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Here's an article (pdf) that Kakalios wrote for the Star Tribune. It discusses the simple physics behind a 1973 Spider-Man issue.

50 months? It's his lawyer's fault, easily. You can get away with murder in the U.S. if you have the right representation. We have a truly screwed up justice system.

The 2000 election controversy has nothing to do with the popular vote. Officially, electors of the electoral college go to congress and cast their votes. Whoever gets the most votes from the electors becomes President. Note that the electors are free to vote for anyone they want (although they will have to answer to their constituents afterwards).

It is up to the states to determine who the electors for their electoral votes will be. I believe all of the states currently choose electors this way: the party for each candidate selects a bunch of people (one person for each electoral vote) to act as electors. If the candidate gets the most votes, then that candidate's electors are registered with congress. When it finally comes time to vote, the electors go to congress and cast their ballots.

As Anonymous Coward pointed out, the controversy in the 2000 election occurred because the Supreme Court interfered with Florida's right to choose its electors (ironically, the same justices who constantly harp about states' rights ruled opposite of their usual manner in this case). While seven of the nine justices agreed that Gore could not pick and choose which counties to count votes in, the justices were sharply split on how to deal with the issue. Four of them ruled that the case should go back to Florida to let the state decide how to remedy the issue. The other five ruled that the state didn't have time to remedy the issue so they would have to stick with the previous count.

It is worth noting that there are actually two deadlines for electors to register with congress. The preferred deadline was one or two days after the Supreme Court ruling. If a state registers it's electors by the preferred deadline, congress has to let them vote. The second deadline was about two months later. If a state registers its electors after the preferred deadline, congress could hold a vote to decide if they would refuse to let the electors vote. Again, whether or not to register its electors by the preferred deadline was an issue for the state to decide (all indications were that Florida law would have permitted waiting).

It's worth noting that Bush appointed two of those justices' children to positions in the executive branch. On June 1, 2001, Bush appointed Janet Rehnquist, U.S. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's daughter, to be inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services. Earlier, he appointed Eugene Scalia, son of Justice Antonin Scalia, to the top position for the US Department of Labor. Also, Scalia was recently seen duck hunting with Cheney. Rhenquist and Scalia (both strong supporters of states' rights) voted in Bush's favor in Gore v. Bush.

Combine this device (with a few upgrades) with Wearable displays + This Jacket (maybe an upgrade or two + a computer that speaks sign language + Pervasive wireless broadband and I am starting to get to my "comfort level" for internet access. No longer will I have to wait during my whole commute of 5 minutes to check for the next Slashdot story. No more shaking internet withdrawl on the bus!!

Here

This article talks about how some legal services are being outsourced to India. It is very small scale right now, but everything starts out small. It has some lawyers quite concerned that their expensive hourly jobs are being done by Indian lawyers for much less.

NASA just reported that they received this image from the Mars Rover.

Go get em boys!

Do nothing and MYOB.

Ok, so here is a case (in MN no less) where a citizen hacked into a police database. He was so concerned about the ease of the hack (and what the database contained) that he contacted his state legislator. She was also concerned because her name was erroneously listed in the database as a crime suspect. She had him testify-- via phone and anonymously since he was probably afraid of being charged with a crime for hacking into the database--to the commitee hearing on the matter.

The result of his actions were to temporarily shut down the database, increase security when it was brought back up and purge most of the bad info from the database before bringing it back up. Should he have simply Minded His Own Business???

Of course he didn't demand a "Business Relationship" with the government but read the stories and tell me that we don't have a responsibilty of some sort.

Police database an easy target, hacker says

Police-files database shut down amid privacy concerns

Do nothing and MYOB.

Ok, so here is a case (in MN no less) where a citizen hacked into a police database. He was so concerned about the ease of the hack (and what the database contained) that he contacted his state legislator. She was also concerned because her name was erroneously listed in the database as a crime suspect. She had him testify-- via phone and anonymously since he was probably afraid of being charged with a crime for hacking into the database--to the commitee hearing on the matter.

The result of his actions were to temporarily shut down the database, increase security when it was brought back up and purge most of the bad info from the database before bringing it back up. Should he have simply Minded His Own Business???

Of course he didn't demand a "Business Relationship" with the government but read the stories and tell me that we don't have a responsibilty of some sort.

Police database an easy target, hacker says

Police-files database shut down amid privacy concerns

Try to explain to a widow that lost her family due to U.S bombs in the name of "freedom". Especally since we are wrapping their villages in barbed wire.

If your neighbor is beating his wife. You are not allowed to go over and capture the husband and accidentaly kill one of their children. You can not just make up your own law. You call the proper authorities. In the case of Iraq. The U.N. is the proper authorities. I have supported the U.S./U.N. actions in the past, 1st Gulf war, Kosovo, and Somalia. I would have also supported this Gulf War if the U.N. was involved. However, the U.N. realised that Iraq did not have WMD and did not have a military capable of projecting force on it's neighbors. Iraq was contained. By ignoring the U.N. The U.S had broken several international laws and has set a precedent that other countries can just ignore international law. If we were really so worried about freedom for Iraq we would never have supported Saddam back in the 80's. I like freedom and will stand up for any one's rights. However, I can not lie to my self and justify that this war was done in the interests of the Iraqi Oil....I mean people.

Exactly. Let's run some numbers here, shall we?

Assume the system is 99.9% accurate (a gross overestimation, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt). That is to say, 99.9% of the time, it correctly identifies normal people as non-sex offenders, and 99.9% of sex offenders as bad people. Now assume they put this in a middle school with 500 students in it. At parent-teacher conferences (or, for that matter, any other time parents must enter the school), 1000 parents will show up. The machine is 99.9% accurate, so 1 of these parents will be ID'ed as a sex offender.

Conversely, what about the sex offenders? For this device to be worthwhile, at least 1 in every 1000 people to enter the school must be one. This is ludicrous. This is the same reason that so-called "terrorist detection systems" don't work at airports. Consider the following anecdote:

The following was in an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune (I'm too lazy to find the article, but if you look, I'm sure it's there): There is a 65 year old white man in Minnesota who leads a perfectly normal life. However, whenever he goes to take a flight, he is stopped by security. Apparently, he has the same name as a terrorist (remember, this is a kind, old grandfatherly guy). It took him 4 flights to figure out this much, because security is not allowed to tell him why he is stopped. He contacted the Department of Homeland Security to ask to be removed from their list, because he is not a terrorist. They replied that because they are so new, there are some bugs. They have no idea when they will be fixed, and there is nothing they can do in the meantime. This guy is stuck.

This same sort of thing will happen if we put these "detectors" in schools, or anywhere else until they become much, much more accurate (read at least 99.9999%). It's things like this that make me ashamed of our current government and its supposed security measures.

Now they've got weapons of ASS destruction!!

"These high-tech barcodes are becoming commonplace if you like it or not."

Yes they are.

"Retailers envision a warehouse where they can figure out the contents of entire pallets of goods without having to scan scores of individual bar codes.

Eventually, they see stores where a customer with a cartload of merchandise could leave the checkout line after one wave of a wireless device. In the aisles, "smart shelves" would recognize when an item is removed and needs restocking or has reached its expiration date.

The technology to make this possible has been around for decades, tracking big-ticket items such as railroad freight and automobiles (think LoJack car security systems).

But the extension of radio frequency identification -- RFID in industry-speak -- to widespread use promises to be one of the most revolutionary developments for retailers since the bar code was introduced in the 1970s.
Vial of microchips

Now Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's most influential retailer, is planning to begin pushing RFID into the mainstream, starting with its biggest suppliers in just more than a year. And where Wal-Mart leads, the retail industry generally follows.

"It's certainly considered the new tool to help trace product through the [distribution] system," said Jean Kinsey, co-director of the Food Industry Center at the University of Minnesota.

The advent of RFID not only is expected to change the way retailers do business but ripple through to their suppliers, the labor force and checkout aisle: Union leaders already worry that RFID could become a job-cutting tool, and privacy advocates fear that consumers one day could have their purchases constantly tracked.

There are plenty of bugs to be worked out before RFID comes to market, including the creation of a standardized identification format similar to the Universal Product Code (UPC) that is used with printed bar codes. A system known as EPC, or Electronic Product Code, is being developed by an industry consortium.

In addition, RFID tags -- which require a microchip to store data and a tiny antenna to transmit the information -- are still too expensive for widespread use.

Nonetheless, the nation's major chains and consumer-product manufacturers are exploring ways to put the technology to work.

'Quantum leaps'

Wal-Mart has been the most vocal about its plans. The giant discounter recently told its 100 largest suppliers to place RFID tags on pallets and cases shipped to Wal-Mart by January 2005. All other Wal-Mart vendors would need to follow suit in 2006.

Wal-Mart might reveal more details of its RFID strategy at a meeting with suppliers next week at its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

The world's biggest retailer already maintains state-of-the-art inventory tracking systems, but it expects this technology to take it to a new level.

"We'll be making some quantum leaps in efficiency," Wal-Mart spokesman Tom Williams said.

According to a report issued by consulting firm Accenture earlier this year, RFID could help retailers increase sales by as much as 3 percent because of improved store stocking. The report, which had input from technology firms and from Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. Inc., among other chains, also concluded that inventory write-offs because of spoiled and obsolete items could be reduced by as much as 20 percent.

In terms of labor costs, RFID could reduce in-store receiving workforce expenses by as much as 65 percent and stocking expenses by as much as 25 percent, Accenture said.

Those advances will come at a price -- for suppliers as well as the retailers. According to AMR Research Inc. in Boston, it will cost about $20 million a year for a typical supplier to comply with Wal-Mart's RFID plans. Combined, the major consumer-goods manufacturers could spend $2 billion to implement RFID, some observers estimate. And Wal-Mart is known for not letting

hmmmmmm its turned all subscription on me - i found an alternative link via google though.
If this doesnt work for you, you will have to register.

They are already planning for it, as it happens, there is a storm occuring at the moment (Classed as a Level 3 out of a scale upto 5).
The interested parties (ie utility/communications companies) all know about this and are monitoring the situation. They also estimate Aurora to reach very far south in the next couple of weeks. The article is here.

Speaking from personal experience, try posting something at StarTribune.com. Try buying something from Buy.com or BarnesAndNoble.com. Try using Comcast as your internet service provider.

I got the paper the other day...I thought it was 58 billion?

Please tell me you pulled that number out of your arse.

Nope, not out of their... out of thin air.

MSNBC

StarTribune

USAToday

Note that they all seem to reference the same poll by the Washington Post...

If you didn't, I think American commonsense has surrendered.

Look at the current administration, the current economic situation, the current legal atmosphere, and if you DIDN'T think American commonsense was seriously deficient, you would either be on drugs like SCO (ObReference) or you just woke from your twenty year nap...

Here is a picture of the script kiddie to photoshop. Enjoy :)

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has a story on this as well. They were also able to nab a picture of the dude from the local yearbook.

Personally, I still don't understand why you would ever include a bit in the virus that links to your own personal webpage. Talk about an easy way to get caught!!

The Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting (registration free but required) that the FBI has arrested a "teenager" from suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota (Hopkins, MN).

The Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting (registration free but required) that the FBI has arrested a "teenager" from suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota (Hopkins, MN).

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Justin TimberLake and Christina Aguillera concert postponed.

you are quite correct. They do not allow you to trade copies of their albums (understandibly). It is a known fact that most artists are incapable of performing at any decent level live (for example, the VERY popular Hootie and the Blowfish album from several years ago 95? It sold quite a number of copies but they couldn't sing worth a crap live).

How about we continue... Norah Jones? Read one person's feelings on a recent concert of her's. She won how many awards? Her studio stuff is great, her live presence is crap.

Perhaps people don't care for studio music from so-so artists and want a REAL taste of GOOD music?

Where are the legendary bands of the 60s and 70s? The ones with MAJOR staying power? They don't exist anymore. Record labels WANT major profits fast.

I say fuck supporting studio recorded music and only support those bands with the balls to show themselves in public and REALLY play their music.

Interestingly enough, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis recently addressed the issue of corrections and accuracy. Ironically, newspapers that report more corrections are perceived as less trustworthy, even though they are often more accurate for the effort! Another story on this issue found here.

People tend to forget that the Midwest (around the Twin Cities in particular) was one of the big homes of computing during the Age of Mainframes (1950s-70s.) Control Data, Cray, and Sperry (later Sperry-Univac) were all Twin Cities companies. [More info]

Here. These are facts, people. Get your heads out of the sand and start fighting for our way of life. If you don't, you are no better than a terrorist yourself.

read the very bottom of this:

Verizon

apparently there is still a bill in congress that may delay the number change date.

• SCO is going down the tubes, blames IBM and Linux for their woes.
• M$ says, look, here's a few million so your execs can have a golden parachute. Just cause IBM/Linux a headache for us. Call this gift a "licensing deal" so the DOJ doesn't kick our ass.
• SCO goes bananas, keeps the volume high, does their best impression of Joseph McCarthy whipping up a frenzy.
• (This part has yet to happen, w/Army Attorney Joseph Welch played by a Federal judge) McBride is asked "Have you no shred of decency, sir? Have you no shame?"
• To paraphrase from http://www.dimensional.com/~randl/mccart.htm, the judge says that SCO "is a lout deserving no further attention," again on the shimmering eye of television. The tide of public opinion turns against them, after seeing them in all their revolting, alcoholic glory. They die shortly after that, like a poisonous mushroom spreading their spores and then shrivelling into nothing.

I don't think that's exactly what was meant. The idea is more along the lines of "just because I can copy it for free doesn't mean that the creator shouldn't be compensated. If somebody creates a work that adds value to society then they should be compensated.

I actually just posted the bullet-headlines of the principles. The full second principle (available here) includes "We will compensate artists who entertain and enlighten us with their art..."

Hopefully that helps. :) If I could just set my pet monkey loose on my computer for a few days and call that "creation" then I'd be set for money forever. Too bad value does count.

Spam Meeting Wrap-up

Posted by michael on Saturday May 03, @03:12PM from the spam-and-eggs-and-spam dept.

wendigo2002 writes "Get used to that daily flood of e-mail come-ons, Viagra offers and lucrative enticements to invest in Nigerian pyramid schemes. Internet gurus, software designers and lawyers today ended a three-day Federal Trade Commission discussion on combating spam by concluding neither technology nor laws are yet capable of completely dealing with the plague."

How about suing the bullet manufacturer for failing to kill your target? This story is about a hunter who failed to kill a lion and is now suing the bullet manufacturer. Can I sue FastTrack if I downloaded the faked Madonna songs?

This DMCA stuff is serious. Together with the USA PATRIOT act, we are *seriously* look at an Orwellian future, people.

Orwell, or Atwood, either way we're all screwed.

I first read about this in "Science Magazine" but in that article they were using cow manure and at times the farmer was making nearly as much from the electricity as from the milk. You can search on Google but here's one article

Oh, and since you didn't manage to watch the news, let me catch you up on current events:

The bush administration bombed a crowded marketplace.

"We should be deluding neither ourselves nor the American people that there is any way the FBI, despite the various improvements you are implementing, will be able to stem the flood of terrorism that will likely head our way in the wake of an attack on Iraq."

I -LIKE- seeing people saying "Wait, WHY is our government doing this?"

At this point, they ought to be saying "Wait, do you KNOW what you are DOING here?"

You'll notice that gambling initiatives never are proposed to fund highway development or the general fund.

Until now! Our own Dick Day (as in "Dick Day before he dicks you") is proposing just that.

Around here we have a lot of Indian casinos, and usually the new gambling proposals are either casinos sited a lot closer than Indian casinos or some kind of statewide thing that wouldn't entail a lot of travel. The Indians complain because they know the market for throwing away money is finite and it will drain customers.

I just read this in the local rag...

Here.

Tammy Savage, 30 year old business manager.

Out of Cal State in 1993?

Funny, I'm 31, and four years of college put me into 1994.

This article puts Ms. Savage at 33. So does a reference on this page.

Golly, Microsoft's marketing department isn't lying to us to make their IM^H^HICQ^H^H^HIRC^H^H^Hthree degrees client seem young, cool, and hip, are they?

Maybe you should ask this self-described nerdy girl which site she used while writing this "blog" (hint).

Hey now, I'm sorry but I'm afraid I'm going to have to say that anyone ignorant enough to believe what they've been told about this situation...

Just for fun, who do you think did it if not the people photographed getting on the plane in Boston and whose voices screaming "allah akbar" were recorded on cockpit voice recorders?

That you let GWB2 run amok without having *any* public oversight of it all is just too much to bear.

Actually, it's not so much GW as the law enforcement/military community that has run amok, but I completely agree that a large portion of the U.S. government has responded to 9/11 by declaring war on the privacy of U.S. citizens. No one's letting them do this, however.

I agree that it is ridiculous to start taking away American freedoms in the name of defending freedom, which is why I wanted the US to respond immediately and brutally after the 9/11 attacks. We should have taken Saddam out long before now, if for no other reason than:

• to take away the one advantage a terrorist has - initiative. The more violent our response, the shorter their timeframe for activating sleeper cells. Our only hope of dealing with them is to compress the amount of time we spend under their threat
• to take advantage of the fact that Islamic fanatics lose all sense of timing and strategy if we make them mad enough. This was proven in Afghanistan, and used against them with good effect. So good, in fact, that I believe that the public perception of GW rushing into war is being fostered on purpose to enrage the terrorists and cause them to make mistakes.

Good luck with your New World Order...

Of all the arguments that could be leveled against Bush these days, this one makes the least sense. The rest of the world seems directed toward the purpose of ensuring that the American people experience maximum possible threat against their lives.

Speaking of American lives, enjoy Australia. Like so many free lands, it is brought to you by the blood of Americans, specifically that of the 1st Division, USMC.

...and the data is available from many sites.

I remember finding out about the US West problem back when I was 17. After being blown off when I raised the issue to the company, I wrote a script that scanned through their IP's and logged usernames and passwords. After I had a pretty long list, I sent it to them and explained their problem (they weren't very happy...). I also contacted my local newspaper (Minneapolis Star Tribune) and you can read the article here. It would've been so simple to modify the script to change the password on the router and then change settings so that it wouldn't access the internet - would've shut down practically their whole DSL network. I wonder what I did with that list...

Read about how your trips will be monitored by Bush's
brown shirts.

Cheers,
W00t

There was an article in the Mpls Star Tribune 2 weeks ago about the University of Minnesota licensing the rights to technology for creating stem cells from human bone marrow to a biotech firm called Athersys. The U of M researchers published a paper about this procedure in the July 4th issue of Nature. Here is a link to an article (not abstract) [nature.com].

There was an article in the Mpls Star Tribune 2 weeks ago about the University of Minnesota licensing the rights to technology for creating stem cells from human bone marrow to a biotech firm called Athersys. The U of M researchers published a paper about this procedure in the July 4th issue of Nature. Here is a link to an article (not abstract) [nature.com].