What about all the competition with the calculator, Telnet clients, PPP clients (Who buys Trumpet Winsock?) etc. The Internet is now one of the most common uses of a computer. Of course MS is goign to bundle or even integrate a browser into their OS since that's what their customers want. Does a consumer even "know" what a PPP client is? Should these be "unbundled" from the OS so that there can be more competition?
You're just being absurd you know, and judging from the number of +2 replies, it doesn't look like anyone bought it. (Except me, I guess.)
They want something that works, not with 100 privacy settings.
And suddenly you've become the representative for Joe Consumer? This court case has nothing to do with consumers themselves. Let me make a quick example of what is at the heart of this case...
I've introduced many people to Mozilla, and a lot of them have been floored by how much more useful (and stable) it is over the bundled Internet Explorer. After being with Mozilla for a month, most of them loathe the clumsy interface and lack of features of Internet Explorer.
Let's say this Mozilla thing storms the computing industry and every man, woman, and child wants it installed on their computer (since "The Internet" to them is the equivalent of a web browser). Since the unwashed masses are not generally comfortable installing new software and downright fear having to download something as large as Mozilla, the OEMs are getting all kinds of requests to put Mozilla on their systems.
It sounds like a no-brainer to everyone from sales to marketing, but by the time the licensing department hears about it, the idea is shot down. They cannot legally do that since Microsoft currently dictates exactly what can be installed on their computers when they go out the door. The result of this is that people cannot get the software they're demanding pre-installed on their computers. It might be great, wonderful, world-changing software but thanks to Microsoft, it will never see the light of day.
That is anticompetitive, that is hurting innovation, and that is what this court case is about. There are of course more angles to it, but this I feel is the most important one.
I'm at fault for sterotyping you as well, it's just that I'm starting to tire of the slashdot community as a whole. That's where the "elitist" remark came from. I'm not going to make a big fuss about it here, but from the way things get moderated these days, I'm starting to think there is some kind of Mainstram Slashdot Collective Mind(tm) at work against anyone with a differing opinion, or anyone who voices obvious but unpopular statements of fact.
But worst yet, I'm fear I'm getting sucked into it as well.
Besides, despite what I said, I could tell you weren't that bad a guy from your sig.:)
intransitive senses : to act as a pioneer transitive senses 1 : to open or prepare for others to follow; also : SETTLE
I never said anywhere that I thought Netscape developed the full-circle reporting technology themselves. My definition coincides with the one pasted above. That they brought auto bug-reporting technology to the mainstream, just as a lot of Unix features and programs were never developed *for* Unix, but made their name because they were introduced into one form of Unix or another.
Welcome to the real world, where the unwashed masses can't see a monopoly and illegal or immoral business procedures even when it makes front-page news.
Come on, of course Microsoft has copied Unix. How could they not!!!
My problem with MS is not so much that they borrow many of their ideas (and even code) from other operating systems, rather that they do so and then proceed to spin it off as Yet Another Microsoft Innovation.
Considering their (now) very public anti-Unix stance, you'd think they wouldn't have anything to do with Unix. At all. But to this day, we keep seeing MS announcing New and Incredible Features and ideas that were either pioneered or made mainstream by Unix and other operating systems that have been around for decades. They even go so far as to "borrow" code (I think the Win2k/XP TCP/IP stack, not sure) from BSD and then spout about all the evilness that Unix must be.
Linux and UNIX groupies like you give the community a bad name.
I use Linux (and other unices or clones) because it suits me. Unix works for what I want it to do, and it works well. That makes me a groupie, eh? Might want to rethink that/. elistist attitude of yours. I'm not the anti-MS zealot that you attempt to paint me as.
I'm typing this in Windows XP right now, so obviously I must not have too much of a problem with Microsoft's products themselves. What I do disagree with is their actions as a corporation. There is so much potential for Microsoft to be an asset to the computing industry it's not funny, but so far, like every other major American corporation, they are consumed with greed. For both money and mindshare.
Yes, well these "x actually did y before z even thought of it" wars are quite common here, unfortunately, and I won't be dragged into one now.
Get over. Innovation is the art of bringing advancements to the populace. Unix has its fair share, and so has Microsoft.
I wouldn't be so perturbed if MS would at least acknowledge that many the features at hand existed before MS was even a company. (Let alone actually give credit.) They spin them off as being Yet Another Pioneering Microsoft Innovation.
... and I forgot to add that the last point there only serves to exemplify the issue that nearly all of Win2k's and WinXP's "innovations" have actually been done before, either in *NIX-land or other software. (And usually better.)
While this is new news, it's also old news. Microsoft's policy on innovation: If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em.
I was just pointing out today to a friend how Windows XP's feature to send in bug reports to M$ Central was first pioneered (that I know of) by Netscape.
Probably my biggest issue is with noise. It could be my farely ADD-type tendencies, but almost any noise beyond what is found in a normal office environment makes it really hard for me to work. Music may be great for the mood, but I just can't work unless the music is classical or something else really light.
I hate to sound like a 'me too' but me too.
I was actually diagnosed with ADD in like 9th grade, but I have seen ADD kids, and I don't think I even come close. But for the short time they put me on Ritalin, hoo-boy. I won't even go there. That stuff is way too crazy to give to kids.
My main concern when coding is one of two things: 1) noise 2) reference materials. I happen to live in dorms currently, so the former is a real productivity killer. But I can't just crank up the stereo or else that distracts me far more than all the other noise going on. However, I have had some success with listening to streaming hard house music to drown out everything else. I have five more months of this hell left and then I move in with my fiance. I hope that by the time I reach that point, house doesn't make me fatally ill a la Clockwork Orange.
Reference materials: More important than a compiler to me. I've done some interesting stuff but I still consider myself a novice programmer, and thus have to look one thing or another up every few lines it seems.
This has actually already been done. I went to one web page linked directly from slashdot the other day that had the heading (to paraphrase):
"Welcome Slashdot visitors. You have clicked through a slashdot link to access this page and in an effort to cut down on bandwidth expenses, you have been referred to this page. It is devoid of ads, script, and graphics but otherwise contains the same content. You can click here [link] to view the original page."
I'm surprised I hadn't seen something like this earlier, but then I guess most people never expect to be slashdotted until it actually happens...
Well this is one of the highest scoring trolls I've seen in awhile.
So, what, website admins like myself are just supposed to sit back and let spambots a) harvest email addresses without consent b) eat up costly downstream bandwidth, memory and resources c) blatantly violate robot.txt directives?
I'm patiently awaiting to hear your opinions on how to stop spambots without actually telling the web server administrators about any of it.
I suppose next you'll argue that nobody should ever discuss ways to keep from being carjacked or mugged, because you just know that criminals are going to looking for this thread so they can watch out for said tips when they actually go do their dirty work.
You know, maybe Apache could release some precompiled binaries with their own techniques for avoiding spambots and keep the source to themselves so the spambot authors can't see exactly what precautions have been coded in. You can't exploit a closed system, right? Just ask Microsoft.
Golly gee, let's see here. Ways to thwart the spambots.
You can URL-encode and un-mailto your address.
But spambots can still read most plaintext email addresses from the text itself...
Then encode your email address into a piece of javascript.
But many normal users don't have javascript turned on...
Then write your email address into a GIF or PNG.
But certain types of disabled people and lynx users won't be able to view those images...
This author would argue that those two are one in the same. But still, you can also obfuscate your address for the user to figure out, providing directions on how to unobfuscate it. (NOSPAM.bob@NOSPAM.hoser.com)
But there are many users who are too dumb to unobfusicate the address...
Then write a web page with a form for sending the message... the email address remains hidden.
But this is insecure / stupid / not fully supported by Mosaic 0.13beta...
Then whoever can't use one of the above methods can go sod off. I plan to use most of these, grouped together into one contact.html page on my personal web site. If there are a couple of users in the world out of thousands who can't contact me due to technical or mental limitations, then dang them to heck for all I care.
You see, it's a balancing act of preferences. Would you prefer to let (literally) a couple users slip through the cracks, or would you rather get bombed by potentially hundreds of spambots? Your choice...
Something I once did... I got a piece of regular old email spam that happened to have an 800 number. So I dialed it up, listened to the guy give his spiel, and then played back MP3s for the part where you're supposed to leave your name and address. I discovered that you could bypass the intro message by hitting pound and go straight to the voicemail message, which had a maximum time limit of like 70 seconds. I repeated this somewhere between 15 and 20 times before I got a message saying "'s personal mailbox has run out of space. Please call again later."
A job well done, I'd say. I only wish that on the last message, I could have left something like, "That's for spamming me, dingleberry."
It would make sense that windows would be considered the primary platform, but I'm perfectly content with the Linux version. In fact, there are many things about the windows version that I dislike as compared to linux. (which is pretty much anything to do with the middle mouse button...)
Personally, my experience with some of the other bug fixers and reporters has been very positive in regards to linux-specific bugs. The Mozilla team is a very dedicated group of people who want to see this thing succeed.
While a big hosts file might be simpler, something more like junkbuster is a much more elegant solution to block ads and filter cookies. You can choose what to block with regular expressions, so that you don't have to block an entire site to not get ads, nor do you have to block each and every different site that serves ads.
This combined with Mozilla's anti-pop-up capability make browsing the web an almost enjoyable activity. I haven't changed my blocklist in many months and have yet to see a single ad.
Yes, but a) I'm not paying for the power (and it's not my fridge:P) b) I need ambient noise. Any human-generated noise such as talking, music, TV, or bass is what keeps me awake.
Does anyone ever consider that I might *want* noise? The dorms I live in are so damn loud that I'll do anything to bring the ambient noise above the human- and stereo-created noise threshold.
Right now I've got a non-functional AC unit and dual in-window fans going primarily for this purpose alone. The frige is right next to my bed and since I don't have any money for food, I sometimes leave the door propped open just so the compressor runs and lulls me to sleep. I'm also considering buying a monster box fan to put next to my bed so my frige doesn't have to work so hard. (Or if I actually want to put anything in it.)
And don't get me started on my computer. I think my neighbor can tell when I shut this thing off.
For the curious, I have tried those anti-noise machines and noise-cancelling headphones, but they don't take care of 99% of the problem for me: bass. Until I started working nights, I'd usually be up until the wee hours of the morning because some dipshit wants to have a Jurassic Park marathon with his dipshit buddies. Let me tell you how fun that is when I had to get up a 6AM for work every day.
And yes, I have also tried earplugs, but again, they don't block out the bass... the sound has such a low frequency that it travels through your skull rather than through your ear canal.
No, the commitment is equal to the number of years they paid for, but the minimum is 4. Some majors can get 5 years paid for.
I can't bring up any specific ROTC programs, but I know that there is at least one that requires you to give back at least 2x the amount of time you're in school. Maybe there is another minimum x amount of years that get tacked on, but they don't advertise that.
No, besides doctors, lawyers, & chaplains (direct commissions with 2 or 4 weeks of training), there are exactly 3 ways to get commissioned into the Air Force: the Academy, ROTC, & OTS.
But there are different ways to get into those 3 different commissioning programs. I know because I'm active duty enlisted and they are constantly advertising them--they want more high-quality enlisted members to try for commissions, it's less training the AF has to do. And in the opinion of many enlisted and officers alike, it frequently results in better officers. If I had my way, all officers would have to have a minimum amount of time (say, a year or two) as enlisted before their commission starts. But that's just me.
In the Air Foce, the service commitment for most programs is twice the amount of time the USAF paid for your education.
There are literally dozens ways to become an officer, partly because the services are really hurting for members right now. And to anyone considering a commission: don't think of a commission as some nifty job you get to try out for a couple of years. You join the service for x amount of years and your life will be the service for those x years.
This is the way it's traditionally done in the military. You either have access to something based on your security level (plus need-to-know, see below), or you don't. And if you don't, well, you're not getting it. When you join the military, they do a background check on you to assess what your level of clearance will be. If you get a security clearance, it will be one of Secret, Confidential, and something else. ("something else" being the highest) If they decide you may be worthy of Confidential and above, the background check gets more in-depth; one friend of mine mentioned that the military interviewed his family, friends, and even high school teachers. Scary shite. Once you are assigned a clearance, it can never be increased (unless there is a very good reason). But your clearance can (and routinely is) taken away completely for something like a DUI.
Need-to-know: Despite what Hollywood will tell you, just having the right clearance is not enough to gain access to something that is classified. You also need a reason to have access to it, which normally comes in the form of the approval of a superior.
It is, however worth noting that according to the scholarship program website, the proposal deadline for this scholarship was December 19, 2001. Way to fuck with me on 01Apr, Slashfags.
Slashdot Mirror
What about all the competition with the calculator, Telnet clients, PPP clients (Who buys Trumpet Winsock?) etc. The Internet is now one of the most common uses of a computer. Of course MS is goign to bundle or even integrate a browser into their OS since that's what their customers want. Does a consumer even "know" what a PPP client is? Should these be "unbundled" from the OS so that there can be more competition?
You're just being absurd you know, and judging from the number of +2 replies, it doesn't look like anyone bought it. (Except me, I guess.)
They want something that works, not with 100 privacy settings.
And suddenly you've become the representative for Joe Consumer? This court case has nothing to do with consumers themselves. Let me make a quick example of what is at the heart of this case...
I've introduced many people to Mozilla, and a lot of them have been floored by how much more useful (and stable) it is over the bundled Internet Explorer. After being with Mozilla for a month, most of them loathe the clumsy interface and lack of features of Internet Explorer.
Let's say this Mozilla thing storms the computing industry and every man, woman, and child wants it installed on their computer (since "The Internet" to them is the equivalent of a web browser). Since the unwashed masses are not generally comfortable installing new software and downright fear having to download something as large as Mozilla, the OEMs are getting all kinds of requests to put Mozilla on their systems.
It sounds like a no-brainer to everyone from sales to marketing, but by the time the licensing department hears about it, the idea is shot down. They cannot legally do that since Microsoft currently dictates exactly what can be installed on their computers when they go out the door. The result of this is that people cannot get the software they're demanding pre-installed on their computers. It might be great, wonderful, world-changing software but thanks to Microsoft, it will never see the light of day.
That is anticompetitive, that is hurting innovation, and that is what this court case is about. There are of course more angles to it, but this I feel is the most important one.
I'm at fault for sterotyping you as well, it's just that I'm starting to tire of the slashdot community as a whole. That's where the "elitist" remark came from. I'm not going to make a big fuss about it here, but from the way things get moderated these days, I'm starting to think there is some kind of Mainstram Slashdot Collective Mind(tm) at work against anyone with a differing opinion, or anyone who voices obvious but unpopular statements of fact.
But worst yet, I'm fear I'm getting sucked into it as well.
Besides, despite what I said, I could tell you weren't that bad a guy from your sig.
From the Merriam-Webster OnLine Dictionary:
intransitive senses : to act as a pioneer
transitive senses
1 : to open or prepare for others to follow; also : SETTLE
I never said anywhere that I thought Netscape developed the full-circle reporting technology themselves. My definition coincides with the one pasted above. That they brought auto bug-reporting technology to the mainstream, just as a lot of Unix features and programs were never developed *for* Unix, but made their name because they were introduced into one form of Unix or another.
Welcome to the real world, where the unwashed masses can't see a monopoly and illegal or immoral business procedures even when it makes front-page news.
Come on, of course Microsoft has copied Unix. How could they not!!!
My problem with MS is not so much that they borrow many of their ideas (and even code) from other operating systems, rather that they do so and then proceed to spin it off as Yet Another Microsoft Innovation.
Considering their (now) very public anti-Unix stance, you'd think they wouldn't have anything to do with Unix. At all. But to this day, we keep seeing MS announcing New and Incredible Features and ideas that were either pioneered or made mainstream by Unix and other operating systems that have been around for decades. They even go so far as to "borrow" code (I think the Win2k/XP TCP/IP stack, not sure) from BSD and then spout about all the evilness that Unix must be.
Linux and UNIX groupies like you give the community a bad name.
I use Linux (and other unices or clones) because it suits me. Unix works for what I want it to do, and it works well. That makes me a groupie, eh? Might want to rethink that
I'm typing this in Windows XP right now, so obviously I must not have too much of a problem with Microsoft's products themselves. What I do disagree with is their actions as a corporation. There is so much potential for Microsoft to be an asset to the computing industry it's not funny, but so far, like every other major American corporation, they are consumed with greed. For both money and mindshare.
Yes, well these "x actually did y before z even thought of it" wars are quite common here, unfortunately, and I won't be dragged into one now.
Get over. Innovation is the art of bringing advancements to the populace. Unix has its fair share, and so has Microsoft.
I wouldn't be so perturbed if MS would at least acknowledge that many the features at hand existed before MS was even a company. (Let alone actually give credit.) They spin them off as being Yet Another Pioneering Microsoft Innovation.
... and I forgot to add that the last point there only serves to exemplify the issue that nearly all of Win2k's and WinXP's "innovations" have actually been done before, either in *NIX-land or other software. (And usually better.)
While this is new news, it's also old news. Microsoft's policy on innovation: If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em.
I was just pointing out today to a friend how Windows XP's feature to send in bug reports to M$ Central was first pioneered (that I know of) by Netscape.
Probably my biggest issue is with noise. It could be my farely ADD-type tendencies, but almost any noise beyond what is found in a normal office environment makes it really hard for me to work. Music may be great for the mood, but I just can't work unless the music is classical or something else really light.
I hate to sound like a 'me too' but me too.
I was actually diagnosed with ADD in like 9th grade, but I have seen ADD kids, and I don't think I even come close. But for the short time they put me on Ritalin, hoo-boy. I won't even go there. That stuff is way too crazy to give to kids.
My main concern when coding is one of two things: 1) noise 2) reference materials. I happen to live in dorms currently, so the former is a real productivity killer. But I can't just crank up the stereo or else that distracts me far more than all the other noise going on. However, I have had some success with listening to streaming hard house music to drown out everything else. I have five more months of this hell left and then I move in with my fiance. I hope that by the time I reach that point, house doesn't make me fatally ill a la Clockwork Orange.
Reference materials: More important than a compiler to me. I've done some interesting stuff but I still consider myself a novice programmer, and thus have to look one thing or another up every few lines it seems.
Good god, man, your truthful perspective sickens me.
This has actually already been done. I went to one web page linked directly from slashdot the other day that had the heading (to paraphrase):
"Welcome Slashdot visitors. You have clicked through a slashdot link to access this page and in an effort to cut down on bandwidth expenses, you have been referred to this page. It is devoid of ads, script, and graphics but otherwise contains the same content. You can click here [link] to view the original page."
I'm surprised I hadn't seen something like this earlier, but then I guess most people never expect to be slashdotted until it actually happens...
Well this is one of the highest scoring trolls I've seen in awhile.
So, what, website admins like myself are just supposed to sit back and let spambots a) harvest email addresses without consent b) eat up costly downstream bandwidth, memory and resources c) blatantly violate robot.txt directives?
I'm patiently awaiting to hear your opinions on how to stop spambots without actually telling the web server administrators about any of it.
I suppose next you'll argue that nobody should ever discuss ways to keep from being carjacked or mugged, because you just know that criminals are going to looking for this thread so they can watch out for said tips when they actually go do their dirty work.
You know, maybe Apache could release some precompiled binaries with their own techniques for avoiding spambots and keep the source to themselves so the spambot authors can't see exactly what precautions have been coded in. You can't exploit a closed system, right? Just ask Microsoft.
Golly gee, let's see here. Ways to thwart the spambots.
You can URL-encode and un-mailto your address.
But spambots can still read most plaintext email addresses from the text itself...
Then encode your email address into a piece of javascript.
But many normal users don't have javascript turned on...
Then write your email address into a GIF or PNG.
But certain types of disabled people and lynx users won't be able to view those images...
This author would argue that those two are one in the same. But still, you can also obfuscate your address for the user to figure out, providing directions on how to unobfuscate it. (NOSPAM.bob@NOSPAM.hoser.com)
But there are many users who are too dumb to unobfusicate the address...
Then write a web page with a form for sending the message... the email address remains hidden.
But this is insecure / stupid / not fully supported by Mosaic 0.13beta...
Then whoever can't use one of the above methods can go sod off. I plan to use most of these, grouped together into one contact.html page on my personal web site. If there are a couple of users in the world out of thousands who can't contact me due to technical or mental limitations, then dang them to heck for all I care.
You see, it's a balancing act of preferences. Would you prefer to let (literally) a couple users slip through the cracks, or would you rather get bombed by potentially hundreds of spambots? Your choice...
- If you "hide" the links to those pages and make it obvious enough to users, then the "friend" will not have gotten the link in the first place.
- And if a normal user accidently gets banned, they can send an email to get unbanned.
- And if they don't want to send an email, oh well, the occasional moron can't visit your site for a full 24 hours.
- And there's no danger of a search engine finding those pages either, if they follow robots.txt
Something I once did... I got a piece of regular old email spam that happened to have an 800 number. So I dialed it up, listened to the guy give his spiel, and then played back MP3s for the part where you're supposed to leave your name and address. I discovered that you could bypass the intro message by hitting pound and go straight to the voicemail message, which had a maximum time limit of like 70 seconds. I repeated this somewhere between 15 and 20 times before I got a message saying "'s personal mailbox has run out of space. Please call again later."
A job well done, I'd say. I only wish that on the last message, I could have left something like, "That's for spamming me, dingleberry."
It would make sense that windows would be considered the primary platform, but I'm perfectly content with the Linux version. In fact, there are many things about the windows version that I dislike as compared to linux. (which is pretty much anything to do with the middle mouse button...)
Personally, my experience with some of the other bug fixers and reporters has been very positive in regards to linux-specific bugs. The Mozilla team is a very dedicated group of people who want to see this thing succeed.
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/pr
While a big hosts file might be simpler, something more like junkbuster is a much more elegant solution to block ads and filter cookies. You can choose what to block with regular expressions, so that you don't have to block an entire site to not get ads, nor do you have to block each and every different site that serves ads.
This combined with Mozilla's anti-pop-up capability make browsing the web an almost enjoyable activity. I haven't changed my blocklist in many months and have yet to see a single ad.
Yes, but a) I'm not paying for the power (and it's not my fridge
Does anyone ever consider that I might *want* noise? The dorms I live in are so damn loud that I'll do anything to bring the ambient noise above the human- and stereo-created noise threshold.
Right now I've got a non-functional AC unit and dual in-window fans going primarily for this purpose alone. The frige is right next to my bed and since I don't have any money for food, I sometimes leave the door propped open just so the compressor runs and lulls me to sleep. I'm also considering buying a monster box fan to put next to my bed so my frige doesn't have to work so hard. (Or if I actually want to put anything in it.)
And don't get me started on my computer. I think my neighbor can tell when I shut this thing off.
For the curious, I have tried those anti-noise machines and noise-cancelling headphones, but they don't take care of 99% of the problem for me: bass. Until I started working nights, I'd usually be up until the wee hours of the morning because some dipshit wants to have a Jurassic Park marathon with his dipshit buddies. Let me tell you how fun that is when I had to get up a 6AM for work every day.
And yes, I have also tried earplugs, but again, they don't block out the bass... the sound has such a low frequency that it travels through your skull rather than through your ear canal.
No, the commitment is equal to the number of years they paid for, but the minimum is 4. Some majors can get 5 years paid for.
I can't bring up any specific ROTC programs, but I know that there is at least one that requires you to give back at least 2x the amount of time you're in school. Maybe there is another minimum x amount of years that get tacked on, but they don't advertise that.
No, besides doctors, lawyers, & chaplains (direct commissions with 2 or 4 weeks of training), there are exactly 3 ways to get commissioned into the Air Force: the Academy, ROTC, & OTS.
But there are different ways to get into those 3 different commissioning programs. I know because I'm active duty enlisted and they are constantly advertising them--they want more high-quality enlisted members to try for commissions, it's less training the AF has to do. And in the opinion of many enlisted and officers alike, it frequently results in better officers. If I had my way, all officers would have to have a minimum amount of time (say, a year or two) as enlisted before their commission starts. But that's just me.
Sash and SashXB are two completely different things, though they share similar goals.
You know, you're not obligated to bitch about every single April Fool's story on the web. Give it up.
In the Air Foce, the service commitment for most programs is twice the amount of time the USAF paid for your education.
There are literally dozens ways to become an officer, partly because the services are really hurting for members right now. And to anyone considering a commission: don't think of a commission as some nifty job you get to try out for a couple of years. You join the service for x amount of years and your life will be the service for those x years.
This is the way it's traditionally done in the military. You either have access to something based on your security level (plus need-to-know, see below), or you don't. And if you don't, well, you're not getting it. When you join the military, they do a background check on you to assess what your level of clearance will be. If you get a security clearance, it will be one of Secret, Confidential, and something else. ("something else" being the highest) If they decide you may be worthy of Confidential and above, the background check gets more in-depth; one friend of mine mentioned that the military interviewed his family, friends, and even high school teachers. Scary shite. Once you are assigned a clearance, it can never be increased (unless there is a very good reason). But your clearance can (and routinely is) taken away completely for something like a DUI.
Need-to-know: Despite what Hollywood will tell you, just having the right clearance is not enough to gain access to something that is classified. You also need a reason to have access to it, which normally comes in the form of the approval of a superior.
Wow, I just rambled a lot.
It is, however worth noting that according to the scholarship program website, the proposal deadline for this scholarship was December 19, 2001. Way to fuck with me on 01Apr, Slashfags.