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Wait, you're saying that pit bulls are only violent because they're big and strong, and then you try to back up that claim by saying other dogs are also big and strong? Well, they don't kill on nearly the same scale, so your argument suggests that pit bulls' physique is not the key factor. Here's some article about wolfdogs I read a long time ago with a chart of some statistics on how non dangerous other tough dogs are: http://www.idir.net/~wolf2dog/myths/bastardw.htm

If you don't believe that dogs can be bred for violence, then I suppose you also don't believe that one breed of dog can be more intelligent/easier to train than another, more active or irritable, right?

And stop it with the guilt mongering about how mean we're all being to pit bulls, you wouldn't claim that we're "holding something against" lynxes, coyotes or hyenas if we were against letting people own those.

All a soft modem has is a PCI to AD/DA bridge. There is no other functionality in soft modem hardware.

Oh really?. Be careful with your generalizations. That is true of some, but by no means all.

Why not indeed? Why is it that PC cases have gone from PC to AT to ATX and beyond? The old forms worked and still work. I've got a AMD k6/2 450 running happily in an XT case with a 150 watt power supply. Worse, why is it that the cases have been tossed out with the guts even when there has been no change in form factor? Even worse than that, why is it that perfectly useful components get thrown away because of software "upgrades"? Hmmmm. Might it be because certian companies are discouraging modularization and reuse of their components, the Winmodem being the most glaring example? How about printers and scanners that also take "drivers" despite having enought computing power to have common interfaces like HP's printer command language, post script, or SCSI? Answer these questions and you will know why we have more dead PCs than living people.

Now, the next question is if PC waste is significanly greater and more damaging than other consumer electronic wastes. Are PCs worse than credenza stereos, TVs, and all the other junk thrown out combined? How is my old 9600 baud modem any worse than my old jam box? What problem will recycling fees really solve?

Put the two questions together and you might see the purpose of this as limitation of entry to PC manufacturing. Dell was started in a dorm room, you don't think they want any new entrants do you?

Combine this with media consolidation, increased government censorship and information monitoring, and you might think a confluence of interests lies in limiting the number of PC makers so that DRM like Paladium can be implimented. Can't have indepenent makers around offering "insecure" computers can we? And so it was uttered in private, and so it was done against the public good, without public input, and certianly not reseombling anything really American. A governement for the people, by the people and of the people? Nah, HP did it, that must be good enough for you and me.

If you consult the page here of known modems and winmodems, you'll see there are a number of real modems sold under the Modem Blaster name. (An exception to be taken with the poster you followed up with.) But there are a number of winmodems as well, just check against the model number of the one you have.

I'd say that those tasks [reading Internet e-mail and browsing the World Wide Web] are exactly where Linux is perfectly able to replace and outperform Windows most completely.

Not necessarily. Those tasks require a connection to the Internet, and most users still connect to the Internet by using a modem to dial-up to an ISP. In general, name-brand PCs under $1000 tend to come with modems that do not emulate a Hayes modem connected to a 16x50 UART. Instead, they offer a proprietary interface to either a DSP or a mere DAC. These "winmodems" come with software that lets Microsoft Windows treat them as a Hayes on a UART, but most do not have driver support under any OS other than Windows. A few chipset vendors have released proprietary Linux drivers, but this doesn't help users of BeOS, Solaris operating environment, or *BSD systems (which are not dying).

I paid about $5 more for some 128MB chips yesterday. Oh, and another little bit for tax. Because I know the vendor, and they don't give me grief on returns. I also get to look at the product prior to purchase. (Was looking for a PCI modem with a controller on it. IOW, not a WinModem. Anybody know of an internal PCI controller based modem?)

Buy a Lucent (LT) winmodem. Seriously! There are drivers out for Linux. I got one when my Dell laptop (Inspiron 4000) happened to have one built in. In my short testing of it I found that it works exceedingly well with high connect speeds and excellent compression. I too hated winmodems at one point but they can be an excellent solution if your processor is of a recent vintage.

If you definately don't want a winmodem take a look Winmodems are not modems; Linux information page.

Yeah, I sure would like to know more about DU in weapons tech. - if you feel like posting more about it, you've got my vote.
I am familar, however, with some of the basics - uranium is primarially an Alpha ray emitter. These are basically harmless - a sheet of paper can stop them. Of course, decay can produce Beta and Gamma radiation. The fact that the "real" danger from, as you rightly point out, depleted uranium only arises when you're talking about inhalation of dust-like particles (for whatever that 'fact' means- according to the media today and yesterday in Ireland, Britain and France the 'facts' about DU seemed to change from station-to-station hour-to-hour) has not escaped me.
The thing that I find deplorable -if true- is the way that such matter can effectively and easily poison a water/food supply. I assume this could happen because of the radioactivity of the matter produced by a DU weapon's strike. However, details were sketchy on the TV reports.
I've looked up the subject of DU on the internet - again lots of controversy but with the anti-DU voice being the loudest.
Try http://www.iacenter.org/depleted/du.htm. I must state, I am very wary of a site like iacenter.org, but sites such as this (http://www.rama-usa.org/ducdi.htm) hold much more sway as they seem less politically motivated. Another site, this time an American veteran's, is here, and a very comprehensive site is here.
For my money, the better site is http://www.psr.org/duissuebrief.html.

Mind you, just to add my voice to the mass of anecdotal evidence out there: I've been around a variety of dangerous chemicals and elements. I've had fun with everything from quick silver(liquid mercury to the modern man) to a variety of radioactive isotopes(calm down- it was within the confines of a university 8). I am well aware that there is unecessary panic by those without a good knowledge of the related chemistry and/or physics. However, I am still very uneasy about certain things I have had direct contact and just because I've experienced no side-effects, it doesn't mean everyone else will escape side-affects after sharing the same experience as myself.

8)

Bet you a cookie they _don't_ put a real modem in this thing:
http://www.idir.net/~gromitkc/1999 0826a.html#GX5