When I was in law school I discovered that (in 1990) duelling was still illegal in California, as well as challenging someone to a duel (then a felony). I published my findings, there was some press, and the laws were repealed. I regret having people's attention called to these laws (especially since there are so many, many other California laws that need repealing). There are other quirky California laws still on the books, but my lips are sealed
It wasn't so long ago that the airlines banned PDA-cellphone combinations such as the Treo. Now, many airlines including AA, Southwest and JetBlue allow you to use your Treo if you can show the flight attendant that the wireless feature is turned off (see, e.g., the back pages of American Way magazine). All it would take is one ***hole to be found interfering, say, with the intracabin communications system used by the Federal Air Marshals to have the policy revoked, and then I wouldn't be able to read ebooks or AvantGo on airplanes anymore. Thanks a lot.
Ah, the days when I was a young news clerk, my hands black from changing the ribbon on those electromechanical wire-service teletypes which were then the primary source of news.
5 bells signified a Bulletin, and 12 bells a Flash, defined in the AP stylebook as a story of overriding importance that can be told in four words or less. Needless to say, the sound of 12 bells would bring every other activity in the newsroom to a halt as everyone huddled around the teletype.
Flashes occur very, very rarely.
Today we had two Flashes (I am paraphrasing, because I am unable to find the originals):
FLASH The Associated Press April 19, 2005
White smoke and bells signify that a new pope has been elected.
AP-ES 04-19 1134AED
FLASH The Associated Press April 19, 2005
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany is the new pope.
AP-ES 04-19 1234PED
Today's Flashes cheated a little bit on the four-word rule, but that's OK. Previous Flashes have included stories such as "Men Walk On Moon" and "Nixon Resigns."
Dear AP, Could you please provide a service where Flashes (and maybe even Bulletins) are sent by SMS to my cell phone? Google news alerts just aren't the same.
Western Union, of course, was a really big company that was founded on telegraphy, and people paid $/word to send "telegrams" that were sent in Morse code by telegraph operators to other telegraph operators and delivered by messengers in funny hats. As late as the mid '70s, companies that wanted to send electronic messages had Model 33 Teletypes connected via a public switched Western Union network called Telex. You paid cents/word to send messages to another Teletype that had addresses like "CITIBANK NY" or 710-xxx-xxxx. Finally there were PCs and Western Union had a product called EasyLink that allowed PCs to connect to the Telex network. It would have been ridiculously easy for WU to provide this service at a low cost, they would have established a foothold in email by linking the Telex system to PCs, and they would have owned email, at least until 1994 and maybe beyond that. Instead, they made EasyLink so costly and cumbersome that they went nearly all the way out of business, the only business WU has retained is money transfers, they are a shell of their former mighty selves.
I hate to bash MS here on Slashdot because it is so easy and so redundant, but they just do not innovate. They have added few significant features to Windows or to IE, and the same annoyances have been in these products for years. They should have long ago ported their core software products to assembler a la Steve Gibson. The only reason there is not a mass exodus to Linux/Gnome/KDE is because the peripheral makers are afraid to write Linux drivers and print "Works With Linux" on their packaging for fear of angering MS. You can see the rot in MS' stock price. MS would love for their $26 stock to go up, but they can't win for losing. $3 dividend, no change. Stock buybacks, no change. Record quarterly profits, no change. Nobody in their right mind would go to work there, nobody who works there gets rich anymore, they just get prodded and poked into working lots of unpaid OT and ultimately burned out. I haven't even gotten started on non-buzz-generating uncool me-too products like MSN and Media Player, or security issues, or product activation hassles, or the fact that no one in their right mind would call MS support, or the sheer utter depressing hassle of trying to deal with MS at all, even if you want to buy something and give them money you have to wait on hold forever and likely as not your order will be screwed up. I don't hate MS and I really wish it were different, but I agree with whatzisname the reporter.
Why the "deorbit mission"? NASA need not even spend $10 on a spiral notebook for a formal procedure. Just let the sucker de-orbit itself. If they are worried about it not fully burning up in the atmosphere, and possibly hitting something, well, it would make a great target practice drone for some antimissile missile system gizmo.
President Bush can't fire Powell Jr., FCC commissioners are appointed for five-year terms. So, either 1) he was offered a high-paying revolving-door gig by one of the corporations he served as FCC commissioner; or 2) somebody has something on Powell (e.g. some quid pro quo received by Powell in exchange for all his support of anti-consumer, pro-media-monopoly policies). Rule out #1, because such a job would still be waiting for him at the conclusion of his term.
Actually, moving beams (e.g. lasers deflected by optical scanners / mirrors mounted on galvanometers) are considered relatively safe. Per federal regs, your unscanned Class IV high power laser may not be aimed less than 4 ft above the eyeballs of rock concert patrons. But if the beam is scanned to move fast enough (and if there is an electromechanical shutter interlock that prevents a stationary beam from being aimed at the patrons) you can legally lase the audience even with a laser powerful enough to light your cigarette. Jurisdictions that license laser operators (NYS) have test questions as to how much optical radiation is received by a human scanned by a beam of X power moving at Y speed. So the parent post's assertion that a scanned beam maliciously aimed at an aircraft would necessarily blind the pilot might not hold water. As the above poster says, don't try this at home.
Bad guys at the airport will be able to positively identify me as a US national because:
a) There is an RFID tag in my passport. b) The RFID tag in my passport is shielded by tinfoil, etc. placed in the cover of my passport by a thoughtful State Dept. c) They can't detect anything unusual about my passport, but my underwear is screaming "Stolen From Wal-Mart!"
You can't find any downloads in.prc format. The developers don't get it that my device (Treo) has a browser, and all I have to do is click on the.prc link to download & install the app. The developers think I still have a legacy Palm device and I need to use a PC or other "conduit" to load s/w. So all the download links, even on sourceforge, are in tar/zip/exe format..Prc for me!
"HBO (Home Body Odor) announced today it has agreed to screen John Waters' infamous film, Polyester, in Odorama. Viewers who wish to view, er, smell the picture in its original Odorama format will need to purchase the latest set-top box from MicroStink containing the latest https:// (HTTP that Stinks) extensions. "
All this presupposes that the govt. is interested in your time or convenience - ha. What would work is if drivers could place electronic bids indicating how many cents they would pay to receive preferential treatment at intersections. The traffic control software would compute which set of cars will pay the most and turn the lights green in that direction...
If they can embed ICs in paper, they can certainly use other substrates, for example the potato chip! Imagine a Beowulf cluster of Pringles, still in the can....
Sony is opening stores that will eliminate the middleman while still charging full retail price (so as not to piss off the same middlepersons it seeks to eliminate. What's the point? Does anybody remember IBM Product Centers?
Sirius now makes a portable satellite radio that will move from car to car, but it requires 12V power and a nearby FM car radio (it retransmits the signal on FM and there is no earphone jack). Have you noticed there are no XM or Sirius Walkman-type radios?
Have you recently visited a store (e.g. Target or Wal-Mart) and tried to buy a new transistor radio (defined as a battery powered radio the size of a pack of cigarettes)? I wanted one to listen to the presidential debates. I couldn't find a transistor radio, or a headphone radio, the smallesst thing they had was a $9 portable radio cassette player that was large enough to have a carrying handle.
The ticket arcade games at Chuck E. Cheese, Boomers, etc., yes, they are gambling. They have Wheel of Fortune stop-the-blinking light machines, just as they have Wheel of Fortune slot machines in casinos. And the kiddie casinos have Flip-It, identical to the casino game (a big pile of quarters/tokens looks like it is about to fall over the edge into the win slot, but adding your quarter/token to the pile won't cause the avalanche you expected) -- except in the kiddie version wins are paid in tickets.
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When I was in law school I discovered that (in 1990) duelling was still illegal in California, as well as challenging someone to a duel (then a felony). I published my findings, there was some press, and the laws were repealed. I regret having people's attention called to these laws (especially since there are so many, many other California laws that need repealing). There are other quirky California laws still on the books, but my lips are sealed
It wasn't so long ago that the airlines banned PDA-cellphone combinations such as the Treo. Now, many airlines including AA, Southwest and JetBlue allow you to use your Treo if you can show the flight attendant that the wireless feature is turned off (see, e.g., the back pages of American Way magazine). All it would take is one ***hole to be found interfering, say, with the intracabin communications system used by the Federal Air Marshals to have the policy revoked, and then I wouldn't be able to read ebooks or AvantGo on airplanes anymore. Thanks a lot.
1. Purchase copy of Windows.
2. Mark up copy of Windows and bill Uncle Sam.
3. Profit!!
5 bells signified a Bulletin, and 12 bells a Flash, defined in the AP stylebook as a story of overriding importance that can be told in four words or less. Needless to say, the sound of 12 bells would bring every other activity in the newsroom to a halt as everyone huddled around the teletype.
Flashes occur very, very rarely.
Today we had two Flashes (I am paraphrasing, because I am unable to find the originals):
Today's Flashes cheated a little bit on the four-word rule, but that's OK. Previous Flashes have included stories such as "Men Walk On Moon" and "Nixon Resigns."Dear AP, Could you please provide a service where Flashes (and maybe even Bulletins) are sent by SMS to my cell phone? Google news alerts just aren't the same.
And while GM is scrapping EV1s and arresting dissenters, its locomotives are open-architecture .
Western Union, of course, was a really big company that was founded on telegraphy, and people paid $/word to send "telegrams" that were sent in Morse code by telegraph operators to other telegraph operators and delivered by messengers in funny hats. As late as the mid '70s, companies that wanted to send electronic messages had Model 33 Teletypes connected via a public switched Western Union network called Telex. You paid cents/word to send messages to another Teletype that had addresses like "CITIBANK NY" or 710-xxx-xxxx. Finally there were PCs and Western Union had a product called EasyLink that allowed PCs to connect to the Telex network. It would have been ridiculously easy for WU to provide this service at a low cost, they would have established a foothold in email by linking the Telex system to PCs, and they would have owned email, at least until 1994 and maybe beyond that. Instead, they made EasyLink so costly and cumbersome that they went nearly all the way out of business, the only business WU has retained is money transfers, they are a shell of their former mighty selves.
I hate to bash MS here on Slashdot because it is so easy and so redundant, but they just do not innovate. They have added few significant features to Windows or to IE, and the same annoyances have been in these products for years. They should have long ago ported their core software products to assembler a la Steve Gibson. The only reason there is not a mass exodus to Linux/Gnome/KDE is because the peripheral makers are afraid to write Linux drivers and print "Works With Linux" on their packaging for fear of angering MS. You can see the rot in MS' stock price. MS would love for their $26 stock to go up, but they can't win for losing. $3 dividend, no change. Stock buybacks, no change. Record quarterly profits, no change. Nobody in their right mind would go to work there, nobody who works there gets rich anymore, they just get prodded and poked into working lots of unpaid OT and ultimately burned out. I haven't even gotten started on non-buzz-generating uncool me-too products like MSN and Media Player, or security issues, or product activation hassles, or the fact that no one in their right mind would call MS support, or the sheer utter depressing hassle of trying to deal with MS at all, even if you want to buy something and give them money you have to wait on hold forever and likely as not your order will be screwed up. I don't hate MS and I really wish it were different, but I agree with whatzisname the reporter.
Was too Pete Seebach. He played Folk City on West 4th Street, and he also invented Peter Paul Mounds.
Why the "deorbit mission"? NASA need not even spend $10 on a spiral notebook for a formal procedure. Just let the sucker de-orbit itself. If they are worried about it not fully burning up in the atmosphere, and possibly hitting something, well, it would make a great target practice drone for some antimissile missile system gizmo.
You mean, apologies to Pete Seebach, who wrote the original article on disappearing cycles??!?
One involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication; the other involves a groundhog.
Laptop? No. Linux? No.
President Bush can't fire Powell Jr., FCC commissioners are appointed for five-year terms. So, either 1) he was offered a high-paying revolving-door gig by one of the corporations he served as FCC commissioner; or 2) somebody has something on Powell (e.g. some quid pro quo received by Powell in exchange for all his support of anti-consumer, pro-media-monopoly policies). Rule out #1, because such a job would still be waiting for him at the conclusion of his term.
Actually, moving beams (e.g. lasers deflected by optical scanners / mirrors mounted on galvanometers) are considered relatively safe. Per federal regs, your unscanned Class IV high power laser may not be aimed less than 4 ft above the eyeballs of rock concert patrons. But if the beam is scanned to move fast enough (and if there is an electromechanical shutter interlock that prevents a stationary beam from being aimed at the patrons) you can legally lase the audience even with a laser powerful enough to light your cigarette. Jurisdictions that license laser operators (NYS) have test questions as to how much optical radiation is received by a human scanned by a beam of X power moving at Y speed. So the parent post's assertion that a scanned beam maliciously aimed at an aircraft would necessarily blind the pilot might not hold water. As the above poster says, don't try this at home.
Bad guys at the airport will be able to positively identify me as a US national because:
a) There is an RFID tag in my passport.
b) The RFID tag in my passport is shielded by tinfoil, etc. placed in the cover of my passport by a thoughtful State Dept.
c) They can't detect anything unusual about my passport, but my underwear is screaming "Stolen From Wal-Mart!"
You can't find any downloads in .prc format. The developers don't get it that my device (Treo) has a browser, and all I have to do is click on the .prc link to download & install the app. The developers think I still have a legacy Palm device and I need to use a PC or other "conduit" to load s/w. So all the download links, even on sourceforge, are in tar/zip/exe format. .Prc for me!
"HBO (Home Body Odor) announced today it has agreed to screen John Waters' infamous film, Polyester, in Odorama. Viewers who wish to view, er, smell the picture in its original Odorama format will need to purchase the latest set-top box from MicroStink containing the latest https:// (HTTP that Stinks) extensions.
"
All this presupposes that the govt. is interested in your time or convenience - ha. What would work is if drivers could place electronic bids indicating how many cents they would pay to receive preferential treatment at intersections. The traffic control software would compute which set of cars will pay the most and turn the lights green in that direction...
How do you do this on a Treo 650?
The guy should learn how to use Priceline and he'd probably never pay over $35.
If they can embed ICs in paper, they can certainly use other substrates, for example the potato chip! Imagine a Beowulf cluster of Pringles, still in the can....
Poor Peter, life as Spidey must have gotten boring after a while... Oh, -Peter Packet-. Never mind.
Sony is opening stores that will eliminate the middleman while still charging full retail price (so as not to piss off the same middlepersons it seeks to eliminate. What's the point? Does anybody remember IBM Product Centers?
Sirius now makes a portable satellite radio that will move from car to car, but it requires 12V power and a nearby FM car radio (it retransmits the signal on FM and there is no earphone jack). Have you noticed there are no XM or Sirius Walkman-type radios?
Have you recently visited a store (e.g. Target or Wal-Mart) and tried to buy a new transistor radio (defined as a battery powered radio the size of a pack of cigarettes)? I wanted one to listen to the presidential debates. I couldn't find a transistor radio, or a headphone radio, the smallesst thing they had was a $9 portable radio cassette player that was large enough to have a carrying handle.
The ticket arcade games at Chuck E. Cheese, Boomers, etc., yes, they are gambling. They have Wheel of Fortune stop-the-blinking light machines, just as they have Wheel of Fortune slot machines in casinos. And the kiddie casinos have Flip-It, identical to the casino game (a big pile of quarters/tokens looks like it is about to fall over the edge into the win slot, but adding your quarter/token to the pile won't cause the avalanche you expected) -- except in the kiddie version wins are paid in tickets.