Posts by vultar

I've only had passing experience with GIMP, so take this for what it's worth.  The GIMP is freeware (big bonus), so it's worth a try.  The few times I've used it, it felt like a clunkier uglier Photoshop.  A lot of the menus are very similar, but (and I may just not know how to do it) GIMP doesn't seem to have anything like Photoshop's rubylith selection ability, which would make what you're doing much easier.  Also, and this might not matter to you right now, GIMP supports Wacom tablets(absolutely cool pen-based drawing tablets if you don't know.) by making the line more transparent with less pressure rather than thinner like Photoshop.  

Other than that, it feels very Mac-ish as it's menus/windows are disconnected and just kind of hang out. 

The biggest differences I've seen among the programs are how easy or difficult it is to get things done (not a surprise).  The thing is, for the most part, a lot of that's totally dependent on the preferences of the user. 

Have you thought about trials?  Adobe offers free 30 day trials of thier software.  Also if you happen to be a student, they offer fantastic discounts.

If you're going to be doing this a lot, I'd really recommend just going for Photoshop, it's got a lot of power, there's a large knowledge base, and it's proffesional software so you're going to end up with more control, and better results, in the long run.

I don't really know anything about them, but here's what I see from looking it up.  It appears that both the console and keyboard parts of the system have batteries (Cs for the console, and AAs for the keyboard).  The AC adaptor lets you power the console portion via a wall plug, but there's not a similar option for the keyboard.  So which ever way you go, you're still going to need to buy AAs for the keyboard.

More likely than not, it's a good idea to get the AC adaptor if only because C batteries are expensive.  I'm guessing AC adaptor exisits because the console probably eats batteries and the manufacture knows it but wanted to come in under a certain price point.

Is this a 4 year school, and are you going to be a freshman?  It seems very strange that if a degree program requires chemistry, they wouldn't be teaching intro chem.  Are you sure they're just not calling it something else?  In my experience, these intro course exist because they can't depend on the incoming students actually having the knowledge they need.

Now, if it is the case that they really don't teach intro to chemistry, ask them about taking credits at a different school.  If it's a state school, or even private schools, most likely they will accept prereqs from local Community Colleges, just make sure you check first.  You might have to travel for a quarter, but you'll be able to get your education in the basics without putting off your university education.  You also might want to try whatever the lowest chem class you can get into and get yourself a tutor.

Personally, I'd be wary of teaching yourself out of books, and inparticularly off the internet (as no one's making sure the info is correct).  I really don't learn that way, and I only know one person who does; it all depends on the person.  If it works for you, though, go for it.

See the problem with Vista using your memory is that it's trying to predict what you might open, so that 50% usage is 50% of your memory that's tied up when you really need it.  I use graphics programs, and they are really memory heavy.  I've managed to 'out of memory' my top of the line XPS when it's running XP (less than a year old and packaged with it).  I can't imagine trying to run them with Vista.

The point is, your choice really depends on what you want to do with it. 

Also, sauvignon, was it a real fresh install XP disc, and did you force it to boot from the CD before Windows started up?  Vista is hostile to earlier Windows OSs.  If you try to boot from the CD in Vista it makes a claim like that, the only way to get around it is to get it to boot from the CD outside of windows and it has to be a full XP disc (SP2 and up I think), not an upgrade.   You may also run into the Raid issue, which isn't hard to deal with, but makes your life more difficult.  Personally I haven't seen a computer yet that can't be downgraded to XP, some are just worse than others.  The big problems come from the lack of 'offical' drivers for XP machines.

Just a comment on number of classes.  It's not really the number of classes you take, it's the number of credits.  You need at least 12 credits per quarter/semester to be concidered a full time student.  That's generally about 3 classes. 

From what I know, it's generally expected that you do 2 hours of homework a week for every credit hour you take, so for a 5 credit you could have up to 10 hours of homework a week.  That may or may not happen depending on how fast/good you are at certain things; just keep in mind that that's the amount they expect you to be doing.

I've never, with the exception of the school I'm at now, taken over 15 credits (3 classes) a quarter/semester.  The schools don't expect you to, and they're designed to get you out with your degree in 2/4 years taking those 15 credits.

At the school I'm at now, the most credits I've taken is 21 (6 classes, they tend to only do 3 credit classes here), but the program's accelerated, and all of the classes are designed to work together so the students are never really slammed with homework. 

It's not really as bad as it sounds; I just wanted to make sure you're aware that taking the minimum full student course load is neither slow nor lazy.

My surgery was a day surgery, went it in the morning and got out in the afternoon.  I never really had any pain from it, and the scars are very small.  As to any follow up problems, I notice that my tolerance for excessively fatty foods isn't there (not that that's a bad thing) and I have a higher tendancy toward looser stools than before.

mischiefdm, I'm glad the cleanse worked for you, but I'm feeling the need to say that the website you've linked to has some info I know is out of date (descriptions of the surgerical scars), stuff that's flat out silly (the nonesense about realizing they shouldn't eat deep fried potatoes and the attack stopping), and other stuff that I'm pretty certain is also nonesense (I just don't have the medical knowledge to pinpoint what's fishy.)

From what I do know, what's most likely working with 'the cleanse' is that the oil is stimlating the gall bladder, and it's expelling the stones.  You could seriously hurt yourself doing this because you could force a problem into an emergancy.

Original Post by jenniferthepennifer:

Original Post by schnooder:

God she had him for years and years and he never hurt anyone, people train wild animals and they never do anything wrong and then there is a handful that snap when something happens and everyone acts like it's the owners fault for having a wild animal as a pet. It was an accident. The chimp was a pet. It is no one's fault. It does not mean people can't own wild animals. Should they? I don't know. It depends on the situation, the animal, and the person.

I'm sure the lady loved her chimp and I don't know under what circumstances she acquired the chimp. Was it stolen from the wild or born into captivity or what? I do know that it's illegal to own monkeys in her state but that she fell under an antiquity law of some sorts - - since she had him for so long it didn't apply to her. BUT this 200lb wild animal had lyme disease and started acting out. She should have called animal control or a vet or someone and not take it upon herself to give it xanex and possible wine.  It just made it worse and now she will have to live with the thought that she stabbed her beloved pet with a butcher knife and beat it with a shovel AND her close friend and neighbor has been severely mauled!  Ugggh.

Oh, this morning I caught the tail end of my radio show suggesting a 'love affair' between this woman and chimp. I have no idea if they were joking or not but I sure hope so! That would be sick.

If the chimp was 15 years old, most likely she got it from a captive breeder.  Chimps should have had protected status during that time frame and you wouldn't be able to import a wild chimp because of CITES and the Endangered Speicies Act.  If he was significantly older than that, he very well could have been taken from the wild. 

My parents had big cats back in the early 70s, at least, and, I believe, they got Felix, the leopard, from a pet store.  That wouldn't (couldn't) happen now days because of changes to the laws, but you can still find private breeders if you look hard enough.  The 'you can't own that kind of animal' laws are relatively new.

I heard on one of the news stations that the authorities didn't 'officially' know about the chimp, and now there's talk about banning all 'dangerous' exotics (ie not allowing people to buy them (good idea) and making current owners get rid of them).  That second part is about the dumbest things I've ever heard; who's going to take them?  Zoos won't take them, mostly because of muddy pedigrees.  You can't let them go.  Are they going to kill them all?

As to the trank thing, from what I understand about them, tranquilzers are very hard to get to work right.  You need to acount for the animal's size, speices, and how worked up it is.  Even if you know all of that, you have individual differences in critters that are going to make one behave differently than another.  The cops are likely to only get one shot, if they miss, or if it doesn't take, they stand the chance of getting hurt themselves or, worse, having an enraged animal escaping and endangering more people.

Finally, a pet peeve.  Chimps aren't monkeys; they're apes.  I blame Curious George.

I don't know for certain, but I can guess.  In anime, probably coming from Japanese culture in general, you tend to see hair cutting when a character is breaking ties with thier past.  It makes a nice symbolic gesture.

In European cultures it use to be the thing to be overweight and as pale as possible, indicating that you had the funds to eat as much as you wanted and not have to do outside labor to get it.  I'd assume that the hair thing comes from that.  Not only does hair take a long time to grow out, but nutritional problem can make it impossible to have long hair, not to metion long hair requires a lot of upkeep. 

Of course the hair thing could be coming from the fact that hair is the most 'customizable' natural part of the human body.  With no other changes two people can look very different just based on hairstyle alone.

Personally, I would never have long hair.  It can get there between hair cuts, but I don't like the upkeep or the hair in my face.

If you're willing to buy online, Gamestop.com has Wiis, apparently; they're also listing the Wii Fit in stock.  I've never had any problems with buying from them.  If you want to find one in the stores, ask when the store gets its shipments; from what I"ve seen the tend to get about 6 at a time.  Sometimes they haven't put stuff out either, so ask.   Also try going to non electronic/specialty stores.  I got my Wii, the first one I had ever seen about 6 months after launch, from Fred Meyers (a kind of grocery/lumber/household store).  The Wii Fit, we got from Hollywood video.

Nintendo has to be deliberatly creating a shortage because I can't remember a system that was still this uncommon this far after launch.

As to Wii Fit itself, I think it's a lot of fun, and definately makes 30 minutes of excersise go faster.  Obviously, hopefully, you'll eventually move beyond it, but it's still nice to have a form of exercise that's not going to require you to spend a fortune, make you go anywhere, or annoy the neighbors.  I wouldn't doubt we'll see an 2nd version with more advanced stuff at somepoint.

One thing I wish it would do, thought, is let you take the daily tests without doing the weight part every time. 

Are you eating all three at once when you get the headaches, or do you get them whenever you eat any one of the products?  Is it new?  It could be an allergy.  My aunt is apparently very allergic to egg whites (it gives a burning sensation and arthritis like symptoms.)  She lived with it for years before her new doctor thought to do a test.

Just a thought.

Take this with a grain of salt since I don't acctually have any Blu-Ray discs, but from what I know of AV equipment, here's what I'd think is happening. 

This assumes your talking about horizontal black bars.  If you're talking about vertical bars, then it is your TV and that's because the movie is in 4:3 not 16:9 (widescreen)

Firstly you're confusing HD with aspect ratio (which sort of goes together, but not always).  HD has more pixels (making it clearer) and they should be rectangular in shape.  Traditional TVs have square pixels. 

There's nothing that stops a person from hooking up a HD player to a non-HD set providing the player and the set have somekind of compatible jack set up.  Also the oldest HDs were square in shape, like old analogue TVs.

So the 'black bars' aren't from your player, they're part of the DVD video footage.  Letterboxing (the bars) are there to let people with square tvs view widescreen footage properly.  To make sure they don't leave anybody out, the companies use letterboxing. 

 My guess is that the companies are also being cheap, meaning that there compositing one version (letterboxed) and just up or down rezing the footage as needed to create the 'HD' and 'standard' versions.

I'd guess this will change when the digital switch happens, because a lot of people will be switching to the new TVs making the old TV audience small enough to be ignored (although with the economy who knows.)

As to what you can do, not much.  You can, if your TV's capable, zoom in.  Some TVs are better than others.  Mine, for instance, has a Zoom that takes just the letterbox, but, yes, it also take a bit of the stuff on the side.  Also, the only way a DVD would be 'meant' to be viewed with letterboxing is if it where part of the original movie, which happens but not frequently.

Hope this makes some sense

XP use to force you to change your password every once and a while.  There was a way to stop it, but it was pretty well hidden.  If Vista's doing that too, that could be what happened.  Try hitting the enter button on the login screen.  It's possible that Vista thinks your password is literally nothing.  If it works like XP, it would be very easy to change it to that since the message you get askes you to enter a new password and, assuming your password wasn't blank to begin with, a couple of 'enter' presses will set it to blank. 

If you have access to another computer that can burn disks you could try these:

Since you have a laptop, unless you really know what you're doing, don't open it up looking for the battery.  You may end up with worse problems than a locked PC. 

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade /tp/passrecovery.htm

 You may end up with worse problems than a locked PC.  If you can't get it any other way, you can always reinstall Windows, but you'll lose anything on the main hard drive (which is probably the only one in a laptop.)

Actually, as a slight side note, I'm not convinced that there's really a reason to password your computer in the first place.  Most people don't have anything worth protecting, and even if you did, a smart thief could crack it.  The only thing they do is cause you problems.

The Japanese Lit student in me feels the need to speak. 

I personally prefer other forms of Japanese poetry, both the tanka (a five line poem) and the choka (the Japanese long poem) are better in my opinion, but that's just me. 

Haiku comes from an old Japanese poetry game called Renga.  Nobody plays it anymore, but essentially, somebody would start with the first three lines and then the next person would continue on using the last line from the first person's poem as the first line of thiers.  There were all sorts of rules about when and where you could use certain words because of thier visual strength. 

Renga, generally was a comedic form, so the 'funny' haiku are acctually closer in spirt to the original intent.  The perception that haiku should be about bamboo and waterfalls etc doesn't happen until Bashou (I think that's the name) starts writing.  If you read any Haiku in school, it was probably his.

Japanese poetry doesn't rhyme for the same reason that english poetry does.  It's more difficult.  The Japanese language rhymes very easily, so rhyming poetry is considered juvenile. 

Most translations of Japanese poetry are pretty bad because the translators insist on keeping the strict syallble count.  The Japanese love thier puns, and most of them don't translate properly.  For example (and this is one of the only times the English and Japanese work well together) there's a poem where the author (I can't remember his name right now) is declaring his intention to wait forever for his love.  In one sentence, he uses the word matsu (pine/wait) to talk about the unchaning pines on the hills and that he'll wait for her.  You need two sentences in English to even get close to that.

The other problem with English translations is that the Japanese have an extremely long poetic history.  Poetry used to be the thing to do.  If you wanted to thank somebody, contact a girl, send a note, you wrote a peom.  Consequentially, Japanese poetry became very refined and rule bound.  Over time, certain words came to have strict poetic meanings to them that are just untranslatible.   

All in all though, the stuff they make kids do in grade school does suck, and it really shouldn't be called haiku.  English simply lacks the cultural/grammatical structure.

I prefer PC, myself.  I don't get the 'just work' thing mac advocates use.  Admitably, I'm pretty comfortable with computers, so the odd windows issue doesn't bother me, but I've crashed macs before (quite often in fact).  The G5 never did like the Airport we got it so we went back to a linksys for a quarter of the price. 

I just generally feel like Macs play the 'you don't need to know about this' game too much.  In other words, in Windows if I want to find a file, even if I have no business with it at all, I can find it.  You can do it with Macs too, but it's a much more convoluted process.

If you really want a laptop, you need to think about what you're going to use it for.  Generally think of laptops as dead once thier warrenty runs out, because it's generally going to be more expensive to fix one than to get a new one. 

It doesn't sound like you need too much.  My current laptop was about $500 and it runs high end 3D modeling programs, so probably just about any budget machine is going to do what you absolutely need it to do.

Macs tend to be more expensive than thier PC counterparts.  The parts are specific, with some exceptions.  This isn't too big a problem, because you're talking about a laptop and you're unlikely to try to fix anything on you're own.  They also tend to be slower and less powerful overall than PCs.  The software is also much more expensive generally, and you don't tend to get much of a choice.

Macs do do a good job with video though.

Of course everything I'm saying really is more of a comparison between an XP PC and a OSX Mac.  Vista sucks.  I haven't heard of anybody who has it who likes it.  That alone might be a good enough reason to go Mac; I don't worry about it because I'm familar with how to 'downgrade' to XP.

 You might want to try Best Buy, if you have them. They're PSP agreement is terrific.  Laptops may or may not last very long, but if your laptop last throughout a 3 year extended warrenty, it's probably long since out of date anyway.  There are points were even the hardiest machines become useless due to not being able to keep up.

Definately try to avoid non graphics programs for this.  All you'll do is drive yourself nuts and get a crappy result.  Unfortunatley, they're generally fairly expensive, so I can understand.  The other problem with stuff like Powerpoint is that it's going to be a pain to print out.

First thing you need to consider is how are you going to produce these.  Are you going to print them?  Have someplace like Kinko's do it?  That desicion is going to change the file type.  Places like Kinko's can also make folded flyers, which can be very nice, and near impossible to do on your own.

PDFs work wonderfully for this kind of thing.  Once you get everything down the way you want it, make a PDF and you can hand it to just about anybody and you get the exact same result without the setup you might have with a raw file.  This is particuarly cool if you want to hand stuff off to a print shop.

I don't know how much PDF programs cost (I use Photoshop so I don't need a seperate one.)  Photoshop is perfect for this kind of thing, but it's very pricey. I don't know if the cheaper versions of it have the PDF functinality, but if they do, you might want to look there.

As to pictures, do you have a digital camera?  Pictures you find on the web are nice, but they're also low res, so when you put them on a flyer, most likely they're going to look grainy and distorted.  If you have your own camera, go take some pictures, just make sure the quaility's as high as possible. 

If you do end up making these things yourself, be careful of what font you choose.  Flowery fonts are nice in theory, but they're hard to read.  Also keep the audience in mind.  I did something like this for my grandmother's memorial, so I needed to make sure that we got her story told, but that the lettering was also legible for a bunch of 80+ year olds.

I don't know if they have anything you'd like, but you might want to check corbis.com.  They have quite a selection of photos over there.  Nothing beats real photos, but corbis is nice.

You might want to try 'Gimp'.  It's sort of a freeware photoshop.  I'm not that familar with it, but I know that although it's not as nice as Photoshop, it does the job.