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In other words its still the same over here. And the reason is simple

THE US HAS TOO MANY LAWYERS

Which means they have an approach of grant and challenge (i.e. in the courts, long and expensive process for everyone involved, normally leads to might is right), rather than the European challenge and grant, which means academics and other interested parties can challenge it before its given. The later gives patents that are rarely over-turned and rarely granted, the former, lots of over-turns of lots of patents.

ITS THE LAWYERS MAKING MONEY HERE

Having Lawyer driven processes is bad... hell even Dan Quayle spotted that one on 8/13/91!

What a waste it is to lose one's joke.

My wife and I recently decided that it would be cool to get a pinball machine. Mr Pinball's site was a great resource, and helped me decide to get a old electromechanical (EM) machine instead of a newer, solid-state (SS) one. If an EM breaks, it's likely that a physical component is at fault (switch, spring, solenoid, etc). If an SS breaks, I think there's less that I can do about it.

I checked around ebay and a few other places, and figured that a decent, playable EM would cost about $1000 (in California). I ended up finding Space Odyssey for $250. It's barely playable, and in poor cosmetic condition. It'll be my evening/weekend project for a few months. The repairs should cost much less than the $750 that I saved.

The first thing that I did was order schematics, a manual, rubber rings, and new flippers from The Pinball Resource. I've since ordered a bunch of other stuff from him. And rec.games.pinball is great. Every time I've had a problem, I get responses within hours. They've helped me out at least two or three times this week alone (flipper rebuild, broken "drained ball detect" switch, unexpected slam tilt/short-circuit). Currently, I've got the machine disassembled for cleaning and waxing.

In short, I would never have purchased my pinball machine unless I found the kind of resources that I did online. Rebuilding a '67 camaro or a monster truck may be a macho thing to do, but restoring this pinball machine seems like the equivalent geek activity.

Anybody notice how much the big blue guy in Space Ace looks like the genie in Aladdin?

I'm glad they made this it isn't a terribly difficult hack, but it certainly requires a lot of detail and time. Perfect for a Laserhead! Thanks.

But if you read the FAQ pages for the project, you see the other unfortunate side of Laserheads. They REALLY REALLY hate anyone who isn't near their level of knowledge on laserdisc stuff.

Don't expect support! ;)

Actually there is something called internet c++ I haven't played around with it much but it sure looks interesting. Does anybody have any experience with it? It looks like a pretty good idea.

Scientology Kills -- The Dead

Lisa McPherson -- An Unanswered Murder

Scientology Lies -- Good Rundown of Various Crimes

In this picture, you can clearly see a penguin reflecting off the actor's left nostril. In fact, that's the only reason why that picture was included, since after all, it isn't a picture of the DAMN SCREEN and must serve some purpose.

I've been happy with XMission

http://www.xmission.com/~icvm/downloads.html Quote: You may download the source code and compile it, if you wish. You will need a minimum GCC version 2.95.2 to recompile the virtual machine with the same results we are getting. The virtual machine (ICVM) uses features present in the later revisions of GCC to achieve some of its optimizations.

Between C# and Java most of the developer mindshare for cross-platform server applications has been staked out. This language has to have a whole lot more going for it than simply being Open Source. It is battling incredible odds against entrenched languages/platforms, powerful companies with tons of research and development staff(Sun, MSFT, IBM, etc), several thousand developers, and the natural inertia that keeps people from trying anything new.

It seems to me from reading the page that their major claim to fame is that they are Open Source and as all those who have watched GNU Hurd development goes, being Open Source does not automatically imply mindshare.

PS: What the heck do they mean by the New Internet? Sounds like a rehash of every major Sun, MSFT, etc launch of the past few months/years.

Second Law of Blissful Ignorance

i dont like the sentence on the InternetC++ Website:
"You can have the real thing. Why program in proprietary languages, such as Java and C-Sharp that are incompatible derivatives of C++?"
who says or feels mindful enough that java is an incompatible derivate of c++? that guys which comes whith cheap marketing like "... you can have the real thing ..."
does that people even know whats the difference between java, c# and c++ or even that derivative internetc++?

i keep believing in java. there are too much "things" coming (and also leaving) the time. java stays!

RelWorp

Here we go.. only found 1 pic searching on google..

link

Kinda blurry, but any chick dressing up in a devil costume that's a geek to boot has my vote.

Have you ever used the internet to learn about your religion?

Other members experiences?

History and events?

Quite interesting.

"The truth shall set ye free"
"The gift of the Holy Ghost to discern truth from deception"

http://www.adherents.com/largecom/co m_lds.html - demographic stats, pretty detailed, but old (1990)

http://www.xmission.com/~count ry/reason/mormhist.htm - Mormon history by a mormon historian who had unprecedented access to church historical documents before they were again sealed (pretty much) back up in the archives.

http://www.teleport.com/~packham/templ es.htm - Temple info

Etc.

Hmm.. i bet AOL is working on a "Sunday Services" program. LOL

Something upstream from us was down, sorry. It should be better now. It's mirrored here just in case.

One of the lesser-talked-about problems in the pinball industry has been the competitiveness and use of patents. Williams had a trademark on the name 'multi-ball' for a while, which is why games like Jurassic Park (a Data East machine) had to use the silly name 'Tri-Ball'. Williams has patents outstanding on pinball features like software switch compensation (if the machine detects that a switch is dead, then it'll still credit the shot if a nearby switch or another on the same ramp is triggered), and use of magnets such as Magna-Save (Black Knight, Pharoah, Black Knight 2000) or the 'magnetic flippers' on Twilight Zone. Perhaps Stern could try to get away with using something like this on one of their games, but Williams is still doing quite well and has lawyers, so don't expect to see those features on another pinball machine for a long time, if ever.

As far as pinball in the future goes, if any of you have a little extra cash, I'd highly recommend getting a pinball machine of your own. Check out rec.games.pinball (it's still one of the best signal/noise ratio Usenet groups out there), or various webpages like Mr. Pinball, who is not only a good source of repair tips and general information, but also has an excellent pinball classifieds section, with over 1000 machines listed presently. Pinball machines aren't as hard to keep going as you'd might think-- many can be bought for $500-1000 (cheaper than a new gaming computer, and it holds its value!), and isn't that hard to maintain for home use-- remember that these machines are built to withstand drunk people in bars beating the crap out of them; home use is an easy life for them.

In short, if you like pinball, get involved-- either by owning a machine or checking out and playing the games out on the street now.

Personally I believe it's the appliacations or system softwares responsibilty to handle that sort of auditing.
I fully agree that mysql should have more crash resistant techniques such as rollback.
But for godsake just because it can't dynamically link data doesn't make it non-usable.
It's your applications job to deal with the data
It's mysql's job to store the data.
If you want to pay 15,000$ extra for spoofy logos and
features such as that go ahead, i'll just spend 10 extra minutes
programming the functions I need into my application
that can do the exact same things as oracle for a significantly lower price.
I guess it comes down that Oracle programmers are lazy. ;-) j/k trevor@xmission.com

True. However, LDS folks also believe in upholding, honoring, and sustaining the law.Which means that when push came to shove and every appeal through the courts had been exhausted, the choice was given to the one person who had the authority to make the decision -- the president of the LDS church at that time -- a man named Wilford Woodruff. According to his journals, he saw in "a vision" what would happen if the church continued to follow and defend polygamy, vs. what would happen if the practice were abandoned. Hmm.. it took a vision from god to notice that when the government says 'Quit polygamy or we disband your religion' they mean what they say. Interesting. Also interesting is the fact that after polygamy was outlawed, and the church leaders forsook the practice in public, they themselves (including woodruf) continued to proactice it in secret. he was given knowledge by God, and the right to make the decision, which he did, ending the practice. He also stated that if God had said "continue", he would have obeyed God even knowing he was in violation of the law. Ahh, perhaps thats why he kept on doing it in secret. Thus, anybody attempting to perform a plural marriage after he said "stop" would be violating their sacred covenants. True, but those married to multiple wives beforehand were exempt apparently. This is all fact, its even in the church history, which the church has repeatedly censored and modified since its publication. Ever wonder why the church sealed up all its historical documents a few years back? The historians at BYU kept finding juicy tidbits like that, and others such as multiple versions of the first vision, correlations between josephs joining the Masons and the changes in the endowment ritual. Swearing to die by disembowlment, sliced throat, and something else (i forget at the time) if you broke the secret to the endowment? Oh, and dont forget that after the mormons were run out of missouri, the endowment contained an oath to 'swear vengance upon this nation and its leaders' until the blood of the saints was redeemed. Very interesing. No wonder the mormon church is one of the most censor happy instiutions.. Cant have stuff like that getting out.. Check the following for reference materials: http://members.aol.com/VeilW orker/endowment.index.html http://www.xmission.com/~count ry/reason/mormhist.htm http://www.irr.org/mit/default.html If I seem a little antagonistic, its because I was a mormon (born and raised) for many years, and then I find out about this stuff which the church so convieniantly hides and censors.

-dj

we don't need no steenkin' marriage license

• ftp://mirrors.xmission.com /mozilla/mozilla/releases/m12/
  
• ftp://sunsite.utk.e du/pub/netscape-source/mozilla/releases/m12/
  
• ftp:// sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/Mirrors/ftp.mozilla.org/pub/m ozilla/releases/m12/
  
• ftp://sunsite.ua lberta.ca/pub/Mirror/mozilla/mozilla/releases/m12/
  

52 years old... If they restore it to actual operational status I'll bet they don't run it for very long at a time. Spare tubes and such are gonna be a bear to find.

Tubes aren't as hard to come by as you might think. Lots of companies are still selling 'em. The biggest of 'em is Antique Electronic Supply in Arizona; a couple of others I can think of off the top of my head are CWest Tubes in Utah and Fair Radio Sales in Ohio. The audiophooles have driven the prices of some types (especially power triodes) through the roof, but many types still sell for just a few dollars each, including (IIRC) the 12A_7 types that boatanchor computers more than likely would've used by the gross. (If they're interested in economizing, they could retrofit the machine to use some of the goofball tube types developed for TV use, which are dirt-cheap...but since they're working with a one-of-a-kind machine, they probably don't want to hack it up too badly.)

In fact, I've heard from some people that it's actually harder to fix old transistor radios than it is to fix similar equipment built with tubes, since early transistors have become scarcer than hens' teeth. Early ICs can be equally hard to come by (some talk came up in comp.sys.apple2 a while back about the feasibility of reproducing the Apple I from schematics, and someone noted that some of the chips used in that machine's design are no longer available.

With all that said, the machine would more than likely be on static display most of the time. They might fire it up for special occasions or just to verify that it still works, but I doubt they'll have it participating in GIMPS 24/7. :-)

I enjoy Gore's proclamations as much as anyone, but let's face it: He is but a pale shadow of Quayle, and will never be able to fill the true genious' shoes.

I live in Kansas, about 30 miles from the capitol, where all this happened.

I live in Lawrence, Kansas, which is about as liberal as you can get in the Midwest.

I was also raised on a farm, in the 'boonies'.

I am not a Repubican (nor a Democrat, for that matter). I believe that the 'Religious Right' is wrong most of the time. I am not currenly affiliated with any religious group.



It appears that once again, 'crap' journalism has arisen to take a pretty tame fact and blow it WAAAAAAAYYY out of proportion.

Here's the deal: In the passed proposal, it does not ban, decry, condemn, or pass any type of judgement on evolution. It simply does not make it a subject that the state school board recommends that students *have* to be tested on. That's it. Nothing more. Here's more information, a few paragraphs down.

Are there religious undertones for this vote? Sure! Are there private agendas here? Sure, on both sides of the fence. But this is NOT a ban on evolution or a proposal of creationism teachings. It simply does not require evolution to be a state assessment test subject. Schools are NOT required to follow this and may teach the subject any way they wish.

What really offends me, are the several articles I found (MSNBC, CNN, etc) that basically mention the vote, and then spend the rest of the article talking about other states efforts to pass creationist laws. They mostly ignore the nature of the proposal and immediatly start yelling about the "Scopes Monkey Trial" and separation of church and state. I find it interesting that they mostly interview scientific "experts", who talk about evolution as a fact-theory, and then real 'christian' cretins who are about as reasonable as Fred Phelps. What about just plain old normal people who don't have any axes to grind? This is really CRAP journalism.

I'm a Kansan, and for the most part, this decision doesn't really hold much interest for me, one way or the other. I'm home schooling my daughter, and this doesn't really affect me. (And yes, when she is old enough she will learn about the "Theory of Evolution", but not about the "Fact of Evolution").

Check your facts before you start make REALLY offensive remarks, okay?


jf

Here in Utah there is the same sort of thing. The best part of it is Utah Education Network is connected to it so all of my packets to my home computer don't have to go accross the NAPs to get to my ISP from school.

The basic opinion is: Apple's testing the waters here; its further actions will be governed by the response of the open-source community. If people treat Apple as slime and "just as bad as Microsoft", as some people on Slashdot have been doing, then it's assured that Apple's open-source efforts will never go beyond what they are now. But if they see positive results coming out of their experiment -- like good outside enhancements or bugfixes, or market-viable porting opportunities -- then they may very well more fully embrace the idea of open source.

Please, people. Be rational about this. Good can come from it if we avoid extremism and ideological jihads.

From: don@misckit.com (Donald A. Yacktman)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,gnu.misc.discuss,comp.sys.n ext.advocacy
Subject: Re: The brewing QuickTime/Linux issue
Date: 18 Mar 1999 19:33:01 GMT
Organization: XMission http://www.xmission.com/
Message-ID:

"Michael J. Peck" wrote:
>taiQ wrote:
>> Yep, but it's still welcome news. Wasn't it Randy Rencsok who
>> advocated this route in an essay on his web site? I'd be interested in
>> reading about his opinions on this turn of events.
>
>I think it was Don Yacktman, if you mean the "OpenMach" proposal. And
>come to think of it, if that's what you mean, you're right; that's
>approximately what it is, but I never really thought of it.

Both Randy and I wrote some things on this. Randy suggested opening up higher level stuff than what I proposed, such as the Yellow Box. He and I also consulted with each other somewhat, and both chose to take slightly different approaches to the same thing.

I'll make a few rambling comments now; I do intend to put up an open letter thanking Apple on the Rhaptel site (http://www.of.org/rhaptel/) either today or tomorrow.

I didn't go as far as Randy in my proposal for strategic reasons. I'd certainly like to see Apple eventually open up everything, but I just don't think that is practical to do up front.

I'm looking more at the idea of driving in a wedge. Ask for something smaller, something that is easy to do. They do it. If it is successful, then you can ask for something a little bit bigger. Taking two steps--A to B and then B to C--is much easier than one big step A to C. Another analogy is to realize that to turn a large ship, you do it in smaller increments, taking its inertia into account.

Apple's taken step #1--Open Mach. In fact, they've released two things beyond Open Mach, consider them surprise bonuses: SoundKit and Netinfo. So, kudos for Apple to have the courage to take that first baby step. Now they've passed the baton to us. We have to make it a success.

And this "wedge" process is something that Apple is fully aware of. They are actually trying to turn the ship and this is just the first increment. I have very good reason to believe that if we take the baton and run with it--if Apple sees some real successes with Darwin--then we shouldn't be surprised if Apple opens up more things.

I'm not making a promise here, just an "educated guess". But I do think that Apple is serious about Open Source and is looking *very* closely at how Darwin, ahem, "evolves" and that such evolution will shape the future directions Apple takes. I've got several good (NDA) reasons for believing this to be the case.

>I think the issue here is that the lower levels were already pretty well
>known. In any case, if one were to port the lower levels, one would have
>Mach + BSD. It's not exactly the sort of thing one shouts "Hallelujah"
>about, seeing as how the hue and cry these days, in the Open Source
>community, is for more sophisticated *upper* levels (hence the KDE/GNOME
>happenings, the XFree86 griping, the Berlin project, and the hardware
>OpenGL push). It could be that someone will port Mach + BSD to other
>platforms, but once you have the port, what are you going to do with it?

I can see a few things happening. One obvious scenario is that Apple can *always* "port" their upper layers to any Darwin implementation that seems to be popular with the community. The beauty of letting the open source community take the wheel is that the marketing people can just watch how things unfold to determine which products are worth producing.

There are other scenarios, but I won't elaborate them here or now. As I understand it, Darwin is the _beginning_, not the _end_, so assuming that the community does kick in, there could be a lot more to come.

By the way, most of the data I've collected reinforces the point that Apple is fully behind this "newfound" open source direction. For example, in reference to Perens' arguments, if the APL needs to be modified slightly to make it work better, I get the impression that Apple is willing to make some tweaks. They've even said that, in effect, they are new to this whole thing and expect it to adapt to the community as needed. They're admitting that they are the students, and they're willing to learn. Apple _wants_ this to succeed, so they'll be flexible. Of course, there will also _always_ be people who are upset about some niggly detail--you can't please everybody--but I think Apple will be able to provide decent value to the majority of people.

One thing that I find interesting that nobody else has mentioned. By open sourcing this stuff, they now have over 100 people working exclusively on code that is open source. Are there any other commercial entities which have thay many developers paid to work solely on open source? It is fascinating to think about how different the Apple of today is from the Apple of even just two years ago; like any large body there is a lot of inertia, but there are also some striking changes. I hope the community is willing to allow Apple to change and willing to give them a chance.

While Apple is certainly going through a learning process, you have to give them credit for having the guts to actually start the process. They certaionly didn't _have_ to do Darwin. Now I dearly hope that the community follows through...if we all work with Apple and ease them through the learning process, we will probably succeed in not only changing Apple, but also in transforming the entire industry. That's a cool thought...

--
Later,
Don Yacktman
don@misckit.com