Cid_MCDP

Some of those stats are appalling like, aren't they? Y'know, for reals, if I ever took a couple of you guys down to East St. Louis, you wouldn't be at all surprised why we don't have stuff like nationalized health care. I used to go into East Saint like 2 or 3 times a week in the late 90's when I was working for a computer services outfit. I honestly didn't think places like that existed in the U.S. It was like driving through a warzone- no street signs, burned-out buildings tangled in vegetation, no painted traffic lines on the roads. It was unreal- public libraries and schools that never turned on their lights because their budgets didn't afford it. The main hospital had an emergency room entrance with cameras and a buzzer system to open the door. The projects had fences and gates around them, and just like the hospital, you had to be buzzed in (course, I saw people actually jump the fences as I was standing, waiting to get in, lol). One old guy who was a minister at a nearby church asked me to park at the church and walk down the street to his house (it was about half a block away). The reason? He didn't want me parking the computer van in his driveway- then everyone would know he had computer equipment in his house (and would come steal them). The first time I went down there to work on a printer, I asked the client for directions to his business. He gave me a burned down building as a navigational landmark. Crazy, right? The fucked up thing was when I got there, I wasn't sure which burned down building he meant- there were several. I used to believe that if somebody hadn't made something of himself, it was largely due to the individual. After working in and around East Saint for a couple of years, I realized there are more people in this country who are completely and totally fucked at birth than anyone would care to admit. And from reading that bit about Detroit, it actually sounds worse. You lot need to take your country back. True dat. Forgot to mention, any of you lot see Escape From New York? They filmed in East Saint largely to save on set dressing and construction costs. For reals.

Nice!

Some of those stats are appalling like, aren't they? Y'know, for reals, if I ever took a couple of you guys down to East St. Louis, you wouldn't be at all surprised why we don't have stuff like nationalized health care. I used to go into East Saint like 2 or 3 times a week in the late 90's when I was working for a computer services outfit. I honestly didn't think places like that existed in the U.S. It was like driving through a warzone- no street signs, burned-out buildings tangled in vegetation, no painted traffic lines on the roads. It was unreal- public libraries and schools that never turned on their lights because their budgets didn't afford it. The main hospital had an emergency room entrance with cameras and a buzzer system to open the door. The projects had fences and gates around them, and just like the hospital, you had to be buzzed in (course, I saw people actually jump the fences as I was standing, waiting to get in, lol). One old guy who was a minister at a nearby church asked me to park at the church and walk down the street to his house (it was about half a block away). The reason? He didn't want me parking the computer van in his driveway- then everyone would know he had computer equipment in his house (and would come steal them). The first time I went down there to work on a printer, I asked the client for directions to his business. He gave me a burned down building as a navigational landmark. Crazy, right? The fucked up thing was when I got there, I wasn't sure which burned down building he meant- there were several. I used to believe that if somebody hadn't made something of himself, it was largely due to the individual. After working in and around East Saint for a couple of years, I realized there are more people in this country who are completely and totally fucked at birth than anyone would care to admit. And from reading that bit about Detroit, it actually sounds worse. In this country according to the last census there are 584591 who are in the same boat, calculating the population of Liverpool and Middlesbrough. Lol?

Game is on ESPN360 for us non-lercals.

Some of those stats are appalling like, aren't they? Y'know, for reals, if I ever took a couple of you guys down to East St. Louis, you wouldn't be at all surprised why we don't have stuff like nationalized health care. I used to go into East Saint like 2 or 3 times a week in the late 90's when I was working for a computer services outfit. I honestly didn't think places like that existed in the U.S. It was like driving through a warzone- no street signs, burned-out buildings tangled in vegetation, no painted traffic lines on the roads. It was unreal- public libraries and schools that never turned on their lights because their budgets didn't afford it. The main hospital had an emergency room entrance with cameras and a buzzer system to open the door. The projects had fences and gates around them, and just like the hospital, you had to be buzzed in (course, I saw people actually jump the fences as I was standing, waiting to get in, lol). One old guy who was a minister at a nearby church asked me to park at the church and walk down the street to his house (it was about half a block away). The reason? He didn't want me parking the computer van in his driveway- then everyone would know he had computer equipment in his house (and would come steal them). The first time I went down there to work on a printer, I asked the client for directions to his business. He gave me a burned down building as a navigational landmark. Crazy, right? The fucked up thing was when I got there, I wasn't sure which burned down building he meant- there were several. I used to believe that if somebody hadn't made something of himself, it was largely due to the individual. After working in and around East Saint for a couple of years, I realized there are more people in this country who are completely and totally fucked at birth than anyone would care to admit. And from reading that bit about Detroit, it actually sounds worse.

I do the same thing! Thought it was just some weird part of my brain, but I wonder about how many times I've done some random everyday kind of thing all the time. Stuff like... How many cigarettes have I smoked? How many beers have I drank (and amount/ brand)? How many times have I had sex? How many times have I masturbated? How many times have I breathed? How many times have I blinked? How many steps have I taken? How many miles have I driven? Just random bullshit...

ROFL.

Play Joey in the first match he's fit. If he does his job and is successful being a part of the team, great. If he's not, Alan can choke him in the locker room at the half.

All the rocket tech and nukes they got from Germans. The first road cars were also invented by Germans, Benz if I iirc..I thought Konrad Zuse (yes Renton not an american name ) the GERMAN invented the first computer in 1936... Soooo, I'll give you consumer goods. Is there really any point of the likes of you and tooner posting in this thread, it is beyond doubt you are both ridiculously knowledgeless... Peace. .....because I don't have the seething hatred of americans that you do, I am clueless?......ok, whatever. "Seething hatred".. In the defence of America I will say that the PEOPLE often in times of trouble and need show a very big heart and genorosity." [Parky/] I merely present facts dear. Deal wiv it. Whatever. Let's put the wars aside a minute the criminal, fraudulent and destructive american banking system is single handedly fucking up the financial viability of 3/4 of the planet. It is the worlds biggest polluter bar none, it is the first worlds most undereducated country by a mile....IT IS A FUCKING BASKET CASE. I can only think some people in this thread are watching Top Gun round the clock. .....well maybe not seething but but you've got some issues with america. as I stated before i don't condone or side with american foreign policy or military actions, my point was only that the outcome of the second world war was due to the co-operation of ALL the allied countries and any attempt at detracting from or qualifying the contribution from any allied country does a dis-service and dishonor to the 100,000's of people from those countries who gave there lives. .....so whatEVAR. I can't remember are you Canadian? you cheeky fucking prick...... I am.......and I will apologize for any undue amount of flag waving i've done recently, been caught up in the hoo-haw of canadian pride left-over from the olympics. Sidney Crosby broke my heart on 28 Feb 10. Helluva game though. Probably the best hockey game I've ever seen in my life (barring of course, the Miracle). Congrats on the gold- you deserved it (well, maybe not Broduer... ! That was a good game of ice hockey?....first time I've tried to watch it on tv and I thought it was barely watchable...for me its basically too fast for a decent televised sport. Is this a common thing the uninitiated say or is it just a fuckin crap spectator sport anyway? ps I like Americans in general, when you go there they are much nicer and better people than the impression you get through the media/tv or those loud fuckers on bus tours with tartan trousers and 15 cameras round their necks hahahaha...yeah its hard to watch for the uninitiated, always been the problem with the shit TV ratings it gets in the states. They tried to put a "comet tail" on the puck to make it more TV friendly and easier to see for hockey noobies, but the NHL board of directors quashed that as it made it look like a piece of shit. Agreed about americans the vast majority i have met, in my travels and during a short stint living in Vermont, have been amazing people with interesting points of view. CID...helluva game eh? I thought it was going to go in favour of you guys when it got tied up........ala Junior Championships, my old man thought the same told he went and turned on the BBQ when they scored, figured it was all over. The comet tail did look like a piece of shit. I thought it was fine when it was glowing, but when they added the algorithm that turned it into a comet if the puck was traveling at x miles per hour, it got silly. Partially because there was about a .2 ms delay on when the comet tail would appear (thereby leaving this big red streak on your TV just as the cameraman was panning away from it), partially because it was just silly to begin with. Hockey is much more enjoyable live than on TV. I realize that most sports are like that, but hockey is much more so. All the stations for years have gone with the traditional east-west, side to side pan for hockey games. Video games (nearly all of them) take an overhead, north-south type view of the ice. Why? Because it's a much better angle for seeing what's going on. If the NHL would cough up a few bucks and invest in those overheard wire cameras like they use in Champions League matches, I think hockey would become much more appealing because people could actually see what's going on. The main thing I hear my friends say when watching a game on TV is "Why do they shoot the puck into the other end and don't even try to get it?" On TV, you can't tell that the team is changing lines, so an important and necessary facet of the game is just completely lost on the average TV viewer. Live, you see them jumping over the boards and it doesn't seem like a lazy or silly thing to do with the puck at all. As for the game, I was happy we tied it up obviously, but knowing that the Olympics use the 4-on-4 format in overtime like a regular season NHL match, I knew we'd be in trouble. Our boys worked well as a team, but individually, the Canadians were MUCH more talented, and when you've got that bigger ice to begin with... well, let's just say that it didn't really surprise me when we lost. As far as the WJCs, I wasn't all that surprised we won. We have a decent youth squad and the best young Canadian kids are all in the NHL anyway. A lot of American hockey fans I know were really giving Canadians a hard time on the hockey boards I frequent, and it's like, "Dude- do you really think we'd have won if Stamkos, Tavares, and Doughty were out there playing for Canada? Really?" It's a nice thing to see because it shows that USA Hockey seems to have finally figured out how to develop the kids, but it wasn't a reason to run into the street like the gold medal game would have been.

All the rocket tech and nukes they got from Germans. The first road cars were also invented by Germans, Benz if I iirc..I thought Konrad Zuse (yes Renton not an american name ) the GERMAN invented the first computer in 1936... Soooo, I'll give you consumer goods. Is there really any point of the likes of you and tooner posting in this thread, it is beyond doubt you are both ridiculously knowledgeless... Peace. .....because I don't have the seething hatred of americans that you do, I am clueless?......ok, whatever. "Seething hatred".. In the defence of America I will say that the PEOPLE often in times of trouble and need show a very big heart and genorosity." [Parky/] I merely present facts dear. Deal wiv it. Whatever. Let's put the wars aside a minute the criminal, fraudulent and destructive american banking system is single handedly fucking up the financial viability of 3/4 of the planet. It is the worlds biggest polluter bar none, it is the first worlds most undereducated country by a mile....IT IS A FUCKING BASKET CASE. I can only think some people in this thread are watching Top Gun round the clock. .....well maybe not seething but but you've got some issues with america. as I stated before i don't condone or side with american foreign policy or military actions, my point was only that the outcome of the second world war was due to the co-operation of ALL the allied countries and any attempt at detracting from or qualifying the contribution from any allied country does a dis-service and dishonor to the 100,000's of people from those countries who gave there lives. .....so whatEVAR. I can't remember are you Canadian? you cheeky fucking prick...... I am.......and I will apologize for any undue amount of flag waving i've done recently, been caught up in the hoo-haw of canadian pride left-over from the olympics. Sidney Crosby broke my heart on 28 Feb 10. Helluva game though. Probably the best hockey game I've ever seen in my life (barring of course, the Miracle). Congrats on the gold- you deserved it (well, maybe not Broduer... !

Course it is. There's no arguing with people who are willfully ignorant. Pointless to even try. ...CID....all due respect, I hope you don't count me in that number for anti-amercan drivel, I was just trying to point out to Stevie/Barrack that contrary to his belief, you guys DID swing the balance in WW2 Course I'm not counting you, man. And Stevie's never going to believe we swung the balance any more than he'll believe that a club like Everton could possibly ever be important because of their support. That's why I'm saying it's pointless to try. Maybe you hastened it, but it was an inevitability. We have the Russians to thank in the war for splitting the German war machine, as we would've been in major trouble if we were the only one fighting them long term, but we weren't preparing for war for 10 years like Germany, we don't have America to thank for anything, we gave them technology 40 years in advance of what they had for nothing, and what did they give us in return? A 50 year debt burden for arming us. I know plenty of people who respect America less than me as well. Embarrassment of a nation, ultimately our creation so you could say we have no one to blame but ourselves. Who's asking you to thank us for anything? You're the one who brought America up in the first place in this thread. It's like a lot of your other posts in general chat where you crowbar in some somewhat random opinion on a topic, then when people ask you for proof regarding your seemingly controversial stance on said topic, you change the subject. In this thread you've said that England didn't need the Americans to win WWII, but you seem like you're bent out of shape because we sat on the sidelines too long. Which is it? We should have helped out sooner or you didn't need the help at all? Not that it really matters of course, because all this really boils down to another vehicle for you to bitch about America and Americans. You hate America (Russia, et al), embarassment of a nation, bunch of cunts, etc., etc. and just like all your other opinions, nobody is going to change your mind. We get it. Now, how about that Landon Donovan? Well it might have helped if you weren't finacing both sides. What, the Galaxy & the Toffees? I didn't know AEG had any holdings in the People's Club...

Course it is. There's no arguing with people who are willfully ignorant. Pointless to even try. ...CID....all due respect, I hope you don't count me in that number for anti-amercan drivel, I was just trying to point out to Stevie/Barrack that contrary to his belief, you guys DID swing the balance in WW2 Course I'm not counting you, man. And Stevie's never going to believe we swung the balance any more than he'll believe that a club like Everton could possibly ever be important because of their support. That's why I'm saying it's pointless to try. Maybe you hastened it, but it was an inevitability. We have the Russians to thank in the war for splitting the German war machine, as we would've been in major trouble if we were the only one fighting them long term, but we weren't preparing for war for 10 years like Germany, we don't have America to thank for anything, we gave them technology 40 years in advance of what they had for nothing, and what did they give us in return? A 50 year debt burden for arming us. I know plenty of people who respect America less than me as well. Embarrassment of a nation, ultimately our creation so you could say we have no one to blame but ourselves. Who's asking you to thank us for anything? You're the one who brought America up in the first place in this thread. It's like a lot of your other posts in general chat where you crowbar in some somewhat random opinion on a topic, then when people ask you for proof regarding your seemingly controversial stance on said topic, you change the subject. In this thread you've said that England didn't need the Americans to win WWII, but you seem like you're bent out of shape because we sat on the sidelines too long. Which is it? We should have helped out sooner or you didn't need the help at all? Not that it really matters of course, because all this really boils down to another vehicle for you to bitch about America and Americans. You hate America (Russia, et al), embarassment of a nation, bunch of cunts, etc., etc. and just like all your other opinions, nobody is going to change your mind. We get it. Now, how about that Landon Donovan?

Course it is. There's no arguing with people who are willfully ignorant. Pointless to even try. ...CID....all due respect, I hope you don't count me in that number for anti-amercan drivel, I was just trying to point out to Stevie/Barrack that contrary to his belief, you guys DID swing the balance in WW2 Course I'm not counting you, man. And Stevie's never going to believe we swung the balance any more than he'll believe that a club like Everton could possibly ever be important because of their support. That's why I'm saying it's pointless to try.

I'd think that was rubbish Parky. Americans (on average) are amongst the biggest consumers of healthcare in the world, they spend twice as much as their GDP on healthcare as we do (with no better results). I would think rationalizing their system to something resembling the NHS or most other European countries would result in massive job losses. Not that that would be a bad thing, particularly for the middle men. Seems a bit strange you're advocating this anyway giving your views on medicine? They spend more on healthcare as per gdp cause they don't know what they're doing. Nah, we spend more on healthcare because there are too many hands between my wallet and the doctor's. See the Graph. Americans get much less bang for their buck than any comparable country, and ironically this is down to your shunning of social medicine and your love of the free market. It simply doesn't work for healthcare. It isn't ironic in the slightest. It's good old-fashioned corporate greed, just in a different industry than it normally is found. I think the main problem my countrymen have with socialized medicine is how the govenment and media package it. I apologize if I've already told this story, but there's a guy I work with. He's probably around 50 or 55. This guy has two kids who are about my age. Neither of them have managed to do much with their lives other than my co-worker's daughter has 3 kids apparently. They all moved back home and now my co-worker has like 10 people under his roof because the son's wife and her mom have moved in, etc. etc. In any case, this guy, the co-worker, he's a staunch Republican. He's one of those people who thinks for some unknown reason that he's going to be rich one of these days, so he's a Republican through and through. Hate, hate HATES the Democrats, boy. So a few weeks ago, he's talking about how his grandson lost a tooth. Funny thing is, the kid was thinking he ought to get more money from the tooth fairy because this too was a gold tooth that fell out. This kid is like 5 years old, and as I'm sure you realize, is on Medicare/ Medicaid. I paid for that kid to have a non-permanent tooth replaced with a gold tooth with my tax dollars. This co-worker of mine has no idea the hypocrisy he espouses regarding socialized medicine because he doesn't perceive Medicaid as being fairly close to socialized medicine. There's millions of people in this country on some sort of assistance program like Medicare/ Medicaid, live off of Social Security, or use other socialized public services like the Fire Departments or Police, but they don't perceive it as that. This, I feel, is one of the main problems with the U.S. getting some sort of national healthcare program in my lifetime- the Republicans aren't fans because they make tremendous amounts of money keeping the medical industry an industry. The Dems can't put together a coherent package that would actually do what we need it to do at a country level (probably because they're on the books too). The majority of the people are too dumb to understand the full implications of having socialized healthcare, and a large contingent really do believe the government will somehow fuck it up and we'd end up worse off than we are now. And when you see Fox News and MSNBC standing around fanning the flames of fear, you can kind of understand why. Still doesn't excuse people's irrational and ignorant beliefs on the subject, but it does go a certain distance in explaining them.

ok, let me preface this with hearty "i'm not sympathetic to the american war machine" however south Korea wouldn't exist if the Americans had been pasted in Korea if anything it was a draw, as for Vietnam they lost but it was a lot like last year for us, the team they/we had in Vietnam/the PL was good enough to win, but the dumb fekkers in charge had no fucking clue so they/we lost/were relegated. When Chinese tank divisions started lining up on the Korean border Uncle Sam hi tailed it outta there quick time styleee. FACT. Btw I'd have gone all the way in Korea and S Korea would never have existed...Americans were lucky they caught a deal imo. Let's see what happens with Taiwan...ho ho.. If China invaded it tomorrow america would do nothing. Thing is Korea was a UN operation....agreed the UN caught a break in korea for sure...... as for Taiwan america will do nothing because if they did the chinese would call in their loans and really fuck with the US economy...... and CID how could the US make an effort to stop china right now? too many brands in the fire...no? I misunderstood the target of Parky's pronoun "it"in that last sentence. When I read it, I took it to mean that if China invaded us we'd do nothing. Then I read your post and saw that the "it" in question was Taiwan.

Course it is. There's no arguing with people who are willfully ignorant. Pointless to even try.

I think Leazes said a mouthful about running a store not being like running a club. I'm not an expert in either obviously, but just looking at it from a pedestrian standpoint, you rarely want to throw good money after bad in a business, but you're almost required to when it comes to clubs. In any case, not being someone who has lived and died by this club for the past 30 years- in relation to all the points made about being profitable and turnstiles, and making Europa, etc. etc., How is Birmingham City doing it this season? Right now, they're 5 points out of 7th and have a game in hand on Villa, so it's by no means a done deal, but it's certainly possible at least. They've been around the low end of the top 10 all season long. Their attendance is significantly lower than ours- what's their secret? Are they just lucky this season? I don't think I've seen them play all season, so I really am asking. They don't appear to be that great of a club- back and forth between EPL and CCC throughout the past 10 years, finished behind Wolves last season, currently the owners of a honest -2 GD, but have outscored only Pompey and Wolves, which I guess is a testament to their defensive style of play? Are they in that much better financial shape than us? Is that the difference? Surely they aren't going after and getting marquee players either, right? Or is it just an abberation? I guess I have trouble understanding how exactly we can make that Top 20 richest clubs list last month, but be where we are today.

True but the yanks are a very, very distant third in all of that. So far distant that you'd need a train to reach where they are. Russia and Britain won the war. Agreed us and the Russians took the brunt of it, while American war profiteering was rampant. The American people didn't even want to come into the war which says all you need to know about their commitment. Some Americans didn't. Have you two forgot the Americans had to deal with the Japanese ffs? They weren't a distant third by any margin, and we are endebted to them as much as the French are to us. It is a FACT that a vast majority of the american people had no interest of coming into the war. Having just come out of depression the American people although sympathetic to our plight didn't want to enter the war, in repsonse Roosevelt passed this unique legislation: January 6, 1941 *: "Washington, the U.S. Congress President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to pass what would be called the Lend-Lease Act Lend-Lease Act provision of American materiel to beleaguered Allies in WWII. [Am. Hist.: Van Doren, 480] See : Aid, Governmental . That law would allow the President to lend or lease [rent] guns, tanks, planes, and ships to any nation that the President thought needed help. That country, every American knew, was Great Britain." Eventually, at some point you're going to arrive at the conclusion that the American Government rarely does what the American people would like it to do.

I'd think that was rubbish Parky. Americans (on average) are amongst the biggest consumers of healthcare in the world, they spend twice as much as their GDP on healthcare as we do (with no better results). I would think rationalizing their system to something resembling the NHS or most other European countries would result in massive job losses. Not that that would be a bad thing, particularly for the middle men. Seems a bit strange you're advocating this anyway giving your views on medicine? They spend more on healthcare as per gdp cause they don't know what they're doing. Nah, we spend more on healthcare because there are too many hands between my wallet and the doctor's.

Yeah, man, I don't know- I've never run across a device that takes a USB into a COM. Not saying it doesn't exist, but I've never run across one. Hopefully the link Laz provided has fixed you up, but if not... 1) Any way you could save the files and import them into a different computer with a newer/ different version of the software? One that would talk to USB plotters? 2) I don't know a lot about plotters, but I worked on a few inkjet ones back in the day- most of the time the ports were on their own little boards connected back to the mainboard via a ribbon cable. Any chance you could replace it? Could just be the board itself has gone bad. If you know somebody with a similar plotter, you might be able to talk them into letting you crack the case open and removing the COM port card (assuming it's just a ribbon cable connection and a screw or two to secure it to the case) to try in yours to see if that's the problem. Or just call a repairman for the plotter. 3) Get in touch with the software vendor (through a messageboard or email or whatever) and see if they have some kind of workaround/ update for pushing the job through a USB instead of a COM. Assuming it wasn't a "value added feature" in the newer version of whatever software you're using, they might hook you up. I'm no programmer, but from the little bit I know about COM ports and USB, they're fairly similar- just less customization (read: options) in the USB end of things. I wouldn't think it'd be that difficult for a programmer to write a patch that'd allow you to use the USB instead of COM only. Good luck!

Yeah, for some reason you have to cut and paste it into a browser. Cute video. Too bad it seems his dad's a gooner.

Awesome man! Thanks!

Anon ruined that guy's relationship with a crossdresser? THAT'S TERRIBLE!

Gotta have a pic of Jonas in the Spidey mask! Please!!! (Figures this game wouldn't be on ESPN360...)

Not really sure what you're going after here, but I have a bunch of old shit here at the plant that only likes to use COM ports and I've used a USB to COM port device (similar to this) in the past with some success- http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...oductId=2273291 Bit of a pain in the ass to configure (depending on how Windows detects it, included software, etc.), but with some futzing about, I've gotten it to talk to barcode scanners, wedges, old school label printers- all kinds of stuff. Would something like that do you any good?