This thread is for stupid questions that don't deserve their own individual threads

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Okay so a new video rental store opened in my town. The owner doesn't go through a middle-man distribution and goes to wal-mart and then puts it on his shelf. Isn't that illegal?
 
jakncoke said:
Okay so a new video rental store opened in my town. The owner doesn't go through a middle-man distribution and goes to wal-mart and then puts it on his shelf. Isn't that illegal?
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Wouldn't Wal-Mart just become the middle man?

Also i think it would be his disadvantage since you can usually get discounts from distributors for buying in bulk or multiple purchases. Buying from a place like Wal-Mart would prob be more expensive for him i guess *shrugs* Unless he's only buying a few copies i guess.
 
jakncoke said:
Okay so a new video rental store opened in my town. The owner doesn't go through a middle-man distribution and goes to wal-mart and then puts it on his shelf. Isn't that illegal?
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Why would it be?
 
jakncoke said:
I just thought there was a law
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As far as I know, you just have to have a rental license, but where you get the actual product from doesn't matter as long as it's not bootlegged. Unless you're the cartoon store in the Moreno Valley Mall in CA, they used to (maybe still do) rent out HK bootleg anime.

But for the store you're talking about, WM may be cheaper for his purposes. Especially if he can buy on a wholesale account and pay no sales tax.
 
bjork said:
As far as I know, you just have to have a rental license, but where you get the actual product from doesn't matter as long as it's not bootlegged. Unless you're the cartoon store in the Moreno Valley Mall in CA, they used to (maybe still do) rent out HK bootleg anime.

But for the store you're talking about, WM may be cheaper for his purposes. Especially if he can buy on a wholesale account and pay no sales tax.
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I think this belongs in the obvious things you realized late thread, for me anyway.

I always thought dvd copies for rental stores were more expensive licenced versions, because they would be making more money off them. I remember back when I used to rent vhs, the replacement cost if you lost or damaged it was really high, like $100+. But now that I think about it, vhs's were expensive for home purchase too.

Also the FBI warning on dvds says unauthorized distribution or exhibition, but now I realize that may just mean you need a license. That would make more sense. So the dvds at rental stores are the exact same ones you buy? Huh.
 
parrotbeak said:
I think this belongs in the obvious things you realized late thread, for me anyway.

I always thought dvd copies for rental stores were more expensive licenced versions, because they would be making more money off them. I remember back when I used to rent vhs, the replacement cost if you lost or damaged it was really high, like $100+. But now that I think about it, vhs's were expensive for home purchase too.

Also the FBI warning on dvds says unauthorized distribution or exhibition, but now I realize that may just mean you need a license. That would make more sense. So the dvds at rental stores are the exact same ones you buy? Huh.
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Yeah I thought they cost like 70 bucks per.
 
Can someone cut the file size of this gif down so I can use it for an Avatar?

b5ktwy.jpg
 
Saint of Killers said:
Would a HDD that was full weigh the same as one that was empty?
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It weighs the same, all thats happening is the polarity of the sectors of the hard disk are being reversed, there is nothing added or taken away from the inside of the hard disk. The sectors are already there when you buy the drive. Thats why Hard Disks do have a theoretical write limit. Though its insanely high
 
Wrekt said:
When I was young, I was told never to charge a battery until it was completely dead. Charging a half-strength battery would degrade it's charge life in the future.

Is there any truth to that? I've always waited until the last minute to charge my cell phones but I just picked up my first smartphone. Under normal usage I get about 24 hours per charge so I'm afraid to kill any more battery life. I don't want to have to charge this thing multiple times a day.
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There was one kind of a battery that actually had a small percentage of them have this issue, I believe it was the nickel-cadmium battery. Though the NiMH Nickel Metal Hydride batteries and Lithium Ion batteries don't have a memory effects there is a limit on the number of charges each cell can receive. Most are around 300 cycles but some quote 600-1000. These batteries are supposed to have intelligent microprocessors in them that don't reuse the cells over and over again and are supposed to drain the cells with the least cycle count of them at all times; this is supposed to prevent the same cells being drained over and over again. But my Macbook pro thats had like 4 batteries in under 3 years says different. There is some sort of crystallization that can occur in a battery if the cells are not drained often enough but i don't understand it all that well. Then again apple uses lithium polymer batteries now.
 
parrotbeak said:
I think this belongs in the obvious things you realized late thread, for me anyway.

I always thought dvd copies for rental stores were more expensive licenced versions, because they would be making more money off them. I remember back when I used to rent vhs, the replacement cost if you lost or damaged it was really high, like $100+. But now that I think about it, vhs's were expensive for home purchase too.

Also the FBI warning on dvds says unauthorized distribution or exhibition, but now I realize that may just mean you need a license. That would make more sense. So the dvds at rental stores are the exact same ones you buy? Huh.
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I don't know all the specifics on the rental end, since I only dealt with normal sales (and we went through distributors and would also swoop on sales at CC or wherever), but I know a lot of the $100 VHS tapes were rental only. Not sure if there were rental only DVDs, but if there were, it wouldn't surprise me.
 
My friend has a wisdom tooth that needs to be removed but she doesn't have insurance to do anything about it.

Is there anything she can do? She's in a lot of pain :(
 
toxicgonzo said:
My friend has a wisdom tooth that needs to be removed but she doesn't have insurance to do anything about it.

Is there anything she can do? She's in a lot of pain :(
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Dentalplan.com, for like $75-100 they can do cut rates at participating dentists. I did this for the same problem back in 2004, and I think the entire process (plan, tooth removal, medication for an infection in the tooth prior to removal) was like $400 iirc.
 
bjork said:
I don't know all the specifics on the rental end, since I only dealt with normal sales (and we went through distributors and would also swoop on sales at CC or wherever), but I know a lot of the $100 VHS tapes were rental only. Not sure if there were rental only DVDs, but if there were, it wouldn't surprise me.
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I could have sworn the high-priced rental versions were in order to beat the street date of consumer versions.
 
Zoe said:
I could have sworn the high-priced rental versions were in order to beat the street date of consumer versions.
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Oh, that could be also. Never even thought about it. Been probably 15 years since I rented a movie.
 
I've had chicken breasts frozen in my freezer for about a month and a half now. If I defrost them can I keep them in the fridge for about a week? Or will I have to cook them right away?
 
Hey all I'm doing some Latin homework:

Give a derivative of par for each of the following definitions:

1 Equality - Parity
2 One's Equals - ??? Peers maybe?
3 To lower in esteem - Disparage
4 A judge or arbiter, especially in team sports - ?! I have no idea.

Any ideas on 2 and 4?
 
AvidNobody said:
Hey all I'm doing some Latin homework:

Give a derivative of par for each of the following definitions:

1 Equality - Parity
2 One's Equals - ??? Peers maybe?
3 To lower in esteem - Disparage
4 A judge or arbiter, especially in team sports - ?! I have no idea.

Any ideas on 2 and 4?
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Umpire?

1350–1400; ME umpere, var. of noumpere (a noumpere taken as an oumpere; cf. adder, apron ) < OF nomper, nonper arbiter, i.e., one not equal.
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Joe said:
I've had chicken breasts frozen in my freezer for about a month and a half now. If I defrost them can I keep them in the fridge for about a week? Or will I have to cook them right away?
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I wouldn't defrost it until I'm ready to cook it.
 
So I converted my mpg to an MP4 to stream to my 360...It plays fine on my PC, but the stream completely shits out on my 360. Anyone know what the deal is?
 
ToyMachine228 said:
So I converted my mpg to an MP4 to stream to my 360...It plays fine on my PC, but the stream completely shits out on my 360. Anyone know what the deal is?
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Try renaming the file extensions to .wmv (instead of .mp4) then add it to the library.
 
WanderingWind said:
Can anybody explain Direct X to me? Also, can a Radeon HD 4650 use DX11?
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No the 4650 is DirectX 10.1 only. If you wanna buy a new graphics card try to get at least the HD 5670.
Basically they add new graphics processing functions/techniques in each new DirectX generation.
 
The other day I started having this odd issue with my mouse where when I take it off the mouse pad, or any other contact surface (it's an optical mouse), the pointer moves up to the upper left corner of the screen. This issue is fixed temporarily when I replug in the mouse, but then it starts acting up again. Anyone have a clue what's going on?
 
So there's this effect I've seen in some games I've been playing recently. Halo 3 has the most extreme form of it, on the "Cortana" level of the campaign. It happens where you're walking in seemingly short rooms and suddenly they appear to become very long, almost like an entire hallway. I noticed the effect again to a lesser extent while playing Darksiders, after clicking the right analog stick to bring up the aiming control scheme. The objects near to the camera become closer, and objects further away appear to become even more distant (especially the 2D background elements). Does this effect have a name? I have been Googling but haven't found anything remotely close to what I am looking for. This isn't for a project or anything, I'm just interested in learning more about it.
 
rj118 said:
So there's this effect I've seen in some games I've been playing recently. Halo 3 has the most extreme form of it, on the "Cortana" level of the campaign. It happens where you're walking in seemingly short rooms and suddenly they appear to become very long, almost like an entire hallway. I noticed the effect again to a lesser extent while playing Darksiders, after clicking the right analog stick to bring up the aiming control scheme. The objects near to the camera become closer, and objects further away appear to become even more distant (especially the 2D background elements). Does this effect have a name? I have been Googling but haven't found anything remotely close to what I am looking for. This isn't for a project or anything, I'm just interested in learning more about it.
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Sounds like you're talking about altering the field of view angle.
 
I am in need of a new laptop and I've been considering either a macbook or laptop pc. My main concern is security. I know that you don't need to worry too much about antivirus, spyware, etc with macs, but what software would you recommend for pc? I'm trying to decide between the two since there's a rather large price difference.
 
operon said:
who invented the pie in the face gag? something i've been wanting to know for a while
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This is more of a common sense thing. The shape of the modern pie simply demands that one throws it in another's face.
 
RadioHeadAche said:
I am in need of a new laptop and I've been considering either a macbook or laptop pc. My main concern is security. I know that you don't need to worry too much about antivirus, spyware, etc with macs, but what software would you recommend for pc? I'm trying to decide between the two since there's a rather large price difference.
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AVG Free for antivirus and Spybot Search and Destroy for spyware. Both are free!
 
Any clues what this bug is? Found in a basement at my friend's place, and none of us had seen it before. Have a short iphone vid too, just figuring out where to upload it. It was 1cm in size, tops.

I realize the photo quality is shit. =/

2whgoz7.jpg
 
So I have 2 250gb hard disks and as Windows 7 is coming to an end, I have decided to go back to XP. During installation, I formatted the main HD and the other is kept as a very important backup (Music, photos etc). When the setup rebooted to start the 2nd part, just after BIOS, there was an error message of "No operating system". I rebooted and now it doesn't even go past BIOS. If I press DEL to get to the BIOS setup, it freezes on what looks like the HD/DVD drives check.

I've since had to use the back HD to install Windows but I don't have much space left and only want to use it as a backup.

1st, is there anyway I can still use the 1st HD and get past the BIOS? If not, and I haven't tried this yet, if I put it to be the secondary HD and it still freezes on the BIOS check, can I actually connect it to the pc, after windows has booted up? It's connected by SATA.
 
Hey gaf quick Q. If i send something out to the west coast super early tomorrow morning via USPS First Class Mail, is there any chance of it getting there by Monday?
 
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