There was an accidental social experiment that once happened some time ago (I don't know if this story is true or not). But one time, the booking system for campus rooms broke down. The admin staff do all they can to get everyone their own room. Over the following weeks, everyone starts reorganising themselves into groups based on course subject; musicians in one block, art students in another, and science students in yet another. It's not really racism or discrimination, people just prefer to be closer to those that share common interests.
In criminal law, it is always the government that is taking up litigation against the other party. In civil law, it is another private individual or corporation that starts the litigation process. Intellectual property (patents/copyright) violations are an example of the latter.
Technically, they might be able to argue that placing music on a publicly accessible computer without purchasing a Copyright Music License from the Performing Right Society amounts to a criminal act.
Playing of recorded music or radio / tv 4 Any business (or individual) which plays music in public must obtain a Copyright Music Licence from the Performing Right Society. This applies to all businesses from Hotels and Clubs to corner shops or hairdressers. Anywhere music is reproduced in public a Licence must be purchased under the Copyright Act of 1911. `Public also includes staff members over five in number, eg kitchens, workshops. For more information see: www.prs.co.uk/musiclicence/
Er no, this is one of my biggest pet peeves living in the States. You KNOW you're going to need to light a room, why the heck don't they put lights in the ceiling!
Ceiling lamps have their advantages and disadvantages. Even with the standard 60 watt/100 watt light bulbs, they always seem to go out with a pop on that rainy night when you have just come home and want to put your feet up. And you have to be careful not to get the screw-thread bulbs mixed up with the bayonet-style fitting, or that the bulb gets too hot and sets fire to the lamp-shade.
However, Europe is aiming to outlaw the standard bulbs and replacement them with fluorescent tube lamps instead.
That makes sense. With a wireless modem, you send and receive SMS messages using an extended Hayes modem command set. Getting internet access using involves setting up data context, then making a data transfer call using that context, along with a whole load of protocol negotation, password verification, and dynamic IP address allocation through PPP. Getting 6K/second isn't bad for an indoor connection that only requires a 1cm square antennae.
You can buy a second-hand GPRS wireless modem off E-bay for less than 15 pounds. With a PAYG 3G Sim card straight from the local mobile phone shop you can surf the web for around 10 pence/10 Kilobytes. That isn't cheap compared the basic broadband offerings for land lines, but it is substantially cheaper than SMS.
1 SMS = 10 pence (maximum 150 bytes)
1 block of data = 10 pence (10 Kilobytes)
With SMS, 1 Megabyte = 70,000 pounds
With GPRS, 1 Megabyte = 5 pounds.
These are rates that are going on at the moment. Although sending/receiving an E-mail would probably take up much more data space as even a simple message now seems to come delivered with a whole loading of routing information, spam filter test results, MIME data formatting and HTML formatting.
That was the coolest thing of living in Canada and the USA. For some reason, apartments don't have ceiling lights like the UK. Instead residents had to buy Halogen floor lamps that faced upwards. Anything that landed between the lamp and the base became instant crispy critters. The most impressive fry-up was a large ant/moth that actually started crackling and popping for around five minutes. Even leaving a door open for less than a minute would lead to something being fried.
I once heard a story that there is a layer of magnesium between the magnetic layer and the glass/aluminium platters. The entire component is sealed hermetically with inert gas. To destroy the data all that has to be done is to pull out a small plug and the oxygen in the atmosphere reacts with the magnesium to turn the drive into toaster waffles.
When I develop software modules, the stages are generally:
(Research, Design, Implement, Test )*, Integrate (with main system)
During the implement and test stages, many new ideas are formed which get passed back to the research and design stages for the next generation. How can the two be split? All you are succeeding in doing is giving away the designs and improvements for your next generation products.
A mobile phone with a built in geiger-counter? That would be cool... especially after hearing about all the radioactive waste that gets dumped by mistake:
In the UK, you can get a Freeview Sky card and receive 300+ channels totally free of charge (all 20 regional BBC channels), European news channels (Euronews, Russia Today, CNN, France 24, CCTV-9, Bloomberg) etc...
Although, if you have a Virgin Media TV service, you have to pay for the XL TV package just to get these freeview channels.
I had a similar experience with a live-CD - most of the live CD's that I have run and work perfectly (Knoppix, etc..), but the Ubuntu Live CD would boot up, recognise every device and start the kernel after 10+ minutes. Unfortunately, whenever a single application or task was started, the kernel would appear to try and dynamically link the file off the DVD - at least I think that's what it was doing.
Perhaps this is a linking problem (ldconfig?) or maybe the partition that the live-CD was compiled from, wasn't defragmented?
It might even help someone write a subversive program that cannot be traced - create a new executable file with these bits set (or have them set during execution, or whatever), execute this process and you have something running that can't be traced.
The oil companies did buy out all the local railway lines and tram networks and closed them down. We have the same problems in the UK - the Treasury insists that if any city contemplates building a public transit system, they must factor in the loss of gas tax revenue to the treasury.
But just to build a single tram-line in a city can cost up to $1200,000,000 dollars (or 600 million pounds - as with the Edinburgh tram line).
Northern Rock was known for doing some rather dodgy lending practices such as offering internet loans - no need to enter a bank to get a loan - just visit their website, enter the amount you wish to borrow, the account you want the money to go into, and your desired monthly repayment rate. Not forgetting the 125% mortgage deals that they were offering. It is estimated that every house in the UK has lost 5000 pounds in value since Northern Rock experienced the credit crunch.
Given that this is a very similar situation to Farepak, it is not a surprise that every saver was wanting to take their money out of Northern Rock.
What is the object that appears to be in the dirt (blue, yellow/brown checkerboard pattern) - is it part of the engine, fireworks, a remote-control airplane, lawn-mower, scarecrow or tractor parts?
These are data sets that have already been placed in the public domain by the scientists. These could be astronomy images, multi-spectral image photography, remote satellite imagery, seismology recordings, MRI/NMR/CAT scans and many other types of volume, image and signal data.
Perhaps the DNA of all creatures has the ability to determine which genes are used the most often in cells, then modify the DNA in reproductive cells in some way (maybe the "junk DNA"). If muscles were damaged more often due to usage, the next generations DNA would be reprogrammed to create more muscle tissue. If bones were damaged more often due to strain, the next generations DNA would have stronger bones, and so on.
Why is it somehow better to have to go down to a local library and search through books for an answer, than a quick google search?
You might find information that isn't already on the Internet. The early SIGGRAPH papers (early 1970's - eg. Bill Reeves paper on "shadows" for flood-filling areas with pattern) were never published in journals - but they were photocopied, microfilmed and distributed across the libraries. On a free afternoon between lectures, it would be fun to go down to the library and surf through these archives.
But I certainly agree with the parent - it is a lot easier now that it was even just ten or fifteen years ago. In the past, if you wanted a hard to find a research paper that wasn't available locally, you had to fill in a form quoting every name and title down to every dot and comma, otherwise the request would come back "no such title", and you've wasted three days waiting. Another problem was that some university departments took pride in having a library filled with the original research papers unavailable anywhere else. Unfortunately, students would play shenanigans with those papers referenced for exams by returning them somewhere other that the expected index position.
Also, we have legalized doping, such as sleeping in an "altitude chamber". This is just as unnatural for the body as blood-doping is, but somehow one is legal, and the other is not.
If an athlete really wanted to, they could train at the high altitudes of local mountains. Some athletes from Europe claimed that training in the fresh mountain air of the Alps helped boost their performance.
Back in the mid-80's, there was a guy in my home town who started his own high-street company selling home computer products. Unfortunately, he didn't understand the concept of market saturation, so whatever sold well one month, he would buy twice as much the next month. After the sales figures came in, the company was immediately liquidated. Everything was still there - half stacked shelves with the stuff still in delivery boxes. Even the managers notepad had half written accounting notes with a large negative number at the very end underscored in red ink. Everything in the store was given a liquidation sale price - from the street front sign to the executive chair/desk and pen in the managers office.
Perhaps we will see the SCO obelisk auctioned off in Ebay or donated to the Computer History Museum.
Slashdot Mirror
There was an accidental social experiment that once happened some time ago (I don't know if this story is true or not). But one time, the booking system for campus rooms broke down. The admin staff do all they can to get everyone their own room. Over the following weeks, everyone starts reorganising themselves into groups based on course subject; musicians in one block, art students in another, and science students in yet another. It's not really racism or discrimination, people just prefer to be closer to those that share common interests.
In criminal law, it is always the government that is taking up litigation against the other party. In civil law, it is another private individual or corporation that starts the litigation process. Intellectual property (patents/copyright) violations are an example of the latter.
Difference between civil and criminal law.
Technically, they might be able to argue that placing music on a publicly accessible computer without purchasing a Copyright Music License from the Performing Right Society amounts to a criminal act.
Playing of recorded music or radio / tv
4 Any business (or individual) which plays music in public must obtain a Copyright Music Licence from the Performing Right Society. This applies to all businesses from Hotels and Clubs to corner shops or hairdressers. Anywhere music is reproduced in public a Licence must be purchased under the Copyright Act of 1911. `Public also includes staff members over five in number, eg kitchens, workshops. For more information see: www.prs.co.uk/musiclicence/
Er no, this is one of my biggest pet peeves living in the States. You KNOW you're going to need to light a room, why the heck don't they put lights in the ceiling!
Ceiling lamps have their advantages and disadvantages. Even with the standard 60 watt/100 watt light bulbs, they always seem to go out with a pop on that rainy night when you have just come home and want to put your feet up. And you have to be careful not to get the screw-thread bulbs mixed up with the bayonet-style fitting, or that the bulb gets too hot and sets fire to the lamp-shade.
However, Europe is aiming to outlaw the standard bulbs and replacement them with fluorescent tube lamps instead.
That makes sense. With a wireless modem, you send and receive SMS messages using an extended Hayes modem command set. Getting internet access using involves setting up data context, then making a data transfer call using that context, along with a whole load of protocol negotation, password verification, and dynamic IP address allocation through PPP. Getting 6K/second isn't bad for an indoor connection that only requires a 1cm square antennae.
You can buy a second-hand GPRS wireless modem off E-bay for less than 15 pounds. With a PAYG 3G Sim card straight from the local mobile phone shop you can surf the web for around 10 pence/10 Kilobytes. That isn't cheap compared the basic broadband offerings for land lines, but it is substantially cheaper than SMS.
1 SMS = 10 pence (maximum 150 bytes)
1 block of data = 10 pence (10 Kilobytes)
With SMS, 1 Megabyte = 70,000 pounds
With GPRS, 1 Megabyte = 5 pounds.
These are rates that are going on at the moment. Although sending/receiving an E-mail would probably take up much more data space as even a simple message now seems to come delivered with a whole loading of routing information, spam filter test results, MIME data formatting and HTML formatting.
Many mobile phone operators are now offering flat-rate 3G monthly rates, although there are some opponents.
That was the coolest thing of living in Canada and the USA. For some reason, apartments don't have ceiling lights like the UK. Instead residents had to buy Halogen floor lamps that faced upwards. Anything that landed between the lamp and the base became instant crispy critters. The most impressive fry-up was a large ant/moth that actually started crackling and popping for around five minutes. Even leaving a door open for less than a minute would lead to something being fried.
I once heard a story that there is a layer of magnesium between the magnetic layer and the glass/aluminium platters. The entire component is sealed hermetically with inert gas. To destroy the data all that has to be done is to pull out a small plug and the oxygen in the atmosphere reacts with the magnesium to turn the drive into toaster waffles.
When I develop software modules, the stages are generally:
(Research, Design, Implement, Test )*, Integrate (with main system)
During the implement and test stages, many new ideas are formed which get passed back to the research and design stages for the next generation. How can the two be split? All you are succeeding in doing is giving away the designs and improvements for your next generation products.
This link might be useful in explaining how cellphones can do tracking.
A mobile phone with a built in geiger-counter? That would be cool... especially after hearing
about all the radioactive waste that gets dumped by mistake:
Radioactive fuel rod found in scrapyard
Thai's complain on radioactive waste
Nuclear free local authorities
Static electricity - maybe by removing the key, you are earthing the engine system?
In the UK, you can get a Freeview Sky card and receive 300+ channels totally free of charge (all 20 regional BBC channels), European news channels (Euronews, Russia Today, CNN, France 24, CCTV-9, Bloomberg) etc...
Although, if you have a Virgin Media TV service, you have to pay for the XL TV package just to get these freeview channels.
Full Satellite TV listing
I had a similar experience with a live-CD - most of the live CD's that I have run and work perfectly (Knoppix, etc..), but the Ubuntu Live CD would boot up, recognise every device and start the kernel after 10+ minutes. Unfortunately, whenever a single application or task was started, the kernel would appear to try and dynamically link the file off the DVD - at least I think that's what it was doing.
Perhaps this is a linking problem (ldconfig?) or maybe the partition that the live-CD was compiled from, wasn't defragmented?
It might even help someone write a subversive program that cannot be traced - create a new executable file with these bits set (or have them set during execution, or whatever), execute this process and you have something running that can't be traced.
The oil companies did buy out all the local railway lines and tram networks and closed them down. We have the same problems in the UK - the Treasury insists that if any city contemplates building a public transit system, they must factor in the loss of gas tax revenue to the treasury.
But just to build a single tram-line in a city can cost up to $1200,000,000 dollars (or 600 million pounds - as with the Edinburgh tram line).
Northern Rock was known for doing some rather dodgy lending practices such as offering internet loans - no need to enter a bank to get a loan - just visit their website, enter the amount you wish to borrow, the account you want the money to go into, and your desired monthly repayment rate. Not forgetting the 125% mortgage deals that they were offering. It is estimated that every house in the UK has lost 5000 pounds in value since Northern Rock experienced the credit crunch.
Given that this is a very similar situation to Farepak, it is not a surprise that every saver was wanting to take their money out of Northern Rock.
What is the object that appears to be in the dirt (blue, yellow/brown checkerboard pattern) - is it part of the engine, fireworks, a remote-control airplane, lawn-mower, scarecrow or tractor parts?
What happens if they are away to a snack machine, have gone outside to make/accept a mobile phone call, or talking to a professor or someone else?
Surely, the system could be smart enough not to shut itself down if someone is already logged in?
These are data sets that have already been placed in the public domain by the scientists. These could be astronomy images, multi-spectral image photography, remote satellite imagery, seismology recordings, MRI/NMR/CAT scans and many other types of volume, image and signal data.
He may not even have to run cables through walls:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=external+USB+wireless+modem">External USB wireless modems that use the cell-phone network
And the 17" at that. If that is not big enough you could always convince them to develop the 30" portable, but that would be a tad ridiculous.
Fold out/slide out side screens is not beyond the realm of possibilty.... maybe you could have them click or snap into place.
Perhaps the DNA of all creatures has the ability to determine which genes are used the most often in cells, then modify the DNA in reproductive cells in some way (maybe the "junk DNA"). If muscles were damaged more often due to usage, the next generations DNA would be reprogrammed to create more muscle tissue. If bones were damaged more often due to strain, the next generations DNA would have stronger bones, and so on.
Why is it somehow better to have to go down to a local library and search through books for an answer, than a quick google search?
You might find information that isn't already on the Internet. The early SIGGRAPH papers (early 1970's - eg. Bill Reeves paper on "shadows" for flood-filling areas with pattern) were never published in journals - but they were photocopied, microfilmed and distributed across the libraries. On a free afternoon between lectures, it would be fun to go down to the library and surf through these archives.
But I certainly agree with the parent - it is a lot easier now that it was even just ten or fifteen years ago. In the past, if you wanted a hard to find a research paper that wasn't available locally, you had to fill in a form quoting every name and title down to every dot and comma, otherwise the request would come back "no such title", and you've wasted three days waiting. Another problem was that some university departments took pride in having a library filled with the original research papers unavailable anywhere else. Unfortunately, students would play shenanigans with those papers referenced for exams by returning them somewhere other that the expected index position.
Also, we have legalized doping, such as sleeping in an "altitude chamber". This is just as unnatural for the body as blood-doping is, but somehow one is legal, and the other is not.
If an athlete really wanted to, they could train at the high altitudes of local mountains. Some athletes from Europe claimed that training in the fresh mountain air of the Alps helped boost their performance.
Back in the mid-80's, there was a guy in my home town who started his own high-street company selling home computer products. Unfortunately, he didn't understand the concept of market saturation, so whatever sold well one month, he would buy twice as much the next month. After the sales figures came in, the company was immediately liquidated. Everything was still there - half stacked shelves with the stuff still in delivery boxes. Even the managers notepad had half written accounting notes with a large negative number at the very end underscored in red ink. Everything in the store was given a liquidation sale price - from the street front sign to the executive chair/desk and pen in the managers office.
Perhaps we will see the SCO obelisk auctioned off in Ebay or donated to the Computer History Museum.