>> ^shole:
it does look darn pretty
but what the hell is the ROCK in a VIRTUAL world all about?


That's not a straight up VR World. Tron's more a fantasy universe like Middle Earth or the Star Wars Galaxy then a literal digital landscape. The "people" (minus one) are various bits of programming codes and scripts, etc.

If you try to think of their world as a Second Life or something certain things wont make sense. It's a fantasy universe using the internals of computer systems as the backdrop.

Plus that's taking place in a Light Cycle arena (game map), hence all the obstacles and spiral paths.

God I'm a geek.

As a non-custodial father, I firmly believe that child support laws in many states are vehemently anti-male.

In my support order, issued in 1998, I was ordered to pay close to $800/mo for a single child born in 1996.
That's a (*(@*#$*&&*@!!! mortgage payment.

My wages are garnished as an act of first resort.
Attempts at getting the amount reduced have resulted in naught, partly due to my own guilt about doing so (it is my daughter, after all), and partly due to neglect by the enforcement agency.
At one point during a change in computer systems by the enforcement agency from county-run to state-run, my payment was behind, and the enforcement agency would not do any research into the reason why I was behind, as my garnishment was sent out like clockwork every other week.
Over and above the support amount, there is a 2% poundage (more like pwnage!) to cover the expenses of the support agency.
They will do nothing for me as the father if I have questions or issues with my support payments. Yet if the mother has an issue, they are more than willing to try to take me to court (even in another STATE!) or pursue me on behalf of the mother.

I am branded a criminal if I don't earn enough to pay my bills as well as submit to this outrageous legal obligation.


I love my daughter. I loathe the support system and the way it treats men in general.

Wikipedia:

1983 incident

Stanislav Petrov, an Air Defence lieutenant colonel, was the officer on duty at the Serpukhov-15 bunker near Moscow on September 26, 1983.[4] Petrov's responsibilities included observing the satellite early warning network and notifying his superiors of any impending nuclear missile attack against the Soviet Union. If notification was received from the early-warning systems that inbound missiles had been detected, the Soviet Union's strategy was an immediate nuclear counter-attack against the United States (launch on warning), specified in the doctrine of mutual assured destruction.[1]

Shortly after midnight, the bunker's computers reported that an intercontinental ballistic missile was heading toward the Soviet Union from the US.[5] Petrov considered the detection a computer error, since a United States first-strike nuclear attack would be likely to involve hundreds of simultaneous missile launches, in order to disable any Soviet means for a counterattack. Furthermore, the satellite system's reliability had been questioned in the past.[6] Petrov dismissed the warning as a false alarm, though accounts of the event differ as to whether he notified his superiors[7] or not[5] after he concluded that the computer detections were false and that no missile had been launched. Later, the computers identified four additional missiles in the air, all directed towards the Soviet Union. Petrov again suspected that the computer system was malfunctioning, despite having no other source of information to confirm his suspicions. The Soviet Union's land radar was incapable of detecting missiles beyond the horizon, and waiting for it to positively identify the threat would limit the Soviet Union's response time to minutes.
Had Petrov reported incoming American missiles, his superiors might have launched an assault against the United States, precipitating a corresponding nuclear response from the United States. Petrov declared the system's indications a false alarm. Later, it was apparent that he was right: no missiles were approaching and the computer detection system was malfunctioning. It was subsequently determined that the false alarms had been created by a rare alignment of sunlight on high-altitude clouds and the satellites' Molniya orbits, an error later corrected with cross-reference to a geostationary satellite.[8]

Petrov later indicated the influences in this decision included: that he had been told a US strike would be all-out, so that five missiles seemed an illogical start;[1] that the launch detection system was new and, in his view, not yet wholly trustworthy;[citation needed] and that ground radars were still failing to pick up any corroborative evidence, even after minutes of delay.[citation needed]

spoco2: Spock Oh 2 (Although for the most part, the 2 is silent.)

Origins: My login to the university computer systems, automatically generated and is created from my actual name.

To this day there are people (in the real world) who only know me as Spoco... it's just what I was called in Uni.

>> ^Selektaa:
A while ago, I was expecting a package from UPS. I checked the tracking number at work, and it said it had been delivered. "Sweet," I think, and go about my day. When I get home a few hours later, there's no package to be found. I double check the tracking number, and sure enough, it says it was delivered that afternoon.
I call up my friend who works at UPS and has access to their computer system, and ask her to track it down for me. She says the system says that the package was delivered to the back door. WTF? I live in an apartment with one bedroom, and one door. She tells me to check my balcony, and sure enough, the box is sitting up there.
The driver had tossed the box ten feet up, over my balcony railing, leaving it at my "back door". Thankfully it was just a bunch of shirts, so nothing was harmed, but seriously, WTF?

I was reading this post and half expected to see my name at the bottom.
Got home one day and a FedEx label was in my door. "Drat, I missed them," I thought, expecting I'd have to drive across town to pick up my print server, but it said "delivered - balcony". I lived in a third floor apartment, and the package had been tossed from the stairwell, 10 feet up over the railing and onto the balcony.

I was flabbergasted, to the point where I took a few photos of the scene.

A while ago, I was expecting a package from UPS. I checked the tracking number at work, and it said it had been delivered. "Sweet," I think, and go about my day. When I get home a few hours later, there's no package to be found. I double check the tracking number, and sure enough, it says it was delivered that afternoon.

I call up my friend who works at UPS and has access to their computer system, and ask her to track it down for me. She says the system says that the package was delivered to the back door. WTF? I live in an apartment with one bedroom, and one door. She tells me to check my balcony, and sure enough, the box is sitting up there.

The driver had tossed the box ten feet up, over my balcony railing, leaving it at my "back door". Thankfully it was just a bunch of shirts, so nothing was harmed, but seriously, WTF?

I love that old school credit card thing. We have one of those where I work in case our computer system dies. (it has done that before)

>> ^gorgonheap:
To say that man has achieved omniscience about their existence a gross lie.

I don't recall anybody making that claim, I certainly did not. Religious revelation is the only claim to universal and total truth that I am aware of in the religion vs science debate, and this is not a position you seem to be advocating from the religious side either.

I was pointing out that the gaps we are working on filling are gaps we didn't even know existed a century ago. We can now start to formulate theories and study mind as a computational system, the question of what we are as thinking beings is no longer a strictly metaphysical exercise, as science keeps answering questions which religion thought it had in the bag, where is there for religion to stand?

Do we have to construct, again, out of whole cloth, a new magisterium which we believe science will never be able to intrude upon? What do we do when science comes knocking on that door in a decade or two?

Very nice looking, unfortunately you've traded one buggy Daimler-Chrysler-designed white elephant for another Daimler-only one. M-B is rated one of the worst in service issues, mostly due to their over-designed computer systems.

I woulda got a Lexus, like the IS250. The RX400h we have at work is like the Energizer Bunny... in more ways than one...

That all being said, I do truthfully wish you much driving funness and service-call-free ownership.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Golden-Shower-Video-Computer-System-2001Lobo-Animation

In reply to this comment by gwiz665:
We're all taking golden showers...

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I thought 430 W looked a bit paltry overall, so am guessing that will be getting upgraded as well. Twiddles comment was great, I will definitely check on the efficiency of any PSU I end up getting, I just hope they stock decent ones because this is Kuwait and not all the vendors are in anyway savvy when it comes to computer systems, will to sell you schlock just to sell anything.

I like what MGR said about Asus P5NSLI motherboard, I would have to see and check if any of the vendors in Kuwait stock it.

Britans NHS isnt ideal, and our governments inability to properly handle new computer system projects is appallingly bad (there are many other bad examples, including the Child Support Agency debacle, the Junior Doctor placement system (different from the bad NHS one mentioned) and aprently bad contracts messing up the DOD (I have a civilian friend whos enlisted officer boss is going spare at the mess thats being made).

But, I'm not going to begrudge the NHS when they saved my life.

We care a lot about our NHS, and as a result, the Politicians care about it, and like to be seen to care by coming up with reform proposals every 2mins. Thats the shame. Messing things around with reform can do more harm than letting systems embed for a few years like 20.

*quality except you fell into the trap of citing Britain as a shining example of a government run health service.

The profit motive might not work for healthcare, but the political motive to "reform" the entire system from the top down every 5 years is also a big problem, added to the British government's complete inability to implement a computer system.

I know someone who worked in the new "patient choice" system which was supposed to be like a free market under a government umbrella system, and guess what, it's chaos, and her boss was sending out badly spelt letters in Comic Sans to the wrong people for $80,000 a year, completely ignoring the advice of her workforce. There's your British Health Service.

I would say that HUMANS are incapable of running a health service, whether private or public. Some things are just too big for us to comprehend. Perhaps if we sorted out the political system itself, governments would be better at doing these things, you know, like if voter turnout was above 10% and we could actually choose from multiple candidates with more than 2 braincells.

Interesting, obviously a remix and not the original songs video, computer grafix would have looked more like this http://www.videosift.com/video/Golden-Shower-Video-Computer-System-2001Lobo-Animation

You know you're addicted to VS when you got a link to it on the bookmark toolbar on every computer system you possess. Thats 3 PCs and 1 laptop here.