My wife was trying to get a security clearance for a job and it was taking forever. She was called down to talk to security who asked "are you aware there are warrants for your arrest on charges of drug smuggling?
Apparently, there is a woman in my wife's home state with the same name as my wife, who somehow got a hold of my wifes SSN.
This woman not only messed up her credit, but gave this SSN when she was arrested and later skipped town.
Needless to say, it was a long time before my wife's credit was cleared up, and she must have set a world record in longest investigation for a clearance.
Meanwhile, some retard at Sun Trust bank mis-typed a SSN of some hispanic woman who bounced checks and ended up entering my SSN in the report. I discovered this while trying to get a mortgage and open an account after moving states. Of course, it doesn't matter if I'm a white male and the bounced checks were by a hispanic female, since we had the same SSN we are obviously the same person. Therefore, I couldn't even get a savings account until I cleared it up with Sun Trust, who of course refused to admit they made a mistake and gave me the run around for weeks.
All this despite the fact I cross-cut shread everything.
They have never once replied to any email I have ever sent them, but I had better luck with phone support. I think my first call or 2 went unanswered, but then I called, the phone was answered by a HUMAN who then forwarded me to another HUMAN who was honest but not that helpful.
There firmware sucks donkey balls though. I gave up on them completely and use the opensource RockBox firmware. Now my mp3 player doesn't crash every hour or two and it doesn't make a constant high-pitched squeal at the same frequency of the LCD refresh rate.
http://www.mreinfo.com/images/mre-heater.jpg Cl earer at bottom of this page: http://www.mreinfo.com/mre-frh.html
It's kinda hard to see, but the instructions say to keep the heater inclined. Then there is a picture with the heater at an angle leaning on an object labeled "rock or something."
At a previous company, the demo systems were set up for everyone to log in as root. We get a call from a photo shoot that nobody can log into the systems and set up the pretty picture for the shoot (some screen displayed on a 2x2 grid of flatpanel monitors).
We drive out there and they go on about the problem. It makes no sence, so I ask them to show me what they are doing. The guy sits down and at the username prompt types "route"
A study shows that students with a constant supply of air performed better on SAT tests than student who had their air supply cut off. One group was allowedto breathe during hte test, while the other was strangled until they stopped breathing. In every case, the student who was still breathing performed better.
This research shows that air increases brainpower, and thus everyone whould go out and buy Perri Air air supplements for $50 a bottle.
This is a perfect example of lunacy in science reporting.
A test is performed. One group has creatine in their diet, the other has none in their diet (vegetarians)
The result shows that "creatine good, no creatine bad."
The reporter then reports "more creatine better."
Besides the fact that there is absolutly no evidence whatsoever to back up that claim, the reporter also extrapolates the affect on vegetarians to non vegitarians. On top of that, a single study is taken as gospel.
What's the difference between a preliminary study and an old wive's tale? The old wive's tale has history behind it.
... Allow me to introduce you to EA Games. I'm sure you are familiar with the Sims, but let me tell you about this great RTS game: C&C Generals.
Generals was rushed to market in one year, despite using a entirely new engine. The result? Well, it was released in February, and just 2 weeks ago a patch was released that finally made the game work through firewalls. Congratulations. Unfortunately, the have redefined "direct connect" to mean "lan play" so there is no way to "direct connect" over the internet. Meanwhile, every game ends in a disconnect as disconnecting prevents the loser from getting a loss on his record, there are 115+ pending bugs found by users, a map hack has been around for weeks and EA has never even mentioned doing anything about it, and in fact EA has abandoned their own forums and plans to delete all the posts shortly. Oh, and many of the features promissed do net exist, the ladder pack still does not exist (there is no ladder right now and multiple people can use the same username) and many people who preordered to get a special CD not only did not get the CD but got the game later than people like me who bought the game in a store, for less money, with the special CD (which turned out to be their website on a disc).
In other news, an xpac for Generals will be out in a few weeks.
"As much of the world nears an Internet address crunch, North America stands as an island apart, threatening to fragment plans for the biggest overhaul of the Web in decades."
Decades, huh?
Speaking of that C|Net, I'm looking for a job. I have 27 years in Linux experience, 15 years of Java, and I've been using Windows 2000 since 1987.
I got a 1 hour rayovac and tons of AA and AAAs for everything in my house: PDA, remotes, even my toothbrush. Sure, they loose there charge after 2 or 3 months, but an hour for a charge is nothing.
And I read there may soon be batteries that *safely* charge in 15 minutes.
Rearranging labs certainly helps, but you could go small. Parking far away and walking and taking the stairs really can make a difference. You can also get those hand exercisers sold at walmart or maybe bungee cords with handles. Then there's those exercises where you push against yourself... Feel free to jump in and remind me what those are called, or just make sick jokes about hand exercises.
Ok, I read the article a few times and now I understand why he thinks a perfect mirror wouldn't work.
I don't understand why a balck body would only accellerate for a brief time. I would understand that if it were the same temperature on both side it wouldn't move...
I wonder, would a peltier heat pump make a good engine?
Maybe companies will FINALLY encript their data. Virtually every break-in and theft of data I have ever read about would have been a non-story had they simply used encryption, even if using a 33 year old algorithm. Instead, there was no accountability, and thus no need to take common sence measures.
If you made gloves and socks out of this stuff, anyone who could climb a ladder could climb the most technical cliffs on Earth. See Yosimite from a whole new vantage point. Climb up the side of Shiprock. Heck, climb your house. All with no skill.
Tivo: $250 Permission to use Tivo: $250/life-of-machine or $13/mo Tivo network hardware: $50 Permission to use Tivo network hardware: $100 Cost to restart all that if the Tivo breaks: $600 Building your own: priceless.
Okay, that is overdone, but I was really considering getting a Tivo until I read about all those additional charges. It would actually be cheaper to build one, and the frustration of doing so would be offset by MythTV's ability to act as a front end for all my emulators and play content I find on the net and even download the weather.
I used to think that it was all imaginary, too. Then I heard about supposed incidents, and then I read an article about 69,000 logged "incidents" (as of 1996) in IEEE Spectrum.
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/spectrum/sep96/feat ur es/air1.html
--- A report selected from the ASRS database illustrates this type of incident. In March 1993, a large passenger aircraft was at cruise altitude just outside the DallasFort Worth International Airport when the No. 1 compass suddenly precessed 10 degrees to the right. The first flight attendant was asked to check whether any passengers were operating electronic devices. She said that a passenger in seat X had just turned on his laptop computer.
The report continues: "I asked that the passenger turn off his laptop computer for a period of 10 minutes, which he did. I then slaved the No. 1 compass, and it returned to normal operation for the 10 minute period. I then asked that the passenger turn on his computer once again. The No. 1 compass immediately precessed 8 degrees to the right. The computer was then turned off for a 30-minute period during which the No. 1 compass operation was verified as normal."
The report states that it was evident to all on the flight deck that the operation of the laptop computer was adversely affecting the operation of the No. 1 compass. It concludes: "I believe that the operation of all passenger-operated electronic devices should be prohibited on airlines until the safe operation of all of these devices can be verified." ---
I flew on Korean Air once. They banned the use of portable CD players, but it was ok to use a laptop with a cd rom drive. I used my cd player anyway; you can only get drunk and pass out for so long on a 12 or 15 hour flight (Korea to NY, direct). Don't exactly remember how long it was...
Slashdot Mirror
My wife was trying to get a security clearance for a job and it was taking forever. She was called down to talk to security who asked "are you aware there are warrants for your arrest on charges of drug smuggling?
Apparently, there is a woman in my wife's home state with the same name as my wife, who somehow got a hold of my wifes SSN.
This woman not only messed up her credit, but gave this SSN when she was arrested and later skipped town.
Needless to say, it was a long time before my wife's credit was cleared up, and she must have set a world record in longest investigation for a clearance.
Meanwhile, some retard at Sun Trust bank mis-typed a SSN of some hispanic woman who bounced checks and ended up entering my SSN in the report. I discovered this while trying to get a mortgage and open an account after moving states. Of course, it doesn't matter if I'm a white male and the bounced checks were by a hispanic female, since we had the same SSN we are obviously the same person. Therefore, I couldn't even get a savings account until I cleared it up with Sun Trust, who of course refused to admit they made a mistake and gave me the run around for weeks.
All this despite the fact I cross-cut shread everything.
I think you just defined ambient music.
John Cage
They have never once replied to any email I have ever sent them, but I had better luck with phone support. I think my first call or 2 went unanswered, but then I called, the phone was answered by a HUMAN who then forwarded me to another HUMAN who was honest but not that helpful.
There firmware sucks donkey balls though. I gave up on them completely and use the opensource RockBox firmware. Now my mp3 player doesn't crash every hour or two and it doesn't make a constant high-pitched squeal at the same frequency of the LCD refresh rate.
An anti-personnel landmine that reads simply "Front towards enemy."
MRE (meal ready to eat) heater instructions:
l earer at bottom of this page:
http://www.mreinfo.com/images/mre-heater.jpg
C
http://www.mreinfo.com/mre-frh.html
It's kinda hard to see, but the instructions say to keep the heater inclined. Then there is a picture with the heater at an angle leaning on an object labeled "rock or something."
At a previous company, the demo systems were set up for everyone to log in as root. We get a call from a photo shoot that nobody can log into the systems and set up the pretty picture for the shoot (some screen displayed on a 2x2 grid of flatpanel monitors).
We drive out there and they go on about the problem. It makes no sence, so I ask them to show me what they are doing. The guy sits down and at the username prompt types "route"
That's not even the saddest story I have.
Wait, I'm not done making fun of the BBC.
Air Increases Brain Power
Seth Kintigh, BBC
A study shows that students with a constant supply of air performed better on SAT tests than student who had their air supply cut off. One group was allowedto breathe during hte test, while the other was strangled until they stopped breathing. In every case, the student who was still breathing performed better.
This research shows that air increases brainpower, and thus everyone whould go out and buy Perri Air air supplements for $50 a bottle.
This is a perfect example of lunacy in science reporting.
A test is performed. One group has creatine in their diet, the other has none in their diet (vegetarians)
The result shows that "creatine good, no creatine bad."
The reporter then reports "more creatine better."
Besides the fact that there is absolutly no evidence whatsoever to back up that claim, the reporter also extrapolates the affect on vegetarians to non vegitarians. On top of that, a single study is taken as gospel.
What's the difference between a preliminary study and an old wive's tale? The old wive's tale has history behind it.
...
b oards/g en/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=025104
Allow me to introduce you to EA Games. I'm sure you are familiar with the Sims, but let me tell you about this great RTS game: C&C Generals.
Generals was rushed to market in one year, despite using a entirely new engine. The result? Well, it was released in February, and just 2 weeks ago a patch was released that finally made the game work through firewalls. Congratulations. Unfortunately, the have redefined "direct connect" to mean "lan play" so there is no way to "direct connect" over the internet. Meanwhile, every game ends in a disconnect as disconnecting prevents the loser from getting a loss on his record, there are 115+ pending bugs found by users, a map hack has been around for weeks and EA has never even mentioned doing anything about it, and in fact EA has abandoned their own forums and plans to delete all the posts shortly. Oh, and many of the features promissed do net exist, the ladder pack still does not exist (there is no ladder right now and multiple people can use the same username) and many people who preordered to get a special CD not only did not get the CD but got the game later than people like me who bought the game in a store, for less money, with the special CD (which turned out to be their website on a disc).
In other news, an xpac for Generals will be out in a few weeks.
115 bugs:
http://messagebrd.westwood.ea.com/cgi-bin/
when I was working on it, and that was about 2 years ago... Guess things haven't changed much since I left.
"As much of the world nears an Internet address crunch, North America stands as an island apart, threatening to fragment plans for the biggest overhaul of the Web in decades."
Decades, huh?
Speaking of that C|Net, I'm looking for a job. I have 27 years in Linux experience, 15 years of Java, and I've been using Windows 2000 since 1987.
I got a 1 hour rayovac and tons of AA and AAAs for everything in my house: PDA, remotes, even my toothbrush. Sure, they loose there charge after 2 or 3 months, but an hour for a charge is nothing.
And I read there may soon be batteries that *safely* charge in 15 minutes.
That product just came out and already they're adding ground effects.
o t/ 03Robot-Pages/Image2.html
http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/atacama/gallery/03Rob
Rearranging labs certainly helps, but you could go small. Parking far away and walking and taking the stairs really can make a difference. You can also get those hand exercisers sold at walmart or maybe bungee cords with handles. Then there's those exercises where you push against yourself... Feel free to jump in and remind me what those are called, or just make sick jokes about hand exercises.
But it was only a cnet article so it doesn't really count.
2 41 &mode=thread&tid=126&tid=156
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/01/127
Ok, I read the article a few times and now I understand why he thinks a perfect mirror wouldn't work.
I don't understand why a balck body would only accellerate for a brief time. I would understand that if it were the same temperature on both side it wouldn't move...
I wonder, would a peltier heat pump make a good engine?
Maybe companies will FINALLY encript their data. Virtually every break-in and theft of data I have ever read about would have been a non-story had they simply used encryption, even if using a 33 year old algorithm. Instead, there was no accountability, and thus no need to take common sence measures.
Now, there is.
If you made gloves and socks out of this stuff, anyone who could climb a ladder could climb the most technical cliffs on Earth. See Yosimite from a whole new vantage point. Climb up the side of Shiprock. Heck, climb your house. All with no skill.
Tivo: $250
Permission to use Tivo: $250/life-of-machine or $13/mo
Tivo network hardware: $50
Permission to use Tivo network hardware: $100
Cost to restart all that if the Tivo breaks: $600
Building your own: priceless.
Okay, that is overdone, but I was really considering getting a Tivo until I read about all those additional charges. It would actually be cheaper to build one, and the frustration of doing so would be offset by MythTV's ability to act as a front end for all my emulators and play content I find on the net and even download the weather.
Lower CAS can give you a 5-10% performance boost, at least with PC133 ram.
5 /index. html
Tom's did a BIOS tweak article article about 2 years ago on this:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/2001072
http://www.annapmicro.com/firebird_pci.html
http://www.archos.com/lang=en//products/prw_500326 .html
I used to think that it was all imaginary, too. Then I heard about supposed incidents, and then I read an article about 69,000 logged "incidents" (as of 1996) in IEEE Spectrum.
t ur es/air1.html
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/spectrum/sep96/fea
---
A report selected from the ASRS database illustrates
this type of incident. In March 1993, a large
passenger aircraft was at cruise altitude just outside
the DallasFort Worth International Airport when the
No. 1 compass suddenly precessed 10 degrees to the
right. The first flight attendant was asked to check
whether any passengers were operating electronic
devices. She said that a passenger in seat X had just
turned on his laptop computer.
The report continues: "I asked that the passenger turn
off his laptop computer for a period of 10 minutes,
which he did. I then slaved the No. 1 compass, and it
returned to normal operation for the 10 minute period.
I then asked that the passenger turn on his computer
once again. The No. 1 compass immediately precessed 8
degrees to the right. The computer was then turned off
for a 30-minute period during which the No. 1 compass
operation was verified as normal."
The report states that it was evident to all on the
flight deck that the operation of the laptop computer
was adversely affecting the operation of the No. 1
compass. It concludes: "I believe that the operation
of all passenger-operated electronic devices should be
prohibited on airlines until the safe operation of all
of these devices can be verified."
---
I flew on Korean Air once. They banned the use of portable CD players, but it was ok to use a laptop with a cd rom drive. I used my cd player anyway; you can only get drunk and pass out for so long on a 12 or 15 hour flight (Korea to NY, direct). Don't exactly remember how long it was...
Hey, I just noticed Annapolis Microsystems had trademarked "Firebird." Does that mean both these other projects are screwed?
http://www.annapmicro.com/firebird_pci.html