Oops..I'm going to get moderated down for that subject line, aren't I?;)
Well, nevertheless, just wanted to let y'all know that all this crap about "so-and-so is the Antichrist" and "This must be the Mark of the Beast" is just that - CRAP. Because it's pretty clear if you even just skim all the propechies in the Bible that the rise of the Antichrist and the mark of the beast occurs AFTER the rapture. And the last time I checked, millions of people had yet to disappear from the face of the Earth. Heck, even the popular fiction about the end times gets this part right - rapture first, then the beast...
I would think that Slashdot would have posted a story about that anywayz.;)
The article only mentioned mp3.com - I've had my music on amp3.com, a competing site, for several months now and while like any business amp3.com has had problems, I have had a very positive experience so far. Amp3.com attaches a five second ad at the start of each track that's downloaded (much like sites like Slashdot attach a banner ad at the start of each page) and gives the artist half the advertising revenues (currently 0.05$, however amp3.com announced several months ago they would be starting a 1.00$/download for exclusive artists...but this matter has disappeared and we haven't heard a thing about it since). Even at 0.05$/download I've managed to make about 100$ - true, it's not that much, but it's a lot more than I was making on mp3.com. Plus on amp3.com there is a VERY tight artist community and a better level of interaction with the staff of amp3.com - so before you condemm mp3 sites, check out amp3.com! And be sure to stop by the message boards and say hi...
Definitely. Heck, all my money is going to school these days, but I think I could put away 100$ for something like this. And while it wouldn't cover the entire cost of the mission I bet, if everyone on the petition gave 100$, it'd put a nice enough dent in the cost to encourage other people to get involved. I say other people because I really do believe this should be a private sector thing - the government doesn't seem interested or capable of something like this...
Saying "Oh, I quit, and renounce ownership of all this" isn't exactly going to save you from the wrath of the legal system...and it doesn't matter they have no case, they have money, and if they wanna push it, this guy is toast.
Now, I hate the RIAA as much as anyone out there (more than most, actually)...but can you blame a university for kicking people off their network for posting mp3s onto the University webserver? If you read the article, these people were ripping CD's and copying them to their html account on the University server. If anything, they had to have been violating their HD space quotas...
Yes, we should fight against RIAA, but let's not bring everyone around us down with us.;)
Oh, and I thought it kinda funny they said the guys could either take a 90 minute class on copyright law and get net access back in 4 weeks or have to go without for the rest of the semester...this story must be old, because for most schools there's only about 4 weeks left in the semester!
...first making "threats" becomes illegal...the next thing you know, anyone who complains about this policy or about the people enforcing it find themselves in jail, and then we find ourselves smack in the middle of 1984. Ain't America great?
Oh, and I almost forgot...I was talking to an air force recruiter once and he said that the armed forces in the US will NOT allow you to pilot a jet if you've had any such surgery. Apparently they don't trust it either.
My mom has worked for an optomologist (sp!?) for over 12 years and he refuses to do the surgery because there is still an alarming number of patients who report their vision degenerating years after the surgery. There's not enough long term data yet to really know what's going on. Plus, even if you get the surgery, you're still predisposed to needing bifocals or readers once you get a bit older...
Actually, the article points out that a prolonged exposure to caffeine destroys the cells.
"The findings point to a need for further research into these processes, since they suggest that a modest, temporary rise in calcium levels results in growth and proliferation of these important brain cells, while a larger and more prolonged rise causes the cells to collapse. The implications for long-term memory and learning are not yet clear. "
The University of Texas at Arlington uses SSN for ids - there was even a resolution in student congress to replace them with randomly generated numbers, but it got voted down because they said it would be "too hard to remember". The most annoying thing is login ids for the computer systems is based off of your id number - so every time I send a message from any of my accounts not only does it stamp by full name on it, it also stamps half of my SSN on it. We don't have badges, but we do have ID cards - these don't have the number written on them but have a magnetic strip that simply has your ID number on it - not encoded or anything. They use this for everything - you can even use it like a debit card to pay for lunch or use with the vending machines. Of course your ID number goes on all your assignments, tests, labs, etc, so if anyone really wanted it, it'd be easy enough to get...
Whichever technology gets to my house first, wins my money. At first I said I'd wait for the next gen of DSL (a SW Bell employee was telling me about it, since I live only like 2k feet beyond the current DSL range) because @Home customer service SUCKS. They advertised a roll out of cable modems in my area for Aug 1st. Then Aug 23rd. Then TBD. Now it's "we're not telling". I explained, very patiently, that my contract with my ISP was coming up and I needed just a wild guess at when cable would be out so I could choose a monthly or yearly contract. They didn't even read the message, they just sent back the exact same "we're not telling" sort of response. Identical to the other one they sent me.
So I contact SW Bell and get the exact same runaround from them. Except their site won't even give you an email address to contact them with customer service questions!
So I've realized that customer service with either company will suck, so I'm just going to give my money to the first company which finally does get out here...
What sort of software is it running? What exactly uses all this power (I know how fiendishly complex weather predictions are...I'm just curious what kind of software exists/is being developed for it...)?
Am I the only one who noticed that they have a few transmissions online and are selling the rest on CDs? Between Salon and Slashdot, they're going to make a killing...I wonder where all this money is going...
People think computer science and they immediantly think "easy money!" So now we have thousands of people who might normally make good doctors, chemists, etc becoming CS majors. Here's an example - I'm a CSE (comp sci engineering) major at the University of Texas @ Arlington. All CSE majors are required to take an "intro to CSE" class...in this class they're asked to prove basic computer proficiencies (using MS word, MS excel, etc...which I find rather funny, since all the CSE labs use *NIX systems and we never touch word, etc). Because of all these people coming from other sciences, there are now CS majors who can't even use a word processor! I guess the point is a lot of people are saying "who cares" about this or "the more the merrier", but all these morons (who would actually do quite well in other sciences I'm sure) are diluting CS...
A lot of people have been questioning if a code of ethics is needed for programmers, but apparently my university has decided there's no question about it - starting this fall all computer science engineering majors are required to take CSE 1111 - Introduction to CSE which is basically two classes - the first half of the semester it's basically "Computer Ethics 101" and the second half it's basically "Problem Solving 101". It's interesting to see what is being taught as ethical and what is being considered unethical...as someone who's already had some "real world" experience and such I'm able to step back from what's being taught and examine it to see if I agree with it - but there's countless people in this class who know next to nothing about computers and are taking all the lectures and readings on computer ethics as gospel...
The Army is testing it, but Sun's website makes it seem like it's years away...just how complete/robust is the version the Army is using? Do we really want the armed forces using Jini v0.01 or whatnot?
From the artists I've talked to on mp3.com and amp3.com, Bladeenc isn't that great. I usually just use mp3 producer pro, but its interface tends to be a bit flakey. For batch encoding a bunch of cds, you can't beat anything like CDDA Extractor that does builtin CDDB stuff and track naming all the way through encoding...
I have very little experience with TCL, however by relying on this book, my programming knowledge in other languages and just by browsing through some TCL scripts I got my hands on, I was able to teach myself a working knowledge of TCL. True, not everyone can learn like this, but for those who can, this is the perfect book to learn TCL.
Wrong...if you keep living in the US and/or paying taxes, the State Department considers that evidence that you wish to keep your US citizenship even if you become a government official in another country. Until you do something stupid (treason, sedition, etc), you're not at risk at all of losing your US citzenship.
From http://travel.state.gov/foreign_public_office.html -"Advice About Possible Loss of Citizenship":
"An Attorney General's opinion of 1969 states that service in an important foreign political position constitutes highly persuasive evidence of intent to relinquish U.S. citizenship. In some cases, it would appear that holding a foreign office may be incompatible with maintaining U.S. citizenship (e.g. if the position necessarily entails immunity from U.S. law). The Department does not normally consider such service alone, as sufficient to sustain the burden of showing loss of U.S. citizenship by a preponderance of the evidence when the individual has explicitly expressed a contrary intent. This is particularly true when the individual continues to file U.S. tax returns, enters and leaves the U.S. on a U.S. passport, maintains close ties in the U.S. (such as maintaining a residence in the U.S.), and takes other actions consistent with an intent to retain U.S. citizenship notwithstanding the assumption of a foreign government position. Conversely, a person who publicly denied an intent to retain citizenship or who stopped paying his/her taxes, traveled to the United States on a foreign passport, and abandoned any residence in the United States might be found to have intended to relinquish U.S. citizenship notwithstanding self-serving statements to the contrary. Therefore, the Department will consider statements, as well as inferences drawn from the person's conduct, in determining one's intent to remain a U.S. citizen. Intent is determined on a case-by-case basis in light of the facts and circumstances of each individual's case. If expressed intent and conduct are consistent with a lack of intent to relinquish U.S. citizenship, the Department would generally conclude that no loss has occurred."
"Dual nationality can also occur when a person is naturalized in a foreign state without intending to relinquish U.S. nationality and is thereafter found not to have lost U.S. citizenship the individual consequently may possess dual nationality. While recognizing the existence of dual nationality and permitting Americans to have other nationalities, the U.S. Government does not endorse dual nationality as a matter of policy because of the problems which it may cause. "
The US has allowed dual citizenship for decades.
Check http://travel.state.gov/loss.html for specifics on how you can revoke/renounce your citizenship due to naturalization in another country. CY does NOT require you to revoke your citizenship in your existing country so you can have dual US/CY citizenship.
If you had actually visited their page, you would've seen both of your complaints are incorrect.
That's the cool thing about CY though - once you're a citizen you can raise the issue to a vote - bring it to a vote if the servers should run only Open Source for security. According to their Constitution they have to bring the vote up and follow through on it.
This is true government of the people, for the people, by the people...by requiring people to keep up to date with the Constitution and to vote on the issues that concern the country, you cut out the apathetic masses that have previously hindered true democracy.
If it'll work or not, who knows. But it sure will be an interesting experiment...
"Lunar Prospector was the first of NASA's competitively selected "faster, better, cheaper" Discovery-class missions. The $63 million mission is managed by NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA."
Discovery-class missions? Anyone know what these are, what missions are planned, etc? It's nice to hear NASA is still alive despite Washington's best attempts to kill it through massive budget cuts (have you written your congressmen about that yet? maybe you should).
Slashdot Mirror
Oops..I'm going to get moderated down for that subject line, aren't I? ;)
;)
Well, nevertheless, just wanted to let y'all know that all this crap about "so-and-so is the Antichrist" and "This must be the Mark of the Beast" is just that - CRAP. Because it's pretty clear if you even just skim all the propechies in the Bible that the rise of the Antichrist and the mark of the beast occurs AFTER the rapture. And the last time I checked, millions of people had yet to disappear from the face of the Earth. Heck, even the popular fiction about the end times gets this part right - rapture first, then the beast...
I would think that Slashdot would have posted a story about that anywayz.
The article only mentioned mp3.com - I've had my music on amp3.com, a competing site, for several months now and while like any business amp3.com has had problems, I have had a very positive experience so far. Amp3.com attaches a five second ad at the start of each track that's downloaded (much like sites like Slashdot attach a banner ad at the start of each page) and gives the artist half the advertising revenues (currently 0.05$, however amp3.com announced several months ago they would be starting a 1.00$/download for exclusive artists...but this matter has disappeared and we haven't heard a thing about it since). Even at 0.05$/download I've managed to make about 100$ - true, it's not that much, but it's a lot more than I was making on mp3.com. Plus on amp3.com there is a VERY tight artist community and a better level of interaction with the staff of amp3.com - so before you condemm mp3 sites, check out amp3.com! And be sure to stop by the message boards and say hi...
Definitely. Heck, all my money is going to school these days, but I think I could put away 100$ for something like this. And while it wouldn't cover the entire cost of the mission I bet, if everyone on the petition gave 100$, it'd put a nice enough dent in the cost to encourage other people to get involved. I say other people because I really do believe this should be a private sector thing - the government doesn't seem interested or capable of something like this...
I think the subject says it all...
Saying "Oh, I quit, and renounce ownership of all this" isn't exactly going to save you from the wrath of the legal system...and it doesn't matter they have no case, they have money, and if they wanna push it, this guy is toast.
Now, I hate the RIAA as much as anyone out there (more than most, actually)...but can you blame a university for kicking people off their network for posting mp3s onto the University webserver? If you read the article, these people were ripping CD's and copying them to their html account on the University server. If anything, they had to have been violating their HD space quotas...
;)
Yes, we should fight against RIAA, but let's not bring everyone around us down with us.
Oh, and I thought it kinda funny they said the guys could either take a 90 minute class on copyright law and get net access back in 4 weeks or have to go without for the rest of the semester...this story must be old, because for most schools there's only about 4 weeks left in the semester!
...first making "threats" becomes illegal...the next thing you know, anyone who complains about this policy or about the people enforcing it find themselves in jail, and then we find ourselves smack in the middle of 1984.
Ain't America great?
Oh, and I almost forgot...I was talking to an air force recruiter once and he said that the armed forces in the US will NOT allow you to pilot a jet if you've had any such surgery. Apparently they don't trust it either.
My mom has worked for an optomologist (sp!?) for over 12 years and he refuses to do the surgery because there is still an alarming number of patients who report their vision degenerating years after the surgery. There's not enough long term data yet to really know what's going on. Plus, even if you get the surgery, you're still predisposed to needing bifocals or readers once you get a bit older...
Actually, the article points out that a prolonged exposure to caffeine destroys the cells.
"The findings point to a need for further research into these processes, since they suggest that a modest, temporary rise in calcium levels results in growth and proliferation of these important brain cells, while a larger and more prolonged rise causes the cells to collapse. The implications for long-term memory and learning are not yet clear. "
The University of Texas at Arlington uses SSN for ids - there was even a resolution in student congress to replace them with randomly generated numbers, but it got voted down because they said it would be "too hard to remember".
The most annoying thing is login ids for the computer systems is based off of your id number - so every time I send a message from any of my accounts not only does it stamp by full name on it, it also stamps half of my SSN on it.
We don't have badges, but we do have ID cards - these don't have the number written on them but have a magnetic strip that simply has your ID number on it - not encoded or anything. They use this for everything - you can even use it like a debit card to pay for lunch or use with the vending machines.
Of course your ID number goes on all your assignments, tests, labs, etc, so if anyone really wanted it, it'd be easy enough to get...
Whichever technology gets to my house first, wins my money. At first I said I'd wait for the next gen of DSL (a SW Bell employee was telling me about it, since I live only like 2k feet beyond the current DSL range) because @Home customer service SUCKS. They advertised a roll out of cable modems in my area for Aug 1st. Then Aug 23rd. Then TBD. Now it's "we're not telling". I explained, very patiently, that my contract with my ISP was coming up and I needed just a wild guess at when cable would be out so I could choose a monthly or yearly contract. They didn't even read the message, they just sent back the exact same "we're not telling" sort of response. Identical to the other one they sent me.
So I contact SW Bell and get the exact same runaround from them. Except their site won't even give you an email address to contact them with customer service questions!
So I've realized that customer service with either company will suck, so I'm just going to give my money to the first company which finally does get out here...
What sort of software is it running? What exactly uses all this power (I know how fiendishly complex weather predictions are...I'm just curious what kind of software exists/is being developed for it...)?
Am I the only one who noticed that they have a few transmissions online and are selling the rest on CDs? Between Salon and Slashdot, they're going to make a killing...I wonder where all this money is going...
People think computer science and they immediantly think "easy money!" So now we have thousands of people who might normally make good doctors, chemists, etc becoming CS majors.
Here's an example - I'm a CSE (comp sci engineering) major at the University of Texas @ Arlington. All CSE majors are required to take an "intro to CSE" class...in this class they're asked to prove basic computer proficiencies (using MS word, MS excel, etc...which I find rather funny, since all the CSE labs use *NIX systems and we never touch word, etc). Because of all these people coming from other sciences, there are now CS majors who can't even use a word processor!
I guess the point is a lot of people are saying "who cares" about this or "the more the merrier", but all these morons (who would actually do quite well in other sciences I'm sure) are diluting CS...
A lot of people have been questioning if a code of ethics is needed for programmers, but apparently my university has decided there's no question about it - starting this fall all computer science engineering majors are required to take CSE 1111 - Introduction to CSE which is basically two classes - the first half of the semester it's basically "Computer Ethics 101" and the second half it's basically "Problem Solving 101".
It's interesting to see what is being taught as ethical and what is being considered unethical...as someone who's already had some "real world" experience and such I'm able to step back from what's being taught and examine it to see if I agree with it - but there's countless people in this class who know next to nothing about computers and are taking all the lectures and readings on computer ethics as gospel...
The Army is testing it, but Sun's website makes it seem like it's years away...just how complete/robust is the version the Army is using? Do we really want the armed forces using Jini v0.01 or whatnot?
From the artists I've talked to on mp3.com and amp3.com, Bladeenc isn't that great. I usually just use mp3 producer pro, but its interface tends to be a bit flakey. For batch encoding a bunch of cds, you can't beat anything like CDDA Extractor that does builtin CDDB stuff and track naming all the way through encoding...
Actually, TCL is not dead. I use it almost every day to script irc clients and bots.
I have very little experience with TCL, however by relying on this book, my programming knowledge in other languages and just by browsing through some TCL scripts I got my hands on, I was able to teach myself a working knowledge of TCL. True, not everyone can learn like this, but for those who can, this is the perfect book to learn TCL.
Wrong...if you keep living in the US and/or paying taxes, the State Department considers that evidence that you wish to keep your US citizenship even if you become a government official in another country. Until you do something stupid (treason, sedition, etc), you're not at risk at all of losing your US citzenship.
l -"Advice About Possible Loss of Citizenship":
From http://travel.state.gov/foreign_public_office.htm
"An Attorney General's opinion of 1969 states that service in an important foreign political position constitutes highly persuasive evidence of intent
to relinquish U.S. citizenship. In some cases, it would appear that holding a foreign office may be incompatible with maintaining U.S. citizenship
(e.g. if the position necessarily entails immunity from U.S. law). The Department does not normally consider such service alone, as sufficient to
sustain the burden of showing loss of U.S. citizenship by a preponderance of the evidence when the individual has explicitly expressed a contrary intent. This is particularly true when the individual continues to file U.S. tax returns, enters and leaves the U.S. on a U.S. passport, maintains close ties in the U.S. (such as maintaining a residence in the U.S.), and takes other actions consistent with an intent to retain U.S. citizenship notwithstanding the assumption of a foreign government position. Conversely, a person who publicly denied an intent to retain citizenship or who stopped paying his/her taxes, traveled to the United States on a foreign passport, and abandoned any residence in the United States might be found to have intended to relinquish U.S. citizenship notwithstanding self-serving statements to the contrary. Therefore, the Department will consider statements, as well as inferences drawn from the person's conduct, in determining one's intent to remain a U.S. citizen. Intent is determined on a case-by-case basis in light of the facts and circumstances of each individual's case. If expressed intent and conduct are consistent with a lack of intent to relinquish U.S. citizenship, the Department would generally conclude that no loss has occurred."
From the US State Department:
"Dual nationality can also occur when a person is naturalized in a foreign state without intending to relinquish U.S. nationality and is thereafter found not to have lost U.S. citizenship the individual consequently may possess dual nationality. While recognizing the existence of dual nationality and permitting Americans to have other nationalities, the U.S. Government does not endorse dual nationality as a matter of policy because of the problems which it may cause. "
The US has allowed dual citizenship for decades.
Check http://travel.state.gov/loss.html for specifics on how you can revoke/renounce your citizenship due to naturalization in another country. CY does NOT require you to revoke your citizenship in your existing country so you can have dual US/CY citizenship.
If you had actually visited their page, you would've seen both of your complaints are incorrect.
That's the cool thing about CY though - once you're a citizen you can raise the issue to a vote - bring it to a vote if the servers should run only Open Source for security. According to their Constitution they have to bring the vote up and follow through on it.
This is true government of the people, for the people, by the people...by requiring people to keep up to date with the Constitution and to vote on the issues that concern the country, you cut out the apathetic masses that have previously hindered true democracy.
If it'll work or not, who knows. But it sure will be an interesting experiment...
From one of the NASA reports -
"Lunar Prospector was the first of NASA's competitively selected "faster, better, cheaper" Discovery-class missions. The $63 million mission is managed by NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA."
Discovery-class missions? Anyone know what these are, what missions are planned, etc? It's nice to hear NASA is still alive despite Washington's best attempts to kill it through massive budget cuts (have you written your congressmen about that yet? maybe you should).
Anyone else notice the title of this story? "Lunar Prospector Ready To Land On Moon"
Erm, this is equivalent to crashing your car at 1,100mph. Somehow I think "land" isn't quite the right word.