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The Service is a consumer grade service and is not designed for or intended to be used for any commercial purpose. You may not resell, re-provision or rent the Service, (either for a fee or without charge) or allow third parties to use the Service via wired, wireless or other means. For example, you may not provide Internet access to third parties through a wired or wireless connection or use the Service to facilitate public Internet access (such as through a Wi-Fi hotspot), use it for high volume purposes, or engage in similar activities that constitute such use (commercial or non-commercial). If you subscribe to a Broadband Service, you may connect multiple computers/devices within a single home to your modem and/or router to access the Service, but only through a single Verizon-issued IP address. You also may not exceed the bandwidth usage limitations that Verizon may establish from time to time for the Service, or use the Service to host any type of server. Violation of this section may result in bandwidth restrictions on your Service or suspension or termination of your Service.

http://www.verizon.net/policies/vzcom/tos_popup.asp

Well here's how they can artificially cap your unlimited plan. 'may not exceed the bandwidth usage limitations that Verizon may establish from time to time' or 'use the Service to host any type of server'.

Plus the AUP allows them to nab you from anything from off-topic posts (Attactment A.2.e) to hitting IP's in embargo'd countries (cuba, sudan, etc) Attactment A.2.l. And unless this somehow excludes personal server, my guess is tons of users are violating some part of the ToS.

I work in publishing, so use it quite a bit for any .pdf manipulation which isn't suited to pdftk, and which justifies it (as opposed to using Enfocus PitStop). Examples:

  - in-house ad design system for HS ads in phone books
  - batch processing ads to add a yellow or white background, or to scale them, sometimes asymmetrically
  - batch print graphics w/ filenames --- one instance of that was a several thousand page government publication
  - print processed graphics side-by-side w/ the original to make proofreading easier (while I worked up an AppleScript which would page forward in both .pdfs displayed in Adobe Acrobat w/ a single click people never used it)
  - unreleased system for creating galley versions of magazine / journal articles when the source text was in Typo3
  - custom typesetting system for custom story books, since taken off-line

I also use it for my own design and typesetting:

  - the freely distributed .pdf version of Mike Brotherton's Star Dragon: http://www.mikebrotherton.com/2005/04/20/new-star-dragon-pdf/ (this design made it into the Memoir documentclass along w/ some other things I contributed)
  - some entries in the TeX Showcase: http://www.tug.org/texshowcase/onetype.pdf and http://www.tug.org/texshowcase/peace_on_earth.pdf
  - books which I typeset and print so as to bind them by hand: http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/typography/thebookoftea.pdf

William

You know what? The Constitution puts the spending power in the hands of Congress, not the president. So, take a look at where the deficits are really happening

Home site of Telecrapper...

Hilarious YouTube links there.

The problem w/ HTML is that one is at the mercy of how the viewing program re-flows the text and breaks the lines.

One winds up w/ a presentation which is rife w/ widows, orphans, stacks and other bad breaks, and in which no effort is made to keep tables or figures viewable from where the original reference is made in the text.

Comparison of a text set in both (plain) TeX ( http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/typography/thebookoftea.pdf ) and as viewed as an ePub ( http://www.mobileread.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=57721&d=1283733557 ) in a nicely made version: ... the sort of typographic infelicities which even in the best ePub version can't be controlled for (when viewed in Sony's ebook viewing program) ---

  - one word last lines (too many to count)
  - # of lines on a page constantly changing to prevent widows / orphans
  - overly loose line on the middle of pg. 20
  - 3 word stack on pg. 21 (meditation/Meditation)
  - 2 word stack on pg. 32 (black)
  - 2 word stack on pg. 37 (the) Twice!
  - six word river on pg. 40 (the/their/the/the/its/we)
  - 2 word stacks on pg. 40 (a & We)
  - 3 word stack on pg. 46 (the/the/The)
  - 2 word stack on pg. 47 (a), awkward break at the bottom of the first page of Chapter VII where the poem is referred to, but appears on the following page

In the .pdf I believe there were only one or two places where I let two word stacks stand (because they were intractable) --- will have to try again using xetex and margin protrusion and character expansion (I'd used DEK's macro for hanging punctuation from _The TeXbook_).

(originally posted to http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97542)

Charles Murray of the CATO Institute later wrote a book on an idea related to the citizen's dividend.

I dunno, I wrote my TUG 2003 paper on a pen computer running Windows:

http://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb24-2/tb77adams.pdf

And I program scripts, and HyperCard-like things using it as well:

http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/interfaceconcepts/proportionbar.zip
http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/interfaceconcepts/proportionbar.app.sit

And it's very useful for drawing --- I draw up plans for woodworking projects among other things:

http://www.3riversarchery.com/images/Contest2010/WilliamAdamsTakeDownCase.jpg

It helps of course, that I'm using a full-fledged Tablet PC (to be specific a Fujitsu Stylistic 4121 w/ daylight viewable display --- I also use it as a map viewer when travelling).

William

I dunno, I wrote my TUG 2003 paper on a pen computer running Windows:

http://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb24-2/tb77adams.pdf

And I program scripts, and HyperCard-like things using it as well:

http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/interfaceconcepts/proportionbar.zip
http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/interfaceconcepts/proportionbar.app.sit

And it's very useful for drawing --- I draw up plans for woodworking projects among other things:

http://www.3riversarchery.com/images/Contest2010/WilliamAdamsTakeDownCase.jpg

It helps of course, that I'm using a full-fledged Tablet PC (to be specific a Fujitsu Stylistic 4121 w/ daylight viewable display --- I also use it as a map viewer when travelling).

William

Philip Greenspun has some good titles: Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing (dated, but I paid cash money for it back in the day), Software Engineering for Internet Applications, and SQL for Web Nerds. If you find yourself in the DB2 world, Graeme Birchall's DB2 SQL Cookbook is a must-have.

I've written (literally, using the HWR and a stylus) out a fair number of programs and utilities using Runtime Revolution (a Hypercard clone) on various Windows pen computers and Tablet PCs. Most generally useful is a replacement for a graphic design proportion wheel / calculator which will also do unit conversions:

Windows:
http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/interfaceconcepts/proportionbar.zip

Mac OS X:
http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/interfaceconcepts/proportionbar.app.sit

One of these days I'll get around to modifying it to understand points and pica measurements....

I'd still like to see a general-purpose data manipulation / calculation tool like Zoomracks for a modern system though.

William

I've written (literally, using the HWR and a stylus) out a fair number of programs and utilities using Runtime Revolution (a Hypercard clone) on various Windows pen computers and Tablet PCs. Most generally useful is a replacement for a graphic design proportion wheel / calculator which will also do unit conversions:

Windows:
http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/interfaceconcepts/proportionbar.zip

Mac OS X:
http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/interfaceconcepts/proportionbar.app.sit

One of these days I'll get around to modifying it to understand points and pica measurements....

I'd still like to see a general-purpose data manipulation / calculation tool like Zoomracks for a modern system though.

William

Since I'm older than dirt, I also recall that the original Pentium 60 was nearly booed out of the marketplace. Hotter and more expensive than a DX4, without any real benefit to show for it unless you had a fetish for fast (and wrong) floating point math. There were howls of outrage at the unfathomable 30W TDP (IIRC, the figure doesn't come up in a quick Google). You needed a heat sink the size of your hand and maybe *gasp* even a fan.

I think you're mostly confusing the PPro (i686) for the Pentium (i585).

The Pentium did have an uphill battle in the market against AMD's impressive 486 DX4s. But the history of AMD vs Intel with few exceptions has always been that AMD chips do better in integer performance (which is important for most apps) while Intel's chips tend to be notably superior for floating point math (important for most multimedia). This was true of the Pentium vs AMD's DX4s, and was true of the PPro, with the additional drawback that Microsoft lied to Intel and promised Win95 would be all 32-bit, when it was mostly 16-bit, leaving the PPro's 32-bit tuned performance largely unutilized in the desktop. Of course, in the end Intel has gotten a lot out of that PPro, with Xeon current chips being a direct descendant of it, and most desktop/laptop chips tracing their heritage back a few generations to it as well.

More to the point, PPro chips were HUGE and power hungry, needing the ginormous heatsink and fan. Pentiums were small, and needed only a tiny heatsink and junky 40mm fan. In fact I recall an incident where a 133MHz Pentium MMX was running for some time after the heatsink fell of, and other than a careless tech burning his hand, there weren't any problems.

Pentium 60 was 11.9W MAX (14.6W TDP)
PPro 150 was 29.2W MAX (23W TDP).

http://mysite.verizon.net/pchardwarelinks/elec_pentium.htm#intel

You can run a server with any ISP, but you can't use this server for BUSINESS if you have a residential plan

That's not what the acceptable use policies that I've read state. From Comcast Xfinity Internet AUP:

prohibited uses and activities include, but are not limited to, using the Service, Customer Equipment, or the Comcast Equipment, either individually or in combination with one another, to: [...] use or run dedicated, stand-alone equipment or servers from the Premises that provide network content or any other services to anyone outside of your Premises local area network (“Premises LAN”), also commonly referred to as public services or servers. Examples of prohibited equipment and servers include, but are not limited to, e-mail, Web hosting, file sharing, and proxy services and servers;

From Verizon DSL and FiOS Internet AUP:

You also may not exceed the bandwidth usage limitations that Verizon may establish from time to time for the Service, or use the Service to host any type of server.

General trolling is, however, very likely comprised of behaviors which violate Verizon's own Acceptable Use Policy.
(Search for "Specific Examples of AUP Violations.")

They don't specify which equipment this applies to (likely only the router since this applies to only to Verizon Online and not Fios TV), but I found this in the current ToS.
http://www.verizon.net/policies/popups/tos_popup.asp
Section 9.3
Return of Equipment upon Termination. If your Service is terminated for any reason prior to the end of the first year of service and you received Equipment at no charge from Verizon, you must return the Equipment to Verizon or you will be charged for the Equipment.

As has previously been pointed out, the FIOS ToS http://www.verizon.net/policies/popups/tos_popup.asp section on "Monitoring of Network Performance by Verizon" explicitly says:

You agree to permit us to access your computer and Equipment and to monitor, adjust and record such data, profiles and settings for the purpose of providing the Service.

So not only does the ToS say that you give Verizon permission to change the settings of the Actiontec router, they also say that you give Verizon permission to change the settings on your own home computer as well as record any data they find on it!

After having read the FIOS ToS, I can safely say they're scummier than even Comcast ... and that takes hard work.

If you read the ToS (for VZ Fios, Even Cox Cable has a similar provision) by agreeing to service, you authorize them to access your equipment.

See here: http://www.verizon.net/policies/popups/tos_popup.asp

Search for "Monitoring of Network Performance by Verizon"

I soooo wish there was more competition for broadband in the states :(

It's because the router is Verizon property and they probably have access to it no matter what your password is?

Actually, I've never used FiOS but I've always assumed that the routers remained property of Verizon, same as the set-top-boxes for television do. If someone can prove this, one way or another, I'd like to know.

P.S., on another note, has anyone tried to port a free router distro to the Westell 9100EM routers specially made for Verizon as FiOS routers and MoCA gateways. It seems Westell released the Linux-based firmware source which, although I've not looked at it, is probably the same Linux firmware that Verizon ships these things with, except without Verizon's branding and webapp look-n'-feel. I'm surprised that no-one has tried to port another Linux distro to it, but I guess that if Verizon owns the routers, the customers with the know-how won't bother trying.

Then perhaps the question should be phrased as:

  - how would this app need to be created so as to meet the requirements of the license?

William
(who is quite fond of Runtime Revolution as it was originally called and developed a ``ProportionBar'' app in it:

Windows: http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/interfaceconcepts/proportionbar.zip

Mac OS X: http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/interfaceconcepts/proportionbar.app.sit )

Then perhaps the question should be phrased as:

  - how would this app need to be created so as to meet the requirements of the license?

William
(who is quite fond of Runtime Revolution as it was originally called and developed a ``ProportionBar'' app in it:

Windows: http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/interfaceconcepts/proportionbar.zip

Mac OS X: http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/interfaceconcepts/proportionbar.app.sit )

"Besides, healthcare is national defense and will reduce abortions"
What? I do not follow this logic or see what it has to do with government spending.

"Now you blame Obama for the increase in debt when the bailout was designed by Bush in the first place"
The bailout was necessary, but implementation was rushed, ineffective, and more expensive than it should have been. That it was caused in any way by Bush is almost laughable, but at the very least debatable. Economic policies and deregulation that got us to that point happened mostly in the 90s under the pretense of helping low-income families obtain mortgages. As soon as these were passed in the late 90s, the housing bubble began to build. http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeqrguz/housingbubble/
The fallout in 2008 was a result of this bubble finally bursting. It was worse than the tech bubble bursting in the late 90s because it affected securities that have always been considered safe by institutional investors.

The bailout is only part of the spending increases under Obama, which together dwarf the $1Trillion expense of the war. (Which Obama is continuing and actually spending more on.) The other huge part is the stimulus bill which was mostly ineffective (what do you expect from a package special interest pork disguised as a stimulus bill?) and our jobless rate is worst that what was predicted by the administration if the bill were never passed.


I get your frustration. Obama did not get us to this point and should not be given all the blame. But he sure seems to be doing a great job at making it worse.

Hmmm...I am trying to decide if you are saying poor people shouldn't be allowed to have any health care at all or if you are saying all poor people should be homeless (or have to live in caves/tents) because they can't afford to pay for all the expensive "safety" equipment you demand.

Or, maybe they should be allowed to go to health care providers they can afford. Because of stupid lawsuits like these, "insurance" communism, and the attitude patients should not negotiate prices, people end up with much lower quality of care than what they pay for. Everyone is getting milked by lawsuit trolls and various large companies who have put themselves into the position to take advantage of all this.

It is interesting the article mentions airbags, as while they may save lives (arguably not much more than seat belts), they also cause their own safety problems for anyone outside the range it was designed--healthy adult male weighing 150 pounds IIRC. Some headless children could tell you about it...well maybe not, since they were decapitated by an airbag! This page seems to discuss the issue fairly well.

One has to wonder if this saw will really prove to be more safe than a normal saw, once it is in wide use. Just one thought off the top of my head: what if the brake causes part of the saw to come off and fly out? The finger you saved could turn into a serious head injury. Safety isn't such a simple thing.

My software has been calculating in linear space for over a decade now (this is the Nuke Compositor currenlty produced by The Foundry but at the time it was used by Digital Domain for Titanic). You can see some pages I wrote on the effect here: http://mysite.verizon.net/~spitzak/conversion/composite.html. See here for the overall paper: http://mysite.verizon.net/~spitzak/conversion/index.html and a Siggraph paper on the conversion of such images here: http://mysite.verizon.net/~spitzak/conversion/sketches_0265.pdf, in fact a lot more work went into figuring out how to get such linear images to show on the screen on hardware of that era than on the obvious need to do the math in linear. Initial work on this was done for Apollo 13 as the problems with gamma were quite obvious when scaling images of small bright objects against the black of space.

For typical photographs the effect is not very visible in scaling, as the gamma curve is very close to a straight line for two close points and thus the result is not very much different. Only widely separated points (ie very high contrast images with sharp edges) will show a visible difference. This probably means you are trying to scale line art, there are screenshots in the html pages showing the results of this. Far worse errors can be found in lighting calculations and in filtering operations such as blur. At the time even the most expensive professional 3D renderers were doing lighting completely wrong, but things have gotten better now that they can use floating point intermediate images.

One big annoyance is that you better do the math in floating point. Even 16 bits is insufficient for linear light levels as the black points will be too far apart and visible (the space is wasted on many many more white levels than you ever would need). A logarithmic system is needed, and on modern hardware you might as well use IEEE floating point, or the ILM "half" standard for 16-bit floating point.

My software has been calculating in linear space for over a decade now (this is the Nuke Compositor currenlty produced by The Foundry but at the time it was used by Digital Domain for Titanic). You can see some pages I wrote on the effect here: http://mysite.verizon.net/~spitzak/conversion/composite.html. See here for the overall paper: http://mysite.verizon.net/~spitzak/conversion/index.html and a Siggraph paper on the conversion of such images here: http://mysite.verizon.net/~spitzak/conversion/sketches_0265.pdf, in fact a lot more work went into figuring out how to get such linear images to show on the screen on hardware of that era than on the obvious need to do the math in linear. Initial work on this was done for Apollo 13 as the problems with gamma were quite obvious when scaling images of small bright objects against the black of space.

For typical photographs the effect is not very visible in scaling, as the gamma curve is very close to a straight line for two close points and thus the result is not very much different. Only widely separated points (ie very high contrast images with sharp edges) will show a visible difference. This probably means you are trying to scale line art, there are screenshots in the html pages showing the results of this. Far worse errors can be found in lighting calculations and in filtering operations such as blur. At the time even the most expensive professional 3D renderers were doing lighting completely wrong, but things have gotten better now that they can use floating point intermediate images.

One big annoyance is that you better do the math in floating point. Even 16 bits is insufficient for linear light levels as the black points will be too far apart and visible (the space is wasted on many many more white levels than you ever would need). A logarithmic system is needed, and on modern hardware you might as well use IEEE floating point, or the ILM "half" standard for 16-bit floating point.

My software has been calculating in linear space for over a decade now (this is the Nuke Compositor currenlty produced by The Foundry but at the time it was used by Digital Domain for Titanic). You can see some pages I wrote on the effect here: http://mysite.verizon.net/~spitzak/conversion/composite.html. See here for the overall paper: http://mysite.verizon.net/~spitzak/conversion/index.html and a Siggraph paper on the conversion of such images here: http://mysite.verizon.net/~spitzak/conversion/sketches_0265.pdf, in fact a lot more work went into figuring out how to get such linear images to show on the screen on hardware of that era than on the obvious need to do the math in linear. Initial work on this was done for Apollo 13 as the problems with gamma were quite obvious when scaling images of small bright objects against the black of space.

For typical photographs the effect is not very visible in scaling, as the gamma curve is very close to a straight line for two close points and thus the result is not very much different. Only widely separated points (ie very high contrast images with sharp edges) will show a visible difference. This probably means you are trying to scale line art, there are screenshots in the html pages showing the results of this. Far worse errors can be found in lighting calculations and in filtering operations such as blur. At the time even the most expensive professional 3D renderers were doing lighting completely wrong, but things have gotten better now that they can use floating point intermediate images.

One big annoyance is that you better do the math in floating point. Even 16 bits is insufficient for linear light levels as the black points will be too far apart and visible (the space is wasted on many many more white levels than you ever would need). A logarithmic system is needed, and on modern hardware you might as well use IEEE floating point, or the ILM "half" standard for 16-bit floating point.

Verizon returns ad-riddled yahoo searches instead of NXDOMAIN:
http://wwwwz.websearch.verizon.net/search?qo=www.dfgdsfasdfasdf.com&rn=KGStLXJazkT6isZ&rg=
And all of the links that are supposed to show you how to opt out (you have to change your DNS servers) have been giving 404 errors for months.
See for yourself, all the links on this page are broken: http://www.verizon.net/central/vzc.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=vzc_help_contentDisplay&case=dns_assist&partner=verizon&product=dsl
Now, I have no problem changing my DNS servers by myself but not informing anybody on how to opt out seems a bit fishy.

Verizon returns ad-riddled yahoo searches instead of NXDOMAIN:
http://wwwwz.websearch.verizon.net/search?qo=www.dfgdsfasdfasdf.com&rn=KGStLXJazkT6isZ&rg=
And all of the links that are supposed to show you how to opt out (you have to change your DNS servers) have been giving 404 errors for months.
See for yourself, all the links on this page are broken: http://www.verizon.net/central/vzc.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=vzc_help_contentDisplay&case=dns_assist&partner=verizon&product=dsl
Now, I have no problem changing my DNS servers by myself but not informing anybody on how to opt out seems a bit fishy.

Despite the fact that spousal abusers are just as likely to be women and that the abused are just as likely to be men

Citation needed.

One citation

TWO! Two citations ha ha ha haaaa!

THREE! THREE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CITATIONS! ha ha ha haaaa [looks around as thunder rumbles and lightning flashes]

Lots more citations as well as discussion of the work done by Murray Strauss, Suzanne Steinmetz and Richard Gelles can be found at the domestic violence wiki

If you're interesting in such things, look into the research Amateur Radio operators have done into HF radio protocols such as PSK31, TOR, Clover, MFSK16, etc. I have personally send data via PSK31 from my house in Va to Australia using 1 Watt of power. That's by no means a km/Watt record. See this database for contacts made.

This guy (who received my 1 Watt signal) is seriously into weak signal work.

Part 2., item (k):

(k) use the service in any fashion for the transmission or dissemination of images containing child pornography or in a manner that is obscene, sexually explicit, cruel or racist in nature or which espouses, promotes or incites bigotry, hatred or racism

By a mere visit to a porn site — or whatever site is deemed to be "inciting bigotry" — the site's material gets "transmitted" from the site to your computer. Ergo, you can not even visit such sites... E-mailing someone a picture of your butt or a note, that you hate green-skinned Martians, is also against the policy...

Here is the transcript of my "Live Chat" with a Verizon support person — "Drew" gets clearly confused and, to avoid the tough questions above even his manager's pay-grade tries to redirect me to a "local Verizon business office":

• We are routing you to a chat representative. Thank you for contacting Verizon. Your average wait time is 52 seconds. You are now chatting with 'Drew'
• Drew: Hello. Thank you for visiting our Verizon chat service. How can I help you set up your new service and save with a Verizon bundle?
• Mike: Hi! I have a question about the FiOS Acceptable Use Policy:
• Mike: https://www.verizon.net/central/vzc.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=vzc_help_policies&id=AcceptableUse
• Mike: In particular, the item (k) of the part 2.
• Mike: Does it mean, that even VISITING pornographic or racist web-sites is against the policy?
• Mike: Because, if I visit such a site, there will be a "transmission" of their material -- from the site to my computer...
• Drew: Please give me few moments.
• Drew: There are some sites , which are not authorized by Verizon and our technician will come at your location to guide you.
• Mike: So, you are confirming, that merely VISITING certain -- pornographic or political -- sites is against the policy?
• Drew: Just visiting is not against the policy.
• Mike: So, what did you mean, "some sites , which are not authorized by Verizon"? What does it mean: "not authorized"? Does it mean, I can not visit them?
• Mike: Drew, are you there?
• Drew: Some sites are restricted by govt and you will not be able to visit.
• Mike: Well, of course, if the Government restricts them, I will not visit them. But that's the question of Law, not AUP...
• Mike: So, you assure me, that simply VISITING any site -- even if pornographic or racist -- that's not already banned by the Government, will NOT be a violation of Verizon's Acceptable Use Policy?
• Drew: Only visisting such sites is not restricted and you can just visit.
• Mike: Will Verizon update the Policy's text? As currently worded, ANY transmission of such material seems against the policy -- even if it is simply in the course of a visit to the site...
• Mike: Also, can I use the service to E-MAIL someone a racist (or ranchy) material? That's also "transmission"?.. :-(
• Drew: Transmission may be against the law and for further information , I will suggest you to call the local office.
• Drew: Would you like me to provide you a number to call local Verizon business office?
• Mike: I'm not asking about the Law. I'm asking about Verizon's policy... Is the policy set by the LOCAL business offices?
• Drew: Yes, it is set by Verizon company. Which is following government rules and regulations.
• Mike: You represent Verizon company. Why would the LOCAL office be able to answer a question, that you can not?
• Drew: I understand your concern. As we are in sales department we do not have information on it. That's the reason, I am giving you the number to call.
• Drew: You can talk with our marketing department overthere and they will guide about it.

Wow, thanks for the fascinating and informative reply.

Related links:
http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue21/Stanford21.htm
http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/?q=node/402
http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/?q=node/47

On Marxism, Joan Roelofs
http://mysite.verizon.net/joan.roelofs/index.htm
has suggested that Charles Fourier said anything good that Marx said decades before him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fourier
Bob Black wrote this essay inspired in part by Charles Fourier's ideas:
http://www.whywork.org/rethinking/whywork/abolition.html

My take on economics, inspired by cybernetics:
http://www.pdfernhout.net/post-scarcity-princeton.html
"""
In general, economists need to look at what are major sources of *real* cost as opposed to *fiat* cost in producing anything. Only then can one make a complete control system to manage resources within those real limits, perhaps using arbitrary fiat dollars as part of a rationing process to keep within the real limits and meet social objectives (or perhaps not, if the cost of enforcing rationing for some things like, say, home energy use or internet bandwidth exceeds the benefits).
Here is a sample meta-theoretical framework PU economists no doubt could vastly improve on if they turned their minds to it. Consider three levels of nested perspectives on the same economic reality -- physical items, decision makers, and emergent properties of decision maker interactions. (Three levels of being or consciousness is a common theme in philosophical writings, usually rock, plant, and animal, or plant, animal, and human.)
At a first level of perspective, the world we live in at any point in time can be considered to have physical content like land or tools or fusion reactors like the sun, energy flows like photons from the sun or electrons from lightning or in circuits, informational patterns like web page content or distributed language knowledge, and active regulating processes (including triggers, amplifiers, and feedback loops) built on the previous three types of things (physicality, energy flow, and informational patterns) embodied in living creatures, bi-metallic strip thermostats, or computer programs running on computer hardware.
One can think of a second perspective on the first comprehensive one by picking out only the decision makers like bi-metallic strips in thermostats, computer programs running on computers, and personalities embodied in people and maybe someday robots or supercomputers, and looking at their characteristics as individual decision makers.
One can then think of a third level of perspective on the second where decision makers may invent theories about how to control each other using various approaches like internet communication standards, ration unit tokens like fiat dollars, physical kanban tokens, narratives in emails, and so on. What the most useful theories are for controlling groups of decision makers is an interesting question, but I will not explore it in depth. But I will pointing out that complex system dynamics at this third level of perspective can emerge whether control involves fiat dollars, "kanban" tokens, centralized or distributed optimization based on perceived or predicted demand patterns, human-to-human discussions, something else entirely, or a diverse collection of all these things. And I will also point out that one should never confuse the reality of the physical system being controlled for the control signals (money, spo

To me, the most interesting point of this discovery is that it should improve our understanding of shortwave radio propagation.

It has always frustrated me that the same space program that is producing the data needed to understand the physics needed to make accurate, day-to-day predictions of ionospheric propagation -- a hundred-year-old mystery -- is also the same space program that replaced commercial HF communication with satellites, greatly reducing the economic value of such predictions (and, therefore, the science funding to make them). So now that we have the ability, we no longer have the desire . . . unless one is an amateur radio operator, and it's harder to think of an entity lower on the economic value chain than that.

The most difficult path for shortwave links is one that passes near the magnetic poles, like the path from Southeast Asia to the US East Coast that passes over the north magnetic pole. Energy from the solar wind couples into the Earth's magnetic field; in particular, charged particles are directed parallel to the field. This is great for propagation over most of the planet; however, near the poles the magnetic field becomes vertical and these particles are directed perpendicular to the ground, where they form a ring of radio wave attenuation and refraction in the upper atmosphere that closes this path for many days out of a given month. To open this path there has to be minimal energy coupling from the solar wind, and there is very little understanding of when this will occur. Even the best propagation prediction software (e.g., VOACAP and Proplab Pro) is based on statistics, giving one the probability of a given path being open.

This discovery should add to our understanding of how and when these paths will open. Until then, we have to survive on "Space Weather" web sites like these, and turn on a radio to see for ourselves what the day brings.

(Those interested in an accessible introduction to HF propagation can check out K9LA's propagation site.)

If I type "slashdot" and hit enter, I get an add-riddled Verizon page that, if you try to opt out of, conveniently gives 404 errors. See for yourself.

Comcast's version is an order of magnitude better than everybody else's.

a: There is a REAL opt-out, that puts your DHCP lease to point to a DNS resolver that doesn't do this. I'll have to do this when I get home. Compare this with, eg, Verizon's pitiful opt-out instructions involving manually changing DNS settings.

b: IF you had manually set your DNS resolver to a Comcast server, you are unaffected (they added new resolver addresses to do this), per previous discussions by the Comcast folks over at Broadband Reports.

c: It does NOT get *.whatever, only www.*.(TLD), thus even when you don't opt out, it is at least limited to web-related typos. This is actually a big deal, as I think Comcast is the first one NOT to do it for everything.

I don't like NXDOMAIN wildcarding (it was one of the motivations behind building the ICSI Netalyzr), but if an ISP is going to do it, Comcast's is actually well constructed to both limit collateral damage (it only gets www.*) and be able to be bypassed with a real opt-out.

a) That's incorrect, because the opt-out doesn't actually fucking work. I opted out. Got the confirmation back and everything. Rebooted all the network hardware. Result, no change. I had to manually change my DNS server settings, because Comcast flat out refuses to send me the settings that prevent this stuff from fucking up my connection.

b) Yes, if you manually work around their fuck up, then yes, it's manually worked around. No shit.

c) This is a flat-out lie. When I was still being infected by their shit, it was not possible to get an NX response, period. I was unable to confirm any of their www.* lies to be true. It resolved anything and everything to an IP, so if they were trying to do this, then they fucked it up too. Not surprising, really.

Comcast's version is an order of magnitude better than everybody else's.

a: There is a REAL opt-out, that puts your DHCP lease to point to a DNS resolver that doesn't do this. I'll have to do this when I get home. Compare this with, eg, Verizon's pitiful opt-out instructions involving manually changing DNS settings.

b: IF you had manually set your DNS resolver to a Comcast server, you are unaffected (they added new resolver addresses to do this), per previous discussions by the Comcast folks over at Broadband Reports.

c: It does NOT get *.whatever, only www.*.(TLD), thus even when you don't opt out, it is at least limited to web-related typos. This is actually a big deal, as I think Comcast is the first one NOT to do it for everything.

I don't like NXDOMAIN wildcarding (it was one of the motivations behind building the ICSI Netalyzr), but if an ISP is going to do it, Comcast's is actually well constructed to both limit collateral damage (it only gets www.*) and be able to be bypassed with a real opt-out.

Verizon hijacks DNS as well, giving Yahoo search results. Example: http://dnsassist.verizon.net/verizonassist/dnsassist/main/?domain=rfc-violaters

I believe my Verizon DSL service does this. It can be disabled either by changing your computer DNS settings or modem settings depending on which modem you use.

Verizon Support - Opting out of DNS assistance

Ligatures are mostly decorative these days --- the original reason for them was to handle kerns which intruded into other characters, hence the existence of fi and fl --- also Gutenberg used optional / alternate ligatures to facilitate evening out the spacing of his lines, but that fell by the wayside, and has yet to be reasonably automated (though that was one of the intents of the HZ algorithm which URW developed and Aldus licensed to use in what became Adobe InDesign).

I make extensive use of Zapfino's ligatures in a small ``Peace on Earth'' card which the TeX User's Group mailed out one year:

http://www.tug.org/texshowcase/peace_on_earth.pdf

More discussion of them in:

http://www.tug.org/texshowcase/onetype.pdf

which is a companion piece to the broadside:

http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/typography/typefaceterminology.pdf

William

The problem there is this only works if one controls the _entire_ URL.

I had pages on AOL's FTP/webspace since its inception through AOL's ``sunsetting'' those services --- unfortunately, I published a number of papers which had links to http://members.aol.com/willadams so all the printed copies are out of date since there's no way to update them to http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/

It's this sort of thing which makes the MLA's decision to omit hard-coded URLs from their references....

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/03/11/mla

But that's ignoring the problem.

William

I have some experience teaching a little python to adults (community college physics students). It was mostly pretty good. If the choice was pascal or python, I'd have a hard time imagining why anyone would pick pascal in this day and age. There are free books that use python as an introductory language, e.g., this one.

Another reasonable possibility other than python would be ruby. When I taught python to beginners, the significant whitespace really was a source of confusion. Ruby avoids that. There's this book for beginners (incomplete).

Verizon (now FairPoint Communications in these parts) does it too. http://wwwwz.websearch.verizon.net/search?qo=blahblahblah&rn=S6ORMW8T2m7rGJi&rg= That's where you end up if you try to go to an invalid domain name. (Replace 'blahblahblah' with whatever)

I was curious, so I went and found instructions from Verizon on how to switch:
http://netservices.verizon.net/portal/link/help/item?case=dns_assist&partner=verizon&product=fios

However, some of the links from that page go nowhere.

This page has links to the actual DNS server IPs:
http://netservices.verizon.net/portal/link/help/index.jsp?epi_menuItemID=c567d167631f692124525d7253295c48&objId=23885

I was curious, so I went and found instructions from Verizon on how to switch:
http://netservices.verizon.net/portal/link/help/item?case=dns_assist&partner=verizon&product=fios

However, some of the links from that page go nowhere.

This page has links to the actual DNS server IPs:
http://netservices.verizon.net/portal/link/help/index.jsp?epi_menuItemID=c567d167631f692124525d7253295c48&objId=23885

Verizon does the same thing ...

Sort of... they offer two pairs of DNS servers. One hijacks DNS errors, the other doesn't. http://netservices.verizon.net/portal/link/help/item?case=dns_assist&partner=verizon&product=fios

However, Verizon does have non-poisoned DNS servers which you can find in their Help pages, along with instructions for changing your machine's settings. http://netservices.verizon.net/portal/link/help/item&objId=23883 [verizon.net]

Nice, but, as a non-verison user, I went to that page and saw nothing obvious to help with this issue.

However, I did click on the "System Status" link (at the bottom of the left column) and got back:

Current Status:
This tool is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.

What a bunch of fuckbars. Maybe they mean "later" after I sign up with the shits.

My super great local ISP doesn't pull any of this horseshit. If you can reach them at all, the current MOTD, with all warts, projected (always short) maintenance windows, info on any ongoing DDoSes, full followup on any already-reported issues, etc. are right there on the home page for all (even non-customers, to see -- none of this asshole stuff about hiding it way down in a fucking subdomain.

Can anyone think of a better way to determine, before signing up, to know whether your ISP is going to be forthcoming about problems or try to hide under their dunghill.

Nice captcha, too -- immunity

Verizon has been doing this for a while. I read the Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, etc. every time they update it. It's clearly there, disguised as a 'feature' called DNS Assistance.

However, Verizon does have non-poisoned DNS servers which you can find in their Help pages, along with instructions for changing your machine's settings. http://netservices.verizon.net/portal/link/help/item&objId=23883

Here's an amusing site y'all can slashdot, comparing flying the 1960s to the present. A few points the guy makes:

Flying was expensive. For example: A round trip ticket between Cleveland and Washington D.C. was about $75. This doesn't sound like a bad deal, until you adjust the fare for inflation: That's over $400 in today's dollars! By contrast, I recently paid less than $100 for a round trip between Cleveland and Washington on one of today's low-cost deregulated carriers.

There was no point in shopping around for the best deal, because all airfares were controlled by regulation. If a roundtrip ticket between Cleveland and Washington was $75 on one airline, it was $75 on all the airlines.

The vast majority of the passengers were businessmen. White male businessmen. Occasional families. Very few minorities, and virtually no women travelling independently.

Food and drinks were almost always served, no matter how short the flight. Because there was no price competition, the airlines had to compete based on service. It was amazing to watch the stewardesses hustle to serve everyone on a quick trip, while constantly tugging at their skirts to retain some modesty.

Sure, that sounds high-class, I guess, if you were a member of the flying aristocracy.

Verizon's guide

My guide:
1. Find your dns servers settings (71.252.0.12 and 68.237.161.12 for me). They should end in .12
2. Set them to the exact same ips with .14 on the end instead of .12

Verizon does this for FiOS service as well, and this certainly isn't anything new. Verizon also offers the option to opt-out of this "service" by changing your DNS servers.

>>I don't know what kind of dates this guy has, but I don't think any date I have had would want me to talk through a movie and nitpick on every little detail.

A fix for the movie talker. http://mysite.verizon.net/res02dad/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/scott2.mpg