Is the D600 overpriced?

On 2012.10.05 17:13 , Robert Coe wrote:

1920x1080 is a rather odd aspect ratio, at least on this side of the metric
system. Are you sure you've got that right?

16:9 is the HD television ratio. 16x120 : 9x120 = 1920:1080

From Wikipedia:

Bob Morris explained that the 16:9 ratio was chosen as being the
geometric mean of 4:3, Academy ratio, and 2.4:1, the widest cinema
format in common use, in order to minimize wasted screen space when
displaying content with a variety of aspect ratios.

--
"There were, unfortunately, no great principles on which parties
were divided – politics became a mere struggle for office."
-Sir John A. Macdonald

On 10/6/2012 3:50 PM, Alan Browne wrote:
On 2012.10.06 15:28 , Eric Stevens wrote:

A way of expressing a casual death is to say that someone has "kicked
the bucket".

I don't recall the movie title (maybe "it's a mad, mad world") where at
the beginning of the movie there's an accident (car?). As the fellow,
lying in the ditch dies his leg twitches and kicks a bucket...

Yup! That was Jimmy Durante. I remember the scene being about 1/4 into
the movie, but I could be wrong.

--
Peter

On 2012-10-06 12:28:06 -0700, Eric Stevens said:

On Sat, 06 Oct 2012 12:23:51 +0100, Bruce
wrote:

Robert Coe wrote:
On Fri, 05 Oct 2012 23:46:49 +0100, Bruce wrote:
:
: Hence 'to pop your clogs" is a euphemism for death.
:
: Until I looked this up using Google I had thought the currency of 'pop
: your clogs' was much wider than it is. It was too obscure for an
: international forum such as this; for that I apologise.

Interesting. That one had sailed over my head entirely!


Another euphemism I use for death is "to snuff it".

It's a reference to the days before people's homes were lit by either
gas or electricity. If someone was ill in bed, they would have a
candle burning in the room at all times. When they died, the candle
would be extinguished or "snuffed out".

So people would say "X has snuffed it" to mean the person X died.

Then there is the expression used mainly by pilots when speaking of a
fatal accident, that so and so has "bought the farm".

"Bought the farm", is an expression developed in the U.S. military, and
not necessarily limited to airmen. Starting during WWII. U.S.
Servicemen carry a G.I. life insurance policy for combat death, which
during WWII paid, IIRC $10K. Given the high number of draftees,
literally conscripted off "the farm", $10K was a substantial
contribution to help pay off the mortgage on the family farm in the
1940's. Those about to enter combat were usually reminded to make sure
that their paperwork, including their insurance information was up to
date, so if anything happened to them they would still be able to "buy
the farm" for Mom & Dad.

Some believed the origin referred to buying a grave as his solitary
piece of real estate, but that is somewhat apocryphal.

"Bought the farm" was very much in use through the Vietnam era.

Much of this has changed today with the post 9/11 GI Bill and the
benefits paid to today's non-draftee career U.S. military.

Two typical pilot expressions also originating in WWII were, "auger in"
& "crater".
"auger in" was descriptive drilling a hole for a grave, and of the
effect of that uncontrolled landing on the surface of the earth, hence
"crater".


A way of expressing a casual death is to say that someone has "kicked
the bucket".


--
Regards,

Savageduck

On Sat, 06 Oct 2012 17:51:32 -0400, Alan Browne
wrote:
: On 2012.10.05 17:13 , Robert Coe wrote:
:
: 1920x1080 is a rather odd aspect ratio, at least on this side of the metric
: system. Are you sure you've got that right?
:
: It has nothing to do with the metric system.

Well, I didn't seriously think it did.

: 16:9 is the HD television ratio. 16x120 : 9x120 = 1920:1080

Yeah, I hadn't thought to notice that 1920x1080 is 16:9. Like everydody else,
I have a 16:9 TV. But I don't believe I've ever seen a 16:9 computer monitor.
In my world, 8:5 is much more usual. At least so far.

Bob

On Sun, 07 Oct 2012 08:28:06 +1300, Eric Stevens
wrote:
: On Sat, 06 Oct 2012 12:23:51 +0100, Bruce
: wrote:
:
: Robert Coe wrote:
: On Fri, 05 Oct 2012 23:46:49 +0100, Bruce wrote:
: :
: : Hence 'to pop your clogs" is a euphemism for death.
: :
: : Until I looked this up using Google I had thought the currency of 'pop
: : your clogs' was much wider than it is. It was too obscure for an
: : international forum such as this; for that I apologise.
:
: Interesting. That one had sailed over my head entirely!
:
:
: Another euphemism I use for death is "to snuff it".
:
: It's a reference to the days before people's homes were lit by either
: gas or electricity. If someone was ill in bed, they would have a
: candle burning in the room at all times. When they died, the candle
: would be extinguished or "snuffed out".
:
: So people would say "X has snuffed it" to mean the person X died.
:
: Then there is the expression used mainly by pilots when speaking of a
: fatal accident, that so and so has "bought the farm".

I believe that one originated in the military, where many pilots get their
training. ("If I ever got out of this alive, I'm going to buy a farm and live
out a bucolic life ...")

: A way of expressing a casual death is to say that someone has "kicked
: the bucket".

I'm pretty sure that that one, at least originally, is a specific reference to
suicide. To hang yourself (in a barn, for example), you stand on an inverted
bucket and tie the rope to a hook or rafter. Then you jump off and kick the
bucket out of the way.

Bob

On Sun, 07 Oct 2012 08:44:26 +0100, Bruce wrote:
: Robert Coe wrote:
: On Sun, 07 Oct 2012 08:28:06 +1300, Eric Stevens
:
: : A way of expressing a casual death is to say that someone has "kicked
: : the bucket".
:
: I'm pretty sure that that one, at least originally, is a specific reference to
: suicide. To hang yourself (in a barn, for example), you stand on an inverted
: bucket and tie the rope to a hook or rafter. Then you jump off and kick the
: bucket out of the way.
:
:
: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kick_the_bucket
:
: There are many theories as to where this idiom comes from, but the OED
: (Oxford English Dictionary) discusses the following:
:
: A person standing on a pail or bucket with their head in a slip noose
: would kick the bucket so as to commit suicide. The OED, however, says
: this is mainly speculative;
:
: The OED describes as more plausible the archaic use of "bucket" as a
: beam from which a pig is hung by its feet prior to being slaughtered.
: To kick the bucket, then, originally signified the pig's death throes;
: Another explanation is given by a Roman Catholic Bishop, The Right
: Reverend Abbot Horne, F.S.A. He records on page 6 of his booklet
: "Relics of Popery" Catholic Truth Society London, 1949, the following:
:
: "After death, when a body had been laid out, ... and ... the
: holy-water bucket was brought from the church and put at the feet of
: the corpse. When friend came to pray... they would sprinkle the body
: with holy water .. it is easy to see how such a saying as " kicking
: the bucket " came about. Many other explanations of this saying have
: been given by persons who are unacquainted with Catholic custom"

Who am I to question the OED; but the explanation I described survives the
application of Occam's Razor, while those other two explanations don't.

And it's no secret that the Roman Catholic Church likes to think it invented
everything.

Bob

On Sun, 07 Oct 2012 08:41:07 +0100, Bruce wrote:
: Savageduck wrote:
: On 2012-10-06 09:36:58 -0700, "R. Mark Clayton"
: said:
: "Bruce" wrote in message
: ...
: Robert Coe wrote:
: On Fri, 05 Oct 2012 23:46:49 +0100, Bruce wrote:
: :
: : Hence 'to pop your clogs" is a euphemism for death.
: :
: : Until I looked this up using Google I had thought the currency of 'pop
: : your clogs' was much wider than it is. It was too obscure for an
: : international forum such as this; for that I apologise.
:
: Interesting. That one had sailed over my head entirely!
:
:
: Another euphemism I use for death is "to snuff it".
:
: It's a reference to the days before people's homes were lit by either
: gas or electricity. If someone was ill in bed, they would have a
: candle burning in the room at all times. When they died, the candle
: would be extinguished or "snuffed out".
:
: So people would say "X has snuffed it" to mean the person X died.
:
: Brown bread?
:
:
: Cockney rhyming slang, alas now dying out. And of course the correct
: usage would be "brown" and not "brown bread". People who don't
: understand Cockney rhyming slang always use the whole phrase whereas
: the people who actually speak it use only the first part of it.
:
: For instance, "She's up the apples" means "She's upstairs", derived
: from apples and pears = stairs.
:
: "He's on the dog" means "He's on the phone", derived from dog and bone
: = phone.

To appreciate those, one must accept the underlying assumptions that
"apples and pears = stairs" and
"dog and bone = phone",
a justification for both of which would seem to be in order.

:
: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Parrot_sketch for more euphemisms
:
: "shuffle off one's mortal coil" was Shakespear's
:
: For the theatrical there is also "curtains".
:
: ...and for those who experienced a meditation in green in the 60's &
: 70's, from "lay waste to" there is "wasted". However, that does not
: refer to a peaceful passing away at the end of a full life.
:
:
: How about "he kicked the bucket"?
:
: British English is full of such euphemisms.

Ah, but the the politically correct U.S. must surely be the world's epicenter
of euphemisms, piling one on top of the other as each becomes understood by
the masses. Thus

"idiot/imbicile/moron" - "feeble minded" - "mentally retarded" -
"exceptional" - "learning disabled" - "mentally challenged", etc., etc. (I'm
sure I've left some out and may have gotten some in the wrong order).

But my favorite comes from macro-economics:
In the 19th century, the term for a serious economic downturn was "hard
times". But when the bottom fell out of the U.S. economy in the 1930s,
President Hoover's spin doctors, unwilling to admit to "hard times",
proclaimed that this was only a small "depression" in the graphs tracking U.S.
economic performance. But when the "depression" dragged on for ten years, the
word became anathema; so when in the 1950s the economy headed south again, it
was characterized as not a depression, but merely a temporary "recession" of
the country's inevitable economic growth. But in its turn that word became
radioactive as well, so when in the 1970s another severe downturn ensued,
President Jimmy Carter's flacks declaimed that the situation was not a
recession, but "just a little bit of hard times".

: I wonder if that is down to the British reserve, preferring to skirt
: around issues rather than address them directly. It must be confusing
: for Americans who speak much more directly.

See above.

: Of course one of the biggest problems when conversing with some
: English people is the conversational use of cricket metaphors such as
: "he's on a sticky wicket" which means someone is in a risky position
: and "he's had a good innings" which means he has lived a long life,
: so it is often used as a remark when someone old dies.
:
: Perhaps the most opaque of all to outsiders is "It's not cricket",
: which refers to ungentlemanly or unethical behaviour.

Oddly enough, I think most decently educated Americans don't have trouble with
those metaphors, even though we don't play cricket. After all, most Americans
don't sail either, but idiomatic English is crammed with sailing metaphors
that everybody more or less understands.

Bob

"Robert Coe" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 07 Oct 2012 08:41:07 +0100, Bruce wrote:
SNIP
: Brown bread?
:
:
: Cockney rhyming slang, alas now dying out. And of course the correct
: usage would be "brown" and not "brown bread". People who don't
: understand Cockney rhyming slang always use the whole phrase whereas
: the people who actually speak it use only the first part of it.

Alright "gone for a Burton".

:
: For instance, "She's up the apples" means "She's upstairs", derived
: from apples and pears = stairs.
:
: "He's on the dog" means "He's on the phone", derived from dog and bone
: = phone.

Sometimes there is more than one step e.g. "He's a berk!"


To appreciate those, one must accept the underlying assumptions that
"apples and pears = stairs" and
"dog and bone = phone",
a justification for both of which would seem to be in order.

berk - Berkshire; Berkshire - Berkshire Hunt...


:
: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Parrot_sketch for more
euphemisms
:
: "shuffle off one's mortal coil" was Shakespear's
:
: For the theatrical there is also "curtains".
:
SNIP

Ah, but the the politically correct U.S. must surely be the world's
epicenter
of euphemisms, piling one on top of the other as each becomes understood
by
the masses. Thus

"idiot/imbicile/moron" - "feeble minded" - "mentally retarded" -
"exceptional" - "learning disabled" - "mentally challenged", etc., etc.
(I'm
sure I've left some out and may have gotten some in the wrong order).


There are loads of these for sex - jump, shag, poke, bonk, hide the salami
etc. as they become more common the euphemism becomes less acceptable.



See above.

: Of course one of the biggest problems when conversing with some
: English people is the conversational use of cricket metaphors such as
: "he's on a sticky wicket" which means someone is in a risky position
: and "he's had a good innings" which means he has lived a long life,
: so it is often used as a remark when someone old dies.
:
: Perhaps the most opaque of all to outsiders is "It's not cricket",
: which refers to ungentlemanly or unethical behaviour.

Oddly enough, I think most decently educated Americans don't have trouble
with
those metaphors, even though we don't play cricket. After all, most
Americans
don't sail either, but idiomatic English is crammed with sailing metaphors
that everybody more or less understands.

Well the US Navy has been bigger than the Royal Navy for nearly a century.

We limey's cope with the odd baseball metaphor - step up to the plate,
didn't even make first base, home run etc. although unlike cricket, which is
played in five continents, baseball is hardly played at all outside the USA.

UK games
football - little referee intervention required in friendly games apart from
offside,
golf - little referee intervention required even in professional games.
cricket - little referee intervention required in friendly games apart from
LBW and tight run outs.
rugby - quite a lot of referee intervention required.

US games
Baseball - extensive referee intervention required for strikes and outs
football - extensive referee intervention required

Bob

On Sun, 07 Oct 2012 13:33:12 -0400, Robert Coe wrote:

But my favorite comes from macro-economics:
In the 19th century, the term for a serious economic downturn was "hard
times". But when the bottom fell out of the U.S. economy in the 1930s,
President Hoover's spin doctors, unwilling to admit to "hard times",
proclaimed that this was only a small "depression" in the graphs tracking U.S.
economic performance. But when the "depression" dragged on for ten years, the
word became anathema; so when in the 1950s the economy headed south again, it
was characterized as not a depression, but merely a temporary "recession" of
the country's inevitable economic growth. But in its turn that word became
radioactive as well, so when in the 1970s another severe downturn ensued,
President Jimmy Carter's flacks declaimed that the situation was not a
recession, but "just a little bit of hard times".

Mine is the statement that one is going to the 'lavatory'.
Oops! That means 'to wash'.

OK. How about going to the 'toilet'.
Nope, that means to wash also.

How about the 'bathroom'?
Doesn't that also mean washing?

If you get really prissy you can fall back on 'public convenience'.
However, then there is a risk of the misuse of convenience stores.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

"Bruce" wrote in message
...
: 1920x1080 is a rather odd aspect ratio, at least on this side of the
metric
: system. Are you sure you've got that right?
:
: It has nothing to do with the metric system.

Well, I didn't seriously think it did.

: 16:9 is the HD television ratio. 16x120 : 9x120 = 1920:1080

Yeah, I hadn't thought to notice that 1920x1080 is 16:9. Like everydody
else,
I have a 16:9 TV. But I don't believe I've ever seen a 16:9 computer
monitor.
In my world, 8:5 is much more usual. At least so far.


In the UK, the most popular monitor resolution (highest numbers sold)
is 1920 x 1080. That's what I use for email, newsgroups, web browsing
and watching TV. For anything else, I prefer a taller screen than
16:9 offers.


Nearly all monitors sold here now are 16:9 since the advent of HD TV and
computers that can play HD video content. A few are still 16:10 but *very
few* now the old 4:3 standard common with CRT.

Trevor.