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3.1 years

The electricity problem is trivial, and left to the reader to solve for themselves.

Amnesty saves captives' lives by the very principle of spreading information of their capture, and has been doing so for a very long time.

When it comes to the Taliban, Amnesty International is extremely good at condemning them after the fact.

Principles only work when people have them.

I can assure you that Dust Devils are quite common on this mudball we call home:

http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&q=dustdevil&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=

A couple of the more awe-inspiring shots:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/lmk/photo_album/wxdata/dustdevil_LEX1.jpg

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/lmk/Drought/sep07/glendale_med.jpg

I live in the middle of nowhere and it would take me less than 2 hours 30 minutes to download 4GB of data, and that's not even at maximum speed. My ISP isn't a huge company either, they manage phone and internet connections for small towns all over the province (where Bell/etc wouldn't even care to get the marketshare - too small).

You need to kick your ISP where it hurts (tech support, customer service, whatever).

Our company uses Sophos products and manages some 300-400 computer connections via the Sophos Enterprise Console. This solution is far from perfect though. On the plus side, we are able to tell at a glance which computer on our network is infected or suspected and be able to act accordingly. We have Sophos configured to warn the user of possible threats and to call the helpdesk for assistance with removing these threats. On the down side, we have to constantly add new app. chksums whenever a new version of software comes up. We have one person in our IT department dedicating about half his work day to "Sophos duties." http://www.sophos.com/products/enterprise/

Our company has decided to invest into managed routers that will limit the amount of spam/wurms, etc. Currently we are looking into Fortinet's line of routers.

Regardless of which security software you go with, implementing best security practices is really the only way to go. Locking down the computer, restricting or limiting admin access, applying automatic updates, user education, etc. http://www.google.ca/search?q=best+security+practices

Wait a minute... They're describing wikis as Web 2.0? There was a video, an old black and white clip of a talk some guy was doing regarding some new fangled invention called the network. In it he described a bunch of people collaborating on creating a document, including linking to other documents.

I'm much more interested in Milo and the potential for a personal assistant.

Wouldn't it be nice to come home and say something like, "Good afternoon Milo, did I get any new messages?" and then have him give me an itemized listing. Throw in some call display, my contact list, and the apparently impressive speech recognition, I could have something very unique and personal, "Hey Peter, welcome home. Your mom called, twice, and your sister wants to know if you're going to dinner with her and the kids next Saturday."

Of course, being a geek, I'd want my assistant to look and sound like Lexa Doig. ;-)

I don't know if you're referring to the full legalization thread (#2) or just the Schedule reclassification thread (#3), but here goes.

[T]here is a considerable legal difference between "drunk" and driving while "intoxicated" and "under the influence". The concept of drunk, as used in public drunk statutes, refers to a person who is so inebriated that he is incapable of caring for his own safety. This is a considerably greater degree of inebriation than "intoxicated" or "under the influence". This latter condition is often legally defined as that physical state in which the liquor has so far affected the nervous system, brain or muscles as to impair the ability to operate a vehicle in a manner like that of an ordinarily prudent or cautious person under like conditions in the full possession of his faculties using reasonable care. source

[Emphasis mine, from "Drunk driving defense" by Lawrence Taylor & Steven Oberman]

The effects of THC on the body do include relaxation of the muscles, therefore would fall under the term "under the influence" as defined in law. However,

Although marijuana's share of fatal crashes is much lower than those attributed to alcohol, researchers say the results show that marijuana use, even in low doses, significantly increases the risk of fatal car accidents. source

While the quote could be used in an argument on both sides, if marijuana were only reclassified under another Schedule, not fully legalized, the rate of use would be lower than with full legalization (with a law already in place for "intoxicated driving" as above!), so it all comes down to what you'd rather avoid: even more driving accidents than in the current situation; another cause of driving accidents; or perhaps the fact that the "new" cause of accidents is less well detectable by simple behavioral analysis therefore less enforceable. But the point of rescheduling marijuana (#3) is that the current legislation doesn't make sense. See my other comment in this thread for a summary of why.

A student I know has an autism spectrum disorder, and is known for running away. He has a white wristwatch that can't be removed without tools, or a big cutter, that does provide GPS data. I don't know what the backend looks like, webpage, cellphone, etc., but his parents and caregivers are much relieved. So, something exists.

Looks like there's a few options:

http://www.google.ca/search?q=gps+bracelet+autistic

It's interesting because I was talking to my wife about this concept. For all of you telling the OP that s/he is over-reacting, what do you tell parents of Tori Stafford [google.ca]?

This disparity in the odds is exactly the same as the bid/ask spread in a market.

There is a difference though, in that the bid/ask spread can be negligibly low compared to the stock price, while the bookmaker will make sure that the odds he gives allow him a certain minimum profit.

think the reason that a bet, like the one you described, doesn't fit into peoples' intuitive understanding of gambling, is because no one would ever offer a bet with that kind of pay-out. Anyone who did, wouldn't be doing so for long, as they would soon end up broke.

You do actually see odds like that in poker cash games when a good player gets his money in before all the last cards come down against someone on a draw. But I get what you're saying. My problem is that the label gambling generally carries a negative moral connotation, which most certainly shouldn't be applied to a game where you make money in the long run (that goes double for people who say that the stock market is just gambling). What I was trying to do way up there was limit the definition of gambling so that games which any rational person would play would not be included. But I understand that, even in this case, it is nothing more than a wager.

My main point is that, when investing, an actual thing (albeit an electronic "thing", in the case of options) changes hands. An option contract is the option to buy or sell a share of stock at a predefined price; money changes hands, along with the stock (potentially). There's nothing that is exchanged with a prediction market contract other than money.

Here's where I have to disagree. The difference with trading options is that you can trade them without exchanging the underlying asset. The options market allows you to buy and sell the contracts before the expiration date, so it is possible to make or lose money off of options without ever owning any assets. That's a big departure from trading stock, real-estate or commodities, where you have ownership or partial ownership of a tangible asset. Option markets are no different, in my view, than a prediction market, where you are also buying and selling contracts which offer a payout only after the expiry date. Yes, in the end, the payout is settled in the same way as a bet, but what happens after the expiry date is somewhat irrelevant because by that point the contract market is closed. Let me illustrate this more directly: At Intrade, you can create a contract where the closing price of the contract is a function of the outcome of the event. So let's create the following contract:

These contract are based on the closing price of Citigroup stock, C, on June 19th, 2009. If the stock price is at 4 dollars or lower, the contract pays out zero. Otherwise, the contract pays out (X/10 - .4), where X is the closing price of C on June 19th. These contracts may only be purchased in groups of 10.

Now, up until June 19th, this market should function identically to that for these options. In both cases, the price of the contract is determined by the performance of a real asset (Citigroup stock), and in both cases people are only trading contracts, and not anything tangible, while the market is open. The only difference is that, when the market closes on June 19th, people left holding the options will get stock which they can sell for cash, while people holding the Intrade contracts will get their cash directly. And as for the people who had already made their profits in the respective markets and do not hold any contracts, there is NO difference between them. They have made their money solely by trading contracts whose price is determined by a stock, while never trading the stock itself. Now you can say that these people are all gamblers, or all investors, but I find it hard to argue that the ones who traded options contracts (but not stock) are investors, while the ones who traded prediction contracts (but not stock) are gamblers.

It's a strip mall, maybe. Google Streetview confirms... sorta:

http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=12932+SE+Kent+Kangley+Rd,+Kent,+King,+Washington+98030,+United+States&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hl=en&cd=1&geocode=Fd6j0gIdQdm3-A&split=0&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=16.71875,56.536561&ll=47.35906,-122.168875&spn=0.001853,0.004308&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=47.358907,-122.168986&panoid=8YOIhb1P6K1CO1wqcNlNKw&cbp=12,20.81,,0,12.85

They do when they explode... Google search: Mythbusters exploding hammer

That's not the only instance when she speaks up. There are also those searches that Jack and Cloe were carrying out, and other things which I forgot. Look around here if you want:

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=UmL&q=24+season+7+episode+%22bill+of+rights%22&btnG=Search&meta=

Or you get the situation like this: http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=49.800284,-96.887569&spn=0.004778,0.013947&t=h&z=17

The map makers (TeleAtlas in this case, who also supply the map data Google Maps uses in the above link) used inaccurate data or were lazy when they made this one because it's so far off that it thinks the north side service road is actually the westbound lane of the Trans Canada Highway. Every morning it puts me onto that side road on my GPS and it pisses me off. On the way home it also puts me onto there for a little strech but it's a lot more sane than my morning commute. I've submitted the error to TeleAtlas but I'm convinced that it'll take at least 6 months to be looked at.

Better to check the recent uploads of Taco. ...and I don't mean him.

My back-of-the-napkin estimate says you claim it is only ~300 miles to the far side of the planet.

You seem to be using elapsed distance over elapsed time as a measure of the rover's speed. However, the rovers are often sitting still doing science and taking pictures for a good deal of the time, so that's not a realistic speed.

So, Let's see... [/me finds napkin, turns over]... 148 years at MER top speed of 5 cm/s (as per NASA site) comes to about 234,000 km, or 47,000km if you use the 1cm/s average speed the rover gets when you take obstacle avoidance into effect. Opportunity could drive itself around Mars twice in that time. Of course this assumes travel 24h/day (or 24.6597h/sol). If we only have usable sunlight for a third of that time, then Opportunity can only travel 16,000km.

So how far apart are the rovers? Plugging some latitude and longitude figures into a great circle calculator and compensating for the different Mars parameters... 9700km apart, as the Martian crow-equivalent flies. So, assuming a travel day of 1/3 of a sol at the 0.036 km/h rover self drive speed, and allowing for an increase in distance to avoid obstacles of 50-60% - 15,000km.

Wow! My my pull-a-number-out-of-thin-air wild guess came remarkably close.

The tower was blown up in 1917. All that remains is a brick building which has been stripped and used as a factory.

http://www.teslasociety.com/wardenclyffe2.htm

You won't find any Tesla insight at Wardenclyffe. Better to spend your time reading his papers.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=rwekkS3oD0EC

or in Tuktoyuktuk! http://maps.google.ca/maps?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=Tuktoyuktuk&lr=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

I downloaded (via FTP - since the web was barely born) Linux v0.97 kernel, tools, C-compiler, etc. in 1992 for just one reason... to play the curses-text game "rogue"
And today... I'm going to be downloading Jaunty Jackalope (yes, sorry I'm late) Ubuntu and likely playing nethack (based on rogue) later this afternoon.
Things never change

Here's a Usenet post from me in 1992 bitching about "I DON'T WANT TO HACK THE KERNEL"
http://groups.google.ca/group/comp.os.linux/browse_thread/thread/46815c0980f82296/458335391bd59a18?hl=en&q=dzubin+linux+linus

Back in 1992 when I first started off with Linux, you downloaded two floppy images... you booted off one and halfway through the boot process you swapped disks...
Since I lived in Victoria, Canada at the time, I was able to get the first distribution of a "packaged" ready-to-run Linux called SLS
Later, I started using Slackware and kept using it until Ubuntu 6

Thomas Dzubin

Oh, that's what you wanted! Here, Google> define: God. That should just about clear it up for you, hopefully. In my OP, I used "God in a scientific discussion" in jest. You know, a joke.

Uh, plurality of electors wins, not a majority. If Rush or Ron Paul of Kucinich wins 37%, and the other guys win 30% and 33%, the 37% guy wins.

No. Not in the the US. Read the US Constitution. In the US, if no candidate achieves a MAJORITY of the electroal college, the House of Representatives elects the president (by state delegation).

For more info: Google: what if no candidate gets 270 electoral votes

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=DUs&q=what+if+no+candidate+gets+270+electoral+votes&btnG=Search&meta=

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=coal+radioactive+emissions

Why mod the poster down? I support coal technologies, but at the present, Steven Chu himself has said that burning coal actually releases more radiation into the atmosphere than nuclear power plants. The parent poster was simply stating a fact, not trolling.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=coal+radioactive+emissions

http://www.google.ca/search?q=HFCS+causes+increases+in+insulin+resistance&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

I don't know about the UK, honestly, but in the US and Canada it really isn't. If you're in a public place, which is defined as anyplace you can walk into without being hassled (it most explicitly includes malls, and hotels without someone checking for door keys or similar) then you have no expectation of privacy. You have a valid argument in civil court if you want some of someone's profits which were made from a work including your likeness et cetera, but that's about it.

I'm afraid you're completely wrong: http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbc.ca%2Ftechnology%2Fstory%2F2007%2F09%2F25%2Ftech-google-streetview.html&ei=RB3WSZeWG5_wswOGvM2iCg&usg=AFQjCNHKFb-rsuFUnHdexCYPe7rQNczGpw&sig2=qsPaVW8u6vFEm46Boh9-Bw

I suggest comparing the financials for Apple and Dell.

For 2008, Dell whomped Apple on revenue ($61B vs. $32.5B). But in actual net income, Apple pulled in almost $5B vs. Dell's $3B.

Right there is a good argument against lowering margin and ramping up production--they don't need to (yet; the crumbling economy obviously isn't reflected in the 2008 numbers).

To meet your hypothetical goal of "massive production and excellent quality" Dell would have to give up the one thing that got them where they are: low prices.

Quantity, quality, low cost. Pick two, everything else is a compromise between the three.

I suggest comparing the financials for Apple and Dell.

For 2008, Dell whomped Apple on revenue ($61B vs. $32.5B). But in actual net income, Apple pulled in almost $5B vs. Dell's $3B.

Right there is a good argument against lowering margin and ramping up production--they don't need to (yet; the crumbling economy obviously isn't reflected in the 2008 numbers).

To meet your hypothetical goal of "massive production and excellent quality" Dell would have to give up the one thing that got them where they are: low prices.

Quantity, quality, low cost. Pick two, everything else is a compromise between the three.

The big problem with your argument is: once you throw a reasonable answer at the problem it's no longer news-worthy. It's so easy to keep a search engine off your site the article would quickly become a technical how-to... and uninteresting to the non-slashdot masses.

If you don't want to share then take your ball and go home. Google thugs aren't shaking-down editors, nor in the case of common feeds like the AP are taking anything beyond what they are allowed to. Close your doors, create a consortium-only system for sharing across "approved" sites, and you're good to go. The perceived money you're losing from not doing this already would easily cover the costs of developing and maintaining the system.

Just hope enough people are willing to come over and only play with your ball that it pays the bills. I would have never found places like the Guardian without Google, and if they remove their content would never go back.

-Matt

Nah, I bought it on ebay.

If your information was true you might have had a point.

I've never heard that the oceans might be a source of Chlorofluorocarbons. A little surprising considering how contrary to the debate your claim would be.

A quick google on the subject did not find a single reference to your claim, in fact quite the opposite.

Many articles mentions techniques for the use of the absorption of CFC's into ocean currents as one possible tracer. If your claim was true then this would never work, the human generated ones would be swamped by the alleged ocean made ones.

Another article also states there are no natural sources of Chlorofluorocarbons.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=tFJRLhSez_YC&pg=PA236&lpg=PA236&dq=are+the+oceans+a+source+of+Chlorofluorocarbons&source=bl&ots=NQ_LTh4Zra&sig=d953hZLC8Pc8YRPnDo0bihSAp1g&hl=en&ei=FcfPSZmyGJCusQOu6cygAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result

So I call bullshit. I don't need reminding that correlation is not causation. You need reminding that you should stick to the facts in a debate about science.

There's a lot of coverage of it.

Main Entry: -fold
Function: suffix
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English -feald; akin to Old High German -falt -fold, Latin -plex, -plus, Old English fealdan

1 : multiplied by (a specified number) : times --in adjectives "a sixfold increase" and adverbs "repay you tenfold"
2 : having (so many) parts "threefold aspect of the problem"

see also: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-fold
http://www.yourdictionary.com/fold-suffix
or many of the links here.

It has nothing to do with folding things in half.

http://www.google.ca/search?q=Sheep-human+hybrids&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

fyi

I think I hear screams from all those older japanese dudes who buy stinky used teen girl panties

I don't know - I've never asked.

I was out exploring the west coast near Tofino and Ucluelet and saw a strange egg shaped wind turbine on private property.

That got us talking about it, and then we noticed about 3 more small wind turbines in that area.

These aren't megawatt producers, but probably are kilowatt producers. It's nice to see people throwing them up individually.

I don't know - I've never asked.

I was out exploring the west coast near Tofino and Ucluelet and saw a strange egg shaped wind turbine on private property.

That got us talking about it, and then we noticed about 3 more small wind turbines in that area.

These aren't megawatt producers, but probably are kilowatt producers. It's nice to see people throwing them up individually.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=palladium+excess+heat&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

Here's a google search to a whole lot of sources for a paper I read several years ago in one of the journals(Science?/Nature?/...) at the local library. It referenced Palladium electrode(cathode?) and unexpected Helium and excess heat produced during electrolysis. It suggested that Hydrogen Nuclei were combing - Fusion by definition - within the lattice of palladium but concluded that the effect may warrant further research.

I find the big blue room so much nicer when there's a sun in it. Don't you?

I wouldn't know, I only wear my sunglasses at night.

The usual sources for this sort of info are not a mystery - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SA-21 and http://www.google.ca/search?q=SA-21

Range is up to 400km.

Of course, there are sites like BusinessWeek that get infected by SQL injection attacks, as well as United Nations, UK Government sites and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Then there's also the time Microsoft got hacked to distribute malware.

Unless your definition of a non-legit site is "any site that's connected to and live on the Internet," then you are wrong.

I mean, I hope the new appointee helps in pushing `open standards' including ODF. For Google, while I love the company itself, I do not understand why it still has no filter for searching ODF documents just like PDFs and MS Office documents.

Have a look.

What also does not help is the fact that there is not a single application in the Open Source world that is 100% compliant to ODF! Think about it...we push open standards (when attacking Microsoft), but cannot create an application that is 100% compliant with existing and a fairly popular standard!

There are suggestions that OpenOffice.org is not 100% compliant either. This is shameful in the least.

There's a software design pattern called "Special Case" by Martin Fowler that addresses this concept. The page is here: http://books.google.ca/books?id=FyWZt5DdvFkC&pg=PT524&lpg=PT524&dq=fowler+special+case&source=bl&ots=eEzvZuXp6x&sig=5hIwvadw2LaM3hB4StqbPGi5zTA&hl=en&ei=ZpqtSbTCOsTMnQfWuci-Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result

Admittedly, it's after past 1AM, so maybe my maths stopped working by now, but isn't 2^13 about 8000 dollars for the grand prize?

I contacted Google and their reply confirms your approximate amount.

Is someone trying to get page hits here? What's the "direct hits to my blog" form of Slashvertisement?

How about "bladding"?

I looked it up, and from the few results I clicked, I like it even more.

There are lots of cases wherein providing the information requested can get you in a lot of trouble in itself. As mentioned in other threads, there are many companies where the sysadmin-level and supervisory-level passwords are kept segregated, mainly because giving any one person (even your boss) gives too much ability to perpetuate fraud.

In other situations - and this one may have been more of a concern in this case - it's a case of the blame game. You leave the passwords with somebody who's not supposed to happen and/or is incompetent. They fuck things up royally, and then blame it on a malicious act by you. Blame-my-predecessor is a pretty common game, hence see the fairly popular three envelopes joke. The end result of that could be the same as or worse than how things ended up now, depending on the level of (in)competency of the person who now has access (imagine that they lack enough knowledge to screw things up while royally, but have enough to wipe out or tamper with logs leaving false evidence).

Sounds like the guy had a bad attitude yes, but it also sounds like that made the perfect excuse for an opportunistic manager to rake him over the coals post-firing.

My own practice is to keep a secure document with access procedures (passwords/keys/etc), and generally if I leave a company I still provide some support afterwards.

I've never been canned (although I have been downsized in an understandable situation where a company was going downhill) by wrathful management though, so I'm not sure how that would play out. Even with a list of passwords, there are still VPN's, SSH keys, and many other access levels that would have to be revoked to lock out my accounts properly, but I suppose setting my shell to /bin/false would do well enough in most cases, though there might be 100+ servers to go over in this regard.

Northrop-Grumman (i.e. the company who runs the site, the guys who fucked up) is private sector.

Being in the private sector is not magic pixie dust that makes people smarter and systems more secure.

According to this blog and many other sources, the lawyers in question were Dan Malone and Jacob Tiedt, who do indeed work at Jones Day according to their own web site. It's not clear to me what, exactly the issue is there. The names involved in sales of a property are ordinarily recorded as public information (unless it's done through an agent or something). The information about these gentlemen's employment is right on their employer's web site. Is Jones Day claiming that putting this information together is illegal?

The blog cites another article in a law journal about supposed concerns about privacy. Fair enough. But if that's the case then these guys have probably gone out of their way to keep all personal information private.

Wait, what's this? Jacob Tiedt is a pretty distinctive name. There can't be too many of those in Chicago. And, wow, that's strange. Why the heck does the guy's name appear all over the place in a Google search that simply uses "Jacob Tiedt" and "Chicago"? Heck, one of the web pages registers his political donations which ALSO indicates that his employer/occupation is "Jones Day/Attorney" and gives his ZIP code. Lexis Nexis gives all sorts of details too, and (gasp) links directly to the jonesday.com web site. Horrors. And, strange, apparently he doesn't have an unlisted number, because his name is easy to find in the various on-line white pages. It's almost as if he hasn't made the slightest effort to remain incognito.

It looks like Jones Day is going to spend a lot of time in litigation if they want to expunge the web of any links to Jones Day and these guy's personal information, and half of the web pages are as a result of their initial attempts with Blockshopper. Hello? Streisand effect?

The apparent remedy in the settlement was to prohibit links like this: Daniel P. Malone Jr., while links like this: www.jonesday.com/dpmalone are acceptable. Huh? I don't get it.

What a farce.

Now if I can just find Pee Wee Herman's face on Mars...

I haven't seen Pee Wee Herman, but there are quite a few spots that look like Edward James Olmos' face.

The majority of people who contribute on Slashdot are not only tech savvy, but have some understanding of licensing, copyright and the like.

Yes, "some understanding" in the same sense that knowledge of the Jargon File provides some understanding of software engineering, or Call of Duty provides some understanding of assault tactics. See:

http://www.google.ca/search?q=license+inurl:ask.slashdot.org&hl=en&safe=off&filter=0