Recent content by IronDuke

We've all had them. Those moments in life where the world gets so weird, so surreal, that the only thing you can do is sit back and take it all in. My moment of surreal zen came a few months ago. I had just finished moving a few boxes of personal things out of my parents' home, when I decided...

Bah. I haven't been to these forums in 2 years or more and I knew exactly what this would be about. Nobody has a love-on for the Pens like Onhell. Happy birthday, dude. I promise you I'll answer your letter one day. Really! Honest!

Thanks for the good wishes, guys. The new Mrs. Duke and I are as happy as....very happy things. I'll post some pictures if I stop being so lazy.

I dare not post my ugly mug here! Sorry, guys

We used to have Radio Shack up here; it was bought by Circuit City, though, and rebranded as "The Source" - it didn't go belly-up like the US version of Circuit City though. I think I'll try my hand at opening up the speakers and re-soldering wires. The speakers were free, so if I screw it up...

Recently, a set of decent speakers came into my grubby little palms. I want to use them as speakers for my computer, as they have much better sound quality than those which I'm currently using. The problem, though, is that my computer lacks the proper jacks to plug them in. If I could convert...

I pretty much figured that to be the case. When I read it the other day, it made me stop and think "WTF" to myself. It was one of those weird little things in history that seem unlikely, but just plausible enough to make a non-expert doubt himself. Thanks to both of you!

Congratulations, Foro! All the best to your family! The kid is cute. He must take after his mother.

I have you in mind for this, Perun, but anyone who knows WTF he's talking about can answer. I can't find clear confirmation of this anywhere one way or the other in English, and I haven't been practising my German in the past few years so I'm a bit rusty. After WW2, Germany was divided into...

Of course, Per, I'm not pinning this all on the crazy improbability of the existence of a country like Pakistan. I just meant to suggest that this was a symptom and exemplar of how that country is basically a basket case. That such a disparate amalgam of ethnic groups have formned a...

Pakistan is an unfortunate creation of the British when they granted Indian independence. Originally the country even including Bangladesh - 1600 km away with no land route. Just look at how they came up with the name of the country - "the millions of Muslims of PAKISTAN, who live in the five...

I don't know for sure. I think patent laws in the Western world, especially in the US, are horribly backward and out dated. The original reason for patents was to encourage innovation and development by letting the inventor/author/artist/creator profit from the work for a period of time, and...

You're confusing the hell outta me. Your name is obviously based on Aztec myth - meaning you may be form Mexico. Your avatar pic is a maple leaf, indicating Canada. Your little caption mentions Kansas. Are you the bastard love child of NAFTA?

I'm a member of the Naval Reserve. I work with the Cadets in my town (Cadets is a national program for kids aged 12-18 that teaches physical fitness, citizenship, and environmental stewardship. It's funded by the Department of National Defence, and run by reserve officers.) It's the highest...

Just out of curiosity, Per, what was the nature of the service you did? I know it required you to move to a different city within Germany, but what did you actually do?