In order: 1 - floppies Well, having used a trusty 8600/200 to recover dead floppies (PC and Mac), I can assure you that the Mac support for FAT floppies works fine, as does the PC compatablilty. In fact, I've used Macs to recover text that was deemed lost for good by PC utilities. It's be nice if they added other file systems, but then you really don't see that many filesystems on desktop machines, do you? I think most of the world's desktop machines are using FAT, HFS, NTFS, EXT2 or a variant of one of those. And since NT uses FAT for floppies, NTFS hardly counts, does it? So that leaves 2 for 3 of the most common desktop filesystems. Sure, not great, but not exactly un-useable. 2 - telnet Umm, BetterTelnet or Nifty Telnet are both fabulous, infinitely configurable telnetnet clients with SSH support. They work great, emulate whatever terminal you can think of, and BetterTelnet is open source (last time I got a copy, anyway). 3 - emulating a mac on a linux box Yah? Can you emulate a playstation on that linux box? VGS will run on that OS9 machine or a 98 machine, but I don't think it cares what glibc you've got.
The point is, we're still stuck at the same thing, which is the best tool for the job. Neither of the two is the uber-OS, neither of them does everything that the other does, etc etc. So if you want a machine that your brain-damaged dog can operate and maintain, use a Mac. If you want to build a firewall out of a ti-85, a bag of paperclips, and some chewing gum, use linux.
It would certainly be fair to say that 'most of the internet is powered by web servers running Apache', however, as Apache and its variants account for over 60% of the publicly visible web. Of course Apache is also popular on the *BSDs and commercial UNIXes.
Not to mention Apache running under OS X Server and (apparently) under the final release of OS X.
What she said is correct: "...Apple pioneered 3.5-inch floppies, the mouse, local area networking, CD-ROMs, and FireWire." LocalTalk was built in to every Mac and ethernet support has been around from the beginning. Ethernet became standard in high-end Macs around mid-1993, and standard in even the lowest end machines by 96, I think. LocalTalk was great for dirt cheap, dirt simple networks. Just run some phone copper and hook up some adapters, and you have a network. No hubs or switches needed, no cases need to be open. Of course, LocalTalk is not fast and not that reliable, but compared to the network support that was shipping with your average PC back in 1984, it rocked. Most PC-based networks involved buying a lot of really pricey ethernet cards and a Novell file server. For a Mac LAN in 1984, you didn't need to add anything to the machine itself or to the operating system. I don't know when the earliest desktop PC that shipped with some sort of built in networking shipped, but I know I didn't start seeing it until roughly the same time period as the P2...
I'm not saying that it shouldn't be given to people who DO need it, I'm saying that I think there are a lot of cases where people who don't need it are given it.
I'm well aware of the differences between ritalin and anti-depressants. I also know quite a few people on one or the other. The thing that bothers me is seing how freely ritalin is prescribed. Surely you agree that people who aren't ADHD/ADD have no need for Ritalin. My point was that there are way too many kids out there on Ritalin - more kids on it than there are kids with ADHD/ADD, and that can be a problem. This situation helps feed the misconceptions and misunderstanding of mental illnesses and disorders, and that doesn't help anyone.
When chemical imbalances in your brain make you so miserable that death starts to look good just so you wont have to feel anymore, that is illness. Your body is not functioning right and it hurts you. It is just like cancer or diabetes that sense. There is no question about that being illness. Just being sad because of external causes doesn't compare. It isn't the same thing to lose money, love, or family. Having been through some of that and clinical depression, I'd take the loss of money, love or family any day. Hell, I'd prefer it every day all day, because even at the worst points, you can look up from those loses, you can see life and light and goodness ahead. I'm not disagreeing with your notion that the label of mental illness can be applied too broadly. You're right about that, imho. But illness is illness, dude.
I hardly would call it ignorance, dude. I mean, look at the number of children (and I mean children, not teenagers) on Ritalin. It's just not right to be doping these kids up on speed on a whim - something that risky needs to be used as carefully as possible. Hell, anything that is used to alter one's mental state should be used carefully. In a lot of cases, the drugs don't cure the illness but mask the symptoms of mental disorders. If the kid has a problem, it needs to be solved rather than just doping to kid to the gills to make them easier to deal with without actually forcing the issue of resolving the illness. Also, I got a different impression of the comment about the shooters on anti-depressants. The previous poster seemed to say (to me, anyway) that it was due to mis-use of anti-depressants or mis-diagnosis of a problem that the shooters were on the drugs. In fact, I would suggest that the correlation involved might be one between people who have serious problems not getting the right help and school shootings. Final tidbit - there are a lot of people who stop taking whatever is keeping them semi-healthy because of side effects or lack of useful effects. From my personal experience, Zoloft kept the depression away, but it did so by making every emotion go flat, and the side effects of 150 mg a day were pretty brutal.
There may be pilsner you like better, but there's a reason that it's called Urquell. It's the first. It literally the pilsner that all of the others are trying to emulate. Though truth be told, pretty much any really good pilsner is good enough for me. Anyone near Philly should try both the Stoudt's and Victory pilsners. Yum.
Mmmmm, cheap wine. I can appreciate a $2.50 bottle of wine with a twist off cap. Especialy when you read the fine print and see that it's not really wine, it's a "fine malt beverage". Of course, good beer still tastes way better, but there's nothing like an evening with some friends where everyone gets a bottle of three of cheap ass wine.
Dude, Pilsner Urquell is THE pilsner. There is no other pilsner that can compare, the rest are (literally, since Pilsner Urquell was the first pilsner) poor imitations. But good beer can be found in the US, you just have to look harder. Victory makes some good stuff, and Bert Grant's, and in Cleveland there's Great Lakes, and they make a wicked good Dortmunder. Suprisingly, there is good american beer made in bulk - there's a hefe-weissen made by Miller (iirc) that is way good, too. But the best way to go, wherever you are, is local beer, which is why Philly rocks for beer (Victory, Yards, and a few dozen small brew pubs).
itachi, who could use a nice pint of Mackeson Milk Stout right now...
Re:A Victory that isn't really worth much....
on
Microsoft Loses
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You buy a new motherboard with a new processor because of the processor you choose. And if you move from a pII 300 to a pII 450, you will likely keep the same mobo. There is no one-for-one product tying going on there. Sure, you can't move to an arbitrary processor, but that doesn't make it product tying. Excuse me for being exteremly cynical here but I'd actually argue that IE dominates the market because it's simply a plain better product. Okay. I'm just saying that Judge Jackson has said that he feels differently, and his decision is the one that matters when discussing the lawsuit. What you or I might think is irrelevant to the legal decision. -me earlier- How many different CPUs can you list off the top of your head? -/me earlier- X86 compatible? Intel and AMD and perhaps VIA As for monopolies in the CPU market, your argument is invalid. People mostly use x86 for desktop, but people could choose to use anything. A monopoly is not defined by the consumers, but by producers. Since Sun, Apple/Motorola, Compaq and AMD all sell non-x86 processors (or systems powered by non-x86 processors) that can be used in desktop systems, and in relatively large quantities, you can hardly say that Intel monopolizes the CPU market. Now this would be more apparent if there was one single desktop OS - a desktop machine would be defined more by the CPU than the OS. It's harder to see when you have to look at differences in OS and CPU at the same time, but there is still no monopoly. Look at NetBSD boxen. I have a MacIIvx NetBSD box, someone else might have it on a P2, a third person might have it running on some Sparc. That is CPU choice right there - the OS is the same across the board. Even within the x86 market, Intel doesn't have a monopoly. Every time p2 and p3 prices have dropped due to a new AMD chip, you can see a non-monopoly market in action. I think that you are either mis-understanding monopolies or you are not paying enough attention to the market where you are seeing monopolies. Saying that Cisco is "clearly" a monopoly really illustrates this. They are simply not the only competitor in their market. They may be the leader in an oligopositic market, but I would say even that is a relatively harsh description of the market. From what I have seen, they are relatively open to competition, they utilize mostly open standards, etc. There are certainly proprietary operations that are limited to interaction between brand X routers, but generally a Cisco router doesn't care if the next hop over is Cisco, Lucent, 3Com, or Billy-Bob's Homemade Routers, as long as it sticks to the protocol defs. If you couldn't mix and match, then you'd have product tying and abuse of market power. Since you can mix and match, no foul.
itachi, still hoping Billy Bob goes back to making moonshine, since his homemade routers just don't measure up
I think the editors and writers actually are well aware. I know a lady who was hired to be in the WWN. She is an actress, and she, her husband, and her cat were all pictured in an article about a lady who married her cat. That is sort of beyond what most people consider the line between news and complete fiction. And come on, making up those articles has to be fun. I would love to just sit there all day writing "aritlces" like the bat boy stuff, or this thing. Better than tech support...
itachi
Re:A Victory that isn't really worth much....
on
Microsoft Loses
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· Score: 1
No, see being a monopoloy isn't illegal. Abusing monoploy power is illegal. Now, when you buy a p3, do you have to buy IntelOS to go with it? When you subscribe to AOL, do you have to get a subscription to Time as well? If I pick up a new 6506, will Cisco make me purchase an accompanying truckload of catalyst switches? Microsoft bundling IE was the equivalent (product tying to remove competition in a seperate portion of the market) according to Jackson's FoF. As for the 3 companies you listed being more monopolistic, you're just plain wrong. How many different CPUs can you list off the top of your head? I can think of a hlaf dozen or so. How about ISPs? Or magazine publishers? Or media companies? Cisco is the closestto being a monopoly, I think, but still they have competition as well. So far, Intel and AOL/Time-Warner have been pretty evil imho, but evil isn't illegal - abuse of monopoloy power is. Cisco seems pretty un-evil to me, but that's just imho.
itachi, who thinks there aren't many monopoly problems in the info tech industries
Okay, just looked it up, here's what I was trying to remember earlier. Basically, these were some of his key claims: The itty bitty visible things were "bions", and they either were fueled by or radiated the orgone energy. He met with Einstein and tried to get him to back his theories, but no dice. However, the experiment he showed Einstein in which "positive" orgone energy slightly raised the temperature in an orgone accumulator has been reproduced (according to the book I'm getting this from, 20 times since 1950), taking into account Einstein's counter theories. Maybe he had something, or maybe there is another explanation. The "negative" orgone energy bions seemed to promote cancer in mice. When he tried to find the negative bions in healthy people, he found them less likely to be present than in seriously ill people (like cancer patients). There was a series of experiements which he claimed supported this. When radium was placed in one of the accumulators, it apparently amplified the radiation from the radium. He then invented his cloud machine, which was apparently something like a lightning rod for radiation that had been amplified by the orgone. The device was mounted on the back of a truck, and from the descriptions I've seen, it sounds like it didn't seed the clouds with any sort of particles or anything.
So that's all interesting stuff, and I'll agree, most of his theories are a bit far fetched. Still, without verifying them one way or the other, can they really be pitched out the window? The whole point of the scientific method is to not let the true explanation get discarded or dismissed without reason, and to keep the BS from getting accepted as fact just because it looks good. Besides, there is something just so appealing about the notion of illness being the result of not having enough sex. All you'd need to do to feel better...
But he wasn't using microscopes, from what I remember. There was some sort of orgone-focusing device that was essential. I hardly think that we can pass judgement on him one way or the other without being able to see his research. Any info we have on Reich and his research at this point is going to be tainted by the actions of the FDA and the counterclaims of people who were calling him a crackpot. I think you're probably right, but it is possible that some of his stuff (he came up with a lot) was somewhat valid. IIRC, the cloud seeding was in fact tied to his orgone theories.
Yeah, but it looks like it's just a request for proposals, with the idea being that a few dozen engineering/defense firms will bid some proposals, and one or more will get funding to play with. 50 million USD for an RFP isn't too bad, it's not like they're setting the final price for a fleet of these, including prototyping costs. The DoD spends a lot of money this way - small (relatively speaking) projects that may or may not turn up something useful. If it doesn't turn out to be feasible, then no loss, it's only 50 million USD. To the federal government, that's candy bar money. So yes. But no.
Not if you build the exoskeleton to deal with acceleration and decceleration for you. Like giant springs in the shoes:) or something, for an easy landing. Although you'd be suprised at what a human body can withstand - Navy pilots launch off of aircraft carriers at something like 25g's, also astronauts, etc. It's the sudden stop that's the problem, really, and if you spread it out over enough time (seconds rather than milliseconds) it can be done. If you can land a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier without killing the pilot, you can land a person from a few dozen feet...
It's a question of only allowing programs that are supposed to access the info access to the info, and so forth. You can't just let any process read the page that another process is working with - what if the page contains sensitive data? (Well, you can if you don't care about data security) So in high security environments, you have to take this into account, and prevent this. Security is more than just control of the machine (ie. not getting rooted), it's also maintaining control of data and not losing data. So things like this are a security risk in the sense that someone could access something that they aren't supposed to - they might not be able to change it, but they can still read it.
1. GPS creep might work. Sounds like that Bond movie, though, eh? I'm guessing that might be harder than we think, just because you'd have to trick the receiver into hearing your signal while ignoring the actual signal. A system such as GPS has to have some way of throwing out erroneous data (or admitting that it can't determine a valid result). Now if you knock the satellites out of orbit first, you've got it, but then the all around lack of GPS except when you're spoofing would probably be noticed.
2. Fake AWACS might be possible if stuff was transmitted unencrypted over non-voice channels. Which sounds unlikely. I think open voice communications is already vulnerable, and non-voice is likely going to be encrypted (there's a real-time encryption system from the NSA, although I forget the name, that's used for voice, surely you could throw it into a cell modem...)
3. FOF tomfoolery might be possible. Although the other way around, making foes seem friendly, makes more sense. The FOF is a radar transponder system that essentially fiddles with the bounced signal, I'd think in order to change it you'd need physical access to the transponder.
What it sounds like they are looking at is large systems - computers that provide navigation and systems control for planes and boats, like fly-by-wire. Of course, it does make one wonder what the hell the military would be thinking allowing remote access or control of said computers. I mean, really... I don't know, I think it might be mis-information, getting the "bad guys" (whoever they are this week)to waste time looking at something that is irrelevant.
I think that Mattel is involved in distributing the CD roms for the NGS, but they have nothing to do with the publications and the paper stuff. At all. Trust me. The NGS cd sets are a little iffy anyway - they didn't get rights for all of the stuff used, or so I heard. Like they paid the photo dudes for the pics to appear in the magazine, but not for the cd sets. Or some freelance photogs, anyway.
Um, Mattel might distribute someting for National Geographic, or they might have collaborated on something, but that would be the most of the relationship there. National Geographic (as in the Magazine, the books, World Magazine, Traveler Magazine, the maps, etc) is the National Geographic Society, a non-profit based in D.C. Look here for more info. Unless there's some other National Geographic that we're talking about here. Which I'm sure the Society would like to hear about, they've been around for about a century...
I use a palm III every day, and I hate grafitti. I despise it. Having never used a newton, I can't say that it is any better or worse at HWR, but anything that will at least try to interpret my handwriting the way I actually write would be so much easier to use. The problem I have with the Palm is that it's too easy to confuse the thing - it mistakes "i" for cr-lf, etc. So having a mangled alphabet doesn't fix the problem, and I can't write as fast because I am translating in my head as I write... There has to be a good solution for HWR.
itachi, who thinks this thing could rock if the pad is the right size and actually _has_ HWR...
I can't speak for the cost of your ambulance ride, or your "speeding" ticket (38 in a 35 is hardly speeding, I agree), or so forth. But the fact remains, the government does provide services to the public. And the things that they do are usually the expensive, nasty stuff that nobody wants to deal with. You may pay a fee to have the garbage picked up in the Nashville suburbs, but here in Philly, it's run by the city. Out of my tax money. I'm okay with that, I like that the garbage gets picked up. And the various emergency services. Thankfully, I have had no need of them in a long time. But just in case I do need them, it's good to know they're there. But then there's stuff the government does that I don't like. Nobody is going to be all happy. Because maybe you think that you don't need the fire dept, and i think I don't need the garbage service. Or whatever, the point is the same. The govt. can't satisfy everyone all the time, but they're doing a hell of a lot better than the average person gives them credit for. But let's talk Washington for a while. Priced real estate there lately? Or consumer goods? Believe me, your average government employee in the DC area is suffering through the real world too. The attitude I'm talking about _is_ whining. Life is about ups and downs and struggles, that's what makes the good parts good. What I'm talking about is people complaining - "I want no taxes, but I want the government to do all this crap for me" "I want the government to leave me alone. But I also want them to protect my interests w.r.t. this or that foreign policy." That's greedy, whining BS.
itachi, who isn't a student, and isn't a farmer, but don't make assumptions there, eh? I'd love to continue this one on one...
Seriously. But hey, people who can't afford insurance don't really count, right? I mean, they can't afford insurance, it must be due to some sort of inadequacy on their part or lack of effort, so they deserve to suffer, right? It makes me want to move to Canada, eh? Eh, sarcasm is too tiring. I'd rather have the higher taxes, thanks, and be able to sleep knowing that my comfort isn't based on the discomfort of others.
itachi, who thinks that you can't go too wrong with a domain name like artboy.org
Well, they're only taking your money so that you can ride to the hospital in their ambulance when you get hit by a car, or so that you can call a cop when you get robbed, or so that the trash can get picked up, and little things like that. Stop whining. What on earth is wrong with this nation when people can't see these basic facts? What is happening to the world that makes everyone so fscking greedy and selfish?
itachi, who is going to stop reading this thread before he has an aneurysm
Slashdot Mirror
In order:
1 - floppies
Well, having used a trusty 8600/200 to recover dead floppies (PC and Mac), I can assure you that the Mac support for FAT floppies works fine, as does the PC compatablilty. In fact, I've used Macs to recover text that was deemed lost for good by PC utilities. It's be nice if they added other file systems, but then you really don't see that many filesystems on desktop machines, do you? I think most of the world's desktop machines are using FAT, HFS, NTFS, EXT2 or a variant of one of those. And since NT uses FAT for floppies, NTFS hardly counts, does it? So that leaves 2 for 3 of the most common desktop filesystems. Sure, not great, but not exactly un-useable.
2 - telnet
Umm, BetterTelnet or Nifty Telnet are both fabulous, infinitely configurable telnetnet clients with SSH support. They work great, emulate whatever terminal you can think of, and BetterTelnet is open source (last time I got a copy, anyway).
3 - emulating a mac on a linux box
Yah? Can you emulate a playstation on that linux box? VGS will run on that OS9 machine or a 98 machine, but I don't think it cares what glibc you've got.
The point is, we're still stuck at the same thing, which is the best tool for the job. Neither of the two is the uber-OS, neither of them does everything that the other does, etc etc. So if you want a machine that your brain-damaged dog can operate and maintain, use a Mac. If you want to build a firewall out of a ti-85, a bag of paperclips, and some chewing gum, use linux.
itachi, who really didn't mean to sound so cranky
It would certainly be fair to say that 'most of the internet is powered by web servers running Apache', however, as Apache and its variants account for over 60% of the publicly visible web. Of course Apache is also popular on the *BSDs and commercial UNIXes.
Not to mention Apache running under OS X Server and (apparently) under the final release of OS X.
itachi
What she said is correct:
"...Apple pioneered 3.5-inch floppies, the mouse, local area networking, CD-ROMs, and FireWire."
LocalTalk was built in to every Mac and ethernet support has been around from the beginning. Ethernet became standard in high-end Macs around mid-1993, and standard in even the lowest end machines by 96, I think. LocalTalk was great for dirt cheap, dirt simple networks. Just run some phone copper and hook up some adapters, and you have a network. No hubs or switches needed, no cases need to be open. Of course, LocalTalk is not fast and not that reliable, but compared to the network support that was shipping with your average PC back in 1984, it rocked. Most PC-based networks involved buying a lot of really pricey ethernet cards and a Novell file server. For a Mac LAN in 1984, you didn't need to add anything to the machine itself or to the operating system.
I don't know when the earliest desktop PC that shipped with some sort of built in networking shipped, but I know I didn't start seeing it until roughly the same time period as the P2...
itachi
I'm not saying that it shouldn't be given to people who DO need it, I'm saying that I think there are a lot of cases where people who don't need it are given it.
itachi
I'm well aware of the differences between ritalin and anti-depressants. I also know quite a few people on one or the other. The thing that bothers me is seing how freely ritalin is prescribed. Surely you agree that people who aren't ADHD/ADD have no need for Ritalin. My point was that there are way too many kids out there on Ritalin - more kids on it than there are kids with ADHD/ADD, and that can be a problem. This situation helps feed the misconceptions and misunderstanding of mental illnesses and disorders, and that doesn't help anyone.
itachi
When chemical imbalances in your brain make you so miserable that death starts to look good just so you wont have to feel anymore, that is illness. Your body is not functioning right and it hurts you. It is just like cancer or diabetes that sense. There is no question about that being illness. Just being sad because of external causes doesn't compare. It isn't the same thing to lose money, love, or family. Having been through some of that and clinical depression, I'd take the loss of money, love or family any day. Hell, I'd prefer it every day all day, because even at the worst points, you can look up from those loses, you can see life and light and goodness ahead. I'm not disagreeing with your notion that the label of mental illness can be applied too broadly. You're right about that, imho. But illness is illness, dude.
itachi
I hardly would call it ignorance, dude. I mean, look at the number of children (and I mean children, not teenagers) on Ritalin. It's just not right to be doping these kids up on speed on a whim - something that risky needs to be used as carefully as possible. Hell, anything that is used to alter one's mental state should be used carefully. In a lot of cases, the drugs don't cure the illness but mask the symptoms of mental disorders. If the kid has a problem, it needs to be solved rather than just doping to kid to the gills to make them easier to deal with without actually forcing the issue of resolving the illness.
Also, I got a different impression of the comment about the shooters on anti-depressants. The previous poster seemed to say (to me, anyway) that it was due to mis-use of anti-depressants or mis-diagnosis of a problem that the shooters were on the drugs. In fact, I would suggest that the correlation involved might be one between people who have serious problems not getting the right help and school shootings.
Final tidbit - there are a lot of people who stop taking whatever is keeping them semi-healthy because of side effects or lack of useful effects. From my personal experience, Zoloft kept the depression away, but it did so by making every emotion go flat, and the side effects of 150 mg a day were pretty brutal.
itachi
There may be pilsner you like better, but there's a reason that it's called Urquell. It's the first. It literally the pilsner that all of the others are trying to emulate. Though truth be told, pretty much any really good pilsner is good enough for me. Anyone near Philly should try both the Stoudt's and Victory pilsners. Yum.
itachi
Mmmmm, cheap wine. I can appreciate a $2.50 bottle of wine with a twist off cap. Especialy when you read the fine print and see that it's not really wine, it's a "fine malt beverage". Of course, good beer still tastes way better, but there's nothing like an evening with some friends where everyone gets a bottle of three of cheap ass wine.
itachi
Dude, Pilsner Urquell is THE pilsner. There is no other pilsner that can compare, the rest are (literally, since Pilsner Urquell was the first pilsner) poor imitations. But good beer can be found in the US, you just have to look harder. Victory makes some good stuff, and Bert Grant's, and in Cleveland there's Great Lakes, and they make a wicked good Dortmunder. Suprisingly, there is good american beer made in bulk - there's a hefe-weissen made by Miller (iirc) that is way good, too. But the best way to go, wherever you are, is local beer, which is why Philly rocks for beer (Victory, Yards, and a few dozen small brew pubs).
itachi, who could use a nice pint of Mackeson Milk Stout right now...
You buy a new motherboard with a new processor because of the processor you choose. And if you move from a pII 300 to a pII 450, you will likely keep the same mobo. There is no one-for-one product tying going on there. Sure, you can't move to an arbitrary processor, but that doesn't make it product tying.
Excuse me for being exteremly cynical here but I'd actually argue that IE dominates the market because it's simply a plain better product.
Okay. I'm just saying that Judge Jackson has said that he feels differently, and his decision is the one that matters when discussing the lawsuit. What you or I might think is irrelevant to the legal decision.
-me earlier- How many different CPUs can you list off the top of your head? -/me earlier-
X86 compatible? Intel and AMD and perhaps VIA
As for monopolies in the CPU market, your argument is invalid. People mostly use x86 for desktop, but people could choose to use anything. A monopoly is not defined by the consumers, but by producers. Since Sun, Apple/Motorola, Compaq and AMD all sell non-x86 processors (or systems powered by non-x86 processors) that can be used in desktop systems, and in relatively large quantities, you can hardly say that Intel monopolizes the CPU market. Now this would be more apparent if there was one single desktop OS - a desktop machine would be defined more by the CPU than the OS. It's harder to see when you have to look at differences in OS and CPU at the same time, but there is still no monopoly. Look at NetBSD boxen. I have a MacIIvx NetBSD box, someone else might have it on a P2, a third person might have it running on some Sparc. That is CPU choice right there - the OS is the same across the board. Even within the x86 market, Intel doesn't have a monopoly. Every time p2 and p3 prices have dropped due to a new AMD chip, you can see a non-monopoly market in action.
I think that you are either mis-understanding monopolies or you are not paying enough attention to the market where you are seeing monopolies. Saying that Cisco is "clearly" a monopoly really illustrates this. They are simply not the only competitor in their market. They may be the leader in an oligopositic market, but I would say even that is a relatively harsh description of the market. From what I have seen, they are relatively open to competition, they utilize mostly open standards, etc. There are certainly proprietary operations that are limited to interaction between brand X routers, but generally a Cisco router doesn't care if the next hop over is Cisco, Lucent, 3Com, or Billy-Bob's Homemade Routers, as long as it sticks to the protocol defs. If you couldn't mix and match, then you'd have product tying and abuse of market power. Since you can mix and match, no foul.
itachi, still hoping Billy Bob goes back to making moonshine, since his homemade routers just don't measure up
I think the editors and writers actually are well aware. I know a lady who was hired to be in the WWN. She is an actress, and she, her husband, and her cat were all pictured in an article about a lady who married her cat. That is sort of beyond what most people consider the line between news and complete fiction. And come on, making up those articles has to be fun. I would love to just sit there all day writing "aritlces" like the bat boy stuff, or this thing. Better than tech support...
itachi
No, see being a monopoloy isn't illegal. Abusing monoploy power is illegal. Now, when you buy a p3, do you have to buy IntelOS to go with it? When you subscribe to AOL, do you have to get a subscription to Time as well? If I pick up a new 6506, will Cisco make me purchase an accompanying truckload of catalyst switches? Microsoft bundling IE was the equivalent (product tying to remove competition in a seperate portion of the market) according to Jackson's FoF. As for the 3 companies you listed being more monopolistic, you're just plain wrong. How many different CPUs can you list off the top of your head? I can think of a hlaf dozen or so. How about ISPs? Or magazine publishers? Or media companies? Cisco is the closestto being a monopoly, I think, but still they have competition as well. So far, Intel and AOL/Time-Warner have been pretty evil imho, but evil isn't illegal - abuse of monopoloy power is. Cisco seems pretty un-evil to me, but that's just imho.
itachi, who thinks there aren't many monopoly problems in the info tech industries
Okay, just looked it up, here's what I was trying to remember earlier. Basically, these were some of his key claims:
The itty bitty visible things were "bions", and they either were fueled by or radiated the orgone energy.
He met with Einstein and tried to get him to back his theories, but no dice. However, the experiment he showed Einstein in which "positive" orgone energy slightly raised the temperature in an orgone accumulator has been reproduced (according to the book I'm getting this from, 20 times since 1950), taking into account Einstein's counter theories. Maybe he had something, or maybe there is another explanation.
The "negative" orgone energy bions seemed to promote cancer in mice. When he tried to find the negative bions in healthy people, he found them less likely to be present than in seriously ill people (like cancer patients). There was a series of experiements which he claimed supported this.
When radium was placed in one of the accumulators, it apparently amplified the radiation from the radium. He then invented his cloud machine, which was apparently something like a lightning rod for radiation that had been amplified by the orgone. The device was mounted on the back of a truck, and from the descriptions I've seen, it sounds like it didn't seed the clouds with any sort of particles or anything.
So that's all interesting stuff, and I'll agree, most of his theories are a bit far fetched. Still, without verifying them one way or the other, can they really be pitched out the window? The whole point of the scientific method is to not let the true explanation get discarded or dismissed without reason, and to keep the BS from getting accepted as fact just because it looks good. Besides, there is something just so appealing about the notion of illness being the result of not having enough sex. All you'd need to do to feel better...
itachi, with perversions on his mind
But he wasn't using microscopes, from what I remember. There was some sort of orgone-focusing device that was essential. I hardly think that we can pass judgement on him one way or the other without being able to see his research. Any info we have on Reich and his research at this point is going to be tainted by the actions of the FDA and the counterclaims of people who were calling him a crackpot. I think you're probably right, but it is possible that some of his stuff (he came up with a lot) was somewhat valid. IIRC, the cloud seeding was in fact tied to his orgone theories.
itachi
Yeah, but it looks like it's just a request for proposals, with the idea being that a few dozen engineering/defense firms will bid some proposals, and one or more will get funding to play with. 50 million USD for an RFP isn't too bad, it's not like they're setting the final price for a fleet of these, including prototyping costs. The DoD spends a lot of money this way - small (relatively speaking) projects that may or may not turn up something useful. If it doesn't turn out to be feasible, then no loss, it's only 50 million USD. To the federal government, that's candy bar money. So yes. But no.
itachi
Not if you build the exoskeleton to deal with acceleration and decceleration for you. Like giant springs in the shoes :) or something, for an easy landing. Although you'd be suprised at what a human body can withstand - Navy pilots launch off of aircraft carriers at something like 25g's, also astronauts, etc. It's the sudden stop that's the problem, really, and if you spread it out over enough time (seconds rather than milliseconds) it can be done. If you can land a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier without killing the pilot, you can land a person from a few dozen feet...
itachi
It's a question of only allowing programs that are supposed to access the info access to the info, and so forth. You can't just let any process read the page that another process is working with - what if the page contains sensitive data? (Well, you can if you don't care about data security) So in high security environments, you have to take this into account, and prevent this. Security is more than just control of the machine (ie. not getting rooted), it's also maintaining control of data and not losing data. So things like this are a security risk in the sense that someone could access something that they aren't supposed to - they might not be able to change it, but they can still read it.
itachi
1. GPS creep might work. Sounds like that Bond movie, though, eh? I'm guessing that might be harder than we think, just because you'd have to trick the receiver into hearing your signal while ignoring the actual signal. A system such as GPS has to have some way of throwing out erroneous data (or admitting that it can't determine a valid result). Now if you knock the satellites out of orbit first, you've got it, but then the all around lack of GPS except when you're spoofing would probably be noticed.
2. Fake AWACS might be possible if stuff was transmitted unencrypted over non-voice channels. Which sounds unlikely. I think open voice communications is already vulnerable, and non-voice is likely going to be encrypted (there's a real-time encryption system from the NSA, although I forget the name, that's used for voice, surely you could throw it into a cell modem...)
3. FOF tomfoolery might be possible. Although the other way around, making foes seem friendly, makes more sense. The FOF is a radar transponder system that essentially fiddles with the bounced signal, I'd think in order to change it you'd need physical access to the transponder.
What it sounds like they are looking at is large systems - computers that provide navigation and systems control for planes and boats, like fly-by-wire. Of course, it does make one wonder what the hell the military would be thinking allowing remote access or control of said computers. I mean, really... I don't know, I think it might be mis-information, getting the "bad guys" (whoever they are this week)to waste time looking at something that is irrelevant.
itachi
I think that Mattel is involved in distributing the CD roms for the NGS, but they have nothing to do with the publications and the paper stuff. At all. Trust me. The NGS cd sets are a little iffy anyway - they didn't get rights for all of the stuff used, or so I heard. Like they paid the photo dudes for the pics to appear in the magazine, but not for the cd sets. Or some freelance photogs, anyway.
itachi
ps - don't you mean www.shopmattel.com?
Um, Mattel might distribute someting for National Geographic, or they might have collaborated on something, but that would be the most of the relationship there. National Geographic (as in the Magazine, the books, World Magazine, Traveler Magazine, the maps, etc) is the National Geographic Society, a non-profit based in D.C. Look here for more info. Unless there's some other National Geographic that we're talking about here. Which I'm sure the Society would like to hear about, they've been around for about a century...
itachi
I use a palm III every day, and I hate grafitti. I despise it. Having never used a newton, I can't say that it is any better or worse at HWR, but anything that will at least try to interpret my handwriting the way I actually write would be so much easier to use. The problem I have with the Palm is that it's too easy to confuse the thing - it mistakes "i" for cr-lf, etc. So having a mangled alphabet doesn't fix the problem, and I can't write as fast because I am translating in my head as I write... There has to be a good solution for HWR.
itachi, who thinks this thing could rock if the pad is the right size and actually _has_ HWR...
I can't speak for the cost of your ambulance ride, or your "speeding" ticket (38 in a 35 is hardly speeding, I agree), or so forth. But the fact remains, the government does provide services to the public. And the things that they do are usually the expensive, nasty stuff that nobody wants to deal with. You may pay a fee to have the garbage picked up in the Nashville suburbs, but here in Philly, it's run by the city. Out of my tax money. I'm okay with that, I like that the garbage gets picked up. And the various emergency services. Thankfully, I have had no need of them in a long time. But just in case I do need them, it's good to know they're there. But then there's stuff the government does that I don't like. Nobody is going to be all happy. Because maybe you think that you don't need the fire dept, and i think I don't need the garbage service. Or whatever, the point is the same. The govt. can't satisfy everyone all the time, but they're doing a hell of a lot better than the average person gives them credit for. But let's talk Washington for a while. Priced real estate there lately? Or consumer goods? Believe me, your average government employee in the DC area is suffering through the real world too. The attitude I'm talking about _is_ whining. Life is about ups and downs and struggles, that's what makes the good parts good. What I'm talking about is people complaining - "I want no taxes, but I want the government to do all this crap for me" "I want the government to leave me alone. But I also want them to protect my interests w.r.t. this or that foreign policy." That's greedy, whining BS.
itachi, who isn't a student, and isn't a farmer, but don't make assumptions there, eh? I'd love to continue this one on one...
Seriously. But hey, people who can't afford insurance don't really count, right? I mean, they can't afford insurance, it must be due to some sort of inadequacy on their part or lack of effort, so they deserve to suffer, right? It makes me want to move to Canada, eh? Eh, sarcasm is too tiring. I'd rather have the higher taxes, thanks, and be able to sleep knowing that my comfort isn't based on the discomfort of others.
itachi, who thinks that you can't go too wrong with a domain name like artboy.org
Well, they're only taking your money so that you can ride to the hospital in their ambulance when you get hit by a car, or so that you can call a cop when you get robbed, or so that the trash can get picked up, and little things like that. Stop whining. What on earth is wrong with this nation when people can't see these basic facts? What is happening to the world that makes everyone so fscking greedy and selfish?
itachi, who is going to stop reading this thread before he has an aneurysm