The "mathematical analysis" in the article is far from rigorous.
Furthermore, it's only a hypothesis that such an advantage exists. Everything hinges on the assumption that rw is a proper measure of hardware complexity, or in other words that the incremental cost of increasing the radix is the same as the incremental cost of increasing the number of digits.
Essentially they're saying that since a number system based on e scales naturally it should be the ideal choice for representing data. The rw they are referring to is the number base times the number of digits needed to represent a number. Their assertion is that this will be smaller with base e than it would be with other number systems for most practical number bases(if we had a base 1000 system we would be doing up to 1000 symbol lookups for each position, and this overhead would outweigh the advantages of a lower number of digits in the representation, thereby disqualifying it for consideration as a "practical" number base). I don't disagree with this portion. Therefore, each bit would have more meaning with a ternary-based computer than with other number bases and still have a low enough base so we don't waste time calculating what each digit is during conversions because the base is small and any operations on two such numbers would be more efficient to implement in hardware because the registers would be smaller than registers which could represent the same large number in another base.
I disagree with this portion. Real world data would require a large amount of manipulation to make it work in a base-e system. It might be possible to use the properties of natural logs to do all this conversion, perform your operations, then convert back, but I'm not convinced that converting to base e and then back is more efficient/less prone to roundoff or approximation error than converting to base 2, doing operations, and converting back.
Steven
e is the ideal base for efficiency?
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I've never heard this claim, anyone have a link, highly techincal and/or mathematical is fine with me.
"to residential businesses" should be "to residences, or home-based businesses"
"1G wireless is just to unreliable" should be "1G wireless is just to unreliable/expensive/difficult to set up."
That'll teach me to read three different stories, four straight dope message board threads, eat lunch, carry on conversations with cube-neighbors and do admin work on a database server at the same time.
One of the major reasons networks like Sprint, AT&T and MCI can't bring programs like ION(rest in piece, you were a great idea, and deserved better. My friends who have the service will fight tooth and nail to keep it even though Sprint is canceling it) to residential businesses is because the "Baby Bells" own the local loops. I know that both Sprint and AT&T are watching wireless very closely. Both have been burned trying first generation fixed wireless and have had to stop offering the service because 1G wireless is just to unreliable. I'm not sure about MCI, but I would be suprised if they're not on top of it as well.
With the next generation of wireless, we just may see some viable offerings from these companies for broadband. If, and this is a big if, it can be done before the Bells roll out DSL on a wide scale. The race is on, and the last mile is at stake.
Anyway, the wierd thing I learned from this guy was that the upper management at Microsoft actually plans to be collecting revenue from basically every computer user in the world through liscenses and.NET services in the pretty near future...They live in a reality where they believe everybody has a buttload of money to spend on "web services" and software liscenses, and as soon as they open the floodgates its just gonna come pouring in!
Ah, I see he didn't let you know about the third.NET product. Makes sense, since it's all hush-hush and everything, but once we see how VB.NET and MyServices.NET go, then they'll decide if their most devious.NET innovation will go live. And if/when it does, it will indeed open floodgates and people will simply pour in. The name of this service?
Oh, I figure it will happen around the same time as Joe Sixpack learns to check and see if he has IIS running on his pre-loaded system from Best Buy and applies the proper patches to keep it secure.
Face it, technophiles are fine with this measure of the RIAA's. It simply won't affect us, but the RIAA, for all their mouthing, doesn't give a damn about us. We're such a small number of people we simply don't matter. It's the Joe Sixpacks they're worried about. If they can make Joe's experience with P2P miserable(and tying up your phone line all night to download a couple of songs will certainly be miserable) then they've done their job. Any action on the part of P2P servant providers to filter these type of connections through a central MAPS-type database would be attacked like all other companies who have had any central architecture to attack have been.
I'm afraid this has a possibility of working in the short term at least. Anyway, everyone knows real pirates use Usenet or IRC.
My god man, did you just say that? Evolved INTO script kiddies? If there is a lower form of life, I don't want to know about it. I'll just be over here with my head in the sand, thankyouverymuch.
I promise, next time I sign onto the gnutella network I won't trade any music! I promise, I promise, I promise! Just please, please, please don't take my P2P porn source away.
*Rushes out to buy a copy of the latest Britney Spears and NSync CDs to help appease the RIAA. Holds them up over his head.* See! I'm not hurting your business model! Leave my P2P network alone, please?
In an interview Friday, RIAA lobbyist Mitch Glazier said that his association has abandoned plans to insert that amendment into anti-terrorism bills -- and instead is supporting a revised amendment that takes a more modest approach.
...
"We might try and block somebody," Glazier said. "If we know someone is operating a server, a pirated music facility, we could try to take measures to try and prevent them from uploading or transmitting pirated documents."
The RIAA believes that this kind of technological "self-help" against online pirates, if done carefully, is legal under current federal law. But the RIAA is worried about the USA Act banning that practice -- and neither the Senate nor the House versions of that bill include the RIAA's suggested changes.
Glazier said that the RIAA was no longer lobbying for the language provided to Wired News -- "that's completely out" -- but instead wanted to ensure that current law remains the same. But Glazier said he could not provide a copy of the revised amendment he hopes to include.
Really it speaks for itself. The RIAA believes it is ALREADY legal to hack systems they believe to be distributing "pirated" material. The new Anti-Terrorism acts would make it illegal, so they're trying to build in a loophole. This isn't something they're just tacking onto a anti-terrorist bill, this is something they're trying to modify about an anti-terrorist bill so it doesn't apply to them. Essentially they're terrorists, but want to buy exemption with their fat wallets.
Oh yea baby, I would be good at this. You see, the crappy OS I am forced to use at home to play the games I like to play regularly fscks up and locks my keyboard. There are times when I don't feel like rebooting to fix that, especially if I'm surfing and don't plan on using the keyboard much. So occasionally I'll visit a site that I have to log in to. When this happens, I just look around on the page for the letters/numbers which make up my username/password and copy paste them one or two at a time into the appropriate box. So when the keystroke loggers come, I'll be ready. Who'd have thought that locking my keyboard out at random times would have been a feature?
I think you're looking at this the wrong way. We have methods, sure they're relatively inefficient and costly right now, to generate electric power in stationary places. Hydroelectric, solar, wind turbines, geothermal, etc. Now we use that to run huge electrolytic converters to get the hydrogen we need for fuel cells. Bang, a end-to-end replacement for fossil fule dependancy. We could have massive hydroelectric/geothermal power plants for cities and fuel cells for portable power.
It, or something like it, will happen, it has to. Fossil fuels simply are not going to last.
What's more, the Sixth Amendment's "double jeopardy" clause is still in effect (one of the few clauses with some teeth left in it after decades of judicial erosion).
Hmm, like the First Ammendment? Or the Second, or the...
You know, I'm not sure that would have ticked off the Klingons. To a warrior race, losing one person in unknown territory would be no big deal in my opinion. Of course I didn't know HOW the Klingon got injured(thanks for that spoiler BTW:P ) so that might have made a difference too.
on startrek.com It looks like this episode will be the first contact of the humans and the Klingon Empire. There is great tension in the video clip between Archer and the human commanders and the Vulcans who believe the humans aren't ready for interstellar diplomacy yet. They will obviously be proven right and the war with the Klingons will ensue as a result of Archer's actions.
I'm looking forward to watching the episode which relates what Jean-Luc Picard later referred to as "A poorly handled first contact [which] led to decades of war with the Klingon Empire."(said in a episode where Riker and a couple of other under-cover agents investigating a planet that is a candidate for contact were discovered, don't remember the episode name, but it was a decent one)
The same idea can be applied to ISPs. The major cost of an ISP is the customer support staff to go along with it. I'm sure there's a LOT of people out there that would gladly save 10%-25% of their Internet fee in exchange for having no customer support (since most people-in-the-know don't use it anyway)./I?
I think I should qualify for this discount already, dumb ass sonsabitches at my ISP's support line.
Construx beat Robotix? You're out of your fscking gourd! I had all of the generation 1 Robotix sets when I was a kid, those things were serously tough! I had a small screwdriver(from a eyeglass repair kit) that I kept with them to pry the damn things apart with. Once you put something together out of these, man, it stayed together. The motors had more torque than many small cars today, but the deciding factor would have to be "Argus's Jaws" This was a mock-up dinosaur head which could hold a motor and would open and close it's jaws on things. Man, this thing had some powerful chompers, I still have scars!
Come on, anyone else remeber the R-2000(Argus) Robotix set? Anyone else feel that bite?
Standing between the record companies and the radio stations is a legendary team of industry players called independent record promoters, or "indies."
The indies are the shadowy middlemen record companies will pay hundreds of millions of dollars to this year to get songs played on the radio. Indies align themselves with certain radio stations by promising the stations "promotional payments" in the six figures. Then, every time the radio station adds a Shaggy or Madonna or Janet Jackson song to its playlist, the indie gets paid by the record label.
...
The indie promoter was once a tireless hustler, the lobbyist who worked the phones on behalf of record companies, cajoling station jocks and program directors, or P.D.s, to add a new song to their playlists. Sure, once in a while the indies showed their appreciation by sending some cocaine or hookers to station employees, but the colorful crew of fix-it men were basically providing a service: forging relationships with the gatekeepers in the complex world of radio, and turning that service into a deceptively simple and lucrative business. If record companies wanted access to radio, they had to pay.
Damn it! I was a DJ for nearly three years! At a 100,000 watt station(the most powerful broadcast allowed by law)! I got to play pretty much whatever I wanted to play. Our station had a HUGE(over 2,500 songs) playlist. Hell, there were some segments of our day when we would play jazz or classical or even bluegrass! But I tell you, that would all have changed and I would have spun Britney Spears like she was goin' out of style if I had known I could get some cocaine and hookers out of it! Damn sorry sonsobitches.
Steven
Re:Huge outpourings of generosity
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Mea Culpa. I cut and pasted this from an email that I had sent to my family. I made some modifications because it was going out to a much larger audience who doesn't know me as well(adding qualifiers about who Melissa and Alexis are). I have been called on this point twice now, and I wish I had thought about it before I posted it. Sigh.
Steven
Attacks against Islamic Mosques in the US
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More WTC News
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· Score: 3, Insightful
There have been Islamic mosques attacked in the US by vigilantees. Two incidents in my metro area today.
I promised an Islamic friend at work that if there begin to be efforts to profile Islamic/Arabic members of the population(as there was during WW2 with the Japanese population, and some of them even sent off to camps) that at least myself and my household would vehemntly protest to anyone who would listen and a few who wouldn't.
I fear this is just the beginning.
Steven
Re:Huge outpourings of generosity
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Agreed. You might have noticed that I mentioned I am a gallon-plus donor myself and my wife has donated multiple times as well. Our local office said they need 12 donations a day to keep up with local demand. Usually they don't get it and have to do blood drives.
Everyone, make it a point to donate at every opportunity. Believe me, it's one of the best things you can do for your fellow human beings at ANY time.
Steven
An article from a Canadian Journalist.
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I was sent this via email, I apologize if it has been posted before. With the large volume of comments which have been made, I simply can't read them all before I post.
This, from a Canadian newspaper, is worth sharing.
America: The Good Neighbor.
Widespread but only partial news coverage was given recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a
Canadian television commentator. What follows is the full text of his trenchant remarks as printed in the Congressional Record:
"This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth.
Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars
and forgave other billions in debts. None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.
When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59 American communities were flattened by tornadoes. Nobody helped.
The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans.
I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10? If so, why don't they fly them?
Why do all the International lines except Russia fly American Planes?
Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the moon - not once, but several times - and safely home again.
You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not
pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, and most of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke.
I can name you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced
to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope
Canada is not one of those."
"Stand proud, America!"
And a link to an image I found on another message board which pretty much sums up my feelings about the matter.
http://www.bailbondsupplies.com/chris_only/home_ pa ge/home_p1.jpg
Steven
Re:Huge outpourings of generosity
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I wish I had thought about it when I originally posted that, but the number of people across the metroplex who have been donating blood and helping is staggering. Lest someone look at my figures of a hundred people yesterday and today and think that palty, I would remind you that there were no less than a dozen small centers like the one I was at, all at least equally busy and there were several emergency blood drives set up. The largest was at Reunion Arena in Downtown Dallas and had over 1,600 people in line to donate blood. They had 35 nurses drawing blood full-time and over a hundred assistants and the line was still just barely crawling. The estimated time for those waiting in line was over 8 hours! They had to ask all the non-O type blood donors to go home and come back tomorrow because they couldn't keep up with the sheer press of people who were there to give the gift of life in the wake of this tragedy. All in all there have been thousands and thousands of units of blood donated across the DFW area in the past 36 hours. An amazing response. And as I said in my original post, those who were sent home, even after waiting hours and hours, still CAME BACK THE NEXT DAY! They waited hours AGAIN! All to donate blood for people they don't know, and who will probably never meet. Truly a great gift in todays age of impatience and lack of leisure time.
Steven
Huge outpourings of generosity
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Not only monetarially, even though my company has donated over $500,000 already, there have been many, many more stories of fantastic generosity in the face of these attacks. Allow me to share a story.
I have a story to relate about blood donating today. My wife Melissa and I went to our local donation center yesterday to try to donate blood. We picked our daughter Alexis up early from school and went to stand in line. We got there around 3 and put our names on the list. After waiting about 45 minutes or so we were told it would be at least a couple more hours, so we went home and made some sandwiches and had a light dinner, then went back around 5. Around 6:20 we were told the nurses were exhausted and wouldn't be able to get very many more people through and we were asked to make appointments for donating the next day. We made an appointment for noon the next day and left.
All of that is kind of peripheral to the story though. The real story is the vast number of other people who were there. There was a line of people out the door and halfway around the building. I'd estimate a hundred people or more. For a donation center which only services about a dozen people a day on a regular day, this was an extremely busy day. They were eliminating much of the paperwork and putting it off so they could keep up the rate at which they actually drew blood(I later found out that they had stayed past 11 to catch up on the paperwork even though they stopped drawing blood around 7). But the donors were there, and they stayed there for HOURS. There were people who were there, standing outside the doors of the donation center, from before noon until almost 6 PM. The mood was very friendly, there was not too much chatting, everything was kind of subdued, but optimistic and glad to do whatever they could to help, even though they were hundreds of miles away(the DFW area) and no one I spoke with knew anyone in those areas. They were just there because they felt it was the right thing to do. There was a little bit of grumbling when people were turned away, but most made future appointments.
Today Melissa and I went back for our noon appointment. The place was packed again. There was a line out the door AGAIN! There were donations of food and refreshments from local stores. Papa Johns pizza had a person who had come out early that morning with the back of his SUV loaded with pizza and sodas. He donated blood and then spent the rest of the day handing out pizza and drinks to any and everyone who wanted some who was waiting in line. He left a couple of times to go get more and fresh pizza for the staff and people donating. The backup and wait was large again. People were taking a number, getting a time estimate of when their number would be called then going back to work and calling in when their time was close. If they were about to be called, they left work and came back. And they REALLY DID COME BACK!
Jason's Deli dropped off several party trays of snacks and bags and bags of deli sandwiches like they would bring to a catered event. The Kroger down the street came by with supplies of bottled water and food because many people, myself included, were skipping lunch to come stand in line. Both today and last night there were several people who took the day off work/school to volunteer at the center to handle the non-medical work. They were passing out questionnaires, making sure all the donor info was filled out correctly, keeping the lines flowing smoothly and doing their best to keep the work flowing well. I estimate six or seven volunteers last night and an equal number today. Things like bringing new bags and tourniquets for the nurses, keeping the lines in order, walking up and down the lines answering questions about the wait, how long you have to wait between donations, reassuring people who were first-time donors and who were nervous.
There was a young man who skipped school today because he felt that volunteering to help the nurses at the donation center was more important. When I saw him he was helping a woman who was feeling faint after donating by keeping her company and keeping a cool, wet rag on her forehead and bringing her drinks and snacks. He was running errands for the nurses and helping patients in any way he could. He was cracking jokes and making many people feel more comfortable during what is a very nerve wracking experience for first time donors. The nurses expressed their appreciation for his efforts a couple of times in the short time I was there.
The number of people who shared their time, their money, their very lifeblood(literally!) to give aid to strangers whom they shared nothing with except the distinction of being Americans. Then the acknowledgement of the needs of the support workers who do vital things like draw blood and the outpouring of help given by volunteers and local businesses. Melissa and I were spending time re-assuring first time donors(I've donated well over a gallon and Melissa has donated several times as well) and while she was on the table(after I was done) I took the kids and went across the street and purchased several gallons of orange juice and apple juice to stock the pantry of the donation center(it is important to drink juice or water, not soda, because soda is a diuretic). I wish I could do more and so do many of the other people who were in line. America has a fantastic reputation for pulling together in a time of crisis, and I consider myself privileged to have been in the same room with so many giving, caring people yesterday and today. If any of you can, please donate blood and/or support the Red Cross.
I'm including a snippet of an email sent out to us at work with contact info for the local Red Cross and donation info. If you're not in the DFW area, please look up your local chapter and ask what they need. Typically they need money because they can't ship supplies up there due to air travel restrictions.
If you would like to donate money, you can make checks payable to Red Cross, and mail directly to:
Red Cross
4800 Harry Hines Blvd.
Dallas, TX 75235
Writing DR789 in the memo line of your check will ensure the money goes directly to the victims of the WTC and Pentagon tragedies.
Or, you can call 1-800-HELP-NOW to make a donation by phone. For more information, go to the Red Cross website at www.redcross.org. Since they are having heavy web traffic today, you may or may not be able to access the site.
Slashdot Mirror
Simply lay it side by side with a roll of 72mm camera film.
Really, the answer isn't as obvious as you seem to think.
Steven
Time for a nap, dude...
An excelleng suggezzz...
Steven
Essentially they're saying that since a number system based on e scales naturally it should be the ideal choice for representing data. The rw they are referring to is the number base times the number of digits needed to represent a number. Their assertion is that this will be smaller with base e than it would be with other number systems for most practical number bases(if we had a base 1000 system we would be doing up to 1000 symbol lookups for each position, and this overhead would outweigh the advantages of a lower number of digits in the representation, thereby disqualifying it for consideration as a "practical" number base). I don't disagree with this portion. Therefore, each bit would have more meaning with a ternary-based computer than with other number bases and still have a low enough base so we don't waste time calculating what each digit is during conversions because the base is small and any operations on two such numbers would be more efficient to implement in hardware because the registers would be smaller than registers which could represent the same large number in another base.
I disagree with this portion. Real world data would require a large amount of manipulation to make it work in a base-e system. It might be possible to use the properties of natural logs to do all this conversion, perform your operations, then convert back, but I'm not convinced that converting to base e and then back is more efficient/less prone to roundoff or approximation error than converting to base 2, doing operations, and converting back.
Steven
I've never heard this claim, anyone have a link, highly techincal and/or mathematical is fine with me.
Steven
Sigh. A few corrections/clarifications.
"to residential businesses" should be "to residences, or home-based businesses"
"1G wireless is just to unreliable" should be "1G wireless is just to unreliable/expensive/difficult to set up."
That'll teach me to read three different stories, four straight dope message board threads, eat lunch, carry on conversations with cube-neighbors and do admin work on a database server at the same time.
Steven
One of the major reasons networks like Sprint, AT&T and MCI can't bring programs like ION(rest in piece, you were a great idea, and deserved better. My friends who have the service will fight tooth and nail to keep it even though Sprint is canceling it) to residential businesses is because the "Baby Bells" own the local loops. I know that both Sprint and AT&T are watching wireless very closely. Both have been burned trying first generation fixed wireless and have had to stop offering the service because 1G wireless is just to unreliable. I'm not sure about MCI, but I would be suprised if they're not on top of it as well.
With the next generation of wireless, we just may see some viable offerings from these companies for broadband. If, and this is a big if, it can be done before the Bells roll out DSL on a wide scale. The race is on, and the last mile is at stake.
Steven
Anyway, the wierd thing I learned from this guy was that the upper management at Microsoft actually plans to be collecting revenue from basically every computer user in the world through liscenses and .NET services in the pretty near future...They live in a reality where they believe everybody has a buttload of money to spend on "web services" and software liscenses, and as soon as they open the floodgates its just gonna come pouring in!
.NET product. Makes sense, since it's all hush-hush and everything, but once we see how VB.NET and MyServices.NET go, then they'll decide if their most devious .NET innovation will go live. And if/when it does, it will indeed open floodgates and people will simply pour in. The name of this service?
Ah, I see he didn't let you know about the third
Porn.NET
Steven
Oh, I figure it will happen around the same time as Joe Sixpack learns to check and see if he has IIS running on his pre-loaded system from Best Buy and applies the proper patches to keep it secure.
Face it, technophiles are fine with this measure of the RIAA's. It simply won't affect us, but the RIAA, for all their mouthing, doesn't give a damn about us. We're such a small number of people we simply don't matter. It's the Joe Sixpacks they're worried about. If they can make Joe's experience with P2P miserable(and tying up your phone line all night to download a couple of songs will certainly be miserable) then they've done their job. Any action on the part of P2P servant providers to filter these type of connections through a central MAPS-type database would be attacked like all other companies who have had any central architecture to attack have been.
I'm afraid this has a possibility of working in the short term at least. Anyway, everyone knows real pirates use Usenet or IRC.
Steven
And now they've evolved into script kiddies.
My god man, did you just say that? Evolved INTO script kiddies? If there is a lower form of life, I don't want to know about it. I'll just be over here with my head in the sand, thankyouverymuch.
Steven
I promise, next time I sign onto the gnutella network I won't trade any music! I promise, I promise, I promise! Just please, please, please don't take my P2P porn source away.
*Rushes out to buy a copy of the latest Britney Spears and NSync CDs to help appease the RIAA. Holds them up over his head.* See! I'm not hurting your business model! Leave my P2P network alone, please?
Steven
Really it speaks for itself. The RIAA believes it is ALREADY legal to hack systems they believe to be distributing "pirated" material. The new Anti-Terrorism acts would make it illegal, so they're trying to build in a loophole. This isn't something they're just tacking onto a anti-terrorist bill, this is something they're trying to modify about an anti-terrorist bill so it doesn't apply to them. Essentially they're terrorists, but want to buy exemption with their fat wallets.
Steven
Oh yea baby, I would be good at this. You see, the crappy OS I am forced to use at home to play the games I like to play regularly fscks up and locks my keyboard. There are times when I don't feel like rebooting to fix that, especially if I'm surfing and don't plan on using the keyboard much. So occasionally I'll visit a site that I have to log in to. When this happens, I just look around on the page for the letters/numbers which make up my username/password and copy paste them one or two at a time into the appropriate box. So when the keystroke loggers come, I'll be ready. Who'd have thought that locking my keyboard out at random times would have been a feature?
Steven
I think you're looking at this the wrong way. We have methods, sure they're relatively inefficient and costly right now, to generate electric power in stationary places. Hydroelectric, solar, wind turbines, geothermal, etc. Now we use that to run huge electrolytic converters to get the hydrogen we need for fuel cells. Bang, a end-to-end replacement for fossil fule dependancy. We could have massive hydroelectric/geothermal power plants for cities and fuel cells for portable power.
It, or something like it, will happen, it has to. Fossil fuels simply are not going to last.
Steven
What's more, the Sixth Amendment's "double jeopardy" clause is still in effect (one of the few clauses with some teeth left in it after decades of judicial erosion).
Hmm, like the First Ammendment? Or the Second, or the...
Methinks you're being naieve.
Steven
You know, I'm not sure that would have ticked off the Klingons. To a warrior race, losing one person in unknown territory would be no big deal in my opinion. Of course I didn't know HOW the Klingon got injured(thanks for that spoiler BTW :P ) so that might have made a difference too.
Steven
on startrek.com It looks like this episode will be the first contact of the humans and the Klingon Empire. There is great tension in the video clip between Archer and the human commanders and the Vulcans who believe the humans aren't ready for interstellar diplomacy yet. They will obviously be proven right and the war with the Klingons will ensue as a result of Archer's actions.
I'm looking forward to watching the episode which relates what Jean-Luc Picard later referred to as "A poorly handled first contact [which] led to decades of war with the Klingon Empire."(said in a episode where Riker and a couple of other under-cover agents investigating a planet that is a candidate for contact were discovered, don't remember the episode name, but it was a decent one)
Steven
The same idea can be applied to ISPs. The major cost of an ISP is the customer support staff to go along with it. I'm sure there's a LOT of people out there that would gladly save 10%-25% of their Internet fee in exchange for having no customer support (since most people-in-the-know don't use it anyway). /I?
I think I should qualify for this discount already, dumb ass sonsabitches at my ISP's support line.
Steven
Construx beat Robotix? You're out of your fscking gourd! I had all of the generation 1 Robotix sets when I was a kid, those things were serously tough! I had a small screwdriver(from a eyeglass repair kit) that I kept with them to pry the damn things apart with. Once you put something together out of these, man, it stayed together. The motors had more torque than many small cars today, but the deciding factor would have to be "Argus's Jaws" This was a mock-up dinosaur head which could hold a motor and would open and close it's jaws on things. Man, this thing had some powerful chompers, I still have scars!
Come on, anyone else remeber the R-2000(Argus) Robotix set? Anyone else feel that bite?
Steven
Standing between the record companies and the radio stations is a legendary team of industry players called independent record promoters, or "indies."
The indies are the shadowy middlemen record companies will pay hundreds of millions of dollars to this year to get songs played on the radio. Indies align themselves with certain radio stations by promising the stations "promotional payments" in the six figures. Then, every time the radio station adds a Shaggy or Madonna or Janet Jackson song to its playlist, the indie gets paid by the record label.
...
The indie promoter was once a tireless hustler, the lobbyist who worked the phones on behalf of record companies, cajoling station jocks and program directors, or P.D.s, to add a new song to their playlists. Sure, once in a while the indies showed their appreciation by sending some cocaine or hookers to station employees, but the colorful crew of fix-it men were basically providing a service: forging relationships with the gatekeepers in the complex world of radio, and turning that service into a deceptively simple and lucrative business. If record companies wanted access to radio, they had to pay.
Damn it! I was a DJ for nearly three years! At a 100,000 watt station(the most powerful broadcast allowed by law)! I got to play pretty much whatever I wanted to play. Our station had a HUGE(over 2,500 songs) playlist. Hell, there were some segments of our day when we would play jazz or classical or even bluegrass! But I tell you, that would all have changed and I would have spun Britney Spears like she was goin' out of style if I had known I could get some cocaine and hookers out of it! Damn sorry sonsobitches.
Steven
Mea Culpa. I cut and pasted this from an email that I had sent to my family. I made some modifications because it was going out to a much larger audience who doesn't know me as well(adding qualifiers about who Melissa and Alexis are). I have been called on this point twice now, and I wish I had thought about it before I posted it. Sigh.
Steven
There have been Islamic mosques attacked in the US by vigilantees. Two incidents in my metro area today.
r ie s2/469307_mosque.html
r ie s2/469117_mosque12e.html
http://www.dallasnews.com/attack_on_america/sto
http://www.dallasnews.com/attack_on_america/sto
I promised an Islamic friend at work that if there begin to be efforts to profile Islamic/Arabic members of the population(as there was during WW2 with the Japanese population, and some of them even sent off to camps) that at least myself and my household would vehemntly protest to anyone who would listen and a few who wouldn't.
I fear this is just the beginning.
Steven
Agreed. You might have noticed that I mentioned I am a gallon-plus donor myself and my wife has donated multiple times as well. Our local office said they need 12 donations a day to keep up with local demand. Usually they don't get it and have to do blood drives.
Everyone, make it a point to donate at every opportunity. Believe me, it's one of the best things you can do for your fellow human beings at ANY time.
Steven
And a link to an image I found on another message board which pretty much sums up my feelings about the matter.
http://www.bailbondsupplies.com/chris_only/home
Steven
I wish I had thought about it when I originally posted that, but the number of people across the metroplex who have been donating blood and helping is staggering. Lest someone look at my figures of a hundred people yesterday and today and think that palty, I would remind you that there were no less than a dozen small centers like the one I was at, all at least equally busy and there were several emergency blood drives set up. The largest was at Reunion Arena in Downtown Dallas and had over 1,600 people in line to donate blood. They had 35 nurses drawing blood full-time and over a hundred assistants and the line was still just barely crawling. The estimated time for those waiting in line was over 8 hours! They had to ask all the non-O type blood donors to go home and come back tomorrow because they couldn't keep up with the sheer press of people who were there to give the gift of life in the wake of this tragedy. All in all there have been thousands and thousands of units of blood donated across the DFW area in the past 36 hours. An amazing response. And as I said in my original post, those who were sent home, even after waiting hours and hours, still CAME BACK THE NEXT DAY! They waited hours AGAIN! All to donate blood for people they don't know, and who will probably never meet. Truly a great gift in todays age of impatience and lack of leisure time.
Steven
Not only monetarially, even though my company has donated over $500,000 already, there have been many, many more stories of fantastic generosity in the face of these attacks. Allow me to share a story.
I have a story to relate about blood donating today. My wife Melissa and I went to our local donation center yesterday to try to donate blood. We picked our daughter Alexis up early from school and went to stand in line. We got there around 3 and put our names on the list. After waiting about 45 minutes or so we were told it would be at least a couple more hours, so we went home and made some sandwiches and had a light dinner, then went back around 5. Around 6:20 we were told the nurses were exhausted and wouldn't be able to get very many more people through and we were asked to make appointments for donating the next day. We made an appointment for noon the next day and left.
All of that is kind of peripheral to the story though. The real story is the vast number of other people who were there. There was a line of people out the door and halfway around the building. I'd estimate a hundred people or more. For a donation center which only services about a dozen people a day on a regular day, this was an extremely busy day. They were eliminating much of the paperwork and putting it off so they could keep up the rate at which they actually drew blood(I later found out that they had stayed past 11 to catch up on the paperwork even though they stopped drawing blood around 7). But the donors were there, and they stayed there for HOURS. There were people who were there, standing outside the doors of the donation center, from before noon until almost 6 PM. The mood was very friendly, there was not too much chatting, everything was kind of subdued, but optimistic and glad to do whatever they could to help, even though they were hundreds of miles away(the DFW area) and no one I spoke with knew anyone in those areas. They were just there because they felt it was the right thing to do. There was a little bit of grumbling when people were turned away, but most made future appointments.
Today Melissa and I went back for our noon appointment. The place was packed again. There was a line out the door AGAIN! There were donations of food and refreshments from local stores. Papa Johns pizza had a person who had come out early that morning with the back of his SUV loaded with pizza and sodas. He donated blood and then spent the rest of the day handing out pizza and drinks to any and everyone who wanted some who was waiting in line. He left a couple of times to go get more and fresh pizza for the staff and people donating. The backup and wait was large again. People were taking a number, getting a time estimate of when their number would be called then going back to work and calling in when their time was close. If they were about to be called, they left work and came back. And they REALLY DID COME BACK!
Jason's Deli dropped off several party trays of snacks and bags and bags of deli sandwiches like they would bring to a catered event. The Kroger down the street came by with supplies of bottled water and food because many people, myself included, were skipping lunch to come stand in line. Both today and last night there were several people who took the day off work/school to volunteer at the center to handle the non-medical work. They were passing out questionnaires, making sure all the donor info was filled out correctly, keeping the lines flowing smoothly and doing their best to keep the work flowing well. I estimate six or seven volunteers last night and an equal number today. Things like bringing new bags and tourniquets for the nurses, keeping the lines in order, walking up and down the lines answering questions about the wait, how long you have to wait between donations, reassuring people who were first-time donors and who were nervous.
There was a young man who skipped school today because he felt that volunteering to help the nurses at the donation center was more important. When I saw him he was helping a woman who was feeling faint after donating by keeping her company and keeping a cool, wet rag on her forehead and bringing her drinks and snacks. He was running errands for the nurses and helping patients in any way he could. He was cracking jokes and making many people feel more comfortable during what is a very nerve wracking experience for first time donors. The nurses expressed their appreciation for his efforts a couple of times in the short time I was there.
The number of people who shared their time, their money, their very lifeblood(literally!) to give aid to strangers whom they shared nothing with except the distinction of being Americans. Then the acknowledgement of the needs of the support workers who do vital things like draw blood and the outpouring of help given by volunteers and local businesses. Melissa and I were spending time re-assuring first time donors(I've donated well over a gallon and Melissa has donated several times as well) and while she was on the table(after I was done) I took the kids and went across the street and purchased several gallons of orange juice and apple juice to stock the pantry of the donation center(it is important to drink juice or water, not soda, because soda is a diuretic). I wish I could do more and so do many of the other people who were in line. America has a fantastic reputation for pulling together in a time of crisis, and I consider myself privileged to have been in the same room with so many giving, caring people yesterday and today. If any of you can, please donate blood and/or support the Red Cross.
I'm including a snippet of an email sent out to us at work with contact info for the local Red Cross and donation info. If you're not in the DFW area, please look up your local chapter and ask what they need. Typically they need money because they can't ship supplies up there due to air travel restrictions.
If you would like to donate money, you can make checks payable to Red Cross, and mail directly to:
Red Cross
4800 Harry Hines Blvd.
Dallas, TX 75235
Writing DR789 in the memo line of your check will ensure the money goes directly to the victims of the WTC and Pentagon tragedies.
Or, you can call 1-800-HELP-NOW to make a donation by phone. For more information, go to the Red Cross website at www.redcross.org. Since they are having heavy web traffic today, you may or may not be able to access the site.
Steven