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The really sleazy thing would be for Time Warner to force an impartial news service like CNN to pull the article!

And hardly a new idea. There are a number of laws on the books governing who can own media and how much, this to prevent undue influence and partiality upon news. But, hell, if I really want to know what's going on in the world, I just read the foreign press. It's not all filtered through the State Dept. or the uberdummies in the media.

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Microsoft sued MSN for linking to Windows piracy sites

A few years back, NBC was criticized for not running a story critical of Microsoft, who owns a chunk of them.

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I'm certainly laughing about it. I think anytime an entertainment/media company merges with a tech company this sort of thing has potential. Rather like watching a snake bite it's own tail.

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Do as I say, not as I do.

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Napster made RIAA's case for them, simply by behaving badly and stupidly [In your face, RIAA!/1st amendment!/We didn't mean to hurt Lars Ulrich *sniffle*] If they had seized some moral highground (using the Betamax standard) earlier, this should have been over and done with.

The pity is watching all these industry heavyweights weigh in to defend the position which benefits Napster and, should they succeed, Shawn Fanning will profit.

BTW, Doesn't anyone else find it ironic that Sony benefited from Universal v. Sony and is a plaintiff v. Napster? ;-)

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The telescope is sited in a "radio-free zone" with mountains surrounding it. It is pretty well sheltered from commercial/industrial interference. The USN's listening post at Suger Grove WV is also a major radio receiver, probably also well-shielded from the metroplex. But it's a secret! You didn't hear about it from me! There isn't any Navy base in those hills! Don't be stu

Michigan's Upper Penninsula nearly got one of these projects, but the locals objected, prefering to live the obscure, quiet life, like people in Maine. IIRC the USN uses Long Wave, frequencies belw 200Khz.

Hey, don't you guys knock? What the he

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Here's the nice, fluffy page. Somewhere near the bridge is a nice little museum, put up by the visitors bureau, which details the critical view of it as a pork-barrel project, as there was little traffic around the sleepy little town of Fayetteville prior to construction. Main benefit was expected to be for trucking, IIRC. However, the bridge can easily be defended now as it has brought whitewater rafters, bungee jumpers, hikers and much other recreational use revenues to the area. (Worth a few trips, to be sure.)

My bone of contention over the choice of WV for the Green Bank Radio Telescope is there are obviously much better locations, particularly in the west and at higher elevations.

But who knows, they may make tourist dollars, yet off this thing. Maybe there'll be a bungee jumping day...

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I just scrolled down from this and noticed the related story about Lara Croft Don't suppose there's a connection...

Still, they should be looking better if that Tomb Raider movie comes out and scores big as Lara's ..uh.. endowments. I hope it's not another bomb.

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Foo! Where was this kind of research when I needed it..er..uh..

Sure, I can pay attention to video games. I think the word is addiction.

"I see your little Nivlem is able to pay attention to something for more than 20 minutes, wonderful!"

"Yes, but then we have to unplug it to get him away from it."

Well, perhaps with the right parental supervision. Supervising the parents, that is ;-)

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Ok, it's OT, but it's still funny. Much better than all the LD commercials I have to suffer each day during my 1 hr (each way) commute.

Maybe they'll show it off in a new James Bond movie...

"Let's get rrrrrready to rrrrruuummmble!"(tm)(C)

"In this ...uh... hemisphere, weighing it at 180lbs in green black tights, with a license to kill, James Bond!"

"And in the other ...uh... hemisphere, weighing in at 220lbs, in pink Spandex, Ernst Blofeld!"

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Obviously political arm twisting is why such a project ends up in West Va. (The New River Gorge Bridge was another example, which ultimately has paid off well for WV)

Question: Won't the RT's proximity to the east coast megalopolis suffer it interference problems: noise from jet traffic, radio, TV, etc.? I'm sure a certain amount of this can be filtered, but the less need for filtering the better, IMHO.

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Finally! After hearing a song for months on the radio (never never never never never count on dj's to ever tell you what that really cool tune was they just played, they'd rather dislocate a shoulder, patting themselves on the back for being extremely funny and clever) Google found the title and performer (at illiterate mp3.com, who can't seem to be bothered with telling you who sung it, either, but gave me the full title, misspelled!)

Um, Google with cache rocks! =)

I sincerely hope they generate revenue as a provider to portals, such as Yahoo, but reserve an uncluttered home page, as it is now.

ask.com is interesting, but more often than not returns completely irrelevant info.

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Thanks for the tip. I had been doing my searches thru Yahoo, which doesn't show the [cached] option.

Looks like I'm another Google convert.

Particularly good, since many servers now don't return "404" they send back "Are you looking for something?", etc. Not exactly telling that the page no longer exists, unless the software is up to the task of recognition (tricky of itself: Are you looking for something? ? 404 : We have dedicated our page to Natalie Portman)

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it's fast loading pages are a big bonus to modem users but they deserve to be sucessful.

Yes, they do, but do you want to see them turn into another (ugh) deja?

OT: I'm disgusted I can't search new prior to 1999, is there another site with USENET news archives, back 5 years?

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Not far back Yahoo dumped Inktomi for Google as their search engine. I hadn't used Google before, but and convinced Yahoo made the right choice.

IMHO the only real problem is that Google, also, continues to point to non-existent web pages.

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Uh, what if it's Alien Pee? It kinda accomplishes the first goal, of finding proof of life, but that'd be kinda daunting, y'know? Finding Europa is actually an intersteller Rest Stop.

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(To the tune of My Sharona)

Ooo my little pretty moon, my pretty moon
When you gonna show me some life, Europa?
Ooo you make my mission run, my mission run
Gonna look in your brine, Europa

Never gonna stop
Gotta look
Such a purty brine
Always gotta look
For the sign of life
My my my my my
Woo!
Mm mm mm my Europa

Gonna look a little closer huh
Whatcha got?
Close enough to look in your brine, Europa
Keepin' it a mystery, gets to me
Running down the depth of your brine, Europa

Never gonna stop
Gotta look
Such a purty brine
Always gotta look
For the sign of life
My my my my my
Woo!
Mm mm mm my Europa

When you gonna show to me, show to me?
Is it just a matter of time, Europa?
Is it d-d-destiny? D-destiny?
Or is it just a game in my mind, Europa?


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I wish John Kricfalusi would get back to making Ren & Stimpy cartoons. Now there was something America was proud of!

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I wish John Kricfalusi would get back to making Ren & Stimpy cartoons. Now there was something America was proud of!

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Contributed in a big way to Ike's campaign

Been incorporated (It wasn't us it was the corporation! Kill it!)

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But what if the winner uses hard-coded machine code -- directly? Would this have any effect on the assosicated computer language conference?

Only if you can write it object oriented with a GUI interface. Better get going on those toggle switches, sport, that PDP-3 ain't gonna code itself!

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With proprietary software they could be in the same situation again if the vendor moved to some unfriendly country.

A valid point, underscored by Toshiba Machine's, gaff several years ago, of actually selling silent submarine technology to Russia. People have been executed in the US for less.

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Very nice page. I've thought of doing one of these myself, with my Nikon CoolPix 800 (even this goofy thing takes time to boot up, sheesh!)

I'm sure I could get the level of detail showing the hand, compact box and whip antenna of people doing the one-hand drive while discussing Meal-Solutions with the spouse.

Tech around here is a good thing, just used badly by some very stupid and rude people.

Bluetooth, OTOH, may be a solution to this if I get a little transmitter to mount in my car and zap people with it! >8-)

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Security can't be their primary concern, heck, the DOD has been cracked so many times it's a wonder their not on a firs name basis with their guests.

"Hi, Bob, How's it going?"

"Oh, Pretty good, yourself?"

"Can't complain, got a new DSL, just trying it out."

"Nice, what are you looking for?"

"Oh, just the usual, some prOn pix of the Joint Chiefs."

"Look on /usr/home4/pixarc2/"

"Thanks! Catch ya later, dude!"

"No prob, say 'Hi' to 31337 7rO11 8OY for me."

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It was only a few years ago (at my old job) that we were sending and recieving data with the Dept. of Ed. using 9.6K modems. They do have a tendency to stick with what works, eh?

Now if I were a terrorist, and having read Debt of Honor, I'd go after toppling the economy first.

Problem is, once potential employers get into a bidding war over me (due to my skilled use of GOTO) I might forget my dogma. ;-)

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The movie was OK in it's own right

Yes, as an action shootem up with a little sex thrown in to titilate. It certainly lived up to my low expections of Hollywood.

The social interaction and exploration is the real story in Tunnel in the Sky. Sadly, if Hollywood makes a film about it, it'll be lamebrained with CGI animals and T-Rexes and other crap taking center stage. I've considered writing (as an exercise) a screenplay of this book, but wouldn't dream of producing it unless I won the Lotto.

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That seems to be about half the advertised speed of several home DSL services

But does anyone have any idea what satellite bandwidth is?

2. I think cellular price structures are complete works of fiction

The videoconference demonstration was conducted under the most difficult real-world conditions, Qualcomm said, between a stationary laptop and an in-vehicle laptop while the vehicle was in motion.

I'm probably as much of a news junkie as anyone. I check CNN, Yahoo and a few others now and then, because the news arrives at the same time as the commercials instead of after them.

A plane crashes somewhere and I can find info on the net just by loading a couple pages. The radio edits out all but the most meager sensational details [an american attache was believed to be on board.] The TV news only appears every so many hours apart, unless its CNN, and only interested in gory details. With the net I can immediately start searches to find out more about things, I.e. how many crashes involved an airbus 320 in the last year, what's the record for Gulf Air, etc. Magazines are ok when I want to see someone elses in depth on something and newspapers are still good when I want to take something along to read and not worry about where to plug it in or how long the batteries will last.

When it comes to tech, the net is unbeatable. It's become the very source.


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For what Nike (which was only an example) paid Mr. Tiger Woods, I think they could send up a few of their own rockets. What they do with them is left to what they think they could get away with.

I thought paying an athlete $70 million (or whatever its up to now) for endorsements was pretty blatant. People aren't stomping around outraged so, what's the threshold? Once we get over our ire, what's the next threshold? Etc.

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Assume for a moment that Bill Gates or Larry Ellison use some of their large wealth to finance an unmanned mission to the Moon for this very thing. PR-wise, probably not the best thing for the first to do it, but once the ice is broken people forget their outrage pretty fast. How about if someone did a big smiley face on the moon (ick!)

Robert Heinlein is one of my favorite authors. Another of his books is Tunnel in the Sky, about a students dropped on a planet and left to survive for a short period, but something goes wrong. I think it'd make a killer flick, if done better than that hunk of Hollywood cheese Starship Troopers.

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I'm pretty skeptical about service agreements, like some goofy thing I heard about lately. Buy someone's PC and pay only a couple hundred AFTER you agree to 2 years of someone's service. Yeah, right. When I can get internet service for free or much cheaper anyway. I prefer to pick my own portals, thank you very much.

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Industry observers had this to say: "Once they get this thing rolling, everything will go downhill rapidly." Expected to be another proprietary product of the software giant, it's an unusual venture into the field of hardware. "This will demonstrate our engineering prowess," said another club-toting anonymous source, clad in a bearskin.

Others claim this has already been done long ago and that there are already existing ways to produce this same item, many of which are free. Company President and CEO, Steve Ballmer had this to say, "Ugh, wheel good! Ugh, innovation!"

On slashdot.org an extremely embarassing corporate profile was linked, detailing how Microsoft was again late to the table with dirty hands. When questioned on this, Ballmer replied, "Oot!"

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Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon


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Can you imagine what the body-art and tattoo people would be able to do with this stuff? Particularly in light of the fact that it is non-permanent? Raves featuring people displaying "invisible motifs" suddenly come to mind. Or how about a "floating tattoo", regular ink on invisible skin?

Because it'd probably be reckless without adequate testing
Because it'd be likely to cause all kinds of nasty infections
Because it could possibly result in sunburn in usual internal locations
Mostly for all of these reasons and more it's gonna be a hit and everyone will be doing it!

Our skin is actually a big bag that God gave us to keep all of our stuff in.

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Let's take a look at that mole, shall we?

Oh, wait, that's a baby alien... cool.

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We are more than 6 degrees away from Kevin Bacon.

Centigrade or Fahrenheit?


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This would be a great gag to put in a suntan lotion tube.

"Hey, Jenny McCarthy, I see you like the model B45XL, also."

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It's a play on Vote Nader 2000

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Should be to drop technical jargon from communication with small organizations. Next, make the service something the organization can actually employ without spending a lot of time on it. (Money isn't the only resource!)

After giving this doc a quick read, I'm convinced the beneficiary would probably be happiest with a tech volunteer. This is where I usually end up.

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It's a big, slow spider which usually comes out in the late fall to breed.

Why not DragonsWest? Then I could sell them my domain name ;-)

I really think SCO (pronounced: sko) is much better. But then, look what the name Fatbrain did for Computer Literacy. Who would have thunk a name which sounds too close to Fathead would be a success.

I wonder if DogPoop.com is taken yet...

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Not a bad read, Hiawatha Bray wrote very well for a newpaper tech piece. Lucky people in Boston.

The tie-in for Gnome to all these services sounds wonderful, but, really for 0.25 million people, is anyone seriously thinking they can put up servers and make this kind of money off this group?

It's a great idea and I fully expect Redmond Trolls to rip it off as soon as possible. I hope someone's got some patents to stave off the Bill-beast.

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What happens when someone creates a tollroad with such an exorbitant fee or condition of passage is that the people will find a different way of going their way.

This is the relentless and unstoppable force of nature. Wind, water, earth and life all obey it, why should a Sony exec. believe they can stand up to it?

No matter what they enact as barriers people will find a new path to copy, distribute, etc. As has been stated, it's better to work with this nature than against it.

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Proven methods are the hardest to dislodge. Seems everytime I read something about the future it has some fantasty element to it.

It's fun to flip through old magazines and see what kinds of things we would have by now.

The mouse has reasonable alternatives, tho. :)

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Proven methods are the hardest to dislodge. Seems everytime I read something about the future it has some fantasty element to it.

It's fun to flip through old magazines and see what kinds of things we would have by now.

The mouse has reasonable alternatives, tho. :)

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Yada yada speed, yada yada optics, yada yada memory.

The problem with forecasting is breaking out of the current mindset. It is assumed the computer of the future will run a cow of and OS and elephantine applications, like those today.

What about specialized computers/devices? Seems like we're heading that way already with Tivo, PDA's, digital cell phones. My modest prediction is specialized computers/devices which fit the situation of their use. I don't expect to need some bloated Wintel box in a couple years. Heck, I hardly need one now.

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Yep, that's the one. I've got about 5 revs, including one with dropships. Since I registered I have the editor. Someone else passed along some notes on using a hex editor to max out (Severe Munchkinization) a 'mech on weapons, armor, heatsinks, ammo, etc.

I love a company of AC/10 and LRM15 eq'd mechs. I had something wild, very slow, but hauling 6 LRM 10's It was evil.

Yeah, I think HackLite might have been the first place I saw Keystone Kops. Fun!

Didn't get PB, but had FTA, I upgraded the O/S and my Archon doesn't work anymore, neither does Breach. Well, it works, it just scrolls ugly.

The old Quantum 80 meg HD is now spun up, time to go play that old VT Conquest game (with ascii characters :) Ta!

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Music clips from McD's

Free barcode from RS

Well, I'll be ... the age of truly disposable tech. And I thought that began with non-repairable electronics, how wrong I was.

Now, to just find the shop that gives away free cellular modems... I'm sure they're around here somewhere...

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It's still got video. Biggest beef I ever had was having to use Interlace for hi-res, but at least I could use an off the shelf TV for a monitor. At least it came out of the box working with 60Hz.

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Buzzword compliance is certainly a mission-critical optimization ... Captain_Carnage writes "The LinuxWorld website has an article about itstop five products today. Featured are a rollable rubber keyboard from Broumand (only an e-mail address given), a user resource allocation/accounting tool from Aurema, an IDE-based RAID card from 3ware, a Linux-based router/VPN box from Linux Wizardry, and a High-Availability clustering product from Mission Critical Linux."