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A typo seen in the first character?! CoyboyNeal, this must be a record!

Oh, and maybe this was a dream, but wasn't Google Scholar launched a long time ago? Nope, wasn't a dream: this entry in the google blog (dated October 18th 2004) announces the launch of the beta version. Although scholar is still in beta, surely it shouldn't be referred to as google's "new" service. This story is also (needless to say) a Dupe.

You said, "I need to be able to provide truly targeted email to people that, believe or not, actually want them."

Do exactly that -- make it clear to people that they "actually" want email solicitations, and "truly" target your email campaign to those people only.

I don't know about others, but an astonishing 90% of my emails are unsolicited email ads. I have an email address which I rarely give out and only use it for contact-info purpose on my blog (http://sunandfun.blogspot.com/), and everyday the inbox is filled with spam emails.

Many elderly have the money, why not get the Ultimate "Get Off My Grass" Mecha?

http://www.badgirlsblog.com/

http://search.boobdex.com/?special=preview

http://godisdreaming.blogspot.com/

http://www.cartoonella.com/

I realize that it's hip to bash on Americans these days--especially if one is an American. Hell, I've done it. But in this case, it's not America that has the problem, it's one asshole lawyer from Florida: Jack Thompson

Do a google search for him.

Jack isn't just against nudity, mind you. He's out to convince everyone that video games are a direct product of satan himself. He deplores pretty much every aspect of video games, and isn't afraid to link pretty much anything to them. It won't be long now, and he'll be telling us that games cause cancer and explosive diarrhea.

I can't believe it, but for once, I'm actually rooting for the evil empire.

The problem I have with this and similar views is that you are putting an awful lot of faith in the state to manage, control and look after your life and to switch off a whole load of safeguards in the hope that it will one day pay off in some way which would be greater than what you sacrificed to acheive it.

But trying to send the world backwards in time is not only dangerous, it is ineffective. People have fought and died for their freedoms for passionate soul-felt reasons, not to make life harder for the police in certain types of investigation.

And then when terror is still happening even when the police have powers to 'make you' (don't know how this means anything with a suicide bomber but I'll humour you) hand over encryption keys, or to access enormous back logs of ISP data or can 'stop' you sympathizing with someone in Palestine who blew themselvses up, what do you do ?

Police states don't have zero terrorism, far from it. They have terrorism and enormous corruption and injustices to boot.

All this crap like indirect incitement to terrorism, data retention, demanding keys ironically has zero effect on the determined terrorist but has a large effect on people and businesses who rightly value their personal lives as their personal lives.

This idea that you will be 'safe' (whatever that means) in letting the police and government have access to more and more of your private life has been widely discredited as ineffective and dangerous. And that's not even considering the lies and motives of this UK government who set out to deliberately mislead about Iraq.

Finally, I admit. I tend to feel sorry for you when you mention John Howard. This guy is a total me-too 'please give me more of a slice of the war on terror' puppet. His views on anything are irrelevant. i did some silly pictures of him

By the time this whole lawsuit is done it will be well over a year and the man can legally take the job anway. The only difference is both companies wasted a ton of money in the process. http://www.kunae.blogspot.com/

Even if java isn't open source there are so many different flavors of it. It's been changed so much to allow it to fit anywhere, phones, idcards, computers. I think they already have a split java language! http://www.kunae.blogspot.com/

Just because I'm at work righ now checking up /. and posting replies doesn't mean I'm distracted at work ;) Another good distraction at work is making your own blog,lol. http://www.kunae.blogspot.com/

No, I won't lecture you on maturity an proper behavior, it would be a waste of time. In fact, maybe you are right about how allowing the common person to say anything cheapens the quality of the written word, Mr. Anonymous Coward.

Oh by the way, thanks for giving me a topic for my latest blog entry, and I'm glad you enjoy the blog! The way you keep writing to me about it, I can tell that you really do care. I'm really sorry, but I did have to cut off your ability to "crapflood" it, though, since a bunch of other people also read it. I'm not really sure how effective your crapflood was, though, since the five minutes or so it took me to remove the posts haven't yet convinced me to stop writing. I guess you'll have to waste some more of your own energy and try to figure out some other way to vandalize it. Good luck with that, I'll keep an eye on it to see what you come up with.

Now I've really got to go. I'm sure that the nice folks on Slashdot don't want to read any more diatribes and there are a lot more people I have to scream about Daylight Saving Time about. I'll be happy to continue the discussion with you if you post your e-mail address. And just so you look a little less silly to your next troll target, "sycophant" is spelled "syco-," not "sycho-." Later...

I feel like I keep dodging bullets on these Slashdottings -- like Neo in THE MATRIX except with no sequels.

Thanks for the plug, Simian Farmer. I just posted a new 5,000 word entry, so everything's steaming fresh.

And I don't mean "political correctness" either. In the early 80s when I started out in Tinseltown, I was fortunate enough to work for a boss who was into computers, and we got the state-of-the-art Apple IIe!!! People like actress Kim Cattral (a youngster then) would widen her eyes with admiration as she passed by my desk.

I myself spent $300 on an NBC portable computer (PC-8201A) with a whopping, get this, 16k built-in memory. Not 16 gig, not 16 meg, but 16k! I actually wrote 2 screenplays with that beauty. I'd write six or seven pages and the memory would be full, then I had to download the pages to a cassette tape as a backup memory.

Flash forward, now in 2005, I'm writing on my blog (http://sunandfun.blogspot.com/) about Hollywood and the state of cinema, without ever having to worry about running out of memory.

Yup, as pointed out by my friend
http://rockdalinux.blogspot.com/2005/05/can-linux- really-pose-challenge-to.html

That's small coockies.
In Israel we have a battle between two politically identified colours with regard to Arik Sharon's evacuation plan (currently under its way).
Read this story called Summer Color Wars to understand what I mean.
It's a damn circus.

That's small coockies.
In Israel we have a battle between two politically identified colours with regard to Arik Sharon's evacuation plan (currently under its way).
Read this story called Summer Color Wars to understand what I mean.
It's a damn circus.

They did miss the opportunity to put in a marker for the Google Copernicus Center, though. :D

I've been screaming for years and I'll say it again: Daylight Saving Time is a stupid concept that should be done away with as soon as possible.

I hope whoever came up with the idea of pretending that it's an hour earlier than it really is is burning in hell right now, along with those who codified this weird lunacy into law.

I could give you a thousand reasons why it should be eliminated, but here's the most important one to me. Noon has historically been the time, more or less, when the sun is high in the sky. Daylight Savings Time completely does away with that rationale. Now, noon is only defined by what we personally find convenient.

(sigh.)

"Yesterday, Mark Pilgrim discovered and announced a very serious security vulnerability in Greasemonkey."

http://greaseblog.blogspot.com/2005/07/mandatory-g reasemonkey-update.html

A full length, full quality feature film ripped from DVD to H.264 takes up about 600 to 800 megs.

All that's standing in the way of an iTunes style movie store is the motion picture industry.

http://videothing.blogspot.com/2005/06/full-res-fe ature-length-film-playing.html

I don't think it is awesome. It seems toylike compared to the android built in Japan and premiered earlier this month: http://icold.blogspot.com/2005/07/new-robot-approa ches-android-quality.html - DR

MindComet Launches BloginSpace.com: Free Service Transmits Blogs Into Space. "We strongly urge our users to refrain from language or content designed to provoke our alien neighbors. We hope that our bloggers understand the importance of keeping our message positive." http://www.mindcomet.com/press/pressreleases/2005/ bloginspace/ http://obacht.blogspot.com/

I use Tab Mix. Smaller and more stable.

Sitekey is a pseudo-two-factor authentication system (pseudo because both factors of authentication are provided within the framework of the same bug-ridden PC). It absolutely does not resolve the phishing problem for Bank of America customers. It is also vulnerable to a trivial man in the middle attack.

Here's why it doesn't solve phishing: Phishers have and will continue to phish BoA customers for their personal information such as their Social Security Numbers, bank account numbers, mother's maiden name, etc.. by crafting email messages that appear to come from BoA.

The man in the middle attack works as follows:

1. Create a phishing web site.

2. Ask the user for their username in exactly the same way as the BoA site does with SiteKey.

3. When you have their username, contact the BoA site and download the list of authenticity questions the site wants to ask the end user.

4. Ask these questions of the phished user.

5. Pass the answers on to the real BoA site.

6. Voila. Not only do you now have access to the BoA site, you have successfully obtained further private information of the end user, such as the user's mother's maiden name.

I wrote about SiteKey on my blog, which for whatever reason is now viewed by Google as one of the leading authorities on SiteKey: http://mailchannels.blogspot.com./ Enjoy!

They actually mention that in their blog.

They actually mention that in their blog.

Marissa Mayer at Google talks about Google Desktop Search as "the photographic memory of your computer." More details on my weblog post, "Google Memex".

"Creative Commons" notice clearly does something -- it tells people to go ahead, don't be shy, take whatever you like and use it, but just don't use it to make money. "Copyright 2005 by So-and-So" notice basically says that you need the author's approval to use his creative work for whatever purpose.

The use of Creative Commons notice is a choice. Mr. Dvorak seems to be huffing and puffing over something he would not choose to use anyway. If the significance of Creative Commons puzzles him, this long essay of his is an even more puzzling non sequitur.

I'm a blogger/amateur graphic artist; in my blog, http://sunandfun.blogspot.com/, I offer the graphics I created to anyone who wants it, without copyright concern. I am also a novelist who has just published a novel, "Unwrapped" (at http://www.lulu.com/content/138218), which is protected by the standard copyright notice. Two different things. Yet somehow this simple reality seems to be taxing the brain cells of a well-known columnist of a major publication.

I'm sure he'll have it fixed soon.

http://greaseblog.blogspot.com/2005/07/mandatory-g reasemonkey-update.html

The hype machhine is phenomenal, but this is more than hype, this is a step towards the "digital living room." There is a race on to get to the "digital living room" first - a little company called Microsoft is also involved - and it's fascinating to watch the real developments (new products) and the "hype" (news releases about potential products). Apple is winning the race, BTW. The hype is intended to rattle the competition as well as excite the faithful. One way to enjoy the Apple hype is to watch MS and other competitors react to it. - drotobuso http://icold.blogspot.com/

The flaw applies to Greasemonkey on all platforms.

Greasemonkey 0.3.5 is a "neutered" version of Greasemonkey, lacking any of the GM* APIs which make Greasemonkey scripts more powerful than regular HTML. This means that scripts which depend on GM* APIs will fail with Greasemonkey 0.3.5.

Besides the fact that in March's NewType USA, an interview with Koichi Mashimo (MADLAX's director and the head of Bee Train) let on that MADLAX is the second part of "a trilogy of works featuring pistol-packing babes", there's some more immediate comparisons you can make. Noir tends to be very serious, but Madlax makes up for it by being more fun. Noir is the long sunset roadtrip speeding across the beautiful countryside, Madlax is the wild loopy rollercoaster ride that you keep taking until your head spins -- in a good way. But I've come up with what I think is the best summary of them all: Madlax is Noir's mischevious Evil Antimatter Twin, but without the goatees.

Continuing the DRM happy news, Microsoft wants to end hardware copyright circumvention with Longhorn. This scheme would require new monitors, and entirely different hardware requirements.

Best case scenario: this is great because it will this be a nail in the coffin for widespread Longhorn adoption. Thus companies like Dell may sell computers equipped with Linux to avoid higher hardware fees. I wrote about this while back.

Worst case scenario: this is a brick wall for Linux drivers. Linux will be reduced to working only on specialty or old hardware.

The Green Tennis Shoes Principle is (roughly) that the Internet brings makes it efficient to market niche products.

Zazzle looks to allow you to customize your selling experience. It's hoping to let folks like flea market vendors (and they are legion) sell their wares in a custom-looking environment. If it's easy enough, it shoud work really well.

Ebay, Yahoo!, AOL, et al will probably copy the idea.

1) Quiet case fans
2) Cool cases
3) Wireless

Ooookkkaaayyy. Anyone who's shopped for a PC as of late knows that 2 is pretty easy to come by (even on Dell PCs) and 3 is pretty standard on laptops. 1 is included in all Macs, with the PowerMac being the ultimate quiet cooling solution. (It's a combination of lots of low RPM fans with heat pipes.)

Honestly, on the hardware side we're seeing plenty of innovation. It's the Operating System/Software side where things are crawling. I have my own thoughts on how to accomplish innovation in software, but there's a LOT more that can be done that isn't being addressed. Apple is the closest one to accomplishing massive innovation, but there's a lot more that can still be done.

I've recently started a new site designed for professional Open Source collaboration. Treffpunkt (http://www.treffpunktsystems.com/) has a suite of tools that is designed for professional development teams to manage their projects, track time and tickets, and even use a wiki and file storage for sharing notes and files, such as specs and documentation. Though it may not be exactly what you're looking for, it is Open Source Software and mean for Open Source developers.

It's meant to be an easy to use single point of contact for all of any given developer's projects, regardless of who the client may be. Peter George over at Logicalware (http://www.logicalware.com/ and http://logicalware.blogspot.com/2005/07/treffpunkt -open-source-project.html)
seems to agree with its ease of use philosophy, "Treffpunkt convinces me of its usability within five minutes, and I'm sold."

** Martin

It would be great if appliances and lamps summed up their own electricity usage over time. All that electricity comes to us by giving a ton of cash to those people who'd prefer to bomb us or raise our oil prices. Minimizing electricity usage is a good idea.

I've significantly used my electricity costs over the past year just by changing my habits. This guy went a bit further and saved even way more than I did. Impressive.

Check out the document I wrote in my signature (a newer version is here

As well as my blog.

I too cringe at the overuse of jargon, jibberish and lifeless babble. There is only one problem. The examples used are not "weasel words."

As explained in a Manila Times article, "weasel words"...are "words that suck the life out of the words next to them, just as a weasel sucks the egg and leaves the shell."

"Weasel words are those terms or phrases we deliberately slip into the language to create the illusion of truth. They do no great harm when they simply take the form of "may," "might," "could," and "should," which are polite hedges for commitments we really don't intend to keep ("I should be there if plans don't miscarry.")...

Weasel words likewise come in handy in the face of uncertainty or inadequate information. We rescue our faltering or floundering arguments in formal writing or discourse with such artful modifiers as "it may seem likely that," "but the possibility also exists," and "to a certain degree," as in this statement: "It may seem likely that, as claimed by my usually reliable sources, that the information presented by my political opponent is possibly misleading to a certain degree."

Lawyers are particularly fond of weasel words. A well placed "substantially" or "material" or "may" or "should" may give your client the opening needed to win an argument.

When asked "What are the "weasel words" you dislike most?" the author of the book being promoted, responds:

"Implemented." You'll see implemented everywhere. In this language, you "implement" rather than speak or do. And then there is enhanced. Everything is being enhanced. That word is being used in place of other more precise and descriptive words. You can enhance your marriage or your job. You can even implement your enhancements. And "input" is another good one. Companies talk about "input into our people." This reflects technology and accounting [ideas]. It all has to do with input and outcomes.

It may all have to do with input and outcomes, but it has nothing to do with "weasel words."

I think this is the appropriate space (and time) to ask a question that I have not yet been able to figure out how to answer. I'm writing an application which needs to store usernames/passwords of various users but not to be authenticated into my application. Rather, that data is needed so that the program I am writing could check email on the behalf of these users. So essentially, there's a third system (let's call it GMail POP server) that needs to know the usernames/passwords that I stored for my users. What is the best way that I could store this information in my database and still have it be safely encrypted. If you think about this, you can't really use a one-way hash function ... So the best I could come up with is to use a simple XOR function to encrypt the passwords and then for my program to use the same XOR function to get them back, but it's very weak and could be easily guessed. Is there a more powerful way to do what I am trying to do?

--
http://unk1911.blogspot.com/

I wonder if this service will only allow one to watch IPTV from my home where the Timewarner cable modem resides or if I can actually watch it from work, as long as I am a customer and pay for the service. Would be great to watch it from work.

--
http://unk1911.blogspot.com/

• SCOvIBM: In the wake of the recent opinion issued by Judge Kimball, fact discovery will continue until 27 Jan 2006, and the parties must disclose with specificity all "allegedly infringing materials" by 22 Dec 2005. Redacted and unsealed motions are dribbling out. The parties seem to be still consulting with each other on the privilege log issue. Finally, a fully briefed, completely sealed discovery motion awaits a ruling, though no hearing date is yet set.

• SCOvNovell: Judge Kimball has denied Novell's motion to dismiss. The likely next step here is for Novell to file an answer to SCO's complaint.

• RedHatvSCO: This case remains stayed. However, Judge Robinson indicated that if "it would no longer be an inefficient use of judicial resources" or "there is evidence that SCO has misrepresented the issues," Red Hat can refile their motion for reconsideration to lift the stay. The parties are instructed to update the court every 90 days on related actions in which SCO is involved. The next update is due approximately 28 Sept 2005.

• SCOvAutoZone: Judge Jones stayed this case "pending further order of the court" and the parties are instructed to update the court every 90 days on the other related actions in which SCO is involved. The next update is expected around 17 July 2005.

Pending/Recently decided motions:

• SCOvIBM:
  • SCO's Renewed Motion to Compel Discovery - fully briefed, awaiting hearing date.
  • [Motion] [Memo - sealed] [Opposition - sealed] [Reply - sealed]

SCOvNovell:

• Complaint
  • [SCO's complaint] [Novell's answer - expected 14 Jul 2005]
• Novell's Motion to dismiss the amended complaint.
  • [Motion] [Memo] [Novell Declaration of Bruce Lowey] [Novell Declaration of David E. Melaugh] [Opposition] [Reply] [Novell Declaration of Kellie Carlton] [Eyewitness Reports of Hearing] [Order]

RedHatvSCO:

• Stayed. Parties are to update the court every 90 days (next batch due 28 Sept 2005).
  • [Red Hat letter - 30 Jun 2005]
  • [SCO letter - 6 Jul 2005]

SCOvAutoZone:

• Stayed. Parties are to update the court every 90 days (next batch due 17 July 2005).
  • [AutoZone letter - 10 May 2005]
  • [SCO letter - 18 Apr 2005]

Please note that I've started construction of a motio

Camaelon 2 brings theme support to GNUstep... check my blog :-)

The Nesedah theme by Jesse Ross is quite nice imho :)

Ok, at the moment Camaelon 2 is not officially released -- that is, I didn't make a tgz because I'd like to fix a few things before, but you can grab it from cvs easily, and the current version works fairly well anyway...

A new GNUstep Live CD will be out in less than a month I'll try to make the release before, in order to have Camaelon 2 on it.

Sorry, but that's not logically true. Ruth Lawrence was 13 when she received a first-class degree with maths from Oxford Univerity (more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/j uly/4/newsid_2492000/2492853.stm, and you can view her webpage at http://www.ma.huji.ac.il/~ruthel/). Is your reaction to think "gee, well, those Oxford maths exams must be easy"?

P.

http://oceanclub.blogspot.com/

Check out the Oakland program for disabled skaters and the United Cerebral Palsy adaptive skating page; there are probably a lot more programs like that. I'm more familiar with skiing, where programs such as Maine Handicapped Skiing, as I was a ski racer and one of my high-school classmates races for the US Disabled Ski Team. I will admit that having a ski academy van parked in the accessible spot in front of the ski lodge seems a bit odd, but when one of the team members uses a wheelchair to get into the lodge, the journey from the van to the lodge can be quite challenging (wheelchairs don't handle snow and mud all that well, even with knobby tires).

A while back, I'd posted on my blog that it might be possible, if you knew the location of several managed WinXP laptops within the building, to use WMI/WDM scripts to locate SSIDs and signal strength, as "seen" by those systems. That way, you could get an idea of where the rogue WAPs may be. For example if you have an SSID with a low signal strength for a system on the third floor, query some other nearby systems, even ones on the second and fourth floors...it won't be exact but it will give you an idea. You can even get on the phone and have someone walk over there for you! H. Carvey "Windows Forensics and Incident Recovery" http://www.windows-ir.com/ http://windowsir.blogspot.com/

-cp-

Part 2: Refining the Ideas is now online. Feel free to sign up for the new mailing list if you want to hear about the article as soon as it's published. (Look for the white box on the left hand side.) Enjoy! :-)

It works for blogs too. Great idea, Chief.

The author of the controversial Linux Desktop of the Future essay has posted a follow up article containing clarifications and defying misconceptions.