On the other hand, the fact that volunteers would be necessary to ensure basic communications during a disaster speaks volumes to the ridiculous unpreparedness of Canada and the US to deal with these kinds of crises. We're just lucky that there are so many people willing to step up and help out in these kinds of situations, with their obscure-yet-necessary technical knowhow and tools.
So, how much can your community afford to pay to have a crew of full-time, 24-7, radio operators on stand-by for emergencies? Especially when they might only be needed once every couple of years? Would you prefer an un-voluntary system where you pay a lot more in taxes to pay for these usually-unused services?
I think it's sad to assume that the government must take care of everything rather than relying on the citizens to do things and help each other out.
People should be encouraged to find ways to contribute to society in ways besides just sending in a check every year. Greater personal involvement will reduce the "it's someone else's problem" syndrome.
>What's that like, anyway? Do oranges just appear more brilliant? I suppose trying to describe it to us with only three colors would be much like trying to describe any kind of color to somebody completely color blind. It's a futile exercise. Try explaining vision to somebody who was born blind.
I've read a bit about this and what it comes down to is that a tetrachromat can see more gradations in color. I might see two oranges and say they are exactly the same color. But the tetrachromat can see that they are quite different.
In my case, I actually have mild red-green color blindness - I have trouble with very light shades of pink and green. They often appear grey to me, or I mix among them. At night, the green stoplight at a distance can appear almost white to me and I can sometimes confuse it with a nearby streetlight. (new stoplights are designed now to have a bluish tint to them to help people like me).
So, it seems to be a matter of having a greater sensitivity to a larger range of colors, or a better ability to discriminate among colors.
I did this with my phone as well... but it took a few calls to get it going. Basically, my home phone rings 4 times, then rolls over to my cell, or if my home phone is busy, it automatically rolls. That way I get the "free" voice mail and caller-ID of my cellphone.
The services you need are: call-forward no-answer call-forward busy
A few technicians I called did not know about these, but once I finally found one who did, it was great!
Climate has been changing on the Earth ever since there was an atmosphere. It's called nature, and it's all about changing.
It doesn't really matter if it's human caused CO2 emissions, volcanoes, increased radiation from the sun, or gamma rays from planet X. What matters is that we find a way to adapt. Even if the global warming is caused by human activity, it's probably beyond the ability of an intentional effort to change it back.
And besides, the Earth is warming because that is what it does after an ice-age... and it will cool again too. We can either adapt to change, or get out of the way (go extinct) so something else can. The Earth will get along just fine with us or without us.
The big picture is that we'll pay, as a species, for any damage we cause. We'll also pay, though, for our inability to adapt to constantly changing nature.
I wonder if increased evaporation due to higher temperatures would counteract the water coming from glaciers?
I mean, there are probably a bunch of water particles on the surface of the ocean, that if they were exposed to an atmosphere 1 degree hotter, they'd have enough energy to escape, and evaporate.
This overall effect might increase humidity, causing more snow in colder regiouns of the earth.
What effect would a significantly higher water content in the atmosphere have on warming? Does it tend to block the energy on the way in, or on the way out? Or does it dwell too low in the atmosphere to make a difference?
What is the sound of one hand clapping? Or the temperature of one water molecule boiling?
It does not stress your joints so even if you're overweight you can start cycling straight away.
But if you're overweight, I can guarantee you that it WILL stress your ass in a bad way.
breathing the fumes and sweating your ass off. No, it's better to be stuck behind a diesel powered car (no emissions checks in the US) in 100 degree weather. You'll be worse than sweating your ass off as you breath those fumes!
When I used to work in a warehouse, it was just fine to ride my bike to work, since I would be hot and sweaty all day long.
But, now, I have to dress in nice clothes, and preferably not stink all day. Most places I have worked do not have showers and changing rooms. For places like that, it's just not practical to ride my bike to work.
And that's not counting how much rain we get here. So I'm either wet from sweat, or wet from rain. Either way, it would only work if I could change clothes after getting to work.
Plus, here in Portland, while we're rated as one of the best cities to bike in, I have to disagree. We might have the most miles of bike lanes, but they are not well done. One minute your in a bike lane, and the next, you're on a busy 4 lane road with no shoulder, or you've been forced to cut across traffic. Or if you want to go any long distance, you have to cut back and forth between main streets, nearly doubling your trip. If we're the bike-friendliest, I'd hate to see un-friendly!
It really takes a change in culture - to include things like better bike lanes, showers and changing rooms, more places to lock up a bike, etc, before we'll see any mass migrations to bike commuting here.
I may be able to open-source all my employers products by slipping in a few lines of some-GPLed routine. yikes!
I think in that case, your employer (once this breach was discovered) could simply remove the GPL'd code.
Remember, most companies don't release the source code to their software. So, to cause a real problem, you would have to do like SCO, and actually release your employer's codebase under the GPL.
He might be able to sue you because you weren't authorized to release it. This case will tell us if he can sue people who use his "GPL'd" code after you had released it.
They might not have gotten any in the woods, but the guy who received and relayed their signal in Hawaii might.
There's not much point in being a HAM if you can't send and receive signals from home. That would cut, by a large amount, the number of HAMs that can operate in the country.
I'm all for more methods for broadband, as it increases competition and lowers prices. But they need to find a way to do it that doesn't wipe out other methods of communication.
you're an idiot. read this and get your facts straight before you start to spout off. this is the plea agreement.
I won't argue with you about being an idiot - it may very well be the case.
All I was saying is that just because someone pleads guilty, that does not mean they were in fact guilty. There have been cases where people plead guilty becuse a prosecutor has scared them enough that they are not willing to risk going to court and being found guilty.
I believe that in this case, the chances are pretty good that Hawash is indeed guilty. But, I also question the way he was held for so long with no access to family and lawyers. That should not happen in America.
Pretty lucky guess, if he's pleading guilty and that's all they had to go on when they picked him up.
Don't be so sure. I don't know if he is in fact guilty in this case, but people have been known to plead guilty when they are in fact innocent.
Here's a possible scenario. They pick him up on secret evidence and secret warrant, then hold him secretly with no access to a lawyer or his family. That's pretty scary right there.
Next, they tell you, "listen buddy, you look just like one of Osama's boys, so when we put you before a jury of your *peers*, they'll have no problem locking you away for the rest of your life being gang raped by muslim-hating white supremicists"... OR, if you plead guilty, we'll take it easy on you, put you in a nice prison, and you'll see your family in 7 years."
What does his lawyer tell him? Oh wait, he didn't have access to one for quite a while... in fact, nobody did.
What do you do given a choice like that?
Prosecutors have a lot of power in our system, particularly when they can frighten you into pleading guilty out of fear for what a guilty verdict means.
Actually, there is some benefit to asking for this kind of advice - but not to determine the course of action. Rather, for getting an idea of what's possible before seeing your lawyer.
If I were to get divorced (I'm not even married), I'd be talking to my divorced friends to find out what I can expect on the legal front - not because they're legal experts, but because they have experience dealing with my situation. They might be able to help steer me away from bad advice, or help me know what questions I need to ask.
I definitely wouldn't "ask Slashdot" when I've been caught with 40g of cocaine and a 12 year old prostitute in my car. But it is perfectly germane and sensible to ask a bunch of coders about their experience and advice in a situation dealing with writing software and the legal ownership of that software.
I personally don't care if everyone uses it, but I think there are certain people who should, and they don't.
The local school district, for example, spends millions on software licenses, most of it to do office work. Sure, I know MS stuff is great, but why can't they use Linux and/or OpenOffice to do their e-mail, web browsing, and office app stuff? They could take those millions and hire more teachers, or re-institute music and art programs.
It's not that everyone should use Linux, but everyone should consider if proprietary and costly software is the best place to be spending their money, especially when other options are very workable and available.
Is it just me or have unis forgotton that they're in the business of providing education?
Don't be so sure. Yes, that's the ideal, but schools are are a business, and that means their ultimate goal is to survive and make money.
Don't think for a minute that if your school pays the RIAA $10/student that you as a student are also going to pay $10. It will be more like $50 (Entertainment Fee).
Schools already do this with long distance. They pay about 2.9c/minute and charge students between 10 and 25. I know the school I worked at really hates that so many students are using cellphones with unlimited LD... it's really cut into the bottom line. I'm sure they'd love to find a way to make that back up through some kind of "communications/technology fee" that allows students to download music and gives the schools indemnity from lawsuits.
I can see it now, "Get the Linux you can trust!" - it will sell to the PHB's, since it's from Microsoft. Then as it gets accepted (forced onto sys-admins), MS starts to tweak it so other Linux stuff doesn't work. Who gets blamed? Those commie open-source coders.
Sure, MS should be releasing it under the GPL, but it would be a difficult legal fight to make them do it honestly!
You can say the same thing about newspapers and cardboard boxes. They're almost 100% recyclable (if you don't throw them away).
More importantly, I think it depends on perspective. As a consumer, I buy the product, use it, take it back in to get my pictures and never think about it again. From my perspective, I diposed of the camera.
Sure they refurbish and reload it and sell it again.
But, as a consumer, I'm not sure I want to be reminded that I'm re-using a camera that someone else already used.
The advantage here is that you can be pretty sure that the photo developer will not throw away the cameras after they are used.
but once it went down as "Vice President" or "Senior Vice President" but the second time it went down as "Employee." Sounds kinda weird...
I'm not an expert on SEC regulations, but it may be possible that one batch was stuff that he bought as an employee and the other batch was stuff he bought as a "vice president". So, when he sells them, he has to point out exactly which shares it was he sold.
The funny thing is... I would never have known about hte pictures of her house, let alone have looked at them if she hadn't filed this suit. I imagine this is the case with most people who've looked at the pictures. I would say that she has done more damage to her privacy than the original project.
You have to believe me. In the course of about 3 weeks, it would crap out all of the ink I put in it - you know - about 4 sticks in each track. That was with very little, or no printing. We even tried putting it in it's "power/ink save" mode.
So sure, it craps out a bunch of ink every time you turn it on, but a lot less than leaving it on.
I'm convinced it was a flawed unit, but Tektronix/Xerox insisted it was operating normally.
The funny thing to think about is this... I went on a rafting trip with 9 of my friends last year. We each have different stories about what happened - even to the point where there are major conflicts and differences - and we weren't even drinking.
So, that was only a year ago. How accurate can a story be, handed down for almost a 100 years before it is written down? The authors of the gospels did not witness Jesus first hand, so the stories had to have been passed to them. We've all played "telephone", so how close can the stories of the gospels be to what actually happened?
As for this story, I think it's marvelous that this GB is now available for anyone to look at. A neat extension of this project would be to have side-by-side text (like that distributed proof reading project). One could then easily build an index and concordance, or even add parallel translations!
Colleges are businesses and are just as much a part of corporate America as any other business, except that they often get better tax breaks.
Students are their customers and their source of revenue. The last thing a college wants to do is piss off a student by giving up their personal information. The student is likely to leave the school, and at a prestigious school like MIT or BC, the students are likely to have the resources to sue the school as well.
Plus, nobody will want to go to a school that will rat them out for something they are doing.
Tektronix/Zerox gave us 3 of the 840's (educational institution). They print very nicely, with vivid colors and good saturation.
But, it continually shit its ink into its drip tray that I had to dump out every few days. Tek said there was nothing wrong with the printer and to just order more ink (not cheap!).
We finally turned it off. We had gone through 3 sets of ink and only a couple hundred pages. Now, if someone needs a print, we turn it on for them , they can print to it, and we turn it off again. It costs much less that way.
Also, you don't want to put your prints in the cover of a plastic binder, since the wax will stick to the clear plastic of the binder.
Granting stock instead of stock options is an admission that there is no short-term hope of stock price increase IMHO
You can look at it in a different way. A stock option only has value if the stock goes up. Right now, the economy is in the shitter (but starting to look up), and stocks are at low prices. Giving options now will cost more money later when the economy picks up full-swing and stock prices improve.
From that point of view, a company giving stock rather than stock options probably believes that their stock will at least double. If the stock price does not double, then option is worth less than the stock grant. But if the stock price at least doubles, then the option is worth more than the grant.
Slashdot Mirror
On the other hand, the fact that volunteers would be necessary to ensure basic communications during a disaster speaks volumes to the ridiculous unpreparedness of Canada and the US to deal with these kinds of crises. We're just lucky that there are so many people willing to step up and help out in these kinds of situations, with their obscure-yet-necessary technical knowhow and tools.
So, how much can your community afford to pay to have a crew of full-time, 24-7, radio operators on stand-by for emergencies? Especially when they might only be needed once every couple of years? Would you prefer an un-voluntary system where you pay a lot more in taxes to pay for these usually-unused services?
I think it's sad to assume that the government must take care of everything rather than relying on the citizens to do things and help each other out.
People should be encouraged to find ways to contribute to society in ways besides just sending in a check every year. Greater personal involvement will reduce the "it's someone else's problem" syndrome.
>What's that like, anyway? Do oranges just appear more brilliant?
I suppose trying to describe it to us with only three colors would be much like trying to describe any kind of color to somebody completely color blind. It's a futile exercise. Try explaining vision to somebody who was born blind.
I've read a bit about this and what it comes down to is that a tetrachromat can see more gradations in color. I might see two oranges and say they are exactly the same color. But the tetrachromat can see that they are quite different.
In my case, I actually have mild red-green color blindness - I have trouble with very light shades of pink and green. They often appear grey to me, or I mix among them. At night, the green stoplight at a distance can appear almost white to me and I can sometimes confuse it with a nearby streetlight. (new stoplights are designed now to have a bluish tint to them to help people like me).
So, it seems to be a matter of having a greater sensitivity to a larger range of colors, or a better ability to discriminate among colors.
I did this with my phone as well... but it took a few calls to get it going. Basically, my home phone rings 4 times, then rolls over to my cell, or if my home phone is busy, it automatically rolls. That way I get the "free" voice mail and caller-ID of my cellphone.
The services you need are:
call-forward no-answer
call-forward busy
A few technicians I called did not know about these, but once I finally found one who did, it was great!
I don't see how this is liberal/conservative.
Climate has been changing on the Earth ever since there was an atmosphere. It's called nature, and it's all about changing.
It doesn't really matter if it's human caused CO2 emissions, volcanoes, increased radiation from the sun, or gamma rays from planet X. What matters is that we find a way to adapt. Even if the global warming is caused by human activity, it's probably beyond the ability of an intentional effort to change it back.
And besides, the Earth is warming because that is what it does after an ice-age... and it will cool again too. We can either adapt to change, or get out of the way (go extinct) so something else can. The Earth will get along just fine with us or without us.
The big picture is that we'll pay, as a species, for any damage we cause. We'll also pay, though, for our inability to adapt to constantly changing nature.
I wonder if increased evaporation due to higher temperatures would counteract the water coming from glaciers?
I mean, there are probably a bunch of water particles on the surface of the ocean, that if they were exposed to an atmosphere 1 degree hotter, they'd have enough energy to escape, and evaporate.
This overall effect might increase humidity, causing more snow in colder regiouns of the earth.
What effect would a significantly higher water content in the atmosphere have on warming? Does it tend to block the energy on the way in, or on the way out? Or does it dwell too low in the atmosphere to make a difference?
What is the sound of one hand clapping? Or the temperature of one water molecule boiling?
When you file a "fraud alert" to a credit reporting agency, they cooperate to share the data, and will send you copies of your report.
It's an automated system by phone call. Try calling in fraud alerts on a regular basis to keep track of your files.
Not even going that far, I once sent them a letter about wanting to investigate potential fraud. They all sent me free credit reports.
I love bicycling but...
It does not stress your joints so even if you're overweight you can start cycling straight away.
But if you're overweight, I can guarantee you that it WILL stress your ass in a bad way.
breathing the fumes and sweating your ass off.
No, it's better to be stuck behind a diesel powered car (no emissions checks in the US) in 100 degree weather. You'll be worse than sweating your ass off as you breath those fumes!
When I used to work in a warehouse, it was just fine to ride my bike to work, since I would be hot and sweaty all day long.
But, now, I have to dress in nice clothes, and preferably not stink all day. Most places I have worked do not have showers and changing rooms. For places like that, it's just not practical to ride my bike to work.
And that's not counting how much rain we get here. So I'm either wet from sweat, or wet from rain. Either way, it would only work if I could change clothes after getting to work.
Plus, here in Portland, while we're rated as one of the best cities to bike in, I have to disagree. We might have the most miles of bike lanes, but they are not well done. One minute your in a bike lane, and the next, you're on a busy 4 lane road with no shoulder, or you've been forced to cut across traffic. Or if you want to go any long distance, you have to cut back and forth between main streets, nearly doubling your trip. If we're the bike-friendliest, I'd hate to see un-friendly!
It really takes a change in culture - to include things like better bike lanes, showers and changing rooms, more places to lock up a bike, etc, before we'll see any mass migrations to bike commuting here.
I may be able to open-source all my employers products by slipping in a few lines of some-GPLed routine. yikes!
I think in that case, your employer (once this breach was discovered) could simply remove the GPL'd code.
Remember, most companies don't release the source code to their software. So, to cause a real problem, you would have to do like SCO, and actually release your employer's codebase under the GPL.
He might be able to sue you because you weren't authorized to release it. This case will tell us if he can sue people who use his "GPL'd" code after you had released it.
They might not have gotten any in the woods, but the guy who received and relayed their signal in Hawaii might.
There's not much point in being a HAM if you can't send and receive signals from home. That would cut, by a large amount, the number of HAMs that can operate in the country.
I'm all for more methods for broadband, as it increases competition and lowers prices. But they need to find a way to do it that doesn't wipe out other methods of communication.
you're an idiot. read this and get your facts straight before you start to spout off. this is the plea agreement.
I won't argue with you about being an idiot - it may very well be the case.
All I was saying is that just because someone pleads guilty, that does not mean they were in fact guilty. There have been cases where people plead guilty becuse a prosecutor has scared them enough that they are not willing to risk going to court and being found guilty.
I believe that in this case, the chances are pretty good that Hawash is indeed guilty. But, I also question the way he was held for so long with no access to family and lawyers. That should not happen in America.
Pretty lucky guess, if he's pleading guilty and that's all they had to go on when they picked him up.
Don't be so sure. I don't know if he is in fact guilty in this case, but people have been known to plead guilty when they are in fact innocent.
Here's a possible scenario. They pick him up on secret evidence and secret warrant, then hold him secretly with no access to a lawyer or his family. That's pretty scary right there.
Next, they tell you, "listen buddy, you look just like one of Osama's boys, so when we put you before a jury of your *peers*, they'll have no problem locking you away for the rest of your life being gang raped by muslim-hating white supremicists"... OR, if you plead guilty, we'll take it easy on you, put you in a nice prison, and you'll see your family in 7 years."
What does his lawyer tell him? Oh wait, he didn't have access to one for quite a while... in fact, nobody did.
What do you do given a choice like that?
Prosecutors have a lot of power in our system, particularly when they can frighten you into pleading guilty out of fear for what a guilty verdict means.
Actually, there is some benefit to asking for this kind of advice - but not to determine the course of action. Rather, for getting an idea of what's possible before seeing your lawyer.
If I were to get divorced (I'm not even married), I'd be talking to my divorced friends to find out what I can expect on the legal front - not because they're legal experts, but because they have experience dealing with my situation. They might be able to help steer me away from bad advice, or help me know what questions I need to ask.
I definitely wouldn't "ask Slashdot" when I've been caught with 40g of cocaine and a 12 year old prostitute in my car. But it is perfectly germane and sensible to ask a bunch of coders about their experience and advice in a situation dealing with writing software and the legal ownership of that software.
I personally don't care if everyone uses it, but I think there are certain people who should, and they don't.
The local school district, for example, spends millions on software licenses, most of it to do office work. Sure, I know MS stuff is great, but why can't they use Linux and/or OpenOffice to do their e-mail, web browsing, and office app stuff? They could take those millions and hire more teachers, or re-institute music and art programs.
It's not that everyone should use Linux, but everyone should consider if proprietary and costly software is the best place to be spending their money, especially when other options are very workable and available.
Is it just me or have unis forgotton that they're in the business of providing education?
Don't be so sure. Yes, that's the ideal, but schools are are a business, and that means their ultimate goal is to survive and make money.
Don't think for a minute that if your school pays the RIAA $10/student that you as a student are also going to pay $10. It will be more like $50 (Entertainment Fee).
Schools already do this with long distance. They pay about 2.9c/minute and charge students between 10 and 25. I know the school I worked at really hates that so many students are using cellphones with unlimited LD... it's really cut into the bottom line. I'm sure they'd love to find a way to make that back up through some kind of "communications/technology fee" that allows students to download music and gives the schools indemnity from lawsuits.
Everybody wins, except, of course, the student.
How do you get rid of a 100s of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of currency without raising attention?
Easy... campaign contributions!
Plus it helps keep the fed off your back!
go with the "embrace and extend" route.
I can see it now, "Get the Linux you can trust!" - it will sell to the PHB's, since it's from Microsoft. Then as it gets accepted (forced onto sys-admins), MS starts to tweak it so other Linux stuff doesn't work. Who gets blamed? Those commie open-source coders.
Sure, MS should be releasing it under the GPL, but it would be a difficult legal fight to make them do it honestly!
You can say the same thing about newspapers and cardboard boxes. They're almost 100% recyclable (if you don't throw them away).
More importantly, I think it depends on perspective. As a consumer, I buy the product, use it, take it back in to get my pictures and never think about it again. From my perspective, I diposed of the camera.
Sure they refurbish and reload it and sell it again.
But, as a consumer, I'm not sure I want to be reminded that I'm re-using a camera that someone else already used.
The advantage here is that you can be pretty sure that the photo developer will not throw away the cameras after they are used.
but once it went down as "Vice President" or "Senior Vice President" but the second time it went down as "Employee." Sounds kinda weird...
I'm not an expert on SEC regulations, but it may be possible that one batch was stuff that he bought as an employee and the other batch was stuff he bought as a "vice president". So, when he sells them, he has to point out exactly which shares it was he sold.
Why join them, when you CAN beat them!t ml
http://www.army.mil/fact_files_site/hemtt/index.h
Of course, fuel-economy really sucks - but then that's not really the point of an SUV, is it?!
The funny thing is... I would never have known about hte pictures of her house, let alone have looked at them if she hadn't filed this suit. I imagine this is the case with most people who've looked at the pictures. I would say that she has done more damage to her privacy than the original project.
You have to believe me. In the course of about 3 weeks, it would crap out all of the ink I put in it - you know - about 4 sticks in each track. That was with very little, or no printing. We even tried putting it in it's "power/ink save" mode.
So sure, it craps out a bunch of ink every time you turn it on, but a lot less than leaving it on.
I'm convinced it was a flawed unit, but Tektronix/Xerox insisted it was operating normally.
The funny thing to think about is this... I went on a rafting trip with 9 of my friends last year. We each have different stories about what happened - even to the point where there are major conflicts and differences - and we weren't even drinking.
So, that was only a year ago. How accurate can a story be, handed down for almost a 100 years before it is written down? The authors of the gospels did not witness Jesus first hand, so the stories had to have been passed to them. We've all played "telephone", so how close can the stories of the gospels be to what actually happened?
As for this story, I think it's marvelous that this GB is now available for anyone to look at. A neat extension of this project would be to have side-by-side text (like that distributed proof reading project). One could then easily build an index and concordance, or even add parallel translations!
Colleges are businesses and are just as much a part of corporate America as any other business, except that they often get better tax breaks.
Students are their customers and their source of revenue. The last thing a college wants to do is piss off a student by giving up their personal information. The student is likely to leave the school, and at a prestigious school like MIT or BC, the students are likely to have the resources to sue the school as well.
Plus, nobody will want to go to a school that will rat them out for something they are doing.
It's all about $$$.
Tektronix/Zerox gave us 3 of the 840's (educational institution). They print very nicely, with vivid colors and good saturation.
But, it continually shit its ink into its drip tray that I had to dump out every few days. Tek said there was nothing wrong with the printer and to just order more ink (not cheap!).
We finally turned it off. We had gone through 3 sets of ink and only a couple hundred pages. Now, if someone needs a print, we turn it on for them , they can print to it, and we turn it off again. It costs much less that way.
Also, you don't want to put your prints in the cover of a plastic binder, since the wax will stick to the clear plastic of the binder.
Granting stock instead of stock options is an admission that there is no short-term hope of stock price increase IMHO
You can look at it in a different way. A stock option only has value if the stock goes up. Right now, the economy is in the shitter (but starting to look up), and stocks are at low prices. Giving options now will cost more money later when the economy picks up full-swing and stock prices improve.
From that point of view, a company giving stock rather than stock options probably believes that their stock will at least double. If the stock price does not double, then option is worth less than the stock grant. But if the stock price at least doubles, then the option is worth more than the grant.