Seems appropriate to dig this account out of hibernation now. I was one of the early editors here, from 1998 or so. Worked with Roblimo for years. Very decent guy, did a good job of lending an adult presence to the group that was sorely needed. I'm sad to see him go.
They're not directly equivalent. REM stands for "roentgen equivalent man", which is to say, it's Roentgen modified by a factor which accounts for how much dose an actual human would absorb. The absorbed dose differs depending on the type of radiation involved. If we assume that the radiation involved is mostly gamma, the modifying factor is "1", so this would be equivalent to 81.6 microrem/hour.
As a general idea of how much radiation this is, background radiation in many parts of the United States is about 10 microroentgen/hour. So this is about 8 times higher than average background radiation. If you live in an area at a high elevation (less air above you to block the sun and cosmic rays) or in an area with a lot of granite or other naturally radioactive rock, your dose will be higher. The dose being recorded by that counter is actually on a par with living in Denver (high, granite-y).
Of course, that counter may not be recording anything like the highest dose in the area.
This is not really accurate. The whole first paragraph of that comment is false.
There are no laws that forbid the private use of the SSN for any reason whatsoever. Any private entity may demand your SSN as a condition for interacting with you; you must provide it or they may refuse to interact with you. (For instance, getting health insurance or a credit card.) The Privacy Act of 1974 made some restrictions relating to *governmental* (only) uses of the SSN as an identifier; when government agencies demand your SSN, they have to tell you their legal authority for requesting it and what the penalties are for failure to comply. This requirement is largely ignored in practice - for instance, when I was serving on jury duty, the court clerk demanded my SSN (to withhold income taxes on the $12/day jury payment), and when I pointed out that they were violating the law by not disclosing the authority for this request, the clerk was singularly unimpressed. If the court system is violating the law... but I digress.
The rest of the comment (seek to use an assigned number rather than your SSN whenever possible) is good advice, and will often work, albeit at the cost of some hassle. CPSR has a good FAQ with some more information.
Hey, not all news is equally important to everyone. If I had posted a front-page story asking someone to return your laptop from Linuxworld, you would have cared quite a bit about that story, but maybe some of our other readers wouldn't have cared as much, eh?
What does your comment have to do with mine, regarding automatic destruction?
Nothing, huh?
An automatic destruction procedure would result in approximately 100% of samples being destroyed. The current "write a letter and get the forms, have the forms notarized and send them in, if of course you even know about it at all, which is extremely unlikely" procedure results in approximately 0.0% of the samples being destroyed. There is, in fact, a difference between these situations.
Plus, you're an idiot for trying a "didn't read the link" flame for a link which I added myself, from my own bookmarks.
"expressly disallowing the installation of the Red Hat product in the absence of a matching service agreement"
Or, in the contrary, expressly requiring the purchase of more support contracts if you install more software.
RH doesn't impose conditions on the downloading or installation or usage of "their" GPL software. The conditions/restrictions apply only if you purchase the additional support/services contracts. Nothing in the GPL prohibits one from agreeing to additional restrictions as a separate contractual matter. For instance, GNOME is GPL software. Someone can offer me $1 not to ever install or use GNOME (giving up my GPL right to do so!), and I can accept (and indeed I might, since I use KDE), and this doesn't mean that either GNOME or the hypothetical offeror is violating the GPL. Think of it that way, where the entity offering the service is separate from the one offering the software, and you'll see why you're wrong.
I complete agree with the gist of your comment. "Entitled" is perhaps a poor choice of words here; what I meant was something like "is not forbidden by the GPL or anything else", or as you suggested, "is legal to do". I was trying to get at the "screw the customer" vibe by mentioning the "whatever the market will bear" phrase, which is capitalism's slogan.
Whether Red Hat's is a good/moral/healthy business practice or not is a separate question from whether it is forbidden. It has often been stated that the "proper" business model to use with Open Source/Free Software is providing services alongside it; that's what RH is doing.
In NYC, I had occasion to call the police about a non-emergency (auto burglary) recently. I dutifully looked up the phone number of the local precinct, called them... they told me to hang up and call 911. Wouldn't take my call. (And an hour after calling 911, a car from that precinct did indeed show up.)
"Conventional wisdom" is to never use 911 for anything except emergencies, but conventional wisdom is largely wrong. Don't waste their time, true, but if you actually have a police/fire/medical matter, go ahead and dial the magic number.
Re:Actually they aren't using GPS at all
on
Using GPS to Hail Cabs
·
· Score: 4, Informative
The GPS part seems to be in locating the cabs, not the would-be passenger.
Better to stay in small claims court if at all possible. Small claims is geared toward individuals representing themselves - you'll (almost) be required to hire a lawyer to pursue the case in regular court (which will, of course, cost you more than you're claiming in damages).
There's no advantage to you in going to regular court, and many disadvantages. Oppose their motion to move the case to regular court.
a) Isn't the goal of "trusted computing" to allow entities other than the owner of the computer to control what the owner does with his/her hardware? For example, "trusted computing" applied to music implies that the music publisher gains control over what the computer owner can do with the music data files. Isn't this the exact opposite of "trust" as that word is normally used - a trusted computer is one that can't be trusted by the computer's owner to perform the tasks asked of it, because other entities have veto power over the computer's actions?
b) Companies like AMI have repeatedly claimed that they aren't part of Palladium. However, isn't it true that without AMI's trusted BIOS (and all the other components necessary to build a "trusted computer"), Palladium wouldn't work? Why does AMI think they shouldn't be held responsible for enabling Palladium and similar schemes?
c) In what way does AMI benefit, financially or otherwise, from introducing a BIOS designed to make the computer it is installed in less useful to the purchaser of the computer? Please avoid saying that this is "optional"; AMI wouldn't create this BIOS if it wasn't intended to be used.
d) What is a "sales engineer"? Is your job primarily public relations, or primarily engineering, or primarily product sales?
The Bush tax cut will cut the U.S. Treasury's revenue this year by about $15 billion, just for the top 1% of the U.S. population. Next year, those same 1% will take home an extra $26 billion (and it keeps going up: the cut is back-loaded from 2001-2010. By 2010 it's worth $121 billion per year to the top 1%.).
So if the richest people in the U.S. hadn't had their taxes cut for 2002 and 2003, we could build another space station.:)
Re:This sounds much like an advertisement...
on
Step 2, Groceries
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I can't even use their service - and I live in New York City!
I had to look up an "Upper East Side" zip code in the phone book in order to check out their store.
And what percentage of Slashdot readers actually live in the Upper East Side of Manhattan? A hundredth of a percent? I would guess that Fresh Direct lines up most of their customers in the "traditional" NYC manner: littering their delivery area with flyers.
For all the stories that we post, there are so many which better fit the "advertisement" criteria - ones involving technology products that are available nationally, for instance.
Different agencies have much different policies. Different branches within agencies have completely separate policies. Different offices within branches of divisions of sectors of agencies have different policies.
Some may call for ownership of the code. Most do not, in my experience at least.
Well, BSD licensing isn't even on the table: currently contractors get paid by the Feds to write proprietary code which they then sell back to the government - you pay twice for the same code. Any wonder why these businesses think they've got a good deal going and don't want anyone screwing it up?
I know we've mentioned it before, but we didn't have the text of the bill. IMHO, it's worth reading - always better to actually read source material instead of relying on second- or third- or fourth-hand reporting.
Re:If you liked Princess Mononoke...
on
Review: Spirited Away
·
· Score: 0, Informative
Nausicaa is available with "official" English subtitles... There are two sets called "Archives of Studio Ghibli", one a 4-DVD set and the other a 6-DVD set, that contain 8 or 12 Ghibli movies in Japanese audio with English and Chinese subtitles (no English audio). I don't think these were intended for the U.S. market, but they are readily available here. So you can get a massive Ghibli fix with all the subtitles you can read, and since (as you point out) many of these movies have never been released for the U.S., this is probably the best way to see them.
There's always a "reader" (I use the term loosely, since they rarely read the links) who will vehemently respond to something not said nor even implied; congratulations, you're the one for this story.
Overview of Changes to Legal Rights By The Associated Press
September 5, 2002, 11:44 AM EDT
Some of the fundamental changes to Americans' legal rights by the Bush administration and the USA Patriot Act following the terror attacks:
* FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION: Government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror investigation.
* FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges, and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public records requests.
* FREEDOM OF SPEECH: Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation.
* RIGHT TO LEGAL REPRESENTATION: Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.
* FREEDOM FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCHES: Government may search and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.
* RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL: Government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial.
* RIGHT TO LIBERTY: Americans may be jailed without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them.
Slashdot Mirror
Seems appropriate to dig this account out of hibernation now. I was one of the early editors here, from 1998 or so. Worked with Roblimo for years. Very decent guy, did a good job of lending an adult presence to the group that was sorely needed. I'm sad to see him go.
They're not directly equivalent. REM stands for "roentgen equivalent man", which is to say, it's Roentgen modified by a factor which accounts for how much dose an actual human would absorb. The absorbed dose differs depending on the type of radiation involved. If we assume that the radiation involved is mostly gamma, the modifying factor is "1", so this would be equivalent to 81.6 microrem/hour.
As a general idea of how much radiation this is, background radiation in many parts of the United States is about 10 microroentgen/hour. So this is about 8 times higher than average background radiation. If you live in an area at a high elevation (less air above you to block the sun and cosmic rays) or in an area with a lot of granite or other naturally radioactive rock, your dose will be higher. The dose being recorded by that counter is actually on a par with living in Denver (high, granite-y).
Of course, that counter may not be recording anything like the highest dose in the area.
Oh, it's 100% sure that it landed. Trajectory was known... it hit the planet, absolutely guaranteed.
This is not really accurate. The whole first paragraph of that comment is false.
There are no laws that forbid the private use of the SSN for any reason whatsoever. Any private entity may demand your SSN as a condition for interacting with you; you must provide it or they may refuse to interact with you. (For instance, getting health insurance or a credit card.) The Privacy Act of 1974 made some restrictions relating to *governmental* (only) uses of the SSN as an identifier; when government agencies demand your SSN, they have to tell you their legal authority for requesting it and what the penalties are for failure to comply. This requirement is largely ignored in practice - for instance, when I was serving on jury duty, the court clerk demanded my SSN (to withhold income taxes on the $12/day jury payment), and when I pointed out that they were violating the law by not disclosing the authority for this request, the clerk was singularly unimpressed. If the court system is violating the law... but I digress.
The rest of the comment (seek to use an assigned number rather than your SSN whenever possible) is good advice, and will often work, albeit at the cost of some hassle. CPSR has a good FAQ with some more information.
Hey, not all news is equally important to everyone. If I had posted a front-page story asking someone to return your laptop from Linuxworld, you would have cared quite a bit about that story, but maybe some of our other readers wouldn't have cared as much, eh?
What does your comment have to do with mine, regarding automatic destruction?
Nothing, huh?
An automatic destruction procedure would result in approximately 100% of samples being destroyed. The current "write a letter and get the forms, have the forms notarized and send them in, if of course you even know about it at all, which is extremely unlikely" procedure results in approximately 0.0% of the samples being destroyed. There is, in fact, a difference between these situations.
Plus, you're an idiot for trying a "didn't read the link" flame for a link which I added myself, from my own bookmarks.
Have a nice day.
"expressly disallowing the installation of the Red Hat product in the absence of a matching service agreement"
Or, in the contrary, expressly requiring the purchase of more support contracts if you install more software.
RH doesn't impose conditions on the downloading or installation or usage of "their" GPL software. The conditions/restrictions apply only if you purchase the additional support/services contracts. Nothing in the GPL prohibits one from agreeing to additional restrictions as a separate contractual matter. For instance, GNOME is GPL software. Someone can offer me $1 not to ever install or use GNOME (giving up my GPL right to do so!), and I can accept (and indeed I might, since I use KDE), and this doesn't mean that either GNOME or the hypothetical offeror is violating the GPL. Think of it that way, where the entity offering the service is separate from the one offering the software, and you'll see why you're wrong.
I complete agree with the gist of your comment. "Entitled" is perhaps a poor choice of words here; what I meant was something like "is not forbidden by the GPL or anything else", or as you suggested, "is legal to do". I was trying to get at the "screw the customer" vibe by mentioning the "whatever the market will bear" phrase, which is capitalism's slogan.
Whether Red Hat's is a good/moral/healthy business practice or not is a separate question from whether it is forbidden. It has often been stated that the "proper" business model to use with Open Source/Free Software is providing services alongside it; that's what RH is doing.
In NYC, I had occasion to call the police about a non-emergency (auto burglary) recently. I dutifully looked up the phone number of the local precinct, called them... they told me to hang up and call 911. Wouldn't take my call. (And an hour after calling 911, a car from that precinct did indeed show up.)
"Conventional wisdom" is to never use 911 for anything except emergencies, but conventional wisdom is largely wrong. Don't waste their time, true, but if you actually have a police/fire/medical matter, go ahead and dial the magic number.
The GPS part seems to be in locating the cabs, not the would-be passenger.
In criminal cases, if the government loses, they can't appeal. In civil cases such as this one, both sides may appeal. The Appeals Process.
Better to stay in small claims court if at all possible. Small claims is geared toward individuals representing themselves - you'll (almost) be required to hire a lawyer to pursue the case in regular court (which will, of course, cost you more than you're claiming in damages).
There's no advantage to you in going to regular court, and many disadvantages. Oppose their motion to move the case to regular court.
Who do you think is in the bunkers? I've fired one of these, and I assure you it will work just fine against people.
Won't need any bandages for the recipient, either.
It doesn't work that way.
A few related questions:
a) Isn't the goal of "trusted computing" to allow entities other than the owner of the computer to control what the owner does with his/her hardware? For example, "trusted computing" applied to music implies that the music publisher gains control over what the computer owner can do with the music data files. Isn't this the exact opposite of "trust" as that word is normally used - a trusted computer is one that can't be trusted by the computer's owner to perform the tasks asked of it, because other entities have veto power over the computer's actions?
b) Companies like AMI have repeatedly claimed that they aren't part of Palladium. However, isn't it true that without AMI's trusted BIOS (and all the other components necessary to build a "trusted computer"), Palladium wouldn't work? Why does AMI think they shouldn't be held responsible for enabling Palladium and similar schemes?
c) In what way does AMI benefit, financially or otherwise, from introducing a BIOS designed to make the computer it is installed in less useful to the purchaser of the computer? Please avoid saying that this is "optional"; AMI wouldn't create this BIOS if it wasn't intended to be used.
d) What is a "sales engineer"? Is your job primarily public relations, or primarily engineering, or primarily product sales?
The Bush tax cut will cut the U.S. Treasury's revenue this year by about $15 billion, just for the top 1% of the U.S. population. Next year, those same 1% will take home an extra $26 billion (and it keeps going up: the cut is back-loaded from 2001-2010. By 2010 it's worth $121 billion per year to the top 1%.).
:)
So if the richest people in the U.S. hadn't had their taxes cut for 2002 and 2003, we could build another space station.
I can't even use their service - and I live in New York City!
I had to look up an "Upper East Side" zip code in the phone book in order to check out their store.
And what percentage of Slashdot readers actually live in the Upper East Side of Manhattan? A hundredth of a percent? I would guess that Fresh Direct lines up most of their customers in the "traditional" NYC manner: littering their delivery area with flyers.
For all the stories that we post, there are so many which better fit the "advertisement" criteria - ones involving technology products that are available nationally, for instance.
Different agencies have much different policies. Different branches within agencies have completely separate policies. Different offices within branches of divisions of sectors of agencies have different policies.
Some may call for ownership of the code. Most do not, in my experience at least.
Well, BSD licensing isn't even on the table: currently contractors get paid by the Feds to write proprietary code which they then sell back to the government - you pay twice for the same code. Any wonder why these businesses think they've got a good deal going and don't want anyone screwing it up?
I know we've mentioned it before, but we didn't have the text of the bill. IMHO, it's worth reading - always better to actually read source material instead of relying on second- or third- or fourth-hand reporting.
Nausicaa is available with "official" English subtitles... There are two sets called "Archives of Studio Ghibli", one a 4-DVD set and the other a 6-DVD set, that contain 8 or 12 Ghibli movies in Japanese audio with English and Chinese subtitles (no English audio). I don't think these were intended for the U.S. market, but they are readily available here. So you can get a massive Ghibli fix with all the subtitles you can read, and since (as you point out) many of these movies have never been released for the U.S., this is probably the best way to see them.
There's always a "reader" (I use the term loosely, since they rarely read the links) who will vehemently respond to something not said nor even implied; congratulations, you're the one for this story.
As the Associated Press summarizes them:
Overview of Changes to Legal Rights
By The Associated Press
September 5, 2002, 11:44 AM EDT
Some of the fundamental changes to Americans' legal rights by the Bush administration and the USA Patriot Act following the terror attacks:
* FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION: Government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror investigation.
* FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges, and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public records requests.
* FREEDOM OF SPEECH: Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation.
* RIGHT TO LEGAL REPRESENTATION: Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.
* FREEDOM FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCHES: Government may search and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.
* RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL: Government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial.
* RIGHT TO LIBERTY: Americans may be jailed without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them.
Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press
Yay for liberty and freedom! We are Americans! Look how free we are!
One cathode ray tube contains 5-7 pounds of lead.
For a long time, CmdrTaco was special-cased in the code: he posted at score:3 by default. :)