There are a bunch of MP3 programs now have compressors/normalizers. No I haven't yet as I've had zero time to screw with that stuff. Someone around here must have a good recommendation for one though.


"What are you looking at, Sugartits?"
- Mel Gibson.

I was waiting for the PS3 lady to attack the Wii chick. Either that or the PS3 Marketing people to show up and stand in front of her.

I vote we outsource our military.

Ahahhaaa....it's already been done in some capacities. Some functions that were traditionally functions of the active military are now handled by civilian contractors, especially the areas of reconstruction and advisory of a government whom the US/allies are propping up. Intelligence gathering also tends to be outsourced sometimes and even some private soldiers are utilized.

Hell, the way warfare is conducted has changed since I went in and was discharged.

I vote we outsource our military.

The prosecution of war is, I think, far too removed from American society. We try to insulate ourselves from the "bad stuff". To borrow a line from Zulu: "The people don't like casualties, it upsets them at their breakfast"; casualties are upsetting to Americans because it causes our carefully laid insulation to be broken down a bit.

That's a "no crap" statement, not to sound uncouth or such. I'd rather not go back to the days when the conventional wars were fought and measured in the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers and even more civilians. You try to find a psychological reason for it but really it's the become the nature of the civilized world to abhor war and it's nasty effects on its populace.

You mention societal insulation from the "bad stuff" as in regards to the US but I've seen and continue to see the same thing occuring in other nations. Canada looses a soldier or a group of soldiers and suddenly the validity of their soldiers deployed to Afghanistan (which is a gravy deployment) is questioned. A lot of Europe is the same way.

The comparison with Oreos is a nice generalization of expenditure, and I personally think the defense budget is bloated even for all the activities the military is currently engaged in (deployments and conflicts another issue altogether).

The U.S. Defense Budget, Explained with OREO Cookies:
http://videosift.com/story.php?id=6415

Pretty interesting. The one issue I draw with it however is the demonstration of Oreo's spent on defense by potential adversaries. The key thing that both Smiley and Cohen were overlooking is that while some of that extra spending is lost to waste, much more of it is directed towards efforts that increase the survivability of soldiers on the battlefield. Ensuring that soldiers have tough, realistic training and have well maintained equipment, something that the adversaries mentioned on the video don't do, are tremendously expensive but also tremendously effective at increasing survivability.

Given that most Americans are glad to have a strong military so long as it's someone else that is doing the soldiering, this isn't as clear cut as the video might make it seem. Since most Americans are unwilling to serve in the military, the available manpower pool available for the application of military power is quite small. Granted, we can theoretically draft every able bodied adult in the country but such callups would only ever be justifiable in a life or death conflict, something US dominance is likely to prevent for the forseeable future. A small manpower pool therefore necessitates that the soldiers that make up that pool must be more effective than the enemy they oppose. To be more effective than a potential adversary, soldiers will need superior weapon systems and superior training, both of which cost a lot of money.

While anyone can see the Oreo cookie demonstration and feel disgust, I doubt many Americans would honestly say they don't want the assurance that their military can easily defeat any conventional threat. That assurance can cost either money or casualties. I think most Americans will opt for paying in cash.

My own sense is that the cost should be in casualties. The prosecution of war is, I think, far too removed from American society. We try to insulate ourselves from the "bad stuff". To borrow a line from Zulu: "The people don't like casualties, it upsets them at their breakfast"; casualties are upsetting to Americans because it causes our carefully laid insulation to be broken down a bit. By making war a communal endeavor it removes the immorality of paying someone else to do your fighting for you, and also tends to make conflict far less likely. That however is just my opinion.

Needs work.

The house or the blog?

I think the photos are too small - I'll have to play with uploading different sizes and see how that goes.

Also need to play around a bit and see what all the options are with that site....



There will come a moment when you have the chance to do the right thing.

I love those moments. I like to wave at them as they pass by.

OK, ask and you shall receive!

http://house-update.blogspot.com/

Needs work.

Alternating Logo (GreaseMonkey script):
http://www.ualr.edu/szsullivan/scripts_/BluesNewslogo.user.js

BluesNews community frappr page:
http://www.frappr.com/bluesnewsmembers

OK, ask and you shall receive!

http://house-update.blogspot.com/



There will come a moment when you have the chance to do the right thing.

I love those moments. I like to wave at them as they pass by.

I am going to put it into my sister's house... and shoot through a window facing our place

You might want to put the camera in a box (with a hole for the lense - duh) because leaving things on windowsills can damage them, especially cameras. I was amazed at how sunbleached the dvd cases on the top of the pile on my windowsill got in just 2 weeks.

Did you ever get your webcam / time-lapse camera sorted out? I guess major developments will be posted here for us to laugh at / sympathise / etc but a blog might be kind of a cool idea.

A. I know nothing about blogging. Might be interested if it is easy. How is something like this?

http://www.blogger.com/start

B. I got this camera:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/s1is.html

as it has the intervalometer feature. I tried it once in Hawaii over Thanksgiving and made a quick demo clip and it seemed to work fine. I am going to put it into my sister's house (next door to where we are building - family compound, you know) and shoot through a window facing our place. The angle isn't the best, but for ease of use, security of the camera, temperature/moisture control, and access you cannot beat it out there unless I dumped a lot of time and effort into it. That's fine, though. I'll be taking a lot of other photos as well - that will just be for the fun of it.



There will come a moment when you have the chance to do the right thing.

I love those moments. I like to wave at them as they pass by.

you asked about a (free) program to equalize the volume for a group of MP3’s. Did you ever find one, and if so what was it? I want to do the same for my MP3 player.

It's called mp3gain -- available on Windows or Linux. Windows even has a purty front end available.

I'd like to find something that will generate beat counts on Linux, but the only one I've found (bpmdj or something like that) looks to suck ass for command-line use.

Various responses:

but that's going to be very expensive to build you know.

It's just shy of £1000 without VAT (sales tax), which I won't be paying. It's a 3 or 4 year "investment" (like my last one). I'd rather go to the hassle of researching and constructing the computer every four years and spend £1000 than doing one every 2 for £500. Plus everything else (case, drives, hard disks) is being recycled. Nice flat panel monitor is one of many treats I have lined up to blow my first lawyer salary cheque on

Unless you've really got cash to burn, avoid the PC8500 and get the 6400 instead

Ah... Ok. Good point. I'll check the price difference.

Things are moving in the right direction!

Did you ever get your webcam / time-lapse camera sorted out? I guess major developments will be posted here for us to laugh at / sympathise / etc but a blog might be kind of a cool idea.

Or if anybody else knowns...I am a whore and will "take it" from however wants to "give" it to me.

Is Mp3Gain the sort of thing you want? http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/. It's what I used to normalise all my mp3s. Leave it doing overnight and it'll do the whole lot. And it comes in Zathrus-friendly open source distributions too.

I'm going with AM2 and a MSI mobo and vid card. MSI kicks ass.

I was gonna do that too, until Conroe came out. Beats AMD in price and performance. Haven't had Intel for a while.

I have no idea why you are having so much trouble Batman...crazy.

Well, it showed now, and it is the one that is a mix between CS S and BF? Maybe? I dunno. It always shows at home, so I assume it is some kind of caching here at work.

I can't complain though, because they don't restrict any sites except for sites that are pass throughs, ie: advertisement links via google (right side bar), etc.

**********************************************
Listening to: http://www.xmradio.com/programming/channel_page.jsp?ch=53
FUNGS 53

Squirrel Count: Catch & Release: 11 Shot: 2

Hey Cutter, back when you where known as “Halsy” you asked about a (free) program to equalize the volume for a group of MP3’s. Did you ever find one, and if so what was it? I want to do the same for my MP3 player.

Or if anybody else knowns...I am a whore and will "take it" from however wants to "give" it to me.

Alternating Logo (GreaseMonkey script):
http://www.ualr.edu/szsullivan/scripts_/BluesNewslogo.user.js

BluesNews community frappr page:
http://www.frappr.com/bluesnewsmembers

I have no idea why you are having so much trouble Batman...crazy.

Alternating Logo (GreaseMonkey script):
http://www.ualr.edu/szsullivan/scripts_/BluesNewslogo.user.js

BluesNews community frappr page:
http://www.frappr.com/bluesnewsmembers

I'm going with AM2 and a MSI mobo and vid card. MSI kicks ass.


"What are you looking at, Sugartits?"
- Mel Gibson.

Dirt is being moved around for the building pad ofr our planned abode. Driveway culvert is in as well. Things are moving in the right direction!

Exciting news. Keep us posted (start a construction blog).

Image isn't working homes:
UALR
University of Arkansas
at Little Rock

The website you are trying to access
(www.ualr.edu)
is currently unavailable.

Please try again later.

Thursday, 2006-08-10, 10:18:52 CDT


**********************************************
Listening to: http://www.xmradio.com/programming/channel_page.jsp?ch=53
FUNGS 53

Squirrel Count: Catch & Release: 11 Shot: 2

They could be cheaper by the dozen, so put me down for one as well. Me likey.

Yeah, count me in, we aren't at a dozen yet!

**********************************************
Listening to: http://www.xmradio.com/programming/channel_page.jsp?ch=53
FUNGS 53

Squirrel Count: Catch & Release: 11 Shot: 2