Luckily, we didn't spend the money, and instead have experimental results. A moderate (110mp winds, 12-13' surge by the news reports) hurricane will cause severe damage to the infratstructure.
Why would you study the necessary means to keep the city safe, or mitigate a massive flood, if your intent was not to rebuild?
As for the tax benefit, I'm fairly confident that, after you take out NOs portion of education, exploration, defense, welfare, and the other federal programs, they haven't paid one tenth of what it will take to rebuild the city. You also appear to have assumed that if NO didn't exist, the population and business would vanish into thin air, and those people would not work/play/pay taxes somewhere else (presumably safer) in the US.
Finally, I am saying that the public coffers should forsake high risk zones. We have known for years that (for example) NO would be toast in a big hurricane. I'm not talking about technical journals with no readership in the real world. Heck, I heard most of the predictions from an NPR series a couple of years ago come true in the last three days. I'm suggsting that the goverment get out of the business of paying for people (rich or poor) to build in places that are very likley to be demolished every few decades due to natural, uncontrollable events.
BTW - don't take my stance as being anti-New Orleans. It's a dirty, smelly city with beautiful historic architecture, a bunch of nasty bars, chicks showing some boobie, greeat music, and 25% of the NCAA football championship (they might have a pro team too, iirc;-). Nonetheless, it ranks neither higher nor lower than my desire to NOT give federal funds to rebuild other dangerous, highly poplated places to live: LA, SF, NY (ooooh, that scary terrorism), practially anywhere on the FL peninsula. And, yes, I think most of the money we've spent on terrorism is a bunch of crap.
Everything I know about IP I learned on slashdot, but...
(Sorry, I've always wanted to say that. Actually, most of what I know about IP was learned while helping my SO study for her IP class in her MBA program)
Let me get the facts straight, as the article seemed a little light on details. Some guy, in the US, posts factual information or personal opinion on his weblog, and allows others to do so as well. These include unkind words about a company who makes a product or service which may compete with a product or service with which the author is financially involved. (try and parse that one)
A Trade Secret, traditionally, is something so necessary to your core business and so valuable that you believe that keeping it a secret is more likely to make you money than patenting it, or it is unpatentable. Telling the world a trade secret is only unlawful if you are contractually bound not to tell, or if you came by the information through theft or other nefarious means. Once a trade secret is no longer secret, you have no protection (hence the incentive for patenting and licensing).
So, unless this guy stole the information, or is under a nondisclosure agreement, this looks an awful lot like free speech. The others who posted in his site may have written unkind things as well, but the comments are (I assume) clearly delineated as visitor comments, and not the writings of the author. I think you can go pretty far toward slander without getting into trouble that way.
I'm wondering why this is even an issue, unless its just punishement through lawyer fees, regardelss of the outcome.
Don't bother trying to fix it. You're fighting a losing battle. Same goes with the Atlantic coast beaches.
I have two words for you: PRIVATE FUNDING.
You want to live below sea level in a hurricane zone? Fine by me, but don't ask me to bail you out. Want to build a million dollar house at the beach? Fine, but don't ask me to spend billions of dollars to rebuild the beach for you.
It all goes back to foolish people doing foolish things. If it were me, I'd deny insurance claims to anyone wanting to rebuild, and I'd require that anyone rebuilding MUST place their first floor above sea level on a flood-resistant foudnation which can withstand 145mph winds.
What? That sounds too extreme? Guess what, dumbshit, THAT'S THE THE REQUIREMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL (i.e. US) BUILDING CODE!* They rebuild all these historic strucutres without these requirements because they've been "grandfathered". They shouldn't be rebuilt.
*I happen to be a strucutral engineer, and have the building code next to me. I design flood foundations. I design for hurricane winds. I happen to know that most builders and building officials outside of Florida wouldn't know proper high-wind construction if it fell on them. And as for the 145mph winds...well, grab a copy of ASCE 7-02 "Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures". Page 37. The 140MPH contour happens to pass right over Lake Ponchitrain. The next contour, which covers the entire coastal area is 150MPH. In fact, the entire coast from Houma, LA through MS and AL all the way to the FL border is a 150MPH zone. If all the buildings were up to code, there wouldn't have been anything but extremely isolated structural damage. But you don't listen. So you die.
The MP/RIAA is too savvy to go after political friends. Anybody connected is going to get a pass.
Yes, yes I hear you pointing out that an old lady and young kids have been accidentally snatched up. Trust me, the moment the lawyers get word that a congressman's daughter is on the list, that name will magically disappear. Destroying random people is bad press, biting the hand that feeds you is suicide.
Well, you can design for that, too. But its expensive, and when you have the federal government stepping in after each flood and helping to rebuild, why bother spending all that money up front. Nanny state will bail you out.
I say don't bother to pump it out. I sure as hell don't want to pay for it, especially since this has been predicted for some time. Stupid is as stupid does.
Screw that. I could have told you that a major hurricane would flood the city, the pumps would fail, and you'd have the world's biggest swimming pool with underwater bars. And I could have written the report for a fraction of the $71M planned.
They should have given me the contract for a mere $7 million and saved the rest.
And no matter how you slice it, the costs of education are going up. Unless you decide that a complete paradigm shift is going to happen, you won't see a change.
The entire state of South Carolina is looking at a $1.4M shortfall, according to TFA. A quick Google shows that the state budget for education is $1.4B requested for FY2006. Now, while I agree that a million four is a good chunk of change, it is 1/10% of the budget, and accounts for less than 1/2% of the $3XXM increase in funding requested for FY2006.
My suggestion: DON'T add more technology to the schools. Quit buying MS licenses for the computers you have.
Here's antoher suggestion: Stop building schools that look like college student centers and convetion halls. I work in the A/E/C industry and see all the waste we're spending on soaring glass atriums and circular media centers and other very expensive features. Even something as small as the design fee can be reduced if we weren't trying to build the next Getty Museum for our children to learn in. Hotels are similar in complexity, and yet the chains manage to spend 2.5-4% of construction on design fees, while new schools will command 6-8%. Seems like a small change, but the last 1000 student high school I was involved with was $20M for the building (plus $10M for sitework and other improvements)
Wow, those are some lousy acronyms. PEOS sounds dirty, and PEN sounds more like incarceration. Almost as bas as Virginia's Standards Of Learning tests which all kids have to take, and on which performance of the schools are measured. You got it - our schools are all about SOL.
Oh, admit it - you just want to see boobies and the Puritans on this side of the pond don't want you to. (Sorry, I only saw one episode of Benny Hill, when I was an early teen, and boobies is all I remembered)
We won, fair and square, almost 250 years ago, and yet they just keep trying to undermine our way of life here in the US. This type of economic warfare will not go unnoticed by our leaders. When the poor and infirm media executives can barely afford to feed their families, and have to go begging on the street for face-lift and breast augmentation money, there will be action. As Americans, we shouldn't have to put up with this kind of communistic pandering to the "people". We have the miltary might to thrash you again...don't test us!
(remember to post AC, remember to poast AC, remember to post AC...)
Maybe I'm just out of the loop, but easynews actully decodes the files and offers them for direct downloads. Most nntp services are just storage and retransmission of (undecoded) bits which must be reassembled/un-uuencoded(or whatever) by the end user. Easynews decodes and thumbnails (for images/video). Its a fine distinction, but one which might be significant.
I'm actually quite suprised that the newsaggregator services, especially easynews, hasn't been a target. I mean, really, they're storing the goddamned binaries on their servers and sending them out - even zipped up if you like - for 30-45 days. Not that I'm complaining;-)
Okay, everybody is giving you shit about your fortran comment. Wouldn't you love to go back and change that post to say "Volkswriter 3 Tips and Tricks" Yeah, I thought so.
Oh, and I agree with all your points, btw. Including the one about chocolate. I just finished dinner, and all I have in the office are these stupic wintergreen mints. Chocolate would finish off the meal so much better. But I digress...
Mobility Electronics aka iGo sells the universal charger you're looking for. Buy one converter and a tip to match each of your electronic devices. They even sell a base model which can plug into AC/Car/Plane, so you're even less likely to be without power. I've got one for my Dell laptop, and tips for my PDA and cellphone. Nifty and convenient, but expensive ($100 for the converter, $10 for the tips).
But then low-lifes like yourself would be part of the hip, chic, "wealthy-appearing" culture that is Apple's base. Since you obviously aren't rich enough to flush $350 for a consumer item that will be passe in a year, you arean't really a good advertisement for Apple, now are you?
Slashdot Mirror
Luckily, we didn't spend the money, and instead have experimental results. A moderate (110mp winds, 12-13' surge by the news reports) hurricane will cause severe damage to the infratstructure.
;-). Nonetheless, it ranks neither higher nor lower than my desire to NOT give federal funds to rebuild other dangerous, highly poplated places to live: LA, SF, NY (ooooh, that scary terrorism), practially anywhere on the FL peninsula. And, yes, I think most of the money we've spent on terrorism is a bunch of crap.
Why would you study the necessary means to keep the city safe, or mitigate a massive flood, if your intent was not to rebuild?
As for the tax benefit, I'm fairly confident that, after you take out NOs portion of education, exploration, defense, welfare, and the other federal programs, they haven't paid one tenth of what it will take to rebuild the city. You also appear to have assumed that if NO didn't exist, the population and business would vanish into thin air, and those people would not work/play/pay taxes somewhere else (presumably safer) in the US.
Finally, I am saying that the public coffers should forsake high risk zones. We have known for years that (for example) NO would be toast in a big hurricane. I'm not talking about technical journals with no readership in the real world. Heck, I heard most of the predictions from an NPR series a couple of years ago come true in the last three days. I'm suggsting that the goverment get out of the business of paying for people (rich or poor) to build in places that are very likley to be demolished every few decades due to natural, uncontrollable events.
BTW - don't take my stance as being anti-New Orleans. It's a dirty, smelly city with beautiful historic architecture, a bunch of nasty bars, chicks showing some boobie, greeat music, and 25% of the NCAA football championship (they might have a pro team too, iirc
Hmmmm....time to punish Taco for all those dupes!
Everything I know about IP I learned on slashdot, but...
(Sorry, I've always wanted to say that. Actually, most of what I know about IP was learned while helping my SO study for her IP class in her MBA program)
Let me get the facts straight, as the article seemed a little light on details. Some guy, in the US, posts factual information or personal opinion on his weblog, and allows others to do so as well. These include unkind words about a company who makes a product or service which may compete with a product or service with which the author is financially involved. (try and parse that one)
A Trade Secret, traditionally, is something so necessary to your core business and so valuable that you believe that keeping it a secret is more likely to make you money than patenting it, or it is unpatentable. Telling the world a trade secret is only unlawful if you are contractually bound not to tell, or if you came by the information through theft or other nefarious means. Once a trade secret is no longer secret, you have no protection (hence the incentive for patenting and licensing).
So, unless this guy stole the information, or is under a nondisclosure agreement, this looks an awful lot like free speech. The others who posted in his site may have written unkind things as well, but the comments are (I assume) clearly delineated as visitor comments, and not the writings of the author. I think you can go pretty far toward slander without getting into trouble that way.
I'm wondering why this is even an issue, unless its just punishement through lawyer fees, regardelss of the outcome.
Seriously, search /. on it.
Don't bother trying to fix it. You're fighting a losing battle. Same goes with the Atlantic coast beaches.
I have two words for you: PRIVATE FUNDING.
You want to live below sea level in a hurricane zone? Fine by me, but don't ask me to bail you out. Want to build a million dollar house at the beach? Fine, but don't ask me to spend billions of dollars to rebuild the beach for you.
It all goes back to foolish people doing foolish things. If it were me, I'd deny insurance claims to anyone wanting to rebuild, and I'd require that anyone rebuilding MUST place their first floor above sea level on a flood-resistant foudnation which can withstand 145mph winds.
What? That sounds too extreme? Guess what, dumbshit, THAT'S THE THE REQUIREMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL (i.e. US) BUILDING CODE!* They rebuild all these historic strucutres without these requirements because they've been "grandfathered". They shouldn't be rebuilt.
*I happen to be a strucutral engineer, and have the building code next to me. I design flood foundations. I design for hurricane winds. I happen to know that most builders and building officials outside of Florida wouldn't know proper high-wind construction if it fell on them. And as for the 145mph winds...well, grab a copy of ASCE 7-02 "Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures". Page 37. The 140MPH contour happens to pass right over Lake Ponchitrain. The next contour, which covers the entire coastal area is 150MPH. In fact, the entire coast from Houma, LA through MS and AL all the way to the FL border is a 150MPH zone. If all the buildings were up to code, there wouldn't have been anything but extremely isolated structural damage. But you don't listen. So you die.
I'd like my 7mil in cash, if you wouldn't mind.
The MP/RIAA is too savvy to go after political friends. Anybody connected is going to get a pass.
Yes, yes I hear you pointing out that an old lady and young kids have been accidentally snatched up. Trust me, the moment the lawyers get word that a congressman's daughter is on the list, that name will magically disappear. Destroying random people is bad press, biting the hand that feeds you is suicide.
Please don't give him any more ideas. He's only got 3 years left, but he can still do so much more damage if he really puts his back into it.
1. Build on ground that is above flood level.
2. Build structures to withstand local environmental loads (hint 1: 50 years isn't long enough; hint 2:Florida has lots of data in wind)
Well, you can design for that, too. But its expensive, and when you have the federal government stepping in after each flood and helping to rebuild, why bother spending all that money up front. Nanny state will bail you out.
I say don't bother to pump it out. I sure as hell don't want to pay for it, especially since this has been predicted for some time. Stupid is as stupid does.
Screw that. I could have told you that a major hurricane would flood the city, the pumps would fail, and you'd have the world's biggest swimming pool with underwater bars. And I could have written the report for a fraction of the $71M planned.
They should have given me the contract for a mere $7 million and saved the rest.
I believe the favorite here is "Strong and bitter"
There was an outbreak a year or two ago with many sigs including coffee-based women preferences.
And no matter how you slice it, the costs of education are going up. Unless you decide that a complete paradigm shift is going to happen, you won't see a change.
The entire state of South Carolina is looking at a $1.4M shortfall, according to TFA. A quick Google shows that the state budget for education is $1.4B requested for FY2006. Now, while I agree that a million four is a good chunk of change, it is 1/10% of the budget, and accounts for less than 1/2% of the $3XXM increase in funding requested for FY2006.
My suggestion: DON'T add more technology to the schools. Quit buying MS licenses for the computers you have.
Here's antoher suggestion: Stop building schools that look like college student centers and convetion halls. I work in the A/E/C industry and see all the waste we're spending on soaring glass atriums and circular media centers and other very expensive features. Even something as small as the design fee can be reduced if we weren't trying to build the next Getty Museum for our children to learn in. Hotels are similar in complexity, and yet the chains manage to spend 2.5-4% of construction on design fees, while new schools will command 6-8%. Seems like a small change, but the last 1000 student high school I was involved with was $20M for the building (plus $10M for sitework and other improvements)
You must watch FOX, as you apparently think we're "winning" right now. (this post is a joke, too, btw)
Yeah, pretty funny...but its worse - I typed the first two and cut/pasted the third. Just call me the geek on the short bus ;-)
Wow, those are some lousy acronyms. PEOS sounds dirty, and PEN sounds more like incarceration. Almost as bas as Virginia's Standards Of Learning tests which all kids have to take, and on which performance of the schools are measured. You got it - our schools are all about SOL.
Oh, admit it - you just want to see boobies and the Puritans on this side of the pond don't want you to. (Sorry, I only saw one episode of Benny Hill, when I was an early teen, and boobies is all I remembered)
We won, fair and square, almost 250 years ago, and yet they just keep trying to undermine our way of life here in the US. This type of economic warfare will not go unnoticed by our leaders. When the poor and infirm media executives can barely afford to feed their families, and have to go begging on the street for face-lift and breast augmentation money, there will be action. As Americans, we shouldn't have to put up with this kind of communistic pandering to the "people". We have the miltary might to thrash you again...don't test us!
(remember to post AC, remember to poast AC, remember to post AC...)
Maybe I'm just out of the loop, but easynews actully decodes the files and offers them for direct downloads. Most nntp services are just storage and retransmission of (undecoded) bits which must be reassembled/un-uuencoded(or whatever) by the end user. Easynews decodes and thumbnails (for images/video). Its a fine distinction, but one which might be significant.
I'm actually quite suprised that the newsaggregator services, especially easynews, hasn't been a target. I mean, really, they're storing the goddamned binaries on their servers and sending them out - even zipped up if you like - for 30-45 days. Not that I'm complaining ;-)
Oh, man, this has gone way too far. *head in hands*
Likewise, but I found the employees to be lazy, slashdot-reading, good for nothings.
Bill - get back to work and stop reading slashdot.
Okay, everybody is giving you shit about your fortran comment. Wouldn't you love to go back and change that post to say "Volkswriter 3 Tips and Tricks" Yeah, I thought so.
Oh, and I agree with all your points, btw. Including the one about chocolate. I just finished dinner, and all I have in the office are these stupic wintergreen mints. Chocolate would finish off the meal so much better. But I digress...
Mobility Electronics aka iGo sells the universal charger you're looking for. Buy one converter and a tip to match each of your electronic devices. They even sell a base model which can plug into AC/Car/Plane, so you're even less likely to be without power. I've got one for my Dell laptop, and tips for my PDA and cellphone. Nifty and convenient, but expensive ($100 for the converter, $10 for the tips).
But then low-lifes like yourself would be part of the hip, chic, "wealthy-appearing" culture that is Apple's base. Since you obviously aren't rich enough to flush $350 for a consumer item that will be passe in a year, you arean't really a good advertisement for Apple, now are you?
;-)
Gotta keep the riff-raff out, you know?