Wow, 'does she clean' (refering to the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) coming from a woman... It was all rather funny until this point.

@mike lucey said: How can anyone seriously expect any member of the Royal family to be PERFECT 100% of the time. Heck! I don't know how any of them can hold their cool with those newspaper cameramen running around after them 24 hours and day 365 days a year. I couldn't agree more with your second sentence, I wouldn't switch places with the Royals for all the money in the world and if every party any of us ever attended was documented on film I'm sure we'd all be judged guilty of grand moral turpitude at one time or another. Nevertheless Harry was not being papped- he was holding the camera, he was narrating the film, technically he was working at the time and he was wearing the uniform of the British Army. If none of those facts were enough to suggest to him that it might not be the best time to use racist terms to refer to his colleagues then the Windsors seriously need to practise their media training. I looked at the forum you posted a link to, the first poster, a British soldier wrote: @unknownuser said: Imagine for instance a group of soldiers airmen or sailors and within the group there are several called John, how would you distinguish them in a time of crisis? If one is from Ireland he will probably be called Paddy.if one has red hair he will be called Ginge etc. Well... that argument might have some validity if the guy Harry was referring to had the same name as several of his colleagues, but in what way would it have threatened military efficency to have called him simply Ahmed or Khan? Just out of interest Harry's "little Paki friend" (note the "little" denoting inferiority) won the award for the best overseas cadet at Sandhurst. Maybe Ahmed should be narrating a video describing Harry as "the spoiled little brat who is only playing soldiers because his family make him, who gets more glory in the media for going about his normal duties than colleagues who excel and risk their lives in acts of selfless valour while he flounces around the battlezone, more well protected than any other serviceman or woman". @jackson said: I guess it's okay to call a colleague "faggot", "mick", "nigger", "jap" (unfortunately I already know Ron's answer to that one) or "bitch" then? Or do you draw the line somewhere? @remus said: I frequently do, as i know it will be taken in jest. You don't know it will be taken in jest, you assume that it will be taken in jest and one day your assumption will be wrong. Where do you think the expression "children are so cruel" comes from? @remus said: Using those rules there would be very little being said. Huh? Somehow I, my friends and colleagues manage to socialise and work every day without using racist, or sexist or homophobic terms, entire books are written, TV programmes are made, forums buzz along for years without need for these words. What world are you living in where by omitting offensive terms you would find it almost impossible to communicate? It's 15 years ago since I was 17 years old, but even then I probably only heard racist language used in school a handful of times in 6 years at secondary school. @bellwells said: Jackson, I don't consider "Jap" to be any more derogatory than "Yank". Political correctness is nothing more than a mechanism to control thought and speech. And as a member of the politically correct crowd, you've been well conditioned. It's irrelevant what you consider to be offensive to another race. If you told me you didn't want to be called a "yank" as it had negative connotations I'd happily oblige (although it's not a term I use anyway). The fact that "jap" has been used, especially since the Second World War, to insult and intimidate the American descendants of Japanese immigrants should be enough to suggest that it's not a term which should be used in general terms. I actually hate the term "politically correct"- it's got nothing to do with politics, it's to do with common courtesy, respecting other people and treating them as you expect to be treated. As this thread up to now has been populated by (AFAIK) only well-educated able-bodied caucasian heterosexual males I would suggest that we attempt to put ourselves in someone else's shoes and to realise that we were born into extremely priveleged circumstances, where we would never expect to be publicly abused, assaulted or turned down for a job on the basis of something we can do nothing about. I for one am grateful for that throw of the cosmic/genetic dice, but I'm not going to sit back and think "well, the current setup worked for me, screw everyone else". You're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem.

@unknownuser said: I have a few questions about Google Checkout (from a private message) @unknownuser said: 1] What is your experience with regard to chargebacks using Checkout? What kind of % of reverted transactions should I expect? We have only had 1 or 2 Google Checkout transactions reversed over the past 2 years. Actually I cannot remember any. (My memory is fuzzy, because before we switched to Google we were getting a few fraudulent transactions a month. Google does a much, much better job of verifying the identity of the purchaser before informing us that the order is ready to ship.) We have 1 or 2 transactions a month which are not completed. But we are informed of that before we process the transaction. Google tells us that a transaction has been initiated, but they wait between 15 minutes and 4 hours before they verify that they have charged the credit card. (Usually closer to 15 minutes). About 4 times a month they are unable to complete the transaction and they inform the user that he/she needs to enter a different credit card. About half of those are then completed using a different credit card and about 1/2 are not completed. However, there are very few transactions which are ever reversed - and, as I say, perhaps that number is none. @unknownuser said: 2] The Google Checkout dispute policy relating to digital products seems to be ambiguous. Is there any protection on downloadable software? I believe that the Google guarantee - that they will pay for the transaction even if it later turns out to be fraudulent - does not apply to downloadable software. However, this almost never happens. And from our point of view if someone does get a "free" copy of our software, we haven't really lost anything - since the fraudulent purchaser was unlikely to have ever paid for the software anyway. The fraudulent purchases with our prior credit card processor were almost always people who were using stolen credit card numbers, but they never actually used the software. (We require an email license and authorization after purchase and the fraudulent purchasers never completed that process. Also, we have a list of invalid Licenses which we include in future releases of the software, so if someone gets a fraudulent license they can never use upgrades (free upgrades to fix bugs). This list is mostly used for people who return the software for some reason. (We offer a 30 day money back guarantee. And also, some people purchase the software, get a license, and then discover that it does not work on a MAC). @unknownuser said: 3] Is it a risk to use an unsigned cart? We don't use a shopping cart. We use "Buy Now" buttons. See out Purchase Page I do want to use shopping cart software, because we currently have to generate and send the License number manually. But I haven't taken the time to implement one yet. Let me know if you have other questions.

That looks like a training video perhaps. The suspects arms are super huge and super immobile. Looks like he is all wound tight with portection for the dog to attack his arms and body. Still totally impressive though, Chris EDIT: Ha! I was right. I posted that before I watched the YouTube one. I didn't realize it was going to show up in there too. Very cool videos.

Well put, Toxic, I I changed some words (mainly like "Africa" and such) it would be valid for many post Eastern Block countries as well where the late 80's and early 90's seemed to bring in some fresh air but instead of liberty, many just fell in poverty while suddenly billionaires arose from the nowhere.

Well, we already started to better control what appears here and planning to take measures to implement a better (and in fact more content related) ad system.

In a typical residence the doors are 6'8" high. The window tops usually match that, unless the window type or architecture drive it elsewhere.

A mobile version of SCF would be pretty sweet, although would probably be a fair bit of extra work, i imagine.

I generally use jpg for textures...like stone or wood grain. These are effectively photos; and jpg is a reasonable format for "busy" images like that, as most artifacting is lost in the detail. It needs to be at compression level 7 at the very least. I only use jpg in these instances because it generally leads to a lower file size...especially when many such images might be embedded in a skp file. If I was using an image with lot of flat colour...especially one with leaves against a flat background, as in Al's example, I'd definitely go for png. Not only will it give a cleaner image with no loss of detail, but on a limited colour palette (especially items like logos or shop signage) it will likely also be a smaller file size than a jpg (even a jpg saved at level 7). Both png and tiff can result in surprisingly small file sizes when used for graphic images like signs or logos. In fact I've made very large B/W (black and white) tiffs and pngs which have barely made it into double figures of kilobytes when saved out of PS with LZW compression. This png...saved from a vector image I'm working on had to be reduced to fit the forum limits. However it was exported from corel at full A4 size (that's over 3000 pixels high...with all the resulting sharpness of detail) and was an amazingly small 18k in size. The tiff was larger, but even that was only 69k...2/3 the size of the equivalent level 7 jpg. [image: IogY_clubbing..png]

I don't know about the best play but the worst was in New York Buress's shotting himself in the leg has got to be the worst play ever for the Giants. What sort of Idiot takes a gun out to a night club! We're not even allowed car keys over here. any way best play i'm not sure yet, i'll have to take more time to consider

I wouldnt say im an expert, but as long as nvidia/apple have decent drivers for the cards it should be fine.

If you want use Rhino and have no problem of money, take Moi (Moment of Inspiration) It's more speedy and easy as Rhino pre-modeler, fully compatible! And with SU also with SKP export !

I embedded it for you, go into edit mode to see how it's done.

Right, aliens are crashing into wind turbines. Seems as though several hundred news outlets are spreading this superstitious bit of news. Here's a video of a wind turbine self destructing in Denmark. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nSB1SdVHqQ The woman that was seeing lights should probably go to an eye doctor. Seriously, that's a sign of a possible detached cornea if she's seeing flashing lights or light spots.

The "going rate" for a colored front elevation rendering seemed to be around $500 around Denver. Basically it was competing against the watercolor artists that permeate the back of most Denver area real estate magazines. For some strange reason the real estate sector in the Denver area is obsessed with these watercolor renderings some of which border on being naive art. The problem however when basing this rate with a Sketch-Up model is that it goes beyond a mere “flat” rendering of an architectural structure. The tendency is to work the model on all four sides including site development to a certain extent and development of details well beyond the ability of traditional rendering “artists.” Additionally, the client will also have a tendency to request a multitude of color and material changes. Thus you also become a “color consultant” of sorts in addition to a 3D modeler and renderer. In the end I believe it takes about 3 working days (24 hours) to create a 3D model and rendering. This includes the above mentioned color and material changes. $500 is the minimum for a good competent rendering. In my experience the price range is anywhere from $500 to $1,500 so essentially the proposal should read: “For an amount not to exceed one-thousand five-hundred dollars and zero cents ($1,500.00).” “Billing to be based on an hourly rate of ______ /hr.” If you think 1,500 is too high just adjust the above quote. It could be lower if you get a bulk contract with numerous renderings. If you are not familiar with the client also include a requirement of a retainer of around ten-percent (10%) of the maximum cost. Emphasize the final cost for the client as opposed to an hourly rate especially if you’re thinking of a range of $75-100/hour which will scare off most people in this current economic environment.

As I heard in the news we only have about 20 % less than generally. Also Hungary has someown resources but of course, not enough (Romania should have more). My colleagues at work now complain that though they turn up the gas heaters at home, it is colder than generally (I don't heat with gas at home). One thing however; we were supposed to work on Saturday (as an exchange for another day betwen the holidays) but now it has been delayed until there is no need for heaing. So I don't precisely know where it is going but I personally and currently don't feel it - YET - but this can already be some kind of a sign of something bad coming.

Yeah and they all about Viagra and fake swiss watches.... I go every now and than and permanently delete them.

Thank you for posting this. I found your post through google and would have replyed to this scam if not for your post. @unknownuser said: (If you are NOT CEO,please forward this to your CEO,because this is urgent,Thanks.) Dear CEO, We are the department of registration service in China.we have something need to confirm with you.We formally received an application on January 5, 2009,One company which self-styled "Path soft Corp" are applying to register (xxxxxxx) as internet brand name and domain names as below (xxxxx.cn xxxxx.com.cn xxxxxxx.net.cn xxxxxx.org.cn xxxxxxxx.asia xxxxxxxxx.mobi xxxxxxxx.cc. .etc). After our initial checking,we found the internet brand name and these domain names being applied are as same as your company’s, so we need to get the confirmation from your company.If the aforesaid company is your business partner or your subsidiary company, please DO NOT reply us,we will approve the application automatically.If you have no any relationship with this company,please contact us within 15 workdays. If out of the deadline,we will approve the application submitted by "Path soft Corp" unconditionally. We would like to get the affirmation of your company,please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible. Best Regards, Jake Shen Senior Consultant TEL: +86 21 69929440 Fax: +86 21 69929447 Website:www.qpnic.org.cn Address: Room 301, 42th, nong 1519, Jinyuan 1st Road, Jiading District, Shanghai city.

Hello Gentleman and thank you for your replies. I think an hourly rate will probably be appropriate for this because there has been so very much back an forth on this protype. It would appear that I have something that is printable with this go. So my client is going to see what the ouptut looks like and when he is ready to request the next round of changes he will need one of you to work with. What I have been doing has been really inefficient. I will provide the contact info for each of you to him and he can take it from there. Thanks so much for responding.

Al, thank you for that. I had no idea. My condolences to his family.