I must admit I still scratch my head Vietnam a little, but even in Vietnam their own government killed more of their citizens then we did trying to stop them. Same for Cambodia. Also in either instance, not stopping a government from wholesale killing and oppressing its own people isn't my definition of peaceful. And not trying to stop them is showing weakness. Showing weakness only encourages them to continue. Study history. Tyrants are never appeased by weakness and
sympathy. Power corrupts. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely..
The US as you well know is a very insular country. By and large the only examples of the US en masse interfering with foreign affairs are cases where either national security was at risk, reciprocal security agreements were enforced or the US was attacked. And this third reason ensures the swiftest action.
Like any good propagandist, you skew statistics to try and prove your view. The critical FACT you seem to omit if that even more would have died had the US not stepped in to stop the slaughter. WW2, Kuwait, Bosnia, Panama, Cambodia, Haiti, etc. You need to take off your Rose Colored Glasses.
Clinton definitely gave more inspired speeches, but whenever Clinton gave a speech you just knew you were hearing all fluff. No action. Bush on the other hand I utterly believe. He doesn't mix rhetoric. He doesn't waste words. You can trust what comes out of the man's mouth. Honor. and if you knew what you were looking at last night you would have noticed the Presidental flag sitting to Bush's left. It was folded to show only the eagle's talons holding the arrows with the tips pointed outward(see it again Here). To me that meant more than anything that came out of his mouth. I imagine the Taliban got the message.
In the past I have even defended some of your more outrageous statements but this goes too far. As someone who has served in the defence of this coutry for the majority of my adult life, I can tell you to a certainty that what Bush did is exactly what needed to be done. Protect the top policy makers so they can make the decisions they need to in case immediate response is necessary. Instead of worring about popularity points or getting his face in front of the TV, Bush and his policy team were busy coordinatinbg the first National Aviation grounding. First in the history of the US.EXACTLY THE APPROPRIATE RESPONSE. THAT SINGLE POLICY DECISION ALONE PROBABLY SAVED MANY LIVES. I'm so upset by your clueless attitude Katz it almost makes me ashamed that I may very well risk my life in the coming months defending this country only to be spit on by the Katzites of this country. Katz you should be ashamed!
I got the SMC 7004ABR last month. I use @Home cable internet and the performance is great. I set up a static IP on the WAN side and DHCP on the LAN side. Two machines are stationary and I have a laptop I boot to Win2K and Mandrake 8.0. DHCP works great.
The Print server is great. I have a Epson Photo 700 I can print to from all machines. It isn't a true print server, more like a virtual printer port. Works great in Win98 and Win2k, but the instructions for Linux are outdated and I can't get it to work:(
The firewall is basic NAT protection with limited hack logging. You can secure ports or map them individually in the Web/HTML setup screen. You can also turn off ping replies.
I'm beginning to think that the logging feature is broken with the new software upgrade available. It logged tons of stuff till I ran the upgrade.
One thing to really boost performance in Windows is to go to SpeedGuide.Net patch section and run the @Home patch and the generic patch. My download speed quadrupled from 400K/s to 1600K/s.
I currently have an Inspiron 8000. I know the motherboard is simply an intel motherboard with a small form factor. I'd sure love to upgrade the video since so many new video cards supporting good 3D gaming are out. The only thing that would stop me is the 3 year Dell warranty and the lack of OEM notebook video cards for sale. Why aren't the video card manufacturers selling these on the open market? A year from now I'd sersiosly consider taking the risk. By then a faster CPU and video card may outweigh the risks of voiding the warranty.
But he probably understands the risk versus return business model. He chose to take a chance on a new company. If the chance proved successful he could have saved some money. It didn;t pan out. Still, unlike other traditional product failures, at least your boss has the option of going to another PostgreSQL support vendor. If this were a closed source product he would be up the creek without any paddle. I sure hope he didn't pay a bunch up front for the service contract.
Great Bridge just never really existed. Just as the company was formed the bottom fell out of the tech market. Add to that the virtual commodity status developing in the low-end database maket. In a way it was a company without a soul. Successfull Linux startups seem to grow from a core of true believers. Most of the startups we see flopping out now never really had that. Companies like RedHat, KDE and VA will continue because of these people. Pofits are great, making money is great, but in the end the people behind these companies will continue doing what they are doing because they love what they do.
"guilty until proven innocent" does not apply since we are talking about one company providing a service to another under contract. Due process only applies to government action against individuals (including corporations in the US). If you rented a house to someone and discovered thay they were punching holes in the walls should the court stop you from evicting them if the renter claims the holes constitute "normal wear"? No, of course not. Two parties entered a contract. Party one believes the contract is voided by actions disallowed in the contract.
Party two certialy should have the right to sue party one if it believes otherwise and can prove it. But that does not mean party one should be forced to honor the contract it beilieves void, especially if the conduct in question is damaging party one.
The only problem with this is that people who abuse the law have little to lose because in this case crime really does pay. We just have to face the fact that criminals tend to know more about the law and how to abuse it. In the end, honest peole have more to lose because they care about their reputation and the dishonest people know this and use it against them. The ISP stands to lose its good name (almost irreplacible) while the spammer can simply find another chump to take advantage of. In the end the only solution for the ISP is to write a catchall phrase into the TOS to allow termination for any reason - if it is legal under the laws of the state where they incorporated.
Public interest: How is this any different than a news organization doing an undercover operation to disprove fraudulent product or service claims? Adobe claims to have a "safe" method of distributing written material on the internet. The company Dmitry works for, a software security company that specializes in decrypting information, cracked Adobe's code. When they discovered the crack they repeatedly atrtempted to inform Adobe. When that failed Dmitry presented some of the information at a security conference to bring it into the public knowledge. What he did is a "service" to the intellectual property producers, consumers and even Adobe.
All I can think is shame on the United States. Double shame for ever passing somthing like the DCMA in the first place. Talk about conspiracy, the only reason it was ever passed was because big compaines shoveled money into political coffers to pass it. Virginia, my home state, was one of the first states to pass the DCMA. Virginia, home of AOL and Network Solutions. That was last year. The only reason this stuff passes is because slimy politicians and their cronies never have to see their faces plastered on the TV screen when people realize this crap legislation got passed. We seriously need to start putting faces on this bullsh&*t. How about a picture of the CEO of Abobe and his lead corporate lawyer. How about the judge that signed the warrant? How about all the politicians taking bribes from DCMA supporters?
Disposal of nuclear waste wouldn't be a problem if we were willing to build an economic model for nuclear power. It is well known that nuclear power could become almost renewable if we set up breeder plants to recycle spent nuclear fuel into fissionalbe material to be used in "Fast reactors". Existing plants could easily be converted for using the fast fission process.
The chief objection to this model is that the breeder reactors also create weapons grade fissionable material(plutonium). Paranoids worry that if the material were mass produced from spent nuclear fuel it would be more readilty succeptible to theft. The counter argument to this is that the breeder processing plants would dope the fast fuel with radioactives to make it less attractive to steal.
Consider this from someone with a informed opinion. I was a nuclear plant mechanic for six years. Compared to scrubbing technology for conventional coal and incinerator plants, nuclear power is very simple. The Navy has been operating MANY nuclear plants above and below the seas since the 1950's. No conspiracy BS either. Every single nuclear sub and ship is well accounted for (www.FAS.org). The only complicated systems are the intricate safety systems put in place since TMI to failsafe reactor systems.
Most of the health and safety issues spouted by the treehuggers are BS. OSHA standards dictate how much low level exposure a nuclear plant worker can recieve per calendar quarter, calendar hald and calendar year. These limits are constantly monitored and adhered to. Your average summer beachgoer recieves more gamma exposure per day than 99.9% of the nuclear plant personnel.
I also gaurantee that any system used to boost rockets would have to gaurantee 100% containment in the case of a catostrophic incedent to even be considered.
I'm going to build a new home next spring so I decided to check out solar as an option. The largest solar panel maufacturer, and the only company that manufacturers UL certified panels is, Siemens. I just got the literature in the mail and the cost, less installation cost, runs about $45,000 for a 30 kWh/day system. Unless electic prices really spike on the East Coast this just isn't a realistic system. I guess they must do somthing in the Dominican Repulic back-country that makes this more feasible and economic than running gas/fuel generators.
The biggest problem where I work is that they are trying to completely eradicate overhead charges. Each expense (billed time) must be tied directly to a contractural requirement. What this means in practice is that there is no allowance for training or configuration managment implementation. At the same time we developers are expected to remain proficient and implement company (corporate) mandated configuration standards(CMM) qualifications.
One recent example of this stupidity at work:
Just hired a new programmer. The guy has essentially no experience but because of his previous job he had the security clearance to do the work. I guess they figure its quicker to train a new programmer than to wait the 18+ months before getting the programmer a new clearance. Anyhow, my company offers training to outside companies and government employees. The training is given two floors down in our building. Yesterday they held a programming course that would have been perfect for the new employee, but because we couldn't charge his time to overhead he couldn't attend. So not only does this make training the guy take longer, but that one day of training would probably have meant weeks or months of the guy actually being productive on the contract. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Could this be construed libelous or defamatory to use "Potentially Viral" when referring to all GPL'd code/software? The term viral has negative connotations that the layperson likely will interpret as "dangerous" or "malicious".
Not using Potentially Viral Software (e.g. tools) to develop Recipient software which includes the Software, in whole or in part."
Because learning institutuions are so slow at implementing programs to teach grade-schoolers to type (not to mention the over 50 crow who never had the chance), the default mode of written language will remain the pen and paper. What this device will do is lower the learning curve allowing the clueless to use the same skills they are learning in school to access the web/word processor.
What we can count on now, as has been demonstated in the past, is that the press will not fairly report anything against Microsoft. The same is true for reporting on Car Dealerships in your local newspaper. With Microsoft the problem is only magnified. It all comes down to AD dollars. Mircosoft pays a lot of money to every major network for commercials. Expensive commercials. They also put a lot of money into politician's pockets. So not only has this case been grossly -under investigativly-reported, but the Federal politicians have no incentive to take on MicroSoft.
This case is a perfect example of AntiTrust. Microsoft holds monopoly control over the desktop and they abused that power in preventing competitors to provide competing products on that platform. OEM computer builders were required to install ONLY Internet Explorer on their machines, and in some cases they were required to pay for a Windows license for every machine they produced wether or not that Operating system was actually installed. Microsoft has hidden and continues to hide important API information making development on the platform very difficult for competitors and in some instaces actually modified the APIs to "break" competitor's products. The list goes on...
Microsoft controls the railroad and has prevented competitors from using that railroad to their detriment.
I'm pretty much a 3D junkie. Each year I buy the latest video card and the lated First Person Games. I install the video card, reinstall the drivers a bazillion times along with game patches hoping to get the thing to run. Every time I am disappointed. The moment of disappointment comes when I sense the futility of walking down 3D hallways mindlessly shooting seemingly endless supplies of uglies and bad guys. Pointless. A taste of what I really want and a feast of mindless violence.
What do I want? I want a sense of wonder and exploration. Danger, surely. But not mindless killing. I want a challenge. A challenge to think and learn. Myst was a start, but instead of treading down that path, all the game developers are marching lockstep down a dead-end path of designing stupid games. Until they figure out their mistake I am resigned. Resigned to the only game that comes close. Its called life. Not always as pretty or mysterious as a CGI Generated-3D world, but , at the end of the day it's the only other game available.
Slashdot Mirror
I must admit I still scratch my head Vietnam a little, but even in Vietnam their own government killed more of their citizens then we did trying to stop them. Same for Cambodia. Also in either instance, not stopping a government from wholesale killing and oppressing its own people isn't my definition of peaceful. And not trying to stop them is showing weakness. Showing weakness only encourages them to continue. Study history. Tyrants are never appeased by weakness and
sympathy. Power corrupts. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely..
The US as you well know is a very insular country. By and large the only examples of the US en masse interfering with foreign affairs are cases where either national security was at risk, reciprocal security agreements were enforced or the US was attacked. And this third reason ensures the swiftest action.
Like any good propagandist, you skew statistics to try and prove your view. The critical FACT you seem to omit if that even more would have died had the US not stepped in to stop the slaughter. WW2, Kuwait, Bosnia, Panama, Cambodia, Haiti, etc. You need to take off your Rose Colored Glasses.
Could it be possile that the military doesn't pick it's targets baed on CNN polls?
Clinton definitely gave more inspired speeches, but whenever Clinton gave a speech you just knew you were hearing all fluff. No action. Bush on the other hand I utterly believe. He doesn't mix rhetoric. He doesn't waste words. You can trust what comes out of the man's mouth. Honor. and if you knew what you were looking at last night you would have noticed the Presidental flag sitting to Bush's left. It was folded to show only the eagle's talons holding the arrows with the tips pointed outward(see it again Here). To me that meant more than anything that came out of his mouth. I imagine the Taliban got the message.
In the past I have even defended some of your more outrageous statements but this goes too far. As someone who has served in the defence of this coutry for the majority of my adult life, I can tell you to a certainty that what Bush did is exactly what needed to be done. Protect the top policy makers so they can make the decisions they need to in case immediate response is necessary. Instead of worring about popularity points or getting his face in front of the TV, Bush and his policy team were busy coordinatinbg the first National Aviation grounding. First in the history of the US .EXACTLY THE APPROPRIATE RESPONSE. THAT SINGLE POLICY DECISION ALONE PROBABLY SAVED MANY LIVES. I'm so upset by your clueless attitude Katz it almost makes me ashamed that I may very well risk my life in the coming months defending this country only to be spit on by the Katzites of this country. Katz you should be ashamed!
I got the SMC 7004ABR last month. I use @Home cable internet and the performance is great. I set up a static IP on the WAN side and DHCP on the LAN side. Two machines are stationary and I have a laptop I boot to Win2K and Mandrake 8.0. DHCP works great.
The Print server is great. I have a Epson Photo 700 I can print to from all machines. It isn't a true print server, more like a virtual printer port. Works great in Win98 and Win2k, but the instructions for Linux are outdated and I can't get it to work:(
The firewall is basic NAT protection with limited hack logging. You can secure ports or map them individually in the Web/HTML setup screen. You can also turn off ping replies.
I'm beginning to think that the logging feature is broken with the new software upgrade available. It logged tons of stuff till I ran the upgrade.
One thing to really boost performance in Windows is to go to SpeedGuide.Net patch section and run the @Home patch and the generic patch. My download speed quadrupled from 400K/s to 1600K/s.
Thank you for the information.
Thanks. Does the CPU use a special package, or the standard one?
The link is already slashdotted of course.
I currently have an Inspiron 8000. I know the motherboard is simply an intel motherboard with a small form factor. I'd sure love to upgrade the video since so many new video cards supporting good 3D gaming are out. The only thing that would stop me is the 3 year Dell warranty and the lack of OEM notebook video cards for sale. Why aren't the video card manufacturers selling these on the open market? A year from now I'd sersiosly consider taking the risk. By then a faster CPU and video card may outweigh the risks of voiding the warranty.
But he probably understands the risk versus return business model. He chose to take a chance on a new company. If the chance proved successful he could have saved some money. It didn;t pan out. Still, unlike other traditional product failures, at least your boss has the option of going to another PostgreSQL support vendor. If this were a closed source product he would be up the creek without any paddle. I sure hope he didn't pay a bunch up front for the service contract.
Great Bridge just never really existed. Just as the company was formed the bottom fell out of the tech market. Add to that the virtual commodity status developing in the low-end database maket. In a way it was a company without a soul. Successfull Linux startups seem to grow from a core of true believers. Most of the startups we see flopping out now never really had that. Companies like RedHat, KDE and VA will continue because of these people. Pofits are great, making money is great, but in the end the people behind these companies will continue doing what they are doing because they love what they do.
"guilty until proven innocent" does not apply since we are talking about one company providing a service to another under contract. Due process only applies to government action against individuals (including corporations in the US). If you rented a house to someone and discovered thay they were punching holes in the walls should the court stop you from evicting them if the renter claims the holes constitute "normal wear"? No, of course not. Two parties entered a contract. Party one believes the contract is voided by actions disallowed in the contract.
Party two certialy should have the right to sue party one if it believes otherwise and can prove it. But that does not mean party one should be forced to honor the contract it beilieves void, especially if the conduct in question is damaging party one.
The only problem with this is that people who abuse the law have little to lose because in this case crime really does pay. We just have to face the fact that criminals tend to know more about the law and how to abuse it. In the end, honest peole have more to lose because they care about their reputation and the dishonest people know this and use it against them. The ISP stands to lose its good name (almost irreplacible) while the spammer can simply find another chump to take advantage of. In the end the only solution for the ISP is to write a catchall phrase into the TOS to allow termination for any reason - if it is legal under the laws of the state where they incorporated.
I was gonna say that.
A few days ago I got a bit diverse in one of my discussions on the Medieval-leatherworking list and mentioned that it was only in the last twenty years that the Medieval Wootz of the type that once travelled the India to Damascus route had been rediscovered after about 150 years of European attempts at imitations. Someone requested that I ramble on a bit. As I generally have documentation for my opinions (but not time to find it usually) I shall give you lucky other people some sources to research it yourself. Assuming this means anything at all to you. If it doesn't then I apologize for wasting your time. I have about fifty large folders on diverse subjects besides the library. Fortunately I had the time at one time to put a number of articles into a couple of fat ones on knives and swords. These are taken from various magazines and sources. The ones from the last few years are not separated out and filed so I shall not be messing with them. They're in stacks of magazines mostly. I suppose it could give you an insight into how well I follow my interests... Easiest found will probably be: "Damascus Steels" by Oleg D. Sherby and Jeffrey Wadsworth in: _Scientific American Volume 252: pp.112-115, February 1983_. This is a general history with illustrations of enlarged steel microsection, a Persian Scymitar, and an illustrated method of the production of wootz steel. In their citations they give: _A History of Metallography_ by Cyril S. Smith. U of Chicago Press, 1965 "On the Bulat - Damascus Steels Revisited by Jeffery Wadsworth and Oleg. D. Sherby in: _Progress in Material Science, Vol. 25, pp.35-68. 1980. A Bulat is the cake of wootz steel. "Damascus Steelmaking" by Jeffery Wadsworth and Oleg D. Sherby in: _Science, Vol. 218, No. 4570, pages 328-9, October 22, 1983. Jeffrey Wadsworth (at least at that time) was professor of Materials Science at Stanford, and Wadsworth later went to work at Lockheed Aircraft's Research Laboratory. What started them on their quest in 1975 at Stanford was a search for superplastic steels, ones with grain 200 times finer than commonly machined steel for use in forming steel and then cooling it - thus making it stronger in use, quicker to make, and cheaper to produce - gears and engine mountings for example. They didn't realize what they had reproduced was Damascus until a listener at one of their lectures informed them and they subsequently researched it. They obtained a patent in 1976 for the material. This is again written up in: "Rediscovered - Supersteel of the Ancients" by James Trefil in: Science Digest - February 1983, pp. 38-40 and p. 108. This discusses their earlier findings of rolling out the steel at 2050 degrees F, and working it at 1200 degrees F. There is also a bit of folklore in this article, quenching in a live Nubian or urine are mentioned. This later also showed up in an Associated Press Article by Michelle Locke "Damascus Steel may have resurfaced" that I didn't record the date of. This one mentions the above two researchers, but adds another pair of similar questors - Florida knifesmith Al Pendray and Iowa State University metallurgist John Verhoeven, who used more traditional methods. This mentions a mixture or Iron and possibly milkweed as ingredients in the crucible. A somewhat better article that mentions the later pair appeared in _Blade_ Magazine in August 1992, pp.52-5 & pp.96-7 & 100 entitled: "Breakthrough - How the Ancients Made _Real_ Damascus" and which _I_ take to be more authentic than laboratory conditions and modern rolling mills. The article was by Al Pendray, a famous master bladesmith, and W.E. Dauksch, and J.D. Verhoeven. (It also mentions the publication of a book called _On Damascus Steel_ by Dr. Leo Figiel, which was then available for $37.50 from Blade, POBox 22007, Chattanooga, TN 37422, USA.) This contrasts the two techniques, the industrial one, and the small scale one, involving crucibled steel, which has also been patented. It's fairly well illustrated and includes further citations in journals by Wadsworth and Sherby. I know that I have seen further articles on Pendray and Verhoeven since then refining their technique yet further. Pendray was mentioned earlier in an article in Blade Magazine July-August 1987 called the Wizard of Wootz by Daryl Meir, and earlier yet in Blade Magazine September/Oct '82 by Meir again in an article Entitled Damascus Steel - Wootz Revisited. In this article Robert C. Job of Hawthorne, NJ, USA is working with Al Pendray and Stephen Swertzer of Williston, Florida. Mr. Job is the principle subject of this article though and he has a further method for producing crucibled wootz steel, also patented. Pendray and Verhoeven are the people I associate with true modern Damascus, but that is a personal opinion. Meir also wrote an article on entitled "Damascus Steel - A Definition" in Blade Magazine, July-August 1982, in which he tries to set forth an accurate description of what should be considered true damascus steel, contrasting it's historical methods of manufacture with the modern imitations. I don't know how many readers of this actually read Knives Illustrated or Blade Magazine but there are a couple of dozen ways to make modern damascus involving state-of-the-art modern, very high technology methods. Most modern jewelers have very little at all on some of the modern blade artisans, there probably isn't a technique or material in jewellery or machining they aren't exploring or haven't explored. I get Lapidary Journal and some other gem and metalsmithing magazines and I can tell you there is one hell of a high state of art done. Smiths can literally spell their names or logos or other artworks clear through the steel - multiple times using various methods. Mixing nickel and steel, or using steel cable, or using steels of mixed carbon content is not the same thing as using wootz steel, nor is wootz made the same way, or forged the same way as it's more modern imitations that use the name Damascus. An earlier article on "The Manufacture of Mediaeval Damascened Knives" by J. Piaskowski appeared in the Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, Vol. 202, July 1964, pp. 561-8. This investigates the manufacture and pattern in medieval European imitations of Damascus steel in Poland. An interesting thing in this article is the cross sections, and a newly ground, polished and etched side of one knife showing that the Polish knives had damascene patterns on the upper fatter portion of the knives (which in at least one instance was very pretty), and a higher carbon edge of uniform steel welded on below it. In _Science_, Volume 216, No.4543, 16 April 1982, pp 242-3 Cyril Smith of M.I.T. discusses the historical methods and literary history of imported Damascus in the west - citing Giambattista della Porta, in _Magiae Naturalis XX_, 1589, London english translation, 1568, and Joseph Moxon's references to it in Mechanick Excercises, London 1677, describing it's working properties at a blood red heat, its highly prized properties as punches, and how it would crumble at higher heats. He also references his own work - History of Metallography- and others specifically Breant (1820's)and Faraday. In _Science_, Vol. 218, no. 4570, 22 Oct. 1982 Sherby and Wadsworth dispute Smith's claim that properties of damascus steel were well known in the 19th century. Apparently the 1980's were a hot time in the steel re-discovery field. Three patents at least. An interesting history of Damascene steel may be had in an earlier work "Damascene Steel" in _Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, Vol. 97 pp.417-37, 1918. The author traces numerous oriental techniques and says the process extends centuries back before Christ. Gives a nice long historical discussion. I've entirely left out the imitation damascus steels and their widely varied methods. They are indeed awesome, but they are not wootz. (This in no way means any disrespect to Dr. Hrisoulas, metallurgist PhD, master bladesmith. I own two of his books, but not the one on Patternwelded Blades. Jim Hrisoulas is known as Master Atar in the SCA and well respected for his knowledge.) It is only considering the rediscovery of wootz by various modern others. Master Magnus Malleus, OL, GDH, Atlantia © R.M. Howe 2001. ***May be reposted to closed email discussion groups within the re-enactor circle, but not to open newsgroups, such as the Rialto - rec.org.sca, or to the SCA-Universitas list. Those desirous of republication in a newsletter should contact me. Inclusion in the http://www.Florilegium.org/ is permitted.***
All I can think is shame on the United States. Double shame for ever passing somthing like the DCMA in the first place. Talk about conspiracy, the only reason it was ever passed was because big compaines shoveled money into political coffers to pass it. Virginia, my home state, was one of the first states to pass the DCMA. Virginia, home of AOL and Network Solutions. That was last year. The only reason this stuff passes is because slimy politicians and their cronies never have to see their faces plastered on the TV screen when people realize this crap legislation got passed. We seriously need to start putting faces on this bullsh&*t. How about a picture of the CEO of Abobe and his lead corporate lawyer. How about the judge that signed the warrant? How about all the politicians taking bribes from DCMA supporters?
The chief objection to this model is that the breeder reactors also create weapons grade fissionable material(plutonium). Paranoids worry that if the material were mass produced from spent nuclear fuel it would be more readilty succeptible to theft. The counter argument to this is that the breeder processing plants would dope the fast fuel with radioactives to make it less attractive to steal.
Most of the health and safety issues spouted by the treehuggers are BS. OSHA standards dictate how much low level exposure a nuclear plant worker can recieve per calendar quarter, calendar hald and calendar year. These limits are constantly monitored and adhered to. Your average summer beachgoer recieves more gamma exposure per day than 99.9% of the nuclear plant personnel.
I also gaurantee that any system used to boost rockets would have to gaurantee 100% containment in the case of a catostrophic incedent to even be considered.
I'm going to build a new home next spring so I decided to check out solar as an option. The largest solar panel maufacturer, and the only company that manufacturers UL certified panels is, Siemens. I just got the literature in the mail and the cost, less installation cost, runs about $45,000 for a 30 kWh/day system. Unless electic prices really spike on the East Coast this just isn't a realistic system. I guess they must do somthing in the Dominican Repulic back-country that makes this more feasible and economic than running gas/fuel generators.
The biggest problem where I work is that they are trying to completely eradicate overhead charges. Each expense (billed time) must be tied directly to a contractural requirement. What this means in practice is that there is no allowance for training or configuration managment implementation. At the same time we developers are expected to remain proficient and implement company (corporate) mandated configuration standards(CMM) qualifications.
One recent example of this stupidity at work:
Could this be construed libelous or defamatory to use "Potentially Viral" when referring to all GPL'd code/software? The term viral has negative connotations that the layperson likely will interpret as "dangerous" or "malicious".
Not using Potentially Viral Software (e.g. tools) to develop Recipient software which includes the Software, in whole or in part."
Because learning institutuions are so slow at implementing programs to teach grade-schoolers to type (not to mention the over 50 crow who never had the chance), the default mode of written language will remain the pen and paper. What this device will do is lower the learning curve allowing the clueless to use the same skills they are learning in school to access the web/word processor.
Lets see here:
What we can count on now, as has been demonstated in the past, is that the press will not fairly report anything against Microsoft. The same is true for reporting on Car Dealerships in your local newspaper. With Microsoft the problem is only magnified. It all comes down to AD dollars. Mircosoft pays a lot of money to every major network for commercials. Expensive commercials. They also put a lot of money into politician's pockets. So not only has this case been grossly -under investigativly-reported, but the Federal politicians have no incentive to take on MicroSoft.
This case is a perfect example of AntiTrust. Microsoft holds monopoly control over the desktop and they abused that power in preventing competitors to provide competing products on that platform. OEM computer builders were required to install ONLY Internet Explorer on their machines, and in some cases they were required to pay for a Windows license for every machine they produced wether or not that Operating system was actually installed. Microsoft has hidden and continues to hide important API information making development on the platform very difficult for competitors and in some instaces actually modified the APIs to "break" competitor's products. The list goes on...
Microsoft controls the railroad and has prevented competitors from using that railroad to their detriment.
I'm pretty much a 3D junkie. Each year I buy the latest video card and the lated First Person Games. I install the video card, reinstall the drivers a bazillion times along with game patches hoping to get the thing to run. Every time I am disappointed. The moment of disappointment comes when I sense the futility of walking down 3D hallways mindlessly shooting seemingly endless supplies of uglies and bad guys. Pointless. A taste of what I really want and a feast of mindless violence.
What do I want? I want a sense of wonder and exploration. Danger, surely. But not mindless killing. I want a challenge. A challenge to think and learn. Myst was a start, but instead of treading down that path, all the game developers are marching lockstep down a dead-end path of designing stupid games. Until they figure out their mistake I am resigned. Resigned to the only game that comes close. Its called life. Not always as pretty or mysterious as a CGI Generated-3D world, but , at the end of the day it's the only other game available.