Slashdot Mirror

I have one where a device's manufacturer created open source drivers for it that worked great with Linux at the time but now is very difficult to use: My Plextor Convertx. Granted that is not exactly what you asked for (since its drivers work with a Linux device, it is not a Linux device itself), but I wasted almost a week this year getting it to work with the newest Ubuntu with no success. The experience shook my faith in the whole "make open drivers for your device and Linux will support it forever" argument I have heard zealots shovel to hardware makers. And to think I bought it for Linux compatibility!

Ever notice that https://amazon.com/ gives a warning because the certificate is for www.amazon.com? Subject Alt Name can fix this. GoDaddy SSL certificates for example.com include www.example.com as a Subject Alt Name (see the cert for https://godaddy.com/).

They also sell certificates for multiple domains called "Multiple Domains Certificate (UCC)" which utilize Subject Alt Name. These certificates work fine in Apache, although you get an incorrect warning in the error log about the CommonName not matching the server name.

(I dislike many of GoDaddy's business practices and would never register a domain with them, but they seem to have the best value for SSL. Google "ssl" and click the GoDaddy advertisement for a discount.)

There was much talk about the uncanny value when Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within came out after Square had promised for years that it would have realistic humans. A common criticism was that the human beings were real enough to inspire comfort for long enough that one would be then shaken by their lack of certain flexibility and the bloodlessness of their faces. Dr Aki was more creepy than sexy.

A Terk TV4 or TV5 might do the trick in an apartment building. The tiny single mast telescoping antennas that come with USB tuners sometimes do an amazing job in spite of their small size. The one that came with my K-world tuner does the job well.

I've had really good luck with the Phillips (formerly Zenith) log periodic antenna. You can usually pick one up online for less than 20 dollars. Link: http://www.amazon.com/Philips-PHDTV1-Silver-Digital-Antenna/dp/B0007XDI54 I'm in a wooded, hilly area about 15 air miles from the transmitter nest, but this antenna provided a huge boost in the number of stations I was able to pick up reliably. Ultimately, though, the biggest factor in reception is the sensitivity of your receiver.

"While it wouldn't maybe help the INDIVIDUAL very much, the ENTIRE COUNTRY would benefit a decent amount."

Great, so the country will benefit from [mainly] inflating their tires.

I sure hope those tire gauges from China are accurate, cause the last 2 I bought here and here are different by 9psi.

Looks like the country benefiting from this isn't ours at 14.99 a pop.

Let's face it, neither plan from either candidate satisfies the public--it's because BOTH are relying on industry and corporations (for alternative energy and efficiency) to solve it. Conservation is a start, but a long road--and we're looking at 20-30yrs.

I doubt either candidate will supply the answer we need, but sure would like to give us the answer we want. Hey, it's an election year!

I don't know any country that would make a profit off the .001% of the dumba__ that would pay $14.99 for a tire gauge that the rest of the WORLD can buy at their local gas station for LESS than $1.

Where in the hell are you buying Tire Gauges?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000NPPBB0/sr=8-15/qid=1219119626/ref=olp_tab_new?ie=UTF8&coliid=&me=&qid=1219119626&sr=8-15&seller=&colid=&condition=new

And that's from Amazon.

--- which buys you a 7" screen, an 800 MHz Celeron, 512 MB RAM and 4 GB flash. Asus Eee PC 4G Surf

Walmart.com lists an Acer Linpus Linux netbook - but no Eepc. The problem is the next step up - the $500 laptop - where OEM Linux runs out of gas.

Also, the link mentions the radiated water affecting beaches...nevermind that just GOING to the beach means you'll take in more radiation in one day than you'd get living next door to a nuclear plant all year. Oh, and if you FLY to the beach, you can add more to that total. (And airline pilots don't develop mutations.)

Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy, written by a former skeptic. Read it. Everybody. Please.

I totally agree with you that until we change the voting system, we are stuck with this game of wasted votes and blaming third parties for a loss on either side. But I think instant runoff voting has it's own problems. The best system would be a range or approval voting system. The book Gaming the vote analyzes several voting systems and provides a good explanation of why range voting would be better than the other methods.

Well, everyone poops.

I use Amazons S3 service and a great multi-platform UI called JungleDisk. S3 costs a little bit, but you get security (encryption), backup, reliability for a cheap price. Check out: http://www.amazon.com/s3 and http://www.jungledisk.com/

• Even in a strictly deterministic world (like Conway's Game of Life) you can design "avoiders"
• These simple creatures and their universe is 100% deterministic, but still they are best described by referring to things like their "senses", "defenses" and "self-preservation".
• Even if the universe is 100% deterministic at the atomic level, natural selection favors organisms that collect information about the world and react to it
• determinism and an evolved sense of free will may very well co-exist. In fact, the evolution of a brain that thinks that it's a free agent would not happen in a non-deterministic universe.

He's speaking of the Foreign Affairs ESSAY not the WHOLE BOOK, which is what I was speaking of.

Others don't like it either:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20011022/said

Look at amazon.com

HP top of the line grpahing calculator is Hp50g at $117.95. http://www.amazon.com/50g-Graphing-Calculator-F2229AA-ABA/dp/B000GTPRPS

Ti's top of the line is the 89 Titanium at $139.95. http://www.amazon.com/Texas-Instruments-TI-89-Titanium-Calculator/dp/B0001EMLZ2/ref=pd_sim_e_6

TI's top of the line mainline (83 series) is the 84+SE at $120.21. http://www.amazon.com/Texas-Instruments-TI-84-Graphing-Calculator/dp/B0001EMM0Q/ref=pd_sim_e_5

The Hp50g is definitely significantly more powerful than the 84+SE. It arguably has a better CAS than the 89. Yet of the three it is the least expensive.

Look at amazon.com

HP top of the line grpahing calculator is Hp50g at $117.95. http://www.amazon.com/50g-Graphing-Calculator-F2229AA-ABA/dp/B000GTPRPS

Ti's top of the line is the 89 Titanium at $139.95. http://www.amazon.com/Texas-Instruments-TI-89-Titanium-Calculator/dp/B0001EMLZ2/ref=pd_sim_e_6

TI's top of the line mainline (83 series) is the 84+SE at $120.21. http://www.amazon.com/Texas-Instruments-TI-84-Graphing-Calculator/dp/B0001EMM0Q/ref=pd_sim_e_5

The Hp50g is definitely significantly more powerful than the 84+SE. It arguably has a better CAS than the 89. Yet of the three it is the least expensive.

Look at amazon.com

HP top of the line grpahing calculator is Hp50g at $117.95. http://www.amazon.com/50g-Graphing-Calculator-F2229AA-ABA/dp/B000GTPRPS

Ti's top of the line is the 89 Titanium at $139.95. http://www.amazon.com/Texas-Instruments-TI-89-Titanium-Calculator/dp/B0001EMLZ2/ref=pd_sim_e_6

TI's top of the line mainline (83 series) is the 84+SE at $120.21. http://www.amazon.com/Texas-Instruments-TI-84-Graphing-Calculator/dp/B0001EMM0Q/ref=pd_sim_e_5

The Hp50g is definitely significantly more powerful than the 84+SE. It arguably has a better CAS than the 89. Yet of the three it is the least expensive.

That's an excellent post. I don't agree that we should have completely open borders (if that's part of what you're suggesting), since that would open the floodgates for what could be hundreds of millions of folks from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Our country can no longer absorb that many new people all at once.

But your point about rolling out the welcome mat for talented students with advanced technical degrees, and keeping it unrolled so they can settle down in the US, is well made. These are people who start companies and/or provide key technical skills that keep the US economy the most innovative in the world.

It reminds me how Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel who played a major role in their transition out of startup mode, likes to say that he swam across the Atlantic from his homeland in Hungary.

What about the descendants of those who have built companies in the past? Some of those will undoubtedly continue to innovate, but there is a tendency to get comfortable and lazy.

You can find a good summary of pre-WWII and thereabouts European ethnic knowledge summarized in Carleton Coon's The Origin of Races (1962) which used previous knowledge and later archaelogy to derive conclusions. Included a number of photographic plates showing different European archetypes.

I recommend two books here:

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, by Samuel Huntington
The Great Human Diasporas: The History of Diversity and Evolution, by Luigi Cavalli-Sforza et al

Once humans evolved from apes, they went through several stages to create modern humans.

After that, modern humans underwent more aggressive development. This differentiated population groups.

Much like different programming languages are optimized for different tasks, but you can create just about anything in just about any language, human populations are different based on the optimizations that came about through their branch divergence.

This creates ethnicities, nationalities, and clines as mapped by Cavalli-Sforza.

Huntington points out that most of our modern wars have been caused by the nation-state, or an "imperial" grouping by politics that crosses these optimization lines, and suggests that as the superpower age winds down, people will identify with their optimization more than abstract and often illusory political concepts.

This is especially useful in understanding the difference between Georgia, Ossetia and Russia. For those who live in nation-states of an imperial nature, like the United States, Canada, Russia or UK, it's hard to grasp this, but not every country views itself as composed of generic people.

They view themselves as an organic nation, a notion which we may quaintly call "tribalism" yet seems to unite people with values more solidly than financial or political motivations.

The future will be determined by the struggle for these organic nations to define themselves.

All IMHO.

I recommend two books here:

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, by Samuel Huntington
The Great Human Diasporas: The History of Diversity and Evolution, by Luigi Cavalli-Sforza et al

Once humans evolved from apes, they went through several stages to create modern humans.

After that, modern humans underwent more aggressive development. This differentiated population groups.

Much like different programming languages are optimized for different tasks, but you can create just about anything in just about any language, human populations are different based on the optimizations that came about through their branch divergence.

This creates ethnicities, nationalities, and clines as mapped by Cavalli-Sforza.

Huntington points out that most of our modern wars have been caused by the nation-state, or an "imperial" grouping by politics that crosses these optimization lines, and suggests that as the superpower age winds down, people will identify with their optimization more than abstract and often illusory political concepts.

This is especially useful in understanding the difference between Georgia, Ossetia and Russia. For those who live in nation-states of an imperial nature, like the United States, Canada, Russia or UK, it's hard to grasp this, but not every country views itself as composed of generic people.

They view themselves as an organic nation, a notion which we may quaintly call "tribalism" yet seems to unite people with values more solidly than financial or political motivations.

The future will be determined by the struggle for these organic nations to define themselves.

All IMHO.

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Mars-Kim-Stanley-Robinson/dp/0553560735

Reminds me of this book, and this one.

Reminds me of this book, and this one.

It is selling like crazy

For anyone who wants a citation, look at Amazon's Wii page. It's still not in stock on a regular basis, and Amazon has a policy that only limited quantities can be sold to a single person (presumably to prevent third parties from buying consoles and then reselling them with markup).

It is selling like crazy

For anyone who wants a citation, look at Amazon's Wii page. It's still not in stock on a regular basis, and Amazon has a policy that only limited quantities can be sold to a single person (presumably to prevent third parties from buying consoles and then reselling them with markup).

Actually, I would be more interested in this plus this. When a vehicle is traveling at a constant highway speed, it is using surprisingly little power. Even if the generator can't quite keep up with the constant power drain, if it can supply 80% of stead state power it may well extend maximum vehicle range by 200-300 miles before you have to stop for gas. So for a long trip, toss the generator in the bed and take off. The rest of the time, you have a backup generator for your fridge/supercomputing PS2 cluster. Win-win for me.

Doesn't this guy fear a giant Rat Army who, after growing up with the book (or primer, if you will), decide to sweep away the decadent old social order? He's inviting chaos!

An interesting situation comes up when companies don't put any indication of an EULA on the packaging at all

Like this this? You and I are unusual people; yes, we read slashdot, follow trends in the software industry, and know that many, probably most, proprietary software packages come with some sort of statement about a license. But if Joe Sixpack looks at that page the above link points to, he would have no idea that a transaction between him and Amazon causes him to be bound by a contract with a third party. He would have no reason to even suspect it. By the time he receives the box, whether there's something printed on the outside or the inside, he has already paid Amazon.

And god help him if, when the box shows up on his doorstep, someone else (e.g. his kid) opens the box and installs it on his computer. With every other contract in every part of my life, there was never even a chance that someone else who doesn't have power-of-attorney (or good forgery skills), could perform an act that gets me into a contract unknowingly. And that's not surprising; it's fundamental to the concept of responsibility.

It gets even weirder to think that when the box arrives, Joe Sixpack owns the box and its contents, but as soon as he (or someone else!? see above paragraph) looks at it or opens it and becomes aware of the existence of some license, his ownership ceases and is replaced by licensing. I guess we should call that the Heisenberg uncertainty principle of software ownership.

If the courts assert the license is binding anyway (and the courts have to, since none of the legislatures have done so), they are making a very special case, where purchases of this one type of product (software), works unlike anything else in the realm commerce.

You have the right to return it if you don't accept the license agreement.

That right is asserted inside the license. Taking advantage of that, presumes that the unwitting buyer has already read and accepted the license. What if that's not the case?

Whether the store wants to make it easy is another matter. This is a case whether common practice differs from the legal requirement.

That just points out Yet Another paradoxical consequence of the ProCD court's misunderstanding. If users are bound by Apple's license when they buy software from a third party like Amazon, how did Amazon avoid being bound by the license when they bought the software from Apple? Professional resellers are even more informed about this subject than users; there's no way they can credibly assert ignorance of the contract, if users can't. The fact that "common practices" contradict a supposedly-binding requirement on the reseller, makes one question whether or not it's really a requirement.

Unconsenting/uninformed licensing raises too many paradoxes and weird situations that defy common sense and common law. It will eventually be overturned.

I got the entire Gold Box series of games (including PoR) as part of the Forgotten Realms Archive box set. This was a couple of years ago but the set is on Amazon still (only from private sellers as far as I can see: http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Realms-Archives-Silver-Edition/dp/B00001QEP7)

It's true that GPS devices are radio receivers, not transmitters. But receivers emit signals too, and these are detectable. In countries where you have to pay license fees to operate a TV or radio, they send out detector vans to nab scoflaws. I also recall reading in Spycatcher that MI-5 used them to detect secret shortwave receivers; don't recall how they distinguished KGB agents listening for instructions from Moscow Center from innocent Lawrence Welk fans.

> The work of a few farmers allowed others more time to develop tools, arts, philosophy, religion, etc.

Farming also argued to allow nationalism, warfare, crime, poverty, feudalism, obesity, species extinction, hunger and starvation.

See:
Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization
http://www.amazon.com/Against-Grain-Agriculture-Hijacked-Civilization/dp/0865476225

What nobody mentions is that G. 581 is a FLARE STAR, prone to blowing up regularly, thus laying waste to whatever bugs or Linux hackers may be on said close-revolving planet.

People should read Ward & Brownlee's "Rare Earth". And don't launch into spittle-flecked diatribes on intelligent design, because Ward & Brownlee don't believe in it, and STILL think Earth is extremely rare, if not unique in the universe.

From TFA's quiz:

10 or 11 right: You are a geek!

Great. So if you do know science, you get labelled a geek/nerd.
While I personally don't feel offended by being called this (of course
I live in Europe, where the stereotype is less prevalent), it's
generally considered to be a negative stereotype. Which doesn't
exactly help make science interesting and cool, especially to young
people.

See also
http://www.amazon.com/Nerds-They-Need-More-Them/dp/1585425907.

- Felix

According to Amazon.com, they are.

A New Hope
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi

May the Schwartz be with you!

According to Amazon.com, they are.

A New Hope
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi

May the Schwartz be with you!

According to Amazon.com, they are.

A New Hope
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi

May the Schwartz be with you!

Interesting -- thanks for the info on copyright law! The law on sound recordings really sounds like a horrible muddle.

It looks like the site is dead now. I'm getting a 508 error. Here is the google cache of his main page. Most likely he went over his webhost's quota due to the slashdot effect, or maybe his webhost already got a DMCA takedown notice, since most of the music on his page was actually still in copyright and still commercially available. As an experiment, I picked the following random sample of seven tunes from his page (scrolling down the list, and taking one line per screenful):

A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND Muggsy Spanier COMMODORE 1504B 12in
A THOUSAND KISSES International Novelty Orch VICTOR 19351-A
AFTER YOUVE GONE Turk Murphys Jazz Band GOOD TIME JAZZ 39
ALL THE CATS JOIN IN Roy Eldridge DECCA 23532-A
AND HER TEARS FLOWED LIKE WINE Ella Fitzgerald DECCA 18633 A
ARTISTRY IN RYTHYM Stan Kenton CAPITOL 159
AWAY OUT ON THE MOUNTAIN Jimmie Rodgers VICTOR 21142-B

The Muggsy Spanier tune dates to the 50's, is still in copyright, and is available on a 2006 CD reissue. "A Thousand Kisses" was recorded around 1924, so it's probably still copyrighted, but it doesn't seem to be commercially available now. "After You've Gone" was recorded in 1947, it's still copyrighted, and it's still commercially available. "All the Cats Join In" was recorded in 1936, is still copyrighted, and is still commercially available. "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine," still in copyright, still available. "Artistry in Rhythm", ditto. "Away Out on the Mountain", ditto.

The claim in the slashdot summary that the music is out of print is wildly misleading, since 6 out of 7 songs from my sample are commercially available. The Wired article's statement that "The copyright situation surrounding some of these songs is as murky as their sound quality" is likewise pretty silly -- it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that recordings from the 1950's by famous jazz artists are still in copyright.

Interesting -- thanks for the info on copyright law! The law on sound recordings really sounds like a horrible muddle.

It looks like the site is dead now. I'm getting a 508 error. Here is the google cache of his main page. Most likely he went over his webhost's quota due to the slashdot effect, or maybe his webhost already got a DMCA takedown notice, since most of the music on his page was actually still in copyright and still commercially available. As an experiment, I picked the following random sample of seven tunes from his page (scrolling down the list, and taking one line per screenful):

A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND Muggsy Spanier COMMODORE 1504B 12in
A THOUSAND KISSES International Novelty Orch VICTOR 19351-A
AFTER YOUVE GONE Turk Murphys Jazz Band GOOD TIME JAZZ 39
ALL THE CATS JOIN IN Roy Eldridge DECCA 23532-A
AND HER TEARS FLOWED LIKE WINE Ella Fitzgerald DECCA 18633 A
ARTISTRY IN RYTHYM Stan Kenton CAPITOL 159
AWAY OUT ON THE MOUNTAIN Jimmie Rodgers VICTOR 21142-B

The Muggsy Spanier tune dates to the 50's, is still in copyright, and is available on a 2006 CD reissue. "A Thousand Kisses" was recorded around 1924, so it's probably still copyrighted, but it doesn't seem to be commercially available now. "After You've Gone" was recorded in 1947, it's still copyrighted, and it's still commercially available. "All the Cats Join In" was recorded in 1936, is still copyrighted, and is still commercially available. "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine," still in copyright, still available. "Artistry in Rhythm", ditto. "Away Out on the Mountain", ditto.

The claim in the slashdot summary that the music is out of print is wildly misleading, since 6 out of 7 songs from my sample are commercially available. The Wired article's statement that "The copyright situation surrounding some of these songs is as murky as their sound quality" is likewise pretty silly -- it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that recordings from the 1950's by famous jazz artists are still in copyright.

Interesting -- thanks for the info on copyright law! The law on sound recordings really sounds like a horrible muddle.

It looks like the site is dead now. I'm getting a 508 error. Here is the google cache of his main page. Most likely he went over his webhost's quota due to the slashdot effect, or maybe his webhost already got a DMCA takedown notice, since most of the music on his page was actually still in copyright and still commercially available. As an experiment, I picked the following random sample of seven tunes from his page (scrolling down the list, and taking one line per screenful):

A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND Muggsy Spanier COMMODORE 1504B 12in
A THOUSAND KISSES International Novelty Orch VICTOR 19351-A
AFTER YOUVE GONE Turk Murphys Jazz Band GOOD TIME JAZZ 39
ALL THE CATS JOIN IN Roy Eldridge DECCA 23532-A
AND HER TEARS FLOWED LIKE WINE Ella Fitzgerald DECCA 18633 A
ARTISTRY IN RYTHYM Stan Kenton CAPITOL 159
AWAY OUT ON THE MOUNTAIN Jimmie Rodgers VICTOR 21142-B

The Muggsy Spanier tune dates to the 50's, is still in copyright, and is available on a 2006 CD reissue. "A Thousand Kisses" was recorded around 1924, so it's probably still copyrighted, but it doesn't seem to be commercially available now. "After You've Gone" was recorded in 1947, it's still copyrighted, and it's still commercially available. "All the Cats Join In" was recorded in 1936, is still copyrighted, and is still commercially available. "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine," still in copyright, still available. "Artistry in Rhythm", ditto. "Away Out on the Mountain", ditto.

The claim in the slashdot summary that the music is out of print is wildly misleading, since 6 out of 7 songs from my sample are commercially available. The Wired article's statement that "The copyright situation surrounding some of these songs is as murky as their sound quality" is likewise pretty silly -- it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that recordings from the 1950's by famous jazz artists are still in copyright.

Interesting -- thanks for the info on copyright law! The law on sound recordings really sounds like a horrible muddle.

It looks like the site is dead now. I'm getting a 508 error. Here is the google cache of his main page. Most likely he went over his webhost's quota due to the slashdot effect, or maybe his webhost already got a DMCA takedown notice, since most of the music on his page was actually still in copyright and still commercially available. As an experiment, I picked the following random sample of seven tunes from his page (scrolling down the list, and taking one line per screenful):

A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND Muggsy Spanier COMMODORE 1504B 12in
A THOUSAND KISSES International Novelty Orch VICTOR 19351-A
AFTER YOUVE GONE Turk Murphys Jazz Band GOOD TIME JAZZ 39
ALL THE CATS JOIN IN Roy Eldridge DECCA 23532-A
AND HER TEARS FLOWED LIKE WINE Ella Fitzgerald DECCA 18633 A
ARTISTRY IN RYTHYM Stan Kenton CAPITOL 159
AWAY OUT ON THE MOUNTAIN Jimmie Rodgers VICTOR 21142-B

The Muggsy Spanier tune dates to the 50's, is still in copyright, and is available on a 2006 CD reissue. "A Thousand Kisses" was recorded around 1924, so it's probably still copyrighted, but it doesn't seem to be commercially available now. "After You've Gone" was recorded in 1947, it's still copyrighted, and it's still commercially available. "All the Cats Join In" was recorded in 1936, is still copyrighted, and is still commercially available. "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine," still in copyright, still available. "Artistry in Rhythm", ditto. "Away Out on the Mountain", ditto.

The claim in the slashdot summary that the music is out of print is wildly misleading, since 6 out of 7 songs from my sample are commercially available. The Wired article's statement that "The copyright situation surrounding some of these songs is as murky as their sound quality" is likewise pretty silly -- it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that recordings from the 1950's by famous jazz artists are still in copyright.

Interesting -- thanks for the info on copyright law! The law on sound recordings really sounds like a horrible muddle.

It looks like the site is dead now. I'm getting a 508 error. Here is the google cache of his main page. Most likely he went over his webhost's quota due to the slashdot effect, or maybe his webhost already got a DMCA takedown notice, since most of the music on his page was actually still in copyright and still commercially available. As an experiment, I picked the following random sample of seven tunes from his page (scrolling down the list, and taking one line per screenful):

A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND Muggsy Spanier COMMODORE 1504B 12in
A THOUSAND KISSES International Novelty Orch VICTOR 19351-A
AFTER YOUVE GONE Turk Murphys Jazz Band GOOD TIME JAZZ 39
ALL THE CATS JOIN IN Roy Eldridge DECCA 23532-A
AND HER TEARS FLOWED LIKE WINE Ella Fitzgerald DECCA 18633 A
ARTISTRY IN RYTHYM Stan Kenton CAPITOL 159
AWAY OUT ON THE MOUNTAIN Jimmie Rodgers VICTOR 21142-B

The Muggsy Spanier tune dates to the 50's, is still in copyright, and is available on a 2006 CD reissue. "A Thousand Kisses" was recorded around 1924, so it's probably still copyrighted, but it doesn't seem to be commercially available now. "After You've Gone" was recorded in 1947, it's still copyrighted, and it's still commercially available. "All the Cats Join In" was recorded in 1936, is still copyrighted, and is still commercially available. "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine," still in copyright, still available. "Artistry in Rhythm", ditto. "Away Out on the Mountain", ditto.

The claim in the slashdot summary that the music is out of print is wildly misleading, since 6 out of 7 songs from my sample are commercially available. The Wired article's statement that "The copyright situation surrounding some of these songs is as murky as their sound quality" is likewise pretty silly -- it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that recordings from the 1950's by famous jazz artists are still in copyright.

As you noted, tofu and yuba are treated differently. I didn't put them on that list of safe soy foods because I wasn't exactly sure how much of the phytates and other stuff the salt-treatment eliminated. It's my understanding that tofu and yuba still have some of the defensive chemicals, just a lot less than when they started.

One thing I noted when I was in Japan and China is that soy foods are eaten much more sparingly than westerners assume.

Most of my information on the downsides of soy started from The Whole Soy Story. I have followed up with pubmed to critically verify the claims made about soy. Also, there have been a number of recently completed studies appearing in the news lately that corroborate the information in that book.

The same music isn't there in CD or MP3. That's the whole point. This stuff is out of print, never been released in CD. It's the in summary for god's sake!

Well, that isn't exactly what the summary says. The summary says the 78s are out of print, which is no surprise because 78s aren't produced anymore. There's definitely a ton of music on there that is available commercialy in modern formats. For instance, he has "Caravan," by Duke Ellington. That's an extremely famous jazz tune, and I can't imagine there's ever a time when you couldn't buy a commercial recording of it. You can buy it right now on Amazon in mp3 format for 99 cents, or on a CD reissue. I don't know if it's exactly the same performance or not.

The Wired article also has a discussion of the copyright status of these songs, which basically amounts to, "nobody's sued him so far." I guarantee you that the composition of Caravan, for instance, is still in copyright -- Tizol and Ellington wrote it in 1936, so the only way it would have passed into the public domain would have been if the copyright owner had failed to renew it -- but it was a valuable commercial property (still is), and I'm sure they did renew it. (Nothing from after 1922 has expired in the US except by failure to do the renewal that used to be required.) I don't know about the copyright on the sound recording (is the duration different?), but I'd guess it's still also in copyright.

If copyright law in the US was sane, a composition from 1936 would be in the public domain, but that doesn't change the fact that the law is not sane, it is what it is, and these recordings are not all out of print or out of copyright.

The same music isn't there in CD or MP3. That's the whole point. This stuff is out of print, never been released in CD. It's the in summary for god's sake!

Well, that isn't exactly what the summary says. The summary says the 78s are out of print, which is no surprise because 78s aren't produced anymore. There's definitely a ton of music on there that is available commercialy in modern formats. For instance, he has "Caravan," by Duke Ellington. That's an extremely famous jazz tune, and I can't imagine there's ever a time when you couldn't buy a commercial recording of it. You can buy it right now on Amazon in mp3 format for 99 cents, or on a CD reissue. I don't know if it's exactly the same performance or not.

The Wired article also has a discussion of the copyright status of these songs, which basically amounts to, "nobody's sued him so far." I guarantee you that the composition of Caravan, for instance, is still in copyright -- Tizol and Ellington wrote it in 1936, so the only way it would have passed into the public domain would have been if the copyright owner had failed to renew it -- but it was a valuable commercial property (still is), and I'm sure they did renew it. (Nothing from after 1922 has expired in the US except by failure to do the renewal that used to be required.) I don't know about the copyright on the sound recording (is the duration different?), but I'd guess it's still also in copyright.

If copyright law in the US was sane, a composition from 1936 would be in the public domain, but that doesn't change the fact that the law is not sane, it is what it is, and these recordings are not all out of print or out of copyright.

Not all zoning is dumb.

Fair.

In this case, with as large as chemical fuel load he had in the home if his house went up it would likely take out the other houses nearby

Do you have an inventory sheet we don't? You argue from authority:

I AM a fire safety researcher, and I know just how flammable most chemicals can be, especially since it looks like he was doing organic chemistry, which is what I have my doctorate in

...in contradiction of TFA: Authorities concede that the chemicals found in Deeb's basement lab were no more hazardous than typical household cleaning products, whose author's credentials are no less impressive. My point is:

the fire risk that would have eventually happened.

You aren't psychic. Also:

The fact that he had a fire in his AC tells me that all the fumes from his operation were starting to condense in there and then got activated by a spark in the fan motor.

Keywords: "basement, second floor, unrelated fire." I don't see how fumes find their way to a window unit, or why they'd condense in August where it's hot enough for the AC to kick on.

he should have known better

You've assumed a lot.

Indeed, Ron Paul (for example) in his Revolution laments the loss of free thinking and Liberal (classically Liberal or what we now call Libertarian since the term Liberal has been hijacked by the far left in much the same way that Conservative has been hijacked by the neocons on the far right) citizens in the mold of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Patrick Henry who would be utterly appalled with the present state of affairs in the nation that they bequeathed to us. Unfortunately, for those of us Americans with an IQ greater than our shoe size, the vast majority of people want to be told how to live because they are too stupid, too ignorant, and too foolish to take care of themselves and the few intelligent politicians, almost without exception, use their gray matter advantage to manipulate rather than to educate the populace. Really, I am beginning to despair for the future outcome of our great American experiment because too few people now understand the true basis of American values or else they choose to ignore them as quaint anachronisms unfit for our modern times.

Jeez. MS apologists always trot out that one. Making bad engineering acceptable will probably be Bill Gates' largest "contribution" to society.

In fairness to software engineering, if the "bad" hardware driver can crash the system, then the system is not ready for production and has more than a few show-stopping (no pun intended) bugs. Take a look at basic kernel or micro-kernel design principles and stop spreading the view that catastrophically bad design is acceptable.

Linux puts most drivers in the kernel and a bad driver there can cause a panic, bringing the system down.

Most of the BSDs, AFAIK, have some drivers in the kernel and others in userland processes.

I'm not sure how it's architected in Mac OS X, but I've certainly seen kernel panics on my Mac Mini.

There may be an embedded OS which is less susceptible to being killed by a poor driver, but for something like this you probably wouldn't bother with an embedded OS because there's so much more in the way of off-the-shelf software available to do the job for Windows and Linux.

In fairness to Microsoft, blue screens are normally due to bad hardware drivers. Whatever that thing actually was, it certainly wasn't a normal monitor and I'll bet the drivers are rather specific. And the less people use them, the fewer bugs are found.

Cheers,
Ian

Jeez. MS apologists always trot out that one. Making bad engineering acceptable will probably be Bill Gates' largest "contribution" to society.

In fairness to software engineering, if the "bad" hardware driver can crash the system, then the system is not ready for production and has more than a few show-stopping (no pun intended) bugs. Take a look at basic kernel or micro-kernel design principles and stop spreading the view that catastrophically bad design is acceptable.

Both Schnier and Cheswick write book reviews of their friends books.

Cheswick's reviews: http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A3HUOJTOR8R54E/ref=cm_pdp_about_see_review?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview

Schneier's reviews: http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/ACUWZT3YP8I3B/ref=cm_pdp_about_see_review?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview

Both Schnier and Cheswick write book reviews of their friends books.

Cheswick's reviews: http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A3HUOJTOR8R54E/ref=cm_pdp_about_see_review?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview

Schneier's reviews: http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/ACUWZT3YP8I3B/ref=cm_pdp_about_see_review?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview