There were a few minor inaccuracies and additions that I was working on, but then the story went live, so I figured I had to pop it out there - was fun tossing it together and glad you like it.
alek writes "When methane was found in the Terrestial
atmosphere last year, some scientists thought this was indirect evidence
of methane-producing bacteria. But animals such as bovines can create
methane in a process known as breaking wind. Animalogists calculated
that a global herd of 50,000 bovines could account for the methane.
One animalogist said, 'I'd love to see udders, but you can't just
go on hope. You have to consider the back-end options.'
Other scientists are unsure whether methane on Earth even comes from cows."
According to the article, it doesn't appear there were any previous celebrations... and in the BBC piece it doesn't say if the clock got to do anything for turning 50. I climbed a mountain on my 40th birthday - someone ought to throw a party for the poor old clock!;-)
So while this statistically invalid survey suggests they don't do it "all the time", I have missed 'em, so thanx for the pointer mrchaotica which motivated me to do some quick research.
Maybe I've missed it, but I haven't seen the various/. sister sites explicitely identified before in postings - kudos to the/. editors for the transparency!;-)
/. Editor tweeked the submittal a bit ...
on
Netscape 8.0 Released
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
People sometimes wonder if the/. editors even look at the submitted articles... and I can say in this case that is definitely true. What I originally submitted late last night was "The Main Netscape 8 page has more info, although the "Download Now" page currently says "Netscape Browser 8.0 is Coming Soon!" so kudo's to Zonk who actually checked the link and modified the posting appropriately.
Finally, I had added this closing statement/question "While Netscape was the dominant browser years ago, it has faded dramatically... does this release have significant enough features such that end-users will give it another try? Time will tell."... and I personally think it's a bit too little too late - Firefox works darn well for me, and with the iview extension, I have one-click access to IE if need be. But the browser wars are far from over as IE7 appears to be copying many of Firefox's features, plus Opera and Safari continue to get good press... so time will tell!
The
"test firing" URL is particularly interesting
with some neat pictures.
And for those that think "Rocket Science" is so easy, I thought this
quote summerizes it well.
In this process, I think I've come to realize what makes orbital rocket
development so tough. It is not that any particular element is all that
difficult, but rather that you are forced to develop a very complex product
that can't be fully tested in its real environment until launch and,
when you do launch, there can be zero significant errors.
Unlike other products, there is no chance of issuing a bug fix or recall
after liftoff. You are also forced to use very narrow structural
safety margins, compared to an aircraft or suborbital rocket, to have any
chance of reaching orbit at all and must hit a bull's eye when you do.
The normal bandwidth used by kernel.org is between 150 to 200 megabits per second, at times when "nothing major is happening," Peter said. "Quite honestly, the test releases aren't even a blip on our radar," he added, referring to the -pre and -rc kernels, explaining that they don't noticeably increase the amount of bandwidth that is consumed. Only when an official stable release is announced does kernel.org see a spike in traffic. For example, with the upcoming 2.6.12 release Peter predicted, "I expect it go to the high 200's, for about a day." He noted that even with a direct link from a busy website such as Slashdot, that was about as much bandwidth consumption as they see from a kernel release.
"What really drives up the load average is when one of the distributions that we mirror makes a release," he explained, "such as one of the Fedora cores. The kernel is only a few tens of megabytes, whereas a fedora core is a couple of gigabytes." With the upcoming release of Fedora Core 4, Peter predicts that both gigabit links will probably be saturated for 3 or 4 days. "This is largely speculation, because never before have we had the capability of serving that much traffic."
While I think Splitzer can be a bit overzealous and grandstanding (plus laying groundwork for his run for political office), I can't think of a better group of companies to go after than *&^%$#@! spyware companies. For those interested in some great detailed info about these cockroaches, take a look at Ben Edelman's web site... where he also indentifies the folks who finance 'em.
While being paranoid is argueably good (although Mark may be
a bit extreme compared to most), I did wonder a bit about one
comment near the end of the article which was:
"And I install hotfixes the day Microsoft releases them"
which seems to put an awful lot of trust in Microsoft (or any other vendor for that matter)
not to release a patch that has problems.
Here's a great web site for 'ya ..
on
Phishing for Credit
·
· Score: -1, Redundant
The submission uses the term "user" and the article (yes, I did RTFA)
doesn't clarify what happens if the offending data is placed on
a public web site - i.e. uploaded to a forum. I also look at the
actual
bill - the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act but was not
able to figure the answer out. So is there a "common carrier" defense
for those web site that perhaps unknowingly carry stuff?
The powder2glass team is #4 for Google Toolbar Compute folks - we'd love to get some boost in our ranking if you want to fire up FAH and contribute some work units. Note that you can use the FAH client from Stanford and we'll still get some credit if you team=0, and username=powder2glass.
Sounds like you got some serious, serious horsepower, so I can't resist asking!;-)
Don't know if Special Agent Cody would work as the live hostage - he was good enough for the Associated Press! Some things that I didn't even try to fake because they would be difficult is day/twilight and/or the moon with clouds - might those would be convincing enough for 'ya if they showed up?!?;-)
The Slashdot Editors haven't approved any of my submissions since the hoax broke (I used to bat about 20%), so my guess is they're still upset at me for the dupe - so maybe no more Slashdot Effect Analysis for me - but I still like you guys.
alek
P.S. I'll add that one major hurdle has already been crossed - my two neighbors across the street have said it's OK to really (this time!) have blinking lights and have said they'll let me mount a wireless webcam on their roofs.
PPS. X10 is pretty doggy and unreliable (I really do use this to control the lights - without the web interface) so I'd like to replace it with either something like UPB or maybe a wireless powerline control technology - should I Ask Slashdot?!?;-)
Wow - Microsoft/Gates usually gets a bad rap on/., but
kudos to them for going after the
scumbags
of the Internet. Another group I find annoying is the folks
who do
referrer
log spamming. Even though I don't publish those log stats (so their
efforts are to naught), they continue to send their stupid traffic
and it's a bit annoying to see in the web log analysis.
Slashdot Mirror
P.S. Cool project Bill.
There were a few minor inaccuracies and additions that I was working on, but then the story went live, so I figured I had to pop it out there - was fun tossing it together and glad you like it.
alek writes "When methane was found in the Terrestial atmosphere last year, some scientists thought this was indirect evidence of methane-producing bacteria. But animals such as bovines can create methane in a process known as breaking wind. Animalogists calculated that a global herd of 50,000 bovines could account for the methane. One animalogist said, 'I'd love to see udders, but you can't just go on hope. You have to consider the back-end options.' Other scientists are unsure whether methane on Earth even comes from cows."
According to the article, it doesn't appear there were any previous celebrations ... and in the BBC piece it doesn't say if the clock got to do anything for turning 50. I climbed a mountain on my 40th birthday - someone ought to throw a party for the poor old clock! ;-)
To Firebird?
So while this statistically invalid survey suggests they don't do it "all the time", I have missed 'em, so thanx for the pointer mrchaotica which motivated me to do some quick research.
First Post?
BTW, the first sentance was originally "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that AOL will release Netscape 8.0 - also being reported at BetaNews and a growing number of sites." ... but he changed that to CNet which has the 5 page review ... the Firefox 1.03 reference is from BetaNews.
Finally, I had added this closing statement/question "While Netscape was the dominant browser years ago, it has faded dramatically ... does this release have significant enough features such that end-users will give it another try? Time will tell." ... and I personally think it's a bit too little too late - Firefox works darn well for me, and with the iview extension, I have one-click access to IE if need be. But the browser wars are far from over as IE7 appears to be copying many of Firefox's features, plus Opera and Safari continue to get good press ... so time will tell!
our new Google Overlords
In this process, I think I've come to realize what makes orbital rocket development so tough. It is not that any particular element is all that difficult, but rather that you are forced to develop a very complex product that can't be fully tested in its real environment until launch and, when you do launch, there can be zero significant errors. Unlike other products, there is no chance of issuing a bug fix or recall after liftoff. You are also forced to use very narrow structural safety margins, compared to an aircraft or suborbital rocket, to have any chance of reaching orbit at all and must hit a bull's eye when you do.
Live long and prosper ...
The normal bandwidth used by kernel.org is between 150 to 200 megabits per second, at times when "nothing major is happening," Peter said. "Quite honestly, the test releases aren't even a blip on our radar," he added, referring to the -pre and -rc kernels, explaining that they don't noticeably increase the amount of bandwidth that is consumed. Only when an official stable release is announced does kernel.org see a spike in traffic. For example, with the upcoming 2.6.12 release Peter predicted, "I expect it go to the high 200's, for about a day." He noted that even with a direct link from a busy website such as Slashdot, that was about as much bandwidth consumption as they see from a kernel release. "What really drives up the load average is when one of the distributions that we mirror makes a release," he explained, "such as one of the Fedora cores. The kernel is only a few tens of megabytes, whereas a fedora core is a couple of gigabytes." With the upcoming release of Fedora Core 4, Peter predicts that both gigabit links will probably be saturated for 3 or 4 days. "This is largely speculation, because never before have we had the capability of serving that much traffic."
The inbound Slashdot data, along with that from the other sites, is accurate - no hoax.
alek (aka Mr. Christmas Lights)
While I think Splitzer can be a bit overzealous and grandstanding (plus laying groundwork for his run for political office), I can't think of a better group of companies to go after than *&^%$#@! spyware companies. For those interested in some great detailed info about these cockroaches, take a look at Ben Edelman's web site ... where he also indentifies the folks who finance 'em.
This is Darth himself ...
While being paranoid is argueably good (although Mark may be a bit extreme compared to most), I did wonder a bit about one comment near the end of the article which was: "And I install hotfixes the day Microsoft releases them" which seems to put an awful lot of trust in Microsoft (or any other vendor for that matter) not to release a patch that has problems.
It has the latest news for nerds.
Oh well, maybe we can all go back to sleep now ... ;-)
Enjoyed my fun little christmas hoax - help me do it for real! ;-)
Not a famous person, but here is your nose-picking photo ...
Branden Robinson
Sounds like you got some serious, serious horsepower, so I can't resist asking! ;-)
Don't know if Special Agent Cody would work as the live hostage - he was good enough for the Associated Press! Some things that I didn't even try to fake because they would be difficult is day/twilight and/or the moon with clouds - might those would be convincing enough for 'ya if they showed up?!? ;-)
The Slashdot Editors haven't approved any of my submissions since the hoax broke (I used to bat about 20%), so my guess is they're still upset at me for the dupe - so maybe no more Slashdot Effect Analysis for me - but I still like you guys.
alek
P.S. I'll add that one major hurdle has already been crossed - my two neighbors across the street have said it's OK to really (this time!) have blinking lights and have said they'll let me mount a wireless webcam on their roofs.
PPS. X10 is pretty doggy and unreliable (I really do use this to control the lights - without the web interface) so I'd like to replace it with either something like UPB or maybe a wireless powerline control technology - should I Ask Slashdot?!? ;-)
5,000 Christmas lights at post holiday prices: $100 ;-)
Linux/Apache/Perl/etc.: Free
Duping the world: Priceless!
Doing it for real will cost a little more than $100 if you want a decent webcam, but maybe I'll do that Christmas 2005 ...
Wow - Microsoft/Gates usually gets a bad rap on /., but
kudos to them for going after the
scumbags
of the Internet. Another group I find annoying is the folks
who do
referrer
log spamming. Even though I don't publish those log stats (so their
efforts are to naught), they continue to send their stupid traffic
and it's a bit annoying to see in the web log analysis.