You know, I thought about that too. Then again, the report about the van that has been impounded are conflicting. One said that the authorities were getting a search warant, the one previous to that said there were explosives, and another one said that a guy had had a run-in with a bunch of arabs in the parking lot and they were still looking for the vehicle. (although, these could all be separate incidents and I'm getthing them all confused)
The Boston Herald story says they asked for a heading to JFK just before their transponders were deactivated.
I do think a fairly high level of sophistication and training is in evidence here. Granted, they were probably not as well trained as commercial pilots, but I don't think skimming a flight manual in arabic 20 minutes before boarding the aircraft would really be enough to pull off what they did.
Landing a plane on a runway at reduced approach speed with a VFR beacon and everything else to assist navigation seems relatively straightforward. Flying into a (relatively narrow) building at the right altitude at what appeared to be pretty high speed with only visual navigation indicates to me a pretty high skill level.
Ok, "annihilation" was the wrong word, apparently.
Still, he wants to see any country found to be behind this attack destroyed.
"I would not want to destroy a race.
A country ? Yes."
How is that any better? What does "destroy a country" mean? I assume it means to reduce the buildings to rubble and kill most of it's citizens. Sorry, but this is over the top.
We are supposed to be a civilized nation. What happened yesterday was a despicable and uncivilized attack on unarmed civilians. When our country responds to this attack, it must be within the limits of law and civilised behaviour.
To do otherwise would, IMO, make us not much better than the "lawless terrorist nations" that we presume to be responsible for this and other similar attacks.
Yah, and this seems to be echoed over an over by stuff I hear and people I talk to. "Nuke 'em" seems to be a common refrain.
I even got a strange email from a company that makes html editing software that I once used:
Hello everyone,
This is Nicholas Longo, the CEO of CoffeeCup Software.
As you may have heard the World Trade Center and Pentagon
were attacked about 45 minutes ago.
The Team at CoffeeCup would like to send our heart felt
sorrow to those that perished in these attacks.
We would like to also say on record that if any country
is found responsible for these attacks, we call for that
country's complete destruction and annihilation.
Do not let terrorism which is designed to create fear
and stop production, halt your life or work.
Stay focused and do not stop what you are doing.
-May God bless us all and the decisions we must make.
Nick-
helpdesk@coffecup.com
Now, I think that tracking down and punishing those responsible for this attack is important and justified. Launching an all-out campaign of genocide against arab populations is quite another thing. They anti-arab hysteria I've heard today is, to say the least, unsettling.
semi-OT: Your geocities page "pops under" an interesting X10 "public service" message...
http://ads.x10.com/all/suspend.htm
"We have suspended our service out of sympathy for the victims and families of this national tradegy. Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to them."
Saw the same report on one of the networks just a moment ago (either Jennings or Brokaw)
Amid all of the emotions I've had all day about this, the thought of some dude locking himself in the lav to call 911 on his cell just struck me strangely funny. No, I don't think it is funny in the least that a hundred or so people died in that crash (as well as the probably tens of thousands in the WTC), just the mental image of some paniced yuppie in a suit in the toilet on his cellphone during his last moments on earth...
>the "slashdot's making a big deal outa nothing" response
Oh, is that how my comment read? I wasn't trying to downplay the importance of AOLTW trying to grab up as much of everyone else's customers.
I was more going after taco's summary that AT&T _in total_ was going to be bought by AOLTW. Usually/. just posts summaries as contributed by someone else. These are usually bad enough but this one, as it seemed to come straight from taco, seemed over-the-top and I felt I had to respond.
I certainly wasn't trying to claim that/. was making a big deal of nothing. This _is_ an important issue (monopolizing cable access is a "bad thing") and it is certainly worth talking about here. Taco's headline and summary seemed to either demonstrate a lack of understanding of the story (at best), or a careless (or even deliberate) mis-characterization of the substance of the report.
All true, of course. Yet it doesn't rate as much hysterical chest-pounding when you make a factual characterization of the "story". Much better to pick just a few kernels of truth and blow it up into a headline and summary that makes it sound like the planets are about to collide as two very large corporations are getting ready to assimilate one another.
AT&T bought up TCI and a bunch of other cable properties in a bid to broaden their offerings beyond LD telephony (much as they did with the purchase of McCaw and others to form AT&T Wireless Services). This was strategic, to say the least, to get their fingers more directly on consumers for both video and broadband internet (an potentially local phone over cable).
When this story first surfaced about "talks" with AT&T about selling off the broadband unit, I read that AT&T's board wasn't very motivated to make a deal that would undo much of the strategic acquisions they have made over the last few years, but they had a "due dilligence" duty to the stockholders to at least listen.
I don't think this is even very likely that AOL/TW will acquire any cable properties from AT&T. But it sure does make a good/. knee-jerk fest to make it sound like the borg is forming around AT&T and AOL/TW, doesn't it?
I feel the same way, only RS apparently doesn't do that anymore. I needed a couple of d-sub connector kits to build a cable (hacking my bros TiVo) and went into the local RS. I was really surprised when the clerk added up the parts, asked me for the total, gave me the change, bag and receipt without asking for even a zip-code.
I asked him about it... he said they don't do that anymore - too many people were walking out instead of buying stuff.
Seems like it took a loooong time for them to figure that one out.
I'm glad they're going this way. The human-except-for-pointy-ears-and-bad-moustaches Klingons (loved those sparkly vests though) were pretty bad (they just looked like they never bathed).
I think it is a smart move to just go with the "bumpy" Klingon design. (plus, what about all those guys who have invested _years_ in learning to speak Klingonese and dress up like Whorf and stuff?)
Yeah, didn't I read though that they're not gonna try _too_ hard to resolve some of the conflicts between, what, 4 or 5 different shows (and how many movies).
I don't blame them. Hell, Kirk's communicator is already bigger than some of the cellphones we have today. Face it, the original series was futuristic from the vantage of the '60s. Here it is decades later, why should the new show be totally constrained by the elements present in the original series?
Yep. That's one (example). I'm struggling to think of another (recent) one.
Of course, the challenge is to develop some kind of believable alien life form that is not humanoid in some way or another, and still have that character be able to convey some meaningful interaction with the main characters who are, human or humanoid.
Hortas, IIRC, could only communicate by burning their message into rock (no kill i?). 'course it is handy if you have Spock around (just how the hell do you 'mind meld' with a creature made of rock, anyway?)
"The next factual article, eagerly awaited by MozillaQuest's three remaining alleged readers, is set for the year 2005. This may be too late to save the slowly dying Magazine-Suite. "
How about a PC junkyard wars competition with a bunch of boxes of discarded parts as the "Junkyard"?
"Your task today.... is to create a beowulf cluster of at least 10 nodes. At the end of 10 hours of building time, your systems will be given a computational task to perform... whichever's team completes the task in the shortest amount of time wins the coveted 'mangled motherboard' trophy"
Slashdot Mirror
You know, I thought about that too. Then again, the report about the van that has been impounded are conflicting. One said that the authorities were getting a search warant, the one previous to that said there were explosives, and another one said that a guy had had a run-in with a bunch of arabs in the parking lot and they were still looking for the vehicle. (although, these could all be separate incidents and I'm getthing them all confused)
The Boston Herald story says they asked for a heading to JFK just before their transponders were deactivated.
I do think a fairly high level of sophistication and training is in evidence here. Granted, they were probably not as well trained as commercial pilots, but I don't think skimming a flight manual in arabic 20 minutes before boarding the aircraft would really be enough to pull off what they did.
Landing a plane on a runway at reduced approach speed with a VFR beacon and everything else to assist navigation seems relatively straightforward. Flying into a (relatively narrow) building at the right altitude at what appeared to be pretty high speed with only visual navigation indicates to me a pretty high skill level.
http://www.coffeecup.com/attack/comments.txt
Ok, "annihilation" was the wrong word, apparently.
Still, he wants to see any country found to be behind this attack destroyed.
"I would not want to destroy a race.
A country ? Yes."
How is that any better? What does "destroy a country" mean? I assume it means to reduce the buildings to rubble and kill most of it's citizens. Sorry, but this is over the top.
We are supposed to be a civilized nation. What happened yesterday was a despicable and uncivilized attack on unarmed civilians. When our country responds to this attack, it must be within the limits of law and civilised behaviour.
To do otherwise would, IMO, make us not much better than the "lawless terrorist nations" that we presume to be responsible for this and other similar attacks.
I even got a strange email from a company that makes html editing software that I once used:
Now, I think that tracking down and punishing those responsible for this attack is important and justified. Launching an all-out campaign of genocide against arab populations is quite another thing. They anti-arab hysteria I've heard today is, to say the least, unsettling.
semi-OT: Your geocities page "pops under" an interesting X10 "public service" message...
http://ads.x10.com/all/suspend.htm
"We have suspended our service out of sympathy for the victims and families of this national tradegy. Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to them."
Wow. Even annoying advertising has been affected.
at least x10 has suspended their ads in deference to the WTC disaster!
Saw the same report on one of the networks just a moment ago (either Jennings or Brokaw)
...
Amid all of the emotions I've had all day about this, the thought of some dude locking himself in the lav to call 911 on his cell just struck me strangely funny. No, I don't think it is funny in the least that a hundred or so people died in that crash (as well as the probably tens of thousands in the WTC), just the mental image of some paniced yuppie in a suit in the toilet on his cellphone during his last moments on earth
>what's to stop the underdog from returning with a hamstring countersuit
...they don't have as many lawyers?
I think you're right.
/. just posts summaries as contributed by someone else. These are usually bad enough but this one, as it seemed to come straight from taco, seemed over-the-top and I felt I had to respond.
/. was making a big deal of nothing. This _is_ an important issue (monopolizing cable access is a "bad thing") and it is certainly worth talking about here. Taco's headline and summary seemed to either demonstrate a lack of understanding of the story (at best), or a careless (or even deliberate) mis-characterization of the substance of the report.
>the "slashdot's making a big deal outa nothing" response
Oh, is that how my comment read? I wasn't trying to downplay the importance of AOLTW trying to grab up as much of everyone else's customers.
I was more going after taco's summary that AT&T _in total_ was going to be bought by AOLTW. Usually
I certainly wasn't trying to claim that
All true, of course. Yet it doesn't rate as much hysterical chest-pounding when you make a factual characterization of the "story". Much better to pick just a few kernels of truth and blow it up into a headline and summary that makes it sound like the planets are about to collide as two very large corporations are getting ready to assimilate one another.
/. knee-jerk fest to make it sound like the borg is forming around AT&T and AOL/TW, doesn't it?
AT&T bought up TCI and a bunch of other cable properties in a bid to broaden their offerings beyond LD telephony (much as they did with the purchase of McCaw and others to form AT&T Wireless Services). This was strategic, to say the least, to get their fingers more directly on consumers for both video and broadband internet (an potentially local phone over cable).
When this story first surfaced about "talks" with AT&T about selling off the broadband unit, I read that AT&T's board wasn't very motivated to make a deal that would undo much of the strategic acquisions they have made over the last few years, but they had a "due dilligence" duty to the stockholders to at least listen.
I don't think this is even very likely that AOL/TW will acquire any cable properties from AT&T. But it sure does make a good
>I hate to shop at Radio Shack
I feel the same way, only RS apparently doesn't do that anymore. I needed a couple of d-sub connector kits to build a cable (hacking my bros TiVo) and went into the local RS. I was really surprised when the clerk added up the parts, asked me for the total, gave me the change, bag and receipt without asking for even a zip-code.
I asked him about it... he said they don't do that anymore - too many people were walking out instead of buying stuff.
Seems like it took a loooong time for them to figure that one out.
lego.mindstorms.com/inventions and then under 'Special Mention' click the cubesolver link. Worked fine for me just now.
doesn't that rather depend on the drain being in the northern or southern hemisphere (of the universe)?
That's just it. I'm not intent on reconciling every difference between ST shows, and neither are the producers of the new show, thank god.
now it says "Bush Administration"...
Could swear it said "President Bush" earlier in the day!
So, should they try to portray the technology somewhere between an iridium phone and Kirk's communicator?
Where are the politicians?
Oh, they're off burying interns in shallow graves most of the time, apparently.
I'm glad they're going this way. The human-except-for-pointy-ears-and-bad-moustaches Klingons (loved those sparkly vests though) were pretty bad (they just looked like they never bathed).
I think it is a smart move to just go with the "bumpy" Klingon design. (plus, what about all those guys who have invested _years_ in learning to speak Klingonese and dress up like Whorf and stuff?)
Yeah, didn't I read though that they're not gonna try _too_ hard to resolve some of the conflicts between, what, 4 or 5 different shows (and how many movies).
I don't blame them. Hell, Kirk's communicator is already bigger than some of the cellphones we have today. Face it, the original series was futuristic from the vantage of the '60s. Here it is decades later, why should the new show be totally constrained by the elements present in the original series?
heh, Wesley Crusher, heh
Yep. That's one (example). I'm struggling to think of another (recent) one.
Of course, the challenge is to develop some kind of believable alien life form that is not humanoid in some way or another, and still have that character be able to convey some meaningful interaction with the main characters who are, human or humanoid.
Hortas, IIRC, could only communicate by burning their message into rock (no kill i?). 'course it is handy if you have Spock around (just how the hell do you 'mind meld' with a creature made of rock, anyway?)
"The next factual article, eagerly awaited by MozillaQuest's three remaining alleged readers, is set for the year 2005. This may be too late to save the slowly dying Magazine-Suite. "
oh, i gotta go lie down now...
"Your task today.... is to create a beowulf cluster of at least 10 nodes. At the end of 10 hours of building time, your systems will be given a computational task to perform... whichever's team completes the task in the shortest amount of time wins the coveted 'mangled motherboard' trophy"
But they are also breaking in with 'up to the minute coverage'. Funny stuff.
Oh, that's right... I forgot that .org, .com and .net == USA