Being a typical nerd/geek/whatever type guy, I was into BBS's in a big way in the 80's and early 90's. Things like fidonet and the other 'home grown' systems developed were way ahead of their time IMHO.
But I have to say - 5 1/2 hours of documentary? I fully accept my place in the very minority of people who like the technology. In the whole of Australia there would have been what - 10,000 bbs users? Maybe less, out of a population of 20M. I imagine the ratios would be the same in other countries.
Hey, the doco will interest me (if it ever airs here), but 19,990,000 people are going to watch some other channel for those hours.
I am suprised my neighbors haven't done that too. In my house I have a very nice Cisco RF hub in the study for my work network. In the kitchen is a Linksys WiFi hub for the kids broadband. And in the hallway is another Linksys for the server network I host for a few friends. Then there are the four cell phones, the bluetooth stuff and the iPOD FM retransmitters (2). So far I hanven't been diagnosed with cancer once, so I don't see what people are complaining about.
So how did hijackers and such get on before the internet made all this information available? It seems very inlikely to me the internet is the source or the solution to the problem.
I just can't agree with that report. From 1999 to 2002 I did work for a datacentre with 150 Linux servers and 26 NT and then Windows 2000 server servers. Keeping figures on those I can say that the total downtime due to upgrades and patching for both groups in total was almost the same.
BACK. Moving all space funding BACK to the military organization that started it.
Yes, good point.
It seems to go right back to the 'rockets vs planes' argument of the post war era. That particularly poignant scene in The Right Stuff where Chuck Yeager's plane touched on the rim of space before falling back to earth.
Piloted planes just seem so much more elegant than computer controlled rockets.
On a less serious note; Space arms are those long bendy things with grippy bits at the end to move equipment around in space. Personally, I think funding for space arms has gone as far as it can, and now we need space legs and space feet. Haw Haw.
Mod -1 Really Lame Humour
From informative, well researched fiction by Stephen Baxter (Moonseed) and others, I gather than the USAF has long held a grudge against NASA. Could this be the not so thin edge of the wedge of moving all space funding to a militarily organisation rather than a civilian one?
I get all my wine shipped by Nicks Wines - http://www.nicks.com.au/ - The best site I have found for Aussie wines. They seem to ship internationaly too. I wonder if international trade agreements trump US State law? Can anyone point me in the direction of a similar US site? I wouldn't mind a couple of cases of some of that Napa valley plonk.
Sometime before the ark sailed, Pascal was the first programming language I learned (well, except for Ti58) at college, which was on a DEC 10. An elegant, structured language as I recall, but my elegant and structured code never ran. Why? I discovered a neat way to make the code more efficient, but after many long, long sessions in the terminal room, I was told a bug in the compiler would not compile anything with that routine. So after three years of college and an IT degree, not one piece of code I wrote ever ran. I abandon my dreams of becomming an uber-programmer and became instead a network engineer, of course.
I will have to remember not to commit iPodicide by stabbing it to death with a screwdriver while I am filling the car with petrol (gas for you North Americans).
Jeeze Bruce, but us Aussies can be dumber than a bag of hammers.
From what was reported, the ambulance service spokesperson hammed it up a bit too.
At least two of them I do consider to be in the 'total genius' class. Of the others, almost all were completing their degree part time, because they saw the real benefit of fisrt hand industry experience putting them ahead of the full time students.
I have hired graduates (generally with first class honours) who have been less than brilliant and not worth their starting salary. I have hired undergrads who have been outstanding and have paid them twice or more that of a graduate starting package.
Why?
Undergrads who get up off their bums, seek employment, and still continue college are generally:
a. really motivated (often due to personal financial reasons)
b. really interested in the work, and want more than the generic college course/degree can offer
c. grateful to get the work
d. not lazy
It's too big a generalisation I know, because plenty of grads I have hired have been good too, but just to exaggerate to make the point, grads are:
a. coasting along on the coat tails of a well funded education
b. 9-5'ers
c. expect a lot more than they are worth based on the supposed merit of their graduation
d. not particularly self motivated
So those are the best and worst traits of the two types, albeit deliberately thrown into high contrast. But I would take an interested, keen, poor, grateful undergrad any day, and pay them fairly for their contribution.
In Australia in the 90's a similar idea of a national identity card was overwhelmingly voted 'no', and has not raised its ugly head again. Amazing what a can be justified under the umbrella of paranoia.
Don't get me wrong, I think the US is in many ways the greatest nation in the world, not just in military might but in the humaitarian ideals of democracy and freedom, and deserves its place as the leader of the free world. But as anyone from another country who has visited the US knows, there is a strong xenophobic undercurrent and quite a high intolerance/ignorance of other cultures.
Thus, a national identity card will only serve to increase the 'fortress USA' feeling.
We use forums in our little ISP business as an invaluable form of customer feedback and communication. In fact, to such a degree that we spend NO money whatsoever on any other type of advertising or marketing. To impose a fee for people to post feedback, comments and suggestions is to me like asking for money from people to watch advertising on tv. Just crazy.
Well, it ended with the path open for another movie.
To say it wasn't true to the book it true, but the book wasn't true to the radio script - which is how it was initialy written.
The screenplay was at least co-authored by DA, so it is valid to say it is true to the Author's vision of how a radio series, adapted to a book, adapated to a movie, should be.
Well worth the admission price in any event.
Hey, if you live in Perth (Western Australia), in summer it gets to 1000 billion _in the shade_. Hence no doubt West Aussies apreciation of the super-est super fluid of them all - Beer!
If only I had thought of that 20 years ago when disco was 'in' and I was a uni (college if you live in the US). There may have been some chance of spending nights with a real girl in stead of a cold, cold terminal.
On the other hand. Probably not.
Slashdot Mirror
Being a typical nerd/geek/whatever type guy, I was into BBS's in a big way in the 80's and early 90's. Things like fidonet and the other 'home grown' systems developed were way ahead of their time IMHO. But I have to say - 5 1/2 hours of documentary? I fully accept my place in the very minority of people who like the technology. In the whole of Australia there would have been what - 10,000 bbs users? Maybe less, out of a population of 20M. I imagine the ratios would be the same in other countries. Hey, the doco will interest me (if it ever airs here), but 19,990,000 people are going to watch some other channel for those hours.
I am suprised my neighbors haven't done that too. In my house I have a very nice Cisco RF hub in the study for my work network. In the kitchen is a Linksys WiFi hub for the kids broadband. And in the hallway is another Linksys for the server network I host for a few friends. Then there are the four cell phones, the bluetooth stuff and the iPOD FM retransmitters (2). So far I hanven't been diagnosed with cancer once, so I don't see what people are complaining about.
So how did hijackers and such get on before the internet made all this information available? It seems very inlikely to me the internet is the source or the solution to the problem.
Essentially, yes. The typical time between reboots on the Linux systems was 1 year, on the Windows OS's about 2 months.
I just can't agree with that report. From 1999 to 2002 I did work for a datacentre with 150 Linux servers and 26 NT and then Windows 2000 server servers. Keeping figures on those I can say that the total downtime due to upgrades and patching for both groups in total was almost the same.
Yes, good point.
It seems to go right back to the 'rockets vs planes' argument of the post war era. That particularly poignant scene in The Right Stuff where Chuck Yeager's plane touched on the rim of space before falling back to earth.
Piloted planes just seem so much more elegant than computer controlled rockets.
On a less serious note; Space arms are those long bendy things with grippy bits at the end to move equipment around in space. Personally, I think funding for space arms has gone as far as it can, and now we need space legs and space feet. Haw Haw. Mod -1 Really Lame Humour
From informative, well researched fiction by Stephen Baxter (Moonseed) and others, I gather than the USAF has long held a grudge against NASA. Could this be the not so thin edge of the wedge of moving all space funding to a militarily organisation rather than a civilian one?
I thought spider silk was considered to be strong enough - about seven times the tensile strength of steel cable.
Ok... so how long before they can extrude a diamond long enough to build A C Clarkes space elevator? I am going to buy shares in these guys right now!
I get all my wine shipped by Nicks Wines - http://www.nicks.com.au/ - The best site I have found for Aussie wines. They seem to ship internationaly too. I wonder if international trade agreements trump US State law? Can anyone point me in the direction of a similar US site? I wouldn't mind a couple of cases of some of that Napa valley plonk.
Sometime before the ark sailed, Pascal was the first programming language I learned (well, except for Ti58) at college, which was on a DEC 10. An elegant, structured language as I recall, but my elegant and structured code never ran. Why? I discovered a neat way to make the code more efficient, but after many long, long sessions in the terminal room, I was told a bug in the compiler would not compile anything with that routine. So after three years of college and an IT degree, not one piece of code I wrote ever ran. I abandon my dreams of becomming an uber-programmer and became instead a network engineer, of course.
I will have to remember not to commit iPodicide by stabbing it to death with a screwdriver while I am filling the car with petrol (gas for you North Americans). Jeeze Bruce, but us Aussies can be dumber than a bag of hammers. From what was reported, the ambulance service spokesperson hammed it up a bit too.
At least two of them I do consider to be in the 'total genius' class. Of the others, almost all were completing their degree part time, because they saw the real benefit of fisrt hand industry experience putting them ahead of the full time students.
I have hired graduates (generally with first class honours) who have been less than brilliant and not worth their starting salary. I have hired undergrads who have been outstanding and have paid them twice or more that of a graduate starting package. Why? Undergrads who get up off their bums, seek employment, and still continue college are generally: a. really motivated (often due to personal financial reasons) b. really interested in the work, and want more than the generic college course/degree can offer c. grateful to get the work d. not lazy It's too big a generalisation I know, because plenty of grads I have hired have been good too, but just to exaggerate to make the point, grads are: a. coasting along on the coat tails of a well funded education b. 9-5'ers c. expect a lot more than they are worth based on the supposed merit of their graduation d. not particularly self motivated So those are the best and worst traits of the two types, albeit deliberately thrown into high contrast. But I would take an interested, keen, poor, grateful undergrad any day, and pay them fairly for their contribution.
In Australia in the 90's a similar idea of a national identity card was overwhelmingly voted 'no', and has not raised its ugly head again. Amazing what a can be justified under the umbrella of paranoia. Don't get me wrong, I think the US is in many ways the greatest nation in the world, not just in military might but in the humaitarian ideals of democracy and freedom, and deserves its place as the leader of the free world. But as anyone from another country who has visited the US knows, there is a strong xenophobic undercurrent and quite a high intolerance/ignorance of other cultures. Thus, a national identity card will only serve to increase the 'fortress USA' feeling.
An interesting read, but there are plenty of stories like that here: http://www.whirlpool.net.au/ - the Britts are not alone.
Hey, how did you know that's what I was going to do?
I must have one right away to run my Seti at home screen saver! I really want a 100,000 work unit certificate.
We use forums in our little ISP business as an invaluable form of customer feedback and communication. In fact, to such a degree that we spend NO money whatsoever on any other type of advertising or marketing. To impose a fee for people to post feedback, comments and suggestions is to me like asking for money from people to watch advertising on tv. Just crazy.
Well, it ended with the path open for another movie. To say it wasn't true to the book it true, but the book wasn't true to the radio script - which is how it was initialy written. The screenplay was at least co-authored by DA, so it is valid to say it is true to the Author's vision of how a radio series, adapted to a book, adapated to a movie, should be. Well worth the admission price in any event.
I see what you mean, but could not another photon be sent with the same, now known, state?
If someone was going to intercept the message, couldn't they just read the photon and then retransmit it? Duh, how unbreakable it that?
Hey, if you live in Perth (Western Australia), in summer it gets to 1000 billion _in the shade_. Hence no doubt West Aussies apreciation of the super-est super fluid of them all - Beer!
If only I had thought of that 20 years ago when disco was 'in' and I was a uni (college if you live in the US). There may have been some chance of spending nights with a real girl in stead of a cold, cold terminal. On the other hand. Probably not.