Ternaugh

Good Heavens! RINOs! Whatever will we do with moderate Republicans? Oh, wait, I'm using one as my avatar. Never mind.

A video that Cracked.com posted back in June (Warning: NSFW language):

You can get just so much From a good thing You can linger too long In your dreams Say goodbye to the Oldies but goodies Cause the good ole days weren't Always good And tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems

Mirage Hotel and Casino, built in 1989, was the most expensive hotel casino at the time at $640 million. It easily made its money back, and expanded by building the Treasure Island in 1993. Money from both properties eventually led to the building of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino, which opened in 1998. Money from those casinos eventually helped to launch the Wynn in 2005, which cost $2.7 billion to build. Meanwhile, Circus Circus started to expand by building the 4000 room Excalibur Hotel and Casino, which opened in 1990. Revenue from that project allowed Circus Circus Enterprises to build the Luxor, which opened in 1993, and then the Mandalay Bay, which opened in 1999. The Las Vegas Sands Corporation opened the Venetian in 1999 on the site of the former Sands hotel. I could go on, mentioning the expansion of "locals" casinos in the Vegas market, the rise of tribal gaming, and even the rise of riverboat gaming. But, with the exception of the Great Recession in 2008 and its fallout, most gaming companies have been very successful, especially during the 90s.

They survived the Franchise Wars.

I thought about posting this story, and during the time that I waited, the amount in the title increased to 800 points (it was at 500 points when they made the video in the article). http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/dow-futures-plunge-600-points-election-night-jitters-n680766

Nevada should break for Clinton, barring some surprise in the early voting numbers. Unless the numbers change dramatically in Wisconsin, though, I can't see her making it to 270.

Merry Christmas!

Tales from Topographic Oceans 5.1 Steven Wilson Mix

Got a call a few minutes ago from somebody claiming to be from the "computer support department", and that my computer had been reporting serious errors to their server. I played along, and was (oh, so slowly) taken to the event viewer, where he attempted to show me errors, and where I confused him by reporting stuff that I knew wasn't on his script. Unfortunately, he'd speak quieter when flustered, and I needed to ask him to repeat himself or talk louder several times, making messing with him less and less fun. I finally told him that I repaired computers for a living, and I then heard bits of a discussion between him and someone else, before the line went dead.

Casinos are not charities, and they need to pay for the mortgage/rent, employees, power, games, and so on. All casino games have a built-in advantage to the house. With some games, like single deck blackjack, the advantage is very small. For roulette, the advantage is very big. Most slot machines are usually somewhere in between. Modern slot machines are essentially software running on dedicated computers, and as such, will occasionally crash, or suffer a software glitch, or otherwise malfunction, and that's essentially why all casinos post that "malfunctions void all pays and plays". I'm guessing that this was a progressive machine, meaning that the correct combination on the reels at the correct level of wager would result in an award being paid, which would be the theoretical maximum for the machine. I'm also guessing that what actually happened is that some other combination of symbols on the screen actually displayed, and that the amount was somehow "paid" with a very large positive or negative integer value*. The fact that she mentioned trying to print out a TITO ticket means that the system didn't register it as a hand pay (which is usually required for Title 31 tax withholding compliance), and lock up until a slot attendant could arrive, which also screams "malfunction" to me. *Slots use "credits" to represent the number of coins of whatever denomination are in the machine. That should be an integer value of either 0 or one of the available positive integers, but mistakes in programming can be made.

Into the night, but out of the dark, To be cornered and yet to survive, The jester performed, with his body he scorned, With his voice he amused, and a little confused His masters the King and Queen, The laugh of the King was clear and strong, So out of fear the crowd laughed along, And how I'd love to leave here, Moving under Lost in space and with no hiding place, And no chance of staying alive, His men turn to him with confident eyes, They've been in trouble before, but still they're alive They're sure he'll think of something, But slowly their eyes take on looks that accuse As they realize, he know they must lose, And how I'd love to leave here, Moving under Doesn't anybody know that I am on the run? How I'd love to leave here, Always moving on, Always moving on somewhere that doesn't mean a thing, How I'd love to leave here, How I'd love to be there, Always on the run, Always searching for some place that I can be alone, Doesn't anybody know the reason why? Doesn't anybody know the reason why? Into the night, but out of the dark, To be cornered and yet to survive, The Fugitive runs, though his hands are tied, His legs are in irons but his head's held high. He knows how not to feel. The time is right to move out of the night, Into the light and stay out of sight, How I'd love to leave there. Moving under Doesn't anybody know the reason why? Doesn't anybody know the reason why?

The Little Prince

I kind of see it as his application for the position of Fox News commentator.

Quiet! You don't want to let them in on the true plan, do you?

I know how I pronounce it, but I've only lived in the state for 30+ years.

Sorry, that was for me, but I was away from my phone.

Or, you know, the writers could have grabbed it from the name of a DC Comics villain from the Flash's stable.

"Lion of Symmetry", sung by Toyah and composed/played by Tony Banks.

I first read this as, "Now it's just a matter of the counseling."

I judged the current candidates on originality, execution, and showmanship. No, wait. That's "Dance Fever".

We're finding driver issues in the pre-boot environment on some of our machines. There are devices that use a USB hub to host a bunch of other stuff. Rebooting the computer will sometimes cause the machine to appear to hang (often at the motherboard's splash screen), until the USB hub is disconnected. The computers use UEFI, which has its own library of built-in drivers. In a different matter, HP is putting the installation files for the drivers and bloatware in a bit of flash memory on some of their business printers, with the assumption that the end user can just plug it in with USB and mount the memory as a drive. Of course, we actually limit access to flash drives for most of our end users for safety reasons, which means that sometimes the entire device becomes unavailable, even as a printer.