taks

i think you are correct, stevethaibinh. even the relatively short bioshock demo was a huge file. am i correct in what i've read that the demo is in polish? taks

i suppose that usually if i hit "reboot later," i'm actually installing something else as well and it doesn't interfere with that. i don't reboot till i have all my installs done. taks

this may be an option you can set... i don't recall getting bugged every 5 minutes... vista or XP? taks

matlab is quite stable with XP (and 2000). most of my other issues with vista are simply due to all the formatting changes, which makes it hard to search through and solve problems i know how to solve on XP. i have the same issue with macs, btw: i just don't know the interface (well, that and the screwy one-button mouse thingy). my boss is a mac user and we often have to struggle to get office documents formatted so we can both see/edit them, that's a real pain, particularly since i have the latest MathType installed, and he does not (MT is the "advanced" equation editor, which basically means i have certain fonts and symbols that he doesn't have). taks

hehe, i told my son that he had to go shopping with me for momma (while she was out shopping for the two of us) and he got a bit bent out of shape being a momma's boy and all that. well, being the negotiator that he is, he ran into his toy room and picked out some motorcycle toy and said "here, i'm going to give this to momma so now i'm done. i want to go with momma." of course, that wouldn't do, and he went with me anyway (after a small battle) but was steadfast on getting her a motorcycle toy - one that he could play with later, of course. taks

that would indeed make the world more aggravating for me. you don't have to spend a lot on a spa, btw. usually massages are a buck a minute. i bought my wife a gift certificate for one a while back and she simply went in and picked out the things she wanted done over the course of a few visits. this year i'm doing things a bit differently than normal. normally, my brothers and i get a nice b-day gift for mom (yes, an xmas baby), but no xmas-only gift. sometimes in the past we would combine efforts and get something bigger, but more recently we all just bought separate gifts. xmas shirts were the norm since my mom is a big xmas fan. she's finally gotten to the point that she keeps saying "i don't need anything" so i'm going the route of "want." she's going to get some good chocolate covered cherries (russell stover), several jars of really good local jelly (from a farm where we get our pumpkins), probably some hot cocoa mix kit (i.e. a mug, the cocoa and some treats) and perhaps a few other items. basically, the types of things she can sit around and indulge upon by herself (since she recently became "by herself") while ignoring the world around her. taks

ah, a known issue, eh? i had not heard of that one. now if i can just get matlab to stop hanging (actually, i know how to avoid the hangs simply by not doing certain things, but inevitably, i accidentally do them on occasion without intent). taks

no, instead we get all of the multiple personalities that are identically equal to hades... sand, visceris, etc. yes, kaftan, i understand... you are being forced! it's a covert mind control thingy. succumb or else! taks

wow. i find vista to be much less stable than XP. of course, i'm running programs that most in here have never even heard of. i can't tell you how many times my video driver has just suddenly "stopped," only to turn back on with a message that says "your video driver unexpectedly stopped and has restarted." WTF? granted, i have a tablet laptop from HP so it came with all the virii the manufacturer installed, but i have removed most of that crap (as well as an inadvertent removal of the processes that deal with the screen buttons that control various "features" of the laptop, which i have since re-installed). as an aside, i hate the changes they made with office 2007. the interface is definitely slicker, but i don't find it nearly as functional. at least, they moved things around enough that there is a learning curve to find everything anew. some things are no longer located where you would logically expect them to be. taks

annoying, yes, but also necessary, at least to some degree. the problem is that updates/changes/installs don't modify the current running kernel (or at least, its parameters which enable updates/changes/installs to work properly). instead, they modify what is saved on the HDD. in order for everything to work properly, one needs to shut down and restart so that everything comes up in the proper order. simply allowing such things to work as soon as the update/change/install was applied could easily lead to conflicts since some of the new parameters were not in place when other dependent processes originally started. keeping track of what to change within a running system would be a nightmare. you'd have to change every single instance of every global and local copy of each parameter. you'd also need to modify every dependent process to handle the new behavior of whatever has been changed. simply pulling a process out of memory then putting the new one back in is not sufficient particularly since many of them are staged to start in a specific order. now, that said, i noted that it is necessary to some degree. i don't like windows' solution either. linux, OTOH, simply requires that the user log off, then back on, for changes to take effect. this is much more efficient and does not require the repeated stress of a power-cycle. the same goal is accomplished, the kernel is restarted with all the new parameters in place, but no power-cycle is required. it seems to me that windows programmers could manage to figure out a way to make this happen. taks

well, the government is probably the single largest purchaser of windows/microsoft-based software. they like to say they're "in with linux" but in reality, nearly all of their systems are running Win2k or earlier. they might be starting to upgrade to XP by now, perhaps on newer systems as they buy them. it's simply so much easier, and cheaper (if you count learning curve) to use the standard offered by winders. granted, linux has gotten to the point where it is fairly user friendly, but there are still some things that require a little bit of knowledge about linux. i had my linux guru in the office today helping me with an install (on a dual-boot machine) as a matter of fact... taks

into, a missionary position, is probably what really went down. she must've said "not this soon," or something... so he went a gunnin' for vengeance. taks

linux. taks

i used to work next door to that place. one of the camera shots that showed the big tent in the foreground and the new life building immediately behind it (with pike's peak way off in the distance) was where i often stopped for a quick smoke break. it is sad that people can become unhinged to the point of willfully killing others for no real reason. yes, i know he "hated christians," but that's not a real reason, that's just mental instability. lots of people in the world "hate christians," but they aren't all blowing them away to solve their problems with them. taks

john gets a new pooh xmas movie this year, too. ttfn, taks

there's nothing wrong with that... i intend to give my son the new futurama movie on xmas eve so the two of us can watch it that night. yeah, yeah, sure, it's a gift for me, too. oh, and my HD tv arrives wednesday, nearly 2 weeks before xmas. we contemplated an xbox this year, btw, but my wife and i both voted it down since john (son) has enough video games already (DS, leapster as well as all the stuff he plays on various computers throughout the house) and an xbox would only heighten his aggravation that results from playing too many games. i don't really have time to even play my PC games as it is, so there's no reason to do a console till my b-day in july. taks

everyone i know that does both says the same thing. the learning curves are different, steeper for boarding, but it levels off quicker (less to learn overall). taks

btw, wolf creek got another 30" last night. they went from 18" to 137" total snow in less than 2 weeks. yay. taks

that's not really that big of a problem except in certain areas. i learned in melbourne, FL, and nobody is really all that territorial. also, the "territory" boundaries are usually county by county, so if you're attempting in the county you live in, you'll be fine (they look at your license plate). though i've never boarded, i think the problem is that your feet suddenly shoot forward and you naturally put your hands back to break your fall. if you don't, it's your tailbone and head, if you do, your wrists. that you know how to fall may be beneficial, however. given that you have such training, then you also understand the problem of falling while tensed up. that's really what's happening when you're going slow and fall. your body is tense, and you end up trying to hold it back. when you're going fast and fall, and you can watch this with others, it's like being a ragdoll tossed around. it looks violent, but it's actually a safe way to fall (well, within limits, of course). taks

trying too hard to control your body when you should just let it go. when you're going fast, you have no choice but to do some dramatic wipeout and your skis will pop off immediately. going slow, however, you end up contorting your legs in a strange manner and in a way contrary to the way bindings work. oh, i've never had a ski hit my head though i have had some dramatic wipeouts. that happens usually only with people that are trying to ski outside their ability or otherwise distracted. taks

I can imagine falling while snowboarding being much nicer than falling while skiing. I can't imagine hitting yourself in the head with your own snowboard. A ski on the other hand... uh, well, actually, falling on a snowboard can be much more dangerous. skis come off to keep you from breaking a leg, boards don't. getting hit in the head with a ski is not where most injuries come from. usually they are from getting your skis tied up in a way that the bindings won't release and a broken leg results (oddly, most injuries i've witnessed were a result of going too slow). on a board, however, you tend to fall backwards which results in two major injuries: broken wrists and a cracked skull. the former is from putting your hands down to stop your fall, the latter is from the pendulum effect when you whip over backwards and your head hits the ground. helmets are considered a necessity for boarders, but most skiers do not wear one (i don't, not even in the glades). taks

not if you already know how to surf... THAT is ridiculously hard to learn, particularly when you weigh 225 lbs. (240 now). people tend to think this, then they accidentally slide onto a black and realize that it will take a few more weeks to get things going. taks

it's probably your monitor... CRT or LCD? taks

oh my, oh my, oh my. while i cannot spend a whole lot of time skiing this season due to work/school/teaching, and i was quite depressed about the snow conditions to begin with... i'm stoked about what has been going on in the colorado mountains this week. wolf creek has over 5 feet of snow in the last week, and crested butte, where we're thinking about skiing for new year's, got THIRTY FREAKING INCHES LAST NIGHT ALONE! holy guacamole. yay. taks

wikipedia is fine when the content is objective rather than subjective. this includes situations with objective content with subjective interpretation. for example, if you want to find information on the law of sines, wiki is a good place to go. at the very least, they'll provide appropriate references to the source material. there's no interpretation to be made. there are occasionally errors, but anyone is allowed to correct them and, hopefully, the "moderator" for a particular topic (generally he's moderator over a range of topics) has enough knowledge to judge the efficacy of the edit. this example, however, certainly has a seemingly auditable paper trail, but the motive/intent of what is going on is subjective in nature. hence, no one interpretation of the events is absolutely "correct," though some may be more "correct" than others. i had not heard about the overstock issue, btw, till now. interesting. taks