Slashdot Mirror

NYTimes is just annoying enough, but it would be nice for Slashdot to not link to paid registration articles. However, the 5 pics from the image gallery were pretty sweet. Personally, I like this idea. Not so much as an iPod, but as a multiGB HD system that I could easily use with my PDA, cellphone, or camera via Bluetooth rather than the limited 1GB/$99 flash sticks with their own fucking readers that no one else uses. Thus a photo on my camera is automatically dumped to my iPod if it's in range via BT and then sent to my PC via WiFi when I get home.

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FYI: the wired article on space elevators (referenced in the first wired article) has a link to the NASA IAC, which contains a pretty cool technical report (PDF) on the specifics of the space elevator proposal. They cover a lot of their basis in terms of the technical details and possible problems from cable construction and deployment vehicles to oscillations in the cable and environmental concerns.

FYI: the wired article on space elevators (referenced in the first wired article) has a link to the NASA IAC, which contains a pretty cool technical report (PDF) on the specifics of the space elevator proposal. They cover a lot of their basis in terms of the technical details and possible problems from cable construction and deployment vehicles to oscillations in the cable and environmental concerns.

As these comprehensive databases like ChoicePoint record more civil an criminal judgements, it gets harder to obtain a job at a mainstream company. Article in Wired about this issue yesterday.

I think this is a case of a dinosaur making last ditch efforts to try to save themself from certain destruction. AFP wants to try to control the flow of news (from them to other newspapers) and defend the natural monopolies involved with physical media since it's hard for customers to compare items for free. Now that AFP isn't listed, customers will just see other sites and flock to them first. This is what happens when you apply the old methods of business to the new world.

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No.

Ah, after some more reading, the myth itself that he did it with a circular configuration which they showed to be impossible. I guess they didn't know about parabolic reflections in those days. However, since a parabola is defined as the set of points equidistant between a point (the focus of the death ray) and a line (the infinitely far light of the sun reflecting off an imaginary flat mirror) this means that all the tangents of a parabolic curve (the flat mirrors in this case) will always cause the light source to reflect at a single point. This is why well designed radio dishes and telescopes use parabolic reflectors to concentrate the light. Reflectors also don't have the problem of different frequencies reacting differently like normal lenses.

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Given that he was able to set a rag on fire, I'm guessing that the Mythbusters team did something incorrectly regarding the focusing of their mirrors. And your link says they used a circular configuration which is only good in limited cases since the light is focused in a line (which isn't really focus) rather than a point. This was parabolic setup which is why he was able to melt plastic and set a rose on fire.

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Since the second link is down: http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/dc606edf5dd2111cf fb4c2925123d784/index.html

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It's not (primarily) the web designers' fault that they use flashy designs. The people who get design contracts aren't the ones who use well-formed, W3C compliant XHTML that is functional even in text-based browsers. The people who get the contracts are the ones who have a 500KB Flash animation on every page and poorly coded Javascript rollovers because clients and PHBs see these things and go "Ooo! Shiny!"

The whole point of modern XHTML and CSS is so that web designers can seperate the function of the webpage (deliver content via XHTML) from the form (the particular layout using CSS) and let end users choose the CSS that they want. In theory this should have a minimal XHTML with just pure text and all the glitz should be added in via CSS. FF and similar browsers support switching between multiple stylesheets by defaul, but IE requires webdesigners to allow it via a Javascript widget. Thus, the designers just stick with the flash. Maybe IE7 will help change this if it doesn't suck as much as the previous versions or maybe not given the amount of glitz in Longhorn.

In an ideal world, one CSS would have the glitzy flash animation and postneoantimodernismdeco-that-will-win-art-contest s design for when I first visit the page and am sucked in by beauty. Another CSS would have a minimalist UI that allows me to find the information on that site as fast as possible. Then handheld users would just use this latter lowbandwith UI by default instead of the flash hog. The web designers can just show the PHBs both versions so it is their fault that modern websites suck. They're making websites with 5 year old technology and the users are suffering for that.

If you really want to see the power of proper XHTML+CSS, look at the CSS Zen Garden. The entire site uses a single XHTML file but each version of the main page has a different CSS file. If you didn't know this, you would think that each page was individually coded. And the site is still usable if you strip out the CSS and view just the plain XHTML file.

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Of those reasons, willful ignorance by the parents and stupid morality are the most evil in my opinion. Particularly when virginity pledges by themselves don't cut down STD infections because the people making the pledges have unprotected oral and anal sex to keep their virginity and they never bothered to learn about condems. News article on the topic

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The point of contention in this case isn't the actual censorship of pornsites but rather the sites that get blacklisted just because they give information about sex. I bet that Wikipedia would be blacklisted since it talks about sex and probably has some sexual images on there. The courts have ruled in the past that teens have a right to access medical information about sex including such "deviant" (remember that this is Utah, Morman capital of the world) topics as homosexuality. Some lists would also ban things like nudity in general including classical paintings and sculptures similar to what Ashcroft did.

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Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union go further and warn the bill violates the US Constitution's First Amendment on free speech and the Commerce Clause. Six other states have had similar legislation ruled unconstitutional, resulting in huge legal bills for residents, Media Coalition director David Horowitz told the Salt Lake City Tribune.

You would think that they would learn not to mess with the free speech rights of adults and children here. The main objection to these kinds of bills is that the block access to sites giving medical or social information about topics like teen sexuality, pregnancy, and homosexuality. This is due to the fact that the blacklist is drawn up by a bunch of conservative idiots rather than people that know the difference between Debbie Does Dallas and Gray's Anatomy. The laws prevent teens who have a right to know this kind of information without the consent of their parents (the ACLU has defended teen medical rights before) which is stupid since most of the problems with teen sex are due to ignorance on the part of teens about sexuality. Since they are taught nothing but abstinence, those who do have sex don't use protection. And because of the lack of communication between parents and teens in this case, the teens won't tell their parents nor will they get medical help which just makes the situation worse. One of these days they'll figure out that teaching children proper morals and letting them deal with the dangers of the world regarding sex is better than just blindfolding them and threaten them with eternal damnation if they have sex before marriage.

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So, don't attack my analogy, tell me why it was OK for him to lie to Apple and say that he WOULD respect their DRM and then turn around and crack it

Maybe he didn't read the click-through agreement? Or maybe he just doesn't like the inability to play the music on his non-iPod mp3 player even though he legally acquired the music and considers this fair-use (like using a VCR to record a movie) as long as doesn't redistribute the music to random people? Or maybe he understands the entire futility of trying to create an audio DRM system when the audio analog hole is currently (and probably forever) unpluggable so he doesn't see anything wrong with a digital hack compared to hooking speaker output into his line-in and pressing record? Or he could just like the challenge of being a hacker in both meanings of the word. Unless he is distributing the cracked music to others, I see no moral crime here even if he is violating laws.

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It just wouldn't be the same without them. However, imdb doesn't show them as being part of the cast. Hopefully, this show will help cram some science into kids again, but who wants to take bets as to how long it will be before Creationists or other anti-science conservatives attack the show for claiming that Earth is 4 billion years old, we evolved from rodents, and that the Sun is the center of our solar system? I'm betting it will happen in the first season given the bad state of science today. Maybe this will even prevent the next generation from turing into a bunch of New Age hippies wearing crystal and Kabbalah threads.

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Apparently it was too hard to actually link it in the post? http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.04/play.html ?pg=4

You need a $40 3rd party extension, but that's still cheaper than the PSP. And it has good reviews too. This was an SP product that happens to work on the DS due to backwards support. The good thing about this is that it isn't controlled by Sony like their fucking UMD that no one else can use. Anyone with a flash card reader can use the DS for movies. The downside is that it's another item to carry with you which is bad for those without big pockets or bags. Given that the old GBA roms are a known format, I'm guessing that there will be a lot more third party apps for the DS than with the PSP. Particularly when someone figures out how to get the DS to play games over WiFi without a physical disk. This is a known feature of the DS, but it's not a public spec yet.

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That's it! I don't care how many bells and whistles the thing has. I'm never going to give my social security number or bank account number to the soft drink machine again!

You need a $40 3rd party cartridge, but you can play divx movies, mp3s and read text on the GBA and DS off a flash card. It's an import called Movie Advance There is a good review on Lik Sang but that site seems to be having troubles so here is a Google cache. Another review is at PlanetGC. The good thing about this is that it isn't controlled by Sony like their fucking UMD that no one else can use. Anyone with a flash card reader can use the DS for movies. The downside is that it's another item to carry with you which is bad for those without big pockets or bags. Given that the old GBA roms are a known format, I'm guessing that there will be a lot more third party apps for the DS than with the PSP. Particularly when someone figures out how to get the DS to play games over WiFi without a physical disk. This is a known feature of the DS, but it's not a public spec yet.

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You must be referring to somebody else, because Bill Gates never said that.

as on-line distribution with thin margins becomes the dominant form of music sale, the record labels actually are going to start losing money.

But "The Record Labels" is not some monolithic beast. While there are the big five^H^H^H^H four that seemed to be profitable selling CDs through brick-and-mortar stores, there are many small labels that have trouble getting distribution and finding their way on to the shelves of the Wherehouse and Sam Goody.

"The Long Tail" describes a scenario where on-line sales combined with grassroots promotion (word of mouth and end-user reviews) can support a vibrant culture of micro-labels or book micro-publishers.

Hungarian folk influenced death metal might not sell a lot of units in the Tower in San Francisco, but there might be a "diaspora" of fans spread out in little pockets all over the world that are enough to keep the bands in Top Ramen.

The precident is Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), a French Jesuit and philosopher of science and religion who embraced both God and evolution.

Wired ran this today

Free web: China has blocked off-campus internet users from accessing several bulletin boards operated by universities as part of a government clampdown on outspoken domestic websites.

Shuimu Tsinghua, a popular bulletin board run by Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University, was among the sites sealed to outside participants last week, the Beijing Times reported. A note posted on the bulletin board's homepage announced the move and said it had been made in keeping with a new policy passed by the Ministry of Education.

This seems to support you and the Slashdot summary over TFA.

xie xie

"The question they ask of the guy in the dock is, what is the probability that an innocent man would match this DNA? And the answer is, of course, about one in a million," says Pike, looking around the table and pausing for drama. "The question they should ask is, given the match, what is the probability that he is innocent? And the answer is, about one-third."

I just found this article at http://www.innocenceproject.org/dnanews/index.php.
The Innocence Project usually uses DNA to prove someone is innocent. Here is an example where an innocent man was convicted because of DNA:

Compiled by Peter J. McQuillan

Forensic Contretemps

Brian Kelly was the first person in Scotland to be successfully prosecuted solely on the basis of DNA evidence. The facts were uncomplicated: A woman was raped at night in her Ayrshire home in 1987 by a burglar. In July of that year Kelly, a police officer who lived nearby, voluntarily gave a DNA sample to investigators believing this would eliminate him from the inquiry. Thereafter, the lab reported a match and Kelly was charged with the rape. The victim was unable to identify him as the rapist even though she knew him as a police officer. Kelly nonetheless was convicted in 1989 and sentenced to prison for six years. His parole was delayed until 1993 because he refused to admit his guilt. The Scotsman (Nov 23, 2003) recently disclosed that the conviction may be quashed early this year because two separate studies have concluded that cross contamination of the evidence may have produced a false-positive result. The Texas Department of Public Safety operates 13 regional crime labs, all of which are nationally accredited. A review by the Houston Chronicle (Oct 26, 2003) of recent audits of seven of these labs found that one failed to adequately decontaminate lab space. Another had improper evidence storage and lacked a back-up power supply. "When power fluctuates during amplification of extracted DNA, the evidence could be destroyed." An inspector noted that dozens of evidence cuttings at one DNA lab were not properly stored. A DPS scientist explained away the deficiencies by saying that a 100 percent compliance rate is an unreasonable expectation. "You can go into any lab, any day of the week and find some things that need correction." Last year, according to the Bucks County Courier Times (Oct 14, 2003), errors were uncovered in four cases worked by one scientist at the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Lab. In one case she failed to detect a semen stain on an article of clothing assigned to her for analysis. Last June she was given six months of remedial training, at the end of which she resigned. PSP officials sent letters to prosecutors in 27 counties whose cases were handled by her, notifying them of the potential for error. Some 615 cases were scheduled for retesting. In the neighboring state of New Jersey, five police officers were recently convicted in federal court for a civil rights violation involving the death of a prisoner in their custody. Introduced at trial was a bloodstained concrete chip that was pried from a sidewalk two weeks after the victim was arrested. Witnesses said the five officers beat the victim at that location. A FBI Crime Lab scientist testified that she matched his blood to the sidewalk stain. The defendants were awaiting sentences when FBI officials disclosed that the scientist had just admitted skipping a quality control step in DNA tests in their case and 102 others. She did not perform the routine check for contamination because she wanted her casework "to run smoothly." The prosecuto

The ideal hope would be that the bandwith costs involved becomes cheaper at a rate equal to or greater than the bandwith usage. That is, the net cost remains constant or less than the influx of money from public and private sources. Given that bandwith usage by clients will rise as bandwith costs for them drop, this might be too optimistic, but economics is always a hard thing to predict when it is so technologically dependent. They could also try to get people like Google to back this project as part of their new library initative.

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Given the problems with getting children that are good enough actors, I'm guessing that there is no way to stay accurate to the book and pull off a good movie. If you stay accurate to the book, the bad acting will weaken it and American audiences (cause no moviehouse cares about anyone else for big movies) will freak out over the use of children. It might be better to wait for Final Fantasy level rendering to jump up a few steps and use that for the children. Then use adults who can play children for the voices. Assuming the rendering is good enough to not be distracting, there is still the question of whether moviehouses will think that Americans will like the plot and themes in the book. If that's the case it might be better to try to pitch it to a Japanese anime company rather than an American one. It would be similar to Now and Then, Here and There which was an anime about children being used for war with some similar themes.

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I understand (see above and http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,66950,00.h tml?tw=wn_tophead_3) that the Japanese are reading books on their mobiles (cellphones, handies, select word according to region), however despite searching at the weekend, I couldn't find an application that would allow me to take the plaintext file from Project Gutenberg or elsewhere and turn it into something I could read in chunks on my Nokia6230 (a Series 40 phone I believe).

I have used Plucker on my Handspring for a while and found it excellent, but recently changed phones and discovered the 6230 makes my Handspring virtually redundant, but a book reader would really help. A 1Gb card in it already for mp3 files means a few hundred k for a novel really wouldn't be noticed.

I spend a fair amount of time travelling up and down the country on trains, and a little flying across Europe (ok, I can't use my mobile whilst in the air, but most of the time occupied by short haul air travel is on the ground), at the same time, I don't want to carry too many devices, or too many books.

Any suggestions?

I remember reading a while back about the Mac commune. I guess it was fun while it lasted.

Just so the rest of the world doesn't think that it's a small minority of Americans who are doing this, a set of polls on evolution vs Creationism. The majority of Americans believe that we were created by a god in 6 days 10,000 years ago. The religious right's ability to keep proper science out of the class is starting to bite us in the ass as it will get harder to aprove biotech and other "controversial sciences" for funding. The same scientific ignorance causes Americans to abhorr homosexuality as a sinful path chosen by evil people rather than realizing it's a natural mindset encoded into the brain before birth. My only hope for the science in this country is that someone in the government will realize that we should spend money on education instead of war before the median scientific knowledge of our "first world" country falls below that of "third world" countries.

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Since the studios pay for duplication and distribution, going to digital won't save the theaters any money. And since the theaters buy their own projectors, they would also have to eat the cost of the new equipment.

Another thing to remember is that the current costs of distribution ($1,500-2,000 per print in bulk) keeps films made by smaller, independent studios out of the mainstream. This helps the larger studios maintain their dominance in the market. Read this Wired story for more details.

Sorry, but I think in this case Yahoo's presentation is cleaner and more usable than the old geocities site. I know people 'round here like to jizz all over Google, but the fact is that Yahoo has improved the clutter greatly. Google is still my primary search engine, but I visited yahoo the other day and was fairly impressed. Compare their current page with this or this. Their yellow pages/maps served me better than google's offerings for my most recent visit *gasp*.

Say what you want about Yahoo, but I work in a university computer lab and I see people spend oodles of time over at launch (remember when they were a cd mag?) and YahooGames. They've got more eyeballs and spend more on R&D and more profitable than Google. See?

Having said that, it's hard to see how they could possibly integrate Flickr properly but don't discount them offhand because they are not "teh g00gle"

Here's a good source of podcasts

If you look around, you'll find plenty of what interests you available as a podcast. Should you not find what you're looking for, with any luck we'll see YOUR podcast up there soon too.

I actually first heard about the slashdot story about the magic sticker when I was reading one of Randi's weekly commentaries where one of the readers comments about certain Slashdotter's inability to seperate reality from fantasy. BTW, the sticker qualifies for the Million Dollar prize along with evidence of psychics, homeopathic medicine, or other bullshit.

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Now, what about this champion of webcasters and enemy fo the RIAA who happens to be a lifelong Republican? Guess you don't read Slashdot that much...

What about this Republican? Just in case you read PCWorld....

Here's a few Republicans against the RIAA. Wow. Must not use Google much, huh whitroth?

How about this Republican taking a swing at the RIAA?

And finally.... One of the RIAA's main champions is.....DEMOCRAT!

God, I hate smug bastards. Especially ones who use cute little terms like "Reptilians" and don't even know a Rpeublican is spearheading an investigation into the RIAA. Google Search for those who can't do it themselves.

Except when somebody actally breaks in ;-)

Hackers Win Security Challenge

By Michelle Delio
12:00 PM Apr. 23, 2001 PT

Argus admitted that a group from Poland has won the fifth Argus Hacking Challenge, but the security company said it screwed up in choosing an operating system.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,43234, 00.html

Did it worry you when the previous administration said exactly the same things?

Wired News - Jan. 22, 1999
"President Clinton drew a nightmarish portrait of 21st century terrorism on Friday and asked Congress for more than US$2.8 billion to defend against chemical and germ warfare and protect computer networks.
[...]
Clinton described a world of frightening terror scenarios involving nerve gas, germ attacks, and computer hacking that, until now, have largely been the province of thriller novels.

Why single out the current administration, when all of these fools have been saying the same thing?

It should be noted that the claim about whether life on Mars exists is not without contrevery. Levin contends that the Viking probes did detect evidence of life on Mars based on biochemical signatures. This past evidence is now supported by the belief that Mars might have an organic methane source. There is also some evidence that Viking detected a circadian rhythm, but like all conclusions draw on such a limited data set, there are a lot of interpretations.

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Doesn't MS own the patent for CSS, and if so, how does its patent factor in?

While I understand that Joe Six Pack wants plug and play functionality without configuring, it is really that hard to add in another layer? When the AP is running on factory settings, it can just cause all Web requests to route to the configuration page along with an easy to explain set up about passwords. AP passwords aren't hard as normal passwords since many APs are in a secure building so writing the password on the AP and locking it in the closet would work half decently.

While the user has to take some blame for technical ignorance, the AP makers also have to take some blame here since they have the tech people to implement better security.

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well... if 35 percent is EVERYBODY.. then sure.

Firstly, use this research to remove the keyboard and mouse combo.

Then use the interface that Jerry uses to see and remove the monitor.

Thirdly, redesign the UI so that the computer interface becomes a 3D interactive environment - icons are no longer merely representative of programs and data, they are the programs and data, and able to be themed at the user's whim.

Ever played the RPG Shadowrun? As a decker? Would you like to?

I did the gratis ipod offer and got one for free, without spending a cent on any offers.One of my frinds, who was a 'referral' got charged $100 for not cancelling a trial offer on time.

The gratis offers are well regarded. Gizmodo has an article about the program:
http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/free-ipods-how-to- beat-the-system-sort-of-017801.php and so does wired:
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,64614,00.html

They do also have a program for mac minis: http://www.freeminimacs.com/?r=14398898

We need alternative forms of distribution too. I'm not saying publishers suck, although I do believe that in many cases. [laughter] If the plane went down who would care about the marketing guys? We need another way of getting games out there and in players' hands. If any of you bought Half Life 2 at Wal-Mart, please just leave the room.
This is one of the major gripes that people have about games. Acquiring a publisher just adds another person in the contract which brings about more legal hassle (remember Valve delaying HL2's Steam release to match the hardcopy release?) and more overhead. Given the nature of software, physical copies are completely overrated unless they have interesting bonus material. It would be much nicer if companies who make games that are primarily online (Q3, CS, all MMORPGS) just dropped the whole physical aspect. They could just tack on a BitTorrent client to a lightweight download/install program and just send it out to everyone. Then encourage people to make copies of the data files and distribute it to friends (since this is impossible to stop) and just sell the CD keys online. This would be just as effective for games that already require an Internet connection. They could also just give out the installer on DVD for free in stores and sell the CD key online or sell physical cards in stores that contain a CD key.

One of these days, the companies will catch up with the state of technology.

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You can also use a temporary credit card if you're really paranoid. These function as debit cards so you only risk the amount of money you put it. This might be useful if you're ultra paranoid and like to limit the number of people you give your credit card to. You still need a real credit card for WebCertificate but it is an extra layer of protection.

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Likewise for me with a Mac Mini. I did have to pay $0.99 for one of the offers, but the key is to sign up for an offer that's actually worth it rather than one of the crazy ones like diet pills.

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Disclaimer: I haven not tried hard nor received
my free ipod...

But...

Several friends of mine have... Some have even gotten free flat panel monitors,
and even a free Dell Dimension 4000 system... Apparently, it helps to have
a popular website to promote it...
But the truth of the matter is that SOME of these free offers do exist... Wired
has published stories with mixed results...

Also, since signing up, I haven't noticed *any* increase in snail mail spam... I
did not give out my real phone number, and no credit card is necessary. My
throwaway gmail account has only 8 messages in it (and only 2 may be related...)
so who knows... I am a believer for the time being....

The output system will be the same as normal 3d films since 3d movie tech hasn't evolved that much. I'm guessing a pair of polarized lenses in the standard cheap paper glasses. The interesting part is generating 3d images from 2d data. Since Lucas didn't film all the scenes in 3d, he has to use postproduction tricks to extract 3d info. This is mainly done using parallax shifts which is when the foreground and background images apparently move at different speeds during a pan. Static shots would probably have to be 3d'd (or whatever buzzword) in a semi-manual fashion with people telling the computer which parts are at which distance. This also means that certain objects like a person sitting still at a table with a gun won't have enough information to be 3d'd and will either be done manually or left in 2d. It also means that the final movie won't be full 3d since there probably isn't enough parallax data to extract depth information about a person's face in most cases. So you'll have 2d foreground images moving in 3d in front of 2d background images. I'm not sure how good this would look in a full motion sequence.

I'm guessing the software will be similar to this with some changes due to the limited motions of normal cameras. That's the only intersting part about this whole venture.

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Actually, it looks like morphine is a natural molecule in the brain. I hypothosize that what is happening in the experiment in question is you are training the brain, and so when you use a morphine blocker, the brain can not produce the morphine it would have had you used saline.

" What's the retail price of something that isn't offered for sale anymore?"

The retail price for that is called growth in commerce. As demand rises for a product that did not have enough demand before to create commerce, commerce becomes 'born'. Recently, many very good examples (ebay, amazon, netflix, blockbuster, etc.) of how this particular kind of commerce works have sprung up. Most are very successful. There was an article in Wired News regarding this called The long tail of the economy that explains this very well. If you are stealing the music you are having a hard time finding, then you are short circuiting a very important part of our new economic cycle.

Maybe they should work with the MIT Fab Lab people (see their overview, or the Wired article by Bruce Sterling).