TOR Books, one of the largest publishers of Science Fiction and Fantasy in North America *might* have some problem with this...Methinks that I should let David Hartwell know...and the wonderful people at EFF...
It's instant-on software is an embed version of Linux! Supercool! I want one!
And street pricing seems to be about $250 for it...so it's cheap! Now that's just a bare-bones system, but still, you could have a nice PVR for under $600 USD!
One ofthe best fictional examinations of the whole "CyberRights" is David Gerrold's book "When HARLIE was One". I *HIGHLY* recommend finding an old copy, before he revised it, as I feel the revised version is not as good as the original. But either is a good examination of the problem, from both sides of the issue.
The heart of the book is a person who works for the company in the book who has developed a personal relationship with computer/program named HARLIE, and has to try and explain why the company wants to shut HARLIE down. HARLIE, given a life or death situation hacks...both the problem and the net...an excellent read!
Teachers really hate it when you have more current information about the subject they teach. My grade 9 physics teacher *hated* me since I knew more about current physics than he did...but what do you exepct? I read Scientific American every month, and at least one book on physics (one of my ongoing hobbies) a month. He had gotten his physics degree 20 years earlier, and hadn't learned a thing since then. I barely passed the course, I guess writing essays on phenomena of physics that the teacher had never heard of is not the best way to get good marks.:-(
Sorry for the rant, I *hate* the current school system, as it only makes allowance for the "average", that thing that nobody can ever be.
They are called an acoustic coupler...and Konexx makes one that is aimed at the road warrior. I have one and have been quite happy with it...It claims up to 26.4 Kbps, but that is optimistic. Realisticly, it is good enough for SSHing into your server, snarfing email, and some limited web browsing. What it does give you over any cell type connection is the ablity to connect *anywhere* that there is a phone with a handset. And as I was supporting doctors, it was a good tool to have.
Don't get me started on the Ontario School system...having suffered it through Kindergardent to sorta grade 12 (Ended up in an Alternate High School). About the only thing that made it almost worth while was the Alternate School Program in Ottawa...and I know someone who went through the INDEC Alternate High School in the GTA. Rare glimpses of light in a very dark, dank cesspool. And don't blame the Liberals, or the Conservatives (progressive or otherwise), blame it on the educational theories that aims to make factory workers when they need people who can think and solve problems....not just people who can pass tests.
This goes to show you that you don't need megabucks to do good science! To many, half of science is the challenge, not the successes, but they are nice, of course [grin].
I don't see why this mind-set couldn't be used for teaching science and computers on the high school level....Find a company that is getting rid of their dozens of old Pentium II system, get them to donate them to the highschool, and build a Beowulf or OpenMosix cluster to allow HS students to learn the fundamentals of supercomputing environments. Get a local university to help teach them...and you now have a chance of producing better educated computer geeks...and the physics & chemistry geeks and run small simulations as well.
Just an idea...
ttyl
Some humour from the past I enjoyed...
on
Humor in Games?
·
· Score: 1
One that I had a lot of fun with is " Spellcasting 101 (a.k.a. Sorcerer Gets All the Girls)". But if you wanted to go *way* back to Apple ][ days, I remember "Softporn Adventure", where, for example, if you flush the toilet, it backs up, rapidly fills the room with raw sewage, and you die from the diseases you catch from the sewage. But all described in a very silly way...
Dungeon Keep also had some very silly moments, and of course, the classic *is* HHGTTG.
Wasn't there one called "Deer's Revenge" where the deers go around with high-powered rifles/scopes and shot hunters? I wanted to pick up a copy, but I think there was some sort of controversy, hunters complaining I think, and it kinda disappeared off the shelves. Too bad.
Of course, this points out one of the problems with the idea of so-called "internet everywhere"...when every elctronic device is connected to the net, what happens when one of them freaks out and starts saturating your ISP's bandwith with ill-formed packets?
Thanx...I re-read it on my palm, as that is my fav non-paper medium for reading stuff right now. So I didn't have the URL handy at the time.
ttyl
Farrell
Undersea Cables research, and inspiration
on
Ask Neal Stephenson
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I recently re-read your article "Mother Earth, Mother Board" in WIRED magazine, and it seems that a lot of research that you did for that article inspired you greatly. Many things that are touched upon in that there crop up throughout CRYPTONOMICON and the Baroque Cycle, are you planning on ever publishing a revised or expanding that article? I would love to about the research that went into the backround/backstory of those books.
Don Kingsbury is a great writer! I have most of his books. And a really nice guy too...I've sold him a few computers over the years. TANJ, I should give him a call...
I'm with you there...I met Roger Hodgson once at an autograph session for his third solo album, and we chatted about 12-string guitars, he seemed like a nice guy. But he was really the catylist that unlocked Supertramp's genius, without him, they were just a collection of very talented musicians.
James Doohan is a war hero...a Lieutenant in The Royal Canadian Artillery he was injured by machine gun fire on Juno Beach on D-Day. He was shot in the leg and the hand, which cost him a finger. After recovering from his wounds, he became a spotter plane pilot, earning the title of "The craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Corps".
Every person who stormed the beaches on D-Day is a Hero, and to have survived nearly being killed, and getting into an even more dangerous role in the War speaks to the courage and valour Mr. Doohan has as a person, some of of which came through in his charactor of Scotty.
He should be made a member of The Order of Canada, the highest honour Canada can bestow upon it's citizens. This man has inspired many people to go on and earn degrees in engineering, and that is a great service to society. Having attended a number of his talks at Carleton University in Ottawa, I can say that I have always been impressed by him as a person.
Biometrics are a nice idea, but what happens when someone compromises your account? You have to start using your other thumb...and if that is compromised?
No, we need multi-element authentication systems that challenge users on more fronts. Tools like the ACE server, where you need you login, password and token number from a frob is a start. More work needs to be done on this problem, though.
I got tired of them rejecting my stories, only to see them appear a few days later. So on my journal here in Slashdot, I post stories that I would previously have submitted to Slashdot.
I found out a few months back some interesting things about the state of SATA RAID...most of the SATA chipset RAIDS are not hardware RAID controllers.
If you check Linux Mafia's web page on SATA controllers, you will find that very few of the SATA RAID controllers are actually hardware RAID. What their "Drivers" really are is proprietory software RAID pretending to be Hardware RAID. I think of all the SATA RAID controllers and chipsets being offered, there are only three that are really hardware RAID. And 3Ware's offering is the least expensive of the real hardware RAID.
Cynical I am occasionally, but why would Yahoo do this? They are a for-profit company, and if they got everyone to adopt this, then come out with a patent, they would reap a great deal of money from it...
It would be very like Communist governments to fabricate stories to support there ban on teenagers useing the internet. They can now say that Internet use in the past promotes gang activities...ya, sure.
Maybe some Japanese Anime or Manga artist will buy them and use them as ispiration for charactors!
ttyl
Farrell
You are programmed by your computer!
on
JOE Hits 3.0
·
· Score: 1
I always customize my environments...that is the POWER of Unix...Unix is about *tools* and building your own tool set to allow you to work in the most efficient manner.
By saying that you learned VI because it was everyware means that you are allowing the computer to tell you what to do, not vice versa. That leads to maddness!
CBC has been restoring their archives using a program/workstation called NoNoise. It has given us some wonderful resurections of Glen Gould's early works at the CBC, and allowed the band FM (inc. Nash the Slash) to "master" the CD release of their seminal Jazz/Rock Fusion album "Black Noise" from virgin vinyl...since someone stole the master tapes from the Canadian National Archives.
ttyl
Farrell McGovern
Why go into a building, even a virtual one?
on
SimChurch
·
· Score: 0
As a Druid, all I have to do is find a piece of nature, and you are in a church.
That being said, since the early days of CompuServ and IRC, ie, back in the 1980s, Neo-Pagan groups of various demonimations have been holding on-line rituals. They are wonderful to behold. But then again, I have been called a "TechnoPagan".
It matters not what you worship, even when I was Catholic, I always found Nature to be sacred.
Slashdot Mirror
TOR Books, one of the largest publishers of Science Fiction and Fantasy in North America *might* have some problem with this...Methinks that I should let David Hartwell know...and the wonderful people at EFF...
ttyl
Farrell
According to an article here:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=19922
It's instant-on software is an embed version of Linux! Supercool! I want one!
And street pricing seems to be about $250 for it...so it's cheap! Now that's just a bare-bones system, but still, you could have a nice PVR for under $600 USD!
Sweet!
ttyl
Farrell
One ofthe best fictional examinations of the whole "CyberRights" is David Gerrold's book "When HARLIE was One". I *HIGHLY* recommend finding an old copy, before he revised it, as I feel the revised version is not as good as the original. But either is a good examination of the problem, from both sides of the issue.
The heart of the book is a person who works for the company in the book who has developed a personal relationship with computer/program named HARLIE, and has to try and explain why the company wants to shut HARLIE down. HARLIE, given a life or death situation hacks...both the problem and the net...an excellent read!
ttyl
Farrell
Teachers really hate it when you have more current information about the subject they teach. My grade 9 physics teacher *hated* me since I knew more about current physics than he did...but what do you exepct? I read Scientific American every month, and at least one book on physics (one of my ongoing hobbies) a month. He had gotten his physics degree 20 years earlier, and hadn't learned a thing since then. I barely passed the course, I guess writing essays on phenomena of physics that the teacher had never heard of is not the best way to get good marks. :-(
Sorry for the rant, I *hate* the current school system, as it only makes allowance for the "average", that thing that nobody can ever be.
ttyl
Farrell
They are called an acoustic coupler...and Konexx makes one that is aimed at the road warrior. I have one and have been quite happy with it...It claims up to 26.4 Kbps, but that is optimistic. Realisticly, it is good enough for SSHing into your server, snarfing email, and some limited web browsing. What it does give you over any cell type connection is the ablity to connect *anywhere* that there is a phone with a handset. And as I was supporting doctors, it was a good tool to have.
URL: http://www.konexx.com/koupler.htm
Don't get me started on the Ontario School system...having suffered it through Kindergardent to sorta grade 12 (Ended up in an Alternate High School). About the only thing that made it almost worth while was the Alternate School Program in Ottawa...and I know someone who went through the INDEC Alternate High School in the GTA. Rare glimpses of light in a very dark, dank cesspool. And don't blame the Liberals, or the Conservatives (progressive or otherwise), blame it on the educational theories that aims to make factory workers when they need people who can think and solve problems....not just people who can pass tests.
Ooops. I guess I did go on for a while...sorry!
ttyl
Farrell
This goes to show you that you don't need megabucks to do good science! To many, half of science is the challenge, not the successes, but they are nice, of course [grin].
I don't see why this mind-set couldn't be used for teaching science and computers on the high school level....Find a company that is getting rid of their dozens of old Pentium II system, get them to donate them to the highschool, and build a Beowulf or OpenMosix cluster to allow HS students to learn the fundamentals of supercomputing environments. Get a local university to help teach them...and you now have a chance of producing better educated computer geeks...and the physics & chemistry geeks and run small simulations as well.
Just an idea...
ttyl
One that I had a lot of fun with is " Spellcasting 101 (a.k.a. Sorcerer Gets All the Girls)". But if you wanted to go *way* back to Apple ][ days, I remember "Softporn Adventure", where, for example, if you flush the toilet, it backs up, rapidly fills the room with raw sewage, and you die from the diseases you catch from the sewage. But all described in a very silly way...
Dungeon Keep also had some very silly moments, and of course, the classic *is* HHGTTG.
Wasn't there one called "Deer's Revenge" where the deers go around with high-powered rifles/scopes and shot hunters? I wanted to pick up a copy, but I think there was some sort of controversy, hunters complaining I think, and it kinda disappeared off the shelves. Too bad.
ttyl
Farrell
Not that it bothers me much, but it really sucks.
Of course, this points out one of the problems with the idea of so-called "internet everywhere"...when every elctronic device is connected to the net, what happens when one of them freaks out and starts saturating your ISP's bandwith with ill-formed packets?
ttyl
Farrell
Thanx...I re-read it on my palm, as that is my fav non-paper medium for reading stuff right now. So I didn't have the URL handy at the time.
ttyl
Farrell
I recently re-read your article "Mother Earth, Mother Board" in WIRED magazine, and it seems that a lot of research that you did for that article inspired you greatly. Many things that are touched upon in that there crop up throughout CRYPTONOMICON and the Baroque Cycle, are you planning on ever publishing a revised or expanding that article? I would love to about the research that went into the backround/backstory of those books.
ttyl
Farrell
Hey, thanx for the course. I recently decided to learn PHP as it seems to be a very powerful language for doing web-based stuff.
ttyl
Farrell
Don Kingsbury is a great writer! I have most of his books. And a really nice guy too...I've sold him a few computers over the years. TANJ, I should give him a call...
ttyl
Farrell
I'm with you there...I met Roger Hodgson once at an autograph session for his third solo album, and we chatted about 12-string guitars, he seemed like a nice guy. But he was really the catylist that unlocked Supertramp's genius, without him, they were just a collection of very talented musicians.
ttyl
Farrell
James Doohan is a war hero...a Lieutenant in The Royal Canadian Artillery he was injured by machine gun fire on Juno Beach on D-Day. He was shot in the leg and the hand, which cost him a finger. After recovering from his wounds, he became a spotter plane pilot, earning the title of "The craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Corps".
Every person who stormed the beaches on D-Day is a Hero, and to have survived nearly being killed, and getting into an even more dangerous role in the War speaks to the courage and valour Mr. Doohan has as a person, some of of which came through in his charactor of Scotty.
He should be made a member of The Order of Canada, the highest honour Canada can bestow upon it's citizens. This man has inspired many people to go on and earn degrees in engineering, and that is a great service to society. Having attended a number of his talks at Carleton University in Ottawa, I can say that I have always been impressed by him as a person.
ttyl
Farrell
Biometrics are a nice idea, but what happens when someone compromises your account? You have to start using your other thumb...and if that is compromised?
No, we need multi-element authentication systems that challenge users on more fronts. Tools like the ACE server, where you need you login, password and token number from a frob is a start. More work needs to be done on this problem, though.
ttyl
Farrell
Thank the Gods!
In Canada, it is not legal for a company to read your private email, as email is treated like snail mail. This applies even if they are your employer!
I really hope the US courts get a clue about privacy!
ttyl
I got tired of them rejecting my stories, only to see them appear a few days later. So on my journal here in Slashdot, I post stories that I would previously have submitted to Slashdot.
You can read it at:
http://slashdot.org/~farrellj/journal
ttyl
Farrell
I found out a few months back some interesting things about the state of SATA RAID...most of the SATA chipset RAIDS are not hardware RAID controllers.
If you check Linux Mafia's web page on SATA controllers, you will find that very few of the SATA RAID controllers are actually hardware RAID. What their "Drivers" really are is proprietory software RAID pretending to be Hardware RAID. I think of all the SATA RAID controllers and chipsets being offered, there are only three that are really hardware RAID. And 3Ware's offering is the least expensive of the real hardware RAID.
ttyl
Farrell
Cynical I am occasionally, but why would Yahoo do this? They are a for-profit company, and if they got everyone to adopt this, then come out with a patent, they would reap a great deal of money from it...
ttyl
Farrell
It would be very like Communist governments to fabricate stories to support there ban on teenagers useing the internet. They can now say that Internet use in the past promotes gang activities...ya, sure.
ttyl
Farrell
Maybe some Japanese Anime or Manga artist will buy them and use them as ispiration for charactors!
ttyl
Farrell
I always customize my environments...that is the POWER of Unix...Unix is about *tools* and building your own tool set to allow you to work in the most efficient manner.
By saying that you learned VI because it was everyware means that you are allowing the computer to tell you what to do, not vice versa. That leads to maddness!
ttyl
Farrell
CBC has been restoring their archives using a program/workstation called NoNoise. It has given us some wonderful resurections of Glen Gould's early works at the CBC, and allowed the band FM (inc. Nash the Slash) to "master" the CD release of their seminal Jazz/Rock Fusion album "Black Noise" from virgin vinyl...since someone stole the master tapes from the Canadian National Archives.
ttyl
Farrell McGovern
As a Druid, all I have to do is find a piece of nature, and you are in a church.
That being said, since the early days of CompuServ and IRC, ie, back in the 1980s, Neo-Pagan groups of various demonimations have been holding on-line rituals. They are wonderful to behold. But then again, I have been called a "TechnoPagan".
It matters not what you worship, even when I was Catholic, I always found Nature to be sacred.
So, is that confusing enough?
ttyl
Farrell