For anyone not following this bit of madness, Chemtrails are the contrails of jetaircraft that seem to have unusual persistence. The conspiracy folks have had a field day with this, and I remain somewhat skeptical.
One angle on this (see site here) is the speculation that the chemtrails are caused by additives to the jetfuel designed to reduce global warming by reflecting more of the solar radiation into space.
This has been an issue that no one really wants to confront, making sure that the stuff submitted to the organization or the site does not not present a legal issue.
You can have flame wars over this stuff. I can recall watching the folks who put this ageement together have an all out brawl over three or four months before they got it nailed down.
Of course people freak when they see a long license agreement. Paranoia takes over.
But there is the other angle, that people are being held responsible for the material they submit, so that the publication (web or otherwise) doesn't take the penalty for your stupidity if you put up something that could cause a legal problem.
When told of the novel form of high-technology prying, Professor Fishman said, "That is astonishing and appalling." But he said that wiretap laws generally applied to intercepting sound, not video. Legal prohibitions on telephone eavesdropping, he said, were passed at the urging of the telecommunications industry, which wanted to ensure that consumers would feel safe using its products. "There's no corresponding lobby out there protecting people from digital surveillance," he said
wonderful.
and of course, no one is running to plug the legal hole.
As Ellison spoke, it occurred to me that he was proposing to reconstruct America's national security strategy along the lines of Oracle's business model. When Oracle moved its business to the Internet in 1995, Ellison complained that its customer information was scattered across hundreds of separate databases, which meant that the German office couldn't share information about customers with the French office. By consolidating 130 separate databases into a single database on the Internet, Ellison said, Oracle saved a billion dollars a year and found it easier to track, monitor and discriminate among its customers. This was what Ellison now wanted to do for America.
I asked if there would be any controls on access to the database. For example, would Ellison want people to be kept off a plane because they were late on their alimony payments?
''Oh, no, I don't think we would keep anyone off on alimony payments,'' Ellison said. ''But if the system designed to catch terrorists also catches mere bank robbers and deadbeat dads, that's O.K. I think that's a good thing. I don't think it's a bad thing.''
never mind anyone else who is politically incorrect.
Many of the Xbox team's original ideas were tossed aside, including the team's proposal that the Xbox run Microsoft's Windows operating system. Upon hearing this, Mr. Gates blew his top. But he eventually saw that Windows would only get in the way of developers creating great games.
Software is just too intensive to use for low level operations. It's SOOO much faster to have it in the hardware.
MS is depending on Moore's law to save them again. And this seems to be a long term strategy - to convert hardware to software, which ties things into the windows OS again.
End result is that we do knot know what actually causes the Ice Ages; these variations seem to be operating at the wrong time scale. More realistic factors include Plate tectonics (the forming of Panama as a link block off the Pacific from the Atlantic) -
Solar activity also indicates global warming on Mars, which would indicate that the sun is slowly warming up.
All of which puts the nature and duration of the current "warm period" into confusion.
But then, I find pictures like this of Mars fascinating, since it looks so much like standing water, when this is of course impossible. I don't know what to make of it. Damn good illusion, if nothing else
[...] in most counties the local Democratic party is run by just a few people, 'cause most people would never think of showing up. Go to the next county or town Party Meeting, and bring ten friends. In most cases, your bunch will constitute a majority. Use the rules and state party by-laws (which can often be found on the Web) and seize control.
[...]
The one think you should definitely run for is precint delegate. Every precint in America elects delegates from each party. It may be the lowliest office, but it is the foundation on which the whole house of cards is built. Selected delgates attend the national party conventions to nominate the presidential candiidates. You should be among them.
And so it should be relatively easy to make an impact on the political parties if you dare to get involved.
But it would take more dedication then the usual chit chart you see in online forums, etc.
"They ran into the reality that many companies don't want any company between them and their customers," said David Smith, vice president for Internet services at the Gartner Group (news/quote), a computer industry consulting and research firm. [...] "There was incredible customer resistance," said a Microsoft.Net consultant, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified. Microsoft was unable to persuade either consumer companies or software developers that it had solved all of the privacy and security issues raised by the prospect of keeping personal information in a centralized repository, he said.
Even if you give them the benefit of the doubt [*cough*] it seems like they jumped the gun just a bit.
After all they are just now wrapping up the one month security review they started back at the beginning of february. yep, that is still going on.
So this is a case where vaporware was not being bought at all, working against them instead of working for them.
You got to wonder about politicians sometimes. Although I did just see an interesting idea on RFN.
In Washington state there is an initiative petition to require all state and local polititions to take the state wide education test, and then to have the info made public and posted in the official voter guides.
This item from the NYTimes story is also a tad disturbing:
Members of the select group initially showed some resistance to the process, but in the end the experience of seeing offending snippets of code on a giant screen in a large auditorium proved humbling, said Michael Howard, the Microsoft security expert who prepared the training material for the company's security retraining and led the security classes.
"Geeks like learning new things, and when they pop out at the end of the process they're entirely brainwashed," he said.
Note that while manager of the 360 project it was Dr. Brooks who specified
that a byte would consist of 8 bits. Whether or not you agree with his decision, it's hard to argue that this has not had a huge impact on the computer field.
"I'd be astonished if the open-source community has in total done as many man-years of computer security code reviews as we have done in the last two months'
I look at all the man months that have gone into the development of Windows, etc. and I look at the results. The sheer amount of time put in is no assurance of the quality of the results.
In fact, if I recall right, the sauthor of the book "the Mythical Man-Month" came to the conclusion that the more people you throw at a software project, the slower the project goes.
So the question is how of the work at MS falls into that category
The author intended exactly this similarity to be funny. Someone mocked your mistake to bring this to your attention (personally, I'd have written, "Gee, you got the punchline, go find the clue'). You then repeated your mistake by not recognizing this and then explaining your obvious error still holding the misconception that you had made a clever discovery of found humor.
I'm spelling this out because you apparently don't have the faintest comprehension of wit.
Please shut up, and improve the signal:noise ratio on slashdot.
this is helpful. Thank you. [smile]
I don't try to engage in mind reading as I am an abysmal failure at it.
That said people telling people to shut up obviously reinforces the group think.
That's the problem with only conversations, sometimes you do not know how many levels of irony and hidden meaning you are supposed to assume.
Of course the criticsm of "you couldn't read his mind, boy are you dumb" sometimes leaves something to be desired. [Shrug]
personally, I don't mind opportunites for education.
Were the parallels really obvious? Gee, you're so smart. I am in awe. This post certainly proves that slashdot is, indeed, for serious intellectual discussion
Since you ask so politely....
well let's see:
Software doesn't evolve by chance, folks, it is DESIGNED by its CREATORS.
verse
Life doesn't evolve by chance, folks, it is DESIGNED by THE CREATOR.
This i a similarity that amused me slightly.
Now of course:
Please check your crackpot theories and psuedo-science at the door./. is a site for SERIOUS INTELLECTUAL DISCUSSION.
relates to the facte that creationism is often characterized as a crack pot theory.
And so the cognitive dissonance of the two juxtasposed to each other seemed funny. Plus the fact that the author obviously would not intend such a similarity as it would be destructive to his/her/it's very viewpoint.
As both probably are taking the situation just a tad too seriously.
and these things are what made it funny to me.
I make no claims to my education or my intelligence. A man has got to know his limitations.
Since 0.9.4, mozilla users have had the ability to block onload and unload pop-ups/unders. I've had zero problems with this. It doesn't block pop-ups you request, just the ones you don't. I've not seen a popup in months and months. It's fantastic.
How? Please elaborate. Is there a function or is this done with scripting? Could you post the scripting?
it is in the preferences area.
Edit -> Preferences-> Advanced-> Scripts and Windows
1) Software doesn't evolve by chance, folks, it is DESIGNED by its CREATORS. Please check your crackpot theories and psuedo-science at the door./. is a site for SERIOUS INTELLECTUAL DISCUSSION.
So I take it you are in favor of creationism?
Sorry, but the parallels were so obvious...;)
2) For extra ammo, Lehman also has expanded the graphs and data from his original studies in the 1970s. Taken together, they show most large software programs growing at an inverse square rate -- think of your typical Moore's Law growth curve rotated 180 degrees -- before succumbing to over-complexity.
I am not holding my breath waiting for Microsoft to keel over into a monstrous pile of cyberwreckage any time soon.
Programming Personality
on
Hospital Robots
·
· Score: 3, Funny
The interesting, almost artistic side to this is the way they program a personality into this.
Done right, the voice will not be annoying, and people will participate into making it a living member of the community.
I, for one, do not want to work in a place where all the robots sound like smurfs, or have their personality. Or the voice of Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, president Bush, or any other celebrity.
well, maybe Majel Roddenberry, the voice of the computer in Start Trek.
Slashdot Mirror
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html
good stuff
watch out for the time dialation.
In your case this involves the laws of your country and the laws of the country where the publication is printed, etc.
For anyone not following this bit of madness, Chemtrails are the contrails of jetaircraft that seem to have unusual persistence. The conspiracy folks have had a field day with this, and I remain somewhat skeptical.
One angle on this (see site here) is the speculation that the chemtrails are caused by additives to the jetfuel designed to reduce global warming by reflecting more of the solar radiation into space.
They even cite this US Patent (5003186) as proof of concept.
truely strange stuff.
The thought that someone may already be engineering or terraforming the earth is slightly disturbing.
You can have flame wars over this stuff. I can recall watching the folks who put this ageement together have an all out brawl over three or four months before they got it nailed down.
Of course people freak when they see a long license agreement. Paranoia takes over.
But there is the other angle, that people are being held responsible for the material they submit, so that the publication (web or otherwise) doesn't take the penalty for your stupidity if you put up something that could cause a legal problem.
http://www.conceptlab.com/fly/
And yes, there is a video (2.2meg QT) and extended wiring diagrams
wonderful.
and of course, no one is running to plug the legal hole.
I asked if there would be any controls on access to the database. For example, would Ellison want people to be kept off a plane because they were late on their alimony payments?
''Oh, no, I don't think we would keep anyone off on alimony payments,'' Ellison said. ''But if the system designed to catch terrorists also catches mere bank robbers and deadbeat dads, that's O.K. I think that's a good thing. I don't think it's a bad thing.''
never mind anyone else who is politically incorrect.
Talk about trust worthy computing.
Who do you trust?
Many of the Xbox team's original ideas were tossed aside, including the team's proposal that the Xbox run Microsoft's Windows operating system. Upon hearing this, Mr. Gates blew his top. But he eventually saw that Windows would only get in the way of developers creating great games.
MS is depending on Moore's law to save them again. And this seems to be a long term strategy - to convert hardware to software, which ties things into the windows OS again.
Another secret of bloatware is reveiled.
Unfortunately, the periodic elements usually cite as contributing to an Ice Age usually vary over tens of thousands of years, not Millions. Check out thies graphs on Orbital eccentricity, Axis Tilt, and Precession of the Equinoxes. There is a Composite Graph as well.
End result is that we do knot know what actually causes the Ice Ages; these variations seem to be operating at the wrong time scale. More realistic factors include Plate tectonics (the forming of Panama as a link block off the Pacific from the Atlantic) - Solar activity also indicates global warming on Mars, which would indicate that the sun is slowly warming up.
All of which puts the nature and duration of the current "warm period" into confusion.
But then, I find pictures like this of Mars fascinating, since it looks so much like standing water, when this is of course impossible. I don't know what to make of it. Damn good illusion, if nothing else
If this proves correct, it would date the discovery at more than 5,000 years old.
Actually I thought the sea level rose about 120 meters at the end of the last ice age (starting about 20,000 years ago)
There are some interesting graphics here: One, Two, Three
but I thought that part of the spectrum under consideration had also been set aside for wireless.
I know there was a small flap on something like this back last October, while everyone had their attention elsewhere.
Greed moves on
But it would take more dedication then the usual chit chart you see in online forums, etc.
Even if you give them the benefit of the doubt [*cough*] it seems like they jumped the gun just a bit.
After all they are just now wrapping up the one month security review they started back at the beginning of february. yep, that is still going on.
So this is a case where vaporware was not being bought at all, working against them instead of working for them.
Obviously, if they don't get their act together, they will have to push on their MS Linux Project
In Washington state there is an initiative petition to require all state and local polititions to take the state wide education test, and then to have the info made public and posted in the official voter guides.
you can see that story here.
Given the usual hassles and cluelessness with polititions, I like this.
so much for life after Microsoft.
"primary development does not scale, debugging does."
Which of course applies to the open source movement. As briefly discussed on this page.
side note:
Note that while manager of the 360 project it was Dr. Brooks who specified that a byte would consist of 8 bits. Whether or not you agree with his decision, it's hard to argue that this has not had a huge impact on the computer field.
Which is interesting trivia by itself.
I look at all the man months that have gone into the development of Windows, etc. and I look at the results. The sheer amount of time put in is no assurance of the quality of the results.
In fact, if I recall right, the sauthor of the book "the Mythical Man-Month" came to the conclusion that the more people you throw at a software project, the slower the project goes.
So the question is how of the work at MS falls into that category
this is helpful. Thank you. [smile]
I don't try to engage in mind reading as I am an abysmal failure at it.
That said people telling people to shut up obviously reinforces the group think.
That's the problem with only conversations, sometimes you do not know how many levels of irony and hidden meaning you are supposed to assume.
Of course the criticsm of "you couldn't read his mind, boy are you dumb" sometimes leaves something to be desired. [Shrug]
personally, I don't mind opportunites for education.
Since you ask so politely ....
well let's see:
This i a similarity that amused me slightly.Now of course:
relates to the facte that creationism is often characterized as a crack pot theory.And so the cognitive dissonance of the two juxtasposed to each other seemed funny. Plus the fact that the author obviously would not intend such a similarity as it would be destructive to his/her/it's very viewpoint.
As both probably are taking the situation just a tad too seriously.
and these things are what made it funny to me.
I make no claims to my education or my intelligence. A man has got to know his limitations.
How? Please elaborate. Is there a function or is this done with scripting? Could you post the scripting?
it is in the preferences area.
Edit -> Preferences-> Advanced-> Scripts and Windows
1) Software doesn't evolve by chance, folks, it is DESIGNED by its CREATORS. Please check your crackpot theories and psuedo-science at the door. /. is a site for SERIOUS INTELLECTUAL DISCUSSION.
So I take it you are in favor of creationism?
Sorry, but the parallels were so obvious ... ;)
2) For extra ammo, Lehman also has expanded the graphs and data from his original studies in the 1970s. Taken together, they show most large software programs growing at an inverse square rate -- think of your typical Moore's Law growth curve rotated 180 degrees -- before succumbing to over-complexity.
I am not holding my breath waiting for Microsoft to keel over into a monstrous pile of cyberwreckage any time soon.
Done right, the voice will not be annoying, and people will participate into making it a living member of the community.
I, for one, do not want to work in a place where all the robots sound like smurfs, or have their personality. Or the voice of Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, president Bush, or any other celebrity.
well, maybe Majel Roddenberry, the voice of the computer in Start Trek.
After the completion of the English Channel Tunnel, this is now seen to be at least in the realm of possibility.
Heck, there has been some discussion on this already.