Here's an interesting story out of lovely Maui. I read it in the Maui News, but the link no longer works, sorry. There was a second story which tempered the first one a bit, but didn't answer the most fundamental issues.
A rather disagreeable traveler was recently allowed on a domestic U.S. flight without any sort of ID (valid, or otherwise). What's more, it seems that security officials (also off-duty sworn officers) helped her bypass the valid-ID requirement by ginning up a "lost or stolen ID" police report, on the spot.
The TSA spokesman brags about how his agency just doesn't check anyone's ID. The Maui police can't figure out what the big deal is -- they issue these police reports all the time. The security guards volunteer obscure and/or sensitive security bypass information, on behalf of an otherwise hapless traveler. Great stuff.
I love to fly, and I won't stop travelling anytime soon; but, if I were ticketed for that particular flight, and I happened to witness this incident, then would I then ask to be re-scheduled? Yes; but, not primarily because of the ID flap. Her angry presence on the aircraft creates a stand-alone hazard.
In my opinion, a belligerent, disagreeable traveler should *never* be allowed to board a revenue flight, no matter what other circumstances may exist. Allowing such people to fly has been repeatedly demonstrated (occasionally with sad results) to be a safety risk to all crew and passengers.
Consider that squirrelly flyers (inebriated, uncooperative, or otherwise potentially disruptive) are often asked to debark before departure, at the discretion of the pilot-in-charge, with lots of help from the flight crew. So, why did the PIC -- who allegedly witnessed the ID adventure -- let her board, in the first place?
I'll wager that, after seeing the police report, the airline's ticket agent still went through the motions of comparing her "identity" with the name printed on the flight coupon. If you haven't seen it yet, the "Airline" documentary / reality-show about Southwest Airlines depicts several incidents of ID ambiguity.
This isn't the most cleverly-written book that I've ever read (the guy is a scientist); but, it lays out the hard cold facts in a way that I have seen in precious few places. This guy argues (quite well) how nuclear power is the *most* environmentally friendly way to proceed. I can't recommend it highly enough.
This book talks a lot about coal pollution -- for instance, the many deaths from black clouds over industrial English cities, and the dangers of radioactive fly-ash, which emits more radiation today than any nuclear plant ever will... and it sits right out in the open.
If we really want modern society as we know it to persist, then we need to abandon (as energy sources) coal ASAP, and petroleum real soon now (we need it all for plastics, anyways). We even need to be careful with our uranium, as we could run out of usable stuff (even with reprocessing) before we discover the next great energy source, someday in the future.
Go to your library and read it... the author is clearly passionate about the subject, but there's evidence and facts presented for every claim that he makes. A hair-raising read.
They made him look too goofy; but, he was a *real* engineer, and so were his fellows. Considering that this movie is historically based, it stands to reason that the real engineers were something like this.
The anti-realistic engineer: Wayne Knight in Jurassic Park! He's about as realistic as the average portrayal Realtors in movies -- possibly the only profession that might be even more skewed...
I've always wondered why there was no VMWare for SPARC... I think that Sun avoids the virtual-machine route in order to reinforce their high-end sales.
Want domains? You'll need to pay for something beefy, like a 6800 or 15K. The marketers have decided that anybody who needs this functionality probably needs lots of other things too, and can be convinced to pony up for the big servers.
I could be wrong; but, this market steering would go a long way toward answering why there's no single-system-image offering for these new entry-level servers.
One or more of those "extroverted, intuitive" VP's must have approved the IT project that this guy is complaining about. What were they thinking when they gave the go-ahead to spend their money and everyone's time on this hated upgrade?
Why does this fellow pick solely upon the techies, and gloss over the decision-making business folks that (in their infinite wisdom, for which they are paid accordingly) made it possible for this terrible chain of events to begin?
Techies certainly have their moments; but, techies almost never get the chance to impose their will on all of the poor users by fiat. Somewhere, some officer who should know better got all hot and bothered... why don't they share the blame?
If you have one nearby, join your local public library. Rather than using the electronic catalog, just walk around the stacks, and pick out a few selections that catch your eye.
I find all sorts of great music that I would never have heard, otherwise. You will be surprised at how quickly you begin mapping and exploring all sorts of new genres and artists.
For instance, I recently found the 9-disc Rounder Records 25th anniversary box, which is really terrific. That's something I never would have sought out -- it was just sitting there on the shelf.
If I get really curious about something that I found at the library, then I look it up on Amazon, and follow the reviews and favorites lists. These can be very useful, especially with more esoteric stuff.
Jeez, didn't any of these legal experts see The Star Chamber? This whole thing about "charges dropped cos you stole the trash" was exposed nationwide, all the way back in 1983.
Heck, I've been covering this critical issue in my signature for years. Ironically, the featured user comment at IMDB is "lively trash". I get all of my legal advice from implausible Hollywood thrillers.
I'm sorry; but your #2 is dead-wrong! In XP, integration is *constant*. There is usually an automatic build process, and in many shops, you aren't allowed to check in code until it builds successfully. In other words: Yes, your opinions about XP are quite ignorant. =-)
In most XP projects, automatic builds are done daily. Working code (in reasonably-sized chunks) is presented to the stakeholders frequently. How could you possibly do this if nobody cared about integration? None of the people here who tout XP would do so if it was like you said.
XP is highly integration-centric. It fights the very phenomenon that you describe, where integration is viewed as a separate thread of development. In XP, integration is the background against which all of your code is developed.
This is part of why it's so useful on *certain kinds* of development projects. You wouldn't want to program the Space Shuttle with XP; but, it's great for building your new website. Before you post again, please actually read something about XP... thank you.
Well you see, that's precisely what I want: something that sounds better. =-)
There's no lossy compression without tradeoffs. Vorbis seems to make better compromises than other formats -- see the recent c't survey that was posted here a few days ago (Vorbis won).
As for the drawbacks: I'm less concerned over whether my dog can hear it, whether it makes pretty waveforms, &c. I can't hear every nuance of music on my little weather-proof headphones when I'm riding the bus, anyways.
It's nice and short, perfect for a screenplay. It should be set in the past (the period for which it was written). It's a seminal work of unintended consequences, &c. 'nuff said.
This reminds me of Sagan's "Contact", where the ET's used polarity modulation to embed the primer onto their radio signal (which was already packed with three or four different datastreams). The humans struggle to decode the message, until somebody decides to check the polarity...
Tomshardware already revealed revelation
on
The State of PC Audio
·
· Score: 2, Informative
On April 5th, Philippe Ramelet wrote an article about the Extigy's alleged 24-bit, 96kHz capabilities at Tom's Hardware Guide. Here's the debunking part.
By the time you figure out what's hot and train for it, it won't be hot any more. Just do what you like to do, do it well, and put yourself in a position where somebody will recognize you for it. Chasing trends will only exhaust you.
Here in Oregon, Qwest has been a very poor corporate citizen lately. They have refused to pay franchise fees to many OR municipalities for using their right-of-ways. This is something like $4 million a year in Portland alone.
Even when a state judge recently gave a verbal finding in favor of the municipalities, Qwest still wouldn't pay -- they claim they will wait until the judge releases his *written* decision. Well, that makes it okay, I guess. =-P
Then, I read in the WSJ that Qwest is undergoing an official investigation by the SEC for pumping up earnings (since the USWest acquisition) by heavy use of service swaps with other telcos. This is the same thing that has tripped up lots of other dog outfits, like Global Crossing.
Ironically, it's those boring old local-loop services which has kept the wheels from coming off due to big losses from all of Qwest's "core" bandwidth businesses. USWest won't prop them up forever, though. They're in dire straits, and they can't hide it for much longer.
That's why they're risking their tariff here by blatantly refusing to pay the basic fees which make all of those monopoly services possible. What does it matter if we piss of the Oregon PUC today, when the whole outhouse might fall into the hole tomorrow?
That's exactly why they won't play nice with small, harmless outfits like these Ruby Ranch guys -- they have other fish to fry, like how to avoid having their name appear in the same sentence with "Enron" in the history books. Qwest is done.
In the past, If you wanted POP3/forwarding, you had to sign up for "Yahoo! Delivers", which spams you anyways. So, they were already treating pop3/forwarding users differently, anyways.
IANAD; but, could sk8's odd behavior possibly be explained by Asperger Syndrome?
People with Asperger are often extremely bright, have a single, strong interest (which they talk about obsessively), take many things too literally, don't understand non-verbal social cues, spend lots of time in fantasy worlds, &c.
I wonder whether this has anything to do with his strange reactions. Interestingly, Asperger seems to have an unusually high incidence in children whose parents are in the high-tech industry.
Or, maybe he's just bipolar, and is delusional while in a manic state. I don't know much; but, I agree that the guy probably suffers from some sort of illness. =-(
I hate Qwest with a passion; but, I will say that opting out is relatively easy.
You might need to look your customer ID (the three digits after your phone number), but it's simple, otherwise. They'll send you a brief email confirmation.
Re:It's just a modified truck, not an SUV
on
The Ultimate S.U.V.
·
· Score: 1
The Unimog is touted as a a super offroader. I've read anecdotes about it conquering some pretty dire country, and rather steep slopes.
Somewhere I saw this picture of a Unimog climbing two ramps on an otherwise flat surface. The right-front and left-rear tyres are both 36" inches off the ground, while the other two wheels are on the ground, applying torque. The vehicle itself is surprisingly level..
I'm not enough of an offroad enthusiast to know what's extreme; but, that's a pretty neat trick! =-)
Slashdot Mirror
Don't forget 1998 -- there was a major, prolonged power outage in Auckland central city, that went on for weeks: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/misc/mercury .txt
And down the stretch, Ruby v1.8.2 takes the lead! Oh wait... this isn't a race, is it? Darn.
Ah, the prospect of automata reproducing out-of-control... this brings new meaning to the term "grey goo". =-)
Just make sure to inorm them that self-assembly makes zinc whiskers grow on your waldoes.
The Huygens probe was saved from probable failure, due to the inability of Cassini's receiver to compensate for the doppler effect:
Titan Calling How a Swedish engineer saved a once-in-a-lifetime mission to Saturn's mysterious moon (by James Oberg)
Without this guy, things would have gone a lot differently! I found this article in RISKS digest 23.65 (always worth a read).
Here's an interesting story out of lovely Maui. I read it in the Maui News, but the link no longer works, sorry. There was a second story which tempered the first one a bit, but didn't answer the most fundamental issues.
A rather disagreeable traveler was recently allowed on a domestic U.S. flight without any sort of ID (valid, or otherwise). What's more, it seems that security officials (also off-duty sworn officers) helped her bypass the valid-ID requirement by ginning up a "lost or stolen ID" police report, on the spot.
The TSA spokesman brags about how his agency just doesn't check anyone's ID. The Maui police can't figure out what the big deal is -- they issue these police reports all the time. The security guards volunteer obscure and/or sensitive security bypass information, on behalf of an otherwise hapless traveler. Great stuff.
I love to fly, and I won't stop travelling anytime soon; but, if I were ticketed for that particular flight, and I happened to witness this incident, then would I then ask to be re-scheduled? Yes; but, not primarily because of the ID flap. Her angry presence on the aircraft creates a stand-alone hazard.
In my opinion, a belligerent, disagreeable traveler should *never* be allowed to board a revenue flight, no matter what other circumstances may exist. Allowing such people to fly has been repeatedly demonstrated (occasionally with sad results) to be a safety risk to all crew and passengers.
Consider that squirrelly flyers (inebriated, uncooperative, or otherwise potentially disruptive) are often asked to debark before departure, at the discretion of the pilot-in-charge, with lots of help from the flight crew. So, why did the PIC -- who allegedly witnessed the ID adventure -- let her board, in the first place?
I'll wager that, after seeing the police report, the airline's ticket agent still went through the motions of comparing her "identity" with the name printed on the flight coupon. If you haven't seen it yet, the "Airline" documentary / reality-show about Southwest Airlines depicts several incidents of ID ambiguity.
The Environmental Case for Nuclear Power by Robert C. Morris
This isn't the most cleverly-written book that I've ever read (the guy is a scientist); but, it lays out the hard cold facts in a way that I have seen in precious few places. This guy argues (quite well) how nuclear power is the *most* environmentally friendly way to proceed. I can't recommend it highly enough.
This book talks a lot about coal pollution -- for instance, the many deaths from black clouds over industrial English cities, and the dangers of radioactive fly-ash, which emits more radiation today than any nuclear plant ever will... and it sits right out in the open.
If we really want modern society as we know it to persist, then we need to abandon (as energy sources) coal ASAP, and petroleum real soon now (we need it all for plastics, anyways). We even need to be careful with our uranium, as we could run out of usable stuff (even with reprocessing) before we discover the next great energy source, someday in the future.
Go to your library and read it... the author is clearly passionate about the subject, but there's evidence and facts presented for every claim that he makes. A hair-raising read.
They made him look too goofy; but, he was a *real* engineer, and so were his fellows. Considering that this movie is historically based, it stands to reason that the real engineers were something like this.
The anti-realistic engineer: Wayne Knight in Jurassic Park! He's about as realistic as the average portrayal Realtors in movies -- possibly the only profession that might be even more skewed...
I've always wondered why there was no VMWare for SPARC... I think that Sun avoids the virtual-machine route in order to reinforce their high-end sales.
Want domains? You'll need to pay for something beefy, like a 6800 or 15K. The marketers have decided that anybody who needs this functionality probably needs lots of other things too, and can be convinced to pony up for the big servers.
I could be wrong; but, this market steering would go a long way toward answering why there's no single-system-image offering for these new entry-level servers.
One or more of those "extroverted, intuitive" VP's must have approved the IT project that this guy is complaining about. What were they thinking when they gave the go-ahead to spend their money and everyone's time on this hated upgrade?
Why does this fellow pick solely upon the techies, and gloss over the decision-making business folks that (in their infinite wisdom, for which they are paid accordingly) made it possible for this terrible chain of events to begin?
Techies certainly have their moments; but, techies almost never get the chance to impose their will on all of the poor users by fiat. Somewhere, some officer who should know better got all hot and bothered... why don't they share the blame?
If you have one nearby, join your local public library. Rather than using the electronic catalog, just walk around the stacks, and pick out a few selections that catch your eye.
I find all sorts of great music that I would never have heard, otherwise. You will be surprised at how quickly you begin mapping and exploring all sorts of new genres and artists.
For instance, I recently found the 9-disc Rounder Records 25th anniversary box, which is really terrific. That's something I never would have sought out -- it was just sitting there on the shelf.
If I get really curious about something that I found at the library, then I look it up on Amazon, and follow the reviews and favorites lists. These can be very useful, especially with more esoteric stuff.
Jeez, didn't any of these legal experts see The Star Chamber? This whole thing about "charges dropped cos you stole the trash" was exposed nationwide, all the way back in 1983.
Heck, I've been covering this critical issue in my signature for years. Ironically, the featured user comment at IMDB is "lively trash". I get all of my legal advice from implausible Hollywood thrillers.
I'm sorry; but your #2 is dead-wrong! In XP, integration is *constant*. There is usually an automatic build process, and in many shops, you aren't allowed to check in code until it builds successfully. In other words: Yes, your opinions about XP are quite ignorant. =-)
In most XP projects, automatic builds are done daily. Working code (in reasonably-sized chunks) is presented to the stakeholders frequently. How could you possibly do this if nobody cared about integration? None of the people here who tout XP would do so if it was like you said.
XP is highly integration-centric. It fights the very phenomenon that you describe, where integration is viewed as a separate thread of development. In XP, integration is the background against which all of your code is developed.
This is part of why it's so useful on *certain kinds* of development projects. You wouldn't want to program the Space Shuttle with XP; but, it's great for building your new website. Before you post again, please actually read something about XP... thank you.
Once again, AMD missed their chance. They should have named the K8 after the male lead on the robot soap-opera that Bender watches on Futurama:
"Calculon! We thought you were dead!"
IANAL; but, this sounds like a classic case of barratry to me.
> It sacrifices a lot to "sound better" than MP3
Well you see, that's precisely what I want: something that sounds better. =-)
There's no lossy compression without tradeoffs. Vorbis seems to make better compromises than other formats -- see the recent c't survey that was posted here a few days ago (Vorbis won).
As for the drawbacks: I'm less concerned over whether my dog can hear it, whether it makes pretty waveforms, &c. I can't hear every nuance of music on my little weather-proof headphones when I'm riding the bus, anyways.
Well, that was exactly the problem with Cold Fusion ... it requires copious amounts of element 118. Now it can be told.
It's nice and short, perfect for a screenplay.
It should be set in the past (the period for which it was written). It's a seminal work of unintended consequences, &c. 'nuff said.
This reminds me of Sagan's "Contact", where the ET's used polarity modulation to embed the primer onto their radio signal (which was already packed with three or four different datastreams). The humans struggle to decode the message, until somebody decides to check the polarity...
On April 5th, Philippe Ramelet wrote an article about the Extigy's alleged 24-bit, 96kHz capabilities at Tom's Hardware Guide. Here's the debunking part.
By the time you figure out what's hot and train for it, it won't be hot any more. Just do what you like to do, do it well, and put yourself in a position where somebody will recognize you for it. Chasing trends will only exhaust you.
Here in Oregon, Qwest has been a very poor corporate citizen lately. They have refused to pay franchise fees to many OR municipalities for using their right-of-ways. This is something like $4 million a year in Portland alone.
Even when a state judge recently gave a verbal finding in favor of the municipalities, Qwest still wouldn't pay -- they claim they will wait until the judge releases his *written* decision. Well, that makes it okay, I guess. =-P
Then, I read in the WSJ that Qwest is undergoing an official investigation by the SEC for pumping up earnings (since the USWest acquisition) by heavy use of service swaps with other telcos. This is the same thing that has tripped up lots of other dog outfits, like Global Crossing.
Ironically, it's those boring old local-loop services which has kept the wheels from coming off due to big losses from all of Qwest's "core" bandwidth businesses. USWest won't prop them up forever, though. They're in dire straits, and they can't hide it for much longer.
That's why they're risking their tariff here by blatantly refusing to pay the basic fees which make all of those monopoly services possible. What does it matter if we piss of the Oregon PUC today, when the whole outhouse might fall into the hole tomorrow?
That's exactly why they won't play nice with small, harmless outfits like these Ruby Ranch guys -- they have other fish to fry, like how to avoid having their name appear in the same sentence with "Enron" in the history books. Qwest is done.
In the past, If you wanted POP3/forwarding, you had to sign up for "Yahoo! Delivers", which spams you anyways. So, they were already treating pop3/forwarding users differently, anyways.
IANAD; but, could sk8's odd behavior possibly be explained by Asperger Syndrome?
People with Asperger are often extremely bright, have a single, strong interest (which they talk about obsessively), take many things too literally, don't understand non-verbal social cues, spend lots of time in fantasy worlds, &c.
I wonder whether this has anything to do with his strange reactions. Interestingly, Asperger seems to have an unusually high incidence in children whose parents are in the high-tech industry.
Or, maybe he's just bipolar, and is delusional while in a manic state. I don't know much; but, I agree that the guy probably suffers from some sort of illness. =-(
I hate Qwest with a passion; but, I will say that opting out is relatively easy.
You might need to look your customer ID (the three digits after your phone number), but it's simple, otherwise. They'll send you a brief email confirmation.
Oh, and don't forget to complain to the FCC while you're at it.
-cheers, csb
The Unimog is touted as a a super offroader. I've read anecdotes about it conquering some pretty dire country, and rather steep slopes.
Somewhere I saw this picture of a Unimog climbing two ramps on an otherwise flat surface. The right-front and left-rear tyres are both 36" inches off the ground, while the other two wheels are on the ground, applying torque. The vehicle itself is surprisingly level..
I'm not enough of an offroad enthusiast to know what's extreme; but, that's a pretty neat trick! =-)
-cheers, CSB