Seriously, what's with the 'let's hate the French' bullshit?
Probably because the Allied forces saved the France's ass in WWII, and they've been troublesome ever since. France created quite a mess in SE Asia. France refused to let F-111's from the UK fly through their airspace to bomb Libya. They were trying to block the enforcement of UN resolutions in Iraq because of their big oil deals there. They set up a nuclear reactor for Iraq in the '80's. And now, it's been discovered that Iraq was obtaining weapons during the UN embargo, and the source appears to be France.
from the article:...the displacement sends out an acoustic signal, or radio wave, that moves up through the atmosphere.
Uh, is it an acoustic wave, or a radio wave? There is a difference.
From the post: resulted in the constillation of GPS satellites generating a mesaurable amount of interference.
The constellation of GPS satellites did not generate any interference. Rather the effect of the wave on the ionosphere caused interference in the RF signals from the GPS sats.
Yes, while downloaded music is great for throwaway tunes you're not likely to listen to again, I want my good music in a relatively permanent form, uncompressed. Yes, I might even rip that for conveniece in order to listen to it at work or something, but I still want a pressed CD.
Plus, the Wall Street Journal had a recent article about the way the labels are taking the same cut on music bought through iTunes as on music sold on CD, even though the manufacturing, distribution, etc. costs aren't there. So buying music through iTunes and other services is making the labels even more money, but not helping out the artist very much.
then the force required to completely fill in that circle usually left a balck dot on the opposite side (messing up the answers on the back.)
Uh, unless you were making marks between the rows on the front, that shouldn't have been a problem. The rows on the front and back are offset, otherwise you couldn't have two sides...
Good point. That was just an off-the-cuff concept, so I really hadn't thought through all the implications. So basically, you need to make sure that no record of the person's vote leaves the polling place....
Although it's much easier to just have a bunch of dead people registered to vote than it is to go coerce real ones....:)
The article said that the voter uses a card with a bar code on it to activate the machine. Why not have something like the following:
1) scan code to pull up ballot 2) make vote selections 3) scan code to submit vote (these the same as article) 4) print checksum or other signature of the vote on paper receipt, or on the card containing the bar code 5) allow voter to enter their bar code number into a web form and display their ballot choices. The voter can then verify that their choices were properly recorded, and any changes can be proven by the checksum held by the voter
I agree that it was done with a decent amount of laughs, and was pretty good overall. But if you're science-ignorant, there was probably too much left out in the explanation of things. Of course, they put in little bugs directing you to the web site for more details, things you could do at home, etc., so I guess their goal was to just draw you in enough to read up on the topics.
That if you're going to make a right turn, you might want to get in the right lane before you get there.
And when a turn lane exists, utilize your turn signal, move into the lane, and _then_ slow down. It's amazing how many people hit their brakes and then ooze over into the lane, impeding the traffic behind them.
On streets where there are backups at stoplights, a lot of capacity could be gained if people would simply pull up a few feet. Instead, they leave a full car length in front of them. Hmm...easy way to nearly double the number of cars that could be there.
The problem isn't that the roads can't hold all the cars, but that all the cars go slow.
Exactly. If you have a pipe of a given size, the only way to get more material through it is to make it go faster. Unfortunately, people do the opposite, such that they'll drive slower because of the volume.
All of your points are good ones, but I don't think moving signs around will help much. It comes down to properly educated drivers being aware of the situation around them.
One of my big gripes is the new highway interchanges. They've built big, high-speed ramps and long lanes for merging, yet people insist on slowing down to 40 MPH on them, and then braking to merge as soon as possible.
Exactly, why aren't we subsidising mass transit systems.
Uh, we _are_ subsidizing mass transit systems, since they in no way manage to pay for themselves. I do recall a study a few years ago that added up all the fees that a car owner pays to the government - registration, gas taxes, etc., and found that a great deal of it is being diverted to other areas. So the reason roads and bridges aren't maintained, or new ones built, it because the money you presume it going into those funds is being spent elsewhere.
you build more road, you'll get more cars News flash: you're going to get more cars. The population continues to increase, as does the number of cars and number of miles driven per year. Even _with_ congestion, people keep choosing cars. While these numbers have exploded, the growth of the highway system hasn't.
And one other thing: a car stuck in traffic gets 0 miles per gallon. Get the cars moving, and the amount of fuel wasted would be dramatically reduced.
Excellent. Thanks for the summary. So if I'm looking at used boxes on eBay or elsewhere, the USB port is the key way to tell, regardless of the manufacturer?
I'll second that. As someone who hasn't yet taken the plunge, and is considering getting a TiVo or whipping up something with MythTV, a good rundown of the differences in the SI and SII boxes would be nice.
Hardly. Before you drop $500 million on a company, you're going to perform due diligence. Which means one or more of the following happened:
* Cisco did a poor job of due diligence
* Cisco knew of the brewing problem, but considered the potential liability to be worth the risk
* Linksys intentionally misled Cisco when it came to their software. This is the only scenario in which Cisco might be considered a victim, but also goes back to Cisco doing a poor job.
...which formerly belonged to a professional nurse who left the profession. So now I was swamped with calls of panicked geezers asking me why I didn't return their calls about an injection or an urgent enema. That was progress.
Are you sure she was an actual nurse, or someone who just dressed up in the costume?;)
An unsafe car can kill. You honestly can't say the same thing about a personal computer.
Maybe not directly, and maybe not about a system hijacked soley for spam. But we saw numerous instances of the latest worms causing enough network congestion to cause problems at some power plants and railroads.
Excellent point. Of course, the question would then become who would be the AG...could have been someone a lot worse.
As for the 'voting for a dead man', technically it's true, but everyone was working on the basis that his wife was going to be appointed in his place. And even if they were going to prop the corpse up in the Senate, it would have been better than having Ashcroft there. Of course, for some reason everyone turned around two years later and voted Talent in....
RT looks pretty cool. I scanned through the stuff on their site, but didn't see any mention of a few things I'd like to know about. As I'd want to use it primarily for tracking support issues of our customers, the following would be important to me:
1) How easy/hard is it to make RT an interface to a customer database? Would this be a roll-you-own situation, or has someone hacked out an add-in to handle this?
2) I see that you can make e-mail automagically trigger a new ticket. Is there a way that all of the external customers could have a username/password and connect to the system to submit requests?
3) We frequently have customers sending us log files, etc. as attachments. Does RT handle attachments OK and store them?
I'd like to know the story behind that. Was it an outright marketing sell-out or is the writer just an Ipod fan? Since it added nothing whatsoever to the story I strongly suspect that apple paid a lot of mony for those scenes.
Wouldn't be the first time NBC has placed computer products in their shows. A couple of years ago, Computer Associates products were all over the place.
ER: In the background someone would be pushing a wheeled cart with a big box, with 'Computer Associates' printed in big letters on the side. Sitting next to the (Gateway) computers in the ER, there would be boxes for CA products, such as Brightstor. As though they'd leave their boxes of software out in public, and there would be a copy of an enterprise backup product sitting at a non-IT workstation.
Just Shoot Me: There were always boxes of CA products in Jack's office. It made a touch more sense that something like that might be found in the private office of the boss, but given the obvious placement in ER, I suspect it was a plant.
So WTF are all these shares being bought/sold for?!? They are literally worthless!
The same reason WCOM was still trading. While there's little chance the shares would ever have any real value, they're nearly free, and some people will buy on the miniscule chance they'll actually get something out of it.
Some companies appear to be better at this than others.
I'd really like to see how they determine what warrants flagging the account. I've had a card from Citibank for 9 years. This card is used for nearly everything (and paid every month). As a result, there are a wide range of charges.
When moving a few years ago, the wife and I were fueling the two cars. We were using the CRIND at the gas pump, and after I swiped my card, I handed it across to her to use. A few hours later, at a fuel stop, the card wouldn't work. Called, and the rep said it was flagged because the same card was used twice in short order at that gas station. Then had to play the twenty questions game, where you must strain to remember your recent purchases so you can prove it's really you on the phone.
That's the only time I've actually had the card rejected because it was flagged, but once got a phone call from them asking me if we both had our cards in our posession.
While not as big of a hassle as identity theft, if your CC company offers one-time numbers, they help avoid the problems of someone using your CC number. In Citibank's case, you can either get a single use number with an expiration date of the current month, or get a number with an expiration date up to a year later, with a charge limit you define, which is great for providing to companies who do recurring billing to your card.
IIRC, the problem with this was covered on/. a while back. Someone set up a harvestable address, and then waited for the spam to arrive, most of it claiming that the recipient had agreed via some partner to receive their 'valuable offers'.
So these spammers all either believe that they have a list of opt-in addresses, or are convincing their clients they do. (And the clients are frequently legitimate businesses.)
Given the ease with which a spammer will claim that you opted-in to their mailings, and the ease with which they could claim that you had agreed to those terms, won't all spam simply be labelled as opt-in after a law like this is passed?
It's just that the first 20 minutes are mind numbingly boring
In my case, it isn't the first 20 minutes that are the problem, it's when they're actually in space. As part of the film series at school they once showed 2001 in the theater (just a video projection, not actual film). But I was tired, and that constant background hum once they're in space completely put me under.
Plus they said this probably required heavy equipment. I can't see some guy in his 70's out in the middle of the night(Old people don't stay up late) lugging equipment around.
I don't buy the 'required heavy equipment' statement. It's not like the person who put them there tore out an entire section of street, ordered in a load of asphalt, and hot-rolled it.
The only equipment you'd need is a hammer and chisel to bust out the top layer of asphalt about the size of the tile. The picture in the article even looks like the spot for the tile was made this way, given the rough edges, although they could be from traffic or people trying to steal it.
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Seriously, what's with the 'let's hate the French' bullshit?
Probably because the Allied forces saved the France's ass in WWII, and they've been troublesome ever since. France created quite a mess in SE Asia. France refused to let F-111's from the UK fly through their airspace to bomb Libya. They were trying to block the enforcement of UN resolutions in Iraq because of their big oil deals there. They set up a nuclear reactor for Iraq in the '80's. And now, it's been discovered that Iraq was obtaining weapons during the UN embargo, and the source appears to be France.
from the article: ...the displacement sends out an acoustic signal, or radio wave, that moves up through the atmosphere.
Uh, is it an acoustic wave, or a radio wave? There is a difference.
From the post: resulted in the constillation of GPS satellites generating a mesaurable amount of interference.
The constellation of GPS satellites did not generate any interference. Rather the effect of the wave on the ionosphere caused interference in the RF signals from the GPS sats.
Yes, while downloaded music is great for throwaway tunes you're not likely to listen to again, I want my good music in a relatively permanent form, uncompressed. Yes, I might even rip that for conveniece in order to listen to it at work or something, but I still want a pressed CD.
Plus, the Wall Street Journal had a recent article about the way the labels are taking the same cut on music bought through iTunes as on music sold on CD, even though the manufacturing, distribution, etc. costs aren't there. So buying music through iTunes and other services is making the labels even more money, but not helping out the artist very much.
If only Bob Dole were still doing those ED commercials....then we could really compare the parties' uptimes....
then the force required to completely fill in that circle usually left a balck dot on the opposite side (messing up the answers on the back.)
Uh, unless you were making marks between the rows on the front, that shouldn't have been a problem. The rows on the front and back are offset, otherwise you couldn't have two sides...
Good point. That was just an off-the-cuff concept, so I really hadn't thought through all the implications. So basically, you need to make sure that no record of the person's vote leaves the polling place....
:)
Although it's much easier to just have a bunch of dead people registered to vote than it is to go coerce real ones....
The article said that the voter uses a card with a bar code on it to activate the machine. Why not have something like the following:
1) scan code to pull up ballot
2) make vote selections
3) scan code to submit vote (these the same as article)
4) print checksum or other signature of the vote on paper receipt, or on the card containing the bar code
5) allow voter to enter their bar code number into a web form and display their ballot choices. The voter can then verify that their choices were properly recorded, and any changes can be proven by the checksum held by the voter
Of course, what happens if there _is_ a problem?
Yup. Rough Science'.
I agree that it was done with a decent amount of laughs, and was pretty good overall. But if you're science-ignorant, there was probably too much left out in the explanation of things. Of course, they put in little bugs directing you to the web site for more details, things you could do at home, etc., so I guess their goal was to just draw you in enough to read up on the topics.
That if you're going to make a right turn, you might want to get in the right lane before you get there.
And when a turn lane exists, utilize your turn signal, move into the lane, and _then_ slow down. It's amazing how many people hit their brakes and then ooze over into the lane, impeding the traffic behind them.
On streets where there are backups at stoplights, a lot of capacity could be gained if people would simply pull up a few feet. Instead, they leave a full car length in front of them. Hmm...easy way to nearly double the number of cars that could be there.
The problem isn't that the roads can't hold all the cars, but that all the cars go slow.
Exactly. If you have a pipe of a given size, the only way to get more material through it is to make it go faster. Unfortunately, people do the opposite, such that they'll drive slower because of the volume.
All of your points are good ones, but I don't think moving signs around will help much. It comes down to properly educated drivers being aware of the situation around them.
One of my big gripes is the new highway interchanges. They've built big, high-speed ramps and long lanes for merging, yet people insist on slowing down to 40 MPH on them, and then braking to merge as soon as possible.
Exactly, why aren't we subsidising mass transit systems.
Uh, we _are_ subsidizing mass transit systems, since they in no way manage to pay for themselves. I do recall a study a few years ago that added up all the fees that a car owner pays to the government - registration, gas taxes, etc., and found that a great deal of it is being diverted to other areas. So the reason roads and bridges aren't maintained, or new ones built, it because the money you presume it going into those funds is being spent elsewhere.
you build more road, you'll get more cars
News flash: you're going to get more cars. The population continues to increase, as does the number of cars and number of miles driven per year. Even _with_ congestion, people keep choosing cars. While these numbers have exploded, the growth of the highway system hasn't.
And one other thing: a car stuck in traffic gets 0 miles per gallon. Get the cars moving, and the amount of fuel wasted would be dramatically reduced.
Excellent. Thanks for the summary. So if I'm looking at used boxes on eBay or elsewhere, the USB port is the key way to tell, regardless of the manufacturer?
I'll second that. As someone who hasn't yet taken the plunge, and is considering getting a TiVo or whipping up something with MythTV, a good rundown of the differences in the SI and SII boxes would be nice.
In many ways Cisco *is* a victim here.
Hardly. Before you drop $500 million on a company, you're going to perform due diligence. Which means one or more of the following happened:
* Cisco did a poor job of due diligence
* Cisco knew of the brewing problem, but considered the potential liability to be worth the risk
* Linksys intentionally misled Cisco when it came to their software. This is the only scenario in which Cisco might be considered a victim, but also goes back to Cisco doing a poor job.
...which formerly belonged to a professional nurse who left the profession. So now I was swamped with calls of panicked geezers asking me why I didn't return their calls about an injection or an urgent enema. That was progress.
;)
Are you sure she was an actual nurse, or someone who just dressed up in the costume?
An unsafe car can kill. You honestly can't say the same thing about a personal computer.
Maybe not directly, and maybe not about a system hijacked soley for spam. But we saw numerous instances of the latest worms causing enough network congestion to cause problems at some power plants and railroads.
Excellent point. Of course, the question would then become who would be the AG...could have been someone a lot worse.
As for the 'voting for a dead man', technically it's true, but everyone was working on the basis that his wife was going to be appointed in his place. And even if they were going to prop the corpse up in the Senate, it would have been better than having Ashcroft there. Of course, for some reason everyone turned around two years later and voted Talent in....
RT looks pretty cool. I scanned through the stuff on their site, but didn't see any mention of a few things I'd like to know about. As I'd want to use it primarily for tracking support issues of our customers, the following would be important to me:
1) How easy/hard is it to make RT an interface to a customer database? Would this be a roll-you-own situation, or has someone hacked out an add-in to handle this?
2) I see that you can make e-mail automagically trigger a new ticket. Is there a way that all of the external customers could have a username/password and connect to the system to submit requests?
3) We frequently have customers sending us log files, etc. as attachments. Does RT handle attachments OK and store them?
I'd like to know the story behind that. Was it an outright marketing sell-out or is the writer just an Ipod fan? Since it added nothing whatsoever to the story I strongly suspect that apple paid a lot of mony for those scenes.
Wouldn't be the first time NBC has placed computer products in their shows. A couple of years ago, Computer Associates products were all over the place.
ER: In the background someone would be pushing a wheeled cart with a big box, with 'Computer Associates' printed in big letters on the side. Sitting next to the (Gateway) computers in the ER, there would be boxes for CA products, such as Brightstor. As though they'd leave their boxes of software out in public, and there would be a copy of an enterprise backup product sitting at a non-IT workstation.
Just Shoot Me: There were always boxes of CA products in Jack's office. It made a touch more sense that something like that might be found in the private office of the boss, but given the obvious placement in ER, I suspect it was a plant.
Global Crossing is a small piece in a big pie.
Perhaps, but how many of the others that you list have the trans-oceanic fiber infrastructure of GBLX?
So WTF are all these shares being bought/sold for?!? They are literally worthless!
The same reason WCOM was still trading. While there's little chance the shares would ever have any real value, they're nearly free, and some people will buy on the miniscule chance they'll actually get something out of it.
Some companies appear to be better at this than others.
I'd really like to see how they determine what warrants flagging the account. I've had a card from Citibank for 9 years. This card is used for nearly everything (and paid every month). As a result, there are a wide range of charges.
When moving a few years ago, the wife and I were fueling the two cars. We were using the CRIND at the gas pump, and after I swiped my card, I handed it across to her to use. A few hours later, at a fuel stop, the card wouldn't work. Called, and the rep said it was flagged because the same card was used twice in short order at that gas station. Then had to play the twenty questions game, where you must strain to remember your recent purchases so you can prove it's really you on the phone.
That's the only time I've actually had the card rejected because it was flagged, but once got a phone call from them asking me if we both had our cards in our posession.
While not as big of a hassle as identity theft, if your CC company offers one-time numbers, they help avoid the problems of someone using your CC number. In Citibank's case, you can either get a single use number with an expiration date of the current month, or get a number with an expiration date up to a year later, with a charge limit you define, which is great for providing to companies who do recurring billing to your card.
IIRC, the problem with this was covered on /. a while back. Someone set up a harvestable address, and then waited for the spam to arrive, most of it claiming that the recipient had agreed via some partner to receive their 'valuable offers'.
So these spammers all either believe that they have a list of opt-in addresses, or are convincing their clients they do. (And the clients are frequently legitimate businesses.)
Given the ease with which a spammer will claim that you opted-in to their mailings, and the ease with which they could claim that you had agreed to those terms, won't all spam simply be labelled as opt-in after a law like this is passed?
It's just that the first 20 minutes are mind numbingly boring
In my case, it isn't the first 20 minutes that are the problem, it's when they're actually in space. As part of the film series at school they once showed 2001 in the theater (just a video projection, not actual film). But I was tired, and that constant background hum once they're in space completely put me under.
Plus they said this probably required heavy equipment. I can't see some guy in his 70's out in the middle of the night(Old people don't stay up late) lugging equipment around.
I don't buy the 'required heavy equipment' statement. It's not like the person who put them there tore out an entire section of street, ordered in a load of asphalt, and hot-rolled it.
The only equipment you'd need is a hammer and chisel to bust out the top layer of asphalt about the size of the tile. The picture in the article even looks like the spot for the tile was made this way, given the rough edges, although they could be from traffic or people trying to steal it.