__ _____ _ ___ __
\ \/ / | | / / | / / MSIE -- RADIO -- MICROSCOPY -- HOSTING
\ / /| | | /| / / |/ / ECONOMICS -- BLOGGING -- DEMOLITION -- ID
/ / ___ | |/ |/ / /| / DOWNSIZING -- G8 -- FIRE -- PYKRETE -- ETC,
/_/_/ |_|__/|__/_/ |_/http://www.acronymchile.com/yawn.html
2003-06-15
###!!!--###### MICROSOFT ###########################(##)##################
Microsoft will no longer develop Internet Explorer for Macintosh.
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2003/06/13.8.shtml
The Mac Observer Spin: ... IE is no longer needed on the Mac platform
because Apple's Safari and the open source browsers are frankly far
superior products, but that's only because Microsoft hasn't put any
work into IE for the Mac in years... In the meanwhile, this is a clear
effort to undermine support for the Mac platform...
###!!!--###### RADIO ###############################(##)##################
Digital radio mondiale, or DRM. New European digital standard for
high-fidelity radio transmissions in the AM band. It is an open standard.
http://www.drm.org/system/globstandard.htm
Interesting story:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?H64C21ED4
Relates to an open source receiver for DRM. A down-converter converts from
a 455kHz IF to 14kHz, which can then be fed into a soundcard on a PC.
http://drm.sourceforge.net/
Down-converter schematic:
http://www.tu-darmstadt.de/fb/et/uet/fguet/mitarbeiter/vf/DRM/fig/drmconv.pdf
Could be built for about EUR10.00 of parts (front end still needed)
Vaguely related to this is Slashdot plugged story at Ars Technica on what
you can do with a shortwave radio receiver on your PC:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/09/1034254&mode=nested&tid=137
An anonymous reader writes "Ars Technica has an in-depth guide on the
Ten Tec RX-320, a shortwave radio receiver that connects to the PC and
is controlled by software (both Linux and Windows). The article goes
into depth on different high frequency modes, broadcast shortwave, and
even a bit on ham radio and new digital modes."
http://arstechnica.com/guide/audio-visual/shortwave/shortwave-1.html
On general electronic theme, FPGA's are an interesting topic:
http://www.mrc.uidaho.edu/fpga/fpga.html
###!!---###### CHILDREN ############################(DP)##################
Think of the children:
Doctors have removed a 4lb baby boy from the stomach of his
seven-year-old twin brother. Alamjan Nematilaev was born with the
freak foetus growing inside him. For seven years it lived like a
parasite until a school doctor became alarmed about Alamjan's bulging
tummy and took him to hospital.
http://www.rense.com/general38/boy.htm
###!!!!-###### MICROSCOPY ##########################(##)##################
Interesting short description of manufacture of an adapter with which to
attach a digital camera to a microscope.
"I started with a rough aluminum cast cylinder that I produced using a
coffee-can foundry and green sand mold. For the melt, I used scrap
metal from beverage cans and some old screen enclosure extrusions."
http://truetex.com/micad.htm
He has other good links from his homepage, http://truetex.com/ such as
"Flatbed Scanner Digital Telecine project, which converts old home
movie film to high-quality digital movies... and pool chemistry process
control with Linux."
###!!---###### HOSTING #############################(BB)##################
Various recommendations from the public on webhosting companies
http://www.quicktopic.com/22/H/g9KvHvzXkmQPP
###!!!!-###### ECONOMICS ###########################(##)##################
Economics reporting critiqued:
The second article by Weisman describes the tax cuts as an
"unprecedented shift of taxation away from investment income."
Actually, this cut in taxes on investment income is not very different
from past actions of Congress. For example, in 1978 Congress lowered
the top rate of taxation on capital gains from 35 percent to 28
percent. In 1995, it voted to lower the top tax rate on capital gains
from 28 percent to 20 percent. Investors are a powerful interest group
and have often managed to lobby Congress successfully for special
treatment.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/7953
on American efforts to bully EU into accepting GM food imports:
At one point the article presents the assessment of agricultural
officials that U.S. farmers may have lost more than $1 billion in sales
over the last five years... Later, the article notes the biotech
industry's hostility to labeling requirements, quoting a spokesperson
that it would be "the equivalent of putting a skull and crossbones on
the packages."
...
The only sales they would have had in Europe would have taken place if
they were allowed to deceive European consumers about the nature of
their product. This is comparable to a manufacturer of counterfeit
Gucci handbags complaining about lost sales because they are unable to
sell them with the "Gucci" label.
###!!!--###### BLOGGING ############################(##)##################
James Crabtree on the right-wing alignment of many blogs:
Blogs are becoming the medium of choice for politically attuned members
of the digital generation. Like talk radio, they are dominated by the
political right.
...
But political blogging is in its infancy here [UK]. It remains up for
grabs. Got a computer? Got a view? Get blogging. There is a war to be
won.
http://www.newstatesman.co.uk/nma/nma2003200209300017.htm
###!!!!-###### DEMOLITION ##########################(##)##################
Amira Hass writing in Ha'aretz:
"We don't demolish houses for no reason. Maybe there was shooting
there, maybe there was involvement in terrorist activities," Haaretz
was told. But the fact remains: The same force that sent a bulldozer or
two and, as the homeowners watched, demolished their homes, did not
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=22&ItemID=3748
find it necessary to report the action to the IDF Spokesman's Office.
###!!!--###### DOWNSIZING ##########################(##)##################
Naomi Klein on policies in Iraq:
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0606-01.htm
"Just as reconstruction is the guise for privatization,
de-Baathification looks a lot like disguised downsizing."
...and on Paul Bremer:
"...Bremer sees war as a business opportunity. On October 11, 2001,
just one month after the terror attacks in New York and Washington,
Bremer, once Ronald Reagan's Ambassador at Large for counterterrorism,
launched a company designed to capitalize on the new atmosphere of fear
in US corporate boardrooms."
###!!!--###### PICS ################################(BB)##################
Some good photography from the G8 protests:
http://www.cri.ch/photos/gallery.php3?dir=g8dimanche
###!!!!!###### FORTY ###############################(DP)##################
http://www.diepunyhumans.com/stuff/BBQ21.jpg
###!!---###### FIRE ################################(IB)##################
Secret fire. Effort to "chart the effects of exercises on this latent
energy, and how it flows through the physical, emotional, and psychic body"
http://www.alchemywebsite.com/secret-fire.html
###!!!!-###### PYKRETE #############################(BB)##################
WWII plans to make ships out of a mix of ice and sawdust. Resulting mix is
very damage resistant.
http://www.combinedops.com/Pykrete.htm
###!!!!-###### CHICKEN #############################(/.)##################
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB105467590014941400,00.html
Now after years of attempts that ended in failure, including one
ill-fated chicken vacuum, manufacturers have finally produced machines
capable of catching and caging chickens. Looking like a combination
airport baggage carousel and tank, the devices can capture 150 birds a
minute. That's as many as a team of eight skilled men can corral.
###!!---###### MODERN ##############################(##)##################
Sung to a tune from "The Pirates of Penzance", "A Modern SCO Executive"
posted here by Rick Moen:
http://www.linux.ie/pipermail/ilug/2003-June/003488.html
originally here:
http://twiki.iwethey.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/PiratesOfPenguinance
###!!!!-###### ID ##################################(OB)##################
The Register reports on the UK ID card public consultation:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31057.html
The story goes that initially a majority of submissions appeared to be in
favour of introducing cards, with 1,500 expressing such opinions. Stand
http://www.stand.org.uk/
and privacy international
http://www.privacyinternational.org/
began to organise a campaign against the proposal, and rallied 6,000
submissions. Since then, minister Beverley Hughes has said that a total of
just 2,000 submissions were received. Requests by Privacy International
for statistics of the consultation have been refused, and it appears that
the 6,000 may have been counted as just a single submission. Danny
O'Brien's letter (on behalf of stand) to the government raising questions
on the issue can be read online here:
http://oblomovka.com/entries/2003/05/30#1054295940
Stand had received official assurances that the responses it passed on
would be treated just like those sent any other way.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2947958.stm
###!!!!-###### MICROSCOPY II ########################(##)#################
Microscope Slide scanning tips
http://www.biotech.ufl.edu/EM/data/slidescan.html
Scanner as a cheap microscope:
http://www.herts.ac.uk/natsci/Env/ches/newches/past/swpshp%20pdfs/Suthren.pdf
Pictures here (geological applications):
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/geology/scanner/scanner.html
Cheap microscope and digital camera setup, nice pics of pond life:
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artfeb00/dyoung.html
Great pics here, better camera used:
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artnov99/pjforays.html
Many more microscopy articles:
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/libindex.html#pagetop
###!----###### BOOKS ###############################(BB)##################
Worst books of all times (as judged by some individual "luminaries"):
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/story.jsp?story=404252
###-----###### FIN #################################(##)##################
Archived: http://www.acronymchile.com/yawn_archive/2003-06-15yawn.html
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