Ah, crud. I are an idiot. I pasted the wrong letter. The one I meant to paste was the one where she didn't believe there were any national ID programs planned.
This is the one I meant to paste:
Thank you . . .
. . for contacting me regarding your opposition to a national identification system. I appreciate hearing your thoughts on this important issue and I share your concerns.
There are currently no plans in place to institute a national identification system, although some people have suggested this idea as a measure to combat terrorism. Any such system would face serious legal and constitutional challenges. For example, implementing a national identification system would potentially infringe upon recognized privacy rights and the right to travel within the United States. Like you, I am very concerned about protecting our civil liberties from unnecessary government intrusion. I am aware of this concept, and will continue to monitor this situation closely.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me. Please do not hesitate to do so again whenever I may be of assistance.
Got this letter from one of my senators a while back.
Thank you . . .
. . for contacting me about the electronic surveillance of people in the United States by the National Security Agency (NSA). I share your serious concerns about this program.
I am pleased that pressure put on the President by the newly-elected Congress, as well as the American public, made clear that our Constitutional rights aren't negotiable. In January 2007, Attorney General Gonzales announced that after an internal investigation, the administration would end electronic surveillance of American citizens unless it received a warrant. This means that the administration must petition the FISA Court if it wants to electronically monitor U.S. citizens.
It is critical that we relentlessly pursue terrorists who seek to do us harm. However, we must make sure that we do not undermine the very rights and way of life that we are seeking to protect. While I do not sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, I will continue to relay your concerns to my colleagues. I will continue to support strong congressional oversight and closely monitor any new developments on this issue.
Thank you again for contacting me. Please feel free to do so again whenever I can be of assistance to you and your family.
Sincerely,
Debbie Stabenow
United States Senator
DS:jm I wonder which Washington she's been spending her time in.
For doctors and the like, I can see whitelisting numbers for inbound calls.
I sincerely don't mean to be rude, but your parents should be capable of handling emergencies with your kids if you've provided them with sufficient information beforehand.
Not really. There's enough valuable metals in electronics to make recycling them profitable. (With the offset being CRTs, of course, but we're moving away from those.) One ton of electronic waste has more gold in it than one ton of gold ore.
Even if small manufacturers don't want to deal with the overhead, they can contract it out to companies that would be happy to make a dime or two. Sounds like that's a good business to be in in Texas right now.
IBM, Microsoft, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, CA, and Red Hat have already agreed to review some software patent applications for the one-year community review project. Intel, Sun, Oracle, Yahoo, and others are also part of the project.
I find that part interesting. I imagine each company has their engineers spend a few hours a week poring over the latest patent applications to see which ideas would be useful.
Behold, the patent office has become an idea distribution center. (Which was probably once one of its more useful functions, back before a million patents were awarded each year.)
I think that is good however, because it only *seems* that way. In the end, when GPL V3 has been in effect for a few years, has covered Linux, and has dealt some blows to unwilling device vendors that thought 'they could get away with it' - but also saw device vendors that will agree with conforming to the rules set forth by V3 - the (embedded) world will be a better place. Given the choice, then, embedded and mobile manufacturers will switch to Windows CE or Windows XP Embedded. In the last six months, I've encountered far more cases of embedded Windows than embedded Linux. In fact, I've only identified one case of embedded Linux, where I've identified at least fifteen classes of cases of embedded Windows across several major chains and hospitals.
Frankly, this is ludicrous. Linux was a fairly mature embedded platform long before Microsoft came up with their offerings, yet Microsoft seems to have most of the market today. Then there's QNX, but the software for those systems isn't typically visible.
If Linus switches the kernel to GPL v3, he'll be killing what hold Linux still has on mobile and embedded markets.
except that GPL software is guaranteed to stay public domain forever. Correction: There's nothing that prevents public domain material from being perpetually under the public domain. Derivatives of public-domain material are a different story. Derivatives of GPL-licensed software are guaranteed to be licensed under the GPL.
Why in hell do people keep suggesting cell phone jammers?
You want to be effective and legal? Set up mini cells (coverage areas) in theater complexes. Now you can limit general cell phone functionality to between pictures, and to 911-only functionality while the feature is on the screen.
Cell companies set up mini cells all the time in dense urban areas, to get around the fact that you've got a large number of steel, glass and concrete buildings blocking and reflecting distant signals.
For a theater-specific mini-cell setup, you'd have a directional antenna in each theater, with a cable going back to a central multiport transeiver and whatever cell companies use for a PBX.
I bet cell companies would love the opportunity to make some money off of theaters, and theaters would love the opportunity to limit cell phone usage indoors without totally pissing off their customers.
The idea of jammers irritates me, because you're breaking federally-mandated 911 support, and your jamming signal is certain to leak outside your building.
No, this is just more unconstitutional eco-fascism. That's funny. I see it as the Texas legislature forcing manufacturers to explore a new revenue stream.
You see, PC recycling is a profitable business, once you get away from CRTs. I've found at least three places in West Michigan that will pay me cash for old computer hardware.
Also, there's nothing in v3 that prevents you from using v3 tools to compile and build a v2 kernel. Same with openoffice - the book your writing using oo isn't automatically GPL'd. The gpl isn't "that" viral Actually, bison was, for a while. The source files it was used to automatically generate included the GPL license header. Needless to say, that was eventually changed.
There were also aruments about gcc's component nature and concerns that third-party developers would make proprietary tools that lodged themselves between gcc's compile stages.
Microsoft's new algorithms correctly guessed the gender of a Web surfer 80% of the time, and his or her age 60% of the time. "In China, it is conceivable that this type of technology would be used to spot Internet users who regularly access such 'subversive' content as news and information websites critical of the regime," With that kind if inaccuracy, it could hardly be considered a reliable indicator of identity. It seems much more tuned to generating demographic data.
Not that China couldn't use that in targeted propaganda...
Right now linux is more like an empty house. No one bothers to break into the house because they know there's not enough in it for them to do so. Corporate, government and financial databases aren't enough of an incentive? There's millions of dollars worth of information tied up there for anyone who figures out how to get at it.
What about home routers? If you can hack into few million broadband routers, you've got yourself a major botnet with little to no antivirus. Not to mention you're past the primary protection of the average home network. From there, you could spam networked printers with ad printouts and read the contents of any netork shares. Not to mention sniffing and redirecting network traffic...
Are you running the MTP or UMS firmware on your YP-T9? MTP. At least, that's how it shows up when I connect it to my roommate's Windows boxen. I'll have to try updating the firmware.
I haven't yet transcoded anything to SVI format, I've only had my T9 about a week. (And figuring out all the arguments to get mplayer/mencoder to do the transcoding is no small task!) Try avidemux. I use it for all of my transcoding needs. It'll do scaling just fine, though I sometimes have to jump through hoops to get the audio codec I want. Never tried messing with framerates, though; that might be a problem.
Do you have a Samsung YP-T9? Mine says "Connected", immediately followed by a "Not Connected", then a power cycle.
IIRC, there was an error in syslog about the device not accepting a USB ID, though it works fine when I connect it to either of my roommate's Windows PCs.
(Though once I do get it connected, I'm unsure how I'll copy videos over; they're supposed to be SVI files with some pretty specific audio and video codec requirements.)
Sounds like your system is waiting on I/O. Your CPU probably isn't a problem, but an upgrade to a drive with lower seek times would help. Seek times are, for me, the bulk of my waiting. And I'm still running a lowly P4 2.2GHz.
Another, less expensive way to reduce seek times is to defrag your drive regularly. I don't think the Windows defragger sorts data by access frequency, but ensuring that your files are contiguous will have some positive impact.
Windows uses a 32-bit bitmask to specify which of the 32 CPUs on which a thead may be scheduled. Wouldn't it make more sense for a thread to say, "Run me on the same core as PID xxxx" or "Run me on a different core from PID xxxx"? Better yet, give them weighted attraction/repulsion, for cases where the application has more threads than cores available.
Having an application arrange itself on any given number of cores without necessarily being aware of core load seems, well, inefficient.
This way, the editors could see, "Hey, this block of 20 submissions were all identified by firehosers as being of the same subject, and the subject is considered important, I'll look at a few of the submissions and cobble together something." Did you notice that many (most?) of the articles that hit the front page were written from the ground up by editors?
You're assuming I was angry at the voters. I wasn't, and I'm not. It's their right to vote to keep property taxes down. Rather, I'm angry at the people who decided not to take the campaign public until a month before the vote was supposed to go through.
Of all the people we contacted by phone, 98% pledged they would vote in favor of the millage. That means that if we had talked to 715 more people, the millage would have gone through. And 715 is a small number compared to the total number of people we'd contacted.
Slashdot Mirror
This is the one I meant to paste: Thank you . . .
. . for contacting me regarding your opposition to a national identification system. I appreciate hearing your thoughts on this important issue and I share your concerns.
There are currently no plans in place to institute a national identification system, although some people have suggested this idea as a measure to combat terrorism. Any such system would face serious legal and constitutional challenges. For example, implementing a national identification system would potentially infringe upon recognized privacy rights and the right to travel within the United States. Like you, I am very concerned about protecting our civil liberties from unnecessary government intrusion. I am aware of this concept, and will continue to monitor this situation closely.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me. Please do not hesitate to do so again whenever I may be of assistance.
Sincerely,
Debbie Stabenow
United States Senator
DS:jm
. . for contacting me about the electronic surveillance of people in the United States by the National Security Agency (NSA). I share your serious concerns about this program.
I am pleased that pressure put on the President by the newly-elected Congress, as well as the American public, made clear that our Constitutional rights aren't negotiable. In January 2007, Attorney General Gonzales announced that after an internal investigation, the administration would end electronic surveillance of American citizens unless it received a warrant. This means that the administration must petition the FISA Court if it wants to electronically monitor U.S. citizens.
It is critical that we relentlessly pursue terrorists who seek to do us harm. However, we must make sure that we do not undermine the very rights and way of life that we are seeking to protect. While I do not sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, I will continue to relay your concerns to my colleagues. I will continue to support strong congressional oversight and closely monitor any new developments on this issue.
Thank you again for contacting me. Please feel free to do so again whenever I can be of assistance to you and your family.
Sincerely,
Debbie Stabenow
United States Senator
DS:jm I wonder which Washington she's been spending her time in.
Not an MECC game, but still quite educational in my formative years. There's a Java port called Droid Quest.
But at least you got a choice cut of meat.
(Sorry...)
For doctors and the like, I can see whitelisting numbers for inbound calls.
I sincerely don't mean to be rude, but your parents should be capable of handling emergencies with your kids if you've provided them with sufficient information beforehand.
Not really. There's enough valuable metals in electronics to make recycling them profitable. (With the offset being CRTs, of course, but we're moving away from those.) One ton of electronic waste has more gold in it than one ton of gold ore.
Even if small manufacturers don't want to deal with the overhead, they can contract it out to companies that would be happy to make a dime or two. Sounds like that's a good business to be in in Texas right now.
Behold, the patent office has become an idea distribution center. (Which was probably once one of its more useful functions, back before a million patents were awarded each year.)
Frankly, this is ludicrous. Linux was a fairly mature embedded platform long before Microsoft came up with their offerings, yet Microsoft seems to have most of the market today. Then there's QNX, but the software for those systems isn't typically visible.
If Linus switches the kernel to GPL v3, he'll be killing what hold Linux still has on mobile and embedded markets.
It's all about the derivatives.
Why in hell do people keep suggesting cell phone jammers?
You want to be effective and legal? Set up mini cells (coverage areas) in theater complexes. Now you can limit general cell phone functionality to between pictures, and to 911-only functionality while the feature is on the screen.
Cell companies set up mini cells all the time in dense urban areas, to get around the fact that you've got a large number of steel, glass and concrete buildings blocking and reflecting distant signals.
For a theater-specific mini-cell setup, you'd have a directional antenna in each theater, with a cable going back to a central multiport transeiver and whatever cell companies use for a PBX.
I bet cell companies would love the opportunity to make some money off of theaters, and theaters would love the opportunity to limit cell phone usage indoors without totally pissing off their customers.
The idea of jammers irritates me, because you're breaking federally-mandated 911 support, and your jamming signal is certain to leak outside your building.
You see, PC recycling is a profitable business, once you get away from CRTs. I've found at least three places in West Michigan that will pay me cash for old computer hardware.
There were also aruments about gcc's component nature and concerns that third-party developers would make proprietary tools that lodged themselves between gcc's compile stages.
Not that China couldn't use that in targeted propaganda...
Does this remind nobody else of the Easy Button?
What about home routers? If you can hack into few million broadband routers, you've got yourself a major botnet with little to no antivirus. Not to mention you're past the primary protection of the average home network. From there, you could spam networked printers with ad printouts and read the contents of any netork shares. Not to mention sniffing and redirecting network traffic...
Do you have a Samsung YP-T9? Mine says "Connected", immediately followed by a "Not Connected", then a power cycle.
IIRC, there was an error in syslog about the device not accepting a USB ID, though it works fine when I connect it to either of my roommate's Windows PCs.
(Though once I do get it connected, I'm unsure how I'll copy videos over; they're supposed to be SVI files with some pretty specific audio and video codec requirements.)
Sounds like your system is waiting on I/O. Your CPU probably isn't a problem, but an upgrade to a drive with lower seek times would help. Seek times are, for me, the bulk of my waiting. And I'm still running a lowly P4 2.2GHz.
Another, less expensive way to reduce seek times is to defrag your drive regularly. I don't think the Windows defragger sorts data by access frequency, but ensuring that your files are contiguous will have some positive impact.
Having an application arrange itself on any given number of cores without necessarily being aware of core load seems, well, inefficient.
Only in that the fundamental aspect of any version of Windows seems to be its look and feel...
I've got a bad door ajar sensor somewhere, so my van dings continually.
Unless I'm parked, I ignore it.
I'm sorry, but I do believe there are five.
How many are there?
(Trek geek)
You're assuming I was angry at the voters. I wasn't, and I'm not. It's their right to vote to keep property taxes down. Rather, I'm angry at the people who decided not to take the campaign public until a month before the vote was supposed to go through.
Of all the people we contacted by phone, 98% pledged they would vote in favor of the millage. That means that if we had talked to 715 more people, the millage would have gone through. And 715 is a small number compared to the total number of people we'd contacted.