Re: Announcing my new Sci-fi Book

Tina_Hall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Tina Hall) wrote in
news:MSGID_2=3A240=2F2199.13=40fidonet_6177541b@xxxxxxxxxxx:

Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taustinca@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tina_Hall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Tina Hall) wrote
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taustinca@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tina_Hall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Tina Hall) wrote

How old can the PC be?

From what I understand, the hardware requirements aren't
much, so long as you have a big hard drive (or array of
drives).

Hm.

An old DOS machine can only take partitions up to 2GB, and
I've recently had a problem with the compuer recognizing any
but one of four such partitions. Couldn't get it to work. (a
6GB drive chopped up into four partitions does work.)

But I guess it isn't supposed to run with DOS, and then we're
back at system requirements for whatever OS you have in mind.

From what I understand, MythTV is a Linus distribution, so DOS
limits are irrelevant. Though the BIOS may not be able to
recognize more than that (or even that much).

Hm. The oldest (hopefully still functional) motherboard I've got
should be some 486 66 thing (I forgot what letters and other
numbers that had inserted somewhere there).

That might be a little too optomistic.

Should be interesting if only to see if I get it to work, though
of course if it's cheaper than buying one new that would be
nice. But I'll have to get a TV card first (however that may
cost), and move into a new flat with SPACE! :)

Mabye $100, last I checked. Might be cheaper now.

I think the hoard of tapes has long since overrun me. <g>

A friend once gave me all his old tapes so I've got plenty
to tape over and over again until they no longer work.

Grocery stores here still sell them cheap, though.

For now. There's a shelf life to the plastic they're made out
of, though.

Heh.

You think I'm kidding?

I've got old tapes that still work. And old floppy disks (for
something else ancient) last better than CDs. (In my experience,
anyway.)

It's fairly long, as such things go, but there is a limit.

Taping something off TV to watch later isn't bypassing any
copy protections, though.

It is if the TV and the recorder have circuitry that prevents
it.

Haven't seen or heard about that. Kind of fails the point of a
recorder, too.

Depends on who you ask. According to the big media companies,
the point of the recorder is to extract more money out of you,
the consumer, for something broadcast for free ues.

ues?

Use.

US copyright law is so screwed up right now it's a crime to
possess tools necessary to perform actions specifically
allowed (and protected) by copyright law.

It's allowed to do, but you're not allowed to have tools to do
it?

Yes. Exactly that. It's really, really stupid.

I'm ever gladder to live here. <g> (This place has its own
stupidity, no doubt.)

Without question.

You're usually lucky if the pirated ones don't include
viruses.

How could they affect me if they never get put into my
computer,
only in the DVD player? (Just curious.)

I recall vague rumors of virus-like stuff that would kill your
DVD player by corrupting the firmware, but I don't know if it
was real. It's certainly possible, though. (Not likely,
however, since that isn't something that can be used as part of
a spam botnet.)

Makes sense.

Because the law says they can't (or will, soon enough). In
the US, we have the end of broadcast analog signals as of
yesterday. That means analog TVs no longer work without
converter boxes of some kind (cable boxes seve this purpose).
The converter boxes *will* have copy controls in them.

I am ever more glad I live here rather than there. :)

It's coming your way.

A lot of stuff is. And we could really do without some stuff
swapping over the pond.

It's mutual. Europe has willingness to trust their government(s)
that most Americans could easily live without. Britain is the
worst, with more cameras than people, but all of Europe is heading
that way.

The EU parliment has, so far, managed to fight off hte special
interests, but it's only a matter of time before the US starts
threatening economic sanctions against any country that doesn't
tow the line.

Heh.

You may be serious, but I doubt that would work.

Maybe. Maybe not. It's not a fight that either side benefits from.

In the flat here, for example, there's only one outlet from
the wall for TV stuff. The round little socket (could be
they're different from what your country has, but it looks
pretty analog to me, in any case). From there it goes into
the video, and from there another (same built) to the TV. A
TV that can't understand that signal wouldn't work, which
kind of misses the point.

It can carry different signals. My digital cable comes in
over 25 year old coax cable, but isn't analog.

Didn't know that.

The cable is a piece of wire, nothing more. Can be used in a
zillion ways.

Yeah. It just looks very old fashioned, analogue. :)

Yeah.

Still, it's all that goes into video and TV here, at least.

You don't have any kind of HD television? I find that hard to
believe.

I heard of 'HD', but am not even too sure what it means.

Something to do with widescreen, or flatscreen, or some other
technology that has not yet penetrated my cave?

Higher resolution screens, usually bigger. The shape of things to
come. 16:9 ratio, like movie screens.

I only got a newer TV last year or so, as in bigger (perhaps 45
inch across, at a guess). Tube, 4*3 (or somewhat around that).
It's got some extra sockets (that I can connect the DVD to),
but they don't help with what's coming out of the wall. That's
just some little round thing (perhaps a quarter of an inch in
diameter), with a nub or tiny tube inside (I forgot which end
is which).

Standard analog TV.

Lazyness does have some drawbacks. :)

Bite your tongue, woman.

Don't call me woman, you!

Bit your tongue, androgynous humanoid! Better?

Heh. Yeah.

Why bother to learn when they get more entertainment value
out of TV.

They probably don't even think about that. ('Cause they lack
the equipment. <g>)

And?

That's all.

People who only watch movies without even knowing what a book
looks like just don't count.

Don't, can't, doesn't make much difference. But they do vote,
in disturbing numbers. Ergo, they run the world.

They're the majority. I blame evolution.

I'm sure evolution is suitably embarassed.

If I understand it correctly, our welfare system actually
gives recipients credit cards now. (Or, more likely, maybe
debit cards.)

I'm not quite sure what a debit card is.

What you have. Linked to a bank account, without a credit line.

Ah, right.

Back when I earned money (even as little as I did get during the
job training), I did get credit on the same card, though.
(Three times a monthly wage.) Even worked in the UK (we went on
holiday there once, and after we came back it was just a little
overdrawn).

I don't think I could pay with it in a shop, though.

Money!? No one's offering me any money! They just expect me
to have been waiting just for them.

I keep telling you how you can get rich. But you're not
interested.

That's different.

Not at all.

They want sex for free, you want me to do funny things in front
of a camera and get rich with it.

Definitions of obtuse on the Web:

of an angle; between 90 and 180 degrees
(of a leaf shape) rounded at the apex
lacking in insight or discernment; "too obtuse to grasp the
implications of his behavior"; "a purblind oligarchy that flatly
refused to see that history was condemning it to the dustbin"-
Jasper Griffin
dense: slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity;
"so dense he never understands anything I say to him"; "never met
anyone quite so dim"; "although dull at classical learning, at
mathematics he was uncommonly quick"- Thackeray; "dumb officials
make some really dumb decisions"; "he ...
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

You are clearly between 90 and 180 degrees.

I'll refrain from adding my minority-of-one opinion on that
(would just lead to flames, and I don't need more help in
filling my killfile).

That's no fun.

We're back to cranky = or != pleasant. :)

Indeed.

I guess it's just that you've got more facts and better arguing
skills. I just run out of words and get fed up with it all very
quickly. It's no fun when people start arguing my quite
sensible, and _obviously True_ statements.

Especially when they are not, in fact, true.

Really, anyone with brains would just see it for themselves, not
need me to back anything up. <g> (And it's not my job to
enlighten the masses.)

Without a doubt.

Well, the last one supposedly had a girlfriend. Didn't like
me on sight, someone said she's jealous, I couldn't
understand why; I'd not want her guy.

Sounds to me like two losers who can't get any, who aren't in
to each other, trying to look more desirable by pretending to
have each other.

Nice theory. They're stupid enough to think it would work,
too.

See how smart I am?

Yep. Admirably.

Surveys indicated that married men are more attractive to
woman that single men, all other things being equal. The
theory is "well, *someone* saw something in him." My theory
is that people are idiots.

I'll second your theory.

Including you and I.

Probably.

Certainly.

I prefer the megalomaniac outlook, though.

So do I, but that doesn't make us any less idiots.

I like my cave, the world looks crazy enough as it is. <g>

I'll bet I could find you cave porn, too. Prolly something with
bear poo.

Ew. That sounds as appealing as goats walking past.

Well, yeah.

Wouldn't be as obvious as an inflatable rubber doll. Guy
can just say "I'll go chopping some wood." and take his
stump along.

I'm afraid to google for this, but I'll bet it's out there.

I don't think I want to know. ;)

I'm certain you don't.

Don't underestimate my curiosity for the weird.

"That which as been seen cannot be unseen."

I recommend something chemically propelled.

Could you be more specific?

Firearms would be the most obvious choice.

I thought they were propelled by combustion (or something like
it).

Combustion is a chemical process, isn't it?

Simple ignition as chemical process? Somehow I expect reacting
substances, rather than just lighting something, if I see
'chemical process'. Splitting hairs I guess lighting something
might fit that, it just still feels wrong.

QED.

But of course you're not allowed to say that to them, or in
public, or else you're intolerant.

The only proper response to political correctness is to look
them right in the eye and announce, "I'm an ***. Get used
to it." Shuts 'em right up.

Heh.

Not sure whether I want to try that.

Then you're an enabler.

What's that?

You enable people to do bad things.

I object to that being a solely women thing, though.

Oh, many men agree, too, but women *always* do.

I would have thought at least the ones with a larger number
of flaws would agree with you. Just so they can feel
better, they would at least claim it.

Apparently, they are more committed to being miserable
because they are imperfect than anything else.

But they noisily claim they're not!

Well, duh.

They flaunt their flaws claiming it makes them just perfect.

And? Do you believe them?

I can see and make up my own mind.

But it's their minds we're talking about.

Not that I care what some stranger looks like (or even people I
know - I don't even look properly at people I know, or
strangers) that's entirely their business. I just think it
stupid of them to publicly announce their obviously delusional
claims, as if they could force anyone to agree.

If there weren't people like that in the world, we'd have no
politicians.

They say most women get plastic surgery to impress other
women, not to impress men. (And men to impress other men.)

Could be. That kind of thing is just not my world. What do I
care what someone else thinks of me? They're just people,
after all, and most people are idiots.

That's the spirit.

Yep.

Well, what I really mean is that here one can get plenty of
attention without any looks at all.

In a "dance naked on the bar singing "LOOK AT ME!! LOOK AT
ME!!" off key, sure.

Those types tend to have smashed bottles thrown at them,
though, or are just ignored.

If you light their toes on fire, they dance with far more
energy.

You're better at that. :)

Yes.

[dentist]
I've had plenty of bad experiences, starting with the moron
who's name aptly translates to "woodpecker", but they're over
at some point. And now I'm just very picky about who I go to.

[...]

I had eleven fillings in one day, once. And three root canals
(different day, but all the same). One root canal so impacted,
the Novacaine didn't work _at all_. I pulled the arm loose on
the guy's chair. But I didn't move my head.

Ow.

It was quite painful, yes. However, it was at my request, because I
am very, very pain tolerant, and I wanted it *over*. Despite enough
Novacaine to make - literally - the entire side of my head numb,
except for the one tooth, in the end I didn't even bother to fill
the prescription for pain pills.

Reminds me of the time the dentist pulled one wisdom tooth which
had one root bent like a tiny foot and was clinging to the
jawbone beneath it. Though I think the time he had to scrape
out some thing I don't know the English word for out of the jaw
(front upper part) was worse. He couldn't anaesthecise (is that
the right word?) the bone.

Had a friend whose roots all curled around the jaw bone. The
dentist had to take a chisel and crack it in to four pieces, and
perform surgey to remove each pice.

Fortunately, I've never had any problems with root canals.

They suck.

What I hate is the winding of some thread stuff around a
tooth-stump to make a print for a crown. That hurts (either
because the aenesthetic has mostly worn off by then, or it
doesn't include the gum, not sure - it's the gum that hurts
when they do that).

Dentists have many, many ways of making us suffer for the sin of
bad gentics.

They knew they were going to do surgery on the arm, but I had
a mild concussion. They won't put you under a general
anesthetic if there's any question of the condition of the
concussion, and they don't like to do so if you've eaten
(because you'll probably throw up when you come out of it). I
finally put my foot down on the water, and told them if they
didn't bring me somthing, I'd crawl to the bathroom and drink
out of the toilet if I had to.

Ow.

Between the knock to the head, and not having any food or water
for three days, I was only vaguely aware of most of it.

Probably for the better.

Yes.

That might have convinced them I was in good enough shape for
the surgery.

Heh.

It was actually kind of interesting, if you know anything about
American HMOs. At the time, in California, it was virtually
impossible to sue your own HMO, no matter how negligent they
were. And Kaiser Permanente had a repulation as one of the
worst. But I ended up in the emergency room (where it's a crime
to turn me away), as a non-member, which means I could sue them
for any little mistake, with an obviously broken wrist, the
shoulder on the other side so bruised they thought there was
nerve damage, bleeding out my ear (from a piece of gravel in
the ear canal, as it turned out) and couldn't remember the
accident. I literally had the head of each department work on
me. The head of orthopedic surgery put the pin in my arm, the
head of neurology examined my shoulder, and so on. Excellent
job, on all counts. Their accounting people, on the other hand,
were so retarded their own collection agency recommended I sue
them, and they (the collection agency) would testify for me.

Heh.

Things like that usually seem more fun once it's all over and
done.

It ended up being fun at the time, actually. Having gotten that
advice, I took it. Called up the "accounts receivable" number out
of the phone book (the number on the bill was busy, since they'd
sent out 11,000 bogus bills), and when the nice woman asked how she
could help me, I told her I needed the correct address to serve the
papers for a lawsuit. 90 second later, I was talking to the head of
non-member billing for the west coast, who gave me her private
number (which she personally answered every time I called), and
three days later I had a letter saying I didn't owe them anything
and they'd take care of the collection agency. Accountants do *not*
like explaining to a jury why they did something illegal.

Not remembering the accient reminded me of one I had as a child
that I can't recall either. I only remember pushing my bicycle
up an underway, heading back home (after initially going the
other way to visit a friend), and meeting a girl from school
who asked me something (I forgot, but it was prompted by the
two grazed patches on my face) but me not too present to get
that something was wrong. I just mumbled something and went on
home, pushing my bike all the way. My grandmother called her
clueless surgeon, he diagnosed a mild concussion and I could
stay in bed for a week or two with comic books. :)

I recall topping a hill on the way home from work, thinking
"there's a lot of gravel on the side of the road tonight." And
waking up with a paramedic trying to determine if I was still
alive.

On the other hand, I think it was during a holiday. I recall
both times I was sick as a child it was during a holiday (the
other time was measles). The time I twisted my ankle (much
later, during the job re-training) was the friday just before
Easter holiday started, too. My luck. <g>

No doubt. Perhaps you sprung, fully grown, from Zeus'
forehead.

LOL. That must be it.

I'll just call you Athena from now on.

:) Fine. As long as you don't call me Woman. <g>

(Perhaps I should read up on mythology and find out more.)

That's the origin story for the greek goddess of war Athena.
It's a good comparison.

And you're Zeus? (What with everyone just being a figment of
your imagination...)

It's a plausible theory, sure.

God of war is fine (I was worried it might be something like
fertility), the -ess is debatable. (I just hate it that they
disfigure all nouns in German, adding the equivalent to -ess to
everything. Damn feministessessess.)

No, Athena is definitely an -ess

From http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/athena.html:

"Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry,
justice and skill."

She's usually portrayed as ass kicking hot.

Easily distracted by brightly colored objects?

More by thoughts, really. The problem is not noticing much
outside (my head), after all.

Though I like the occasional brightly coloured object
(uni-colored, no patterns). All the better if it's brightly
coloured light.

So you chase laser pointers like a cat?

Heh.

Now, that wasn't well thought out, was it; for that I'd have to
move! <g>

Yeah, well. Cats often feign laziness, too, unless there's play to
be had.

I wouldn't mind some insanely blue and red neon light sign just
across the street, though (if my window were facing any street,
that is).

I'll make a Californian of you yet.

Too hot. Anything beyond 15C is awful. :)

Bah. Sissy Californians put on heavy coats at such low
temperatures. We only have two seasons here: summer and wet
summer (though on alternate years, economy permitting, we might
substitute road constructions season for one or the other.)

LOL.

We've got that season, too. I think it's lasted for two years or
so now. First they tinkered with the crooked crossing,
enlarging the pavement, adding bicycle paths, and redirecting
traffic somewhat, we even got a statue, and three trees! (Three
Trees! The greenest city of all of Europe or something[*] - I
always forget of what - and they highlight that in the
announcement.) Now they've chopped off half the bridge, and all
the improved traffic for bicycles went down the river. Not that
the traffic _light_ for bicycles across the road is all that
nice, it apparantly only turns green on odd hours or something.
<g>

(Ok, I'm slightly exaggerating on the last bit.)

We had one section of one street torn up for over two years once.
Major steet, too. They tore it up to replace the water main. When
that work was done, they decided that while they had it torn up,
they might as well replace the sewers, too. Then the electrical
lines, then the street light controls, and so on, until they had
replaced everything under the street, one utility at a time,
beginning each new project after the old one is done.

Had they planned it right, it would have taken maybe a couple of
months.

[*] We've got a full blown forest in the middle of the city. But
I always prefered the joke that the trams are green so city
children can see something green, too.

In southern California, even the green isn't green. (It's the
native plants. They have a high amount of certain oils common to
desert plants, that makes them much darker green with a brownish
tinge. Or it's just tradition - everything here is brown: the
trees, the grass, the air, the people.)

Reminds me of a school trip where some people were carving
stuff. I wanted to carve something, too. I was warned. I
didn't listen. The scars on thumb and forefinger (on the
inside and on the outside respectively - how it went in two
different directions is still a mystery) are still visible.

But nothing worth a trip to a hospital, just very bloody on
the way back from the forest to where we were staying.

I recall learning to wear shoes outside in a similar fashion.

Ow.

Yeah. To this day, I *never* go outside without shoes. If I
were the swimming sort, I'd wear shoes in the pool.

Heh. Depending on the state of the pool, that might even be a
wise move.

There is that, too.

My supposed mother once stepped into a huge glass shard in
some pond, that didn't look pleasant either.

This was a broken-in-half handlebar for a bicycle, a metal pipe
about an inch in diameter, that I stepped directly on the bad
way. Had a scar for years.

Ouch.

Yes.

I just had lamp and front break fly at me all of a sudden once,
which I found amusing rather than worrying. :)

Oh, and I once had a bike that didn't have the front wheel fixed
to the frame. I knew how to ride it. Some other kid wanted to
show off and did a 'highstart' (just riding on the back wheel).
Didn't go well, but no injuries either.

Comedy is all in the timing. And hiding the blood.

--
Terry Austin

Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more ***. -
David Bilek

Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.
.

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