Oooommmph .... Start
Off to SE Texas tomorrow. May not blog till Jan 7th.
Happy holidays and new year!
2 tools evryone shouldn't be without:
SpywareBlaster doesn't scan and clean for spyware - it prevents it from ever being installed.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
Spybot - Search & Destroy can detect and remove spyware of different kinds from your computer.
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=spybotsd
HijackThis can restore your browser's default search & web-page functionality.
http://mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
20,000+ books! Free to read.
At last finished reading
The Sun in My Eyes by Josie Dew
An excellent travel book on Japan. All 400 plus pages absolutely entertaining.
For discussions related to batteries: from BatterySpace.com
http://forums.batteryspace.com/forums/index.php?sid=6128eb9aa81a9f6098bb962dc0666461
For anything you want to know about flashlights and batteries:
www.candlepowerforums.com
From Ross:
The 3 heat transfer mechanisms are Conduction, Convection and Radiation.
Your Fan/heat sink rely on conduction to move the heat from the processor to the Heat Sink and convection to move the heat from the Heat sink to the air in your case.
Radiation is the method the earth gains and loses energy, the day time side adsorbs heat energy from the sun while the night time side radiates heat to deep space. Radiation depends on exposed surface area and the Temperature difference. Also involved is the Stephan-Boltzmann constant (generally lower case sigma ) = .1713 exp -8 Btu/(ft^2*hr*R^4)
Radiation heat loss per unit area goes like
e=(sigma)*T^4
Here the temperature must be in absolute units (K or R)
to get the total energy you need to look at the temperature difference between the body and the other "visible" surface. For a body in space the "visible" surface would be deep space at 3K.
According to theory you can freeze water on a warm summer night by placing it in a open mouth thermos bottle and pointing the open end at the dark sky. The water sees only the 3K temp of deep space and radiates its heat content to the nearly infinite sink of deep space.
From LF:
I'm disappointed in you, Ross. You completely forgot about epsilon, the emissivity of the object.
From Ross:
Yep, sure did. I sort of neglected it on the KISS principle, that and I was a bit short on time.
Note the ugly British units on sigma, that was what was given in the book I had on hand. I really should have searched out a metric value.
I'll leave that to the reader!
Also:
When you radiate heat you ARE radiating light, it is just in the infrared part of the spectrum which we can not see without special equipment
Man or Woman? Let computer decide..
http://www.bookblog.net/gender/genie.html
What' wrong with this? From slashdot.org
Ignorance isn't an excuse for one's actions in the eyes of the law.
"Ignorance of the law" does not mean the same thing as "plausible deniability".
If congress passes a law making it illegal to twiddle one's thumbs in public, and I do not realize this, then the idea of ignorance not giving me an excuse applies - The fact that I did not know about the anti-twiddling law does not exempt me from its penalties.
If, on the other hand, I run a shipping company (such as FedEx), no one could reasonably expect me to know the contents of every package I deliver. I have plausible deniability about knowing that I delivered, sone illegal package, and unless someone can prove that I knew the contents of that package and delivered it anyway, I would have no legal liability for its contents.
The same applies to file sharing and routing schemes such as MUTE uses. If I somehow don't know that trading (some) MP3s online violates the law, too bad, the RIAA can still screw me. If I allow my computer to serve as a waystation for packets, arguably for the same of overall network efficiency, why would I have any responsibility for those packets?
The word "waystation" gives me another good analogy - Harboring a fugitive breaks the law. Running a hotel that happens to unknowingly have a fugitive staying there does not.
Thirteen cows killed by single lightning bolt... -Holy cows!
Google has started letting people search text within books, following similar strides from retail behemoth Amazon.com.
print.google.com
The Google Print feature works by typing in "print.google.com" and any desired term into the Google search bar. For example, a query for "print.google.com dance" calls up two entries, including "The Only Dance There Is" by Ram Doss, with the tags BOOK and BETA next to them.
Saga continues:
The son of a wealthy lawyer, Mr. Thurmond had what Ms. Williams describes as "an affair" with her mother, Carrie Butler, when he was 22 and she was 16.
"It makes perfect sense," said Edward Ball, a South Carolina native and author of a family memoir called "Slaves in the Family."
"The typical case is that the son of a master's family tested out his sexuality on a vulnerable young woman in the master's house. This is exactly what Strom did."
"It's hypocritical," said Joseph Lowery, co-founder and longtime head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. "It is all too typical of many white segregationists who were segregationists by day but quite integrationists at night."
39 degrees, Rainy morning.
Final Word: 'My Father's Name Was James Strom Thurmond'
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN, NYT
At a news conference on Wednesday, Essie Mae Washington-Williams said she was the mixed-race child of the South Carolina senator who died in June at age 100.
Duration of Copyrights
The duration of copyright protection recently changed as a result of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. The easiest rule to state is that Copyrights have expired on all United States works registered or published prior to 1923. As a result, all such works have entered into the public domain. Beyond that, however, it is more complicated to determine when a copyright will expire. Like the old provisions, the duration of copyright protection under these new provisions depends upon when the work was created and first published. The three relevant time frames are:
* works created on or after January 1, 1978;
* works created before January 1, 1978, but not published until after this date; and
* works created and first published before January 1, 1978.
Works Originally Created On or After January 1, 1978: This is governed by statutory section 17 USC 302. According to this section, a work that is created (fixed in tangible form for the first time) on or after January 1, 1978 is ordinarily given a term enduring for the author's life, plus an additional 70 years after the author's death. In the case of "a joint work" prepared by two or more authors that was not a "work made for hire," the term lasts for 70 years after the last surviving author's death. For works made for hire, and for anonymous and pseudonymous works (unless the author's identity is revealed in Copyright Office records), the duration of copyright will be 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter. For more information on joint works and works made for hire, see the BitLaw discussion on Copyright Ownership.
Works Created Before January 1, 1978, But Not Published by That Date: This is governed by statutory section 17 USC 303. Works that were created but not published or registered for copyright before January 1, 1978, have been automatically brought under the statute and are now given Federal copyright protection. The duration of copyright in these works will generally be computed in the same way as for works created on or after January 1, 1978: the life-plus-70 or 95/120-year terms will apply to them as well. The law provides that in no case will the term of copyright for works in this category expire before December 31, 2002, and for works published on or before December 31, 2002, the term of copyright will not expire before December 31, 2047.
Works Originally Created and Published or Registered Before January 1, 1978: This is governed by statutory section 17 USC 304. Under the law in effect before 1978, copyright was secured either on the date a work was published or on the date of registration if the work was registered in unpublished form. In either case, the copyright endured for a first term of 28 years from the date it was secured. During the last (28th) year of the first term, the copyright was eligible for a second renewal term of an additional 28 years. If no application was filed for renewal, the work would enter the public domain after the initial 28 year term.
The current copyright law has extended the renewal term from 28 to 67 years for copyrights that existed as of January 1, 1978, making these works eligible for a total term of protection of 95 years. There is no longer a need to make the renewal filing in order to extend the original 28-year copyright term to the full 95 years. However, some benefits accrue to making a renewal registration during the 28th year of the original term.
In other words, if a work was published between 1923 to 1963, the copyright owner was required to have applied for a renewal term with the Copyright office. If they did not, the copyright expired and the work entered into the public domain. If they did apply for renewal, these works will have a 95 year copyright term and hence will enter into the public domain no sooner that 2018 (95 years from 1923). If the work was published between 1964 to 1977, there is no need to file for a renewal, and these works will automatically have a 95 year term.
Librarian of Congress OK's reverse engineering of Donkey Kong
Statement of the Librarian of Congress Relating to Section 1201 Rulemaking
In accordance with section 1201(a)(1) of the copyright law, I am today issuing a final rule that sets out four classes of works that will be subject to exemptions for the next three years from the statute's prohibition against circumvention of technology that effectively controls access to a copyrighted work. This is the second time that I have issued such a rule, which the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) requires that I do every three years. These exemptions expire after three years, unless proponents prove their case once again.
As required by the DMCA, the Register of Copyrights has conducted a rulemaking and made a recommendation to me on this matter. I have accepted the Register's recommendation and determined that for the next three years, persons who engage in noninfringing uses of copyrighted works in these four classes will not be subject to the statutory prohibition against circumvention of access controls.
It is important to understand the purposes of this rulemaking, as stated in the law, and the role I have in it. The rulemaking is not a broad evaluation of the successes or failures of the DMCA. The purpose of the proceeding is to determine whether current technologies that control access to copyrighted works are diminishing the ability of individuals to use works in lawful, noninfringing ways. The DMCA does not forbid the act of circumventing copy controls, and therefore this rulemaking proceeding is not about technologies that control copying. Some of the people who participated in the rulemaking did not understand that and made proposals based on their dissatisfaction with copy controls. Other participants sought exemptions that would permit them to circumvent access controls on all works when they are engaging in particular noninfringing uses of those works. The law does not give me that power. The focus in this rulemaking is on whether people have been adversely affected by access controls in th ir ability to make noninfringing uses of particular classes of copyrighted works. Congress has directed me to exempt particular classes of works if the case has been made that such an adverse impact exists or will exist in the next three years. These exemption are in place for only three years, but may be renewed if a case has been made that they are needed.
As Congress intended, this rulemaking has considered a wide range of possible adverse impacts. There was broad public participation in this rulemaking. Fifty-one individuals or organizations proposed one or more classes of works for exemption, and 338 commented on those proposals. The Copyright Office conducted six days of public hearings in April and May: four in Washington and two in Los Angeles, California. Transcripts of the hearings and copies of all the comments and reply comments and other information received by the Copyright Office were posted promptly on the Office's official website to ensure that the process was as open as possible.
The Register of Copyrights and her staff have conducted a careful and extensive evaluation of the entire record in the proceeding and determined that proponents of exemptions have demonstrated that the prohibition on circumventing access controls has had a substantial adverse effect on the ability of people to make noninfringing uses of four particular classes of copyrighted works. The Register has given me her analysis and recommendation, and today I have signed a document providing that persons making noninfringing uses of these four classes of works will not be subject to the prohibition against circumventing access controls during the next three years. The four classes of works are:
1. Compilations consisting of lists of Internet locations blocked by commercially marketed filtering software applications that are intended to prevent access to domains, websites or portions of websites, but not including lists of Internet locations blocked by software applications that operate exclusively to protect against damage to a computer or computer network or lists of Internet locations blocked by software applications that operate exclusively to prevent receipt of email.
2. Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete.
3. Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access.
4. Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling of the ebook's read-aloud function and that prevent the enabling of screen readers to render the text into a specialized format.
Two of these classes of works are very similar to the two classes of works that were exempted three years ago, but they have been modified to take into account the somewhat different cases that were presented to the Register this year. One of these two new classes of works will provide some relief to libraries and archives in their preservation activities, and the other will assist the blind and visually disabled in their ability to gain meaningful access to digital materials.
Intellectual Property
A generic expression referring to PATENTs, TRADEMARKs, COPYRIGHTs, TRADE SECRETs, trade dress, and any other tangible personal property that is created through the intellectual efforts of its creator or creators.
Patent misuse
If a PATENT owner improperly uses the patent beyond its lawful scope, the patent is considered to be improperly used or misused. The patent owner will generally be unable to recover damages for infringement during the period of time that the patent has been misued. Examples of patent misuse include illegal tying of products and services to the patented INVENTION, price fixing and the like.
Busy busy..
Top 2003 BOOK SALES [Run Hillary Run]
Nonfiction
1. South Beach Diet Dr. Arthur Agatston 2,304,608 [units scanned]
2. Purpose Driven Life Warren 1,507,902
3. Living History Clinton 1,084,520
4. Ultimate Weight Solution McGraw 836,043
5. Lies and The Lying Liars Franken 674,024
6. Who's Looking Out for You O'Reilly 430,407
7. Benjamin Franklin Isaacson 384,137
8. Dude, Where's My Country Moore 365,519
9. Treason Coulter 364,848
10. Fly Boys Bradley 222,685
11. Short History of Nearly Everything Bryson 217,591
12. Moneyball Lewis 210,108
13. Royal Duty Burrell 159,261
14. Who's Your Caddy? Reilly 151,978
15. Every Second Counts Armstrong 145,183
16. World According to Mr. Rogers 141,405
17. Madame Secretary Albright 122,167
18. New Cookbook, BH&G Better Homes & Gardens 118,230
19. Merriam Websters Dictionary 115,185
20. Bushwacked Ivans 110,000
As a comparison, Harry Potter fiction has scanned 7,908,391 units; DaVinci Code moved 3,023,336.
Cloudy and 41 degrees. Not bad for December.
Saga Continues: Saddam was 'unearthed'.
The Lion of Baghdad turns out to be a rat in the hole.
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Scandal
The family of the late Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina acknowledged on Monday that Essie Mae Washington-Williams, a retired teacher living in Los Angeles is the daughter of Mr. Thurmond and a black woman who worked for his family as a maid nearly 80 years ago. -- New York Times
Mr. Thurmond, Republican who was once one of the nation's leading segregationists, 'was' caught in bed with a black woman. Wonder he 'kissed' her before he made 'love'.. What a scoundrel.
"Why, Mistuh Thurmond suh, what are you doin' here at this hour?" --- LOL
Also history says black men were routinely lynched for real or perceived affairs with white women in the south. Now how does a black man deal with our 'distinguished' dead senator?
Conservative Canadian National Post columnist Mark Steyn on Strom Thurmond -- 100 years old and still fondling
and more from him:
And, of course, Strom is the only circuit court judge in South Carolina history to have made love to a condemned murderess as she was being transferred from the women's prison to death row. This was Sue Logue, the only woman in the state ever to be sent to the chair, but not before she'd been sent to the back seat of Strom's car for a lively final ride. It was a particularly bloody murder case that had begun when Mr. Logue's calf had been kicked to death by some other feller's mule. Things had escalated from there. Strom was said to have had a soft spot for Mrs. Logue, whom he'd hired as a teacher back when he was School Superintendent. She didn't meet the criteria for the post but she was said to have had unusual "vaginal muscular dexterity." I mention this not merely to be salacious and gossipy - perish the thought -- but only as an example of the extraordinary pageant that is Strom's life. If this were an appreciation of supposed Presidential candidate John Kerry, we'd have exhausted all the interesting stuff a couple of paragraphs up and you'd already have flipped to the sports section.
"Lynching Song"
Southern gentle lady,
Do not swoon.
They've just hung a black man....
From Langston Hughes: An Introduction to the Poetry. Copyright © 1976 by Columbia University Press
New York time editorial:
New Hope on Immigration
...bipartisan effort to deal with the 8 million to 10 million illegal immigrants who live, work and even pay taxes in this country.
Please give these people legal status and make them pay taxes! Need money to pay for $500 billion dollar deficit.
Also keep the doors open for more people...
Tech News from New York times today:
Toshiba Develops Tiny Disk for Phones
Toshiba Corp. has developed a hard disk drive about the size of a nickel that can be used to store music and video in mobile phones and other portable gadgets.
The 0.85 inch diameter disk is believed to be the world's smallest hard disk drive that can store about 2 or 3 gigabytes worth of information
-- Why not make a small form factor MP3 player based on this drive? Happy downloading!
Still waiting for a hard drive based device that uses windows media player 9.0 as OS (?)
Almost forgot the party last night. Origin of the word Egypt came up at the party.
Found a nice link that explain this word: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/kmt.htm
Returned from the "party" almost missed.
The origin of the word 'Egypt' came during the discussion.
Depressing news:
African Girls' Route to School Is Still Littered With Obstacles
By SOMINI SENGUPTA New York Times
The story of one remote hamlet in West Africa offers an example of the daunting challenges facing girls' education on the continent.
Woke up to find Saddam captured:
Defeat for a tyrant and victory for freedom.
March on democracy...
~~~~~~ Operation Iraqi Freedom casualty~~~~~
http://www.militarycity.com/valor/honor.html
Microsoft Ending Support for Windows 98 - About time
Windows XP rules!
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Punk Says:
The above is probably just my usual sarcasm and in no way reflects my real opinion (and,or) may include subtleties of sufficient rarity as to appear to the unsuspecting like total gibberish.
It may not be so much a matter that I'm far out, but rather that you have never been anywhere.
If you're ready for your enema, please remove your shoes.
There is EE in SLEEP, there is no SLEEP in EE.
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All right Everyone wear seatbelts. Start. Go.
Done gading Final Exams...great.. But don't know why students who have done good during the semester do so poorly in finals. Not the first time this has happened.
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Light snow has fallen but roads in the subdivision look clean. Temp is at 29 degrees.
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Read few more pages from the book : The Sun in My Eyes: Two-wheeling East
by Josie Dew
Synopsis
In her first book, "A Ride In The Neon Sun", the author Josie Dew cycled around Japan, getting to know the land and meeting the people. Her trip was interrupted for her brother's wedding in England, and this volume tells of her return to Japan to visit the many small islands that make up the country.
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Google this: "Miserable Failure" or Type "miserable failure" (no quotes) in the search box and hit "I'm feeling lucky" button!
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