Slashdot Mirror

... Alioth is another name for Epsilon Ursae Majoris.

The graceful curve of handle of the Big Dipper (the Plough in Great Britain), among the most famed of celestial sights, represents the tail of Ursa Major, the Greater Bear. Third star in from the end, "Alioth" relates not to a bear, but to a "black horse," the name corrupted from the original and mis- assigned to the naked-eye companion of Mizar, which took on the vaguely similar name "Alcor." Bayer's rough rule of assigning Greek-letter names more or less in order of brightness is quite violated here, as the Bear's bright stars are named from west to east, hence "Epsilon" for Ursa Major's brightest (bright second magnitude, 1.77) star, indeed for the 31st brightest star in the whole sky. A white class A (A0) star with a measured temperature of 9400 Kelvin, Alioth shines at us from a distance of 81 light years with a luminosity 108 times that of the Sun, from which we derive a diameter of four times solar and a mass close to triple that of the Sun. Large and luminous for its class, Alioth is probably ageing, and is nearing the end of its main sequence hydrogen-fusing lifetime. Of greater significance, Alioth is the brightest of the "peculiar A (Ap) stars," magnetic stars in which a variety of chemical elements are either depleted or enhanced, and in addition appear to change with great regularity as the star rotates. "Chemically peculiar" behavior in class A and B stars generally comes not from creation of elements, but from their separation in the relatively thin stellar atmospheres, some falling downward within the star's gravitational field, others lofted upward as a result of an outward push by radiation. Here, they are also apparently related to the Alioth's magnetic field. Alioth is classed as an "Alpha Canum Venaticorum" star (after the prototype, Cor Caroli). Its magnetic field -- and the chemical composition -- change from our perspective during the star's 5.1-day stellar rotation period. Some elements are highly concentrated into distinct regions that swing in and out of sight as the star spins. For example, the abundance of oxygen is 100,000 times greater near the magnetic equator than near the magnetic poles (which are displaced from the rotational equator and poles); chromium behaves similarly. Heavier elements, such as the rare earth europium, also display strong variations. Though visually the brightest of the peculiar A stars, Alioth is also noted for having one of the weakest magnetic fields among its class, only about 100 times that of the Earth, 15 times weaker than that observed for Cor Caroli.

... Alioth is another name for Epsilon Ursae Majoris.

The graceful curve of handle of the Big Dipper (the Plough in Great Britain), among the most famed of celestial sights, represents the tail of Ursa Major, the Greater Bear. Third star in from the end, "Alioth" relates not to a bear, but to a "black horse," the name corrupted from the original and mis- assigned to the naked-eye companion of Mizar, which took on the vaguely similar name "Alcor." Bayer's rough rule of assigning Greek-letter names more or less in order of brightness is quite violated here, as the Bear's bright stars are named from west to east, hence "Epsilon" for Ursa Major's brightest (bright second magnitude, 1.77) star, indeed for the 31st brightest star in the whole sky. A white class A (A0) star with a measured temperature of 9400 Kelvin, Alioth shines at us from a distance of 81 light years with a luminosity 108 times that of the Sun, from which we derive a diameter of four times solar and a mass close to triple that of the Sun. Large and luminous for its class, Alioth is probably ageing, and is nearing the end of its main sequence hydrogen-fusing lifetime. Of greater significance, Alioth is the brightest of the "peculiar A (Ap) stars," magnetic stars in which a variety of chemical elements are either depleted or enhanced, and in addition appear to change with great regularity as the star rotates. "Chemically peculiar" behavior in class A and B stars generally comes not from creation of elements, but from their separation in the relatively thin stellar atmospheres, some falling downward within the star's gravitational field, others lofted upward as a result of an outward push by radiation. Here, they are also apparently related to the Alioth's magnetic field. Alioth is classed as an "Alpha Canum Venaticorum" star (after the prototype, Cor Caroli). Its magnetic field -- and the chemical composition -- change from our perspective during the star's 5.1-day stellar rotation period. Some elements are highly concentrated into distinct regions that swing in and out of sight as the star spins. For example, the abundance of oxygen is 100,000 times greater near the magnetic equator than near the magnetic poles (which are displaced from the rotational equator and poles); chromium behaves similarly. Heavier elements, such as the rare earth europium, also display strong variations. Though visually the brightest of the peculiar A stars, Alioth is also noted for having one of the weakest magnetic fields among its class, only about 100 times that of the Earth, 15 times weaker than that observed for Cor Caroli.

... Alioth is another name for Epsilon Ursae Majoris.

The graceful curve of handle of the Big Dipper (the Plough in Great Britain), among the most famed of celestial sights, represents the tail of Ursa Major, the Greater Bear. Third star in from the end, "Alioth" relates not to a bear, but to a "black horse," the name corrupted from the original and mis- assigned to the naked-eye companion of Mizar, which took on the vaguely similar name "Alcor." Bayer's rough rule of assigning Greek-letter names more or less in order of brightness is quite violated here, as the Bear's bright stars are named from west to east, hence "Epsilon" for Ursa Major's brightest (bright second magnitude, 1.77) star, indeed for the 31st brightest star in the whole sky. A white class A (A0) star with a measured temperature of 9400 Kelvin, Alioth shines at us from a distance of 81 light years with a luminosity 108 times that of the Sun, from which we derive a diameter of four times solar and a mass close to triple that of the Sun. Large and luminous for its class, Alioth is probably ageing, and is nearing the end of its main sequence hydrogen-fusing lifetime. Of greater significance, Alioth is the brightest of the "peculiar A (Ap) stars," magnetic stars in which a variety of chemical elements are either depleted or enhanced, and in addition appear to change with great regularity as the star rotates. "Chemically peculiar" behavior in class A and B stars generally comes not from creation of elements, but from their separation in the relatively thin stellar atmospheres, some falling downward within the star's gravitational field, others lofted upward as a result of an outward push by radiation. Here, they are also apparently related to the Alioth's magnetic field. Alioth is classed as an "Alpha Canum Venaticorum" star (after the prototype, Cor Caroli). Its magnetic field -- and the chemical composition -- change from our perspective during the star's 5.1-day stellar rotation period. Some elements are highly concentrated into distinct regions that swing in and out of sight as the star spins. For example, the abundance of oxygen is 100,000 times greater near the magnetic equator than near the magnetic poles (which are displaced from the rotational equator and poles); chromium behaves similarly. Heavier elements, such as the rare earth europium, also display strong variations. Though visually the brightest of the peculiar A stars, Alioth is also noted for having one of the weakest magnetic fields among its class, only about 100 times that of the Earth, 15 times weaker than that observed for Cor Caroli.

... Alioth is another name for Epsilon Ursae Majoris.

The graceful curve of handle of the Big Dipper (the Plough in Great Britain), among the most famed of celestial sights, represents the tail of Ursa Major, the Greater Bear. Third star in from the end, "Alioth" relates not to a bear, but to a "black horse," the name corrupted from the original and mis- assigned to the naked-eye companion of Mizar, which took on the vaguely similar name "Alcor." Bayer's rough rule of assigning Greek-letter names more or less in order of brightness is quite violated here, as the Bear's bright stars are named from west to east, hence "Epsilon" for Ursa Major's brightest (bright second magnitude, 1.77) star, indeed for the 31st brightest star in the whole sky. A white class A (A0) star with a measured temperature of 9400 Kelvin, Alioth shines at us from a distance of 81 light years with a luminosity 108 times that of the Sun, from which we derive a diameter of four times solar and a mass close to triple that of the Sun. Large and luminous for its class, Alioth is probably ageing, and is nearing the end of its main sequence hydrogen-fusing lifetime. Of greater significance, Alioth is the brightest of the "peculiar A (Ap) stars," magnetic stars in which a variety of chemical elements are either depleted or enhanced, and in addition appear to change with great regularity as the star rotates. "Chemically peculiar" behavior in class A and B stars generally comes not from creation of elements, but from their separation in the relatively thin stellar atmospheres, some falling downward within the star's gravitational field, others lofted upward as a result of an outward push by radiation. Here, they are also apparently related to the Alioth's magnetic field. Alioth is classed as an "Alpha Canum Venaticorum" star (after the prototype, Cor Caroli). Its magnetic field -- and the chemical composition -- change from our perspective during the star's 5.1-day stellar rotation period. Some elements are highly concentrated into distinct regions that swing in and out of sight as the star spins. For example, the abundance of oxygen is 100,000 times greater near the magnetic equator than near the magnetic poles (which are displaced from the rotational equator and poles); chromium behaves similarly. Heavier elements, such as the rare earth europium, also display strong variations. Though visually the brightest of the peculiar A stars, Alioth is also noted for having one of the weakest magnetic fields among its class, only about 100 times that of the Earth, 15 times weaker than that observed for Cor Caroli.

... Alioth is another name for Epsilon Ursae Majoris.

The graceful curve of handle of the Big Dipper (the Plough in Great Britain), among the most famed of celestial sights, represents the tail of Ursa Major, the Greater Bear. Third star in from the end, "Alioth" relates not to a bear, but to a "black horse," the name corrupted from the original and mis- assigned to the naked-eye companion of Mizar, which took on the vaguely similar name "Alcor." Bayer's rough rule of assigning Greek-letter names more or less in order of brightness is quite violated here, as the Bear's bright stars are named from west to east, hence "Epsilon" for Ursa Major's brightest (bright second magnitude, 1.77) star, indeed for the 31st brightest star in the whole sky. A white class A (A0) star with a measured temperature of 9400 Kelvin, Alioth shines at us from a distance of 81 light years with a luminosity 108 times that of the Sun, from which we derive a diameter of four times solar and a mass close to triple that of the Sun. Large and luminous for its class, Alioth is probably ageing, and is nearing the end of its main sequence hydrogen-fusing lifetime. Of greater significance, Alioth is the brightest of the "peculiar A (Ap) stars," magnetic stars in which a variety of chemical elements are either depleted or enhanced, and in addition appear to change with great regularity as the star rotates. "Chemically peculiar" behavior in class A and B stars generally comes not from creation of elements, but from their separation in the relatively thin stellar atmospheres, some falling downward within the star's gravitational field, others lofted upward as a result of an outward push by radiation. Here, they are also apparently related to the Alioth's magnetic field. Alioth is classed as an "Alpha Canum Venaticorum" star (after the prototype, Cor Caroli). Its magnetic field -- and the chemical composition -- change from our perspective during the star's 5.1-day stellar rotation period. Some elements are highly concentrated into distinct regions that swing in and out of sight as the star spins. For example, the abundance of oxygen is 100,000 times greater near the magnetic equator than near the magnetic poles (which are displaced from the rotational equator and poles); chromium behaves similarly. Heavier elements, such as the rare earth europium, also display strong variations. Though visually the brightest of the peculiar A stars, Alioth is also noted for having one of the weakest magnetic fields among its class, only about 100 times that of the Earth, 15 times weaker than that observed for Cor Caroli.

... Alioth is another name for Epsilon Ursae Majoris.

The graceful curve of handle of the Big Dipper (the Plough in Great Britain), among the most famed of celestial sights, represents the tail of Ursa Major, the Greater Bear. Third star in from the end, "Alioth" relates not to a bear, but to a "black horse," the name corrupted from the original and mis- assigned to the naked-eye companion of Mizar, which took on the vaguely similar name "Alcor." Bayer's rough rule of assigning Greek-letter names more or less in order of brightness is quite violated here, as the Bear's bright stars are named from west to east, hence "Epsilon" for Ursa Major's brightest (bright second magnitude, 1.77) star, indeed for the 31st brightest star in the whole sky. A white class A (A0) star with a measured temperature of 9400 Kelvin, Alioth shines at us from a distance of 81 light years with a luminosity 108 times that of the Sun, from which we derive a diameter of four times solar and a mass close to triple that of the Sun. Large and luminous for its class, Alioth is probably ageing, and is nearing the end of its main sequence hydrogen-fusing lifetime. Of greater significance, Alioth is the brightest of the "peculiar A (Ap) stars," magnetic stars in which a variety of chemical elements are either depleted or enhanced, and in addition appear to change with great regularity as the star rotates. "Chemically peculiar" behavior in class A and B stars generally comes not from creation of elements, but from their separation in the relatively thin stellar atmospheres, some falling downward within the star's gravitational field, others lofted upward as a result of an outward push by radiation. Here, they are also apparently related to the Alioth's magnetic field. Alioth is classed as an "Alpha Canum Venaticorum" star (after the prototype, Cor Caroli). Its magnetic field -- and the chemical composition -- change from our perspective during the star's 5.1-day stellar rotation period. Some elements are highly concentrated into distinct regions that swing in and out of sight as the star spins. For example, the abundance of oxygen is 100,000 times greater near the magnetic equator than near the magnetic poles (which are displaced from the rotational equator and poles); chromium behaves similarly. Heavier elements, such as the rare earth europium, also display strong variations. Though visually the brightest of the peculiar A stars, Alioth is also noted for having one of the weakest magnetic fields among its class, only about 100 times that of the Earth, 15 times weaker than that observed for Cor Caroli.

Since when have CCDs bled "in two perpendicular directions"? If I posted enough links of CCDs bleeding in only one dimension, would you eat a crow? From one of my favorite satellites, Yohkoh. From a random web page. A great shot of the infamous UFOs from SOHO. And finally, from the Hubble website itself, a great example of CCD bleed and diffraction spikes in the same photo! The CCD bleed is the bar, and the diffraction spikes are the crosshairs. Check your facts before you post.

redhat isos

Here is a one page fact sheet on human pheromones from a bio class at UIUC. As you can see, this is not exactly news.

Sure, evolt.org has old ones, but only for Windows... didn't you need Trumpet TCP/IP back then?

Didn't anyone browse the NCSA FTP directory? I found source code for version 1.2, the oldest I could get that has a chance of compiling in Linux... maybe I'll try it out on a Sun machine tomorrow...

Maybe someone else can try this out? I can't get it all to compile in Gentoo, even after hunting down few easy bugs...

Wouldn't it be cool to use xmosiac, rather than talk about how great things were back in the day? Where is ./'s retro sense gone?

It's also available directly from the NCSA (link is to ftp root dir; check out both Mosaic and PC subdirectories - telnet and ftp clients for DOS!), although that archive starts with v0.6.

I actually just got back from a presentation by AMD here at UIUC (and I won a free t-shirt, too). They oulined the whole hammer architecture and how it's going to be a good thing. By putting the north bridge/memory controller on the CPU die, they're able to cut the DRAM latency by 20% over Athlon! Anyone who's designed computer architectures knows that 20% is HUGE! It only takes 54 clock cycles to complete an instruction cycle, including memory access; if there's a cache hit it was around 30. Actually, the memory read process is started in parallel with the cache hit/miss test and then canceled if there's a hit. Memory bandwidth is also going to get pretty ahead of Intel. AMD is really going to step ahead of Intel with the new hammer architecture. In the future...multiple cores on a single die. That means a single chip, multi-processor system. That'll be huge for the server market! Tech talks are fun!

encap is a better and more established system that works on the same general idea - put everything in /usr/local/encap/PACKAGE-VERSION, and symlink into place. It's mostly just used at UIUC, but good Gods it works well. I use it for absolutely everything, and essentially refuse to install anything on our systems that won't support it. And I have yet to encounter a workplace where it doesn't win over absolutely everyone with its simplicity within six months.

Also, cpanencap is the perfect tool for perfecting Perl's module system. All it needed was versioning.

encap is a better and more established system that works on the same general idea - put everything in /usr/local/encap/PACKAGE-VERSION, and symlink into place. It's mostly just used at UIUC, but good Gods it works well. I use it for absolutely everything, and essentially refuse to install anything on our systems that won't support it. And I have yet to encounter a workplace where it doesn't win over absolutely everyone with its simplicity within six months.

Also, cpanencap is the perfect tool for perfecting Perl's module system. All it needed was versioning.

Well, there's Encap, which handles dependencies but currently only among other Encap packages. It's similar in putting files in one directory and using symlinks.

...then you'll love (?) the conclusions on this site - We should have the guy that did that page restest with Safari.

I like the cut of your jib, sailor. Give me a call.

You can definitely do both where I am, here at UIUC!

majority? Are you sure?

they can and they do. Those that actually care, anyway. Unfortunately there's a lot of librarians in my profession who are quite happy to comply with the FBI.

CGI on the other hand defines how that information can be passed to external programs by the server (using environment variables and standard in), and how the external program passes information back to the server to be sent to the browser (via standard out).

A full specification is available from NCSA

Actually, a 4D-tetris does exist, and was supposedly created by a man by the name of Greg Kaiser. However, besides several references, I have been completely unable to locate any code. If anyone has any information on how to make a make Google search at right angles to reality, I would greatly appreciate a line. 3D tetris just isn't challenging anymore. :) -C

I saw them on mac rummor sites, MacOSrumers perhaps (?), about 6 months back. I'm not sure where you can find them now. If you would like to see an OSX 3D file manager, that is not the Apple alphas I was talking about but kind of looks similar, it's here.

I'm sorry, but they simply cannot believe what they're doing. Set aside hypertext systems before the web. HTML/HTTP were fundamentally static and stupid protocols; dynamism on the web is a kludge, and one of two oldest and most common kludges is the distorted GET request: part of a URI names a program which executes on the server, and then a clever program will examine the URI and discern extra components which should guide its behavior.

Of course, it wasn't (and isn't) necessary to encode extra information in the address. For example, look at NCSA's old collection of CGI scripts: one included example from Jan 1994 is a script which outputs an audio file pronouncing the current date: if I submit a GET request for the "saytime" file on somebody's web server, I get back a dynamically generated audio file. The saytime file doesn't move around. It doesn't expect you submit your zip code. It just generates some timely noise. If the owner of the web site wants me to try out his nifty and dynamic "saytime" system, he'll just put a link in his web page which (like all other web pages at the time) was static.

The technique is obvious, and other examples will be numerous. Anyone who touched the web -- the new and exciting hypertext system that _everyone_ was getting into -- by 1996 should have recognized it as obvious and common. Whoever had the brilliant idea of intimidating small web operators with disingenous patent claims deserves a host of harsh words, and it would be hasty to preclude "villian" from that set.

Forgot the link. http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/IT94/Proceedings/ Campus.Infosys/kruper/lavenant.html

I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to look at this topic sooner!

Here at the University of Illinois, I'm a project leader for our game programming club Gamebuilders, so I'm pretty well versed in the rudiments of game design.

Yes, the best thing that I can recommend for anyone starting with game programming is to go the OpenGL route. For better or worse, graphics programming is a major component of game design, and OpenGL is general enough so your skills might apply to any number of systems if you choose to pursue a career in game developlent.

That said, the best way to get started with OpenGL is to use GLUT, the OpenGL Utility Toolkit. It's a great way to learn OpenGL without having to get bogged down in the specifics of the OS you're dealing with.

Also, there are numerous tutorials available on the subject of OpenGL and game programming in general on NeHe's site. If I had to point beginning to intermediate game programmers to one site and one site only, it would be there.

If you have any specific questions about OpenGL or GLUT, feel free to send me an email, as well!

I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to look at this topic sooner!

Here at the University of Illinois, I'm a project leader for our game programming club Gamebuilders, so I'm pretty well versed in the rudiments of game design.

Yes, the best thing that I can recommend for anyone starting with game programming is to go the OpenGL route. For better or worse, graphics programming is a major component of game design, and OpenGL is general enough so your skills might apply to any number of systems if you choose to pursue a career in game developlent.

That said, the best way to get started with OpenGL is to use GLUT, the OpenGL Utility Toolkit. It's a great way to learn OpenGL without having to get bogged down in the specifics of the OS you're dealing with.

Also, there are numerous tutorials available on the subject of OpenGL and game programming in general on NeHe's site. If I had to point beginning to intermediate game programmers to one site and one site only, it would be there.

If you have any specific questions about OpenGL or GLUT, feel free to send me an email, as well!

Really? I'd really appreciate some link or pointer to this "big prize". I have several completely distinct files with the same MD5 - and I didn't look too hard.

This is completely predictable under combinatorial mathematics. The simplest example I can provide, without making you do the math is "The Birthday Problem": we all know, from elementary brain teasers (and casual experience), that though there are 366 distinct days in the year, in a random group of 23 people, two probably share a birthday. (It's actually 22 or so in real life: unlike pure math, real life births are not truly random, but tend to cluster more in some months than others) (e.g.)

MD5 was developed by Professor Ronald L. Rivest in 1994 SPECIFICALLY as a 128 bit (16 byte) message digest with a faster implementation than SHA-1 (Variations are possible, of course) ON GENERAL PURPOSE PROCESSORS - disregarding the many fairly cheap commercial or custom hashing chips that are faster at hashing than your 'leetest game rig.

A fast hash is good for hashing - i.e. creating a *fairly* content-independent binary pseudoindex of a file. This does not guarantee that it is truly independent of the source -i.e. if the effect of a one-bit change in the input were unpredictable without recalculating the hash- that would make it useful for (e.g.) cryptography. (Google MDA5 cryptography and you'll find just one page!) A program can cheat by tweaking a few source bits to deliberately approach a desired hash output.

The creator of a deliberately degraded media file has an advantage that creators of "legitimate" data don't: they can fiddle with its bits freely to generate a desired MDA5 hash -- what do they care if it is slightly degraded? That's the point of releasing the files!

I've got a full mirror of all the videos here: WHEEEEE

without the content, the publisher has nothing

It's symbiotic.

Without the publisher, the content never gets seen. And, don't give me crap about "the Internet will fix all that". There will always have to be some sort of moderator.

Ever watch American Idol? Remember the hundreds or thousands of really really bad singers that never make first cut?

That's the real world, baby. Without "assholes" like Simon that crap would pollute our airwaves, and lead to a general disregard for "art".

For an example of unmoderated content, go to mp3.com and listen to a "rock music" playlist. At least 3 of 4 songs are pure crap - some guy playing a flea-market keyboard in "auto chord" mode with one finger singing in a flat tone a song made up moments before, and recorded (hissy, mono) on a flea-market battery powered tapedeck.

Yes. Really. That bad. Songs like "You used me like a potato" which laughingly became part of our family culture for a while as very possibly the worst song ever recorded.

They're starting to charge their "content providers" a bit which will probably weed a lot of this out, but still provides no assurances that somebody with a bit of money to burn (there are plenty) won't produce a ton of worthless crap that you have to listen to before filtering it out in your playlist.

A middleman is necessary and it isn't wrong to compensate him/her/them/it for the service provided. However, the jury's still out pending a workable method for doing so on the Internet.

If MP3.com were to put in a moderation system by category, something like /dork uses, it could have a chance at pummeling the music industry. However, being owned now by Bertelsmann means this isn't all that likely.

Anyone with a few bucks want to give it a whirl? I could design the underlying algorithm and get a decent site up within a few months, using technology like swarmcast or bit torrent to minimize the hosting costs and/or allow third parties to post their tunes.

-Ben

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

IMHO, nothing looks meaner, sexier, or more artificially intelligent than a huge rectangular box with hard corners. None of this "curvy" shit that seems to be everwhere or these "sweeping, romantic lines" that really mean "I am a pussy computer."

I mean, give me the old Thinking Machines look any old day: HARD black edges with BLOOD red LEDs and enough redundancy in appearance to give the impression not only of massive parallelism, but also of massive unemotional BRUTE FORCE!

When you look at results, most of the prestigious schools are defeated, beaten down, and put to shame by a relatively unknown class of schools, the small liberal-arts college.

Yeah, because information about the formation of memories could never be of any interest to geeks.

Cause on IRIX you can run that super-cool file manager from Jurassic Park. [sgi.com] Why would you want to run that super-slow piece of dog shit Konqueror or Nautilus anyway?

You can do it with OS X...but in a swimming pool.

blakespot

Mosaic was the name of the first web browser, which source code was open, and which source code has been used by Netscape to create their first commercial (but yet available to download for free) close-source browser. Check it here and here and here and here.

That was my first web browser to use. It worked fine on both X11 and Win 3.1, a bit slow, like Mozilla on modern computers. By the way, it has some graphics before Netscape.

I'm fairly certain that this is true, though I can't quite remember the name. Mostik?

I thought Netscape was developed from Mosaic which came from The National Center for Supercomputing Applications. But I could be wrong.

talk/who/finger aren't integrated like ICQ, but Broadcast for Macintosh sure is.

Have a look at some screenshots. (the Mac version is up front).

For those unfamiliar with the Chooser, in the upper left you select your tool, in this case Broadcast. Then you select your Zone, in this case departments (automatic buddy lists, you might say...). Then you select your chatee. You double-click the person, type in your message, and click send. If you want to hear back from him, you check the 'receiver' button. If you want to be able to get messages while other programs are runinng (this is late 80's, after all) you click 'Background'. Easy. Simple. Done. Prior art.

Other formats also benefit from modifications for accessibility - such as Acrobat, various office documents formats, etc.

We are currently working on software to aid in generating accessible formats from MS Office formats (boo, hiss, myself included) such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. By their heavy use, these formats deserve attention. For example, many professors around here post their lecture notes as PPT files without considering their accessibility. We aim to make tools available that can help the uninitiated make more accessible materials. If interested, you can check us out at PowerPoint Accessibility Wizard.

Dan
dlinder AT uiuc.edu

There are better places to go in Chicagoland if you're interested in technology history. Like the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where the first web browser (Mosaic) was developed. Or the University of Chicago, the site of the Manhattan Project, where the first atomic pile was developed and the first artificial nuclear chain reaction occurred. Or the Fermi national accelerator laboratory. Or the Argonne national laboratory. Or the Northwestern University Institute for Nanotechnology. Or the Northwestern University's International Center for Advanced Internet Research. The first sandwich transistor was also designed here, while William Shockley was in town for New Year's Eve, 1947/8.

Also, the MoSaI is a damn sight more than $9, especially now that they encourage you to buy "city passes", which are a combined ticket for the MoSaI, the Field museum, the Shedd aquarium, the Adler planetarium, the Art Institute, the Historical Society, and probably a whole fucking slew of other things.

John Bardeen of the University of Illinois won the Nobel Prize in Physics twice, once in 1956 with William Bradford Shockley and Walter Houser Brattain for inventing the transistor, and again in 1972 with Leon Neil Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer for a theory of superconductivity.

You know what they say about people who represents themselves in a court of law? Glad I'm not you guys.

Legal definition of property

Copyright myths dispelled

The actual law

Fair use & copyright resourse at stanford

More resourses pro & con

Intellectual property

I know people don't want to read and understand the above, but they certainly want to voice their opinion of the way it should be when the law comes after them. A little late IMHO.

UCSD's Concurrent Systems Architecture Group

www.windowsclusters.org

NCSA NT Cluster Consortium

Real Application Performance

These are just a few links - many more are out there if you search for "Windows HPC"

ScottKin

You can find more info here: I2CS program

More recently I had a positive reaction to a TB test and am on INH (Isoniazid), which makes me feel like crud. I'm 12 days into it with 6-9 months to go.

Same plan as standard penecillin treatment, take it all, to prevent drug resistent strains.

You can probably thank all those ranchers who load up their cattle, pigs and chickens with with antibiotics before bringing them to market, as those which don't break down get stay in the meat and enter your body. Nothing like a good training ground for weeking out the weaker strains of disease.

Actually, the API is fairly well published and documented on the MSDN site. I am a developer/admin in a mixed Windows/MacOS 9.2/Linux/Solaris environment, and we manage to integrate fairly well into the active directory system (at The University of Illinos). The objects and behavior are exposed in a decent amount of detail.

An alternative to designing software using patterns is to refactor code toward patterns.

This is considered one of the best ways to use patterns by many in the patterns community -- especially to avoid the "little boy with a pattern" syndrome described by many here.

For more on this idea, and on patterns in general check out the Portland Patterns Repository. There is also a conference every year about patterns called PLOP

Finally, the software patterns community owes its origins to the Architectural (think buildings not code) Patterns world. Christopher Alexander is considered the father of patterns. His books A Timeless Way of Building, and A Pattern Language are technical, dry and expensive, but considered fundamental to truly grokking patterns.

We have about 50 Debian boxes, all installed with Systemimager. Basically, it uses EtherBoot to load a kernel/initrd over the network, then uses rsync to do most of the heavy lifting. We had to make a few local customizations, but it has worked quite well for us.

Over the years, idealists and dreamers have talked about the Internet like it's a new country or community, and that We The People own it. Well, here's a test for that assertion. Now we have to get off our lardasses and go through the strenuous exercise of typing new numbers into our /etc/resolv.conf files. I know, it's hard.

When we throw off ICANN's rather loosely-bound chains, then maybe those Internet "Declaration of Independance" ideas will be more than mere pretentious and immature daydreams, and we'll be Real Men, like our forefathers who had the courage to implement the 1986 Usenet renaming. ;-) Until then, though, ICANN and others like them, have no reason to pay attention to rants on Slashdot. At most, they might look down into our little field and idly wonder what we are "baaah"ing about.

As for some ideas on how to get from here to there, I recommend Brad Templeton's essays on DNS. He has put some thought into this that goes deeper than, say, the OpenNIC project.

Don't get me wrong, I am geeked at the idea of a true, powerful, zero-emissions vehicle. But, not only do the cars have to be produced, but the infrastructure needs to be put in place (since you need Hydrogen and Oxygen for a fuel cell, you need a good way to get this, not just creation, but distribution. Oxygen is easy, Hydrogen, not so much.)