I agree: torrent can't really saturate a 10GE... for that you should see something like bbcp, which will quite handily flood a 10gig ethernet and then some. :-)

NC State University uses torrent to let students download some commercial software so they don't have to hand out DVDs... they distribute SAS that way for certain, probably a few others.

ibiblio had someone who developed sort of a "perma-seed" to use torrent for some sort of archive-like thingie. I know Paul Jones is probably reading this, perhaps he would like to comment? :-)

You forgot option C: Neilsen ratings for the CBS comedy are going down the tubes.

If then entire value of this thing is predicated on finding SHA256 collisions, then we need ask "what is the practical value of an SHA256 collision?" Looks like some one or some group has found a way to fraudulently-sign-digital-certificates@home. Is that something you want to participate in, especially in a way that can be traced back to you? :-)

Civilians can use govt/military spectrum under a Memorandum of Understanding between them and the agency, and a copy of that MOU is supposed to get sent on to the National Telecommunications Infrastructure Agency - the FCC for Federal Agencies, in effect. This is how privately owned stream gauges get operated on NOAA frequencies around 169 MHz and how privately-owned nuclear power plants use the SHARES shortwave network on federal frequencies. And have for decades. This is totally a non-problem.

Actually, extremely-high bandwidth laser comms for communication at further-than-the-moon distances is a hot research topic, precisely because optical telescopes can do things that radio telescopes can't. Specifically, optical telescopes can offer 150dB of gain even from a modest-sized 'scope. For more, see the tech report series at JPL's TMO Tech Report Series.

Of course, lasers require precision aiming, but that's just an engineering problem. :-)

I used some genuine 3278/79 terminals and I always thought they felt a bit mushy. Between that an VM/CMS, it wasn't terribly fun. I also felt like the genuine VT100/102 was too mushy, and anything with an LK201 was a non-starter (VT220/240 through VT420). But the keyboard that ruled was the Data General Dasher D410. That was a keyboard I could absolutely jam with. Never have found one that good since - crisply clickly, yet actually very low force. You could turn on ANSI emulation and it was good enough to work with VMS, which is pretty much the acid test for good VT emulation.

It's crap like this that makes Slackware look good... enough.

Undergrads now have similar competency in writing as they did in the late 80s - early 90s, but probably make different errors. Grammar is probably in a state of flux - ignoring textspeak completely, I think it's fair to say that "they" is well on its way to becoming the third person singular pronoun of choice for talking about humans without suggesting gender. In another century, perhaps, it will be accepted, but it's here right now and we can just decide to get along with.

Since there is no course for (or evidently even organized study of the pedagogy of) my field, I took the pedagogy of writing a while back. Quite an eye opener. Grammar and Spelling aren't even a goal now - the idea is they'll eventually pick it by reading enough. Also gone - pretty much any style of discourse other than the research paper, anything handwritten, and the reading of literature.

Meanwhile, the level of mathematical sophistication has increased. When I was an undergrad, it was unusual for students to come in with any calculus. Wealthy school districts could afford AP Calculus, and the rest of the state ended at Algebra IV. Now they can take AP Calculus online. Sure, it's the "AB" class, it's only good for one semester, but it makes a big difference in terms of graduation rates and time to degree.

Also, and this is purely anecdotal and shouldn't be trusted, but kids aren't coming to class wasted. I'm not saying they aren't using, I'm just saying they aren't coming to class blasted into space.

Agricultural Extension offices had them and were demonstrating them in or prior to 1961 in Tennessee, and TN is not the most progressive state in the country. :-) Then again, this wasn't that far from Oak Ridge, so maybe they could read and write up there. [mild sarcasm, dude...]

In all seriousness, I'm curious, educate me - I (naively?) thought if something was an FCC regulation, it would end up in 47CFR (maybe months later). Is there a difference between (administrative?) law and regulation, in the FCC's case or in general, and if so what is that difference?

I had to check to make sure you and I weren't the same person. I remember the dial string just because, in particular case, it rhymed.

**ODT5499403X

So I'm probably a couple years younger than you, because the modem was given to me. I stuck my Radio Shack Model 4P (the luggable with the handle on the top) onto a rolling desk chair, put the modem on top of that, and rolled down the hall in the dorm to get to the payphone. Unlimited local calls for a quarter, right? Worked pretty well.

I'm becoming everything I used to despise. :-)

HP has blamed some quarterly misses on SAP in the past, and you hear stories about how HP is distorting the market for SAP consultants... maybe they finally admitted it was never going to work? That's the kind of "operational detail" that is big enough to be materially significant in the SEC sense of the term.

I was going to post a link to ya'll, but I see you beat me to it. :-)

Not to burst your bubble, but most PoliSci majors are there because (a) they flunked out of engineering and (b) PoliSci has no minimum GPA to enter (2.0 to graduate). Virtually no incoming first year students apply to political science and there are practically no first year students in the program, yet it ends up being (by default) one of the five largest departments, year after year. It's not something you want to go into - it's something you wind up in when you run out of options. Sorry.

N810, does that count? I suspect most Maemo users are Slashdotters, so there should be a good ten thousand or so replies to the above... easily a new record. :-)