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Perl is one of the last ones I'd foist on someone else who's not a programming professional.

Physicists are programming professionals. They deal with data sets, analysis problems, and hardware configurations that are way beyond the cutting edge. They build their own supercomputing clusters, write their own grid processing systems, build advanced data analysis frameworks, and fork their own Linux distros. At the physics lab where I worked for 15 years, if a physics grad student was incapable of learning a little Perl (and C, C++, Fortran, Java, TeX, and a couple of shells, and maybe some Python and Ruby) they didn't get their degree.

When launching a new physics project, it was a very serious concern which programming languages you chose to do your software development in. If you were conservative and went with a legacy language like Fortran because of all the pre-existing analysis software available, you had trouble attracting grad students to the project, because they wanted more marketable languages on their resumes. The reason is because if they decided to get out of physics one day, their strongest job prospects are in computing and data analysis.

While both the BSA and IDC might well have a conflict of interest with regard to the surveys outcome, no secret has been made of their methodology and the conclusions are, IMO hardly controversial.

The notion that copyright infringement damages the prospects of companies that write software and therefore the employment prospects of programmers (oops, there's my conflict of interest) strikes me as perfectly reasonable. This does not, of course prevent me from being paying close and paranoid attention to the methods of enforcement advocated by the BSA.

not to address all your points - but lol how your "employer" trashes the performance of BIND 9 (which they, themselves wrote) and then on top of it go on to explain how their high performance commercial version is written as separate auth and cacheing servers like BIND 4 - 9? No, like the guy they have been trashing for doing so all these years.

Your company has no credibility - they'd gain some of they said - "We wrote BIND 9 under contract to ISC Corp and it was crap, so we wrote something a little better that you can pay through the nose for. But in the end its not any better than djbdns or nsd http://www.nlnetlabs.nl/nsd/ " Your "employer's" software is bested by one grouchy guy's 5+ year old software and by a group of 5 Northern European Bongheads on a 500K EUR budget - its a joke, how much did you guys get for writing BIND 9, how many millions ?

As for a few of the other things - how about the cult of the term "reference implementation" the Brad Knowles is on ? Now that ISC has sucked up ntp, notice how he has started bad-mouthing OpenNTPd and using the term "reference implementation" with ntp software, too - the guy has a problem.http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:2CD_GXH _YAoJ:bradknowles.typepad.com/considered_harmful/2 004/09/openntpd.html+reference+implementation+open ntp "reference implementation" doesn't mean jack, esp. when it sucks. And yeah the BIND zone transfer is _so_ much better than rsync/scp. And please don't compare the number of patches in BINDs history to djbdns - yeah he doesn't incorporate the few that there are out there but boohoo, I have an automated build for djbdns and there are lots of pre-patched bundles available on the net.

So you are saying that the tree whose nuts needed to go through the digestive system of the dodo is not worth while.

I was watching a show on the Discovery Channel (it might have been another similar channel though) about nuts & they mentioned a tree that was on the same island as the dodo, the youngest tree of that species they found was from the time period of the dodo. They started trying to make it so that the seeds can germinate by reproducing the same environment as in the dodos digestive system.

If you still don't belive me check out the following links.

http://online.sfsu.edu/~lebuhn/530/lectures/Umbrel lasplectures.ppt(Power Point Warning)
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:QHD0lYihbQwJ:on line.sfsu.edu/~lebuhn/530/lectures/Umbrellasplectu res.ppt+dodo+nut&hl=en&lr=lang_en%7Clang_ja

LARRY CALDWELL, SBN 88867
1380 Lead Hill Boulevard Suite 106
Roseville, CA 95661
(916)774-4667
(916)797-4954

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:FUFZvjZHhGwJ:ww w.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/filesDB-download.ph p%3Fid%3D274+Larry+Caldwell,+Granite+Bay&hl=en&cli ent=safari

It's easy to have no evidence about Guantanamo, since the restrictions there are so tight. I'm sure you just ignore anything and everything Amnesty International has to say, but they do have this to say, plus a whole lot more:

Full judicial review of detention, and access to lawyers and independent human rights monitors, are basic safeguards against torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, and "disappearance". Evidence that Guantánamo detainees have been tortured and ill-treated continues to mount, with FBI agents now added to the list of those making such allegations. Yesterday, the military announced that it will carry out an internal investigation into these latest allegations.

Anyways, I don't know about your home, but this picture from the BBC sure doesn't look like my backyard.

Look. I'm sure you enjoy playing word games, but Colin Powell's former chief of staff had this to say here:

"Lawrence Wilkerson, Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff in the first Bush administration and a former colonel, said Thursday that the view of Cheney's office was put in "carefully couched" terms in memos but that to a soldier in the field it meant sometimes using interrogation techniques that "were not in accordance with the spirit of the Geneva Conventions and the law of war" to extract better intelligence."

You may want to say that Cheney doesn't espouse torture, or that Guantanamo isn't torturing detainees. That's fine. You keep using your "carefully couched" language. Personally, I'm going to keep asking for trials and public disclosure, so we can figure out for ourselves what's going on instead of having to listen to endless talking around the subject.

Slashdotted already, I guess.

Take a look at this paper on shatter attacks.

Then check out this one from some HP people who think they've got a workaround.

From what I understand any process (owned by any user) can execute arbitrary code as any other user on a desktop system as long as then can find a window owned as that user. They simply tell the administrator owned window to run a function at a particular memory address (by using a timer with a callback).

Basically. The moral of the story is that developers shouldn't write applications such that they have windows with elevated privileges "just running" on regular user's desktops.

Interesting. I wonder if/when exploits for this will appear in the wild.

They probably already exist, but since the attack requires a) a local logon and b) a window with elevated privileges, none of them are ever likely to be "popular".

Shatter is a flaw, but it's only really exposed by poorly written applications. In the grand scheme of things, it's pretty low risk.

CNet published a story about this.
Their original story also mentioned that first4internet worked "closely" with Symantec and others.
Interesting how this has been removed from the current version of the article, without any notes re: changes.

You'll need to use google's cache to get to some of the pages found by the following:
http://www.google.com/search?q=+site%3Awww.sun.com +coolthreads
http://www.google.com/search?q=+site%3Awww.sun.com +t2000

A brief description of some systems here:
http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/government /configure/group/ch_throughput_servers_1.html

And "Pricing for FLORIDA STATE Customers":
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:OvNX6_g9s84J:ww w.sun.com/products-n-solutions/government/florida/ Gov/5.html++site:www.sun.com+t2000&hl=en&client=fi refox-a

So matching the "order number" from the first with the "model" from the second tells us that the cheapest T2000 is "Sun Fire T2000 Server, 4 core 1.0GHz UltraSPARC T1 processor, 8GB DDR2 memory (16 * 512MB DIMMs), 2 * 73GB 2.5" 10K rpm SAS hard disk drives, 1 DVD-RO/CD-RW slimline drive, 2 (N+1) power supplies, 4 10/100/1000 ethernet ports, 1 serial port, 3 PCI-E slots, 2 PCI-X slots, Solaris 10 and Java Enterprise System software pre-installed (Standard Configuration)" and costs $8,295.

You can get the software too: "Solaris 10 3/05 HW2 Operating System - This special release is to install and run on Sun Fire TM T2000 servers. It should be used only on this hardware and will be superseded by the Solaris 10 1/06 Operating System once it becomes available."

I read about African prostitutes being immune to HIV. Apparently, a verry small number of people down in only the hundredths of people exposed to HIV, are naturally resistant. Instinctively I remember that those African prostitutes agreed to be "studied" by the UNITED STATES pharmaceutical corporations to know the peculiarities of their immunity to HIV, they mysteriously lost their immunities to HIV and fell immune. There were around a hundred prostitutes to volunteer, and they all all lost their immunity. I couldn't find the exact article, but this article of HIV immunity in the Year 1998, has some of that same information with prostitutes in Thailand and Kenya.

"Kings need to know these things."

CO2 is considered a forcing because you can affect the climate by adding to or removing it from the environment -- the levels of CO2 in the environment are not affected much by climate processes.

Good idea... but I've been talking about it for years, and Chris Hall of the spacecraft blog has actually done the math....

Well, we all know that Kansas is flatter than a pancake, so this is a feasible assumption. But back to the topic, I haven't looked too much into what "Inteligent Design" teachings all entail but I think that all ideas should be given fair weight. I don't believe the theory of evolution completely and I don't believe that young students should be taught that this theory is the end all, be all, but that there are also other theories.

These students got theirs into space for $120,000. Sure, that doesn't include "donated material, equipment and expertise", or the estimated $40,000 launch cost, but let's be optimistic and call it $250,000 all told. Well, get 50 people in and it's only $5000 each -- less than a good used car. Make it 500 people and you've got the cost down to less than a trip for two to Vegas. And for this I get to help send a satellite running Linux into space -- as close as I'm likely to come to making the trip myself.

I know that ham radio folks are already doing this sort of thing, but they've got their own goals. I admit, mine are a bit fuzzy beyond "put this L33+ satellite into space", but that's kind of appealing too. What could we cram on a picosatellite? What imaging can you do for cheap -- what resolution, what wavelengths? And of course, the question everyone wants answered: Can you host a webserver in space, and could it survive a Slashdotting?

I think something like this would be cool beyond measure. Who's in?

"Now you heard the story about how I got caught
Playing with my shit but hold that thought
Before you disrespect Jimmy P
It could happen to you cause it happened to me... and T

Check this shit out
(C'mon)
Check it out

The situation broke out when I smoked too much pipe
Reached in my drawers, pulled out my pipe
Busted open a jar of petroleum jelly
Started thinking bout Donna, Nicki and Shelley

In my mind I was hitting it we was almost there
The door bust open and FUCK my mum's there
Don't disrespect Jimmy P
Cause it could happen to you, cause it happened to me... and T"

thanks Trailer Park Boys :)

So what happened was that some guy created "The Dude's Fishstore" at Yahoo with Google's address. See?/A? He was waiting to see whether any mapping service would say that Google was a fishstore. Yahoo bought it hook, line, and sinker. So it wasn't Yahoo playing a prank on Google, it was Yahoo being inadequate and making boo-boo.

Bingo, check out this Google Cache link - seems to have been data mined by the Yahoo and presented on their maps.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:Jdv3LRqIRboJ:lo cal.yahoo.com/CA/Mountain%2BView/95763967/Retail%2 BShopping/8120444/Toys/index.html+%22The+Dude's+Fi sh+Store%22&hl=en
Scroll down to item number 6.

They swear not on a Bible, I've said many times: testimony that is not sworn as true and complete and correct and not mis-leading and in unlimited commercial liability, in affidavit form and witnessed by a notary; is of no value.

With all the computer graphics improving at such a phenomenal appearance to natural environmental conditions, it would possible now to fake any artifact or extra-terrestrial event or passage of time and money for purposes of fraud. The falsified UFO picture are an example, so there is no ill will that the same scrutiny is applied to the moon-landing photographs. It was a long time ago, and because all the astronaughts never did swear to the public AND private long ago, they would doubtless recall the events with same precission as an earlier "story" or at the actual site of the occasion. There was this one man, alleged by the News corporations abroad to be a "conspiracy theorist", despite having a persona remeniscent of selling air (and News Air, btw). He arranged a somwhat biased botch with some fictional childrens' entertainment and unknowing to Buzz Aldrin. He, Bart Sibrel, asked Buzz Aldrin to swear on a Bible that they walked on the moon. Now before anyone accuses me of not letting this matter rest, it is only good that I bring it up so people can learn from these previous attempts of people to mis-lead or accuse or incompletly recuse eachother. Anyways, the conclusion to Bart Sibrel's question was Aldrin punching him in the face. That's not a verry honorable outcome, but expected of one's character being prematuraly slandered despite the same character enjoining to improved prejudice as a celebrated hero. Bart Sibrel immediatly asked his cameraman "did you get that[?]", and they moved in opposing directions.

There is a Google cache of another forum conversing the accusations, with a link to the Video of Aldrin punching Sibrel.

Site is down already but here is the Google cache link

The site is Slashdotted.

Mac OS X users can view the Google cached version of the Mac OS X report here:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:hQm4gx2gJcsJ:ww w.nsa.gov/snac/os/applemac/osx_client_final_v_1_1. pdf+&hl=en

I can't be bothered to find the URLs for all of the reports, so if anybody has one, please post it.

Since you explicitly decline to give us any evidence that supports your claims, I see no reason to believe any such evidence exists:

Or you could pay attention to SCOTUS decisions.
Review of said decisions here.
Said latest decision (using google's pdf to html) here.

The OP was exactly correct, the police have NO duty to protect any specific individual, absent a "special relationship" - which a restraining order is explicitly held not to do.

Here are some links to some studies, though if you missed the GONZALES case, decided a whole 4 months and 2 days ago (it even made the news AND /., IIRC), I doubt you are really all that interested. Which probably explains why you "still haven't seen anyone citing actual studies":

http://www.gunsandcrime.org/dgufreq.html
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/165476.htm
http://www.gunsandcrime.org/florccw.html
etc, etc, etc.

In other words, now that I've got mine, I don't want anyone else getting theirs.

Exactly. It's easy to take the "bold and courageous" stand for higher taxes when you have more money than you and several generations of your offspring will know what to do with, and you've already passed a goodly amount of it on.

Why aren't countries with a more socialist system outstripping US private drug research and production?

perhaps because you are the richest country on the fucking earth?

1. United States 11,667,515

2. Japan 4,623,398

France (5th) and China (7th) have less than a 5th of the GDP of the USA

And that data is from the world bank (2004):

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:ms9Z6taeRcMJ:ww w.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/GDP.pdf+gdp&hl=en &client=firefox-a

Just because the US model produces the most results, does not mean it is the most efficient. The pharmaceutical companies spend more on lobbying than any other industry... do you think there is a reason for that?

I guess what my point is, is that even if EA didn't permit mods of any type, the game could and would still be modded. The mod we're both talking about is not provided or sanctioned by EA, and they wouldn't have any way of stopping it short of requiring server authentication and hash checks before the game will run. Oh damn, that almost sounds like a good idea (patent pending) . . . man, I'm working against myself ;).

Anyhow, getting ahold of this mod is an intentional thing done by the game-owner, and assumably with full understanding of what it does. It would be created regardless of EA's official mod stance (unless my patent pending idea is put into effect, which is realistically skirtable anyhow), so be it unfortunate or even wrong, EA still really isn't at fault. Did they make it easier? Eeeehhhhh. Would making it harder stop such mods? No.

I could very well be in the dark, but I can't think of a single piece of software -- entertainment, productivity, OS or other -- for any hardware platform that I cannot legally alter in anyway I please using my own means or the help of someone else. Of course, so long as I'm not using to offer commercial services, or resell as an altered, copyrighted, trademarked, patented work that isn't mine.

Wanna make some money? Let's anonymously create a "mod" that turns Window's sound sets and themes into verbally and visually graphic assaults that would make George Carlin blush, then turn around and sue Microsoft into oblivion. Yup, that won't work. That's all I'm saying.

I form my own opinions, but some other people put it very well here. Eurogamer also has a good piece, but I suppose objective news may be more appreciated in this case. Statements from EA and Jack Thompson are quoted in this Google cached San Jose Mecury News piece (hence the IP instead of URL). Jack makes a seemingly reasonable point, saying, " . . . EA is not taking action against people for messing with its software. They need to get their game back."

But like I said, they can't.

M$ Project 2000 (CodeWeavers)
CodeWeavers wine Compatibility Database (PR*)

gewg_

Disclaimer: I'm not the AC to whom you're replying, but I'm in a similar situation.

Had the usual relationships in college. Some came close to marriage. A few years after my last relationship, I realized I'd crossed the lines from "I really miss it", to "Actually, I don't miss it", to "in fact, I don't even want it", and finally to "In fact, I want the absence of it".

> The first time is a total rush. Enjoy it when it happens. Just don't let it FUBAR your life. That can happen the first time you realize another person wants you close.

Soaking the brain in dopamine, norepinepherine, and oxytocin feels great (sorry for the Google cache, original's stuck behind a subscription wall), but withdrawal sucks. But eventually - over a period of years (never done heroin, never will, but it's probably the closest parallel) - you get clean of the junk.

The last time a cute chick offered me a "hit" off my own brainstem was a few years ago. It was then that I realized I'd crossed the line from "I don't want it" to "I want the continued absence of it" when I told her I didn't have enough years left in my life to waste another 10-15 of 'em getting clean again. She's happily married, I'm still a bachelor, and we're still friends. Go figure.

Google cache

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:NOS3HJhX9jcJ:ww w.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg11606.html+coge nt+level3&hl=en&client=firefox-a

When I asked for an explanation of this, it had to do with a corporate silent-treatment of sorts; because Paltel/Jawwal (the Palestinian telco) was suing Cellcom for licensing infringement and illegal operation, the Cellcom network decided to boycott the Palestinian phone carriers. This caused all sorts of problems for Palestinian society, and the effect was that everyone in Palestinian areas were ditching the local telco and getting Israeli Cellcom cell phones. Jawwal was facing dire times, after their offices were raided by Israeli military and tech imports were prevented because of blanket security concerns.

For folks on the ground, this was just one more manifestation of the intifada/occupation, even the corporations were going at it.

More background available here, here and here.

What are you talking about? All you need is a robe and wizard hat! (google cache)

Real estate tax revenue isn't that good. First, your argument ignores the effects of Prop 13. This state constitutional admendment limits the amount that property taxes can rise in California cities and IMHO is a substantial contribution to the growth in property values.

My point is that I don't know the finances of Mountain View, but greatly increased tax revenue doesn't necessarily follow from greatly increased property values.

The conflict echos of many past economic conflicts: Company A (the City of Mountain View) is well seasoned, controls the market and has become fat, lazy and leech-like from the lack of competition. While they do many good things they are unwilling to fix the major flaws that are bleeding them dry like, for example, a vastly overstaffed police department unwilling to cut a single position. Company B (Google) is the new upstart, flexible and lean, that is creating wealth for themselves and those that support them. The City of Mountain View has seen quite a few local businesses created to support Google and Google employees that generate millions of dollars each year in tax revenue.

Mountain View and Google aren't competing. Google isn't running a municipality and Mountain View doesn't offer products on the internet much less a rival search engine. Your point is invalid.

Second, you fail to understand the value of this "overstaffed" police force that Mountain View provides. That police force provides a secure environment for the companies that enjoy the Mountain View product.

Like it or not "free market" forces can not be denied. If Mountain View becomes too rich for Google they will move elsewhere like so many other businesses and Mountain View will be left as a rotting shell like so many other US cities that have lost their major private employer. Be it to another city, state or county they will move. It's happened millions of times in the US since the early 1970's.

Hrmmm, isn't Lockheed Martin still the largest employer in Mountain View?

one of the most healthy foods you can eat is tuna

While tuna is actually an excellent source of protein (remember that a healthy diet needs many other things as well), there is a downside: eating large quantities can introduce the risk of consuming too much mercury; here's two interesting links:

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:1dWBudmqB9cJ:ww w.mercurypolicy.org/new/documents/CanTheTunaReleas eFinal061903.pdf+tuna+mercury&hl=en&client=safari
http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/mercury/tuna.as p

These are almost exactly the same as the in-glass system I read about in a Mitsubishi R&D pdf a while back. linky, google html conversion it uses the table for power and data transmission, and detects liquid level through electric resistance measurements. neat stuff

The other trouble with sugar cane is it's a very dirty crop; it requires a lot of pesticide and fertilizer to grow well. In Australia (sorry for the Oz-centric examples but it's what I'm most familiar with) the fertilizer runoff from the cane farms is seriously damaging the Great Barrier Reef.

Correct. If you're measuring performance, then you *can't* include Oracle.

Here is google cache: thanks google.

I can't wait to see what movie theatres do with this technology. Maybe not our typical theatres, but yenno... like the one's at theme parks or something. I'm sure can make a pretty cool short movie with this.

Google Cache Link, Since the webserver is already dead:

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:zYFN61BG0lEJ:ww w.prweb.com/releases/2005/9/prweb288725.htm+site:h ttp://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/9/prweb288725.ht m&hl=en

Since 9/11 however, things have tightened up at the border. The result is that now the farmers are crying about how they can't find farmworkers.

What they are really saying is that they can't find CHEAP farmworkers. There are plenty of people who are willing to work; just not at the wages that the farmers are willing to pay. Construction firms apparently come down to the farms, offer more money, and off go the farmworkers.

So here's another clear example that what companies want is the cheapest labor that they can get away with, in the form of bringing in immigrants - no matter what it takes. And these companies truly start crying when they can't get bring in these people who are willing to work for peanuts.

Here's the URL of the article: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/1267833 5.htm

If you hit an issue with registeration there, bugmenot.com works just fine. But in any case, here's a copy from google's cache:

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:IZeb9ugcOlIJ:ww w.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/12678335.htm+sit e:mercurynews.com+farm+labor+shortage

Socialism? Have you not read the paper (pdf) (google HTML version) on tit-for-tat that uses economic models from game theory as a basis for the bit torrent protocol? It's pretty capitalistic in my opinion.

Consider another explanation. Pretend the folks who developed the brush worked at the MIT Media Lab. Pretend that they had spent a lot of time thinking about the whole "brush thing". They do a lot of thinking up there - kinda famous for it. If they DID have good reasons for the design, instead of just being "silly", then surely they would have published some sort of academic paper. Them being at MIT and all. They could be very highly accomplished people who have worked on other projects like this one. Could even be in a museum. Or on the Discovery Channel Website. Pretending that all those things were true, wouldn't it also be true that the brush was probably not an "unimaginative copy "which was "silly at best", probably not a "necessery evil to get funding and potentially have the technology picked up by other adults" and not really designed to "make the kids feel at ease" after all. Consider that someone describing the project in those terms either didn't try to or was incapable of understanding the project. Consider that publicly suggesting that they half-assed their interface, compromised for monetary and political reasons, and wound up with something that is little more than a toy is both rude, stupid and illustrates a complete lack of understanding.

This project, particularly the way it addresses sensory/cognitive synthesis has implications in many fields - not the least of which are child development, digital art, interface design, artificial intelligence and the study of how physical reality and abstract thought interact. It also makes REALLY cool pictures. Take a look at one of the videos (at the bottom) and all will become clear. And don't worry about us adults impeding the children's progress - they're already way ahead of us.

"(Note this isn't a real criticism just a general observation and nit picking)"

billy - "what do expect on /." my ass

Whenever Microsoft has a major new thing, they tout their $100 million marketing budget. Whether it's the new MSN Search, Media Center PCs, a campaign to maintain interest in Win XP as OS X Tiger was released or Windows Longhorn Vista, Microsoft marketing is at the ready with the $100 million check to buy mindshare (except for MSN 8, back in 2002. They got a $300 million budget. Remember that campaign? Me either). The best part is that, as this Slashdot article can attest, just saying you're going to spend $100M is enough to start getting some free press, though maybe not as much press as the $1 billion Windows 95 campaign.

Oh, to be fair, Apple isn't much better.

If you don't think poverty and race are factors in arrest and prosecution, then I'm willing to bet you haven't left your suburb for quite a while. Either that or you've never been outside. Or you live in denial. It's 4 o'clock on a friday, so I'm loath to dig in to a google search for links for you, but good grief man.

Across all analysis, youth who were African American or Latino were consistently more likely to be placed in secure detention.
Minorities not charged with resisting arrest subject to unequal force compared with whites.
Race continues to play a central role in police brutality in the United States.
Seaside man sent to prison for crime he didn't commit

but i don't know why I bother... if you haven't learned all this stuff by now, a few links won't change anything

here is the google cache link :
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:EYRwD7JSrCoJ:ga llery.menalto.com/+&hl=en

Excellent. It seems that this particular situation is so convoluted and widespread that whoever has the best lawyers will eventually win. Further:

The domain "Gmail.co.uk" is "is the private mail service reserved exclusively for the customers of the Contensis Content Management System" and is linked to Contensis, a web content management application developer. Although I was unable to discover who actually owns the name, there was no suggestion they are involved with IIIR and IIIR states that they did not register the domain. In an article by Chris Richardson, several points are made about the statius of the url, including a suggestion that its purpose is to collect gmail ids and passwords. Richardson does state that "The company who has ownership of the domain has received offers to sell the rights, although none were from Google. They have, up until now, declined to sell the rights, stating, "[l]uckily, we're honourable people." I wonder if that means that they will "do no evil"?

Now as to IIIR. They have had several incarnations, but basically are an ASP provider of financial projections under the name Pronet Analytics.com Limited. IIIR's founder and CEO is Shane Smith. Although well regarded, they have experienced significant financial difficulties lately and are struggling. An independent firm has estimated the trademarks worth at around $45M to $60M dollars. Must be nice for a guy who ran down after he heard Google's announcement of gmail and registered the trademark for $700. Yeah, that sounds like he was protecting his "intellectual property rights". It also speaks to how "reluctantly" he is proceeding with the claim against Google. In a pretty thorough search using these resources, I was unable to find any reference to IIIR and g-mail prior to the Google story. It was not mentioned in any of the company documents I read. Wouldn't a working e-mail system have a bit stronger web presence?

My conclusion is that the law suit is a money grab. There IS evidence of possible prior claims to the "gmail" name. Actually, quite a few, with established histories and credible owners. IIIR's is one of the weakest, although presented by one of the bigger firms, and augmented by the IIIR's area of business - International Finance. In the end, Smith's whole claim is based on a service that was never developed and seemingly no one uses, and a valuation based on what the name is worth to GOOGLE, not to IIIR. I doubt Google is too worried. The real shame is the way this shit muddies the waters and will make it very difficult for legitimate claimants to get a fair shake. Smith is grasping at straws to save a business that has already screwed its creditors. I, for one, am glad he picked the wrong target. Mr. Smith - "you don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind, you don't pull the mask off the ole Lone Ranger" and you sure as hell don't mess around with Google. Just ask Bill Gates. It ain't gonna be pretty.

billy - who would not call what's going to happen...well...evil

Or do your own favorite Google for employment at-will.

Transmission losses
A reasonable argument, though H2 can be produced on location and piplined. But going with your argument, your efficiency number is off. Average losses are only 7.2%.

Wind power price
I went off memory here, and I was off only slightly. Long-term wind contracts can be had for 3.5 cents/kWh. So hydrogen can be produced for $1.50 a gallon gas equiv - with retail wind power. If a wind company wanted to product H2 directly, it would be even lower.

IC engine Efficiency If you look in the fuel cell article, it clearly says that IC engine efficiency is 12% in a typical driving cycle. The problem isn't that IC engines can't be more efficient at the peak point, but that cars are driven in the real world all over the RPM spectrum, bringing the efficiency down substantally. Here is another link that claims a marginally higher 16% (depends on the car/driving cycle you use).

Crude oil to gasoline
As in the privious link, the Energy return of investment for US oil is 11, the EROI for gas is 4.4. Divide the two and you get 40% efficiency.

End result
Adding the trasmission losses to the mix, and taking the optpmistic view on average IC engine efficiency you still get 3 Times better with H2.

Here are some real numbers:
* 55% efficiency of fuel->electric in combined cycle plant (powered by crude or gas)
* 85% efficiency of electrolysis
* 50% efficiency of a PEM fuel cell
* ~90% efficiency of an electric controller/motor
* 12% efficiency of an IC engine in an average drive cycle
* 40% efficiency of crude oil->gasoline

So comparing systems normalized on crude oil, and assuming the same transmission and friction losses in the vehicle:
* Crude->gas->ic engine->motion is about 4.8% efficient
* Crude->electricity->electrolysis->fuel cell-motion is 21% efficient. 4.3 times better

To give an idea of how bad current vehicles are a 1995 Ford Taurus throughout the driving cycle only requires on average 6.3 kW (150 MPG) in motive energy, but only achieves ~28 MPG. And that is before addressing issues like reduced weight.

But more importantly hydrogen can be generated by solar, wind, or biological processes. Look at the economics. Wind can be purchased in bulk for ~3 cent/kWh. At 36.6 kWh/gallon gasoline equivalent and 85% electrolyzer efficiency: Hydrogen costs $1.10 per gallon of gas equivalent today using renewables . Right now that is sounding rather good. Not that hydrogen is the end all, but it is a good alternative to oil.

Here are some real numbers:
* 55% efficiency of fuel->electric in combined cycle plant (powered by crude or gas)
* 85% efficiency of electrolysis
* 50% efficiency of a PEM fuel cell
* ~90% efficiency of an electric controller/motor
* 12% efficiency of an IC engine in an average drive cycle
* 40% efficiency of crude oil->gasoline

So comparing systems normalized on crude oil, and assuming the same transmission and friction losses in the vehicle:
* Crude->gas->ic engine->motion is about 4.8% efficient
* Crude->electricity->electrolysis->fuel cell-motion is 21% efficient. 4.3 times better

To give an idea of how bad current vehicles are a 1995 Ford Taurus throughout the driving cycle only requires on average 6.3 kW (150 MPG) in motive energy, but only achieves ~28 MPG. And that is before addressing issues like reduced weight.

But more importantly hydrogen can be generated by solar, wind, or biological processes. Look at the economics. Wind can be purchased in bulk for ~3 cent/kWh. At 36.6 kWh/gallon gasoline equivalent and 85% electrolyzer efficiency: Hydrogen costs $1.10 per gallon of gas equivalent today using renewables . Right now that is sounding rather good. Not that hydrogen is the end all, but it is a good alternative to oil.

You don't know what you're talking about.

The levees in the state of Louisiana are owned, operated, and maintained by a byzantine hodgepodge of local levee boards.

Of course, their purpose is only secondarily to keep the levees in good order. They exist primarily to slosh around Federal tax monies to the idiot nephews and shiftless brothers-in-law of corrupt Democratic politicians, and to provide funds at election time to make sure the same corrupt Democratic politicians get re-elected time and time again.

The Corps of Engineers provides money, manpower, and advice, but the local politicians are the ones ultimately in charge. The Corps can't turn a shovelful of dirt without the say-so of the local levee board.

-ccm