Slashdot Mirror

http://http//www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/ documents/publicwebsite/public_keller.hcsp
Helen Keller, born blind and deaf. Could only see the word through hearing and touch.
Yet she could think and learn. So your arguement there is invalid.
There is nothing special about human thought and understanding. It's complex, yes. But "meaning" is not anything special and there is no reason to think it a capacity unique to humans.

There is also a Doom RogueLike: http://http//chaos.magma-net.pl/doom/

Crap! I meant to post that without any mods.
Also to be fair, http://http//www.giganews.com/ and http://www.supernews.com/ should have been added as well. Not to mention there are many list to open News Servers.http://http//www.newzbot.com/ and url:http://http://tinyurl.com/5uc4z/> Google Search

Crap! I meant to post that without any mods.
Also to be fair, http://http//www.giganews.com/ and http://www.supernews.com/ should have been added as well. Not to mention there are many list to open News Servers.http://http//www.newzbot.com/ and url:http://http://tinyurl.com/5uc4z/> Google Search

There was an article on crackbaby.com, linked to from boingboing, etc., that had the detailed instructions. Claim was that even microsoft had verified it worked, but refused to talk about it. The site seems down now, but there is a partial mirror at http://http//farm.tucows.com/blog/_archives/2004/7 /29/114593.html/ The boingboing link is http://http//www.boingboing.net/2004/07/29/how_to_ remove_msie_f.html/ enjoy!

There was an article on crackbaby.com, linked to from boingboing, etc., that had the detailed instructions. Claim was that even microsoft had verified it worked, but refused to talk about it. The site seems down now, but there is a partial mirror at http://http//farm.tucows.com/blog/_archives/2004/7 /29/114593.html/ The boingboing link is http://http//www.boingboing.net/2004/07/29/how_to_ remove_msie_f.html/ enjoy!

The Fire Lily is the coolest looking plant,
http://http//www.firelily.com/firelily.html/
Dont know how Cubicle friendly..., but annoying for co-workers is part of your job.... :)

If you're not familiar with the history of the open-source 3D modelling tool known as "Blender," I highly recommend taking 5 minutes to read about it here: http://http//www.blender3d.org/cms/History.53.0.ht ml It's a great story of how this particular set of proprietary code escaped to the freedom of open-source under the GNU Public License. (With a little help from an incredible fan-user base.)

This is part of "discovery", whereby the plaintiff and defendants are required to share information which helps to define the scope of the infringement.. i.e.: just how much code is SCO imagining IBM has released against the terms their license agreement? If you say 1KLOC then you could quantify that as X dollars damage. If it's 100 MLOC, then you'd want to sue for more money, right?

Def'n: "Discovery -- The pretrial process by which one party discovers the evidence that will be relied upon at trial by the opposing party."

Ref: http://www.superiorcourt.maricopa.gov/publicInfo/l egalTerms/legalTerms.asp

These are not Robots, they're Cyborgs.

Take a gander- http://http//www.redlers.com/mellel.html/
I like it for non-business writing. Smooth 'n simple, years beyond TextEdit and way better for "just writing" than MS word. Also, it's multilingual.

http://www.cnn.com/ is showing the first pictures. "Always slow" to respond ESA http://www.esa.int/ do not have any pictures yet up on the site. Nasa tv http://http//www.nasa.gov/55644main_NASATV_Windows .asx/ is showing the pictures intermittently. WHY don't they have these pictures on ESA or NASA website??

PKIX / X.509 / PKCS (Public Key Cryptography)

Kerberos authentication

SNMP / CMIP

X.500 LDAP / DAP directory services

X.400 messaging

Voice over IP: H.323 T.38

The 3GPP specifications (GSM / UMTS mobile phones)

OSI layer 7 protocols (FTAM.. etc.)

RFID

In comparison to XML, ASN.1 is a huge bandwidth saver, in fact the PER (Packed Encoding Rules) were designed for saving bandwidth. There is even a way for encoding data in XML using the XER (XML Encoding Rules) specification.

Last but not least there is finally a worthwhile opensource ASN1 to C compiler out there: Get ASN1C here.

New to ASN.1?? Visit this site and be sure to pick up the excellent free book on ASN.1!

Mac mini.

On a related note, visit http://http//movies.yahoo.com/movies/feature/fanta sticfour.html for an on-set interview with the cast. Stan Lee even makes a cameo.

Marvel seems to have learned its lesson from the abysmal Captain America movies from the 80's. In basing the plots off of the Ultimates storylines (updated for the modern era and simplified to move beyond comic book geekdom), Marvel's movies appeal to mainstream audiences without overly alienating Comic Book Guys.

http://http//science.slashdot.org/comments.lsid=13 5752&threshold=1&mode=thread&commentsort=0&op=Repl yfgyyyyyyjytjytjytyyyyyerggrrgeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyy.com/.com/

http://http//books.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=13 5688&cid=11332176&pid=11332176&threshold=1&mode=th read&commentsort=0&op=Replyooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooo/.com/

You can Broadcast Creative Commons licensed music :) http://www.dance-industries.com/ http://http//ccmixter.org/ Or you could do a talk radio show with http://darkice.sourceforge.net/ Theres tons of stuff you can freely broadcast and stay legal I have a Peercast Station set up brodacasting CC music http://lightfoot.org/

The Dutch movie Ja Zuster Nee Zuster used the red ross trademark without asking permission... They settled by collecting money for the red cross in the cinema, if I remeber correctly/

When I will be able to visualize this fractal http://http//www.superliminal.com/fractals/bbrot/b brot.htm in real time, I will be satisfied with the processors speed.

I am currently using UCBLogo to teach my 8 year old daughter some basic programming skills.

I found that getting her to draw the shape she wants on paper before she starts doing anything works wonders.

Then, before she een touches the computer, I will play the turtle for her, and follow her directions. THis helps her visualize what is going on much better than the turtle on the screen.

To help her with the angles, I hold a piece of paper that has a circle with some markers on them pointing to the basic directions, and how many degrees it would be both left and right for me to turn.

We've done some basic shapes, and I am currently working on getting some basic variables explained to her (this is MUCH harder than drawing stuff).

You can find UCBLogo at http://http//www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/logo.html/

So does Ardour. I've been having a lot of fun using it to process my rackmount gear. Haven't tried it on a laptop though... I have it in my home studio.

I use a Treo 600, on Vodafone (Ireland) using http://http//seaiesoftware.com/pssh/ pssh it's ok, but low encryption but runs fast and sleek.
Have had no problem is Vodafone and port 22, so it should work in england and France (I you get stuck in the shit hole)..,


----------
"Clutch my testes, bloody squirrel humpers!!"
-Happy Noodle Boy

Using the Gyration Media Center Remote with Linux The good news is that it should work out of the box, if your system is properly configured. When my system was improperly configured, the keyboard worked properly but the mouse had the horizontal axis appearing as vertical, no horizontal movement, and the buttons caused odd cursor movements.

Make sure the usbmouse and usbkbd modules are not loaded. These drivers are obsolete, and should not be used. Instead, use usbhid. That driver understands HID (human interface device) descriptor data sent by the mouse and configures itself properly

Configure X to use /dev/input/mice as its input device, and set the protocol to "ImPS/2". Then, you should be able to use the wired keyboard and mouse and the Gyration ones together. Using All Of Those Buttons

Once you've got the basic mouse functions running, it's time to make the buttons work. Install xbindkeys, xbindkeys-config, and xvkbd. On Debian, you can just use apt-get and the packages have the same names as the programs. I haven't tested Red Hat.

Run xbindkeys-config. Press the New and Get Key buttons, then press one of the function buttons on the Gyration mouse or keyboard. The event parameters will be filled in for you, and then you can fill in a command that will be run when you press that button. When you've made commands for all of the buttons, use the Save command to save the file to .xbindkeysrc in your home directory. Then run xbindkeys. This will capture button presses and run the commands in your .xbindkeysrc file.

One useful command is xvkbd -xsendevent -text text-string This simulates typing any key combination on the keyboard. Read its manual page for details.

If you generate an interesting configuration, send it to bruce at perens.com, I'll put it here for others to download. -- Bruce Perens

A good cheap hardware MP3 player that I came across for visual impaired users is the first generation Nomad Muvo. It has no visual display and acts as a flash memory drive when you use it with Windows. This solves the problem of JAWS or other screen readers not being compatable with the software that is needed to transfer your MP3s file from your computer to your hardware MP3 player.

Another more expensive solution is the Book Port made by APH. It plays MP3 files and also has many different features that are great for people with print disablities such as text-to-speech so you can download text files to the device and have them read back to you.

Locate your school in Fukuoko, Japan, where you're surrounded by Japanese speakers. Oh, wait, you already did that.

MaxStream, Inc. http://www.maxstream.net/ is parterning with Freescale Semiconductor http://www.freescale.com/ to make a ZigBee module. Having a module option will make it easier, quicker and cheaper to integrate ZigBee into electronic devices. Here is an article in EE Times about it: http://http//www.commsdesign.com/news/market_news/ showArticle.jhtml?articleID=55301590/

Hey, they Nasa is such a wonderful organisation. They did : a poem (http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/artgallery/soto_po em.html/), some photo shoots with aerosmith (http://http//www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery /index.html) and so much more. What can you say, i guess now is the time for serious issues, like food on space stations, lol. Those who wonder at those who do wonder, while those who do, well, do. Unless, i do wonder?

Come to Mississauga. Every other week, I get a call from the Shriners, or the Peel Police, or Heart-and-Stroke, or Canadian Cancer Society, or some other charitable organization asking for pledges. This despite being told repeatedly that I would not like to receive these types of calls.

The overhead for telemarketing for charities is horrendous - something like 60 - 90% goes to the telemarketers. Avoid them at all cost.

And for those who don't believe it, here's a link http://http//www.forces.org/evidence/files/bryden1 .htm

MP's Report
Canada's Charities: A Need
For Reform

John Bryden, MP
Hamilton-Wentworth
October 1996

...snip ...

In early January CBC's Marketplace did an excellent report on the high cost to charities of using telemarketing firms. These are companies which specialize in telephone solicitation.

... snip ...

Not all the lines were filled out on the 1994 form but for 1992 they were. Here we find a total of $2.6 million was raised for a 77 per cent fundraising cost of about $2 million. The fee paid to "fundraising agents" was $1,350,621.

... snip ...

Examples are easy to find. Goals for Youth of North York is dedicated to help in school dropouts. Its T3010 form shows that in 1993 it paid an outside fundraising agent $84,194 while raising only $102,857.

In 1994 the Metro Toronto Branch of the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) spent $132,385 to raise $168,779. Indeed, given that the VON is fully funded by government to the tune of more than $15 million, it is not at all clear why it should be seeking donations from the public, or receiving them from the United Way.

Simple rule of thumb - donating to telephone solicitors just encourages them, same as other spammers.

People, seriously, try it. Firefox DOES NOT add www. and .com to URLs it does not recognize.

Compare:
google search
feeling lucky
just http
www..com

Now try something else, like "kitties":
google search
feeling lucky
just kitties
www..com

longerer

longerer www.artofsense.com - no link from me here, they look pretty innocent

longerer

Apples and oranges. MP3 players are fairly mature tech compared to sat. radio. http://http//profiles.myspace.com/users/5194587

I remember back in the 80's a quote by a former Commodore computer exec.. "Computers for the masses, not the classes".

The price point that seemed to be "special" for the consumer (at least back then) was $200 bucks. We have to remember though that at that time when you bought a C64/Vic20 it did not come with ANY storage (sounds a lot like the unit above!) and hardly any apps (a couple of cartridges I think). And for display you hooked it up to a TV.

Why can't that model work now? Are we SO used to having SVGA (or better) and Hard disks that an embedded computer (which is what the C64 and Vic20 was) can't make it?

Over 25 MILLION C64's were produced. The person that can tap that same market again (el cheapo PC) can make $$$$

http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64

One solution that I've used that works well is to setup a netscreen box at the main office, and then use a snapgear at the remote sites. Both the netscreen and the snapgear run Linux underneath, so technically they are both as capable, but the netscreen tends to be versital (and slightly more complex to set up) then the snapgear. Making it the more logical choice for the main office.

I haven't tried this, but Linksys does make a VPN router or you could build your own using a Soekris Net4511 and M0n0wall. M0n0wall is a FreeBSD based VPN configured via the web with an interface that is very similiar to a SnapGear. (The netscreen is also setup via the web, but significantly different then the other two) If you used one, you'll feel right at home with the other (I have no idea if this is intentional or not. And the screens are not layed out the same, they just are catagorized the same, with a similiar layout)

Anyway, all the above solutions will let you set up a VPN, either with IPSEC (complete with your choice of SHA, DES, 3DES etc encryption), or the older, less secure Microsoft Point-to-Point tunneling protocal (which I can't think of the proper name of right off hand, heck maybe P2PTP was it), and once set up they run pretty much error and maintence free (Except maybe the linksys, I've used the others though, and they all work as advertised.)

Whoops that's http://http//c64upgra.de/c-one/pics/smallchipnme.j pg

works for me out of the box (debian sid)

here are the machines specs

http://http//forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=69 2/

brief summary.

1 - The House Appropriations committee has agreed to insert H-1B into
the omnibus spending bill. That means that both branches of Congress
now agree to increase H-1B.

2 - The H-1B provision limits the numbers of H-1Bs to 20,000 instead of
making graduates degreed foreigners totally exempt from limits. While
this will a bummer for the 20,000 high-tech Americans that will lose
jobs to these H-1Bs, the damage could have been considerably worse if
Chambliss and Kennedy would have succeeded in making it unlimited.

3 - Nothing is set in stone yet. Your call and faxes may still have
some effect on the outcome of this bill.

4 - Nothing is known about the status of H-2B.

4 - Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate have
almost certainly decided to strip from the 9/11 Response Bill nearly
all provisions that would have fought illegal immigration.

SUMMARY: Both white-collar and blue-collar workers are going to suffer
continuing job loss from both legal and illegal immigrants. How much
job loss may be determined by last ditch efforts by activists to sway
Congress - and whether incumbent politicians are concerned about
whether their vote in favor of H-1B will hurt them in future elections.

http://http//www.unionvoice.org/campaign/stoph1bin crease/8wgddxza7778nj/

• 1. Stock photos. A good picture is worth a 1000 design elements. Start scavenging for stock photos NOW. A good place to start is here: http://sxc.hu/.
• 2. Avoid excessive effects and filters when not needed. Nothing ruins a good design like trying to emboss everything or making it 3D.
• 3. Keep it clean and simple. Think Apple.
• 4. Learn from the experts. Visit places like http://www.deviantart.com/ You can even post designs and get peer reviews. Also, http://http//www.alistapart.com will help.
• 5. Use and abuse CSS. The separation of design elements from everything else will help immensely. You will be amazed by this site: http://www.csszengarden.com/ Change the themes and be amazed by the power of CSS!!!
• 6. Buy graphic design books, preferably those with collections of commercial art made by different designers. Get inspired ;-)
• 7. Get a digital camera and take lots and lots of pictures of the world around you. Current examples of designs and logos and ads will help.

there is no decent music player for the Mac.

we (liberals that is) need to reframe popular thinking.

read Don't Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff (http://http//www.chelseagreen.com/2004/items/elep hant/

or get laid or the next 4 years either http://http//votergasm.org/

1. CO2 is not a pollutant. It is, in fact, the lifeblood of the planet, required for growth of vegetation. It is the cornerstone of the food chain. The increased CO2 aerial fertilization effect has contributed to the greening of the planet, as confirmed by satellite photography.

2. Water vapor is by far the primary contributor of the greenhouse effect, accounting for 96 to 99%. CO2 accounts for 1 to 3%. Methane and others trace gasses account for 3. During the current interglacial period, the Earth has been about 2C cooler (The "Little Ice Age" around 1600-1700, when the Thames regularly frozen over), and it has also been about 2C warmer (The medieval warm period around 1200, when Greenland was colonized by the Vikings.) We are currently about in the middle of this natural variation, which occurred without manmade CO2.

4. The 500k year Vostok ice core data: http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/trends/co2/vostok.htm/ shows CO2 either in phase or lagging temperature by up to 1000 years, over four temperature oscillations. This means the CO2 does not drive temperature, but that temperature drives CO2. The most likely explanation is that the ocean outgases and releases more CO2 when temperature increases, and holds more dissolved gasses as the oceans cools.

5. I'm not disputing the Earth may be getting relatively warmer (as we are coming out of the little ice age). One reason is likely the unusually active Sun. This report: http://cc.oulu.fi/~usoskin/personal/aah4688.pdf/ shows that over the last several centuries, solar activity is at its highest levels. The IPCC determined that the Sun's variation in energy output were too small to explain global warming. They dismissed the sun as a likely source of Earth changing climate!. Here is a link to a recent study showing how the sun's variation could have a feedback that would drive earth's climate change: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2333133. stm/ The theory goes like this: When the sun is highly magnetically active, the increased solar wind shields us from cosmic radiation. Low levels of incoming comic reduce cloud formation. Reduced low level cloud formation reduces reflectivity (i.e., the Earth's albedo). More energy is absorbed instead of reflected, and the temperature increases. The difference from an active Sun to an inactive Sun was about 3% global cloud coverage. The correlation in the study is remarkable. The jury is still out, but it could explain the correlation between the Maunder minimum of the 1600's and the little ice age, and account for the warming in the last 3 decades that corresponds with unusually high solar activity at the same time.

6. In November 1991, Danish scientists Eijil Friis-Christensen and Knud Lassen, startled the climatological world with a paper in "Science" describing a 0.95 correlation between solar cycle length and global temperature (IPCC version). "Science" writer, Richard Kerr described it as "one dazzling correlation". The blue line is temperature, the red line is solar cycle length.) As can be seen, global temperature has tended to increase in lockstep with shortening of the solar cycle length (ie. solar maxima becoming more frequent) I hope you follow the link, because one look at it, and you are forced to say, "Its the Sun, stupid." The graph is at the bottom of this link: http://http//web.dmi.dk/sol-jord/projekter/rum_vej r/oversigt.html/

7. The best protection against climate change is a rich, technologically advanced society that can adapt to natural variation. Don't damn the 3rd

So, unlike others who scrambled to get first post, I went and had a look at the archive.

Errm... it's a bunch of business names with a "submit information on this company" button next to them. So I did another search for listings with multiple documents and finally found a business plan after the tenth company I looked at which was Artex.com, business plan here.

Looking at the executive summary, these guys planned to take a $20M investment and be generating $136M in revenues in two years. Ah, the hubris of those great days would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

Anyways, so they planned to spend $3.5M on hardware/hosting/etc, $3.5M the guys actually doing the software development and $11.5M on the marketroids to sell the idea (and presumably the artwork). No doubt the marketing guys were being paid 3 times the software developers also.

Is software development it's own reward? Do marketing people get paid a lot to compensate them for their frivolous job and their vapourous life?

A Pilot episode will be airing tonight on The Movie Network. http://regenesistv.com/ is the site which people at home experience the Alternate Reality and playing along on Television. This concept has been tried before by the TV show Push, NV. And with the excitement ILOVEBEES has created it may finally be time for this concept to fully take hold.

Players are using http://http//www.forum.immersionunlimited.com/view topic.php?t=754 as a means to share discoveries. They also have an a place IN-GAME/IN-SHOW which players use also at http://www.sciencesucks.com/.

Whether or not this is just a new form of Reality TV or just a flop waiting to happen remains to be seen, but you can view an interview with the creator of the show at http://www.arginsider.com/regenesis.wmv. The movie is 15 minutes long, but very interesting.

Value me this little beauty, then...!

http://http//www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php? content_id=41174

what is this "ferris wheel pr0n" you speak of? I'am greatly intrigued by the matter and would like to subscribe to your newsletter

Hi, I would avoid trying to deal with Golden Island Motor directly for ordering a single conversion kit, they don't do the english/communicating thing very well and the cost to wire transfer and ship just one hub motor will exceed the listed kit price considerably. You can get very similar value hub motors that are distributed locally through http://www.wildernessenergy.com/ and http://www.evsolutions.net/, a supplier of the http://www.crystalyte.com/. These are all direct drive motors, no gears to wear out and perfectly silent, but also fairly heavy for their power output.

I've also ordered reasonably cheap hub motors from http://www.elebike.com.tw/. They have an interesting selection including some internally geared models, and are quick to respond to queries.

Good Batteries continue to be the biggest hurdle for DIY e-bike experimenters because even though there are tons of asian companies that reportedly make them for cheap, there are simply no local suppliers. If you don't mind trying to import from China, some companies to check out:
1 http://www.peacebay.com/,
2 http://http//www.hyperbattery.com,
3 http://splendidbattery.com/,
4 http://www.gmbattery.com/,
5 http://www.thunder-sky.com/en/index.htm

Personally haven't ordered from 1 or 2 yet, 3 has very reasonably priced lithium polymer ($.82/watt-hour) and NiMH ($.40/w-hr) packs and will sell in individual qunatities. My favorite so far are the prismatic NiMH packs from 4, GMBattery, because you can access each individual cell and restack them easily. Finally there is the infamous thundersky who have lithium-ion batteries for less than most companies' NiMH. Their old 10Ah 36V setup had no protection circuitry and a few problems, but their new 20Ah 36V ebike pack looks a bit more reputable. Note that the 24V 4Ah NiMH packs from batteryspace.com that someone recomended are GARBAGE. Ours turned out to have only 2.6 Ah capacity and couldn't deliver more than about 5 amps. If you buy from batteryspace, be sure to get the 30Amp high rate pack.

Lead acid isn't really that bad if you're generally doing ~20km ish trips so you can get away with lower capacity pack. NiMH has about twice the energy density, and Lithium packs are 2-3 times better than NiMH.

I see a lot of people here have misconceptions about ebikes and exercise. I find I pedal as hard or harder riding an assisted bicycle than a regular bike. The difference is that I move at 42km/hr instead of 26, I don't slow down on the hills, and no matter how hard I work I don't get sweaty because the breeze at those speeds is so strong. This is a much overlooked fact of ebiking, the wind keeps you cool and dry.

If you actually believe this, you must never had heard of a concept in physics called "Momentum," the product of mass and velocity. I'm not sure what Microsoft's product will be like, but it'll be a product of its velocity and mass.

This is part of what truly makes the Slashdot community great, and why I am proud to be a part of it. Geeks helping out others by poling a resource that has a truly flabbergasting diversity of combined knowledge. This question hits a bit close to home as my research is centered around vision and vision rescue strategies, but this is a more immediate need that I truly hope somebody here can help with.

Just to clarify: I am not sure if you are asking for screen reader software or not as part of the solution? If so, there are a number of alternatives for Windows (fairly pricey), but the next version of OS X will have a built in screen reader solution! combined with other visual aids that will help the blind and near blind use their computer systems without having to invest in another solution.

For the maps, there are a number of high resolution maps available from the USGS which can be obtained in digital form here and in atlas form here. In addition the CIA world factbook is a nice resource for kids with text and maps that can be remapped with higher resolution.

Finally, a last resort would be Adobe Photoshop. You can take any map or image and simply resize the image with a much higher resolution (say take a map from 72dpi to 600 or 1200 dpi). If there is enough information in the original image to interpret, this might be a good solution to allowing one to zoom in images and maps for ease of interpretation.

My ideal game would have an interesting, richly-simulated world, so that basically you can do almost anything. On that point I agree with you---it's really irritating when you can basically follow one track, and if you do manage to get off it, the game sucks because the designers never implemented anything they didn't expect you to do.

I do think story has a place in games though. It would be nice if you could do anything, but things sort of developed: the game reacted to what you did. This is how traditional "live-action" RPGs work, with a gamemaster making up the plot as things progress to react to what the players do. Of course, a computer is not sentient, but there's people working on the issue of how to make games reactive so that there is plot but plot that doesn't shoehorn the user into following a strictly scripted storyline.

Of course, I may be biased, as one of the projects I'm working on is a baby step in that direction. =]