LostInSpace

quote:Originally posted by Grizzle: though I agree it played a large part in accelerating the birth of civilization thus becoming a "hard habit to break". It has also held us back substantially.

quote:Originally posted by echo: Bo Boce lost to that cow girl. While I don't watch this, I did happen to catch it for the final show down. I dunno about you guys and gals but I think that bo has more talent and a much much better stage presence than the Cow girl Underwood. I cringed quite a few times at her singing not only that she's boring. Bo also hit a few sour notes but they were few and far between. I predict that in the year or years to come Underwood will fade as a one hit wonder and or flash in the pan but Bo Boce will rocket. I really thought Bo Boce was going to walk away with this one.

quote:Originally posted by paranide: Gothic 3 Ah you beat me to it. I was going to check the developers web site to see if they are even considering making a third before I posted. I'm still waiting for a U.S. release of their add-on Night of the Raven for Gothic 2 but I don't think that's going to happen.

quote:The first smart-arse to tell me they've said this all before will get banned. Aww Shucks!!!

quote:Originally posted by Cruis.In: Jedi knight 4 (no plans) There's a petition to get this one made on lucasforums.com forums. Hopefully, when and if they do, they don't use that quake 3 engine. Believe it or not I still prefer the Darkforces 2/Jedi knight engine (even though it's way outdated) and gameplay compared to the quake 3 engine they've been using. They also need to rebalance the saber fights in the game because they left open too many cheesy moves.

ZDNet quote: In a new type of online attack, extortionists remotely encrypt user files and then demand money for the key to decode the information. In a case documented by San Diego-based Web security company Websense, the attack occurs after a user visits a Web site containing code that exploits a known flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser. The flaw is used to download and run a malicious program that in turn downloads an application that encrypts files on the victim's PC and mapped network drives, according to Websense. The program then drops a ransom note. Even though this type of attack is not widespread at this point, Internet users should be aware of the threat, said Oliver Friedrichs, a senior manager at Symantec Security Response. "It is certainly concerning. This is the first time that we have seen cryptography used in this type of attack to hold your information hostage," he said. "I would see this as the equivalent of somebody coming into your house, putting your valuables in a safe and not telling you the combination," Friedrichs said. Researchers at Symantec have seen the malicious program used in the ransom attack. The "Trojan.Pgpcoder" searches a victim's hard disk drive for 15 common file types, including images and Microsoft Office file types. It then encrypts the files, removes the originals and drops a note asking $200 for the encryption key, Friedrichs said. A Websense customer fell victim to the attack. Luckily, in this case the encryption wasn't very sophisticated and Websense was able to decode the customer's files, said Dan Hubbard, senior director of security and research at Websense. "In this case we could help, but every variant can be different," he said. Attackers could use e-mail, a Web site, or other means to distribute the Trojan.Pgpcoder and launch a widespread extortion campaign, Symantec's Friedrichs said. Websense, however, doesn't see a trend yet. Attackers leave a trail if they ask for money, Hubbard said: "This type of attack is not that difficult to perform. However, in order to collect money the attackers are leaving themselves open to investigation and tracing." For protection, users should run security software and make sure that their software is patched, Websense and Symantec said. The Internet Explorer flaw exploited to attack the user in the Websense case was patched in July last year. The Websense customer was victimized two weeks ago. The Web sites involved in the attack have since been taken down. What next?

MSNBC: Feds vow to close Viagra loophole quote: New York Gov. George Pataki called on Washington to reverse the Clinton-eraÔÇÖs ÔÇ£irrational and misguided policy.ÔÇØ The Republican also directed the New York Parole Division to prohibit convicted sexual offenders on parole from using erectile-dysfunction drugs. He recommended county probation departments do the same. Ahhhh, Another Clinton legacy in all it's glory gotta love it.

There's always somebody who wants to be first at something at any cost.

Link quote: LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A small British technology company has claimed it is on the verge of unlocking the vast potential of fuel cells as a commercially viable source of green energy. Cambridge-based CMR Fuel Cells said it had made a breakthrough with a new design of fuel cell that is a 10th of the size of existing models and small enough to replace conventional batteries in laptop computers. "We firmly believe CMR technology is the equivalent of the jump from transistors to integrated circuits," said John Halfpenny, the firm's chief executive. Fuel cells have for years been touted as the next big green power source. They produce electricity via a chemical reaction and emit only tiny amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) -- the main greenhouse gas blamed by many scientists for global warming. Coal and gas-fired power stations produce far more CO2. But high costs and doubts about widespread availability of fuel -- usually hydrogen -- have held back the technology's transition to the mainstream despite years of research by energy firms and the automotive industry. CMR said the new design would run for four times longer than conventional batteries in a laptop or other devices like power tools. "It's also instantly rechargeable," said Michael Priestnall, CMR's chief technology officer. Priestnall and chief engineer Michael Evans came up with the design while working at Cambridge-based consultancy Generics Group. Evans said the design, which would run initially on methanol, was based on new type of fuel stack which mixed air and fuel. Up to now fuel stacks have relied on complete separation of the two. Halfpenny said CMR was in talks about possible demonstrations for the U.S. Defense Department.

LINK quote: Friday, May 20, 2005 Posted: 10:36 AM EDT (1436 GMT) WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The U.S. government does not want billboards in space. The Federal Aviation Administration proposed Thursday to amend its regulations to ensure that it can enforce a law that prohibits "obtrusive" advertising in zero gravity. "Objects placed in orbit, if large enough, could be seen by people around the world for long periods of time," the FAA said in a regulatory filing. Currently, the FAA lacks the authority to enforce the existing law. For instance, outsized billboards deployed by a space company into low Earth orbit could appear as large as the moon and be seen without a telescope, the FAA said. Big and bright advertisements might hinder astronomers. "Large advertisements could destroy the darkness of the night sky," regulators said.

Link quote:ET breaks news that the man who starred as the Riddler in the popular 1960s "Batman" television series, FRANK GORSHIN, died Tuesday afternoon at the age of 72. According to his spokesperson, the renowned actor, comedian and impressionist passed away after a valiant battle with lung cancer, emphysema and pneumonia. His wife of 48 years, CHRISTINA, was at his side. His "Batman" co-star, ADAM WEST, tells ET, "Frank will be missed. He made an indelible impression as the Riddler in the classic 'Batman' TV series. He was a fine impressionist as well. He made me laugh. He was a friend and a fascinating character. A real loss." Gorshin was known by audiences of all ages for his roles in classic flicks like 'Batman: The Movie' and more recent hit films like BRAD PITT's '12 Monkeys.'

NY POST: MAG DEAD WRONG

Davey and Goliath and Gumby with his sidekick Pokey are my all time favorite shows as a kid.

Fox Five News quote: Newsweek Retracts Koran-Desecration Story Monday, May 16, 2005 By Jane Roh Two Marines, 23 Rebels Killed in Afghan Battle NEW YORK ÔÇö Newsweek on Monday retracted a story alleging interrogators at Guantanamo flushed the Koran down a toilet in front of detainees. "Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Koran abuse at Guantanamo Bay," editor Mark Whitaker (search) said in statement released Monday evening. Earlier, Whitaker acknowledged the story was problematic in an apology to Newsweek's readers, but said there was no reason to retract the story. "We're not retracting anything. We don't know what the ultimate facts are," he told The New York Times. Newsweek did not say what caused the turnabout. In the apology, Whitaker said that its lone source for a story accusing U.S. interrogators of flushing the Koran (search) down the toilet to rattle a detainee later said he could not recall where information about the alleged incident came from. "We believed our story was newsworthy because a U.S. official said government investigators turned up this evidence," Whitaker wrote. "But we regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst." Protesters took to the streets in several Afghan cities last week after Newsweek published its report. American flags were burned, relief organizations were attacked and at least 16 people were killed and scores injured in clashes with police. Angry Bush administration officials were out in force following Newsweek's admission. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman called the report demonstrably false, and that investigators at the FBI and the Southern Command have not found any evidence to support it. SouthCom is based in Miami and oversees operations at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "You can't go back and undo or retract the damage that has been caused not only to this nation, but to those who have been attacked, injured or killed as a result of these false allegations," he said. The White House, said to be outraged over the report, stopped short of outright demanding a retraction. However, a spokesman implied the magazine should take back the story. "It's puzzling. While Newsweek now acknowledges that they got the facts wrong, they refuse to retract the story," press secretary Scott McClellan said. "I think there's a certain journalistic standard that should be met. In this instance it was not. "This was a report based on a single anonymous source that could not substantiate the allegation that was made," McClellan added. "The report has had serious consequences. People have lost their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged. I just find it puzzling." Whitaker said that writers Michael Isikoff (search) and John Barry (search) had shown their story to two Defense Department officials but that neither commented on the alleged Koran incident. Whitman implied on Monday that no Defense officials were contacted prior to publication. Whitaker, however, did not say that the allegations in the story were wrong, but that the Newsweek reporters' source could not pinpoint where the source obtained his or her information. He also implied that the story had no causal effect on the recent riots in Afghanistan, in which 16 people have died and dozens have been injured. "The riots started and spread across the country, fanned by extremists and unhappiness over the economy," Whitaker wrote. The allegations by the "knowledgeable U.S. government source" were to be included in an upcoming SouthCom review, Isikoff and Barry reported in the May 9 issue. Defense Department officials said there are no such charges in the SouthCom report. It was unclear if the Pentagon was going to pursue a probe into the alleged incident or drop it in light of Newsweek's admission. A SouthCom spokesman said the investigation was still open, but Whitman said he did not know if it had been closed. While the Pentagon denies uncovering any information whatsoever about the allegations, Justice Department officials told FOX News that they shared a report with Defense about one such incident. In the summer of 2002, a Guantanamo prisoner told an FBI agent that an interrogator there flushed the Muslim holy book down the toilet. The FBI did not confirm the allegation, but passed a report containing the detainee's statement to the Department of Defense, Justice Department officials said. On Friday, Whitman said the Pentagon did not receive the report, and that even if Newsweek's source was based on that statement, it would be "substandard" journalism to report on a detainee's uncorroborated statement. Eric Burns, a media analyst and host of "FOX News Watch," agreed that Isikoff and Barry should have tried to back up their source. Journalists are supposed to "get multiple sources for printing something incendiary," and if the source's information did come from a military report, "they should have gotten a copy of that report," Burns said. That the reporters did not find any U.S. officials who could confirm their source's information makes the "knowledgeable U.S. government" source's credibility even more dubious, Burns said. "Who was this official they went to? Was he in a position to know?" Burns wondered. Burns said he understood why Newsweek, in light of the Abu Ghraib scandal, was eager to go forward with the story, and that Isikoff, who has "a hell of a reputation" in journalism, was no Jayson Blair (search). But, "The charge here is that an erroneous report led to death. If that's what actually happened and can be causally established, then there is no more serious charge you can make against a news organization, and no more bizarre explanation from one," Burns said. He cautioned that it might be pushing it to blame Newsweek for the ongoing violence in Afghanistan, saying that despite the news weekly's blunder, "there are people who are looking for reasons to hate us ... it will have no effect on people abroad who do not care for this country's behavior." Many of the inmates at Guantanamo were captured during the U.S.-led war against the Taliban in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

So far the critics have been positive about the film. Ebert and Ropert gave it two thumbs (of course they mentioned about the dialogue but like they said hey it's star wars). They also said it's the best thing to happen to Star Wars since Empire Strikes Back.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Newsweek magazine backed away Sunday from a report that U.S. interrogators desecrated copies of the Quran while questioning prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay naval base -- an account blamed for sparking violent riots in Afghanistan and elsewhere. KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan were skeptical after a U.S. magazine backed away from a report that U.S. interrogators desecrated copies of the Quran while questioning prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

Link quote: Story that sparked riots questioned Allegation an Islamic holy book was flushed down a toilet by a U.S. soldier can't be proved, Newsweek editor says May 16, 2005 Newsweek has partially backed off its report that interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran, a story that sparked furious riots last week that killed at least 15 people in Afghanistan. The May 9 Newsweek item reported that a pending U.S. military investigation had found evidence that interrogators placed Qurans in washrooms to unsettle suspects and in one case "flushed a holy book down the toilet." While stopping short of retracting the entire story, the magazine apologized and said it would re-examine the accusations after a Pentagon spokesman questioned the reported source of the charges and called similar allegations by detainees "not credible." Newsweek's error was in asserting that the claim of desecration came in the pending military investigation into FBI e-mail messages describing prisoner abuse at Guantanamo, and in suggesting there was evidence supporting the claim. "We regret that we got any part of our story wrong and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst," Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker wrote in the magazine's May 23 edition, out today. The story that sparked the furor was a short item in Newsweek's Periscope section. Reaction in Afghanistan was strong, likely compounded by angry denunciations by foes of the U.S.-friendly regime of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and by public discontent in general. A story on the report, also in today's Newsweek, says the magazine's original information came from a senior U.S. government official who was a "longtime reliable source" and was familiar with the abuse investigation by the military's Southern Command, which runs the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Before publishing the item, reporters Michael Isikoff and John Barry sought comment from senior defense officials, Newsweek said. One declined to respond, and the other challenged another part of the story, but did not dispute the Quran charge, Whitaker said. But on Friday, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita told Newsweek that it was wrong and that the Pentagon had found no credible evidence to support the allegations of Quran desecration. Whitaker said the magazine's original source later said he could not be sure he read about the alleged Quran incident in the upcoming Southern Command report Newsweek cited. "Top administration officials have promised to continue looking into the charges, and so will we," Whitaker wrote. Journalism experts expressed concern about the incident. "It's disturbing," said Bill Kovach, chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists. "Obviously, the reaction to the report tells you just how damaging and dangerous careless reporting can be. ... You can't know what the impact of anything you report is going to be, and for that reason it seems to me that the verification process has to be as stringent for a one-paragraph story as for a thousand-paragraph story." Paul Levinson, chairman of the department of communications and media studies at Fordham University, agreed. "I think, given the incendiary nature of our world, the height of the tensions that are running through the Islamic world against Americans, that our journalists have to be extra careful in publishing stories that inflame those tensions," he said. "I think Newsweek did some damage in publishing the story initially, and I also commend them for stepping up now and admitting their mistake." This story was supplemented with wire service reports. How the magazine story broke May 2: Newsweek reports that U.S. military investigators had found evidence that American guards in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had committed infractions in trying to get terror suspects to talk, including in one case flushing a Quran down a toilet. The story is in the May 9 issue, on newsstands May 2. May 10: Afghans protest in the eastern city of Jalalabad. May 11: Protests turn violent in Jalalabad, with mobs stoning U.S. troops and smashing foreign consulates and other government and aid offices. At least four are killed. May 12: More are killed as protests spread. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls any act disrespectful of the Quran "abhorrent" and promises to punish any offenders. May 13: A top Pentagon spokesman tells Newsweek its story was wrong and that a review of the probe cited in its story showed that it was never meant to look into charges of Quran desecration. The spokesman also said the Pentagon had investigated other desecration charges by detainees and found them "not credible." May 16: Newsweek apologizes, saying the source for its original story is no longer certain where he read the allegation of the Quran's desecration.

Yup, been keeping my eye on that one for some time now. Shame really. We've all seen it before. Like the notion that god placed the Earth at the center of the universe and everything revolved around it and if you taught otherwise you were burnt at the stake.

A bit off topic but I did the same thing with my entire cable service. I only got cable for a few channels: Discovery science and BBC america (for the british comedies). Then time-warner started to carry Tech Tv. Ah, those were the good old days. What happened? BBC america became a 27/7 home design channel, Tech TV became G4 (what a piece of crap now) and there's only so many egyptian programs one can watch on the discovery science channel. So out with the cable. All this boils down to is that the sophisticated television viewer is at the mercy of the average brain challenged television viewer since there are more of them than us and that boils down to higher nielson(spelling) ratings for some particual type of tv program.

quote:Originally posted by Freyar: "Homeworld 2 setup detects that you are not running DirectX 9.0. Homeworld 2 setup will now install DirectX 9." Blinking for a second and checking my DXDiag I noted I was running Direct X 9.0c already and that it was attempting to install DirectX 9.0b. I quickly put a stop to that. No need to worry there. A lower version of Direct X will only install if you have a lower version than the one that's attempting to install. As for the rest. I agree. Despite all the best efforts by Anti-piracy comapanies, their software is still being beaten. Can't keep a good hacker down. More often than not, the legit user is all too often forced to seek out these (no-cd) hacks to be able to play the game. The only draw back to this is that if the game developer releases an update you have to wait a while for a no-cd hack to be released before you install the update. As for myself, so far I've been lucky even with Starforce.

quote:Originally posted by Freyar: How do those guys keep themselves from going under? This is how: Whiskey Donation Scheme

Before anyone anywhere appologizes to Muslims about a book, I think it's high time that Muslims are brought to justice and made to appologize to the entire Christian community (and to other religions as well). Link quote: By SALIM MANSUR -- For the Toronto Sun Again this year, in the land between two rivers, the Nile and the Indus, Christians will gather to celebrate the birth of Christ and pray for deliverance from their ancestral homes. The cradle of Christianity is the Middle East, but in recent times Christians have been departing in record numbers from the Arab-Muslim world to escape organized bigotry and violence of Muslim fanatics and terrorists. The August bombings of four churches and a monastery in Iraq barely lifted the veil on the subject -- the precarious situation of Christians and other minorities in Muslim-majority countries. Iraq has been home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the region, the Assyrians, who still speak a form of Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. The Christians in Iraq, belonging to various denominations, were estimated to be around 800,000 or 3% of the population. But this population is dwindling as Christians flee in increasing numbers. The general sentiment is that Christians have no future in the Middle East as pressures mount on them to conform to the militant fundamentalist values of Islamist fanatics on a warpath against the West. In the past several months, according to some estimates, approximately 40,000 Iraqi Christians left through Syria and Turkey for refuge abroad. The situation of Christians elsewhere in the region -- Pakistan, Palestine, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt -- is about the same as discrimination increases and periodic violence encourages them to depart. Earlier this month, an outrage in Egypt gripped its Coptic Christian community in fear and anger, but it barely got reported in the mainstream North American media. The story of Wafaa Constantine Messiha, wife of a Coptic priest, abducted by Muslim fanatics and forcibly converted to Islam, is emblematic of the perils surrounding Egypt's Copts. The Egyptian regime of President Hosni Mubarak has offered little support to the besieged Copts, who are regularly subjected to organized violence. Messiha's story is not an isolated incident, according to the Coptic Pope, Shenouda III. 15% of population The U.S. Copts Association estimates Copts in Egypt number around 12-15 million, or about 15% of the population. Their history in the Nile valley goes back to the first century of the Christian era and the ministry of Apostle Mark bringing Christianity to Egypt. The tragic irony in Muslim persecution of Copts, as the Egyptian government watches, is how little tolerance these fanatics have for their own faith tradition, if nothing else. It was Maria -- a Coptic woman sent by Egypt's ruler as a gift to Muhammad -- who bore the prophet a son (who died in infancy) as his bondmaid. Egypt is the most populous state and cultural centre of the Arab world. It is the second largest recipient of U.S. aid, and a strategic ally in the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. Hence, for foreign policy reasons, the present U.S. administration -- like previous ones -- prefers quiet diplomacy with Cairo despite mounting evidence of religious intolerance. But there is no reason, except sheer hypocrisy, for Muslims in North America to remain silent over the systematic human rights abuse of Christians in the Arab-Muslim world. Immense tragedy There is real concern that eventually a time might come, unless the political situation dramatically improves, when Christian communities of the Middle East no longer exist. This will then be an immense tragedy for all concerned. Ethics and prudence demand of Muslims in the West, as a religious minority, to speak out loudly against Muslim fanatics and terrorists persecuting minorities in the Arab-Muslim world. Otherwise any complaint of bigotry in Canada, or in other democracies, experienced by Muslims might quite properly be considered frivolous and be deservedly ignored.

quote:11 CFR ┬º 100.5 to determine whether their plan to collaborate with their neighbor to speak on the Internet means that they qualify as a ÔÇ£political committeeÔÇØ subject to registration and reporting requirements. Does this mean most of us here are a political committee?

Center for Democracy and Technology quote:On March 28, 2005, the Federal Election Commission (ÔÇ£FECÔÇØ) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ÔÇ£NPRMÔÇØ) proposing to extend campaign finance regulations to certain political speech on the Internet. The public may comments on the proposed rules until June 3, 2005. The FEC has released a helpful detailed summary of the NPRM, and CDT & IPDI have released a very brief overview of the NPRM............................ In the 2004 election cycle, in contrast, millions (and possibly tens of millions) of individual Americans expressed their political views online, and at most a tiny fraction of those individuals were working for an organized political campaign or party. And it is certain that the vast majority of those millions of speakers had not retained attorneys to advise them on campaign finance law issues. But without attorneys (indeed, without attorneys steeped in campaign finance law) the task of determining what oneÔÇÖs obligations are under the laws and regulations is daunting, to say the least. An uninitiated speaker wanting to comply with federal law is confronted with: 234 pages of statutes from the U.S. Code; 516 pages of FEC regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations; 702 pages of ÔÇ£explanations and justificationsÔÇØ of the FEC regulations; more than 1300 FEC Advisory Opinions supplementing the regulations; more than 350 federal court decisions concerning the FECÔÇÖs regulations; Even if an online speaker knew precisely which regulations to review (and assuming for the sake of argument that the rules proposed in the current NPRM are adopted without change), someone planning to actively use the Internet to express his or her political views would have to consult, at a bare minimum, the following provisions from Chapter 11 of the Code of Federal Regulations (ÔÇ£CFRÔÇØ): 11 CFR ┬º 100.26 to determine if their speech would be treated as a ÔÇ£public communicationÔÇØ; 11 CFR ┬º 100.22 to determine if their speech qualifies as ÔÇ£express advocacyÔÇØ; 11 CFR ┬º┬º 100.73 and 100.132 to determine if they qualify under the news media exemption; 11 CFR ┬º 100.94 to determine if their Internet activities count as contributions subject to limits; 11 CFR ┬º 100.155 to determine if their Internet activities count as expenditures for reporting purposes; 11 CFR ┬º 114.9 to determine if their use of an employerÔÇÖs computer to access the Internet is permissible; 11 CFR ┬º┬º 100.27 and 110.11 to determine if their bulk e-mail requires a specific type of disclaimer; and 11 CFR ┬º 100.5 to determine whether their plan to collaborate with their neighbor to speak on the Internet means that they qualify as a ÔÇ£political committeeÔÇØ subject to registration and reporting requirements. In the face of such an array of laws and regulations, it is certain that at least some individual speakers on the Internet will choose to forgo online political speech. That many Internet speakers may in fact be oblivious to the existence of the laws and regulations (and thus may never think to consult them) does not avoid the fact that some speakers will attempt to determine their correct classification under the regulations, and decide to forgo their speech instead. The highly complex and voluminous rules will have an unavoidable ÔÇ£chilling effectÔÇØ on constitutionally protected ÔÇô indeed, constitutionally valued ÔÇô political speech. The fact that the FEC has laudably sought to narrow the reach of its regulation of Internet speech also does not alter the chilling effect of the rules. Unless either Congress or the FEC breaks the mold of pre-existing campaign finance regulations and drafts a single, short and easy-to-understand exemption of individualsÔÇÖ online speech, the complexity of the rules as a whole will chill individualsÔÇÖ speech ÔÇô speech that the campaign finance laws and rules should be promoting. Congress or the FEC must draft a rule accessible to and understandable by the average Internet speaker.