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Assuming you can still get Pringles after the US plant was detroyed by a tornado last month!!

We might run out of stock soon!!!

Since a tornado damaged the Pringles factory in Jackson, Tn, I can rely on floppies instead for the next while.

Thanks!

You get to wonder if Ballmer didn't buy some RedHat stock with those billions that received from dumping Microsoft: His memo sent RedHat stock soaring by almost 10 percent. What's this called, "outsider trading"?

1, 2, 3, 4.

• The Guardian: "Taking sides" (BBC reported false Scud stories put out by US & UK military)
  
• Canadian Broadcasting Corp: " Iraqi TV reports fighting 150 km from Baghdad" (but no Scuds or WMD found in Iraq)
  
• Seattle Times: "Accidents cast doubts on Patriot missiles" (they didn't knock down many Scuds, but they were highly effective against British fighter jets)
  
• San Jose Mercury: "U.S. confident trailers were used to produce bioweapons" (no Scuds or anything else found yet really, but we definitely expect to find something really important Real Soon Now)
  
  

I would prefer fusion, but that hasn't been done yet. Next on my list would be space based solar power, but sadly that might take longer to be ready than fusion...

Ironic isn't it? Indeed, we already have *BOTH* of those things! We have a nice, safe (assuming we get real about greenhouse gasses or start wearing a lot of sunscreen) space-based solar power from, get this, nuclear FUSION. As a bonus, it's 93,000,000 miles away in case something goes wrong. Plus, we all have great view seats so we can keep an eye on things. ;-)

Other benefits: CLOSED LOOP Energy (use this solar income to convert to H2 via Hydrolysis) 2H20 + Fusion --> 2H2 + 02. No changing to the balance of sequestered carbon, distributed conversion plants (could be rooftop-based micro plants), and worldwide, to benefit all.

To paraphrase Bucky Fuller, here goes mankind, drawing down our energy endowment savings account (oil) while our paychecks (solar energy) go un-cashed. Sad, really.

It's high time we work on getting a real energy policy--something that works for all humankind, sustainably, forever.
I keep hearing about a "Manhattan Project for Energy", and now an Apollo Project for Energy.

Why not? Spread the idea! It's catching.

I'm frankly surprised that the insurance company actually agreed to pay. Keep in mind that the whole idea of an insurance company is NOT to pay.

Just like they did after 9/11, companies will probably start writing exclusions for this type of loss into their policies. If they don't, the price of the insurance will go sky high to the point that companies will simply go bare as the insurance costs more than the asset it's protecting.

7. Microsoft recently licensed rights to use Unix from Caldera-now-SCO. This is clearly an attempt to hop onto the "Linux = Copyright Infringement" bandwagon that Caldera-now-SCO started, but there's no evidence to suggest a larger conspiracy.

A lot of people suggested that there was outside involvement before the Microsoft investment, because SCO's behavior makes no sense from a business perspective.

Microsofts investment is reported to be between 10 and 20 million dollars. That's half SCO's quarterly revenue.

If you think SCO has not been working with Microsoft for months before the lawsuit you are rather niave.

But it's not a conspiracy, it's just a business deal.

This is the same David Brame who also is accused of raping a woman in 1988. Of course nothing happened to David Brame. And the Pierce County sheriff's department did nothing about Crystal Brame's complaints because her husband was the chief of police.

Perhaps we can make the object of the game to shoot Tacoma cops, who are corrupt and Pierce County Sheriff's deputies, who are stupid and corrupt. Oh, and you could add Pat Frantz to the list. He's the head of the police union in Tacoma who has been threatening journalists and blaming the media for David Brame's actions.

Yeah, I think that having a game where you waste these useless and corrupt cocksuckers would be a good thing, I think that having kids play this game would be even better.

I would look at a Top Coder victor the same way I would look at someone who can answer trivia questions correctly. The experience is incredibly valuable, but I wouldn't say that they are parallel at all. Most of the questions and tests are biased against people who have experience doing competitions. A veteran programmer would probably perform 10x better in a real world environment, and is much more valuable than a TopCoder winner who is still in school... but I could be wrong.

Actually it's not as simple as that. In order to be successful in TopCoder competitions, one has to be a rather smart person (in fact the 2001 winner is "the smartest guy in the world"), with good analysis, generalization and abstraction skills, and above all, a quick thinker. The problems are not trivial to dissect, and time pressure is strong.
So for a long term employment (3+ years), I would rather hire a young successful TopCoder participant (one can always gain experience but not smarts) than a regular but experienced guy.

No more pringles cans.

Slashdotters defending DRM... am I crazy or am I the last sane one? I'm not sure sure anymore.

Slashdot continues to get more mainstream readership, even getting mentioned in print articles these days. As a side effect of this visibility, the activity of astroturfers has increased -- notice that the pro-MS AC(s) tend to have the same writing style and logical fallacies. When other readers put them in their place, a handful UIDs dog pile one or two posters with ad hominem attacks or the "you-just-don't-like-Microsoft" (appeal to emotion?) attack. Microsoft has a long practice of 'turfing in it's marketing:

• MSFT paid Gartner to publish MSFT material as Gartner's
• fake "grass roots" letter writing
• another fake letter writing campaign
• paid for people to hang out in AOL forums
• paid for people to hang out in ZDNet "talkback" forums
• paid for people to hang out in CompuServe forums
• MSNBC doctored Wall Street Journal material
• Stuffed an on-line ballot box
• planned to plant fake op-ed pieces in local newspapers
• funded favorable think-tank whitepapers
• 'Astroturf' PR campaign exposes Microsoft goals.
• Joseph Menn. "Lobbyists Tied to Microsoft Wrote Citizens' Letters." The Los Angeles Times; Aug 23, 2001; pg. A.1 (print)
• Windows Outstuffs Linux in Poll
• Dead People, Fake Letters, Support Microsoft - Report
• Dead people rise in support of Microsoft
• Microsoft employee's move against AOL backfires
• The Freedom to Innovate Network - an 'Astroturf' Organisation

Also, right now MS is in a panicked marketing blitz. notice all the product placement on the tech sites. The embarassing stuff just disappears from the top page less than a day, but the press releases sit there for weeks.

It makes sense. Most Windows users have both Windows and Office because it's what the OEMs had installed on the machines they bought, nothing more or less. Most of these are either apathetic or know nothin else, so they will not write. Others are pissed off at the low quality, made worse by Microsoft treating security and stability issues as PR issues -- How many times have you heard "computers" crash from BSD, Novell, QNX, Linux, or OS X users? Or is it just the MSCEs? Most remaining clients could go easily over to OS X or one of the Linux distros and the next IT boom would start, like the previous one, without Microsoft.

In short, they need DRM to survive the summer and few, except for MS and RIAA staff

Did anyone notice the Pringles crisis caused by a tornado last Sunday?

Longhorn
The code name Longhorn is a reference to a rowdy bar at the Whistler ski area in British Columbia. The bar lies between two peaks, Whistler and Blackcomb. Whistler was the code name for Windows XP, the operating system launched in 2001, and Blackcomb is the code name for the operating system that will come after Longhorn.

source

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/403124954.j pg

Go them!

Triangulation is difficult with cell-phones and generally isn't done. This article points out the difficulty in locating the origination of a cell phone call. (scroll to the end of the article).

However, I believe newer phones have GPS chips and so are much easier to locate. So if you were to get rid of your land line and were worried about being located, then make sure the cell phone you buy has a GPS chip.

This is an associated press article and u can access it without the registration here

According to this news story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (the local Seattle paper, the Seattle Times is for the suburbanites), Microsoft is in severe danger of losing their shorts to Linux with their release of Windows 2003.

Maybe Paul Allen was right in diversifying out of Microsoft stock ...

..Seattle Public Utilities loves them.

1) Your mission statement should be on your home page, or at least linked there, not buried under your "jobs" page.

2) If you really mean that "Listening to people" line, then why this proposed change? And why attempt to "put a torch to citizens' rights to challenge federal agencies' land-use decisions"?

3) If you really mean those "Protecting" and "practice good stewardship" lines, then why promote "salvage logging" when it's been shown to cause more harm than good?

Flamebait? Maybe, but it's true.

Flamebait? Maybe, but it's true.

See that last sentence in the story? Who made the mistake? Paul Allen, or the Times's writer?

Sci-Fi Today, the Seattle PI, and The Seattle Times all got it right.

Only the Times and The Tacoma News Tribune have it wrong.

The Tacoma paper deserves special recognition for combining the Times story and AP wire reports, then getting the error into their lead sentence.

See that last sentence in the story? Who made the mistake? Paul Allen, or the Times's writer?

Sci-Fi Today, the Seattle PI, and The Seattle Times all got it right.

Only the Times and The Tacoma News Tribune have it wrong.

The Tacoma paper deserves special recognition for combining the Times story and AP wire reports, then getting the error into their lead sentence.

With thier major media outlet biases that are ingrained even though people don't realize it they forget to check those slightly "smaller" sources.

The Seattle PI

Seattle Times

Vulcan Ventures.

Hmm.. Perhaps Mr. Allen's own COMPANY might have a little use.

With thier major media outlet biases that are ingrained even though people don't realize it they forget to check those slightly "smaller" sources.

The Seattle PI

Seattle Times

Vulcan Ventures.

Hmm.. Perhaps Mr. Allen's own COMPANY might have a little use.

If Paul sneezes, you can be assured it will be "in the P-I".

Free news here: Sci-fi museum Allen's latest out-there trek

Another short article on this.

• Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
  Paul Allen... is expected to announce today his plans to build a Seattle facility to celebrate science-fiction literature in the same way his Experience Music Project honors popular music....
  Jason Hunke, a spokesman for Allen's project management and investment firm Vulcan Inc., declined to identify the author or confirm any specific plans for the project beyond its location. But he did say the goal of SFX would be to entertain and educate the public about the place of science fiction in our culture.
  "As a genre, it's much broader than just 'Star Wars' or 'Star Trek,' " he said.
• Another story at The Seattle Times:
  "The "Science Fiction Experience," or SFX, will "celebrate the broadest and most dynamic genre of our time, capture our imagination, offer new perspectives on society and culture, and invite us to ponder the universe's infinite possibilities," according to a statement from Allen's projects and investments company, Vulcan Inc... Details will be provided at a morning news conference with Allen, Seattle Center director Virginia Anderson, EMP's CEO Robert Santelli and a surprise 'award-winning, best-selling' science-fiction writer. Seattle Center spokeswoman Beau Fong said the new facility will be in the space that formerly housed the EMP's Artist's Journey, a virtual-reality amusement-park-style ride. It featured a computer-generated James Brown hosting a block party titled Funk Blast. It was supposed to be one of the museum's hallmark features but quietly closed in January."

• Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
  Paul Allen... is expected to announce today his plans to build a Seattle facility to celebrate science-fiction literature in the same way his Experience Music Project honors popular music....
  Jason Hunke, a spokesman for Allen's project management and investment firm Vulcan Inc., declined to identify the author or confirm any specific plans for the project beyond its location. But he did say the goal of SFX would be to entertain and educate the public about the place of science fiction in our culture.
  "As a genre, it's much broader than just 'Star Wars' or 'Star Trek,' " he said.
• Another story at The Seattle Times:
  "The "Science Fiction Experience," or SFX, will "celebrate the broadest and most dynamic genre of our time, capture our imagination, offer new perspectives on society and culture, and invite us to ponder the universe's infinite possibilities," according to a statement from Allen's projects and investments company, Vulcan Inc... Details will be provided at a morning news conference with Allen, Seattle Center director Virginia Anderson, EMP's CEO Robert Santelli and a surprise 'award-winning, best-selling' science-fiction writer. Seattle Center spokeswoman Beau Fong said the new facility will be in the space that formerly housed the EMP's Artist's Journey, a virtual-reality amusement-park-style ride. It featured a computer-generated James Brown hosting a block party titled Funk Blast. It was supposed to be one of the museum's hallmark features but quietly closed in January."

You have a NYT-phobia for some reason you might want to try a paper here in Seattle. The picture is better and very much younger. It looks to be about from the time M$ sold software on paper tape.

The guy should do something worthwhile with his bucks

Like maybe donate money to save forests? or to "sustain" the Seti Project? and severl other things.

• Only in a military dominated dictatorship does the minority make the rules.

• The United States is a Democratic Republic. We have a process in which to 'listen to the damn people.' It's called elections.

• That's different from shutting down a city or country until the government does what you want.

• However, it does not have the right to cause mass violence or economic hardship.

• We the people have already formed a government in which our voices can be heard in non-violent ways. Attempts to undermine this organization with ways other than voting, working through your representatives, or peaceful non-disruptive protest is an assault on democracy,

Think about it.

Spammers usually define spamming as "That which they do not do."

Here, we have a case where Microsoft is simply redefining software piracy as "That which we do not do."

Since Microsoft has also been known to spam, and has tried to weaken anti-spam laws in their favor, it comes as no surprise to me that the left hand has no idea of what the right is doing when it comes to handing out software.

Spammer logic. Amazing -- and kind of frightening -- how contagious it is.

That Bush quote is completely out of context. Furthermore, your date is incorrect, showing that your source is unreliable. Quick Googling gives lots more information about this quote. Bush was referring to his struggles with Congress, and that if it were a dictatorship, he would not have to deal with that; he was not implying that he would take over the government.

Unlike Hitler, Bush has personally not made any attempts to sieze power for himself, has not rallied the populace by promising expansion of American territory, has not created a youth program designed to create the Fascisti of tomorrow, has not destroyed the Reichstag, and so on. Comparing G. W. Bush to Hitler is stupid.

Funny you should mention it, even in this day and age people still gotta take it to the scotus to get protection under the sanctity of the home clause. Those guys definitely got themselves a whole heapfull of hassle because somebody didn't like them.

Actually, no, no it isn't.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A522 41-2002Dec29.html

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/88244_sean24 .shtml

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/publications/iraq gate/iraqgate.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2 003/03/02/IN123519.DTL

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/01/17/iraq.chemical.su it/

Defend your viewpoint, ass!

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_s tory.asp?category=1107

Russ Cooper, moderator of the NTBugTraq security list and a security expert for TruSecure Corp., seems to be contradicting himself in two stories on the same day (or is being misquoted). Make of this what you will...

This story quotes Cooper: "I do expect that in the next seven to 10 days we're going to see a worldwide wave" of attacks, probably via an Internet worm, Cooper said Wednesday. "And it will be effective."

And this story quotes Cooper: ""I doubt we will see an attack based on this," Cooper said. "It's pretty unlikely any such exploit attempt will get legs.""

if you had read the link that the parent poster had given, it explained why it didn't need to be honored.

~Jon~

Here is a link to that story about that 36-inch TV for $99 on Amazon. People sued to get the TV for the advertised price, and lost.

The current law can be found here. A report on a successfully prosecuted case can be found here. If one reads either, it's easy to see that the current law only applies to fraudulent headers.

Given that the current law only covers fraudulent headers, I doubt that Microsoft is maliciously trying to destroy the current law.

However, last year the senate introduced bill 6568 which extended the old law to require that commercial e-mail contain ADV: as the first 4 characters of the subject line. That bill passed the senate with flying colors. Unfortunately, it got locked up in committee in the house and died.

House bill 5734 is a watered down version of last year's senate bill 6568.

I don't like Microsoft much. That said, the story at the Seattle Times is riddled with half-truths and inaccuracies. For example, it claims that 5734 completely exempts ISPs. The senate summary of the bill says

Interactive computer services may not be held liable for acting as an intermediary between the sender and the recipient of commercial spam sent in violation of the law, or for providing transmission over its computer network or facilities of commercial spam that is sent in violation of the law.

I'd be really interested in knowing whether lobbyists that are partially funded by Microsoft also supported senate bill 6568 from last year. If so, this is definitely unjustified Microsoft bashing. However, if their lobbyists locked it up in the house then we can villify them for weakening a good bill.

Too bad the article doesn't comment on that, and I don't have a way to find out.

Scumbags like Washington State supreme court justice Bobbe Bridge or our President and Vice President?

It is presumptuous and insulting to suggest that a whole region of the world -- or the one-fifth of humanity that is Muslim -- is somehow untouched by the most basic aspirations of life. ... In our desire to be safe from brutal and bullying oppression, human beings are the same. In our desire to care for our children and give them a better life, we are the same. For these fundamental reasons, freedom and democracy will always and everywhere have greater appeal than the slogans of hatred and the tactics of terror.

Looks like someone else is thinking the same thing.

I'm not really familiar with how things work in Seattle

Well the two major papers. SeattleTimes and SeattlePI are the same damn company!

Talk about freedom of press!

I'm not really familiar with how things work in Seattle

Well the two major papers. SeattleTimes and SeattlePI are the same damn company!

Talk about freedom of press!

"It's got Unix roots. Unix has had historic strength, but at the end of the day, I'm quite sure we can out-innovate and deliver sort of a better solution than the work of a bunch of uncoordinated hobbyists."

Also, Microsoft doesn't pay dividends. At least not yet. If Bill has his way, they never will.

Some background info from a world trade law student:

One: European governments are subsidizing Airbus development costs, which according to the U.S. violates WTO rules on subsidies. Of course, neither the EU nor the Bush administration can really be considered champions of unrestricted free trade.
[rant] Although economists and common sense agree that free trade results in a net wealth benefit (note that this doesn't imply a "fair" distribution of that wealth), special interest groups that have much to lose from free trade (unproductive industries, unions) find it easier to exert political influence in favor of protectionism than the average person-on-the-street, who stands to lose a few cents a day on account of a specific protectionist measure, of which he is generally not even aware. [/rant]

Two: There is of course no economical or technical reason at all to distribute this kind of megaconstruction project all over Europe. It is estimated that all the silly moving around of pieces increases construction cost by a two-figures percentage. The reason, of course, is a political one: every nation wants a piece of the cake...