If receiving amateur radio (ham) stations in Australia and elsewhere had been anywhere near a BPL service, then the only communications link from several locations affected by the recent tsunami would not have worked.
BPL jams shortwave radio. Shortwave radio is long range radio and is what gets used both when people want to chat or beep at each other over great distances for fun and education, but also when disaster strikes and help is required.
Sadly, unlike in a murder mystery, clues is all you get in astrophysics and astronomy. Where a footprint will lead the detective to question a suspect and perhaps get a confession, what can the astronomer do? Only seek more clues until it becomes likely enough for someone to say it's the case.
Then again, I'm probably making a false dichotomy. The detective can't be certain either. Certainty is a very rare thing, all we have is theory, belief and evidence (theory and belief being differentiated only by the reliance on evidence).
I know you're joking but there's a serious question there which some may seriously wonder about.
Magnetic fields by their nature repel others of the same polarity. You can think of the fields as rubber bands or strings reaching from a north pole to a south pole and pushing away from each other. You can see a better description and a picture (of magnetic field lines - not galaxies) here.
What more can I say? I - and probably everyone else here - am paying far more for far less.
On the good side, it's probably an indication of future prices in the rest of the world - we probably won't get that low, but things should get at least a fair bit cheaper than they are now.
I say that because if they can sell bandwith for that, it must be getting damn cheap.
I'm sad to say that I can't think of what I'd use fibre to the home for over and above what I've already got. My whole city's got fibre to the curb, cat 5 to the stb and computer - 2mb/s for home users (plus additional bandwidth set aside for the cable TV and re-broadcast free to air TV channels they provide and video on demand), or up to 10mb/s for business. Now only wish that the provider would build some functionality like SBC's into the set top box.
Try "Make it illegal for anyone to donate more than n% of the average national household income"
Sure foreign money messes up the sovreignty of your nation, but domestic money from large corporations messes up its management.
Now... if only there were a way to get rid of professional lobbying without appearing to isolate the government from the public.
Anyway, it doesn't count for much, you'll not be a democracy for long and when you're an autocracy the running of your country won't be your concern.
Laura, I am saddened. You say "expo '88", and "Queensland" like a native, but you can't even spell the common pet name for your mother correctly. Can you correctly spell and pronounce zebra and aluminium?
Better make up entirly fake cards. In getting a legitimate one and faking the barcode you might be breaching an agreement you have with them. If you don't have an agreement with them, what can they sue over? (that one was a serious question, not rhetorical - feel free to answer).
I would really strongly advise against asking high school kids to google for cracking and hacking techniques. They're more likely to find porn sites or at least porn banner ads.
"If they have a warrant, and access to your computer, what the fuck are they messing around keeping it running for anyway, why haven't they just arrested you?"
It's much easier to go to a judge and say "We believe that Mr xxxxxxx is a terrorist, he has been speaking to Mr yyyyyyyyy who is a known terrorist. We would like a warrant so we can gather enough evidence to prosecute and find Mr xxxxxxx's associates"
I believe that in Australia, and probably everywhere else too, if a court orders you to hand over encryption keys and passwords, you are required to do so.
Of course, if you've got the warning, you may be able to lose your keys and wipe the data. Even that's not an option where big brother is permitted to remotely hack your machine without your knowledge.
RTFA. This system will operate with GPS, not just as an alternative. More satellites means better accuracy and better availability:
"More importantly from the civilian perspective, the agreement allowed the systems to be meshed seamlessly, greatly benefiting manufacturers, service providers and consumers.
Better accuracy, especially in built-up areas where the current GPS signal can be patchy, should lead to a bigger demand for positioning systems."
It may be the eighth result today, but a month ago? You probably wouldn't have found the good people at ACS/CAS unless you were specifically looking for them.
The way the system seems to work at the moment is publisher says "I'll give you $xxx for that manuscript" Author says "Hey, I want to eat this week, okay". Author signs away all rights except the moral right to be identified as the author. Publisher gives them not a cent after that.
In some cases the author gets a contract of $xxx up front plus $.xx for each copy sold. Better but.
As to authors writing only for the money for the nth generation of grandchildren! US style copyright is for the Disneys of the world, not the authors and artists that need to worry about feeding their family.
A bit of a broad brush, perhaps. Please don't say "the people in Canberra". I'm a Canberran, I'm not a politician and I'm certainly not a dog.
I utterly despise US style copyright. It's a travesty of freedom.
Copyright should be there to encourage authors - how does paying their publisher 70 years yonder help the author?
Under the previous Australian system authors got 50 years after their death, companies got 50 years from date of publication. May terrible things happen to those who put Australia in the position we're now in.
So you think that this is M$ saying "Use our laws if you want to trade with the US". Hmm. No trade between Asia and the US. Just out of interest, what would M$ Windows run on if there was nothing around marked "Made in Taiwan (PRC)", "Made in China", "Made in Japan" or "Made in Korea"?
Slashdot Mirror
I've got one user with access for (as far as I can tell) playing moonbuggy.
If receiving amateur radio (ham) stations in Australia and elsewhere had been anywhere near a BPL service, then the only communications link from several locations affected by the recent tsunami would not have worked.
BPL jams shortwave radio. Shortwave radio is long range radio and is what gets used both when people want to chat or beep at each other over great distances for fun and education, but also when disaster strikes and help is required.
Have you ever tried pointing out a star with a laser pointer? It seems a pretty flimsy excuse.
Sadly, unlike in a murder mystery, clues is all you get in astrophysics and astronomy. Where a footprint will lead the detective to question a suspect and perhaps get a confession, what can the astronomer do? Only seek more clues until it becomes likely enough for someone to say it's the case.
Then again, I'm probably making a false dichotomy. The detective can't be certain either. Certainty is a very rare thing, all we have is theory, belief and evidence (theory and belief being differentiated only by the reliance on evidence).
I'm just glad that the explanation didn't require the phrase "Dark Matter", "Dark Energy", or other such cosmological hooha.
I know you're joking but there's a serious question there which some may seriously wonder about. Magnetic fields by their nature repel others of the same polarity. You can think of the fields as rubber bands or strings reaching from a north pole to a south pole and pushing away from each other. You can see a better description and a picture (of magnetic field lines - not galaxies) here.
What more can I say? I - and probably everyone else here - am paying far more for far less.
On the good side, it's probably an indication of future prices in the rest of the world - we probably won't get that low, but things should get at least a fair bit cheaper than they are now.
I say that because if they can sell bandwith for that, it must be getting damn cheap.
I'm sad to say that I can't think of what I'd use fibre to the home for over and above what I've already got. My whole city's got fibre to the curb, cat 5 to the stb and computer - 2mb/s for home users (plus additional bandwidth set aside for the cable TV and re-broadcast free to air TV channels they provide and video on demand), or up to 10mb/s for business. Now only wish that the provider would build some functionality like SBC's into the set top box.
Try "Make it illegal for anyone to donate more than n% of the average national household income" Sure foreign money messes up the sovreignty of your nation, but domestic money from large corporations messes up its management. Now... if only there were a way to get rid of professional lobbying without appearing to isolate the government from the public. Anyway, it doesn't count for much, you'll not be a democracy for long and when you're an autocracy the running of your country won't be your concern.
All they need now is to reach orbit and offer some serious microgravity.
According to http://www.cis.upenn.edu/departmental/faculty/ the CIS faculty of Penn Uni has a faculty member named Assoc. Prof. Matthew Blaze.
A "Cooee, cobber. Bonza Mate" would have been enough.
Laura, I am saddened. You say "expo '88", and "Queensland" like a native, but you can't even spell the common pet name for your mother correctly. Can you correctly spell and pronounce zebra and aluminium?
Better make up entirly fake cards. In getting a legitimate one and faking the barcode you might be breaching an agreement you have with them. If you don't have an agreement with them, what can they sue over? (that one was a serious question, not rhetorical - feel free to answer).
So? It just so happens that these hackers are crackers too.
"Hack" relates to the skill, not the morals.
"Crack" relates to the morals not the skill.
I would really strongly advise against asking high school kids to google for cracking and hacking techniques. They're more likely to find porn sites or at least porn banner ads.
(Why would you want to convert _to_ farenheit? Learn SI confuse your friends talk successfully to people outside the USA)
"If they have a warrant, and access to your computer, what the fuck are they messing around keeping it running for anyway, why haven't they just arrested you?"
It's much easier to go to a judge and say "We believe that Mr xxxxxxx is a terrorist, he has been speaking to Mr yyyyyyyyy who is a known terrorist. We would like a warrant so we can gather enough evidence to prosecute and find Mr xxxxxxx's associates"
Oh, and "Oops I seem to have accidentally shredded/microwaved my key disk" may work too.
I believe that in Australia, and probably everywhere else too, if a court orders you to hand over encryption keys and passwords, you are required to do so.
Of course, if you've got the warning, you may be able to lose your keys and wipe the data. Even that's not an option where big brother is permitted to remotely hack your machine without your knowledge.
RTFA. This system will operate with GPS, not just as an alternative. More satellites means better accuracy and better availability:
"More importantly from the civilian perspective, the agreement allowed the systems to be meshed seamlessly, greatly benefiting manufacturers, service providers and consumers.
Better accuracy, especially in built-up areas where the current GPS signal can be patchy, should lead to a bigger demand for positioning systems."
It may be the eighth result today, but a month ago? You probably wouldn't have found the good people at ACS/CAS unless you were specifically looking for them.
The way the system seems to work at the moment is publisher says "I'll give you $xxx for that manuscript" Author says "Hey, I want to eat this week, okay". Author signs away all rights except the moral right to be identified as the author. Publisher gives them not a cent after that. In some cases the author gets a contract of $xxx up front plus $.xx for each copy sold. Better but. As to authors writing only for the money for the nth generation of grandchildren! US style copyright is for the Disneys of the world, not the authors and artists that need to worry about feeding their family.
A bit of a broad brush, perhaps. Please don't say "the people in Canberra". I'm a Canberran, I'm not a politician and I'm certainly not a dog.
I utterly despise US style copyright. It's a travesty of freedom.
Copyright should be there to encourage authors - how does paying their publisher 70 years yonder help the author?
Under the previous Australian system authors got 50 years after their death, companies got 50 years from date of publication. May terrible things happen to those who put Australia in the position we're now in.
So you think that this is M$ saying "Use our laws if you want to trade with the US". Hmm. No trade between Asia and the US. Just out of interest, what would M$ Windows run on if there was nothing around marked "Made in Taiwan (PRC)", "Made in China", "Made in Japan" or "Made in Korea"?