Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Domains

Domain: msn.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to msn.com.

Comments · 6,558

  1. Re:They're in for it now by LeonGeeste · · Score: 1 · on Google Plans to Offer Free WiFi in San Francisco

    Yeah, good point! What government is going to punish, tax, or ban the practice of providing free or cheap goods to consumers? That would be stupid! Cheap and free stuff is ... good. I can't imagine any government trying to get in the way of that. You would have to be monumentally stupid to do that! I mean, you might as well just ban sunlight for competing with light bulb manufacturers! LOL! ...

    Oh, fuck:

    http://slate.msn.com/id/2062852/
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protective_tariff
    http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8& q=tariff&btnG=Search+News

    *burying face in hands*

  2. Link amended by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Music Industry Threatens to Pull Plug on Apple

    Edgar Bronfman, Edgar Bronfman Overrated father, misunderstood son.

  3. Re:Let's just ask Hugh Hefner by afidel · · Score: 1 · on Blu-Ray Attacks Microsoft, Microsoft Bites Back

    HD-DVD will only be out months ahead of Blue-Ray, not a year as Toshiba and company had hoped. In fact they just made the announcement yesterday. Of course this is news for nerds, not actual breaking news =)

  4. HD-DVD is now delayed to near blu-ray launch by elwinc · · Score: 3, Interesting · on Blu-Ray Attacks Microsoft, Microsoft Bites Back
    Parent says "HD-DVD is already here."

    Unfortunately, according to this article ,

    Toshiba yesterday confirmed its next-generation optical disc format, HD DVD, will not launch in the US until "February or March". The technology had previously been expected to hit the market before the end of this year.
    According to this the delay is not for technical reasons: "The consortium behind the disc wants to avoid repeating 1997's slow launch of the DVD, for which only a few titles were initially available."

    On the other hand, in 1997 there wasn't a competing DVD format breathing down anyone's neck.

  5. Re:I sometimes envy the young. by WhiteWolf666 · · Score: 1 · on Tech Geezers vs. Young Bloods

    Don't worry, technology will save you to.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8656746/

    'The "Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) 5," can let a person who can barely do an 176-pound leg press handle 397 pounds.'

    Combine that with new erectile disfunction drugs, and you too can can have insane fetish sex ;-)

    By the way, Mod parent up, for really funny ;-)

  6. Re:Doesn't seem right to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Eight Charged in Episode III Early Release

    UNDERCOVER COP: Hey man, you wanna buy some cocaine?
    HAPLESS FOOL: Sure!
    [FOOL gives COP money for cocaine, and COP gives FOOL cocoaine.]
    COP: You're under arrest, fool!

    Actually, this isn't entrapment either. This is perfectly legal for the police to do.

    Entrapment is when an agent of the state causes a citizen to commit a crime he or she would not commit if it was not for the coersion of the agent of the state.

    A better example of entrapment would be: A police officer plants cocaine on you, and tells you to go rob a bank for him, or go to jail for possession of cocaine.

    Check the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrapment
    And the Slate article linked from wikipedia: http://slate.msn.com/id/1003657/

  7. Re:Pictures by jangobongo · · Score: 1 · on Giant Squid Caught on Film
    If you are referring to this link which is on the page that the GP post linked
    Deep-sea monster caught on tape
    You should note that the video referred to there is from Dec. 18, 2001.

    It does not work with Firefox, but then I couldn't get it to work on Explorer either. All I got was the message "The video you requested is not available." Possibly because the link was 4 years old?
  8. Re:where's the vid by syukton · · Score: 1 · on Giant Squid Caught on Film

    Video is on this page but since it's on MSNBC, they bend you over and make you take it Internet Explorer style. Actually, I went ahead and opened it in IE and I'm stuck watching the Iams multicat commercial over and over because the advertisement stream keeps timing out just before the end and it just replays over and over again without letting me move on to the content.

    Oop, there it goes. It's 21 seconds of video. And....I can't play it again. The "play" button on the embedded player is disabled after playing the stream once.

    I tried to grab a screenshot but it didn't work. The embedded player's video acceleration doesn't draw to the screen bitmap but uses the overlay mode of the video card...

    Well if you've got IE and you can put up with the headache required to see the video, it's there. The squid looks REALLY unusual and the 21 seconds of video are...hm, yeah, I'll say it's worth it.

  9. squid pic by opaqueice · · Score: 2, Informative · on Giant Squid Caught on Film

    Here's a photo:

    http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9503272/

  10. Pictures by youknowmewell · · Score: 5, Informative · on Giant Squid Caught on Film

    Pictures here.

  11. Only age and gender, for now by flopiano · · Score: 1 · on MSN Takes on Google AdWords

    According to this advertisers can target their campaign by age and gender.
    My understanding is that, when some information about the user is available (i.e. they signed in as passport users) their personal data is used to better target the ads.
    Moreover, MSN search could track which kind of ads you clicked in the past or which kind of pages you usually visit and use this information to deliver even better targeted ads.
    On the other hand, MSN already collects demographic information about the visitors of their sites, not only age and gender, but also other random things like education, occupation, marital status, income, online shopping etc...
    so they could use also this information in the future.

    Fabio
    --
    sig momentarily busy. Try again later

  12. Re:GET SOME PRIORTIES!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Broadcast Flag Back in Congress

    last i heard, the deaths caused by Rita weren't even in the 10s:
    this article only mentions 4 so far: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropoli tan/3371006

    alternatively, there are 600,000 obesity related deaths: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9480347/

  13. Initial Post Makes Flawed Assumption by bmkay · · Score: 1 · on U.S. Deploys Orbital Communications Jammer

    This post raises some interesting questions and entertaining discussion, but I think kpwoodr made a leap of reasoning that goes beyond the focus of the source article. (Something which I see many people are eager to punce upon for their pro-war or anti-war agendas.) The word launch is actually only mentioned once in source article, by Bill Gertz, and that refers to Chinese space launches. I fail to see the "recent satellite launch" mentioned in the article that kpwoodr alludes to as a "jammer in space." I think what has happened is a common assumption (conspiracy theory) that any major effort by Air Force Space Command must logically involve some new super-secret space vehicle. However, what many observers fail to appreciate is that Air Force Space Command considers multiple segments (i.e. the ground facilities, communications links, and space vehicles) to make up a complete space system. Thus when General Lord talks about protecting space and deploying an electronic warfare unit he may be talking about any one of those segments. In this case, the article (and General Lord) are refering to the Counter Communications System which was deployed last year. It is a ground based jammer, not space based. The ground-based Counter Communications System (CCS) is transportable, and intended to disrupt adversary satellite-based communications in a temporary and reversible manner. It is a rather routine technology in terms of what other nations are capable of and have been doing

  14. Re:100 million users and climbing by Irish_Samurai · · Score: 2, Insightful · on How Chinese Evade Government's Web Controls

    100 million out of 1,306,313,812 is not a majority. Actually, it's nowhere close.

    So even if the complete 100 million online Chinese had everything they could want, a much larger chunk of the population is really unhappy with the state of their existence. Report on the subject. Basically, the American people are given all the Soma they want. By the time we need to stand up for ourselves, we won't know how.

  15. MSN AdCenter by NoInfo · · Score: 4, Informative · on MSN Takes on Google AdWords

    The actual URL to Microsoft's MSN AdCenter:

    adcenter.msn.com

  16. Re:Google Moon Apollo 16th... by alexhmit01 · · Score: 0, Troll · on Happy 7th Birthday Google!

    Yeah, I mean, we need to only consider science... and ignoring other thoughts, that's not at all a religion... Next thing you know in addition to blaming ills on evil spirits, we'll start treating them with leaches and possibly need to regulate maggots for health treatment.

    The fact is, not everyone who disagrees with you is a nut job, and "pissing off the religious right" may make you proud, but science is a series of tests and experiments... Science is the scientific method, and anything that doesn't fall within the scientific method isn't science.

    That includes Global Climate Change/Global Cooling/Global Warming/whatever the scare tactic of the decade is... Unless you have two earths somewhere to conduct the tests to determine if humans actually cause a difference. The level of "fact" the global climate change is argued for (with INCORRECT facts, like hurricanes being caused by it... GCC argues for 2 degrees/century, which is NOT the reason for a 2-4 degree increase in the last few years, but that's not what you hear...)

    That includes evolution, because you can't test any of it.

    GCC and Evolution are ATTEMPTS to explain what appears to be going on, they aren't SCIENCE! The biggest champions of these movements have turned it into a religion... it's an anti-Christian religion, but religion none-the-less.

    Evolution is the scientific community's best attempt to explain species, and has some big gaps that they are working on. Some people believe that evolution fails to explain certain complexity and indicates an intelligent design. Who cares... apparently you, because ALL science will now stop, because students are exposed to people that disagree...

    Independent thought and people acting different than you REALLY bothers non-conformists, huh?

    Alex

  17. Fool All of the People Some of the Time by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Central Park Media Lets Fans Cast "Outlanders"

    Democratic voting is far from a guarantee that the majority will be happy with their selection once its made. But it is very handy in making people feel like the selection is their fault, that they should get defensive, and protect their selection from the others, even when they become the minority through attrition.

  18. Who? by internewt · · Score: 1 · on Happy 7th Birthday Google!
    http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=google&FORM=Q BHP
    Oh, that Google!

    Infact, just seen this from that search above http://www.google.com/ig. Nice.

  19. Re:Answer me this. by Minna+Kirai · · Score: 1 · on Poisoned Torrents Plague Mybittorrent

    Law Enforcement might be able to entrap people (undercover cops pretending to be hookers for example) but private citizens can't do it

    Completely backwards. Entrapment is only illegal for cops or other government agents; private citizens can happily "entrap" all day long. By the legal definition, it is completely impossible for anyone besides a law enforcement officer to commit entrapment.

  20. Re:Lose, lose situation for RIAA by TrentC · · Score: 1 · on RIAA Suit Rejected With Prejudice
    Frankly I think if a person in the U.S. did get sued for using [Allfmp3.com], you could build a pretty strong case for plausible deniability of the fact you were doing anything wrong -- if in fact you are doing anything wrong under U.S. copyright law, which I'm not sure of. You're effectively legally purchasing something in Russia, but then importing it into the U.S.

    Not necessarily...

    From "Barely Legal: The hottest trend in file sharing"
    1. Could a site claiming to hold foreign distribution rights be a legal way to download copyrighted music?

    Sure. Music licensing agreements vary from distributor to distributor and from country to country. If Allofmp3.com has legitimately acquired Russian distribution rights, it would be legal to download from them the same way that copyright holders have licensed iTunes and Napster in the United States, according to James Gibson, who teaches law at the University of Richmond and wrote a brief supporting the music industry in the MGM v. Grokster case.

    [Emphasis mine] But get out your balaclava, pop the caviar, and activate those frequent-flyer miles: Because in order to download legally from a Russian rights-holder, you'd likely have to actually go to Russia. Foreign-rights-holders usually only control the copyright within the country itself, and that includes Internet distribution.

    2. Is Allofmp3.com actually legal?

    Probably not. The discussion above about what Allofmp3.com is allowed to do with international distribution rights assumes the site actually owns those rights. [Emphasis mine] It doesn't--at least not according to the recording industry. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry is the worldwide organization of recording companies, and it claims that Allofmp3.com has not been licensed to distribute its members' "repertoire" in Russia or anywhere else. While Allofmp3.com claims it owns distribution rights from the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society, the record companies say, "Nyet."

    Bruce Boyden, a copyright lawyer at Proskauer Rose, which represents the international copyright holders in Grokster, concedes that there's some dispute as to whether Allofmp3.com has in fact obtained the Russian distribution rights. But he has his suspicions: "Allofmp3.com doesn't sound Russian to me, and it doesn't sound like they're aiming at a Russian audience." [Emphasis mine] Moreover, even if it does hold some Russian distribution rights, it certainly doesn't own worldwide Internet distribution rights.
  21. You want a pleasant job environment? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Pay vs. Happiness

    Then make one of these: http://spaces.msn.com/members/cooknaked/Blog/cns!1 pvuSZvKQm55PpLHWg0w1T9A!111.entry

    This cheesecake will melt the heart and soul of anyone. Mucho calming influence ;)

  22. Re:Before we get too heated up... by whovian · · Score: 1 · on Federal Agencies To Collect Genetic Info

    http://slate.msn.com/id/2087984/

    Section 215, aka "Attack of the Angry Librarians"

    Section 215 is one of the surprising lightning rods of the Patriot Act, engendering more protest, lawsuits, and congressional amendments than any other. In part this is because this section authorizes the government to march into a library and demand a list of everyone who's ever checked out a copy of My Secret Garden but also because those librarians are tough.

    What it does: Section 215 modifies the rules on records searches. Post-Patriot Act, third-party holders of your financial, library, travel, video rental, phone, medical, church, synagogue, and mosque records can be searched without your knowledge or consent, providing the government says it's trying to protect against terrorism.

    The law before and how it changed: Previously the government needed at least a warrant and probable cause to access private records. The Fourth Amendment, Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, and case law provided that if the state wished to search you, it needed to show probable cause that a crime had been committed and to obtain a warrant from a neutral judge. Under FISA--the 1978 act authorizing warrantless surveillance so long as the primary purpose was to obtain foreign intelligence information--that was somewhat eroded, but there remained judicial oversight. And under FISA, records could be sought only "for purposes of conducting foreign intelligence" and the target "linked to foreign espionage" and an "agent of a foreign power." Now the FBI needs only to certify to a FISA judge--(no need for evidence or probable cause) that the search protects against terrorism. The judge has no authority to reject this application. DOJ calls this "seeking a court order," but it's much closer to a rubber stamp. Also, now the target of a search needn't be a terror suspect herself, so long as the government's purpose is "an authorized investigation ... to protect against international terrorism."

  23. Re:And out of the atmosphere you do... what? by Stripe7 · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Skyhook Robot Passes 1000 Foot Mark

    Actually there is a project to use large balloons as heavy slow lifters. 1st stage balloon lifts the orbit balloon which uses an ion engine to get into orbit. It will take weeks to lift anything into space but it would be cheap and repeatable. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5025388/

  24. Re:The alphabet according to google suggest by DeadSea · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Google Firefox Toolbar Out Of Beta

    It is also interesting to see the most popular web sites. Start by typing www. into google suggest. The top 10 are:

    1. www.yahoo.com - Search/Directory
    2. www.hotmail.com - Email
    3. www.google.com - Search
    4. www.ebay.com - Shopping
    5. www.msn.com - Portal
    6. www.aol.com - Portal
    7. www.ebay.co.uk - Shopping
    8. www.irs.gov - Government
    9. www.mapquest.com - Maps
    10. www.amazon.com - Shopping

    Typing one more letter shows you the top sites for that letter. Here is the top for each letter:

    This is some random commentary to make sure that my post has enough characters per line on average to get by the lameness filter. Just a few more words should do it. Then I will be over the limit. Maybe you would like to hear a bit about my projects: Attesoro - A internationalization editor for Java programs. Coinmill - A currency conversion website with many currencies, and features such as abilty to parse English sentences asking for currency conversion. Java Utilities - Utilities for common task in the Java programming language such as parsing CSV files and string manipulation.

  25. Re:The alphabet according to google suggest by DeadSea · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Google Firefox Toolbar Out Of Beta

    It is also interesting to see the most popular web sites. Start by typing www. into google suggest. The top 10 are:

    1. www.yahoo.com - Search/Directory
    2. www.hotmail.com - Email
    3. www.google.com - Search
    4. www.ebay.com - Shopping
    5. www.msn.com - Portal
    6. www.aol.com - Portal
    7. www.ebay.co.uk - Shopping
    8. www.irs.gov - Government
    9. www.mapquest.com - Maps
    10. www.amazon.com - Shopping

    Typing one more letter shows you the top sites for that letter. Here is the top for each letter:

    This is some random commentary to make sure that my post has enough characters per line on average to get by the lameness filter. Just a few more words should do it. Then I will be over the limit. Maybe you would like to hear a bit about my projects: Attesoro - A internationalization editor for Java programs. Coinmill - A currency conversion website with many currencies, and features such as abilty to parse English sentences asking for currency conversion. Java Utilities - Utilities for common task in the Java programming language such as parsing CSV files and string manipulation.

  26. Uncoated polycarbonate? Who made that blunder? by Animats · · Score: 4, Insightful · on iPod nano Owners In Screen Scratch Trauma
    Now that was dumb. Polycarbonates are strong, but not hard. The eyeglass lens industry solved this problem years ago. Even the bus window industry has solved this problem. Optical polycarbonate surfaces are routinely hard-coated, and an anti-glare coating is often added at the same time.

    The cool solution, which Apple probably now has to use to get their reputation back, is sapphire. That's what scratch-resistant high-end watches use. Put an 0.15mm sapphire layer on top of the polycarbonate, and you can dump the thing in with your keys without worrying. It's not that expensive for a phone or music player sized screen. Some of Nokia's high-end phones have a sapphire screen.

    Of course, doing it right might cut into those 40% profit margins at Apple.

  27. Re:Kenyatta by putko · · Score: 1 · on Martian Naming Madness

    Clearly there is no standard for names in America. You can't enumerate them. It is my understanding that in Denmark, there is a list of allowed names -- clearly there they have a a standard. Because we don't have standard list of names, it is quite arbitrary to decide if a name is "standard". To complicate matters, some names are common for pets, but not people (e.g. "Spot", "Fido", "Max").

    I think most people go by the rule, "have I ever heard or read this name multiple times before?"

    So "Rush", for instance, wouldn't be a standard name. I know of only one (an annoying radio host). In fact, if you take samples of populations, you can get a lot more precise (see below).

    You write, "Some dippy Congresswoman is calling for more "African-American names", when there's no such thing."

    I have to disagree -- you can sample 100,000 black girls, and 100,000 white girls, and come up with names that many black girls have that not one white girl has:

    "Today, more than 40 percent of the black girls born in California in a given year receive a name that not one of the roughly 100,000 baby white girls received that year. Even more remarkably, nearly 30 percent of the black girls are given a name that is unique among every baby, white and black, born that year in California. (There were also 228 babies named Unique during the 1990s alone, and one each of Uneek, Uneque, and Uneqqee; virtually all of them were black.)"

    So there you have it: there are black names -- they are preponderately used on blacks. You know them when you hear them: if you think I'm bullshitting, just order a drink in a crowded Starbucks. When they ask your name, try saying 'Ty-reek', 'Ishakamusa' or 'Jamal' -- and watch hilarity ensue.

    You inquire, "How does "Igor" help people get mobilized better than "Imani"?"

    I don't know; I'm trusting that it does. I don't know how they ever did an experiment to prove it. But your question got me thinking: suppose I heard on the radia about Hurricane Moishe, ready to smash into Miami. I'd be wondering, "why'd they pick 'Moishe'?!" and not "RUN!"

    Although the list of official names on the whole looks quite white to me, I agree with you that "Igor" and "Paloma" are not typical white names. It looks like 'I' and 'P' don't have many typical white names, and they shoehorned them in there (and attempted to appease the Spanish speakers a bit with "Pablo"). But if you want, we could have "Ishaka-musa" and "Pambaneesha" or "Pambaneeqa" or "Pambaliqa" ...

  28. Naming ... and I shall name this a hippopotamus by barath_s · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Martian Naming Madness
    Looks like they will have to greatly extend : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_naming_c onventions

    But seriously, how likely are these to be used (retained for use) anyway ? Or haven't you heard of a planet named George ? http://encarta.msn.com/related_761564250_14/planet _originally_named_in_honor_of_George_III.html

  29. This is not... by rtelfairm · · Score: 1 · on Revamping the Movie Distribution Chain

    for the benefit of the consumer. I'm sure everyone here understands that.

    Steven Soderbergh and everyone else in Hollywood are only trying to figure out ways to maximize *their own profits*, not the $$$'s in *our* wallets or our own good times.

    Slate recently had an excellent piece about Iger, NATO, and "the windows" that explained why Hollywood wants to shorten the windows and why Big Theater are so apopleptic about that. Highly recommended reading.

    And BTW, I suspect Soderbergh et al. will continue to release movies in the theaters at least simultaneously with the On Demand / DVD / Movielink / etc. releases in order to qualify for an Academy Award -- or at least until the Academy changes that rule.

    $.02
  30. Re:Do they get a share of the sale of CD players? by jangobongo · · Score: 5, Informative · on Music Exec Fires Back At Apple CEO
    The Slate article you linked says:
    "Edgar Jr... outraged the industry by proposing that theaters charge higher prices for more expensive movies. Why, he asked, should you pay the same amount to see a $2 million movie as you would to see a $200 million one? Analysts and movie types hooted with derision--that's "like charging for a piece of art based on how much bronze or paint was used," sneered one.

    Edgar Jr. wants to treat movies like any other product: If a movie costs more to produce, you should charge more for it.
    That was seven years ago!

    And now, talking about music:
    "To have only one price point is not fair to our artists, and I dare say not appropriate to consumers. The market should decide, not a single retailer ... Some songs should be $0.99 and some songs should be more."
    Sounds eerily familiar in that context.
  31. Re:Do they get a share of the sale of CD players? by tb3 · · Score: 5, Informative · on Music Exec Fires Back At Apple CEO

    Edgar Bronfman, Jr. does not know a lot of things. He inherited the Seagram fortune, sold its $9 Billion stock of Dupont to buy MCA, for the sole purpose of becoming a media mogul. He's failed miserably. Here's a great article about him on Slate. I especially like this quote, "Edgar Jr. has been designated the movie industry's official idiot--a 42-year-old child who's squandering his family (and his shareholders') fortune on romantic Tinseltown fantasies."

    Don't think he speaks for the entertainment industry; he's an idiot even among those morons.

  32. salaries as indicators of margin by sacrilicious · · Score: 1 · on The Profit Margin on the iPod nano
    The only way to know the real margins of a product, is to see how good salaries are in that company (as long as it is profitable)

    Your overall point is well taken, I just have a small twist to offer on the sentence above. I assumed (maybe falsely) that you referred to the salaries of individual contributors, i.e. non-execs, at the company. I'd propose that such salaries could be a more reliable measure of profit if it wasn't increasingly habitual for executives and board members to grossly overcompensate themselves, often to degrees which put the average contributor comparatively in the position of sharecropper, and often completely without regard to the performance of the company stock. As a bit of a digression: I recently had a conversation with a friend who invests in the stock market, and he said that he has a policy of favoring stocks where the ceo caps their total pay (salary plus bonuses + stock) at some reasonable multiple of the lowest-paid company contributors. He has had good results with this policy, e.g. several stocks up x2 since last year. He likes this investment policy both because it quells his outrage at exhorbitant exec salaries, and because of a point made in the above article:

    "When you have a breakdown in the executive compensation process in which CEOs are receiving undeserved pay, it is an indication that there is a power imbalance in the boardroom," says Brandon Rees, a research analyst with the AFL-CIO Office of Investment, which keeps a close eye on executive pay. "When you have a weak board of directors, that is where you have broader corporate governance breakdowns which can include accounting fraud," says Rees.
  33. Re:charity? by joecode · · Score: 0 · on The Company Everyone Loves To Hate

    I find that answer unsatisfying. The highest federal income tax bracket (from what I've just googled) is 35%. A charitable contribution merely reduces your Adjusted Gross Income, so that means that for every $1 Gates contributes to charity, he saves about $0.35 in federal income taxes.

    Not to say that Gates is some great man that deserves a pat on the back for being so righteous. Relatively, as someone has mentioned earlier back, it doesn't cost him a thing... and moreover it is quite possible these actions are motivated more from vanity than from any deep desire to do good.

    Nevertheless, the money is real, and it no doubt really helps some people. I read that he pledged about 3 billion to his foundation, and came up with about $627 of that last year.

    Perhaps, instead of the usual rant against Microsoft, we should pat ourselves on our backs for our good deeds---that is, struggling with the terrible stuff Microsoft has put out and thereby allowing these contributions to occur?

  34. New mission by Dire+Bonobo · · Score: 2, Informative · on Thoughts on the Space Elevator
    > On the other hand, if we're planning to waste $100B on
    > an ego-boosting "been there, done that" trip to the Moon

    We're not.


    "There are significant differences between the Apollo of yesteryear and the NASA plan of today, Spudis said.

    In the first place, the systems making up the vehicles are being designed for maximum leverage: long-life, cryogenic-based propulsion, with potential reuse in space, Spudis explained.

    Secondly, the mission is different.

    "In Apollo, the mission was to prove we could land on the moon and return safely to Earth. In this case, the mission is to determine the best site to collect and use the resources of the moon and to emplace the necessary infrastructure to do so," Spudis said....

    In point of fact, Spudis continued, "Apollo, for all its beauty, was essentially a technical dead-end ... one-use systems, storable propellants, a paradigm of launching everything from Earth."

    Spudis told Space.com that this system, as blueprinted by NASA, is designed from the beginning to adapt to a different paradigm: the use of off-planet resources -- lunar-manufactured propellants -- to create a permanent transportation infrastructure in cislunar space, the territory between Earth and the orbit of the moon."

  35. Re:Taking the initiative! by Vitriol+Angst · · Score: 2, Interesting · on U.S. Deploys Orbital Communications Jammer

    We didn't elect Bush.

    Here is one article that sums it up, surprisingly on cable news from Keith Obermann http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6368819/#041119a

    America is only 49% idiots.

  36. Re:Ignorant Comment by Nutty_Irishman · · Score: 1 · on Creating Artificial Proteins


    Before there is a large debate in the ethics community, they (you) ought to get the facts straight.... ...the ability to order oligos on the web doesn't magically give someone the ability to hack out a super virus


    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8715760/site/newsweek/

    The article also touches on some of the ethical issues and how to balance them with the progression of science.

    Practical in time and money? Perhaps not, the article highlights how it took about 3 years to do, and how it's more pratical to modify a virus as you had mentioned. However, this is only with the technology we have available today. My guess is that eventually we won't have to build large DNA segments using their underlying oligios. This method also eliminates the need to actually have a working template of the virus in front of you. Right now we are under a self-delusion that keeping infectious disease locked in highly contained area's blocks the threat from them being used maliciously. Being able to assemble a virus genome just by knowing it's sequence breaks down these walls.

    It's one thing to be on the side of not limiting science and free information on this debate (as am I), it's another to completly ignore it and pretend like it doesn't exist. The last time someone laughed at someone's approach to doing science, he went out and sequenced the entire genome before they did (Craig Venter).

  37. Re:Money well spent by KermodeBear · · Score: 1 · on U.S. Deploys Orbital Communications Jammer

    Actually, the unemployment rate has been pretty good lately. You've been hearing wrong - an indication that you've been listening to all the wrong sources. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9172417/ http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/51/09-02-2005/8ee1000 5800e6936.html

  38. Re:Server statistics are telling by cloudmaster · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Mozilla Hits Back at Browser Security Claim

    And here are some stats from mine:

    1 12030 30.70% Googlebot/2.1
    2 3352 8.55% msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)
    3 3124 7.97% MSIE 6.0
    4 3038 7.75% Yahoo! Slurp
    5 1494 3.81% Mozilla/5.0 (Windows)
    6 1351 3.45% psbot/0.1 (+http://www.picsearch.com/bot.html)
    7 1111 2.84% Wget/1.5.3
    8 733 1.87% Mozilla/5.0 (X11)
    9 678 1.73% MSIE 6.0 (SV1)
    10 395 1.01% ConveraCrawler/0.9d (+http://www.authoritativeweb.com/crawl)
    11 385 0.98% Googlebot-Image/1.0
    12 369 0.94% MSIE 6.0 (Windows NT 5.1)
    13 348 0.89% ConveraCrawler/0.9c (+http://www.authoritativeweb.com/crawl)
    14 335 0.85% Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.google.com/bot.html)
    15 328 0.84% MSIE 6.0 (Windows 98)

    Out of 39187 hits last month excluding the first 5 days when the log partition filled up; whoops). Lots more MSIE than Mozilla 'n friends - and more googlebot than anything. The most popular parts of that site are my *Linux* projects and some *Linux* documentation, BTW.

  39. Good! As a former microserf... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Mini-Microsoft Shakes Things Up
    ...i have to say "good".

    Not all, but many co-workers were damn good. The spirit there is energetic and encouraging. I regret not making more of my opportunity there.

    The travel really sucked tho

    perhaps the stagnant stock price MSFT jolted upper stiffs into executing "plan B".

    I dunno....they treat u like cattle, well fed (information/code) cattle. Moo.

  40. Re:No worries. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Jobs Resists Music Industry Pressure
    I think you overestimate Jobs's power in digital music. The alternatives are ready.

    1. No other store has near the volume or reach of Apple's. No one else has the brand recognition or ease of use.

    If iTMS stops selling popular music, then most customers will use the other stores. It's not difficult to use MSN Music.

    2. By far the number one music player is the iPod, and only the Apple music store can sell protected music files that work on that player. The labels could try and sell unprotected MP3 files but this seems unlikely.

    If iTMS can no longer sell protected music files that play on the iPod, Apple might be pressured into adding protected WMA support to the iPod's firmware. If not, then iPod owners can do what Apple defenders always suggest to people that don't like DRM: burn to CD and rip to MP3. Or they could buy a Sony player, which will have protected WMA support.

  41. Is this for the Oxygen conversion? by Cerdic · · Score: 1 · on Next NASA Centennial Challenge Competition

    As previously reported, there is a $250,000 prize for converting regolith into Oxygen.

    I can see where this is going. Next competition will be $250,000 for converting regolith into water and then there will be $250,000 for converting it into food.

  42. Re:On a semi-related note... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Jobs Resists Music Industry Pressure

    Metallica is available on MSN music and I think Real as well. Although many albums are not avaialable on a per track basis. So they aren't that bad.

    http://music.windowsmedia.msn.com/artist/default.a spx?artist=16074359

  43. Re:A different approach to the online music market by mrtrumbe · · Score: 1 · on Jobs Resists Music Industry Pressure
    From a seemingly objective source on the subject: http://slate.msn.com/id/2115868/

    From everything I've read, it seems illegal. However, it seems extraordinarily unlikely a person would be prosecuted for using this service, despite the likely illegality.

    Taft

  44. Re:Simple question: by Romancer · · Score: 1 · on Hydrogen Generating Module to Help Your Car?

    Ok. here we go:

    Just from your own post to keep this small.

    "No. There's no extra energy."

    "...allow the engine to be shut down when it is making more power than necessary."

    thought that there was no extra energy so it could never be outputting more power than is necessary.

    "No. Cars are not nuclear powered. Einstein has nothing to do with internal combustion. No material is used up or converted to energy."

    You even post where I state this as a matter of course: "Now we can't get the entire subatomic amounts Einstein was talking about..."

    What don't you understand about this sentence:

    "...we can have the best chemical reaction amounts if we make a system that extracts the energy more effeciently from this reaction."

    This is the basis of all fire related energy extraction. it is a chemical reaction between a fuel source, oxygen and a spark that they teach in 4th grade science class.

    "No. It's not even close to how a fuel cell works. A fuel cell converts hydrogen and oxygen to water,..."

    What did I say: "fuel cells that we all accept work by harnessing hydrogens easy molecular structure and it's easy seperation and combination charactoristics."

    That sounds kinda like a hydrogen oxygen "combination" resulting in water. This in enabled by hydrogens easy combination charactoristics.

    one last bit:
    "This system adds energy to water to get hydrogen and oxygen, and then figures burning the hydrogen with oxygen to get water will net them a gain."

    uh no. they have gasoline somewhere in there too if you read the article.

    and on your last comment:

    "Ever wonder why fuel cell vehicles don't carry their hydrogen in the form of water? Because the extraction consumes more energy than can possibly be harvested."

    Then why go to a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle if it takes more energy to make the hydrogen in the first place? Big plants generating hydrogen could have just used the power by putting it on the electric grid and we could all go around using electric powered vehicles for cheaper than hydrogen right? use the costs associated in transporting and storing and distributing hydrogen to make electrical outlets and battery swap stations in the back of gas stations.

    but wait, there's another 4th grade science experiment that creates hydrogen with a small 9v battery! here.

    But oh wait, hydrogen does help an internal combustion engine. Ford already did it last year. from the article: "fuel efficiency improves by 25 percent with hydrogen" But yes, they have to store it onboard.

    so you combine a 4th grade 9v battery experiment and an engine ford built in 2004 and... but wait, Fortress says it can't work so we all go home.

  45. Re:I use Google Earth... by themoodykid · · Score: 2, Funny · on Google Earth Used to Find Ancient Roman Villa

    Looks like Satoru Iwata found it.

  46. Re:Good points about NJ by EvilTwinSkippy · · Score: 1 · on Missing Lab Mice Infected With Plague

    Actually it's worse. From Philadelphia you cross into CAMDEN. For Trenton you have to cross further north in Buck county.

  47. Re:Climate Change Objections, Simplified by rxmd · · Score: 3, Interesting · on Global Warming Past The Point of No Return
    we use as much oil as you can pump out of the ground
    Not true, Saudi Arabia could pump rather more (a big percentage, but I can't recall) more than it usually does, but it limits its output to stabilise prices.
    Yes, but at present Saudi Arabia the only oil-producing country that can actually do this. The others are at their limit, and any disruption to Saudi oil production (for example, through terrorist attacks) could have a significant impact on the oil price. The article I quoted expects oil prices around $100 - it's always bad to have a single point of failure. In addition, the Saudis can only produce more crude oil, not refined gasoline and heating oil, so even their production increases won't help all that much in the short run.

    Also, it's doubted whether the Saudis can actually keep their promises.
  48. Re:Climate Change Objections, Simplified by rxmd · · Score: 3, Interesting · on Global Warming Past The Point of No Return
    we use as much oil as you can pump out of the ground
    Not true, Saudi Arabia could pump rather more (a big percentage, but I can't recall) more than it usually does, but it limits its output to stabilise prices.
    Yes, but at present Saudi Arabia the only oil-producing country that can actually do this. The others are at their limit, and any disruption to Saudi oil production (for example, through terrorist attacks) could have a significant impact on the oil price. The article I quoted expects oil prices around $100 - it's always bad to have a single point of failure. In addition, the Saudis can only produce more crude oil, not refined gasoline and heating oil, so even their production increases won't help all that much in the short run.

    Also, it's doubted whether the Saudis can actually keep their promises.
  49. Re:It's Friday by Viper+Daimao · · Score: 0 · on Overhauled Telecommunications Law Draft

    I hope its this

  50. Re:Well its official by NateTech · · Score: 1 · on Sun's Bold New Ad Campaign

    That's to be debated.

    He made a list of the top five most outrageously overpaid CEO's over at MSN Money recently. (Of course MSN's article writers might be a little biased...)

    Any CEO who thinks they shouldn't take a very large pay cut when their company loses 76% of its value might be considered dangerous -- to their own shareholders.

    As the founder of the Vanguard Fund said in Time magazine this month, we've changed the stock market from a buyer's market to a renter's market and shareholders no longer are in it for the long haul, so they don't complain if the upper management of an organization is gouging them on salary.