Actually, in a way it IS applied to the auto industry... In my cars, I have Holley 750 carbs... these are "not street legal"... and neithe are my single plenum intakes. Neither is my upgraded exhaust; although I've had both of them tested for emissions, and they both passed much better than factory specs!
"Modding" under the hood is often a federal violation, NOS systems on street cars violate pollution control laws, so do After Market Super/Turbo-Chargers, wider exhaust systems, boring/stroking engines -- the list goes on and on.
As for the "dealer only" that's not the way it is with these systems either... you just can't mod them to violate other laws (no matter how stupid those laws are -- DMCA, classic cars and emissions laws).
Funny that you mentioned cars though, all of that stuff that I have in my Camaro is illegal, but I get better emissions tests than a 1998 Chevy Impala... and, while I'm in my home state (MN), I tune it to run on 100 Octane E85 (Ethanol 85%) pump gas (sold at Holiday Blue Planet)! This is the fuel that you can get a 2K write-off on if you buy the new E85 Hondas, but, by putting it in my camaro, I violate pollution control laws.
What the big difference is, is packaging -- I buy all of my carbs from a local race dealer (3 of them, 2 on the Chrysler, and 1 on the camaro), they are listed as "off-road use only" parts, same as the intakes, exhaust systems, etc. Point is, it's packaging that has allowed us car "modders" to get away with what we do -- there are two uses for the carbs, etc. the first is track/off-roading, the second is "illegal" modding (unless you get exemption plates, then it becomes legal -- makes almost as little sense as the DMCA).
My favourite line in the whole article is made by Mr. Posch at the end of the story:
"We're trying to give them the impression that we want to work with them."
So, does this mean the DON'T want to work with them? How do you "try" to give an impression? Couldn't that be considered slightly redundant?
My problems this whole patent (an most others lately) are 1) There's the matter of "prior art"... They applied in 1999 for this! I had already written online test sites, with accompanying software for both teachers and students (even embedded MySQL in the LAN Server installation version of the software, and the MySQL ODBC driver in the LAN client version!.) Also, I seem to remember this tiny company in Redmond, Washington offering some tests online through their MSDN program. And then there was that nobody of a company in New York, offering exams via the internet for S/390 AS/400 AIX etc. etc. Brown Institute has been whining about tests online since '98... it goes on and on with VERY obvious known examples of prior art!
And then 2) it's OBVIOUS AS ALL HELL! Non-proxied distance learning (including exams) are decades old -- hell, Meathead's wife was droning on about them back in the early 80's -- adding the internet as the base media is as obvious as adding the post was, and adding teleconferences, and adding VCR's (and even LaserDiscs for a while). I was under the impression that prior art and blatant obviousness were both disqualifiers for a patent; what about the combination? Is it like simple math -- prior art? That's 1 negative! oh, it's also obvious? That's another! lets see now, we have two negatives, bad things multiply problems it must be a good patent then!
Reminds me of the movie Boiler Room... recipient:"Hello?" caller:"New York Times" recipient:"Not Interested" caller:"I'm sorry for wasting your time" recipient:"Is that it? Is that your pitch?"... blah blah... five minutes later recipient:"There you go, now that was a pitch!" caller:"So would you like a subscription to the times?" recipient:"No thanks I already get the daily news"
I thought, at first, this was another of the super-hype "they're coming to get us" tin-hat pages, or the typical "Anti-Closed Source" paper, I normally find on SlashDot. But, this was the most interesting reading I have had in quite a while (It was even better than O'Reilly's Perl, sendmail, and DNS books!). This page was very frightening, especially to a programmer/sys-admin who uses Linux for everything (even all of my workstation, home, and automotive diagnostic computers).
A (not so)quick aside: I recently asked my wife (who doesn't really know, or like, computers) which she found easier, the old Win2K partition I had for her, or Linux... She said "Linux, because I can just do what I need, and there's not a lot of crap, and I don't have to reboot... even that time when I deleted everything in my directory, I just had to open the zip drive and copy stuff." (She wiped out her home directory, which was backed up to zip...). She thinks OOo is easier (and "nicer" ???) than MS Office 2000. She also thinks it is easier to log into and start KDE on Slackware than to log into and start her programs with Windows!
The humour, and point, to this is that my wife HATED computers (she got mad at her Win2K workstation and dumped a Pepsi IN it about 2 years ago -- literally, she pushed it onto it's side, and dumped the Pepsi into the Vent holes -- so that she wouldn't have to use it any more, and said she'd do the same again if I replaced it). She now uses mine to check email, and has started using it constantly for everything from our weekly meal menu, to our fitness programs, bills, and even our daughters reading schedule and her (my daughter's)weekly TV allowance (5 hours of children's programming, and 8 hours of educational children's programming weekly... my daughter chooses the programs from "allowed" lists that my wife made in OpenOffice.org, and updates weekly,)... She's even hinted that she wants her own Slackware box, so she can use the computer when I'm home, without having to SSH in from one of the servers.
My wife thought that Linux, and Free Software were "stupid" and that I'd be out of work inside of a year (in 1998) if I kept refusing to administer, program, network, or security audit for a MS only, or MS dominent, company... We've run our own business (without any problems, or lack of work) for 3 years, and I've supplemented that income with an 8-5 for 2 years... I had her read the site linked, and she said "Wow, that's what you kept saying. Do you think you'll be a criminal in 10 years for being able to do what you can do with computers?"
Funny thing is, I just wrote a program to convert those files from Word, and Excel to.txt and.tab files. Automated, in 50 lines of perl (sorry it took so many, I'm kinda' a Perl Newbie), what was a manual process, or a shaky (at best) and bloated (1000+ lines for full conversion of files from xls to tab) process with the APIs and VB/VBA. Funny how Perl, with the help of the SpreadSheet::ParseExcel module freed up two computers (they were used to process Excel Files under Windows with VB), the whole process was moved to the DB Server (PostgreSQL), and are flawlessly imported into a database now. I find it funny how a UNIX/Linux native language (Perl) can handle the transformation of Excel files better than Excel and VB can! These VBScripts VBA modules and VB Programs that people claim are "needed" are anything BUT needed. I cut my workload down by about an 1/4 by simply getting rid of those scripts and programs. I also, in doing this, have been able to move more of my office to OOo. Our "Official Format" for acceptable documents is now Rich Text (rtf). I am not alone in this type of move either, I have been consulted by a number of companies looking to get away from Excel and VB and Word, and MSSQL and Access, and even Oracle, so that they can be more productive and more interoperable at less cost. As to the "training costs so much!" argument, we've moved the secretary, the data entry clerk, the company president, the CEO and the 60+ year old sales guy to Mozilla (email), f-prot virus scanning software (for interoperability, and ease of license management), and OOo. It took me longer to train them on how to "Open, Select All, Replace, Save As" in Excel than it took me to train them to a point of near-proficiency with OOo! If your Admin knows his job, and makes sure to know the software inside and out, then your TCO drops dramatically!
Nomad, if you ever stop fearing the "other side" (hell, I read the {Red}Star Tribune every day), and look at Drudge, you might see that as I said, the results are FROM THE STATES... direct links to STATE exit polls and counts. Are you still upset about that "unsubstantiated" rumour about clinton getting it on with an intern? You know, Ms. Lewinsky, the story Matt Drudge first broke?
as for the dignity, I think I showed it quite well by NOT pointing out how all socialists through history have gone down (up?) in flames... like Stalin, Marx, Hitler, Welstone... Instead, I pointed out a fact: In 1983 as a Democratic candidate for President, Mondale argued that Reagan was too old. Now, almost 20 years later Mondale is 74 (for shame! The same age as Reagan in 1983), Modale is shaky, stutters, lapses (Reagan didn't start showing signs of his disability until 1989). He had to eat his words. Also, remember those debates, the ones in 83? Kill the Military Budget! That was Mondale's War Cry. Higher taxes means more people earning money! That was his socio-political view. Think about it, if you make more than 46,500.00 annually, you are "rich" according to the democrats; and therefore should be taxed at 15-50 percent the rate as that of a person making 25,000.00 (I pay 40% taxes, in Minnesota, welfare recipients receive on average a 5% of their anual income as a "tax credit"). Dignity is my paying for my daughter's school, and not whining that it's your job to pay her way. Dignity is my paying my own insurance, and financing my own retirement, instead of demanding that the government pay my latter years, or for my health care.
I'll probably be showing my Republican bias here, but if you want state by state results FROM THE STATE, the only place I've found them is http://www.drudgereport.com... And, as a Minnesota Republican: UP YOURS MONDALE... you might not look so stupid running as a 74 year old Politician, had you not critisized President Reagan in '83, for being 74. Coleman for Senate!
According to MOST states' (and cities') laws, you MUST display any permit received, and ANYONE has a right to inspect it (the permit). To claim a permit, and then refuse to even state the agency from which it was received, much less display the permit, is generally in and of itself a code violation.
I think the only thing unwarranted thus far is your critical attack on JonKatz. You talk about living in Milwaukee, and asked Katz if he has I don't know if he has, or if he visits... I have never lived in Milwaukee, I live in the twin cities (MN); I have heard about this case, but not because your podunk backwater hole in the ground newspaper made it to my door. I heard about this kidnapping recently, watching MSNBC while getting ready for work about a week ago. The same way as JonKatz heard about it (albeit he watched a discussion about it on CNN), as can be read from his article. The story I saw gave, as details about the kidnapping, about 5 details, the full name of the victim, the city of the kidnapping, the date of the kidnapping, the race and sex of the victim, and the fact that they have no suspects; they gave no information about the case other than that! It was a discussion about why it wasn't being covered, and STILL WASN'T covered!
I believe the article wasn't talking about some backwater paper printing blurbs about the kidnapping, or the "...and in other news, Alexis Patterson is still missing... Next, in the weather, it's another Hot one!" on local channel 17 news.
Media discussion and coverage of an issue does not include flyers, granted, these are a printed "media", but not part of the "mainstream" media (as mentioned by Katz as the reason for this educated and well thought out argument against the corporatization of media).Actually, I would say you have to really stretch the bounds of reality to call a flyer "media" at all!
If you could please point me to the front page NYT article (as in the Smart kidnapping), or the Tribune (again, as in the Smart kidnapping), or the Press(see above). or, maybe the API releases about this, I'd be very happy to rescind this entire comment, publically apologize, and say you were correct, and have bested me as an intellectual. Else, if none of these exist, and no primetime news coverage by MAJOR media (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, UPN, CNN, et, al.) has dedicated 15 minutes to the kidnapping (see, I'm not even asking for the HOURS that are dedicated to the Smart case on a daily basis) (and no, not the MSNBC or CNN discussions about why there was no media coverage for one, but a flood--daily-- for the other kiddnapping), then please, have enough courtesy to at least refrain from inflamatory dialogues about how cowpoke wisconsin is the epicenter of the universe, and your local podunk media MUST have reached us!
I say BRAVO to JonKatz for bringing this to the front page of Slashdot --not for bringing the discrepency in the handling of the two cases specifically-- but the use of the two cases as a base argument to support and outline your editorial dealing with the media bias towards the wealthy and sensational. This was a very well thought out critique of modern media, and was delivered in a very calm and deliberate fashion, it laid groundwork, had a hint of historical information, but not so much as to be dull and overly long, showed the disparity between similar cases, gave other, differing examples, also comparing two like situations that received differing media coverage, and wound down with a closing argument in support of the editor's opinion. It smacked of real journalistic talent (careful Katz, you might become a writer if you keep this up).
Actually, if you are dumb enough to just strap on a supercharger or turbocharger (they still make these for non-diesel? What's the point!) you will most likely blow a valve out the head, or shatter you cam or crank! you need certain things replaced in your engine before slamming 5-50x the airflow and fuel in! Besides, if you have money for a supercharger, why not go with a bigger cam, stronger rockers, flat top pistons (or domed pistons), better rings... porting and polishing the heads and a header exhaust system... Hell, you could bore and stroke it and get more than your "slap on a supercharger" and you'd have a stronger motor. As for changing to high octane gas, DON'T! The octane rating is trivial most of the time (low to midgrade is best for most cars); if you increase your compression of course, you'll want to go higher octane...
As for the "least expensive" My Camaro started with a 305 G motor (High output). It's now a 327 stroker with 3" exhaust, I pull mid 12's in the quarter mile, and it's streatable. (about 370 HP). I used the stock block, replaced the cam crank, lifters, pistons, rings, bearings, intake and carb, timing setup, and HEI. The total cost (built it in my garage) was about $800 and that was because I went with alot of crome and forged parts (if all I had done was use forged pistons, clevite bearings, and molly rings, it woulda' cost about 250), and had everything temp treated so that, if in the futue I want to, the engine can handle a 300+ HP NOS boost. It took my dad and I about 40 man hours (one weekend, two twenty hour days with both of us working); that was from engine-out to backing outa' the driveway. (average engine swap time for us in the camaro is about 1 hour each way).
And, 2.0 at 900? never seen that! Not even on the little foreign cars... what would the point of that be? you'd have to rebuild the tranny, replace ALL of the suspension parts, etc.
It's actually easy and pretty cheap to build up a car to outperform a stock, or even most NASCAR cars. But, for 3d CAD, your SOL!
That "oversized box" is actually about as big as an old sony magic-link. I got mine for 3,000.00 and the GM and Chrysler cartridges for another 500 each.(BMW cartridge is the same). If you are talking about a full diagnostic machine (checks exhaust, vacuum, intake, fuel pressure, electrical, etc...) these are generic machines, you enter the vehicle specs and hook up the scanners (if you also want to check the computer, you need both the cartridge and adapter). The prices for these are less than they used to be (hell, my rachet set I have, I think is a 35 piece, cost me as much as the cartridge for GM vehicles, and 4 times as much as the specs that I needed for my camaro).
When I was a young child (8 or so) I was diagnosed as ADD. This was 20 years ago, kids weren't diagnosed as manic depressive till about 13 or 14, and Autistic Savant was unheard of where I lived (very very rural Minnesota). I started seeing a therapist who decided that I DIDN'T need ridlen (however that shit is spelled).
He thought that the psych that diagnosed me was off his rocker, called my symptems classic mild autism, and decided to try something on me that they do for severe Autistic savants (idiots).
The idea is, find something that someone likes, or has relaxing features... low res graphics, with fairly neutral colours in the case of this game (if you remember the Star Wars Radio Show, that's what it was for me when I was a kid). It works kinda' ass backwards, if you get excited (and I DID when I listened to Star Wars), the tape would stop. So, even when it was an exciting part, you had to relax (it measured blood pressure, heart rate, breathing and something else, I was eight I don't remember).
The relaxation is done by hearing (or seeing) but NOT concentrating, not counting words/seconds/distance, not noting discrepancies in the story line, not caring if you win or lose (in the game senario). What you have to do (and trust me for anyone with any hyper-activity causing "disfunction", especially those affecting the brain, like: Scizophrenia, Autism/Idiot Savant, ADD/ADHD, Bi-Polar Disorder/Manic Depression, obsesive compulsive; or even whom works alot and does the bills, takes care of shopping, and keeps everyone's schedules in line (the stress actually frequently causes brain activity similar to that of a person with mild scizophrenia in recession, or a case of mild autism), anyway, what you have to do is NOT pay attention, NOT think about the "objective", just enjoy it... It's not actually being "forced to relax", although when you first start out, that's what it's like (and worse!). If you actually follow the objectives, you will not have ANY pressure on you.
It's like, when your bills are ALL due by the 26th, but you get paid on the 30th; you mail the checks on the the night of the 25th, and go through every mathematical possibility... and the possible outcomes, it's modern society at it's worse; but, to get to sleep, you do/think about/watch something that gets your mind off that.
I hope this becomes a commonly available thing, because my daughter, at 2 has all of the classic signs of mild/moderate Autistic Savant, and I know how difficult it can be to keep such a child relaxed and learning more that just who one the 1947 World Series, and how many inches it is to the moon --and a candy bar costs one thousand dollars.;)
Anyway, long answer above, short answer... It just DOES work.
I tried SOffice 5.2, and liked the desktop feature; it ran terribly slowly in Explorer though... So,I replaced Explorer with SOffice 5.2,I had alot less problems, and because I was still using the Windows "kernel" and APIs, all of my other programs worked fine. All I did was replace the User Shell, it's like running a bash shell script in a C shell, as long as you have a magic line to to run the correct shell, it works fine, and if you don't, it doesn't work in Bash either.
I don't think it was "stupid" in the least! I think if Sun would tried a marketing scheme where they told users HOW to edit the win start files and replace Explorer, or, better yet, given this as an "advanced" option, it would have been more popular. I think if Sun would have done something like that (an obvious slap to MS) and WE would have supported them with the move (instead of whining about how "stupid" the feature was) MS would have embarrased themselves by suing Sun, and proving their monopoly in another court; Sun would also have had a really nice counter-suit for monopolistic/predatory practices by MS too... As long as they only aimed the desktop replacement and technical details at the Win 3.* and following environments...(95/98) (That is because the User Licenses in those didn't require you to leave Explorer, I don't know about newer licenses, or the NT line, I never did read those EULAs).
I here A.Anderson is looking for clients... and they "know" how to make sure you are in compliance... Bet they would do this one cheap! (Schools are always good for publicity, unless you are trying to get one torn down for a parking lot!).
I would have to disagree with you on the 2 wrongs not making a right.
You see, each problem is a negative, which multiplies the problem.
In mathematics, if you have two negatives, and multiply them, you get a positive result.
Hence, two wrongs DO make a right... The end result will inevitabley be a positive one
I DO buy servers, and I recently was looking for one. I, in the past (on contract jobs) have purchased IBM, COMPAQ (that wasn't my fault though!), HP, Sun, and Penguin. I liked the service, sales people, and the servers that Penguin sells. I recently (ordered last week, received today) had to purchase a new server... I got "direct marketing" from IBM... and am not comfortable with the COMPAQ/HP merger talks. I hate Dell (and receive spam from their offices about 7 times a month). Sun, they need to decide on a business model, and practices. I went with Penguin! Because of previous experience, because of the sales people, and because when I called different companies for price comparisons, I DIDN'T get 20-70 emails telling me how "great" their servers are. I got a knowledgable sales person who offered me advise on RAID, redundant power supplies, advanced power management, the benefits vs. the disadvantages of AMD and Intel (I prefer AMD, but this server went with Intel, because of Dual Redundant hot-swap power supplies, larger memory capacity, more support for SCSI options, better SMP support). The advice he gave me saved me 600 dollars on a RAID Card (He emailed me instructions on how to set up a Software RAID with hotswap support, so my DB server can get the fabled 5-nine uptime). He also wrote into my 3 year NEXT DAY ONSITE service that Linux Slackware was supported as the installed OS, and that ALL decisions about hardware repair/replacement were mine. Compaq laughed at me being the final decision maker, and flat out refused to support slackware (or freeBSD, the other option). So did IBM, HP, Sun... blah blah. My point though is, directed advertising is why I chose Penguin... they DIDN'T spam me, they DIDN'T berate me, they didn't take up my time with "courtesy" (we have a new server... blah blah) calls. They DID NOT direct advertise. Next month, I'm replacing all of our workstations (20)... guess where I'm getting the new AMD desktops? Same as the Firewall hardware, the webservers, email servers.
Funny thing is, I receive these emails about two times a week (Switch to MSN Now, before the forced rollover).
Why is it funny? Because I am a VISI.com customer, and have been for months. I requested to switch to visi, got switched and then (in the words of a PUC rep) slammed to MSN. Why would I decide to switch now? I already suffered one forced rollover... and wasn't even a Qworst customer when it happened.
Side note... When I did have Qwest, right after the USWest Qwest Merger, my personal home page was deleted from their server, and I was called and told I could no longer post one, nor could I host from home, as that violated the AUP (That's when I switched my first DSL connection to USInternet). The reason? I had set up a how-to on getting qwest to work with Linux, setting up the Netspeed (later, the Cisco 675) router for port forwarding to utilize multiple computers (and set up a web/game server). I also had a ready-to-print FCC and MN PUC complaint form which already had Qwest listed as the utility being complained of... and a link to the FCC page.
Moral of this post: If you have Qwest for your loop service (not your ISP just your line provider) WATCH your account and connection... make sure your 675/8 has ALL remote configuration disabled, and call to complain EVERY TIME you get an email about the switch... or you WILL get slammed to MSN. If this DOES happen to you, contact the PUC and AG office IMMEDIATELY... then call Qwest and demand that they transfer your ISP to whom YOU WANTED (record ALL calls, in MN it's legal as long as YOU consent. You don't even have to tell them)! I sat on the phone with Qwest for about 5 hours total (cell phone, started on my lunch break, when I got off the phone I was out to eat dinner), but in the end, I got my service switched back during that phone call... no 10 day wait, no 300 dollar bill for all the changes. During that one call, I had a PUC rep AND an AG rep on the phone on and off, I told them I was recording the call, after the PUC rep spoke up.
Actually, here in Minnesota the PUC and AG's office told Qworst it IS slamming. I switched from basic Qwest Service (because it SUCKED) to VISI.com about 5 months ago. They switched me to visi, then slammed my connection to MSN.com. When I called I yelled and screamed, and called them names... it didn't work, so I called back with a PUC rep and an AG staffer on the phone. They told me that I was going to have to pay all of the fees associated with switching from MSN to VISI... I explained that I use Linux, hate Microsoft and had written them both email and a signed return receipt letter explaining that I did NOT want to be on MSN under ANY circumstances. They told me that was nice but I still had to pay, the PUC rep spoke up and explained that the conversation we were having was being recorded, that there were reps from the PUC and the AG office on the phone, and that it sounded like a case of classic "slamming" because Qwest was a party (as an ISP) to the whole thing; they also mentioned that it was fraud to have forced me to switch and then make me pay to switch back.
I don't know how you got modded up, but you are wrong here. Tidal effects are felt not just in the ocean, but also inland. Tide is a gravitational pull... a STATIC pull (ie. tide doesn't cause ocean currents, the water rises and falls with the tide, but doesn't move). Or did you mean to imply that tides cause water to heat and cool (creating the streams and rivers in the ocean, and creating water circulation...)? No matter though, No moon == no tide != stagnating sea; No moon == no tide == no surfing is a little closer (except the whole weather effect again).
You forgot one all important thing about car alarms... hot rods with rumbling exhaust!!!
I love pulling through parking lots, and when I see a car that could be alarmed, revving the engine a little bit. I've actually on a couple of occassions set off 4-5 of them just starting my car! It's fun to watch the people point at the car with the alarm, laugh and shake their heads
Simply put... yes.
I try to download from the originating site... if they are busy, I connect to one of THEIR recommended mirrors, I get the package, and the checksum file, if it fails, I delete the package and try to get it from the original site again... I also email the mirror admin (if an email address is available) and notify them that the checksum failed. I don't think it's a "huge" hassle... I think it's actually much less a hassle than installing a tampered-with package would be! And, in my spare time, I read through the source code...
I've heard the "not enough users==no interest in a virus" argument since about '97 (When I started using mainly OSS). I've also heard the claim that "OSS can't get a virus"... Now, It may be just me, but, I think both arguments are wrong: Open Source CAN be exploited, and by a virus at that; if you are a really skilled programmer (in which case odds are you are more mature than to be writing little virus scripts for the fun of it). Also, the reason to write a good Linux virus is definitely there (to shut those OSS geeks up about how "solid their OS is"). The reason we aren't exploited, I think, is more your second ground... we don't just "point and click," we verify, we checksum, we get source and compile or get binaries/installers from trusted known sources...
who knows, the virus that will end the world MIGHT HAVE ALREADY BEEN WRITTEN... but, the people that it was emailed to didn't run their systems as root...so we'll never know about it.
Just a thought on the whole not enough reason vs. we're not hackable fight.
If you were to take your average PDA, pack it with C4 (Plastique), and adjust it so that it were to deliver a 12V charge (I don't know amps or watts), then you could floor about a reasonable shopping mall... I think a laptop repacked would REALLY REALLY hurt.
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Actually, in a way it IS applied to the auto industry... In my cars, I have Holley 750 carbs... these are "not street legal" ... and neithe are my single plenum intakes. Neither is my upgraded exhaust; although I've had both of them tested for emissions, and they both passed much better than factory specs!
"Modding" under the hood is often a federal violation, NOS systems on street cars violate pollution control laws, so do After Market Super/Turbo-Chargers, wider exhaust systems, boring/stroking engines -- the list goes on and on.
As for the "dealer only" that's not the way it is with these systems either... you just can't mod them to violate other laws (no matter how stupid those laws are -- DMCA, classic cars and emissions laws).
Funny that you mentioned cars though, all of that stuff that I have in my Camaro is illegal, but I get better emissions tests than a 1998 Chevy Impala... and, while I'm in my home state (MN), I tune it to run on 100 Octane E85 (Ethanol 85%) pump gas (sold at Holiday Blue Planet)! This is the fuel that you can get a 2K write-off on if you buy the new E85 Hondas, but, by putting it in my camaro, I violate pollution control laws.
What the big difference is, is packaging -- I buy all of my carbs from a local race dealer (3 of them, 2 on the Chrysler, and 1 on the camaro), they are listed as "off-road use only" parts, same as the intakes, exhaust systems, etc. Point is, it's packaging that has allowed us car "modders" to get away with what we do -- there are two uses for the carbs, etc. the first is track/off-roading, the second is "illegal" modding (unless you get exemption plates, then it becomes legal -- makes almost as little sense as the DMCA).
My favourite line in the whole article is made by Mr. Posch at the end of the story:
... They applied in 1999 for this! I had already written online test sites, with accompanying software for both teachers and students (even embedded MySQL in the LAN Server installation version of the software, and the MySQL ODBC driver in the LAN client version!.) Also, I seem to remember this tiny company in Redmond, Washington offering some tests online through their MSDN program. And then there was that nobody of a company in New York, offering exams via the internet for S/390 AS/400 AIX etc. etc. Brown Institute has been whining about tests online since '98 ... it goes on and on with VERY obvious known examples of prior art!
"We're trying to give them the impression that we want to work with them."
So, does this mean the DON'T want to work with them? How do you "try" to give an impression? Couldn't that be considered slightly redundant?
My problems this whole patent (an most others lately) are 1) There's the matter of "prior art"
And then 2) it's OBVIOUS AS ALL HELL! Non-proxied distance learning (including exams) are decades old -- hell, Meathead's wife was droning on about them back in the early 80's -- adding the internet as the base media is as obvious as adding the post was, and adding teleconferences, and adding VCR's (and even LaserDiscs for a while). I was under the impression that prior art and blatant obviousness were both disqualifiers for a patent; what about the combination? Is it like simple math -- prior art? That's 1 negative! oh, it's also obvious? That's another! lets see now, we have two negatives, bad things multiply problems it must be a good patent then!
Reminds me of the movie Boiler Room... ... ... five minutes later
recipient:"Hello?"
caller:"New York Times"
recipient:"Not Interested"
caller:"I'm sorry for wasting your time"
recipient:"Is that it? Is that your pitch?"
blah blah
recipient:"There you go, now that was a pitch!"
caller:"So would you like a subscription to the times?"
recipient:"No thanks I already get the daily news"
This is of course paraphrased!
I thought, at first, this was another of the super-hype "they're coming to get us" tin-hat pages, or the typical "Anti-Closed Source" paper, I normally find on SlashDot. But, this was the most interesting reading I have had in quite a while (It was even better than O'Reilly's Perl, sendmail, and DNS books!). This page was very frightening, especially to a programmer/sys-admin who uses Linux for everything (even all of my workstation, home, and automotive diagnostic computers).
A (not so)quick aside: I recently asked my wife (who doesn't really know, or like, computers) which she found easier, the old Win2K partition I had for her, or Linux... She said "Linux, because I can just do what I need, and there's not a lot of crap, and I don't have to reboot... even that time when I deleted everything in my directory, I just had to open the zip drive and copy stuff." (She wiped out her home directory, which was backed up to zip...). She thinks OOo is easier (and "nicer" ???) than MS Office 2000. She also thinks it is easier to log into and start KDE on Slackware than to log into and start her programs with Windows!
The humour, and point, to this is that my wife HATED computers (she got mad at her Win2K workstation and dumped a Pepsi IN it about 2 years ago -- literally, she pushed it onto it's side, and dumped the Pepsi into the Vent holes -- so that she wouldn't have to use it any more, and said she'd do the same again if I replaced it). She now uses mine to check email, and has started using it constantly for everything from our weekly meal menu, to our fitness programs, bills, and even our daughters reading schedule and her (my daughter's)weekly TV allowance (5 hours of children's programming, and 8 hours of educational children's programming weekly... my daughter chooses the programs from "allowed" lists that my wife made in OpenOffice.org, and updates weekly,)... She's even hinted that she wants her own Slackware box, so she can use the computer when I'm home, without having to SSH in from one of the servers.
My wife thought that Linux, and Free Software were "stupid" and that I'd be out of work inside of a year (in 1998) if I kept refusing to administer, program, network, or security audit for a MS only, or MS dominent, company... We've run our own business (without any problems, or lack of work) for 3 years, and I've supplemented that income with an 8-5 for 2 years... I had her read the site linked, and she said "Wow, that's what you kept saying. Do you think you'll be a criminal in 10 years for being able to do what you can do with computers?"
Funny thing is, I just wrote a program to convert those files from Word, and Excel to .txt and .tab files. Automated, in 50 lines of perl (sorry it took so many, I'm kinda' a Perl Newbie), what was a manual process, or a shaky (at best) and bloated (1000+ lines for full conversion of files from xls to tab) process with the APIs and VB/VBA. Funny how Perl, with the help of the SpreadSheet::ParseExcel module freed up two computers (they were used to process Excel Files under Windows with VB), the whole process was moved to the DB Server (PostgreSQL), and are flawlessly imported into a database now. I find it funny how a UNIX/Linux native language (Perl) can handle the transformation of Excel files better than Excel and VB can!
These VBScripts VBA modules and VB Programs that people claim are "needed" are anything BUT needed. I cut my workload down by about an 1/4 by simply getting rid of those scripts and programs. I also, in doing this, have been able to move more of my office to OOo. Our "Official Format" for acceptable documents is now Rich Text (rtf).
I am not alone in this type of move either, I have been consulted by a number of companies looking to get away from Excel and VB and Word, and MSSQL and Access, and even Oracle, so that they can be more productive and more interoperable at less cost. As to the "training costs so much!" argument, we've moved the secretary, the data entry clerk, the company president, the CEO and the 60+ year old sales guy to Mozilla (email), f-prot virus scanning software (for interoperability, and ease of license management), and OOo. It took me longer to train them on how to "Open, Select All, Replace, Save As" in Excel than it took me to train them to a point of near-proficiency with OOo! If your Admin knows his job, and makes sure to know the software inside and out, then your TCO drops dramatically!
Nomad, if you ever stop fearing the "other side" (hell, I read the {Red}Star Tribune every day), and look at Drudge, you might see that as I said, the results are FROM THE STATES... direct links to STATE exit polls and counts. Are you still upset about that "unsubstantiated" rumour about clinton getting it on with an intern? You know, Ms. Lewinsky, the story Matt Drudge first broke?
as for the dignity, I think I showed it quite well by NOT pointing out how all socialists through history have gone down (up?) in flames... like Stalin, Marx, Hitler, Welstone...
Instead, I pointed out a fact: In 1983 as a Democratic candidate for President, Mondale argued that Reagan was too old. Now, almost 20 years later Mondale is 74 (for shame! The same age as Reagan in 1983), Modale is shaky, stutters, lapses (Reagan didn't start showing signs of his disability until 1989). He had to eat his words. Also, remember those debates, the ones in 83? Kill the Military Budget! That was Mondale's War Cry. Higher taxes means more people earning money! That was his socio-political view.
Think about it, if you make more than 46,500.00 annually, you are "rich" according to the democrats; and therefore should be taxed at 15-50 percent the rate as that of a person making 25,000.00 (I pay 40% taxes, in Minnesota, welfare recipients receive on average a 5% of their anual income as a "tax credit"). Dignity is my paying for my daughter's school, and not whining that it's your job to pay her way. Dignity is my paying my own insurance, and financing my own retirement, instead of demanding that the government pay my latter years, or for my health care.
I'll probably be showing my Republican bias here, but if you want state by state results FROM THE STATE, the only place I've found them is http://www.drudgereport.com ...
And, as a Minnesota Republican: UP YOURS MONDALE... you might not look so stupid running as a 74 year old Politician, had you not critisized President Reagan in '83, for being 74. Coleman for Senate!
According to MOST states' (and cities') laws, you MUST display any permit received, and ANYONE has a right to inspect it (the permit). To claim a permit, and then refuse to even state the agency from which it was received, much less display the permit, is generally in and of itself a code violation.
Actually, in most states, suicide is perfectly LEGAL! It's attempting suicide that is illegal.
I think the only thing unwarranted thus far is your critical attack on JonKatz.
You talk about living in Milwaukee, and asked Katz if he has I don't know if he has, or if he visits... I have never lived in Milwaukee, I live in the twin cities (MN); I have heard about this case, but not because your podunk backwater hole in the ground newspaper made it to my door. I heard about this kidnapping recently, watching MSNBC while getting ready for work about a week ago. The same way as JonKatz heard about it (albeit he watched a discussion about it on CNN), as can be read from his article.
The story I saw gave, as details about the kidnapping, about 5 details, the full name of the victim, the city of the kidnapping, the date of the kidnapping, the race and sex of the victim, and the fact that they have no suspects; they gave no information about the case other than that! It was a discussion about why it wasn't being covered, and STILL WASN'T covered!
I believe the article wasn't talking about some backwater paper printing blurbs about the kidnapping, or the "...and in other news, Alexis Patterson is still missing... Next, in the weather, it's another Hot one!" on local channel 17 news.
Media discussion and coverage of an issue does not include flyers, granted, these are a printed "media", but not part of the "mainstream" media (as mentioned by Katz as the reason for this educated and well thought out argument against the corporatization of media).Actually, I would say you have to really stretch the bounds of reality to call a flyer "media" at all!
If you could please point me to the front page NYT article (as in the Smart kidnapping), or the Tribune (again, as in the Smart kidnapping), or the Press(see above). or, maybe the API releases about this, I'd be very happy to rescind this entire comment, publically apologize, and say you were correct, and have bested me as an intellectual. Else, if none of these exist, and no primetime news coverage by MAJOR media (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, UPN, CNN, et, al.) has dedicated 15 minutes to the kidnapping (see, I'm not even asking for the HOURS that are dedicated to the Smart case on a daily basis) (and no, not the MSNBC or CNN discussions about why there was no media coverage for one, but a flood--daily-- for the other kiddnapping), then please, have enough courtesy to at least refrain from inflamatory dialogues about how cowpoke wisconsin is the epicenter of the universe, and your local podunk media MUST have reached us!
I say BRAVO to JonKatz for bringing this to the front page of Slashdot --not for bringing the discrepency in the handling of the two cases specifically-- but the use of the two cases as a base argument to support and outline your editorial dealing with the media bias towards the wealthy and sensational. This was a very well thought out critique of modern media, and was delivered in a very calm and deliberate fashion, it laid groundwork, had a hint of historical information, but not so much as to be dull and overly long, showed the disparity between similar cases, gave other, differing examples, also comparing two like situations that received differing media coverage, and wound down with a closing argument in support of the editor's opinion. It smacked of real journalistic talent (careful Katz, you might become a writer if you keep this up).
Actually, if you are dumb enough to just strap on a supercharger or turbocharger (they still make these for non-diesel? What's the point!) you will most likely blow a valve out the head, or shatter you cam or crank! you need certain things replaced in your engine before slamming 5-50x the airflow and fuel in! Besides, if you have money for a supercharger, why not go with a bigger cam, stronger rockers, flat top pistons (or domed pistons), better rings... porting and polishing the heads and a header exhaust system... Hell, you could bore and stroke it and get more than your "slap on a supercharger" and you'd have a stronger motor.
As for changing to high octane gas, DON'T! The octane rating is trivial most of the time (low to midgrade is best for most cars); if you increase your compression of course, you'll want to go higher octane...
As for the "least expensive" My Camaro started with a 305 G motor (High output). It's now a 327 stroker with 3" exhaust, I pull mid 12's in the quarter mile, and it's streatable. (about 370 HP). I used the stock block, replaced the cam crank, lifters, pistons, rings, bearings, intake and carb, timing setup, and HEI. The total cost (built it in my garage) was about $800 and that was because I went with alot of crome and forged parts (if all I had done was use forged pistons, clevite bearings, and molly rings, it woulda' cost about 250), and had everything temp treated so that, if in the futue I want to, the engine can handle a 300+ HP NOS boost.
It took my dad and I about 40 man hours (one weekend, two twenty hour days with both of us working); that was from engine-out to backing outa' the driveway. (average engine swap time for us in the camaro is about 1 hour each way).
And, 2.0 at 900? never seen that! Not even on the little foreign cars... what would the point of that be? you'd have to rebuild the tranny, replace ALL of the suspension parts, etc.
It's actually easy and pretty cheap to build up a car to outperform a stock, or even most NASCAR cars. But, for 3d CAD, your SOL!
That "oversized box" is actually about as big as an old sony magic-link. I got mine for 3,000.00 and the GM and Chrysler cartridges for another 500 each.(BMW cartridge is the same). If you are talking about a full diagnostic machine (checks exhaust, vacuum, intake, fuel pressure, electrical, etc...) these are generic machines, you enter the vehicle specs and hook up the scanners (if you also want to check the computer, you need both the cartridge and adapter). The prices for these are less than they used to be (hell, my rachet set I have, I think is a 35 piece, cost me as much as the cartridge for GM vehicles, and 4 times as much as the specs that I needed for my camaro).
Yep, that's the one. I can never remember the name.
When I was a young child (8 or so) I was diagnosed as ADD. This was 20 years ago, kids weren't diagnosed as manic depressive till about 13 or 14, and Autistic Savant was unheard of where I lived (very very rural Minnesota). I started seeing a therapist who decided that I DIDN'T need ridlen (however that shit is spelled). ;)
He thought that the psych that diagnosed me was off his rocker, called my symptems classic mild autism, and decided to try something on me that they do for severe Autistic savants (idiots).
The idea is, find something that someone likes, or has relaxing features... low res graphics, with fairly neutral colours in the case of this game (if you remember the Star Wars Radio Show, that's what it was for me when I was a kid). It works kinda' ass backwards, if you get excited (and I DID when I listened to Star Wars), the tape would stop. So, even when it was an exciting part, you had to relax (it measured blood pressure, heart rate, breathing and something else, I was eight I don't remember).
The relaxation is done by hearing (or seeing) but NOT concentrating, not counting words/seconds/distance, not noting discrepancies in the story line, not caring if you win or lose (in the game senario). What you have to do (and trust me for anyone with any hyper-activity causing "disfunction", especially those affecting the brain, like: Scizophrenia, Autism/Idiot Savant, ADD/ADHD, Bi-Polar Disorder/Manic Depression, obsesive compulsive; or even whom works alot and does the bills, takes care of shopping, and keeps everyone's schedules in line (the stress actually frequently causes brain activity similar to that of a person with mild scizophrenia in recession, or a case of mild autism), anyway, what you have to do is NOT pay attention, NOT think about the "objective", just enjoy it... It's not actually being "forced to relax", although when you first start out, that's what it's like (and worse!). If you actually follow the objectives, you will not have ANY pressure on you.
It's like, when your bills are ALL due by the 26th, but you get paid on the 30th; you mail the checks on the the night of the 25th, and go through every mathematical possibility... and the possible outcomes, it's modern society at it's worse; but, to get to sleep, you do/think about/watch something that gets your mind off that.
I hope this becomes a commonly available thing, because my daughter, at 2 has all of the classic signs of mild/moderate Autistic Savant, and I know how difficult it can be to keep such a child relaxed and learning more that just who one the 1947 World Series, and how many inches it is to the moon --and a candy bar costs one thousand dollars.
Anyway, long answer above, short answer... It just DOES work.
I tried SOffice 5.2, and liked the desktop feature; it ran terribly slowly in Explorer though...
So,I replaced Explorer with SOffice 5.2,I had alot less problems, and because I was still using the Windows "kernel" and APIs, all of my other programs worked fine.
All I did was replace the User Shell, it's like running a bash shell script in a C shell, as long as you have a magic line to to run the correct shell, it works fine, and if you don't, it doesn't work in Bash either.
I don't think it was "stupid" in the least! I think if Sun would tried a marketing scheme where they told users HOW to edit the win start files and replace Explorer, or, better yet, given this as an "advanced" option, it would have been more popular.
I think if Sun would have done something like that (an obvious slap to MS) and WE would have supported them with the move (instead of whining about how "stupid" the feature was) MS would have embarrased themselves by suing Sun, and proving their monopoly in another court; Sun would also have had a really nice counter-suit for monopolistic/predatory practices by MS too... As long as they only aimed the desktop replacement and technical details at the Win 3.* and following environments...(95/98) (That is because the User Licenses in those didn't require you to leave Explorer, I don't know about newer licenses, or the NT line, I never did read those EULAs).
I here A.Anderson is looking for clients... and they "know" how to make sure you are in compliance ... Bet they would do this one cheap! (Schools are always good for publicity, unless you are trying to get one torn down for a parking lot!).
I would have to disagree with you on the 2 wrongs not making a right.
You see, each problem is a negative, which multiplies the problem.
In mathematics, if you have two negatives, and multiply them, you get a positive result.
Hence, two wrongs DO make a right... The end result will inevitabley be a positive one
I DO buy servers, and I recently was looking for one.
I, in the past (on contract jobs) have purchased IBM, COMPAQ (that wasn't my fault though!), HP, Sun, and Penguin.
I liked the service, sales people, and the servers that Penguin sells. I recently (ordered last week, received today) had to purchase a new server... I got "direct marketing" from IBM... and am not comfortable with the COMPAQ/HP merger talks. I hate Dell (and receive spam from their offices about 7 times a month). Sun, they need to decide on a business model, and practices. I went with Penguin!
Because of previous experience, because of the sales people, and because when I called different companies for price comparisons, I DIDN'T get 20-70 emails telling me how "great" their servers are. I got a knowledgable sales person who offered me advise on RAID, redundant power supplies, advanced power management, the benefits vs. the disadvantages of AMD and Intel (I prefer AMD, but this server went with Intel, because of Dual Redundant hot-swap power supplies, larger memory capacity, more support for SCSI options, better SMP support). The advice he gave me saved me 600 dollars on a RAID Card (He emailed me instructions on how to set up a Software RAID with hotswap support, so my DB server can get the fabled 5-nine uptime). He also wrote into my 3 year NEXT DAY ONSITE service that Linux Slackware was supported as the installed OS, and that ALL decisions about hardware repair/replacement were mine. Compaq laughed at me being the final decision maker, and flat out refused to support slackware (or freeBSD, the other option). So did IBM, HP, Sun... blah blah.
My point though is, directed advertising is why I chose Penguin... they DIDN'T spam me, they DIDN'T berate me, they didn't take up my time with "courtesy" (we have a new server... blah blah) calls. They DID NOT direct advertise. Next month, I'm replacing all of our workstations (20)... guess where I'm getting the new AMD desktops? Same as the Firewall hardware, the webservers, email servers.
Funny thing is, I receive these emails about two times a week (Switch to MSN Now, before the forced rollover).
Why is it funny? Because I am a VISI.com customer, and have been for months. I requested to switch to visi, got switched and then (in the words of a PUC rep) slammed to MSN. Why would I decide to switch now? I already suffered one forced rollover... and wasn't even a Qworst customer when it happened.
Side note... When I did have Qwest, right after the USWest Qwest Merger, my personal home page was deleted from their server, and I was called and told I could no longer post one, nor could I host from home, as that violated the AUP (That's when I switched my first DSL connection to USInternet). The reason? I had set up a how-to on getting qwest to work with Linux, setting up the Netspeed (later, the Cisco 675) router for port forwarding to utilize multiple computers (and set up a web/game server). I also had a ready-to-print FCC and MN PUC complaint form which already had Qwest listed as the utility being complained of... and a link to the FCC page.
Moral of this post: If you have Qwest for your loop service (not your ISP just your line provider) WATCH your account and connection... make sure your 675/8 has ALL remote configuration disabled, and call to complain EVERY TIME you get an email about the switch... or you WILL get slammed to MSN. If this DOES happen to you, contact the PUC and AG office IMMEDIATELY... then call Qwest and demand that they transfer your ISP to whom YOU WANTED (record ALL calls, in MN it's legal as long as YOU consent. You don't even have to tell them)! I sat on the phone with Qwest for about 5 hours total (cell phone, started on my lunch break, when I got off the phone I was out to eat dinner), but in the end, I got my service switched back during that phone call... no 10 day wait, no 300 dollar bill for all the changes. During that one call, I had a PUC rep AND an AG rep on the phone on and off, I told them I was recording the call, after the PUC rep spoke up.
Actually, here in Minnesota the PUC and AG's office told Qworst it IS slamming. I switched from basic Qwest Service (because it SUCKED) to VISI.com about 5 months ago. They switched me to visi, then slammed my connection to MSN.com. When I called I yelled and screamed, and called them names... it didn't work, so I called back with a PUC rep and an AG staffer on the phone. They told me that I was going to have to pay all of the fees associated with switching from MSN to VISI... I explained that I use Linux, hate Microsoft and had written them both email and a signed return receipt letter explaining that I did NOT want to be on MSN under ANY circumstances. They told me that was nice but I still had to pay, the PUC rep spoke up and explained that the conversation we were having was being recorded, that there were reps from the PUC and the AG office on the phone, and that it sounded like a case of classic "slamming" because Qwest was a party (as an ISP) to the whole thing; they also mentioned that it was fraud to have forced me to switch and then make me pay to switch back.
I don't know how you got modded up, but you are wrong here. Tidal effects are felt not just in the ocean, but also inland. Tide is a gravitational pull... a STATIC pull (ie. tide doesn't cause ocean currents, the water rises and falls with the tide, but doesn't move). Or did you mean to imply that tides cause water to heat and cool (creating the streams and rivers in the ocean, and creating water circulation...)? No matter though, No moon == no tide != stagnating sea; No moon == no tide == no surfing is a little closer (except the whole weather effect again).
You forgot one all important thing about car alarms... hot rods with rumbling exhaust!!!
I love pulling through parking lots, and when I see a car that could be alarmed, revving the engine a little bit. I've actually on a couple of occassions set off 4-5 of them just starting my car! It's fun to watch the people point at the car with the alarm, laugh and shake their heads
Simply put... yes.
I try to download from the originating site... if they are busy, I connect to one of THEIR recommended mirrors, I get the package, and the checksum file, if it fails, I delete the package and try to get it from the original site again... I also email the mirror admin (if an email address is available) and notify them that the checksum failed. I don't think it's a "huge" hassle... I think it's actually much less a hassle than installing a tampered-with package would be! And, in my spare time, I read through the source code...
I've heard the "not enough users==no interest in a virus" argument since about '97 (When I started using mainly OSS). I've also heard the claim that "OSS can't get a virus"... Now, It may be just me, but, I think both arguments are wrong: Open Source CAN be exploited, and by a virus at that; if you are a really skilled programmer (in which case odds are you are more mature than to be writing little virus scripts for the fun of it). Also, the reason to write a good Linux virus is definitely there (to shut those OSS geeks up about how "solid their OS is"). The reason we aren't exploited, I think, is more your second ground... we don't just "point and click," we verify, we checksum, we get source and compile or get binaries/installers from trusted known sources...
who knows, the virus that will end the world MIGHT HAVE ALREADY BEEN WRITTEN... but, the people that it was emailed to didn't run their systems as root...so we'll never know about it.
Just a thought on the whole not enough reason vs. we're not hackable fight.
If you were to take your average PDA, pack it with C4 (Plastique), and adjust it so that it were to deliver a 12V charge (I don't know amps or watts), then you could floor about a reasonable shopping mall... I think a laptop repacked would REALLY REALLY hurt.