I hadn't heard that story. Do tell. It's unfortunate that .COM bubble security companies have yet to have their stories told in documentaries the way shops like webvan did.

Someone please tell me that the Greg Perry in question isn't the same guy who used to call himself "Digital Hitler" and got busted for phone fraud in 1996. If that's the case, his probity might be in question.

This.
My understanding is that comcast is or was a transit customer of Level 3. Barring the sudden magical appearance of a backbone network it's cheeky at best for Comcast to ask L3 to pay _them_.

In my mom's building, they apparently installed set-top boxes and then pulled them all back out. (See my comment about CableVista muxes below)

There are devices at some Comcast customer sites that take an IP stream, demultiplex it, and remodulate it onto a small-scale cable system. I know this because I've been wrestling with Comcast over trying to connect a TiVo to my mother's apartment building's system. It appears that they previously negotiated their own deal for x number of channels and include the basic service in the rent. Somewhere in an apocryphal email from a tech, they mentioned that there was a cable vista box deployment there.

Surprisingly, Comcast doesn't seem sure as to whether this system will pass their other digital/HD content. I have had a very helpful lady from a regional office working with me after I got on the comcast.com website and used the "Email a VP" function.

I think given that you're a municipality, you might get good (or at least some) results if you try this.

That caution is warranted but a right not exercised can be said to be a right denied. It pains me that there's only one company making anything that even remotely resembles the chemistry set with which I grew up.

I'm all for holding people to high standards in terms of industrial hygiene, pollution and safety, but life is not without risk. If we don't see a dramatic impact on future generations' innovation from denying them access to interesting, fun home science experiments, I'll be shocked.

Another poster mentioned amateur radio, and I would amplify that. My ham club back in the late 1970's got one of the first licenses to research "digital modes" over the air. At the time they were some of the only people sending ASCII, rather than Baudot over a radio. Later they got some of the earliest approvals to experiment with spread spectrum radio in civilian applications. These days, there are folks "rediscovering" the VLF band. There are things to do out there still.

My personal love is fragrance chemistry. Unfortunately, there does seem to be a growing anti-science bias in both legislation and popular media. As pointed out, Texas is one of the worst offenders, but it has become increasingly difficult for people anywhere to buy reagents.

We're not the only ones who suffer though, even horse lovers have been impacted by the kneejerk bans and restrictions on ELEMENTS that might someday be used as a precursor for drug syntheses. Iodine crystals are a red flag these days. If you can even find them.

I have to admit that I often throw class action notices in the trash. I'm not a litigious sort, but I really do believe there's a question of how "unconscionable" Sony's actions have been in this instance.

I, like other /. readers probably did, factored the OtherOS support into my initial purchase decision. Being forced into a Hobson's Choice of OtherOS or no PSN gaming is unacceptable, especially without notice. At a minimum, treating consumers more like business IT customers would go a long way, though I appreciate the costs of customer service.

My greater concern is with this first prospective plaintiff's choice of attorneys. Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, Carton & Eberz is a firm that touts its assistance to people who are suing Rockstar Games over the inclusion of the "hot coffee" sex scenes code. It's not at all clear to me that there was any "consumer fraud" evident in that particular episode.

I'm all for using the tools that are available, but I might consider a different firm on principle.

Gah. I hate it when I forget to log in.

On a related note, if anyone has the latest copy of Genera for a MacIvory board that won't cost me $500, I'm all ears.

You mean with all those sparkly new highways, no one has seen fit to string fiber along the right-of-way? It seems to me you could give a little spool to each group that volunteers to "adopt a highway" and have a network in a month.

Well maybe 6 months. West Virginia does have a LOT of highways.
(if you don't know what this means, look up "Senator Robert Byrd")

I think the term is "social skills."

It's centered around Kevin Mitnick's story, but Jonathan Littman's "The Fugitive Game" does cover a pretty interesting swath of both eras. It's considerably less histrionic than certain other works by people whom I wouldn't necessarily regard to be disinterested parties. It's well written and the depth of some of Mr. Littman's research warmed my heart.

Suelette Dreyfus' "Underground" covers a fair amount of the 1990's as well. It's on Project Gutenberg, but worth owning a copy of if you want some perspective on the global scene.

If you want insight into the history of the Internet or operating systems, look for anything by Peter Salus.

Make it Michael Bay and I'd say we have a winnah!

Well knowing some of these folks personally (count the digits in my slashdot ID if you're wondering for how long)... perhaps because they have credible insights into the industry and technology, and secondarily because given some of their day jobs, it's exceedingly unlikely they'd choose to be affiliated overtly with a site that was malicious?

Just a thought.

Your faith in the environmental efficacy of government over corporations may be a tad misplaced. If you look at the list of superfund sites you will find a fair number of military bases and contractors operating under the auspices of support contracts from the government.

I remember in the 1980's working on a military base and seeing that they still carried DDT on trucks to kill bugs. I didn't have a big problem with that, other than that it would have been felonious to use in any place in the country at the time.

(Of course, now we're finding that judicious use of DDT in Africa may save thousands of lives, but it took a while to apply science to the miasma of FUD.)

As for money savings, there's an availability question too. We in the mid-Atlantic region with a fair number of operating reactors haven't faced anywhere near the energy fiascoes that California with their arguably kneejerk "no new plants" policies have endured. As a result of availability, not only haven't we seen rolling brownouts like California has, our prices are lower as well.