appalachian_fox

Later, Preach. I guess that will force me to be more active on the VI forums -- I like your deals.

All over the floor after it broke. Shame on you!

I'd look in to pre-entry fitness programs for such organizations as the USMC. The USMC has a program that is freely available and includes running, pushups, sit-ups and bend-and-thrusts, which will give you a good all-round workout with a minimal number of exercises and no equipment investment besides your running shoes. It's a bit aggressive if you aren't currently in shape, but you can always work up to it. Don't be afraid to walk when going out for a run, either. Also, there are plenty of exercises available that don't use equipment (a personal favorite is the 8-count bodybuilders). There was a book, something like the Navy SEAL's physical fitness guide, that I have repeatedly seen at Barnes and Nobles on the discount rack in the past for something like $7-$8. The back of it has a bunch of calisthenics and strengthening exercises, most of which can be done without equipment. If it's good enough for the SEALs, who often have to keep on top of things in really cramped quarters, it's more than good enough for a civvie who just wants to get in shape and have some tone. This may sound hardcore, but the beauty of it is you can dial the intensity down as much as you need to. I picked these examples just because they had goals, and setting goals is probably equally as important as a good exercise regimen. A bad regimen could get you hurt, a lack of goals will surely find you on the couch quickly. The FBI has a pretty cool scoring system for new agents: I might pick a target score and want to hit it in, say, six months. Best of luck!

Man, I'm sorry to hear about this, Playaa. I can back up MrDuke here, though, and say he's pretty spot-on. I enjoy my field, but I don't particularly enjoy working. It's not that I think there's a field that I'd be a perfect fit for -- It's more that I'd rather be doing whatever I choose all day. Working for myself, even if I had the next big idea, wouldn't work either. I'd probably never get anything done, honestly. Some anxiety is normal, but even though the thought causes more anxiety you may want to consult a professional. Heck, the fact that you sabotaged a job at WotC should be evidence enough Whatever you decide, know that we're here for you, and work is indeed one of those unpleasant parts of life that, even if we enjoy our field, most of the time we do because we have to. Oh, and if your friend hits it really big, maybe you could, you know, set up some kind of mooching list for your old "buds"

Mmm, beer...Where was that?

I'm glad you guys had fun, but I hope you all treated the staff at the hotel well. They put up with a lot of our crap and have been willing to take us back two or three years in a row now. The first time they didn't know what they were getting in to, obviously, but they knew from then on. I'd really like to get to another Fragfest, and I know how hard the crew works to set everything up. I'd hate to see the hotel decide they didn't want us back -- That's a lot of extra work. Go crazy while in the LAN rooms (and the bar), but make sure you're considerate of the hotel employees and other guests when elsewhere. Have fun, of course, but consideration first.

Man, give us an inch, eh ZD?

If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. Cardinal Richelieu, paraphrased. Of course, that's not the right context from what I remember reading, but still, it's easy to make anyone look like a fool if you hang around long enough and highlight all their slip-ups.

You rock.

What if I was in the Air Force, and I was a Bombardier? Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb ba-bomb. http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnough...12?feedType=RSS

Something's wrong with me. I've never felt this way about a man before, but...but I think I...love you. I use Ghost relatively frequently and Ethereal (Wireshark) is very useful for troubleshooting. I don't imagine you would have use for a debugger as well? That would be nice, but I don't know if that would be useful in your work.

Access? Who's worried about that? It's time to play GAMES, foo!

Access skillz are very useful in certain sectors of the business world, but honestly, I agree with ZD because you can now download SQL Server Express and get a good education (for free) in SQL Server 2005 (it's almost identical with some major limits on DB size and hardware scaling). Plus, you can use that T-SQL experience in Access without losing much in the transition. Ten minutes with Access at that point will get you familiar with the layout and save you a lot of time and frustration. Of course, if Access is big in your workplace (it doesn't really sound like it would be) then familiarity would definitely be worth the time invested.

Seriously, it should be alright, worth the money spent at least, but there are probably going to be some significant differences in some places. Especially since FC 7 is out now. Though I guess nothing's stopping you from installing FC4, working with the book, and upgrading later once you have a handle on the basics. As I recall, they issue a new core number every 6 months, so it's not like you'd be really "far behind".

http://xkcd.com/c287.html And like me, Playaa, I'm sure you'll try. I can't see what the waiter's big deal was, it wasn't that hard, especially if you have a good algorithm. The one thing that bothers me is that he talks about the traveling salesman problem. While NP-hard, it has nothing to do with this special case of the Knapsack Problem. As a teacher would have reminded me, this is actually the subset sum problem, which is commonly fought in cryptography, but since it's still a special case of the Knapsack Problem I don't get so pedantic.

There was...uh...two years ago...when I went...a long time ago...*sniffle*

If not, and you itemize your taxes, you should look into claiming them as an uncompensated business expense, since it's a work-related skill.

Don't forget no-ip.com, or other such services. This way, you avoid the nastiness of dynamic IPs.

Mav beat me to it -- I was looking a while ago, and the RAZR V3xx seemed to suit my desires quite well in a 3G regular phone that tethers through Bluetooth. Battery life wasn't something I was considering from a laptop tether perspective, because my battery time, in all cases, was limited by my laptop, not my cellphone. If you plan on being able to plug in your laptop, keep a spare phone charger in your laptop bag and plug in your phone, too. Also, the RAZRv3xx was on a special deal not too long ago, where I could get one for something like $50 with a 2-year contract. You can probably get one pretty cheap.

Yes. I'm waiting for some kind of quantum black-hole thingie where they can airbrush me in real-time, in the real world.

Wow, this should become the official Linux support forum for the entire world. This is far more helpful than the standard response: "RTFMan pages, n00b! Lololol. That thing you're trying to do is easy, it only took me five weeks to figure out and two hundred some odd steps." Another thing to try is running a LiveCD for awhile if you don't have a spare machine. That will at least get you familiar with what driver issues you might run in to if you were to install it and let you dip your feet in the pool before diving in head-first. If you have a machine you can dedicate to the cause, then just go ahead and install it as suggested above. The level of control and the availability of free software is unparalleled, but you will spend more time administrating and it can be intimidating at times. I echo ZD, get a good n00b-oriented book. The O'Reilly (sp?) System Administration book was a good one, it's probably still good (anything with animals on the cover, in general, is a safe bet). And seriously, the man pages are your best friend, even though you'll get sick of hearing, "N00b, it's in teh man pages n00b!"

You could always make a HOSTS file with the sites you want her to be able to visit and shut off the DNS service (*edit* Actually, I'm not sure you can do this, but you should be able to map all domains to localhost at the end of the HOSTS file, which should work -- If interested, I can test when I get home). That way, it should work with both Firefox and IE. You may be able to do something like put *.*.*.* in the Restricted sites list, and put the sites you want her to be able to do in the Trusted Sites list, but (1) I don't think that will actually stop her from visiting the greater Internet, just shut off active content, (2) It may have unintended consequences (especially letting all okay sites run as "Trusted") and (3) That won't work with Firefox. You could also set up a proxy, but that requires a greater input of time and effort, plus the proxy has to be on anytime she wants to be on the Innerwebz. The plus side, though, is that it scales well (should you have other children / computers you want to similarly restrict) and when the proxy is down, the Web is down. All this, of course, assumes your daughter doesn't aspire to be the next Kevin Mitnick.

How many FPS does it get in CSS?

And to think SETI has spent so much money pointing antennas at the sky...

Im in ur thred capitoing ur catz