***The February **** thread: continuing our takeover of all things awesome***

[Gramps]

Originally Posted by braminc

yea i didnt like it either.. is that better? too strong/distracting imo

Wow, first time I've seen the Lebanese flag, and it could totally represent Stanfurd's colors and unofficial tree mascot. That's pretty random.

[movieman2g]

re: telemarketers - im usually very patient with them and just say, sorry im not interested please take me off your list serve. when i started at my current job 2+ years ago, i was taking over someone's old phone #, so i got a lot of calls on different auto-bots he had. took me a while to disconnect from most of them.

one day i got a call, "excuse me sir, ive detected a virus in your computer i need you to follow these steps." i was worried, and work in a big office building so i asked him to send someone down from the IT department. he said he needed me to just check some applications. i asked why, since they were just upstairs. then i realized he wasnt from our IT department. i asked him if he realized this was an office building and he got really quiet and didnt really know how to respond, so i just said politely, this is an office building, we have our own IT department so if something is wrong with my computer then theyll handle it, please take me off your list.

the exact same guy has called me back every 6 weeks for the last 2+ years like clockwork. ive yelled at him a few times but i dont think im ever getting that phone number off of their autobot

[Rusemandingo]

Originally Posted by braminc

ruse - what companies in US offer pay as you go?? im not aware of any but havent researched either...

I know att does and pretty sure verizon and tmobile do too. I think any companies that uses sim cards this will work with.

For att i just did a monthly prepaid deal with no contract. Was like 35 for unlimited talk, 10 for unlimited messaging and then you could buy data packages. I wasnt saving a ton but didnt want to be locked into a 2year plan.

You could also do straight prepay where you load money on your phone and then each call takes some off and you could buy messaging and data packages.

[SlackerMcFly]

One disturbing thing that I've noticed about telemarketers, etc. is that they seem to "know" when a particular number has recently placed/received a call.

Seriously.

We almost never make an out-going call from our home phone, maybe once or twice a month. Without exception, after making any call from home, multiple robo-calls ensue and continue for a day or so. Answering the phone from an outside call that we recognize on caller ID doesn't have the same effect (we naturally just ignore any and all other calls).

Annoying but intriquing all the same.

[xPeru]

Originally Posted by braminc

that's incredible njd. does the uk have some sort of laws protecting consumers in telecom industry over there or something? sounds absurdly cheap. doesn't make sense honestly!

This is one of those bizarre situations where Govt intervention accidentally helped. The UK companies standardised network standards and phone standards because the regulator forced them to. Thereafter it's a competition jungle so standardisation together with unfettered competition has driven prices well below the US. In the US less regulation led to competing standards and lots of network duplication so business infrastructure costs were a lot higher. I think things have changed and you finally have common standards? But in the 90s US cell phones were 10 years behind the UK and 20 years behind Japan.(OK minor exaggeration, but not far off)


Loved the video Braminc, good for you.

I don't think I can afford 2 of my bankrolls an hour to pay you though

[Deurdy]

Currently there seems to be one newsworthy topic in the Netherlands, which is whether or not we will have an "Elfstedentocht" (11-cities tour) for ice speed skaters on canals and lakes on a route past 11 towns.
This is a 200km event which is basically a marathon on ice.
Last 4 events were in 1963, 1985, 1986 and 1997.
This year we had more than a week with temperatures between -5 and -20 degrees Celsius, so everyone is getting anxious.
Still think it will not happen as they need 15cm of ice and it is now 8-10cm.

[jurrasstoil]

some weather services say (and by that i mean guess) that we'll (we=central europe) see positive temps in a week.

However, my personal theory is that the Soviet Union has invented a machine that spreads their own climate to the west so that they can easily invade europe.

[Deurdy]

Yeah my guess is that they have only Sunday to make it happen, but would happily bet against it.

[movieman2g]

Haven't we (US) already invented a weather controlling machine that were hiding/testing in Alaska?

Or perhaps I've said too much

[jurrasstoil]

Originally Posted by Deurdy

Yeah my guess is that they have only Sunday to make it happen, but would happily bet against it.

just so you know, i wanted to make a joke by translating BBV into dutch and suggesting you should look for some action on that bet, but I couldn't find a fitting translation for beat and variance. brag = pochen/opscheppen right?

[bbfg]

Opschepperij, klaagzangen en willekeur would be my guess, but fwiw we don't mind if some english words are mixed in that don't have clear translations. (in case you're not dutch and were using a google translate )

[Deurdy]

Variance = variantie
I would not have a good word for beat since it's more or less a English slang if I'm not mistaken.
'klaagzangen' is more likes 'whines' bbfg.

[bbfg]

Yeah you can translate it into something related to whining like "klaagzangen" or something related to bad luck like "ongeluk", but there is no combo that incorporates the two .

[AMT]

If you want to see this seventh card, you're gonna stop speaking ****in' Sputnik.

[sippin_criss]

typical boorish american mod.