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The IWF was created to appease the police who were otherwise going to prosecute ISPs and the ISPs were also due to face government legislation back in the 90s otherwise.

I'm glad somebody else remembers the history. The Observer's (unwarranted, vicious, sensational, IMHO) attack on Demon's Clive Feather was a big shock to the (still fairly small) UK online community at the time, and the IWF was born of that time (with Clive as first Chairman).

http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/media/intreguk.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Watch_Foundation

I have memories of a Goodyear airship flying over my school back in the early 70s.

Airship Industries operated from the old Cardington Airship hangers in the 80s. They did trips over London

http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/airships/ss500/index.html

One morning I drove past to see one spread over the airfield after they could not get it in before a storm.

I particularly liked the part about how this giant bag of hydrogen came equipped with a smoking room...

The term fourth estate is frequently attributed to the nineteenth century historian Carlyle, though he himself seems to have attributed it to Edmund Burke:

Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important than they all. It is not a figure of speech, or a witty saying; it is a literal fact, .... Printing, which comes necessarily out of Writing, I say often, is equivalent to Democracy: invent Writing, Democracy is inevitable. ..... Whoever can speak, speaking now to the whole nation, becomes a power, a branch of government, with inalienable weight in law-making, in all acts of authority. It matters not what rank he has, what revenues or garnitures: the requisite thing is that he have a tongue which others will listen to; this and nothing more is requisite.

I think the Walkman was a refinement of an existing system and although parts of the technology needed to make that refinement could be subject to patents I'm not sure the general idea of a portable music player should be patentable nor should the removal of loudspeaker and power supply be classed as "invention".

"actually a precursor to the ghettoblaster." :-)

If you want something smaller, take a look at this one, according to the page its the first cassette recorder to go to the moon (unverified):

http://www.etedeschi.ndirect.co.uk/sony/picts/TC-5 0.jpg
http://www.etedeschi.ndirect.co.uk/sony/

"actually a precursor to the ghettoblaster." :-)

If you want something smaller, take a look at this one, according to the page its the first cassette recorder to go to the moon (unverified):

http://www.etedeschi.ndirect.co.uk/sony/picts/TC-5 0.jpg
http://www.etedeschi.ndirect.co.uk/sony/

See 'Gay Daleks': mini screenshot, article.

I mean, if they're selling ad prices based on pairs of eyes reading the ads, why not just give the things away to ensure the most pairs?

1. The obvious reason is that every little bit of money helps.

2. The more subtle reason is the psychological phenomenon effort justification. A person who has invested some effort (such as time or money) into acquiring something will value it more highly than if the exact same thing had been acquired cheaply or for free. (Look at gold or diamonds, where the large majority of the percieved value comes only from the fact that they're hard to get).

Because readers consider a paid magazine more valuable, they will devote more attention to reading it (to get their money's worth). In turn, that makes them more likely to be see the advertisements, which increases the value of the ad space to commercial advertisers.

So, an ad in a paid newspaper is more effective than in a free one (if other factors held constant)

I think they might make good doorstops. However, nothing beats the "Timex Sinclair 1000" ZX-81, with that nice wedge shape, perfect for a doorstop.

Yeah and he also thought of the concept of the 'Human Transporter' over a decade before Dean Kamen!

http://www.etedeschi.ndirect.co.uk/sinclair/picts/ c5.jpg

A Transistor radio mini-history has a picture of an early transistor circa 1947. From the website:

...USA research scientists of Bell Laboratories, Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain managed, in December 1947, to invent a solid state device that they called THE TRANSISTOR. They succeeded in creating a completely new amplifying device just by adding a second contact point to the already popular CRYSTAL DIODE based on a piece of germanium crystal with a pointed "cat's whisker" touching its surface. In 1956 in recognition for their extraordinary work they were awarded the Nobel Prize. (Can't tell from the website if this one pictured was the very first one invented by Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain of Bell Laboratories.)

Transistor inventors Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain were awarded a Nobel prize for their work in 1956. It's amazing how something so primitive went on to revolutionize the electronics industry.

A Transistor radio mini-history has a picture of an early transistor circa 1947. From the website:

...USA research scientists of Bell Laboratories, Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain managed, in December 1947, to invent a solid state device that they called THE TRANSISTOR. They succeeded in creating a completely new amplifying device just by adding a second contact point to the already popular CRYSTAL DIODE based on a piece of germanium crystal with a pointed "cat's whisker" touching its surface. In 1956 in recognition for their extraordinary work they were awarded the Nobel Prize. (Can't tell from the website if this one pictured was the very first one invented by Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain of Bell Laboratories.)

Transistor inventors Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain were awarded a Nobel prize for their work in 1956. It's amazing how something so primitive went on to revolutionize the electronics industry.

Will Vikers, the makers of the R101 be entitled to place a bid?

Actually the gay daleks were the brainchild of Victor Lewis-Smith who wrote the British TV satire "TV Offal". Information about this brilliant program can be found here, and here

OK, you've got me there.

I was really trying to say that coaxial gas cells would work well in civilian ship. If someone really wants to kill you, they're going to do it anyway.

Peter Strasser probably thought that if they were going to build a ship that size they just make it climb so high that it would be invulnerable and forget the nitrogen. That would follow on from the X class ships like L71.

While we're at it, let's not forget that the bombes at Bletchley Park were a refinement on a Polish design. Turing made enormous improvements to it, but he was able to build on years of groundbreaking research by Rejewski and others in Poland.

Well, it just shows how difficult any Mars trip is going to be, with the astronauts having to be in close quarters for 2-3 years, rather than simply 6 months.

...they will obviously have to be dealt with...

Whoever was responsible in portraying the capture of an Enigma machine as the work of the USA, when it was in fact done by Brits aboard HMS Aubretia, should be shot

Well, I wouldn't go *that* far, the winners of any war get to decide what the history books say. The US has a glorified opinion of itself (not entirely without reason) but it also has a bad memory.

As someone else has mentioned, the Poles played a huge part as well.

The Canucks were also involved pre-1941 (via Britain proxy) by providing materials via convoys and training spys to be inserted into German-occupied territories.

The massive bombings by the US air power and the ability to provide 5 Sherman tanks to counter each Tiger/Panther sealed Germany's fate.

How could anyone forget Tom Baker as Puddleglum?

this would be the linux car

Does that mean we can have the Gay Daleks back, too?

TV Offal used to feature the Gay Daleks. EXSPERMINATE!

TV Offal

>> A tribal dialect of swahili used by a tribal village of canabals that died off by eating themselves and never had any texts, OTOH, should not be something worth keeping and studying...

Not too familiar with the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis I guess? Maybe they have more ways of describing the way something tastes other than "like chicken".

This is soooooo yesterday. Why are they trying to Duplicate effort?

http://www.foxpop.ndirect.co.uk/pc/iklear.htm

how about a sharp zaurus?

I like them. Perhaps a laptop docking bay for a fast enough pocketPC would be good enough. So far the closest thing I've seen to what I want is a Vadem Clio.

-----------
OnRoad: The social ramifications of racing games. Why can't your game be GPL?

http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtaml/m edia/porno1.html

Not surprisingly, then it is in the US that we find a significant attempt by a judge to define obscenity (note: obscenity, not pornography). This is the so-called Miller Test, after the case of Miller v California, 1973, in which Justice Warren Burger defined as pornographic a work, which, when taken as a whole,

*Appeals to prurient interest
*Depicts sexual conduct in a patently offensive way
*Lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value

If a work conforms to this definition, then it may, according to prevailing community standards, be condemned as obscene. If it does not meet this definition, then it is not obscene and even pornography which does not meet this definition enjoys the protection of the First Amendment

Excellent question... try here, which says that Reed's law is measured in utility. Utility is then defined to be "a measure of the satisfaction gained from the consumption of a good or service."

You could measure the feedback of people using the network over time. Something like Osgood's symantec differential would standardize the responses. Just one idea, I'd be interested to see what others come up with.

To the tune of Drugs in My Pocket

I've got pr0ns in my pocket,
and I don't know what to do with them
chorus:pr0ns in my pocket.. pr0ns in my pocket..

With apologies to The Monks

yeah it's a slooow Saturday night here. :)

Armagetron, TRON, java, better java, MetaTRON, BMTron (java), and of course this

Fermi's Paradox has pretty much convinced me.

To anyone interested in a very good discussion about the Fermi paradox, I recommend Nick Bostrom's essay on it. I'm not much of a fan of transhumanism, but I think it's an excellent essay on the details and hidden assumptions involved.

[TMB]

The study in the article did just that. Some of the people received an email that looked like it was just to them, others saw many names in the to: field. They found that people who thought they were singled out were more likely to be helpful.

The relevant psychological phenomena are called bystander apathy and diffusion of responsibility. In each, the more people in a group, the less likely each individual is to help/work.

This is nothing particularly new, it just says that people behave consistently in person or when contacted by email. It has nothing to do with commercial SPAM, only with requests for information/help to others.

Here'sa good summary of the Milgram experiment and the ethical implications. This one's good too.

If you read German, this page is quite informative.

They should've taken these as well.

Thanks for the link!

The Cybersphere

Supposedly there is an actual working prototype, and you are right about the torquing issue - it has to do with making a sphere big enough for a human to walk in, while keeping it light enough (thinness of sphere walls) to allow the projectors to penetrate for display. These two problems tend to mutually exclusive at this point, and so the material tends to be thicker than you would want it, and thus the sphere is heavy.

I tend to wonder if they have thought about active dampening of movement (which could also allow the ability to have "hills" and such). They also don't seem to talk about it, but I wouldn't doubt you could use wireless 3D shutter-glasses like that used in CAVE systems to complete the 3D simulation...

Note that this applies only to "serious" fanfiction. Parodies and documentaries don't dilute the IP in the same way.

Don't write off Lucas's attitude as simple greed. He likes to make movies without studio 3-piece idiots looking over his shoulder. Only way he can do that is to be the majority backer in his own projects. For that he needs a steady stream of tie-in income.

Still, I find this supposed protectiveness of Lucas's creativity to be a little hypocritical. It isn't just that the writing in the Star Wars movies has gotten more and more childish. If he wants to control the story, why doesn't Lucas pay closer attention to what the tie-in authors write? When The Empire Strikes Back came out, a friend of mine who was into Star Wars comics was pretty upset — DV being Luke's father invalidated more story lines than the return of Bobby Ewing.

Hey, it's just business!

Linux was ported long time ago to the old PSION Series 3, throught it's ELKS little brother. Look at this site for more info.

A suitable CE device would be the sturdy and tough Clio. Check out a reivew of it here.

Too bad discussions on Slashdot die so quick. This one could have been fun!

But if the Springboard is a failure, why should we expect the Treo to do any better? The Visor might have been more successful if it hadn't been impeded by Handspring's inept manufacturing and distribution operations.

You mention Sony's older TV models. Sure, they stopped making them, but not before selling a lot of them -- and establishing Sony as a major player in consumer electronics. Actually, those early Sony TVs and radios were more than just gadgets. They were proof that solid-state was the best way to do mass-produced electronics. Nowadays that seems obvious. But 50 years ago when Sony decided to make transitor-based products, it was anything but.

So that cute little TV was more than a product. It was a proof-of-concept with far-reaching consequences. Silly to compare that with anything Handspring has done.

Whatever, losing the HD is one excellent way to cut battery consumption to the minimum (on whatever type of machine you use). Boot from flash and use a ramdrive for temp storage if you need it... I wonder if any laptop BIOS supports booting from flash on PCMCIA or if you'd need flash which can attach to IDE (used in conjunction with a 3.5"-2.5" IDE converter and placed in the drive bay....assuming it fits :)

3D Ring Mouse-
$99
Just wear it on a finger and it's clickable. http://www.worklink.net/ringmouse.html http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~vr-systems/pics/vr/ring. htm

Check out this site for an even more immersive (though theoretical) hardware. If you have the dough, looks like you can actually pick up something similar here.

Does anyone remember the
original Watchman?

This was way before small LCD tvs, much less color LCD tvs. It was a low-depth black and white CRT. The way the flattened it was to angle the "front" of the CRT away from the viewer and towards the back. You actually saw the "back" of the screen - the same side that the electrons came from. The drawback was that the tube depth was still needed, but it was just bent 90 degrees -- I'm not sure if people would go for the extra width. Also, I'm not sure if color would be possible. I had some nice ascii art describing it, but it didn't make it through the lameness filter -- and how does the goatsex picture make it?

In particular, they advise limiting oneself to 4 cups of coffee over a 6 hour period, reduced to 2 if you are also drinking cola type drinks.

They don't mention caffeinated peppermints or Bawls, though.

The report does not include the most important reason why open-source folks are opposed to software patents: that the patents and open-source licenses are incompatible.

This is rather worrying. It may be obvious to us, but your average politician isn't going to be aware of that fact. It's a bit late now, but it's imperative that they understand this point.

I wrote a bit more about it on my website.

-- colin

i found this picture, is that it?

-Jon