I love Chardonnay! I try many different kinds - my current favorite is the Australian "Yellow Tail" - as my wallet allows. $30 should buy an awfully good bottle of wine (of recent vintage). I wonder if this wine is that good or if it is simply the name.
Hell, I'd like to try some just to see.
I suppose you could use this as a first pass and let those go directly to the "recycle bin" or whatever deletes mail (if you really can be confident that they are all spam). Then, the balance of your email could go through whatever antispam system you use. Right now I get over 100 spam emails a day. These go into a folder and are sorted by sender so that I can quickly scan through for any "friendly" emails.
If would be nice to cut down the amount that has to be manually scanned by a half. Either way, this sounds like it's going in the right direction - towards a system that is close to 100% effective (if that is truly possible).
When I was working on my Masters degree I was helping out at my mentor's lab at N.I.H. He was working on a pair of medications that would allow the armed forces to first have soldiers sleep deeply during long flights over seas to battle areas and then give them a second medication (close to an analog to cocaine actually) that would keep them fully battle ready and at their peak for 72 hours. It was quite an experience and I have no idea what came of it. When I left we were doing lethality studies with mice with both agents.
It's a bit of a stretch, but, there *is* something to be said about the RIAA basically bullying people into settling through what amounts to intimidation.
What a judge has to decide is if this is okay when the RIAA is essentially legally "in the right" to begin with. But, there is something to be said for the average defendant not feeling like that have a chance in hell against the RIAA's formidable resources.
The way my kids drink soda, I could go broke "saving" money with free songs this way. We'll stick to the 2 Litre bottles when they are on sale and they can listen to their favorite music on the radio. Though, it would be fun to win just once or twice....
As spammers try to defeat filtering systems, they make their emails almost unreadable. On top of that, many of the emails I get from spammers seem to have been written by people who do not speak English as a first language. So, I get emails full of bizarre characters in extremely poorly written English with tons of grammatical errors. And I am going to send them my credit card number? I don't need my "organ" enlarged quite that badly.
I don't think anyone was terribly surprised that the registry was upheld. There was a lot of public support and this is, after all, a big election year. What will be interesting to see is how fast the telemarketing firms find work-arounds. For example:
"Companies can telemarket to anyone who has bought, leased or rented something from them within the last 18 months, or to anyone who has inquired about or applied for something with them within the last three months.
It also exempts long-distance phone companies and airlines; banks and credit unions; and insurance companies operating under state regulation.
You could drive a truck full of mailing lists through that loophole. I am sure they will come up with something....
I can't blame the state for trying to track down folks who cheat on their taxes. However, I don't think I want the tax people showing up on my doorstep if I happen to get a car as a gift from a rich uncle but I clearly don't earn enough to otherwise own that car.
I'm not a lawyer or a legal expert but something about pulling this data together and possibly going on "witch hunts" smacks of "unreasonable search..." Either way, it's scary.
I don't see Gates folding on any of these issues. He passionately believes, for example, that Media Player is intrinsc to Windows as Microsoft moves towards melding all sorts of media into one more or less cohesive bunch. Though, if he does remove Media Player and/or installs competing products, I doubt that he would do the same for US versions. I also think he may be underestimating the will and resolve the europeans. But, who knows?
Google is my favorite search engine. That said, I hope that most folks understand that just because they "google" something does not make that something a fact. Also, the first few pages of any search can be the result of manipulation to get in the top 10, 20 or 100. It is really, really important to consider the source when doing any kind of research on the 'net. I am homeschooling my 13 year old and having a hell of time getting these lessons across to him. He can research almost anything in a fraction of a second, but it takes a bit longer to separate the wheat from the chaf.
Disney clearly wants a better financial package. That is what they mean by " '...carefully consider any legitimate proposal..."
Further, I do not believe that they are terribly crazy about Eisner anymore even though they throw him a bone (for now) when they say "(The board) has confidence in the business, financial and creative direction of Disney under the leadership of Michael Eisner and his management team." They will gladly jettison Eisner when they have a "...legitimate proposal."
This is what will allow this form of campaigning to get very ugly.
And unlike those TV ads, the videos that appear on the Internet face none of the content regulations of the 2002 campaign finance law, including the statement by the candidate of "I approved this ad" that has given some campaigns pause before launching negative political ads. Web videos have the potential to be nastier than the typical TV ad.
I don't think either campaign will be able to avoid the tempation. I also don't think the virus writers will be able to hold back either...
OSS for car engine computers?
on
Hack Your Car
·
· Score: 1
Here is a case where more knowledge about how and why the computer is programmed a certain way in a certain car would go a long ways towards making an informed choice. There may well be cars that are too conservatively programmed and can be safely "goosed" up a bit. Still, you gotta have a pretty fat wallet or a nice line of credit to take these kinds of chances with your engine. I replaced an engine last year (it died of old age I think) and it came to $5,000 for parts and labor. So, at those prices, I'll stick with the stock chip.
I don't know why, but I am surprised that other countries are doing what the RIAA has done. I thought that perhaps Australia and Canada would have a more laisse fair (spelling?) approach to this or a more measured response. And, the Canadian approach may,indeed, be a bit softer though I am not sure. I still do not understand how the recording folks seemingly blow right past the option to price their products more reasonably. Would they really lose money at $10 - $13 per CD? If so, then I don't know what options remain. However, I do believe that there is an economic max/min equation that would show that there is some point at which a lower price brings in enough of an increase in sales to maintain profitability. Then, perhaps, everybody wins.
Now that popups have become something of a nightmare for most users, I have found that most people I talk to are willing to try Mozilla just for the popup suppression. Once they are onboard with Mozilla they often comment that it is a faster browser and a better browser. It is almost comical to try to capture the expression when I tell them this "third party" browser is absolutely free and is continually updated - also for free.
I did a search on google news and read some articles about RFID. It was interesting to read that retailers, at this point, can only wish they had the tracking capabilities that RFID might be able to provide. I also read that some retailers have canceled plans to deploy RFID after getting firestorms of negative feedback from their customers. It will be interesting to see how this turns out. It's sort of a sociological technological showdown.
Technology seems to throw solutions at us that are sometimes in search of a problem and sometimes present some serious ethical and moral challenges. I can see how this technology for tracking people could save lives by tracking down and stopping terrorists and maybe even finding children that have been kidnapped, etc. On the other hand, the abuse potential seems almost limitless.
The space station, which could have been truly great, ended up being something classically accomplished by committee. It is bisected into halves that are almost identical so that the US has it's own half versus the the Russian half. A lot of concessions and compromises have kept the space station from realizing it's potential.
Cellular phone companies know that they are not far away from fixed rate "all you can eat" plans. Just like ISP's went from charging by the minute for Internet access to fixed rate "unlimited" usage. So, where do you get incremental income when you can no longer bill by the minute? You sell ringtones, you charge to transfer color pictures, fees for accessing the web, etc. etc. The more features a phone has, the more opportunities to sell something and/or upsell.
As attracted as I am to hi-tech gadgets and goodies, I end up wanting a simple and elegant solution for most things. I get along fine with a tv a dvd player and a stereo system and a couple of remote controls. In a way, this reminds me of X10 stuff. It is interesting but doesn't it end up being more work in the long run?
I checked "most readable font" on Google and it does seem that the Times New Roman font is generally at the top of the list. Most of the articles say that first and foremost a highly readable font is sans serif. Then, among the sans serif fonts, Times New Roman generally rates highest.
Then I did a google search on "way too much free time" and my name came up 133,000 times....
Deep Blue was, indeed, a single computer but it had 516 processors that could assess 50 billion chess moves every three minutes. And that was 1997 technology! This machine was an RS6000 (RISC technology) that weighed 2,800 lbs and stood over 6' high. Perhaps in today's technology the equivalent would fit in a much smaller package.
The logic that is seemingly employed by the City of Garden Grove and the appeals court is that CyberCafe's cause crime. Otherwise, why
use cameras and guards if that is going to do nothing more than displace the same acts of crime further down the street in front of, say,a Starbucks?
Slashdot Mirror
Happy Trails!
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
Happy Trails
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
"Companies can telemarket to anyone who has bought, leased or rented something from them within the last 18 months, or to anyone who has inquired about or applied for something with them within the last three months.
It also exempts long-distance phone companies and airlines; banks and credit unions; and insurance companies operating under state regulation.
You could drive a truck full of mailing lists through that loophole. I am sure they will come up with something....
Happy Trails!
Erick
I'm not a lawyer or a legal expert but something about pulling this data together and possibly going on "witch hunts" smacks of "unreasonable search..." Either way, it's scary.
Happy Trails!
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
Further, I do not believe that they are terribly crazy about Eisner anymore even though they throw him a bone (for now) when they say "(The board) has confidence in the business, financial and creative direction of Disney under the leadership of Michael Eisner and his management team." They will gladly jettison Eisner when they have a "...legitimate proposal."
Happy Trails!
Erick
And unlike those TV ads, the videos that appear on the Internet face none of the content regulations of the 2002 campaign finance law, including the statement by the candidate of "I approved this ad" that has given some campaigns pause before launching negative political ads. Web videos have the potential to be nastier than the typical TV ad.
I don't think either campaign will be able to avoid the tempation. I also don't think the virus writers will be able to hold back either...
Happy Trails!
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
Happy Trails,
Erick
Happy Trails,
Erick
Happy Trails,
Erick
Happy Trails,
Erick
Happy Trails,
Erick
Happy Trails,
Erick
Happy Trails,
Erick
Then I did a google search on "way too much free time" and my name came up 133,000 times....
Happy Trails,
Erick
Happy Trails,
Erick
Happy Trails,
Erick