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Comment I'm not a scientist, but... (Score 1) 405

I can potentially see (via thought experiment) a difference between gravity and inertial mass...

Picture two identical hypothetical objects, each a mile long with identical large masses at the end of a thin support rod.

Place one on the Earth with the mass resting on the thin support rod, one mile from the surface.

Place the other similarly on the nose of a 'space ship' accelerating at exactly one gravity.

The mass leading the spaceship by a mile will experience exactly one gravity while the one spaced a mile above the Earth (a one gravity reference) will experience LESS than one gravity due to it's distance from the gravity source.

Don't like the small difference? Make the rods 10 miles or 100 miles long. At each increase the gravity effects on the Earth reference device will be reduced more due to distance from the source, while the apparent gravity experienced by the space ship based device will still be the exact same 1G.

Now step back from this and realize that it means that the effect of gravity, such as from the Earth's mass, is different for each part of ANY other mass, depending on its distance from the source, while the effect is IDENTICAL for each part of any mass experiencing "pseudo" gravity due to constant acceleration, no matter where located.

It would make more sense in pictures, and even more in mathematical terms, but I am not even going to try. I quit doing that sort of stuff 30 or 40 years ago.

Maybe someone can bother to rough it out and see what shows up?

--
Tomas

Comment As a long term Earthlink/Comcast customer... (Score 1) 306

...I just received a postcard from Earthlink in the mail today that also details the new 250GB limit on my 8 year old Earthlink Broadband service with the "last mile" by Comcast (originally AT&T for the last mile).

For right now, the 250GB limit really doesn't affect me, as I use considerbley less than that, but that does NOT mean that will ALWAYS be the case.

For me, though, I'll just wait and see how this plays out.

--
Tomas

Comment I really don't know... (Score 1) 515

Where I live is a small place that is actually incorporated as a "city" so legally it is probably a "city."

HOWEVER, it has no central business district. Want to shop head to one of the adjacent towns/cities that have business districts and malls.

We are a "bedroom community" that is mostly residential or stands of trees.

We have a golf course, we have waterfront, we have parks, we have espresso shops, we even have a few grocery stores and a grocery/ hardware/ furniture/ clothing/ drugs/ electronics store with a big parking lot (Fred Meyer), but we really aren't "self contained" as I would expect a city or even a town to be.

We have a Post Office!

I like it, but the "City of University Place" isn't.

Guess I'll call it a town, since the most obvious classification for it, "suburb" isn't a choice.

--
Tomas

Comment I'm a Site Admin... (Score 1) 660

... and I use AdBlock against my OWN site because I can't stand the sometimes interminable delays caused by some of the lousy crap that sponsors have buried in their ads.

I can understand sites needing to make enough money to keep the servers running, so I allow ads on many sites I visit, but if the delays and hang-ups get too bad, they are BLOCKED.

(On my site I try to keep the delays minimal, but when administering a sometimes very fast moving set of forums, I just cannot put up with even fairly short delays.)

Comment Re:I live in an apartment complex... (Score 1) 394

No, there are two Cable TV providers (Comcast and Click) offering high speed internet, the local phone company (Qwest) offering DSL, and Clearwire/Sprint 4G wireless (Clear) providing service to this complex.

(My usual "backup" happens to be a couple who has a WiFi base on their Clear 4G tranceiver.)

I haven't yet seen all four of those go down at the same time.

--Tomas

Comment Re:Give generated IDs to anonymous cowards (Score 1) 81

An additional problem with a good number of the earlier "Anonymous" posts is that they were originally owned by and identified to their copyright owners with the use of the Groklaw User IDs. In 2004, PJ went through a purge of a number of folks she disagreed with, deleted their users accounts, and all of their comments were instantly anonymized with no chance of recovery.

PJ's essentially removing the copyright identification from those thousands of posts caused a bit of upset from those who felt that by removing the only copyright information from the posts by replacing the name in the headers with "Anonymous" overstepped ethical bounds.

My standing with those who felt she had overstepped by doing that is the reason my original "Tomas" ID ( http://www.groklaw.net/users.php?mode=profile&uid=2502 )was banned from Groklaw. I've done very little posting under my replacement ID.

--Tomas

Comment Re:I live in an apartment complex... (Score 1) 394

Yeah, I'm off to one edge of the complex - I'd probably have a lot more choice in signals if I were closer to the middle.

As it is, I can "see" about 20 signals flickering in and out of existence right now, but only 9 of those are steady and strong enough to use, and only one of those has no security. It varies throughout the day. :o)

Comment I live in an apartment complex... (Score 3, Insightful) 394

...and it is an amazingly target rich environment.

There are usually between 8 and 15 signals with usable levels (11 right now) and often at least a couple of 'em have zero security.

It is handy when my broadband carrier goes down - I'm able to at least check mail using the advertised and open for use systems near me...

--
Tomas

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