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RESIST!

Study incorrect states birthdays are equally likely, there NOT turns out more people get it on in the winter time. https://www.panix.com/~murphy/...

combining a traditionally favorite /. troll topic with tales of cubical revolt, I present : The Mad Shitter

BYTE died for me when they let Jerry Pournelle spew his pig-ignorance all over its pages as a regular columnist. I loved it back in the days of Steve Ciarcia.

-jcr

http://www.panix.com/~dictum/humor/computers/general/Jerry-Pournelle-parody.html

Seems like as good a place as any to ask a (probably ignorant) question I've had about neutrino detection.

Part of the problem detecting neutrinos is that they only interact with nuclei, so since atoms are mostly empty space, the neutrino rarely even gets a chance to interact. But, if you took a very pure crystal, with the nuclei arranged in a precise lattice pattern, and then rotated it at a very slight angle to the incoming neutrino beam, could you engineer it so that you maximized the number of nuclei each neutrino would pass through? Picture here Would this have any effect on detector efficiency or even allow you to construct a directional detector?

I host a few virtual servers with Panix.com.

I've been using them for several months now. Tech support is great. No downtime, at least none of which I or my users are aware. The staff is very accessible.

It is amazing how much the data varies seasonally to this day. Check out the chart here and the fascinating ones here It is also surprising how much weekends matter; more than anything else. I suppose few people or hospitals schedule a birth on the weekend, but I always thought of birth happening on its own schedule. According to the data, that is very much not true.

From year to year the weekends would shift around, but you still end up with uneven seasonal distribution as well as the weekends piling up on different days.

http://www.panix.com/~jays/Seth.Johnson-Reply-Two.Underdeveloped.Issues-FCC-DA-10-1667A1.pdf

- Power generation, solar beamed to earth via microwave

Pathetically costlier than covering desertic area with tons of solar cells. Pathetically, like "hundred times". I work in an european space industry and we are regularly asked the question by politician newcomers...

- Power generation using He-3 for fusion mined from the moon though this is pretty speculative

You just said it

- Asteroid mining when the earth eventually runs out of minable mineral deposits which is eventually will unless we become a lot better at recycling.

The expandable materials required to just bring an asteroid close to Earth are >>> to the possible interesting materials you may find. This not to speak about the cost of safe earth reentry afterwards

- Zero G manufacturing (protein crystals is the best proved though there are other possibilities)

Please. The space station guys tried to sell us that one for 10 years: even them don't dare anymore now

- Satellites are used for a lot more than communication including GPS, weather forecasting, climate monitoring, ozone layer monitoring, earth resource monitoring and location.

Ah. At least something sound. Not a hugely expanding market anyway, alas for me -thus not a forever expanding need for big launchers either. Indeed, most of these sats are getting wittier and wittier, which mean we manage to miniaturize them, allowing for smaller, cheaper (existing) launchers...

- Colonization especially if we manage to crash the earth one way or another, If we dont contain population growth this is a near certainty,

Hmm. Here we are back to pure dream. Please come back when you'll have signed to colonize our own south pole. Temperature is similar to Mars, but at least there is air, and in case of dire need some penguins to eat. Honest, when I see the first boat leaving for there, I'll look for Mars again (I presume you didn't talk about those 1000-years-away-at-the-speed-of-light Exoplanets, did you?)

"As far as I can see ..."

Well you apparently can't see well.

There is also:

- Power generation, solar beamed to earth via microwave
- Power generation using He-3 for fusion mined from the moon though this is pretty speculative
- Asteroid mining when the earth eventually runs out of minable mineral deposits which is eventually will unless we become a lot better at recycling.
- Zero G manufacturing (protein crystals is the best proved though there are other possibilities)
- Satellites are used for a lot more than communication including GPS, weather forecasting, climate monitoring, ozone layer monitoring, earth resource monitoring and location.
- Colonization especially if we manage to crash the earth one way or another, If we dont contain population growth this is a near certainty,

Yes, it is from 1997, but still true.

'Knuth acknowledged he was paid a "seven-figure sum" from Microsoft, which he will use to finance his work on a project he has code-named "Volume 4".'

http://www.panix.com/~clp/humor/computers/microsoft/TeX.html

This page http://www.panix.com/~ruari/dnots.txt explains how it can be done.

Revenge (Flaming Lips)
Just War (Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals)
Jaykub (Jason Lytle)
Little Girl (Julian Casablancas of The Strokes)
Angel's Harp (Frank Black of The Pixies)
Pain (Iggy Pop)
Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (David Lynch)
Everytime I'm With You (Jason Lytle)
Insane Lullaby (James Mercer of The Shins)
Daddy's Gone (Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and Nina Persson of The Cardigans)
The Man Who Played God (Suzanne Vega)
Grim Augury (Vic Chesnutt)
Dark Night Of The Soul (David Lynch)

After downloading the files you will need to tag them. I would suggest tagging them as per the names on the NPR site as this is the only official source.

http://www.panix.com/~ruari/dnots.txt explains how this was done.

Piracy is Theft

It's been done. It's just not in the games you're familiar with, apparently.

A magic system for Fudge which works much the way you describe
the system in Ars Magica is quite similar

Here are some discussions about magic systems:

a discussion of different systems
another discussion, led off by Ron Edwards of the Sorcerer RPG

Speaking of Sorcerer, its magic is something else entirely. It's a largely outcome-based game rather than specifically action-based, and the magic system in it is quite a neat play on that.

GURPS, Rifts, and D&D pretty much follow the mystical grimoire approach. Ars Magica, White Wolf's Storyteller Series (Vampire, Mage, Werewolf, Wraith, Changeling, Hunters, etc), and some others take the combined skills approach. Still others have wholly different approaches. Here's a pretty good explanation of the theory of magic in Earthdawn which explains different ways magic can be used in that game, complete with disadvantages of some of them.

The Forge is very interesting reading material for anyone who's considered writing their own RPG. There's some advanced RPG jargon there so I'd suggest starting with the site glossary. It's not a site for arguing the merits or faults of different systems you've played although those might be used as support in discussing the design of new games.

Personally, I've played games with set spells, spell research to make new spells (as some versions of D&D let you do with the right GM). I've played ones that require a combination of skills (from two to five (five!) skills for every casting. Some require each spell being taken as a character advantage in an advantage/disadvantage slot balanced game. I've played on in which the game world has special words that are foreign to the players/characters that must be learned throughout the campaign which represent factors of a spell (speaking "large" + "fire" + "ball" + "at" + character's secret magic name results in that) and learning the words as an outsider is how to become a better mage. It becomes the whole point of some adventures.

I've even play tested one unpublished game in which the only magic was a link between two symbols dawn during a ritual trance. However, the link was so strong that whatever you did to one would happen to the other. You could talk into one, and someone in possession of the other could carry on a conversation with you. You could throw one safely in your fireplace while the other is inside an enemy's barrel of oil. You could lay one on the ground and step on it, and be transported to the other. However, if anyone unfriendly took over your other symbol, they could use it in reverse until one of the two was destroyed. If I ever give this game a name and publish a book, I hope you'll rush out to buy it. ;-)

So yes, there can be quite different magic systems in games. Many of them could be used in D&D, or you could try the other games.

According to the Niemoller site, that version probably comes from the Congressional Record of 1968 (copy of text) , although there is an earlier citation from 1955.

However, it does appear that there is no "correct" version, as Niemoller himself was wont to change the order to suit the audience.

"role of their Warden software, which actively scans users' RAM, CPU, and storage devices (and potentially sensitive data) and sends information back to Blizzard to be processed."

http://www.panix.com/~eck/computer-fraud-act.html

Section 1030. Fraud and related activity in connection with computers
(a) Whoever- (2) intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains-- (C) information from any protected computer if the conduct involved an interstate or foreign communication;

That pretty much sums it up in a snap. Hopefully some government official doesn't install it on government equipment.
(B) information from any department or agency of the United States; or

I usually don't like boardgames that take hours to read the rules. I just want to sit down and play it once in a while.
When I was at some friends house this weekend we played Cartagena, a very simple but intresting game!
Has anybody else played it?

Are you sure it wasn't accidently something by John Grubor?

It is supposed to be criminal here to under the CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act). Of course, you will never see them charged like they are supposed to be.

B.

If you want a real travel RPG, try Sherpa. It's an actual RPG (traditional, pen-and-paper-type) that's designed to be played while hiking, camping, riding in a car, etc.

Funny, considering the specs for XHTML and CSS 1 are only about 5-6 years old.

IE still doesn't display some CSS correctly

Netscape 4 barely knows what CSS is

And I also find it funny that "javascript doesn't work cross-browser" but Google seems to be using it just fine. Seems to me that the main browsers (Mozilla-based and IE) handle the ECMA version of Javascript just fine, and once Apple gets some things taken care of in Safari, it'll work fine too.

All webpages should work without client script!

I've actually been trying to do some of what TFA has been talking about, but even then I get stymied by buggy wireless browsers that crash if you have a "screen" stylesheet and a "handheld" stylesheet in the same document, or crash if you load more than 8k of text and images, or fail to load the page if you have more than one image. I wish it was as easy as TFA talks about.

I suggest you write to the standards and file bug reports with the vendors, if we'd all done this instead of 'fixing' pages for IE, todays web would be a little more advanced.

Not being employed to manage very large projects makes Joel's reasoning from the bottom just as good as any other Slashdotter's who's worked with such systems.

http://www.panix.com/~spolsky/

Having worked on a huge embedded software project (think switch) where we lifted the software up, jammed a RTOS, cross-compiler, completely new API and a sort of thunking layer under it, I'd say he's making a gross overgeneralization. We sorted out the bugs that were hidden since 6 years ago and shipped the system mostly unchanged. Oh, wait, we had a team in parallel implementing new features on the new API a shit ton faster than things used to be done. It only took a couple years none of our customers got pissed. A year later when the company changed direction, we retooled the software to make the switch to instantly fit in with the new way of doing things. Now the team can ship the same old switch with crazy new features software and the completely different new stuff cheaper than a dedicated team and retooling hardware.

I know this from design meetings and lunch talks with my manager, a well seasoned software engineer. His genius in directing the team (a couple hundred people, not including testers and hardware folks) to make a smooth, incremental transition internally saved the whole team of talented programmers from getting stale and cut, got features to old hardware that were never possible before AND delivered next-gen functionality.

So, in short, I don't think Joel knows what he's talking about.

There are other websites that like Magnatune allows free or low cost music downloads. Some of these are:

• Creative Commons
• DMusic
• Opsound
• Internet Archives
• Prelinger Archives'
• Common Content

Also there's Berklee Shares where you can find free music lessons.

Here's a photo of Wawadigital.net's storefront. Don Wiss has done a great job of documenting all the camera shop storefronts in Brooklyn (where most of the scammers are) and Manhattan (where the few legitimate stores are). Some look somewhat dubious in spite of multi-page slick advertisments in mass-market photo magazines. Would you rather buy from this place or this one?

I use pscal to create calendars that I print out and tape to my wall. I write things on them. Ta da! Free and easy.

Be aware of what some of these mail order shops actually look like:

http://www.panix.com/~donwiss/pictures/BrooklynSto res/

How to get a Newton connected to a Linux machine.
http://newtonlink.sourceforge.net/Newton_and_Linux -mini-HOWTO.html


How to get a Newton connected to a Windows machine.
http://www.chuma.org/newton/ncage/
http://www.mug.jhmi.edu/mirrors/InfoAlley/0696/25/ newton.html
http://www.panix.com/~clay/newton/query.cgi?commun ications+comm_software
http://mirrors.unna.org/ftp.bitcon.no/pub/pdacentr al/newton/newtwindows_license.html

Hope some of this helps.

Enough weather ballons and a lawn chair, and you could actually go there, or close enough.

To bypass censorship and get around a restrictive firewall blocking you from browsing certain web sites all you need is a shell account that is accessable via ssh on a machine that has a free and open connection. This could be another machine that you own, a friend's machine or even an account rented from an ISP. An example ISP offering shell accounts would be Panix. I'll use them for the rest of this example as I have a shell account with them and hence can easily test the example setup.

All you need to do is make use of dynamic port forwarding to simulate a SOCKS proxy. Here is how you would do it.

1. Make a ssh connection to the remote machine using dynamic port forwarding. (If the standard ssh port [22] is blocked then some accounts, such as Panix, will allow a ssh connection on another port, such as 80 or 443). For example, on a Windows machine I could connect to Panix by entering the following on the command line:

   putty -ssh -D 4096 -P 80 shell.panix.com

   In case you are not familiar with Putty* and its command line options I will break that down for you:

   -ssh Use the ssh protocol -D 4096 Use dynamic port forwarding with 4096 as that port. (You could use any port number you like that is not already in use on your machine). -P 80 Connect to the server on port 80 (this part may not be needed or your remote machine may not support it) shell.panix.com The server you are connecting to. In this example the panix shell server.

   Note 1: You can also use the Putty graphical user interface. You do not need to use the command line! Once you have started Putty you can get to the port forwarding section via Connection -> SSH -> Tunnels. Then type 4096 (or any other suitable port number) in the Source Port box, click the Dynamic radio box and click the Add button.

   Note 2: If you are using Linux or MacOS/X you could use OpenSSH as follows: ssh -D 4096 -p 80 shell.panix.com

2. In a browser that supports SOCKS proxies, go into the proxy configuration page and specify localhost and the port you dynamically port forwarded (in this example 4096). All traffic is now routed through Panix.

   For example, in Firefox you can access the proxy settings here: Tools -> Options -> General -> Connections Settings. Then select the radio button for Manual proxy configuration. In SOCKS Host enter: localhost and in Port enter: 4096

*Putty is a free/open source telnet/ssh client for Windows. Here is the home page. All of the above can also be configured by the Putty GUI and saved as a 'session' if you prefer.

To bypass censorship and get around a restrictive firewall blocking you from browsing certain web sites all you need is a shell account that is accessable via ssh on a machine that has a free and open connection. This could be another machine that you own, a friend's machine or even an account rented from an ISP. An example ISP offering shell accounts would be Panix. I'll use them for the rest of this example as I have a shell account with them and hence can easily test the example setup.

All you need to do is make use of dynamic port forwarding to simulate a SOCKS proxy. Here is how you would do it.

1. Make a ssh connection to the remote machine using dynamic port forwarding. (If the standard ssh port [22] is blocked then some accounts, such as Panix, will allow a ssh connection on another port, such as 80 or 443). For example, on a Windows machine I could connect to Panix by entering the following on the command line:

   putty -ssh -D 4096 -P 80 shell.panix.com

   In case you are not familiar with Putty* and its command line options I will break that down for you:

   -ssh Use the ssh protocol -D 4096 Use dynamic port forwarding with 4096 as that port. (You could use any port number you like that is not already in use on your machine). -P 80 Connect to the server on port 80 (this part may not be needed or your remote machine may not support it) shell.panix.com The server you are connecting to. In this example the panix shell server.

   Note 1: You can also use the Putty graphical user interface. You do not need to use the command line! Once you have started Putty you can get to the port forwarding section via Connection -> SSH -> Tunnels. Then type 4096 (or any other suitable port number) in the Source Port box, click the Dynamic radio box and click the Add button.

   Note 2: If you are using Linux or MacOS/X you could use OpenSSH as follows: ssh -D 4096 -p 80 shell.panix.com

2. In a browser that supports SOCKS proxies, go into the proxy configuration page and specify localhost and the port you dynamically port forwarded (in this example 4096). All traffic is now routed through Panix.

   For example, in Firefox you can access the proxy settings here: Tools -> Options -> General -> Connections Settings. Then select the radio button for Manual proxy configuration. In SOCKS Host enter: localhost and in Port enter: 4096

*Putty is a free/open source telnet/ssh client for Windows. Here is the home page. All of the above can also be configured by the Putty GUI and saved as a 'session' if you prefer.

The Bridgeman decision is based on the famous Feist vs. Rural Telephone case. This Supreme Court decision that phone directories are not original enough to be copyrighted created the third-party phone book industry. When the Internet came along, the Feist decision permitted a whole range of directory-type services. As the Court put it, "The originality requirement is constitutionally mandated for all works.", and "No one may claim originality as to facts." This last is why databases of facts are not copyrightable in the US.

Corbis has a clever, but legally questionable, scheme for claiming copyright on public domain images. They add digital rights management information to the image, and then copyright the DRM information. They then claim that copying the DRM information violates their copyright, and removing it violates the DMCA. That's very similar to the argument Lexmark made in Lexmark vs. Static Control, and it didn't work there: "Generally speaking, "lock-out" codes fall on the functional-idea rather than the original-expression side of the copyright line." and "Similarly, a computer program may be protectable in the abstract but not generally entitled to protection when used necessarily as a lock-out device."

Mike Godwin may be a "mediocre SF writer", but to my knowledge, doesn't write sf. Even if he does, that would be like calling Heinlein an "undistinguished silver miner" - hardly looking at the important points.

And you're misunderstanding the point of Godwin's Law. He was only pointing out, semi-tongue in cheek, that debates on mailing lists and Usenet, should they go on long enough, always end up with a comparison to Hitler being made. Any stifling of discussion resultant is strictly peer pressure from other people who are either (a) using the concept as a rhetorical device or (b) truly and genuinely sick of a flamewar that has jumped the shark.

Read the ad right here from Datamation Magazine:
http://www.panix.com/~kludge/egg-1970.jpeg

If you want to see the prices in other currencies use the XE Universal Currency Converter.

A solution for Phishing?

Checking the IP that panix.com is on shows several thousand domains, and all seem to have odd names.

That Las Vegas address used for panix.com is also similar to some used by spammers registering domains, and using a Nevada address in the whois.

Maybe a check of some of the blocklists will show the panix.com IP listed already. 142.46.200.72

You could try this link and see if the server is still up. (hint, slashdot effect)

Your diatribe reads like the Unabomber's manifesto. I hope you don't live alone in the wilderness.

My ISP Panix uses it on all accounts.

Star Wars is NOT sci-fi!

It's fantasy.

I'm less certain.

American Heritage Dictionary, 4th edition (by way of dictionary.com):

A literary or cinematic genre in which fantasy, typically based on speculative scientific discoveries or developments, environmental changes, space travel, or life on other planets, forms part of the plot or background.

The OED:

Imaginative fiction based on postulated scientific discoveries or spectacular environmental changes, freq. set in the future or on other planets and involving space or time travel.

Google turns up a fascinating compilation of definitions of science fiction from science fiction authors and others.

Star Wars would fit well under some of these definitions, less well under others.

Most people think of any kind of fantastic fiction with space ships in it as being science fiction, and clearly it would be hard to write such a work without at least betraying some influence from that genre.

I find it makes communication easier if I use words in a way which other people will understand. So I'm inclined to accept a broader definition of science fiction and reserve some other term ("hard science fiction", maybe?) for works that are more focused on the technical underpinnings of an alternate world (which I'm assuming is closer to the definition you're working from).

--Bruce Fields

This was a lame article, IMHO.
It had the sarcastic "Oh, it's too easy for you?" theme going. No, that's not
why I dislike Java.

Here's why:

o Java GUI is slower than native alternatives

o Java is not supported by all platforms, and is not supported by
WinXP by default.

o All the Java "binaries" I've tried relies on me having installed a
local interpreter.

o It's object oriented (*)

*) Hey, I said this is MY list. I dislike object oriented languages, m'kay?

Oh, and take a look at this page for some more GOOD arguments why Java sucks.

Technology is not a firm requirement for writing to be "sci-fi". It's very much in the background in some of LeGuin's work (and, arguably, Asimov's "Nightfall"), and all but absent in some new wave classics.

Knight's definition said it "means what we point to when we say it." About half the definitions on this page don't seem to mention technology at all.

<grrr>

linkified: http://www.panix.com/~eck/telemarket.html

All your postings will then be from a US IP address.

First, percentiles aren't that meaningful, since most untrained people can barely run at all.

However, there are the WAVA standards. These are age-graded and gender graded. The standards are based on age group records. 70% means that you can run at 70% of world record pace for your age. The nice thing about these standards is that you can compare performances over different ages, and also different race distances.

Basically, 50-60% is where the midpack runners at most races are. 60% and up is where the entry level competitive club runners are. 70% and up gets you into trophy territory, and most serious competitive running clubs have several runners in this range. 80-85% is where the best local runners are. People in this range stand a good chance of winning their age group, and winning larger races overall (e.g. in NY).

In elite-level races in the US (e.g. the recent mends 8k championships) most competitors finish in the 85-95% range.

1. about a satellite which leaks radioactive coolant
2. because of such danger the satellite was moved to a higher orbit
3. but it may fall back down someday, with various nefarious consequences

Then I post about a movie where

1. the opening sentence in the movie is about a dangerous satellite '1999 was the year that the Indian nuclear satellite went out of control'
2. it its final sequence, the main character works for a fictitious organization called Greenspace, the 21st century equivalent of Greenpeace, [as a] crewmember aboard a space station

cryptically referenced, maybe, but -1, flamebait? What about the fact that this movie tries (among other things) to show people's reactions to such a danger?

Ah well, some moderator must have been turned down last night, and needed to vent some anger I guess...

Menu text is not copyrightable expression. Lotus v. Borland . Or do you think Microsoft would bring a frivolous lawsuit just to harass The Mozilla Organization?

He's not alone in this belief -- peruse the Definitions of "Science Fiction" page and you'll see the same sentiment echoed by many successful authors (e.g. Ray Bradbury: Science fiction is really sociological studies of the future, things that the writer believes are going to happen by putting two and two together.)

As for the rest of the show, I think they're being conservative -- it's all pretty much straight-line extrapolations, nothing really radical.

The parent poster is either trying to be clever, or not paying attention to the thread. We're talking about making copies of works that are in the public domain already. In Bridgeman v. Corel, the key question was whether or not digital duplicates of classic paintings were copyrightable. The court held that they were not, because

"There is little doubt that many photographs, probably the overwhelming majority, reflect at least the modest amount of originality required for copyright protection. . . But 'slavish copying,' although doubtless requiring technical skill and effort, does not qualify."

pay for a static IP number!

open an account with a local ISP and pay the extra few bucks for a static IP

if you don't have a local ISP that will provide static IPs checkout one of the best ISPs in existence, IMHO, that will:

panix.com

delivers national dial-up access, static IPs, shell access, stellar support, and more