They had been running DOS until 2001 when they rolled out their new Java based POS application. They ran a test, running some stores on Red Hat, and some on Windows 2000. They eventually settled on Windows, and pulled Linux from the front lanes.
A lot of their functionality is web-based. They use XML extensively to shovel data back and forth between systems like the front lanes, tool rental, returns, etc. [ My speculation is this might have something to do with why they chose Microsoft -- the introduction of.NET. But I don't know that for sure. ]
Home Depot was responsible for the strong push to JavaPOS, a standard interface for POS devices (scanners, receipt printers, mag-stripe readers, etc.) The Windows world has had the OPOS (OLE-POS) device interface layer available since the mid-90's. Many POS peripheral manufacturers today provide OPOS service objects with their products, and now some will provide JavaPOS too.
IBM provides both OPOS and JavaPOS interfaces for most all of their POS peripherals, so getting them to work under Linux should actually be quite easy for anyone building such an application.
As much as I don't like Bush and the Republican party, and think their embryonic stem cell restrictions are the penultimate in luddite stupidity, you should reread the article. This jawbone was grown from his own bone marrow stem cells, and did not require embryonic stem cells. No Bushwhacking would be involved.
Besides, this was done in Germany. Even if the Theocratic States of America succeed in shutting down all medical progress, they're happy to outsource this sort of thing. Need a new kidney? Fly to Germany, they'll be happy to grow you a new one.
In a small shop situation like this, if the boss goes down the shop closes. You may not go to jail, but you won't be going to work the next day, either.
Regardless, CYA is still the best advice to follow if you're ever put into this situation. (Homelessness somehow seems a lot better than two to five years, even with time off for good behavior.) And your nearest FBI agency is indeed the right call to make -- they take this very, very seriously. If you do, though, be completely honest and thorough from the start. They will not be kind to you if they discover a lie halfway through their investigation.
Y'know, I thought about that. If he HAD oursourced his packet monkeys, there would have been far less of a legal connection between himself and the attack, and he might not be a wanted man today.
Heh, he probably could have hired the Indian ad-clickers to just slashdot the hell out of his victims, and that might not even have been illegal.
So you split up the list by ISPs (you can do that with a shell script), and send the list to each of the ISPs saying "Here's address 1.2.3.4, at 22:47:23 on 2004/02/12 it was part of a DDoS attack. Please shut down that MAC now and contact the subscriber to get them anti-virus software."
I think they've already done something similar for the Code Red attackers. And I've been surprised to see that so many off-shore ISPs are quite willing to cooperate in shutting down malicious hosts. I contacted a Chinese ISP once regarding a phishing scam hosted by one of their customers, and they had the site down in minutes. And China isn't known for being home to the most cooperative netizens.
RackSpace fought back, but the attackers proved determined and adaptive. In mid-October the simple SYN flood attacks were replaced with an HTTP flood, pulling large image files from WeaKnees.com in overwhelming numbers. At its peak the onslaught allegedly kept the company offline for a full two weeks.
Wouldn't it have made more sense to host these files from a tarpit? If you know you're under attack by zombie hordes that are going to repeatedly ask for a file, why not give it to them s--l--o--w--l--y? Although I suppose that since the attacks were being watched and changed frequently, the attackers probably would simply have switched tactics again.
Anyway, is it possible or practical to use the logs of the http flood to go back to the zombified PC owners and "fix" them? HTTP requires a real connection, which is traceable. Or should that list just be delivered to their ISPs and have the ISPs shut them down until they're virus free?
Ah, but I have. Since most of what I read on/. is IT related, I almost immediately wrote a proxomitron rule to replace "it . slashdot . org" with simply "slashdot . org" (I'm putting the spaces in because the Proxomitron rule will eat the "it." on my next preview!)
However, I haven't frequented these other sections often enough to warrant writing a rule to fix them.
Actually, the it. color scheme isn't nearly as bad as the games. color scheme. Maybe I should rewrite my rule to simply alter the "bgcolor" tags slashdot inserts, regardless of the "host" name. Then, I could tweak it to be as garish or as button down as I want. Hmm...
I wish I had mod points to give you, this is very insightful.
And I guess I've surprised even myself with this. I'm an ad-blocker. I'm sorry to anyone's web page I visit that's paid for with advertising-sponsored links, but there is only so much flashy blinky sh!t that I can take. I run the Proxomitron and have a huge ruleset. On top of this I use Mozilla with the popup blocker, and use adblock constantly. I have the flashblocker plugin that simply does not display flash until it's clicked on. It's been so long that I surfed without all this armor that I find myself shocked by the crap people put up with. Pop ups, pop unders, flashy DHTML blocks that fly around their screens, it's like a carnival leaping up to disguise the fact that they are serving information. Hell, I already find the "games.slashdot.org" color scheme to be distatefully distracting enough, without the clutter of banners.
I do have a few exceptions: I don't deliberately block ads on the sites that I frequent (fark, UF, etc.) in hopes that they get some stipend simply for the traffic. I even buy from the banner ads on some of those sites just to give the business their way.
I also don't mind SOME OF the banner ads I've found in certain products. For example, XFire is completely sponsored by one small banner ad located at the top center of the screen. It's not PUNCH THE MONKEY BLINKING, it's not spyware sponsored, it's just a small billboard. I appreciated the effort so much I've purchased a couple of games through them just to say "hey, well done guys, this is the right thing to do."
My other exception is Google's advertising. It's always been text based, so it's never been the visual distraction that causes me to want to block it. I don't always read them, but sometimes I do. Certainly, it gets much more of my attention than the blinky "turn away from the flashing lights" ads. Plus, I've always considered Google to be "the good guys" for all the reasons you mentioned.
I once evem wrote a proxomitron filter to strip the google ads, but removed it when I realized it was advertising that didn't drive me off, and that might benefit the sites hosting it. So, you're absolutely right -- Google's ads aren't worth the trouble to block.
I'm one of those guys who can't wait to take a hammer to the options and smash sh!t like that Clippy into the flaming embers of hell itself. Don't hide stuff from me, show me fully qualified paths, give me dangerous options, don't tell me what to do, don't hold my hand, I don't want your useless tip of the day, that kind of stuff. And I hang around with people of a like mind -- my friends are all techies, and they, of course, feel the same way I do about Clippy (I think.) It's an evil blight upon computerdom, foisted off upon us by Darth Gates.
So you might say I was more than a little surprised when I was setting up Office for my wife and I was going in to turn off the "dog" agent (one of the Clippy variants) when she said "Oh, don't turn it off. I like it."
Stunned silence. She liked it. You could have knocked me over with a feather.
Here I was, having spent the last thirty-one years of my life learning how to use and program computers, bursting at the seams with pride of my "|\/|4D s|(i11z", secretly laughing at those people who don't know enough about computers to even turn Clippy off, only to find that my wife of twenty years uses Clippy. And she likes it.
Fortunately, I was too stunned to open my mouth and say something that might have been hurtful to her. It gave me time to think about what she said. She liked it. She found it useful. And I consider her to be a very intelligent woman.
So, now I at least understand that there is a place for Clippy, at least among the vast majority of "users" out there. And Microsoft apparently understands that, too. Open source developers? We're still mocking Clippy. But maybe we should be learning from him.
Those are all good points, and I have to agree with you for the most part; at least except the part where you claim the churches have done tremendous "good." Instead all I see is the evil they bring -- zealots murdering in the names of their various gods; coercion of the poor; self-induced perversions brought on by misinterpretations of their own words that result in the abuse of children; and the current rabid following of the Machiavellian Mayberrys occupying the White House, simply because they perform the rituals the religious right wants to see.
The only "good" I see churches providing is that they offer comfort to the most unfortunate people -- homeless shelters, soup kitchens, etc. The price they charge is to get these indigents to pledge allegiance to their bunk, and to spread it further. That's a lot of strings attached to that "good."
But the worst part of all is that I know some otherwise very bright kids who are taught by their parents to "just ignore that evolution stuff in school, because you know the Real Truth." They make it sound like Jesus made the dinosaur bones to confuse the damned. These are otherwise nice, normal people who just think they're doing their kid a favor by making them rationalize away reason and scientific thought. It really, really saddens me to see the corruption passed from parent to child.
Anyway, that's how I feel about religion (obviously.) So when I read it in Stephenson's books, I get no "hope" from seeing someone join whichever religion-of-the-plotline, because it only strikes a very dissonant chord inside me.
Thus, the Taliban analogy. Sorry if it made you uncomfortable. I promise I'll shut up now.
[ don't feed the trolls, John, resist the urge... ]
[ can't help myself! ]
The reason I consider fanatics slime is for committing the crime of fanaticism itself. I'm not differentiating between "good slime" and "evil slime" here -- lies are lies regardless of the noble intentions of their source. And like anything else, lies can be used for good or evil purposes.
And since you bring it up, they were not as different as the blindly faithful might wish them to be:
They both rabidly believed/believe in their respective views of god and allah.
They both would stand in front of crowds of incredibly impoverished people, telling them stories that would make them feel empowered, and promising them greatness in afterlife. It's important to note that this promise is one which neither Theresa nor bin Laden actually had/has to personally deliver.
They both recognized the power their position gave them, and both used it unstintingly to further their ends.
The big difference, of course, is that bin Laden believes that the end justifies the means no matter how violent, whereas Mother Theresa respected life in every case that I'm aware of. Since that's pretty much the current Western standard definition of evil vs. good, it's quite easy for us to pass judgement. Yes, of course I'd rather have a world of Mother Theresas than bin Ladens, but religiously speaking she was spouting just as much nonsense as bin Laden and the mullahs. Her nonsense was simply of a flavor more socially palatable to us.
I think Snow Crash started with one of the best hooks ever. Yeah, it deteriorated a bit with the whole falabala thing but it was still a really fun read. He had a lot of brand new ideas in that book, and wrapped them up in a lot of good humor. And he tied it close enough to reality that I'm hoping he's wrong about the future of America.
Like I said before, I considered The Diamond Age my penance for enjoying Snow Crash so much. (Penance is not a good thing, lest you think I enjoyed it at all.) It had some good sci-fi nanotech ideas, but pointlessly delved into funky religions, as does a lot of his writing at some point or another. Since I consider all religions quite offensive, and fervent believers of any faith to be slime equal to the Taliban, I find a made-up religion that's clearly designed to shock mainstream Christians even more offensive than usual. Note my choice of the word "offensive," not "interesting." The two concepts are not interrelated; at least not to me. Anyway, the book was tedious, and I vaguely remember bothering to finish it, hoping it would come back to something interesting. Nothing but disappointment there.
Cryptonomicon was OK, but it was a five-page plot wrapped in a 220 page story that was then action-packed into a 900+ page novel. At least it lacked the bullsh!t religious overtones of his other works. But Neal sure has a penchant for overstuffing a pair of covers. He either gets paid by the word, or gets serious kickbacks from the pulpwood industry. The guy definitely needs a more ruthless editor.
As for Quicksilver, well, it's an interesting setting, and I enjoyed a lot of the book. I consider it his second-best behind Snow Crash. Again he brings a couple of whack religious nuts into the story -- however, this time it's based on the historical reality of the powerful churches of the time, rather than some made-up tribal drum sh!t. I'm able to tolerate these fruits insofar as they add to the historical flavor, but I really don't have to get into their rituals to get to know them. And I really don't like seeing them ever take center stage. Other than that, the book had interesting ideas and a captivating setting. It certainly gave me more of an appreciation of the early scientists, and how much we really owe them for their groundbreaking work.
So yeah, I know I should read more than I do. Yikes, I just checked my shelf for the books stacked after Quicksilver. There are over two dozen technical books, nine history books (WWII and codebreaking, mostly,) four current events / political books, and three home improvement books. Sheesh. I need a vacation that doesn't involve tiling a bathtub, laying a brick walkway or siding a house.
Heh. Most of us consider Snow Crash to be his his defining work. I almost felt like The Diamond Age was the penance I had to sit through for enjoying Snow Crash so much, that's how much better Snow Crash is than his other work.
Oh, that's not the only friggin' retarded thing about the design that goes into the Macs. For example, the first iMac I ever used had a circular mouse. I grabbed it and moved it up and down, and the cursor didn't track with my hand -- it headed off to the left somewhere. It took a few seconds to reorient the mouse.
The worst part was that it ALWAYS took a few seconds to orient the mouse. No matter what, when you grabbed it you grabbed it in a slightly different orientation every single time. EVERY SINGLE TIME.
And all my Mac friends are "oh, look at the design, it's such a cool design, it's not a beige box, ooo, it's designed." Blow me -- I can chuck that beauty FAST if it's going to cost me in usability. And as far as the beauty goes, garish translucent colors may be great with the teletubbies set, but I never personally saw the appeal. "Lime green" is fine for chewing gum, but I can throw it away after I'm sick of it.
Of course, you kind of have to throw the iMacs away anyway, since they're still not user-upgradeable to a CPU of value. Perhaps it's just easier to toss them when they're already a sickened color of lime green?
You misspelled it. That's the "Visa / Kodak Olympics, brought to you by McDonalds, Nike, Adidas and CitiBank (TM) (R) (C), Copyright 2004, International Olympic Committee, all rights reserved worldwide."
You anonymous bastard. I know you are living in the Napa valley, and I will hunt you to the ends of the vinyards in search of my beloved D&D and Chainmail books. You can drink, but you cannot hide forever.
Sincerely,
John.
P.S. Natalie Portman was not even born when I bought those dice. However, in lieu of hot grits, I distinctly remember your older brother pouring a big bowl of oatmeal on your crotch early one morning while you were still in bed. You never really told me why he did that, and I don't think I want to know, either.
P.P.S. If you borrowed my "Traveller" boxed set, I want those back too. They were even cooler than D&D.
I haven't played in probably ten years now, but I agree that it was always a good time. (Except for the rule nitpicking, and our DM would usually solve it the "Paranoia" way. The Paranoia GMs guide has one cardinal rule -- "Action is good, reward it with success. Be boring and you're dead." So, arguing about the rules ended up causing way more pain than it was worth.)
My biggest regret is that I loaned my boxed set of original D&D books (along with another dozen supplemental rule books, monster manuals, etc.,) to a friend just at the end of high school, and I never got them back. I should probably check eBay to make sure he hasn't sold them!:-)
I wrote an assembler for that chip for a class back in the early '80s. Just for the challenge, I hand wrote it in assembler, then hand assembled the opcodes into hex.
That was a sweet little architecture that all made sense, no surprises.
I'm running The Proxomitron, and I simply added a new filter that replaces "it . slashdot . org" with "slashdot.org" (munging required because the filter affects my preview!) So it took me a little while to figure out what your "better colors" meant, as I already had them.
A handheld cellular phone emits a maximum of 600mW, but rarely does so in an urban setting. (Remotely mounted antennas are allowed to transmit up to 3W or 4W.) The power emitted is adjusted based upon the tower's reported reception strength. Not only does this conserve battery power, but it helps reduce congestion in the cell network by keeping your signal from straying into the next cell over.
"But it's RF!" you say. So, what is it that RF does? It induces current, and mostly in a conductor the same length (or fraction of the length) as the wavelength of the signal. Now, the 350mm wavelength emitted by an 850mHz transmitter (300,000,000 m/s / 850,000,000Hz = 0.353 meters, or a half length of 0.167 meters (~6-1/2 inches) is actually pretty close to the width of the average skull, so we can assume that the skull will effectively absorb some of that energy. How much?
Interesting... A quick trip to Google found an Amateur Radio RF Safety Calculator and I entered the following values: 600mW, 2.2dBi gain antenna, 0.1 feet from antenna and 850 mHz, and it tells me that I'm not in the "safe zone" -- I need to be 0.22 feet from the antenna. According to the FCC, the maximum permissible exposure in a controlled area is 2.84 mw/cm^2, but the cell phone is exposing me to 8.5293 mw/cm^2.
Slashdot Mirror
A lot of their functionality is web-based. They use XML extensively to shovel data back and forth between systems like the front lanes, tool rental, returns, etc. [ My speculation is this might have something to do with why they chose Microsoft -- the introduction of .NET. But I don't know that for sure. ]
Home Depot was responsible for the strong push to JavaPOS, a standard interface for POS devices (scanners, receipt printers, mag-stripe readers, etc.) The Windows world has had the OPOS (OLE-POS) device interface layer available since the mid-90's. Many POS peripheral manufacturers today provide OPOS service objects with their products, and now some will provide JavaPOS too.
IBM provides both OPOS and JavaPOS interfaces for most all of their POS peripherals, so getting them to work under Linux should actually be quite easy for anyone building such an application.
You're right. Everyone knows it takes shark cartilage to grow frickin' laser beams out of your head.
Besides, this was done in Germany. Even if the Theocratic States of America succeed in shutting down all medical progress, they're happy to outsource this sort of thing. Need a new kidney? Fly to Germany, they'll be happy to grow you a new one.
One might even say "jaw-droppingly cool". Because this is just that cool.
If you rean anti-virus software, we wouldn't have to send you all these "clean up notices" so often. Sheesh.
Regardless, CYA is still the best advice to follow if you're ever put into this situation. (Homelessness somehow seems a lot better than two to five years, even with time off for good behavior.) And your nearest FBI agency is indeed the right call to make -- they take this very, very seriously. If you do, though, be completely honest and thorough from the start. They will not be kind to you if they discover a lie halfway through their investigation.
Heh, he probably could have hired the Indian ad-clickers to just slashdot the hell out of his victims, and that might not even have been illegal.
I think they've already done something similar for the Code Red attackers. And I've been surprised to see that so many off-shore ISPs are quite willing to cooperate in shutting down malicious hosts. I contacted a Chinese ISP once regarding a phishing scam hosted by one of their customers, and they had the site down in minutes. And China isn't known for being home to the most cooperative netizens.
RackSpace fought back, but the attackers proved determined and adaptive. In mid-October the simple SYN flood attacks were replaced with an HTTP flood, pulling large image files from WeaKnees.com in overwhelming numbers. At its peak the onslaught allegedly kept the company offline for a full two weeks.
Wouldn't it have made more sense to host these files from a tarpit? If you know you're under attack by zombie hordes that are going to repeatedly ask for a file, why not give it to them s--l--o--w--l--y? Although I suppose that since the attacks were being watched and changed frequently, the attackers probably would simply have switched tactics again.
Anyway, is it possible or practical to use the logs of the http flood to go back to the zombified PC owners and "fix" them? HTTP requires a real connection, which is traceable. Or should that list just be delivered to their ISPs and have the ISPs shut them down until they're virus free?
However, I haven't frequented these other sections often enough to warrant writing a rule to fix them.
Actually, the it. color scheme isn't nearly as bad as the games. color scheme. Maybe I should rewrite my rule to simply alter the "bgcolor" tags slashdot inserts, regardless of the "host" name. Then, I could tweak it to be as garish or as button down as I want. Hmm...
And I guess I've surprised even myself with this. I'm an ad-blocker. I'm sorry to anyone's web page I visit that's paid for with advertising-sponsored links, but there is only so much flashy blinky sh!t that I can take. I run the Proxomitron and have a huge ruleset. On top of this I use Mozilla with the popup blocker, and use adblock constantly. I have the flashblocker plugin that simply does not display flash until it's clicked on. It's been so long that I surfed without all this armor that I find myself shocked by the crap people put up with. Pop ups, pop unders, flashy DHTML blocks that fly around their screens, it's like a carnival leaping up to disguise the fact that they are serving information. Hell, I already find the "games.slashdot.org" color scheme to be distatefully distracting enough, without the clutter of banners.
I do have a few exceptions: I don't deliberately block ads on the sites that I frequent (fark, UF, etc.) in hopes that they get some stipend simply for the traffic. I even buy from the banner ads on some of those sites just to give the business their way.
I also don't mind SOME OF the banner ads I've found in certain products. For example, XFire is completely sponsored by one small banner ad located at the top center of the screen. It's not PUNCH THE MONKEY BLINKING, it's not spyware sponsored, it's just a small billboard. I appreciated the effort so much I've purchased a couple of games through them just to say "hey, well done guys, this is the right thing to do."
My other exception is Google's advertising. It's always been text based, so it's never been the visual distraction that causes me to want to block it. I don't always read them, but sometimes I do. Certainly, it gets much more of my attention than the blinky "turn away from the flashing lights" ads. Plus, I've always considered Google to be "the good guys" for all the reasons you mentioned.
I once evem wrote a proxomitron filter to strip the google ads, but removed it when I realized it was advertising that didn't drive me off, and that might benefit the sites hosting it. So, you're absolutely right -- Google's ads aren't worth the trouble to block.
I'm one of those guys who can't wait to take a hammer to the options and smash sh!t like that Clippy into the flaming embers of hell itself. Don't hide stuff from me, show me fully qualified paths, give me dangerous options, don't tell me what to do, don't hold my hand, I don't want your useless tip of the day, that kind of stuff. And I hang around with people of a like mind -- my friends are all techies, and they, of course, feel the same way I do about Clippy (I think.) It's an evil blight upon computerdom, foisted off upon us by Darth Gates.
So you might say I was more than a little surprised when I was setting up Office for my wife and I was going in to turn off the "dog" agent (one of the Clippy variants) when she said "Oh, don't turn it off. I like it."
Stunned silence. She liked it. You could have knocked me over with a feather.
Here I was, having spent the last thirty-one years of my life learning how to use and program computers, bursting at the seams with pride of my "|\/|4D s|(i11z", secretly laughing at those people who don't know enough about computers to even turn Clippy off, only to find that my wife of twenty years uses Clippy. And she likes it.
Fortunately, I was too stunned to open my mouth and say something that might have been hurtful to her. It gave me time to think about what she said. She liked it. She found it useful. And I consider her to be a very intelligent woman.
So, now I at least understand that there is a place for Clippy, at least among the vast majority of "users" out there. And Microsoft apparently understands that, too. Open source developers? We're still mocking Clippy. But maybe we should be learning from him.
The only "good" I see churches providing is that they offer comfort to the most unfortunate people -- homeless shelters, soup kitchens, etc. The price they charge is to get these indigents to pledge allegiance to their bunk, and to spread it further. That's a lot of strings attached to that "good."
But the worst part of all is that I know some otherwise very bright kids who are taught by their parents to "just ignore that evolution stuff in school, because you know the Real Truth." They make it sound like Jesus made the dinosaur bones to confuse the damned. These are otherwise nice, normal people who just think they're doing their kid a favor by making them rationalize away reason and scientific thought. It really, really saddens me to see the corruption passed from parent to child.
Anyway, that's how I feel about religion (obviously.) So when I read it in Stephenson's books, I get no "hope" from seeing someone join whichever religion-of-the-plotline, because it only strikes a very dissonant chord inside me.
Thus, the Taliban analogy. Sorry if it made you uncomfortable. I promise I'll shut up now.
[ can't help myself! ]
The reason I consider fanatics slime is for committing the crime of fanaticism itself. I'm not differentiating between "good slime" and "evil slime" here -- lies are lies regardless of the noble intentions of their source. And like anything else, lies can be used for good or evil purposes.
And since you bring it up, they were not as different as the blindly faithful might wish them to be:
- They both rabidly believed/believe in their respective views of god and allah.
- They both would stand in front of crowds of incredibly impoverished people, telling them stories that would make them feel empowered, and promising them greatness in afterlife. It's important to note that this promise is one which neither Theresa nor bin Laden actually had/has to personally deliver.
- They both recognized the power their position gave them, and both used it unstintingly to further their ends.
The big difference, of course, is that bin Laden believes that the end justifies the means no matter how violent, whereas Mother Theresa respected life in every case that I'm aware of. Since that's pretty much the current Western standard definition of evil vs. good, it's quite easy for us to pass judgement. Yes, of course I'd rather have a world of Mother Theresas than bin Ladens, but religiously speaking she was spouting just as much nonsense as bin Laden and the mullahs. Her nonsense was simply of a flavor more socially palatable to us.Like I said before, I considered The Diamond Age my penance for enjoying Snow Crash so much. (Penance is not a good thing, lest you think I enjoyed it at all.) It had some good sci-fi nanotech ideas, but pointlessly delved into funky religions, as does a lot of his writing at some point or another. Since I consider all religions quite offensive, and fervent believers of any faith to be slime equal to the Taliban, I find a made-up religion that's clearly designed to shock mainstream Christians even more offensive than usual. Note my choice of the word "offensive," not "interesting." The two concepts are not interrelated; at least not to me. Anyway, the book was tedious, and I vaguely remember bothering to finish it, hoping it would come back to something interesting. Nothing but disappointment there.
Cryptonomicon was OK, but it was a five-page plot wrapped in a 220 page story that was then action-packed into a 900+ page novel. At least it lacked the bullsh!t religious overtones of his other works. But Neal sure has a penchant for overstuffing a pair of covers. He either gets paid by the word, or gets serious kickbacks from the pulpwood industry. The guy definitely needs a more ruthless editor.
As for Quicksilver, well, it's an interesting setting, and I enjoyed a lot of the book. I consider it his second-best behind Snow Crash. Again he brings a couple of whack religious nuts into the story -- however, this time it's based on the historical reality of the powerful churches of the time, rather than some made-up tribal drum sh!t. I'm able to tolerate these fruits insofar as they add to the historical flavor, but I really don't have to get into their rituals to get to know them. And I really don't like seeing them ever take center stage. Other than that, the book had interesting ideas and a captivating setting. It certainly gave me more of an appreciation of the early scientists, and how much we really owe them for their groundbreaking work.
So yeah, I know I should read more than I do. Yikes, I just checked my shelf for the books stacked after Quicksilver. There are over two dozen technical books, nine history books (WWII and codebreaking, mostly,) four current events / political books, and three home improvement books. Sheesh. I need a vacation that doesn't involve tiling a bathtub, laying a brick walkway or siding a house.
It's that good.
The worst part was that it ALWAYS took a few seconds to orient the mouse. No matter what, when you grabbed it you grabbed it in a slightly different orientation every single time. EVERY SINGLE TIME.
And all my Mac friends are "oh, look at the design, it's such a cool design, it's not a beige box, ooo, it's designed." Blow me -- I can chuck that beauty FAST if it's going to cost me in usability. And as far as the beauty goes, garish translucent colors may be great with the teletubbies set, but I never personally saw the appeal. "Lime green" is fine for chewing gum, but I can throw it away after I'm sick of it.
Of course, you kind of have to throw the iMacs away anyway, since they're still not user-upgradeable to a CPU of value. Perhaps it's just easier to toss them when they're already a sickened color of lime green?
What was your question again?
You anonymous bastard. I know you are living in the Napa valley, and I will hunt you to the ends of the vinyards in search of my beloved D&D and Chainmail books. You can drink, but you cannot hide forever.
Sincerely,
John.
P.S. Natalie Portman was not even born when I bought those dice. However, in lieu of hot grits, I distinctly remember your older brother pouring a big bowl of oatmeal on your crotch early one morning while you were still in bed. You never really told me why he did that, and I don't think I want to know, either.
P.P.S. If you borrowed my "Traveller" boxed set, I want those back too. They were even cooler than D&D.
My biggest regret is that I loaned my boxed set of original D&D books (along with another dozen supplemental rule books, monster manuals, etc.,) to a friend just at the end of high school, and I never got them back. I should probably check eBay to make sure he hasn't sold them! :-)
That was a sweet little architecture that all made sense, no surprises.
Ahh, the good old days.
I'm running The Proxomitron, and I simply added a new filter that replaces "it . slashdot . org" with "slashdot.org" (munging required because the filter affects my preview!) So it took me a little while to figure out what your "better colors" meant, as I already had them.
And who knows what the future will bring? AMD may diverge so far from Intel that they may eventually be considered their own architecture.
I think the chip market is about as dead as *BSD (*according to Netcraft.)
I've decided I really don't want to know any more about Japanese lifestles than that...
A handheld cellular phone emits a maximum of 600mW, but rarely does so in an urban setting. (Remotely mounted antennas are allowed to transmit up to 3W or 4W.) The power emitted is adjusted based upon the tower's reported reception strength. Not only does this conserve battery power, but it helps reduce congestion in the cell network by keeping your signal from straying into the next cell over.
"But it's RF!" you say. So, what is it that RF does? It induces current, and mostly in a conductor the same length (or fraction of the length) as the wavelength of the signal. Now, the 350mm wavelength emitted by an 850mHz transmitter (300,000,000 m/s / 850,000,000Hz = 0.353 meters, or a half length of 0.167 meters (~6-1/2 inches) is actually pretty close to the width of the average skull, so we can assume that the skull will effectively absorb some of that energy. How much?
Interesting ... A quick trip to Google found an Amateur Radio RF Safety Calculator and I entered the following values: 600mW, 2.2dBi gain antenna, 0.1 feet from antenna and 850 mHz, and it tells me that I'm not in the "safe zone" -- I need to be 0.22 feet from the antenna. According to the FCC, the maximum permissible exposure in a controlled area is 2.84 mw/cm^2, but the cell phone is exposing me to 8.5293 mw/cm^2.
I may have to rethink my cell phone usage... :-(