> Oh, go on. Indulge me: Why is it illegal to tamper with or > just read (snail) mail intended for others? Remember, you > can't cite privacy since you apparently don't think that's > the reason.
Tampering with postal mail has been a federal felony for a very long time. Further, removing or putting postal mail in a mailbox is considered tampering. Just ask a lawyer or a postmaster.
Since postal mail is in sealed envelopes, there is also an expectation of privacy. Whereas postcards are not, so there is no expectation of privacy.
The post office even has a nice poster saying tampering with the mail will get you a new home, new friends and new job - in prison.
> Yes socialism has produced repressive states like North > Korea. But how can you claim that communist society has > produced one.
China I believe claims to be a communist state, not a socialist one.
>> "I've seen successful communes, but only in the >> relatively short term. " > > I know that everything is relative, but are you seriously > claiming that example history of Iroqui tribe was > succesfull only short period of time.
I was speaking about communes I've personally seen. I grew up at a time and in the neighborhood of several. One of them, a religious society, which is now almost defunct did have a long history (well over a century). The other communes didn't last long.
I was unable to find any discussion of Iroquois society as being communist, per se. The longhouse concept is more clan-oriented, from what I gather. So, communal in the extended familial sense, not communist in the economic sense. I am not knowledgable about them, despite having ancestors from the tribe.
> Uh...no. Maybe you're thinking of socialism. In Communism, > EVERYTHING is controlled by the government.
Socialism: an economic system in which the means of production are controlled by the state
Communism: a political theory derived from Marxism, advocating a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person is paid and works according to his or her needs and abilities
Of course, you can find different definitions of each of them.
Neither of these systems seem fundamentally contradictory with a democratic government. As envisioned, they are more economic systems, than political. In practice, they both have produced repressive societies. How much is due to the economic system is a subject for debate, of course.
I've seen successful communes, but only in the relatively short term. For them to be successful, there seems to need to be a unity of purpose that seems inconsistent with a democratic, pluralistic society.
> Yes, OpenOffice allows one to insert an image into an RTF > file, but when you save it, OpenOffice will save the image > as a separate file which is LINKED TO from the RTF file. If > that exernal image file gets misplaced, the RTF file will > display a broken placeholder for the image.
I stand corrected. I just tested that too. OpenOffice will open a RTF with an embedded image created in another program without a problem. But, creating the RTF from OpenOffice does create a linked file, even if the Graphic setting is not to link a file.
> rtf is a simple format, it isn't even consistent among all > programs, eg, ms word supports images in rtf, oo.o doesn't
Open Office does support images in RTF. I just tested it. Whether RTF is a simple or consistent format is another matter. I have successfully used RTF for years and had no issues of compatibility during that time, irregardless of the platforms involved (Windows, Mac, Linux; MS Office, Open Office, Lotus WordPro, etc.)
> It's actually not that hard to find a T-mobile hotspot. > There's a Starbucks practically on every block.
Uh. I've never seen a Starbucks. I had to search their web site to determine there were three in my entire State. Please do not assume a ubiquity that you may experience in a major urban location for the rest of the world. Most of the world is not like that.
I have 768 MB RAM, a 1.8 GHz Xeon, 7200 rpm IDE H/D. It takes about 1/4 second to come back as far as I can tell. Definitely way less than a second. Don't generalize your problem to everyone - unless you know everyone and have used their systems.
(At which point you are omniscient, so why are you reading Slashdot - you would already know everything.:-)
> I guess I'm not sure how to make my point more clear, but > I'll try. I was basically trying to imply that if instead of > speaking english or other languages, we spoke perl/c/etc, it > would be "natural". > Anyway, as I said before, our tendancy to use language to > communicate is instinctual, the languages we use are not, > and that was the main point (although poorly conveyed) of my > post.
From what I understand of Chomsky, aspects of Natural Languages appear to be instinctual. There are deep structures in natural languages which do not exist in computer languages. So, a purely artificial language, such as a computer language, would never be a "natural language" because it doesn't match the biological deep structure.
That is not to say we couldn't build such a language eventually, but I doubt we know enough about our own language development to do that now.
Of course, most (if not all) current computer languages are designed to solve specific classes of problems, not as a generalized method of communication about the world and one's self within it. So, none are suitable for use as a natural language.
I'd have to go run out and buy something to even haveany LEDs at home, let alone be bothered by them. I can't think of anything I own which has any. I must nearly be unique nowadays.
For the record, I own a technology company, but I keep that stuff at work. At home, I don't have a TV, computer or any other electronics.
Wait... Wait... My bread machine has a red LED. So, I guess I'm not unique. Oh well.
> You'd think that someone clever enough to create a live linux CD would have heard of BitTorrent by now.
You'd think someone clever enough to point it out would realize that they already have a torrent link on their page. (Rather than just jumping to a conclusion and looking like a fool.)
On their page: http://www.localareasecurity.com/index.php?option= content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=28
From the article: All states have provisions for "use tax,"
This is not true. New Hampshire has no sales or income tax. There is no use tax provisions. There are a number of other states without sales taxes and/or income taxes.
It makes me rather doubt the competence of the author who apparently didn't do basic research on his topic.
> If you are not making totally browser agnostic sites, > with no consideration for what browser they may be using, > then you are taking the position of Microsoft: "Let's > commandeer the html standard so that ppl write for our > browsers instead of according to standards!"
Not right. You can build pages that conform to HTML standards which won't work right in IE due to defects in IE's handling of the HTML standards. This style sheet appears to work around those bugs in IE. Those same standards-compliant pages may well work (or not work) in Mozilla, etc. So, you aren't creating pages that only work in a specific browser, you are creating pages that are valid, standard HTML code - that won't work in IE. There's a difference.
Of course, you can also create pages like that that fail in other browsers. IE is the most prevalent and, arguably, visibly deficient of them.
Re:Take down a space station
on
Space Burial
·
· Score: 5, Informative
According to this article (http://www.space.com/spacewatch/space_junk.html):
"A 1999 study estimated there are some 4 million pounds of space junk in low-Earth orbit, just one part of a celestial sea of roughly 110,000 objects larger than 1 centimeter -- each big enough to damage a satellite or space-based telescope."
Of them, "8,927 are man-made objects which are officially tracked."
AFAIK, the notary dates back to the Roman Empire. It is a component of likely every civil law system since. The notary existed before the Napoleonic Code, however, it was refined and developed further under the Code. Of course, America's legal system is derived more from common law, than civil law. The public notary has been part of the American legal system since before the country was founded. I do grant that the role of the notary is more formalized and mayhap stronger under the Napoleonic Code.
I do agree there are defects under the common law systems. There are also defects under the civil law systems and under the Napoleonic Code. All legal systems (or any other systems) have defects. We have to work them out. That is one of our roles in a civil society.
None of which is particularly relevant to source code escrow, since that doesn't require anything other than an independent third party - if that.
I've done source code escrow for code I've written, or made sure it was added to contracts for code hired or purchased by others, for close to thirty years. Most of the time no third party has been used. It's just been a clause saying that the source code was available at the office of the developer. That gave them the right to get the source code if the default conditions in the contract applied. The defaults included dissolution of the developer, inability or refusal of the developer to support the product, etc.
When we used a third party, it was a third party lawyer, or safe deposit box at a bank, the developer's lawyer, a third party developer who agreed to take over development, etc.
A more formalized source code escrow mechanism would be beneficial to everyone. As most/. readers I have not read the article, so (unlike most/. readers) I can't actually comment on it.
What if the maximum resolution it can display is 640x480x256 color? And you need more for your applications.
What if it is black and white? And you need color.
What if it isn't a VGA monitor (it is CGA, EGA, TTL)? Most everything now requires VGA.
There are many cases where you cannot use an old monitor. As much as I would like to, I've had to discard literally hundreds over the years.
It's like saying horses failed, because we now have cars.
They had their time. They were ubiquitous throughout the graphics industry and are still widely used. I do agree that the newer Zip drive formats are less popular and less needed today. They do still fill a niche. Kind of like horses still fill niche today.
At the time 100 MB Zip drives were sold, CD burners were several hundred dollars (definitely much more than the Zip drives) and CD burners had reliability & performance issues.
I'm puzzled over the claim of lack of Windows support. From the very beginning even the parallel port Zip drives worked with Windows. Albeit, the parallel port ones were poor performers. But they were comparable in speed to many of the CD burners at that time. The IDE Zip drives (and now USB) have no such problems.
Zip disks were not without problems, of course. But they did solve a problem then and still solve some problems now.
In no way is that a failure. Just because the time for a technology has passed, does it make it a failure. By that definition of failure, everything is a failure because its time has (or will) pass.
I neglected to include a very useful tool: HTMLDOC (http://www.easysw.com/htmldoc/). It will convert an HTML page into PDF without Distiller, etc. It is GPL.
You can then print the HTML document scaled to paper size using Adobe Acrobat.
Contrary to many posters, this is a good question. It is actually rather hard to do.
Of course, a web page is meant to be rendered in a browser and printing is a secondary consideration for most. Some material just has to be printed - for legal, archival purposes, for usefulness out on the shop floor by machine operators, etc.
I've encountered the problem often. The extremely wide web pages are typically generated by a database (for example, SAP (accounting) reports, HUD material) or converted spreadsheets.
HUD (US Housing and Urban Development agency) uses specific tags in their database generated web pages and a tool (HTML Scissors - http://www.faico.net/hscissor/) to split the pages up into printable chunks. The tool works, albeit the solution is imperfect.
The better solution that several have mentioned is to print to PDF and manipulate that. If you have Adobe Acrobat (the Writer) or Distiller, that works.
The last is to import into some HTML editor and reformat it. This requires the most effort, and, if the material is many columns of numbers, can be difficult to see if you've bolixed something up.
Other than the Mac IE print to fit feature, I have not found a simple solution - and would like to myself.
Slashdot Mirror
> Oh, go on. Indulge me: Why is it illegal to tamper with or
y /m ailtampering.htm
> just read (snail) mail intended for others? Remember, you
> can't cite privacy since you apparently don't think that's
> the reason.
Tampering with postal mail has been a federal felony for a very long time. Further, removing or putting postal mail in a mailbox is considered tampering. Just ask a lawyer or a postmaster.
Since postal mail is in sealed envelopes, there is also an expectation of privacy. Whereas postcards are not, so there is no expectation of privacy.
The post office even has a nice poster saying tampering with the mail will get you a new home, new friends and new job - in prison.
Mail Tampering Poster
or, if the link breaks,
http://www.usps.com/communications/news/securit
I thought this was common knowledge. It was when I was a kid, decades ago.
> Yes socialism has produced repressive states like North
> Korea. But how can you claim that communist society has
> produced one.
China I believe claims to be a communist state, not a socialist one.
>> "I've seen successful communes, but only in the
>> relatively short term. "
>
> I know that everything is relative, but are you seriously
> claiming that example history of Iroqui tribe was
> succesfull only short period of time.
I was speaking about communes I've personally seen. I grew up at a time and in the neighborhood of several. One of them, a religious society, which is now almost defunct did have a long history (well over a century). The other communes didn't last long.
I was unable to find any discussion of Iroquois society as being communist, per se. The longhouse concept is more clan-oriented, from what I gather. So, communal in the extended familial sense, not communist in the economic sense. I am not knowledgable about them, despite having ancestors from the tribe.
> Uh...no. Maybe you're thinking of socialism. In Communism,
> EVERYTHING is controlled by the government.
Socialism: an economic system in which the means of production are controlled by the state
Communism: a political theory derived from Marxism, advocating a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person is paid and works according to his or her needs and abilities
Of course, you can find different definitions of each of them.
Neither of these systems seem fundamentally contradictory with a democratic government. As envisioned, they are more economic systems, than political. In practice, they both have produced repressive societies. How much is due to the economic system is a subject for debate, of course.
I've seen successful communes, but only in the relatively short term. For them to be successful, there seems to need to be a unity of purpose that seems inconsistent with a democratic, pluralistic society.
> Yes, OpenOffice allows one to insert an image into an RTF
> file, but when you save it, OpenOffice will save the image
> as a separate file which is LINKED TO from the RTF file. If
> that exernal image file gets misplaced, the RTF file will
> display a broken placeholder for the image.
I stand corrected. I just tested that too. OpenOffice will open a RTF with an embedded image created in another program without a problem. But, creating the RTF from OpenOffice does create a linked file, even if the Graphic setting is not to link a file.
> rtf is a simple format, it isn't even consistent among all
> programs, eg, ms word supports images in rtf, oo.o doesn't
Open Office does support images in RTF. I just tested it.
Whether RTF is a simple or consistent format is another matter.
I have successfully used RTF for years and had no issues of compatibility during that time, irregardless of the platforms involved (Windows, Mac, Linux; MS Office, Open Office, Lotus WordPro, etc.)
> It's actually not that hard to find a T-mobile hotspot.
> There's a Starbucks practically on every block.
Uh. I've never seen a Starbucks. I had to search their web site to determine there were three in my entire State. Please do not assume a ubiquity that you may experience in a major urban location for the rest of the world. Most of the world is not like that.
Uh... I don't know that.
:-)
I have 768 MB RAM, a 1.8 GHz Xeon, 7200 rpm IDE H/D. It takes about 1/4 second to come back as far as I can tell. Definitely way less than a second. Don't generalize your problem to everyone - unless you know everyone and have used their systems.
(At which point you are omniscient, so why are you reading Slashdot - you would already know everything.
> I guess I'm not sure how to make my point more clear, but
> I'll try. I was basically trying to imply that if instead of
> speaking english or other languages, we spoke perl/c/etc, it
> would be "natural".
> Anyway, as I said before, our tendancy to use language to
> communicate is instinctual, the languages we use are not,
> and that was the main point (although poorly conveyed) of my
> post.
From what I understand of Chomsky, aspects of Natural Languages appear to be instinctual. There are deep structures in natural languages which do not exist in computer languages. So, a purely artificial language, such as a computer language, would never be a "natural language" because it doesn't match the biological deep structure.
That is not to say we couldn't build such a language eventually, but I doubt we know enough about our own language development to do that now.
Of course, most (if not all) current computer languages are designed to solve specific classes of problems, not as a generalized method of communication about the world and one's self within it. So, none are suitable for use as a natural language.
For the record, I own a technology company, but I keep that stuff at work. At home, I don't have a TV, computer or any other electronics.
Wait... Wait... My bread machine has a red LED. So, I guess I'm not unique. Oh well.
> You'd think that someone clever enough to create a live linux CD would have heard of BitTorrent by now.
= content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=28
You'd think someone clever enough to point it out would realize that they already have a torrent link on their page. (Rather than just jumping to a conclusion and looking like a fool.)
On their page: http://www.localareasecurity.com/index.php?option
Torrents - http://onyx.chattanoogastate.edu:6970/
From the article:
All states have provisions for "use tax,"
This is not true. New Hampshire has no sales or income tax. There is no use tax provisions. There are a number of other states without sales taxes and/or income taxes.
It makes me rather doubt the competence of the author who apparently didn't do basic research on his topic.
> If you are not making totally browser agnostic sites,
> with no consideration for what browser they may be using,
> then you are taking the position of Microsoft: "Let's
> commandeer the html standard so that ppl write for our
> browsers instead of according to standards!"
Not right. You can build pages that conform to HTML standards which won't work right in IE due to defects in IE's handling of the HTML standards. This style sheet appears to work around those bugs in IE. Those same standards-compliant pages may well work (or not work) in Mozilla, etc. So, you aren't creating pages that only work in a specific browser, you are creating pages that are valid, standard HTML code - that won't work in IE. There's a difference.
Of course, you can also create pages like that that fail in other browsers. IE is the most prevalent and, arguably, visibly deficient of them.
According to this article (http://www.space.com/spacewatch/space_junk.html):
"A 1999 study estimated there are some 4 million pounds of space junk in low-Earth orbit, just one part of a celestial sea of roughly 110,000 objects larger than 1 centimeter -- each big enough to damage a satellite or space-based telescope."
Of them, "8,927 are man-made objects which are officially tracked."
AFAIK, the notary dates back to the Roman Empire. It is a component of likely every civil law system since. The notary existed before the Napoleonic Code, however, it was refined and developed further under the Code. Of course, America's legal system is derived more from common law, than civil law. The public notary has been part of the American legal system since before the country was founded. I do grant that the role of the notary is more formalized and mayhap stronger under the Napoleonic Code.
/. readers I have not read the article, so (unlike most /. readers) I can't actually comment on it.
I do agree there are defects under the common law systems. There are also defects under the civil law systems and under the Napoleonic Code. All legal systems (or any other systems) have defects. We have to work them out. That is one of our roles in a civil society.
None of which is particularly relevant to source code escrow, since that doesn't require anything other than an independent third party - if that.
I've done source code escrow for code I've written, or made sure it was added to contracts for code hired or purchased by others, for close to thirty years. Most of the time no third party has been used. It's just been a clause saying that the source code was available at the office of the developer. That gave them the right to get the source code if the default conditions in the contract applied. The defaults included dissolution of the developer, inability or refusal of the developer to support the product, etc.
When we used a third party, it was a third party lawyer, or safe deposit box at a bank, the developer's lawyer, a third party developer who agreed to take over development, etc.
A more formalized source code escrow mechanism would be beneficial to everyone. As most
What if the maximum resolution it can display is 640x480x256 color? And you need more for your applications. What if it is black and white? And you need color. What if it isn't a VGA monitor (it is CGA, EGA, TTL)? Most everything now requires VGA. There are many cases where you cannot use an old monitor. As much as I would like to, I've had to discard literally hundreds over the years.
I can't imagine why you think Zip drives failed.
It's like saying horses failed, because we now have cars.
They had their time. They were ubiquitous throughout the graphics industry and are still widely used. I do agree that the newer Zip drive formats are less popular and less needed today. They do still fill a niche. Kind of like horses still fill niche today.
At the time 100 MB Zip drives were sold, CD burners were several hundred dollars (definitely much more than the Zip drives) and CD burners had reliability & performance issues.
I'm puzzled over the claim of lack of Windows support. From the very beginning even the parallel port Zip drives worked with Windows. Albeit, the parallel port ones were poor performers. But they were comparable in speed to many of the CD burners at that time. The IDE Zip drives (and now USB) have no such problems.
Zip disks were not without problems, of course. But they did solve a problem then and still solve some problems now.
In no way is that a failure. Just because the time for a technology has passed, does it make it a failure. By that definition of failure, everything is a failure because its time has (or will) pass.
Or it's a startup with 240 technicians & has been in business all of one month.
I neglected to include a very useful tool: HTMLDOC (http://www.easysw.com/htmldoc/). It will convert an HTML page into PDF without Distiller, etc. It is GPL.
You can then print the HTML document scaled to paper size using Adobe Acrobat.
Contrary to many posters, this is a good question. It is actually rather hard to do.
Of course, a web page is meant to be rendered in a browser and printing is a secondary consideration for most. Some material just has to be printed - for legal, archival purposes, for usefulness out on the shop floor by machine operators, etc.
I've encountered the problem often. The extremely wide web pages are typically generated by a database (for example, SAP (accounting) reports, HUD material) or converted spreadsheets.
HUD (US Housing and Urban Development agency) uses specific tags in their database generated web pages and a tool (HTML Scissors - http://www.faico.net/hscissor/) to split the pages up into printable chunks. The tool works, albeit the solution is imperfect.
The better solution that several have mentioned is to print to PDF and manipulate that. If you have Adobe Acrobat (the Writer) or Distiller, that works.
The last is to import into some HTML editor and reformat it. This requires the most effort, and, if the material is many columns of numbers, can be difficult to see if you've bolixed something up.
Other than the Mac IE print to fit feature, I have not found a simple solution - and would like to myself.
Actually, Network Associates is eliminating PGP according to this article (in French):h tm l
http://news.zdnet.fr/story/0,,t118-s2097672,00.