WATFIV was my very first programming language. At UTA, nearly a quarter century ago, I was a freshman EE major until I took my first programming class, FORTAN. Actually we used WATFIV in the class... and on punchcards. We lowly freshmen weren't privileged enough to get to use the DECWriter interactive terminals. Anyway, FORTRAN/WATFIV ruined my life because I fell in love with programming instantly and changed my major to computer science instead. I made a D in that class, barely passing it.... because I spent my entire computer account time doing my own programming creations on the IBM mainframe instead of doing the assigned classwork:-)
If it weren't for WATFIV, I doubt I'd be in the career I'm in today.
...when he said Con plus Insult equals Consult... I'm your Consultant
Wireless ethernet legal status not "broadcasting"
on
WarTalking Arrest
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· Score: 1
I would argue that 33.02(a) Effective consent was given in that it the network was publicly broadcast. Television broadcasts are free to view, radio free to listen. This is implied in that they are publicly broadcast to any recipient.
You or I may equate wireless ethernet as "broadcasting" but unfortunately the law in Texas does not legally consider it as such.... at this point in time. A very close friend of mine is the network manager for a medium size city government in Texas and while he forbids it on any of the city govt networks he runs, for the obvious reasons, he explains that legally it is currently still viewed foremost as just another variety of computer networking, and hence intercepting it bears the legal equivalence pretty much the same as wiretapping a conventional wired network. Maybe this case will help enlighten the powers that be into realizing that wireless ethernet, while convenient and a neat toy, is the same as publishing the contents of your computers on billboards at the side of a busy interstate highway.
TEXAS PENAL CODE TITLE 7. OFFENSES AGAINST PROPERTY
CHAPTER 33. COMPUTER CRIMES 33.01. Definitions In this chapter: (1) "Access" means to approach, instruct, communicate with, store data in, retrieve or intercept data from, alter data or computer software in, or otherwise make use of any resource of a computer,computer system, or computer network.
(2) "Communications common carrier" means a person who owns or operates a telephone system in this state that includes equipment or facilities for the conveyance, transmission, or reception of communications and who receives compensation from persons who use that system.
(3) "Computer" means an electronic, magnetic, optical, electrochemical, or other high-speed data processing device that performs logical, arithmetic, or memory functions by the manipulations of electronic or magnetic impulses and includes all input, output, processing, storage, or communication facilities that are connected or related to the device.
(4) "Computer network" means the interconnection of two or more computers or computer systems by satellite, microwave, line, or other communication medium with the capability to transmit information among the computers.
(5) "Computer program" means an ordered set of data representing coded instructions or statements that when executed by a computer cause the computer to process data or perform specific functions.
(6) "Computer security system" means the design, procedures, or other measures that the person responsible for the operation and use of a computer employs to restrict the use of the computer to particular persons or uses or that the owner or licensee of data stored or maintained by a computer in which the owner or licensee is entitled to store or maintain the data employs to restrict access to the data.
(7) "Computer services" means the product of the use of a computer, the information stored in the computer, or the personnel supporting the computer, including computer time, data processing, and storage functions.
(8) "Computer system" means any combination of a computer or computer network with the documentation, computer software, or physical facilities supporting the computer or computer network.
(9) "Computer software" means a set of computer programs, procedures, and associated documentation related to the operation of a computer, computer system, or computer network.
(10) "Computer virus" means an unwanted computer program or other set of instructions inserted into a computer's memory, operating system, or program that is specifically constructed with the ability to replicate itself or to affect the other programs or files in the computer by attaching a copy of the unwanted program or other set of instructions to one or more computer programs or files.
(11) "Data" means a representation of information, knowledge, facts, concepts, or instructions that is being prepared or has been prepared in a formalized manner and is intended to be stored or processed, is being stored or processed, or has been stored or processed in a computer. Data may be embodied in any form, including but not limited to computer printouts, magnetic storage media, laser storage media, and punchcards, or may be stored internally in the memory of the computer.
(12) "Effective consent" includes consent by a person legally authorized to act for the owner. Consent is not effective if:
(A) induced by deception, as defined by Section 31.01, or induced by coercion;
(B) given by a person the actor knows is not legally authorized to act for the owner;
(C) given by a person who by reason of youth, mental disease or defect, or intoxication is known by the actor to be unable to make reasonable property dispositions;
(D) given solely to detect the commission of an offense; or
(E) used for a purpose other than that for which the consent was given.
(13) "Electric utility" has the meaning assigned by Subsection (c), Section 3, Public Utility Regulatory Act (Article 1446c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes).
(14) "Harm" includes partial or total alteration, damage, or erasure of stored data, interruption of computer services, introduction of a computer virus, or any other loss, disadvantage, or injury that might reasonably be suffered as a result of the actor's conduct.
(15) "Owner" means a person who:
(A) has title to the property, possession of the property, whether lawful or not, or a greater right to possession of the property than the actor;
(B) has the right to restrict access to the property; or
(C) is the licensee of data or computer software.
(16) "Property" means:
(A) tangible or intangible personal property including a computer, computer system, computer network, computer software, or data; or
(B) the use of a computer, computer system, computer network, computer software, or data.
33.02. Breach of Computer Security
(a) A person commits an offense if the person knowingly accesses a computer, computer network, or computer system without the effective consent of the owner.
(b) A person commits an offense if the person intentionally or knowingly gives a password, identifying code, personal identification number, debit card number, bank account number, or other confidential information about a computer security system to another person without the effective consent of the person employing the computer security system to restrict access to a computer, computer network, computer system, or data.
(c) An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor unless the actor's intent is to obtain a benefit or defraud or harm another, in which event the offense is:
(1) a state jail felony if the value of the benefit or the amount of the loss or harm is less than $20,000; or
(2) a felony of the third degree if the value of the benefit or the amount of the loss or harm is $20,000 or more.
(d) A person who is subject to prosecution under this section and any other section of this code may be prosecuted under either or both sections.
33.03. Defenses
It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under Section 33.02 that the actor was an officer, employee, or agent of a communications common carrier or electric utility and committed the proscribed act or acts in the course of employment while engaged in an activity that is a necessary incident to the rendition of service or to the protection of the rights or property of the communications common carrier or electric utility.
33.04. Assistance by Attorney General
The attorney general, if requested to do so by a prosecuting attorney, may assist the prosecuting attorney in the investigation or prosecution of an offense under this chapter or of any other offense involving the use of a computer.
--
Looks like Mr. Puffer clearly committed the offense described in 33.02(a)
Now is Harris Country guilty of negligence in adequatelely protecting their computer networks? I'd have to argue that yes, in my opinion they probably are. Anyone who'd carelessly run wide open unprotected wireless ethernet in a local government agency is not only a moron, but also a very poor steward of public records, which is a job taken *very* seriously in Texas.
I pretty much concur. Sure wish I had a mod point to give ya.
Also I might like to add that lately the trend in everyone trying to see who can come out with yet another development platform / programming language just for the sake of inventing yet another development platform is part of the *Big Problem*. We've got enough steenking development languages/platforms. What we need is for folks to get back to the business of creating useful (and supportable and *sustainable*) apps with what's out there now.
My interpretation: Comodo is harvesting contact information from certificates in bad faith
The term "harvesting" seems to imply that they did honest work (like a farmer) to get to the position where they could then reap the rewards. May I suggest that the term "strip mining" might be more accurately descriptive of what's going on here?
In the end, I think we all know it's going to be Redhat though. A shame as I'm a SuSE guy.
I'm a SuSE user as well. I believe they will still be around after the "survival of the fittest" weeds out the lame distros, not only becausue they have a finely polished distro, but also because they are the darling of, and are supported by Big Blue.
Oops! I guess you're right. It's a funny 80 pin connector called "SCA-2", no power connector like you'd expect, the power seems to be fed to the drive via the one massive connector... and I was also wrong about the 10K rpm too. They're 15K rpm drives:-)
Oh how I love hot swappable drive arrays. My boss just about crapped a cinder block when I yanked one drive out of the array while we were running the payroll job on the machine... Popped the drive back into the array and it took all of 10 minutes to re-syncronize the contents onto it.
Yes, but there are too few of them at the moment. Musicians number too few percentage of the overall population right now. Even the stores that sell musical instruments have been hurting the past several years. Back in the early 1980's I used to work in a guitar & keyboard store... There were a lot more musicians in the population back them. Instrument sales was thriving. Now it's dead. We need to achive musician-saturation of the general population again, only then there will come good music commercially available on store shelves again.
And you're right, with rubbish being all there is sold and promoted these days, who even wants to become a musician anymore?:-(
I am the proud admin of a fairly new IBM RS6000/p660 server that is equipped with an SSA disk array. These 10K rpm disks are even faster and better performing than Ultra160 SCSI at about the same price. I'm really impressed with this technology and would love to see some rendition of "SSA-lite" type of technology finally make it to the desktop workstation world. It make even render SCSI disks obsolete.
...the music industry is hurting right now is because nobody wants to listen to or purchase the rubbish they're putting on store shelves these days. Only when there is a revival of real musicians who write and sing their own songs, and play their own instruments, will there ever be a boost in music recording sales.
Compound that problem with the next one: The next wave of new musicians who do happen to be able to write and perform hit-quality songs have seen time and time again how pretty much all music artists have always been collectively burned by the history of half a century of organized crime running the major record companies and so now will take their music to indie labels to sell, so the "music industry" (i.e., the majors) is SOL once again, since they've soiled their own bed, now they're gonna have to sleep in it.
Alternative refrigerant gases
on
Microsoft Freon
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· Score: 1
There exists another, simple cheap and efficient alternative refrigerant: a blend of propane and isobutane. Yep, common hydrocarbons. They refrigerate well in the same pressure ranges as R12, blend well with lubricating oils, and biodegrade easily since they are simple hydrocarbons. The reason why they are not used is that they are flammable, but the laws prohibiting their use as refrigerants are not well-based on reason... they are based on emotion. Two or three pounds of butane/propane pressurized in a car's air conditioning system is not that great of a fire or explosion hazard. Compared to the gasoline on board a car, the relatively small amount of refrigerant would be negligeable. One gallon of gasoline weighs about 6 pounds and the typical car has a minimum of a 10 gallon tank. Even in a collision, the refrigerant would spray out into the atmosphere and dissipate in a few seconds, especially if the system was fitted with a quick release emergency dump valve. When a gasoline tank ruptures, you then have a big pool of gasoline that sits around, surrounding the wreckage. Gasoline is a much greater threat. We've all seen plenty of Hollywood movies... the huge orange fireballs that go in all the special effects explosions, those are done with gasoline. Propane/butane explosions are much more benign and take huge quantities in giant tanks to get anywhere near as spectacular as gasoline.
Re:Has it occured to anyone....
on
Microsoft Freon
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· Score: 1
No, I think they've named it "freon" probably because they've been huffing too much freon (inhalant abuse) and now have dain bramage from it.
I'm sure glad I got to see The Who perform live at least once in my lifetime, at the Cotton Bowl on Sept 3, 1989 with the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Stevie Ray Vaughn and The Who. Oh, man, what a show that was. Peace be with you John Entwistle.
I once worked for a company that all of a sudden decided that they wanted all their IT staff to sign a contract stating that *all* intellectual property (whether IT-related or not... even stuff like songs and literary works) created by the employee, whether done at work or at home, automatically became property of the company and if done at home, then the employee was obligated to secure all applicable copyrights/patents/trademarks/etc at the employee's expense and hand them over to the company and if any legal troubles arised from this then the employee was also obligated to pay for all company's legal defense costs in the matter.
Needless to say that I never signed the damn agreement and had acquired a new job before next payday, and even got over $10K/yr more salary at the new job too.
That evil company is now bankrupt after the dotcom bust... seems like they never could manage to hire or retain any good IT talent. Gee I wonder why?
And furthermore, as a nobody amateur musician, I have to emphasize that we need to support our local musicians at the grass roots level more, especially whenever we find any our local artists putting out "hit quality" songs. The quality of most new "music" on the store shelves these days sucks shoedirt. The record companies keep crying that free sharing / piracy of songs on the Internet is killing their business. That's bullcrap, the reason why they're not selling anything is because what they're selling stinks. We need a revival of the kind of music that came from the 1950's thru 1970's: vocal groups that write their own stuff not artifically manufactured boy and girl bands, classic R&B, the original "Motown" sounds (some of the best music ever created on the planet IMHO), classic rock and old-style pop. When those styles of music start being recorded again, we will see a revival of the music industry.
Re:*NIX hasn't changed much...
on
Version Fatigue
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· Score: 1
It's still similar to when I was using it in...1992 at college
And it's still remarkably similar in useability and administerability to when I was learning it in college... in 1982 !!!!!
Forced Premature Obsolescence & Upgrades
on
Version Fatigue
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· Score: 1
Heh heh... This Dilbert Cartoon (http://www.dilbertzone.com/comics/dilbert/archive / ilbert-20020611.html) explains it all.
Me and my boss were just cussing and discussing this very topic.... Especially how our favorite software giant that everybody loves to hate, changes up all the config settings locations in each new version of their operating system just to make everything different, not because it accomplishes anything of value, except to invalidate all their worthless "certified professionals & engineers", forcing those poor saps to have to re-purchase all their certifications all over again.
I just bought the Q10's little brother, an Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96 (4 ins with mic preamps, 6 outputs) and am anxiously awaiting the UPS deliver truck any minute now (THe UPS tracking website said it was loaded onto the truck at 8AM this morning but hasn't yet showed up). I imagine I will get little sleep tonight;-)
Pro Tools isn't the only way to go, though I think it's the only way that's free.
For almost free ($64) you can get n-Track Studio multitrack recording software. They offer a free demo version that's useable, although it has nag-ware reminders to buy the full thing.
Visit these website forums for education on DAWs
on
The State of PC Audio
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· Score: 1
www.audioforums.com www.harmonycentral.com (hunt around for the forums) www.recording.org (free trial period, then pay-for subscription)
I also have to make the comment that all 6 of these soundcards reviewed are hopeless toys. They are cheesy "gamer" soundcards only. To do REAL recording and audio work, you need a professional soundcard. For two ins/outs (regular stereo), the best bang-for-the-buck on the market is an M-Audio (Midiman) "Audiophile" which does true 24/96 recording. It is worthy of a recording studio and you can get one for around $150 street price. As for myself, I prefer genuine multitrack units. I just bought an Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96 that has 4 inputs and 6 outputs plus midi ports too. The 4 inputs have real mic preamps that can provide phantom power for studio-quality condenser mics, and have combo Neutrik XLR+1/4" jacks. Comes with a full copy of Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 which can then be used as a basis for buying a $199 upgrade to Sonar XL 2.0 software.
Tube distortion is mostly even order harmonics. Solid state distortion is both even and odd order harmonics. Also tubes are naturally "voltage amps", transistors are naturally "current amps". Tube amps also have slewing rates that are orders of magnitude better than (bipolar) transistor amps.
Slashdot Mirror
WATFIV was my very first programming language. At UTA, nearly a quarter century ago, I was a freshman EE major until I took my first programming class, FORTAN. Actually we used WATFIV in the class... and on punchcards. We lowly freshmen weren't privileged enough to get to use the DECWriter interactive terminals. Anyway, FORTRAN/WATFIV ruined my life because I fell in love with programming instantly and changed my major to computer science instead. I made a D in that class, barely passing it.... because I spent my entire computer account time doing my own programming creations on the IBM mainframe instead of doing the assigned classwork :-)
If it weren't for WATFIV, I doubt I'd be in the career I'm in today.
...when he said Con plus Insult equals Consult... I'm your Consultant
I would argue that 33.02(a) Effective consent was given in that it the network was publicly broadcast.
Television broadcasts are free to view, radio free to listen. This is implied in that they are publicly broadcast to any recipient.
You or I may equate wireless ethernet as "broadcasting" but unfortunately the law in Texas does not legally consider it as such.... at this point in time. A very close friend of mine is the network manager for a medium size city government in Texas and while he forbids it on any of the city govt networks he runs, for the obvious reasons, he explains that legally it is currently still viewed foremost as just another variety of computer networking, and hence intercepting it bears the legal equivalence pretty much the same as wiretapping a conventional wired network. Maybe this case will help enlighten the powers that be into realizing that wireless ethernet, while convenient and a neat toy, is the same as publishing the contents of your computers on billboards at the side of a busy interstate highway.
FYI: Texas Computer Crime Law
TEXAS PENAL CODE TITLE 7. OFFENSES AGAINST PROPERTY
CHAPTER 33. COMPUTER CRIMES
33.01. Definitions
In this chapter:
(1) "Access" means to approach, instruct, communicate with, store data in, retrieve or intercept data from, alter data or computer
software in, or otherwise make use of any resource of a computer,computer system, or computer network.
(2) "Communications common carrier" means a person who owns or operates a telephone system in this state that includes equipment or facilities for the conveyance, transmission, or reception of
communications and who receives compensation from persons who use that system.
(3) "Computer" means an electronic, magnetic, optical,
electrochemical, or other high-speed data processing device that
performs logical, arithmetic, or memory functions by the
manipulations of electronic or magnetic impulses and includes all
input, output, processing, storage, or communication facilities
that are connected or related to the device.
(4) "Computer network" means the interconnection of two or more
computers or computer systems by satellite, microwave, line, or
other communication medium with the capability to transmit
information among the computers.
(5) "Computer program" means an ordered set of data representing coded
instructions or statements that when executed by a computer cause
the computer to process data or perform specific functions.
(6) "Computer security system" means the design, procedures, or other
measures that the person responsible for the operation and use of
a computer employs to restrict the use of the computer to
particular persons or uses or that the owner or licensee of data
stored or maintained by a computer in which the owner or licensee
is entitled to store or maintain the data employs to restrict
access to the data.
(7) "Computer services" means the product of the use of a computer,
the information stored in the computer, or the personnel
supporting the computer, including computer time, data processing,
and storage functions.
(8) "Computer system" means any combination of a computer or computer
network with the documentation, computer software, or physical
facilities supporting the computer or computer network.
(9) "Computer software" means a set of computer programs, procedures,
and associated documentation related to the operation of a
computer, computer system, or computer network.
(10) "Computer virus" means an unwanted computer program or other set
of instructions inserted into a computer's memory, operating
system, or program that is specifically constructed with the
ability to replicate itself or to affect the other programs or
files in the computer by attaching a copy of the unwanted program
or other set of instructions to one or more computer programs or
files.
(11) "Data" means a representation of information, knowledge, facts,
concepts, or instructions that is being prepared or has been
prepared in a formalized manner and is intended to be stored or
processed, is being stored or processed, or has been stored or
processed in a computer. Data may be embodied in any form,
including but not limited to computer printouts, magnetic storage
media, laser storage media, and punchcards, or may be stored
internally in the memory of the computer.
(12) "Effective consent" includes consent by a person legally
authorized to act for the owner. Consent is not effective if:
(A) induced by deception, as defined by Section 31.01, or induced
by coercion;
(B) given by a person the actor knows is not legally authorized to
act for the owner;
(C) given by a person who by reason of youth, mental disease or
defect, or intoxication is known by the actor to be unable to
make reasonable property dispositions;
(D) given solely to detect the commission of an offense; or
(E) used for a purpose other than that for which the consent was
given.
(13) "Electric utility" has the meaning assigned by Subsection (c),
Section 3, Public Utility Regulatory Act (Article 1446c, Vernon's
Texas Civil Statutes).
(14) "Harm" includes partial or total alteration, damage, or erasure
of stored data, interruption of computer services, introduction of
a computer virus, or any other loss, disadvantage, or injury that
might reasonably be suffered as a result of the actor's conduct.
(15) "Owner" means a person who:
(A) has title to the property, possession of the property, whether
lawful or not, or a greater right to possession of the
property than the actor;
(B) has the right to restrict access to the property; or
(C) is the licensee of data or computer software.
(16) "Property" means:
(A) tangible or intangible personal property including a computer,
computer system, computer network, computer software, or data;
or
(B) the use of a computer, computer system, computer network,
computer software, or data.
33.02. Breach of Computer Security
(a) A person commits an offense if the person knowingly accesses a
computer, computer network, or computer system without the
effective consent of the owner.
(b) A person commits an offense if the person intentionally or
knowingly gives a password, identifying code, personal
identification number, debit card number, bank account number, or
other confidential information about a computer security system to
another person without the effective consent of the person
employing the computer security system to restrict access to a
computer, computer network, computer system, or data.
(c) An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor unless the
actor's intent is to obtain a benefit or defraud or harm another,
in which event the offense is:
(1) a state jail felony if the value of the benefit or the amount
of the loss or harm is less than $20,000; or
(2) a felony of the third degree if the value of the benefit or
the amount of the loss or harm is $20,000 or more.
(d) A person who is subject to prosecution under this section and any
other section of this code may be prosecuted under either or both
sections.
33.03. Defenses
It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under Section 33.02 that
the actor was an officer, employee, or agent of a communications
common carrier or electric utility and committed the proscribed act or
acts in the course of employment while engaged in an activity that is
a necessary incident to the rendition of service or to the protection
of the rights or property of the communications common carrier or
electric utility.
33.04. Assistance by Attorney General
The attorney general, if requested to do so by a prosecuting attorney,
may assist the prosecuting attorney in the investigation or
prosecution of an offense under this chapter or of any other offense
involving the use of a computer.
--
Looks like Mr. Puffer clearly committed the offense described in 33.02(a)
Now is Harris Country guilty of negligence in adequatelely protecting their computer networks? I'd have to argue that yes, in my opinion they probably are. Anyone who'd carelessly run wide open unprotected wireless ethernet in a local government agency is not only a moron, but also a very poor steward of public records, which is a job taken *very* seriously in Texas.
I pretty much concur. Sure wish I had a mod point to give ya.
Also I might like to add that lately the trend in everyone trying to see who can come out with yet another development platform / programming language just for the sake of inventing yet another development platform is part of the *Big Problem*. We've got enough steenking development languages/platforms. What we need is for folks to get back to the business of creating useful (and supportable and *sustainable*) apps with what's out there now.
That'll work.
My interpretation: Comodo is harvesting contact information from certificates in bad faith
The term "harvesting" seems to imply that they did honest work (like a farmer) to get to the position where they could then reap the rewards. May I suggest that the term "strip mining" might be more accurately descriptive of what's going on here?
In the end, I think we all know it's going to be Redhat though. A shame as I'm a SuSE guy.
I'm a SuSE user as well. I believe they will still be around after the "survival of the fittest" weeds out the lame distros, not only becausue they have a finely polished distro, but also because they are the darling of, and are supported by Big Blue.
Oops! I guess you're right. It's a funny 80 pin connector called "SCA-2", no power connector like you'd expect, the power seems to be fed to the drive via the one massive connector... and I was also wrong about the 10K rpm too. They're 15K rpm drives :-)
Oh how I love hot swappable drive arrays. My boss just about crapped a cinder block when I yanked one drive out of the array while we were running the payroll job on the machine... Popped the drive back into the array and it took all of 10 minutes to re-syncronize the contents onto it.
Such musicians are already out there.
:-(
Yes, but there are too few of them at the moment. Musicians number too few percentage of the overall population right now. Even the stores that sell musical instruments have been hurting the past several years. Back in the early 1980's I used to work in a guitar & keyboard store... There were a lot more musicians in the population back them. Instrument sales was thriving. Now it's dead. We need to achive musician-saturation of the general population again, only then there will come good music commercially available on store shelves again.
And you're right, with rubbish being all there is sold and promoted these days, who even wants to become a musician anymore?
I am the proud admin of a fairly new IBM RS6000/p660 server that is equipped with an SSA disk array. These 10K rpm disks are even faster and better performing than Ultra160 SCSI at about the same price. I'm really impressed with this technology and would love to see some rendition of "SSA-lite" type of technology finally make it to the desktop workstation world. It make even render SCSI disks obsolete.
O.T., but for all you Dr. Who fans, there's a website, www.drwho.org out there dedicated to Dr. Who fans with discussion forums, announcements, etc.
:-) I'd love to see the look on his face if/when it happens.
Y'all out to try and see if you can slashdot poor Mike Wilson's machine to hell and back
...the music industry is hurting right now is because nobody wants to listen to or purchase the rubbish they're putting on store shelves these days. Only when there is a revival of real musicians who write and sing their own songs, and play their own instruments, will there ever be a boost in music recording sales.
Compound that problem with the next one: The next wave of new musicians who do happen to be able to write and perform hit-quality songs have seen time and time again how pretty much all music artists have always been collectively burned by the history of half a century of organized crime running the major record companies and so now will take their music to indie labels to sell, so the "music industry" (i.e., the majors) is SOL once again, since they've soiled their own bed, now they're gonna have to sleep in it.
There exists another, simple cheap and efficient alternative refrigerant: a blend of propane and isobutane. Yep, common hydrocarbons. They refrigerate well in the same pressure ranges as R12, blend well with lubricating oils, and biodegrade easily since they are simple hydrocarbons. The reason why they are not used is that they are flammable, but the laws prohibiting their use as refrigerants are not well-based on reason... they are based on emotion. Two or three pounds of butane/propane pressurized in a car's air conditioning system is not that great of a fire or explosion hazard. Compared to the gasoline on board a car, the relatively small amount of refrigerant would be negligeable. One gallon of gasoline weighs about 6 pounds and the typical car has a minimum of a 10 gallon tank. Even in a collision, the refrigerant would spray out into the atmosphere and dissipate in a few seconds, especially if the system was fitted with a quick release emergency dump valve. When a gasoline tank ruptures, you then have a big pool of gasoline that sits around, surrounding the wreckage. Gasoline is a much greater threat. We've all seen plenty of Hollywood movies... the huge orange fireballs that go in all the special effects explosions, those are done with gasoline. Propane/butane explosions are much more benign and take huge quantities in giant tanks to get anywhere near as spectacular as gasoline.
No, I think they've named it "freon" probably because they've been huffing too much freon (inhalant abuse) and now have dain bramage from it.
Long live rock! Be it dead or alive.
I'm sure glad I got to see The Who perform live at least once in my lifetime, at the Cotton Bowl on Sept 3, 1989 with the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Stevie Ray Vaughn and The Who. Oh, man, what a show that was. Peace be with you John Entwistle.
I once worked for a company that all of a sudden decided that they wanted all their IT staff to sign a contract stating that *all* intellectual property (whether IT-related or not... even stuff like songs and literary works) created by the employee, whether done at work or at home, automatically became property of the company and if done at home, then the employee was obligated to secure all applicable copyrights/patents/trademarks/etc at the employee's expense and hand them over to the company and if any legal troubles arised from this then the employee was also obligated to pay for all company's legal defense costs in the matter.
Needless to say that I never signed the damn agreement and had acquired a new job before next payday, and even got over $10K/yr more salary at the new job too.
That evil company is now bankrupt after the dotcom bust... seems like they never could manage to hire or retain any good IT talent. Gee I wonder why?
Amen.
And furthermore, as a nobody amateur musician, I have to emphasize that we need to support our local musicians at the grass roots level more, especially whenever we find any our local artists putting out "hit quality" songs. The quality of most new "music" on the store shelves these days sucks shoedirt. The record companies keep crying that free sharing / piracy of songs on the Internet is killing their business. That's bullcrap, the reason why they're not selling anything is because what they're selling stinks. We need a revival of the kind of music that came from the 1950's thru 1970's: vocal groups that write their own stuff not artifically manufactured boy and girl bands, classic R&B, the original "Motown" sounds (some of the best music ever created on the planet IMHO), classic rock and old-style pop. When those styles of music start being recorded again, we will see a revival of the music industry.
It's still similar to when I was using it in...1992 at college
And it's still remarkably similar in useability and administerability to when I was learning it in college... in 1982 !!!!!
This one deserves being modded up to funny.
Heh heh... This Dilbert Cartoon (http://www.dilbertzone.com/comics/dilbert/archive / ilbert-20020611.html) explains it all.
Me and my boss were just cussing and discussing this very topic.... Especially how our favorite software giant that everybody loves to hate, changes up all the config settings locations in each new version of their operating system just to make everything different, not because it accomplishes anything of value, except to invalidate all their worthless "certified professionals & engineers", forcing those poor saps to have to re-purchase all their certifications all over again.
I just bought the Q10's little brother, an Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96 (4 ins with mic preamps, 6 outputs) and am anxiously awaiting the UPS deliver truck any minute now (THe UPS tracking website said it was loaded onto the truck at 8AM this morning but hasn't yet showed up). I imagine I will get little sleep tonight ;-)
Pro Tools isn't the only way to go, though I think it's the only way that's free.
For almost free ($64) you can get n-Track Studio multitrack recording software. They offer a free demo version that's useable, although it has nag-ware reminders to buy the full thing.
www.audioforums.com
www.harmonycentral.com (hunt around for the forums)
www.recording.org (free trial period, then pay-for subscription)
I also have to make the comment that all 6 of these soundcards reviewed are hopeless toys. They are cheesy "gamer" soundcards only. To do REAL recording and audio work, you need a professional soundcard. For two ins/outs (regular stereo), the best bang-for-the-buck on the market is an M-Audio (Midiman) "Audiophile" which does true 24/96 recording. It is worthy of a recording studio and you can get one for around $150 street price. As for myself, I prefer genuine multitrack units. I just bought an Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96 that has 4 inputs and 6 outputs plus midi ports too. The 4 inputs have real mic preamps that can provide phantom power for studio-quality condenser mics, and have combo Neutrik XLR+1/4" jacks. Comes with a full copy of Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 which can then be used as a basis for buying a $199 upgrade to Sonar XL 2.0 software.
Tube distortion is mostly even order harmonics. Solid state distortion is both even and odd order harmonics. Also tubes are naturally "voltage amps", transistors are naturally "current amps". Tube amps also have slewing rates that are orders of magnitude better than (bipolar) transistor amps.