The problem is that most resources (memory, the bus, disks, etc) can only be used by one CPU at a time. So, for problems which are resource-intensive, you're generally better to cluster than to use SMP, so that each processor has its own bus, memory, etc.
If you were to read more about Superdome, you would find that each set of 2 or 4 processors have their own memory, and PCI I/O bus, comprising what is called a "cell".
The memory and I/O devices in a cell are accessible to all the other cells via a interconnect. The speed, latency, and bandwidth varies based on how "distant" the destination cell resides from the source cell, but it is still much faster than most clusters.
As one of their tech support told me the other day, "That's the great thing about Speakeasy, you buy the connection from us, and then do whatever you want with it."
That was in response to, "can I sell wireless internet to my neighbors, and not tell you about it?"
The tech wasn't completely correct, at least according to the Speakeasy TOS:
Speakeasy allows residential customers to share their broadband connection through a home network that utilizes technology such as Wi-Fi. However, if a Speakeasy member is collecting access fees from any individual accessing their Wi-Fi network, the member must be subscribed to the NetShare service as a NetShare Admin, and the individual must be subscribed as a NetShare Customer.
Short version: if you don't collect access fees, you are free to share your connection as you wish (but you are still responsible for all uses of the connection). If you collect fees, you must do so via NetShare.
All unauthorized guns originate somewhere, possibly most were "legal" at some point in time. If you could cut off the source of new illegal guns by securly attaching new guns to a single (or a few) user(s) gun related crime would over time diminish to the point where most guns involved in shotings are in the database.
A quality firearm isn't consumable. If cared for properly, it will last for 100 years or more.
Furthermore, few firearms used in a crime are acquired through legitimate means. Even if you were able to trace it back to the original purchaser, it wouldn't identify the perpetrator.
Finally, there are more lethal weapons that cannot be "fingerprinted". They just cannot be concealed as easily unless heavily modified. Frankly, I'd rather the criminals stick to handguns, as they aren't particularly lethal.
The only purpose that ballistic fingerprinting achieves is to raise the cost of selling firearms in Maryland, and reduce the number of manufacturers selling firearms in Maryland. It did do so, reducing the number of manufacturers from 215 prior to 10/2000 to 49 after 9/2003.
A nation wide database with authorized users of available guns linked with an mandatory index of bullet mark charachteristics from every gun sold would be very helpful to police investigations of shootings.
In its progress report on the Integrated Ballistics Identification System (IBIS), the Maryland State Police Forensic Sciences Division recommends that "this program be suspended, a repeal of the collection of cartridge cases from current law be enacted and the Laboratory Technicians associated with the program be transferred to the DNA database unit." So far, Maryland has spent $2.5 million over the past four years, with nothing to show for it. The report admitted, "Guns found to be used in the commission of crime...are not the ones being entered into" the system.
A similar program in New York has had exactly the same results, after spending $4 million.
Would you like to be the test user?
on
Smart Guns are Coming
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Eurekalert reports that smart gun technology actually works.
Depends on your definition of "works". From the article:
Sixteen electronic computerized sensors embedded in the gun's grip distinguished known from unknown users. "We've only just begun and we're pleased to say that we're getting 90 percent reliability when scanning users," said Sebastian.
There's no sane cop in this world that would carry a weapon for self-defense that worked reliably 9 out of 10 times.
i ask because a friend of mine experienced a plane accelerating to take off after trying to land. after reaching a higher altitude, he heard over the PA that "they had to abort the first landing attempt because there was another plane on the runway." (no joke.)
It happens all the time, and it isn't a big deal (except for the inconvenience).
At peak hours, a busy airport will have the airplane stacked up on approach about 60 seconds apart. Normally, this provides plenty of time for an airplane to touch down, decelerate, and turn off the runway.
However, any number of factors can cause the landing plane to delay its exit from the runway. For the following plane to commence its landing, the runway must be vacant, even if the first plane is at the other end of the runway and turning off at that moment.
The separation between the planes are designed to give the following plane time to recognize the situation, throttle up and safely go around for another approach.
I have two gmail accounts. One is myl33tusername@gmail - the other is firstname.lastname@gmail. Guess what - the latter is now swamped with spam. Granted, gmail properly files them all in the spam folder, but it shows that the spammers are already firing off massive dictionary attacks on gmail.
I have two gmail accounts as well. one is a combination of initials and last name, with no special characters. Not simple to guess, but it has received about a dozen spams.
The other is a completely random combination of two words that are not typically associated with each other. It has received 4 times as much spam as the other.
I don't use these accounts at the moment, and hadn't even logged in to them for a while. I went to check them after reading this article.
I don't think it's a dictionary attack: someone has figured out how to get a list of email addresses from Google.
The other possibility is that someone has found those names as user IDs on popular (and obscure) websites, and used them for a pseudo-dictionary attack on gmail.com -- in the hope those names were used for gmail IDs as well.
It completely escapes me as to why any self-respecting Slashdot user would have an AIM account
Because some of the IM users at my company use AIM.
However, I use Trillian as my client, so that I can also exchange msgs with the MSN and Yahoo IM users.
No, we don't have a consistent policy. We should. And we should really be using a secure server of our own (like Jabber). But, that's beyond my ability to change.
When I had this problem, I just downloaded Fentun and mapped the.tnf extension to it. Any time I got an evil MS-TNEF mail, I just saved to the dektop as yadda_yadda.tnf, and double clicked it, and poof! converted.
Actually, you can map *.dat files to Fentun and launch the application right from Thunderbird (as a subsequent replier has noted). I've done exactly that, but that's already a blackmark against Thunderbird when I had to explain to someone that it requires special handling.
But, even that doesn't work (and for that matter, neither does SquirrelMail) for S/MIME encrypted MS-TNEF messages. And it doesn't verify the integrity of signed MS-TNEF messages. However, Thunderbird doesn't any problem with S/MIME messages from Outlook if it isn't MS-TNEF.
I know that MS-TNEF is generated by a lame Outlook. But, I get a lot of email from corporate clients that I wouldn't be able to read (either partially or entirely), and it's not appropriate for me to tell them it's their problem.
I have to forward it to an account where I can use Outlook, or launch a web browser and use SquirrelMail to open the IMAP folder and read the message. I had to install a plug-in to SquirrelMail to read MS-TNEF email. If the Thunderbird team doesn't want to put it into the default installation, they could at least develop an MS-TNEF extension/plug-in for Thunderbird.
This issue is the one that prevents me (and others) from abandoning Outlook altogether and switching to Thunderbird. Yes, I know there are some programs available that will interpret MS-TNEF. But, that requires a lot of manual effort and makes it difficult to convince the typical business user to use Thunderbird.
It's not something that can be designed around, it's fundamental to the genre and the technique. Fortunatley, all hope is not lost. I know of at least two systems that eschew the levelling treadmill: Puzzle Pirates, which uses head-to-head puzzle competition as its combat technique, and Planetside, which I've heard is more FPS then level-based. (Could be wrong. I haven't played either.) Until these alternate techniques go mainstream, MMORPGs are going to be stuck in the same rut they've been stuck in since Ultima Online.
PlanetSide is primarily FPS. However, there is something similar to levels: they call them Battle Ranks. Each new battle rank gives you additional certification points, which are used to purchase the "ability" to use certain weapons or vehicles.
You increase your battle rank by getting battle experience points. There are a number of ways to get them: killing an enemy is one, but the amount varies based on how long that incarnation of the enemy has been "alive". For many people, their largest percentage of points come from participating in the capture of an enemy base.
The battle ranks top out at BR20. You don't have enough certification points at BR20 to purchase every certification, but you can swap them at any time (subject to limits on how often). But, even the most expensive certifications are available to the lower ranks.
There is some true "leveling": Command Rank, which tops out at CR5. You get command experience points for leading a squad to successfully capture and hold bases. Each CR gives the holder additional capabilities. Getting that last CR can be a real grind.
The big difference in PlanetSide is there are no NPCs (non-player characters). Every character you see is controlled by another human. There are some robotic defenses that are easily destroyed, but you don't get any points for that.
Nikko is beautiful in the fall (I was there in October). And it's easily accessible from Tokyo.
There's a "tourist" train that takes a scenic route through the mountains, but I preferred the bullet train to Utsunomiya and a short local train trip to Nikko.
In any case, if you look at population maps and compare them with the ever popular "purple" maps, it's easy to see that the places with heavy populations (read: cities) had more Kerry votes. However, the bulk of the US is rural and thus their smaller populations really add up.
There are several urban and plenty of suburban areas in those counties colored red.
But, it is exactly the grandparent poster's attitude that causes those counties to go red, election after election. As long as residents of the "blue" counties continue to treat the residents of the "red" counties as unwanted step-children, they are never going to win in them.
Planes of a certain size aren't allowed to fly within a certain radius of nuclear power plants. That radius is determined by how long it would take to scramble an Air Force jet to shoot the offender down.
Sorry, but this is absolute BS. I know of several nuclear power plants that are practically underneath major airways used by the airlines. And the closest Air National Guard base is the same as the destination or departure point for those same planes.
It's US media tradition not to release exit poll data or make winner projections until the polls in any given state are closed under the theory that early victory news might discurage turnout and affect the outcome.
Hopefully, it's a tradition this year. At least portions of the US media projected the outcome of the 2000 election in Florida before the polls closed in the western edge of the state (i.e. Pensacola). Apparently, they forgot that the state spanned two time zones (Eastern and Central).
They flip-flopped about a couple of times before finally admitting it was too close to call. No one has conclusively determined if it affected the outcome of the Presidential election in Florida (and therefore the outcome of the 2000 election).
Tom Delay, (R-TX), is under indictment in Texas for abusing his power as leader of the majority in the House of Representatives (ie, a powerful man) to sic Homeland Security on a group of Democrats state assemblymembers as part of a bitter redistricting battle.
No, DeLay has not been indicted for anything.
Three of his aides of been indicted for charges that include raising illegal corporate contributions and funneling them to state candidates during the 2002 elections:
DeLay is also under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over accusations of improper fund-raising.
He has been subpoenaed to testify in a lawsuit concerning his role in the effort to find the Democrats, after being admonished over the issue by the House Ethics committee last month:
The point is just the simple fact that the Republicans are about ten times worse. At least.
If that's a simple fact, then you should be able to document it. I don't think you can, because it isn't true. Any claim to the contrary is just partisan bullshit.
I hear Republicans make the opposite claim. And they are wrong, too. Election fraud is a bi-partisan effort, with equal opportunity for all.
Even this election, several republicans funded by the GOP have been caught disposing of tens of thousands of valid democrat voter registrations in swing states,
That company (Voters Outreach of America) ran registration drives in other states, but so far the allegations are confined to Nevada and Oregon, which are hardly swing states. One is +5.7% for Bush, and the other is +5.0% for Kerry.
My point is not to excuse the fraud committed by Republicans. My point is that election fraud is a bi-partisan effort, and anyone that thinks the Democrats are innocent needs to clean their rose-colored glasses.
I'm even farther away from the Slashdot median than you:
1. Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%)
2. Badnarik, Michael - Libertarian (91%)
3. Bush, President George W. - Republican (44%)
4. Cobb, David - Green Party (40%)
5. Nader, Ralph - Independent (40%)
6. Peroutka, Michael - Constitution Party (36%)
7. Brown, Walt - Socialist Party (31%)
8. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (31%)
I find it interesting that for me, Bush just barely edges out the Green Party, and that Kerry is ranked below the Socialists and Constitution Party.
When the load on the server subsides, I'll play with some of the options to see what happens to the results.
Thankfully, the Supreme Court is at least knocking down the RIAA.
No, they didn't.
The Court simply declined to grant cert to the case and consider it. They have said multiple times that their refusal does not convey anything about the merits of the case:
"Inasmuch, therefore, as all that a denial of a petition for a writ of certiorari means is that fewer than four members of the Court thought it should be granted, this Court has rigorously insisted that such a denial carries with it no implication whatever regarding the Court's views on the merits of a case which it has declined to review. The Court has said this again and again; again and again the admonition has to be repeated."
Unless enough justices have a personal interest in the case, the Supreme Court rarely considers a case except to resolve conflicting decisions among the US Courts of Appeals.
We need a way to moderate original postings "uninformed".
Two of the officers were eventually convicted in federal court, while the other two were acquitted.
But, it's a poor excuse for a riot. And it's no excuse for looting and arson.
Many of the businesses that were destroyed were owned by blacks that lived in the community. What kind of "justice" is that?
Slashdot Mirror
If you were to read more about Superdome, you would find that each set of 2 or 4 processors have their own memory, and PCI I/O bus, comprising what is called a "cell".
The memory and I/O devices in a cell are accessible to all the other cells via a interconnect. The speed, latency, and bandwidth varies based on how "distant" the destination cell resides from the source cell, but it is still much faster than most clusters.
That was in response to, "can I sell wireless internet to my neighbors, and not tell you about it?"
The tech wasn't completely correct, at least according to the Speakeasy TOS:
http://www.speakeasy.net/netshare/terms/#wifipolic y
Speakeasy allows residential customers to share their broadband connection through a home network that utilizes technology such as Wi-Fi. However, if a Speakeasy member is collecting access fees from any individual accessing their Wi-Fi network, the member must be subscribed to the NetShare service as a NetShare Admin, and the individual must be subscribed as a NetShare Customer.
Short version: if you don't collect access fees, you are free to share your connection as you wish (but you are still responsible for all uses of the connection). If you collect fees, you must do so via NetShare.
A quality firearm isn't consumable. If cared for properly, it will last for 100 years or more.
Furthermore, few firearms used in a crime are acquired through legitimate means. Even if you were able to trace it back to the original purchaser, it wouldn't identify the perpetrator.
Finally, there are more lethal weapons that cannot be "fingerprinted". They just cannot be concealed as easily unless heavily modified. Frankly, I'd rather the criminals stick to handguns, as they aren't particularly lethal.
The only purpose that ballistic fingerprinting achieves is to raise the cost of selling firearms in Maryland, and reduce the number of manufacturers selling firearms in Maryland. It did do so, reducing the number of manufacturers from 215 prior to 10/2000 to 49 after 9/2003.
No, it wouldn't:
http://www.ccrkba.org/pub/rkba/press-releases/CC-M aryland-boon.htm
In its progress report on the Integrated Ballistics Identification System (IBIS), the Maryland State Police Forensic Sciences Division recommends that "this program be suspended, a repeal of the collection of cartridge cases from current law be enacted and the Laboratory Technicians associated with the program be transferred to the DNA database unit." So far, Maryland has spent $2.5 million over the past four years, with nothing to show for it. The report admitted, "Guns found to be used in the commission of crime...are not the ones being entered into" the system.
A similar program in New York has had exactly the same results, after spending $4 million.
Depends on your definition of "works". From the article:
Sixteen electronic computerized sensors embedded in the gun's grip distinguished known from unknown users. "We've only just begun and we're pleased to say that we're getting 90 percent reliability when scanning users," said Sebastian.
There's no sane cop in this world that would carry a weapon for self-defense that worked reliably 9 out of 10 times.
It happens all the time, and it isn't a big deal (except for the inconvenience).
At peak hours, a busy airport will have the airplane stacked up on approach about 60 seconds apart. Normally, this provides plenty of time for an airplane to touch down, decelerate, and turn off the runway.
However, any number of factors can cause the landing plane to delay its exit from the runway. For the following plane to commence its landing, the runway must be vacant, even if the first plane is at the other end of the runway and turning off at that moment.
The separation between the planes are designed to give the following plane time to recognize the situation, throttle up and safely go around for another approach.
I have two gmail accounts as well. one is a combination of initials and last name, with no special characters. Not simple to guess, but it has received about a dozen spams.
The other is a completely random combination of two words that are not typically associated with each other. It has received 4 times as much spam as the other.
I don't use these accounts at the moment, and hadn't even logged in to them for a while. I went to check them after reading this article.
I don't think it's a dictionary attack: someone has figured out how to get a list of email addresses from Google.
The other possibility is that someone has found those names as user IDs on popular (and obscure) websites, and used them for a pseudo-dictionary attack on gmail.com -- in the hope those names were used for gmail IDs as well.
Because some of the IM users at my company use AIM.
However, I use Trillian as my client, so that I can also exchange msgs with the MSN and Yahoo IM users.
No, we don't have a consistent policy. We should. And we should really be using a secure server of our own (like Jabber). But, that's beyond my ability to change.
Actually, you can map *.dat files to Fentun and launch the application right from Thunderbird (as a subsequent replier has noted). I've done exactly that, but that's already a blackmark against Thunderbird when I had to explain to someone that it requires special handling.
But, even that doesn't work (and for that matter, neither does SquirrelMail) for S/MIME encrypted MS-TNEF messages. And it doesn't verify the integrity of signed MS-TNEF messages. However, Thunderbird doesn't any problem with S/MIME messages from Outlook if it isn't MS-TNEF.
Actually, it's even worse than that.
Outlook Express doesn't understand MS-TNEF email.
I have to forward it to an account where I can use Outlook, or launch a web browser and use SquirrelMail to open the IMAP folder and read the message. I had to install a plug-in to SquirrelMail to read MS-TNEF email. If the Thunderbird team doesn't want to put it into the default installation, they could at least develop an MS-TNEF extension/plug-in for Thunderbird.
This issue is the one that prevents me (and others) from abandoning Outlook altogether and switching to Thunderbird. Yes, I know there are some programs available that will interpret MS-TNEF. But, that requires a lot of manual effort and makes it difficult to convince the typical business user to use Thunderbird.
Who the hell moderated this "insightful"?
It's a reference to a dumb movie from the 70's: Meteor
PlanetSide is primarily FPS. However, there is something similar to levels: they call them Battle Ranks. Each new battle rank gives you additional certification points, which are used to purchase the "ability" to use certain weapons or vehicles.
You increase your battle rank by getting battle experience points. There are a number of ways to get them: killing an enemy is one, but the amount varies based on how long that incarnation of the enemy has been "alive". For many people, their largest percentage of points come from participating in the capture of an enemy base.
The battle ranks top out at BR20. You don't have enough certification points at BR20 to purchase every certification, but you can swap them at any time (subject to limits on how often). But, even the most expensive certifications are available to the lower ranks.
There is some true "leveling": Command Rank, which tops out at CR5. You get command experience points for leading a squad to successfully capture and hold bases. Each CR gives the holder additional capabilities. Getting that last CR can be a real grind.
The big difference in PlanetSide is there are no NPCs (non-player characters). Every character you see is controlled by another human. There are some robotic defenses that are easily destroyed, but you don't get any points for that.
There's a "tourist" train that takes a scenic route through the mountains, but I preferred the bullet train to Utsunomiya and a short local train trip to Nikko.
One of those maps:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vot e2004/countymap.htm
There are several urban and plenty of suburban areas in those counties colored red.
But, it is exactly the grandparent poster's attitude that causes those counties to go red, election after election. As long as residents of the "blue" counties continue to treat the residents of the "red" counties as unwanted step-children, they are never going to win in them.
Sorry, but this is absolute BS. I know of several nuclear power plants that are practically underneath major airways used by the airlines. And the closest Air National Guard base is the same as the destination or departure point for those same planes.
Hopefully, it's a tradition this year. At least portions of the US media projected the outcome of the 2000 election in Florida before the polls closed in the western edge of the state (i.e. Pensacola). Apparently, they forgot that the state spanned two time zones (Eastern and Central).
They flip-flopped about a couple of times before finally admitting it was too close to call. No one has conclusively determined if it affected the outcome of the Presidential election in Florida (and therefore the outcome of the 2000 election).
No, DeLay has not been indicted for anything.
Three of his aides of been indicted for charges that include raising illegal corporate contributions and funneling them to state candidates during the 2002 elections:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/22/national/22delay .html?ex=1099195200&en=4e2d77f3ce207197&ei=507 0
DeLay is also under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over accusations of improper fund-raising.
He has been subpoenaed to testify in a lawsuit concerning his role in the effort to find the Democrats, after being admonished over the issue by the House Ethics committee last month:
http://www.broward.com/mld/mercurynews/news/specia l_packages/election2004/9981297.htm?template=conte ntModules/printstory.jsp
It seems that I'm repeatedly correcting your hyperbole:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=122084&cid =10320477
Why don't you do some research before making unsubstantiated and/or incorrect accusations?
I heard that players were also wearing Santa hats.
I'm hoping they do it again this year. It's somewhat appropriate for my character name.
Currently, a pumpkin appears instead of a backpack.
If that's a simple fact, then you should be able to document it. I don't think you can, because it isn't true. Any claim to the contrary is just partisan bullshit.
I hear Republicans make the opposite claim. And they are wrong, too. Election fraud is a bi-partisan effort, with equal opportunity for all.
That company (Voters Outreach of America) ran registration drives in other states, but so far the allegations are confined to Nevada and Oregon, which are hardly swing states. One is +5.7% for Bush, and the other is +5.0% for Kerry.
and rarely vice versa,
Hardly: http://washingtontimes.com/national/20041015-12132 5-3896r.htm
Read the part about ACORN. They also mention the problems with Voters Outreach.
probably a fraction of the total fraud going on.
You are right about that:
- Breaking into offices of political adversaries.
- Throwing cinder block bricks through the front door of offices of political adversaries.
- Shooting bullets through the windows of offices of political adversaries.
- Laying siege to offices of political adversaries
- Bullyingvoters in line at polling places.
My point is not to excuse the fraud committed by Republicans. My point is that election fraud is a bi-partisan effort, and anyone that thinks the Democrats are innocent needs to clean their rose-colored glasses.1. Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%)
2. Badnarik, Michael - Libertarian (91%)
3. Bush, President George W. - Republican (44%)
4. Cobb, David - Green Party (40%)
5. Nader, Ralph - Independent (40%)
6. Peroutka, Michael - Constitution Party (36%)
7. Brown, Walt - Socialist Party (31%)
8. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (31%)
I find it interesting that for me, Bush just barely edges out the Green Party, and that Kerry is ranked below the Socialists and Constitution Party.
When the load on the server subsides, I'll play with some of the options to see what happens to the results.
No, they didn't.
The Court simply declined to grant cert to the case and consider it. They have said multiple times that their refusal does not convey anything about the merits of the case:
STATE OF MD. v. BALTIMORE RADIO SHOW , 338 U.S. 912 (1950)
"Inasmuch, therefore, as all that a denial of a petition for a writ of certiorari means is that fewer than four members of the Court thought it should be granted, this Court has rigorously insisted that such a denial carries with it no implication whatever regarding the Court's views on the merits of a case which it has declined to review. The Court has said this again and again; again and again the admonition has to be repeated."
Unless enough justices have a personal interest in the case, the Supreme Court rarely considers a case except to resolve conflicting decisions among the US Courts of Appeals.
We need a way to moderate original postings "uninformed".
Two of the officers were eventually convicted in federal court, while the other two were acquitted.
But, it's a poor excuse for a riot. And it's no excuse for looting and arson. Many of the businesses that were destroyed were owned by blacks that lived in the community. What kind of "justice" is that?