Re:http://www.dumbcriminalacts.com/
on
Dumb Laws
·
· Score: 3
Caught Red Hatted
A robber robbed over 67 7-11 type stores, each time wearing a red hat. He was called the 'Red Hat Bandit'. And, when he was finally caught, police were able to convict him of those 67+ robberies (which were caught on tape) because of the same red hat he wore. -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
A very famous English learning method published in France (that's how you say "french english-learning method") actually starts with "My taylor is rich" and other such useless phrases, to the point that an old cliché of a frenchmen who speaks english is one who can only say "My taylor is rich"... -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
And back in 1979, SWTPC boxen (with a Motorola 6809) DID run UNIFLEX, a cheap, frugal Unix lookalike that not only multitasked, but was also multiuser.
And the whole shebang could run on floppies, too. -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
> Both the F-117 and B-2 fly with special fittings when they are not in combat > duty. In the F-117 this is in the form of small rectangular boxes over the wings. > These fittings increase the radar cross-section of the airplane and make it equal > to an ordinary civilian plane; to make friendly skies safer to fly by allowing the > planes to be tracked by air traffic control, just like every other plane.
This sounds rather silly. Why not simply put a radar transponder that you just turn-off when you need to go stealth, instead of having to land and remove the "boxes"??? -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
You may want to know that this Caillau guy is from Belgium. And the French have told belgian jokes for decades, the same way americans have told polish jokes.
Now, you know why... -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
It has been also speculated that the rather precise altitude-maintaining devices used on those balloons meant that they were ultimately intended for biological warfare, as apparently, spreading biological agents needs to be done from a very specific altitude. -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
One can also think of the Casey Jones device, manufactured for the OSS (Office of Strategic Services, the ancestor of the CIA). It was a simple magnetic bomb, that was stuck to any railroad car by résistance fighters. It had a photocell which detonated as soon as the train car entered a tunnel, but not during the passage of day/night. To protect it from prying eyes, it bore an inscription in german saying that it was a "car movement recording device, and tampering with it was strictly verboten...
What was nice about it is that, very often, the wrecking train that was sent to clear up the mess also had it's own Casey Jonesdevices...
And there was also a clever railroad mine which was detonated when the engine smokestack hit a cord strung some 4 meters high between tree branches. Mine clearing crews were so busy looking down at the tracks that they simply did not think of looking up... -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
> 4.The DeHaviland Mosquito** (Again, I'll explain this one)
Well, if you talk about airplanes, I'll say The AVRO ARROW, which offered fly-by-wire and still unmatched performance 40 years later... -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
> If you'll notice, nothing in these definitions say anything > about a "Hack" being computer-related. ... > Adding to the ideas defined above, an > "All-Time Great Hack" will probably also have:
longevity - people should still be talking about it 20 or 30 years later, or even beyond.
social and/or technological impact - it should change some aspect of life, either bydirectly changing every-day life or indirectly by changing how people view the world.
"eleganc e" - note however, that this does not necessarily equate simplicty.
Well, it's very simple. Orson Welles' WAR OF THE WORLDS radio skit meets those definitions of a hack:
More than half a century later, people still talk about it.
A lot of people believe in flying saucers...
Well, it really was all simple: a bunch of people with microphones and some everyday trinkets for sound effetcs...
-- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
> In my view, our local governments have dug their own graves. > Here in California, we get poor-quality roads, long lines at the DMV, > an indifferent police force that cares more about giving out parking > tickets then protecting us, schools that don't educate, a dysfunctional > welfare system, etc, etc, etc. So why should we pay an 8.25% sales tax > plus $.30 per gallon of gas plus an income tax up to 10% of income for > these "services"?
Poor sweet little dear. Well, if there hadn't been PROPOSITION 13, I would sympathize, but it's hard to sympathize to self-inflicted wounds.
When it comes to services from the State (not the Government, that's really something very different from the State), you get what you pay for, just like with private enterprise.
All goods & services worth price charged. -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
Re:Regulating the net is like regulating the ocean
on
Perverts and Consumers
·
· Score: 1
> Unhindered globalization is a Good Thing and is uniting the world in a way never before > seen. Of course a new global entity takes power away from existing separate nations.
It is fine if the power STAYS where it belongs: WE, THE PEOPLE.
It is not if the power goes to those big CROPORATIONS. -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
> Am I the only old fart who remembers when BYTE had schematics in it?
No...
Ah, Ciarcia's circuit cellar... Don Lancaster's tricks for "Beer Budget" video displays... Or how to make a 3-dimensional display (NOT stereoscopic!) display with a rotating mirror in front of a CRT (a scope, actually)... -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
> 8! Luxury! Earlier forms of BASIC had a 2 character limit. Actually, (and this is perhaps > the best obfuscation facility I've ever seen) on the old Commodore 8-bit machines, you could make > variable names as long as you liked. But only the first two characters were significant.
And even that was a BIG improvement on those moronic basics who would only allow you variables named [A-Z] or [A-Z][0-9]!!!! -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
Re:This is absolutely ludicrous..
on
Usenet Gag Order
·
· Score: 1
> While I hate spam, flamebait, trolls, etc., I can't approve of the government having >this kind of power.
This is NOT governmental power, here, but JUDICIARY power. Government makes the laws, and the judiciary system (the police, the judges, the lawyers) execute them stupidly just like any computer or bot will execute it's program. And if the program (the law) is full of bugs, well, you see the result... -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
Science is footnotes, independently verifiable data, HARD evidence. Unfortunately, nothing of the sort can be found in their report. -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
They could, at the very least, have put a picture of the skull on their webpage... Sheeesh... -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
> They are just doing this to snub Microsoft. Everyone knows the Chinese don't give a shit > about copyright. China has a history of not doing business with American companies who > wouldn't play by their rules.
Like if the americans do business with people who don't play with their rules... Not only that, but they RAM DOWN their rules DOWN THE THROATS of everyone else... -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
> I refuse to vote for any candidate who has accepted contributions from > anyone other than non-corporate constituents. So far, I haven't been able to vote...
Move to Québec, where corporate constituents are strictly forbidden to contribute to political parties or candidates... -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
The abysmal lack of public transportation in most of the USA forces the people to give it's hard-earned dollars to GM, FORD, EXXON, FIRESTONE & companies... -- ---------------------------------------------- Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
Slashdot Mirror
A robber robbed over 67 7-11 type stores, each time wearing a red hat. He was called the 'Red Hat Bandit'. And, when he was finally caught, police were able to convict him of those 67+ robberies (which were caught on tape) because of the same red hat he wore.
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
A very famous English learning method published in France (that's how you say "french english-learning method") actually starts with "My taylor is rich" and other such useless phrases, to the point that an old cliché of a frenchmen who speaks english is one who can only say "My taylor is rich"...
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
And the whole shebang could run on floppies, too.
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
> duty. In the F-117 this is in the form of small rectangular boxes over the wings.
> These fittings increase the radar cross-section of the airplane and make it equal
> to an ordinary civilian plane; to make friendly skies safer to fly by allowing the
> planes to be tracked by air traffic control, just like every other plane.
This sounds rather silly. Why not simply put a radar transponder that you just turn-off when you need to go stealth, instead of having to land and remove the "boxes"???
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
French or Swiss????
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
Now, you know why...
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
The cult of the dead cow oughta patent Back Orifice, then...
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
Because this is, first and foremost, a question of croporate greed...
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
It has been also speculated that the rather precise altitude-maintaining devices used on those balloons meant that they were ultimately intended for biological warfare, as apparently, spreading biological agents needs to be done from a very specific altitude.
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
What was nice about it is that, very often, the wrecking train that was sent to clear up the mess also had it's own Casey Jonesdevices...
And there was also a clever railroad mine which was detonated when the engine smokestack hit a cord strung some 4 meters high between tree branches. Mine clearing crews were so busy looking down at the tracks that they simply did not think of looking up...
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
Well, if you talk about airplanes, I'll say The AVRO ARROW , which offered fly-by-wire and still unmatched performance 40 years later...
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
Not as much as the video control circuitry...
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
> about a "Hack" being computer-related.
> Adding to the ideas defined above, an
> "All-Time Great Hack" will probably also have:
- longevity - people should still be talking about it 20 or 30 years later, or even beyond.
- social and/or technological impact - it should change some aspect of life, either bydirectly changing every-day life or indirectly by changing how people view the world.
- "eleganc e" - note however, that this does not necessarily equate simplicty.
Well, it's very simple. Orson Welles' WAR OF THE WORLDS radio skit meets those definitions of a hack:-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
> Here in California, we get poor-quality roads, long lines at the DMV,
> an indifferent police force that cares more about giving out parking
> tickets then protecting us, schools that don't educate, a dysfunctional
> welfare system, etc, etc, etc. So why should we pay an 8.25% sales tax
> plus $
> these "services"?
Poor sweet little dear. Well, if there hadn't been PROPOSITION 13, I would sympathize, but it's hard to sympathize to self-inflicted wounds.
When it comes to services from the State (not the Government, that's really something very different from the State), you get what you pay for, just like with private enterprise.
All goods & services worth price charged.
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
> seen. Of course a new global entity takes power away from existing separate nations.
It is fine if the power STAYS where it belongs: WE, THE PEOPLE.
It is not if the power goes to those big CROPORATIONS.
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
No...
Ah, Ciarcia's circuit cellar... Don Lancaster's tricks for "Beer Budget" video displays... Or how to make a 3-dimensional display (NOT stereoscopic!) display with a rotating mirror in front of a CRT (a scope, actually)...
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
> the best obfuscation facility I've ever seen) on the old Commodore 8-bit machines, you could make
> variable names as long as you liked. But only the first two characters were significant.
And even that was a BIG improvement on those moronic basics who would only allow you variables named [A-Z] or [A-Z][0-9]!!!!
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
>this kind of power.
This is NOT governmental power, here, but JUDICIARY power.
Government makes the laws, and the judiciary system (the police, the judges, the lawyers) execute them stupidly just like any computer or bot will execute it's program.
And if the program (the law) is full of bugs, well, you see the result...
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
Science is footnotes, independently verifiable data, HARD evidence.
Unfortunately, nothing of the sort can be found in their report.
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
They could, at the very least, have put a picture of the skull on their webpage...
Sheeesh...
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
> about copyright. China has a history of not doing business with American companies who
> wouldn't play by their rules.
Like if the americans do business with people who don't play with their rules...
Not only that, but they RAM DOWN their rules DOWN THE THROATS of everyone else...
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
> anyone other than non-corporate constituents. So far, I haven't been able to vote...
Move to Québec, where corporate constituents are strictly forbidden to contribute to political parties or candidates...
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
The abysmal lack of public transportation in most of the USA forces the people to give it's hard-earned dollars to GM, FORD, EXXON, FIRESTONE & companies...
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
> then possibly Spanish
Perhaps in the USA, but definitely ont in the world, where the english-speaking countries make a paltry 5% of the total world population.
(300 million -versus- 6 billion)
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!