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Scientology is a complete fraud, but an interesting fraud. I would encourage anyone even marginally curious to take a look at the explanation of the cult on xenu.net. The Scientologists had an interesting conflict with the creators of Southpark. In a skit for the MTV Music Awards show, the South Park creators lambast Scientology and were threatened with lawsuits - yet they didn't back down. Here is the link to a description of the skit. Here. Southpark also tore into scientology in a spoof on them and street magician David Blaine. HOWEVER - note that the fellow who plays Chef does not appear in this episode - for he, Isaac Hayes, is a scientologist. Watch the episode here.

The Scientologists had an interesting conflict with the creators of Southpark. In a skit for the MTV Music Awards show, the South Park creators lambast Scientology and were threatened with lawsuits - yet they didn't back down. Here is the link to a description of the skit. Here.

Southpark also tore into scientology in a spoof on them and street magician David Blaine. HOWEVER - note that the fellow who plays Chef does not appear in this episode - for he, Isaac Hayes, is a scientologist. Watch the episode here.

A lot more people have died in the Soviet space program than the US one. It's easy to be first if you don't care about quality and safety.

First launch: ``Within a minute, the fire spread to the cabling and propellant lines for other engines. The KORD system shut down the entire first stage, and triggered the firing of emergency escape rockets that carried the L3S (unmanned L3) payload away from the booster as if it had been manned. The booster followed its suborbital trajectory to a point 45 km (30 mi) from the pad and crashed into the ground.''

Second launch: `` Within ten seconds of launch, all engines were commanded to stop, yet one continued to burn. The remaining engine merely spun the rocket about its axis as it collapsed back onto the pad. The explosive impact destroyed the N1, the pad, and ground support equipment, as well as damaging a neighboring pad and a second N1 booster. Only the unmanned L3S spacecraft survived, carried to safety by its escape rocket.''

Catastrophic failure, but the emergency system seems to work (although the site does not go in to detail as to what happened on the 3rd and 4th launches).

Here ya go (For those who like BluePrints more than cute pics)

http://members.aol.com/Satrnpress/samprotw.htm

You should strive to make your design docs just good enough for the people who'll be reading them -- the maintenance programmers, who will also have the code. In other words, the design docs are the cliffnotes to the code. The code is always the authoritative design documentation.

BTW, I STRONGLY recommend reading Agile Software Development for anyone who's seriously interested in these issues.

Amazingly enough, the receptionist knew right off the bat. Helvetica.

I don't know if Michigan road signs are different (never been), but in the rest of the US it's not Helvetica that's used. The Federal Highway Administration has its own set of typefaces that aren't really all that similar to Helvetica.

Knock-offs of the most common US highway typeface are available here. For me it's a lot more readable and a lot more attractive than Helvetica.

Yes, I'm another font obsessive. When I'm not looking after their network, I'm a designer for a sign company, so I guess it's my job to know these things.

As for Knuth (trying to get back on topic here), he's done an awful lot for both computer science as a whole and for digital typesetting, but what on earth was he on when he designed Computer Modern Roman? Ok, it's instantly recognizable, but it's also butt ugly and not very readable even on paper (too spidery, it would be a lot better if the horizontal stem widths were wider). On a low-res computer screen, it's a typeface disaster.

The UK cremation society has stats which indicate that it is more popular, 70% but it's been that way for the last 10 years.

interesting

By releasing a Linux or Unix version of the AOL client, a transition to Linux would be more feasible. Plus, current employees would be less opposed to the change because they would not have to switch over to a foreign interface. (Face it, although there are some great advances in Gnome and KDE, the average post-Windows user is still going to look for the exact same icons on the start menu and the taskbar.) Microsoft would have a fit, but then again, they throw a tantrum if you've activated WinXP too many times.

Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Not alot of people know about this web site, but it's damn handy for a bunch of reasons. I like to check it periodically to see the march toward newer browser versions, it gives you a really good window into how fast people at large are upgrading.

Link

It used to have AOL versions percentages as well, but they've reformatted the page to focus it purely on web browser versions. My recollection is that it takes about 12-18 months for a new AOL version to become the dominate version of AOL software used with about 10-15% of people who never upgrade.

I am a bit wary of any claims that come without corroboration. No offense is meant to the poster; my fear of fraud is due to my own dream of planting false information on the Internet that becomes widespread ;)

As a small step toward corroboration I found an Internet reference to strigiphilus garylarsoni, but no reference to microphallus schmidti. I did find a reference to microphallus pygmaeus, but this name sounds more decriptive of the species than combative.

My personal nomination for a species name is microphallus scatophagus (small-dicked shit-eater).

Allow me to explain.

Alan Cox; Richard Stallman; Bruce Perens; Wichert Akkerman; Miguel DeIcaza.

What do you see in this list of names? Are there any African-Americans on it? Absolutely not, none of those names sound like one a self-respecting black person would have! No Maurice, no Luther, no Lil' Kim. There are many other lists such as this, you can see one here. Flip through each page, do you see anything other than white faces? Of course you don't, because Open Source and its adherents are ardent racists and they absolutely forbid access to the sacred 'kernel' by any person of color.

Lets look at another list, this time a compendium of the companies using Linux. Are there any black owned companies on that list? Nooooooo. How about these companies? They all have something to do with Open Source software, any of them owned by an African-American? No again. Here is an extensive collection of photographs from a LUG (Linux User Gathering) meeting, more can be viewed at that link. What is odd about these pictures, and every other photograph I have ever seen of a LUG meeting, is that there is not one single black person to be seen, and probably none for miles.

More racist overtones can be found by examining the language of Open Source. They often refer to 'white hat' hackers. These 'white hats' scurry about the Internet doing good, but illegal, acts for their fellow man. In stark contrast we find the 'black hat' hackers. They destroy the good works of others by breaking into systems, stealing data, and generally causing havoc. These two terms reflect the mindset of most Linux developers. White means good, black means bad. Anywhere there is black, there is uncontrollable destruction and lawlessness. Looking further we see black lists that inform other users of 'bad' hardware, Samba, an obvious play on the much hated Little Black Sambo book, Mandrake, which I won't explain except to say that the French are notorious racists. This type is linguistic discrimination is widespread throughout the Open Source culture, lampooned by many of its more popular sites.

It is also a fact that all Unix 'distros' contain a plethora of racist commands with not so hidden symbolism.

It can hardly be coincidence that the prime operating system of choice of the 'open source supremacists' - Linux, features commands which are poorly disguised racist acronyms. For example: 'awk' (All White Klan) , 'sed' (shoot nEgroes dead), 'ln' (lynch negroes), 'rpm' (raical purity mandatory), 'bash' (bring a slave home), 'ps' (persecute sambo), 'mount' (murder or unseat nubians today), 'fsck' (favored supreme Christian klan). I could go on and on about the latent racist symbolism in Linux, but I fear it would take weeks to enumerate every incidence.

Is there a single unix command out there that does not have some hidden racist connotation ? Suffice it to say that the racism pervades Linux like a particularly bad smell. Can you imagine the effect of running such a racist operating system on the impressionable mind ? I don't have to remind you that transmitting subliminal messages is banned in the USA, and yet here we have an operating system that appears to be one enormous submliminal ad for the Klan!

One of the few selling points of Open Source software is that it is available in many different languages. Browsing through the list I see that absolutely none are offered in Swahili, nor Ebonics. Obviously this is done to prevent black people from having access to the kernel. If it weren't for the fact that racism is so blatantly evil I would be impressed by the efforts these Open Sourcers have invested in keeping their little hobby lilly white. It even appears that they hate the Japanese, as some of these self proclaimed hackers defaced a web site with anti-Japanese slogans. Hell, these people even go all the way to Africa (South Africa mind you, better known as White Africa) and the pictures prove that they don't even get close to a black person.

Of course, presenting overwhelming evidence such as this is a bit unfair without some attempt to determine why these Open Sourcers are so racist. Much of the evidence I have collected indicates that their views are so deeply held that they are seldom questioned by the new recruits. This, coupled with the robot-like groupthink that dominates the culture allows the racist mindset to continue to permeate the ranks. Indeed, the Open Source version of a Klan rally, OSDN (known to the world as Open Source Developer's Network, known to insiders as Open Source Denies Negroes) nearly stands up and shouts its racist views on its demographics page. It doesn't mention the black man one single time. Obviously, anyone involved with Open Source doesn't need to be told that the demographic is entirely white, it is a given.

I have a sneaking suspicion as to why their beliefs are so closely held: they are all terrible athletes.

Really. Much like the tragedy at Columbine High School, where two geeks went on a rampage to get back at 'jocks', these adult geeks still bear the emotional scars inflicted upon them due to their lack of athletic ability during their teen years. As African-Americans are well known for their athletic skills, they are an obvious target for the Open Source geeks. As we all know, sports builds character, thus it follows that the lack of sports destroys character. These geeks, locked away in their rooms, munching on stale pizza and Fritos, engage in no character building activities. Further, they interact only with computers and never develop the level of social skill that allows normal people to handle relationships with persons of color.

Contrasted with the closed source, non-geeky software house Microsoft, Open Source has a long, long way to go.

Join me in my next article where I will lay bare the rampant anti-semitism in the Open Source community.

Allow me to explain.

Alan Cox; Richard Stallman; Bruce Perens; Wichert Akkerman; Miguel DeIcaza.

What do you see in this list of names? Are there any African-Americans on it? Absolutely not, none of those names sound like one a self-respecting black person would have! No Maurice, no Luther, no Lil' Kim. There are many other lists such as this, you can see one here. Flip through each page, do you see anything other than white faces? Of course you don't, because Open Source and its adherents are ardent racists and they absolutely forbid access to the sacred 'kernel' by any person of color.

Lets look at another list, this time a compendium of the companies using Linux. Are there any black owned companies on that list? Nooooooo. How about these companies? They all have something to do with Open Source software, any of them owned by an African-American? No again. Here is an extensive collection of photographs from a LUG (Linux User Gathering) meeting, more can be viewed at that link. What is odd about these pictures, and every other photograph I have ever seen of a LUG meeting, is that there is not one single black person to be seen, and probably none for miles.

More racist overtones can be found by examining the language of Open Source. They often refer to 'white hat' hackers. These 'white hats' scurry about the Internet doing good, but illegal, acts for their fellow man. In stark contrast we find the 'black hat' hackers. They destroy the good works of others by breaking into systems, stealing data, and generally causing havoc. These two terms reflect the mindset of most Linux developers. White means good, black means bad. Anywhere there is black, there is uncontrollable destruction and lawlessness. Looking further we see black lists that inform other users of 'bad' hardware, Samba, an obvious play on the much hated Little Black Sambo book, Mandrake, which I won't explain except to say that the French are notorious racists. This type is linguistic discrimination is widespread throughout the Open Source culture, lampooned by many of its more popular sites.

It is also a fact that all Unix 'distros' contain a plethora of racist commands with not so hidden symbolism.

It can hardly be coincidence that the prime operating system of choice of the 'open source supremacists' - Linux, features commands which are poorly disguised racist acronyms. For example: 'awk' (All White Klan) , 'sed' (shoot nEgroes dead), 'ln' (lynch negroes), 'rpm' (raical purity mandatory), 'bash' (bring a slave home), 'ps' (persecute sambo), 'mount' (murder or unseat nubians today), 'fsck' (favored supreme Christian klan). I could go on and on about the latent racist symbolism in Linux, but I fear it would take weeks to enumerate every incidence.

Is there a single unix command out there that does not have some hidden racist connotation ? Suffice it to say that the racism pervades Linux like a particularly bad smell. Can you imagine the effect of running such a racist operating system on the impressionable mind ? I don't have to remind you that transmitting subliminal messages is banned in the USA, and yet here we have an operating system that appears to be one enormous submliminal ad for the Klan!

One of the few selling points of Open Source software is that it is available in many different languages. Browsing through the list I see that absolutely none are offered in Swahili, nor Ebonics. Obviously this is done to prevent black people from having access to the kernel. If it weren't for the fact that racism is so blatantly evil I would be impressed by the efforts these Open Sourcers have invested in keeping their little hobby lilly white. It even appears that they hate the Japanese, as some of these self proclaimed hackers defaced a web site with anti-Japanese slogans. Hell, these people even go all the way to Africa (South Africa mind you, better known as White Africa) and the pictures prove that they don't even get close to a black person.

Of course, presenting overwhelming evidence such as this is a bit unfair without some attempt to determine why these Open Sourcers are so racist. Much of the evidence I have collected indicates that their views are so deeply held that they are seldom questioned by the new recruits. This, coupled with the robot-like groupthink that dominates the culture allows the racist mindset to continue to permeate the ranks. Indeed, the Open Source version of a Klan rally, OSDN (known to the world as Open Source Developer's Network, known to insiders as Open Source Denies Negroes) nearly stands up and shouts its racist views on its demographics page. It doesn't mention the black man one single time. Obviously, anyone involved with Open Source doesn't need to be told that the demographic is entirely white, it is a given.

I have a sneaking suspicion as to why their beliefs are so closely held: they are all terrible athletes.

Really. Much like the tragedy at Columbine High School, where two geeks went on a rampage to get back at 'jocks', these adult geeks still bear the emotional scars inflicted upon them due to their lack of athletic ability during their teen years. As African-Americans are well known for their athletic skills, they are an obvious target for the Open Source geeks. As we all know, sports builds character, thus it follows that the lack of sports destroys character. These geeks, locked away in their rooms, munching on stale pizza and Fritos, engage in no character building activities. Further, they interact only with computers and never develop the level of social skill that allows normal people to handle relationships with persons of color.

Contrasted with the closed source, non-geeky software house Microsoft, Open Source has a long, long way to go.

Join me in my next article where I will lay bare the rampant anti-semitism in the Open Source community.

That way even the most hardcore human reader (or group of more casual readers behind a NAT) can click on 30-40 links in a minute

What about over 20 Million Members on one ISP's proxy? A story circulating around several tech news sites (about the high likelihood of AOL 8 using Mozilla's Gecko engine) places AOL's U.S. market share at about 30%. Do you really want to drive away 30% of your audience? What about the billion-plus people behind China's NAT?

By the way you should not so smugly say that evolution has overwheling evidence, I have seen tracks of man and dinosaur side by side.

I thought even the creationists were abandoning this piece of "evidence". See this site for details.

Besides, even if you proved dinosaurs and man did have some overlap in the chronology of life on Earth, it certainly doesn't prove a six-day creation, or a 6000-year-old Earth. Once again, Creationists show their lack of comprehension not only of the scientific process, but also of simple logic.

Information about AOL's original switch to IE can be found at:

http://members.aol.com/adamkb/aol/whyie/

Well, that's a real interesting question. We know next to nothing about radiation and a Mars mission, in fact the one instrument that got knocked out on the latest Mars orbiter was the radiation meter that was supposed to give a baseline reality check for a manned mission. Better luck next time getting that data, I guess. Solving the radiation problem is the hidden agenda for manned 21st century spaceflight that people don't even realize is a problem. The Apollo capsule had enough "shielding" to make a single back-and-forth trip thru the Van Allen belts because it was designed with sturdy walls to be a re-entry capsule. Even so, during Apollo they had to keep the sun under continuous observation and they were prepared to abort a launch if there had been a big solar flare, which is what causes short-wave radio communications and bright auroras on Earth every so often and would KILL an Apollo crew deader than a doornail if they were running a mission at the time. There was actually a contingency plan - I kid you not - that if a solar flare started after a moon landing, the guys on the moon could cover the LEM with dirt for shielding and wait the flare out before coming home - too bad, the guy orbiting the moon had no chance at all. Check this out...it includes the following quote: "...as an example the August 1972 flare, which it says could have subjected an unshielded astronaut to 20,000 REM in 14 hours....The 1972 flare took place between the Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 lunar expeditions. Had it occurred during an Apollo expedition the astronauts would have been incapacitated immediately and dead within hours or days...."

20,000 REM in 14 hours? 500 REM kills half the people exposed and leaves the survivors sick as dogs, 1000 REM kills everybody. How the hell do you shield against something like this? Very good question. You just about can't protect "the whole ship" because the shielding mass is just too great to lug around. Most concepts for Mars missions include something called a "storm shelter" concept which usually winds up being a coffin-sized hideaway in the middle of the mission water tanks. The closer you look the worse the problem becomes. THere's a lot of talk also about using superconducting magnets to set up a mini-magnetic field around the spacecraft (just like Earth's) but no hard engineering on just what it would take to get the job done....

The difference between StarTrek and reality is profound. Routine spaceflight to the moon is likely to always be a mad dash to /from the shelter of Earth's magnetic field to a shelter covered with moondirt. Guess wrong, get fried. All of these orbiting hotel concepts haven't done their homework. Space is a BRUTAL environment. It's worth going there anyway.

As much as AOL sucks, here's one upside that I have yet to find in another ISP. Travel to Germany, they've got a local phone number to call, travel to Argentina, they've got a local number, travel to Iceland, they've got a local number, you get the idea. If you are not travelling all over the place then please please please do not use AOL. If you are travelling, it's worth looking at as a "roaming" isp. Here's the link to their International Access Numbers.

Did anyone listen to the speech?

This problem won't be solved in short order. It's going to require education, leadership from Washington and true diligence to help our fans - that would be you - to embrace this life and death issue and support our artistic community by only downloading your music from legal Web sites

How can anyone compare death to music piracy with a straight face? Needless to say I turned the channel and stopped watching the shortly there after. The little respect that I had for the Grammies was lost that night. I think it pissed me off more that no one booed him off stage.

How about you?

Your kid can still watch Pinocchio, Pinocchio, Pinocchio 2, or The Lion King. Too bad Atlantis hasn't been dubbed yet. Also boycott Sonny and Cher because of the Bono Act that they both supported and that Di$ney helped push through.

Atlantis Vs. Nadia
Kimba Vs. Lion King

Oh, and a post from 1994 documenting the furor in Japan among the animators and other creative types when The Lion King was released.

Newsgroups: clari.world.asia.japan,clari.living.movies
Date: Mon, 08 Aug 94 11:40:29 PDT
From: C-ap@clarinet.com (AP)
Subject: `Lion King' Complaints Arise

TOKYO (AP) -- Dozens of Japanese cartoonists have signed
a letter to Disney, displeased by similarities between the smash
``The Lion King'' and a 1960s hit Japanese cartoon series and
seeking credit for the cartoon's creator.
...
The cartoonists think there is more than a passing
resemblance between Simba, star of Disney's animated hit, and
Kimba, the leonine hero of a popular 1960s Japanese cartoon
series that was dubbed into English and shown in the United
States beginning in 1966.
...
Both stories feature orphaned lion princes who lose
their crowns to an evil adult lion, then reclaim their thrones.
The good lions are aided by a wise old baboon and a talkative
bird, while the evil lions get help from hyenas. Kimba's foe
was a one-eyed lion named Claw, and Simba's a lion named Scar.
...

The biggest problem with Disney's worldview -- and by association the worldview of the RIAA, MPAA, Vivendi, et al -- is that they assume no private person can create anything. All art comes from the generous people at Disney. There are no independent aritsts.

Correction, Disney knows full well that art comes from independent artists... they've made a fortune stealing ideas from idependant artists. See this slashdot article about Disney ripping off "Atlantis" from "Nadia" and this bit about Lion King ripping off Kimba. Let's not forget the other Disney "orginals": Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Pinnochio, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Robin Hood, Aladdin, etc... Disney's whole business model is based off of "Rip, Mix, Burn". Hell, at least Apple pays for other people's technology (e.g. Xerox) before they take credit for it.

Dump those $15 battery chargers, get a good one, and you'll only need one Set of batteries for every appliance for the rest of your life.

Both the statute (CDA's Section 230 provisions) and case law are very strong in the exemptions granted to the operators of a computer service from the duties and liabilities of a traditional publisher. Every direct challenge brought against an online service provider regarding speech contributed by a third-party has been defeated both at trial and in appellate court.

• Zeran vs America Online. U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit ruled in favor of defendant, AOL, that defendant was NOT responsible for defamatory statements made via its service by a third party per 230 of the CDA. Subsequent appeal was denied by US Supreme Court.
• Ben Ezra, Weinstein, and Co., Inc. v. America Online Inc. The US District Court in New Mexico held that AOL "clearly qualifies" for Internet service provider immunity under 230 of the CDA. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals also upheld this finding.
• Curzon Brown v. San Francisco Community College District Plantiff charged that TeacherReview.com was responsible for defamatory comments made on its web site about a professor at San Francisco City College. In settlement, plantiff abandoned claim and was forced to pay $10,000 to TeacherReview.com for legal fees.

When you have a crime to investigate, and you have no suspects, where do you start? Obviously you begin by looking at the person or persons who have the most to gain by perpetrating the crime.

This is why we must consider: who had something to gain from the disasterous crimes of September 11th? Obviously not Osama Bin Laden, who would net no financial windfall from the destruction of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Although he has loudly applauded the "terrorist" acts of September 11th and even tacitly taken credit for them, there is no reason to believe that he is anything more than a bandwagon jumper. Being blamed for the destruction of the World Trade Center has done more for his image than any amount of militant Islamic rhetoric.

But if not Bin Laden, then who?

It so happens that on December 11th, "coincidentally" 2 months after the tragedy, Credit Suisse First Boston quietly agreed to pay out US$100 million in order to settle an 18 month old investigation into its handling of certain high-profile technology IPOs (Initial Public Offerings). One of the most controversial amongst these being the IPO of VA Linux Systems, Inc. (LNUX) .

VA Linux Systems, Inc., now known as VA Software, is widely derided as a poster child of the dot-com bust, though inexplicably still in business. At the time of the IPO, VA Linux (Software) shares opened trading at nearly 10 times their $30 offer price, closing the first day of trading at $239.25. This meteoric rise made many early investors rich, strangely on account of a company which purports to sell a hobbyist operating system which can be obtained for free on the Internet. "The VA Linux initial public offering is a prime example of market manipulation in an IPO by investment banks, their customers and the issuing firm," said Steven Schulman, a partner in the law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, which specializes in filing shareholder suits.

"Because certain favored customers of the investment banks agreed to buy shares in a new issue at inflated prices in the aftermarket (in return for getting an allocation of the shares at the initial offering price) the share prices to which the IPO eventually soared were actually driven by artificial market forces," continues Schulman.

But what does the VA Software (Linux) IPO have to do with the attacks on September 11th, and what has that to do with the Credit Suisse settlement? Well, considering that VA Linux (Software) got CSFB into trouble in the first place, it stands to reason that the VA Linux (Software) Board of Directors were complicit in the stock fraud from beginning to end. As the investigation progressed against CSFB, the unscrupulous VA Software/Linux executives, their pockets bulging with filthy lucre plundered from trusting, hard-working investors, must have realized that their days in the country club were numbered if the SEC discovered their wrongdoings.

The SEC, or Securities Exchange Commission, is a federal regulatory agency, and cannot be bribed. Therefore, with a possible stint in federal prison looming large, Larry Augustin and the rest of the crooks, including outspoken gun violence advocate Eric S. Raymond, decided to undertake more active means to halt the investigation.

The Plan

It so happened that all the evidence in the CSFB/VA Linux investigation was held at the SEC Northeast Regional Office in Manhattan. More specifically, 7 World Trade Center, Suite 1300. The board decided that a simple burglary or arson attempt would not be satisfactory to destroy the evidence; anything so simple had a significant chance of being botched, and regardless of success would leave too many witnesses or living accomplices.

It was then that Eric S. Raymond suggested something he had read in a book by Tom Clancy. Crashing two planes into the World Trade Center Plaza would guarantee the destruction of the SEC offices, killing the operatives and possibly a number of SEC investigators at the same time. The plan seemed flawless, and would cost little more than the price of a few plane tickets. In a secret session, the board voted unanimously in favour of Eric's suggestion, and began to put it into action.

VA Software/Linux, at the time of planning the attacks, had no shortage of H1-B visa workers, who they employed for the purpose of writing and improving hacking, encryption, and other terrorist tools for the Linux operating system. It had been decided that a hand-picked few of these foreign H1-B workers would be used as the "patsies" in the operation. A contest was held, and the most zealotous Linux advocates were chosen for this secret assignment, direct from the board of directors. They accepted their mission after being told that, if successful, it would guarantee the adoption of Linux in the desktop market.

Alan Cox was brought into the fold to provide some planning and logistics for the mission. It was he who determined that since there was no adequate flight simulator software for Linux, the patsies would need to train at a flight school in order to pull off the plan successfully. It was also his idea to hijack a third and fourth plane for the purpose of crashing them into Washington D.C., to express his extreme rage over the DMCA, or Digital Millenium Copyright Act. The board of directors agreed with this addition to the plan in the hopes that it would help divert attention from the purpose of the WTC attack.

The H1-B workers were given false identities by using Linux hacking tools. Once they had attended the necessary flight training, they stayed at the Massachusetts home of Richard M. Stallman for a brief "faith building" retreat. During this time spent at the house of Stallman, between the nauseating stench of patchouli, Stallman's incessant, pitiful recorder playing, and Stallman's droning seminars on the grammatical and syntactical accuracy of various statements by Microsoft representatives, the H1-B workers were effectively hypnotized to the point that they were ready to lay down their lives for Free Software. It was then that they departed for Boston's Logan International Airport to board the planes.

(The preceding inside information has been obtained from a credible source close to the VA Linux/Software Board of Directors. He/she is in hiding for obvious reasons in light of this damning evidence, but has presented hard, physical evidence of VA Software/Linux's complicity in the events of 9/11 to federal investigators.)

From the annals of the Troll Library .

You can't make money selling a metered resource at a flat rate.

Er... you mean like AOL's $23.95/month internet service? Or perhaps the newly-unveiled AT&T Unlimited Plan? Or local telephone service in the U.S.?

click here for the page

I later found a link to the speach.

I have to say, I was thrilled when I finished reading it. In addition to pissing off viewers by interupting the Grammys, I can't imagine them accepting and sympathizing with over-the-top statements like "No question the most insidious virus in our midst is the illegal downloading of music on the Net". And how many people are going to be moved to tears by "That very special connection between the fan and the artist is an historically important partnership".

Then I love the next sentence - "In recent years, industry consolidation ... has created a disturbing disconnect in our relationship, and trends say it promises to get worse" Hmmm, did he just say that the recording industry was killing "That very special connection between the fan and the artist"?

But my favorite parts are where he actually promotes filesharing:

"file-sharing and ripping of music files is pervasive" and "millions of students and other computer users" - Everybody is doing it, don't be left out!

"from easily accessible Web sites" - It's so easy! Why aren't you doing it?!

"In just a couple of days they have downloaded nearly 6,000 songs. That's three kids, folks." Damn! You mean I can get 6,000 song for free in 2 days?! If a couple of kids can do it, so can I! "Honey! Start up AOL! I wanna get 6,000 songs in 2 days!"

Somehow I don't think that "our fans - that would be you - " are quite ready "to embrace this life and death issue". Whew, for a minute there I was worried that his speach might have been an effective piece of propaganda. It wasn't. They may believe their own crap, they may be able to buy politians, the consumers may have no clue, but they aren't about to win grass-roots support from the audience.

P.S.
I'd really like to know what kind of pipe they gave those three students backstage.

-

Exactly :-)

That is exactly what Overture is. We aren't a traditional Information retreival search engine, and that is exactly what Google is trying to muscle in on.

Look at the results on Earthlink now from Google -- and compare with AOL...

For what its worth I use Google constantly when I'm doing research - but for items I can buy, services I need, I'd prefer Overture.

Compare and Contrast:

Earthlink Web Search DVD Players

AOL Search for DVD players (Overture)

Winton

Not so funny, considering that the President of the Grammies, Michael Greene, actually called .mp3 swapping a life-or-death matter at last night's Grammy Award presentation. Seriously.

• AOL search for 'linens' - "recommended sites" then "sponsored sites" then "matching sites"
• MSN search for 'linens' - actually, this one has "featured sites", then "sponsored sites", then real links. The "featured sites" are numbered along with the search results, and are apparently hosted on MSN.
• Yahoo search for 'linens' - Category matches, then Sponsor Matches, then website matches.
• Lycos for 'linens' - Sponsored Matches, then "from the lycos network" listed as a result, then real results.
• AltaVista for 'linens' - "Products and services" (links to overture, definitely NOT clearly marked), then a "shortcut" to dealtime, also not clearly marked, then real results.

"Many of the nominees here tonight... are in immediate danger of being marginalized out of our business."

Looking at the winners: U2, Alicia Keys, James Taylor, Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya, Pink, Eric Clapton, Janet Jackson, Sade Harry Connick, Jr., Lenny Kravitz, Linkin Park, Jeff Beck, Coldplay, Usher, Destiny's Child, Gladys Knight, Missy Elliott, Outkast, Eve, Gwen Stefani, Dolly Parton, etc. I don't see any that will either be going broke any time soon (apart from poor management, not result of file-sharing) or will be "marginalized out of our business" by the business itself. Where are New Kids on the Block, Vanilla Ice, Hammer, etc? They died long before Napster.

The speech was made Michael Greene, President and CEO of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and the transcript is available here.

Content wise, there was precious little: copying music is evil; 3.6 billion songs are illegally downloaded each month; download from legal sites so artists get paid (a quarter of a penny per song, apparently).

Previous Tech Award winners are listed here.

(Yes, the Grammy site is hosted on AOL. Almost as good as akamai, I suppose.)

Previous Tech Award winners are listed here.

(Yes, the Grammy site is hosted on AOL. Almost as good as akamai, I suppose.)

Regardless. Commercials pay for your TV networks. Why circumvent them? They are there to pay for the content you are watching for FREE. Life doesn't always work like PBS or Open Source.

Excellent point!
Not only is classical music cheaper (I recently picked up several different composers for $2.99 per CD) it's also better for you.

And if you haven't tried it, playing classical in the background while you program is just as fulfilling as that techno stuff you have now (admit it, we all do).

And as an added benefit to the younger (male) geeks out there, knowledge and appreciation of classical art makes you appear cooler to chics. In college I rarely had a date, but I could approach any girl in any class and ask her to the symphony or the ballet with about an 80% success rate. Disclamer: I rarely got second dates due in part to the ache, braces, and poor conversation skills.

Thank God for NPR.

My only beef with NPR is that they (the local station were I live) play way to much baroque music. I really enjoy Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff - pretty much anything from the romantic era, but I can't get into Bach.

And what about spam? Is there any way of effectively controlling spam that doesn't also allow the effective controlling of other content? Can we have unrestricted free speech without spam?

Off-topic, this is my one thousandth slashdot comment...

More info about slash can be found here.

If you look at Mars' atmosphere, you see a 50x higher concentration of carbondioxide compared to earth.

After an initial flurry of excitement, the original Miller-Urey experiments which produced some amino acids also highlighted a number of problems on the way along said road.

• The experiment was highly artifical, not at all a good representation of putative early Earth conditions
  
• despite this, we would expect some amino acids to form anyway, due to the chemical potentials involved (there is a dip in the road to life, into which some chemical processes will roll with very little pursuasion)
  
• the dip in potential has another side, and that looks kind of like the roads you see in some cartoons, which lead up to the base of a cliff, then trundle straight on up the face of it; what this means in real terms is that not only do some simple atoms/molecules find it relatively easy to become amino acids, but also more complicated molecules find it much easier to relapse to aminoness and it's very unlikely that aminos will self-assemble into anything much more complicated
  
• the acids formed were racemised, that is, about half of them were twisted the wrong way; with one exception, amino acids in living beings are twisted left-handed (are said to have left-handed chirality)
  
• the putative primitive conditions also destroy even the simple amino acids formed by the experiment very quickly
  
• the early conditions involve a heck of a lot of chemicals unlikely to exist in useful amounts on Mars
  
• for that matter, there is much evidence that Earth did not have a reducing atmosphere like the one used in the experiment, or at least did not have one for very long.
  

I think it's more important that the presence of water enables us to create colonies on Mars in the near future

Yes, actually one does exist:

http://members.aol.com/erichuf/Linux1.html

Degree degree degree. Forcible rape and statutory rape are two different (though obviously related) crimes, and are (appropriately) punished differently.

I got curious enough about this that I looked it up. In Pennsylvania, forcible rape is a first degree felony, with an additional ten year prison penalty above and beyond that normally provided for first degree felonies (if I read the statute right) while "statutory sexual assault" is a second degree felony with no additional penalties.

That still seemed a little harsh to me, so I decided to compare it to my home state. In Colorado, as far as I can tell from reading the not-terribly-clearly-worded statutes, forcible rape is a Class 3 or Class 4 felony depending on the degree of force and/or coercion used, while sexual assault of the sort the perpetrator in this case apparently intended to commit is a Class 1 misdemeanor. That seems a little more reasonable.

BTW, the jumping-off point for this information is here, a service of Cornell Law. It seems to be an excellent resource for legal research of this sort.

I've always enjoyed reading this author's speculations about the future -- he seems to be slightly off-target on some things, and his work is a bit optimistic at times, but overall it's an interesting read.

Main site:
http://kurellian.tripod.com/spint.html

Storage site:
http://members.aol.com/kurellian/spint.html

~A.

Guide to the Slashdot Joke ver .1

Greetings, denizens of the Slashdot. If you have read Slashdot commentary with any attention, you have noticed that certain posts receive moderation points with the qualifier "Funny." You may also have noticed, if have experience with non-Linux OS's, that these posts do not make you smile, laugh, urinate, or any of the more popular responses to things that would normally be considered "Funny." Indeed, the Slashdot has birthed a new linguistic classification; I propose to call it the "Slashdot Joke," for reasons that are hopefully quite apparent.

So! You wish to become a Slashdot Joker? Easier typed than done! But let us endeavor no less assiduously in the face of difficulty.

The first thing you must understand in order to be a Slashdot Joker is that the Slashdot Joke does not make you laugh because it was never intended to be funny. That is correct; what's more, no sense of humor is required to craft a Slashdot Joke. The Slashdot Joke is a purely manipulative phenomenon with a specific desired outcome, in most respects quite similar to deftly used GHB. A Slashdot Joke [GHB] compels a Slashdot Moderator [svelte vixen (or otherwise, but let it be svelte, if you please!)] to give you karma [let you stick your dirty penis wherever you please].

The key to proper manipulation is to know the weaknesses of your target. In this case, your target will be Slashdot Moderators. While you can glean a better understanding of this from even minimal observation, I will clue you in to a few basic rules. Slashdot Moderators are all nerds. Some Trolls would have you believe that all Slashdot Moderators use the Linux; this is a common misconception, as most Slashdot Readers (of which Moderators are a subset) use the Microsoft Windows. However, remember my first statement: Slashdot Moderators are all nerds. We all know the Microsoft Windows is easier to use than the Linux; most nerds like to pretend that they are very intimate with their computers (note that some truly are, but that this practice is frowned upon in most circles). In other words, most Slashdot Moderators will support the dominant Slashdot paradigm, which is that the Linux is the greatest, coolest, hippest, free-est, rockingest, insert-your-fetish-here-est OS in the known universe. They take the Linux very seriously. If you do not know much about the Linux, you should go here. That will give you some understanding of the type of people you are working with.

Nerds are very insecure, by definition. If someone is smart and secure (do not take their word for it, though), they will not be a nerd, no matter how much they know about computers, or how much they like Tolkien. Nerdism is insecurity. Therefore, to the novice Slashdot Joker, stroking Slashdot Moderator egos is crucial. Once you have mastered this basic strategy, you can move on to advanced Slashdot Joking (which I will address later), but for now, pace yourself. There are many mod points to be earned from this tried and true method.

Bearing that in mind, let us discuss Slashdot Joking practically. First of all, it is very important to make your joke so quickly as you possibly can. This is because of the following. Real jokes are often absurd and silly; that is why they make us laugh. On the Slashdot, however, Offtopic posts are treated most unkindly. Since a real (funny) joke would almost never be strictly Ontopic in a Slashdot thread (except for the time when CmdrTaco brilliantly stated that he needed a new rubber for his "Jackbot"), this is the most dangerous aspect of Slashdot Joking. Do not allow your sense of humor to ruin your Slashdot Joke! Slashdot Jokes must pertain directly to the topic at hand. For this reason, the most effective Slashdot Jokes will make direct use of the wording of the actual post being discussed (referencing even the linked article is usually too removed--anyway, the Slashdot Moderators almost never read the articles, so they will know no better). Furthermore, Slashdot Jokes should avoid carrying any additional content, as this new content may be actually funny and subsequently Offtopic.

Since adding content is dangerous, the most reliable option available to the would-be Slashdot Joker is the Pun. Most civilized societies long ago made all but the most subtly wrought puns serious social blunders. In truth, this works to your advantage as a Slashdot Joker in multiple ways. For the idiot Slashdot Moderators who look only at the subject of your pun (and scan it for "Microsoft," "RIAA," or other hot Slashdot Topics), the pun is nothing more than a symbol; they take it as a warming confirmation that they belong to a community because they can recognize this pun as part of the Slashdot paradigm. For the even more idiotic Slashdot Moderators who hubristically think that they are above the fray, your pun will be a clever, recursive in-joke. To manipulate these guys, all you have to do is appear to be somewhat intelligent, and they will fabricate the rest in their fecund imaginations. How quaint, they will smugly think, a pun! Do not be afraid to incorporate programming syntax into your pun, even though your real sense of humor may ache at the thought. Many Slashdot Moderators consider programming to be the most breathtakingly sexy thing possible, and so they aspire to project the image that they consider programming syntax so second nature as being capable of conveying humor. Remember, they will not actually be able to find your Slashdot Joke funny, but they will recognize your syntax and mod you up according to the rules of "Funny."

If you have enjoyed reading this and would like this project to continue, please respond saying so! If you did not like it, and think that I am a bag of shit, that input is also welcome. I can take it! Thank you, and peace be on your house!

Guide to the Slashdot Joke ver .1

Greetings, denizens of the Slashdot. If you have read Slashdot commentary with any attention, you have noticed that certain posts receive moderation points with the qualifier "Funny." You may also have noticed, if have experience with non-Linux OS's, that these posts do not make you smile, laugh, urinate, or any of the more popular responses to things that would normally be considered "Funny." Indeed, the Slashdot has birthed a new linguistic classification; I propose to call it the "Slashdot Joke," for reasons that are hopefully quite apparent.

So! You wish to become a Slashdot Joker? Easier typed than done! But let us endeavor no less assiduously in the face of difficulty.

The first thing you must understand in order to be a Slashdot Joker is that the Slashdot Joke does not make you laugh because it was never intended to be funny. That is correct; what's more, no sense of humor is required to craft a Slashdot Joke. The Slashdot Joke is a purely manipulative phenomenon with a specific desired outcome, in most respects quite similar to deftly used GHB. A Slashdot Joke [GHB] compels a Slashdot Moderator [svelte vixen (or otherwise, but let it be svelte, if you please!)] to give you karma [let you stick your dirty penis wherever you please].

The key to proper manipulation is to know the weaknesses of your target. In this case, your target will be Slashdot Moderators. While you can glean a better understanding of this from even minimal observation, I will clue you in to a few basic rules. Slashdot Moderators are all nerds. Some Trolls would have you believe that all Slashdot Moderators use the Linux; this is a common misconception, as most Slashdot Readers (of which Moderators are a subset) use the Microsoft Windows. However, remember my first statement: Slashdot Moderators are all nerds. We all know the Microsoft Windows is easier to use than the Linux; most nerds like to pretend that they are very intimate with their computers (note that some truly are, but that this practice is frowned upon in most circles). In other words, most Slashdot Moderators will support the dominant Slashdot paradigm, which is that the Linux is the greatest, coolest, hippest, free-est, rockingest, insert-your-fetish-here-est OS in the known universe. They take the Linux very seriously. If you do not know much about the Linux, you should go here. That will give you some understanding of the type of people you are working with.

Nerds are very insecure, by definition. If someone is smart and secure (do not take their word for it, though), they will not be a nerd, no matter how much they know about computers, or how much they like Tolkien. Nerdism is insecurity. Therefore, to the novice Slashdot Joker, stroking Slashdot Moderator egos is crucial. Once you have mastered this basic strategy, you can move on to advanced Slashdot Joking (which I will address later), but for now, pace yourself. There are many mod points to be earned from this tried and true method.

Bearing that in mind, let us discuss Slashdot Joking practically. First of all, it is very important to make your joke so quickly as you possibly can. This is because of the following. Real jokes are often absurd and silly; that is why they make us laugh. On the Slashdot, however, Offtopic posts are treated most unkindly. Since a real (funny) joke would almost never be strictly Ontopic in a Slashdot thread (except for the time when CmdrTaco brilliantly stated that he needed a new rubber for his "Jackbot"), this is the most dangerous aspect of Slashdot Joking. Do not allow your sense of humor to ruin your Slashdot Joke! Slashdot Jokes must pertain directly to the topic at hand. For this reason, the most effective Slashdot Jokes will make direct use of the wording of the actual post being discussed (referencing even the linked article is usually too removed--anyway, the Slashdot Moderators almost never read the articles, so they will know no better). Furthermore, Slashdot Jokes should avoid carrying any additional content, as this new content may be actually funny and subsequently Offtopic.

Since adding content is dangerous, the most reliable option available to the would-be Slashdot Joker is the Pun. Most civilized societies long ago made all but the most subtly wrought puns serious social blunders. In truth, this works to your advantage as a Slashdot Joker in multiple ways. For the idiot Slashdot Moderators who look only at the subject of your pun (and scan it for "Microsoft," "RIAA," or other hot Slashdot Topics), the pun is nothing more than a symbol; they take it as a warming confirmation that they belong to a community because they can recognize this pun as part of the Slashdot paradigm. For the even more idiotic Slashdot Moderators who hubristically think that they are above the fray, your pun will be a clever, recursive in-joke. To manipulate these guys, all you have to do is appear to be somewhat intelligent, and they will fabricate the rest in their fecund imaginations. How quaint, they will smugly think, a pun! Do not be afraid to incorporate programming syntax into your pun, even though your real sense of humor may ache at the thought. Many Slashdot Moderators consider programming to be the most breathtakingly sexy thing possible, and so they aspire to project the image that they consider programming syntax so second nature as being capable of conveying humor. Remember, they will not actually be able to find your Slashdot Joke funny, but they will recognize your syntax and mod you up according to the rules of "Funny."

If you have enjoyed reading this and would like this project to continue, please respond saying so! If you did not like it, and think that I am a bag of shit, that input is also welcome. I can take it! Thank you, and peace be on your house!

Guide to the Slashdot Joke ver .1

Greetings, denizens of the Slashdot. If you have read Slashdot commentary with any attention, you have noticed that certain posts receive moderation points with the qualifier "Funny." You may also have noticed, if have experience with non-Linux OS's, that these posts do make you smile, laugh, urinate, or any of the more popular responses to things that would normally be considered "Funny." Indeed, the Slashdot has birthed a new linguistic classification; I propose to call it the "Slashdot Joke," for reasons that are hopefully quite apparent.

So! You wish to become a Slashdot Joker? Easier typed than done! But let us endeavor no less assiduously in the face of difficulty.

The first thing you must understand in order to be a Slashdot Joker is that the Slashdot Joke does not make you laugh because it was never intended to be funny. That is correct; what's more, no sense of humor is required to craft a Slashdot Joke. The Slashdot Joke is a purely manipulative phenomenon with a specific desired outcome, in most respects quite similar to deftly used GHB. A Slashdot Joke [GHB] compels a Slashdot Moderator [svelte vixen (or otherwise, but let it be svelte, if you please!)] to give you karma [let you stick your dirty penis wherever you please].

The key to proper manipulation is to know the weaknesses of your target. In this case, your target will be Slashdot Moderators. While you can glean a better understanding of this from even minimal observation, I will clue you in to a few basic rules. Slashdot Moderators are all nerds. Some Trolls would have you believe that all Slashdot Moderators use the Linux; this is a common misconception, as most Slashdot Readers (of which Moderators are a subset) use the Microsoft Windows. However, remember my first statement: Slashdot Moderators are all nerds. We all know the Microsoft Windows is easier to use than the Linux; most nerds like to pretend that they are very intimate with their computers (note that some truly are, but that this practice is frowned upon in most circles). In other words, most Slashdot Moderators will support the dominant Slashdot paradigm, which is that the Linux is the greatest, coolest, hippest, free-est, rockingest, insert-your-fetish-here-est OS in the known universe. They take the Linux very seriously. If you do not know much about the Linux, you should go here. That will give you some understanding of the type of people you are working with.

Nerds are very insecure, by definition. If someone is smart and secure (do not take their word for it, though), they will not be a nerd, no matter how much they know about computers, or how much they like Tolkien. Nerdism is insecurity. Therefore, to the novice Slashdot Joker, stroking Slashdot Moderator egos is crucial. Once you have mastered this basic strategy, you can move on to advanced Slashdot Joking (which I will address later), but for now, pace yourself. There are many mod points to be earned from this tried and true method.

Bearing that in mind, let us discuss Slashdot Joking practically. First of all, it is very important to make your joke so quickly as you possibly can. This is because of the following. Real jokes are often absurd and silly; that is why they make us laugh. On the Slashdot, however, Offtopic posts are treated most unkindly. Since a real (funny) joke would almost never be strictly Ontopic in a Slashdot thread (except for the time when CmdrTaco brilliantly stated that he needed a new rubber for his "Jackbot"), this is the most dangerous aspect of Slashdot Joking. Do not allow your sense of humor to ruin your Slashdot Joke! Slashdot Jokes must pertain directly to the topic at hand. For this reason, the most effective Slashdot Jokes will make direct use of the wording of the actual post being discussed (referencing even the linked article is usually too removed--anyway, the Slashdot Moderators almost never read the articles, so they will know no better). Furthermore, Slashdot Jokes should avoid carrying any additional content, as this new content may be actually funny and subsequently Offtopic.

Since adding content is dangerous, the most reliable option available to the would-be Slashdot Joker is the Pun. Most civilized societies long ago made all but the most subtly wrought puns serious social blunders. In truth, this works to your advantage as a Slashdot Joker in multiple ways. For the idiot Slashdot Moderators who look only at the subject of your pun (and scan it for "Microsoft," "RIAA," or other hot Slashdot Topics), the pun is nothing more than a symbol; they take it as a warming confirmation that they belong to a community because they can recognize this pun as part of the Slashdot paradigm. For the even more idiotic Slashdot Moderators who hubristically think that they are above the fray, your pun will be a clever, recursive in-joke. To manipulate these guys, all you have to do is appear to be somewhat intelligent, and they will fabricate the rest in their fecund imaginations. How quaint, they will smugly think, a pun! Do not be afraid to incorporate programming syntax into your pun, even though your real sense of humor may ache at the thought. Many Slashdot Moderators consider programming to be the most breathtakingly sexy thing possible, and so they aspire to project the image that they consider programming syntax so second nature as being capable of conveying humor. Remember, they will not actually be able to find your Slashdot Joke funny, but they will recognize your syntax and mod you up according to the rules of "Funny."

If you have enjoyed reading this and would like this project to continue, please respond saying so! If you did not like it, and think that I am a bag of shit, that input is also welcome. I can take it! Thank you, and peace be on your house!

Maybe a good topic for discussion among Slashdotters?

Umm, no, my guess is that any indication of "closed source is good" will be GNU/Shot Down instantly.

If we're posting personal essays on slashdot now, why not give the following a read: http://members.aol.com/erichuf/Linux1.html

I rate it +5 Insightful, personally.

Linus Torvalds says that, contrary to popular belief, he really does like shrimp, Alan Cox just got a haircut, Miguel de Icaaza is Spanish, and RMS really does want free software.

Seriously, does anybody care about a flamewar between people just because it's RMS. You don't have to be a Kreskin to know that he's gonna end up in a lot of confrontations. I'd think that Slashdot would be one of those societies where celebrity-stalking wouldn't take place.

Have you seen this?