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Man A: Yo man, my docta said I gotta get mo pasta.

Man B: Huh? Pasta?

Man A: Yeah, he said my pasta was bad.

Man B: Pasta?

Then Man A, imitating a white man, as black comedians do, says "Pahs-ture"

Man B: Oh!

(conversation continues)

Someone had better clean up the FRICKING MESS at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office before someone is awarded a patent on the wheel or fire.

This is the first thing that pops into my head when I think of a singing Roomba... ;)

DennyK

then check out this: DefCon Wifi Shootout

The winner built an antenna that transmitted data over 35miles, with $98 in parts from home depot.

Its function is to slow you down so that you don't jam the typewriter.

That is a myth.

Just as SDL_image provides additional image loading, SDL_sound provides additional sound loading, SDL_mixer provides a nicer interface to SDL's audio layer, and SDL_ttf and SDL_bmf add font loading interfaces, there are add-ons for primitives (SDL_draw, SDL_gfx, SDL_prim, sge) and GUIs (paraGUI, SDL_gui, wGui, GUIlib, aedGUI).

As you note, SDL is really a simple audio and framebuffer abstraction, and that's all it's ever been intended to be. A quick glance at the SDL library page, however, gives a quick idea of how extensions are kept modular, and how many there are for almost all reasonable applications of SDL.

Or, to put it another way, the tools are there -- but do you really want them in the core if all you're after is a simple framebuffer?

Too late.

BTW, even if it was brought about by gov, its still a coporation, as this analysis of the Constitution shows.

DPDT is a Double-pole, Double-throw relay. It means that there are two switched contacts, and that there are two contacts for each, one normally-open and one normally-closed. A single-pole, single-throw relay just has one pair of pins that are (usually) normally open, but that close when current is applied to its magnetic coil. The terminology also applies to manual switches.

I left something out in the above, too. You can make the button activate on power-on, too, by rearranging the circuit. You can make the capacitor's initial absorption of current useful, too. I made a diagram (more like an illustration) of it: Diagram for momentary Power-button circuit. Come to think of it, you'd only really need a SPDT relay with this design...

You might want to put a switch on the power button leads, so you can enable and disable auto-power as necessary. You probably won't want the PC to be always off when you cut the ignition, or to hibernate when you turn the car on, if it was already on.

--Jasin Natael

Yep. See Alan Dechert's page for some information. They're going to create a mockup in Python (coming soon to sourceforge) in order to be able to demo the system. They have the theory completely worked out, now they are doing the software.

Vandenberg Air Force Base outside Los Angeles has far more frequent launches than the now-defunct space shuttle. Of course, most of these are military satellite launches or tests of the missile defense system, and any correct-thinking Australian would be horrified to witness such an event.

That has nothing to do with the costs of their normal dialup.

I use Opera a lot and usually find that it is faster than IE (ive never seen IE beat Opera for speed) and I find that Opera is a lot more usable since I like to use keyboard shortcuts (love the Ctrl+Shift+Enter to open a background tab) . And I was trying to get some statistics on how Opera is faster and found this and then this I have no idea what the first one means. The second one is not technical enough. Wonder if this means Opera renders slower but due to caching and other tricks becomes faster?
I also tried opening a huge html (Lot of random text with html tags at bottom and top) files right now, sure enough Opera did it faster ???

The QWERTY keyboard lay-out was originally designed to speed up typing by reducing clashes. The layout was not meant to inhibit the typists abilities, but to rearrange the mechanical layout of the typebars so that they were less likely to jam.

Relevant links:

Why QWERTY Was Invented

A Brief History of Typewriters

Carbons to Computers: Typewriters

Early Office Museum Typewriters

-r

The QWERTY keyboard was not designed to "slow typing down", buy rather to reduce the number of jams in a much more elegant way. It avoids having frequent adjacent letter pairs activating levers that are close to each other on the typewriters mechanism. This means that jams (which occur between adjacent levers) occur less frequently when typing FAST!

The QWERTY keyboard was not designed to "slow typing down", buy rather to reduce the number of jams in a much more elegant way. It avoids having frequent adjacent letter pairs activating levers that are close to each other on the typewriters mechanism. This means that jams (which occur between adjacent levers) occur less frequently when typing FAST!

A naked freeBSD BoothBabe has been spotten naked in the wild! Some say it's a hoax, but should be regarded as a threat to vaginal security!

Let your concious decide...
From the anals of the LinuxWorld 2000 Expo: freeBSD BoothBabe

From the anals of the Internet: FreeBSD BoothBabe gone a'whorein'

What is it? Is it real or fake? I'm going to LinuxWorld 2003 Expo to find out for myself to make sure *BSD sure as fuck isn't dying!

A naked freeBSD BoothBabe has been spotten naked in the wild! Some say it's a hoax, but should be regarded as a threat to vaginal security!

Let your concious decide...
From the anals of the LinuxWorld 2000 Expo: freeBSD BoothBabe

From the anals of the Internet: FreeBSD BoothBabe gone a'whorein'

What is it? Is it real or fake? I'm going to LinuxWorld 2003 Expo to find out for myself to make sure *BSD sure as fuck isn't dying!

I'll begin with the obligatory IANAL ... but I am studying Copyright law, amongst others. In the US, UK, Australia and South Africa, you are, quite simply, wrong.

This site covers the question of fan fiction and what constitutes a derived work, and in other places on the web you will find lovely articles on Fan Fiction and the Copyright Dilemma.

But don't take my word for it. Try this homework assignment: write a story about a boy who was bitten by a mutant spider and gained superpowers (call him "SpiderBoy", since "SpiderMan" would violate an existing TRADEMARK) and describe his exploits in his red and blue web-printed bodysuit. Advance warning: you may receive a letter something like this (pay special attention to the Q/A "What are the major elements of FanFic")

Once you're finished, you may want to visit your doctor and get your colon disconnected from the back of your throat.

Evolution isn't a progression to ever greater and greater differentiation
but...is first an ascent to a higher point, and after having reached this
point is then a descent to more and more simple forms. (Rudolf Steiner)

Perfection (in design) is achieved not when
there is nothing more to add, but rather when there
is nothing more to take away. (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

Everything should be made as simple as possible,
but no simpler. (Albert Einstein)

cheers!

Earthlink DSL had a nationwide scheduled downtime last night. Sure it wasn't that?

Too bad, you'll never make it. There's the unsolvable game 11982 (free cell FAQ).

- Andreas

I have to say though, that Nike's use of sweatshops to produce their merchandise is troubling. Hopefully INDEO as an ethical corporation will take a stand against this shameful labor policy and adopt democratic production methods. A good, book on this written by an objective journalist (not an extremist hippy protester) you can take a look at here.

Keep up the good work!

The ever growing use of RFID's to hamper person security is pretty worrisome, IMHO. I don't know about any of you, but I don't want the government to get any more involved in cyber security than they already are. DMCA, anybody?

Ironically, for those who want slightly more structured chaos, try Andy Looney's Fluxx. Great fun, and there's loads of proposed cards.

a great short story by Vernor Vinge called "True Names". Worth checking out

• Jake Crowley's Gallery
• Joseph Wu's Origami Website

Russell Ahrens

OMG your web page is so fucking god awful why don't you go chock on a cock philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
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philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.netImportant Stuff:
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Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads.
Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said.
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Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) Re:I've got worms!

Re:I've got worms! (Score:1)
by antdude (79039) on 06-16-03 09:00 PM (#6218914)
( http://antfarm.ma.cx/ )
The lines are also on IMDb.

[ Reply to This ]

OMG your web page is so fucking god awful why don't you go chock on a cock philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
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philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.netImportant Stuff:
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Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said.
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Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) Re:I've got worms!

Re:I've got worms! (Score:1)
by antdude (79039) on 06-16-03 09:00 PM (#6218914)
( http://antfarm.ma.cx/ )
The lines are also on IMDb.

[ Reply to This ]

OMG your web page is so fucking god awful why don't you go chock on a cock philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.netImportant Stuff:
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Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads.
Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said.
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Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) Re:I've got worms!

Re:I've got worms! (Score:1)
by antdude (79039) on 06-16-03 09:00 PM (#6218914)
( http://antfarm.ma.cx/ )
The lines are also on IMDb.

[ Reply to This ]

OMG your web page is so fucking god awful why don't you go chock on a cock philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.netImportant Stuff:
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Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) Re:I've got worms!

Re:I've got worms! (Score:1)
by antdude (79039) on 06-16-03 09:00 PM (#6218914)
( http://antfarm.ma.cx/ )
The lines are also on IMDb.

[ Reply to This ]

OMG your web page is so fucking god awful why don't you go chock on a cock philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.netImportant Stuff:
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Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said.
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Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) Re:I've got worms!

Re:I've got worms! (Score:1)
by antdude (79039) on 06-16-03 09:00 PM (#6218914)
( http://antfarm.ma.cx/ )
The lines are also on IMDb.

[ Reply to This ]

OMG your web page is so fucking god awful why don't you go chock on a cock philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.netImportant Stuff:
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Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads.
Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said.
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Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) Re:I've got worms!

Re:I've got worms! (Score:1)
by antdude (79039) on 06-16-03 09:00 PM (#6218914)
( http://antfarm.ma.cx/ )
The lines are also on IMDb.

[ Reply to This ]

OMG your web page is so fucking god awful why don't you go chock on a cock philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.netImportant Stuff:
Please try to keep posts on topic.
Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads.
Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said.
Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about.
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Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) Re:I've got worms!

Re:I've got worms! (Score:1)
by antdude (79039) on 06-16-03 09:00 PM (#6218914)
( http://antfarm.ma.cx/ )
The lines are also on IMDb.

[ Reply to This ]

OMG your web page is so fucking god awful why don't you go chock on a cock philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.net philpi@apu.edu
philpi@earthlink.netImportant Stuff:
Please try to keep posts on topic.
Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads.
Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said.
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Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) Re:I've got worms!

Re:I've got worms! (Score:1)
by antdude (79039) on 06-16-03 09:00 PM (#6218914)
( http://antfarm.ma.cx/ )
The lines are also on IMDb.

[ Reply to This ]

*BZZT* Thanks for playing..

I recently received an email from Earthlink stating that they were going to start collecting "additional taxes and fees" from DSL users.

An article ("Earthlink yields to net taxes") on MSNBC recently detailed some of the information. From the article:

EarthLink on Tuesday said it will stop picking up the tax bill for some dial-up services and its digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband services, resulting in higher bills for many of its customers.

The taxes will affect dial-up users in states that are not subject to the Internet Tax Freedom Act--namely New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. States that have approved the act exempt users from paying taxes for most Internet access and transactions.

Earthlink's Frequently Asked Questions about DSL Taxes and Fees also contains links to tax tables for home DSL users and business DSL users. I emailed Earthlink using their special tax questions form asking if they were going to start collecting fees from cable modem users. This is the reply I received:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting us.

No, the taxes do not apply to cable users, as EarthLink does not handle
the billing for cable accounts. You may want to check with your local cable
company to inquire about taxes for cable service.

Gregg L.
Electronic Support
EarthLink, Inc.
Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.
CSR ID#: 989
Case ID 26018934

I was considering switching to a cable modem until I saw the cable modem tax article this morning. :(

*BZZT* Thanks for playing..

I recently received an email from Earthlink stating that they were going to start collecting "additional taxes and fees" from DSL users.

An article ("Earthlink yields to net taxes") on MSNBC recently detailed some of the information. From the article:

EarthLink on Tuesday said it will stop picking up the tax bill for some dial-up services and its digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband services, resulting in higher bills for many of its customers.

The taxes will affect dial-up users in states that are not subject to the Internet Tax Freedom Act--namely New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. States that have approved the act exempt users from paying taxes for most Internet access and transactions.

Earthlink's Frequently Asked Questions about DSL Taxes and Fees also contains links to tax tables for home DSL users and business DSL users. I emailed Earthlink using their special tax questions form asking if they were going to start collecting fees from cable modem users. This is the reply I received:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting us.

No, the taxes do not apply to cable users, as EarthLink does not handle
the billing for cable accounts. You may want to check with your local cable
company to inquire about taxes for cable service.

Gregg L.
Electronic Support
EarthLink, Inc.
Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.
CSR ID#: 989
Case ID 26018934

I was considering switching to a cable modem until I saw the cable modem tax article this morning. :(

*BZZT* Thanks for playing..

I recently received an email from Earthlink stating that they were going to start collecting "additional taxes and fees" from DSL users.

An article ("Earthlink yields to net taxes") on MSNBC recently detailed some of the information. From the article:

EarthLink on Tuesday said it will stop picking up the tax bill for some dial-up services and its digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband services, resulting in higher bills for many of its customers.

The taxes will affect dial-up users in states that are not subject to the Internet Tax Freedom Act--namely New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. States that have approved the act exempt users from paying taxes for most Internet access and transactions.

Earthlink's Frequently Asked Questions about DSL Taxes and Fees also contains links to tax tables for home DSL users and business DSL users. I emailed Earthlink using their special tax questions form asking if they were going to start collecting fees from cable modem users. This is the reply I received:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting us.

No, the taxes do not apply to cable users, as EarthLink does not handle
the billing for cable accounts. You may want to check with your local cable
company to inquire about taxes for cable service.

Gregg L.
Electronic Support
EarthLink, Inc.
Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.
CSR ID#: 989
Case ID 26018934

I was considering switching to a cable modem until I saw the cable modem tax article this morning. :(

*BZZT* Thanks for playing..

I recently received an email from Earthlink stating that they were going to start collecting "additional taxes and fees" from DSL users.

An article ("Earthlink yields to net taxes") on MSNBC recently detailed some of the information. From the article:

EarthLink on Tuesday said it will stop picking up the tax bill for some dial-up services and its digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband services, resulting in higher bills for many of its customers.

The taxes will affect dial-up users in states that are not subject to the Internet Tax Freedom Act--namely New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. States that have approved the act exempt users from paying taxes for most Internet access and transactions.

Earthlink's Frequently Asked Questions about DSL Taxes and Fees also contains links to tax tables for home DSL users and business DSL users. I emailed Earthlink using their special tax questions form asking if they were going to start collecting fees from cable modem users. This is the reply I received:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting us.

No, the taxes do not apply to cable users, as EarthLink does not handle
the billing for cable accounts. You may want to check with your local cable
company to inquire about taxes for cable service.

Gregg L.
Electronic Support
EarthLink, Inc.
Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.
CSR ID#: 989
Case ID 26018934

I was considering switching to a cable modem until I saw the cable modem tax article this morning. :(

I am a mirror. Click on me. It's in .mov format, by the way.

1. Pikmin is beautiful, and a wonderful way to pass the time when home sick from work.

2. Animal Crossing, while looking like an N64 game, really takes the whole "Sims" thing to a new level.

3. Metroid Prime is the tighest FPS I've ever played, and I've played them since Pathways into Darkness .

4. And, to top all of them off, The Wind Waker is just an amazing game and is close to perfect. Yes, it does play like Ocarina, but it is Ocarina's sequel - I should hope it feels similar, at least.

I could go on: Eternal Darkness, Lost Kingdoms, Lost Kingoms II, oh, and while it made its first home on the Japanese DC, the great Ikagura cannot be overlooked.

And what do we GC'ers have to look forward to? Pikmin 2, F-Zero GX, Resident Evil 4, Viewtiful Joe, and Giftpia, just to name a few. When one considers that the typical console owner buys, tops, four or five titles for the console, I think the GC is in great shape (lord knows I own a small fortune's worth).

I just don't think the argument is fully with merit. If this were English 101 I would have to make him redo the essay. If this were a /. post I would have to mod him down -1 Troll.

Too true, it was zammechat how much dobby Nadsat was learned while reading "A Clockwork Orange". I once saw some real foreign language books start in English and gradually incorporate another language, wish I could get hold of something like that now.

Another novel about software engineering is The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management by Tom De Marco, author of the classic text, Peopleware. As the title indicates, it's a novel that not-so-subtly illustrates certain points about project management. I haven't read it as rumours indicate the romantic aspects are a bit average, but amazon reviewers seem positive.

Further afield, another educational book is
The Richest Man in Babylon, a fable which attempts to demonstrate, albeit in a crude way, the how and why of saving $$$.

Any others?

Check out why you're using a qwerty keyboard. It was meant to slow you down so that you don't jam the typewriter. But wait, you're not on a typewriter...

This is actually a myth. Check out this and this for a little more explanation. The short of it is, though, that: QWERTY was designed to combat the mechanics of typewriter jams; however, the solution was not to slow down the typist -- instead, it involved rearranging the letters so that keys pressed one after the other would be less likely to jam. In fact, the alternation of letters from one hand to each other led to increased typing speed. Good studies of Dvorak vs. qwerty are generally hard to find; it seems likely that a Dvorak typist is a little faster than a qwerty typist of the same skill; however, the 80 wpm number is certainly hyperbole. Many people end up typing slower when they switch to Dvorak. (How many people here even type 80 wpm? I know I don't.)

That said, Dvorak is generally acknowledged to be a little bit easier on the hands than the qwerty layout, and so is probably slightly superior, if all things were equal. Of course, given the entrenched position of qwerty, things aren't equal -- I tried Dvorak for a bit, but decided that it wasn't worth the effort and trouble.

Instead, we should be using the Dvorak keyboard which was designed in the Computer Age to allow faster typing by putting vowels on the home row and intuitive placement. I've seen some claims that once learned, you can type up to 80 wpm faster than on the qwerty. This is simple and already included in Windows, so why don't people use it? They don't like change.

So no, we have not perfected the keyboard, it is the exact opposite of perfect, but because people don't want change, we're stuck in the dark ages.

True Names is an especially important story for hackerdom. IIRC, it's the first to explore virtual-reality networking and it does a better job of it than Nueromancer or Snow Crash. Incidentally, it's available on-line, though I'm not sure about the legality of it.

Yeah, you can do this kind of stuff in PostScript. When I was learning it I have written this little Postscrpt file that prints a new maze every time you send it to the printer.

Why would you learn law from a TV series? I hope you don't pass yourself off as a lawyer or anything.

You seem quite dedicated. If you would like to collaborate with me on a honeypot project I've been working on, contact my e-mail address which is jimpocalyko@earthlink.net. I'd like to hear more of your ideas.

You seem quite dedicated. If you would like to collaborate with me on a honeypot project I've been working on, contact my e-mail address which is jimpocalyko@earthlink.net. I'd like to hear more of your ideas.

• The Shuttle is not a `space truck'.
  
  It's more of a space Chevy pickup. When I think of trucks, I think of semis--things capable of carrying huge loads over long distances. The Saturn V rocket, the reliable workhorse of the Apollo program, could launch over 250,000 pounds to low Earth orbit or even put men on the moon. The Shuttle, by comparison, can only put 58,000 pounds into low Earth orbit and cannot reach higher orbits. Saturn V rockets made the 250,000-mile trip to the moon not once but several times, while the highest the Shuttle has ever gone is a meager 385 miles (335 nautical miles) during STS-82.
  
  In fact, the Shuttle is so sharply limited that it rarely deploys a satellite directly. Instead, the satellite is mounted to yet another rocket, carried to low orbit in the Shuttle cargo bay, and the second rocket then kicks it into proper orbit. I don't understand the logic: we launch the Shuttle into orbit so we can have astronauts risk life and limb ... launching another rocket into orbit?
• The Shuttle is not reusable.
  
  Endeavour cost $2.1 billion (source) and each launch costs $450 million (source) per mission. Most of that expense is taken up in refurbishing the Shuttle afterwards, where so much of the Shuttle is disassembled, inspected, replaced and reassembled that it's fair to declare it ``rebuilding'' instead of ``refurbishing''.
  
  More than this, not one single flight component of the Shuttle--not one!--has met its original flight rating. For example, the Shuttle's main engines were originally rated for 27,000 seconds of thrust (about 55 flights). After that time, the engines would have to be replaced. This design goal has not been met. As Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman wrote in the official report on the Challenger disaster, ``[t]he engine now requires very frequent maintenance and replacement of important parts, such as turbopumps, bearings, sheet metal housings, etc. ... [t]his is at most ten percent of the original specification.'' An engine with a life expectancy only a tenth what's expected may be replaceable and may be disposable, but it's not reusable.
• Twenty-six launches per year?
  
  Between maintenance, rebuilding and inspections, it's not uncommon for a given shuttle to only go up once a year. In Columbia's case, its final mission was its twenty--eighth flight in twenty--two years of service, and its second since 1999. We are nowhere near 26 launches per year per Shuttle; we aren't even close.
• Cheap?
  
  Hardly. Each launch costs $450 million. Even if the fleet were capable of 26 launches per shuttle per year, there's no way we could afford it. Instead of costing one hundred dollars to put a pound into orbit (as we were promised by NASA in the 1970s), it costs $7,750 ($450 million per flight, divided by 58,000 pounds of cargo). A 7,650%-cost overrun per flight can be read one and only one way: an engineering failure.
  
  By comparison, the Saturn V rocket could put a pound into orbit for $3,500, and a Russian Proton-M for $2,062.
  
  If the official NASA line of $450 million per flight isn't mind--boggling enough ... try dividing the amount spent on the Space Shuttle from its conception through 1993 by the total number of flights over that time period. You get an amortized flight cost of over one billion dollars (``Space Shuttle Value Open to Interpretation'', Aviation Week Forum, July 26 1993).
• Ten vehicles?
  
  The first shuttles cost $1.7 billion. Endeavour cost $2.1 billion