Slashdot Mirror
Insanely Great Quickies
It's quickie time! Let's get into the action with some blood and guts. cthulhubob told us about Overkill. In light of all the irritating infringement news, An anonymous coward pointed us at http://www.groucho.com. I don't know why, but
Jesper Skov thinks that having turbojets on model airplanes is a fantastic idea. Hey Doc, are you reading? Gabriel Golden submitted The Boomtrain Manifesto.
leviathan shared the l33t surfer.
According to our anonymous source, "Wired News is reporting that Danni Ashe has become the Most Downloaded Woman on the Internet. In your face, Cindy Margolis!"
Bluedove (with a little help from Wes) showed us how to pirate music and video without a computer.
alienmole gave us the origin of @.
Mantis! is a Sega Saturn obsessive. Check out his site.
Garth, while busy turning it up to eleven, told us about the upcoming re-release of Spinal Tap. On a personal note, just wanted to tell my friend Raja to get well, and that we're all thinking about him.
Plus, we have the whole "new ecomony of scale" coming into play: It doesn't cost any significant amount to make anything past the first copy, and if someone else provides the orignial content, software, etc., the first copy is also effectively free. With a physical distribution unit required for each copy, your costs go up as you make more; with an electronic distribution method, you can copy the file once, and suddenly make it freely available to an effectively limitless number of people.
Does this mean that digital distribution is bad? No, of course not. It means that the rules are in the course of being rewritten, and if the RIAA, MPAA, Metallica, et. al., don't want to be useful contributors to that process, there interests may be made secondary to those of the most vocal participants. I don't know if computers tend to instill freedom-loving ethics in most people who use them, or if those who use them the most are the ones who seek the freedom they provide, but the end result is the same.
If something is on tv or radio is already been paid for by advvertisers and sponsers, etc etc. I don't know what stations you listen to but mine don't play whole cds at a time, only the tracks meant for singles.
Using your vcr to tape the simpsons is a far cry from stealing a workprint vcd or setting up a camera in a theater. I'm just curious how you can justify downloading a movie thats still in theaters, or mp3s from a cd thats not meant to be released yet. I'm sure you love those people who give away the movie ending before you have seen it.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
______________________(
The engine was the Dynajet, which hasn't been manufactured for a long time. Some pictures of pulse jet powered model airplanes can be found here, including some using the Dynajet.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I do hope Raja feels better, but I've been feeling like crap since Saturday.
Once again I've got doctors probing me in weird ways to find what it is. As usual, a doctor sees my blood test results and tells me to cut down on the red meat and alcohol. I'm a $%^& vegetarian! I have never consumed alcohol other than like liquor-filled chocolates-- and that was YEARS ago! So I tell the doctor that and he's like "Well... this shouldn't be happening..."
I just love it when I get to be the first time doctors ever see anything happening. I love it when they make me go thrugh tons of blood tests and ultrasuonds and make me eat and drink nothing but radioactive fluid for 24hours and then CAT scan me because one doctor didn't like what mypancris looked like, but then tells me it's "normal for about 5% of the population."
And after all the poking, prodding and analysing - they still don't know what the heck is wrong.
You know what? I've actually been feeling pretty bad since 1997! Aaaaaaaaaaaarrgghh.... Countless doctors, several different countries, nothing. I guess that's the price you pay for being a vegetarian, not smoking, not drinking, not doing drugs, etc. Now they're going to make me give up pizza and cookies, too.
--
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
Actually... There was a LARGE controversy about this here in Canada, and stores were warned that there might be a huge tax, though they were never told what it was, even though they were told to start collecting for it before they had decided what it was going to be. So, not surprisingly, just before this kicked in, there was a HUGE run on blank CDs in the country. There was such a protest, though, that they ended up taxing 'regular' CD-Rs only $0.25 or so and put the big tax on "audio" CD-Rs, about $1.75. What is the difference between a regular CD-R and and Audio CD-R, you ask? Well, Audio CD-Rs are marked with some identifier that allows them to be played on certain new audio equipment (namely, some Sony equipment, I believe). This same equipment will NOT play regular CD-Rs. That sure sounds like a 'feature' that the consumer asked for. In any case, this falls under a digital home recording act, so now it is perfectly legal to copy CDs and give them to your friends. It could have been MUCH worse.
Collage 376 H u m o u r N e t 13 Nov 1997
SUBJ: Microsoft Acquires Rights to the '@' character
By Jeffrey W Comer, jwc0@erols.com ("jwc-zero")
For immediate release
In a startling move, software giant Microsoft, Inc. of Redmond, WA,
announced today that it had acquired in perpetuity rights to the
"at-sign," the @ character. The at-sign, more properly known as an
"attathorp," is the Holy Grail of Symbology. It is used almost
universally in electronic mail messages, and its frequency of usage is
estimated at well over 20 million instances per day.
Hard on the heels of the Microsoft acquisition of the trademark symbol
(formerly TM) and the service mark symbol (formerly SM), Microsoft
spokesperson Kathy Senna said the move solidified the firm's hold on
printing and communications technology well in to the 21st century.
"We felt Microsoft had strong 'logo disuse case' with the attathorp,"
said Ms Senna. "We examined case law concerning the symbol and our
attorneys developed a line of argument whereby it was established the
original rights owners to the attathorp had long since given up its
use. We simply stepped in and took over maintenance for it."
Indeed, prior to the 1980's, the attathorp was an almost entirely
unused symbol taking up space on typewriter and teletype keyboards.
The advent of the Internet, with its ubiquitous "@" naming convention,
thrust the demure mark into the limelight, making it an almost
singular paean to the Information Age.
Under the terms of the deal, Microsoft acquires in perpetuity all
exclusive use rights to the attathorp. Effective immediately, all
users of the @-sign must include in their work "(c) Microsoft, Inc.
1997, 1998." In July 1998, the appearance of the symbol itself will
change. The familiar 'a' inside the circle will be replaced by a tiny
pairing of the letters "ms" in small caps. All users will still be
required to include copyright notices.
Beginning in 1999, all users of the attathorp -- to be renamed the
microthorp -- will be required to license use of the symbol. Microsoft
has yet to work out details of that arrangement, but spokesperson
Senna indicated that the company would offer several levels of
licensing. "We are projecting a single-use package for the occasional
user, a 1000-use package for writers who use the Internet daily, and a
ten-thousand use package for small business needs."
For users with greater needs, Microsoft will license a microthorp
bonus pack, which also includes rights to other minor symbols, such as
the caret (^), the paragraph marker, and the doomeyflosh (also known
as the lozenge).
The move caught Wall Street investors by surprise. By noon, the bulls
were running rampant, and the trading price had surged up 15 points.
To subscribe to the "HumourNet" mailing list, send the following
command to :
subscribe HumourNet your_name, your_city, your_state or country
As I understand it, her only claim to fame was claiming that she was famous. She fed the "most downloaded woman on the internet" line to various people, and apparently they bought it.
My initial search was for symbols names I did know like carat, ampersand, etc. That got me to ISO 8859 - standard for typographical symbols that is the basis for &n symbols used in HTML, and I managed to come up with name "commercial at" that allowed further searching, but as I said it was ultimately unsuccessful.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
Knowing that the word is amphora, here are some references to the amphora being used as a unit of measure
...
Encyclopædia Britannica
amphora,
ancient Roman unit of capacity equal to 48 sextarii and equivalent to 25.5 litres (6.7 U.S. gallons). The term amphora was borrowed from the Greeks, who used it to designate a measure equal to about 34 litres (9 gallons).
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:Firkin - Used only in John 2:6; the Attic amphora, equivalent to the Hebrew bath (q.v.), a measure for liquids containing about 8 7/8 gallons.
History : Sketches in Jewish Life - Ch. 16 - B
On the lintel over the doorway, between two wreaths of Flowers, is carved a Vessel, shaped like a Roman amphora. It so closely resembles the conventional type of the 'Pot of Manna,' as found on coins and in the ruins of the Synagogue at Capernaum, that it doubtless formed
These seem to document that the term amphora was used to represent a unit of measure, and perhaps a unit of currency going back to biblical times. And so, much the same as we have symbols to represent currency (like $) or measurement (#) you'd have to think the symbol (or a predecessor) is older than 500 years.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
I'm sure you will when Adobe (or BT or Amazon or etc.) go through their patent archives.
Find funky gifts
Maybe _your_ area's cassettes aren't taxed, but mine are...
Intolerant people should be shot.
Laine Walker-Avina
LaineW@technologist.com
"In
Bluedove's homepage is at http://www.gatewest.net/~bluedove/stickinit/sticki n_it.html, not the one referenced in the quickies (characters truncated)
Demonstrant's Open Source Tools
How could they have overlooked "In Thrust We Trust"?
"I will gladly pay you today, sir, and eat up
Sacred cows make the best burgers.
Well, this may be a little off-topic, but the latest use of the @ sign, besides the normal use in e-mail addresses, is more of a political-correct letter. Kind of like a spanish version of the "(s)he" used in several places.
See, the @ can be used as an "a" (a feminine termination) surrounded by an "o" (a masculine termination). In other words, it can turn most spanish words into a new, non-sexist version which is both feminine and masculine at the time.
Just like Michael Jackson...
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Learning to fly, Pink Floyd.
All the time I thought you could only transfer data over the internet and now you tell me, I could download women?
Internet sure is a weird place...
--- If OS were buildings, then the first woodpecker to come around would erase 95 % of civilization.
You need to check out Tapster, Spinal Tap's music distribution site. Nigel said that the real problem with Napster is "too many songs", so it originally had just one song, though now there're a few more Spinal Tap songs, posted by David, Nigel, Lars, and others.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
And if you actually read the oso article you would find out it was sarcastic and from a Canadian comedian.
Lowmag.net
wh00t!!
How long do you reckon it's gonna be before the L33t surfer guys get sued for copyright infringement (rewritting other people's pages) ?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Raja we love you!
Raja is my hero, and can play a good game of Diablo 2. Raja-the-tiger, get better for us so I can help you finish up act1!
Come pet raja on #slashdot on OPN, when is is strong enough to come.
irc.linux.com
Raja, rest up, we sure do miss you.
...Damn that cancer...
http://www.freebsd.org
The most stupid politicofeminazilycorrectly stupid transformation was Ombudsperson instead of Ombudsman (sp?). Or what about this one: shero instead of hero ... duh.
Their messages can be moderated up to 11!
--
--
Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
Although they've done a lot of music, I think they're known more for their writing and acting in sketch and improv comedy. They once did a show with the band "Junior Gone Wild", and even had their own comedy series on CBC. They still do good music, though. One of my favourites is "The War of 1812".
While surfing through slashdot in l33t mode, i noticed the following headline...
"N3w 6Hz C0mp37170r 1n Pr0c3550r M4rk37 $00n"
6Hz. wow.
l33t P30p|3 7h1nk 1n D4 FU7UR3!
*lol*
/nutt
OK. Does it mean that if I prove that I am using the tape for recording of my own voice, I can apply for tax return ?
Even the samurai
have teddy bears,
and even the teddy bears
Even the samurai
have teddy bears,
and even the teddy bears
get drunk
Just an explanatory note. Raja hangs on OPN #slashdot, and he's a Very Cool Guy. But he has cancer, which isn't good. We wish him all the best, so he can get back to enjoying Emmett's Air Canada flames and various degrees of trolldom.
Get well soon, dude.
Chris / thoric.
If we are gonna have jet powered toys, we definitely should get reheat.
Afterburners are the best part of jet engines.
*serving suggestion
Get well soon raja!
I want to see the first use of the dot.
--
--
Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
Why is this "from the steve-jobs-love-child dept"? What have they got to do with this? What is this departemnt anyway? is it made up of Steve's love-children? All of them? Or is it hunting them down for sadistic purpouses? or just to hold them hostage for a buch of cubes and some airport equipment and maybe a few dual processor G4s?
What do specifically Steve Job's love-children have to do with THESE quickies? These seem to be new bits of info, while a steve-love-child would have to be 15 or so at least, no? Has the man gotten laid more recently than that?
Ok - I've had my fun, but could someone please explain it?
Everything and everyone is an aspect of Gd. So remember to show proper respect!
Yeah, the tax is to compensate for "piracy", but the artists never see a dime of it.
Most downloaded woman? I thought it was Pam Anderson.
Or was it before Tommy Lee downloaded her?
Mode (3) smart-aleck mode. Press * to return to main menu.
You know, I've always wondered why do people want a text-mode action game, but then I recall my Cirrus Logic video card which is still humming on my 486/66 DX, and it all comes back.
Ahh, the sweet memories...
--
Kiro
Hear! Hear! Let me go and have one right now.
Mode (3) smart-aleck mode. Press * to return to main menu.
Yes, but who is she? Before today, I'd never heard of her. I guess she's famous for something in the US, but I couldn't figure out what. Her site is extremely lynx unfriendly.
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
There was a TV program in the UK a few months ago where someone home-brewed a turbojet engine from a truck turbocharger and strapped it to the back of his bicycle. It was about the size and shape of a 2-litre soda bottle, and pushed the bike quietly and smoothly at about 20-30 mph. Sadly not street-legal.
Now, a jet engine has considerably more moving parts than a rocket engine.
So, how small can you make an actual jet engine and still have it work?
--
Peter
Maybe I'm not l33t then, since I can't figure out where the "word" comes from.
Is it short for "elite", and if so, why is everyone using it? You can't all be l33t, you know... sounds like another case of style versus substance! - friv010u5 / F|21\/010u5
(ceci n'est pas un
Even better is http://www.alexaresearch.com/clientdir/methodology /
They'd fail stats 101 with this marketing fluff.
You want possibilities?!?! Check this out! http://www.amtjets.com/gallery_real_plain.html -yce
I was fairly dissappointed that the hacker speak does not translate elite into 31337. It seems to only do characters and has no recognition of common hacker words. Take a look at our 31337 21 N technical specs or our product line to see what I mean.
I beleve that the person who invented that usage is now at Genuity (GTE Internetworking) in a fairly high up position. so, yes, it can happen.
Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology
Did anyone look closely at the way they did their count? There are quite a few flaws in their methodology but this was the most glaring. If you look at their counts, they looked at how many unique IP's they had per month. They then added those up to get yearly totals. I hate to tell you, but 4 unique IP's + 4 unique IP's is very often 4 and not 8.
Would you do it for some scoobie crack?
Cindy was a fem bot, and that pretty much sums it up. I'm not saying she's not attractive, but lets face it, smut all over is strewn with skinny blonde women that look exactly like her. Danni however, is different. She has her own look, sure her breasts are down right gargantuan, but she has a nice big butt too. She's not bone thin either, her form follows the classic beauty model. Sure Danni wont get any offers from TV sitcoms (hell cindy only gets UPN anyways), but I would personally rather look at her naked, than Cindy any day. I am glad that she may be the most downloaded woman. You are welcome to disagree with me, its only an opinion.
"My head hurts, My feet stink, and I dont love Jesus." -Jimmy Buffett
I don't know if they are still being manufactured, but there used to be a small pulse-jet engine, like the German V1 Buzz Bomb, suitable for use on model airplanes. The engine was very simple. The only moving parts were the flapper valves that admitted air into the combustion chamber.
Did anyone read the description of the research used to determine that Danni Ashe is the most downloaded woman? It's almost art the way they whittle down the possibilities by eliminating them from the study. I mean, if I could use methods like these I'd surely be able to prove (as I have always known) that I'm the best person in the world at everything!
sheesh.
--
Behold the Power of Cheese!
I hearby demand that we make "download" a euphemism for "screw"*. Then we can be pissed off at Wired for using dirty language.
* Insert your favorite pre-existing euphemism: bop, fuck, fsck, fork, shag, etc...
My mom is not a Karma whore!
If you still wanted to try, here's what I would do. First, practice your flying skills. Make sure you're good at it, as you don't want to crash models that cost 5k a pop. Build a quarter scale Bear D with the largest engines you can find. Insulte the fuselage. Stick all of you equipment (altimeter, airspeed indicator, artificial horizon, cameras, transmitters, batteries, extra batteries, receivers, etc) in the fuselage, then make your ground rig (I'll leave that one up to you
Then, take what you've learned and invest in something insane, like a dual jet Mig-29 , or a Hornet, or an F-15.
Enjoy!
(Yes, I've looked into this
censorship is a form of noise, which actively seeks to drown out content with silence - Crash Culligan
One of the coolest things I've ever seen was a project (in R/C Modeling, I think) to build a quarter scale Harrier and reproduce the ducting and all that.
:-)
Imagine a VTOL model with a turbojet
censorship is a form of noise, which actively seeks to drown out content with silence - Crash Culligan
That has been done, at least mounting cameras with transmitters to watch from the ground, I don't know of anyone ever flying that way though. Would imagine the field of view would be limited and unless you could also have some kind of instrumentation show up to compensate, I would be very doubtful that this could work.
It does take some getting used to, but flying a plane from a fixed position is pretty easy. If you've ever tried a R/C car, you know what it is like at first. You get quickly disoriented and turn the wrong way unless the car is heading directly away.
After a bit, your brain learns to compensate for the orentation of the vehicle and you automatically make the proper control inputs. The same thing happens with a R/C plane, only in 3 degrees instead of 2. I found that getting the PC simulator helped me the most. After a few hours of crashing the plane everytime I turned, I got quite proficient at recognizing the position and attitude of the aircraft and was soon flying inverted with no problem.
When I finally got out to the field with my trainer R/C, I had little trouble adjusting to it. R/C flying is great.
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
Here's where you lose me. The technical arguments about power, vibration I can understand, but I don't understand how much easier it is to control a plane flying some 100 feet above you, at some crazy angle away from you and without the instrumentation you'd claim you'd need, while stationary on the ground. It just strikes me that the direct visual feedback of seeing the world relative to the plane would make control so much easier. I could see it being a problem with poor visibility, bad light, etc etc, but in a normal daylight environment with good ground/sky contrast. I'm not a pilot, RC, virtual or otherwise, so maybe there's something there I'm missing, but flying first-person rather than third just seems easier.
I looked into the abyss, and the abyss looked into me--and we both winked.
I copied this from an article...
Subject: Re: How to Pirate Music and Video Without a Computer
Hi I am Sans Lafargouo From the RIAA. I have documented all that you have done here and will be filing suit against the several companies that are supplying this pirated material and tools to pirate. Starting with the FCC that obviously endorces these broadcastings of non-owned musical genius compositions (music) by the extremely poor artists (The members of the band Garbage cannot afford to buy 3 more Ferarri's because of this pirating! Why must they suffer?) The FCC is obviously the center for these pirated transmissions and they are endorsing the equipment to pirate the music and video.. Our research department have discovered a FCC certification label on every piece of equipment that has this record function. This clearly shows that the FCC endorses the Copying of music.
Please Note: the SONY company is immune to the lawsuit, as they own a large amount of music and artists (they keep them in nice closets) and therefore did not intentionally include the record function on their equipment.
thank you.
cc: richard head - President of RIAA and Mike Hunt - President of the Metallica is cool fan club
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Are you on Smack??? blank tapes cost so much?? That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. anyone with a clue knows where to buy tapes for about 35 cents apiece. This is for BSR brand high speed duplication grade (I.E. the same grade as what you buy at the store with your metallica sons on it) Cripes there is no "TAX",
Please get a clue before posting.... as for the reason that TDK ultra-cd golds cost 5 bucks apiece? that's because stupid consumers will pay that price for the fancy labels and stupid buzzwords ("look dear it's stereo-certified!").... the tape is no better than the crap they make production grade tapes at.
No there is not "tax" there is no conspiriacy, and there is no content in this discussion.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Well, in Canada they have a tax on CDRs as well...
What a crock. If they're going to tax media to cover the loss incurred from pir8s, then doesn't that make pirating okay? They get their money anyways? Maybe entertainment costs should just become part of income tax, and then we can all watch movies, and listen to music for Free! Then they should do the same to gas prices!
From each according to their abilities, to those according to their needs!!
</sarcasm>
In the RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) test: So, this test is of most impotency for us all
Really? Dude! I mean, I knew RFI was bad and stuff, but I never knew it would get like that! Ouch, I'd better go recalibrate my ham transceiver.
--
Friends don't let friends misuse the subjunctive.
Spinal Tap is giving out a bunch of songs free in mp3 on their new site, Tapster
#define F(x) int main(){printf(#x,10,#x);}
F(#define F(x) int main(){printf(#x,10,#x);}%cF(%s))
Did you look at the website of the guy who wrote overkill? It's pretty funny, wonder what his attraction to strawberries is???
I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress -J Adams
As a matter of fact, I do know where to find that info. Drop these guys an email: www.3m.com www.tdk.com www.maxell.com
The ironic part is that at the local Sony store, they have a line of blank tapes called "CD-it". As in, these are targeted towards people wanting to copy CDs. Most other tapes there also include a little blurb on the label about how they're suited for copying CDs.
Well, I read through to the end of the quickies and what gives? They say it's insanely great but there isn't a bit of a mention about the Insanely Great Computer that ubiquitized the phrase 'insanely great'. sheesh.
Start Running Better Polls
How about Deep Throat - In ASCII Art!!.
Personally, I think that beats out an all-ASCII boy band, but that's just me. Unfortunately, it's pretty slow - at least for me.
Chris the MathFreak
The tax is applied to digital media. DAT tapes, Hi-8 tapes for Tascam recording equipment, Minidisc media and the like have a small tax added for the reason you give. It is not applied to analog media because the RIAA doesn't fear analog piracy, only digital.
Kawaldeep
replace 'berserkeley' with 'berkeley' to respond via email.
only until the spiders learn to pick that up too.
For those of you who skipped the Saturn in favor of the playstation, you may not realize how much the Saturn rocked! These games alone were worth the cost of the ENTIRE console: Panzer dragoon saga (considered by many to be the best RPG ever,) World Series Baseball 98 (some people complain about the psx baseball selection by pointing out that wsb was better than any baseball game on the psx -- I don't think it is that psx baseball games are bad it is just that wsb rocked!) Guardian heros (an true classic) and Burning rangers (if it came out for the psx you would have heard of it.)
The psx was meant to be a 3d gaming platform from the start. The saturn was meant to be a 2d gaming platform but at the last minute they added the second sh2 cpu so it could do 3d games using brute force. The 3d games on the saturn were ok for their day but it was much cheaper and easier to come up with 3d games for the psx. The 2d games on the saturn are nothing short of awesome. In fact there aren't many differences between many saturn and dreamcast 2d games.
I am sure many others will post their favorite games. I didn't even mention shining force 3, die hard arcade or tomb raider. Yes tomb raider came out for the saturn first!
Sega makes great games (see any aracade to tell what I am talking about.) They usually make good consoles (32x being an exception.) Their marketing though is really hit or miss. Let's face it of the three big video game companies Sega has to come out with new an cool stuff or they will get totally crushed!
Small brain tumor and cancer in the neck.? I think so...
http://www.freebsd.org
jets suck gas (or RC fuel) like anything. with twin jets i doubt it would make it off the ground. you dont need artificial horizon, altimeter or airspeed...its not a full aircraft. a simple camera mounted to the front, tx and rx (slave the camera to a different tx/rx than the aircraft controls...and use a different battery..if it runs out you have half a chance of getting the model back with a regular controller) with a regular controller and small tv is enough. beware of the video signal interference with the controller signals (shield em). usually it take about $400 or so to do it on the cheap.
#1 - It's not a tax, it's a tariff.
#2 - It hasn't been imposed yet.
Actually, Ray Tomlinson (the @-sign guy), remained with the part of BBN that stuck with Verizon. Genuity spun off from GTE before the Bell Atlantic/GTE merger. (I'm currently on the same project with him. Wierd.)
pulse jets still need a compressor..plus an external starter. usually this is a major pain..no restarts in flight etc...they also are limited in thrust and the micro explosions of the pulses cause damage internally to the engine.
heres a fairly good modern design with a relatively long life and is much safer : http://www.gtba.cnuce.cnr.it/GT2000.HTM
The thing about the tax (and likely why it remains unknown) is that by paying the tax, that legitimizes my using it for piracy; I've already paid the RIAA. Why should I pay the tax to compensate for copying, and then be told that I can't copy! If I pay for something, I want it, and I have right to it.
This sort of tax is bad PR. Unfortunately, I guess it is cheaper to use the money collected in this way to pay for some glitzy ad campaign to offset that PR.
What about a ramjet? No moving parts at all. But you'd need someone to tow it up and let it glide/fall until it reaches sufficient velocity.
<grin>
Not to mention, www.cindymargolis.com is one of those damn sites that never lets you back out.... Microsoft must be making that a standard feature of their server, right?
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
yeah, I'm actually old enough to remember when blank VHS tapes could cost over $20 each. I remember something about how there was a cost built-in to cover money lost to the studios from prople copying movies. Funny thing, it was a huge luxury to even own one VCR, let alone the two you'd need to make copies and rob the poverty-stricken movie studios of the VHS sales (except everyone rented anyway because movies on VHS didn't cost $19.95, more like $50 and up)
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
Someplace else it said the engine supplies 75N at what looks like maximum power. Now:
g=10 m/s^2.
1N=1kg * 1m/s^2 (F=ma)
So, let's assume lawn chair + human + fuel + control system + misc = 150kg.
That's 1500N so you need at least 20 of those bad boys.
I was thinking that 4 on the back of a bicycle might provide a nice assist up hill, but it would probably be loud, and I'd hate to be riding this if it blew up.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Why would you want to back out of CindyMargolis? I'd wanna stay there until I was done...
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Take a look at nt6. Its a real turbine engine (120,000 rpm no less) that runs off cordwood. They even sell plans. (and it looks like fairly straightforward plumbing, for those that don't have an engine lathe in the basement).. Its on my list as one of the loudest noises you can make with wood.
-dp-
The NERDS. New: Junyard Wars FAQ, "Ten reasons why Scrapheap Challenge is better than Iron Chef", and Ten reasons why being on Junkyard Wars is better than being on Survivor
Organizer:New England Rubbish Deconstruction Society;The NERDS,first US team in the UK Scrapheap Challenge/Junkyard Wars
For one, like you say, they are very expensive. They obviously fly much faster than traditional prop R/C and require a much larger flying field. Most fields in the area here around Chicago either have grass strips or short asphalt.
Another problem would be the noise. It is hard enough these days to get away with 2-stroke gas prop engines. Many of the fields around here are now sitting close to residential areas and restrictions on flying hours have been imposed because of noise (you did see the park-district R/C field out the back _before_ you bought your $400,000 town house, right?).
And aside from all that, they are harder than hell to fly. I've obviously never personally flown one, but I have the Dave Brown simulator that let's you fly R/C planes, helicopters and jets on the PC. Flying a jet is _damn_ hard. (no, actually _landing_ is the tricky bit.)
In addition to turbojets, there have been ducted-fan propelled 'jet' models around for a while too. These still have a prop for propulsion and are quite a bit slower than turbojets, but are much less expensive and heavy (doesn't need to fly as fast to generate enough lift to overcome weight) and can been seen at larger AMA events.
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
so who is the most downloaded woman with REAL TITS?
Would the planes be easier to fly if you had a camera mounted in them and could "fly" them from either a VR headset or a computer display? (Let's just assume for laughs that the added weight from the camera, transmitter and power wouldn't keep the plane from flying at all.)
From someone who can't chew gum and walk a straight line, the idea of flying a plane I can only see from a fixed position sounds hard no matter how slow its going. Putting on a VR headset or sitting in front of a computer display makes it sound like a game, which I might have a chance at.
Has anyone attempted that? It sounds like the kind of project that would be cool. I could see having an R/C helicopter pad on my roof and instead of firing up the flight simulator, I could just fire up the helicopter.
www.danni.com is running "Apache/1.3.12 (Unix)",
www.cindymargolis.com is running "Microsoft-IIS/4.0".
Just found it funny to notice...
I would love to see someone frame-capture starwars and then run an ascii-art converter on it. Full length! gzip as a movie compressor!
The SW asciiart movie is hand animated, IIRC.
I would be scared sh*tless to go up in that thing. I want one! I'll commute to work in it.
The point is, Groucho just took the threat as a joke, and eventually so did WB. I hope that still works today.
what the hell is up with that? Why did it get posted. It sucks. And his is the parody, not the other way around. I bet he just submitted it to rack up hits to show off to his friends.
Warning: at the end of RFC1437, locations for the authors' matter replicator patterns are provided. Unfortunately, someone has corrupted the files. Do not use the files to attempt to reconstitute the authors. Trust me on this. Now, where's my mop...
Teach your kids: "C++ made baby Jesus cry."
My idea of the ideal camera would have a lens providing at least the human eye's normal field of view, if not a little wider to provide a sense of peripheral vision.
I think the hard part would be fitting a high resolution CCD camera and a transmitter powerful enough to provide the signal up to 5 miles away.
All I need is someone to do this and give me the controls!
Face it folks, JenniCam is the most downloaded woman on the Internet. There is simply no comparison between people spamming USENET (who the heck reads that anymore? ;) and someone who has hundreds of thousands of users per DAY grabbing images every five minutes.
Besides, she runs Linux on Alpha with Apache...and uses a Mac to snag images.
Piracy is a black-and-white issue: Using software without owning the license for it is theft.
Geez he gets it wrong from the first sentence. Infringement != theft. So much for expecting unbiased reporting... Of course, it's also telling that the only voice from the industry quoted was from Microsoft.
I suppose the industry doesn't really have a choice though; they clearly can't condone "piracy" of any kind. But aside from the PR involved, do companies really care whether their old junk is given away free? My guess is no. Until someone brings it up, no company can be bothered to care. IMHO the article adds nothing to the copyright debate. It says something about CNET that they would choose to run the story, though...
Some are more lethal than others
PS new material at:
jigglypuff's information service
Respond to s
Ohmigod - I was reading /. through the 1337 filter and accidentally got a glimpse of a Jon Katz article! Err, a J0n K47z article. Remember that it doesn't respect your filters or you might be exposed to rambling about c0rp0r4715m 4nd g33k5 1n 0ur p057-C0lum81n3 w0rld!
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Main server. Sometimes incredibly slow, e.g. when the "Heise-effect" shows its power.
Apparently we're not the only site that can generate mega-hits!
--
You know all those 1x1 pixel web bugs? They're just really lossy pictues of Danni.
Hey, now that would be such a great way to get back at your nosy neighbors!
Well, I was flying my model airplane around and it got hit by some strong wind and ran into Ms. Oppenheimer's house, and, uh, well, also ran _unto_ Ms. Oppenheimer... and, uh, yeah, it was flying pretty fast, about 180 mph...
Yup, that's what we need, more powerful toys for all the little geeks-in-training growing up around the world.
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Learning to fly, Pink Floyd.
He's part of a little musical group called "Three Dead Trolls In A Baggie". They have some great comedy stuff-- check out their music at http://www.mp3.com/deadtroll , and check out their web page at http://www.deadtroll.com . Their "Internet Help Desk" skit is absolutely HILARIOUS-- most slashdotters can probably relate to it.
Pretty cool guys, Three Dead Trolls In A Baggie-- my favorite song is probably "Dublin Lullaby". And yes, I'm (part) Irish...
I can't seem to quickly find out how many blank tapes were sold in the 80's or how many blank VHS tapes were sold last year.
I think it might be interesting to compare the average number of songs that fit on a 90 minute tape times the number of tapes sold each year against the total number of napster downloads last month*12.
Does anyone know where I might find this information?
Just FYI... makes me rethink that dual-Xeon III server I was looking at...
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
The article on osOpinion (analog "piracy") was interesting but slightly uninformed.
Wonder why analog tapes cost so much? The RIAA imposes a TAX on every one. This piracy issue has arisen before with analog cassetes and vcrs; in both cases, the RIAA was scared out of its collective minds (or what little minds it has). Eventually, the manufacturers of blank tapes were forced to pay to the RIAA a small fee for each blank tape to cover the cost of piracy. Nowadays, not that many people know about this.
--
Friends don't let friends misuse the subjunctive.
I fly R/C planes, and there are almost always at least one or two jets flying at the field in los Angeles I fly at.
n asoar.htm
I'm finishing up a radio controlled rocketplane right now myself, based on the X-20 spaceplane. A friend of mine has an R/C turbojet, and he was thinking of helping me with my drop tests by taking my rocket plane up on his jet and dropping it from there for the glide tests so it would be going fast enough.
If you want pics of the plane I'm modeling mine after, check out this link:
http://www.friends-partners.org/~mwade/craft/dy
> That's 1500N so you need at least 20 of those
> bad boys.
Well, you do if you plan on flying on pure
brute force of engine thrust alone. Put some
wings or other lifting surface on that lawn
chair and you could probably make do with half
that number, or less.
Chris Mattern
I saw gas turbines mentioned and figured I'd post a url to the Gas Turbine Builder Association. It's amazing what these guys have done. Check it out. http://www.gtba.cnuce.cnr.it/
If that tax doesn't exist anymore, what happened to it?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
thanks for the interesting and funny story. if you have a moment, please look at my other post on this page and give me/us your thoughts on: how to search for "the name of @".
______________________(
I knew about "arroba", but I was curious to know whether "nuestr@s" is pronounced differently from "nuestras" or "nuestros". My guess is that probably not, but...how do you pronounce it in your head when you read it? How do you say it to someone when you say, "hey, you should check out the site 'blah blah nuestr@s blah blah.com'"?
I think this is a fascinating phenomenon from a cultural studies/linguistics point of view.
As I wrote to someone else above, if you have a moment, please check out the question in my other main post...about how one would go about trying to answer the question "what is the @ symbol called?".
Thanks again!
______________________(
The sad thing is that I could read slashdot with no trouble at all.
sup
This is a pretty strong claim for 'prior art' on the @. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop when someone claims to have patented the 'name@host' email address format and sues every email client in the world.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
Many thanks to alienmole for finding this! (Can't find his/her email to send a personal thanks.)
My Failed Attempts to Find the Name of @
Cy Guy, I also searched unsuccessfuly for the answer to this question. First, with a phone call (in the early 90s) to my undergrad "reference hotline" people...the folks who supposedly would answer any question or get back to you on it once they found the answer. I don't remember where the question came from, but these "reference" people were a sad case: they got angry at me for not accepting the fact that it is called "at"...no matter how hard I tried to explain that "the & is called 'ampersand', not 'and', even though it is the 'and' symbol."
Well, after that the question lay dormant for many years until this year. I embarked upon a more serious search that still proved unfruitful:
I searched a passle of typography sites with no luck and finally found www.symbols.com. Their "word index" doesn't even have the word "at" in it! Can you imagine. In this day and age? Nor did I get anywhere searching with their "symbol description terms". As far as I could tell, they simply don't have the @ in their symbol database. Sheesh. I sent an email to their only feedback link, but no reply.
Last stop after that was asking a 'net/tech reporter who knows his stuff. Never heard back from him on this one.
My Question:
So, Cy Guy, and alienmole, and everyone else...now that the "answer" has been found, I want to know how to ask the question correctly:
Let's say that a few years/months/days/etc from now, someone wants to find out what the @ symbol is called. How should that person search for the answer? What is the correct approach? How did Cy Guy search for it? alienmole? (I am guessing that alienmole stumbled upon it while browsing the discovery.com site...but I could be wrong.) You certainly can't search for the '@' itself or you'll get every email archived on the web. Or maybe enough people have linked to the discovery article that google would turn it up? (Nope, not yet: searching for "@ symbol" turns up lots of junk.) Where would you search in usenet? Typography groups? If you don't feel like adding your thoughts here, please do email me!
______________________(
Haven't you read RFC 1437?
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
Another company, AMT, makes tiny turbojets for models, but one guy got another idea and put two of them on his tiny homebuilt plane, which can go 150 MPH! Check it out http://www.amtjets.com/gallery_real_plain.html
The cheapest one they had was 12500 DKR, which translates to $1507.50 US Dollars.
So, how many of these would you have to strap to a lawn chair to get it to fly with a person in it?
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
I think its called VCR....
Actually, according to the article... yeah, it is.
And guess what? There's a way to pirate songs without using any appliance whatsoever! It's called Singing! Of course, the quality is not as good as the original, but hey, the RIAA can't stop you from singing...or can they?
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Learning to fly, Pink Floyd.
eriknospamphora memo.cx
| Ceci n'est pas une pipe.
A couple of years ago I spent a good day trying to track down the name for the symbol in response to a question posed on the radio (I wonder if this team was inspired by the same question) well, anyway I never found an answer and the radio show never addressed the question again.
Now I can let them know that the answer has been found.
One correction to the article though. Amphora is a unit of liquid volume, not weight (as is also indicated in the article since it is a fraction of a barrel). Amphora's were a conical ceramic jug that were used as far back as Roman times, and have been found intact on sunken Roman ships at the bottom of the Mediterranean filled with wine, olive oil, and fish-sauce (my guess is the fish sauce was actually Ceasar dressing B^) ). Since the use of them goes back so far, I wouldn't be surprised if the symbol also goes back further than the 1500's.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
I'm sure everyone remembers StarWars Ascii-mation? Let's not let the memory of that great endeavor be sullied by some punk shoot-em-up!
Just to up the ante, though, i think i'm gonna recruit an all-ASCII boy band and promote them heavily on MTV...
top THAT, ascii-mators!
---------
---------
Get back to me when my brain starts working.