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Wasn't Yoshi's version a knockoff of PKarc by Phil Katz? Or was it the other way around? I used to run ino him on the BBSs of Milwaukee back in the '80s... what a waste.

As a certail Miami-based columnist once noted,
Microsoft has a new version out, Windows XP, which according to everybody is the "most reliable Windows ever." To me, this is like saying that asparagus is "the most articulate vegetable ever."

I highly recommend reading the whole thing, it's worth the 5 minutes.
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The method has been around for decades indeed, but it isn't economical to doing it on a large scale. But things are slowly changing, it seems, in the right direction.

More than 1 million people have signed up for our "do-not-call" list, which went into effect Jan. 1. Residents are already noticing a difference. Interestingly enough, MCI is suspected of violating the rules and calling people anyway, according to our state officials. The AG's office is investigating, but for these lists to truly be effective, someone is going to have to make an example out of a few companies trying to slip through.

Don't forget that Russ Feingold is the same Senator who introduced a bill to halt research on data-mining technology by the Dept. of Homeland Security until Congress can investigate it.

I'm proud to have voted for him.

Story here.

Read this story and see just how bad the addiction to EQ can get.

Not quite what you're referring to, but an example of what happens when 'authorities' don't do their jobs is here.

homocides - 16,137
septicemia - 31,613
influenza and pneumonia - 67,024
accidents - 93,592

How many people do you know own firearms, minus hunting rifles*? I don't know many at all. Now imagine those stats if EVERYONE had guns. I can't - but they would be much higher.

You are more likely to die as a result of contracting a non-specific infection during a hospital stay than you are to be murdered, by any means.

Quite frankly, making these types statements is pointless. It doesn't account that a person can make choices throughout their lives to avoid being in a hospital in the first place. Granted, if you are a drug dealer, gangbanger, or taxi driver, someone is going to find a way to kill you - guns or no guns. But you had a choice to do those things.

Unlike this guy, who was just driving to work.

Even legally obtained guns aren't safe from misuse.

C'mon guys, I dug these two articles out of a single medium sized city's website in under two minutes.

When everyone has guns, every confrontation is automatically escalated to limit. It only take a fleeting thought to end someone's life with a gun.

I simply can not comprehend any possible need for people to own tools who's sole function is to cause death*. I'm in the minority here by admitting that I vote Republican - although I happen to be very anti-gun. If the government wanted to get rid of guns, they could. Just make the punishment severe enough - even for trivial posession. It would take time. Maybe start by busting the current non-permit weapon holder with the tough law, and giving law-abiding permit holders a grace period (a few years) to get their weapons turned-in, as to help allieviate the concern that "only criminals will have guns".

And frankly, I'm completely surprised by the amount of pro-gun posts I'm seeing, and the amount of venom injected into defending guns.

the anti-gun "let's tell everyone else how to live their lives" freaks all riled up

Gun owners are vocal people, I guess.

* I don't know what to do about all you deer hunters.

homocides - 16,137
septicemia - 31,613
influenza and pneumonia - 67,024
accidents - 93,592

How many people do you know own firearms, minus hunting rifles*? I don't know many at all. Now imagine those stats if EVERYONE had guns. I can't - but they would be much higher.

You are more likely to die as a result of contracting a non-specific infection during a hospital stay than you are to be murdered, by any means.

Quite frankly, making these types statements is pointless. It doesn't account that a person can make choices throughout their lives to avoid being in a hospital in the first place. Granted, if you are a drug dealer, gangbanger, or taxi driver, someone is going to find a way to kill you - guns or no guns. But you had a choice to do those things.

Unlike this guy, who was just driving to work.

Even legally obtained guns aren't safe from misuse.

C'mon guys, I dug these two articles out of a single medium sized city's website in under two minutes.

When everyone has guns, every confrontation is automatically escalated to limit. It only take a fleeting thought to end someone's life with a gun.

I simply can not comprehend any possible need for people to own tools who's sole function is to cause death*. I'm in the minority here by admitting that I vote Republican - although I happen to be very anti-gun. If the government wanted to get rid of guns, they could. Just make the punishment severe enough - even for trivial posession. It would take time. Maybe start by busting the current non-permit weapon holder with the tough law, and giving law-abiding permit holders a grace period (a few years) to get their weapons turned-in, as to help allieviate the concern that "only criminals will have guns".

And frankly, I'm completely surprised by the amount of pro-gun posts I'm seeing, and the amount of venom injected into defending guns.

the anti-gun "let's tell everyone else how to live their lives" freaks all riled up

Gun owners are vocal people, I guess.

* I don't know what to do about all you deer hunters.

Haven't seen that one, very interesting.

There's also an interesting article about three wisconsin hunters who hunted together, and all 'coincidentally' died of rare brain diseases.

I don't think we can assume we know anything about prions and what they can do.

As mentioned in the article, CWD has recently been found in Wisconsin. It's been all over the news here. Hunter turnout is down 20%, I believe.

Here's one article from the local paper.

No offense, but the term ignorant comes to mind when I read your comment. Just so you know, there are plenty of references to my "Completely Untrue Statement". Seriously, if you want to whine about your tax dollars, find out how much of them go to subsidize big oil and then wonder why people think and say negative things about the Loner Star State.

we started this in wisconsin not too long ago, they started advertising an 800 number you could call to get you name put on the do not call list, unfortunately they chose a used listed number to proceed the 800 number, that family got hundreds of calls from people wanting on the list who didn't dial the 1800, Here's the Article

I believe you are not aware of the whole picture about the big drug companies. Drugs companies at least spend twice as much money on marketing than they do on actually R&D. Also, to cut costs, they tend to take an existing patented drug that is about to expire, modify a bit so a new patent can be obtained, and then market it as a new improved version of the older drug.

The U.S. is the only major country that allows a private company to obtain exclusive rights on a patent where research received funding from public dollars. Hence, people pay up to twice as much for prescription drugs than in countries like Britain, Japan, and Australia.

Big pharma is now just a big marketing engine, where only the real innovative research is mainly being done by public funds.

Some articles worth reading:
http://www.namiscc.org/newsletters/July01/DrugPric es.htm
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/apr01/scrip0204 0101.asp
http://bernie.house.gov/documents/articles/2001-07 -21-nat_journal-Rx_Drugs.asp
http://abcnews.go.com/onair/ABCNEWSSpecials/pharma ceuticals_020529_pjr_feature.html
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/3240359.ht ml
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=5 34&u=/ap/20021001/ap_on_go_co/drug_wars&printe r=1
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=5 34&u=/ap/20021002/ap_on_he_me/pharmaceutical_marke ting&printer=1
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/showthread.php?thread id=420
http://www.prospect.org/print/V12/17/elliott-c.htm l
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/showthread.php?thread id=638
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename= article&node=&contentId=A1208-2001Jul15&notFound=t rue

Yeah, like McDonald's had been sited numerous times for serving coffee 40 degrees too hot. And also that the person receieved 3rd degree burns and was in the hospital for months.

I like hot coffee, but no coffee ever should be capable of giving me a third degree burn. Yes, a person is responsible for there own actions. In this case, McDonalds was handing out loaded guns. (Giving out coffee that is capable of giving 3rd degree burns to people driving cars is just asking to be sued.)

Picture of 3rd Degree Burns

http://www.blockislandtimes.com/News/2001/0303/Fro nt_Page/01.html

http://www.jsonline.com/news/ozwash/oct01/adtown11 101001a.asp

Next I'll be seeing jesus in the trunk of a tree.

The kid who died because of playing EverQuest?

Link

Shawn Wooley, we miss you! RIP!

Almost every time political boundaries need to be altered (for representatives), these people don't move the border around a few houses, they rewrite the entire map to best suit their own agenda. Legislative Redistricting causes this problem (known as Gerrymandering) in elections again and again and again ALL OVER THE USA.

You are right about no rational people wanting it. There are many rational people who have offered ways to restructure boundaries that offer the biggest human benefit and lowest government cost. These ideal solutions segment the groups by physical boundaries and population density. But government is not a rational entity.

There are countless smart was to divide it up. Clusters of people should rationally be served by the same set of government. People between clusters should be separated by distance to the clusters and other boundaries (hills, rivers, roads). In dense population areas, map the location of a current road, or a side of the road, as the boundary -- not the line between where two rivers meet and where another river enters a lake bed.

And of course after two counties or states go to court fighting it out -- costing millions of taxpayer dollers -- They will put out big press releases saying either "We saved tax money by moving these buildings outside of our county!" or "We increased tax revenue without increasing taxes!", overlooking the fact that they wasted millions in the process.

frob.

Not only that, but when Milwaukee switched to reformulated gas in 1995, which contains 10% ethanol, many people in the area were reportedly getting sick from the fumes at the gas station. It's mentioned in passing on the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's website.

Here is another good one. http://www.jsonline.com/news/Metro/jun02/51305.asp Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel I've read a few articles in the Milwaukee papers about this issue.. nothing new, but interesting to note anyhow.

The same commentary showed up in the Milwaukee Journal in early June. (note, not from Milwaukee, I think an Elizabeth Smart article actually had the link, but I can't find it)

The Washington Post wrote about ittwo weeks ago.

This isn't really insightful. It's doesn't really have a /. slant to it, or any new information - quite a few people have said it before. A Google search for alexis patterson media coverage pretty much tells all. I'm sure you could get more by playing with the search terms.

Now that I agree with. Humans are a part of the environment, therefore, our impact on the environment is natural.

But, of course, they'll overlook that if it means injecting a cutesy-woosty puddy-tat back into a wild that no longer finds the critter-witter necessary, because we got one over on the evil-weevil human beings.

That's a little over-stated, but humans did HUNT them to extention. I don't feel we have a moral responsibility to save/regenerate the species, but I think this is the closest case to it

Now, aren't Kangaroo's major pests? Can these things live on Kangaroo's?

If they're that fierce, maybe they can help with the deer population problems in Wisconsin :)

Oops, went to preview and deleted it somehow. Remember the guy who committed suicide over Everquest and his mother tried to sue?

On a sorta related note, did anyone else catch ESPN's Outside the Line feature on athletes and videogames? Curt Schilling mentioned he plays Everquest; he has a level 50 something character. I can't believe he has enough time to play that much EQ.

Some links for your browsing pleasure:

suing
suing
suing
suing
the list goes on...

... or even if you don't, check out this link, about the marketing of Star Wars.

Oh hey, my wife works for the Journal (I keep forgetting), I'll see if I can scan it :)

Found it..Death of a game addict from the 30th

In case you missed this thread, read it for a discussion that deals with not only "inappropriate content" but free speech in general. A game called Pimp Quest might be to blame. The story is here.

My point for your remedial reading, can't pass the SRA, misinterpreting, reactionary dumb ass is even though Milwaukee isn't a city the size of say LA or has the same magnitude of gang issues like Chicago it does not mitigate the fact that Milwaukee has serious gang problems of its own which needs to be addressed. And considering that when these problems flare up you get small children dying because of it I could care less that if I go to NY I would see gangs which are 10 times worse or truly "hardcore."

Then-governor of Wisconsin Tommy Thompson (now Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Bush administration) tried something similar with the W2 program in 1996: giving welding training to welfare recipients so they could have decent-paying jobs and get off welfare.

Sounds great, but many of these people, as I understand it, had never worked before, and were fired shortly after being placed because they had no workplace skills that emphasized things like showing up on time or calling in if they were sick. They had welding skills, but there's a lot more that goes into getting someone ready to join the workforce. Specific-skill training seems a temptingly easy solution to transition-to-workforce problems, but it has to be part of a bigger plan if it's going to work.

the scariest thing to me right now, with kids in public schools, is all the enforced patriotism in times of conflict/war/whatever you want to call it. it happened during the gulf war, when school children were tying yellow ribbons around trees in my home town, and it's happening even more so now. i'm sure you all have heard about the madison, wisconsin school board's decision to try and buck state law requiring school children to recite the pledge of allegiance or sing the national anthem daily, but here's an account of the outcome of the whole thing, and here's a pretty representative editorial following the fireworks.

personally, it is terrifying the amount of blind patriotic and religious fervor i'm seeing in the aftermath of september 11, and most of it fully sanctioned by the government that is supposed to protect our freedoms of speech and religion. from bush's declaration of a "national day of prayer" where we saw every important political figure crammed into the national cathedral, to the billboards plastered across the country emblazoned with "god bless america", to all of the late night talk show hosts making cheap jabs at arabs and muslims, to every car, house, yard, and building in my city (milwaukee) sporting tattered american flags, it's starting to look like fanaticism.

fanaticism is dangerous. that's what started this whole mess in the first place, and our own fanaticism is what's going to make it worse.

• Sukhoi S-21 Supersonic Business Jet
• Dassault Supersonic Business Jet
• AeroWorldNet(tm) article from last year
• copy of N.Y. Times 2001-06-06 story here

http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/aug01/voice1108 1001a.asp>

• When was the last time you heard of a strike at the MS factory? Microsoft treats their employees a hell of a lot better than American Airlines or UPS.
• How do you think you got your shiny new ride, and your cool apt. during our last big ecomomic boom? On the back of Microsoft. Whether you used their products or not, they legitimized client/server and internet development. They provided a lot of the tools and infrastructure you whiners used to make big bucks. I don't want to hear "I never use MS products, I only use blah-blah-blah to write software". What do you think the users that buy from your e-commerce store use? What do the IT drones that use your intranet apps use? That's right, suckas: Microsoft products.
• Apple, Sun, IBM, et al... these are not the "little guys". They had their chance, and still have a chance to innovate. They blew it, and they're still blowing it. They let their egos get in the way of making good (or at least popular) software, and it cost them the game.

From a local paper:
A ... network security consultant and expert on hackers, said that if a copy of the code was downloaded, the person who seized it may demand a ransom for its safe return. Or if the attacker was an "open-source vigilante," the hacker might release it on the Internet for everyone to enjoy. "They believe information wants to be free," he said. "And that Microsoft is the big, evil empire."

Of course, people actually downloading the whole human genome probable wouldn't worry about this, but couldn't they use a better compression format than .zip? I bet using bzip2 or rar would shave a couple of hundred MBs off of that 753MB file. Also, the differences in compression techniques would be interesting to see on a large group of files mainly consisting of G, A, C, and T. -- demiurge You find a file that appears important and obliterate it from memory!!! Score one for the downtrodden hacker!

• G -- 00
• A -- 01
• T -- 10
• C -- 11

This would only work for the .fa files, but .fa files can contain "N"s also. If you just want to browse the Genome, look through the pieces directory. .

I've got one of those Intellimouse Explorers (the huge silver ones with the superfluous tail light and like three extra buttons; well, what the hell, here's a http://www.microsoft.com/Mouse/explorer.htm link) and sites that won't let you back out are an incredible annoyance. See, two of the buttons on there serve as Forward/Back (respectively) while browsing the web, and after about 20 minutes of using them, I was hooked. You wouldn't believe how simple (and remarkably intuitive) to navigate with your thumb. Now if I could just find a good use for those buttons in Half-Life... I mean, sure, it's easy enough to hold down the back button and select the page before the offending site, but that would require moving my cursor over six or so linear inches of desktop space. Isn't that just a little bit unreasonable? No? Ah well.

Fuel cell technology has been around for a while (it's used to generate electrical power on the Space Shuttle), but I suppose it's not in a lot of people's interests to use it. Fuel cells are pretty efficient, and Daimler-Chrysler announced this fuel-cell car last year which produces zero emissions. The company claims that by 2004 they'll have invested $1.4 billion in fuel cells. Sounds like the way forward to me.

• Industrial processes
• Environmental toxins and pollutants
• Space station air quality
• Medicine / body functions
• Food processing
• Military enviromnent
• Toxicology

• Quotidiano: Researchers developing an electronic nose
• JSOnline: Electronic nose takes on a higher profile
• Electronic Nose Club
• Electronic Nose Inspects Cheese, Hints At Human Sense of Smell Caltech Microelectronic Research Group
• Warwick-Southampton Electronic Nose Group
• Isoen2000 Olfactory and Electronic Nose 2000
• Press Releases: Electronic Nose Sniffs Out Fresh Fruit
• Electronic Nose Workshop
• Food Explorer Electronic Nose
• Electronic Nose User Forum
• An Electronic Nose For Business, NSF, NASA, and Others
• Wired: Electronic Nose

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
The original obituary notice
A more complete article

One interesting quote:
"It was just a hobby," he said. "I didn't expect it to turn into a business."

I had a moderately successful shareware program myself during the '80s, and it sure didn't help my life much. Fortunately I have no interest in booze or drugs -- they just get in the way of hacking. And also fortunately, I let it go when it wasn't successful any more. Maybe a little later than I should have, but I did move on.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
The original obituary notice
A more complete article

One interesting quote:
"It was just a hobby," he said. "I didn't expect it to turn into a business."

I had a moderately successful shareware program myself during the '80s, and it sure didn't help my life much. Fortunately I have no interest in booze or drugs -- they just get in the way of hacking. And also fortunately, I let it go when it wasn't successful any more. Maybe a little later than I should have, but I did move on.

Antibiotics (particularly penicillin) and water purification have added 30 years of life expectancy from 1900-2000. I can't think of a bigger payoff.

(Read this article for more details. While the life expectancy improvements are partially due to a reduction in infant deaths, there's a demonstrable improvement in disease treatment affecting all age groups whose magnitude you can see by looking at the raw data of life expectancy by age in the US. Of course other factors did help besides antibiotics, such as nutrition and pollution reduction.)

--LP