Slashdot Mirror

I just submitted the same story, it will probably get rejected, so here's some more links:
The Washington Post is reporting that the Slammer worm crashed the computerized display panel which monitors the most crucial safety indicators (coolant systems, core temperature sensors, and external radiation sensors) at Ohio's Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in January. No serious problems occured, primarily because the plant has been offline for more than 1-1/2 years.
Davis-Besse is run by FirstEnergy, which many people feel may bear much of the responsibility for last weeks power blackout.

Second example: ACLU sues when gay groups are excluded from Christian-sponsored Family Day parade - like, d'oh? Would ACLU sue to include NAMBLA in such a parade? Evidently they would. What about the Christians' right to make their point? Sorry, stick to making it in church, presumably behind locked, soundproof doors lest some poor unwary Atheist be accidentally converted.

Third example: ACLU causes pulling of an AIDS brochure addressed to Christians as being inappropriate for a government department to publish. In point of fact they actively oppose many Christianity-focussed (ie the opposite way around) AIDS defenses as well, despite the measurable fact that this is the only effective defense against AIDS so far discovered. They'd rather that people died than that they becomes Christian. But I digress: is this government department unable to address the Christians in their constituency in their own language, when bringing them to an understanding of AIDS and a compassionate response toward AIDS sufferers? ACLU seems to think so. I mentions the Bible in other than a condemnatory light, so it has to go.

Over to Leader U for a bigger dose.

This reminds me of last night, when I was in a local diner with a directional antenna tyring to pick up an 802.11b access point, a woman stopped and asked me what I was doing. When I told her, she said "Oh yeah, I was just reading in the Washington Post about how Wireless Growth Hinders Emergency Communications". I didn't have a chance to tell her that they really meant cell phones interfering with bad 800 MHz trunked radio systems...

On a lighter note, our whole University has been preoccupied with trying to shut this bitch down. Today I am reminded of why I am happy to NOT be IT.

Um, hello? SCO already does this. That's the basis of their licensing scam^H^H^H^Hprogram for Linux. They claim that since, er, 14 trillion lines of code have been copied verbatim into Linux, that Linux is an unauthorized derivative of Unix. Here is an example article detailing their claims.

On second thought, you're right, the CIA does seem to have problems with the accuracy of their information.

...be enough to eliminate all extreme poverty on earth.

The extreme poverty couldn't possibly be caused by extreme stupidity?

That will probably depend on the company you're leaving. There was a blurb in the news last week about some carriers Trying to put obstacles in the way of leaving customers.

So maybe they charge you a fee, maybe they tell you that you can't transfer out until you pay an early termination fee, maybe they tell you you can't transfer out until you pay them a disputed amount on your bill, or until you pay your last bill in full, etc, etc

This kind of makes sense since the company wants you to stay. Sad that some might try to strong-arm you into it. At least not every carrier is planning to make this a business practice.

If anyone is up to this task, it's this guy: Sean Gorman. Already discussed here.

Truth is, if information exists it will be discovered eventually. As others have pointed out, it is better to make a strong system than a secret one. And let's face it, it's pretty darn hard to hide power lines. As for the underground ones, they are marked so people who dig don't die.

I have no factual data to back me up, but just guessing, it seems that a more distributed power generation system would be much cheaper (and more reliable). One problem appears to be that all the NIMBYs work to prevent power interconnection. For example, CT has blocked NY's use of an underwater cable for the last 1.5 yrs. Plainly, with a bit more local generation, everyone would have been better off.

i guess we just have to wait until the next dissertation is classified. because, you know, all information of any interest should be suppressed! anyone who thinks otherwise is a terrorist!

How the hell are you associating donations under $1000 with lower income bracket donations? What a load. The Repubs are great at mobilizing the base. Everyone knows that. It's common knowledge. That doesn't mean that those folks are lower income.

Listen man, you're living in the past. This isn't the 70's. Fiscal conservatism is no longer the hallmark of a republican administration. The Bush administration has increased government spending more than any administration in the last 20 years. And that's the CATO Institute. A hotbed of liberalism I know.
As far as Condie becoming vice prez, it's a miracle she isn't "spending more time with her family." She put the president in a very difficult position. In a country where the media wasn't so "liberal" her repeated lying would have actually been an issue. Here's a Washington Post article asking some interesting questions. As far as being black and a woman. Leave it to a republican to accuse the left being racist and misogynist. And democrats are inherently anti-papist. RNC talking points are great and it's good to see you got the memo but that dog won't hunt.

The question all of us have to ask ourselves is: do we want jobs and more money, a balanced budget, a smaller deficit, our soldiers not getting pay cuts while in a war zone? Vote for the Democratic party. You want 4 more years of lying? Vote for a Repub or a Green.

Like this techie is doing. "a 26-year-old high-tech programmer from Mountain View", who has already won the unofficial endorsement of Washington Post Writer Howard Kurtz, though this seems to be mostly based on her using cafepress to sell endorsed thong underwear as a fundraising tool. Regardless, she is using the net to propel her campaign to an extent that she is garnering press attention even among the strippers and pornographers and actors.

I think the Dean campaign shows that it is media access that makes the biggest difference in getting an unknown launched, and techs are the media of the 21st century.

One more link I forgot... this I found on her site:

Washington Post story on Georgy

Washington Post article, Aug. 11

Well, if we really are going to install cameras everywhere then we'd be wise to heed a 21st century parable and make sure that access to what these things see goes into the public domain and is not exclusively controlled by small groups of quasi-political non-educators.

So, I'm going to do my part and start petitioning my local government. After all, it's the one that made news for installing face-recognition in our public-area camera network.

Gore actually offered a full recount to Bush, but Bush refused. Unfortunately, the required procedures make it difficult to ask for a full recount, so Gore tried to get the most "bang for the buck", as it were.

As to the military absentee ballots, the New York Times had a simply amazing report on them. At the moment, I can't find it on their web site anymore, but here is a link to another news article about it: 680 Military Ballots Invalid. The NYT had pictures of ballots that were accepted and rejected. It was VERY obvious that the Republicans were getting away with counting military ballots that were highly improper -- postmarked far after the election, for example, while the same rules weren't followed for other ballots.

I'm glad to see Windows-only products made available to Mac users. XM Radio, though, isn't in great financial shape.

You'll probably enjoy this recent Washington Post article on identify theft, then: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A253 58-2003Aug6.html


It may not be as simple as fighting the bill and getting on your way.

Reducing collateral damage is becoming more and more important as military planners realize that the war is not over once you capture the territory.
You want to win over a people's hearts and minds by changing the regime but not levelling their cities a la carpet bombing Dresden in WWII. Killing citizens does not shorten a war and the London Blitz and Berlin showed that enemy soldiers will fight harder if they know their families are being killed too.

There are lots of different types of bombs that try to reduce collateral damage. The most infamous was the Neutron bomb that limited a nuclear bomb's blast and heat damage to a few hundred yards but killed people through the use of radiation.
The electric power distribution munition(ph), can knock out a whole power grid. This bomb scatters spools of carbon strands over a target. In Vietnam the US developed Hyper baric Fuel Air bombs that used a high pressure wave to kill people in tunnels or create helicopter landing pads in the jungle. The latest improved version is the thermo baric bomb that uses extremely high temperatures to create a blast wave and also suck the oxygen out of enclosed spaces.

War is not glorious but it is necessary from time to time and if you can defeat the enemy without killing non-combatants, I am all for it.

I know this first hand because I used the 6 month free AOL that came with my new Dell. AOL would ask you to participate in Beta programs and customers sign up so that they get the new features first... Eventually I got sick of it and stopped participating in their Beta.

-- Sig
Washington Post - Bush Misuses Science, Report Says

New York Times - Bush Misuses Science, Report Says

Charlie Trie, John Huang, and Johnny Chung were the 3 key figures involved in bribing American officials. Johnny Chung was born and raised in Taiwan. John Huang was raised in Taiwan.

A longer article mentioned a bigger strider they studied.

I found it amazing that the robot was half the size of the Asian giant water strider.

An 8 inch Water Strider might make a cool pet!

What would it eat? How big of a pond would you need? Does anyone have experience with these critters?

Quoting from the [oft referenced here but should be re-read. If you can read it without fear, why?] article on Why the Lackawanna 6 pled guilty:

"The federal government implicitly threatened to toss the defendants into a secret military prison without trial, where they could languish indefinitely without access to courts or lawyers.

That prospect terrified the men. They accepted prison terms of 6 1/2 to 9 years.

"We had to worry about the defendants being whisked out of the courtroom and declared enemy combatants if the case started going well for us," said attorney Patrick J. Brown, who defended one of the accused. "So we just ran up the white flag and folded. Most of us wish we'd never been associated with this case."

The government can choose to give you access to the Bill of Rights unless it really need you to be guilty. In that case the Posse'll just come on by to take you away. Oh, and when the BoR says that "persons" get these rights they really meant "upstanding uncriminal citizens-by-birth and taxpayers" so it doesn't apply to YOU.

Can some biologist please, PLEASE gene-mod a frog so that it'll actually hang out in ever-warming water so that I can use that cliched, false but I still want to use it proverbial frog in a pot analogy now?

The Washington Post just ran a pair of articles on the Lackawanna Six and Jose Padilla, American citizens who got associated with bad guys. The Lackawanna Six (and John Walker Lindh and now Mike Hawash) pleaded guilty to avoid the fate that befell Padilla. When the government didn't have enough evidence to charge him with a crime, they simply designated him an enemy combatant and carted him off to a military prison, with no right to trial or to a lawyer. Hawash, Lindh and the Lackawanna Six chose prison, even though the evidence against them was weak, because the alternative was indefinite solitary confinement and possibly even a death sentence from a military tribunal. So how meaningful were their guilty pleas?

We have laws in this country to punish treason, conspiracy, or any other crime these men committed. But citizens charged with those crimes have rights, like the right to be convicted by the government's evidence. So far, this administration has been unwilling to take the chance of letting a defendant exercise those rights.

The Washington Post just ran a pair of articles on the Lackawanna Six and Jose Padilla, American citizens who got associated with bad guys. The Lackawanna Six (and John Walker Lindh and now Mike Hawash) pleaded guilty to avoid the fate that befell Padilla. When the government didn't have enough evidence to charge him with a crime, they simply designated him an enemy combatant and carted him off to a military prison, with no right to trial or to a lawyer. Hawash, Lindh and the Lackawanna Six chose prison, even though the evidence against them was weak, because the alternative was indefinite solitary confinement and possibly even a death sentence from a military tribunal. So how meaningful were their guilty pleas?

We have laws in this country to punish treason, conspiracy, or any other crime these men committed. But citizens charged with those crimes have rights, like the right to be convicted by the government's evidence. So far, this administration has been unwilling to take the chance of letting a defendant exercise those rights.

yeah, one could say that.

If you've got evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, please, share with the rest of the class.

Gracious, those are some mighty big words. Pros-ee-cue-to-ree-orl. And then to be followed up with the brilliant, dare I say emphatic, shut your damn pie hole. That's faaantastic. I really can not wait for the school year to start up again - you should have been in bed hours ago.

When you do wander off after some warm milk and fresh rubber sheets, here's a little bedtime reading for you.

Congratulations, you seem to be blessed with the same black and white "moral clarity" that graces our President.

The Feds arrested a guy for something incriminating.

Well, not exactly. The Feds arrested him on suspicion of something incriminating, then proceeded to hold him, without legal counsel, whithout charging him with a crime, for as long as they damn well pleased. Then, they offered him a choice: we can keep holding you like this (i.e. you disappear into oblivion) or take a plea bargain. Yeah, that's a tough call.

Here's some light reading on the lengths that Ashcroft and Bush are going to to keep their perpetual war.

You people, which I somehow am one of, can't accept the fact that law enforcement has a purpose especially when it involves a "geek."

Well, that's certainly a possibility, but it's just as likely that the geeks you seem to cavort with, yet hold such disdain for, are increasingly fearful of a government that persecutes marginalized segments of the population. As long as you're white, middle class, enjoying your missionary position sex 3.4 times a week, don't worry, we know what's best for you. It's those crazy freaks and weirdos you gotta watch out for!

I say fuck the status quo and fuck anybody that's hellbent on seeing it perpetuated at any cost.

The bad guys, and I'm not talking about the blackhats, aren't going to wear armbands and shirts with epaulets and stand opposed from the other side of the battlefield waving their banner (Windows logo superimposed over AK-47s).

Brilliant logic there. So, we should just assume everyone is guilty? Or maybe just everyone that isn't white? Or how about all the non-Christians (well, except for Eric Rudolph, Christian terrorist du jour)?

I get the impression that the "geek" crowd would be a perfect place for a terrorist to lay low. Don't need a social life. Access to technology. Co-workers and comrades whose principles (or lack thereof) dismiss responsibility and reality. Simply perfect.

I don't know, that description seems to be pretty apropos to the myriad CEO's that seem bent on wrecking the U.S. economy so that they can fatten their own wallets. You know, like Mr. Bush's buddy Ken Lay.

According to this article, in the prosecution of the "Buffalo Six", they plead guilty mainly because the government was threatening to declare them "Enemy Combatants". In such a case, they could be held without trial indefinitely in solitary confinement, or face a military tribunal and possible execution.

Or you can do 7 years (less, with good behavior) knowing you are innocent. What would you do?

First Cloned Horse Announced

You don't get anything. You actually pay for RIAA to Rock Around the Clock:
RIAA Rocks Around the Clock

QUESTION: What Do I Get When I Buy a CD?
ANSWER: Crappy junk for whose promotion I had to pay.

But... wait, I don't Buy CD's. I listen to the radio and tunes on my alarm clock in the morning and my neighbor's kids when they scream.

-- Sig
Stressed out? Here's why !!

I'd be more intrested in questioning the legality of the RIAA's 'tactics'.

RIAA's is employing a multitude of 'tactics' and they don't always have to go to the court for them....

Check this out:
RIAA Rocks Around the Clock

Ummm no, sorry, you're wrong. The governemnt isn't funding homeland security. Actually they're underfunding homeland security. This pathetic administration only funds items that are politically expedient. For example: they wanted to slash the air marshall program due to budget considerations. Here's the meat of it. The threat comes just as the federal government has started to trim the nation's new airport security agency, by cutting the number of security screeners and other resources. Just one day before the memo was distributed, an official with the undercover Federal Air Marshal Service canceled what are considered some of the most vulnerable flight missions because they required marshals to spend nights in hotels, as well as cut training for Washington-area agents next month. The official cited "monetary considerations," according to an e-mail obtained by The Washington Post. The real talent being? Tom Ridge? I'm not sure who you're talking about.
Here's an older story on underfunding homeland security

Ummm no, sorry, you're wrong. The governemnt isn't funding homeland security. Actually they're underfunding homeland security. This pathetic administration only funds items that are politically expedient. For example: they wanted to slash the air marshall program due to budget considerations. Here's the meat of it. The threat comes just as the federal government has started to trim the nation's new airport security agency, by cutting the number of security screeners and other resources. Just one day before the memo was distributed, an official with the undercover Federal Air Marshal Service canceled what are considered some of the most vulnerable flight missions because they required marshals to spend nights in hotels, as well as cut training for Washington-area agents next month. The official cited "monetary considerations," according to an e-mail obtained by The Washington Post. The real talent being? Tom Ridge? I'm not sure who you're talking about.
Here's an older story on underfunding homeland security

Or are you just one of those folks who will always find a better use of taxpayer's money than research? It's a valid point, I suppose, esp. for free-market capitalist libertarians that don't like government funded anything. But that doesn't seem to be your argument.

BTW, as for Afghanistan, which you keep mentioning, I believe the White House is about to ask for another $1B in funding to help stabalize the country. Gee, that $600K would have REALLY made a big dent if $1B is needed just to get thru the next year.

Pentagon to Abandon 'Terror' Futures Market Plan
By KEN GUGGENHEIM
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, July 29, 2003; 11:48 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon will abandon a plan to establish a futures market to help predict terrorist strikes, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday.
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said he spoke by phone with the program's director, "and we mutually agreed that this thing should be stopped."

(more in the article)

I really, really hope this is a joke...

Even senators thought this was a joke so you can be excused for thinking so. See the bold text from the rejected submission below - it's from the NY Times article.

Poindexter's Middle East Terror Bookie Scheme

2003-07-29 08:16:21 Poindexter's Middle East Terror Bookie Scheme The NY Times reports on DARPA's latest scheme: an options and futures trading market where you can bet on assassinations, toppling governments, instability and war in the Middle East (Google). The $8 million program is under the control of Admiral John Poindexter who brought us Total Information Awareness. The Policy Analysis Market starts taking registrants this week and betting/trading begins in October. Senator Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota, said the idea seemed so preposterous that he had trouble persuading people it was not a hoax.

That's because it's a mistake to think of it as a Republican vs. Democrat issue. There's no inherent evilness in either. On the other hand, there seems to be inherent evilness in anything *AA.

As for the Frist guy being a "nice guy", read this

He's a guy that gets out of his way to associate "gay marriages" with "criminal behavior". Seriously, what's this obsession with other people's sexual orientation?

Do these systems leave some kind of paper trail which the voter can visually verify?

The huge disadvantage with paperless voting is that the voter has to trust that the button he pushed is the vote that was registered. Without some sort of person readable paper trail the voter cannot verify his vote and more importantly there is no way to audit the votes after the fact.

Without some sort of trail it is impossible to be sure that the vote is correct and can not be tampered with (or simply changed by a software bug).

This is the big bone of contention in many American locations looking to adopt e-voting.

One of many articles on the subject Quick form required

Heh, interesting that you would mention that, kind troll. Since coincidentally, Frist is actively supporting a constitutional amendment to officially ban gay marriage. This would effectively be the first constitutional amendment since the 18th(prohibition), ratified in 1919, that is specifically intended to revoke the rights of citizens instead of granting new ones. If this is any indication of the behavior his cronies are prone to, well we're in for a real treat then!

After-tax, he's saving $200+250+50+200+150+100 = $950/month.

Now dig this. With combined California + Federal taxes on $200K at around 43%, that after-tax savings is equivalent to a pre-tax salary raise of $20000 - about 10%.

> If you can give up some of the ego stuff, you can live just fine in the Valley.

Preach on, brother. You just got yourself a 10% raise, with zero change in your standard of living. (Well, apart from no longer "just looking around" at Fry's, but hey, we all gotta make sacrifices. I'd spend less time "just looking around" at Fry's too, if someone was giving me a $20000 raise for it :-)

Suggested summer read: The Millionaire Next Door: Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy.

aside from the typical california perks (weather, diversity, rad food, etc) this is where you can see lots of companies that make cool shit and museums that show cool shit. there are several hostels in the area, and public transportation is decent, although renting a car for a day or two might be advisable if you're trekking out to business park country. a quick google search turns up a decent article on geeky destinations around the valley, worth checking out for the list at the end. there are some guide sites out there tha cover lots of this stuff: let the big g be your friend.

you could do the super mega geeky thing, of course, and get pictures of yourself in front of company signs around they valley - we're riddled with them from san jose to san mateo. give corporate people a holler via email far enough ahead of time and you might even score a tour or the location of a museum. email SGI and ask if tours/demos are available for the Reality Center. visit fry's electronics for a geek-mecca epiphany (i suggest the cavenous san jose location); but beware, traveler, for to ask for help of a sales associate at fry's is to ask satan to take a little piece of your soul. this is also the time of your journey where you'll be asking "i wonder how much money i have, and how much it would cost to ship some hardware home..."

san francisco is beautiful and cool and yadda yadda; check out the museums, the parks and the nightlife. the exploratorium is big and WAY FREAKIN' COOL. make sure to get a good afternoon for just that and the nice area around it. check out the SFMOMA and the whole area around there - right across the street is the geeky-cool Sony Metreon with a sony store that has pretty much everything they carry in north america, plus big expensive video games and theaters. san francisco is also the terminal for many green tortoise bus tours that take you to beautiful parks around the west coast (quickly cementing your preference for it, trust me). they also have a hostel and buses that take you to seattle, portland and los angeles.

other things to do in california... rent a car and drive the coast on hwy 1 - if you can, from san francisco to los angeles! it is quite solidly some of the most beautiful coastline in the world, from smooth white beaches in the south to how-the-hell-did-they-wrap-a-road-around-that sharp rocks in the north. skip disneyland in southern california and go to six flags or universal studios. do all the usual touristy stuff, and check out venice beach, i'm sure you'll run into some crazy aussies there, plus there's a hostel nearby. visit a national park (do this on green tortoise, probably). get clam chowder at the jenner inn in jenner, ca. avoid the central valley (the "midwest" of the united states pretty much starts 60 miles inland california).

also, you'll be sorely disappointed to find that 99% of the country thinks that fosters is what all aussies drink. some well stocked british or hipster pubs might have VB, as well as the occasional aussie pub. bring your own marmite/vegemite/donteverconfuseitfornutellamite, because you australians are just freaky. no one knows what a "cone" is, we call them "bowls." if you're a crazy eastern aussie, like all the others i've met, people will probably love you and buy you drinks and tell you about the great fosters commercials you've been missing. the chicks (guys?) will dig you. if you're from the west... i don't know.

good luck!

an article on "bundled" contributions

Last month I've been to the Bay Area for 10 days, and wondered where I could find "Geek Tour" recommendations. I even asked slashdot, but it haven't been posted. Anyway, I found the two following links, which have some good recomendations: Geek Tour and The Geek Guide to Sillicon Valley. Enjoy.

Is a little company from Utah turning into the spoiler of the open-source software movement?

The SCO Group yesterday escalated its campaign to reap profits from corporate users of the Linux operating system, announcing that it wants companies to pay licensing fees. SCO is holding fast to its contention that Linux is "an unauthorized derivative of Unix," which it owns the code and copyright for. "SCO acknowledged it is seeking to bolster sagging sales by wringing revenue out of its rights to Unix, an older operating system from which Linux was derived," The Wall Street Journal reported.

It doesn't sound like the many credible journalists are taking this threat seriously. The same post article quotes quite a few other news sources (including /.) that have less than supportive opinions of SCO.

Source: Justice Sues to Block Microsoft Acquisition.

The Washington Post also had an article on July 1st (Canada day) talking about legal marijuana, gay marriage and other stuff happening up north.

I wonder if Ari Fleischer's Single Bullet Doctrine is applicable here. :)