https://www.legis.nd.gov/cenco...

9-08-06. In restraint of business void - Exceptions.
A contract by which anyone is restrained from exercising a lawful profession, trade, or
business of any kind is to that extent void, except:
1. A person that sells the goodwill of a business and the person's partners, members, or
shareholders may agree with the buyer to refrain from carrying on a similar business
within a reasonable geographic area and for a reasonable length of time, if the buyer
or any person deriving title to the goodwill from the buyer carries on a like business in
that area.
2. Partners, members, or shareholders, upon or in anticipation of a dissolution of a
partnership, limited liability company, or corporation; upon or in anticipation of a
dissociation of a partner or member; or as part of an agreement addressing the
dissociation or sale of a partner, member, or shareholder's ownership interest, may
agree that all or any number of them will not carry on a similar business within a
reasonable geographic area where the partnership, limited liability company, or
corporation business has been transacted, or within a specified part of the area.

Above is the reference to North Dakota Century Code on this topic, and also the relevant text. This new federal legislation is VERY similar to the protections that North Dakota Workers have enjoyed for quite some time. In fact the language is so similar I wonder if our laws were not used as the model for the proposed federal statute.

>Do you believe rehabilitation is impossible or do you want revenge?

I don't believe that someone who commits mass murder can be rehabilitated, no. It isn't about revenge; it's about public safety.

Someone once pointed out that hoping a rapist gets raped in prison isn't a victory for his victim(s), because it somehow gives him what he had coming to him, but it's actually a victory for rape and violence. I wish I could remember who said that, because they are right. The score doesn't go Rapist: 1 World: 1. It goes Rape: 2.

What this man did is unspeakable, and he absolutely deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. If he needs to be kept away from other prisoners as a safety issue, there are ways to do that without keeping him in solitary confinement, which has been shown conclusively to be profoundly cruel and harmful.

Putting him in solitary confinement, as a punitive measure, is not a victory for the good people in the world. It's a victory for inhumane treatment of human beings. This ruling is, in my opinion, very good and very strong for human rights, *precisely* because it was brought by such a despicable and horrible person. It affirms that all of us have basic human rights, even the absolute worst of us on this planet.

This is precisely why I lost all interest in Oculus the instant I heard that it had been acquired by Facebook.

Good point about the 1000Mhz plant vs. 750Mhz, once you're out of the analog realm you can play with those last 250Mhz, I forgot that.

2HD / 5SD is about where I can start seeing picture degradation, if the big Cable Co's are doubling that, wow, I'm glad I'm not with a big Cable Co :)

I have to agree with the 40mbit too, increasing the modulation density from 64QAM to 256QAM would get you those numbers.

You can't do this with cable, there isn't an individual line that goes from your house all the way back to the cable company, the wire in your house is only "yours" to the pole where it combines with everyone else in your neighborhood. The wire coming to your house is capable of carrying approximately 125 channel slots. Those channel slots can be used in 1 of 4 ways...

1. A single analog channel
2. 2 HD Digital Channels
3. 3 or 4 SD Digital Channels
4. Approximately 30mbit of download capacity for data

You might live in an area where the the cable company has started pretty much requiring set top boxes, whats happened there is they have run out of spectrum, and are beginning to put what were analog channels into digital in order to free up 2 or 3 channel slots for other purposes, High definition or Internet are the big drivers.

Oh sure, you could do a frequency split with a 2nd carrier, but that service would, by necessity, be digital only, and both carriers would have a far sub-standard offering because they've only got 62 channel slots to work with.

Bandwidth on the CATV lines is a limited commodity, and even in small systems it is running out.

One other thought is that you could divide the city up into quadrants, and have a separate provider for each of the 4 quadrants, but the nature of the technology is that any given subscriber can only have 1 choice so if you live in quadrant A, you get provider A.

Of course, allowing a 2nd (or even 3rd) provider to overbuild the system would allow for real competition, 3 wires on the pole means there are 3 providers available, but what company is going to go through that expense when they don't have the city issued monopoly to ensure they can pay for the massive investment they just made?

This is good advice, and gives me an opportunity to speak to the community at large: some of us who go to cons and are in a position to shake tons of hands politely decline. It's not because we're being dicks, it's because we know it's a good way to substantially decrease our chances of catching and spreading any germs.

I played the PAX Pandemic game, where the Enforcers handed out stickers to attendees that read [Carrier] [Infected] or [Immune] (There was also a [Patient Zero].

I got the [Immune] sticker, and by the time I got home on Monday, it was clear that I had the flu. I've had a fever between 100 and 104 all week that finally broke last night, but I'm going to the doctor today because I think whatever I had settled into my lungs. I'll tell him about the H1N1 outbreak and get tested if he wants to run the test, but at this point I think it's safe to assume that I was [Immune] to the Pig Plague, but definitely [Infected] with the damn PAX pox.

Even though it's been a week of misery, it was entirely worth it, and I don't regret going to PAX for a single second.

This is why my motto (and fundamental rule for life) is Don't be a dick: it's simple to understand, and reasonable people can agree on what it means.

That makes sense to me, Microsoft bought out "Great Plains Accounting" a number of years back, and maintains a fairly decent (I'd estimate 30 to 40 thousand square feet) office complex in Fargo; right on Interstate 29. I drive by it 3 times a year when visiting the in-laws.

Operator error is most likely, especially in the case if the patrol car was moving see Cosine Effect Geometry for information about how this works. The short version is that radar is only 100% accurate when the angle between the target, and the transmitting station is 0 degrees. The further off 0 it is, the worse the error is. Normally this plays out in favor of the motorist, but in certain circumstance the error is added to the actual speed. A little bit if quick trig, and it appears the angle of the radar to the target was between 41 and 42 degrees. Of course, that assumes the GPS speed was in fact correct.