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Domain: twoday.net

Stories and comments across the archive that link to twoday.net.

Comments · 14

  1. What about Lem? by mlock · · Score: 1 · on Robotics Researcher Starts Campaign To Ban Development of Sexbots

    Stanislaw Lem already predicted quite a few things here... read the Star Diaries, although I believe that the matching story "Die Waschmaschinentragödie") isn't included in the English versions. http://derdeutsche.twoday.net/...

  2. Re:old news from decades ago by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1 · on Overeager Compilers Can Open Security Holes In Your Code

    If you pay more attention to history instead of criticizing others for your own lack of it, you would discover ...

    * The standard usages are: TNSTAAFL, TANSTAAFL, and TINSTAAFL

    * TANSTAAFL was first used in 23 November 1854, in "Wide West"
    * TINSTAAFL was used in 1952 by Professor Alvin Hansen in the journal "Ethics."
    * TANSTAAFL was again used in 1966 by Robert Heinlein's novel "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress."
    * TNSTAAFL is attributed to the economist Milton Friedman in 1975

    References:

      * http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/...
      * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
      * http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02...
    * http://mahalanobis.twoday.net/...

  3. Re:No, SDI did not collapse the Soviet Union by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on World's First X-Ray Laser Goes Live

    They may not have spend money on anti-SDI research, but someone spent money on assassination teams. One of my college professors volunteered and was chosen to work in Germany on SDI research. He was killed by a car that swerved over several lanes of traffic to hit him as he helped a stranded motorist change a tire. Not strange enough for you? The remaining members of his team were killed in 'strange accidents' within a week of his death. He wasn't part of this team as far as I know, but the same sort of 'accidents' happened in Germany around the same time.

  4. Re:I always thought by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on South Park Creators Given Signed Photo of Saddam Hussein

    I'm the bad guy? How did that happen?

  5. I moved to eNom... by leobard · · Score: 1 · on Some Hope During Registerfly's Meltdown

    I had three domains at registerfly and clicked the links provided in eNoms e-mails to registerfly accounts. They read like this: ".... registerfly is going down in flames ... click this link to move your domain to eNom .... have a nice day ... " Note that I got the e-mail only once, and the links in the e-mails contained some authorisation code that was bound to the domain names. I don't know if it is now better at eNom or if I can push the domains from eNom to somewhere else, but at least it seems I am out of registerfly ... or, am I? who knows. More thoughts in my blog. http://leobard.twoday.net/stories/3348089/

  6. Re:Surrounding confusion by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 1 · on Study Shows Cell Phones Safe
    If you have some evidence you'd like to present, some reference to some study that's properly done, provide it. Calling me childish because I don't buy into your pet paranoia will accomplish nothing. Neither will pointing out the obvious but irrelevant fact that governments and corporations often lie. The mere fact that they *might* have an incentive to lie about this *if* there were a problem doesn't mean that there is a problem. They'd have plenty of incentive to lie about caches of alien technology in the Nevada desert, but I don't believe that either. Do you?

    I hope you will forgive me for speaking in a way which you found hurtful. It was uncalled for, and I certainly apologize. I am sorry.

    As for the effects shown in studies. . .

    The blood-brain barrier becomes permeable when exposed to EM cell phone frequencies. This has been shown by injecting dye into the blood of rats and exposing them to cell phone EM. The short version: control groups don't end up with dyed brains while the exposed groups do. This effect has been seen numerous times.

    here

    here

    and here

    and here's an original post from another prominant researcher, Allen Frey, regarding his own experiments in the area.

    And here is perhaps one of the most interesting. . . An excerpt I scanned from a book on the subject; the notes are regarding something called, cyclotronic resonance, an electromagnetic mechanic which shows one likely candidate for how certain chemicals manage to cross the Blood Brain Barrier when the subject is exposed to an EM field. . .

    Also. . . here's an interesting article on how the original experimenter, Henry Lai, has been repeatedly made the subject of Motorola's efforts to discredit his work in sneaky ways.

    I have only provided links and thoughts regarding one of the simpler points, (blood-brain barrier permeability), as it is relatively easy to reference. There are a lot of other fascinating elements worth taking into consideration.

    I hope this is helpful.


    -FL

  7. Networking. . . by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 1 · on Study Shows Cell Phones Safe
    I'm rightfully skeptical of cutting edge neuroscience published in IEEE, Antenna's & Propagation.

    So, be skeptical. But don't be lazy. --Read the article and then do some more searching based on what you find there. If you are smart and diligent, you will be able to find supporting material or counter-claims which will solidify your knowledge in the subject. But please, (and I see this all the time), you cannot expect people to do your work for you. Learning is a personal journey. The old stand-by, "You must provide proof of claim," is only partly valid. Far too many use it as an excuse for personal laziness. Yes, proof is useful, but it is not actually owed to anybody. If a claim is interesting, it is up to each of us to research it. This is one of the reasons I like Slashdot so much; it provides a networking forum.

    In that spirit, here are some more links you might look at with regard to the blood brain barrier. . .

    here

    here

    and here

    and here's an actual post from another prominant researcher, Allen Frey, regarding his own experiments in the area.

    And here is perhaps the most interesting. . . An excerpt I scanned from a book on the subject; the notes are regarding something called, cyclotronic resonance, an electromagnetic mechanic which shows one likely candidate for how certain chemicals manage to cross the Blood Brain Barrier when the subject is exposed to an EM field. . .

    "In 1985, Dr. Carl Blackman of the EPA and Dr. Abraham Liboff of Oakland University, working independently, integrated the reports of Jafary-Asl and the attempts to duplicate Bawin and Adey's experiments. They concluded that the strength of the local steady-state magnetic field of the Earth at the site of each of the laboratories was the hidden variable that determined the different frequencies reported."

    Also. . .
    here's an interesting article on how the original experimenter, Henry Lai, has been repeatedly undermined by Motorola in an effort to discredit his work.


    -FL

  8. Citings. . . by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 2, Informative · on Study Shows Cell Phones Safe
    Yep. You're right. I was incorrect in stating that the exact experiment with rats performed by Henry Lai was duplicated. That was bad writing, and I was regretting it the instant I hit 'Submit'. --I should have been more specific in saying that the effect has been repeated numerous times. The actual experiment with rats has only been performed by Henry Lai.

    However, blood-brain barrier permeability due to EM radiation has been demonstrated numerous times.

    here

    here

    and here

    and here's an actual post from another prominant researcher, Allen Frey, regarding his own experiments in the area.

    And here is perhaps the most interesting. . . An excerpt I scanned from a book on the subject; the notes are regarding something called, cyclotronic resonance, an electromagnetic mechanic which shows one likely candidate for how certain chemicals manage to cross the Blood Brain Barrier when the subject is exposed to an EM field. . .

    "In 1985, Dr. Carl Blackman of the EPA and Dr. Abraham Liboff of Oakland University, working independently, integrated the reports of Jafary-Asl and the attempts to duplicate Bawin and Adey's experiments. They concluded that the strength of the local steady-state magnetic field of the Earth at the site of each of the laboratories was the hidden variable that determined the different frequencies reported."

    Also. . .
    here's an interesting article on how the original experimenter, Henry Lai, has been repeatedly undermined by Motorola in an effort to discredit his work.


    -FL

  9. Re:Not an incredibly bad idea by Stephen+Samuel · · Score: 1 · on University Bans wi-fi as Health Concern
    Not *one* ha shwon any harmful effects at the levels we're here talking of.

    Apparently, there are studies that indicate the possibility of harm from wireless, but the studies (so far) are inconclusive.

    His point was that the studies that he saw were inconclusive. Inconclusive is different than no effect. This means that it's possible that there's no effect and that there was a systemic problem with the studies. It's also possible that there is an effect and the studies so far just haven't pinpointed it yet.

    • while the jury is out, he's decided to err on the side of safety.
    • if there is an effect, it's more likely to affect youth than full-grown adults, becaust the tissues in teenagers are still growing which makes them more susceptible.
    • wifi is a convenience and not going ubiquitous doesn't (generally) affect the ability of the students to learn.
    • I'm presuming here that they will be making up for this by making public access points easy to find/connect to.
    • actually: (further to the previous point), he's not banning all wifi -- just ubiquituitious wireless (see this slightly less inflamatory post) -- In other words, he's not willing to saturate the campus with wireless radiation just to follow the current fad.

      He's responsible for thousands of students, and seems to figure that the risk of a couple dozen needless deaths isn't wort the convenience of ubiquitious wireless.

    • The precautionary approach is admittedly strong, but I don't think it's entirely unreasonable, given the level of his responsibility.
  10. Re:"Innocent people" by TheSync · · Score: 1 · on British Intel Shuts Down al-Qaeda Sites

    North Korea is not a corrupt state

    I call North Korea, Cuba, and Iran corrupt states because the leaders of these countries siphon off tremendous amounts of wealth for themselves, much like leaders such as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. There is also significant structural corruption by officials of all levels within those countries as well. The fact that they happen to have different political or formal economic systems makes no difference.

    Most of Chinese are as poor as ever

    No, most Chinese are much less poor than they were 20 years ago. And there are few starvation deaths, unlike the late 1950's in China. They may still be poor, but are getting less poor every year.

    In 1950, Chinese income per capita was similar to that of OECD nations in 1500 AD, today it is similar to that of OECD nations in 1917 (good link here)

    I certainly would not like to be a worker in the USA in 1917 if I could avoid it, but would prefer it to being a peasant in England in 1500.

    the only not corrupted system is USA

    Here is the list from Transparency International. There are 18 countries less corrupt than the US (such as Finland, New Zealand, and Denmark).

  11. iBooks burn! by stew77 · · Score: 1 · on Speculation on Real Reasons Behind Apple Switch

    The true reason?
    Power comsumption! Burning iBooks just drain the battery too fast :)

  12. Re:Great by debiansid · · Score: 1 · on Longhorn: Fewer BSODs, More RSODs

    1) Grandma sees the RSOD
    2) Grandma has a stroke
    3) Grandma switches to Mac

    Hell now Microsoft can't use the "Even your Grandma can use it" tagline can it.

    But seriously, what could make Microsoft introduce a new error level? Does this mean that Longhorn may just as well fsck up your data if it wishes to?

    Maybe Bill has finally realized his dream of selecting users at random and replacin all their data files with copies of his modelling photos http://nagi.twoday.net/topics/Aaaaaargh+!/

  13. Morph project into an economically interesting one by mattr · · Score: 1 · on Open Graphics Project Looking For Funding

    Still sounds like a neat project but they need someone with both a technical and a business mind to help a lot I think.

    As I understand it, the project is for hobbyists' fun (which is fine!) but does not make obvious economic sense (a problem with hardware projects it seems).

    I'd like to suggest they consider morphing the project to make it more interesting (depth) and applicable (breadth).

    For one thing I have noted in a past thread on this a number of things that would make me buy the card, maybe they should look at old threads again. Personally I am not a target of this project, yet, since I would want one of the new high-end cards for my work. But cost is a factor and I would buy one also if it provided additional support for multiple projectors, outputs, video switching matrices, synchronization with cameras or other sources, and other things. In fact I'd be most interested if it worked ALONG WITH a well known high end graphics card, to provide additional functions not already on the one I have. How many people are actually going to buy only this open video card and NOT buy a full-fledged one too?

    I also would buy a card if it was multipurpose, not just for video. For example if it provided special audio functionality (possibly provided by software not even on the card) I could imagine recommending it for art projects.

    Personally I would definitely buy a card that allowed me to run perl at C++ speed. Maybe this is something to laugh about but there must be a lot of people who wish there was an open source system (fpga + software) to accelerate whatever they do. Some people might seriously welcome it if you could port the latest perl regex engine onto an fpga. Or how about running the perl 6 emulator on it?

    Perhaps it would be interesting if a version was sold that included common pattern matching algorithms (like BLAST for genomics, or maybe geometry or facial extraction from video feeds?). Is there nothing that could be added to help the home PVR market?

    And what about adding some real cutting edge science stuff to the card? Is there a good reason why this kind of a project must seek as its goal to achieve the worst example in the field? (Yes I know "but it's free".) For example how about something that models neurons? Maybe it could be done much more easily with just a little more hardware support in addition to the fpga. And there was a recent thread about the cell chip, sure you probably won't get to use it (though it sure would be nice!) but there was also a mention about the COSA Operating System and
    synchronous reactive programming in general. These seem like very cool things! It doesn't sound so crazy to imagine being able to get funding (maybe even DARPA, who knows) if a well known university got behind COSA et al and the hardware project. And universities themselves might be very interested in investing financial and other resources in developing a continually growing hardware platform. Some schools even have fabs you know!

    Well I am definitely not a hardware engineer but it does not seem too crazy to imagine some very nifty things coming out of developing such a platform (specifically a COSA-style platform in an FPGA card). Why not ask the COSA guy what he would need? You might want to consider that some cool things the Cell processor of Sony's is supposed to be able to do might also be achievable with a radically designed free hardware/free software platform, including media processing, and also in new kinds of programming.

    Is it crazy to imagine a card that you would buy as the base and then purchase additional functional modules you could snap in? Could it be the size of a motherboard instead? (Note how luckily my lack of knowledge allows me to be silly or hopefully provocative.)

    If you are involved with enough research projects, each one could provide a portion of the amount needed to produc

  14. Alex Jones has something to say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative · on RFID Implants for Spanish Revelers
    This is a nice english version of the 'facts'

    Spain Launches Microchip Implantation for VIP Members

    Baja Beach Club in Barcelona

    UPDATE April 7, 2004 2:30 PM CST

    Note from Alex Jones:

    I interviewed Conrad Chase for 30 minutes on my syndicated radio broadcast. He told me that the CEO of VeriChip, Mr. Bolton, had told him that there was a plan to use the VeriChip as a global implantable identity system. I asked him if whether in the future you would have to have a chip to get into the club period, and he said yes.

    I said laughingly, that you're not going to be a VIP in the world if you don't have a chip, to which he responded that that was a great slogan that he would start using.

    He went on to say that all gun owners should have to have a microchip implanted in their hand to be able to own a gun. He also said that the VeriChip company had told him that the Italian government was preparing to implant all of their government workers. He said that this is a great system that he believes will replace credit cards for buying and selling.

    I asked him where he was getting all of these ideas and he said that he had learned all of this from discussions with VeriChip, and that he was aware that the plant making the chips was in Beijing, China.

    It doesn't get any more bone-chilling than this. They are going to sell microchips as the ultimate in trendiness.

    --------

    Club Director: "The chip will prevail...I believe wholeheartedly in the
    chip system."

    Violet Jones
    Infowars.com
    April 7, 2004

    Baja Beach Club owner Conrad Chase wanted something unique to identify his VIP patrons. Other clubs had special jewelry or key chains, but he was looking for something special. After brainstorming, he came up with the idea to implant his VIP members with VeriChip's implantable microchip.

    Alex has spoken many times over the years about how they would make the chip "fun," and how, by giving it an elite status, an entire generation of young teenagers would soon be arguing with their parents demanding that they let them be implanted so that they can be in the "in" crowd.

    The Baja Beach Club and Chase have proved that the trend has started.

    When I spoke to Mr. Chase this morning he told me that his implant launch had gotten the international media's attention. He himself was implanted at the media launch of the VIP implant system along with stars from the Spanish version of the TV Show, "Big Brother," (called "Grand Hermano" in Spain).

    He also told me that he had been in touch with the VeriChip Corporation and that there were several new developments with their implant system including the Belgian subsidiary of firearm company, FN Herstal, which manufactures Browning and Smith and Wesson firearms, launching a implant-firearm system which would make a firearm functional only to the individual implanted with its corresponding microchip.

    "We have a special zone at Baja beach Club where only VIPs are allowed, which has various exclusive services for these members. We are the first discotheque in the world to offer the VIP VeriChip. Using an integrated (imbedded) microchip, our VIPS can identify themselves and pay for their food and drinks without the need for any kind of document (ID)."


    Informant: Harlan Girard