Dave Garrett

How do you pronounce Lajoie?

Couldn't find a card depicting his tenure with the Astros, but he was dubbed "Penis" Cabell by many Houston fans as a result of the frequency with which he would adjust his jockstrap during games.

Looks like it was a problem specific to WinZip - I downloaded another program that handles zip files, ALZip, and it extracted the two files WinZip couldn't handle with no problems.

How would the "regular guy" like myself sell things on Ebay then? I don't have a means to accept Visa/Mastercard payments from buyers. edited for typo. You can accept credit card-funded payments with a PayPal premier account, but there are fees associated with doing so. I see eBay sellers complain about the fees all the time (and it's not uncommon to see auction descriptions that state "only PayPal payments funded by bank account will be accepted"), but I believe they're not really out of line with the merchant fees credit card companies charge to process transactions. Caveat: I haven't looked at the PayPal seller fees in a while, as I don't do a lot of selling on eBay.

Anyone else have problems with the zip file for O Encontro au Bon Gourmet? My copy of WinZip (ver. 8.1) puked on the two tracks containing tildes in the titles - tracks 4 and 7. I can see them in WinZip, but it refuses to decode them, and generates the following errors:

I thought about it, but couldn't see a compelling reason to double-dip since I already have the three big box sets. Costco had a bunch of them for $12.99, though, which is a good deal for anyone that's interested in this set.

His family is now saying that he committed suicide. Link to Boston Herald article

I was expecting this to show up any day now, but it's not to be. Looks like the seller didn't really have it in stock after all - I just got the following from Paypal:

I would dare say that here, at least 8 out of 10 drive a minimum of 85 MPH on the interstate. There are too many "racing" bikes to count. In Houston, plenty of cars drive 80-85 mph on the major freeways. I've observed far more cars and SUVs acting like assholes here than bikes. Not that there's not the occasional wannabe Ricky Racer who's just gotta demonstrate his two-wheeled prowess by pulling a wheelie at 90 mph. BTW, I believe lanesplitting on a motorcycle is completely legal in Italy, where Porcy is posting from. In the US, the only state that allows it is California.

Or, even worse, "In Dog We Tryst".

Oops - sorry, I misunderstood what you were asking. Would've PM'd, but figured the links might be of interest to others.

VideoHelp.com is the first place I'd look for these kinds of DVD tech issues, specifically here: VideoHelp.com - DVD authoring Doom9 is also highly recommended.

They frequently offer these kinds of deals via email and on the website. I get at least two emails a week from them, on average. This past weekend, I ordered: Michel Legrand - Legrand Jazz Ramsey Lewis - Sun Goddess Lou Rawls - Live! all for $4.98 each. I can't remember their shipping cost breakdown, but it's usually a lot more reasonable than BMG's. A couple of other comments. Many of their discs used to have the black-and-white insert art, but they seem to have moved away from that for most discs in the past few years - it's been quite a while since I received a disc from them that didn't have the same art as the retail version. And I think the "no credit, payment in advance" thing may be a function of how long you've been a member - I always have a "bill me" option when I place an order on their website.

Was wondering if anybody took advantage of this offer by Concord to get a replacement disc? If so, how long did it take for them to get you the replacement? Not long - I think I got a replacement disc in the mail a couple of weeks after I mailed them a copy of my receipt. Maybe a bit longer than that, but I don't recall having to wait very long at all. Given that tomorrow's March 1, I'd assume that the deadline only applies to them receiving any requests for replacement by then (or having the request letter postmarked before then), and they'll continue to fulfill outstanding replacement requests after that date.

You could say that again. I've regretted not pulling the trigger on this one during the last big Zweitausendeins sale many times since then, and figured I wasn't going to run across a better deal any time soon. I appreciate the heads-up, even if my wallet doesn't!

In my experience, this was much more the case with NT than with 2000, and that was primarily due to the fact that when NT was in its heyday, there was still a fair amount of software home users would be likely to use that wasn't completely 32-bit compatible. This hasn't been the case for quite some time now - practically all of the Windows software you were likely to run across in stores prior to the advent of Vista was usually compatible with both 2000 and XP.

Another Win2K user here, and yeah, both of my machines are pretty heavily customized with 3rd-party add-ons. I have install media for XP, but I've yet to find a compelling reason to switch to it from 2000, plus the whole "activation" thing really chaps my ass. Vista appears to be even worse, at least when it comes to DRM. When Win2K gets elderly enough to start having problems running newer software, I'm probably going to think long and hard about whether to switch to XP or one of the various Linux distributions. Or if I win the lottery, I'll just get a Mac Pro with a 30" Apple Cinema Display.

Edit: I once spent a summer in Houston. I have felt your pain. I've spent 42 summers in Houston, and I'll take the blast-furnace heat and humidity here over Northern winters any day. I haven't even had a functioning air conditioner in my car for the past two years, but I may break down and get it fixed before this summer. Hasn't been a real big issue, as my daily "commute", if you can call it that, is only ten minutes. When? Midnight? When I moved to Florida in '93, my car had no AC, and it was absolutely brutal. I can't imagine happily living with no AC if all it needed was a repair. Morning + evening commutes are no big deal. The worst part of the day during summer is between 1-4PM. And I can't say I've been "happily" living with no AC, but the previous diagnosis was a leaking compressor seal. Usually the entire compressor is replaced in such cases, and that's probably a $1200 repair. Until now, I haven't been too inclined to spend that kind of cash fixing it, but recently I've decided to go through and fix or upgrade the things that need fixing or upgrading on the car instead of buying a new one, and if I follow through with that plan, the AC will get fixed. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the currently mild weather here in Hell's VIP Room.

Edit: I once spent a summer in Houston. I have felt your pain. I've spent 42 summers in Houston, and I'll take the blast-furnace heat and humidity here over Northern winters any day. I haven't even had a functioning air conditioner in my car for the past two years, but I may break down and get it fixed before this summer. Hasn't been a real big issue, as my daily "commute", if you can call it that, is only ten minutes.

Not in the US, but if you have a region-free/multistandard DVD player, there is a French DVD available. It's supposed to have English subtitles. Qui êtes-vous Polly Maggoo? I'm in All-Regionsville, Daddy! Thanks for the heads up... You can also get it from Xploited Cinema for about the same price as Amazon.fr, and probably quite a bit quicker to boot if past experience is any indication. Xploited's a great source for Euro DVDs for those in the US. Polly at Xploited

Not in the US, but if you have a region-free/multistandard DVD player, there is a French DVD available. It's supposed to have English subtitles. Qui êtes-vous Polly Maggoo?

Is that the one where Bill Wyman is in the audience? Rahsaan Roland Kirk - I Say A Little Prayer - Live 1969

Doesn't matter how well it's packed in a box, an LP can and will move around inside a sleeve during shipment. Think about it - the LP has more mass than the outer or inner sleeves by far, so if it shifts back and forth even a little bit, it can definitely split the seams of the sleeves, especially if those sleeves are old and fragile. This used to drive me crazy when I'd buy laserdiscs from eBay sellers who didn't have a clue how to pack them. Laserdiscs are considerably heavier than LPs, and especially in the later days of the format the outer sleeves kept getting flimsier and flimsier. Combine those conditions with the frequent use of inner plastic sleeves shaped like semicircles which allowed the maximum possible amount of shifting/movement of the disc within the outer sleeve, and it wasn't uncommon for me to receive a disc that had completely punched through all three closed seams of the jacket. As for cracking or scratching if shipped outside the sleeve, there shouldn't be any problems so long as the disc in its inner sleeve is wrapped up against the outer sleeve with bubblewrap or something similar. If you want to provide maximum protection, you'd probably also "sandwich" the disc/sleeve between two sheets of cardboard or something similarly stiff, then put that inside a properly-sized box (one that's large enough for the disc to lie flat in, not wedged in diagonally).

Wikipedia entry for dB drag racing

I got this one on vinyl way back when, but I remember being pretty underwhelmed by it, and I say that as a longtime Zappa/Beefheart fan. Maybe I need to give it another spin, if I ever get my vinyl rig up and running again. He used to post in the Zappa newsgroup regularly (from what I can recall of my occasional visits there), and had his own newsgroup as well (alt.fan.zoogz-rift, IIRC).