Annan's Legacy
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-boot9dec09,0,7903756.co lumn?coll=la-news-comment-opinions http://tinyurl.com/6u2h7 Imagine if U.S. troops were accused of sexually exploiting children in impoverished nations. Imagine if a U.S. Cabinet secretary were accused of groping a female subordinate, whose complaint was then swatted aside by the president. Imagine if the head of a U.S. government agency and the president's own offspring stood accused of complicity in the biggest embezzlement racket in history. Those would be pretty big stories, no? Above-the-fold, top-of-the-newscast stories. Yet the United Nations has been mired in all these scandals and until just recently hardly anybody outside the right-wing blogosphere has noticed. John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] We have one country, one Constitution, and one future that binds us. -George W. Bush, 11/3/2004 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: ADMIN: Mail hiccup
From: Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com To: Killer Bs Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Subject: ADMIN: Mail hiccup Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 17:23:56 -0800 Our mail server was misbehaving for a little while this afternoon. If you had a message to the list come back to you, please re-send it. However, I think that probably didn't happen, but some messages have been delayed while the sending server retries. I had one bounce back on me last week. Sadly (sad as in - y'all missed a funny post from me!!!), I had the original message that I was replying to deleted by the time the mailman hit me back, so I was too pissed/lazy to do anything but nothing about it. That made sense right? -Travis _ Powerful Parental Controls Let your child discover the best the Internet has to offer. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-capage=byoa/premxAPID=1994DI=1034SU=http://hotmail.com/encaHL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Great Christmas Gift Ideas!
http://www.errorwear.com/errorwear.html (T-shirts that fuse geek culture with high fashion.) Do you love a T-shirt that displays a witticism clearly defining the wearer as both King of the Cubicle and/or Captain of Kitsch? Have you developed a fear of error messages, and would you love a chance to reclaim the computer's power over you? Are you sick of all your geek T's being oversized, overwashed, and overpriced? Want to make a big splash at the next Def Con? LAN Party? Office meeting? Do you work in tech support? Have you ever used Windows for even a brief moment? Be the envy of anyone who has ever crashed. Errorwear shirts are 100% cotton, 6.1 oz (10.1 metric oz.), Gildan Ultra Cotton Ts, (unless otherwise specified). As you slip the T-shirt over your head, try to contain your girlish shriek, for knowing that you're wearing a bonafide error message on your chest will surely deliver you to a new plane of joy. Don't be worried that the error message will be lost on your peer group. The Windows Blue Screen of Death has surely been seen by everyone at this point. Even Solitaire and Minesweeper games have ended in such a way. For the hardcore, may we recommend something in the way of an Apache 404 error, or perhaps the old school and understated DOS Bad Command? _ Powerful Parental Controls Let your child discover the best the Internet has to offer. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-capage=byoa/premxAPID=1994DI=1034SU=http://hotmail.com/encaHL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Micropayment/online swap systems?
Micropayments will fail. Four years ago, Clay Shirky wrote about micropayments http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2000/12/19/micropayments.html which could ... reward creators of text, graphics, music or video without the overhead of publishing middlemen or the necessity to charge high prices. However, as Shirky pointed out ... users want predictable and simple pricing. Micropayments, meanwhile, waste the users' mental effort in order to conserve cheap resources, by creating many tiny, unpredictable transactions. That is the problem with micropayments. There is a minimum mental transaction cost Put another way, Beneath a certain price, goods or services become harder to value, not easier, because the X [payment] for Y [good] comparison becomes more confusing, not less. Users have no trouble deciding whether a $1 newspaper is worthwhile - did it interest you, did it keep you from getting bored, did reading it let you sound up to date - but how could you decide whether each part of the newspaper is worth a penny? Was each of 100 individual stories in the newspaper worth a penny, even though you didn't read all of them? Was each of the 25 stories you read worth 4 cents apiece? If you read a story halfway through, was it worth half what a full story was worth? And so on. When you disaggregate a newspaper, it becomes harder to value, not easier. By accepting that different people will find different things interesting, and by rolling all of those things together, a newspaper achieves what micropayments cannot: clarity in pricing. As for solutions, ... the real world abounds with items of vanishingly small value: a single stick of gum, a single newspaper article, a single day's rent. There are three principal solutions to this problem offline - aggregation, subscription, and subsidy - that are used individually or in combination. In addition, as Shirky says in http://shirky.com/writings/fame_vs_fortune.html for information goods, like writings, some people are ... more interested in attention than income ... [for such people] free makes sense. ... as the drunks say, you can't fall off the floor. Anyone offering content free gains an advantage that can't be beaten, only matched, because the competitive answer to free -- I'll pay you to read my weblog! -- is unsupportable over the long haul. Free content is thus what biologists call an evolutionarily stable strategy. -- Robert J. Chassell [EMAIL PROTECTED] GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8 http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Asimo running
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Subject: RE: Asimo running Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 16:59:39 -0800 For all, The tinyurl.com web site is now blocked at my work. Can we all also include the full URL as well (my my sake please?) Thanks, Chad That's all I ever do anyway. -Travis tinyurlmyass.com Edmunds _ Don't just Search. Find! http://search.sympatico.msn.ca/default.aspx The new MSN Search! Check it out! ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Asimo running
From: Warren Ockrassa [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com To: Killer Bs Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Subject: Re: Asimo running Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 18:13:37 -0700 On Dec 20, 2004, at 5:59 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: For all, The tinyurl.com web site is now blocked at my work. Can we all also include the full URL as well (my my sake please?) http://www.world.honda.com/HDTV/ASIMO/200412-run/index.html Don't like TinyURL myself, but that's because I'm just a pain in the ass. Ockr-ASS-a -Travis tinyurlmyockrassa.com Edmunds _ Designer Mail isn't just fun to send, it's fun to receive. Use special stationery, fonts and colors. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-capage=byoa/premxAPID=1994DI=1034SU=http://hotmail.com/encaHL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Holiday Heist
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,11764320%255E663,00.html 23dec04 ONE of the biggest heists in history has left the National Australia Bank with a $50 million headache. In a Hollywood-style raid, the 20-strong Irish gang robbed the NAB-owned Northern Bank in Belfast as thousands shopped and sang Christmas carols nearby. The families of two senior executives were held for 24 hours in a forest while bankers were forced to co-operate under threat of death. Investigators believe the spectacular raid was the work of either IRA or Loyalist paramilitaries who have turned to peacetime organised crime. This is not a lucky crime, this is a well-organised crime, Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kinkaid said. There was speculation that the haul could be as high as $75 million. The full cost of the heist will be met by the NAB, even though it announced last Tuesday it had reached an agreement to sell Northern Bank to a Danish banking chain. The theft is covered by self-insurance and, as such, NAB will bear the impact of any losses arising from the theft, Melbourne-based NAB spokesman Brandon Phillips confirmed yesterday. The raid began Sunday night (British time) when the families were taken hostage at gunpoint. They were driven away to be held at a mystery site in cold conditions. On Monday morning, the executives were told to head to work and act as if nothing was wrong. In the evening, the gang met the managers to get special security codes and clear out the underground vaults full of Christmas cash. It took two hours for the criminals to move the cash to a waiting truck in a nearby street. An unknown amount was left behind because there was no more room in the getaway van. By 10pm, 24 hours after the ordeal began, the bank managers were freed to be reunited with their families. The raid was similar to the 2001 Hollywood movie Bandits, in which Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton kidnap bank managers and sleep at their houses before looting the cash. Most of the money stolen was in Northern Bank notes and sterling printed by other banks in the province, making it hard to launder. Mr Kinkaid refused to say whether the robbers had exposed flaws in security arrangements. And he refused to say if terrorists were under suspicion _ Take charge with a pop-up guard built on patented Microsoft® SmartScreen Technology. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-capage=byoa/premxAPID=1994DI=1034SU=http://hotmail.com/encaHL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Micropayment/online swap systems?
Warren Ockrassa [EMAIL PROTECTED] asked about micropayments: ... are there some relevant or parallel experiences that might serve as models for exploration? As I said in a previous message, micropayments will fail. Clay Shirky http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2000/12/19/micropayments.html mentioned `three principal solutions' aggregation, subscription, and subsidy - that are used individually or in combination. Warren, in your case it looks to me that you would need to aggregate your services as an editor and provide them by subscription. You would sell your services as someone able to choose content to customers who are a part of the `long tail'. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html By aggregating your choices, you deal with the question of whether a particular choice is worth a quarter or less to a customer; by selling through subscriptions, you provide your customers a known cost. The online content you would provide gratis. You would charge for printed books and CDs, which are `rivalrous' resources. Like a shirt, if you have a book, I do not have it. You can loan me the book and the shirt, but then you have neither. Your and my use _rival_ each other's. On the other hand, you can manufacture a copy of any online collection of bytes, whether it be a program, book, or song, and give it to me (on line) so cheaply that it is, in effect, non-rivalrous. (Incidentally, you might consider printing or stamping rivalrous goods `on demand'; I do not know whether the technology is up to it yet, maybe (Bear in mind that over much of the planet, the law does not help a small business maintain a monopoly when production costs are low. http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/developing-extralegal.html (In the US and similar places where laws are somewhat enforced, Apple sells songs on line. Also Apple sells convenience: often, it is more convenient for people to get the tunes from them than from other sources. (From Apple's corporate point of view, the music sales do not make much money; profits are only in millions of US dollars. The sales are mainly a device for inspiring people to purchase hardware such as iPods.) I do not know whether you could make a living aggregating your services and selling them by subscription. Perhaps there are people in your business who are willing to offer editorial choices free of charge. If so, and if their choices are more or less `as good as' yours, then you cannot make a living. On the other hand, if your services are better, than you may be able to make a living. Or part of a living, the rest coming from selling rivalrous items. -- Robert J. Chassell [EMAIL PROTECTED] GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8 http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Scouted: Popists: 'Christianophobia' = Anti-Semitism; Demand UN Recognition
From: Dave Land [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com To: Killer Bs Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Subject: Re: Scouted: Popists: 'Christianophobia' = Anti-Semitism;Demand UN Recognition Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 08:28:35 -0800 Whether one believes that Christians are under attack or not, perhaps Christians forget that we were /promised/ persecution by Christ himself, and it is to be a source of blessing: Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you, and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. (Matthew 5:10-11) Sounds like a ton of fun... Tell me if this sounds familiar: a famously Christian world leader props up his position by using a pack of lies to sell a Middle East invasion to drive out despotic Muslims. Bush II in '03? No: Urban II in '95. Pope Urban II, in 1095, selling the first Crusade to oust what he called A race absolutely alien to God from Jerusalem. Wasn't there a Pope Rural as well? Succeeded by Urban I, due to outmigration I believe... -Travis ... Edmunds _ Take charge with a pop-up guard built on patented Microsoft® SmartScreen Technology. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-capage=byoa/premxAPID=1994DI=1034SU=http://hotmail.com/encaHL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: ADMIN: Mail hiccup
Travis Edmunds wrote: I had one bounce back on me last week. Sadly (sad as in - y'all missed a funny post from me!!!), I had the original message that I was replying to deleted by the time the mailman hit me back, so I was too pissed/lazy to do anything but nothing about it. That made sense right? Now *we're* pissed. ;-) Nick ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Usenet
I feel like following in the steps of others using this list for tech support... Lately, using Thunderbird 1.0, I've been having serious problems connecting to Optimum Online's USENET server after a while of doing just fine. It's not my bandwidth, I still receive all my other traffic fine, but Thunderbird keeps giving me error messages that it is timing out in connecting to Optonline's server. ~Maru ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Usenet
maru wrote: I feel like following in the steps of others using this list for tech support... Lately, using Thunderbird 1.0, I've been having serious problems connecting to Optimum Online's USENET server after a while of doing just fine. It's not my bandwidth, I still receive all my other traffic fine, but Thunderbird keeps giving me error messages that it is timing out in connecting to Optonline's server. I don't use Thunderbird very often to check news servers and I haven't seen this. If I were you, I'd try another news client when Thunderbird is timing out, to see if it's your client or the server that's acting up. Are you hitting other news servers without timeouts? I had to write a fair bit of timeout management in my news robots, as servers can become awfully slow when they're busy. But that's usually just on open news servers. If this is something you pay for, it shouldn't get overloaded very often if they're a good outfit. Nick ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Tommy going home soon
Julia says it looks like they'll be going home with Tommy in a couple of hours. Yay! Nick ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Tommy going home soon
WOOHOO! Good time to have the whole family together, Dee Julia says it looks like they'll be going home with Tommy in a couple of hours. Yay! Nick ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Tommy going home soon
In a message dated 12/22/2004 11:13:05 A.M. US Mountain Standard Tim, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: WOOHOO! Good time to have the whole family together, Dee And big headaches will turn back into small headaches. The ones of everyday life. When Tommy grabs the phone, he's going to call Woy Woy Australia. Vilyehm ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Tommy going home soon
Behalf Of Nick Arnett Julia says it looks like they'll be going home with Tommy in a couple of hours. Fantastic! This is really great news. - jmh ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Tommy going home soon
At 10:08 22-12-04 -0800, Nick Arnett wrote: Julia says it looks like they'll be going home with Tommy in a couple of hours. Yay! Yay, too! At least I didn't say Me, too! Maru -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Homeless Martians with Squeegies?
[New Scientist Magazine] said something -- or someone -- had regularly cleaned layers of dust from the solar panels of the Mars Opportunity vehicle while it was closed down during the Martian night. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNewsstoryID=7161248 And, for everyone but Warren: http://tinyurl.com/3tewj Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Weekly Chat Reminder
As Steve said, The Brin-L weekly chat has been a list tradition for over six years. Way back on 27 May, 1998, Marco Maisenhelder first set up a chatroom for the list, and on the next day, he established a weekly chat time. We've been through several servers, chat technologies, and even casts of regulars over the years, but the chat goes on... and we want more recruits! Whether you're an active poster or a lurker, whether you've been a member of the list from the beginning or just joined today, we would really like for you to join us. We have less politics, more Uplift talk, and more light-hearted discussion. We're non-fattening and 100% environmentally friendly... -(_() Though sometimes marshmallows do get thrown. The Weekly Brin-L chat is scheduled for Wednesday 3 PM Eastern/2 PM Central time in the US, or 7 PM Greenwich time. There's usually somebody there to talk to for at least eight hours after the start time. If you want to attend, it's really easy now. All you have to do is send your web browser to: http://wtgab.demon.co.uk/~brinl/mud/ ..And you can connect directly from William's new web interface! My instruction page tells you how to log on, and how to talk when you get in: http://www.brin-l.org/brinmud.html It also gives a list of commands to use when you're in there. In addition, it tells you how to connect through a MUD client, which is more complicated to set up initially, but easier and more reliable than the web interface once you do get it set up. -- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/ This message was sent automatically using cron. But even if WTG is away on holiday, at least it shows the server is still up. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Homeless Martians with Squeegies?
Presumably the native, homeless martians get tired of waiting for a tip and eventually wander off...thus explaining why we have no pictures! :P Damon. = Damon Agretto [EMAIL PROTECTED] Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum. http://www.geocities.com/garrand.geo/index.html Now Building: Revell Germany's M60A3 __ Do you Yahoo!? All your favorites on one personal page Try My Yahoo! http://my.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Usenet
Hah! I finally figured it out! What I was doing was trying to connect with SSL, which uses a different port from normal NNTP connections. So I set it back to insecure connection, and that finally did the trick! Thanks anyway. ~Maru Nick Arnett wrote: maru wrote: I feel like following in the steps of others using this list for tech support... Lately, using Thunderbird 1.0, I've been having serious problems connecting to Optimum Online's USENET server after a while of doing just fine. It's not my bandwidth, I still receive all my other traffic fine, but Thunderbird keeps giving me error messages that it is timing out in connecting to Optonline's server. I don't use Thunderbird very often to check news servers and I haven't seen this. If I were you, I'd try another news client when Thunderbird is timing out, to see if it's your client or the server that's acting up. Are you hitting other news servers without timeouts? I had to write a fair bit of timeout management in my news robots, as servers can become awfully slow when they're busy. But that's usually just on open news servers. If this is something you pay for, it shouldn't get overloaded very often if they're a good outfit. Nick ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Great Christmas Gift Ideas!
On Dec 22, 2004, at 7:14 AM, Travis Edmunds wrote: http://www.errorwear.com/errorwear.html (T-shirts that fuse geek culture with high fashion.) At last, empirical proof to support my assertions of platform superiority. # Mac errors: 2 # Windows errors: 6 (3 different BSoD's + 3) Told you so. ;P -- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress The Seven-Year Mirror http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Asimo running
On Dec 22, 2004, at 8:43 AM, Travis Edmunds wrote: Don't like TinyURL myself, but that's because I'm just a pain in the ass. Ockr-ASS-a Once in high school I had a teacher mispronounce my name deliberately: OCK-ruh-suh. I looked at him strangely and he said I'm talking the CRASS out of oh-CRASS-uh. He was a pretty cool teacher. And my spots haven't really changed much. :) -- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress The Seven-Year Mirror http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Great Christmas Gift Ideas!
Windows: 6 Mac: 2 Linux: 0 ~Maru :) Warren Ockrassa wrote: On Dec 22, 2004, at 7:14 AM, Travis Edmunds wrote: http://www.errorwear.com/errorwear.html (T-shirts that fuse geek culture with high fashion.) At last, empirical proof to support my assertions of platform superiority. # Mac errors: 2 # Windows errors: 6 (3 different BSoD's + 3) Told you so. ;P -- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress The Seven-Year Mirror http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Burt Rutan Interview
http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2004/local/20041220215558.shtml http://tinyurl.com/4pbur Question: Whats on the horizon in terms of future interests? Answer: Well, I think I will spend a large percentage if not all of my main efforts for the rest of my career on manned-space travel. I think we can, if we do it right, be within 20 to 25 years of being able to visit hotels in orbit and many thousands of people being able to afford to do that. I would like to see affordable travel to the moon before I die, so I am starting relatively soon on developments for orbital-space tourism. -- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/ If you listen to a UNIX shell, can you hear the C? ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Burt Rutan Interview
On Dec 22, 2004, at 5:39 PM, William T Goodall wrote: http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2004/local/20041220215558.shtml http://tinyurl.com/4pbur Question: Whats on the horizon in terms of future interests? Answer: Well, I think I will spend a large percentage if not all of my main efforts for the rest of my career on manned-space travel. I think we can, if we do it right, be within 20 to 25 years of being able to visit hotels in orbit and many thousands of people being able to afford to do that. I would like to see affordable travel to the moon before I die, so I am starting relatively soon on developments for orbital-space tourism. I believe it was Carl Sagan who thought space tourism was important to the survival of the species. His feeling was that the more people who saw how relatively small and fragile Earth was, the more would take interest in behaving prudently while on its surface. -- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress The Seven-Year Mirror http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Tommy going home soon
In a message dated 12/22/2004 1:37:44 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Julia says it looks like they'll be going home with Tommy in a couple of hours. Yay! Yay, too! Yay three ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Tommy going home soon
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 12/22/2004 1:37:44 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Julia says it looks like they'll be going home with Tommy in a couple of hours. Yay! Yay, too! Yay three Yay.. quad? ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
