• anthropocentric (unregistered)

    Give the gift of randomness to anyone: http://www.superawesomemysteryprize.com/

  • (cs)

    "And I have to say, good thinking, Sri Lanka: the fact that smaller bills are physically smaller than the larger ones probably makes to easier to develop vending machines."

    I'm not sure if this was a joke. The vending machine industry is dead set against different-sized bills, which are apparently much harder to handle. As for blind people, I'm not sure why anyone would object to giving the bills different textures, or bumps, or things like that. More expensive to produce, I guess?

    Of course, if you just had a pattern of bumps, it seems like it would be pretty easy to forge them . . .

  • holli (unregistered) in reply to holli

    ack, ignore that. looks like wayyy about time to sleep :-/

  • yetihehe (unregistered) in reply to Squiggle

    Just use xml, it will be easier: <photo onTable=1><printout><photo><letter onTable=1 /></photo></printout></photo>

  • Anonymous Cow-Herd (unregistered) in reply to Matt J
    Matt J:
    Scot's law DOES have a concept of legal tender, but due to laws passed years ago, only currency worth less than £5 exclusive is 'legal tender'. A council attempted to force someone to pay them in 'legal tender' a while back, but this was overruled, as notes were deemed to be money in common use, so acceptable.

    I heard something similar where someone who had failed to get a £40 parking fine (for parking outside his own home) overturned offered to pay the council entirely in copper coins (1p/2p) - the council refused and took him to court, claiming they didn't have to accept the offer because coppers are only legal tender up to a total value of 20p and he had refused to pay any other way. IIRC the judge decided that they could have accepted the payment anyway so wouldn't get their lawyer's fees, but the guy was taking the piss, and so was made to pay the court fees.

    Also worth noting, that the very narrow definition of "legal tender" in England and Wales only applies specifically for "payments into court" - i.e. settlement of debts by court order.

  • Anon. (unregistered) in reply to yetihehe
    yetihehe:
    Just use xml, it will be easier: <photo onTable=<b>"1"><printout><photo><letter onTable=<b>"1" /></photo></printout></photo>
    Here, fixed that for you.
  • holli (unregistered) in reply to Leak

    I really pity all scifi fans in those countries where Perry Rhodan is not available (although the US have their magazine culture - that kinda outhweighs it).

    Perry Rhodan is the worlds largest scifi series. It features a concurrent story of mankind since Perry Rhodan was the first man on to the moon, just to find an alien spaceship (or 1965 in the real world). There are weekly issues and we are now at issue 2443! Can you imagine 2K+ Star Trek episodes? =)

    The reason I chose the issue in the package is, that it features the story of an internal fight in the Para-Positronic ESCHER which/who is an intelligent computer whichs creative parts are human consciousnesses, so called processors. In the story, one of them is trying to take over control over ESCHER, therefore "War of the Processors" (Krieg der Prozessoren). I thought that would be somewhat on topic ;-)

  • Yanman (unregistered)

    Haven't read the rest of the comments (yet), but: The euro notes are different size as well.

  • Alex (unregistered)

    Seriously? Is that a picture of a print-out of a picture of a note? I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't an email and a carrier pigeon involved in getting that note up on the site.

  • (cs) in reply to Simetrical
    Simetrical:
    As for blind people, I'm not sure why anyone would object to giving the bills different textures, or bumps, or things like that. More expensive to produce, I guess?

    If the bills were of different sizes, and there were no other non-visual differences, it would still be difficult to determine the value of a single bill just by touch — telling two apart would be easy, but a single note with nothing to compare it against would be a problem.

    So I agree the texturing is a good idea. Someone posted earlier that the Canadians are putting this on their newer bills; I hadn't heard of this, but it sounds good.

  • Trinian (unregistered)

    Oh man, those headphones are non-transferable. You're in for it now.

  • (cs) in reply to holli
    holli:
    I really pity all scifi fans in those countries where Perry Rhodan is not available (although the US have their magazine culture - that kinda outhweighs it).

    Perry Rhodan is the worlds largest scifi series. It features a concurrent story of mankind since Perry Rhodan was the first man on to the moon, just to find an alien spaceship (or 1965 in the real world). There are weekly issues and we are now at issue 2443! Can you imagine 2K+ Star Trek episodes? =)

    The reason I chose the issue in the package is, that it features the story of an internal fight in the Para-Positronic ESCHER which/who is an intelligent computer whichs creative parts are human consciousnesses, so called processors. In the story, one of them is trying to take over control over ESCHER, therefore "War of the Processors" (Krieg der Prozessoren). I thought that would be somewhat on topic ;-)

    Perry Rhodan?

    Not nearly as epochal as Cerebus, I think you'll agree.

  • this is not my real name (unregistered) in reply to Lafcadio
  • Strider (unregistered)

    it's an image of a picture of a printout on a wooden table in which said printout is of an image of a picture of a handwritten letter on a wooden table...

    ftw

  • Lafcadio (unregistered) in reply to this is not my real name
    this is not my real name:

    Cool--thanks!

  • Vartan (unregistered)

    When do you plan on ordering the (tele)pizza?

  • sf (unregistered)

    Is that Godzilla on the front of the 10 rupee note? That's some cool looking tender!

  • Herohtar (unregistered)

    Dude, beating the gate is totally worth risking my life.

  • csm (unregistered) in reply to Strider
    Strider:
    it's an image of a picture of a printout on a wooden table in which said printout is of an image of a picture of a handwritten letter on a wooden table...

    ftw

    If only I could dial in and have some undergraduate read to me the message of the image of the picture of the wooden table printout

  • Impressed (unregistered) in reply to Kiss me I'm Polish

    The Poles have telepizza!? Truly, an advanced civilization.

  • Spingor (unregistered)

    We in the magnificent brown land down under have had super bank notes for years. Each denomination is 7mm longer than the previous, and they provide numerous other features that help the blind and hard-of-seeing to distinguish them including raised print on the note window and that each denomination of note has a completely different colour ($5 is mauve, $10 is blue, $20 is red, $50 is yellow and $100 is green - just as distinct as Monopoly money!). Hell, our notes are even polymer, compared to the regular easily-torn paper variety, which also makes them a bugger to counterfeit.

  • (cs) in reply to Lafcadio
    Lafcadio:
    Is there a website you can go to that regularly posts pictures of small random things from all over the world like this? I am unaccountably fascinated by these Souvenir Potpourri posts.

    Yes, currently the url is http://thedailywtf.com. Although that has been known to change.

  • (cs) in reply to real_aardvark
    real_aardvark:
    holli:
    I really pity all scifi fans in those countries where Perry Rhodan is not available (although the US have their magazine culture - that kinda outhweighs it).

    Perry Rhodan is the worlds largest scifi series. It features a concurrent story of mankind since Perry Rhodan was the first man on to the moon, just to find an alien spaceship (or 1965 in the real world). There are weekly issues and we are now at issue 2443! Can you imagine 2K+ Star Trek episodes? =)

    The reason I chose the issue in the package is, that it features the story of an internal fight in the Para-Positronic ESCHER which/who is an intelligent computer whichs creative parts are human consciousnesses, so called processors. In the story, one of them is trying to take over control over ESCHER, therefore "War of the Processors" (Krieg der Prozessoren). I thought that would be somewhat on topic ;-)

    Perry Rhodan?

    Not nearly as epochal as Cerebus, I think you'll agree.

    Am I missing something here? Perry Rhodan has been published weekly since 1961. And has over 2400 issues. Cerebus started in like 84 and totals 6000 pages. Unless each Perry Rhodan issue is less than 2.5 pages...

  • (cs)

    I also have CF card readers (3). In fact I only just got back from the shop with an internal one because I love CF so much.

    Anyone know if you can get an "I ♥ CompactFlash" bumper sticker? :-)

    Edit: Oh, and Australia also has notes of all the same size... Except the $5, which is smaller. But the rest all have different shaped clear windows and varied textures, which the blind would be able to feel. The real WTF is paper notes... Get with the times people. This is the plastic age!

  • Luis (unregistered)

    FYI CF cards are still widely used in some midrange and top of the line DLSR cameras like my wife's Canon 30D :P. The one you picture is the one that came with some early Canon powershot cameras.

  • (cs)

    Compact flash is far from dead.

    It is becoming an option for boot/system disks in small systems, it is the preferred option in large system cameras such as Canon, where you need massive storage (16-32Gb, soon 64), and the biggest SD is at 4Gb, 8 to be launched (some 8Gb out there already, but none that offers any usable speeds (133x+) for these cameras due to file size.

    I use CF's both for cameras and small computer systems, simply because of ease of use, size, speed and convenient format.

  • (cs) in reply to tin
    tin:
    Anyone know if you can get an "I ♥ CompactFlash" bumper sticker? :-)

    I could make you one! =)

  • ELB (unregistered)

    There is a Hartland (prounounced Heartland) in NB, Canada and it's the home of the world's longest covered bridge!

  • (cs) in reply to DShpak
    DShpak:
    I wouldn't be surprised if their replacements switch to SD, though.

    I hope not, it's a much better format than all that SD nonsense.

    CF is ATA/IDE compatible (meaning you can theoretically shove it straight on to the IDE controller).

    It's also apparently PCMCIA compatible.

    Not that I've actually tried any of this in practice, I wouldn't want to trash my cards or my controller in the process of trying it out.

  • (cs) in reply to chrismcb
    chrismcb:
    Am I missing something here? Perry Rhodan has been published weekly since 1961. And has over 2400 issues. Cerebus started in like 84 and totals 6000 pages. Unless each Perry Rhodan issue is less than 2.5 pages...
    Make that about 60 pages (~59 pure text, 1 for an illustration) per issue and you're about right...

    np: Autechre - Surripere (Draft 7.30)

  • G (unregistered)

    "who has a compact flash reader these days?" Who? everybody with a decent dSLR? :-)

  • Aeriscor (unregistered)

    Well, different size for different value might be convenient for blind people, but the very reason is counterfeiting : the paper is one of the harder part to counterfeit in a bank note.

    Now try to wash a 5 euros bill to print on the paper a 500 euros bill which is one third larger ...

    ( actually a japanese did the opposite a few years ago, to prove this precaution was not so stupid. The bill was not perfect but good enough to fool a parking automat or an average cashier )

  • KM (unregistered) in reply to Ken B

    Yes, and driving tests discriminate against the blind also. And softare discrinates against users (all).

    Can I get the Polish snacks in the U.S.?

  • (cs) in reply to DShpak
    DShpak:
    But seriously... who has a compact flash reader these days?
    Me! In fact, I have two. A lot of DSLR cameras use Compact Flash. Canon has just started using SD cards for some of their newer DSLRs, but the EOS 5D and EOS 40D (both excellent cameras, worth roughly $2000 and $1000 respectively) still use CF. I wouldn't be surprised if their replacements switch to SD, though.
    We're selling HP workstations, and they all come with 4-in-1 card reader in place of floppy. And if you don't happen to have such internal card reader, you can always pick an external USB one for around 10€ in computer stores (though they usually claim to be 52-or-more-in-1). Very handy to have, since you can access the pictures on cards directly, and you don't need to install any drivers and crapware to get the pictures off camera.

    Addendum (2008-06-14 18:46):

    Nazca:
    CF is ATA/IDE compatible (meaning you can theoretically shove it straight on to the IDE controller).
    You need a simple adapter, but it works. I used to have an Epia board for my router that booted off a CF card on IDE->CF adapter. I replaced that with an Alix board, which has CF slot on-board though (but also has an IDE connector if you'd like to use a disk instead - though if you want to use both CF and disk, you have to set the disk to slave).
  • (cs)

    I use compact flash card also, on Nintendo DS. Now I can play tsume shogi even in Canada! And I can write my own software on Nintendo DS. I have done that a few times. I use compact flash card for other uses on my computer also.

  • Kuba (unregistered) in reply to Nazca
    Nazca:
    DShpak:
    I wouldn't be surprised if their replacements switch to SD, though.

    I hope not, it's a much better format than all that SD nonsense.

    CF is ATA/IDE compatible (meaning you can theoretically shove it straight on to the IDE controller).

    It's also apparently PCMCIA compatible.

    Not that I've actually tried any of this in practice, I wouldn't want to trash my cards or my controller in the process of trying it out.

    The real WTF about SD cards is that they are essentially a closed format -- you can access them "for free" (w/o shelling bucks for licensing/documentation) only in compatibility mode which is slow as hell.

    CF cards, OTOH, can be accessed with commonly available information, and there's no need to pay anyone anything.

  • (cs) in reply to betlit
    betlit:
    i'd like to point out that 'maggie' is a swiss brand, not a german one as many people think.

    kthxbye

    ...and it's "Maggi", anyway.

  • (cs) in reply to betlit
    betlit:
    vambala:
    Hungarian bills are also all the same size. I can understand the problems of the blinds, but I prefer this way. Much easier to handle. I hate when I have to deal with Euro notes, all different sizes.

    swiss money is all the same 'height' but different length. each note is 11 millimetres longer than the next smaller one.

    (11 mm are 0.043307086614173228346456692913386 inches....)

    I love it how

    1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0

    are all of the same size.

  • (cs) in reply to this is not my real name
    this is not my real name:

    OMG WTF?

  • david (unregistered) in reply to Matt J
    Matt J:
    Scot's law DOES have a concept of legal tender, but due to laws passed years ago, only currency worth less than £5 exclusive is 'legal tender'.

    Not yet the case here in AUS: to their disgust, the tax office is forced to accept Aus currency ('legal tender') in payment of tax debts. They closed all of their cash handling service in the expectation that they could force everyone to pay by bank transfer, but failed in court.

    Of course, you can't pay in coin: coins here are only legal tender up to somewhere around $5. After that you have to use notes.

  • david (unregistered) in reply to Nazca
    Nazca:
    CF is ATA/IDE compatible (meaning you can theoretically shove it straight on to the IDE controller).

    Nah, you need a pin adapter because the pins are too small. And it's a socket like a laptop, not pin out like a desktop hard drive. Also, the power pins are the same as a laptop hard drive, not a desktop hard drive.

    So you can shove it straight into a straight-through adapter, which around here costs about $7 plus postage, or around AUD$10 all up.

  • csrster (unregistered) in reply to Grant
    Grant:
    The sticker with the heart means "I Ride Loveland" It is a response to the "I Ski (heart) Land" stickers of the past to acknowledge those on snowboards in addition to skiers.

    You don't need a bumper sticker to identify the Loveland skiers/boarders. The balls shrunk to the size of a raisin by the icy blasts from the Continental Divide are a sure indicator. I'm not sure how you identify Loveland-loving chicks, but I expect it involves nipples in some way.

  • Colin (unregistered) in reply to Lafcadio
    Lafcadio:
    Is there a website you can go to that regularly posts pictures of small random things from all over the world like this? I am unaccountably fascinated by these Souvenir Potpourri posts.

    This might satisfy you - not quite the same though:

    http://www.foundmagazine.com

  • me (unregistered) in reply to Rory Fitzpatrick

    "I also have a hard time getting Bank of Ulster Sterling notes accepted here in Scotland. "

    If you mean Ulster Bank, try putting them into the self checkout machines in sainsbury's or tesco's. May also work elsewhere.

  • Another WTF fan from Germany (unregistered)

    FYI: "Würze" is German for "condiment" :-)

  • (cs) in reply to Nazca
    Nazca:
    CF is ATA/IDE compatible (meaning you can theoretically shove it straight on to the IDE controller).

    It's also apparently PCMCIA compatible.

    Not that I've actually tried any of this in practice, I wouldn't want to trash my cards or my controller in the process of trying it out.

    You can't quite just "shove it straight on". You do need a small adapter for each of these uses.

    But they basically just map the IDE or PCMCIA pins to the holes in the CF card, which are spaced differently.

  • Jay (unregistered) in reply to holli

    We do have something like this in India. One of the tamil magazines runs a series called "Kanni Theevu" (Virgin Island). Its a daily issue and it currently at issue 17035!

    Its a crappy series that reuses the same plot every 4 years or so.

    http://www.dailythanthi.com/Cartoon_a.htm

    Click on the top left button.

    P.S.: Tamil is one of 22 official languages in India.

    Captcha: bene (italiano)

  • Richard C Haven (unregistered) in reply to vambala
    vambala:
    A Nonny Mouse:
    also, i struggle to think of any country other than the US that has bank notes all the same size - feel free to enlighten me!

    Hungarian bills are also all the same size. I can understand the problems of the blinds, but I prefer this way. Much easier to handle. I hate when I have to deal with Euro notes, all different sizes.

    Harder to counterfeit as well: US counterfeiters just bleach a $1 and they have genuine paper for a $100.

  • LEGO (unregistered) in reply to Richard C Haven
    Richard C Haven:
    vambala:
    A Nonny Mouse:
    also, i struggle to think of any country other than the US that has bank notes all the same size - feel free to enlighten me!

    Hungarian bills are also all the same size. I can understand the problems of the blinds, but I prefer this way. Much easier to handle. I hate when I have to deal with Euro notes, all different sizes.

    Harder to counterfeit as well: US counterfeiters just bleach a $1 and they have genuine paper for a $100.

    Nah, they have genuine paper for a $1. The security thread embedded in the paper identifies the denomination and there is no way to remove it without destroying the bill. Almost all vendors check bills down to $20 for counterfeits these days so it would be very difficult for someone to pass off a fake $100 printed on a bleached $1 note.

    -Lego

  • Trawn (unregistered)

    Clever eyes will spot that Charles had a sex change in December 2007. Metra monthly tickets are coded for gender.

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