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Well, from my personal experience (and I rarely get home without meeting at least a couple of bicycles) nope, it's quite an environmental hit, actually for two reasons:
1) I have to break and accelerate, which is apparent waste of resources (let alone my time)

Well, you may have to brake (if you car break's, that's another problem), but if there's a bike in front of you, you don't *have* to accelerate and pass. Every time you brake, you're dumping away energy that you'll never recover (unless you're in a hybrid), so minimize the braking and accelerating.

2) My car (heh, old VW Golf) consumes about 6.5l per 100km on average, when I'm trailing bikes it's about 10l.

Most of the time I am not alone, it quickly grows to about 5-10 cars trying to outmaneuver the bike rider.

Anecdotal evidence aside, your statement about "driving slower is more effective" is plain wrong. Most motors have a sweet spot which normally is at 2000 rpm.

Since you're such an eco-focused driver, worried about wasting resources and you often find yourself behind bikes, perhaps you should be driving a car that's efficient at those speeds.

http://home.hiwaay.net/~bzwils...

There are *vast* stretches of highway that are just as the GP described them - completely and without any barriers other than the median. Apparently you have driven on a select few roads in this country. I've driven many very long distance trips, and about the only region I have yet to drive through is the PacNorthwest.

Yes, of course there are many locations without barriers. In my area, there is insufficient space to have a grass median, and so every highway has a barrier between directions. It's a calculated equation of cost of land versus cost of a barrier, along with accident rates and traffic density. Of course, these aren't always updated, since the interstate system was designed so long ago and receives only few updates due to funds that are typically limited. I'm sure many places would warrant barriers now that did not when originally designed.

Thanks, Captain Obvious. I think the GP already stated "while driving the posted speed limit or less". I've hydroplaned at speeds of 15 mph in extremely heavy flow on I-35 near Dallas. Do you think either I or the GP continued to drive at that speed?

The point is, neither of you should have been driving that speed in the first place.

For normal traffic, there's no need to travel at 80 mph. In fact, it reduces gas mileage usually to go significantly above 55 or so, because air resistance increases much more rapidly and you have to fight that at high speeds.

Cite your sources for this often repeated tripe. My own MPG continues to rise until it peaks when my speed exceeds 110 mph. Most any car that I've owned (and none of them were your big honking pointless SUVs or any other sort of passenger truck) continued to increase in performance up to at least 80 mph. Even in the case of a Toyota Prius, the efficiency won't peak until approximately 75 mph. This statistic that you quote is a relic of the 1970's oil embargo years and the types of cars typically driven at that time. I somehow doubt it even applies to diesel big rigs these days either.

I would suggest a high school physics class. Aerodynamic drag at high speeds is proportional to the square of your velocity; so going from 55 to 110 mph doesn't double your drag, it quadruples it.

Also, I drive a Prius. There is a direct correlation between low speed and high mpg. Somebody even made this handy dandy graph of mpg at a variety of constant speeds in his Prius. The faster you go, the worse your fuel economy, full stop.

It is true that the optimal speed for mpg varies by vehicle; a lot of things go into the calculation, but you typically want to be at the lowest efficient speed in your highest gear; the efficient speed may be higher if your engine is particularly inefficient at low speeds. A good example of this was Top Gear's "race" of a Prius versus a BMW, with the Prius at top speed (~110 mph) getting 17 mpg, compared to the BMW which was getting 19 mpg (because it is optimized to run at much higher speeds).

So it may be possible that your car does very well at high speeds, because they optimized it for high speeds (did you buy some type of sports car?). But most passenger vehicles are optimized for the speeds that people normally drive - or rather, they're optimized for the EPA test cycle, which in turn is meant to be representative of what people normally drive.

There was a very clear meaning for "pattern" in a computer gaming context by 1980. In 1980 Pac-Man was first released in the US. By 1981 the word "pattern" to describe navigating the maze was so popular that the "Pac-Man Fever" album included patterns for each level.

Full moon? what a fucktard. Someone should tell him that when its 1/4 moon, or a half moon, the whole fucking moon is STILL THERE.

Are you at least aware of the fact that tides are higher during a full moon?

It's called a spring tide, and has to do with the geometry of things and gravity. So if you're already expecting a higher than usual tide, and combine that with storm surge, it will amplify it even more.

Or, do you just feel the need to continuously act like a crusty old bastard who thinks the world is populated with idiots?~

We all know the entire moon is still there (well most of us do), but the geometry of the gravity changes with position -- New Moon and Full Moon leading to the highest tides. So, maybe the expert actually knows more than you do.

Pole Position is one of many games that Atari had the exclusive rights to sell in North America. They even went so far as to add an "atari banner" flying over the racetrack.

ATARI FORCE - In the year 2005 Earth is facing ecological devastation and Atari is the savior of the world, and so too are their "Atari Force" superheroes! Try not to laugh too much. I literally bought the game just so I could read the comic (the game was not bad either). I was also a loyal reader of Atari Age which was just a glorified advertisement for new games released every other month.

Description - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Force
Whole series - http://www.atariage.com/comics/index.html
Geek Encyclopedia - http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/comics/AtariForce/

The Declaration of Independence is a legal document and carries just as much force and effect as the Constitution. To wit: "The legal effect of the Declaration of Independence was to make each new State a separate and independent sovereign over which there was no other government of superior power or jurisdiction. This was clearly shown in M'Ilvaine v. Coxe's Lessee, 8 U.S. (4 Cranch) 209, 212 (1808)"

You can find the quote here cited by a very distinguished attorney in his rather long, but educational brief on federal jurisdiction.

That is one area where I heartily agree with the states rights movement. I think it's only a matter of time before states realize that federal jurisdiction is not a requirement, it's invited by each state:

http://hiwaay.net/~becraft/FEDJurisdiction.html

Are we looking at the same page?

I have seen a few writeups of people using their Prius as a whole-house UPS: http://www.priups.com/ http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/priups.html

This guy did it years ago with his Prius. Trouble is, his electric utility is so reliable that he never gets to use the feature!

What about the earth/moon relationship that drives the tides? Do we end up sucking more energy out of the moons orbital velocity leading to a decay in the moons orbit?

No. Slowing of the Earth's rotation, which is due to drag by Moon, increases the Moon's orbit. The Moon orbits slower than the Earth rotates causing a "gravitational/tidal bulge", or warping of the Earth's shape (the ocean tides are caused by this too). This creates drag on the Earth, slows its rotation and the Moon's orbit increases - due to, I believe, conservation of angular momentum. Think about what happens as a spinning ice-skater moves her arms/legs in to speed up and out to slow down the spin. See:
Is the Moon moving away from the Earth? When was this discovered?
How The Moon Affects Ocean Tides

I play bass and I play GH. I find that while it's no good for training you how to use more than one "string" (They should put 4 to 6 strum switches on it to make it somewhat more realistic...) I have found that I've noticed my timing, finger strength, and left hand dexterity have improved greatly.

Most guitarists that dislike GH simply haven't put some time in. GH take practice too. If the non-guitar playing dork across the room just kicked your ass in Smoke on the Water, then you need to do more practicing and less whining.

Get into it, it's fun, especially from a guitar-player's point of view.

And the only way to impress the women these days is if you can switch off between a real guitar and GH "guitar" and be equally skilled on both!! Let me tell you - I thought my friend did pretty good with the ladies when playing live in a band. Until he started jamming on a tiny plastic twanger thingy, then they were all over him! You can do it if you try. And if you act now, we'll throw in TWO electric twangers.

Just think of this: when you buy GH: PacMan Fever Edition, you can actually "Plunk your electric twanger, Froggy."

That ended up pretty rambling. Hope you enjoyed...

I can point to a few charts pretty easily...

There's certainly economy to be gained if you drive a Geo Metro or Chevy/Suzuki/et al. spinoff:
http://metrompg.com/posts/photos/mpg-vs-speed-chart-z.gif

The improvement is much less dramatic, but still there, with a Honda CRX: http://xs205.xs.to/xs205/06352/Spdmpg.jpg

And lower speeds also make a big improvement with a Toyota Prius:
http://home.hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/calculated_MPG_Rev_B.jpg

I haven't yet seen such a chart from any vehicle that improves economy with higher speed. I suspect you might get different numbers, however, with large trucks, SUVs, and the like, with engines so large they barely more than idle going 45MPH when not pulling a trailer...

Damn straight. And since we're talking about
"Federal" jurisdiction, you might like this, too.

http://home.hiwaay.net/~becraft/FEDJurisdiction.html

It's by Larry Becraft, a very interesting attorney who makes a pretty good case that the feds have a shorter arm into American than they think.

As I said before: enjoy the reading.

Not quite like that, but how about a rocket bicycle. (Not that you can do much commuting on a bicycle in the area - it's just as car-ridden as the rest of the country.)

Oh, and there's Jesus as an Eggbeater and God's Rocket (the latter offering an eggbeater pic, too).

Until some dumbass sent a wrong command to the viking lander and shut it off permanently.
Not a good thing to put on your resume.
"Desk jockey in extended viking science mission, until I completely screwed myself out of a job."

Funny, all the NASA references these days seem to edit that little bit of info out, and merely say that it was shut off due to impending battery failure. Other sources - and my memory suggest otherwise.

Ah! Here's a reference from the RISKS digest Volume 3, Issue 60 - 1986. (A digest that is still running today, and is a highly insightful window into how technology screwups mess with daily life.)

Ground control lost contact with Viking 1, apparently due to a
software change transmitted to the lander that was accidentally
overlaid upon some mission-critical software already in the lander's
computer. (Bruce Smith, "JPL Tries to Revive Link with Viking 1",
@ux(Aviation Week and Space Technology), April 4, 1983, Volume
118(14), page 16.)

A scanned image of the mentioned article, right at the bottom of the page.

Revisionist history, indeed.

I just had to reply to this post just to bring up the link the submitter has listed;
http://home.hiwaay.net/~pspoole/echelon.html
please, please have a read of this left-wing conspiracy nuts insane writing
"submarines capable of tapping underground cables"
ANYONE with ANY understanding of fibre-optic knows you CANNOT cut into this cable.
"These signal intelligence agencies now had a new enemy toward which to turn their electronic eyes and ears to ensure that the balance of power could be maintained"
a very vague reference to the authors obvious communist leanings.

Come on kids, Complaining the goverment is out to get you is just an excuse to claim you are a victim: Conspiracy nuts, YOU and YOU ALONE are to blame for your failures, we do not want to be dragged down to your sad, depraved life. Shut your pie holes.

Jesus, Get a sense of reality!!!

• The default settings of P2P applications share all documents and media files on your machine. Which P2P apps are they talking about?
• P2P file exchanges generally violate international copyright laws. - Stop lumping P2P with piracy, DoD!
• Enable Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) on all laptops, PDAsand wireless access points. - WPA anyone?
• THE INTERNET IS ALWAYS WATCHING - But the DoD is always watching the Internet, so don't worry!
• CLASSIFIED CPU's should be at least 3 feet from UNCLASSIFIED CPU's - Cooties?
• Traveling with a government computer? Keep track of it! - Good thing you told me! I never take the time to keep track of my laptop when I travel.

Amazing that the /. community has become so patently biased against technology and its uses. ;-)

Also amazing that /. folks seem to have failed to research all that has happened in the past (you know those who fail to learn from the past are destined to relive it). If you are wondering how long we have known that the US (and other governments) have been engaged in quite an impressive searching for needles in a haystack exercise??.

Has anybody checked???

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/6/6929/1.html
http://www.fas.org/irp/program/process/echelon.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON
http://fly.hiwaay.net/~pspoole/echelon.html

This information has been publicly available for more than a decade. I know for a fact I was reading about it on MOSAIC, the original browser, because I had some X screen captures of some of this same stuff from the early 1990's (yes pre Clinton). So, I would think it would be no surprise that we had the capability. So why all the "Ooooh evil big brother??" comments. Let alone blaming one administration 10-15 years later for deciding to use the capability.

Think about it geeksters. Now that a group of governments have cooperatively the capability to get ~90% all of communications on the earth, capture them, statistically analyze them, and escalate on some heuristic rule based basis to a human most of the electronic communications on the face of the earth, what does this cooperative do? They honestly wouldn't be able to avoid having the phone numbers on both ends, they in the case of modern cell technology even have the location on cells, certainly ANI info, certainly country codes, area codes, billing information, etc. They would also have a nicely digitized voice record of the conversation. And I would hazard could decode this speech > text and then keyword search the voice call to some reasonable degree of accuracy. The idea that they could do this for hundreds of languages, dialects, and accents, and even have some ability for voice printing is pretty no brainer. And further, I hope none of you believe that there are enough humans to work this without some massive filtering done totally automated.

Now, how do I determine the ruleset to abide by the law, in whose country (since it is a cooperative), and on what basis do I determine the relevance of the statistics used? How do I train my operators (the eavesdroppers) to ignore what calls (when a particular message is escalated) despite that parameters of it's content may have far exceeded some notional statistical threshhold for further examination of its content?

Is it the idea that they might listen to your conversations with a paramour the offensive part? Is the offensive part really that you may be reaching some other threshold? Is the offensive part that some of the posters might have some other guilt thing going on? Do those of you out there believe that FISA, or for that matter posse comatatis really means that National Technical Means cannot be used to find you to zero in on your potentially questionable behavior in some other way? Only the worst national security issues are ever going through FISA anyhow. Anything found by ECHELON of less serious character (but still reaching some threshhold) is most certainly, very quietly, and with multiple levels of indirection (never traceable back to ECHELON, it's called plausible deniability in the black world) passed to law enforcement as an anonymous tip from which to start an investigation (never as evidence). The thought that somehow you are safe from this kind of stuff is the worst kind of self denial. Members of congress found otherwise, and tried to protect themselves, NOT US, from faceless bureaucrats like J.

Huh. If agents know their conversations might be tapped they will find ways of coding their communications. Pretty rational reason to keep the program secret. The statement you made was the irrational one.

Wow, I'm impressed. I'm impressed your lungs didn't shut down when your one brain cell was tied up in typing this.

Okay, I'll presume you're sitting down, since I don't think you can stand and read at the same time: The US has spied on calls before, and people know that. I know, this must come as a total shock to you, there there. Go read about Echelon. Osama might have learned we were tapping his phone calls when we tried to blow him up using his phone to track him, back in 1998.

So, to sum up: ssh! Grown-ups are talking!

Amen: You know the definition of a conservative is a liberal that just got mugged. It is a dangerous world and sometimes the children cry when they can't run into the street. It seems the root issue is about echelon and it's legality. That has been answered by the courts and by historical precedent. Good legal overview here--> http://powerlineblog.com/archives/012631.php A little background of the NoSuchAgency program here--> http://home.hiwaay.net/~pspoole/echelon.html

CIA & NSA on ECHELON

ECHELON: America's Secret Global Surveillance Network

The answer to the mystery of the NSA snooping scandal - why did they break the law when it was so ludicrously easy to get FISA warrants? - appears to be developing: they weren't just wiretapping, they were data mining. They were using Echelon to 'Able Danger' the whole country (this is Poindexter's Total Information Awareness, which is supposedly dead, in action). The problem is that FISA was enacted prior to the current capability for data mining, and didn't anticipate how ubiquitous it could be. The reason they couldn't use FISA is that they would have had to obtain a FISA warrant for every person in the country. Data mining requires that you follow each link discovered by your snooping, and wouldn't work if it had to be subjected to FISA or the Constitution. The NYT article, now being spun as resisted by the Bush Administration (as if the NYT would publish anything without Rove's say-so), appears to itself be part of the spinning, a limited hang-out to cover up the bigger scandal.

If you are a businessman, have no illusions that your papers and files are safe in your hotel room in China. There have been documented cases of government-sponsored spies following businessmen and bugging or entering their hotel rooms to scour their belongings for useful trade secrets and intellectual property.

We can see clearly that they are pursuing a strategy of mercantilism in trade, to our great disadvantage, thanks to the cluelessness of free-traders in Congress and the White House.

If you are a businessman, have no illusions that your electronic correspondence is safe _anywhere_, thanks to your 'naive' US. Ever heard of the uses of Echelon in your so-called 'free trade'?

Some quotes from the link above:

* In 1990 the German magazine Der Speigel revealed that the NSA had intercepted messages about an impending $200 million deal between Indonesia and the Japanese satellite manufacturer NEC Corp. After President Bush intervened in the negotiations on behalf of American manufacturers, the contract was split between NEC and AT&T.

* In 1994, the CIA and NSA intercepted phone calls between Brazilian officials and the French firm Thomson-CSF about a radar system that the Brazilians wanted to purchase. A US firm, Raytheon, was a competitor as well, and reports prepared from intercepts were forwarded to Raytheon.

* In September 1993, President Clinton asked the CIA to spy on Japanese auto manufacturers that were designing zero-emission cars and to forward that information to the Big Three US car manufacturers: Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. In 1995, the New York Times reported that the NSA and the CIA's Tokyo station were involved in providing detailed information to US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor's team of negotiators in Geneva facing Japanese car companies in a trade dispute. Recently, a Japanese newspaper, Mainichi, accused the NSA of continuing to monitor the communications of Japanese companies on behalf of American companies.

* Insight Magazine reported in a series of articles in 1997 that President Clinton ordered the NSA and FBI to mount a massive surveillance operation at the 1993 Asian/Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) hosted in Seattle. One intelligence source for the story related that over 300 hotel rooms had been bugged for the event, which was designed to obtain information regarding oil and hydro-electric deals pending in Vietnam that were passed on to high level Democratic Party contributors competing for the contracts. But foreign companies were not the only losers: when Vietnam expressed interest in purchasing two used 737 freighter aircraft from an American businessman, the deal was scuttled after Commerce Secretary Ron Brown arranged favorable financing for two new 737s from Boeing.

"Yes, I'm paranoid - But am I paranoid enough?"

We use Startup Monitor and ZoneAlarm Security Suite software firewall. The newest ZA pops up a window the first time anything suspicious happens. It's a big problem convincing users to report the ZA popups, but if they do, Windows is much safer.

However, it's a losing battle. The problem is that Microsoft makes more money if its operating systems self-destruct. What you call "vulnerabilities" billionaires call "maximizing shareholder value".

If rich people sold good operating systems, poor people would not buy the next upgrade.

Using an operating system is like having a partner in your business. If it is a Microsoft OS, your "partners" want some things that are bad for you. If you use Linux or BSD, you can breathe a huge sigh of relief; your partners want what you want.

It's absurd that governments of countries use Microsoft products. It's even absurd that state governments in the U.S. use Microsoft products. The U.S. federal government spends more money on world-wide surveillance than any country in the history of the world. Exploiting computer systems is now one of the biggest new frontiers in surveillance.

The U.S. government's Echelon surveillance system watches everyone all the time. (Echelon quote: "Since the close of World War II, the US intelligence agencies have developed a consistent record of trampling the rights and liberties of the American people.")

The biggest discretionary expense of the U.S. government is the cost of war. The president and the vice-president of the U.S. are people who themselves and their families and friends made their money through oil and weapons. Is it any wonder that the price of oil is so high and we have war?

When a country uses Microsoft operating systems, it effectively has the U.S. government as one of its partners. Given the present climate of corruption and conflict of interest and adversarial behavior and using war as a justification for anything, why do countries want the U.S. government and U.S. billionaires as partners?

If volunteers can make a secure operating system ("Only one remote hole in the default install, in more than 8 years!") is it difficult to believe that the amazing number of vulnerabilities we've seen in Windows are deliberately allowed?

Unfortunately, you know that what will really happen is that a huge database tracking literally every cell phone's' movements will be set up in the name of fighting terrorism. The database will be secret and inaccessible to the public. Paranoia? I don't know. Anyone know what ever happened to the ECHELON project, which is a system intended to monitor literally every piece of human communication on the planet and mine it for analysis later?

150,000. Per http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonglos sary/moontrivia.htm which i'm sure is authoritative.

The government has established that police can collect evidence against people without a warrant (or other due process) when they "mistakenly" violate the security of people's persons, houses, papers and effects, if the police make the mistake "in good faith". Here in NYC, the cops go to apartment buildings where known offenders (like drug dealers) live, then break in neighbors' doors (on different floors, sometimes), look around, and score a bust without a warrant when they find something. Fourth Amendment? That's as quaint as the Geneva Conventions.

How will Chief Justice Roberts rule on torture of "mistakenly" captured people? The Supreme Court Chief Justice controls the secret FISA court which governs domestic spying. Not to mention the Chief Justice's control of whether foreign rulings have legal standing in American courts. When the government tortures to death Harry Buttle instead of Harry Tuttle, will Mrs. Buttle even be entitled to a refund?

I would not be surprised if this turns out to be a project of some Chinese intelligence agency. Worldwide espionage seems a "normal" activity for any large government. The USA do this at an even larger scale with a worldwide net of listening stations, the so-called Echelon net:
http://fly.hiwaay.net/~pspoole/echelon.html

I have a bit of hearing loss, and the noise a computer makes tends to garble any kind of conversation. I tried for years to get a relatively quiet yet powerful computer, and finally decided to physically move the bloody computer away from my ears.

I purchased a Cybex Longview from http://home.hiwaay.net/~redwood/kvm/, put my machine in a room off of my garage, and ran some STP between it and the recreation room. Unshielded is supposed to work, but the line ran past some flourescent lighting, so I became paranoid and bought Shielded Twisted Pair cabling.

That took care of the KVM (1280 x 1024 works just fine on my 22" screen). For sound, I use a Terk product that transmits audio signals over phone lines, and ran a dedicated phone cord for this. There's a bit of hiss if I crank up the volume when nothing's playing, but if a game or other program is actually feeding the system, it's fine. The Terk feeds a 2.1 Klipsch speaker set.

I stayed away from wireless solutions because my Siemens 2.4GHz phone system had / caused problems with most transmitter arrangements; this included the Terk wireless sound transmitter, as well as an older Turtle Beach sound transmitter set. After all, I am running a STP cable already, so running a dedicated phone cord isn't a big deal.

Overall, it works great; the only noise I pick up is a bit of hiss if I don't keep the speaker volume low, and that goes away when I actually play music or games.

There are a couple flaws. The biggest pain is when I need to swap CDs in the machine; Virtual CD programs can help here, but if you are making ISOs or burning disks, it's time to do a few laps about the house. The other pain is when I want to use USB; then I have to run into the other room to load / install the device. Also, you better be using a DB-15 video connection; I know of no inexpensive KVM extender that can handle DVI (I am looking, but most appear to be too near the $1000 mark for my taste).

Total pricing was about $250 for the Longview, $50 for the cabling, and about $75ish for the Terk box. Sounds expensive, but A) it's still in the high end water cooling price range, and B) it is truly silent, with no dangers of liquid leaks. I've been using this setup for over 3 years now, and feel my money's been well spent.

Those aren't as much funny as they are really spooky. these pages have some pictures of such shadows; but contain other non-work-safe disturbing images too.

I first learned about these in the irtc, where the winning entry one month was a ray-tracing of these shadows.

Then there are things that are less known...the NSA used to "grep" for certain 800 numbers from machines it had "sniffing" the Internet, that were in very good locations to do such a thing. Once I myself was reading a web site in Australia about CIA involvement in a sort-of coup d'etat they had there (the prime minister, who wanted to get Australia out of the Vietnam war, and who was beginning to establish relations with "Red" China was thrown out by an antiquated dominion law by a man who had CIA conenctions). Shortly after doing so I received an odd SNMP query to my IP address requesting information about my machine. If I didn't have my machine especially set up to log everything coming in, I never would have seen it (my machine did not respond witht he asked for information). The requesting machine was some US army information intelligence outfit in Quantico, Virginia, I suppose it was the Army equivalent of the Air Force OSI or something. One odd aspect was I was doing this from the US, so the Army would have been spying on me, as a US citizen, which it shouldn't be doing, although there are loopholes out of this I guess. It's unfortunate I have to go to other countries web sites to read about stuff like this, but that's how it is, the USSR had it's samizdat as well, and its KGB trying to track down who was distributing and reading it.

First of all, calling me names like "Master Debater"?

Not too intelligent, sign of losing & up there with human spelling & grammar checking.

SECONDLY?

You only PARTIALLY quoted me, THIS was my FULL quote (pot calling the kettle black again are we?

"LOL, ok... what was VB? One of, if not the FIRST, "RAD" development tool!"

I also said "ONE OF THE FIRST, if not the first", meaning there may have been predecessors!

HOWEVER:

On X86, afaik though? VB was the first RAD tool, & thus? An innovation. Feel free to correct me here if you know better, ok?

Thirdly, you're going to diff. platforms & I thought this was about Linux vs. Windows Server 2003?,

Please - Don't twist my words... & do NOT partially quote me. Switching to a COMPLETELY diff. platform? Nice try. BUT, I'm game!

ALSO - Changing the topic from Linux vs. Windows & about innovation on them by jumping to another platform? A dead one no less imo??

Not even a NICE TRY!

You told me not to change criteria and yet... what are YOU doing?

HOWEVER, Still, we'll play your game & compare + contrast your Amiga CanDo vs. VB!

(& I won't even bring in the better tools like Delphi &/or C++ Builder into play!)

I don't have to! You're about to see why on TONS of levels - So, anyhow?

HERE WE GO:

FROM THIS PAGE -> http://fly.hiwaay.net/~rcfinch/amazcomp/sep93.html

(Found my OWN data & will compare/contrast since you lagged a bit on me on reply)

WRONG on Amiga CanDo being like VB, with all of its features compared/contrasted:

1.) VB is geared towards creating productivity software and therefore lacks the animation and sound capabilities that are needed for game and multimedia applications.

(Wrong vs. multimedia controls OR direct API calls)

2.) Also, to be even more valuable as a productivity software development tool, it desperately needs the flexibility of the
user defined record variables and dynamic sparse arrays that are included with CanDo.

(WRONG vs. VB - Redim/Preserve etc. on arrays, & records? HUGELY used in TYPES)

3.) CanDo allows you to create documents that can be edited and displayed. There are many commands available for manipulating documents. No equivalent feature is available for VB

(WRONG vs. VB - OLE Server control of WORD itself as ONE example... what about RTF controls for it, or even PDF toolkits?)

4.) CanDo has features that makes it far superior to VB when it comes to handling variables. These features are the dynamic sparse arrays and user defined record variables. Arrays are dynamic because they are created as needed and sparse because they are not dimensioned and do not necessarily have consecutive indices.

(WRONG vs. VB - it has dynamic arrays via Dim, Redim, Preserve etc. AND it supports Spare Array types and MANY more types like triangular ones also)

5.) Record variables let you create highly complex user defined variables without ever having to predefine the structure of the variable.

(WRONG vs. VB - it EXTENSIVELY uses RECORDS in Databasing, & records as far as I am concerned? Are a special case of an array really... many things, like strings also? ARE for example!)

6.) VB does not allow you to create a stand-alone executable file

(WRONG vs. VB5 (somewhat here), it has a TRUE compiled .exe, but does use interpreter for interface screen communications/messaging, watered down VC++ 5.x compiler iirc.)

7.) CanDo has features that makes it far superior to VB when it comes to handling variables. These features are the dynamic sparse arrays

(WRONG vs. VB - it has sparse arrays support bigtime & TONS more)

VB ADVANTAGES vs. Amiga CanDo:

A.) First of all, VB's ALOT more of an employeability tool, by far, no questions asked. MS' nam

I got a pocket full of quarters, and I'm headed to the arcade.
I don't have a lot of money, but I'm bringing ev'rything I made.
I've got a callus on my finger, and my shoulder's hurting too.
I'm gonna eat them all up, just as soon as they turn blue.

Chorus:
'Cause I've got Pac-Man fever;
Pac-Man fever.
It's driving me crazy.
Driving me crazy.
I've got Pac-Man fever;
Pac-Man fever.
I'm going out of my mind.
Going out of my mind.
I've got Pac-Man fever;
Pac-Man fever.
I'm going out of my mind.
Going out of my mind.

I've got all the patterns down, up until the ninth key.
I've got Speedy on my tail, and I know it's either him or me.
So I'm heading out the back door and in the other side;
Gonna eat the cherries up and take them all for a ride.

Chorus

I'm gonna fake it to the left, and move to the right;
'Cause Pokey's too slow, and Blinky's out of sight.

Guitar solo

Now I've got them on the run, and I'm looking for the high score;
So it's once around the block, And I'll slide back out the side door.
I'm really cookin' now, eating everything in sight.
All my money's gone, so I'll be back tomorow night.

'Cause I've got Pac-Man fever;
Pac-Man fever.
It's driving me crazy.
Driving me crazy.
I've got Pac-Man fever;
Pac-Man fever.
I'm going out of my mind.
Going out of my mind.
Repeat and fade

The truth is probably somewhere in between : you are a mollusk of the species Lampsilis virescens.

I wrote the original sendmail milter interface to Brightmail that they derived their milter software from. We still run my milter because I've added additional options over time; Brightmail includes an SDK that you can use to interface to custom setups easily.

Anyone who thinks that the CIA doesn't already have systems to automatically monitor email, chatrooms etc - needs to read a bit more on intelligence technology. This would fall under "Echelon" anyhow.

The NSF might lack the tools, but I sincerely doubt that the CIA are developing these sorts of very basic tools. More likely, the NSF aren't given access or information on the extent of CIA information gathering.

Also, I imagine such a news article makes the public likely to believe that the technology isn't already in active use.

The Beakman electric motor is an awsome experiment.

This isn't exactly electronics, but it's fun (and yes, it is my site and yes, it looks like crap, but it was my first web site and I keep it that way for nostalgic reasons :-)

http://fly.hiwaay.net/~palmer/motor.html

For "real" electronics, if you just want to make a easy and fun project, most kids are usually impressed by things that blink LEDs (like a scanner sequencer type circuit) or make noise (I would suggest sirens).

That's lame, to say the least. There are much more capable homemade rockets capable of reaching a mile or more.

One kilometer is 3280 feet. I've taken my homebuilt airplane (RV-7) to 18,000 ft (5.48 kilometers, the highest allowed in VFR flight) several times still showing 500 fpm climb and other RV builders with setups similar to mine have made it to 25,900 ft. (7.59 kilometers)

This rocket costs 2.1 million Yen is $20,000 US dollars. A finished RV will cost you about twice that but it'll get you a lot higher! And that's the key...it gets you a lot higher.

If they could get these rockets to say, 50,000 ft. or more...then it would get interesting. ...and don't even get me started on the Flying Tiger (48,000 ft.).

Personally, I'll always have a soft spot for Atari Force.

Not much time. http://fly.hiwaay.net:8000/~kdunn/problems/ciphfor m.shtml

For anyone who is interested, there actually is a Woman in the Moon. A prim and proper Victorian lady, in fact. She's quite clear in binoculars, and actually looks a lot more lifelike than the Man.

If you want to see some sillier figures in the Moon, here's another link.

• In 1990 the German magazine Der Speigel revealed that the NSA had intercepted messages about an impending $200 million deal between Indonesia and the Japanese satellite manufacturer NEC Corp. After President Bush intervened in the negotiations on behalf of American manufacturers, the contract was split between NEC and AT&T.
• In 1994, the CIA and NSA intercepted phone calls between Brazilian officials and the French firm Thomson-CSF about a radar system that the Brazilians wanted to purchase. A US firm, Raytheon, was a competitor as well, and reports prepared from intercepts were forwarded to Raytheon.<55>
• In September 1993, President Clinton asked the CIA to spy on Japanese auto manufacturers that were designing zero-emission cars and to forward that information to the Big Three US car manufacturers: Ford, General Motors and Chrysler.<56> In 1995, the New York Times reported that the NSA and the CIA's Tokyo station were involved in providing detailed information to US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor's team of negotiators in Geneva facing Japanese car companies in a trade dispute.<57> Recently, a Japanese newspaper, Mainichi, accused the NSA of continuing to monitor the communications of Japanese companies on behalf of American companies.<58>
• Insight Magazine reported in a series of articles in 1997 that President Clinton ordered the NSA and FBI to mount a massive surveillance operation at the 1993 Asian/Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) hosted in Seattle. One intelligence source for the story related that over 300 hotel rooms had been bugged for the event, which was designed to obtain information regarding oil and hydro-electric deals pending in Vietnam that were passed on to high level Democratic Party contributors competing for the contracts.<59> But foreign companies were not the only losers: when Vietnam expressed interest in purchasing two used 737 freighter aircraft from an American businessman, the deal was scuttled after Commerce Secretary Ron Brown arranged favorable financing for two new 737s from Boeing.<60>

This photograph disagrees with you-- it's not some sharp edge, but a nice gradient.

You saw a moonring :)

As the other poster said, due to ice crystals. I saw one once - not as cool as a moonbow, but not bad :)

"What next, a massive government database system to track every message and contacts between people?"

Like this, or maybe this, or this
I don't know if the Chinese have a system like this yet, but we already have Echelon, so were set.

(For those of you to lazy to read all the articles, Echelon is a global communications spy network run by the NSA (with cooperation, in the form of listening posts, from the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. It gives them the capability to listen to and monitor any broadcast transmission on the planet.)

Now let's see the US government follow in Germany's footsteps and directly sponsor the development of some critical piece of open-source software.

What, Total, er, now, Terrorism Information Awareness, CAPPS II, and Echelon aren't enough for you?

Following in Germany's footsteps indeed.

Although I think Reichminister Ashcroft isn't so much following the footsteps of the current Bundesrepublik Deutschland as those of Das Dritte Reich -- that is Himmmler's and Heydrich's footsteps.

Actually, people have been known to make knives out of meteorites.

Kind of like Conan's sword, but different. Thats cool.

Your memories of Sinistar are foggy. The joystick was 8 directions by 6 levels, not 4 by 12. But of course you get moderated up anyway.