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I am putting together a charity to ship old computers to African schools.

Please contact me if interested. AlexZavatone(spamblock)@gmail.com

http://web.mac.com/zav/iWeb/Zav-O-Matic/Off%20to%20Africa.html
http://web.mac.com/zav/iWeb/Zav-O-Matic/Namibia%202008/D3A0AB87-8276-4741-8F1B-9225C7F23CF7.html

Trillian's always struck me as an unusable, horked-up eyesore. Of course, having seen the hideous train wrecks that most people are willing to accept as instant messaging clients, Trillian starts to look rather classy in comparison.

Film of the detonation (see shot 11).

And all y'all eco-conscious people, are of course walking or biking to the grocery store, right? Those thin plastic bags that they give you if you don't bring your own, very likely weigh less than the gas that you burn to get to the store and back.

(Like so)

% openssl s_client -cipher HIGH -verify 999 -connect www.mac.com:443
verify depth is 999
CONNECTED(00000003)
depth=1 /O=VeriSign Trust Network/OU=VeriSign, Inc./OU=VeriSign International Server CA - Class 3/OU=www.verisign.com/CPS Incorp.by Ref. LIABILITY LTD.(c)97 VeriSign
verify error:num=20:unable to get local issuer certificate
[...]
    Verify return code: 27 (certificate not trusted)

% openssl s_client -cipher HIGH -verify 999 -connect smtp.mac.com:smtp -starttls smtp
verify depth is 999
CONNECTED(00000003)
depth=1 /O=VeriSign Trust Network/OU=VeriSign, Inc./OU=VeriSign International Server CA - Class 3/OU=www.verisign.com/CPS Incorp.by Ref. LIABILITY LTD.(c)97 VeriSign
verify error:num=20:unable to get local issuer certificate
...
    Verify return code: 27 (certificate not trusted)

% telnet smtp.mac.com 25
Trying 17.148.16.33...
Connected to smtp.mac.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 smtp.mac.com ESMTP Service
EHLO your.fq.dn
250-mac.com Hello ...
...
250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN
250-STARTTLS

% openssl s_client -verify 999 -connect mail.mac.com:pop3 -starttls pop3
...
    Verify return code: 19 (self signed certificate in certificate chain)

Another post links to a site for a regex visualizer utility for Windows and Linux.

Here's one for the Mac:

http://homepage.mac.com/roger_jolly/software/index.html#regexhibit

I meant to note that the Cassini team is also hinting at some exciting findings to be announced withn the next couple weeks or so, at the link I had just posted. All of the instruments, except the CDA, worked perfectly during the flyby.

Paul
___________
The Meridiani Journal
a chronicle of planetary exploration
http://web.mac.com/meridianijournal

There are those who do exactly that: Dealing with Creationism in Astronomy. A surprising amount of rebuttals don't take more than high school physics.

Don't presume we are all atheists. That can be hazardous to your Salvation.

John Calhoun of Glider fame built a snake robot back in the mid 90's. He showed it to me during the summer of 95. It wasn't water proof, couldn't climb cracks and tubes like this one can but otoh, it was untethered and could amble around his apartment.

The thing that impressed me the most was he built it with hand tools in his apartment as he didn't have access to a machine shop.

Another great video: Mercury Drop Experiment

A cyclic redox reaction on the surface of a drop of mercury causes it to wobble around. Chemical energy -> motion.

Click "Activity 3" or "Activity 5" for the coolest ones.

Pretty much every platform (in this case, I'd count GNOME and KDE as 'platforms') will have a set of Human Interface Guidelines that will give advice on how to craft a usable interface that meshes well with native applications and provides a solid user experience. There's no one hard-and-fast style guide, though there are lots of examples of what NOT to do if you Google (see the User Interface Wall of Shame for one).

No, CNN is not "in the business of free speech". CNN is in the business of making money. Just as all the cable and network news shows are. As I have pointed out before there is no money in news.

Go ahead, watch any of them (Fox, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, whatever Fox's "business channel" is). Add up the amount of actual *news* reporting per day. Not commentary on the news, or commentary on anything, but actual reporting. You really only need to watch for about 10 minutes at the top and bottom of the hour though. Step two, subtract out all the duplicates (/. editors are excused from this portion of the exercise as clearly that would be too difficult for them ;) )

Blogs have become popular and "competition" for the news channels for the same reason: they generally are not news, but commentary. The main difference being that generally bloggers don't assert their work is"news", they acknowledge it is just commentary.

Suprisingly, /. actually comes close in reporting news. It lets we the people develop the commentary. Really, IMO, that's as it should be. Sure the summaries are biased more than necessary and certainly there is some sensationalism in many of the titles. But at least the focus is on providing news stories for us to discuss. Sometimes we get a second or third chance to discuss them.

We've already done this. We did it a long time ago. So we've already proven we CAN do it, and we already KNOW we can.

So those two motives are off the table.

I'm sure the safety concerns are valid. Particularly if it came down somewhere with tense conditions and was confused with an attack.

However, don't think for a moment that this isn't also about REMINDING everyone we can. See this in the context of the recent political maneuvering of China and Russia regarding space.

Journalists: Beware! San Jose Mercury technology reporter Dan Gilmore recently discovered he's been assigned a special "owner" at one of Microsoft's public relations firms, Waggener-Edstrom. These spin-masters are attached to troublesome journalists like Gilmore who have the temerity to write uncomplimentary articles about the company or its products. The really irksome reporters, according to documents spirited from the Waggener-Edstrom offices, are also assigned "buddies" at Microsoft itself. John Dodge, the editor of PC Week, has a special buddy at Microsoft, and Mary Jo Foley at Smart Reseller, is the subject of a "Mary Jo six month plan."

HEY, BUDDY: I learned today that I have an owner at Microsoft Corp.'s primary public-relations agency. The Mercury News received a copy of a document created by someone at the Waggener-Edstrom firm, in which various media reports (at least the ones perceived as having anything negative to say) about Microsoft are analyzed, with recommendations on how to deal with the journalist in question. Mary Jo Foley, of the trade journal Smart Reseller, may be intrigued to learn that she's the subject of a ``Mary Jo six month plan.'' The document provides more evidence, if anyone needed it, that Microsoft spares no expense in marketing. Every problem article has an ``owner'' at the PR agency; the owner works with the reporter either to correct errors or put a more positive spin on the situation. Some reporters also have a ``buddy'' at Microsoft; for example, PC Week's John Dodge has an unnamed buddy who is supposed to ``send mail ---- `John, that's random' '' in response to a Dodge column. My own recent piece, in which I described a messy and unsuccessful attempt to install Windows 98, caught Microsoft's attention. My Waggener-Edstrom owner is working with Microsoft ``to send letter inquiring about Dan's problems and emphasizing MS commitment to quality products.'' It appears, however, that I don't have a buddy at Microsoft. I am devastated.

Mine certainly is unlocked and jailbroken.

And I have this to say to Apple and Jobs.

I took the time to put up a page with screenshots of how the different systems render the same wikipedia page. I even made the font size +1 larger, as XP, even with smooth type turned on, won't anti-alias below a certain font size.

http://homepage.mac.com/sumpuran/antialiasing/

The experience of what is easier on the eyes is a subjective one, but that's not what we're testing. What determines the quality of anti-aliasing is how well the onscreen rendition matches a printed version (the whole idea being that this is not 1993 and not everything should need proofing.)

I didn't take the screenshots to judge the way Linux and XP handle spacing and kerning. I picked a page that contained no serifs, as on the Mac that would've shown ligatures, another unfair advantage. It should be taken into account that Linux comes with no high-quality fonts, and that the font shown on the Linux rendition of the Wikipedia is nowhere close to the ones on the Mac and PC. Quality fonts can be installed of course, but this demo is about what the average user will experience.

Looking at the results, it is particularly interesting to see that XP and Linux don't render the sans-serif headings as bold, but rather thicken the regular font a bit. Furthermore, on XP as well as on Linux straight areas of the characters aren't anti-aliased at all, the drawback of which is very noticeable looking at the capital 'L' in the cutouts.

In order to judge how well your own system renders fonts, you can browse to the Linux article on Wikipedia, print the page, and then hold it next to your screen.

NB: Anti-aliasing settings were used for flat panel displays with a gamma of 2.2.

Although I'll agree with you that a 192kbps+ MP3 sounds virtually identical to its CD counterpart, the iPod is not a professional-grade piece of audio equipment, and its analogue output really shouldn't be connected to anything other than a set of headphones due to the relatively low quality of the preamp, which, coincidentally *CAN* be scientifically tested and measured unlike most other audiophile "claims". Although the test was done on a 3rd-generation iPod a few years ago, the same output stage was used on the 4th-gen models. The newer generations use a different output stage that I haven't seen much information on, so I'm afraid I can't make comments on their performance....

Ironically, the iPod Shuffle demonstrates the best quantifiable audio characteristics when performing under a load, thanks to its push-pull amplifier design, which isn't commonly seen in portable consumer devices.

This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, considering the weight/space/power requirements of an iPod. And for all intents and purposes, the iPod's circuits are perfectly adequate for their indented purpose as a portable audio player.

I love my iPod, because I can bring my entire music library with me in my car, or on the train on the way to work.

However, when I perform a DJ set, I use a nice set of CD-based "turntables" (which are increasingly popular these days, as they can do all sorts of neat tricks that are impossible on vinyl), because the noisy preamp, and weak bass response of an iPod becomes very readily apparent when amplified through a big PA. Recently, there are also a few "pro" level DJ products that take their input from the PCM digital output from the iPod's dock connector, thus entirely bypassing the "faulty" amplification stage, and performing the analogue conversion and amplification externally.

Don't forget to have a good look at the Interface Hall of Shame for examples of what not to do.

This is surprisingly simple. Ignore all the artsy fuckers that thing GUI design is an art. It isn't. It's a surprisingly hard science.

Good GUIs minimize the amount of physical user interactions required by the user to perform any action. Mouse down is an action, mouse up is an action moving the mouse 5mm is an action. You get the idea. You need to be aware of EVERY tiny action and try to eliminate as many as possible. If you must use a right click menu with 2-3 menus deep, provide a hotkey for the same action.

Good GUIs absolutely, positively, never throw a modal dialog with only a single button. And avoid one with two or three buttons if possible.

Provide a hotkey for everything.

Use one thread for the GUI, one thread for the behind the scenes work.

Make sure your cancel buttons actually work to halt long resource intensive processes.

Don't use hover menus. Ever. Seriously, never. The mouse is a feedback only device until a button is clicked. Tooltips are OK as long as the vanish the instant the mouse moves off of the (small) trigger area, blocking what a user is trying to see is obnoxious.

Above all, don't annoy your users. Your GUI is a means to use your software, that is all.

Much can be learned here for free. Interface hall of shame on the left bottom. It's what NOT to do.

Reading this old classic article, I always loved this one (and agreed so much)
http://homepage.mac.com/bradster/iarchitect/qtime.htm

While you're at it, Vista's explorer - yeah, don't copy anything from that either.
See more info here from me.
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=364823&cid=21406737
Specifically take note of what I whine about in the JPG's - it's that kind of shit which kills users.

Be prepared to use at least two design styles. There's the Mac way (and you'll find a lot of good guidelines in their Human Interface Guidelines for that), but, follow those on Windows and X11 and your applications will look rather strange and not at all platform native; even when using native UI controls.

I don't have any suggestions for books on good design, but, here's a classic site which covers some bad design mistakes: The User Interface Hall of Shame. The examples are fairly dated now, but, the principles remain true.

i was kinda hoping they'd use the new Camaro
http://homepage.mac.com/atomicshark/08-CAMARO-FR-ATOMICSHARK.jpg
http://homepage.mac.com/atomicshark/08-CAMARO-BK-ATOMICSHARK.jpg
btw Mazda is American. and even if not would you expect Germany to not use a Porsche/Beemer?

i was kinda hoping they'd use the new Camaro
http://homepage.mac.com/atomicshark/08-CAMARO-FR-ATOMICSHARK.jpg
http://homepage.mac.com/atomicshark/08-CAMARO-BK-ATOMICSHARK.jpg
btw Mazda is American. and even if not would you expect Germany to not use a Porsche/Beemer?

What a minute, I've looked through all of the 4 mod level posts here, and I see defenses and attacks on apple, but has anyone actually bothered to try this?

• I open up Firefox.
• I go to http://idisk.mac.com/myawesomeusername ...
• I enter my username, I enter my password.
• I look around for a bit. There are no logout buttons, that is true. I can view or download this or that file, blah blah blah.
• I close Firefox.
• Then, I open up Firefox again.
• I go to http://idisk.mac.com/myawesomeusername again ...
• I also go to http://idisk.mac.com/myawesomeusername?view=web ...
• It asks for my username, password, again, in either case. When I decline to enter it, it tells me "unauthorized" and sends me on my merry way.

So... what the hell? Of course, what is a little more serious is that this data is all being sent plaintext, but the story as posted doesn't seem to be true, at least based on my casual test.

Also, isn't it considered good form to bother providing a link to the story we're summarizing? I know this is slashdot and no one bothers to read the text anyway, but for those that do, having to copy/paste URLs and browsing the site for the story being discussed is kind of stupid.

What a minute, I've looked through all of the 4 mod level posts here, and I see defenses and attacks on apple, but has anyone actually bothered to try this?

• I open up Firefox.
• I go to http://idisk.mac.com/myawesomeusername ...
• I enter my username, I enter my password.
• I look around for a bit. There are no logout buttons, that is true. I can view or download this or that file, blah blah blah.
• I close Firefox.
• Then, I open up Firefox again.
• I go to http://idisk.mac.com/myawesomeusername again ...
• I also go to http://idisk.mac.com/myawesomeusername?view=web ...
• It asks for my username, password, again, in either case. When I decline to enter it, it tells me "unauthorized" and sends me on my merry way.

So... what the hell? Of course, what is a little more serious is that this data is all being sent plaintext, but the story as posted doesn't seem to be true, at least based on my casual test.

Also, isn't it considered good form to bother providing a link to the story we're summarizing? I know this is slashdot and no one bothers to read the text anyway, but for those that do, having to copy/paste URLs and browsing the site for the story being discussed is kind of stupid.

What a minute, I've looked through all of the 4 mod level posts here, and I see defenses and attacks on apple, but has anyone actually bothered to try this?

• I open up Firefox.
• I go to http://idisk.mac.com/myawesomeusername ...
• I enter my username, I enter my password.
• I look around for a bit. There are no logout buttons, that is true. I can view or download this or that file, blah blah blah.
• I close Firefox.
• Then, I open up Firefox again.
• I go to http://idisk.mac.com/myawesomeusername again ...
• I also go to http://idisk.mac.com/myawesomeusername?view=web ...
• It asks for my username, password, again, in either case. When I decline to enter it, it tells me "unauthorized" and sends me on my merry way.

So... what the hell? Of course, what is a little more serious is that this data is all being sent plaintext, but the story as posted doesn't seem to be true, at least based on my casual test.

Also, isn't it considered good form to bother providing a link to the story we're summarizing? I know this is slashdot and no one bothers to read the text anyway, but for those that do, having to copy/paste URLs and browsing the site for the story being discussed is kind of stupid.

You know the fanboi is well aware of the drivel he spews when he resorts to defending Apple anonymously.

And yet the whole of Slashdot can go ahead bashing Apple without actually investigating the problem. Had anyone actually checked, they'd have noticed that the main .Mac page—which is how one accesses the iDisk interface—has this nifty little logout button, as seen in this screenshot.

But it's more fun to bash Apple unconditionally.

Perhaps it's a minor oversight that the self-contained iDisk interface lacks a logout button, but to say that "there is no way for the average computer user to log-out of their iDIsk on public computers" is patently false. Sure, they have to use the main .Mac page to do it, but you have to open that page to get to your iDisk in the first place. So: it's the user's choice to close that window while working on iDisk (the iDisk interface opens in a second window), and the user's oversight in failing to return there to log out.

Investigative journalism at its best. Cripes.

Dot Mac is a WebObjects application (more likely a set of WebObjects applications). Closing the browser ends the session; in addition, the session key is unique (and Apple is using re-writes to make the session key less discernible) -- i.e., the page is session specific.

As for SSL transmission, the login is SSL (this is the form submit from the login page):
https://www.mac.com/WebObjects/Welcome.woa/1204/wa/authenticate?cty=US&aff=consumer&lang=en

FInally, there is a LOGOUT link on the right side of the web interface for Dot Mac -- clicking that terminates the session. So this article needs to be looked at again...

This whole article seems to be based on the lack of a "log out" button, except... there is a log out button!

Here's a screenshot

It's right there in the top right.

No need to guess, this is what it would have looked like:
http://www.mac.com/1/webmail.html

I started a charity for this purpose.

If you have old equipment that you'd like to donate to a charity, we'll put linux on it (if it's a PC) and ship it to poor kids in a developing nation.

If you're interested, feel free to email me at zavPublic (at) mac (dot) com

The link below is our first shipment.
http://web.mac.com/zav/iWeb/Zav-O-Matic/Off%20to%20Africa.html

Cheers,
- Zav

I wonder whether they take the opportunity to sign the binary, so that it plays nicely with MacOS X 10.5?

For more info on the issue: http://homepage.mac.com/simx/technonova/C488455530/E20071107233441/

Not it does not need to be.
dotMac is much more than just email.
10 GB of space categorized via access from https://idisk.mac.com/username is a great way to securely access your files. It quote often not blocked in many workplaces unlike gmail which seems to be blocked.

U can use it to make your Mac Backup 3.0 to backup all your settings to dotMac.
I do it every week, and once when my hard-drive failed and i had to replace it, Backup 3.0 restored stuff from dotMac automatically.

I use it to store my ebooks, work files, etc. securely.
In additon in a windows PC you can create a shortcut to the idisk in My Network Places and use it just like any other share without need of a new application like gDisk, etc.

U can still forward gmail to dotMac mail.

Collection of sounds, including the song "Still Alive"

Gamefaqs thread from which I got the above link, with more sound clips if you want them.

If you are still in midst of this conversion, you should take a look at Eudora Mailbox Cleaner - it can do the conversion for you and should give much better results than TB's own import.

For those interested in playing around with a slide rule, the book An easy introduction to the slide rule by Isaac Asimov (1965) could be very helpful.

Here is a (modern) review of the book; here is a list of second-hand copies.

For those using Safari, SafariPlus is a brilliant way to block Flash (and control unwanted cookies). It shows the rectangle for the Flash content, but you must click inside it to actually start up that Flash dropping. So you can use Flash when you want to, but nobody can make you use it. In these days of those damned embedded YouTube videos stopping Flash is a godsend. Good luck with your new X10-type annoying ads, Google.

Yes, the David H. Levy of the Shoemaker-Levy comet fame.

I picked up _Skywatching_ in the bargain bin for a few bucks. It's a bit dated (it has pictures of "microcomputers") but is an excellent introduction. The star charts are perfect for the beginner, he provides a few highlights in each constellation.

As far as software goes, I really like Celestia (which actually lets you travel to the planets and stars in the star catalog in 3D), NASA WorldWind, and more recently Google Earth 4.2 now does good zoomable star browsing.

Finally, people can do some pretty decent astrophotography on budget equipment using software compositing, check out these works done with halfway-decent webcams duct-taped to a telescope: http://www.my-spot.com/planets.htm http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/astronomy/astro_photo.html

For those fortunate enough not to know what I'm talking about: see the last entry on this page.

"Hot!! Oh my god! don't set it on your lap if you have shorts. And this is the newer model without the battery problems."

Apple, for whatever reason, chose quiet fan operation over efficient cooling. Fortunately, someone decided to empower you to choose the proper balance of silence and efficiency.

smcFanControl http://homepage.mac.com/holtmann/eidac/index.html

You can set the minimum fan speed to whatever makes you happy. In a normal environment (70F, low humidity), I set my fans 1600 RPMs which is still effectively silent but keeps the laptop MUCH cooler. When I am in a more hostile environment (>80 with high humidity), I set my fans to a minimum of 4k RPMs.

strike

Ryan Dancey, the father of the OGL/D20 license has some interesting thoughts on the direction where tabletop gaming should be heading vs. computer hack and slash games like WoW. His arguments are far more cogent than I can do justice, so here is the link to his blog and his 5 part series (with a 6th installment about segmentation is the role-playing player base...

http://web.mac.com/rsdancey/iWeb/RSDanceyBlog/Blog /Archive.html

Ryan hasn't worked for WotC for years and this was written before the 4e announcement on Thursday. It does not reflect where WotC is headed directly but may give you some insight why they are moving to a new edition right now...

Bryan Blumklotz
AKA Saracenus

Check out Ryan Dancey's blog from this week. He's a major game industry consultant, former CEO of Wizards when they bought D&D and then sold to Hasbro. He's dumped a major 6-part blog or so on how D&D needs to change to compete with WOW.

Even if you think the game experiences are different, all of the business people involved are almost maniacally obsessed with how to get a slice of those millions of monthly WOW subscriptions. Everything they're doing right now has that as an objective.

For 20 years of D&D's history, it was unclimbable. By the end of the century, technological change made an attempt on it possible. That techology is the internet. While men struggled up the slopes of mountains, other men learned how to go farther, faster, and higher, than any before them. Eventually, a dozen walked on the moon. Likewise, just as the potential for technology to revolutionize tabletop roleplaying emerged, other people used that same technology to get bigger, and massively multiplayer, moving the entire game into the virtual domain. Earlier this summer, the current leader in that market, Blizzard, announced that there are more than 9 million people playing World of Warcraft. This is the equivalent of telling people on the summit of Everest that Armstrong just made a giant leap on their behalf.

Hi Jamar,

Tor project is one well-established effort for both bypassing the firewall of China and encrypting traffic so that the government can not tell that you are accessing forbidden sites. The project's official home page is at http://tor.eff.org/, however that's probably blocked from China. Therefore, I mirrored some key files on my own site. Please download them for yourself or your friends.

http://homepage.mac.com/cat_plus_plus/tor.html - text of tor documentation (I didn't copy all the images, but it should be usable)
http://homepage.mac.com/cat_plus_plus/tor.exe - Windows installer
http://homepage.mac.com/cat_plus_plus/tor.tar - Linux source
http://homepage.mac.com/cat_plus_plus/tor.dmg - Mac installer.

Let me know if it works for you or if you have further questions. You can reach me at my mac username without underscores at gmail (scrambled to avoid spam). Once you are able to surf anonymously, you might want to get started with the following sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Republic_of_ China - unbiased history of your country created by contributors from around the world
http://www.cnn.com/ - The most popular news source in US. Biased in it's own way (for example, whitewashing or involvement in Iraq), but still a good source of information.
http://www.sfgate.com/ - Local newspaper in my area which is far more liberal than CNN.

I am sure other slashdot readers can add more suggestions here.

Hi Jamar,

Tor project is one well-established effort for both bypassing the firewall of China and encrypting traffic so that the government can not tell that you are accessing forbidden sites. The project's official home page is at http://tor.eff.org/, however that's probably blocked from China. Therefore, I mirrored some key files on my own site. Please download them for yourself or your friends.

http://homepage.mac.com/cat_plus_plus/tor.html - text of tor documentation (I didn't copy all the images, but it should be usable)
http://homepage.mac.com/cat_plus_plus/tor.exe - Windows installer
http://homepage.mac.com/cat_plus_plus/tor.tar - Linux source
http://homepage.mac.com/cat_plus_plus/tor.dmg - Mac installer.

Let me know if it works for you or if you have further questions. You can reach me at my mac username without underscores at gmail (scrambled to avoid spam). Once you are able to surf anonymously, you might want to get started with the following sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Republic_of_ China - unbiased history of your country created by contributors from around the world
http://www.cnn.com/ - The most popular news source in US. Biased in it's own way (for example, whitewashing or involvement in Iraq), but still a good source of information.
http://www.sfgate.com/ - Local newspaper in my area which is far more liberal than CNN.

I am sure other slashdot readers can add more suggestions here.

Hi Jamar,

Tor project is one well-established effort for both bypassing the firewall of China and encrypting traffic so that the government can not tell that you are accessing forbidden sites. The project's official home page is at http://tor.eff.org/, however that's probably blocked from China. Therefore, I mirrored some key files on my own site. Please download them for yourself or your friends.

http://homepage.mac.com/cat_plus_plus/tor.html - text of tor documentation (I didn't copy all the images, but it should be usable)
http://homepage.mac.com/cat_plus_plus/tor.exe - Windows installer
http://homepage.mac.com/cat_plus_plus/tor.tar - Linux source
http://homepage.mac.com/cat_plus_plus/tor.dmg - Mac installer.

Let me know if it works for you or if you have further questions. You can reach me at my mac username without underscores at gmail (scrambled to avoid spam). Once you are able to surf anonymously, you might want to get started with the following sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Republic_of_ China - unbiased history of your country created by contributors from around the world
http://www.cnn.com/ - The most popular news source in US. Biased in it's own way (for example, whitewashing or involvement in Iraq), but still a good source of information.
http://www.sfgate.com/ - Local newspaper in my area which is far more liberal than CNN.

I am sure other slashdot readers can add more suggestions here.

Hi Jamar,

Tor project is one well-established effort for both bypassing the firewall of China and encrypting traffic so that the government can not tell that you are accessing forbidden sites. The project's official home page is at http://tor.eff.org/, however that's probably blocked from China. Therefore, I mirrored some key files on my own site. Please download them for yourself or your friends.

http://homepage.mac.com/cat_plus_plus/tor.html - text of tor documentation (I didn't copy all the images, but it should be usable)
http://homepage.mac.com/cat_plus_plus/tor.exe - Windows installer
http://homepage.mac.com/cat_plus_plus/tor.tar - Linux source
http://homepage.mac.com/cat_plus_plus/tor.dmg - Mac installer.

Let me know if it works for you or if you have further questions. You can reach me at my mac username without underscores at gmail (scrambled to avoid spam). Once you are able to surf anonymously, you might want to get started with the following sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Republic_of_ China - unbiased history of your country created by contributors from around the world
http://www.cnn.com/ - The most popular news source in US. Biased in it's own way (for example, whitewashing or involvement in Iraq), but still a good source of information.
http://www.sfgate.com/ - Local newspaper in my area which is far more liberal than CNN.

I am sure other slashdot readers can add more suggestions here.

My first radio was a crystal radio. I modded it by wrapping copper wire around a toilet paper roll, then added a crushed metal tube to complete the tuner.

Crystal Radios