Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Diebold, Peroxide, Comdex
Diebold Election Systems Round 2 in MD zznate writes "Looks like Diebold is not going to get off the hook so easily in Maryland after all. For anyone local, feel free to contact delegates Hixson or Hollinger to express your support. Perhaps they could even receive a copy or two (or fifty ;-) of the documents listed here."
Diebold is having an easier time at Swarthmore. yoshi_mon writes "Previously reported on /. was the Swarthmore Students Effort to keep the Diebold leaked memo's online. However that effort has been quashed by one Dean Bob Gross. To quote the dean, "We can?t get out in front in this fight against Diebold." BlackBoxVoting.com reports that '[Swarthmore College] is not willing to take a strong stand against Diebold, and is systematically disabling the network access of any student who hosts the files.'"
AT&T says Ha, just kidding! An anonymous reader writes "In an update to an earlier Slashdot article, Telco giant AT&T rushed to withdraw two notices sent to business partners and customers asking for the IP addresses of all outbound SMTP servers because of a 'human error' gaffe."
All this and cheap shrimp cocktail. blackbearnh writes "While the topic has been raised, I thought I'd mention a few other things going on at COMDEX Open-Source wise.
First off, the Open Source and Linux track has been expanded from a half-dozen sessions last year to nearly twenty this year. These will cover everything from the basics of Open Source (taught by folks like Ken Coar of Apache) to an intro to PHP led by Rasmus Lerdorf.
On the show floor, a massive 2500 sq foot Open Source Innovation Center will serve as the site for hourly talks by Open Source evangelists on business-related topics such as case studios proving the benefits of Open Source. There will also be a staffed "clinic" area where attendees can get advice on what Open Source technologies would work well in their business. There will also be install parties held at noon each day, where attendees can bring their laptops to get help installing MySQL or Debian. And lastly, a .ORG village inside the center will host representitives from more than a dozen prominent Open Source organizations, including OpenOffice and Mozilla.
Also, the COMDEX/ApacheCon exchange program continues this year. COMDEX members can get access to the ApacheCon expo floor and BOF sessions, while ApacheCon member can visit the COMDEX show floor and the Open Source keynotes. Shuttle service will link the two conventions.
James Turner
Co-Chair, Open Source, Fall 2003 COMDEX"
It's a crapshoot, eh. Dick Faze writes " Royal Bank of Canada is part of a $50 Million investment in SCO: Has our communist neighbor to the north finally flipped completely?" (We know Mr. Faze is being facetious, here ... don't we?) This is the same $50,000,000 investment deal in which some people suspected Microsoft's involvment.
Patent Office Cancels Swing Patent An anonymous reader writes "Remember the swing patent issued last year covering the method of swinging a swing? Well, the Patent Office must've taken offense at the amount of criticism it received over this patent. It initiated a reexam proceeding and after a year's worth of reexamination, they cancelled the patent on July 1, 2003."
But all the other patents are up to snuff, don't worry.
Carmack's Peroxide Troubles Over? Rob Jellinghaus writes "John Carmack's aerospace company has had problems getting enough concentrated 90% peroxide for their engines. So they have been working on mixed monoprop engines that would need only 50% peroxide, which would pretty much end their fuel troubles for good. They have had many failures, but they may have just succeeded. In his words: 'This is Very Good.'"
Remember, most of the world is still dial-up, at best. Anothermouse Cowered writes "It's a router, it's a firewall, it's a home gateway it's a... In another giant leap for the Open Source community, you can now hack on your own embedded Linux system for under $70. The source code for the ActionTEC Dual modem previously mentioned on Slashdot ('Hacking the Actiontec 56k Modem/Gateway') in September has now been released under the GPL. Downloads available here."
So much doom!
And the royal bank doesn't know what the hell they are doing.
It's good that they have a supplier now, but wouldn't that mean that the other 50% is dead weight in water?
From the growing interest in Open Source at each successive Comdex, it is clear that at some point the interest in Open Source will outweigh the interest in Closed Source. We can already see a replacement of the standard Closed Source presentations (lectures, classes, etc.) by brash, up and coming Open Source presentations. Also, the floor space occupied by Open Source presenters is growing and crowding out Closed Source vendors.
At this rate of growth, it is more than likely that we could see Open Source fully replace Closed Source as THE viable software solution within 10 years. Just 5 years ago Open Source was a joke, but today it is a serious threat to the Closed Source business model. In 10 years time when these Open Source projects and their developers mature, they will be unstoppable.
Yay Open Source!
Please do not spam these people with 50 11MB files. If each member of the slashdot crowd even sends one copy, their mail servers will be overwhelmed and our efforts will be ignored. Perhaps someone can print paper copies to send to them?
C:\>
It's a crapshoot, eh. Dick Faze writes " Royal Bank of Canada is part of a $50 Million investment in SCO: Has our communist neighbor to the north finally flipped completely?" (We know Mr. Faze is being facetious, here ... don't we?) This is the same $50,000,000 investment deal in which some people suspected Microsoft's involvment.
Is there some web site that documents all the companies that are investing in SCO?
I have been watching this SCO watch site for while... but it's not all that frequently updated. In depth, yes... but I just want to know every bastard company that I should be avoiding. Give me a list...
The memos are available for download here. French server, decent bandwidth, out of the reach of any DMCA-wielding company.
Money can't buy justice!
Err... um, money didn't always buy justice!
====
Crudely Drawn Games
Are there any motives that I'm missing, other than the fact that they are trying to capitalize on SCO's FUD?
Maybe they have money invested in Micro$oft?
Or they have something to lose from SCO (or M$ for that matter) going under?
Anyone?
I don't know ... personally I think Open Source is already pretty mature. The problem, as I see it, is more a matter of salesmanship and public awareness that any issue with software/developer quality. That and combatting near-Biblical quantities of MS FUD.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
http://suprnova.lagalot.com/torrents/469/lists.tgz (1).torrent
Even better, can someone print out the docs and mail/Fed Ex them to the Maryland Representatives mentioned? I'll kick in to help with postage.
Interociter
-=What do I want? I'm an American. I want more.
Is it just me, or are we all so interested to read these documents only because they are "forbidden". I mean clearly, it's a good thing to know about the gross insecurities of an electronic voting system, but the rush to mirror and distribute this information seems to be like doing something just because Mommy said you can't.
Reminds me of, "Ralphie, what is your fascination with Daddy's forbidden closet of mystery?"
Just want to note that the write up about Swarthmore Dean Bob Gross above is a bit harsh. As I understand (I was unable to go to the large meeting that where this was discussed), he decided that while what the students were doing was a bold and important step, the college just did not have the financial resources to fight what could be a protracted legal battle with a large company like Diebold, especially when organiziations like the EFF are already involved in the issue. And I can understand this.
But while the college is not formally supporting the students on this cause, they are not cutting off student's access or anything like that. Why-War? is hosted off-campus and is continuing to spread the memos around. Several people are getting in contact with other schools in an effort to spread them in a more underground, but still visible, way.
Check out more on it on Swarthmore's Daily Gazette. The Phoenix should have something up on this soon, too.
[SIG] It's like putting a moose in the blender -- a recipe for disaster!
I swear, I was nowhere near that gaffe.
"We're an apex predator with the fecundity of a base level herbivore... We're a virus with shoes..." RazorJAK
rgross1@swarthmore.edu Let's let ol' Gross Bob know how we feel about his decision! Maybe submitting swarthmore's mail server to the Slashdot effect will help him get the message!
I see it as more of an easy chance to participate in civil disobedience. I say "here! here! Way to go everybody!"
...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
The initial call for mirrors was before Diebold was on to them, if I remember correctly, just in case, and so that the data would exist *somewhere* in the public. The people doing the mirroring are (rightfully, IMO) helping to ensure that the flaws in the system are exposed for all to see.
Regardless of some individuals motivation (maybe some are doing it just to spite Diebold itself), it really is a Good Thing(tm) to do.
Now if only we could figure out why the hell the ACLU has such wood for the electronic voting machines...
http://phil.codeallday.com/lists.tgz
This has been a test. Had this been a real emergency, we would have fled in terror and you would not have been informed.
Nobody gives a shit what the Scientologists actually think (well, almost nobody), but it's fun to stifle their attempts to keep the secret.
sulli
RTFJ.
Although the name may lead you to think otherwise, Royal is just another private bank. It's not affiliated with the Canadian gov't or anything. So, no, we haven't flipped completely.
The fact that it cut to the root of democracy, might have somethng to do with it!
Just a hunch
Help fight continental drift.
Sad about the Diebold purge. I know how the shit crumbles, tho... after all, my university did the same thing with the Half-Life 2 leak. Not that I blame either college... it costs a lot of money to get a good legal team to defend against lawsuits from corporations. I mean, Diebold's very existance is on the line with this. If the memos go around too much, they might get destroyed Enron-style. So of course they are going to try and supress colleges, since historically they don't have very good legal defense teams.
#define DRM chmod 000
If you read more you would know it's " hear! hear!"
Here we have a university, supposedly one of the best places to be able to exercise your First Amendment rights, not only unwilling to back their students rights to free speech but actively helping to quash it? If this isn't an examble of the DMCA having a "chilling effect" on speech, I don't know what is.
A humorous one, though. His reputation precedes him.
Not sure about the details, but I would figure that, well, the conditions in which inflight restarts take place would be a LOT different from what they are testing on the ground:
1) (BIG) pressure difference
2) (HUGE) temperature difference
3) possible airflow difference (say if the rocket was in descent / ascent / falling sideways)
I'd say he should do a lot more tests before being certain than inflight restarts is a guaranteed thing. I mean, that'd probably be one of the more critical things on deciding the success / failure of a mission, and probably in cases contribute to the decision b/w life and death - so, more tests and more redundance cannot hurt.
well, "cannot hurt" might not apply to the budget...
My life in the land of the rising sun.
oh yeah, American's know the difference:
Socialism: Big Brother controls everything
Communism: Big Brother controls everything at gunpoint.
Either way it's a crap governmental style that surrenders personal freedoms willingly to governmental oversight and control. Is it more efficient? Who cares..?!? A dictatorship is more "efficient" than all of them but you don't see everyone crowing about how great THAT is.
American's like a Republican government because we like the freedom it gives us and as the #1 economic force on the planet, the #1 military force on the planet, the #1 immigration target on the planet and #1 in a whole bunch of other things too numerous to mention - I would tend to think we're doing things pretty well.
Besides - "Americans" are made up of everyone else - it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that some innovative thinkers got sick of their country's shitty oppressive crap and decided to go where the freedom was. The result? Well... see above...
I think it's only you. I see it more of re-affirming the allegations of corruption and bias that this company has.
In fact, I'd say that I would support downloading and mirroing these files even more strongly than what we did for DeCSS... the truth needs to be told if our democracy is under seige from moneyed interests.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Your country is now a fascist dictatorship, its just
that most of your population hasn't realised it yet.
http://jesus.everdense.com/
Dear Dean Gross: I was most disappointed to discover that you had quashed your students' effort to expose Diebold's voting machine irregularities. I would have hoped that a place of higher learning with the rich tradition that Swarthmore has could do better. Putting dollars over rights is hardly a good lesson to teach your students. I do hope you 'see the light' and reverse this bad decision you have made. In closing, my daughter was accepted to your college last year and after much soul searching decided to go to Harvard instead. I questioned her decision but after this can understand why. Of course, this begs the question: What would the Dean of Harvard have done faced with the decision you had to make? I believe he would have decided differently. Sincerely,
The NZ independant news site scoop.co.nz has them here.
that makes u gay LOL
I have a feeling this whole thing could end up bigger than the WaterGate. My interest, if it does, is that I will then be able to impress my great-grandchildren saying "I was one of the people who defended democracy in the US back then".
Maybe we deserve this world ?
It's too bad that colleges don't believe that they can have "common carrier" status as they provide internet access for students. It means that students actually have fewer rights than people who pay a regular ISP for service.
I work for a major university and I have thought about threatening to bring in an outside ISP for my department for technical reasons. I believe that the university ITS provides poor service and charges too much for it. Yes, they charge us per machine for network access. Now I have another reason to go outside for internet access - a political reason.
Everyone bemoans bad patents and the effect they can have on Open Source, but is there an effort to actually *do* anything about it?
One of the most obvious issues with software patents is cross-licensing. If IBM infringes on Intel's patents, Intel sues. IBM does a search, and counter-sues because Intel is infringing on umpteen IBM patents. Voila, a cross-licensing agreement is signed, no one gets sued, everyone's happy.
Needless to say, if an open source application unwittingly infringes on a patent (which is more likely over time), there is little recourse.
Shouldn't the EFF or the FSF be encouraging coders (particularly those doing cutting edge work) to submit "patentable" code much like they recommend assigning copyrights to them?
They should offer to do the patent search and submission in return for all licensing rights. This would give a central (hopefully benevolent) organization a "war chest" of patents for future lawsuit avoidance and cross-licensing.
Is this already being done?
With the amount of work going into Open Source, there must be tons of patentable code out there. Even if it's not patentable, it apparently doesn't really matter.
i saw rasmus lerdorf's intro to php at the mysql conference... he takes a whole different view to web development that makes java's claims of speed, stability, scalability ect almost moot.
java will say, php is bad because it can't do x as good as we can, and he will summarily explain why you would never want to do x and how php can solve whatever x's method was trying to solve just as fast.
very good speech.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
if our democracy is under seige from moneyed interests.
What do you mean "if"?
It's a constant battle, one that has always been fought, and will always be fought. Back when, the moneyed interest was the church, under the guise of "God", these days, it's a oligarchy, the church, the large international corporations, and the government willing to cater to them in pursuit of ever more power.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
It's much more than the lure of the forbidden. These documents don't only expose insecurity of the system and the potential for massive vote fraud; they expose evidence of illegal tampering in one election, and a callous attitude (to be generous) toward the implications of these security flaws for the public interest. Even worse, Diebold's response to the revealed flaws in their system and procedures was not to respond to the issues raised but rather to issue cease-and-desist orders. This is fundamentally about the democratic process, and there are good reasons to mirror these documents. The ultimate irony - and the thing that really makes me want to vomit - is that Diebold is also the company responsible for protecting the original Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence.
What is the chilling effect? With or without the DMCA, Diebold probably could find legal grounds to issue a Cease and Desist, and to at least bring a lawsuit.
Swarthmore probably doesn't want to pay legal fees out the ass...
I just don't see this as a DMCA thing.
evil adrian
Just goes to show how much we need to make Freenet a reality. Personally, it is extremely difficult for me to run it as I have a 10GB monthly transfer limit and a very nice bandwidth... I know I can limit the upload and all, but even then, I'd have to limit it to about 4.1 Kibibyte-Hertz (Kibibytes per second) to keep from going over, and then I wouldn't have any bandwidth for myself... if more people on my network all ran it at, say, 1 Kibibyte-Hertz, that would be fine, but I only know of one other person on campus who does.
#define DRM chmod 000
Yeah, but the difference now is that most American universities are run by beancounters who flee in panic from any mention of legal trouble.
My only complaint is the lack of a way to add any port forwarding rules via its web interface. You can telnet in and add the iptables rules manually, however. I also wish it had a few more status LEDs (my last external modem had 14 and I loved it).
If it requires half the concentration, doesn't that mean that are going to have to take up way over 2x as much fuel? (2x to make up the concentration, then more to cover the weight of the extra fuel)
I agree with the idea of Freenet being used to distribute information... problem with Freenet is it allows people to pirate shit.
If there was a peer-to-peer system that could be used only for distributing text files, and then only under like, 10k, then we'd be on to something.
evil adrian
First of all, Swarthmore is not a university. It is a small school with not a lot of resources to devote towards legal battles. It is unfortunate that in this case, defending the right to Free Speech (which the school is generally a very strong supporter of) is likely to be highly expensive for the school and not just the students. But I don't blame the school for that, I blame the DMCA. Swarthmore has raised the publicity for this issue, but rest of the fight, I'm sad to say, is going to have to fought elsewhere.
Put your money where your mouth is (and don't rely on the money of the students at Swarthmore some of whom have no opinion on this matter) and donate to the EFF.
And download the memos and host them.
[SIG] It's like putting a moose in the blender -- a recipe for disaster!
How long before people UUEncoded DivX files as an asininely large number of 10k text files? Good idea, but never, ever underestimate the dedication of those who want expensive things for free.
#define DRM chmod 000
Sigh... I admire the nobility of those that want to protect our rights, and I despise the avarice of people that stomp all over other people's rights (and in this particular case, I am referring to music and software pirates.)
I just wish there was an "easy" way to have our computer rights and not have all the stupid bullshit that comes along with them.
evil adrian
If colleges and universities are being intimidated into suppressing free speech, then just who is it that won't be? Things are starting to look pre-1960s out there...
--
Power to the Peaceful
The fact that they're "forbidden" is itself a pretty good indication that they're important, no?
Isn't it odd that the internet, used by people to protect their privacy, is always used so viciously to destory privacy at the same time? For example, it was used to give out the name of the fan who cost the Cubs the world series, and the name of the women who Kobe raped..
"if only we could figure out why the hell the ACLU has such wood for the electronic voting machines..."
Because they have spent 3 years telling us that black people are not smart enough to use punch-card ballots, the same ballots that have been in use for 50 years.
I know of the documents and after reading the stuff Why-War is doing, I decided to mirror them here. Fight Diebold!!
-Seriv
Freenet is basically that system now. It chokes on almost anything bigger than a 10K text file (come to think of it, it chokes on most 10K text files too).
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
Not one big post. WTF?
Who will guard the guards?
Indeed.. funny what some schmuck general said the other day, the US needs to fight harder in the war on terror, the prize for it is 200 more years of freedom. Fascinating because of 2 things; one he only talked about the freedom of Americans, and that the US now is less free than before.
The world (especially the US) lives in fear of the next attack. That's exactly what they (terrorists) wanted, the terrorists have indeed won.
Also last week, some General said the US is fighting against Satan itself. Yeah well done buddy, as a Satan is how the Muslim extrimists view you, so you're no better than they are.
They sky... is falling.
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
the ignition mechanism being buried far up in the engine does not exempt it from being affected by temperature or pressure changes in the outside environment. catalyst blocks are not magical air barriers that will keep the pressure at the ingintion point at 1ATM.
Worse yet, the catalyst blocks ARE part of the ignition system - if they are too cold the fuel does not ignite, which is the source of their problems in the first place. when the air temperature drops to -50C at 30k ft, how do you know the catalyst blocks will heat up / heat up fast enough?
I won't even start to mention possible effects of temperature fluctuations due to the vehicle's motion through the atmosphere (depending on speed, it would either heat up or draw heat away faster).
And as much respect as I have for Carmack, I cannot say that (from what I read) his program is based on exhausive testing - it more seems like "let's try if this works better than that" approach. Nothing wrong with the approach, but it usually only tests a limited set of operating conditions because you do not foresee / simulate beforehand all the possible operating ranges and conditions.
So, I am glad they have blind (erm, faithful) followers like you, but hey, I am just concerned about their safty.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
He is the Evil, Shape-Shifting Example of Darkness?
I think you meant that this country is now a *corporate* fascist dictatorship. Heck, we even have classes to "educate" young minds about the "evils" of filesharing, courtesy of the MPAA and a several-hundred thousand dollar grant.
I think most of the population has already been brainwashed by what passes for the news...
> UUEncoded DivX files as an asininely large number of 10k text files
Heh. Make it 100K and you've got Usenet.
Perhaps someone can print paper copies to send to them?
DDOS thier mail room!
I can imagine the news coverage:
Postal service slows to a halt in an onslaught of documents critical of Deibold Electronic voting machines. One postal carier was quoted as saying "We haven't had manditory overtime like this since the eighties! But thats O.K. by me. I'll just stop by the Walmart on my way home and buy me a GUN!"
Federal Investigators reportedly do not know who is responsibe for this bizarre attack, but are seeking the identity of an online poster who uses the Alias "setzman" as a possible instigator.
Tune in later for more coverage of...
Read, L
Canada Immigration figures from the United States
United States immigration figures from Canada
So.... From the U.S. into Canada we have 5,815(2000), 5,902(2001) and 5,288(2002), However from Canada to the United States we have 19,519(2000), 21,933(2001) and 16,210(2002).
As with any true liberal, socialistic drone - rhetoric is preferable to actual facts because a real basis for discussion is absent and when presented with conclusive, contraindicative evidence they resort to the only defense in which they have a slight skill, namely, name calling and unstantiated accusations. I would be more than happy to bring up more statistical errata to show that your pathetic third world country FAILS IT!!!
If you had a life you wouldn't have noticed.
...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
French server, decent bandwidth, out of the reach of any DMCA-wielding company
Hmmm.... French huh? I portscanned it and got "HTTP ERROR 498: We Surrender"
Post the IPAddress, username and password and we /.'ers will come telnet in and help you too!!!
A local OSS show to take a look at is SCALE
I'm not sure what's more embarassing: the fact that the Patent Office approved it in the first place, or the fact that it took them a whole year to re-examine it!
I'll start using Freenet as soon as all mention of Kibibytes are removed.
you know, i just got this as my fortune...
The Mets were great in 'sixty eight, The Cards were fine in 'sixty nine, But the Cubs will be heavenly in nineteen and seventy." -- Ernie Banks
and it's wrong...(it was the Cards in '68 and the Mets in '69)
Too bad this box doesn't generate ringing current (90VAC), otherwise you could use it as an inexpensive VOIP gateway.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
2 really easy ways to pay on their front page. A one time pay pal payment, and a $1.99 motnhly subscription. 2 bucks is cheap to save democracy folks. Help em out.
I'm a student at Swarthmore, and, in fact, the one who disabled access to the Diebold documents SCDC was hosting at scdc.sccs.swarthmore.edu . It was very unfortunate that we had to; I wish the college hadn't forced us to. That said--
What's not clear from all of the news coverage, is that while the college is indeed having to shut down hosts on campus for the documents, ITS here and the college itself is supportive of the students involved who are talking with EFF. The Deans are being helpful in suggesting legal routes for SCDC, but the College itself does *not* have the resources to get involved in a legal battle. Swarthmore is a very small school(1400) students, and just doesn't have the resources that larger institutions would to put towards legal expenses.
PLEASE go easy on Bob Gross's email; the administration at Swarthmore is very responsive to student needs, but there are limits as to what can be done. They're not bad people; they're doing what's best for the school.
Is Diebold getting off easy from Swarthmore? That has yet to be seen.
Free speech is only free when people are allowed to say things you disagree with...
Technically, Diebold is claiming that the memo is copyrighted by them, despite the fact that this is not what copyright was intended for, and allowing this use of the DMCA would completely squash people's ability to whistle-blow.
I'd rather have a network that would allow any use, even something disgusting like kiddy porn or terrorist documents or whatever, as long as it let people speak out against injustice and post documents like these Diebold memos.
Might I suggest just pre-heating the peroxide by pumping it through a thermite core. I looked into this one time, the stuff is very simple to produce and very safe. It is hard to get started but once going it cannot be put out and is extremely damn hot. You would have to pass the peroxide through the middle of a core that is buring from the inside out otherwise a case burn through would happen extremly quick.
Got Code?
sorry, I'll mod myself down now...
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
If you really believe in what you post - why not do it under your login? Posting as Anonymous Coward is... well... Just what it says..
:), Honduras, Nicaragua, Ireland, England, Suadi Arabia, Germany, (All of the Middle east), Russia, Greenland, Iceland and others I am sure I am forgetting. My wife is Jamaican and has been to Portugal, France, Spain and Canada as well. So I think I (we) are cosmopolitan enough to speak from a position of knowledge. So.... from that position I can tell you: NO Most of the rest of the world Absolutely does not enjoy more personal freedom than America - those who think so are fooling themselves, which is fine - that belief lines up nicely with the sentiment their governments would have them believe - including yourself, mountie boy.
Now, point for point:
Ashcroft: Personally - I'd say as socialist as they come and there are many in America who think too many personal freedoms are being surrendered, including myself. One nice thing about America (which Canadians love to bitch about) lies in the fact that should our government get too many "Ashcrofts" they will have an armed populace to deal with - and trust me - they know it. Part of our checks and balances and it's been working for over 200 years.
Feeble diatribe about patriotism Actually I have been outside of my country - probably more times than you have been outside of yours. My visits include Norway many times, Canada
Policy crapYou reference some propaganda site that has the professionalism of a Las Vegas showgirl - but then - that is another personal freedom we enjoy as well, we even have that chartered in our constitution. Do you...?
Standard of living Now here you hit your only valid point. Standard of living. The one big problem with a capitalist nation. Why? Because there will always be have nots as any educated individual is aware. America chooses, instead, to reward personal initiative and creative entrepreneurial endeavors as opposed to one creative individual "shoring up" the less productive. And before you ask - yes I do call that progress. Difference of opinion? Maybe, but my opinion is mine and I value my right to have it. Besides, who sets the definition of "Standard of Living?" In the site I referenced it was the United Nations prattling on about how everyone has access to health care, education, etc. etc. ad nauseum. Well, everyone does have that here in America - in fact - most of it is prescribed by law to be available to everyone, regardless of income or socio-economic status. So the real difference in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland (note the conspicuous absence of Canada in this list) and the United States is per capita income. Well, America has a welfare system for it's poor - maybe less than these Nordic countries but then our harder workers are better compensated. The bottom line in America: work and get rewarded. Sit on your arse and get a meager handout barely capable of sustaining life - you have a choice - and that choice is what fuels the American Patriotism you so cleverly dismiss.
Bury my head? Nah - I don't think so. As for showing any amount of intelligence - well... opinions vary. I have approximately 280 million that would agree with me to some degree or another based solely on where they lay their head, and that number keeps growing each year - much of that growth is from your beloved Canada, pal - at least those found worthy of emigration visas. Personally - I'd prefer to allow more easterners into America - at least they have something to offer. I found (and still find) that Canadians have a level of pride far greater than their achievements warrant. You have been weighed, measured and found wanting.
A non-government-owned university _could_ decide to spin off its network services as a wholly-owned subsidiary, and treat it as an ISP or telco or both. On the other hand, they might need a good accounting department to do it successfully, because building wiring and phone closet space isn't the easiest thing to separate ownership of financially, or to price appropriately (either for buying or renting...)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
High concentration hydrogen peroxide all by itself makes a low performance, but very convenient, rocket propellant. All hydrogen peroxide is in solution with some amount of water, because even if you had 100% peroxide, some of it would start decomposing to water (and oxygen) as you stored it.
Drugstore peroxide is 3% concentration. If you pour it on a catalyst, like silver or platinum, you will see bubbles forming in the solution (released oxygen), and the liquid will get somewhat warmer due to the released energy. Above roughly 70% concentration, the heat released is enough to vaporize all the water content, so if you pass it through a good catalyst, you will get all gas coming out the other side, and gas can be accelerated through a rocket nozzle to produce thrust. At 70%, the gas is only just above the boiling point of water, but as the concentration goes up, the temperature goes up fast. 90% peroxide, the most common grade used for propulsion, produces gas at about 1400 F temperature. Going all the way to 98% peroxide, the highest concentration produced, gives a few hundred degrees more temperature, but at a significant price increase. Higher temperature lets you use less propellant for a given amount of thrust-time, because it maintains a given chamber pressure with a less dense, but hotter, mixture (a simplification).
"Real" rocket propellants have temperature several thousand degrees higher, which does indeed increase performance, but the engines have to be cooled, and you need to manage both a fuel and an oxidizer in some form. One of our fundamental system trades is that it is better for an X-Prize class vehicle to use a propellant that simplifies vehicle engineering, even if you have to use more of it.
We use 90% peroxide from a small specialty supplier for all of our flight vehicles, but they closed shop a while ago, and we haven't been able to come to terms with the only domestic supplier of 90% peroxide, FMC chemical corp. Because of this, we have been working on alternate propellant schemes for a good part of this year, in parallel with building the full size X-Prize vehicle. If we had been able to just buy 90% peroxide like we buy all of our other industrial chemicals, we never would have bothered with the research.
Just about every week, someone asks why we don't concentrate it ourselves. True, dozens of people have made a few gallons of high concentration peroxide at various times, but there have only been two large scale concentrators operated in the US outside of the official manufacturers - Rotary Rocket had a concentrator, but it only went to 85% concentration, and it didn't do purification, and Beal Aerospace had a large scale concentrator operational after the blew up their first one. Sure, we could figure out how to do it, but then we would be in the chemical plant business instead of the rocket business, and that's not what we want to do. I am funding an operator in Houston to produce a few thousand pounds of 90% for us, but he is six months behind schedule on delivery, which proves my point about it not being as simple as people think.
The direction we have been pursuing is using a combination of 50% peroxide, which is readily available through distributors from multiple manufacturers, and a small amount of miscible fuel (methanol in our current work). 50% peroxide by itself doesn't work as a rocket propellant, because you can't boil all the water, which makes even decomposing most of the peroxide difficult. Adding a fuel and (the tricky part!) getting it to burn with the released oxygen gives you the energy necessary to vaporize the water and get everything up to a high temperature. Mixing fuels with high concentration oxidizers usually makes a touchy and deadly explosive (we have intentionally detonated a mix of 90% peroxide and alcohol - Very Scary), but buffered with 50% water, and running off of stoichemetric mixture ratio, the risk is not very high. We have a study report from the Department of Mines in the late 50's investigating th
This is the same cop-out you cowards have been using for years. And in the end, the battle is never fought because no one has the balls to see it through.
I'd like to see the EFF take on the DMCA directly. Unfortunately, they only take on the little insignificant cases that amount to nothing in the long run. A win for the little guy is nice. But the EFF is fooling themselves if they believe they're making any real difference as far as the DMCA is concerned.
Well, I don't have any input on whether or not you "come back" but speaking for ONE American - I'd rather you simply stay gone.
The imbecile posted incorrect data about migration statistics and I set him straight so my post was not "just as bad" - it was in defense of something I believe in - my country.
Most Canadians give American's grief about being motivated too much by money and not enough by... well... whatever Canadians are motivated by. Where the hell do you stand? Are the U.S. and Canadian Dollar values your only motivation? Then I suppose that makes you the worst of both worlds. "Money grubbing" Americans are at least notoriously patriotic and Canadians are... well... Canadians.
You're neither...
If it wasn't for the fact that the content of the Diebold memo's is something every American should know about, there would be no legal reason for allowing it to stay up.
Hosting the source to HL2 is totally illegal. Any responsible organization would take it down if they were liable.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
A friend of mine goes to Swarthmore and has mentioned to me about how the administration is shutting down all students mirroring them. However, her boyfriend is also mirroring them.
http://www.plastic-idolatry.com/diebold [user: diebold, password: die]
Regretablly, as the outsoucing company isn't contributing to the bottom line, the real cash available is much smaller. However, having an outsourcing proposal on the table when discussing service-level agreements and costs works wonders.
On Common-Carrier status, this one is easy. You incorporate an ISP as a non-profit but owned by the college. As a single function company, it is easy to have common carrier status. The fact that it only provides services for the college and its students is immaterial.
See my journal, I write things there
Darn it. Actiontec only sell broadband and adsl modems in the UK.
Curses!
Why the 403 thing on the tarball? And... are those mailto links anti-spam? If so, does it work?
I just read your 8/31 entry on Armadillo Aerospace's site and had to wonder: why not test fire the big vehicles into the ground?
Just curious, are the electronics you use radiation hardened?
files are here.
a horrible place
Well that's the first sensible thing I've heard them do in years.
But if they don't repeal Amazon's "one click shopping" patent, I'm going to demand a patent on "one eye blinking", or "Winking" as I call it.
$8.95/mo web hosting
See also: The Political Compass
*Small-l libertarianism should not be confused with the big-l Libertarianism of the U.S. Libertarian Party, which is, in terms of economic policy, neo-liberal (i.e., even farther to the right than the Republicans).
Remember, it's not the amount of votes that count, it's who or what counts the votes that count. Also keep in mind Diebold has 6 ex-CIA members (is there such a thing?) on their board of directors.
I don't mind people saying things I disagree with.
I mind people ripping other people off.
evil adrian
Wouldn't it be ironic if Swathmores' administration was worried that if they opposed Diebold that subsequent ballot initiatives that would benefit them would somehow fail.
Where is the independent voice of the schools?
Its about the money, its ALWAYS about the money. In the case of Canadian banks (as reflective of our national inferiority complex) it's also about being seen to be a player at "the big tables". I'm sure that the 'wigs at RBC were seduced because some of the major US Banks were involved in the SCO investment, and they're playing "me too!" with our money.
Reason why there is hope for the future generation #364:
"I wish my grass was emo so it could cut itself."
Who modded this guy as troll? He raises an interesting point, whatever your particular viewpoint on OSS.
No matter how many of my rights are taken away, somehow I still don't feel safe. -Frigid Monkey
Posting the Diebold memos violates the same law as posting _The Matrix_. Also, if the memos were in PDF form they might be nearly as big (well, maybe 20-50MB, certainly more than 10k or anything).
How do you stop one and not stop the other?
No one uses internal corporate memos for entertainment purposes, and no one would purchase them at Best Buy, so right there you can see a clear difference in the two activities.
As far as the laws that are violated, not sure if they're the same... if we're talking about DMCA, I have a feeling DMCA wouldn't be interpreted by any sane court to block the posting of memos that are of public interest.
As for the technological hows, if I knew how, I'd be a gazillionaire.
evil adrian
If you weren't a fag, you wouldn't have a dick in your mouth.
We're a virus with shoes...
While this is generally true, I have trouble accepting any argument that uses the word "fecundity."
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
Now if only we could figure out why the hell the ACLU has such wood for the electronic voting machines...
Well, speaking optimistically, perhaps the ACLU didn't understand the technical issues and the potential corruption that electronic voting allows. Perhaps they saw electronic voting as an easy solution to other problems seen over the years and made decisions with the right intentions just not the right knowledge.
Pessimistically speaking, maybe the ACLU can be bought out, too?
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin