It was a one-time occurrence, and the stars it was aimed at won't even be there when the message arrives.
However, Arecibo has also been used for Radar Astronomy, to map nearby planets. Those transmissions were probably powerful enough to detect outside our solar system.
While most might not remember this, since it happened four months ago, those big banks that got the $150 billion bailout were ORDERED by the Treasury Secretary to take a bailout. Most of them didn't even want it. I recall reading in the paper at the time that the Secretary had to basically lock them into a meeting and tell them they weren't leaving till they'd accepted a bailout. Apparently, someone was afraid that bankers who really needed a bailout would be afraid to admit it if everyone wasn't getting a bailout.
I wish I had mod-points for you tonight.
A number of banks that did not need the bailout were strong-armed into accepting it. The reason: they didn't want a panic to start at the banks that needed the funds. If the public perceived that Bank A needed bailout funds while Bank B didn't, customers shifting their deposits from Bank A to Bank B would exacerbate the problems at Bank A.
Frankly, I think the whole scheme was a horrible waste of taxpayer money. But, this is how it went down.
I think I need a clarification. Why would anyone need a suppressor.
Suppressors reduce the noise generated by a firearm. They are therefore more "friendly" to the ears of anyone in the vicinity. A suppressor can reduce the noise footprint to less than a hundred feet, rather than hundreds of yards.
They are more common in Europe, where it's likely that a shooting range can't be located far away from anyone else. In the US, they were heavily restricted by the National Firearms Act simply because they were lumped in with other weapons as being commonly used by criminals.
Windows Autoplay was a major aggravating factor in that case.
Which is why I turn off auto-play on every one of my Windows computers, and advise everyone within earshot to do the same.
Tweak UI is a Microsoft "Power Toy" that allows you to turn off auto-play on all devices easily. There might be a way to do it without the power toy, but I don't know it off-hand.
Unfortunately, it's only available for Windows XP. I've read that someone has developed a similar utility with nearly equivalent functionality for Vista, but I don't use Vista.
Yes there were factions which didn't want peace but the simple fact is that Roosevelt wasn't even willing to look at the surrender terms.
As others have pointed out, Japan didn't offer "surrender". They were offering what was effectively nothing more than a cease-fire.
The Japanese have a multitude of ways to say "yes", and many of them actually are mean "no", albeit politely. Roosevelt wasn't willing to accept anything less than unconditional surrender, because it would have inevitably been re-interpreted into something less than the original agreement.
the loss of Japanese lives would have been far higher if America had invaded... rather than accept the offers of surrender made before the atomic bombs were ever droped... oh... wait... they don't bother teaching that bit in American highschools do they?
You keep posting this assertion with no corroboration, and have been refuted each time. How many times are you going to post it before you give up?
It is my understanding that in Europe you pay nothing for incoming calls, but twice as much for outgoing calls as in the US.
What I believe happens is that the airtime is assessed to the caller. Since metered service is typical even for a call to the house next door, all they have to do is increase the per-minute rate.
For an example, take a look at Vonage's international rates from the US to the UK:
To the UK, it's normally 4 cents a minute (free if you have an unlimited plan). But, if you are calling a mobile phone in the UK, it's 34 cents a minute.
In France, it's 4 cents a minute vs. 21 cents a minute.
In Germany, it's 4 cents a minute vs. 31 cents a minute.
You can check the rates in other countries if you like, but I think you get the idea.
Is it true they even charge you for receiving calls in the states????
Yes, they do. And there's good reason for it.
In the US, most people can make "local" calls free of charge. The definition of "local" varies, but it is generally the town/city that you reside in and maybe the surrounding suburbs. To be semantically correct: it's not actually free... it's covered by a flat monthly rate. But, there is no per-minute rate.
Calls outside that area are considered "toll" calls. They are assessed a per-minute rate, although phone companies are now offering calls to the entire US for an additional flat monthly fee.
In some states, a toll call must be dialed differently. In mine, it must be preceded by a '1'. This is imposed by the public utility commission, to prevent a caller from claiming they didn't know it was a toll call that would assess additional charges.
Faced with the public expectation that "local" calls are free -- or at least no additional charge, the cell phone services in the US chose to assess airtime charges to the user of the cell phone, rather than the person that called them. Had they not done so, consumer acceptance of cell phones as a replacement for wire-line phones would have been inhibited.
(An aside: free mobile-to-mobile calling on the same network is also a standard feature in the US)
Sounds pretty straight forward to me. You wont be able to go to mail.yahoo.com, you'll have to go to allyourbasebelongtous.MyFairPoint.net to access your yahoo email.
I think the article is wrong, having been written by a typical clueless journalist.
This sounds like Verizon subscribers were getting some sort of "partner" package with Yahoo, MSN, and/or AOL -- i.e. certain things like email service were out-sourced.
My father was offered the same deal with Southwestern Bell (now AT&T) DSL. I steered him away from it.
One thing to note: the state's delegation to the US Senata was originally chosen by the state legislature.
The idea was that the House of Representatives represented the people directly, and the US Senate essentially represented the state government. It was a very effective means to limit the power of the federal government and preserve the powers of the individual states.
However, it was prone to political corruption and nepotism... i.e, the Chicago political machine and the current allegations over "selling" Obama's vacated Senate seat, multiplied by the number of states. The 17th Amendment replaced election of US Senators with a popular vote.
Detractors of the 17th Amendment believe that was the beginning of the unrestrained growth of the federal government.
Wow, if you weren't jumping to conclusions, you probably wouldn't get any exercise at all.
In your first verdict, you admit that a complete count of absentee ballots might have changed the outcome of the popular vote -- then discard it as irrelevant and conjecture.
But, in your second verdict, you make the pronouncement that Al Gore would have won the popular vote, forgetting your admission in your first verdict. It also ignores the potential effect of entirely different campaign strategy to win the popular vote.
And would Gore have invaded Iraq? In his own words on 2002-01-12:
I'm not going to pretend to be able to read Gore's mind, especially under circumstances that never happened. But, I think it's foolish to be certain that there would have been a different outcome.
My main problem with Sirius is that even on the "commercial free" channels, the DJ would... advertise for stuff going on related to Sirius, on other channels. Also, they would repeat songs at least once per day on more than a few channels, which got aggravating if you listened to it all day long.
The music was not completely commercial-free on XM either. But, the chatter was kept to a minimum, at least on the channels I listened to.
XM and Sirius recently merged their channels, and now simulcast some on both systems. They've transitioned some of the XM channels to the Sirius programming. And now the "DJ" chatter seems constant, whether it's about other Sirius/XM events or the weather, or some music trivia.
It's still better than broadcast radio. But, I'm really tempted to send email to the "hosts" and tell them to STFU!.
After years of taking penicillin-based antibiotics with no problems, I developed an allergy to it -- probably because of a stronger than normal dose. However, my reaction was a rare one. So, when I complained to the doctor, he didn't have an immediate answer. It got so bad I couldn't sleep, so on a hunch I got up in the middle of the night and pulled up the full disclosure for the medication from the manufacturer. I had to look up the meaning of some of the terms used for side effects reported during the drug trials, but I found an exact hit. I called the doctor's office the next morning, and their reaction was swift -- stop taking it.
Since then, my doctor has never questioned any investigation I do on my own. He even complemented the Wikipedia entry that I found on something I contracted (although in all fairness, it was quite obvious), and joked: "what do you need me for?". I shot back: "because I don't have a license to prescribe the medication!".
I'm sure that doctors see psychosomatic illnesses all the time. But, if they refuse to take the time to differentiate between the real and imagined symptoms, they are missing a big part of the picture. Maybe a few big lawsuits from people who went untreated will change their mind.
If you can afford it, try going to the emergency room of a regional health center -- especially right after a seizure/blackout. I inadvertently found that certain complaints set off an overwhelming response, and even after I tried to slow it down, the doctor admitted that once I said those "magic words", they were obligated to follow through to avoid potential liability.
What's the point of putting malware if it won't be run? Or did I miss something, and "autorun" actually works on UMS devices in Windows?
Yes, it does. But, it's relatively easy to disable.
Use a Microsoft "PowerToys" application to simply disable all drives: Tweak UI. It's only available for XP, at least from Microsoft. There is reportedly a version for Vista from a third-party developer.
And I hope that you enjoy your trip to see it if you can ever find your way out of your parents' basement.
Sorry, but my house doesn't even have a basement.
All snarky comments aside, I've been to the NASM at least a half-dozen times. I've been working in the DC area for quite a bit this year, and stayed over several weekends. I'll spend a few hours at the NASM, and then go someplace else on the Mall.
The Enterprise model is on the lower level of the gift shop. I didn't even see it until my 3rd or 4th trip, after I went into the gift shop to buy a birthday gift.
The model of the spaceship in Close Encounters of the Third Kind is also on display in the NASM Annex at the Dulles airport, within a stone's throw of the Enterprise "test" shuttle (that never went into orbit). The model builders put a few joke items on it (like a tiny R2D2), which aren't visible in the movie.
(even if that count goes the other way, he'll get expelled by the Republicans [washingtonmonthly.com] and replaced by Gov. Sarah Palin)
A correction: if Ted Stevens wins the election and subsequently vacates the office, Palin will not appoint his replacement.
After former Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski appointed his daughter to a vacant US Senate seat, the Alaska state law was changed. A special election will be held to fill the position.
56kpbs is more than enough to handle e-mails (provided you don't constantly send huge attachments like legal documents).
I don't send huge attachments. But, other people in my company don't think twice about sending huge attachments, because it has no discernible effect on the office LAN and they had no consideration for the folks in the field.
I was repeatedly frustrated by the inability to read the rest of my email because I was waiting for a multi-megabyte attachment to download. Older versions of Outlook didn't handle partial downloads correctly, or didn't even support message caching.
I finally solved it with a combination of things, not the least of which was avoiding dial-up altogether. I haven't used a dial-up modem in years: I now use Sprint Broadband in the field.
Because that hydro power in Washington isn't going to Maine under any circumstances, and when Washington has to get power from coal plants in Texas they pay out the nose for it.
While your intended point is correct, your example isn't.
I was referring to the initial version, before they added the sweetener for democrats of strengthening the CRA (which I also consider to be misguided legislation).
The changes to the CRA were more than just misguided: they were a contributing factor.
While I don't subscribe to the current right-wing talking point that the CRA was the triggering factor, it almost certainly added to the problem by forcing banks to relax their lending standards (under threat of being sued for "red-lining").
Add in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's willingness to fund or buy mortgages with practically no lending standards, and it created a perverse incentive for mortgage lenders: they could write a loan, pocket the fees, then sell the loan to someone else. With no risk of default before they sold the mortgage, they were willing loan money to anyone that could fog a mirror.
If you are going to quote me, quote what I wrote rather than what the grandparent poster wrote.
But, I simply reported what I've observed. I'm not sure why, although I think the grandparent might be on the right track: if my car is geared to run most efficiently at 70 mpg, running at a lower speed might yield a lower mpg.
It would be interesting to put it on a dynamometer and install an accurate flowmeter to plot instant mph under controlled conditions. I have an instantaneous mpg display in the car, but the resolution isn't that accurate and it would be difficult to set up exactly the same conditions.
And if you run really fast in the rain, you won't get as wet, right?
Slashdot Mirror
It's not like we're aiming high wattage transmissions directly at likely stars [....]
Actually, we have:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_message
It was a one-time occurrence, and the stars it was aimed at won't even be there when the message arrives.
However, Arecibo has also been used for Radar Astronomy, to map nearby planets. Those transmissions were probably powerful enough to detect outside our solar system.
While most might not remember this, since it happened four months ago, those big banks that got the $150 billion bailout were ORDERED by the Treasury Secretary to take a bailout. Most of them didn't even want it. I recall reading in the paper at the time that the Secretary had to basically lock them into a meeting and tell them they weren't leaving till they'd accepted a bailout. Apparently, someone was afraid that bankers who really needed a bailout would be afraid to admit it if everyone wasn't getting a bailout.
I wish I had mod-points for you tonight.
A number of banks that did not need the bailout were strong-armed into accepting it. The reason: they didn't want a panic to start at the banks that needed the funds. If the public perceived that Bank A needed bailout funds while Bank B didn't, customers shifting their deposits from Bank A to Bank B would exacerbate the problems at Bank A.
Frankly, I think the whole scheme was a horrible waste of taxpayer money. But, this is how it went down.
I think I need a clarification. Why would anyone need a suppressor.
Suppressors reduce the noise generated by a firearm. They are therefore more "friendly" to the ears of anyone in the vicinity. A suppressor can reduce the noise footprint to less than a hundred feet, rather than hundreds of yards.
They are more common in Europe, where it's likely that a shooting range can't be located far away from anyone else. In the US, they were heavily restricted by the National Firearms Act simply because they were lumped in with other weapons as being commonly used by criminals.
Windows Autoplay was a major aggravating factor in that case.
Which is why I turn off auto-play on every one of my Windows computers, and advise everyone within earshot to do the same.
Tweak UI is a Microsoft "Power Toy" that allows you to turn off auto-play on all devices easily. There might be a way to do it without the power toy, but I don't know it off-hand.
Unfortunately, it's only available for Windows XP. I've read that someone has developed a similar utility with nearly equivalent functionality for Vista, but I don't use Vista.
Yes there were factions which didn't want peace but the simple fact is that Roosevelt wasn't even willing to look at the surrender terms.
As others have pointed out, Japan didn't offer "surrender". They were offering what was effectively nothing more than a cease-fire.
The Japanese have a multitude of ways to say "yes", and many of them actually are mean "no", albeit politely. Roosevelt wasn't willing to accept anything less than unconditional surrender, because it would have inevitably been re-interpreted into something less than the original agreement.
the loss of Japanese lives would have been far higher if America had invaded... rather than accept the offers of surrender made before the atomic bombs were ever droped... oh... wait... they don't bother teaching that bit in American highschools do they?
You keep posting this assertion with no corroboration, and have been refuted each time. How many times are you going to post it before you give up?
I actually take the time to plan my skill training around my real life schedule.
Get EveMon. It will help you with your skill training plan.
And don't worry -- in a short time, you'll be training skills that take days, weeks, and even up to a month.
It is my understanding that in Europe you pay nothing for incoming calls, but twice as much for outgoing calls as in the US.
What I believe happens is that the airtime is assessed to the caller. Since metered service is typical even for a call to the house next door, all they have to do is increase the per-minute rate.
For an example, take a look at Vonage's international rates from the US to the UK:
http://www.vonage.com/intrates.php?keyword=united+kingdom#list
To the UK, it's normally 4 cents a minute (free if you have an unlimited plan). But, if you are calling a mobile phone in the UK, it's 34 cents a minute.
In France, it's 4 cents a minute vs. 21 cents a minute.
In Germany, it's 4 cents a minute vs. 31 cents a minute.
You can check the rates in other countries if you like, but I think you get the idea.
Is it true they even charge you for receiving calls in the states????
Yes, they do. And there's good reason for it.
In the US, most people can make "local" calls free of charge. The definition of "local" varies, but it is generally the town/city that you reside in and maybe the surrounding suburbs. To be semantically correct: it's not actually free... it's covered by a flat monthly rate. But, there is no per-minute rate.
Calls outside that area are considered "toll" calls. They are assessed a per-minute rate, although phone companies are now offering calls to the entire US for an additional flat monthly fee.
In some states, a toll call must be dialed differently. In mine, it must be preceded by a '1'. This is imposed by the public utility commission, to prevent a caller from claiming they didn't know it was a toll call that would assess additional charges.
Faced with the public expectation that "local" calls are free -- or at least no additional charge, the cell phone services in the US chose to assess airtime charges to the user of the cell phone, rather than the person that called them. Had they not done so, consumer acceptance of cell phones as a replacement for wire-line phones would have been inhibited.
(An aside: free mobile-to-mobile calling on the same network is also a standard feature in the US)
Sounds pretty straight forward to me. You wont be able to go to mail.yahoo.com, you'll have to go to allyourbasebelongtous.MyFairPoint.net to access your yahoo email.
I think the article is wrong, having been written by a typical clueless journalist.
This sounds like Verizon subscribers were getting some sort of "partner" package with Yahoo, MSN, and/or AOL -- i.e. certain things like email service were out-sourced.
My father was offered the same deal with Southwestern Bell (now AT&T) DSL. I steered him away from it.
The volume slide of the audio player on the BBC site goes to 11! Powerpuff girls rule!
Uh, no. "Up to 11" originated in This is Spinal Tap.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_to_eleven
The idea was that the House of Representatives represented the people directly, and the US Senate essentially represented the state government. It was a very effective means to limit the power of the federal government and preserve the powers of the individual states.
However, it was prone to political corruption and nepotism... i.e, the Chicago political machine and the current allegations over "selling" Obama's vacated Senate seat, multiplied by the number of states. The 17th Amendment replaced election of US Senators with a popular vote.
Detractors of the 17th Amendment believe that was the beginning of the unrestrained growth of the federal government.
In your first verdict, you admit that a complete count of absentee ballots might have changed the outcome of the popular vote -- then discard it as irrelevant and conjecture.
But, in your second verdict, you make the pronouncement that Al Gore would have won the popular vote, forgetting your admission in your first verdict. It also ignores the potential effect of entirely different campaign strategy to win the popular vote.
And would Gore have invaded Iraq? In his own words on 2002-01-12:
In 1991, I crossed party lines and supported the use of force against Saddam Hussein, but he was allowed to survive his defeat as the result of a calculation we all had reason to deeply regret for the ensuing decade. And we still do. So this time, if we resort to force, we must absolutely get it right. It must be an action set up carefully and on the basis of the most realistic concepts. Failure cannot be an option, which means that we must be prepared to go the limit. And wishful thinking based on best-case scenarios or excessively literal transfers of recent experience to different conditions would be a recipe for disaster.
In all fairness, by 2002-09-23, he had changed his tune somewhat:
I'm speaking today in an effort to recommend a specific course of action for our country which I believe would be preferable to the course recommended by President Bush. Specifically, I am deeply concerned that the policy we are presently following with respect to Iraq has the potential to seriously damage our ability to win the war against terrorism and to weaken our ability to lead the world in this new century.
I'm not going to pretend to be able to read Gore's mind, especially under circumstances that never happened. But, I think it's foolish to be certain that there would have been a different outcome.
My main problem with Sirius is that even on the "commercial free" channels, the DJ would ... advertise for stuff going on related to Sirius, on other channels. Also, they would repeat songs at least once per day on more than a few channels, which got aggravating if you listened to it all day long.
The music was not completely commercial-free on XM either. But, the chatter was kept to a minimum, at least on the channels I listened to.
XM and Sirius recently merged their channels, and now simulcast some on both systems. They've transitioned some of the XM channels to the Sirius programming. And now the "DJ" chatter seems constant, whether it's about other Sirius/XM events or the weather, or some music trivia.
It's still better than broadcast radio. But, I'm really tempted to send email to the "hosts" and tell them to STFU!.
I call it "Smug Superioritis".
I suggest you find another doctor.
After years of taking penicillin-based antibiotics with no problems, I developed an allergy to it -- probably because of a stronger than normal dose. However, my reaction was a rare one. So, when I complained to the doctor, he didn't have an immediate answer. It got so bad I couldn't sleep, so on a hunch I got up in the middle of the night and pulled up the full disclosure for the medication from the manufacturer. I had to look up the meaning of some of the terms used for side effects reported during the drug trials, but I found an exact hit. I called the doctor's office the next morning, and their reaction was swift -- stop taking it.
Since then, my doctor has never questioned any investigation I do on my own. He even complemented the Wikipedia entry that I found on something I contracted (although in all fairness, it was quite obvious), and joked: "what do you need me for?". I shot back: "because I don't have a license to prescribe the medication!".
I'm sure that doctors see psychosomatic illnesses all the time. But, if they refuse to take the time to differentiate between the real and imagined symptoms, they are missing a big part of the picture. Maybe a few big lawsuits from people who went untreated will change their mind.
If you can afford it, try going to the emergency room of a regional health center -- especially right after a seizure/blackout. I inadvertently found that certain complaints set off an overwhelming response, and even after I tried to slow it down, the doctor admitted that once I said those "magic words", they were obligated to follow through to avoid potential liability.
What's the point of putting malware if it won't be run? Or did I miss something, and "autorun" actually works on UMS devices in Windows?
Yes, it does. But, it's relatively easy to disable.
Use a Microsoft "PowerToys" application to simply disable all drives: Tweak UI. It's only available for XP, at least from Microsoft. There is reportedly a version for Vista from a third-party developer.
And I hope that you enjoy your trip to see it if you can ever find your way out of your parents' basement.
Sorry, but my house doesn't even have a basement.
All snarky comments aside, I've been to the NASM at least a half-dozen times. I've been working in the DC area for quite a bit this year, and stayed over several weekends. I'll spend a few hours at the NASM, and then go someplace else on the Mall.
The Enterprise model is on the lower level of the gift shop. I didn't even see it until my 3rd or 4th trip, after I went into the gift shop to buy a birthday gift.
The model of the spaceship in Close Encounters of the Third Kind is also on display in the NASM Annex at the Dulles airport, within a stone's throw of the Enterprise "test" shuttle (that never went into orbit). The model builders put a few joke items on it (like a tiny R2D2), which aren't visible in the movie.
All of that footage was either a 6 inch model or some cheesy computer graphics?
The original Enterprise model specifications:
Length, overall: 3.3 m (11 ft)
Diameter, saucer: 152 cm (60 in)
Length, engine pods: 185 cm (72.25 in)
Length, secondary hull: 135 cm (53.5 in)
Height: 80 cm (32 in)
Weight: 90 kg (200 lb)
It is currently on display in the gift shop at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC:
http://www.nasm.si.edu/visit/concessions/shops/enterprise.cfm
(even if that count goes the other way, he'll get expelled by the Republicans [washingtonmonthly.com] and replaced by Gov. Sarah Palin)
A correction: if Ted Stevens wins the election and subsequently vacates the office, Palin will not appoint his replacement.
After former Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski appointed his daughter to a vacant US Senate seat, the Alaska state law was changed. A special election will be held to fill the position.
Can you hear me now?
They all went back to work this morning and got on with their lives.
56kpbs is more than enough to handle e-mails (provided you don't constantly send huge attachments like legal documents).
I don't send huge attachments. But, other people in my company don't think twice about sending huge attachments, because it has no discernible effect on the office LAN and they had no consideration for the folks in the field.
I was repeatedly frustrated by the inability to read the rest of my email because I was waiting for a multi-megabyte attachment to download. Older versions of Outlook didn't handle partial downloads correctly, or didn't even support message caching.
I finally solved it with a combination of things, not the least of which was avoiding dial-up altogether. I haven't used a dial-up modem in years: I now use Sprint Broadband in the field.
Because that hydro power in Washington isn't going to Maine under any circumstances, and when Washington has to get power from coal plants in Texas they pay out the nose for it.
While your intended point is correct, your example isn't.
The Texas Interconnection covers most of the state of Texas. There are two high-voltage DC links to the Eastern Interconnection, but none to the Western Interconnection, which includes the state of Washington.
I was referring to the initial version, before they added the sweetener for democrats of strengthening the CRA (which I also consider to be misguided legislation).
The changes to the CRA were more than just misguided: they were a contributing factor.
While I don't subscribe to the current right-wing talking point that the CRA was the triggering factor, it almost certainly added to the problem by forcing banks to relax their lending standards (under threat of being sued for "red-lining").
Add in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's willingness to fund or buy mortgages with practically no lending standards, and it created a perverse incentive for mortgage lenders: they could write a loan, pocket the fees, then sell the loan to someone else. With no risk of default before they sold the mortgage, they were willing loan money to anyone that could fog a mirror.
If you are going to quote me, quote what I wrote rather than what the grandparent poster wrote.
But, I simply reported what I've observed. I'm not sure why, although I think the grandparent might be on the right track: if my car is geared to run most efficiently at 70 mpg, running at a lower speed might yield a lower mpg.
It would be interesting to put it on a dynamometer and install an accurate flowmeter to plot instant mph under controlled conditions. I have an instantaneous mpg display in the car, but the resolution isn't that accurate and it would be difficult to set up exactly the same conditions.
And if you run really fast in the rain, you won't get as wet, right?
If you believe the Mythbusters, no. But, if you believe meteorologists at the National Climatic Center and a Canadian physicist, yes.