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Read your Verizon/Comcast/ATT terms of service and acceptable use policies. This is already in place.

I see no such terms of service in my Comcast agreement. Can you provide a citation that supports your claim? I am not sure how Comcast could detect unapproved equipment I connect to the network anyway. Once it hits the router/modem and gets NAT, it's all the same MAC and IP address.

This sounds relevant- (found via comcast.com, clicking under the mindset of an internet subscriber looking for the ToS/AUP, correct me if you think it is not applicable. emphasis added by me)-

http://networkmanagement.xfini...

"These rules pertain to the attachment of devices to our High-Speed Internet network by customers. You can find information concerning the devices approved for use on the network, and the tiers of our service that they are appropriate for at http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.ne..."

10 Mbps is more than enough for video. Xfinity tv is built on a technology called HLS. Apple, Google, and Netflix also all use this. The top bitrate offered by xfinity.tv is exposed in the HLS manifest. Take an example HLS manifest for mr robot. Here we see:

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=205437,CODECS="mp4a.40.5,avc1.4d401f",RESOLUTION=320x180 518139459916_1441222758515_1850000_4/format-hls-track-muxed-bandwidth-205437-repid-200000.m3u8 #EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=349312,CODECS="mp4a.40.5,avc1.4d401f",RESOLUTION=320x180 518139459916_1441222758515_1850000_4/format-hls-track-muxed-bandwidth-349312-repid-300000.m3u8 #EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=549312,CODECS="mp4a.40.5,avc1.4d401f",RESOLUTION=512x288 518139459916_1441222758515_1850000_4/format-hls-track-muxed-bandwidth-549312-repid-500000.m3u8 #EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=799312,CODECS="mp4a.40.5,avc1.4d401f",RESOLUTION=640x360 518139459916_1441222758515_1850000_4/format-hls-track-muxed-bandwidth-799312-repid-750000.m3u8 #EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=1249312,CODECS="mp4a.40.5,avc1.4d401f",RESOLUTION=768x432 518139459916_1441222758515_1850000_4/format-hls-track-muxed-bandwidth-1249312-repid-1200000.m3u8 #EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=1899312,CODECS="mp4a.40.5,avc1.4d401f",RESOLUTION=1024x576 518139459916_1441222758515_1850000_4/format-hls-track-muxed-bandwidth-1899312-repid-1850000.m3u8 #EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=2899312,CODECS="mp4a.40.5,avc1.4d4020",RESOLUTION=1280x720 518139459916_1441222758515_1850000_4/format-hls-track-muxed-bandwidth-2899312-repid-2850000.m3u8 #EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=4349312,CODECS="mp4a.40.5,avc1.640028",RESOLUTION=1280x720 518139459916_1441222758515_1850000_4/format-hls-track-muxed-bandwidth-4349312-repid-4300000.m3u8 #EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=5899312,CODECS="mp4a.40.5,avc1.640029",RESOLUTION=1920x1080 518139459916_1441222758515_1850000_4/format-hls-track-muxed-bandwidth-5899312-repid-5850000.m3u8

This indicates the top bandwidth is 5899312 bits per seconds (or ~6Mbps). That's a pretty standard 1080p streaming bitrate, and well within a 10 (or in your case 50) Mbps bandwidth including someone else browsing or gaming.

HLS is delivered over TCP, not UDP. If you are seeing "pixelated/blocks" showing up (called macroblocking) its because your playback device has selected a lower quality stream.* Now this could be for a huge variety of reasons:

1. 1. You are not actually getting 50Mbps from the modem. Certainly possible, and this could be caused by a whole host of issues like: bad signal to the CMTS, an overloaded network segment, a misconfiguration on the modem etc. A quick speedtest on a wired (not wifi!) device would show this. Comcast is actually pretty good about hitting advertised speeds. If your not getting them advertised speed contact them (there is an internet chat option which is pretty good).
2. 2. You are having issues with your wireless router speed. This is extremely common with older third party routers, they just can not handle the packets per second the bandwidth requires and die.
3. 3. Your PC can't keep up. This is also common. If the decoder drops frames because the CPU is to busy you will drop bitrates
4. 4. The video itself has transcoding or source errors. This is possible, but much less likely. If before "packaging" for HLS delivery the video has errors this can occur. If you are adventurous you can look in the network diag console to see what bitrate you are pulling (the information is exposed in the url).
5. 5. Their CDN can't keep up. Probably the least likely of all, but still possible

None of these have to do with needing 50Mbps. If yo

Speaking of Comcast, here is a list of supported DOCSIS 3 cable modems:

* http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.ne...

You can pick up a Motorola SurfBoard SB6121 for $65 from Amazon. This saves you the shenanigans of the $7/month cable modem rental fee. It will pay for itself in less then a year. :-)

* http://www.amazon.com/ARRIS-Mo...

The procedure I use with Comcast is: 1-800-945-2288

1. Verify Address
2. Say "Operator"
3. Say "Internet"
4. Say "Request Tech"

Getting a technician to come out is the only real way to get Comcast to fix an ongoing issue.

It's not like Comcast is a wealth of accurate information. According to their own website, there are 6 devices that can support 250 mbps that you can buy off amazon. http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.ne...

On the hand, the packages for any given area are highly dependent on how much Comcast has neglected their network in that area.

Comcast' residential IPv6 seems to be working very well, in my area... as long as you have a modem they say will support IPv6 and a home router that really knows how to handle/distribute it.

I used to have an ostensibly IPv6-capable cable modem, but it wasn't on their approved/tested list... and I wasn't getting IPv6 addresses. I replaced it with an Arris 6121, and suddenly all my devices had addresses.

Why don't you just buy a docsis 3 modem then? Stop paying for the privilege of renting a modem.

It's cute that you assume capitalism gives every customer this choice.

Well, Comcast does. The even have a list... http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.ne...

I know it is shocking to see Comcast doing something right. It must be an oversight. :)

AT&T Uverse, however, does not. You must your there VDSL equipment only...

> the human eye has difficulty seeing more than 60hz.

Not true. And, a broad claim like that conflates many different concepts. Flicker fusion can require 85 Hz to not cause headaches for some people (especially with the low persistence needed for non-blurry VR), and smooth motion continues to feel smoother up to at least 120 Hz.

In addition, lower frame rates generally mean increased latency, and latency is probably the biggest cause of VR nausea.

But don't take my word for it. This blog post does a great job of summarizing the latest research on the topic:
http://home.comcast.net/~tom_f...

I have no idea what cheap CPUs and server I/O have to do with motion tracking, but tracking a single point (translation and rotation) is exactly what is needed for VR -- that point is the user's head, and tracking it with low latency is what makes VR work.

> The only difference between now and 20 years ago...

is everything. The technology is orders of magnitude cheaper and more capable.

Im forced to use Comcast based on lack of options where I live. I connected my iPhone (iOS8) to xfinitywifi once to download a podcast.. Later I reset all network connection info on the phone which should have lost all authentication info. On my home net, i had to re-authenticate. But, for some reason, I haven't had to re-auth on xfinitywifi.

Do they do authentication based on some client info? MAC addr? Some Passpoint auth? Even if I just did password auth without remembering, I do know I haven't done any time recently, and I thought you had to re-authenticate daily, which I'm 100% sure I have not.

I don't have Business Class, but I do have my own modem and Wifi router. Router is free from TMobile (technically not mine but a loan for the life of my relationship with TMobile). I sprung for a modem with VOIP abilities but since dropped phone service, or my modem would have been even cheaper. Look for DOCSIS3 compatible, if you're stuck with Comcast as i am.

I had Comcast for residential service for two years not long ago (2010-2012), and they gave me no problem with using my own modem. (They did try to charge me for not returning it when I disconnected service, but corrected their error without a hassle.)

They also still list acceptable personal modems on their website:

http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.ne...

Use the Xfinity speed test at speedtest.comcast.net.
As far as I can tell, they are not affiliated with any ISP.

Except Xfinity, of course.

Use the Xfinity speed test at speedtest.comcast.net.
As far as I can tell, they are not affiliated with any ISP.

Soft keys but with great tactile feel, and completely programmable so you could easily swap the CTRL and CAPS LOCK keys. It was IBM's take on a silent keyboard but will all their (then) quality thrown in.

Like most keyboards, it has the function keys at the top, and the inverted-T arrow keys. These are the two things I absolutely hate, and why I have Northgate keyboards, like the Omnikey Ultra and the Omnikey Plus. Unfortunately, there were multiple versions of both of these keyboards, and some have the inverted-T.

But, the programmable keys are nice, and the Model M needs that as it suffers from the Caps Lock key being next to "A". I use Caps Lock so infrequently that I programmed it to be the Windows key (which my Northgates don't have).

Yes, use the NoScript add-on for Firefox.

But the subject is about Comcast abuse. Here is just one example, from Comcast's "Automatic Payment Terms & Conditions", retrieved a few minutes ago:

"6. COMCAST SHALL BEAR NO LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY LOSSES OF ANY KIND THAT YOU MAY INCUR AS A RESULT OF A PAYMENT MADE ON ITEMS INCORRECTLY BILLED..."

Most people don't have time to read legal language. Many would not understand it fully. It is overly broad. And, in my experience, Comcast often tries to over-bill.

My opinion? Chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts (The page jumps around if you move the mouse over the menu.), and Tom Karinshak, Senior Vice President of Customer Experience at Comcast (See the bottom of the page.), should be removed from office.

Another example: The Login page has a link at the bottom left, Contact Us. As of Tuesday, September 9, 2014, 4:18 am Pacific Time, it is a dead link.

All you have to do is sign up and they'll migrate your email account to their IMAP servers. https://xcsignup.comcast.net/o...

IIRC they hurriedly provided this back about the time Windows 8 came out, because Windows 8 has no POP3 client.

You can't climb a ladder and take pics of some girl sunbathing in her backyard legally if she is behind a privacy fence that you had to go out of your way to see over, that includes using a drone to do so.

Who said a ladder is required? From the second floor of a house you can often see much of a neighbors yard when there is only a man sized fence.

Sometimes a bigger fence is required, just ask Todd Palin: http://xfinity.comcast.net/blo...

The enemy of better is "good enough". :-/

One thing that might help your buddy is to give him incentive. Is he still renting his DOCSIS 2 modem? Comcast and other ISPs charge ~$7/month for a cable modem rental! If he paid ~$70 and bought a DOCSIS 3 modem outright after ~7 months he would be saving money since he would no longer be being nickeled and dimed for the router rental.

You can find a list of DOCSIS 3 supported modems here ... make sure to check "[x] Latest (DOCSIS 3.0) Devices"
http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.ne...

I picked up the MOTOROLA SB6121 SURFboard Cable Modem RJ-45 from NewEgg for ~$69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

sorry for OT but I could not pass this one up. You can here NORAD air defense command center, their callword is Bigfoot, on these frequencies, http://home.comcast.net/~kilow...
I actually have heard Bigfoot, NORAD's ATC base giving vectors for what I believe was a KC135, I scan the freq regularly. Not much traffic but occasionally hear something.

Highest paid federal employees: http://xfinity.comcast.net/sli...

This gives mean wages instead of median, but still better than nothing. Software professional wages: http://www.bls.gov/oes/current...

I would guess people making more than 150K can be expected to answer email at off hours without additional compensation. Part of the job. But at some point below, may be below 100K or so, they should be compensated.

I paid more than $21 for my motorola modem. But 9 months later I've recouped that cost and don't have to worry about what shenanegins Comcast might be playing with the firmware. I know that doesn't do any thing to stop their traffic shaping/throttling and deep packet inspection, but that what pointing the internal routers at a VPN is for.

Actually, ComCast is one of the few large providers that deploys DNSSEC and IPv6:

http://dns.comcast.net/
http://www.comcast6.net/

http://dns.comcast.net/index.p...

According to Comcast DNS, that is exactly what is happening. http://dns.comcast.net/index.p...

Hi - Jason from Comcast's DNS team here. First off, we have a nifty website @ http://dns.comcast.net/ where you can check our cache and find a form to contact us directly. Let's breakdown the issues with www.021yy.org. 1 - Sub-optimal TTL: The DNS admin is not doing themselves any favors; the TTL for www.021yy.org seems to be set to 60 seconds. That will cause recursion every 60 seconds or less from US-based DNS servers to authoritative servers in China. I recommend a more industry standard TTL to enhance cacheability of these records and minimize global recursions at this frequency. I would suggest no less that 5 minutes (300 seconds in the DNS record) or even as much as 1 hour which is usually fine (3600). 2 - Auth servers seem to be in China? If you expect many users of www.021yy.org in the US, you may want to add at least one authoritative name server in the US so that when recursion does need to occur that it is faster than US-to-China transit time. 3 - Are the auth servers responsive? I get NXDOMAIN responses when asking several recursive servers, such as Google's. Macintosh-3:~ jason$ dig @8.8.8.8 021yy.org ns ; > DiG 9.8.3-P1 > @8.8.8.8 021yy.org ns ; (1 server found) ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER> DiG 9.8.3-P1 > @8.8.8.8 slashdot.org ns ; (1 server found) ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 26387 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;slashdot.org. IN NS ;; ANSWER SECTION: slashdot.org. 19088 IN NS ns2.p03.dynect.net. slashdot.org. 19088 IN NS ns4.p03.dynect.net. slashdot.org. 19088 IN NS ns1.p03.dynect.net. slashdot.org. 19088 IN NS ns3.p03.dynect.net. ;; Query time: 17 msec ;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8) ;; WHEN: Tue Mar 11 17:42:38 2014 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 116 In any case, we're flushing our cache right now just in case but I am not sure that will solve a deeper DNS issue with the authoritative DNS service for this domain.

The government spying scandal has made some people think about whether social networking is even ethical e.g. link.

.
At this point, if you are deciding upon which browser to use, perhaps the browser with the marginally highest performance benchmark numbers may not be the browser for you. Here is a difference that matters more to me: when I change the http proxy settings in Firefox, only Firefox is affected. However, when i change the http proxy settings in Chrome, the proxy settings for Windows are changed, meaning that other applications are affected. For this reason I use Firefox instead of Chrome, even though Firefox is a lot slower on a web page I frequent a lot.

In support of your point: adding tetraethyl lead to gasoline to raise octane rating is very much a case of diminishing returns. A little raises octane significantly, a little more not so much. When leaded gasoline was common, enough lead was used that it was already well up on the curve: 0.1 g/gal 2.0 point increase, 0.4 g/gal 6.5 point increase, 1.0 g/gal 11.0 point increase, 3.0 g/gal 16.0 point increase. (Inferred from data at http://home.comcast.net/~gregs.speed.shop/site/. Another reference says about 6.0 points for the first gram/gallon, but the trend is clear.)

Limbaugh has more important oxycontin to deal with

FTFY

Do you have broadband?

They all come with a free security suite.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/constantguard/Products/CGPS/norton/
http://www.cox.com/css
www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB402441
http://www.rr.com/security
http://www22.verizon.com/home/utilities/security-backup

An automatic rifle is not a machine gun according the the law, afaik. They are a separate class of weapon.

I believe that an "automatic rifle" means an auto-loading rifle which is the technical term for a "semi-automatic" weapon - i.e. the vast majority of rifles legally sold for civilian use in the modern area.

A "machine gun" is a fully automatic weapon and those are illegal for private individuals to own, period, unless they're made before 1986 and you've paid for a Federal "tax stamp," which I believe is $200 (I imagine they're still illegal for private citizens to own in certain jurisdictions; obviously, Kalifornia comes to mind). Corporations as well as certain manufacturers and dealers, however, can own fully automatic weapons made after 1986 but obviously certain rules apply.

The technical term for a "sawed-off" shotgun is an SBS (short-barreled shotgun) which is a smoothbore longarm with a barrel less than 18" in length (or, I believe, a total length - including the stock - of less than 26"). These also require a $200 "tax stamp" to the Feds.

Here's some additional useful info, from here:

"Sporting" Purposes

Here's where things get a little tricky. Some rifles, such as the Saiga line, are imported for sporting purposes in a particular configuration. Generally, that means that do not incorporate any of the "evil" features that are typically associated with so-called "semi-automatic assault weapons". Chapter 27 of the Code of Federal Regulations Section 478.11 defines these SAWs. You can read the law, here. Specific examples of these features include:

- High capacity (greater than 10 round for rifles, 5 rounds for shotgun) magazines
- Pistol grip attachment
- Folding buttstock
- Muzzle device/attachment (to include a threaded barrel capable of receiving a device)
- Bayonet lugs

If your rifle or shotgun incorporates those features, it no longer is considered "suitable for sporting purposes".

Assembling Semiauto Rifles and Shotguns

If your rifle or shotgun is subject to 922R, you must now make sure that it is in compliance with the regulations governing the assembly of semiautomatic rifles and shotguns. That is covered in Title 27 Chapter 1 Section 178.39. Click here to see the text of the law. It states :

(a) No person shall assemble a semiautomatic rifle or any shotgun using more than 10 of the imported parts listed in paragraph (c) of this section if the assembled firearm is prohibited from importation under section 925(d)(3) as not being particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes.

Paragraph (C) defines the following parts as "countable" under the law:

(1) Frames, receivers, receiver castings, forgings or stampings *
(2) Barrels *
(3) Barrel extensions
(4) Mounting blocks (trunions) *
(5) Muzzle attachments *
(6) Bolts *
(7) Bolt carriers *
(8) Operating rods
(9) Gas pistons *
(10) Trigger housings
(11) Triggers *
(12) Hammers *
(13) Sears
(14) Disconnectors *
(15) Buttstocks *
(16) Pistol grips *
(17) Forearms, handguards *
(18) Magazine bodies *
(19) Followers *
(20) Floorplates *

These 20 items are referred to with the term "compliance parts". There are lots of other components that go into a weapon, but there are the only ones that count in terms of complying with the law.

Thanks for the link.

In case anyone wants to read the .pdf a free copy is on his page here. http://home.comcast.net/~pdnoerd/NoerdlingerBrower.pdf

I reviewed it and I think he made the same error I mentioned above. I ran my own numbers on his calculations and got the same answers. I am going to e-mail him the analysis I wrote above and ask him for comment.

Thanks

Ah, so that's the technical reason as to why I had to sacrifice a goat to my SCSI chain; to appease the Sky Fairies. Thanks for clearing that up TGN.

For those unaware of USENET history, here's the quote to which he was alluding (which I couldn't find in Google Groups; I vaguely remember asking John F. Woods where he said that and getting back a reply wherein he said he no longer remembered, but can't find the emails in question - maybe it was work email at a former employer).

My experience was that 5.25" floppies were really reliable. I had hundreds of 5.25" floppies and I don't remember any of them ever failing. I had some failures with 3.5" floppies, but not too often. IMHO, USB flash drives are much more unreliable than floppies were (although capacity of USB flash drives is much larger than floppies).

It would be interesting to check if the floppies that I used over 20 years ago are still readable. I have to try that some day...

Ah, Elephant Memory Systems. At least for the disk I booted, it's true: An Elephant Never Forgets. (The artwork that went into their marketing swag was some of the most surreal in the industry.)

All the manufacturers also had sets of helpful icons/instructions about care and handling on the backs of the envelopes, which were parodied by Beagle Bros.

My experience was that 5.25" floppies were really reliable. I had hundreds of 5.25" floppies and I don't remember any of them ever failing. I had some failures with 3.5" floppies, but not too often. IMHO, USB flash drives are much more unreliable than floppies were (although capacity of USB flash drives is much larger than floppies).

It would be interesting to check if the floppies that I used over 20 years ago are still readable. I have to try that some day...

Ah, Elephant Memory Systems. At least for the disk I booted, it's true: An Elephant Never Forgets. (The artwork that went into their marketing swag was some of the most surreal in the industry.)

All the manufacturers also had sets of helpful icons/instructions about care and handling on the backs of the envelopes, which were parodied by Beagle Bros.

My experience was that 5.25" floppies were really reliable. I had hundreds of 5.25" floppies and I don't remember any of them ever failing. I had some failures with 3.5" floppies, but not too often. IMHO, USB flash drives are much more unreliable than floppies were (although capacity of USB flash drives is much larger than floppies).

It would be interesting to check if the floppies that I used over 20 years ago are still readable. I have to try that some day...

Ah, Elephant Memory Systems. At least for the disk I booted, it's true: An Elephant Never Forgets. (The artwork that went into their marketing swag was some of the most surreal in the industry.)

All the manufacturers also had sets of helpful icons/instructions about care and handling on the backs of the envelopes, which were parodied by Beagle Bros.

Would it kill the editors to write half a sentence about who the hell this "Paul Ryan" guy(?) is supposed to be?

No, but it can be done in four images:

Barack Obama = The epic tome with Tolkein's perfectly-crafted songs
Joe Biden = The novels with Pratchett's funny one-liners
Mitt Romney = The bible for Mormons
Paul Ryan = The bible for Objectivists

or exaggerate the religiosity of other founding fathers ( http://home.comcast.net/~pobrien48/Lies%20for%20Jesus%20and%20Christiaity.htm

This page contains numerous internet lies, the primary one being the fake quotes about Lincoln not being Christian and denying the bible. The only sources for that quote are pages like this one. There are no credible sources for most of the crap on this page except other angry anti-Christian web pages. It's like a circle of perpetual, meaningless crap that endures through the sheer fury of those slinging it.

Not in the US! I mean religious in the US would never downplay the contributions of deists ( http://www.dailypaul.com/128828/texas-yanks-thomas-jefferson-from-teaching-standard ) or exaggerate the religiosity of other founding fathers ( http://home.comcast.net/~pobrien48/Lies%20for%20Jesus%20and%20Christiaity.htm http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/06/09/you-know-david-barton-has-a-re/ ), and then used that fictional history to complain about how we're moving away from what the founding fathers wanted for the United States.

Late in replying, I know. The SLA might be a regional thing or I might have been lied to. In an account I had six years ago it was 4 and the sales rep claimed that was still true today.

This year, they approved customer owned SB6120: https://mydeviceinfo.comcast.net./ In the past they would let you bring your own SB6120, but you would have to fight with them and get the right person. Success rates in the past were pretty low in getting them to cave. Most of the successes I've heard of have been due to them proving that the SMC did not work for what they were doing and would rather run their own equipment. On of the big reasons Comcast peddles that SMC POS is it gives them great remote diag info; having your own modem removes that capability. I'm hoping that they'll approve the SB6121 since the older model is getting hard to find at a reasonable price.

http://xfinitytv.comcast.net/ You are wrong, it is imposed on Comcast's actual streaming site.

Comcast on demand on your xbox or cablebox = not a streaming service http://xfinitytv.comcast.net/ = streaming service Guess what, comcasts streaming service, yeah it uses your bandwidth cap.

No, Comcasts network traffic is the same whether you watch on demand on your TV or your Xbox. Ultimately what you are looking at on the customer end of things. do you want to pay them for a DCT or pay less for a DTA and use your Xbox for on demand. Customer owned equipment is cheaper for comcast to maintain, so it benefits them and you save money, so its cheaper for you. They provide the on demand to you either way with your service. People seem to think this is a streaming service in the traditional sense and its not. http://xfinitytv.comcast.net/ is a streaming service, and it counts towards your data cap as well.

Then by your terms they should require that all services they offer count towards your bandwidth cap. That episode of Battlestar Galactica on syfy, yeah we have to count that even though its part of the video service you pay for. Sorry man, doesn't work that way. Your on demand service is provided as part of your video package. Your Xbox is acting as a customer owned cable box, not as a streaming video service. Want a streaming video service, they have that, http://xfinitytv.comcast.net/ and guess what, it counts towards your data cap just like other services do.

I have fired several, from bb and pellet guns, 22s, up through 9mm, to a 44 magnum. None of that tells me how a bullet would respond to a vacuum.

Now, if you were to say that a 9mm cartridge has a cross sectional area of 0.000064 m^2 and that an atmospheric pressure of 101.325 kPa would result in a force of about 6.5 newtons, or about a pound and a half of force trying to push the slug out of the cartridge. Then if you were to link to a site that said that the bullet extraction force is anywhere from 18-30 pounds, or a minimum of ten times the force of the pressure difference, then you could convince me of something. However, going on about gunpowder having its own oxidant and asking if I've fired a weapon means you have little grasp on the actual question: Will the normal atmospheric pressure inside the bullet push the slug out of the cartridge before the wielder gets to fire the weapon?

That is cool.

I believe I saw one that did that and did not have the brown problem but it used a gal chip which most likely did the value change before being sent to a DAC. It was way more expensive than the solution listed which has more features as it was such a niche device. This was 1998-99 and was 350

It's a composite to RGBI to VGA converter. ;)
http://home.comcast.net/~kkrausnick/c128-vga/
This is pretty nifty and they have a workaround for the intensity problem. Price is now higher for the parts mentioned about 190. One of the companies listed has a dead website, dns problem maybe.

Here's another solution using and RGB to VGA and a resistor network to feed to the I input so that it's an RGBI to VGA converter. I think there's something wrong here but it works so it's not wrong.
http://sites.google.com/site/h2obsession/CBM/C128/rgbi-s-video

Yup, posted on /. a while back

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/12/03/2237200/pac-mans-ghost-behavior-algorithms

--->

http://gameinternals.com/post/2072558330/understanding-pac-man-ghost-behavior

--->

http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html

I don't know what it is but reading about the internals of how games worked (algorithms, data structures, tricks, etc.) is neat.

Antarctic Sea Ice Extent is above average this year; not sure what land ice is doing, but if sea ice is up, land ice is likely to be up as well. Greenland is pretty well iced in this winter too.

I note Japan has never made reparations for their many war crimes. ...
What would US soldiers have felt about the japanese people if they had to fight through Japan with more and more evidence of Japanese war crimes to fuel the already bitter hatred of the Japanese?

One - Japan got a free ride from the USA in exchange for the data it gathered from their inhumane experiments.
Two - They DID make reparations for many war crimes.
Three - US soldiers would not feel a damn thing (other than the already present racism against the Japs which was rather prevalent back then) - as Japan was not Nazi Germany.
Their concentration camps (as in places where war crimes was a part of daily routine) were mostly offshore in places like Korea, China and Philippines - you know... places where they were actually doing the fighting, capturing and executing of soldiers and civilians, pillaging and other activities that make war so much fun apparently.
Their camps in Japan were mostly of the interment kind.
No gas chambers or furnaces. Or even that much civilian prisoners.

As for German women being raped...
That was NOT due to Russians fighting through "the evidence of german war crimes".
Russians even did their share of mass executions. Just ask Poles.

Russian soldiers were let loose in Germany because of the 26,600,000 Soviets lost in the WWII.
About 8.6 million of them soldiers.

It was not some temporary loss of moral compass due to seeing incredible injustice and evil. It was a calculated revenge of a victor.

"What would US soldiers have felt about the japanese people if they had to fight through Japan with more and more evidence of Japanese war crimes to fuel the already bitter hatred of the Japanese?"

You mean the way they systematically raped and killed German civilians after having to fight through half of Europe, littered with evidence of German war crimes?
Oh no... wait... I meant the way they systematically distributed aid to German civilians.
Slip of tongue there.

http://www.radiationnetwork.com/ (scroll down for details on Geiger counter model numbers)

You ought to participate here
http://enenews.com/
(wtf seems down at the moment??)

I used a CDV-700
(with the DU sample on the side)
http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/cdmuseum2/radkits/cdv700.html
Then I soldered together one of these.
Dollar Store Digital Geiger Counter Hack
http://www.pskl.us/wp/?p=289
Then pick a spot and do 10 minute tests.

The drawback is I wasn't measuring the "floor" before 3.11 so I have no low floor to compare against, but the best I can tell it's trending down currently, and if anything I am building my own floor.

I now have been measuring the floor long enough that I can tell which way the overall situation is trending. I started in the 850's June and it's currently down in the 550's October, we most assuredly got dusted by something.

Things I learned from all this?

I will never be able to detect hot particles with this equipment.

Stay away from the RAIN, as it brings the shit down out of the sky onto the ground, just like a water truck keeps a dusty road muddy and dust free.

If you have a whole house air filter which was installed before 3-11 I highly suggest you change it, when I tested mine it was literally a hot object, and let me just say that was an eye opener.

There's also some software that you could use if you can't find the dollar store pedometer parts. also, most pedometer's are similar so if you know electronics, it's a simple matter to modify from pedometer to pedometer.

There are a few others out there now helping people with analog meters.
http://www.imagesco.com/geiger/geiger-counter-accessories.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/Ustream-your-Geiger-Counter/step2/Free-Counter-Software/

Some other CDV-700 mods
http://home.comcast.net/~prutchi/index_files/cdv700pro.htm

Free Counter / Scaler Software
David Honigâ(TM)s free âoeCDV Counterâ program
http://www.anythingradioactive.com/CDVCounter/help.html (wtf 404 for the software, no problem use the guide there and download from our ham radio friends who wisely have us covered. http://www.qsl.net/k/k0ff/CDVCOUNTERZIP/CDVcounter-zip/

There are some charging money for counting software, I don't know about these, they look legit, I guess it comes down to your own abilities and what you want.
http://www.geigercounters.com/Software.htm
http://www.blackcatsystems.com/GM/page3.html

Opinion: If I lived in Japan, I would have sold everything and done anything to leave months ago.

Hopefully someone will mod this up so you (and others) don't miss the information.

Good idea, we could recommend an Apple Crate II which previously appeared on /.

Here's another: (really bad HTML layout, but hey). Here's The gist of the story.

In summary: It was around 9PM, and dark on Clear Lake in California. Bismarck Dinius and some friends were sitting on a sailboat, drifting with its running lights on. An off-duty deputy sheriff, Russell Perdock, admits to driving his 24 foot Baja 24 at 40 MPH in the dark (others say it was faster), and ran over the sailboat killing one of the people on board the sailboat.

The local DA charged Dinius with manslaughter, as he happened to be holding the tiller of the non-moving sailboat. The DA pushed this through to a trial, at which Dinius was finally acquitted. Defending himself cost Dinius all his savings, his job and (IIRC) his marriage - four years of no income and legal nightmares will do that.

Finally, last year (after four years!), Perdock was thrown off the force and the DA was voted out. Perdock, the deputy sheriff was never charged. But his insurance company did man up and contribute to the settlement to the estate of the person who was killed.