You're very correct that there is little justification of these law enforcement goody-bags being rammed through with an "anti-terrorism" slant. These items (roving wiretaps, domestic surveillence, etc) have been on the wish list for a long time now, and with Ashcroft pushing them along, they might even become law.
The debate, though, is happening, albiet not in the mainstream press. (OTOH, the NYTimes has had several stinging editorials and op-eds, all against the measures - that's as mainstream as it gets, I guess.)
On the right: see this article - and on the left, this one is the only one I can find now. Excellent reading both, and you know something is up when the Nation and the New Republic agree!
Or try this one, where Sandra Day O'Connor is quoted as saying "We're likely to experience more restrictions on our personal freedom than has ever been the case in our country."
Whoa! This is the swing vote on the Supreme Court... say bye bye freedoms.
Some days, I wonder where we're going, and why we're sitting in this handbasket...
Not sure if you're serious or not: if you're serious, there are tons of data out there, all public and for the taking. However, I think your project is somewhat fishy: most astronomy data is "noiselike" and random, so it really shouldn't compress very well. (Of course, I'm talking about packed floats, not ASCII representations.)
Anyhow, assuming you're serious:
Try radio astronomy data. For example, pulsar searches (related to what I do, forgive my bias) use simple time series data I(t) which would seem to be ideal for your work. Try this:
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/research/pulsar/pmsurv/
HST data is always available for download,
once the proprietary period has expired, from the HST archive.
You don't care what the data is from, right? Note, though, that this is a 2-dimensional image, so it might have some "fake" compressibility due to redundant information. Radio data does not have this weakness, so I recommend that instead.
For most astronomy data, you'll need to learn to read FITS format: try this.
Hope this helps - if you're serious and need help, feel free to drop me a note. (shami at astro dot cornell dot edu)
Re your comments on extraction from water or fossil fuels:
(A) No one in their right minds would electrolyse water to get hydrogen. You might as well keep the electricity, except for very specialized applications.
(B) Cracking and carbon sequestration work pretty well, without any of the "icky toxic pollutants". You end up with solid carbon compounds. (Well, maybe they don't work "pretty" well yet...) Alternatively, use green plants, use ethanol, use those corn fields in Iowa!:)
There are some 50+ or so year old lightbulbs in a Church on Cornell's campus... they are pretty dim, but not a single one is burnt out. Huge filament too...a big loop the size of the entire inside.
What church? Do you mean Sage chapel? Sitting here, I'd love to go out and see...
If I'm not mistaken you do not "own the CD" but purchased the right to listen to it on an audio device.
Really?
Think of this: if you went to the record store and told them that you dropped and broke your CD, here are the pieces and the receipts, and could they please replace it - do you think they'd give you a new CD? Or would they laugh you out of the store? Suddenly, it looks like you bought something physical after all, and not the license to listen to the music on the CD, doesn't it...?
Wait a minute, what's the story with "No news on this site"? Isn't this supposed to be News for Nerds? Or is this Stuff that Matters?
I mean, I'm all for Chemistry and all that, since the physical sciences pay for my grant, but this is just a random university website: why is this front page worthy? Was there no Microsoft news today? Or is this symptomatic of a general decline in the tech sector?
Radio astronomers around the world hate these satellite phone services, and we wish they would just curl up and die.
For one thing, they broadcast at 1.6 and 2.5 GHz, smack in the most interesting radio astronomy bands. 1.6 GHz in particular is the frequency at which we see hydroxyl (-OH) radicals, and if you can't see why that is interesting, you need a drink. Fine, so we have global and large scale arrays which have antennas seperated by many miles - but to an array, a satellite is a real astronomical signal, and it is very very hard to filter it out (as opposed to a motorcycle spark plug or even cellphones, which do not produce correlated interference at many antennas).
And what makes it worse is that these companies wilfully violate international treaties which protect precious scraps of the spectrum for astronomy - "We're big companies and we make real money, get out of the way" - and really can't believe that their low low sidebands are stronger than our astronomical signals by factors of 1000s.
Ah well, there's progress for you - astronomy is sacrificed so that you can download pr0n in the middle of the Sahara. And we nearly had the last laugh, too.
Bingo. The guy who wrote the Tech Review article doesn't seem to get it.
"The guy who wrote this," as you so delightfully put it, happens to be a Physics professor and a vice provost at Caltech. And if you'd read the article to the very end, you'd see that he is also a Distinguished Teaching and Service Professor. I assure you, he very much "gets it"... Maybe you should re-read the article and re-evaluate your great American education system. As a foreign TA at a good university, I know from experience that most American undergrads don't know jack about basic science. And don't get me started on horoscopes and Miss Cleo and Creationism.
These judges didn't "take a stand" against "workplace monitoring", Michael. These judges wanted to download MP3s, view porn, and watch videos.
If you'd bothered to read the fascinating article, you'd have seen that the NYT explicitly says: "There is no evidence that any alleged abuse involves judges." Just so you know.
And in fact, the issues they are worried about are:
Judge Alex Kozinski, a member of the Ninth Circuit appeals court, [argues] that the monitoring was a violation of anti- wiretap statute.
"Aside from my view that this may be a felony, it is something that we as federal judges have jurisdiction to consider. We have to pass on this very kind of conduct in the private sphere."
"In fact, the issues of what is permissible by employers have produced a patchwork of legal rulings and the matter has never been addressed directly by the Supreme Court."
That's what they are worried about. And as for using their tech smarts: they just ordered their sysadmin to disable monitoring software.
Try reading the article, mmmkay?
My boss just bought a new VAIO - the high end, lightest one. Spent a packet on it too (~$3k), and I put Debian on it, and it worked like a charm. But it was noisy - even in our workroom full of humming servers, you could hear it when the fan came on, a tinny, harsh whine. And at 700 (750?) MHz, it came on often! I was annoyed, and my boss *hated* it. He sent it back after a week, and got a Dell Inspiron 8000, which weighs about as much, is a little thicker, and much quieter.
I run a low end Thinkpad (i1400) and love it, but the new iceBooks are the best I've seen so far. Under 5lbs (barely), 5 hour battery life, clean, crisp screen, gorgeous machine, and then add OS X. I would get one of those before a VAIO.
It's not as if Dell machines with linux pre-installed cost $90 less. In effect, you're still be paying for Windoze, just not getting it.
Actually, from our lab's experience, the hardware was typically inferior and usually priced higher than the equivalent windows stuff. Each time it worked out cheaper/easier to just pay the MS tax, get an extra 40GB drive at Staples, and put Linux on it.
Of late, I've been putting Debian on the new buys. Neat stuff.
I have an IBM Thinkpad - a low-end i1400 from last year. 256 MB, 10GB, 14", 5.5 lbs, 500 MHz.
The modem is a Lucent Winmodem, one of the first to be supported, though I never got around to configuring it. I only use 802.11b to an Apple Airport connected to a DSL line.
Sound hardware: No problem with the ESS Solo - ALSA works great.
No internal ethernet, alas, but I bought the IBM PC-card ethernet adapter with it, and again, no problems at all. Also have a Lucent Orinoco Wavelan wireless ethernet card - worked out of the box.
Add in the previous two posters' experiences, and you'll see that what you're looking for is almost the norm these days... Personally, I recommend the Apple iceBooks - they're neat! And weigh less than a brick while lasting 5 hours on battery.
i love macs but the cost of them is way too much for the
bang you get - even the 'budget' imacs in Aust go for $4000 and a powerfull PC can be
had for under $2000 - Apple have priced themselves out of the consumer and hobbyist
market-a pity but the truth
Well, I'm calling you on that. Here's an Outpost link that lists an iceBook (G3 500MHz / 256MB / 10GB / 4.9 lbs / 5 hrs battery) for $1795.00 (and no tax or shipping). Show me a comparable laptop at a comparable price, and then tell me how Apple has "priced itself out of the market"...
While the Bush administration may have acquiesced to pressure not to outrightly deny
the 'reality of global warming', I wonder if you can point me to some sort of document in which they acknowledge that global warming does in fact exist.
In case you come back to read replies: would an article in the Economist work for you? Try this link. Hope that works for you...
They still haven't made a computer that can hit the ball... this requires significantly more smarts to do in the general case.
Oh come, come! If Rummy and Dick can get the Pentagon to produce a missile defence, how hard would it be to adapt the system to hitting fastballs? Who knows, this might even make missile defence against an imaginary adversary worthwhile!:-P
True, it is an AP story in name, but in spirit, it is purely a Microsoft press fluff piece, straight out of the MS PR office. Otherwise, why do you think the story quotes Gateway, Dell, Compaq, and then only provides the Microsoft URL / company address?
Unfortunately, this is what passes for reporting these days, with the disclaimer that "other names may be trademarks of other companies" at the bottom. I highly recommend "Toxic Sludge is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies, and the PR Industry" in case you're interested: it's a great book, and at least makes you think.
Oh, I heard a different version, which required religion, sex, drama, suspense, royalty...:
"My God!" said the Duchess, "I'm pregnant! Who can the father be?"
Thanks for the Economist link, I always find them enormously entertaining. Just a comment re the URLs he quoted: the spaces are a slashcode feature, not his fault. Try posting an URL yourself and see: it prevents trolls from posting large ASCII art things like extended penis-birds.
I'm beginning to agree that Jon Katz is an uber-troll, though: "Do you believe?". Ugh.
First of all, nice article. I am a newbiew around here (two days:-)) and this is the best I
have seen so far.
Man, you have a lot to learn. An article by Jon Katz should fill you with foreboding - what sort of trollfest is about to erupt? And sure enough, check out the highest moderated comments - what beautiful trolls!
When not even the Nat'l Academy of Sciences or the head-in-the-sand Bush administration denies the reality of Global Warming, it would take a masterly writer to come up with "Do You Believe?" (The f*** it matters whether or not you believe anyway.) And sure enough the trolls respond. I don't even know why I bother to read the comments
mostly, except that a few like this one keep me coming back for more.
My advice, if you're a newbie, is stop, look, and listen, and please don't shoot your mouth off except where you are an expert. You'll feel clean that way.
Slashdot Mirror
The debate, though, is happening, albiet not in the mainstream press. (OTOH, the NYTimes has had several stinging editorials and op-eds, all against the measures - that's as mainstream as it gets, I guess.)
On the right: see this article - and on the left, this one is the only one I can find now. Excellent reading both, and you know something is up when the Nation and the New Republic agree! Or try this one, where Sandra Day O'Connor is quoted as saying "We're likely to experience more restrictions on our personal freedom than has ever been the case in our country."
Whoa! This is the swing vote on the Supreme Court... say bye bye freedoms. Some days, I wonder where we're going, and why we're sitting in this handbasket...
Anyhow, assuming you're serious:
- Try radio astronomy data. For example, pulsar searches (related to what I do, forgive my bias) use simple time series data I(t) which would seem to be ideal for your work. Try this:
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/research/pulsar/pmsurv/
- HST data is always available for download,
once the proprietary period has expired, from the HST archive.
You don't care what the data is from, right? Note, though, that this is a 2-dimensional image, so it might have some "fake" compressibility due to redundant information. Radio data does not have this weakness, so I recommend that instead.
- For most astronomy data, you'll need to learn to read FITS format: try this.
Hope this helps - if you're serious and need help, feel free to drop me a note. (shami at astro dot cornell dot edu)(A) No one in their right minds would electrolyse water to get hydrogen. You might as well keep the electricity, except for very specialized applications.
(B) Cracking and carbon sequestration work pretty well, without any of the "icky toxic pollutants". You end up with solid carbon compounds. (Well, maybe they don't work "pretty" well yet...) Alternatively, use green plants, use ethanol, use those corn fields in Iowa!
What church? Do you mean Sage chapel? Sitting here, I'd love to go out and see...
Really?
Think of this: if you went to the record store and told them that you dropped and broke your CD, here are the pieces and the receipts, and could they please replace it - do you think they'd give you a new CD? Or would they laugh you out of the store? Suddenly, it looks like you bought something physical after all, and not the license to listen to the music on the CD, doesn't it...?
In Adobe eBook format, no less...
I mean, I'm all for Chemistry and all that, since the physical sciences pay for my grant, but this is just a random university website: why is this front page worthy? Was there no Microsoft news today? Or is this symptomatic of a general decline in the tech sector?
For one thing, they broadcast at 1.6 and 2.5 GHz, smack in the most interesting radio astronomy bands. 1.6 GHz in particular is the frequency at which we see hydroxyl (-OH) radicals, and if you can't see why that is interesting, you need a drink. Fine, so we have global and large scale arrays which have antennas seperated by many miles - but to an array, a satellite is a real astronomical signal, and it is very very hard to filter it out (as opposed to a motorcycle spark plug or even cellphones, which do not produce correlated interference at many antennas).
And what makes it worse is that these companies wilfully violate international treaties which protect precious scraps of the spectrum for astronomy - "We're big companies and we make real money, get out of the way" - and really can't believe that their low low sidebands are stronger than our astronomical signals by factors of 1000s.
Ah well, there's progress for you - astronomy is sacrificed so that you can download pr0n in the middle of the Sahara. And we nearly had the last laugh, too.
"The guy who wrote this," as you so delightfully put it, happens to be a Physics professor and a vice provost at Caltech. And if you'd read the article to the very end, you'd see that he is also a Distinguished Teaching and Service Professor. I assure you, he very much "gets it"... Maybe you should re-read the article and re-evaluate your great American education system. As a foreign TA at a good university, I know from experience that most American undergrads don't know jack about basic science. And don't get me started on horoscopes and Miss Cleo and Creationism.
- I can't flip through it.
- I can't dog-ear it, or use my bookmark collection.
- Books smell good and feel good (okay, this is nostalgia).
- Screens hurt my eyes, paper works fine.
- eBooks run out of power, books don't.
- eBooks might have access control, books don't.
- I own a book, not a license to it.
- Books are cheap - I can forget one at the beach and not lose too much cash on it.
- I'm unlikely to be mugged for a book, even on the NYC subway.
- Reading in bed doesn't get in the way of hot sex.
- And finally, with a book, no one can take away my right to read.
What did I miss?(Hold on honey, let me unplug my eBoo - bzzzzzzzzt aaaaaagh!)
If you'd bothered to read the fascinating article, you'd have seen that the NYT explicitly says: "There is no evidence that any alleged abuse involves judges." Just so you know.
And in fact, the issues they are worried about are :
- Judge Alex Kozinski, a member of the Ninth Circuit appeals court, [argues] that the monitoring was a violation of anti- wiretap statute.
- "Aside from my view that this may be a felony, it is something that we as federal judges have jurisdiction to consider. We have to pass on this very kind of conduct in the private sphere."
- "In fact, the issues of what is permissible by employers have produced a patchwork of legal rulings and the matter has never been addressed directly by the Supreme Court."
That's what they are worried about. And as for using their tech smarts: they just ordered their sysadmin to disable monitoring software. Try reading the article, mmmkay?Yes, you are. It's a big cold dark lonely universe out there. :)
I run a low end Thinkpad (i1400) and love it, but the new iceBooks are the best I've seen so far. Under 5lbs (barely), 5 hour battery life, clean, crisp screen, gorgeous machine, and then add OS X. I would get one of those before a VAIO.
Actually, from our lab's experience, the hardware was typically inferior and usually priced higher than the equivalent windows stuff. Each time it worked out cheaper/easier to just pay the MS tax, get an extra 40GB drive at Staples, and put Linux on it.
Of late, I've been putting Debian on the new buys. Neat stuff.
- The modem is a Lucent Winmodem, one of the first to be supported, though I never got around to configuring it. I only use 802.11b to an Apple Airport connected to a DSL line.
- Sound hardware: No problem with the ESS Solo - ALSA works great.
- No internal ethernet, alas, but I bought the IBM PC-card ethernet adapter with it, and again, no problems at all. Also have a Lucent Orinoco Wavelan wireless ethernet card - worked out of the box.
Add in the previous two posters' experiences, and you'll see that what you're looking for is almost the norm these days... Personally, I recommend the Apple iceBooks - they're neat! And weigh less than a brick while lasting 5 hours on battery."He founded this especially troublesome in Vorbis"
I mean, this is the Washington Post, not slashdot or something - I founded this troublesome myself!
Well, I'm calling you on that. Here's an Outpost link that lists an iceBook (G3 500MHz / 256MB / 10GB / 4.9 lbs / 5 hrs battery) for $1795.00 (and no tax or shipping). Show me a comparable laptop at a comparable price, and then tell me how Apple has "priced itself out of the market"...
Different link, same story, what the hell.
In case you come back to read replies: would an article in the Economist work for you? Try this link. Hope that works for you...
Oh come, come! If Rummy and Dick can get the Pentagon to produce a missile defence, how hard would it be to adapt the system to hitting fastballs? Who knows, this might even make missile defence against an imaginary adversary worthwhile! :-P
Unfortunately, this is what passes for reporting these days, with the disclaimer that "other names may be trademarks of other companies" at the bottom. I highly recommend " Toxic Sludge is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies, and the PR Industry " in case you're interested: it's a great book, and at least makes you think.
I'm beginning to agree that Jon Katz is an uber-troll, though: "Do you believe?". Ugh.
Man, you have a lot to learn. An article by Jon Katz should fill you with foreboding - what sort of trollfest is about to erupt? And sure enough, check out the highest moderated comments - what beautiful trolls!
When not even the Nat'l Academy of Sciences or the head-in-the-sand Bush administration denies the reality of Global Warming, it would take a masterly writer to come up with "Do You Believe?" (The f*** it matters whether or not you believe anyway.) And sure enough the trolls respond. I don't even know why I bother to read the comments mostly, except that a few like this one keep me coming back for more.
My advice, if you're a newbie, is stop, look, and listen, and please don't shoot your mouth off except where you are an expert. You'll feel clean that way.