not to mention the Italians which switched sides in both world wars to avoid being the losing side. Yea yeah yeah, blame us Italians again and again for being on the winning side. All is fair in war and love. And at playing football.
Art is the ultimate expression of civilisation. When everything alse is achieved, that's what you will consider next. "Don't mention the war". Yeah, you're good at art, especially theatrical art; Italy-Australia: 1-0. Anyone who wanna see this master piece again, it's here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1kx8aOaSbAhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5385297161043780567
...or maybe it's time to reform the US bank system - checks belongs to the 20th century!
Start by providing real electronic transfers and bill payments. For example, to transfer money electronically between accounts in two different US banks (e.g. BofA, WellsFargo,...) costs something like 20-40 USD and the receiving bank may charge an additional 10 USD. As a comparison, most transfer within the EU is free across banks and countries! It is even cheaper to send money from EU to the US, than within the US.
The cheapest solution in the US is to send the money via a check. <sarcasm>We've got this beautiful service where we can do "online" payment, which in practice means that a physical check is printed somewhere in the US, mailed to the recipient who then drop it of at her/his bank to cash it. The bank then probably send the check off to another location where it is *scanned* so it can be archived and verified later. That is what I call an efficient bank system.</sarcasm>
So, maybe DataTreasury is doing us a favor - we might get an improved bank system without checks.
> $1B is a lot of money. Perhaps in the future someone will look back and decide that they could have saved that money by reforming the patent system. It's all too easy to nay-say (I am guilty) but some small movement, even backwards sometimes, is good in what is a mostly stagnant area....or maybe it's time to reform the US bank system - checks belongs to the 20th century!
Start by providing real electronic transfers and bill payments. For example, to transfer money electronically between accounts in two different US banks (e.g. BofA, WellsFargo,...) costs something like 20-40 USD and the receiving bank may charge an additional 10 USD. As a comparison, most transfer within the EU is free across banks and countries! It is even cheaper to send money from EU to the US, than within the US.
The cheapest solution in the US is to send the money via a check. <sarcasm>We've got this beautiful service where we can do "online" payment, which in practice means that a physical check is printed somewhere in the US, mailed to the recipient who then drop it of at her/his bank to cash it. The bank then probably send the check off to another location where it is *scanned* so it can be archived and verified later. That is what I call an efficient bank system.</sarcasm>
So, maybe DataTreasury is doing us a favor - we might get an improved bank system without checks.
So, according to the letter you cannot "republish" it:
"Please be aware that this letter is copyrighted by our law firm, and you are not authorized to republish this in any manner. Use of this letter in a posting, in full or in part, will subject you to further legal causes of action./Sincerely, Donald E. Morris, Esq."
Now, under the Swedish "Principle of Public Access all official communication to a Swedish official is logged, recorded and made available to any who requests it. In other words, if you send the letter (or the email) to, say the Swedish Ministry of Justice, for her/his information, then anyone has the right to request a copy of the correspondence (for free). This way you don't "republish" it but still makes it accessible to everyone, ehe!
"For consumers, the legislation will mean that over the next dozen years auto companies will likely build [...] vehicles that can run on 85 percent ethanol."
Bah, in Sweden I've got a Mazda 626 from 1988 and that run perfectly well on a mix of 50% gas (==95% petrol and 5% ethanol) and 50% "E85" (==85% ethanol and 15% petrol), that is, effectively 55% petrol and 45% ethanol.
In Sweden, almost all gas already got 5% ethanol mixed in, and I think old as well as new cars handles that perfectly well. So, next *dozen* years, sounds like a really slow progress in order to reach a 15% mix in.
Somewhat related: I remember in early 80s that someone broadcast files over the radio and my guess was that it came from Germany. I cannot remember that someone was actually talking, but it sounded like when you listen to your Sinclair Spectrum program files stored on regular tapes. There was a clear header section followed by the data section. ZX:ers, you know what I'm talking about. I cannot remember if I ever figured out what it was/contained.
...and the complete network of calls you make to people you know etc. With a log of such calls it will be quite easy to track your "anonymous" phone/SIM down.
Hi, I just got a message from a guy in some big company offering to pay for some code that I posted in a newgroups a few years ago. This came as a surprise for me and now the guy asks me to come with an offer. The code is only ~200 rows - sorry, I cannot reveal more, because then they might identify me here - but how much should ask for? Also, what are my rights? If they don't like my offer they might screw me. If so, can I sue them and for how much?/SuperCoder
This video claims to explain it, but again, there is not really enough shown to be convinced...
Title: Moving Rocks of Death Valley's Racetrack Playa Description: "Captured on video for the first time: the mysterious forces that move rocks across the surface of Racetrack Playa in California's Death Valley. As featured on Japanese television. Nobody has ever seen these rocks move, but they leave trails across the dried mud surface often hundreds of yards long. But on this cold winter morning, when the snowmelt covered the playa, we finally saw what nobody before had ever captured on film." Author(?): Brian Dunning, USA. Added: March 13, 2006 URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1hoiHvOeGc
An extract from "Appendix K: Statistical Analysis of Bullet Lead Data by Karen Kafadar and Clifford Spiegelman (169-214)" follows.
Section 3.1 FBI Calculation of False-Positive Probability (FPP):
"The FBI reported an apparent FPP that was based on the 1,837-bullet data set (Ref. 11). The authors repeated the method on which the FBI's estimate was based as follows. [...] The FBI summarized the results by claiming an apparent FPP of 693/1,686,366, or 1 in 2,433.4 ('about 1 in 2,500'). ***That estimated FPP is probably too small, in as much as this 1,837-bullet data set is not a random sample of any population and may well contain bullets that tend to be further apart than one would expect in a random sample of bullets.***"
"We simulate the probability that the 2-SD interval (or range interval) for one bullet's concentration of one element overlaps with the 2-SD interval (or range interval) for another bullet's concentration of that element. The simulation is described below. [...] Thus, the FPP could be estimated here as roughly 47/91, or 0.516. [...] Because homogeneous batches of lead, manufactured at different times, could by chance have the same chemical concentrations (within measurement error), the actual FPP could be even higher."
Section 4.2 Individual Equivalence t Tests:
"[...] Probabilities such as the FBI's claim of '1 in 2,500' are inappropriate when based on a data set such as the 1,837-bullet data set; as noted in Section 3.2, it is not a random collection of bullets from the population of all bullets, or even from the complete 71,000+ bullet data set from which it was extracted."
Using GrandCentral.com, this all taken care of. From GrandCentral settings:
<quote> GrandCentral helps you fight telemarketers and other unsolicited callers. Our advanced PhoneSPAM filters, combined with the power of thousands of users like you helps you get rid of unsolicited calls.
Here are your options:
[x] Apply GrandCentral Phone SPAM filters [x] Block suspected SPAM callers completely and play "Number not in Service message" (Your phones won't ring and suspected SPAM callers won't be able to leave a message) [ ] Send suspected SPAM callers to SPAM voicemail (Your phones won't ring but suspected SPAM callers will be able to leave a message. You will be able to access those messages from your SPAM folder.) [ ] Do not apply GrandCentral Phone SPAM filters (Suspected SPAM callers will be treated like all other callers.) </quote>
and with Call Screening:
<quote> Do you want us to ask your callers for their name the first time they call? Call screening options:
[ ] Screen all unknown callers (Screen every call where the name does not appear on Caller ID (or in your GrandCentral address book).
[x] Screen only blocked callers (Screen every call with a blocked caller ID.)
[ ] Turn screening OFF (Off means off. If you choose this option, we'll never ask your unknown callers for their name and they will simply be announced as "unknown caller.") </quote>
In addition to that, GrandCentral allows you to forward different caller IDs to different phone numbers.
There must be a certain number of seconds or a fraction of a song that you legally can sample from without breaking the copyright laws. Anyone know the limits? Musicians are constantly sampling from other artist's songs.
What about banning slashdot addicts that look for news more than 25 times a day? That would save more energy per day than Australia will save per year. Cheers!
So, now with the "you're-not-allowed-to-bring-anything-whatsoever-o nto-the-plane", you won't really bring your notebook into the terminals. So what's the use of those wireless connections, ehe?
In the long, it is standards and skilled people that works together makes the difference.
My hypothesis is that you need a long-term plan in the society and in peoples minds, and the free market does not provide that. This is easier in a country with smaller and more homigenous population. Without a common target, we get stuck in local minima and suboptimal solutions with wasted human and natural resources. By free market I mean "laissez faire" with minimal rules. No, the alternative is not communism.
I think this applies to broadband connections among other things. As an example, the "free market" (Yahoo DSL) managed to send us in total three DSL modems back and forth between California and Texas when all we wanted was a change in the name of the account holder of an already working DSL plan. There was no sense what so ever about how many hours and natural resources we wasted to effectively get a name change. Why is this?
For instance, look at the cell phone systems for instance; small countries like Sweden could early agree on using GSM (before that NMT) with well defined frequencies on and all the players in the ball park followed. In the US, it wasn't long ago that one cell phone wouldn't work in another state because different frequencies and different standards were used in the different states (maybe it is still like this), and finally the US (free) market is realizing that GSM is the way to go. I believe the market does not know its own good here. How many these hours from harding people could have been used for better things? Btw, it is funny to see ads from cell-phone providers saying "we've the lowest drop rate" - I can't even remember when a call drop on me last time back home. So, why is this?
I've been living in California on and off the last 10 years and I must say that there actually not not impressed with the "free market" for optimizing technology/society. I think you have add other "rules" of the game to get where we want. I'm a little bit dual about this though, because big and skilled companies do pop up here, but I think that is also the case in other companies though here you have a kind of a magnet bringing the brands to the Bay Area. However, there are so many things that is lagging behind. For instance, the bank system, which somehow is fundamental for a free market, is hilarious and so efficient! Online banking is finally catching up here, but in the end of the day what is called online bill payment in many cases turns out to be sent as printed checks in the mail. That can not be efficient! So somehow the "free market" has created its own standard and its size is preventing it from adopting better solutions.
While writing this, I just received a scam call trying to cheat us into a free directory service using poor sound quality and asking me to confirm our address. Why is this?
Yes, I'm Swedish and yes my family had a Beta VCR for many years when my friends had VHS, so maybe that is why I'm so a-al about standards and working toward a common goal. Don't waste resources, don't be egoistic, realize that every hour counts, and good things will follow.
A friend of mine got the 100Mbit fiber for approx 295SEK(=31EUR=41USD)/months. This is through Lunds Stadsnät (http://www.lundsstadsnat.se/main2/internetconnect ion_privat.asp). And yes, it is really 100Mbit and the ISPs connection is also fast down the stream. Lund is a university town in the south of Sweden, btw.
The same company provide wireless on a month-to-month basic for 50SEK(=5.5EUR=7USD)/month available at few hot spots such as cafés etc in the city, which is awesome if you're visiting short term but even for a few months.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sure this lad wish he was living in France. He could probably get a refund for the preinstalled OS in his Prius: http://www.kusnetz.net/prius/
...or maybe it's time to reform the US bank system - checks belongs to the 20th century!
...) costs something like 20-40 USD and the receiving bank may charge an additional 10 USD. As a comparison, most transfer within the EU is free across banks and countries! It is even cheaper to send money from EU to the US, than within the US.
Start by providing real electronic transfers and bill payments. For example, to transfer money electronically between accounts in two different US banks (e.g. BofA, WellsFargo,
The cheapest solution in the US is to send the money via a check. <sarcasm>We've got this beautiful service where we can do "online" payment, which in practice means that a physical check is printed somewhere in the US, mailed to the recipient who then drop it of at her/his bank to cash it. The bank then probably send the check off to another location where it is *scanned* so it can be archived and verified later. That is what I call an efficient bank system.</sarcasm>
So, maybe DataTreasury is doing us a favor - we might get an improved bank system without checks.
> $1B is a lot of money. Perhaps in the future someone will look back and decide that they could have saved that money by reforming the patent system. It's all too easy to nay-say (I am guilty) but some small movement, even backwards sometimes, is good in what is a mostly stagnant area. ...or maybe it's time to reform the US bank system - checks belongs to the 20th century!
...) costs something like 20-40 USD and the receiving bank may charge an additional 10 USD. As a comparison, most transfer within the EU is free across banks and countries! It is even cheaper to send money from EU to the US, than within the US.
Start by providing real electronic transfers and bill payments. For example, to transfer money electronically between accounts in two different US banks (e.g. BofA, WellsFargo,
The cheapest solution in the US is to send the money via a check. <sarcasm>We've got this beautiful service where we can do "online" payment, which in practice means that a physical check is printed somewhere in the US, mailed to the recipient who then drop it of at her/his bank to cash it. The bank then probably send the check off to another location where it is *scanned* so it can be archived and verified later. That is what I call an efficient bank system.</sarcasm>
So, maybe DataTreasury is doing us a favor - we might get an improved bank system without checks.
I just recorded my first CD. Working on the 2nd one. I should be a billionaire in no time.
"For consumers, the legislation will mean that over the next dozen years auto companies will likely build [...] vehicles that can run on 85 percent ethanol."
Bah, in Sweden I've got a Mazda 626 from 1988 and that run perfectly well on a mix of 50% gas (==95% petrol and 5% ethanol) and 50% "E85" (==85% ethanol and 15% petrol), that is, effectively 55% petrol and 45% ethanol.
In Sweden, almost all gas already got 5% ethanol mixed in, and I think old as well as new cars handles that perfectly well. So, next *dozen* years, sounds like a really slow progress in order to reach a 15% mix in.
Yup, it's good to know your history!
Somewhat related: I remember in early 80s that someone broadcast files over the radio and my guess was that it came from Germany. I cannot remember that someone was actually talking, but it sounded like when you listen to your Sinclair Spectrum program files stored on regular tapes. There was a clear header section followed by the data section. ZX:ers, you know what I'm talking about. I cannot remember if I ever figured out what it was/contained.
...and the complete network of calls you make to people you know etc. With a log of such calls it will be quite easy to track your "anonymous" phone/SIM down.
Hi, I just got a message from a guy in some big company offering to pay for some code that I posted in a newgroups a few years ago. This came as a surprise for me and now the guy asks me to come with an offer. The code is only ~200 rows - sorry, I cannot reveal more, because then they might identify me here - but how much should ask for? Also, what are my rights? If they don't like my offer they might screw me. If so, can I sue them and for how much? /SuperCoder
This video claims to explain it, but again, there is not really enough shown to be convinced...
Title: Moving Rocks of Death Valley's Racetrack Playa
Description: "Captured on video for the first time: the mysterious forces that move rocks across the surface of Racetrack Playa in California's Death Valley. As featured on Japanese television. Nobody has ever seen these rocks move, but they leave trails across the dried mud surface often hundreds of yards long. But on this cold winter morning, when the snowmelt covered the playa, we finally saw what nobody before had ever captured on film."
Author(?): Brian Dunning, USA.
Added: March 13, 2006
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1hoiHvOeGc
mods, ehe?!?
The scientific report:
Forensic Analysis: Weighing Bullet Lead Evidence, The National Academies Press, 2004.
URL: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309090792
An extract from "Appendix K: Statistical Analysis of Bullet Lead Data by Karen Kafadar and Clifford Spiegelman (169-214)" follows.
Section 3.1 FBI Calculation of False-Positive Probability (FPP):
"The FBI reported an apparent FPP that was based on the 1,837-bullet data set (Ref. 11). The authors repeated the method on which the FBI's estimate was based as follows. [...] The FBI summarized the results by claiming an apparent FPP of 693/1,686,366, or 1 in 2,433.4 ('about 1 in 2,500'). ***That estimated FPP is probably too small, in as much as this 1,837-bullet data set is not a random sample of any population and may well contain bullets that tend to be further apart than one would expect in a random sample of bullets.***"
Section 3.2 Simulating False-Positive Probability:
"We simulate the probability that the 2-SD interval (or range interval) for one bullet's concentration of one element overlaps with the 2-SD interval (or range interval) for another bullet's concentration of that element. The simulation is described below. [...] Thus, the FPP could be estimated here as roughly 47/91, or 0.516. [...] Because homogeneous batches of lead, manufactured at different times, could by chance have the same chemical concentrations (within measurement error), the actual FPP could be even higher."
Section 4.2 Individual Equivalence t Tests:
"[...] Probabilities such as the FBI's claim of '1 in 2,500' are inappropriate when based on a data set such as the 1,837-bullet data set; as noted in Section 3.2, it is not a random collection of bullets from the population of all bullets, or even from the complete 71,000+ bullet data set from which it was extracted."
Using GrandCentral.com, this all taken care of. From GrandCentral settings:
<quote>
GrandCentral helps you fight telemarketers and other unsolicited callers. Our advanced PhoneSPAM filters, combined with the power of thousands of users like you helps you get rid of unsolicited calls.
Here are your options:
[x] Apply GrandCentral Phone SPAM filters
[x] Block suspected SPAM callers completely and play "Number not in Service message" (Your phones won't ring and suspected SPAM callers won't be able to leave a message)
[ ] Send suspected SPAM callers to SPAM voicemail (Your phones won't ring but suspected SPAM callers will be able to leave a message. You will be able to access those messages from your SPAM folder.)
[ ] Do not apply GrandCentral Phone SPAM filters (Suspected SPAM callers will be treated like all other callers.)
</quote>
and with Call Screening:
<quote>
Do you want us to ask your callers for their name the first time they call? Call screening options:
[ ] Screen all unknown callers (Screen every call where the name does not appear on Caller ID (or in your GrandCentral address book).
[x] Screen only blocked callers (Screen every call with a blocked caller ID.)
[ ] Turn screening OFF (Off means off. If you choose this option, we'll never ask your unknown callers for their name and they will simply be announced as "unknown caller.")
</quote>
In addition to that, GrandCentral allows you to forward different caller IDs to different phone numbers.
There must be a certain number of seconds or a fraction of a song that you legally can sample from without breaking the copyright laws. Anyone know the limits? Musicians are constantly sampling from other artist's songs.
It is the other way around for suuuuure; increased number of crime increases the usage of lead-based gasoline. ...or something.
Turning off wifi, the IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad X60 1.83GHz uses ~12W with screen on. With wifi ~15W. This without trying to optimize anything.
Why don't you use Excel? What's the problem?
Imagine what the airport security checks would look like if they've would have been underware bombers instead, ehe.
Wonder if it comes with the gloves.
What about banning slashdot addicts that look for news more than 25 times a day? That would save more energy per day than Australia will save per year. Cheers!
Beautiful!
So, now with the "you're-not-allowed-to-bring-anything-whatsoever-o nto-the-plane", you won't really bring your notebook into the terminals. So what's the use of those wireless connections, ehe?
In the long, it is standards and skilled people that works together makes the difference.
My hypothesis is that you need a long-term plan in the society and in peoples minds, and the free market does not provide that. This is easier in a country with smaller and more homigenous population. Without a common target, we get stuck in local minima and suboptimal solutions with wasted human and natural resources. By free market I mean "laissez faire" with minimal rules. No, the alternative is not communism.
I think this applies to broadband connections among other things. As an example, the "free market" (Yahoo DSL) managed to send us in total three DSL modems back and forth between California and Texas when all we wanted was a change in the name of the account holder of an already working DSL plan. There was no sense what so ever about how many hours and natural resources we wasted to effectively get a name change. Why is this?
For instance, look at the cell phone systems for instance; small countries like Sweden could early agree on using GSM (before that NMT) with well defined frequencies on and all the players in the ball park followed. In the US, it wasn't long ago that one cell phone wouldn't work in another state because different frequencies and different standards were used in the different states (maybe it is still like this), and finally the US (free) market is realizing that GSM is the way to go. I believe the market does not know its own good here. How many these hours from harding people could have been used for better things? Btw, it is funny to see ads from cell-phone providers saying "we've the lowest drop rate" - I can't even remember when a call drop on me last time back home. So, why is this?
I've been living in California on and off the last 10 years and I must say that there actually not not impressed with the "free market" for optimizing technology/society. I think you have add other "rules" of the game to get where we want. I'm a little bit dual about this though, because big and skilled companies do pop up here, but I think that is also the case in other companies though here you have a kind of a magnet bringing the brands to the Bay Area. However, there are so many things that is lagging behind. For instance, the bank system, which somehow is fundamental for a free market, is hilarious and so efficient! Online banking is finally catching up here, but in the end of the day what is called online bill payment in many cases turns out to be sent as printed checks in the mail. That can not be efficient! So somehow the "free market" has created its own standard and its size is preventing it from adopting better solutions.
While writing this, I just received a scam call trying to cheat us into a free directory service using poor sound quality and asking me to confirm our address. Why is this?
Yes, I'm Swedish and yes my family had a Beta VCR for many years when my friends had VHS, so maybe that is why I'm so a-al about standards and working toward a common goal. Don't waste resources, don't be egoistic, realize that every hour counts, and good things will follow.
A friend of mine got the 100Mbit fiber for approx 295SEK(=31EUR=41USD)/months. This is through Lunds Stadsnät (http://www.lundsstadsnat.se/main2/internetconnect ion_privat.asp). And yes, it is really 100Mbit and the ISPs connection is also fast down the stream. Lund is a university town in the south of Sweden, btw.
The same company provide wireless on a month-to-month basic for 50SEK(=5.5EUR=7USD)/month available at few hot spots such as cafés etc in the city, which is awesome if you're visiting short term but even for a few months.