Someone make a bootable image...which boots into several virtualised operating systems - one Linux, one FreeBSD, one Mac OS X, and one of these shrunken Windows XPs.
Simple. Install "virtual pc" on OSX, install windows and linux on that. Then include it on an OSX bootable CD. (or, more likely, bootable DVD)
In my experience it is harder finding a way to light the thermite then it is to acutally make the stuff.
Have you tried a model rocket igniter? It takes a 12 volt charge, and generates enough heat to ignite the solid fuel in the model rocket engine. If it doesn't get hot enough, stick it in a rocket engine first. The flame should ignite the thermite.
BTW: I read they usually use a sparkler to ignite thermite.
From the article:
In high school, my social studies teacher talked about a substance that could generate heat so intense that a bag of it lit on the hood of a car would melt right through the engine block. Cool, eh? A Vietnam vet, he said that in the war they used blankets of the stuff to destroy sensitive equipment before capture by melting it into a puddle. (Putting holes in the odd jeep engine was just for fun.) ...
Thermite is simply a mixture of iron oxide (like the magnetite sand I discussed last month) and aluminum powder, which I buy commercially. (Incidentally, it's also the stuff that creates the image inside an Etch A Sketch.)
BTW: Magnetite is found by running a strong magnet through beach sand.
So, if you can afford a good magnet and an etch-a-sketch, then you can make thermite.
You unwittingly have stumbled across the reason why we don't worry too much about encryption. Dorks can wrap their goods in layers of encryption, but at the end of the day it becomes worth their time to hand over the passphrases.
Haven't they ever tried exercising their 5th amendment rights?
"Yeah, I have illegal data encrypted on my HD, but that could be anything from an illegally downloaded mp3 to child porn. Telling you my password would incriminate myself."
IIRC people in Washington state still use full service gas stations, as it is illegal to have a pay at the pump.
Ooo, so close. It's actually Oregon. Up here, we have plenty of 24hr pay at the pump stations. Which I found is a bad thing to get use to. Especially when taking a vacation through Oregon where the stations close early because no one's there to pump the gas.
I don't like full service stations. I want to pump my own gas.
Now consider what happens at the high speed checkout when one of the items registers as alcohol and the buyer is less than proper age. The line manager will be over helping at the cashierless line since the stupid system stops because the weight is not what it expected, and if you think Wal-mart is going to add another line manager just so you can get through faster...!
One solution could be: have a self-check where you place your cart in a "box" with a scale under it. If there's alcohol in the cart, the cart can't be removed until the age is verified. The same scale the verifies the weight of the items can also sound an alert if the cart is removed before it's allowed.
The problem would be with the fruits and vegetables. Those would still have to be handled separately.
Let them pull their catalogs off of ITMS. Do you think the legions of iTunes users are all going to stampede out and start buying CDs again?
I only buy my music from two places, iTunes and AudioLunchbox.com. If I can't find the music I want on one of those two sources, I just find some other music I like. There are some singers, and some songs which aren't on either yet, but they're not worth the price of a CD, or the headache of some other music sites.
Or the iMac. Is it one of the gumdrop CRT ones? Does it have a tray or slot loading drive? Or is it a DVD drive? Does it have firewire ports? What revision is? What color is it? How much video ram does it have? If you're trying to buy a used iMac, these can be very important questions - a DVD drive and firewire ports means you can probably get Tiger on it, otherwise you might have settle for an older version of Mac OS.
If I'm looking for a used computer, and they don't give the specs, but just the model #, then I wouldn't bother buying it.
I'm on one of the CRT iMacs, 600Mhz, CD-RW, firewire and USB1.0. This is pretty much the minimum specs on any Mac since Steve's return. (Except the Mhz rating for the older computers) If I were to sell my computer, saying I have a "Graphite iMac, CD-RW, 60G HD" is enough information.
The OS is on CDs, if the CD drive doesn't work, just about all Macs have at least one firewire and USB port, so get an external. Any Mac without a CD drive is probably too old to run OSX. (I still have my OS 8 install CD)
Almost all my home programs are written in Perl or C++. Perl gives me great tools to write quick programs on web or the CLI. C++ gives me sheer speed and control.
One of these days I'm going to learn how to make web pages with C++. Though I have a feeling I'm better off sticking with Perl.
Speed wise, isn't Perl one of the fastest script languages? (vs PHP, etc)
need a fan to sleep too, for both the noise and the air circulation. My whole family is that way, and now I've passed the addiction along to my girlfriend. Sleeping in a still, silent room now is horrible.
I have an air filter I turn on every night to help me sleep. The filter's so clogged with dust, that it doesn't do it's job anymore, but at least the white noise helps me sleep. I can't sleep with it off now.
Try this: Signup without giving any CC info. Find the music you like, when you click "buy now" from the shopping cart, it'll ask for your CC info then, and won't store it.
I did that for a while, but eventually just gave them my CC to store for the convenience.
Because most of us aren't audiophiles? The quality is more then good enough for me. Most of my songs get re-ripped into MP3s, put on a flash drive, and played on my truck's MP3 player. (broadcast to the FM radio)
Many other people play theirs on their iPod with the standard headphones.
Remember: the original walkman, which played tapes, use to be good enough for most people. MP3s are much better then tapes.
After I download my songs from iTMS, I pop in a CD-RW, quick-format, burn, rip. All the song information is automatically filled in on the MP3, since it was ripped on the same machine that burned it. Seriously, it only adds about 10-15 minutes to the 4+ hours I spend selecting music and downloading it.
If I was an audiophile, I might be upset about the slight loss in sound quality from a re-rip, but I'm not, so I'm not. Besides, how many audiophiles download lossy music to play on headphones anyways?
BTW: 50% of the music I got from iTMS is from the Pepsi promo from this last year. Probably why the big boom in sales. (I'm normally a Coke drinker) I sure hope they bring this promo back soon.
On the other hand, my Dad, whom I've spent countless hours coaxing and helping learn Windows and how to use his computer called the other day and said he had disconnected it, and didn't care to ever use it again.
That's exactly why my entire family use Macs. My family (parents, sisters, wife) want to browse the web, use email, listen to music, and connect their digital cameras. If they switched to a Windows machine, I'd have to smack them pretty hard. (actually, I'd just let their computer do it to them for me)
I think what the parent was referring to is domain names that are just sat on in case anyone wants to buy it.
I recently went domain name hunting and found many good names I wanted to use, but they were all being used by blank pages. Pages that say "under construction" and that's it. And that's all that ever will be until someone buys them from the owner.
In 6th grade (1986) I wrote a paper about Haley's comet and printed it out on my mom's mac 512K and imagewriter I printer. I ended up getting a low grade because the teacher thought I had just cut out articles from a newspaper. It wasn't until after I proved to her that I did it on my mom's computer that it got changed to an "A". (printed on only one side, graphics hand drawn in macpaint, so they weren't professional quality)
As a side note: A couple years back, my dad found me an original Mac 128K in it's original shipping box with the shipping label dated 1985. He didn't think it was worth anything, but thought I might like playing with it. Mint condition, original styrofoam packing, hardly any screen burn-in. I'm holding onto this for a while.
Personally I got an original Rev A CRT iMac gratis, and it grew on us a ton.
I'm currently typing on a 600 Mhz Graphite CRT iMac right now. And it's sitting on a plywood desk in the kitchen. It's been my wife and my internet computer since it was new. And I have no need to upgrade it any time soon. (Running OSX 10.3, btw)
These old iMacs are good machines, and I haven't had any problems with mine yet. That's why we love it.
My advice is to get a degree to help sell yourself. Yes, it might not be all fun and it might not be just, but if you want to have a fun job as a programmer it will help you achieve your goal. Nothing talks like results.
I'm not looking for fun. I've wanted to go to college for the credentials for quite a while. I can't do it on unemployment though, and I've never had the opportunity while working. (pay & time) My parents can't help me out, so I'm on my own.
I am an excellent programmer, better then any coworker I've ever had, yet I'm currently unemployed. Why? Because I learned to program because I loved to program. That means I didn't spend money on education, it's too slow for me. I taught myself. Therefore, I have almost zero credentials. (I do have 8 yrs work experience)
I'm also autistic. Which means I think visually, and prefer things well organized and precise. Perfect for programming, but terrible for selling myself, which is a social issue, and as an autistic person, a natural weakness.
This is the same for many other good programmers I've known. Those who are passionate about programming, usually don't have the credentials for the good jobs. If a company wants to find good programmers, they need to test them on their knowledge, not rely on credentials.
There is no way 99% of users are coming from the same IP all the time. That might be true of business users, but home users might be coming from dialup or broadband using PPPoE or DHCP.
Oops, sorry, you're right. It would only work for the same "connection session". I guess that's why I'm not a network admin.;)
And as an added bonus, I can block web bugs and clear gifs and I only have the site I visit knowing I've been there.
But what if the image is a banner ad, linked to as a cgi page?
If your browser is able to not load images that are generated by pages ending in anything but jpg,gif,png, then they could still make a CGI page with a jpg extention. Your browser wouldn't know the difference.
If cookies stop being usefull for tracking people, they'll start using your IP address. For 99% of the users out there, their IP address is consistant. The only reason they probably don't do that now, is because it takes server space to track all those people, rather then letting their computer track themselfs.
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Someone make a bootable image...which boots into several virtualised operating systems - one Linux, one FreeBSD, one Mac OS X, and one of these shrunken Windows XPs.
Simple. Install "virtual pc" on OSX, install windows and linux on that. Then include it on an OSX bootable CD. (or, more likely, bootable DVD)
In my experience it is harder finding a way to light the thermite then it is to acutally make the stuff.
Have you tried a model rocket igniter? It takes a 12 volt charge, and generates enough heat to ignite the solid fuel in the model rocket engine. If it doesn't get hot enough, stick it in a rocket engine first. The flame should ignite the thermite.
BTW: I read they usually use a sparkler to ignite thermite.
A recent "popular science" article talked about how to make thermite. It's actually quite simple.
...
(Google cache) (With Pics)
From the article:
In high school, my social studies teacher talked about a substance that could generate heat so intense that a bag of it lit on the hood of a car would melt right through the engine block. Cool, eh? A Vietnam vet, he said that in the war they used blankets of the stuff to destroy sensitive equipment before capture by melting it into a puddle. (Putting holes in the odd jeep engine was just for fun.)
Thermite is simply a mixture of iron oxide (like the magnetite sand I discussed last month) and aluminum powder, which I buy commercially. (Incidentally, it's also the stuff that creates the image inside an Etch A Sketch.)
BTW: Magnetite is found by running a strong magnet through beach sand.
So, if you can afford a good magnet and an etch-a-sketch, then you can make thermite.
You unwittingly have stumbled across the reason why we don't worry too much about encryption. Dorks can wrap their goods in layers of encryption, but at the end of the day it becomes worth their time to hand over the passphrases.
Haven't they ever tried exercising their 5th amendment rights?
"Yeah, I have illegal data encrypted on my HD, but that could be anything from an illegally downloaded mp3 to child porn. Telling you my password would incriminate myself."
IIRC people in Washington state still use full service gas stations, as it is illegal to have a pay at the pump.
Ooo, so close. It's actually Oregon. Up here, we have plenty of 24hr pay at the pump stations. Which I found is a bad thing to get use to. Especially when taking a vacation through Oregon where the stations close early because no one's there to pump the gas.
I don't like full service stations. I want to pump my own gas.
Now consider what happens at the high speed checkout when one of the items registers as alcohol and the buyer is less than proper age. The line manager will be over helping at the cashierless line since the stupid system stops because the weight is not what it expected, and if you think Wal-mart is going to add another line manager just so you can get through faster...!
One solution could be: have a self-check where you place your cart in a "box" with a scale under it. If there's alcohol in the cart, the cart can't be removed until the age is verified. The same scale the verifies the weight of the items can also sound an alert if the cart is removed before it's allowed.
The problem would be with the fruits and vegetables. Those would still have to be handled separately.
Let them pull their catalogs off of ITMS. Do you think the legions of iTunes users are all going to stampede out and start buying CDs again?
I only buy my music from two places, iTunes and AudioLunchbox.com. If I can't find the music I want on one of those two sources, I just find some other music I like. There are some singers, and some songs which aren't on either yet, but they're not worth the price of a CD, or the headache of some other music sites.
Oops, I meant to say:
"600Mhz Graphite iMac, CD-RW, 60G HD, 256M RAM"
I guess the speed and RAM are important too.
Or the iMac. Is it one of the gumdrop CRT ones? Does it have a tray or slot loading drive? Or is it a DVD drive? Does it have firewire ports? What revision is? What color is it? How much video ram does it have? If you're trying to buy a used iMac, these can be very important questions - a DVD drive and firewire ports means you can probably get Tiger on it, otherwise you might have settle for an older version of Mac OS.
If I'm looking for a used computer, and they don't give the specs, but just the model #, then I wouldn't bother buying it.
I'm on one of the CRT iMacs, 600Mhz, CD-RW, firewire and USB1.0. This is pretty much the minimum specs on any Mac since Steve's return. (Except the Mhz rating for the older computers) If I were to sell my computer, saying I have a "Graphite iMac, CD-RW, 60G HD" is enough information.
The OS is on CDs, if the CD drive doesn't work, just about all Macs have at least one firewire and USB port, so get an external. Any Mac without a CD drive is probably too old to run OSX. (I still have my OS 8 install CD)
Almost all my home programs are written in Perl or C++. Perl gives me great tools to write quick programs on web or the CLI. C++ gives me sheer speed and control.
One of these days I'm going to learn how to make web pages with C++. Though I have a feeling I'm better off sticking with Perl.
Speed wise, isn't Perl one of the fastest script languages? (vs PHP, etc)
need a fan to sleep too, for both the noise and the air circulation. My whole family is that way, and now I've passed the addiction along to my girlfriend. Sleeping in a still, silent room now is horrible.
I have an air filter I turn on every night to help me sleep. The filter's so clogged with dust, that it doesn't do it's job anymore, but at least the white noise helps me sleep. I can't sleep with it off now.
My wife's deaf, so she couldn't give a hoot. Heh
Try this: Signup without giving any CC info. Find the music you like, when you click "buy now" from the shopping cart, it'll ask for your CC info then, and won't store it.
I did that for a while, but eventually just gave them my CC to store for the convenience.
Because most of us aren't audiophiles? The quality is more then good enough for me. Most of my songs get re-ripped into MP3s, put on a flash drive, and played on my truck's MP3 player. (broadcast to the FM radio)
Many other people play theirs on their iPod with the standard headphones.
Remember: the original walkman, which played tapes, use to be good enough for most people. MP3s are much better then tapes.
I didn't enter my billing information until just recently. Are you sure the information was REQUIRED? I remember being asked, but I left it blank.
After I download my songs from iTMS, I pop in a CD-RW, quick-format, burn, rip. All the song information is automatically filled in on the MP3, since it was ripped on the same machine that burned it. Seriously, it only adds about 10-15 minutes to the 4+ hours I spend selecting music and downloading it.
If I was an audiophile, I might be upset about the slight loss in sound quality from a re-rip, but I'm not, so I'm not. Besides, how many audiophiles download lossy music to play on headphones anyways?
BTW: 50% of the music I got from iTMS is from the Pepsi promo from this last year. Probably why the big boom in sales. (I'm normally a Coke drinker) I sure hope they bring this promo back soon.
On the other hand, my Dad, whom I've spent countless hours coaxing and helping learn Windows and how to use his computer called the other day and said he had disconnected it, and didn't care to ever use it again.
That's exactly why my entire family use Macs. My family (parents, sisters, wife) want to browse the web, use email, listen to music, and connect their digital cameras. If they switched to a Windows machine, I'd have to smack them pretty hard. (actually, I'd just let their computer do it to them for me)
So far, no complaints.
I think what the parent was referring to is domain names that are just sat on in case anyone wants to buy it.
I recently went domain name hunting and found many good names I wanted to use, but they were all being used by blank pages. Pages that say "under construction" and that's it. And that's all that ever will be until someone buys them from the owner.
In 6th grade (1986) I wrote a paper about Haley's comet and printed it out on my mom's mac 512K and imagewriter I printer. I ended up getting a low grade because the teacher thought I had just cut out articles from a newspaper. It wasn't until after I proved to her that I did it on my mom's computer that it got changed to an "A". (printed on only one side, graphics hand drawn in macpaint, so they weren't professional quality)
As a side note: A couple years back, my dad found me an original Mac 128K in it's original shipping box with the shipping label dated 1985. He didn't think it was worth anything, but thought I might like playing with it. Mint condition, original styrofoam packing, hardly any screen burn-in. I'm holding onto this for a while.
Let me rephrase that:
"It's been my and my wife's internet computer."
I suppose adding the 's to the original would have worked too.
Personally I got an original Rev A CRT iMac gratis, and it grew on us a ton.
I'm currently typing on a 600 Mhz Graphite CRT iMac right now. And it's sitting on a plywood desk in the kitchen. It's been my wife and my internet computer since it was new. And I have no need to upgrade it any time soon. (Running OSX 10.3, btw)
These old iMacs are good machines, and I haven't had any problems with mine yet. That's why we love it.
My advice is to get a degree to help sell yourself. Yes, it might not be all fun and it might not be just, but if you want to have a fun job as a programmer it will help you achieve your goal. Nothing talks like results.
I'm not looking for fun. I've wanted to go to college for the credentials for quite a while. I can't do it on unemployment though, and I've never had the opportunity while working. (pay & time) My parents can't help me out, so I'm on my own.
I am an excellent programmer, better then any coworker I've ever had, yet I'm currently unemployed. Why? Because I learned to program because I loved to program. That means I didn't spend money on education, it's too slow for me. I taught myself. Therefore, I have almost zero credentials. (I do have 8 yrs work experience)
I'm also autistic. Which means I think visually, and prefer things well organized and precise. Perfect for programming, but terrible for selling myself, which is a social issue, and as an autistic person, a natural weakness.
This is the same for many other good programmers I've known. Those who are passionate about programming, usually don't have the credentials for the good jobs. If a company wants to find good programmers, they need to test them on their knowledge, not rely on credentials.
There is no way 99% of users are coming from the same IP all the time. That might be true of business users, but home users might be coming from dialup or broadband using PPPoE or DHCP.
;)
Oops, sorry, you're right. It would only work for the same "connection session". I guess that's why I'm not a network admin.
And as an added bonus, I can block web bugs and clear gifs and I only have the site I visit knowing I've been there.
But what if the image is a banner ad, linked to as a cgi page?
If your browser is able to not load images that are generated by pages ending in anything but jpg,gif,png, then they could still make a CGI page with a jpg extention. Your browser wouldn't know the difference.
If cookies stop being usefull for tracking people, they'll start using your IP address. For 99% of the users out there, their IP address is consistant. The only reason they probably don't do that now, is because it takes server space to track all those people, rather then letting their computer track themselfs.
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