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Well, the mountain commonly referring to as "Ararat" actually has two peaks. Ergo, it is possible that the Bible is referring to the same geological structure, simply referring to each of the peaks as its own mountain.

If you want some backup, here is a picture I took myself. Notice the dual peaks:

http://charon.sjs.org/~mdek/ararat.jpg

I've been looking for some kind of little handheld thing i can slip in a pocket or backpack and use for random field recordings, and this may be what i've been looking for for some time.. i'm not happy about the whole "128 kbps max" thing, and it would be convenient if there were an integrated mic (although i guess i could find a mic that would just clip on).. but still. That's handy. I wish there were pricing information available.. it'll probably be out of my budget, but if it's less than a few hundred dollars, or at least under the rediculous prices you seem to have to pay to get any kind of working portable DAT tape recorder, i want one..

A random thought: something i've been wishfully daydreaming about for some time is the idea of rigging an iPod to work like one of these-- get some kind of USB-firewire bridge and then hook up a USB microphone, then abuse the iPod's upgradeable firmware feature to add the ability to read in AIFFs to the iPod's hard drive. You could maybe even add the ability to have the iPod go back and encode the recorded AIFFs sitting around into mp3s to conserve space.. This may or may not be possible (i don't know how flexible/hackable the iPod is-- i believe it has an ARM chip though, doesn't it? that should be able to do just about whatever you like, no?) and it would require reverse-engineering the iPod's firmware, which would not be fun and definitely not be something i'm capable of (though someone out there is almost certainly already trying to do exactly that, at least for the purpose of A) adding some more games to complement the built-in breakout easter egg, TI-83 style or B) adding ogg vorbis support), but it's a lovely thought.

I have this mental image of someday some company creating a little slip-on chassis for the ipod that hooks into the firewire port and contains a firewire mic, then contracting with apple to create a legitimate version of the hacked firmware described above.. i know that will never happen, but that would be basically the most perfect piece of equipment possible for my needs..

Ahh, if only professional (read: no "copy protection" bullshit) DAT tape recorders weren't so expensive.. (i can't find any for under $700. Am i maybe just not looking hard enough?

Bleh. Well, back to my daydreams (daydream 1 .. daydream 2), i guess..

OS/2!

:)

I just installed os/2 on an old computer, and it's pretty cool. I think if IBM had kept it up, it would be a major competitor in the OS market. Anyways, I'll still be sticking with linux.

-MSD.dyndns.org

just out of curiousity, where are these "remote data havens"? Your data can only be as secure as where it is stored.

-MSD.dyndns.org

This article reminded me of something I find kind of annoying: when sites turn off ICMP replies. Slashdot does this, and it confuses me a lot when I am trying to comfirm that an internal network connection is able to access the outside, I sometimes try pinging slashdot, and it doesn't work. Then, after spending 5-10 minutes "troubleshooting", I remember that I can never ping slashdot!

sorry, just had to get that out...

-MSD.dyndns.org
"Sucks to your ass-mar"

Just to let you all know, the current issue of Scientific American (December 2000) has an article about nanotubes. I was unable to find it on their web site, but it is on page 62 in the actual magazine


-MSD.dyndns.org
"Sucks to your ass-mar"

the problem with these is that most people's DNS servers have no idea where these are because they are not on the "official" servers

I am unable to access these, as is probably the same with most people, unless there isp decides to support "unofficial" TLDs.

If I really wanted to, I could start my own TLD, using my own dedicated connection and server, and start selling domain names. The problem is no one would buy them because they are not accessible unless ICANN approves them (thus moving them across the world's DNS servers).

-MSD.dyndns.org
"Sucks to your ass-mar"