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Slashback: Speed, Reprieves, Geometry 100

Posted by timothy from the like-an-eclaire-in-the-desert- dept.
Would you imprison beautiful new computers in a rack? Does every mention of a Gnome application leave you twitching to see what related KDE programs are doing with themselves? Have you been gathering quarters to put into the Buy Iridium pot? Read on, pilgrim. But first, some good news about recent legislation!

Legislators cut down crack intake, film at 11. In this article about strange privacy-invading provisions of H.R. 2987, the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2000; you'll be pleased to note that many of its more odious portions have been erased. From the article: "[P]roponents of the bill -- known as the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act, (HR 2987) -- have steadily dropped some of its most controversial pieces, including a provision that would have made it illegal for news Web sites to link to Webpages about topics like medical marijuana. ... Another provision that was removed would have forced Internet Service Providers to remove users' Web pages without due process on the basis of mere allegations by the government." Hmmm -- laws and sausages.

Letting sleeping white elephants lie, or something. cetan writes "The Chicago Sun Times is reporting that "Motorola's request [to pull the plug on Iridium] follows a determination by Castle Harlan Inc., the New York investment bank that planned to buy Iridium's assets for just $50 million, that the business is too weak to save." Who knows though, maybe the system will get a last-minute breath of life yet..." The pool of possible saviors is pretty small now, eh?

A serious-stuff-only-station. gfxnrrd writes: "I just heard a talk by a researcher from Sony KARC about the GS cube. recently exhibited at SIGGRAPH. The cube contains 16 upgraded PS/2 chipsets; that is, 16 Emotion Engines (with 128 MB of main memory, instead of the measly 64 that the PS/2 has) and 16 Graphics Synthesizers with 32 MB of DRAM each, up from 4 from the PS/2). It can sustain 2024x1028 frames (in 32 bit color, natch) at 60 frames per second. It's connected to the world via a Linux box, which is responsible for both network and controller I/O. On the down side, the processors (at least in this prototype) are connected only via the bus, so no hypercube MP architecture or anything.

I should also mention that the earlier Slashdot article about the GS cube was misleading, in that Sony has no plans to sell this box (for any purpose) any time in the near future. It's not a "graphics workstation" nor can it be unless some radical changes are made (like adding a disk drive, to name only one thing). It's purely a research prototype at this point."

Speaking of cubes, MattTC writes: "These guys have some neat ideas on using the Mac Cube as a rackmountable server." It's also cool to see the G4 Cube without its clothes on.

First-class mail? navindra writes: "The legions of KMail fans may be interested in this progress review by Don Sanders. The last stable release of KMail was way back in September 1999 but development has far from halted." It may not look as slick as Evolution 0.3 does, but it sure looks like a nice clean mail experience!
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Slashback: Speed More

Slashback: Speed

Comments Filter:
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I think it was like $250 new, but its a few years old and the bridge is messed up. And I'll throw in a Mitsumi 24x CD-ROM
  • my bid

    35 Black Expo markers
    1 functional Palm III base
    3 Clipboards
    O'Reilly Programming Perl, Perl Cookbook, Programming the Perl DBI
    Meguiar's Ford Focus Drag Car poster
    Water Cooler
    Pair of scissors
    $75

    ?? anyone else ??

    JediLuke
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Because the version passed by the House differs from the one which passed the Senate, Congress must again decide which version to pass.

    Almost...the next step is for the bill to go to a conference committee where the differences between the House and Senate bills will either be worked out or if the committee can't come to an agreement, the bill dies. The House and Senate must approve the committee report for the bill to land on Clinton's desk.

    Here's a good link for political newbies [4anything.com].

    I always knew that political science degree of mine would come in handy someday. ;-)

  • HP LaserJet IIID with JetDirect EX Plus
    2 1X SCSI CD-ROM drives (Caddy-loading)
    1 HP Vectra LS/12 286 Laptop
    Several Dilbert books
    A 1GB Quantam IDE hard drive
    Miscellaneous screws
    A handful of picks
    A couple pennies
    And a slice of pound cake with M&Ms
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Apparently, according to a cow-orker, Gov. Tom Ridge (R-PA) has signed into law a bill that will make it illegal to send spam to businesses (and I believe consumers) in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Anyone have any news on that?

  • Very offtopic...

    You may be the only person... I've been trying to buy one for the past 6 months and have been unable to since I don't want to wait 6 months for delivery or pay $10,000 over sticker...


  • Here's something interesting.. (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31, 2000 @06:04PM (#890595)
    A court ruling in Ontario, Canada has struck down the law that make possession of marijuana illegal. While the case in question involved medical use, the law, which makes no distinction between medical and recreational usage, was struck down in its entirety as unconstitutional.

    However, it isn't time to spark up on Parliament Hill just yet, apparently the old law remains in force for a period of one year, during which time the government must replace it with a constitutionally correct version, or much more unlikely, let it slide.

    OK, that said, Canada obviously has a much more liberal and, I dare say, level-headed approach to the dreaded killer weed. Given that America's English-speaking allies across the border have free reign to publish info on hemp horticulture, and other issues regarding recreational, medicinal and industrial uses of that Evil Plant.. what can the American government do?

    Will Canada be cut off? Will American ISPs be forced not to filter out requests for certain IP addresses? Is this bankruptcy act thingie indeed even more lame than it looks, given the international nature of the internet?
  • I don't get you. It's difficult to be simultaneously opposed to Hatch and Jackson, being as they're diametric opposites. I mean, there is more than one dimension to the political spectrum, but Jackson is not a dope, nor an extremist (you'll notice I didn't defend Hatch). So I think you're just trolling.
    • Before I say anything about Intel's new Pentium III at 1.133 GHz I would like to raise one question. Do you need a processor that's faster than 1 GHz right now? Really? Let's be honest, there is indeed hardly any software for the vast majority of users, which would be able to take any sensible advantage of a CPU that fast. Who is supposed to need it?
    All I can say is, ouch!
  • some good sites and thoughts on drug reform in general...

    NORML [norml.org]
    smokedot [smokedot.org]
    Students for a sensible drug policy [ssdp.org]
    Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico [state.nm.us]

    just to get started at least -- have fun.
  • Not trolling, just making a snide comment. There are always dogmatic loudmouthed idiots that represent any political ideology, regardless of whether you agree with them. Besides, if you think I'm trolling, why the hell would you reply to me? :-)

    Jesse Jackson has always been pro-WoD in the past... if it's true that he's protesting it, it's a major (positive) policy shift for him.


    --
  • Name me a single criminal that committed a crime AFTER his execution! I don't think you can, can you?

    I'll bet you can't name an innocent man who did, either.

    Just subsititute 'politician' wherever you see 'Republican' and you'll do fine.

  • It was a bad idea when it started. I mean, come on! The data transfer rates are something like 2400 bps (my first modem, which was a handme down over 7 years ago!). Because of the orbits, a ridiculous number of satelites is required, which jacks the maintainence costs through the roof. Then there's the nasty little oops, as you mentioned, of it screwing up radio astronomy. Just let the bloody thing die already.
  • His name is Michael Smerconish. And he is a dick. I only ever hear him because he's on before and after Phillies games. But don't take it from me:

    http://www.brainsoap.com/news_v iews/blotter_2.shtml [brainsoap.com]
  • Whoa. Abolishing all income taxes? Withdrawing from the WTO? Claiming the Panama Canal as soverign US territory? Ron Paul is cooool. ;)
  • While it might make you feel safe in thinking these were nothing more than " trail balloons" history has shown that someone else will pick up the flag and before you know it the "trail balloon" is law.
  • I'm not convinced iridium is worth the Fender mexican standard strat... how much is that thing running for on its own?

    It used to be that Japan is where all the cheap electric guitar knockoffs were made... but Japan has been making some good stuff for years now. Then Mexico inherited the *knockoff* slot. Even their stuff has been improving. Nevertheless, I'd still stick with something made in the USA... like a PRS with the quilted finish, custom pickups, and a tentop. Woof! :)

    Oh yeah, I've a 1992 Mazda MX3 I wouldn't mind seeing launced into orbit (and burn up on reentry). Maybe I could trade that for Iridium (hey, that was almost on topic!).

    Thad

  • Since the Cube depends on convection cooling, it will probably overheat on it's side.

  • Iridium (Score:3)

    by gatekeep ( 122108 ) on Tuesday August 01, 2000 @04:34AM (#890607)
    Hello Iridium Satellite. Hello Iridium Satellite. Have you heard about the website called slashdot.org? No. I learned that most Satellites burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. Ahhhh! The Atmosphere! Ahhhh!! Ahhhhhhh! The Atmosphere!

  • It brings a tear to my every time I think of my poor PS/2 80 lying in some landfill...

  • PS/2 take two (Score:3)

    by KFury ( 19522 ) on Monday July 31, 2000 @02:51PM (#890609) Homepage
    Am I the only one who gets the wrong idea when people talk about a PS/2 [seds.org]?

    I can't wait until the release of the new Dungeons and Dragons logic peripheral, the TSR-80!

    Kevin Fox
  • You too. It's the first day and I'm already sick of it.

    The problem I have with protesting here is that there are so many protesters protesting everything that we'd just be lost in the noise.

  • A chewed up bic pen
    A gutted SGI Indigo R3k case with XS24 logos
    Fundamentals of Database Systems
    A 1989 Sharp 20" TV
    A Fender Mexican Standard Strat
    A Goldstar 14" Monitor
    An empty 2 liter of Diet Coke
    Perl CD Bookshelf
    Pioneer VSX-305 reciever with broken input selector
    One New Balance 712 Sneaker
    Pair of dried up contact lenses
    1gig Seagate Medalist 3600rpm with bad sectors
    $2

  • Screw Iridium (Score:4)

    by gad_zuki! ( 70830 ) on Monday July 31, 2000 @04:06PM (#890612)
    Why are slashdotters so anxious to save this thing? It serverly hampers radio astronomy [www.nfra.nl] so that Joe and Mary Consumer can feel good about having a cell phone that works anywhere on the globe.
  • Well, I've been saving my quarters to buy Iridium Pot.

    I hear its a new breed that will really make you high.

  • So maybe if you put down the money 6 months ago you'd have one? Sorry, just had to....

  • The real tragedy of Iridium (Score:4)

    by K8Fan ( 37875 ) on Monday July 31, 2000 @04:19PM (#890615) Journal

    The sad part is that, by spending so much money on a stupid idea, inventor money is no longer available for actual good ideas. Iridium was based on how corporate executives see themselves, rather than on the reality of life as a corporate executive:

    Ah yes! I'm a Master of the Universe! I have to be contacted anywhere on the planet because I'm so powerful and important! In the middle of the oceans! In Siberia! Everywhere!

    ...the sad truth being that corporate executives spend virtually all their time in offices, airports, in airplanes or at other people's offices. All of which are serviced just fine by cel phones.

    But since Iridium peed in the water, nobody will want to swim. And actual good ideas, like Angel Halo [angelhalo.com] have a much harder time of it.

  • Well, I wouldn't say it's quite the ugliest, but definetly kind of silly - it looks like a wannabe hotrod.
  • So now you're going to protest the protestors? :)

    I'm glad I don't live there.

  • Cubes (Score:1)

    by tooth ( 111958 )
    Does the rack mounted cubes sound like they can work? Would there be issues with heat/dust/static/coffee? It seems like I would have to build some sort of railing/thing to mount them onto, or am did I miss that in the article. I don't think that they could just balance on a surface in the rack!

    No one seems to be posting much about them.

    How much would these things go for in $AU?
    __

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I can confirm that. My dad works in the state government here, and he gets news about new laws and such EXTREMELY fast. Unfortunately I don't have any links available for you :\

  • GScube mussings (Score:3)

    by Pixel[EA] ( 135283 ) on Monday July 31, 2000 @04:27PM (#890621)
    > (with 128 MB of main memory, instead
    > of the measely 64 that the PS/2 has)

    Err... The consumer PS2 has 32 MB of DRAM, and an additional 4 MB of embedded VRAM.

    > On the down side, the processors
    > (at least in this prototype) are
    > connected only via the bus,

    Yeah - right now, apparently syncronization is interrupt based in the GSCube. Ouch!

    Notice they said "no pictures" on the floor, but we were all snapping away anyways? :)

    Has anyone been able to dig up more info? The guys on the floor were technically inept to answer serious questions.

  • Actually there's a radio host here that's doing just that.

    I'm just sitting back and trying to ignore it.

  • Re:Cubes (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It's a neat thought except that the cubes need to have a lot of space around them for cooling purposes, so it might be a bit problematic to stuff an entire rack full of them...
  • Well, I could use processors faster than 1 Ghz, but what I really need is a much faster processor to memory interface. I'm processing video and am bumping up against the raw memory bus IO speed. To speed up my code I'm having to go to wavefront techniques else I can't get the job done in time. That is I'm folding the multiple processing passes into one pass with special sequencing to keep the data processing correct. Pass 1 is run till it's generated enough data that pass 2 can be run. Pass 2 runs till it dosen't have enough input data. Pass 1 is run for another row of data, and then pass 2 runs for another row. Pass 3 and 4 are each started and interleaved into the processing as they each have enough data to work on. By doing this the data for passes 2 through 4 are in the cache rather than needing to be fetched from memory. Wavefront processing techniques were developed when main memory wasn't large enough to hold the hole data set. I'm using them to do all the stages of processing I need before the block of memory gets pushed out of the L1 and L2 caches. Even doing this I only see a 4x speedup. I'm actually still waiting on main memory to cough up the data for a much longer time than I'm spending processing the data. Before you tell me to get a processor with a larger L1/L2 cache, my working set is just over 36Mbytes per frame set.
  • Why does anyone vote for Feinstein? It seems like every time I read about some whacko bill to gut civil liberties, her name is on it. This is the same woman who had the only concealed carry permit in San Francisco, while she was busy trying to disarm honest citizens.
  • I've read news articles that say that people don't really have any idea on what her values are, they just feel that they should vote for her anyway, maybe because she's the incumbent. It will be difficult for Tom Campbell to win the election, since he's very low in the polls right now and hasn't been running a very good campaign.
  • PLEASE DO NOT VOTE FOR FEINSTEIN!!! Here is an entire website [zpub.com] devoted to why you should not vote for her. She's anti-civil rights, anti-Internet, anti-just about everything. I'm not a republican but I'm definitely voting for Tom Campbell, who doesn't support the war on drugs and is pro-choice. Here is Tom Campbell's voting record [aclu.org], and the one on his web site [house.gov].
  • And it's built on the Neon platform. Yech...
  • I think we should pass a law prohibiting politicians and members of the government from discussing or promoting laws which contradict, restrict, or attempt to invalidate constitutional rights. Try to restrict free speech? Get tossed. Get fined. I'd love to see Orrin Hatch on trial for "attempting to violate the inalienable rights of constituents". Hah!
  • Why is HALO better than a high altitude dirigible? Presumably one would want the thing (whichever) to be totally automatic, so, e.g., the pilot didn't have to take meal breaks. The plane imaged didn't look to be solar powered, so there would probably be need for frequent refuelings.

    It seems to me that if one took a dirigible (perhaps based around NASA's pumpkin baloon design) with a solar powered motor, and, I hope, radio equipment (plus sufficient batteries for night operation) one could create a system that required less on-going maintenance, and might even be cheaper to start with.
  • Unless random personal web sites are unreliable, Louis XVI's diary entry on that date was merely "Nothing." :-)

    (At least, several random personal web sites confirm the "Nothing" quote for Louis and the "Nothing of importance..." quote for George. They may all be completely misinformed.)
    --

  • Some ideas for Iridium... (Score:3)

    by Rombuu ( 22914 ) on Monday July 31, 2000 @02:34PM (#890633)
    1) Well, there is always Ebay guys... I can see it now.. system of barely used LEO satellites... going out of business, everything must go....

    2) If they have any sort of manuveurability, I mean, hell, if you work for them you are obviously going to be out of work soon, so you could, you know, aim at stuff when you "de-orbit" couldn't you?
  • What will be interesting to see following the Iridium flop is how other, similar projects such as Globalstar [globalstar.com] - to mention only one - will develop. Will they, too, go out of business? And those that have not yet even started launching satellites, will they ever do so?
    My personal belief is that, sooner or later, there will arise some sort of need for a global comunications network. The question is only, how far away is that? Obviously, we are not there just yet.
  • here's the link [loc.gov] to what's going on with the House Report.

    it appears that on "7/25/2000: Forwarded by Subcommittee to Full Committee (Amended) by Voice Vote.

    this page does list the co-sponsors.

    hope it helps.

  • Just looking around my cube, I am prepared to offer:

    17 empty altoids containers
    1 broken Palm III hot sync base
    The O'Reilly Java in a Nutshell, Java Enterprise in a Nutshell, and Java Examples in a Nutshell books
    A really nice slick PT Cruiser ad
    A worn out ping pong paddle
    A slightly stained coffee mug
    And $32.67...

    That should make me the high bidder... Let me know if you are interested guys...

  • Legislation in action (Score:4)

    by phil reed ( 626 ) on Monday July 31, 2000 @02:36PM (#890637) Homepage
    Lots of legislators throw up 'trial balloons', partly to impress the home electorate and partly to see what will fly. Many of the more odious things we here about early on are shot down as part of the normal process of making laws. It's no surprise that the anti-linking provisions were pulled - somebody had a rush of brains to the head and talked the sponsors into dropping it. Sometimes the system does work.


    ...phil
  • From the ACLU website -

    "Despite recent groundbreaking reports showing that minorities are far more likely to be targeted under harsh federal drug laws than whites accused of the same crimes, some members of Congress appear to be saying that no cost is too high when it comes to cultivating a tough on crime image," said Rachel King, an ACLU Legislative Counsel.

    Nail on the head time. "Looking tough on crime" is de rigeur in an american election year, and no amount of logic or common sense can be allowed to stand in it's way.

    Kind of pitiful, really. Maybe we should just make congress-critters get REAL jobs, or send them to shrinks on a regular basis or something. Maybe we should ship Barry "The General" McCaffrey off to Siberia for a nice, invigorating vacation cutting firewood.

    Maybe I should shut up now, before the thought-police come knocking...

    "The accursed has been advised of his lack of rights under the Uniform Code of Military Toughness,
    and will act accordingly!"

  • The credit industry is owed a few by congress. They've been stuck with a rather bad situation the past few years.
    One of the few debts you can't get out of paying in bankruptcy is your taxes. The government always gets its money.
    Did you know you can now pay your income tax via credit card? And if you can't pay your bill, the card company gets stuck... not the feds? And therefore you CAN get your tax debt forgiven in a bankruptcy?
    Not that any of the million or so bankruptcies every year actually used this loophole... nope... there's probably still one or two bankruptcy lawyers out there somewhere who don't recommend this strategy.
  • "Any fanatic libertarians out there should keep this in mind: a vote for Lightfoot is a vote for Feinstein."

    No. A vote for Lightfoot is a vote for Lightfoot. Only a vote for Feinstein is a vote for Feinstein.

    A single vote for either of the main parties is unlikely to change the results of that election.

    Each vote for a Libertarian candidate is useful, in that it shows there is one more voter who is fed up with the status quo, who agrees with the Libertarian platform, and who is willing to put aside the fear, uncertainty and doubt spouted by the main parties and wrok on what they believe in.

  • Just because the bill has been revised doesn't mean that we are no longer in danger of the threats it poses to our rights. Because the version passed by the House differs from the one which passed the Senate, Congress must again decide which version to pass. And even if the House's version passes, that probably won't be enough to stop Senator Feinstein, who will likely beat her opponent, Tom Campbell, in the next elections.

    Congress will supposedly convene Tuesday, and when that happens you can read about it on their web site [house.gov]. In the meantime, you can read more coverage on this bill here [cannabisculture.com].
  • I know that Rev. Jesse Jackson will be protesting the War on Drugs, other than that I'm not sure.
  • Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) wrote the bill. I don't recall who endorsed it.
  • I bid

    a totally beat to death Tecra - bout five years old. Coffee stained mother board - third replacement one so far.

    One old cat.

    A fat Labrador

    Miscellaneous lawn mowers

    and a bag of Rebel Grass Seed..

    Sorry - no money
  • What a fantastic law!! What I really want to know, and didn't pick up from the article, is this: which senator(s) or representative(s) (is|are) responsible??

    Lest you morph into a modern-day Diogenes in search of an honest (responsible) Congresscreature, I'll save you some trouble: there flat out ain't any.
  • An Ontario court just ruled that current marijuana laws are unconstitutional. A victory for us canucks, anyway.

    His basic premise was that, if smoking marijuana enhances the quality of life of people with certain illnesses, then it is completely absurd to deny them the privelege.

  • No major disagreement with your comment. But I would like to make a few points. A bill needs get out of sub-committee and then committee before it gets to be voted on by the entire House. Then the riders to the bill get tacked on. These riders are the bane of the US government.

    Most of the time these riders represent pork-barrel politics. Other times they are ideological crap. In a election year, more crap is added to make tactical/strategic message to the voters.

    Some times parts of a bill are blatantly unconstitutional. The powers to be eventually realize this. Some times unintended restrictions are finally realized. For instance, if I link to e-bay and some a-hole tries to sell illegal drugs on e-bay, then I'm in deep shit? Suppose some troll post this into on Slashdot?

  • hey just needed to interject here: I emailed my rep and had a lot of people i know (including a judge and a few lawyers) and we all got letters back in the last week or so from our rep. I gotta say it really feels good to see that when enough people write, fax and email we can make a difference.
  • I'm in the philadelphia area too.. and would REALLY love it if there was a protest i could join ;) unfortunly.. like another said, it would be lost in the barrage of other protests.

  • It serverly hampers radio astronomy so that Joe and Mary Consumer can feel good about having a cell phone that works anywhere on the globe.

    Joe and Mary consumer? Not likely. More like Richard Consumer III, esq. Those phones and service are godawful expensive.

  • I dunno... I like U.S. Representative Ron Paul [house.gov] (R-TX).

    He is the strongest defender of the Constitution [house.gov] we have in Congress today. Sometimes I think he's the only one that pays any attention to it at all.



    --
  • The article [aclu.org], as well as other sources [cognitiveliberty.org], confirm that the changes were made to the original anti free-speech bill, the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act. As far as I know, the Bankrupcy Reform Bill remains evil. Note that it doesn't make drug-use information illegal, so sites on needle exchange and such would theoretically be okay, but manufacture is still on the death list.

    - Michael Cohn
  • Anyone in California should keep this in mind in November:

    Diane Feinstein was a sponser of the anti meth bill.

    Tom Campbell recently said that the drug war has failed, and we need get rid of it.

    Any fanatic libertarians out there should keep this in mind: a vote for Lightfoot is a vote for Feinstein.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • What I don't get (and this is NOT a troll!) is why the knee jerk reaction to every bad law is "It's the Republican's fault!" WTF? Last I knew, it was the Dem's in Hollywood's pocket, the people that brought you RIAA and MPIAA and all the other AA's that are out there, as well as the DeCSS lawsuit.

    Yeah, the Republican's brought us the War on Drugs. So what? Yeah, they wanted the death penalty. SO WHAT? (Name me a single criminal that committed a crime AFTER his execution! I don't think you can, can you?)

    Oh, but wait, they're all RICH Texan Oilmen... See, it's OK to say that because you're not talking about RICH Tennessee Oilmen, who made their millions through Occidental Petroleum in shady deals.

    The Dem's sell out just as regularly as everyone else. As for the Wrong Reverend Jesse Jackson, maybe when he gets off his duff and starts talking about the slavery and exploitation going on in Sudan [jewishworldreview.com], I'll give him a pat on the back. Until then, he gets nothing. He sure can dummy up quick when opening his mouth goes against the party line, can't he?

    Carnivore is being pushed by the Clinton (Democratic) FBI. They also fought long and hard against encryption, and only gave up when even THEIR thick skulls figured out it wasn't a battle they could win.

    If you want to protest, do it at the DNC convention. Isn't it kind of funny that the Republicans are holding their convention at the City of Brotherly Love while the Dem's are holding theirs in LA. Which one is that again? Sodom or Gomorrah? Although I personally wouldn't have minded an invite to the Playboy Mansion for the Dem. fundraiser... Not that you would see AlGore and the rest there... They'll take the money, but they don't want to be SEEN socializing with "those types" of people.

    Bah... What a waste... I just KNOW this will be mod'd down. After all, it's a diatribe against everything I'm against. Following the crowd instead of following the issues.

  • Christ, you should come up to Edmonton. I think the local Chrysler dealers managed to get way more than their fair share. I see at least one every day, and have seen at least 6 different ones with various businesses logos and whatnot on them. I'm seeing more of them than beetles in the last couple of weeks.
  • Even if that law ("prohibiting...laws which contradict, restrict, or attempt to invalidate constitutional rights")manages to avoid getting itself declared unconstitutional, the Supreme Court would have to be open for business 24/7/365 to deal with ruling on whether or not those proposed laws would "...contradict, restrict, or attempt to invalidate constitutional rights...".
    And there would have to be a second Supreme Court to handle all the other cases they wouldn't have time for anymore.
    I'm sure you'd be glad to volunteer to make the decisions on those proposed laws, but there's probably something in the constitution to prohibit that. :)
  • Looks almost like they're beating swords into plowshares.

    Generally a good thing, IMO.

    The RPV is called the "Egret" and was a piece part for a highly sophisticated signal intelligence system that was being developed for NATO during the last part of the Cold War by E-Systems (Now, Raytheon, go figure...) Greenville Division. Since much of that is bust, I could see where they'd like to attempt the use of the non-classified pieces (namely the RPV and the massive wireless communications infrastructure that went with it...) to civillian usages so they can see some of the R&D funds out of the thing.

    Well, it's nice to know we got something from all that other than a legacy of fear.

    Only drawback to this system that I see is that you'd have to have a fleet of the planes for a given area that are cycling in and out along with several backups.

    The plane has flown already, and flew from the US to the Paris Air Show (an 11 hour flight). The idea is that a set of 3 planes can service a metropoliton area in shifts. They fly far above the commercial flight paths, and have enough range that they can use smaller airports on the outskirts of a city. In that, it helps that this plane has been designed by Burt Rutan [scaled.com], the man who designed the first non-stop around the world plane...he knows a few things about saving fuel.

    I don't see how practical this would be compared to Iridium or it's competitors- while it'd be cheaper, it's not without it's problems itself.

    Well, compared to the expense and hassles of a huge number of rocket launches, sending up one airplane at a time above a major US city is hardly difficult or expensive.

    The main advantages of this system compared to LEO:

    • 10 to 1000 times closer to the user - less lag.
    • Massive amounts of electricity generated by the jet engines allowing very strong signal strength.
    • The planes land every 10 to 12 hours, allowing easy repairs and upgrades.
    • Service does not require completion of the entire system in order to be useful.

    The principle advantage of LEO sats over Angel Halo have not proven to be all that valuable - global coverage. Global in this case means "the 30 or so most heavily populated cities". That is enough for anyone who needs to pop open a laptop and get 2.5 megabit internet access. Because they are most likely to do so in some airport lounge or in an office in some large city.

    Iridium failed because some doofus forgot to look at a globe and notice that the Earth is mostly covered with water, and most of the land is empty. Humans are generally huddled in small areas, and fish and penguins don't really need phone service.

  • ...there just isn't an alternative...

    Two words: ham radio

    No, it's not a convenient as just whipping out a phone, but it's hardly effort-prohibitive. And with the ability to phone-patch through one of the OSCAR satellites, you've got 90% of the capability of an Iridium phone anyway.
  • My bid.

    9 Empty Ciggerette packets Some screwed up foil An MC Hammer CD 1001 Ripped up cigerette filters And a couple of empty coke bottles

  • Something similar happens in the UK every few mopnths: essentially, if you insist on a jury trial for medical use of cannabis, chances are the jury won't convict. There've been a couple of those recently.

    We also have the Licensing (Cannabis) Bill currently before parliament and pretty much doomed to die at the end of the session: this is a shame, as the proposal would give us a sensible regime for the stuff - legal but regulated.

  • >>Humans are generally huddled in small areas, and fish and penguins don't really need phone service.

    Pengiuns don't need phone service - but most want high-speed internet access.

    Hehehehe ;-}
  • I did, in fact, read the entire article, but I must've missed the mention of convective cooling requirements. My bad.
  • > What is so hard about typing "PlayStation II",

    That would be a function that maps how lazy I am, to the amount of time I'm willing to type an extra 15 or so characters.

    See? I can't be bothered to count. ;)

  • Re:Legislation in action (Score:4)

    by gilroy ( 155262 ) on Monday July 31, 2000 @02:42PM (#890665) Homepage Journal
    Blockquoth the poster:
    Lots of legislators throw up 'trial balloons', partly to impress the home electorate and partly to see what will fly. Many of the more odious things we here about early on are shot down as part of the normal process of making law
    This is why it's important to be vocal early in the process... though lots of people seem to think it's "overreacting", it's part of the system. When an odious proposal is met with silence, it is taken as assent. It's that liberty-and-vigilance thing again.
  • If Iridium does up for sale on the virtual block, I hope Motorola doesn't a reserve on the auction or try to bid it up secretly.

    Bastards. I'm not expecting much dignity that company nowadays.

  • Violations of online rights (Score:3)

    by linuxonceleron ( 87032 ) on Monday July 31, 2000 @02:45PM (#890667) Homepage
    I'm in the Philadelphia area, and the Republican National Convention is in town (gak). I was wondering if there are any groups protesting issues such as the mentioned act which would prohibit information on drugs, as well as things like FBI's carnivore which are violating our rights. I know some guys from the ACLU [aclu.org] were down there today, but I don't know what they were marching for offhand.
  • I'm not convinced iridium is worth the Fender mexican standard strat... how much is that thing running for on its own?

    ---
  • Serious:

    its 2010 and you're up in the new Commercial Space Station looking through coin operated viewfinders and you notice a satelitte with a sign:

    FOR SALE:
    $5 Million, OBO
    call Frank @
    900-555-1212

    classified:

    global satelitte system, hardly used.
    $2 billion obo. some nics and dings,
    paint still good. call Bob 900-555-1212

    JediLuke
  • Two words: Napster servers! Let's see Metallica try to take them down...

  • My bid:

    Looking around my co-location provider, I see alot of other people's cabinets that aren't locked, so I bid (all of these would be SEP - Somebody Else's Problem):

    More Cisco stuff than you can shake a router at
    So many F5 Big IPs, you'll be crying
    All of the Compaqs you can carry
    Enough Suns to create your own Galaxy

    My really, really slow laptop. You know the one - you keep trying to break it, but it just keeps coming back like some bad horror movie.

  • Are there any beautiful new computers?

    I think my 11/45 is beautiful, though, and it's in a rack; I'm not sure it could even support its own weight otherwise.

    So, what computers are beautiful?

  • Egads... first Orrin Hatch, now Jesse Jackson shows glimmers of intelligence. What is the world coming to? :-)
    --
  • Damnit! First Orrin Hatch does a bunch of things that are insane, and then he does a bunch of things that are reasonable, and then he does a bunch of things that are insane.

    Sometimes I think that there are three guys who all look identical and take turns being "Orrin Hatch".
  • PS/2 = yesterday's hardware today

    OS/2 = yesterday's software tomorrow

    or something like that

  • A few years ago I bet on the fact that the US goverment was so depenent on Cray Computer (Not Cray Research), that they wouldn't let it fold.

    At one point if I had bought anymore stock, I would have had to file papers with the SEC. I invested some serious cash in this little gamble but commisions were most of it and it used up my lunch money for weeks.

    In the end the company just went away. Hey thats the risk with penny stocks.

    Win some, lose some. and I was a major stock holder in Cray :-)

    If Iridium wasn't so tied into Motorola someone could do that today.

  • Looks almost like they're beating swords into plowshares

    (a hollow voice says "plough") 8-)

    More like taking money from the currently-rich ploughshare venture capitalists and using it to fund the next cycle's sword research.

    The real problem with AngelHalo is that it's a glorified cellphone system for coverage over the USA's enormous road network. It's a great system, where it covers, but it's targeted at where the traffic is, not a truly global system.

    Iridium works everywhere, even when the local technology doesn't extend beyond the cow-dung fire and the AK47. I only know a few Iridium users, all aid workers in the absolute arse-ends of the world (Northern Afghanistan right this minute). They'd have a lot of trouble without their Iridia (sp?), as there just isn't an alternative, other than the military's comsat networks.

  • I think we should pass a law prohibiting politicians and members of the government from discussing or promoting laws which contradict, restrict, or attempt to invalidate constitutional rights.

    Absolutely! We must immediately pass a law outlawing the discussion of laws that restrict free speech. Also, we should make it illegal for more than 2 Congressmen to convene if we have a well-founded fear that they intend to erode our freedom of assembly. And the media should be prohibited from giving coverage to lawmakers who seek to weaken the freedom of the press.

    We must defend our rights! The price of liberty is everybody else's liberty!

    -

  • (a hollow voice says "plough") 8-)

    Har har!

    More like taking money from the currently-rich ploughshare venture capitalists and using it to fund the next cycle's sword research.

    I'm not sure how this communication system benefits future military work. Raytheon is involved because they want to sell a whole bunch of electronics packages. I can't blame them for wanting to do so.

    The real problem with AngelHalo is that it's a glorified cellphone system for coverage over the USA's enormous road network. It's a great system, where it covers, but it's targeted at where the traffic is, not a truly global system.

    Neither is the existing cellphone system. I like it because it's a phone system that operates at 1.5 to 45 megabits, is available where the largest number of users are, and is a very clever use of solid technology.

    Iridium works everywhere, even when the local technology doesn't extend beyond the cow-dung fire and the AK47. I only know a few Iridium users, all aid workers in the absolute arse-ends of the world (Northern Afghanistan right this minute). They'd have a lot of trouble without their Iridia (sp?), as there just isn't an alternative, other than the military's comsat networks.

    Possibly the UN should buy the Iridium network if it has that much impact on world peace. Or George Soros. But scattered aid workers are not a big enough market to make it viable as a business. The cost of sending up replacement sats and maintaining the entire system is not worth it to the aid agencies. I'd imagine they'd rather spend that kind of money on people, food and equipment. So it remains a white elephant. I'm sorry for your friends, but it makes more sense to use the comsat system until either one of the other LEO systems comes on-line (which will then fail for the exact same reasons) or one of the other flying communication systems happens.

  • mattw sez:
    think we should pass a law prohibiting politicians and members of the government from discussing or promoting laws which contradict, restrict, or attempt to invalidate constitutional rights. Try to restrict free speech? Get tossed.

    We have this already. They're called elections.

    Get fined. I'd love to see Orrin Hatch on trial for "attempting to violate the inalienable rights of constituents". Hah!

    Yes, well, I'd hate to see any legislator on trial for political views. Even Orrin Hatch. Putting legislators on trial smacks of Putin's Russia.
    ----

  • Actually we already have this (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    It's called treason.

    And the congresscritters and the president flaunt it every day, and have been doing so almost since the moment the Constitution was adopted... growing more blatant with each passing year. The trouble is enforcing it, in a millieu where constitutional arguments produce nothing more than derisive laughter.

  • R U braindead ?
    they don't even have a fan !
    run hot ?
    back to my first question

  • I can just see it now... (Score:4)

    by Chiasmus_ ( 171285 ) on Monday July 31, 2000 @02:46PM (#890683) Journal
    Some bill with a drug rider passes, someone posts instructions for making methamphetamine to Slashdot (as though we couldn't find them anyway at, for example, Tower Records), and at my next visit, I get a happy 404 File Not Found message.

    What a fantastic law!! What I really want to know, and didn't pick up from the article, is this: which senator(s) or representative(s) (is|are) responsible??
  • Law like that make me sick. I do not use drugs or care to start any time soon. Yet if someone wants to start using marijuana for medical reasons. Then they should if it was authurized by a doctor. It is easier to get morphine from a doctor than to can get marijuana. Also if someone want to get infomation about drugs they can get it from alot of different sources. Also how would search engines deal with this problem. People are tring to do crazy things these days.

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