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See also patenting the patently obvious .. Rejected Tuesday March 14, @02:15PM

I believe (and I write often about) that Intellectual Property is nothing more than telling people what they are not allowed to do with their own labor on their own property. Imagine if lawn mowing was protected by copyright or a patent. Crazy? Yet I can't mimic the actions of others on my own property? Try singing Happy Birthday to a group of people -- its illegal.

I don't believe you can criminalize the non-violent actions of consenting adults while on their own property. I don't believe you can criminalize the copying of data as long as you're the one doing the labor.

Labor is only useful and marketable as a NOW situation. When you pay someone for their labor, you either get an immediate product (say a concert or a theater production or a lawn mowed) or you get the knowledge to do the labor yourself.

To use government to stop me or anyone else from mimicing others is criminal, in my mind. I don't believe in the right to force others to pay you residual income on past work.

http://shade51.blogspot.com/

Please vote the poll http://ictreligion.blogspot.com/2006/02/religion.h tml

I'm a known gold bug and I've been very interested in the industrial applications of gold (partially to gauge demand issues for future supply). In recent months I've found gold being useful for medicine (possibly as a cancer detector most recently). Now it seems it is useful in finding drugs (although I'm sure this would be only for a police purpose, in a free market the same device might be useful in finding the best drugs).

What are the reasons for gold being used in these situations? I'm very familiar with gold's uniqueness, but it surprises me that it is becoming such a popular metal again -- even beyond the computer and audio industry. Is it really unique for these applications, or is it just a great way for the manufacturers to pad their bottom lines?

Although they have chosen to deploy Linux using the traditional thick desktop/workstation model, they use a spare server that operates as an X11 application server. This is used on a regular basis by the helpdesk, IT support and a few Windows users that access both windows and remote X Linux. The rescue partition, that can be also network booted via PXE, is based on the Linux Terminal Server Project ( http://www.ltsp.org/ ). During an install or if a security violation is detected, the user of the desktop is booted into Linux thin client, and can access all their files though the Application server. Forensic examination, repairs and installs can take place in the background while the person uses the thin client.

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 )

This sounds like a good idea from the perspective of trying to protect the gamer's "rights" but in the end it will do nothing for the average gamer and everything for those who seek to control gamers. Lobbying groups and voting groups only have power as a minority unless they have the money to get real attention from Congress. This group won't raise anywhere near what is required to move Congress to act.

When Congress does act, it will always act in ways to make itself powerful. Laws that seem to help the masses really only help a select few, with the masses losing more of their rights. I'm a firm believer that the interstate commerce clause was written to give power to Congress to just keep the states in line in not usurping the rights of the people. Nowadays, most people think the clause gives Congress the power to do anything it wants to do.

If you really believe we're supposed to live freely, you have to leave the gaming market to the competitive market -- developers aren't going to make games that people don't want to play. If even 5% of the entire nation decides to buy a game, that's stil 15 million people. Yet 15 million people is a minority in voting -- if 95% of the nation is against a particular game, why should 15 million people be shut out?

I'm also anti-voting as I feel voting is what causes the minority decision to be criminalized. The best voting is voting done with your dollars -- each and every action you make to buy something or to refuse to buy something creates the rules of the market. These are rules that change every day as the buying decisions change to reflect what consumers want.

The end result will be more rights lost as the voting group gives up a little bit in order to gain a little bit. The problem is that no one gains anything when it comes to Congress, except for the preferred few. What you really think you're gaining is something you had a right to all along, until you decided to give up some of those rights in exchange for protecting some other rights that never really needed protecting. In the long run, the slippery slope rule says you'll lose all the rights as those in power taste more and more of that power.

The root of the problem here is that the USPTO definition of 'obvious' is not the usual understanding of the term. I did an essay about this recently

In particular the USPTO thinks that taking an obvious idea and taking the obvious to any idiot step of doing it on the Internet using standard engineering approaches merits a state sponsored monopoly.

What I am trying to get at here is that there are three tracks to patent reform. The first is write new rules to make the patent system more relevant to the modern economy. The second is to abolish patents altogether. The third is to make the USPTO implement the same longstanding principles that other PTOs have always enforced and the USPTO did a good job of from about 1930 up till the 1980s.

I think that the first track is certainly necessary, some changes are needed. But this is going to take a lot of time, will be very complex and will require a lot of political capital. The second track ain't going to happen. The third track is immediately implementable and gets 80% or more of what the industry desperately needs.

At present the patent system is not only failing the software provider, it is also failing the legitimate inventor with a legitimate, defensible invention.

Yep, and that's exactly why I made a point this year of downloading one each of BSD, Open Solaris, Plan 9 from Bell Labs, and GNU/HURD: just to try each one on for size to see which one I want to jump to after the peabrains ruin Linux. I have a feeling you'll like the full story.

http://www.millionfirefoxconverts.blogspot.com/

Selling at gas stations for $5!

The Muslim Heritage Exhibition features inventions which it claims to be by Muslims although many of them simply aren't.

Cisco is prolly thinking about home networking. Its the area every tech. major thinks is the way to acheive the "Third Paradigm". http://witopia.blogspot.com/2006/03/ubicomp-rumina tions.html

I wonder if Ubuntu will run on the upcoming 17" MacBook Pro, described here in full detail: http://shadowconflict.blogspot.com/2006/03/apple-1 7-macbook-pro-predictions.html

You, sir, represent the type of ignorance I have to deal with on a daily basis. So I'm going to address your comment as if you are the head of the local "ADHD is a figment of my government's imagination" chapter, a subchapter of the "ADHD people are just lazy lusers who don't try hard enough" national organization. I realize you haven't personally attacked me, but in the spirit of an open exchange of ideas in our society I hope you realize I'm not personally attacking you either.

First, to those that think that AD/HD is a fabricated malady providing yet another way for "the Man" to enforce conformity in the youth of America, pull off your tinfoil hat. Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are unfortunate names that describe a small percentage of our population that have attention consistency problems. That means that their brain is either unable to focus on something, constantly drifting off even without them realizing it, or their brain is hyperfocusing on something, closing out all external stimuli to their detriment. From personal experience I can tell you that it is quite involuntary and extremely disruptive to learning, though the hyperfocusing aspect has its upsides. All aspects of society are exercises in conformity, and the person who can't pay attention or pays too much attention to the wrong things will miss every relevant cue they need to fit in or be productive. Since I could care less about fitting in, I focus (as best as I can ^_-) on being productive. I think being accomplished is fairly important to a person's self-esteem.

Second, to those that think that helping people fit in and be productive is repugnant, try NOT being productive 24/7 for a decade or two and get back to me. The fitting in part is up to the individual's desires, but being productive is important. Forget "the Man". If one can't focus and follow projects through to the end, then one is at the mercy's of one's own misfiring brain. Last time I checked, that wasn't fun or desirable.

Third, to those that suggest that psychotropic drugs and behavioral treatments judiciously applied are acceptable but video games attempting to train people with AD/HD to focus is wrong, with all due respect I think you folks are a pinheads. What behavioral treatments are you people referring to? Electroshock therapy? Spankings? How is a game that trains one to focus not a behavioral treatment? Or worse, an exercise in conformity?

Fourth and final, I recommend you learn what it's like to have troubles focusing with ADHD. Visit my blog on ADHD. I write about it almost every week. Heck, visit my blog anyway even if you don't want to know. I welcome dissenting viewpoints there, but really I hope you ADHD Doubting folks might learn something. Not only do I attempt to humorously cover the topic of AD/HD (as well as other neurological disorders) with a sense of humor, the comments attached to every column are filled with various viewpoints of people who struggle with AD/HD. IMO, these comments prove that this isn't just a fictional malady invented by psychologists for profit (the Scientologist angle), or schools to have a reason to medicate the masses (the tinfoil hat angle). Just because some psychologists (alright, MOST psychologists) are shameless snakeoil salesmen shilling for the pharmaceutical industry by taking advantage of a mental condition doesn't mean that condition is fabricated. And just because some educators believe conformity is best produced by heavy medication doesn't mean the entire school system wants to medicate all children to be happy members of the new working class.

In the meantime, I would like to see more critical analysis of this technology, not dismissal. Are the changes in the ADHD mind real? Or is this an expensive placebo for rich but gullible people? Assuming the changes are real, are claims of cured ADHD minds overstated? Did the changes last over time? Is there a benefit t

These games have come a very long way from their Pacman days, and even further from their days of moving bar graphs up and down. And as the article reveals, there is now a home version, something I wasn't aware of, that converts any game into a focus training exercise. As the doctor in the article claimed, it is better to go into the office to have the full treatment with the feedback results, but at $50 a session for weeks on end many people cannot take advantage of this technology. Unfortunately, the home kit costs $584, not including medical advisement. 12 sessions (the usual period for neurofeedback) at $50 each costs only $600, including medical advisement. The home kit sounds more like a toy for rich boys or agoraphobics at this point than a viable financial alternative.

Aside from the obligatory "Oooh, shiny" type jokes around here, there has been an awful lot of ignorance concerning this subject. Stating the obvious, people with AD/HD have problems focusing (I cover that in a recent blog entry concerning boredom and the ADHD mind). Utilizing technology to provide a person with attention problems a method to retrain himself is something that should be celebrated, not mocked. Psychotropic drugs, the usual treatment, have dangerous side-effects. I have Chronic Motor Tic Disorder now because I took meds to treat AD/HD. That was 14 years ago, and I'm getting worse, not better. I can assure you I was better off before the meds. Besides, our minds acclimate to the meds so they have limited efficacy before needing dosage boosts. I can't see how learning to train one's mind to think better without medication is a bad thing, especially if it finds positive ways to utilize video games. I'm surprised by the negative comments around here. Perhaps the article should have focused on how this technology boosts GTA stats and fights censorship at the same time?

My only concern about modifying Playstation games to utilize this focusing technology is the problem AD/HD people have with hyperfocusing. AD/HD isn't only about being unable to focus. It's also about hyperfocusing to the exclusion of all other external stimuli, a problem with upsides and downsides. The doctor they interview recommends only 30 minute sessions for adults using this technology, but if one doesn't have will power or a handy mother/wife/girlfriend/buddy to yank the plug, one could simply use the technology as another way to hyperfocus while playing video games. I'm surprised they haven't shipped the controllers with a shell program that launches other games but cuts them off after 30 minutes.

I don't want my AD/HD eliminated. I rather like how quirkily creative I've become because of it. But having the ability to focus my creative energies for my own projects, business, etc. could only be a good thing. Meds are not an option for me anymore, and frankly, are being pushed on people like magic pills. Any tool we can utilize to develop coping strategies to deal with AD/HD and utilize it as an attribute are good tools in my opinion.

CinemaTech already ran this blurb the other day, and Scott Kirsner has been talking about the pros and cons of Digital Cinema over there for a long time now.
If this is the sort of story that strikes your fancy, you need to add CinemaTech to your daily reading list.

Here's the National Association of Theatre Owners Digital Cinema System Requirements. Found via CinemaTech, of course...

Matt Jeppsen
FresHDV.com

CinemaTech already ran this blurb the other day, and Scott Kirsner has been talking about the pros and cons of Digital Cinema over there for a long time now.
If this is the sort of story that strikes your fancy, you need to add CinemaTech to your daily reading list.

Here's the National Association of Theatre Owners Digital Cinema System Requirements. Found via CinemaTech, of course...

Matt Jeppsen
FresHDV.com

check this too: http://i-found-my-holygrail.blogspot.com/

Ok, I might be trolling on this but it is worth it.

I've gotten so tired of having to tell this to people one at a time, I blogged it. I see this as the only viable way to regain your Internet Freedom.

http://millionfirefoxconverts.blogspot.com/

Only 999,935 more downloads to go.

The Internet makes a market out of the smallest segments, and enables producers to enter those markets.

After a short while I decided that it was pretty counter productive. The nazis wanted to be booted off Usenet so they could whine 'censorship'. Thats why Irving went to Austria, he wanted to be made a martyr, at least up to the point he went to prison when I think he got buyers remorse.

I did a piece on this on my blog if folk are interested in the origins of all this. The punchline being that censoring the net.nazis is like feeding trolls.

The modern holocaust denial movement only got started after the Canadians went after Zundel and Irving brought out 'hitler's war'. Most of the 'documents' that have circulated since were produced (i.e. fabricated) for that trial.

I don't think that any but the rawest, most naive recruits beleive a word of the holocaust denial crap, they love Hitler precisely because they know it is all true. The whole point in promoting it is to get censored.

...it's not the first time in history that it's happened. Massive disruption in the way knowledge is constructed occurred in Ancient Greece with the transition from primary orality in the face of the phonetic alphabet, and again in the 15th century with the transition from the manuscript culture to the print culture. Western society is again in the midst of a massively disruptive transition that began with the introduction of the telegraph (marking the transition from print to electric communication) and will end roughly 150 years from now. By that time, our society will quite likely be regarded as quaint, and somewhat primitive.

A much more detailed examination of this is blogged here, with the full text of the lecture available for download.

After the incident was publicized, the Ontario Ministry of Education was investigated and two teachers were suspended.

Canadian Islamic groups are now protesting the inequity of the Ministry's actions. They are demanding that the Ministry investigate hate speech at Jewish schools. And as an example of what they are concerned about, the Canadian Islamic Congress issued a press release on Friday calling for the investigation of a Kingston-area Hebrew school. The reason? A nine-year-old student at the school published a letter in the Kingston newspaper, the Whig-Standard, charging that Palestinians wished "to push the Israelis into the sea." According to the Islamic Congress, the views expressed in the child's letter are views "damaging to healthy relationships among many Canadians in our multicultural and pluralist society." Maybe you remember that famous jibe of Anatole France's about the law with majestic impartiality forbidding both the rich and poor to sleep under bridges? In the same way, the Canadian Islamic Congress seems to believe that healthy multiculturalism should treat exactly equally an Islamic school that encourages young Muslims to fantasize about murdering Jews - and a Jewish school that teaches its students to object to being murdered.

Therein lies the danger. As Jefferson so aptly wrote centuries ago, the best cure for such speech is more free speech and the clear light of day. To involve the government in such matters can only result in direct government involvement in private political debate. In Canada, if the government objects to what one says, one is simply declared illegal. One must shut up or face the full sanction of the law. No doubt this would please our liberal friends to no end, having thoroughly lost every public policy debate since around 1979. We understand that freedom of speech is painful to liberals. We know what you're going through, having had to live through the era when you controlled the public debate and no dissenting voices to liberal orthodoxy were allowed into the hallowed halls of CBS News or the New York Times.

linky:

http://newsisyphus.blogspot.com/2005/04/canada-and -hate-speech-codes.html

You can be sure that only white racists will be prosecuted. Islamic hate will be tolerated, and no fines will be assesed on Canadian web sites that advocate the killing of infidels.

My grandmother can testify to that, as I learned a couple weeks ago. Around Christmas time, she was badgered into saying her account number to a scammer over the phone (I know all responsible slashdotters are saying, "No, no, no, stupid, stupid, stupid," -- but she comes from a different, more data-insensitive era.) The scammers then wrote a check for her and ended up taking about $700 from her account.

She never signed a check, never saw the check, but, according to Wamu, if the "merchants" have her saying her number on tape, that's sufficient authorization to clear out her banking account.

What pisses me off is that this creates a new business model for scammers -- the ones just not quite clever enough to make money in the refi business.

full details here: wamublamesgrandma.blogspot.com

Incidentally, I stumbled upon the way in which Washington Mutual recalled their compromised debit cards in the course of investigating this. I guess Wamu's stategy is security-by-obscurity, and denial.

My grandmother can testify to that, as I learned a couple weeks ago. Around Christmas time, she was badgered into saying her account number to a scammer over the phone (I know all responsible slashdotters are saying, "No, no, no, stupid, stupid, stupid," -- but she comes from a different, more data-insensitive era.) The scammers then wrote a check for her and ended up taking about $700 from her account.

She never signed a check, never saw the check, but, according to Wamu, if the "merchants" have her saying her number on tape, that's sufficient authorization to clear out her banking account.

What pisses me off is that this creates a new business model for scammers -- the ones just not quite clever enough to make money in the refi business.

full details here: wamublamesgrandma.blogspot.com

Incidentally, I stumbled upon the way in which Washington Mutual recalled their compromised debit cards in the course of investigating this. I guess Wamu's stategy is security-by-obscurity, and denial.

Why Drug Companies don't Need Patents
On the Necessity of Drug Patents

Why Drug Companies don't Need Patents
On the Necessity of Drug Patents

The pharmaceutical argument for patents seems to be a fallacy. Read Why Drug Companies Don't Need Patents and On the Necessity of Drug Patents. I think they make some pretty compelling arguments.

So even the old fallback argument for patents is suspect. I'll admit that in some very rare and specific cases, patents provide some benefit for society, but I am convinced at this point that they are a substantial net loss.

Cheers.

The pharmaceutical argument for patents seems to be a fallacy. Read Why Drug Companies Don't Need Patents and On the Necessity of Drug Patents. I think they make some pretty compelling arguments.

So even the old fallback argument for patents is suspect. I'll admit that in some very rare and specific cases, patents provide some benefit for society, but I am convinced at this point that they are a substantial net loss.

Cheers.

The technology needs to be simple for the user - highly automated and highly reliable, so it won't require a complex UI. Very close to a ubiquitous vision then.

On the other hand it should be highly configurable by the user/OEM vendor. This would mean open platforms, in practice Linux, and/or highly developed UIs for 'power users'.

For home power users, a wireless pad like the Nokia 770 would could be the ideal control interface - you could control and configure anything from anywhere in your home!

Varis
Check my blog at http://icct.blogspot.com/ for more ideas on the pads

rs232's Recent Submissions
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ATM networks hacked Tuesday March 07, @03:09PM Rejected

As have these

For example, those countries with the 'weakest' patent systems have often shown more innovation than those with 'strong'. This is particularly true of Switzerland and drug patents, and even of Germany (compared to the US and Britain prior to the 1970s).

A good post, but some minor points:

Even if you think you've insulated well enough for thermal control, extra insulation is also sound deadening, which is nice.

For controlling accoustic noise nothing beats mass. Concrete panels, bricks, thick renders and cement stabilised earth are all good ways to stop noise. The fluffy insulation will only deaden higher frequency sound.

make sure you install a heat-exchanger venting system to replace the house air.

HRV are almost always a waste of money. It is very hard to seal a house well enough to make the HRV have any serious impact (and they cost a lot).

When you drop a deuce in the master bath,

Better to just draw the air out through the cistern overflow.

Laundry

Where I live we dry clothes on a line outside, but if you need to use a dryer, perhaps just keep your clothes in a heated cupboard and toss the dryer. Heat at the bottom and turn on a fan if it gets humid at the top.

Nice big conduits to every room

Someone else posted this: http://www.wiretracks.com/prod.html Much better solution.

Tankless water heater.

And how does this work with solar heating?

A basement. An Attic.

Amen! We don't even have a crawl space, we have a get-wedged-and-require-earth-moving-equipment-to-g et-out space. Nor do we have an attic. Add to your attic some polycarbonate roofing to use as a sunny workshop in winter.

HVAC

Read up about sunspaces, solar closets and 100% heated houses. There are lots of examples across the US and Canada, and they can be built for very little money (even when added to an existing house!).

You're a home owner, me too. I'm slowly adding many of the features you suggest (we have a house blog at http://modestmanor.blogspot.com/ and solving some problems you may not have to consider.

One step closer!

Google Life

It's going to happen. I'm interested in WHEN.

I wrote a bit of an essay about this and how eventually Google can revolutionize mobile computing.
The essay is here.

Here's the intro:
I am in New York on vacation. I've never been there before and don't know where to go or what to do. I'm in the mood for a cup of coffee now, fine Italian meal tonight, and a concert tomorrow. I fire up my Nokia 770 tablet. It peers with my cell phone and pocket GPS receiver over Bluetooth, finds my location, and loads the Google Life site. I quickly tap in "coffee shop" and it suggests several coffee shops within walking distance. One is tagged with free WiFi access and has good reviews from other visitors, so I walk over.

Once settled in, I disconnect the cell phone connection and attach to the free WiFi. While sipping my triple-shot Mocha, I look over concerts playing this weekend. It seems that there are tickets still available for one of my favorite musicians. I book the tickets and add the information to my calendar, then confirm my hotel reservations, decide on a restaurant for tonight, and see if there's anything else interesting nearby. It's my lucky day: there's going to be a free Shakespeare play in the park a half mile away in about an hour.

This mocha is REALLY good. I have some time to kill: I think I'll write a positive review of this cafe.

re-hosted images: http://ihearttheg.blogspot.com/

The trouble is that development is afraid to go with a new idea. New ideas are untested, unproven. The studios are afraid of new things. Tomato plant is very poisonous, but the fruit is not. Imagine being the first person to eat a tomato. Wondering if you'd die. Check out this story for more insight on how important source material is when choosing a script. It's not that great original ideas aren't out there. It's that the studios are terrified of originality. Wasn't that the whole thing behind 'Adaptation' where his brother the hack sells the same trite cliche before the laserjet cooled off.

um... what do you mean? :-)

--
BSD Podcasts @ http://bsdtalk.blogspot.com/

What's up with the Gnome desktop on SuSE Linux? Gnome might have been ok for Novell Linux Desktop but once you switch the name to SuSE it better default to KDE.

SuSE == KDE
KDE == SuSE

enough said!

--
BSD Podcasts @ http://bsdtalk.blogspot.com/

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/writely-so. html
"Writely, a collaborative word processor that runs in a web browser."
WYSIWYG is nice, but is it the most important thing for a collaborative word processor that runs in a web browser? Maybe for you. Compatibility and simplicity is more important for me.

You can't compare two different art forms.
Rasmus Fleischer (known in Sweden as an anti-copyright activist, but he even writes about culture in many forms) wrote in his blog a few days ago about a newspaper comparing comics to poetry, and he didn't like the way they placed poetry as the highest and best art form.

Here's the blog in Swedish:
http://copyriot.blogspot.com/2006/03/serier-behver -inte-jmfras-med-poesi.html

There are lots of reasons to support underdogs, and for better or for worse most of the candidates directly support by Kos and me in the last election cycle were not especially ideologically liberal. They were generally underdogs running against incumbents (most people running against incumbents are underdogs), and in many cases the small amount of funds provided to them helped force their opponents to spend huge amounts of money in return, diverting money from other places.

If my goal in life was to support people who were "winners" I'd be writing checks to Joe Biden, Hilllary Clinton, and Ted Kennedy. All 3 of those candidates will win their next election. All 3 of those candidates have far more money than they need to win their next election. All 3 of those candidates still have no problem getting people to line up to give them even more money for their campaigns.

http://voodoopc.blogspot.com/2006/03/if-only-they- had-time-machine.html

some interesting points raised there

-FL

Mmm...wanna bet? Happens in Chicago, etc as well. I have heard, anecdotally, from a reporter that anonymous accusations happens about 10,000 time a day in the US and law enforcement resources are being tied up, because these are usually couched as "suspicious activity" reports, and there are rules about handling them when there are enough of them. That "not using a shopping cart" was considered evidence of potential massive shoplifting. and the two officers were not charged with working out too long or spending money on dry cleaning...they were charge with theft of public funds.

If the victim is not in a political or financial position to defend themself, unlike as they were in the New Jersey cases, the result can be that the victim is unemployable at best and homeless or imprisoned at worst.

This was a minor problem, in the days before interlinked databases and federated text mining. Technology has turned this into a major problem, because the unclean data points these sorts of actions generate pollute far more databases than the call records of local police, often ending up in NCLC, Choicepoint, Equifax and Axciom (among others) databases as well.

You can assert it's beside the point, until you have been one of the victims. Then it hits home; its more like identity theft, except its rape, not theft, in a very real sense. Not a minor crime at all.

When you add in the fact it is a weapon used against whistleblowers and others (like law enforcement officers) that attempt to report crimes or enforce laws, it becomes a major issue indeed.

Now lets kick it up a notch. I have heard that the Democrats are setting up a potential voter database for text mining (CSPAN, last week) similar to the ones the Republicans used in 2004.
http://ifk-johnkerry.blogspot.com/2004/12/more-pai nful-lessons-from-2004.html

Which means that, in 2007-2008 Two parties, who, AT EVERY LEVEL, tend to fight as dirty as possible, are going to have microfocused databases on potential swing votors...and swing influencers. The mind boggles what sorts of, umm, interesting, scenarios of innuendos, accusations, blackmail, favors and threats might pop out as the race heats up. I mean, we are two years away from that New Jersey race, the DNC database isn't set up yet, and we are already seeing this.

Now add in potential donors, such as the chinese fundraising scandal (Huang, Ickes, etc) a few years ago,(http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=john+Hua ng+ickes+clinton&btnG=Google+Search) the fact that the CPC/PRC will be about a year away from collapsing internally (http://simonworld.mu.nu/archives/150816.php), rising American protectionism and isolationism like the DPW issue, and the ADVISE system adding blog entries to the suspicous activity database http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0209/p01s02-uspo.htm land we pretty much have a perfect storm brewing both in China and America. The damage to America's reputation frow DPW was bad enough...this could be far worse.

I hope you can come up with a better line of justification of your reasoning than just simply stating your conclusion. If you feel this is the wrong way to approach it (which, incidently, I would agree, except I see no other solution), how would you suggest handling the problem? There is a clear and present danger to both real people and the public welfare.

On this past Saturday night, I posted a blurb about this story, which I knew was going to appear shortly in the Times. http://mu-warrior.blogspot.com/2006/03/new-york-ti mes-and-great-wal-mart.html I'm wondering why the editors didn't allow it on the board. Is there some sort of ideological bias around here?

I put up my own rebuttal for that article when it was released

http://rjdohnert.blogspot.com/2006/03/why-windows- vista-will-suck.html

here and here.

They answer your questions.

Google wants you to get good value for your money and are doing it in their usual excellent way.

My grandmother was recently taken by a telemarketer scam. She doesn't have internet access, doesn't even have a computer, but the scammers already had her checking account number (I guess it's been on every check she's ever written) and by being recorded saying her account number, she had, in Washington Mutual's view, authorized a legitimate transaction. She never saw or signed the check -- which the scammers just printed up themselves!

She was ready to throw up her hands but online security is a big part of my job so I took up the cause for her. I don't expect to get her $700 back but I want to make it a little more difficult at the very least for the unclever scammers.

What shocked me is how lax WM's security policies are. According to the reps I spoke with, WM will cash any automated check with the right readily public account info on it. And they won't even categorize it as fraud so long as -- according to the manager in WM's Fraud Dept I spoke to -- the scammers have recorded the account holder saying nothing more than her account number. I'm still flabbergasted and wonder if this is true of the industry at large.

Not quite on topic, except perhaps in pointing out how excessive talk of encryption codes and integrated authentication platforms is when banks like WM won't even exercise the most basic security measures (or at least take responsibility when their poorly secured system gets played.)

In any event, all the blood and gore can be found here:

http://wamublamesgrandma.blogspot.com/

And if you have less id-paranoid friends or family members (esp. senior citizens) out there, it's probably worth a couple minutes of your time to alert them to the perils of identity theft/fraud. I'm not naive, but this was an eye-opener even for me.

I think that for Eclipse to be fully embraced by Linux application developers, the CDT plugin will need to mature some more. I'm not seeing Java become more adopted.

Anyway, I tried working with Eclipse + CDT, but for medium-sized applications programmed in C (> 5000 lines) it's not really nice.

• The indexer is very slow (but that's being worked on) and in my experience, gets in the way of other background processes. Turn it off and you lose
• Refactoring is extremely limited, not even 'extract method'.
• Editor is not equal to the Java editor yet.
• "Clicking through" (i.e. CTRL + left-click) takes you to a header file, while often you want to see the implementation. The workaround is to right-click and choose Open Definition, but don't do this immediately. You might end up in a similarly-named function which you didn't include through a header file.
• Hovering over a function will show the start of the function definition, but only if the function body is located in the same file. Otherwise nothing will be shown but the function name.
• Hovering over a constant will show nothing.

On the other hand, these guys are REALLY working on it. I especially applaud Doug Schaefer and the rest of the team too, of course.