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Quickies

Insanely Great Quickies 139

Posted by emmett from the steve-jobs-love-child dept.
It's quickie time! Let's get into the action with some blood and guts. cthulhubob told us about Overkill. In light of all the irritating infringement news, An anonymous coward pointed us at http://www.groucho.com. I don't know why, but Jesper Skov thinks that having turbojets on model airplanes is a fantastic idea. Hey Doc, are you reading? Gabriel Golden submitted The Boomtrain Manifesto. leviathan shared the l33t surfer. According to our anonymous source, "Wired News is reporting that Danni Ashe has become the Most Downloaded Woman on the Internet. In your face, Cindy Margolis!" Bluedove (with a little help from Wes) showed us how to pirate music and video without a computer. alienmole gave us the origin of @. Mantis! is a Sega Saturn obsessive. Check out his site. Garth, while busy turning it up to eleven, told us about the upcoming re-release of Spinal Tap. On a personal note, just wanted to tell my friend Raja to get well, and that we're all thinking about him.
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Once I Was The King Of Quickies More

Once I Was The King Of Quickies

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  • There is actually a significant difference between the potential for copyright violation between analog and digital duplication methods: digital doesn't degrade from generation to generation. If I send a friend an mp3, and he sends a copy of it to another friend, and so on, and so forth, version number 1,000 should be more or less identical to the first one. The best analog recording gear in the world will start to show pretty significant signal degredation after the first dozen or so copies.

    Plus, we have the whole "new ecomony of scale" coming into play: It doesn't cost any significant amount to make anything past the first copy, and if someone else provides the orignial content, software, etc., the first copy is also effectively free. With a physical distribution unit required for each copy, your costs go up as you make more; with an electronic distribution method, you can copy the file once, and suddenly make it freely available to an effectively limitless number of people.

    Does this mean that digital distribution is bad? No, of course not. It means that the rules are in the course of being rewritten, and if the RIAA, MPAA, Metallica, et. al., don't want to be useful contributors to that process, there interests may be made secondary to those of the most vocal participants. I don't know if computers tend to instill freedom-loving ethics in most people who use them, or if those who use them the most are the ones who seek the freedom they provide, but the end result is the same.

  • If something is on tv or radio is already been paid for by advvertisers and sponsers, etc etc. I don't know what stations you listen to but mine don't play whole cds at a time, only the tracks meant for singles.

    Using your vcr to tape the simpsons is a far cry from stealing a workprint vcd or setting up a camera in a theater. I'm just curious how you can justify downloading a movie thats still in theaters, or mp3s from a cd thats not meant to be released yet. I'm sure you love those people who give away the movie ending before you have seen it.
  • Ok, so you read the article. The thing was a joke. The moderators mistook your ignorance for malice. He wasn't serious saying that mymp3 == a cassette. It's called humor.
  • That's really cool. What a great idea. Too bad English can't use it that way; the "s/he" and "his/hers" constructions suck. So, does the "@" have a pronunciation yet? Where have you seen this in Latin America? (You don't list an email, please email me.) I am in rural Latin America for the moment, so I'm not exposed to this kind of thing regularly.


    ______________________(
    // ///#\)

  • The engine was the Dynajet, which hasn't been manufactured for a long time. Some pictures of pulse jet powered model airplanes can be found here [virgin.net], including some using the Dynajet.
  • I do hope Raja feels better, but I've been feeling like crap since Saturday.

    Once again I've got doctors probing me in weird ways to find what it is. As usual, a doctor sees my blood test results and tells me to cut down on the red meat and alcohol. I'm a $%^& vegetarian! I have never consumed alcohol other than like liquor-filled chocolates-- and that was YEARS ago! So I tell the doctor that and he's like "Well... this shouldn't be happening..."

    I just love it when I get to be the first time doctors ever see anything happening. I love it when they make me go thrugh tons of blood tests and ultrasuonds and make me eat and drink nothing but radioactive fluid for 24hours and then CAT scan me because one doctor didn't like what mypancris looked like, but then tells me it's "normal for about 5% of the population."

    And after all the poking, prodding and analysing - they still don't know what the heck is wrong.

    You know what? I've actually been feeling pretty bad since 1997! Aaaaaaaaaaaarrgghh.... Countless doctors, several different countries, nothing. I guess that's the price you pay for being a vegetarian, not smoking, not drinking, not doing drugs, etc. Now they're going to make me give up pizza and cookies, too.


    --

  • Re:RIAA's already quashed it (Score:3)

    by alannon ( 54117 ) on Friday August 11, 2000 @11:34PM (#863954)
    Actually... There was a LARGE controversy about this here in Canada, and stores were warned that there might be a huge tax, though they were never told what it was, even though they were told to start collecting for it before they had decided what it was going to be. So, not surprisingly, just before this kicked in, there was a HUGE run on blank CDs in the country. There was such a protest, though, that they ended up taxing 'regular' CD-Rs only $0.25 or so and put the big tax on "audio" CD-Rs, about $1.75. What is the difference between a regular CD-R and and Audio CD-R, you ask? Well, Audio CD-Rs are marked with some identifier that allows them to be played on certain new audio equipment (namely, some Sony equipment, I believe). This same equipment will NOT play regular CD-Rs. That sure sounds like a 'feature' that the consumer asked for. In any case, this falls under a digital home recording act, so now it is perfectly legal to copy CDs and give them to your friends. It could have been MUCH worse.
  • Collage 376 H u m o u r N e t 13 Nov 1997

    SUBJ: Microsoft Acquires Rights to the '@' character
    By Jeffrey W Comer, jwc0@erols.com ("jwc-zero")

    For immediate release

    In a startling move, software giant Microsoft, Inc. of Redmond, WA,
    announced today that it had acquired in perpetuity rights to the
    "at-sign," the @ character. The at-sign, more properly known as an
    "attathorp," is the Holy Grail of Symbology. It is used almost
    universally in electronic mail messages, and its frequency of usage is
    estimated at well over 20 million instances per day.

    Hard on the heels of the Microsoft acquisition of the trademark symbol
    (formerly TM) and the service mark symbol (formerly SM), Microsoft
    spokesperson Kathy Senna said the move solidified the firm's hold on
    printing and communications technology well in to the 21st century.

    "We felt Microsoft had strong 'logo disuse case' with the attathorp,"
    said Ms Senna. "We examined case law concerning the symbol and our
    attorneys developed a line of argument whereby it was established the
    original rights owners to the attathorp had long since given up its
    use. We simply stepped in and took over maintenance for it."

    Indeed, prior to the 1980's, the attathorp was an almost entirely
    unused symbol taking up space on typewriter and teletype keyboards.
    The advent of the Internet, with its ubiquitous "@" naming convention,
    thrust the demure mark into the limelight, making it an almost
    singular paean to the Information Age.

    Under the terms of the deal, Microsoft acquires in perpetuity all
    exclusive use rights to the attathorp. Effective immediately, all
    users of the @-sign must include in their work "(c) Microsoft, Inc.
    1997, 1998." In July 1998, the appearance of the symbol itself will
    change. The familiar 'a' inside the circle will be replaced by a tiny
    pairing of the letters "ms" in small caps. All users will still be
    required to include copyright notices.

    Beginning in 1999, all users of the attathorp -- to be renamed the
    microthorp -- will be required to license use of the symbol. Microsoft
    has yet to work out details of that arrangement, but spokesperson
    Senna indicated that the company would offer several levels of
    licensing. "We are projecting a single-use package for the occasional
    user, a 1000-use package for writers who use the Internet daily, and a
    ten-thousand use package for small business needs."

    For users with greater needs, Microsoft will license a microthorp
    bonus pack, which also includes rights to other minor symbols, such as
    the caret (^), the paragraph marker, and the doomeyflosh (also known
    as the lozenge).

    The move caught Wall Street investors by surprise. By noon, the bulls
    were running rampant, and the trading price had surged up 15 points.

    To subscribe to the "HumourNet" mailing list, send the following
    command to :

    subscribe HumourNet your_name, your_city, your_state or country



  • <i>Countless doctors, several different countries, nothing. I guess that's the price you pay for being a vegetarian, not smoking, not drinking, not doing drugs, etc. </i><p>
    Just as a thought - have you tried quitting being a vegetarian for long enough so you body settles into processing animal protein (going either way, there *is* an adjustment period), and see how you feel after that?<p>I used to have serious genetic (all down my father's side of the family) acid reflux. Going on Atkins actually cured me. I'm not saying that I'd recommend it (unless you are looking to lose weight)... but a change in diet sure helped me.<p>
    --
    <br>
    Evan
  • As I understand it, her only claim to fame was claiming that she was famous. She fed the "most downloaded woman on the internet" line to various people, and apparently they bought it.
  • My initial search was for symbols names I did know like carat, ampersand, etc. That got me to ISO 8859 - standard for typographical symbols [bbsinc.com] that is the basis for &n symbols used in HTML, and I managed to come up with name "commercial at" that allowed further searching, but as I said it was ultimately unsuccessful.

  • Knowing that the word is amphora, here are some references to the amphora being used as a unit of measure

    Encyclopædia Britannica [britannica.com]
    amphora,
    ancient Roman unit of capacity equal to 48 sextarii and equivalent to 25.5 litres (6.7 U.S. gallons). The term amphora was borrowed from the Greeks, who used it to designate a measure equal to about 34 litres (9 gallons).

    From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary: [fbcfw.org]Firkin - Used only in John 2:6; the Attic amphora, equivalent to the Hebrew bath (q.v.), a measure for liquids containing about 8 7/8 gallons.

    History : Sketches in Jewish Life - Ch. 16 - B [216.10.13.21]
    On the lintel over the doorway, between two wreaths of Flowers, is carved a Vessel, shaped like a Roman amphora. It so closely resembles the conventional type of the 'Pot of Manna,' as found on coins and in the ruins of the Synagogue at Capernaum, that it doubtless formed ...

    These seem to document that the term amphora was used to represent a unit of measure, and perhaps a unit of currency going back to biblical times. And so, much the same as we have symbols to represent currency (like $) or measurement (#) you'd have to think the symbol (or a predecessor) is older than 500 years.

  • I'm sure you will when Adobe (or BT or Amazon or etc.) go through their patent archives.
  • Maybe _your_ area's cassettes aren't taxed, but mine are...
  • http://www.smoking.de/cgi-local/l33t.pl?skill=5&ur l=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft.com

    Laine Walker-Avina
    LaineW@technologist.com

  • Bluedove's homepage [gatewest.net] is at http://www.gatewest.net/~bluedove/stickinit/sticki n_it.html, not the one referenced in the quickies (characters truncated)

  • How could they have overlooked "In Thrust We Trust"?

    "I will gladly pay you today, sir, and eat up

  • Well, this may be a little off-topic, but the latest use of the @ sign, besides the normal use in e-mail addresses, is more of a political-correct letter. Kind of like a spanish version of the "(s)he" used in several places.

    See, the @ can be used as an "a" (a feminine termination) surrounded by an "o" (a masculine termination). In other words, it can turn most spanish words into a new, non-sexist version which is both feminine and masculine at the time.

    Just like Michael Jackson...
  • All the time I thought you could only transfer data over the internet and now you tell me, I could download women?
    Internet sure is a weird place...
  • You need to check out Tapster [tapster.com], Spinal Tap [spinaltap.com]'s music distribution site. Nigel said that the real problem with Napster is "too many songs", so it originally had just one song, though now there're a few more Spinal Tap songs, posted by David, Nigel, Lars, and others.
  • And if you actually read the oso article you would find out it was sarcastic and from a Canadian comedian.
  • How long do you reckon it's gonna be before the L33t surfer guys get sued for copyright infringement (rewritting other people's pages) ?
  • Raja we love you!

    Raja is my hero, and can play a good game of Diablo 2. Raja-the-tiger, get better for us so I can help you finish up act1!

    Come pet raja on #slashdot on OPN, when is is strong enough to come.
    irc.linux.com

    Raja, rest up, we sure do miss you.

    ...Damn that cancer...

  • The most stupid politicofeminazilycorrectly stupid transformation was Ombudsperson instead of Ombudsman (sp?). Or what about this one: shero instead of hero ... duh.

  • Spinal Tap rules! (Score:5)

    by Mike Schiraldi ( 18296 ) on Thursday August 10, 2000 @02:01PM (#863973) Homepage Journal
    Their messages can be moderated up to 11!
    --

  • Re:not so much a musical group (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Although they've done a lot of music, I think they're known more for their writing and acting in sketch and improv comedy. They once did a show with the band "Junior Gone Wild", and even had their own comedy series on CBC [cbc.ca]. They still do good music, though. One of my favourites is "The War of 1812".
  • While surfing through slashdot in l33t mode, i noticed the following headline...

    "N3w 6Hz C0mp37170r 1n Pr0c3550r M4rk37 $00n"

    6Hz. wow.
    l33t P30p|3 7h1nk 1n D4 FU7UR3!

    *lol*
    /nutt
  • OK. Does it mean that if I prove that I am using the tape for recording of my own voice, I can apply for tax return ?
  • For some reason my mom cut out a picture of Cindy Margolis and put it on the fridge. She did it for my dad. I find this whole thing insane. I liked her as a fembot, but as my dad's pinup as a present from my mom, no way...

    Even the samurai
    have teddy bears,
    and even the teddy bears

  • or setting up a camera in a theater.

    You paid to get in there didn't you? And you have to watch the adverts don't you? How is making your own copy any diferent from recording it from the TV?

  • Raja (Score:2)

    by ChrisUK ( 92178 )
    Just an explanatory note. Raja hangs on OPN #slashdot, and he's a Very Cool Guy. But he has cancer, which isn't good. We wish him all the best, so he can get back to enjoying Emmett's Air Canada flames and various degrees of trolldom.

    Get well soon, dude.

    Chris / thoric.
  • If we are gonna have jet powered toys, we definitely should get reheat.
    Afterburners are the best part of jet engines.

  • Get well soon raja!
  • I want to see the first use of the dot.
    --
  • Why is this "from the steve-jobs-love-child dept"? What have they got to do with this? What is this departemnt anyway? is it made up of Steve's love-children? All of them? Or is it hunting them down for sadistic purpouses? or just to hold them hostage for a buch of cubes and some airport equipment and maybe a few dual processor G4s?

    What do specifically Steve Job's love-children have to do with THESE quickies? These seem to be new bits of info, while a steve-love-child would have to be 15 or so at least, no? Has the man gotten laid more recently than that?

    Ok - I've had my fun, but could someone please explain it?

  • Re:RIAA's already quashed it (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Yeah, the tax is to compensate for "piracy", but the artists never see a dime of it.
  • Most downloaded woman? I thought it was Pam Anderson.

    Or was it before Tommy Lee downloaded her?
  • Is Overkill [mff.cuni.cz] by chance related to another project which produced a text-mode Quake? [mr.net]
    You know, I've always wondered why do people want a text-mode action game, but then I recall my Cirrus Logic [cirrus.com] video card which is still humming on my 486/66 DX, and it all comes back.

    Ahh, the sweet memories...

    --
    Kiro

  • Hear! Hear! Let me go and have one right now.
  • www.cindymargolis.com is running "Microsoft-IIS/4.0".

    Yes, but who is she? Before today, I'd never heard of her. I guess she's famous for something in the US, but I couldn't figure out what. Her site is extremely lynx unfriendly.

  • There was a TV program in the UK a few months ago where someone home-brewed a turbojet engine from a truck turbocharger and strapped it to the back of his bicycle. It was about the size and shape of a 2-litre soda bottle, and pushed the bike quietly and smoothly at about 20-30 mph. Sadly not street-legal.
  • Now, a jet engine has considerably more moving parts than a rocket engine.

    So, how small can you make an actual jet engine and still have it work?
    --

  • Maybe I'm not l33t then, since I can't figure out where the "word" comes from.

    Is it short for "elite", and if so, why is everyone using it? You can't all be l33t, you know... sounds like another case of style versus substance! - friv010u5 / F|21\/010u5

  • Even better is http://www.alexaresearch.com/clientdir/methodology /

    They'd fail stats 101 with this marketing fluff.
  • You want possibilities?!?! Check this out! http://www.amtjets.com/gallery_real_plain.html -yce
  • I work for GCC Printers [gccprinters.com]. (Nothing to do with your favorite compiler.) Our printer line is trademarked the "elite" line of printers.

    I was fairly dissappointed that the hacker speak does not translate elite into 31337. It seems to only do characters and has no recognition of common hacker words. Take a look at our 31337 21 N technical specs [smoking.de] or our product line [smoking.de] to see what I mean.

  • I beleve that the person who invented that usage is now at Genuity (GTE Internetworking) in a fairly high up position. so, yes, it can happen.
  • Did anyone look closely at the way they did their count? There are quite a few flaws in their methodology but this was the most glaring. If you look at their counts, they looked at how many unique IP's they had per month. They then added those up to get yearly totals. I hate to tell you, but 4 unique IP's + 4 unique IP's is very often 4 and not 8.
  • I think it's an obscure reference to Emmett being the forgotten child of Jobs (or at least looking like the part)
  • Cindy was a fem bot, and that pretty much sums it up. I'm not saying she's not attractive, but lets face it, smut all over is strewn with skinny blonde women that look exactly like her. Danni however, is different. She has her own look, sure her breasts are down right gargantuan, but she has a nice big butt too. She's not bone thin either, her form follows the classic beauty model. Sure Danni wont get any offers from TV sitcoms (hell cindy only gets UPN anyways), but I would personally rather look at her naked, than Cindy any day. I am glad that she may be the most downloaded woman. You are welcome to disagree with me, its only an opinion.
  • I don't know if they are still being manufactured, but there used to be a small pulse-jet engine, like the German V1 Buzz Bomb, suitable for use on model airplanes. The engine was very simple. The only moving parts were the flapper valves that admitted air into the combustion chamber.
  • Did anyone read the description of the research [mostdownloadedwoman.com] used to determine that Danni Ashe is the most downloaded woman? It's almost art the way they whittle down the possibilities by eliminating them from the study. I mean, if I could use methods like these I'd surely be able to prove (as I have always known) that I'm the best person in the world at everything!

    sheesh.
    --
  • I hearby demand that we make "download" a euphemism for "screw"*. Then we can be pissed off at Wired for using dirty language.



    * Insert your favorite pre-existing euphemism: bop, fuck, fsck, fork, shag, etc...


    My mom is not a Karma whore!
  • Well, they do have cameras and transmitters small enough to be able to fit in an R/C plane. Size and weight aren't your major problems.

    • Vibration: You're going to have to insulate the smeg out of the equipment
    • Batteries: R/C planes use a bunch of battery juice as it is. Adding a `fly by camera' interface would probably double the battery requirements.
    • Flying: Unless you're going to put in four cameras (along with instruments (altitude, artificial horizon, pitch/yaw/roll rate, etc)), you're going to have a cast iron bitch of a time controlling the beast. Think about how much information it takes for a real pilot in a real plane to fly - 360 degree vision, a dozen instruments, and his sense of equlibrium(sp?). To duplicate that in a {quarter|fith|tenth} scale model that flys at a simulated speed of 1000 mph (200 mph ground speed in a fifth-scale model) would be very, very expensive and very difficult to control. Not only that, but you'd likely need a friend watching the plane to tell you when it was about to pancake into the runway...


    If you still wanted to try, here's what I would do. First, practice your flying skills. Make sure you're good at it, as you don't want to crash models that cost 5k a pop. Build a quarter scale Bear D [achilles.net] with the largest engines you can find. Insulte the fuselage. Stick all of you equipment (altimeter, airspeed indicator, artificial horizon, cameras, transmitters, batteries, extra batteries, receivers, etc) in the fuselage, then make your ground rig (I'll leave that one up to you :-). Then, carefully, teach yourself how to fly this thing (it'll be big, so be careful).

    Then, take what you've learned and invest in something insane, like a dual jet Mig-29 [lucia.it] , or a Hornet [free.hit.bg], or an F-15 [pratt-whitney.com].

    Enjoy!

    (Yes, I've looked into this :-)
  • One of the coolest things I've ever seen was a project (in R/C Modeling, I think) to build a quarter scale Harrier and reproduce the ducting and all that.

    Imagine a VTOL model with a turbojet :-)
  • I know, that ascii stick figure pr0n sucks.

  • Re:Turbojets on model airplanes? (Score:3)

    by Fishstick ( 150821 ) on Friday August 11, 2000 @04:28AM (#864005) Journal
    That has been done, at least mounting cameras with transmitters to watch from the ground, I don't know of anyone ever flying that way though. Would imagine the field of view would be limited and unless you could also have some kind of instrumentation show up to compensate, I would be very doubtful that this could work.

    It does take some getting used to, but flying a plane from a fixed position is pretty easy. If you've ever tried a R/C car, you know what it is like at first. You get quickly disoriented and turn the wrong way unless the car is heading directly away.

    After a bit, your brain learns to compensate for the orentation of the vehicle and you automatically make the proper control inputs. The same thing happens with a R/C plane, only in 3 degrees instead of 2. I found that getting the PC simulator helped me the most. After a few hours of crashing the plane everytime I turned, I got quite proficient at recognizing the position and attitude of the aircraft and was soon flying inverted with no problem.

    When I finally got out to the field with my trainer R/C, I had little trouble adjusting to it. R/C flying is great.
  • Flying: Unless you're going to put in four cameras (along with instruments (altitude, artificial horizon, pitch/yaw/roll rate, etc)), you're going to have a cast iron bitch of a time controlling the beast. Think about how much information it takes for a real pilot in a real plane to fly - 360 degree vision, a dozen instruments, and his sense of equlibrium(sp?). To duplicate that in a {quarter|fith|tenth} scale model that flys at a simulated speed of 1000 mph (200 mph ground speed in a fifth-scale model) would be very, very expensive and very difficult to control. Not only that, but you'd likely need a friend watching the plane to tell you when it was about to pancake into the runway...

    Here's where you lose me. The technical arguments about power, vibration I can understand, but I don't understand how much easier it is to control a plane flying some 100 feet above you, at some crazy angle away from you and without the instrumentation you'd claim you'd need, while stationary on the ground. It just strikes me that the direct visual feedback of seeing the world relative to the plane would make control so much easier. I could see it being a problem with poor visibility, bad light, etc etc, but in a normal daylight environment with good ground/sky contrast. I'm not a pilot, RC, virtual or otherwise, so maybe there's something there I'm missing, but flying first-person rather than third just seems easier.

  • Suddenly, running "The Sims" has become a whole lot more exciting...

  • I copied this from an article...

    Subject: Re: How to Pirate Music and Video Without a Computer

    Hi I am Sans Lafargouo From the RIAA. I have documented all that you have done here and will be filing suit against the several companies that are supplying this pirated material and tools to pirate. Starting with the FCC that obviously endorces these broadcastings of non-owned musical genius compositions (music) by the extremely poor artists (The members of the band Garbage cannot afford to buy 3 more Ferarri's because of this pirating! Why must they suffer?) The FCC is obviously the center for these pirated transmissions and they are endorsing the equipment to pirate the music and video.. Our research department have discovered a FCC certification label on every piece of equipment that has this record function. This clearly shows that the FCC endorses the Copying of music.

    Please Note: the SONY company is immune to the lawsuit, as they own a large amount of music and artists (they keep them in nice closets) and therefore did not intentionally include the record function on their equipment.

    thank you.

    cc: richard head - President of RIAA and Mike Hunt - President of the Metallica is cool fan club

  • Are you on Smack??? blank tapes cost so much?? That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. anyone with a clue knows where to buy tapes for about 35 cents apiece. This is for BSR brand high speed duplication grade (I.E. the same grade as what you buy at the store with your metallica sons on it) Cripes there is no "TAX",

    Please get a clue before posting.... as for the reason that TDK ultra-cd golds cost 5 bucks apiece? that's because stupid consumers will pay that price for the fancy labels and stupid buzzwords ("look dear it's stereo-certified!").... the tape is no better than the crap they make production grade tapes at.

    No there is not "tax" there is no conspiriacy, and there is no content in this discussion.
  • Well, in Canada they have a tax on CDRs as well...

    What a crock. If they're going to tax media to cover the loss incurred from pir8s, then doesn't that make pirating okay? They get their money anyways? Maybe entertainment costs should just become part of income tax, and then we can all watch movies, and listen to music for Free! Then they should do the same to gas prices!

    From each according to their abilities, to those according to their needs!!

    </sarcasm>

  • Turbojet airplane (Score:3)

    by MostlyHarmless ( 75501 ) <(gro.llehseerf) (ta) (tnedtra)> on Thursday August 10, 2000 @03:15PM (#864011)
    In the RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) test: So, this test is of most impotency for us all

    Really? Dude! I mean, I knew RFI was bad and stuff, but I never knew it would get like that! Ouch, I'd better go recalibrate my ham transceiver.

    --

  • Spinal Tap on mp3 (Score:3)

    by Saint Nobody ( 21391 ) on Thursday August 10, 2000 @03:16PM (#864012) Homepage Journal

    Spinal Tap is giving out a bunch of songs free in mp3 on their new site, Tapster [tapster.com]


  • Steve Jobs coined the phrase "The next insanely great thing" or something along those lines. I'm sure you can take it from there.


    --
  • Did you look at the website of the guy [mff.cuni.cz] who wrote overkill? It's pretty funny, wonder what his attraction to strawberries is???
  • As a matter of fact, I do know where to find that info. Drop these guys an email: www.3m.com www.tdk.com www.maxell.com
  • The ironic part is that at the local Sony store, they have a line of blank tapes called "CD-it". As in, these are targeted towards people wanting to copy CDs. Most other tapes there also include a little blurb on the label about how they're suited for copying CDs.
  • Well, I read through to the end of the quickies and what gives? They say it's insanely great but there isn't a bit of a mention about the Insanely Great Computer [apple.com] that ubiquitized the phrase 'insanely great'. sheesh.
  • How about Deep Throat - In ASCII Art!! [www1.zkm.de].
    Personally, I think that beats out an all-ASCII boy band, but that's just me. Unfortunately, it's pretty slow - at least for me.

    Chris the MathFreak
  • The tax is applied to digital media. DAT tapes, Hi-8 tapes for Tascam recording equipment, Minidisc media and the like have a small tax added for the reason you give. It is not applied to analog media because the RIAA doesn't fear analog piracy, only digital.

    Kawaldeep
  • only until the spiders learn to pick that up too.
  • For those of you who skipped the Saturn in favor of the playstation, you may not realize how much the Saturn rocked! These games alone were worth the cost of the ENTIRE console: Panzer dragoon saga (considered by many to be the best RPG ever,) World Series Baseball 98 (some people complain about the psx baseball selection by pointing out that wsb was better than any baseball game on the psx -- I don't think it is that psx baseball games are bad it is just that wsb rocked!) Guardian heros (an true classic) and Burning rangers (if it came out for the psx you would have heard of it.)

    The psx was meant to be a 3d gaming platform from the start. The saturn was meant to be a 2d gaming platform but at the last minute they added the second sh2 cpu so it could do 3d games using brute force. The 3d games on the saturn were ok for their day but it was much cheaper and easier to come up with 3d games for the psx. The 2d games on the saturn are nothing short of awesome. In fact there aren't many differences between many saturn and dreamcast 2d games.

    I am sure many others will post their favorite games. I didn't even mention shining force 3, die hard arcade or tomb raider. Yes tomb raider came out for the saturn first!

    Sega makes great games (see any aracade to tell what I am talking about.) They usually make good consoles (32x being an exception.) Their marketing though is really hit or miss. Let's face it of the three big video game companies Sega has to come out with new an cool stuff or they will get totally crushed!
  • Small brain tumor and cancer in the neck.? I think so...
  • pulse jets still need a compressor..plus an external starter. usually this is a major pain..no restarts in flight etc...they also are limited in thrust and the micro explosions of the pulses cause damage internally to the engine.
    heres a fairly good modern design with a relatively long life and is much safer : http://www.gtba.cnuce.cnr.it/GT2000.HTM

  • Re:RIAA's already quashed it (Score:3)

    by jovlinger ( 55075 ) on Friday August 11, 2000 @05:58AM (#864029) Homepage
    The thing about the tax (and likely why it remains unknown) is that by paying the tax, that legitimizes my using it for piracy; I've already paid the RIAA. Why should I pay the tax to compensate for copying, and then be told that I can't copy! If I pay for something, I want it, and I have right to it.

    This sort of tax is bad PR. Unfortunately, I guess it is cheaper to use the money collected in this way to pay for some glitzy ad campaign to offset that PR.

  • Actually, I think her inflated boo^H^H^Hstatistics are due to the fact that someone (not necessarily her) spams the alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.* heirarchy on USENET with her stuff.

    Schwab

  • yeah, I'm actually old enough to remember when blank VHS tapes could cost over $20 each. I remember something about how there was a cost built-in to cover money lost to the studios from prople copying movies. Funny thing, it was a huge luxury to even own one VCR, let alone the two you'd need to make copies and rob the poverty-stricken movie studios of the VHS sales (except everyone rented anyway because movies on VHS didn't cost $19.95, more like $50 and up)

  • Re:The prices of the turbojets (Score:3)

    by istartedi ( 132515 ) on Thursday August 10, 2000 @03:45PM (#864034) Journal

    Someplace else it said the engine supplies 75N at what looks like maximum power. Now:

    g=10 m/s^2.

    1N=1kg * 1m/s^2 (F=ma)

    So, let's assume lawn chair + human + fuel + control system + misc = 150kg.

    That's 1500N so you need at least 20 of those bad boys.

    I was thinking that 4 on the back of a bicycle might provide a nice assist up hill, but it would probably be loud, and I'd hate to be riding this if it blew up.

  • Did you read the article?
  • Why would you want to back out of CindyMargolis? I'd wanna stay there until I was done...
  • Take a look at nt6 [gas-turbines.com]. Its a real turbine engine (120,000 rpm no less) that runs off cordwood. They even sell plans. (and it looks like fairly straightforward plumbing, for those that don't have an engine lathe in the basement).. Its on my list as one of the loudest noises you can make with wood.
    -dp-
    The NERDS [the-nerds.org]. New: Junyard Wars FAQ [the-nerds.org], "Ten reasons why Scrapheap Challenge is better than Iron Chef" [the-nerds.org], and Ten reasons why being on Junkyard Wars is better than being on Survivor [the-nerds.org]

  • Re:Turbojets on model airplanes? (Score:4)

    by Fishstick ( 150821 ) on Thursday August 10, 2000 @04:43PM (#864039) Journal
    Yes, I still fly R/C and get the AMA magazine every month and remember seeing a R/C Turbojet competiton a while back. They have been around for a while, but you won't see one at your local airfield. Here's a link to a 4lbs model [memagazine.org] back in '97.

    For one, like you say, they are very expensive. They obviously fly much faster than traditional prop R/C and require a much larger flying field. Most fields in the area here around Chicago either have grass strips or short asphalt.

    Another problem would be the noise. It is hard enough these days to get away with 2-stroke gas prop engines. Many of the fields around here are now sitting close to residential areas and restrictions on flying hours have been imposed because of noise (you did see the park-district R/C field out the back _before_ you bought your $400,000 town house, right?).

    And aside from all that, they are harder than hell to fly. I've obviously never personally flown one, but I have the Dave Brown simulator that let's you fly R/C planes, helicopters and jets on the PC. Flying a jet is _damn_ hard. (no, actually _landing_ is the tricky bit.)

    In addition to turbojets, there have been ducted-fan propelled 'jet' models around for a while too. These still have a prop for propulsion and are quite a bit slower than turbojets, but are much less expensive and heavy (doesn't need to fly as fast to generate enough lift to overcome weight) and can been seen at larger AMA events.

  • On the subject of servers... (Score:5)

    by iabervon ( 1971 ) on Thursday August 10, 2000 @02:10PM (#864042) Homepage Journal
    www.danni.com is running "Apache/1.3.12 (Unix)",
    www.cindymargolis.com is running "Microsoft-IIS/4.0".

    Just found it funny to notice...
  • The Groucho link is quite apropos - thanks for posting it. I've thought about it often in regards to all the copyright and trademark stories on Slashdot. So, seems like big companies harassing people about trademark use has been going on forever. Groucho simply responded to Warner Brothers completely in form, and Warner Brothers agreed to drop the threat and allow the Marx Brothers to use the name "Casablanca." WB's response and further details can be found in the book The Groucho Letters, ISBN 030680607X.

    The point is, Groucho just took the threat as a joke, and eventually so did WB. I hope that still works today.

  • Ohmigod - I was reading /. through the 1337 filter and accidentally got a glimpse of a Jon Katz article! Err, a J0n K47z article. Remember that it doesn't respect your filters or you might be exposed to rambling about c0rp0r4715m 4nd g33k5 1n 0ur p057-C0lum81n3 w0rld!

  • You know all those 1x1 pixel web bugs [slashdot.org]? They're just really lossy pictues of Danni.

  • Hey, now that would be such a great way to get back at your nosy neighbors!
    Well, I was flying my model airplane around and it got hit by some strong wind and ran into Ms. Oppenheimer's house, and, uh, well, also ran _unto_ Ms. Oppenheimer... and, uh, yeah, it was flying pretty fast, about 180 mph...

    Yup, that's what we need, more powerful toys for all the little geeks-in-training growing up around the world.

  • Just FYI... makes me rethink that dual-Xeon III server I was looking at...

  • The article on osOpinion (analog "piracy") was interesting but slightly uninformed.

    Wonder why analog tapes cost so much? The RIAA imposes a TAX on every one. This piracy issue has arisen before with analog cassetes and vcrs; in both cases, the RIAA was scared out of its collective minds (or what little minds it has). Eventually, the manufacturers of blank tapes were forced to pay to the RIAA a small fee for each blank tape to cover the cost of piracy. Nowadays, not that many people know about this.

    --

  • Turbojets on R/C planes are cool (Score:3)

    by Chairboy ( 88841 ) on Thursday August 10, 2000 @02:20PM (#864063) Homepage
    I fly R/C planes, and there are almost always at least one or two jets flying at the field in los Angeles I fly at.

    I'm finishing up a radio controlled rocketplane right now myself, based on the X-20 spaceplane. A friend of mine has an R/C turbojet, and he was thinking of helping me with my drop tests by taking my rocket plane up on his jet and dropping it from there for the glide tests so it would be going fast enough.

    If you want pics of the plane I'm modeling mine after, check out this link:
    http://www.friends-partners.org/~mwade/craft/dyn asoar.htm

  • Build your own micro gas turbine engine (Score:3)

    by Ford Preefect ( 221363 ) on Thursday August 10, 2000 @06:01PM (#864067)
    I saw gas turbines mentioned and figured I'd post a url to the Gas Turbine Builder Association. It's amazing what these guys have done. Check it out. http://www.gtba.cnuce.cnr.it/

  • Re:On the subject of servers... (Score:3)

    by kirkb ( 158552 ) on Thursday August 10, 2000 @06:02PM (#864069) Homepage
    >> www.danni.com is running "Apache/1.3.12 (Unix)",
    >> www.cindymargolis.com is running "Microsoft-IIS/4.0".

    > and based on this you'd choose to fuck which?

    I would choose Microsoft IIS 4.0, because it's got more holes.

    Besides, too many guys have been inside Apache already...

  • Teen Pirate Radio is hilarious. That's some good shit, man.

    Which only provides more ammo for my theory...Canadians are funny. (which is why we keep them around)
    --
  • This is a pretty strong claim for 'prior art' on the @. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop when someone claims to have patented the 'name@host' email address format and sues every email client in the world.

  • Of course you can download women... (Score:4)

    by Pseudonym ( 62607 ) on Thursday August 10, 2000 @07:04PM (#864079)

    Haven't you read RFC 1437 [ietf.org]?

  • The prices of the turbojets (Score:3)

    by PD ( 9577 ) <slashdotlinux@pdrap.org> on Thursday August 10, 2000 @02:26PM (#864081) Homepage Journal
    The cheapest one they had was 12500 DKR, which translates to $1507.50 US Dollars.

    So, how many of these would you have to strap to a lawn chair to get it to fly with a person in it?

  • @ Symbol (Score:5)

    by Cy Guy ( 56083 ) on Thursday August 10, 2000 @02:30PM (#864084) Homepage Journal
    A couple of years ago I spent a good day trying to track down the name for the symbol in response to a question posed on the radio (I wonder if this team was inspired by the same question) well, anyway I never found an answer and the radio show never addressed the question again.

    Now I can let them know that the answer has been found.

    One correction to the article though. Amphora is a unit of liquid volume, not weight (as is also indicated in the article since it is a fraction of a barrel). Amphora's were a conical ceramic jug that were used as far back as Roman times, and have been found intact on sunken Roman ships at the bottom of the Mediterranean filled with wine, olive oil, and fish-sauce (my guess is the fish sauce was actually Ceasar dressing B^) ). Since the use of them goes back so far, I wouldn't be surprised if the symbol also goes back further than the 1500's.

  • Re:Turbojets on model airplanes? (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 10, 2000 @02:33PM (#864085)
    Turbojets for model airplanes have been around for quite a while, at least five years, I think. Their popularity has been held down by their price and the difficulty of finding a place to fly it. They need a long runway (for a model). There is also the insurance catch-22. IIRC, it is almost impossible to find a club field that would let you fly uninsured, and the AMA [modelaircraft.org] won't insure a jet without a ton of paperwork. It has been years since I have flown R/C, though, so things may have changed.

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