(SCO) w00t! i bought unix! im gonna b so rich!
(novell) /msg atnt haha. idiot.
(novell) whoops. was that out loud?
(atnt) rotfl
(ibm) lol
(SCO) why r u laffin at me?
(novell) dude, unix is so 10 years ago. linux is in now.
(SCO) wtf?
(SCO) hey guyz, i bought caldera, I have linux now.
(red_hat) haha, your linux sucks.
(novell) lol
(atnt) lol
(ibm) lol
(SCO) no wayz, i will sell more linux than u!
(ibm) your linux sucks, you should look at SuSE
(SuSE) Ja. Wir bilden gutes Linux für IBM.
(SCO) can we do linux with you?
(SuSE) Ich bin nicht sicher...
(ibm) *cough*
(SuSE) Gut lassen Sie uns vereinigen.
* SuSE is now SuSE[UL]
* SCO is now caldera[UL]
(turbolinux) can we play?
(conectiva) we're bored... we'll go too.
(ibm) sure!
* turbolinux is now turbolinux[UL]
* conectiva is now conectiva[UL]
(ibm) redhat: you should join!
(SuSE[UL]) Ja! Wir sind vereinigtes Linux. Widerstand ist vergeblich.
(red_hat) haha. no.
(red_hat) lamers.
(ibm) what about you debian?
(debian) we'll discuss it and let you know in 5 years.
(caldera[UL]) no one wants my linux!
(turbolinux[UL]) i got owned.
(caldera[UL]) u all tricked me. linux is lame.
* caldera[UL] is now known as SCO
(SCO) i'm going back to unix.
(SGI) yeah! want to do unix with me?
(SCO) haha. no. lamer.
(novell) lol
(ibm) snap!
(SGI) :~(
(SCO) hey, u shut up. im gonna sue u ibm.
(ibm) wtf?
(SCO) yea, you stole all the good stuff from unix.
(red_hat) lol
(SuSE[UL]) heraus laut lachen
(ibm) lol
(SCO) shutup. i'm gonna email all your friends and tell them you suck.
(ibm) go ahead. baby.
(SCO) andandand... i revoke your unix! how do you like that?
(ibm) oh no, you didn't. AIX is forever.
(novell) actually, we still own unix, you can't do that.
(SCO) wtf? we bought it from u.
(novell) whoops. our bad.
(SCO) i own u. haha
(SCO) ibm: give me all your AIX now!
(ibm) whatever. lamer.
* ibm sets mode +b SCO!*@*
* SCO has been kicked from #os (own this.)

what if the sco case was on irc?

] A new handheld scanner may mean patients being screened
] for cancer will no longer have to cram into the narrow
] tunnel of an MRI or CT scanner for a grueling 40-minute
] exam -- the patient won't even need to undress.

Wired News: Taking a Quick Swipe at Cancer

] South Korea's largest mobile phone operator said Thursday
] that it will offer cell phone users a new noise service
] that it says will repel mosquitoes.
]
] SK Telecom said subscribers can pay 3,000 won (US$2.50)
] to download a sound wave that is inaudible to human ears
] but annoys mosquitoes within a range of three feet.
] Customers can then play the sound by hitting a few
] buttons on their mobile phones.
]
] The company claimed that the service worked during tests.
]
] The service, which begins Monday, has one drawback: it
] consumes as much battery power as normal cell phone
] rings.
]
] SK Telecom has 17 million subscribers and controls a
] little over 50% of the domestic market.

Sweet. Now if only they could come up with a repellant that worked on those OTHER pests, namely telemarketers.

Noise from phone can chase mosquitoes

] British scientists are lobbying to build the world's most
] powerful microscope, an instrument so advanced that it
] can see individual atoms moving.
]
] The European Spallation Source (ESS) -- a type of
] instrument known as a matterscope -- would allow them to
] look at the growth of protein molecules in living human
] tissue or at the stresses deep within the wheel of a
] train or the wing of an aircraft.
]
] "This is on par with the Hubble telescope, but it's for
] looking at inner space," said Professor Bob Cywinski of
] Leeds University, which is backing the one billion pound
] (US $1.6 billion) project.
]
] A disused World War Two airfield in North Yorkshire has
] been earmarked for the matterscope's kilometer-long
] concrete tunnel and neutron research laboratories.
]
] "To look at it, you'd just see a mound of grass growing
] over the top and sheep wandering around," said Cywinski.

Big science! w00t!

Kilometer-long microscope in the works

This model (requires Java) lends some great insight into what causes traffic jams in various road scenarios...

Laughing Boy

Microsimulation of road traffic

] Juszkiewicz is about to take the guitar on its biggest
] technology leap since George Beauchamp and Adolph
] Rickenbacker first added an electric pickup in 1931. In
] early 2004, Gibson will introduce the first digital
] guitar.
]
] "His notion is to obsolete all guitars," says Craig
] Devin, who worked on the technology before leaving Gibson
] to start Devin Design & Development. "And the only way he
] can do that is through a technology play."
]
] "What he's going for is pretty incredible," says Neal
] Schon, guitarist for Journey, who has test-played some of
] Gibson's prototypes.
]
] Electric guitars %u2014 like most instruments %u2014 are
] analog. The sounds come from vibrations and modulating
] electrical fields, not data and computer chips. It's hard
] to fault an instrument that has given us a range from
] John Lee Hooker's beehive licks to the sounds of Keith
] Richards, Kurt Cobain and Carlos Santana. But an electric
] guitar has some hang-ups. Like, its tone can be affected
] by the length of the cord from the guitar to the amp.
] Plus, as versatile as an electric guitar is, it's not
] always versatile enough.
]
] The guts of Gibson's digital guitar would be the few
] high-tech chips inside. The cord you plug in would be an
] ethernet cable, which would run to a digital amp, or into
] a laptop that becomes the mixing board.
]
] The sound, once set, would never alter by even a shade.
] "I tried it with 200 feet of cable, and there was no
] change in tone," Schon says ecstatically. This is a big
] deal to musicians who want to roam a large stage, which
] Schon will do this summer as Journey tours with REO
] Speedwagon and Styx %u2014 concerts sure to be packed
] with more middle-aged moms per square foot than a
] suburban bunco card-game tournament.
]
] Performers' sound checks would no longer be necessary,
] Devin notes. The artist could set up preferences for how
] the guitar should sound, then a laptop computer could
] listen to the way the guitar reverberates in that room
] and automatically make adjustments so it sounds exactly
] right. The system could adjust the sound as the number of
] people in the audience changes, thus changing the room's
] acoustics.
]
] A digital guitar could assign a different effect to each
] of the six strings, so maybe the two bass strings could
] have a crunchy fuzz tone while the four higher strings
] mimic a mellow jazz guitar. Today's electric guitars
] can't do anything like that. And no one's even started to
] talk about what it would mean if you could plug a guitar
] straight into the Internet. Could you sell guitar licks
] on eBay?
]
] Under it all, Gibson promises to preserve and even
] improve on the basic guitar that's been a part of rock
] 'n' roll

OK… not sure how I feel about this yet. Sure, it sounds like a cool idea, but there is a lot of charm in analog electrics “unpredictability” of what the sound is going to be like. And the notion of making sound checks obsolete? Complete BS – what about the vocalists and drums? Both are analog “instruments” that need to be miked and checked. And most guitarists still prefer to mic their amps rather than running direct to the board, and I don’t see that ever changing.

Oh… and tube distortion vs. digital? ‘Nuff said.

The techno and electronic musicians will love this. And it might open up some new abilities for all guitarists as an extension of the instrument. But this will NEVER replace analog electrics. “…to obsolete all guitars”? Oh, he must mean just the way electronic drum pads were supposed to replace real “skins”.

Laughing Boy

Gibson dares to make electric guitars digital

] Even as NASA engineers debated possible damage, a flight
] director e-mailed Columbia's astronauts to say there was
] "absolutely no concern" that breakaway foam that struck
] the space shuttle might endanger its safe return. The
] shuttle's commander cheerily replied, "Thanks a million!"
]
] Flight director J.S. "Steve" Stich conveyed his assurance
] to Columbia's commander and pilot on Jan. 23, according
] to documents disclosed Monday. At the time, engineers
] inside NASA continued to debate and study whether foam
] that smashed against Columbia's wing on liftoff might
] have fatally damaged materials protecting the shuttle
] during its fiery descent.
]
] Such materials included the wing's reinforced carbon
] panels and insulating tiles covering other parts of the
] spacecraft.
]
] "Experts have reviewed the high speed photography and
] there is no concern for RCC or tile damage," Stich wrote
] to Columbia's commander, Rick D. Husband, and pilot,
] William C. McCool. "We have seen the same phenomenon on
] several other flights and there is absolutely no concern
] for entry. That is all for now. It's a pleasure working
] with you every day."
]
] Husband, a veteran shuttle astronaut, replied two days
] later, on Jan. 25, "Thanks a million, Steve! And thanks
] for the great work on your part."

I'd no idea the crew was even told of the foam strike. Suffice it to say if ground control felt compelled to email video clips of the incident, the crew had to know SOMETHING was up - astronauts aren't exactly mentally challenged. Wouldn't have taken them very long to put 2 and 2 together.

Laughing Boy

E-mails: 'Absolutely no concern' over Columbia foam strike

] The music industry disclosed aggressive plans Wednesday
] for an unprecedented escalation in its fight against
] Internet piracy, threatening to sue hundreds of
] individual computer users who illegally share music files
] online.
]
] The Recording Industry Association of America, citing
] substantial sales declines, said it will begin Thursday
] to search Internet file-sharing networks to identify
] users who offer "substantial" collections of MP3-format
] music files for downloading. It expects to file at least
] several hundred lawsuits seeking financial damages within
] eight to 10 weeks.
]
] Executives for the RIAA, the Washington-based lobbying
] group that represents major labels, would not say how
] many songs on a user's computer will qualify for a
] lawsuit. The new campaign comes just weeks after U.S.
] appeals court rulings requiring Internet providers to
] identify subscribers suspected of illegally sharing music
] and movie files.
]
] The RIAA's president, Carey Sherman, said tens of
] millions of Internet users of popular file-sharing
] software after Thursday will expose themselves to "the
] real risk of having to face the music."
]
] "It's stealing. It's both wrong and illegal," Sherman
] said. Alluding to the court decisions, Sherman said
] Internet users who believe they can hide behind an alias
] online were mistaken. "You are not anonymous," Sherman
] said. "We're going to begin taking names."

SING
Send in the goons...
/SING

Music labels to sue hundreds of music sharers

] Samsung is trying to bridge the gap with the first DVD
] player aimed specifically at HDTV owners. According to
] the company, the $299 player optimizes standard DVD video
] performance to make better use of the capabilities of new
] high-definition displays. In short, it brings DVD video
] closer to high-definition clarity.
]
] Ordinary DVD players and all basic TV sets
] use what's called standard definition video, which splits
] the image into 480 horizontal lines. The Samsung is the
] first DVD player to use a smart digital imaging chip to
] fine-tune the image and to "upconvert" the video to 720
] or 1,080 lines, both of which are considered
] high-definition. It's a technological cheat, though,
] because the chip is adding resolution that doesn't exist
] on the disc.
SNIP
] But how does the Samsung stack up to full high-definition
] TV? I compared a DVD copy of Star Wars, Episode II:
] Attack of the Clones with an HBO HD broadcast, and the
] player performed admirably.
]
] Make no mistake, the HD broadcast was superior. In
] Amidala's and Anakin's sappy frolic in the field, I could
] make out individual weed stalks in the foreground that
] were lost in the DVD video. But the DVD player held its
] own, and, to many eyes, would appear close enough to HDTV
] to make it worthwhile.
]
] Of course, a new format for true high-definition DVD
] discs will arrive eventually. But today's DVDs are likely
] to remain the format of choice for years to come. This
] player and its successors will help you get
] the most out of them.

This is VERY good news for us video philes. I was afraid that todays DVDs; a format facing obsolesence thats less than 10 years old ("What do you mean I have to purchase all new copies of my DVD's?") would be the biggest hurdle in getting consumers to adopt the new Hi-Def format. To see just how bad of a "problem" this would have been, go into an appliance store and view a HD program next to an NTSC (current television format). Those 480 lines of resolution your brain has been "filling in" all these years, suddenly become apparent, don't they? While pixel interpolation like this is, as he says, no substitute for true high definition media, this should bridge the gap until the old DVD's are phased out.

Laughing Boy

Higher-definition DVD player: A resolutionary idea

] While most people are familiar with the black boxes in
] aircraft, which also serve as event data recorders, few
] motorists know there are similar devices in their
] vehicles as part of the system that controls air bags.
] Only 36 percent of the 38,000 people surveyed by the
] Insurance Research Council were aware of EDRs.
]
]
] But at least 10 million vehicles have them, estimated
] Philip W. Haseltine, president of the Automotive
] Coalition for Traffic Safety, a lobbying group in
] Arlington, Va.
]
] The most sophisticated EDRs collect pre-crash information
] including the speed of the vehicle, whether the driver
] was accelerating or braking and whether the seat belts
] were buckled.
]
] The collection of such information has excited a wide
] range of groups for different reasons, and EDRs have the
] potential to become one of the more controversial issues
] in the auto industry.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I don't want my every (driving) move recorded. On the other hand, maybe people will start to realize that they're accountable for what they do in their vehicles. The story this guy is about, who was doing 114 in a 30 and killed two girls, makes me lean toward the accountability end. But coupled with a GPS and suddenly every move you make is recorded. Now that's scary.

Newhouse A1