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If you want to get good and mad about the current state of media policy in the United States, read Robert W. McChesney's Rich Media, Poor Democracy and The Problem of the Media.

He's the go-to guy for media policy criticism, and covers the same problems Turner mentions and more in much greater detail. Highly recommended.

If you want to get good and mad about the current state of media policy in the United States, read Robert W. McChesney's Rich Media, Poor Democracy and The Problem of the Media.

He's the go-to guy for media policy criticism, and covers the same problems Turner mentions and more in much greater detail. Highly recommended.

Well, it could kill you, only indirectly. Ever read Kilobyte? Yeah, it's a stretch.

Itel inside was a clever marketing/cobranding scheme cooked up by Intel so consumers wouldn't view computers as a commodity. When vendors sold Intel merch, some of the dollars went into a pool the vendor could use for advertising, but only it if the ads contained the "Intel inside" logo and met some other requirements. The book Marketing High Technology: An Insider's View goes over this concept in detail. IIRC, the author was one of the people who put together the Intel Inside program. The plan also gets a bit of razzing from an equally good book In Search of Supidity

I don't see any of the kick-back elements in the plan discussed in the article. I think Sun charges a royalty for certain run time Java components, so there's a revenue stream to work with for getting program started. The controlled advertising fund is what made the Intel Inside concept work, so I hope that's part of the program.

Itel inside was a clever marketing/cobranding scheme cooked up by Intel so consumers wouldn't view computers as a commodity. When vendors sold Intel merch, some of the dollars went into a pool the vendor could use for advertising, but only it if the ads contained the "Intel inside" logo and met some other requirements. The book Marketing High Technology: An Insider's View goes over this concept in detail. IIRC, the author was one of the people who put together the Intel Inside program. The plan also gets a bit of razzing from an equally good book In Search of Supidity

I don't see any of the kick-back elements in the plan discussed in the article. I think Sun charges a royalty for certain run time Java components, so there's a revenue stream to work with for getting program started. The controlled advertising fund is what made the Intel Inside concept work, so I hope that's part of the program.

Amazingly, Asimov is the only person who has books in all major sections of the Dewey Decimal System. How's that for geekish trivia?

He's written history books, general science books (Check out his Physics book(s), B&N is selling a 3-in-1 compendium - Motion, Sound and Heat; Light, Magnetism and Electricity; and The Electron, Proton and Neutron: absolutely the most readable exposition of physics, ever. If you can do HS Algebra - even barely - you will understand everything in this book), books on language... The man was the quintessential renaissance man of the 20th century.

Of course, now that I take a closer look, it seems that bn.com is out of stock of the 3-in-1 (used copies available), but I saw it on the shelves (in the bargian section, no less!) of my local B&N just the other day, so you should be able to find it. It's one of those must have books for every geekish library. Asimov is my hero. Of course, I wouldn't want to be him, him being dead and all, but if there were anyone who ever lived that I would want to be compared to, it would be him.

What does ' replace in ... John's bike

The possessive s format is a contraction of an earlier English form, in this case, "John, his bike".

For some real grammar nazism, check out Lynne Truss's "Eats, Shoots and Leaves"

Not entirely certain on software, but as far as books go The Arabic Alphabet by Awde and Samano got me reading and writing in a jiff! An excellent resource is Audio Forum who sell the kits that the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) uses to train its diplomats. I believe Saudi Arabic is one of the few courses that the FSI has released the material on CD-Rom. Other dialects, such as Iraqi and Palestinian (to name a couple) are also available. But Saudi, far as I know is almost the lingua franca of the middle-east. Could be off base on that point though. But the FSI courses (whether on prehisoric blech *tape* or CDs) have proven extremely useful. Pricey, in some cases. But thorough and useful. Some folks have spoken highly of Transparent Language, at the very least you might find some web links there. The Center for Applied Linguistics might also be of help to you. The The Pimsleur Method is pretty smokin' IMO. Flash cards are EXTREMELY useful to have/make yourse'f - well nigh indespensible in learning the written form of the language IMO. And finally, there are some I've known who've praised the "Talk Now!" approach.

President Bush has sharply restricted federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells to keep the government from supporting research that he believes destroys human life.

Yet another reason, far as I'm concerned, to get that bum out of office!

President Bush has sharply restricted federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells to keep the government from supporting research that he believes destroys human life.

Yet another reason, far as I'm concerned, to get that bum out of office!

A Science Fiction Book Club Selection

"When John Brunner first told me of his intention to write this book, I was fascinated -- but I wondered whether he, or anyone, could bring it off. Bring it off he has -- with cool brilliance. A hero with transient personalities, animals with souls, think tanks and survival communities fuse to form a future so plausibly alive it has twitched at me ever since."

-- Alvin Toffler, Author of Future Shock

He Was The Most Dangerous Fugitive Alive, But He Didn't Exist!

Nickie Haflinger had lived a score of lifetimes...but technically he didn't exist. He was a fugitive from Tarnover, the high-powered government think tank that had educated him. First he had broken his identity code -- then he escaped.

Now he had to find a way to restore sanity and personal freedom to the computerized masses and to save a world tottering on the brink of disaster.

He didn't care how he did it...but the government did. That's when his Tarnover teachers got him back in their labs...and Nickie Haflinger was set up for a whole new education!

One of my professors loaned me his copy of The Shockwave Rider in 1982. I don't know if this book changed my life, but it certainly made me think about how computers could (and should) be used. Written in 1975, John Brunner guessed wrong about the details of the technology, but scored a direct hit on the results of technology on society, and what it will mean for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the 21st century. This book was out of print for years, and it took me more than a decade of scowering used book stores to find a copy for myself -- I now have several copies so that I can lend them to others.

Buy it from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

"I remember that the *"People of Han" (as they called themselves) who founded the original Chin Dynasty considered themselves the center of the universe. So naturally, they too considered themselves the center of all culture and refinement. I see modern communism as a more contemporary expression of this belief. It seems almost bred into their cultural psychology. A very deep meme that is very difficult to erase." So.....nothing like the modern-day USA then ?

No, you're absolutely right. American's do think that they're the center of the universe. I know because I am one. I'm a Jerseyite, I live very near Princeton which had beautiful minds and where Einstein's Unified Field Theory was first concocted. Plains, trains, automobiles, computers, networks all invented her in the good ol' rockin' US of friggin' A!

We are jingoisitic and think we are the center of the universe. But compare our piddling few hundred odd years to China's 7000 years or more!

But if you trace American culture, we basically go back to ye olde England to about the time of Cromwell or slightly before (history is not my forte). Until the late 1800s, most of American Society (around 70% I believe) was English/Irish in descent. After the turn of that century American Society was essentially re-made with an influx of new immigrants from the rest of Europe, including Germany, Poland, and Italy (for example). It was a time when our culture was "unravelling" (according to Strauss and Howe) in a period that was not unlike the what the past 20 years of American Society has been like. Scarily, eerily similar. No, no OJ's getting chased by police in White Ford Broncos down the 405, no Monica Lewinsky, no Punk Rock. But just like today, America was being thought anew to include all of the new cultures that were calling america home. It was also being shaken to it's foundations by spasmodic bursts of new technological developments like Movies, Telephones, the Automobile, and Flight. It was also a time when we first heard the beginnings of a dirty and dissident form of music known as...brace yourself...JAZZ!!!!!! *GASP*. I know hard to imagine, but Jazz was really regarded just that way by prominent members of our society instead of the rich subtle tapestry of powerful creative expression that it is.

So, what's been happening for the past 20 years? Well, computers have been around for a long while, but I really don't think the couch potatoes started buying them until they became of the internet at about the same time. We had dirty dissident punk and instrial, and indie rock and underground cinema. And the immigration is ENORMOUS and will definitely chage the way America thinks of itself. Latin American immigration is simply jaw-dropping. In the town I used to live in, almost everyone there is mono-lingual. And it ain't english! Whether your in a "latin neighborhood" or no, Spanish is on all the ATMs and an option for nearly all phone support calls. I think Spanish should be a high school requirement! Asian immigration is completely boundless as well. Up in Fort Lee NJ (right by the GW bridge) almost all of the street signs and business are in both Korean and English...or in just Korean. Including some street signs!

So a *DEFINITE* on my to-do list is to bone up on Spanish and to give Korean a serious go. While wer'e at it, why stop there? I'd also like to get to speaking

10 out of 10 Terrorists agree - Anybody but Bush in 2004

Sorry, couldn't let that one go past.

The terrorists are very likely to want Bush in the Oval Office. House of Bush, House of Saud details the business relationships between the Bush family and the Bin Laden family, as well as the ruling Saudi family. Bush's military record was enough to label him a "deserter" by Michael Moore. To whit, the White House released a censored version of Bush's military record. What was censored? Curiously, it was one name: that of James R. Bath. We know this because copies of the GW Bush Military record from 2000 still show his name. It was censored post 9/11 due to the fact that James Bath was a buddy of GW's from the military. After the military, Bath went into the Aviation business and his first business deal was to sell an airplane to Osama's brother. This is all a matter of public record. Since the early 70s, the Bin Laden's (second wealthiest family in Saudi Arabia) continued to funnel money to Bath, who in turn funded several failed oil business of GW's. GW was great at drilling empty wholes that didn't provide any oil. When GHW Bush (first president Bush) was in Office the Carlyle group invested a TON of money into what would turn out to be ANOTHER failed oil business captained by Baby Bush. Several Bin Ladens sat on the board of Carlyle. Since then, Saudi oil money has funneled roughly 1.5 BILLION dollars per year to Bush, their family and friends. If you're being paid $400,000 dollars a year to server the American people and another group is paying you $1.5 billion (with a "b") per year, whose interests do you think you would represent?

The only problem is that Saudi has a public face and a private face. The Prince is the public face, and his brother is the minister of the interior who fosters the furtherance of their wahabist culture. They (the Wahabis) run the schools and religious instruction of the youth in that country. As early as 3rd or 4th grade, children's textbooks start to refer to America and the West as "The Great Satan". The Princes' brother is funneling money to those people that run the schools.

In the time since Iraq had been invaded AL Qaeda has grown in size, power and organization. America's military structure is still geared towards a cold war way of thinking. Al Qaeda has been able to morph into a true Information Age culture, using the web, cellphones and other technologies to conduct their horrors. The real focus of the "War on Terror" needs to be on Afganistan and the Wahabi's in Saudi. While we have few qualms invading Afganistan, there is simply NO WAY a Texas Oil Man who sits on the throne America Tis going to jeapordize America's relationshiop with the Saudi's. Whose total investments per year represent roughly 7% of the total American economy. No way. The war in Iraq is nothing more than a distraction on what SHOULD be the war on terror. Don't fool yourself.

...how many *think* they can't live without web access? Offline working can be surprisingly productive, and as it often forces more thinking and planning (e.g. in preparation for being back online, and just thinking through what would happen of you could be online) the results end up being better.

F'real. To think, they did all that even before the Altair was a twinkle in Ed Roberts' jockey shorts!

...how many *think* they can't live without web access? Offline working can be surprisingly productive, and as it often forces more thinking and planning (e.g. in preparation for being back online, and just thinking through what would happen of you could be online) the results end up being better.

F'real. To think, they did all that even before the Altair was a twinkle in Ed Roberts' jockey shorts!

...how many *think* they can't live without web access? Offline working can be surprisingly productive, and as it often forces more thinking and planning (e.g. in preparation for being back online, and just thinking through what would happen of you could be online) the results end up being better.

F'real. To think, they did all that even before the Altair was a twinkle in Ed Roberts' jockey shorts!

...how many *think* they can't live without web access? Offline working can be surprisingly productive, and as it often forces more thinking and planning (e.g. in preparation for being back online, and just thinking through what would happen of you could be online) the results end up being better.

F'real. To think, they did all that even before the Altair was a twinkle in Ed Roberts' jockey shorts!

Probably couldn't find them since you can't spell Feynman.

BTW, one of the best short stories along those lines was Isaac Asimov's The Last Question (published in Nine Tomorrows among other places). The focus isn't really the computer, but it shows how people were thinking about these new-fangled gadgets at the time.

There are a few well placed comments about NASA in the recent book by Dan Brown: Deception Point. Yes it's fiction, but intriguing as well, considering NASAs track record (good and bad).

Let's hope we can really focus on a space future that makes sense, is reasonable expectation-wise, over-estimate on cost, and pursue long-term.

I work for an FFRDC.

This book really took me up a couple of notches: Photoshop CS Artistry I don't think it's for the complete beginner, but I got a lot out of it.

Michael Freeman has some nice books. You can check them out here.
What I like about his digital photography series (light and lighting, nature and landscapes, portraits, and close-ups) is that he provides lots of nice colorful examples.
Those work nice for me because I try to emulate them and generally end up with nicer pics than if I didn't know where to start shooting from.
Metering and aperture are the same basics from film days and those are the things you have to learn by experience. (Much like typing, you can't expect to understand how the whole photo-graphy works unless you understand aperture and shutter).

To understand white balance, take a picture of an object inside, under fluorescent lighting, and then take the picture of the same object outside in direct sun, and compare the two.
The one taken inside will have a yellow tone to it, which you wouldn't notice without comparing because our brains compensate for color differences.
Camera's white balance can usually filter out negative (or sometimes desired) effects of various color sources (fluorescent, tungsten, direct sunlight, bright background etc.).

I don't know as much about photography as some folks on /. but here is my advice:
take lots of pictures, and often.
You'll get better at composition, and will start seeing the photos in your head. That's one advantage of digital over film. It doesn't cost anything to shoot 150 pics in one day, and pick out 5-15 satisfactory ones.

Coincidentally, I just finished reading Greg Bear's [wikipedia.org] Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children novels. They use the premise that "junk DNA" is not junk at all, but is used to drive evolution.

Coincidentally, I just finished reading Greg Bear's [wikipedia.org] Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children novels. They use the premise that "junk DNA" is not junk at all, but is used to drive evolution.

Here is a non-evil link to the book.

"...Whats more interesting is that sometimes what control+v pastes is different from what the middle-click pastes. I'm sure there is a reason, and I'm also sure its my fault for not knowing it... but its still annoying..."

One word: Perl. Compared to C/C++ it is poetry. Introduce her to a friendly llama. If she gets stuck, introduce her to some monks who have shown willingness to help out a beginnger. What you'll find is that they are especially kind if you explain who you are, what you're up against and why you want to do what you want to do.

Hey guys, sorry for the repost! I know this is bad, no TERRIBLE netiquette. But it was attached to a story that only garnered 9 comments, but I really think that more people should know and think about this stuff. I hope the same thing doesn't happen to this story, or my name'll really be mud! :D



A couple of years ago at the last "HOPE" conference was the first time I heard of this idea of the "deep web". This year's shindig is happening July 9th through the 11th. I wonder if chosing those those dates was merely a coincidence this...

The topic was something called "Hacking National Security" in wchich the speaker, Robert Steele, first brought up this concept and mentioned what he described as a "deep web search engine" called Copernic. However, I've found that product (there is a free variant) basically queries a list of different search engines. This is not what I would consider a "deep web search" now that I have learned a little more about the term. But that was the first I'd heard of it.

Robert Steele can be forgiven for being a bit technically naive. Because his specialty is National Security and not technology. But he had a lot to say that was of salient interest to technology minded folks. Why else would he have had a panel discussion at a hacker conference?

What I learned from him is that search engines like google and others only are able to skim roughly 5% of the total content of the web. Everything underneath that 5% is the "Deep Web". This is what he claimed the global terror networks are using to communicate with each other. And, most alarmingly, that the NSA - Amerca's Information Processing branch of the government was COMPLETELY ill equiped, even ignorant of terror groups freely trafficking their plans on the web. Talk about our most "advanced" information processing governmental body! Note the lack of a CNAME entry in their DNS record! Don't forget the "www" now! yeesh! At any rate I read an interesting book about them way back in the 80s called The Puzzle Palace. But I'm sure it's way dated by now. I read it way back in 87. Did you know that they are roughly 3 times the size and girth of the CIA...and yet hardly any of the lay populace seems to have heard of them! I once dated a "know it all" (how do you ever learn anything if you already "know it all"?) bad-poetry, arty farty girlfriend who claimed that I was "making the whole thing up" when I tried explaining to her about the NSA! May I say again, "yeesh"? Literally COULD NOT convince her otherwise...I digress...

Now hold on a minute here! Just how dated would you suppose that book to have been? One of Robert Steele's pet peeves was the extreme datedness of NSA tecnology. Being a government agency (FLAGSHIP of intelligence agencies!) a good hunk of their computer technology dated back to the 70s. This was still the case as of 2002, mind you, and if I understood him correctly.

Now, another of his compaints was the lack of native speakers hired by the agency. That is, instead of hiring a native Pashto speaker, they will instead almost unerringly hire the "blond haired, blue eyed, cocky midwestern jock" (his words not mine)

Hey guys, sorry for the repost! I know this is bad, no TERRIBLE netiquette. But it was attached to a story that only garnered 9 comments, but I really think that more people should know and think about this stuff. I hope the same thing doesn't happen to this story, or my name'll really be mud! :D



A couple of years ago at the last "HOPE" conference was the first time I heard of this idea of the "deep web". This year's shindig is happening July 9th through the 11th. I wonder if chosing those those dates was merely a coincidence this...

The topic was something called "Hacking National Security" in wchich the speaker, Robert Steele, first brought up this concept and mentioned what he described as a "deep web search engine" called Copernic. However, I've found that product (there is a free variant) basically queries a list of different search engines. This is not what I would consider a "deep web search" now that I have learned a little more about the term. But that was the first I'd heard of it.

Robert Steele can be forgiven for being a bit technically naive. Because his specialty is National Security and not technology. But he had a lot to say that was of salient interest to technology minded folks. Why else would he have had a panel discussion at a hacker conference?

What I learned from him is that search engines like google and others only are able to skim roughly 5% of the total content of the web. Everything underneath that 5% is the "Deep Web". This is what he claimed the global terror networks are using to communicate with each other. And, most alarmingly, that the NSA - Amerca's Information Processing branch of the government was COMPLETELY ill equiped, even ignorant of terror groups freely trafficking their plans on the web. Talk about our most "advanced" information processing governmental body! Note the lack of a CNAME entry in their DNS record! Don't forget the "www" now! yeesh! At any rate I read an interesting book about them way back in the 80s called The Puzzle Palace. But I'm sure it's way dated by now. I read it way back in 87. Did you know that they are roughly 3 times the size and girth of the CIA...and yet hardly any of the lay populace seems to have heard of them! I once dated a "know it all" (how do you ever learn anything if you already "know it all"?) bad-poetry, arty farty girlfriend who claimed that I was "making the whole thing up" when I tried explaining to her about the NSA! May I say again, "yeesh"? Literally COULD NOT convince her otherwise...I digress...

Now hold on a minute here! Just how dated would you suppose that book to have been? One of Robert Steele's pet peeves was the extreme datedness of NSA tecnology. Being a government agency (FLAGSHIP of intelligence agencies!) a good hunk of their computer technology dated back to the 70s. This was still the case as of 2002, mind you, and if I understood him correctly.

Now, another of his compaints was the lack of native speakers hired by the agency. That is, instead of hiring a native Pashto speaker, they will instead almost unerringly hire the "blond haired, blue eyed, cocky midwestern jock" (his words not mine)

"Exidy Sorceror is pure magic!"

Wow. I remember that. That was the first computer that my dad owned. He used it to write the first edition of his book. I remember playing the old Scott Adams adventures on it when I was like 8 years old (30 now)

However, to hopefully help you out of this mess, here is some light reading that you might find useful:

1) Read Don't Make Me Think (not on safari yet) by Steve Krug. It's the best web usability book out there and will take you all of two hours to go through. His usability testing alone would have found your problem earlier.

2) Read Eric Meyer on CSS(no safari) to find out how to make your site look better. If you can find/afford a designer, use them, but learn how to abstract your design from your code and your life will be much easier. (If you like it, there is More Eric Meyer on CSS (safari) as well.

3) If you're trying to do public sites, I've found Submit Now (safari)by Andrew Chak to be an excellent read. It's common sense, but its good to be reminded.

I hope this helps, and good luck salvaging the gig.

However, to hopefully help you out of this mess, here is some light reading that you might find useful:

1) Read Don't Make Me Think (not on safari yet) by Steve Krug. It's the best web usability book out there and will take you all of two hours to go through. His usability testing alone would have found your problem earlier.

2) Read Eric Meyer on CSS(no safari) to find out how to make your site look better. If you can find/afford a designer, use them, but learn how to abstract your design from your code and your life will be much easier. (If you like it, there is More Eric Meyer on CSS (safari) as well.

3) If you're trying to do public sites, I've found Submit Now (safari)by Andrew Chak to be an excellent read. It's common sense, but its good to be reminded.

I hope this helps, and good luck salvaging the gig.

However, to hopefully help you out of this mess, here is some light reading that you might find useful:

1) Read Don't Make Me Think (not on safari yet) by Steve Krug. It's the best web usability book out there and will take you all of two hours to go through. His usability testing alone would have found your problem earlier.

2) Read Eric Meyer on CSS(no safari) to find out how to make your site look better. If you can find/afford a designer, use them, but learn how to abstract your design from your code and your life will be much easier. (If you like it, there is More Eric Meyer on CSS (safari) as well.

3) If you're trying to do public sites, I've found Submit Now (safari)by Andrew Chak to be an excellent read. It's common sense, but its good to be reminded.

I hope this helps, and good luck salvaging the gig.

However, to hopefully help you out of this mess, here is some light reading that you might find useful:

1) Read Don't Make Me Think (not on safari yet) by Steve Krug. It's the best web usability book out there and will take you all of two hours to go through. His usability testing alone would have found your problem earlier.

2) Read Eric Meyer on CSS(no safari) to find out how to make your site look better. If you can find/afford a designer, use them, but learn how to abstract your design from your code and your life will be much easier. (If you like it, there is More Eric Meyer on CSS (safari) as well.

3) If you're trying to do public sites, I've found Submit Now (safari)by Andrew Chak to be an excellent read. It's common sense, but its good to be reminded.

I hope this helps, and good luck salvaging the gig.

A couple of years ago at the last "HOPE" conference (this year's is happening July 9-11, this summer) was the first time I heard of this idea of the "deep web".

The topic was something called "Hacking National Security" in wchich the speaker, Robert Steele, first brought up this concept and mentioned what he described as a "deep web search engine" called Copernic. However, I've found that product (there is a free variant) is basically queries a list of different search engines. This is not what I would consider a "deep web search" now that I have learned a little more about the term. But that was the first I'd heard of it.

Robert Steele can be forgiven for being a bit technically naive. Because his specialty is National Security and not technology. But he had a lot to say that was of salient interest to technology minded folks. Why else would he have had a panel discussion at a hacker conference?

What I learned from him is that search engines like google and others only are able to skim roughly 5% of the total content of the web. Everything underneath that 5% is the "Deep Web". This is what he claimed the global terror networks are using to communicate with each other. And, most alarmingly, that the NSA - Amerca's Information Processing branch of the government was COMPLETELY ill equiped, even ignorant of terror groups freely trafficking their plans on the web. Talk about our most "advanced" information processing governmental body! Note the lack of a CNAME entry in their DNS record! Don't forget the "www" now! yeesh! At any rate I read an interesting book about them way back in the 80s called The Puzzle Palace. But I'm sure it's way dated by now. I read it way back in 87. Did you know that they are roughly 3 times the size and girth of the CIA...and yet hardly any of the lay populace seems to have heard of them! I once dated a "know it all" (how do you ever learn anything if you already "know it all"?) bad-poetry, arty farty girlfriend who claimed that I was "making the whole thing up" when I tried explaining to her about the NSA! May I say again, "yeesh"? Literally COULD NOT convince her otherwise...I digress...

Now hold on a minute here! Just how dated would you suppose that book to have been? One of Robert Steele's pet peeves was the extreme datedness of NSA tecnology. Being a government agency (FLAGSHIP of intelligence agencies!) a good hunk of their computer technology dated back to the 70s. This was still the case as of 2002, mind you, and if I understood him correctly.

Now, another of his compaints was the lack of native speakers hired by the agency. That is, instead of hiring a native Pashto speaker, they will instead almost unerringly hire the "blond haired, blue eyed, cocky midwestern jock" (his words not mine) with a degree from an Ivy League school in linguistics who has a generalists knowledge. What's wrong with a young PHD in linguistics tending to these matters? According to Mr Steele that even the best generalists knowledge will not catch the flavor or nuance of language spoken on the terror sites. What's lost in the translation? Not much...if you don't count our National Security.

Also according to him, the "terrorist community" (I know that's an over-used term in this day and age...please try to bear with me, here) knows this and thrives doing so.

One major point of contention he had wa

A couple of years ago at the last "HOPE" conference (this year's is happening July 9-11, this summer) was the first time I heard of this idea of the "deep web".

The topic was something called "Hacking National Security" in wchich the speaker, Robert Steele, first brought up this concept and mentioned what he described as a "deep web search engine" called Copernic. However, I've found that product (there is a free variant) is basically queries a list of different search engines. This is not what I would consider a "deep web search" now that I have learned a little more about the term. But that was the first I'd heard of it.

Robert Steele can be forgiven for being a bit technically naive. Because his specialty is National Security and not technology. But he had a lot to say that was of salient interest to technology minded folks. Why else would he have had a panel discussion at a hacker conference?

What I learned from him is that search engines like google and others only are able to skim roughly 5% of the total content of the web. Everything underneath that 5% is the "Deep Web". This is what he claimed the global terror networks are using to communicate with each other. And, most alarmingly, that the NSA - Amerca's Information Processing branch of the government was COMPLETELY ill equiped, even ignorant of terror groups freely trafficking their plans on the web. Talk about our most "advanced" information processing governmental body! Note the lack of a CNAME entry in their DNS record! Don't forget the "www" now! yeesh! At any rate I read an interesting book about them way back in the 80s called The Puzzle Palace. But I'm sure it's way dated by now. I read it way back in 87. Did you know that they are roughly 3 times the size and girth of the CIA...and yet hardly any of the lay populace seems to have heard of them! I once dated a "know it all" (how do you ever learn anything if you already "know it all"?) bad-poetry, arty farty girlfriend who claimed that I was "making the whole thing up" when I tried explaining to her about the NSA! May I say again, "yeesh"? Literally COULD NOT convince her otherwise...I digress...

Now hold on a minute here! Just how dated would you suppose that book to have been? One of Robert Steele's pet peeves was the extreme datedness of NSA tecnology. Being a government agency (FLAGSHIP of intelligence agencies!) a good hunk of their computer technology dated back to the 70s. This was still the case as of 2002, mind you, and if I understood him correctly.

Now, another of his compaints was the lack of native speakers hired by the agency. That is, instead of hiring a native Pashto speaker, they will instead almost unerringly hire the "blond haired, blue eyed, cocky midwestern jock" (his words not mine) with a degree from an Ivy League school in linguistics who has a generalists knowledge. What's wrong with a young PHD in linguistics tending to these matters? According to Mr Steele that even the best generalists knowledge will not catch the flavor or nuance of language spoken on the terror sites. What's lost in the translation? Not much...if you don't count our National Security.

Also according to him, the "terrorist community" (I know that's an over-used term in this day and age...please try to bear with me, here) knows this and thrives doing so.

One major point of contention he had wa

His book can be purchased on paper, or downloaded free (he has literally put his money where his mouth is). I was about halfway through the electronic version when I decided to support it by buying the hardcopy (which is easier to read anyway).

I strongly recommend this to anyone. Buy it. Read it. Tell other people about it. And mention it in the first post on a digital rights story on /.

From that one story you have hosts of other authors refering to "butterfly effects" and "quantum butterflys".

The term "butterfly effect" derives from the work of Edward Lorenz, a meteorologist who was an early researcher into chaos theory. (In a way, Lorenz was the first chaos theorist -- James Gleick's excellent book Chaos: Making a New Science tells the story in detail.)

Lorenz has said his choice of metaphor was not influenced by Bradbury's story (he hadn't read it). Indeed, he first phrased the idea using a seagull, not a butterfly.

So the term oughta refer to Bradbury's story, but it doesn't. :-)

The movies may be lame but the books have been great over the years. The games seem to get high ratings too.

1. House of Bush, House of Saud: The secret relationship between the world's two most powerful dynasties by Craig Unger, 2004, Scribner. Available as a book and as excerpts on CD.
   
   The Bush family connection with the Saudis is also documented in a new movie by Michael Moore, due for release on July 4, 2004, called Fahrenheit 9/11. Michael Moore won an academy award for his movie " Bowling for Columbine", in spite of the sometimes poor quality of his reporting.
2. Crude Politics: How Bush's oil cronies hijacked the war on terrorism by Paul Sperry, 2003, WND Books, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
3. Worse than Watergate: The secret presidency of George W. Bush by John W. Dean, 2004, Little, Brown and Co., New York. Here are quotes from an NPR Interview of John Dean, which is available online (NPR is National Public Radio in the U.S.):
   
   "This is not a left-right issue. It's not a Republican, Democrat issue. I draw on as many Republicans who are critical of the secrecy of this presidency as I do Democrats." From the written introduction: "Reporters covering the White House of George W. Bush claim that the current administration is more pre-occupied with controlling information than any of his predecessors."
   
   More quotes from John Dean: "Bush is head of state and Cheney is head of government." George W. Bush is "frighteningly unsophisticated for a president of the United States". "I can't find anything that is comparable in history."
4. The Book on Bush: How George W. (mis)leads America by Eric Alterman and Mark Green, 2004. Available as a book and excerpts on CD.
5. Fraud: The strategy behind the Bush lies and why the media didn't tell you by Paul Waldman, 2004, Sourcebooks, Inc. Paul Waldman is the past associate director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center and holds a Ph.D. in communications.
6. American Dynasty: Aristocracy, fortune, and the politics of deceit in the house of Bush by Kevin Phillips, 2004.
7. The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the education of Paul O'Neill by Ron Suskind, 2004, Simon & Schuster. Available as a book and excerpts on CD.
8. Against All Enemies: Inside America's war on terror by Richard A. Clarke, 2004, Free Press. Available as a book and excerpts on cassette and CD. Mr. Clarke was the head of the U.S. government's anti-terrorism effort until he quit because of disagreement with the George W. Bush administration. Mr. Clarke had served under President Reagan, the former President Bush, and President Clinton.
9. Perfectly Legal: The covert campaign to rig our tax system to benefit the super rich -- and cheat everybody else by David Cay Johnston, 2003, Portfolio. Reviews: Powell's Barnes and Noble Amazon
   
   Mr. Johnston has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting.
10. Supreme Injustice: How the high court hijacked election 2000 by Alan M. Dershowitz, 2001, Oxf

Find where it is DISALLOWED. Congressional procedure is based (unsurprisingly) on England's Parlimentary procedure. Check out Roberts Rules of Order and you'll find filibusters discussed rather thoroughly.

But you realize that Communism and individual rights are inherently incompatable, don't you? It's telling that every single Communist (by which I mean Marxist) state that's ever been set up has been totalitarian. There's simply no other way to impose that economic system on people, or even the gross caricature of it that most Marxist states seem to be limited to. The proletariat simply doesn't behave as Marx thought he would. With American-style checks and balances, resulting in an American-style limited government, Marxism is totally unworkable.

The troubling part isn't even so much that our elected officials don't seem to represent the people much. A single man such as the President isn't going to represent everyone's interests no matter how hard he tries anyway. But we actually have far more say in who becomes President now than in the system envisioned by the Founding Fathers. At least now the electors are more or less bound to vote for whom they're told to vote for. That's statutory, or mere custom, not Constitutional. The Constitution just says that the people choose the electors. And we now directly elect our Senators, where for nearly 150 years they were appointed by the state legislatures.

The system we now have in place for selecting Presidential candidates effectively prevents any single person or organization, no matter how influential, from determining who they are to be. It's easy to forget now that before the Iowa caucus, Howard Dean was commonly assumed to be the Democrats' obvious choice. Kerry took everyone by surprise. Unless you're going to assume that some super-powerful organization infiltrated every single caucus meeting in Iowa -- which, remember, takes place among people who pretty much all know each other in settings as intimate as someone's living room -- but I'm sorry. That's just too silly to contemplate.

You can put all the rights you want on a piece of paper, and the people won't derive a single right from it as long as those holding the reins of government are able to override those words with impunity. That the US government has been doing that for many years now, often backed up by the courts, has troubled anyone who's been paying attention. They're just being a tad more obvious about it now in some ways. Or perhaps those troubled about the way they're doing it now is inclusive of a wider set of people.

The Founders assumed that the people would take action to defend their rights when the elected officials trampled on them by voting them out of office in the next election. The American people have proven to favor incumbents far more consistently than the Founders contemplated. That's troubling.

You mean like Clarke's own The Fountains of Paradise?

Well, given that this thred was started by a superconductivity guy, it seems only natural to ask, how about inducing an itty bitty (relatively) current across said asteroid if it is indeed mostly iron (some aren't, ya know) and try to get the induced magnetic field aligned to get it to shift path within the solar system's ambient fields? After all, we're talking about a LONG period of time and a tiny shift in direction. I'm too lazy to do the numbers, but seems to me that rockets of any sort might be a needlessly brute force approach. (And yes, I *did* just reread Flynn's Lodestar .)

Rustin

"Advanced Unix Programming"

I believe you mean:
"Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment"

His "TCP/IP Illustrated" volumes 1-3 are also great.
I havn't read AUP, so I can't compare him to Stevens.

-metric

Or how bout.. P&F were wrong..

...<g> I also left out of scenario 2:

7. 10 years later, greenhouse gas emissions worldwide fall to near zero. 50 years after that, glaciers cover both hemispheres down to the 30th parallel.
See Niven/Pournelle/Flynn's Fallen Angels.

Modern game systems, too! Hack your PlayStation 2 to boot code from the memory card or modify your PlayStation 2 for homebrew game development

Section 1201 Impedes Competition and Innovation.

Rather than focusing on pirates, many copyright owners have chosen to use the DMCA to hinder their legitimate competitors. For example, Sony has invoked section 1201 to protect their monopoly on Playstation video game consoles, as well as their "regionalization" system limiting users in one country from playing games legitimately purchased in another.

* * * *

Sony Attacks Playstation "Mod Chips"

Apart from using the DMCA against vendors of personal computer emulators of Sony's Playstation, Sony has sued a number of manufacturers of so-called "mod chips" for alleged circumvention under the DMCA. In doing so, Sony has been able to enforce a system of geographical regional restrictions that raises significant anticompetitive issues.

So-called "mod chips" are after-market accessories that modify Playstation consoles to permit games legitimately purchased in one part of the world to be played on a games console from another geographical region. Sony has sued mod chip manufacturers in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia. In the U.S., Sony sued Gamemasters, Inc., distributor of the Game Enhancer peripheral device, which allowed U.S. Playstation users to play games purchased in Japan and other countries. Although there was no infringement of Sony's copyright, the court granted an injunction under the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions, effectively banning the use of a technology that would permit users to use legitimately-purchased non-infringing games from other regions.

(whatever happened to IDIC?)

IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations) was a product of Gene's disenfranchisement with the show on season 3. According to Shatner's book on TOS. The budget for the show had steadily trickled down to a near halt over the span of 3 seasons. By the 3rd season, Roddenberry was so fed up with the studio's budget cuts that he said "HERE" with arms extended to Justman and essentially gave him the show to run. Roddenberry even moved his offices off the Desilu lot and to (I believe it was) Universal to devote all his time to a non sci-fi movie that was to star (again, I think, I read it about 10 years ago) Burt Reynolds. That movie never made it out of pre-production and was never made.

At some point during that 3rd season, realizing the rise in popularity of Sci-Fi cons he decided on a brazen marketing ploy: the IDIC. It was a schlocky imitation gold pin. When Roddenberry suddenly appeared on the set with this item (after having been AWOL all season) the actors realized what he was doing an initially refused to wear it. Roddenberry never liked Nimoy much to begin with, and threatened to fire him when Nimoy threatened to walk off the set before he wore it. Roddenberry thought he might have an easier time with Shatner (they were on slightly more friendlier terms...according to Shatner ;) but he just said "NO WAY". Back to Nimoy, he stuck to his guns and Nimoy RELUCTANTLY acceeded to his request. Now, it's an example of accepted Trek lore. I still like the hippy-dippy concept of the IDIC, but my eyes were opened a bit by reading this part.

I read an interview with Braga where he states that the ending of Kirk in Gen was indeed inauspicious and aluded to the fact that it may in fact be rethought. Hey, this is sci-fi. If you can bring back Spock you can most certainly Bring back Kirk.

Of course, Shatner ain't the spring chicken he was. He's over 70 now and has been battling a wieght problem since he was in his 30's at least. You can see the poor guy ballooning with each movie sequel. And in his senior years he's portlier than ever, and most likely not up to the physicality of the job. But by the same token, how could you "prequel" Trek with other actors playing that inimitable cast? Certainly, I would concur that since Enterprise is still in production it wouldn't be likely to involve that cast. Unlesss...there's something we don't know about, yet.

No, but Invasion of the Body Snatchers comes to mind.

It's interesting from the perspective that when the fungus comes to earth it is already too late to do anything about it.

I haven't seen the latest version though.