The paper used for currency is fairly unique. It's made from only cotton, and with a very distinct feel. This is what primarily prevents people from just printing their own bills. Oh, and there's only one company that makes the paper for the U.S. Currency.
If you're interested in the dynamics of actual currency production and flow, you might want to take a look at the information at Crane's. They have a good section of links and a fair amount of information that may help you draw a better understanding.
I know the author well. Here's some background for you slashdotters who may doubt his expertise:
Henry S. Warren, Jr., has had a forty-year career with IBM, spanning from the IBM 704 to the PowerPC. He has worked on various military command and control systems and on the SETL project under Jack Schwartz at New York University. Since 1973 he has been with IBM's Research Division, focusing on compilers and computer architectures. Hank currently works on the Blue Gene petaflop computer project. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from the Courant Institute at New York University.
A bit offtopic, but I believe this is interesting and important non-the-less.
I strongly feel that an "open" standard should be adopted. By this I mean that any standard set for Ham Radio SS should allow for a multitude of applications from replacing slower speed packet radio communications, to Internet / WWW communications, to digital voice, to very narrowband communications for satellite and EME. In short, a new SS standard should allow for a range of on the air parameters, various modes of communications and various data rates / modulation schemes. While no one radio (or SS radio / modem) may ever be designed to do everything in the standard, the standard should encompass:
(1) Data rates from a few baud to perhaps 250 kbps.
(2) Occupied (-20 dB bandwidth) RF bandwidths from 1 kHz to perhaps 3 MHz.
(3) BPSK, DPSK, QPSK, DQPSK, OQPSK, GMSK, FSK, and perhaps other carrier modulations.
(4) Direct Sequence (DS), Frequency Hop (FH) and Hybrid Pseudo Random / Pseudo Noise (PN) modulations.
(5) CDMA, FDMA, TDMA and hybrid combinations for multiple access.
(6) Optional features should include FEC, automatic message forwarding, use of repeaters, interfaces to GPS / APRS and others to be determined.
I believe the standard should not limit what can be done with SS, but should be Open enough to encourage experimentation, variants, offshoots, improvements and afterthoughts. With this in mind, it is apparent that compiling, composing and maintaining this new standard is a very big job! I am certain that TAPR (perhaps with ARRL help) is up to the task. If we all support TAPR's efforts and lend whatever expertise and "sweat" we can, then such a standard may stand the test of time and provide a real direction for Amateur Radio SS in the future.
Microsoft is a key member of the group, so is it really possible to feel confident the software environment on your PC is operating as expected? Last time we downloaded the critical updates to WinXP, our PC started crashing again, and we had to roll it back to the pre-critical update stable version. Is that what we're to expect, or what confidence means?
The TCPA subsystem, said AMI, uses a specialised chip or flash memory that contains the "TPM" and software which gets the TPM to cryptonise (encrypt) the BIOS and operating system.
AMI said that when a PC boots, AMI BIOS starts "a fairly long and complex process", with the BIOS boot block addressing the TPM chip that verifies the authenticity of the BIOS.
The BIOS then verifies the authenticity and integrity of the OS loader and the OS kernel and then passes the integrity tokens that say the PC is a "trusted entity" to the operating system.
The CBC's radio science program Quirks and Quarks interviewed one of the researchers on this topic. You can listen to the MP3 here. Other stories this week had to do with the Spider Goats, among others.
Summary: The majority of the Anarctic continent is isolated from the rest of the world when it comes to weather patterns. Most research stations aren't in the isolated part, they are in the most northerly portions of the continent. They are warming. The isolated part of Antarctica is cooling. It's basically a re-analysis of existing data that has resulted in this conclusion.
A lot of the debate about global warming reminds me about all the Y2K talk a few years ago. Its one of those things that unless it happens no one is going to believe that its real, but if it is real and something wasnt dont about it and disaster resulted, then enough wasnt being done, but then again if something was done to prevent the disaster, then all that money and time was spent for nothing because there was nothing to worry about in the first place. Also, the only thing that anyone involved in the science of the whole thing is that global warming will have an effect on the climate. Its anybody's guess, really. I could mean that in the sort term temperatures rise a little allowing snow to fall in places in which it used to be too cold to snow in large quantities resulting in more sun light being reflected back. Who knows? The problem as I see it is not climate change itself. The climate will change with or without our pollution. The problem it seems is our unwillingness to deal with the fact that we will face problems. Again, contingency is seen as a waste, and disaster is seen as the failure of those who were supposed to have the contingency that was so wasteful. Shit happens. Seas rise, lakes dry up, rocks fall from the sky and stars explode
I have had a rebate request rejected after having followed the instructions on the rebate form to the letter. This time it was a $35 rebate from Intuit for buying Quicken and Turbotax. I received a a letter from Intuit's rebate fulfillment company stating that my rebate is being rejected as I purchased the product directly from Intuit. This is after submitting the appropriate proof a purchase along with a receipt showing that product was clearly purchased from Egghead. After a call to the fulfillment company they apologize and ask that I re-submit the request. I'm still awaiting the rebate check.
First it was Microsoft with their stubbornness to live up to the wording in their own EULA's regarding refunds. Now this. Why do software companies feel they are entitled to keep consumers' money after every sale, even though they may have promised to give some back?
The SGI processors shouldn't be viewed as general purpose processor like the P4 or Athlon. For specific floating point intensive problems, they can be quite effective. What is annoying is that they are usually 2 or more generations behind in manufacturing process capability. So the lines and heat dissipation in the 3GHz P4 are much more advanced than the Altix 3000.
Also, SGI has an annoying tendency to use proprietary ASIC's in the their memory which make their entire system much more expensive than it need be. Some of this is because their design cycle is so long that when SGI committed to a architecture, the performance just wasn't there.
Given these constraints, it is hard to see how SGI could market "cost-sensitive" systems.
content-management software for any platform is abysmal right now. I think it would be exceedingly difficult for any windows-based software to pull this off.. the effort would get lost in a maze of IP,proprietary standards, and lawsuits.
I think this is a place where open-source can really edge out the windows competition. It would be relatively easy to work towards a common and transparent interoperability. Let me tell you - if it was possible to do this well I would be using linux at home, the office, the laptop, you name it. And I can bet there would be a million more people who would do the same.
A complaint I often hear in my meanderings is related to this. "Why can't I take this email address from outlook and put it in act?", "Why won't these numbers from the email go into excel", etc. Interoperability within applications would make data management easier. And let's face it, most of what we do is taking data and organizing, sorting, etc.. in one way or another. Make this task easier and faster, and you've just won a major battle.
Wouldn't that allow for almost-instant binary transmissions? Instead of sending Metallica.mp3, for example.. one could simply send a mathematical equation f(x)=something. It would then be up to the client machine to evalute the equation and execute/decompress/etc the file. The transmission size would only be the size of the equation, something under 100k. Excessive amounts of data (1GB+?) could be represented given the correct formula...And the RIAA/MPAA can't trademark mathematic equations.. can they?:)
Archival quality paper is really the safest bet for any information that can be converted to this form. I've heard countless anecdotes about the strength and resilience of paper - capable of being reconstructed even from the ashes of some fires! (believe it or not, the CIA puts it burned documents into acid to corrode the paper ashes so they cannot be recovered.)
I think the article can be summed up as such: FreeNet will be a microcosm of the world as a whole. There are pirates. There are pornographers. There are terrorists. There are piracy nuts. But there are also mild-mannered individuals interested in freely exchanging information (anonymously or not). All of these things exist in the world, and will eventually seep into any medium that can support it. FreeNet will be no different. It's only a mirror of the population.
Slashdot Mirror
This is the single best post I have ever read on this site.
..the printing press? I'm pretty sure most of this list couldn't exist without the proliferation of knowledge this allowed.
sometimes over a hundred inside a single female
.. Hey I've seen that movie!
The paper used for currency is fairly unique. It's made from only cotton, and with a very distinct feel. This is what primarily prevents people from just printing their own bills. Oh, and there's only one company that makes the paper for the U.S. Currency.
Wouldn't it be amusing (chilling?) if, in an effort to circumvent your proposed security measure, spammers stumbled upon true AI ?
HA HA!
http://www.cndb.com
:)
You're Welcome.
/mode #gamesnet +lawsuit
If you're interested in the dynamics of actual currency production and flow, you might want to take a look at the information at Crane's. They have a good section of links and a fair amount of information that may help you draw a better understanding.
I know the author well. Here's some background for you slashdotters who may doubt his expertise:
Henry S. Warren, Jr., has had a forty-year career with IBM, spanning from the IBM 704 to the PowerPC. He has worked on various military command and control systems and on the SETL project under Jack Schwartz at New York University. Since 1973 he has been with IBM's Research Division, focusing on compilers and computer architectures. Hank currently works on the Blue Gene petaflop computer project. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from the Courant Institute at New York University.
A bit offtopic, but I believe this is interesting and important non-the-less.
I strongly feel that an "open" standard should be adopted. By this I mean that any standard set for Ham Radio SS should allow for a multitude of applications from replacing slower speed packet radio communications, to Internet / WWW communications, to digital voice, to very narrowband communications for satellite and EME. In short, a new SS standard should allow for a range of on the air parameters, various modes of communications and various data rates / modulation schemes. While no one radio (or SS radio / modem) may ever be designed to do everything in the standard, the standard should encompass:
(1) Data rates from a few baud to perhaps 250 kbps.
(2) Occupied (-20 dB bandwidth) RF bandwidths from 1 kHz to perhaps 3 MHz.
(3) BPSK, DPSK, QPSK, DQPSK, OQPSK, GMSK, FSK, and perhaps other carrier modulations.
(4) Direct Sequence (DS), Frequency Hop (FH) and Hybrid Pseudo Random / Pseudo Noise (PN) modulations.
(5) CDMA, FDMA, TDMA and hybrid combinations for multiple access.
(6) Optional features should include FEC, automatic message forwarding, use of repeaters, interfaces to GPS / APRS and others to be determined.
I believe the standard should not limit what can be done with SS, but should be Open enough to encourage experimentation, variants, offshoots, improvements and afterthoughts. With this in mind, it is apparent that compiling, composing and maintaining this new standard is a very big job! I am certain that TAPR (perhaps with ARRL help) is up to the task. If we all support TAPR's efforts and lend whatever expertise and "sweat" we can, then such a standard may stand the test of time and provide a real direction for Amateur Radio SS in the future.
Microsoft is a key member of the group, so is it really possible to feel confident the software environment on your PC is operating as expected? Last time we downloaded the critical updates to WinXP, our PC started crashing again, and we had to roll it back to the pre-critical update stable version. Is that what we're to expect, or what confidence means?
The TCPA subsystem, said AMI, uses a specialised chip or flash memory that contains the "TPM" and software which gets the TPM to cryptonise (encrypt) the BIOS and operating system.
AMI said that when a PC boots, AMI BIOS starts "a fairly long and complex process", with the BIOS boot block addressing the TPM chip that verifies the authenticity of the BIOS.
The BIOS then verifies the authenticity and integrity of the OS loader and the OS kernel and then passes the integrity tokens that say the PC is a "trusted entity" to the operating system.
The CBC's radio science program Quirks and Quarks interviewed one of the researchers on this topic. You can listen to the MP3 here. Other stories this week had to do with the Spider Goats, among others.
Summary: The majority of the Anarctic continent is isolated from the rest of the world when it comes to weather patterns. Most research stations aren't in the isolated part, they are in the most northerly portions of the continent. They are warming. The isolated part of Antarctica is cooling. It's basically a re-analysis of existing data that has resulted in this conclusion.
A lot of the debate about global warming reminds me about all the Y2K talk a few years ago. Its one of those things that unless it happens no one is going to believe that its real, but if it is real and something wasnt dont about it and disaster resulted, then enough wasnt being done, but then again if something was done to prevent the disaster, then all that money and time was spent for nothing because there was nothing to worry about in the first place.
Also, the only thing that anyone involved in the science of the whole thing is that global warming will have an effect on the climate. Its anybody's guess, really. I could mean that in the sort term temperatures rise a little allowing snow to fall in places in which it used to be too cold to snow in large quantities resulting in more sun light being reflected back. Who knows? The problem as I see it is not climate change itself. The climate will change with or without our pollution. The problem it seems is our unwillingness to deal with the fact that we will face problems. Again, contingency is seen as a waste, and disaster is seen as the failure of those who were supposed to have the contingency that was so wasteful. Shit happens. Seas rise, lakes dry up, rocks fall from the sky and stars explode
I have had a rebate request rejected after having followed the instructions on the rebate form to the letter. This time it was a $35 rebate from Intuit for buying Quicken and Turbotax. I received a a letter from Intuit's rebate fulfillment company stating that my rebate is being rejected as I purchased the product directly from Intuit. This is after submitting the appropriate proof a purchase along with a receipt showing that product was clearly purchased from Egghead. After a call to the fulfillment company they apologize and ask that I re-submit the request. I'm still awaiting the rebate check.
First it was Microsoft with their stubbornness to live up to the wording in their own EULA's regarding refunds. Now this. Why do software companies feel they are entitled to keep consumers' money after every sale, even though they may have promised to give some back?
The SGI processors shouldn't be viewed as general
purpose processor like the P4 or Athlon. For
specific floating point intensive problems, they
can be quite effective. What is annoying is that
they are usually 2 or more generations behind in
manufacturing process capability. So the lines
and heat dissipation in the 3GHz P4 are much more
advanced than the Altix 3000.
Also, SGI has an annoying tendency to use
proprietary ASIC's in the their memory which
make their entire system much more expensive
than it need be. Some of this is because
their design cycle is so long that when SGI
committed to a architecture, the performance
just wasn't there.
Given these constraints, it is hard to see
how SGI could market "cost-sensitive" systems.
Since we all have prior art on the human genome, shouldn't it be "open source"?
content-management software for any platform is abysmal right now. I think it would be exceedingly difficult for any windows-based software to pull this off.. the effort would get lost in a maze of IP,proprietary standards, and lawsuits.
I think this is a place where open-source can really edge out the windows competition. It would be relatively easy to work towards a common and transparent interoperability. Let me tell you - if it was possible to do this well I would be using linux at home, the office, the laptop, you name it. And I can bet there would be a million more people who would do the same.
A complaint I often hear in my meanderings is related to this. "Why can't I take this email address from outlook and put it in act?", "Why won't these numbers from the email go into excel", etc. Interoperability within applications would make data management easier. And let's face it, most of what we do is taking data and organizing, sorting, etc.. in one way or another. Make this task easier and faster, and you've just won a major battle.
Am I the only one who sees the obvious application for this technology ? <g>
from the article:
"The word 'tensegrity' is an invention: a contraction of 'tensional integrity.'
..NOT tension gravity as the story suggests.
And in other news, SlashDot is being sued by:
Guns N' Roses, who has a trademark on "Slash"
Warner Brothers, for the Animaniacs character "Dot".
bah.
Are you really friends with Bill? I know him well!
Wouldn't that allow for almost-instant binary transmissions? Instead of sending Metallica.mp3, for example.. one could simply send a mathematical equation f(x)=something. It would then be up to the client machine to evalute the equation and execute/decompress/etc the file. The transmission size would only be the size of the equation, something under 100k. Excessive amounts of data (1GB+?) could be represented given the correct formula. ..And the RIAA/MPAA can't trademark mathematic equations.. can they? :)
Archival quality paper is really the safest bet for any information that can be converted to this form. I've heard countless anecdotes about the strength and resilience of paper - capable of being reconstructed even from the ashes of some fires! (believe it or not, the CIA puts it burned documents into acid to corrode the paper ashes so they cannot be recovered.)
An excellent resource to learn more..
I think the article can be summed up as such: FreeNet will be a microcosm of the world as a whole. There are pirates. There are pornographers. There are terrorists. There are piracy nuts. But there are also mild-mannered individuals interested in freely exchanging information (anonymously or not). All of these things exist in the world, and will eventually seep into any medium that can support it. FreeNet will be no different. It's only a mirror of the population.