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If you're concerned about others violating your privacy or intruding via your favorite P2P program, check this out:

If you run Windows only, check out PeerGuardian. Be warned that the application hogs a lot of CPU.

If you have a Linux firewall like iptables, then you're in luck. Simply download PeerGuardian's list of known IPs to block and convert it using ipblacklist_convert perl script.

And please keep in mind that music and software piracy will only give companies like RIAA an excuse to limit our freedoms. Stop stealing.

---

Did you know that Halliburton (who reportedly still pays VP Cheney around $160,000 in deferred compensation) will gain more than $1.7 billion from Iraq's reconstruction with a sizable portion of that in NO-BID contracts where other companies didn't even get a chance to bid?

Did you know Halliburton has sizable litigation against it for asbestos-related injuries and could benefit from worker's compensation reform which is coincidentally being promoted by the Bush/Cheney administration in the name of economic recovery?

Get informed and understand the smart--not public & seemingly irrational--reasons behind political decisions so that you too can profit from the real genius of politicians. Then donate your profits gained by this in your investment decisions to organizations that push for campaign finance reform instead of bitching about politicians in general or the right-wing or the left-wing. How can you lose if campaign finance reform causes politicians to represent the vast majority of Americans rather than the few special interests who contribute to campaigns? :)

On linux the best looking fonts are anti-aliased TrueType, which Swing doesn't support.

I think that must depend on whose VM you are using. I found that to be true of the Blackdown, but Sun's VM does antialias truetype fonts with no trouble at all. This isn't a great example, but look at the captions of this.

Don't be so fast to shout bullshit.

The german version of the AAA did crash a Mitsubishi Pajero against a Golf a couple of years ago.

The result?

Both drivers where dead. The golf driver got crushed und the Pajeros wheel while the Pajero driver snapped his nack when his "safe car" was jumping over the hood of the golf.

I guess the dead body in the Pajero looked better, but as someone else once said:

"When you're dead and don't have a funeral, you're still dead."

So technology would finally be catching up to what the passengers on the hijacked flights of September 11, 2001 were capable of? The cell phone calls that never appeared on their phone bills? Where can I get such phone service?

Good times

Props to Zen

Kill whitey!

As Cambell keps claiming, there are certain underlying myths and expectations for stories that tends to make most stories converge to a common format. But the comparison is still amusing

iSight

this looks cool

Even Linux Zealot switched to using macs,
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/allencastro/switch.sw f

this may be of interest..
Apple Switch Ad

I thought that happened when Linux Zealot went to the Mac store?

Lunix zealot goes to the mac store

• Bright (download) is the best non-dithering quantiser in the whole world, and reasonably fast, too; based on dlquant
• pngrewrite sorts the palette
• pngcrush removes junk chunks, fixes Photoshop's gamma bug and tries many filters to find a smaller filesize
• OptiPNG is similar to pngcrush, but executes much faster
• pngout uses an alternative deflate, yields sometimes even smaller filesizes
• tweakpng manipulates chunks comfortably with a GUI
• pngquant quantises PNG24 with alpha transparency to PNG8 with transparent palettes, the result is alas mostly ugly

sleightplus demonstrates how to overcome IE's rendering bugs without polluting your markup or styles; no silly style inlining required, either. Use PNG images or backgrounds all the way they were intended.

Predecessors with only support for foreground images: Youngpup sleight, WebFX PNG behavior, mongus pngInfo, Bob Osola. PNGHack, a server side solution, is doomed to fail because of dysfunctional browser sniffing.

If that was useful for you, and you are a C hacker, I have a plea. Take the dlquant sourcecode (see above) and massage it so it works with PNG instead of the archaic PPM. I want a functional Bright clone for Linux that takes a true colour PNG and outputs a paletted PNG. Can you do that?

I have an include file tricking the transparancy into working here , but this geezer has done it a more elegant way...

Until IE gets a major update it's the only way to ensure that your PNG stuff works cross-browser. And with PNG's superior colour depth and transpancy there really is no reason to NOT at least toy with using PNG's a little any more...

Bit of shame, because the UK population votes for the government and then is compelled to pay a tax to the BBC so it can attack and deride that very same govt. Hey, it even uses large amounts of this tax to create (and subsequently re-create) digital channels that most of the UK population can't receive (thought that is changing thanks to rivals Sky and the ill-fated ITV Digital).

The BBC also uses it's massive income stream to start new channels and enterprises that effectively destroy legitimate competition (e.g. Artschannel channel), and uses it's multiple channels to cross-advertise other BBC channels (so not really advert-free).

News stories are not always well researched or written (c.f. the one about broadband barrage balloons reported on Slashdot - pure puff and ill-considered comments).

The sheer size and bias of 'auntie' (as it is 'affectionally' known) makes many other media organisations feel free to take rather obvious pot-shots at it (e.g. The Times newspaper has a story that the BBC was known as the Baghdad Broadcasting Corp by the British Navy and sailors switched to Sky News to avoid the overwhelmingly anti-UK bias on the BBC - of course this might have something to do with Murdoch owning both The Times and Sky News).

The BBC's 'unique way of funding' has crippled objective political reporting and media output in the UK; pro- and anti- govt propaganda bounces back and forth between so-called independent news organisations; as do irrelevant TV programmes (independent TV does a reality show, the BBC does a reality show and props it up through its many output formats and channels, etc.).

Did I hear someone say that the BBC's musical radio channels are the best in the UK? Of course they are! However, this might have something to do with the BBC having the almost all the national music channels in the UK. Effective competition again stifled by the fact that BBC radio does not have to make a profit because it is funded in it's own 'unique way', i.e. by enforced taxation; oh, and they shut down pirate stations using govt-biased legislation (I'd like to say that this legislation is BBC-biased but I'm not sure emergency crews would agree, then again it does get some geek-points for coolness.) Though even I would admit that BBC music radio is 'ok' sometimes, nothing will eras the memories of DLT and never-ending Fleetwood Mac from the p***-poor Radio 1 of old (and, alas poor controller, it isn't much better now).

They don't do anything new or innovative (except deliberately mess up the scheduling for top-class programming like Seinfeld, Larry Sanders, Star Trek: TNG etc. so no-one realises how bad BBC stuff really is, oh, and show pictures of dead soldiers). Not unless they are coming up to the regular review of the BBC tax by parliament; such a review is coming up, and those of us who loathe the BBC (but still have to pay it's tax but never watch any of their TV channels) can only hope an pray that the govt finally sees sense and makes them pay their own way in this world. Hey, it might happen!

Forgive the rant (but it's not as bad as

This shows how to expand the pee-hole in your cock. Yowza

Whenever I think I have a tough time in my relationship, I check out Things my girlfriend and I have argued about. This couple would make a good test case for Gottman et al's model, particularly in the sarcasm factor.

If you are not familiar with cooking game, so to speak I would suggest James Beard's, "American Cookery". It is full with the history of the recipes and their particulars not just in a culinary manner but some social and cultural insights as well. A good read.

Here's an overview of emulators and how they perform:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/joseph.lebrech/emulat ors.html

It appears that only the 8-Bit consoles can be emulated well.

Windows XP Service Pack 1 causes memory management problems that my experience shows are far, far worse than Microsoft says. The new 815411 patch seems to fix the problems on the one system on which I have tested it. The title is "Programs Run Slower After You Install Windows XP SP-1", but that doesn't make sense. Why do they run slower? Because the operating system is trying to recover from memory management errors?

To see the problem, start 20 instances of Mozilla, each with 10 tabs. As you are doing this, you will find that the responsiveness of the Windows XP system becomes much slower. Then, when the limit of installed memory is reached, and the system begins using virtual memory, all instances of Mozilla will crash. After the crashes, the Windows XP system remains unstable. The instability can only be fixed by re-booting.

See the Slashdot article: XP Service Pack Slows Programs

The Slashdot article referenced this article: Service Pack glitch causes system slowdowns (Notice the nonsense subtitle in this article: "Windows XP SP1 update flaw affects memory-allocating programs".)

Microsoft is apparently afraid that the patch causes more problems, so the patch has limited availability. Also, by making people who want the patch call Microsoft, the company may be collecting information about the problems people are having. It seems from the way the notice of the patch is worded that if you call Microsoft, you may have to pay.

I downloaded the patch from other sources, and found that they all were the same, so that relieved worries of a bad patch.

Sources:

Neowin

Q815411_WXP_SP2_x86_ENU.exe

Q815411_WXP_SP2_x86_ENU.exe

Q815411_WXP_SP2_x86_ENU.exe

http://www.paricom.com/matt/xphotfix/

This is a known issue, not in BitTorrent, but in various USB DSL modem drivers and network card drivers. Linksys and Netgear have some known buggy drivers. Refer to the question titled "BitTorrent makes my machine blue screen! What should I do?" in the BitTorrent FAQ, and see http://homepage.ntlworld.com/j.buchanan/winmx/faq- restart.html for a page which also mentions this problem as it applies to WinMX, another P2P client.

I always thought cell-phones were banned because they might interfere with navigation-systems, but I am not an expert. If they only didn't work, people should see that after trying to turn them on and give up.

Q815411_WXP_SP2_x86_ENU.exe

Q815411_WXP_SP2_x86_ENU.exe

The conclusions are hardly unchallenged, but they're interesting to think about. (Never read it yet, but CBC Radio Ideas covered it in a multi-part show a number of years back.)

61 INT. DR. SCO'S VOLCANO LAIR - MAIN ROOM Dr. SCO at his table with Frau, Scott, and Number Two.

DR. SCO Get me the President of the IBM.

The PRESIDENT appears on Dr. SCO's video screen with his BOARD MEMBERS behind him.

62 INT. OVAL OFFICE (SPLIT SCREEN)

PRESIDENT Dr. SCO, what do you want?

DR. SCO Not what I want Mr. President, but I will receive. In 12 hours I will destroy your industry with a giant patent.

Dr. SCO reveals a giant patent. Minix-me is humping it like a dog.

DR. SCO OK, Minix-me, why don't you and the patent get a frickin' room. Honestly. [ to President ] I will destroy another major distribution every hour- that is, unless you pay me- [ SNAP ZOOM ] One hundred billion dollars!

The President and his advisors LAUGH.

PRESIDENT Dr. SCO that's more than the entire US economy for 2002.

DR. SCO Don't play games with me. Your UNIX will disappear if I don't receive [ SNAP ZOOM ] One hundred billion dollars!

His advisors LAUGH.

PRESIDENT That much money simply doesn't exist. I don't think 100 billion is even a number. It's like saying I want a kajillion bajillion dollars. [ His advisors LAUGH. ]

DR. SCO Come on, Mr. President... [ SNAP ZOOM ] "Show me the money!"

Dr. SCO looks around smugly. No one laughs.

PRESIDENT What?

[ SNAP ZOOM ]

DR. SCO "Show me the money!"

He looks around again, expectantly.

PRESIDENT I'm sorry, I don't understand.

DR. SCO You know, kwan? Show me the money? No? Nothing?

SCOTT It's 2003. That movie stopped being a cultural buzzword 30 years ago, ass. They don't know what you're talking about.

DR. SCO Right. OK, see if you understand this: give me the money or I'm going to blow you to frickin' bits, OK?

The President and his advisors MURMUR.

PRESIDENT But-

DR. SCO [ making 'stop' gesture ] Talk to the hand!

Dr. SCO signs off.

with thanks to whoever posted this script, and with great annoyance at whoever decided that Slashdot posts with low average line lengths are a bad thing, and so need to be offset by pointless filler like this to bring up the average -- apologies while I pad this just a little more, and please feel free to disregard this last paragraph so that the average line count goes above, apparently, 30. Two things you can apparently never include in this news for nerds sites: program code (you can talk about open source, but you can't share it here!) and, apparently, movie scripts. Go figure.... Anyway, this should be enough padding, pretend this whole last paragraph is wrapped in a <!-- sorry --> block :-)

over here, in the UK, ntl have imposed a cap on customers.

Seems daft, since the reason most people get cable or DSL, or pay for this type of service, is for P2P or for things that need the bandwidth :/

How fast is a 'warp' in Star Trek again?

The link has a table that lists speeds from 1/4 impulse through to warp 10. It tells you how fast that is in km/hr , relative to light speed, and how long it would take you to travel across the federation (20 light years) at that rate.

Frankly, I might have bought more games for my GBA if I thought I could actually see them. Instead it sits in a drawer except for occasional forays in good lighting. Nintendo can go to hell if they think I'm going to make the same mistake twice.

Games like this?

One summer weekend in 1989, Arthur Whitney visited Ken Iverson at Kiln Farm and produced -- on one page and in one afternoon -- an interpreter fragment on the AT&T 3B1 computer. I studied this interpreter for about a week for its organization and programming style; and on Sunday, August 27, 1989, at about four o'clock in the afternoon, wrote the first line of code that became the implementation described in this document.

typedef char C;typedef long I;
typedef struct a{I t,r,d[3],p[2];}*A;
#define P printf
#define R return
#define V1(f) A f(w)A w;
#define V2(f) A f(a,w)A a,w;
#define DO(n,x) {I i=0,_n=(n);for(;i<_n;++i){x;}}
I *ma(n){R(I*)malloc(n*4);}mv(d,s,n)I *d,*s;{DO(n,d[i]=s[i]);}
tr(r,d)I *d;{I z=1;DO(r,z=z*d[i]);R z;}
A ga(t,r,d)I *d;{A z=(A)ma(5+tr(r,d));z->t=t,z->r=r,mv(z->d,d,r);R z;}
V1(iota){I n=*w->p;A z=ga(0,1,&n);DO(n,z->p[i]=i);R z;}
V2(plus){I r=w->r,*d=w->d,n=tr(r,d);A z=ga(0,r,d);
DO(n,z->p[i]=a->p[i]+w->p[i]);R z;}
V2(from){I r=w->r-1,*d=w->d+1,n=tr(r,d);
A z=ga(w->t,r,d);mv(z->p,w->p+(n**a->p),n); R z;}
V1(box){A z=ga(1,0,0);*z->p=(I)w;R z;}
V2(cat){I an=tr(a->r,a->d),wn=tr(w->r,w->d),n=an+wn ;
A z=ga(w->t,1,&n);mv(z->p,a->p,an);mv(z->p+an,w->p,w n);R z;}
V2(find){}
V2(rsh){I r=a->r?*a->d:1,n=tr(r,a->p),wn=tr(w->r,w->d) ;
A z=ga(w->t,r,a->p);mv(z->p,w->p,wn=n>wn?wn:n) ;
if(n-=wn)mv(z->p+wn,z->p,n);R z;}
V1(sha){A z=ga(0,1,&w->r);mv(z->p,w->d,w->r) ;R z;}
V1(id){R w;}V1(size){A z=ga(0,0,0);*z->p=w->r?*w->d:1;R z;}
pi(i){P("%d ",i);}nl(){P("\n");}
pr(w)A w;{I r=w->r,*d=w->d,n=tr(r,d);DO(r,pi(d[i]));nl() ;
if(w->t)DO(n,P("< ");pr(w->p[i]))else DO(n,pi(w->p[i]));nl();}

C vt[]="+{~<#,";
A(*vd[])()={0,plus,from,find,0,rsh ,cat},
(*vm[])()={0,id,size,iota,box,sha,0};
I st[26]; qp(a){R a>='a'&&a<='z';}qv(a){R a<'a';}
A ex(e)I *e;{I a=*e;
if(qp(a)){if(e[1]=='=')R st[a-'a']=ex(e+2);a= st[ a-'a'];}
R qv(a)?(*vm[a])(ex(e+1)):e[1]?(*vd[e[1]])(a,ex(e+2) ):(A)a;}
noun(c){A z;if(c<'0'||c>'9')R 0;z=ga(0,0,0);*z->p=c-'0';R z;}
verb(c){I i=0;for(;vt[i];)if(vt[i++]==c)R i;R 0;}
I *wd(s)C *s;{I a,n=strlen(s),*e=ma(n+1);C c;
DO(n,e[i]=(a=noun(c=s[i]))?a:(a=verb(c))?a:c);e[n] =0;R e;}

main(){C s[99];while(gets(s))pr(ex(wd(s)));}

That's due to a technical quirk of TCP/IP that is more prevailent with asymetric links.

Every received TCP packet must be acknowledged with an ACK packet. If you allow something to use 100% of your upload bandwidth, you'll find your ACK packets from your downloads get queued to get sent back in the upstream. This hammers your internet connection because the servers won't send you any more packets until you have ACK'ed the already sent ones.

The solution is to limit uploads to around 90 - 95 % of your total upload capacity. Unfortunatly, while Kazaa has an in-build bandwidth throttle that you can set, you can only change it in powers of two. I prefer WinMX, which allows you to set any value you want.

This web page explains the problem and the solution in better detail than I have, with graphs etc.

If you are using a Linux NAT box or a good firewall, you may be able to set up traffic shaping to not allow p2p to max things out. This will also give priority to the ACK packets, and you can set it so that HTTP traffic also gets priority. It's pretty complex stuff though.

The "too good to be true" icon must be Rachel Stevens' fine ass.

Does anyone...know if there have been really improvements made? I last checked in RC3, and the sound quality was _definitely_ worse than MP3 at high bitrates.

Another scientific computation package that looks promising is Lush. It's a custom Lisp dialect with a compiler in the spirit of KCL/ECL in that it doesn't need an FFI to interface with C (I'm not sure if the compiler is native-code or a C translator, the sourceforge page is down). It comes with a lot of numerical and multimedia libraries, and from the looks of it is a pretty damn cool package. I haven't had time to check it out yet.

Although I can't get it to compile, Codemist seems to have released the source to their Standard Lisp compiler and (some, all?) of their symbolic algebra system Reduce.

Another scientific computation package that looks promising is Lush. It's a custom Lisp dialect with a compiler in the spirit of KCL/ECL in that it doesn't need an FFI to interface with C (I'm not sure if the compiler is native-code or a C translator, the sourceforge page is down). It comes with a lot of numerical and multimedia libraries, and from the looks of it is a pretty damn cool package. I haven't had time to check it out yet.

Although I can't get it to compile, Codemist seems to have released the source to their Standard Lisp compiler and (some, all?) of their symbolic algebra system Reduce.

He talks about the same type of a principal, but explains a bit more about the radio waves. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ufophysics/twinwave.h tm

1. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/steven.obrien2/index. html

   http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=gnome&m=1010157075 21446&w=2

   http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley/1596/en/c ygwin.html

Unfortunately, I don't see any new efforts at a port of Evolution to Windows, but as it improves folks will start to demand it everywhere they are.

Mac OSX users are much more lucky -- they can get Evolution right now. Fink lists it as a ported app.

It would be nice to have a Windows CD with all X apps so that folks can see that *nix systems aren't usually text-based or some ugly form of CDE. Till then, I've found the boot CD and full Debian distributionKnoppix to be an ideal introduction. Blew the socks off of a admin I showed it to who didn't know it was possible, and impressed others who like the idea of Linux but can't be bothered with actually learning anything (kids, job, wife, do the math).

As an alternative to the Kazaa network, try WinMx. I prefer it, once you read some guides, such as this one, it's much more powerful than Kazaa. You have much more control over how it works.

What goes around comes around!

1970's Nostalgia Fads: Tie-died T-shirts, bell-bottoms and ... computer in a desk?

I agree, I have been watching AtheOS, and now Syllable, for a while and it looks promising!

especially when looking at this...

Daryl Dudely's new preference apps

and now they even have samba compiled for it Here!

I even have a link to them on my website so that I can easily check out any new updates.

Indian Linux is your answer. The website says it will be developed in all 18 official Indian languages.

Might be slightly misleading of course; I'm presuming they really meant all 10 ISCII ("Indian Standard Code for Information Interchange") alphabets in transmutation to give, I don't know, 12 or so languages. Will be interesting to see if they later provide for transcribing the Arabic script as well; the website at present seems to be suggesting only native Indian scripts. Not to accuse them of ethnic bias; I'm pretty sure it's plain intellectual laziness.

A More Detailed Explanation:- Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi and Nepali use the Devnagri script; a few languages such as Konkani, Manipuri use the Roman script and scripts of other languages. Sindhi, Kashmiri and Urdu use the Arabic script (or modifications of it thereof). Unicode doesn't recognise the Assamese script to be different from the Bengali one, but provides for two additional Assamese-only characters; not sure if ISCII does that as well. (IndLinux's page gives seperate keymaps for Assamese and Bengali; I neither speak nor read these languages, so I don't know if they are significantly distinct.) All other languages, namely, Gujarati, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada have their own unique scripts.

Tamil is way ahead in implementation though; the Tamil Linux group is very active; the website says you can use Tamil in Mandrake 9.0. Can't read Tamil myself, but the KDE snapshots provided look extremely cool to me.

When you go to the search page, it will list every copy of that file on the network, along with the name that it is filed as on each users machine.

So, if you see that the download is listed under several different names, you know that it is suspect.

However, what some of these "lazy" users do is to rename the file with something indicating that it is a fake, along with what it really is. For the layman this unfortunatly creates the problem you describe. If you know the above trick, it really does help. I haven't had a fake in years. This page lists many popular movies, along with information on picture/sound quality etc.

Assholes have been "poisoning" the P2P network for a while, just for kicks. It's not really new; some folk get a kick out of renaming some piss-poor movie as "Matrix Reborn" or whatever, and enjoy watching folk download it.

So, once again the industry has shot itself in the foot. By poisoning the files, they have created a need for indexing. Indexing brings reviewing. Instead of downloading that dreadful version that someone in the audience blocks the picture half-way through it, you can find out which version was made from the DVD screener. In advance of downloading anything. Pirates win, industry loses, like they did when they attacked the server-based P2P networks, making us move to (unstoppable) distributed ones.

I just wish Bill Hicks was around today, the potential material out there is unbelievable...

Or, someone could set up a kind of escrow service, where they hold your money as "theirs" but promise to give it back.

Who gets to play Natalie Portman when you geek recreate the movie in your basements?

Who gets to fight to wear one of these"?

Due to excessive bad posting from this IP or Subnet, comment posting has temporarily been disabled.
If it's you, consider this a chance to sit in the timeout corner. If it's someone else, this is a chance to hunt them down. If you think this is unfair, please email jamie@slashdot.org with your MD5'd IPID and SubnetID, which are "youwishblowmesuckmefuckmefagg0tss" and
"intheanusitsheinousgoforvagina".

Underwear

I'm sure a lot of you 'guys' already have some of these stashed in your closet for that 'special visit' from Uncle Goatse...

Sesh, is Boeing behind the curve or what! Everybody knows that the military already has anti-gravity technology taken from alien spacecraft. Just ask Bob Lazar!

You mean something like WinBe?

All right. I read this post and had a shit fit. This person either has ZERO clue or is a member of one of the above mentioned organizations who for some silly reason are extremely against ferrets.

First off, you need to understand that there are 2 types of Ferret. There is the domestic ferret that has been around for more than a thousand years. As an example, Queen Elizabeth I, raised ferrets and gave them away as gifts. You can see other examples here.

The other type of ferret is the North American Black Footed Ferret. This is the wild version and is illegal to own because it is an endangered species. It is also "the rarest native mammal in the United States...".

Yes, in California and Hawaii, they are illegal. However, according to various reports,(none of which I can find right now) there are no "Feral" Ferret populations in the USA. I will find the reports and post a response. Also, Domestic Ferrets are legal in all continental states including Alaska, and excepting California.

I don't have documentation concerning cable chewing but I will find it. From personnal experience, I have zero problems with my ferrets chewing on cables. I have network cables, power cables, video cables and other stuff laying all about and the majority of them are hot. I have yet to find a breaker tripped and a crispied critter attached to anything.

Let's start listing some facts....

1. Ferrets are very litter box trainable. In fact they are very fastidious about using the litter box. The only times that they miss are if the boxes haven't been scooped or if they are 2 far away from one. The reason for this is that the ferret intestinal tract is very short (usually about 3 to 4 hours) and they normally need to go to the box as soon as they wake up. So let them do their thing and THEN play with them. Now, to be honest there is a draw back. You will need many litter boxes depending on the size of your home. My lady and I live in a condo that is 1045sq ft and we have 12 litter boxes for 6 ferrets. We had 9 at one time hence that number of litter boxes. If you have a small apartment then I would recommend about 4-5 boxes.

2. Ferrets are not hard to train. Simply look at all the movies and commercials they have been in. Beast Master (Movie and series), Kindergarten Cop, Dr. Dolittle 2*, Doritos.. Just to name a few. Also, Everything Ferret has very good articles on house training ferrets.

3. As to the question of cages, I know from personnal experience that ferrets do not mind cages at all. Now understand that you can't just toss a ferret in an empty cage and expect it to be happy. This is your pet not a convict. Put bedding, blankets, toys and what not in there to keep them happy. A couple good books to read are "Ferrets" by Dr. Wendy Winsted, TFH Publications and "Ferrets: A complete Owners Guide" by Chuck and Fox Morton, published by Barron's. Also,see the links at the end of this post for more information.

4. Ferrets are neither Nocturnal(awake at night) or Diurnal(awake during the day). They sleep 14-18 hours a day and, from personnal experience, they adjust to your schedule. PetSmart has a wonderfull section about ferrets here.

5. Anytime Humans attempt to control their environment disaster normally results. Prime example is here. New Zealand does have a ban on ferrets. The primary problem they had there was that there were no natural predators. But I digress.

This post could go on and on. The bottom line is do your research. Ferrets DO make wonderfull pets but as with any animal, preparations must be made and a certain amount of knoweledge must be gathered. Go to your favorite search engine and type in Ferret. If I have missed anything (probably alot) post it and let me know!

Ferrets Anonymous

The National Ferret Welfare Society

The American Ferret Association

Richard Bach (who owns ferrets), author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, has written two books about Ferrets. Air Ferrets Aloft and Rescue Ferrets at Sea. Go here and type Ferrets in the search.

And yes, there is a Ferret Cam!

* Dr. Dolittle 2 referred to the ferret as a weasel. However it was a ferret. Weasels are much harder to train and have a nasty temper.

Access 2000 seemed to open the database fine, I took a peek at some of the tables just to make sure. Here's a non-protected copy for those that are interested:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/minkus/DBASEWIN.zip

We recently moved house and connected to NTL for telephone and cable modem. They gave us a number and I asked for it to be ex-directory (so it doesn't show up in public directories and thus should reduce the chances we get spam calls). Within a week or two we were getting fax calls from someone at all hours of the day and night. Not nice for Clare when I'm away from home, waking her up in the middle of the night (we don't have a fax machine). Problem is they always seemed to block their number, so dialling 1472 to get the CLI number didn't work. However *once* it did. We got the number and searched for it on the internet. I found out the company name and got their website from google. I then figured out their email naming convention and send an email to every employee in the company telling them to stop.

They stopped.

The problem was that our number was reused. It had been someone elses fax number 6 months ago. The phone company said they could change our number if we wanted, but we'd just get another recycled number.

The dimwit company with the fax machine hadn't purged their marketing database at all.

In the UK we have an opt-out system also, called the 'Telephone Preference Service'. There's also an associated organisation called the 'Mail Preference Service' to reduce spam through the letter box. Since we registered we haven't had any spam calls and little or no mail either.

Your corporate "way" isnt a religion until you have your own hymn book.