches you are aware of that fixes this?

The neat part about Windows 3 it usually allowed you to ignore the error. I remember being able to eek by saving a document a few times. It didn't always work, but it at least let your try. Nowadays? Pffft.

We're sorry, Bill has halted your machine to make sure you are screwed. The only way you can continue is to reset the machine, so we can make absolutely certain all your data is lost. If you need support, please make sure to deposit $500 in quarters and Microsoft support engineers will be happy to be at your side, confused along with you. Have a nice day!

I've been around horses in both the US and the UK, and it just seems like the general population of horses in the states are more inquisitive and self-aware than the horses in the UK. The horses I've seen in the UK seem more or less like cows, they just stand there and react bluntly. I've seen a horse in the US 1. do something it knew was "bad" 2. shy away and trot away slowly, looking guilty when the owner approached 3. got even more pitiful when the owner scolded it. Seems more like a smart terrier dog than a cow. I know they sure calculate their surroundings well...if an overweight person tries to approach a US horse they might get visibly nervous or even flee.

That may explain the difference in attitude between areas. It is hard to feel sorry for an animal that is dense (hence our healthy and unapologetic appetite for cow meat), but a smart animal that you easily develop a relationship with would seem inhumane to use as livestock.

You know, perhaps cow populations in India may be much more intelligent than the average Western cows, and that may be why they are reluctant to eat them. It'd be worth investigating, certainly.

He's talking about the public sector...spend your budget or some empty suit will pounce and reallocate the difference to some pork project.