My guess is the original PATRIOT Act writers wanted something like the "Giving Aid & Comfort to the Enemy" laws, but couldn't quite figure out how to get around the provision that they only applied during wartime (since Congress hasn't declared war on them, it can't apply).
Rob -
If you decide to give ISDN a try, send me an email, and I'll give you an old 3Com ISDN router I used to use (no firewall in it, but it will bond both channels for 128kbs).
Chip H.
I myself find this an acceptable use of the discount cards.
However, I can see some suit-happy people suing for the store selling adulterated meat. Others would sue for *not* being notified. The only way I see out of the conundrum is for a consumer opt-in to receive recall & product safety notices.
Hmmm. What if the store put the info on their website, secured by the discount card number and the holder's zip code? That way consumers could see what they've purchased over the past 90 days or so, and if any of it was covered by a product safety notice. The stores could also use it to do collaborative filtering: "People who bought Captain Crunch also bought milk!"
If WalMart makes up a significant part of your business, they then have control over your business, and are able to mandate that you do things that will increase your costs. Like RFID tags, like using their SKUs & product IDs, like lowering your price each year (whether your costs have gone up or not).
If I were running a small business, I would avoid selling to them, as ultimately they will drive me out of business, or force me to lay off my loyal employees for those in lower-cost foreign countries.
The Pioneer laserdisc (as the name implies) used a laser to read the disc. The discs were either single or dual-sided, and came in 12" and 8" sizes. This contactless system means that the discs can last practically forever (not withstanding glue problems on the two halves of the disc).
The RCA system used an actual pickup that rode on the disc. Because the disc was sensitive to rough handling, it came in a large hard plastic sleeve. You would flip a lever on the front of the player, insert the sleeve, flip the lever back, and play that side. To watch the other side you would have to reverse the process and turn the sleeve over. The "needle" (I think it was a piezo crystal) would wear out eventually, as well as the discs themselves.
I was going to drop my WorldPerks (frequent flier miles) from them, but then I decided to just let them rot -- for accounting purposes they are a liability to them. In the meantime I'll fly Honda air.
OK, no "Moon Unit Zappa" jokes, and no "Oooo, it's too expensive" comments.
The first astronauts to spend a significant amount of time on the moon have a "chicken and the egg" problem: They need to construct a shelter to protect them from solar storms and cosmic radiation, yet they need somewhere to live while building it. This seems like an opportunity for slashdotters to practice their robotics skills by building some teleoperated bulldozers.
This could even be a good opportunity for some corporate product placement -- Imagine yellow Caterpiller or green John Deere heavy equipment being shown to a worldwide audience: "When NASA needed to build a home on the moon, they came to for our construction expertise!"
What if I want to pay cash instead of using my RFID wristwatch? I pull up to the drive-thru window, but because my watch is close enough to the receiver to be picked up, it automatically registers my payment, despite my yelling at the droid behind the register: "Wait wait! I have money!"
I think the RFID system would be better if I had to press a button on the watch to register my acceptance of their payment request.
I'm not a Lego nut, but I appreciate the folks who are able to build cathedrals, etc. out of them.
One question - are there "Builder's Guides" available to lead you through building the wilder objects? I figure there's a lot of people out there (like me) who have good mechanical skills, but don't have an artistic bone in their body, and would like to try and build some of this cool stuff.
According to the Social Security Administration's yearly report on my benefits, in 1988 I made a grand total of $3712 for the year. I think I know what it's like to be poor, fuck you very much. I got where I am today by working hard, getting my degree, and making good decisions. IOW, nothing that anyone else couldn't do if only they had the guts.
Chip H.
Anyone know what the adoption rate of IPv6 is for the major broadband ISPs? TimeWarner/Comcast, etc?
What with Win95 being EOL'd, a fair number of them will be upgrading to Windows XP (or Linux, OK?) with it's built-in support. Maybe the best approach would be from the bottom up?
Let me tell you what's really going on with this proposal. Through a series of tax cuts and spending increases, the current administration is doggedly pursuing a "starve the beast" [pkarchive.org] strategy that will ultimately require a huge decrease in the size of the federal government, and a corresponding increase in the power of the states. Which, essentially, is what Republicans have been trying to accomplish for years. The more money the Bush administration commits us to spending over the next decade or two, the greater the pressure to reduce spending in other areas such as Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, education, and social services.
You're assuming that the majority of people want all those social programs. I for one, do not.
The optimist in me would like to think that this law will be repealed pretty quickly once Congress realizes that it can be used against them in an investigation of campaign finances.
The pessimist in me thinks that Congress will simply amend it to make themselves exempt, given that several legislators opposed it in debate, but voted for it anyway.
Turn off the air blowers (temporarily) in each module, and blow some soap bubbles. Follow them to the leak. Might be even better if the soap had some food dye in it.
Anandtech recently had an article where they compared two-way systems running as web servers -- AMD Opteron 248 against Intel Xeon 2.8ghz. The AMD system was a stunning 40% faster running the same applications.
I have a 12 year old Sony Trinitron that still looks as good as the day I got it as an open-box showroom special. I replaced the power supply last summer when it blew out as I knew that I'd never buy another set as well made as this for even 3 times the cost of repair.
Just got my 13 year old XBR repaired for the second time -- my power supply (high voltage) was also the culprit. I had been saying "when it dies, I'll go HDTV", but when the time came, I couldn't bear to spend $2000 on a relatively small 30" 16:9 set. So I spent $170 at a local repair shop to get it working again, and I'll take another look at HD prices in about 2-3 years. BTW, the repairman described everything built in the last 6 years as "crap".
I'll probably go with another CRT design. From what I'm reading, plasma gets bad phospher burn-in, and tends to die (don't know why) after 4 years or so. LCD's have the problem of the backlight burning out after about 3 years, plus you have the standard dead/stuck pixels to deal with (for the price, there should be zero stuck/dead pixels!).
For example, here in the US 3G services are sold by AT&T as "MWave" and Sprint as "Vision". Neither vendor actually explains users why they want these services.
I have Sprint PCS-Vision on my PDA-phone, and it's quite nice. Besides the usual: Check the weather, Get stock quotes, Transfer money to my checking account, etc. I'm able to use it as a modem for the laptop. I usually get 115kbps (twice as fast as dial-up), and that came in handy over the holidays when I had to download patches for a relative's virus-infected PC. No problems with coverage so far -- If I'm in the digital service area, I get Vision service too.
What I'm hearing is the difference between what a fighter pilot expects a plane to do (do what I want RIGHT NOW) and what a pilot of a large plane like a commerical or bomber expects (let's carefully plan things out).
Neither of you is wrong (or right), it's just different approaches to the task of flying a plane.
Chip H.
BTW, while I was in the USAF, the closest I got to flying was a couple of hours in a T-38 simulator, and I about hurled (I was too tall and the seat wouldn't adjust down for me, and had to fly crouched down peering out the top 2" of the windscreen). I have the utmost respect for someone who does it well, unlike my 720-degree spins on the grass trying to get the rudder/brakes to respond.:-)
I was going to ask this same question, but comments.pl died on me.
The VOIP providers will need IP to POTS to IP conversion equipment. And to prevent callers from the POTS side of things needing to make long-distance calls into a new area code, that equipment needs to be colocated in the various city/area code regions, right? So why not use the same area code, but assign an exchange just for the VOIP users?
Slashdot Mirror
My guess is the original PATRIOT Act writers wanted something like the "Giving Aid & Comfort to the Enemy" laws, but couldn't quite figure out how to get around the provision that they only applied during wartime (since Congress hasn't declared war on them, it can't apply).
Chip H.
Rob - If you decide to give ISDN a try, send me an email, and I'll give you an old 3Com ISDN router I used to use (no firewall in it, but it will bond both channels for 128kbs). Chip H.
Interplanetary IP protocol
Chip H.
What if you include a pouch of silica gel in the metal ammo can with your CD's? Chip H.
I myself find this an acceptable use of the discount cards.
However, I can see some suit-happy people suing for the store selling adulterated meat. Others would sue for *not* being notified. The only way I see out of the conundrum is for a consumer opt-in to receive recall & product safety notices.
Hmmm. What if the store put the info on their website, secured by the discount card number and the holder's zip code? That way consumers could see what they've purchased over the past 90 days or so, and if any of it was covered by a product safety notice. The stores could also use it to do collaborative filtering: "People who bought Captain Crunch also bought milk!"
Chip H.
If WalMart makes up a significant part of your business, they then have control over your business, and are able to mandate that you do things that will increase your costs. Like RFID tags, like using their SKUs & product IDs, like lowering your price each year (whether your costs have gone up or not).
If I were running a small business, I would avoid selling to them, as ultimately they will drive me out of business, or force me to lay off my loyal employees for those in lower-cost foreign countries.
Chip H.
It's not.
The Pioneer laserdisc (as the name implies) used a laser to read the disc. The discs were either single or dual-sided, and came in 12" and 8" sizes. This contactless system means that the discs can last practically forever (not withstanding glue problems on the two halves of the disc).
The RCA system used an actual pickup that rode on the disc. Because the disc was sensitive to rough handling, it came in a large hard plastic sleeve. You would flip a lever on the front of the player, insert the sleeve, flip the lever back, and play that side. To watch the other side you would have to reverse the process and turn the sleeve over. The "needle" (I think it was a piezo crystal) would wear out eventually, as well as the discs themselves.
Chip H.
It's worth noting that pop-ups and pop-unders are the most effective, lucrative and annoying online advertising form.
Lucrative? That's because people were accidentally clicking on the ad in their haste to hit the close button.
Chip H.
I was going to drop my WorldPerks (frequent flier miles) from them, but then I decided to just let them rot -- for accounting purposes they are a liability to them. In the meantime I'll fly Honda air.
Chip H.
OK, no "Moon Unit Zappa" jokes, and no "Oooo, it's too expensive" comments.
The first astronauts to spend a significant amount of time on the moon have a "chicken and the egg" problem: They need to construct a shelter to protect them from solar storms and cosmic radiation, yet they need somewhere to live while building it. This seems like an opportunity for slashdotters to practice their robotics skills by building some teleoperated bulldozers.
This could even be a good opportunity for some corporate product placement -- Imagine yellow Caterpiller or green John Deere heavy equipment being shown to a worldwide audience: "When NASA needed to build a home on the moon, they came to for our construction expertise!"
Chip H.
What if I want to pay cash instead of using my RFID wristwatch? I pull up to the drive-thru window, but because my watch is close enough to the receiver to be picked up, it automatically registers my payment, despite my yelling at the droid behind the register: "Wait wait! I have money!"
I think the RFID system would be better if I had to press a button on the watch to register my acceptance of their payment request.
Chip H.
Link to Installation/Removal instructions
I'm not a Lego nut, but I appreciate the folks who are able to build cathedrals, etc. out of them.
One question - are there "Builder's Guides" available to lead you through building the wilder objects? I figure there's a lot of people out there (like me) who have good mechanical skills, but don't have an artistic bone in their body, and would like to try and build some of this cool stuff.
Chip H.
According to the Social Security Administration's yearly report on my benefits, in 1988 I made a grand total of $3712 for the year. I think I know what it's like to be poor, fuck you very much. I got where I am today by working hard, getting my degree, and making good decisions. IOW, nothing that anyone else couldn't do if only they had the guts. Chip H.
Anyone know what the adoption rate of IPv6 is for the major broadband ISPs? TimeWarner/Comcast, etc?
What with Win95 being EOL'd, a fair number of them will be upgrading to Windows XP (or Linux, OK?) with it's built-in support. Maybe the best approach would be from the bottom up?
Chip H.
Let me tell you what's really going on with this proposal. Through a series of tax cuts and spending increases, the current administration is doggedly pursuing a "starve the beast" [pkarchive.org] strategy that will ultimately require a huge decrease in the size of the federal government, and a corresponding increase in the power of the states. Which, essentially, is what Republicans have been trying to accomplish for years. The more money the Bush administration commits us to spending over the next decade or two, the greater the pressure to reduce spending in other areas such as Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, education, and social services.
You're assuming that the majority of people want all those social programs. I for one, do not.
Chip H.
The optimist in me would like to think that this law will be repealed pretty quickly once Congress realizes that it can be used against them in an investigation of campaign finances.
The pessimist in me thinks that Congress will simply amend it to make themselves exempt, given that several legislators opposed it in debate, but voted for it anyway.
Chip H.
If you're a victim of identity theft, you'll need to get that finger cut off.
Chip H.
"No, I'm *not* a member of the Yakuza."
How about:
Turn off the air blowers (temporarily) in each module, and blow some soap bubbles. Follow them to the leak. Might be even better if the soap had some food dye in it.
Chip H.
Anandtech recently had an article where they compared two-way systems running as web servers -- AMD Opteron 248 against Intel Xeon 2.8ghz. The AMD system was a stunning 40% faster running the same applications.
Chip H.
You can, but you have to speak Hindi in order to place your order.
Chip H.
I have a 12 year old Sony Trinitron that still looks as good as the day I got it as an open-box showroom special. I replaced the power supply last summer when it blew out as I knew that I'd never buy another set as well made as this for even 3 times the cost of repair.
Just got my 13 year old XBR repaired for the second time -- my power supply (high voltage) was also the culprit. I had been saying "when it dies, I'll go HDTV", but when the time came, I couldn't bear to spend $2000 on a relatively small 30" 16:9 set. So I spent $170 at a local repair shop to get it working again, and I'll take another look at HD prices in about 2-3 years. BTW, the repairman described everything built in the last 6 years as "crap".
I'll probably go with another CRT design. From what I'm reading, plasma gets bad phospher burn-in, and tends to die (don't know why) after 4 years or so. LCD's have the problem of the backlight burning out after about 3 years, plus you have the standard dead/stuck pixels to deal with (for the price, there should be zero stuck/dead pixels!).
Chip H.
For example, here in the US 3G services are sold by AT&T as "MWave" and Sprint as "Vision". Neither vendor actually explains users why they want these services.
I have Sprint PCS-Vision on my PDA-phone, and it's quite nice. Besides the usual: Check the weather, Get stock quotes, Transfer money to my checking account, etc. I'm able to use it as a modem for the laptop. I usually get 115kbps (twice as fast as dial-up), and that came in handy over the holidays when I had to download patches for a relative's virus-infected PC. No problems with coverage so far -- If I'm in the digital service area, I get Vision service too.
Chip H.
What I'm hearing is the difference between what a fighter pilot expects a plane to do (do what I want RIGHT NOW) and what a pilot of a large plane like a commerical or bomber expects (let's carefully plan things out).
:-)
Neither of you is wrong (or right), it's just different approaches to the task of flying a plane.
Chip H. BTW, while I was in the USAF, the closest I got to flying was a couple of hours in a T-38 simulator, and I about hurled (I was too tall and the seat wouldn't adjust down for me, and had to fly crouched down peering out the top 2" of the windscreen). I have the utmost respect for someone who does it well, unlike my 720-degree spins on the grass trying to get the rudder/brakes to respond.
I was going to ask this same question, but comments.pl died on me.
The VOIP providers will need IP to POTS to IP conversion equipment. And to prevent callers from the POTS side of things needing to make long-distance calls into a new area code, that equipment needs to be colocated in the various city/area code regions, right? So why not use the same area code, but assign an exchange just for the VOIP users?
Chip H.