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If there were a chance in hell that a laser pointer could actually damage a child's eye, there would be no chance in hell that you'd be able to buy one for $2.99 at Walgreen's. Think. This is the post-Nader age, right?

No; as long as proper warnings are given, even dangerous items can still be sold in stores.

I refer you to http://vision.about.com/od/eyesafety/a/laserpointe reye.htm, an article that gives several sources showing that laser pointer can indeed damage a child's eye.

Microsoft has threatened to invade France to reimpose "order" on the chaos of the ODF. France has pre-emptively surrendered.

This idotic attempt at making fun should not call for an answer, but it is offensive enough that I'm making one. France casualties in WWI alone were higher than the total of USA casualties among all wars they fought, american civil war included, while our population ratio has been a steady one fifth of yours (sources : http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004615.html, http://europeanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/bl ww1castable.htm). WWII was a sad mess, we were thrown to war without adequate preparation by politicians who betrayed us, and we were beaten fair and square by Germany (which was a nation of strong warriorship traditions too). So, I don't think we need to take any lesson of fighting spirit from anyone, considering that after France liberation in WWII our Free French Forces kept fighting along with Allied forces all the way up to Berlin.

But if you still want to dig into this, let me just remind you that we're currently the only european nation with independent nuclear power with a worldwide strike capacity (usa included, in case you ask).

We are currently a pacific nation, and being perceived as harmless may not be bad advertising ; but don't get fooled by your own propaganda. We're not in the habit of making the same mistakes twice, and any hostile power would have a surprise trying to play fool with us.

Boobies!

That's about 22 million American tons of people. If you're checking my math, remember to allow for kids.

Look up your own satirical comparison here, for example New York alone allegedly produces that much waste anually.

Let's not get used to it without making some noise. To skip network neutrality is obviously a horrible thing to do from both the customer rights and freedom of speech point of view, and it will be a big step towards "totalitarian" corporation control of information and knowledge. Today's society is slowly defeloping towards this, but this has at least in some European countries been slowed down by strong consumer rights legislation. Those of us in europe who have grown up in real democracies don't want to live in satellite states of the american media Oligarchy (Coca Cola, sometimes War), so please, giving up like this becouse "it's completely natural" is not acceptable, no matter what the people with kinder gentler machine gun hands tell us.

Damn! Slahsdot ate my link! :E

Another try:
http://altreligion.about.com/library/texts/kaleval a/bl_kalevala.htm
*will use the preview next time*

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa092998 .htm

Intel 4004 - The World's First Single Chip Microprocessor . This technology is going to revolutionize the world!!! One day maybe 1 in 25 houses will have a 'computer' .. Most people predict this to be a fad and new greater emerging techologies such as the 8-track will make a much larger impact on our society!

Fuck Slashdot, get your ass together. I come here to feel special about my dorkdom and now I don't even have that!

This also raises the question: should this suit be successful, how are videogames manufacturers/stores/clerks/the interweb supposed to know which people are predisposed?

That's simple enough. In order to purchase violent video games, which by the most recent scholarly definition means any video games, you must submit to a government-sponsored psychiatric evaluation. This will go on your permanent record, citizen! Only those approved as fit for video game play will be allowed to purchase them. At first, the video game store will have to give you a 5 day waiting period to receive your game whilst they perform a background check that includes checking your score on the aforementioned test. But no worries; eventually they'll be able to embed a microchip in your brain and.. oh shit they're coming! :D

Read this:-

FireFox is constantly adding new features. When you add new features then you open yourself up to bugs

FIREFOX VULNERABILITIES FIXED!!

The latest Firefox version includes a few important security updates. The vulnerabilities were related to RSA signature verification, JavaScript, and potential memory corruption.

refer this http://linux.about.com/b/a/257549.htm

Firefox has add some new features in their latest version...so...firefox have managed to decrease or fixed their vulnerabilities when they add some new features..that's why firefox is still #1 browser..feel me?

I'm not an expert in the field myself, so I'll quote from another source:

"The radiation belts are based on Earth's magnetic field, which is tilted at about 11 degrees from its rotational axis. They are further distorted by the solar wind, giving them a teardrop shape. Due to this, the elevator will encounter varying intensities of radiation; especially concerning is the inner belt.

One proposal for two way elevator systems to deal with the outer belt is to have extra shielding "in-place" along the cable that is carried up by a climbing elevator, and carried back down by a descending elevator to meet the next elevator carrying passengers up. While this adds constant weight to the elevator (as if a "permanent payload"), it adds the weight to the elevator where the cable is thickest and most able to tolerate extra payload. The "weak point" of the elevator is where it meets the Earth, and shielding is not needed there.

Another type of shielding is so-called "active" shielding. One such type involves electromagnetic fields to deflect low-energy radiation. Another type of active shielding is the Multilayer High Temperature Superconductor Protection System, which involves using high-temperature superconducting materials to produce strong magnetic fields for deflection." - http://experts.about.com/e/v/va/Van_Allen_radiatio n_belt.htm

I'd say that shielding is certainly another obstacle to overcome, but it's probably even easier to solve than the project's current structural and financial problems.

Oh and according to About.com, North Korea only has a little over 1 million troops in active service. http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/currentconflic ts/a/koreanmilitary_2.htm/

Would you like to pull some Vietnam comparisons out of your ass while you're at it? Oh and bombing campaigns typically kill in the thousands at most (the most imfamous, the firebombing of Tokyo killed an estimated 100,000 a far cry from your 5,000,000.)

My big concern is that the current US Administration thinks it's their duty to actually bring about Armageddon and the second coming of Christ. If not the current administration, then at least some of the people who vote for them. After all, the main reason for supporting Israel is due to the belief that if the "Holy Land" is not controlled by the Jews at the time of Rapture, all humans will go to hell or Christ won't return or some other nonsense.

http://atheism.about.com/b/a/086669.htm

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0420,perlstein,53 582,1.html

Shitdrummer.

According to the latest edition of Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report, malicious hackers are increasingly using bot-networks, modular malicious code and targeted attacks on web applications and web browsers. These bot-networks can be used not only to spread malicious code, but to send spam or phishing messages, download adware and spyware, launch denial of service attacks, or harvest confidential user information. On average, Symantec monitored 1,402 DoS attacks per day in 2005, a 51 per cent was increased over that recorded in the first half of 2005. Crackers are now target home users for cash. Consumers at home are now on the main target of malicious hackers intent on inspiring themselves. Vulnerabilities are happen in desktop applications. Crackers are using a range of methods excusing detection and remain on infected systems for longer period. The most popular attack targets are Client-side applications such as web browsers and email clients. For example the cracker spread the spam, the most common method that spammers use is via open relays. The hackers scan the server and then send a message to a not reusable target address. Then after all this complete they can easily spread the spam broadly. For those users who did not update their PC randomly using anti-virus or anti adware and spyware, the risks to be detected are increased.

here are some url for prevent crack attempts :

http://www.gabrielvilla.com/blog/
http://mobileoffice.about.com/od/mobilesecurity/a/ hackproof.htm
http://3d2f.com/programs/15-673-anti-hack-download .shtml

Bentham would have said that "utility" is the foundation of morality. But this is not the argument-from-convience that says that what is popular is also moral.

I can't see how it's moral to restrict knowledge and the pleasure of using works to only those that can pay.

No deposit, no return.

The groundling paid one penny, a day's wages for the working man, for standing-room at the Globe. Who would have attended an original Shakespeare production? That's at least a $50-$70 ticket in modern terms.

The cultural enterprise is expensive, always has been.You don't get free.

What you get is a private or public subsidy. But your argument is bogus on its face. The price of entry to the P2P nets is a midline PC or better with a broadband connection.

P2P is a middle class entitlement.

Free entertainment financed by the rights holders and their legitimate, paying, customers.

It is a generic term now and only a judge that is either mentially retarted or paid by apple to be corrupt would see it any other way.

The term "podcast" is not even close to being generic. The legal test for a trademark to become genericized is very hard to meet. Pick up a trademark law book before saying things that just arn't so.

There's so much talk on Slashdot of Microsoft abusing their stolen monopoly. Yet we've handed Google one. People blindly swear allegiance to them, defending their more questionable actions that if another company perpretrated, they'd certainly condemn. Honestly, when did last use another search engine? When Google's broken, are you even able to find one?

We don't all use Google all the tyme, as the stats from wiki you posted show. Sure I may use Google most of the tyme but I also use other SEs as well, like About, Alta Vista, Open Directory, and Mooter. About has good sections on Anthropology and Archeology as well as Photography, all of which I am interested in. Actually it was when I searched Google in these that I found them, Google returned them. I've found Alta Vista is good for science and technology, better than Google in some areas. And when Google doesn't give me what I'm looking for Mooter and the Open Directory sometimes will. I don't use Gmail either, instead I use Yahoo! Mail.

There's so much talk on Slashdot of Microsoft abusing their stolen monopoly. Yet we've handed Google one. People blindly swear allegiance to them, defending their more questionable actions that if another company perpretrated, they'd certainly condemn. Honestly, when did last use another search engine? When Google's broken, are you even able to find one?

We don't all use Google all the tyme, as the stats from wiki you posted show. Sure I may use Google most of the tyme but I also use other SEs as well, like About, Alta Vista, Open Directory, and Mooter. About has good sections on Anthropology and Archeology as well as Photography, all of which I am interested in. Actually it was when I searched Google in these that I found them, Google returned them. I've found Alta Vista is good for science and technology, better than Google in some areas. And when Google doesn't give me what I'm looking for Mooter and the Open Directory sometimes will. I don't use Gmail either, instead I use Yahoo! Mail.

There's so much talk on Slashdot of Microsoft abusing their stolen monopoly. Yet we've handed Google one. People blindly swear allegiance to them, defending their more questionable actions that if another company perpretrated, they'd certainly condemn. Honestly, when did last use another search engine? When Google's broken, are you even able to find one?

We don't all use Google all the tyme, as the stats from wiki you posted show. Sure I may use Google most of the tyme but I also use other SEs as well, like About, Alta Vista, Open Directory, and Mooter. About has good sections on Anthropology and Archeology as well as Photography, all of which I am interested in. Actually it was when I searched Google in these that I found them, Google returned them. I've found Alta Vista is good for science and technology, better than Google in some areas. And when Google doesn't give me what I'm looking for Mooter and the Open Directory sometimes will. I don't use Gmail either, instead I use Yahoo! Mail.

Given that there are direct references to two different virtual card hoaxes in the "attack" itself maybe everyone's looking at it from the wrong slant...

My gut reaction is that this is some (extreme) degree of internet art. This article about hoaxes being essentially viruses in and of themselves says a lot about what may have motivated this particular form of expression.

Maybe whoever made this virus was making a statement about what is "known" (What is well known not to be a virus). They may have also been making a statement about anti-hoax information and/or the "truth".

I didn't read the initial article, mind you -- but the blurb cut seemed to have everything essential in it already.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: James Heliotis [mailto:jeh@...]
>
> I have a student who is interested in doing a project adding
> design-by-contract assertions to another language. To my memory,
> I have never seen anything about how assertions are implemented in
> EiffelStudio, and what the challenges and pitfalls were. Can anyone
> point me to any documentation?
>
> Thanks a lot,
> James

Dear Jim:

Your student should find the following links useful:

http://www.phact.org/e/dennis4.html
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/CircleSquaring.html
http://chemistry.about.com/cs/generalchemistry/a/a a050601a.htm

Hope this helps,

-- Bertrand Meyer

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/eiffel_software /message/3558

Check this - CGI kiddy porn is probably legal.

There are plenty more I'm not thinking about right now. Often in college studying ICT, there was the mention "did you know this was a Belgian invention?", but there's never stress on the names and well I don't remember right now. Belgians are more modest and less chauvenistic then Americans or other big nations, as well consider the US to have a much bigger population compared to Belgium. I'm quite proud of us Belgians, to make a mark on the map and produce so many fine scientists and engineers in such a small population. For the US to match that, there has to be a much smaller ratio in the population to achieve that.

$1m a day... nice sense of perspective.

There are plenty more I'm not thinking about right now. Often in college studying ICT, there was the mention "did you know this was a Belgian invention?", but there's never stress on the names and well I don't remember right now. Belgians are more modest and less chauvenistic then Americans or other big nations, as well consider the US to have a much bigger population compared to Belgium. I'm quite proud of us Belgians, to make a mark on the map and produce so many fine scientists and engineers in such a small population. For the US to match that, there has to be a much smaller ratio in the population to achieve that.

$1m a day... nice sense of perspective.

There are plenty more I'm not thinking about right now. Often in college studying ICT, there was the mention "did you know this was a Belgian invention?", but there's never stress on the names and well I don't remember right now. Belgians are more modest and less chauvenistic then Americans or other big nations, as well consider the US to have a much bigger population compared to Belgium. I'm quite proud of us Belgians, to make a mark on the map and produce so many fine scientists and engineers in such a small population. For the US to match that, there has to be a much smaller ratio in the population to achieve that.

$1m a day... nice sense of perspective.

There are plenty more I'm not thinking about right now. Often in college studying ICT, there was the mention "did you know this was a Belgian invention?", but there's never stress on the names and well I don't remember right now. Belgians are more modest and less chauvenistic then Americans or other big nations, as well consider the US to have a much bigger population compared to Belgium. I'm quite proud of us Belgians, to make a mark on the map and produce so many fine scientists and engineers in such a small population. For the US to match that, there has to be a much smaller ratio in the population to achieve that.

$1m a day... nice sense of perspective.

Note that the only part of a patent with legal standing is the claims section http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aapatent claimsa.htm . The rest of the patent is just blah-blah to help interpret the claims. The claims are generally constructed as a first, most-generic, claim, then specializations of that. If you can demonstrate prior art for the first claim, then the patent pretty much falls apart.

The first claim is:

"1. A course-based system for providing to an educational community of users access to a plurality of online courses, comprising: a) a plurality of user computers, with each user computer being associated with a user of the system and with each user being capable of having predefined characteristics indicative of multiple predetermined roles in the system, each role providing a level of access to a plurality of data files associated with a particular course and a level of control over the data files associated with the course with the multiple predetermined user roles comprising at least two user's predetermined roles selected from the group consisting of a student role in one or more course associated with a student user, an instructor role in one or more courses associated with an instructor user and an administrator role associated with an administrator user, and b) a server computer in communication with each of the user computers over a network, the server computer comprising: means for storing a plurality of data files associated with a course, means for assigning a level of access to and control of each data file based on a user of the system's predetermined role in a course; means for determining whether access to a data file associated with the course is authorized; means for allowing access to and control of the data file associated with the course if authorization is granted based on the access level of the user of the system."

If you can show prior art within this, and show that Blackboard Inc intentionally didnt declare this within their patent, then you can sue Blackboard for inequitable conduct http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inequitable_conduct .

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.

If an entire scene were viewed in high resolution, the diameter of the optic nerve would need to be larger than the diameter of the eyeball itself. Subsequent processing of such a high-resolution image would require a brain many times larger than its current size.

By moving the eye so that small parts of a scene can be sensed with greater resolution [by the fovea], body resources can be used more efficiently.

I have a relatively cheap machine that does this, it is essentially a VCR with a DVD-RW drive, so you can play both and transfer video between the VHS drive and the DVD drive. They are great, especially if you have a lot of legacy media, or convert back and forth. Here's one link: http://hometheater.about.com/od/dvdhardwareandsoft ware/tp/dvdvcrrecorders.htm , they are available in most electronics stores, even Big Box Mart.

Obviously everyone born since the 70s are in danger of becoming completely débile http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/g/debile.htm . The world as it is today promotes this sitution. What can we do, the most important thing is that commerce thrives and makes us all Happy. Just because drugs are prevalent doesn't necessarily mean its a good way to raise your children. Read Epikuros and find that the solution is to conquering your suffering, not pampering your lusts. I'll be sitting on the edge of my seat eating Jellybeans, watching the whole caboodle go down the drain, in say 2050. Hell, I'll be 80 by then so I won't have much of a future anyway. Now where are those damn contraceptives when you need'em?

According to an MSNBC article, this information is also accompanied with the fact that there will only be 400K launch units in the U.S., and 100K in Japan.

If you ask me, Sony is setting themselves up for a lot of hurt by short-changing Japan so much. Granted, they have a smaller population than the U.S., but the Japanese (as a culture) are far more likely to pick up the latest and greatest gadgets (which is why they've had full video cell phones for a while now, while we're just getting them). Add this to the fact that Japanese gamers apparently adore games like Final Fantasy, and I would bet that a larger number of Japanese gamers would be willing to shell out $600.

Even so, the American market may yet buy up all 400K units. The Playstation 2 had an initial shipment of 500K units, and sold out on day one. But will there really be enough demand for the PS3, considering how reversed the position is?

  I seriously doubt the capbilities of a GIF to recreate a true subliminal advertisement. It's a bit dependent on the screen position, machine load, audience's focus, etc. With a movie or a a captured TV audience, it's a bit stronger. Also, this isn't a metaphorical allure, but simply a crude flashing.

For some things subliminal messages can work. For others, it is well-known to be completely ineffective.

I doubt this is going to be much of a difference in SPAM, and is rather a sales differentiation point for a mass marketeer. Somebody is paying extra for this, for sure.

"Uh, you can't outsmart carnival folk. They're the cleverest folk in the world. Just look at the way they sucker regular folks with those crooked games."

http://animatedtv.about.com/cs/other/ht/htcarnies. htm

the cartridges that come with them usually aren't intended to last more than 50 pages.

Well, it only has 256 MB of graphics RAM (512 MB total) so you have that part wrong, at least.

See, e.g. http://playstation.about.com/od/ps3/a/PS3SpecsDeta ils_3.htm

Posting anonymously because I'd be embarassed to give a story based on made up drek from The Inquirer any kind of implicit acknowledgement.

WTF is this - the "Mad Money" show? I thought 2001 finished off the day traders.

According to about.com, Europe has 134 people per square mile, while North America only has 32 people per square mile.

Simple economics would dictate that for the same monetary equivalent, a provider could serve more people in Europe than they could in North America.

The North American ISPs aren't building out higher speed networks not because their customers don't want it, but rather the expense of extending those networks to their customers over a longer distance could not be realized in a reasonable time with the current pricing structures.

>I dispute your findings.
>Mostly because I couldn't read page three of TFA
>Page Three [about.com] redirects --> http://nintendo.about.com/?once=true& [about.com]

That's funny. I read page three and found it quite stimulating.

I dispute your findings.
Mostly because I couldn't read page three of TFA
Page Three redirects --> http://nintendo.about.com/?once=true&

Obviously, your methodology is critically flawed and I suspect the author of TFA is going to tell the world about your shoddy science too.

I dispute your findings.
Mostly because I couldn't read page three of TFA
Page Three redirects --> http://nintendo.about.com/?once=true&

Obviously, your methodology is critically flawed and I suspect the author of TFA is going to tell the world about your shoddy science too.

Of all the writers, politicians, and others who have ripped off the originator of the "digital native" and "digital immigrant" labels and concepts, Marc Prensky , someone calling herself an anthropologist should at least credit the spark of a light she's basking in.

Get Kirah's name right yes, but worse: the /. summary, TFA AKA ninemsn and Microsoft, and myriad others before them have either been unaware of Prensky or have themselves enjoyed a ride without crediting him and his relative wit.

Here is the original source from Prensky. It's not as if he's a nobody, he has a Harvard MBA and a Masters in Teaching from Yale where I suppose he made a few connections, and while not a household name he's successful in tech business and philanthropy.

In 2005 Rupert Murdoch spoke to the American Society of Newspaper Editors , after which Murdoch was widely credited with the "digital native, digital immigrant" observation and phrases. To pick an Australian example of subsequent error in which the text of Murdoch's speech is also posted, see "The Challenge Of Becoming A True Digital Native: Rupert Murdoch."

Thanks to Mr. Murdoch's blockbuster status, not only speciality sites, but sites often used for citation like About.com have credited Murdoch for posterity, as in this article targeting educators which asks, in a poll and an associated essay, "Are You A Digital Native Or Digital Immigrant?"

Even Apple, who took Prensky's idea and ran with it, credits Ian Jukes and Anita Dosaj of The InfoSavvy Group, not Prensky!

At least someone has it right, if for the next few minutes, incompletely so.

BG

Something like the Firefly or the Migo, then?

Something like the Firefly or the Migo, then?

Don't worry, you can't patent perpetual motion. It's one of the rare criteria that leads to immediate rejection of the patent application.

You need a better textbook. The idea that the Arpanet was designed to be a survivable network is a particularly persistent myth.

It was from the RAND study that the false rumor started claiming that the ARPANET was somehow related to building a network resistant to nuclear war. This was never true of the ARPANET, only the unrelated RAND study on secure voice considered nuclear war. However, the later work on Internetting did emphasize robustness and survivability, including the capability to withstand losses of large portions of the underlying networks.

A Brief History of the Internet, version 3.32
Barry M. Leiner, Vinton G. Cerf, David D. Clark, Robert E. Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Daniel C. Lynch, Jon Postel, Larry G. Roberts, Stephen Wolff
http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml

See also:

Charles Herzfeld on ARPAnet and Computers:

ARPAnet - A Network for Sharing Computer Resources

Why was the ARPAnet started? Most of the early "history" on the subject is wrong. As Director of ARPA at the time, I can tell you our intent. The ARPAnet was not started to create a Command and Control System that would survive a nuclear attack, as many now claim. To build such a system was clearly a major military need, but it was not ARPA's mission to do this; in fact, we would have been severely criticized had we tried. Rather, the ARPAnet came out of our frustration that there were only a limited number of large, powerful research computers in the country, and that many research investigators who should have access to them were geographically separated from them.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_Ch arles_Herzfeld.htm

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushism- fish.htm

List of available online word processors

gOffice is requires a minimal free, AjaxWrite is Firefox >1.5 only, ThinkFree is Java based. No idea about Zoho though.

On a personal note, I am waiting for some open source edition, so that I can deploy it in my locality (LAN, that is :-) )

It's only about 2 months of elapsed time... But anyway, if you're looking off the coast of Australia, try Oahu.

That would explain this huge pod which formed off of Wales (no pun, there, really). Obviously, they're forming a class action suit.

You may be on to something there. This whole exploding battery thing may just be Sony and Dell's attempt to build upon the old "Halt and Catch Fire" instruction http://experts.about.com/e/h/ha/Halt_and_Catch_Fir e.htm/ of days gone by. As you point out, Dell can't let itself fall behind. Unfortunately, Sony's special innovations seem to often run into problems with consumer "advocates" and the like. Just look at what happened when they tried to make a better music CD.

But hey, at least it only costs $600 for a Blu-Ray player, because you're certainly not going to be playing any games on it in the near future.

Perhaps. If its all the same to you, I'll take the opinion of someone tagged 'WindWalker' with a pinch of salt. We know you've made up your mind. :)