Before you go screaming about oppression, consider the scale of the numbers.
In 2002, there were about 46,000 licensed internet cafes, and 150,000 unlicensed internet cafes. (Ref: Time Magazine)
In 2000, there were about 40,000 licensed cafes, growing to 168,000 in 2009. (Ref: Investors Hub)
If you apply the same ratio of licensed vs unlicensed from the Time article (3.2:1), it could be extrapolated that there were also approximately 538,000 unlicensed cafes. So if 130,000 were closed down over a period of 5 years, that would be a whopping 26,000 per year. So roughly 5% of the illegal cafes were shut down. That could easily be attributed to disgruntled customers, ex-employees, failure to pay bribes to local law enforcement, or law enforcement needing to show that they are making an effort against such illegal activity.
Someone else can work out the trends to show my numbers are a little off, but not terribly far.
These tiny numbers in relation to the size of the country, population, and number of cafes are insignificant.
I'd be willing to bet similar trends could be shown in the US relating to liquor license violations, marijuana grow house busts, and other associated nefarious activities. If it weren't China and the Internet, it wouldn't have even been news.
If you're going worry about such things, worry about those who end up in prison here in the US on petty charges, that range from perfectly legal to gray areas in many other states and countries.
Really, for those who know much about the breast implant procedures, they'd know that the silicon is not just under the skin. A boa, if not defanged, would have fangs that are maybe 1cm (0.3") long. Since she apparently didn't have any blood dripping, nothing pierced the skin.
As you should be able to spot from the first link, there is skin and fatty tissues that would have been thicker than the fangs are long, regardless of the implant type. Consider it's a constrictor and not a viper.
Also, the snake would have bitten to scare its attacker. It didn't like the way it was being handled. If it thought she was lunch, it would have curled up with her for a nice long nap. When biting, it wouldn't have been sucking.
If it did die, it was most likely treated like most animals who attack humans. It was put down. Maybe she and the station demanded it. Maybe the trainer just said it was put down.
Well, everything is about profit in some cultures. Unfortunately, those cultures have polluted virtually every other culture there is.
Humans trying to step back to the "simpler time", where money is not an issue, and self sufficiency is, are looked at as hippies in communes, Amish (to some degree), or fringe nutjobs who are trying to escape the trappings of capitalist life. They frequently are called names and looked down upon. If you've never heard "dirty hippie", "communist" or "socialist" in a derogatory and misused fashion, you've been living under a rock.
There are (or were) other cultures who bartered and traded rather than having the need for currency of whatever type. To live in modern society, you have to embrace the capitalist society. It is possible to live outside of it, in a group with a sufficient skill set.
Consider this. If you were in an area which had fertile land for farming, ore for mining, and could build the necessary tools for refining the ore and forging tools, you could live without modern society.
But, you'll be expected to pay property taxes. That takes currency. You'll be expected to pay income tax, as the tax man will eventually figure out that you're producing commodities that could be sold, and therefor has a value that can be considered income.
What happens should you decide to do something exotic, like build a car. It's not impossible. When you decide to drive this car on the roads, assuming you've built all the necessary safety equipment? Well, you'll expected to pay the registration fee (currency) , pay for your license (currency), insurance (currency). Lets assume you're manufacturing your own fuels (vegetable oils work fine as diesel fuel), if you don't pay the road tax, you'll once again have the tax man coming down on you.
In the 2004 movie "The Village", the idea was turned into a movie. Well, a horror drama.
[spoiler alert]
A bunch of folks with some serious financial backing bought a huge piece of land, had a wall erected around it with guards. They lived a simple life, isolated from civilization. Property taxes, guard salaries, etc, were paid for from the profits of long term investments, which were managed by someone living out in civilization. So, if you or I were to attempt such a thing, we'd need some serious financial backing, and assistance from those living in the capitalized society.
A friend of mine decided to give up the trappings of normal society. He went off to live in his truck (a suburban). He had to pay for the vehicle, for registration, insurance, and even then, he had a hard time finding places to sleep at night. Some nights he was awoken by security guards telling him to leave. Some nights it was the local police, citing nonexistent laws stating he wasn't able to sleep in a vehicle anywhere in the area. That didn't provide him with any way to be self sufficient, and even still, he wasn't allowed to make it.
This trend won't change until there is substantial change throughout society. Don't expect it any time soon. Those with money really enjoy having it. They won't let go of that power anytime soon.
Humans are the most destructive species on the planet. If they can't dig it up, cut it down, pave over it, build on it, blow it up, burn it down, or otherwise manipulate it into unnatural fashions,... well... it doesn't exist. They've taken remains of long since dead creatures, and used it to pollute the sky, waters, and land. They've taken relatively safe radioactive elements (safe in their naturally occuring form) and processed them into large scale weapons. Even the radioactive elements used for "good", such as power generation, and either dumped in landfills or used to make even harsher "conventional" DU munitions.
Finding a spot on the planet that hasn't been touched by humans is impossible. Even the depths of the oceans find various debris ranging from unfortunate ships to waste products. Similar can be observed at the extreme "poles", where it is generally considered too cold for anyone to go. Anyone but submarines patrolling under the ice, various camps on top of the ice, and pollution from the air and water.
So as far as the planet goes, extinction would be the best alternative for continuation of the other species.
Sucks when someone says it'd be better if we all went off and died, huh?
Then the question becomes, if there are no ISPs in Tuvalu, and no users (as they're struggling to remain above sea level), then why is it a concern? There shouldn't be any hosts registered, since there are no users.
They report there are 1,700 landlines, and 2,000 cell phones in use, and 4,200 Internet users. Not bad for a population of 10,500. It doesn't explain the need for about 110,000 hostnames registered though. That's 26 names per Internet user. Oh ya, they were fundraising by letting anyone in the world buy their hostnames. As far as the Internet is concerned, countries are not a nationality, they are a commodity..tv registrations account for about 13% of their GDP.
The two letter TLDs already exist, and for many countries have been around for an awful long time.
As for management of those TLDs, there could be something left to desire. I owned a.us domain when the structure was [name].[category].[state].us . It worked fine as it was. I had it pointed towards my work DNS servers for 8 years.... then my employer laid me off.
I contacted the [state].us NIC, and asked politely for them to change my NS records. For about 6 months, I tried contacting the [state].us NIC, and the.us NIC, and all of those attempts were ignored. I did finally get an email from the.us NIC saying that there were no delegations like that. huh?
Oddly enough, about 5 years later, the name is still delegated to my old employers nameservers. I just looked, out of curiosity. They are still resolving it, but it's pointing towards its old IP, where they no longer have service. There doesn't seem to be anything on that IP any more, but I'm sure in time it will get used for something, and they'll wonder why they have traffic coming in for such a weird name.
So, instead of a relatively small group of registrars that are actually companies who have a clue of what we're doing, you're suggesting that we go back to the delegated local NICs? and.. mine was delegated by a state university.
That shouldn't be read to agree that we should let government or corporations own our domain names, but the previous option wasn't all that great either.
The worst part of it is that Plato made up Atlantis just to set up a hypothetical argument.
The sad part is that there are so many people who take old fictional works "set up as a hypothetical argument" and treat them like some mystical work where the words are taken verbatim, even if they are contradictory even in the same work.
I have no doubt that the Atlantis story was made up from somewhere. Circular built cities, or from Plato's own imagination, it came from somewhere. I prefer to believe the resurrected story used by the Stargate show. It's obvious, Atlantis was a starship, and Plato was an alien.:)
Actually, I know quite a few musicians, and yes, they do frequently use ear protection.
Now, remembering or planning ahead to have ear plugs with me is the problem. I really need to just pick up a bag of them. They have 80 packs for about $15. It's probably worth keeping some in my car, datacenters, and flight bag.
When I was about 18, people had noticed that I set sound equipment with more bass and less treble. I could also hear the whine of CRT monitors, and from the next room. People were frequently thrown when I could say "Oh, you have a computer in your office", before stepping into their office. That was a while back, when it wasn't too terribly common to have your own computer in your office or at home.
I had my hearing tested not too long after that. It showed that my hearing in the low and mid ranges were perfectly normal, but in the high ranges it was well above normal. That's why treble sounds were "too loud" to me.
In my 20's, I developed tinnitus, so I have a pretty substantial ring in my ears all the time at about 13KHz. Day and night the sound is there.
Now, in my 30's, my hearing in the upper ranges has dropped down to "normal", and my bass hearing is still normal. That's with my own share of rock concerts, listening to bands at bar gigs, clubs, listening to unmuffled engines (race cars, aircraft), air tools, gunfire, and explosions. I can't imagine the 100 to 125 decibels found in most airliners, and the thousands of hours I've spent flying around the country (and world).
Now when I fly, I use pressure relieving earplugs and noise reducing headphones (at the same time). I don't hear the noise, but I also don't hear the flight attendants asking what I want to drink. I do a pretty good job of reading lips, and pointing at what I want during the flight, or just buying my own overpriced drinks at the airport and bringing them on the plane.
Hopefully I can keep what's left of my hearing for a while. I'm sure hours in datacenters don't help much either. Earplugs aren't exactly practical there, where I'm frequently shouting instructions to someone on the other side of the rack, or I need to be able to yell at someone on the phone "I'm in the datacenter. Hold on while I go outside."
I was listening to some Pink Floyd several years ago (probably 10 years ago), and I had just set up a very nice sound system in my house. I heard things in the music that I'd never heard before. You simply miss out on systems that don't reproduce the full spectrum of sound. It could be a low rumble that's just felt, or a high pitched ting like a little bell.
Most people's setups have significant gaps throughout the spectrum. There are professional disks to demonstrate it, but most people here can write their own software to generate tones sliding up the scale, from say 20Hz 20KHz. I recently did that for fun on my regular desktop, and noticed about 5 or 6 significant bands where the sound was barely reproduced by the speakers. I moved the machine to my theater room, and hooked it directly to the sound system. It had a few dips, but nothing so significant that I'd go pick up any new hardware.
Consider where most people are listening to music. It's not in an expensive theater setup. It's on their iPod (or other portable device) with earphones, on their PC, or in their car.
I enjoy my theater setup for watching movies, and being surrounded by all the sounds that were produced with it.
I also listen to music on my "good enough" desktop speakers and in the car. Sure, I know parts are missing, and if I compare the output with the theater, I will notice the differences. So, I simply don't. Speakers large enough to fit in my ears aren't going to give an accurate recreation of the music. I listen to FM radio in the car. I enjoy the words, the beat, and know that the speakers in the car are in a harsh environment. Not only the extreme temperatures that the car interior encounters (about 15F to 150F), but there is significant interference with outside noises. My car is transportation, I'm not going to try to make it into a platform to recreate audio performances. Some people do. Some people spend an awful lot of money doing it. In the end, they can listen to music just as I can, except for the hours I'm in my car, and the difference in cost, I have a lot of money left over to spend on other things.
You'd have to think that the aliens were making their own progress with their systems as well. Say 64 years ago, humans got their hands on the latest greatest piece of alien technology, reverse engineered some part of their technology, and forked it to use technology and resources that they had available.
Lets look at just our branch, and assume the other branch stagnated. Do you think you could attach a modern computer to it? In that period, you could have a 25bps modem on it. What can you lay your hands on in the next few hours as cities are being destroyed around you, that can talk to a 25 baud modem? I know, wrong crowd, there's probably hundreds of folks on here that have such equipment in their garage, cellar, or keepsake room.:) How many folks could operate, much less hack, a computer from the 40's or 50's?
So that's just on our branch. Lets assume that they may have done at least a few upgrades over the same period. They would most likely be nothing like our branch. I'd say compare a Mac to a Windows PC, but that's not quite fair, since they have influenced each other. Assume no cross influences, and you have two... well... alien systems, with no similarities. Protocols, character encoding, nothing would make sense. Even if everything else were reverse engineered, then there's the alien language, and then understanding the programming language(s).... and the US Space Shuttle fleet was upgraded in the early 1990s with the AP-101S. It was about 10 years late in my opinion, but hey, they don't ask me to engineer them, and they don't let me fly them.
I was talking to someone who used to rank pretty high in the FBI. I was joking with him about my file. And no, as far as I know, he never pulled any strings to find out if I do have a file.
We joked about a few things, and then I told him the things that would show up. Have you ever been fingerprinted for something that goes federal? That would include serving in the military, holding a handgun permit, concealed weapons permit, or in some states simply purchasing a handgun. Some jobs which require even a cursory federal background that send your prints off for comparison (and filing).
People never think too hard about it, but where does the FBI get their data for comparing fingerprints? Well, usually from those freely given up.
So I do know I have a file there. There are at least 6 items contained in it that I am sure exist. There are several other items that may or may not have ever received enough attention to even get put in a file with them.
Of course, that "file" can be many different files, in many different departments and locations. Just because Investigator Bob has a file in his desk drawer doesn't mean that another investigator will find it, even on a FOIA request.
Yup.:) Well, kinda. We can watch streaming media on it (like Hulu, Netflix, or YouTube), put DVDs in an USB DVD player, or create original content on my regular workstation, and play it over the network. If we want streaming music, I can start it, and then turn the projector off, or put on the visualization of my choice playing in the application of my choice.
I had considered doing MythBox, or a whole variety of others, but opted to just go with a regular OS, and the huge variety of media players available.
It doesn't seem fancy, until I switch over to a web browser, or the video game of my choice. It's not a gaming machine, but it'll do ok some of the time. since everything is pretty standard, I can drag my gaming machine into the room, and just switch the boxes. (move the video and audio cables) and voila. It's set up with VGA, DVI and S/PDIF, which all my current stuff supports.
But you don't have to go with the wall wart form factor. I was working with an ARM on an industrial micro-ATX board, and that worked great. I was actually impressed with the speed, even though it was a 1Ghz machine. It was a tremendous step forward over another board they had chosen to use, where the only OS you could run was their own hacked up version of Linux, that required dozens of dodgy patches to rebuild the kernel.
If you really pay attention, ARM processors show up all over the place. I bought a little eMachines (the square thing standing vertical on a little pedestal), that works very nicely for running my theater system. At about 5"x5"x1", it's nice to have an absolutely silent machine sitting there that I can run the OS of my choice on. The only problem I had with it is that it didn't have enough USB ports for everything I wanted to hang off it.
A free software has a market value of $0, although the name recognition has a value.
By making it a commodity with a price tag, the number of licenses (or outstanding unregistered versions) suddenly means something. Nullsoft had several things going for it (Winamp, the Shoutcast server, and their shoutcast.com community site).
While recognition of the desktop player was significant, the shoutcast.com site was surely worth quite a bit more to them simply in exposure.
Ya, the caliber doesn't reflect the range. There's a very small difference in diameter between a.30 cal 30-06 rifle, and a.32 cal ACP pistol. I wouldn't give very good odds for a.32 ACP to be accurate at even a few feet. And yes, I owned each once. I decided the.32 ACP was a waste of space in my gun safe.:)
I didn't want to give the hoodlum element too much information, so I just left it at.30 cal..30-06 has a nominal range of 800 meters, but with better weapons and better operators, that will be increased. Without a good scope, they won't be seeing something the size of a camera from 1/2 mile away. Then they'd have to adjust for windage and drop. Still, in the hands of a skilled operator, it's perfectly possible. How many hunters and ex-military with lots of practice are out there? Oh ya, a whole lot.
The 30-06 round is very nondescript. If the police were to investigate any sales of that ammunition in the surrounding area within the previous months, they'd probably get thousands of its at best. If they try to investigate, they'll run into a lot of people like me. I typically buy range ammo (cheapest they have) to practice. I burn through it either before I leave, or I can't feel my arms any more (Springfield 03A3 has a steel butt plate, and very good reminder that it was fired).
But like I said, I don't recommend anyone try it. I know if I were to ever do such a thing, there'd just happen to be a patrol car nearby to pick me up immediately. My luck goes like that.:)
Well... the discussion was about wireless. The point where I mentioned copper or fiber was from the termination points of the wireless link to the next station (i.e., "last mile").
If something were laid for the whole stretch, I'd bet it would be fiber. 1000baseZX is designed for at least 70KM. So 200KM of fiber, with repeaters every 70KM. Yes, perfectly feasible. So much in fact that telcos already use it.
Walk up, shoot camera, put the gun back under your jacket, and keep moving like nothing happened. When the neighbors look out their windows, and see that there's no body on the ground, and no one else is panicked, they'll assume it was a backfire.
For a less obvious approach, go with a good old 30 caliber rifle, from about 1/2 mile. The camera will shatter about 2 seconds before the sound gets to it.
Not that I suggest such a things. If you get caught, the police probably won't find much humor in it. Sure as hell in the US, you'd be immediately labeled terrorist, and spend a long time in prison (if you survive the torture).
This isn't an Ask Slashdot solution. It's a "Ask the companies providing connectivity" solution. No, an individual isn't going to get a 300km wireless link up, unless they happen to have some friends with towers (preferably on mountains), and gear on both ends. Even then you aren't going to make a connection for everyone in the country (even at the low user per citizen number they have). What are they planning? To say "Hey [provider], I established a link. Route everything through my house." Ha.
From TFA:
possible to increase the bandwidth to handle a whole, or at least half a country? How would you connect the link at both ends? What other problems would there be? How many Pringles cans would we need?"
What's the bandwidth requirement for the whole country? What do the providers on each end have available? What do you mean how to connect both ends, don't you understand routing? Pringles cans, are you fucking kidding me?
With the numbers he gave (200km distance, 1st tower 850m, 2nd tower 2000m), line of sight could be 304km.
He didn't ask the magic questions. Just because you put something up on each mountain, doesn't mean that there's anything to connect to. Power? Fiber/Copper lines? Is there anything in the way? Does it take a wireless bridge on the two sides, and then another pair (or more) to get it to somewhere with service?
I doubt there's a provider anywhere who would let a hobbiest bridge their networks. Oh, did we forget bandwidth fees, port charges, roof rights, etc, etc, etc? Nah, it all must be free, because a hobbiest thinks it's a good idea to do.
If you narrow the focus enough, you could pick anyone as the winner.
The most important due to the number of users?
The most important due to the number of commercial users?
The most important due to the number of contributors?
The most important due to the number of lines of code submitted back up?
The most important due to longevity?
The most important due to the number of commercially released versions?
The most important due to the number of commercially released disks?
The most important due to the number of ISO downloads?
You get the idea.
I agree with your last statement though. I'm a Slackware user. I've been a Slackware user since... well, long enough where I had to install from floppy disks, because most people didn't have a CD drive, much less a burner, and there were no ISO releases. But I'm not a Slackware zealot. I've used all the major distributions, and many of the minor ones, as well as just about every available OS since the late 80's.
Most likely what you're seeing is the insulation on the wiring melting, or a nonessential component burning out. That will make lots of smoke, and eventually make the machine short out, and pop a fuse, breaker, or simply break the circuit. Catastrophic failure resulting in fire is pretty rare. I've seen an awful lot of desktop machines with papers stacked on them, around them, and fallen behind them.
I've had to deal with machines with various parts "burnt" out, including nonfunctional power supplies. I've received phone calls where people had smoke pouring out of the computer. The first thing I tell them to do is unplug it. Ya, with the machine on fire, they have time to call me up and ask what to do about a burning computer, and still, they didn't burn down their house/office.
There's plenty of fuel inside a computer to burn. All that insulation on the wiring and other plastics burn very nicely.
To make paper catch fire, you have to raise its temperature to at least 451 degrees. A few sparks against cardboard aren't going to start a fire.
Ever worked with a grinder or cutting torch? Little sparks flying off, even if they hit paper, don't necessarily cause a fire. Larger pieces that hold more heat, or continued heating can (and likely will) start a fire.
Consider when someone lights a cigarette. Butane burns at approximately 780F. Substantially higher than the temperature to make paper burn. You have to hold the cigarette in the flame for several seconds to make it light. You can also put a piece of paper rapidly through the flame, or the good ol' tough man act of putting your hand over the flame. Until it heats the material reaches the required temperature. Good luck lighting a log with a bic lighter.:)
That's not to say failing components won't start a fire. It could happen. Most likely, it won't. I'm sure they'd treat any production "cases" with fire retardant. I'd be more concerned with shipping concerns. Most of the time when I receive a box, regardless of the shipping company, the box has at least some sort of damage. It may be a little ding, or it may be totally oil soaked.
Not all the packages shipped are exactly clean. I just ordered a used car part, which was filled with oil. It was clearly marked "This Side Up". If they paid attention to the sticker, it would have been fine. At some point that was ignored, and it got flipped, and some oil came out. So I received an oil soaked box. At least it was a very strong part, so it wasn't damaged. I can imagine any boxes around it had the same fate. I can imagine if someone was having a computer delivered in a shipping container that doubles as the case, they'd be very upset.
Slashdot Mirror
Before you go screaming about oppression, consider the scale of the numbers.
In 2002, there were about 46,000 licensed internet cafes, and 150,000 unlicensed internet cafes. (Ref: Time Magazine)
In 2000, there were about 40,000 licensed cafes, growing to 168,000 in 2009.
(Ref: Investors Hub)
If you apply the same ratio of licensed vs unlicensed from the Time article (3.2:1), it could be extrapolated that there were also approximately 538,000 unlicensed cafes. So if 130,000 were closed down over a period of 5 years, that would be a whopping 26,000 per year. So roughly 5% of the illegal cafes were shut down. That could easily be attributed to disgruntled customers, ex-employees, failure to pay bribes to local law enforcement, or law enforcement needing to show that they are making an effort against such illegal activity.
Someone else can work out the trends to show my numbers are a little off, but not terribly far.
These tiny numbers in relation to the size of the country, population, and number of cafes are insignificant.
I'd be willing to bet similar trends could be shown in the US relating to liquor license violations, marijuana grow house busts, and other associated nefarious activities. If it weren't China and the Internet, it wouldn't have even been news.
If you're going worry about such things, worry about those who end up in prison here in the US on petty charges, that range from perfectly legal to gray areas in many other states and countries.
Of course they were. They were farming gold or whatever in (thinking back 6 years) for World of Warcraft and Second Life.
Read a little more about the incident
Really, for those who know much about the breast implant procedures, they'd know that the silicon is not just under the skin. A boa, if not defanged, would have fangs that are maybe 1cm (0.3") long. Since she apparently didn't have any blood dripping, nothing pierced the skin.
Now for the NSFW portion of this message.
Here is a comparison of subglandular breast implants to subpectoral breast implants. ... and the full page, with more illustrations.
Here is a doctor talking about the subglandular implants (over the muscle)
As you should be able to spot from the first link, there is skin and fatty tissues that would have been thicker than the fangs are long, regardless of the implant type. Consider it's a constrictor and not a viper.
Also, the snake would have bitten to scare its attacker. It didn't like the way it was being handled. If it thought she was lunch, it would have curled up with her for a nice long nap. When biting, it wouldn't have been sucking.
If it did die, it was most likely treated like most animals who attack humans. It was put down. Maybe she and the station demanded it. Maybe the trainer just said it was put down.
Well, everything is about profit in some cultures. Unfortunately, those cultures have polluted virtually every other culture there is.
Humans trying to step back to the "simpler time", where money is not an issue, and self sufficiency is, are looked at as hippies in communes, Amish (to some degree), or fringe nutjobs who are trying to escape the trappings of capitalist life. They frequently are called names and looked down upon. If you've never heard "dirty hippie", "communist" or "socialist" in a derogatory and misused fashion, you've been living under a rock.
There are (or were) other cultures who bartered and traded rather than having the need for currency of whatever type. To live in modern society, you have to embrace the capitalist society. It is possible to live outside of it, in a group with a sufficient skill set.
Consider this. If you were in an area which had fertile land for farming, ore for mining, and could build the necessary tools for refining the ore and forging tools, you could live without modern society.
But, you'll be expected to pay property taxes. That takes currency. You'll be expected to pay income tax, as the tax man will eventually figure out that you're producing commodities that could be sold, and therefor has a value that can be considered income.
What happens should you decide to do something exotic, like build a car. It's not impossible. When you decide to drive this car on the roads, assuming you've built all the necessary safety equipment? Well, you'll expected to pay the registration fee (currency) , pay for your license (currency), insurance (currency). Lets assume you're manufacturing your own fuels (vegetable oils work fine as diesel fuel), if you don't pay the road tax, you'll once again have the tax man coming down on you.
In the 2004 movie "The Village", the idea was turned into a movie. Well, a horror drama.
[spoiler alert]
A bunch of folks with some serious financial backing bought a huge piece of land, had a wall erected around it with guards. They lived a simple life, isolated from civilization. Property taxes, guard salaries, etc, were paid for from the profits of long term investments, which were managed by someone living out in civilization. So, if you or I were to attempt such a thing, we'd need some serious financial backing, and assistance from those living in the capitalized society.
A friend of mine decided to give up the trappings of normal society. He went off to live in his truck (a suburban). He had to pay for the vehicle, for registration, insurance, and even then, he had a hard time finding places to sleep at night. Some nights he was awoken by security guards telling him to leave. Some nights it was the local police, citing nonexistent laws stating he wasn't able to sleep in a vehicle anywhere in the area. That didn't provide him with any way to be self sufficient, and even still, he wasn't allowed to make it.
This trend won't change until there is substantial change throughout society. Don't expect it any time soon. Those with money really enjoy having it. They won't let go of that power anytime soon.
Humans are the most destructive species on the planet. If they can't dig it up, cut it down, pave over it, build on it, blow it up, burn it down, or otherwise manipulate it into unnatural fashions, ... well ... it doesn't exist. They've taken remains of long since dead creatures, and used it to pollute the sky, waters, and land. They've taken relatively safe radioactive elements (safe in their naturally occuring form) and processed them into large scale weapons. Even the radioactive elements used for "good", such as power generation, and either dumped in landfills or used to make even harsher "conventional" DU munitions.
Finding a spot on the planet that hasn't been touched by humans is impossible. Even the depths of the oceans find various debris ranging from unfortunate ships to waste products. Similar can be observed at the extreme "poles", where it is generally considered too cold for anyone to go. Anyone but submarines patrolling under the ice, various camps on top of the ice, and pollution from the air and water.
So as far as the planet goes, extinction would be the best alternative for continuation of the other species.
Sucks when someone says it'd be better if we all went off and died, huh?
Then the question becomes, if there are no ISPs in Tuvalu, and no users (as they're struggling to remain above sea level), then why is it a concern? There shouldn't be any hosts registered, since there are no users.
The CIA World Factbook for Tuvalu says differently.
They report there are 1,700 landlines, and 2,000 cell phones in use, and 4,200 Internet users. Not bad for a population of 10,500. It doesn't explain the need for about 110,000 hostnames registered though. That's 26 names per Internet user. Oh ya, they were fundraising by letting anyone in the world buy their hostnames. As far as the Internet is concerned, countries are not a nationality, they are a commodity. .tv registrations account for about 13% of their GDP.
That's just a bit US-centric, isn't it?
The two letter TLDs already exist, and for many countries have been around for an awful long time.
As for management of those TLDs, there could be something left to desire. I owned a .us domain when the structure was [name].[category].[state].us . It worked fine as it was. I had it pointed towards my work DNS servers for 8 years. ... then my employer laid me off.
I contacted the [state].us NIC, and asked politely for them to change my NS records. For about 6 months, I tried contacting the [state].us NIC, and the .us NIC, and all of those attempts were ignored. I did finally get an email from the .us NIC saying that there were no delegations like that. huh?
Oddly enough, about 5 years later, the name is still delegated to my old employers nameservers. I just looked, out of curiosity. They are still resolving it, but it's pointing towards its old IP, where they no longer have service. There doesn't seem to be anything on that IP any more, but I'm sure in time it will get used for something, and they'll wonder why they have traffic coming in for such a weird name.
So, instead of a relatively small group of registrars that are actually companies who have a clue of what we're doing, you're suggesting that we go back to the delegated local NICs? and.. mine was delegated by a state university.
That shouldn't be read to agree that we should let government or corporations own our domain names, but the previous option wasn't all that great either.
The sad part is that there are so many people who take old fictional works "set up as a hypothetical argument" and treat them like some mystical work where the words are taken verbatim, even if they are contradictory even in the same work.
I have no doubt that the Atlantis story was made up from somewhere. Circular built cities, or from Plato's own imagination, it came from somewhere. I prefer to believe the resurrected story used by the Stargate show. It's obvious, Atlantis was a starship, and Plato was an alien. :)
Actually, I know quite a few musicians, and yes, they do frequently use ear protection.
Now, remembering or planning ahead to have ear plugs with me is the problem. I really need to just pick up a bag of them. They have 80 packs for about $15. It's probably worth keeping some in my car, datacenters, and flight bag.
You are very correct.
When I was about 18, people had noticed that I set sound equipment with more bass and less treble. I could also hear the whine of CRT monitors, and from the next room. People were frequently thrown when I could say "Oh, you have a computer in your office", before stepping into their office. That was a while back, when it wasn't too terribly common to have your own computer in your office or at home.
I had my hearing tested not too long after that. It showed that my hearing in the low and mid ranges were perfectly normal, but in the high ranges it was well above normal. That's why treble sounds were "too loud" to me.
In my 20's, I developed tinnitus, so I have a pretty substantial ring in my ears all the time at about 13KHz. Day and night the sound is there.
Now, in my 30's, my hearing in the upper ranges has dropped down to "normal", and my bass hearing is still normal. That's with my own share of rock concerts, listening to bands at bar gigs, clubs, listening to unmuffled engines (race cars, aircraft), air tools, gunfire, and explosions. I can't imagine the 100 to 125 decibels found in most airliners, and the thousands of hours I've spent flying around the country (and world).
Now when I fly, I use pressure relieving earplugs and noise reducing headphones (at the same time). I don't hear the noise, but I also don't hear the flight attendants asking what I want to drink. I do a pretty good job of reading lips, and pointing at what I want during the flight, or just buying my own overpriced drinks at the airport and bringing them on the plane.
Hopefully I can keep what's left of my hearing for a while. I'm sure hours in datacenters don't help much either. Earplugs aren't exactly practical there, where I'm frequently shouting instructions to someone on the other side of the rack, or I need to be able to yell at someone on the phone "I'm in the datacenter. Hold on while I go outside."
You know, it really depends on the equipment.
I was listening to some Pink Floyd several years ago (probably 10 years ago), and I had just set up a very nice sound system in my house. I heard things in the music that I'd never heard before. You simply miss out on systems that don't reproduce the full spectrum of sound. It could be a low rumble that's just felt, or a high pitched ting like a little bell.
Most people's setups have significant gaps throughout the spectrum. There are professional disks to demonstrate it, but most people here can write their own software to generate tones sliding up the scale, from say 20Hz 20KHz. I recently did that for fun on my regular desktop, and noticed about 5 or 6 significant bands where the sound was barely reproduced by the speakers. I moved the machine to my theater room, and hooked it directly to the sound system. It had a few dips, but nothing so significant that I'd go pick up any new hardware.
Consider where most people are listening to music. It's not in an expensive theater setup. It's on their iPod (or other portable device) with earphones, on their PC, or in their car.
I enjoy my theater setup for watching movies, and being surrounded by all the sounds that were produced with it.
I also listen to music on my "good enough" desktop speakers and in the car. Sure, I know parts are missing, and if I compare the output with the theater, I will notice the differences. So, I simply don't. Speakers large enough to fit in my ears aren't going to give an accurate recreation of the music. I listen to FM radio in the car. I enjoy the words, the beat, and know that the speakers in the car are in a harsh environment. Not only the extreme temperatures that the car interior encounters (about 15F to 150F), but there is significant interference with outside noises. My car is transportation, I'm not going to try to make it into a platform to recreate audio performances. Some people do. Some people spend an awful lot of money doing it. In the end, they can listen to music just as I can, except for the hours I'm in my car, and the difference in cost, I have a lot of money left over to spend on other things.
Well...
You'd have to think that the aliens were making their own progress with their systems as well. Say 64 years ago, humans got their hands on the latest greatest piece of alien technology, reverse engineered some part of their technology, and forked it to use technology and resources that they had available.
Lets look at just our branch, and assume the other branch stagnated. Do you think you could attach a modern computer to it? In that period, you could have a 25bps modem on it. What can you lay your hands on in the next few hours as cities are being destroyed around you, that can talk to a 25 baud modem? I know, wrong crowd, there's probably hundreds of folks on here that have such equipment in their garage, cellar, or keepsake room. :) How many folks could operate, much less hack, a computer from the 40's or 50's?
So that's just on our branch. Lets assume that they may have done at least a few upgrades over the same period. They would most likely be nothing like our branch. I'd say compare a Mac to a Windows PC, but that's not quite fair, since they have influenced each other. Assume no cross influences, and you have two ... well ... alien systems, with no similarities. Protocols, character encoding, nothing would make sense. Even if everything else were reverse engineered, then there's the alien language, and then understanding the programming language(s). ... and the US Space Shuttle fleet was upgraded in the early 1990s with the AP-101S. It was about 10 years late in my opinion, but hey, they don't ask me to engineer them, and they don't let me fly them.
I was talking to someone who used to rank pretty high in the FBI. I was joking with him about my file. And no, as far as I know, he never pulled any strings to find out if I do have a file.
We joked about a few things, and then I told him the things that would show up. Have you ever been fingerprinted for something that goes federal? That would include serving in the military, holding a handgun permit, concealed weapons permit, or in some states simply purchasing a handgun. Some jobs which require even a cursory federal background that send your prints off for comparison (and filing).
People never think too hard about it, but where does the FBI get their data for comparing fingerprints? Well, usually from those freely given up.
So I do know I have a file there. There are at least 6 items contained in it that I am sure exist. There are several other items that may or may not have ever received enough attention to even get put in a file with them.
Of course, that "file" can be many different files, in many different departments and locations. Just because Investigator Bob has a file in his desk drawer doesn't mean that another investigator will find it, even on a FOIA request.
Yup. :) Well, kinda. We can watch streaming media on it (like Hulu, Netflix, or YouTube), put DVDs in an USB DVD player, or create original content on my regular workstation, and play it over the network. If we want streaming music, I can start it, and then turn the projector off, or put on the visualization of my choice playing in the application of my choice.
I had considered doing MythBox, or a whole variety of others, but opted to just go with a regular OS, and the huge variety of media players available.
It doesn't seem fancy, until I switch over to a web browser, or the video game of my choice. It's not a gaming machine, but it'll do ok some of the time. since everything is pretty standard, I can drag my gaming machine into the room, and just switch the boxes. (move the video and audio cables) and voila. It's set up with VGA, DVI and S/PDIF, which all my current stuff supports.
ARM does have a logo. It's just rather plain. typing it out is close enough. Maybe they're going with elegance in simplicity, even in their logo. :)
But you don't have to go with the wall wart form factor. I was working with an ARM on an industrial micro-ATX board, and that worked great. I was actually impressed with the speed, even though it was a 1Ghz machine. It was a tremendous step forward over another board they had chosen to use, where the only OS you could run was their own hacked up version of Linux, that required dozens of dodgy patches to rebuild the kernel.
If you really pay attention, ARM processors show up all over the place. I bought a little eMachines (the square thing standing vertical on a little pedestal), that works very nicely for running my theater system. At about 5"x5"x1", it's nice to have an absolutely silent machine sitting there that I can run the OS of my choice on. The only problem I had with it is that it didn't have enough USB ports for everything I wanted to hang off it.
Actually, they probably meant quite a bit.
A free software has a market value of $0, although the name recognition has a value.
By making it a commodity with a price tag, the number of licenses (or outstanding unregistered versions) suddenly means something. Nullsoft had several things going for it (Winamp, the Shoutcast server, and their shoutcast.com community site).
While recognition of the desktop player was significant, the shoutcast.com site was surely worth quite a bit more to them simply in exposure.
Ya, the caliber doesn't reflect the range. There's a very small difference in diameter between a .30 cal 30-06 rifle, and a .32 cal ACP pistol. I wouldn't give very good odds for a .32 ACP to be accurate at even a few feet. And yes, I owned each once. I decided the .32 ACP was a waste of space in my gun safe. :)
I didn't want to give the hoodlum element too much information, so I just left it at .30 cal. .30-06 has a nominal range of 800 meters, but with better weapons and better operators, that will be increased. Without a good scope, they won't be seeing something the size of a camera from 1/2 mile away. Then they'd have to adjust for windage and drop. Still, in the hands of a skilled operator, it's perfectly possible. How many hunters and ex-military with lots of practice are out there? Oh ya, a whole lot.
The 30-06 round is very nondescript. If the police were to investigate any sales of that ammunition in the surrounding area within the previous months, they'd probably get thousands of its at best. If they try to investigate, they'll run into a lot of people like me. I typically buy range ammo (cheapest they have) to practice. I burn through it either before I leave, or I can't feel my arms any more (Springfield 03A3 has a steel butt plate, and very good reminder that it was fired).
But like I said, I don't recommend anyone try it. I know if I were to ever do such a thing, there'd just happen to be a patrol car nearby to pick me up immediately. My luck goes like that. :)
Well ... the discussion was about wireless. The point where I mentioned copper or fiber was from the termination points of the wireless link to the next station (i.e., "last mile").
If something were laid for the whole stretch, I'd bet it would be fiber. 1000baseZX is designed for at least 70KM. So 200KM of fiber, with repeaters every 70KM. Yes, perfectly feasible. So much in fact that telcos already use it.
That's too much work.
1) Normal nondescript (but concealing) clothes and a long coat.
2) 12 gauge Mossberg 500 with collapsing stock.
3) Box full of 2.75" slugs
Walk up, shoot camera, put the gun back under your jacket, and keep moving like nothing happened. When the neighbors look out their windows, and see that there's no body on the ground, and no one else is panicked, they'll assume it was a backfire.
For a less obvious approach, go with a good old 30 caliber rifle, from about 1/2 mile. The camera will shatter about 2 seconds before the sound gets to it.
Not that I suggest such a things. If you get caught, the police probably won't find much humor in it. Sure as hell in the US, you'd be immediately labeled terrorist, and spend a long time in prison (if you survive the torture).
No shit.
This isn't an Ask Slashdot solution. It's a "Ask the companies providing connectivity" solution. No, an individual isn't going to get a 300km wireless link up, unless they happen to have some friends with towers (preferably on mountains), and gear on both ends. Even then you aren't going to make a connection for everyone in the country (even at the low user per citizen number they have). What are they planning? To say "Hey [provider], I established a link. Route everything through my house." Ha.
From TFA:
What's the bandwidth requirement for the whole country? What do the providers on each end have available? What do you mean how to connect both ends, don't you understand routing? Pringles cans, are you fucking kidding me?
With the numbers he gave (200km distance, 1st tower 850m, 2nd tower 2000m), line of sight could be 304km.
He didn't ask the magic questions. Just because you put something up on each mountain, doesn't mean that there's anything to connect to. Power? Fiber/Copper lines? Is there anything in the way? Does it take a wireless bridge on the two sides, and then another pair (or more) to get it to somewhere with service?
I doubt there's a provider anywhere who would let a hobbiest bridge their networks. Oh, did we forget bandwidth fees, port charges, roof rights, etc, etc, etc? Nah, it all must be free, because a hobbiest thinks it's a good idea to do.
If you narrow the focus enough, you could pick anyone as the winner.
The most important due to the number of users?
The most important due to the number of commercial users?
The most important due to the number of contributors?
The most important due to the number of lines of code submitted back up?
The most important due to longevity?
The most important due to the number of commercially released versions?
The most important due to the number of commercially released disks?
The most important due to the number of ISO downloads?
You get the idea.
I agree with your last statement though. I'm a Slackware user. I've been a Slackware user since ... well, long enough where I had to install from floppy disks, because most people didn't have a CD drive, much less a burner, and there were no ISO releases. But I'm not a Slackware zealot. I've used all the major distributions, and many of the minor ones, as well as just about every available OS since the late 80's.
Most likely what you're seeing is the insulation on the wiring melting, or a nonessential component burning out. That will make lots of smoke, and eventually make the machine short out, and pop a fuse, breaker, or simply break the circuit. Catastrophic failure resulting in fire is pretty rare. I've seen an awful lot of desktop machines with papers stacked on them, around them, and fallen behind them.
I've had to deal with machines with various parts "burnt" out, including nonfunctional power supplies. I've received phone calls where people had smoke pouring out of the computer. The first thing I tell them to do is unplug it. Ya, with the machine on fire, they have time to call me up and ask what to do about a burning computer, and still, they didn't burn down their house/office.
There's plenty of fuel inside a computer to burn. All that insulation on the wiring and other plastics burn very nicely.
Actually....
To make paper catch fire, you have to raise its temperature to at least 451 degrees. A few sparks against cardboard aren't going to start a fire.
Ever worked with a grinder or cutting torch? Little sparks flying off, even if they hit paper, don't necessarily cause a fire. Larger pieces that hold more heat, or continued heating can (and likely will) start a fire.
Consider when someone lights a cigarette. Butane burns at approximately 780F. Substantially higher than the temperature to make paper burn. You have to hold the cigarette in the flame for several seconds to make it light. You can also put a piece of paper rapidly through the flame, or the good ol' tough man act of putting your hand over the flame. Until it heats the material reaches the required temperature. Good luck lighting a log with a bic lighter. :)
That's not to say failing components won't start a fire. It could happen. Most likely, it won't. I'm sure they'd treat any production "cases" with fire retardant. I'd be more concerned with shipping concerns. Most of the time when I receive a box, regardless of the shipping company, the box has at least some sort of damage. It may be a little ding, or it may be totally oil soaked.
Not all the packages shipped are exactly clean. I just ordered a used car part, which was filled with oil. It was clearly marked "This Side Up". If they paid attention to the sticker, it would have been fine. At some point that was ignored, and it got flipped, and some oil came out. So I received an oil soaked box. At least it was a very strong part, so it wasn't damaged. I can imagine any boxes around it had the same fate. I can imagine if someone was having a computer delivered in a shipping container that doubles as the case, they'd be very upset.