One of the more serious problems I have run across in EQ has been players sitting and camping for quest components and rare items in order to sell the final product. Nothing like being stuck for 2 weeks of playtime waiting for an NPC to show up, only to have him axed by someone who had been hunting him DAILY in order to get some other component for a saleable quest item. Main reason why I stopped playing was because of all the camping...everything else I enjoyed about the game, but like many good things, EQ's popularity is killing it.
Actually, there is an easy way to solve the problem of selling items online. Make items that are captured from NPCs and won from quests NODROP items. NODROP items can't be traded or looted. You eliminate about 95% of the camping issues that are the motivating factor for selling and buying items through realworld sources. I would say that the only items that should be excluded from this rule should be materials for goods that can be manufactured from trade skills, which do have their place in the game.
Re:HEDP Re:uh, in an army group? Re:Pacemakers?
on
EMP Artillery Shells
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Actually, there is a difference in the shaping and construction of the delivery of the explosive payloads.
An example of hard target light arms/ordinance would be the US Light Anti-tank Weapon (LAW) rocket. The explosive would do minimal damage to a group of soft targets (say, a couple of squads)...minimal being only a couple of deaths, etc. Take the same rocket (designed with a hard nose to penetrate a hard target, which then spews hot explosive material through the hole) and use it a against an APC (a hard target, armored personnel carrier) carrying the same squad. If you penetrate the APC, you just probably eliminated most of your threat. If not, they will be so stunned and dazed that they would be much less of a risk.
Another example of soft target ordinance would be the US Claymore mine. Useful vs. multiple soft targets, but worthless against hard targets. Think of this device as a really big wide angle shotgun blast, with more pellets, but no wad.
My understanding of dual purpose ordinance is pretty limited, but the point is that you dont have to spend as much time on tactical planning if all you have to do is drop one weapon. The point is to be *reasonably* effective against both hard and soft targets. Of course, retrieving these bad babies is another matter entirely.... That is mostly left to the poor unfortunates who end up surviving the war and farming there.
I would like to add that not only has monetary capital been locked up, but intellectual capital has been as well. Companies like GM, M$oft, et al., all have you sign non-competition and IP rights agreements that usually last for the LIFETIME of the signee. While folks can say "well, not everyone does it" I would reply that "yes, everyone who can pay you does". Fortunately, a few companies and most universities have looser IP agreements, but even that is changing. Unfortunately, as the influence of peddling in the control of IP progresses, many businesses are being faced with having their own staff sign IP agreements similar to those of most megacorps just to do any business with the megacorps or their partners.
As a result, you can invent all you want, but don't expect to ever see your inventions make it to production under your own auspices. This tends to take the wind out of the sails of most would-be inventors. The rest of the independents who don't work for a megacorp (or one of their many subsidiaries, partners, or sycophants) usually end up getting squeezed out or bought out through other means.
New, useful, and innovative technologies are becoming more rare in their presentation. Note, I am not saying that they don't exist, but if someone were to come up with a high capacity motor that ran on ambient static electricity, three things would happen: 1) It would be produced, but say the person works for a megacorp that owns ALL IP the inventor makes, and even if they produce software, the megacorp now owns the engine. Engine never sees light of day. 2) It gets 'bought' by an engine producing company, because they have better lawyers. However, they could not create any incentive for the inventor, their own staff have a very limited investment in working on the project (because the staff won't own it either) and the engine never sees light of day. 3) The inventor produces the engine completely on his/her own, but federal regulators, used to dealing with a different way of doing business (say, IC engines instead of something they don't understand), squash any plans for selling it on the open market. The megacorp lab folks working for the fed's megacorp friends said it was dangerous, or a crock, or whatever it took to discredit the project. And that is usually enough to convince most feds of anything.
Also, see Kevin Mitnick's and other's comments in interviews on this issue. If your systems have encrypted files, the feds will want to see what you have. They will want the keys, or you will probably never see your shit. Ever.
/pissed off mode/
I can forgive Hawking for believing that humanity can live in space or on another planet by terraforming...he has been living through the assistance of others in a limited in environment for long enough that he may not see the bigger picture.
I CANNOT forgive this of anyone else. We have a spaceship we are on called Earth, if we cannot take care of this one, what makes anyone with more than an iota of horse-sense think that we will do better in a man-made environment with less than 1% of the current bio-diversity we enjoy? Hmm? How are we going to build a better biosphere when it is AGONIZINGLY clear that not enough humans (if any at all) understand how the working one works?
As for the intelligent ones, they would be the ones FUNDING the space exploration, NOT the explorers. Having the explorers sign up for incredibly dangerous missions that would be tied to earth in the traditional colonial fashion. The corps on earth would set things up to supply the made goods, and folks out in the wilds of space would mine asteroids, hog, or die.
/end pissed off mode/
Anyways, just thought I should let that one out. I am getting pretty tired of folks chiming in about how it is more feasible to run away from our problems, when they are pretty easy to solve (hmmm...conservation as a way of life...nah, too hard, lets build a giant replica of earth with nothing icky on it instead!).
a) somebody died after going to a party and mixing drugs in an irresponsible manner. They worked at a.com
b) Intel tests for drug use.
c) Self explanatory statement, probably most truthful one in the whole story is:
...there are no statistics showing that drug and alcohol addiction afflicts technology workers more than the general population...
Now, the rest of the article is padded with statements from anonymous official and experts, none of whom are cited.
Just two more things...Intel isn't the only one employing piss sherriffs. However, I won't work for a company that tests, because there is this interesting corrallary where I have found that companies that test offer the lowest wages and benefits to people in my field. Intel is one of those companies.
I have also noticed some backlash against tech workers lately. Lots of people find it convenient to blame tech workers as the source of skyrocketing housing and inflation. Also, the state franchise tax board in CA and the IRS seem to take great interest in anyone working for a.com or ISP these days. Everyone at my last company was audited, and I know of folks at several others who have been targetted as well. It's easy to hit someone who doesn't/can't make the time to fight back.
I have had DSL for most of 2 years now. I started with a small DSL company named Dspeed which offered a deal comparable to what Pac Bell offered for basic service. What a mistake...there are a lot of things these small companies don't tell you, such as the fact that they have 1 network engineer who doubles as tech support. Ack. Anyways, these guys charged me over 1000 clams for a line that didn't work, went out of business, and then tried to charge another $2k to my credit card after closing their doors. Most of my friends have had similar experiences with other small DSL providers.
Pac Bell is my current provider. The downside to them is that they treat a DSL setup like any other line, which means that each order and order change takes two weeks to process (get used to this, and everything else will work out). Otherwise, I pay 99 clams a month for better than T-1 download speeds and 5 usable IPs.
Some things to check out...find out who the DSL company's provider is (usually Covad, unless it is a Bell). Find out how many network engineering types they've got doing the actual work. Find out *important* how far you are from the central office, and *as important* how many folks you will be sharing your DSLAM with. Thirdly, find out what kind of equipment they use, and look it up to check out further limitations that the sales people won't be letting on about.
Pac Bell uses Alcatel equipment, and connections from each DSLAM are aggregated. So, you can have the big pipe, but if you are in a highly concentrated business zone with everybody and their uncle using cheap DSL, your service may be a bit slower. Also, regardless of provider, it will also be about a month AFTER install before all the kinks and bugs get worked out in your service.
Well, I spend some of my time helping out a quadraplegic friend of mine...having an open-source framework for building a reliable open-source voice app would be ideal for him. Having seen some of the posts on current projects, none of them right now fit the needs of someone who is quad impaired. Being online is about his ONLY source of interpersonal socialization right now, and probably will be for quite some time.
There are three problems with voice apps right now.
First is the lack of off-the-shelf recognition. Dragon gets better than 90%, IBM ViaVoice MIGHT get about 60%, others score well below that. For someone with no hands and a non-technical nurse for day-to-day assistance, Dragon ends up being the choice for now. Mind you, an ideal system should be able to be installed with one or two clicks, and then be on Voice Recognition through the rest of the process, or it won't work for most of the physically impaired. As things stand, Dragon is all he can consider using, being that the other packages he has demo'd have all required AT LEAST 45 min of voice recognition training to be done at a given time prior to getting functionality. Given that the amount of time that most quads get with someone who knows a delete key from a return key is limited, most of these apps are pretty useless. Dragon is the only one that will let you do this at your leisure.
Second is impact on resources. Most disabled people dont have them. My friend's box is built out of donated parts. The software, Dragon, costs more than $400 and was donated as well. Now, Dragon gets that 90% and stability from running on at least 256M of RAM, on a 500 Mhz processor. Did I mention that these closed source software houses completely revamp their software every so often, requiring you to buy a completely new version just about whenever you upgrade your hardware? Additionally, my friend is one of the very lucky few to know anyone in the computer biz. There are three of us that spare time for him whenever we can, but most people are stuck buying their time. Think of what this means when it comes to upgrading every so often. Remember, you can't even hit a return key, much less open up your box. For that matter, neither can your nurse, really.
Third is actual usability. Most of these voice systems are designed for and by sighted people who can use their hands. 'Nuff said.
Ideally, it would take the efforts of several physically impaired people working with some coders to come up with a working Voice Recognition package that was open-sourced and designed with the impaired user in mind. It is nice that some of the framework apps useful for that type of project are now open-sourced.
True, Cisco does have a huge monopoly, and does use it to increase their sales. My experience is that EVERY net hardware company tries to leverage every edge they have got. It is a very competitive market.
As for Cisco's protocols, I believe that you are referring to EIGRP, which is an extension of IGRP. This does not mean that either is enabled by default, though. Both are very easy to set up. The EIGRP, however, is not a closed protocol, but is not implemented by other vendors because it is not an accepted standard (oh, something with Cisco creating it, I think;). However, most routing equipment (including Cisco's) also supports IGRP, which functions much the same way, but is less robust in some aspects. NONE of this is plug n play, BTW. You are still given multiple opportunities to destroy equipment and fsck-up networks through ignorance.
This does not prevent anyone from entering into the arena...Foundry, Alteon, Extreme, Juniper, Lucent, 3Com, Bay, F5 Labs, and others are ALL gaining market share of the ever expanding 'net. And ALL of them are more than willing to buy your Cisco equipment and replace it with their *generally* less expensive equipment. Exodus Communications went over to Foundry in that fashion (this is not insider stuff, they announced it).
Interoperability is the only issue at that point. The problem with ALL of the vendors is that sometimes they have their own interpretation of even the basic standards of a protocol for implementation. This does not mean that it is deliberate, but it can cause problems that have to be resolved by possibly weeks of sitting on the phone with staff from both sides and working out a fix (and, yes, Cisco and the others WILL do this, just not that often). I think most of these companies realize that lack of interoperability of internetworking equipment is bad, and to try and fix known issues.
As for feature sets of the IOS, I can say that most other vendors go out of their way to copy it- being that it is based on a VERY unix-like shell interface. This is one of the big reasons why Cisco jumped ahead of the pack. The other reason was that they moved to cover EVERY segment of the market before everyone else, and combined the two events with an inexpensive, easy to use and fully supported entry-level product. This is a springboard into their larger systems which use the same interface and most of the commands. Essentially, their entire marketbase is easy for a new netadmin to enter and quickly ramp up in terms of knowledge and skills. Its a reciprocal arrangement which I have not seen their competitors reproduce, in spite of many of them having better product.
My only issues with Cisco are the quality of their support (which sucks unlesss you can intimidate their TAC into transferring you to someone clueful) and their bugs- the 11.x syslog bug was a doozy; the PIX ftp security bug isn't quite as bad, but there; other intraoperability bugs that I have found but are not yet documented are also serious. This does not mean other vendors don't have issues, but Cisco seems to have more of them (Foundry had a nmap scan crash bug, also nasty). I think the bottom line is that Cisco made itself into the baseline standard across the board. If you can become the overall baseline standard, it is easier to grow market share without having to excel in any one area.
I think that because people in the tech industry have enjoyed the benefits of being in a small labor pool that this equates to having money and power. Unfortunately, what this really equates to is that techies are paid to protect the real wealth and power of a dominant paradigm. Those who have been able to make the power grabs have actually shown themselves to be the staunchest supporters of the dominant paradigm which fears the changes that free and unrestricted flows of information, knowledge, and technology can bring. Consider Steve Case- his company bought several interesting small fish, including winamp. Winamp puts out gnutella, and anyone reading slashdot knows where that went.
So maybe the techies should legislate and lobby! Um, yeah...techies make up less than 1% of the population in the US, meaning the likelihood of defeating any well-funded (i.e., 10's of millions of dollars) opposition lies with owning the tyranny of the majority- and 1% ain't that.
Of course, there is the direct action of doing the one thing that nobody can get around- making use of small numbers. This means not working for people who try and subvert an open culture of sharing knowledge and data. This means going on strike, and blacklisting certain very large corporations...and considering the posts I have read about that idea, it won't happen anytime soon. People love their money too much- probably more than their creative freedom.
The other option is possibly to think in the long term. Find countries that you can vacate to as a "last out", where you won't be harrassed (I've heard Ireland and Canada were both good choices- but not enough to really know). Squirrel your cash into places that are hard to touch. Work with projects that try and deliberately subvert the paradigms that think your freedom to work as you see fit is a threat- freenet, guerrilla.net, and other private societies come to mind.
But whatever you do, don't fool yourselves into believing that you have money and power if you don't have Congressmen beating down your door for some cash and a pat on the head.
States can already collect sales tax from companies that make sales within their own state borders- this type of law exists in many states already. There is not much of a need for further taxation above and beyond what is already provided for.
However, I might add that many of these online companies have a narrow margin of profit (largely due to developing a previously non-existent infrastructure, called "an Internet"), and an additional tax will have them very quickly finding another state or country to work from. Of course, if it were my state, they would also be very quickly be losing my technical talents and those of my local compatriots. People like me can afford to move. Can you say loss of tax base, infrastructure, and skilled labor? Thought you could...
Of course, states can go ahead and start taxing internet sales. That is fine with me. This is why I already make a bi-annual trip up to the Fry's in Oregon- I actually SAVE money by driving up and back with a friend for major purchases (enough for a campground, gas, a show at Ashland & dinner, plus change). Now, how much revenue did my state lose by trying to collect taxes on an income that, well, they had already taxed? Will that be easier or more difficult for citizens and businesses to exploit over the net? Will making it "illegal" change a damn thing? (this one is rhetorical)
Consider getting assigned some independant study credits for comp sci at your high school. Come up with some educational and infrastructure building projects that will benefit the school (like an IRC server, or a new mail server, or an introduction to installing one of the "free" OS's.
This is a great way to get the teachers involved in learning something new, under the guise of it being your coursework.
While there may have been intelligent life down below, think of the possibilities that the tubes present...
I heartily look forward to the day when the Underground Channels of Mars are opened as the solar system's largest skate park ever! It would, like, bring life back to the word "tubular", at least!
I have to agree with you. When I started using linux at home a few years back, I was a "newbie", and it was difficult to get used to. Now, I am still using Linux, and I still find some things about it difficult. Of course, much of the same could be said for the Nova that I used to have...
During that time in between, I sold the Nova, and I migrated back to Windows and Mac. After some thought and dollars spent, I de-installed both Windows and MacOS in favor of migrating fully to Linux and OpenBSD. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the Nova back. Why would someone want to do something that is difficult and requires wrenching? Why would someone want a Nova with a kickass powertrain and not much for looks?
Because it kicks ass, thats why! And you don't kick ass by having it easy. And, shit, if I want it to look kick ass, I can fix the body/desktop myself and paint it any FUCKING color I want. I can put little hula skirt dolls on the dash. I can have a funky blue flame as my perfmeter.
The funniest thing about the article is that it very clearly and succinctly described all of my reasons for sticking with OSS, while the author completely ignored the fact that I was the supposed target audience- which made me just laugh at the guy who wrote the article in the first place. I mean, think about his credibility here- how much usability did Wired REALLY need? *sarcasm on*hmmm, the "users" have to "scroll" down the "article"...ok, I'm confused, lets hire a "consultant" who can make this "work" for "people"!*sarcasm off*
a person who has seen a police officer or federal agent or US soldier commit crimes against humanity or violations of civil rights may need this type of protection, until they can safely make their knowledge public.
a person assembling a court case against said government officials would likely require the same.
churches and organizations hiding these people would also require the same.
journalists who actually bother to get in depth on these issues require anonymity.
However, most slashdotters would not. They are above such petty and gutter issues, and would never be caught near an unlawful search and seizure, much less anything else so moribund. Such things could never happen in their sterile and vaunted world- because so many of them are not guilty of doing ANYTHING (and that cuts both ways), and because so many of slashdotards are SO important, and because it would be, like, worser and more inconvenient if some script kiddy gave them some minor headache, tee hee (obligatory hair flip), and made them cooperate with other human beings in tracking them down. Because being able to track down someone who inconveniences you is SO much more important than the fact that people die every day because their anonymity was compromised.
Maybe some people on this board cannot appreciate the gravity of this type of report, or more importantly the lack of public outcry that I wish were surrounding it. The above anonymous situations happen every day. I have helped some people through them, and have found that others were not so lucky and perished. And I live in the United States.
Liberty is not a convenience. If you were born to it, and never learned to appreciate you liberty, I suggest you give it up for a few years, and then reconsider taking a new oath of citizenship. You might find it more valuable then.
We don't outnumber anyone, so trusting the american democratic process is not an option (if you doubt me, read DeTocqueville sometime). Tyranny of the majority, anyone?
We could march- if you think you could find a million geeks. I don't mean a million techies ala MCSE, or comp sci grads ala BS in BS. I mean people who bother thinking deeply about what they do, and find meaning for it in a technical realm. A million. Riiiight.
We could seize the moral high ground in a battle that has nothing to do with moral superiority - we can feel good about ourselves as we are legally cut down and some are jailed.
The corporations that give you the fat paychecks (oh, like, most of the dot coms, and red hat, M$, et al) who were started by techies and geeks are doing NOTHING...they have their american pie, and don't give a damn about you. If anything, the actions of people promoting DeCSS and other similar causes would be considered a threat to their well-being.
Me? I have decided that all I can do on my own is check out. Am I giving up? No. But I refuse to give work and effort to people who will use my own labors against me. Let them find the bugs, build the networks, and unfsck the problems. They never thought about how this would all work in the first place...and I am not going to give them the right to tell me how to run it. Let them run it. See how long it works.
And Who the fuck is WE anyways? YOU people who think that the DMCA is some kind of barometer of freedom? Let me tell you about freedom - none of you are willing to die for it, to destroy what you love for it. A few of you are willing to fight on THEIR terms for it. You think the DMCA is some measure of mind control? We are already there if you believe that.
None of you are willing to fight on your own terms with your own unique skills to shut down these corporations. Until YOU decide to flex your collective might (much less even figure out what that is), you will always be subjects of others who live by demagoguery, looting and bribery.
heh...not been getting enough sleep lately...never read Atlas Shrugged just before bed.
You sound like you have a good head on your shoulders, and with a little effort, you could make a real difference for yourself. Unfortunately, most people are not like that, which may be why your school district sucks.
There are other options, and at the very least, you should beg, borrow, or creatively appropriate a computer that runs Linux for your own use. Aside from that, if you want more exposure to a better education, you can take at least one of these options that you may not have considered (I have used at least a couple of them):
1. Continuation/alternative HS: They may not offer a classier environment, but the teachers will usually let you develop your own curriculum, one which exceeds your local district standards. They like motivated students, because they hardly ever see them.
2. Regional Occupation Training Programs/Internships: They exist, but a lot of schools don't promote them because the administration feels that they will lose educational funds that the district could abuse..er, use. You could try and find an internship at an ISP.
3. Community College: Now not an option if you live in California until you are 18...but if you have public 2 year colleges nearby, walk across the street and go test and register next semester. Get some A's, pad your experience doing documentation/bug reporting for GNU projects, and get a scholarship to a decent University.
4. Local Usergroups: Find someone who will give you a summer job doing helpdesk work at an ISP or free network (private freenets exist, EMRL in Sacramento was/is such a place). 'nuff said.
5. Move: If you have relatives where you know there is a good HS, then move there. If you want to go to Beacon, find a church or local private organization and get a family/hostel to sponsor you there. You may have to work nights to make ends meet, but it sounds like you will be doing that in two years ANYWAYS if you don't change your options, right?
6. Join the Military: This should be your LAST resort, and you can sign up at 16 for the local national guard (train over the summer, advanced training at 17). If you hate your town, you can always go active duty and dissapear. At the very least, you get a disposable income that you can spend on a computer, and learn organizational skills. At best, you get college money and a guaranteed chance at learning some computer skills through military colleges (aka Roblimo). However, you may receive assignments that will cost you your morality, sanity, health, and/or life. If that happens, it could be years before you get your life back on track.
But you do have choices, just maybe not the ones you want.
Blame Allocation: the key to system administration in a world in which absolutely everyone uses the Internet and absolutely no one is in charge
Hmmmmmm...not to fault anyone either, but I would probably spend my time elsewhere...like AMSTERAM! Woo hOO! Cafe's! Chicks! Body piercing!
Of course, a keynote speech comparing and contrasting the various IPSEC platform/manufacturer interoperability and performance issues would probably be more exciting and informative for me. If anyone is planning on having a conference with this (or similar) as one of the topics or workshops, please feel free to let me know. I would like to attend.
Don't know about the rest of ya, but my goatee is long an' luxuriant- largely due to the conditioning power of a good stout. I get the best results with the "russian imperial" variety of stout - it has the alcohol content of hard booze, and you can stick a fork up in it.
Side benefits include:
Being more attractive to potential drunken bedmates (oooh, your beard smells wonderful; would you buy me a beer?).
Finding new friends through scent marking (Oy, you there! Dunno why, but you seem like a man's man! Come over 'ere and 'ave a stout wid us!).
Fun gambling games (Bet ya I can pour this beer on my face and not spill more than a 1/4 cup! *splorsh* Well, I'm a good sport- just buy us another pitcher, ok?).
Survival during natural catastrophies (Dude, we're out of cereal...hey, man, why are you sucking on your goatee?).
He is actually quite right, and that number may be a little inflated even if he was just talking about computer users. My opinion on this comes from working for a Tier 1 provider some period of time. The people who are supposed to run the operations for the dot-coms out there can barely run Solaris (and rarely set it up correctly), much less make a switch over to effective use of linux for most everyday tasks. This doesn't even extend to the rest of the staff that provides content and code for these sites (few of whom touch any *nix directly at work, much less at home).
As for the world population, the number would be closer to 0.01%. I think the figure for amount people who own computers worldwide is something like 0.1% (this includes people who own and run businesses, but never touch computers). Just my 2% of a dollar:)
Oh, I feel so much better now! I mean, come on, lighten up, folks - the kid pantsed the President in front of a bunch of hacks trying to suck up to him! Now, who here hasn't secretly thought of pulling the rug on one of the Presidents, eh?
You might want to check out http://www.vote-smart.org in regards to candidate responses to issues and their personal histories. Of course, both of the front running Democratic Party candidates refused to respond on requests for position information. Personally, I think a PNAT should be a requirement to file for a running.
I do not, however, know the background of the organization in detail. Take what they offer with a grain of salt.
As for the LCD of the U.S., please remember that the front running candidates have all uniformly shown that they are counting on demagoguery and fat bank-rolls to win their elections. Their lack of substance on their respective websites is a symptom of this problem.
However, it is my belief that Mr. Green just implements what the Gore political machine tells him to do. I personally am more interested in how to involve myself in the process on behalf of people I feel would better represent my interests (see other post this topic). His insights about pitfalls and benefits of this would interest me more.
1. Has your involvement on a technical level with the campaign "spilled over" in terms of knowledge to the politicos as to how our current technology works - i.e., limitations, unrealistic expectations, work and knowledge involved on your side in getting things done? Is this on a personal or organizational level? With who, in general (if anyone)?
2. How would you rate your involvement with the U.S. political process in general?
3. How would you recommend others get involved in "wiring" the U.S. political process on the local level? Are there pitfalls to watch out for? Liabilities? Is it better in your opinion to affiliate with candidates/officeholders, private organizations (such as League of Women Voters), or agencies (such as the Voter Registration office - automating valid registry verification, etc)?
4. What work, in your opinion, still needs to be done in order to improve the democratic process from a technical perspective in the U.S.? How would someone like me go about assessing the best place to start?
Slashdot Mirror
One of the more serious problems I have run across in EQ has been players sitting and camping for quest components and rare items in order to sell the final product. Nothing like being stuck for 2 weeks of playtime waiting for an NPC to show up, only to have him axed by someone who had been hunting him DAILY in order to get some other component for a saleable quest item. Main reason why I stopped playing was because of all the camping...everything else I enjoyed about the game, but like many good things, EQ's popularity is killing it.
Actually, there is an easy way to solve the problem of selling items online. Make items that are captured from NPCs and won from quests NODROP items. NODROP items can't be traded or looted. You eliminate about 95% of the camping issues that are the motivating factor for selling and buying items through realworld sources. I would say that the only items that should be excluded from this rule should be materials for goods that can be manufactured from trade skills, which do have their place in the game.
Actually, there is a difference in the shaping and construction of the delivery of the explosive payloads.
An example of hard target light arms/ordinance would be the US Light Anti-tank Weapon (LAW) rocket. The explosive would do minimal damage to a group of soft targets (say, a couple of squads)...minimal being only a couple of deaths, etc. Take the same rocket (designed with a hard nose to penetrate a hard target, which then spews hot explosive material through the hole) and use it a against an APC (a hard target, armored personnel carrier) carrying the same squad. If you penetrate the APC, you just probably eliminated most of your threat. If not, they will be so stunned and dazed that they would be much less of a risk.
Another example of soft target ordinance would be the US Claymore mine. Useful vs. multiple soft targets, but worthless against hard targets. Think of this device as a really big wide angle shotgun blast, with more pellets, but no wad.
My understanding of dual purpose ordinance is pretty limited, but the point is that you dont have to spend as much time on tactical planning if all you have to do is drop one weapon. The point is to be *reasonably* effective against both hard and soft targets. Of course, retrieving these bad babies is another matter entirely.... That is mostly left to the poor unfortunates who end up surviving the war and farming there.
I would like to add that not only has monetary capital been locked up, but intellectual capital has been as well. Companies like GM, M$oft, et al., all have you sign non-competition and IP rights agreements that usually last for the LIFETIME of the signee. While folks can say "well, not everyone does it" I would reply that "yes, everyone who can pay you does". Fortunately, a few companies and most universities have looser IP agreements, but even that is changing. Unfortunately, as the influence of peddling in the control of IP progresses, many businesses are being faced with having their own staff sign IP agreements similar to those of most megacorps just to do any business with the megacorps or their partners.
As a result, you can invent all you want, but don't expect to ever see your inventions make it to production under your own auspices. This tends to take the wind out of the sails of most would-be inventors. The rest of the independents who don't work for a megacorp (or one of their many subsidiaries, partners, or sycophants) usually end up getting squeezed out or bought out through other means.
New, useful, and innovative technologies are becoming more rare in their presentation. Note, I am not saying that they don't exist, but if someone were to come up with a high capacity motor that ran on ambient static electricity, three things would happen: 1) It would be produced, but say the person works for a megacorp that owns ALL IP the inventor makes, and even if they produce software, the megacorp now owns the engine. Engine never sees light of day. 2) It gets 'bought' by an engine producing company, because they have better lawyers. However, they could not create any incentive for the inventor, their own staff have a very limited investment in working on the project (because the staff won't own it either) and the engine never sees light of day. 3) The inventor produces the engine completely on his/her own, but federal regulators, used to dealing with a different way of doing business (say, IC engines instead of something they don't understand), squash any plans for selling it on the open market. The megacorp lab folks working for the fed's megacorp friends said it was dangerous, or a crock, or whatever it took to discredit the project. And that is usually enough to convince most feds of anything.
Pffft! I think Jon Katz is wasting his quarters on this topic...
Also, see Kevin Mitnick's and other's comments in interviews on this issue. If your systems have encrypted files, the feds will want to see what you have. They will want the keys, or you will probably never see your shit. Ever.
Interesting radio show with a 3rd party slant. They also webcast...you might want to listen.
OK! THAT DOES IT!
/pissed off mode/
I can forgive Hawking for believing that humanity can live in space or on another planet by terraforming...he has been living through the assistance of others in a limited in environment for long enough that he may not see the bigger picture.
I CANNOT forgive this of anyone else. We have a spaceship we are on called Earth, if we cannot take care of this one, what makes anyone with more than an iota of horse-sense think that we will do better in a man-made environment with less than 1% of the current bio-diversity we enjoy? Hmm? How are we going to build a better biosphere when it is AGONIZINGLY clear that not enough humans (if any at all) understand how the working one works?
As for the intelligent ones, they would be the ones FUNDING the space exploration, NOT the explorers. Having the explorers sign up for incredibly dangerous missions that would be tied to earth in the traditional colonial fashion. The corps on earth would set things up to supply the made goods, and folks out in the wilds of space would mine asteroids, hog, or die.
/end pissed off mode/
Anyways, just thought I should let that one out. I am getting pretty tired of folks chiming in about how it is more feasible to run away from our problems, when they are pretty easy to solve (hmmm...conservation as a way of life...nah, too hard, lets build a giant replica of earth with nothing icky on it instead!).
Because the only facts in the story were:
.com
...there are no statistics showing that drug and alcohol addiction afflicts technology workers more than the general population...
.com or ISP these days. Everyone at my last company was audited, and I know of folks at several others who have been targetted as well. It's easy to hit someone who doesn't/can't make the time to fight back.
a) somebody died after going to a party and mixing drugs in an irresponsible manner. They worked at a
b) Intel tests for drug use.
c) Self explanatory statement, probably most truthful one in the whole story is:
Now, the rest of the article is padded with statements from anonymous official and experts, none of whom are cited.
Just two more things...Intel isn't the only one employing piss sherriffs. However, I won't work for a company that tests, because there is this interesting corrallary where I have found that companies that test offer the lowest wages and benefits to people in my field. Intel is one of those companies.
I have also noticed some backlash against tech workers lately. Lots of people find it convenient to blame tech workers as the source of skyrocketing housing and inflation. Also, the state franchise tax board in CA and the IRS seem to take great interest in anyone working for a
I have had DSL for most of 2 years now. I started with a small DSL company named Dspeed which offered a deal comparable to what Pac Bell offered for basic service. What a mistake...there are a lot of things these small companies don't tell you, such as the fact that they have 1 network engineer who doubles as tech support. Ack. Anyways, these guys charged me over 1000 clams for a line that didn't work, went out of business, and then tried to charge another $2k to my credit card after closing their doors. Most of my friends have had similar experiences with other small DSL providers.
Pac Bell is my current provider. The downside to them is that they treat a DSL setup like any other line, which means that each order and order change takes two weeks to process (get used to this, and everything else will work out). Otherwise, I pay 99 clams a month for better than T-1 download speeds and 5 usable IPs.
Some things to check out...find out who the DSL company's provider is (usually Covad, unless it is a Bell). Find out how many network engineering types they've got doing the actual work. Find out *important* how far you are from the central office, and *as important* how many folks you will be sharing your DSLAM with. Thirdly, find out what kind of equipment they use, and look it up to check out further limitations that the sales people won't be letting on about.
Pac Bell uses Alcatel equipment, and connections from each DSLAM are aggregated. So, you can have the big pipe, but if you are in a highly concentrated business zone with everybody and their uncle using cheap DSL, your service may be a bit slower. Also, regardless of provider, it will also be about a month AFTER install before all the kinks and bugs get worked out in your service.
Good luck.
Well, I spend some of my time helping out a quadraplegic friend of mine...having an open-source framework for building a reliable open-source voice app would be ideal for him. Having seen some of the posts on current projects, none of them right now fit the needs of someone who is quad impaired. Being online is about his ONLY source of interpersonal socialization right now, and probably will be for quite some time.
There are three problems with voice apps right now.
First is the lack of off-the-shelf recognition. Dragon gets better than 90%, IBM ViaVoice MIGHT get about 60%, others score well below that. For someone with no hands and a non-technical nurse for day-to-day assistance, Dragon ends up being the choice for now. Mind you, an ideal system should be able to be installed with one or two clicks, and then be on Voice Recognition through the rest of the process, or it won't work for most of the physically impaired. As things stand, Dragon is all he can consider using, being that the other packages he has demo'd have all required AT LEAST 45 min of voice recognition training to be done at a given time prior to getting functionality. Given that the amount of time that most quads get with someone who knows a delete key from a return key is limited, most of these apps are pretty useless. Dragon is the only one that will let you do this at your leisure.
Second is impact on resources. Most disabled people dont have them. My friend's box is built out of donated parts. The software, Dragon, costs more than $400 and was donated as well. Now, Dragon gets that 90% and stability from running on at least 256M of RAM, on a 500 Mhz processor. Did I mention that these closed source software houses completely revamp their software every so often, requiring you to buy a completely new version just about whenever you upgrade your hardware? Additionally, my friend is one of the very lucky few to know anyone in the computer biz. There are three of us that spare time for him whenever we can, but most people are stuck buying their time. Think of what this means when it comes to upgrading every so often. Remember, you can't even hit a return key, much less open up your box. For that matter, neither can your nurse, really.
Third is actual usability. Most of these voice systems are designed for and by sighted people who can use their hands. 'Nuff said.
Ideally, it would take the efforts of several physically impaired people working with some coders to come up with a working Voice Recognition package that was open-sourced and designed with the impaired user in mind. It is nice that some of the framework apps useful for that type of project are now open-sourced.
True, Cisco does have a huge monopoly, and does use it to increase their sales. My experience is that EVERY net hardware company tries to leverage every edge they have got. It is a very competitive market.
;). However, most routing equipment (including Cisco's) also supports IGRP, which functions much the same way, but is less robust in some aspects. NONE of this is plug n play, BTW. You are still given multiple opportunities to destroy equipment and fsck-up networks through ignorance.
As for Cisco's protocols, I believe that you are referring to EIGRP, which is an extension of IGRP. This does not mean that either is enabled by default, though. Both are very easy to set up. The EIGRP, however, is not a closed protocol, but is not implemented by other vendors because it is not an accepted standard (oh, something with Cisco creating it, I think
This does not prevent anyone from entering into the arena...Foundry, Alteon, Extreme, Juniper, Lucent, 3Com, Bay, F5 Labs, and others are ALL gaining market share of the ever expanding 'net. And ALL of them are more than willing to buy your Cisco equipment and replace it with their *generally* less expensive equipment. Exodus Communications went over to Foundry in that fashion (this is not insider stuff, they announced it).
Interoperability is the only issue at that point.
The problem with ALL of the vendors is that sometimes they have their own interpretation of even the basic standards of a protocol for implementation. This does not mean that it is deliberate, but it can cause problems that have to be resolved by possibly weeks of sitting on the phone with staff from both sides and working out a fix (and, yes, Cisco and the others WILL do this, just not that often). I think most of these companies realize that lack of interoperability of internetworking equipment is bad, and to try and fix known issues.
As for feature sets of the IOS, I can say that most other vendors go out of their way to copy it- being that it is based on a VERY unix-like shell interface. This is one of the big reasons why Cisco jumped ahead of the pack. The other reason was that they moved to cover EVERY segment of the market before everyone else, and combined the two events with an inexpensive, easy to use and fully supported entry-level product. This is a springboard into their larger systems which use the same interface and most of the commands. Essentially, their entire marketbase is easy for a new netadmin to enter and quickly ramp up in terms of knowledge and skills. Its a reciprocal arrangement which I have not seen their competitors reproduce, in spite of many of them having better product.
My only issues with Cisco are the quality of their support (which sucks unlesss you can intimidate their TAC into transferring you to someone clueful) and their bugs- the 11.x syslog bug was a doozy; the PIX ftp security bug isn't quite as bad, but there; other intraoperability bugs that I have found but are not yet documented are also serious. This does not mean other vendors don't have issues, but Cisco seems to have more of them (Foundry had a nmap scan crash bug, also nasty). I think the bottom line is that Cisco made itself into the baseline standard across the board. If you can become the overall baseline standard, it is easier to grow market share without having to excel in any one area.
I think that because people in the tech industry have enjoyed the benefits of being in a small labor pool that this equates to having money and power. Unfortunately, what this really equates to is that techies are paid to protect the real wealth and power of a dominant paradigm. Those who have been able to make the power grabs have actually shown themselves to be the staunchest supporters of the dominant paradigm which fears the changes that free and unrestricted flows of information, knowledge, and technology can bring. Consider Steve Case- his company bought several interesting small fish, including winamp. Winamp puts out gnutella, and anyone reading slashdot knows where that went.
So maybe the techies should legislate and lobby! Um, yeah...techies make up less than 1% of the population in the US, meaning the likelihood of defeating any well-funded (i.e., 10's of millions of dollars) opposition lies with owning the tyranny of the majority- and 1% ain't that.
Of course, there is the direct action of doing the one thing that nobody can get around- making use of small numbers. This means not working for people who try and subvert an open culture of sharing knowledge and data. This means going on strike, and blacklisting certain very large corporations...and considering the posts I have read about that idea, it won't happen anytime soon. People love their money too much- probably more than their creative freedom.
The other option is possibly to think in the long term. Find countries that you can vacate to as a "last out", where you won't be harrassed (I've heard Ireland and Canada were both good choices- but not enough to really know). Squirrel your cash into places that are hard to touch. Work with projects that try and deliberately subvert the paradigms that think your freedom to work as you see fit is a threat- freenet, guerrilla.net, and other private societies come to mind.
But whatever you do, don't fool yourselves into believing that you have money and power if you don't have Congressmen beating down your door for some cash and a pat on the head.
States can already collect sales tax from companies that make sales within their own state borders- this type of law exists in many states already. There is not much of a need for further taxation above and beyond what is already provided for.
However, I might add that many of these online companies have a narrow margin of profit (largely due to developing a previously non-existent infrastructure, called "an Internet"), and an additional tax will have them very quickly finding another state or country to work from. Of course, if it were my state, they would also be very quickly be losing my technical talents and those of my local compatriots. People like me can afford to move. Can you say loss of tax base, infrastructure, and skilled labor? Thought you could...
Of course, states can go ahead and start taxing internet sales. That is fine with me. This is why I already make a bi-annual trip up to the Fry's in Oregon- I actually SAVE money by driving up and back with a friend for major purchases (enough for a campground, gas, a show at Ashland & dinner, plus change). Now, how much revenue did my state lose by trying to collect taxes on an income that, well, they had already taxed? Will that be easier or more difficult for citizens and businesses to exploit over the net? Will making it "illegal" change a damn thing? (this one is rhetorical)
Consider getting assigned some independant study credits for comp sci at your high school. Come up with some educational and infrastructure building projects that will benefit the school (like an IRC server, or a new mail server, or an introduction to installing one of the "free" OS's.
This is a great way to get the teachers involved in learning something new, under the guise of it being your coursework.
Dude,
While there may have been intelligent life down below, think of the possibilities that the tubes present...
I heartily look forward to the day when the Underground Channels of Mars are opened as the solar system's largest skate park ever! It would, like, bring life back to the word "tubular", at least!
I have to agree with you. When I started using linux at home a few years back, I was a "newbie", and it was difficult to get used to. Now, I am still using Linux, and I still find some things about it difficult. Of course, much of the same could be said for the Nova that I used to have...
During that time in between, I sold the Nova, and I migrated back to Windows and Mac. After some thought and dollars spent, I de-installed both Windows and MacOS in favor of migrating fully to Linux and OpenBSD. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the Nova back. Why would someone want to do something that is difficult and requires wrenching? Why would someone want a Nova with a kickass powertrain and not much for looks?
Because it kicks ass, thats why! And you don't kick ass by having it easy. And, shit, if I want it to look kick ass, I can fix the body/desktop myself and paint it any FUCKING color I want. I can put little hula skirt dolls on the dash. I can have a funky blue flame as my perfmeter.
The funniest thing about the article is that it very clearly and succinctly described all of my reasons for sticking with OSS, while the author completely ignored the fact that I was the supposed target audience- which made me just laugh at the guy who wrote the article in the first place. I mean, think about his credibility here- how much usability did Wired REALLY need? *sarcasm on*hmmm, the "users" have to "scroll" down the "article"...ok, I'm confused, lets hire a "consultant" who can make this "work" for "people"!*sarcasm off*
Amen as well. To put this in perspective-
a person who has seen a police officer or federal agent or US soldier commit crimes against humanity or violations of civil rights may need this type of protection, until they can safely make their knowledge public.
a person assembling a court case against said government officials would likely require the same.
churches and organizations hiding these people would also require the same.
journalists who actually bother to get in depth on these issues require anonymity.
However, most slashdotters would not. They are above such petty and gutter issues, and would never be caught near an unlawful search and seizure, much less anything else so moribund. Such things could never happen in their sterile and vaunted world- because so many of them are not guilty of doing ANYTHING (and that cuts both ways), and because so many of slashdotards are SO important, and because it would be, like, worser and more inconvenient if some script kiddy gave them some minor headache, tee hee (obligatory hair flip), and made them cooperate with other human beings in tracking them down. Because being able to track down someone who inconveniences you is SO much more important than the fact that people die every day because their anonymity was compromised.
Maybe some people on this board cannot appreciate the gravity of this type of report, or more importantly the lack of public outcry that I wish were surrounding it. The above anonymous situations happen every day. I have helped some people through them, and have found that others were not so lucky and perished. And I live in the United States.
Liberty is not a convenience. If you were born to it, and never learned to appreciate you liberty, I suggest you give it up for a few years, and then reconsider taking a new oath of citizenship. You might find it more valuable then.
We don't outnumber anyone, so trusting the american democratic process is not an option (if you doubt me, read DeTocqueville sometime). Tyranny of the majority, anyone?
We could march- if you think you could find a million geeks. I don't mean a million techies ala MCSE, or comp sci grads ala BS in BS. I mean people who bother thinking deeply about what they do, and find meaning for it in a technical realm. A million. Riiiight.
We could seize the moral high ground in a battle that has nothing to do with moral superiority - we can feel good about ourselves as we are legally cut down and some are jailed.
The corporations that give you the fat paychecks (oh, like, most of the dot coms, and red hat, M$, et al) who were started by techies and geeks are doing NOTHING...they have their american pie, and don't give a damn about you. If anything, the actions of people promoting DeCSS and other similar causes would be considered a threat to their well-being.
Me? I have decided that all I can do on my own is check out. Am I giving up? No. But I refuse to give work and effort to people who will use my own labors against me. Let them find the bugs, build the networks, and unfsck the problems. They never thought about how this would all work in the first place...and I am not going to give them the right to tell me how to run it. Let them run it. See how long it works.
And Who the fuck is WE anyways? YOU people who think that the DMCA is some kind of barometer of freedom? Let me tell you about freedom - none of you are willing to die for it, to destroy what you love for it. A few of you are willing to fight on THEIR terms for it. You think the DMCA is some measure of mind control? We are already there if you believe that.
None of you are willing to fight on your own terms with your own unique skills to shut down these corporations. Until YOU decide to flex your collective might (much less even figure out what that is), you will always be subjects of others who live by demagoguery, looting and bribery.
heh...not been getting enough sleep lately...never read Atlas Shrugged just before bed.
You sound like you have a good head on your shoulders, and with a little effort, you could make a real difference for yourself. Unfortunately, most people are not like that, which may be why your school district sucks.
There are other options, and at the very least, you should beg, borrow, or creatively appropriate a computer that runs Linux for your own use. Aside from that, if you want more exposure to a better education, you can take at least one of these options that you may not have considered (I have used at least a couple of them):
1. Continuation/alternative HS: They may not offer a classier environment, but the teachers will usually let you develop your own curriculum, one which exceeds your local district standards. They like motivated students, because they hardly ever see them.
2. Regional Occupation Training Programs/Internships: They exist, but a lot of schools don't promote them because the administration feels that they will lose educational funds that the district could abuse..er, use. You could try and find an internship at an ISP.
3. Community College: Now not an option if you live in California until you are 18...but if you have public 2 year colleges nearby, walk across the street and go test and register next semester. Get some A's, pad your experience doing documentation/bug reporting for GNU projects, and get a scholarship to a decent University.
4. Local Usergroups: Find someone who will give you a summer job doing helpdesk work at an ISP or free network (private freenets exist, EMRL in Sacramento was/is such a place). 'nuff said.
5. Move: If you have relatives where you know there is a good HS, then move there. If you want to go to Beacon, find a church or local private organization and get a family/hostel to sponsor you there. You may have to work nights to make ends meet, but it sounds like you will be doing that in two years ANYWAYS if you don't change your options, right?
6. Join the Military: This should be your LAST resort, and you can sign up at 16 for the local national guard (train over the summer, advanced training at 17). If you hate your town, you can always go active duty and dissapear. At the very least, you get a disposable income that you can spend on a computer, and learn organizational skills. At best, you get college money and a guaranteed chance at learning some computer skills through military colleges (aka Roblimo). However, you may receive assignments that will cost you your morality, sanity, health, and/or life. If that happens, it could be years before you get your life back on track.
But you do have choices, just maybe not the ones you want.
Keynote address
Blame Allocation:
the key to system administration in a world in which absolutely everyone uses the Internet and absolutely no one is in charge
Hmmmmmm...not to fault anyone either, but I would probably spend my time elsewhere...like AMSTERAM! Woo hOO! Cafe's! Chicks! Body piercing!
Of course, a keynote speech comparing and contrasting the various IPSEC platform/manufacturer interoperability and performance issues would probably be more exciting and informative for me. If anyone is planning on having a conference with this (or similar) as one of the topics or workshops, please feel free to let me know. I would like to attend.
Don't know about the rest of ya, but my goatee is long an' luxuriant- largely due to the conditioning power of a good stout. I get the best results with the "russian imperial" variety of stout - it has the alcohol content of hard booze, and you can stick a fork up in it.
Side benefits include:
Being more attractive to potential drunken bedmates (oooh, your beard smells wonderful; would you buy me a beer?).
Finding new friends through scent marking (Oy, you there! Dunno why, but you seem like a man's man! Come over 'ere and 'ave a stout wid us!).
Fun gambling games (Bet ya I can pour this beer on my face and not spill more than a 1/4 cup! *splorsh* Well, I'm a good sport- just buy us another pitcher, ok?).
Survival during natural catastrophies (Dude, we're out of cereal...hey, man, why are you sucking on your goatee?).
He is actually quite right, and that number may be a little inflated even if he was just talking about computer users. My opinion on this comes from working for a Tier 1 provider some period of time. The people who are supposed to run the operations for the dot-coms out there can barely run Solaris (and rarely set it up correctly), much less make a switch over to effective use of linux for most everyday tasks. This doesn't even extend to the rest of the staff that provides content and code for these sites (few of whom touch any *nix directly at work, much less at home).
:)
As for the world population, the number would be closer to 0.01%. I think the figure for amount people who own computers worldwide is something like 0.1% (this includes people who own and run businesses, but never touch computers). Just my 2% of a dollar
BWAHAHHAHAHHehahahAAHEHahaHAHAEHAHA!!!!
Oh, I feel so much better now! I mean, come on, lighten up, folks - the kid pantsed the President in front of a bunch of hacks trying to suck up to him! Now, who here hasn't secretly thought of pulling the rug on one of the Presidents, eh?
Now THIS is U.S. democracy in Action! Yeah!
You might want to check out http://www.vote-smart.org in regards to candidate responses to issues and their personal histories. Of course, both of the front running Democratic Party candidates refused to respond on requests for position information. Personally, I think a PNAT should be a requirement to file for a running.
I do not, however, know the background of the organization in detail. Take what they offer with a grain of salt.
As for the LCD of the U.S., please remember that the front running candidates have all uniformly shown that they are counting on demagoguery and fat bank-rolls to win their elections. Their lack of substance on their respective websites is a symptom of this problem.
However, it is my belief that Mr. Green just implements what the Gore political machine tells him to do. I personally am more interested in how to involve myself in the process on behalf of people I feel would better represent my interests (see other post this topic). His insights about pitfalls and benefits of this would interest me more.
My questions for Mr. Green are these:
1. Has your involvement on a technical level with the campaign "spilled over" in terms of knowledge to the politicos as to how our current technology works - i.e., limitations, unrealistic expectations, work and knowledge involved on your side in getting things done? Is this on a personal or organizational level? With who, in general (if anyone)?
2. How would you rate your involvement with the U.S. political process in general?
3. How would you recommend others get involved in "wiring" the U.S. political process on the local level? Are there pitfalls to watch out for? Liabilities? Is it better in your opinion to affiliate with candidates/officeholders, private organizations (such as League of Women Voters), or agencies (such as the Voter Registration office - automating valid registry verification, etc)?
4. What work, in your opinion, still needs to be done in order to improve the democratic process from a technical perspective in the U.S.? How would someone like me go about assessing the best place to start?