When I first read the account of what his icon graphic was, I thought.....0wn3d!!!...and then I thought about what the teacher would think and yea, I can obviously understand why he is upset. Even so, I used to see stuff like that all the time in Counterstrike or BF2. Nasty names. Intimidating chat. Constant taunts. (fine by me, btw) Remember the spray paints? Yea, some of them would be threatening if presented in the real world. But, it's all about context. In the game, it was fine. In real life, it's not. It doesn't say, and I hate to even bring this up, but does he, by chance, play video games?
Is it possible that he was "speaking" in gamerspeak and trying (poorly) to be funny in that way? Remember, it's context. I see stuff like this all the time in the games I play and nobody seriously thinks it's a threat. And I can totally see how some of that would carry over into IM (ie: Xfire). Was he tryng to make a digital joke that failed flatly?
I am an anti-regulation guy, generally. But it appears to me that as long as the internet is a "private affair" -- unlike power, phones, sewage, etc -- the result of ALL of this is going to be negative for society.
I hate to say this but I think internet access needs to be deemed a public utility and enjoy the same regulation to assure that. And I never thought I would say that.
The problem is: both sides have a point. It may not be the point you want but you have to realize that maximizing revenue is what a company is supposed to do. And they will do it until we (the customers) or the government say "no more". In most cases, the market strikes a pretty fair balance. If you don't like a product/company, you go to another one. The "bad" one loses business and dies away. The "good" one you now buy from suceeds and profits. However, in this case, the market just does not provide enough efficiency to assure fairness because of the high barriers to entry (much like power and power lines - there is one supplier in many markets).
Take power for example. We all know that power is key to survival. And there is a reason your power company can not charge you $10,000/mWh. The government (via public utility commissions) won't let them do that. In fact, the PUC's are supposed to guarantee that things are "fair" for both parties. ie: the company providing the power makes a reasonable profit and the customers pay a reasonable price. We all know they COULD charge $10,000/mWh - and we would pay it, but most of us also realize that would be a bad thing in the long run.
Until internet access has some kind of classification like this, we will continue to see this boxing match play out. And the end result will be bad for us, the people.
Went from 20/40 in both eyes to 20/10 in both eyes. Custom lasik. Roughly $1000/eye. And it was the best money I have *ever* spent. (Well, except for my Tivo, maybe)
I can not emphasize enough how much this has changed my life. I - truly - never realized how much texture is present in the world. Yea, it's that big of a difference.
Had it done about 3 years ago. All went smoothly. No complications, no issues. I haven't even thought about it until reading this thread. And I live an "active lifestyle" (mountain biking, softball, flag football, etc)
Could he have gotten around all of this by making his signup and "application" to join a private community? Seems like an easy way to avoid all this mess and it also seems more solid from a legal defense standpoint.
An application does not imply acceptance. Just that you WANT to join. It does not mean the site has to accept you.
Sidenote: This is why Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol. At the time, he was in a tiff with Sony/Warner Bros. So he changed his name AND owned the trademark/copyright on the Prince symbol. Once he did that, he could deny Sony the use of that symbol (and anyone else he didn't agree with). He owned the "font" for the symbol, you might say. And he owned all typeblocks of the symbol. In other words, if you wanted to print that symbol -- at all -- then you had to get Prince's permission.
But Sony (and others) just routed around it and started calling him "the artist formerly known as Prince".
The wiki is a little light on the details but you can get the jist of it here. While not specifically mentioned, it's easy to see how this was supposed to work (and didn't). And I have heard interviews with Prince since that time where he talks about the trademark/copyright issues involved.
Because it's a CIVIL case. As opposed to a criminal case. Criminal cases are the "break down the door" guys. Civil cases are, generally, person(or corp) to person(or corp). More here
When it's a criminal case, you hear from the police and District attorneys (County, city, state, federal). That's why there was no raid.
Jeez, you guys act like this is "just a product" and it's wayyyy more than that, when your national security infrastructure is being manufactured outside the US. There is nothing to prevent the Chinese from supplying the same thing to us and I am quite sure they have the technical competency to pull it off.
Don't confuse randomness with not knowing how it works. Perhaps it just LOOKS random because we don't see or understand the pattern/function yet?
It seems to me that there are definitely some "rules" for evolution, although our understanding of them and how they work is very very limited -- for now. I mean, we don't see trees evolving into dogs and vice versa. So clearly there are some constraints on what can and can not be done within evolution.
But it's a hard thing to study because we've only been here (and been smart enough) for a very short period of time, evolution-wise.
All kinds of steel will weaken with high temps. This is certainly true in valves because we deal with high pressures and we have to be able to contain that pressure. So any weakness in materials is a BIG deal. ASME has guidelines for all of this (ie: ANSI 150#, ANSI 300#, etc...). Those guidelines tell you how high you can take the pressure at a given temperature. And it is followed religously throughout the plant and manufacturing world. So I presume it is followed in the structural world as well. You will almost never hear of this balance being "pushed" or violated because it is a very well understood reality.
Carbon steel, 316 Stainless steel, 304L SS, 416 SS, 420 SS. All of them. And it doesn't take a lot of heat for it to start degrading.
The plant is not shut down. It is running and if you read the Nat'l Geographic article in the grandparent, it tells you all about the process and the plants capabilties.
The big deal about this plant is simple: it'll convert any carbon based material into oil/gas.
You know, I see this sentiment a lot. And for the most part, I agree with your post. The "terrorists" do not seem to be as great a threat as we a led to believe. I mean, think about it - they are flying OUR planes into our buidlings. It's not as if they are a well-funded, military-industrialist state or anything. They aren't making planes over there. They aren't creating NEW weapons to kill us. They aren't even making their own ammunition. They are buying most everything they use. Who knows from where.
But still, sometimes I still sit back and wonder what the ramifications would be if a nuclear bomb went off in a large city in the US. The repercussions would be enormous and unpredictable. REALLY unpredictable from a social and economic viewpoint. And that, is most certainly, a "bad thing" from any viewpoint, certainly from a capitalistic one.
I may be wrong, but I think it's that thought that worries people. As technology advances and more and more people master what we have at our disposal, there will come a time when they (the terrorists or "our enemies") will get access to a nuclear weapon. And if they can get it here, all hell will break loose.
(and I presume you agree that they ARE trying to wreak havoc over here. You don't argue that point, do you?)
That plant is a customer of mine. I have equipment there. And yes, they use turkey waste as their fuel (there is a turkey plant down the street). It works. I can't say whether it scales well but that plant - in Carthage, MO - seems to be doing just fine.
BTW, thanks for the link. I hadn't seen that article before. Its a great explanation of the process.
For those with XP Home edition, there is no remote desktop. VNC is a reasonable and free solution.
I like VNC BECAUSE it's simple, effective, and ridiculously easy to setup. Makes troubleshooting remotely very easy. But I run it over tunnels, not in the open. Additionally, you can use a java client to connect so it makes the native OS less important.
There are PLENTY of one-man businesses run out of a house in this country.
Let me give you one model that I am intimately familiar with: the sales representative model.
You represent 1 to X companies and you go around selling their stuff to YOUR customers and taking a commission. It's not cost effective for each company to have their own salesman in your area but it IS cost effective for each company to pay you a cut and have you sell many (non-competing) company's products.
This model can - and is - done out of people's homes all the time. There are countless other examples across countless other industries.
And none of them require employees, office space, rent, or other "high" expenses. Yes, there is *some* cost involved but if you can't scrape together $5k to start up, then maybe you shouldn't be in business in the first place.
(disclaimer: it does take more than "balls" but the barrier to entry is nowhere near as high as you describe. Go pick up a mag called "Agency" and you'll see PLENTY of companies looking for representation - some good, some bad.)
Then put back the limits that a corporation can only work in the one field it was originally incorporated for.
Great idea (not)! If we did that, then we could go after Apple Computer for getting into that pesky "music" business. And we could go after Berkshire Hathaway for not being in the textile industry. And after those two go down, we can go after WD-40 for being in the lubrication business instead of the oil production business.
Forcing companies to "fit" into certain molds is not the way to go about this. There is too much derivative value and derivative success that stem from businesses "branching out" from their core competency. If you restrict the products and markets they can compete in, the you - by default - restrict the free market.
(note: I am not saying the free market shouldn't have restrictions - it should in certain places (monopolies). But doing it by industry is not the way to do it)
Don't get too freaked out by it. It's just an attempt to instill some patriotism early-on. Much like France has a "french language police" to approve/deny official French words. It's not some grand secret plan to brain-wash everyone, just a normal part of "being American".
Truly, it's not that big of a deal. There are FAR worse things to worry about than the pledge of allegiance.
If by "massive cooling", you mean buy a new heatsink/fan for $50 or so, then yea - it's too much. Don't do it. But I think that's a fairly easy replacement to save $800.
And most of the 300 --> 450's I saw back in the day had 3rd party cooling. Not all, but most.
Ok, you remember how easy the Celeron 300 overclock to 450 was? Well, this is just as easy. And THAT's why it's news.
You don't have to take it to the M4d extreme and go to 4.1ghz. If you have a good motherboard and some good memory, you can up the FSB on your motherboard and easily get to 3.2ghz (from the stock 2.6ghz). And you don't need to touch the voltage to do it or watercool. Just change the setting and there's a damn good chance you won't have a problem.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, but was the Global Thermonuclear Warfare game available to be played? If not, I suppose I'll have to settle for tic-tac-doe.
I just hope they changed the password from "pencil".
When I first read the account of what his icon graphic was, I thought.....0wn3d!!! ...and then I thought about what the teacher would think and yea, I can obviously understand why he is upset. Even so, I used to see stuff like that all the time in Counterstrike or BF2. Nasty names. Intimidating chat. Constant taunts. (fine by me, btw) Remember the spray paints? Yea, some of them would be threatening if presented in the real world. But, it's all about context. In the game, it was fine. In real life, it's not. It doesn't say, and I hate to even bring this up, but does he, by chance, play video games?
Is it possible that he was "speaking" in gamerspeak and trying (poorly) to be funny in that way? Remember, it's context. I see stuff like this all the time in the games I play and nobody seriously thinks it's a threat. And I can totally see how some of that would carry over into IM (ie: Xfire). Was he tryng to make a digital joke that failed flatly?
Dude, you forgot the most important one...
2. Profit!
Only if it's in base-13.
I am an anti-regulation guy, generally. But it appears to me that as long as the internet is a "private affair" -- unlike power, phones, sewage, etc -- the result of ALL of this is going to be negative for society.
I hate to say this but I think internet access needs to be deemed a public utility and enjoy the same regulation to assure that. And I never thought I would say that.
The problem is: both sides have a point. It may not be the point you want but you have to realize that maximizing revenue is what a company is supposed to do. And they will do it until we (the customers) or the government say "no more". In most cases, the market strikes a pretty fair balance. If you don't like a product/company, you go to another one. The "bad" one loses business and dies away. The "good" one you now buy from suceeds and profits. However, in this case, the market just does not provide enough efficiency to assure fairness because of the high barriers to entry (much like power and power lines - there is one supplier in many markets).
Take power for example. We all know that power is key to survival. And there is a reason your power company can not charge you $10,000/mWh. The government (via public utility commissions) won't let them do that. In fact, the PUC's are supposed to guarantee that things are "fair" for both parties. ie: the company providing the power makes a reasonable profit and the customers pay a reasonable price. We all know they COULD charge $10,000/mWh - and we would pay it, but most of us also realize that would be a bad thing in the long run.
Until internet access has some kind of classification like this, we will continue to see this boxing match play out. And the end result will be bad for us, the people.
"The planet is fine. It's the people who are fucked up" -- George Carlin
Went from 20/40 in both eyes to 20/10 in both eyes. Custom lasik. Roughly $1000/eye. And it was the best money I have *ever* spent. (Well, except for my Tivo, maybe)
I can not emphasize enough how much this has changed my life. I - truly - never realized how much texture is present in the world. Yea, it's that big of a difference.
Had it done about 3 years ago. All went smoothly. No complications, no issues. I haven't even thought about it until reading this thread. And I live an "active lifestyle" (mountain biking, softball, flag football, etc)
That brings up a great question: what about MSFT search? Since they are located in WA, I presume they might be affected by this, no?
Could he have gotten around all of this by making his signup and "application" to join a private community? Seems like an easy way to avoid all this mess and it also seems more solid from a legal defense standpoint.
An application does not imply acceptance. Just that you WANT to join. It does not mean the site has to accept you.
Sidenote: This is why Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol. At the time, he was in a tiff with Sony/Warner Bros. So he changed his name AND owned the trademark/copyright on the Prince symbol. Once he did that, he could deny Sony the use of that symbol (and anyone else he didn't agree with). He owned the "font" for the symbol, you might say. And he owned all typeblocks of the symbol. In other words, if you wanted to print that symbol -- at all -- then you had to get Prince's permission.
But Sony (and others) just routed around it and started calling him "the artist formerly known as Prince".
The wiki is a little light on the details but you can get the jist of it here. While not specifically mentioned, it's easy to see how this was supposed to work (and didn't). And I have heard interviews with Prince since that time where he talks about the trademark/copyright issues involved.
Because it's a CIVIL case. As opposed to a criminal case. Criminal cases are the "break down the door" guys. Civil cases are, generally, person(or corp) to person(or corp). More here
When it's a criminal case, you hear from the police and District attorneys (County, city, state, federal). That's why there was no raid.
Dell has some level of control over their China operations. The same can not be said of Lenovo. It is an all-Chinese company from top to bottom.
That makes a MAJOR difference.
Am I the only one that remembers when the CIA put defective chips into a pipeline system -- and blew it up on purpose?
Jeez, you guys act like this is "just a product" and it's wayyyy more than that, when your national security infrastructure is being manufactured outside the US. There is nothing to prevent the Chinese from supplying the same thing to us and I am quite sure they have the technical competency to pull it off.
So the remedy is simple: don't buy Lenovo.
Don't confuse randomness with not knowing how it works. Perhaps it just LOOKS random because we don't see or understand the pattern/function yet?
It seems to me that there are definitely some "rules" for evolution, although our understanding of them and how they work is very very limited -- for now. I mean, we don't see trees evolving into dogs and vice versa. So clearly there are some constraints on what can and can not be done within evolution.
But it's a hard thing to study because we've only been here (and been smart enough) for a very short period of time, evolution-wise.
All kinds of steel will weaken with high temps. This is certainly true in valves because we deal with high pressures and we have to be able to contain that pressure. So any weakness in materials is a BIG deal. ASME has guidelines for all of this (ie: ANSI 150#, ANSI 300#, etc...). Those guidelines tell you how high you can take the pressure at a given temperature. And it is followed religously throughout the plant and manufacturing world. So I presume it is followed in the structural world as well. You will almost never hear of this balance being "pushed" or violated because it is a very well understood reality.
Carbon steel, 316 Stainless steel, 304L SS, 416 SS, 420 SS. All of them. And it doesn't take a lot of heat for it to start degrading.
The plant is not shut down. It is running and if you read the Nat'l Geographic article in the grandparent, it tells you all about the process and the plants capabilties.
The big deal about this plant is simple: it'll convert any carbon based material into oil/gas.
That, kind sir, is one of the best posts I have ever seen on /.
Thanks for the perspective. Sometimes, all of us forget.
You know, I see this sentiment a lot. And for the most part, I agree with your post. The "terrorists" do not seem to be as great a threat as we a led to believe. I mean, think about it - they are flying OUR planes into our buidlings. It's not as if they are a well-funded, military-industrialist state or anything. They aren't making planes over there. They aren't creating NEW weapons to kill us. They aren't even making their own ammunition. They are buying most everything they use. Who knows from where.
But still, sometimes I still sit back and wonder what the ramifications would be if a nuclear bomb went off in a large city in the US. The repercussions would be enormous and unpredictable. REALLY unpredictable from a social and economic viewpoint. And that, is most certainly, a "bad thing" from any viewpoint, certainly from a capitalistic one.
I may be wrong, but I think it's that thought that worries people. As technology advances and more and more people master what we have at our disposal, there will come a time when they (the terrorists or "our enemies") will get access to a nuclear weapon. And if they can get it here, all hell will break loose.
(and I presume you agree that they ARE trying to wreak havoc over here. You don't argue that point, do you?)
That plant is a customer of mine. I have equipment there. And yes, they use turkey waste as their fuel (there is a turkey plant down the street). It works. I can't say whether it scales well but that plant - in Carthage, MO - seems to be doing just fine.
BTW, thanks for the link. I hadn't seen that article before. Its a great explanation of the process.
For those with XP Home edition, there is no remote desktop. VNC is a reasonable and free solution.
I like VNC BECAUSE it's simple, effective, and ridiculously easy to setup. Makes troubleshooting remotely very easy. But I run it over tunnels, not in the open. Additionally, you can use a java client to connect so it makes the native OS less important.
There are PLENTY of one-man businesses run out of a house in this country.
Let me give you one model that I am intimately familiar with: the sales representative model.
You represent 1 to X companies and you go around selling their stuff to YOUR customers and taking a commission. It's not cost effective for each company to have their own salesman in your area but it IS cost effective for each company to pay you a cut and have you sell many (non-competing) company's products.
This model can - and is - done out of people's homes all the time. There are countless other examples across countless other industries.
And none of them require employees, office space, rent, or other "high" expenses. Yes, there is *some* cost involved but if you can't scrape together $5k to start up, then maybe you shouldn't be in business in the first place.
(disclaimer: it does take more than "balls" but the barrier to entry is nowhere near as high as you describe. Go pick up a mag called "Agency" and you'll see PLENTY of companies looking for representation - some good, some bad.)
Then put back the limits that a corporation can only work in the one field it was originally incorporated for.
Great idea (not)! If we did that, then we could go after Apple Computer for getting into that pesky "music" business. And we could go after Berkshire Hathaway for not being in the textile industry. And after those two go down, we can go after WD-40 for being in the lubrication business instead of the oil production business.
Forcing companies to "fit" into certain molds is not the way to go about this. There is too much derivative value and derivative success that stem from businesses "branching out" from their core competency. If you restrict the products and markets they can compete in, the you - by default - restrict the free market.
(note: I am not saying the free market shouldn't have restrictions - it should in certain places (monopolies). But doing it by industry is not the way to do it)
Don't get too freaked out by it. It's just an attempt to instill some patriotism early-on. Much like France has a "french language police" to approve/deny official French words. It's not some grand secret plan to brain-wash everyone, just a normal part of "being American".
Truly, it's not that big of a deal. There are FAR worse things to worry about than the pledge of allegiance.
If by "massive cooling", you mean buy a new heatsink/fan for $50 or so, then yea - it's too much. Don't do it. But I think that's a fairly easy replacement to save $800.
And most of the 300 --> 450's I saw back in the day had 3rd party cooling. Not all, but most.
Ok, you remember how easy the Celeron 300 overclock to 450 was? Well, this is just as easy. And THAT's why it's news.
You don't have to take it to the M4d extreme and go to 4.1ghz. If you have a good motherboard and some good memory, you can up the FSB on your motherboard and easily get to 3.2ghz (from the stock 2.6ghz). And you don't need to touch the voltage to do it or watercool. Just change the setting and there's a damn good chance you won't have a problem.
It's a $130 processor that, with a minor tweak, can perform like a $1000 processor.