According the Ward himself, CBBS stands for Computerized Bulletin Board System. What Ward and Randy had in mind was replacing the cork bulletin board where members woud post buy,sell and trade notes at CACHE meetings with a computer version. It's also commnoly misnamed "Community."
Ward Christensen posted more history here on/. when I tipped him off about a discussion with more incorrect information about MODEM vs. XMODEM.
Ward's a terrifically nice guy who also invented freeware when he gave away all of the useful utilities he wrote. Teh reason for that was more that he didn't want mess with accusations of competing with his employer than an early movement for Free Software.
Burt Rutan has said that he would have claimed the X prize by now, but he wasn't going to persue it further until the US$10M prize was real. They've never gotten the sponsors to put up the money.
Rutan's already flying Proteus is the launch vehicle he plans to use. He's keeping the capsule part secret.
Re:Since when can you have 3 hyphens in a row ??
on
F'd Companies
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· Score: 1
Since Network Solutions decided on no authority whatsover that they could charge for domain registrations. At that point the first fool with $50 got the name.
The DNS RFC says that the domain name must start with an alpha. 3Com had to fight for 3com.com and once they got it they were all alone in having a name starting with a digit for years. Not no more.
Why so many digits? Why are we running out of phone numbers?
They're not running out of numbers because the numbers are being used. They're running out of numbers because blocks of numbers are being reserved.
Any shmoe can print up business cards and claim to be a pager company, a wirelesss com[any or a CLEC. Then he orders some phone numbers. Thanks to rules that the industry doesn't want to change, the minimum block of numbers that can be allocated is 10,000 numbers. The are a lot of blocks of 10,000 phone numbers where 100 or 1 or none are actually being used. It doesn't take many schomes doing this before "we're running out of numbers."
In Illinois the consumer groups wanted to lower the block size but they were denied.
BTW, the management of numbers is handled by a independent company hired for the purpose. The local ILEC has no control over it.
And, while we're at it, why not assign each individual a phone number that they keep for life, no matter where they move, like a domain name? I'd imagine that modern telco equipment could support this by now.
Number portability is supposed to happen. In most states, you can keep your phone number when you change your local phone company.
He co-invented exactly what 'cher doing here, using a computerized bulletin board system or CBBS. While Randy Suess built the S-100 Z80 computer, Ward wrote CBBS in assembler in less than a month one snowy Chicago winter in 1975.
Ward later wrote the MODEM protocol which was the first file transfer protocol.
When I started sniffing around the computign scene we found that a lot of the things utilties that you needed to do things were already written and given away by Ward Christensen. He also invented freeware.
I mean, you'll meet people who say that the quality of your DIGITAL audio cable matters - as if a cheap 3 ft piece of fiber will somehow lose bytes, but an expensive 3 ft piece of fiber will get all those bytes there intact.
For that matter, why do we bother using Cat 5 cable, since we all know barb wire works just as well... I mean, it conducts electricity, right?
FWWEEET! Bad analogy! The SIGNAL on Ethernet is ANALOG, not digital, thus the need for EIA cable specs like CAT 5 to control loss, crosstalk, &etc. It's as analog as what crosses the phone line on a conventional modem link.
Fiber indeed carries a digital signal - 1s and 0s.
I signed up with PacBell about 4 years ago. They stuck me with a crappy USB DSL modem, and crappy software to go along with it.
You could have just called up and asked for the ethernet version of the DSL modem and shipped the USB version back. That's what I did. I guess that was too easy.
Mine now goes to a NetGear firewall/switch/router that does the PPPOe, DHCP, and all.
As a warning to others, when you call to order DSL don'tlet the words PC or USB leave your lips. Tell them your have ETHERNET and the drone^H^H^H^H^H rep will select that DSL modem for you in the first place.
Is
"The Direct Marketing Association is threatening to sue to save U.S. consumers from the potential loss of buying opportunities." the funniest sentence ever?
"But we wanted to offer them a once in a lifetime chance!!!!!"
Why, thank you!***blush***
The DMA really does say stuff like that. Quote: "Some consumers would like to receive fewer telephone marketing calls at home." Doh!
If you sign up an any of the "Preference Lists" they require you to verify by mail in writing so no villainous person can maliciously deny you a chance for these great buying opportunities.
BTW, Here's where to deny the opportunity for yourself: by Snail Mail[It costs $5 to sign up online!], Email, and Telephone.
It looks like the Chicago Tribune reads slashdot. They have a local followup on the story[Free registration required. The free link will probably be dead in a week.]
Note that they classify it as a Mac story.
"I've never seen anything like it," Markham police Sgt. Jim Knapp said of the Apple computer users nationwide whose teamwork led police to Christmas. "They have this strong bond that's about a lot more than their computers."
Jeff Zaslow who wrote this article for the WSJ, wrote an advice column called "Ask Zazz" for the Chicago Sun Times. He was one of two who won the contest the Sun-Times ran for who would be the replacement for advice columnist "Ann Landers." when the Sun-Times lost the rights to Ann Landers to the Chicago Tribune.
Zazlow also sponsored the annual "Zazz Bash" for singles in Chicago. THAT was a geek haven.
"But I really, REALLY need to use the bathroom! It's starting to smell funky in here!!!"
You don't know how right you are. I peered into the gondola of Steve Fossett's Spirit of Freedom around the world balloon. It DID smell funky, like a man lived it in for 15 days.
I've been running for popfile for just a couple of weeks. It's working amazingly well.
The fun thing is when it works on its own, like when you get a message from a subscribed list that it has never seen before and it knows that it ISN'T spam.
With popfile working so well I'm not in a hurry to have Bayesian filters built into the mail client.
Has anybody tried sharing the history data between Windows and Linux clients on a dual boot machine?
You're right. Bill Gates himself talked about Longhorn last week on the Charlie Rose show.
He said it's a "bet the company" project he's leading for a new easier to use desktop OS where all of the applications have the same easier to use user interface.
The idea is for example, viewing a picture would use the same user interface as listening to a music source.
VDE by Eric Meyer is an amazingly fast and powerful, RAM resident editor written in Assembler. Take a look and see if it meets your needs.
VDE would perform well on a 8086 class PC with minimal RAM
The main limitation of VDE is file size. Because it loads the entire file into a page of memory, VDE can only work with a file of up to 64MB in size. To get around this limitation VDE is designed to easily work with files split into smaller chunks.
"This handy unit is a battery powered LCD monitor perfect for may applications. Complete with adjustments for color, brightness, audio volume, etc. Comes with cables for video in and out. This unit perfect for mobile security systems, camera installers, etc."
That's a video monitor, not a data monitor.
That one is designed for security applications where video in/out means COMPOSITE video, i.e. RCA jack connectors like on a VCR, not VGA connectors.
The connectivity could work with a VGA to video adapter, but it would be about the same as using an analog TV as a PC display. You won't get enough a sharp enough picture for text.
Hey, AC, how're ya doing with your MCSE? Still workin'?
Anyway, I couldn't post last night due to the brak.slashdot.org.vs. slashdot.org confusion and I wasn't in the mood to edit my hosts file. The problem's gone this morning so it was fixed or the TTL must have expired.
I saw on The Screen Savers that Intertainer.com WAS doing online films. They had sample content, old TV shows and such, that ran pretty well over broadband.
They just closed shop and filed suit against the major US movie studios claiming that they couldn't get content at a reasonable price. It turns out that the movie studio "synergies" are set up to get any other source from being able to provide content.
So as we suspect, the MPAA isn't against movies being available on the net, they're just against the content coming from anywhere else than the big studios.
Perl guru Randall Schwartz was criminally prosecuted in the state of Oregon when as a consultant he warned his client's system administrators about poorly secured systems he found. He was convicted of a felony. It cost him over $170,000 in legal fees and $68,000 in restitution. He very nearly went to jail for 90 days.
I'd bet HE'D have some ideas whether the wording in a consulting contract would be good enoughto sabve you from his experience.
Dilbert once clicked on a Microsoft EULA to later discover that he had agreed to become a towel boy at Bill Gates house. When he served, he got towels snapped at him.
Slashdot Mirror
According the Ward himself, CBBS stands for Computerized Bulletin Board System. What Ward and Randy had in mind was replacing the cork bulletin board where members woud post buy,sell and trade notes at CACHE meetings with a computer version. It's also commnoly misnamed "Community."
/. when I tipped him off about a discussion with more incorrect information about MODEM vs. XMODEM.
Ward Christensen posted more history here on
There's some more history in an interview here.
Ward's a terrifically nice guy who also invented freeware when he gave away all of the useful utilities he wrote. Teh reason for that was more that he didn't want mess with accusations of competing with his employer than an early movement for Free Software.
More likely, the name refers to Edgar Cayce a supposed psychic who predicted that California would fall into the ocean among other things.
Burt Rutan has said that he would have claimed the X prize by now, but he wasn't going to persue it further until the US$10M prize was real. They've never gotten the sponsors to put up the money.
Rutan's already flying Proteus is the launch vehicle he plans to use. He's keeping the capsule part secret.
Since Network Solutions decided on no authority whatsover that they could charge for domain registrations. At that point the first fool with $50 got the name.
The DNS RFC says that the domain name must start with an alpha. 3Com had to fight for 3com.com and once they got it they were all alone in having a name starting with a digit for years. Not no more.
Any shmoe can print up business cards and claim to be a pager company, a wirelesss com[any or a CLEC. Then he orders some phone numbers. Thanks to rules that the industry doesn't want to change, the minimum block of numbers that can be allocated is 10,000 numbers. The are a lot of blocks of 10,000 phone numbers where 100 or 1 or none are actually being used. It doesn't take many schomes doing this before "we're running out of numbers."
In Illinois the consumer groups wanted to lower the block size but they were denied.
BTW, the management of numbers is handled by a independent company hired for the purpose. The local ILEC has no control over it. Number portability is supposed to happen. In most states, you can keep your phone number when you change your local phone company.
He co-invented exactly what 'cher doing here, using a computerized bulletin board system or CBBS. While Randy Suess built the S-100 Z80 computer, Ward wrote CBBS in assembler in less than a month one snowy Chicago winter in 1975.
Ward later wrote the MODEM protocol which was the first file transfer protocol.
When I started sniffing around the computign scene we found that a lot of the things utilties that you needed to do things were already written and given away by Ward Christensen. He also invented freeware.
Fiber indeed carries a digital signal - 1s and 0s.
Mine now goes to a NetGear firewall/switch/router that does the PPPOe, DHCP, and all.
As a warning to others, when you call to order DSL don'tlet the words PC or USB leave your lips. Tell them your have ETHERNET and the drone^H^H^H^H^H rep will select that DSL modem for you in the first place.
The DMA really does say stuff like that. Quote: "Some consumers would like to receive fewer telephone marketing calls at home." Doh!
If you sign up an any of the "Preference Lists" they require you to verify by mail in writing so no villainous person can maliciously deny you a chance for these great buying opportunities.
BTW, Here's where to deny the opportunity for yourself: by Snail Mail [It costs $5 to sign up online!], Email, and Telephone.
Note that they classify it as a Mac story.
Jeff Zaslow who wrote this article for the WSJ, wrote an advice column called "Ask Zazz" for the Chicago Sun Times. He was one of two who won the contest the Sun-Times ran for who would be the replacement for advice columnist "Ann Landers." when the Sun-Times lost the rights to Ann Landers to the Chicago Tribune.
Zazlow also sponsored the annual "Zazz Bash" for singles in Chicago. THAT was a geek haven.
I heard that scientists behind "The Iron Curtain" not only developed male pill years ago - they made abetter one.
They made a "morning after" pill for men.
It was 100% effective.
No patient who tried it ever got pregnant.
The SoloTrek will likely be available commercially at some point: http://www.solotrek.com/
The Moller Air Car is less likely: http://www.moller.com/skycar/
I've been running for popfile for just a couple of weeks. It's working amazingly well.
The fun thing is when it works on its own, like when you get a message from a subscribed list that it has never seen before and it knows that it ISN'T spam.
With popfile working so well I'm not in a hurry to have Bayesian filters built into the mail client.
Has anybody tried sharing the history data between Windows and Linux clients on a dual boot machine?
You're right. Bill Gates himself talked about Longhorn last week on the Charlie Rose show.
He said it's a "bet the company" project he's leading for a new easier to use desktop OS where all of the applications have the same easier to use user interface.
The idea is for example, viewing a picture would use the same user interface as listening to a music source.
VDE by Eric Meyer is an amazingly fast and powerful, RAM resident editor written in Assembler. Take a look and see if it meets your needs. VDE would perform well on a 8086 class PC with minimal RAM
The main limitation of VDE is file size. Because it loads the entire file into a page of memory, VDE can only work with a file of up to 64MB in size. To get around this limitation VDE is designed to easily work with files split into smaller chunks.
You could run it over FreeDOSor UNIX.
The connectivity could work with a VGA to video adapter, but it would be about the same as using an analog TV as a PC display. You won't get enough a sharp enough picture for text.
Hey, AC, how're ya doing with your MCSE? Still workin'?
Anyway, I couldn't post last night due to the brak.slashdot.org
I saw on The Screen Savers that Intertainer.com WAS doing online films. They had sample content, old TV shows and such, that ran pretty well over broadband.
They just closed shop and filed suit against the major US movie studios claiming that they couldn't get content at a reasonable price. It turns out that the movie studio "synergies" are set up to get any other source from being able to provide content.
So as we suspect, the MPAA isn't against movies being available on the net, they're just against the content coming from anywhere else than the big studios.
Scotty could have told 'em the about the formula for Transparent Aluminum.
Your caution is well founded.
Perl guru Randall Schwartz was criminally prosecuted in the state of Oregon when as a consultant he warned his client's system administrators about poorly secured systems he found. He was convicted of a felony. It cost him over $170,000 in legal fees and $68,000 in restitution. He very nearly went to jail for 90 days.
I'd bet HE'D have some ideas whether the wording in a consulting contract would be good enoughto sabve you from his experience.
There's an editting error on the 2nd and 3rd lines of the table of directories in the article.
.trash - This directory contains files that have been dragged to the Trash.
./vol - This directory maps HFS+ file IDs to files.
AFAIK, it should read:
Isn't it suposed to be ~/.trash - in your user directory?
I don't own a Mac but I see 'em on the Sreen Savers.
Dilbert once clicked on a Microsoft EULA to later discover that he had agreed to become a towel boy at Bill Gates house. When he served, he got towels snapped at him.