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It was taken from here and here. Both links are non-registration.

Would it have killed you to make a proper link?

from ny times, pay, blah Power Outages Reported Along East Coast By THE NEW YORK TIMES Power outages were reported today throughout the Northeast. Blackouts were reported north to Toronto, south to Maryland and west to Cleveland, Detroit and Toledo. The cause may have been an overload of the Niagara-Mohawk power grid, according to radio reports. Radio reports said that subways and the Long Island Rail Road were among the modes of transportation not operating in New York. With lights off inside city buildings, people are streaming out onto the streets of Manhattan. In Manhattan, Penn Station and subways are reportedly being evacuated. Radio reports thousands and thousands of people are on the streets wandering around, but no panic or disorder is being reported and traffic is said to be moving through Midtown Manhattan. "We don't know when Con Ed will power up again, but we do know it will take some time." Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, said. Mayor Bloomberg said that Con Edison officials had told him that the New York City power grid was shut down, as it was built to do, to avoid beig damaged. "People should go home, or stay with friends if they live far outside the city," he said. He also said that the city was calm.

This article detailing using semiconductors to mitigate large scale grid power surges ran in today's NYTs.

Great title, the NYTimes acknowledges that M$ distributes vulnerable code:
Microsoft to Change Distribution of Vulnerable Software

This article at nytimes.com mentions that microsoft tried to argue that there was prior art, but the judge ruled the jury could not consider it in determining if microsoft violated the patent...

how rediculous.

Baumol's disease is named after William Baumol, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Princeton University and current Professor of Economics an New York University, who deduced that labor productivity rises much faster - and therefore prices should fall faster - in the manufacturing sector than in the services sector (the services sector being where the product being sold is provided directly by a person, like a doctor or a teacher, rather than indirectly through physical goods). Health care is, of course, part of the services sector. Your expectation that health care, left alone over time, should stay the same price relative to wages is actually incorrect.

For a great explanation of Baumol's disease and its application to education (which, like health care, is part of the services sector), see this New York times article.

That's not to say that regulation hasn't created a mess of health care. But then again, you can also blame lack of government regulation for letting HMOs become oligopsonies (a few slightly-distinct buyers of a good, as opposed to a oligopoly which is just a fre sellers of a good; note that in this case oligopsony/oligopoly are only a few steps above monopsony/monopoly), or for letting the drug companies become monopolies (while they still hold the exclusive patent over a new drug) or monopsonies (when their patent expires and the limited generic competition comes into play).

You're right, that's the big issue here: Their children are citizens and are free to leech off taxpayers, often without providing anything in return.

But the parent is wrong in that they "stay under the radar". Immigration is such a huge problem that states like Texas and California don't even bother enforcing it anymore. The immigrants do in fact use state services, as evidenced by today's
New York Times article about Arnold's candidacy:

"Mr. Torres reminded voters on "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos that Mr. Schwarzenegger had once stumped for Mr. Wilson, the sponsor of Proposition 187, a successful ballot initiative barring illegal immigrants from receiving state services. The measure was eventually struck down in state appellate court."

Obviously there is no need for a bill banning the existence of a problem that supposedly doesn't exist, right?

Here

Here's an interesting article from the New York Times about the Harry Potter situation.

I know this first hand because I used the 6 month free AOL that came with my new Dell. AOL would ask you to participate in Beta programs and customers sign up so that they get the new features first... Eventually I got sick of it and stopped participating in their Beta.

-- Sig
Washington Post - Bush Misuses Science, Report Says

New York Times - Bush Misuses Science, Report Says

From http://www.freemikehawash.org/ "On April 28, the day before Mike would have been ordered released, the U.S. Justice Department issued a Complaint, charging Mike with Conspiracy to Levy War on the United States. Mike is being targeted because he is a Muslim. The Justice Department has organized a smear campaign to portray him as a radical."

From Warblogging (a blog about making war against Republicans apparently): "I urge you to write letters to the editors of your local newspapers. Call your senators, call your congressmen. Call into your local radio talk shows. Make a fuss. Tell everyone who will listen about Mike Hawash. He deserves it, and so does the next one who will be dragged into this Kafka-esque nightmare."

From Wired: Ex-Intel VP Fights for Detainee

Oh, let's not forget the ever-accurate New York Times: Terrorism Task Force Detains an American Without Charges

If you browse around and read other articles on many of the private publications that spoke out on this you find constant Bush bashing, comparisons of Republicans to Nazis, an much worse. Liberals figured that this successful natuaralized American of 17 years had a good chance of actually being innocent, so what better way to give the Bush administration grief.

What I don't understand is, why don't the Liberals actually wait till they have some solid information before they bash away? Time after time they just make themselves look like air-heads on things like this.

Here is a clue: What MOTIVE would the current administration or any administration have for falsely arresting anyone on terrorism charges? This notion that the administration hates Arabs just doesn't hold water. They arrested these people because they HAD something on them. Does that mean that every single one will be found guilty? No. But if I let party politics rule my every decision as most of these people seem to do, I think I'd WAIT till one of the innocents had been let go to start my smear campaign. A lot less erroneous web pages to clean up that way. (4000 hits on google to web content proclaiming this guy's innocence).

They really have quintupled in stock value. I'm starting to think capitalism sucks.

the nytimes has an article on it as well...

You can read lots more about this by choosing from the links in the rejected post below. Also, it's important to note that EAL2 is NOT the highest Common Criteria certification level. The Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation v2.1 describes the security assurance requirements and EALs in detail. For a look at the details read about the Evaluation Assurance Levels at NIST.

IBM, SuSE Linux Get Common Criteria Security Certification

Linux has reached a new milestone: IBM and SuSE Linux have received the Common Criteria Security Certification from the U.S. government (mirror), specifically from the Defense Information Security Agency (DISA) arm of the Pentagon. 'Right now it is the only Linux distribution available that has this. This certification is used as a standard by 14 countries including the U.S. and Canada,' says the SuSE U.S. general manager. Linux Enterprise Server 8 is certified at Evaluation Assurance Level 2+ EAL2 with the companies jointly pursuing a Controlled Access Protection Profile EAL3 certification by year-end, then on to EAL4. More details at CNet, AP via Detnews/CNN and Reuters/Forbes. It looks like they beat Red Hat to the punch.

Linux got the highest rating possible.

Is this right? Because that's not how the Wall Street Journal (subscription only) reported it today:
SuSE Linux got a Level 2 certification, which he [Jonathan Eunice, principal analyst at market researcher Illuminata] said "isn't particularly detailed." Microsoft Corp. has a Level 4 certification, which involves "substantially more detailed" investigation by testing labs.

The Wall Street Journal gave this big play ... it's subscription only, but here's some details:

To get the certification, IBM enlisted SuSE, which distributes one of the leading versions of Linux. Mr. Donofrio said IBM paid less than $500,000 to get the certification at a independent testing center in Germany run by atsec information security GmbH. [IBM's senior vice president of technology and manufacturing, Nicholas] Donofrio said the security certification required few changes. It simply assured that Linux didn't have weaknesses that could be exploited by hackers, such as failing to really erase information on command. The certification included approval of the process SuSE uses to upgrade the software without introducing new security risks.

In a statement, the Defense Information Systems Agency said it was "pleased" that Linux has attained the certification.

Jonathan Eunice, principal analyst at market researcher Illuminata, Nashua, N.H., said the certification is significant, because "competitors have openly said Linux would never get to this level of security."

The initial certification is for Linux running on servers using Intel Corp. microprocessors. Mr. Eunice said SuSE Linux got a Level 2 certification, which he said "isn't particularly detailed." Microsoft Corp. has a Level 4 certification, which involves "substantially more detailed" investigation by testing labs. IBM said it would sponsor security testing for Linux software running on other servers it makes, including its mainframes.

There's a NY Times story on the subject here (and a good SCO one on the Red Hat legal case following it).

Linux got the highest rating possible.

Is this right? Because that's not how the Wall Street Journal (subscription only) reported it today:
SuSE Linux got a Level 2 certification, which he [Jonathan Eunice, principal analyst at market researcher Illuminata] said "isn't particularly detailed." Microsoft Corp. has a Level 4 certification, which involves "substantially more detailed" investigation by testing labs.

The Wall Street Journal gave this big play ... it's subscription only, but here's some details:

To get the certification, IBM enlisted SuSE, which distributes one of the leading versions of Linux. Mr. Donofrio said IBM paid less than $500,000 to get the certification at a independent testing center in Germany run by atsec information security GmbH. [IBM's senior vice president of technology and manufacturing, Nicholas] Donofrio said the security certification required few changes. It simply assured that Linux didn't have weaknesses that could be exploited by hackers, such as failing to really erase information on command. The certification included approval of the process SuSE uses to upgrade the software without introducing new security risks.

In a statement, the Defense Information Systems Agency said it was "pleased" that Linux has attained the certification.

Jonathan Eunice, principal analyst at market researcher Illuminata, Nashua, N.H., said the certification is significant, because "competitors have openly said Linux would never get to this level of security."

The initial certification is for Linux running on servers using Intel Corp. microprocessors. Mr. Eunice said SuSE Linux got a Level 2 certification, which he said "isn't particularly detailed." Microsoft Corp. has a Level 4 certification, which involves "substantially more detailed" investigation by testing labs. IBM said it would sponsor security testing for Linux software running on other servers it makes, including its mainframes.

There's a NY Times story on the subject here (and a good SCO one on the Red Hat legal case following it).

Well, according to this NYTimes article; What's certified is SuSE running on IBM hardware.

Keep America great. Keep America prosperous. Keep America white!

A usual film hologram (like those that have been around since 1940s) is made and placed somewhere.

Light shines on the hologram, producing a 3D image (you have seen it many times).

The image of the keypad is seen in front of the hologram (no, it doesn't float in the air, you have to look at the hologram to see it).

Infrared sensors (like those in the projection keyboards) detect the movement of your fingers.

The "key-press" is sent to the computer.

The inventors explain very well what this keyboard is. It is not the keyboard from Minority Report. It is a keyboard to be used in places where you don't want to actually touch surfaces for one reason or another.

This is an interesting invention that might prove useful in some areas.

There is nothing bad about the patent. Although inventors don't need to have a working model to get the patent (for 2 hundreds years already), this company has a working prototype (seen at the top of the article in NYT).

The media overstates the importance of this technology a bit.

The company has good PR manager.

Better Google News link without the iWon banner thing at the top Google News Link

Partner Link

Posting as Anonymous Coward, please award my Karma to starving children in the world.

...they do it just fine on the NYT article

Sure, it was a strange case. Toshiba caved to the tune of about $1 billion because they were worried about treble damages (to the tune of $9.5 billion) being awarded by an unpredictable Texas jury trial.

link

The kicker is that the suit is over a bug in a 10+ year old floppy drive controller chip manufactured by NEC, where neither NEC nor Toshiba ever received a single complaint of data corruption. No customer ever claims to have lost data because of the bug - not even the plaintiffs! The plaintiffs simply started the class action lawsuit because they were sold a "defective product". AFAIK the bug has only been reproduced in specific laboratory conditions and not the real world.

The lawyers were using Toshiba as a test case and then were going to go after HP, Compaq, etc. with similar class action lawsuits. I haven't tracked it, but I don't think they made much progress or we would have heard about it.

Should they have fixed the (known) bug? Probably. Was it worth a class action lawsuit, especially of this magnitude? Absolutely not. This is extortion plain and clear, and the scary thing is it's accelerating. If this keeps up it will eventually be impossible for any business to exist for more than a few years without being sued out of existence by corrupt, opportunistic, money-grabbing lawyers. The minute you make any kind of mistake they pounce, with grossly exaggerated damage figures that aren't even sane, but somehow actually get awarded--especially by jury trials--with an extremely low burden of proof.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/03/magazine/03DOWNL OW.html

A drink or two a day of wine, beer or liquor is, experts say, often the single best nonprescription way to prevent heart attacks -- better than a low-fat diet or weight loss, better even than vigorous exercise. Moderate drinking can help prevent strokes, amputated limbs and dementia.

Thirty years of research has convinced many experts of the health benefits of moderate drinking for some people. A drink or two a day of wine, beer or liquor is, experts say, often the single best nonprescription way to prevent heart attacks -- better than a low-fat diet or weight loss, better even than vigorous exercise. Moderate drinking can help prevent strokes, amputated limbs and dementia.

here

Poindexter is going to resign!
now (nytimes registration required blah blah)

-bloo

Poindexter has already lost his job.

The NY Times had a story yesterday about how they will be abandoning their plans.

The Pentagon's plan was met with astonishment and
derision almost from the moment it was disclosed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/29/politics/29WIRE- PENT.html?ex=1060598562&ei=1&en=db62c44e2fbc6b 4a

You did, of course, read the article in the NYTimes today about the fudging of dropout numbers by calling them "discharged" rather than dropped out? The article is interesting and I think may force schools to become truely accountable.

I recall recently reading a lengthy NY Times article about the Houston School District getting flack for underreporting the high school dropout rate.

It seems a lot of good political hay was generated about their success in having low dropout rates, when in fact the statistics keepers were logging dropouts as "transferred" to some other school.

Hong Kong is part of China. The Chinese have developed a processor that will be the backbone of its information-technology infrastructure. It is an issue for the USA, economically and militarily.

The Chinese government, via "China People's Daily", have several employees who post messages in American discussion boards whenever the topic of China arises. It is a concerted attempt at propaganda.

I suggest that the moderators of Slashdot contact the former moderators of the old CNN message boards and the moderators of the current message boards at "The New York Times". Whenever a message that criticizes China appears in either of those message boards, the message boards suddenly become inundated with mysterious messages that viciously attack the parent message.

A similar game is being played here, on SlashDot, by pro-China posters. They deliberately try to sway the moderators to mod down messages criticizing China. Several of the pro-China posters are affiliated with the Chinese government.

Sorry, screwed up the link to the NY Times story. Here.

Google link

PDF Mirror

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/29/politics/29WIRE- PENT.html?hp

if it was a hoax, those the NY Times talked to would have said so. Also note that Net Exchange links to the site prominently. Nice it's cancelled. http://my.netomat.net/catalyst/Catalyst3/

More links on BBC and NY times.

They should setup a committee to estimate how much money was lost.

I really, really hope this is a joke...

Even senators thought this was a joke so you can be excused for thinking so. See the bold text from the rejected submission below - it's from the NY Times article.

Poindexter's Middle East Terror Bookie Scheme

2003-07-29 08:16:21 Poindexter's Middle East Terror Bookie Scheme The NY Times reports on DARPA's latest scheme: an options and futures trading market where you can bet on assassinations, toppling governments, instability and war in the Middle East (Google). The $8 million program is under the control of Admiral John Poindexter who brought us Total Information Awareness. The Policy Analysis Market starts taking registrants this week and betting/trading begins in October. Senator Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota, said the idea seemed so preposterous that he had trouble persuading people it was not a hoax.

I really, really hope this is a joke...

Even senators thought this was a joke so you can be excused for thinking so. See the bold text from the rejected submission below - it's from the NY Times article.

Poindexter's Middle East Terror Bookie Scheme

2003-07-29 08:16:21 Poindexter's Middle East Terror Bookie Scheme The NY Times reports on DARPA's latest scheme: an options and futures trading market where you can bet on assassinations, toppling governments, instability and war in the Middle East (Google). The $8 million program is under the control of Admiral John Poindexter who brought us Total Information Awareness. The Policy Analysis Market starts taking registrants this week and betting/trading begins in October. Senator Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota, said the idea seemed so preposterous that he had trouble persuading people it was not a hoax.

Ny Times article (free reg, stop whining) says it's not just for the Middle East. In any event, while I support innovative ways of fighting terrorism (as opposed to wiretapping everyone and giving the president imperium, etc) the idea of making money off of death is exceptionally disturbing.

Says this is another idea from Admiral John Poindexter of, most recently, Total Information Awareness fame. Sounds like he might be a sick sick man.

No-reg link.

1. Afghanistan, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003
2. Bosnia, 1994, 1995
3. Cambodia, 1969-70
4. China, 1945-46
5. Congo (now Zaire), 1964
6. Cuba, 1959-1961 ("Bay of Pigs" invasion)
7. El Salvador, 1980s
8. Grenada, 1983
9. Guatemala, 1954, 1960, 1967-69
10. Indonesia, 1958
11. Iran, 1987
12. Iraq, 1991-2000, 2003 (The U.S. government used radioactive bombs in the first war against Iraq. See United States War Crimes Against Iraq for what appears to be an accurate history.)
13. Korea and China, 1950-53 (Korean War)
14. Kuwait, 1991
15. Laos, 1964-73
16. Lebanon, 1983, 1984 (both Lebanese and Syrian targets)
17. Libya, 1986
18. Nicaragua, 1980s
19. Panama, 1989. The U.S. government called it "Operation Just Cause". The link is to a U.S. military web site.
20. Peru, 1965
21. Somalia, 1993
22. Sudan 1998. There are doubts that the pharmaceutical plant that was bombed was making weapons.
23. Vietnam, 1961-73 (An estimated 2,000,000 Vietnamese were killed.)
24. Yugoslavia, 1999

There are many sources for this information. For example, see this PBS web page: PBS: A Chronology of U.S. Military Interventions (PBS is the Public Broadcasting System in the U.S.) Also see From Wounded Knee to Afghanistan: A Century of U.S. Military Interventions [zmag.org] and The government of the United States is a consistent opponent of international law. [prairie-fire.org]

I put some links and explanation together about wh

If you're on Slashdot, it's possible you have Information Addiction, as recently discussed here on Slashdot. It's sorta like ADHD in some of the symptoms. Anyway, if you do think it applies to you, you're not alone. I'll often plan ahead to get something done, have full intention of doing it and plenty of time, but it just doesn't happen. I always find something "more productive" to do. Writing a paper is hard when you decide you have to read all about the IRC RFC.

The NYT have noticed that google often links to actual articles from its news.google.com site, bypassing NYT's login screen, and they are said to be trying to work out a deal to stop this.

http://www.nytimes.com/robots.txt

I've noticed the referrer too, and I hope it means that news.google will start crawling nytimes.com.

Thanks, Google.

Click here

Skip the reg

No registration required

here's a direct link.