Not as much as you might imagine. A Hubble-sized telescope in orbit at Hubble's altitude, pointed straight down, can resolve down to 15 centimeters. That would be enough to tell that you drive a Honda instead of a Surburban, but it couldn't tell much beyond that.
Who needs the Hubble telescope? The government has the predator unmanned spy planes to take pics and send video feeds, and even shoot missiles at you. They fly high enough so you can't see them, and can't hear them. Sure, it doesn't offer the all the benefits of a satellite. But that's not the point... Plus, satellites can't launch missiles at you.
Drop off a million discs in a truckload, and they'll just have someone on the maintenance staff cart them off. End of problem. But if you just mail each disc *back* to AOL, then they'll have to continually weed out all of the discs they get, possibly for years.
4. Why don't we just send our CDs right back to AOL ourselves?
Quite frankly, AOL is unlikely to change their behavior without a large public demonstration of dissatisfaction. Getting some of their junk mail back each day will have little if any effect. However, receiving several truckloads of their CDs, all at once in broad daylight, with the media in full attendance, will have a larger impact. Note that AOL sends this stuff out as bulk mail - there's no return postage paid, so writing "Return To Sender" and throwing it back in the mail just makes more work for the Post Office (they have to pick them up and sort them out, then toss 'em in the garbage. AOL will not see that CD or pay any additional postage).
An advertising fad I find interesting is that practically every wristwatch ad I ever see has the watch dials set at 10 and 2. Apparently it's so that the watch appears to be smiling at you.
I just sent those guys at MoFo an email saying thanks, and win one for the good guys, etc. I think it would be cool to show them how much support they will get for doing this sort of litigation. Perhaps it will persuade them (or other law firms) to go after lots of other spammers. I never thought I'd be so openly rooting for a law firm to win a case. But spam is THAT evil.
Seems you are right about the NSA employing more mathematicians than anyone else in the world. They believe this too. From a page on their web site:
NSA employs the country's premier codemakers and codebreakers. It is said to be the largest employer of mathematicians in the United States and perhaps the world. Its mathematicians contribute directly to the two missions of the Agency: designing cipher systems that will protect the integrity of U.S. information systems and searching for weaknesses in adversaries' systems and codes.
Here's some excerpts from Rep. Billy Tauzin on his telecom bill in a WashingtonPost.com web chat. I'm not sure he really knows what he's talking about.
Pasadena, Tex.: Why are you trying to kill competition for local, regional and national Internet Service Providers by giving the Bells the right to be a monopoly? As a representative from Louisiana, you will be hurting your own Louisiana ISPs. Competition is what makes the American Dream work, when you get rid of it, we might as well be in Russia in the Cold War!
Rep. Tauzin: Rather be in Pasadena than Russia any day. First, our bill will not kill the competition nor make Bell companies monopolies. If you believe that I have some great waterfront property in Russia to sell you. The truth is our bill will create the first FCC authority to hammer the Bells for any violation of their obligations to open up their local markets to competitors. The FCC currently does not have such authority except when a Bell company seeks access into the long distance market. Secondly, our bill will preserve for the competitive carriers full line sharing rights to the legacy copper networks and will additionally give local competitors rights to use the Bell companies new fiber and hybrid fiber systems for broadband competition purposes at terms and rates set not by the Bell company but by the FCC. That is as fair as it gets.
------
Silver Spring, Md.: Rep. Tauzin, I used to work for Verizon (local service) and was perpetually disgusted by how that company treated customers and other CLECs. Poor customer service, shoddy network leasing -- I've heard and seen it all. Competition is very much needed to help Verizon help itself.
Rep. Tauzin: I totally agree. Any monopoly provider as I pointed out earlier is like the single store that gives you bad products, prices, service and occasionally bad attitudes. De-monopolizing the local Bell loops remains a big part of our plans.
Nothin like the good ol' Fight-Fight-Fight Parry-Parry-Parry.
And the super bishops. And the tiltowait spell. The memories..
Microsoft commments on the in-store Xbox situation
on
Crashing Xbox Kiosks
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Gaming Age has a response from Microsoft about the broken XBox units.. Here's the scoop:
A Microsoft representative has responded to yesterday's FiXbox story. Here's the official company line on in-store Xbox units.
"With over 10,000 playable Xbox kiosks at retail over a month before launch, there are bound to be a few issues that crop up. Microsoft representatives are currently following up with retailers across the country to insure proper functionality of kiosks. Overall, the displays are working great and we are on track to achieve our goal of having 100% of the Xbox interactive displays working correctly and demonstrating the Xbox difference."
This document reveals the "secret" protocol of AOL version 2.5. Version 2.5 was released eons ago. The protocol has probably changed a lot since then, since AOL's current client is on version 6.0.
In addition, this document must be eons old as well. Who claims this is a new document? Why would anyone bother with deciphering AOL version 2.5 at this point? This is ancient info.
Yes, the F-F-F-P-P-P was ingrained in the muscle memory for a while... Plus, you could use that trick to make the super-bishop, which would kick ass.
Remember trying to balance your good players with the evil ones? And cool spells, like tiltowait and badios? That was the coolest. My Apple IIe was never so happy.
It's too bad Wizardry didn't make it on that list. That was THE defining role playing game for me. Mapping out the levels, building up characters, fighting monsters. That was the first time I've seen that in a game. Fight Fight Fight, Parry Parry Parry...
Slashdot Mirror
There already is.
Two of Paul's more interesting predictions were placed on Who's Wrong.
Interesting site for viewing predictions from folks.
But really, who LIKES using outlook express?
Gmail is far more useful for anyone who wants more than basic mail functionality.
Not revolutionary. In fact, they're late.
Google AdSense network has done this for years to serve contextually-relevant text ads across thousands of websites. Yahoo now, too.
Windows Media Player already plays DVD's, right out of the box. This comes with windows. No need to install a DVD player.
Linux needs this same ease of use.
Imagine if your spaceship was the Beagle 2, and not this NASA ship.
We mock what we don't understand.
Not as much as you might imagine. A Hubble-sized telescope in orbit at Hubble's altitude, pointed straight down, can resolve down to 15 centimeters. That would be enough to tell that you drive a Honda instead of a Surburban, but it couldn't tell much beyond that.
Who needs the Hubble telescope? The government has the predator unmanned spy planes to take pics and send video feeds, and even shoot missiles at you. They fly high enough so you can't see them, and can't hear them. Sure, it doesn't offer the all the benefits of a satellite. But that's not the point... Plus, satellites can't launch missiles at you.
Drop off a million discs in a truckload, and they'll just have someone on the maintenance staff cart them off. End of problem. But if you just mail each disc *back* to AOL, then they'll have to continually weed out all of the discs they get, possibly for years.
Read their FAQ. Here's why:
4. Why don't we just send our CDs right back to AOL ourselves?
Quite frankly, AOL is unlikely to change their behavior without a large public demonstration of dissatisfaction. Getting some of their junk mail back each day will have little if any effect. However, receiving several truckloads of their CDs, all at once in broad daylight, with the media in full attendance, will have a larger impact. Note that AOL sends this stuff out as bulk mail - there's no return postage paid, so writing "Return To Sender" and throwing it back in the mail just makes more work for the Post Office (they have to pick them up and sort them out, then toss 'em in the garbage. AOL will not see that CD or pay any additional postage).
Mod this letter up!!
Wish I had some points at the moment. Nice job.
Good to see that Sun believes in Linux enough to put some hardware effort behind it. I wasn't so sure, when I read this Sun article a ways back.
Linux on the Mainframe--Not a Good Idea
An advertising fad I find interesting is that practically every wristwatch ad I ever see has the watch dials set at 10 and 2. Apparently it's so that the watch appears to be smiling at you.
Of course, doesn't work for digital watches...
I just sent those guys at MoFo an email saying thanks, and win one for the good guys, etc. I think it would be cool to show them how much support they will get for doing this sort of litigation. Perhaps it will persuade them (or other law firms) to go after lots of other spammers. I never thought I'd be so openly rooting for a law firm to win a case. But spam is THAT evil.
Anyway, contact them at info@mofo.com
Seems you are right about the NSA employing more mathematicians than anyone else in the world. They believe this too. From a page on their web site:
NSA employs the country's premier codemakers and codebreakers. It is said to be the largest employer of mathematicians in the United States and perhaps the world. Its mathematicians contribute directly to the two missions of the Agency: designing cipher systems that will protect the integrity of U.S. information systems and searching for weaknesses in adversaries' systems and codes.
Here's some excerpts from Rep. Billy Tauzin on his telecom bill in a WashingtonPost.com web chat. I'm not sure he really knows what he's talking about.
Pasadena, Tex.: Why are you trying to kill competition for local, regional and national Internet Service Providers by giving the Bells the right to be a monopoly? As a representative from Louisiana, you will be hurting your own Louisiana ISPs. Competition is what makes the American Dream work, when you get rid of it, we might as well be in Russia in the Cold War!
Rep. Tauzin: Rather be in Pasadena than Russia any day. First, our bill will not kill the competition nor make Bell companies monopolies. If you believe that I have some great waterfront property in Russia to sell you. The truth is our bill will create the first FCC authority to hammer the Bells for any violation of their obligations to open up their local markets to competitors. The FCC currently does not have such authority except when a Bell company seeks access into the long distance market. Secondly, our bill will preserve for the competitive carriers full line sharing rights to the legacy copper networks and will additionally give local competitors rights to use the Bell companies new fiber and hybrid fiber systems for broadband competition purposes at terms and rates set not by the Bell company but by the FCC. That is as fair as it gets.
------
Silver Spring, Md.: Rep. Tauzin, I used to work for Verizon (local service) and was perpetually disgusted by how that company treated customers and other CLECs. Poor customer service, shoddy network leasing -- I've heard and seen it all. Competition is very much needed to help Verizon help itself.
Rep. Tauzin: I totally agree. Any monopoly provider as I pointed out earlier is like the single store that gives you bad products, prices, service and occasionally bad attitudes. De-monopolizing the local Bell loops remains a big part of our plans.
Nothin like the good ol' Fight-Fight-Fight Parry-Parry-Parry.
And the super bishops. And the tiltowait spell. The memories..
Gaming Age has a response from Microsoft about the broken XBox units.. Here's the scoop:
A Microsoft representative has responded to yesterday's FiXbox story. Here's the official company line on in-store Xbox units.
"With over 10,000 playable Xbox kiosks at retail over a month before launch, there are bound to be a few issues that crop up. Microsoft representatives are currently following up with retailers across the country to insure proper functionality of kiosks. Overall, the displays are working great and we are on track to achieve our goal of having 100% of the Xbox interactive displays working correctly and demonstrating the Xbox difference."
This document reveals the "secret" protocol of AOL version 2.5. Version 2.5 was released eons ago. The protocol has probably changed a lot since then, since AOL's current client is on version 6.0.
In addition, this document must be eons old as well. Who claims this is a new document? Why would anyone bother with deciphering AOL version 2.5 at this point? This is ancient info.
For those of you having problems loading the animations from the NASA site like I was, here's a mirror:
http://deepimpact.umd.edu
It's official. This is the first submission to use the word "whilst" twice.
Monopsony? Is that why I can't get a PlayStation 2?
Yes, the F-F-F-P-P-P was ingrained in the muscle memory for a while... Plus, you could use that trick to make the super-bishop, which would kick ass.
Remember trying to balance your good players with the evil ones? And cool spells, like tiltowait and badios? That was the coolest. My Apple IIe was never so happy.
It's too bad Wizardry didn't make it on that list. That was THE defining role playing game for me. Mapping out the levels, building up characters, fighting monsters. That was the first time I've seen that in a game. Fight Fight Fight, Parry Parry Parry...
I wonder if he'll write his autobiography by accident, like he did his favorite OS.
It's too bad that Adobe couldn't make FrameMaker for Linux by accident, like Linus made Linux by accident. Oh well...