I sincerely hope that RPC and the W32.Blaster had *nothing* to do with the blackouts [...]
I hope so too, but hope alone won't do much here. I'm afraid some people out there might be curious of this connection, too, and some might even try to test that theory. As others mentioned, Al-Qaida and others might have a vested interest here.
You know what's funny... I live in north-east St. Catharines, in an area that will frequently lose power "just cause", whether it's a one second bleep, or a half-hour outage. My power has been solid all night, and if I haven't called a wife and haven't turned the TV on, I wouldn't have even known there was a problem.
According to a survey of men (can't remember who organized this, tho), most (north-american?) men think a 7/10 waist/hips ratio in women is the "sweet spot", regardless of actual dimensions. It's not the absolute size that matters, only the proportions. The study argued that this must be (as parent post(s) point out) due to our self-preservation instincts and the search of a mate most likely to bear healthy children with minimal risks.
There's a stretch of highway in Buffalo that's been repaved in the past few years and that is so quiet and smooth, it feels like floating on air (almost). It's the northbound section of I-190 between a point somewhat north of Rt. 198 (the Scajaquada) and the Tonawanda GM Plant. I drive a sport-sedan with very sensitive struts and a set of rather quiet Michelin tires, frequently travel with the windows down, and I just love that ~1 mile stretch of road. You can actually listen to the radio while crusing at ~70mph (110km/h) and not have the volume up past comfortable levels. The pavement is grooved concrete with the grooves running parallel to path of travel, which eliminates the unbearable whine of running them perpendicularly. There's very limited noise coming from joints, too. All in all, entering that section of highway feels like "Aaaaahhhhhh!"-kind of relief (like a bad migraine going away in a blink of an eye). Compared to all the other roads aroud Western NY and southern Ontario, it's the quietest road by far (and if you live here, you'll know what I mean).
Bottom line? Don't need rubber, don't need asphalt to make the road quieter or last longer -- just pour the concrete right and groove it properly. That road must've been put into service at least 3 years ago, and I have yet to see a single pothole or imperfection.
A [US Geological Survey] study reported a 62% chance of a major quake (magnitude 6.7 or greater) hitting the area sometime within the next 30 years--not exactly something to plan your day around.
Any resident of California could tell you that... I guess with the current state of affairs, any progress would be good:)
Makes me think, though. Ability to detect variations of 1mm over the course of a year? How do they account for, say, a satellite drifting slightly (gravity, solar wind, whatever)? How do they measure that? What are their tolerances, a few angstroms?
After all, they say they're using "two electron-hole pairs", so doesn't that translate into 2 two-bit "registers" instead of a single four-bit one? End result is the same, mind you, but the method is different.
He broke in through an external FTP server and did not get through their firewall. So I think Acxiom deserves a little break.
I beg to differ. Matter of fact, I think it's absurd. Completely absurd to allow someone to gain access to sensitive data outside the firewall perimeter. How could anyone be so stupid? Damn, something as simple as https or ssh/scp would've solved that problem! Acxiom does NOT deserve a break, they deserve a group spanking from their shareholders and clients!
"Need-to-know" is a term which doesn't seem to exist in the security policies of these companies.
At some point, at some level, there will be someone (or a group of people) with access to information who would not have a watchman over his shoulder -- how can you be sure you can trust them?
Pre-screening of employees and logging of all transactions is necessary, but some times you just can't deny someone access to something if it hinders their work significantly (e.g. the work they were hired for in the first place) and/or puts that work on your plate instead.
I'm not saying that this is good. I'm saying that, too, is real world.
Buy smart, keeping future in mind.
on
Buying a New TV?
·
· Score: 1
I moved into a new apartment a while back, and decided that my 19" Sharp TV wasn't cutting it anymore. I decided to upgrade. Here's what I did:
- TV standards are not finalized yet, and the deadline for ratification (IIRC) has been extended past 2006, the original due date. As such, thich means that there's several competing standards out there. The more standards a TV is compatible with, the more expensive it gets. Additionally, with people getting digital cable and satellite receivers, a TV doesn't really need a tuner, anyway -- all work is already done, all it gets is straight video signal.
- TV speakers can't really do justice to a movie that's got 5.1 surround sound in Dolby Digital / DTS. If you want to get the experience, separate your output: picture goes to TV, sound goes to a receiver + speakers.
Once I've reached these two conclusions, I decided to hold off on buying a new TV. Instead, I recycled a 26" Sony CRT TV set, bought a receiver and a set of speakers, and use my VCR as a tuner. VCR feeds A/V into receiver, receiver sends video to TV, audio to speakers. The receiver is now the hub of the entertainment system, so I made sure it had enough inputs and outputs for future growth (for now, all I have is a DVD player and a tape deck, but I have room for satellite / digital cable if need be, or another DVD player / VCR). Sound is phenomenal, even if only coming from broadcast TV / analog cable, thanks to CircleSurround feature of the receiver. Video is big enough that I can sit comfortably 10-15ft away and enjoy the show. And my receiver's remote control is programmable, so all my devices are controlled from one remote (except the tape deck, which didn't have one anyway). The receiver can do digital coax/optical audio-in, RCA/S-video/component video in, RCA/S-video-component video out, so when the day comes to upgrade the TV, I'll be set (and I'll upgrade my DVD player to one with component video out, too).
I think my setup will be good for another, oh, 10 years. I hope.
Honestly - if anyone knows a format that can be played on out-of-the-box Windows, OS X and common Linux distros without the installation of any extra software, I'd love to hear about it.
While I don't have an answer to that, I know of an answer that requires a similar amount of work for all those platforms: RealPlayer. Yes, it can be annoying. But it works. I happily use RP on windows and linux, and I'm pretty sure even my old PowerBook 5300 could handle it (just to prove it to myself I'll try it tonight).
No, I don't work for Real. Yes, I work with Real products. Yes, I like 'em. Yes, I'm a geek. And yes, I have a life.
Mac OS X only runs on a single source of hardware. That makes it extremely proprietary.
Just a moment ago you were talking about having invested so much of your money in software, and as soon as someone points out open source software, you change your tune to hardware?
C'mon...
Bottom line is, for less money you get a better tool: the hardware is more robust than the competition mentioned here; features included (802.11b, ethernet, firewire etc.) are supported by the OS out of the box (unless I'm missing something here?); OS X means you're free to use almost anything that compiles on Unix/Linux/SCO (:) ); and fer cryin' out loud, it's a laptop -- the hardware it's made of is already supported by the OS, and because of its nature, not because it's extremely proprietary, you're not likely to upgrade anything other than the hard drive (which you're free to do).
I fail to understand your gripe here. Hardware shmardware. Your "significant investment in software" argument was much more convincing. IMO, the PowerBook is a much better deal from the hardware-to-price perspective. Now, if I could only find spare $1399...
you can already order internet access from cable companies w/o subscribing to their TV services
Yup. Happens already with Cogeco in SE Ontario.
I used to be with Adelphia in the States, and it was cheaper to get cable + really_basic_tv_service ($6) than to get cable + no_tv_whatsoever_service_charge ($10). But with Cogeco, you can get cable internet-only service and they don't charge you extra for not having tv. At least they didn't do that when I signed up over a year ago (I still have it).
What I think would be a good solution would be a shredder with a built-in printer -- it will print random text over the sheet before shredding it, to make the text unreadable even if reassembled.
You're not off the hook just yet. Sure, you up the level of difficulty, but deciphering is still possible. Here's how:
Each writing utensil out there (printers, pens, pencils) have different chemical components in the material they use to write, e.g. the chemical composition of an HP toner for a LaserJet II might differ from that of a LaserJet 1200, and will most likely differ significantly from that of an offset printer. Same thing with pens -- two pens whose color looks identical might end up having totally different compounds in them. By testing various areas of the shredded paper, one could figure out 1) how many different inks were used; 2) map the presence of those inks on each bit of paper; 3) use that information to piece the bits together, much like duplex printing would be used.
Where else is such knowledge useful? Check forging, for one. Someone writes you a check (or you steal someone else's), you add a zero or turn a 3 into an 8 (or a 1 into a 7), cash it and run off with the money. Sure, sounds far-fetched, but has about the same probability of occurrence as someone using one of these $8k machines to piece together your most recent bank statement.
Nope, I mean something that looks good enough to be part of an entertainment center -- you know, the form-factor of a VCR, black / silver in color, without a mess of cables in the back going every-which-way... something that looks professional, like an Audiotron (sp?). Definitely NOT a beige box (nor an iMac) sitting next to the cabinet. At best, a laptop -- but those don't meet the criterium of "cheap".
It's illegal to own your own cable box in most states.
Really? Hmm.... first time I've heard of that.... (no, really, I've never heard of that before...)
So what about all those cheap cable boxes (granted, only for analog signal) that used to be sold for TVs that were not cable-ready? Those were illegal too? Or are you talking exclusively about the digital cable kind?
Don't matter, I don't live in the States anymore (but I suppose I should check what my current local law has to say about that).
If I could buy this directly and it were cheap and it worked with any cable provider, I'd be much more interested in it than in building my own... *even* if I can't copy the taped programming off of it. Why invent and make your own wheel if someone's not only done it already, but also done it potentially cheaper and better.
The law should say that a notice on the website should be combined with a blurb in the media (CNN, MSN, AOL), so those like yourself (or myself, for that matter) would stand a greater chance of being alerted sooner.
Slashdot Mirror
I sincerely hope that RPC and the W32.Blaster had *nothing* to do with the blackouts [...]
I hope so too, but hope alone won't do much here. I'm afraid some people out there might be curious of this connection, too, and some might even try to test that theory. As others mentioned, Al-Qaida and others might have a vested interest here.
You know what's funny... I live in north-east St. Catharines, in an area that will frequently lose power "just cause", whether it's a one second bleep, or a half-hour outage. My power has been solid all night, and if I haven't called a wife and haven't turned the TV on, I wouldn't have even known there was a problem.
:)
That's fscking ironic
I live 10km away and I was driving home thru Niagara Falls when this happened. There was NO THUNDERSTORM. NO LIGHTNING. Not even a CLOUD IN THE SKY.
But you probably know that by now.
Better pay attention, when you go hunting next time.
You mean that yelling "It's coming right for us!" won't save me this time?
According to a survey of men (can't remember who organized this, tho), most (north-american?) men think a 7/10 waist/hips ratio in women is the "sweet spot", regardless of actual dimensions. It's not the absolute size that matters, only the proportions. The study argued that this must be (as parent post(s) point out) due to our self-preservation instincts and the search of a mate most likely to bear healthy children with minimal risks.
There's a stretch of highway in Buffalo that's been repaved in the past few years and that is so quiet and smooth, it feels like floating on air (almost). It's the northbound section of I-190 between a point somewhat north of Rt. 198 (the Scajaquada) and the Tonawanda GM Plant. I drive a sport-sedan with very sensitive struts and a set of rather quiet Michelin tires, frequently travel with the windows down, and I just love that ~1 mile stretch of road. You can actually listen to the radio while crusing at ~70mph (110km/h) and not have the volume up past comfortable levels. The pavement is grooved concrete with the grooves running parallel to path of travel, which eliminates the unbearable whine of running them perpendicularly. There's very limited noise coming from joints, too. All in all, entering that section of highway feels like "Aaaaahhhhhh!"-kind of relief (like a bad migraine going away in a blink of an eye). Compared to all the other roads aroud Western NY and southern Ontario, it's the quietest road by far (and if you live here, you'll know what I mean).
Bottom line? Don't need rubber, don't need asphalt to make the road quieter or last longer -- just pour the concrete right and groove it properly. That road must've been put into service at least 3 years ago, and I have yet to see a single pothole or imperfection.
Nope. We're too lazy (most of us) and need to be prodded repeatedly to do pretty much anything.
:)
Actions speak louder than words, but you'd never come to that conclusion from reading Slashdot
Any resident of California could tell you that...
I guess with the current state of affairs, any progress would be good
Makes me think, though. Ability to detect variations of 1mm over the course of a year? How do they account for, say, a satellite drifting slightly (gravity, solar wind, whatever)? How do they measure that? What are their tolerances, a few angstroms?
(Not trolling, just asking)
After all, they say they're using "two electron-hole pairs", so doesn't that translate into 2 two-bit "registers" instead of a single four-bit one? End result is the same, mind you, but the method is different.
He broke in through an external FTP server and did not get through their firewall. So I think Acxiom deserves a little break.
I beg to differ. Matter of fact, I think it's absurd. Completely absurd to allow someone to gain access to sensitive data outside the firewall perimeter. How could anyone be so stupid? Damn, something as simple as https or ssh/scp would've solved that problem! Acxiom does NOT deserve a break, they deserve a group spanking from their shareholders and clients!
For something being touted as eye candy for the desktop, there's amazingly few screenshots available in the links provided.
"Need-to-know" is a term which doesn't seem to exist in the security policies of these companies.
At some point, at some level, there will be someone (or a group of people) with access to information who would not have a watchman over his shoulder -- how can you be sure you can trust them?
Pre-screening of employees and logging of all transactions is necessary, but some times you just can't deny someone access to something if it hinders their work significantly (e.g. the work they were hired for in the first place) and/or puts that work on your plate instead.
I'm not saying that this is good. I'm saying that, too, is real world.
I moved into a new apartment a while back, and decided that my 19" Sharp TV wasn't cutting it anymore. I decided to upgrade. Here's what I did:
- TV standards are not finalized yet, and the deadline for ratification (IIRC) has been extended past 2006, the original due date. As such, thich means that there's several competing standards out there. The more standards a TV is compatible with, the more expensive it gets. Additionally, with people getting digital cable and satellite receivers, a TV doesn't really need a tuner, anyway -- all work is already done, all it gets is straight video signal.
- TV speakers can't really do justice to a movie that's got 5.1 surround sound in Dolby Digital / DTS. If you want to get the experience, separate your output: picture goes to TV, sound goes to a receiver + speakers.
Once I've reached these two conclusions, I decided to hold off on buying a new TV. Instead, I recycled a 26" Sony CRT TV set, bought a receiver and a set of speakers, and use my VCR as a tuner. VCR feeds A/V into receiver, receiver sends video to TV, audio to speakers. The receiver is now the hub of the entertainment system, so I made sure it had enough inputs and outputs for future growth (for now, all I have is a DVD player and a tape deck, but I have room for satellite / digital cable if need be, or another DVD player / VCR). Sound is phenomenal, even if only coming from broadcast TV / analog cable, thanks to CircleSurround feature of the receiver. Video is big enough that I can sit comfortably 10-15ft away and enjoy the show. And my receiver's remote control is programmable, so all my devices are controlled from one remote (except the tape deck, which didn't have one anyway). The receiver can do digital coax/optical audio-in, RCA/S-video/component video in, RCA/S-video-component video out, so when the day comes to upgrade the TV, I'll be set (and I'll upgrade my DVD player to one with component video out, too).
I think my setup will be good for another, oh, 10 years. I hope.
First, on average there are less than two eyes in a human
:)
What part of the world do you come from??
Watch the movies provided; the bottom half of the images are all but lost to distortion.
:)
Then only use the upper half of the "screen" and your images will look great
Honestly - if anyone knows a format that can be played on out-of-the-box Windows, OS X and common Linux distros without the installation of any extra software, I'd love to hear about it.
While I don't have an answer to that, I know of an answer that requires a similar amount of work for all those platforms: RealPlayer. Yes, it can be annoying. But it works. I happily use RP on windows and linux, and I'm pretty sure even my old PowerBook 5300 could handle it (just to prove it to myself I'll try it tonight).
No, I don't work for Real. Yes, I work with Real products. Yes, I like 'em. Yes, I'm a geek. And yes, I have a life.
Mac OS X only runs on a single source of hardware. That makes it extremely proprietary.
:) ); and fer cryin' out loud, it's a laptop -- the hardware it's made of is already supported by the OS, and because of its nature, not because it's extremely proprietary, you're not likely to upgrade anything other than the hard drive (which you're free to do).
Just a moment ago you were talking about having invested so much of your money in software, and as soon as someone points out open source software, you change your tune to hardware?
C'mon...
Bottom line is, for less money you get a better tool: the hardware is more robust than the competition mentioned here; features included (802.11b, ethernet, firewire etc.) are supported by the OS out of the box (unless I'm missing something here?); OS X means you're free to use almost anything that compiles on Unix/Linux/SCO (
I fail to understand your gripe here. Hardware shmardware. Your "significant investment in software" argument was much more convincing. IMO, the PowerBook is a much better deal from the hardware-to-price perspective. Now, if I could only find spare $1399...
you can already order internet access from cable companies w/o subscribing to their TV services
Yup. Happens already with Cogeco in SE Ontario.
I used to be with Adelphia in the States, and it was cheaper to get cable + really_basic_tv_service ($6) than to get cable + no_tv_whatsoever_service_charge ($10). But with Cogeco, you can get cable internet-only service and they don't charge you extra for not having tv. At least they didn't do that when I signed up over a year ago (I still have it).
Props to Cogeco.
What I think would be a good solution would be a shredder with a built-in printer -- it will print random text over the sheet before shredding it, to make the text unreadable even if reassembled.
You're not off the hook just yet. Sure, you up the level of difficulty, but deciphering is still possible. Here's how:
Each writing utensil out there (printers, pens, pencils) have different chemical components in the material they use to write, e.g. the chemical composition of an HP toner for a LaserJet II might differ from that of a LaserJet 1200, and will most likely differ significantly from that of an offset printer. Same thing with pens -- two pens whose color looks identical might end up having totally different compounds in them. By testing various areas of the shredded paper, one could figure out 1) how many different inks were used; 2) map the presence of those inks on each bit of paper; 3) use that information to piece the bits together, much like duplex printing would be used.
Where else is such knowledge useful? Check forging, for one. Someone writes you a check (or you steal someone else's), you add a zero or turn a 3 into an 8 (or a 1 into a 7), cash it and run off with the money. Sure, sounds far-fetched, but has about the same probability of occurrence as someone using one of these $8k machines to piece together your most recent bank statement.
Nope, I mean something that looks good enough to be part of an entertainment center -- you know, the form-factor of a VCR, black / silver in color, without a mess of cables in the back going every-which-way... something that looks professional, like an Audiotron (sp?). Definitely NOT a beige box (nor an iMac) sitting next to the cabinet. At best, a laptop -- but those don't meet the criterium of "cheap".
It's illegal to own your own cable box in most states.
Really? Hmm.... first time I've heard of that.... (no, really, I've never heard of that before...)
So what about all those cheap cable boxes (granted, only for analog signal) that used to be sold for TVs that were not cable-ready? Those were illegal too? Or are you talking exclusively about the digital cable kind?
Don't matter, I don't live in the States anymore (but I suppose I should check what my current local law has to say about that).
Install FreeVo on a PC with a capture card and video out and you have the same thing without the copy protection.
Yes. But by the time I spent additional money on a quiet, fanless mobo/CPU and a sleek, esthetically-pleasing enclosure, would it still be cheaper?
Actually, I don't know, cause nobody seems to know how much these puppies run.
If I could buy this directly and it were cheap and it worked with any cable provider, I'd be much more interested in it than in building my own... *even* if I can't copy the taped programming off of it. Why invent and make your own wheel if someone's not only done it already, but also done it potentially cheaper and better.
Oh sure, mod me all the way down to Challenger Deep, so I can share the fate of that submarine... :)
Allright, I guess I forgot about issues with radio wave propagation in water. I hang my head in shame instead.
The law should say that a notice on the website should be combined with a blurb in the media (CNN, MSN, AOL), so those like yourself (or myself, for that matter) would stand a greater chance of being alerted sooner.
:)
Or they should post to Slashdot