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The Red Cross is looking for Citrix engineers and Microsoft pros as well as a large list of equipment and connectivity for its field workers and Emergency Operations Centres in New York.

To see if you can help, please click here!

techtv is reporting that the Red Cross needs tech donations

Original posts here and here

They are in need of computers, supplies and human techs. If you can please help. Some of us can't donate blood. But we can donate our extra computers and supplies.

http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/showtell/stor y/ 0,23008,3347294,00.html

techtv is reporting that the red cross needs tech donations -- by means of computers, equipment, and services.
Try not to slashdot it, and they also ask to only send in your contact request in once, since their mail server is overwhelmed.

An article on TechTV says that the American Red Cross in Greater New York is putting out a call for help from techies. Anyone in the NY/NJ area with spare hardware/software should send them an e-mail. Please refer to the article for a list of needed hardware and software as well as contact information.

An article on TechTV says that the American Red Cross in Greater New York is putting out a call for help from techies. Anyone in the NY/NJ area with spare hardware/software should send them an e-mail. Please refer to the article for a list of needed hardware and software as well as contact information.

I read an article earlier this evening on TechTV indicating that the New York Red Cross is in serious need of an enormous list of hardware, peripherals, consumables, and software to help facilitate their field operations, many of which are being carried out by paper. They also need Microsoft and Citrix certified volunteers. The list ranges from entire systems to network hubs, Cat5 cable, scanners, handhelds, and even things like diskettes and tie wraps.

I wrote to the contact person to verify this, and I have just heard back from her; apparently the story is entirely true, as she has asked me to phone her in the morning.

Here are the texts of my message to Ms. Webman and her answer to me:

-----Original Message----- From: Anne Madison [mailto: ]
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 8:18 PM
To: dwebman@webmanassociates.com
Subject: Story on TechTV

Sorry to break in on you like this.

I am reading an article from TechTV that indicates you're in need of hardware and equipment. A detailed list is provided in the article. The URL is: http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/showtell/story/ 0,23008,3347294,00.html

If you're still in need of these things, a group of us here in Baltimore would like to help. We are wondering if the list is still current, and while we don't have a wealth to expend, we would like to try our utmost to cross at least one item off your list. If you could ask someone to let us know that the story is correct, and where and how to send the items, we would be grateful for the opportunity to assist in some small way.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. God bless!

Anne K. L. Madison

Ann,

The story is true. We will have a better sense of what has been donated by tomorrow morning. Would you be kind enough to call me in the morning and I will see what is left on the list.

Thank you!!!

Dorothy
Dorothy Webman, D.S.W.
President/CEO
Webman Associates
dwebman@webmanassociates.com

4 Brattle Street, Suite 207
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 864-6769 [Telephone]
(617) 492-3673 [Facsimile]

New York Office:
1650 Broadway, Suite 701
New York, NY 10019
(212) 459-0944 [Telephone]
(212) 586-4306 [Facsimile]

They should begin to implement it because they are starting to lose major ground to Pocket PCs. The iPaq is the beating palm in sales. (Not un units... yet.)

The big advantage of Pocket PCs over Palms offerings is multimedia, an area where Be excelled. Palm will get left behind if they don't come up with something, and fast.

All they'd have to do is get someone to argue that nobody really needs that much processing power except for registered business users, spread their side of the story over the major media outlets (Which, apart from Zif f-Da vis, the BBC, and possibly the non-MS bits of NBC, are almost all owned by **AA/BSA/etc. members.), take a cue from Pepsi/Coke and buy some propaganda space in schools, and viola, no more 16-year-old hackers.

It plays normal CD's, CD-R's and CD-RW's. It has up to 8 minutes of shock protection for MP3's (it actually spins down the disk). It uses normal AA batteries. It can play MP3's no matter how you organize them on the disk, not limited to root directory. And best of all it has a really nice UI on its LCD screen. Don't take my word for it, read another review here.

</UNSOLICITED PLUG>

"Gates has declared the unacceptably slow rollout of high-speed Internet connections to be the primary barrier to improving the high-tech economy."

Does anyone else find it sadly amusing that the world's biggest monopolist is whining about the limiting effects about other big monopolies? However the fact that Bill Gates is finally admitting that monopolies do indeed hinder the high-tech economy is a step in the right direction. :)

But guess what? Now that the Baby Bells have nearly killed all their DSL competition, and raised their rates, they are now targetting the independent ISPs! "ISPs in California are accusing SBC Communications of trying to run them out of the broadband business." See this article at techtv.com.

So the ISP's are next, and they may go down just like the CLEC's did. Unless the Justice Department steps in and breaks up the Baby Bell monopolies. Knowing how long this takes, it makes me wonder if the independent ISPs will survive.

I believe this is the TechTV article referenced in the above post.

~Philly

TechTVs History of the First-Person Shooter
Blue's News FPS Guide and History
First Person Shooters
MediaPipes History of the First Person Shooter
3D Action Planets History of the FPS Shooter.

Also, here's a link to Spasism that claims to be the first First-Person Shooter 3D multiplayer networked game, circa 1974!.

If anything, you could say Doom was the first game to show that the PC could now be considered a serious games playing machine.

liB

That is a good list of apps to use, but I would say that besides photoshop, only illustrator would be widely used or recognized by a majority of users. I cannot recall seeing any illustrator benchmarks, but I would imagine that the G4 does well enough for itself when manipulating the vectors. And powerpc chips have always had a good showing in the Seti@home arena as well. Check out the average CPU time per work unit.

As far as the 6 filter pshop bake-off went, it was done by TechTV, and the Pentium 4 and G4 each "won" an equal number of filter tests.

Those little Internet Applicances can surf the web pretty quickly, and they don't have even 500 MHz to play with. I think operating system overhead is a far bigger problem (one that plagues both Windows and Mac OS users)

I am fully aware that the Athlon can hold its own against the Pentium. My Athlon/Pentium comment was merely meant to show that there is some level of hypocrisy in the CPU wars...

"Robo-cup" (audio, requires player) by Lee Gutkind, National Public Radio, Weekend All Things Considered, 28 July 2001

"RoboCup 2001 Marks SGI's Second Year of RoboCup Federation Sponsorship" (press release), PR Newswire, 1 August 2001

"Robot Competitors Meet on a Soccer Field of Dreams" (free registration required) by Jeffrey Selingo, New York Times, 2 August 2001

"RoboCup: Where Bots Kick Butt" by Jason Spingarn-Koff, Lycos News, 2 August 2001

"Rush is on for 'HAL'-like computer to perfect A.I." by Winda Benedetti, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 3 August 2001

"Robot world cup kicks off", BBC, 3 August 2001

"RoboCup 2001 boots up" by Helen Pearson, Nature Science Update, 3 August 2001

"Blutgrätschen ohne Blut und Beine", stern.de, 3 August 2001

"Roboter aus 23 Ländern tragen Fußballweltmeisterschaft aus", Net-Business Online, 3 August 2001

"RoboCup 2001, il calcio visto dai robot", Punto Informatico, 3 August 2001

"Building a better goalie (buzz, whir)" by Gregory Roberts, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 4 August 2001

"Man and machine take the field" by David Olsen, Seattle Times, 4 August 2001

"Robots Storm the Soccer Field" by Maria Godoy, TechTV/Tech Live, 6 August 2001

Information about live Webcast of Botball finals (an event distinct from Robocup) on 7-8 August

Whenever I am looking for something "techy" to read I goto The Screensavers "Geek Library." Its geared more toward "less-than-Slashdot-hardcore" geeks, but hey we're talking about a library.

Whenever I am looking for something "techy" to read I goto The Screensavers "Geek Library." Its geared more toward "less-than-Slashdot-hardcore" geeks, but hey we're talking about a library.

What about adults chatting with what they believe to be other adults online, who merely "role play" being underaged kids, not knowing the other person is an FBI agent? The classic role-playing john-hooker pickup comes to mind. Who are you to say what two adults can't do in private for fun?

When no children are involved, who are anti-virtual-fantasy child porn laws claiming to protect? Who is the victim? Is there one? Is the victim the 1st amendment?

Is "The Blue Lagoon" or "American Pie" illegal because it depicts "what appears to be children engaged in sexual activity"

This issue is not so cut and dry as some would like us to believe.

What about adults chatting with what they believe to be other adults online, who merely "role play" being underaged kids, not knowing the other person is an FBI agent? The classic role-playing john-hooker pickup comes to mind. Who are you to say what two adults can't do in private for fun?

When no children are involved, who are anti-virtual-fantasy child porn laws claiming to protect? Who is the victim? Is there one? Is the victim the 1st amendment?

Is "The Blue Lagoon" or "American Pie" illegal because it depicts "what appears to be children engaged in sexual activity"

This issue is not so cut and dry as some would like us to believe.

I too heard that the Shrek animators had to dial-back the female actor's appearance (TechTV Shrek Special)... but I've also heard that the entire staff has been terribly disenhartened by Final Fantasy's superior graphics, and that fact seems to discredit their claim. Notice they never offered up any pre-dialback clips of the female actor. Shrek boasts 'realistic human cgi characters', but Final Fantasy is obviously leaps and bounds ahead of Shrek and everything else we've seen.

Sure, Shrek will probably be a fun ride, and I'm a Disney fan... but I'm saving my $7.75 for Final Fantasy on July 11th. All the Shrek marketing blasphemy has irritated me enough that I'm going to wait for it on VHS.

I saw an episode of Silicon Spin on TechTV where John C. Dvorak (who hosts the show) made similar claims. Some guy from TiVo was also there, and they were talking about how TV will make money now that TiVo is 'stealing' TV stations profits, and while the TiVo guy tried to explain how TiVo works to him, and how there are advertisements/channels getting put on TiVo preinstalled now, and other such things, John simply seemed to completely ignore him and say that TiVo is illegal and wont last long. It really got me mad personally, as he was someone whom I respected in the mainstream computing world. And especially since TiVo is quite accepting to geeks who want to basically do what they want with the equipment THEY paid for. However since his working with TechTV he has become quite clueless to facts, and more interested in getting ratings. This was all about 2 months ago too...
I personally gave him feedback, but only received an automated response. It really shows where he stands...

I saw an episode of Silicon Spin on TechTV where John C. Dvorak (who hosts the show) made similar claims. Some guy from TiVo was also there, and they were talking about how TV will make money now that TiVo is 'stealing' TV stations profits, and while the TiVo guy tried to explain how TiVo works to him, and how there are advertisements/channels getting put on TiVo preinstalled now, and other such things, John simply seemed to completely ignore him and say that TiVo is illegal and wont last long. It really got me mad personally, as he was someone whom I respected in the mainstream computing world. And especially since TiVo is quite accepting to geeks who want to basically do what they want with the equipment THEY paid for. However since his working with TechTV he has become quite clueless to facts, and more interested in getting ratings. This was all about 2 months ago too...
I personally gave him feedback, but only received an automated response. It really shows where he stands...

Not to be too nit-picky, but MANY older formats still have comfortable niche markets. Nowhere is it written that there has to be an all-or-nothing transition.

Vinyl is still VERY popular in underground dance/rave (electronic) music. Most trance/house/dnb/breakbeat/etc music is released on vinyl only. From the DJ's perspective it's much easier to control (ever try to scratch with CDs?). MD still has a loyal following of fans.. Some folks swear by them.. DAT is widely popular in the live audio bootlegging^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Htrading community. Heck, I still know quite a few people who still buy and use cassettes.

The way *I* understood these discs to be marketed was as a replacement for expensive compactflash and similar mediums. Imagine using these in a digital camera, 500 MB of storage in the size of a quarter at the cost of a few bucks.. I also under stood them to be targeting to portable players, phones, PDAs, etc. In other words, hardware that is too small for CDs to be practical.

When TechTV reviewed these discs they gave the impression that your new Brittney Spears CD would *include* a dataplay disc at no extra charge, for use in your portable players. This is the first time I've *ever* heard these hyped as a replacement for CDs. I think the slashdot crowd is quick to scream shenannigans for no good reason.

Shayne

The DMCA (PDF), however villified it is here on Slashdot, was not intended to turn out as it did. Sen. Hatch's intent was a law that would allow digital copies to be made. The no-circumvention clause that we're all familiar with was supposed to be a pot sweetener to prod the recording industry into releasing digital media. Unfortunately, we all know how the law was abused by those it sought to protect.

Sen. Hatch's office has links to a number of letters and opinions regarding his true stance on the issue of digital media copying. I don't doubt he will bring this issue back up, and as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee the old media companies will be in the hot seat for what they have done.

So get moving! Do something that will have a real impact. Write your represantitive! Many of them were elected on non-technical issues and don't really know about the topic. Maybe it will be your letter that shapes their opinion.

I saw something similar at Office Max last year, called a Thumbdrive - Their webpage says that it's Lose98-only, though they mentioned a Linux version a while back.

'Course it's no problem to wipe every reference to down1oads.mp3.com, then reload the list...

Then there's other sites that have started using Shockwave and Flash banners (Intel, ZD's TechTV), as well as .asx/.asf banners.

Apologies in advance for the flame-tone of this, but: that is the one of the stupidest things I've heard in I don't know how long. A bad movie is a bad movie is a bad movie, and any movie that depends on you having interacted with its source material to be enjoyed or appreciated is a bad movie. You know what the movie should do? It should make you want to play the game, or read the book, or whatever. Peopl don't spend $35 million to filming a collection of in-jokes. Jeez, you should just watch the Summoner Geeks video if that's what you want.

The Screen Savers on TechTV had a visit from Larry Tesler (developer at Xerox PARC and of the Apple Lisa) yesterday, you can see it in RealVideo here. Seems the Xerox Star had windows, but not overlapping windows, only side-by-side ones. The screen they had on the Star was huge, big enough to easily fit two documents on one screen. The Lisa's screen, however, was much smaller... so, to do any windowing of any sort, there had to be overlapping. And it stuck with the industry.

Ironically, this aired just after I gave a presentation in one of my classes on the Apple Lisa and its place in computing history....

---

Try these links on for size:

http://209.15.162.75/charity/geek-charity.htm
http://www.techtv.com/bigthinkers/thisweeksbigthin ker/story/0,6917,2470817,00.html

Ask and you shall recieve! http://www.asuko.isfnet.ad.jp/English/frmain.htm. I originally saw it on (what was then called) ZDTV (now known as Techtv). It's only $4000! http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/showtell/story/ 0,3656,2115139,00.html

on ScreenSavers he mention ed a target price of $299.

Perhaps Damian is altruistic enough to share that view. I'm sure anyone as qualified as Damian (or Larry) would have no problems finding a higher-paying job if that's what they wanted.

An article on TechTV.com indicates that they are demanding that ISPs who provision their customers with Time-Warner broadband surrender 75% of tgheir subscriber fees, 25% of all other revenue, and editorial control of their home pages and exclusive rights to a prominant area 'above the fold' on those pages to Time-Warner!

At least the Devil lets you have exclusive use of your soul until you die!

An article on TechTV.com indicates that they are demanding that ISPs who provision their customers with Time-Warner broadband surrender 75% of tgheir subscriber fees, 25% of all other revenue, and editorial control of their home pages and exclusive rights to a prominant area 'above the fold' on those pages to Time-Warner!

At least the Devil lets you have exclusive use of your soul until you die!

ZD's Firewalls Alternatip might be useful. Hope this helps.