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User: tuomas_kaikkonen

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  1. Re:APRS on Ushahidi Crowd-Sources Crisis Response · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not all have amateur radio licenses. Ushahidi can use devices you do not need licenses for (mobile phone SMS, email, web). Some goods links: http://github.com/ushahidi http://ushahidi.com/

  2. Re:Steve Roberts ("Wordy") on The Rise of the Digital Nomad · · Score: 1

    Wikipedia has article about a term Steven K. Roverts coined to describe this kind of high tech nomadic lifestyle: technomad

  3. Jump failed today b/c balloon left w/o Fournier on Supersonic Skydiving · · Score: 1

    Michel Fournier's record skydiving project failed today (Tuesday May 27th 2008), because the balloon left the capsule with Fournier behind. Source: http://www.i4u.com/article17593.html

  4. Re:TFA is leaving out the most important informati on CIA Claims Cyber Attackers Blacked Out Cities · · Score: 1
    Which countries were affected by the attacks?

    The article just states: "power and utility industry, a CIA analyst last week said cyberattackers have hacked into the computer systems of utility companies outside the United States and made demands, in at least one case causing a power outage that affected multiple cities." http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004135058_hackers20.html>Seattle Times Article Anyone have any better sources?

  5. Re:so? what else is there to do? on Inside A Korean Rehab Camp For Web Addiction · · Score: 1

    IF the government decides that the "internet addiction" poses too great risk to the functioning of the society, they will limit the usage and access to the "internet". That may be come in the form of taxes on equipment, making certain activities illegal, criminalizing the "internet cafes". But it is a long way. Did books ever get banned, because they can be addictive too, or movies? The key issue here is, does the addictive activity have big enough negative effect on the productivity of the citizens, or does it have any good effects. It makes me really sad to read that one of the kids said, he became addicted, because his parents were not there for him. He had to spend time alone in his home without nobody to talk to, while his parents were wage-slaving away as hair-dressers and what not. It used to be television that was the old time nanny for kids alone at home. Nowaydays it is the interactive internet games, chatrooms, etc. You mentioned the risk taking aspect. That in "real" life the people who look, or act, out of the "norm" or "take risks" are marginalized. But in the "virtual" world, they can be whatever they like, and take whatever risks, or "look" the way they wish. Well, sooner or later they have to face the real world, when they grow up and have to earn their living. I just hope they can earn their living with the skills they developed in both the real and virtual worlds. IMHO, most often though, the virtual skills have no applications in the real world. Unless they are skills from simulators of real life actions, such as piloting an airplane, or doing surgical operations. Perhaps the government should invest into designing and building these kind of virtual games where the skills rewarded are skills that have real life applications.

  6. Their performance report on-line ... on NC State Creates Most Powerful Positron Beam Ever · · Score: 1

    If you have 30 USD, you can read their full performance report. Without paying, even the abstract might tell you something.

  7. Re:HIPAA Violation! on Hospital Wants Critical Blogger's Anonymity Ended · · Score: 1

    What if the patient has died, and had no family. Who would then have the power to give away his "patient records". The hospital could in theory get away with letting people, who have nobody to protect their rights, to die of malpractice and nobody would never know, unless some "whistle blower" would talk.

  8. Re:Location on Tunguska Impact Crater Found? · · Score: 1
    You can make out individual trees, but I do not see much in terms of individual logs in the blast pattern.

    The Tunguska meteor happened in the year 1908, which means those logs in the blast pattern probably are long gone by now.

    A. Ol'khovatov (olkhov.narod.ru) comments on the Italian researcher: " 97. June 23, 2007 News story just appeared ( http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/8134097.html ) that Italian researchers published an article where they proposed that Lake Cheko (about 8 km form the epicenter of the Tunguska event) was formed by an impact of a fragment of 'Tunguska meteorite'! The article is here: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/ j.1365-3121.2007.00742.x Let me make some comments.
    The idea was already checked by Soviet/Russian researchers in the year ~ 1960.
    Their initial idea to research the lake was that a lot of local surface waters (headwaters) pass through the lake, so the lake's bottom should accumulate substance of the 'Tunguska meteorite' fallen over large area.
    They discovered the funnel shape of the lake's bottom, but failed to find any evidences that it was a meteorite crater.
    Arguments were the following:
    a) there is no any rim around the lake:
    b) Forest/trees around the lake is older than ~50 years old in general;
    c) a local resident (Evenk who huntered in the area) said that on the place of the lake there was a 'zabolochennaya luzha ' (swampy pool).

    So the idea was rejected by Sovet/Rissian researchers. Now the Italians are trying to recover it.
    And of course neither Soviet/Russian researchers nor the Italians discovered any fragments/microparticles of the hypothetical 'Tunguska meteorite' despite large-scale digging of the bottom and the lake surroundings. I can add that interrogations of local residents conducted in the early 1960s show that a path from Vanavara settlement to the area of Strelka-Chunya (which later became a settlement too) went through Lake Cheko. So there is practically no chance of the 'sudden appearence' of the lake from a meteorite impact.

    But what can't be ruled out is flooding of the lake, as local residents said about fountains of water from the ground and some flooding near the Tunguska epicenter in association the Tunguska event. By the way, for the 'geophysical Tunguska' interpretation the phenomena are explained as being due to tectonic activity (and are known in association with earthquakes).

    Anyway, I hope that the article (which possibly will be promoted in mass-media) will help the Italian researchers to get finance/funds to come to Russia next summer and to celebrate 100th Anniversary of Tunguska! :) "

  9. Re:How about a ballot instead? on Three Months of Britain's e-Petition System · · Score: 1

    I am not sure have you lost a lot living without the constant advertisement bombardment from professional petition buyers. IMHO most people have no clue how to wote on those initiative ballot questions and just flip a mental coin (or mostly choose by calculating how much money they should have to pay for this decision in raised property taxes). Anyhow, the percentage of people who actually bother to vote in USA is so low that only those who think they care and their vote is counted perhaps could also bother stydying the initiatives closer, but I doubt.

    What bothers me in the USA (WA state) elections is the requirement to choose a party and just vote for that party's candidates, and the problem of getting anything else but the two biggest parties into ballot.

    Let's take this question into one extreme. What would be it like if we had no political parties, but instead just issues that people directly vote on? That said, someone still had to filter only most sane initiatives to ballots, otherwise we would be swaped by initiatives (well, the minimum signature number does limit them somewhat).

    It is interesting to see how people balance the workload of the legislature between the paid professional members of the representatives of the people and the people themselves.

    Then there is the other dimension that goes from rigid centralized top-down control to total free-for-all to decide anarchy. The zones in USA go along the state, county, and other kind of district lines. What the European Union is heading for seems like this kind of member state, county ,district model, although some countries oppose to this system a lot (especially the monetary system and constitution is opposed by parliamentary monarchies).

    Then is also the difference between how well the executive, legislative, and judicial (and some might add monetary as a central bank) power is divided. In parliamentary democracies some argue that the legislative has too much control over the executive. (Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_democra cy )

    Anyhow, if you ask me, I would say that most of the times these pseudo-democratic tools are vastly overshadowed by the power of the multinational corporate money. But that is another thread althogether.

  10. Re:Enviromental Impact? on A 3D Printer On Every Desktop? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You're onto something important there!

    The printout should be easy to recycle back into print "ink". Perhaps using temperature to melt it down. So this material would be the "draft" test printout material that you print, heat, recycle, and print again with same material. Then when you got the final printout right, you would switch to the release quality material that is more robust. Or then again, just use the printed out "draft" version to make a mold and cast release materials.

    What do you think?

    Tuomas

  11. Re:Limitations on more comlex objects? on A 3D Printer On Every Desktop? · · Score: 1

    You can always do with extra connector pieces that you then later cut away. Remember those assembled miniature model toy planes? Just print out pieces on a board that connects all pieces so that they can be cut away and then glued together. Tuomas

  12. Re:Materials are the problem on A 3D Printer On Every Desktop? · · Score: 1

    You could print different kinds of *molds* for different kind of *materials* in your product and then use these molds to cast them. Just an idea.

    BTW, I wonder how this 3D printer manages to do real 3D objects that have parts that are not connected to the base or outer shell. I guess there is no way to do that without having to have "cut away" parts of the printout to produce the desired object. Anyone see any other limitations to the printer?

    Tuomas

  13. Re:Cool trick you can do with Deja Vu.. on Even The Blind Get Deja Vu · · Score: 1

    I think you are into something important there. From my experience, most deja vu situations happen during experience chain that leads to something that is un-usual and may contain some highly "sensetive" data that you either do not want to remember, or, that you have loaded with so much intensity (for a lack of a better word).

    Sometimes these situations deal with life changing experiences. You are in a cross-roads when you have to make decision which path of action to take, but you hesitate to take some paths. This is probably tied to your survival instinct that tells you to stick to the familiar terrotory.

    Other times deja vu may be triggered by distant memory of a dream where you dream about a thing that is now happening. This is another trick of the brain that works in associateve parallel way (I am not an expert in this area, so please forgive me my layman terms or inaccuracies). For example, you dream of walking in a place that is new to you, you see yourself looking out of windows, walking corridors, feeling a bit trapped and uneasy, not really sure which way to go or whom to talk to or what you are supposed to do. Some time after that dream you start a new job, walk in strange corridors, do not really know yet what is expected of you and do not know the people, and may feel a bit fear of uncertainty of new situation -- in this case your brain may trigger deja vu from your dream. Tangent to this is that your brain tends to make dreams of situations that you think before you go to sleep, and if these things are some plans for your future job , then it may explain that situation.

    Well, worst kind of deja vus are those that totally disassociate you from this place and disturb your normal life. Well, they may be caused by repressed memories of something bad situations, for example childhood experiences, or mental traumas from adolencense or adulthood. The younger the brain is, the more you have dug up these repressed memories, and the more you try to perhaps block them and that can explain why the younger brain expriences deja vus more often. The older you get, you may learn how to cope with the repressed memories better and accept them and uncover them and "heal" them, so they no longer cause deja vus.

    Has anyone experienced Jamais Vu situations, where you feel like "this is NOT happening and NEVER could happen" ? That is some kind of situation that you feel like you are not even present. That could be associated with deja vu expreiences where you deny ever having the experience and that causes the brain to deny your current experience as being real.

    TTL

  14. William Gates III versus Richard Stallman, 2008? on Get on the 'Gates for President' Bandwagon · · Score: 1

    Will arch hacker Richard Stallman rise to challenge Bill in 2008? Now we will see who has bigger support! If they are not named candidates, at least the people could still write in their names.

  15. Seems like derivation from Bernoulli effect on Acoustic Levitation Works On Small Animals · · Score: 3, Informative

    To me the video seemed like two tubes that generated a derivation from Bernoulli effect.

    Some readers seem to mix up infra and ultra. Ultrasound is high frequency sounds.

    References:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli_Effect
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasound

  16. Re:Denmark! on Life Without Traffic Signs · · Score: 1
    That looks great, except what about the hetero women drivers? Should there be also pantless men showing their dicks at those women speeders?


    What about we combine the two, and have a man and a woman acting a normal sex act in public, that would certainly slow down most of the drivers. Perhaps that could be breaking some laws of decency in some cities, but what is more important, saving lives or decency?

  17. Things you can think while sitting in rush hour on Life Without Traffic Signs · · Score: 1
    Americans, at least people here in Redmond - Seattle axis, spend hours and hours per day in traffic jams caused by too many single occupant vehicles jamming the streets at rush hours, thanks to everyone going and leaving work at the same time to keep silly "office hours" and to appear "diligent" workers to show up in "time".

    Just one example, a Redmond code-slave working for an unnamed large software compay had to go pick up her three-year old from day care, where it normally it would take her about 10 minutes to drive. Well, thanks to all the people leaving work at the same time driving cars with single occupier, the traffic jam made her driving time 60 minutes. Well, that may not even be the worst case you can think of in the world, but it is pretty bad.

    It just amazes me how fast and long we can travel by air, but once you hit the airport, your travelling time will take a big hit. When will we have a solution and what will that be? IMHO, public transportation that is WELL designed (routes that connect well and timely) is one solution.

    ANOTHER bright idea is to allow code slaves to telecommute. But that may be too revolutionary for single brain celled organisms called bosses, I am afraid, since all they care is that the slaves sit in their offices during office hours, no matter what they may be doing there.

  18. Re:Pedestrian Uprising on Life Without Traffic Signs · · Score: 1

    Perhaps the sidewalk is safer to ride than sharing lane with the cars.
    What if there is NO bike lane? Most cities have NO BIKE LANES.

    I am a biker (cyclist, not a motor biker) in summer time, and I do zip between cars, but ONLY in the lane next to the sidewalk. I do that just because it is SAFER than trying to squeeze between two cars in a traffic jam where every car driver wants to squeeze their head bumper against the tail bumper of the car in front of them.

    We have the CRITICAL MASS in Seattle once per year. I hope some day we will overcome and ALL the cars will be banned in inner cities. Until then, I hope you drivers will learn to use the public transportaton, walk, or drive the bicycle safely.

    Drive and ride safe. Do not drink, eat, speak to cell phone, or argue with your kids or spouse while driving.

  19. What a waste of money... piss on bushes and trees! on The World's Most-High Tech Urinal · · Score: 1

    I would say, this is a waste of public money. Keep trees and bushes and let the people piss on the trees and bushes, like any other reasonable and sensible nature loving animal would do! Of course, it may not work for the number two, unless there are some dumpsters provided that actually compost the humanure and turn it into good soil for more trees and bushes.

    I am not sure about urinals, but if you put public toilets, Seattle Times reported a problem here in Seattle, prostitutes and drug addicts abusing them for their own purposes for unlimited amount of time, forcing some homeless people to take even more dumps into the wild outside the public sewage system.

    So, while perhaps saving the homely people the unwelcome whiff of the smell of the homeless pee, installing urinals does NOT alleviate the problem of homeless crap. However, if urinals are public enough (no walls) they may perhaps NOT be abused for prostituting and drug users.

    Allright, now once I have submitted a reply, I go and read the original article to learn more about the system.

  20. Re:Shrug on Web Censorship on the University Campus? · · Score: 1

    Direct link to Wikipedia page about School Accreditation explains it well.

  21. Sound Weaponry? on CCTV Cameras In UK Get Loudspeakers · · Score: 1

    What if in the future, once people are desensitized to loudspeakers with cameras watching them, the Big Brother starts to "upgrade" the normal loudspeakers with more effective people controlling Sonic Weaponry?

  22. Re:Of course they are... on Consumer Reports Creates Viruses to Test Software · · Score: 1
  23. Re: fishy = flambait? on The Black Hat Wi-Fi Exploit · · Score: 1

    Well, extrapolating the facts from different sources seem to point to following theory:
    WLAN device driver buffer overrun exploit allows attacker to run root-kit installer code.

    Just a theory.

  24. Atheros at the exploiter side? on The Black Hat Wi-Fi Exploit · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Perhaps it is the exploiter who is better off with the Atheros based WLAN card? Maybe it is still possible to exploit any other WLAN card, but the attacker may benefit from using some WLAN cards over others as the attacking host platform (not the attacked target platform). Reference: http://www.ktwo.ca/security.html

  25. Re:Tuesday morning sarcasm on The UK's Total Surveillance · · Score: 1

    Here are some links to helpful sites relating to speeding cameras:
    1. http://www.ukspeedcameras.co.uk/
    2. http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200607/speed _cameras_do_not_make_driving_safer/
    3. http://www.nationalsafetycameras.co.uk/nscl/camera s/cameras.html

    This piece of FAQ pretty much states that speeding/traffic cameras record all the time 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: http://www.nationalsafetycameras.co.uk/nscl/q&a/q& a.html


    The people are trying to fight back by destroying the speeding cameras. The Big Brother responds by installing additional security cameras to monitor on the speeding cameras. Reference: http://www.digg.com/security/Speed_cameras_acciden tally_get_destroyed...oops_