As a free market libertarian, I vote against this.
I lost all respect for Libertarians after I heard one complain about how his town wouldn't plow his private drive.
Unfortunately, we tried the "libertarian" take early on in the US; business used to be largely unregulated. What did they do with this freedom? Grossly abused the workforce- preferring to employ children and women, who had little socio-political power and thus were easy to control and work to death. Polluted the hell out of groundwater and rivers by dumping their byproducts whereever they pleased, consequences be damned. Today's working conditions are what they are, purely because the government has raised the bar (slowly) on how workers may be treated after public outcry forced legislation. We're not alone.
Maybe if you grew up in a state like Massachusetts where children died getting crushed by weaving machines in fabric mills, and where PCBs were dumped by GE into rivers simply because they COULD...well, maybe just then you'd feel a little differently about regulating industry. Hell, they recently found near the Alewife T station, on the cite of an old dye plant, that people who grew up in the area had cancer rates that were astronomically high. These people, as kids, played on the site- and many of them remember that the ground was so contaminated, puddles would form spontaneously in depressions in the ground that were every color of the rainbow.
I have as of yet to find a decent CFL. The ones at Home Depot all suck. The ones at the drug store and grocery store all suck. The ones that I see online for light boxes are not in CFL form factor and so are useless to me. (I live in a house built in 1914 that mostly has traditional incandescent fixtures) Since so many people are saying that there are better bulbs that allow for better color reproduction, why don't you folks actually stand up and mention brands and stores to buy them at?
Newsflash, they're all made by the same small group of OEMs, and they're all made using pretty much exactly the same components, phosphors, etc. I have an apartment full of CFL lights from Home Depot, and they're just fine. I bought 2-3 6-packs on sale for a few dollars each. I bought some from ikea that are completely different in bulb and base style, and they look about the same- but they aren't silent, whereas the Home Depot ones are.
The lights change temperature and spectrum as they warm up. Some start off very dim and yellow-ish, especially when new. This is actually quite nice for bedroom/bathroom lights; you're not blasted when you flip on the switch. Also, if you have parts of the house that aren't CFL, you'll notice a difference because your brain adjusts to whatever surrounds you. If you convert everything, you won't be bugged. Don't believe me? Ride at night in a car that has HID lights, and notice how it looks "normal" after a bit, and everyone else's headlights look really yellow. The next night, go driving, and notice how everyone's headlights look fine, and some people have "blue" headlights. Now, drive around twilight, and notice how most people's car headlights look rather yellow.
How the hell can LIGHT have a GREY 'tinge'? Definition: "To apply a trace of color to; tint." Most of the people I talk to who object to CF lights and how they "look funny", don't have a single one in their house. Your brain automatically adjusts to different color temperatures. I used to do theater lighting design, and this is (believe it or not) exploited by designers. One scene's overall temperature influences the next.
"Daylight" CFLs have a strong bluish tinge similar to the backlight of an LCD display. Ugly. Horrible for photography. Looks nothing like real daylight.
Tungsten bulbs have a significantly higher color temperature than normal incandescents. Daylight CFLs have one significantly higher than tungsten bulbs. Would it surprise you to know that photographers actually seek out the high temperature FL tubes for home-made lightboxes?
This is because, unlike you, they know how to properly set the white balance on their camera (hint: you need a grey card.)
This would make you want to slit your wrist if you sat under it all day. Totally useless for anything except killing yourself.
I have a "bright white" bulb in my bathroom, one in my kitchen, and one by my desk. The rest are "soft" white. You'll be happy to know that no wrist-slitting has occured in several months since moving in, and my landlord was shocked at how low my power bill was.
In order to convict the people in this case the state of Georgia would have to prove they were causing the officer emotional distress and "establish a pattern" of behavior. From what is shown the office got caught once, and that does not constitute a pattern, therefore there is no harassment and no stalking.
You should have spent less time on your post, and more time reading the article(s). They repeatedly emailed him about the matter, and he felt it was harassment. We haven't seen the emails, now have we?
The second article says he wanted to meet with the couple to ask them to stop emailing him. They refused, and when it came down to decision time, he asked the judge to drop the request for an arrest warrant.
I'm pretty tired of speeding being too high a priority in this nation; there's only indirect links between speeding and collisions/injuries/deaths, but it is a mountain made out of a molehill because insurance companies and "public safety officials" want us to believe that speed is the only, or primary, factor in crashes.
That said- this couple were treading on the fine line of harassment AND the cop took the "high road", backing down. Much of the whiny comments posted under this story are unjustified.
This all is precisely why I have the NoScript extension installed in Firefox, and javascript is only turned on if the site requires it; the regular sites I use that DO require it, are whitelisted. I also have firefox set to dump all cookies on quitting; only sites that NEED to set permanent cookies are allowed to do so via the exception list.
What doesn't make sense though, is given the energy efficiency and easy-to-read high contrast functionality of E Ink, why other than Motorola with its Motofone, has no other cell phone manufacturer incorporated E Ink technology into its handsets?
It can't display video, or serve as the display for a camera phone. Seriously- the update cycle on eInk is up to half a second or more, something they don't like to talk about. That makes it a pain even for scrolling through your address book.
Related rant: All I want is a phone with a extendable antenna for good reception, a message indicator LIGHT (my SE phone has a message indicator on the screen, but the screen goes blank or to a clock. It even HAS a LED in the joystick, but it's not used for anything!), bluetooth, and a fully functioning address book (ie: I want to be able to see an address, not just a #, and I want the phone to support contact groups in iCal.)
Why won't anyone make it? If they do make it, why aren't they doing a better job of marketing it? I understand all the cameraphone crap is to get me to buy more services; I don't give a shit about video or MMS or cameraphones, and I'm unlikely to EVER buy those services- so just sell me a GOOD PHONE. And NO, I don't want a large phone, even if it does run Linux...
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for this particular development. But the sort of power you are looking at to charge batteries at that rate is enormous. Figure it out. If you have a battery that can, say, deliver 50KW for one hour, then to charge it in five minutes will require to deliver about 20% more than you get out (conversion efficiency) or a charge rate of 720KW. That's nearly 1000 horsepower in Library of Congress units. You aren't going to be passing that through a handy, easy to use electrical circuit any time soon.
One reason charge rates are very important is for regenerative braking. Part of the reason the Prius is so efficient around town is because it uses regenerative braking, but it can only pump so much current back into the battery pack, and it has to be done carefully to avoid overcharging the pack and resulting in, say, thermal runaway. Stopping from 70MPH to 0MPH involves turning a LOT of kinetic energy into thermal energy, via brakes.
This is very important for areas like toll booths, or certain kinds of congested highway traffic. On a Boston->NYC trip, watching my average mileage function, the Mass turnpike toll booths would each cut my average MPG by 1MPG; this isn't a particularly fuel efficient vehicle to begin with (full size older sedan, gets a max of 24MPG.) A vehicle with much better cruising efficiency would see a MUCH more substantial hit. Then again, eliminating tollbooths entirely would also boost safety and speed commerce...
What's appalling is that the author, Dr. Brizendine, not only holds a top academic position, but also has a best selling book that is full of "facts" that are complete fabrications.
The apocryphal story of NASA spending millions of dollars to invent a pressurized ball point pen that would work in zero gravity and USSR deciding to use a pencil comes to my mind.
The one that's a blatantly not true? I'm against space exploration for many reasons, but even I know this story is utter bullshit.
1)Fisher developed the space pen without a dime from NASA, and sold them to NASA at a reasonable price.
2)Both the US and USSR used pencils.
3)Both stopped using them because the dust/filings/broken tips floating around were bad for people and equipment.
Incidentally, I have a Fisher pen; it's the smallest one they make (I think), a two-piece unit where the cap flips around to make it a full-length pen. It's a great pocket pen; the ink seems to be quick-drying (left-handed people will appreciate this and know what I mean), not too pricey ($10 I think? Maybe $15?) small, always works, and with the cap off, it's a full-size writing implement and very sturdy when "assembled." Not like one of those cheesy telescoping jobbies that bend and are too thin to hold. An o-ring-like seal keeps the cap on firmly when stored and keeps the laundry detergent out (yes, proven more than once.)
It's quick to whip out (cough) and always works, unlike half the pens at cashiers which a)can't be found and b)barely work. It also garners the occasional impressed comment. My only beef is that the clip came off after a month or so in my pocket- would have been nice if they had spot-welded it on instead of just press-fitting it.
WalMart is so profitable because it targets average middle America. Its niche happens to be precisely the vast bulk of people who don't know much about computers and stick with the default Internet Explorer. Because the company targets this niche so successful, it obviously would feel little need to ensure that its site works with the minority of users who use other browsers. It's not fear of hackers, it's just a desire to do as little work as possible. In any event, should we really care about not being to shop online at Wal-Mart?
I had the same, "oh, so what?" reaction at first, but your post made me realize: Walmart's dominance in the marketplace (and indeed, calling them a "niche" retailer is hysterical) means that all those grandmothers, aunts, uncles, significant others, friends, etc which we have spent time convincing to use some other browser ("It works with almost everything, PLEASE use it instead of Internet Explorer") hit walmart.com and get a big "I DO NOT WORK WITH THIS SILLY LITTLE BROWSER."
What happens? Grandpa mutters something, we look like idiots/liars, the alternative browser never gets used again, and Internet Explorer's market share creeps back up. Grandpa tells his buddies at the VFW that his "rocket scientist" grandson installed some "Flame squirrel" browser that didn't *even* work with *Walmart's* website. Etc.
By the way, folks- it's best to encourage people to use almost anything but IE, and not just ONE other browser, to encourage standards compliance. Already, site designers seem to only care/brag about making sites work in IE or Firefox- and said site breaks in Safari, Opera, etc. That's not how the web is supposed to work.
You have to remember this -- there is no guarantee of free speech from any corporation.
That's because everyone perpetually equates "free speech" with "censorship". Censorship CAN be a violation of your right to free speech, but not always- and this case is a perfect example. Others say that censorship cannot be done by a corporation; that's also wrong. Everything you watch on TV is run past network censors. Anything you watch in the movie theater, also (most likely) run past censors.
Youtube's actions are censorship. They are not violation of anyone's "free speech" rights. Nothing stops the gent in question from posting his commentary on his own website, or publishing commentary in any number of forms of other media (for example, printing a booklet or printing a newsletter.) If the government comes knocking on his door and takes his computer and printer and says, "You can't print this, Muslims don't like it", that is a violation of his right to free speech.
NASA's problem is that they're stuck in the old model of "we want to find the VERY BEST candidate" and a "process of elimination." Many corporations long ago realized that you look for good people you can refine to be the best and you keep them. NASA's like an employer that shows a brilliant stock trader the door after an interview because he's a horrendous dresser, instead of hiring him and his supervisor taking him to a tailor some evening.
Guess what? We're all full of faults, and even after decades of refining their screening technique, they didn't detect that this woman could have serious mental issues.
Would You Seek Help If It Meant You'd Never Fly On the Shuttle covers the matter better than I could, but basically: NASA's reaction to this is more intense screening, when it should be to recognize the commitment made on both sides and help them resolve their personal problems.
My employer has an entire department dedicated to helping employees with "life" problems. It's anonymous; your supervisor or coworkers never find out you even talked to them. Why? Because it's better to have someone for you to talk to and try and help you with little problems, before they become problems that interfere with your work. Had NASA had a similar program, chances are the astronaut in question would have received the mental help/counselling she needed.
Instead, NASA lost a great astronaut and her life has been destroyed.
I guess this means we should melt down that goddamn site for scrap? Guess what, kids. If Cory doesn't like your terms, he feels you and your work are completely worthless.
According to wikipedia, he doesn't even have a (real) high school degree, and dropped out from four colleges. Aside from editing a web log site and cranking out pulp fiction, what are his qualifications?
His bio conveniently glosses over this, and most news stories or interviews also leave out information on his education background. I did find an article about how he was invited as a "scholar" to teach a graduate school course at USC!
Couched in terms of an offer to write 'dissenting papers' against the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, several scientists contacted for the article refused the offers on conflict of interest grounds
How about refusing on the grounds that research and scientific opinion should not be for sale or political motive? It's pretty sad only one person did so: Professor Schroeder.
Scientists often talk big, but nothing shuts them up faster than a threat to their funding, and there's no better way to threaten your research group's funding than to say "no" if an organization linked to Bush (a large number of AEI people have worked as administration "consultants") comes around asking for a favor. "Conflict of Interest" was a polite and evasive way to say "no" without saying "no"...
Looking for public installations? We had CowParade cows which were placed all around the city and auctioned off for charity, for example. They were placed in public spaces after being painted by various groups or companies (for example, a local ice cream chain's staff painted one.)
The MBTA may have a tumultuous relationship with them, but there are quite a number of subway platform musicians, some of whom are extremely talented and enjoyed by thousands of MBTA customers. You'll find them in almost any station that sees a decent amount of foot traffic and is protected from the elements.
The MBTA also regularly purchases and installs artwork. Some of the stuff that was put on the Red Line around the early 90's is interactive- there's a gong which can be rang by moving a ratchet handle on the wall, and chimes at the MIT/Kendall stop which can be rung from either platform via similar handles. To this day, people still walk up and ring them.
THIS STUNT WAS NOT ART. THESE WERE DISPOSABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICES OF A PURELY COMMERCIAL, PROMOTIONAL NATURE, WITH A LIMITED LIFETIME, PLACED BY A BUNCH OF CASH-HUNGRY IDIOTS FOR A NATIONAL CORPORATION.
Likewise I've only heard Boston-based posters complaining about how this was irresponsible and something that obviously looked a lot like a bomb so it needed to be investigated.
I'm from Boston. I stood on the subway for a over an hour (normal ride time: 30 minutes or so) because of these dipshit "indie" artists that did this for Turner. Check out one of their websites. Wow, aren't they cool? They know how to use animation programs, video projectors, video cameras, and have dreadlocks. They use pen-names that sound uber-cool, and lots of hip artist-y language.
They should have heard the language on the subway when the conductor announced we'd be delayed because Sullivan Station was shut down on account of "a suspicious package."
Their stunt shut down 93 North, the orange line, several Charles River bridges (which are heavily trafficked.) These idiots planted electronic devices on private and public property, something they knew they shouldn't do, over-reactions from police aside. Let's be absolutely clear here: these clowns had zero business putting this stuff on property that wasn't theirs and they knew it, but decided to ignore that, because this whole thing probably made them some pot money.
One of them is sitting in jail, as of about half an hour ago. Let's see how he likes being inconvenienced.
Your participation with their audit is voluntary unless they have sufficient probably cause to justify a warrant, in which case they will be accompanied by a law enforcement agent.
Wrong. Participation is voluntary, unless they get a court order, filed as part of a lawsuit. it's not a warrant. Warrants are used in criminal cases, not (private party) civil suits.
Remember that, at least in the US, the evidence must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Yet again, please get your facts straight. Copyright violation is a civil, not criminal, matter. In civil court, the standards of evidence are much, much lower- which is why you can get a parking ticket, have it blown off your windshield, and have the fine double (and if you refuse to pay, your license revoked.)
That said- YES, you should ALWAYS tell the BSA to get off your property and not to come back without a court order. Unless they're fairly certain that you have enough license violations to justify the labor, they won't be back.
Aside from the spectacular view and parlor tricks, why?
The moon was a chuck of dust. We learned next to nothing from it, except that golfballs can be hit really, really far.
Mars is almost equally barren and inhospitable. We can't fix the problems on our own planet, but we presume that we can terraform Mars into something people could live on easily?
We've been sending people into space for half a century. Has this:
Given us universal healthcare? (Most of the rest of the industrialized nations have it. Please don't post "but universal healthcare often sucks" unless you've lived without ANY HEALTH CARE INSURANCE and needed health care.)
Helped us educate our children, and feed the poor ones?
Helped us cut CO2 emissions in industry and power generation?
Helped turn the disadvantaged (disabled, undereducated, homeless) into productive members of society - or at least fed, clothed, housed, and cared for them medically?
It's unpopular to point out that we have a host of pretty important (and solveable) problems that need good minds and resources, but I don't care. Maybe some day slashdotters will start listening, learn that as a society we need to have some priorties, and stop abusing the moderation system to suppress opinions they don't agree with.
By the way: for all of you who say we need human "space exploration" to escape and settle other planets- I hope you realize that, should it come down to doomsday and there are ten thousand seats available (seems kind of unlikely) and a world-wide lottery: you have a roughly 1:650,000 chance of getting a seat (assuming current earth population statistics.) That's assuming the tickets are distributed completely evenly, and those in government don't put themselves and their families first in line.
Heard about the hundred-million-dollar school Oprah built in Africa, for African girls? The continent has a HUGE problem with disease in general, malnutrition- even access to clean water, and the idiot drops $100M on something that has questionable benefits. Friday morning, NPR had an interview with a woman who works for a health organization that works in Africa, and she described how AIDS is getting all the money in Africa. Her voice trembled when she said, "Babies don't die from being HIV positive. Babies die from diarrhea. Where is the money for fighting diarrhea?"
explaining why the unexpected resilience of kernel version 2.6 has delayed the move to 2.7.
Uh...resilience?
2.6 releases have "shipped" numerous times with some serious bugs, probably because Linus and company have let lots of people slip major new features into the 2.6 kernel, when it's supposed to be stable. 2.6 kernels regularly make it SEVERAL "point" releases into each point release:
2.6.19.2
2.6.18.6
2.6.17.14 (!)
2.6.16.37 (thirty seven releases. From 3/20/06 to 12/28/06. That's one release, on average, once a week.)
2.6.15.7
Go and look at the timestamps on 'em on ftp.kernel.org. Some of the sub-versions are just a few days apart. How the hell are end-users supposed to know when the kernel is ACTUALLY useable, if there are THIRTY SEVEN bug-fix releases?
One of the more amazing bugs involved a bug in md that would hose raid partitions, and I assure you, it was not the only serious filesystem bug. I lost a reiserfs partition thanks to a half-baked 2.6 release.
...as there's a Boston firm that made the packs that are in one of the brands of power tools (Milkwalkee I think?); they can take a recharge rate much, much higher than most battery packs, and the chargers are using a fraction of the maximum rate. The packs don't have to cool down after being drained before getting charged, etc. Google says the technology is lithium-manganese based.
There's also a Japanese firm that is making safer lithium ion packs (so they're cheaper from a materials standpoint.) They have a video showing a large pack of cell getting dropped (by a forklift- yes, a big pack) onto a steel spike and nothing happening (a traditional lithium ion or lithium poly pack would burst into flame.)
The article mentions "high powered weapons", such as an elephant gun. Only problem is- an elephant gun isn't "high powered" in military terms. It's a damn big bullet, but big bullets have low velocities and are horrible at piercing armor because they spread their impact energy across a wide area.
An AK47 is a very high powered assault rifle (well over 2,000fps) and the favorite weapon of Iraqi guerrillas. Standard 7.62mm bullets (no idea if that's what the guerrillas are using) reportedly goes through more than a quarter inch of steel at close range. The armor piercing rounds will slice through a titanium+kevlar jacket like butter; it's doubtful this guy's suit could fare any better. I'm guessing Iraqi guerrillas don't have many AP bullets, but I bet they could find some if they needed to.
How about a 30-06? Small round, and extremely high velocity (over 2,500 fps.) AP rounds were used in WW2 against "lightly armored" targets (jeeps and such.)
BMG.50 cal? Aka the gun that marines use to punch holes in just about everything short of armored personnel carriers. And yes, there are a number of non-US rifles similar in purpose to the.50 BMG that Iraqi guerrillas could get their hands on. Getting hit by a.50 BMG in the head would probably give you a severe concussion or kill you just from the physical energy of the round alone. To stop said bullet, your helmet would probably have to weigh more than the entire suit...
If a head is really clogged, if you are brave you can clear it out by literally sucking out the holes. I have been told that if you spit it out right away and rinse your mouth, there is no harm, as long as you don't mind a colorful mouth and teeth for a day or so. As a disclaimer, though, check with your local friendly poison center first before doing this at home.:
Many inkjet forumulations used to contain cyanide-based compounds. I don't know if they still do, but this would be EXTREMELY stupid regardless.
Use a shop vac or something, if the method really works (I doubt it does. Heads clog because of dried up ink.)
Slashdot Mirror
Of course, it does not matter that SETI@Home showed the power of volunteer computing for the first time,
The RC4/5 challenge predated the SETI stuff by *years*.
As a free market libertarian, I vote against this.
I lost all respect for Libertarians after I heard one complain about how his town wouldn't plow his private drive.
Unfortunately, we tried the "libertarian" take early on in the US; business used to be largely unregulated. What did they do with this freedom? Grossly abused the workforce- preferring to employ children and women, who had little socio-political power and thus were easy to control and work to death. Polluted the hell out of groundwater and rivers by dumping their byproducts whereever they pleased, consequences be damned. Today's working conditions are what they are, purely because the government has raised the bar (slowly) on how workers may be treated after public outcry forced legislation. We're not alone.
Maybe if you grew up in a state like Massachusetts where children died getting crushed by weaving machines in fabric mills, and where PCBs were dumped by GE into rivers simply because they COULD...well, maybe just then you'd feel a little differently about regulating industry. Hell, they recently found near the Alewife T station, on the cite of an old dye plant, that people who grew up in the area had cancer rates that were astronomically high. These people, as kids, played on the site- and many of them remember that the ground was so contaminated, puddles would form spontaneously in depressions in the ground that were every color of the rainbow.
I have as of yet to find a decent CFL. The ones at Home Depot all suck. The ones at the drug store and grocery store all suck. The ones that I see online for light boxes are not in CFL form factor and so are useless to me. (I live in a house built in 1914 that mostly has traditional incandescent fixtures) Since so many people are saying that there are better bulbs that allow for better color reproduction, why don't you folks actually stand up and mention brands and stores to buy them at?
Newsflash, they're all made by the same small group of OEMs, and they're all made using pretty much exactly the same components, phosphors, etc. I have an apartment full of CFL lights from Home Depot, and they're just fine. I bought 2-3 6-packs on sale for a few dollars each. I bought some from ikea that are completely different in bulb and base style, and they look about the same- but they aren't silent, whereas the Home Depot ones are.
The lights change temperature and spectrum as they warm up. Some start off very dim and yellow-ish, especially when new. This is actually quite nice for bedroom/bathroom lights; you're not blasted when you flip on the switch. Also, if you have parts of the house that aren't CFL, you'll notice a difference because your brain adjusts to whatever surrounds you. If you convert everything, you won't be bugged. Don't believe me? Ride at night in a car that has HID lights, and notice how it looks "normal" after a bit, and everyone else's headlights look really yellow. The next night, go driving, and notice how everyone's headlights look fine, and some people have "blue" headlights. Now, drive around twilight, and notice how most people's car headlights look rather yellow.
"Bright White" CFLs have a strong greyish tinge.
How the hell can LIGHT have a GREY 'tinge'? Definition: "To apply a trace of color to; tint." Most of the people I talk to who object to CF lights and how they "look funny", don't have a single one in their house. Your brain automatically adjusts to different color temperatures. I used to do theater lighting design, and this is (believe it or not) exploited by designers. One scene's overall temperature influences the next.
"Daylight" CFLs have a strong bluish tinge similar to the backlight of an LCD display. Ugly. Horrible for photography. Looks nothing like real daylight.
Tungsten bulbs have a significantly higher color temperature than normal incandescents. Daylight CFLs have one significantly higher than tungsten bulbs. Would it surprise you to know that photographers actually seek out the high temperature FL tubes for home-made lightboxes?
This is because, unlike you, they know how to properly set the white balance on their camera (hint: you need a grey card.)
This would make you want to slit your wrist if you sat under it all day. Totally useless for anything except killing yourself.
I have a "bright white" bulb in my bathroom, one in my kitchen, and one by my desk. The rest are "soft" white. You'll be happy to know that no wrist-slitting has occured in several months since moving in, and my landlord was shocked at how low my power bill was.
In order to convict the people in this case the state of Georgia would have to prove they were causing the officer emotional distress and "establish a pattern" of behavior. From what is shown the office got caught once, and that does not constitute a pattern, therefore there is no harassment and no stalking.
You should have spent less time on your post, and more time reading the article(s). They repeatedly emailed him about the matter, and he felt it was harassment. We haven't seen the emails, now have we?
The second article says he wanted to meet with the couple to ask them to stop emailing him. They refused, and when it came down to decision time, he asked the judge to drop the request for an arrest warrant.
I'm pretty tired of speeding being too high a priority in this nation; there's only indirect links between speeding and collisions/injuries/deaths, but it is a mountain made out of a molehill because insurance companies and "public safety officials" want us to believe that speed is the only, or primary, factor in crashes.
That said- this couple were treading on the fine line of harassment AND the cop took the "high road", backing down. Much of the whiny comments posted under this story are unjustified.
This all is precisely why I have the NoScript extension installed in Firefox, and javascript is only turned on if the site requires it; the regular sites I use that DO require it, are whitelisted. I also have firefox set to dump all cookies on quitting; only sites that NEED to set permanent cookies are allowed to do so via the exception list.
What doesn't make sense though, is given the energy efficiency and easy-to-read high contrast functionality of E Ink, why other than Motorola with its Motofone, has no other cell phone manufacturer incorporated E Ink technology into its handsets?
It can't display video, or serve as the display for a camera phone. Seriously- the update cycle on eInk is up to half a second or more, something they don't like to talk about. That makes it a pain even for scrolling through your address book.
Related rant: All I want is a phone with a extendable antenna for good reception, a message indicator LIGHT (my SE phone has a message indicator on the screen, but the screen goes blank or to a clock. It even HAS a LED in the joystick, but it's not used for anything!), bluetooth, and a fully functioning address book (ie: I want to be able to see an address, not just a #, and I want the phone to support contact groups in iCal.)
Why won't anyone make it? If they do make it, why aren't they doing a better job of marketing it? I understand all the cameraphone crap is to get me to buy more services; I don't give a shit about video or MMS or cameraphones, and I'm unlikely to EVER buy those services- so just sell me a GOOD PHONE. And NO, I don't want a large phone, even if it does run Linux...
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for this particular development. But the sort of power you are looking at to charge batteries at that rate is enormous. Figure it out. If you have a battery that can, say, deliver 50KW for one hour, then to charge it in five minutes will require to deliver about 20% more than you get out (conversion efficiency) or a charge rate of 720KW. That's nearly 1000 horsepower in Library of Congress units. You aren't going to be passing that through a handy, easy to use electrical circuit any time soon.
One reason charge rates are very important is for regenerative braking. Part of the reason the Prius is so efficient around town is because it uses regenerative braking, but it can only pump so much current back into the battery pack, and it has to be done carefully to avoid overcharging the pack and resulting in, say, thermal runaway. Stopping from 70MPH to 0MPH involves turning a LOT of kinetic energy into thermal energy, via brakes.
This is very important for areas like toll booths, or certain kinds of congested highway traffic. On a Boston->NYC trip, watching my average mileage function, the Mass turnpike toll booths would each cut my average MPG by 1MPG; this isn't a particularly fuel efficient vehicle to begin with (full size older sedan, gets a max of 24MPG.) A vehicle with much better cruising efficiency would see a MUCH more substantial hit. Then again, eliminating tollbooths entirely would also boost safety and speed commerce...
slashdotter hangs head
:(
shall not forget tags again
always preview first
webserver crashes slashdotters joke server fire mysql go boom (My-Sequel, not My-Ess-Que-Ehl, fyi.)
It shows how even peer-reviewed papers can sometimes 'slip through the net' and get to publication with inaccurate data."
How about the misandry-filled assertations about how women use more words than men, have brains more "wired" for communication, etc? Turns out that everyone's been quoting each other and nobody can even stick to facts interview to interview.
What's appalling is that the author, Dr. Brizendine, not only holds a top academic position, but also has a best selling book that is full of "facts" that are complete fabrications.
The apocryphal story of NASA spending millions of dollars to invent a pressurized ball point pen that would work in zero gravity and USSR deciding to use a pencil comes to my mind.
The one that's a blatantly not true? I'm against space exploration for many reasons, but even I know this story is utter bullshit.
1)Fisher developed the space pen without a dime from NASA, and sold them to NASA at a reasonable price.
2)Both the US and USSR used pencils.
3)Both stopped using them because the dust/filings/broken tips floating around were bad for people and equipment.
Incidentally, I have a Fisher pen; it's the smallest one they make (I think), a two-piece unit where the cap flips around to make it a full-length pen. It's a great pocket pen; the ink seems to be quick-drying (left-handed people will appreciate this and know what I mean), not too pricey ($10 I think? Maybe $15?) small, always works, and with the cap off, it's a full-size writing implement and very sturdy when "assembled." Not like one of those cheesy telescoping jobbies that bend and are too thin to hold. An o-ring-like seal keeps the cap on firmly when stored and keeps the laundry detergent out (yes, proven more than once.)
It's quick to whip out (cough) and always works, unlike half the pens at cashiers which a)can't be found and b)barely work. It also garners the occasional impressed comment. My only beef is that the clip came off after a month or so in my pocket- would have been nice if they had spot-welded it on instead of just press-fitting it.
WalMart is so profitable because it targets average middle America. Its niche happens to be precisely the vast bulk of people who don't know much about computers and stick with the default Internet Explorer. Because the company targets this niche so successful, it obviously would feel little need to ensure that its site works with the minority of users who use other browsers. It's not fear of hackers, it's just a desire to do as little work as possible. In any event, should we really care about not being to shop online at Wal-Mart?
I had the same, "oh, so what?" reaction at first, but your post made me realize: Walmart's dominance in the marketplace (and indeed, calling them a "niche" retailer is hysterical) means that all those grandmothers, aunts, uncles, significant others, friends, etc which we have spent time convincing to use some other browser ("It works with almost everything, PLEASE use it instead of Internet Explorer") hit walmart.com and get a big "I DO NOT WORK WITH THIS SILLY LITTLE BROWSER."
What happens? Grandpa mutters something, we look like idiots/liars, the alternative browser never gets used again, and Internet Explorer's market share creeps back up. Grandpa tells his buddies at the VFW that his "rocket scientist" grandson installed some "Flame squirrel" browser that didn't *even* work with *Walmart's* website. Etc.
By the way, folks- it's best to encourage people to use almost anything but IE, and not just ONE other browser, to encourage standards compliance. Already, site designers seem to only care/brag about making sites work in IE or Firefox- and said site breaks in Safari, Opera, etc. That's not how the web is supposed to work.
You have to remember this -- there is no guarantee of free speech from any corporation.
That's because everyone perpetually equates "free speech" with "censorship". Censorship CAN be a violation of your right to free speech, but not always- and this case is a perfect example. Others say that censorship cannot be done by a corporation; that's also wrong. Everything you watch on TV is run past network censors. Anything you watch in the movie theater, also (most likely) run past censors.
Youtube's actions are censorship. They are not violation of anyone's "free speech" rights. Nothing stops the gent in question from posting his commentary on his own website, or publishing commentary in any number of forms of other media (for example, printing a booklet or printing a newsletter.) If the government comes knocking on his door and takes his computer and printer and says, "You can't print this, Muslims don't like it", that is a violation of his right to free speech.
NASA's problem is that they're stuck in the old model of "we want to find the VERY BEST candidate" and a "process of elimination." Many corporations long ago realized that you look for good people you can refine to be the best and you keep them. NASA's like an employer that shows a brilliant stock trader the door after an interview because he's a horrendous dresser, instead of hiring him and his supervisor taking him to a tailor some evening.
Guess what? We're all full of faults, and even after decades of refining their screening technique, they didn't detect that this woman could have serious mental issues.
Would You Seek Help If It Meant You'd Never Fly On the Shuttle covers the matter better than I could, but basically: NASA's reaction to this is more intense screening, when it should be to recognize the commitment made on both sides and help them resolve their personal problems.
My employer has an entire department dedicated to helping employees with "life" problems. It's anonymous; your supervisor or coworkers never find out you even talked to them. Why? Because it's better to have someone for you to talk to and try and help you with little problems, before they become problems that interfere with your work. Had NASA had a similar program, chances are the astronaut in question would have received the mental help/counselling she needed.
Instead, NASA lost a great astronaut and her life has been destroyed.
I guess this means we should melt down that goddamn site for scrap? Guess what, kids. If Cory doesn't like your terms, he feels you and your work are completely worthless.
One sentence describes him perfectly: He has a great deal to say, and says it widely and often..
According to wikipedia, he doesn't even have a (real) high school degree, and dropped out from four colleges. Aside from editing a web log site and cranking out pulp fiction, what are his qualifications?
His bio conveniently glosses over this, and most news stories or interviews also leave out information on his education background. I did find an article about how he was invited as a "scholar" to teach a graduate school course at USC!
Couched in terms of an offer to write 'dissenting papers' against the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, several scientists contacted for the article refused the offers on conflict of interest grounds
How about refusing on the grounds that research and scientific opinion should not be for sale or political motive? It's pretty sad only one person did so: Professor Schroeder.
Scientists often talk big, but nothing shuts them up faster than a threat to their funding, and there's no better way to threaten your research group's funding than to say "no" if an organization linked to Bush (a large number of AEI people have worked as administration "consultants") comes around asking for a favor. "Conflict of Interest" was a polite and evasive way to say "no" without saying "no"...
Sounds like Boston has a healthy appreciation of the arts.
We do. We're home to The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Institute of Contemporary Art, The DeCordova Museum, and dozens of smaller installations in Massachusetts' 100+ colleges.
Looking for something arty in Boston? According to The Boston Globe's Arts and Entertainment Section there's no shortage.
Looking for public installations? We had CowParade cows which were placed all around the city and auctioned off for charity, for example. They were placed in public spaces after being painted by various groups or companies (for example, a local ice cream chain's staff painted one.)
The MBTA may have a tumultuous relationship with them, but there are quite a number of subway platform musicians, some of whom are extremely talented and enjoyed by thousands of MBTA customers. You'll find them in almost any station that sees a decent amount of foot traffic and is protected from the elements.
The MBTA also regularly purchases and installs artwork. Some of the stuff that was put on the Red Line around the early 90's is interactive- there's a gong which can be rang by moving a ratchet handle on the wall, and chimes at the MIT/Kendall stop which can be rung from either platform via similar handles. To this day, people still walk up and ring them.
THIS STUNT WAS NOT ART. THESE WERE DISPOSABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICES OF A PURELY COMMERCIAL, PROMOTIONAL NATURE, WITH A LIMITED LIFETIME, PLACED BY A BUNCH OF CASH-HUNGRY IDIOTS FOR A NATIONAL CORPORATION.
Likewise I've only heard Boston-based posters complaining about how this was irresponsible and something that obviously looked a lot like a bomb so it needed to be investigated.
I'm from Boston. I stood on the subway for a over an hour (normal ride time: 30 minutes or so) because of these dipshit "indie" artists that did this for Turner. Check out one of their websites. Wow, aren't they cool? They know how to use animation programs, video projectors, video cameras, and have dreadlocks. They use pen-names that sound uber-cool, and lots of hip artist-y language.
They should have heard the language on the subway when the conductor announced we'd be delayed because Sullivan Station was shut down on account of "a suspicious package."
Their stunt shut down 93 North, the orange line, several Charles River bridges (which are heavily trafficked.) These idiots planted electronic devices on private and public property, something they knew they shouldn't do, over-reactions from police aside. Let's be absolutely clear here: these clowns had zero business putting this stuff on property that wasn't theirs and they knew it, but decided to ignore that, because this whole thing probably made them some pot money.
One of them is sitting in jail, as of about half an hour ago. Let's see how he likes being inconvenienced.
Your participation with their audit is voluntary unless they have sufficient probably cause to justify a warrant, in which case they will be accompanied by a law enforcement agent.
Wrong. Participation is voluntary, unless they get a court order, filed as part of a lawsuit. it's not a warrant. Warrants are used in criminal cases, not (private party) civil suits.
Remember that, at least in the US, the evidence must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Yet again, please get your facts straight. Copyright violation is a civil, not criminal, matter. In civil court, the standards of evidence are much, much lower- which is why you can get a parking ticket, have it blown off your windshield, and have the fine double (and if you refuse to pay, your license revoked.)
That said- YES, you should ALWAYS tell the BSA to get off your property and not to come back without a court order. Unless they're fairly certain that you have enough license violations to justify the labor, they won't be back.
With safe, cheap access to Earth orbit.
Aside from the spectacular view and parlor tricks, why?
The moon was a chuck of dust. We learned next to nothing from it, except that golfballs can be hit really, really far.
Mars is almost equally barren and inhospitable. We can't fix the problems on our own planet, but we presume that we can terraform Mars into something people could live on easily?
We've been sending people into space for half a century. Has this:
It's unpopular to point out that we have a host of pretty important (and solveable) problems that need good minds and resources, but I don't care. Maybe some day slashdotters will start listening, learn that as a society we need to have some priorties, and stop abusing the moderation system to suppress opinions they don't agree with.
By the way: for all of you who say we need human "space exploration" to escape and settle other planets- I hope you realize that, should it come down to doomsday and there are ten thousand seats available (seems kind of unlikely) and a world-wide lottery: you have a roughly 1:650,000 chance of getting a seat (assuming current earth population statistics.) That's assuming the tickets are distributed completely evenly, and those in government don't put themselves and their families first in line.
Heard about the hundred-million-dollar school Oprah built in Africa, for African girls? The continent has a HUGE problem with disease in general, malnutrition- even access to clean water, and the idiot drops $100M on something that has questionable benefits. Friday morning, NPR had an interview with a woman who works for a health organization that works in Africa, and she described how AIDS is getting all the money in Africa. Her voice trembled when she said, "Babies don't die from being HIV positive. Babies die from diarrhea. Where is the money for fighting diarrhea?"
explaining why the unexpected resilience of kernel version 2.6 has delayed the move to 2.7.
Uh...resilience?
2.6 releases have "shipped" numerous times with some serious bugs, probably because Linus and company have let lots of people slip major new features into the 2.6 kernel, when it's supposed to be stable. 2.6 kernels regularly make it SEVERAL "point" releases into each point release:
Go and look at the timestamps on 'em on ftp.kernel.org. Some of the sub-versions are just a few days apart. How the hell are end-users supposed to know when the kernel is ACTUALLY useable, if there are THIRTY SEVEN bug-fix releases?
One of the more amazing bugs involved a bug in md that would hose raid partitions, and I assure you, it was not the only serious filesystem bug. I lost a reiserfs partition thanks to a half-baked 2.6 release.
...as there's a Boston firm that made the packs that are in one of the brands of power tools (Milkwalkee I think?); they can take a recharge rate much, much higher than most battery packs, and the chargers are using a fraction of the maximum rate. The packs don't have to cool down after being drained before getting charged, etc. Google says the technology is lithium-manganese based.
There's also a Japanese firm that is making safer lithium ion packs (so they're cheaper from a materials standpoint.) They have a video showing a large pack of cell getting dropped (by a forklift- yes, a big pack) onto a steel spike and nothing happening (a traditional lithium ion or lithium poly pack would burst into flame.)
The article mentions "high powered weapons", such as an elephant gun. Only problem is- an elephant gun isn't "high powered" in military terms. It's a damn big bullet, but big bullets have low velocities and are horrible at piercing armor because they spread their impact energy across a wide area.
An AK47 is a very high powered assault rifle (well over 2,000fps) and the favorite weapon of Iraqi guerrillas. Standard 7.62mm bullets (no idea if that's what the guerrillas are using) reportedly goes through more than a quarter inch of steel at close range. The armor piercing rounds will slice through a titanium+kevlar jacket like butter; it's doubtful this guy's suit could fare any better. I'm guessing Iraqi guerrillas don't have many AP bullets, but I bet they could find some if they needed to.
How about a 30-06? Small round, and extremely high velocity (over 2,500 fps.) AP rounds were used in WW2 against "lightly armored" targets (jeeps and such.)
BMG .50 cal? Aka the gun that marines use to punch holes in just about everything short of armored personnel carriers. And yes, there are a number of non-US rifles similar in purpose to the .50 BMG that Iraqi guerrillas could get their hands on. Getting hit by a .50 BMG in the head would probably give you a severe concussion or kill you just from the physical energy of the round alone. To stop said bullet, your helmet would probably have to weigh more than the entire suit...
If a head is really clogged, if you are brave you can clear it out by literally sucking out the holes. I have been told that if you spit it out right away and rinse your mouth, there is no harm, as long as you don't mind a colorful mouth and teeth for a day or so. As a disclaimer, though, check with your local friendly poison center first before doing this at home. :
Many inkjet forumulations used to contain cyanide-based compounds. I don't know if they still do, but this would be EXTREMELY stupid regardless.
Use a shop vac or something, if the method really works (I doubt it does. Heads clog because of dried up ink.)