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If more ISPs would let us use even our measly aDSL uplinks (that we pay for) . . .

You need to download the official patch for System Shock 2:

http://www.3dgamers.com/games/systemshock2/

You'll need the file shkpatch.exe, it fixes issues with Windows XP.

Also to install System Shock under XP you'll need to add
"-lgntforce" to the setup instruction e.g. -- if that doesn't work try it with "-ntforce"

d:\setup.exe -lgntforce (or d:\setup.exe -ntforce)

If you are getting lockups or having problems getting it to run, try these additional steps:

Add the line "safe_texture_manager", without quotes to the Shock.cfg file.

Start System Shock 2 and while still on the main menu, goto Task Manager.

Right-click on the Shock2.exe application and goto Set Affinity. Uncheck everything except for CPU 0.

Then go here - http://shtup.home.att.net/files/shtup_beta5.zip - and downlaod the graphics upgrade package which will increase polygon counts on models to make things look better.

Good luck, and enjoy!

Yeah. Here's another.

If you look at a spectrogram of the light output of an incandescent bulb and a fluorescent bulb, you will see one of the major problems with fluorescent lighting. The incandescent bulb produces uniform energy over a wide range of frequencies, while the fluorescent bulb produces a very spikey output, most of its energy is emitted in a very narrow range of frequencies. See here for some examples.

According to Googlel, the best way to ascertain how evil you are is to take a quiz. As far as this quiz is concerned, your stance on software patents has nothing to do with it.

Really though, Google's "do no evil" schtick is just a bunch of crap^H^H^H^H marketing gibberish. Google does page rank really well, and sells lots of ad sense. They have hired lots of smart people. Try to get Google to delete your gmail. Try to get Google out of China. Try to get Google to take an ethical stance on software patents or copyrights. Just what did Google do, exactly, that makes anyone think they deserve the moral high ground. I can't think of a single thing, other than they don't suck as hard as MS. Yet.

It's time for people to stop inhaling all the smoke Google is blowing.

According to http://home.att.net/~srschmitt/script_earthquake.h tml -- 1a 100km damage zone is common for earthquakes around 6.1-6.9 on the Richter scale, so 40 miles is a reasonable damage zone. I have no idea on the 20 seconds/40 miles measurement however.

Actually, for a long time USians had widespread basic trust in government. It's only since Vietnam that a majority has distrusted the government. It fluctuates over a wide range: Chart of trust in government over time.

It's just common sense, when looking at someone who commands armies and police, never to turn your back on him.

You don't understand.

Between the housing debt, the credit card debt, the auto debt, the city debt, the state debt, the federal government debt, corporate debt, financial sector debt, and 50 trillion dollars worth of pre obligated costs like social security and medicare. The US is bankrupt. It is about 500K per family increasing at about 30K per year. Can your family pay that?

The US economy is getting ready to collapse, and what do governments do when their economies collapse? Well, They become police states. They tend to do things like track all the citizens travels, monitor all their finances and internet activity, suspend habeas corpus. HEY LOOKIE, the US did all that !!!!

Also, do you know what a financial Derivative is? Well you should because the total estimated outstanding derivitave obligations just recently passed the Quadrillion mark. No I mean Quadrillion, not Billion, Trillion, not Hundred Billion, or Hundred Trillion. With a US GDP of 12 trillion per year, my question is how the hell can that be solvent??? (Hint, it isn't)

Every country in the world will be hit by the collapse, but none the less, only a fool would not be considering an exit strategy at this time or preparing for disaster at home. Buddy, the Titanic has been hit by an iceberg and you had better not be like those passangers who dallied around before getting on the lifeboats.

Perhaps that is true with the blue sun shirts. The Serenity shirts were definitely not identical to the image/font used by Fox/Universal. I find it particularly reprehensible that 11th hour was told to take down all shirts with Serenity written on it in English or Chinese, no matter the font, layout, or colouring. It shouldn't be legal to trademark a common word. You can only complain of trademark infringement when it might contribute to trademark dilution. I can make a t-shirt with the word "Bounce" on it in my handwriting, and it doesn't violate the trademark of Proctor&Gamble. That said, I can't sell a laundry product called "Bounce" and not expect to have angry lawyers chase me down.

However in Windows you can be sure that the login screen you see is the real thing because no application can catch Ctrl-Alt-Del.

That's the theory. Here's the practice.

---

I'm not worried about the use of DRM. I'm worried about the abuse.

Allay RFID privacy concerns by letting the end user decide when it transmits

There is a concern that RFID tags embedded in credit cards may make the presence of such cards detectable by anyone with an RFID reader.

To answer that concern, we have an easy way to make RFID tagged cards normally invisible, but active when you want them to be.

Background: RFID tags are appearing everywhere. They can be embedded in plastic cards such as credit cards, id cards, passports and other places. There are privacy concerns about these tags being read without the owners knowledge.

Solution: "RFID Shield" lets you choose when your tags are readable.

Information about the RFID Shield is at: http://smarttools.home.att.net/rfshield.htm

Smart Tools Send comments, suggestions to: smarttools@att.net

Actually, the Japanese constitution (9th paragraph) states that the only use of armed forces can be for self defense. That said, there is a plethora of laws that forbid it from doing even that.

Here is the translation of Article 9 found at Wikipedia.

ARTICLE 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.

In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

That it allows Japan to have self defence forces is a rather forced interpretation.

The Japanese self decense army is under prepared, under staffed, and does not have the necessary equipment. We have no missiles. Our jet fighters were deliberately modified so that they don't have fuel tanks large enough to fly a round trip to Korea and back.

I'm not sure if F-15s and Mitsubishi F-2s cannot fly sorties to North Korea from Japanese bases, not that I see point in doing that. It does not seem F-15J/DJs were in any way modified to reduce their range, either. IIRC, the range of the F-15 became an issue in the parliament when its introduction was discussed. Also, now JASDF has tankers.

The old Model 66 assault rifle, when dis-assembled, broke down into 30-some odd parts, including some very small springs, which my brother says would be impossible to re-build in the field. People lose parts when undergoing re-build training in the baracks!

Type 64 (not 66) rifle may have been PIA to maintain, but current infantry weapon is Type 89. I don't think it's not much inferior to any modern assault rifle. And I highly doubt small differences in personal weapons are strategically that significant.

Even the high-mobility vehicles, the Japanese version of the Hummer HMMV (built by Toyota under the civilian model name Mega Cruiser), simply resembles the U.S. Hummer, but in reality is not even close in functionality.

It's not like HMMVs did not have major problems not having armours. Japan also brought light armoured vehicles to Iraq.

Overall, the parent post reads very much like a typical sentiment of a Japanese person living in Japan. The problem I see is that they are not exposed to international media and do not know how much self-perception is different from perception from outside. Most of the Japanese see China and South Korea as some sort of bullies who always mention and exaggerate what the Japanese did during the WWII. This must come as a great shock for the Chinese and South Koreans who are genuinely scared of the Japanese behaviour in the first half of the 20th century. Just like they see Japan as the victim during the WWII (another big surprise for those who are not Japanese), they still feel that they are isolated and have no friend.

There is also a sensationalism with regard to North Korea. There are some factions of nationalists in Japan who capitalize on the actions of North Korea. They tend to overhype the danger of North Korea. I find this very dangerous.

North Korea always seemed to be seeking for attention. They don't seem to like the fact that the US is paying more attention to Iran, or a south Korean becoming the general secretary of the UN. As long as they get attention, they seem happy. I also figure that anybody, including South Korea,

>like your colleagues did when they stood up to Nixon.

Indeed. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, passed in reaction to Nixon's abuses, passed the Senate 95-1. On the Senate Watergate Committe, Republican Lowell Weicker pressed hard and it was Republican Howard Baker who asked "What did the President know and when did he know it?".

Nixon was also challenged by someone who was probably to the right of Nixon politically, Senator Sam Ervin.

A nerdy fact for you

History and stats on the F-14

During its period of service with the German armed forces, about 270 German Starfighters were lost in accidents, just under 30 percent of the total force. About 110 pilots were killed. However, the attrition rate in German service was not all that much greater than that of the F-104 in service with several other air forces, including the United States Air Force. The loss rate of Luftwaffe Starfighters was not all that extraordinary, since the Luftwaffe had suffered a 36 percent attrition rate with the Republic F-84F Thunderstreak, the Starfighter's immediate predecessor. There was nothing intrinsically dangerous about the Starfighter, since the Royal Norwegian Air Force operating identical F-104Gs suffered only six losses in 56,000 flying hours, and the Spanish Air Force lost not a single one of its Starfighters to accidents.
Nevertheless, some of the Luftwaffe crashes could indeed be traced to technical problems with the F-104G itself. Engine problems, including difficulties with the J79's variable afterburner nozzle, and contamination of the Starfighter's liquid oxygen system causing loss of consciousness of the pilot were listed as contributing factors in some of the accidents. There were also problems with the automatic pitch-up limiter during high-speed low-altitude flying and in tight turns, resulting in its temporary removal, with accompanying restrictions on the maneuverability.
However, the high rate of crashes while in Luftwaffe service could be blamed more on the hazards of flying low-altitude missions at high speeds in the bad weather of Northern Europe than on any intrinsic flaw with the F-104G. Human error was probably the major cause of the majority of the accidents. The Starfighter required 38-45 hours of maintenance for every hour in the air, and many of the Luftwaffe ground crew personnel were conscripts who were probably too hastily trained. In addition, German Starfighter pilots were only flying 13-15 hours a month, compared with the NATO average of about 20 hours. http://home.att.net/~jbaugher1/f104_17.html

System Shock 2 ran in Compatibility mode under XP. Also make sure you check out this site - http://shtup.home.att.net/ for some sweet graphical updates on the origianl.

All you need is 5 minutes with this Jett.

There used to be a Mac program called FullPixelSearch which does something similar for image analysis.

This is the difference between a government-run monopoly and a private-sector monopoly. Governments do things for "the public good" - companies don't have to.

Actually when governments first chartered corporations a corporation would only be chartered if doing so provided a public good. But the corporations have paid politicans to move away from that position. This was one of the things Thomas Jefferson warned of, he feared corporations especially banks would come to own the politicans and have them pass laws favoring them other others. Here's some of what he says about banks:

Banks

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the Government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

The system of banking [is] a blot left in all our Constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction... I sincerely believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity ... is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
Thomas Jefferson

I wouldn't be too worried. "Neanderthal" hybrids already exist, and they're called the Irish. I don't mean that as an insult or anything, given neanderthal's physical robustness, brain capacity (though different structure) etc., I just look at a reconstruction of a neanderthal child's appearance: http://home.att.net/~edgrenda/pow/pow14.htm, and, well... homo sapiens with a touch of neotenous neanderthal => Irish...

I would lay bets on it being shown that yes, there was some limited hybridisation in northern europe, and the strongest traces will be found in the native Irish genome.

If you want the original commercial versions, you are probably going to be bin diving at whatever game stores there are near you, raiding Ebay or cruising the darker side of the web.

Cheers,
Toby Haynes

Too bad they didn't set out to BUILD our interstate system with the same engineering and materials, to allow us to go at speeds (unlimited in places) safely on all our hwys like they can in Germany.

I thought that had more to do with puritan morality than engineering? Is/was the Autobahn built so differently?

The Autobahn is built differently. The biggest difference is that the road surface throughout the Autobahn system is somewhere around 27 inches thick. Most interstates, by comparison, are only 16-18 inches thick. The extra durability makes for a road that's consistently in better condition, which is why it's no big deal to do 100+ mph with a properly-maintained car over there. OTOH, they're more expensive to build. If the interstates were built to the same spec as the Autobahn, the system wouldn't be nearly as extensive as it is.

This page has some interesting Autobahn info.

An interesting factor in difference between our highway and Germany's autobahn is the 'curviness' of the road. The Germans wanted their highway to curve with the natural landscape, and be created with a minimal of environmental destruction, which we thought was stupid. As a result, we built straighter roads, blasting through mountains and paving over forests where necessary. The result of course, was highway hypnosis, which contributes to the higher death toll and accident count on U.S. highways.

Time Difference-Of-Arrival is what you're looking for. It's a pretty simple technique. Amateur radio operators have been building simple TDOA circuits for decades for hidden transmitter hunts (a recreational use of radio).

See: http://home.att.net/~jleggio/projects/rdf/tdoa2.ht m

These simple ones with only a single reciever can only tell you a direction, not triangulate a position, but with more than one...

DB_Story wrote the 4 laws of robotics
Without the fourth law: "A robot will perform the duties for which it has been designed and built, as long as this does not conflict with previous laws" the robots will just hide in a corner.

Speaking of lakes and engineering disasters, there's also the Salton Sea. Up until the 20th Century it was known as the Salton Basin or Salton Sink -- a big low-lying area in the middle of the California desert.

In 1901, people dug irrigation canals from the Colorado River. Due to a flood, most of the river gushed through the canals into the basin. By the time they diverted the river back to its own bed, it had created a lake 35 miles long and buried several towns under water.

Things were okay for a while, and it became a resort area. But since there's no outlet, water flows into the lake, evaporates, and leaves behind whatever minerals it brought with it. Much of the influx is runoff from agriculture, so fertilizer is a major pollutant, and the lake is more saline than the ocean. The shores are littered with ghost towns and abandoned motels.

basicNES is written in VB5/6. I helped a lot with the optimization to make it run at full speed on as little as 350mhz with no frame skipping.

VB.Net is fine too. The biggest problem is that simple languages attract simple people.

I thought I found it!

For those who haven't played the game, I highly recommend checking it out; it remains an amazing and compelling gaming experience to this day. The game is an FPS/RPG hybrid, and it isn't necessary to have played the first game to understand or enjoy it.

Some used copies of the game can be found at GameTZ (http://gametz.com/aGames/PC/System+Shock+2.html). Alternatively, the game routinely shows up on popular BitTorrent sites. After you get ahold of the game, you'll want to download the excellent Rebirth mod (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/etienne.aubert/sshock/ssh ock_rebirth.htm) and upgraded texture pack (http://shtup.home.att.net/), which both really help the game to look much less dated. (Some torrents include the mods, as they're considered almost essential.)

I'm not sure if this post will imspire anyone to check the game out, but I hope I've helped add the game to at least one gamer's all-time favorites list.

BS is right.

Inflation during johnson was low, but during nixon it shot up. It started down towards the end, but as soon as the Oil Embargo started against us, it shot up again. JC's Volker's raising of interest combined with JC's deregulation of oil and the lifting of the embargo is what brought us back. Inflation started coming down BEFORE the election, not after.

The gist is, that just as Clinton rode the coattails of Poppa Bush, Reagan rode JC's. Both JC and GHWB made hard decisions that cost them their next term, but served us (America) in the long term.

That sounds like a problem with the attack vector, not with the material.

Back up both of these arguments (the necessity of paying off the national debt and why we're on the brink of hyperinflation) with facts.

http://mwhodges.home.att.net/debt.htm

But it's not just government debt, it is total debt and obligations in the US economy, and the fact that were going thru a technology and offshore service induced deflation - which means that there won't be the pay base to prop it up. When push comes to shove, there will only be two options, massive cascading defaults on debts or massive hyperinflation to put so much money in the economy so as to try and devalue the debt. (which will actually make the debt problem worse, but they don't know that yet) They will almost certainly try to choose inflation over depression, but they will end up getting both.

This is silly when we can purchase their services from overseas without the burdens of naturalization. That's the whole point of outsourcing: you can purchase services from overseas in fields where you use to have to hire locally or literally import the talent through immigration.

burdens of naturalization? It might be a burden on the applicants to do the paperwork, but not on society. The more free they are, the more empowered they are to get results.

Try this calculator to see the highly nonlinear effect of increasing distance on elapsed shipbord journey time. With acceleration equivalent to earth-normal gravity throughout the trip (switching to deceleration as you pass the half way mark) it takes 9 years to travel 100LY. It only takes half as much again to travel ten times as far. So you may as well just point your ship in a direction where there are plenty of stars, launch, and decide where you're going while you're actually en-route.

Here is the link to the article on Neurotypical Personality Disorder .

Or, you could come join the fun, bao bei.

Another question: Do we really want this in the hands of the defense department? There would be even less qualms about sending people into harms' way if something like this were in their medicine cabinet.

And don't think they wouldn't; they're quite willing to try and force potentially harmful vaccinations and other dubious treatments on their own personnel. Oh, and if something goes wrong, the drug company needn't worry - they probably won't be held accountable.

This drug definitely has a downside.

I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to be the grammar Nazi today, because your usage of the word "to" is so egregiously wrong. If you are going to write a long rant about something, you need to at least make the effort to have proper grammar and spelling.

When something is excessively complex, heavy, expensive, or whatever, use the work "too," with two o's, for heaven's sake. Otherwise, it reads like you are trying to make complex, heavy, and expensive into verbs.

Some references to help you along:

http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000258.htm

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=too

http://mzbworks.home.att.net/grammar.htm

On the other hand, going "to hydrogen" is correct. Good for you.

>>Why do you hate science?

Hello there, Mr. Exageration.

My point is that Chimps develop the way they do because that is what works for their enviornment. Of course a chimp is going to be able to do more complex things than a human infant! The chimp is MUCH more specialized - that is what makes the chimp limited.

How long would the species last if it was not able to "hit the ground running" fast enough to protect itself.

Same reason kittens can do certain things well - they *need* to. This is the result of evolution.

To me, this is quite obvious - but then I am a genius. Apparently "scientists" have to do these studies to get things through their pointy little heads.

BTW, you better stay clear of any talk of learning more about Autism; some of those in the spectrum are rabidly against anything that might lead to a cure.

I find it interesting that I got a flamebait mod for my post, yet you did not even though you inferred I was "anti-evolution" and a luddite. Is calling names your "go to" move?

Art's Theremin Page

http://home.att.net/~1.elliott/JOEKITTINGER.HTML "On August 16, 1960, Captain Joe Kittinger jumped from a huge helium balloon at a height of 102,800 feet, almost 20 miles above the earth! Captain Kittinger fell for a full 4 minutes, 36 seconds." http://www.thatvideosite.com/view/1164.html

Here you go...

9. use xcopy32 to copy everything to the slave drive.

xcopy does not properly clone a windows installation. See http://home.att.net/~navasgrp/tech/clone_copy.htm# Cloning for why and recommendations of tools that do clone reliably.

I get much of my stuff from http://mwhodges.home.att.net/ you may need to recalculate it for being percapita though.

I'm seeing 100k per citizen. Are 3 out of 4 people not working? Mind you, that also includes corporate debt... a debt with doesn't get counted against individual citizens.

I would be vary wary of that, real-estate lost 90% of it's value during the great depression, and to tell you the truth - we are more overleveraged now then we were then.

Oh yes, it's a dumb investment right now. But if you have a morgage, and most people do, you probably got one at a more reasonable time. On average, your house has as much or more real-world value now as it did when you bought it. The real-world value doesn't matter to the people who bought track housing off of a google IPO at 7 million dollars, but that actual value is increasing as more people come online.

nfortunately most debt is foriegn owned nowdays, Japan alone has some 650bln of us bonds.

According to the site you linked, only 20% of debt is foreign owned. Not that is a particularly reassuring figure, mind you.

The problem with debt isn't who it's owned to, it's that it pre-obligates money that would otherwise be spent in more productive ways...I think debt for things other than investments that increase productivity are a bad idea.

I agree wholeheartedly. However, remember that certain things require debt to get off the ground. My small business (still around somewhere, BTW) required an outlay in costs to start. It wasn't much, but it did require an outlay, and without that the business wouldn't have started. I've also done a little work in the past for a realtor who would generally look for unsecured investors but who would also take out loans on certain properties. He'd get other people's money, buy burnt-out, broken down properties, fix them up, and sell them at quite a profit (good gig, but lots more work than you would think). His business relied on debt to generate value.

And sure, at the end of a project he would have 500,000 dollars pre-obligated to his creditors, but he also walked away with an extra 100 grand for himself that he wouldn't otherwise have. And society got a three-floor condo to house three families that it otherwise wouldn't have.

Also from what I understand, 90% of society are debtors and 10% creditors. Yup. 90% are also workers and 10% bosses. Society is pretty pyramid shaped. But societies are generally like that.

There is a difference between investing and loaning, with a loan money is owed no matter how good or poorly it does. With investment in things like stock, that is not the case.

With investments, though, there is still the assumption that value will return. If a project collapses and your investors lose all of their money, your investors are still getting screwed. I'd count investments as important in the equation as well. Likewise, investing debts are not necessarily as bad as it could be.

The global economy is teetering on the edge of a cliff, I would peronally and strongly recommend having some precious metals on hand. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks this as gold is at an 18 year high now (http://www.kitco.com/)

Sounds like a gold bubble :). Don't forget, gold also only has value because of accepted norms. Sure, you can use a little bit of it in electronics, but ultimately it has value for jewelry... and if the global economy collapses, who needs that?

A bit more on-topic, the collapse or not of society will depend largely upon the details of how much that debt load is, and how much of that debt is "good," and how much would need to be absorbed through dillution of the currency or defaulting. But neither of those spell the end of civilization as we know it... just a downgrade in our quality of life relative to other areas of the world. And likewise

Not that I disagree with your post, but can you cite sources for this?

I get much of my stuff from http://mwhodges.home.att.net/ you may need to recalculate it for being percapita though.

The numbers I've seen are closer to 40K.

sounds like just the federal percapita.

I would guess that a disproportionate amount of that number is in morgages. Shouldn't morgage debt count separatley, as an investment, being secured by a tangible property which can be resold and which usually accrues value (unless there are too many speculators)?

I would be vary wary of that, real-estate lost 90% of it's value during the great depression, and to tell you the truth - we are more overleveraged now then we were then. IMHO, going into debt for a home today is not only not a secure investment, it is very dangerous.

The difference between that and credit card (or federal) debt is pretty significant.
....
Isn't a lot of that debt also to ourselves? I owe rent to the owner, my roommate owes rent to me, her company owes her salary to her, etc. A more realistic example would be a car company who owes money to it's creditors, but who also is owed money by the people who buy cars from it. Isn't that debt being counted twice?

Unfortunately most debt is foriegn owned nowdays, Japan alone has some 650bln of us bonds. The problem with debt isn't who it's owned to, it's that it pre-obligates money that would otherwise be spent in more productive ways. Plus, long "chains" of debtors are as strong as the weakest link, if someone in the middle defaults - everyone else still owes and must make it up somewhere or default too. That's why over debted societies usually have a cascading collapse.

I'm not convinced that zero debt is the overall goal. All investments are debt to someone.

I think debt for things other than investments that increase productivity are a bad idea. Also from what I understand, 90% of society are debtors and 10% creditors.

If I invest 1,000 dollars in a local company so that they can re-tool their factory, that's 1,000 dollars in debt that basically guarantees a return to society much larger than the expense.

There is a difference between investing and loaning, with a loan money is owed no matter how good or poorly it does. With investment in things like stock, that is not the case.

Corporate debt is how the buying power of money is shifted from institutions that have it, to upstarts that need it. Sure, Sony may go a half-billion dollars in debt to create a new fab plant for the Cell chip that powers the Playstation 3, but they'll make it back.

I agree, that is good debt. Millions of people re-financing their home and spending the extra on consumption is not.

If not all debts are necessarily bad, we have to figure what kinds are bad and what kinds aren't. Student Loans are as annoying as hell, but the benefit to society (and a single worker's earning potential) greatly outweighs the cost of being in debt. Credit card debts are always bad, and are basically the work of the devil. Sometimes you need to go into a little debt to buy a used car to get to work on time... That's much better than not working. But buying a 25k new SUV is a bad investment.

Sometimes credit card debt can be better because it's not secured. Anyhow, on no uncertain terms the US is overleveraged in debt, and the fed has loaned out way way way too much money. Even the fed said that the economy is super efficient because of new technology, but what they didn't say is that efficient economies make fluctuations to excessive monitary policies more extreme, not less extreme. The global economy is teetering on the edge of a cliff, I would peronally and strongly recommend having some precious metals on hand. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks this as gold is at an 18 year high now ( http://www.kitco.com/)

An RPC-4000. Picture here:
http://home.att.net/~lgaska/images/rpc-4000.jpg
If memory serves me correct, it had 4096 words of rotating drum meemory. Paper tape or Flexowriter input. It was great.

Yes, I am older than dirt.

And here I was wondering why the crew of Serenity spoke so much Chinese. Thanks for clearing that up.

At the time, some 10 years ago, we found some un-labeled metalic packaged high powered IR devices at Haltek in Silicon Vally. Haltek went out of bussiness years ago.

We also had a 1 watt IR laser diode we came across that was totaly amazing. It also worked for this purpose. If the surplus shop knew what is was it would have been out of our price range.

Also there is an IR "Blackout Filter" you can out over a car headlamp, that also does the trick.
http://www.usnightvision.com/Night_Vision_Products .htm?PID=0000000180
http://www.opticsplanet.com/product-catalog/produc ts/us-night-vision-blackout-infrared-filter-kit-us nvbf-120.html

http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/ledir.htm

http://dalewheat.com/ir.php

Here's an idea, why not scrap your fucking SUVs and Hummers and buy efficient vehicles instead? Or at least just quit whining? You have it fucking good.

No you stop whining! Isn't your country a democracy? Why don't you vote to abolish the gasoline tax next election if you don't like it? Here in the US we never voted for high gas taxes, which is why our gas is so much cheaper than yours.

There isn't too much to be said for European ingenuity either. If American gas prices were as high as yours, we'd have developed alternative fuels long ago. Even at the current prices, ethanol is starting to be competitive, and many cars can already run on it (E85). Last time i was over there, the only thing for sale was unleaded. At astronomical prices.

Too many Europeans have a defeatist mentality. Why doesn't France have a hydrogen economy already in place? They have had dirty cheap nuclear energy for decades, but nobody bothered to use it to produce hydrogen. They just roll over and pay OPEC plus a 200% tax bonus to the government like there was no alternative.

Instead of taking advantage of the high prices to start alternative fuel businesses and getting rich, people over there force themselves to conserve, pay taxes though the nose, drive around in ridiculous looking mini cars which probably cost more than Lincoln Navigators (after tax of course), and generally accept their declining standard of living while blaming everybody else for their problems.

And to add insult to injury, unlike France, the rest of Europe is busily decommissioning their nuclear plants and replacing them with natural gas, coal and oil, while complaining all day long about those vulgar and selfish Americans.

http://rpuchalsky.home.att.net/sci_env/dixy_1.txt

Apparently... http://home.att.net/~numericana/answer/physics.htm #properties
But only in certain cases. Also, bucky balls are toxic. While their individual atomic structure is superhard, they don't adhere to each other well, making them more like graphite than diamond.