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Pinball is not very fun.

I've owned an Addams Family machine for a few years, and I've never tired of it. I don't play it every day, but it has outlasted a number of (software) video games I have owned.

Some pinball makers had the right idea by adding lots of lights and pseudo-video-game displays to the machines, but they never took it far enough, and the same boring slap-the-ball gameplay was the core of the game. Sorry, but I'm not a retard. I need something a bit more challenging[...]

Saying that pinball is just "slap-the-ball gameplay" is like saying that video games are just "press-the-buttons gameplay" or that role playing games are just "rolling some dice". Although on one level it's true, you're mainly missing the point.

Note that people have managed to find entertainment for years with things as simple as a slab of wood and bunch of black and white stones (the game of Go). Also consider athletes; runners do nothing more than put one foot in front of another, but there's no shortage of people who find challenge and reward in it.

So instead of saying "X is for retards", try saying "X is not my cup of tea". Because acting like you're the final arbiter of all that is interesting is, well, for retards.

It can carry two to three, perhaps four people, Clark said. "The Chinese are starting with what are 'second generation spacecraft' compared with the Soviets and the United States," he said. You gotta give them credit. Whether or not they benefited from existing technology (the US and Russian Space agencies) or developed this *cough* all on thier own this is a great acheivement for China. China is certainly not aiming low by building a craft for 3-4 people. This design is very workable and will save them the steps of building up to a craft this size vs. the way the us did Mercury and Gemini to build upto Apollo. The article was sparce on details so here are a few links for those interested: Shenzhou
Shenzhou Gallery
An older article on SpaceDaily.com
Shenzhou: A Model Program
China launches second unmanned space test flight Lucky for them the Russian Space program is not as picky about design 'borrowing' as say Apple is because the design is strikingly similar to Soyuz in many ways. It wouldn't surprise me if China becomes a major player in the space game. China has the money and infrastructure to make things happen and is not dependent on the rest of the world. (Personally, I think that is the real message they are sending by building this program.) They are geared towards building thier own space station which indicates some real sense of vision and they have a very cheap labor force (err forced labor?). If they get the program fully up and running it wouldn't be inconceiveable for them to build mass produced versions of thier craft. This design and the launch technology they are using may give them an edge similar to the Russian program: launching at a much lower average cost per kilo of payload than the US.

You mean, there's more of them? [sigh] The world is definitely in trouble.

Nope. As I see it, if I'd gone to university for Electical Engineering, I'd be getting paid exactly what I am now, I'd have less practical experience, and I'd have a debt. However, I make more money than we pay the engineers (of approximately my age) here. And, to boot, they usually end up asking me questions about how to design such-and-such a circuit. In trade, while I can do resonance and other fairly involved calculations, I usually just pawn it off on them, feigning ignorance. :)

Thanks, yeah, it does. I need to do it every now and then. And, let me tell you, it's been a tough week. AutoCAD 14 and Mechanical Desktop on a Pentium 133 notebook. With Windows 2000. And I'm expected to support that. Hell, I can't even pretend to look surprised that you-know-who can't make it work.

It's like loading up a Ford Model T with the world's largest fishing sinker collection and then trying to take it out onto the Santa Monica Freeway.

[sigh]

• not a medical invention
• possible quick assembly from constituent modules, using only scredriver and hex wrench
• disassembled, fits in a large duffel-bag
• fun element - something which looks so absurdly unstable would make me laugh, especially when I realised it worked. I laughed when I first saw the iBot standing up, too.
• Less than $2,000 - should be relatively cheap to mass-produce.
• Two models - makes sense. You even get different models of those damn push-scooters now...
• "a product so revolutionary, you'll have no problem selling it". Who hasn't wanted a skateboard/scooter/rollerblades that could climb stairs? Or not tip you over when you hit a crack in the pavement? Or safely navigate cobbles? I know I have, a thousand times.
• "The question is, are people going to be allowed to use it?". Having people zipping around on pedestrian walkways on motorised scooters will give safety groups the jitters. OTOH, it looks too small and flimsy to compete with cars on the road.
• "If enough people see the machine you won't have to convince them to architect cities around it. It'll just happen". It's a city-planner's dream - electrically-powered, no pollution, quiet, clean, fast, safe (if you're going to crash, just jump off), you name it. It dumps all over cycle-paths. Perhaps "Ginger-paths" next?
• "will sweep over the world and change lives, cities, and ways of thinking". Hyperbole, sure, but it could replace bikes/skateboards/rollerblades entirely, and have a good crack at cars for short in-town journeys.
• "The core technology and its implementations will... have a big, broad impact not only on social institutions but some billion-dollar old-line companies". Yah, like petrol companies, car companies, oil companies. Cheap, efficient electrically-powered, safe mass-transit devices? The petrol/car co's must be having a coronary at the mere thought.
• "will profoundly affect our environment and the way people live worldwide". See points about cheap, clean transport, earlier.
• "It will be an alternative to products that are dirty, expensive, sometimes dangerous and often frustrating, especially for people in the cities". IE, cars, bikes, the tube, buses, trains.
• "IT will be a mass-market consumer product". At under $2,000, I'd want one.
• "likely to run afoul of existing regulations and or inspire new ones... will also likely require meeting with city planners, regulators, legislators, large commercial companies and university presidents about how cities, companies and campuses can be retro-fitted for Ginger". See point earlier about how it couldn't safely mix with pedestrians or cars, but would probably need a cycle-path-type idea.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Bowery [mailto:jabowery@ricochet.net]
Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2000 3:57 PM
To: Ray Calkins
Subject: Bruce Calkins?

Ray,

I don't know if you are related to Bruce Calkins:
http://www.moller.com/about/staff/#calkins

but if you are, do you happen to know if the Moller people have checked out the stuff being done at the University of Houston with their "vortex thruster" approach to the Coanda effect?

http://www.ifdt.uh.edu/vtc/vortexthruster/main.htm l

"Our initial conservative estimates indicate that a thruster with a 1 sq. m. chamber area can generate 4 tons of thrust with 17 times less energy than a conventional jet."

a picture was cited from a response on msnbc's 'bbs'
--

I suggest that we boycott UUNet immediately.

Check it out! OOP=Communism!!!

I'm sorry, but you lose a little credibility when you start comparing something to communism or fascism. Yes, there may be problems with an OOP approach to everything, but such comparisons only draw away from your criticism.

Even so, I'm still reading the article, even down to the little soviet flag at the bottom.

Check it out! OOP=Communism!!!

I'm sorry, but you lose a little credibility when you start comparing something to communism or fascism. Yes, there may be problems with an OOP approach to everything, but such comparisons only draw away from your criticism.

Even so, I'm still reading the article, even down to the little soviet flag at the bottom.

First let me admit that I didn't read the whole article. I skimmed it and I read the Table Oriented Programming article (which is linked to in this article and presumably written by the same person) about a year ago. I believe that this OOP criticism page was around at that point. Although it is hard to take this page seriously (the comparison with Communism just killed me), I think I'll comment on a few of his points.

I guestimate custom software systems last about 3 years on the average. This is well behind the alleged payback period of OOP.

When a new language fad replaces OOP, how do you convert legacy Java objects into Zamma-2008 objects? (I will eat a week's pay if OOP is still in vogue in 2015.)

A common misconception is that one has to change all the procedural code if a DB field type or size changes. For example, if a percentage rate changes from an integer to a float/real, then OO fans often claim that it causes a procedural code change cascade. However, this usually only matters in strong-typed languages, like C, Java, and Pascal. (Weaker typing is better for p/r usage in my opinion.)

I'd like to add that IMHO, OOP builds on procedural (structured) programming. It usually allows better abstraction than procedural programming, just like using C allows better abstraction than assembly language. In general, abstraction is neither good or bad. As systems get larger and more complex, however, its necessary.

All kidding aside, you can't scorn the Betamax. It was, and arguably still is, leaps and bounds ahead of VHS.

Remember, Sony failed only because their license fees for the technology were so expensive. The reason? The MPAA sued Sony over the VCR and how it would cut into movie royalties. Sony was therefore at a disadvantage, trying to finance both their lawsuit and a possible verdict against them with the royalties on Beta VCRs.

JVC came in with VHS in 1977, which was a cheapo rip-off of Beta that was just different enough to not infringe on any of Sony's patents. The MPAA lawsuit was won by Sony, but the battle for the shelf under peoples' TV sets was won by VHS.

Betamax is simply a 1/2" version of Sony's legendary 3/4" U-Matic format. U-Matic was designed as an industrial format for TV stations and the like. To this day, if you have a 3/4" U-Matic videocassette, I'd be surprised if there are many TV stations in the world that couldn't play it.

Factoid: "Beta" means "closer" in Japanese; Beta VCRs were so-named because the video tracks laid down by the rotating head assembly were closer than those of the bigger and older U-Matic predecessor.

U-Matic was eventually replaced by Betacam, which is a Betamax VCR mechanism that runs the tape a lot faster for better picture quality. Betacam and Betacam SP have been *the format* for TV stations, ENG cameras, editing, etc. Finally, the torch has now mostly been passed to the D-Betacam, a digital version of the venerable Betacam which shares its heritage with the home Betamax and the U-Matic before.

And, of course, before those, was the Sony AV-3600 and other open-reel 1/2" VTRs. (I'm the proud owner of a 1975 AV-3600. Razor-sharp picture, though the AV-3600 was a low-end black-and-white model.)

Most importantly, though, if you're upset by the impotent plastic noises that your $200-at-Fry's VCR makes, you can take a look at how Ed Cushman watches TV. Sadly, I don't think you can rent a Quadruplex videotape at Blockbuster. (As recently as 1988, when I was in high school and volunteering at a low-budget community TV station, we had a Quad. It was loads of fun.)

There are several SID emulators out there, most notable Sidplay. There's also the High Voltage SID collection for those seeking some nostalgia on the old games.
--

I hate fads

I hate irrelevant links inserted into a comment just to draw hits for someone's lame attempt at becoming a dot-com millionaire.

My apologies for the acronyms, I made a boo-boo ASSUMING (i.e. to make an ass out of you and ME) that all /. former military readers were from the US vice elsewhere. The acronyms would (?) have meaning to the US military members who might wish to discount my ravings as those of a dirtball whiner .

My problem with Somalia is that I received a medal at all. I did nothing extraordinary except my normal routine job ... no bullets, no discomfort, no injuries, etc etc etc ... typical American military inflation of awards. Checkout some columns by Hackworth

BTW, did you check-out any of the other three websites I had listed?

Regarding the "pink-eye", I was told to return to SERVING food ... SERVING food ... I asked to be sent to the dishwashing area ... NO we need you serving food ... I asked to be sent to the trash collection detail ... NO we need you serving food ... I asked ... I guess I'll tell St. Pete "I was just following orders" (grin)

Maintain a questioning attitude

Before I rip your bung-hole a wee bit, let me give you some acronyms, abbreviations, and slang regarding who I am ... E-6 in less than six, item 11 has three nuke NECs(MOSs), item 12c > 8 yrs, item 12g > 3 yrs, item, item 13 has 8 awards, item 24 = Honorable, item 26 = KBK, item 27 = RE-R1

Read "Conduct Unbecoming" for details on military fuckjobs. Primary focus is on fags/dykes in the military but it gives you a feel for how awful military life can be.

Visit this website for some details on military work Fun Time Navy

Also visit FTN

Also visit Soldiers For The Truth for a current event perspective of what is wrong with the current military after eight-years of pathetic Clinton-Gore leadership (i.e. WAR-CRIMES)

Here is a VERY SHORT list of what I saw during my approx nine-years in the Navy, making me "Glad I'm now a civilian":

incompetant medical care (told to return to serving food as a recruit with an active case of pink eye and broncitis)

co-worker almost made blind by contaminated and expired navy-issued eye medication - ends up with EXTENDED shore duty and eventual medical discharge

sorry ... I can't talk about the whole ANTHRAX thing ... I escaped in '98

tricked into investing in US Savings Bonds vice Index Funds (read "Random Walk Down Wall Street")

obviously ill co-worker forced to stand vice sitting on floor while waiting in line to see a health tech (note: you are LUCKY if you get to see a nurse or a doctor ... sure glad Clinton-Gore Health Care got defeated ... wouldn't want to force a dog through government health care)

ship-wide food poisoning due to no soap in bathroom adjacent to kitchen

over 48 hours with no sleep or food

even though I am white I began to appreciate how American blacks felt under slavery because I was an Enlisted person

received medal for going to Somilia - was 4 miles offshore (hot showers, hot food, TV, Air Conditioning, clean sheets, ....) while the Army died due to the Clinton-Gore failure to send M1A1s and AC-130s to support the troops

Maintain a questioning attitude

The properly attributed text is thus:
LISTER: What do you believe in, then? Do you believe in God?
RIMMER: God? Certainly not! What a preposterous thought! I believe in aliens, Lister.
LISTER: Oh, right, fine. Something sensible at last.
RIMMER: Aliens, Lister, with technology so far in advance of our own we can't even begin to imagine.
LISTER: Well, that's not difficult. Mankind hasn't even got the technology to create a toupee that doesn't get big laughs.

(Red Dwarf Scripts are here )

If not that, use flash and a limited runtime boot program, such as the one I mentioned earlier. Who wouldn't want to see boot messages drift away like StarWars credits. (OK...once in a while. After all, how many times do you need to reboot your machine each year?)

The player doesn't look like it is being actively developed, though maybe someone out there is interested?

I don't think there even is one.

...America works extremely well. We have a mainstream media that perpetuates misconceptions about the way the country currently works, and obscure a fair amount of crucial pieces of law from the people. Case in point, chances are you have no Constitutional rights, and neither does the Bill of Rights apply to you. (Never mind that the 14th Amendment was never lawfully ratified, see documentation here, here, and a State Supreme Court opinion here. The Supreme Court has not yet made a ruling on the validity of the 14th Amendment's supposed ratification, to the best of my knowledge.) United States citizens are bound by adhesion contracts, exchanging their rights for privileges and benefits that can be changed and revoked at will. Most of them are acutely aware of this situation as applies to their Social Security benefits, many of whom realize that they'll never see their payout. A waiver of these benefits anulls the contract, of course, and then one is free to do whatever one likes, provided there is no injured party. An essentially baseless currency is problematic, but there are those who intentionally deal in gold and barter. An increasingly misinformed citizenry is depressing (most people thought that Clinton's womanizing was worthwhile news; I'm more worried about this), but it's nice to know that when they finally push people too far, they'll eventually do something about it (although thanks to the amazing advances in modern technology, never before in history have so few been able to oppress so many with so little). All things considered, the States are a great place to be. They afford more freedom and opportunity than most other places I'm aware of... for those who understand how stuff works.

[Shameless plug: For more on this stuff, head to my page. I've got a write-up and some informative links under Sovereign Citizenship.]

...America works extremely well. We have a mainstream media that perpetuates misconceptions about the way the country currently works, and obscure a fair amount of crucial pieces of law from the people. Case in point, chances are you have no Constitutional rights, and neither does the Bill of Rights apply to you. (Never mind that the 14th Amendment was never lawfully ratified, see documentation here, here, and a State Supreme Court opinion here. The Supreme Court has not yet made a ruling on the validity of the 14th Amendment's supposed ratification, to the best of my knowledge.) United States citizens are bound by adhesion contracts, exchanging their rights for privileges and benefits that can be changed and revoked at will. Most of them are acutely aware of this situation as applies to their Social Security benefits, many of whom realize that they'll never see their payout. A waiver of these benefits anulls the contract, of course, and then one is free to do whatever one likes, provided there is no injured party. An essentially baseless currency is problematic, but there are those who intentionally deal in gold and barter. An increasingly misinformed citizenry is depressing (most people thought that Clinton's womanizing was worthwhile news; I'm more worried about this), but it's nice to know that when they finally push people too far, they'll eventually do something about it (although thanks to the amazing advances in modern technology, never before in history have so few been able to oppress so many with so little). All things considered, the States are a great place to be. They afford more freedom and opportunity than most other places I'm aware of... for those who understand how stuff works.

[Shameless plug: For more on this stuff, head to my page. I've got a write-up and some informative links under Sovereign Citizenship.]

Just shadow your Unix password list, move the location of your logs, get a better firewall software and apply the latest security updates to your OS, and see what the logs turn up.

For more info please visit Hacker's Haven 7843

Go light, go fast - alpine style!

However, Paulo Sergio Coelho has a web site for his DOS and Windows based VGA to TV (similar refresh as low res arcade monitors) drivers that work with a variety of video cards with claims of superior quality as compared to standard tv-out cards I think. I believe source code can be gotten if someone wanted to look at some sort of port or at least a good starting point. Other links of interest:

Tomi Engdahl has several must-visit links - VGA to TV information center, VGA to RGB + composite sync -converter, and connecting Matrox MGA to TV among others that are probably worth visiting, and the Fixed Frequency Video FAQ is probably on the list as well. I would also definitely visit the TV and Monitor CRT (Picture Tube) Information by Samuel Goldwasser. This is getting kind of wordy, for more links hit the "Tech & tips" link on my web site and then the "monitors" link, and/or the "finishing" link and then again the "monitors" link. OH! Also you might contact Brian of PC2Jamma and who is also the author of ArcadeOS to see if some sort of port would be possible.

Hope that was of some use :)

Whose priorities? The VCs gave money to every assinine idea so they could get rich, not so they could advance society. To the VCs, it is 'clear thinking' to bank on 1 of 10 ventures paying off. Maybe you disagree, and thus the large impasse is created.

IMHO - The biggest impediment to human progress is our free will. Things that are important to 'socially minded' folks are not important to others. Once our basic needs are met, the importance and allocation of resources becomes complicated. Such complications are fodder for wars, famine, and any other Bad Things (tm) that have occurred since humans became 'civilized'.

OTH - I do not want to give up my free will so we can become like the 'humans' in THX 1138 .

Later.

"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life."

"Lord of the Token Ring"

One MC to rule them all
One MC to find them
One MC to bring them all
And in the darkness bind them...

Mr. Bungle, Cirith Ungol
I kick the shit from here to the motherfuckin Jungle
Crazy shit from the top of my head
Cuz I write the rhymes that'll Raise the Dead
Watch your front when steppin' to me, cuz
I'll stab your ass, just for a free buzz
Death trippin', the blood steady drippin'
Gotta send a shout out to Sam, Frodo & Pippin
On a mission, straight Gortician
Talk some shit and in your face I'm pissin'
The funky plumber, comin' like a Hummer
Cuz you know High-C just gets Dumb and Dumber
At The Gates of Cirith Gorgor
Steppin straight into Mordor
I get wicked like Sauron, bringin' chaos to order
Break beat poet, for ten years I flow it
You can't tell me shit because I already know it
1 percenter, political dissenter
El Duce was my motherfuckin Mentor
Mind blowin', Angry Samoan
I get high and then the funk starts flowin'
You fuckin' zombies need to wake the fuck up
You think you're the shit but I think you suck
Weak-minded, you're blinded by the blight
Sayin' I'm Guilty of Being White
My ancestors didn't own no slaves
The whole tired argument is oh so played
Face facts, we all get taxed
But like Possessed I'm fuckin' swingin' the axe
Grindin' up sacred cows
And now you know High-C's in the motherfuckin house...

J00 think J00 can 0utrhyme m3?

Cross-Referenced and Hyperlinked at Everything2

Snuh Snuh Meow Gortician Meow Snuh

I wrote to Macromedia a short time back, asking about the existence/development of a Flash5 player for Linux (could be very important to a project I'm working on) and got back two e-mails...

"At this time, we have not made any public announcements on that."

And this one...

"The following is a link to a third party site that has developer versions of the player for systems such as WindowsCE, UP-UX, BeOS, Amiga, freeBSD & Linux: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Labyrinth/508 4/flash/download.html For a list of supported platforms, please visit: http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/alter nates/"

Hard to say whether this is encouraging, but at least they didn't say "No, we're not gonna make one."

No programming language is a human language. They are absolutely not the same. A human language has to be the sole language used by a people. There are some linguist who doubt that humans could even create a human language. Esperanto which is the best example of an artifical human language is not the first language of any human. It can be learned as a second language only. Some doubt its even possible to learn it as a first language. The brain may not be wired to learn an unnatural language. Some argue that languages can only be evolved because the human brain is designed for language not the other way around. There are linguist working on a sort of grand unified theroy of language which could someday solve this problem but that's not its goal and this is only my conjecture. See Noam Chomsky and Transformational Grammar. (He is also a prominent political dissident.) Think of it this way, you can't teach your child to speak C as his/her first language. There is no "pick me up" keyword or syntax to express an incomplete thought which is much of natural conversation. Here's an experiment: Tape record a conversation, play it back and carefully transcribe every utterance. You will quickly see that natural conversations are a mess of false starts, re-phrasings, meta conversation i.e. "Do you know what I mean?" or "uh...ummm..." and other garbage that make up perfectly good normal conversation. Human language also requires infinite discrete processing (IDP). IDP is the abilty of a speaker of any human language to create sentences that are infinitly long collections of discrete clauses.

Ex. "I threw the ball over the fence by the tree by the lake by the house by the car by the other tree by the other car by the driveway..." Ad infinitum.

This sentence is poor style and perhaps a little confusing but any english speaker can understand it. Human languages could require a structure that allows this kind of infinite structure. For one every human language can create these types of sentences and they can each be understood by the speakers of the language.

You could try to teach your child C as his/her only language but before the government took away your parental rights for abusing your child you would realize what a failure the experiment was. And your child would hate you.

> but software is only licensed.

That's right. You don't own your software, because it is licensed.

You don't own your car, because it is licensed.

If you own your land, then why do you pay taxes to someone else!? Because it is licensed.

"Attention: Page Creators, INC ceased to operate, and has been moved to Trinity Host LLC since December 27, 2000. However, a back-up version of Page Creators Site can be found at http://www.pagecreators.net/secure/BACKUP_AS_OF_12 2700/"

http://www.trinityhost.com/

"Trinity Host, LLC? This site looks remarkably similar to the famous Page Creators, INC, even the Customer Raves are similar (at least one of them is the same, the author can only remember one because the same customer has joined to the authors' victims list) and both companies share the same toll-free number 1-877-336-4472 (Of course, nobody answers this phone). The author was told that PageCreators' clients now belong to this company (LLC, Page Creators probably needs this). The hosting package is also very similar. It is too early to draw any conclusion yet because this site is not even complete, but we are going to watch this company."

Maybe this one should get /.ed too. heh.

Isn't that the stuff from Larry Niven's Ringworld?

That stuff would seem to me to be like a long, flexible nanotube loop.

srry 'bout that last link...I can't find anything more direct.

At a site mentioned in the Wired article, I found the link to Trinity Host website. Looks like another incarnation of PageCreators. They even suggest you "contact" them (with a non-working link) for questions about PageCreators.

In any event (and this is not my specialty, so take this with the standard grain o' salt), the reason that a collapsar is expected to stop collapsing at neutron-star stage is that the neutron degeneracy pressure (basically, the Pauli Exclusion Principle in action) is able to resist the mutual gravitational forces up to some limit -- by calculation, 1.4 to 1.8 solar masses, although it appears that a value of 2.3 solar masses has been observed. Clearly, though, greater densities can exist, because if the limiting mass is exceeded the collapse continues -- to form a black hole, if you accept the present standard formulations of the problem. It's just that we don't know of a stronger force than neutron degeneracy, which will be able to resist the gravitational collapse. During the formation event (typically a supernova), if the collaspe forces (gravitation, implosion) exceed the neutron degeneracy forces, there's nothing to stop the continued collapse (through higher densities) to a black hole. Our lack of knowledge doesn't mean there's not a further stable state, though -- only that we don't know about it. Some scientists have speculated that a further point might exist in a quark star, which would consist (at least in its core) of free strange quarks. But some models of quark stars end up with lower densities than neutron stars... the problem is that we just don't know enough, yet.

(BTW, there's good info here on neutron stars, from a specialist.)

---

The original critical Web page hosted by Mindspring pointed to another page on AdWanted, which shut down the review on threat of lawsuit (but at least pointed to the current location on Geocities).

For those who are interested. I originally found the link to pagecreators.net from cruel.com. A collection of horror stories about people dealing with pagecreators.net can be found here. Enjoy!

"Second-rate cases based on flawed legal theory, but impressive nonetheless"

Puhleeze, that's about a thousand federal circuit and appeals court cases, not some rogue hillbilly judge who doesn't know the law.

You misread my post in your zeal, I think. I said the cases were flawed, and that the so-called sovereign citizens in question hadn't done their homework. By those statements the reader was meant to draw the inference that the former was caused by the latter, not because some neccessarily backwater or beholden judge gave a perfectly good case unfair ruling. That last was your invention, and it was incorrect. But as always, thanks for the attitude and the inbred "Everybody knows [insert cliche'd lie here]" argument, it's always appreciated.

As far as I know the US Supreme Court has not seen fit to examine such fine legal arguments as "well, the flag has fringe on it, therefore this is a court of admiralty!"

Believe it or not, not every law of the land is created by the Supreme Court. Some of it is actually written in the form of statutes and legislation. Here are a few links to research and raw law regarding gold fringe and admiralty. Can you cite law back to refute it?

Why is there fringe around the flag?
Foundation 5 Newsletter (.zip format)
Examination of admiralty jurisdiction as relevant to this

because of course you don't have to be a citizen of a country to be bound by their laws

No, but you do have to be within that country to be. The several States are not in the United States, as counterintuitive as that first seems, since the land was not ceded to the federal government upon the formation of the United States. Rather, the federal government was given jurisdiction over certain highly limited matters. It is supreme within its own bailiwick, as it should be. In all other matters, the several States are supreme, as they hold ownership of the land itself.

Would that be "obscure fine points" such as the crystal clear regulations of what constitutes an US citizen

Those are, if anything, intentionally obscure and obscured, as more than cursory reading of the alleged Fourteenth Amendment shows.

laws apply to EVERYONE, citizen or not -- whether you volunteer to recognize them or not!

I live in California. Does Japanese law apply to me? Likewise, in matters beyond the limited scope of federal jurisdiction, does federal law constrain me? Not at all.

please lay off the crack. I can hear the government lawyers just snickering at you now.

Not usually, no.

Granted, it's a little hokey, but that's generally the way it goes.

Too bad they didn't include source (or did they?).

http://www.geocities.com/jarnot/pics/unixad.gif

Hemos writes:

US States Vote 26-0 To Move Towards Taxing Non-State Sales ... 26 states, with three not attending/voting ...

Did the other 21 states go home for holidays? Or were they voted out of the Union recently?

I guess it should be noted that these twenty-nine states belong to a coalition known as the Streamlined Sales Tax Project.

My beloved North Dakota seems to be a participating member. Guess it hasn't become a wildlife reserve just yet.

Happy holidays, and remember: there are fifty states in the Union. Should any fewer involve themselves collaboratively, you [the editors of Slashdot] may want to mention in passing the reason why. :)

Hemos writes:

US States Vote 26-0 To Move Towards Taxing Non-State Sales ... 26 states, with three not attending/voting ...

Did the other 21 states go home for holidays? Or were they voted out of the Union recently?

I guess it should be noted that these twenty-nine states belong to a coalition known as the Streamlined Sales Tax Project.

My beloved North Dakota seems to be a participating member. Guess it hasn't become a wildlife reserve just yet.

Happy holidays, and remember: there are fifty states in the Union. Should any fewer involve themselves collaboratively, you [the editors of Slashdot] may want to mention in passing the reason why. :)

The basic idea is that sellers who sell interstate will be required to use a commercial "tax service provider" who takes in the shipping address, computes the tax rate to be applied, collects payments from the seller, and sends appropriate amounts out to the appropriate state and local taxing authorities. This makes interstate sales taxes for online sales practical.

No sign yet of a protocol spec for transactions with the tax service provider.

The Hebrew calendar is actually really cool. It, BTW, is also incredibly complicated -- much more than just changing things every 17 days. It has to accomodate certain holidays not falling on certain days of the week while still keeping accurate time. It also has essentially been the same for a very long time -- No messy Julian-Gregorian switch, although leap seconds may or may not be needed (I don't know about this one), as nobody back then could keep time to sub-milliseconds.

A great (Unix) Hebrew calendar program is Hebcal. More info about the Hebrew calendar can be found at this site

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I wasn't quoting... I agree that Sullivan said it first.... But, it is also quite clear that the phrase 'Form Follows function' is a defining one for the whole Bauhaus Movement. Form follows function came into general use as a phrase in the 30's in the States and the 40's in Europe. Gropius and his friends moved to the US around that time to get away from Nazi germany.
However, some people have argued that the general concepts can be traced back much further - to the Italian jesuit monk Carlo Lodoli. The cornerstone of Lodoli's teaching was the maxim that nothing should be put on show (in rapresentazione) that was not in function (in funzione), that is, a working part of the structure.

(Good OO design/ Abstract Data Types ?)....

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2360/jm-eng.fff-ha i.html
So, arguably Lodoli said it first, in Italian, in 1750..

These ideas, plus the idea of organic architecture were all kicking around in the mid 18th century with people like Horatio Greenough writing about them. Mix in the purity of Asian and Japanese art that was getting seen in the west for the first time and it's not surprising that the same ideas were sprouting in different places at the same time (e.g. Charles Rennie Macintosh in Glasgow as he rejected the decoration of Art Nouveau for a more elegant simplicity).

http://www.njit.edu/Library/archlib/pub-domain/sul livan-1896-tall-bldg.html

The Bauhaus was founded in Germany in 1919, so Sullivan should probably get credit for having the idea first.

(Frank Lloyd Wright was to later say of his teacher: "Form follows function-that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union." This quote has been shortened over time, by various paraphrasers, as "Form and function are one.")

I remember when the media clamined that the internet be an all new type of media filled with information on demand. However I think after doing that for long enough they realized that they were putting nails in their own coffins because they were driving people away from themself and to the new medium.

Now we see the turn around. The media is now claiming that the internet is harmful to our children, should we have them. Advertising is no longer working in such a passive manner so they need to make it more obtrusive to the user. Now information is travelling in much the opposite. It is what they demand. No longer the user.

After all the comments that I have seen here I think many people are starting to shy/avoid places that have advertising that is "in your face" style like GeoCities and similar sites. I know personally I have given up my own site on GeoCities and moved to my own domain which I am still building.

Oh how I remember the "good old days" when high speed backbones consisted of 64k lines and the internet was fast and useful. For the world's greatest tool why must it be full of junk?

i have everything else on yahoo. i love yahoo messenger but the only other person i know that uses it is my girlfriend! please god make it so!

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And Justice for None

I found several definitions of Chernobyl. One of the is from here Basically it says that Chern = Black, O = Or, Byl = White. And at this link I found that it means Black water. Go figure. Anyone have anymore definitions?

I never got past the Apple ][ emulator in Java.

I bet Inferno doesn't have any games, either.

Damn you, AT&T, and your Unix heritage. MacOS X will never have any good games. You're not going to take away my web browser too!
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

This has happened before with other mods. Some of my favorite mods/conversions, such as the Aliens Doom TC (Which did some amazing things with the doom engine) or Aliens Quake were both cease-and-desisted by fox. While they can often still be found floating around the net, the quake mod was never finished, despite the potential it had. These were made back in '97 or earlier, but fox had plans for their own games: Alien VS Predator and Alien Resurection which are both fairly recent arrivals on the scene. Would these sales have actually been hurt by the fan created patches? Possibly, although I would have gotten Aliens vs Predator had I not downloaded the demo and realized how much it sucked. So while it was in their rights to shut the projects down, they'd probably have done better (and had a product sooner) hiring those dedicated fans instead of disgruntling them.