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Stories and comments across the archive that link to bayarea.com.

Comments · 157

  1. Re:MSNBC? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative · on Time Warner Properties May Only Be Available Through AOL
    The story is actually from the Wall Street Journal, owned by Dow Jones & Company. If you have a problem with MSNBC, read it from
  2. Don't believe the hype by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Philips & Sony To Purchase Intertrust DRM Tech

    Online retail sales of cds are down according to a widely reported recent survey. The riaa of course blame "piracy," but the Mercury article points out that this claim is controversial. And they talked with John Steup of cdbaby, a source of independent, non riaa recorded music. Steup claims his sales are up dramatically over the last year.

    My take is that the riaa boycot is definitely in effect. The effect is being felt most strongly on net-based retailers, naturally so, because the people most in the know about riaa evildoings are also most likely to buy things online.

    Do not believe the hype. Do not doubt your collective power.

    The outrage is spreading beyond geeks. I am not a geek, and I won't touch a commercial cd nowadays--mostly because I don't want to be bothered with having to return it when it doesn't work. I also deplore RIAA politics and the way they cheat musicians. But mostly I just don't need the hassle. A LOT of people I know feel this way. Keep spreading the word.

  3. Re:Damned if he does, damned if he doesnt... by nicodaemos · · Score: 2, Funny · on Microsoft Targeting Indian Developers
    From the Bay Area article:


    [Gates] said he worried that India's enormous progress in information technology - the country has the only Microsoft software development center outside the United States - would be thwarted by AIDS.


    Researchers have yet to prove that the AIDS virus is not spread through Microsoft Outlook.

    India is using and developing MS products.

    Bill realizes that unless drastic steps are taken, enough Indian programmers may not live long enough to create the next version of clippy.

  4. Re:Damned if he does, damned if he doesnt... by nicodaemos · · Score: 2, Funny · on Microsoft Targeting Indian Developers
    From the Bay Area article:


    [Gates] said he worried that India's enormous progress in information technology - the country has the only Microsoft software development center outside the United States - would be thwarted by AIDS.


    Researchers have yet to prove that the AIDS virus is not spread through Microsoft Outlook.

    India is using and developing MS products.

    Bill realizes that unless drastic steps are taken, enough Indian programmers may not live long enough to create the next version of clippy.

  5. I knew it was terrorists not automobiles... by ainsoph · · Score: 2 · on Carbon Releases in Asia

    Whenever I heard about "global warming" I had this sneaking suspicion that somehow, some way, Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda were behind it all.

    Now my fears were addressed. No longer should I subscribe to the lefty rhetoric that claims that the arrogant use of the SUV has anything to do with "global warming" and its ill (but useful) effects.

    First Dinosaur farts then this!! Yet another reason for getting rid of nature. It just screws with everything!

  6. Remind me in 5 to 10 summers by ch-chuck · · Score: 2 · on Global Warming will Open Northwest Passage

    to have a hearty laugh at those people. Being 42 I can remember past recessions where all kinds of fantastic disasters were immenent - none of which came about. Earth going to hell must be a natural form of entertainment and/or psychological compensation / revenge for the unemployed. ("If only they'd listened to me, the earth could have been saved! Oh well, burn baby, burn!")

  7. Hmm... by Psx29 · · Score: 5, Interesting · on Copy Protection On CDs Is 'Worthless'

    Looks like they have pissed off audiophiles as well...'no digital outputs are being put on SACD/DVD-AUDIO Players until they can secure the digital audio stream'...wtf is the point of higher quality sound on a disc if the output will be even worse?

  8. Re:Alameda County's electronic voting was great by minesweeper · · Score: 1 · on Indecision 2002
    A minor point -- Alameda County is actually the third county in California to utilize touch-screen voting. Riverside and Plumas Counties have already implemented such systems. Alameda is the first in the Bay Area, however.

    And, even though I voted absentee, I've heard pretty much the same things about how easy the system was to use. Basically you're just given a credit-card size "smart card", insert it into touch-screen machine, make your selections, and return the smart card to the elections officials. In the end, things seem to have worked out pretty well.

  9. WTF? by Quixote · · Score: 5, Interesting · on Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
    This writeup sounds familiar.

    I've yet to see a house full of Linux "hardcore" geeks even warm up to a Microshaft presentation. And I've lived in the "geek world" for many many years.

    Just so you know: I have seen the Tablet PC; and most of the people (techies) who were with me were thoroughly unimpressed. I don't know what "Linux crowd" you hang out with, but check their foreheads for butterflies....

  10. Re:The whole political system... by bug506 · · Score: 1 · on Government Web Sites Are Not for the Incumbents

    I do not understand why term limits are a good thing. Why shouldn't people have the right to vote for who they want? Are term limit supporters suggesting that we should not trust the majority of voters, because they are easily duped by these web sites, tv ads, etc.? If that is the case, perhaps we shouldn't let voters vote at all--we simply can't trust them.

    Here in California, we experienced one of the biggest problems with term limits with our recent energy crisis. When everything came to a head, there were two big issues--first, everyone that had voted for the ridiculous deregulation system that was put in place had been termed out of office; there was no one to be held accountable. Second, no one had the experience keeping a government functioning during a crisis--they all looked like deer in the headlights.

    In what other job do we say after only a few years "oh, you've gained experience? Well, time to go, even if you're doing a really good job and everyone likes you."

    The argument that legislators were "supposed" to be part-time workers doesn't sway me either. There are so many complex issues that our government has to deal with that no one would have a chance to learn them well. That's exactly what has happened in California--in fact, the power of lobbyists has increased here. No one terms out the lobbyists, so they have a lot more experience than the legislators they are dealing with. Since the legislators have so little time to get really experienced on any issue, it is a lot easier for the lobbyists to convince them to see their side of the issues.

    The San Jose Mercury News had an article about term limits in California a little while ago:

    http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politi cs/2770226.htm

    It actually does provide pros and cons of term limits; I just don't find the pros too convincing.

  11. Re:This has nothing to do with making money... by 0x0d0a · · Score: 2 · on Expose on Insider Loans

    A pointless question since CEOs are not paid 100 times what an engineer makes, let alone 1000

    Oh, really?

    I suspect almost all engineer salaries range between 50k and 100k. This link (first in a Google search for "CEO salary") lists 62M as an average pay for CEOs in examined companies. These *are* major corporations, mind you.

    That's about 1000x times.

    And yes, the CEO is earning that money. That is simple economics.

    Well...yes, I didn't argue with that.

    I'm not sure that it's in the company's best interests to pay so much, though.

    The problem is that high-level execs are in a position to have significant influence over their own paychecks and bennies, which is just stupid.

  12. Replastering walls when the foundation is cracked by geekotourist · · Score: 2 · on Latest Salvos in the Ongoing Battle Of Webcasting
    So what I get out of these articles, including today's interesting followup Register article is that convenience trumps good research and good data. Even though the foundation of these negotiations- the rate set by the head librarian- was based on flawed data, we should still use it. It would be inconvenient to restart. Congress can't handle working on an issue twice. And I suppose Congress really can't handle the idea of designing laws that require regular checkups and reviews to see if the original assumptions hold up.(1) Annoying but not surprising.

    At the start of all this, the librarian set the rates based on one Yahoo agreement. But Yahoo set these rates to shut out (kill off) smaller broadcasters. Marc Cuban admitted this, as was reported here. Yahoo admitted this to Congress- from
    this SJMercury article:

    "David Mandelbrot, Yahoo's vice president of media and entertainment, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in May that the agreement had been misapplied ``to set excessive rates for an entire industry.''

    I've read nothing that implies that the head librarian has admitted that he used a flawed data source. Not to mention the inherent flaw of using just ONE sample point. Sure, sometimes you can use a single point for a decision "J likes this movie, so I'll see it." But basing rates that can strangle an entire ongoing industry on one sample? With your one sample being an obvious statistical outlier?

    Even in qualitative research you still make sure you have *representative* samples. But this shouldn't be qualitative. This is business. A sector of the economy, however new and small. For this you use quantitative data. For this you hire an econ graduate student and have them spend a couple of weeks gathering data... But ONE sample point??!?? For an entire industry??!?? (Visual of 10,000 Statistics lecturers snapping their chalk in disgust.)

    (1) i.e. remember the debates on reporting requirements and sunset provisions in the PATRIOT Act? Congress seemed to say that asking Congress to revisit and rewrite (or simply extend) the law 2 years later was an unusual request: better to just make it indefinite. The Executive Branch acted as if requiring reviews, updates and progress reports was tantamount to not wanting the law at all. And even the Supreme Court isn't immune, which would be bad news for the Eldred case and Lessig. The Scotus questioning implied that even if the extension is *wrong*, negating the extension could cause chaos. Wouldn't want the public domain and the Constitution to get in the way of Convenience, would we?

  13. mo money, mo money for Sony by SethJohnson · · Score: 2 · on New Linux-based PVR from Sony: Cocoon


    They're probably playing this game like DuPont did with the ' bulletproof' Kevlar vests. First they came out with these awesome vests made of their patented material. All the cops got them. Then a while later, special Teflon-coated bullets hit the streets that could penetrate the vests. Know who makes Teflon? DuPont. But somehow Ice-T got in trouble for just singing a song called CopKiller while DuPont profits off the actual technology of killing cops.
  14. HERE'S WHY--LOOK at what teachers put up with! by scrimmer · · Score: 1 · on Students Outpacing Teachers With Online Skills

    This week's editions of the San Jose Mercury News have been carrying the story of one of its own reporters who jumped into teaching for a year.

    The chronicle begins here, continues here, here, here, and here.

    And people wonder why some teachers don't have time to learn new technology?

    ---
    Me, A SysAdmin-turned teacher
  15. HERE'S WHY--LOOK at what teachers put up with! by scrimmer · · Score: 1 · on Students Outpacing Teachers With Online Skills

    This week's editions of the San Jose Mercury News have been carrying the story of one of its own reporters who jumped into teaching for a year.

    The chronicle begins here, continues here, here, here, and here.

    And people wonder why some teachers don't have time to learn new technology?

    ---
    Me, A SysAdmin-turned teacher
  16. HERE'S WHY--LOOK at what teachers put up with! by scrimmer · · Score: 1 · on Students Outpacing Teachers With Online Skills

    This week's editions of the San Jose Mercury News have been carrying the story of one of its own reporters who jumped into teaching for a year.

    The chronicle begins here, continues here, here, here, and here.

    And people wonder why some teachers don't have time to learn new technology?

    ---
    Me, A SysAdmin-turned teacher
  17. HERE'S WHY--LOOK at what teachers put up with! by scrimmer · · Score: 1 · on Students Outpacing Teachers With Online Skills

    This week's editions of the San Jose Mercury News have been carrying the story of one of its own reporters who jumped into teaching for a year.

    The chronicle begins here, continues here, here, here, and here.

    And people wonder why some teachers don't have time to learn new technology?

    ---
    Me, A SysAdmin-turned teacher
  18. HERE'S WHY--LOOK at what teachers put up with! by scrimmer · · Score: 1 · on Students Outpacing Teachers With Online Skills

    This week's editions of the San Jose Mercury News have been carrying the story of one of its own reporters who jumped into teaching for a year.

    The chronicle begins here, continues here, here, here, and here.

    And people wonder why some teachers don't have time to learn new technology?

    ---
    Me, A SysAdmin-turned teacher
  19. Another report says "only" $500 billion by Jim+Fenton · · Score: 1 · on Fax-Spammers fax.com Sued For 2.2 Trillion

    Another report in The Mercury News says Kirsch is suing for $500 billion. One of his advisors said he had to be talked down to that amount.

  20. If you think this is crap, complain. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Politicians Seek Spam Loophole

    There is a feedback area for this article... The article is crap, so tell the editor why don't you?

  21. An interesting war - Cable boxes vs Set manufactur by joeflies · · Score: 2 · on FCC Mandates Digital Tuners
    This article in San Jose Merc highlighhts some additional interesting battles. It states that tv manufacturers are battling cable companies to integrate the box into the TV set (something long overdue), and that has spilled into the HDTV war.

    What's especially interesting is that the tuner is only used to pull air-based HDTV signals, thus adding additional cost with no practical use to all the cable/sat owners if the boxes.

  22. Re:E-Bay by Alsee · · Score: 2 · on Karl Auerbach Wins Right To Inspect ICANN Records

    I'd have figured they'd have all been Bought Now pretty quickly.

    Nah. The supply ran dry briefly when Enron bought them all up, but then they dumped them back onto E-Bay just in time for the Arthur Andersen buy-up, who then dumped them back on E-Bay just in time for the California government Oracle debacle...

    At which point they the E-Bay supply did briefly dry up because California did an internal transfer of the machines to their INS Center.

    But they dumped them back on the market in plenty of time for Global Crossing Inc. to buy them up and subsequently dump them back on the market for ICANN to buy them up.

    The tobacco companies however, do not participate in E-Bay auctions. They have standing policies on shredding documents. They keep "document shredders located 'throughout the building', as well as of a 'disintegrator' in the basement". Apparently they have to shred so many documents that they still have to "contract with security firm Group 4 to shred those less sensitive papers".

    And, and an added bonus, here's a link to THE ART OF RECONSTRUCTING SHREDDED DOCUMENTS.

    -

  23. Re:right idea, wrong media. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Metabrowse Your Web Routine?
    Not quite. Newspapers have their own reporters and their editors chose a mix of stories from those reporters and the news services based on newsworthiness (a story about a snowstorm in Illinois might be important to Chicago-area papers, but most people in San Diego could care less).

    Most U.S. newspapers are affiliated with the AP and Reuters, though a smaller number use the Agence France-Presse, which is more popular internationally. Then there's United Press International, which is practically dead, so few papers use it.

    Knight Ridder and Gannett are different animals altogether. They are huge corporations which own dozens of tiny newspapers you've never heard of and a few larger papers (USA Today is Gannett's flagship paper, while the San Jose Mercury News is KR's, though KR's Miami Herald is a better paper). One of the "advantages" of these giant corporations is that they share stories with other papers in the corporation, which enables a paper in Fargo to cover an event in San Francisco without having to put up the money for a regional bureau.

    Better papers (New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, etc.) maintain their own bureaus outside their hometowns (for instance, the Washington Post has about 10 bureaus in U.S. cities outside DC [Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, etc.], and about 12 bureaus in international cities [London, Tokyo, Moscow, etc.]), so they use a far higher percentage of their own content, but they still use the AP, Reuters and AFP for stories they can't afford to cover themselves or don't have the time to reach. However, you won't see a Knight Ridder story in a paper like the New York Times.

    The big difference here is that aggregators/metabrowsers are computers that display headlines without discretion. Newspapers employ editors who have been trained in the art/science of news judgment. For this reason, a metabrowser will quickly become exceptionally boring and irrelevant.

  24. Peer-to-peer pioneer kills self? by corebreech · · Score: -1, Offtopic · on RoadRunner Blocking Use of Kazaa

    Story I submitted that got rejected follows. That slashdot refuses to carry this story tells me that the people who run it are whores. My karma here is worthless.

    The New York Times tells us (after we register for free) that Gnutella developer Gene Kan has committed suicide. Let's see, he was young (25) and just over a year ago saw the company he started bought by Sun Microsystems. It would be wrong to jump to conclusions here. It would also be wrong to not start asking questions. Update: 07/11 23:45 GMT by corebreech: Missed this before, but news of his death was withheld until after the body was cremated.

    Additional links:

    CNN story
    San Jose Mercury News stories: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
    Kan's web log
    JXTA
    Free Republic discussion on Gene Kan
    Google search

  25. Peer-to-peer pioneer kills self? by corebreech · · Score: -1, Offtopic · on RoadRunner Blocking Use of Kazaa

    Story I submitted that got rejected follows. That slashdot refuses to carry this story tells me that the people who run it are whores. My karma here is worthless.

    The New York Times tells us (after we register for free) that Gnutella developer Gene Kan has committed suicide. Let's see, he was young (25) and just over a year ago saw the company he started bought by Sun Microsystems. It would be wrong to jump to conclusions here. It would also be wrong to not start asking questions. Update: 07/11 23:45 GMT by corebreech: Missed this before, but news of his death was withheld until after the body was cremated.

    Additional links:

    CNN story
    San Jose Mercury News stories: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
    Kan's web log
    JXTA
    Free Republic discussion on Gene Kan
    Google search

  26. Peer-to-peer pioneer kills self? by corebreech · · Score: -1, Offtopic · on RoadRunner Blocking Use of Kazaa

    Story I submitted that got rejected follows. That slashdot refuses to carry this story tells me that the people who run it are whores. My karma here is worthless.

    The New York Times tells us (after we register for free) that Gnutella developer Gene Kan has committed suicide. Let's see, he was young (25) and just over a year ago saw the company he started bought by Sun Microsystems. It would be wrong to jump to conclusions here. It would also be wrong to not start asking questions. Update: 07/11 23:45 GMT by corebreech: Missed this before, but news of his death was withheld until after the body was cremated.

    Additional links:

    CNN story
    San Jose Mercury News stories: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
    Kan's web log
    JXTA
    Free Republic discussion on Gene Kan
    Google search

  27. Peer-to-peer pioneer kills self by corebreech · · Score: -1, Offtopic · on The Tangled Web Of Fiber Optics Lines & Gates

    Story I submitted that got rejected follows. That slashdot refuses to carry this story tells me that the people who run it have sold their souls. My karma here is worthless.

    The New York Times tells us (after we register for free) that Gnutella developer Gene Kan has committed suicide. Let's see, he was young (25) and just over a year ago saw the company he started bought by Sun Microsystems. It would be wrong to jump to conclusions here. It would also be wrong to not start asking questions. Update: 07/11 23:45 GMT by corebreech: Missed this before, but news of his death was withheld until after the body was cremated.

    Additional links:

    CNN story
    San Jose Mercury News stories: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
    Kan's web log
    JXTA
    Free Republic discussion on Gene Kan
    Google search

  28. Peer-to-peer pioneer kills self by corebreech · · Score: -1, Offtopic · on The Tangled Web Of Fiber Optics Lines & Gates

    Story I submitted that got rejected follows. That slashdot refuses to carry this story tells me that the people who run it have sold their souls. My karma here is worthless.

    The New York Times tells us (after we register for free) that Gnutella developer Gene Kan has committed suicide. Let's see, he was young (25) and just over a year ago saw the company he started bought by Sun Microsystems. It would be wrong to jump to conclusions here. It would also be wrong to not start asking questions. Update: 07/11 23:45 GMT by corebreech: Missed this before, but news of his death was withheld until after the body was cremated.

    Additional links:

    CNN story
    San Jose Mercury News stories: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
    Kan's web log
    JXTA
    Free Republic discussion on Gene Kan
    Google search

  29. Peer-to-peer pioneer kills self by corebreech · · Score: -1, Offtopic · on The Tangled Web Of Fiber Optics Lines & Gates

    Story I submitted that got rejected follows. That slashdot refuses to carry this story tells me that the people who run it have sold their souls. My karma here is worthless.

    The New York Times tells us (after we register for free) that Gnutella developer Gene Kan has committed suicide. Let's see, he was young (25) and just over a year ago saw the company he started bought by Sun Microsystems. It would be wrong to jump to conclusions here. It would also be wrong to not start asking questions. Update: 07/11 23:45 GMT by corebreech: Missed this before, but news of his death was withheld until after the body was cremated.

    Additional links:

    CNN story
    San Jose Mercury News stories: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
    Kan's web log
    JXTA
    Free Republic discussion on Gene Kan
    Google search

  30. San Jose Mercury News has stories too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic · on Public Software Fund's First Project

    Monday's story
    Tuesday's story
    Wednesday's story

  31. San Jose Mercury News has stories too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic · on Public Software Fund's First Project

    Monday's story
    Tuesday's story
    Wednesday's story

  32. San Jose Mercury News has stories too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic · on Public Software Fund's First Project

    Monday's story
    Tuesday's story
    Wednesday's story

  33. Re:What you meant to say by Isaac-Lew · · Score: 2 · on 3 Megabit Cable Modems, Anyone?
    I think you meant "I hope ATT and Comcast can take a check," because you aren't getting anything for free from those two price-gouging bastards.

    Yes you will get something from those two price-gouging bastards... one big price-gouging bastard :(.

  34. Re:NY times by guttentag · · Score: 4, Interesting · on News Sites Getting to Know You
    Let's look at newspaper front pages from a recent big news day (Thursday):

    I would post examples from The NYTimes, but they don't let you see previous issues of the paper online for free. However, as I recall their picks closely mirrored The Washington Post's:

    The Washington Post
    Top Story: Cyber-Attacks by Al Qaeda Feared
    No. 2 Story: SEC Charges WorldCom With Fraud
    No. 3 Story: U.S. Court Votes to Bar Pledge of Allegiance

    The Los angeles Times
    Top Story: 'Tweens: From Dolls to Thongs
    One of the store mannequins wears a fringed denim skirt riding low on the hips and a top pushed high on the midriff. Another has shorts that roll down on the tummy and a one-shoulder top.
    No. 2 Story: Pledge of Allegiance Violates Constitution, Court Declares
    No. 3 Story: WorldCom Hit With Federal Fraud Lawsuit

    The Los Angeles Times shows a consistent bias toward "Reader's Digest" type stories that are entertaining and give you something to gossip about but don't really tell you anything of value. I also get the sense that many LA Times reporters are really failed screenplay writers who can't let go of the need to create drama. However, they do occasionally print something worth reading.

    The LA Times is owned by The Chicago Tribune , which puts even less original content on its Web site and is more "in-your-face" about pressuring you to subscribe.

    I suspect Slashdot would link to The Wall Street Journal more often if the paper made more than 1% of its content available to non-paying subscribers. (I had a paid subscription to wsj.com for about a year, but I no longer do because it's just not worth that much to me.)

    I'd like to read Le Monde , but the French refuse to publish an English version. Go figure.

    All of Knight-Ridder's newspapers (The San Jose Mercury News , Miami Herald , Philadelphia Inquirer , et al) have been crippled by the "RealCities Network" which forces all of its sites to use the same content-poor, ad-rich design. The saddest story of the group is the SJMercury though, which has just fallen apart since the parent company began slashing costs and forcing the RealCities conformity on its once industry-leading site. The Miami Herald is an unofficial training school for future Washington Post reporters, but that doesn't matter if you can't find their content on the Web.

    Slashdot doesn't link to the Financial Times often (ever?), though it's a great paper. It just doesn't turn out a lot of unique content that's of interest to most Slashdot readers.

    Newspapers aside, Slashdot has linked to CNN and the BBC in the past, though not the CBC . ABC, CBS and NBC generally provide watered down news for people who don't like to read newspapers -- not Slashdot readers.

    Slashdot often links to MSNBC , but I expect that will begin to decline -- MSNBC.com's founding editor (Merrill Brown, a former Washington Post reporter) recently announced that he's resigning after 6 years to pursue other, undisclosed "opportunities." The New York Times noted on June 12 (you'll have to pay for the archived version of the story) that he offhandedly mentioned that MSNBC.com is about to be swallowed by MSN for economic reasons. (In other words, Microsoft put its foot down and said financial concerns outweigh editorial concerns.)

    The International Herald-Tribune writes some of its own content, but a lot of the paper is an amalgamation of New York Times and Washington Post stories.

    I haven't read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer or the Seattle Times in a while, but you may find some good technology stories there.

    Bottom Line: Slashdot links to a disproportionate number of New York Times and Washington Post stories because both papers' sites post a lot of content and that content is top notch. It also helps that they're among the most recognizable names in journalism, but the Slashdot system is set up to allow editors to pick from the best stories that are submitted, regardless of the content provider's brand recognition. If you read a good story somewhere, submit it -- the quality of the story is more important than the misguided registration policies of the content provider. And if I've missed a good site people should be reading, reply to this message and let people know.

  35. Additional Coverage by dragons_flight · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Own a Little Bit of Berkeley Physics History

    Contra Costa Times

    UCB Campus News

    I'm a UCB physics grad student. The primary motivation for the sale isn't to make money or make room for new gear. They actually have to do it because the part of the physics building is scheduled for a seismic retrofit, and the temporary building can't accommodate all the old stuff in the attics.

    Some material will be kept for display and for gifts to retiring faculty.

  36. Re:Show me the links by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on AP reports on renewed "Browser War"

    How about Boston Globe or USA Today? Maybe San Jose Mercury News? Or heck, even MSNBC a site co-owned by NBS and Microsoft?

    Also, Washington Post ran their own story over the weekend.

    So, yeah, looks like the AP does go out to lots of places besides CNN, huh?

  37. Re:Well, it dependes on the paper's circulation by Drunken+Coward · · Score: 0 · on Weblogs and Local News?

    Please please please fix the San Jose Mercury News web site! It has got to be the most horribly designed website in existence! The search feature doesn't even work, and the navigation is terrible. KR is a huge company too so I'm sure they could give you a boat load of money for a good job.

  38. Re:Constitutional freedom by karmawarrior · · Score: 2 · on Taking Issue With The Outer Space Treaty
    Far from breaching the will of the ECHR, these fines are mandated by the ECHR
    Citation please. There are anti-hate-speech laws throughout Europe, but few if any would cover simple criticism of immigration policies. And that's despite the fact that immigration policies are a hot potato in Europe - we don't easily forget. If simple demands for tighter immigration coupled with latent racism were illegal, you wouldn't be able to sell British newspapers anywhere but Britain. The Daily Mail, in particular, routinely runs blatently racist campaigns against immigrants.
    For a similar case, see here [freerepublic.com]
    No... that's not a similar case to anything you described, and it's not even substantiated. And it is about someone actually pushing hate speech, rather than someone criticising government policy.

    And I'd like to see a real report, preferably Reuters or AP please, but a real newspaper will do, backing up your original allegation that politicians were fined by the legal system merely for criticising immigration policy. I suspect what we either have here are blatent, nasty, attacks on immigrants designed to whip up hatred, that a supporter has tried (successfully, sadly) to stir support from the American right wing by attempting to invoke the spectre of censorship.

    Even more worrying, the ECHR has recently ruled that Europeans also have a `human right' not to hear criticism of government, and thus member states and EU insititutions may act against those who criticize EU actions and policies -- see this article [freerepublic.com] from the Telegraph for more.
    No, the ECHR has done nothing of the sort. The ECJ has ruled that the EU is entitled to fire staff members who publicly criticise its policies. Not that that happens in America. There is mucho confusion in that Telegraph article, which isn't surprising because the Telegraph is one of a gaggle of British newspapers running an anti-EU campaign at the moment, and the British press have never been ones to let the facts get in the way of a good story, even if they look sillier for it.

    The European Court of Justice is a constitutional part of the European Union, as you could have seen by glancing at that link I gave you. The ECHR, OTOH, is an entirely independent body. It has nothing to do with the EU, and countries answerable to it are not necessarily EU members and vice versa. Read between the (hysterical) lines that follow in the Telegraph article and you find essentially a rather bizarre spin being put on a perfectly natural conclusion - that the EU doesn't have to employ anyone who actually is working against it.

    It would certainly be interesting to see what actually happened in the case of the "fined politicians", your "similar" case, if similar, doesn't exactly paint them as sweet innocents who unfairly fell on the sword of political correctness, but of hatemongers. You do need a better source of news than Free Republic, and I wish I could point you at anything specific, but reading both The Independent and The Times should give you a slightly more balanced picture than you're used to.

    And personally, given the choice between a country that has minor penalties for obvious hate speech, that doesn't feel that the use of drugs implies that you should be the target of rapists and thugs, and a country that thinks the opposite (except that the KKK does have restrictions, which ironically the oh-so-PC-and-bane-of-freepers-everywhere ACLU is regularly challenging) - well, no contest there.

  39. Re:USAF junk ? by SEWilco · · Score: 2 · on China Bans U.S. Electronic Scrap
    "...maybe we could convince the 1.2 billion Chinese, that you can dump your junk on their soil, if they can dump their junk on your soil.
    Come to think of it, the US might still be better off: It is still the world's largest poluter per capita and *not willing to do anything about it*."

    China is polluting the USA soil. Actually, a lot of the pollution is their soil. Fortunately, they have a large population to reduce the pollution per capita.

  40. More FUD from Valenti by -tji · · Score: 2 · on Valenti's "Boston Strangler" Testimony

    Coincidentally, there was an article on the front page of the Business section of the San Jose Mercury today, where Valenti was spreading FUD about online piracy hurting movie sales.

    Online film piracy cuts into industry profit

    I am not sure why, but to illustrate this problem, they used two huge blockbuster movies, which are setting records for revenue, SpiderMan, and Attack of the Clones.

    The article quotes from our favorite superhero, in his typically understated manner:

    ``It's getting clear -- alarmingly clear, I might add -- that we are in the midst of the possibility of Armageddon,'' said Jack Valenti, president and chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America.

    This guy has been meddling in politics since LBJ was in office. His view of technology has obviously not changed since that time.

  41. More info... by scrm · · Score: 3, Informative · on Napster Execs Resign, Company Appears to Teeter

    here and here.

  42. Re:So far... by PimpNasty · · Score: 1 · on P2P Programs on K-12 Networks?

    Throttling traffic to a crawl:
    A good initial idea, but this will lead to teachers complaining about the network being slow in general, and when you ask what they are doing when it is slow, they will "Not know". Think on this if you are going to do it. See the "blocking ports" section.

    Bull shit. Schools dont pay for internet access to be used for downloading music. If teachers are complaining about the network being slow and forget what they are doing when it is slow tell them "Well, the network speeds are fine for me. I can't help you if I dont know what program you are running so I can test it." or "Next time this problem happens just call/page me. I will be right down." If P2P is that big of a problem throttle them down to almost nothing. (5 packets/minute)

    Also remember to mention how sharing music on a P2P network is illegal and can have lawsuits brought against the school district for allowing such activity. Send them this link to check out too.

  43. Pizza delivering hit-man? Hardly. by dws · · Score: 1, Interesting · on The Dangers of Being A Microbiologist

    More on the pizza delivery hit can be found in the Mercury News article. This looks like a case of a brilliant scientist spiraling out of control after being fired. (They worked together. She was involved with his firing. He shoot her.) Such a thing is, sadly, not unknown in Silicon Valley.

  44. Re:Thai girls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic · on Fire Extinguisher Balls

    Man, this is one fucked up thread. Especially since that guy just got convicted of going to Vietnam to have sex with a minor.

  45. Re:More details from LA Times columnist by Tackhead · · Score: 4, Insightful · on Oracle Investigation Grows
    > CA was famous for years for doing all sorts of stuff to "make the numbers" at the end of each quarter.

    Computer Associates' sales practices, or the State of California's budgeting? (Budget deficit of $12B six weeks ago, now $22B, and a certain Governor who wants to shift revenues and expenses to hide it. The accounting's legal, but it's still, IMHO, deceptive.)

    All of which reminds me of an old joke:

    Accounting Department: "It's March 31st, do we know whether we're gonna make our numbers for first quarter?"

    Sales Department: "How the fsck should I know yet, I just got back from lunch! The quarter's only halfway over!"

  46. Science Knowledge, Math Literacy (Numeracy) by markwelch · · Score: 3, Interesting · on Science a Mystery to U.S. Citizens
    My gosh, how many years has it been since I read a column in PC Magazine, probably in 1985, urging an emphasis on "numeracy" as a special focus along with "literacy" ??

    Just last week, I read an article in Mother Jones magazine about Robert Moses, a 60's civil rights leader who now is strongly advocating better math education for minorities, both through his own actions teaching in a Mississippi school (he commutes weekly from his Massachusetts home, bless those dedicated liberals), and in his book, Radical Literacy . (I just ordered the book, ISBN 080703127, but haven't got it yet.)

    I absolutely agree that math and science education should be a stronger emphasis in schools (math is probably more important than science, but they each fuel the other). And clearly, inner-city schools, and other poor schools, provide lousy education, especially in math and science. And as the survey cited here demonstrates, that lousy education shows.

    Here in Pleasanton, California, a wealthy suburb, my Rotary Club awards prizes each month to a "student of the month." I'm amazed each month that these kids all take multiple AP classes (sometimes five or six) and have GPAs of 4.15 or 4.25. When I went to school, even taking AP Calculus, it was mathematically impossible to have a GPA greater than 4.0 -- speaking of "math literacy". But what about the many inner-city students who never graduate from high school, and lack even the basic math skills required to work at a cash register? (Ask your local McDonald's manager how they work around the lack of functional literacy and math skills.)

    Another book plug: I just finished the book And Still We Rise , a reporter's account of a year in an AP English classroom in South Central Los Angeles. It's a remarkable book that left me feeling hopeful (unlike most books in this genre, which leave me frightened and numb). But alas, that book focuses only on just a few dozen surviving geniuses, and not thousands of their peers whose best efforts could not overcome the cruel challenges of the inner-city school environment.

    Finally, I read an article in yesterday's newspaper (the Valley Herald), recounting a new bill by my local state legislator, who wants to exempt more new teachers from needing teaching credentials. The bill's stated intent is to allow more skilled professionals to teach, but I suspect the real goal is to circumvent teaching standards and put more lower-cost teachers into classrooms without adequate training.

  47. cost benefits ratio by Alien54 · · Score: 2 · on "eCycling" Pilot Program in 5 States and D.C.
    This has got to be better than the option reported a couple months back, that many old computers wind up dumped in Asia.

    I see a problem with cost. Proper disposal of a computer in the United States normally costs between $5 and $10, compared to $1 or less in third-world countries.

  48. Re:Today, the WTO pulled the trigger on another 2. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Wipout Essay Results

    It's not just religious leaders, it's also the U.S. government.

  49. Re:Today, the WTO pulled the trigger on another 2. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Wipout Essay Results

    Well, thanks to Bush and the gang, kids in the U.S. are no longer going to learn about safe sex in schools. Gee, that makes sense- there's a teenage pregnancy problem as well as an endemic of STD's, so let's stop teaching kids about condoms! It's so stupid, it's gotta make sense!

  50. Re:bullcrap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Depleted Uranium May Stop Kidneys "In Days"
    From what I read in the article, Italian troops in Bosnia had a lower incidence of cancer than the general population.

    Then you had better read them again:

    Italian researchers began studying the illnesses of veterans of Balkans peacekeeping missions after noting an apparently high number of cancers.
    -- http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/news/nation/284 3170.htm

    Sheesh.