__ _____ _ ___ __
\ \/ / | | / / | / /
\ / /| | | /| / / |/ /
/ / ___ | |/ |/ / /| /
/_/_/ |_|__/|__/_/ |_/http://www.acronymchile.com/yawn.html
2003-08-17
###!!!!-###### EU COPYRIGHT ########################(##)#################
http://www.linux.ie/pipermail/ilug/2003-August/005392.html
http://new.zdnet.co.uk/print/?TYPE=story&AT=39115479-39020505t-21000010c
'You want to change the tyres on your 2006 model Ford Prefect? Anything
other than genuine Ford tyres -- with the genuine Ford ID chip -- will
disable your car. Your Sony MP3-playing nasal hair trimmer will only
work with genuine Sony batteries: don't even think about trying to make
alternatives, because that'll make you a criminal. And no, you can't
buy those jeans -- the RFID chip in the label says they're only for
sale in America. By the way, the same RFID chips on the clothes you are
allowed to buy may well be radiating all manner of things about your
location: you're not allowed to find out for yourself, as possession of
an unlicensed receiver is a criminal act.'
###-----###### SPAM/MOZILLA ########################(##)#################
Mozilla Named Best Anti-Spam Software in German Computer Magazine
http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/08/10/120228
Simon Paquet writes: "In a recent shootout of anti-spam software in the
German computer magazine c't (link is in German), Mozilla Mail won the
first place against competitors like K9, Apple Mail, Mailshield
Desktop, SAproxy, SpamBayes, SpamCatcher, SpamNet, SpamPal and
SpamSieve.
###!!!!-###### WARDRIVE ############################(##)#################
in Dublin
http://www.enigma.ie/wardrive/right.php?cmd=zerodump
###!!!!-###### MIND ################################(??)#################
AI in Perl
http://mind.sourceforge.net/perl.html
###!!!!-###### WAR #################################(RW)#################
Interesting commentary on performance of the US Government in areas
relating to national security and foreign relations. Written by a retired
USAF lieutenant colonel.
"...I made a particular comment to my superior, in response to my
reading of a February Secretary of State cable answering a long list of
questions from a Middle Eastern country regarding U.S. planning for the
aftermath in Iraq. The answers had been heavily crafted by the
Pentagon, and to me, they were remarkably inadequate, given the late
stage of the game. I suggested to my boss that if this was as good as
it got, some folks on the Pentagon's E-ring may be sitting beside
Saddam Hussein in the war crimes tribunals."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.hts/editorial/outlook/2023830
###!!!--###### LINUX ###############################(/.)#################
"IBM has gotten Linux certified under the Common Criteria specification. "
What this means is that government can consider Linux when making
purchasing decisions. Linux got the highest rating possible.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/05/1217242&mode=nested&tid=106&tid=126&tid=172&tid=185
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=569&ncid=738&e=1&u=/nm/20030805/tc_nm/tech_ibm_linux_dc
###!!---###### POLLEN ##############################(##)#################
Commercial watermelon production guide:
http://oregonstate.edu/Dept/NWREC/watmelon.html
"For successful seedless watermelon production, an adequate bee
population is especially important to transfer the pollen from the
pollenizer variety to the seedless variety (seedless watermelons do not
produce pollen)."
How Do I Pollinate My Plants by Hand?
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/cornucop/2000073258013975.html
"If there are both types of flower but the tiny fruit appear to be
rotting or dying on the vine, this is a sign of inadequate pollination
(also called "fruit abortion"). In addition to the brush method
mentioned above, one can simply pick a male bloom, peel off all the
flower petals and lightly dust pollen onto the pistils of the females
with the male stamen. Several females can be pollinated with one male."
###!!!--###### PAPER ###############################(??)#################
I know I plugged this before at some stage, but still very good. Guide to
metric paper sizes. A point I missed before was that the sizes of the
pages are defined in terms of metric areas. Thus an A0 page is a square
metre, while an A4 is a 16th of a square metre (2^4=16). Thus 500 sheets
of 80gsm should weigh:
500/16*80=2500g, or 5g per page
Anyway, link is here:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/%7Emgk25/iso-paper.html
Nice aside:
"The ISO formats are used for surprisingly many things besides office
paper: the German citizen ID card has format A7, both the European
Union and the U.S. (!) passport have format B7, and library microfiches
have format A6. In some countries (e.g., Germany) even many brands of
toilet paper have format A6."
###!!!--###### WINDOWS #############################(/.)#################
Getting a refund on software bundled with your computer. Useful for
GNU/Linux users forced into buying copies of Windows they have no use for:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7040&mode=thread&order=0
The points regarding documenting and recording your interactions with the
computer supplier are good advice for handling any contentious dealings.
###!!!!-###### CENSORSHIP ##########################(BB)#################
The New Censorship: how scandals get neutralised:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060524367/downandoutint-20
###!!!!-###### BLAIR ###############################(DP)#################
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's plan to put more God in government
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,1011460,00.html
###!!!--###### MINIMICRO ###########################(BB)#################
Praise for low-power small form factor PCs. The arguments make a lot of
sense and for many people mini-ITX or Shuttle type systems are probably a
very good way to go even for a desktop. Looking at more esoteric
applications, the case can be even stronger.
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blosxom.cgi/2003/Aug/3#ukuug-1
###!!!--###### VOLTSAMPS ###########################(IB)#################
Various stuff:
http://www.voltsamps.com/pages/projects/
e.g. horrible/painful sounds:
http://www.voltsamps.com/pages/projects/sndpain/
###!!!--###### LIRC ################################(##)#################
Nice page on Linux Infra-red Remote Control:
http://www.turbobit.com/lirc.html
Hardware can be used with windows too. For a couple of euro you can
interface with your PC using any remote tv/video/stereo remote controls you
have available.
As for why this might be a good idea: well you could use it to cue/play mp3
files from your hard drive, or to skip forwards and backwards through
slides during a presentation. I'm sure there are other neat apps.
###!!---###### EDUCATION ###########################(IB)#################
"The Educational System Was Designed to Keep Us Uneducated and Docile"
http://www.thememoryhole.org/edu/school-mission.htm
"Every teacher should realize he is a social servant set apart for the
maintenance of the proper social order and the securing of the right
social growth."
-- John Dewey
Lots of interesting quotes.
###!----###### RV ##################################(IB)#################
Remote viewing:
http://www.firedocs.com/remoteviewing/
###!!!--###### SPLELINGS ###########################(IB)#################
http://lists.canonical.org/pipermail/kragen-hacks/2002-December/000361.html
Randomising letters in the middle of words has little or no effect on
the ability of skilled readers to understand the text
###!!!--###### WAR #################################(##)#################
A story from TomPaine.com:
A U.S. Marine who voiced his antiwar stance before his deployment to
Iraq has been killed, fighting for a country he loved in a war he hated.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8341
###!!---###### CREMASTER ###########################(IB)#################
Two nicely balanced reviews of Matthew Barney's Cremaster cycle, Number 3
in particular:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/130352_cremaster11q.html
http://www.heraldnet.com/ae/story.cfm?sectionname=MOVIES&file=03071117189730.cfm
###!!!!-###### ECONOMICS ###########################(##)#################
Dean Baker on recent economics reporting:
http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8259
One of the most interesting commentaries analyses changing US and EU
demographics and how they might affect economic and strategic importance of
the two regions.
###!!!!-###### MORE ECONOMICS ######################(##)#################
Criticisms of modern economic policies. Long but interesting. Parts sound
very familiar
http://www.counterpunch.org/schaefer07122003.html
"The upshot has been to make it much more profitable for investors to
buy land and property already in existence than to invest in creating
new plant and equipment that actually employs labor. Why invest in a
risky enterprise when all you need do is put down as little money as
you can, borrow the rest, and ride the real estate and stock market
bubble?
...
What used to be welcomed as a postindustrial society thus is lapsing
back into the pre-industrial rentier economy. The focus of economic
activity is property gains, not actual production."
Books:
The Lost Science of Money (2002), Stephen Zarlenga
Trade, Development, and Foreign Debt (Pluto, 1992) Michael Hudson
Super Imperialism, Michael Hudson
###!!!--###### RIGHTS ##############################(##)#################
http://www.counterpunch.org/stephens07122003.html
"...the USA PATRIOT Act itself... essentially consists of a grab-bag of
police powers that had been sought and rejected long before September
11, 2001, but got a fresh look after the intelligence and security
agencies of the Bush administration were caught napping by al-Quaida.
Rather than engaging in any honest or serious study of what went wrong,
this sweeping deconstruction of American constitutional rights was
rushed through Congress in the immediate aftermath of the unimaginable
tragedy, with no time for most legislators to even read its provisions,
much less deliberate on their wisdom, before voting on it. In
particular, there has never been any demonstration that this statute
would cure any of the specific law enforcement problems that enabled
the 9-11 attacks..."
The article is well constructed and has a lot of specific detail on the
changes to the rights of US citizens being wrought by Bush & Co.
###!!!!-###### EXTINCTION ##########################(##)#################
Analysis of WMD claims, subsequently revealed facts, and the final spin:
http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8311
###!!---###### EXTINCTION ##########################(##)#################
The end of the Premian period, and how it could happen again.
http://monbiot.org/dsp_article.cfm?article_id=590
Altogether, Benton shows, some 90% of the earth's species appear to
have been wiped out: this represents by the far the gravest of the mass
extinctions. The world's "productivity" (the total mass of biological
matter) collapsed.
According to the article, recent geology indicates that volcanic eruptions
in Siberia added sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The
CO2 acting as a greenhouse gas warmed up the earth and destabilised methane
hydrate under the poles releasing methane into the atmosphere, which is an
even more potent greenhouse gas. Warming ran ahead, killing plants and in
turn starving animals. Geological evidence indicates that the temperature
change was 6 degrees centigrade, which is at the upper end of the estimate
produced by the UN's scientific body, the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, for global warming by 2100.
###!!---###### PARTS ###############################(##)#################
Good thread with list of computer parts suppliers in Ireland:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=9ab6fb1e98ad0478c6bb63385b366b23&threadid=38836
e.g. memory:
http://www.shop4memory.com/
###!!---###### RAPS ################################(BB)#################
V. Neat laptop protection:
http://boingboing.net/2003_08_01_archive.html#200443857
##!-----###### DUMMIES #############################(##)#################
Funny, but would make you wonder too:
http://pic6.picturetrail.com/VOL165/1109803/2201327/30765269.jpg
http://pic6.picturetrail.com/VOL165/1109803/2201327/30765287.jpg
Found here:
http://www.deadjournal.com/users/merrydeath
###!!!!-###### NWO #################################(##)#################
George Monbiot on the history of US power and influence, and on how this
strength depended on the mollification of other, weaker, powers. Today, he
argues, the US government lacks an appreciation of the balancing act that
protects US power and this is leading to the possibility of
http://monbiot.org/dsp_article.cfm?article_id=585
Also from Monbiot:
http://monbiot.org/dsp_article.cfm?article_id=594
"Much has been written about the recent political conversion of several
formerly leftwing journalists. It has been discussed by the press in
reverential tones: something momentous is happening; the left is in
fullscale retreat; the intellectual momentum has shifted to the right.
To which I will deploy a word used to excess by one of the more
prominent of these apostates: bollocks.
A middle-aged man discovers that, for the first time in his life, he is
making money, getting invited to the smartest dinner parties and
hobnobbing with ministers and editors. He begins to identify with his
new friends. He no longer sees himself as an outsider, but as a member
of the cultural and political elite. He accumulates loyalties towards
the people he once took pleasure in knifing. His politics shift to
reflect his circumstances, and we all fall about in astonishment."
###-----###### FIN #################################(##)##################
Archived: http://www.acronymchile.com/yawn_archive/2003-08-17yawn.html
##########################################################################