Now that you mention it. . .
on
This is IT?
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· Score: 1
Now some other company could use this technology and build something like oh say artifical legs, better wheel chairs, etc.
Actually, much of the technology that ended up in the Stegway was originally developed for use in a wheelchair.
More recently, Kamen invented a wheelchair that climbs stairs, operates over sand, and can move on just two of its wheels. The $20,000 machine (code-named Fred - get it, Fred and Ginger?) is known as an Ibot, and can raise its seated occupant to eye-level of standing adults. [
An inventor's project starts a national buzz]
After hunting down vagrant basket cases and militiamen, a garden variety Tom Clancy wannabe has to be a relief.
Inspecting my house had to have been incredibly unimpressive for them. I do know that giving me a ride home to search my residence enabled one of the special agents to put off an evening interview until the next day.
What surprised me the most was just how normal the special agents were. I know a lot police officers, former military police officers, firefighters, and the like. In my experience most public safety officers (especially the armed ones, but the firefighters, too) give off a certain aura. By contrast, these folks blended in very naturally into the business environment.
So much for all the movies I've seen.;)
Good luck, Lee, and try not to worry about any further gov't action.
I'm not really worried, but I feel a certain obligation to tell people that I'm regularly in contact with and sometimes that leads to coincidences that seem, well, odd. For example, I was explaining my ordeal to someone on IRC last night and about five minuted into the conversation both of lost our connection to the server. Odd, that was. Probably a coincidence, too.
I did go to trouble of getting a book on case law concerning freedom of speech and I'm fairly certain that my comments were no way, shape or form illegal under any light. I'm toying with the idea of going to speak with a lawyer, but I don't know if I'll follow through. (There is a referal service here in town that get you your first half hour for $20.)
My view on the whole matter thus far is pretty simple: no harm, no foul.
It's not like anything bad has happened to me. My nerves simply got a bit rattled.
That's pretty much what I told the special agents yesterday. Only not quite so eloquently. My point was that the best defense in a democracy is a well informed citizenry. My supporting point was that if the people aboard the planes that were hijacked were more informed about the potential for mass destruction fewer of the highjackers would have ever reached the pilots and if they did, it is far less likely that the planes would have reached their targets, like happened in Pennsylvania when the passengers figured out what was going on.
and you can't talk, even in the hypothetical, about killing leaders of our country.
Really? That's what the special agents implied, but the closest thing I could find is a federal law that states it is illegal to knowingly and willingly send a threat to the president (or any of his potential successors) or knowingly and willing assist in doing such or knowingly and willingly conspire to do such.
Any person half familiar with the English language could tell that my comment did none of those. If you are aware of another statute that makes such a hypothetical discussion illegal, please inform me of what it is.
the fact that you're essentially loading the gun for some idiot should make them suspicious
Apparently you didn't read my comment that grabbed their interest very well. It consisted of (1) I can think of too ways to do this and (2) here is why they probably won't work.
so do you know how they found out about who you are?
My best guess (aside from using my real name as my login at kuro5hin) is that I was on file because of a Church I used to attend. For some reason the information the FBI forwarded to the Secret Service was entirely from the period of time in which I attended that Church.
did they have a warrant for a search, and if not, why did you let them?
They had no warrant, but the easiest and quickest way to get them off my back was to fully cooperate. I have nothing to hide and while I could have stuck up for my rights on principle, I don't particularly feel like drawing more interest of the Secret Service to myself than necessary.
I don't have time to get a lawyer and get all uppity.
About 2:30 or 3:00 EST, my direct manager came up to me in my cube and whispered that a senior VP of the company I work for requested that he immediately escort me to the fourteenth floor (the fourteenth floor is the HR florr) of our building. He had no idea of what this was about.
Upon entering the conference room I was greeted by two secret service special agents who then proceded to interview me regarding what was going through my mind when I wrote said comment. The interview concluded with a ride in a SS issue sedan to my residence and a guided tour of my house for the special agents.
Fortunately, the special agents seemed to have been rather unimpressed with my abode.
Thank our lord Jesus Christ that John Ashcroft is monitoring the internet and can detect secret terrorist weapons such as 'mind bullets' in the hands of dangerous terrorists like 'Commander Taco'.
Just for the record I was interviewed by two secret service agents today over a comment I made on another internet forum (which is temporarily down, but you can read the offending comment thanks to Google's cache.
At the conclusion of the interview (which involved searching my house to which I aqueisced) the agents told me that probably nothing would come of it, but the decision on whether to prosecute or not was up to the attorney general's office.
I'm still not entirely sure how my comment can be construed as an actual threat, but I do understand why secret service agents are a bit high strung about now.
Los Alamos Computers will build your Linux PC to order. They use quality components and do a bang up job.
Mines been up and running for several months now and I've yet to have a single complaint. This is so much better than the last time I went mail order and spent the entire first two months on the phone with tech support.
Regards,
-l
How long until an RIAA lawsuit?
on
XBox Released
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· Score: 1
Originally music executives were less worried about artists not getting paid than about the potential for Xbox to become a new Napster, since it has a large hard drive and online capabilities. But in a statement prepared for this article Microsoft said that though music could be stored on the hard drive, it could not be copied on "CD's, MP3's or any other devices."
Anyone want to take odds on how long this will last?
It seems to me that Xbox (hard drive, ethernet) + broadband == hardware p2p client. Anyone want to take a wager on how long it takes for Gnutella and Audio Galaxy clients to start showing up?
Saturday 17/11 Registration and Scrutineering at Alice Springs
Monday 19/11 DAY 1 Alice Springs to Erldunda 199 km
Tuesday 20/11 DAY 2 Erldunda to Marla 252 km
Wednesday 21/11 DAY 3 Marla to Coober Pedy 233 km
Thursday 22/11 DAY 4 Coober Pedy to Glendambo 253 km
Friday 23/11 DAY 5 Glendambo to Port Augusta 289 km
Saturday 24/11 DAY 6 Port Augusta to Quorn 116 km
Sunday 25/11 DAY 7 Balaklava to Adelaide 92 km
TOTAL DISTANCE 1434 km
Regulations
of the 2001 World Solar Cycle Challenge, 6.2 The Course
OK, let stop right now : why isn't the code already efficient ? Because the compiler does NOT care about the inner structure of the CPU so the CPU has to do all the real work. By keeping with the "good old architecure", AMD is trying to do in hard and in real time what a software (let's say a compiler:)) can do much more easily in a very long time. And a CPU can't see more than a few operations ahead whereas the compiler can see the WHOLE code.
In other words, the problem you have isn't with the x86 ISA, but rather with current x86 compilers. If compilers can make better code for EPIC, those same optimization techniques can be used to make better compilers for the x86 ISA.
However, EPIC will be much harder to make backwards compatibility for. Since x86-64 will be more general purpose, one will not need to recompile all of their applications for every generation of the ISA.
While I personally find the idea of compiling all apps to be optimized for one's own hardware has much to commend itself, the mass market does not.
How is Linux embedded in the webpad, is it upgradable? What apps can fit on it?
I didn't see any mention of this on the specifications page. This would be my biggest concern. If I had an extra $600, I'd buy one of these if the OS is upgradable and the system space has enough memory to fit the apps I want (primarily emacs and TeX). If I have to put those in the flash, there isn't a whole lot of space left unless I buy a bigger flash card.
When one can surf over to the likes of http://www.lanm-pc.com and have them build a custom machine complete with one's favorite Linux distribution custom installed.
My only regret is ordering the week prior to AMD's recent price cuts. I realize that prices are virtually always spiralling down, but missing price cuts by just a few days hurts.
bout the only downside, other than the price, was the fact that is is too big
to cram in your pocket.
And that is precisely why Palms gain ubiquity. If Newtons had been Palm sized to start with (and not quite so overpriced) they would have trounced the neophyte Palm Computing upstart in the PDA market.
Of course part of the problem was the system reqs to run Newton OS. It would have been difficult to make a PDA that requires megabytes of memory price competetive with a PDA that functions well on 128k. Newton OS required a fat processor at a high speed which required bigger batteries (4 AA vs Palm's 2 AAA).
If the Rumors were true, Apple didn't offer Be enough cash for BeOS when Apple was shopping around for a new kernel. If Be had sold at a reasonable price instead of holding out for a sweetheart deal, Be would be the core of OS X.
The x86 port and then BeIA were simply last ditch efforts to reposition Be in an entirely different market than it was designed for.
IMO, the only thing that could have kept Be viable was to have dumped the OS and to have kept the hardware. Commodity priced PowerPC boxes running LinuxPPC could have made Be a household name in the workstation market.
One can use Kylix to deploy software under any license whatsoever. From the FAQ
How does the proprietary Borland No-Nonsense License agreement affect my distribution?
The Borland No-Nonsense License is a proprietary license agreement granting a developer the right to distribute an application royalty-free, with or without source code, under any license agreement the developer chooses and has the right to use.
The Kylix Desktop Developer Edition and Kylix Server Developer Edition both ship with dual-licensed CLX libraries. The dual-licensed CLX gives a developer the flexibility to choose which license they wish to adopt for their project needs. Kylix Open Edition ships only the GPL-licensed CLX libraries and does not grant a developer the option of distributing an application under any other license terms.
In other words, the gratis version of Kylix can only be used to make GPL apps, because it uses GPL libraries, but if one pays money for the Kylix product and has the dual-licensed libraries one can create apps under any license whatsoever.
The way copyright law is written copyright is implicit for any written work. (Forgive me if I am wrong, I'm not a lawyer.) Therefore, if anyone comes across your code (which doesn't have *any* license), they can not legally distribute it at all in any way shape or form except for fair use.
The purpose of a license (GPL, BSD, Public Domain, etc.) is to explicitly give users of code rights that are restricted by law to the author.
Another handy provision if most licenses is they disclaim warrantability. If some fly-by-night security company incorporated your simply encryption program into their product that got cracked, it is possible that your name could end up on a list of defendants in court.
I think what you want to do is to put a notice in your code that explicitly puts it into the public domain and disclaims any warrantability for any particular purpose. Then, users can do whatever they want with your code, but you aren't responsible if a bug causes them injury.
Luddites have no fear of playing God, but of letting too-powerful capitalists wreck the local economy. Luddites weren't fearful of new technology, they just didn't like technology putting them out of work.
The proper term for someone that is fearful of technology would be a technophobe.
All versions of OS/2 v3 (Red Spine, Blue Spine, Warp Connect) supported a myriad of cdroms out of the box, including my 2x mitsumi I used to install it from.
Of course this was back in the day when most cdrom drives had proprietary interfaces.
Now getting OS/2 to install on hard drives > 640MB and getting OS/2 v3 to recognize ATAPI cdrom drives was a bear.
But what really killed OS/2 was the clueless nature of the general public combines with a truly clueless marketing scheme. When most people simply don't comprehend a computer without Windows and when most manufacturers won't preload anything other than Windows (well can't say I blame them for not pre-loading OS/2, would one really expect Compaq, Dell, etc. to buy an OS from their competitor IBM?) and combined with a $100 Million advertising campaign including such quips as "OS/2 obliterates my software" and featuring Roman Catholic nuns you've got a commercial disaster.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, much of the technology that ended up in the Stegway was originally developed for use in a wheelchair.
Funny, how that works, no?
Regards,
Lee
Inspecting my house had to have been incredibly unimpressive for them. I do know that giving me a ride home to search my residence enabled one of the special agents to put off an evening interview until the next day.
What surprised me the most was just how normal the special agents were. I know a lot police officers, former military police officers, firefighters, and the like. In my experience most public safety officers (especially the armed ones, but the firefighters, too) give off a certain aura. By contrast, these folks blended in very naturally into the business environment.
So much for all the movies I've seen. ;)
I'm not really worried, but I feel a certain obligation to tell people that I'm regularly in contact with and sometimes that leads to coincidences that seem, well, odd. For example, I was explaining my ordeal to someone on IRC last night and about five minuted into the conversation both of lost our connection to the server. Odd, that was. Probably a coincidence, too.
I did go to trouble of getting a book on case law concerning freedom of speech and I'm fairly certain that my comments were no way, shape or form illegal under any light. I'm toying with the idea of going to speak with a lawyer, but I don't know if I'll follow through. (There is a referal service here in town that get you your first half hour for $20.)
My view on the whole matter thus far is pretty simple: no harm, no foul.
It's not like anything bad has happened to me. My nerves simply got a bit rattled.
Regards,
Lee
But you put it much more eloquently.
Really? That's what the special agents implied, but the closest thing I could find is a federal law that states it is illegal to knowingly and willingly send a threat to the president (or any of his potential successors) or knowingly and willing assist in doing such or knowingly and willingly conspire to do such.
Any person half familiar with the English language could tell that my comment did none of those. If you are aware of another statute that makes such a hypothetical discussion illegal, please inform me of what it is.
Regards,
Lee
No gun loading involved.
Regards,
Lee
I don't have time to get a lawyer and get all uppity.
Regards,
Lee
About 2:30 or 3:00 EST, my direct manager came up to me in my cube and whispered that a senior VP of the company I work for requested that he immediately escort me to the fourteenth floor (the fourteenth floor is the HR florr) of our building. He had no idea of what this was about.
Upon entering the conference room I was greeted by two secret service special agents who then proceded to interview me regarding what was going through my mind when I wrote said comment. The interview concluded with a ride in a SS issue sedan to my residence and a guided tour of my house for the special agents.
Fortunately, the special agents seemed to have been rather unimpressed with my abode.
Regards,
-Lee
At the conclusion of the interview (which involved searching my house to which I aqueisced) the agents told me that probably nothing would come of it, but the decision on whether to prosecute or not was up to the attorney general's office.
I'm still not entirely sure how my comment can be construed as an actual threat, but I do understand why secret service agents are a bit high strung about now.
Regards,
Lee
Mines been up and running for several months now and I've yet to have a single complaint. This is so much better than the last time I went mail order and spent the entire first two months on the phone with tech support.
Regards,
-l
Anyone want to take odds on how long this will last?
It seems to me that Xbox (hard drive, ethernet) + broadband == hardware p2p client. Anyone want to take a wager on how long it takes for Gnutella and Audio Galaxy clients to start showing up?
Too bad it doesn't have video capture . . .
Regards,
-l
was originally an abbreviation for as in Christ.
In other words, the problem you have isn't with the x86 ISA, but rather with current x86 compilers. If compilers can make better code for EPIC, those same optimization techniques can be used to make better compilers for the x86 ISA.
However, EPIC will be much harder to make backwards compatibility for. Since x86-64 will be more general purpose, one will not need to recompile all of their applications for every generation of the ISA.
While I personally find the idea of compiling all apps to be optimized for one's own hardware has much to commend itself, the mass market does not.
I didn't see any mention of this on the specifications page. This would be my biggest concern. If I had an extra $600, I'd buy one of these if the OS is upgradable and the system space has enough memory to fit the apps I want (primarily emacs and TeX). If I have to put those in the flash, there isn't a whole lot of space left unless I buy a bigger flash card.
Not two mention storage options concerning the USB ports and PC-Card slot.
My only regret is ordering the week prior to AMD's recent price cuts. I realize that prices are virtually always spiralling down, but missing price cuts by just a few days hurts.
Moglen's work with the FSF is pro bono. He gets to be the general counsel of the FSF for exactly nothing.
Regards,
-l
Of course part of the problem was the system reqs to run Newton OS. It would have been difficult to make a PDA that requires megabytes of memory price competetive with a PDA that functions well on 128k. Newton OS required a fat processor at a high speed which required bigger batteries (4 AA vs Palm's 2 AAA).
That's one of the wittiest posts I've come across all day.
The x86 port and then BeIA were simply last ditch efforts to reposition Be in an entirely different market than it was designed for.
IMO, the only thing that could have kept Be viable was to have dumped the OS and to have kept the hardware. Commodity priced PowerPC boxes running LinuxPPC could have made Be a household name in the workstation market.
I'm sure you know the type. Paranoid. Into trading illegal files. Heavy into the BBS scene (back in the late nineteen-eighties).
Hitting the power button on the front of his desktop PC powered up an electro-magnet attached to his harddrive.
He never let me look close enough to figure out how to turn the box on.
have a day,
-l
have a day,
-l
The purpose of a license (GPL, BSD, Public Domain, etc.) is to explicitly give users of code rights that are restricted by law to the author.
Another handy provision if most licenses is they disclaim warrantability. If some fly-by-night security company incorporated your simply encryption program into their product that got cracked, it is possible that your name could end up on a list of defendants in court.
I think what you want to do is to put a notice in your code that explicitly puts it into the public domain and disclaims any warrantability for any particular purpose. Then, users can do whatever they want with your code, but you aren't responsible if a bug causes them injury.
Regards,
b
have a day,
-l
The proper term for someone that is fearful of technology would be a technophobe.
have a day,
-l
Of course this was back in the day when most cdrom drives had proprietary interfaces.
Now getting OS/2 to install on hard drives > 640MB and getting OS/2 v3 to recognize ATAPI cdrom drives was a bear.
But what really killed OS/2 was the clueless nature of the general public combines with a truly clueless marketing scheme. When most people simply don't comprehend a computer without Windows and when most manufacturers won't preload anything other than Windows (well can't say I blame them for not pre-loading OS/2, would one really expect Compaq, Dell, etc. to buy an OS from their competitor IBM?) and combined with a $100 Million advertising campaign including such quips as "OS/2 obliterates my software" and featuring Roman Catholic nuns you've got a commercial disaster.
have a day,
-l