I have a RIGHT to receive radio without deliberate interference from abusive technologies that violate my space.
Now, I realize this was an attempt at humor, but. . . Sorry, Charlie, there is NO right to receive, only to transmit. And as for your "space", it's on the private property of the gas station, i.e., it's THEIR "space". God forbid you pass under a high-tension line, or even metal sign overheads significantly degrade AM radio tranmissions. ..
I just get tired of EVERYTHING being put in terms of "rights". You have a PRIVILEDGE of recieving radio transmissions, assuming the propagation environment is favorable and you have the proper equiptment. . .
Well, sometimes, the sun don't shine. OTOH, enough idiots (i.e. lawyers, politicians, MS envangelists, etc) in IPv6ville, and we'll have sufficient wind to need no other power source. . .
. ..and now we take you to the ISS, sometime in the future. . ..
(Lance Bass): Excuse me, Mister Astronaut, but after all this Tang(tm), I gotta whizz something awful. Where's the john up here ???
(Astronaut): Certainly.... go through that round hatch, close it, and spin the wheel. When the light turns red, press the big red button on the wall, and the door will open to the waste disposal area. . ..
(a minute goes by)
(outside view) Lance Bass's corpse floating in vacuum
And people think spending money on the ISS is a waste (evil grin)
If Class "X" wanted to insure no breeding with class "Y", not only genetics can come into play.
Imagine a world with several subspecies of humans, all with differing and incompatible pheremones, perhaps to the point that in the presence of the "wrong" pheromone, function is impaired. . . or flip it around, to S.M. Stirling's "Draka" series where the dominant species, homo drakensis had utter pheromonal control over the lower race, homo servus, and varying level of pheromonal control on "normal" humans. . .
Add that to advances in genetic engineering, and it's obvious, at least to me, that our evolution as a species is becoming at least partially self-selected. It wouldn't surprise me at all if homo sapiens sapiens breaks into several species.
As for owners versus workers, that may happen, too: imagine the relieved mothers of the rich, knowing their children can't POSSIBLY marry "beneath their level", as they'd be biologically incompatible. . .
"The Avalanche has begun. It is too late for the pebbles to vote".
THIS is the inevitable outcome of the DMCA, and the policies of the RIAA/MPAA et al. Stallman is looking more prescient all the time. More's the pity. . .
IS it ? The "Laws" of Thermodynamics are very well measured approximations of long-observed reality. Is there a chance this guy has stumbled on to something new ? Yes. Is it likely ? No. But let's look at the proof first, ok ???
. ..you convieniently forget to mention the Level of Service you get with a T-1, or fractional T-1, as opposed to that of a ADSL or SDSL.
Your T-1 goes down, you can reasonably expect the provider to be working their butt off to get it back up, as a T-1 generally has penalties for downtime, thus pushing them to react.
I have yet to see a DSL contract, at least for residential use, with ANY guaranteed level of service. If it's down, they'll work it, but nowhere near the level that they work downed T-1's. . .
What if Word 2003 adds ROT13 to the default format, they claim it's "encrypted" and use the DCMA against anyone who tries to "reverse engineer" thier format?
Well, there's the DMCA requirement of EFFECTIVE controls. . . and ROT-13 isn't exactly effective. ..OTOH, ask Jon Johanssen about "effective controls". . .
Not all gas weapons are inhalation agents. . .
on
The Drone War
·
· Score: 1
Some of the nastier nerve agents are effectively gaseous, but work on skin absorption. Or so they told us in the military, anyway, in great detail. The exact phrase, as I recall, is "micro fine droplets suspended in air". If Nerve Gas can work this way, and gas masks become common, it's pretty much certain that someone will develop this sort of thing for an anti-riot agent. A gaseous laxative comes to mind as an especially effective idea. . .
. ..is the multi-DVD, edited as one-long 10-hour movie version. Yes, it can't possibly be out until the summer of 2004. ..yet imagine, LoTR, as one continuous story, with edits, extras, etc. . .
Or even cut and paste into, say, Word, and take it home on a floppy ? Or just copy the message to a new file folder in Outlook, export the folder, and take it home, if you want ALL the header info. ..
You wonder, can they be THAT Stupid ?? Unfortunately, it appears they are. . .
I don't understand why any (non tech person) would still use a disk (as opposed to a disc).
Let's see. . . Legacy Boxes, many of which have CD-ROM drives that are incompatible with some CD-Rs (like the extended "80-minute/ 700 MB CD-Rs I just picked up the other day)
The sheer waste of burning a 660/700MB CDR to transfer a 1MB or less file. ..and CD-RW doesn't count, not all drives can READ a CD-RW. . . heck, my corporate desktop is a P-III 633, no burner, 64MB. . . . and doesn't read CD-RW (as I found to my dismay, had to copy to home box HD, burn as CD-R. . . )
The 1.44 floppy still exists, and is likely to exist, for one reason: it's USEFUL. . .
I live there too. . . Lots of Tech pretensions, but the new Data Center off 66 and Sudley is standing empty, and most of the projects at Innovation@Prince William are delayed or pulling out. Yet the Dulles corridor is still buzzing, amidst the crash of the Dot-bombs (I know, I worked for one that recently died, just moved back to Government Contracting. . . ).
Why don't companies stay in PW County ? I suspect, because we're a bit too far from fashionable locations on the Power Track (Crystal City-Rosslyn-Ballston, Downtown, and the Dulles Corridor): we're ok for manufacturing, but Manassas still has the rep of being on the howling edge of the wilderness, despite the real howling edge being somewhere around Winchester.
Heck, you can even get several different broadband providers here (I use Speakeasy on the Covad network . . . ), which is as proof-positive of non-hick-town status as I can think of. . .
Actually, a B-52 cannot carry "several hundred". Max munitions stores of a G or H model is 51 weapons, using internal stores and wing-mounted weapons. The all-time-max was the "Big Belly" modified B-52D's (Vietnam era) that could carry 102 gravity weapons, and that was conventional only. . . .
The Bomb/Nav compartment has 2 downward-firing ejection seats. The Tech Manual says that there's a minimum of 200 feet off the deck for ejection, but preferably a thousand feet or more for "safe" ejection.
OTOH, the upstairs compartment seats are good for
ejection from ground level, you need a minimum 90-knot slipstream to pull the upper hatches off (the ejection mechanism only releases them and lifts them an inch or so into the slipstream. ..)
The sixth ejection seat is in the upstairs rear, beside the Electronic Warfare Officer's seat (nowadays called a Defensive Systems Operator. ..). It used to belong to the Tailgunner, who remotely controlled either a quad 50mm machine gun turret (the G-model B-52 and earlier) or a 20mm Vulcan gatling cannon (the H-model B-52s) Gunners were finally taken out of the airplane, and tailguns removed, after the Gulf War. . . .
. ..but what about that disco-maniac Steve Ballmer. MS software isn't inherently evil, but all indications are that Operations and Marketing at MS are pretty damned evil. Halloween Documents, anyone ???
Re:Censorship : Not just in the South. . . .
on
Review: Harry Potter
·
· Score: 1
Coders and other IT Types ARE the Wizards and Witches of the Modern age. . .
I've seen the flick: I agree with Taco, it was pretty damned good. I've read the first three books, and and 3/4 of the way through the 4th. I see no mention of Satan or Satanism, but do see the occaisional mention of the Dark Arts, against which Defense is taught. It's a classic good-guys versus bad guys bit: these anti-Potter funadmentalist have really gone out on the edge.
Hypothesis: Harry Potter gets kids reading things other than the Bible and Christian-with-a-Capital-C approved books, the sort of thing that Landover Baptist parodies. ..except these people aren't joking. It allows kids to free up their minds and imaginations, and has kids actually ENJOYING themselves. . . and we can't have that, can we ? Having dealt with some of these yahoos, it's amazing what they consider logical and what they consider proof. . . this is often the same gang that talks about "Evil-ution". . . .
Yes, but the "Big Woody" projector unit isn't the chrome-shiny-genuine-woodtoned-plastic that all the sheeple out there seem to think is required for entertaiment electronics. ..
Imagine the consumer response. ..
But it's. ..PLYWOOD. . ..and where do we take it for service ???
Slashdot Mirror
I have a RIGHT to receive radio without deliberate interference from abusive technologies that violate my space.
Now, I realize this was an attempt at humor, but. . . Sorry, Charlie, there is NO right to receive, only to transmit. And as for your "space", it's on the private property of the gas station, i.e., it's THEIR "space". God forbid you pass under a high-tension line, or even metal sign overheads significantly degrade AM radio tranmissions. .
I just get tired of EVERYTHING being put in terms of "rights". You have a PRIVILEDGE of recieving radio transmissions, assuming the propagation environment is favorable and you have the proper equiptment. . .
Well, sometimes, the sun don't shine. OTOH, enough idiots (i.e. lawyers, politicians, MS envangelists, etc) in IPv6ville, and we'll have sufficient wind to need no other power source. . .
(Lance Bass): Excuse me, Mister Astronaut, but after all this Tang(tm), I gotta whizz something awful. Where's the john up here ???
(Astronaut): Certainly.... go through that round hatch, close it, and spin the wheel. When the light turns red, press the big red button on the wall, and the door will open to the waste disposal area. . .
(a minute goes by)
(outside view) Lance Bass's corpse floating in vacuum
And people think spending money on the ISS is a waste (evil grin)
. . .and will spawn every few minutes. After all, people will PAY to kill Jar-Jar Binks. . . .
If Class "X" wanted to insure no breeding with class "Y", not only genetics can come into play.
Imagine a world with several subspecies of humans, all with differing and incompatible pheremones, perhaps to the point that in the presence of the "wrong" pheromone, function is impaired. . . or flip it around, to S.M. Stirling's "Draka" series where the dominant species, homo drakensis had utter pheromonal control over the lower race, homo servus, and varying level of pheromonal control on "normal" humans. . .
As for owners versus workers, that may happen, too: imagine the relieved mothers of the rich, knowing their children can't POSSIBLY marry "beneath their level", as they'd be biologically incompatible. . .
Not just Bill Gates in Space, but Spacing Bill Gates. .
THIS is the inevitable outcome of the DMCA, and the policies of the RIAA/MPAA et al. Stallman is looking more prescient all the time. More's the pity. . .
IS it ? The "Laws" of Thermodynamics are very well measured approximations of long-observed reality. Is there a chance this guy has stumbled on to something new ? Yes. Is it likely ? No. But let's look at the proof first, ok ???
Your T-1 goes down, you can reasonably expect the provider to be working their butt off to get it back up, as a T-1 generally has penalties for downtime, thus pushing them to react.
I have yet to see a DSL contract, at least for residential use, with ANY guaranteed level of service. If it's down, they'll work it, but nowhere near the level that they work downed T-1's. . .
What if Word 2003 adds ROT13 to the default format, they claim it's "encrypted" and use the DCMA against anyone who tries to "reverse engineer" thier format?
Well, there's the DMCA requirement of EFFECTIVE controls. . . and ROT-13 isn't exactly effective. . .OTOH, ask Jon Johanssen about "effective controls". . .
Some of the nastier nerve agents are effectively gaseous, but work on skin absorption. Or so they told us in the military, anyway, in great detail. The exact phrase, as I recall, is "micro fine droplets suspended in air". If Nerve Gas can work this way, and gas masks become common, it's pretty much certain that someone will develop this sort of thing for an anti-riot agent. A gaseous laxative comes to mind as an especially effective idea. . .
. . . that only Bill Gates can play the DVD in Region 1 ???
I'd buy it. . .
Sounds like proof positive there IS a God. . . not that Lucas PLANNED it that way. . .
You wonder, can they be THAT Stupid ?? Unfortunately, it appears they are. . .
I don't understand why any (non tech person) would still use a disk (as opposed to a disc).
Let's see. . . Legacy Boxes, many of which have CD-ROM drives that are incompatible with some CD-Rs (like the extended "80-minute/ 700 MB CD-Rs I just picked up the other day)
The sheer waste of burning a 660/700MB CDR to transfer a 1MB or less file. .
The 1.44 floppy still exists, and is likely to exist, for one reason: it's USEFUL. . .
Why don't companies stay in PW County ? I suspect, because we're a bit too far from fashionable locations on the Power Track (Crystal City-Rosslyn-Ballston, Downtown, and the Dulles Corridor): we're ok for manufacturing, but Manassas still has the rep of being on the howling edge of the wilderness, despite the real howling edge being somewhere around Winchester.
Heck, you can even get several different broadband providers here (I use Speakeasy on the Covad network . . . ), which is as proof-positive of non-hick-town status as I can think of. . .
Actually, a B-52 cannot carry "several hundred". Max munitions stores of a G or H model is 51 weapons, using internal stores and wing-mounted weapons. The all-time-max was the "Big Belly" modified B-52D's (Vietnam era) that could carry 102 gravity weapons, and that was conventional only. . . .
OTOH, the upstairs compartment seats are good for ejection from ground level, you need a minimum 90-knot slipstream to pull the upper hatches off (the ejection mechanism only releases them and lifts them an inch or so into the slipstream. . .)
The sixth ejection seat is in the upstairs rear, beside the Electronic Warfare Officer's seat (nowadays called a Defensive Systems Operator. . .). It used to belong to the Tailgunner, who remotely controlled either a quad 50mm machine gun turret (the G-model B-52 and earlier) or a 20mm Vulcan gatling cannon (the H-model B-52s) Gunners were finally taken out of the airplane, and tailguns removed, after the Gulf War. . . .
. . .but what about that disco-maniac Steve Ballmer. MS software isn't inherently evil, but all indications are that Operations and Marketing at MS are pretty damned evil. Halloween Documents, anyone ???
Obligatory Filk proving the point. Blame Bob Kanelfsky, not me. . .
I've seen the flick: I agree with Taco, it was pretty damned good. I've read the first three books, and and 3/4 of the way through the 4th. I see no mention of Satan or Satanism, but do see the occaisional mention of the Dark Arts, against which Defense is taught. It's a classic good-guys versus bad guys bit: these anti-Potter funadmentalist have really gone out on the edge.
Hypothesis: Harry Potter gets kids reading things other than the Bible and Christian-with-a-Capital-C approved books, the sort of thing that Landover Baptist parodies. . .except these people aren't joking. It allows kids to free up their minds and imaginations, and has kids actually ENJOYING themselves. . . and we can't have that, can we ? Having dealt with some of these yahoos, it's amazing what they consider logical and what they consider proof. . . this is often the same gang that talks about "Evil-ution". . . .
Imagine the consumer response. .
But it's. .
Knew this not, did you ????