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Re:Someone forgot to watch the Evil Dead by imipak · 2001-08-20 02:59 · Score: 2 · on Will 802.11 Kill Bluetooth?

Evil Dead? evil SCHMED! This line is from Judge Death, Dredd's enemy from the Deadworld, in 2000AD! (no, they didn't pull him into the movie... shame!) Here he is. eeek!!. And the line is: "You cannot kill that which does not live!" **PHEAR**!!

What about Ball Blazer in 1983?! by BrookHarty · 2001-08-13 12:20 · Score: 3, Informative · on 3D First-Person Games, So Far

Castle Wolfenstien came out in 1992, Ball Blazer came out in 1983 for the Atari 8bit computer. Ball blazer had the feel and motion of a FPS shooter, but was based more on sports. I couldnt find an original screenshot, but here is one from the atari 5200.
As 3D maps go, Video games such as Bards Tale used 3D type maps for moving around a city. Not true 3D but boxes, but then, these are older games. Even thinking, I think there were some older C64/Apple demos that used Wolf type 3D maps, but I cant think of any at the moment.

Wolfenstien 3D wasnt the first, but was the most popular. People were building upto realastic games for quite some time.
Some games I think they forgot about, Heretic, Hexen, Duke Nukem 3D, SkyNet, Blood Series, SIN, Solider of Fortune, KingPin, Shadow Warrior, RedNeck Rampage, and TRIBES! Hell, even new titles like Max Payne and upcoming DN4E are leaps above Q3A.
A real history on FPS games, should include 8bit computers and consoles. I think it would be cool for a list of games, dates, and engines they used. Even a quick blurb on what the developers/programmers were thinking when they came out with the games.

Ahh, I'm too old... I remember playing Ball Blazer!

Licensing for DDR? by yerricde · 2001-08-10 09:47 · Score: 1 · on Court Decision Favors Rambus

its more about getting liscensing for DDR

Licensing for Dance Dance Revolution? They'll have to ask Konami about that.

Oh, you meant "Deutsche Democratic Republic"? Sorry, West Germany bought them out way back in October 1990, even before the Internet had a World Wide Web.

Oh, you meant "double pumped SDRAM".

Everyone loves Robotech by kilgor · 2001-06-20 05:43 · Score: 1 · on Robotech DVDs Released!

I used to watch Robotech and Transformers, so I couldn't believe it when Tranformers completely ripped off the Skull One with Jetfire/Skyfire.

"If you're already walking on thin ice, you might as well dance." -Gil Atkinson

Annoucing this kernel version is VERY IMPORTANT ! by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · 2001-05-25 10:54 · Score: 4 · on Linux Kernel 2.4.5 Released

According to David L. Kitts, well-known specialist of God's Divine Number, the phrase "Lord of Hosts" appears 245 times in the King James version of the Bible.

Furthermore, 245 is divisible by 7, and everybody knows 7 is God's Divine Number.

Don't you understand ? 245 times == kernel version 2.4.5 ??? It's OBVIOUS : God has decided that this version of Linux will be Lord of Hosts, therefore making NT and Solaris server looking like toys for pagans !

Many thanks to Michael and Slashdot for reporting such a CRUCIAL event in the history of Humanity !

"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash

Re:they don't get it. by LordNimon · 2001-05-19 00:42 · Score: 1 · on William Shatner To Host American "Iron Chef"?

since the hostess at the time was probably the most fuckable chick on Food Network

Surely, you're not talking about Fern Britton?
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Lord Nimon

Re:Bring back GWBasic! by Delirium+Tremens · 2001-05-11 07:47 · Score: 1 · on Interview with Monte Davidoff

The 1983/1984 version is there.

Re:I hope this is enough of a definition for you. by AnonymousCohort · 2001-03-29 15:54 · Score: 2 · on Serious Security Flaw in MSIE 5.01, 5.5

Are they sure that patch works?

Screen shot of hack demo after patching

WTF ?

Home-brew Hydrogen by tlipcon · 2001-03-17 11:20 · Score: 2 · on Hydrogen Powered Cars

You can "tinker" your own car and get a little extra mileage with just a little bit of acid and water and these plans. Basically, it runs a current through the electrolyte-filled water, causing it to electrolyse into Hydrogen and Oxygen gas. These go boom and you go faster. (don't worry, it's a little boom.)

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Re:T'Pau? Does no one remember the 80's? by Kimble · 2001-03-04 06:57 · Score: 1 · on New Star Trek Series Rumblings

T'Pau will obviously be the heart and soul of the new series.

...of course, I thought they were a 1-hit wonder, and not the one you quoted. :^)
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Open Source and the Military by goingware · 2001-02-16 05:52 · Score: 2 · on Red Hat CTO Responds To Allchin's Comments

SRI researcher and computer reliability and security expert Peter Neumann is promoting open source to the in various fora, including to an IEEE meeting and the military. His general thesis is that "open box" software promotes reliability because you can both inspect the source code and fix it.

Go to Neumann's page above and search for "Robust" using the "Find in Page" function of your browser.

Neumann is the moderator of The Forum on Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems and the author of the book Computer Related Risks, so he should know whereof he speaks.

Please also read Open Source and These United States.

In the previous article, someone suggested the problem of how to compose a letter to congressional representatives to promote open source - perhaps simply printing out that paper and mailing it to them with a brief cover letter explaining how you've found a way the U.S. Government and Military can achieve substantial savings in its software purchases, along with gains in reliability, would be helpful.

Mike

So THAT'S why Lucasarts went after websites! by delfstrom · 2001-01-18 13:44 · Score: 1 · on The PC As Theater: THX comes to the PC

Now we know why Lucasarts spent all that time and effort to remove the 'THX' startup sound .WAV file from websites over the past few years. They wanted to charge you for it.

By the way, here are a few recent locations of the THX startup sound that haven't been taken down by LucasLaws, Inc:

Wooden PC Case by DataGrok · 2001-01-15 00:22 · Score: 1 · on The Ultimate PC Case - Continued

I've never seen cases made from nice furniture wood. I'de really love to have a walnut case or maybe an ebony case.

This guy has done it. There also used to be a company in Upstate NY that manufactured, among other things, fully wooden (cherry and oak) keyboards, but I've forgotten the URL. It was mentioned on Slashdot before, in one of the many articles titled "The best keyboard in the world?" (or something).

Re:You know what the next use for diamond is. by ivan256 · 2001-01-12 02:02 · Score: 1 · on Dawn Of The Diamond Age?

Modern (i.e. Since the 1950s) engineers already know how to build steel framed structures over a mile high; no need for diamond. The only problem (besides funding) is that the taller you make the building, the more people need to go up, and the mor people that need to go up the more elevators you need. Before you know it your whole building is elevator shafts.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed a mile high building to be built in Chicago in the 50's, and they didn't build it for this exact reason.

PovRay rendering of mile high building

More images

Was the mile high building in Star Wars Episode 1?

Re:Finally Stable by BJC · 2000-12-19 23:06 · Score: 1 · on XFree86 4.0.2 Released

Actually, X11 was released in 1987 at about the same time that Windows 2.0 came out.

Re:I just don't get X-10 by Ricochet · 2000-12-07 06:52 · Score: 1 · on Wired Homes of the Rich

Yeah it's neat and everything, but the protocol it runs on is like NetBEUI for Home Automation.

The reason X10 still exists is that it is cheap and semi reliable (ie I can make it work). I feel that it will go away one day but I'm hoping it will not be replaced by closed systems (closed via excessive developemnt tools or NDA's). The other technologies that are available are hardwire, LONWorks and CEBus. The last 2 tend to be very expensive and very little of it is available for the DIYer. The markets are set up for large developers and not the smaller ones such as myself.

The Hardwire method tends to use RS485 (multidrop) and a baud rate of 1200, 9600 or 19200. You can go higher but this tend to be overkill. If the price of microcontrollers w/ethernet contiunes to drop we'll probably see a lot more ethernet in use. But it does bring added expense. The Linux Home Automation project intends on using the currently available products to pull together the appropriate system to intergate them all.

I went on an EBAY binge this summer and spent ~$700 (US) on terminal servers, a router, parts for my Sun IPX, a Vax Station 3100, network hubs, electronic parts etc. All of this can be used to put together an HA system. Mike Baptiste (of Creative Control Concepts) just released version alpha code for an ethernet to RS232 converted to use the Dallas Semi TINI board. I'm working on doing the same thing with Linux (should work on any modern Unix) serial port and ethernet.

I currently have a Weather station (sensors off line, house was resided), a set of Dallas Semi onewire chips for temperature sensing, an HCS II (HA controller), an Ocelet (HA controller), a couple of X10 CM11A's, a LynX10 board, an X10 CP290, several Dallas TINI boards, a bunch of microcontrollers, HTH's 2400 baud power line controllers and lots of X10 and RS485.

There is too much to list here (and explain what it will do). The best place for this discussion is online in the comp.home.automation newsgroup or on my Linux Home Automation project mail list (see below). You can also email me if you wish to ask HA related questions.
--
Linux Home Automation - Neil Cherry - ncherry@home.net
Linux Home Automation and Linux Home Automation II
The The Linux Home Automation project (SourceForge)

A story and some links by dasunt · 2000-11-30 07:59 · Score: 1 · on Build Your own Ms. Pac-Man machine from Scratch

Gather around, boys and girls, for a story how Dasunt was really dumb. This is a great story, btw, I want to kick myself in the arse every time I recall it.

About 5 years ago, one of my friends was at a police auction, and there were 10 upright arcade machines there, all in working order. They had been siezed, since they were modified to run illegal gambling. Since my friend has $10 on him at the time, he made the only bid, and got all the machines for the lowly price of $1/machine.

A year later he was moving out, and he offered to sell me the machines at $10/machine. I said no, since I didn't want to have a big hulking machine that only could play one game (I believe it was poker, blackjack, etc on the machines). The machines had great monitors and all the controls worked.

Then, about 2 years ago I got into console and arcade emulation heavily. I found out that a lowly K6-2 stuck in a machine with a special adapter/driver could run plenty of games and use the original monitor. *Sigh* I looked up prices on Ebay. Conservatively, since the machines did have a slot in the front to dispense money and thus weren't exactly mint, each machine could have been sold for $250.

D'oh, I am dumb.

My friend was happy, he bought them for the remote controlled relays in the machines that were used to "flip" the machine over to a non-gambling game whenever the cops came around. So, he got a ton of relays. I, in my naive state, got shafted. I believe he sold all his remaining machines (5) for $50.

Since I researched a bit on emulation and arcade cabinents in hopes of building a cocktail style machine, here's some useful links I found.

A list of links for arcade cabinents, especially about building your own.
A M.A.M.E cocktale project, looks closely like the machine I want.
Another build-your-own cabinet page (using consoles, not M.A.M.E)
A great faq on how to build an arcade console, a must read for anyone thinking about it. Includes stuff like the problem of keyboard ghosting and encoders.
Another build-a-cabinet page, with pics and diagrams
Diagrams for a dual keyboard circuit and automatic joystick switch + other fun stuff. Another must read.
Keyboard Matrix Help
Happ Controls, the source of arcade quality joysticks, buttons, and other controls. They also sell keyboard encoders and other neat stuff. If you look around on the web page, you can find a place to order a free catalog, which can give you an idea of prices. (Please though, only ask for a catalog if you're interested, I hate to see the /. effect decend on this nice company)
A source for emulators, and emulator news.
An emulator front-end.
English translations for NES & SNES. The reason why I became interested in emulation in the first place.

That is my list of resources, if you have any, please put them in a reply to this comment, or mail me at dasunt@hotmail.com. I'm especially interested in cocktail-style cabinents, hacks for controls, and translation sites (so many nice games never made it out of Japan).

Re:TORINITY??? by mattdm · 2000-11-16 07:05 · Score: 1 · on Monty Python and The Matrix LEGO

As opposed to the 40-some in English?

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Fair voting? No such thing. by SJS · 2000-11-13 04:35 · Score: 2 · on Analysis: Reforming Political Technology

Katz,

You seem to be laboring under the illusion that our voting system can be made to be "fair". It can't. Arrow's Theorem pretty much demolishes the concept.

A google search for "Arrow's Theorem" will turn up lots of useful links, like this on path-voting or this collection of notes.

If you're going to talk about changing how we vote, other than just the mechanics, you really need to read up on this stuff. Yeah, it's all academic and abstract, but it's quite relevent (imagine that!).

Re:I wonder... by PopeAlien · 2000-11-09 03:26 · Score: 1 · on The Docking Station Meets The MP3 Player

I Would love to use something like this for large file transfers.. Even if it doesnt support other file types, couldn't you use something like Wrapster to disguise other files as MP3s?

Re:Change it, but please not to IRV... by Sodium+Attack · 2000-11-08 03:12 · Score: 2 · on And The Winner Is... Nobody!

electionmethods.org is deliberately biased, listing only those criteria which IRV fails.

Here is a more thorough, less biased comparison of several voting methods.

Re:makes you wonder... by linzeal · 2000-11-02 08:03 · Score: 1 · on The Full Nader Plus a Taste of Bush and Gore

I'm not posting anonymously, and am without doubt pro-life. What we fear is the discrimination that most people prefer to utilize when dealing with the pro-life movement. That is to write us off as lunatics, crazies, violent drooling christian hordes of which most of us could hardly be described as.

"the so-called "pro-life" [highly ironic since people have been killed in the "pro-life" battle] movement wants to impose their will on all others. pro-choice does not. "

FYI, Pro-Choicers Are not Innocent in the Violence Issue

Insane Abortionist

Dr. Bruce Steir, Abortionist, Charged With Murder

before you continue basing your opinion in the misconception that the pro-choice side is any less violent to grown-up people (as they are already are encouraging the killing of the unborn from 2 weeks to 9 months).

We here at Anarchists for Life took a stand against violence when we adopted this as part of our faq that "We do not support violence inside or outside of abortion clinics. We do support peaceful protest." We are hardly alone on the issue

Pat Goltz's Pro-life and Feminist Writings

Leftout: A Haven for Progressive (Liberal) Pro-Lifers

Pro-Woman, Pro-Life: Stop Abortion

What A Wonderful World

"A Life Is..."

Serena & Semira's Home

Check Your Stereotypes At the Door

neon goddess page

Idle Hands Productions

MaeFlowers

Straight Edge Power!

Christian Morality

Tree of Life Pro-life Page

Human Life is Sacred

Vox Crying

Laura's Homepage

Respect Life Ministry

Rennaissance Suffragettes (Pro-Life Feminism)

Star Angel's Pro-Life Page

Lutherans for Life

DazedHippie's Causes

Atheist and Agnostic Pro-Life League

RightGrrl: Conservative Pro-Life Women

Life Links

Linkie's Place

Sweet Pain's Causes

An American Patriot's Page of Thanks

Diogenes's Friends

Anarchists for Life

(( apprehension ))

Versailles Artists for Life

Matt Wallace: A Pro-Life/Anti-Violence Secular Humanist Atheist

BroPeace's Page: Shalom!

Carol's Pro-Life Page

Mallory's Owner's Page

Jim Sieffert's Page

Military Spouse Club

Rebecca's Pro-Life Page

Reality Check-Canada

Rochester Area Right To Life Committee (Rochester, NY)

Joel's Journey

Indiana University Students for Life

Consistent Life Ethics

Electric Cheetahland

Central Truths

Linda's Lair

David Horne's Gay Pro-life Christian Homepage

Roy and Joanna's Beliefs

In Susan B. Anthony's Footsteps: Pro-Woman, Pro-Life! Webring

The New Abolitionists (or "Funny, I Don't Feel Like A Conservative!")

STAAR: Standing Together Against Abortion Rights (Canada)

Do Babies Have a Choice?

Weird Politik: Because Politics Can be Very Strange Sometimes

Elizabeth's Place

Sehlat's LifeLinks

Sleepless in Atlanta

Bill Samuel's Pro-Life Links

Pro-Life Activities in Maryland / Washington DC

Daweena's Political Page

Glitched

Doubet Family Page

where this all came from by fjordboy · 2000-10-31 09:23 · Score: 2 · on Sending Pumpkins Where No Gourd Has Gone Before

I first saw this story about 2-3 years ago in "Compressed Air" magazine which was distributed freely by Ingersoll-Rand It was a very cool magazine, and it always had cool articles. The one I am speaking of had a large writeup about a competition in Deleware where these MASSIVE air compressors (hmmmm..and several were made by ingersoll-rand...conspiracy? or is the magazine biased?) that powered these pumpkin chucking devices. I thought this was really cool, but because of my young age and lack of ability, I was forced to build a potato gun instead, which doesn't have quite the same power. So the other day I looked up this pumpkin thing and I was completely blown away by all the stuff they did now..there were hundreds of pages about it. I was very impressed.

Re:Better voting system needed by Daffy+Duck · 2000-10-30 09:54 · Score: 3 · on Slashback: Palmistry, Lecture, Quid Quo Pro

See here for a detailed opinion of why Instant Runoff Voting is non-optimal, bordering on outright irrational. My favorite non-ideological objection to IRV is that it can be a bookkeeping nightware.

A less emotional comparison of alternate election methods can be found here.

Linux Home Automation project by Ricochet · 2000-10-17 07:54 · Score: 2 · on Linux-Based Home Services Server

I started the Linux Home Automation project (LHA project) to accomplish something very similar. Currently I have more of a collection of various software (my Linux Home Automation pages). I've just finished collecting a ton of hardware and getting info on the various software needed. I hope to have non-beta base software within the month. For most, the current stage of the project won't be usable. But for the tinker'r it will at least be interesting.

For those who don't mind getting their hands dirty with software they can try Mr. House (I'll correct my pages, sorry). It's written in Perl and is very functional.

--
Linux Home Automation - Neil Cherry - ncherry@home.net
http://members.home.net/ncherry (Text only)
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/ lig htsey/52 (Graphics)
http://linuxha.sourceforge.net/ (SourceForge)

Re:Move along... by Ricochet · 2000-10-17 07:37 · Score: 1 · on Linux-Based Home Services Server

Not if I get my way! I run the Linux Home Automatin project and most of this stuff can be had and run free! I don't like the idea that the controller for my home is not under my complete control.

Come Pinky, let us take over the world ... (Brain, from Pinky & the Brain)

--
Linux Home Automation - Neil Cherry - ncherry@home.net
http://members.home.net/ncherry (Text only)
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/ lig htsey/52 (Graphics)
http://linuxha.sourceforge.net/ (SourceForge)

Re:Pocket Quicken and others by beagle · 2000-10-15 20:08 · Score: 1 · on What Are Your Ten Best Palm Apps?

These are in no particular order, and many are repeats from earlier in the discussion. I went through much of Palmgear when I first got my Visor Deluxe and thought the enclosed list of companies made some pretty cool products.

spud guns! by fjordboy · 2000-10-09 07:09 · Score: 3 · on Welcome to the World of Quickies Entertainment

YES! A STORY ON SLASHDOT ABOUT SPUDGUNS! my life is now satisfied! The first website i ever made was about spudguns...that was back in sixth grade when i was young and stupid and used "ack" clarisworks homepage to build a page..and we weren't allowed to use anything except pictures, links and anchors. If you want to have a good laugh at my ignorance..go to here! don't flame about it or criticize it..I admit..it was dumb...if it even still exists.

back to potato guns though..I have a potatto gun, made from pvc...I use propane as fuel (hairspray is smelly and sticky and expensive.) and on a good day, I can send a potato flying 300 yards! We punched holes in plywood with it...we thought about sending small rodents through it..but my parents wouldn't allow it...and it was a cruel idea anyways... we also tried ether to fuel it (don't do this) but the one we tried blew apart...so we were forced to build another, large potato gun..with a 4 inch combustion chamber...we launched a spud from my friend's house to the highway...i am serious..the highway was about .5 miles away...I love those things.

I've purchased from Zebra ... by Ricochet · 2000-10-05 12:24 · Score: 1 · on Timex Sinclair ZX81 Back On the Market

I've purchased from Zebra, about a year or 2 ago. The ZX81 was less expensive then ($30) but if the demand is enough I can't see anything wrong with his pricing. I mean has has kept them for a while!

BTW, there is a project out there to build a new ZX/TS version of the Z80 with the latest and greatest technology. I can't find the link but I did backup the notes. Very cool to be able to run a ZX81 at 33MHz with up to 1 Meg of ram (not very useful with the way the ZX's ram addressing was set up).

--
Linux Home Automation - Neil Cherry - ncherry@home.net
http://members.home.net/ncherry (Text only)
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/ lig htsey/52 (Graphics)
http://linuxha.sourceforge.net/ (SourceForge)

Re:whose freedom? by The-Bus · 2000-09-21 22:28 · Score: 1 · on Universities Refuse To Ban Napster

Blockquoth the poster:

If someone downloads child porn, do we say, "Let's ban browsers so they nobody has access"?

Well, that comment doesn't sound right. Napster, by design, was made to download MP3s and MP3s only (modifications like Wrapster aside). Browsers, on the other hand, are just a way to access content... Which creates this question:

If Napster had started as a file-sharing community (as opposed to an MP3-file-sharing community), would it have run into these legal problems?

Re:*BSD problems by Alice+Terry · 2000-09-15 07:58 · Score: 1 · on Darwin Booting On x86

wp14 writes:

Speaking as an investor, I have bad feelings about *BSD (financial). It is pretty clear that *BSD does not have the broad industry backing required to be successful. Some endeavors seem to be eternally "spooked" or fated. *BSD is perhaps one of the better examples of this phenomenon. There is jinx that has hovered over *BSD for years. I don't know that anyone can explain why. *BSD problems are fairly complex. I don't think you can give a simple one sentence explanation for *BSD's failure. It reminds me of the Amiga's failure. The Amiga was an example of some good ideas that were perpetually jinxed. *BSD has the unfortunate legacy to share that same one way boat ride down the river Styx. Darwin's problems will only hasten the process

Interesting thoughts, but a hard answer for BSD's difficulties requires further investigation. One could make a career out of the whole study of industrial design failures. In some cases, such as that of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster, the causes are self-evident (in retrospect, anyway). In other cases, such as the problems with BSD unix, the reasons for failure are more subtle and require some digging. On the one hand, BSD had the problem with copyright violations which led to a lawsuit. But would a lawsuit be sufficient to permanently cripple the whole BSD project?

Perhaps the closest analogy in terms of industrial failures is that of the Ford Edsel. Touted as the "car of the future", the Edsel was an unqualified flop. Yet, there wasn't anything really all that terrible about the Edsel. For whatever reasons, the public roundly rejected it. The same could be said about BSD unix. There isn't anything terribly wrong with it, but it has been pretty much rejected by the IT industry at large. Did the legal problems play a hand? Most definitely. But that doesn't explain it all.

There is no easy way to assign "x's" and "o's" to a dilemma of this sort. In the end, you might have to call it "bad luck". The public bases its choices on mysterious reasons that are beyond even the best marketing hype. Why was the public enamored with the hula hoop? Why are scooters now the latest craze? Those with the answers aren't saying. For every success, there are dozens of unheard of failures which have disappeared into obscurity. Anyone remember "Hacky Sack"? I thought so.

The future judge by Pseudonymus+Bosch · 2000-09-12 21:23 · Score: 2 · on Maryland Task Force Proposes Special Tech Courts

We are in 2000 AD , ain't we?

The best judge you can expect is Judge Dredd .

Hi from Richard M Stallman Block!
__

The future judge by Pseudonymus+Bosch · 2000-09-12 21:23 · Score: 2 · on Maryland Task Force Proposes Special Tech Courts

We are in 2000 AD , ain't we?

The best judge you can expect is Judge Dredd .

Hi from Richard M Stallman Block!
__

Re:Flawed... by generic-man · 2000-09-11 20:04 · Score: 1 · on New Eudora Includes Anti-Flame Technology

No, the proper spelling of "you are gay" is Uruguay.

[Paper] Open Source And These United States by SuperRoot+Consortium · 2000-09-01 08:46 · Score: 1 · on Linux and DII/COE Compliance?

OPEN SOURCE AND THESE UNITED STATES

By C. Justin Seiferth, Maj USAF

http://skyscraper. fortunecity.com/mondo/841/documents/index.html

This is a research report submitted to the faculty of the Air Command And Staff College, Air University, Maxwell AFB, Alabama

Re:Not yet... by Anonymous Coward · 2000-08-30 00:26 · Score: 3 · on More Threats From The MPAA

Re:Ingredients for life by codemonkey_uk · 2000-08-24 18:40 · Score: 2 · on Salty Ocean On Europa Could Mean Life

This "problem" isnt restricted to christian theology, its a classic philosophical problem and applies to everyone.

How do you know that what your percieve is real? What for that matter is "real"?

What follows is an section of an essey I wrote a long time ago that touches on this subject. Enjoy!

A sceptical philosopher could argue that we cannot trust our senses, as there is no way to verify what we see, hear, smell, and feel. Who hasn't mistaken an innocent silhouette for something more sinister? Or awoken to discover that what you thought was real was in fact a dream? If it is that the things and people around us don't exist then they can't have minds, and we are alone. But say for a moment that we can trust our senses (for even if we cannot trust our senses there is nothing we can do about it, so why not continue living our lives as if we can?) and that those around us are not figments of our imaginations, then their presence and behaviour must confirm the existence of their minds. Not so, consider computers, I have seen a program that takes typed sentences and reorders them into questions, for a while it quite convincingly mimics a psychiatrist. Computers are just machines, and no one I know would argue that they, or this program has a mind. It is quite possible (although quite hideous) that - as I mentioned in my last essay - everything around one is also just a machine, a complex set of mechanisms that mimics a conscious mind, but even if other people are biologically the same as us what is to say the have minds? Conversely we may be surrounded by many, many, more minds than we ever considered, who is to say a cat does not consider the meaning of life as it dozes by the fire, that a cow does not ponder the meaning of goodness, or even the bee as it buzzes from flower to flower, may be thinking about the mind / body problem, and a tree may for all we know spend the day wondering at the might of the sun.

More of the same can be found here.

Thad

Re:Reality Check, Please? by gorilla · 2000-08-24 03:55 · Score: 2 · on More On Kaplan's Ruling Making Links Illegal

Kitty porn is certainly on the net.

Have a read by dmccarty · 2000-08-17 02:43 · Score: 2 · on Voteauction.com

There's an interesting section of a book called Understanding Democracy by J. Patrick Gunning available online. I've listed a part regarding vote buying, specifically, Chapter 5.

3. RULES AGAINST BUYING VOTES(10)

It is useful to distinguish two types of vote markets: the market for the votes of legislators and the market for the votes of the electorate. The first refers to a legislator's vote on a law. A legislator's vote may be valuable to someone who stands to benefit or to lose from the law. The second refers to a member of the electorate's vote for a political candidate. This vote may be valuable to the candidate herself or to others who believe they will benefit if a particular candidate is elected. We begin by discussing the market for legislators' votes since this market is more common.

The Market for Legislators' Votes

Members of a collective would oppose the buying and selling of legislators' votes. The reason is more complex than it seems. Actually, some members of the collective may anticipate gains from allowing legislator vote-buying because they would expect it to make them better off. Consider a bill in the legislature that would give cash payments to a special group of people, say military veterans. The cash payments are financed by taxes on all citizens. Suppose that the veterans expect that by buying the votes of some legislators, they can cause the bill to pass. Then they might favor a system where legislators' votes can be bought and sold.

This kind of vote-buying is most likely wasteful. The net effect is to take money away from one group and give it to another group. So there is no net gain in money. Yet resources are likely to be wasted both by the supporters of the veterans' benefit bill and by its opponents. However, buying legislators' votes need not be so clearly wasteful. The bill may be intended to finance an environmental cleanup and the damaged environment may threaten otherwise clean groundwater or be a spawning place for contagious and deadly disease.

To see why most people would want to outlaw vote-buying, we must put ourselves in the shoes of the people who are likely to lose when others buy votes. Suppose that you expected to be part of the tax-paying group in either of the above cases. To defend yourself against having your wealth taken away, your group would have to bid a higher price for the legislators' votes than others.

There is a virtual infinity of bills that may benefit some groups at the expense of others. If vote-buying were allowed, many people would want to buy votes to support such bills. In order to defend themselves against losing their wealth, the prospective losers would have to bid against them. We can imagine competitive bidding for legislators' votes on thousands of bills. The result would be a needless waste of resources during the bidding process and, of course, substantial benefits for the legislators.

If we had some reason to expect that the benefits from the laws that resulted from such bidding would exceed the harm, we might investigate further. However, the main effect seems to be that the legislators would get rich at the expense of members of the collective.

In short, allowing legislators to sell votes reduces citizens' protection against external costs of collective decision making. Members of the collective hire legislators to help administer the monopoly over force. They expect and want the monopoly to be used only to help supply public goods. To allow legislators to sell their votes would give them a greater incentive than otherwise to use that monopoly over force for other purposes.

In some countries, vote-buying is not outlawed in the constitution but by ordinarily legislation. Even though legislators would seemingly prefer to allow vote-buying, they have passed legislation outlawing it. The apparent reason for this paradox is that if they did not pass such legislation, voters would vote them out of office.
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Have a read by dmccarty · 2000-08-17 02:43 · Score: 2 · on Voteauction.com

There's an interesting section of a book called Understanding Democracy by J. Patrick Gunning available online. I've listed a part regarding vote buying, specifically, Chapter 5.

3. RULES AGAINST BUYING VOTES(10)

It is useful to distinguish two types of vote markets: the market for the votes of legislators and the market for the votes of the electorate. The first refers to a legislator's vote on a law. A legislator's vote may be valuable to someone who stands to benefit or to lose from the law. The second refers to a member of the electorate's vote for a political candidate. This vote may be valuable to the candidate herself or to others who believe they will benefit if a particular candidate is elected. We begin by discussing the market for legislators' votes since this market is more common.

The Market for Legislators' Votes

Members of a collective would oppose the buying and selling of legislators' votes. The reason is more complex than it seems. Actually, some members of the collective may anticipate gains from allowing legislator vote-buying because they would expect it to make them better off. Consider a bill in the legislature that would give cash payments to a special group of people, say military veterans. The cash payments are financed by taxes on all citizens. Suppose that the veterans expect that by buying the votes of some legislators, they can cause the bill to pass. Then they might favor a system where legislators' votes can be bought and sold.

This kind of vote-buying is most likely wasteful. The net effect is to take money away from one group and give it to another group. So there is no net gain in money. Yet resources are likely to be wasted both by the supporters of the veterans' benefit bill and by its opponents. However, buying legislators' votes need not be so clearly wasteful. The bill may be intended to finance an environmental cleanup and the damaged environment may threaten otherwise clean groundwater or be a spawning place for contagious and deadly disease.

To see why most people would want to outlaw vote-buying, we must put ourselves in the shoes of the people who are likely to lose when others buy votes. Suppose that you expected to be part of the tax-paying group in either of the above cases. To defend yourself against having your wealth taken away, your group would have to bid a higher price for the legislators' votes than others.

There is a virtual infinity of bills that may benefit some groups at the expense of others. If vote-buying were allowed, many people would want to buy votes to support such bills. In order to defend themselves against losing their wealth, the prospective losers would have to bid against them. We can imagine competitive bidding for legislators' votes on thousands of bills. The result would be a needless waste of resources during the bidding process and, of course, substantial benefits for the legislators.

If we had some reason to expect that the benefits from the laws that resulted from such bidding would exceed the harm, we might investigate further. However, the main effect seems to be that the legislators would get rich at the expense of members of the collective.

In short, allowing legislators to sell votes reduces citizens' protection against external costs of collective decision making. Members of the collective hire legislators to help administer the monopoly over force. They expect and want the monopoly to be used only to help supply public goods. To allow legislators to sell their votes would give them a greater incentive than otherwise to use that monopoly over force for other purposes.

In some countries, vote-buying is not outlawed in the constitution but by ordinarily legislation. Even though legislators would seemingly prefer to allow vote-buying, they have passed legislation outlawing it. The apparent reason for this paradox is that if they did not pass such legislation, voters would vote them out of office.
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Re:The dizzying pace of change by markbanang · 2000-08-16 18:10 · Score: 1 · on What Will Be The Next Generation Of RAM?

Who would have thought 30 years ago that we'd all be running a Unix-like operating system on machines with magnetic core memory?

Personally I feel that MRAM is a beautifully ioronic idea.

Anyone have a good place to send the kids to show them what CORE really was?

You might want to point people at http://www.psych.usyd.edu.au/pdp-11/ core.html which has a nice, brief summary of the technology.

Other sites worth looking at are:

http://web.mit.edu/6.933/www/core.html
http://www.computer-mus eum.org/collections/ferrite_mem.html
http://www.science.uva.n l/faculteit/museum/CoreMemory.html
http://www.fortunecity.com/ marina/reach/435/coremem.htm

The last of these is particularly interesting (if somewhat self contradictory, as it describes Univacs miniaturised planes which are only 4.5" square, and cost $6000 each for 1 kilobits of storage.

Mark..........

Libertarianism, not just for yourself... by dominion · 2000-08-07 22:25 · Score: 3 · on Cyberselfish: Technolibertarianism

I am a proud libertarian, but if you think that implies that I worship the market, and that I'm going to vote (how do you eliminate government by encouraging it?) for the Libertarian Party, you're sorely mistaken.

Years ago, there were anarchists. They were a lot like socialists, except for one major difference: They didn't see the point (some even accurately predicted the brutality of Marxism) of taking over government to achieve socialism. Government, they felt, was the enemy of common people, and it was instituted by the powerful in order to protect their interests. In other words, government acts as a buffer between capitalism and people in order to prevent or squash revolution.

Then, at some point in Europe, it became illegal to call yourself an anarchist. So, people started calling themselves libertarians. Same concept, different name.

How did "libertarian" in the US end up being a fiscal conservative/social liberal mix? I don't know. But I wish it meant the revolutionary definition it was meant to. I wish I could call myself a libertarian without people automatically assuming that I'm in favor of privatizing the police and military.

I'm a libertarian (aka, anarchist), because I want to get rid of government, not transfer it's powers over to corporations.

Within Slashdot I see a lot of strange juxtopositions. We're rabidly anti-government, which is good. We're also rabidly opposed to certain corporations, which is also good. But a lot of us are still fixated on this ridiculous notion of "the market", as though human happiness could be measured by stock values.

I don't worship the market. I hate the market. I despise the idea that human worth is measured, packaged, and profited from. I don't want to accept a world where currency is backed up by military force, and where the only means of survival is working for the profit of others.

In short, I hate capitalism, and almost everything that it implies. Now, don't get me wrong, I hate Communism more. The way it looks, Communism has a lifespan of about 80 years, tops. Capitalism has a much longer lifespan, that is kept alive only by constant technological advancements that keep it going. But I have a feeling that it's at the end of it's rope. Maybe it's time to check out alternatives?

So, yes, I am a libertarian, but not in the legacy of Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, or others who worshipped capitalism as the means and the goal. I am a libertarian in the legacy of P.J. Proudhon, Emma Goldman, Mikhail Bakunin, and Petr Kropotkin, who believed in revolution as the means, and freedom as the goal.

Michael Chisari
mchisari@usa.net

Re:It's called Gnutella... by SlashGeek · 2000-08-01 12:34 · Score: 1 · on RIAA Responds to Napster - Raises Serious Questions

Kalak451 writes "Napsters one saving grace was that it was only used for music."

This is not true either. Although other file formats might be far less popular for trade on Napster, there is a program available for download known as Wrapster that masks *.(any) extention to a *.mp3 extention, and allows any type of file to be posted for DL on Napster. The files are generally named after their content, ie: "Natalie_Portman_Nude.mp3" After downloading, the "Wrapster" utility converts the fake *.mp3 file back into whatever it was.

new music era by bmcnett · 2000-07-31 05:58 · Score: 1 · on Helping Artists Online

here's an artist who says it's ok to burn a CD of his music, as long as you mail him one:

MODMAN NEW MUSIC ERA

now that's what i call copyright! =)

Pizza the Hut ... by sela · 2000-07-19 14:54 · Score: 1 · on Pizza Hut's Space Program: First Launch

Yes ... Now it all make sense ...

So this is how this awful Pizza the Hut got to space ...

Sure, go on, deliver pizza to space ... why not? Let those cosmic rays mutate the pizza into a disguasting Mafia guy that would terrorize the galaxy. Why should I care?

Beware, Lone Starr!

Don't watch the X-Men Movie if you support DeCSS! by sumana · 2000-07-12 00:01 · Score: 3 · on Getting Ready for The X-Men

This site helps you see which movie studios are supporting the DeCSS case launched against 2600 Magazine et al.

X-Men: 20th Century Fox, plaintiff in DeCSS lawsuit

I wish I could see this movie, but I don't think I will, not paying money, anyway. If I do, it will be with a sad heart. It hurts to be a conscious consumer sometimes.

Maybe I can make up for it with my DeCSS page. Or maybe not.

Re:How did you score by dmccarty · 2000-06-22 20:27 · Score: 2 · on Genetic Algorithms Improve Combustion Engines

You hit the nail on the head with the second guess. I used the frequency of English trigrams in the decoded text. Text that had frequent amounts of "THE" and "AND" (the most common English trigrams) scored higher than text filed with QQX's and CKZ's.

I had originally used a table of the 15 most common English trigrams (available here), which was not giving me precise enough scores. Then a friend I had met through our mutual struggles to solve the stage sent me his trigraph table. In his words, this is how he described it:

I used Project Gutenberg and downloaded the complete textversions of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (800KB) and "Wuthering heights" (600KB). I created a huge string out of the text (eliminating everything which is not a - z or A - Z) and ran a window of 3 chars over it, each time noting how many times a particular trigram appreared. I mapped that in an array. Doing like that I created a textfile of 26^3 trigrams and their respective scores (log2(N+1) where N=number a particular TriGram appeared in my sample text. (e.g. The score for 'THE' is about 14.0.)
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Where to get Infocom's classics and how to run 'em by lightspawn · 2000-06-12 05:23 · Score: 1 · on Text Adventures On Cell Phones

Did anybody ever port Leather Goddes to either Linux or Windows. If so anybody know where to get it.

Most of Infocom's games, including LGOP, were in their .z5 format, playable on a wide range of machines. If you have the game files (you can probably find the Infocom masterpieces collection, 33 games on one CD) all you need is an interpreter.

Download the Zork 1-3 .z5 files (they might possibly be renamed to .dat) at http://www.concentric.net/~Twist/WinFrotz/download .shtml . These are freely redistributable.

Download interpreters for your platform at ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive /interpreters-infocom-zcode/

See where you can buy the games at http://underworld.fortunecity.com/trac k/946/

Slashdot Mirror

Domain: fortunecity.com

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