Slashdot Mirror

> Seventeen UN resolutions (of which ANY member could enforce)

The US mostly regards the UN as irrelevant - isn't it hypocritical to be using resolutions as an excuse for aggression?

> unwillingness to destroy or show records of destruction of WMD's > (which are well documented, and are beginnning to be discovered)

Can you cite sufficient references to weapons that were not destroyed, and those records beginning to be discovered?

> hostility towards neighboring countries (Iran, Kuwait, Israel)

Again, since we have been quite hostile toward countries, isn't it a bit hypocritical to cry foul? Israel has also been the aggressor against Iraq (Osirak reactor bombing). The US ambassador implicitly allowed the invasion of Kuwait. clicky. The US backed Iraq in its agression against Iran and tried to spin Iraqi civil rights atrocities against Iran because it was convenient. clicky.

> The man was rightly deposed by the international community (sans France, > Germany, and Russia -- whom we discover later had lucrative, possible illegal, > contracts with Iraq).

So Germany, France, and Russia maintained trade ties, possibly illegally (again we suddenly care about "International Law" when it suits us), and we busted in and introduced our trade ties from behind a gun barrel (possibly illegally). Economic interests are always in the background, and no one is disputing that. The difference is that France and Germany, in particular, haven't been using military means to accomplish their strategic and economic objectives. To do so is reprehensible.

> Would you prefer Saddam was back in power?

To do so while pretending there is another reason is also reprehensible. If the US cared primarily about deposing dictators and stopping humanitarian crises, there are many other countries with worse situations than pre-Bushite Iraq. Why not them:

China, Pakistan, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Congo, Colombia, Indonesia

The answer is that it's not in our interest at this time. Even Syria and the DPRK are in the background now. Besides, we don't have a good track record when intervening militarily. The poorest countries in the Western hemisphere are those we've messed with (Nicaragua, Haiti) and Afghanistan is in the middle of a humanitarian crisis. Iraq has been even since the US and UN got involved in Gulf War part I.

So would I feel good with Saddam in power? No. Would I feel better than now? Yes. When Saddam ordered gas attacks under the then-unflinching eye of the US, he killed 7000 of his own people. We have killed maybe 20,000-50,000 of his people, and about 600 of our own, and the ensuing humanitarian crises have affected (read: shortened) the lives of millions of Iraqis. Millions. That's hardly an improvement.

> Seventeen UN resolutions (of which ANY member could enforce)

The US mostly regards the UN as irrelevant - isn't it hypocritical to be using resolutions as an excuse for aggression?

> unwillingness to destroy or show records of destruction of WMD's > (which are well documented, and are beginnning to be discovered)

Can you cite sufficient references to weapons that were not destroyed, and those records beginning to be discovered?

> hostility towards neighboring countries (Iran, Kuwait, Israel)

Again, since we have been quite hostile toward countries, isn't it a bit hypocritical to cry foul? Israel has also been the aggressor against Iraq (Osirak reactor bombing). The US ambassador implicitly allowed the invasion of Kuwait. clicky. The US backed Iraq in its agression against Iran and tried to spin Iraqi civil rights atrocities against Iran because it was convenient. clicky.

> The man was rightly deposed by the international community (sans France, > Germany, and Russia -- whom we discover later had lucrative, possible illegal, > contracts with Iraq).

So Germany, France, and Russia maintained trade ties, possibly illegally (again we suddenly care about "International Law" when it suits us), and we busted in and introduced our trade ties from behind a gun barrel (possibly illegally). Economic interests are always in the background, and no one is disputing that. The difference is that France and Germany, in particular, haven't been using military means to accomplish their strategic and economic objectives. To do so is reprehensible.

> Would you prefer Saddam was back in power?

To do so while pretending there is another reason is also reprehensible. If the US cared primarily about deposing dictators and stopping humanitarian crises, there are many other countries with worse situations than pre-Bushite Iraq. Why not them:

China, Pakistan, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Congo, Colombia, Indonesia

The answer is that it's not in our interest at this time. Even Syria and the DPRK are in the background now. Besides, we don't have a good track record when intervening militarily. The poorest countries in the Western hemisphere are those we've messed with (Nicaragua, Haiti) and Afghanistan is in the middle of a humanitarian crisis. Iraq has been even since the US and UN got involved in Gulf War part I.

So would I feel good with Saddam in power? No. Would I feel better than now? Yes. When Saddam ordered gas attacks under the then-unflinching eye of the US, he killed 7000 of his own people. We have killed maybe 20,000-50,000 of his people, and about 600 of our own, and the ensuing humanitarian crises have affected (read: shortened) the lives of millions of Iraqis. Millions. That's hardly an improvement.

You still need a good Faraday cage to block everything.

You also need to add plenty of Mu-Metal shielding too, to block your magnetic emissions.

An EULA is totally nonenforcible under existing laws because when you buy the software product in a store it is the same as if you had bought anything else in the store, soap, a book or a concrete block. Under the Doctrine of First Sale you completely own that product and can do anything you want with that particular copy, except make more copies, unless the copyright holder allows you an exemption in writing to that clause of the copyright law. At the time of sale the copyright owner losses all distribution rights to that particular copy of the software and those distribution rights transfer to the purchaser. But only for that one individual copy.

Then you get home and open the box and they are trying to present you with additional rules and restrictions on how you can use something that you own. Under the doctrine of first sale anything you buy you own, nobody can put further restrictions on you after the sale.

Now, the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act UCITA attempted to allow EULA to have valid standing under the law, but this effort has seen little success, only passing in a couple of minor states.

3) PROFITS!!! Still funny time after time...

I'm a writer and computer tech, not a developer, so I send in few bug reports unless I'm personally testing a beta. I know a little bit of the programming world to understand the dilemma.

As a former media editor for the publishers of the "For Dummies" books back in the mid-1990s, I did quite a bit of correction on computer how-to text and the CD documentation it needed. Even today, if you pick up one of those books with a CD, the text I created there is still in the same basic structure, even after 8 years or so. And if a For Dummies book was confusing, that was a very bad thing, indeed.

In the case of books, the job of authors and publishers to fix errata. Usually publishers don't fix only minor errors until a new edition. However, many authors have their own private web page (or one that is made by the publisher) where errata can be downloaded.

But we are comparing apples and oranges.

A book is a professionally developed product that is designed to attract a reader, be purchased, and give a reader information or entertainment, all while being understandable.

MAN pages and other computer docs are optional to read, but give vital information and instruction. However, they are poorly written not because the developer is unintelligent, but because the art of writing clearly, concisely and simply in their native language takes a separate mindshift out of the chaotic world of programming and its logical language.

It's a little offtopic, but anyone who's seen the opening text of the video game Zero Wing knows well how writing clearly can make a difference.

That would be Q*bert, and you might be able to play a Java version called JD*bert online here.

This might help:
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the concatenation of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks, in much the same way that the Internet is the concatenation of the world's public IP-based packet-switched networks. Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital, and now includes mobile as well as fixed telephones.

This might help:
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the concatenation of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks, in much the same way that the Internet is the concatenation of the world's public IP-based packet-switched networks. Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital, and now includes mobile as well as fixed telephones.

This might help:
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the concatenation of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks, in much the same way that the Internet is the concatenation of the world's public IP-based packet-switched networks. Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital, and now includes mobile as well as fixed telephones.

This might help:
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the concatenation of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks, in much the same way that the Internet is the concatenation of the world's public IP-based packet-switched networks. Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital, and now includes mobile as well as fixed telephones.

This might help:
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the concatenation of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks, in much the same way that the Internet is the concatenation of the world's public IP-based packet-switched networks. Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital, and now includes mobile as well as fixed telephones.

This might help:
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the concatenation of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks, in much the same way that the Internet is the concatenation of the world's public IP-based packet-switched networks. Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital, and now includes mobile as well as fixed telephones.

This might help:
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the concatenation of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks, in much the same way that the Internet is the concatenation of the world's public IP-based packet-switched networks. Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital, and now includes mobile as well as fixed telephones.

Where I got that you're a holocaust denier was from the post where you wrote:

When I asked you if you believed the holocaust took place, you didn't answer the question.

As for Paris:

http://search.eb.com/normandy/articles/Choltitz_Di etrich_von.html

http://www.fact-index.com/d/di/dietrich_von_cholti tz.html

http://www.historynet.com/wwii/blparissavior/

...there actually used to be a demo scene which really turned out some amazing stuff. My favorite demo group of all was the Future Crew, and Second Reality did some really pretty neat stuff on some pretty mediocre hardware. Though, the VLB card I ended up getting sped up significant portions of some of the more intensive portions of the demos (i.e. the concentric rings in Second Reality).

I used to leave it running in a loop at work so we could sell more computers. :)

Seriously, there's nothing I want to extract and reuse from my unwanted data. Don't confuse me with different names just because you're trying to be "different". What if GM called the steering wheel the directional input? Crimeny.

Microsoft didn't change the trash can because they were trying to "be different". The court decided in the Apple-vs-MS copyright-infringement case that the image of the Trash Can was pretty much the only copyrightable aspect of the Mac UI.

Er, no, it doesn't 'beg' the question. It raises it without answering it, certainly; but that's not what begging a question means.

Begging a question is assuming it, using it in a circular argument.

[pontificate mode: on]

I find it strange and depressing that a community which is, in general, so careful and precise about its use of computer languages, should be so cavalier in its treatment of human ones...

Well, since it is a mirror, then here you go, from Fact Index itself:

Distibution of Content.

Fact Index is not listed though, the other are (nationmaster, tutorgig, 4reference, ..etc.)

FactIndex is actually a feed from Wikipedia.

There are actually several sites on the net that are mirrors of Wikipedia content, only with banner ads and such.

Wikipedia has a page on it, but I can't give you the link right now, since Wikipedia seems to be not responding

In February 2001 Be Inc. filed suit against Microsoft. For several years Microsoft operated exclusive licensing deals with PC manufacturers that effectively prevented the release of machines with more than one operating system, and in practice anything other than Microsoft's Windows. Be claimed that this anti-competitive behavior forced them out of business, as BeOS couldn't get enough of a foothold in the marketplace to overcome this. In fact, Be Inc.'s CEO (Jean-Louis Gassée) offered to give BeOS for free to any PC manufacturer who would dual-boot Windows and BeOS; none of them accepted the offer. On Sept 5th 2003 Microsoft and Be Inc. settled their case with Be Inc. receiving $23.2 million and Microsoft no longer being accused of anticompetitive wrongdoing.

What's the difference between what you describe and the idea of Lotus Improv?
Improv was a truly innovative system, which I think represents a logical method of fast data handling.
Also, could jEdit have been developed if VisiCalc and Improv had not come before it?

It's Unixes. Stupid latin rules don't apply to proper nouns.

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.

Well, there are two binary formats in Mac OS X: Mach-O (from NeXTSTEP) and CFM (Carbon). Mac OS 9, released in '99, ended support for 68K processors. The only way 68K code is handled now is emulation in the Classic Environment. According to this article CFM was designed specifically for PPC, so I would doubt that there is anything specific to 68K registers in CFM binaries. There was a CFM-68K backport to allow compatibility with 68K Macs, but that is also long-gone.

You might find some more useful info in this article as well.

It's called a Dead Man's Switch. I believe there was a web-based service that offered this a few years ago. I wonder if they're still around. And, someone's already written another DMS app in response to the NYT article mentioned in this story.

Unless this man is hired by Mr Adams to be his medium. Or operates his ouija board

You can't register with an Earthly tax office with that kind of occupation, of course, so he is working under cover as a writer, dividing his time vriting for the screen and for the Guide.

Of course, assigning to copy writers to the same planet is not the most effective use of the Guide's finite -- well actually near limitless -- resources; and it would more importantly introduce the chance that Arthur Dent's work was all for nothing. Arthur protected the Guide's twice-deductable expenses and his own revenue stream by distracting the other correspondent, by suggesting to him the possible fame he might get by acting as a medium for dead writers.

What this writer failed to realise, was that Earth wasn't going to last long anyway, and that the creatures on this planet would gladly look up to anybody who did something strange, who factualised fiction, made fictition out of fact or generally asked people to notice them. So he could just as well have lived on nothing but beer for a year or droven Q-tips through his arms to acheive the same kind of recognition by the creatures. Some of them were of course so jaded by all this pointless entertainment, that when the last day came, they interpreted everything they saw as yet another marketing gimmick, huffed, and read the stock market updates.
What happened next would fail to materialize in the stock figures, but only for the fact that there would be no stock exchange on Earth. In the nearby Betelguse system, however, the sum total of all Earth futures and options fell from 100000000 Altairan Dollars to 0000.1, reflecting the odds that the news wasn't real. A similar fall hadn't been seen since the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation's outsourced lawsuit generation department sued the largest company in the galaxy while all the lawyers were out to lunch, and lost the case.

The FCC restricts what modulation can be broadcast on what frequency. Digital TV broadcasts are modulated with 8VSB (Vestigial Side Band) where digital radio uses IBOC with COFDM. Using IBOC they can transmit Analog and Digital at the same time on the same frequency.

I found a website that talks about it. http://www.fact-index.com/d/di/digital_audio_broad casting.html

Lets not forget about the pebble reactor's when talking about nuclear technology. They are supposed to be a lot safer and a lot more efficent than most of the reactors used today.

I read a funny SF short story, where they made a little robot butterfly, and had it flap its wings just so. In accordance with chaos theory, they were now able to control the weather.

I believe the story was written by Laurence Janifer.

steveha

Quite true. It only jumped out at me because it seemed odd to compare a 3-dimensional object to a two-dimensional one. If they had specified how deep under alaska to measure in the 3rd dimension to obtain a volume of the same size, it would have made more sense.

I also noticed it because the tendancy of science writers to compare large things with "the size of France" has become a running joke. In addition to the Olympus Mons example, you might be interested to know that the Ross Ice Shelf (the largest ice shelf of Antarctica)is about the size of France. And another volcano (on Io) spews out ash that covers
an area of (guess what...) the size of France!

And for those who now want to know how big France is, exactly - well, it's 1/3 the size of Quebec, and more to the point, about the same as the area covered by coral reef worldwide. :)

Just in case you're not just posting a smart-ass comment, I'm referring to Organic certified foods.

Most interesting, I found, was his book, "Sanity madness and the Family" which traces the causes of several people's psychological disturbances, in their own family's rather odd, unpleasant and baffling behaviour toward them.

The U.S. has not declared war since World War II.

True. But Episode IV hasn't always been 'A New Hope'. A long time ago, but in this actual galaxy, it was just called 'Star Wars'.

A rather trashy science program in the UK on Sky, called Braniac: Science Abuse performed an experiment where they covered a trailer in gasoline and left a mobile phone in it. They then phoned it. Nothing happened. Then they added more gas and mobile phones, and phoned them all at the same time. Still nothing happened.

Not sure it proved anything, so they blew it up with something anyway. Bit of detail here.

This hold true even for fiction, like say a cartoon.

this is not true in the US. example, "american beauty" portrays girls that are supposed to be about 16 topless, yet this film is legal. the "art" of underage porn is apparently protected by the 1st amendment.

a google search reveals: The United States Supreme Court decided in 2002 that the American prohibition of simulated child pornography is unconstitutional (Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition).

FYI: I've spent 5 years studying the evolution of the Canadian dialects of English and French.

It's odd the English and French show so much hostility based on Language, when the French are largley responsible for the evolution of the language to what it is today.

Quebec French is substantially different in pronunciation and vocabulary, though easily mutually comprehensible, with the French of the Académie française. This is due to the long history of French in Canada and the fact that French immigrants to Canada kept speaking the French of the Ancien Régime while in France the French revolution led to the standardization of bourgeois Parisian French.

Try proving it though.

I work for a data recovery outfit that specializes in electronic evidence, and let me assure you that we can give it a damn good try, and we know a lot more about it than you do.

You have to really know what you're doing if you want to get rid of data permanently. Even if you're not one of those nice but dim folks who think deleting a file means it's gone.... So you end up before the judge, trying to explain away destruction of evidence, getting smacked with sanctions for spoliation of evidence, and expanding your vocabulary with wonderful new terms like consciousness of guilt. Don't be a Martha!

In my own cynical opinion, there's basically nothing an average person can do to prevent their personal information from being seized in litigation and/or by law enforcement. Kept all your data on your own machine? They'll cart it away. Encrypted your data? They'll subpeona the password. Your lawyers have to be much better than theirs, and most people just can't afford that kind of representation. Your best chance is to try to stay below the radar.

> the property is given back to the Queen

Or to the owner of the land, which is not necessarily the crown (though it does own quite a lot, including the lease on my house!)

So people can actually "buy up all the expensive real-estate and keep it"

You're at Dartmouth? Ever meet up with Archimedes Plutonium?

PS the real Dartmouth in The Great White North is across the harbour from Halifax.

Play around with cubanes. But be very careful. octanitrocubane is considered the most powerful non-nuclear explosive yet sythesized. And it's shock-insensitive.

Here are some links.

See this link for info on the ET Video Game.

E.T. was a video game created in 1983 for the Atari 2600 video game system. The game player maneuvers E.T. through several screens looking for all the pieces...

Be sure to use similarly advanced techniques to "defraggle" your hard drive.

What's sad is the fact that the media's reporting of legal issues is so shoddy and rife with partisanship that people seem to think some circuits are overturned more often than others, when this is not the case.

I'm sure there's plenty of room for disagreement, but many people/dictionaries make a definite distinction between musical and operetta.

I agree with you, though -- Les Mis is much more of an opera than a musical, in my mind.