My impression of the slashdot effect from the time was mostly irritation that even though I now had high-speed Internet access, I still had to wait for the site to recover (if it ever did).

This is probably doing the opposite of what you're thinking--letting older software run on newer CPUs.

That -is- a low id number...

The Nyquist rate (and Shannon's theorem even further) severely bounds digital communications bandwidth in the little bit of usable bandwidth that lies below 100 MHz. The long distance and irregularity of the propagation puts additional bounds on the number of simultaneous transmitters. So there are good reasons other than just censorship and rent-seeking to desire the short-ranges available in the shorter bands, such as the increase in simultaneous talkers (if you don't propagate as far, someone closer by can share the frequency), and the additional bandwidth available.

That said, the 20 m band is plenty fun, even if every idiot in the world can't use it.

When you have all of the schematics it isn't too difficult to support the hardware yourself, assuming you're running one of the older TTL CPUs. That, and/or a huge storeroom of spares, and you're set.

The point of that sentence is that it is obviously counterfactual, yet E-Rater gave him a top score for the insightful essay in which it was contained.

The general process that includes lost-wax casting is called investment casting, and while it can be done with ABS, it requires the mold to be baked off in a kiln capable of much higher temperatures than with wax. Burning ABS at home probably isn't a good idea either. I'm not sure about how other materials would work.

You can use your incinerator to run absorption cycle chillers, then. :)

...and the old saw about racing comes to mind:

How do you make a small fortune in rural broadband?

Start with a large fortune.

The MAI court held that 17 USC 117(a) wasn't applicable because the end-users were licensees--regardless of Peak's actions as a repair technician. Also see Vernor v. Autodesk for more on the difference between owner and licensee rights.

IANAL, but I think the AGPL is pretty solid. The Ninth Circuit held in MAI v. Peak that copying software into RAM for execution is indeed copying, and the provisions of 17 USC 117(a) don't apply to mere licensees (as opposed to copyright owners). Being that the AGPL license, which allows you to use, copy, and modify the software, only remains valid if you continue to comply with its terms, you are infringing copyright by continuing to copy the software into RAM for purposes of executing it if you're not abiding by the license. You have no right to copy the software otherwise.

Then again, without a girl in the picture, you don't much need birth control...

Or, even worse, the practically impossible combination of FreeBSD, IIS, Sybase and Tcl. Ouch!

I'm skeptical of low IDs--back in the day, you were distrustful of identifying yourself and all the cool people stayed anonymous.