The Off Topic Topic

[Syt]

Patrick Stewart's Battle for Cable Saps His 'Will to Live'

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/patrick-stewarts-battle-cable-saps-live-154244759--abc-news-celebrities.html

Real question here: Are cable providers in Europe as terrible and hated as they are in America?

In Vienna you have two main companies - one offers tv/broadband internet by phone the other by "normal" cable. I'm with the latter, and while their customer service leaves a lot to be desired, the quality of the product is fine. Also, getting a technician out is not too big a hassle, but you may have to wait a week or so. If you give them enough advance notice (2, 3 weeks) that you're moving to a new place you can usually get a guy to install the stuff on the relevant date.

That said, I've cancelled the tv side of my subscription as I hardly watch TV anymore, and the bits I do I can stream/download from the intertubes.

[Josquius]

I've just realised a valuable new market....google earth advertising.
Looking at newcastle on google earth the big fat sports direct logo on the roof of the stadium is clearly visible. Surely there's money to be made in largeish buildings selling their roof space for satellite advertising....

[Tamas]

Were they impersonating Americans at the polling place?  Didn't think they were open so early in Iowa.

The story said they had voted once before and were registered now to vote.

It was a four sentence story on the radio, so don't expect me to give you War and Peace.

Early (absentee) voting starts up sometime late this month.

ID REQUIREMENT IS EVIIIIIIL!!!!!!1111111oneoneoneone

[PDH]

PBS newshour had this headline:  "Final Stretch Marks Shift in Money Race"


It was about politics, not cellulite.

[CountDeMoney]

lol, you got bad vibes when you're booed in Florida by the AARP, man.

[MadImmortalMan]

The perfect woman. Enjoy. 

The dimensions of a perfect woman are: Five feet 5 inches in height, weight 128 pounds. Arms extended should measure from tip of middle finger to tip of middle finger just 5 feet 5 inches (the height). The length of her hand should be a tenth of that, her foot a seventh, the diameter of her chest a fifth. From her thighs to the ground she should measure just the same as from her thighs to the top of her head. The knee should come exactly midway between the thigh and the heel. The distance from the elbow to the middle finger should be the same as from the elbow to middle of the chest. From the top of the head to the chin should be just the length of the foot, and the same distance between the chin and the arm-pits. A woman of this height should measure 24 inches around the waist, 34 about the bust, if measured under the arms, and 43 if measured over them. The upper arm should measure 13 inches; the wrist 6 inches. The calf of the leg should measure 14½ inches; the thigh 25; the ankle 8.

[Habbaku]

About time we got that solved.

[Razgovory]

I'll get my tape measure and look around town if I can find anyone like that.

[Eddie Teach]

The perfect woman. Enjoy. 

They did like their baby dolls.

[Malthus]

US Government wins the IGNobel Prize for literature:

LITERATURE PRIZE: The US Government General Accountability Office, for issuing a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports.

[mongers]

Seems an acquaintance of mine has been trolling the London iphone5 launch hysteria.

LONDON iPHONE 5 MADNESS: 'You must be CRAZY to buy Apple'

High-fiving shoppers spark bewilderment from normal folk

By Anna Leach • In Odds and Sods • At 10:51 GMT 21st September 2012

Giggling Apple fanbois queuing for the new iPhone 5 in London gave Apple Store staff high-fives as a man bellowed at them: "Are you mad?!" The bewildering scene marked the start of another Apple iThing launch, and another day of eyebrow-raising antics on the streets of London and beyond.

"Why are you shouting 'iPhone 5 iPhone 5'?" bellowed the man as blue-shirted store workers yelled "iPhone 5! iPhone 5!" while running up and down the line of punters waiting to buy the new iOS 6 smartphone from Apple's Regent Street store.

"Are you mad?" the bloke exploded again at them as they jogged past clapping their hands above their heads and slapping palms with the eager fanbois. "Would you sell the iPhone if you weren't getting paid to do it?" he added.

"Yes," said one store worker. And the hyped up Cupertino cultists continued jogging back and forth, shouting, applauding and high-fiving everyone. (Nobody tell that to John Browett, Apple's new cost-cutting head of retail ops.)


HIGH FIVE! HIGH FIVE!

A protester with a megaphone turned the mood a little sour at the back of the iPhone 5 queue, which curled around Hanover Square in Blighty's capital city, by trolling hundreds of shoppers with an appeal for the factory wage slaves who built the shiny new mobe.


The iPhone queue round the back of the first corner in Regent Street, London

The crowd initially responded to jibes about Samsung from Danny the megaphone man, but the hordes fell silent as he got onto the subjects of Apple's corporate dominance and labour rights and the iPhone supply chain.

"China has a one child policy," he shouted to the crowd, "which is a problem because we need as many Chinese people as possible, to assemble iPhone 5s."

Danny, who runs the Youtube channel Spiritual Entertainer, told us that he liked to address groups of people as part of an art project.

The madness only continued further up.
....

rest of article here:
http://m.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/21/iphone_5_queue_london_launch_day/

[Ed Anger]

Danny needs a beatin'

[Neil]

Danny needs a beatin'

But so does everyone who owns an iPhone5.

[Josephus]

Forgot who said this first, but it went something like:

"If you're lining up overnight to buy an Iphone---you're not as cool as you think you are."

[derspiess]

Oktoberfest started today.  I got a liter of Paulaner Oktoberfest from the golden keg, plus a couple additional liters after that.  Good times