Free Republic

Actually, what he said was that his daughter would have to ask herself whether there was any such thing as a good man - or a bad man. The implied observation being that each of us is capable of being either - both - or neither.

Spoken like a true thickhead.

Australians of all political stripes are coming to recognise that depression is not just 'for wusses' - but a debilitating disorder that, if not dealt with, costs the country dearly.

BTW - the head of 'Beyond Blue', the national depression awareness campaign is Jeff Kennett - the one-time premier of the state of Victoria.

And unlike Dr Gallop, he is a Conservative.

(laughs)

I read the first two or three chapters of Digital Fortress - and then left the book on the rear shelf of my car.

After a few days of our summer heat, the binding failed and the pages all came unglued from the spine, and each other.

When I opened a window while driving, the pages were 'randomised' in the back of my car.

The book made more sense that way :-)

Sadim

The best advice I have ever seen is to place the computer in a high-traffic area - like the family room.

You kids will not even try to go to unacceptable sites if there's a chance mum or dad will wander past at any time.

And if they are inadvertantly taken to an unacceptable site, they are more likely to call for help immediately than if they are in their room (where they might try to fix it themselves).

My kids were under 10 when we first went online about 20 years ago, back in the BBS days - so I've seen the 'net change from a text-based medium to the multimedia extravaganza it is today.

The only time I ever had to run a keylogger (or anything similar) was when my dauighter was going thru her 'rebellious' phase in her early teens.

Regards

Sadim

So when, under a Democrat-led administration, authorities decide that niceties such as search warrants are not required, you'll be happy to have BATF agents search your place for tobacco remains, as part of the war-on-cancer?

Ah - modding an xbox is easy (although I had mine done by people who are better with a soldering iron than me).

I understand there are now even solderless mod-chips (http://www.xbox-modchips.com/tutorials.html)

Once the xbox is modded, there are a squillion open-source programs that open the xbox to fulfill its potential.

Mine, for example, is plugged into my home network router.

That means I can use X-Box-Media-Centre (a software addon) to play any media (audio, video, images, etc) that is on any of the hard drives on any of the PCs in the house.

As an example, I often download TV shows that won't air here for months (if ever) to my PC - and then play them on the big-screen TV in the family room via the xbox using XBMC

I can also make safety back-ups of Xbox games to my HDD, play movie trailers on the TV set in the family room (because the X-box is also connected to the 'net via the router) and even listen to shoutcast stations.

Other software that's easily available includes emulators and even an RSS-feed reader, so I can get news crawls from a variety of sources.

Of course, if you don't have an X-Box, there are emulators available for the PC - turning your super-fast hyperthreading dual-core beast into an Atari of C64 :-)

Just do a search for MAME, or m.a.m.e ... Multi-Arcade-Machine-Emulator.

Regards

Sadim

"Now if someone imaginative would port such great, parsimonious game designs to something like PC or Xbox, they'd have a built-in nostalgia market. Sigh"

A chipped Xbox, running a dashboard like EVO, can easily run MAME, or Multi-Arcade Machine Emulator.

I play jumpman on mine, and bank panic, and supermario, every now and then - cause they are more fun than a lot of xbox games :-)

"And the special effects for Babylon 5."

But only for the first season or two.

JMS eventually moved to a Silicon Graphics system ... but I am still impressed at the early Amiga stuff - most notably, the Vorlon ships.

(Crusade's just been released here on DVD - $50 for the entire run. Hmmm. Might have to buy myself a set, while waiting for Serenity - which is not available here until a week AFTER my birthday in February :-( )

Reminds me of that song. "the only one that could ever teach me was the son of a preacher man" I forgot who sang it , think it was in the late 60's.

Dusty Springfield.

Oh, nonsense.

We can't have our cake and eat it too.

Many here accused Kerry of treason - using a fairly wide description of that term.

Perhaps he was .. I dunno.

But Rove's committed a classic case of treason - deliberately outing a secret operative for base political motives - and Freepers seem willing to give him a get-out-of-jail card.

What rank hypocrisy.

Sadim

Yes, well. I am a victim of sexual assault - by (as I say) a Baptist pastor at a bible camp.

And while I do NOT blame his supposed religion for his acts, I will say that the all-male bible camps set up by this man
allowed him, and a couple of his pedophile confreres, to prey on prepubescent (and immediately post-pubescent) boys.

Which is, according to the initial post, what has happened at some madrasses.

My point is that it is NOT the fault of the religion .. but of the evil turds who take advantage of their positions.

Sadim

Hey, I'm no moslem.

But yes, I have read some of the Quran .. along with some of the book of Mormon, the Gita, and a smattering of other holy books.

Plus the Bible, of course ... I was, after all, a Bible student for many years until my teens.

None of which has any impact on my thesis .. that scum will clothe themselves in the raiment of all religions, if they think it will help 'em get into the pants of their preferred sex-partners.

Sadim

Coming to a mosque near you soon! Unfortunately, they're already here and just living the "holy" word of their perverted god, Mohammed.

____________________________________________________

Sigh.

Perhaps you could explan the significance of the religion angle to me.

But bear in mind, I will also expect you to tell me how this differs from the Baptist pastor who abused me at a bible camp.

Regards

Sadim

Like here in Australia, it is an offense if you are (a) over the limit, (b) in the vehicle (or entering the vehicle) and (c) in possession of the keys.

That's considered to be 'in control of the vehicle, as you have the means to operate the vehicle in your possession.

As an aside, the level of drink-driving in Australia is _seriously_ lower than in the US.

Sadim

Yeah! It's always the "good boys" who become criminals.

Following "good guys" (Sarcasm.) such as:

John Kerry--traitor.

Dan Rather--phoney.

Bill Clinton--philanderer.

Please add other names.

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Dangerous game, that! You could say

George W Bush -- coke addict and deserter


NB -I don't actually think GWB was a deserter - but there's easily as much evidence of this charge as there is of Kerry being a traitor.

Sadim

ummm ... been a few years, but didn't the IBM Selectric (the old 'Golfball')typewriter have changeable fonts?

I seem to remember that I had a cursive font, a proportional font, a mono font etc.

And the Selectric II was CERTAINLY in use by the mid-70s - and was in use by the Australian services by then (My father was a CPO (Writer) then - effectively a non-com clerk - and he had one).

P++s off and die you single-issue fanatic.

No regards

Sadimgnik

Because he locked himself up in a hospital, until the drugs could be flushed from his system - and refused to allow any media access until afterwards - when he all-but-claimed to a reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

Kenteris is as bent as a pretzel, and the sooner Greeks acknowledge that their hero had feet of clay, the sooner they can move on to supporting a genuine sprinter.

Or otherwise, they send the message to all the up-and-coming athletes that cheating is OK - and even when caught, if you are good enough your countrymen will look the other way.

Sadim

Some people but Marmite on it but you always get weidos don't you.

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Indeed ... it should be vegemite - the Australian version that is a slightly stronger, saltier yeast extract. Love it :-)

As a sort-of-vaguely-related aside, Campbells sell a variety of soup here in Aus called 'Country Ladle Chicken and Pasta'. There are two variants: one in a can, which is delicious - and one in a microwaveable bowl, which is horrible.

The difference?

The Bowl version is imported from the US, and the can version is produced here in Australia.

At first I thought it was just me - but everyone who has tried the US version agrees - it's almost inedible.

Dunno what it is - but just thought I'd throw this into the mix :-)

Sadim

Problem is ... Dick Cheney kicked the moral high-ground out from under the GOP.

While John Kerry was roundly condemned for using language that many consider inappropriate, that's largely dropped away, because of the VP's intemperate comment.

You ae right, however - the headline is (at best) misleading.

Sadim