Wednesday, October 31, 2001
Tuesday, October 30, 2001
Monday, October 29, 2001
SiliconValley.com - Dan Gillmor's eJournal
Tim Berners-Lee on Microsoft's Latest Browser Tricks
Posted on Friday, October 26, 2001
Yesterday, Microsoft disabled use of MSN with many non-IE browsers. It was a clumsy move, and it has plainly backfired.
I asked the World Wide Web Consortium's Tim Berners-Lee for his views on the situation. Here are my questions and his answers (edited very slightly, such as putting in hyperlinks):
DG: What is your reaction to Microsoft's decision to disable non-IE browsers from access to MSN?
TBL: I have fought since the beginning of the Web for its openness: that anyone can read Web pages with any software running on any hardware. This is what makes the Web itself. This is the environment into which so many people have invested so much energy and creativity. When I see any Web site claim to be only readable using particular hardware or software, I cringe - they are pining for the bad old days when each piece of information need a different program to access it.
Cliff Notes - Custom Resolutions and TimingsHow to connect your PC to your Digital/HDTV
By Wayne Harrelson
Upgrading to eXtreme Performance
AMD's latest showpiece has been baptized Athlon XP, with XP standing for eXtreme Performance... It is no surprise that AMD's latest and greatest performs very well, as the Athlon XP is a higher clocked version of the same "Palomino" core found in the Athlon MP. As you read in our Athlon MP vs Pentium 4 Xeon shootout, the Workstation Battle Royal, the 1.2 GHz Athlon MP delivered stunning performance, outperforming Intel's 1.7 GHz Pentium 4 Xeon in almost all cases. In fact, the first AMD workstation processor walked all over Intel's best CPUs in current workstation software.
Friday, October 26, 2001
Thursday, October 25, 2001
MSN.com rejects non-MS browsers
Oct. 25 — Users trying to access Microsoft’s MSN.com with a non-Microsoft browser are finding themselves locked out. While the software leviathan’s Internet Explorer easily reaches MSN, other browsers—such as Netscape Navigator, Opera and Mozilla—run into trouble.Staff writer Joe Wilcox contributed to this report.
Copyright © 1995-2001 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved
Wednesday, October 24, 2001
Non-metallic magnet could be dream computer memory
19:00 17 October 01
Justin Mullins
A transparent, flexible magnetic material made from an exotic form of carbon could turn out to be the dream computer memory. The substance, which was discovered accidentally by a Russian physicist hunting for high-temperature superconductors, is the first non-metallic magnet to work at room temperature.
Tatiana Makarova, working at Umeå University in Sweden, discovered the material while experimenting with buckyballs, football-shaped molecules made up of 60 carbon atoms. By heating and compressing the molecules, she forced them to join together in layers like sheets of bubble wrap, because she thought these might be able to superconduct.
But to her surprise, she found instead that the new material was magnetic even above 200 °C. Until now, the highest temperature at which a non-metallic material was magnetic was -255 °C. This record was held by a different form of buckyballs.
Organic magnets could be important because they are much lighter than their metallic cousins. Also, Makarova's material is flexible and transparent, properties that could make it useful for storing data when a laser is used to record on it. It might also be possible to record data at unprecedented densities.
Mystery magnetism
Exactly why the material is magnetic is not yet clear. Makarova believes that unpaired electrons may play a crucial role, since they can sustain a magnetic field when their spins are aligned. One possibility is that the magnetism stems from buckyballs bonding in triangular groups of three.
"In this configuration, there can be unpaired spins," she says. Her team is currently comparing buckyball layers made in different ways to try to find out.
Robert Blinc, an expert on molecular magnets at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, says the work is a giant step forward. He says it is not yet clear whether the magnetic properties are uniform throughout the structure or occur in clumps. "But in any case it is extremely important," he says.
Journal reference : Nature (vol 413, p 716)
19:00 17 October 01
Tuesday, October 23, 2001
Israel: We Will Not Pull Forces
JERUSALEM –– Defying the United States, Israeli officials said Tuesday that they will not pull military forces out of six West Bank towns until they have crushed militant Palestinian groups responsible for attacks on Israelis.
In unusually blunt language, the United States urged Israel Monday to withdraw immediately from Palestinian territory and launch no more raids.
Monday, October 22, 2001
2001 Mars Odyssey Home Page1 day to arrival
Mars Arrival at 10/24/2001 02:30 Universal Time.
Saturday, October 20, 2001
Anyway, I was wondering about what the most reliable server for websites might be, so I decided to consult the maker of the dominant commercial web server, Microsoft. I took a run over to the list of highest uptimes of web servers at microsoft's snail mail address. What did I find out? Microsoft's highest uptime servers
4 out of the top 5 high uptime web servers at Microsoft are Linux or BSD based.
10 out of the top 15 high uptime web servers at Microsoft are Linux or BSD based.
Everything from 15 on appears to be Windows 2000 based, hinting that Microsoft's Linux and BSD servers are all few in number, but in general tend to outperform Windows 2000 and IIS in terms of uptime. I believe that Microsoft is telling us through here that Windows 2000 and IIS are best for short term, non-business web servers, while BSD and Linux are much more optimal for critical environments where server life is of maximum import. I would like to thank Microsoft for this, as I was considering moving from Apache to IIS before I read this.
(Source: fyo)
Thursday, October 18, 2001
Search for Edward Gibbon on: All the Web - AltaVista - Deja -
War on terrorism factfile - an introduction
(Filed: 27/09/2001)
THE events of September 11 were among the most horrific witnessed in modern times and their implications are potentially devastating.
This factfile provides a constantly-updated archive of events through the eyes of some of the Telegraph's finest writers, from the moment the planes struck the twin towers of the World Trade Centre to the present day.
It also brings together some of the most incisive comment and analysis, examining the implications on world relations, the financial markets and the way events have affected - and continue to affect - millions of innocent lives
news.telegraph.co.uk - Muslim makes bin Laden a laughing matter
Muslim makes bin Laden a laughing matter
(Filed: 18/10/2001)
SHAZIA MIRZA is fast becoming the world's most wanted Muslim woman. She is highly sought after because she tells jokes about Osama bin Laden.
As Britain's only Muslim woman known to be performing stand-up comedy, Mirza, 26, is becoming a favourite with comedy club promoters and radio discussion programmes.
Demand for the Birmingham-born comic is also now coming from two countries at the heart of international events: America and Pakistan.
In America, she has been asked to appear on Oprah Winfrey's television programme and take part in a benefit event to raise money for families of the victims of the World Trade Centre attack.
In Pakistan, where her parents were born, she is wanted for a one-woman show in Lahore. In another career boost, she collected a Young Achiever of the Year prize in this week's GG2 Leadership and Diversity Awards, which recognise success stories within the Asian community.
Mirza, who has been in stand-up comedy for little more than a year, wears a Muslim scarf when performing and speaks with a distinctive deadpan drawl. She says she is a moderate, devout Muslim, placed between two cultures and able to cast a critical, as well as a forgiving, eye on both.
"The whole point of my act," she said yesterday, "is to help reduce Islamophobia in Britain. The reason it took off was that no one had really heard what it's like to be a Muslim woman here.
"There were so many stereotypes. I talked about my life and I allowed people to laugh along with me." The white, male-dominated world of stand-up, so often inhospitable to women comedians, swiftly took her to heart.
"A lot of Muslim men think that it's not the place for a woman to stand on stage in front of a drunken crowd trying to make them laugh. But actually Islam gives women a lot of power.
"We're not all as oppressed as the women in Afghanistan. Just by standing on stage, I'm liberating women and some men clearly fear that means they'll lose the upper hand."
Since September 11, she thought no one would want to listen to her at all. "I cancelled gigs for a week afterwards and on the first night I went back on stage, there was so much tension in the air; people were scared to laugh.
"I could see everyone thinking, 'Is she going to address the situation?' It wasn't until two weeks later that I did. I came on and said: 'My name is Shazia Mirza - at least that's what it says on my pilot's licence.' They stood on their feet and applauded."
Since then, the former bio-chemistry student, who taught physics after leaving university, has expanded the amount of material she devotes to the crisis.
"You have to attack ignorance with humour," she said. "We're not all fanatics. I tell audiences how they can distinguish me from Muslim terrorists: they have bigger moustaches than I do."
She finds Osama "bin Liner" absurd, but the attempts to catch him farcical. "I was amused by comments made by his son that when he gets angry, he becomes invisible.
"He has led a ridiculous life. And now this one man has got the whole of the West running after him trying to get him out of a cave. It's quite funny when you think about it."
Prominent Muslim cleric denounces bin Lade
Prominent Muslim cleric denounces bin Lade
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- A prominent Muslim cleric denounced suspected
terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden Thursday and urged Afghanistan's Taliban rulers
not to risk thousands of lives for him.
"Bin Laden is not a prophet that we should put thousands of lives at risk for,"
said Tahirul Qadri, who heads the Pakistani Awami Tehrik Party.
Qadri, who has thousands of followers in Pakistan and abroad, also criticized the
Taliban for sheltering bin Laden and urged the Muslims to "see the difference between
jihad and acts of terrorism."
He is the first prominent Muslim scholar to condemn bin Laden and the Taliban so
strongly in public. His condemnation could help the Pakistani government defuse tensions
in Pakistan where a small but vocal religious group has launched a nationwide campaign
against its decision to back U.S.-led military strikes into Afghanistan.
"Bombing embassies or destroying non-military installations like the World Trade
Center is no jihad," Qadri said, and "those who launched the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
not only killed thousands of innocent people in the United States but also put the
lives of millions of Muslims across the world at risk."
"Now the Americans are killing Afghans ... they may go for other targets too. Who
knows how many innocent Muslims will be killed because of those terrorists who attacked
the World Trade Center?"
While urging the United States to stop its airstrikes in Afghanistan, Qadri held
the Taliban rulers responsible "for the death of hundreds of innocent Afghans."
The Taliban, he said, should have handed over bin Laden and other suspected terrorists
to the United Nations or any other neutral international organization before the airstrikes
began. "They can still do it and save their country from further destruction," he
said.
Qadri, whose Pakistan Awami Tehrik emerged as a popular religious party in local
elections earlier this year, also acknowledged that the United States had provided
credible evidence about bin Laden's involvement in acts of terrorism.
"In the light of this evidence, the Taliban had no justification for continuing to
protect bin Laden. Why protect him? Is he a saint or a prophet? He is a man who himself
has admitted arranging car-bomb attacks on U.S. embassies. He is no saint."
Based on this, the “plan” for SEE is as follows:
(1) Find and secure the use of a piece of suitable property that is “wild” and rural enough to be challenging, but close enough to high-tech civilization to make development, along the lines of the “vision” stated above, feasible. (A 20-acre tract in Bastrop, Texas was selected and purchased.)
(2) Establish a homestead on this property -- that is, make it possible for one person, then more people, to live there
(3) Develop the property (and the community) ecologically -- this means with full knowledge and use of activities like recycling, composting, sustainable gardening, ecological septic and waste management, indigenous nutrients, etc.
(4) Concomitantly incorporate modern technologies such as hydroponics, aquaculture, aquaponics, alternative energy generation, Internet communications, etc.
(5) When and if we have developed SEE-1 (in Bastrop, Texas) to a point where it satisfactorily demonstrates these ideas, establish SEE-2 at a harsher, more desolate and challenging location -- then SEE-3 . . .
(6) and then to “near” space habitats on artificial satellites, asteroids, the Moon, and Mars . . .
(7) and then to “far” space habitats, envisioned, at this point, as continent-size space vehicles with millions of inhabitants and hundreds of diverse ecosystems, setting out on decades- (even century-) long voyages to other stars.
Wednesday, October 17, 2001
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
Jacqueline R. Salek
I will miss her.
Jackie R. Salek, 46, of San Marcos died Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2001 in San Marcos. She was born in Rockne on Jan. 24, 1955, to Steve and Vondell Probst Salek.
She was a 1973 graduate of Bastrop High School and graduated from Texas A&M University in 1984 with a bachelor of science degree in agriculture. She was employed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in Austin.
Every holiday season, she helped out a Fantasia Flowers in Lockhart. She will be remembered for her love of nature and her care of homeless animals. She was preceded in death by her parents; infant sister, Noel Salek; grandfather, Ernest Probst; and lifelong friend Tory Lehman.
Survivors include her grandmother, Nora Probst of Rockne; sister, Terry Salek of San Marcos; uncle, Gordon Probst of Hope, Idaho; uncle and aunt, Lorene and Cliff Redus of Rockne; Jadwiga Salek of Warsaw, Poland; and five cousins.
Father Josef Musiol conducted the graveside service on Friday morning, Oct. 19, in Sacred Heart Cemetery Rockne. Deacon Roger Muehr assisted as a deacon.
Found another article about Jackie.
Posted: Oct 29, 2001
Two more people came back to Rockne to stay this past week in October 2001. Jackie Salek (daughter of the late Steve and Vondell Prosbt Salek and niece of Lorene Probst Redus & Gordon Probst) and Emma (Lehman) Mayo, sister of Irene Bauer, Linda Nolte, Lee Lehman and Clarence Lehman. Jackie and Emma, both natives of the Rockne community, were buried in Sacred Heart Cemetery, Rockne.
Smoky Stover, a treasured friend of both families, was present at the graveside service for Emma Mayo. We went over to talk to him and tell him that we had come in early from Virginia a couple times, especially to see him at parties at Lee' Lehman's Retreat Ranch. Lee sponsored the annual October party for Smoky and their many friends.
Smoky Stover and his Band also performed for the Rockne Historical Association Fundraiser in October 1993 at the Rockne VFW Hall.
AnnaLee invited us to the Peter Goertz reunion. We went and saw a lot of good people. Ate a lot of good food. Talked to babies that are now close to 50 years old with grandbabies of their own.
Life in Rockne - very full and busy!!!!!!!
- Kay & Del Goertz -
* Italics are editor's additions.
Jackie gave Dee and I a plant as a wedding gift, we still have it; it has grown and been re potted many times. It is now is three seperate pots.
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Monday, October 15, 2001
Saturday, October 13, 2001
Friday, October 12, 2001
Thursday, October 11, 2001
Wednesday, October 10, 2001
Monday, October 08, 2001
Friday, October 05, 2001
Wednesday, October 03, 2001
bettas in a vase? don't buy them!!!!!!!!
the latest fad: a betta in a vase with a plant and instructions to not feed the betta nor change the water EVER.
I want to know one thing: Who came up with that one????
A)- bettas are carnivorous and although out of despair they might eat roots (hey, you would eat a cockroach if got hungry enough!), they cannot survive long that way.
B)- ecosystems only work when they are large enough to allow a safety margin for fluctuations. Meaning that if one of the components of the ecosystem fluctuates, the whole system will not come crashing down. In such a small amount of water (hey, we are talking about a BOWL people!), how does one plan on preserving the ever fragile balance between: fish eating, fish pooping, plant eating fish poop and plant then cleaning water, plant being healthy enough to grow roots just enough to feed betta the perfect amount of food daily, etc... Assuming bettas would survive in such a vegetarian diet, you can see how one small change could radically affect the system and invariably cause the betta's death. I am against such set-ups. Every time I have seen one for sale on a store shelf, the betta was sick and dying, and it broke my heart. Boycott!!! Boycott!! Oh and did I mention: BOYCOTT ??
Tuesday, October 02, 2001
The Sulfur Lamp: Technical Page
The sulfur lamp is an efficient, powerful, bright, full spectrum light source that has many different indoor and outdoor uses. Each bulb contains a small amount of sulfur and inert argon gas. When the sulfur is bombarded by focused microwave energy it forms a plasma that glows very brightly, producing light very similar to sunlight. Because there are no filaments or other metal components to break down, the bulb may never need replacement. Only the magnetron needs changing!
The system is dimmable to 20% and provides a constant correlated color temperature of 5,700 degrees Kelvin with a color rendering index of 79. Again, because there are no filaments to degrade or alter its chemical composition, the light source will not change color or intensity over time and will continue to render objects close to their true color.
Lunar, Martian, and planetary ArchitectureMAGMA, CERAMIC, AND FUSED ADOBE STRUCTURES GENERATED IN SITU
E. Nader Khalili
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