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  1. And see some of the filming locations... on Blade Runner, The Final Cut · · Score: 1

    at my new project MovieLandmarks.com (yes, we need more locations and contributors)

  2. Good! on U.S. Continues Opposition to Kyoto Environmental Treaty · · Score: 1

    The Kyoto treaty is just another attempt by the 3rd world countries to extract wealth from the world's most successful economy.

    There is no 'proof' that global warming is happening or that we are causing it. We just don't have enough data! 50 or 100 years are a drop in the bucket as far as the environment is concerned, we still have no way to examine long term trends with any objectivity.

    ed.

  3. This is old, outdated news. on Electoral-vote.com Under Heavy Load; Attack? · · Score: 1

    Take a look at the site, its back up and running. The overload happened yesterday and last night, but you could still get mirrors of it using a nyud.net cache

  4. Let me guess... on Whopping-Big Data Theft At U.C. Berkeley · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    They weren't running OpenBSD, were they?

  5. Better get it quick! on Automated DMCA Notices Still Full of Lies · · Score: 1

    Gosh, I wasn't aware that my IF Archive mirror was harboring copyrighted material. You'd better grab it before it goes away!

    doom3.zip

    And while you're at it, check out the rest of the archive, text adventures aren't dead!

    Hmm, looking at the copy of peter's email its pretty likely that I may have received one myself -- but my spam filter recognized what it was and deleted it.

    bcl

  6. Pogo Linux on Terabyte Storage Solutions? · · Score: 1

    These guys build some very sweet boxes, they have been at LFNW the last 2 years (that I know of). Take a look at 3.5T for $10k here at their site -- and no this isn't because they gave me a free hat.

    bcl

  7. Should Have Started With This on IBM tells SCO to Put Up or Shut Up · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You would think that someone would have said 'Gee, do you guys have any EVIDENCE to support your claims?' and when they couldn't or wouldn't produce a single line of code they would have been tossed out of the courthouse on their butt. I suppose that's too close to being common sense for our over-lawyered justice system though.

  8. DirecPC Support on Worst Explanation From Tech Support? · · Score: 1

    DirecPC has outsourced their support to Indian index card readers. Our DirecPC connection at work had died for no apparent reason. Having delt with this before I went through all the steps of re-running the config program (they sometimes switch transponders on you without an automatic update). I exhausted all my resources and finally called their 'support' line.

    The poor schmuck on the other end couldn't understand that I had already done everything on his index cards, so I played along until he got to the end and said - 'I am sorry that I have not been able to resolve this problem. I will pass it along to an engineer who will contact you within 2 to 4 days'!

    2-4 days!? I never did hear from the engineer, and the system fixed itself after a couple more hours of outage (no changes, just let it sit).

    Another time I had problems connecting to my webserver from DirecPC. I could ssh to my home system and connect just fine, so I knew the problem wasn't the target system. I finally traced it down to the DirecPC system, somehow they were blocking part (or maybe all) of EV1 Servers (several other sites I know are hosted there also weren't available).

    This time I actually got to talk to a real network guy, who still couldn't understand the problem (I guess dealing with total morons all day could do that to you). Finally I reversed roles on him, told him to click on Internet Explorer, type in my website in the URL box and give it a try. Presto, he finally got it. It was fixed within an hour.

    For people like me (and I expect a large percentage of slashdotters) it would be nice if there were a tech. support phone number reserved for people with a clue. I do know how to troubleshoot a network connection, I do know how to operate a mouse, I just want an intelligent conversation with someone who can do the same!

  9. Mythbusters Cell-Phone Show Tonight at 2AM on Can Cell Phones Ignite Gasoline Vapors? · · Score: 2, Informative

    They reran it at 7PM last night, and will be playing it again tonight at 2AM, set your Tivo!

    MythBusters Show Schedule

  10. Potential Positive Effect on Are We About To Enter The Age of Book Piracy? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    First off, I agree that it is Piracy and is wrong. But the effects may not be what you would first expect. Baen books has an experiment with their Free Library, www.baen.com/library where they are giving away some of their books and watching the results on sales.

    They are finding that sales actually go up on the author's other books! Having freely available books gives readers an introduction to authors they may have never picked up before, they tend to buy other books written by the same author. According to Baen the life-cycle of your typical book really isn't that long.

    This isn't to justify book piracy, but just as we have seen in the Music industry we may be dealing with a bit of exaggeration on the part of the publishers (and on the part of some authors who seem to have gone a bit rabid on the subject).

    Brian

  11. Powersats are a better idea on (Solar) Power to the Masses · · Score: 2

    http://www.powersat.com -- solar power arrays in space (no attentuation by atmosphere or weather) beaming power back to Earth using microwaves. SF author Jerry Pournelle (http://www.jerrypournelle.com) has been advocating these for years.

    Brian

  12. Uhh, google? on A Search Engine For The Slower Net · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Google is obviously very light. If you really can't support the bandwidth for graphics, use lynx or turn off images totally.

    I realize that developing countries don't have fast connections, but google works fine across 24k connections (and really ought to work fine on anything).

    email requests and getting responses later seems like a bit more of a kludge than it needs to be.

    bcl

  13. EU Can come and get me... on U.S. E-Commerce Sites To Collect EU VAT · · Score: 1

    There ain't no way that I am going to pay/charge an EU VAT tax on my products on services. If they want my money they're going to have to come and get it from me.

    Its bad enough they we're being taxed and regulated to death here at home, we don't need a bunch of pansy socialist european bureaucrats digging their grubby fingers into our pockets as well.

    bcl

  14. Re:Text Adventure Games on The Little Coder's Predicament · · Score: 1

    Glad to hear it! IF is a great medium for both programming and creative writing. Have your son check out my website at http://www.guetech.org, I need some contributors!

    bcl

  15. Python on The Little Coder's Predicament · · Score: 1

    Its got a well defined syntax, is ported widely, works interactivly (makes a great calculator), integrates well with GTK.

    bcl

  16. You Killed Our Server! You Bastards! NOT! on Glade 2 Tutorial · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Something strange is happening here. I am not seeing any kind of adverse effect to the machine from being slashdotted. Its chugging along fine, happily serving up pages.

    Hmm, must be some kind of multi GHz Quad Processor heavy iron type of box, right?

    Nope.

    P75, 48megs of ram. No kidding.

    cat /proc/cpuinfo
    model : Pentium 75+
    vendor_id : GenuineIntel
    bogomips : 40.04

    Granted, I'm only seeing 109 current connections to the web server right now. But its running just fine. This is probably mostly due to our colocation hosts at VDomainHosting having enough available bandwidth to serve things up in a timely manner. Thanks guys!

    And thanks to Rikke for such a great tutorial. She presented it a few weeks ago at the Linux Fest NW event, to a packed room.

    Brian
    KPLUG Webmaster

  17. Meazura looks interesting but... on A Palm for Every Purpose · · Score: 1

    I notice that all the images on their website are rendered. They don't have exact diagrams for their modules (ie. so you can figure out how much stuff you can pack in there). They have only recently licensed PalmOS (May 6th I believe). It looks like vaporware to me. Well crafted vapor, but just the same I'd like to see some real units.

    bcl

  18. Easy to add to DigiTemp on Moving Sensor Data Onto The Internet With SensorML · · Score: 1

    It should be pretty easy to add a perl or python wrapper to DigiTemp, I'll have to look into this when I get home tonight.

    bcl

  19. Re:Short notice. on Linuxfest Northwest · · Score: 1

    I hear you, but Slashdot really isn't the place to go for announcements of this type. Check with your local lugs, we've been working on this for quite a while now. And don't worry, there will be more of these.

    bcl

  20. Distributed Gutenberg Speech Conversion on Launching Gutenberg Radio - Public Domain Audiobooks · · Score: 1

    Everyone send in ogg samples of them reading a phrases from one of the works published by Gutenberg. String 'em all together and you have a human voice instead of computer reading it to you!

    (I'm just kidding, this would sound like crap).

    But it would be nice if some humans would read the works and encode them for distribution so that people don't have to be subjected to speech that still doesn't sound much better than SAM (Software Automated Mouth) on my Atari 800.

    bcl

  21. Re:initial analysis for Bruce on Spam Catchers Block Latest Crypto-Gram · · Score: 1

    I'm running v2.44 and it passed the CryptoGram newsletter just fine. I'd bet that the report came from someone who has tweaked their SpamAssassin settings to be non-default (as mine are).

    Not a problem.

    bcl

  22. History Channel's Greatest Raids on War Hero Thwarted Nazi Heavy Water Production · · Score: 1

    I think that a recent episode of the History Channel's Greatest Raids covered some of his work against the Norsk Hydro factory in Telemark, Norway.

    bcl

  23. Re:Too obvious? on Top 10 New Sci-Fi/SF Authors? · · Score: 1

    Don't forget Zodiac. Sangamon Taylor is a radical enviornmentalist that even a conservative like me can like.

  24. Re:John Lott's book on An Unbiased Analysis of Gun Crime vs. Gun Control? · · Score: 2

    Just for the sake of completeness:

    COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S BOARD OF TRUSTEES VOTES TO RESCIND THE 2001
    BANCROFT
    PRIZE

    PRIZE HAD BEEN AWARDED TO MICHAEL BELLESILES FOR HIS BOOK ARMING
    AMERICA: THE
    ORIGINS OF A NATIONAL GUN CULTURE

    Contact:
    Eileen Murphy, Columbia University
    emm2103@columbia.edu
    (212)854-5573

    Columbia University's Trustees have voted to rescind the Bancroft Prize
    awarded last year to Michael Bellesiles for his book Arming America:
    The
    Origins of a National Gun Culture. The Trustees made the decision
    based
    on a review of an investigation of charges of scholarly misconduct
    against Professor Bellesiles by Emory University and other assessments
    by professional historians. They concluded that he had violated basic
    norms of scholarship and the high standards expected of Bancroft Prize
    winners. The Trustees voted to rescind the Prize during their
    regularly
    scheduled meeting on December 7, 2002 and have notified Professor
    Bellesiles of their decision.

    The Bancroft Prize, which was first offered in 1948, is to be awarded
    for works in American history of "distinguished merit and distinction."
    The selection criteria for the Prize specify that it "should honor only
    books of enduring worth and impeccable scholarship that make a major
    contribution to our understanding of the American past." Professor
    Bellesiles' book seemed to fulfill these criteria at the time of
    selection. However, it has since been the subject of substantial
    debate
    within the community of American historians that included charges that
    Professor Bellesiles had committed scholarly misconduct in the use of
    some of his primary source materials.

    In response to these charges, Emory University, where Professor
    Bellesiles holds an appointment, established a panel of three
    distinguished scholars from other universities to conduct a review. On
    October 25, 2002, following this review, the panel issued a report. In
    it, the panel members found "evidence of falsification" with respect to
    one of the questions they were asked to consider; spoke of "serious
    failures of and carelessness in the gathering and presentation of
    archival records and the use of quantitative analysis" on two others;
    and questioned "his veracity" with respect to a fourth. They also
    concluded that he had "contravened" the norms of historical scholarship
    both "as expressed in the Committee charge and in the American
    Historical Association's definition of scholarly 'integrity.'"

    Columbia's Trustees considered the report of the Emory investigating
    committee and Professor Bellesiles' response to it. They also
    considered assessments by professional historians of the subject matter
    of that report.

    After considering all of these materials, the Trustees concurred with
    the three distinguished scholars who reviewed the case for Emory
    University that Professor Bellesiles had violated basic norms of
    acceptable scholarly conduct. They consequently concluded that his
    book
    had not and does not meet the standards they had established for the
    Bancroft Prize.

    In making their decision, the Trustees emphasized that the judgment to
    rescind the Bancroft Prize was based solely on the evaluation of the
    questionable scholarship of the work and had nothing to do with the
    book's content or the author's point of view.

  25. Re:Help the Enviornment? on World's First Tree-sitting Weblog · · Score: 2

    Figures, you get modded up and I get modded down as flaimbait.

    You haven't flown over the US lately have you? FYI we now have more forrested land than ever before in history. Why? Some may ask. Because of better (when implemented) firefighting techniques, and the conversion of some of the grassland to forested lands.

    I grew up in a logging community around Mt. Rainier during the 80's and the logging industry clearly had not been devestated.

    As for the Salmon, they are now finding that those darn little fish do pretty much what they please. All the fishing problems are artificialy created because these nutball enviornmentalists want to force mother nature into their view of the world. For example -- Overall there are no Salmon problems in the NW. But the distribution in the streams has changed over the years.

    If clearcutting made the forest land unusable, then companies like Weyerhuser and Pope and all the other local timber companies would be out of trees by now, wouldn't they?

    I doubt that you are interested in educating youself (and disabusing yourself of your cracked views) but you might try reading "Trashing the Planet" by Dixie Lee Ray, former Washington State Governor