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I have to say there are some serious environmental issues with his plan but it gives an interesting insight to the whole "launch costs" problem.

I have to say there are some serious environmental issues with his plan but it gives an interesting insight to the whole "launch costs" problem.

Client-side filtering does not need to destroy false positives. Nothing keeps a mail filter on a client from generating delivery failure messages just like those produced by a MTA. Of course, I don't know why you'd want to generate such messages in response to every spam and email worm. Besides, there's no real way to know that any message was actually read by its intended recipient (instead of silently ignored) other than for the recipient to manually reply and say so. This is just the end-to-end principle applied to email.

Nothing in client-side filtering inherently prevents you from aggregating useful information about spam. I perform my own spam filtering, and I forward all my spam to spamcop where it is aggregated with spam reports from many other users. In fact, they get better quality reports from me because I manually review the stuff in my spam folder to make sure it really is spam before I report it. (I don't really have to do that since annoyance-filter, my Bayesian spam detector of choice, has an extremely low false positive rate.)

Your one good point is about resource wastage. And I'd have no problem with a mechanism that allows users to delegate spam filtering functions to their ISPs provided that the users retain ultimate control.

The problem is that such control is almost totally lacking in today's ISP spam filtering mechanisms. Filtering is usually imposed (along with IP blacklists) by heavy-handed ISP fiat, and the users get no say over what is or isn't considered spam. If you're lucky, your ISP won't automatically drop what they consider to be spam, but will simply mark it with a header or place it in a separate IMAP folder. But you will probably have no control over their determination except to ignore it and replace it with your own.

Although most of us would probably agree on what is and isn't spam in the majority of cases, ultimately spam is in the eye of the beholder. There can be no justification for withholding email from someone who really wants to receive it, and no justification (other than ISP laziness) for not giving their users ultimate control over all filtering mechanisms.

I wouldn't say a person who knows Quake II monsters is "dumber" than someone who knows moon features, but he's certainly more detached from the physical world.

That's not necessarily a bad thing -- the Quake II stuff could be described (at a stretch) as part of the "human" or "social" world rather than the "natural" world, and if you believe many modern biologists, the human world has been more important to each of us than the natural world has for a very long time.

Nevertheless, in a romantic way, if nothing else, the disconnection from the natural world is some kind of a loss. I tend to try to know at least what phase the moon is in, but right now I confess I don't have a clue. I don't even have moontool on this workstation, darn. Time to go to find a copy

Shut up, you insensitive clod! I'm on Hacker's Diet and haven't had anything to eat for fucking 48 hours. Now where is my overlord? And where are the other news??!

Slashdot sucks.

Please pardon my lack of knowledge on this subject, but as far as I know and from I get from the uncertainty principle and quantum mechanics, the only truely pure random thing in our universe is nuclear decay. Supposedly there is absolutely no way to predict when the next particle will decay from the nucleus of a radioactive atom. These ideas are used for this random number generator. Essentially, you can download a set of numbers generated by their radioactive element. This seems much more truely random and a bit more portable than lugging around camera equipment (although internet connectivity may be an issue, and you may not be able to generate as many random bits as frequently).

I kinda liked this approach.

HotBits

Basically use random radioactive decay to get your numbers. Can't beat mother nature.

...too.
True Random Generator

An Wang is worth historical mention. He
invented the basis of core memory, the predecessor of RAM, in 1949. Core memory was as critical to computers of the late 1950's and 1960's as RAM is now. Prior to Core, memory solutions included drum (like today's magnetic disk), vacuum tubes, the Williams Tube, and Delay Lines - all of which were problematic.

Here's another link to his biography. (Note that it took several years of lawsuits before he got any money.)

With the royalties from Core he founded Wang Labs, which until about 1990 was a player in the calculating and computing markets. In 1965 Wang Labs built one of the first electronic desk calculators, and built several successful pre-computer desktops, like word processors and such. But Wang Labs never successfully transitioned into the general purpose PC market (AFAIK.)

Core was expensive. According to This, 131K cost $823,500 in 1968 - about $.75/bit. Cost of memory dropped below $.01 per bit in the late 1960's or early 1970's. Now, 256MB=$60 =~ $.0000022 per bit. Today, that 256MB would cost $1647905221.37 - a bit steep for a desktop.

Info on how Core works as well as some interesting historical information is here.

Think different.

Sounds like a viable justification for this plan! And additional side-effect is that we get a reasonably priced launch system out of the deal!!

I also sit on my butt for a living. I was 298.5 pounds in November 2001. I dropped to 218.5 by mid May 2002. All following most of the advice in The Hacker's Diet. And going to the gym about 5 - 7 days a week at 5AM. More discussion here. But there is only one way to burn fat off of your body, create a caloric imbalance where you are inputing less energy into your body then you are expending. Good luck.

About two months ago, I picked up a new Sony Clie NX60 (which I already use as an MP3 player when I walk, etc) and totally forgot about the PALM OS software that Walker wrote. I am going to integrate my PDA into the program, immediately, so I can carry it with me all the time. I'll also going to drop the yucky MS Excel-based format and work on exporting my other months' records in .csv format to the HTML version you are using.

On another note, I've noticed I am keeping much more detailed notes on what I have been eating/drinking than most people and I have been benefiting a great deal from learning about the various contents of the food I eat (I also plan on compiling what I eat / drink into a custom-personalized database that I can use on a daily basis via my PDA).

On your site, I noticed you are eating a lot of sub sandwiches and Taco Bell. Is that working out for you? I've been basically staying away from all forms of fast-food in lieu of freshly-prepared meals with lower calorie-count (since I like the sense of control I get when preparing my own healthy meals). I am sure either way works, as long as you are monitoring and eating in moderation. I'm just wondering how you are feeling in terms of energy and fitness in general.

Also, I noticed for some of the days with food comments, your calorie intake looks to be around 1,000 or so calories... you need to be careful about that. In order to prevent any loss of muscle mass during your diet (or as John Walker puts it, "deliberate starvation"), you need to consume at least 1,200 calories a day. I'm losing weight at a steady pace with no hunger pains or any other ailments and eat 1,300 to 1,400 calories, per day. If you are interested, drop me an e-mail via my site or respond to this post and I'll forward you the URL for my EatWatch, as soon as I get it online.

About two months ago, I picked up a new Sony Clie NX60 (which I already use as an MP3 player when I walk, etc) and totally forgot about the PALM OS software that Walker wrote. I am going to integrate my PDA into the program, immediately, so I can carry it with me all the time. I'll also going to drop the yucky MS Excel-based format and work on exporting my other months' records in .csv format to the HTML version you are using.

On another note, I've noticed I am keeping much more detailed notes on what I have been eating/drinking than most people and I have been benefiting a great deal from learning about the various contents of the food I eat (I also plan on compiling what I eat / drink into a custom-personalized database that I can use on a daily basis via my PDA).

On your site, I noticed you are eating a lot of sub sandwiches and Taco Bell. Is that working out for you? I've been basically staying away from all forms of fast-food in lieu of freshly-prepared meals with lower calorie-count (since I like the sense of control I get when preparing my own healthy meals). I am sure either way works, as long as you are monitoring and eating in moderation. I'm just wondering how you are feeling in terms of energy and fitness in general.

Also, I noticed for some of the days with food comments, your calorie intake looks to be around 1,000 or so calories... you need to be careful about that. In order to prevent any loss of muscle mass during your diet (or as John Walker puts it, "deliberate starvation"), you need to consume at least 1,200 calories a day. I'm losing weight at a steady pace with no hunger pains or any other ailments and eat 1,300 to 1,400 calories, per day. If you are interested, drop me an e-mail via my site or respond to this post and I'll forward you the URL for my EatWatch, as soon as I get it online.

To Oneiros: I read the same Hacker's Diet mention in that previous /. article and I started in April, as well! I'm looking to lose about 20 more lbs. to get into that same goal range -- congrats to you on your progress!

So, I followed the same advice that Oneiros, Zinereem, and Shaniber have, including the Royal Canadian Air Force work-outs and have had great results. Since mid-April, I've lost around 40 pounds and haven't felt so energized since high school. You can realize some amazing results just from cutting the soda (I drink Diet Coke & Diet Dr. Pepper, though), dairy, and sugars (which mostly resulted from the large amount of coffee I was drinking -- I liked coffee with my sugar and cream).

Using the tools available with the Hacker's Diet, I still enjoy my morning coffee and other caffiene addictions. I basically get to eat whatever I want -- although, by gaining the knowledge set forth in the Hacker's Diet Guide, I have learned that what I really want is great tasting meals -- not massive meals with too many calories. So now, I eat fresher foods which are prepared better and eaten in moderation; allowing me to appreciate each meal and know that I am more healthy because of it.

Recently, since people noticed the difference in my weight, I have been asked by several people what the 'secret' to effective weight-loss is and what steps they need to take to achieve their diet goals. I've been responsive and attempted to be helpful as much as possible. I have found it takes a certain kind of person to have success with *any* diet, especially one that makes you really think about how and what you eat. I tell them that it is about changing their rate, not their weight. When the last person I spoke with about weight-loss said they would "rather be overweight for the rest of (their) life, rather than give up having two donuts in the morning" -- I knew some people have nothing but a mental block holding them back from success.

Lately, I'm not as much concerned about my actual weight (as it appears on a scale), but I do check and record my weight and BF% (the body fat measurement is inaccurate, but my scale does it, so I record it for the hell of it) every day, without fail. The process of changing my rate of eating... my eating habits and my lifestyle as a whole have become the most important aspects of my weight loss. Checking out my graph and seeing that weight line go down is, for me, more than enough motivation to keep moving towards my healthy-weight goal. If you throw in the numerous comments and congrats I get from people I know, it is easy to keep myself on track.

Now that I think about it, I have to give thanks to /. for posting that mention of the Hacker's Diet back in April! Before successfully changing my eating habits and lifestyle, I had never tried any weight loss program or fad diet. I think having confidence in what John Walker wrote (and perhaps because we live in the same county), the way he boiled down weight loss to something that any geek could easily comprehend, allowed me to step over the line and take a plunge.

Also, as you lose weight and become more fit, you'll quickly find yourself with even more energy and the need to expend it. I never thought I would be looking for other ways to exercise, but now I do! I have been taking karate, like I did in high school, and even plan on returning to the same dojo I attended at that time of my life. Walking, going out, hitting the beach, and just having the energy to do what I want is well worth the slight effort that needs to be put into any weight loss program. Just make sure the program is something that you know is basically safe and not some sort of fad diet that could harm you in the long

"The Hacker's Diet: How to lose weight and hair through stress and poor nutrition."

No, really. It's a book by John Walker, freely available on the web. He explains in simple language (and diagrams) what most of us have known all along: eat less, exercise a little, and STICK TO IT!

Basically, you should figure out how many calories you need to maintain your weight, and take off about 500/day to lose 1-2 pounds a week. Add in some moderate (15 minutes) exercise every day, and you're on your way to becoming thin and svelte (well, sorta). The book provides tools (either paper & pencil, or computerized) that help you track your progress, plan your meals, and illustrate some of the concepts presented in the book.

I started this diet 3 weeks ago, and I thought it was going to be really hard - but most of my cravings I've been able to deal with, by having, say, a small scoop of ice cream, which fits into my caloric allowance for the day. I can see myself having this as a lifestyle, and I do feel healthier.

The Hacker's Diet

you have to burn more calories than you take in.

Exactly. There's a bunch of good information and some methods to help you do this at this site: The Hacker's Diet. It was featured on slashdot previously, I believe.

or you could read this.
"The Hacker's Diet®
How to lose weight and hair through stress and poor nutrition" and save $11.87.

It hasn't even been three months since the Hacker's Diet was mentioned.

Basically, one of the points made is that it takes a lot of exercise to lose weight. Although John Walker (the author) does suggest exercise, he recommends using a 10-15 minute a day program based off that of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Personally, by watching my calorie intake, without exercising, I've lost about 30 pounds since April, and I'm trying to shed another 10-20 to get back to the 150-160lb range. I'm guessing that cutting out sodas has has the most profound impact on what I've changed, diet wise. Of course, I had to slowly cut back... It's not like I was drinking 3L of Mt. Dew per day, as I was in college, but I was probably drinking a good 1.5L of sodas per day. Oh...and you do have to drink water, or as a compromise, sports drinks, as fruit juices tend to have just as mushc sugar as sodas.

It hasn't even been three months since the Hacker's Diet was mentioned.

Basically, one of the points made is that it takes a lot of exercise to lose weight. Although John Walker (the author) does suggest exercise, he recommends using a 10-15 minute a day program based off that of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Personally, by watching my calorie intake, without exercising, I've lost about 30 pounds since April, and I'm trying to shed another 10-20 to get back to the 150-160lb range. I'm guessing that cutting out sodas has has the most profound impact on what I've changed, diet wise. Of course, I had to slowly cut back... It's not like I was drinking 3L of Mt. Dew per day, as I was in college, but I was probably drinking a good 1.5L of sodas per day. Oh...and you do have to drink water, or as a compromise, sports drinks, as fruit juices tend to have just as mushc sugar as sodas.

It hasn't even been three months since the Hacker's Diet was mentioned.

Basically, one of the points made is that it takes a lot of exercise to lose weight. Although John Walker (the author) does suggest exercise, he recommends using a 10-15 minute a day program based off that of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Personally, by watching my calorie intake, without exercising, I've lost about 30 pounds since April, and I'm trying to shed another 10-20 to get back to the 150-160lb range. I'm guessing that cutting out sodas has has the most profound impact on what I've changed, diet wise. Of course, I had to slowly cut back... It's not like I was drinking 3L of Mt. Dew per day, as I was in college, but I was probably drinking a good 1.5L of sodas per day. Oh...and you do have to drink water, or as a compromise, sports drinks, as fruit juices tend to have just as mushc sugar as sodas.

The Hacker's Diet

This was posted a few months ago, and I started it and yesterday I hit my goal of 180pnds (from 212pnds).

It works. It's free. It's scientific. And it's called the Hacker's Diet.

Just do it.

M@

The Hacker's Diet - it's really easy, very logical, and quite effective.

Haven't seen it posted, but there is a very good plan for IT folks at Hacker's Diet

"This is not a normal diet book, and I am not a normal diet book author.

I'm not a doctor. Nor am I a nutritionist, psychologist, sports hero, gourmet chef, or any of the other vocations that seem to qualify people to tell you how to lose weight.

I'm an engineer by training, a computer programmer by avocation, and an businessman through lack of alternatives. From grade school in the 1950's until 1988 I was fat--anywhere from 30 to 80 pounds overweight. This is a diet book by somebody who spent most of his life fat. "

Maybe they'll rethink their position. Of course, since the margin of error in the last election was around 100,000, this probably won't make too big a difference. In fact, they might as well just tap HotBits & avoid the controversy.

It took only few seconds of reflection before I decided this could be the killer biotech app which is needed for the dot-bio boom everyone keeps predicting someday.

Sorry, people are rather interested in themselves, not in charity.

I guess, they'd rather want the imaginary watch which is described here.

(Or maybe directly some pills that'd consumme the extra calories and toxins we eat day after day so that we all end looking like the heroes of this movie)

...windoze and unix works well, requires only one firewall hole at the client, though you may want to have one of your guys run a "look who's listening" server - add a port forward for that one, and one for a reflector if you want to use one, but one of those suffices for all the clients. It's not polished - no voice mixing, for instance, but it is very solid.

Maybe you shouldn't be looking for "one great ... idea". If you consider the founding of Autodesk, you'll see that the founders developed a portfolio of products. Some clicked, some didn't. One that clicked became AutoCAD ... and the rest is history. Of course, the company that became Autodesk was started 25 years ago, so the environment is different now.

at least is been around a long time
Link

No one would have believed in the last years of the twentieth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twenty-first century came the great disillusionment.

(See also the online version of the book.)

One of the problems with current situation is that craft seem to be designed by committee according to specifications drafted by politicians eager to bring to their districts as much business as possible (and line their own pockets with 'campaign contributions'). Efficiency, cost and (unless people die and it hits the news) safety do not seem to be important.

The rest of this post is mostly about launching satelites, but it probably also applies to manned launches.

Another problem is that of economics. There currently aren't enough launches per year to allow economy of scale to play any role. If, for instance, one were to design, build and launch a particular booster type twice weekly for three years (ca. 300 launches total), the unit cost would be a lot lower than if that same booster type were launched every other month (18 launches or so) or even monthly (36 launches) over the same period. The former case makes an assembly line affordable, the latter would not. The higher schedule would also allow more opportunities to test and phase in new equipment like electronics, pumps and engines.

A (somewhat extreme) example of this can be found in the history of the World War II A4 missile, better known as the V2. At peak production it is estimated that the Mittelwerke produced hundreds of the things, even under wartime conditions. Of those launched, about 80% worked as designed. Without bombing and slave labor and with better materials, quality control and manufacturing methods, mass-building a booster capable of lofting 2 tons or more to low orbit for under $4 million apiece and with a success rate of 95% or better should be quite possible. Since it isn't designed for maximum throw weight (like an ICBM) somewhat cheaper (and heavier) materials can be used to keep costs down. More on the V2's history and its application to modern launches can be found at this location. Cheers, Coward

What kind of processor was available in 1803?

Oops...

The Art of Money Getting: http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/barnum/moneyget ting/moneygetting.html

John Walker's book mentions the "mechanics of mitochondria" - para. 1. Doesn't he mean the mechanics of metachlorians?

If the Hacker's Diet spreadsheets are "out of commission", this is news to me. I wrote them and have used them continuously since 1990. The Excel spreadsheets are available in six--count 'em--six versions compatible with every release of Excel from 2.1 through 2002 (Office XP). This is, of course, five more versions than should have been necessary, but the perpetrators of Excel prefer to treat users' investment in macros as a wasting asset rather than capital.

Being a multiple-document Excel spreadsheet, you need to open the main log document from the "Open" menu within Excel rather than clicking on the document icon or using the recent documents menu. Otherwise Excel won't find the associated history database which is cleverly hidden in the very same directory as the main spreadsheet. This "enhancement" first appeared in Excel 5.0 and has never been remedied by any subsequent version. As long as you open the main log from the "Open" menu, everything works fine. The Excel macros are unprotected; you can modify them as you wish.

The Hacker's Diet software tools are also available in a Palm OS edition, which can interchange data with the Excel spreadsheet and/or produce desktop logs in HTML format on any platform which can talk to a PalmOS PDA and run C programs. Complete source code, in the public domain, is available for all of this, either from my site through the link above or via CVS from SourceForge.

If the Hacker's Diet spreadsheets are "out of commission", this is news to me. I wrote them and have used them continuously since 1990. The Excel spreadsheets are available in six--count 'em--six versions compatible with every release of Excel from 2.1 through 2002 (Office XP). This is, of course, five more versions than should have been necessary, but the perpetrators of Excel prefer to treat users' investment in macros as a wasting asset rather than capital.

Being a multiple-document Excel spreadsheet, you need to open the main log document from the "Open" menu within Excel rather than clicking on the document icon or using the recent documents menu. Otherwise Excel won't find the associated history database which is cleverly hidden in the very same directory as the main spreadsheet. This "enhancement" first appeared in Excel 5.0 and has never been remedied by any subsequent version. As long as you open the main log from the "Open" menu, everything works fine. The Excel macros are unprotected; you can modify them as you wish.

The Hacker's Diet software tools are also available in a Palm OS edition, which can interchange data with the Excel spreadsheet and/or produce desktop logs in HTML format on any platform which can talk to a PalmOS PDA and run C programs. Complete source code, in the public domain, is available for all of this, either from my site through the link above or via CVS from SourceForge.

You can get the 1.3mb PDF (so you can read it on your own time, have your download manager wait instead of you) here

He says so himself:

Of course, if you're using the random data for cryptography or other security-related applications, you can't be certain I'm not squirreling away a copy. But I'm not, really.

Even if he isn't, what's to stop anyone of the route between you and him, from saving a copy, or altering the numbers enroute?

But if you need numbers you can really trust, he also shows you how to build your own.

This VIA chip is producing 30-50 million bits per second.

Also, each radiological decay event would have more potential to cause bit rot in your normal CPU, memory or other chipset's operations.

John Walker is already doing exactly this, producing random bits with a system he calls HotBits. Take a look at this page for his system and a good explanation. Of course I also think it may help to live in a castle with a 1-meter-thick-concrete-lined cistern located three-basement-levels-down to stick your Krypton-85 source in...

And while using nuclear decay would raise the geek factor so high as to be measurable on a geiger counter, the manufacturing and disposal licensing and other handling problems that would accompany any usage of nuclear materials would be more than onerous for any company that had an economical alternative.

John Walker, the founder of Autodesk, has made a system like that, from which offers random bits:

John Walker, the founder of Autodesk, has made a system like that, from which offers random bits:

The NAT Patch by Tor-Åke Fransson has been integrated into this release and enabled by default; this patch permits users behind routers and firewalls which perform Network Address Translation boxes to contact users who aren't.

Isnt that what Speakfreely is about ?
Also available for Unix.
CLI based, but some front-ends are available too.

Damn tootin'! Mars is a dangerous rogue state with a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. We have intelligence which proves Mars has worked with Al Qaeda to terrorize our world (but we can't share our information--it's classified). It is imperative that Mars dismantle its weapons of mass destruction; if they do not (or, heck, even if they do), we must disarm the Martians by force.

War is our last option (wink wink nudge nudge), but sanctions and inspections have proven ineffective. Mars' continued defiance of UN resolutions (and their rich, untapped oil fields) forces our hand in this matter.

HTML Tidy to the rescue.

Accoding to this article from NASA, Ion engines don't create anything near 1g of thrust. In fact, the acceleration is so slight that scientists have to test in a vacuum to measure it. Like you mentioned, they get their efficiency from the speed of the ejected ions, however this article states that 80 kg of fuel would last 1 to 2 years and could accelerate a rocket up to 22,000 mph.

And for propellantless propulsion we have the space tether, solar sails, and (for a good laugh) vacuum propellers which are big props that are supposed to push against the 'quantum vacuum'.

Hmmm....Think about it....Usenet...

30GB a day of grainy porn...

Why again do the terrorists need encryption?

http://www.fourmilab.ch/stego/

Dan

There is a command line utility available at http://www.fourmilab.ch/md5/. They provide a zip file that contains a windows executable and source code (source is in the public domain). Place the executable someplace in your %PATH% (the Windows directory is a good place) and you're ready to rock.

a rocket a day keeps the shuttles away: a rocket a day