Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Speed, Reprieves, Geometry
Legislators cut down crack intake, film at 11. In this article about strange privacy-invading provisions of H.R. 2987, the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2000; you'll be pleased to note that many of its more odious portions have been erased. From the article: "[P]roponents of the bill -- known as the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act, (HR 2987) -- have steadily dropped some of its most controversial pieces, including a provision that would have made it illegal for news Web sites to link to Webpages about topics like medical marijuana. ... Another provision that was removed would have forced Internet Service Providers to remove users' Web pages without due process on the basis of mere allegations by the government." Hmmm -- laws and sausages.
Letting sleeping white elephants lie, or something. cetan writes "The Chicago Sun Times is reporting that "Motorola's request [to pull the plug on Iridium] follows a determination by Castle Harlan Inc., the New York investment bank that planned to buy Iridium's assets for just $50 million, that the business is too weak to save." Who knows though, maybe the system will get a last-minute breath of life yet..." The pool of possible saviors is pretty small now, eh?
A serious-stuff-only-station. gfxnrrd writes: "I just heard a talk by a researcher from Sony KARC about the GS cube. recently exhibited at SIGGRAPH. The cube contains 16 upgraded PS/2 chipsets; that is, 16 Emotion Engines (with 128 MB of main memory, instead of the measly 64 that the PS/2 has) and 16 Graphics Synthesizers with 32 MB of DRAM each, up from 4 from the PS/2). It can sustain 2024x1028 frames (in 32 bit color, natch) at 60 frames per second. It's connected to the world via a Linux box, which is responsible for both network and controller I/O. On the down side, the processors (at least in this prototype) are connected only via the bus, so no hypercube MP architecture or anything.
I should also mention that the earlier Slashdot article about the GS cube was misleading, in that Sony has no plans to sell this box (for any purpose) any time in the near future. It's not a "graphics workstation" nor can it be unless some radical changes are made (like adding a disk drive, to name only one thing). It's purely a research prototype at this point."
Speaking of cubes, MattTC writes: "These guys have some neat ideas on using the Mac Cube as a rackmountable server." It's also cool to see the G4 Cube without its clothes on.
First-class mail? navindra writes: "The legions of KMail fans may be interested in this progress review by Don Sanders. The last stable release of KMail was way back in September 1999 but development has far from halted." It may not look as slick as Evolution 0.3 does, but it sure looks like a nice clean mail experience!
A really nice slick PT Cruiser ad
Am I the only one in the world that thinks that the PT Cruiser is the ugliest car ever made? (It even beats out the VW Bug...)
-- Dr. Eldarion --
I think it was like $250 new, but its a few years old and the bridge is messed up. And I'll throw in a Mitsumi 24x CD-ROM
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
my bid
35 Black Expo markers
1 functional Palm III base
3 Clipboards
O'Reilly Programming Perl, Perl Cookbook, Programming the Perl DBI
Meguiar's Ford Focus Drag Car poster
Water Cooler
Pair of scissors
$75
?? anyone else ??
JediLuke
JediLuke
-Do or Do Not, There is no Try
hah, that's good... I especially like:
;)
What's the best email you've received from someone looking at your site?
The one from Tycho [from Penny Arcade] where he offered to give me a back massage for 10 bucks and a baked potato.
I don't know why, but it's one of the funniest things I've heard in a while
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Almost...the next step is for the bill to go to a conference committee where the differences between the House and Senate bills will either be worked out or if the committee can't come to an agreement, the bill dies. The House and Senate must approve the committee report for the bill to land on Clinton's desk.
Here's a good link for political newbies.
I always knew that political science degree of mine would come in handy someday. ;-)
This is another view of the world.
HP LaserJet IIID with JetDirect EX Plus
2 1X SCSI CD-ROM drives (Caddy-loading)
1 HP Vectra LS/12 286 Laptop
Several Dilbert books
A 1GB Quantam IDE hard drive
Miscellaneous screws
A handful of picks
A couple pennies
And a slice of pound cake with M&Ms
Does anyone else find it funny that this post was moderated as "flamebait"?
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Apparently, according to a cow-orker, Gov. Tom Ridge (R-PA) has signed into law a bill that will make it illegal to send spam to businesses (and I believe consumers) in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Anyone have any news on that?
- No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades really cramps his style.
A court ruling in Ontario, Canada has struck down the law that make possession of marijuana illegal. While the case in question involved medical use, the law, which makes no distinction between medical and recreational usage, was struck down in its entirety as unconstitutional.
However, it isn't time to spark up on Parliament Hill just yet, apparently the old law remains in force for a period of one year, during which time the government must replace it with a constitutionally correct version, or much more unlikely, let it slide.
OK, that said, Canada obviously has a much more liberal and, I dare say, level-headed approach to the dreaded killer weed. Given that America's English-speaking allies across the border have free reign to publish info on hemp horticulture, and other issues regarding recreational, medicinal and industrial uses of that Evil Plant.. what can the American government do?
Will Canada be cut off? Will American ISPs be forced not to filter out requests for certain IP addresses? Is this bankruptcy act thingie indeed even more lame than it looks, given the international nature of the internet?
I don't get you. It's difficult to be simultaneously opposed to Hatch and Jackson, being as they're diametric opposites. I mean, there is more than one dimension to the political spectrum, but Jackson is not a dope, nor an extremist (you'll notice I didn't defend Hatch). So I think you're just trolling.
Switch the . and the @ to email me.
- Before I say anything about Intel's new Pentium III at 1.133 GHz I would like to raise one question. Do you need a processor that's faster than 1 GHz right now? Really? Let's be honest, there is indeed hardly any software for the vast majority of users, which would be able to take any sensible advantage of a CPU that fast. Who is supposed to need it?
All I can say is, ouch!I/O Error G-17: Aborting Installation
some good sites and thoughts on drug reform in general...
NORML
smokedot
Students for a sensible drug policy
Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico
just to get started at least -- have fun.
Not trolling, just making a snide comment. There are always dogmatic loudmouthed idiots that represent any political ideology, regardless of whether you agree with them. Besides, if you think I'm trolling, why the hell would you reply to me? :-)
Jesse Jackson has always been pro-WoD in the past... if it's true that he's protesting it, it's a major (positive) policy shift for him.
--
* And remember, it's spelled N-e-t-s-c-a-p-e, but it's pronounced "Mozilla."
I'll bet you can't name an innocent man who did, either.
Just subsititute 'politician' wherever you see 'Republican' and you'll do fine.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
It was a bad idea when it started. I mean, come on! The data transfer rates are something like 2400 bps (my first modem, which was a handme down over 7 years ago!). Because of the orbits, a ridiculous number of satelites is required, which jacks the maintainence costs through the roof. Then there's the nasty little oops, as you mentioned, of it screwing up radio astronomy. Just let the bloody thing die already.
His name is Michael Smerconish. And he is a dick. I only ever hear him because he's on before and after Phillies games. But don't take it from me:
http://www.brainsoap.com/news_v iews/blotter_2.shtml
grep -ri 'should work'
Whoa. Abolishing all income taxes? Withdrawing from the WTO? Claiming the Panama Canal as soverign US territory? Ron Paul is cooool. ;)
While it might make you feel safe in thinking these were nothing more than " trail balloons" history has shown that someone else will pick up the flag and before you know it the "trail balloon" is law.
It used to be that Japan is where all the cheap electric guitar knockoffs were made... but Japan has been making some good stuff for years now. Then Mexico inherited the *knockoff* slot. Even their stuff has been improving. Nevertheless, I'd still stick with something made in the USA... like a PRS with the quilted finish, custom pickups, and a tentop. Woof! :)
Oh yeah, I've a 1992 Mazda MX3 I wouldn't mind seeing launced into orbit (and burn up on reentry). Maybe I could trade that for Iridium (hey, that was almost on topic!).
Thad
The Bolachek Journals
Since the Cube depends on convection cooling, it will probably overheat on it's side.
love is just extroverted narcissism
Hello Iridium Satellite. Hello Iridium Satellite. Have you heard about the website called slashdot.org? No. I learned that most Satellites burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. Ahhhh! The Atmosphere! Ahhhh!! Ahhhhhhh! The Atmosphere!
It brings a tear to my every time I think of my poor PS/2 80 lying in some landfill...
Am I the only one who gets the wrong idea when people talk about a PS/2?
I can't wait until the release of the new Dungeons and Dragons logic peripheral, the TSR-80!
Kevin Fox
Kevin Fox
You too. It's the first day and I'm already sick of it.
The problem I have with protesting here is that there are so many protesters protesting everything that we'd just be lost in the noise.
- Apple Computer......proudly going out of business for over twenty years.
A chewed up bic pen
A gutted SGI Indigo R3k case with XS24 logos
Fundamentals of Database Systems
A 1989 Sharp 20" TV
A Fender Mexican Standard Strat
A Goldstar 14" Monitor
An empty 2 liter of Diet Coke
Perl CD Bookshelf
Pioneer VSX-305 reciever with broken input selector
One New Balance 712 Sneaker
Pair of dried up contact lenses
1gig Seagate Medalist 3600rpm with bad sectors
$2
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
Why are slashdotters so anxious to save this thing? It serverly hampers radio astronomy so that Joe and Mary Consumer can feel good about having a cell phone that works anywhere on the globe.
I hear its a new breed that will really make you high.
The sad part is that, by spending so much money on a stupid idea, inventor money is no longer available for actual good ideas. Iridium was based on how corporate executives see themselves, rather than on the reality of life as a corporate executive:
...the sad truth being that corporate executives spend virtually all their time in offices, airports, in airplanes or at other people's offices. All of which are serviced just fine by cel phones.
But since Iridium peed in the water, nobody will want to swim. And actual good ideas, like Angel Halo have a much harder time of it.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
So now you're going to protest the protestors? :)
I'm glad I don't live there.
No one seems to be posting much about them.
How much would these things go for in $AU?
__
> of the measely 64 that the PS/2 has)
Err... The consumer PS2 has 32 MB of DRAM, and an additional 4 MB of embedded VRAM.
> On the down side, the processors
> (at least in this prototype) are
> connected only via the bus,
Yeah - right now, apparently syncronization is interrupt based in the GSCube. Ouch!
Notice they said "no pictures" on the floor, but we were all snapping away anyways? :)
Has anyone been able to dig up more info? The guys on the floor were technically inept to answer serious questions.
Actually there's a radio host here that's doing just that.
I'm just sitting back and trying to ignore it.
- Apple Computer......proudly going out of business for over twenty years.
yea, and since he sponsored it, hopefully they'll pay attention, or at least his campaign coffers
--
+&x
Well, I could use processors faster than 1 Ghz, but what I really need is a much faster processor to memory interface. I'm processing video and am bumping up against the raw memory bus IO speed. To speed up my code I'm having to go to wavefront techniques else I can't get the job done in time. That is I'm folding the multiple processing passes into one pass with special sequencing to keep the data processing correct. Pass 1 is run till it's generated enough data that pass 2 can be run. Pass 2 runs till it dosen't have enough input data. Pass 1 is run for another row of data, and then pass 2 runs for another row. Pass 3 and 4 are each started and interleaved into the processing as they each have enough data to work on. By doing this the data for passes 2 through 4 are in the cache rather than needing to be fetched from memory. Wavefront processing techniques were developed when main memory wasn't large enough to hold the hole data set. I'm using them to do all the stages of processing I need before the block of memory gets pushed out of the L1 and L2 caches. Even doing this I only see a 4x speedup. I'm actually still waiting on main memory to cough up the data for a much longer time than I'm spending processing the data. Before you tell me to get a processor with a larger L1/L2 cache, my working set is just over 36Mbytes per frame set.
Why does anyone vote for Feinstein? It seems like every time I read about some whacko bill to gut civil liberties, her name is on it. This is the same woman who had the only concealed carry permit in San Francisco, while she was busy trying to disarm honest citizens.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I've read news articles that say that people don't really have any idea on what her values are, they just feel that they should vote for her anyway, maybe because she's the incumbent. It will be difficult for Tom Campbell to win the election, since he's very low in the polls right now and hasn't been running a very good campaign.
PLEASE DO NOT VOTE FOR FEINSTEIN!!! Here is an entire website devoted to why you should not vote for her. She's anti-civil rights, anti-Internet, anti-just about everything. I'm not a republican but I'm definitely voting for Tom Campbell, who doesn't support the war on drugs and is pro-choice. Here is Tom Campbell's voting record, and the one on his web site.
I think we should pass a law prohibiting politicians and members of the government from discussing or promoting laws which contradict, restrict, or attempt to invalidate constitutional rights. Try to restrict free speech? Get tossed. Get fined. I'd love to see Orrin Hatch on trial for "attempting to violate the inalienable rights of constituents". Hah!
Why is HALO better than a high altitude dirigible? Presumably one would want the thing (whichever) to be totally automatic, so, e.g., the pilot didn't have to take meal breaks. The plane imaged didn't look to be solar powered, so there would probably be need for frequent refuelings.
It seems to me that if one took a dirigible (perhaps based around NASA's pumpkin baloon design) with a solar powered motor, and, I hope, radio equipment (plus sufficient batteries for night operation) one could create a system that required less on-going maintenance, and might even be cheaper to start with.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Unless random personal web sites are unreliable, Louis XVI's diary entry on that date was merely "Nothing." :-)
(At least, several random personal web sites confirm the "Nothing" quote for Louis and the "Nothing of importance..." quote for George. They may all be completely misinformed.)
--
* And remember, it's spelled N-e-t-s-c-a-p-e, but it's pronounced "Mozilla."
1) Well, there is always Ebay guys... I can see it now.. system of barely used LEO satellites... going out of business, everything must go....
2) If they have any sort of manuveurability, I mean, hell, if you work for them you are obviously going to be out of work soon, so you could, you know, aim at stuff when you "de-orbit" couldn't you?
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
What will be interesting to see following the Iridium flop is how other, similar projects such as Globalstar - to mention only one - will develop. Will they, too, go out of business? And those that have not yet even started launching satellites, will they ever do so?
My personal belief is that, sooner or later, there will arise some sort of need for a global comunications network. The question is only, how far away is that? Obviously, we are not there just yet.
here's the link to what's going on with the House Report.
it appears that on "7/25/2000: Forwarded by Subcommittee to Full Committee (Amended) by Voice Vote.
this page does list the co-sponsors.
hope it helps.
/* Half alive and half dead too, work is for suckers and the sucker is you. - "Half-life" by Local H*/
Just looking around my cube, I am prepared to offer:
17 empty altoids containers
1 broken Palm III hot sync base
The O'Reilly Java in a Nutshell, Java Enterprise in a Nutshell, and Java Examples in a Nutshell books
A really nice slick PT Cruiser ad
A worn out ping pong paddle
A slightly stained coffee mug
And $32.67...
That should make me the high bidder... Let me know if you are interested guys...
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
Lots of legislators throw up 'trial balloons', partly to impress the home electorate and partly to see what will fly. Many of the more odious things we here about early on are shot down as part of the normal process of making laws. It's no surprise that the anti-linking provisions were pulled - somebody had a rush of brains to the head and talked the sponsors into dropping it. Sometimes the system does work.
...phil
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
The credit industry is owed a few by congress. They've been stuck with a rather bad situation the past few years.
One of the few debts you can't get out of paying in bankruptcy is your taxes. The government always gets its money.
Did you know you can now pay your income tax via credit card? And if you can't pay your bill, the card company gets stuck... not the feds? And therefore you CAN get your tax debt forgiven in a bankruptcy?
Not that any of the million or so bankruptcies every year actually used this loophole... nope... there's probably still one or two bankruptcy lawyers out there somewhere who don't recommend this strategy.
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
No. A vote for Lightfoot is a vote for Lightfoot. Only a vote for Feinstein is a vote for Feinstein.
A single vote for either of the main parties is unlikely to change the results of that election.
Each vote for a Libertarian candidate is useful, in that it shows there is one more voter who is fed up with the status quo, who agrees with the Libertarian platform, and who is willing to put aside the fear, uncertainty and doubt spouted by the main parties and wrok on what they believe in.
Just because the bill has been revised doesn't mean that we are no longer in danger of the threats it poses to our rights. Because the version passed by the House differs from the one which passed the Senate, Congress must again decide which version to pass. And even if the House's version passes, that probably won't be enough to stop Senator Feinstein, who will likely beat her opponent, Tom Campbell, in the next elections.
Congress will supposedly convene Tuesday, and when that happens you can read about it on their web site. In the meantime, you can read more coverage on this bill here.
I know that Rev. Jesse Jackson will be protesting the War on Drugs, other than that I'm not sure.
Slashdot social engineering at it's finest
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) wrote the bill. I don't recall who endorsed it.
Slashdot social engineering at it's finest
I bid
a totally beat to death Tecra - bout five years old. Coffee stained mother board - third replacement one so far.
One old cat.
A fat Labrador
Miscellaneous lawn mowers
and a bag of Rebel Grass Seed..
Sorry - no money
Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves. -George Gordon
What a fantastic law!! What I really want to know, and didn't pick up from the article, is this: which senator(s) or representative(s) (is|are) responsible??
Lest you morph into a modern-day Diogenes in search of an honest (responsible) Congresscreature, I'll save you some trouble: there flat out ain't any.
An Ontario court just ruled that current marijuana laws are unconstitutional. A victory for us canucks, anyway.
His basic premise was that, if smoking marijuana enhances the quality of life of people with certain illnesses, then it is completely absurd to deny them the privelege.
I'm in the philadelphia area too.. and would REALLY love it if there was a protest i could join ;) unfortunly.. like another said, it would be lost in the barrage of other protests.
I dunno... I like U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-TX).
He is the strongest defender of the Constitution we have in Congress today. Sometimes I think he's the only one that pays any attention to it at all.
--
The article, as well as other sources, confirm that the changes were made to the original anti free-speech bill, the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act. As far as I know, the Bankrupcy Reform Bill remains evil. Note that it doesn't make drug-use information illegal, so sites on needle exchange and such would theoretically be okay, but manufacture is still on the death list.
- Michael Cohn
-----
Go ahead, blame me... I voted for Nader!
Anyone in California should keep this in mind in November:
Diane Feinstein was a sponser of the anti meth bill.
Tom Campbell recently said that the drug war has failed, and we need get rid of it.
Any fanatic libertarians out there should keep this in mind: a vote for Lightfoot is a vote for Feinstein.
It's always "nice" to see Congress hand a big present to the vicious credit industry and banks via the bankruptcy "reform" (nee hard-nosed squeezing of consumers who run into bad financial times largely due to extremely high credit card interest rates and creditors extending waaaay too much credit to those who can't handle it, but I digress).
But the idea of extending the anti-human war on drugs in any way defies rationality. The fact of multitudes of otherwise innocent people in prison simply due to drug possession should make any decent person sick to their stomach, esp. those who have known people to have suffered in jail or prison (just because someone is convicted of a crime doesn't always make them a bad person or someone who actually committed a crime...there are many people who are framed, in many cases by prosecutors, but again, I digress). Also consider how blacks are especially picked on by the narcs and imprisoned in high proportion to non-blacks, as if blacks are using/dealing drugs *that* much more than non-blacks (get real!).
Big surprise, but I support the full legalization of marijuana and the decriminalization of using other "illicit" drugs. And guess what? I've never used any of these drugs. I could give a laundry list of reasons for my position (like "treatment works", "saving people's lives from the hard time of prison" and "using hemp will save trees"), but I'll just say this: I dare say that anyone who open-mindedly examines the "war on drugs" closely enough for a good period of time will come to the same conclusions.
The war on drugs is an evil scourge and must be ended. For more info on drug policy reform, go here.
Steve Magruder
Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
What I don't get (and this is NOT a troll!) is why the knee jerk reaction to every bad law is "It's the Republican's fault!" WTF? Last I knew, it was the Dem's in Hollywood's pocket, the people that brought you RIAA and MPIAA and all the other AA's that are out there, as well as the DeCSS lawsuit.
Yeah, the Republican's brought us the War on Drugs. So what? Yeah, they wanted the death penalty. SO WHAT? (Name me a single criminal that committed a crime AFTER his execution! I don't think you can, can you?)
Oh, but wait, they're all RICH Texan Oilmen... See, it's OK to say that because you're not talking about RICH Tennessee Oilmen, who made their millions through Occidental Petroleum in shady deals.
The Dem's sell out just as regularly as everyone else. As for the Wrong Reverend Jesse Jackson, maybe when he gets off his duff and starts talking about the slavery and exploitation going on in Sudan, I'll give him a pat on the back. Until then, he gets nothing. He sure can dummy up quick when opening his mouth goes against the party line, can't he?
Carnivore is being pushed by the Clinton (Democratic) FBI. They also fought long and hard against encryption, and only gave up when even THEIR thick skulls figured out it wasn't a battle they could win.
If you want to protest, do it at the DNC convention. Isn't it kind of funny that the Republicans are holding their convention at the City of Brotherly Love while the Dem's are holding theirs in LA. Which one is that again? Sodom or Gomorrah? Although I personally wouldn't have minded an invite to the Playboy Mansion for the Dem. fundraiser... Not that you would see AlGore and the rest there... They'll take the money, but they don't want to be SEEN socializing with "those types" of people.
Bah... What a waste... I just KNOW this will be mod'd down. After all, it's a diatribe against everything I'm against. Following the crowd instead of following the issues.
- No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades really cramps his style.
Even if that law ("prohibiting...laws which contradict, restrict, or attempt to invalidate constitutional rights")manages to avoid getting itself declared unconstitutional, the Supreme Court would have to be open for business 24/7/365 to deal with ruling on whether or not those proposed laws would "...contradict, restrict, or attempt to invalidate constitutional rights...". :)
And there would have to be a second Supreme Court to handle all the other cases they wouldn't have time for anymore.
I'm sure you'd be glad to volunteer to make the decisions on those proposed laws, but there's probably something in the constitution to prohibit that.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Generally a good thing, IMO.
Well, it's nice to know we got something from all that other than a legacy of fear.
The plane has flown already, and flew from the US to the Paris Air Show (an 11 hour flight). The idea is that a set of 3 planes can service a metropoliton area in shifts. They fly far above the commercial flight paths, and have enough range that they can use smaller airports on the outskirts of a city. In that, it helps that this plane has been designed by Burt Rutan, the man who designed the first non-stop around the world plane...he knows a few things about saving fuel.
Well, compared to the expense and hassles of a huge number of rocket launches, sending up one airplane at a time above a major US city is hardly difficult or expensive.
The main advantages of this system compared to LEO:
The principle advantage of LEO sats over Angel Halo have not proven to be all that valuable - global coverage. Global in this case means "the 30 or so most heavily populated cities". That is enough for anyone who needs to pop open a laptop and get 2.5 megabit internet access. Because they are most likely to do so in some airport lounge or in an office in some large city.
Iridium failed because some doofus forgot to look at a globe and notice that the Earth is mostly covered with water, and most of the land is empty. Humans are generally huddled in small areas, and fish and penguins don't really need phone service.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
...there just isn't an alternative...
Two words: ham radio
No, it's not a convenient as just whipping out a phone, but it's hardly effort-prohibitive. And with the ability to phone-patch through one of the OSCAR satellites, you've got 90% of the capability of an Iridium phone anyway.
Just junk food for thought...
>>Humans are generally huddled in small areas, and fish and penguins don't really need phone service.
;-}
Pengiuns don't need phone service - but most want high-speed internet access.
Hehehehe
slashdot username - at - email.domain.name
I did, in fact, read the entire article, but I must've missed the mention of convective cooling requirements. My bad.
J
I'm in the Philadelphia area, and the Republican National Convention is in town (gak). I was wondering if there are any groups protesting issues such as the mentioned act which would prohibit information on drugs, as well as things like FBI's carnivore which are violating our rights. I know some guys from the ACLU were down there today, but I don't know what they were marching for offhand.
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
I'm not convinced iridium is worth the Fender mexican standard strat... how much is that thing running for on its own?
---
Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor - Ovidius
Are there any beautiful new computers?
I think my 11/45 is beautiful, though, and it's in a rack; I'm not sure it could even support its own weight otherwise.
So, what computers are beautiful?
Damnit! First Orrin Hatch does a bunch of things that are insane, and then he does a bunch of things that are reasonable, and then he does a bunch of things that are insane.
Sometimes I think that there are three guys who all look identical and take turns being "Orrin Hatch".
"Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he deems himself your master."
Looks almost like they're beating swords into plowshares
(a hollow voice says "plough") 8-)
More like taking money from the currently-rich ploughshare venture capitalists and using it to fund the next cycle's sword research.
The real problem with AngelHalo is that it's a glorified cellphone system for coverage over the USA's enormous road network. It's a great system, where it covers, but it's targeted at where the traffic is, not a truly global system.
Iridium works everywhere, even when the local technology doesn't extend beyond the cow-dung fire and the AK47. I only know a few Iridium users, all aid workers in the absolute arse-ends of the world (Northern Afghanistan right this minute). They'd have a lot of trouble without their Iridia (sp?), as there just isn't an alternative, other than the military's comsat networks.
Absolutely! We must immediately pass a law outlawing the discussion of laws that restrict free speech. Also, we should make it illegal for more than 2 Congressmen to convene if we have a well-founded fear that they intend to erode our freedom of assembly. And the media should be prohibited from giving coverage to lawmakers who seek to weaken the freedom of the press.
We must defend our rights! The price of liberty is everybody else's liberty!
-
-
Give me liberty or give me something of equal or lesser value from your glossy 32-page catalog.
Har har!
I'm not sure how this communication system benefits future military work. Raytheon is involved because they want to sell a whole bunch of electronics packages. I can't blame them for wanting to do so.
Neither is the existing cellphone system. I like it because it's a phone system that operates at 1.5 to 45 megabits, is available where the largest number of users are, and is a very clever use of solid technology.
Possibly the UN should buy the Iridium network if it has that much impact on world peace. Or George Soros. But scattered aid workers are not a big enough market to make it viable as a business. The cost of sending up replacement sats and maintaining the entire system is not worth it to the aid agencies. I'd imagine they'd rather spend that kind of money on people, food and equipment. So it remains a white elephant. I'm sorry for your friends, but it makes more sense to use the comsat system until either one of the other LEO systems comes on-line (which will then fail for the exact same reasons) or one of the other flying communication systems happens.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
mattw sez:
think we should pass a law prohibiting politicians and members of the government from discussing or promoting laws which contradict, restrict, or attempt to invalidate constitutional rights. Try to restrict free speech? Get tossed.
We have this already. They're called elections.
Get fined. I'd love to see Orrin Hatch on trial for "attempting to violate the inalienable rights of constituents". Hah!
Yes, well, I'd hate to see any legislator on trial for political views. Even Orrin Hatch. Putting legislators on trial smacks of Putin's Russia.
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lake effect weblog
{Network engineer in Chicago--looking for work!}
It's called treason.
And the congresscritters and the president flaunt it every day, and have been doing so almost since the moment the Constitution was adopted... growing more blatant with each passing year. The trouble is enforcing it, in a millieu where constitutional arguments produce nothing more than derisive laughter.
R U braindead ?
they don't even have a fan !
run hot ?
back to my first question
http://Lenny.com
Some bill with a drug rider passes, someone posts instructions for making methamphetamine to Slashdot (as though we couldn't find them anyway at, for example, Tower Records), and at my next visit, I get a happy 404 File Not Found message.
What a fantastic law!! What I really want to know, and didn't pick up from the article, is this: which senator(s) or representative(s) (is|are) responsible??
"Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he deems himself your master."
Law like that make me sick. I do not use drugs or care to start any time soon. Yet if someone wants to start using marijuana for medical reasons. Then they should if it was authurized by a doctor. It is easier to get morphine from a doctor than to can get marijuana. Also if someone want to get infomation about drugs they can get it from alot of different sources. Also how would search engines deal with this problem. People are tring to do crazy things these days.
Not 64.