even over high bandwidth lines inet telephony
blows in comparison to POTS. And you can get
5c a minute long distance 24/7 from Qwest. For
2c more a minute I'll save $125 and not keep
saying 'huh?" every 30 seconds
So by using these systems, what happens if I am
mistakenly 'identified', hauled off to the police
station and waste a few hours there (maybe missing
some important task)? While it is true in the
US that the constitution does not appear to
protect privacy in open public places - It does
seem the lawmakers must come up with a bill that
puts severe penalties on its misuse, whether
intentional or accidental.
'the distribution that just wont die has been released. I'm sure many people here started w/ Slackware back in the day'
Lets translate to what you really meant:
'the distribution that really should die once
again has cheated death. I'm sure many people
when they were kids used Slackware before there
was something better like Redhat'
Why not just be a man and say you think there is
no place for slackware and that it sucks (which it
doesn't)? Sometimes the PCness on/. is sickening.
Seems to me that since they will lose the signal
not to far in the future, it would make more
sense to turn it around and bring it back to
earth orbit if they have the fuel. They should
be able to learn something about the long term
effects of exposure to space from it.
With the exception that the visor is rechargable,
the Ebookman is a better unit, and quite a bit
cheaper. The 'high' end model runs about $230.
Franklins page doesnt give much technical detail
other than dimensions and memory, but some can
be found here
Perhaps now the bleeding hearts that make up
so much of the/. community will wake up and
smell the coffee - Clinton/Gore oversaw the
largest erosion of personal privacy ever. The
so called 'champions of the people' did nothing
more than bring Orwell a very large leap closer
to reality, thru action and inaction. Your privacy was tossed out by executive orders
and sponsored legislation, not to mention the
wink of the eye to companies like Sun. Reminds
me.. isn't Sun about to cut a big check to Clinton
to speak? Maybe somebody from the audience will
have the balls to standup and interrupt Scott and
Bills great adventure to ask about this. But I
think they will be way to busy fawning over them.
Maybe now those of you who don't care about
politics will get a clue and write your reps and
senators about these (and other) things. But
since many of you probably have no idea who your
elected representatives are, let alone how to
contact them...
I played with iptables and one of the 2.4 pre
releases last fall. I found it to be incredibly
slow to load all the rules. Thinking I was
doing something very wrong, I also tried a
fairly vanilla table from one of the 'generator'
sites. Same problem. Can somebody shed some
light on this beyond 'your a dope'?
A traditional encyclopedia has articles by staff
and are generally balanced and acurately researched. What controls exist in this endeavor?
Why should I accept as having a high degree of
accuracy anything in it?
Cognet is buying all their dark fiber from
Metromedia Fiber Networks, and then charging you
for just a piece of that bandwidth. However,
you can lease a strand from MFNX, have them light
it and off you go at an extremely low price.
Of course, this is *not* for the individual.
You can check them out here,look under their corporate products -
managed SONET, MetroGig-E and WaveChannel Optical Nets
The actual recording of the votes is likely to
stay manual, but the counting done by computer.
You have to consider the case of power outtages
(by natural cause/accident/intentional), and I
just dont think every polling place is going to
have UPS to handle backup power to these proposed
computerized balloting systems.
Also, consider the costs of some of these
proposals. Surely there are reliable paper
ballot alternatives, or other mechanical systems
that are a lot cheaper.
And who are you to decide who is 'rich' enough
and who is 'poor' enough? Why not just enact
a bill gates tax where by he pays $1 bio every
year and every american gets a check from billy?
And to follow up the prior poster, after bushes
proposal the proportion of taxes paid by the
top 1% rises!
First, acknowledge the fact that many many parents
feel, rightly or wrongly, that their children are
able to access content at school, libraries, or
elsewhere outside their homes, content on the
internet that they strongly disapprove of, ie
porn.
So what is the government (local/state/feds) to
do about this, if anything? I propose this:
libraries issue cards with machine readable info,
including the age of the card holder. I know
that my paper card has my dob on it. Then, to use
the internet pc, you must slide your card thru
a reader to remove a content filter. I can also
see a situation where parents would be able to
set which filters apply to their children by
category and age.
No, this is not perfect by any means. Filters
can always be hacked and don't always do the
job intended. But at least this way a) those
who are old enough can look at anything they
want to, b) parents have a modest degree of
comfort about what their kids are not able to
look at while at school or the library.
and even if it were, we probably wouldn't be able
to tell. Theres a difference between *dead* and
a signal so faint that any misalignment makes it
impossible to receive.
Pioneer 10
(Launched 2 March 1972)
Distance from Sun (1 October 2000): 76.18 AU Speed relative to the Sun: 12.24 km/sec (27,380 mph) Distance from Earth: 11.34 billion
kilometers (7.047 billion miles) Round-trip Light Time: 21 hours 00 minutes
The latest Pioneer activity was on September 10, when DSS 63 tracked the spacecraft. The station was not able to acquire the downlink.
However, there was a report of two momentary receiver glitches at the Pioneer 10 frequency. This report was encouraging, since it means that
the spacecraft signal is there, but it is still off Earth point. The Earth look angle (ELA) is estimated to be over 1.4 degrees. The downlink signal
strength drops off rapidly after 1.0 degree. The Earth is just starting to go back towards the PN 10 spin axis. As the year continues, the Earth
will be closer in alignment with the spacecraft pointing and the tracking stations should be able to regain lock. We anticipate this to be about
the middle of December. Our latest calculation of the ephemeris yields: Right Ascension = 76.27 degrees, Declination = 25.91 degrees.
Since Pioneer 10 is over 75 AU distant and its telemetry signal is virtually at the limit of overall communication system's link margin, the
spacecraft was chosen as a convenient test vehicle for the new methodology of Chaos theory. Chaotic.com has been testing the applicability of
new methods in semi-blind signal estimation and noise reduction using Pioneer 10 signals. From the latest progress report by Richard. R.
Holland of chaotic.com, there are two main areas of development: algorithm development and data analysis. Currently NASA and JPL are
working with chaos.com to resolve issues regarding the data analysis. Keep tuned to this web-site for future progress reports on chaos theory
and Pioneer 10.
Starting with current budget numbers:(in billions)
and assuming 6% nominal GDP growth and no
paydown of current debt.
ITEM 2000 2010
GDP: 10,000 17,909
Spending: 1,835 2,466
as % GDP: 18% 14%
Debt Service: 202 202
as % GDP: 2% 1.1%
as % Budget: 11% 8%
Principal: 3,600 3,600
as % GDP: 36% 20%
(sorry for the poor format)
These numbers are quite good, and compared to
just about any other country they are outstanding.
Also keep in mind that only about 1/3 of the debt
is owed to foreigners, the rest are treasury
obligations sold to individuals, corporations and
pension/retirement funds.
Now if that doesn't sway you consider two more
points - not necessarily compatible, but possibly.
1) The average rate paid on the debt is ~5.5%.
By paying down the debt, you are taking money
away that the government can *invest* in
various projects to improve the economic and
social well being of the country. In effect
you are saying that the return on government
projects is under 5.5%
2) By not returning the excess funds to the
taxpayers you are saying that individuals are
unable to invest this money wisely enough to
achieve a return in excess 5.5% after tax.
A final thought... much more concern should be
directed at consumer debt. It is increasing at
about a 10% annual rate, and is $1.47 trillion
or 18% of personal income, 21% of disposable
income.
I have posted about MFNX quite a few times in the
past 18 months, but nobody seemed interested:(
You can find info about them here
Metro is primarily in the business of leasing
dark fiber in the local loop, but they will also
provide the services to light it, as well as
long haul connections. While not economical
for the individual, for businesses this is the
way to go.
you dont really give too much info on your setup,
but arent you consuming a tremendous amount of
power by running 3 or 4 machines when one new
machine could do the whole thing?
Clinton/Gore has done jack for the environment
and its hard to see why groups like Sierra, etc
still bother with them. Talk is cheap folks
and thats all they have done. And if you want
to take it to the 'geek' level, how many of you
paid attention to the 'Silicon Hell' article a
few months ago that detailed the incredible
toxicity of the semi industry? I guess when it
comes to the environment, Al and Bill still hold
very dear 'its the economy stupid'.
I can't find the correct words to describe my
utter amazement and disappointment in the political views
expressed by CmdrTaco. I would
guess that 15-20% of stories on slashdot revolve
around the internet and overal personal privacy
debates, or basially that there is none. Yet
what have Clinton and Gore done about this in the
past 8 years? ABSOULTELY NOTHING. Not only are
private companies intrusive, but the government
is at its most intrusive ever. So Cmdr Taco,
you want 4 more years of that 'leadership'? If
you want your privacy back I suggest you reconsider and
maybe check out HR220 and other
bills sponsored by *egads* Republicans.
And second,at least if you are gonna comment on politics,
come out with something better than 'bush sucks'
or 'gore sucks'. You just look like a f*ng idiot
when you make blanket statements like that.
Slashdot Mirror
even over high bandwidth lines inet telephony
blows in comparison to POTS. And you can get
5c a minute long distance 24/7 from Qwest. For
2c more a minute I'll save $125 and not keep
saying 'huh?" every 30 seconds
So by using these systems, what happens if I am
mistakenly 'identified', hauled off to the police
station and waste a few hours there (maybe missing
some important task)? While it is true in the
US that the constitution does not appear to
protect privacy in open public places - It does
seem the lawmakers must come up with a bill that
puts severe penalties on its misuse, whether
intentional or accidental.
'the distribution that just wont die has been released. I'm sure many people here started w/ Slackware back in the day'
/. is sickening.
Lets translate to what you really meant:
'the distribution that really should die once
again has cheated death. I'm sure many people
when they were kids used Slackware before there
was something better like Redhat'
Why not just be a man and say you think there is
no place for slackware and that it sucks (which it
doesn't)? Sometimes the PCness on
Somebody marked that post as informative?
I've had slakware based systems up for excess of
6 months, and the only reason they have come down
is due to power failure (someday I'll get an UPS).
Nothing like a real world test
Seems to me that since they will lose the signal
not to far in the future, it would make more
sense to turn it around and bring it back to
earth orbit if they have the fuel. They should
be able to learn something about the long term
effects of exposure to space from it.
But where is the old testement stuff? Does uunet
have any of these? Afterall, Usenet has been
around a lot longer than 6 years!
Slackware doesnt shove anything down your throat that you don't want there (doh!)
will be my Northpoint line any minute now..
If you are interested in the m500, you really
should take a look at the Franklin Ebookman at
www.franklin.com
a) its available today,
b) more memory
c) EB-911 is $170 cheaper
d) bigger screen
e) open platform
Disclaimer - I'm working on a few apps for the
ebookman, but then so can anybody, check their site.
With the exception that the visor is rechargable,
the Ebookman is a better unit, and quite a bit
cheaper. The 'high' end model runs about $230.
Franklins page doesnt give much technical detail
other than dimensions and memory, but some can
be found here
Perhaps now the bleeding hearts that make up /. community will wake up and
so much of the
smell the coffee - Clinton/Gore oversaw the
largest erosion of personal privacy ever. The
so called 'champions of the people' did nothing
more than bring Orwell a very large leap closer
to reality, thru action and inaction.
Your privacy was tossed out by executive orders
and sponsored legislation, not to mention the
wink of the eye to companies like Sun. Reminds
me.. isn't Sun about to cut a big check to Clinton
to speak? Maybe somebody from the audience will
have the balls to standup and interrupt Scott and
Bills great adventure to ask about this. But I
think they will be way to busy fawning over them.
Maybe now those of you who don't care about
politics will get a clue and write your reps and
senators about these (and other) things. But
since many of you probably have no idea who your
elected representatives are, let alone how to
contact them...
House of Reps.
Senate
I played with iptables and one of the 2.4 pre
releases last fall. I found it to be incredibly
slow to load all the rules. Thinking I was
doing something very wrong, I also tried a
fairly vanilla table from one of the 'generator'
sites. Same problem. Can somebody shed some
light on this beyond 'your a dope'?
A traditional encyclopedia has articles by staff
and are generally balanced and acurately researched. What controls exist in this endeavor?
Why should I accept as having a high degree of
accuracy anything in it?
Cognet is buying all their dark fiber from
,look under their corporate products -
Metromedia Fiber Networks, and then charging you
for just a piece of that bandwidth. However,
you can lease a strand from MFNX, have them light
it and off you go at an extremely low price.
Of course, this is *not* for the individual.
You can check them out here
managed SONET, MetroGig-E and WaveChannel Optical Nets
The actual recording of the votes is likely to
stay manual, but the counting done by computer.
You have to consider the case of power outtages
(by natural cause/accident/intentional), and I
just dont think every polling place is going to
have UPS to handle backup power to these proposed
computerized balloting systems.
Also, consider the costs of some of these
proposals. Surely there are reliable paper
ballot alternatives, or other mechanical systems
that are a lot cheaper.
And who are you to decide who is 'rich' enough
and who is 'poor' enough? Why not just enact
a bill gates tax where by he pays $1 bio every
year and every american gets a check from billy?
And to follow up the prior poster, after bushes
proposal the proportion of taxes paid by the
top 1% rises!
First, acknowledge the fact that many many parents
feel, rightly or wrongly, that their children are
able to access content at school, libraries, or
elsewhere outside their homes, content on the
internet that they strongly disapprove of, ie
porn.
So what is the government (local/state/feds) to
do about this, if anything? I propose this:
libraries issue cards with machine readable info,
including the age of the card holder. I know
that my paper card has my dob on it. Then, to use
the internet pc, you must slide your card thru
a reader to remove a content filter. I can also
see a situation where parents would be able to
set which filters apply to their children by
category and age.
No, this is not perfect by any means. Filters
can always be hacked and don't always do the
job intended. But at least this way a) those
who are old enough can look at anything they
want to, b) parents have a modest degree of
comfort about what their kids are not able to
look at while at school or the library.
Clue in.. the numbers you receive in the paper
are *real* growth, not nominal growth.
1980 2795.6 -
1981 3131.3 12.0%
1982 3259.2 4.1%
1983 3534.9 8.5%
1984 3932.7 11.3%
1985 4213 7.1%
1986 4452.9 5.7%
1987 4742.5 6.5%
1988 5108.3 7.7%
1989 5489.1 7.5%
1990 5803.2 5.7%
1991 5986.2 3.2%
1992 6318.9 5.6%
1993 6642.3 5.1%
1994 7054.3 6.2%
1995 7400.5 4.9%
1996 7813.2 5.6%
1997 8318.4 6.5%
1998 8790.2 5.7%
1999 9299.2 5.8%
The average of the whole series is 6.6%, the
average since 1985 is 5.9%.
slashdot lameness filter is wackedout cause it
thinks numbers are 'too many caps'
and even if it were, we probably wouldn't be able
to tell. Theres a difference between *dead* and
a signal so faint that any misalignment makes it
impossible to receive.
Pioneer 10
(Launched 2 March 1972)
Distance from Sun (1 October 2000): 76.18 AU Speed relative to the Sun: 12.24 km/sec (27,380 mph) Distance from Earth: 11.34 billion
kilometers (7.047 billion miles) Round-trip Light Time: 21 hours 00 minutes
The latest Pioneer activity was on September 10, when DSS 63 tracked the spacecraft. The station was not able to acquire the downlink.
However, there was a report of two momentary receiver glitches at the Pioneer 10 frequency. This report was encouraging, since it means that
the spacecraft signal is there, but it is still off Earth point. The Earth look angle (ELA) is estimated to be over 1.4 degrees. The downlink signal
strength drops off rapidly after 1.0 degree. The Earth is just starting to go back towards the PN 10 spin axis. As the year continues, the Earth
will be closer in alignment with the spacecraft pointing and the tracking stations should be able to regain lock. We anticipate this to be about
the middle of December. Our latest calculation of the ephemeris yields: Right Ascension = 76.27 degrees, Declination = 25.91 degrees.
Since Pioneer 10 is over 75 AU distant and its telemetry signal is virtually at the limit of overall communication system's link margin, the
spacecraft was chosen as a convenient test vehicle for the new methodology of Chaos theory. Chaotic.com has been testing the applicability of
new methods in semi-blind signal estimation and noise reduction using Pioneer 10 signals. From the latest progress report by Richard. R.
Holland of chaotic.com, there are two main areas of development: algorithm development and data analysis. Currently NASA and JPL are
working with chaos.com to resolve issues regarding the data analysis. Keep tuned to this web-site for future progress reports on chaos theory
and Pioneer 10.
Starting with current budget numbers:(in billions)
and assuming 6% nominal GDP growth and no
paydown of current debt.
ITEM 2000 2010
GDP: 10,000 17,909
Spending: 1,835 2,466
as % GDP: 18% 14%
Debt Service: 202 202
as % GDP: 2% 1.1%
as % Budget: 11% 8%
Principal: 3,600 3,600
as % GDP: 36% 20%
(sorry for the poor format)
These numbers are quite good, and compared to
just about any other country they are outstanding.
Also keep in mind that only about 1/3 of the debt
is owed to foreigners, the rest are treasury
obligations sold to individuals, corporations and
pension/retirement funds.
Now if that doesn't sway you consider two more
points - not necessarily compatible, but possibly.
1) The average rate paid on the debt is ~5.5%.
By paying down the debt, you are taking money
away that the government can *invest* in
various projects to improve the economic and
social well being of the country. In effect
you are saying that the return on government
projects is under 5.5%
2) By not returning the excess funds to the
taxpayers you are saying that individuals are
unable to invest this money wisely enough to
achieve a return in excess 5.5% after tax.
A final thought... much more concern should be
directed at consumer debt. It is increasing at
about a 10% annual rate, and is $1.47 trillion
or 18% of personal income, 21% of disposable
income.
I have posted about MFNX quite a few times in the :(
past 18 months, but nobody seemed interested
You can find info about them here
Metro is primarily in the business of leasing
dark fiber in the local loop, but they will also
provide the services to light it, as well as
long haul connections. While not economical
for the individual, for businesses this is the
way to go.
disclaimer - i do own their stock
you dont really give too much info on your setup,
but arent you consuming a tremendous amount of
power by running 3 or 4 machines when one new
machine could do the whole thing?
Clinton/Gore has done jack for the environment
and its hard to see why groups like Sierra, etc
still bother with them. Talk is cheap folks
and thats all they have done. And if you want
to take it to the 'geek' level, how many of you
paid attention to the 'Silicon Hell' article a
few months ago that detailed the incredible
toxicity of the semi industry? I guess when it
comes to the environment, Al and Bill still hold
very dear 'its the economy stupid'.
I can't find the correct words to describe my
utter amazement and disappointment in the political views
expressed by CmdrTaco. I would
guess that 15-20% of stories on slashdot revolve
around the internet and overal personal privacy
debates, or basially that there is none. Yet
what have Clinton and Gore done about this in the
past 8 years? ABSOULTELY NOTHING. Not only are
private companies intrusive, but the government
is at its most intrusive ever. So Cmdr Taco,
you want 4 more years of that 'leadership'? If
you want your privacy back I suggest you reconsider and
maybe check out HR220 and other
bills sponsored by *egads* Republicans.
And second,at least if you are gonna comment on politics,
come out with something better than 'bush sucks'
or 'gore sucks'. You just look like a f*ng idiot
when you make blanket statements like that.