Hey, Jim,
I know its off topic to this thread, but are you planning to come the Rally of New Zealand still - or have you postponed that pending the outbreak of hostilities with your credit card company?

Well, I have the ticket, but it isn't so much hostilities with the credit card company as it is the question of whether the truce with my employer continues to hold!

I will probably wait until early March and stick my finger in the wind at that time - chat with my boss. If a new project came up that kept me here (and employed!) in April, I'd probably just have to turn the ticket back in....

> So that makes it half the size of a pack of cigarettes?

Kinda. It is about 25% wider than a pack of (American) regular cigarettes, and a bit shorter, and roughly as thick. And it looks smaller because of all the rounded parts.

The best analogy I could come up with is that it is about as wide and tall as a dollar bill folded in half (or half a 100 Euro note for you Old World people).

Again, let me reiterate; until Rob says otherwise I am just making guesses here.

Us old World people don't have those funny Euro things. Our money still has the Queen's head on.

Well, my picture is of the original Lotus 7 from you know what from 1966/67 when it was filmed.

Its driven by you know who and was lifted from the opening shots that appear in every episode (check the URL for the picture and it show this I t'ink) [I got this from the DVD set].

I don't mind if you use your car picture (wait, you already do).

I don't think anyone would get confused between us ...

- my posts are generally much too long winded and off topic to be confused with anyone elses.

And no I don't own a 7.

Oh yeah... What's the engine number?!

461034TZ

Our money still has the Queen's head on

Ours does too (the king's head that is)... every country has it's own set of Euro's, but all are of equal value in all the Euro-supporting countries.
This soon turned into a new hobby for the collectors : to collect every piece of Euro money from all different Euro countries.
I hear the ones of Vatican City are the hardest to come by.

Heh...

Do you have trouble with it overheating in traffic?

Sorry.. I'm done... hee.

In reply to:

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Do you have trouble with it overheating in traffic?

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I don't but my car does.

I hear the ones of Vatican City are the hardest to come by.

That's not what local criminals would say...

Peter

That's not what local criminals would say...

That's just plain stupid! Don't those criminals know that God is watching them?

In reply to:

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That's just plain stupid! Don't those criminals know that God is watching them

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Ah, yes, but they are a God-less lot, those Vatican Criminals...

It's not surprising the crime rate is so high when "insulting the police and civil servants" is a crime!

It's not surprising the crime rate is so high when "insulting the police and civil servants" is a crime!

Huh? In most countries I know of, both insulting the police and insulting civil servants (often: any fellow human being) is a crime. With the penalty for insulting policemen or other government officials is usually punished more severely than insulting others.

cu,
sven

Sorry Rob,

I think I am keeping my iPod.

Honestly though, it seems like a decent product that hopefully will have the iPod beat in terms of feature set and pricing structure.

When is RIO coming out with the next Empeg?

> Do you have trouble with it overheating in traffic?

Not anymore

My apologies, I've never heard of that before! But as they say - ignorance of the law is no excuse!

Cheers.

Hey, Rob,

Is there any update on the availability of the Pearl? I'm going to be in the US in late March, you see, and if they happened to be out then I would be able to save a little on shipping and/or get the thing earlier.

*craves Pearl*

*gets in queue*

TIA,

Paul

Last I saw, the projected availability was June / July.

I am also extremely interested in the Pearl.
I'm thinking of replacing my aging PJB100 and cant wait to get the Pearl.

But as I live in Switzerland, Im concerned, I'll have to wait forever to buy it.

Does anyboy know how much later it will become available in Europe than in the US (if at all)?

Marc

In theory right around the same time. In practice it can depend on how quickly they sell through and how quickly we can make them. US retailers get mighty upset if you can't meet their demand.

So launch it in Europe first then...

So launch it in Europe first then..

If Europe bought as many MP3 players as the US then maybe we would! Sadly, it is a tiny fraction. In the UK almost every high street retailer has dropped MP3 entirely, except for CD players.

Rob

That wouldn't be due to the appeal of Sony Minidiscs for masses then would it?

I know some UK friends all rave about Sony Minidiscs, even when MP3's are just as good if not better - and you get more of them in tyour car than any mini-disc unit I've ever seen.

The appeal seems to be that every device in the UK seems to have a mini-disc instead of a tape unit, so its become a de-facto standard.

Can't say thats happened in the rest of the world though.

The UK is extremely minidisc obsessed. They're an easy sell for retailers (no computer needed) and they use physical media, which consumers seem unable to move away from.

You're right that this isn't true for much of the rest of the world.

<orange>they use physical media, which consumers seem unable to move away from</orange>

And here I thought the US was backward....

And here I thought the US was backward....

The US is only backward in cars, mobile phones and domestic appliances

The US is only backward in cars, mobile phones and domestic appliances

I'd like to add road signs to that list.

[edit] I worked out what is wrong with US road signs the other day. The problem is that most of the signs seem to tell you where you are, as opposed to giving directions on how to get to other more distant places. Oh, and there is never enough warning before freeway exits (presumably because the people putting up the signs still think people are travelling at 50mph, rather than 70...

Oh, and there is never enough warning before freeway exits

Except on roads with substandard exit spacing (sadly, most urban highways) the standard is 2 miles advanced warning including which side you'll be exiting from (again, if you're exiting from other than the right, that's also substandard, and if they do substantial work to the road, they get to move the exit from one side to the other).

At 70mph, you're still talking 1.68 minutes between the sign and the exit, not counting the amount of time before the sign that you see it.

There must be some subtle signage that I'm missing then. I'm from the UK and when I drive in Seattle I can rarely tell more than a few hundred yards before an exit exactly where it leads to and whether I should be taking it.