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I'd like to see an actual 3D image with no glass case and no rotating display screen. Now that would be something. This just makes me yawn. A neat toy ... big deal.

For Northern California/Bay Area (San Jose to Santa Rosa, and possibly further North/South), check out sonic.net (http://www.sonic.net. They allow shell access, although bots and daemons are generally verboten. Disk space is limited to 50MB or so (you can pay for more), although co-location services are available. Wired and wireless DSL are available, as well as ISDN. You are limited to 100MB/day bandwidth, although you can pay for more. They're quite competent technically -- check out the motd on their web page.

They're not the cheapest, though.

Still, I'm a happy and satisfied customer (and that's my only connection with them).

(Note that wired and wireless DSL aren't available in all areas. They depend on PacBell for getting the wired DSL line out to your home (but sonic, not PacBell, is the ISP), and the PacBell DSL lines are only available in certain areas. There also seems to be installation/scheduling "issues" (to say the least) with PacBell. The wireless DSL is only available in certain areas, and you need a direct, line-of-sight connection between the wireless DSL antenna on your home and the DSL tower.)

Since nobody else has yet, I feel obligated to plug sonic.net, my favorite local ISP. They've grown to provide service to much of northern california now, but still have the charm of a local. They've got great support, cool website member tools, and a well-stocked shell. They're also crazy fast. I'm quite pleased.

i've had two Mom and Pop ISP and quite frankly they are usually the only ones that will supply a shell account along with their numerous other options (wireless DSL included). the one i'm currently with had a story written about them on this matter.

or just plain lazy, a design based on a similar concept can be found here. For some really wild designs (like the "binary" clock) check out this. And to add some non-commercial links, here is a clock based on Blick's design for DIYers.

One very interesting thing to note is that the advisory committee recommended Open Source solutions - which goes directly against the US Justice's 'Promis' software it stole from Inslaw. See here and here. The areas the report was recommending - for large scale scientific work is exactly what the Promis software does. I wonder if they'll have any objections? FNORD!

• Electrostatic heat transfer, modified to enable ordinary and readily available electronic parts and hardware to transform ordinary and readily available explosives into devices capable of destruction of nuclear dimension.

• Biotechnological weapons, including, but not limited to, lethal monoclonal antibodies which are gene specific, e.g., able to distinguish between specific racial characteristics and cause painful, disastrous, lethal effects for only those individuals exposed to such antibodies whose cell structure contains the target genes.

• Compact high voltage power supplies, intended to be used in various hi-tech weapons systems and development.

• Advanced communications systems, e.g., spread spectrum data compression, which would enable current microwave transmissions to be 100 times more efficient and, under appropriate development, 100 times more deadly.

• Advanced precious metals recovery systems essential to hi-tech weapons systems.

• Advanced infrared sensor technology, used in night vision goggles, missile surveillance and tracking, and in more sinister applications, saturation surveillance of all movements of all people in every open, visible space on the entire planet.

• Thermal imaging, enabling surveillance through fog.

• Bragg cell technology.

They won the orginal case, and an appeal, but the case was later thrown out because of a technicality.

LOTS of details on the case:

http://www.sonic.net/sentinel/gvcon7.html

- Isaac =)

As Andrew Schulman conclusively proved in Unauthorized Windows 95 that the 32-bit system had to constantly make calls to the 16-bit system, and therefore a single rogue 16-bit application could very easily hold hostage both the OS and all 32-bit applications.

Microsoft's lies to the contrary notwithstanding.

Cheers,
Ben

• The Home of the Underdogs - The best archive of x86 games that didn't get the fame they deserved.
• Some amazing Atari 800 emulators, and a ton of games for them, and a FAQ

I think that the Universial Life Church still ordains just about anyone. For a donation of $1 at one time, they'd send you an official document. If you want to be a priest without the pesky theology, this is as good a way as any.

I believe it's written by a guy called Reverend Jim
(yes, he's actually a reverend). See his homepage:
http://www.sonic.net/~jhuger/

I've played games like Colony Wars & CW: Vengance for the PlayStation, but was disappointed by their predictability. There's lots of stuff in the two games, but you always end up doing the same thing every time you start over...

BattleSphere sounds like it will have just enough randomness. And, since it's multiplayer, that makes it even more dynamic.

* Star Raiders was, I believe, the very first 3D space action/stragety game. It came out in 1979 for the Atari 400/800 computers, and later for the 2600 and 5200 game systems.

Like the question what is best (computer, OS, editor,etc.), the answer depends on what you want to use it for. One of the best places to find out what questions you need to ask is the Motley Fool, which has a whole mini-course on discount brokers, which are virtually all online. It has links to other ratings sites, as well as lively discussion groups.

Look at their Disco unt Broker Center and the Discount Broker FAQ (requires registration). Sites in the FAQ include Donald J's Really Great Site and Gomez's rankings

I've done some extensive searching for an online broker that suits my needs (low cost, fast website that doesn't go down during peak trading hours, ability to trade options and penny stocks, minimum initial deposit of >= $1000...), and I've had a bitch of a time... anyone have any advice for me?

Here is one page with very extensive (and uptodate, it appears) reviews of different online brokers. Gomez.com also has a good online broker review page. Gomez.com also has great forums where actual users talk about all of the different firms.

The especially frustrating thing to me is that the reviews simply don't match up! For example, gomez.com raves about etrade.com, while the first page that I link to says that Etrade has had horrible customer support issues and doesn't recommend that anyone join up with them!

Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.

It's what Henry Spencer said.

It's widely known.

There may be merit to your contention that not understanding Lisp results in reinventing it badly; Erik Naggum commonly makes that contention about Scheme, and I have no problem with the assertion that anyone building new systems that ignores the Common Lisp HyperSpec is likely doomed to reinvent parts of it less well than CLTL2.

That may mean that a more valid claim would be more like

Those who do not understand both Lisp and UNIX are doomed to reinvent parts of both, badly.

That still does not deny the historical fact that what is in my .signature is what Henry Spencer said.

I've got a "cookie file" that populates email and news .signatures with random quotes; not all of them are true, at all. Some represent downright falsehoods; the Spencer quote isn't one of those.

If you are feeling so much feeling towards Lisp, then I'm wondering why you're not running Ocelot or SilkOS or NASOS or the rendition of DrScheme atop FluxOS, or, if you're a Common Lisp partisan, perhaps Genera.

Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.

It's what Henry Spencer said.

It's widely known.

There may be merit to your contention that not understanding Lisp results in reinventing it badly; Erik Naggum commonly makes that contention about Scheme, and I have no problem with the assertion that anyone building new systems that ignores the Common Lisp HyperSpec is likely doomed to reinvent parts of it less well than CLTL2.

That may mean that a more valid claim would be more like

Those who do not understand both Lisp and UNIX are doomed to reinvent parts of both, badly.

That still does not deny that what is in my .signature is what Henry Spencer said.

I've got a "cookie file" that populates email and news .signatures with random quotes; not all of them are true, at all. Some represent downright falsehoods; the Spencer quote isn't one of those.

If you are feeling so much feeling towards Lisp, then I'm wondering why you're not running Ocelot or SilkOS or NASOS or the rendition of DrScheme atop FluxOS, or, if you're a Common Lisp partisan, perhaps Genera.

Some of my favorites:
TabTheTextOutForWimps
WinOldAppHackOMatic

Use either gpasman:

GPasman homepage

or kpasman:

KPasman homepage

to keep all your passwords safe and secure. :-)

...I still like the Missile Silo Home better. Not only is it in posession of massive quantities of "geek chic", but what better place to carry out your experiments that defy the laws of nature?

I do like the plane on a post idea however. But this begs one question: Will my AIBO (No link, just look for the banner ad...) be waterproof??

Hmmm... I think I'll just save up for the Condos on Mars... Maybe a Boeing 727 in a Bomb shelter on Mars... WoooHooo!

~Jason Maggard

"A house flown by a drunken pilot cannot stand." ~Abe Lincoln

There are many ambivalent posts here that I empathize with. Let me try to explain why this strikes nerves.

There are two perennial sectarian subjects that seem to seek a focus at any opportunity: the exalted status of faith and the old ideological 'fight for the children'.

If you listen long to Christian media, you will sense a preoccupation with persecution. The Christian is under siege. The mass media consists of "anti-Christian bigots". Gov. Ventura is a bigot. When it is suggested that 'bigot' does not apply to ideological matters, that pure assertions should be taken on their own merit---that faith must merit respect and not be guaranteed the dispensation of respect---a peculiar sort of cult insanity is exposed. The burden of proof lies completely on the believer and not on the unbeliever or the disbeliever? The Romans used a stake for crucifixion---at no time anywhere did they employ a crossbeam? The great historian Philo-Judaeus, born before Jesus and living long after the time of his reputed death, lived in Jerusalem during Christ's miraculous birth and the Herodian massacre? He was there for Christ's supposed grand entry into Jerusalem and for the crucifixion with attendant earthquake, magic darkness, and resurrection with the many witnesses to his heavenward ascent that amazed the world? And he makes no mention of Jesus or anything remotely like this story in his comprehensive history of the Jews during his life? The only other autochthonous historian, Justin of Tiberius, was a native of Galilee and in his incredibly detailed history we know how the crops did in each of these years, masses of political gossip, and have complete martial account of the land without a single mention of the savior?

This is war! Attend Christian soldiers! This "free inquiry" is conspiracy! Myth discrimination! The Focus on the Family Christian Attorney's mailing list starts chugging. The Religious Liberties Protection Act has just passed in the House. CBN calls scientists elitist "bullies" (this from the chosen people). There is now an act in the New York senate introduced by Sen. Maltese making it a crime to "ridicule religious beliefs or practices".

One prime front in that war is for the minds of the children. I attended a Catholic pre-school! I once read, "With other subjects we wait until the child has the mental maturity to grasp them. We do not start a child on analytical chemistry or solid geometry. We begin with small numbers and lesser skills in every subject---except religion. [...] other subjects wait, until the child is old enough to understand and evaluate it. But, for religion and the churches, it is literally the child or nothing; for if they fail to get the child, it is a matter of time before they get nothing."

Even if we're talking about high-schoolers, mature minds, there is a desire for no discontinuity between early Sunday school and secondary education in these ontological matters. Mention in the context of science ironically reifies the Creation as a scientific 'live option'. I remember coming around about the time I read this by Arthur Schopenhauer, "There is no absurdity so obvious that it cannot be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to impose it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity."

The resort to force of force when force of reason does not apply keeps its edge for all its repetition. It's the hot button for many like me. The Mediterranean societies of the time of Paul's Gospel weren't in a substantively inferior position to Enlightenment Europe; the western world seemed then poised for a scientific revolution. What came next is known as the Dark Ages: a supranational theocracy. So, unfair as it may be, I now see these ideas as arresting the development of humanity for over fifteen hundred years. Evolution is at least constructive. How much do you want to give up for a fable? Is all the allegory in history worth kissing Hank's ass?

• Titrax (hour tallying program)
• PocketMoney (keep track of my spending habits)
• Strip (secure storage of my passwords)
• Date Mate (make me remember birthdays!)
• DiddleBug (paint package)
• Nag Screen (really useful utility!)

Two years before I became a female Stanford CS major, I knew little about programming computers. Not until my mom got a PPP account (and configured our Mac's TCP/IP! I'm still proud of her..) did I begin to experiment with HTML, because I had to to express myself. Females learn programming because they have a project, not just for the sake of tinkering.

Anyway, I wrote a research paper for my high school senior project, Women in Computer Science, which has a bunch of internet background material references in the Research section. Enjoy.

She turns 18 in 13 days...

see Countdown to Legality

So by the time EP II comes out, she may very well be 21, and at least 19 when they start filming next year. I mean, she was a 17 year old playing a 14 year old's part!

With a bit of make up, the right clothes, she should have no problem looking her age. I mean, she will be her age, right?


-AS