...regarding the 'evidence' (or lack thereof) for psi talents, the existence of UFOs, etc.
Would those who truly do have paranormal talents be more likely to publicize(sp?) -- and prove -- the existence of such? Or would they, not wanting to risk being turned into lab rats and tabloid celebrities for the rest of their days, tend to keep a very low profile? Perhaps even by the time-honored technique of hiding in plain sight?
If there really are extraterrestrials among us, as some claim, do you really think they'd advertise themselves as such?
My point is this: Can ANY of us say, with absolute 142% certainty, that psi talents are hogwash and trickery? That aliens don't exist? That things like parallel universes and traversable wormholes CANNOT exist?
Of course not. To do so is to invite the eventual tripping of a large 'Murphy switch' that will prove the sayer wrong. HOWEVER -- neither can any of us, as far as I know, say for certain that such things DO exist.
That's the beauty of all the mysteries in Life itself: We Just Don't Know! Even after we discover something new, it takes decades or even centuries to learn all the various things we can do with it (Example: Electricity).
Here's the real kicker. Our science can only DESCRIBE an object, event, or living thing, in terms defined and limited by our perceptions and comprehension of that which we call 'mathematics.' It cannot, in any way, DEFINE the total nature of that object, event, or living thing.
In other words: Calling a large creature that breathes air, and spends its life in the ocean a 'whale' simply applies a convenient label that we, as a race, comprehend amongst ourselves. It in NO WAY DEFINES the true nature of that whale. How can it? I don't think any of us are deities.
In summary: Take that survey however you want to. Personally, I think it's hilarious!
The.cn netspace is one of the biggest spam sources on the planet, thanks to massive numbers of open SMTP relays, open SOCKS proxies, and SysAdmins that are either incompetent or Just Don't Frelling Care.
I've had the entirety of.cn IP space firewalled out of my domain's mail servers since October last year. It is a simple matter to firewall them out of my router as well.
How many other admins are doing, or already have done, something similar?
I don't like that taste, yes linux is far more efficient with resources than win2k or xp. However only making it public by allowing it to run on lame machines also makes a bad reputation.
---
You just contradicted yourself. "Far more efficient with resources" means that Linux (or any other *nix for that matter) doesn't NEED as much in the way of resources on those same "lame" machines to run rings around Redmond. You say the INSTALL took longer: I wonder how well the OS itself ran overall AFTER install? And how much more robust it was than anything Billy-boy and his gang ever turned out?
No machine is "lame" in my eyes if it lets someone discover that the Way of Bill is not the only option, and teaches something about networking and such along the way. Criminys, my NIS server is a MicroVAX (NetBSD based) that I saved from the local landfill! How "lame" is it to cut back on filling said landfill? Or any other for that matter?
No "bad reputation" here. If anything, just the opposite. Think about it: If Linux runs as well as it does on these older, slower systems, that should definitely make people wonder how much quicker it might be on a much newer box.
...speaking as a ham radio op, is that spark gap transmitters are, by their very nature, marvelous spewers of noise across a band of frequencies that stretches darn near DC to daylight.
Someone else has already pointed out what may happen to the EM noise floor (the relatively fixed level of background noise present across the radio spectrum, but particularly noticeable in the HF band) if these devices become widely deployed. I share this concern.
Am I the only one who's worried about what it might do to the usability of HF radio overall for hams, aircraft (yes, many commercial jets carry HF SSB radio sets -- I know, I've helped test them!), High Seas Radiotelephone, and shortwave broadcasters? I wonder what the ARRL has to say about it?
Black cases have been available for years from such companies as Antec, Siliconrax, and others for years. How is this different?
There are also numerous industrial PC companies that are happy to provide cases in whatever color the buyer chooses. I guess I'm just having trouble seeing why this piece is newsworthy...?
This disgusts me. Many Seagate drives run noisy and hot, and you're paying for a name to boot (pun intended), I trust Quantum about as far as I can throw my minivan, and don't even get me started on how I feel about WD!
FWIW, I use SCSI drives pretty much exclusively. I've had good results with older Seagate units (Hawk-4, some Barracuda, and the 'Elite' full-heighters), but the best stuff I've ever used has always come from IBM. My experience to date has been that IBM drives run cooler and quieter than anything else I've tried, and their durability is amazing (especially the Travelstar series).
IBM will do what they feel they have to do, of course, but I think I'm going to run out to the local used-computer place and stock up on IBM'ish drives before they're all gone.
[/rant]
Now, with all that said... Hitachi is no slouch, at least on their higher-end stuff. I can only hope that they don't take one look at IBM's great designs, and then try to "fix" things that were never broken.
So Herbalife has prohibited its "distributors" from using those nasty signs?
Hmmm... Last summer, there were a buttload of those dumb signs plastered all over the place, notably near the Boeing plant in Renton, WA during the layoffs. Posting such violates City of Renton Municipal Code, so myself and some other folks made it a point to tear the things down and trash them.
This year, those signs are conspicuous by their absence. Of course, with my luck, posting such an observation here will trip a Murphy switch, and there'll probably be another buttload of the things up inside of a week...
I'm no fan of Celine Dion either. However, given what Phillips(sp?) has put out regarding compliance (or lack thereof) of copy-protected CDs with the Red Book standards, I would be curious to know if this album bore the 'CD Digital Audio' insignia.
If so, and it would not play in a PC, it seems to me that Phillips has the right to demand that Sony stop using said insignia. That'd tip consumers off right away not to buy the thing (not that many would... After all, it's Celine Dion... Bleah!)
I have no idea why this image came to mind, but I just have to share it. To blazes with my karma points!
The capsule whizzes by at fairly low altitude and relatively low speed during reentry. Suddenly, as it passes over, say, San Francisco (or anywhere else with lots of hard flat surfaces and tall buildings), a port opens on the bottom and out drop about five thousand superballs in all their hyperkinetic glory! (and all kinds of designer colors).
I leave the results to the imagination of the readership.;-)
Spoken like a truely clueless spammer or spam supporter.
Commercial speech is NOT PROTECTED under the 1st Amendment.
Even if it were, the 1st says that CONGRESS shall make no law restricting speech, etc. It says NOTHING -- as in nada, zilch, zero -- about what I, as a SysAdmin who runs his own servers, am compelled to accept or reject, mail-wise. That choice is entirely mine, as should always be the case with private property rights.
Permit me to extend to you a cordial invitation to take your myopic definition of "Frea Speach" (spelled in spammerese for your convenience), and blow it out your eight-inch floppy diskette drive.
The only "dumb" question is the one you keep to yourself.
I think I can best respond by pointing you to a few of my favorite links. Between the lot of them, you should be able to get a very good idea of why spammers are truly nothing more than common thieves.
This news comes as no surprise. The biggest registrar on the planet, NSI, contrary to their written policies, does NOTHING about people who register domains with phony contact info (spammers are the worst offenders, naturally). I don't expect that VeriSign is any better.
I say this because I seem to recall that VeriSign and NSI are partners, merged, or in some way related on a business level. In any case, this is definitely one of the sleaziest tactics I've ever seen any registrar use.
Also, for the fellow who uses GoDaddy: Hate to break this to you, but a number of spammers registered through GoDaddy as well, and GD does nothing about it when contacted. Are you sure that's the kind of registrar you want to support?
FWIW: Stargate Communications (http://www.stargateinc.com) is cheap (about $9 or so/year per name), non-intrusive (I've never gotten ANY mail from them outside of receipts and renewal notices), and they've got a firm anti-spamming policy. Good tech support, too.
I learned, not too long ago, that the owner and founder of Executive Software, maker of the 'Diskeeper' defragging package, is a devout Scientologist.
For that reason alone, I have chosen not to purchase any products from E.S.
For reference, the site is http://www.diskeeper.com
Re:Hollywood's blessing necessary for broadband?
on
Chained Melodies
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Hollings, who has received $264,534 in campaign contributions from the TV, music and movie industries since 1997, has attempted to argue that standardized copy protection is the key to encouraging the continuing rollout of broadband Net connectivity. According to this theory, customers won't sign up for DSL or cable Internet access if they can't get top-notch entertainment via their computers.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Hollings is the worst kind of idiot if he truly believes that. I couldn't care LESS about getting "entertainment" via the 'net, "top-notch" or otherwise. That's why I have a TV, DVD/Laser player, stereo, etc.
Honestly, this obsession with getting movies and TV via the Internet has consistently baffled me. Am I the only one asking "Why bother?" Am I the only one who realizes that the current Internet BACKBONE could never support the sustained load from nine zillion people trying to stream "Shrek" or "The Matrix" or whatever else over a broadband connection?
Yes, I have DSL. And static IP's. I use it because I wanted to be self-hosted. While I recognize that Joe Consumer probably doesn't even know what Unix is, let alone how to self-host (run their own servers) over a broadband connection, it still baffles me why anyone would think that watching a movie on a computer monitor is in any way "better" than watching it through one's TV.
With that said, Hollings is indeed the 'Senator from Disney.' Him and his stupid SSSCA proposal need to be slapped down. Hard.
...And it passes information on how much you spend, what you spend it on, and where, all back to a central database quicker than you can say "Telemarketer!"
Security and theft issues aside -- Am I the only one to see the potential for abuse of the purchasing data collected? I don't give a rip what Speedpass's privacy policy says. The temptation to sell out to marketdroids is, IMO, just too strong.
I can just picture this same technology getting embedded in a national ID card. One card for everything, God help you if it gets stolen. What a bonanza for muggers...
The 'KISS' ("Keep it Simple, stupid!") principle is one that has stood the test of Time very well indeed (NOTE: I'm not saying you're stupid... just quoting from memory).
When I did my web page, I kept the following in mind.
1). Get the message across. Plain, simple, quick. Most people have a pretty short attention span when they're surfing, so I designed the main page to be able to load in less than 20 seconds. Don't do graphics bloat.
2). Keep it readable. Do NOT make the mistake of locking your users into one specific browser, or requiring them to have Java, Javascript, Flash, or any of that bandwidth-wasting crap enabled to use the site. Make the site so that it can be fully read and navigated with anything from Lynx to the most sophisticated graphics-enabled browsers around.
3). Consider your audience! If you must use graphics, use meta-tags describing what the graphic is and (if necessary) its text contents. Here's why: Computer users who are visually impaired or who have no sight depend on text-to-speech software to use their computers. Set your site up so that it is navigable by those who may lack one or more of the senses that too many of us, all too often, take for granted.
Yes, I realize that such guidelines may kill the use of a lot of graphics bloat. And this is a Bad Thing, how?
>QWest currently concentrates their DSL equipment>in the CO because they have to allow equal >access to that equipment. If that equal access >went away, they could move the DSL equipment >further from the CO to smaller unmanned stations >and extend the range of DSL services to areas >where coverage isn't currently provided.
Ummmm... Hate to break this to you, but Qwest has already installed a large number of remote DSLAMs at least in the south King County area (southeast of Seattle). I drive by two of them every day. They were installed for the express purpose of being able to bring DSL to the more distant (from the CO) neighborhoods.
If that's how you define "concentrates," then I think you and I need to have a talk.;-)
One of the reasons that I block the banner ads on Slashdot (and a lot of other sites) is because so many of them are for companies that are openly friendly to spammers.
Rackspace is a great example. They're one of the biggest spammer-friendly web page/domain hosts on the 'net, and it seems like every third banner on/. was an ad for them.
Quit selling ad space to known spammer-friendlies, and I'll consider turning off WebWasher long enough to see if there's anything of interest to me.
Slashdot Mirror
...sounds like it could add a whole new definition to the term 'Web Surfing.'
You may all groan now...
...regarding the 'evidence' (or lack thereof) for psi talents, the existence of UFOs, etc.
Would those who truly do have paranormal talents be more likely to publicize(sp?) -- and prove -- the existence of such? Or would they, not wanting to risk being turned into lab rats and tabloid celebrities for the rest of their days, tend to keep a very low profile? Perhaps even by the time-honored technique of hiding in plain sight?
If there really are extraterrestrials among us, as some claim, do you really think they'd advertise themselves as such?
My point is this: Can ANY of us say, with absolute 142% certainty, that psi talents are hogwash and trickery? That aliens don't exist? That things like parallel universes and traversable wormholes CANNOT exist?
Of course not. To do so is to invite the eventual tripping of a large 'Murphy switch' that will prove the sayer wrong. HOWEVER -- neither can any of us, as far as I know, say for certain that such things DO exist.
That's the beauty of all the mysteries in Life itself: We Just Don't Know! Even after we discover something new, it takes decades or even centuries to learn all the various things we can do with it (Example: Electricity).
Here's the real kicker. Our science can only DESCRIBE an object, event, or living thing, in terms defined and limited by our perceptions and comprehension of that which we call 'mathematics.' It cannot, in any way, DEFINE the total nature of that object, event, or living thing.
In other words: Calling a large creature that breathes air, and spends its life in the ocean a 'whale' simply applies a convenient label that we, as a race, comprehend amongst ourselves. It in NO WAY DEFINES the true nature of that whale. How can it? I don't think any of us are deities.
In summary: Take that survey however you want to. Personally, I think it's hilarious!
First, there was Fire. Later on came gunpowder. Later than that came C4, Gelignite, and all the other Things That Make You Go Boom.
Now we've got exploding nanotubes. I suppose the next big thing will be BuckyBombs.
You may now groan, throw rotten veggies, etc.
...from 'Business as Usual?'
.cn netspace is one of the biggest spam sources on the planet, thanks to massive numbers of open SMTP relays, open SOCKS proxies, and SysAdmins that are either incompetent or Just Don't Frelling Care.
.cn IP space firewalled out of my domain's mail servers since October last year. It is a simple matter to firewall them out of my router as well.
The
I've had the entirety of
How many other admins are doing, or already have done, something similar?
I don't like that taste, yes linux is far more efficient with resources than win2k or xp. However only making it public by allowing it to run on lame machines also makes a bad reputation.
---
You just contradicted yourself. "Far more efficient with resources" means that Linux (or any other *nix for that matter) doesn't NEED as much in the way of resources on those same "lame" machines to run rings around Redmond. You say the INSTALL took longer: I wonder how well the OS itself ran overall AFTER install? And how much more robust it was than anything Billy-boy and his gang ever turned out?
No machine is "lame" in my eyes if it lets someone discover that the Way of Bill is not the only option, and teaches something about networking and such along the way. Criminys, my NIS server is a MicroVAX (NetBSD based) that I saved from the local landfill! How "lame" is it to cut back on filling said landfill? Or any other for that matter?
No "bad reputation" here. If anything, just the opposite. Think about it: If Linux runs as well as it does on these older, slower systems, that should definitely make people wonder how much quicker it might be on a much newer box.
...to me WHY the WiFi manufacturers are focusing on speed BEFORE they worry about security? WEP is still a joke.
...speaking as a ham radio op, is that spark gap transmitters are, by their very nature, marvelous spewers of noise across a band of frequencies that stretches darn near DC to daylight.
Someone else has already pointed out what may happen to the EM noise floor (the relatively fixed level of background noise present across the radio spectrum, but particularly noticeable in the HF band) if these devices become widely deployed. I share this concern.
Am I the only one who's worried about what it might do to the usability of HF radio overall for hams, aircraft (yes, many commercial jets carry HF SSB radio sets -- I know, I've helped test them!), High Seas Radiotelephone, and shortwave broadcasters? I wonder what the ARRL has to say about it?
Black cases have been available for years from such companies as Antec, Siliconrax, and others for years. How is this different?
There are also numerous industrial PC companies that are happy to provide cases in whatever color the buyer chooses. I guess I'm just having trouble seeing why this piece is newsworthy...?
[rant]
This disgusts me. Many Seagate drives run noisy and hot, and you're paying for a name to boot (pun intended), I trust Quantum about as far as I can throw my minivan, and don't even get me started on how I feel about WD!
FWIW, I use SCSI drives pretty much exclusively. I've had good results with older Seagate units (Hawk-4, some Barracuda, and the 'Elite' full-heighters), but the best stuff I've ever used has always come from IBM. My experience to date has been that IBM drives run cooler and quieter than anything else I've tried, and their durability is amazing (especially the Travelstar series).
IBM will do what they feel they have to do, of course, but I think I'm going to run out to the local used-computer place and stock up on IBM'ish drives before they're all gone.
[/rant]
Now, with all that said... Hitachi is no slouch, at least on their higher-end stuff. I can only hope that they don't take one look at IBM's great designs, and then try to "fix" things that were never broken.
So Herbalife has prohibited its "distributors" from using those nasty signs?
Hmmm... Last summer, there were a buttload of those dumb signs plastered all over the place, notably near the Boeing plant in Renton, WA during the layoffs. Posting such violates City of Renton Municipal Code, so myself and some other folks made it a point to tear the things down and trash them.
This year, those signs are conspicuous by their absence. Of course, with my luck, posting such an observation here will trip a Murphy switch, and there'll probably be another buttload of the things up inside of a week...
...should know about this. They will probably want to update their product to block any such alterations.
Darned if I'm going to let some fruitball marketdroid decide how MY browser window is going to look!
Greedy yotzes...
I'm no fan of Celine Dion either. However, given what Phillips(sp?) has put out regarding compliance (or lack thereof) of copy-protected CDs with the Red Book standards, I would be curious to know if this album bore the 'CD Digital Audio' insignia.
If so, and it would not play in a PC, it seems to me that Phillips has the right to demand that Sony stop using said insignia. That'd tip consumers off right away not to buy the thing (not that many would... After all, it's Celine Dion... Bleah!)
I will wager 427 quatloos that the machine will be "0wn3d" by some script-kiddie within 48 hours.
Is there at least a semi-legal way to tell if the thing is vulnerable to any exploits? With that many open ports I'd be surprised if it were not.
It is? Isn't that interesting. Is that why ads for tobacco and alcohol in billboard space and on TV have pretty much disappeared?
I have no idea why this image came to mind, but I just have to share it. To blazes with my karma points!
;-)
The capsule whizzes by at fairly low altitude and relatively low speed during reentry. Suddenly, as it passes over, say, San Francisco (or anywhere else with lots of hard flat surfaces and tall buildings), a port opens on the bottom and out drop about five thousand superballs in all their hyperkinetic glory! (and all kinds of designer colors).
I leave the results to the imagination of the readership.
Spoken like a truely clueless spammer or spam supporter.
Commercial speech is NOT PROTECTED under the 1st Amendment.
Even if it were, the 1st says that CONGRESS shall make no law restricting speech, etc. It says NOTHING -- as in nada, zilch, zero -- about what I, as a SysAdmin who runs his own servers, am compelled to accept or reject, mail-wise. That choice is entirely mine, as should always be the case with private property rights.
Permit me to extend to you a cordial invitation to take your myopic definition of "Frea Speach" (spelled in spammerese for your convenience), and blow it out your eight-inch floppy diskette drive.
The only "dumb" question is the one you keep to yourself.
h tm
I think I can best respond by pointing you to a few of my favorite links. Between the lot of them, you should be able to get a very good idea of why spammers are truly nothing more than common thieves.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
http://imarketingsolutions.com/why_spam_is_bad.
http://uk.spam.abuse.net/spam/spambad.html
http://www.twowriters.net/spam.htm
Your "right" to send spam ends where my private property (my servers and bandwidth) begins.
The same holds true for ALL those who own/operate Internet-connected hosts.
In other words, you can send anything you want. There is no law that forces anyone to listen, or even to receive your crap.
Get a life, spam-boy!
This news comes as no surprise. The biggest registrar on the planet, NSI, contrary to their written policies, does NOTHING about people who register domains with phony contact info (spammers are the worst offenders, naturally). I don't expect that VeriSign is any better.
I say this because I seem to recall that VeriSign and NSI are partners, merged, or in some way related on a business level. In any case, this is definitely one of the sleaziest tactics I've ever seen any registrar use.
Also, for the fellow who uses GoDaddy: Hate to break this to you, but a number of spammers registered through GoDaddy as well, and GD does nothing about it when contacted. Are you sure that's the kind of registrar you want to support?
FWIW: Stargate Communications (http://www.stargateinc.com) is cheap (about $9 or so/year per name), non-intrusive (I've never gotten ANY mail from them outside of receipts and renewal notices), and they've got a firm anti-spamming policy. Good tech support, too.
I learned, not too long ago, that the owner and founder of Executive Software, maker of the 'Diskeeper' defragging package, is a devout Scientologist.
For that reason alone, I have chosen not to purchase any products from E.S.
For reference, the site is http://www.diskeeper.com
Hollings, who has received $264,534 in campaign contributions from the TV, music and movie industries since 1997, has attempted to argue that standardized copy protection is the key to encouraging the continuing rollout of broadband Net connectivity. According to this theory, customers won't sign up for DSL or cable Internet access if they can't get top-notch entertainment via their computers.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Hollings is the worst kind of idiot if he truly believes that. I couldn't care LESS about getting "entertainment" via the 'net, "top-notch" or otherwise. That's why I have a TV, DVD/Laser player, stereo, etc.
Honestly, this obsession with getting movies and TV via the Internet has consistently baffled me. Am I the only one asking "Why bother?" Am I the only one who realizes that the current Internet BACKBONE could never support the sustained load from nine zillion people trying to stream "Shrek" or "The Matrix" or whatever else over a broadband connection?
Yes, I have DSL. And static IP's. I use it because I wanted to be self-hosted. While I recognize that Joe Consumer probably doesn't even know what Unix is, let alone how to self-host (run their own servers) over a broadband connection, it still baffles me why anyone would think that watching a movie on a computer monitor is in any way "better" than watching it through one's TV.
With that said, Hollings is indeed the 'Senator from Disney.' Him and his stupid SSSCA proposal need to be slapped down. Hard.
...And it passes information on how much you spend, what you spend it on, and where, all back to a central database quicker than you can say "Telemarketer!"
Security and theft issues aside -- Am I the only one to see the potential for abuse of the purchasing data collected? I don't give a rip what Speedpass's privacy policy says. The temptation to sell out to marketdroids is, IMO, just too strong.
I can just picture this same technology getting embedded in a national ID card. One card for everything, God help you if it gets stolen. What a bonanza for muggers...
The 'KISS' ("Keep it Simple, stupid!") principle is one that has stood the test of Time very well indeed (NOTE: I'm not saying you're stupid... just quoting from memory).
When I did my web page, I kept the following in mind.
1). Get the message across. Plain, simple, quick. Most people have a pretty short attention span when they're surfing, so I designed the main page to be able to load in less than 20 seconds. Don't do graphics bloat.
2). Keep it readable. Do NOT make the mistake of locking your users into one specific browser, or requiring them to have Java, Javascript, Flash, or any of that bandwidth-wasting crap enabled to use the site. Make the site so that it can be fully read and navigated with anything from Lynx to the most sophisticated graphics-enabled browsers around.
3). Consider your audience! If you must use graphics, use meta-tags describing what the graphic is and (if necessary) its text contents. Here's why: Computer users who are visually impaired or who have no sight depend on text-to-speech software to use their computers. Set your site up so that it is navigable by those who may lack one or more of the senses that too many of us, all too often, take for granted.
Yes, I realize that such guidelines may kill the use of a lot of graphics bloat. And this is a Bad Thing, how?
Good luck.
Sayeth Eusebo...
;-)
>QWest currently concentrates their DSL equipment>in the CO because they have to allow equal >access to that equipment. If that equal access >went away, they could move the DSL equipment >further from the CO to smaller unmanned stations >and extend the range of DSL services to areas >where coverage isn't currently provided.
Ummmm... Hate to break this to you, but Qwest has already installed a large number of remote DSLAMs at least in the south King County area (southeast of Seattle). I drive by two of them every day. They were installed for the express purpose of being able to bring DSL to the more distant (from the CO) neighborhoods.
If that's how you define "concentrates," then I think you and I need to have a talk.
One of the reasons that I block the banner ads on Slashdot (and a lot of other sites) is because so many of them are for companies that are openly friendly to spammers.
/. was an ad for them.
Rackspace is a great example. They're one of the biggest spammer-friendly web page/domain hosts on the 'net, and it seems like every third banner on
Quit selling ad space to known spammer-friendlies, and I'll consider turning off WebWasher long enough to see if there's anything of interest to me.