Slashdot Mirror

You could start with http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0412.html#11, especially point #3.

Then follow the linked article within: http://techaos.blogspot.com/2004/05/indian-evm-com pared-with-diebold.html

You might get the difference between localised (India) and institutionalised (the US) violations of democracy.

By the reports from the court proceedings of some of the few cases that have progressed this far, it certainly looks like RIAA has been proceeding without any kind of proof that will stand in court (for example see http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=200703020 73736822 another good site is http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/ ).

Give them time to sue a few thousands more, and sooner or later some lawyers will realize the bloody fortune they will make by suing RIAA for what they've been doing. And when they start doing so... Well, not only those lawsuits will stop, but those execs will be the ones doing some paying up... and it's not going to be thousands but millions.

Costco likes looking at Lindsay Lohan's boobs, here they are popping out of her shirt

We know this sort of thing costs the nation its soul, but what I can't find in TFA is what all these operations cost the city of New York. Was the city reimbursed? I thought the Bush administarion was failing to deliver on promises regarding security for NYC? Why are they helping him then?
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Thank goodness for sunshine: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

I predict that you are going to get your wish, and soon, and that the University of Wisconsin is just the beginning. See my Open Letter to Universities for a simple plan of action.

I predict that you are going to get your wish, and soon, and that the University of Wisconsin is just the beginning. See my Open Letter to Universities for a simple plan of action.

You might want to cover SL events and musicians too on your blog. My own personal favorites are Komuso Tokagawa, a bluesman who is really an IT guy living in Tokyo, and the band robots.txt, who give a rave called lunacast four times a year.

Also, the Second Life Herald coverage of the Coldwell Banker situation was more worth reading than any comment (except yours ) I saw posted here.

Now for my own take on the corporations in SL thing. After the initial shock I just learned to laugh and ignore them. They all think SL is some new form of top down broadcast media like television. Even that old grandpa guy in the research dept at IBM is an idiot. How come he didn't think Quakeworld was 3d internet 10 years ago ? They'll all go away once they discover there's nothing there for them.

PS -> http://joerupugilist.blogspot.com/index.html

If you read their expert witness's deposition you'll see why it happens; it's because their "investigations" are a sham. See also commentary on Slashdot and Groklaw.

I totally agree with you. If the music industry had music worth purchasing, then I would. I still get a few Cds every now and then, but only from a few artists that I keep up with. The main music industry pushes so much crap at the people they feel insulted to go and buy an album for 1-3 good songs unless they are a completist or have OCD. http://renigade.blogspot.com/

For those unaware, GNUstep got accepted this year ... So if you want to discover a neat little OO language (Objective-C), and work on a really great framework, don't hesitate !

GNUstep is a free implementation of the OpenStep API, cross-platform (windows, linux, etc), close to Apple's Cocoa (ie, Cocoa is itself an extension of the OpenStep API, so in fact you can port Cocoa app to GNUstep and vice-versa -- GNUstep can now even read/write apple nibs natively). In addition to the frameworks, there's nice development tools, in particular Gorm, the GNUstep's pendant to InterfaceBuilder.

Check the GNUstep wiki to see a list of potential projects !

Thanks for posting that -- and kudos to you for putting forth all of the work necessary to get published! As someone working towards being published, let me attest to the fact that it is a lot of work towards improving your craft. Have I removed unnecessary 'that's and other dead words from my dialogue? Have I struck the right balance between descriptive prose and pushing the plot ahead? Is the POV jumping around? Am I keeping track of persistent issues, such as injuries and the locations of objects? Have the characters' motives for their actions been made clear enough? Do plot and action elements catch the reader up soon enough? The list goes on and on. Looking back at my earlier drafts, I've come to realize why it's recommended that you go through a dozen proofreading/revision runs before you start to submit.

Writing is a business in which supply vastly outweighs demand. It's intensely competitive -- especially in genre fiction (sci-fi, fantasy, horror), which I write. A query letter to an agent typically has less than a one in a thousand chance of landing representation. For the big agents, the number may be in the tens of thousands. There's a lot of junk out there, it's true -- but there's also an awful lot of talent that you're up against, and only a limited demand. It's not for money -- authors get 15% of sales (less if you buy from places that purchase in bulk, such as big chains). People just want to write. And with all of these people being rejected, there is a staggeringly huge market for scammers.

All writers should know about this site: Preditors and Editors. Writers should live by this rule: You don't pay anything to agents or publishers; they pay you. Not reading fees, not representation fees, not editing fees, nothing. An agent may *deduct* their expenses from your 15% that the publisher pays, but this comes *after the sale*. You never give them money. Ever. Look for AAR representation in agents. If an agent isn't a member, figure out why before you submit. There are good reasons -- new agents starting out, agents who've been in the business for a long time and have a good reputation already, who subscribe to the AAR guidelines without paying for memembership, etc. But be extra cautious. Never submit to an agent without finding what they've sold recently. Double check.

Scam agents aren't the only ones conning people; I've seen all sorts of grabs for writer cash. The "Sobel Prize" writing contest is a good example. There's bulk querying services that e-query your query letter for a fee (and ticks off a thousand agents at once). There's the POD People (Print On Demand**) -- companies that convince people to pay to self publish with them to bypass that evil publishing industry. They sway authors into believing that they'll get the books on the shelves and market authors to readership. Almost nobody stocks them, and almost nobody they publish ever gets heard of by the general public. The facts are that the publishing industry is very picky. There's far less demand than supply, so they have the right to be picky. Sure, they're not perfect. Almost every good author has a laundry list of rejections. But the cream does, overall, tend to rise to the top. If a hundred agents rejected you, you may want to pause for a minute and think about why. It's not them: it's you.

In a way, the industry is biased *toward* new authors. Let's say a big house signs you, and you sell 25k copies. You better sell 50k copies with your next book, 100k with the one after that, and so on. Otherwise, they're not going to keep wanting your books; they want to clear space in their list for the next up and coming author who will sell a million books.

Anyways, one final recommendation for unpublished authors: Miss Snark. If you have any nitwitted ideas about the publishing industry, she'll knock some sense into you.

** - Not all print on demand is bad. It

I don't use iTunes but Xbox Media Center has no problem talking to iTunes.

http://lavidavegas.blogspot.com/2007/02/ipirate.ht ml :)

Hey my own manservant grammar checker. Cool!

http://bitingtongue.blogspot.com/2004_06_01_biting tongue_archive.html
Google Hits:
"Beck and Call" = 716,000
"Beckoned Call" = 73,400
"Beckonned Call" = 32
'Beckoned Call' = 1 :-)

Well, Google probably have the funds, and they did just buy a company specialising in in-game ads...

(A) Determining the scope and contents of the prior art;
(B) Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims in issue;
(C) Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art; and
(D) Evaluating evidence of secondary considerations.

To establish a prima facie case of obviousness, three basic criteria must be met. First, there must be some suggestion or motivation, either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art, to modify the reference or to combine reference teachings. Second, there must be a reasonable expectation of success. Finally, the prior art reference (or references when combined) must teach or suggest all the claim limitations.

Our position is to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2016 http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/state-of-earth -report.html which seems to us to be prudent. There is certainly sufficient borrowing capacity to achieve this goal though it would take us up to the level of indeptedness experienced just after the second world war. It is worth noting in this thread that a pay out under the Price-Anderson Act for even a moderate scale disaster similar to Cherobyl at, say, the troubled Indian Point reactor could eat up most of this remaining borrowing capacity and we would have to go with more expensive secured credit. Others look for a similar level of emissions reduction by 2030 or 2050. However, we did not win any congressional seats in the last election, though you might be interested in our spending to votes ratio in my district: http://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary.asp?ID=MD 05&Cycle=2006 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steny_Hoyer#Election_ history.

The example of California does show that conservations efforts can work but achieving an 80% reduction in emissions will, I think, require converting to renewables. Relying on price competition alone may not be fast enough but it does show that the transition could boost our living standard which is a step that will help to be persuasive towards adopting our position as national policy.

66 days is a really long time, and assuming this includes the patches from the Month of Mac exploits held in January I'm surprised they said only 1 was high priority. Without seeing their data I wouldn't put much stock into any of this, but I do hope it will shut up some zealots who haven't noticed the playing field is a lot more level than it used to be when it comes to security.

STM has its own problems: http://patricklogan.blogspot.com/2007/02/misguided -road-not-to-be-travelled.html

there's an effort to make an independent artist #1 on iTunes today
http://bumrushthecharts.blogspot.com/
(dunno if it's a scam or not, but it's an interesting idea)

also, there was an interesting story on NPR a while back about recording technology, including some mention of the fact that some people were upset when it came along and changed the way people experienced music (from gathering around and playing/singing to just listening). Music will always be around. The Recording Industry won't.
The Roots of Audio Recordings Turn at 78 RPM by Susan Stamberg
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=6645723
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=1019

It's amazing anyone still using it.

http://www.high-rely.com/index.cfm?action=article

Sudden Disruption
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Sudden View...
        the radical option for editing text
http://www.sudden.net/
http://suddendisruption.blogspot.com/

In each case they were asking for more time because they had too many briefs to write in other cases.

I've been practicing litigation law for more than 28 years, and have never in my career requested additional time for such an asinine reason. They have hundreds of lawyers working for them. These people are losing it.

In each case they were asking for more time because they had too many briefs to write in other cases.

I've been practicing litigation law for more than 28 years, and have never in my career requested additional time for such an asinine reason. They have hundreds of lawyers working for them. These people are losing it.

It's not just attorneys fees, don't you get it?

If the judge awards the defendant $100k in legal fees on the most highly publicized RIAA case, that will
encourage lawyers to jump into the fight helping the defendants and
encourage defendants to fight back.
Plus the attorneys fees awards will wind up being a huge sum if more people are fighting back.

They are, however, interested in avoiding having to pay her legal fees.

In Capitol v. Foster it was held that if they dismiss "with prejudice" defendant is a "prevailing party" and therefore eligible for an award of attorneys fees. See July 13, 2006, Order and Decision. (pdf)

I have set up and supported remote sites and home based telecommuting. Listen to my advice, listen very carefully and save your sanity.

If your organization is large enough then it is likely that you will have a few older desktop PCs that have been or are due for replacement during an upgrade cycle. PCs that are inadequate for Microsoft XP and Office2003 are more than powerful enough for many current versions of Linux, especially for the role of server. Also second hand PCs with the required specifications are very cheaply acquired.

1) Find an older PC, at least a PII 300 with 256 MB memory, to set up as a headless ( no display or keyboard ) server and firewall. A simple web based interface ( or even an external hardware push button ) can be used by the local users to start/stop the server and internet connection. All other maintenance should be handled remotely via ssh, webmin and VNC.
2) Install a second NIC or connect the modem directly to the server. Connection to the Internet should be through the server and connection to the Office should be through a VPN on the server. Use a dynamic IP service for each site so you can remotely log on to the local server via ssh.
3) Install a new IDE hard drive in a 3.5" removable rack and tray. The drive should be than big enough for the operating system (Linux of course) and copies of some of the local desktop partitions. A telecommuter can shut down the server and bring in the drive during the day to resync and repair.
4) Install a DHCP demon on the local server to allocate local IP addresses, DNS and gateway settings. If the desktops are network boot capable then install TFTP to remotely boot and use Knoppix via PXE and the network. If the desktop OS is constantly crashing, or is infected by malware, the user can select PXE/network boot via the BIOS, and boot into Knoppix. The user can then be instructed over the phone to enable the ssh server to allow remote scan,repair and reimaging of the desktop partitions. The user can use the Knoppix desktop to continue working with full access to files while the the remote administrator fixes/reimages the drive in the background.( Consider hiring someone who knows how to customise Knoppix or another live Linux system for your setup )
5) Partition the desktops with as small as required C: partition ( or in the case of Linux the root partition ) for software. When software is install, use dd and netcat via live Knoppix to copy/clone a snapshot of the partition to the server. You can allocate the remaining free space as a persistent partition where documents are stored.
6) Install and enable remote VNC service on all the platforms, but only allow incoming connections from the local server ( which is redirected over a SSH tunnel ).
7) For local backup, create share directories on the desktop accessible by the server. On the local server create loopback encrypted file systems, unmount and copy the images to the desktops shares in chunks, using redundancy if enough space is available on the desktops. Checksum ( MD5 is enough ) each piece.
8) If the network load to the Office is taking up all the available internet bandwidth or the connection is just too slow then install proxy servers on the local server. You can also consider using a distributed filesystem ( OpenAFS is still the best ) wi

http://lavidavegas.blogspot.com/2007/02/ipirate.ht ml

Here: http://crudcrud.blogspot.com/

NIAC has been involved in looking at much larger space and lunar based telescopes. With much of the on the books missions now already off the books, one could see why planning for the future would be getting a lower priority. If you're not really planning on flying the missions you've already spent money on, why dream up new ones. NIAC has also been involved in evaluating some pretty novel propulsion systems as well. Here are a couple http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004AIPC..699..553M and http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/mmb/ antimatter_spaceship.html.
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Aim for the Sun: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

"Actually, if you think about it, this is exactly what software patents are good for."

Well, that would depend on what you mean by 'good' and who it is it is good for. Rest assured, a *monopoly* is only good for the monopolist, not for the enduser, nor the public at large, nor for the stimulation of innovation. There hasn't been a monopoly since its existance which was beneficial for anyone BUT the monopolist; thus, if your viewpoint is that the benefits to the profits of microsoft (or any other monopolist) is the prime measurement for establishing how useful softwarepatents are, then you are right.

However, since a patent is a monopoly granted by the state, and the state has a duty to provide the largest amount of benefits to its citizens as a whole, it is an equally (if not more) valid argument that softwarepatents should be abolished, since the populace doesn't benefit from it, and innovation isn't stimulated by it.

Anyway, I already made an argumentation of the 'use' of softwarepatents (viewed in an EU context) here: http://newsbyte.blogspot.com/2005/07/software-pate nts-manifesto.html

I recently read a critique of "weak" SW (the "lower case semantic web") techniques like microformats, etc. The idea was that we need a high level metadata standard.

Contrary to this opinion:

I recently wrote in my my AI blog about my expectations that the SW will develop from the bottom up. I also wrote about this 3 years ago (PDF "Jumpstarting the Semantic Web", skip to page 3).

So, I partially agree with Stephen Downes that cooperation is unlikely, but the SW in some form will happen.

FTA

What follows is taken from Carlos Barrios' presentation, in his own words: "On December 21, 2012 we will begin to see the fifth sun. With this period will come harmony of space and time, with this period will come balance and a big relation to Mother Earth.

Jut thought that was interesting.

And even Bill Gates has admitted to watching pirated movies on YouTube:

http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/2803
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/06/bill-gates-admi ts-watching-pirated.html

Remember Prohibition?

Robert Rapier went over those numbers and found that one of the outputs had been counted twice. He fixed it, and found that even by the proponent's numbers the EROEI was a lousy 1.09:1.

I read the article on Think Progress, and looking at the comments, I have to wonder (as I always do about these things) if all of these people crying for the wilderness in Alaska realize how gosh darn much of it there is. For crying out loud, you could split Alaska in half and make Texas the third largest state. The vast majority of that land is wilderness. A little bit here and there isn't going to make any sort of noticeable difference. And in 50 years the whole state will be paved, after everyone has been forced to move away from the coasts due to flooding, and the lower latitudes are all 140 degrees(global warming, yay!), so the whole point is moot.

Cool links.

For a short piece on what summer gasoline is about, see Refining 101: Summer Gasoline.

He has another essay on winter gas, IIRC.

I agree that energy storage is a key issue, though it is not impossible to follow Bucky Fuller's vision and simply extend the grid so that the Sun is always shining on it and the wind is always blowing over it.

You might be interested in some of the slides linked here which show that if we follow California in efficiency there is really no need for more coal plants http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/02/trimming.html. My state is looking at some of those programs now. If this happens, then it is just a matter of making the coal plants produce less and less. Once they are down to nothing from time to time, the nuclear plants will be decommissioned.

I've listed some representative yields for ethanol and biodiesel production here: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/02/photosynthesis .html along with where they come from. From what I can see the ethanol yield is substantially higher on a gallon per acre basis. This makes some sense since plants tend to produce more sugar and starch than oil. But, it may well be that biodiesel production is more effective since the squeezed soy or peanuts still contain useful proteins that are incorporated in food and feed.
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Use the Sun better: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

I've listed some representative yields for ethanol and biodiesel production here: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/02/photosynthesis .html along with where they come from. From what I can see the ethanol yield is substantially higher on a gallon per acre basis. This makes some sense since plants tend to produce more sugar and starch than oil. But, it may well be that biodiesel production is more effective since the squeezed soy or peanuts still contain useful proteins that are incorporated in food and feed.
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Use the Sun better: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

There was a de facto ban, whether Lambert is willing to recognize it or not.

See here for details.

Robert Rapier is a chemist with a background in biofuels and renewable energy. He also writes a very technically informative blog on energy.

Here is one of the many things he has to say about the energy balance of ethanol, and why the whole thing is a crock.

Robert Rapier is a chemist with a background in biofuels and renewable energy. He also writes a very technically informative blog on energy.

Here is one of the many things he has to say about the energy balance of ethanol, and why the whole thing is a crock.

You're right that it would reduce pollution.

I discovered recently that electric cars produce less total pollution than conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) cars even when the electricity comes from (current technology, dirty) coal-fired power plants!

This method of producing biofuels looks as though it might enhance soil as well. Looks a bit like a bison ecology: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/314 /5805/1598.
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Graze the Sun: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Sorry to say, I'm trying to catch up with Micheal Moore's films and "Bowling for Columbine" put me to sleep the other night despite it being very popular at Slashdot. I have not seen the film that followed but I've heard that it suggests that Bush is very freindly with the Saudis. Maybe he'd have a hard time doing what you suggest.
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Rent American: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

I've been thinking about energy crops recently because my state Senator Mac Middleton is not on board with the Global Warming Solutions Act currently before the Maryland State Legislature. There was a tobacco buy out some years ago that really put a damper on the economy of southern Maryland because farming activity fell off. People farm just enough to get the buyout money but they can't make much on the replacement crops.

I came across this site which claims that tobacco makes a good energy crop: http://home.ktc.com/bdrake/altengy.html. And, there is still a lot of know-how here about growing tobacco which might come in handy if the encouraging preliminary studies cited there pan out.

I've really only suggested that Senator Middleton attach a buy Maryland provision to the Act that would have state fleets buy Maryland produced biofuels at $3.50 a gallon, the level Tom Freidman suggests as a base price for gas. And, this would likely favor soy or rapeseed based biodiesel rather than ethanol, but the idea of tobacco as an energy crop in Maryland is intriguing.

I notice that TFA misses the Earth Policy Institute's warning that new ethanol production facilites are seriously undercounted. That is linked at my blog http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/02/photosynthesis .html in an entry on biofuels.
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Solar: it beats corn for power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

I've been thinking about energy crops recently because my state Senator Mac Middleton is not on board with the Global Warming Solutions Act currently before the Maryland State Legislature. There was a tobacco buy out some years ago that really put a damper on the economy of southern Maryland because farming activity fell off. People farm just enough to get the buyout money but they can't make much on the replacement crops.

I came across this site which claims that tobacco makes a good energy crop: http://home.ktc.com/bdrake/altengy.html. And, there is still a lot of know-how here about growing tobacco which might come in handy if the encouraging preliminary studies cited there pan out.

I've really only suggested that Senator Middleton attach a buy Maryland provision to the Act that would have state fleets buy Maryland produced biofuels at $3.50 a gallon, the level Tom Freidman suggests as a base price for gas. And, this would likely favor soy or rapeseed based biodiesel rather than ethanol, but the idea of tobacco as an energy crop in Maryland is intriguing.

I notice that TFA misses the Earth Policy Institute's warning that new ethanol production facilites are seriously undercounted. That is linked at my blog http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/02/photosynthesis .html in an entry on biofuels.
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Solar: it beats corn for power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Actually, solar is set to take a big bite out of coal because it can compete on price. In the US, oil is used less for power generation but the price competition is even more obvious. Because the cost shifting on the nuclear power front is so entrenched, particularly with inadequate insurance and no costing of waste disposal, nuclear power appears to be competitive with coal and oil as well, but this is not the case. On the other hand, while solar will reduce coal use, in terms of facilities it will likely shut down nuclear plants first. The reason is that in a distributed renewable grid, base loads become ill-defined. The emphasis has to be on flexibility and low cost energy storage while nuclear power is really only good at constant power output. You can read more about this here: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/why-renewables -displace-nukes-first.html.

I take your point on lobbying, but to me the most important aspect is reliability. Had every fourth house been solar powered after Rita and Katina, our response might have been much more effective and less dependent on federal coordination because food and medicine could have been preserved and water pumped. It is that base level reliability that makes decentralized power generation so attractive.

Yeah because http://xullicious.blogspot.com/2005/06/xul-music.h tml is much better than: http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com/?p=75

1) Have you been to Manhattan recently? There have more rickshaws than in India.

2) IMO it sucks HARD for cities with good public transportation. I probably will not need it in Paris or Amsterdam. However it should do great in large cities with pour public transporation like Rome or Tel Aviv.