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One of the ant experts said something faimilar with his interesting comment on my message board recently:

"Not to interject too much philosophy... ...but the term "species" has a lot of ambiguity to it. In some cases there are very clear differences between groups of ants. In these cases, most people would feel comfortable calling different groups "species". However, there are plenty of other groups that continuously grade into one another, especially across geographic space. For example, a group of ants in California may be black along the coast but gradually turns yellowish as we move inland and into the interior of the continent. In some cases it is almost arbitrary whether or not to divide continuous variation into different species or not. There are other instances where distinct groups of ants hybridize with each other, introducing more ambiguity into what we call "species". As ant taxonomy advances, it is also clear that some groups were named twice, and others named once but actually pertain to several distinct groups. There are still many messes that need to be worked out. As a consequence, I would not attach too much significance to the exact number of species. There is as much human whim in that number as there is real biology." --Myrmecos1 -- Source/Link

Yesterday, I found this out this one of my message board threads.

Brief summary: "This is the latest figure reported at the American Museum of Natural History Social
Insects Website ("AntBase"), up by almost 500 since the last update. It has been estimated that another 20,000 remain to be described and named." --Dr. Ant

Wired News, CNN, and Netscape's News mentioned this AntBase.org Web site yesterday as well.

Yesterday, I found this out this one of my message board threads.

Brief summary: "This is the latest figure reported at the American Museum of Natural History Social
Insects Website ("AntBase"), up by almost 500 since the last update. It has been estimated that another 20,000 remain to be described and named." --Dr. Ant

Wired News, CNN, and Netscape's News mentioned this AntBase.org Web site yesterday as well.

Errm... I wasn't too sure about the possibility of such a thing happening myself, so I googled around and came across this forum: http://pub5.ezboard.com/fyourdonhackingsecurity.sh owMessage?topicID=60.topic

Uh... bullshit. As much as you'd like to believe otherwise, the latest Media Player will play any MP3 you want. If you install a third party MP3 encoder, it'll encode any MP3 you want at any data rate the encoder supports. Might want to recheck the facts there.

Ah, yes. I looked it up, and found this article which seems to verify your claim, such as it is. It does seem, though, that Microsoft is making it more difficult for users to do this. Of course, most MP3 junkies tend to be technically savvy enough to pull it off. And seeing as how the only article I found was a post on an opinions board, it may be a very simple matter.

The point of my post was to indicate that MS seems to be moving closer and closer to regulating the behavior of its customers in a way that seems characteristic of a legal institution. This reply is very true, though, as MS's power appears to be coming largely from the people who are allowing more restrictions to be put in place.

Honestly, I realize that demonizing Microsoft is nothing new to /., and that it tends to be done rather blindly without a full understanding of the facts. I freely admit that I haven't got all the answers. I'm just noticing a trend, between DeCSS, the DMCA, and MS's sleazy tactics, that media is being regulated more than ever, and MS is among those on the front lines, ready to cash in.

It's not really Microsoft that's the main problem, admittedly. It's the whole notion of property, ownership, and copyright getting way out of hand, combined with many people's tendencies to go to whatever means they can to acquire more of what they want. Thankfully, though, if enough people want more freedom from media restrictions (which, incidentally, aren't all that extensive yet. I still have a sizeable MP3 collection, and it continues to grow), they have the power to take action.

As soon as the story was posted on /. about WinXP's license verification system not letting users make more than a certain number of changes to their computers, within days there were cracks available. Where there are restrictions, there are usually ways around them, at least technologically. And they're pretty readily available.

So maybe it's not such a sturm und drang story after all :)

/* Steve */

Speaking of bugs...EQ Nude.

This game isn't good. People just get addicted to it and can't stop playing it. I played it for more than a year and I finally realized I wasn't playing it because it was fun, I was just playing it. Every release since the original has had major flaws, bugs, features that were left out etc...

Verant's customer service is so horrible that I do not want to ever purchase a product from them again. Which is sad because I really want to play Starwars Galaxies...hopefully they have a different team working on that one.

This is supposed to be a roleplaying game, but Verant has gone as far as to discourage roleplaying, not only by their actions but by their words. Yeah I'm bitter...

It's painful.

I've decided just to hunt in the empty Zones and wait a month before doing any serious Moon hopping.

Enjoy the game everyone, it's pretty. (buggy =)

Check out the Buggy Naked Pictures from the expansion. I guess someone didn't have all the files downloaded or DX wasn't loading properly. Makes for interesting grouping... Later, Binestar

I've heard good things about the JVC KD-SH99, good enough that once I think that my credit card balance is about $300 too low I'll pop for one.

JVC KD-SH99 Forum

The PS2 uses a Mips processor. And a Linux version (plus a harddrive) is already out...

The problem with a harddrive is that it's prone to failure. So are the (many =) fans. I'm expecting it to fail far more than the PS2 and the GameCube simply because there are too many complex components.

I'm not saying the GameCube won't ever crash (In fact, it already has) but because of the beautiful, simple design, it probably won't happen as often.

The GameCube has clearly been designed from the ground up to be a game system, _not_ a computer.
I won't speak for the PS2 since I'm not really a fan, and don't know too much about it.

AC - Anonymous 'till some of my posts get modded up.

This device is outstanding. To counter the "Why not get an apex player for $99", well, that's nice that it holds a CD's worth of mp3s, but most people have much more than that.

Also, this looks just like a normal stereo component. It fits in quite well with my existing rack. It has optical audio out, which sounds amazing, mostly when piping these mp3s through Dolby Pro Logic II. Couldn't ask for more.

Being able to pick which songs you want without having to go sit in front of a computer is a nice thing as well. I've programmed in all the functions on the remote to my Pronto, so I can pick songs from the same device I switch television stations with, etc.

I'd definetly recommend grabbing the beta firmware, which gives you access to control your device via a web browser, access to shoutcast streams, and much more.

The developers listen as well. There is a very active mailing list and also a great forum to learn more about this stuff.

Best thing is - Best Buy had these devices on clearance for a few months, and may still be doing this - letting them go for $149. I'm guessing the complexity of a home network was a bit too much for the average Best Buy shopper, dunno.

I love my Audiotron. I'd love to see a portable jam-box-like device with 802.11b support.. (slobber)

sigs suck.

There is a discussion on this subject at Oklahoma Atheists right now. It will help to answer your question in detail. Ive read this thread, and seen people erroniously refer to atheism as a belief, or religion. It is not. Plain and simply an atheist is someone who has found no compelling reason to have a god belief. It does not take faith (believing in or accepting something when you have no sound reason to) to not believe in something that has no merits. I do not believe in invisible pink unicorns. This is not because I dont have faith, its because I have not been presented with a reason to believe that they exist. The same goes for gods.

You can read the detailed discussion on my message board.

There is another article related to this story on BBC. :)

....Matrix Community, where even some of us participated in a official documentary on the movie.

and for clearer understanding of the metaphor of the Movie:
matrix metaphors

And a U.S. Patent Office RFC responce

And of course my response to the EU consulation on Software patents -- rue.pdf

Good thing, it'll give me more time to build this GPL project
Know Python and wanna help?

• Explanation of Jury Nullification from the Mendocino Eagle
  

i remember after one of those school shootings somone on cnn was interviewing a person from britan. the lady said she couldnt understand why americans think we need guns.


Apparently, we need them to shoot each other, and the Brits don't. This realization seems to have taken flight from most Americans' minds. They seem to forget that burglars are human (and rarely armed) and that your gun can be used to blow other people (like you!) away too. Also, we seem to need huge guns (some people even argue for semi-automatics!) to shoot each other, not just simple .22's, or for that matter, stun guns or other non-fatal weapons. Perhaps we as a nation can't aim very well? And why is the violent crime rate lower everywhere in Europe (and Japan, and Australia, and basically every other first-world country)? Why don't the Brits need guns to shoot each other?

[W]hat Uematsu did was rearrange the letters in "Succession of Witches" and "Love" to make something that sounded truly Latin. Try it for yourself. All of the same letters are in there!

Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec
Succession of Witches Love

I think it's cool that he did that because that also portrays the prevalent theme of Final Fantasy VIII.

More information (like the words) can be found elsewhere.

My mod points, please :)

--

So who owns the matrix? Or just watch the cookies!!!

My name is NEO!
3 S.E.A.S - Virtual Interaction Configuration (VIC) - VISION OF VISIONS!

Too many midichlorians! Too many midichlorians! Oh damn, wrong religion. What was I thinking?

By the way, for a good time, perform this Google search.

I've seen someone mention the problem of skipping when going over bumps. One could easily just switch to a CD Player that already has skip protection (through a read ahead device). However, there has to be a way to stop this.

I've seen someone mention putting it in foam or something like that... That might work, but wouldn't it still bounce a little? If the foam is even relatively stiff the player will just bounce with the car.

What about using the foam in one of these pillows to cushion it. Also, put it in a case attached to two wires so it can swing back and forth when the car hits a bump... I saw cup holders like this once. The drink wouldn't spill because they swung back and forth and stayed level... at least most of the time.

Hopefully those measures would stop most skipping.
--------------------------------------

http://jamesthornton.com/acs/benchmarks-ora817-pg7 03.html

So much for "openness", although if you look hard enough you and draw your own conclusion about the name of a "leading proprietary database application" is you can see PostgreSQL can perform impressively:

http://www.angelfire.com/nv/aldev/pgsql/GreatBridg e.html

And they are known for dirty marketing tricks, where once they lock you in they jack up the price:

http://pub13.ezboard.com/fiwetheydatabases.showMes sage?topicID=76.topic&index=1

I believe EZBoard is written in Smalltalk

Volkswagen Beetles with code in Smalltalk

Extreme Programming was invented while Kent Beck was consulting on Smalltalk projects

I think that's enough for a start :)

I hit Kuro5hin a lot (hell, I designed the moderation system), though I agree with you on story content -- K5 got grabbed by a bunch of HS/College PoliSci types. I think it's getting a bit better than it had been for a while, but the article focus is way off. Submission system needs a lot of work.

There's a community that gelled over at the old InfoWorld Electric forums (mostly under Nick Petreley's columns) which now hangs at IWETHEY. The group's getting a little long in the tooth, but still is good for a read on stuff. Looking for a new home though -- EZBoard's forum SW basically stinks.

I do a lot of email -- mostly Debian lists, a few discussions of other topics. Many forums seem to be quieting down though as people ride out the downturn. Definitely interesting times.

What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?

Too bad to hear that a company isn't building arcade machines anymore, I remember dropping a lot of quarters in street fighter 2.

just a few weeks ago the local Pocket Change Park in the mall (Northpark mall, owned by Simon in Davenport,IA) closed up.
It was a shame to see it leave, they had a big wooden carousel and everything. Very neat arcade/kiddie-ride place but it seems like arcade games REALLY have to be cutting edge for people to like them more than just home consoles or computer games.

For example Police 911 by Konami. Really cool, you have to duck and move around and dodge bullets and crap, totally neat stuff other than the fact my legs turn to jello after jumping around for 10 minutes.

gOOdByE squat machine, hello arcade game ;)
Klowner

There's a partial fix for the case dependency available in the message boards here.

accept his fate, timothy will.

---

accept his fate, timothy will.

---

They are not socializing the same, and the undoubted result is the loss of things like Slashdot. There are good and bad effects here, and I think this shows how the internet can be negative - people using the internet imagine they are socializing when in fact they are not. This makes society a less sociable place, which has a number of bad effects:

List of how self-involved gaming will cause lawlessness, issolation, recession, apocolypse, and bad rashes.

There is a great online comics scene out there, and some of the best are all about modern gaming. Comics like Penny Arcade and Player vs. Player (PvP) are consistantly funny and high quality. What's more, they give a shared experience, and often foster a community.

In a bit of nostalgia-meets-the-Internet, Gamers have resurected one of the shining examples of bad localization. The folks who translated ZeroWing did an awful job, and the results are so bad they are funny. The phrases recently became popular again, and you'll hear cries of "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US" across the Internet.

These same gamers shut off the connection for a while to fire up the photo editor and create some great parodies. Many are posted to message boards to be appreciated by fellow fans. Some of them made a dubbed version, others made a techno soundtrack (search for "Laziest Men On Mars, "All Your Base Are Belong To Us"), and others made a hilarious flash movie.

All this creativity was spawned by this later version of gamers. More that ever, I think creative people are meeting and interacting online, and the new games are, at worst, better versions of television, and, at best, a tool for creating a common experience, so that strangers can meet each other.

All this is a bit off-topic, but I think you are worried over nothing. I'm hoping they do a good job with the new TradeWars, which I remember as fondly as other Slashdotters (...in my day, 2400 baud modems, 1 hour just to download 1 meg of porn, etc...)

Snopes had a page on this not too long ago, and I'be been watching it ever since... There are a goodly number of groups that are trying to fight this. All of them are fucking ridiculous, but what can you do.

If you want a place to troll the fuck out of, I highly suggest This message board, a group devoted to the love of kitties, and how bonzaikitten.com is evil, how would they like to be stuffed in jars, etc...

It's fucking ridiculous. It's exactly what was said in Farenheit 451... Society got to the point where we couldn't offend anyone, the Irish, Jewish, Cat-lovers, Dog-lovers, etc, etc... Until finally, we had to censor everything, and everything had to turn to tapioca bullshit just to make everyone happy.

Fuck that. This site is fucking hilarious, and needs to stay.

I have suggested a "fix" for those who give a crud.SEE This

Anyone remember NeXTStep or NeXTOS and the reason why it failed? There were MacOS emulators for it in its later years and it even ran on WINTEL systems. Yet it failed worse than New Coke or the USFL. Now it is reborn as OSX and Darwin. What makes anyone think it can do better this time other than the fact it runs on Macs?

Darwin is the MACH Kernel, some parts of BSD Unix, and ported to WINTEL hardware and Mac hardware. If anything, this is the OS that competes with Linux, but so far it is only half-baked. They are lucky that XFree86 was ported to it, so it would have a GUI. Nothing as fancy as Aqua, mind you, but hardly anything to compete with Linux yet.

If Apple converts OSX to run on WINTEL machines, would it take away from their Mac market, or create more marketshare?

If Apple discontinues MacOS 9.X and forces everyone to convert to OSX or lose software updates, what will happen?

Face it, OSX is limited to the Mac Only market right now; however, it can change if Apple decides to go after the WINTEL market. As it stands now, I doubt that they will. Even if they did, Linux already has a good user base in the WINTEL market and hundreds to thousands of companies willing to back Linux up. Apple would also have to convince IBM, Dell, Compaq, Gateway, etc to pre-load OSX on their PC systems. Apple has a reputation of screwing OEMs, remember the Mac Clones? I didn't think the big name PC Makers have that short a memory.

I wish Apple luck in the Unix market, they are going to need it. But their Mac Only market won't even account for 10% marketshare, and Linux can capture more than that in the next 5 to 10 years. With OSX, Apple has to either sell more Macs, or port to other platforms to compete with Linux there.

Interesting poll on the IWETHEY Forums. Let's see how OSX as a threat to Linux does, shall we? You can log on with a user id and vote yourself if you want to participate.

Anyone remember NeXTStep or NeXTOS and the reason why it failed? There were MacOS emulators for it in its later years and it even ran on WINTEL systems. Yet it failed worse than New Coke or the USFL. Now it is reborn as OSX and Darwin. What makes anyone think it can do better this time other than the fact it runs on Macs?

Darwin is the MACH Kernel, some parts of BSD Unix, and ported to WINTEL hardware and Mac hardware. If anything, this is the OS that competes with Linux, but so far it is only half-baked. They are lucky that XFree86 was ported to it, so it would have a GUI. Nothing as fancy as Aqua, mind you, but hardly anything to compete with Linux yet.

If Apple converts OSX to run on WINTEL machines, would it take away from their Mac market, or create more marketshare?

If Apple discontinues MacOS 9.X and forces everyone to convert to OSX or lose software updates, what will happen?

Face it, OSX is limited to the Mac Only market right now; however, it can change if Apple decides to go after the WINTEL market. As it stands now, I doubt that they will. Even if they did, Linux already has a good user base in the WINTEL market and hundreds to thousands of companies willing to back Linux up. Apple would also have to convince IBM, Dell, Compaq, Gateway, etc to pre-load OSX on their PC systems. Apple has a reputation of screwing OEMs, remember the Mac Clones? I didn't think the big name PC Makers have that short a memory.

I wish Apple luck in the Unix market, they are going to need it. But their Mac Only market won't even account for 10% marketshare, and Linux can capture more than that in the next 5 to 10 years. With OSX, Apple has to either sell more Macs, or port to other platforms to compete with Linux there.

Interesting poll on the IWETHEY Forums. Let's see how OSX as a threat to Linux does, shall we? You can log on with a user id and vote yourself if you want to participate.

You should call this Nano-trousers. In the English-speaking world, pants are what you Americans call underpants.

Also pants is used as a term of abuse indicating lameness, as in 'those trolls are really pants'.
Maybe it's a British thing - I think it came from some Childrens' TV show using 'pants' as a substitute for a word that you can't use onTV

Anyway nanopants sound totally pants to me.

NOW I SAID IT!!! EEEEAAAAA

(The Deja.com archives are down, else I'd try and link to that).

He's also IIRC called Turing, Meyer and Dyjstra idiots....

No, Bryce is the only expert, we've established that well.

http://pub1.ezboard.com/fobjectorienteddevelopment languagewars.showMessage?topicID=175.topic&index=2 2

That forum has lots of good posts...

But no.. no amount of real world examples will make him back down - he's unable to consider the ability to back down. The German WWII high command retreated more than Bryce. :)

Addison

Typically, Bryce tends to devolve in this fashion quite early in the discussions, hence earning himself the nickname, "Toddler".

Interested readers are invited to form their own opinions at the OO ezBoard.


Regards,
-scott

http://pub1.ezboard.com/fobjectorienteddevelopment languagewars

Trust me. you WANT to read through that.

Trust me.

You'll be rehashing the same things over and over - read that first, and then decide if it is a "fair challenge" (minor note - most of the people there have been "discussing" this for 2-4 years with him).

Addison

He's also been spanked at:
here
here
here and here .

He's also been spanked at:
here
here
here and here .

Longships is the oldest BBS I still call. It is in the 314 area code and it is WWIVNet and WWIVLink connected with many DOS based BBS Doors like Tradewars, Telehang, Foodfite, Stock Market and many others. Perhaps the last BBS in that area as many of the others are going down for the count.

How can you compete against free Internet service via bluelight.com or Juno? The only thing the BBSes had going was the BBS Event. We all meet at Six Flags, or a Park, or a Bowling Alley. Then you could see the faces behind the handles. The BBS didn't have commercialized posts, and mostly had those rebels that made their own computers in their basement with mail-order parts.

Remember when USR gave SYSOP discounts on 9600 HST modems, the only thing was you had to have a BBS running for at least a year at the same number. Every BBS had them, this was before the V.32 standards. Then later USR had the same discount for its Dual Standard modems, just about every BBS had them.

Now, you might as well run a BBS Forum from the Internet and pay for a web site, instead of an extra phone line. Have the BBS Forum accessed from the web site. Or just use one for free at EzBoard like IWETHEY did. The old Infoworld members now reside there as Infoworld dropped their own forum after many problems with it.

I asked about this on my message board and got:

http://pub8.ezboard.com/fantfarmtheantfarmsmessage board.showMessage?topicID=573.topic (one long URL)

"...The termites orient the mounds that way by sensing temperature differences in the parts of the mound heated by sunlight as opposed to those parts which are shaded. There is no evidence they can sense the Earth's magnetic field, but solar-based directions are close to magnetic ones, so it looks like they can."

Internet access is not a right. It's a privelege. Like driving.

Compared to a dial-up user, the effects of a cracked broadband pipe is like comparing the damage a moped will do compared to a small car. And 100BT just exacerbates the difference. If a box with double the bandwidth of a T3 is cracked, there's a *LOT* that can be done with it in a very short amount of time.

That said, the notion of "earning the right" is kinda scary in and of itself. But comparing the a doctor to someone who knows how to keep his bandwitdh from being used to do other nasty deeds is plainly stupid. And to think you're the one telling people to climb back under holes.

Over on IWETHEY (my usual hangout), someone floated the notion of charging extra for raw bandwidth as opposed to filtered/firewalled bandwidth, and after giving it some thought, most people agreed with him. It makes a lot of sense. It keeps Joe User from getting in over his head and should make those who think they want raw bandwidth really give it some honest thought. I'd say nearly 100 percent of the people who want a big fat raw pipe to their house don't need anything other than a big fat firewalled pipe. Yeah, they might *WANT* a raw pipe, but they don't *NEED* a raw pipe. A firewall preventing internal connections wouldn't hurt them one bit, because they initiate an outbound connection to get into work. Those that do, really, truely need a bidirectional pipe pay for the privelege.

I'm willing to do that.

--
Ben Kosse

While I did not chat with him extensively, I did see him on the forums, and watch as he attempted to salvage his career and finances from the savaging Microsoft gave him. I also read the report of his death, and grieved with the rest of the IWETHEYers. You can find us at IWETHEY

Anyway: The Apple Doomsday Clock has also been a target of the MacJihad trying to shut it down.

See Jihad Speak for more info.

TO LEAHY, THOSE NUMBERS translated into political power. ''If 20 million Napster users get cut off,'' he warned, ''even those senators who are not sure what that large screen on the desks in their office is are going to start hearing from those people.'' Without rapid movement to give Napster a license, he said, ''you'll feel pressure from Congress to create statutory licenses, and pressure to create a single fee to pay all concerned, and I'm not sure everybody will be happy with that.''

1. The internet is big.
   
2. Nobody knows how it changes the rules.
   
3. Whoever is seen as having stood in its way probably has no political future worth speaking of.
   
4. This is an election year.
   

Weblogs are a cool concept, but ultimately lead to fragmentation -- content, eyeballs, authors, and participants are spread among many distinct islands.

One of the more interesting ideas to emerge from the Advogato / Kuro5hin axis is the concept of syndication. This would cover content, already common -- Slashdot and LinuxToday are essentially content syndication sites, and The Register officially sanctions linking. But syndication could also include a distributed user directory, and potentially (flame on) attributes such as karma or other metrics of merit from various sites.

I see a mix of several models coallescing into the final "product":

• From Slashdot and Blockstackers -- Everything -- a hyperlinked, persistant, discussion/directory. Somewhat like Wiki.
• From Kuro5hin, a well-de signed collaborative moderating system
• From Advogato, the idea of a trust metric is useful, but not sufficient.
• From the IWETHEY EZBoard, active content promotion. Active topics float up in the discussion queue. It's a bit different from a typical weblog, but tends to promote issues of interest and bury (but not kill) those which aren't generating much traffic.
• From LinuxWorld, multiple forum interfaces -- forums can be web, Usenet, or e-mail based.

Still to be worked out are issues of story selection. Various models work -- Slashdot and IWETHEY fall at two extremes, with a dedicated editorial staff on the one hand, and a number of free-form "open forums" in which any topic may be posted and discussed. Kuro5hin's still working out the kinks, though a number of suggestions have been proposed.

The point is that high-quality (and low quality) content are created all over the Net. Mindless Link Propogation (TM) (MLP) is a useful way of aggregating it to key sites. Mindful link propogation might be even better.

What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
Scope out Kuro5hin

Keep their hands tied down until the market moves past them. Do you think that Linux would today be such big news had the OEM control not been loosened? I don't!

How long will it take? Not very. Just today there is an earnings warning, and their stock fell below 80. I also cannot wait for this tidbit about IBM not allowing Windows 2000 on the production network to get into wide circulation. (It is not the only, and won't be the last such memo circulated.)

Well it was their decision to "bet the farm" on a bloated OS, let us just hold them to it for a bit... :-)

Cheers,
Ben

I think services such as EzBoard offer the best of both worlds. EzBoard offers thousands of topical discussions that are easy to find, easy to read, and easy to join - while providing a more personalized and enjoyable interface to the discussions than plain text newsgroups can. Oh, and you can access them from anywhere at any time from any browser - which is nice considering that many ISPs no longer offer usenet as a service (not mine....but many).

Just today we shipped some files with cashflow calculations that settle a few days from now - in Y2K - and they were rejected as "old files" because the file-name went from 99 to 00.

Most of Y2K is small stuff like that. Stuff you won't hear about, but which people have to stay on top of.

But - big but - there will be some bigger things. For instance a friend of mine who works in Troy, Michigan has an inte resting story about the traffic lights...

Cheers,
Ben

PS and OT: That discussion software is kind of impressive. They produce - completely dynamically - over a million pages/day with over 20K posts. Yet their pages are pretty much always *very* fast. Their secret? Smalltalk and the knowledge that threaded software is not a good problem for a relational database. Oh, and yes, they run on Linux.