Details about infocom and their game titles are available here, while more about Interactive Fiction (that's text based games usually) can be found here. The main IF archive can be found at IFArchive.org where you can download many of Infocoms games. Richy C.
In fact - to save you even having to login, here's the data:
Motorola spent billions to create the Iridium satellite telephone system, allowing anyone almost anywhere to make a phone call. Unfortunately, not many people found much reason to lug a cumbersome phone to a remote place and pay several dollars a minute for the service.
Scientists, however, found a very good use for it.
With the help of Iridium's constellation of more than 70 satellites circling 470 miles above the ground, the scientists have collected a bounty of information about electric currents in the upper atmosphere, data they could not have obtained otherwise.
"We need measurements to make the invisible visible," said Dr. Brian J. Anderson of Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Baltimore, who led the effort.
The sun spews out charged particles traveling at a million miles per hour known as the solar wind. The bombardment of the solar wind would be deadly to life on Earth, but Earth's magnetic field deflects the streams of charged particles -- electric currents, in essence -- and either deflects them around the planet or channels them toward the North and South Poles. The currents themselves cannot be seen, but they power the colorful, flickering nighttime display of the aurora borealis -- what in the Northern Hemisphere is known as the Northern Lights -- and the aurora australis in the south.
When the sun sends out a strong puff of charged particles, these auroral currents can disrupt radio signals, damage power grids and puff out the Earth's atmosphere to drag down satellites. The new knowledge should help scientists better understand such "space weather."
The orbits of the Iridium satellites pass directly over the North and South Poles, providing an ideal downward observing perch of the polar regions. Several years ago, Dr. Anderson realized that the magnetic sensors that the Iridium satellites use to orient themselves are sensitive enough to detect the 1 percent fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field caused by the auroral currents.
Since February 1999, the operators of the Iridium system have been shipping the magnetic field data to Dr. Anderson and his collaborators, who then calculate the position and strength of the currents. The large number of satellites means they can detect fairly quick shifts in the currents. A second, ground-based system provides a complementary snapshot of the auroral currents.
Eight radar dishes in the Arctic known as the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network, or SuperDARN, measure the electric fields emitted by the charged particles. Multiplying the electric fields measured by SuperDARN with the magnetic fields from Iridium tells how much power is flowing into Earth from the solar wind. The data showed that the power flow was often concentrated in "hot spots" and could change quickly. On one day in March, the power jumped from 17 billion watts to nearly 50 billion watts in two hours.
"They are much more complex than we thought previously," Dr. Anderson said.
For now, the flow of data coming down from Iridium continues, but it may not last long. A partnership set up by Motorola to run the satellite system went bankrupt in August 1999 and had announced in March that it was going to shut down the satellites and crash them into the ocean. But a new $72 million contract from the Pentagon will keep the satellites up for at least two years.
Even if Iridium is eventually ditched, the collected data could enable scientists to estimate the currents based on the brightness of the Northern Lights.
Phew - very long page of release notes (and quite difficult to make out the relevant information).
Seems there are still quite a large number of bugs in it, but I can't give first-person results as I couldn't see a download link. Can anybody point me in the right direction? Richy C.
--
'Perl development kit' - use a text editor, I do. Zap for RISC OS has a nice 'Perl syntax colouring' mode, and EditPlus does the same for Windows.
Oh, if you bothered to check Perl.com, you'll now that Perl is available for Win32, Macintosh, 'UNIX' and RISC OS.
Perl is a very handy language to know, and it's quick and simple. I know the 2nd edition of 'The Camel' has came in very useful for me, but it's also good to check on other resources. Richy C.
--
I assume I already have the first edition of this book (one I highly recommend BTW) as I've had it around a year - but the question is, is it worth buying this edition (the second) if you already have the first?
I believe a number of 'free webspace' providers also do this (IIRC Yahoo! Geocities is one) - simple workaround is to change the extension - usually music.mp or music.mp3.file will do it. You/could/ attempt to mangle the filename in the manner music.mp3%20 (or 'music.mp3 ') (if it can be uploaded). Users browsers should just strip off the excess space, but the 'autobot' the ISP is running should miss it.
I would check the ISP's Acceptable Use Policy and if it does NOT state 'We reserve the right to remove any file...' (or the like) - ask for total refund for 'breach of contract', suggest you may sue for 'data loss' and hunt for a new host. Richy C.
--
Except UK stocks of PS2 are VERY limited (Sony reduced the allocation by around half a few months ago) - Argos has a hell of a lot of customers, and obviously they don't want to advertise something they probably won't be able to supply. Richy C.
--
Sorry, (makes mental note: read what you are writing).
Correction follows: .arpa's closed? I got 7 hits from an.apra domain last week to my website. Richy C.
--
You've heard the saying 'Some people shouldn't be allowed to breed', the saying is now 'People who can't pay the royaltys are not allowed to breed'.:) Richy C.
--
That was my understand of the law - and of the office I'm currently situated in (the online news section of a major UK newspaper group). Perhaps the Patent Office just grants all patents applied for unless someone contests them - then they pull the basics. I'm not 100% sure.
At least I haven't seen any connection between InGen and a certain type of DNA... Richy C.
--
Sorry, the URL's been manged - try http://www.antarcti.ca/ . Also I've heard back from 'my man inside' and it seems the 3D function only tends to work on IE5 due to XML implementation. They have considered using other 'display technologies' (such as SGML) but aren't sure which ones to go with. Richy C.
--
I'm just wondering if you were to copyright your software '(c) Kingdom of Andorra' (for example) whether or not the country would be able to 'acquire' the copyright. And since the country has no IP laws the software would be free to copy...
Of course, it wouldn't quite work for warez etc as it'll be (c) Mickeysoft Inc, USA (example) and if you live in the US you'll still be liable for copyright theft.
Oh - don't forget that Napster was designed to be a _legal_ service, _N_ew _A_rtist _P_rogram - it wasn't made to shift copyright materials around the 'net. Richy C.
--
Good idea... in theory.
How about mailing lists - I'm a member of many of them (including spamtools), and it just wouldn't be possible to encrypt each message (or digest) per person. Some lists have several hundred valid subscribers.
Google has got a 'family friendly' option - IIRC it excludes web pages with certain content and sites listed under the ODP's hidden 'Adult section (which Google uses and also hides) Richy C.
--
Don't forget that Google has the 'cache' facility that allows you to see the page that Google has indexed. Display the cache, visit the page and if they don't match up - complain to Google. Richy C.
--
Oh - sorry, so it is. You're right. If anyone does a search with http://www.internic.net/cgi-bin/whois?whois_nic=DO MAIN you do infact get up ANY servers register in the DNS with the string 'DOMAIN'.
You're perfectly right, it's not a crack or hack, but someone knowing that people would try a search like that and register a server with a name that would occur in the search string.
It's still funny (and kinda topical to this story).
Oh well, I'll go and revise my knowledge of the DNS system (grin) Richy C.
--
Slashdot Mirror
Details about infocom and their game titles are available here, while more about Interactive Fiction (that's text based games usually) can be found here. The main IF archive can be found at IFArchive.org where you can download many of Infocoms games.
Richy C.
We should have a 'Iridium' topic instead of bundling it all into Science - just so we can 'deactive' the stories showing...
Richy C.
Motorola spent billions to create the Iridium satellite telephone system, allowing anyone almost anywhere to make a phone call. Unfortunately, not many people found much reason to lug a cumbersome phone to a remote place and pay several dollars a minute for the service.
Scientists, however, found a very good use for it.
With the help of Iridium's constellation of more than 70 satellites circling 470 miles above the ground, the scientists have collected a bounty of information about electric currents in the upper atmosphere, data they could not have obtained otherwise.
"We need measurements to make the invisible visible," said Dr. Brian J. Anderson of Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Baltimore, who led the effort.
The sun spews out charged particles traveling at a million miles per hour known as the solar wind. The bombardment of the solar wind would be deadly to life on Earth, but Earth's magnetic field deflects the streams of charged particles -- electric currents, in essence -- and either deflects them around the planet or channels them toward the North and South Poles. The currents themselves cannot be seen, but they power the colorful, flickering nighttime display of the aurora borealis -- what in the Northern Hemisphere is known as the Northern Lights -- and the aurora australis in the south.
When the sun sends out a strong puff of charged particles, these auroral currents can disrupt radio signals, damage power grids and puff out the Earth's atmosphere to drag down satellites. The new knowledge should help scientists better understand such "space weather."
The orbits of the Iridium satellites pass directly over the North and South Poles, providing an ideal downward observing perch of the polar regions. Several years ago, Dr. Anderson realized that the magnetic sensors that the Iridium satellites use to orient themselves are sensitive enough to detect the 1 percent fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field caused by the auroral currents.
Since February 1999, the operators of the Iridium system have been shipping the magnetic field data to Dr. Anderson and his collaborators, who then calculate the position and strength of the currents. The large number of satellites means they can detect fairly quick shifts in the currents. A second, ground-based system provides a complementary snapshot of the auroral currents.
Eight radar dishes in the Arctic known as the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network, or SuperDARN, measure the electric fields emitted by the charged particles. Multiplying the electric fields measured by SuperDARN with the magnetic fields from Iridium tells how much power is flowing into Earth from the solar wind. The data showed that the power flow was often concentrated in "hot spots" and could change quickly. On one day in March, the power jumped from 17 billion watts to nearly 50 billion watts in two hours.
"They are much more complex than we thought previously," Dr. Anderson said.
For now, the flow of data coming down from Iridium continues, but it may not last long. A partnership set up by Motorola to run the satellite system went bankrupt in August 1999 and had announced in March that it was going to shut down the satellites and crash them into the ocean. But a new $72 million contract from the Pentagon will keep the satellites up for at least two years.
Even if Iridium is eventually ditched, the collected data could enable scientists to estimate the currents based on the brightness of the Northern Lights.
Richy C.
Ah - the company would have to be a new mouse if it got damaged, whereas 'loosing' a user would actually cut spending (no wages).
Richy C.
--
Opera is quite fast. See previous slashdot article.
Richy C.
--
Phew - very long page of release notes (and quite difficult to make out the relevant information).
Seems there are still quite a large number of bugs in it, but I can't give first-person results as I couldn't see a download link. Can anybody point me in the right direction?
Richy C.
--
'Perl development kit' - use a text editor, I do. Zap for RISC OS has a nice 'Perl syntax colouring' mode, and EditPlus does the same for Windows. Oh, if you bothered to check Perl.com, you'll now that Perl is available for Win32, Macintosh, 'UNIX' and RISC OS. Perl is a very handy language to know, and it's quick and simple. I know the 2nd edition of 'The Camel' has came in very useful for me, but it's also good to check on other resources.
Richy C.
--
I assume I already have the first edition of this book (one I highly recommend BTW) as I've had it around a year - but the question is, is it worth buying this edition (the second) if you already have the first?
Richy C.
--
I believe a number of 'free webspace' providers also do this (IIRC Yahoo! Geocities is one) - simple workaround is to change the extension - usually music.mp or music.mp3.file will do it. You /could/ attempt to mangle the filename in the manner music.mp3%20 (or 'music.mp3 ') (if it can be uploaded). Users browsers should just strip off the excess space, but the 'autobot' the ISP is running should miss it.
I would check the ISP's Acceptable Use Policy and if it does NOT state 'We reserve the right to remove any file...' (or the like) - ask for total refund for 'breach of contract', suggest you may sue for 'data loss' and hunt for a new host.
Richy C.
--
Except UK stocks of PS2 are VERY limited (Sony reduced the allocation by around half a few months ago) - Argos has a hell of a lot of customers, and obviously they don't want to advertise something they probably won't be able to supply.
Richy C.
--
Sorry, (makes mental note: read what you are writing).
.arpa's closed? I got 7 hits from an .apra domain last week to my website.
Correction follows:
Richy C.
--
Arpa.net's closed? I got 7 hits from an arpa.net domain last week to my website...
What has happened to Arpa.net?
Richy C.
--
The BBC News (grahics) also has this story.
Richy C.
--
You've heard the saying 'Some people shouldn't be allowed to breed', the saying is now 'People who can't pay the royaltys are not allowed to breed'. :)
Richy C.
--
That was my understand of the law - and of the office I'm currently situated in (the online news section of a major UK newspaper group). Perhaps the Patent Office just grants all patents applied for unless someone contests them - then they pull the basics. I'm not 100% sure.
At least I haven't seen any connection between InGen and a certain type of DNA...
Richy C.
--
Sorry, the URL's been manged - try http://www.antarcti.ca/ . Also I've heard back from 'my man inside' and it seems the 3D function only tends to work on IE5 due to XML implementation. They have considered using other 'display technologies' (such as SGML) but aren't sure which ones to go with.
Richy C.
--
I'm just wondering if you were to copyright your software '(c) Kingdom of Andorra' (for example) whether or not the country would be able to 'acquire' the copyright. And since the country has no IP laws the software would be free to copy...
Of course, it wouldn't quite work for warez etc as it'll be (c) Mickeysoft Inc, USA (example) and if you live in the US you'll still be liable for copyright theft.
Oh - don't forget that Napster was designed to be a _legal_ service, _N_ew _A_rtist _P_rogram - it wasn't made to shift copyright materials around the 'net.
Richy C.
--
Good idea... in theory.
How about mailing lists - I'm a member of many of them (including spamtools), and it just wouldn't be possible to encrypt each message (or digest) per person. Some lists have several hundred valid subscribers.
Richy C.
--
See the same article on Kuro5hin - the responses there make interesting reading as well.
Richy C.
--
Google has got a 'family friendly' option - IIRC it excludes web pages with certain content and sites listed under the ODP's hidden 'Adult section (which Google uses and also hides)
Richy C.
--
Don't forget that Google has the 'cache' facility that allows you to see the page that Google has indexed. Display the cache, visit the page and if they don't match up - complain to Google.
Richy C.
--
Oh - sorry, so it is. You're right. If anyone does a search with http://www.internic.net/cgi-bin/whois?whois_nic=DO MAIN you do infact get up ANY servers register in the DNS with the string 'DOMAIN'.
You're perfectly right, it's not a crack or hack, but someone knowing that people would try a search like that and register a server with a name that would occur in the search string.
It's still funny (and kinda topical to this story).
Oh well, I'll go and revise my knowledge of the DNS system (grin)
Richy C.
--
It's DNS entry currently reads:
Apple's says:
and AOL's says:
Somebody has been busy...
Richy C.
--
It seems michael has forgotten to include the link to the original article on the Wall Street Journal - it's here - login 'slashdot123' passwd 'slashdot123'. Very long, comprehensive and insightful.
Richy C.
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Richy C.
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