This is so true. I hosted Inside Space, a science fact show on the SciFi Channel, until someone in charge realized what we were doing! Great show. Great job while it lasted.
I used to tell people it was like doing the Celibacy Show on Playboy.
When poster Milo Fungus wrote, "As a happy and satisfied user, I say 'Happy Birthday' with vigor and gusto," he probably wasn't aware that Happy Birthday (the song) is NOT in the public domain. Yes, Milo, if you sang it in pulic, you owe the public performance rights!
This seems like the perfect urban legend, but it's not. Check out the Snopes explanation for the rest of the st.... Oops, don't want Paul Harvey suing me.
The cable operators face a really difficult choice as far as speed and bandwidth is concerned. Remember, high speed access is only one of the products hey sell. They are also making significant income from pay-per-view and premium channels.
With higher speed access, some program originators might decide to cut out the cable operators entirely. For instance, my wife and I subscribe to MLB's Philadelphia Phillies broadcast over the Internet. This year, MLB added video, with surprisingly good quality.
But, with this MLB package, my cable company, as the carrier, gets nothing. If this were a pay-per-view event, they'd be a profit participant. And, who's to say some movie channel or sports channel or any kind of broadcaster or cablecaster might find it more economically viable to cut of the cable middleman and do the same thing?
This is one reason I worry about cable and telcos as the primary high speed gatekeepers. Telcos have their own issues with VOIP.
It will be interesting to see this all play out. Will cable companies see it in their best interest to give us this broad pipe only to watch us cut their throats with it?
I am not an expert on this subject, though I played one on TV (really... but that's a long story). I know enough about meteorites to be a little dangerous.
Though the CNN article credits Press Trust of India, a search on PTI's site found nothing (for me at least).
When the articles talked about burning fragments, it didn't ring true. So, I went to Google to do a little quick research.
Except for those really huge impacts, smaller meteorites are relatively slow movers in the lower reaches of the atmosphere and lose their heat rather quickly. Let me steal some work from:
Date: Mon Nov 30 23:28:41 1998
Posted By: Robert Macke, Grad student, Physics, Washington University
Area of science: Astronomy
If you have a baseball-sized meteorite of density 3.2 g/cc, using a value
of 1.2 kg/m^3 for the density of air, you will find that the meteorite will
slow from its approach velocity of roughly 11000 meters per second to its
terminal velocity of 60 m/s in a mere 28 seconds, having traveled only 3
km. (By comparison, the speed of sound is roughly 315 m/s.)
It then spends another 100 mins or so falling before it hits the ground,
giving it ample time to cool down below its original temperature it gained
during entry into the atmosphere.
(At 60 m/s, it's moving like a fastball, but not much more. It'll still
cause a lot of damage if your car or house is in the way, but it wouldn't
start a fire or create any appreciable crater. It would probably be a bit
warm to the touch.
Any learned assistance would be appreciated. I'm not adverse to being shown to be wrong in a subject that I have little more than passing knowledge.
I received hundreds of bouncebacks from one organization. So, I did a whois and wrote to the contact listed:
My name is Geoff Fox and I am writing because I have received hundreds
upon hundreds of message bounces from your **** mail server.
These messages are not originating with me. These are SoBig virus
generated and are spoofing my address as the return.
I am asking nicely, but I need you to take action immediately.
I am attaching a bounce message so you can see what I've received. From
the headers it looks like they're actually coming from ***.com
Sincerely,
Geoff Fox
I did get a response... but not what I had expected.
Geoff,
Thanks for raising the issue of the SoBig virus infection. From the
information that you have provided, it does look like the infected
machine is located at **** Architecs, Inc. of Harford,
CT. Their contact information is provided below. Have your IT
technical staff contact the admistrative contact or the technical
contact below. They may not realize that they have a SoBig infected
machine and that it needs to be cleaned.
(whois stuff deleted)
It was signed by their Director of IT Security.
So, even at that level, he didn't realize he was doing something wrong... or that these bouncebacks came from him, not from the site that was infected. And, he felt it was my obligation to do something about it, not his!
The year was 1968. It was a warm, summer night and I was walking down MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village with my cousin Michael and our friend Larry.
The Village was electric back then with poster stores, head shops, music stores and other places for teenage boys to get lost and kill time. Many had their doors open to the summer breeze and heavy foot traffic.
As we walked past one record store, I sensed something unusual about the music I heard.
"Oh dear Miss Morse,
I love you.
Yes I do,
really do."
And then, the refrain, sung the way you'd expect a secret, hidden musical message to be sung.
"dit dit daaaah dit.
dit dit dah.
dah dit dah dit
dah dit daaaaah"
Oh my God! Someone had said the word... that four letter word guaranteed to get you suspended in school and punished at home.
Holy sh... well, you couldn't say that back then either.
The song was (Oh Dear) Miss Morse by Pearls Before Swine. It was the kind of thing you could hear on MacDougal Street... not on the radio.
Ham radio had never before, and would never again, let me be so cool.
Re:There's something missing from Cringley's tale
on
The Innovators' Ball
·
· Score: 1
"It has a ring of truth to it" is the point.
When I reported (and I seldom do that now), I soon learned that there is no story that's a perfect example. It would be neater and cleaner to have perfect examples.
Cringley's story is too perfect.
I'm not saying it's not true. I would just like more info to decide.
There's something missing from Cringley's tale
on
The Innovators' Ball
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Cringley builds the foundation of his entire article on a person who got screwed and was left with nothing. Yet, there is no attribution. It would seem to me this is a person who would want light shone on his plight and the evil doers who did him in.
By not providing attribution, Cringley deprives us of getting both sides of the story. That's why many news organizations frown on anonymous sources except when absolutely necessary.
I realized a long time ago that no one I ever knew who was involved in a car accident was at fault. Like here, I only got one side of the story.
Have I made my point?
Right now, CDs are as clsoe as we get to universal broadband.
About a year ago, I built a PC which was optimized for video capture, learned Lingo and bought a licensed copy of Macromedia Director (I believe on this site, buying a licensed copy gets more attention than nearly anything) and started a part time business as a multimedia author.
There are lots of decisions that need to be made... formats, codecs, bitrates. What is the 'universal donor' codec for Windows (I chose mpeg1)? What resolution video is acceptable? How fast will the processor be on the slowest machine you care about? How fast its CD drive? Must the end user install anything at all?
If you're careful and diligent, what people see on the CD can be nothing short of amazing.
I would be asked, all the time, why not DVD? The simple answer is, DVD just doesn't have the installed base, yet. You have to strive for maximum compatibility.
Encoding video is an art form, and I quickly found out few people in the business really understood what you do and why you do it.
With excellent full time employment, I have only done a few CDs. But, I am just as excited about the opportunities as I was the first time I saw they were there.
As long as software publishers can get an ear from congressmen and senators that I can't get... and can deliver cash for elections that I can't... they'll get benefits that I can't.
This is the first I'm hearing of this.
Are they marked by date to assure freshness? Is there outward any way a consumer will know? Are retailers required to sell only current versions? Does MS give retailers full return privileges for freshening their stock?
When I built this computer, and installed Windows XP (necessary for some video editing/authoring software I run), I had to bring XP up-to-date with patches. The total was over 40 mb!
I am using a cable modem, but a most people aren't. At my pre-broadband speed, a 40 mb download would have taken between 6 and 7 hours. Most people will not let their computer tie up the phoneline for that length of time. So, the patches go unused.
Considering the cost of XP (and the other MS OS) shouldn't Microsoft send you a disk or, at the very least, only sell up-to-date versions. What you buy in the store is not what Microsoft considers to be up-to-date.
I know this was supposed to be a 'great' SciFi movie but all I learned was, the future would have really bad user interfaces and computers wouldn't be networked.
By the way... this is true... I hosted (for 4 seasons) the only SciFact show on the SciFi Channel, Inside Space. It was like hosting the celibacy show on Playboy!
Why is it that laptop lcd screens can be made with reasonably high resolutions (not this one obviously... but others) yet all desktop lcd's seem to be 1024x768 and all 17" screens are 1280x1024?
I would love to replace the 17" CRT on my screen with an 15" LCD but I won't trade down my 1280x1024 for 1024x768.
I forecast the weather at a television station. I have done so for over 20 years. During my last contract negotiation my boss offered to pay my way if I wanted to finish school and become a meteorologist. It was an offer I couldn't refuse.
I enrolled at Mississippi State University through their distance learning program. There's a good chance someone you're watching on TV has been through this course. It's three years, 17 courses, 50 some odd credits. Until I'm totally finished, there's no need to go to Starkville, MS or anywhere close.
I am impressed with the idea and execution. My lectures are delivered on both VHS tape and DVD (I watch the lectures on DVD, though at double speed!). My textbooks are standard issue, same as are used at brick and mortar colleges. Each course features weekly untimed quizzes (10%), quarterly timed tests based on homework (30%) and a timed midterm (30%) and timed final (30%).
The lecturers/professors aren't polished TV people... but which of your profs were? There are different instructors/proctors online who monitor a bulletin board, answer questions and ride herd. They are mostly attentive and helpful.
The tests and quizzes are administered online and are multiple choice.
The courses are run using WebCT software, which I am told is pretty standard with distance learning.
As in "real" college, sometimes I have to study, other times I do not. I have learned some interesting things (having gone most of the way through my first year)... even one or two useful things.
After the first semester, my wife asked if I had learned anything? I said yes. But, she noted, "how important could it be if you didn't need it in the last 20 years?" And, of course, she was right.
I found it interesting that before I was accepted, I had to send my transcripts and SATs to MSU. I was surprised the College Board still had my numbers, taken in December 1967 (back when SAT scores ended in single digits and not tens). I'm curious what these ancient records could possibly say about me now? It is living proof that when your teachers said something would go on your permanent record, they weren't kidding!
As a 52 year old, in the middle of my career, with a wife and family, this is the only way to go back to school. I'm a proud to say I'm a straight "A" student, something I never even approached during my first, ill fated, trip to college 35 years ago.
Re:Huh? NARA's been online for a long time
on
NARA Goes Online
·
· Score: 1
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this order relates to their not being able to go on strike... not their ability to strike airplanes.
Though meteors are often equated to Volkswagens, it is much more common for asteroids and other non-planetary objects to be "potato shaped." When I hosted Inside Space on SciFi Channel, this was a constant source of amusement between the producer and me.
The simple reason is, the local rights of games are not currently available for MLB to sell. That's because, these rights have already been sold exclusively to the current rights holder (Local TV, Fox network or cable networks). So, if MLB were to give us free and full open access (which is what I'd like) they'd have to deal with whatever would arise from their breach of contract.
Seriously, the resolution on this display or the 1400x1050 on my Sony laptop are excellent. I, for one, can use all the real estate I can get. Yet, if I want to buy a 15" LCD monitor for home, I'm stcuk with 1024x768.
Why aren't there stand along LCD monitors with higher resolutions, like these laptops?
Geoff Fox
The union and the station owner entered into a collective bargaining agreement. Both sides gave and took. But, it was all predicated on certain actions on both sides... such as the company's agreeing not to voice track.
If this is a problem for the station owner, renegotiate the agreement. However, it is wrong for any party to a contract to arbitrarily decide to change the terms and conditions.
If AFTRA is correct, the company will be forced to stop and possibly subject to sanctions.
(BTW - I am an AFTRA member and have been a negotiator between AFTRA and my employer for nearly 20 years)
I had the unfortunate experience of seeing this movie earlier today. As Walt Disney has learned, it's gotten awful difficult to show the future and seem realistic in your portrayal. That's why Tomorrowland at Disneyworld has gone from being a vision of the future to being a 'retro future'.
There is one thing I have learned today. If Minority Report is a valid indicator of things to come, the future will be marked by an incredibly kludgy user interface, combining the worst of all worlds. Users stand away from the screen/wall flailing their arms to move from file to file, from picture to picture.
We will also leave the age of networking, as Tom Cruise and others were forced to physically 'sneaker net' the clear, floppy disk reminiscent, data sources... plugging them discretely into each separate piece of computing muscle.
Slashdot Mirror
This is so true. I hosted Inside Space, a science fact show on the SciFi Channel, until someone in charge realized what we were doing! Great show. Great job while it lasted.
I used to tell people it was like doing the Celibacy Show on Playboy.
When poster Milo Fungus wrote, "As a happy and satisfied user, I say 'Happy Birthday' with vigor and gusto," he probably wasn't aware that Happy Birthday (the song) is NOT in the public domain. Yes, Milo, if you sang it in pulic, you owe the public performance rights!
This seems like the perfect urban legend, but it's not. Check out the Snopes explanation for the rest of the st.... Oops, don't want Paul Harvey suing me.
The cable operators face a really difficult choice as far as speed and bandwidth is concerned. Remember, high speed access is only one of the products hey sell. They are also making significant income from pay-per-view and premium channels.
With higher speed access, some program originators might decide to cut out the cable operators entirely. For instance, my wife and I subscribe to MLB's Philadelphia Phillies broadcast over the Internet. This year, MLB added video, with surprisingly good quality.
But, with this MLB package, my cable company, as the carrier, gets nothing. If this were a pay-per-view event, they'd be a profit participant. And, who's to say some movie channel or sports channel or any kind of broadcaster or cablecaster might find it more economically viable to cut of the cable middleman and do the same thing?
This is one reason I worry about cable and telcos as the primary high speed gatekeepers. Telcos have their own issues with VOIP.
It will be interesting to see this all play out. Will cable companies see it in their best interest to give us this broad pipe only to watch us cut their throats with it?
I am not an expert on this subject, though I played one on TV (really... but that's a long story). I know enough about meteorites to be a little dangerous.
Though the CNN article credits Press Trust of India, a search on PTI's site found nothing (for me at least).
When the articles talked about burning fragments, it didn't ring true. So, I went to Google to do a little quick research.
Except for those really huge impacts, smaller meteorites are relatively slow movers in the lower reaches of the atmosphere and lose their heat rather quickly. Let me steal some work from:
Date: Mon Nov 30 23:28:41 1998
Posted By: Robert Macke, Grad student, Physics, Washington University
Area of science: Astronomy
If you have a baseball-sized meteorite of density 3.2 g/cc, using a value of 1.2 kg/m^3 for the density of air, you will find that the meteorite will slow from its approach velocity of roughly 11000 meters per second to its terminal velocity of 60 m/s in a mere 28 seconds, having traveled only 3 km. (By comparison, the speed of sound is roughly 315 m/s.) It then spends another 100 mins or so falling before it hits the ground, giving it ample time to cool down below its original temperature it gained during entry into the atmosphere. (At 60 m/s, it's moving like a fastball, but not much more. It'll still cause a lot of damage if your car or house is in the way, but it wouldn't start a fire or create any appreciable crater. It would probably be a bit warm to the touch.
Any learned assistance would be appreciated. I'm not adverse to being shown to be wrong in a subject that I have little more than passing knowledge.
It was bounce number 1 - You sent us a virus. But, of course, I didn't.
I received hundreds of bouncebacks from one organization. So, I did a whois and wrote to the contact listed:
My name is Geoff Fox and I am writing because I have received hundreds upon hundreds of message bounces from your **** mail server.
These messages are not originating with me. These are SoBig virus generated and are spoofing my address as the return.
I am asking nicely, but I need you to take action immediately. I am attaching a bounce message so you can see what I've received. From the headers it looks like they're actually coming from ***.com
Sincerely, Geoff Fox
I did get a response... but not what I had expected.
Geoff, Thanks for raising the issue of the SoBig virus infection.
From the information that you have provided, it does look like the infected machine is located at **** Architecs, Inc. of Harford, CT. Their contact information is provided below.
Have your IT technical staff contact the admistrative contact or the technical contact below. They may not realize that they have a SoBig infected machine and that it needs to be cleaned.
(whois stuff deleted)
It was signed by their Director of IT Security.
So, even at that level, he didn't realize he was doing something wrong... or that these bouncebacks came from him, not from the site that was infected. And, he felt it was my obligation to do something about it, not his!
The year was 1968. It was a warm, summer night and I was walking down MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village with my cousin Michael and our friend Larry. The Village was electric back then with poster stores, head shops, music stores and other places for teenage boys to get lost and kill time. Many had their doors open to the summer breeze and heavy foot traffic. As we walked past one record store, I sensed something unusual about the music I heard.
"Oh dear Miss Morse,
I love you.
Yes I do,
really do."
And then, the refrain, sung the way you'd expect a secret, hidden musical message to be sung.
"dit dit daaaah dit.
dit dit dah.
dah dit dah dit
dah dit daaaaah"
Oh my God! Someone had said the word... that four letter word guaranteed to get you suspended in school and punished at home.
Holy sh... well, you couldn't say that back then either. The song was (Oh Dear) Miss Morse by Pearls Before Swine. It was the kind of thing you could hear on MacDougal Street... not on the radio. Ham radio had never before, and would never again, let me be so cool.
"It has a ring of truth to it" is the point. When I reported (and I seldom do that now), I soon learned that there is no story that's a perfect example. It would be neater and cleaner to have perfect examples. Cringley's story is too perfect. I'm not saying it's not true. I would just like more info to decide.
Cringley builds the foundation of his entire article on a person who got screwed and was left with nothing. Yet, there is no attribution. It would seem to me this is a person who would want light shone on his plight and the evil doers who did him in.
By not providing attribution, Cringley deprives us of getting both sides of the story. That's why many news organizations frown on anonymous sources except when absolutely necessary.
I realized a long time ago that no one I ever knew who was involved in a car accident was at fault. Like here, I only got one side of the story.
Have I made my point?
Right now, CDs are as clsoe as we get to universal broadband.
About a year ago, I built a PC which was optimized for video capture, learned Lingo and bought a licensed copy of Macromedia Director (I believe on this site, buying a licensed copy gets more attention than nearly anything) and started a part time business as a multimedia author.
There are lots of decisions that need to be made... formats, codecs, bitrates. What is the 'universal donor' codec for Windows (I chose mpeg1)? What resolution video is acceptable? How fast will the processor be on the slowest machine you care about? How fast its CD drive? Must the end user install anything at all?
If you're careful and diligent, what people see on the CD can be nothing short of amazing.
I would be asked, all the time, why not DVD? The simple answer is, DVD just doesn't have the installed base, yet. You have to strive for maximum compatibility.
Encoding video is an art form, and I quickly found out few people in the business really understood what you do and why you do it.
With excellent full time employment, I have only done a few CDs. But, I am just as excited about the opportunities as I was the first time I saw they were there.
As long as software publishers can get an ear from congressmen and senators that I can't get... and can deliver cash for elections that I can't... they'll get benefits that I can't.
This is the first I'm hearing of this. Are they marked by date to assure freshness? Is there outward any way a consumer will know? Are retailers required to sell only current versions? Does MS give retailers full return privileges for freshening their stock?
When I built this computer, and installed Windows XP (necessary for some video editing/authoring software I run), I had to bring XP up-to-date with patches. The total was over 40 mb! I am using a cable modem, but a most people aren't. At my pre-broadband speed, a 40 mb download would have taken between 6 and 7 hours. Most people will not let their computer tie up the phoneline for that length of time. So, the patches go unused. Considering the cost of XP (and the other MS OS) shouldn't Microsoft send you a disk or, at the very least, only sell up-to-date versions. What you buy in the store is not what Microsoft considers to be up-to-date.
I know this was supposed to be a 'great' SciFi movie but all I learned was, the future would have really bad user interfaces and computers wouldn't be networked. By the way... this is true... I hosted (for 4 seasons) the only SciFact show on the SciFi Channel, Inside Space. It was like hosting the celibacy show on Playboy!
I would love to replace the 17" CRT on my screen with an 15" LCD but I won't trade down my 1280x1024 for 1024x768.
Fix it.
I enrolled at Mississippi State University through their distance learning program. There's a good chance someone you're watching on TV has been through this course. It's three years, 17 courses, 50 some odd credits. Until I'm totally finished, there's no need to go to Starkville, MS or anywhere close.
I am impressed with the idea and execution. My lectures are delivered on both VHS tape and DVD (I watch the lectures on DVD, though at double speed!). My textbooks are standard issue, same as are used at brick and mortar colleges. Each course features weekly untimed quizzes (10%), quarterly timed tests based on homework (30%) and a timed midterm (30%) and timed final (30%).
The lecturers/professors aren't polished TV people... but which of your profs were? There are different instructors/proctors online who monitor a bulletin board, answer questions and ride herd. They are mostly attentive and helpful.
The tests and quizzes are administered online and are multiple choice.
The courses are run using WebCT software, which I am told is pretty standard with distance learning.
As in "real" college, sometimes I have to study, other times I do not. I have learned some interesting things (having gone most of the way through my first year)... even one or two useful things.
After the first semester, my wife asked if I had learned anything? I said yes. But, she noted, "how important could it be if you didn't need it in the last 20 years?" And, of course, she was right.
I found it interesting that before I was accepted, I had to send my transcripts and SATs to MSU. I was surprised the College Board still had my numbers, taken in December 1967 (back when SAT scores ended in single digits and not tens). I'm curious what these ancient records could possibly say about me now? It is living proof that when your teachers said something would go on your permanent record, they weren't kidding!
As a 52 year old, in the middle of my career, with a wife and family, this is the only way to go back to school. I'm a proud to say I'm a straight "A" student, something I never even approached during my first, ill fated, trip to college 35 years ago.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this order relates to their not being able to go on strike... not their ability to strike airplanes.
Though meteors are often equated to Volkswagens, it is much more common for asteroids and other non-planetary objects to be "potato shaped." When I hosted Inside Space on SciFi Channel, this was a constant source of amusement between the producer and me.
The simple reason is, the local rights of games are not currently available for MLB to sell. That's because, these rights have already been sold exclusively to the current rights holder (Local TV, Fox network or cable networks). So, if MLB were to give us free and full open access (which is what I'd like) they'd have to deal with whatever would arise from their breach of contract.
Seriously, the resolution on this display or the 1400x1050 on my Sony laptop are excellent. I, for one, can use all the real estate I can get. Yet, if I want to buy a 15" LCD monitor for home, I'm stcuk with 1024x768. Why aren't there stand along LCD monitors with higher resolutions, like these laptops? Geoff Fox
The union and the station owner entered into a collective bargaining agreement. Both sides gave and took. But, it was all predicated on certain actions on both sides... such as the company's agreeing not to voice track.
If this is a problem for the station owner, renegotiate the agreement. However, it is wrong for any party to a contract to arbitrarily decide to change the terms and conditions.
If AFTRA is correct, the company will be forced to stop and possibly subject to sanctions.
(BTW - I am an AFTRA member and have been a negotiator between AFTRA and my employer for nearly 20 years)
I'm the 'submittee' and it was the Mexican quake that brought this site to mind, and to Slashdot.
I had the unfortunate experience of seeing this movie earlier today. As Walt Disney has learned, it's gotten awful difficult to show the future and seem realistic in your portrayal. That's why Tomorrowland at Disneyworld has gone from being a vision of the future to being a 'retro future'. There is one thing I have learned today. If Minority Report is a valid indicator of things to come, the future will be marked by an incredibly kludgy user interface, combining the worst of all worlds. Users stand away from the screen/wall flailing their arms to move from file to file, from picture to picture. We will also leave the age of networking, as Tom Cruise and others were forced to physically 'sneaker net' the clear, floppy disk reminiscent, data sources... plugging them discretely into each separate piece of computing muscle.