This should not be interpreted to mean that during non-emergency periods, stations that are registered in ARES/RACES may only communicate with other stations registered in ARES/RACES. That's simply not the case. Except during a declared emergency, any licensed amateur operator may communicate with any other licensed amateur operator within their respective authorized bands and modes. However, if an amateur operator wants to operate during such times that RACES is in effect, they must register as an ARES/RACES station. In North Carolina, all amateur operators are encouraged to register in ARES/RACES.
Interesting...the interpretation in the area of the country I live in is that any RACES operation (SKYWARN, practice nets, etc.) fall under the "non-comm" rule. In fact, the local RACES coordinators seem to do what they can to discourage those who are interested in joining by instituting some rather onerous requirements, including submission of your SSN to the RACES organization.
All good info, but given the entrenched "good 'ol boy" network where I live, I doubt that the RACES folks would be interested in having the errors of their way pointed out to them.
That may be the case in PA, but here in TX, background checks are extensive, and to participate in SKYWARN you must be a RACES station. So RACES standards differ from region to region. That's an interesting factoid.
You might get an opportunity to help out in a disaster, but if your main goal is to help out in emergencies, get trained in CPR, Search and Rescue and other such, but don't count on being a ham to put you in the "Most needed" category.
I resent that the FCC (I'm an American) required people to learn CW to operate a radio. Now that it's no longer a requirement, I'm interested. People often resent being told what to do, even if it's for their own good.
The code requirement was an ITU requirement, and the FCC gradually eliminated CW testing requirements over a couple of years. So your resentment should probably be focused, at least on part, towards the ITU.
Like all large corporations (including Google), they will do evil to make money. They just don't care any more. They are usually strong enough to put the government off indefinitely or are willing to pay a small fine to make a large profit.
(For those who don't remember, IBM was billions of dollars into an FAA modernization contract in the mid 90's when it sold its federal services division, including the never-completed contract, to Loral, effectively walking away with billions of dollars of taxpayer money for services never rendered.)
I have a merchant account for my performance shop. I'm required by my merchant account bank to submit to "certification" via PCI-DSS. Certification consists of logging into a site yearly and answering a series of questions, such as "Are customer receipts printed so that no more than the last 4 digits of the customer's CC number are printed, with no expiry dates or CVVs?" It's like the psych tests you take for a government job: You basically answer what you believe they want to hear.
The cost for this "certification" process? $100 a pop. I have no choice...get "certified" or lose my account.
...than the Ohio Dept. of Public Safety films we were forced to watch in driver's ed showing decapitations, amputations, and other sordid details meant to "shock" us into not driving drunk/impaired/stupidly?
It's human nature to look upon the misfortunes of others as something fortuitous for the viewer: The idea of "Thank God that's not me or a loved one". And to be truthful here, the Newsweek article pointed to in the original/. story did mention that the M.E. found cocaine in the girl's system, even though the family tried to put the blame on a brain tumor. The family should embrace the opportunity to show young people what happens when they choose to get behind the wheel after a few lines of coke.
I haven't seen a computer manufactured with an ISA bus slot for well over 10 years.
ISA-equipped mobo's are still produced and in use (a Google search for "isa motherboard" will tell the tale), mainly for data acquisition. There are a lot of legacy DAQ apps out there that depend on the ISA bus. I have a chassis dyno in my shop, 4 years old that uses ISA for DAQ.
...but am I the only person here who senses an innate danger to entrusting one's data to a for-profit entity? I simply cannot fathom a scenario in which I would create a business-critical or personal spreadsheet to be stored on a Google server. Google's business is data mining, plain and simple. They certainly aren't offering all of these services out of the goodness of their corporate heart (if there is such a thing). Therefore, there must be some deeper motives at play. Yet, there are those who run around breathlessly extolling every move that Google makes.
Who are these people who would entrust every detail of their business and personal life to a for-profit company? I would have thought the/. crowd, of all groups, would be asking the difficult questions.
I find the relative silence concerning these issues both disconcerting and scary.
Sounds like a high-tech version of the current "train your replacement" scam where employers have you train the young, foreign-born, low-wage worker that is slated to take over your job when you're laid off. I'd like to see how the labor unions respond to this one.
Actually, I got this tip off another/. post...researched each (non-MS) application, determined for myself that they were legit, and have not looked back. In fact, I just spent a few minutes last night eradicating the trojan "Microsoft" Antivirus 2010 on a friend's computer using the Malwarebytes app on a USB. Worked like a charm.
But don't take my word for it...do your own evaluation. I think you'll like what you find.
If you're a geek and don't know about it, check it! We need more devices with MythTV preloaded on them.
After several years of MythTV, the final straw was the removal of device support for my PVR-350. My time is simply worth more than the 20+ hours I probably spent over the years upgrading my MythTV box, hand-building device drivers, and dealing with other issues such as loss of audio.
If you value your time, I would suggest MythTV is not for you. I finally retired the box and got a 3-tuner DVR. Proprietary? Yes. (Actually, Linux under the cover, but good luck hacking it.) But it works consistently.
This is based on my knowledge of physics, but I am not a geologist, so there may be complicating factors I don't know about. However, I'm pretty sure that the planet's density cannot increase arbitrarily.
What goes up must come down...in geology, it's called istosasy. It's sort of like gravitational equilibrium. What sinks in one place is usually offset by a height increase elsewhere. Over years, the small geologic events (and yes, the Chile earthquake is small when measured in geologic units) balance themselves out. I would not worry too much about the lost microsecond. We'll gain it back next year.
This is an unsolicited recommendation by a very satisfied customer; there are no referral links here, and the hosting provider doesn't have a clue who I am based on my/. nick.
suso.org is a great hosting company to work with. A full F/OSS shop...the owner frequents/., stays out of your way if you know what you're doing (and doesn't hesitate to help lend a hand if you get in over your head), and is very responsive to issues. Tech support is handled in-house by the same folks that set up your server. In fact, it's not uncommon to have your tech support question handled by the owner. But don't take my word for it. Check out their website and do your own research.
Ham radio has long been associated with disaster relief. In the early days (perhaps up through the 80s), ham radio operators were often the "first responders" in a crisis. I'm merely pointing out that this is no longer the case. Ironically, one of the reasons why this is true is one you bring up yourself: "It's all about radio." Unfortunately, ham radio has not kept up with technology (except for small pockets of operators). And this is the main reason why ham radio has been left behind.
...and not just because of this story. But let's face it: Very little information (except early reports of the quake itself) was disseminated from Haiti via ham radio. 80% of the cellphone network of the second largest provider in Haiti was re-established within a week of the quake. Don't believe me? Google "ham radio haiti". As a long-time amateur radio operator who has been proclaiming the demise of ham radio for some years now, the proof is irrefutable: Ham radio has been relegated to the technology basement.
Yes, I know the hams will be coming out of the woodwork, defending their hobby. Or are they defending the large sums of money they've sunk into equipment that serves very little purpose in the way of emergency communications in today's world?
I figure that there should be mandatory classes, at the mid to upper high school level, in basic epistemology and metaphysics (i.e. meta-level topics such as)...
Visit your local IB (International Baccalaureate) high school, and you'll find that IB students are required to take two semesters of "Theory of Knowledge" that covers the topics you mention. Unfortunately, asking to make such courses mandatory is akin to expecting regular high school students to be able to construct a logical geometry proof or to perform a critical analysis of a literary work (both of which appear to be lost art forms in most high schools).
OWL is a nice setup in that it will automatically index all your PDF/RTF/whatever files. Its UI is a bit clunky, and documentation is sparse, but if you have the patience, it might be worth your time.
I use all three of these apps (see parent also) in various capacities. Which, as you have discovered, indicates that there really doesn't seem to be a "killer" F/OSS app out there that handles everything for a full-fledged document management system.
Wikindx3 is a full-fledged bibliographic database that can manage *any* type of document, and permits annotations. As an added bonus, you can export the biblio info in any number of formats (including my favorite,.bib for LaTeX).
I've had good success with OpenDocMan as well, but I'm not sure if that application permits annotation (at least I've never used that feature set).
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This should not be interpreted to mean that during non-emergency periods, stations that are registered in ARES/RACES may only communicate with other stations registered in ARES/RACES. That's simply not the case. Except during a declared emergency, any licensed amateur operator may communicate with any other licensed amateur operator within their respective authorized bands and modes. However, if an amateur operator wants to operate during such times that RACES is in effect, they must register as an ARES/RACES station. In North Carolina, all amateur operators are encouraged to register in ARES/RACES.
Interesting...the interpretation in the area of the country I live in is that any RACES operation (SKYWARN, practice nets, etc.) fall under the "non-comm" rule. In fact, the local RACES coordinators seem to do what they can to discourage those who are interested in joining by instituting some rather onerous requirements, including submission of your SSN to the RACES organization.
All good info, but given the entrenched "good 'ol boy" network where I live, I doubt that the RACES folks would be interested in having the errors of their way pointed out to them.
That may be the case in PA, but here in TX, background checks are extensive, and to participate in SKYWARN you must be a RACES station. So RACES standards differ from region to region. That's an interesting factoid.
You might get an opportunity to help out in a disaster, but if your main goal is to help out in emergencies, get trained in CPR, Search and Rescue and other such, but don't count on being a ham to put you in the "Most needed" category.
Here's another thing to think about: In the U.S., RACES is the de facto organization within the amateur radio community for providing disaster relief and emergency services. In addition, Federal law prohibits RACES stations (or those stations performing RACES duties) from contacting non-RACES stations (97.407). Most government agencies require extensive background checks, including disclosure of your SSN and other personally-identifiable information, to participate in RACES, and your appointment is at the whim of the RACES coordinator. So in effect, you're asked to give up quite a bit of personal information if you want to contribute your efforts to disaster relief. (In fact, in most areas of the country, to participate in WX nets you must have a RACES appointment.)
I resent that the FCC (I'm an American) required people to learn CW to operate a radio. Now that it's no longer a requirement, I'm interested. People often resent being told what to do, even if it's for their own good.
The code requirement was an ITU requirement, and the FCC gradually eliminated CW testing requirements over a couple of years. So your resentment should probably be focused, at least on part, towards the ITU.
Like all large corporations (including Google), they will do evil to make money. They just don't care any more. They are usually strong enough to put the government off indefinitely or are willing to pay a small fine to make a large profit.
You mean like walking off with USD1.6 billion of US taxpayers' money? Yes, if any company has the credentials to be able to do that, IBM would be at the top of the list.
(For those who don't remember, IBM was billions of dollars into an FAA modernization contract in the mid 90's when it sold its federal services division, including the never-completed contract, to Loral, effectively walking away with billions of dollars of taxpayer money for services never rendered.)
I have a merchant account for my performance shop. I'm required by my merchant account bank to submit to "certification" via PCI-DSS. Certification consists of logging into a site yearly and answering a series of questions, such as "Are customer receipts printed so that no more than the last 4 digits of the customer's CC number are printed, with no expiry dates or CVVs?" It's like the psych tests you take for a government job: You basically answer what you believe they want to hear.
The cost for this "certification" process? $100 a pop. I have no choice...get "certified" or lose my account.
Surprisingly, the ODPS videos are still available.
...than the Ohio Dept. of Public Safety films we were forced to watch in driver's ed showing decapitations, amputations, and other sordid details meant to "shock" us into not driving drunk/impaired/stupidly?
It's human nature to look upon the misfortunes of others as something fortuitous for the viewer: The idea of "Thank God that's not me or a loved one". And to be truthful here, the Newsweek article pointed to in the original /. story did mention that the M.E. found cocaine in the girl's system, even though the family tried to put the blame on a brain tumor. The family should embrace the opportunity to show young people what happens when they choose to get behind the wheel after a few lines of coke.
What I saw in this article summary when I refreshed the front page:
* 69 comments
I thought this might be a joke...then I remembered I was on /.
Links, please...this sounds interesting!
I haven't seen a computer manufactured with an ISA bus slot for well over 10 years.
ISA-equipped mobo's are still produced and in use (a Google search for "isa motherboard" will tell the tale), mainly for data acquisition. There are a lot of legacy DAQ apps out there that depend on the ISA bus. I have a chassis dyno in my shop, 4 years old that uses ISA for DAQ.
...but am I the only person here who senses an innate danger to entrusting one's data to a for-profit entity? I simply cannot fathom a scenario in which I would create a business-critical or personal spreadsheet to be stored on a Google server. Google's business is data mining, plain and simple. They certainly aren't offering all of these services out of the goodness of their corporate heart (if there is such a thing). Therefore, there must be some deeper motives at play. Yet, there are those who run around breathlessly extolling every move that Google makes.
Who are these people who would entrust every detail of their business and personal life to a for-profit company? I would have thought the /. crowd, of all groups, would be asking the difficult questions.
I find the relative silence concerning these issues both disconcerting and scary.
Sounds like a high-tech version of the current "train your replacement" scam where employers have you train the young, foreign-born, low-wage worker that is slated to take over your job when you're laid off. I'd like to see how the labor unions respond to this one.
...I pretty much stick with Malwarebytes, CCleaner, SpywareBlaster, and MSE.
Actually, I got this tip off another /. post...researched each (non-MS) application, determined for myself that they were legit, and have not looked back. In fact, I just spent a few minutes last night eradicating the trojan "Microsoft" Antivirus 2010 on a friend's computer using the Malwarebytes app on a USB. Worked like a charm.
But don't take my word for it...do your own evaluation. I think you'll like what you find.
These days my qwerty typing speed is in the range of 90-110 WPM
Hunt and peck maxes out at about 40WPM, with burst speeds of up to 70WPM. I doubt this is a sustained typing speed. And there is no indication of error rates.
Yet another fluff piece by kdawson without a shred of credibility. For all we know, he made this up to fill in for a slow news day.
Pinch more pennies and ditch TiVo for MythTV:
http://www.mythtv.org/
If you're a geek and don't know about it, check it! We need more devices with MythTV preloaded on them.
After several years of MythTV, the final straw was the removal of device support for my PVR-350. My time is simply worth more than the 20+ hours I probably spent over the years upgrading my MythTV box, hand-building device drivers, and dealing with other issues such as loss of audio.
If you value your time, I would suggest MythTV is not for you. I finally retired the box and got a 3-tuner DVR. Proprietary? Yes. (Actually, Linux under the cover, but good luck hacking it.) But it works consistently.
Sorry...how about isostasy...too early to be talking about this stuff...
This is based on my knowledge of physics, but I am not a geologist, so there may be complicating factors I don't know about. However, I'm pretty sure that the planet's density cannot increase arbitrarily.
What goes up must come down...in geology, it's called istosasy. It's sort of like gravitational equilibrium. What sinks in one place is usually offset by a height increase elsewhere. Over years, the small geologic events (and yes, the Chile earthquake is small when measured in geologic units) balance themselves out. I would not worry too much about the lost microsecond. We'll gain it back next year.
Ticket scalpers and domain squatters: Love 'em or hate 'em!
Sometimes I believe /.ers are pissed at these types because they didn't think of the idea first.
It's a free market (after all, don't markets want to be free?)...I say kudos to them for figuring out how to scam the scam.
This is an unsolicited recommendation by a very satisfied customer; there are no referral links here, and the hosting provider doesn't have a clue who I am based on my /. nick.
suso.org is a great hosting company to work with. A full F/OSS shop...the owner frequents /., stays out of your way if you know what you're doing (and doesn't hesitate to help lend a hand if you get in over your head), and is very responsive to issues. Tech support is handled in-house by the same folks that set up your server. In fact, it's not uncommon to have your tech support question handled by the owner. But don't take my word for it. Check out their website and do your own research.
Troll. Since when was ham radio all about providing disaster comms?
I'm sorry, you must have missed the memo.
Ham radio has long been associated with disaster relief. In the early days (perhaps up through the 80s), ham radio operators were often the "first responders" in a crisis. I'm merely pointing out that this is no longer the case. Ironically, one of the reasons why this is true is one you bring up yourself: "It's all about radio." Unfortunately, ham radio has not kept up with technology (except for small pockets of operators). And this is the main reason why ham radio has been left behind.
...and not just because of this story. But let's face it: Very little information (except early reports of the quake itself) was disseminated from Haiti via ham radio. 80% of the cellphone network of the second largest provider in Haiti was re-established within a week of the quake. Don't believe me? Google "ham radio haiti". As a long-time amateur radio operator who has been proclaiming the demise of ham radio for some years now, the proof is irrefutable: Ham radio has been relegated to the technology basement.
Yes, I know the hams will be coming out of the woodwork, defending their hobby. Or are they defending the large sums of money they've sunk into equipment that serves very little purpose in the way of emergency communications in today's world?
I figure that there should be mandatory classes, at the mid to upper high school level,
in basic epistemology and metaphysics (i.e. meta-level topics such as)...
Visit your local IB (International Baccalaureate) high school, and you'll find that IB students are required to take two semesters of "Theory of Knowledge" that covers the topics you mention. Unfortunately, asking to make such courses mandatory is akin to expecting regular high school students to be able to construct a logical geometry proof or to perform a critical analysis of a literary work (both of which appear to be lost art forms in most high schools).
OWL is a nice setup in that it will automatically index all your PDF/RTF/whatever files. Its UI is a bit clunky, and documentation is sparse, but if you have the patience, it might be worth your time.
I use all three of these apps (see parent also) in various capacities. Which, as you have discovered, indicates that there really doesn't seem to be a "killer" F/OSS app out there that handles everything for a full-fledged document management system.
Wikindx3 is a full-fledged bibliographic database that can manage *any* type of document, and permits annotations. As an added bonus, you can export the biblio info in any number of formats (including my favorite, .bib for LaTeX).
I've had good success with OpenDocMan as well, but I'm not sure if that application permits annotation (at least I've never used that feature set).