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Slashback: Protest, Similarities, Orbit
Show your truuuuueee colors ... h0mee writes: "Howdy! This has already been posted on slashdot, but we still need more volunteers showing up at the protests. This protest is being organized by the EFF against federally mandated censorware in schools and libraries. The protests are occuring on this friday in the SF Bay Area and the NYC areas. I'd like to remind slashdot readers on the completely cynical side that even small groups of protestors showing up will have big impacts, as the FCC will be caught completely off guard by hordes of angry geeks showing up- this protest can make a difference! Please check out the EFF's protest page on this for more info for coordination and ridesharing, or this rant on craigslist for SF bay locals. Show your geek pride, and help us distribute Clue to the FCC!"
Hey, stop looking at me! And no feeling, either! In response to CmdrTaco's recent post about Apple moving yet again to block the makers of Apple-reminscent themes, WillAdams writes:h "The response, and the original letter are up at http://www.macthemes.org.
They'd like a lawyer..."
Sounds fair. Soon lawyers defending Open Source will take over as the heros of the software world. "Didn't there used to be programmers, too, dad?"
Up in the air, Junior Birdman w00ly_mammoth writes: "After an aborted attempt, India has launched a satellite rocket. Signals from it were picked up in Canada. The Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, or GSLV-D1, is capable of giving the nation communication and military capabilities, according to western analysts. The US has been concerned about this development for a while. This could also rattle the aerospace industry, since it marks an entry into the lucrative satellite launch market."
(Invent your own aphorism involving ashes, phoenixes and plant life.) impaler writes: "Games Mania has a story with three people's views on the death of indrema. They interview Mark Collins (author of Linux Game Programming), Clinton Ebadi (me / that lamer that does nothing useful), and Steve Baker (of TuxKart fame). All three offer different opinions on why indrema went down."
Speaking of games, ryants writes: "OpenGL.org is reporting that NVidia's GeForce3 meets or beats the functionality available in DX8 via OpenGL extensions. This bodes well for Linux gaming." Take your grains of salt, head out back, and play some TuxKart;)
2. How is trying to block porn feasible?
3. What if other valid stuff (breast/testicular cancer information, STD info) gets blocked in the process?
Wrong. My sister is a high school science teacher, and she is constantly bitching about their "BESS" proxy. There is no way for anyone but the admin to override it. And the admin (of course) won't do shit.
They have a 192.168/16 internal network, and they use BESS as a proxy on their 'firewall' which does not do any kind of NAT.
At least you can tunnel Yahoo Messenger throught HTTP, so I can IM her, until BESS catches on and blocks yahoo's IM servers.
And furthermore, my mother used to tell me to eat all my food because there were starving children in India. 30 years later, I now weigh approximately 450 pounds. If India is actually firing off rockets now, I shall begin dieting.
But not much more morbid than the results of an overpopulated earth.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
I think the position was more like "If people don't want to see "indecent" websites, they can use filterware to prevent it themselves. The Internet should not be filtered for everyone against their wishes." The CDA was grossly unconstitutional anyway, and I'm glad it's gone.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
It sure was nice for the EFF to let its members know about this...
Why dosen't the EFF let its members know? I am a paying member yet I NEVER get any email from them and yes I have signed up to the newsletter...
I think part of the point is that with censorware they may not go to playboy.com, but they can still got to genitalhospital.com, or a few thousand other porn sites, while you are blocked from some ligitmate research sites because they have the word breast, or are hosted on the same megaserver as some porn site, or promote abortion (making it harder to research Roe v. Wade)...
Dont' worry - XBox will likely have TiVo-esque functionality. (but probably not as good and crippled by agreements with the networks et al)
I have a post frome more recently that puts forth a theory of why precisely MS is really getting into consoles. It's not for games.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Hey, I only visit playboy.com for the linux article....m l
See: http://slashdot.org/articles/00/01/04/2134245.sht
It's simple. There was a window of opportunity for a real next-generation console, but it slammed shut the day Playstation 2 shipped. With Xbox going into the PC hardware side of the gaming market, and Sony dominating the "entertainment center" approach, there's only room for one or two more players, max. Nintendo is on their way to the market, and even Sega couldn't keep up. How's a product like Indrema going to make any splash at all in mid-to-late 2001 against that competition?
If they had shipped a product last summer, there might have been a niche to exploit, but it was too late. The other possibility would have been an alliance with TiVo - both companies had Linux-based equipment (albeit on different processor platforms) and perhaps a hybrid TiVo/Indrema gaming console/TV recorder could have carved out a place in the market. Though the cost of the hardware would have gone up quite a bit accordingly.
As much as an Open Source gaming system would have been cool, better the company die now while there's less money at stake than build a lot of consoles that sit on shelves because they don't play Playstation, Xbox, or Dolphin games.
- -Josh Turiel
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Why has it no educational value? In many cases it's far more educational than the "abstinence" crap they preach in schools as opposed to explaining how things work (like conception, contraceptives, etc.). Inappropriate on a school's pipe? I dunno. It doesn't strike me as much different than a couple of 12 year old boys stumbling across dad's stack of Playboys. Maybe you're right. Perhaps we should put the smack down on our kids for *daring* to think about sex. The little worms, allowing puberty to cloud their judgement. [end-sarcasm] So aside from that evil nasty porn, what else shouldn't kids get to see in their schools? What else would you have them not learn about?
Read my stuff.
Does it bother you that people fuck dogs? Nope. Not one bit. I'm not going to seek it out, but more power to 'em! When freedom of speech is censored because someone finds the speech (or picture, or video, etc.) offensive, that censorship is wrong. Good luck convincing me that A) a kid who isn't looking for it will accidentally stumble upon it (what's he gonna type, "dogs fucking women" into google.com?) and B) a kid who does "stumble" upon something like that wasn't really seeking it out (or will find a way to see it elsewhere).
Read my stuff.
People seem to forget that the moon is an incredibly strategic place for a military base. Think about it, you're up there at the top of Earth's gravity well... minimal effort is required to toss big-ass rocks down on your enemy. See Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" for an rough draft of the required engineering. ;-)
Of course, establishing any kind of long-term moon base is an extremely challenging project.
I think one thing that helps India is the southern tip of the Indian sub-continent is much closer to the Equator than any Chinese launch facility.
This means the Indian space agency can better use the assist of the Earth's rotation, so you don't need a fairly large launch rocket like the US, China and Russia has to do from their native launch sites. It's the reason why the European Space Agency built their launch pads in French Guiana--only 6 degrees north latitude from the Equator. It's also why Boeing headed the Sea Launch consortium that has a floating launch platform; the floating platform is at the Equator out at sea when the rocket is launched, so you don't need a big rocket to achieve geosynchronous transfer orbit.
Raymond in Mountain View, CA
Still, this sign is funny
W
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This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
According to the CIA World Factbook, India's population as of July 2000 was estimated at 1.01 billion people. China's estimated population at that point in time was 1.26 billion. I don't think that really qualifies as "a lot".
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
The US and Russia basically did the same thing using German technology, at first. With time, we learned and built on top of what we had to produce what we now have today. It may not be as cool as building a rocket totally from scratch, but putting together something like this is still a large (and importantly, useful) achievement.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Absolute differences don't matter at all. If there are ten more people in the apartment next to mine than in mine, that's a huge difference. If there are ten more people in Canada than in the US, that's so close as to be astounding.
The difference between India and China is only around 20%, which isn't a lot.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
I wish India the best, but I really hope that the Chinese kick their space program into high gear first, because that's the only thing that would arouse enough competitive spirit to get Uncle Sam off of his couch and back into orbit and beyond. Nationalism isn't great all the time, but it's good for pushing the human race into new frontiers, and so in that regard the more competitive China gets, the better. If recent history has shown anything, it's that the U.S. does better when there's somebody to compete with. Otherwise we get complacent, dumb, and irritable.
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
Once the American public realizes that you can drop some pretty big rocks on the USA from the Moon, they'll care about it. I think people could get all worked up about another space race and that in fact something like that is needed. Americans are nothing if not competitive; and a large part of the emotional problems we've displayed on the world stage recently are due to the fact that we don't really have an external focus or goal as a nation. Americans don't know how to sit back, relax, and enjoy their success; there always has to be a next goal and when no such goal is in sight, we have problems domestically until a new goal is found.
If President Bush really wanted to be remembered for more than "The Business of America is Business" (actually that was Coolidge IIRC), he'd lay down a Kennedyesque ultimatum to have a fully functional international space station and the start of a permanent lunar settlement before the decade is out. The development program would be good for the U.S. aviation and defense industry, and business could really take it to the next level once they have cheap access to space. Not to mention the millions of other useful advances that a major investment in a space program brings.
Sorry, I got carried away there. Bottom line: humanity has to spread, and if I have to pit China vs. the USA to do it, I'll send a spy plane every day of the week :)
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
Anyone viewing porn in the library can already be asked to leave, under existing library policies and terms of service. Just like if you had a problem with someone whacking off to a physical Playboy mag in the next study carrel. Likewise for school libraries, especially since you could just require students to login. You wouldn't leave kids alone in the classroom to tell dirty jokes and intimidate girls, why would you leave them alone in the school library long enough to do so? (In reality, of course, you can't stop young boys from telling dirty stories no matter what you do, which makes the effort to ban the virtual extension of this all the more addlepated.) Sorry, the intimidation factor is a red herring.
Censorware isn't about preventing porn, it's about control. Although those that want to control information may start off with the best intentions, I refuse to submit to that kind of control.
I agree that in a perfect world there are some things that kids wouldn't be exposed to until they're ready, but in Real Life kids are already talking about it and surfing the Internet for it at home anyway. The only way you can really protect them is to talk to them beforehand and explain how the world really is. If they're forewarned, they aren't going to be any more intimidated by the occasional school library porn than they will be by the myriad jokes they hear in the restroom every day.
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
Even if you believe that, you should still be outraged. Your education dollars are going to be spent on pork -- subsidising the filter makers -- and in exchange for that money, you will get nothing. The software doesn't work. None of it will work w/out strong AI.
It's fraud, pure and simple. The victims of this bill aren't just everyone who believes in the Bill of Rights, but also everyone who pays taxes that would have gone to education and are instead going to be diverted to bogus snakeoil software companies.
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As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
It was in EFFector 14.06, sent out at the beginning of April.
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As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Cheer up. We can't really destroy the planet. Ourselves, possibly, but the planet will survive and recover from anything we can do.
The cockroaches are waiting patiently.
"...they may harpoon us, but they ain't gonna pick us up on no radar screen!"
Still a long way (about 5-10 years) to go before launching sats can be turned into a business in India I think!
OK, let's say there IS a call for sencorware at schools ( instead I think a supervisor should be around).
Then it should be rateable depending on age or research purpose.
And it should DEFENATELY be possible for a teacher/guardian to override it when it hampers research.
For me it's absolutely unacceptable that some uncontrolable person/company/forum decides what is good/bad for the kids.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
Well, you must remember that the GPS birds are military satellites. They're owned and operated by te U.S Air Force. If they were built to commercial standards, would they be lighter? Probably not - they'd just have more power;bigger solar arrays, batteries, power amps and shunts taking over the mass gained from throwing off "other things." They are, after all, global broadcast satellites with crosslinks, so more power in space translates to smaller, cheaper gear on the ground. They fit on a Delta,and you can't get much cheaper than a Delta by throwing off a little weight, so why sweat weight?
Helium balloons want to be free.
The GPS satellites are not immense. They are middlin' in size, and much smaller than most of the communications satellites being built today. They are also in a fairly high 12 hour orbit, and they can't reenter. They simply don't have enough delta-velocity on board to come close to reentry.
All of the above is unclassified information, but I assure you it's true.
Helium balloons want to be free.
NO kidding... don't be an idiot and please keep in mind that many of us read this from work, and don't wish to be explaining to management why we are looking at racist materials online. thanks again!
EOM
Just out of curiosity, is your sig a joke?
-- It only takes 20 minutes for a liberal to become a conservative thanks to our new outpatient surgical procedure!
Why not leave the whole issue up to local discretion?
More like "let's detain everyone who looks suspicious. Who cares if most of them are innocent, we'll still cut down on crime, right?" Oh wait, we actually do that.
Well, I guess that the constitution really isn't worth much these days anyways. Remind me again why public-school students have no First Amendment rights?
-- It only takes 20 minutes for a liberal to become a conservative thanks to our new outpatient surgical procedure!
Oh, I see.... [backing away]....
Well, I'm not getting involved in that debate right now....
-- It only takes 20 minutes for a liberal to become a conservative thanks to our new outpatient surgical procedure!
Censor ware isn't all bad. Generally the kids who are looking up porn at school are NOT the computer junkies.. they are the people / kids who don't care about school and things. Instead, the it's the people like fjordboy and myself, who knows how to get around proxies and what not, that don't look up porn, and hence know how to get aroud BESS (bad dog!) when she comes up. Granted, there are those who have good intensions and still can't get to where they are trying... but for everything else there's Mastercard :)
If you ever want to be taken seriously, you must take a more reasonable stance.
Ah yes, "be reasonable" the cry of the subversive. Compromise is merely a tool used by the patient to undermine the desires of the opposition. Mainstream support is irrelevant in such issues because the mainstream does not care.
It is true that if the censors have the support of the people that this is a lost cause, however, allowing yourself to be demoralized by "being reasonable" will solve nothing.
Progress does not depend on unreasonable people, it is based solely on reasonable people. How far did nazi germany get, what about soviet russia, maybe the great leap forward, the early french revolution?
Nice canard. All strong opinioned persons are Nazis. I like it!
In trying to adapt the world to yourself you leave out the others who disagree, the only way to get your way is then violence. That is why we will never see a democratic facist or communist government.
An appeal to a tyranny of the masses, how nice. Unfortunate that some moral absolutes may offend the mainstream. Since we are bringing up canards, slavery at one time was the will of the people, no?
Your entire outhouse of an argument rests on the overflowed cesspool of moral relativism. The assumption being, of course, that there are only two sides to a given argument and that the apporpriate solution is to simply meet in the middle. Propaganda what fun.
And while in your closed minded world there is only proof against the effectiveness of 'censorware', in the real world it is effective.
Oh. And this statement of fact is based on what? Your exhaustive research. Or is it based merely on your absolutist opinion that filtering software is appropriate and therefore all those who disagree are being "unreasonable."
Until you have a constitutional right to view all internet material
The Constitution is an explicit listing of the duties and powers of government. It is not an exhaustive list of the rights of men.
the government has the right to mandate filtering software for connections they help pay for.
Government has no rights, it is given privelages and duties. The restraint of speech is not one of those.
Moderators, please do not moderate me down because you disagree.
They should mod you down, however, because you are wrong. You are a hypocrite. And because you are attempting (poorly) to use sophistry to argue in support of restraint of speech as opposed to making a direct argument.
Hell no. Whats 250,000,000 people? Drop in the ocean really.
I guess that means the population of the U.S.A doesn't really amount to much either.
MrCreosote Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump! "You're right! There isn't enough room to swing a cat in here!"
It's really too bad that the EEF chose to stage a protest at the same time as the FTAA protests. They'll be greatly overshadowed, and they instantly depleted their source of politically-active geeks, like myself.
It's too late to change it now, but it really is bad timing.
-ben.c
>These are schools for crying out loud. There are
>some things that should be blocked out of
>schools.
"And today kids, we're going to learn about the United States Constitution, but you don't need to take notes because it doesn't apply to you anyways."
>For that age group it's reasonable to block
>racist websites. ie. sites that say that niggers
>[sic] are a pestilence.
Gee, that's the exact same logic that people use to advocate banning classic literature, like Huckleberry Finn. But, who wants a generation of young adults who understand satire anyways, since satire can be used to criticize the status quo!
Oh, and thanks to your post and the use of the keyword "nigger", this Slashdot discussion is now blocked. Oh well.
>Well, I guess that the constitution really isn't
>worth much these days anyways. Remind me again
>why public-school students have no First
>Amendment rights?
Oh, because in 1988 the Supreme Court didn't think it was okay for a high school student newspaper to discuss birth control and divorce.
Remind me again why so many people in power are hypocrites?
Sigh.
>Oh please, that argument has been heard a million
>times and it wasn't that original to begin with.
Uh, since when does an argument have to be original to be valid?
>Porn is defined as such by a general consensus.
Community decency standards vary between communities and as a function of time. There was a time when it was illegal to mail information about contraception through the mail.
>Yes because schools are not there to pass on ALL information.
Do you want to know why so many kids don't take the dangers associated with drug use seriously? Because campaigns such as "Just Say No" hammer in the idea that drugs are 100% bad and there is no good reason to use drugs. Then reality sets in and a kid tries ecstasy for the first time. "Wow," they exclaim. "The adults were lying, this stuff feels good. Therefore, the adults were also lying about how this stuff can kill people." Trust is gained through honesty and disclosure.
"[T]hough all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and falsehood grapple; whoever knew truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?" John Milton, Areopagitica, A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England (1644).
Fake link alert.
TuxKart has 100% more penguins and 133% more herrings than TuxRacer. :-)
www.sjbaker.org
As Shaw put it, The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
But that's irrelevant to the issue at hand; opposing a federal mandate for the use of censorship software - software which has repeatedly been shown not to work - is eminently reasonable.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
If Socrates had been "reasonable", he would have shut up, saved his life, and been forgotten.
If Tom Paine and Thomas Jefferson had been "reasonable", we'd still be a British colony.
If Gandhi had been "reasonable", so would India.
If Rosa Parks had been "reasonable", persons with dark skin would still be sitting in the back of the bus.
Remember that Chinese protester who wouldn't move from in front of the tank? "Unreasonable" in the extreme.
The terrors of Nazi Germany were fought by "unreasonable" resistance fighters, and "unreasonable" people who hid refugees.
All these people refused to accept the social concensus - they refused to be "reasonable". "Reasonable", in this sense, is simply another way of saying "either cowardly, apathetic, or ignorant".
This is obviously some strange new usage of the word "effective" that I have never encountered before.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
"Trying to seperate yourself from the mainstream may make you feel superior, but it will get you nowheres."
So then basically you can't do anything. If there is a problem, you cannot protest, because protest would be non-conformant, and non-conformancy is looked down upon. How the hell did we get into this situation. This is not a good thing. This is an AWFUL thing. "Think what we want you to think. Act how we want you to act."
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
The fact is that they're not building better censorware. They're implementing the current, faulty, censorware, and making no efforts to implement legitimately working censorware; aren't you opposed to that?
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." - Thomas Jefferson
This is about PUBLIC ACCESS funded by federal money, with a mandate from state and federal lawmakers demanding GOVERNMENT MANDATED CENSORSHIP. This is utterly unconstitutional, regardless of how you look at it, because it is backed by federal monies. Now were it a private library, there would be no question, since it's not funded by the government. But whenever the government funds the operation of something, they MUST ABIDE BY THE CONSTITUTION, even if that means that you have to walk with your daughter across the oh-so-dangerous library.
Speaking one's opinion in the library isn't bad though. But if your opinion is deemed "offensive" by the filter (even if it isn't), you can be silenced.
I've heard the crap about the porn mags. But not bringing in porn mags is very different than actively blocking anything an ambiguous third party is deciding what you can and can't see. And yes, the goverment does archive that stuff. The companies that make it send it in for copyright protection, suprisingly.
I shouldn't have to ASK for my rights that the goverment cannot abridge in any way. It's like being forced to ask a police officer for the right to speak your mind, with the risk that now that you're under their control, they'll say no.
And no, the library doesn't need to be open 24/7. I can wait until the next day if I have to. That doesn't infringe on my rights, so long as I can get access, period. Rare books have to be protected from environmental damage. That's why you need permission, not because the content is "offensive."
The danger here is the precedent. They got the "bad, nasty internet," so what's to stop them from going after the "bad, nasty books?"
Haha, i've been waiting for that one. And it came from the man who calls himself unreasonable, and now links to the moronic mike moore us government in exile page. Not that it was flamebait.
Progress does not depend on unreasonable people, it is based solely on reasonable people. How far did nazi germany get, what about soviet russia, maybe the great leap forward, the early french revolution?
In trying to adapt the world to yourself you leave out the others who disagree, the only way to get your way is then violence. That is why we will never see a democratic facist or communist government.
Progress, and democracy comes from those who do not try to adapt the world solely for themseleves, but using reason take into account the needs of all people.
And while in your closed minded world there is only proof against the effectiveness of 'censorware', in the real world it is effective. Until you have a constitutional right to view all internet material, the government has the right to mandate filtering software for connections they help pay for.
Moderators, please do not moderate me down because you disagree.
.
Protesting like this does nothing except isolating them from the mainstream. Without mainstream support, all that they are is a group of extreamist nuts who will ever be taken seriously in a democratic country.
Another problem is that while some thing, like reverse engineering restrictions are bad, goes futher, into things that most people disagree with.
If you ever want to be taken seriously, you must take a more reasonable stance.
As above please do not moderate me down because you disagree with me.
Sorry, i accidentally posted as an AC.
In a democracy there are two sources of protection. One is the courts, and they are ideally not influenced by public opinion. The second in from the legistative body, and they should ideally be influenced by public opinion. In order for the majority to protect the rights of the minority they must not only see why it is important, but _understand_ why it is important.
The only way that you're rights will ever be protected is if the mainstream understands the importance of it. Protesting moves in the opposite direction, and if large enough, with the possibility of 'mob mentality' taking over, you will lose all credibility.
Trying to seperate yourself from the mainstream may make you feel superior, but it will get you nowheres.
While I am not philisophiscally opposed to censorware in schools,
1) The use of censorware, or any specific requirements on the type of censorware should be entirely up to local district policy. The Federal government should not be mandating or regulating it use.
2) I don't belive any currently available products do their job well enough to be allowed in schools.
3) Experience has shown that policies involving censorware are neither well defiened nor reasonable.
4) Teachers and school librarians are so poorly trained/educated in the use of computers to make good recomendations to school districts or to effectively enforce an acceptable use policy.
In short, I don't believe it is currently wise to implement censorware in schools, and if it ever were, I don't think the federal goverment should have anything to do with it. Therefore I support the EFFs protest.
I also happen to think that censorware doesn't solve an important problem. I don't think that seeing some porn on the internet is going to scar children for life. As much as purveyors of censorware would like to convince you, their software *isn't* going to protect people from meeting pedophiles in chat rooms or irc. While I think the supposition that reading violent neo-nazi propaganda causes school violence isn't without merit, that starts to look very much like free speech to me. If students are deliberately seeking out that kind of material for whatever reason (research, curiosity, teen angst, desire to form a militia), I don't think it is right to censor them. Aside from the philisophical reasons, from a practical standpoint censorware vendors have shown gross incompetence when selecting what material to block, and seem to resort mostly to blocking any potentially controversial material, such informationa about the holocost, women's rights, homosexual rights, religon, and medical information on breast cancer.
People who say things like "The solution is to build better censorware" are usually too drunk of the technilogical progress of the last 30 years to realize that not every problem is a simple matter of engineering. We don't know how to make good censorware, and the chances of someone being able to make good censorware in the next 5-10 years is, IMO, negligible. Certainly a combination of blacklists and whitelists, open or closed, is woefully inadequite, and none of the heuristic methods seem to be any good.
It's not that the filters aren't perfect -- it's that they don't do what they claim. They leave many pornographic sites unblocked, and they block many sites that they have no legitimate reason to block (some apparently for political reasons). The filtering requirement is simply a huge handout of public money to the software companies selling the snake oil^W^W filters. Why should we support the fraud?
next few weeks
Seeing as classes meet or twice weekly, "in the next few weeks becomes tomorrow or after class in the stair well nobody uses.
12 year old boys don't stumle across dad's stack of playboys IN SCHOOL!
They don't learn much either at home or at school, so what's the difference?
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
How great a percentage of the people who were not yet born back in late 60's or early 70's (or weren't old enough to comprehend) truly appreciate the fact that u.s. (maybe) wen't to the moon and (emphasize on the following) *beat the soviets*. It is not so much that you wen't to moon, but that you beat your nemesis while doing it.
Yes, americans are patriotic about heroes but put things into modern perspective and a lot of that is lost. Like I said earlier there is no cold war anymore. No nemesis, no true nationalism.. Corporatism and stock markest yes,..
I really doubt that any american would question them being the undisputable world power #1. Having established this status some puny asian nation isn't really going to make much of a difference whether they'll make it to the moon or not. U.s. still rules and money matters.. Infinite budgets to beat your ark rival are a thing of the past in u.s. BUT *not in india or especially china!*
Neither one of those countries can really threaten (no a silly plane with 24 men doesn't count) the u.s. aside doomsday scenarios and nobody really wins at those..
Space race was a product of cold war that is long gone and forgotten along with nationalism.. It's all about the money nowadays.. Wish it weren't, though..
This is not posturing. This is not bragging. This is an inherent aspect of the concept itself.
As the saying goes, inoffensive speech needs no protection, because no-one tries to censor it.
How does a piece of human garbage like Fabricio Vayra, the lawyer who wrote apple's responce to MacThemes sleep at night?
The current Slashdot moderation system is made by gay communists!
"Maybe I'm just being a little too PC."
:)
I'm not trying to be a jerk, but yeah, you probably are. "Would make the world a lot less crowded" is a blatant joke.
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Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
Don't worry too much. India generally gets along very well with NATO countries and the US' other friends in the asia/pacific rim area. It's Pakastan, China and North Korea we should be worried about.
----
Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
Neither one of those countries can really threaten
Yes, but they will be able to in 10 years.
----
Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
EFF is so concerned about not spamming its members that they often miss sending out notices about events. The EFFector is the only ongoing email they send to members. Unless an event happens to be announced in an issue of the EFFector I end up finding out about EFF activities from Slashdot or some other media source.
My mom used to tell me the same thing. I used to tell her that she could send what I didn't eat to them.= \=\=\=\
=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\
Every additional country (or hopefully in the near future, company) with satellite launch capability means more competition in the space industry. More competition in the space launch industry means lower prices, and a reasonable chance that normal people will be able to travel to space in our lifetime.
Having the ability to leave this planet might be the only thing that saves the human race if the ability of the Earth becomes destroyed by: asteroidal or comet impacts; solar fluctuation ; environmental devastation due to human stupidity; {nuclear,chemical,biological} warfare; etc.
40% of the chinese population live along the banks of the Chang Jiang river. This river also is responsible for 40% of grain production and 70% of rice production in the country.
Natural floods of this river are devestating to the population, and happen frequently - floods still occurs almost yearly. Major flood events have occurred in 1931, 1954, 1991, 1993, 1996 and 1998, with increasing frequency and severity during the 1990s. The 1931 flood killed some 400,000 people and affected more than 50 million people.
Now, here's the kicker:
The "Three Gorges Dam" project is an attempt to build a MONSTROUS (read: biggest human project ever attempted) dam far upriver.
So... anyone who goes to war with China and needs to wipe out 40% of their population, 40% of their grain, 70% of their rice, and who knows how much of their industry (? anyone know?) just needs to blow the dam.
I know that's no easy task, but modern weapons can knock out mountains (read the articles on NORAD and how the inside of a mountain no longer provides adequate protection).
Yeah
I think the best way to make sure that the students will not lookup inappropriate material is to require the students to login before surfing. The idea that they would be logged with their name and the site which they visited would stop most from doing it during school. Nobody wants to get into trouble for something they can as easily do at home.
Assuming that you go to a high school, I think that students have much better things to do with thier time in school than to look up porn. I go to a high school with 500 of the most immature people i have ever known. However, I would say that out "Acceptable Use Policy" is violated no more than 2 or 3 times a week, and most of the time it is not having to do with porn. We have no internet blocking software and it does not seem to be a problem. I think your guess of about half the school looking up porn is groundless and way off. My theory: students can easily look up porn at home in their own privacy. The risk of looking it up in a building crawling with authority figures just isnt worth it. Of course, for a few the risk IS the fun, but those types of students are looking for approval from their friends (i.e. class clowns) and are not looking up porn because of other reasons. I support restricting access to explicit sites, but not at the price that it comes at right now. I say keep internet blocking software out of schools until the software actually does what it is supposed to do.
India has already done/doing some limited scale commercial launches (for low-earth, polar, ... satellites) using their previous genration launch vehicles (like PSLV) for clients from countries like Germany, Korea ... So one can expect thing to happen (commercial launches using GSLV) soon (much earlier than 5 years ...).
What they ought to do is lobby for a law that allows specific, significant damages for incorrect blocking, and requires notification for blocked sites.
Oracle and unix guy.
ALL filter makers are known to intentionally block of non-porn sites, particularly those that criticize makers of said filter.
really? ALL of them? big claims require big evidence not vague claims.
Try it yourself. Copy, say, the Bill of Rights into a file called "purity.htm". Put it up on your site. Use any blocking software. Hell, go down to Kinkos and see if you can bring it up there.
Oracle and unix guy.
I think the best way to make sure that the students will not lookup inappropriate material is to require the students to login before surfing.
Was it HS or Jr. Hi? I can't remember, but there was a guy who got himself in the yearbook several times, one of them as "Frank Zappa." I believe he owns a telecommunications company now.
I think we may have several whole generations now who understand the idea of fake persona and who have no idea alternate identities could even be morally wrong. So what's next - earprint access to library computers?
Oracle and unix guy.
You know, my local library has an absolutely brilliant solution to this problem of filtered internet access on public computers. The first page you see when you open a web browser is the library home page, with 2 big links right in the middle "unfiltered internet access" and "filtered internet access" Yes, that's right, the USER chooses whether or not they want filtered net access. So worried parents, just get their kids started on filtered net access, and they're fine. Of couse, if kid is technically proficient, this is fairly easy to get around by going back to the page and selecting unfiltered. But if they can figure that out, I'd consider them intelligent enough to respond to any "objectionable materai" appropriately.
Sending spam is legal, ethical, and basically a good thing
When I went to highschool in the US, our school did not have any censorware, and I don't think I know of anyone looking up porn. I mean, these kids arn't going to masterbate at school, I think the only reason that they try to get it is because they can't. They're more intrested in 'hacking' at school then wanking.
Rate me on Picture-rate.com
"and dear god does this website suck now." -- CmdrTaco
God forbid kids should be curious about sex. There is obviously something wrong with any child who is curious and intrigued by this great adult mystery.
You know, maybe if our culture would just lighten up a bit on the whole sex thing, we'd have fewer sex obsessed freaks running around. And if (horrors!) there were actually cultural institutions that allowed teenagers to get their rocks off in a safe and healthy way, maybe it would be possible for a 15-year-old to think about something other than sex for ten minutes at a time.
"Research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing." -- Wernher von Braun
Your recollection is faulty. This Gallup poll survey shows the number of Americans who think the Apollo moon landings were faked is about 6%. The number hasn't changed since 1995. I recall another article that I can't find the URL for right now (at least I acknowledge my inability to recall) that basically said the 6% number is lower than it was in the '70s or '80s!
You think it would have been "highly unlikely". Do us all a favor and shut off your computer and never turn it back on again. You can't even research a number that has been widely publicized, often misquoted, or outright lied about (a la Fox) . But you expect us to listen to your opinion. Sheesh.
Nah, it's just government censorship. If you could censor taxpayer funded libraries, I suppose you could censor anyone and everyone saying anything that an ambiguous censor might deem offensive to a religious man, a panzy, a wimpy ass, etc. The government can not censor the public *cough*KingGeorge*cough*. I'm right, you're wrong, 'nuff said, end of discussion.
faith (fath)
n.
I think everyone should be given open internet access initially but forced to log in before being given such. By forcing user logins open internet access could be given to those able to use it responsibly, while those who abuse such a thing could have their access restricted or even terminated.
Satellites can be brought down anywhere, maybe it's not a satelite at all, maybe its an orbital bombardment platform.
many military satellites are much heavier than their stated role requires.
The immense GPS sat's being one example that springs to mind.
'There is a Light that never goes out.'
2 tons seems a lot to go "beep" with a coded signal...
'There is a Light that never goes out.'
I think that federally mandated censor ware is innappropriate, however, I think that censorware in schools in not necessarily a bad thing altogether. I go to a school with about 2500 students, and i guaruntee, if we didn't have censorware, a large portion of the students would be spending the majority of their "research" time on playboy.com and porn and all sorts of things that are not at all related to what they are supposed to be doing.
Not having censorware would be nice, for those of us who follow the rules. However, I am betting that nearly half of the people in my school would NOT follow the rules if there was not "bess" in place. It would be incredibly difficult to control, any schoolteacher knows that if the ENTIRE class is disruptive, it is nearly impossible to keep control of it. There are enough people that cause trouble in my school to make the internet connection at school more of a burden than a resource...and our school board would gladly drop the axe on something that allows students access to porn and such. The censroware isn't perfect, and often annoying, but it is effective and saves a lot of time for teachers.
The anti-salmon
That depends on the age group were talking about. For sake of argument I'm going to choose Junior High. Say 12-13 yr olds.
For that age group it's reasonable to block racist websites. ie. sites that say that niggers [sic] are a pestilence. Same thing if they say that about other groups. Or if they say things like "kill all fags".
Use your head. There are plenty of examples.
Remember. Just because you can't block everything doesn't mean that you shouldn't block anything.
. --- If you're looking for free e-mail you won't find it here! http://www.noemailhere.com
Yes because schools are not there to pass on ALL information.
For instance, a school does not exist so that some wacko tell kids how to tell what a jew is by the shape of their nose and how to "deal" with them when they identify them.
Schools exist in order to educate your people and give them some of the skills they will need in the world.
. --- If you're looking for free e-mail you won't find it here! http://www.noemailhere.com
1) Porn is defined as such by a general consensus. That means that David is obviously not porn (as 99% of people would say) and whitehouse.com is porn (As 99% of people would say). Grey areas are when you get anything less than 2:1 agreement. In those cases you need to find a way to agree to disagree. One solution would be to say that grey areas fall into the cateogory of not. Another way is to say that they fall up to local discretion. This is what democracy is for.
2) Gee... how feasible is trying to eliminate crime. oh, it's impossible, I guess we should get rid of the legal system then. WRONG! You do the best you can and you try to get better at it.
3) To make sure this happens as little as possible, make sure you properly address grey areas. (See 1). Will the system be perfect? No, but that doesn't mean it's perfectly awful.
. --- If you're looking for free e-mail you won't find it here! http://www.noemailhere.com
Maybe, just MAYBE, there isn't actually widespread opposition to censorware in schools & libraries. I for one am not against some form of censorship in schools. These are schools for crying out loud. There are some things that should be blocked out of schools.
Libraries are a different issue, but I find myself unable to support protests because my moderate stance in unwelcome with the EFF.
And I am NOT saying that censoreware is perfect. It's obvious that it's not, but the solution is even more obvious. Build better censoreware with open lists of what is blacklisted.
Moderators: What I've said may be unpopular, but do not mark me down as a troll or flamebait because I'm serious and this is a legitimate point of view.
. --- If you're looking for free e-mail you won't find it here! http://www.noemailhere.com
If they nuke china, that would be interesting, though fatalistic for the indians.
There's a lot more chinese than indians, though.
Hopefully their british imperialistic past shines through some day.
I have a shotgun, a shovel and 30 acres behind the barn.
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
You said strap-on.. cool.
Seriously though, its interesting that they have this hodge podge of parts, and amazingly, it all works together. Can we really say that "india" has made it to space? or that they just used parts from the existing technologies, mixed them together and got them to work.
I have a shotgun, a shovel and 30 acres behind the barn.
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
...maybe they want to hit them from behind. ...yeeeah right..
Shameless plug for my photos on Flickr
Uh, this has NOTHING to do with the constitution, first amendment, or anything else. For example, you do not have the right to yell your opinions in a library. It's called being a "public nuisance", even though you are doing it on your oh-so-sacred federally-owned land. And guess what? Libraries don't usually carry "debbie does doggie" magazines, either. Oh my god, what an abridgement of your rights!
And even if there were censorship issues involved, the librarian can override it on request. Perhaps you can explain how the requirement that the librarian unlock the computer is an infrigement of your rights. Perhaps you think the library should be left open 24 hours a day just in case you need to access any materials? Perhaps rare books should be open as well, without requiring permission to access them.
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Absolutely not. It is simple biological truth. See recent discussion if you want to see the rationale: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=01/04/17/16282 28&cid=480.
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
No, they do not, because your right to "not have to ask the librarian to unlock the computer" (poor baby) do not extended to denying rights to others, such as a little girl being able to walk through the library without being subjected to images of women having sex with animals.
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Look, I know you're still in High School and everything and can't be expected to be able to make perfect arguments, but was there an argument in there at all? What does community standards have to do with anything?
Bottom line, Librarians have better things to do than watch Internet workstations all day to see if some teenager (such as yourself) left a porn video running.
A filter is just a tool to help keep order in the library/school/whatever.
P.S. Screaming your point doesn't make it any more or less viable. Although, it does tend to indicate that it can't hold up on its own.
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Oh, I see.... [backing away]....
Yeah, well, people had the same reaction in the 1700s when people stated that negroes where, in fact, human and not animals. It was simple biological truth. I predict it will be a few years before this simple biological truth will be generally accepted.
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
And, of course, those of us who believe that their little girl should be able to walk through the library without having to watch teenagers leaving animal sex videos running should also feel free to show up to these protests and demonstrate support for filters on public internet access terminals.
Once again, it must be pointed out that:
1. Nobody claims filters are perfect. They don't have to be. An argument that they aren't perfect is no argument.
2. If you want to bypass the filter, you can. Simply ask the librarian. Censorship is not an issue.
3. This is about PUBLIC ACCESS. People have a right to be able to go to the library without being intimidated by teenagers leaving porn around as a "joke".
Again, I encourage anyone who believes in reasonable filtering to show up at these rallies so that we don't risk suffering under the tyranny of the minority.
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
They also have long term tensions with their neighbor to the far north, China. Thus it pays to have both satellites as wel as long range missles. And then they can get their own telemetry without having to depend on the USA, etc.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
I think that the technical difficulties involved with censoring are difficult enough (safeweb is not the only way to beat censors), there is also the dilemma of letting some large corporation decide what kids can and cannot see. Unfortunately, I think that it will be nearly impossible to prevent the installation of filtering software. Any protests at this time will likely be unsucessful, but removal at a later time might be possible, when the idea that computers are evil dies down.
makaera
Don't make me use my other sig!!
Have they fixed the horrific bugs in the Win9x version yet? Last time I tried the game, it would crash on 90-95% of the runs. Totally unplayable because of that.
I think the best position on this whole MacThemes.org issue was made at their website when they drew a parallel between their project, and its contribution to copyright infringement and Apple's iTunes' role in the same sort of activity.
Earlier today, I bought a Sony MZ-R700 and I ran into a SCMS issue. I went home powered up the iBook, loaded iTunes, plugged in the MD recorder, and boom, no problems. Granted, all I wanted to do was fair use (I tried using a consumer MD recorder/CD combo to copy a consumer music CD-R made as a backup to one of my discs) but Apple is as, or more guilty of contributary infringement.
Steve Jobs and crew talk a lot about creativity and innovation. But this ethos seems to stop when nobody is paying them. They need to realize they don't have the monopoly Micro$oft has.
If they haven't figured out yet that free software and user support is what has kept many users from leaving long ago then they will be in for a real surprise when nobody want's to develop for OSX.
By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more. - Albert Camus
If the rules state that this action is forbidden, and then the action is performed, then the priveledge that allowed the action to be performed should be revoked via due process.
Examples: A person murders another person. This is forbidden under the laws of our government, so, via due process, the murderer's priveledge (or right, if you like - I'm not here to debate the ideology of freedom) of freedom is revoked so that murder is less likely to happen (at least by said murderer).
A drunk driver is pulled over. Drunk driving is forbidden, so the driver's driving priveledges are revoked (true, and sadly, not always the first time) via the process of law.
Now, with the issue of censorware, what we are doing is essentially removing all the guns, knives, alchohol, etc. from the picture. Now it is no longer possible to break the laws, to do things that are forbidden. I don't think the NRA would appreciate this. And I don't appreciate it, since I happen to enjoy a good beer once in a while, and a good wine more often.
You tell the children, educate them, and inform them that the law, the rules, here in the school are: no porn sites. If you are caught, no more internet access. Same with the libraries. You break the rules, you get fined or library access is revoked or some such thing. Putting in some sort of library card reader which would allow library card holders to use the internet would not be so very hard. More expensive than censorware? Yes.
How do you police that? Well, logs can be kept and examined. I don't really like being watched all the time, but then, I'm watched on the roads. If I speed, I'm busted (okay, not every time, but you get the point). If I don't want to be watched, then I pay for the priveledge via internet access in my home (not that that is always so un-watched [Carnivore]).
Sure, there are ways around getting caught. There are ways around getting convicted of drunk driving or murder as well. But censorware delivers to the students the clear message that they cannot be trusted (I know, no alcohol before 21, no driving before 16, no gun ownership . . . er, dunno the limit on that one - but that does not mean the tools are not there), and that creates children who cannot be trusted with anything else, be it guns, cars, or dangerously sharpened paper-clips.
If you want our students to grow up to be able to follow the rules, then they have to be able to break them. Otherwise, what's the point of the rule? Even more, what's the point of educating the children?
Censorware is a slippery slope. At any rate, protected, sheltered children are the ones who go nuts when presented with the realities of life. Anyone who says their political agenda is designed to "protect the children" is far too screwed up to make any decisions for me.
Do not touch -Willie
So, another nation has the ability to destroy the world in a fit of pique. Great.
Fuck man, I'd go, except I have class tomorrow, and the nearest protest spot is 5 miles away. Besides, I'm planning some celebration for the holiday tomorrow.
Given that the FCC is headquartered in Washington, DC, why are these protests being held in San Francisco and New York? All of the FCC meetings are open to the public, and there are opportunities to have public input. Many members of the public have had a real impact on FCC actions simply by showing up and getting their opinions heard. I have learned from participating in these public hearings and committee meetings that there is a dearth of representation from software engineers. The FCC staffers are aware of this and would definitely appreciate more participation from programmers and engineers. There is also the option of going to the FCC website and submitting comments--they really do get read and put into the record. --Kathryn Aegis
I will happily participate in any effort that PROMOTES such censorware. Granted, the right to free speech is of outstanding importance. But there should be no question that minors are NOT entitled to the same full "set" of rights as adults, and that this is for their own good. Should a three-year-old have the "opportunity" to accidentally click on www.goatse.cx? As an adult, I can view that and deal with it in my own moral framework. Were we talking about web browsing in adult-only scenarios, or even primarily-adult scenarios (such as internet cafes), that would be one thing.
But schools and libraries are SPECIFICALLY places where children are involved. To suggest that the browsers they will be using (or are likely to have access to) should not be heavily filtered against violence, adult content, etc - that is (in the best possible light) criminally irresponsible naivete. At worst, it's tantamount to the deliberate corruption of minors - and that is, in my mind, unforgiveable.
-Styopa
This was sent to the EFF in regard to the CIPA and the rallies going on today.
Hello,
I would like to add my support for this online. I'm not currently able to
attend the rally in NYC, though I would if I could. This legislation cuts
down on neccessary freedoms - I have never seen in the Constitution where it
says that children shall be second class citizens to whom the Bill of Rights
does not apply. However, what is worse, it causes the censorware companies
to be subsidized with taxpayer money. I am incensed that part of the money
freedom-loving, anti-censorship Americans pay as taxes will then go to
support censorship and the trampling of the constitutional rights of
children. These companies have never done a single thing right; their
products are faulty and do not work as advertised, and furthermore are not
needed. They do not deserve to be subsidized by the people of the U.S.
I will also be investigating into the matter of which representatives
are/have voted for this atrocity, and I will certainly weight that into my
decisions of who to vote for in the next congressional elections. I will
try to do my part to prevent those who love censorship and hate freedom from
being in power in this nation.
I urge everyone else to get off their duffs and get involved! If I could go to that rally in NYC, I would. Write your congressmen. I intend to send a copy of this to mine.
-Kasreyn
Kasreyn: Cheerfully playing the part of Devil's Advocate to hairtrigger
Perhaps a bigger issue (at least for the libertines and constitutionalists), is not whether or not there should be censorship software in the schools, but whether or not it is right for the federal government or even a state government to be dictating censorship at all.
Some might say that this idea is the epitomy of the "middle road" requested in a previous thread. I disagree. I think this idea is the most extreme stance -- that of demanding that the decision to withhold anything from my children remain MY decision and not that of a federal or state entity.
I am well aware of the extent of my wishful thinking. At this point it would probably take another revolution to get our rights back.
I'm done with sigs. Sigs are lame.
A copy on one of the posts on this thread:
>>>The vehicle has interesting flight profile: the core first stage burns out first at 100 seconds, and strap-ons are going until 160 sec., hauling an empty steel cylinger for a whole minute before stage separation...
Few points to note before any 'analysis' is done regarding this matter.
GSLV design is NOT altogether a new design. (In fact I would say it a larger PSLV). The constraints for ISRO to go in for altogether a new design is:
a) Resources - Men, Money, experience etc.
b) Time - it would have taken a considerably longer time to design a new vehicle (though more efficient & larger).
c) Proper test facilities - though we have been in the business of sending rockets up (and sometimes down)for quite sometime now, the test facilities available in India are not up to the desired level, I would say.
d) Launch pad - the existing launch pad was basically designed for PSLV. It is due to the redundant strength (higher factor of safety) that it is able to take the GSLV ; vice-versa, the GSLV had to be designed to suit the launch pad!
Based on above (and may be more) constraints, the scientists had to design a vehicle. Hence they used the PSLV core and Vikas engine for first stage, strap-ons and second stage.
Now the question - isn't it inefficient to carry 17 tons of metal for sixty seconds extra? - Yes it is, but there was no alternative because the strap-ons are attached to it.
Why can't the strap-ons be detached when the solid core is burns out, or extend the solid core burn to 160 seconds?
1. The solid core burns 125 tons for 100 secs - i.e., 1.25 ton / sec
2. the strap-ons burn liquid propellents for 162 secs - i.e., about 250 kg/sec/booster.(similar is the rate for second stage also)
(for a moment assume that the variations in propellent loading at different stages doesn't alter the overall thrust requirement, though that is not the case in reality)
If the strap-ons are to be jettisoned after 100 seconds, then (a) they have to burn the propellent at faster rate or (b) the balance (about 60 tons) propellents will have to be shifted to second stage. Alternately (c) make the solid core burn for 160 secs.
(a)is not possible because:
i) The EXISTING design of the vikas engine doesn't allow this since it must already be working at max trust level and propellent flow rate.
ii) there will be drastic increase in acceleration of the vehicle at lift-off, which will complicate matters further (as such from what I can see from the Video, the accelaration is quite good)
(b) is not possible because:
shifting 60 tons of propellent to stage 2 will make the vehicle "top heavy" - i.e., the centre of gravity will shift upwards making the vehicle unstable. Moreover, since the dia of the first and second stage are same, the additional propellent in stage 2 will make the vehicle very long. Result - the vehicle will tumble into the sea soon after lift-off. So this solution is also not workable.
(c) is not possible because:
being a solid core, the only way to manipulate the thrust/burn rate is by controlling the hollow shape at the core (usually a star shape bacause of large surface area). But if you enlarge or decrease the shape at the core, then it will affect the propellent load and also the burn rate. So this also is not a efficient or viable solution.
Agree, it is a waste of energy to carry 17 tons of casing for 60 secs more. But what is the weight of the vehicle after 100 secs? about 175 tons, which, if the empty shell is discarded would be about 158 tons. The penalty is about 10% additional weight. That is the compromise in design.
Then there is another wastage of about 1.2 tons of propellent when the onboard computer 'tests' the parameters before the solid core ignites..may be they will improve upon these wastages subsequently.
Another point to note is that it is not always true that the more the number of stages, the more efficient the design is..there is always a optimum level, and design as usual is a trade-off
Interesting... There's no info on KRB-12 on manufacturer's site, the have only 21 ton KVRB for Proton and Angara.
Mark Wade's Encyclopedia Astronautica mentions both KRB and KVRB in RD-56M article.
From Yahoo: A key aspect of the GSLV is its Russian engine that uses liquid oxygen as a fuel that helps place the satellite in orbit as high as 36,000 km in space.
It's hydrogen. Oxygen is oxidizer. Hydrogen is fuel.
GSLV uses hodgepodge of technologies: the L40 strap-ons and second stage L37.5 are from Ariane heritage, first solid stage S125 is Indian, the third stage C12 "cryo-12" is Russian KRB 12 "Kryogenic Rocket Block, 12 ton".
The vehicle has interesting flight profile: the core first stage burns out first at 100 seconds, and strap-ons are going until 160 sec., hauling an empty steel cylinger for a whole minute before stage separation.
china pak isnt the targets, theyre too close for the fallout and radiation. ......can make satellites cheaper. amateur packetradio, internet direct to home usw. looking forward to brazil argentina mexico australia s africa and many others developing rocket science for civilian uses not military.
*cough* europe..maybe usa too....*cough* far enough from the lauchpad.
but seriously this is a civilian rocket not missile
What do they need long range missiles for? Pakistan's not THAT far away!
This has been another useless post from....
Killfile(TGK)
No trees were killed in the creation of this post. However, many electrons were inconvenienced.
a) It does a crappy job at blocking porn sites.
b) It wont let me see pages in the google cache.
Now, I almost ALWAYS use the google cache when i'm looking for information because it nicely highlights what I'm looking for and shows it to me, and this blocking software gets REALLY annoying after a while. It even shamelessly puts its own banner where normal banners for on websites would be, cutting off their only source of revenue. Down with blocking software!
I like meat helmets.
Of the EU members, Greece and Portugal are not in ESA (Luxemburg does not count). In addition, there are 12 countries negotiating about EU membership (Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania). None of these is not even planning ESA membership. Switzerland and Norway are in ESA, but not in EU.
The major players (UK, Germany, france, Italy) are the same, but the big difference is: Administration and funding of ESA and EU are completely separate. Therefore, ESA is much more efficient, it is not politics-driven but science-driven, and scientist hate bureacracy just as much as politicians love it.
So, make it 'Western Europe' or something like that, not European Union. EU does not deserve credit for ESA activities.
Beats me... I'll give 3 guesses which OS I use, and the first 2 don't count :)
Ryan T. Sammartino
Ryan T. Sammartino
"Ancora imparo"
Sorry, too addicted to TuxRacer.
TuxRacer has all the elements of a classic video game... penguins and herring. Anything more is just featurebloat. :)
Ryan T. Sammartino
Ryan T. Sammartino
"Ancora imparo"
While I agree with posts questioning whether this should be a federal mandate, people who scream about "censorship" here are missing a couple of points that are stacked in the favor of school districts choosing to use filters.
First off, is the threat of being sued. Kids don't have a right to browse freely. But, if a kid browses to, say, a Nazi site, and then shows it to a student who happens to be Jewish, the parents might very well sue the school district. The same if a black student with the klan, or any other such circumstance. (Please don't flame my examples. I'm not Jewish, and I'd be offended too. Its just that nazi's are so despicable that they came to mind first) So here a school has a monetary incentive to install the software, and no constitutional barrier since children are, well, chattel.
Also, they would be open to lawsuits, probably, because our nation is made up of a bunch of cheapskates who don't mind herding kids into classes of 30 or more. You try monitoring 30 8th graders while teaching them enough to pass a standardized exam. Riiight. So now a student goes to a porn site, and the teacher/principal/school committee and a parent sues because they are "negligent". You know it would happen.
Yes, the issue of federal mandates in this area needs to be discussed. But protesting the "censorship" of school computers? Keep in mind that we live in a Republic, and those computers were bought by tax dollars of people who may not have your opinion, and may be in the majority. If they want to filter student computers, it is their right to do so. The 1st amendment has limitations. No, it's not perfect, but they will argue that it is the "best possible answer" under the circumstances.
As for me, I'm not sure. I just think the issue needs to be aired with more forethought than "censorship sux!"
After reading the EFF's protest page, I'm left confused as to what they're actually protesting. They complain about blocking software overblocking the good stuff and underblocking the bad stuff. While I don't disagree with that assessment, it seems to imply that if blocking software actually worked correctly, they might not be in opposition to it in public institutions?
Okay, it's obvious that the spirit of their protest is against any censorship whatsoever, regardless of whether the intended sites are censored properly or not. But throwing this argument in there only seems to hurt their cause. What if blocking software could be made to function in a very reliable, thoughtful, nonbiased way (not really possible, but what if)? By using this argument as a component of their protest they only hurt themselves IMHO.
I can't quite bring myself to agree with their anti-censorship tack, however. While I can see some argument to leaving library computers unblocked (at least for adult patrons), I can see no reason whatsoever to allow kids in schools to be able to surf wherever they want. I don't want my kid getting exposed to pr0n until I'm damn ready to explain the facts of life first. If censorship software does *any* good whatsoever, then I support its use in schools at least. If parents feel it's important for their kids to be able to surf anywhere they want, let them do it at home then.
Keeping information out of schools is a "moderate stance"?
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Other interesting notes about the GSLV is that it puts India in the Heavy Lifter Club (USA, Russia/CIS, EU, Japan, China). The rocket can put about 5 tonnes into LEO, and the US Gemini capsules only weighed around 3 tonnes each. Now, if they really get their act together, and/or buy Russian technology, they have a small chance of beating out China as Space-Faring Power #3.
a bad day to try and organize a protest
This was not funny. Be proud, but do better next time.