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Domain: aol.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to aol.com.
Comments · 2,591
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Re:You better not see it...
Unfortunately, the actual EULA for Windows 98 doesn't say anything about source code. However, it does say this:
* Termination.
Without prejudice to any other rights, Microsoft may terminate this EULA if you fail to comply with the terms and conditions of this EULA. In such event, you must destroy all copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT and all of its component parts.
Sounds fun.
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Re:makes you wonder...I'm not posting anonymously, and am without doubt pro-life. What we fear is the discrimination that most people prefer to utilize when dealing with the pro-life movement. That is to write us off as lunatics, crazies, violent drooling christian hordes of which most of us could hardly be described as.
"the so-called "pro-life" [highly ironic since people have been killed in the "pro-life" battle] movement wants to impose their will on all others. pro-choice does not. "
FYI, Pro-Choicers Are not Innocent in the Violence Issue
Dr. Bruce Steir, Abortionist, Charged With Murder
before you continue basing your opinion in the misconception that the pro-choice side is any less violent to grown-up people (as they are already are encouraging the killing of the unborn from 2 weeks to 9 months).
We here at Anarchists for Life took a stand against violence when we adopted this as part of our faq that "We do not support violence inside or outside of abortion clinics. We do support peaceful protest." We are hardly alone on the issue
Pat Goltz's Pro-life and Feminist Writings
Leftout: A Haven for Progressive (Liberal) Pro-Lifers
Pro-Woman, Pro-Life: Stop Abortion
Check Your Stereotypes At the Door
Rennaissance Suffragettes (Pro-Life Feminism)
Atheist and Agnostic Pro-Life League
RightGrrl: Conservative Pro-Life Women
An American Patriot's Page of Thanks
Matt Wallace: A Pro-Life/Anti-Violence Secular Humanist Atheist
Rochester Area Right To Life Committee (Rochester, NY)
Indiana University Students for Life
David Horne's Gay Pro-life Christian Homepage
In Susan B. Anthony's Footsteps: Pro-Woman, Pro-Life! Webring
The New Abolitionists (or "Funny, I Don't Feel Like A Conservative!")
STAAR: Standing Together Against Abortion Rights (Canada)
Weird Politik: Because Politics Can be Very Strange Sometimes
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Re:makes you wonder...I'm not posting anonymously, and am without doubt pro-life. What we fear is the discrimination that most people prefer to utilize when dealing with the pro-life movement. That is to write us off as lunatics, crazies, violent drooling christian hordes of which most of us could hardly be described as.
"the so-called "pro-life" [highly ironic since people have been killed in the "pro-life" battle] movement wants to impose their will on all others. pro-choice does not. "
FYI, Pro-Choicers Are not Innocent in the Violence Issue
Dr. Bruce Steir, Abortionist, Charged With Murder
before you continue basing your opinion in the misconception that the pro-choice side is any less violent to grown-up people (as they are already are encouraging the killing of the unborn from 2 weeks to 9 months).
We here at Anarchists for Life took a stand against violence when we adopted this as part of our faq that "We do not support violence inside or outside of abortion clinics. We do support peaceful protest." We are hardly alone on the issue
Pat Goltz's Pro-life and Feminist Writings
Leftout: A Haven for Progressive (Liberal) Pro-Lifers
Pro-Woman, Pro-Life: Stop Abortion
Check Your Stereotypes At the Door
Rennaissance Suffragettes (Pro-Life Feminism)
Atheist and Agnostic Pro-Life League
RightGrrl: Conservative Pro-Life Women
An American Patriot's Page of Thanks
Matt Wallace: A Pro-Life/Anti-Violence Secular Humanist Atheist
Rochester Area Right To Life Committee (Rochester, NY)
Indiana University Students for Life
David Horne's Gay Pro-life Christian Homepage
In Susan B. Anthony's Footsteps: Pro-Woman, Pro-Life! Webring
The New Abolitionists (or "Funny, I Don't Feel Like A Conservative!")
STAAR: Standing Together Against Abortion Rights (Canada)
Weird Politik: Because Politics Can be Very Strange Sometimes
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Inanimate Carbon Rod for President!!!
and his running mate Neutron-absorbing boron sludge
http://members.aol.com/papacheesy/page26/
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Inanimate Carbon Rod thanks you for your support. See you in 2004! -
Re:Scooby votes Nader!Bush and Gore Make Me Wanna Ralph
A Letter from Michael Moore to the Non-Voters of AmericaDear friends,
DISCLAIMER: If you are planning to vote for Al Gore in November, good for you. Don't let what I'm about to say change your mind because I've been told by all the experts that if you do change your mind based on what I'm about to say, George W. Bush might win the election and I certainly couldn't live with myself if that connoisseur of pharmaceuticals (the kind you snort up your nose or the kind you inject on death row) won, in part, because of a letter I spit out over the Internet.
So let's review -- you like Gore, you vote for Gore. He's a decent guy. I met him last year at some benefit, he came up to me, big hug -- whoa, this veep is no stiff, I thought -- and thanked me for this and that. He even quoted lines from "The Awful Truth" - whoa, scary, I thought, what's he doing watching cable channels above 40 on the box...not much to do on this veep gig, eh?
I told him I admired what he did when he came home to America as a Vietnam Vet and spoke out against the war. That took a lot of courage, I said (his dad lost his Senate seat for being an early opponent of the war).
So, if Al Gore is your man, go for it. In fact, I insist on it, even if you are just throwing your vote away.
What I am about to say, though, is not intended for any Al Gore (or George W.) voters. If you are one, please click off now.
To Whom It May Concern:
I address this letter to the largest political party in the United States - the 55% of you in the voting public who are so disillusioned with politics and politicians, so sick and tired of all the broken promises, so disgusted with all the b.s. that you have absolutely no intention of voting in November.
You know who you are.
AND YOU ARE THE MAJORITY!
You rule. You are the Non-Voters, all 100 million of you!
Until now, you have been the subject of scorn and ridicule. You've been called apathetic, lazy, ignorant. Your actions have been viewed as unAmerican (I mean, what kind of citizen in the World's Greatest Democracy would not exercise his or her most important and cherished right - the right to freely choose your leader!).
Well, may I be the first to tell you that, not only are you NOT stupid and apathetic, I believe you are smarter than all the rest of us combined. YOU figured it out. YOU uncovered the scam. And YOU had the guts to no longer participate in a lie. Way to go! In 1996, you helped set the all-time American record for lowest turnout ever at a presidential election.
The reason you, the majority, no longer vote in America is because you, the majority, realize there is no real choice on the ballot. The "two" parties both do the bidding of the wealthy and agree with each other on 90% of the issues. They take 90% of their money from people who make over a hundred-grand a year, and then enact over 90% of the laws those contributors want passed.
On the ballot this November, you already know there is no contest. The independent Cook Political Report in D.C. last week announced that, out of 435 House seats up for election in November, there are only 47 seats where there is a "true race" between opponents - and, of those, only 14 seats have a race that is even "close" between the two candidates. 14 out of 435!
"Ninety-seven to ninety-nine percent of incumbents running for re-election will be returned to Congress in November," according to the Cook Report.
The Non-Voters already understand this. And they are not going to waste one iota of their day on November 7 driving to some smelly elementary school gymnasium to participate in a Soviet-style election with no friggin' choice on the ballot.
So, to you brave voter-resisters, I say congratulations on your act of civic disobedience! I joined you this primary season and refused to go along with this charade of "choice." Nearly 80% of those of us of voting age - over 160 million Americans - staged a sit-in on our living room couches during this year's primaries. THAT is the great untold story of this election year. How much longer will the punditocracy be able to get away with dismissing this massive no-show as "a sign Americans are content with the booming economy?"
Now that we have made our presence known (you all don't mind me speaking for us, do you? Good. In fact, I'll just assume the currently-vacant mantle of this majority party and serve as your leader until you say otherwise...), it is time to find a way that says, loudly and clearly, just how mad as hell we are and how we are not going to take it anymore. We need to find a way where our vote screams "None of the Above!" A chance to act, like that Chinese guy in Tieneman Square, standing in front of a moving tank and stopping it in its path.
In November, we should find a way to follow in the footsteps of those intelligent Minnesotans who, even thought they could care less about professional wrestling (and even less, I'm sure, for Jesse "The Body"), proved to the world that they not only have a sense of humor, but they know how to stick it to the whole bloody system. Think of just how high their level of anger must have been against the One-Party-With-Two-Heads monopoly! I mean, state government is no joke - somebody's gotta build the roads, run the schools, catch the criminals. You don't want to turn the asylum over to the chief lunatic but, damn it, that's what the people of Minnesota did - just to send a message! Wow. That took some guts.
So, for those of you who weren't going to vote anyway, well...what if you actually did? What if you drove down to that stinky gym where the little shell game behind the pretend curtains is taking place ("Pay no attention to the voters behind the curtains!"), walk in, sign in, take the ballot they hand you, and toss yourselves inside the booth like a political molotov cocktail.
Boom!
"You wanna tell me there's a choice here between two guys who both support NAFTA, WTO, the death penalty, the Cuban embargo, increased Pentagon spending, sleazy HMOs, greedy hospital chains, 250 million guns in our homes, more bombing of Iraq, the rich getting richer and the rest of us declaring bankruptcy?"
Boom!
Not me.
Boom!
I'm voting for Ralph Nader.
KAAAABOOM!
Friends, we are losing our democratic control over our country. We may have already lost it. I hope not. But in the last 20 years of the Reagan administration, Corporate America has merged and morphed itself to such an extent that just a handful of companies now call all the shots. They own Congress. They own us. In order to work for them, we have to take urine tests and lie detectors and wear bar codes on chains around our necks. In order to keep our jobs we have had to give up decent health care, the 8-hour day (and time with our kids), the security that we'll even have a job next year, and any unwillingness we may have to compete with a 14-year old Indonesian girl who gets a dollar a day.
And how frightening (and great) is it that the last place we can freely try to inform and communicate with each other is on this very Web? Six companies run by six men control the majority of the news we now get from newspapers, television, radio and the Internet. One out of every two books is bought at a bookstore owned by one of only two companies. Is it safe in a "free society" to have the sources of our information and mass communication in the hands of just a few wealthy men who have a VESTED interest in keeping us as stupid as possible - or at least in keeping us thinking like them so that we vote for THEIR candidates?
I fear the cement on this new oligarchy of power is quickly drying, and when it is finished hardening, we are finished. The democracy, the one that's supposed to be of, by, and for the people, will cease to exist.
We must not let this happen, no matter how cynical and disgusted we've become at the whole electoral process.
Ralph Nader, to me, represents a chance for us to at least temporarily stop the cement from drying. We need him in there kicking things up, stirring the pot and forcing a real debate about the issues. Whether it's Ralph as Candidate or Ralph as President, he may represent our last hope to get our country back from the clutches of the powerful few.
I am not writing these words lightly. I am hoping to sound a siren and rally the majority who, for good reason, have given up - but might just have it in them to find the will for one last fight against the bastards.
Can Ralph win? Well, stranger things have happened in the past decade. C'mon, think about it, not a single one of us ever thought we'd see the Berlin Wall come down or Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa. After those two things happened, I joined a new school of thought that said ANYTHING was possible. Jesse Ventura started with 3% in the polls and won. Ross Perot in '92 started with 6% and, after proving to everyone that he was certifiably insane, still got nearly 20% of the vote.
Ralph already has between 7% and 10% in the polls - before he's done any serious campaigning. He's gone from 3% to 8% in my home state of Michigan. These are amazing numbers and the pundits and lobbyists and Republicrats are running scared. Hey, you like to watch scared Republicrats running? Tell a pollster you're voting for Ralph.
Now, look, before you all send me a lot of mail about how weird Ralph is 'cause he doesn't own a car or is a "sell-out" 'cause he's got a few million dollars, let me say this: I used to work out of his office, and Ralph is definitely one of a kind. In a future letter I will write of those experiences but, for now, let's just agree that Ralph is at least half as crazy as Jesse Ventura - and about a hundred times as smart. I'd say he's also saved about a million or so lives, thanks to the consumer and environmental legislation he has devoted his life to.
And between Gore, Bush, and himself, he's the only person running who would guarantee universal health care for all, the only candidate who would raise the minimum wage to a decent level, the only one who would get up each morning asking himself the question, "What can I do today to serve all the people of this country?"
The list goes on and on. You can read more about what Ralph stands for by going to his website (http://www.votenader.org). You'll agree, I'm sure, there's lots of common sense there, regardless of what political stripe you are.
But remember. If you are even THINKING of voting for Al Gore, vote for Al Gore. Ralph Nader does not need a single Gore vote. There are a hundred million of us out there who are uncommitted and currently not voting. Right now, Gore and Bush are each hoping to win by getting only 40 million votes.
If you are in the Non-Voting majority and want to let 'em all have it, if you want to get our country back in our hands...well, if even half of you show up and vote November 7 then you won't be held responsible for Bush winning the White House.
In fact, you won't be held responsible for putting Gore in the White House, either.
Rather, you will have made history by putting a true American hero at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
And you will have given every company, every boss who's done ya wrong, the worst nightmare of their lives.
November 7. Payback Time.
The revenge of the Non-Voters!
So sayeth their unappointed leader, yours truly,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
http://www.theawfultruth.com
http://www.michaelmoore.comPS. Come to think of it, Democrats should be on their knees thanking Ralph for running. Rather than taking votes from Gore, Ralph's going to be the one responsible for turning the House back over to the Democrats.
When millions of these Non-Voters enter that booth to vote for Ralph, and they come across their local race for Congress, they will find no Green Party candidate in most of the 435 Congressional districts. So who do you think Ralph's army of Non-Voters will plunk down for Congress? The Republican? I don't think so.
The Democrats are only six seats short of regaining control of the House. Ralph Nader will be the reason the Democrats get the House back for the first time since Newt's Contract on America in 1994.
Democrats should send their checks to Nader 2000, P.O. Box 18002, Washington, DC 20036.
(Or, better yet, let's try to elect enough Greens to Congress -- a dozen or so -- and they'll hold the deciding votes because neither the Democrats nor the Republicans will have the majority. It'll be a friggin' Knesset!)
PPS. If you're still worried this letter might convince a weak-kneed Gore voter to flip over to Nader - and thus lead to President George W. stacking the Supreme Court to make abortion illegal, well, it's all a bunch of hooey. Please read my latest grassroots.com column entitled, " I Ain't Fallin for That One Again. "
PPPS. Tonight, Wednesday July 19, on "The Awful Truth" (Bravo, 10 p.m. ET/PT), Crackers the Corporate Crime Fighting Chicken makes a surprise return visit. Don't miss it!
PLEASE PASS THIS LETTER ON TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY. PERMISSION IS GRANTED TO REPRINT ANYWHERE.
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Re:outsiders?
Sure, some (although not many) fansubbers will ship to international locations. Some examples are Saichi Distribution and VKLL. You could also check Fansubs.net for others that will distribute internationally.
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Re:Experienced Users ?
My initial reaction was the same as yours... "Experienced Users... AOL?"
But there are alot of people who do use AOL for one reason or another. Perhaps their family uses it, so they are stuck. This was a terrible move on AOLs part. Especially given that their latest browser actually recieved favorable press over at wired, as a feature-full browser.
Its easy to raise our noses and say, "It serves them right for being stupid enough to use AOL." But hey, AOL users have feelings too. Instead of this, we should all let AOL know how we feel. They claim that feedback is important to them, so let them know.
Too many things in this world are a good idea from a commercial persective (now AOL gets advertesing revenue every time someone fires up that browser). However, when we do things to make money, we should always think about what it does to the consumer. What AOL has done here hurts the consumer, and I seriously hope that it bites them in the ass. Captain_Frisk -
Point-by-point analysis of AOL's webpage:Let's look for a moment at aol's web page and see what all the fuss is about:
Top news -- We should be encouraging AOLers to be informed about what's going on in the world. Maybe then the s/n on Usenet would improve.
Shopping links --. Besides getting their porn fix, shopping is what most AOLers use AOL for.
Stock quotes -- ditto for shopping.
AOLEmail -- ditto for stock quotes and shopping.
Web Channels -- discussion boards for all sorts of useful topics. Here, AOLers get to practice their online communication skills and learn the principles of netiquette before moving on out into the rest of the net. This is a good thing.
All in all, it's a decent portal for newbies and hardly worthy of our derision: it doesn't even have too many ads, unlike certain other portals. Most newbies never change their homepages from netscape or microsoft anyway, and AOL is taking the prudent step of giving them one fewer thing to worry about. -
Space habitats first, then Mars!At a space conference about a year and a half ago (SSI conference on Space Manufacturing), I had a chance to talk with the JPL lab peopel in charge of the NASA robotics program. The head and staff was very pro-Mars.
Some people at NASA from a generation raised on planetary sci-fi just doesn't get it. Colonizing the surface of the Moon would create a habitable area equal to Africa. Colonizing Mars would produce a habitable area with a surface area equal to Earth's land masses (not including ocean surface). Sure, do it someday for fun, but not first.
NASA should instead invest the bulk of its R&D in creating one self-replicating space habitat that could duplicate itself using only sunlight and asteroidal ore. If duplicating once per year in a hundred years such a habitat and its offspring would produce thousands of times the habitable surface of the Earth, enough to support trillions of humans and large populations of other species.
Remember: a planet is a very wasteful way to use mass. It is much more efficient to use shells to contain atmosphere. If you wan't gravity, just spin it. If you don't want gravity, live in bubbles.
NASA should take on the responsibility of educating the public about humankind's future in space, not pandering to old obsolete notions in an effort to get funding.
Related links:
http://members.aol.com/oscarcombs
http://members.aol.com/oscarcombs/s ett le.htm
http://www.permanent.com/
http://science.n as. nasa.gov/Services/Education/SpaceSettlement/
http://www.luf.org/ -
Space habitats first, then Mars!At a space conference about a year and a half ago (SSI conference on Space Manufacturing), I had a chance to talk with the JPL lab peopel in charge of the NASA robotics program. The head and staff was very pro-Mars.
Some people at NASA from a generation raised on planetary sci-fi just doesn't get it. Colonizing the surface of the Moon would create a habitable area equal to Africa. Colonizing Mars would produce a habitable area with a surface area equal to Earth's land masses (not including ocean surface). Sure, do it someday for fun, but not first.
NASA should instead invest the bulk of its R&D in creating one self-replicating space habitat that could duplicate itself using only sunlight and asteroidal ore. If duplicating once per year in a hundred years such a habitat and its offspring would produce thousands of times the habitable surface of the Earth, enough to support trillions of humans and large populations of other species.
Remember: a planet is a very wasteful way to use mass. It is much more efficient to use shells to contain atmosphere. If you wan't gravity, just spin it. If you don't want gravity, live in bubbles.
NASA should take on the responsibility of educating the public about humankind's future in space, not pandering to old obsolete notions in an effort to get funding.
Related links:
http://members.aol.com/oscarcombs
http://members.aol.com/oscarcombs/s ett le.htm
http://www.permanent.com/
http://science.n as. nasa.gov/Services/Education/SpaceSettlement/
http://www.luf.org/ -
Ido as 1st language?
I think in English (my 2nd language) for all things technical because my 1st language has an absurd hundreds-singles-tens numerical system. I also use Usana spelling (if only it went further): and British everything else.
I was wondering if the language a child grows up learning as its 1st language would affect the way it thinks if it was something like Ido, which is bloody amazing.
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Re:Firey balls of broadbandWhy don't broadband companies invest a few more dollars (offer to thier customers at a discount) good cable or DSL modems that have built-in routers with a bit of security.
I'm really not sure that I want the cable company deciding on what security policy is appropriate for my home network. Either it's going to be worthless and do something boneheaded like not block 139 or it's going to be so tight that I can't take advantage of the fact that I have a fast connection with a pretty much static IP address. I want to be able to have ports 22 and 80 open if I decide that I want that functionality. I want to be able to host my own e---------ma il domains if I decide that I want to do that. I want to be able to set up my own NAT box and set policies in the way that I see fit. I really don't believe that that's going to happen if the cable company sets things up for me.
What people need to start realizing is that an always on broadband connection to their home is a completely different ball game than any connection through AOL. The only hope I see at this point for broadband being useful to
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They're - They are
Their - Belonging to them -
I'm not a number...
I think most of this technology was perfected in the late sixies and made various cameos on the UK TV show The Prisoner.
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hmm...
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Re:Sorry.For reference:
Site A
Site B: http://www.eeap.aston.ac.uk/
teltec/tutorials/Digital%20Baseband%20Transmission /Slides/nyquist%20theorem.htm
Site COk, I thought I had already explained the problem with Site A but here it goes...
First see where he says "the sampling rate here is below the Nyquist frequency" with respect to the first picture? He is wrong. Count the samples from left to right. There are seven samples in the first three periods of the sine wave.
Let's say that each vertical line is 1us. The sampling frequency is (1/10^(-6)) 1MHz. The frequency of the sine wave is (3/(7*10^(-6))) 428.571kHz.
Ok now that you realize he has no idea what he's talking about, look at his bottom picture. He actually thinks that the waveform produced after reconstruction is that jagged edged horrid looking thing. That waveform has tons of high frequency components. If he would understand that #1 those samples are not connect the dots. And #2 whatever waveform you reproduce must be low-pass filtered so those jagged edges should never be there. You'll find that the result is exactly the same sine wave you sampled.
Next he explains the waveform he produced as "aliasing" which again he is completely wrong. Aliasing is the result of a signal being sampled at too low a frequency but it has NOTHING to do with his web page. If you look at the corrrected URL for Site B (I added a reply to my post because
Now to Site C! First of all, Nyquists theorem states that the sampling frequency must be greater than the highest frequency in the sample (look it up!). So your argument about the samples being exactly on all the zero-crossings is irrelevant and incorrect.
Now in the actual site, that first picture is misleading because the waveform on the left is not a sinusoid. It is just something he hacked together in a paint program. It doesn't have the right slopes. The waveform on the right does look like a sinusoid. Now where I said this guy was thinking in the time-domain instead of the frequency-domain... when he said "sampling long enough doesn't work for real live video" he is misunderstanding that that even the most complex waveform can be made periodic by simply stating that the period is infinitly long. It's called Fourier Transform (as opposed to Fourier Series). You resultantly get infinite frequencies but if you cutoff, you are getting virtually the exactly same waveform since the high frequency components are so small.
His "good news" section is even worse. He draws pictures of the sampled waveform in two ways. In the middle he connects the dots and makes the same error as Site A. He doesn't low-pass filter the waveform. Oh, maybe I should explain what low-pass filtering is... if you go to Site B, low-pass filtering throws away all those bell shaped things except the one centered at 0, the middle one. If he low-pass filtered the middle or right waveform he would get EXACTLY the same waveform as the one on the left. There was a nother poster somewhere in this thread that actually did exactly what we are talking about by sampling a waveform, reproducing it with "sample-and-hold" and then low-pass filtering. You'll be surprised at the results he got (I was not).
The more samples/cycle means it is easier to reproduce the waveform they originally sampled because it is easier to design a low-pass filter when the (again go to Site B) space between those bell-shaped things is larger.
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Re:Sorry.Ok, Chris... I replied to one of your posts and I thought you at least had a clue of what your were talking about. And then I see this post. I'm sorry but you have no understanding of digital signal processing and fourier series. I mean this whole-heartedly that you are missing the fundmental mathematical concepts to understand why a 14.7kHz sine wave can be perfectly reproduced with 44.1kHz sampling and the appropriate filter.
For your education I pulled a couple links from the web:
Site A has two pictures of a sine wave being sampled. This web page is totally wrong. They do not understand aliasing... that picture they are showing with the straight lines shows the reason that you need to have a low-pass filter. With the appropriate low-pass filter, there sine wave in the above picture will be reproduced exactly.
Site B shows the frequency domain. You're probably seen a similiar plot of the horizontal axis being frequency and vertical axis being magnitude. Don't worry about the math if you don't understand it. Just look at the pictures. The top picture shows the sampling period being less than half the period of the highest frequency in the original signal (the bell shaped thing centered at frequency 0. This is like your 14.7kHz sine wave sampled at 44.1kHz. The second is when the period of sampling T equals half the period of the highest frequency (see how the edges of that waveform exactly touch each other?). The bottom picture shows what happens when the sampling period is greater than half the period of the highest frequency. That portion of the bell shaped thing that overlaps one another is sampling noise. In other words everything that is overlapping is lost.
Site C is another site that does not understand nyquist's theorem. They are completely thinking in terms of the time domain instead of the frequency domain. Not to mention that they don't realize you always have to low-pass filter a sampled signal.
Site D actually is correct and should be understandable to even the least mathematically inclined.
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Re:not a free speech issue
As a resident of Indianapolis, I can assure you this is indeed a knee-jerk reaction, but not in the way one would think. This is political posturing. Bart Peterson (mayor) couldn't give 2 sh*ts about the welfare of the children. The Democrats have broken the Republican stranglehold on this city's government, and they're going to push all sorts of crazy laws like this down our throat before the next election "for the children"
Of course, Indy was one of the first cities to repeal the 4th amendment. Compared to the roadblock (and our jack-booted thugs of police, but that's a different story), this story is nothing.
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Space habitats first, then Mars!Why all this Mars stuff lately?
Some people at NASA from a generation raised on planetary sci-fi just doesn't get it. Colonizing the surface of the Moon would create a habitable area equal to Africa. Colonizing Mars would produce a habitable area with a surface area equal to Earth's land masses (not including ocean surface). Sure, do it someday for fun, but not first.
NASA should instead invest the bulk of its R&D in creating one self-replicating space habitat that could duplicate itself using only sunlight and asteroidal ore. If duplicating once per year in a hundred years such a habitat and its offspring would produce thousands of times the habitable surface of the Earth, enough to support trillions of humans and large populations of other species.
Remember: a planet is a very wasteful way to use mass. It is much more efficient to use shells to contain atmosphere. If you wan't gravity, just spin it. If you don't want gravity, live in bubbles.
Related links:
http://members.aol.com/oscarcombs
http://members.aol.com/oscarcombs/s ett le.htm
http://www.permanent.com/
http://science.n as. nasa.gov/Services/Education/SpaceSettlement/
http://www.luf.org/ -
Space habitats first, then Mars!Why all this Mars stuff lately?
Some people at NASA from a generation raised on planetary sci-fi just doesn't get it. Colonizing the surface of the Moon would create a habitable area equal to Africa. Colonizing Mars would produce a habitable area with a surface area equal to Earth's land masses (not including ocean surface). Sure, do it someday for fun, but not first.
NASA should instead invest the bulk of its R&D in creating one self-replicating space habitat that could duplicate itself using only sunlight and asteroidal ore. If duplicating once per year in a hundred years such a habitat and its offspring would produce thousands of times the habitable surface of the Earth, enough to support trillions of humans and large populations of other species.
Remember: a planet is a very wasteful way to use mass. It is much more efficient to use shells to contain atmosphere. If you wan't gravity, just spin it. If you don't want gravity, live in bubbles.
Related links:
http://members.aol.com/oscarcombs
http://members.aol.com/oscarcombs/s ett le.htm
http://www.permanent.com/
http://science.n as. nasa.gov/Services/Education/SpaceSettlement/
http://www.luf.org/ -
Free Space Habitats Make Terraforming MootFrom the space settlement FAQ by Mike Combs.
Aren't we going to terraform Mars or Venus?
Terraforming is a long-term project requiring technology significantly advanced over what we have today. Even terraforming advocates admit it would take a minimum of 200 years to modify Mars to the stage where even simple anaerobic microorganisms and algae can survive. [Ref: Terraforming: Engineering Planetary Environments, Martyn J. Fogg, SAE Press 1995.] Space habitats, on the other hand, can be built with today's technology, and would be homes in space which people initiating the program could move into within their lifetimes.
Interstellar travel may someday become possible, but we have no guarantee that Earth-like planets will be as plentiful in the Milky Way galaxy as they have been in Hollywood, CA.
What advantages would orbital settlements have over a colony built on another planet?
Access to 24-hour-a-day sunlight. This makes solar power a consistent, economical energy source. Photovoltaic panels can convert sunlight into electrical current, and solar mirrors can concentrate it for process heat in industrial operations (such as the smelting of ore). A space-based solar concentrator the size of a football field (which could still weigh less than a car) could provide process heat equivalent to the burning of 1 million barrels of oil over 30 years.
Sunlight also drives the life-support system of the habitat, so the day/night cycle can be set to whatever is convenient. Compare this to the moon, where there is 14 days of continuous daylight, and then a 14-day-long night. Here, some alternate energy source would probably have to be used half the time.
Access to zero gravity. This may have a number of industrial and entertainment possibilities. Structures (such as the above-mentioned solar mirrors) could be built many times larger and flimsier in space than on a planet.
Zero G would be a liability if there were no alternative to it. Astronauts experience loss of bone mass and muscle tone after prolonged exposure to weightlessness. But most of a space habitat would be under Earth-normal gravity, although there would be easy access to regions of reduced gravity and zero G (perhaps for personal flight). With planets, on the other hand, you have to take the gravity that's there, and it's often the wrong kind of gravity to keep us healthy. Lunarians or Martians would probably not be able to visit the Earth (nor accelerate at 1 G).
Long-term expansion of the land area available to the human race. Let's be optimistic and assume that Mars could be made totally Earth-like in the near-term. This would basically double the land area available to humanity, meaning problem solved...until the population doubles again. Right now, that is happening roughly every 40 years. By contrast, if we were to conservatively limit ourselves to using only the resources of the asteroid belt, we could build, in the form of space habitats, 3,000 times the livable surface area of the Earth. This makes space settlement a long-term solution.
Location near the top of Earth's gravity well. We here on Earth are the "gravitationally disadvantaged". We are at the bottom of a pit 6,400 km (4,000 miles) deep. This is what makes space launches from the surface so difficult and expensive. Settlers near the top of the gravity well would be ideally situated for departures to points beyond.
Control of the environment. The weather and other aspects of the surroundings would be those of the inhabitants' choosing. Agriculture in space will benefit from weather control (fresh fruits and vegetables year-round!) and the absence of pests.
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SSL protection for AIM and emailAlthough the SSL certificate is expired, using https://toc.oscar.aol.com will allow you to access AOL Instant Messenger with an SSL encryption wrapper. Requires Java.
Using services like http://www.pop3now.com will let you access POP3 email through the web while protecting you from your employer's prying eyes.
There are also other SSL wrapper services out that will get you out of untrusted workstations. However, keep an eye out for programs that record keystrokes and/or record screen activity.
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Uses of titanium
Titanium is as strong as steel, but 45% lighter. It is 60% heavier than aluminum, but twice as strong. Not surprisingly, it is often used in aircraft and missle hulls, as well as lacrosse sticks and mountian bike frames. It's used in that rainbow-hued metallic jewlery available at the mall. Because it's not corroded by salt water, it's used in desalination plants, propellers and other marine applications (including lures). Titanium is used to make "Shape memory alloys", notably nitinol (nickel-titanium). You can use nitinol wire to make walking robots, with the nitinol used as the musculature. It it used in pigments and is what makes white toothpaste white (TiO2). In fact, this is its major use. Plus, it's shiny.
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Re:10 Years From Now.
A ball of cells containing approximately 8 cells is destroyed and this is an abortion?
By those who consider the moment of conception to be the most clear delineation of when a new human life begins, yes.
This four-part series of articles contains the best encapsulation of the logic of many of the views people hold regarding abortion that I've seen on the web, and it comes down on the conception side of things, but not without offering clear reasoning for it (with which you can agree or disagree, of course). Definitely worth reading carefully and thinking through. Even if it doesn't change your mind, it will likely give your current beliefs greater clarity, if you're interested in that sort of thing. HTH.
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Assuming they don't run into patent trouble...The AIBO is in contention for the distinction of being the first digital pet with Bandai's Tamagotchi. Supposedly, a Bandai executive conceived of their toy drinking sake in a roadhouse bar somewhere in Osaka in 1987.
In 1993, after a lengthy court trial, a Japanese judge declared the Sony patent invalid and named Bandai the inventor of the first digital pet. It should also be noted that it was the first digital pet to use dynamic RAM. Lots of good information on the Tamagotchi and many more links can be found here and also here.
If one closely examines this period of history, they find that it is a time that is just chock full with all kinds of convergences between mathematics, physical science, engineering and materials technologies that make the digital pet almost inevitable. After all, this is a device that had been conceived of, at least in part, as early as the Victorian age and the birth of the industrial revolution. Really, it was just a matter of time before somebody produced a working model, and as so often happens many people took different paths to the same end.
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Re:Two definitions?Ahh. Here, in the ruling:
- Plaintiffs claimed merely that AOL enacted an improper license agreement. The ownership of copyrights is not at issue, and Plaintiffs have not claimed any infringement, or requested relief, under the Copyright Act.
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Tha Beast's List...
1 Sony Glasstron: Geeky as hell, but still really cool looking. For the ladies: give your man these and he will let you use the TV!
http://www.sonystyle
2 Action Figures! www.spawn.com
3 For the hard-core 64-Bit geek in all of us, anything running on a Sun Ultrasparc-III!www.sun.com/store
4 Beer! (No link needed!)Knights of the Dinner Table -
Aim for Linux
until that happens, and they release a Linux version without ads
Listen people, there is AIM for linux. It has no ads. I am running it right now, and would give my SN as proof, but obviously that would be immediately abused. I have never understood all of this mess about everybuddy, etc, when the program is there, straight from the company itself. It doesnt work w/ICQ, but is very stable and has no ads, stock tickers, and all that other garbage.
Anyway, now you know...
peas,
-Kabloona -
Re:Whistler and its mother
Apple, far ahead in design? What are you smoking? Apple hasn't even got preemptive multitasking yet! And when it comes to configuration, it's not good. All I need to make my Windows box look like Mac is either MacVision, or WindowBlinds and WinMac. So there.
Definitions:
XML: Leading the way to make the web a print medium -
Re:AOL is not allowed to make money?
Actually, GAIM has basic OSCAR support. Of course, when I'm in windows and I need to use aim, I don't bother with the windows client, I just use Quickbuddy (no ads, java, and actually fairly fast)
get to it here:
http://www.aol.com/aim/quickbuddy.html -
Re:Don Marti steps down
People are willing to humiliate themselves on national TV for $500k, and backstab, lie, and suffer insect-infested open sores for a shot at $1G.
So I have not doubt that many will get into a hacking contest, trying to win $10k, where the downside is just vague concerns of abstract concepts being threatened in the future.
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D. Fischer -
Re:Can One Electron Hold Infinite Data?How do you pronounce that word? "eigenstates"
Like "Commander Taco" of Slashdot, but with an "I"--and say the "ommander Taco" as "gen"--then add states.
They're like a standing wave: they describe why electrons fall into particular orbits. You can read about it at [The Rotten Foundations of 20th Century Physics].
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Need source for clear *buttons*Subject says it all. I've already polished my Palm V's casing to a shiny, chrome-like bare aluminum finish, but what I *really* would like is a source for clear buttons, specifically a clear power button, so I could put an LED under it and wire it to the appropriate hotsync pins to have it function as a TaleLight.
The problem is, while such replacement buttons are all over Japan, they're just not available in the states as far as I can tell. Worse, nobody will ship such a low-cost item overseas - not worth the hassle for a single order.
So,
-Isaac
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AIM is already open ...
You just need to download the AIM applet of the AOL site and decompile the java classes. They haven't even used a confuscator on the code
If someone wrote a server to go with it, you could set up your local AIM network (I intend to do that, but haven't the time right now)
The applet can be found at -
AOL's Interoperability PlanAOL did release a lot of detail about their protocol previously... I take it this wasn't enough for the "rivals" to work together? NOOOO... They have to have their OWN client that works with nothing else.
Sorry, I'm with AOL.
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Re:Infrastructure
Linux users shouldn't expect to be able to use AOL Instant Messenger until after AOL for Linux has been released.
Well, this strikes me as somewhat amusing as I am running AIM for linux as we speak. Interested parties can check AOL's site.
peas,
-Kabloona -
AOL IM Linux Beta
In case anyone cares to stop bickering, AOL already has an official Linux client in the works here. Have fun!
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Linux
AOL has had a linux beta out for a few months now. You can find it here
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Re:How will the FCC. SEC look on this?
No, actually it's here.
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Re:I hate to say it, but...
Greetings!
There's an alternative to avoid the banner ads: Use the Java version of AIM. That's what I use on all my boxes because it works great under *NIX, Windoze, and Mac.
Check the link out at: http://toc.oscar.aol.com/. You can use this client with your existing AIM account, or you can create a new one and skip the software download step.
Cheers!
E -
Re:The response
uh huh...
one would think you'd learn to look before you leap, at least for a while...
visit http://www.aol.com/aim/Linuxbeta.html for the official linux client. -
Re:Wasant Aol...
AOL did release a Linux beta of AIM on their web site. However, the program is extremely light on features -- it doesn't even have ads (yet) and supports only the basics of the TOC protocol: messages, away, and buddy chat. I wouldn't be surprised if AOL managed to break this program as well.
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What ever happened to Open IM?
From AOL's Open IM announcement site:
America Online is committed to extending the benefits of instant messaging technology to as many consumers as possible.
This wouldn't annoy me so much if they didn't keep flip-flopping on their strategy. I suppose that since AIM won't make them any money, they're focusing on brand dilution issues instead.
--Pete -
Re:Caching web proxies have their own problems
Some ISPs (cough) with policy routing to the caching HTTP proxies have such bad routing that news sites like Slashdot have day-old headlines.
Not to say that having 24 hour old documents by default is the best thing to do, but if slashdot used the Expires header the age of the document in the AOL proxy could be controlled. mod_expires can be quite useful in setting the expiration of a document. -
Caching web proxies have their own problems
Some ISPs (cough) with policy routing to the caching HTTP proxies have such bad routing that news sites like Slashdot have day-old headlines.
<O
( \
XGNOME vs. KDE: the game! -
Re:..hostile to organized religion in general..
> Christians have done far more to persecute and kill others than they have ever suffered.
Any Christian breaking the 2nd new commandment "Love your neighbor" by killing, isn't a Christian then, now is he?
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Ya just gotta love how catholics go perverting true Christianity... -
:Cue :Cat decoder for Windoze
I usually hang out on the I-Appliance BBS since the I-Opener hack craze. After hearing about the
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Trademark or Patent?
Searching the USPTO.GOV Site I have found the following information. Perhaps this can spread more fuel on the burning cat?
Trademarks:
1. Word Mark CUE CAT
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: COMPUTER SOFTWARE, HARDWARE AND PERIPHERALS, INCLUDING - HAND HELD INPUT DEVICES, BAR CODE READERS AND SCANNERS, INCLUDING - HAND HELD INPUT DEVICES FOR ALLOWING INPUT OF INFORMATION TO A COMPUTER; BAR CODE READER FOR ALLOWING INPUT OF INFORMATION TO A COMPUTER AND RELATED APPLICATIONS; SCANNER FOR READING CODED IMAGES ON AN ASSOCIATED PICKUP FOR RECEIVING CODED AUDIO FOR CONTROLLING A COMPUTER REMOTELY TO CONNECT TO THE GLOBAL COMPUTER NETWORK; SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE FOR INTERFACING BETWEEN A GLOBAL COMMUNICATION NETWORK AND RADIO, TELEVISION AND PRINT MEDIA
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Serial Number 76020649
Filing Date April 7, 2000
Files ITU FILED AS ITU
Owner (APPLICANT) DigitalConvergence.com, Inc. CORPORATION DELAWARE 9101 N. Central Expwy., 6th Floor Dallas TEXAS 75231
Attorney of Record Lawrence E. Abelman Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE
Current Status: Newly filed application, not yet assigned to an examining attorney
2. Word Mark
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: COMPUTER SOFTWARE, HARDWARE AND PERIPHERALS, INCLUDING - HAND HELD INPUT DEVICES, BAR CODE READERS AND SCANNERS, INCLUDING - HAND HELD INPUT DEVICES FOR ALLOWING INPUT OF INFORMATION TO A COMPUTER; BAR CODE READER FOR ALLOWING INPUT OF INFORMATION TO A COMPUTER AND RELATED APPLICATIONS; SCANNER FOR READING CODED IMAGES ON AN ASSOCIATED PICKUP FOR RECEIVING CODED AUDIO FOR CONTROLLING A COMPUTER REMOTELY TO CONNECT TO THE GLOBAL COMPUTER NETWORK; SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE FOR INTERFACING BETWEEN A GLOBAL COMMUNICATION NETWORK AND RADIO, TELEVISION AND PRINT MEDIA
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Serial Number 76020648
Filing Date April 7, 2000
Files ITU FILED AS ITU
Owner (APPLICANT) DigitalConvergence.com, Inc. CORPORATION DELAWARE 9101 N. Central Expwy., 6th Floor Dallas TEXAS 75231
Attorney of Record Lawrence E. Abelman
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE
Current Status: Newly filed application, not yet assigned to an examining attorney.
3. Word Mark
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Hand-held optical reader apparatus that reads machine readable codes on magazines newspapers, and other publications and products, for converting the machine readable codes to specific instructions to interface with a computer program for the purpose of, in combination with the computer program, connecting a user's computer to a web site on the global computer network
Mark Drawing Code (3) DESIGN PLUS WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS
Design Search Code 030104 241714 261709
Serial Number 76094794
Filing Date July 24, 2000
Files ITU FILED AS ITU
Owner (APPLICANT) DigitalConvergence.:Com Inc. CORPORATION DELAWARE 9101 N. Central Expressway, Suite 600 Dallas TEXAS 75231
Attorney of Record Sharon McClinton
Description of Mark The mark is described as: The colon and first "C: are colored for red, and the following letters are in stylized form with the second C being part of a design.
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE
Current Status: Newly filed application, not yet assigned to an examining attorney.
Also wanted to point out that barcode produced 254 records so I don't think the invented that. Actually this dude invented the bar code!.
I will also run a patent search tommorow at work! -
Informative Links
There was another Slashdot story about the famous brain a while back.
Here is another book review by Craig Seligman of Salon.
And this is a whole site dedicated to the brain itself. -
Nagano biathalon results, etcYou said
- The suppression of the shooting events in the news coverage (especially in the US - which takes most of the gold in these events).
But look at this page for instance and see the author addressing "There really is no explanation for why Americans have never won an Olympic medal in biathlon." Of course, the USA won none of the biathalon medals at Nagano either. If you mean Summer shooting too, well, this page suggests otherwise too.
Oops. You then said:
so gun-unfriendly countries (like Japan) can avoid citizen unrest when their people see the athletes training and realize that people in other countries are freer than they are
Ahh yes, Japan, where there are no imported US shows on TV, the cinemas remove all references to guns from films, especially anime, and there was rioting in the streets when a TV program accidentally mentioned that all Swiss homes have firearms.
Sheesh, the above sort of uninformed ranting gets modded up to 3?
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Re:Earth *RE-CREATION* argument> The NIV provides an adequate translation of
WHY are you using one of the worst translations?!
Take this test with ONLY the NIV bible, and you'll see what I mean: http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/nivquiz.htm
The NIV omits WHOLE verses !! You can see which ones here: Which bible verses did the NIV delete. And, NIV: Simply a Bad Translation! Also, http://www3.pei.sympat ico.ca/reese.currie/topics/compare.htm
> one should either take a literal interpretation of Genesis
Oh really? What does Gen 2:17 say?
Now since Adam did not literally die in the 24 hours that he ate the forbidden fruit, that means, that one must NOT take a literal interpretation.
Do yourself a favor, buy a Interlinear Bible, and READ IT. You'll be amazed at how many words are just plain translated badly.
