taks

certainly once they were occupied they realized the error in their ways... mostly the issues between "us and them" stem from political leaders and their decisions during WW2, but france is a democratic nation so some heat on the people is deserved because, well, the people were the ones that elected them. "cheese eatin surrender monkeys" is a quote by groundskeeper willie on the simpsons, i believe well before the 2nd iraq conflict started up. it is actually a reference to WW2, btw, and their lack of any attempt to keep germany out. taks

uh, yeah. perhaps if she were princess by birth, and queen to be when the current drops off, there may have been an issue. but at that point, she probably wouldn't have been carrying dodi's baby, either. taks

yeah, but not many people living today were around the last time france "saved our asses" over here in the US. nobody, in fact. there are plenty still living (a number dwindling daily) that clearly remember hitler marching into france while the french looked proclaiming to the world that hitler was such a grande ol guy. that's when they earned the title "cheese eatin surrender monkeys" to quote groundskeeper willy. taks

even ve3d didn't mention it though they did mention when the game went gold. i never saw a "MOTB IN STORES NOW!" posting. taks

i had an opportunity to eat some dolphin - well, dolphin fish, aka mahi-mahi - but opted for the cobia this past sunday. it was delish. ;0 taks

now why would anyone want to kick sand in the face. he's a nice enough guy. taks

in CO? yes. already had one in the springs, and another is apparently on the way tomorrow/sunday from what i hear. i'll be in florida, however, from sunday through wednesday for a conference. no snow for me. taks

probably... it's likely attached to the cell site itself, and was damaged in the blast. other services continued to work and fortunately, i had a t-mobile cell with me as well so we did have access outside of the village at copper. taks

WPB is indeed an expensive place to live. it's hard to even live "outside of town" down there at a reasonable price. i was skiing with my verizon wireless buddy last year, who happens to be a director of their midwest network operations, during some avalanche blasting last year. apparently the blasting took down the link between the local VZW tower and the nearest hub (probably in denver), which immediately eliminated their service. we were in the coffee bar below jack's (copper mountain) and mentioned to someone that we had a pretty good understanding of _why_ service went down because of our respective backgrounds (not mentioning the fact that he couldn't get in touch with his office to find out the true scoop) and some lady overheard our conversation. 30 seconds later she asked for more info, and my buddy replied that he was a director with VZW, and immediately she wanted to know why her service in buena vista sucked and expected him to answer. i chuckled and noted that he should've kept his mouth shut! customer service rawks! not. montana probably is cheap, but you get paid less, too (but i'd bet your standard of living would go UP overall, 10% pay cut but 30% cost of living decrease kinda thing). the DSP world is picking up, or at least, oxford has been bugging me more lately. they always seem to want my skills when i'm gainfully employed but not a whisper when i'm looking for work. oh well. denver has been pretty hot lately, btw. taks

no earthquakes here, wildfires are constrained to the mountains since there isn't anything to burn where i actually reside, the occasional tornado out on the plains, no hurricanes, but there are some deadly critters in colorado. we were far enough away from the actual fires in florida that ash wasn't a problem, though i'd imagine those living up in volusia county had it every morning. oh, i should mention, volusia county is where daytona beach is. taks

why so, GD? tired of the RF mapping work? do you do DSP software? taks

careful blue, you're confusing everyone with the facts! close enough for gov't work, bela. taks

LOL! tale wants to torch WILL! is the st. laurent valley very wet or very arid with no vegetation? fires are scary here because there is actually a lot of vegetation (near the mountains) but we are a desert (14 inches of precipitation a year in COS). that's why the haykin fire got so much attention: it could have been devastating to the CO mountains. taks

oh yeah, anecdote over what... a decade? hehe... the drought is due in part from a lack of cyclone activity in the northern hemisphere, i.e. less moisture in the air. this is on schedule to be the lowest cyclone level (ACE index) since 1977, 30 years not 10. i guess it doesn't help that some idiot started at least one of the fires. we had the same problem here in COS right before i moved in to town. it is known as the "Haykin fire." some chick was pissed about something, probably a boyfriend, and torched the mountaiins. grrr... i think god is making a resurgence, too, and he is definitely lining up with eric cartman: hippies are bad. better make sure not to grow my hair back out. gotta chuck all the dead shirts, too! taks

you either live in an ice cave, or there is nothing combustible save yourself where you live. taks

cool, he should be OK then. i lived in melbourne, FL, during all the fires in volusia county back in 2000 (i think, it's been so long i'm not sure of the actual dates). the smell was awful. i lived 60 miles south and even there you couldn't see more than a few hundred yards and the smoke was choking. palm trees have a distinctive odor and it burns your throat when they catch fire. ugh. the problem then wasn't high winds, however. on the contrary, there was NO wind, which is not unusual for the florida coast in the summer (we call the ocean lake atlantic, for reference, because it was so calm due to a lack of wind). that summer just happened to also be desert dry. taks

hehe, you forget that people in san diego don't get paid that much more, their homes are simply worth more. they're all broke paying the mortgage. my buddy had an interest-only loan, and in spite of also working for qualcomm (he's in the highest demand engineering field) making big bucks, he was broke. we of the lesser home values get the occasional steak while those in his shoes eat mostly baloney. taks

yup, a friend of mine lives in a small 3-bedroom affair out there with probably only 1500 sq. feet and his home was upwards of $750k a couple years ago, maybe more (well, maybe less now due to the housing slump). is the airport in san diego threatened at all? we had a consultant out the past few days and he's flying back to the san francisco area via san diego as i type. taks

kick 'em while they're down? heck, they're gone and have been for far too long for digs to mean anything. that said, there is some poetic justice even still, hehe. taks

it's not a matter of destruction, tarna, just interfering frequencies. even current phones still use the same frequency bands, ~800 MHz or ~2000 MHz, for cellular transmission. the modulation schemes are different now than they were even just a few years ago (in fact, my advisor recently told me i should be concentrating on WCDMA or cdma2000 instead of IS-95, but they are all three a QPSK waveform), though the frequencies are the same as they have always been. the equipment these frequencies muck with is likely older technology, that which hasn't been updated to the state of the art. i don't know a lot about airplane equipment, so i cannot speak intelligently about _what types_ of equipment would be affected, but i'm guessing they have some legacy stuff that operates in or around these bands. there's no real reason to update something that works fine, though pressure from the commercial communications industry may ultimately provide motivation to do such upgrades. i'll learn more about airport guidance/radar in the near future (i'm going to consult on a DIA project we're doing), which will give me a little more perspective on the issue. my out of the gate assumption, however, will be that any new technology they want to implement will necessarily be designed to avoid the cell bands as well as wifi and public safety stuff (my company also does the wifi at DIA, btw, as well as all of their frequency planning, which is much more complex than even i expected). we shall see... taks NOTE: DIA = Denver International Airport

oh, yeah, sorry... i meant to say that a meter is defined by the speed of light, not "in 1 second" taks

um, does okku look like he's bleeding profusely from his paws through the remainder of the game, or is it just an Act I thing? taks

cant, it may have just been someone guessing over at the bioware forums. taks

yes they did, but they actually found that there are a few pieces of equipment, related to bearing i believe, that are affected. i don't think these pieces of equipment are widely used anymore, however. taks

what's interesting is that even if it turned out that c was not constant, it is now by definition. a meter is defined as the distance light travels, in a vacuum, in 1 second. it has become circular. taks