Slashdot Mirror

Agreed, it doesn't fit any of the description of the banned displays.

Back up cameras / displays do fit.

Seems california legislatures are for killing kids. http://autos.aol.com/article/back-up-cameras-law/

It's one of the big reasons that life here in the USA has changed for the worse, as the detrimental effects of living that way eventually invade just about every other aspect of daily life.

Interesting related stat: Most employers now routinely expect that employees will be paying attention to and responding within the hour to work email at almost all times of all days. According to this article, Americans work about 10% overtime, completely unpaid, doing this.

Only recently has medicine been seen as some sort of path to the top 1%.

I don't know where you get your data. A typical new family medicine doc gets a decent low $100,000s salary and has enormous debts and malpractice insurance to pay off. A pediatrician gets even less. True, there are specialties where they make a lot of money, but this is not typical. A $2500/month payment on student loans puts a pretty big dent in your take-home, and you enter the work force in your 30s, so everyone else has an 8 or 10 year head start. The hours suck, and unless you are in something like radiology or psychiatry, you have to cover weekends and evenings somehow. You need to take continuing education credits and you need to pass re-certification exams on an ongoing basis. I would never become a doctor - I'd bet that, per hour, they make less than a school teacher.

Men are increasingly abandoning medicine for more lucrative financial jobs.

Full disclosure: my wife is one of those docs with a well-paying specialty.

You probably read it this article.

At Dish headquarters in Englewood, a suburb of Denver, the day begins no later than 9 a.m. Badges used to be the preferred method of entry into the building. But a few years ago, after noticing that some employees were taking advantage of the system by having others badge-in for them, Ergen upgraded to fingerprint scanners. If a worker is late, an e-mail is immediately sent to human resources, which then sends another to that person’s boss, and sometimes directly to Ergen.

Or maybe on AOL

you would be surprised how many sites AOL owns.

Not if he's been here.

In general, advocates of the humanities have done a poor job of explaining why they are necessary. Which is problematic given that one of the things one would hope that someone in the humanities could do was come up with excellent persuasive arguments about things.

"See, I used college as a time to get high and impress girls by quoting Nietzsche, and now I need to make a living; so, I teach the humanities, which you should really really take!"

On the flip side of that, you don't need to go far to demonstrate the value of a STEM education to anyone - $34,420 per year (as the median difference, not the total salary) - but those courses have the unfortunate down-side of requiring actual effort to pass.

Not to say, BTW, that college should in any way turn into a knowledge-industry version of the "trade school"; but if you get a BS/BA and don't have the qualifications for a "real" job, congrats, you got screwed (and probably thanked $deity for the sweet, sweet vaseline of easy credits the whole way through, sadly enough).

First off, a "cheap but okay bike" is not $150. I can't stand this (nor can most bike shop employees, who are really, really, REALLY fucking tired of people strolling in and having wildly unrealistic expectations for what a bicycle costs.)

Bicycles are not toys, and they should not be priced like one. They should be priced compared to the expense of a public transit pass ($60/month in my city for bus+subway), a scooter, or car expenses. How much is a typical monthly car payment?(Answer:$452) How much do you put into that car per month in gas? (Answer: about $250/month.) Insurance? (Answer: about $800/year) Etc.

Second: bike rental systems (these are not "bike shares", despite the popular bastardization of the term) are popular because:

• They can be used for spontaneous and/or one-way trips. For example, I'm going out with friends tonight, and they don't bike; I don't want to have to leave my bike at work. I rode a bike share bike into work instead of taking my for-transportation bike. Or maybe it's going to rain in the morning but the evening commute will be spectacularly nice. Or maybe the roads are clogged and the busses running behind; I can hop on a bike share bike.
• You don't have to store the bike. While many buildings are getting better at this, most don't have bike storage, and it's usually a bit of a pain. Same at many workplaces, though again, lots of places are getting better at this, in part because there's often a financial incentive from the health insurance company.
• You don't need to worry about maintenance and repairs.
• It's amortized, basically. Instead of having to spend $500 on a solid commuter bike, you can spend $X/month/year. And in some ways, it's easier to track for purposes of taxes on commuting expenses.
• They are heavily aimed at tourists, despite claims to the contrary. Looking at the deployment maps this is pretty obvious - they stations tend to be around touristy areas in many cities. Bicycles are the perfect speed for touring an area; slow enough to take it all in, but fast enough to cover a good amount of area.

Tell it to these people: http://weather.aol.com/2013/05/21/photos-devastating-tornado-strikes-moore-okla/
In Oklahoma, weather comes to YOU.
In Oklahoma city 149 tornadoes had come to town since 1890 as of last fall. With this spring's new crop, it now stands at 151 or maybe 152. So tornadoes-near-you in Oklahoma are pretty much an annual event. A direct hit where you are is a little less likely. But dangerous weather and seriously damaged buildings don't require a direct hit. Evidence suggests that bigger tornadoes are getting more common. Two massive storms (one with an EF5 and this latest with 3 smaller twisters) in less than two weeks within a few miles of each other! Even these smaller twisters killed 5 people and injured dozens more.
It really is time to consider whether critical infrastructure ought to be built do withstand at least anything less than a direct hit (say, 150 MPH winds) and whether building standards for homes and other places where people spend a lot of time (such as schools) ought to include a tornado shelter.

Big oil already owns many of the worlds top green energy companies. For example BP has been one of the top producers of solar cells for many years. Your ire would be better directed at those actually putting up road blocks to green energy.

Energy companies are in the business of selling energy, and frankly they typically don't care what that source of energy is. Most companies sell gas, propane, diesel, and natural gas at a minimum and many have business relationships that go far beyond that.

"Passenger weight is fairly insignificant compared to the weight of the plane itself. There might be standard 50 tons of people/luggage on a jumbo (250 lbs combined * 400 ppl)."

no.

RTFA.... NINE seats on the BIG planes.

Samoa Air’s fleet of Britten Norman (BN2A) Islanders that carry nine passengers, and a four-seater Cessna 172 are likely to be particularly sensitive to the extra burden of such passengers.

empty weight is about the same as a full size sedan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britten-Norman_Trislander
Empty weight: 5,843 lb (2,650 kg)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_172
Empty weight: 1,691 lb (767 kg)

compare to 2013 Volkswagen Jetta: curb weight - about 3100 lbs
http://autos.aol.com/cars-Volkswagen-Jetta-2013/specs/

It's from the this and this universe. Didn't read TFA, but it's a problem that has been noted before in numerous places.

So this and this, to name a couple, are 100% false? You're confusing what should be with what is.

First of all, even 2002 priuses are still doing well on original batteries according to this AOL auto article.

http://autos.aol.com/article/toyota-prius-reliability/

Second of all achieving 38MPG in a truck sounds impossible unless it was the size of an old volkswagen caddy. An F-150 with a highly tuned diesel might get 25 combined, if lucky.

That being said diesel is excellent technology. Strong (electric) hybrids are too. Hydraulic hybrids even better, due to the lack of materials harvested in extremely environmentally harmful ways in their construction, and they don't require any materials exclusive to a particular country. They might be able to be constructed with all US harvested materials, even.

I second logmein free edition. I have it set up on literally half a dozen or more family computers, evenly split between XP, Vista and Win7. This is by far the easiest way to fix 90% of issues. The rest of the time the answer is normally to instruct them over the phone to reset the modem and/or router to fix connection issues.

You do have to tailor your usage to the family member. If they are completely computer illiterate, then setting up a separate non-administrator account is a good thing. Otherwise, particularly with Vista and later, just teach them to always say 'no' to the access control popups unless they check with you first. If you teach them safe habits, it'll be better for everyone.

For AOL, start by showing them how to use http://aol.com/ instead of the AOL software by making that the homepage on Chrome or FF. Also, try to make that icon more prevalent than the AOL software. If they don't learn, tell them that AOL software no longer exists when your finally able to get them a new computer. I've done this for 3 people already - it's not a lie if you didn't bother to check if AOL software still exists ;-)

As for other suggestions on here about Linux, that's a mixed bag. I successfully transitioned my Dad from XP to Linux for about a year or two when I cleaned his old computer. For his basic usage (email, movie listings, weather reports), it was more than adequate. The only issue I had was one exasperating series of tech support sessions with Verizon when he switched ISPs and they insisted they didn't support Linux on a 3-way conference call...eventually I got them to believe me that the modem was broken after looking up the manual and finding the non-Windows-CD configuration page...

Eventually he switched back to Windows when the computer died and he wanted something that could support certain Windows-only software. He knows not to install anything on the computer, and also tends to say no to all popups (good and bad), so I just have to explicitly run updates periodically.

In most cases, they don't. And when they do, they file false deductions are as a group are paid billions of dollars.
In most cases, they buy cheap goods
In most cases they rent, but manage to stuff two or three households into a home.

You might do well to remember that police officers go out every day all over world with the prospect of not making it home that night.

So do taxi drivers. Seriously, it's more dangerous than being a cop.

Indeed;

In fact, "cop" doesn't even make the list of Top 10 Most Dangerous Jobs in America. So much for that little misconception.

Iran exports Shia terror as well. Just look at Hezbollah. Iran even supports Sunni Hamas (although they have tried disastrously to shift them towards Shia Islam).

Iran supports Shia (and some Sunni) terror groups mainly as a tool in its quest for regional domination in a region filled by Sunni Arab states - they don't really aspire to be a world superpower, or to create a Caliphate, at least not in the foreseeable future. Similar to the numerous proxy wars of Cold War, where both US and Soviets supported various organizations that used means that would be unambiguously described as terrorist today.

So Iranians are much more like Soviets in that way - they do have their own repressive ideology, and it's not all that nice, but the ruling class doesn't treat it as some kind of "death or glory" manifest destiny, and they can be reasoned with. It's quite different from Salafi fanatics, who literally just want to see the world burn.

Perhaps in a way it's our fault, but back then we weren't thinking that far ahead and were more concerned with containing the soviets. Shit happens.

Leaving the past be is well and good, but only provided that its mistakes are recognized, and its lessons are learned. But when CIA brass hangs this painting in their headquarters in 2008, all while supplying AA missiles to Islamist rebels in Libya, and now talk of doing the same in Syria, well - there's serious doubt about that. I can only shake my head in disbelief and go "tsk tsk, when will you guys learn?".

They are phasing out the position. Evidently they aren't cutting current greeting staff but I do not believe they are hiring any new greeters. Here's a random article explaining.

Read decision "Columbia Insurance Company v. Seescandy.com, et al." (1999) of the US District Court in the Northern District of California: "People are permitted to interact pseudonymously and anonymously with each other so long as those acts are not in violation of the law." http://legal.web.aol.com/aol/aolpol/seescandy.html It can't be presumed that they are going to break the law just because they are using the fictitious name and have some criminal history.

USA is stagnant but not because it lacks military technology, it does not. It spends more on military than anybody. USA spends more on military than the next top 10 countries combined.

So what? That's not the point, USSR spent everything on military, I mean every non-trivial productive facility had some military application. Where is the country?

To have a sound economy the point is not to spend insane amounts of money on military, the point is to allow the people to save their money and invest it in any way shape or form they themselves desire, they and not some tyrannical technocratic government with a one track mind.

China has the factories and those factories creates everything you buy. USA has 50 or so Billion USD per month trade deficit, had it for decades. That means USA needs to either borrow,k tax or print the difference, to 'afford' this spending ('afford' in quotes, because printing money to buy something does not mean you can afford it, it just means the seller is not recognizing how stupid the transaction is from his POV, he'll never get his money worth of products out of you back).

It doesn't matter if USA 'leads in military technology', what matters is that 90% of all seafood is brought from Asia, and who knows how many other consumer products (you can try and check the inventory in your local Walmart, see what the real percentage of Chinese goods is to other goods, especially to American goods, and then there is the problem of components in whatever American goods that are made, and then tools and machinery, etc.)

You think stealth aircraft carrier with submarine nuclear diving capacity and tachion propulsion system is what a country needs in order to have a good economy?

So...no money for phone but money for internet? Priorities, I suppose.

You seem to be lost... Here are some websites you might find more interesting:

http://www.aol.com/
http://www.myspace.com/
http://www.americanidol.com/

You're wrong. I own a 2002 Concorde.

Fact:
First, there is no law requiring any action on the part of any ISP.
Disclosure: I participate in running an ISP, but not one of the ones involved in this.

Fact:
Some large national carriers have agreed to do some things. "Agreed" and "partnership" have no legal meaning. "An agreement is yet to be signed." is in the OP's link and that gives us an idea that in the future there MAY be an agreement. For now, should it happen, it's voluntary.

Fact:
No law of any jurisdiction in the United States currently requires any ISP to provide any content monitoring. The only requirements close to that are to allow Law Enforcement access should they have the right to it -- CALEA.

Opinion:
It would be counter to the AOL decision (Zeran v AOL) that an ISP is responsible for either monitoring content, taking action based on content, or being liable for content or failing to take action based on content. That's a fourth-circuit decision that makes it likely that any ISP that doesn't want to join the "partnership" with the MPAA/RIAA can easily not opt-in to their program. Note that I didn't say "opt-out" because that would beg the question of whether there's a requirement to join.

Looking forward, I can guess that our "friends" in the MPAA/RIAA will continue their program to CHANGE THE LAW through spending lots of money, lobbying, using the influence of former senator Dodd, etc. If they can get the law to require ISPs to do so, and thereby trump the 4th circuit's AOL decision, then there will be a concern.

However, as Sonic.net's CEO Dane Jasper said ISPs should keep as little logs as possible, preferably under two weeks. That would make it difficult unless they are doing real-time DPI, analysis, investigation, and sending out C&D letters for any of this to have meaning.

While the resources necessary for ISPs to provide access under CALEA are minimal ("Here's your Ethernet port, have a nice day, Feds") the requirement to do DPI for hundreds of gigabits-per-second of data is beyond onerous -- if even achievable. Consider -- it's not just that an ISP has to monitor their "upstream" pipes, but also customer-to-customer. The amount of bandwidth inside each ISP's core is immense.

Sorry to be long-winded, but having read the other responses, I see a lot of D&G and nay-saying. I agree that the landscape is pretty harsh, and the earth is getting scorched. I see hope because I see that we have defeated SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, (and yes I know the TPP is still alive) and we can likely continue to teach our congressional non-representatives that when the majority of the country doesn't want something ... it's likely not something they should support in our name.

Ehud

I was shocked as well when one of my friends mentioned using AOL in Germany in the 90s. There's a brief mention of it in their history too. Pretty wild, now that I think about it I almost miss the mailers which made great give away CD holders. One of their properties (ICQ) is pretty big in Europe (mostly eastern and Russia) to this day.

>> who is to blame for the declining enrollment of women in Computer Science

Blame? really? Last time I checked, people have a free choice as to what field they want to work/study in. If women choose not to do CS then its entirely their choice. No one is to blame.

Why is the ratio of men to women in CS even an issue? Its not intrinsically wrong that it mostly attracts men. Can we end this sexist crap please?

There are plenty of professions that have a significant majority of women:
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2010/07/27/where-women-work/
I don't see any corresponding massive outcry about how to get more men in those fields.

We just need to offer equal education opportunities to both genders and employ people based on merit not gender. Positive discrimination is still discrimination.

If there's a shortage of CS grads for employers to hire then its a supply and demand problem not a gender issue. Employers will just have to suck it up and pay developers what they're worth in the free market. Oh noes! the horror! Who knows, that might even lead to more people choosing to do a CS degree. Problem solved.

not to defend AOL, but it is really NOT their responsibility to determine whether their service is needed by their customers.. but rather to provide the services the customer subscribes to -- which is what AOL does. similarly, if you subscribe to cable tv but then install a satellite dish, it is YOUR job to cancel the cable if you no longer need or want it - the cable company can't read your mind, YOU have to return their equipment and cancel the service (or pay the bill, or suffer the consequences of doing neither)
___

if you do happen to know someone paying for AOL dialup but they have high speed internet.. do them a favor by suggesting they cancel the AOL dialup if they don't need it (laptop use when traveling to remote locations without wifi or other high speed options, etc)

for those who actually like the AOL client software or want to keep their @aol email account -- they can do both. you can use AOL's client software on your own internet connection (called "BYOA" - bring your own access); and if you don't use AOL client software, existing @aol email can be read at mail.aol.com - the email address(es) remain even when you cancel your paid AOL service (basically it just converts to a 'free' BYOA account).

don't forget to mention that if they cancel their paid AOL service and have a bundled AOL-provided antivirus, they'll need to replace it with something else.

to cancel paid AOL service, see http://help.aol.com/help/microsites/microsite.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=219764

Yes, it couldn't possibly be adversaries, and people want to do harm to the United States, in an environment where people like you firmly believe that everything must be a "false flag" operation designed to somehow take away your rights.

...

Or, it could be this:

Capability of the People’s Republic of China to Conduct Cyber Warfare and Computer Network Exploitation
http://www.uscc.gov/researchpapers/2009/NorthropGrumman_PRC_Cyber_Paper_FINAL_Approved%20Report_16Oct2009.pdf

Occupying the Information High Ground: Chinese Capabilities for Computer Network Operations and Cyber Espionage
http://www.uscc.gov/RFP/2012/USCC%20Report_Chinese_CapabilitiesforComputer_NetworkOperationsandCyberEspionage.pdf

How China Steals Our Secrets
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/opinion/how-china-steals-our-secrets.html

China's Cyber Thievery Is National Policy—And Must Be Challenged
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970203718504577178832338032176-lMyQjAxMTAyMDAwOTEwNDkyWj.html

FBI Traces Trail of Spy Ring to China
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970203961204577266892884130620-lMyQjAxMTAyMDAwNzEwNDcyWj.html

NSA: China is Destroying U.S. Economy Via Security Hacks
http://www.dailytech.com/NSA+China+is+Destroying+US+Economy+Via+Security+Hacks/article24328.htm

Chinese Espionage Campaign Targets U.S. Space Technology
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-18/chinese-espionage-campaign-targets-u-dot-s-dot-space-technology

Report: Hackers Seized Control of Computers in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/jet-propulsion-lab-hacked/
http://oig.nasa.gov/congressional/FINAL_written_statement_for_%20IT_%20hearing_February_26_edit_v2.pdf

Chinese hackers took control of NASA satellite for 11 minutes
http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-pick/chinese-hackers-took-control-of-nasa-satellite-for-11-minutes-20111119/

Chinese hackers suspected of interfering with US satellites
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/27/chinese-hacking-us-satellites-suspected

Former cybersecurity czar: Every major U.S. company has been hacked by China
http://www.itworld.com/security/262616/former-cybersecurity-czar-every-major-us-company-has-been-hacked-china

China Attacked Internet Security Company RSA, Cyber Commander Tells SASC
http://defense.aol.com/2012/03/27/china-attacked-internet-security-company-rsa-cyber-commander-te/

Chinese Counterfeit Parts Keep Flowing

If you don't like the TSA, you can travel a different way

Sure, as long as you also don't want to travel by car or train or subways or ferries

I guess that still leaves by foot (as long as you don't go in a subway tunnel) and maybe horse. I guess we really shouldn't complain.

First, a backdrop, beginning with the fact that China is on track to exceed US military spending by 2025:

Chinese Insider Offers Rare Glimpse of U.S.-China Frictions
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/world/asia/chinese-insider-offers-rare-glimpse-of-us-china-frictions.html

"The senior leadership of the Chinese government increasingly views the competition between the United States and China as a zero-sum game, with China the likely long-range winner if the American economy and domestic political system continue to stumble, according to an influential Chinese policy analyst. China views the United States as a declining power, but at the same time believes that Washington is trying to fight back to undermine, and even disrupt, the economic and military growth that point to China’s becoming the world’s most powerful country."

Asia's balance of power: China’s military rise
http://www.economist.com/node/21552212

"NO MATTER how often China has emphasised the idea of a peaceful rise, the pace and nature of its military modernisation inevitably cause alarm. As America and the big European powers reduce their defence spending, China looks likely to maintain the past decade’s increases of about 12% a year. Even though its defence budget is less than a quarter the size of America’s today, China’s generals are ambitious. The country is on course to become the world’s largest military spender in just 20 years or so."

China’s military rise: The dragon’s new teeth
http://www.economist.com/node/21552193

And now on to what's happening every day in US academic and business environments:

How China Steals Our Secrets
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/opinion/how-china-steals-our-secrets.html

China's Cyber Thievery Is National Policy—And Must Be Challenged
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970203718504577178832338032176-lMyQjAxMTAyMDAwOTEwNDkyWj.html

FBI Traces Trail of Spy Ring to China
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970203961204577266892884130620-lMyQjAxMTAyMDAwNzEwNDcyWj.html

NSA: China is Destroying U.S. Economy Via Security Hacks
http://www.dailytech.com/NSA+China+is+Destroying+US+Economy+Via+Security+Hacks/article24328.htm

Former cybersecurity czar: Every major U.S. company has been hacked by China
http://www.itworld.com/security/262616/former-cybersecurity-czar-every-major-us-company-has-been-hacked-china

China Attacked Internet Security Company RSA, Cyber Commander Tells SASC
http://defense.aol.com/2012/03/27/china-attacked-internet-security-company-rsa-cyber-commander-te/

Chinese Counterfeit Parts Keep Flowing
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news%2Fasd%2F2012%2F03%2F27%2F04.xml&headline=Chinese+Counterfeit+Parts+Keep+Flowing

China Corporate

Retired from the air force - probably with a pension, since he was in for 20 years, according to this article. He then went on to get a full time job with the CHP, so he was drawing a military pension, and a CHP salary; his wife had a degree in Biochem, so it's likely she had a decent-paying job, as well, and they had a single child.

Yeah, you're right, how could they possibly afford the 2006 Lexus they brought into the shop which is how they got the 2009 Lexus loaner they died in? Police officers should be driving used Geo Metros, and serving their families nothing but cold bread soup and week old cuts of meat, unless they're corrupt and accepting bribes - and they should hurry up and die so we can also make twattish jokes about their integrity from the comfortable semi-anonymous safety of our mommy's basement!

One more thing that occured to me, I remember reading that the average income of a Chevy Volt owner is $175k. That would imply that, again, it's a toy for the rich rather than a practical car, especially since YTD, they've only sold around 6,000 of them. Most consumers just aren't interested given the price point and that's with GM taking a loss/breaking even on every sale, depending on what numbers you want to believe.

Smart motherfucker :)

and I wouldn't mind doing the same

I manage a large volume email installation (many mil+ daily). I block ips that do not have reverse DNS with little to no problem. It is a common requirement, and those mailing without reverse dns won't be able to mail a lot of people. This hasn't been a problem, but as a large local provider it may just be I'm in a strong position to bully people into fixing their dns.

I don't block those who have _broken_ reverse dns. That's common, even among some big sites. By that I mean their ip address resolves to a hostname, but that hostname does not resolve back to that ip. If you block based on this you will loose legitimate mail.

The recent CyberSource decision indicates that the courts have started to see through patentees' device of throwing in language to the effect of "performed using a computer" in order to make their method claims patentable. Hopefully, this decision will help to improve the quality of issued patents henceforth. Those in the anti-software-patent set should also be pleased with this ruling, which could potentially set the stage for invalidating patents on software.

http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/rail/index.shtm

http://blog.tsa.gov/2011/02/screening-of-passengers-at-savannah.html

http://news.travel.aol.com/2011/02/28/why-did-tsa-pat-down-kids-adults-getting-off-train/

Trains have TSA goons as well. Next is subways and buses (if they aren't doing that already)

If you actually compare dial-up to current dial-up where you can still get it. bandwidth hasn't gone down that much with that class of service. AS a matter of fact, it's still at 1999 prices.

But let's go back to broadband, shall we?

We were and are paying more than any other industrialized country on Earth for inferior service. AND that's not including these ridiculous pricing plans that broadband providers impose on us to obfuscate just how much they're screwing us.

We're being ripped-off.

I think this is a brilliant idea, and IBM is ahead of the curve in seeking to obtain a patent on what is certain to become a leading technological tool.

If you read the OP's post, the judge appears to have disallowed that line of questioning. Which, to me, would be a clear indication that the judge is trying to tilt things and just wants to get the money from the victims.

Yes, you could appeal the conviction, but you're talking about traffic court, and it's already an uphill battle to fight a judge's decision on what evidence should or shouldn't be allowable. Appeals courts regularly reject cases that small as being beneath their notice.

Remember, in Ohio (a Republican stronghold), the police don't even have to have a measurement of your speed: they can just tell the judge they "estimated" your speed and that's good enough for their Supreme Court judges. This even after the corrupt cop in the case couldn't prove he was certified to operate a radar gun, and that revelation got the radar gun reading thrown out of court.

Republicans love rigging the system it seems. In the absence of sane levels of taxation, they get their revenue by turning the cops into the Badged Highwaymen, shaking down random citizens for money.

The best compromise is when both parties are not happy with the result.

OTOH, I learned recently that all you need is a fender from a car owned by a celebrity, and you can then "rebuild the car around the fender" and sell a car "that was owned by the celebrity". (The "rebuild" part is actually "attach the fender to another car", generally.)

On learning this, I then asked what is the smallest resolution of item required? In other words, can I buy that fender and split it into 20 parts, and then sell "20 cars owned by $celebrity"? That seems absurd on the face of it; imagine if I knew that celebrity A only ever owned a single Delorean, and then I heard someone was selling 5 Deloreans that celebrity A owned -- that would be obviously wrong, so I am surprised that it is the way it is. But since it is that way, knowing the minimum resolution is important, in terms of maximizing profit. I heard these fenders can go for a couple hundred grand. (... but of course.)

Swerving back on topic, perhaps there is a percentage of moon composition that is acceptable. From this example, it was found after a fire and needed to be cleaned. What if not all the "dirt" was cleaned off? It would then be heavier than actual. And if you chose the right dirt, it would not be distinguishable (because after all, here is where the moon came from). So perhaps there is a business model in "cutting" moon rock?

It's a good assistive technology feature for the deaf too. In fact, the Introduction also mentions its use by the deaf, too:
http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0301.html
"Real-time text is text that is sent as it is created. The recipient can watch the sender type "as written words are typed" – similar to a telephone conversation where one listens to a conversation "as words are spoken". It provides a sense of contact in conversation, eliminates waiting times found in messaging, and is also favored by the deaf who prefer text conversation. For a visual animation of real-time text, see RealJabber.org [1]."

- It's an optional feature, that can be turned on/off as usage warrants
- Just like audio can be turned on/off, and video can be turned on/off, real-time text can be turned on/off
- It utilizes traditional instant messaging UI, too.

It's also found in AOL Instant Messenger's Real-Time IM
http://help.aol.com/help/microsites/microsite.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=223568
However, we all wanted an open standard, that works on unmodified Jabber/XMPP, and that is how XEP-0301 got developed.

This patent by Apple dovetails nicely with the anti-counterfeiting and piracy legislation recently passed by Congress. It goes to show you just how powerful the entertainment industry is as a lobbying organization.

Maybe your idea of history is based on a poem, not real history.

Analysis of emails showed she is a "solid communicator." Reading though the emails showed her as someone who, shockingly to you, was focused on doing her job well.

"Stupid *and* arrogant" would describe your president better than Palin. This week he was blaming ATMs and tech innovations for joblessness. I guess free ATMs refill, maintain and update themselves. Maybe he'd prefer we were all toiling in fields like serfs.

War Powers violation on Libya? Arrogance. Mocking tone in all his speeches? Arrogance. Flubbing a bog standard toast of the Queen? Arrogance and stupidity. Pushing Israel to negotiate on indefensible '67 borders? Arrogance and stupidity. Asked about high gas prices, he said buy a new car. Stupidity. Attacking "millionaires and billionaires" for not paying their fair share while avoiding taxes on his own millions so much he pays at 13% below his bracket's rate? Arrogance.

A sitting president is virtually all powerful and he is not get near the scrutiny as a woman holding no political office. What the hell!

I don't even like her or her fanatics but I recently noticed that deranged drumbeat against her, even in private life and it has made me realize she may not be all that bad! Where's the anal probe for failed, out of touch, White House leadership or the Congress which hasn't passed an actual budget in years?

I'm quite pleased that the Justices defied pundits' predictions and issued this ruling -- I always thought i4i had the stronger arguments, not to mention many years of tradition and precedent on its side. Moreover, I think there's a decent argument that a strong presumption of validity is indicated in the Constitution; and, on a policy note, in countries with weaker patent rights, there lurks always the danger that well-funded entities can use that lesser standard to bankrupt patentees, or even to deprive them of their IP altogether. Thank you, SCOTUS; well done.

This makes total sense. "Green" energy tech is positioning itself to be the next big area of development. I predict that, very soon, companies like Google will be filing green tech patent applications left and right, in the same way that they currently file patent applications for every single small improvement on smartphones. Get ready for the green energy wars.

Since keyboard technology is in dire need of new advances, it's smart for Apple to patent such developments. However, ultimately it seems to me that it would make much more sense to ultimately incorporate keyboards into monitors; this would be a convenient space-saver.

In case you hadn't heard of this incident...it's not just planes any more. And they screened people who just GOT OFF the train.

One could *maybe* buy Apple's "mistake" claim, if the company hadn't also applied for a patent on this privacy-invading technology. But the patent-pending status really demonstrates this to be a clear, deliberate, and blatant violation of Apple users' privacy. The company should be ashamed.

I've used Perspectives (produced by a security research group at CMU) but I have a few beefs about the way the FF extension is maintained. They don't seem to be taking it seriously enough for something touching on security and privacy.

If you pull up FF's add-ons list and search on "certificate" or "ssl" Perspectives doesn't even come up. That's very minor in itself, but it's like nobody is home.

Much more serious is the lack of a change log for updates. I never update *any* extension without looking at the change log, and you want me to hand my privacy to this thing?

When I go to install it, FF says "author not verified". For a security add-on -- are you kidding me?

But the worst thing of all is that I'm not sure I can trust the notary concept for certain kinds of possible attacks. To give an example, AOL webmail doesn't use https to protect its full session, but AOL's webmail beta does. When their old certificate expired and they switched to a new one, Perspectives rightly pointed out a problem with it (like mismatched assignment information, webmail.aol.com instead of beta.aol.com or something like that). After a few days Perspectives stopped pointing out the error -- not because it was fixed or because I had made an exception, but apparently because enough other users had decided to trust it and so the notaries blindly passed that trust on.

http://tvlistings.aol.com/listings/tx/dallas/broadcast?hid=BCAST623&zipcode=75201

That's where I grew up. Where are you from?

Legislative runners: gophers, secretaries, executive assistants. Score 1 for the private sector
Congressmen: Wall Street CEOs. Score 2
Teachers: Teachers. Score 3 to 0 for the private sector.
Police Officers: Private Security: Score 4 to 0.
Fire Fighters, okay, there isn't much like a fire fighter in the private sector. I wonder why?
Aides: didn't we cover this in 'runners?'

Anyway, I took a look on google. Wow is there a lot of propaganda out there. It's funny how many news outlets seem to be skewing the truth, and saying that public sector workers make more, yet, when you look on actual jobs site, it really depends on the job. If you are a microbiologist, take the government job. If you are an attorney, take the private sector job. And if you are high up in management, obviously, take the private sector job AFTER you work in government and get lots of contacts.

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2009/01/26/government-salaries-vs-private-sector-salaries/

Government DOES produce things, like educated citizens, roads, extinguished fires, national parks, and other types of things known as 'externalities' that the free market simply fails to provide, because, outside of government taxes, there is no way to make everyone who benefits pay for said benefits.

Clinton's budget proves you wrong, we can cut wasteful government fat without cutting the meat. Mismanagement is one thing. Cutting teachers' salaries is another. Don't complain about the greedy public sector workers (full disclosure, I am one, and making considerably less than in the private sector, but with more security.) making more than you do. It's not our fault we held on to our unions while private sectors ditched theirs and let their bosses anally rape them for the last forty or fifty years. Go after the bosses, they are the ones who took your money, not government workers.

They are trying to misdirect you, to keep you from looking at the real source of the problem: them.