The ST mouse was stylish enough for it's time and ultra responsive - though that might just be rose tinted memories influence by a generally good (though by today's standards) basic OS.
The whole package was very easy to get used to quick. It filled the contours of the hand quite nicely without shouting about 'ergonomics' or fabulous 'triple-click, optical Q-axis scroll IR sensors'.
It was a mouse.
It did it's job.
In fact I remember when I moved from the standard Atari-made mouse to a 'sleek' newer model it took me a long while to lose the claw-like reflex that developed while operating the chunky ST mouse... Now that I think about it I still tend to hold a mouse with enough room to fit the apex of the ST mouse comfortably in my hand...I suppose old habits die hard.
You can't spoil a vote...and you can't write in a candidate's name that isn't already listed.
(Whether or not this has anything to do with the fact so many people vote for a puppet called 'Dustin' every election is entirely debateable).
The idea of spoiling a vote as being a valid form of expression was pooh-poohed by the government when introducing the system...
...not surprising given that this is the same government where the Finance Minister said ordinary people(i.e. non-ministers) were too stupid to understand the finances of the country, where the Taoiseach(Prime Minister) APOLOGISED to the other nations of Europe when the Irish people voted No on a European Treaty - instead of actually respecting the decision and considering the insertion of a simple protocol requiring a UN mandate before Irish troops become involved in any ERRF action - and when the rest of Europe's politicians were reaching the heights of eloquence in their speeches, our Foreign Minister (among other Irish representitives) competed by saying nothing - but saying it very LOUDLY.
And yes...some civil servants are mortally embarrassed by politicians...even if we don't say it too often.
I bet a few of the webmasters of the seedier sites(the one's I've never even seen...*cough*) are breathing sighs of relief at this. Imagine a web where they couldn't get new content - same old pictures popping up everywhere, having to push their wares in totally inappropriate forums, listing under fake descriptions in search engines, infinite self-spawning porno pop-ups linked to the most inconspicuous of sites. Ahh, yes...aren't we lucky to keep things the way they are.
Mind you,the ruling will obviously be used to tighten up laws in this area(no pun intended)- since I get the vibe most people wouldn't be flattered to be the subject of these shots.(Heck, I don't even like to have a photo of my face taken).
I suppose it's all part of the law-making process.
- My own opinion is that if the person doesn't mind being photographed, well that's fine. Equally, they shouldn't have to wear sixteen layers of clothing when they go out in order to avoid the camera's glare. Just as the photographer has the right to photograph, an individual should have the right not to be photographed(save for a whole bunch of mitigating cercumstances, such as criminal investiations and the like.)
Yeah, I really couldn't believe the whole RIP thing in the UK - especially as it happened so close to home(Ireland) with virtually no comment from the general media.
So the UK not only demands ISPs to provide the ablitiy to intercept and store any private e-mails, it also makes it illegal to withold your encryption keys, even providing for jail time and fines if you 'lose' your key and can't prove that the loss is genuine. At the same time the power of enforcement is altered significantly and a minister or local authority, among others, can issue a warrent to police to seize your encryption keys.
While the RIP was being passed in Britain, in Ireland the legality of electronic signatures, the privacy of encryption key etc... were being legislated for. Also e-mails are not intercepted/stored.
This link has the - now very old - story regarding the differences between Ireland and Britain.
Given the relative closeness of the two countries, that the people (mostly) speak the same language, watch the same tv, read the same books etc... it's amazing how different we are. It would be interesting to find out how different other EU countries are with respect to encryption/stored e-mails etc.
Errr... it is actually the law, you know. The places that were shut down were unlicenced. It's seems like a non-story. CNN - in a typical display of its 'unbiased' reporting - seems to have melded a few facts together.
Look at it this way: In most of the US you can't brew and serve alcoholic drink publicly without some sort of licence. In the Republic of Ireland you have to have a licence to own a TV. In China, you need a licence to run an internet cafe.
In the US you don't need a TV licence if the TV is for private use. In the Republic of Ireland you can brew alcohol if it's for private use(maybe you can in the US as well - I don't know). In Ireland and the US, most internet cafes aren't required by law to restrict access to sites. But a good few places - whether by law or by a policy mandate - do restrict access to porno sites and certains sites with a 'speciality' interest(aren't US libraries required to restrict access to certain sites?). In China, all public internet terminals(including internet cafes) are required to have filtering software. From what I've heard on the 'net, the myth of 'the Yellow Firewall' is just that - a myth. Chinese PC users can access the entire internet from their homes.
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Re:Coming from a store owner...
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Aaaagggh!!
What did you tell them that for? Now we'll never get them!
Our diabolical plans involving free debate(i.e. not based solely on what CNN/Sky News tells us we can talk about), common currency and multiple languages have been scuppered by your post! Live it up tonight boys, 'cause its cynanide pills for us all come the morning.
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Re:How does devaluing happen now??
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However if I live in Britain, France or Ireland I can be deported from there for something not illegal there (such as criticising the Church) to another eu state such as Greece or Italy.
From Ireland at least, you would not be deported. IANAL, but I do know that Ireland will not usually extradite on acts that aren't crimes in Ireland, reserves the right not to extradite if the potential punishment is too harsh by standards of Irish law or if there is no chance of 'due process' and will most certainly use extradition cases to their full political potential. They will also not extradite if there is a possiblity of the violation of the human rights of an individual or their rights provided for under the Irish constitution.
That's why there are growing murmurs of dissent in Ireland with regards to the European arrest warrant. This effectively allows unilateral extradition at a federal(re: Union-wide) level. We don't have an extradition treaty with many countries - including the USA - for many well-articulated(by political pundits) reasons...Now all of a sudden extradition warrants can be 'handed-down' to member states?
It all reeks of efforts at a political unification that no population was ever polled on(yes we did vote to join the then EEC - an economic community). Ironically, I have no doubt that Ireland would join a political unity given a few provisos; Primarially that the politico's power-houses in Europe didn't get their way and dismiss Ireland as merely a peripheral concern constantly. But pehaps the people of Ireland and Europe aren't worth the concern of consultation. Perhaps a truely democratic meeting out of power would disrupt plans to centralise power...perhaps I'm straying too far off-topic and treading nervously on the boarders of being anti-EU. In my opinion, a federal Commission(that's Senate to all you non-EU people out there) should be based on a system similar to the current one where the bigger countries would get two commissioners while the smaller countries would get one. Which mould the European parliament should be cast in is a little more involved and there are many arguments out there for the vying opinions. Hey, I'm open to convincing.
I'm just a little concerned. When we were presented with the Amsterdam Treaty, the anti-EU lobby said we were eroding our(Ireland's) policy of military neutrality - our politicans assured us that the purpose of the treaty was to allow for bureaucratic change at EU level and the parts regarding the military were vitually inconsequential for the Irish state - we would remain neutral, not participate in an EU army without a referendum and so on. Since we voted in the Amsterdam Treaty, we have pledged 1,100 troops to the EU rapid reaction force(a substantial part of what is, truthfully, an inconsequential army) without consulting the Irish people and we have been upgraded from 'neutral', thru 'former-neutral' into the ranks of 'allied nation' in NATO and US military rankings.
It gets me, that's all. I know politicans lie, cheat and steal - that's what we pay them for. But it still gets me, especially with all the media-whores fawning around these people like they're heroes and heroines: Why politicans want to rewrite what the people of most member states signed up to is beyond me - why they are determined to do so without consulting the populace is verging on the fraudlant in my estimation.
(by-the-by, I would vote "Yes" to a Federal Europe but not on the grounds of the thinking of the current politicos in Europe...)
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Unless bathroom tiles can get pregnant...
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...I don't think any 'norm' has to worry about the majority of us/. geeks reproducing.
will only fall at the hands of Americans.
Some would argue that means barbarians will be responsible for America's downfall - my only worry is that you guys might take the rest of us with you. 8)
Seriously, though far be it from me to suggest a/. user in the sub-1000 range is deluded, perhaps the statement that 'Civilizations are destroyed by invading barbarians.' is a little oversimplistic, perhaps gleamed from playing too many marathon sessions of Sid Meier's Civilization? The lack of decent education, a tabloid media and unashamed grabs for global power(while isolating and distancing yourslves from traditional allies) is what's going to scupper the ol' US...despite the best efforts of the Geek 3l,337th.
Take it while you can...the whole bubble on computer programming is going to burst for one reason or another someday. For my money it will probably be due to advances in the ability of programs to write other programs - goto one of the comp.ai.* NG and read what some people have done in this field...it's amazing.It might happen when there's enough programmers out there so employers can slash salaries in half....basically, if I were you, I'd go for it hell-for-leather now, then retire when I've cracked about $1 million in savings (about 10 if you've negotiated your salary well to start out with) or whenever the bottom falls out of the market.
...you can get your diesel engine converted to run on Veggie oil for about £200 - that's about $250. About 15 years ago only one or two people were able to do it, but now many garages are able to do the conversion for you or refer you to someone who can. Plus, a company in the UK has come up with a simple 5 or 6 part engine upgrade which you can install yourself, but it's very expensive, weighing in at about Stg£800/IR£1,000. The fuel economy is good for European countries where the environment is really on the political agenda and petrol and diesel are taxed highly. Europeans also have the added benefit of increased engine economy - cars made for the American market are notoriously inefficient, usually just for the sake of pushing up the specs on paper.
About 50 years ago, my Uncle converted all his farm machinery to run on methane gas, which he could easily collect from a pig sty he built especially for the task. He also ran a motorcycle off the stuff. Other alternatives include everything from ethanol to water cells.
It does look like hydrogen is the wave of the future, however. Despite the dangers, drawbacks and difficulties, many car manufacturers, oil companies etc... have already begun talks on how best to minimise damage to profits while phasing in hydrogen pumps around Europe - I don't know about America. Recent reports have estimated that oil production in the West has already peaked - the US government figures you read are based on massaged figures; they assume a constant and steady growth in production from too many sites to be realistic, as well as factoring in as-of-yet unconfirmed sites. So the motives aren't anything near selfless.
Regardless, it is likely that renewable fuel sources are destined to become common-place in the next few decades - at a tidy profit for the current moguls of the oil-based industry.
It's pretty shallow, don't chya think?
What with Plasma displays, LED displays and other nifty technologies becoming available, suddenly they 'discover' this method? Colour me unimpressed and unconvinced. As others who've kept an eye on things have noticed, every few years there are these 'breakthroughs' that will allow the cheaper manufacture of LCD screens - $70(£60) should buy you a 13" LCD monitor at this stage. Maybe they've been concentraiting too hard on LCD technology in watches - bringing the (retail)cost down from over $1000 per watch to less than $1.
No, probably not. Maybe it's the paranoia in me, but in my opinion what in reality is going on is that IBM sees a definite threat to LCD products in the form of emerging or emergant technologies and has decided to shed some of the massive profits it makes on LCD screens. Rather than admit overnight that it's no big task to slash LCD prices, IBM will employ this 'new' technology, start manufacturing dirt cheap LCD screens and cut the legs from beneath its main rivals. I suppose it's going to be cool but it still doesn't give us back those years we spent using overpriced chunky monitors for no reason.
Just a HUP about the Irish scam...er...offer. If you're ever in doubt about something regarding the ol' Republic of Ireland, just point, click and AskIreland. (The link is to http://www.askireland.com, for those of you in fear of the rash of trollish porno links hidden on/. these days).
The site is run as part of the Irish government website(which has finally undergone its much overdue facelift). They'll answer practically any query about the country with a pretty fast response time - the question of whether the University was legit or not would have been sorted in 2-3 days(from my experience).
If the external power supplies were well designed , then I'm all for the idea. Having had a vast array of old computers, including some like my A600 which has an external power supply, I can say that design makes all the difference. A box with a wire coming out each end may not sound bad, but unless it has a long cable, it can be a nightmare to place. (I would suggest the 'input' wire and 'output' wire be on the same side of the adaptor). It would also need to be well weighted or securable - the A600 power supply was constanly being tipped over everytime the cable jiggled - in the end I used big wads of blue-tack to keep it in place.
The idea of one standardised external power supply shouldn't be dismissed so readily. It could end all this hassle with so many different connector types on laptops - if there was a standard for desktops and towers, laptops would surely follow. As anyone who has ever picked up a cheap second-hand laptop - invariably with a dead or dying battery and no ac adaptor - knows, it can be hell first tracking down the right type for your model, then actually finding an example for less than £100. And let's not forget it would also either allow a reduction in PC case sizes or else leave a good chunk of room inside the case for extra add-ons. As anyone that likes to mess about with old x86s and Pentiums, a few centimetres can make all the difference in what you can do with the case on and the case off.
I like the thinking of others here that seems to have spread to the idea of having an external power supply that can power many machines at once....that would be sweet! I'd no longer have to have a daisy chain of surge protected extension chords stretching from every power socket in my house. I wouldn't have to keep changing plugs(buy as many six socket extension chords as you want, you'll always run out of space). It would be great! If it weren't for the fact I've spent all my money on extension chords, I'd be first in line to buy a PC with external power supply. (That, and the fact I could have a fairly good go at hacking one together myself....maybe)
Everything posted on/. for the past few days seems to be some lame attempt at humour. I am shocked to find this serious question, today of all days.
In fact, given the global implications, I'm surprised this hasn't been asked before; what with the entire lack of hamster proliferation treaties, anyone could build an army of said sleds and march across the globe.
First off, before dealing with numbers of hamsters at all, you need to decide on what sled you want to use. A good idea would be to use a range of metal and wooden sleds. The type of hamster used is very important, especially if you consider steroid fed 'burn-out' units(i.e. hamsters that are only expected to do one run).
The size of sled would depend on what equipment/personell the sled was carrying, and the number of hamsters used would be directly proportional to that weight. This is always measured in metric units(g/kg) because of the terrible 1984 Gerbil powered Hovercar tragedy.
REMEMBER to train your hamsters carfully!!! They must all run in the same direction and respond to the crack of whip, if pulled in the traditional manner(5-10 lines of hamsters harnessed to the front of the sled, pulling it behind them). If they can't all run in the same direction, they could pull against the harness, trip themselves and the hamsters around them, then be promptly squished by the sled carried on by momentum. A much better idea is to mount two caterpillar tracks, each full of hamsters, beneath the sled. Stimulus is provided by a small lcd/plasma display mounted at the front of each caterpillar track module, running the hamster.c stimulus program. This is activated by a button press on the sled's control panel. Thus, the vehicle would look like this:
_______|_a________
(________________) b
The vehicle is still considered a sled because, either side of the caterpillar module, b, are two struts that allow the sled to take advantage of any down-hill terrain. The control panel, a, automatically extends the struts when the caterpillar unit is disengaged. Using a series of cogs, wheels and pullies you can reduce the number of hamsters needed. Further reductions can be achieved by using advanced localisation effects in quantum physics, but to do that you'd have to make sure that every journey started at an accelerator such as CERN. In order to realistically employ a small amount of hamsters, you have to educate them. Genetics would be pivotal here, as the hamsters would practically have to be 'uplifted' to understand the philosphy of things. Then explain to them that, because the sleigh doesn't really exist, any one hamster can pull it alone. Further-more, as long as you think along similar lines, you can reason down even further that the hamster is unecessary to move the non-existant sled, as it too is non-existant and thus you reach the final answer that it takes 0 non-existent hamsters to pull an infinite amount of non-existant sleds.
(It's amazing what you can think of waiting for a program to download on a 56k modem)
Look, as long as the computers et al meets the European standards - as I live in Europe, I can only assume th US still uses them - then for the most part you'll be safe. Computers, wireless apps etc are quite, quite safe.
But I do have one piece of advice. If your college/organisation is using lots of CGA, EGA and early VGA monitors (MGA is not included) then all you really have to watch out for is sitting at the rear and/or sides of the monitors. They used to emit huge amounts of electromagnetic radiation to the sides and back(because the front was well shielded). That's where your worry should be.
As for the mobile phones...you have a point - especially in the US. Forunately, I doubt other people have strapped their mobile phones to your body. The amount of radiation is actually so small that the prooven dangers of such phones(i.e. eye cancer) are mitigated by the distance between yourself and another individual.
I came across this article (URL is http://www.dailyradar.com/news/game_news_7270.html for those of you in terror of links on/.). Basically DC software that will register and only work on one console, kinda like the read-once CD tracks and all the other 'innovations' in anti-piracy that will limit software to one machine/user.
So here's my question, the company may sell the second-hand programs, but will the user be able to use them if they employ such piracy protection?
If they can't, wouldn't that probably be considered interfering with the company's right to sell second-hand software, i.e. by limiting the functionality of second-user software. If so, then any company implementing such 'protection' would have to have a pretty accessible back-door. And, as we all know, hacker's can never find those back-doors(sarcasim). In short, that implies that this case is pretty landmark(from what I gather - the link won't load on my machine).
Whatever you do, don't self-publish. It costs an arm and a leg and you'll find it difficult to get any bookstore to even carry your books. For fiction, at least, it should be the last resort.
Now, down to the nitty gritty of it:
Get an agent.
It's as simple as that. I don't know where on the globe you are, but here in the Ireland and the UK there are books, such as the Writers and Poets Yearbook, which list all the major agents in the two countries and if they accept unsolicited scripts or not. If they do, you send them a sample of your writing - maybe one of your 'best' chapters and a few 'good' chapters. I know that arbitrary, but it works. Then, if they are interested, they'll ask for more, so you send the rest of your manuscript.
The big advantages of an agent:
They'll negotiate on your terms; if you want to sell first time rights only, that's what they'll sell; if you want them to work in something about 'fansites' then they'll do their best to help you.
They'll be able to get more money for you from publishers - even if you have no rep. in the business at all. They do this, obviously, because they work on commission.
They can help arrange deadlines, futher books etc... for you - what with us writing types sometimes getting a little disorganised.
If you go directly to a publisher - and they must accept unsolicited scripts - you won't have any clout, unless you're a lawyer or something. They usually have a standard contract they'll trot out and, from what I hear, they probably won't be too keen to negotiate.
Finally, as for on-line publishing, e-publishing et al. they are all very 'promising' fields. I personally wouldn't bank on them keeping your book from sinking into obscurity. The ones I've looked at seem to offer worse terms than traditional publishers, less distribution and less reliablity. At least in paper form, there is some tangible(sp-?) proof of your achievment.
By-the-by, I know all this because I'm in the process of writing my own book and I have done some research. (Mind you, lots of people in Ireland are 'in the process' of writing a book, mostly due to the 0% tax rate you pay on artistic earnings 8).
JonKatz says the Web is safe 'from corporate and political domination'
Dangerous words.
There were those of us in the past that put our faith in an already achieved victory: the ST community thought the Falcon 060 could bring it back to the fore; the Amigans thought the A1200, CD32 et al. was destined to save their preferred format. It was not so - the pathetic PC won out(even though I own a PC it ires me still 8).
There are forces greater than any one hacker, programmer and/or local user group. They aren't mystical or magical(well, maybe a little bit, in an evil way 8). They are the corporations and political powers who daily try and wrench back control of things from the open source community, the personal web page owners et al - which are all very much connected and interlinked. If it weren't for the concentration of the true hacker spirit in continental Europe, the money of liberal Americans and a good deal of serendipity, the whole thing would have turned to crap a good many years ago.
The greatest danger that now exists is that we rest on our laurels, we say well done, congratulate ourselves and let our guard down. Not to paraphrase Robespierre, but JonKatz is betraying the very revolution he's trying to commend. We call that counter-revolutionary where I come from(yes, Ireland).
Just as a side note on the imagery used - the whole mixture of movements shouldn't be categorised as a religion, in my opinion. It is not. If anything this is war, insurgency...an uprising even.
My source is a friend who works in AIB...just let me say he isn't an important cog, just one of the underlings. It just came up in idle conversation one day. He's one of us - a geek/slashdotter - and his main concern was that his bosses(not in IT dept.) didn't even know about the program in any detail - they were doing well to even know it existed. If somebody asked they'd just fob them off with whatever answer they could come up with. My friend seemed convinced there would be other versions. My information, however, is older than yours...probably around July. Plus it's less offical. Overall, in my opinion, I'd say your line is more likely.
It's probably a side effect of the level of debate that has gone on here at/. that this story has recieved so few posts. As for the story itself - it's nothing.
First of all, in the hierarcy of things, the Competition Directorate(doesn't that sound so cool?) has huge political clout. The other one...Internal Markets? Actually, I can't say I ever heard of it, and I live in Europe!(Is that the metre-stick by which things are measured? 8)
Then there's the fact that the overwhelming feeling on the street is not to follow the US model. The majority of politicans who have stated a position on the issue are against the US patenting ethos. As for civil servants...I never thought they would have a widely different position.
This story seems like a little bit of hysteria...maybe trying to show a division in Europe that simply does not exist.
Then again, I could be wrong...as could all the people who are against such patents and thinks they have a significant upperhand...
I was about to post the same thing...it's been in Ireland - AIB at least - for quite a while now.
For those of you interested, it actually works pretty well. I installed the software a while ago because there was at least one website I sent my credit card details to that never got back to me(and that makes me worried even though it's over a year ago and the card expires in three weeks 8).
What I wanted to question was who told you there wouldn't be a Linux version? Was it some minor bank offical, because as far as I could gather, the plans are to press ahead with both Mac and Linux versions. But you know how Irish banks are with truth. (You put down Dublin as place of residence and nationality as Irish on your account application...so do you want a resident or non-resident account?) Not intended as a slur against AIB who has only ever practiced good, lawful business practices...as far as I know.
I've got a good one for you:
The Republic of Ireland and Britain have widely different laws regarding crytography.
So, take it that one country makes it illegal to withold your encryption keys, even providing for jail time and fines if you 'lose' your key and can't prove that the loss genuine. That same country can have a minister or local authority, among others, issue a warrent to police to seize your encryption keys. Also, ISPs are warrented to have systems set up to intercept and decrypt e-mails.
On the other hand, the other country makes it illegal for the police to force you to give them your encryption keys. Warrents are still the realm of the justice system and e-mails are not intercepted by-in-large.
Now guess which country is which: Ireland, which garners a relatively huge amount of IT investment from across the globe, and Britain, which doesn't get as much investment as its skilled workforce, developed infrastructure and
cheap(er) overheads would seem to warrent.
As most of you may know, this big difference all came about with the RIP bill in Britain which introduced a lot of these draconian measures. At the same time in Ireland, legality of electronic signatures, privacy of encryption keys etc... were being insured by new legislation.
I amn't suggesting that this difference is the sole cause of the investment in Ireland, but it doesn't hurt the matter at all. Plus it also shows the demand for the legitimate use of cyrptography by big business.
Read this(old) wired story for more.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll have to agree with this.
The ST mouse was stylish enough for it's time and ultra responsive - though that might just be rose tinted memories influence by a generally good (though by today's standards) basic OS.
The whole package was very easy to get used to quick. It filled the contours of the hand quite nicely without shouting about 'ergonomics' or fabulous 'triple-click, optical Q-axis scroll IR sensors'.
It was a mouse.
It did it's job.
In fact I remember when I moved from the standard Atari-made mouse to a 'sleek' newer model it took me a long while to lose the claw-like reflex that developed while operating the chunky ST mouse... Now that I think about it I still tend to hold a mouse with enough room to fit the apex of the ST mouse comfortably in my hand...I suppose old habits die hard.
(That's why nuns grow so old!)
Yes, the system in question does stop you.
...not surprising given that this is the same government where the Finance Minister said ordinary people(i.e. non-ministers) were too stupid to understand the finances of the country, where the Taoiseach(Prime Minister) APOLOGISED to the other nations of Europe when the Irish people voted No on a European Treaty - instead of actually respecting the decision and considering the insertion of a simple protocol requiring a UN mandate before Irish troops become involved in any ERRF action - and when the rest of Europe's politicians were reaching the heights of eloquence in their speeches, our Foreign Minister (among other Irish representitives) competed by saying nothing - but saying it very LOUDLY.
You can't spoil a vote...and you can't write in a candidate's name that isn't already listed.
(Whether or not this has anything to do with the fact so many people vote for a puppet called 'Dustin' every election is entirely debateable).
The idea of spoiling a vote as being a valid form of expression was pooh-poohed by the government when introducing the system...
And yes...some civil servants are mortally embarrassed by politicians...even if we don't say it too often.
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I bet a few of the webmasters of the seedier sites(the one's I've never even seen...*cough*) are breathing sighs of relief at this. Imagine a web where they couldn't get new content - same old pictures popping up everywhere, having to push their wares in totally inappropriate forums, listing under fake descriptions in search engines, infinite self-spawning porno pop-ups linked to the most inconspicuous of sites. Ahh, yes...aren't we lucky to keep things the way they are.
Mind you,the ruling will obviously be used to tighten up laws in this area(no pun intended)- since I get the vibe most people wouldn't be flattered to be the subject of these shots.(Heck, I don't even like to have a photo of my face taken).
I suppose it's all part of the law-making process.
- My own opinion is that if the person doesn't mind being photographed, well that's fine. Equally, they shouldn't have to wear sixteen layers of clothing when they go out in order to avoid the camera's glare. Just as the photographer has the right to photograph, an individual should have the right not to be photographed(save for a whole bunch of mitigating cercumstances, such as criminal investiations and the like.)
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Yeah, I really couldn't believe the whole RIP thing in the UK - especially as it happened so close to home(Ireland) with virtually no comment from the general media.
So the UK not only demands ISPs to provide the ablitiy to intercept and store any private e-mails, it also makes it illegal to withold your encryption keys, even providing for jail time and fines if you 'lose' your key and can't prove that the loss is genuine. At the same time the power of enforcement is altered significantly and a minister or local authority, among others, can issue a warrent to police to seize your encryption keys.
While the RIP was being passed in Britain, in Ireland the legality of electronic signatures, the privacy of encryption key etc... were being legislated for. Also e-mails are not intercepted/stored.
This link has the - now very old - story regarding the differences between Ireland and Britain.
Given the relative closeness of the two countries, that the people (mostly) speak the same language, watch the same tv, read the same books etc... it's amazing how different we are. It would be interesting to find out how different other EU countries are with respect to encryption/stored e-mails etc.
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Errr... it is actually the law, you know. The places that were shut down were unlicenced. It's seems like a non-story. CNN - in a typical display of its 'unbiased' reporting - seems to have melded a few facts together.
Look at it this way: In most of the US you can't brew and serve alcoholic drink publicly without some sort of licence. In the Republic of Ireland you have to have a licence to own a TV. In China, you need a licence to run an internet cafe.
In the US you don't need a TV licence if the TV is for private use. In the Republic of Ireland you can brew alcohol if it's for private use(maybe you can in the US as well - I don't know). In Ireland and the US, most internet cafes aren't required by law to restrict access to sites. But a good few places - whether by law or by a policy mandate - do restrict access to porno sites and certains sites with a 'speciality' interest(aren't US libraries required to restrict access to certain sites?). In China, all public internet terminals(including internet cafes) are required to have filtering software. From what I've heard on the 'net, the myth of 'the Yellow Firewall' is just that - a myth. Chinese PC users can access the entire internet from their homes.
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Aaaagggh!!
What did you tell them that for? Now we'll never get them!
Our diabolical plans involving free debate(i.e. not based solely on what CNN/Sky News tells us we can talk about), common currency and multiple languages have been scuppered by your post! Live it up tonight boys, 'cause its cynanide pills for us all come the morning.
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However if I live in Britain, France or Ireland I can be deported from there for something not illegal there (such as criticising the Church) to another eu state such as Greece or Italy.
From Ireland at least, you would not be deported. IANAL, but I do know that Ireland will not usually extradite on acts that aren't crimes in Ireland, reserves the right not to extradite if the potential punishment is too harsh by standards of Irish law or if there is no chance of 'due process' and will most certainly use extradition cases to their full political potential. They will also not extradite if there is a possiblity of the violation of the human rights of an individual or their rights provided for under the Irish constitution.
That's why there are growing murmurs of dissent in Ireland with regards to the European arrest warrant. This effectively allows unilateral extradition at a federal(re: Union-wide) level. We don't have an extradition treaty with many countries - including the USA - for many well-articulated(by political pundits) reasons...Now all of a sudden extradition warrants can be 'handed-down' to member states?
It all reeks of efforts at a political unification that no population was ever polled on(yes we did vote to join the then EEC - an economic community). Ironically, I have no doubt that Ireland would join a political unity given a few provisos; Primarially that the politico's power-houses in Europe didn't get their way and dismiss Ireland as merely a peripheral concern constantly. But pehaps the people of Ireland and Europe aren't worth the concern of consultation. Perhaps a truely democratic meeting out of power would disrupt plans to centralise power...perhaps I'm straying too far off-topic and treading nervously on the boarders of being anti-EU.
In my opinion, a federal Commission(that's Senate to all you non-EU people out there) should be based on a system similar to the current one where the bigger countries would get two commissioners while the smaller countries would get one. Which mould the European parliament should be cast in is a little more involved and there are many arguments out there for the vying opinions. Hey, I'm open to convincing.
I'm just a little concerned. When we were presented with the Amsterdam Treaty, the anti-EU lobby said we were eroding our(Ireland's) policy of military neutrality - our politicans assured us that the purpose of the treaty was to allow for bureaucratic change at EU level and the parts regarding the military were vitually inconsequential for the Irish state - we would remain neutral, not participate in an EU army without a referendum and so on. Since we voted in the Amsterdam Treaty, we have pledged 1,100 troops to the EU rapid reaction force(a substantial part of what is, truthfully, an inconsequential army) without consulting the Irish people and we have been upgraded from 'neutral', thru 'former-neutral' into the ranks of 'allied nation' in NATO and US military rankings.
It gets me, that's all. I know politicans lie, cheat and steal - that's what we pay them for. But it still gets me, especially with all the media-whores fawning around these people like they're heroes and heroines: Why politicans want to rewrite what the people of most member states signed up to is beyond me - why they are determined to do so without consulting the populace is verging on the fraudlant in my estimation.
(by-the-by, I would vote "Yes" to a Federal Europe but not on the grounds of the thinking of the current politicos in Europe...)
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...I don't think any 'norm' has to worry about the majority of us /. geeks reproducing.
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..to the phrase "perfect".
"Slightly Used" is more fitting.
"Cheap" [to the buyer, not the taxpayer] should also be mentioned.
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will only fall at the hands of Americans. /. user in the sub-1000 range is deluded, perhaps the statement that 'Civilizations are destroyed by invading barbarians.' is a little oversimplistic, perhaps gleamed from playing too many marathon sessions of Sid Meier's Civilization? The lack of decent education, a tabloid media and unashamed grabs for global power(while isolating and distancing yourslves from traditional allies) is what's going to scupper the ol' US...despite the best efforts of the Geek 3l,337th.
Some would argue that means barbarians will be responsible for America's downfall - my only worry is that you guys might take the rest of us with you.
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Seriously, though far be it from me to suggest a
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Take it while you can...the whole bubble on computer programming is going to burst for one reason or another someday. For my money it will probably be due to advances in the ability of programs to write other programs - goto one of the comp.ai.* NG and read what some people have done in this field...it's amazing.It might happen when there's enough programmers out there so employers can slash salaries in half....basically, if I were you, I'd go for it hell-for-leather now, then retire when I've cracked about $1 million in savings (about 10 if you've negotiated your salary well to start out with) or whenever the bottom falls out of the market.
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...you can get your diesel engine converted to run on Veggie oil for about £200 - that's about $250. About 15 years ago only one or two people were able to do it, but now many garages are able to do the conversion for you or refer you to someone who can. Plus, a company in the UK has come up with a simple 5 or 6 part engine upgrade which you can install yourself, but it's very expensive, weighing in at about Stg£800/IR£1,000. The fuel economy is good for European countries where the environment is really on the political agenda and petrol and diesel are taxed highly. Europeans also have the added benefit of increased engine economy - cars made for the American market are notoriously inefficient, usually just for the sake of pushing up the specs on paper.
About 50 years ago, my Uncle converted all his farm machinery to run on methane gas, which he could easily collect from a pig sty he built especially for the task. He also ran a motorcycle off the stuff. Other alternatives include everything from ethanol to water cells.
It does look like hydrogen is the wave of the future, however. Despite the dangers, drawbacks and difficulties, many car manufacturers, oil companies etc... have already begun talks on how best to minimise damage to profits while phasing in hydrogen pumps around Europe - I don't know about America. Recent reports have estimated that oil production in the West has already peaked - the US government figures you read are based on massaged figures; they assume a constant and steady growth in production from too many sites to be realistic, as well as factoring in as-of-yet unconfirmed sites. So the motives aren't anything near selfless.
Regardless, it is likely that renewable fuel sources are destined to become common-place in the next few decades - at a tidy profit for the current moguls of the oil-based industry.
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It's pretty shallow, don't chya think?
What with Plasma displays, LED displays and other nifty technologies becoming available, suddenly they 'discover' this method? Colour me unimpressed and unconvinced. As others who've kept an eye on things have noticed, every few years there are these 'breakthroughs' that will allow the cheaper manufacture of LCD screens - $70(£60) should buy you a 13" LCD monitor at this stage. Maybe they've been concentraiting too hard on LCD technology in watches - bringing the (retail)cost down from over $1000 per watch to less than $1.
No, probably not. Maybe it's the paranoia in me, but in my opinion what in reality is going on is that IBM sees a definite threat to LCD products in the form of emerging or emergant technologies and has decided to shed some of the massive profits it makes on LCD screens. Rather than admit overnight that it's no big task to slash LCD prices, IBM will employ this 'new' technology, start manufacturing dirt cheap LCD screens and cut the legs from beneath its main rivals. I suppose it's going to be cool but it still doesn't give us back those years we spent using overpriced chunky monitors for no reason.
Or whatever....
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Just a HUP about the Irish scam...er...offer. If you're ever in doubt about something regarding the ol' Republic of Ireland, just point, click and AskIreland. (The link is to http://www.askireland.com, for those of you in fear of the rash of trollish porno links hidden on /. these days).
The site is run as part of the Irish government website(which has finally undergone its much overdue facelift). They'll answer practically any query about the country with a pretty fast response time - the question of whether the University was legit or not would have been sorted in 2-3 days(from my experience).
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If the external power supplies were well designed , then I'm all for the idea. Having had a vast array of old computers, including some like my A600 which has an external power supply, I can say that design makes all the difference. A box with a wire coming out each end may not sound bad, but unless it has a long cable, it can be a nightmare to place. (I would suggest the 'input' wire and 'output' wire be on the same side of the adaptor). It would also need to be well weighted or securable - the A600 power supply was constanly being tipped over everytime the cable jiggled - in the end I used big wads of blue-tack to keep it in place.
The idea of one standardised external power supply shouldn't be dismissed so readily. It could end all this hassle with so many different connector types on laptops - if there was a standard for desktops and towers, laptops would surely follow. As anyone who has ever picked up a cheap second-hand laptop - invariably with a dead or dying battery and no ac adaptor - knows, it can be hell first tracking down the right type for your model, then actually finding an example for less than £100. And let's not forget it would also either allow a reduction in PC case sizes or else leave a good chunk of room inside the case for extra add-ons. As anyone that likes to mess about with old x86s and Pentiums, a few centimetres can make all the difference in what you can do with the case on and the case off.
I like the thinking of others here that seems to have spread to the idea of having an external power supply that can power many machines at once....that would be sweet! I'd no longer have to have a daisy chain of surge protected extension chords stretching from every power socket in my house. I wouldn't have to keep changing plugs(buy as many six socket extension chords as you want, you'll always run out of space). It would be great! If it weren't for the fact I've spent all my money on extension chords, I'd be first in line to buy a PC with external power supply. (That, and the fact I could have a fairly good go at hacking one together myself....maybe)
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Everything posted on /. for the past few days seems to be some lame attempt at humour. I am shocked to find this serious question, today of all days.
In fact, given the global implications, I'm surprised this hasn't been asked before; what with the entire lack of hamster proliferation treaties, anyone could build an army of said sleds and march across the globe.
First off, before dealing with numbers of hamsters at all, you need to decide on what sled you want to use. A good idea would be to use a range of metal and wooden sleds. The type of hamster used is very important, especially if you consider steroid fed 'burn-out' units(i.e. hamsters that are only expected to do one run). The size of sled would depend on what equipment/personell the sled was carrying, and the number of hamsters used would be directly proportional to that weight. This is always measured in metric units(g/kg) because of the terrible 1984 Gerbil powered Hovercar tragedy.
REMEMBER to train your hamsters carfully!!!
They must all run in the same direction and respond to the crack of whip, if pulled in the traditional manner(5-10 lines of hamsters harnessed to the front of the sled, pulling it behind them). If they can't all run in the same direction, they could pull against the harness, trip themselves and the hamsters around them, then be promptly squished by the sled carried on by momentum.
A much better idea is to mount two caterpillar tracks, each full of hamsters, beneath the sled. Stimulus is provided by a small lcd/plasma display mounted at the front of each caterpillar track module, running the hamster.c stimulus program. This is activated by a button press on the sled's control panel. Thus, the vehicle would look like this:
_______|_a________
(________________) b
The vehicle is still considered a sled because, either side of the caterpillar module, b, are two struts that allow the sled to take advantage of any down-hill terrain. The control panel, a, automatically extends the struts when the caterpillar unit is disengaged. Using a series of cogs, wheels and pullies you can reduce the number of hamsters needed. Further reductions can be achieved by using advanced localisation effects in quantum physics, but to do that you'd have to make sure that every journey started at an accelerator such as CERN.
In order to realistically employ a small amount of hamsters, you have to educate them. Genetics would be pivotal here, as the hamsters would practically have to be 'uplifted' to understand the philosphy of things. Then explain to them that, because the sleigh doesn't really exist, any one hamster can pull it alone. Further-more, as long as you think along similar lines, you can reason down even further that the hamster is unecessary to move the non-existant sled, as it too is non-existant and thus you reach the final answer that it takes 0 non-existent hamsters to pull an infinite amount of non-existant sleds.
(It's amazing what you can think of waiting for a program to download on a 56k modem)
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Look, as long as the computers et al meets the European standards - as I live in Europe, I can only assume th US still uses them - then for the most part you'll be safe. Computers, wireless apps etc are quite, quite safe.
But I do have one piece of advice. If your college/organisation is using lots of CGA, EGA and early VGA monitors (MGA is not included) then all you really have to watch out for is sitting at the rear and/or sides of the monitors. They used to emit huge amounts of electromagnetic radiation to the sides and back(because the front was well shielded). That's where your worry should be.
As for the mobile phones...you have a point - especially in the US. Forunately, I doubt other people have strapped their mobile phones to your body. The amount of radiation is actually so small that the prooven dangers of such phones(i.e. eye cancer) are mitigated by the distance between yourself and another individual.
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Did the Chinese embassy in Belgrade post when they heard a US bomber overhead?
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I came across this article (URL is http://www.dailyradar.com/news/game_news_7270.html for those of you in terror of links on /.). Basically DC software that will register and only work on one console, kinda like the read-once CD tracks and all the other 'innovations' in anti-piracy that will limit software to one machine/user.
So here's my question, the company may sell the second-hand programs, but will the user be able to use them if they employ such piracy protection?
If they can't, wouldn't that probably be considered interfering with the company's right to sell second-hand software, i.e. by limiting the functionality of second-user software. If so, then any company implementing such 'protection' would have to have a pretty accessible back-door. And, as we all know, hacker's can never find those back-doors(sarcasim).
In short, that implies that this case is pretty landmark(from what I gather - the link won't load on my machine).
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Now, down to the nitty gritty of it:
Get an agent.
It's as simple as that. I don't know where on the globe you are, but here in the Ireland and the UK there are books, such as the Writers and Poets Yearbook, which list all the major agents in the two countries and if they accept unsolicited scripts or not. If they do, you send them a sample of your writing - maybe one of your 'best' chapters and a few 'good' chapters. I know that arbitrary, but it works. Then, if they are interested, they'll ask for more, so you send the rest of your manuscript.
The big advantages of an agent:
If you go directly to a publisher - and they must accept unsolicited scripts - you won't have any clout, unless you're a lawyer or something. They usually have a standard contract they'll trot out and, from what I hear, they probably won't be too keen to negotiate.
Finally, as for on-line publishing, e-publishing et al. they are all very 'promising' fields. I personally wouldn't bank on them keeping your book from sinking into obscurity. The ones I've looked at seem to offer worse terms than traditional publishers, less distribution and less reliablity. At least in paper form, there is some tangible(sp-?) proof of your achievment.
By-the-by, I know all this because I'm in the process of writing my own book and I have done some research. (Mind you, lots of people in Ireland are 'in the process' of writing a book, mostly due to the 0% tax rate you pay on artistic earnings 8).
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JonKatz says the Web is safe 'from corporate and political domination'
Dangerous words.
There were those of us in the past that put our faith in an already achieved victory: the ST community thought the Falcon 060 could bring it back to the fore; the Amigans thought the A1200, CD32 et al. was destined to save their preferred format. It was not so - the pathetic PC won out(even though I own a PC it ires me still 8).
There are forces greater than any one hacker, programmer and/or local user group. They aren't mystical or magical(well, maybe a little bit, in an evil way 8). They are the corporations and political powers who daily try and wrench back control of things from the open source community, the personal web page owners et al - which are all very much connected and interlinked. If it weren't for the concentration of the true hacker spirit in continental Europe, the money of liberal Americans and a good deal of serendipity, the whole thing would have turned to crap a good many years ago.
The greatest danger that now exists is that we rest on our laurels, we say well done, congratulate ourselves and let our guard down. Not to paraphrase Robespierre, but JonKatz is betraying the very revolution he's trying to commend. We call that counter-revolutionary where I come from(yes, Ireland).
Just as a side note on the imagery used - the whole mixture of movements shouldn't be categorised as a religion, in my opinion. It is not. If anything this is war, insurgency...an uprising even.
Face the future, but always guard your back.
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My source is a friend who works in AIB...just let me say he isn't an important cog, just one of the underlings. It just came up in idle conversation one day. He's one of us - a geek/slashdotter - and his main concern was that his bosses(not in IT dept.) didn't even know about the program in any detail - they were doing well to even know it existed. If somebody asked they'd just fob them off with whatever answer they could come up with.
My friend seemed convinced there would be other versions. My information, however, is older than yours...probably around July. Plus it's less offical. Overall, in my opinion, I'd say your line is more likely.
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It's probably a side effect of the level of debate that has gone on here at /. that this story has recieved so few posts. As for the story itself - it's nothing.
First of all, in the hierarcy of things, the Competition Directorate(doesn't that sound so cool?) has huge political clout. The other one...Internal Markets? Actually, I can't say I ever heard of it, and I live in Europe!(Is that the metre-stick by which things are measured? 8)
Then there's the fact that the overwhelming feeling on the street is not to follow the US model. The majority of politicans who have stated a position on the issue are against the US patenting ethos. As for civil servants...I never thought they would have a widely different position.
This story seems like a little bit of hysteria...maybe trying to show a division in Europe that simply does not exist.
Then again, I could be wrong...as could all the people who are against such patents and thinks they have a significant upperhand...
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I was about to post the same thing...it's been in Ireland - AIB at least - for quite a while now.
For those of you interested, it actually works pretty well. I installed the software a while ago because there was at least one website I sent my credit card details to that never got back to me(and that makes me worried even though it's over a year ago and the card expires in three weeks 8).
What I wanted to question was who told you there wouldn't be a Linux version? Was it some minor bank offical, because as far as I could gather, the plans are to press ahead with both Mac and Linux versions. But you know how Irish banks are with truth. (You put down Dublin as place of residence and nationality as Irish on your account application...so do you want a resident or non-resident account?)
Not intended as a slur against AIB who has only ever practiced good, lawful business practices...as far as I know.
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I've got a good one for you:
The Republic of Ireland and Britain have widely different laws regarding crytography.
So, take it that one country makes it illegal to withold your encryption keys, even providing for jail time and fines if you 'lose' your key and can't prove that the loss genuine. That same country can have a minister or local authority, among others, issue a warrent to police to seize your encryption keys. Also, ISPs are warrented to have systems set up to intercept and decrypt e-mails.
On the other hand, the other country makes it illegal for the police to force you to give them your encryption keys. Warrents are still the realm of the justice system and e-mails are not intercepted by-in-large.
Now guess which country is which: Ireland, which garners a relatively huge amount of IT investment from across the globe, and Britain, which doesn't get as much investment as its skilled workforce, developed infrastructure and cheap(er) overheads would seem to warrent.
As most of you may know, this big difference all came about with the RIP bill in Britain which introduced a lot of these draconian measures. At the same time in Ireland, legality of electronic signatures, privacy of encryption keys etc... were being insured by new legislation.
I amn't suggesting that this difference is the sole cause of the investment in Ireland, but it doesn't hurt the matter at all. Plus it also shows the demand for the legitimate use of cyrptography by big business.
Read this(old) wired story for more.
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