It amazes me how quickly this update of "life" "devolved" (yes, pun intended) into another evolution argument.
This is an interesting pastime, but anyone who thinks it will prove/disprove evolution or even the possibility of evolution is just buying from the wrong dealer.
Computers simply yield the output of a selected input through a predetermined set of steps or rules. If they don't give you the result you expected at the start, you screwed up the progam or you were wrong about the expected product, but the program gave you exactly what you predetermined in the code (and that includes self modifying or "evolving" code, which works also by its' own rule set).
The best a computer simulation can do is validate what you expect as you design it. The outcome of this simulation will tell you more about the code writers than the real world.
Honestly, as technically astute as the readers here are this whole discussion just proves the contention that both theistic creationism and evolution are held on the same plane of pure faith, grabbing for validation for their interpretation of evidence.
Remember, it was $99 PLUS the cost of DOS. Dos ran around $150 for MS-DOS back then, more for the IBM branded PC-DOS (if you just HAD to have a gray linin box for the shelf).
Anyone that reads this article without his thinking cap on is going to get his dander up over this, but lets think about this.
You can prove the earth IS warming without any danger of falling into an argument over measurement. How? THE ICE AGES ARE OVER (just in case you didn't notice). This mudball has been warming up (on average) for thousands of years, and there wasn't a single car, power plant, or petroleum factor around for anything but the smallest infintesimal percentage of the time.
This planet (historically) has been through ages both hotter and much cooler than this, and only a bunch of evolved monkey like creatures is arrogant enough to claim responsibility.
Personally, I like global warming. The beach is much nicer without ice sheets and hiking in the mountains is a lot more fun WITHOUT snowshoes, ice crampons, and extreme cold weather suits.
Oh, and while I'm riling up the religious types of environmentalists, some extinctions can be good too. Personally, I worry in the fall about hitting deer at night on a back road (a real problem here). I am very thankful I don't have to worry about an INTERSTATE blocked by a wandering heard of DINOSAURS (hitting one of those could put a dent in your car, and the meat eaters could absolutely destroy the market for convertables).
Think about what's going on here and ignore the chicken-littles that are funded by your fear. You'll find ways of having over-inflated egos without trying to take credit for "global warming" disasters.
Assuming the/.ers here aren't idiots either I checked with our MS account rep yesterday. He said it depends on which release of the CD you're working from. The early releases' just went to the MSN web site for new users (advertising). You had to turn on auto update to get the other behaviour. Later CDs (of which our image was aparently built from) had the auto update on and windows update v4 shipped with it. He thought the change was due to their "security" initiative (I wanted to tell him just to install Debian, but I was using the companys' time, so no personal opinions).
Strange, I did 4 setups yesterday with WinXP pro and as soon as I got through the startup wizard (we go through a firewall to connect to our T1 for the site) IE fired up and the system went to Windows update. That was installing off the original boot CD (and as someone noted I did have to reboot for SP2). Still, my point in the original post (which is lost in the IE flamers) is that the author had to intentionally avoid updating the OS to get his results.
Oh, probably the same reason I have to, all the corporate web sites that won't work with Firefox (still, yes, I have the updates). When Firefox gets plugins down we'll be able to nix IE, but till then we're stuck.
Windows Update starts the first time you launce Internet Explorer to hit the web. As far as why you said you "lose" people item "a" was exactly what I said he probably did, item "b" is exactly what a thief should get - grief.
Okay, let's see, this guy loads up an OS ("fresh", as he writes) that has been targeted by the net scum since it came out, so we know it's vulnerable to every exploit designed for it. Goes to a troll site for 180 and then complains about how awful it is when during installation/first net logon he should have gone straight into the patching process that would have prevented it (in other words, he had to cancel critical patching out intentionally).
This is akin to throwing matches at a tub of gasoline and writing an expose' when it catches fire. Either this guy had too little to write about, had too much time on his hands, or had to win a bet and is trying to slip this one by someone.
Even he admitted his lousy methodology in his last sentence.
This isn't news. It's just a bone thrown out to keep the resident "gotta flame microsofties" happy with a fix for the day.
Currently I'm using a Toshiba Portege 7020CT with the "extended service" battery. I regularly get 6+ hours runtime. The battery extends out the back of the laptop making it hard to find a case (you wouldn't want the weight of the laptop to sit on it) but a Targus backpack case with the laptop sitting on its' side works fine.
"Considering that up until about 2000, all of the major Air Traffic Control centers in the US were running on vacuum tubes, we were lucky nothing like this ever happened here"
That's a statement based on a totaly false premise. Simply because it was old or used tubes did not mean it was a bad design, in fact, the simplicity of the design and the shortness of the source code made it very a very easy system to debug and program. It wasn't as pretty, but it worked fine.
The simple fact is that there's more bytes of code in most corporate spreadsheets than in the OS and application on those old systems. There is simply no way you can write the compact code on the newer 64 bit processors that you had on the old 8 bit units or debug or maintain them as easily, there are simply too many bytes and pipeline interactions. Sometimes newer IS worse, especially when you want to write reliable code.
Actually they were usually called "prog rock" for progressive rock, or occasionally "art rock". The latter was in their creative days before Kerry Livgren and the other original members left. The Kansas of today is good, but just doesn't have that spark in their new songs. Maybe you're thinking of the new guys.
The problem they had was no one could classify them, were they folk rock (Dust In The Wind), pop rock (Carry On My Wayward Son), slash (The Spider, He Knew), so the music industry didn't want to push them.
Truth is they were like most musicians that ACTUALLY COULD WRITE MUSIC, they wrote the music and played it. There was no band "image" it had to fit, If Kansas wrote it, it was a Kansas song. You won't find bands nowdays doing that, most of their music is picked for them by music industry execs that buy songs and route them to whoever they think it "fits", Brittany gets the suggestive "nice girl" songs, Christina gets the whorish "bad girl" songs, but they really don't have much to do with the songs.
I much prefer folks that write their own material like Jennifer Knapp or Third Day now.
Music sales are ultimately driven by quality. The music "industry" is heading down the road of destruction if they think they can promote themselves out of the abyss.
I've recently started teaching my son to play the guitar. He's had 6 years of experience and lessons and still couldn't play a decent lead. After looking through his music books (all popular rock bands) I figured it out.
Train Song by Phish - 10 chords Last train Home by The Lost Prophets - 7 chords Would by Alice in Chains - 7 chords Cold Hard Bitch by Jet - 7 chords Strong Enough by Sheryl Crow - 6 chords
No wonder they sounded the same (and boring) to me. On top of that the rock bands were over compressing the signal, great sustain but no musical dynamics. It was all stomp box distortion.
I started off by teaching him a few decent songs (although we had to work on technique, he had never had to do a string bend, hammer on, or pull off).
Dust in the Wind by KANSAS - (to learn to play clean) Desperado by The Eagles - (to learn to play with feeling) Stairway to Heaven - 23 chords Roundabout by YES, 40-43 chords (its how you play it) Clap by YES - 56 chords, and fast tempo
When I was learning to play you'd be laughed at for playing chord progressions and calling them songs, now people play big bucks to hear what oughta be an improved lead.
"C" was right, but he didn't take it far enough. I see the major labels limping along as the smaller companies with TALENTED MUSICIANS like GOTEE keep making a killing off each record they release because IT'S WORTH HEARING!
When will they start listening to local music again? Guess what, they already have rocket rangers.
One of the drivers behind the revival of live music at bars, coffee cafes, and theme restaurants (new orleans jazz, progressive, classic rock, etc.) is the abysmal creativity in writing and talent in performing of the current "MTV clones".
Seriously, does anyone think political talk would have taken over radio if it had real musical competition? Has anyone noticed that the talk radio operations are plowing their money back into the markets in the form of '60s, '70s, and '80s classic stations (and they're making money hand over fist at it?).
One reason we put a full stage in our church cafe was so local musicians would have a good venue to play with good pas, speakers, and soundboard in place. Our bass player's band opened on tour for The Eagles and it turns out we actually went to the same Jimi Hendrix concerts in the '60s, he's got a great ear for talent.
The simple fact is that there is a LOT of excellent music being written "out in the wild" by local artists. They just don't fit the anorexic/belly button baring/cussing, screaming, beating up your girl formula so they won't get the attention they deserve.
Forget your radio, go downtown to the irish pub and toss a good tip in for the band. The RIAA won't get a cent of it.
They should have fed you, but you didn't have the rights you probably thought you had. You weren't arrested for criminal violation of statute, state or federal. You were taken into protective custody as a runaway, and that's a completely different legal situation. It's called different things in different states, but basically you sit there until mama and papa show up. It's a shock to most, but you're not an adult at 16.
It doesn't say in the story what this guys age was, but if he was of legal age then the HIPA laws passed last year basically say the Police can't call anyone that the subject in custody does not specifically authorize and/or request or they would be libel for breaking the act, especially if the person had a medical issue.
Arrest records are by law public documents and must be made freely available, although the information in the public versions of those records is now limited by that same act. For instance, you could say that a person was arrested for DUI, you could not put a medical opinion on the record such as the person was an alcoholic under treatment.
This is just one of the ways well intended legislation screws up common sense.
No, you just plug a cassette recorder into the headphone jack and hit "play".
Seriously, I'm using an old PC with a voice modem as my answering machine, I've got every phone call it's recorded in.wav format for over 2 years, even so, with a 20 gig drive it'll be a long time before that thing needs cleaning out.
And by the way, in my state, it's not a problem with the AG.
Actually, wiretapping is a pretty common charge, it's just not usually the primary charge because it was discovered in the investigation of another crime that the wiretapping was performed as a part of the preparation for. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that other charges are pending or filed.
There are probably several reasons he was charged. For instance, many state laws allow the recording of conversations by one party or the other. Some states require the notification of the recording verbally in the recorded conversation, a beep every few seconds, etc., some do not. It varies state by state and in some cases is not allowed at all. That was the issue with the Lewinski conversations. It was legal where Linda Tripp was located, but not where Lewinski called from, so we have state laws conflicting. There is a great big hairy issue over that particular case because some state attorney generals are not sure it is legal to use some answering machines, specifically the tape type because it "makes a PERMANENT recording without notifying the person leaving the message". I don't see the difference with digital, but I'm not a lawyer, I'm honest, ethical, a member of the human race, etc..
The issue here is that the person installing the keylogger was not a party to the communications, so no matter where he was he had no right to record those communications. No matter where you are it is illegal for a third party to record communications between two other parties without their knowledge and/or a valid court order to do so.
The other issue that affects affect this is that he did not own or have authority to control the computer he installed the keylogger on. This technically makes it hacking and immediately throws it into federal jurisdiction, state law is irrelavent. If the keylogger was the hardware type, it's interception of signal and is wiretapping, if it was installation of software it's tampering with an ADP system, which is worse penalty wise, so that may have been the charge and he's pleading down.
The key point is, if it's not YOUR system don't put it there, you're wide open for trouble.
Now THAT's an interesting idea, especially if you make the "mental link" two way. You could totally get rid of the glasses, I can just see it "the Stepford Wives Mark III wristwatch".
Of course, if they put the reset switch where you suggest it would give us IT guys great pleasure when some dodo came in after downloading unauthorized software and we have to do a "hard boot" of the system. There is potential here.
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Does this thing remind anyone else of Evil Otto from the 70s coinop BERSERK?????
It amazes me how quickly this update of "life" "devolved" (yes, pun intended) into another evolution argument.
This is an interesting pastime, but anyone who thinks it will prove/disprove evolution or even the possibility of evolution is just buying from the wrong dealer.
Computers simply yield the output of a selected input through a predetermined set of steps or rules. If they don't give you the result you expected at the start, you screwed up the progam or you were wrong about the expected product, but the program gave you exactly what you predetermined in the code (and that includes self modifying or "evolving" code, which works also by its' own rule set).
The best a computer simulation can do is validate what you expect as you design it. The outcome of this simulation will tell you more about the code writers than the real world.
Honestly, as technically astute as the readers here are this whole discussion just proves the contention that both theistic creationism and evolution are held on the same plane of pure faith, grabbing for validation for their interpretation of evidence.
Remember, it was $99 PLUS the cost of DOS. Dos ran around $150 for MS-DOS back then, more for the IBM branded PC-DOS (if you just HAD to have a gray linin box for the shelf).
Windows XP is cheaper, even WITH inflation.
Anyone that reads this article without his thinking cap on is going to get his dander up over this, but lets think about this.
You can prove the earth IS warming without any danger of falling into an argument over measurement. How? THE ICE AGES ARE OVER (just in case you didn't notice). This mudball has been warming up (on average) for thousands of years, and there wasn't a single car, power plant, or petroleum factor around for anything but the smallest infintesimal percentage of the time.
This planet (historically) has been through ages both hotter and much cooler than this, and only a bunch of evolved monkey like creatures is arrogant enough to claim responsibility.
Personally, I like global warming. The beach is much nicer without ice sheets and hiking in the mountains is a lot more fun WITHOUT snowshoes, ice crampons, and extreme cold weather suits.
Oh, and while I'm riling up the religious types of environmentalists, some extinctions can be good too. Personally, I worry in the fall about hitting deer at night on a back road (a real problem here). I am very thankful I don't have to worry about an INTERSTATE blocked by a wandering heard of DINOSAURS (hitting one of those could put a dent in your car, and the meat eaters could absolutely destroy the market for convertables).
Think about what's going on here and ignore the chicken-littles that are funded by your fear. You'll find ways of having over-inflated egos without trying to take credit for "global warming" disasters.
I do NOT want to know what's floating in YOUR coffee!!
Assuming the /.ers here aren't idiots either I checked with our MS account rep yesterday. He said it depends on which release of the CD you're working from. The early releases' just went to the MSN web site for new users (advertising). You had to turn on auto update to get the other behaviour. Later CDs (of which our image was aparently built from) had the auto update on and windows update v4 shipped with it. He thought the change was due to their "security" initiative (I wanted to tell him just to install Debian, but I was using the companys' time, so no personal opinions).
I installed from a ghost image, pre-SP2. It doesn't matter, working on a T-1 is as fast as running it from the server.
Strange, I did 4 setups yesterday with WinXP pro and as soon as I got through the startup wizard (we go through a firewall to connect to our T1 for the site) IE fired up and the system went to Windows update. That was installing off the original boot CD (and as someone noted I did have to reboot for SP2). Still, my point in the original post (which is lost in the IE flamers) is that the author had to intentionally avoid updating the OS to get his results.
Oh, probably the same reason I have to, all the corporate web sites that won't work with Firefox (still, yes, I have the updates). When Firefox gets plugins down we'll be able to nix IE, but till then we're stuck.
Windows Update starts the first time you launce Internet Explorer to hit the web. As far as why you said you "lose" people item "a" was exactly what I said he probably did, item "b" is exactly what a thief should get - grief.
Okay, let's see, this guy loads up an OS ("fresh", as he writes) that has been targeted by the net scum since it came out, so we know it's vulnerable to every exploit designed for it. Goes to a troll site for 180 and then complains about how awful it is when during installation/first net logon he should have gone straight into the patching process that would have prevented it (in other words, he had to cancel critical patching out intentionally).
This is akin to throwing matches at a tub of gasoline and writing an expose' when it catches fire. Either this guy had too little to write about, had too much time on his hands, or had to win a bet and is trying to slip this one by someone.
Even he admitted his lousy methodology in his last sentence.
This isn't news. It's just a bone thrown out to keep the resident "gotta flame microsofties" happy with a fix for the day.
In case no one has noticed there have only been two things that caused problems with the internet.
The most recent was the massive northeastern power outage (damn yankees).
The first was the *UNIX* sendmail internet worm.
As flaky as windows has historically been it's never caused as much interruption as the last.
Handtop replaces desktop, lets see where have I heard THAT before (let's go through the drawer):
Casio Digital Diary
PSION Organizer
Newton Messagepad (and MP100 upgrade)
Tandy Zoomer Z-PDA (Casio Z-7000)
PalmPilot Professional
Freestyle Manager (Windows Palm PC)
Handspring (Palm OS)
Toshiba (Mobile Windows)
Do away with the desktop? OH YEAH, SURE!!!!!
Currently I'm using a Toshiba Portege 7020CT with the "extended service" battery. I regularly get 6+ hours runtime. The battery extends out the back of the laptop making it hard to find a case (you wouldn't want the weight of the laptop to sit on it) but a Targus backpack case with the laptop sitting on its' side works fine.
I've got a 1989 Ford Probe GT, I *THINK* the sticker rated it at 24/28. I've kept track since I got it and I consistantly get 37.9 city/42-44 highway.
I have a secret, I really do change the oil on time.
"Considering that up until about 2000, all of the major Air Traffic Control centers in the US were running on vacuum tubes, we were lucky nothing like this ever happened here"
That's a statement based on a totaly false premise. Simply because it was old or used tubes did not mean it was a bad design, in fact, the simplicity of the design and the shortness of the source code made it very a very easy system to debug and program. It wasn't as pretty, but it worked fine.
The simple fact is that there's more bytes of code in most corporate spreadsheets than in the OS and application on those old systems. There is simply no way you can write the compact code on the newer 64 bit processors that you had on the old 8 bit units or debug or maintain them as easily, there are simply too many bytes and pipeline interactions. Sometimes newer IS worse, especially when you want to write reliable code.
Actually they were usually called "prog rock" for progressive rock, or occasionally "art rock". The latter was in their creative days before Kerry Livgren and the other original members left. The Kansas of today is good, but just doesn't have that spark in their new songs. Maybe you're thinking of the new guys.
The problem they had was no one could classify them, were they folk rock (Dust In The Wind), pop rock (Carry On My Wayward Son), slash (The Spider, He Knew), so the music industry didn't want to push them.
Truth is they were like most musicians that ACTUALLY COULD WRITE MUSIC, they wrote the music and played it. There was no band "image" it had to fit, If Kansas wrote it, it was a Kansas song. You won't find bands nowdays doing that, most of their music is picked for them by music industry execs that buy songs and route them to whoever they think it "fits", Brittany gets the suggestive "nice girl" songs, Christina gets the whorish "bad girl" songs, but they really don't have much to do with the songs.
I much prefer folks that write their own material like Jennifer Knapp or Third Day now.
Music sales are ultimately driven by quality. The music "industry" is heading down the road of destruction if they think they can promote themselves out of the abyss.
I've recently started teaching my son to play the guitar. He's had 6 years of experience and lessons and still couldn't play a decent lead. After looking through his music books (all popular rock bands) I figured it out.
Train Song by Phish - 10 chords
Last train Home by The Lost Prophets - 7 chords
Would by Alice in Chains - 7 chords
Cold Hard Bitch by Jet - 7 chords
Strong Enough by Sheryl Crow - 6 chords
No wonder they sounded the same (and boring) to me. On top of that the rock bands were over compressing the signal, great sustain but no musical dynamics. It was all stomp box distortion.
I started off by teaching him a few decent songs (although we had to work on technique, he had never had to do a string bend, hammer on, or pull off).
Dust in the Wind by KANSAS - (to learn to play clean)
Desperado by The Eagles - (to learn to play with feeling)
Stairway to Heaven - 23 chords
Roundabout by YES, 40-43 chords (its how you play it)
Clap by YES - 56 chords, and fast tempo
When I was learning to play you'd be laughed at for playing chord progressions and calling them songs, now people play big bucks to hear what oughta be an improved lead.
"C" was right, but he didn't take it far enough. I see the major labels limping along as the smaller companies with TALENTED MUSICIANS like GOTEE keep making a killing off each record they release because IT'S WORTH HEARING!
I hate to break this to you, but Iron Butterfly birthed Inna-Godda-Davida (In the Garden of Eden) out of too much wine before the recording, not acid.
When will they start listening to local music again? Guess what, they already have rocket rangers.
One of the drivers behind the revival of live music at bars, coffee cafes, and theme restaurants (new orleans jazz, progressive, classic rock, etc.) is the abysmal creativity in writing and talent in performing of the current "MTV clones".
Seriously, does anyone think political talk would have taken over radio if it had real musical competition? Has anyone noticed that the talk radio operations are plowing their money back into the markets in the form of '60s, '70s, and '80s classic stations (and they're making money hand over fist at it?).
One reason we put a full stage in our church cafe was so local musicians would have a good venue to play with good pas, speakers, and soundboard in place. Our bass player's band opened on tour for The Eagles and it turns out we actually went to the same Jimi Hendrix concerts in the '60s, he's got a great ear for talent.
The simple fact is that there is a LOT of excellent music being written "out in the wild" by local artists. They just don't fit the anorexic/belly button baring/cussing, screaming, beating up your girl formula so they won't get the attention they deserve.
Forget your radio, go downtown to the irish pub and toss a good tip in for the band. The RIAA won't get a cent of it.
They should have fed you, but you didn't have the rights you probably thought you had. You weren't arrested for criminal violation of statute, state or federal. You were taken into protective custody as a runaway, and that's a completely different legal situation. It's called different things in different states, but basically you sit there until mama and papa show up. It's a shock to most, but you're not an adult at 16.
It doesn't say in the story what this guys age was, but if he was of legal age then the HIPA laws passed last year basically say the Police can't call anyone that the subject in custody does not specifically authorize and/or request or they would be libel for breaking the act, especially if the person had a medical issue.
Arrest records are by law public documents and must be made freely available, although the information in the public versions of those records is now limited by that same act. For instance, you could say that a person was arrested for DUI, you could not put a medical opinion on the record such as the person was an alcoholic under treatment.
This is just one of the ways well intended legislation screws up common sense.
No, you just plug a cassette recorder into the headphone jack and hit "play".
.wav format for over 2 years, even so, with a 20 gig drive it'll be a long time before that thing needs cleaning out.
Seriously, I'm using an old PC with a voice modem as my answering machine, I've got every phone call it's recorded in
And by the way, in my state, it's not a problem with the AG.
Actually, wiretapping is a pretty common charge, it's just not usually the primary charge because it was discovered in the investigation of another crime that the wiretapping was performed as a part of the preparation for. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that other charges are pending or filed.
There are probably several reasons he was charged. For instance, many state laws allow the recording of conversations by one party or the other. Some states require the notification of the recording verbally in the recorded conversation, a beep every few seconds, etc., some do not. It varies state by state and in some cases is not allowed at all. That was the issue with the Lewinski conversations. It was legal where Linda Tripp was located, but not where Lewinski called from, so we have state laws conflicting. There is a great big hairy issue over that particular case because some state attorney generals are not sure it is legal to use some answering machines, specifically the tape type because it "makes a PERMANENT recording without notifying the person leaving the message". I don't see the difference with digital, but I'm not a lawyer, I'm honest, ethical, a member of the human race, etc..
The issue here is that the person installing the keylogger was not a party to the communications, so no matter where he was he had no right to record those communications. No matter where you are it is illegal for a third party to record communications between two other parties without their knowledge and/or a valid court order to do so.
The other issue that affects affect this is that he did not own or have authority to control the computer he installed the keylogger on. This technically makes it hacking and immediately throws it into federal jurisdiction, state law is irrelavent. If the keylogger was the hardware type, it's interception of signal and is wiretapping, if it was installation of software it's tampering with an ADP system, which is worse penalty wise, so that may have been the charge and he's pleading down.
The key point is, if it's not YOUR system don't put it there, you're wide open for trouble.
Now THAT's an interesting idea, especially if you make the "mental link" two way. You could totally get rid of the glasses, I can just see it "the Stepford Wives Mark III wristwatch".
Of course, if they put the reset switch where you suggest it would give us IT guys great pleasure when some dodo came in after downloading unauthorized software and we have to do a "hard boot" of the system. There is potential here.