USD35/employee/year is not really expensive for the benefit to employers of being able to demonstrate that they are "doing something" to monitor and prevent inappropriate comms. It's a reasonable step for an employer to take given the lawsuit risks these days. An employer who doesn't take any steps to monitor comms doesn't look good in court if they end up being sued, for example, in an employee-employee harrassment case.
P.S. Rob, Nate, Jeff, your change of hosting service this week from Exodus East to Exodus West has made Slashdot incredibly s...l.........o...........w....... from Europe. It's taking 2 minutes to load a page compared to 10 seconds on the old host. Did OSDN pull the plug on your funding for the larger pipe at Exodus East? It's understandable but a shame nonetheless because it's going to stop people visiting.
Ok, people lost money due to.coms triggering the stock market to crash. Does anyone have any stories about people actually recovering some or all of their losses? Did you reinvest the remnants?
You could try hdparm -u 1 which unmasks interrupts when the disk interrupt service routine is active. This often allows your mouse to continue moving even if the disk is busy dealing with swap. It's not perfect but it helps a lot. As others have suggested, also try the preemptible kernel patch but keep backups!
Whilst it's good to see serious discussion of open-source benefits to UK govt, one wonders if a related discussion could take place to explore the benefits to the UK economy of reducing the lengthy 125-year term of govt copyright which currently prevents open-source projects from using and adding to 100-year old Victorian map data produced by the Ordnance Survey. The nearest open-source projects can get is
ancient pre-125 year map data which are quite interesting as historical data but are seriously deficient for mapping because they are missing large areas of development from the late 19th century. By contrast, in the US, it seems the USGS has a more favorable policy of open-sourcing their data. The result is open-source mapping projects and software that use and extend the USGS datasets, in many cases also leading to commercially successful products.
"... the BBC is a state-funded corporation. As a consequence their budget isn't exactly huge,..."
The BBC is paid for by television license fees. You need a license to own and install a television set in the UK. There are c.25million owners of television sets in the UK paying at the 2001 rate of (UKP)c.110/year. I don't know what you call huge but that makes the BBC's total revenue around (UKP)2.75billion/year, which seems huge to me.
What the previous poster says is completely wrong. You always get X-rays even from ordinary electrical sparks such as from fuses blowing. The ideas explaining this fact have been known since the theories of quantum mechanics were developed in the 20th century.
Planck's Law states there are emissions of electromagnetic radiation at all wavelengths from zero to infinity, i.e. including visible light, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, gamma ray, etc.
Planck's Law of Energy Distribution:
E(L)= 2.PI.h.c^2 / (L^5 (e^(h.c.k.T/L)-1))
where
E(L) is the energy emitted [Watts/metre^2/UnitWavelength],
L is the wavelength of emitted radiation [metres],
T is the temperature of the black-body emitter [Kelvin],
c is the speed of light (3x10^8 metres/second),
k is Boltzmann's constant (1.38x10E-23 Joules/Kelvin),
h is Planck's constant (6.62606891 x 10E-34 Joule seconds), and
PI is the mathematical constant (3.14159...)
The electromagnetic emissions are strongest at one wavelength given by
I think the previous poster has confused total energy dissipation with photon energy which is a function of wavelength (another of Planck's laws: E=hc/L). Although the total energy dissipated when a fuse blows is indeed relatively small, c.0.1 Joules, you nonetheless get electromagnetic emissions at all wavelengths including X-rays by Planck's Law.
There is a simple experiment to give a visible indication that a wide range of wavelengths is emitted by electrical sparks. Wearing gloves and safety eye glasses, connect a short 2cm length of 1Amp fuse wire across the two terminals of a low voltage supply like a 12Volt car battery. The fuse wire will blow. Notice the color of the centre of the spark is roughly white. This is because the temperature of the vaporised metal from the fuse wire, created when the fuse blows, momentarily exceeds 5000K, giving a wavelength of peak emission by Wien's Law of 580nm (green light).
The reason why you don't see the spark as having a green color is that it is emitting a wide range of wavelengths centered around 580nm which stimulates all three types of the color cone receptors in your eyes nearly equally, so making the color appear white. Your eyes lack X-ray and gamma ray detectors, so you cannot see this radiation being emitted by the fuse.
The reason why you are not much harmed by the emissions of X-rays and gamma rays from the electrical spark is that the total energy of the emissions at the higher frequencies is very small according to Planck's Law, above, even though the energy of individual photons at the higher frequencies is very high (E=hc/L).
Any electrical spark of sufficient energy density can generate X-rays as well as emissions in other regions of the EM spectrum, especially visible and UV light. For example, you can also get emissions of X-rays from many types of electrical safety fuses when a massive excess of electrical current causes them to blow.
The X-ray emissions from a fuse are detectable with the help of a well-equipped physics lab. However, the emissions you get are not very useful, being neither of short duration nor a single point source emission. By contrast the researchers at Cornell are using carefully constructed crossed wires which produce extremely short picosecond point-source pulses of X-rays.
Re:rsync efficient secure file transfers
on
A Better FTP?
·
· Score: 1
You're right -- the rsync algorithm was first published in June 1996. Even though I started using it in 1997 I somehow picked the 1998 date from the html version of the tech. report:)
One issue that really stands out is the potential for these super-tough biocapsules to act as safe harbours for a dangerous infectious agent like a virus or prion. The hole diameter in these biocapsules is 7nm. Deadly prion particles capable of causing BSE (mad cow disease) readily slip through 7nm holes. Once a biocapsule is hosting a virus or prion the body's immune system is useless against the invader because it can't reach inside the biocapsule ("It's a challenging tightrope act because if the nanopores are too small, they can't let nutrients in, like sugars and oxygen, to keep the cells alive. But if they're too big, the antibodies can get in and kill the insulin cells", Desai said.)
No sane researcher would risk a bet against virii below the biocapsule's hole size (7nm) being found; years ago the smallest known virus was Hep.B (35nm), a few years ago it was Parvovirus (25nm), now it's Gemini (15nm).
The safety issues need thorough research. Academic research does not have to address safety issues, although most researchers do it as a matter of good practice at the pre-commercial stage which gives more time for potential problems to be identified and debated in the academic community. However Desai does not discuss safety issues in any of her three published papers on biocapsules. This omission is quite surprising because following the gene therapy tragedy at U.Pennsylvania universities have toughened the faculty guidelines and policies on a wide range of safety issues in medical research. Responsible publications have similarly tightened their refereeing policy. Like most referees I'd normally expect authors to address relevant safety issues in submitted papers, otherwise I'd recommend rejection.
Apparently Desai has a patent on biocapsules and is developing it into a therapy with a company called iMEDD in Columbus, Ohio. Obviously the FDA will ensure the technology goes thru safety testing (Phase 2 trials etc) to comply with FDA licensing requirements, but I hope the company actively encourages Desai to follow up and make good her omission of detailed safety research with publications in the academic literature (including safety-related work under NDAs).
rsync efficient secure file transfers
on
A Better FTP?
·
· Score: 5, Informative
The rsync algorithm meets most of your requirements. rsync was proposed in 1998 by Andrew Tridgell for efficient secure file transfers. The main points are:
For efficiency rsync skips any previously received parts of files, a process based on transmitting small checksums instead of large file chunks.
For security you can tunnel rsync over any secure protocol such as ssh/openssh. If you don't want or need protocol-level security you can tunnel it over http.
The detailed description is here (http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/tech_report/), and open-source software is here (http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/download.html).
Overall rsync is often much (10x) faster than using compressed file transfers. It is most useful for users who frequently download new versions of packages with significant similarities between successive versions.
What does global warming have to do with the oceans?
Some of the highly counter-intuitive effects (described below) of global warming may not be appreciated without an understanding of the contribution made to climate by the Earth's oceans.
Why are the oceans so important to climate?
Simply because the world's seawater stores millions of times
more heat than the atmosphere, and the warm sea currents from tropical oceans transport some of this heat to northern continents like the USA and Europe which would otherwise be permanently freezing cold due to their northerly latitude. Warm sea currents are vital to agriculture and our continued well-being.
Could the vital warm sea currents ever stop due to climate change?
Yes, the warm sea currents that keep the planet warm have an Achilles heel -- sea currents stop moving if the saltiness of the seawater falls be
low a critical level (the density of seawater depends on its saltiness, reduced-salt seawater won't sink as it normally does in the coldest polar regions, and without sinking seawater the ocean currents stop moving).
One of the agreed
effects of increasing Carbon Dioxide emissions is that rainfall will increase in northern latitudes, diluting the seawater. In the limit dilution shuts down the warm sea currents.
What is the most important warm sea current?
The Gulf Stream is the most important warm sea current because it can alter
worldwide climate by various positive feedback mechanisms. The climate and food
production of the USA and Europe, for example, both depend on the Gulf Stream keeping the climate warm enough to grow crops.
How secure is the Gulf Stream?
The Gulf Stream is known to be sensitive to changes in rainfall over the Atlantic. Rahmstorf's bifurcation model of Atlantic thermohaline circulation is widely accepted
by independent scientists. This model implies the Atlantic Ocean has only tw
o stable modes of circulation -- ON and OFF. The Atlantic Ocean is currently in the ON mode with an active Gulf Stream. 100000 years ago, it went into the OFF mode when the Gulf Stream shut down causing a worldwide massive
Ice Age. The model shows the likely cause of the shutdown was increased rainfall.
How is the present-day Gulf Stream doing?
The Gulf Stream changes slightly in intensity from year to year, but overall its average state in
recent decades is stable and active. However, the situation should be monitored
closely because it is unknown exactly how much additional rainfall the Gulf Stream can tolerate without shutting down. The Rahmstorf model predicts a critical threshold of about 1Sv/yr (10^6m/yr) (sustained increase) which is ~50% above current long-term average rainfall, whereas rainfall over Northern Europe has actually been increasing only by about 2% a year over the last 20 years -- a total rise of 40% which is currently below the 50% threshold. Conclusion: the Gulf Stream looks safe now but vulnerable to future rainfall increases.
How would plants survive a Gulf Stream shutdown?
Most agricultural plants probably wouldn't survive. The summer air temperature in the US Mid-West, for example, would be just 32F(0C) which would stop all agricultural production.
The ORNL has researched the types of vegetation in the US in present-day conditions and in zero-Gulf Stream conditions.
US vegetation for Gulf Stream OFF (Ice Age conditions)
US vegetation for Gulf Stream ON (present day conditions)
I guess the announcement of reality.sgi.com's imminent demise means the Widget FAQ, a primer on widgets in the Intrinsics, Athena and Motif families, will be gone. Several years ago the widget FAQ used to have or point to C source code for several really useful extension widgets for Athena -- does anyone else remember the extremely compact rotary/slider/radio combination widget?
Let's not forget another SGI-boosted website that originally started up at reality.sgi.com which is the International Obfuscated C Contest. The contest has now moved from SGI to its own domain www.ioccc.org hosted by Plaidworks(??).
You'd need to machine the concrete because you want a smooth exterior surface on the canoe for moving efficiently through the water. The surface of the newly moulded concrete canoe will have small burrs and ridges which need to be removed by sanding. You might also want to attach toe-rests and other fittings to the canoe which could be glued on, or more effectively, screwed onto the concrete after drilling into it.
Seriously I hope they wore filtered breathing apparatus if they did any machining or drilling while working on the concrete in their canoe. It was reported by the BBC Newsnight program that concrete used for building block materials has been contaminated by admixture with incinerator fly ash containing toxic dioxin chemicals. Concrete dusts can be nasty.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to move data onto miniDV tape in DV format than onto DVD-RAM? A 30-minute miniDV tape holds up to 13GB of DV-compressed data, which equates to around 9GB of raw data using RS error-correction -- not bad for USD4 per tape.
What a great idea to market digital TV. Every hotel lobby/bedroom will have a large, clear sign thanking the analog TV donors and explaining to owners of analog TVs how the coming of digital TV has empowered you to donate your analog TV to a needy hotel. It will go on to say how poor old folks can save valuable living space by clearing out their analog TVs, and buying a subway ticket to their nearest hotel which will generously let them watch the all wonderful digital TV. A prominent footnote will explain how the Analog TV Donation Campaign prevents pollution, saves the whales, and makes apple pies.
That's what I meant. Everybody wanting to watch TV in the UK will be forced to buy into digital TV in 2005 by buying a proprietary adapter unit. Digital TV/radio enforces technological restrictions on the timing and manner of my viewing and listening.
The analog TV spectrum is really being sold to mobile phone companies - ask BT head office or read the articles in UK newspapers dated around 28th April 2001.
No, it's not exactly what you were talking about. You said,
"Nobody's forcing you to go digital"
Either you don't understand the issue or you are being economical with the truth. Unfortunately if you want to watch TV in the UK after 2005, you will be forced to buy into digital TV because analog TV transmission will cease in 2005.
Slashdot Mirror
Is any version of xterm better than kterm at displaying Japanese text?
P.S. Rob, Nate, Jeff, your change of hosting service this week from Exodus East to Exodus West has made Slashdot incredibly s...l.........o...........w....... from Europe. It's taking 2 minutes to load a page compared to 10 seconds on the old host. Did OSDN pull the plug on your funding for the larger pipe at Exodus East? It's understandable but a shame nonetheless because it's going to stop people visiting.
Ok, people lost money due to .coms triggering the stock market to crash. Does anyone have any stories about people actually recovering some or all of their losses? Did you reinvest the remnants?
You could try hdparm -u 1 which unmasks interrupts when the disk interrupt service routine is active. This often allows your mouse to continue moving even if the disk is busy dealing with swap. It's not perfect but it helps a lot. As others have suggested, also try the preemptible kernel patch but keep backups!
Whilst it's good to see serious discussion of open-source benefits to UK govt, one wonders if a related discussion could take place to explore the benefits to the UK economy of reducing the lengthy 125-year term of govt copyright which currently prevents open-source projects from using and adding to 100-year old Victorian map data produced by the Ordnance Survey. The nearest open-source projects can get is ancient pre-125 year map data which are quite interesting as historical data but are seriously deficient for mapping because they are missing large areas of development from the late 19th century. By contrast, in the US, it seems the USGS has a more favorable policy of open-sourcing their data. The result is open-source mapping projects and software that use and extend the USGS datasets, in many cases also leading to commercially successful products.
"... the BBC is a state-funded corporation. As a consequence their budget isn't exactly huge,
The BBC is paid for by television license fees. You need a license to own and install a television set in the UK. There are c.25million owners of television sets in the UK paying at the 2001 rate of (UKP)c.110/year. I don't know what you call huge but that makes the BBC's total revenue around (UKP)2.75billion/year, which seems huge to me.
Neither The Register's website nor DNS lookups on www.theregister.co.uk are working at present -- looks like it's offline.
What the previous poster says is completely wrong. You always get X-rays even from ordinary electrical sparks such as from fuses blowing. The ideas explaining this fact have been known since the theories of quantum mechanics were developed in the 20th century.
Planck's Law states there are emissions of electromagnetic radiation at all wavelengths from zero to infinity, i.e. including visible light, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, gamma ray, etc.
Planck's Law of Energy Distribution:
- E(L)= 2.PI.h.c^2 / (L^5 (e^(h.c.k.T/L)-1))
whereL is the wavelength of emitted radiation [metres],
T is the temperature of the black-body emitter [Kelvin],
c is the speed of light (3x10^8 metres/second),
k is Boltzmann's constant (1.38x10E-23 Joules/Kelvin),
h is Planck's constant (6.62606891 x 10E-34 Joule seconds), and
PI is the mathematical constant (3.14159...)
The electromagnetic emissions are strongest at one wavelength given by
Wien's Law
- L = 0.002898 / T
I think the previous poster has confused total energy dissipation with photon energy which is a function of wavelength (another of Planck's laws: E=hc/L). Although the total energy dissipated when a fuse blows is indeed relatively small, c.0.1 Joules, you nonetheless get electromagnetic emissions at all wavelengths including X-rays by Planck's Law.There is a simple experiment to give a visible indication that a wide range of wavelengths is emitted by electrical sparks. Wearing gloves and safety eye glasses, connect a short 2cm length of 1Amp fuse wire across the two terminals of a low voltage supply like a 12Volt car battery. The fuse wire will blow. Notice the color of the centre of the spark is roughly white. This is because the temperature of the vaporised metal from the fuse wire, created when the fuse blows, momentarily exceeds 5000K, giving a wavelength of peak emission by Wien's Law of 580nm (green light).
If you want to understand more about the electromagnetic spectrum, there is a great summary of the quantum mechanics of black body radiation here
Any electrical spark of sufficient energy density can generate X-rays as well as emissions in other regions of the EM spectrum, especially visible and UV light. For example, you can also get emissions of X-rays from many types of electrical safety fuses when a massive excess of electrical current causes them to blow.
The X-ray emissions from a fuse are detectable with the help of a well-equipped physics lab. However, the emissions you get are not very useful, being neither of short duration nor a single point source emission. By contrast the researchers at Cornell are using carefully constructed crossed wires which produce extremely short picosecond point-source pulses of X-rays.
You're right -- the rsync algorithm was first published in June 1996. Even though I started using it in 1997 I somehow picked the 1998 date from the html version of the tech. report :)
One issue that really stands out is the potential for these super-tough biocapsules to act as safe harbours for a dangerous infectious agent like a virus or prion. The hole diameter in these biocapsules is 7nm. Deadly prion particles capable of causing BSE (mad cow disease) readily slip through 7nm holes. Once a biocapsule is hosting a virus or prion the body's immune system is useless against the invader because it can't reach inside the biocapsule ("It's a challenging tightrope act because if the nanopores are too small, they can't let nutrients in, like sugars and oxygen, to keep the cells alive. But if they're too big, the antibodies can get in and kill the insulin cells", Desai said.)
No sane researcher would risk a bet against virii below the biocapsule's hole size (7nm) being found; years ago the smallest known virus was Hep.B (35nm), a few years ago it was Parvovirus (25nm), now it's Gemini (15nm).
The safety issues need thorough research. Academic research does not have to address safety issues, although most researchers do it as a matter of good practice at the pre-commercial stage which gives more time for potential problems to be identified and debated in the academic community. However Desai does not discuss safety issues in any of her three published papers on biocapsules. This omission is quite surprising because following the gene therapy tragedy at U.Pennsylvania universities have toughened the faculty guidelines and policies on a wide range of safety issues in medical research. Responsible publications have similarly tightened their refereeing policy. Like most referees I'd normally expect authors to address relevant safety issues in submitted papers, otherwise I'd recommend rejection.
Apparently Desai has a patent on biocapsules and is developing it into a therapy with a company called iMEDD in Columbus, Ohio. Obviously the FDA will ensure the technology goes thru safety testing (Phase 2 trials etc) to comply with FDA licensing requirements, but I hope the company actively encourages Desai to follow up and make good her omission of detailed safety research with publications in the academic literature (including safety-related work under NDAs).
The rsync algorithm meets most of your requirements. rsync was proposed in 1998 by Andrew Tridgell for efficient secure file transfers. The main points are:
The detailed description is here (http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/tech_report/), and open-source software is here (http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/download.html).
Overall rsync is often much (10x) faster than using compressed file transfers. It is most useful for users who frequently download new versions of packages with significant similarities between successive versions.
Some of the highly counter-intuitive effects (described below) of global warming may not be appreciated without an understanding of the contribution made to climate by the Earth's oceans.
Simply because the world's seawater stores millions of times more heat than the atmosphere, and the warm sea currents from tropical oceans transport some of this heat to northern continents like the USA and Europe which would otherwise be permanently freezing cold due to their northerly latitude. Warm sea currents are vital to agriculture and our continued well-being.
Yes, the warm sea currents that keep the planet warm have an Achilles heel -- sea currents stop moving if the saltiness of the seawater falls be low a critical level (the density of seawater depends on its saltiness, reduced-salt seawater won't sink as it normally does in the coldest polar regions, and without sinking seawater the ocean currents stop moving).
One of the agreed effects of increasing Carbon Dioxide emissions is that rainfall will increase in northern latitudes, diluting the seawater. In the limit dilution shuts down the warm sea currents.
The Gulf Stream is the most important warm sea current because it can alter worldwide climate by various positive feedback mechanisms. The climate and food production of the USA and Europe, for example, both depend on the Gulf Stream keeping the climate warm enough to grow crops.
The Gulf Stream is known to be sensitive to changes in rainfall over the Atlantic. Rahmstorf's bifurcation model of Atlantic thermohaline circulation is widely accepted by independent scientists. This model implies the Atlantic Ocean has only tw o stable modes of circulation -- ON and OFF. The Atlantic Ocean is currently in the ON mode with an active Gulf Stream. 100000 years ago, it went into the OFF mode when the Gulf Stream shut down causing a worldwide massive Ice Age. The model shows the likely cause of the shutdown was increased rainfall.
The Gulf Stream changes slightly in intensity from year to year, but overall its average state in recent decades is stable and active. However, the situation should be monitored closely because it is unknown exactly how much additional rainfall the Gulf Stream can tolerate without shutting down. The Rahmstorf model predicts a critical threshold of about 1Sv/yr (10^6m/yr) (sustained increase) which is ~50% above current long-term average rainfall, whereas rainfall over Northern Europe has actually been increasing only by about 2% a year over the last 20 years -- a total rise of 40% which is currently below the 50% threshold. Conclusion: the Gulf Stream looks safe now but vulnerable to future rainfall increases.
Most agricultural plants probably wouldn't survive. The summer air temperature in the US Mid-West, for example, would be just 32F(0C) which would stop all agricultural production.
The ORNL has researched the types of vegetation in the US in present-day conditions and in zero-Gulf Stream conditions.
I guess the announcement of reality.sgi.com's imminent demise means the Widget FAQ , a primer on widgets in the Intrinsics, Athena and Motif families, will be gone. Several years ago the widget FAQ used to have or point to C source code for several really useful extension widgets for Athena -- does anyone else remember the extremely compact rotary/slider/radio combination widget?
Let's not forget another SGI-boosted website that originally started up at reality.sgi.com which is the International Obfuscated C Contest . The contest has now moved from SGI to its own domain www.ioccc.org hosted by Plaidworks(??).
You'd need to machine the concrete because you want a smooth exterior surface on the canoe for moving efficiently through the water. The surface of the newly moulded concrete canoe will have small burrs and ridges which need to be removed by sanding. You might also want to attach toe-rests and other fittings to the canoe which could be glued on, or more effectively, screwed onto the concrete after drilling into it.
Seriously I hope they wore filtered breathing apparatus if they did any machining or drilling while working on the concrete in their canoe. It was reported by the BBC Newsnight program that concrete used for building block materials has been contaminated by admixture with incinerator fly ash containing toxic dioxin chemicals. Concrete dusts can be nasty.
Will the x86-optimised ASCI Red BLAS, FFT and Extended Precision libraries also be open-sourced and licensed under the GPL instead of the binary-only releases to-date?
Wouldn't it be cheaper to move data onto miniDV tape in DV format than onto DVD-RAM? A 30-minute miniDV tape holds up to 13GB of DV-compressed data, which equates to around 9GB of raw data using RS error-correction -- not bad for USD4 per tape.
What a great idea to market digital TV. Every hotel lobby/bedroom will have a large, clear sign thanking the analog TV donors and explaining to owners of analog TVs how the coming of digital TV has empowered you to donate your analog TV to a needy hotel. It will go on to say how poor old folks can save valuable living space by clearing out their analog TVs, and buying a subway ticket to their nearest hotel which will generously let them watch the all wonderful digital TV. A prominent footnote will explain how the Analog TV Donation Campaign prevents pollution, saves the whales, and makes apple pies.
That's what I meant. Everybody wanting to watch TV in the UK will be forced to buy into digital TV in 2005 by buying a proprietary adapter unit. Digital TV/radio enforces technological restrictions on the timing and manner of my viewing and listening.
The analog TV spectrum is really being sold to mobile phone companies - ask BT head office or read the articles in UK newspapers dated around 28th April 2001.
No, it's not exactly what you were talking about. You said,
Either you don't understand the issue or you are being economical with the truth. Unfortunately if you want to watch TV in the UK after 2005, you will be forced to buy into digital TV because analog TV transmission will cease in 2005.
You're wrong in your first, second, and third sentences.
1. I am part of the market, and I am not voluntarily taking myself to digital TV/radio.
2. They're stopping the analog TV transmission to raise license revenue from mobile communications use of the auctioned spectrum.
3. Analog TVs represent over 90% of the UK market -- not exactly a minority!
Why should I want technological restrictions on the manner of my viewing and listening with digital TV/radio?