Slashdot Mirror

Those images fail to show the box at the bottom I can see how someone could mistake the crudely taped-up battery pack on one of those.

Otherwise it just looks like a panel of randomly placed LEDs

In a lot of cases, they can. Its a question of can they make it through the government beuracracy and procurement process. There are no no-bid contracts for things that actually work, are the only available solution, are available immediately and can save lives. We only have no-bid contracts for corporate cronies who contribute to political campaigns.

A case in point...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14686871/

For the same reason American GIs were policing Germany and Japan 60 years ago.

What do you mean "were"?

I hate to have to clue the /. crowd into this little fact but the Americans are still policing Germany and Japan.

Granted, there is no insurgency, there is no Iron Curtain nor any cold war any longer but the fact is that had the US and associated allies abandoned their posts in these nations after the ink on the peace treaties were signed there would have been another war the next day. While this occupation has gone on for far too long don't think for a second that the peace treaties truely put everything at peace. How the hell do you think WWII started in the first place?

It's good to see people keeping an eye out for the big brother factor but I think we're all a bit too quick to think that there is going to be a defined point where everyone is going to drop their weapons and return to their farms and markets the next day. It simply doesn't happen.

There was a pretty interesting article today on MSNBC.com about seeing the problems in Iraq and the rest of the middle east from the eyes of an American Muslim. I recommend people who don't understand the Sunni/Shiite conflicts to go read this. It's not overly involved and it makes it a bit easier to understand what is really wrong not to mention it gives some insight into what is really more a matter of gang warfare as opposed to a real insurgency.

The folks who star in these movies are nervous about all the imperfections that are showing up now that resolution is so high.

Here's an MSNBC article with just a few more details. It has the RIAA's response:

Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs challenged major record labels to strip copying restrictions from music sold online, but their trade group fired back Wednesday, suggesting the company should open up its anti-piracy technology to rivals instead.

Doing so, argued Mitch Bainwol, chairman and chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America, would eliminate technology hurdles that prevent music fans from buying songs at Apple's iTunes Music Store and playing them on devices other than the iPod.

"We have no doubt that a technology company as sophisticated and smart as Apple could work with the music community to make that happen," Bainwol said in a statement.

I get the impression that you're just trying to insert a snide remark into this conversation to make a point. I would say that there are some religions that are just there for the money. There's no denying that. Heck, this one just made the news last week. But I would also argue that there are a lot of religions that are not in it for the money. I know that the Church I go to is very open about how money is spent, as well as the financial situation at all times. There's listings in the bulletin about what money is taken in, and what major projects the money is used for. To generalize to the extent that your remark is generalizing, is similar to racism at its roots. Someone has a bad experience with someone who has purple skin, and they think all purple-skinned people are the same. It's just spreading of fear.

Found one (exactly one): http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16776882/site/newsweek /

Once they are denied a driver license, a whole host of otherwise trivial transactions (banking, travel, renting an apartment, etc) become much harder from them to accomplish without attracting attention.

You know, I rented in various places across the country for over 12 years, and I have never been asked for an ID when renting an apartment. Even when I got a mortgage, no physical identification was ever requested, and there are mortgages specifically for people who don't have (or don't want to divulge) financial information, called NINAs.

Additionally, Gilmore v. Gonzales established that traveling without ID is possible. Sure, you may "attract attention" temporarily, but if you never show ID, they'll (probably) never know who you are. And if more people declined to show ID, it wouldn't even raise suspicion.

Send all the Macarena dancers to Saudi Arabia? Excluding the minors of course. One of the many reasons we should watch the path our governments take and impede their paths when necessary. One of the myriad reasons our founding fathers insisted on seperation of church and state. DMCA take down notices remind me too much of the old practice of crying witch. Guess this choreographer has joined the MPAA and RIAA in reserecting McCarthyist witch hunts. As with old Salem era witch hunts, you have to drown (in the legal system) to prove yourself innocent.

NEWSWEEK: If one of our readers confronted you in a CompUSA and said, "Bill, why upgrade to Vista?" what would be your elevator pitch?

Bill Gates: The most effective thing would be if I could sit down with them and just take them through the new look for a couple of minutes, show them the Sidebar, show them the way the search lets you go through lots of things, including lots of photos. Set up a parental control. And then I might edit a high-definition movie and make a little DVD that's got photos. As I went through, they'd think, "Wow, is that something I could use, would that make a difference for me?"

Bill Gates on Vista and Apple's 'Lying' Ads

Hmm, Mr. Gates, I'd definitely like some of those features. Perhaps I should go pick up a Mac. (In black, please.)

You did notice who published this interview right? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16934083/site/newsweek /

Allow me to highlight the notable characters in the domain name: www.msnbc.msn.com

Newsweek: With Xbox and Zune, Microsoft has adopted an end-to-end approach, where you write the software, design the hardware and run the services. Will Microsoft now change its mobile-phone strategy and adopt an end-to-end approach, the way Apple has with the iPhone?

Gates: No, I don't think so. People like different styling, media storage, capability [in phones]. The benefit we get from having lots of great hardware partners is pretty phenomenal. And our software can run on any one of those things.

These sorts of things crop up every few years: poll a bunch of people - prominent scientists, celebrities, politicians, bum-on-the-street, [insert other demographic here] - on what the best invention of the last X years (or ever) was. You can get some interesting results. I would be facinated to see a histographic breakdown of the results of this contest among space enthusiasts.

Don't bother. GP is a brainwashed idiot.

Even the Pentagon says only about 10% will face trial because of a lack of evidence: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15361740/

And of course there's Seton Hall Law School's report: http://law.shu.edu/news/guantanamo_report_final_2_ 08_06.pdf (pdf)
Two notable factoids: only 5% were captured by US forces. Secondly, we were paying a $4285 reward per head. Pakistan delivered quite a few and with a per capita income = $720 (that's almost 6 years of pay as a reward for captured prisoners), how likely is it that there was no fraud? Can we talk negative probabilities here? Any realistic person would know there's a 100% chance innocents got nabbed for cash.

Hold my beer while I pull every LED off my monitors, KB, Mice, Computers, Cell Phones, etc to make sure they aren't really bombs.

There are places where it's normal to find LEDs, wires, and electronic components, such as, oh, say, on monitors, keyboards, mice, computers, cell phones, and so on. And then there are places where it's not normal to find electronics, such as on unrecognizable devices attached to bridges, and on subway walls.

There is normally no need to be unduly alarmed about the former. Like it or not, there is a need to be alarmed about the latter, at least to the point of taking prudent measures to check it out as they did.

And it's not like we haven't seen an innocent marketing ploy turned into a security concern before, though I think this one is way more stupid. At some point, these idiotic marketing companies have to figure out that at some point, someone needs to ask the question, "Is this something that could reasonably cause security problems for people who don't look at the world as one huge billboard?"

I have to admit to needing the explanation. I thought you were humorously referring to the attempt to ban dihydrogen monoxide, as it also occurred in CA.

more of this kind of review.

Wow, I have this one. Does that make me "righter" than you? Or is it possible that some people will like it and some people won't? Oh, I forget - you must "hate" something if you don't like it, so there's no middle ground. And if you hate something, anyone that does not is an "astroturfer" and a "shill" or "troll". Never mind.

re:"See, for instance, how Intel is ready to push Xeons to 45nm within a year, but is mum as far as 65nm Itanics are concerned."

Mum. That's a funny word for a development that's been COVERED IN THE POPULAR FUCKING PRESS:

"Intel appears the farthest along in bringing a product based on the technology to market.

The Santa Clara-based company said it has created working microprocessors using the new materials that will go into mass production in the second half of 2007.

Intel also said the chips will be built using its new manufacturing process that involves shrinking parts of the chips down to 45 nanometers, or billionths of a meter, from the 65-nanometer process the company uses now."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16839253/

Seems you're an expert at ignoring blattent headlines in an effort to run FUD. Good troll trollfucker. You look like a massive moron. I say look - but it really should read "are".

I don't see anything in the article to indicate THAAD works against ICBM's that can behave more like cruise missiles and zigzag to their targets. Check the following:

• Newsweek
• Pravda

Glamorous, yeah, and it looks really impressive at PR time. But when the cameras are off and you're just hanging around the apartment trying to have a relationship, you spend a whole lotta time ducking the cellphones being thrown at your head.

IBM decided Apple wasn't worth the pain. Looks like Verizon's making that same call, too.


"Steve Jobs makes Simon Cowell look positively sycophantic."

http://dailytech.com/Life+With+Penryn/article5869. htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16839253/
http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/27/technology/bc.micr ochips.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/technology/27chi p.html?em&ex=1170046800&en=59a4d10473c4a8c8&ei=508 7%0A
http://news.com.com/Chip+companies+entering+their+ metal+period/2100-1006_3-6153962.html
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=29 15

I've got some karma to spare, I think I can afford to be modded down by Mac fanboys. So here it goes...

If you read the real article that this blog entry links to (note to editors, why can't you just use the actual stories in the summaries instead of making us go through some blogger first? If I just wanted to hear some nobody write stuff he is pulling out of his ass on a subject he knows nothing about, I'd skip straight to the comments section...), it doesn't even mention DRM. This seems to be more of an anti-trust thing, rather than an intellectual property thing. Which makes sense, I mean if it is illegal in Europe for Microsoft to include a copy of music playing software with their operating system that users have the choice to use, why would it be legal for Apple to force their users to buy a specific piece of hardware? Microsoft may not be the king of open standards by any standard, but they are miles ahead of Apple.

"The developers clearly had good intentions when designing this."

Hmmmm... A military that not only monitors peaceful protesters, but aims to inflict non-lethal, excruciating pain on them.

Among the 'Oppressions' mentioned in the U.S. Declaration of Independance:

'He <the King of Great Britain> has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.'

Farmers who work 16hrs a day/7 days a week eat diets filled with bacon, sausage, eggs, and corn. All of it cooked in real animal lard. They live long lives. They are usually physically powerful individuals without any substantial physical definition. Even changes in cholesterol theory don't explain this. The kind of excercise we get in a gym doesn't replicate the results. Just ask all the bodybuilders and runners dying at 65. What is the difference? Hell if I know but it certainly seems to be there.

That all sounds nice, but I don't know if it is true... I do know that runners have longer life expectancies than "average people", and (aneqdotaly) many of them that do die in their 60's come from families were making it past 50 is good (for instance jim fixx). If you have hard numbers on what you assert I would be very interested in seeing them. (see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10039577/ for info on exercize and life expectancy).


Also, looking at nature I haven't found animals watching their diets. Other animals don't have any magic diet regulator switch instinct built in that the human animal does not. The natural habitat of most animals is certainly pretty sprawling. lol. I know of some predators that seem to dine almost exclusively on red meat and are quite healthy. The diets of animals in nature are diverse but they seem to have a few things in common. They all get quite a bit of natural, varied, excercise. Animals in nature are capable of storing fat (even if the vegetarians) for winter but otherwise aren't obese.

They keep breading until competition for the food keeps them thin... Capture a few squirrels, put them in enclosures with lots of easily reached food, and give vasectimies to all the males, they will get quite fat...

First of all .. In my neck of the woods, we pay 28 cents/KwH (1,6066 DKR) .. your 50 year ROI becomes a measly 8 years .. still longer than most people live in one place, but a battery of sun panels on the roof probably will up the value of a house (I wouldn't mind paying extra).
I can see why you disagree with my coment, I should have included the calculation before ..

There are some very interesting small turbines comming out that have a quite low ROI even compared with the price you pay..

Hydro and geothermal wasn't what I was refering to, but more the things you can do in your own home, to get around the electricity bill.
This guy is using a waterwheel .. normally I would consider hydro a huge (government type) investment, but hey .. you got to use what is at hand..

Which brings us to current events in Spain .. other countries in Europe has similar goals.

The rules are changing changing faster in Europe than in the States, at the moment.
(Higher prices => other thought patterns)

MS strips the URL: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/09/09/463204 .aspx and http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/08/31/458663 .aspx

Phishing Filter does not check every URL on the Microsoft server. It only sends those which are not on a known list of OK sites or those that appear suspicious based on heuristics. If an URL is checked on the Microsoft server, first the URL is stripped down to the path to help remove personal information, then the remaining URL is sent over a secure SSL connection. The communication with the Microsoft server is done asynchronously so that there is little to no effect on your browsing experience.

So, for example, if you were to visit http://www.msn.com/ nothing will be checked on the Microsoft server because "msn.com" and other major websites are on the client-side list of OK sites. However, let's say the URL looked like this: http://207.68.172.246/result.aspx?u=Tariq&p=Tariq' sPassword, in this scenario phishing filter will remove the query string to help protect my privacy but it will send "http://207.68.172.246/result.aspx" to be checked by the Microsoft Server because 207.68.172.246 is not on the allow list of OK sites. As it turns out, 207.68.172.246 is just the IP address of MSN.com server, so its not a phishing site but this example should help you understand more about how Phishing Filter checks sites on the server.

There was an outstanding program put together by Dateline (NBC) with the police http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9878187/ I was shocked to see some of the people. Imigrants, truck drivers, ex and current military men... the list goes on. There seem to be people from all walks of life that are getting mixed up in this horrible problem. Watching them get caught and talk about it was shocking.

Digital music sales are flagging? Looks to me like they're still growing.

What the linked article doesn't tell you is that they're counting all music sales - not just online store sales. Overall, music sales are still falling, and the increase in digital music sales isn't offsetting the collapse of CD sales. Record companies are looking for anyhting that will open the field up and get people to start spending money on any delivery format for music.

Of course, don't tell the astroturfers who write articles like this. You might bring them a little too close to reality.

Digital Music Sales Doubled in 2006

Digital Music sales to more than double in the next five years

I think I mentioned this in a similar thread, but it seems to bear repetition:
Those of us who watch '24' might recall that the major threat in season three (correct me if I'm wrong) was that some tangos had the brilliant idea of selling spiked cocaine to unsuspecting street-level distributors... and it is worth noting that a former investigator interviewed for a June '06 investigative report performed by MSNBC raised the spectre of some enterprising tangos replicating that hypothetical scenario by slipping tainted medicines into legitimate channels. Now imagine how much easier said tangos would have it if they opted to deliver their 'goods' via spam...

LOL recounts.

Republicans "asked county auditors statewide to reconsider ballots that were rejected on Election Day." Because apparently when Democrats can't punch out a hole right, they're stupid idiots, but when Republicans can't fill out a ballot, their voice deserves to be heard.

If you're going to point fingers and call hypocrisy, stand on less shaky ground next time. It also helps when you're not trying to defend people that explicitly broke the law.

I think we just have to accept that as a society we are moving to the point where we lose our privacy and it seems like you can either embrace the loss or try to fight it.

In other news today, policeman Adam Jones was suspended with pay yesterday pending the investigation of the shooting death of talk show host and third-rate Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy at the corner of 5th and Broad yesterday. "I thought he was brandishing a rifle at other motorists, Officer Jones said to reporters. "How was I supposed to know it was a Daisy rifle and he was just aiming at the traffic camera?"

I'm surprised they didn't get him for tax evasion, too. I mean, the IRS even requires that you pay taxes on stolen property.

I can't see that as a bad thing, frankly. If indie games start showing up natively in Linux out of necessity, it might create an atmosphere where:

The community puts more effort into supporting game developers on Linux (tools, APIs, etc.)
Linux begins to gain a reputation as a viable target for games (which it currently lacks)
Innovative games show up on Linux rather than Windows, possibly convincing people to convert
Granted, this doesn't mean that AAA titles will show up right away, but, given point #2, it might convince some developers apart from id and Epic to hit Linux with a native client for their games.

Plus, does anybody remember when Doom was an indie game and sold PCs? The bar has been raised, of course, but our tools have also become much more sophisticated in the interim.

Perhaps the original poster meant this:

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

Here's the article itself:

    http://denisdutton.com/cooling_world.htm

Or other articles relating to it:

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15391426/site/newsweek /

"How did NEWSWEEK--or for that matter, Time magazine, which also ran a story on the subject in the mid-1970s--get things so wrong? In fact, the story wasn't "wrong" in the journalistic sense of "inaccurate." Some scientists indeed thought the Earth might be cooling in the 1970s, and some laymen--even one as sophisticated and well-educated as Isaac Asimov--saw potentially dire implications for climate and food production. After all, Ice Ages were common in Earth's history; if anything, the warm "interglacial" period in which human civilization evolved, and still exists, is the exception."

I think the point is that the alarmist of 1975 appear to be cut from the same cloth as those in 2007 predicting exactly the opposite. If the experts were wrong in 1975, then it seems reasonable that experts could be wrong again.

Here is a link to the article I found. Here's a quick quote:

"In 2000, just 5 percent of 13- to 17-year olds had cell phones. Today, 56 percent do, according to Linda Barrabee, wireless market analyst for The Yankee Group."

That was taken in 2004. You can just imagine the stats now. I think our 12 year old fits in the demographics by now. The sad truth is that parents have been tricked into believing that a child having a cell phone is a replacement for putting effort into actually physically knowing where your children are. I expect we'll see younger and younger children with them. You can already get children's phones that only dial pre-programmed numbers aimed at the under 10 age group. As a whole we keep treating children like adults without taking the time to teach them how to be children and then adults first. It's quite unfortunate.

The popular media was not "Weekly World News", but Newsweek http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15391426/site/newsweek / and Time. They were quoting scientific opinion that the cooling trend that had begun in the 1940's may have been a precursor of a new natural ice age. I clearly remember this was something we were required to study in school. The scare we were faced with then was freezing in the dark. Interestingly, the solution to global cooling was: "Cut human emissions and reduce our environmental footprint" and the bad guys causing global cooling were big oil and big coal. The human impact that was very widely studied at that time was nuclear winter. It wasn't until the late 1980's that popular media began to talk about global warming. Prior to that if you wanted funding for research you talked about nuclear winter. Now if you want funding you talk about global warming.

Your attempt to belittle the response to your post indicates to me that you are not fully comfortable with your position. If you are fully comfortable with your position, defend it honestly or leave the defense to people who are more even tempered than you are.

Cheers

JE

Women mostly don't need to be self-taught. Colleges and educational institutions are happy to educate women. Meanwhile there's an increasing bias in educational institutions against males:

Schoolboy's bias suit
Where The Boys Aren't
Why boys can't be boys
The Trouble With Boys

and especially

How the Schools Shortchange Boys

It's not a big factor in this particular case, but one reason some guys are self-taught is because they've learned education isn't for them -- rather it's against them.

And Municipal Broadband seems unpopular with states.

There is faint hope for an opportunity in the Senate Communications Act of 2006 on page 184 of which I find:

''(c) LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROVISION OF ADVANCED COMMUNICATIONS CAPABILITY AND SERVICES.--No State statute, regulation, or other State legal requirement may prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting any public provider from providing, to any person or any public or private entity, advanced telecommunications capability or any service that utilizes the advanced telecommunications capability provided by such public provider.

There is no way the communications giants would let that pass.

Science is fluid and ever changing. What scientists call "facts" are really just the best understanding of the world around us at this point based on the information we have. Case in point. Astronomy. Our best and brightest at one point calculated the size of the universe and with that it's age. Then they built a telescope that could see well beyond the edge. What did they find? More galaxies and stars and well... more universe. So they went back and calculated again.

That's just how science is. You only think you know everything when you know almost nothing. My own belief system/world view straddles both science and religion. I.e. I do believe that evolution happened and is continuing today. I don't believe it was all random. Note: I used the word "believe", The evidence is somewhat shaky.

I guess my mind is just too limited to accept that this universe, as wonderful, orderly and chaotic as it is was the result of random chance and the application physical laws.

Just for fun: If I was god and saw mankind label and categorize lifeforms into mammal, reptile, bird etc... I would probably sneak in something like the duck billed platypus as a practical joke.

BTW: If you missed the story about T-Rex meat see lazy links below.

http://www.calacademy.org/science_now/headline_sci ence/T-rex_soft_tissue.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7285683/

Name a type of music that has been more influential in the last 30 years..

Well ... Define "influential" ...

If you consider music sales Rock music is more popular than Rap, Hip-Hop, R&B and Urban combined. If you look at critical acclaim Rap music has only been receiving critical acclaim and awards (outside of specific genre awards) in the past 5 or so years.

And what does it matter if a musical style has been "influential" if the initial argument was that it was unoriginal? You can be very generic (and even steal other people's ideas) and still be "influential".

Sure, it's "not working"... just like "Misty" asploded into six pieces...
"When it was first launched from the space shuttle Atlantis on March 1, 1990, it was believed to be the first advanced KH-11 spacecraft," he says, referring to the top-of-the-line American spy satellite. "Within weeks, both U.S. and Soviet space sources reported it had malfunctioned and would make a 'fiery re-entry in the next 30 days.' Both assessments were wrong."
Richelson reports that the only people who successfully kept track of the flight were civilian space observers in England and Canada who watched a series of maneuvers performed by the satellite, including the "explosion" that Richelson believes "may have been a tactic to deceive those monitoring the satellite."
One of the observers who spoke to Richelson, Ted Molczan of Toronto, told NBC News that the supposed explosion took place on March 7, 1990, six days after launch, and was first reported by the Soviet press.
"Russia reported it had detected debris," Molczan recalled, "and NORAD identified six pieces."
The plan for stealthiness may have involved some clever trickery by the CIA.
"The satellite was exceedingly bright, brighter than the KH-11, and kept in a low orbit, only 250 kilometers (150 miles) above the earth, so it was easily visible," Molczan said. "Then there was nothing after the 'explosion.' They apparently needed the 'explosion' to be long enough so they could deploy the stealth masking device."
U.S. officials may have also used disinformation to enhance the deception, often discussing the need to develop stealthy satellites, never letting on that such satellites not only had been developed but launched as well...
TFA: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3077830/

If you were to take half the money of the richest 10% of Americans and spread it out among the poorest 40%, you'd probably take one of the biggest steps in history towards eliminating poverty.

That's absurd!!!

Why don't they buy their own islands from the United Arab Emirates for about $3 million?!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7051051/

It's even better than buying that Sealand, which has a lot of controversy all around it...

No, they work for me. I own something like 500 shares of Nintendo. Just like I own shares of Microsoft - and actually my ex may be working for them soon.

Some interesting twists on gaming in the military in Iraq...

Psychologists who treat combat stress recommend video games for Marines to unwind and boost morale. "I always talk to people about all kinds of positive, pleasant events that they can use," said Lt. Erin Simmons, a psychologist with Bravo Surgical Company. "I've heard some people say they like to play the video games with the aggressive military content. I've also heard people say they don't want to play those types of games, they don't need to be reminded of it. But as far as a pleasant event, it can take their mind of things, help them relax. We encourage it."

And then there is recruiting...

The military awoke to the power of video games years ago. It developed "America's Army" as a recruitment tool, giving civilians a taste of the soldier life with scenarios that let players cooperate online in raids on guerrilla camps and bridges, among several other scenarios.

But a game is still a game, not reality...

But Marines scoff at the idea that games could somehow prepare them for combat in any significant way. In video games, they say, players are generally willing to risk their lives; that wasn't always the case in Fallujah. [source]

But for most net-connected resources these days, strong passwords are probably better simply because there are more bad guys "out there" than "in here."