Thursday, February 27, 2003

NPR : Remembering Mister Rogers: "Feb. 27, 2003 -- Fred Rogers, who for more than 30 years touched the lives of children and parents as host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, died of stomach cancer Thursday at age 74.
"

Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Ananova - Precious metals mountain lies under Atlantic

Ananova - Precious metals mountain lies under Atlantic A 500ft wide buried mountain of gold, silver and other valuable metals has been found two and a half miles beneath the middle of the Atlantic.

The mound, compared in size and shape to the Houston Astrodome in Texas, is said to be just one example of the riches to be found around volcanic vents on the sea floor.

Marine geologist Dr Peter Rona, from Rutgers State University in New Jersey, who made the discovery, said: "At least 50,000 years in the making, the mound is composed largely of combinations of the metals copper, iron, zinc, gold and silver. It was produced by jets of hot, metal-rich sea water."

BW Online | March 3, 2003 | A Strong Tailwind for Wind Power

BW Online | March 3, 2003 | A Strong Tailwind for Wind Power In May, 2001, General Electric Co. (GE ) scooped the assets of Enron Corp.'s wind-power division out of bankruptcy for $285 million. Skeptics wondered why GE was bothering with such small fry. Its own $23 billion Power System Div. was a global leader in heavy power equipment. The wind business as a whole, worth just $6 billion in revenues worldwide, was too small to really matter on the global-energy scene. And even if it did, Enron Wind ranked fourth in an industry dominated by European companies.

Exploding toy planes - the next threat to Israeli security? - Jane's International Security News

Exploding toy planes - the next threat to Israeli security? - Jane's International Security News On Sunday 16 February, the Zaytoun neighbourhood east of Gaza City was rocked by an explosion that killed six members of the Hamas military wing, the Izz Eddin Al-Qassam Brigades, and wounded a seventh, writes Mohammed Najib.

Early reports suggested the blast was caused by a car bomb which had detonated next to the group. However, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza told JTIC that the men had been killed while preparing to test an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that exploded next to them without warning.

Omron Develops

Omron Develops "flat light source" Technology Aimed at LED Illumination - Everything Else - Mobilemag.com

Defense Tech

Defense Tech NUKE LAB FIRES BACK
Los Alamos National Laboratory officials have had a variety of responses to my story yesterday in Wired News about sneaking into the lab.

Before the story came out, they said that TA-33 was an secret, secure area; no way could an intruder walk in, they asserted.

After the story broke, these officials then told reporters that TA-33 isn't all that important, on the whole. There's just a tiny area that's secure, and there's no way I could have gotten into that. But the description they gave of this secure area sounds a whole lot like to one I was in.

Lastly, they asserted that the fences I walked around and over didn't even belong to the lab. According to Congressional Quarterly, "the barbed wire Schachtman (sic) reported climbing over, (a lab spokesman) added, was erected years ago by the residents of a neighboring pueblo to keep livestock from wandering onto the government's land."

But if the neighbors put up the fences, what were all those Department of Energy signs doing on them?
posted: 1:38 PM

The best encyclopedia ever written was published over 90 years ago! And now you can find right here on the web! This 1911 encyclopedia is filled with historical information that is still relevant today.

Tuesday, February 25, 2003

Sony creates high res LCD projector

Sony creates high res LCD projector SONY HAS MANAGED a big step forward in projection technology with its new SXRD display device. Measuring just 0.78" diagonally, the LCD panel boasts a resolution of 1920x1080 and an amazing contrast ratio of 3000:1.

The contrast ratio is the biggest leap, most current high-end LCD projection panels can only manage 1000:1. Sony has managed to create what it calls "Vertically Aligned Liquid Crystal" materials that perform far better than conventional liquid crystal technology. The enhanced contrast should make for far richer colours on screen. The higher the contrast ratio, the better the output, it is a measure of the difference between the brightest and darkest areas of the screen.

Sony also claims that the SXRD should improve picture quality. Many projectors suffer from blockiness where the gap between pixels causes a mosaic effect on the projection screen. Each pixel on the new panel is just 9µm across. The SXRD has a gap between pixels of only 0.35µm. According to Sony, that's the world's smallest inter-pixel spacing, a 10 fold improvement over competiting technology.

All this would be useless without a good refresh rate and the SXRD scores here too. The pixels have a 5 millisecond response time. There is no indication yet of how much the new panels will cost, though w

Monday, February 24, 2003

Times Online

Times Online The Mukhabarat never extracted a verbal confession from Mr Muhammad during the four months he was held in a tiny cell in the headquarters. He said that he was interrogated by a Mukhabarat officer named Basim twice a day, each time being whipped with cables while suspended from the ceiling, his hands tied behind his back. He had his jaw, ribs and hands broken. Sometimes he was taken to the basement, strapped into an electric chair and given shock treatment.

Scripting: Higher Level Programming for the 21st Century


Scripting languages such as Perl and Tcl represent a very different style of programming than system programming languages such as C or JavaTM. Scripting languages are designed for "gluing" applications; they use typeless approaches to achieve a higher level of programming and more rapid application development than system programming languages. Increases in computer speed and changes in the application mix are making scripting languages more and more important for applications of the future.

FT.com Home US

FT.com Home US The heads of the European Central Bank and eurozone finance ministers have expressed deep scepticism about the US administration's $690bn tax cut plan.

Wim Duisenberg, ECB president, and Nikos Christodoulakis, the Greek minister who chairs the "eurogroup" of eurozone finance ministers, attacked the plan at the meeting of the Group of Seven leading industrialised nations in Paris at the weekend, saying it endangered the world economy.

Mr Christodoulakis said the re-emergence of "twin deficits" - fiscal and balance of payments - "may create sustainability risks, which in case they materialise would have significant ramifications well beyond the US itself". The tax proposal "in terms of size, composition and timing" did not dissipate these concerns.

Wietler Partner - Homepage

Wietler Partner - Homepage

Mandrake Linux - Friendly Linux operating system for both servers and desktop

Mandrake Linux - Friendly Linux operating system for both servers and desktop

15 MB Free Webspace

15 MB Free Webspace

OBOS

OBOS

BeOS User Group of YUGOSLAVIA

BeOS User Group of YUGOSLAVIA

Nvidia produces dual Athlon chipset

Nvidia produces dual Athlon chipset DETAILS HAVE APPEARED of an Nvidia dual Athlon motherboard from Asus over at HardOCP. Featuring dual channel DDR, could this become the server chipset of choice for the Athlon MP?

GNU's Not Unix! - the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation (FSF)

GNU's Not Unix! - the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation (FSF)

GCC Home Page - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)

GCC Home Page - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)

In praise of Richard Stallman

In praise of Richard Stallman F YOU ARE READING this on a website, you can thank Richard Stallman. He is the guy that doggedly pursued the GPL and the GNU project until it became an important reality for us all.

For the most part, the WWW runs on software whose availability is the result of work by Richard. Without Richard, none of this would have happened. See the picture? It was used with permission by Jin Wicked. She essentially GPL'ed the graphic in deference to Richard. That means you get to see a nice painting of Richard and I get to go on with my article with a minimum of fuss. Thanks Jin and thanks Richard.

Thursday, February 20, 2003

Times Online

Times Online Robert Denith, 37, a father of two, died instantly after being shot while in his car at traffic lights in Riyadh, the capital.

He worked as a commercial officer at the BAE Systems headquarters and was enjoying a day off when he was shot.

A naturalised Saudi man, Saud bin Ali bin Nasser, 30, who works as a salesman for Toyota, has been arrested and is being questioned in connection with the shooting.

brain

brain Our Brains Are Shaped For Fitness Not For Truth

Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Home & Professional Page

Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Home & Professional Page

Hardware Analysis - AMD Athlon-64 Benchmarks and more

Hardware Analysis - AMD Athlon-64 Benchmarks and more

Bursts of Brilliance (washingtonpost.com)

Bursts of Brilliance (washingtonpost.com) On a balmy autumn day in 1964, Air Force Col. Joe Davis Jr. watched from the low roof of an office building in Orlando as engineers at Martin Marietta, a defense contractor, demonstrated something called a laser. The laser looked like a couple of cigar boxes mounted on a tripod. The engineers shined the gizmo at a plywood target being towed along an elevated track about 2,000 feet away.

The laser was straight out of Buck Rogers, right up Davis's alley. He headed an Air Force unit scouting out new technology for the war in Vietnam. The laser was developed by an Army scientist who imagined that someday it might help guide anti-tank missiles. But Davis was a pilot, a decorated ace from World War II and the Korean War, and as he watched the laser dot stay focused on that target moving in the distance, something clicked.

Wednesday, February 19, 2003

F.O.G.Club Adventure - Looking to the past...

F.O.G.Club Adventure - Looking to the past...

Plaid & Ink

Plaid & Ink

Bone marrow helps bones to repair themselves

Bone marrow helps bones to repair themselves pecially prepared titanium mesh and bone marrow cells have made it possible to allow new bone cells to grow in bone fractures. This was shown in a research project carried out by Juliette van den Dolder at the University of Nijmegen.

Researchers inserted a titanium mesh scaffold into a bone fracture in a rat. They allowed bone marrow cells to grow on this and the bone marrow cells stimulated new bone growth.

In combination with bone marrow cells, titanium mesh forms a good culture medium for new bone growth in the case of bone damage. The researchers improved this bone growth by dynamically 'sowing' the cells onto the mesh. In this technique the mesh lies on a turning plate. The researchers tested three differently coated pieces of mesh for cell growth and bone mineral formation.

The best result was obtained with mesh containing fibronectin. Fibronectin is a bone protein that plays an important role in the growth of new bone.

The researchers then tested a cell culture system, the so-called flow perfusion system. This system pumps fluid containing nutrients and oxygen top-down through the mesh, whilst at the same time removing waste products. With the flow perfusion system, cell growth and bone mineral formation clearly increased.

OHSU researchers discover brain cell mechanism possibly linked to mental retardation

OHSU researchers discover brain cell mechanism possibly linked to mental retardation PORTLAND, Ore.

Village depopulatiom in southwest reflects successful agriculture

Village depopulatiom in southwest reflects successful agriculture Southwestern peoples tended to move often -- locally or regionally -- when natural resources became depleted or the climate was changing -- by moving up or down in elevation or crossing over to nearby, unoccupied valleys, said Cordell.

The Greater Southwest is either desert or semi-desert and large portions of the region are at high elevations, she noted. Clever farming strategies allowed ancestral Pueblo people on the higher Colorado Plateau and adjacent highlands to overcome challenges like too little moisture and too short growing seasons for hundreds of years.

They used "ingenious devices" to conserve moisture and moderate temperature at ground level, including moving run-off water to agricultural fields, planting grid-based gardens, placing crops at the mouths of arroyos and in dunes and building check dams and terraces. They even spread gravel mulch over vast field systems that not only slowed run-off, but also moderated temperatures at ground level.

Since gravel mulch absorbs heat from the sun in the daytime and releases it slowly after sundown, they were able to extend the frost-free periods in these areas for several weeks. "Along the Chama River in New Mexico, Pueblo people even grew cotton, something not done in that location where the growing season is marginal even for corn," she said.

STARSHIP EXETER

STARSHIP EXETER

icLiverpool - Soundless Concert Stirs The Emotions

icLiverpool - Soundless Concert Stirs The Emotions

Boston Globe Online / Business / Solving the problem of micropayments

Boston Globe Online / Business / Solving the problem of micropayments The service will be free to consumers, who sign up with Peppercoin and provide a credit card number. Now the user can go to any Peppercoin retailer and purchase a single, very cheap item -- an MP3 song priced at 50 cents, for instance. By clicking on a link, the music gets downloaded to the customer's computer. The merchant gets a Peppercoin -- a sort of electronic token that's got the customer's digital signature embedded in it.

What's the token worth to the merchant? It depends. Peppercoin uses an algorithm that assigns a value to the token. Actually it assigns one of two values. Either the token is worth some preset amount -- say, $10 -- or it's worth nothing at all. When the token is worthless, the merchant throws it away. When it's not, the merchant collects $10 from Peppercoin, even if the customer only spent 50 cents.

It seems utterly nutty until you apply this method to millions of 50-cent transactions every month. Maybe 5 percent of these transactions will be sent to Peppercoin, which processes them through the credit card system. The rest are thrown away. This keeps transaction costs way low. And the transactions that are processed have a value of $10 apiece, which brings in cash to make up for the 95 percent that were thrown away. Spread over millions of purchases, it all averages out.

New Scientist

New Scientist Searching for sudden "bursts" in the usage of particular words could be used to rapidly identify new trends and sort information more efficiently, says a US computer scientist.

Jon Kleinberg, at Cornell University in New York, has developed computer algorithms that identify bursts of word use in documents.

While other popular search techniques simply count the number of words or phrases in documents, Kleinberg's approach also takes into account the rate at which the word usage increases.

Kleinberg suggests that the method could be applied to weblogs to track new social trends. For example, identifying word bursts in the hundreds of thousands of personal diaries now on the web could help advertisers quickly spot an emerging craze.

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

Geek.com Geek News - TurboTax installer destroys non-Windows partitions

Geek.com Geek News - TurboTax installer destroys non-Windows partitions As April draws nearer, millions of Americans are looking forward with their usual zeal to filling out the labyrinthine forms required by the Internal Revenue Service. Intuit has made a profitable business with its TurboTax software designed specifically to ease the burden of filing taxes, but its latest version throws something into the mix that's got pretty much all of its customers furious: Digital Rights Management (DRM) that can destroy non-Windows disk partitions.

The technology is called "SafeCast," and it's designed to prevent users from making illegal copies of the TurboTax software. But the method it uses to accomplish these goals is pretty drastic. It includes writing to a partition area of the hard disk that is typically unused by Windows, but which could hold all sorts of valuable data if you use a different operating system or are set up for dual booting. Users have reported losing entire hard drives due to this "feature." What's worse, the DRM software stays put on your machine even if you uninstall TurboTax. The DRM portion of TurboTax is provided by Macrovision, a company that does not exactly have a history of looking out for customers' fair usage needs.

Monday, February 17, 2003

CrossBow

CrossBow

Open Letter to Intuit Regarding TurboTax DRM

Open Letter to Intuit Regarding TurboTax DRM Likely the biggest problem users have expressed, is the level at which the TurboTax licensing agreement is managed and protected with the SafeCast/C-Dilla technology. People believe C-Dilla infiltrates their system in a very insidious manner, and uses memory and resources even when TurboTax is not loaded. And some believe it has caused them serious compatibility problems with non-related CD writing operations. (PC Magazine and ExtremeTech will be conducting some tests next week to see if we can duplicate some of these problems).

Intuit and Macrovision have provided only cursory information regarding C-Dilla operations. Understandably, Intuit does not want to expose significant details. But if the scheme is mathematically and technically sound, there really is no reason why ALL the details should not be known, as it would likely not be computationally feasible to crack in a reasonable timeframe, even if one is armed with full knowledge of how it works. Unless Intuit and Macrovision provide this level of information, many people will still not trust you.

TurboTax Customers Strike a Blow Against Intuit

TurboTax Customers Strike a Blow Against Intuit

Opera Bork Bork Borks MSN Page

Opera Bork Bork Borks MSN Page

The Birth of the BBS

The Birth of the BBS

BBS: A Documentary

BBS: A Documentary

Friday, February 14, 2003

Aeron

Aeron

Xentronix -

Xentronix -

stocks, shares, news, FTSE, online trading - Ample

stocks, shares, news, FTSE, online trading - Ample UNITED NATIONS (AFX) - Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said it is necessary for the UN weapons inspections in Iraq to continue in order to find a political resolution to the situation.

"It is the hope of the international community to see a political resolution with a UN framework," he said.

He called on Iraq to provide more co-operation to the weapons inspectors and fulfil its promises as soon as possible.

"The inspection work has made progress and clarified quite a number of issues," said Tang in a crucial UN Security Council meeting.

"It is necessary for the inspections to continue. A great deal of work still needs to be done under the inspections bodies," he said.

josephine.mason@afxnews.com

CNN.com - Showbuzz - Feb. 14, 2003

CNN.com - Showbuzz - Feb. 14, 2003 Castro had been invited to attend Friday's screening of the film, culled from three days of intimate conversations the Cuban president did with Stone.

But festival director Dieter Kosslick received a letter from Castro Wednesday saying he was unable to attend, spokeswoman Frauke Greiner said Thursday.

"Comandante," an HBO documentary, premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

BBC NEWS | In Depth | Denver 2003 | Listening to 'singing volcanoes'

BBC NEWS | In Depth | Denver 2003 | Listening to 'singing volcanoes' Milton Garces, of the University of Hawaii, said each volcano could be said to have its own "voice". "Some are operatic. Others have no singing talent whatsoever," he said.

"We're developing the ability to understand the language of volcanoes, and translate that into something we can use to forecast an eruption."

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Mass fainting hits Ethiopian students

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Mass fainting hits Ethiopian students Last week there were two so-far unexplained deaths and this week more than 30 students fainted and were taken to hospital.

Iran hardliners renew Rushdie fatwa

Iran hardliners renew Rushdie fatwa ran hardliners renew Rushdie fatwa

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Revolutionary Guards have renewed a death sentence on author Salman Rushdie on the anniversary of the "fatwa" against the writer issued by former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

"The historical decree on Salman Rushdie is irrevocable and nothing can change it," the elite Revolutionary Guards said in a statement quoted on Friday by the official IRNA news agency.

The father of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution condemned Rushdie to death in 1989 for alleged blasphemy against Islam in his novel "The Satanic Verses".

"The issued fatwa is still valid," said the statement by the hardline military organisation, which answers directly to Iran's current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran's moderate President Mohammad Khatami said in 2001 the death sentence against Rushdie should be seen as closed.

But Iranian hardliners have continued to call for his death on some occasions, despite a 1998 deal by Iran and Britain to normalise relations after Tehran pledged to distance itself from efforts to kill the author.

Government officials could not be reached to comment on the Revolutionary Guards statement.

Rushdie was forced into hiding when Khomeini issued the fatwa in 1989 but has appeared more frequently in public in recent years. He lived in 30 different secret locations in Britain for nine years.

Thursday, February 13, 2003

Democracy in the Dark: Public Access Restrictions from Westlaw and LexisNexis

Democracy in the Dark: Public Access Restrictions from Westlaw and LexisNexis "Democracies die behind closed doors....When government begins closing doors, it selectively controls information rightfully belonging to the people. Selective information is misinformation." So spoke Judge Damon Keith in Detroit Free Press, et al. v. Ashcroft. Judge Keith was discussing closed immigration hearings in the wake of 9/11. He might have been talking about the public's lack of access to legal information databases, especially case law databases. Although many courts now publish case law on the Internet for free, thousands of older cases are not available to those who cannot pay. Hundreds of public libraries across the country provide online access to their patrons in an attempt to bridge the digital divide, covering all areas of information need. Yet often these public libraries are not allowed to offer access

Stegemann & Co, Inc.

Stegemann & Co, Inc.

Tuesday, February 11, 2003

ABCNEWS.com : For Dictator Drop-Outs, Try the Academy Boston University has initiated a fellowship to allow former heads-of-state from Africa — a continent that has generally had a rocky relationship with democracy — to spend up to two years at the institution, traveling around the United States and hosting public policy forums and discussions.
To sweeten the deal, the appointment also comes with an apartment in a posh part of Boston, plenty of security, and a generous stipend. An airline has even provided the program with a grant for domestic travel.

Monday, February 10, 2003

Picking up your marbles Why Isn't Microsoft's Shared Source a step forward?
Shared Source sounds a little bit like Open Source, and looking at source code seems to be involved. People are becoming confused about the issue, and apparently that result is among Microsoft's fondest hopes.
If you believe that the good is the enemy of the best2, then Shared Source is a non-starter, a step backwards, for that reason alone.
However, most of us are a bit more pragmatic about these things. Let's take a guided tour of the differences so we can make a more complete decision.

Friday, February 07, 2003

Business 2.0 - Magazine Article - A Glint in Detroit's Eyes GE Plastics claims that Sollx is also theoretically capable of "thermochromic" effects that change the color with the temperature -- imagine your Lexus molting from red to black as you head from the desert to the mountains. (Note to brand builders: It's even possible to chemically print colored insignias and logos on the film.) The cost is roughly the same as that of painted plastic.

Thursday, February 06, 2003

The Register

The Register Opera Software has accused Microsoft of deliberately engineering the MSN home page in order to make it look as if the Opera browser has a serious flaw in it. And the Norwegian company has published the results of an investigation which it says proves this.

Although Opera is convinced it has been deliberately targeted, it seems at least possible that the problem could be put down to some strangely coincidental finger trouble. But if that's the case, Opera has explained how simple it would be to fix it, and one therefore presumes Microsoft will give the matter its immediate attention.

Opera's techies downloaded the page using wget, in three different formats, identifying as Opera 7, MSIE and Netscape 7.01. The files sent to each browser are different, which is not necessarily suspicious, and the one sent to Opera7 has less content and is bigger than the one sent to IE. But that is not necessarily suspicious either.

Where it does get suspicious is when you look at the style sheets MSN sends to the browsers. The culprit, says Opera, is a 30 pixel value set on the margin property in the Opera style sheet. This instructs Opera to move list elements 30 pixels to the left of the parent, which means content moves off the side of its container, which means it looks like Opera is broken.

Opera tried to test whether or not this was deliberate by changing identification to the non-existent browser Oprah. This returns the IE style sheet, which works perfectly well in Opera. In Opera's view MSN is therefore looking specifically for "Opera" in the User-Agent string and sending it a broken style sheet. That, of course, could still be a mistake, as it's perfectly logical to send IE as the default if the browser can't be identified. But as there was no need for MSN to design an Opera-specific style sheet in the first place, one wonders... ®

* The Reg, incidentally, is regularly baffled by being unable to find stuff on Microsoft TechNet using Opera, because yet again we've forgotten that for some bizarre reason, lots of results from there in IE can equal no results at all in Opera. We've no idea whether this is a plot or not, either. Or indeed whether somebody might have fixed it by now.

Wednesday, February 05, 2003

IBM to make its own Opterons?

IBM to make its own Opterons? IBM MAY PRODUCE ITS OWN OPTERONS as part of its strategy to keep hammering away at Sun, HP and Intel. IBM has become a much shrewder player in the high-end business arena in recent years and, although the firm has committed to producing Itanium systems as well, Opteron stands a good chance of being a major winner.

ABCNEWS.com : Two in UK Court Charged with Raising Terror Funds

ABCNEWS.com : Two in UK Court Charged with Raising Terror Funds

Feb. 5

— LEICESTER, England (Reuters) - Two Algerian men accused of supporting Osama bin Laden and his call for a Jihad against Americans and their allies, appeared in a British court Wednesday charged with raising money to fund terrorism.

Baghdad Meziane, 38,and Brahim Benmerzouga, 31, denied a charge of entering into an arrangement for the purposes of raising money for terrorism at the opening of a high security trial at Leicester Crown Court in central England.

They sat in the dock behind a bullet-proof window, flanked by armed police, and aided by a French-speaking interpreter.

Meziane has also pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiring to defraud through the use or manufacture of fake bank, credit and charge cards while both men admitted possession of false passports and other documents.

Prosecutor Mark Ellison told the jury that the pair, who were arrested in the city on September 26 2001, had been found with materials that showed support for the ideology of bin Laden, who the United States blames for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

"It is the prosecution case that the arrangements they became concerned in were for the purposes of supporting and promoting militant Islamic extremism which ...promotes the use or threat of terrorism as a means of advancement," he said.

"That is, a form of violent Jihad, sometimes referred to as holy war, against the enemies of Islam."

Ellison told the court that Meziane was an asylum-seeker while Benmerzouga was an illegal immigrant. Both had been under surveillance for some time before their arrest.

The court heard that both men had used false identities to open bank accounts and claim benefits under different names.

Super Zaxxon World Record Verified by Twin Galaxies

Super Zaxxon World Record Verified by Twin Galaxies New Hampshire Man Breaks 20-Year-Old Super Zaxxon World Record.

Report by Robert Mruczek, Twin Galaxies Chief Referee

January 28, 2003 - New Hampshire -- The date was January 20th, 2003. The place was Funspot in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire. With his video camcorder set up on a tripod next to him, Donald Hayes set out to capture on videotape a new world record on what is widely regarded as one of the top ten hardest video arcade titles ever released..."Super Zaxxon". Released by Sega in 1982 as a sequel to the mega-hit title "Zaxxon", this title was much faster and harder than the original by far. Most gamers can't last more than 3 to 5 minutes, if even for that long.

Tuesday, February 04, 2003

RecipeSource: Swiss Cheese Fondue

RecipeSource: Swiss Cheese Fondue

New technology could cut greenhouse gases

New technology could cut greenhouse gases * Renewable energy - Solar energy alone could meet world energy demand using less than 1% of land currently used for agriculture.

* Energy efficiency - It is estimated that one half of future emissions could be eliminated through improved energy efficiency.

* Hydrogen - As a fuel carrier and store rather than an energy resource, hydrogen has the ability to provide energy with no local emissions other than water vapour.

ABCNEWS.com : USDA: Meat Plants Must Do More Against E.Coli

ABCNEWS.com : USDA: Meat Plants Must Do More Against E.Coli A preliminary review of these reassessments found 60 percent of 35 large meat plants did not meet federal food safety regulations, USDA officials said.

The USDA said it was the first examination of the so-called Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system, better known as HACCP, that was implemented in the late 1990s as a way for companies to set food safety checkpoints throughout the plant.

Misna Main

Misna Main The first pilot initiative of the ‘Hunger zero’ programme, wanted by the new Brazilian administration, officially took off in the small very poor location of Guaribas (State of Piauí). The plan was inaugurated in the presence of the special minister for food security, José Graziano, present in the location together with the heads of the cabinets of national integration Ciro Gomes, social promotion and assistance Benedita da Silva and of the city Olivio Dutra. Graziano reminded that the 4,800 inhabitants of Guaribas – third city with the worst social development rate of the nation, based on a US study – barely survive on the cultivation of ‘feijao’, a small black bean, maize and manioc and 40% of the minors below the age of 5 suffer from malnutrition. An immediate necessity is the construction of an aqueduct due to the lack of potable water. The functionaries distributed booklets to 500 families with coupons in the amount of 50 reais (around $14) per month, to acquire provisions. The coupons will however only be valid starting February 27. The ‘Hunger zero’ programme in Guaribas also includes an alphabetisation initiative for 300 youths and adults financed by the UNESCO. The programme, already defined by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as a ‘battle to save lives’, will count on an initial funding of 1.800-million reais (around $514-million).[BO]

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage Welles' Child Sues Over Rights to 'Citizen Kane'
Tue February 4, 2003 04:12 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The daughter of filmmaker Orson Welles is suing two studios over the rights to "Citizen Kane," saying that a newly discovered 1944 document gave her the copyright to the classic film, her lawyer said on Tuesday.

The lawsuit brought by Beatrice Welles, the youngest of the director's three children, in Federal District Court San Francisco also claims RKO Pictures and Turner Entertainment failed to pay royalties as part of a previous agreement for "Citizen Kane" and "The Magnificent Ambersons."

Steven Ames Brown, the attorney who filed the lawsuit, said the case stems from a recent discovery of a 1944 deal that nullified a 1939 agreement in which Welles transferred copyright of "Citizen Kane" from the director to RKO.

"This is essentially asking the court to determine who owns what," Brown said.

If the judge declines to award Welles' daughter rights to "Citizen Kane" then Brown argued his client is at least owed profits under the 1939 agreement. The lawsuit alleges Welles had a 20 percent profit-sharing agreement for "Citizen Kane" and a 25 percent royalty deal for the other film.

Brown added his client is only seeking royalties, not ownership, from "The Magnificent Ambersons." He declined to speculate on how much the royalties and copyright might be worth.

"They can't have it both ways," Brown said. "They can't say the agreement was terminated and that they got to keep the copyright and the money."

kuro5hin.org || technology and culture, from the trenches

kuro5hin.org || technology and culture, from the trenches I intercepted an attempted auto-downloading (java?) executable off of MSNBC's site. The redirect came from msn.com. The filename was 'ADSAdClient31.0170610', and a quick cull of the binary data reveals several things you can look for to see if your system has been infected with what I suspect to be yet another MS spyware program. Naturally, there is nothing in Microsoft's knowledge base about this.



For now, I'm calling it "Microsoft Ad Client 3.1", after a text string I found in it. It appears to have been released "Feb 3 2000 18:18:01". It appears to be a java module which allows advertiser(s) to create popup windows at specified intervals after viewing the website in question. It may also attempt to gain additional permissions - it has networking code and local file I/O calls in it. I do not have the tools or ability to reverse engineer a compiled java app, however, so I have to guess based on the text strings in the file. I believe the only reason I got to download this file was because the HTTP request was mangled - sadly, I do not have a log of the http headers.

Checking for the following files should give you a good idea on whether or not you've been infected with this: ADSInet.dll, Accipiter.Ini,ADSAdClient31.dbg, ent31.dll and/or the registry entries:
SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\ADSAdClient31
SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ADSAdClient31 ADSAdClientPerf31

Say a family has $60,000 in wage income. Of that, $3,720 is deducted from its paychecks for Social Security taxes, and an additional $870 is taken out for the Medicare tax. That's $4,590 that the family never sees. Nevertheless that money is taxed as personal income, as if the family received it. What it amounts to is a tax upon a tax.
And that's only the beginning. Some 10 million Americans are triple taxed, and that group's ranks swell by 1 million a year. When retirees begin to collect Social Security benefits, the income tax is again imposed on up to 85% of their benefits for those whose overall income exceeds a fixed level. For a husband and wife, it's $32,000 a year. For a single person, it's $25,000.
Because these base amounts do not rise with inflation, the number of retirees subject to the triple tax will grow each year. As a result, the tax will eventually hit many who can ill afford to pay it. And this is happening at a time when an increasing number of Americans are forced to work past their planned retirement age because of depleted pensions and retirement accounts. For 2000, 7.7 million individuals and families with incomes below $75,000 were taxed on their Social Security checks.
Be that as it may, the President's plan focuses on stockholders rather than workers. With certain exceptions, citizens would no longer pay tax on corporate dividends. The President's rationale: corporations already pay an income tax on their

Monday, February 03, 2003

Honda Varadero Coming to America?

Honda Varadero Coming to America? by Dirck Edge



If you live in the United States, you have probably never seen this motorcycle before. It is the Honda Varadero, and it has been around for several years in Europe. In fact, you are looking at the second-generation of the bike, which utilizes the 996cc, 90-degree Honda Super Hawk engine. It sells well in Europe, and is another example of the Sport Utility Motorcycle concept discussed in our article dated November 21, 2002.

Race Tech Gold Valve

Race Tech Gold Valve This "How to…" will walk you through the installation of RaceTech’s Gold Valve and springs. This is intended to supplement the service manual, not to replace it. Honda service manual makes no mention on how to service the cartridge so I hope this will help. For those who only wish to change oil or change springs and not dive into disassembly of the fork cartridge this will also serve as an aid.

Saturday, February 01, 2003

NASA - Home

NASA - Home

NASA Emergency Notice - 02/01/2003

NASA Emergency Notice - 02/01/2003 LATEST INFORMATION ON SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA

A Space Shuttle contingency was declared on Saturday in Mission Control when communication was lost with the Space Shuttle Columbia during its return to Earth following a 16-day mission.

Communication and tracking of the shuttle was lost at 9 a.m. EST at an altitude of about 203,000 feet above north central Texas while traveling approximately 12,500 miles per hour (Mach 18). No communication and tracking information was received in Mission Control after that time.

Flight controllers in Mission Control immediately began the process of securing all information, notes and data pertinent to today's reentry and landing.

News media wishing to cover the investigation should go to a NASA Center newsroom or watch NASA Television for the latest developments. NASA TV is on AMC-2, Transponder 9C, vertical polarization at 85 degrees West longitude, 3880 MHz, with audio at 6.8 MHz.

NOTE TO PERSONS IN THE AREA:
Anyone who believes they have found debris related to Columbia should call the Johnson Space Center Emergency Operations Center, (281)-483-3388. Be aware that hazardous chemicals may be present; do not disturb or move any debris.

All debris is United States Government property and is critical to the investigation of the shuttle accident. Any and all debris from the accident is to be left alone and reported to Government authorities. Unauthorized persons found in possession of accident debris will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

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