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Rabbits always gonna chew your wires?

FTFY

WTF... who the hell thinks this kind of crap up?

Marketing drones.

"I became a skeptic when they tried to erase the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age."

Which climatologists did this exactly?

This guy did. Here is what he had to say in his conclusion:

Thus, the temperature data give no support for the global Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age.

HERE is an environmental website's take on it.

HERE is another from an environmental website.

HERE is a whole paper on it (PDF warning).

Do you need more? Google it.

He does seem very glad.

VHF TV frequencies can refract, diffuse and (to a small extent) skip off the ionosphere. I reckon that 2.4GHz would be easier to pick up on Alpha Centauri than in China.

I suspect the GP was engaging in a bit of hyperbole with the "China" reference, but reception of Chinese VHF TV signals in Australia is in fact possible on rare occasions via the ionosphere. The propagation modes usually involve simple refraction from the E layer or F layer, although occasionally more exotic types of propagation, such as trans-equatorial propagation ("TEP"), occur. However, these all fall into the category of anomalous propagation, occurring for a few hours per month or year and, while interesting phenomena in their own right, aren't suitable on which to base one's daily Internet service.

It is also true that ionospheric propagation of 2.4 GHz signals is unknown. However...

There are propagation modes that favor the higher frequencies over the lower ones. Tropospheric propagation, for example, is much more effective at 2.4 GHz than it is at VHF, and can occur at all parts of the sunspot cycle, since it depends on weather conditions instead of the ionosphere. For example, Table 2.1 in this article shows propagation from California to Hawaii on 2304, 3456, and even 5760 MHz via a well-known tropospheric duct. (See also this discussion on the relevance to trans-Australia propagation.) Paths in excess of 6000 km (Western Australia to Reunion Island, off the east coast of Africa) have been reported. But again, this is anomalous propagation, unsuitable for daily Internet service.

The GP has a point about transmitted power. VHF TV broadcast stations have effective radiated powers ("ERPs", defined as their transmitted powers multiplied by their antenna gains) measured in the hundreds of thousands to millions of watts, as well as high antenna sites (on towers), so it's a bit unfair to compare VHF TV reception ranges to those of 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi systems.

The main advantage of the proposed system is that the users, in remote sheep stations, won't have to replace their existing VHF TV antennas, which would otherwise be a significant financial investment (and that the system would be point-to-point, rather than point-to-multipoint, which enables frequency reuse without loss of bandwidth). Were this not the case, it would be clear to most RF system designers that a microwave system would be superior to the VHF system. Not only is more bandwidth typically available (remember, there are no competing services in the outback), but a 2.4-GHz antenna the same physical size (strictly speaking, having the same effective area) as the VHF TV antenna would have substantially more gain: The gain of a parabolic dish goes up as the square of the operating frequency. Operating an antenna at 2.4 GHz instead of, say, 60 MHz (in the VHF TV band) would result in a gain increase of 1600, or 32 dB. If it had 18 dB of gain at VHF (a pretty decent TV antenna), it would now be 50 dB at 2.4 GHz. (This is why point-to-point microwave systems were used before they were overtaken in the bandwidth race by optical fiber.) This additional 32 dB of gain would greatly increase the range of the 2.4 GHz system over the VHF system, and would be available all the time -- making for a suitable Internet connection. In fact,

VHF TV frequencies can refract, diffuse and (to a small extent) skip off the ionosphere. I reckon that 2.4GHz would be easier to pick up on Alpha Centauri than in China.

I suspect the GP was engaging in a bit of hyperbole with the "China" reference, but reception of Chinese VHF TV signals in Australia is in fact possible on rare occasions via the ionosphere. The propagation modes usually involve simple refraction from the E layer or F layer, although occasionally more exotic types of propagation, such as trans-equatorial propagation ("TEP"), occur. However, these all fall into the category of anomalous propagation, occurring for a few hours per month or year and, while interesting phenomena in their own right, aren't suitable on which to base one's daily Internet service.

It is also true that ionospheric propagation of 2.4 GHz signals is unknown. However...

There are propagation modes that favor the higher frequencies over the lower ones. Tropospheric propagation, for example, is much more effective at 2.4 GHz than it is at VHF, and can occur at all parts of the sunspot cycle, since it depends on weather conditions instead of the ionosphere. For example, Table 2.1 in this article shows propagation from California to Hawaii on 2304, 3456, and even 5760 MHz via a well-known tropospheric duct. (See also this discussion on the relevance to trans-Australia propagation.) Paths in excess of 6000 km (Western Australia to Reunion Island, off the east coast of Africa) have been reported. But again, this is anomalous propagation, unsuitable for daily Internet service.

The GP has a point about transmitted power. VHF TV broadcast stations have effective radiated powers ("ERPs", defined as their transmitted powers multiplied by their antenna gains) measured in the hundreds of thousands to millions of watts, as well as high antenna sites (on towers), so it's a bit unfair to compare VHF TV reception ranges to those of 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi systems.

The main advantage of the proposed system is that the users, in remote sheep stations, won't have to replace their existing VHF TV antennas, which would otherwise be a significant financial investment (and that the system would be point-to-point, rather than point-to-multipoint, which enables frequency reuse without loss of bandwidth). Were this not the case, it would be clear to most RF system designers that a microwave system would be superior to the VHF system. Not only is more bandwidth typically available (remember, there are no competing services in the outback), but a 2.4-GHz antenna the same physical size (strictly speaking, having the same effective area) as the VHF TV antenna would have substantially more gain: The gain of a parabolic dish goes up as the square of the operating frequency. Operating an antenna at 2.4 GHz instead of, say, 60 MHz (in the VHF TV band) would result in a gain increase of 1600, or 32 dB. If it had 18 dB of gain at VHF (a pretty decent TV antenna), it would now be 50 dB at 2.4 GHz. (This is why point-to-point microwave systems were used before they were overtaken in the bandwidth race by optical fiber.) This additional 32 dB of gain would greatly increase the range of the 2.4 GHz system over the VHF system, and would be available all the time -- making for a suitable Internet connection. In fact,

You have to admit, the Melbourne one does look pretty cool!

Slightly offtopic, but many people don't know Orwell's original introduction to the Animal Farm was censored because it was anti-Soviet. It's a telling sign of how easy it is to get the entire media to wholly invest in obvious lies at the order of government and business interests. The enemy of my enemy...

The servility with which the greater part of the English intelligentsia have swallowed and repeated Russian propaganda from 1941 onwards would be quite astounding if it were not that they have behaved similarly on several earlier occasions. On one controversial issue after another the Russian viewpoint has been accepted without examination and then publicized with complete disregard to historical truth or intellectual decency. To name only one instance, the BBC celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Red Army without mentioning Trotsky. This was about as accurate as commemorating the battle of Trafalgar without mentioning Nelson, but it evoked no protest from the English intelligentsia. In the internal struggles in the various occupied countries, the British press has in almost all cases sided with the faction favoured by the Russians and libelled the opposing faction, sometimes suppressing material evidence in order to do so.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/Orwell.html

That's the problem with abstract fiction like that, you can read it any way you like. Communists read Animal Farm as a defense of communism, we tend to read it as an attack on communism.

You have to define "communism" before you can answer that question.

George Orwell was a socialist, who fought with the Trotskyists during the Spanish Civil war. George Orwell was also critic of Stalinism. To most Americans, who believe that Socialism == Communism == Marxism == Leninism == Stalinism, this probably seems odd; but clear thought about socialism has been the exception rather than the rule in the U.S. since the first Red Scare.

Orwell wrote, "For quite a decade past I have believed that the existing Russian régime is a mainly evil thing, and I claim the right to say so, in spite of the fact that we are allies with the USSR in a war which I want to see won."

And also, "[I]t was of the utmost importance to me that people in western Europe should see the Soviet regime for what it really was. Since 1930 I had seen little evidence that the USSR was progressing towards anything that one could truly call Socialism. On the contrary, I was struck by clear signs of its transformation into a hierarchical society, in which the rulers have no more reason to give up their power than any other ruling class. "

In western countries self-censorship by the media is often just as effective as organised censorship by an oppressive regime. George Orwell wrote about this back in the 1940s in an unpublished preface to Animal Farm. There are plenty of modern analyses of this though including "Manufacturing Consent" by Chomsky and Herman.

In some ways media self-censorship is worse than state censorship, since with state censorship the populations often know they are being routinely lied to and are not getting all the facts. In countries with a free media like the US or UK, people have the illusion that they are getting all the facts and are more likely to trust what they are told. It's not always total censorship either. Sometimes the media will give a tiny mention to something that deserves an enormous amount of attention. That way they can always say they covered it when challenged. An example of this is COINTELPRO. You're likely to have to look that up, yet if I said Watergate, which is a story which broke around the same time, you are likely to know all about it.

Language is important too. For example, if these protesters in Burma were to take up arms, they would be correctly described as insurgents, since the definition of insurgency (in all the major dictionaries) is about trying to overthrow your own government. Insurgency is completely the wrong term (again in all the major dictionaries) for armed groups attacking an occupying force, as in Iraq. With Iraq the media desperately tries to avoid using the term Resistance (despite it being the correct term) because it reminds people of the French resistance, who were clearly the good guys. Another example is the term "Private Security Contractor". Under the Geneva conventions there is no such thing as a Private Security Contractor. There are soldiers, civilians and mercenaries. The technically correct term for these "hired soldiers" is mercenaries, yet the media almost unanimously avoids the term. Talking about Private Security Contractors sounds ok, whereas if the media kept talking about mercenaries, people might not accept their deployment so readily.

Look at this and this and tell me if it looks like mother nature action:

It'd be at least a pretty damn coincidence if Mother Nature suddenly reversed its slow cooling trend at the very same time humans started using fossil fuels, wouldn't it ?

Plastic was "cheap" and steel meant quality. If the case wasn't heavy enough to kill someone with, it wasn't quality.

Plastic was "cheap" and steel meant quality. If the case wasn't heavy enough to kill someone with, it wasn't quality.

Well, nothing has changed there. In Toronto I have 5 Mbit/sec (can get faster if I want) for CAD$50/month, unlimited data. During recent weeks in Australia, depending on location, the fastest available was 19.2kbps (country Victoria), 128kbps over ISDN (Hobart commuting distance), and the fastest connection I used was Melbourne CBD at 512kbps.

The latter service is a 'business' plan at A$170/month, but 512kbps ADSL is now available for as little as $29.95 per month but includes only 400MB of data! A realistic plan (12GB) would be $59.95, or corrected for speed, about twelve times the price of ADSL in Toronto.

Deep Space 9 and Farscape, but also The Prisoner and Sapphire and Steel.

Also, I suppose it was unavoidable to have a list focuse on English-language productions, but I would NEVER leave out Raumpatrouille, a superb German series from the sixties.

I would also remember Star Maidens, although I might not put it among the best 50... :)

>>> And if they have my DNA on file, that's just as likely to mean they can eliminate me as a suspect as it is to mean they declare me one....

Incorrect. If your DNA is not on file, you would have to be involved somehow with the case to be considered a suspect. (Did you know the victim, live near them, work near them. Did you have a motive?)

If your DNA is on file, you could be matched to cases across the country. (DNA profiling as used today is not precise; false hits happen.) False hits are unlikely, but the likelihood goes up as the number of samples go up. If a false match is a 1-in-a-million shot, then with the US population cataloged you would have 260 false matches every time. If nothing else, they would probably check your flight records to see if you happened to travel near the victim at the wrong time. In other words - you would be a suspect until excluded.

I'm not saying whether this is good or bad. I'm just saying that, contrary to your claim, having your DNA on file makes it MORE likely you'd be considered a suspect in a crime, not EQUALLY likely.

This looks interesting on false DNA matches.

Naughty Bunny.

IIRC, the "flare" is diffraction from the secondary mirror supports, with the "shape" determined by the shape of the support (I think a cross in this case). A very long exposure makes it more obvious.

It's been a long time since optics, and not long enough since coffee.

I've got a smaller download limit (12GB) but much faster pipe through iPrimus.

6Mb/s down and 384Kb/s up for AUD$49 per month.

images to prove it here

Just make sure you install the included libdvdcss package, and you're all set in Mandrake.
Info here.

I'm also firmly believe that VR and 3D displays are the Next Big Thing (TM) - atleast I hope it is. So I say more power to Sharp, DDD and other folks who're trying to make my dream a reality.

On the other hand, I'm not convinced by their "image analysis" based on depth cues:

hey claim the TriDef DVD Player uses image analysis methods, developed by the company for their 3D content conversion service, to convert 2D video to 3D in real-time based on 3D depth cues in the original movie.

As far as I can see converting current 2D media to 3D would require a great deal of human intervention - there's only so much that you can glean from image analysis (possibly hidden edges, object sizes and other CG cues). The bottom line is that it would take a human to tell if which of the two objects on the screen are supposed to be closer to the viewer. That alone IMHO would kill any efforts to bring this to the mainstream media business - it would be more fruitful to focus on cheaper/better techniques to create new 3D media.

I had an "OzStick" custom made. (Australian company).
It works in Linux and Windows as a keyboard - usb and ps2 and configurable with an I-PAQ controller inside. I don't need to configure anything in either OS whatsoever, it just works straight away.

I consider it to be a much more authentic and usable controller.

Site at http://home.iprimus.com.au/ozstick/

Feel free to use it however you like - I've added my e-mail address to the image.

I took pic of Ayres rock and overlayed the SCOX graph. Then in PSP4 (old school) I used the clone brush to modify the ridges.

I have no respect at all for SCO, or any company whose business model is litigation. Let's just hope their stock follows to the (excuse the pun) rock bottom - I didn't modify the image for the last two months.

Your source photo doesn't quite match as well, but kudos, nevertheless.

Very true. Australian bandwidth stinks. Sure, the Southern Cross Cable linking Oceania with the U.S is pretty phat, but it's costs are too big. ISP's here tend to run transparent proxies (I have a ADSL ISP blacklist of ISP's I won't go with for that reason. At least my dialup ISP, iPrimus isn't stupid enough) in order to keep costs down. Well, instead of trying to cut costs on the ISP side, why don't they try to make Australian->US bandwidth less expensive?

It's probably cheaper to dump a server in a US colo facility overall than dump it in a Australian colo and watch yourself get Slashed/Farked no matter what your primary demographic for your website is :(

I'll often go to the library and just grab 30 CDs off the shelf, bring them home, and rip them into MP3

Quoted from Yosemite Sam: I hate rabbits

I feel cojoco's pain.

After the last time /. published the story about the 3d laptop, I was engulfed by this urge to try out anaglyph (red-blue) games/software on my machine. What ensued was a frenzy of activity spanning about a week:

1. I purchased a 3-d jigsaw puzzle from Wal-mart for $15, which came with red-blue glasses. (A wiser idea would've been to go see SpyKids 3d for $6 and save the glasses (which I did later anyway)).

2. I downloaded and installed Anaglyph Stereo Quake and had hours of headachy fun.

3. Downloaded some simple shooter/roller coaster type games from stereo3d.com This site, btw, has a cool chart listing software for which 3d patches have been released, graphics cards supported etc. A really interesting quote about 3d API's:

"The reason why 3D-API's are important for 3D-glasses is the fact games written for these interfaces supply genuine 3D-information in a standard format. These 3D-informations (i.e. depth-informations, Z-values) can be utilized by special universal 3D-glasses-drivers to create real 3D-imagery."

Can't wait for the prices for 3d displays to come down.

Now, take an old 200MHz Pentium, FreeDOS, and CNC Pro and you got it all.

There's all kinds of uses for DOS. Lots of people still use it every day, even on their desktops. There's a LOT of old systems out there and recycling is a far better use for them than landfill.

And leave their body wastes whenever the spirit moves them.

It just seemed to me that a rodent was a furry little beast with a destructive mauler at one end, and a dispenser of messy fluids and smelly goo at the other end, and incorporated a ingenious little transportation mechanism that could get it into all sorts of areas very difficult for me to get into for repair and/or clean out.

Needless to say, my experience with rodents ( rats in my garden shed ) was not a good one, and led me to acquire a couple of cats.

Obviously, if you are keeping some in the house on purpose, there is something about rodent psychology I completely missed out on.

If you didn't keep 'em caged, how did you handle the inevitable mess?

SVG is still a standard? :o I thought that it lost the battle, war, and it's ability to procreate to SWF... Has anyone actually come across anything that is SVG based? In fact, I wonder how many people here actually knew what SVG was before reading this article...

More groundbreaking news might be the impending release of Macromedia Flash 7 a.k.a Macromedia Flash 2004 a.k.a Matador (for designers) and Toreador (for developers). The beta is out! Check this french translation for some info and this for the screenshot.

No, Animal Farm was written in 1945 and was intended as a direct attack on the Soviet Union at the time. Cite.

I doubt there is a single feature in the .NET IDE that IDEA doesn't do better (except for GUI builder, of course, since IDEA doesn't have one. It's a tool for developers, after all[1]. :-) ).

Check out this review. Or this one.

[1] Actually, a GUI builder is coming in the next version, but it's still in alpha state.

I got billed $800 on a Dial-Up account because I went over their "Unlimited" 500 meg limit.
Then I switched to IPrimus, who, for dial-up anyway, are pretty decent, I mean they let me get away with this which is nice for the most part.
The end result of this is now I don't have anything to do with telstra whatsoever, my phoneline is through someone else, my internet is through someone else, the only thing I do use them for is when their wires fail to work and I need them repaired. In the city at least they fix these problems.

• JTextPane: Requires Entire page to be parsed
• JTextPane: Parses XHTML incorrectly
• JTextPane: Not really Open Source

has a lousy ripping engine. It's also mega-bloatware.

You'll be better off using Winamp instead if all you do is play MP3s. If you want a very good, easy to use and free ripper for Windows, get CDex. Also check out my CD->MP3 guide to help you get high-quality MP3s.

Arguably the best resource for audio compression information can be found at Hydrogen Audio. Visit the various forums, check out the excellent Foobar2000 win32 multiformat audio player, and learn.

I have also written a guide on ripping high-quality MP3s using CDex, aimed towards beginners. If you know people who use Musicmatch, help them switch to a decent, easy-to-use CD ripper.

Cheers,
CD

I am with a different ISP in Australia. That is more than what I am paying for my dialup with no quota.

SpanishInquisition, I applaud your excellent FP and also the chutzpah of the moderator who found it insightful.

May I now present thee a easy, well-written guide on how to create high-quality MP3s from your CDs?

Have fun :-)

And if you really want to have fun, you can open his net statistics in a separate window/tab, reload the original page, then reload the statistics to see if you're in the "last 10 visitors"! Took me three goes to get there in time at all, and I was already down to number 8 :-)

Well, it's a holiday, so I really do have too much free time. Anyway, there's someone at Boeing who isn't doing any work, either.

Did anyone see the picture of [that] rabbit?

Look at it's eyes! Look at it's inherent evil! It desires to chew a power cord and ruin that Unix system's perfect uptime! Rabbits are an institution of Microsoft! Eat the rabbit and you get four lucky rabbit feet; that's what MCSE's carry on their keychain's because they too know Microsoft and uptime are a snowball's luck in hell! Somebody, anybody, don't let the rabbits into your house or the [Microsoft] terrorists win!

Oh and happy Jesus Christ's second birthday! :D

Note the glowing red eyes!

Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes! They've got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses! And what's with all the carrots? What do they need such good eyesight for anyway?

(blatantly ripped off from Buffy)

One of the hats I wear is volunteer for the House Rabbit Society (Michigan chapter). We get hundreds of calls every year from people who get a rabbit for whatever reason -- gift from girl/boyfriend, Easter gift, parents bought to teach kids "responsibility," or like this case, someone who took a stray into his home instead of calling his local animal control facility.

Probably 95% of these calls are dump calls. People get sick of an animal and want to "get rid of" it -- and yes, those are the exact words they use, almost every time, "get rid of."

Most of those are just people who don't know how to take care of the damn thing. For cripe's sakes, people, when you get an animal, go buy a book and read it. Rabbits are not dogs or cats. For starters, they chew. And maybe I'm just in a bad mood but how much of a genius do you have to be to turn a chewing animal loose in your home without protecting your precious computer cables? Baby gates, plexiglass and cable wrap -- this is not rocket science.

How much of a genius, to not realize that an animal that chews through a power cord will very possibly kill itself?

And how much of a humanitarian, to blame the animal for your own fuckup, and dump it on a shelter?

(If you have a rabbit, by the way, we recommend the House Rabbit Handbook because it's simply the best guide out there.)

I only have TWO Pages of my Irregular Illustrated Story on my page:
Avatar Wars, which is a story of TEXT and IMAGES that basically takes all that to lead up to the final panel gag.

Its based on a period when several Posters to the Forum at Amiga.org were producing modified versions of certain Poster's Avatar Images! There are some bits (I hope funny) in the text that likely don't connect with folk unfamilar with the Amiga Platform.

Someday I MAY continue this 'Computer-generated' Story.
.

"What's so good about it? There must be SOMETHING to warrant all the development in the first place?"

In one word: Functionality.

At the bottom of this page, I've tried to demonstrate some of that.

( Sorry if my OS3.5 isn't pretty enough for your liking; it's set-up for usage, NOT Eye-Candy )
.

I've mirrored the longhorn images.

techcriticex.JPG
roadmap.jpg

I've mirrored the longhorn images.

techcriticex.JPG
roadmap.jpg

There's a patch available here. Just install it over a "normal" FF7-PC and it should work with newer cards :)