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Slashback: Quakery, Lifespans, Barcodes
Just stick around and collect on this bet. mindriot writes "The German climatic researcher Manfred Stock has rejected Stephen Hawking's theory which states that man would not exist on earth for another 1,000 years. To him this seems rather unlikely. Stock expects that, in 50 years, mankind will have switched to alternative power resources. Read the german article here." Oder, wenn Sie nicht Deutsch kann, bitte Babelfish benutzen. It's a much more optimistic view of things, but hardly the words of a Pollyanna.
CD-Rs are cheap, cheap, cheap. David Hume writes: "Fox News is reporting that '[a] three-judge panel decided to allow the popular service to continue allowing users to share music files over the Internet, pending further deliberations.' ... "The judges seemed to need more information from the recording industry and were more antagonistic to the RIAA," said copyright expert Leonard Rubin, who observed the proceedings."'
Overall, it sounds like Napster is taking neither the "shoo-in" or "dropped anchor" tacks that many people predicted. The article points out (and presumably the judge knows) that peer-to-peer file transfers have long since left the gate.
Well, they are the guys who make it, after all! You might remember the stink raised by the release of the Q3 1.25 patch. Now Bob Mintern writes: "iD Software, in hue of their current Point Release for Quake 3 1.25, has released a FAQ highlighting sevral issues of the 1.25 patch and what it breaks. The FAQ can be located here. I wonder when the "offical" patch will work and everything will be normal again..."
After this I'll try to shut up for a while about it, OK? There's been so much about the CueCat that perhaps you (and / or digital convergence) are sick of hearing about it. I pledge not to mention it for at least a week, on penalty of an early bedtime or perhaps more vacation days. But today, you must deal a few I thought were neat ;) First, bk1e asks the musical question: "Why :de:claw your :Cue:Cat when you can get it :spayed in about two minutes with a soldering iron? Simply solder on one jumper and it acts like any other barcode scanner." Heh.
Or, even without doing that, hangel points to this "A CueCat decoder for Zope by stevea," which includes source. Specifically, this one will let you scan in a book's bar code and look it up on Amazon.
Finally, photon317 writes: "There's a make-fun-of-DC site at www.digitaldivergence.org." This I leave to your own judgement, but as R. Crumb might say, not everything is for everybody. Think iBrator.
or rather, their engineers and coders. After 5 years of getting paid for no work, they release a product and their bosses find out that its encryption can be broken by anyone with half a brain, and the hardware can be hacked not one, but TWO ways. Oh well, I guess five years of loafing around on the job must be good enough.
Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose
wow, I actually got that to work. Took me a little longer than 2 minutes to do though. make the wire fit was the hardest thing to do. And my soldering iron got some revenge on my finger while I was at it.
A quick suggestion for anyone that's going to try this, first of all, be especially careful with the soldering iron (lesson relearned). And try to prefit the wire into the hole, I spent the most time trying to narrow the wire down enough to get it down to size.
"Oder, wenn Sie nicht Deutsch kann, bitte Babelfish benutzen."
It should read, "Oder, wenn Sie Deutsch nicht sprechen koennen, bitte benutzt Babelfish" or similar.
I'd imagine we'll just run out of fossil fuels sometime in the next 1000 years, so we'll have to change to clean alternatives.
I guess the only question is how much damage will we have done by then, and if it will be possible to reverse it. Anyone have an estimate on how many years fossil fuel we have left?
Drag n' Drop DVD Recommendations
The Climate Research Unit has an interesting piece of reading at http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/info/causecc/ regarding the causes and expected climate changes over the next few (hundred) years. We (and Big Brother) can always regulate the use and buring of our fossil fuels, but who'd have thought we are threatened by something noone can regulate -- Sun Spots.
Its an interesting reading that details some of possible causes of the ice age and problems that sun spots could cause to our own climate -- very disturbing.
Slashback has puppy dog eyes regarding CueCat?
Oh dear...
Informative, but does not mention fixing the bug that keeps my husband up playing Rocket Arena every night until 3:00.
Can I bum a sig?
why are those links above slashdotted out of existance???
I have an idea. Why don't you just post a barcode that we can scan and go to the corresponding cuecat story???
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
yeah, where are my Quickies.
had to get rid of my girlfriend - so i got no quickies coming from her either.
.sig wanted: Must be concise, funny, and display my cleverness.
Okay, I'm probably one of those (lucky/stupid as hell?) few folks who have had a CDR for more than 5 years. I bought my Sony 920S Spressa drive a while ago, and even for its now slow 2x burning speeds, the thing continues to perform. (knock on wood)
Back when I first got the thing, I was lucky enough to even find blank CDR's in stores, much worse... they usually came at a price of about $9.99 to $14.99 each.
Over the past 5 or so years... i've watched the prices of CDR's plummet. Yesterday at Staples, I bought a 50 pack spindle of 80 minute blanks for $14.98. My heart sank into my gut when I saw this. All I had to do was wait about a half decade for everything to literally be a fraction of what it cost me to begin with.
The point I wanted to bring up is that... now that CDR Drives and blanks are essentially dirt cheap, and the software is dumbed-down enough for just about anybody to use it... Why did they get so cheap? The big concern, I thought, was the fact that people could easily make digitally perfect copies for little to no cost.
Compare this to DVD writer blanks and recorders. They've existed for a little while now... In the first two years after I bought my CDR, the prices at least went down by half... To the point to where it was actually cost effective (gasp!) to burn copies.
At this point, the cost of DVD blanks are still high enough to reenforce the argument that DeCSS (while it can be used as a tool for such) wasn't made for piracy... after all, the equipment costs too much and blanks are still higher than the cost of buying the actual DVD release itself.
My question is... with so much concern about MP3's, duplicating CD's, why did the CDR media get so insanely cheap... and why is the DVD media continuing to be so expensive? By now, I expected DVD duplicating media to get cheaper.
At this point, it looks like nobody really cares about what we do with CD's. Even after the advent of MPEG4/DivX;-) compressing DVD films at reasonable quality small enough to fit on a single CDR. What the hell is going on here?
I can't really buy the argument that it costs more to make DVD blanks over CDR blanks. To manufacture DVD's is barely more expensive that CD's... and the scary thing is that I can typically find DVD movies on sale for LESS than music CD's on sale.
Okay, I've rambled on enough. Any other thoughts, folks?
Whee.
I think www.flyingbuttmonkeys.com server got slashdotted
This may sound like a dumb question, but i dont quite get the use of decoding/hacking a CueCat? What can It do for me? any help is appreciated. thanks :)
FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP.
FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP.
Ballin-Networks
Hey, I've been doing my part all evening to spam investment boards about the upcoming Digital Convergence IPO. The more the merrier, though! Bust in! Here's a sample:
Digital Convergence (DGTL) recently filed plans for an IPO. This company gives out free barcode scanners (called "CutCat") and accompanying software. The idea is that you can scan things and their software will pull up an appropriate web page in your browser. On the side, they can collect demographic data. For example, they could determine which gender and age group most often scans a certain type of product.
I think this is a horrible company, a must avoid stock for the following reasons:
These are just my opinions, of course. I did my best to get the facts straight, but I'm not perfect. Additional comments on this corporate disaster slouching toward NASDAQ are available at:
Right to the story, correctly translated and without all the fluff around it like ads.
I went there to steal some code and it's taking FOREVER. It may just be faster to write it myself!
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I am the dot in slashdot.org
But I still don't have one yet, darnit. I keep passing by RadioShacks but they're all closed when I pass by. So I've got puppy dog eyes for one, at any rate.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
... I'll post this once more.
cuecat software, everything imaginable. hardware hacks, too.
And while I'm at it, here's some hacksdmi.org goodness!
But did you say you wanted DeCSS, or the newer DecVOB? Oops, posted another illegal link.
Maybe you could check out ASF Recorder or (fake) SW Ep2 storyboards while you're at it...
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I tried following the spaying direction about 2 hours ago with a cuecat I got 3 days ago. No dice. The insides don't match the pics close enough for me to feel comfortable messing with it. All the pieces are there, but they look like they've been moved around. Someone'll have to post new directions for the new board rev.
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Non-meta-modded "Overrated" mods are killing Slashdot
(Hey Ryan! Here's your proof!)
The declaw site has pics that match mine and other pics that match the spay site. Apparently it's already known there is more than one type. I'll have to see if I can make this do the same deal...
--
Non-meta-modded "Overrated" mods are killing Slashdot
(Hey Ryan! Here's your proof!)
...i'm starting to feel more crowded in a cd lately, 650 (or 70) megs just isn't what it used to be, and dvd-rams are getting cheaper and cheaper. i think that the media will come down as well, so in a year or so you'll buy dvd-r's at half of what they are now. hmm 5.2 gb isn't that much even really, if you dig mp3s
are 50 packs really $14.95 at staples? nice.
- deuterium
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If I ever release a new technology (i.e. CueCat), remind me to not choose a name that opens myself up to so many metaphors...
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I suspect Babelfish might have issues with contractions like "can't."
From DigitalConvergence Webpage:
DigitalDemographics is a wholly owned subsidiary of Digital:Convergence. It is responsible for the creation and analysis of the largest consumer database that provides the unique combination of web tracking with all forms of media. With aggregated data from broadcasters, publishers, and educators, our licensees will always be on the cutting edge of information marketing.
Everybody knows about this cuecat junk, so I decide to see what the company webpage says. Anybody who has looked at this sees the link 'DigitalDemographics' on the left page. Either its just me, but this says that this company is collecting data from the parent companies to sell to advertisers. All the more reason not to use this (or install the software for it) - do we need another wanabe doubleclick?
Anybody heard of nanotechnology? Another good link is the Foresight Institute. I can see this becoming a reality within my lifetime (ie. much less than 1000 years). If you don't know what I'm talking about, read Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation or Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age.
Once we get nanotech, this will all be moot. We'll either wipe ourselves out or become something much more than human. Either way, it should be interesting...
Yeah, wish I could give you a better estimate. It all depends on whether energy usage keeps growing in developed countries, what percentage of remaining fossil fuel reserves have been discovered, and how fast the majority of the world becomes fully industrial. The "damage" done by then may be a few degrees global warming; it may not. That's another hazy area, and one I'm even less capable of answering. It seems to me that the greatest damage done by fossil fuel burning may be the addiction it gives society to high energy consumption. Don't get me wrong; I'm uber-addicted, having sucked up 1800 kW-hr last month between myself and two roommates. Yes, that bill hurts. But I don't know if society as a whole can support that kind of power consumption with renewable resources. Nuclear power (with fuel from breeder reactors) is probably our best bet, but that's only going to buy us another century or two, and at greater expense. Basically, we've got around half a milennium in which to invent fusion, ring the planet with solar power satellites, or learn the true meaning of "conservation".
Okay, I left slashdot for a few months and recently came back. I've spent about two weeks trying to figure out WHAT HAPPENED and it's not documented anywhere. I can't even figure out using context clues what a Slashback is; It's like quickies but shorter -- but there still are quickies!! I can't seem to find "the original" slashback, either, so there's no explanation in a faq or anywhere.
Can someone also tell me what happened to Karma? How come mine doesn't go up when I get a point? I never liked the moderation system, but now I can't find an explanation of what it's doing --- or at least an description that's different at all from "how it used to be."
Slashdot is a scary place. It feels like the twilight zone or something. Pardon my rant here, but I couldn't think of anyplace else to put it.
I know some of you will think this is off-topic, but I think it was the most significant event of the week.
Signal 11 left slashdot.
He provided many insightful comments in addition to his humorous comments, and occasional trolls. We lost a great member of the Slashdot community, and I feel it should be noted.
You can read his farewell speech HERE.
but you haven't considered what it makes to produce 5.2 gigs of content.
oh yeah. it'll just keep coming. FREE MUSIK 4 LIFE!
fishfucekr.
glad you've ripped 5.2 GIGS worth of other's work.
thanks.
If you pass his german back into Babelfish, you get: "Or, if you German cannot do, please use Babelfish." Which is close enough I guess.
Or maybe he had a typo, and meant to say "kenn" (know) instead of "kann" (can). Then at least he has a verb in the sentence. (Babelfish translates that as "Or, if you German do not know, please use Babelfish.")
> Stock expects that, in 50 years, mankind will have switched to alternative power resources.
I doubt it. We've been acutely aware of the problem for at least thirty years, and we've hardly made any progress at all on kicking the habit. I think it will take much longer than 50 years to change the way things are done.
For example: One might have thought the "gas crisis" of the early '70's would have been a wakeup call regarding the use of petrol, but thirty years later we're still as dependent on it as ever. And most of the world is dependent on foreign petrol, which is a miserable strategic position to be in (whether "strategic" applies to military needs, or merely to general economic needs). But in spite of the scare and the obvious strategic indisposition, what have any of the non-OPEC, industrialized nations done to free themselves?
For more insight into the underlying problem of economy vs. ecology, direct your favorite search engine to come up with links to the tragedy of the commons. That scenario describes the human eco{nomical,logical} predicament to a T.
--
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
First of all, let me say that I am not trying to defend Digital Convergence. I wholeheartedly agree that on the legal front, they have done some really boneheaded things as of late with regards to their "intellectual property" claims. Their legal department is not exactly composed of the sharpest tools in the shed. I agree that they were extremely short-sighted if they thought that nobody would manage to figure out their "sophisticated" encryption scheme. Yes, they need to figure out that reverse engineering is legal.
But haven't we beaten this horse to death, and then some?
Let me tell you why this bothers me. I work for a large industrial defense contractor, and for four years, I have been working my ass off trying to get my supervisors to let us install Linux on our workstations. From a technical standpoint, it's a no-brainer. We do UNIX development, and Linux on the desktop would be a boon to productivity. But there have been hurdles to overcome. Do you guys know what the biggest hurdle has been? It hasn't been the FUD about open source being "insecure" or "unstable." It hasn't been any Redmond-babble about "total cost of ownership." It hasn't been any of the traditional scaremongering that opponents of open source software use.
The biggest blockade in the road has been this perception that Linux (and similar projects) is associated with this elusive "hacker" community, that it is an operating system used exclusively by rebellious teenagers with black leather jackets and nose rings. My supervisors have viewed Linux as something that could "contaminate" our "pristine development environment." Sure, my case has been helped every time an industry giant like IBM has jumped on the Linux bandwagon.
But when we see news of Linux enthusiasts doing things like cracking DC's web site, or setting up parody sites attacking DC, or repeatedly belittling them ad nauseum on sites such as Slashdot, it's easy to see why people have this misconception that Linux users are immature. I'll say it again: I'm not defending DC, but guys
Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. By the way, I've got a Linux pilot project getting started next week
--
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The New World Order is upon us, and it's about damned time.
a quick reorientation :)
... it's also a place where people sometimes complain because they were misquoted or misinterpreted (or in which I can apologize for -- oh I dunno ... misreporting the sex of someone because I *assumed* that their gender was what I thought it was) which is something for which we thought it would be nice to provide a regular forum. If you do a search for "Slashback" (trust me, this is one thing that the search engine gets right), you can read some previous ones and see what I mean ...
... historical tidbits etc.
... also, because a lot of time the sort of things which end up in them are the bubbles at the top of long-simmering issues. I take complaints at timothyatslashdotdotorg :) Rob does quickies still -- watch, he does!
... oh well!
a) slashback -- it's a semi-regular deal where I ("or anyone else --""NOT anyone else!") gather things that are updates or reactions to previous stories, which might not get posted to the front page because of how similar they are to a recent story, say, or because no one wants to see 10 bazillion stories on the same topic
Also, sometimes the punning reference to "flashback" inspires me to include something in Slashback which may never have been in a slashdot story, but which deserves mention nonetheless
Since I am a humorless bastard, the quickies are funnier even when dealing with digital convergence
b) there is now a limit past which karma does not shift upwards. This shouldn't come as *too* great a shock -- the whole moderation point thing exists to make reading the site better, and it's constantly being tweaked, poked, prodded, thought about. It bothers some people more than others, but I don't see how it's a burden to folks who post postively.
I am not an expert on the moderation system, but my karma (once so high and happy) is now much much lower than it used to be
There are very few places, online or IRL, that aren't disorienting if you leave for a while, then return. New York City is one, I find, but only because the change is actually so constant.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"Spamming investment boards" with anti-D:C writings worded in an inflammatory manner? That's pretty immature, IMHO. The way you're going about this reflects poorly on yourself and the open source community. If you would stick to the facts, that would help.
I have to say I am sorry to see Signal 11 leave, if only for the loss of a person's valid opinion.
/.(period) Even so, I still manage to find the time every night to come to my favorite site, at least read the headlines, and if there's an article that I care about (and understand) I usually manage to read the comments. If I realize that many of the people I look up to (I'm on a senior in high school, I still admire all the techies I endevour to be) won't be posting, and there are about 40 posts at -1, with another 200 that probably should be, I might not want to continue coming here for the comments. Can moderation really be the problem?
/. are supposed to ignore emotion completely, because nerds don't have any (thats why its ok to make fun of them right?) but is it really that bad if you feel strongly about something?
I did take the time to read Signal's farewell speech, and it showed me somethings that I never really knew before. I happen to be a moderator all the time, I'm apparently the perfect user. I never got moderated up for my posts (thanks a lot) but since the first time I became a moderator, I've gained about 20 karma through metamoderation. This took me about 2 months, at most.
If +50 is the cap, where is the challenge? In a few more months, I'll probably be there, even though my comments, though excellent, never get moderated up. But, I digress.
I love to see a person who actually has the time to post often (Signal 11, _xeno_, Wakko Warner, so many more...). Even if their opinions conflict with mine, I enjoy gettting to see the other side of a topic. It is deeply disheartening to see that a valued member (I'm user 200000+, yeah, don't I feel special) is leaving.
I guess I really didn't get to see the early days of
I'm probably a little incoherant by now, but if you've gotten this far, you might as well keep reading.
Moderation is supposed to be the solution to the problem. We are supposed to be the best and the brightest, I don't have a clue as to why so many people think it is funny to continually post goat sex links. I bear the title of Nerd because I am proud of it. I like that. Being so, shouldn't we be able to figure out a solution to the overpopulation? Well, I'll get to thinking about it, and you all should too.
One more thing, Signal 11 said that emptionally charged statements are moderated up, which isn't right, because they aren't filled with technical statements, but aren't impassioned speeches that way because they have strong fact to back them up? I know that the intellectually superior of
Well, thats about enough ranting for me today. I said I had no time, I now have negative time, which means skipping more homework for me, but at leats i got to voice myself, and though I can only hope for 4 people to read it, it still makes me feel good to know that someone might have.
Twitter.com/TrentonHyatt
Haven't seen you around in a while, O Glorious MEEPT! Where ya been?
Glückwünsche, haben Sie Slashdot ermordet, indem Sie zum korporativen Druck beugten und Subskriptionen einlei
OK, how fucking stupid do you have to be to reply to your own post, not notice the #2 indicating you are the second poster, also not notice the actual first post (not something I condone anyway, but it is what it is), and still in your reply write "BTW, FP!"? That really is just sad.
Second, companies as clueless as DC deserve to be embarassed, in public and in the courtroom. It's a pity the RIAA and MPAA aren't such easy targets.
Third, if Linux has to depend for its "image" on the behavior of every one of its users, it's in trouble. Luckily, it doesn't.
Fourth, self-censorship is still censorship. You should re-examine your own position before you turn into a PHB.
This was a great hardware hack. I had to think about it for a bit since I have a HM+H rev 1.1 and it wasn't mentioned. It appears that the general rule is to jumper from J2 to R29 so I did and it worked.
Now, where's the application? I don't really care about scanning my canned peas and having a database show me that they're canned peas made by Green Giant. I don't keep a large collection of books.
How about a Winamp plugin so I can print a list, scan the songs I want and they'll be enqueued?This would be great for a party, for example, because you could let the people pick the music but they wouldn't be less able to screw with the system.
These alarmists irritate me sometimes... I agree with Scott that earth will last more than 1,000. For one, Hawking doesnt take into the account that technology will probably solve its own problem. Secondly, there is no real proof of global warming, although I do agree it may be a risk factor. I think it's a bit arrogant to believe that we have that much of an effect on the atmosphere. Cows and volcanoes produce more CH4 and C02 than most industry together. I also think we should colonize other planets, because eventually the earth will die, whether it's in 1,000 years or 1,000,000 or even 1,000,000,000.
Besides, space is just damn cool...
Shit adds up at the bottom...
It's obvious that there should be minimum IQ checks to use the internet so morons like you are only allowed to watch tv.
Something like a driver's license for the digital highway? Over here(The Netherlands) the government is working on making this a nobligation for high school teachers and college professors...
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
Oder, wenn Sie nicht Deutsch kann, bitte Babelfish benutzen. It's a much more optimistic view of things, but hardly the words of a Pollyanna.
Boy, I've seen people getting fired over this kind of German. I'm not German myself, but I'd be ashamed to write this down where the whole world, ehh well the Slashdot part of it, could read it.
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
babelfish wouldnt translate it into german. everything2 doesnt know it, too. what does it mean? and btw, how can i open a thread on /.? i only found the reply-link...
It should read, "Oder, wenn Sie Deutsch nicht sprechen koennen, bitte benutzt Babelfish" or similar.
Or if you actually speak German it should say:"Oder, wenn Sie kein Deutsch kennen, benutzen Sie bitte Bablefish."
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
of going into radio shack for a fine-braid soldering iron, a spool of solder, some wire...
:Cue:Cat
And a "free"
Bwa ha ha ha
is to just get a second cat. They are free after all and I see no reason why they wouldn't work if connected in series.
Of course, I understand your desire to make it uber-cool with the addition of a switch. But wouldn't it be fun to go back to the same radio shack to ask for another scanner and when the say "what happened to the first one?" you say "um, it doesn't seem to work right anymore."
It seems as though your Husband is more compatible with Rocket Arena than with you(not meant as insulting). You might want to try downloading the latest drivers, flashing his Bios, and if necessary, try him on another wife to see if he still displays the same problem. If it turns out that he displays the same problem with another wife, we highly recommend calling our top-quality helpdesk in order to arrange for an on-site swap at your place. In case that you are not at home, or that we are still suffering from a fuel crisis that has been over for weeks already, the delivery might be slightly delayed. Please do not worry, as our most friendly colleagues will keep assuring you that they are doing everything they can, to get your brand new high quality husband to you ASAP.
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
Good little Slashbot... You learned all the valuable lessons.
You can spay the :Cat and still use the software. Get a momentary pushbutton switch and connect it to those points on the board. Mount it where it will fit onto the case. Most are round, so all you have to do is find a good spot and drill a hole.
An always-on/push-off button would allow you to use it as a normal barcode scanner, but pushing the button while scanning would bring up DC's software.
I personally think that GoCode has the better technology. The scanner reads 3-D bar codes that can hyperlink to anything you want --email, websites, applications, etc.Furthermore, the scanner looks better than that ugly "cat" design. You can fit 35 GoCodes in ONE CueCat code meaning that you can place a code in regular text and it will blend VERY nicely. Everything including the driver for this beast is written in Java so cross platform drivers can be easily made/ported to even small embedded devices. The software that comes with the scanner (for free) includes HyperPage which will take any webpage with hyperlinks and create a print-version with GoCode links in their place. It also includes a Code creator which will allow you to create codes that link to anything. Call me crazy, but it beats CueCat hands down. The ONLY reason CueCat exists is because someone had to create "Proof of Concept" to keep their "2-D barcode to Internet" patent. *ahem*
SL33ZE, MCSD
em: joedipshit@hotmail.com
SL33ZE - Artificial Intelligence is No Match For Natural Stupidity -
Yes, that was pretty weird, to see 42nd street less most of the seedier establishments.
It's sort of a neutral to me, really -- I mean, while it's pleasant to see a lot of pornography, used syringes, prostitutes and neon advertising things the FCC does not approve of even on the late late late show, it's also nice to see the alternative. Disney, I think, would actually still not approve of all of it, but there's something (something, not everything) to be said for the new Times Sq.
On the other hand, the tactics used to get it cleaned up are something else; I've not witnessed but have heard about some pretty blatant strong-arming (therefore it's hearsay from me!), including kickout out a lot of street vendors. I *like* street vendors! They're one of my favorite aspects of babylon -- low-scale capitalism / instant shop. New York may be freewheeling in some things, but it sure has a lot of licensing and harrassment of small vendors / shops / etc.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
New Scientist has an article this week on a new catalytic converter type device that converts CO2 and CO gases in car exhaust into high-carbon particluates that can then be used to create artificial industrial grade diamonds.
;.
Here's a summary of the article
Work for Change & GET PAID!