] Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software,
] primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use
] software (like a tutor for MS-Word/Excel etc). Using Wink
] you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes,
] buttons, titles etc and generate a highly effective
] tutorial for your users.

Wink - [Homepage]

Palindrome wrote:
] Situation:
] you are driving down the road or stopped at a stop light and
] when you glance around you see a woman sitting alone in her
] car crying her eyes out.
]
] what is your reaction?
]
] Do you even give it a second thought?
]
] What do you think about?
]
] How does it make you feel?

Is she parked on the side of the road or is she blocking the lanes? If she's sitting on the side of the road I'd think she's having a real issue. Unfortunately in this day and age, if she's in the road itself I'd have to immediately think that she's part of some scam. Perhaps a carjacking.

Dolemite

RE: A question to ponder

Nanochick wrote:
] Hijexx wrote:
] ] We at Interz0ne strive to bring you the absolute best
] ] experience while you attend the conference, and we also try
] to
] ] do this where it doesn't empty your wallet in the process.
] But
] ] with trying to bring you the best of the best speakers,
] ] forums, and issues, it does mean expenditures on Interz0ne's
]
] ] part. We regretfully announce that we have to raise the
] ] entrance fee for this year's conference to $50.00 a
] person
] ] for the weekend.
] ]
] ] ...
] ]
] I agree with Hijexx. I see no reason why a con roughly the
] size of PN...possibly even smaller, would need $50. I
] mean...Defcon is $75, and if Interz0ne is $50, then $75 for
] Defcon is starting to look like a good deal. I don't plan on
] attending Interz0ne this year. Granted, I may happen to be
] hanging out at the hotel's bar, to chat with friends I only
] see at cons...but I won't be "going" to the con because 1) I
] think $50 is way too expensive and 2) past grievances with the
] so called "student price" that was suddenly retracted at the
] door last year. If you advertise a student price, then either
] stick to it, or give me a damn good valid reason why the
] "student price" is retracted. When your a student, every
] dollar counts. Anyway, thats my rant for the evening:)

PhreakNIC has had between 300-400 attendees per year for the last three years. I think you can remove the "possibly" qualifier before "even smaller."

One thing that I can shed some light on is the fact that it does indeed cost a good bit of money to throw on an "organized" convention. Trying to find the balance between charging too little and not getting taken to the cleaners is difficult. For the first two years that I ran PhreakNIC, I took a loss. This past year we are left with enough money in the bank to actually pay for some things up front next year. (As opposed to my American Express card being the primary sponsor for PhreakNIC!) Typically convention space in the amount needed for a regional convention is anywhere from $2000-$5000 for a weekend. The need for 24 hour access drives the price up. If you have an established usage pattern for hotel rooms, you can often get that fee significantly dropped or waived altogether, which was our case for PhreakNIC 8. Now add in the price of t-shirts, especially the ones that don't sell. Badges take not only a lot of time, but money, to create. That's why I've taken the approach of trying to have a multi-use item, like the key cases from last year (yes, they were for keys, even though a pack of smokes fits perfectly in there) as the identifying item for the convention. This year's arm band worked out pretty well, too, I think. Anyway, those things cost money. Specifically, about $6500 for PhreakNIC 8, and I didn't pay speakers anything (though they did get a nice little thank you gift of a laptop backpack). That's without me having to pay for meeting space, so I'm sure the costs for interz0ne are way up there.

-Dolemite

RE: Interz0ne 4: *50* BUCKS???

] He addressed subjects considered unthinkable in comic
] books and rarely seen at the time in newspaper comics:
] spousal abuse, tax audits, urban blight and graft.
]
] In 1940, he created a weekly newspaper supplement titled
] "The Spirit," which at its height had a circulation of 5
] million in 20 Sunday newspapers. The supplement consisted
] of a comic book with three self-contained stories, and
] "The Spirit" became the most popular.

I heard about this earlier today when reading more fan-ish websites and was wondering if and when the news would finally trickle to the front pages of more mainstream news sites like cnn.com. Apparently nearly 12 hours later. For those who aren't familiar with Will Eisner, you should check out some of his works. The article here says it best - he broke a lot of stereotypes about what you could write about in comic strips and comic books, and this was in the 1930s.

- Dolemite

Comic book legend Will Eisner dead - Jan 4, 2005

Decius wrote:
] This is a post election article from Tennessee. The title was:
]
]
] ] Bredesen sees no significant effect of shift in power
] ]
] ] Tennesseans elected the first state senate majority in
] ] 140 years.
] ]
] ] On the issue of TennCare, Bredesen said, "We've always
] ] known there were two options for controlling TennCare
] ] costs so it doesn't take all the resources of state
] ] government."
]
] Five days later, he kills the program.

Well, I'm trying to figure out where the link between Bredesen, a Democrat, and the Republicans is.

] My mother is on Tenncare. She has a condition which in general
] does not contribute much to her healthcare costs. However, no
] insurance company will provide her with general health
] coverage because of it. Tenncare was really her only option.
] She pays more for Tenncare then most people do for their
] health insurance, and she doesn't get much out of it. She is
] often stuck going to ghetto Tenncare doctors who primary treat
] people who are too poor to pay. We have insurance so that in
] the event of something catastropic we're able to pay.

That's why he's been trying to save TennCare. Right now, 430,000 people in Tennessee are able to at least get some form of insurance that they normally wouldn't be able to. However, the system as it exists today is growing at such a rate that it will bankrupt the state in literally just a few years. When TennCare is dissolved, those 430,000 people will be left out in the cold and the remaining 900,000 on the rolls will have standard Medicaid coverag.

] My mother now joins the growing ranks of the uninsured in this
] country, not because she is a leech on the system, as rock
] stupid Republican fucking commentators consistantly claim
] everyone on Tenncare is, but because actuaries have decided
] that they will not cover her at any price.

You think the commentators are rock stupid? How about those that are suing the State and therefore causing the governor to dissolve the program? Drug costs are the largest single expenditure and there are some scary statistics out there... the average number of prescription drugs in the nation is around 6, I believe. The average for people in TN is will over 10! Bredesen wanted to cap the number of drugs per month at 6, with an allowance under very special circumstances after a review. The main issue that people are suing the program over is the number of drugs covered - they want a preferred drug list with negotiated prices, but no cap on how many. The end result is that most people suing for the uncapped drug amount will end up off the rolls as it is. Oh, well.

TennCare was and still is a good idea because people like your mother can't get insurance elsewhere. Sure, it's expensive, but it's better than nothing. As a die hard social liberal, I think we should just have socialized medicine with an option for privately funded doctors, much like the rest of Western Civilization...

RE: YEAH FU@#$ING REPUBLICANS!!@!@!@!#$

This is so wrong yet funny. Who let their kids be part of this?

2004's Scariest Halloween Costumes

] JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Dario Cruz has lived in the United
] States for 16 years, but just became a citizen last week
] as he and about 200 other immigrants were naturalized.
]
] One of the things he had always wanted to was register to
] vote, but when he was offered the chance to do that right
] outside the ceremony, he knew something wasn't right --
] the place on the form where you're asked to choose
] Democrat, Republican or independent was already filled
] out.
]
]
] "It's like one side," Cruz said. "You don't get to
] choose."
]
]
] According to Cruz and his family, every form was checked
] off Republican.
]
]
] It was something his wife, Linda Cross, first noticed.
] She said she asked what was going on, and was told the
] woman registering voters said they were with a Republican
] organization.
]
]
] "I am Republican," she told Channel 4's Jim Piggott. "I
] was very angry with that if they want to register
] whatever party, you shouldn't try to dictate to people
] what party they are going to register; who they are going
] to vote for, because then you don't have any freedom."

Later it mentions that "For the record, any registered voter can vote for any candidate of any party in a general election, but in most primaries in Florida, people can only vote for candidates of their own party." While this is true, it's still a slap in the face to new immigrants to have their party choice made for them.

News4Jax.com - Election 2004 - New Citizens Say GOP Took Away Their Right To Choose

] ICANN should see DNS Whois for what it is, a relic of a
] simpler time, and focus instead on the IP address Whois
] systems, where their efforts might reap meaningful
] results.

After the drama I stirred up last week (see the politech list) Circle ID offered to feature an article from me about the DNS Whois issue. Here it is.

DNS WHOIS: Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Berke Breathed gives an email interview to Salon as he begins another comic strip run (yay!) on November 23 in 160 newspapers. Bloom County / Outland was definitely one of the best news strips I've ever read and I'm glad to see more new Breathed material coming out. Good interview for anybody with interest in the penguin.

] Again, in the Onion interview, you claimed that it was
] no longer possible to
] satirize American politics. In the past two years, the
] (visible) political landscape
] has changed considerably. Do you still believe it's
] impossible to satirize?

]
] I think there's both a saturation point and a failure
] point in events being beyond satire. I started stripping
] in 1981, the same month that MTV started. Daily satirical
] comment was either "Doonesbury" or "The Tonight Show."
] The horizon was clear. We had the whole playing field.
] You young punks just try to imagine that there wasn't
] even a World Wide Web. Michael Jackson jokes passed as
] edgy comedy in "Bloom County."
]
] Now. Lord, now. The din of public snarkiness is
] stupefying. We're awash in a vomitous sea of caustic
] humorous comment. I hope to occasionally wade near the
] black hole of pop references only obliquely without
] getting sucked in with everyone else. Full disclosure:
] I'll admit that I had a momentary lapse and recently
] inked a strip where Opus' mom sees a picture of Michael
] Jackson in 1983, proclaims Jacko's old nose irresistible
] and voices an urgent wish to nibble it off down to the
] nub.
]
] It took every thoughtful middle-aged fiber in my being
] for the courage to toss the finished strip. I did, but I
] wept.
]
] Now the flip side of this is when events get untouchable.
] It becomes like the occasional lampoons of supermarket
] tabloids: unfunny because they're mocking something
] that's funnier than the satire. You can't effectively
] satirize Bill Clinton getting waxed by an office vixen in
] the office of Abraham Lincoln. It's done. Over. Go home.
] Know when you're beat. It almost was physically painful
] to watch the great Garry Trudeau have to try to get a
] handle on it.

The penguin is mightier than the sword

] Geek care and feeding is easier than many think, because
] we are generally healthiest when left to our own devices.
] This doesn't mean we can't do things together; but we do
] thrive when given a little time to do our own thing.
] (This conveniently frees you from having to be part of
] it.)

MSN Dating & Personals - Loving your geek, tolerating his hobbies