Though what they propose probably has some application to the majority of users, I'm just as sure there are others who would not fit their expectations:
Keyboard-centric:Though most users primarily use a mouse, I've found in many cases it is much faster for me to keep my hands on the keyboard and navigate with page-up/page-down and cursor keys. Menu navigation can be much quicker too as I can make choices with keyboard shortcuts and mnemonics without first having to wait for each menu and submenu to paint.
Large display: Use a 21" monitor running at 1600 x 1200. That means there are many pages where there's no need to scroll; and those that need it, well, just use the page-down or arrow keys.
Touch screens There's no "hovering" or mouse trail; just TAP and you are there, with no record of any "path" across the screen. This will become more prevalent with PDAs.
Besides,cheese is often placed in a mousetrap. This kind of technology feels like users are the ones being tempted by the cheese; what kind of trap are we getting into?
I can just see the net admins at colleges trying to deal with this. They've had to deal with napster and the like and all the bandwidth they'd consume on their LAN. Now imagine an entire dorm (or campus!) sending saved shows to each other.
If there's a way to hack the system, I can well imagine folks at the likes of MIT will find a way to do it. The result is that the initial broadcast of a show over the airwaves, cable, satelite, etc. could eventually be dwarfed by the time-delayed transmissions.
The Result? Bypass the current transmission media and get your shows direct from Replay! Sign up for the shows you want and they'd send it to you, over the internet. Then, just add video servers on the internet with pre-compressed movies available on a pay-per-view basis and you've got all you need to bypass the Blockbuster video rental shops -- just watch what you want, when you want it, without having to go out to get / return a video and no worry about late fees. Sure, it'll be free to share between RePlays for now, but I suspect that's just the initial push to build market share, and then there'd be a rollout of central server subscriptions, copy protection, and per-show charges.
Interesting concept. First a correction and then a comments.
Airplanes spend most of their power just pushing air out of the way - their drag rises as the cube of their airspeed.
Drag rises as the SQAURE of the speed, not the CUBE. If memory serves me from a course I took in college:
drag = 1/2 * rho * U^2 * S * Cd
where:
rho - density of air
U - speed of the vehicle
S - surface area
Cd - coefficient of drag
I'd be concerned about the construction of such a long, evacuated space (nature abhors a vacuum) as well as the ability to maintain it, protect it from damage (say from an earthquake or a leak - solid rock has fissures) and defend it from terrorists. I'm not saying it's impossible, but rather that there is more to it than it would appear on the surface (umm, well, that's not quite the right word, but you know what I mean!;^)
Scientists who reviewed the findings have not found any obvious flaws. Professor Webb was "not surprised". His team, including Professor Victor Flambaum and PhD student Michael Murphy, both of NSW University, had "been working like hell".
Here are links to the web sites of each of the investigators:
I found it odd to read an article on the internet, extolling the virtues of human voices instead of just the written word, and it contained no way to actually HEAR Shelley Reynold's voice! I mean, they could at least have provided links to somewhere on MSN's web site or even to a home page for her where people could check out her portfolio. I found myself wondering, "Just WHAT does she sound like?" but, I am NOT so interested as to sign up for MSN to find out! Can anyone provide links so we can hear what all the talk is about?
PDF Virus Spotted. Spotted?
on
PDF Virus Spotted
·
· Score: 1, Offtopic
Tired of the boring same-old same-old? Looking for some excitement? Well look no more, we've got the job for you!
We're looking for motivated individuals to attach satellite transmitters to Great White Sharks. The number of people killed by Great Whites has been increasing, and we need YOU to help us track their whereabouts! Please note: "Under a 1997 federal law anybody caught killing one, even during an attack, faces fines of up to £20,000 or two years in jail."
Visit the NEW ACM Portal - (and try the Online Guide to Computing Literature for
FREE through 9/30/01)!
I learned of this from reading the article
"ACM Opens Portal to Computing Literature" which appeared in the (dead tree) July 2001 Issue of "Communications of the ACM" Vol. 44, No. 7.
Here is part of a salient paragraph:
While it is currently out-of-scope for the Portal to capture the references in works put out by other publishers, it
is intended to create a comprehensive bibliographic database by capturing all the references in ACM articles that cite works from other publishers and for which there is no matching bibliographic entry in the database.
I would suggest you contact the ACM and see if they have any suggestions on what you are attempting. I would expect they have already explored a number of alternatives, one of which might be just what you are looking for.
If you should decide to create your own system, please consider making it open-source so that others may benefit as well.
out of curriousity, and cause im too lazy to look it up, what does RM stand for (other than "the malaysian currency" cause im not a dumbass) and about how many us dollars (plus any other currency you feel like adding)is it worth?
(I have no idea how the abbreviation for "Riggit" is "RM".)
Thinking further about the setup they are proposing, it may not cost them all that much for the physical infrastructure; especially in comparison to the cost of a wired broadband setup. They still would have the fixed costs of installing the antenna(s) and connecting them to whatever routers and internet pipes. They'd also have the monthly costs of the bandwidth. I'm still wondering how they can make a profit considering how much bandwidth could be consumed in a month (unless they have a bandwidth cap? There was no mention of it in the article, but I'd sure expect they would institute one before long. Otherwise, their advertisement is effectively saying: "Buy a pizza, and be able to spam / webhost / etc. for free."
Another thought: how long is one entitled to free access for the price of that pizza? Could well be that it would be just one week's worth... what a nice synergy! "Honey? Our internet connection just got shut off again... could you please order a pizza?":*)
First off, let me say that my heart goes out to those who have suffered damage or the loss of the life of a loved one because of a hurricane.
As an example: Years ago when hurricane Gloria came through my area, I was without power for 4 days and had friends who had no power for a week. Many roads were closed because of fallen trees. It was a real mess.
But, I noticed something else. For the next few years, the usual storm-related power outages ceased. The big storm cleaned out all the deadwood hanging over power lines. Only the really strong and healthy trees and branches remained.
I like to take walks in the woods. I noticed that the fallen tress and branches became natural habitats for wildlife. There were also great openings in the canopy where trees had once been -- this brought more light down to ground level and caused an outburst of low-level shrubs and the like. It seemed like Darwin's Theory of Evolution at work on a grand scale - a wholesale wiping out of the weakest leaving only the strong to survive.
The point I'm trying to make from these few examples is that I caught a glimpse of what I believe to be long-term cycles at work. I suspect these huge storms are as important to our ecosystem as regular storms are.
The company, Pizza Station, is dishing out an offer which promises to whet the appetite of all pizza lovers and then some: "Buy a pizza and get free wireless broadband".
And the clincher is it will cost less than RM3 million to roll out just such a solution...
"Roughly, I see revenues of RM4 million this year, RM12 million next year and RM20-RM30 million the following year...
So it looks like they are expecting to recoup their expenses pretty quickly. Which begs the question, just HOW MUCH do one of these pizzas cost?
Possible advertisement? Buy a pizza for $500, get broadband access free! :*)
Seems like this technique has been used before -- at least according to some of my experiences with airline "food".:*)
But seriously, if they can succeed in getting this to work well, I could see some earth-bound applications in waste water treatment plants. There's a ready supply that costs $BIGNUM to clean up. Not that I'd expect there'd be a big market for PEOPLE who would buy some at the supermarket for dinner; but I could see it being used to good effect as a feed for LIVESTOCK.
Of course, much of all that depends on how energy efficient (that is, cost-effective) a process it is. Then again, it could be that the cost of this "food" would be greater than other currently available food sources.
Background: I worked on a project which took LIVE video from at camera at a sporting event, searched for a "target" in the video, and if found, mapped an advertisement over the target (appropriately scaling, rotating, etc.) and sent the generated video out to a payperview TV channel. NOTE: This was a couple years ago; it required about $BIGNUM of computer and digital video equipment, and a couple of people to operate it. The goal: targeted advertising based on destination country (e.g. Budweiser in USA, Guiness in the UK.)
With the recent, and continuing, advances in video cards and computing horsepower, I can see the day when this is done in each user's PVR! The programming challenge we faced was actually locating the target in the video. With pre-recorded content, the coordinates could be determined in advance and shipped along with the video to the PVR -- then it's just a minor effort to map the selected product onto the specified coordinates.
For example, "Mary" might see Jennifer Anniston drink a Diet Coke, but Joe SixPack sees her down a Budweiser. (Programming challenge: hack the PVR so that it can target and replace clothing with skin tones.:*)
Hey! Thanks for the info! I had no idea that steganography was such a wide-ranging idea. Reminds me of Edgar Allan Poe's: "The Purloined Letter" where the main character (IIRC) hid a sensitive letter about someone in government in plain sight. The authorities were so intent on looking for it in obscure and well-hidden locations, that they missed what was out in the open. Anyway, thanks again for the clarification and the links!
Anything that requires entering anything more personal (and cancelable) than a credit card number is probably best not done over the web
Agreed, but what good does that do when a company chooses to move ALL its customer data gathering applications to the web? Would anyone like to comment on this scenario?
As a cost-cutting measure, it certainly seems to make sense for a company to move to a single platform for the acquisition of new customer information. Just put a web terminal in each brick-and-mortor store, right? Better still, they can also use them in call centers for handling customers who call in their order (say, in response to an advertising campaign). Heck, can even use it for the data entry of the mail-in-forms, too! They've already got the web-enabled on-line tools to do this, so leverage that investment and use that tool as our sole means of data acquisition.
The result, it seems to me, is that the user is less and less able to protect themselves from personal data being stolen. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I'd expect that SSL and the like was being used for the Verizon (and AT&T) web applications, too, yet this theft has occurred nonetheless. Could it be that we are once again running into the dangers of monocultures (put it all on the web) and the prolifieration of diseases (hacking web sites with larger and larger stores of data)? What can the average user do to protect themselves in such situations?
Minutes into Jurassic Park III, the movie I'd planned to review, I lost it. [...] So I bolited
Bolited? Hmmm, the closest word to this that I could find was:
bolide n : a very luminous meteor (sometimes exploding) [syn: fireball]
Heh. Image comes to mind of a new MPAA video content protection scheme: critics who don't like a film are caused to explode, thus acting as a warning to others... would YOU want to copy a film that might make you blow up, to?:)
It should be interesting to see what the lawyers plan to [try to] do with the usenet group:
alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die
Not just current/future postings, but also consider all the posts to it which have been archived or just put on regular back-up tapes world-wide. Just send your favorite newsreader to that group, or fire up a browser to look at google's group search page:
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search
(A search for "barney" in just that newsgroup brought up gobs of hits.)
Will google become a target for the lawyers, too?
Disclaimer: I don't know how active the group is, and my current connection is so slow I've not surfed newgroup posting in years, so I don't know how active the group currently is. Then again, with the lawyers' activities, it may experience a surge of popularity.
Seems to me that there may be some unintended side effects as a result of this:
Only go out in the rain. Check the weather forecast, follow on-line radar loops, and only go out when it's raining. (Yes, much can be done to improve poor quality images, but if the photons don't make it to the camera, well, they can't see you.)
Increased sales of sunglasses and wide-brimmed hats. The article indicated that most of the points used for comparison were around the nose and eyes. Hide these from view, and the pattern matching algorithm has less to go on.
More plastic surgery. For those who could afford it, of course, but I'd think that an "easy payment plan" might go over pretty well.
Crime moves to neighboring towns/cities. Say the system is effective (and there was a post here indicating it has been), where do these people GO? They've just exported their problem to another town. Which would start thinking of getting this system, the word gets out, and people move again... quite the marketing technique.
Oh, and as these systems become more prevalent, I could see a
state- or country-wide network
of these being constructed. Thus, a person who has a warrant in one city or state could be more easily located if they should move . For example, police in New York City could forward photos of people with outstanding warrants to the police in Tampa. And vice versa. Add in other major cities, federal agencies, etc. and I expect over time,these disparate systems will become highly interconnected. Call it a high-tech variant on putting out an APB (All-Points Bulletin -- well, that's what they called in on the crime shows I watched as a kid.:)
What I've started to wonder is where else it's underlying principles could be used, or where this sort of technology could lead in the future.
I was thinking along the same lines! (umm, well, brushstrokes?) Granted the amount of computation likely precludes real-time generation today. But, I could well imagine that within (pulls number out of the air) 2-5 years, it should be quite possible. Applications? Here are some ideas (some are admittedly off-beat, but why not?)
Tivo: Watch Friends, Battlebots, etc. in a "whole new light".
Home videos: Show videos of your trip to the Grand Canyon, ala Rembrandt.
pr0n: Sometimes, the suggestion is more powerful than the details. Enter the impressionists!
Cartoons: Bugs Bunny, Wylie Coyote, and Marvin the Martian done YOUR way.
Video Games: Would make for a real challenge to try and play as simple a transform as a watercolor rendition of quake. For the truly adventurous, try a Picaso filter!:)
Any Videotape or DVD: You get the idea.
I have no illusions the results would be spectacular, but I'm quite sure they could be really interesting. Heck, even a commercial or a presidential speech could take on a whole new perspective.
I took a look at the hardware FAQ:
What kind of hardware does Slashdot run on? and it appears to me that there is/was a single CS-800. The reason I say "appears" is that the FAQ was last updated on 06/13/00, and things could well have changed since then. Then again, the FAQ seems pretty complete (well, I'm into software, not hardware, so I'm not the best judge of these things.:)
I dunno, but I wonder how well documented (recoverable) the router setup was? If it "melted down", then it would seem to me that all the config/setup was lost -- if so, I can imagine it could be hard to get a fresh router setup and working?
Here are some ideas. Note: transaction fees (often based on the amount) will likely apply.
Idea #1; Get the cash: Don't have the cash (and that's why you want to use your credit card)? When in Italy, I needed some cash, went to a bank, and got a cash advance on my (USA) credit card. You may also be able to do this with an ATM (Automated Teller Machine), too.
Idea #2: Wire the cash. Have you tried to wire the money from your bank to your friend's checking account in the USA? I've wired funds several times from my USA checking account to a friend's (USA) checking account. May also be known as "Electronic Funds Transfer", "Bank Wire".
Idea #3: Send cash as Traveler's Checks. Purchase traveler's checks with the cash. (American Express is probably the most well-known provider in the USA and has offices around the world.) Then send (e.g. Federal Express) the traveler's checks to your friend who can use them like cash to deposit in her account. Then, ask her to purchase the items for you and bring them (or ship them) to you.
Idea #4: Western Union. Here, in the USA, I've needed to quickly send funds to a friend (also in the USA). I'm sure there are other such providers around, but this is the only one that comes to mind at the moment. Show up at a branch office, fill out a form designating the recipient and receiving location, provide them the cash, and then your friend can pick up the money at the designated location.
Idea #5: Have friend purchase with her CC. Then reimburse her when she gets to you with the items. (See Item #1 if cash is an issue for you.) Others have suggested this, but I included it here for completeness.
Best of luck to you, and PLEASE let us know if/how you were successful!
Just run a webserver on your laptop when flying with the plane...submit it to slashdot: enjoy the feeling of being slashdotted 10000feet above the surface.
It's likely you'd get just dial-up speeds on your connection. The data rates mentioned in this part of the article are FOR THE ENTIRE PLANE:
Passengers will need to bring their own Internet connection device--a laptop computer, for instance--to use the service, Carson said, and the service operates at data rates of 5 mbps for incoming traffic and 1mbps for outgoing.
The very next paragraph indicates that bandwidth, when split up among the passengers doesn't look so speedy::
The speed will depend on the number of Internet users during each flight. Connexion by Boeing spokesman Terrance Scott says customers will have a minimum Internet hook-up equivalent to a 56K modem but should be able to get higher speeds.
Though unstated in the article, I wonder how long it would be before some kind of bandwidth limiting may be imposed on the passengers; otherwise, a couple people streaming audio/video/pr0n to their laptops could saturate the connection.
Besides the data rate, also consider ping times -- from what I understand the communications from the plane go by way of satelite. Don't know if they'll use low earth orbit sats or geosynchronous; but if the latter, you'll have some major roundtrip delays, too.
Slashdot Mirror
Though what they propose probably has some application to the majority of users, I'm just as sure there are others who would not fit their expectations:
Besides, cheese is often placed in a mousetrap. This kind of technology feels like users are the ones being tempted by the cheese; what kind of trap are we getting into?
I can just see the net admins at colleges trying to deal with this. They've had to deal with napster and the like and all the bandwidth they'd consume on their LAN. Now imagine an entire dorm (or campus!) sending saved shows to each other.
If there's a way to hack the system, I can well imagine folks at the likes of MIT will find a way to do it. The result is that the initial broadcast of a show over the airwaves, cable, satelite, etc. could eventually be dwarfed by the time-delayed transmissions.
The Result? Bypass the current transmission media and get your shows direct from Replay! Sign up for the shows you want and they'd send it to you, over the internet. Then, just add video servers on the internet with pre-compressed movies available on a pay-per-view basis and you've got all you need to bypass the Blockbuster video rental shops -- just watch what you want, when you want it, without having to go out to get / return a video and no worry about late fees. Sure, it'll be free to share between RePlays for now, but I suspect that's just the initial push to build market share, and then there'd be a rollout of central server subscriptions, copy protection, and per-show charges.
Interesting concept. First a correction and then a comments.
Airplanes spend most of their power just pushing air out of the way - their drag rises as the cube of their airspeed.
Drag rises as the SQAURE of the speed, not the CUBE. If memory serves me from a course I took in college:
drag = 1/2 * rho * U^2 * S * Cd
where:
rho - density of air
U - speed of the vehicle
S - surface area
Cd - coefficient of drag
I'd be concerned about the construction of such a long, evacuated space (nature abhors a vacuum) as well as the ability to maintain it, protect it from damage (say from an earthquake or a leak - solid rock has fissures) and defend it from terrorists. I'm not saying it's impossible, but rather that there is more to it than it would appear on the surface (umm, well, that's not quite the right word, but you know what I mean! ;^)
Scientists who reviewed the findings have not found any obvious flaws. Professor Webb was "not surprised". His team, including Professor Victor Flambaum and PhD student Michael Murphy, both of NSW University, had "been working like hell".
Here are links to the web sites of each of the investigators:
I found it odd to read an article on the internet, extolling the virtues of human voices instead of just the written word, and it contained no way to actually HEAR Shelley Reynold's voice! I mean, they could at least have provided links to somewhere on MSN's web site or even to a home page for her where people could check out her portfolio. I found myself wondering, "Just WHAT does she sound like?" but, I am NOT so interested as to sign up for MSN to find out! Can anyone provide links so we can hear what all the talk is about?
What have those virus writers done NOW?
"PDF Virus Spotted". Spotted? SPOTTED?!? What's next? Stripes? Or, shudder, PLAID?! :^)
I hope the movie gets good reviews from the critics. Otherwise, it may become known as:
Tired of the boring same-old same-old? Looking for some excitement? Well look no more, we've got the job for you!
The ACM (Association for Computing Machinery is rolling out The ACM Portal to Computing Literature. It looks to me that your timing is perfect, as they say on the ACM home page:
I learned of this from reading the article "ACM Opens Portal to Computing Literature" which appeared in the (dead tree) July 2001 Issue of "Communications of the ACM" Vol. 44, No. 7.Here is part of a salient paragraph:
I would suggest you contact the ACM and see if they have any suggestions on what you are attempting. I would expect they have already explored a number of alternatives, one of which might be just what you are looking for.If you should decide to create your own system, please consider making it open-source so that others may benefit as well.
There are still about 100.000 vulnerable (and by now... infected) machines out there.
As of the time of my posting this, there are about 130,000 infected hosts. Go to:
to see the "Dynamic Graphs of Code Red Worm" page from CAIDA (Cooperative Association of Internet Data Analysis).out of curriousity, and cause im too lazy to look it up, what does RM stand for (other than "the malaysian currency" cause im not a dumbass) and about how many us dollars (plus any other currency you feel like adding)is it worth?
I just did a quick search on google and the first likely page I found: http://www.qsl.net/seanet2001/m'sia_currency.htm says the exchange rate in April 2001 was:
(I have no idea how the abbreviation for "Riggit" is "RM".)Thinking further about the setup they are proposing, it may not cost them all that much for the physical infrastructure; especially in comparison to the cost of a wired broadband setup. They still would have the fixed costs of installing the antenna(s) and connecting them to whatever routers and internet pipes. They'd also have the monthly costs of the bandwidth. I'm still wondering how they can make a profit considering how much bandwidth could be consumed in a month (unless they have a bandwidth cap? There was no mention of it in the article, but I'd sure expect they would institute one before long. Otherwise, their advertisement is effectively saying: "Buy a pizza, and be able to spam / webhost / etc. for free."
Another thought: how long is one entitled to free access for the price of that pizza? Could well be that it would be just one week's worth... what a nice synergy! "Honey? Our internet connection just got shut off again... could you please order a pizza?" :*)
First off, let me say that my heart goes out to those who have suffered damage or the loss of the life of a loved one because of a hurricane.
As an example: Years ago when hurricane Gloria came through my area, I was without power for 4 days and had friends who had no power for a week. Many roads were closed because of fallen trees. It was a real mess.
But, I noticed something else. For the next few years, the usual storm-related power outages ceased. The big storm cleaned out all the deadwood hanging over power lines. Only the really strong and healthy trees and branches remained.
I like to take walks in the woods. I noticed that the fallen tress and branches became natural habitats for wildlife. There were also great openings in the canopy where trees had once been -- this brought more light down to ground level and caused an outburst of low-level shrubs and the like. It seemed like Darwin's Theory of Evolution at work on a grand scale - a wholesale wiping out of the weakest leaving only the strong to survive.
The point I'm trying to make from these few examples is that I caught a glimpse of what I believe to be long-term cycles at work. I suspect these huge storms are as important to our ecosystem as regular storms are.
From the article: (my emphasis)
So it looks like they are expecting to recoup their expenses pretty quickly. Which begs the question, just HOW MUCH do one of these pizzas cost?
Possible advertisement? Buy a pizza for $500, get broadband access free!
:*)
Seems like this technique has been used before -- at least according to some of my experiences with airline "food". :*)
But seriously, if they can succeed in getting this to work well, I could see some earth-bound applications in waste water treatment plants. There's a ready supply that costs $BIGNUM to clean up. Not that I'd expect there'd be a big market for PEOPLE who would buy some at the supermarket for dinner; but I could see it being used to good effect as a feed for LIVESTOCK.
Of course, much of all that depends on how energy efficient (that is, cost-effective) a process it is. Then again, it could be that the cost of this "food" would be greater than other currently available food sources.
It's already on its way.
Background: I worked on a project which took LIVE video from at camera at a sporting event, searched for a "target" in the video, and if found, mapped an advertisement over the target (appropriately scaling, rotating, etc.) and sent the generated video out to a payperview TV channel. NOTE: This was a couple years ago; it required about $BIGNUM of computer and digital video equipment, and a couple of people to operate it. The goal: targeted advertising based on destination country (e.g. Budweiser in USA, Guiness in the UK.)
With the recent, and continuing, advances in video cards and computing horsepower, I can see the day when this is done in each user's PVR! The programming challenge we faced was actually locating the target in the video. With pre-recorded content, the coordinates could be determined in advance and shipped along with the video to the PVR -- then it's just a minor effort to map the selected product onto the specified coordinates.
For example, "Mary" might see Jennifer Anniston drink a Diet Coke, but Joe SixPack sees her down a Budweiser. (Programming challenge: hack the PVR so that it can target and replace clothing with skin tones. :*)
Hey! Thanks for the info! I had no idea that steganography was such a wide-ranging idea. Reminds me of Edgar Allan Poe's: "The Purloined Letter" where the main character (IIRC) hid a sensitive letter about someone in government in plain sight. The authorities were so intent on looking for it in obscure and well-hidden locations, that they missed what was out in the open. Anyway, thanks again for the clarification and the links!
Meanwhile, a spending bill proposes a $7 million increase in the FBI's budget for defeating encryption (and stego).
and stego? Geesh! I can just see it now, Spielberg using the FBI to help fight off raging stegosauruses in Jurassic Park IV. =)
(For the humor-impaired: Yes, I am aware refers to steganography(sp?); the hiding of messages in images.)
Agreed, but what good does that do when a company chooses to move ALL its customer data gathering applications to the web? Would anyone like to comment on this scenario?
The result, it seems to me, is that the user is less and less able to protect themselves from personal data being stolen. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I'd expect that SSL and the like was being used for the Verizon (and AT&T) web applications, too, yet this theft has occurred nonetheless. Could it be that we are once again running into the dangers of monocultures (put it all on the web) and the prolifieration of diseases (hacking web sites with larger and larger stores of data)? What can the average user do to protect themselves in such situations?
Bolited? Hmmm, the closest word to this that I could find was:
Heh. Image comes to mind of a new MPAA video content protection scheme: critics who don't like a film are caused to explode, thus acting as a warning to others... would YOU want to copy a film that might make you blow up, to? :)
It should be interesting to see what the lawyers plan to [try to] do with the usenet group:
Not just current/future postings, but also consider all the posts to it which have been archived or just put on regular back-up tapes world-wide. Just send your favorite newsreader to that group, or fire up a browser to look at google's group search page: http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search (A search for "barney" in just that newsgroup brought up gobs of hits.)Will google become a target for the lawyers, too?
Disclaimer: I don't know how active the group is, and my current connection is so slow I've not surfed newgroup posting in years, so I don't know how active the group currently is. Then again, with the lawyers' activities, it may experience a surge of popularity.
Seems to me that there may be some unintended side effects as a result of this:
Oh, and as these systems become more prevalent, I could see a state- or country-wide network of these being constructed. Thus, a person who has a warrant in one city or state could be more easily located if they should move . For example, police in New York City could forward photos of people with outstanding warrants to the police in Tampa. And vice versa. Add in other major cities, federal agencies, etc. and I expect over time,these disparate systems will become highly interconnected. Call it a high-tech variant on putting out an APB (All-Points Bulletin -- well, that's what they called in on the crime shows I watched as a kid. :)
What I've started to wonder is where else it's underlying principles could be used, or where this sort of technology could lead in the future.
I was thinking along the same lines! (umm, well, brushstrokes?) Granted the amount of computation likely precludes real-time generation today. But, I could well imagine that within (pulls number out of the air) 2-5 years, it should be quite possible. Applications? Here are some ideas (some are admittedly off-beat, but why not?)
I have no illusions the results would be spectacular, but I'm quite sure they could be really interesting. Heck, even a commercial or a presidential speech could take on a whole new perspective.
Actually they're using an Arrowpoint CS-800
I took a look at the hardware FAQ: What kind of hardware does Slashdot run on? and it appears to me that there is/was a single CS-800. The reason I say "appears" is that the FAQ was last updated on 06/13/00, and things could well have changed since then. Then again, the FAQ seems pretty complete (well, I'm into software, not hardware, so I'm not the best judge of these things.:)
I dunno, but I wonder how well documented (recoverable) the router setup was? If it "melted down", then it would seem to me that all the config/setup was lost -- if so, I can imagine it could be hard to get a fresh router setup and working?
Here are some ideas. Note: transaction fees (often based on the amount) will likely apply.
Idea #1; Get the cash: Don't have the cash (and that's why you want to use your credit card)? When in Italy, I needed some cash, went to a bank, and got a cash advance on my (USA) credit card. You may also be able to do this with an ATM (Automated Teller Machine), too.
Idea #2: Wire the cash. Have you tried to wire the money from your bank to your friend's checking account in the USA? I've wired funds several times from my USA checking account to a friend's (USA) checking account. May also be known as "Electronic Funds Transfer", "Bank Wire".
Idea #3: Send cash as Traveler's Checks. Purchase traveler's checks with the cash. (American Express is probably the most well-known provider in the USA and has offices around the world.) Then send (e.g. Federal Express) the traveler's checks to your friend who can use them like cash to deposit in her account. Then, ask her to purchase the items for you and bring them (or ship them) to you.
Idea #4: Western Union. Here, in the USA, I've needed to quickly send funds to a friend (also in the USA). I'm sure there are other such providers around, but this is the only one that comes to mind at the moment. Show up at a branch office, fill out a form designating the recipient and receiving location, provide them the cash, and then your friend can pick up the money at the designated location.
Idea #5: Have friend purchase with her CC. Then reimburse her when she gets to you with the items. (See Item #1 if cash is an issue for you.) Others have suggested this, but I included it here for completeness.
Best of luck to you, and PLEASE let us know if/how you were successful!
Just run a webserver on your laptop when flying with the plane...submit it to slashdot: enjoy the feeling of being slashdotted 10000feet above the surface.
It's likely you'd get just dial-up speeds on your connection. The data rates mentioned in this part of the article are FOR THE ENTIRE PLANE:
Passengers will need to bring their own Internet connection device--a laptop computer, for instance--to use the service, Carson said, and the service operates at data rates of 5 mbps for incoming traffic and 1mbps for outgoing.
The very next paragraph indicates that bandwidth, when split up among the passengers doesn't look so speedy::
The speed will depend on the number of Internet users during each flight. Connexion by Boeing spokesman Terrance Scott says customers will have a minimum Internet hook-up equivalent to a 56K modem but should be able to get higher speeds.
Though unstated in the article, I wonder how long it would be before some kind of bandwidth limiting may be imposed on the passengers; otherwise, a couple people streaming audio/video/pr0n to their laptops could saturate the connection.
Besides the data rate, also consider ping times -- from what I understand the communications from the plane go by way of satelite. Don't know if they'll use low earth orbit sats or geosynchronous; but if the latter, you'll have some major roundtrip delays, too.