text stringlengths 1 160k | label class label 20 classes |
|---|---|
((fluffy bi fantasy squelched))
Dear Mr. Elf,
Please post this shit where it belongs. I believe
you know where that is, you overweening weenie-biter.
| 18talk.politics.misc |
I would like to get your opinions on this: when exactly does an engaged
couple become "married" in God's eyes? Some say that if the two have
publically announced their plans to marry, have made their vows to God, and
are unswervingly committed to one another (I realize this is a subjective
qualifier) they are married/joined in God's sight.
Suppose they are unable to get before the altar right at the current time
because of purely logistical reasons beyond their control. What do you
think about this?
Post or e-mail me with general responses. If you need clarification as to
what I am asking, please e-mail.
Thanks and God bless!
============================================
Robert M. Anderson III
randerso@acad1.sahs.uth.tmc.edu
| 15soc.religion.christian |
joe, i'm sorry you felt i was pissing on your list. no disparagement
was intended and i would be most interested to know what i said that
made you feel that way. i am not suggesting that your list is
superflous nor that it will not serve a need. i just would like not
to see the boxer contingent split, but there is certainly enough net
for more than one list.
--
-- bob pasker
-- rbp@netcom.com
--
| 8rec.motorcycles |
I'm looking for a PC that is small and doesn't break apart if you drop
it on the groud.
It doesn't have to have graphics, text only will do
just fine. It doesn't have to be fast either, 8086 will do, I hope.
But you must stand a pretty hard enviroment without breaking apart,
jumnping on it or trying to use it outdoor while it is raining and so
forth. I need 640Kb of memory and a convinient way of loading
applications into it that I wrote myself (floppy or somekind of
writeable cartridge?).
Is there a PC like that?? And where can I get more info?
I know of the Atari portfolio but it can't stand the rain....
Marco Seirio - In real life sp1marse@caligula.his.s
| 3comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware |
Has anyone written a device driver to use the Ascension bird with XWindows ?
__
(_ / / o_ o o |_
__)/(_( __) (_(_ /_)| )_
***************************************************************************
* Suresh Thennarangam * EMail: suresh@iss.nus.sg(Internet) *
* Research Scholar * ISSST@NUSVM.BITNET *
* Institute Of Systems Science * Tel: (065) 772 2588. *
* National University Of Singapore * Facs.: (065) 778 2571 *
* Heng Mui Keng Terrace * Telex: ISSNUS RS 39988 *
* Singapore 0511. * *
***************************************************************************
| 5comp.windows.x |
ecaxron@ariel.lerc.nasa.gov (Ron Graham) writes:
>I think that, everything else being equal, it's not too much to ask that
>if a weeknight game can be shortened by half-an-hour by cutting out warmup
>pitches, dawdling outside the batter's box, commerical time-outs and that
>sort of thing, I'm not asking for too much.
How do you know they can be shortened by half-an-hour? Has anybody done a
study to determine how much time is actually "wasted" -- say, in these A's
games?
Heather
HHENDERSON@vax.clarku.edu
| 9rec.sport.baseball |
My ENT doctor recommended surgery to fix my sinuses. I have a very deviated
nasal septum (probably the result at least partially from several fractures).
One side has approximately 10-15% of normal flow. Of course I have known this
for years but recently discovered that I suffer from chronic sinus infection,
discovered during an MRI after a severe migraine. A CT scan subsequently
confirmed the problems in the sinuses.
He wants to do endoscopic sinus surgery on the ethmoid, maxillary, frontal,
and sphenoid, along with nasal septoplasty.
He explained the procedure, and the risks. What I would like to know is if
there is anyone out there who can tell me "I had this surgery, and it helped
me"?
(I've already heard from a couple who said they had it and it didn't
really help them).
I am a moderately severe asthmatic. ENT doc says large percentage see some
relief of their asthma after sinus surgery. Also he said it is not unheard of
that migraines go away after chronis sinusitis is relieved.
I am 42.
Any relevant information is appreciated.
Regards,
Jay Keller
Sunnyvale, California
badboy@netcom.com
| 13sci.med |
In article 28858@cas.org, lwv26@cas.org (Larry W. Virden) writes:
>In article <0frolV200awVI3IV4s@andrew.cmu.edu> "Derrick J. Brashear" <db74+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>:
>:I got the following today from Gary Risebrough and it worked fine:
>:
>:Excerpts from mail: 29-Apr-93 Re: ol{v}wm 3 virtual keybo..
>:ITO2@aodc.gov.au (554)
>:
>
>:> I have :
>:> > OpenWindows.KeyboardCommands: Full
>:> > OpenWindows.VirtualGrabKeys : False
>:
>:> which seems to work.
>:
>
>Where can I find man pages about VirtualGrabKeys resource - it doesn't
>show up in my OpenWindows 3.0 man pages...
VirtualGrabKeys is not an OW resource. It belongs to
olvwm(1).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mats Larsson | Email: Mats.Larsson@eua.ericsson.se
ELLEMTEL Telecom Systems Labs | Phone: +46 8 727 3658
S-125 25 Alvsjo, SWEDEN | Fax: +46 8 727 4168
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| 5comp.windows.x |
In article <1993Apr20.032017.5783@wuecl.wustl.edu>, jca2@cec1.wustl.edu (Joseph Charles Achkar) writes:
>
> It was nice to see ESPN show game 1 between the Wings and Leafs since
> the Cubs and Astros got rained out. Instead of showing another baseball
> game, they decided on the Stanley Cup Playoffs. A classy move by ESPN.
What, did you leave the room each of the 100 or so times they said that
there WERE NO OTHER NIGHT BASEBALL GAMES? Every break they took back at
the studio mentioned it, followed by 'so...we're gonna show you hockey
instead.' My wife and I are hoping for rain at every baseball game they
have a feed for tommorrow night...
Point is, be glad they showed hockey, but if baseball was available
anywhere else you can bet you would've watched baseball last night.
pete clark
| 10rec.sport.hockey |
In article <93110.11265034AEJ7D@CMUVM.BITNET>, <34AEJ7D@CMUVM.BITNET> writes:
> As a minor point of interest, earlier news reports claim to have
> been quoting the Governor of Texas when Her Holiness referred to
> the Dividians as _Mormons_ and called for their expulsion
> from TX. Any Texans have details?
The Davidians are a 60-year-old splinter from the Seventh Day Adventists,
if that's the information you were looking for.
--
cdt@rocket.sw.stratus.com --If you believe that I speak for my company,
OR cdt@vos.stratus.com write today for my special Investors' Packet...
| 16talk.politics.guns |
Hi there!
Could some kind soul tell me what is the price of LC/IIvi/IIvx
compatible 512kb VRAM SIMMs in the US nowadays? The price over here
(Finland) is so ridiculously high (about $185 each in USD) that I
think it is worth the trouble to try to get them overseas.
Thanks
--
Jartsu
| 4comp.sys.mac.hardware |
In article <aldridgeC5tH63.7yA@netcom.com>, aldridge@netcom.com (Jacquelin Aldri writes...
>dyer@spdcc.com (Steve Dyer) writes:
>
etc. ...
>
>Dyer, you're rude. Medicine is not a totallly scientific endevour. It's
>often practiced in a disorganized manner. Most early treatment of
>non-life threatening illness is done on a guess, hazarded after anecdotal
>evidence given by the patient. It's an educated guess, by a trained person,
>but it's still no more than a guess.
>It's cheaper and simpler to medicate first and only deal further with those
>people who don't respond.
>
Dyer is beyond rude.
There have been and always will be people who are blinded by their own
knowledge and unopen to anything that isn't already established. Given what
the medical community doesn't know, I'm surprised that he has this outlook.
For the record, I have had several outbreaks of thrush during the several
past few years, with no indication of immunosuppression or nutritional
deficiencies. I had not taken any antobiotics.
My dentist (who sees a fair amount of thrush) recommended acidophilous:
After I began taking acidophilous on a daily basis, the outbreaks ceased.
When I quit taking the acidophilous, the outbreaks periodically resumed.
I resumed taking the acidophilous with no further outbreaks since then.
* Mike McCurdy
* University Computing Services Disclaimer:
* San Diego State University
* mccurdy@ucsvax.sdsu.edu "Everything I say may be wrong"
| 13sci.med |
In article <pat.734048757@fegmania.wustl.edu> pat@fegmania (Patrick Niemeyer) writes:
>I too had trouble finding hc11's when I looked for them a while back.
>I'd be interesting in hearing if anyone knows about their availability now...
The newest JDR Microdevices catalog has at least one variant of the HC11.
--
Rainer M. Malzbender
Fyzzicks, CU Boulder
(303)492-1366
| 12sci.electronics |
In article <930424031634.176183@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL>, Grant@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL (Lynn R Grant) writes:
> About 50 people so far have asked, "Once the FBI gets your Clipper keys,
> won't they be able to read all your future and past traffic?"
>
> There has been no response from NIST, NSA, Ms. Denning, Mr. Hellman, or
> anyone else who might be able to give us an authoritative answer.
> This is troubling.
>
> Didn't NSA think about this? Or is it a feature, and they thought we
> wouldn't notice?
>
> I would have thought that by now they would have responded with something
> of the form, "Well, that won't be a problem because ...."
Don Alvarez posted a good partial solution to this problem to
comp.risks. I'll present my variant on it instead, since I feel it's a
bit stronger against some likely attempts to cheat. depends on the
protocol that's followed for reading traffic. Briefly, the cops get a
wiretap warrant, and record the call. They then notice the encryption
and the disclosure header. It, along with a copy of their warrant, is
sent to the FBI, or whoever it is who holds the family key. The
F-holder decrypts the header, and sends the serial number N and the
encrypted session key U[K] to the escrow agents. They, in turn, use U1
and U2 to recover K, and send that to the local police.
Note how this solves the problem of wiretapping forever. Neither the
cops nor the FBI ever see U, so they can't read other traffic. Every
request must be validated by both the FBI and the escrow agents. The
cops and the FBI together can't cheat, since they don't have U. (I
regard that as a likely pairing of folks who might try to beat the
system. It's to prevent this that I modified Alvarez's scheme.) The
escrow agents can't read the conversation, since they don't have it;
all they have is N and U[K]. And the police don't even see N.
It's harder to see how to block decryption of old, warrantless,
wiretaps. There is one protection -- you have to persuade the escrow
agents that the call is current. But that's not nearly as strong.
There are approaches I can see that might work, involving sequences of
data on an unalterable medium, complete with cryptographic protection
against insertion onto a new medium. But I don't have anything yet
that isn't too complex for comfort, or too hard to install in the real
world. The NSA might have an answer; they may or may not be smarter
than me, but I've been working on this for a week, and they've had years.
| 11sci.crypt |
lee139@gaul.csd.uwo.ca (Steve Lee) writes:
>In article <C5spEC.EuC@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> stamber@rainbow.ecn.purdue.edu (Kevin L. Stamber) writes:
>Woops! This is rec.sport.hockey! Not rec.sport.golf! Hope you check the
>newsgroup header next time before posting!
>Steve Lee * University of Western Ontario * London, Canada
> lee139@obelix.gaul.csd.uwo.ca
Actually Steve, I think he was refering to the Leafs, and when they can
be expected to hit the greens...
--
ACADIA AXEMEN! CIAU CHAMPIONS, 1993!
Donald.Smith@dragon.acadiau.ca
| 10rec.sport.hockey |
Heres the life of St. MAria Goretti, posted with kind permission of
the editor of the Australian Catholic Magazine "Morning Star".
Hope you like it.
Put up with anything to prevent sin St. Maria Goretti
Maria was born on October 16th 1890 to Luigi and Assunta Goretti,
the eldest daughter in the family of seven. She was a cheerful
girl, always imitating her parents. She had but one disire, but
one wish: to receive our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
The date was finally set for little Maria to receive our Lord on
the feast of Corpus Christi. For Maria, time seemed like an eter-
nity as she slowly neared the great day. When it finally
arrived, Fr. Jerome( the priest who was to celebrate the Mass and
give the children their First Holy Communion) delivered a sermon
on the immense love of Jesus Christ for them and the great love
we should have in return for Him. He then warmly urged them to
die rather than commit a mortal sin.
Maria humbly approached the Altar of God and received the Holy
Eucharist. Her only sadness was the thought of her father's
absence, who died some time beforehand. As for the rest of the
day, Maria remained under the spell of the divine visit; that is
until
-4-
her thoughts changed to when she could go next to Holy Communion.
Thus ended the happiest day of Maria's life.
Over the next twelve months, Maria had changed from a giggling
little girl into a quiet young lady with responsibilities. As her
mother went out into the fields in place of her husband, Maria
took on the ironing, cooking, washing and other motherly duties.
She was doing this not only for her own family, but also for the
Serenellis, a father and son who lived with the Goretti's, owning
a share in the farm. Although Maria was poorer than all the other
children, she by far surpassed them in virtue. In all thi ngs she
did the Holy Will of God.
During the month of June, Alessandro Serenelli(the son) twice
made advances upon Maria when he chanced to be alone with her. On
both occasions Maria managed to struggle free of Alessandro's
strong grip, but on the second, he threatened to kill her if she
even uttered a word to her mother. From this day on, Maria lived
in terror, fearing lest Alessandro attack again.
On July 5th 1902, Alessandro left work in the fields to "get a
handkerchief," as he claimed. He went to the storeroom beneath
the house where Maria, who was outside on the landing with the
baby, could hear him fumbling about in with tools. She wondered
what he was doing. It was later learned that he was sharpening a
91/2" blade. He went to the house and called for Maria. She told
him she wouldn't go to him unless she knew why she was needed. He
stormed out to the landing and dragged her up to her room. Mar ia
instantly realized what he was up to. "No, No, No! Do not touch
me! It is a sin, you will go to Hell!" At this point Alessandro
held the knife over Maria's chest, who was now on the floor.
"Will you or will you not?" Maria gathered all her energy. "No I
will not, Alessandro, no!" She had chosen her martyrdom over
sin, God over Satan. Overcome with rage, Alessandro plunged the
knife into Maria's breast fourteen times. Finally he came to
his senses and thought Maria was dead. Frantically he threw the
knife behind a closet and locked himself in his room. The crying
of the baby Teresa on the landing brought the attention to
Assunta and the father of Alessandro. As the baby was unattended
and was in danger of falling off, they ran to the house to find
Maria, who, covered in blood, was dragging herself to the door.
When asked what happened she said Alessandro stabbed her. "He
wanted to make me do wrong and I would not."
The ambulance arrived, then the police who took Alessandro away.
As the ambulance carried Maria to the hospital, a large crowd
followed on foot. The doctors at the hospital held no hope for
poor little Maria. The same Fr. Jerome who gave Maria her First
Communion
-5-
came to administer the last rites and to give her Holy Viaticum.
He asked Maria if she would forgive her murderer. "Yes. For the
love of Jesus I forgive him. I wish for him to one day join me
in Paradise. May God forgive him, for I alread y have." Maria
died at about three o'clock.
Alessandro was tried and found guilty of Maria's death but
because of his age he was sentenced to only thirty years in
prison. After eight years of being a violent prisoner and show-
ing no regret for his crime, he saw in a dream, in the midst of
a field of flowers, Maria holding out a bunch of white lilies to
him. Soon later he wrote to the local bishop, begging God's par-
don for the grave sin he had committed. He later gave testimony
in Maria's beatification in 1947. Less than three years later,
on Ju ne 24th 1950, Maria was canonised. Assunta Goretti was the
first mother ever to be present at her daughter's canonisation.
May St. Maria Goretti help us to be pure and grant us the
strength to die rather than commit a mortal sin.
Saint Maria Goretti, pray for us.
by Brendan Arthur
--
Internet: simon@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au
Viva Cristo Rey !! Long Live Christ the King.
| 15soc.religion.christian |
In article <F3ZB3B1w165w@codewks.nacjack.gen.nz>, system@codewks.nacjack.gen.nz (Wayne McDougall) writes:
|> > brian@gab.unt.edu (Brian "Drakula" Stone) writes:
|> >
|> > >Just because someone is gay doesn't mean they have no morals. Just because
|> > >someone is heterosexual doesn't mean they do. Look at the world....
|> > >Statistics alone prove that most criminals are by default hetero...
|>
|> Hmmm, what statistics are these? Can you offer any references. The only
|> studies I've seen indicate a higher proportion of homosexuals in prison
|> than in the general population, but I don't think that allows for the
|> "default" you refer to. Prison is not a normal situation...
|>
|> But I haven't seen anything that suggests that the "default" proportion is
|> lower than in the general population (although it seems plausible).
|>
|> Anyway, as I say, can you provide any references?
|>
|>
Is this an arguement against or for? Or simply a statement of agreeance/
disagreeance. The fact that there are more homosexuals in prison does not
mean that homosexuals are immoral and more liable to commit crime. And one
must remember that prison is not necessarily a reflection of the type of
people who are criminals. What are the statistics for unsolved crime?
|> --
|> This posting is definitive. bljeghbe'chugh vaj blHegh.
|> Wayne McDougall :: Keeper of the list of shows better than Star Trek(TM) ::
|> Ask me about the Auckland Festival of Missions, 18-25 April, 1993
|> I always change my mind when new evidence is available. What method do you use?
|>
--
+-------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Adda Wainwright | Does dim atal y llanw! 8o) |
| eczcaw@mips.nott.ac.uk | 8o) Mae .sig 'ma ar werth! |
+-------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| 18talk.politics.misc |
>In article <1raeir$be1@access.digex.net> steve-b@access.digex.com (Steve Brinich) writes:
>> > Well, actually, this one's easy. It's their job. The NSA is
>> >supposed to develop cryptosystems. If the government chooses to go
>> >ahead and sell those cryptosystems to the masses, so be it.
>>
>> Ah, but developing cryptosystems which are specificially designed to
>>protect the government's domestic spying capabilities takes them beyond
>>that mandate, into the forbidden field of domestic wiretapping.
>>
>
>Unlike the CIA, the NSA has no prohibition against domestic spying. Read
>Bamford's THE PUZZLE PALACE.
>
>Bruce
>
I have that book, and the way I read it is, one side of the
conversation MUST be from outside the United States.
Of coures, that ASS U MEs that the NSA plays by the rules...
_____________________________________________________________________
\Jeff Hupp |Internet: jhupp@shockwave.win.net \
|9797 Medowglen, Apt. 1807 |Ad: Contract Programming, Novell |
|Houston, Texas 77042 | Network Design and Support. |
|Voice: (713) 780 - 9419 |"The best govenment doesn't" -- me. |
\_____________________________________________________________________\
| 11sci.crypt |
These utilities all include complete printed manuals and
registration cards. I need to get rid of some excess.
They're the latest versions. I've priced these programs
at less than half the list price and significantly less
than the cheapest mail-order price around.
* PC TOOLS FOR DOS 8.0, best-selling utilities collections,
includes DOS shell, antivirus program, backup program,
disk defragger, memory optimizer, remote communications
link, data protection and recovery utilities, appointment
book, address book, and more, list $179, sale $80.
* NORTON BACKUP FOR DOS 2.2, supports DOS 6, tape backup
systems, and LANS, twice as fast as backup in DOS 6, highly
automated and customizable, list $149, sale $65.
* QAPLUS 4.7, top-rated DOS based systems diagnostics
program, more comprehensive than anything included in DOS,
Windows, or utilities collections, invaluable for determining
sources of problems with RAM, video, drives, ports, keyboard,
motherboard, joystick, mouse, speaker, and so on, list $159,
sale $70.
If you're interested in any of these programs, please phone me at
215-885-7446 (Philadelphia), and I'll save the package for you.
--
Reid Goldsborough
reidg@pacs.pha.pa.us
| 6misc.forsale |
In article <1993Apr22.052020.57482@tcs.las-vegas.nv.us> elenay_creations@tcs.las-vegas.nv.us (Anthony D. Saxton) writes:
> A friend of mine recently acquired an 8!24 GC card for his IIsi
> and was wondering why it always starts up in black and white.
> I know there have been numerous reports about the worth of
> the GC, but I was wondering if anyone could elaborate a little
> more on the subject. Any replies encouraged. Thanks in ad-
> vance.
You may have been emailed this, but the IIsi's power supply is not rated to
handle the GC board. Remember when the si came out and everyone complained
about it's power supply. This is one result of apple providing a low-cost
computer and I think they got a lot of flack for having a relatively high end
computer (at the time anyways) that couldn't even support their own video
board. Even if this isn't what is causing your problems, you might develop
one later.
Eric
| 4comp.sys.mac.hardware |
In article <93109.13404334AEJ7D@CMUVM.BITNET>, <34AEJ7D@CMUVM.BITNET> writes:
> CNN is reporting as I write this that the ATF has ignited all
> the buildings of the Branch Dividian ranch near Waco, TX. The
> lies from ATF say "holes were made in the walls and 'non-lethal' tear
> gas pumped in". A few minutes after this started the whole thing went up.
> ALL buildings are aflame. NO ONE HAS ESCAPED. I think it obvious that
> the ATF used armored flame-thrower vehicles to pump in unlit
> napalm, then let the wood stove inside ignite it.
Well, actually, the Davidians (Koreshians?) started the fire themselves,
the last I heard ( around 15:00 EST). Eight people ran out into the feilds
surrounding the compound. All were captured and two admitted to setting the
fire. I don't buy your napalm theory at all (although it would have made a
great commercial for my .sig). Why the hell would they have a wood stove
burning on such a warm day? Flame throwers use liquid petroleum, napalm
is more of a gel. Now to further dispute your theory, the diluted CS gas
was inserted around 06:00 if I understood correctly. The place didn't start
burning until around 10:00 or 11:00.
> THIS IS MURDER! ATF MURDERERS! BUTCHERS!!
> THIS IS GENOCIDAL MASS-SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENT PEOPLE, INCLUDING CHILDREN!
> I have predicted this from the start, but God, it sickens me to see
> it happen. I had hoped I was wrong. I had hoped that there was
> still some shred of the America I grew up with, and loved, left
> alive. I was wrong. The Nazis have won.
Calm down kid. Vernon (Koresh's real name) said himself that he would not leave
that compound alive. The inhabitants thereof had accepted the fact that they
may very well have to kill themselves before it was all over.
> I REPEAT, AS OF THIS TIME THERE ARE **NO SURVIVORS**!
There are at least eight survivors. A caller on Rush Limbaugh today suggested
that the rest may even be hiding in underground bunkers. That's not such a wild
idea considering their weaponry and resolve.
> God help us all.
> PLEASE CROSSPOST -- DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY WITH THE SLAUGHTER OF THE
> CHILDREN!
> W. K. Gorman - an American in tears.
Sheesh! Get over it. I haven't heard (read) such ranting since the Hindenberg
burned. This should have ended 50 days ago. I'm glad my tax dollars have
finally stopped working to pay a bunch of guys to stand around and give press
conferences. Now they can get back to more important things, like catching
cigarrette smugglers.
Troy
Napalm sticks to kids.
| 16talk.politics.guns |
There is another useful method based on Least Sqyares Estimation of the sphere equation parameters.
The points (x,y,z) on a spherical surface with radius R and center (a,b,c) can be written as
(x-a)^2 + (y-b)^2 + (z-c)^2 = R^2
This equation can be rewritten into the following form:
2ax + 2by + 2cz + R^2 - a^2 - b^2 -c^2 = x^2 + y^2 + z^2
Approximate the left hand part by F(x,y,z) = p1.x + p2.x + p3.z + p4.1
For all datapoints, i.c. 4, determine the 4 parameters p1..p4 which minimise the average error |F(x,y,z) - x^2 - y^2 - z^2|^2.
In 'Numerical Recipes in C' can be found algorithms to solve these parameters.
The best fitting sphere will have
- center (a,b,c) = (p1/2, p2/2, p3/2)
- radius R = sqrt(p4 + a.a + b.b + c.c).
So, at last, will this solve you sphere estination problem, at least for the most situations I think ?.
Quick van Rijt, rytg7@fel.tno.nl
| 1comp.graphics |
Anyone have any experiences to report using PhoneNet PC?
We're thinking about investing in one of these cards for
our lone PC at work.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ken Gantz kgantz@cup.portal.com
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
| 4comp.sys.mac.hardware |
I am planning to convert my Motif 1.2 app from pixel to font units
which would all be set in the app's resource file instead of hard coded
in the program.
However, the word here is from people who tried this already that for
some unknown reason XmForm offsets placed in the resource file are still
interpreted in pixel units forcing people to code those offset font units into the program.
Can somebody confirm this?
Thanks,
Joe Pannon
pannon@bcsfse.ca.boeing.com
| 5comp.windows.x |
dmn@kepler.unh.edu (...until kings become philosophers or philosophers become kings) writes:
> Recently, RAs have been ordered (and none have resisted or cared about
> it apparently) to post a religious flyer entitled _The Soul Scroll: Thoughts
> on religion, spirituality, and matters of the soul_ on the inside of bathroom
> stall doors. (at my school, the University of New Hampshire) It is some sort
> of newsletter assembled by a Hall Director somewhere on campus. It poses a
> question about 'spirituality' each issue, and solicits responses to be
> included in the next 'issue.' It's all pretty vague. I assume it's put out
> by a Christian, but they're very careful not to mention Jesus or the bible.
> I've heard someone defend it, saying "Well it doesn't support any one religion.
> " So what??? This is a STATE university, and as a strong supporter of the
> separation of church and state, I was enraged.
>
> What can I do about this?
It sounds to me like it's just SCREAMING OUT for parody. Give a copy to your
friendly neighbourhood SubGenius preacher; with luck, he'll run it through the
mental mincer and hand you back an outrageously offensive and gut-bustingly
funny parody you can paste over the originals.
I can see it now:
The Stool Scroll
Thoughts on Religion, Spirituality, and Matters of the Colon
(You can use this text to wipe)
mathew
| 0alt.atheism |
In article <1993Apr20.034724.3748@colnet.cmhnet.org> res@colnet.cmhnet.org (Rob Stampfli) writes:
>>> With E-Mail, if they can't break your PGP encryption, they'll just
>>>call up one of their TEMPEST trucks and read the electromagnetic emmisions
>>>from your computer or terminal. Note that measures to protect yourself from
>>
>>2. I could independently invent about half a dozen right off
>>the top of my head. If I had studied Advanced E & M a little better,
>>I could probably come up with a _very_ good system.
>
>Wouldn't a a second monitor of similar type scrolling gibberish and adjacent
>to the one being used provide reasonable resistance to tempest attacks?
Actually, old video games and pinball machines are supposed to work pretty
good (at blocking EM eavesdropping), too. Those things put out a LOT of EM
noise. Back in the 80's, I read about computer companies putting bunches
of games in their buildings for just this purpose (not to mention the $$$).
Dane
| 11sci.crypt |
In article <1993Apr15.215747.17331@m5.harvard.edu>, borden@head-cfa.harvard.edu (Dave Borden) writes:
>The Selective Service Registration should be abolished. To start with, the
>draft is immoral. Whether you agree with that or not, we don't have one now,
>and military experts agree that the quality of the armed forces is superior
>with a volunteer army than with draftees. Finally, the government has us
>on many lists in many computers (the IRS, Social Security Admistration and
>Motor Vehicle Registries to name a few) and it can find us if it needs to.
>Maintaining yet another list of people is an utter waste of money and time.
>Let's axe this whole department, and reduce the deficit a little bit.
>
>
> - Dave Borden
> borden@m5.harvard.edu
You selfish little bastard. Afraid you might have to sacrafice somthing
for your country. What someone not approve a lone for you ? To bad.
What is immoral is: people like you and the current president who don't
have any idea why this country still exists after 200+ years.
| 18talk.politics.misc |
US Robotics Courier HST 14.4K Modem
*External (volume control, LED display, power switch)
*1600-1700 CPS compressed file transfers (higher for uncompressed
files)
*all manuals and original packaging
This modem ussually costs around 500
* V.42 error control
* V.42bis data conpression
* MNP Class 5
error free throughput up to 38,400 bps
Special price for YOU only.. !!!! $220 !!!!!!
Please inquire with any questions..
email
jmcneill@sdcc13.ucsd.edu
or call VOICE: 619 622 1949
James McNeill
| 6misc.forsale |
I believe the NHL Draft is on or the June 18th weekend.
| 10rec.sport.hockey |
In article <C5qEpL.1nu@cbnews.cb.att.com> lvc@cbnews.cb.att.com (Larry Cipriani) writes:
[Posting the text of H.R. 711 ...]
[ ... ]
>To amend title 18, United States Code, to ensure that handguns are available
>only to persons with demonstrated knowledge and skill in their safe use,
>maintenance, and storage.
[ ... ]
>8 "(1)(1)(A) An individual who is not licensed under
>9 this section may not possess a handgun on or after the
>10 date final regulations are prescribed pursuant to para-
>11 graph (2) unless the individual has been issued a handgun
>12 permit under paragraph (2).
Note that this is a "licensing bill," pretending to be a "training bill."
--------
Gridlock, the only mechanism ever to succeed in
slowing down the growth rate of Big Government.
| 16talk.politics.guns |
The following partial summary of a Theory of the Universe includes a
little-known description of the CREATION of our Solar System:
LARSONIAN Astronomy and Physics
Orthodox physicists, astronomers, and astrophysicists
CLAIM to be looking for a "Unified Field Theory" in which all
of the forces of the universe can be explained with a single
set of laws or equations. But they have been systematically
IGNORING or SUPPRESSING an excellent one for 30 years!
The late Physicist Dewey B. Larson's comprehensive
GENERAL UNIFIED Theory of the physical universe, which he
calls the "Reciprocal System", is built on two fundamental
postulates about the physical and mathematical natures of
space and time:
(1) "The physical universe is composed ENTIRELY of ONE
component, MOTION, existing in THREE dimensions, in DISCRETE
UNITS, and in two RECIPROCAL forms, SPACE and TIME."
(2) "The physical universe conforms to the relations of
ORDINARY COMMUTATIVE mathematics, its magnitudes are
ABSOLUTE, and its geometry is EUCLIDEAN."
From these two postulates, Larson developed a COMPLETE
Theoretical Universe, using various combinations of
translational, vibrational, rotational, and vibrational-
rotational MOTIONS, the concepts of IN-ward and OUT-ward
SCALAR MOTIONS, and speeds in relation to the Speed of Light
(which Larson called "UNIT VELOCITY" and "THE NATURAL
DATUM").
At each step in the development, Larson was able to
MATCH objects in his Theoretical Universe with objects in the
REAL physical universe, (photons, sub-atomic particles
[INCOMPLETE ATOMS], charges, atoms, molecules, globular star
clusters, galaxies, binary star systems, solar systems, white
dwarf stars, pulsars, quasars, ETC.), even objects NOT YET
DISCOVERED THEN (such as EXPLODING GALAXIES, and GAMMA-RAY
BURSTS).
And applying his Theory to his NEW model of the atom,
Larson was able to precisely and accurately CALCULATE inter-
atomic distances in crystals and molecules, compressibility
and thermal expansion of solids, and other properties of
matter.
All of this is described in good detail, with-OUT fancy
complex mathematics, in his books.
BOOKS of Dewey B. Larson
The following is a complete list of the late Physicist
Dewey B. Larson's books about his comprehensive GENERAL
UNIFIED Theory of the physical universe. Some of the early
books are out of print now, but still available through
inter-library loan.
"The Structure of the Physical Universe" (1959)
"The Case AGAINST the Nuclear Atom" (1963)
"Beyond Newton" (1964)
"New Light on Space and Time" (1965)
"Quasars and Pulsars" (1971)
"NOTHING BUT MOTION" (1979)
[A $9.50 SUBSTITUTE for the $8.3 BILLION "Super
Collider".]
[The last four chapters EXPLAIN chemical bonding.]
"The Neglected Facts of Science" (1982)
"THE UNIVERSE OF MOTION" (1984)
[FINAL SOLUTIONS to most ALL astrophysical
mysteries.]
"BASIC PROPERTIES OF MATTER" (1988)
All but the last of these books were published by North
Pacific Publishers, P.O. Box 13255, Portland, OR 97213, and
should be available via inter-library loan if your local
university or public library doesn't have each of them.
Several of them, INCLUDING the last one, are available
from: The International Society of Unified Science (ISUS),
1680 E. Atkin Ave., Salt Lake City, Utah 84106. This is the
organization that was started to promote Larson's Theory.
They have other related publications, including the quarterly
journal "RECIPROCITY".
Physicist Dewey B. Larson's Background
Physicist Dewey B. Larson was a retired Engineer
(Chemical or Electrical). He was about 91 years old when he
died in May 1989. He had a Bachelor of Science Degree in
Engineering Science from Oregon State University. He
developed his comprehensive GENERAL UNIFIED Theory of the
physical universe while trying to develop a way to COMPUTE
chemical properties based only on the elements used.
Larson's lack of a fancy "PH.D." degree might be one
reason that orthodox physicists are ignoring him, but it is
NOT A VALID REASON. Sometimes it takes a relative outsider
to CLEARLY SEE THE FOREST THROUGH THE TREES. At the same
time, it is clear from his books that he also knew ORTHODOX
physics and astronomy as well as ANY physicist or astronomer,
well enough to point out all their CONTRADICTIONS, AD HOC
ASSUMPTIONS, PRINCIPLES OF IMPOTENCE, IN-CONSISTENCIES, ETC..
Larson did NOT have the funds, etc. to experimentally
test his Theory. And it was NOT necessary for him to do so.
He simply compared the various parts of his Theory with OTHER
researchers' experimental and observational data. And in
many cases, HIS explanation FIT BETTER.
A SELF-CONSISTENT Theory is MUCH MORE than the ORTHODOX
physicists and astronomers have! They CLAIM to be looking
for a "unified field theory" that works, but have been
IGNORING one for over 30 years now!
"Modern physics" does NOT explain the physical universe
so well. Some parts of some of Larson's books are FULL of
quotations of leading orthodox physicists and astronomers who
agree. And remember that "epicycles", "crystal spheres",
"geocentricity", "flat earth theory", etc., ALSO once SEEMED
to explain it well, but were later proved CONCEPTUALLY WRONG.
Prof. Frank H. Meyer, Professor Emeritus of UW-Superior,
was/is a STRONG PROPONENT of Larson's Theory, and was (or
still is) President of Larson's organization, "THE
INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF UNIFIED SCIENCE", and Editor of
their quarterly Journal "RECIPROCITY". He moved to
Minneapolis after retiring.
"Super Collider" BOONDOGGLE!
I am AGAINST contruction of the "Superconducting Super
Collider", in Texas or anywhere else. It would be a GROSS
WASTE of money, and contribute almost NOTHING of "scientific"
value.
Most physicists don't realize it, but, according to the
comprehensive GENERAL UNIFIED Theory of the late Physicist
Dewey B. Larson, as described in his books, the strange GOOFY
particles ("mesons", "hyperons", ALLEGED "quarks", etc.)
which they are finding in EXISTING colliders (Fermi Lab,
Cern, etc.) are really just ATOMS of ANTI-MATTER, which are
CREATED by the high-energy colliding beams, and which quickly
disintegrate like cosmic rays because they are incompatible
with their environment.
A larger and more expensive collider will ONLY create a
few more elements of anti-matter that the physicists have not
seen there before, and the physicists will be EVEN MORE
CONFUSED THAN THEY ARE NOW!
Are a few more types of anti-matter atoms worth the $8.3
BILLION cost?!! Don't we have much more important uses for
this WASTED money?!
Another thing to consider is that the primary proposed
location in Texas has a serious and growing problem with some
kind of "fire ants" eating the insulation off underground
cables. How much POISONING of the ground and ground water
with insecticides will be required to keep the ants out of
the "Supercollider"?!
Naming the "Super Collider" after Ronald Reagon, as
proposed, is TOTALLY ABSURD! If it is built, it should be
named after a leading particle PHYSICIST.
LARSONIAN Anti-Matter
In Larson's comprehensive GENERAL UNIFIED Theory of the
physical universe, anti-matter is NOT a simple case of
opposite charges of the same types of particles. It has more
to do with the rates of vibrations and rotations of the
photons of which they are made, in relation to the
vibrational and rotational equivalents of the speed of light,
which Larson calls "Unit Velocity" and the "Natural Datum".
In Larson's Theory, a positron is actually a particle of
MATTER, NOT anti-matter. When a positron and electron meet,
the rotational vibrations (charges) and rotations of their
respective photons (of which they are made) neutralize each
other.
In Larson's Theory, the ANTI-MATTER half of the physical
universe has THREE dimensions of TIME, and ONLY ONE dimension
of space, and exists in a RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIP to our
MATERIAL half.
LARSONIAN Relativity
The perihelion point in the orbit of the planet Mercury
has been observed and precisely measured to ADVANCE at the
rate of 574 seconds of arc per century. 531 seconds of this
advance are attributed via calculations to gravitational
perturbations from the other planets (Venus, Earth, Jupiter,
etc.). The remaining 43 seconds of arc are being used to
help "prove" Einstein's "General Theory of Relativity".
But the late Physicist Dewey B. Larson achieved results
CLOSER to the 43 seconds than "General Relativity" can, by
INSTEAD using "SPECIAL Relativity". In one or more of his
books, he applied the LORENTZ TRANSFORMATION on the HIGH
ORBITAL SPEED of Mercury.
Larson TOTALLY REJECTED "General Relativity" as another
MATHEMATICAL FANTASY. He also REJECTED most of "Special
Relativity", including the parts about "mass increases" near
the speed of light, and the use of the Lorentz Transform on
doppler shifts, (Those quasars with red-shifts greater than
1.000 REALLY ARE MOVING FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT,
although most of that motion is away from us IN TIME.).
In Larson's comprehensive GENERAL UNIFIED Theory of the
physical universe, there are THREE dimensions of time instead
of only one. But two of those dimensions can NOT be measured
from our material half of the physical universe. The one
dimension that we CAN measure is the CLOCK time. At low
relative speeds, the values of the other two dimensions are
NEGLIGIBLE; but at high speeds, they become significant, and
the Lorentz Transformation must be used as a FUDGE FACTOR.
[Larson often used the term "COORDINATE TIME" when writing
about this.]
In regard to "mass increases", it has been PROVEN in
atomic accelerators that acceleration drops toward zero near
the speed of light. But the formula for acceleration is
ACCELERATION = FORCE / MASS, (a = F/m). Orthodox physicists
are IGNORING the THIRD FACTOR: FORCE. In Larson's Theory,
mass STAYS CONSTANT and FORCE drops toward zero. FORCE is
actually a MOTION, or COMBINATIONS of MOTIONS, or RELATIONS
BETWEEN MOTIONS, including INward and OUTward SCALAR MOTIONS.
The expansion of the universe, for example, is an OUTward
SCALAR motion inherent in the universe and NOT a result of
the so-called "Big Bang" (which is yet another MATHEMATICAL
FANTASY).
THE UNIVERSE OF MOTION
I wish to recommend to EVERYONE the book "THE UNIVERSE
OF MOTION", by Dewey B. Larson, 1984, North Pacific
Publishers, (P.O. Box 13255, Portland, Oregon 97213), 456
pages, indexed, hardcover.
It contains the Astrophysical portions of a GENERAL
UNIFIED Theory of the physical universe developed by that
author, an UNrecognized GENIUS, more than thirty years ago.
It contains FINAL SOLUTIONS to most ALL Astrophysical
mysteries, including the FORMATION of galaxies, binary and
multiple star systems, and solar systems, the TRUE ORIGIN of
the "3-degree" background radiation, cosmic rays, and gamma-
ray bursts, and the TRUE NATURE of quasars, pulsars, white
dwarfs, exploding galaxies, etc..
It contains what astronomers and astrophysicists are ALL
looking for, if they are ready to seriously consider it with
OPEN MINDS!
The following is an example of his Theory's success:
In his first book in 1959, "THE STRUCTURE OF THE PHYSICAL
UNIVERSE", Larson predicted the existence of EXPLODING
GALAXIES, several years BEFORE astronomers started finding
them. They are a NECESSARY CONSEQUENCE of Larson's
comprehensive Theory. And when QUASARS were discovered, he
had an immediate related explanation for them also.
GAMMA-RAY BURSTS
Astro-physicists and astronomers are still scratching
their heads about the mysterious GAMMA-RAY BURSTS. They were
originally thought to originate from "neutron stars" in the
disc of our galaxy. But the new Gamma Ray Telescope now in
Earth orbit has been detecting them in all directions
uniformly, and their source locations in space do NOT
correspond to any known objects, (except for a few cases of
directional coincidence).
Gamma-ray bursts are a NECESSARY CONSEQUENCE of the
GENERAL UNIFIED Theory of the physical universe developed by
the late Physicist Dewey B. Larson. According to page 386 of
his book "THE UNIVERSE OF MOTION", published in 1984, the
gamma-ray bursts are coming from SUPERNOVA EXPLOSIONS in the
ANTI-MATTER HALF of the physical universe, which Larson calls
the "Cosmic Sector". Because of the relationship between the
anti-matter and material halves of the physical universe, and
the way they are connected together, the gamma-ray bursts can
pop into our material half anywhere in space, seemingly at
random. (This is WHY the source locations of the bursts do
not correspond with known objects, and come from all
directions uniformly.)
I wonder how close to us in space a source location
would have to be for a gamma-ray burst to kill all or most
life on Earth! There would be NO WAY to predict one, NOR to
stop it!
Perhaps some of the MASS EXTINCTIONS of the past, which
are now being blamed on impacts of comets and asteroids, were
actually caused by nearby GAMMA-RAY BURSTS!
LARSONIAN Binary Star Formation
About half of all the stars in the galaxy in the
vicinity of the sun are binary or double. But orthodox
astronomers and astrophysicists still have no satisfactory
theory about how they form or why there are so many of them.
But binary star systems are actually a LIKELY
CONSEQUENCE of the comprehensive GENERAL UNIFIED Theory of
the physical universe developed by the late Physicist Dewey
B. Larson.
I will try to summarize Larsons explanation, which is
detailed in Chapter 7 of his book "THE UNIVERSE OF MOTION"
and in some of his other books.
First of all, according to Larson, stars do NOT generate
energy by "fusion". A small fraction comes from slow
gravitational collapse. The rest results from the COMPLETE
ANNIHILATION of HEAVY elements (heavier than IRON). Each
element has a DESTRUCTIVE TEMPERATURE LIMIT. The heavier the
element is, the lower is this limit. A star's internal
temperature increases as it grows in mass via accretion and
absorption of the decay products of cosmic rays, gradually
reaching the destructive temperature limit of lighter and
lighter elements.
When the internal temperature of the star reaches the
destructive temperature limit of IRON, there is a Type I
SUPERNOVA EXPLOSION! This is because there is SO MUCH iron
present; and that is related to the structure of iron atoms
and the atom building process, which Larson explains in some
of his books [better than I can].
When the star explodes, the lighter material on the
outer portion of the star is blown outward in space at less
than the speed of light. The heavier material in the center
portion of the star was already bouncing around at close to
the speed of light, because of the high temperature. The
explosion pushes that material OVER the speed of light, and
it expands OUTWARD IN TIME, which is equivalent to INWARD IN
SPACE, and it often actually DISAPPEARS for a while.
Over long periods of time, both masses start to fall
back gravitationally. The material that had been blown
outward in space now starts to form a RED GIANT star. The
material that had been blown OUTWARD IN TIME starts to form a
WHITE DWARF star. BOTH stars then start moving back toward
the "MAIN SEQUENCE" from opposite directions on the H-R
Diagram.
The chances of the two masses falling back into the
exact same location in space, making a single lone star
again, are near zero. They will instead form a BINARY
system, orbiting each other.
According to Larson, a white dwarf star has an INVERSE
DENSITY GRADIENT (is densest at its SURFACE), because the
material at its center is most widely dispersed (blown
outward) in time. This ELIMINATES the need to resort to
MATHEMATICAL FANTASIES about "degenerate matter", "neutron
stars", "black holes", etc..
LARSONIAN Solar System Formation
If the mass of the heavy material at the center of the
exploding star is relatively SMALL, then, instead of a single
white dwarf star, there will be SEVERAL "mini" white dwarf
stars (revolving around the red giant star, but probably
still too far away in three-dimensional TIME to be affected
by its heat, etc.). These will become PLANETS!
In Chapter 7 of THE UNIVERSE OF MOTION, Larson used all
this information, and other principles of his comprehensive
GENERAL UNIFIED Theory of the physical universe, to derive
his own version of Bode's Law.
"Black Hole" FANTASY!
I heard that physicist Stephen W. Hawking recently
completed a theoretical mathematical analysis of TWO "black
holes" merging together into a SINGLE "black hole", and
concluded that the new "black hole" would have MORE MASS than
the sum of the two original "black holes".
Such a result should be recognized by EVERYone as a RED
FLAG, causing widespread DOUBT about the whole IDEA of "black
holes", etc.!
After reading Physicist Dewey B. Larson's books about
his comprehensive GENERAL UNIFIED Theory of the physical
universe, especially his book "THE UNIVERSE OF MOTION", it is
clear to me that "black holes" are NOTHING more than
MATHEMATICAL FANTASIES! The strange object at Cygnus X-1 is
just an unusually massive WHITE DWARF STAR, NOT the "black
hole" that orthodox astronomers and physicists so badly want
to "prove" their theory.
By the way, I do NOT understand why so much publicity is
being given to physicist Stephen Hawking. The physicists and
astronomers seem to be acting as if Hawking's severe physical
problem somehow makes him "wiser". It does NOT!
I wish the same attention had been given to Physicist
Dewey B. Larson while he was still alive. Widespread
publicity and attention should NOW be given to Larson's
Theory, books, and organization (The International Society of
Unified Science).
ELECTRO-MAGNETIC PROPULSION
I heard of that concept many years ago, in connection
with UFO's and unorthodox inventors, but I never was able to
find out how or why they work, or how they are constructed.
I found a possible clue about why they might work on
pages 112-113 of the book "BASIC PROPERTIES OF MATTER", by
the late Physicist Dewey B. Larson, which describes part of
Larson's comprehensive GENERAL UNIFIED Theory of the physical
universe. I quote one paragraph:
"As indicated in the preceding chapter, the development
of the theory of the universe of motion arrives at a totally
different concept of the nature of electrical resistance.
The electrons, we find, are derived from the environment. It
was brought out in Volume I [Larson's book "NOTHING BUT
MOTION"] that there are physical processes in operation which
produce electrons in substantial quantities, and that,
although the motions that constitute these electrons are, in
many cases, absorbed by atomic structures, the opportunities
for utilizing this type of motion in such structures are
limited. It follows that there is always a large excess of
free electrons in the material sector [material half] of the
universe, most of which are uncharged. In this uncharged
state the electrons cannot move with respect to extension
space, because they are inherently rotating units of space,
and the relation of space to space is not motion. In open
space, therefore, each uncharged electron remains permanently
in the same location with respect to the natural reference
system, in the manner of a photon. In the context of the
stationary spatial reference system the uncharged electron,
like the photon, is carried outward at the speed of light by
the progression of the natural reference system. All
material aggregates are thus exposed to a flux of electrons
similar to the continual bombardment by photons of radiation.
Meanwhile there are other processes, to be discussed later,
whereby electrons are returned to the environment. The
electron population of a material aggregate such as the earth
therefore stabilizes at an equilibrium level."
Note that in Larson's Theory, UNcharged electrons are
also massLESS, and are basically photons of light of a
particular frequency (above the "unit" frequency) spinning
around one axis at a particular rate (below the "unit" rate).
("Unit velocity" is the speed of light, and there are
vibrational and rotational equivalents to the speed of light,
according to Larson's Theory.) [I might have the "above" and
"below" labels mixed up.]
Larson is saying that outer space is filled with mass-
LESS UN-charged electrons flying around at the speed of
light!
If this is true, then the ELECTRO-MAGNETIC PROPULSION
fields of spacecraft might be able to interact with these
electrons, or other particles in space, perhaps GIVING them a
charge (and mass) and shooting them toward the rear to
achieve propulsion. (In Larson's Theory, an electrical charge
is a one-dimensional rotational vibration of a particular
frequency (above the "unit" frequency) superimposed on the
rotation of the particle.)
The paragraph quoted above might also give a clue to
confused meteorologists about how and why lightning is
generated in clouds.
SUPPRESSION of LARSONIAN Physics
The comprehensive GENERAL UNIFIED Theory of the physical
universe developed by the late Physicist Dewey B. Larson has
been available for more than 30 YEARS, published in 1959 in
his first book "THE STRUCTURE OF THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE".
It is TOTALLY UN-SCIENTIFIC for Hawking, Wheeler, Sagan,
and the other SACRED PRIESTS of the RELIGION they call
"science" (or "physics", or "astronomy", etc.), as well as
the "scientific" literature and the "education" systems, to
TOTALLY IGNORE Larson's Theory has they have.
Larson's Theory has excellent explanations for many
things now puzzling orthodox physicists and astronomers, such
as gamma-ray bursts and the nature of quasars.
Larson's Theory deserves to be HONESTLY and OPENLY
discussed in the physics, chemistry, and astronomy journals,
in the U.S. and elsewhere. And at least the basic principles
of Larson's Theory should be included in all related courses
at UW-EC, UW-Madison, Cambridge, Cornell University, and
elsewhere, so that students are not kept in the dark about a
worthy alternative to the DOGMA they are being fed.
For more information, answers to your questions, etc.,
please consult my CITED SOURCES (especially Larson's BOOKS).
UN-altered REPRODUCTION and DISSEMINATION of this
IMPORTANT partial summary is ENCOURAGED.
Robert E. McElwaine
B.S., Physics and Astronomy, UW-EC
| 19talk.religion.misc |
I live up in British Columbia, Canada.The cable company I use is called
Rogers Cable. Does anyone know of their scrambling techniques, and ways of
getting
around them? Any suggestions of what they might use?
--
+--------------------------------------------+
| Sean Oliver |
| Internet Address: a8647@MINDLINK.BC.CA |
| |
| Mindlink! BBS (604)576-1412 |
+--------------------------------------------+
| 12sci.electronics |
I heard the other day that Rush has gotten together with Tammy Faye Baker.
They were crawling in bed the other night and Rush's feet brushed up against
Tammy's legs. "God! your feet are cold" she said. Rush looked back at here
and said, "Tammy honey, I told you when we're alone you can just call me
Rush."
Ba dump Bump! pishhhhh
Bob
| 18talk.politics.misc |
In <1993Apr3.233154.7045@Princeton.EDU> lije@cognito.Princeton.EDU (Elijah Millgram) writes:
>A friend of mine and I were wondering where the expression "pushing
>the envelope" comes from. Anyone out there know?
Every aircraft has flight constraints for speed/AOA/power. When
graphed, these define the 'flight envelope' of that aircraft,
presumably so named because the graphed line encloses (envelopes) the
area on the graph that represents conditions where the aircraft
doesn't fall out of the sky. Hence, 'pushing the envelope' becomes
'operating at (or beyond) the edge of the flight (or operational)
envelope'.
Note that the envelope isn't precisely known until someone actually
flies the airplane in those regions -- up to that point, all there are
are the theoretical predictions. Hence, one of the things test pilots
do for a living is 'push the envelope' to find out how close the
correspondence between the paper airplane and the metal one is -- in
essence, 'pushing back' the edges of the theoretical envelope to where
the airplane actually starts to fail to fly. Note, too, that this is
done is a quite calculated and careful way; flight tests are generally
carefully coreographed and just what is going to be 'pushed' and how
far is precisely planned (despite occasional deviations from plans,
such as the 'early' first flight of the F-16 during its high-speed
taxi tests).
I'm sure Mary can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about
this process (and then some).
--
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
in the real world." -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.
| 14sci.space |
From: Center for Policy Research <cpr>
Subject: Zionists reject non-Jews. News
Ethiopian Jews and not-quite Jews
The Israeli press has published items about Ethiopian
Jews waiting in camps in Addis Ababa for immigration to
Israel, who are dying of starvation. The following are
excerpts from an interview with the former general
director of the JDC project for development and welfare
of Ethiopian Jews, Kobi Friedman (Hadashot, 21 April
1993), who has stated that "there are people dying in
Addis Ababa, but they are converts to Christianity":
"Hadashor published the item about the dying Jews after
viewing a video tape filmed last week in Adis Ababa.
How do you know that they are actually converts to
Chritianity ?
"If there are Jews on the tape, then I don't know what to
say. I am speaking from experience when I say that those
who remained in Ethiopia are Christians. I know that
there have previously been things published in the press
by interesting parties, and there is no connection
between them and reality."
"What interested parties ?"
"Ethiopian immigrants who want their Christian relatives
to come here."
"What to you recommend that Ethiopian children in Israel
do, when their parents and the rest of their relatives
remain in Ethiopia ?"
"I ask if it is the job of the State of Israel to bring in the
40 relatives who stayed in Ethiopia. Well, my answer is
that it is not. It would be a better solution, economically
as well, for that young man to buy a one-way ticket to
Ethiopia and reunite with his family there."
*****************************************
Publ. by The OTHER Front,
Alternative Information Center
Jerusalem, Israel
28 April 1993
| 17talk.politics.mideast |
From tolsty Thu Apr 23 21:32:35 1992
To: newsserv@newcom.kiae.su
Newsgroups: comp.periphs,comp.graphics.digest,comp.graphics,comp.binaries.ibm.pc.wanted,alt.graphics.pixutils,bit.listserv.omrscan
Message-Id: <KAJ3nzfm0W@nsk.uucp.free.msk.su>
Organization: NSK RAN
From: Andrey V. Shorin <tolsty@nsk.uucp.free.msk.su>
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1992 21:32:35 +0200
Subject: Analysis on text reading utils needed (IBM PC)
Distribution: msk
Hi!
Does anybody know any reliable utils to read english texts with scanner?
I want some analysis on quality of recognition, because I want to read
texts which I get by fax ( you know -- quality on faxes is rather bad ).
The scanner I have is B&W and 300dpi. But if there exist any good software
that needs other specifications, that will be OK.
Please, send messages to my E-mail or on conference server, I'll summarize
them and consider your recomendations.
THANK YOU!!!
--
Andrey V. Shorin
Scientific Council on Complex Problem "Cybernetics",
Russian Academy of Sciences
E-mail: tolsty@nsk.uucp.free.msk.su
Tel/fax: (095) 129-0797
| 1comp.graphics |
We have recently obtained a copy of color_xterm (from export.lcs.mit.edu) after
seeing it mentioned in a previous article. On compilation, it reports the
following undefined symbols:
_get_wmShellWidgetClass
_get_applicationShellWidgetClass
but still runs. When sending escape sequences to set the colour,
any colour comes out as black text on a black background. Any Ideas?
Has anyone used this program in colour successfully?
Can anyone point me to any other colour terminal emulators?
We are running OpenWindows 3 on Sun Sparcs running SunOS 4.1.3.
advaTHANKSnce Ben Kelley.
ben@thor.dbsm.oz.au
| 5comp.windows.x |
Archive-name: graphics/faq
This message is automatically posted once a week or so in an effort to
cut down on the repetitive junk in comp.graphics. It was last changed
on 26Apr93. If you have answers to other frequently asked questions that
you would like included in this posting, please send me mail. If you
don't want to see this posting every week, please add the subject line
to your kill file. Thank you.
If your copy of the FAQ is more than a couple of weeks old, you may want to
seek out the most recent version. The latest version of this FAQ is always
available on the archive site pit-manager.mit.edu (alias rtfm.mit.edu) as
pub/usenet/news.answers/graphics/faq.
---
_john
John Grieggs grieggs@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov JohnG@portal.com
---
Last update: 26Apr93
Sorry I haven't posted this for a couple of weeks, but I was called out of
town due to a death in the family. This is reality, folks.
What's new?
SIGGRAPH Online Bibliography Project (spencer@cgrg.ohio-state.edu).
grieggs@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov
Contents:
1) General references for graphics questions.
2) Drawing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional screen.
3) Quantizing 24 bit images down to 8 bits.
4) Converting color into grayscale.
5) Quantizing grayscale to black&white.
6) Rotating a raster image by an arbitrary angle.
7) Free image manipulation software.
8) Format documents for TIFF, IFF, BIFF, NFF, OFF, FITS, etc.
9) Converting between vector formats.
10) How to get Pixar films.
11) How do I draw a circle as a Bezier (or B-spline) curve?
12) How to order standards documents.
13) How to FTP by email.
14) How to tell whether a point is within a planar polygon.
15) How to tessellate a sphere.
16) Specific references on ray-tracing and global illumination.
17) SIGGRAPH information online
18) SIGGRAPH Panels Proceedings available
19) Graphics mailing lists
20) Specific references on file formats
21) What about GIF?
22) What is morphing?
23) How to ray-trace height fields
24) How to find the area of a 3D polygon
25) How to join ACM/SIGGRAPH
26) Where can I find MRI and CT scan volume data?
27) Specific references on spatial data structures including quadtrees
and octrees
28) Where can I get a program to plot XY(Z) data or f(x) data?
29) Specific references on PEX and PHIGS
30) SIGGRAPH Online Bibliography Project
1) General references for graphics questions:
Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice (2nd Ed.), J.D. Foley,
A. van Dam, S.K. Feiner, J.F. Hughes, Addison-Wesley 1990, ISBN
0-201-12110-7
Procedural Elements for Computer Graphics, David F. Rogers, McGraw
Hill 1985, ISBN 0-07-053534-5
Mathematical Elements for Computer Graphics 2nd Ed., David F. Rogers
and J. Alan Adams, McGraw Hill 1990, ISBN 0-07-053530-2
Three Dimensional Computer Graphics, Alan Watt, Addison-Wesley 1990, ISBN
0-201-15442-0
An Introduction to Ray Tracing, Andrew Glassner (ed.), Academic Press
1989, ISBN 0-12-286160-4
Graphics Gems, Andrew Glassner (ed.), Academic Press 1990, ISBN
0-12-286165-5
Graphics Gems II, James Arvo (ed.), Academic Press 1991, ISBN
0-12-64480-0
Graphics Gems III, David Kirk (ed.), Academic Press 1992, ISBN
0-12-409670-0 (with IBM disk) or 0-12-409671-9 (with Mac disk)
Digital Image Warping, George Wolberg, IEEE Computer Society Press
Monograph 1990, ISBN 0-8186-8944-7
Digital Image Processing (2nd Ed.), Rafael C. Gonzalez, Paul Wintz,
Addison-Wesley 1987, ISBN 0-201-11026-1
A Programmer's Geometry, Adrian Bowyer, John Woodwark, Butterworths 1983,
ISBN 0-408-01242-0 Pbk
An automatic mail handler at Brown University allows users of "Computer
Graphics: Principles and Practice," by Foley, van Dam, Feiner, and
Hughes, to obtain text errata and information on distribution of the
software packages described in the book. Also, users can send the
authors feedback, to report text errors and software bugs, make
suggestions, and submit exercises. To receive information describing
how you can use the mail handler, simply mail graphtext@cs.brown.edu
and put the word "Help" in the Subject line. Use the Subject line
"Software-Distribution" to receive information specifically concerning
the software packages SRGP and SPHIGS.
Errata for "An Introduction to Ray Tracing" is available on
wuarchive.wustl.edu in graphics/graphics/books/IntroToRT.errata.
Errata for "Digital Image Warping" is in the same directory as
"Digital-Image-Warping.errata".
All C code from the "Graphics Gems" series is available via anonymous ftp
from princeton.edu. Look in the directory pub/Graphics/GraphicsGems for
the various volumes (Gems, GemsII, GemsIII), and get the README file first.
Errata to _Graphics Gems_ and _Graphics Gems II is available on
wuarchive.wustl.edu in graphics/graphics/books.
A list of computer graphics, computational geometry and image processing
journals is available from Juhana Kouhia, jk87377@cs.tut.fi.
2) Drawing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional screen.
The simple answer is, you divide by the depth. For a more verbose
explanation, see any of the above references, starting with:
The Foley & Van Dam & Feiner & Hughes "Computer Graphics" book is certainly
a good start. Chapter 6 is "Viewing in 3D", then read chapter 15,
"Visible-Surface Determination". For more information go to chapter 16 for
shading, chapter 19 for clipping, and branch out from there.
3) Quantizing 24 bit images down to 8 bits.
Find a copy of "Color Image Quantization for Frame Buffer Display" by
Paul Heckbert, SIGGRAPH '82 Proceedings, page 297. There are other
algorithms, but this one works well and is fairly simple. Implementations
are included in most raster toolkits (see item 7 below).
A variant method is described in "Graphics Gems", p. 287-293. Note that
the code from the "Graphics Gems" series is all available from an FTP site,
as described above.
Check out John Bradley's "Diversity Algorithm", which is incorporated into
the xv package and described in the back of the manual.
The ImageMagick package (see section 7 for where it is) contains another
quantizing algorithm which is presented as "doing a better job than the
other algorithms, but slower".
There's also an implementation of:
Wan, Wong, and Prusinkiewicz, _An Algorithm for Multidimensional Data
Clustering_, Transactions on Mathematical Software, Vol. 14 #2 (June, 1988),
pp. 153-162.
avialable as princeton.edu:pub/Graphics/colorquant.shar. This code,
in modified form, appears in the Utah Raster Toolkit as well.
4) Converting color into grayscale.
The NTSC formula is:
luminosity = .299 red + .587 green + .114 blue
5) Quantizing grayscale to black&white.
The only reference you need for this stuff is:
Digital Halftoning, Robert Ulichney, MIT Press 1987, ISBN 0-262-21009-6
But before you go off and start coding, check out the image manipulation
software mentioned in item 7 below. All of the packages mentioned can do
some form of gray to b&w conversion.
6) Rotating a raster image by an arbitrary angle.
The obvious but wrong method is to loop over the pixels in the source
image, transform each coordinate, and copy the pixel to the destination.
This is wrong because it leaves holes in the destination. Instead,
loop over the pixels in the destination image, apply the *reverse*
transformation to the coordinates, and copy that pixel from the source.
This method is quite general, and can be used for any one-to-one
2-D mapping, not just rotation. You can add anti-aliasing by doing
sub-pixel sampling.
However, there is a much faster method, with antialising included,
which involves doing three shear operations. The method was originally
created for the IM Raster Toolkit (see below); an implementation is
also present in PBMPLUS. Reference: "A Fast Algorithm for Raster
Rotation", by Alan Paeth (awpaeth@watcgl.waterloo.edu) Graphics
Interface '86 (Vancouver). An article on the IM toolkit appears in
the same journal. An updated version of the rotation paper appears
in "Graphics Gems" (see section [1]) under the original title.
7) Free image manipulation software.
There are a number of toolkits for converting from one image format to
another, doing simple image manipulations such as size scaling, plus
the above-mentioned 24 -> 8, color -> gray, gray -> b&w conversions.
Here are pointers to some of them:
xv by John Bradley. X-based image display, manipulation, and format
conversion package. XV displays many image formats and permits editing
of GIF files, among others. The program was updated 5/92; see the file
contrib/xv-2.21.tar.Z on export.lcs.mit.edu.
PBMPLUS, by Jef Poskanzer. Comprehensive format conversion and image
manipulation package. The latest version is always available via
anonymous FTP as ftp.ee.lbl.gov:pbmplus*.tar.Z,
wuarchive.wustl.edu:graphics/graphics/packages/pbmplus/pbmplus*.tar.Z,
and export.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/pbmplus*.tar.Z.
IM Raster Toolkit, by Alan Paeth (awpaeth@watcgl.uwaterloo.ca).
Provides a portable and efficient format and related toolkit. The
format is versatile in supporting pixels of arbitrary channels,
components, and bit precisions while allowing compression and machine
byte-order independence. The kit contains more than 50 tools with
extensive support of image manipulation, digital halftoning and format
conversion. Previously distributed on tape c/o the University of
Waterloo, an FTP version will appear someday.
Utah RLE Toolkit. Conversion and manipulation package, similar to
PBMPLUS. Available via FTP as cs.utah.edu:pub/urt-*,
princeton.edu:pub/Graphics/urt-*, and freebie.engin.umich.edu:pub/urt-*.
Fuzzy Pixmap Manipulation, by Michael Mauldin <mlm@nl.cs.cmu.edu>.
Conversion and manipulation package, similar to PBMPLUS. Version 1.0
available via FTP as nl.cs.cmu.edu:/usr/mlm/ftp/fbm.tar.Z,
ftp.uu.net:pub/fbm.tar.Z, and ucsd.edu:graphics/fbm.tar.Z.
Img Software Set, by Paul Raveling <raveling@venera.isi.edu>. Reads and
writes its own image format, displays on an X11 screen, and does some
image manipulations. Version 1.3 is available via FTP as
export.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/img_1.3.tar.Z, and
venera.isi.edu:pub/img_1.3.tar.Z along with a large collection of color
images.
Xim, X Image Manipulator, by Philip R. Thompson. It does essential
interactive image manipulations and uses x11r4 and the OSF/Motif toolkit
for the interface. It supports images in 1, 8, 24 and 32 bit formats.
Reads/writes and converts to/from GIF, xwd, xbm, tiff, rle, xim, and
other formats. Writes level 2 postscript. Other utilities and image
application library are included. Not a paint package. Available via
ftp from gis.mit.edu.
xloadimage, by Jim Frost <madd@std.com>. Reads in images in various
formats and displays them on an X11 screen. Available via FTP as
export.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/xloadimage*, and in your nearest comp.sources.x
archive.
xli, by Grame Gill, is an updated xloadimage with numerous improvements
in both speed and in the number of formats supported. Available in the
same places as xloadimage (contrib tape, comp.sources.x archives).
TIFF Software, by Sam Leffler <sam@okeeffe.berkeley.edu>. Nice
portable library for reading and writing TIFF files, plus a few tools
for manipulating them and reading other formats. Available via FTP as
ucbvax.berkeley.edu:pub/tiff/*.tar.Z or ftp.uu.net:graphics/tiff.tar.Z
xtiff, an X11 tool for viewing a TIFF file. It was written to handle
as many different kinds of TIFF files as possible while remaining
simple, portable and efficient. xtiff illustrates some common problems
with building pixmaps and using different visual classes. It is
distributed as part of Sam Leffler's libtiff package and it is also
available on export.lcs.mit.edu, ftp.uu.net and comp.sources.x.
xtiff 2.0 was announced in 4/91; it includes Xlib and Xt versions.
ALV, a Sun-specific image toolkit. Version 2.0.6 posted to
comp.sources.sun on 11dec89. Also available via email to
alv-users-request@cs.bris.ac.uk.
popi, an image manipulation language. Version 2.1 posted to
comp.sources.misc on 12dec89.
ImageMagick, an X11 package for display and interactive manipulation
of images. Includes tools for image conversion, annotation, compositing,
animation, and creating montages. ImageMagick can read and write many of
the more popular image formats. Available via FTP as
export.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/ImageMagick.tar.Z.
Khoros, a huge (~100 meg) graphical development environment based on
X11R4. Khoros components include a visual programming language, code
generators for extending the visual language and adding new application
packages to the system, an interactive user interface editor, an
interactive image display package, an extensive library of image and
signal processing routines, and 2D/3D plotting packages. Available via
FTP as pprg.eece.unm.edu:pub/khoros/*.
LaboImage, a SunView-based image processing and analysis package. It
includes more than 200 image manipulation, processing and measurement
routines, on-line help, plus tools such as an image editor, a color
table editor and several biomedical utilities. Available via anonymous
FTP as ads.com:pub/VISION-LIST-ARCHIVE/SHAREWARE/LaboImage_3.1.tar.Z
The San Diego Supercomputer Center Image Tools, software tools for
reading, writing, and manipulating raster images. Binaries for some
machines available via anonymous FTP in sdsc.edu:sdscpub.
The Independent JPEG Group has written a package for reading and
writing JPEG files. FTP to ftp.uu.net:graphics/jpeg/jpegsrc.v?.tar.Z
Don't forget to set binary mode when you FTP tar files. For you MILNET
folks who still don't have name servers, the IP addresses are:
ads.com 128.229.30.16
cs.utah.edu 128.110.4.21
coral.cs.jcu.edu.au 137.219.17.4
export.lcs.mit.edu 18.24.0.12
freebie.engin.umich.edu 141.212.103.21
ftp.ee.lbl.gov 128.3.112.20
ftp.uu.net 137.39.1.9 or 192.48.96.9
gis.mit.edu 18.80.1.118
gondwana.ecr.mu.oz.au 128.250.70.62
karazm.math.uh.edu 129.7.7.6
marsh.cs.curtin.edu.au 134.7.1.1
nic.funet.fir 128.214.6.100
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu 141.142.20.50
nl.cs.cmu.edu 128.2.222.56
pit-manager.mit.edu 18.172.1.27
pprg.eece.unm.edu 129.24.24.10
princeton.edu 128.112.128.1
sdsc.edu 132.249.20.22
ucbvax.berkeley.edu 128.32.133.1
venera.isi.edu 128.9.0.32
weedeater.math.yale.edu 128.36.23.17
wuarchive.wustl.edu 128.252.135.4
zamenhof.cs.rice.edu 128.42.1.75
Please do *not* post or mail messages saying "I can't FTP, could someone
mail this to me?" There are a number of automated mail servers that will
send you things like this in response to a message. See item 13 below for
details on some.
Also, the newsgroup alt.graphics.pixutils is specifically for discussion
of software like this. You may find useful information there.
8) Format documents for TIFF, IFF, BIFF, NFF, OFF, FITS, etc.
You almost certainly don't need these. Read the above item 7 on free
image manipulation software. Get one or more of these packages and
look through them. Chances are excellent that the image converter you
were going to write is already there. But if you still want one of the
format documents, many such files are available by anonymous ftp from
zamenhof.cs.rice.edu in directory pub/graphics.formats.
These files were collected off the net and are believed to be correct.
This archive includes pixel formats, and two- and three-dimensional object
formats. The future of this archive is uncertain at the moment, as Mark
Hall <foo@cs.rice.edu> will apparently no longer be maintaining it.
A second graphics file format archive is now being actively maintained
by Quincey Koziol (koziol@ncsa.uiuc.edu). The latest version exists at
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in /misc/file.formats/graphics.formats. Apparently,
neither of these is complete, you might want to check both.
FITS stands for Flexible Image Transport System. It's a file format most
often used in astronomy. Despite the name, it can contain not only images
but other things as well. There is a regular monthly FITS basics and
information posting on sci.astro.fits - read it if you want to know more.
9) Converting between vector formats.
A lot of people ask about converting from HPGL to PostScript, or MacDraw
to CGM, or whatever. It is important to understand that this is a very
different problem from the image format conversions in item 7. Converting
one image format to another is a fairly easy problem, since once you
get past all the file header junk, a pixel is a pixel -- the basic objects
are the same for all image formats. This is not so for vector formats.
The basic objects -- circles, ellipses, drop-shadowed pattern-filled
round-cornered rectangles, etc. -- vary from one format to another.
Except in extremely restricted cases, it is simply not possible to do
a one-to-one conversion between vector formats.
There is software for converting to and from CGM files on ftp.psc.edu. The
contributor states that it runs on Unix, MS-Windows, and possibly the Mac.
A better, more specific blurb would be most welcome.
On the other hand, it is quite possible to do a close approximation,
rendering an image from one format using the primitives from another.
As far as I know, no one has put together a general toolkit of such
converters, but two different HPGL to PostScript converters have been
posted to comp.sources.misc. Check the index on your nearest archive
site.
A related frequent question is how to convert from some vector format
to a bitmapped image - from PostScript to Sun raster format, or HPGL to
X11 bitmap. For example, some of the commercial PostScript clones for
PC's allow you to render to a disk file as well as a printer. Also,
the PostScript interpreters in the NeXT box and in Sun's X11/NeWs can
be used to render to a file if you're clever. But in general, the
answer is no. However, if someone were to put together a vector to
vector conversion toolkit, adding a vector to raster converter would be
trivial.
GNU ghostscript (from the FSF - current version 2.5.2) includes
drivers for both ppm and gif format files, thus it can be used as
a PostScript to ppm or a PostScript to GIF filter. (It implements
essentially all of PostScript level 1 and alot of Display PostScript
and level 2).
10) How to get Pixar films.
The various John Lasseter / Pixar computer animated shorts are available
on video tape. You can order them from Direct Cinema Limited:
Film Individual Price Institutional Price
Luxo, Jr. $14.95 $50.00
Red's Dream $19.95 $75.00
Tin Toy $24.95 $75.00
Knickknack $24.95 $75.00
Luxo, Jr./Red's Dream/Tin Toy $39.95 $100.00
All tapes are on 1/2" VHS NTSC. Add $10/tape for PAL format. Also
available:
Tin Toy T-shirt $15.00
Knickknack 3D T-shirt $15.00 (includes glasses)
For individual orders, add $5 S&H for the first tape or shirt, $2 for
each additional tape or shirt. For institutional orders, add $5 S&H
for the first tape, $3 for each additional tape. Foreign shipping, add
$3/tape or shirt. Call 800-525-0000 (213-396-4774 international,
213-396-3233 FAX) to charge to your credit card. Call first to verify
prices and availability. Or, just write to:
Direct Cinema Limited
1749 14th Street
Santa Monica, CA 90404-4342
Allan Braunsdorf has this to say:
At SIGGRAPH they were selling a tape with all four shorts
for $25. That was a sale price. You can get it for slightly
more than that normally. ($35 maybe.) I believe it's
available from RenderMan Retail (at Pixar's address).
Pixar
1001 West Cutting Blvd.
Richmond, CA. 94804
(510) 236-4000
(510) 236-0388 (FAX)
You can obtain a video directly from Pixar which contains "Luxo, Jr.", "Red's
Dream", "Tin Toy" and "Knicknack" for $25.00, plus $2.50 for shipping. They
will take your order over the phone or via FAX with a major credit card. I
ordered mine just last week and received it several days later. Don't expect
to be able to rent a copy from your local video store. According to the license
agreement printed on the back cover of the case, it cannot be rented.
11) How do I draw a circle as a Bezier (or B-spline) curve?
The short answer is, "You can't." Unless you use a rational spline you
can only approximate a circle. The approximation may look acceptable,
but it is sensitive to scale. Magnify the scale and the error of
approximation magnifies. Deviations from circularity that were not
visible in the small can become glaring in the large. If you want to
do the job right, consult the article:
"A Menagerie of Rational B-Spline Circles"
by Leslie Piegl and Wayne Tiller
in IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, volume 9, number 9,
September, 1989, pages 48-56.
For rough, non-rational approximations, consult the book:
Computational Geometry for Design and Manufacture
by I. D. Faux and M. J. Pratt,
Ellis Horwood Publishers, Halsted Press, John Wiley 1980.
For the best known non-rational approximations, consult the article:
"Good Approximation of Circles by Curvature-continuous Bezier Curves"
by Tor Dokken, Morten Daehlen, Tom Lyche, and Knut Morken
in Computer Aided Geometric Design, volume 7, numbers 1-4 (combined),
June, 1990, pages 33-41 [Elsevier Science Publishers (North-Holland)]
12) How to order standards documents.
The American National Standards Institute sells ANSI standards, and also
ISO (international) standards. Their sales office is at 1-212-642-4900,
mailing address is 1430 Broadway, NY NY 10018. It helps if you have the
complete name and number.
Some useful numbers to know:
CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile) is ISO 8632-4 (1987). GKS (Graphical
Kernel System) is ANSI X3.124-1985. PHIGS (Programmer's Hierarchical
Interactive Graphics System) is ANSI X3.144-1988. IGES is ASME/ANSI
Y14.26M-1987. Language bindings are often separate but related numbers;
for example, the GKS FORTRAN binding is X3.124.1-1985.
Standards-in-progress are made available at key milestones to solicit
comments from the graphical public (this includes you!). ANSI can let
you know where to order them; most are available from Global Engineering
at 1-800-854-7179.
13) How to FTP by email.
There are a number of sites that archive the Usenet sources newsgroups
and make them available via an email query system. You send a message
to an automated server saying something like "send comp.sources.unix/fbm",
and a few hours or days later you get the file in the mail.
In addition, there is at least one FTP-by-mail server. Send mail to
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com saying "help" and it will tell you how to use
it. Note that this service has at times been turned off due to abuse.
14) How to tell whether a point is within a planar polygon.
Consider a ray originating at the point of interest and continuing to
infinity. If it crosses an odd number of polygon edges along the way,
the point is within the polygon. If the ray crosses an even number of
edges, the point is either outside the polygon, or within an interior
hole formed from intersecting polygon edges. This idea is known in
the trade as the Jordan curve theorem; see Eric Haines' article in
Glassner's ray tracing book (above) for more information, including
treatment of special cases.
Another method is to sum the absolute angles from the point to all
the vertices on the polygon. If the sum is 2 pi, the point is inside,
if the sum is 0 the point is outside. However, this method is about an
order of magnitude slower than the previous method because evaluating the
trigonometric functions is usually quite costly.
Code for both methods (plus barycentric triangle testing) can be found in
the Ray Tracing News, Vol. 5, No. 3, available from princeton.edu:
pub/Graphics/RTNews/RTNv5n3.Z.
15) How to tessellate a sphere.
One simple way is to do recursive subdivision into triangles. The
base of the recursion is an octahedron, and then each level divides
each triangle into four smaller ones. Jon Leech <leech@cs.unc.edu>
has posted a nice routine called sphere.c that generates the coordinates.
It's available for FTP on ftp.ee.lbl.gov and princeton.edu.
16) Specific references on ray-tracing and global illumination.
Rick Speer maintains a cross-indexed ray-tracing bibliography:
Highlights of this edition-
i) more than 500 citations spanning the period from 1968 through
November '91;
ii) papers from all Siggraph, Graphics Interface, Eurographics, CG
International and Ausgraph proceedings through December, '91;
iii) all citations keyworded for easy lookup;
iv) cross-indices by keyword and author;
v) glossary of the 119 keywords used.
The bib is in the form of a PostScript file. The printout is 41 pages long.
Below is a list of ftp sites and the dirs that contain the file. It's named
"speer.raytrace.bib.ps.Z" and is compressed at most sites-
Site Dir
wuarchive.wustl.edu graphics/graphics/bib/RT.BIB.Speer/
karazm.math.uh.edu pub/Graphics/
gondwana.ecr.mu.oz.au pub/papers/
nic.funet.fi pub/sci/papers/graphics
coral.cs.jcu.edu.au graphics/papers/
Eric Haines (erich@eye.com) maintains ray tracing and radiosity/global
illumination bibliographies. These are in "refer" format, and so can be
searched electronically (a simple awk script to search for keywords is
included with each). The bibliographies are available at most of the
sites listed above, and the most current versions are maintained at
princeton.edu: pub/Graphics/Papers as "RayBib.*" and "RadBib.*".
Tom Wilson (wilson@cs.ucf.edu) has collected over 300 abstracts from ray
tracing related research papers and books. The information is essentially
in plaintext, and Latex and troff formatting programs are included. This
collection is available at most of the sites above as "rtabs.*".
17) SIGGRAPH information online
[from Steve Cunningham and Ralph Orlick]
ACM-SIGGRAPH announces its online information site at siggraph.org
(128.248.245.250). This site now provides SIGGRAPH information via both
anonymous ftp and an electronic mail archive server.
The anonymous ftp service is very standard, and the ftp directory includes
both conference and publications subdirectories.
To retrieve information by electronic mail, send mail to
archive-server@siggraph.org
and in the subject or the body of the message include the message send
followed by the topic and subtopic you wish. A good place to start is with
the command
send index
which will give you an up-to-date list of available information.
18) SIGGRAPH Panels Proceedings available
[from Steve Cunningham and Bob Judd]
ACM SIGGRAPH announces the availability of the SIGGRAPH '91 Panels Proceedings
at the siggraph.org site (128.248.245.250). The proceedings are available
in three formats:
text (ASCII)
rtf (rich text format, suitable for many word processors)
word (MS Word for the Macintosh)
They may be retrieved from siggraph.org in two ways:
(1) by anonymous ftp
change to one of the directories
publications/s91/panels_proceedings/[text|rtf|word]
The text and rtf files may be downloaded in ASCII mode, while the word
files are stored in MacBinary format and must be downloaded in binary
mode.
Each directory contains a Table of Contents file (TOC) that describes the
contents of each panel file.
(2) by electronic mail
send mail to
archive-server@siggraph.org
You can retrieve either the text or rtf files. We suggest that you
first retrieve the index files by putting one of the messages
send panel91-txt index
send panel91-rtf index
in the subject or body of the message. You will get the necessary
information to retrieve the actual transcript files.
19) Graphics mailing lists
There are a variety of graphics-related mailing list out there, each
covering either a single product or a single topic. I have been an
active participant in one of these for some time now, and find the
focus and expertise which can be brought to bear on an isolated topic
to be nothing short of amazing.
Please send me the appropriate information if you have any others you
would like to see added.
Name: Imagine mailing list
Description: Discussion forum for users of the Imagine 3D Rendering and
Animation package by Impulse, Inc.
Platforms: Amiga, IBM
Subscription: imagine-request@email.sp.paramax.com
Posting: imagine@email.sp.paramax.com
Name: DCTV mailing list
Description: Discussion forum for users of the Digital Creations DCTV
box, software, and file formats
Platforms: Amiga
Subscription: DCTV-request@nova.cc.purdue.edu
Posting: DCTV@nova.cc.purdue.edu
Name: Rayshade Users mailing list
Description: Discussion forum for users of the Rayshade raytracer
Platforms: Most UNIX boxes, Amiga, Mac, IBM
Subscription: rayshade-request@cs.princeton.edu
Posting: rayshade-users@cs.princeton.edu
Name: Lightwave 3D software for Toaster mailing list
Description: Discussion forum for users of Lightwave, the Video
Toaster modelling and rendering package
Platforms: Amiga
Subscription: lightwave-request@bobsbox.rent.com
with "subscribe lightwave-l" in your message
Posting: lightwave@bobsbox.rent.com
Name: POV mailing list
Description: Discussion forum for DKBTrace and POV renderers
Platforms: Unix
Subscription: listserv@trearn.bitnet
Posting: dkb-l@trearn.bitnet
Name: Mailing List For Massive Parallel Rendering
Description: same?
Platforms: Unix
Subscription: mp-render-request@icase.edu
Posting: mp-render@icase.edu
20) Specific references on file formats
Graphics File Formats, David Kay and John Levine, Windcrest/McGraw-Hill
1992, ISBN 0-8306-3059-7 paper, ISBN 0-8306-3060-0 $36.95 hardcover,
ISBN 0-8306-3059-7 $24.95 paper. Comments - 26 formats, no software
(this is good, IMHO - I prefer books which are non-platform-dependent).
Questions about this book may be sent to gbook@iecc.cambridge.ma.us.
21) What about GIF?
GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. It is portable and usable upon
a wide variety of platforms. It is quite limited in some ways (yes, the
keeper of the FAQ has some opinions after all), and in fact, I don't like
it much. However, it looks to me like the most-Frequently Asked Question
which was not previously covered in this list. The following is a list
of newsgroups and the like where one could go to find out about GIF.
Subject: alt.binaries.pictures FAQ - General info
Subject: alt.binaries.pictures FAQ - OS specific info
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.pictures.d,alt.binaries.pictures.misc,
alt.binaries.pictures.utilities,alt.binaries.pictures.fractals,
alt.binaries.pictures.fine-art.d,news.answers
Available in the indicated USENET newsgroup(s), or via anonymous ftp from
pit-manager.mit.edu in the files:
/pub/usenet/news.answers/pictures-faq/part1
/pub/usenet/news.answers/pictures-faq/part2
Also available from mail-server@pit-manager.mit.edu by sending a mail
message containing any or all of:
send usenet/news.answers/pictures-faq/part1
send usenet/news.answers/pictures-faq/part2
Send a message containing "help" to get general information about the
mail server.
Also, you could check out the resources described in sections 7, 8, and
20 above for more information.
22) What is morphing?
Warping is the deformation of an image by mapping each pixel to a new
location. Morphing is blending from one image or object to another one.
Valerie Hall has written an excellent introduction to warping and
morphing. This is available for anonymous ftp from marsh.cs.curtin.edu.au
in the directory pub/graphics/bibliography/Morph. There are three files:
morph_intro.ps.Z (PostScript version, many pictures - 1.5M)
morph_intro.txt.Z (text version)
m_responses.Z (Responses to morphing questions)
The files are compressed, so you must use binary transfer and
uncompress them afterwards.
23) How to ray-trace height fields
Height fields are a special case in ray-tracing. They have a number of uses,
such as terrain rendering, and some optimization is possible. Thus, they
get their own FAQ section. Note that further references can no doubt be
located via the ray-tracing bibs in section 16 above.
The following paper seems to be the definitive reference:
F. Kenton Musgrave
Grid Tracing: Fast Ray Tracing For Height Fields
July, 1988
<musg88.ps.Z>
This is available as "Research Report YALEU/DCS/RR-639" from Yale University,
it's also in the SIGGRAPH '91 Fractal Modeling in 3D Computer Graphics and
Imaging course notes, and (best of all) it's available on the net:
nic.funet.fi pub/sci/papers/musg88.ps.Z
weedeater.math.yale.edu pub/Papers/musg88.ms.Z
princeton.edu pub/Graphics/Papers/musg88.ms.Z
coral.cs.jcu.edu.au graphics/papers/musg88.ps.Z
gondwana.ecr.mu.OZ.AU pub/papers/musg88.ms.Z and musg88.ps.Z
An implementation of this paper may be found in Rayshade.
Another paper exists:
%A David W. Paglieroni
%A Sidney M. Petersen
%T Parametric Height Field Ray Tracing
%J Proceedings of Graphics Interface '92
%I Canadian Information Processing Society
%C Toronto, Ontario
%D May 1992
%P 192-200
And still one more:
Musgrave, Kolb, and Mace
"The Synthesis and Rendering of Eroded Fractal Terrains",
Computer Graphics Vol 23, No. 3 (SIGGRAPH '89 procedings) p. 41-50
24) How to find the area of a 3D polygon
The area of a triangle is given by (in C notation),
area = 0.5 * ( ( x[0] * y[1] ) + ( x[1] * y[2] ) + ( x[2] * y[0] ) -
( x[1] * y[0] ) - ( x[2] * y[1] ) - ( x[0] * y[2] ) );
and the area of a planar polygon is given by
area = 0.0;
for ( i = 0; i < n - 1; i++ )
area += ( x[i] * y[i + 1] ) - ( x[i + 1] * y[i] );
area += ( x[n - 1] * y[0] ) - ( x[0] * y[n - 1] );
area /= 2.0;
If the area is a negative number, the polygon or triangle is
clockwise, if positive, it is counterclockwise.
>From Ronald Golman's Gem (in Graphics Gems II - see section 1 above), "Area
of Planar Polygons and Volume of Polyhedra:"
The area of a polygon P0, P1, P2, ... Pn, not in the x-y plane, is
given by
Area(Polygon) = 1/2 * | N . Sigma { Pk x Pk+1 } |
where N is the unit vector normal to the plane and P is a polygonal
vertex. The . represents the dot product operator and the x
represents the cross product operator. Sigma represents the summation
operator. | | represents the absolute value operator. Pn+1 is equal
to P0.
25) How to join ACM/SIGGRAPH
Probably the easiest way to join ACM/SIGGRAPH is to trot over to your
local technical library and find a copy of Communications of the ACM.
Somewhere within the first few pages will be an application blank.
Fill it out and mail it in. ACM membership for students costs $23.00,
Voting or Associate Membership $77.00 (yearly)
SIGGRAPH student membership costs an additional $16.00, $26.00 for
Voting or Associate Members (also yearly). To get TOG (Transactions
on Graphics) it's another $26.00 for students and $31.00 for Voting or
Associate Members.
If you just want to join SIGGRAPH without joining ACM, it'll cost you
$59.00 (no student discount).
There are surcharges for overseas airmailing of publications.
ACM Member services may be contacted via email at acmhelp@acmvm.bitnet.
Their phone number is (212) 626-0500. FAX number (212) 944-1318.
Snailmail address:
ACM
PO Box 12114
Church Street Station
New York, New York 10257
SIGGRAPH `93 will be held in Anaheim, California, at the Anaheim
Convention Center (just up the street from Disneyland) on August 1-6, 1993.
26) Where can I find MRI and CT scan volume data?
Volume data sets are available from the University of North Carolina at
omicron.cs.unc.edu (152.2.128.159) in /pub/softlab/CHVRTD. (Commerical
use is prohibited.)
Head data - A 109-slice MRI data set of a human head.
Knee data - A 127-slice MRI data set of a human knee.
HIPIP data - The result of a quantum mechanical calculation of a SOD data
of a one-electron orbital of HIPIP, an iron protein.
SOD data - An electron density map of the active site of SOD (superoxide
dismutase).
CT Cadaver Head data - A 113-slice MRI data set of a CT study of a cadaver
head.
MR Brain data - A 109-slice MRI data set of a head with skull partially
removed to reveal brain.
RNA data - An electron density map for Staphylococcus Aureus Ribonuclease.
27) Specific references on spatial data structures including quadtrees
and octrees
H. Samet,
The Design and Analysis of Spatial Data Structures,
Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1990.
ISBN 0-201-50255-0.
H. Samet,
Applications of Spatial Data Structures: Computer Graphics, Image Processing, a
nd GIS,
Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1990.
ISBN 0-201-50300-0.
28) Where can I get a program to plot XY(Z) data or f(x) data?
Gnuplot is a command-driven interactive data/function plotting program. It
runs on just about any machine, and is very flexible in terms of supported
output devices. The official North American distribution site for the latest
version is dartmouth.edu in /pub/gnuplot. More information is available from
the USENET newsgroup comp.graphics.gnuplot and its FAQ, graphics/gnuplot-faq.
ACE/gr (xmgr - Motif/xvgr - XView) is a data/function plotting tool for
workstations or X-terminals using X. Available from ftp.ccalmr.ogi.edu
in /CCALMR/pub/acegr.
robotx (Robot) is a general purpose plotting and data analysis program.
Requires XView, X-terminal or workstation. Available from sunsite.unc.edu
in /pub/academic/data_analysis.
Xgraph is a popular two-dimensional plotting program that accepts data in a
form similar to the unix program graph and displays line graphs, scatter plots,
or bar charts on an X11 display. Available from ic.berkeley.edu in /pub.
Drawplot is a program for drawing 2D plots on X10/X11 windows, SUNVIEW
displays, or HP2648 terminals. Available from xcf.berkeley.edu in /src/local.
29) Specific references on PEX and PHIGS
PEXlib Programming Manual, Tom Gaskins, 1154 pages, O'Reilly & Associates,
ISBN 1-56592-028-7
PEXlib Reference Manual, edited by Steve Talbott, 577 pages, O'Reilly &
Associates, ISBN 1-56592-029-5
PHIGS Programming Manual, Tom Gaskins, 908 pages, O'Reilly & Associates,
ISBN 0-93775-85-4 (softcover), ISBN 0-937175-92-7 (casebound)
PHIGS Reference Manual, edited by Linda Kosko, 1099 pages, O'Reilly &
Associates, ISBN 0-937175-91-9
30) SIGGRAPH Online Bibliography Project
The ACM SIGGRAPH Online Bibliography Project is a database of over 15,000
unique computer graphics and computational geometry references in BibTeX
format, available to the computer graphics community as a research and
educational resource.
The database is located at "siggraph.org". Users may download the BibTeX
files via FTP and peruse them offline, or telnet to "siggraph.org" and log
in as "biblio" and interactively search the database for entries of interest,
by keyword.
Additions/corrections/suggestions may be directed to the admin,
"bibadmin@siggraph.org".
--
John T. Grieggs (Telos @ Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, Ca. 91109 M/S 525-3660 (818) 306-6506
Uucp: {cit-vax,elroy,chas2}!jpl-devvax!grieggs
Arpa: ...jpl-devvax!grieggs@cit-vax.ARPA
| 1comp.graphics |
In article <C58tsF.5yE@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> rsc3e@orion.lib.Virginia.EDU (Scott Crittenden) writes:
>My understanding is that, to copy files from one directory to another on
>the same drive in File Manager (using a mouse), you hold down the CTRL key
>while dragging the file from one directory's window to the other. This
>works for me... about 98% of the time. The other 2%, the file gets
>_moved_ rather than copied. Anybody else encountered this?
...
I tried to respond by email, but all attempts bounced.
The condition of the Ctrl key BEFORE you press the mouse button makes no
difference whatsoever. You have to be holding the Ctrl key when you
RELEASE the mouse button if you want to force a copy operation.
Here's a simple experiment. Select a file and begin to drag it (no Ctrl
key). Notice that the file's icon disappears from the listing window. Now
watch what happens to that icon as you press and release the Ctrl key
(keeping the mouse button pressed all the while). In addition, the icon
that you are dragging will show a "+" while you are holding the Ctrl key,
indicating that the file is being copied rather than moved.
--
Bob Nichols
AT&T Bell Laboratories
rnichols@ihlpm.ih.att.com
| 2comp.os.ms-windows.misc |
In article <o4fzrApDBh107h@eosvcr.wimsey.bc.ca> aew@eosvcr.wimsey.bc.ca writes:
>We have heard many bad things about the ATI Ultra Plus card (mainly having
>to do with its buggy Windows drivers).
>
>I would like to replace by ATI Graphics Ultra with a true-colour accelerated
>card. I was about to buy the ATI Ultra Plus (EISA) but it has had so much
>bad press that I am reconsidering.
>
>
>I would like an accelerated card
> a card that does 24bit true colour at 800x600 at least
> a card that does 1024x758 at 256 colours (or more)
> a card that has fast polygon fills
> a card that has fast bit blits
> a card that has a robust windows driver
> a card that has high speed non-interlaced refresh
>
>Any suggestions?
>
>My app requires lots of 3d poly grahics and complexing true colour
>imaging. I would sure like a faster solution that what I have now.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Al
>
>--
>Alan Walford Eos Systems Inc., Vancouver,B.C., Canada Tel: 604-734-8655
>aew@eosvcr.wimsey.bc.ca OR ...uunet!wimsey.bc.ca!eosvcr!aew
I had enough problems with my ISA bus Ultra Plus that I finally returned it,
but many of the people I spoke to through the net were happy with the EISA
version of the Ultra Pro. I kind of suspect the MACH32 chip was designed
with a 32-bit external bus in mind and the ISA version is kind of a hack, but
that's just a guess.
--
David Farley The University of Chicago Library
312 702-3426 1100 East 57th Street, JRL-210
dgf1@midway.uchicago.edu Chicago, Illinois 60637
| 2comp.os.ms-windows.misc |
In article <1993Apr20.172159.4453@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> mohr@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Gordon Mohr) writes:
>In article <16BAA771E.C558172@mizzou1.missouri.edu> ,
>C558172@mizzou1.missouri.edu writes:
>>Why no. It is a little known fact that NO macs have a CPU. They are all
>>connected via a cellular network to the Cray supercomputer in Apple's
>>garage (that's right the same one where Steve & Steve built the Apple
>\\).
>>--Shannon
>
>Silly you. Don't you know the only division at Apple allowed to use the
>Cray is the legal department?
>
>- Gordon
>
Um... they've sold the Cray. They realised that spending two years on
numbercrunching the finite stress analysis figures for the complex
injection-molded cases was not the way to go, and was holding up
development work.
Especially when the first FEA model for the portable left out the battery
cover, and it had to be redone. That's why the portable was about three
years late.
Designing metal cases is easier - they're managing with the Calculator DA,
now it can compute 45/100-0.45 correctly.
Any other suggestions?
L.
| 4comp.sys.mac.hardware |
What exactly are knots, those sore, tight spots in your muscles?
In certain kinds of massage, people try and break up these knots; it this
really helpful?
Ho Leung Ng
ng4@husc.harvard.edu
| 13sci.med |
In article <15008@news.duke.edu> kdb@sunbar.mc.duke.edu (Kurt Bollacker) writes:
>System 7 --easier to learn and use. There have been independent studies to
> that effect.
>OS/2 --Can run MSW applications and has more stable multitasking.
>NeXTSTep --easier to learn, use, and program. More stable multitasking
>UNIX/X --As easy to learn and use. More stable multitasking.
-- Also: more customizable. I can make the computer do what *I* want it to do,
Whereas with MSW I have to do what microsoft wants me to do...
How do I bind control-left mousebutton to type 'hello world!' (Not that I'd want to do THAT, but..)
TJL
| 2comp.os.ms-windows.misc |
In article <1993Apr20.163730.16128@guinness.idbsu.edu> betz@gozer.idbsu.edu (Andrew Betz) writes:
>In article <C5rynw.Iz8@news.udel.edu> roby@chopin.udel.edu (Scott W Roby) writes:
>>And I suppose the FBI also prevented them from coming out with their
>>hands up while national tv cameras watch.
>>
>Watch from where? Two miles away? Far enough away that whatever
>really happenned must be explained through the vengeful filter of
>a humiliated agency that said (quote!) "Enough is enough."
Please tell me what you think would have happened had the people
come out with their hands up several weeks ago.
>>scenario that is simplest and most plausible. I do not generally
>>believe in conspiracy theories that involve complicated and unlikely
>>scenarios.
>
>The FBI sent letters to Martin Luther King's wife insinuating
>that MLK was having an affair! Again, please tell us exactly
>how much you trust our supposedly benevolent government.
More than someone who would not release children from the compound.
I.e., more than David Koresh/Vernon Howell/"Jesus Christ".
I saw lengthy excerpts from an Australian documentary made in
1992 that clearly showed that this was a cult.
I am not pleased with the BATF handling of the affair. I think they
bungled it badly from the start. But I don't think they are
responsible for the fire, which started in two different places.
>>The BATF is by no means devoid of fault in the handling of this affair.
>>But to suggest that they may have intentionally started the fire is
>>ludicrous.
>
>I suspect that there were plenty of camerapeople willing to
>risk small arms fire to get some good footage. These people
>were told to get the hell out of camera range. Why?
>
>Drew
>--
>betz@gozer.idbsu.edu
>*** brought into your terminal from the free state of idaho ***
>*** when you outlaw rights, only outlaws will have rights ***
>*** spook fodder: fema, nsa, clinton, gore, insurrection, nsc,
> semtex, neptunium, terrorist, cia, mi5, mi6, kgb, deuterium
--
| 16talk.politics.guns |
Since electrical wiring questions do turn up from time to time on
sci.electronics (and the answers aren't always apparent, even to those skilled
in electronics), I am hijacking the following FAQ and posting a copy here.
I've asked the writers to cross-post to sci.electronics in the future.
--- jeh@cmkrnl.com
X-NEWS: cmkrnl news.answers: 6685
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house,rec.woodworking,news.answers,misc.answers,rec.answers
Subject: Electrical Wiring FAQ
Message-ID: <wirefaq_733900891@ecicrl>
From: clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Chris Lewis)
Date: 4 Apr 93 05:21:49 GMT
Reply-To: wirefaq@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Wiring FAQ commentary reception)
Followup-To: poster
Expires: 2 May 93 05:21:31 GMT
Organization: Elegant Communications Inc., Ottawa, Canada
Summary: A series of questions and answers about house wiring
Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu
Supersedes: <wirefaq_732691289@ecicrl>
Lines: 1524
Archive-name: electrical-wiring
Last-modified: Sun Feb 21 16:56:10 EST 1993
Frequently Asked Questions on Electrical Wiring
Steven Bellovin (smb@ulysses.att.com)
Chris Lewis (clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca)
Comments to (automatic if you reply to this article):
wirefaq@ferret.ocunix.on.ca
This FAQ is formatted as a digest. Most news readers can
skip from one question to the next by pressing ^G.
Answers to many other topics related to houses can be obtained from
the misc.consumers.house archive; send an empty piece of mail to
house-archive@dg-rtp.dg.com for information.
Changes to previous issue marked with "|" in left column. Watch
particularly for "NEW" in the Questions list for new or substantively
changed answers.
Note that this is now a registered FAQ - cross-posted to news.answers
and should appear in the FAQ list of lists.
Subject: Questions answered in this FAQ
Introduction/Disclaimers
What is the NEC? Where can I get a copy?
What is the CEC? Where can I get a copy?
Can I do my own wiring? Extra pointers?
What do I need in the way of tools?
What is UL listing?
What is CSA approval?
Are there any cheaper, easier to read books on wiring?
Inspections how and what? Why should I get my wiring inspected?
My house doesn't meet some of these rules and regulations.
A word on voltages: 110/115/117/120/125/220/240
What does an electrical service look like?
What is a circuit?
"grounding" versus "grounded" versus "neutral".
What does a fuse or breaker do? What are the differences?
Breakers? Can't I use fuses?
What size wire should I use?
Where do these numbers come from?
What does "14-2" mean?
What is a "wirenut"/"marrette"/"marr connector". How are they used?
What is a GFI/GFCI?
Where should GFCIs be used?
Where shouldn't I use a GFCI?
What is the difference between a GFCI outlet and a GFCI breaker?
What's the purpose of the ground prong on an outlet, then?
Why is one prong wider than the other? Polarization
What kind of outlets do I need in a kitchen?
Where must outlets and switches be in bathrooms?
What is Romex/NM/NMD? What is BX? When should I use each?
Should I use plastic or metal boxes?
Junction box positioning?
Can I install a replacement fixture?
What does it mean when the lights brighten when a motor starts?
What is 3 phase power? Should I use it? Can I get it in my house?
Is it better to run motors at 110 or 220?
What is this nonsense about 3HP on 110V 15A circuits?
How do I convert two prong receptacles to three prong?
Are you sure about GFCIs and ungrounded outlets?
Should the test button work?
How should I wire my shop?
Underground wiring
Aluminum wiring
I'm buying a house! What should I do?
What is this weird stuff? Old style wiring
Where do I buy stuff?
Subject: Introduction/Disclaimers
Although we've done a fair bit of wiring, we are not
electricians, and we cannot be responsible for what you do. If
you're at all uncertain about what is correct or safe, *don't
do it*. Contact someone qualified -- a licensed electrician,
or your local electrical inspector. Electricity is no joke;
mistakes can result in shocks, fires, or electrocution.
Furthermore, our discussion is based on the U.S. National
Electrical Code (NEC) and the Canadian Electrical code (CEC).
To the best of our abilities, we have confirmed every detail
with the electrical code, but we don't quote sections
simply to keep this thing readable. If you think we're wrong,
we invite you to correct us, but please - quote references!
The NEC and the CEC do not, in and of themselves, have the
force of law. Many municipalities adopt it en toto. Others,
however, do not. Check your with your local building
department (and <provincial> Hydro Inspection Offices in
Canada) to find out what applies in your area. Also,
your local electrical utility may also have special requirements
for electrical service installation. Bear in mind, too, that
we say here applies primarily to ordinary single-family
residences. Multi-family dwellings, mobile homes, commercial
establishments, etc., are sometimes governed by different
rules.
Also note that, contrary to popular belief in the U.S. (and in
some parts of Canada), Canada is not a wholly-owned subsidiary
of the U.S. Consequently, the NEC does not apply in Canada.
Lots of things are the same, including voltages, line
frequencies, and the laws of physics. But there are a number
of crucial differences in the regulations. Where we can, we've
noted them, flagging the relevant passages with ``NEC'' or
``CEC''.
Remember that the CEC and NEC are minimal standards. It is often
smart to go beyond their minimal requirements.
Subject: What is the NEC? Where can I get a copy?
The NEC is a model electrical code devised and published by the
National Fire Protection Association, an insurance industry group.
It's revised every three years. The 1993 version has been released.
You can buy a copy at a decent bookstore, or by calling them directly
at 800-344-3555. The code exists in several versions. There's the
full text, which is fairly incomprehensible. There's an abridged
edition, which has only the sections likely to apply to most houses.
And there's the NEC Handbook, which contains the ``authorized
commentary'' on the code, as well as the full text. That's the
recommended version. Unfortunately, there's no handbook for
the abridged edition. And the full handbook is expensive --
US$65 plus shipping and handling.
Subject: What is the CEC? Where can I get a copy?
The Canadian Standards Association is an organization made up
of various government agencies, power utilities, insurance
companies, electrical manufacturers and other organizations.
The CSA publishes CSA Standard C22.1 which is updated every two
or three years. Each province adopts, with some amendments,
this standard and publishes a province-specific code book.
Since each province publishes its own slightly modified
standard, it would be somewhat confusing to obtain the CSA
standard itself. In this FAQ, "CEC" really means the
appropriate provincial standard. In particular, this FAQ is
derived from the Ontario Hydro Electrical Safety Code, 20th
edition (1990). Which is in turn based on CSA C22.1-1990 (16th
edition). While differences exist between the provinces, an
attempt has been made to avoid specific-to-Ontario detail.
The appropriate provincial code can be obtained from electrical
inspection offices of your provincial power authority. In
Ontario, it's Ontario Hydro. The Ontario Hydro book isn't
overly fat. It's about C$25, and includes mailed updates. I
hear that these standards are somewhat easier to read than the
equivalent NEC publications.
Don't bother asking in Quebec - DIY wiring is banned throughout
the province.
Subject: Can I do my own wiring? Extra pointers?
In most places, homeowners are allowed to do their own wiring.
In some, they're not. Check with your local electrical
inspector. Most places won't permit you to do wiring on other's
homes for money without a license. Nor are you permitted to do
wiring in "commercial" buildings. Multiple dwellings (eg: duplexes)
are usually considered "semi-commercial" or "commercial". However,
many jurisdictions will permit you to work on semi-commercial
wiring if you're supervised by a licensed electrician - if you can
find one willing to supervise.
If you do your own wiring, an important point:
Do it NEAT and WELL! What you really want to aim for is a better
job than an electrician will do. After all, it's your own home,
and it's you or your family that might get killed if you make
a mistake. An electrician has time pressures, has the skills
and knows the tricks of the trade to do a fast, safe job.
In this FAQ we've consciously given a few recommendations that
are in excess of code, because we feel that it's reasonable,
and will impress the inspector.
The inspector will know that you're an amateur. You have to
earn his trust. The best way of doing this is to spend your
time doing as neat a job as possible. Don't cut corners.
Exceed specifications. Otherwise, the inspector may get extremely
picky and fault you on the slightest transgressions.
Don't try to hide anything from the inspector.
Use the proper tools. Ie: don't use a bread knife to strip
wires, or twist wires with your fingers. The inspector
won't like it, and the results won't be that safe. And it
takes longer. And you're more likely to stick a hunk of
12ga wire through your hand that way.
Don't handle house wire when it's very cold (eg: below -10C
or 16F). Thermoplastic house wire, particularly older types
become very brittle.
Subject: What do I need in the way of tools?
First, there's the obvious -- a hammer, a drill, a few
screwdrivers, both straight and Phillips-head. If you're
lucky enough to live in Canada (or find a source of CSA-approved
devices) you need Robertson ("square recess") screwdrivers
(#1 and #2) instead of phillips.
For drilling a few holes, a 3/4" or 1" spade bit and 1/4" or
3/8" electric drill will do. If you're doing a lot, or
are working with elderly lumber, we recommend a 1/2" drill
(right-angle drills are wonderful. Can be rented) and
3/4" or 1" screw-point auger drill bits. These bits pull
you through, so they're much faster and less fatiguing, even
in 90 year old hardwood timbers.
Screw-driver bits are useful for drills, expecially if you
install your electrical boxes using screws (drywall screws
work well).
For stripping wire, use a real wire stripper, not a knife or
ordinary wire cutters. Don't buy the $3 K-mart "combo stripper,
crimper and bottle opener" types. You should expect to pay
$15 to $20 for a good "plier-type" pair. It will have sized
stripping holes, and won't nick or grab the wire - it should
be easy to strip wire with it. One model has a small hole in the
blade for forming exact wire loops for screw terminals. There
are fancier types (autostrip/cut), but they generally aren't
necessary, and pros usually don't use them.
A pair of diagonal side cutter pliers are useful for clipping ends
in constricted places. Don't use these for stripping wire.
You will need linesman pliers for twisting wires for wire nuts.
You should have a pair of needle-nose pliers for fiddling
inside boxes and closing loops, but it's better to form wire
loops with a "loop former hole" on your wire stripper - more
accurate.
If you're using non-metallic cable, get a cable stripper for
removing the sheath. Or, do what some pros do, they nick the
end of the sheath, grab the ground wire with a pair of pliers,
and simply rip the sheath back using the ground wire as a
"zipper", and cut the sheath off. You shouldn't try to strip
the sheath with a knife point, because it's too easy to
slash the insulation on the conductors. Apparently Stanley
utility knives fitted with linoleum cutters (hooked blades)
can be used to strip sheath, but there is still the possibility
that you'll gouge the conductors.
For any substantial amount of work with armored cable, it's well
worth your while to invest in a rotary cable splitter (~US$ 18).
Hack saws are tricky to use without cutting into the wire
or the insulation.
Three-prong outlet testers are a quick check for properly-wired
outlets. About $6. Multimeters tell you more, but are a lot more
expensive, and probably not worth it for most people. A simple
voltage sensor, which can detect potential through an insulated
wire not supplying any devices, is extremely helpful; they cost
about US$ 10 at Radio Shack.
You should have a voltage detector - to check that the wires are
dead before doing work on them. Neon-bulb version are cheap ($2-3)
and work well. If you get more serious, a "audible alarm" type is
good for tracing circuits without a helper. (Though I've been known
to lock the drill on, and hit breakers until the scream stops ;-)
For running wires through existing walls, you need fish tape.
Often, two tapes are needed, though sometimes, a bent hanger or
a length of thin chain will suffice. Fish tapes can be rented.
Electrical tape. Lots of it ;-) Seriously, a good and competent
wiring job will need very little tape. The tape is useful for
wrapping dicy insulation in repair work. Another use is to wrap
around the body of outlets and switches to cover the termination
screws - I don't do this, but drywall contractors prefer it (to
prevent explosions when the drywall knife collides with a live outlet
that has no cover plate).
Subject: What is UL listing?
The UL stands for "Underwriters Laboratory". It used to be
an Insurance Industry organization, but now it is independent
and non-profit. It tests electrical components and equipment
for potential hazards. When something is UL-listed, that means
that the UL has tested the device, and it meets their requirements
for safety - ie: fire or shock hazard. It doesn't necessarily
mean that the device actually does what it's supposed to, just
that it probably won't kill you.
The UL does not have power of law in the U.S. -- you are
permitted to buy and install non-UL-listed devices. However,
insurance policies sometimes have clauses in them that will
limit their liability in case of a claim made in response to
the failure of a non-UL-listed device. Furthermore, in
many situations the NEC will require that a wiring component
used for a specific purpose is UL-listed for that purpose.
Indirectly, this means that certain parts of your wiring
must be UL-listed before an inspector will approve it and/or
occupancy permits issued.
Subject: What is CSA approval?
Every electrical device or component must be certified by the
Canadian Standards Association before it can be sold in
Canada. Implicit in this is that all wiring must be done
with CSA-approved materials. They perform testing similar to
the UL (a bit more stringent), except that CSA approval is
required by law.
Again, like the UL, if a fire was caused by non-CSA-approved
equipment, your insurance company may not have to pay the
claim.
In Canada, there is a branch organization of the UL, called ULC
(UL of Canada). ULC does not have power of law, and seems to
be more a liason group between the CSA and insurance
companies.
Subject: Are there any cheaper, easier to read books on wiring?
USA: The following three books were suggested by our readers
Residential Wiring
by Jeff Markell,
Craftsman Books,
Carlsbad CA for $18.25. ISBN 0-934041-19-9.
Practical Electrical Wiring
Residential, Farm and Industrial, Based on the National
Electrical Code ANSI/NFPA 70
Herbert P. Richter and W. Creighton Schwan
McGraw-Hill Book Co.
Wiring Simplified
H. P. Richter and W. C. Schwan
Park Publishing Co.
Try to make sure that the book is based on the latest NEC
revision. Which is currently 1990.
Canada: P.S. Knight authors and publishes a book called
"Electrical Code Simplified". There appears to be a version
published specific to each province, and is very tied into the
appropriate provincial code. It focuses on residential wiring,
and is indispensible for Canadian DIY'ers. It is better to get
this book than the CEC unless you do a lot of wiring (or answer
questions on the net ;-).
It is updated each time the provincial codes are. This book is
available at all DIY and hardware stores for less than C$10.
Subject: Inspections how and what? Why should I get my wiring inspected?
Most jurisdictions require that you obtain a permit and
inspections of any wiring that is done. Amongst other more
mundane bureaucratic reasons (like insurance companies not
liking to have to pay claims), a permit and inspections
provides some assurance that you, your family, your neighbors
or subsequent owners of your home don't get killed or lose
their homes one night due to a sloppy wiring job.
Most jurisdictions have the power to order you to vacate your
home, or order you to tear out any wiring done without a
permit. California, for instance, is particularly nasty about
this.
If fire starts in your home, and un-inspected wiring is at
fault, insurance companies will often refuse to pay the damage
claims.
In general, the process goes like this:
- you apply to your local inspections office or building
department for a permit. You should have a sketch or
detailed drawing of what you plan on doing. This is
a good time to ask questions on any things you're not
sure of. If you're doing major work, they may impose
special conditions on you, require loading
calculations and ask other questions. At this point
they will tell you which inspections you will need.
- If you're installing a main panel, you will need to
have the panel and service connections inspected
before your power utility will provide a connection.
This is sometimes done by the local power authority
rather than the usual inspectors.
- After installing the boxes and wiring, but before
the insulation/walls go up, you will need a
"rough-in" inspection.
- After the walls are up, and the wiring is complete,
you will need a "final inspection".
Subject: My house doesn't meet some of these rules and regulations.
Do I have to upgrade?
In general, there is no requirement to upgrade older dwellings,
though there are some exceptions (ie: smoke detectors in some
cases). However, any new work must be done according to the
latest electrical code. Also, if you do ``major'' work, you
may be required to upgrade certain existing portions or all
of your system. Check with your local electrical inspector.
Subject: A word on voltages: 110/115/117/120/125/220/240
One thing where things might get a bit confusing is the
different numbers people bandy about for the voltage of
a circuit. One person might talk about 110V, another 117V
or another 120V. These are all, in fact, exactly the same
thing... In North America the utility companies are required
to supply a split-phase 240 volt (+-5%) feed to your house.
This works out as two 120V +- 5% legs. Additionally, since there
are resistive voltage drops in the house wiring, it's not
unreasonable to find 120V has dropped to 110V or 240V has dropped
to 220V by the time the power reaches a wall outlet. Especially
at the end of an extension cord or long circuit run. For a number
of reasons, some historical, some simple personal orneryness,
different people choose call them by slightly different numbers.
This FAQ has chosen to be consistent with calling them "110V" and
"220V", except when actually saying what the measured voltage will
be. Confusing? A bit. Just ignore it.
One thing that might make this a little more understandable
is that the nameplates on equipment ofen show the lower (ie: 110V
instead of 120V) value. What this implies is that the device
is designed to operate properly when the voltage drops that
low.
208V is *not* the same as 240V. 208V is the voltage between
phases of a 3-phase "Y" circuit that is 120V from neutral to any
hot. 480V is the voltage between phases of a 3-phase "Y"
circuit that's 277V from hot to neutral.
In keeping with 110V versus 120V strangeness, motors intended
to run on 480V three phase are often labelled as 440V...
Subject: What does an electrical service look like?
There are logically four wires involved with supplying the
main panel with power. Three of them will come from the utility
pole, and a fourth (bare) wire comes from elsewhere.
The bare wire is connected to one or more long metal bars pounded
into the ground, or to a wire buried in the foundation, or sometimes
to the water supply pipe (has to be metal, continuous to where
the main water pipe entering the house. Watch out for galvanic
action conductivity "breaks" (often between copper and iron pipe)).
This is the "grounding conductor". It is there to make sure that
the third prong on your outlets is connected to ground. This wire
normally carries no current.
One of the other wires will be white (or black with white or
yellow stripes, or sometimes simply black). It is the neutral wire.
It is connected to the "centre tap" (CEC; "center tap" in the
NEC) of the distribution transformer supplying the power. It
is connected to the grounding conductor in only one place (often
inside the panel). The neutral and ground should not be connected
anywhere else. Otherwise, weird and/or dangerous things may happen.
Furthermore, there should only be one grounding system in
a home. Some codes require more than one grounding electrode.
These will be connected together, or connected to the neutral
at a common point - still one grounding system. Adding additional
grounding electrodes connected to other portions of the house
wiring is unsafe and contrary to code.
If you add a subpanel, the ground and neutral are usually
brought as separate conductors from the main panel, and are
not connected together in the subpanel (ie: still only one
neutral-ground connection). However, in some situations
(certain categories of separate buildings) you actually do
have to provide a second grounding electrode - consult your
inspector.
The other two wires will usually be black, and are the "hot"
wires. They are attached to the distribution transformer as
well.
The two black wires are 180 degrees out of phase with each
other. This means if you connect something to both hot wires,
the voltage will be 220 volts. If you connect something to the
white and either of the two blacks you will get 110V.
Some panels seem to only have three wires coming into them.
This is either because the neutral and ground are connected
together at a different point (eg: the meter or pole) and one
wire is doing dual-duty as both neutral and ground, or in some
rare occasions, the service has only one hot wire (110V only
service).
Subject: What is a circuit?
Inside the panel, connections are made to the incoming wires.
These connections are then used to supply power to selected
portions of the home. There are three different combinations:
1) one hot, one neutral, and ground: 110V circuit.
2) two hots, no neutral, and ground: 220V circuit.
3) two hots, neutral, and ground: 220V circuit + neutral,
and/or two 110V circuits with a common neutral.
(1) is used for most circuits supplying receptacles and
lighting within your house. (3) is usually used for supplying
power to major appliances such as stoves, and dryers - they
often have need for both 220V and 110V, or for bringing several
circuits from the panel box to a distribution point. (2) is
usually for special 220V motor circuits, electric heaters, or
air conditioners.
[Note: In the US, the NEC frequently permits a circuit similar
to (2) be used for stoves and dryers - namely, that there
are two hot wires, and a wire that does dual duty as neutral
and ground, and is connected to the frame as well as providing
the neutral for 110V purposes - three prong plugs instead
of four (*only* for stoves/dryers connected to the main panel.
When connected to most sub-panels, 4 prong plugs and receptacles
are required). In our not-so-humble opinion this is crazy, but
the NFPA claims that this practice was re-evaluated for the 1992 NEC,
and found to be safe. Check your local codes, or inquire as to
local practice -- there are restrictions on when this is
permissible.]
(1) is usually wired with three conductor wire: black for hot,
white for neutral, and bare for grounding.
(2) and (3) have one hot wire coloured red, the other black, a
bare wire for grounding, and in (3) a white wire for neutral.
You will sometimes see (2) wired with just a black, white and ground
wire. Since the white is "hot" in this case, both the NEC and CEC
requires that the white wire be "permanently marked" at the ends
to indicate that it is a live wire. Usually done with paint, nail
polish or sometimes electrical tape.
Each circuit is attached to the main wires coming into the
panel through a circuit breaker or fuse.
There are, in a few locales, circuits that look like (1), (2)
or (3) except that they have two bare ground wires. Some places
require this for hot tubs and the like (one ground is "frame ground",
the other attaches to the motor). This may or may not be an
alternative to GFCI protection.
Subject: "grounding" versus "grounded" versus "neutral".
According to the terminology in the CEC and NEC, the
"grounding" conductor is for the safety ground, i.e., the green
or bare wire. The word "neutral" is reserved for the white when
you have a circuit with more than one "hot" wire. Since the white
wire is connected to neutral and the grounding conductor inside the
panel, the proper term is "grounded conductor". However, the
potential confusion between "grounded conductor" and "grounding
conductor" can lead to potentially lethal mistakes - you should
never use the bare wire as a "grounded conductor" or white wire
as the "grounding conductor", even though they are connected
together in the panel.
[But not in subpanels - subpanels are fed neutral and ground
separately from the main panel. Usually.]
In the trade, and in common usage, the word "neutral" is used
for "grounded conductor". This FAQ uses "neutral" simply to
avoid potential confusion. We recommend that you use "neutral"
too. Thus the white wire is always (except in some light
switch applications) neutral. Not ground.
Subject: What does a fuse or breaker do? What are the differences?
Fuses and circuit breakers are designed to interrupt the power
to a circuit when the current flow exceeds safe levels. For
example, if your toaster shorts out, a fuse or breaker should
"trip", protecting the wiring in the walls from melting. As
such, fuses and breakers are primarily intended to protect the
wiring -- UL or CSA approval supposedly indicates that the
equipment itself won't cause a fire.
Fuses contain a narrow strip of metal which is designed to melt
(safely) when the current exceeds the rated value, thereby
interrupting the power to the circuit. Fuses trip relatively
fast. Which can sometimes be a problem with motors which have
large startup current surges. For motor circuits, you can use
a "time-delay" fuse (one brand is "fusetron") which will avoid
tripping on momentary overloads. A fusetron looks like a
spring-loaded fuse. A fuse can only trip once, then it must be
replaced.
Breakers are fairly complicated mechanical devices. They
usually consist of one spring loaded contact which is latched
into position against another contact. When the current flow
through the device exceeds the rated value, a bimetallic strip
heats up and bends. By bending it "trips" the latch, and the
spring pulls the contacts apart. Circuit breakers behave
similarly to fusetrons - that is, they tend to take longer to
trip at moderate overloads than ordinary fuses. With high
overloads, they trip quickly. Breakers can be reset a finite
number of times - each time they trip, or are thrown
when the circuit is in use, some arcing takes place, which
damages the contacts. Thus, breakers should not be used in
place of switches unless they are specially listed for the
purpose.
Neither fuses nor breakers "limit" the current per se. A dead
short on a circuit can cause hundreds or sometimes even
thousands of amperes to flow for a short period of time, which
can often cause severe damage.
Subject: Breakers? Can't I use fuses?
Statistics show that fuse panels have a significantly higher
risk of causing a fire than breaker panels. This is usually
due to the fuse being loosely screwed in, or the contacts
corroding and heating up over time, or the wrong size fuse
being installed, or the proverbial "replace the fuse with a
penny" trick.
Since breakers are more permanently installed, and have better
connection mechanisms, the risk of fire is considerably less.
Fuses are prone to explode under extremely high overload. When
a fuse explodes, the metallic vapor cloud becomes a conducting
path. Result? from complete meltdown of the electrical panel,
melted service wiring, through fires in the electrical
distribution transformer and having your house burn down.
Breakers don't do this.
Many jurisdictions, particularly in Canada, no longer permit
fuse panels in new installations. The NEC does permit new
fuse panels in some rare circumstances (requiring the special
inserts to "key" the fuseholder to specific size fuses)
Some devices, notably certain large air conditioners, require fuse
protection in addition to the breaker at the panel. The fuse
is there to protect the motor windings from overload. Check the
labeling on the unit. This is usually only on large permanently
installed motors. The installation instructions will tell you
if you need one.
Subject: What size wire should I use?
For a 20 amp circuit, use 12 gauge wire. For a 15 amp circuit,
you can use 14 gauge wire (in most locales). For a long run,
though, you should use the next larger size wire, to avoid
voltage drops. 12 gauge is only slightly more expensive than
14 gauge, though it's stiffer and harder to work with.
Here's a quick table for normal situations. Go up a size for
more than 100 foot runs, when the cable is in conduit, or
ganged with other wires in a place where they can't dissipate
heat easily:
Gauge Amps
14 15
12 20
10 30
8 40
6 65
We don't list bigger sizes because it starts getting very dependent
on the application and precise wire type.
Subject: Where do these numbers come from?
There are two considerations, voltage drop and heat buildup.
The smaller the wire is, the higher the resistance is. When
the resistance is higher, the wire heats up more, and there is
more voltage drop in the wiring. The former is why you need
higher-temperature insulation and/or bigger wires for use in
conduit; the latter is why you should use larger wire for long
runs.
Neither effect is very significant over very short distances.
There are some very specific exceptions, where use of smaller
wire is allowed. The obvious one is the line cord on most
lamps. Don't try this unless you're certain that your use fits
one of those exceptions; you can never go wrong by using larger
wire.
Subject: What does "14-2" mean?
This is used to describe the size and quantity of conductors
in a cable. The first number specifies the gauge. The second
the number of current carrying conductors in the wire - but
remember there's usually an extra ground wire. "14-2" means
14 gauge, two insulated current carrying wires, plus bare ground.
-2 wire usually has a black, white and bare ground wire. Sometimes
the white is red instead for 220V circuits without neutral. In
the latter case, the sheath is usually red too.
-3 wire usually has a black, red, white and bare ground wire.
Usually carrying 220V with neutral.
Subject: What is a "wirenut"/"marrette"/"marr connector"? How are they
used?
A wire nut is a cone shaped threaded plastic thingummy that's used
to connect wires together. "Marrette" or "Marr connector"
are trade names. You'll usually use a lot of them in DIY wiring.
In essence, you strip the end of the wires about an inch, twist them
together, then twist the wirenut on.
Though some wirenuts advertise that you don't need to twist the
wire, do it anyways - it's more mechanically and electrically
secure.
There are many different sizes of wire nut. You should check
that the wire nut you're using is the correct size for the
quantity and sizes of wire you're connecting together.
Don't just gimble the wires together with a pair of pliers or
your fingers. Use a pair of blunt nose ("linesman") pliers,
and carefully twist the wires tightly and neatly. Sometimes
it's a good idea to trim the resulting end to make sure it
goes in the wirenut properly.
Some people wrap the "open" end of the wirenut with electrical
tape. This is probably not a good idea - the inspector may
tear it off during an inspection. It's usually done because
a bit of bare wire is exposed outside the wire nut - instead
of taping it, the connection should be redone.
Subject: What is a GFI/GFCI?
A GFCI is a ``ground-fault circuit interrupter''. It measures
the current current flowing through the hot wire and the
neutral wire. If they differ by more than a few milliamps, the
presumption is that current is leaking to ground via some other
path. This may be because of a short circuit to the chassis of
an appliance, or to the ground lead, or through a person. Any
of these situations is hazardous, so the GFCI trips, breaking
the circuit.
GFCIs do not protect against all kinds of electric shocks. If,
for example, you simultaneously touched the hot and neutral
leads of a circuit, and no part of you was grounded, a GFCI
wouldn't help. All of the current that passed from the hot
lead into you would return via the neutral lead, keeping the
GFCI happy.
The two pairs of connections on a GFCI outlet are not symmetric.
One is labeled LOAD; the other, LINE. The incoming power feed
*must* be connected to the LINE side, or the outlet will not be
protected. The LOAD side can be used to protect all devices
downstream from it. Thus, a whole string of outlets can be
covered by a single GFCI outlet.
Subject: Where should GFCIs be used?
The NEC mandates GFCIs for 110V, 15A or 20A single phase
outlets, in bathrooms, kitchens within 6' of the sink, garages,
unfinished basements or crawl spaces, outdoors, near a pool, or
just about anywhere else where you're likely to encounter water
or dampness. There are exceptions for inaccessible outlets,
those dedicated to appliances ``occupying fixed space'',
typically refrigerators and freezers, and for sump pumps and
laundry appliances.
The CEC does not mandate as many GFCIs. In particular, there
is no requirement to protect kitchen outlets, or most garage or
basement outlets. Basement outlets must be protected if you
have a dirt floor, garage outlets if they're near the door to
outside. Bathrooms and most exterior outlets must have GFCIs.
Even if you are not required to have GFCI protection, you may
want to consider installing it anyway. Unless you need a GFCI
breaker (see below), the cost is low. In the U.S., GFCI
outlets can cost as little as US$8. (Costs are a bit higher in
Canada: C$12.) Evaluate your own risk factors. Does your
finished basement ever get wet? Do you have small children?
Do you use your garage outlets to power outdoor tools? Does
water or melted snow ever puddle inside your garage?
Subject: Where shouldn't I use a GFCI?
GFCIs are generally not used on circuits that (a) don't pose a
safety risk, and (b) are used to power equipment that must run
unattended for long periods of time. Refrigerators, freezers,
and sump pumps are good examples. The rationale is that GFCIs
are sometimes prone to nuisance trips. Some people claim that
the inductive delay in motor windings can cause a momentary
current imbalance, tripping the GFCI. Note, though, that most
GFCI trips are real; if you're getting a lot of trips for no
apparent reason, you'd be well-advised to check your wiring
before deciding that the GFCI is broken or useless.
Subject: What is the difference between a GFCI outlet and a GFCI breaker?
For most situations, you can use either a GFCI outlet as the
first device on the circuit, or you can install a breaker with
a built-in GFCI. The former is generally preferred, since GFCI
breakers are quite expensive. For example, an ordinary GE
breaker costs ~US$5; the GFCI model costs ~US$35. There is one
major exception: if you need to protect a ``multi-wire branch
circuit'' (two or more circuits sharing a common neutral wire),
such as a Canadian-style kitchen circuit, you'll need a
multi-pole GFCI breaker. Unfortunately, these are expensive;
the cost can range into the hundreds of dollars, depending on
what brand of panel box you have. But if you must protect such
a circuit (say, for a pool heater), you have no choice.
One more caveat -- GFCI outlets are bulky. You may want to use
an oversize box when installing them. On second thought, use
large (actually deep) boxes everywhere. You'll thank yourself for it.
Incidentally, if you're installing a GFCI to ensure that one
specific outlet is protected (such as a bathroom), you don't
really have to go to all of the trouble to find the first
outlet in the circuit, you could simply find the first outlet
in the bathroom, and not GFCI anything upstream of it. But
protecting the whole circuit is preferred.
When you install a GFCI, it's a good idea to use the little
"ground fault protected" stickers that come with it and mark
the outlets downstream of the GFCI. You can figure out which
outlets are "downstream", simply by tripping the GFCI with the
test button and see which outlets are dead.
Subject: What's the purpose of the ground prong on an outlet, then?
Apart from their use in electronics, which we won't comment on,
and for certain fluorescent lights (they won't turn on without
a good ground connection), they're intended to guard against
insulation failures within the device. Generally, the case of
the appliance is connected to the ground lead. If there's an
insulation failure that shorts the hot lead to the case, the
ground lead conducts the electricity away safely (and possibly
trips the circuit breaker in the process). If the case is not
grounded and such a short occurs, the case is live -- and if
you touch it while you're grounded, you'll get zapped. Of
course, if the circuit is GFCI-protected, it will be a very
tiny zap -- which is why you can use GFCIs to replace
ungrounded outlets (both NEC and CEC).
There are some appliances that should *never* be grounded. In
particular, that applies to toasters and anything else with
exposed conductors. Consider: if you touch the heating
electrode in a toaster, and you're not grounded, nothing will
happen. If you're slightly grounded, you'll get a small shock;
the resistance will be too high. But if the case were
grounded, and you were holding it, you'd be the perfect path to
ground...
Subject: Why is one prong wider than the other? Polarization
Nowadays, many two-prong devices have one prong wider than the
other. This is so that the device could rely (not guaranteed!)
on one specific wire being neutral, and the other hot.
This is particularly advantageous in light fixtures, where the
the shell should neutral (safety), or other devices which want to
have an approximate ground reference (ie: some radios).
Most 2-prong extension cords have wide prongs too.
This requires that you wire your outlets and plugs the right
way around. You want the wide prong to be neutral, and the
narrow one hot. Most outlets have a darker metal for the
hot screw, and lighter coloured screw for the neutral.
If not, you can usually figure out which is which by which
prong the terminating screw connects to.
Subject: What kind of outlets do I need in a kitchen?
The NEC requires at least two 20 amp ``small appliance
circuits'' for kitchens. The CEC requires split-duplex
receptacles. Outlets must be installed such that no point is more
than 24" (NEC) (900 mm CEC) from an outlet. Every counter wider
than 12" (NEC) or 300 mm (CEC) must have at least one outlet.
The circuit these outlets are on may not feed any outlets except
in the kitchen, pantry, or dining room. Furthermore, these circuits
are in addition to any required for refrigerators, stoves, microwaves,
lighting, etc. Non-dedicated outlets within 6' of a sink *must* be
protected by a GFCI (NEC only).
Split duplex receptacles are fed with a 220V circuit. The tab
is broken on the hot side of the outlet, and one hot goes to
the upper outlet, and the other hot goes to the lower outlet.
The neutral connects to both outlets through one screw. When
"carrying through" to another outlet, the neutral must be
pigtailed, such that removing the outlet, or having the neutral
connection fall off doesn't cause the neutral to disconnect
from downstream outlets.
Subject: Where must outlets and switches be in bathrooms?
There must be at least one outlet in each bathroom, adjacent to
the sink, in addition to any outlet that may be incorporated in
the light fixture. All such outlets *must* be GFCI-protected.
Subject: What is Romex/NM/NMD? What is BX? When should I use each?
Romex is a brand name for a type of plastic insulated wire.
Sometimes called non-metallic sheath. The formal name is NM.
This is suitable for use in dry, protected areas (ie: inside
stud walls, on the sides of joists etc.), that are not subject
to mechanical damage or excessive heat. Most newer homes are
wired almost exclusively with NM wire. There are several
different categories of NM cable.
BX cable -- technically known as armored cable or "AC" has a
flexible aluminum or steel sheath over the conductors and is
fairly resistant to damage.
TECK cable is AC with an additional external thermoplastic
sheath.
Protection for cable in concealed locations: where NM or AC cable
is run through studs, joists or similar wooden members, the outer
surface of the cable must be kept at least 32mm/1.25" (CEC & NEC)
from the edges of the wooden members, or the cable should be protected
from mechanical injury. This latter protection can take the form of
metal plates (such as spare outlet box ends) or conduit.
[Note: inspector-permitted practise in Canada suggests that armored
cable, or flexible conduit can be used as the mechanical protection,
but this is technically illegal.]
Additional protection recommendations (these are rules in the
Canadian codes - they are reasonable answers to the vague
references to "exposed to mechanical damage" in both the NEC
and CEC):
- NM cable should be protected against mechanical damage
where it passes through floors or on the surface of walls
in exposed locations under 5 feet from the floor.
Ie: use AC instead, flexible conduit, wooden guards etc.
- Where cable is suspended, as in, connections to furnaces
or water heaters, the wire should be protected. Canadian
practise is usually to install a junction or outlet
box on the wall, and use a short length of AC cable
or NM cable in flexible conduit to "jump" to the appliance.
Stapling NM to a piece of lumber is also sometimes used.
- Where NM cable is run in close proximity to heating
ducts or pipe, heat transfer should be minimized by
means of a 25mm/1" air space, or suitable insulation
material (a wad of fiberglass).
- NM cable shall be supported within 300mm/1' of every box
or fitting, and at intervals of no more than 1.5m/5'.
Holes in joists or studs are considered "supports".
Some slack in the cable should be provided adjacent to
each box. [while fishing cable is technically in violation,
it is permitted where "proper" support is impractical]
- 2 conductor NM cable should never be stapled on edge.
[Knight also insists on only one cable per staple, referring
to the "workmanship" clause, but this seems more honoured
in the breach...]
- cable should never be buried in plaster, cement or
similar finish.
- cable should be protected where it runs behind baseboards.
- Cable may not be run on the upper edge of ceiling joists
or the lower edges of rafters where the headroom is more
than 1m (39").
Whenever BX cable is terminated at a box with a clamp, small
plastic bushings must be inserted in the end of the cable to
prevent the clamps forcing the sharp ends of the armor through
the insulation.
BX is sometimes a good idea in a work shop unless covered by
solid wall coverings.
In places where damage is more likely (like on the back wall of
a garage ;-), you may be required to use conduit, a
UL- (or CSA-) approved metal pipe. You use various types of
fittings to join the pipe or provide entrance/exit for the
wire.
Service entrances frequently use a plastic conduit.
In damp places (eg: buried wiring to outdoor lighting) you will
need special wire (eg: CEC NMW90, NEC UF). NMW90 looks like
very heavy-duty NMD90. You will usually need short lengths of
conduit where the wire enters/exits the ground. [See underground
wiring section.]
Thermoplastic sheath wire (such as NM, NMW etc.) should not be
exposed to direct sunlight unless explicitly approved for that
purpose.
Many electrical codes do not permit the routing of wire through
furnace ducts, including cold air return plenums constructed
by metal sheeting enclosing joist spaces. The reason for this
is that if there's a fire, the ducting will spread toxic gasses
from burning insulation very rapidly through the building.
Teflon insulated wire is permitted in plenums in many areas.
Canada appears to use similar wire designations to the US,
except that Canadian wire designations usually include the
temperature rating in Celsius. Eg: "AC90" versus "AC".
In the US, NM-B is 90 degrees celcius.
NOTE: local codes vary. This is one of the items that changes
most often. Eg: Chicago codes require conduit *everywhere*.
There are very different requirements for mobile homes.
Check your local codes, *especially* if you're doing anything
that's the slightest out of the ordinary.
Wire selection table (incomplete - the real tables are enormous,
uncommon wire types or applications omitted)
Condition Type CEC NEC
Exposed/Concealed dry plastic NMD90 NM
armor AC90 AC
TECK90
Exposed/Concealed damp plastic NMD90 NMC
armor ACWU90
TECK90
Exposed/Concealed wet plastic NMWU90
armor ACWU90
TECK90
Exposed to weather plastic NMWU
TW etc.
armor TECK90
Direct earth burial/ plastic NMWU* UF
Service entrance RWU
TWU
armor RA90
TECK90
ACWU90
[* NMWU not for service entrance]
Subject: Should I use plastic or metal boxes?
The NEC permits use of plastic boxes with non-metallic cable
only. The reasoning is simple -- with armored cable, the box
itself provides ground conductor continuity. U.S. plastic
boxes don't use metal cable clamps.
The CEC is slightly different. The CEC never permits cable
armor as a grounding conductor. However, you must still
provide ground continuity for metallic sheath. The CEC also
requires grounding of any metal cable clamps on plastic boxes.
The advantage of plastic boxes is comparatively minor even for
non-metallic sheathed cable -- you can avoid making one ground
connection and they sometimes cost a little less. On the other
hand, plastic boxes are more vulnerable to impacts. For
exposed or shop wiring, metal boxes are probably better.
Subject: Junction box positioning?
A junction box is a box used only for connecting wires together.
Junction boxes must be located in such a way that they're accessible
later. Ie: not buried under plaster. Excessive use of junction
boxes is often a sign of sloppy installation, and inspectors may
get nasty.
Subject: Can I install a replacement light fixture?
In general, one can replace fixtures freely, subject to a few
caveats. First, of course, one should check the amperage
rating of the circuit. If your heart is set on installing half
a dozen 500 watt floodlights, you may need to run a new wire
back to the panel box. But there are some more subtle
constraints as well. For example, older house
wiring doesn't have high-temperature insulation. The excess
heat generated by a ceiling-mounted lamp can and will cause the
insulation to deteriorate and crack, with obvious bad results.
Some newer fixtures are specifically marked for high
temperature wire only. (You may find, in fact, that your
ceiling wiring already has this problem, in which case
replacing any devices is a real adventure.)
Other concerns include providing a suitable ground for some
fluorescent fixtures, and making sure that the ceiling box and
its mounting are strong enough to support the weight of a heavy
chandelier or ceiling fan. You may need to install a new box
specifically listed for this purpose. A 2x4 across the ceiling
joists makes a good support. Metal brackets are also available
that can be fished into ceilings thru the junction box hole and
mounted between the joists.
There are special rules for recessed light fixtures such as
"pot" lamps or heat lamps. When these are installed in insulated
ceilings, they can present a very substantial fire hazard.
The CEC provides for the installation of pot lamps in insulated
ceilings, provided that the fixture is boxed in a "coffin" (usually
8'x16"x12" - made by making a pair of joists 12" high, and covering
with plywood) that doesn't have any insulation. (Yes, that's 8 *feet*
long)
NEC rules are somewhat less stringent. They require at least 3"
clearance between the fixture and any sort of thermal insulation.
The rules also say that one should not obstruct free air movement,
which means that a CEC-style ``coffin'' might be worthwhile.
Presumably, that's up to the local inspector. [The CEC doesn't
actually mandate the coffin per-se, this seems to be an inspector
requirement to make absolutely certain that the fixture can't get
accidentally buried in insulation. Ie: if you have insulation blown
in later.]
There are now fixtures that contain integral thermal cutouts and
fairly large cases that can be buried directly in insulation. They are
usually limited to 75 watt bulbs, and are unfortunately, somewhat
more expensive than the older types. Before you use them, you should
ensure that they have explicit UL or CSA approval for such uses.
Follow the installation instructions carefully; the prescribed location
for the sensor can vary.
There does not yet appear to be a heat lamp fixture that is approved
for use in insulation. The "coffin" appears the only legal approach.
Subject: What does it mean when the lights brighten when a motor starts?
This usually means that the neutral wire in the panel is
loose. Depending on the load balance, one hot wire may end up
being more than 110V, and the other less than 110V, with
respect to ground. This is a very hazardous situation - it can
destroy your electronic equipment, possibly start fires, and in
some situations electrocute you (ie: some US jurisdictions
require the stove frame connected to neutral).
If this happens, contact your electrical authority immediately
and have them come and check out the problem.
Note: a brief (< 1 second) brightening is sometimes normal with
lighting and motors on the same 220V with neutral circuit. A
loose main panel neutral will usually show increased brightness
far longer than one second. In case of doubt, get help.
Subject: What is 3 phase power? Should I use it? Can I get it in my house?
Three phase power has three "hot" wires, 120 degrees out of
phase with each other. These are usually used for large motors
because it is more "efficient", provides a bit more starting torque,
and because the motors are simpler and hence cheaper.
You're most likely to encounter a 3 phase circuit that shows
110 volts between any hot and ground, and 208 volts between
any two hots. The latter shows the difference between a normal
220V/110V common neutral circuit, which is 240 volts between the
two hots. There are 3 phase circuits with different voltages.
Bringing in a 3 phase feed to your house is usually
ridiculously expensive, or impossible. If the equipment you
want to run has a standard motor mount, it is *MUCH* cheaper to
buy a new 110V or 220V motor for it. In some cases it is
possible to run 3 phase equipment on ordinary power if you have
a "capacitor start" unit, or use a larger motor as a
(auto-)generator. These are tricky, but are a good solution if
the motor is non-standard size, or too expensive or too big to
replace. The Taunton Press book ``The Small Shop'' has an
article on how to do this if you must.
Note that you lose any possible electrical efficiency by using
such a converter. The laws of thermodynamics guarantee that.
Subject: Is it better to run motors at 110 or 220?
Theoretically, it doesn't make any difference. However, there
is a difference is the amount of power lost in the supply
wiring. All things being equal, a 220V motor will lose 4 times
less power in the house wiring than a 110V motor. This also
means that the startup surge loss will be less, and the motor
will get to speed quicker. And in some circumstances, the
smaller power loss will lead to longer motor life.
This is usually irrelevant unless the supply wires are more
than 50 feet long.
Subject: What is this nonsense about 3HP on 110V 15A circuits?
It is a universal physical law that 1 HP is equal to 746
watts. Given heating loss, power factor and other inefficiencies,
it is usually best to consider 1 HP is going to need 1000-1200
watts. A 110V 15A circuit can only deliver 1850 watts to a motor,
so it cannot possibly be more than approximately 2 HP. Given rational
efficiency factors, 1.5HP is more like it.
Some equipment manufacturers (Sears in particular, most router
manufacturers in general ;-) advertise a HP rating that is far
in excess of what is possible. They are giving you a "stall
horsepower" or similar. That means the power is measured when
the motor is just about to stop turning because of the load.
What they don't mention is that if you kept it in that
condition for more than a few seconds hopefully your breaker
will trip, otherwise the motor will melt -- it's drawing far
more current than it can continuously.
When comparing motors, compare the continuous horsepower. This
should be on the motor nameplate. If you can't find that figure,
check the amperage rating, which is always present.
Subject: How do I convert two prong receptacles to three prong?
Older homes frequently have two-prong receptacles instead
of the more modern three. These receptacles have no safety
ground, and the cabling usually has no ground wire. Neither
the NEC or CEC permits installing new 2 prong receptacles anymore.
There are several different approaches to solving this:
1) If the wiring is done through conduit or BX, and the
conduit is continuous back to the panel, you can connect
the third prong of a new receptacle to the receptacle
box. NEC mainly - CEC frowns on this practise.
2) If there is a copper cold water pipe going nearby, and
it's continuous to the main house ground point, you can
run a conductor to it from the third prong.
3) Run a ground conductor back to the main panel.
4) Easiest: install a GFCI receptacle. The ground lug
should not be connected to anything, but the GFCI
protection itself will serve instead. The GFCI
will also protect downstream (possibly also two prong
outlets). If you do this to protect downstream outlets,
the grounds must not be connected together. Since it
wouldn't be connected to a real ground, a wiring fault
could energize the cases of 3 prong devices connected
to other outlets. Be sure, though, that there aren't
indirect ground plug connections, such as via the sheath
on BX cable.
The CEC permits you to replace a two prong receptacle with a three
prong if you fill the U ground with a non-conducting goop.
Like caulking compound. This is not permitted in the NEC.
Subject: Are you sure about GFCIs and ungrounded outlets?
Should the test button work?
We're sure about what the NEC and CEC say. Remember, though,
that your local codes may vary. As for the TEST button -- there's
a resistor connecting the LOAD side of the hot wire to the LINE
side of the neutral wire when you press the TEST button. Current
through this resistor shows up as an imbalance, and trips the GFCI.
This is a simple, passive, and reliable test, and doesn't require
a real ground to work. If your GFCI does not trip when you press
the TEST button, it is very probably defective or miswired. Again:
if the test button doesn't work, something's broken, and potentially
dangerous. The problem should be corrected immediately.
The instructions that come with some GFCIs specify that the ground
wire must be connected. We do not know why they say this. The
causes may be as mundane as an old instruction sheet, or with the
formalities of UL or CSA listing -- perhaps the device was never
tested without the ground wire being connected. On the other hand,
UL or CSA approval should only have been granted if the device
behaves properly in *all* listed applications, including ungrounded
outlet replacement. (One of us called Leviton; their GFCIs are
labeled for installation on grounded circuits only. The technician
was surprised to see that; he agreed that the NEC does not require
it, and promised to investigate.)
Subject: How should I wire my shop?
As with any other kind of wiring, you need enough power for all
devices that will be on simultaneously. The code specifies
that you should stay under 80% of the nominal capacity of the
circuit. For typical home shop use, this means one circuit for
the major power tools, and possibly one for a dust collector or
shop vac. Use at least 12 gauge wire -- many power tools have
big motors, with a big start-up surge. If you can, use 20 amp
breakers (NEC), though CEC requires standard 20A receptacles
which means you'd have to "replug" all your equipment. Lights
should either be on a circuit of their own -- and not shared
with circuits in the rest of the house -- or be on at least two
separate circuits. The idea is that you want to avoid a
situation where a blade is still spinning at several thousand
RPM, while you're groping in the dark for the OFF switch.
Do install lots of outlets. It's easier to install them in the
beginning, when you don't have to cut into an existing cable.
It's useful if at least two circuits are accessible at each
point, so you can run a shop vac or a compressor at the same
time as the tool you really want. But use metal boxes and
plates, and maybe even metal-sheathed cable; you may have
objects flying around at high speeds if something goes a bit
wrong.
Note that some jurisdictions have a "no horizontal wiring"
rule in workshops or other unfinished areas that are used
for working. What this means is that all wiring must be
run along structural members. Ie: stapled to studs.
Other possible shop circuits include heater circuits, 220V
circuits for some large tools, and air compressor circuits.
Don't overload circuits, and don't use extension cords if you
can help it, unless they're rated for high currents. (A coiled
extension cord is not as safe as a straight length of wire of
the same gauge. Also, the insulation won't withstand as much
heat, and heat dissipation is the critical issue.)
If your shop is located at some remove from your main panel,
you should probably install a subpanel, and derive your shop
wiring from it. If you have young children, you may want to
equip this panel with a cut-off switch, and possibly a lock.
If you want to install individual switches to ``safe''
particular circuits, make sure you get ones rated high enough.
For example, ordinary light switches are not safely able to
handle the start-up surge generated by a table saw. Buy
``horsepower-rated'' switches instead.
Finally, note that most home shops are in garages or unfinished
basements; hence the NEC requirements for GFCIs apply. And
even if you ``know'' that you'd never use one of your shop
outlets to run a lawn mower, the next owner of your house might
have a different idea.
Note: Fine Woodworking magazine often carries articles on shop
wiring. April 1992 is one place to start.
Subject: Underground Wiring
You will need to prepare a trench to specifications, use
special wire, protect the wire with conduit or special plastic
tubing and possibly lumber (don't use creosoted lumber, it rots
thermoplastic insulation and acts as a catalyst in the corrosion
of lead). The transition from in-house to underground wire is
generally via conduit. All outdoor boxes must be specifically
listed for the purpose, and contain the appropriate gaskets,
fittings, etc. If the location of the box is subject to immersion
in water, a more serious style of water-proof box is needed. And
of course, don't forget the GFCIs.
The required depths and other details vary from jurisdiction to
jurisdiction, so we suggest you consult your inspector about
your specific situation.
A hint: buy a roll of bright yellow tape that says "buried power
line" and bury it a few inches above where the wire has been placed.
Subject: Aluminum wiring
During the 1970's, aluminum (instead of copper) wiring became
quite popular and was extensively used. Since that time,
aluminum wiring has been implicated in a number of house fires,
and most jurisdictions no longer permit it in new installations.
We recommend, even if you're allowed to, that do not use it for new
wiring.
But don't panic if your house has aluminum wiring. Aluminum
wiring, when properly installed, can be just as safe as copper.
Aluminum wiring is, however, very unforgiving of improper
installation. We will cover a bit of the theory behind potential
problems, and what you can do to make your wiring safe.
The main problem with aluminum wiring is a phenomenon known as
"cold creep". When aluminum wiring warms up, it expands. When
it cools down, it contracts. Unlike copper, when aluminum goes
through a number of warm/cool cycles it loses a bit of tightness each
time. To make the problem worse, aluminum oxidises, or corrodes
when in contact with certain types of metal, so the resistance
of the connection goes up. Which causes it to heat up and corrode/
oxidize still more. Eventually the wire may start getting very hot,
melt the insulation or fixture it's attached to, and possibly even
cause a fire.
Since people usually encounter aluminum wiring when they move
into a house built during the 70's, we will cover basic points of
safe aluminum wiring. We suggest that, if you're considering purchasing
a home with aluminum wiring, or have discovered it later, that you
hire a licensed electrician or inspector to check over the wiring
for the following things:
1) Fixtures (eg: outlets and switches) directly attached to
aluminum wiring should be rated for it. The device will
be stamped with "Al/Cu" or "CO/ALR". The latter supersedes
the former, but both are safe. These fixtures are somewhat
more expensive than the ordinary ones.
2) Wires should be properly connected (at least 3/4 way around
the screw in a clockwise direction). Connections should be
tight. While repeated tightening of the screws can make the
problem worse, during the inspection it would pay off to snug
up each connection.
Note that aluminum wiring is still often used for the
main service entrance cable. It should be inspected.
3) "push-in" terminals are an extreme hazard with aluminum wire.
Any connections using push-in terminals should be redone with
the proper screw connections immediately.
4) There should be no signs of overheating: darkened connections,
melted insulation, or "baked" fixtures. Any such damage should
be repaired.
5) Connections between aluminum and copper wire need to be
handled specially. Current Canadian codes require that the
wire nut used must be specially marked for connecting
aluminum to copper. The NEC requires that the wire be
connected together using special crimp devices, with an
anti-oxidant grease. The tools and materials for the latter
are quite expensive - not practical to do it yourself unless
you can rent the tool.
6) Any non-rated receptacle can be connected to aluminum wiring
by means of a short copper "pigtail". See (5) above.
7) Shows reasonable workmanship: neat wiring, properly stripped
(not nicked) wire etc.
If, when considering purchasing a home, an inspection of the wiring
shows no problems or only one or two, we believe that you can consider
the wiring safe. If there are signs of problems in many places,
we suggest you look elsewhere. If the wrong receptacles are used,
you can replace them with the proper type, or use pigtails - having
this professionally done can range from $3 to $10 per receptacle/switch.
You can do this yourself too.
Subject: I'm buying a house! What should I do?
Congratulations. But... It's generally a good idea to hire
an inspector to look through the house for hidden gotchas.
Not just for wiring, but plumbing and structural as well. If an
inspection of the wiring shows no problems or only one or two minor
ones, we believe that you can consider the wiring safe (after any
minor problems are fixed). If there are signs of problems in many
places, we suggest you look elsewhere.
Here's some hints on what to look for:
Obvious non-code wiring can include:
- Zip cord wiring, either concealed or nailed to walls
- Hot wiring on the identified (neutral) conductor without
proper marking.
- Ungrounded grounding outlets (except when downstream of
a GFCI)
- Splices hanging in mid-air (other than proper knob-and-tube)
- Switched neutrals
- Unsecured Romex swinging about like grapevines
Certain wiring practises that are actually to code (or were at one
time) sometimes reveal DIY wiring that may have hidden violations:
- Switches that seem to control nothing (abandoned, perhaps
not properly terminated wiring)
- A wall switch that shuts off a group of lights that are
separately controlled by other wall switches. (except when
it's *really* convenient ;-)
- Switches and outlets in bizarre locations
- Great numbers of junction boxes without outlets or lamps
- Junction boxes with great numbers of wires going into them
- Wiring that passes through a closet instead of a wall or
ceiling
- Backwrapped grounding wires
Subject: What is this weird stuff? Old style wiring
In the years since Edison "invented" electricity, several different
wiring "styles" have come and gone. When you buy an older home you
may encounter some of this stuff. This section describes the old
methods, and some of their idiosyncrasies.
The oldest wiring system you're likely to encounter is called
"knob and tube" (K&T). It is made up of individual conductors with
a cloth insulation. The wires are run along side structural
members (eg: joists or studs) using ceramic stand-offs (knobs).
Wire is run through structural members using ceramic tubes. Connections
were made by twisting the wire together, soldering, and wrapping
with tape. Since the hot and neutral were run separately,
the wiring tends to be rather confusing. A neutral often runs
down the centre of each room, with "taps" off to each fixture.
The hot wire tended to run from one fixture to the next. In some
cases K&T isn't colour-coded, so the neutral is often the same
colour as the hot wires.
You'll see K&T in homes built as late as the 40's.
Comments on K&T:
- the people installing K&T were pretty paranoid about
electricity, so the workmanship tends to be pretty good.
- The wire, insulation and insulators tend to stand up
very well. Most K&T I've seen, for example, is in
quite good condition.
- No grounding. Grounding is usually difficult to install.
- boxes are small. Receptacle replacement (particularly with
GFCI) can be difficult. No bushing on boxes either,
so wiring changes need special attention to box entry.
- Sometimes the neutral isn't balanced very well between
separately hot circuits, so it is sometimes possible to
overload the neutral without exceeding the fusing on
any circuit.
- Building code does not permit insulation in walls
that contain K&T.
- Connection to existing K&T from new circuits can be
tricky. Consult your inspector.
- Modern wiring practise requires considerably more
outlets to be installed than K&T systems did.
Since K&T tends to be in pretty decent condition it generally isn't
necessary to replace it simply because it's K&T. What you should
watch out for is renovations that have interfered with it and
be cautious about circuit loading. In many cases it's perfectly
reasonable to leave existing K&T alone, and add new fixtures on
new circuits using modern techniques.
After K&T, they invented multi-conductor cable. The first type
you will see is roughly a cloth and varnish insulation. It looks
much like the romex cable of the last decade or two. This stuff was
used in the 40's and 50's. Again, no grounding conductor.
It was installed much like modern wiring. Its major drawback
is that this type of insulation embrittles. We've seen whole
systems where the insulation would fracture and fall off at
a touch. BX cable of the same vintage has similar problems.
This stuff is very fragile, and becomes rather hazardous if
the wires become bare. This wiring should be left untouched as
much as possible - whenever an opportunity arises, replace it.
A simple receptacle or switch replacement can turn into a several
hour long frustrating fight with electrical tape or heat-shrink
tubing.
After this wiring technique, the more modern romex was invented.
It's almost a asphalt impregnated cloth. Often a bit sticky.
This stuff stands up reasonably well and doesn't present a hazard
and is reasonably easy to work with. It does not need to be
replaced - it should be considered as safe as the "modern" stuff -
thermoplastic insulation wire. Just don't abuse it too much.
Subject: Where do I buy stuff?
Try to find a proper electrical supply outlet near you. Their
prices will often be considerably better than chain hardware stores or
DIY centres, have better quality materials, have wider variety
including the "odd" stuff, and have people behind the counter that
know what you're talking about. Cultivate friendly knowledgeable
sales people. They'll give you much valuable information.
--
Chris Lewis; clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca; Phone: Canada 613 832-0541
Psroff 3.0 info: psroff-request@ferret.ocunix.on.ca
Ferret list: ferret-request@ferret.ocunix.on.ca
| 12sci.electronics |
Heres a story of a Saint that people might like to read. I got it from
a The Morning Star, and am posting it with the permission of the
editor.
Saint Aloysius Gonzaga
The Patron of Youth
The marquis Gonzaga had high aspirations for his son, the Prince
Gonzage. He wanted him to become a famous, brave and honoured
soldier. After all, he must carry on the great family name of
Gonzaga. Of course, he was to become far more famous, brave and
honoured than his father could ever have imagined; though not in
the manner expected.
Saint Aloysius' mother was a woman who received immense joy from
praying to God and meditating on the divine mysteries and the
life of Our Lord. She had little time for the pleasures of this
life. As Saint Aloysius grew, he began to resemble his mother
more than his father.
Saint Aloysius had learned numerous expressions from his father's
soldiers, but the moment he discovered that they were vulgar, he
fainted from shock. This shows his immense hatred of sin (What an
example for us of the contempt we must have for sin).
About the time of his First Holy Communion (which he received
from the Archbishop of Milan, Charles Borromeo, whom himself
became a great Saint), he con-secrated his purity to God and
asked the Blessed Virgin to protect his innocence for life.
He wanted to share Our Lord's suffering to show his reciprocal
love. He started by denying his passions; he avoided eating the
finest foods, wearing the best clothes, and would put pieces of
wood in his bed in order to mortify himself for the love of God.
While he was in his early teens his father sent him (and his
younger brother) to the court of the Spanish King, Phillip 11.
Obediently, he set out to make the best of it. He mixed in well
with the people of the royal court, for he was handsome, polite,
intelligent and always had something interesting to say.
Not long before this time, the great soldier-saint, Saint Igna-
tius of Loyola, had founded the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits)
towards which Saint Aloysius
-12-
began to have a yearning. When he finally told his father, the
marquis flew into a rage and forbade his son to become a priest.
After a short time, his father sent him to the great cities in
order that he be tempted away from the priesthood, but even
through these trials, Saint Aloysius grew in his desire for the
religious life and was strengthened in the virtue of purity.
The Marquis' plans were obviously failing, so he con-fronted his
son: "Will you or will you not obey me and forget this foolish-
ness?" "I will not, father," was the in-evitable reply. "Then
leave from my sight and don't return until you change your mind!"
With tears clouding his eyes, the Saint left the room to pray:
"Tell me Lord, what am I to do? Tell me! Tell me!" He knelt down
to flagellate himself as he had done several times before, but
this time he was seen. The onlooker rushed to the marquis. This
at last brought the proud man to his senses. "The Lord wants him,
the Lord can have him." He gave his consent for his son to become
a Jesuit.
After some years (at the end of the sixteenth century), a terri-
ble epidemic broke out in Rome. All the hospitals were full and
could house no more, so the Jesuits opened their own. Saint Aloy-
sius did all he could in the hospitals, particularly to prepare
the dying for a holy death.
Saint Aloysius himself contracted the plague from carrying and
nursing the sick. For three months he lay with a burning fever
and finally, on June 21st, 1591, he gave his soul to the Lord
while gazing at a crucifix.
Let us invoke Saint Aloysius as our patron and imitate him in his
humility, purity and confidence in prayer.
Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, pray for us.
- Brendan Arthur
Prayer is as necessary to a person consecrated to the service of
others as a sword is to a soldier
God Bless
From Simon
Lines: 106
--
/----------------------------------------------------------------|-------\
| Simon P. Shields Programmer Viva Cristo Rey !! ----|---- |
| MONASH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE GIPPSLAND Ph:+61 51 226 357 .JHS. |
| Switchback Rd. Churchill. Fax:+61 51 226 300 |\|/| |
| 15soc.religion.christian |
In article <1993Apr26.125444.5073@vax.cns.muskingum.edu>,
jbrown@vax.cns.muskingum.edu wrote:
>
> Belfour played well, but I hardly saw any offense from any hawk. What I want
> to know is where was Roenick.
As far as I can tell, he was right next to Bassen!
Don't you guys love it when people like me come out of the woodwork...8^)
/\ David Howarth howarth@sbctri.sbc.com
///\ Southwestern Bell Technology Resources Inc.
/// \ Advanced Technology Laboratory
/// \ 1010 Pine, Rm 635 St. Louis, MO. 63101
| 10rec.sport.hockey |
In article <78846@cup.portal.com> mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes:
>This wouldn't happen to be the same thing as chiggers, would it?
>A truly awful parasitic affliction, as I understand it. Tiny bugs
>dig deeply into the skin, burying themselves. Yuck! They have these
>things in Oklahoma.
Close. My mother comes from Gainesville Tex, right across the border.
They claim to be the chigger capitol of the world, and I believe them.
When I grew up in Fort Worth it was bad enough, but in Gainesville
in the summer an attack was guaranteed.
Doug McDonald
| 13sci.med |
I recently bought a PLI 21mgbyte floptical drive, and I was very happy
with it until I tried to use it to format a 1.4 HD diskette. I put the
HD floppy in my Superdrive to check that the floptical had formatted it
correctly, and now my Superdrive refuses to recognize ANY floppy (it says
"this disk is unreadable" and asks if I want to format it) even original
systems floppies from Apple. Nor will it format the disks if I try to
("initialization failed!") Strangely enough the floptical still reads
both the 21 MB and 1.4 HD disks, but I cant look at my 800k floppies, and
if I have a crash I'm screwed because the Floptical can't be used as a
start-up disk. PLI has been unresponsive. Any ideas? Has this happened
to anyone before? I was looking for an inexpensive storage solution, and
now I am looking at an expensive repair. Help! respond to this thread, or
email mfeldman@acs.bu.edu
| 4comp.sys.mac.hardware |
In article <1qkcok$s9i@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, ci946@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (John K. Gever) writes:
|>
|> Do you Rambos who worry so much about rape and murder in the
|> wilderness also carry your guns all the time at home too? You
|> should, since you're in a hell of a lot more danger there than
|> in the backcountry.
when does carrying a tool classify someone as a rambo. so all the
pioneers that came west were rambo's? adrienne!!! :-)
|>
|> Does anybody reading this group have an actual, honest-to-God
|> experience with violent crime in the backcountry to tell about?
|>
|> I can sort of understand the people who want to protect themselves
|> from bears and such, although there are, what, maybe a dozen or
|> two bear attacks on people in North America each year? But to
|> worry about being raped by some buck-toothed Bubba in overalls
|> is just irrational. I think we'd all be a lot safer if all the
|> videocassettes of "Deliverance" were gathered up and burned.
would your tune change if you were one of the "dozen or two bear attacks"?
believe me, when you need a firearm, you NEED a firearm.
|>
|> Public health experts will tell you that you are far more likely
|> have your gun stolen, use it yourself on a family member or
|> have it used on you than you are to use it on an actual criminal.
please cite your references. i'll let others (please note followup)
cite valid references to show you that this is an untruth.
|> The Rambo warriors we've heard from here undoubtedly consider
|> themselves exempt from this statistical reality -- they're much
|> too smart and responsible. Living in a city where there's a
|> drive-by shooting every couple of days, and working in a medical
|> center where a day doesn't go by without a shooting victim coming
|> into the ER, I'm just a bit skeptical about the value of gun
|> ownership. I go to the backcountry to get away from this
|> environment, and I don't want to find other people there who
|> insist on bringing the urban environment along with them -- boom
|> boxes, computers, or guns.
well, you might as well go naked. forget the matches, backpack, sleeping
bag and all the rest that's is a modern convenience. a firearm is just
a tool. as some people won't carry gaiters, some people do. firearms
should be in the same category. it should be a personal choice.
and your factoid about shooting victims in the ER. count how many come in
due to automobile accidents and automobile crimes. maybe we should outlaw
cars.
|>
|> Please post flaming responses to rec.guns.rabid >:-(
|> - J. Gever, B'ham, Ala.
marciano pitargue@cisco.com
| 16talk.politics.guns |
A while back (i.e., several months) someone posted a method for allowing
a user to choose (via XMenu and something else??) a window manager
interactively at X startup time. Could the original poster (or anyone
else) please Email a copy of the method to me, as I have lost the
original posting? Thanks.
______________________________________________________________________________
Henry Stilmack )
Computing Systems Manager ) Perform random kindnesses
UK/Netherlands/Canada Joint Astronomy Centre ) and senseless acts of beauty
660 N. A'ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720 )
hps@jach.Hawaii.Edu 808-969-6530 )
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 5comp.windows.x |
I am looking for the latest drivers for the Actix graphics accelerator card.
The driver I am currently using is version 1.21 and doesn't support more
than 256 colors in 1024x768 mode even you have 2MB memory.
The BBS support for Actix is unbelievable! They are still using 2400bps
modem! It will take you hours to download the drivers, it hurts when you
are calling long distance. Is there any ftp site that has a collection
of video drivers for windows?
BTW, anyone using this card, and how do you like it so far?
Thanks.
--
Daniel Y.H. Wong UofT:(416)978-1659
wongda@picton.eecg.toronto.edu Electrical Engineering
--
| 2comp.os.ms-windows.misc |
In article <C5J59C.GED@taurus.cs.nps.navy.mil> galvint@cs.nps.navy.mil (thomas galvin) writes:
>In article <93105.052120RAP115@psuvm.psu.edu> Robbie Po <RAP115@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
>>In article <1993Apr14.015415.10176@mprgate.mpr.ca>, tasallot@galaxy.mpr.ca
>>(Mathew Tasalloti) says:
>>>chances this year), but it seems to me like Washington is the ONLY
>>>team that can stop the Penguins from winning their next Stanley Cup.
>>
>> Really? I think both the Islanders and Devils would have a better chance
>>at the Penguins than the Capitals, IMO.
>
>Really? What makes you think the Islanders have a better shot? They
>couldn't even beat the Whalers in two games!
Yes, but as has been mentioned many times before, the Islanders play at
the talent level of their opponent. Since Hartford is pitiful, the
Islanders played pitiful. Since Pittsburgh is great, the Isles will most
likely play great. This is most likely due to inexperience and very poor
shooting. To Greg: yes, I have noticed that the Islanders couldn't hit
the broad side of a barn with the puck if they were two feet in front of
it. Does anyone have shooting percentages? I don't know if that would
help, since they often miss the net completely, but it might shed some
light on the subject.
And, my playoff pool is running!!! Exact rules to be posted tomorrow, but
don't hesitate to send in picks!!!
--
Keith Keller LET'S GO RANGERS!!!!!
LET'S GO QUAKERS!!!!!
kkeller@mail.sas.upenn.edu IVY LEAGUE CHAMPS!!!!
"When I want your opinion, I'll give it to you."
| 10rec.sport.hockey |
In article <pdb059-220493100923@kilimanjaro.jpl.nasa.gov>
pdb059@ipl.jpl.nasa.gov (Paul Bartholomew) writes to Clayton Cramer:
>When are you going to stop lying and admit
>that the whole crusade is based on your own personal hatred, fear, and
>obsession? You need help, Mr. Cramer.
The saddest thing is that most people, like Cramer's wife, learn dislike
for homosexuality early in childhood.
Clayton, however, is so impressionable, that he let his wife sucker him
on this issue, as a full-grown adult.
| 18talk.politics.misc |
------------------------- Original Article -------------------------
The Colorado Daily recently reprinted the Wall Street Journal's article
on Paxton Quigley, including the nefarious little paragraph the Journal
tacked onto the end. After recieving much assistance from various T.P.G.
type folks, I wrote a letter to the editor criticizing this last paragraph,
and surprise, surprise, surprise, they published it. The text follows.
The Colorado Daily, btw, is the University of Colorado (Boulder) student
(I think) newspaper... not exactly a big coup, but every little bit, i guess...
(The title was the only thing they changed/added)
"Gun Stats"
The Daily recently reprinted an article from the
Wall Street Journal, primarily concerned with Paxton
Quigley, author of "Armed and Female." The article,
in turn, cites a misleading statistic that was originally
reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. The
article states, "A study... found that a gun in the home
was 43 times more likely to be used to kill its owner,
spouse, a friend, or child than to kill an intruder." This
is an often-quoted statistic, and it is misleading for sev-
eral reasons, outlined below:
The study gives the impression that, if you own a
gun, the likelihood that you will successfully use it to
defend yourself is less than that of the gun being turned
against you. The study, however, fails to take into
account cases where a law-abiding citizen uses a gun
to thwart a crime, without actually killing the perpe-
trator.
The study actually refers to 'acquaintances' rather
than 'friend'. This would include the friendly neigh-
borhood thug who shows up like clockwork, every
month, the second your grandmother cashes her social
security check. Possibly an acquaintance, but hardly a
friend.
The NEJM study is based on the immediate dis-
position of cases and fails to take into account cases
originally filed as homicides that were later ruled to be
self-defense. Especially considering the small sample
size (396), taking these events into account has a sub-
stantial effect on the 43:1 ratio quoted.
Criminologist Gary Kleck gives us a slightly dif-
erent statistic: a gun is 33 times more likely to be
used, successfully, by a private citizen against an
aggressor than it is to kill anyone at all. Further, per-
sons defending themselves from aggression by using a
gun fare better than those who resist vicimization by
some other means, or who offer no resistance at all.
Statistics available from the FBI and other agencies
also show that a gun is 245 times more likely to be
used by a non-criminal to defend against criminal threat
than to be used to commit criminal homicide, 535 times
more likely to be used to defend against a criminal
threat than to accidentally kill anybody, and 50 times
more likely to defend against criminal threat than to be
used to commit suicide.
It is well to keep in mind that nearly anything can
be proved by uncritical quotation of statistics. One has
to consider carefully what questions were asked by
those gathering the data before one can draw an accu-
rate conclusion from them.
D.F. Taylor
CU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
--
Spooksmoke: Revolution, Assasination, Thorium, Cobalt-60, Clintin, CIA, NSA, SHC
DoD #202 / loki@acca.nmsu.edu / liberty or death / taylordf@ucsu.colorado.edu
Send me something even YOU can't read...
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: 2.2
mQCNAitfksQAAAEEAKceEjWI9f5KMJyKP0LOgC5dGHRpbMY2xhOo8kpEHMDyuf8a
1BfDQSj53kosTz6HRoshSDzLVuL1/40vPjmMNtFR+vyZ4jvd3rL4iuq2umMmex3M
itf3uLt8Xn/v/QAbsvhcFSHVJVK4Lf6wosuCMO03m2TiX31AI7VB0Uzo4yXjAAUX
tCREYW5pZWwgRiBUYXlsb3IgPExva2lAYWNjYS5ubXN1LmVkdT4=
=S5ib
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| 16talk.politics.guns |
In article <crh.734864478@regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de> crh@regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de (Christian Huebner) writes:
>I can remember reading a track competition in some car-magazine, which
>featured the Testarossa, the Diablo and the V16T. The result was about
>the same I would have expected: The Cizeta was not only the slowest of
>the three, but also dropped out halfway during it's test laps because
>of smoking brakes. For a sportscar it showed ridiculous performance.
>
Hm... I find this hard to believe. V16T weights about the same as
the Red Head, but it has hell lot more horse power. Perhaps it's
due to pre-production glitches? Well, to me, it still got the most
imposing styling among all the sports cars I have seen.
>Bye...
>
>Chris crh@regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de
>
>Ferrari F40 - Best sportscar ever built!
Personally, I don't like cars that rely on turbo power. I guess everyone
has their favorite car.
| 7rec.autos |
In article <843@rins.ryukoku.ac.jp> will@rins.ryukoku.ac.jp (William Reiken) writes:
>> The real reason why accelerator breeders or incinerators are not being
>> built is that there isn't any reason to do so. Natural uranium is
>> still too cheap, and geological disposal of actinides looks
>> technically reasonable.
>>
>
> November/December, 1987 page 21 - "Science and Technology in Japan".
> Seawater Uranium Recovery Experiment
> "The ground uranium reserves are estimated at about 3.6 million tons,
> and it is anticipated that the demand and supply balance will collapse by the
> end of the 20th century. In Japan, a resources poor country, technological
> development are now under way to economically collect uranium dissolved in
> seawater. The total quanity of uranium dissolved in seawater is estimated
> to be about 4.6 billion tons, a huge amount when compared with ground uranium
> reserves......."
I hate to pour cold water on this, but currently seawater extracted
uranium, even using the new, improved fiber absorbers from Japan, is
about 20 times more expensive than uranium on the spot market.
Uranium is *very* cheap right now, around $10/lb. Right now, there
are mines closing because they can't compete with places like Cigar
Lake in Canada (where the ore is so rich they present safety hazards
to the mines, who work in shielded vehicles). Plenty of other sources
(for example, uranium from phosphate processing) would come on line before
uranium reached $200/lb.
"Demand and supply balance will collapse" is nonsense. Supply and
demand always balance; what changes is the price. Is uranium going
to increase in price by a factor of 20 by the end of the century?
Not bloody likely. New nuclear reactors are not being built
at a sufficient rate.
Uranium from seawater is interesting, but it's a long term project, or
a project that the Japanese might justify on grounds of
self-sufficiency.
Paul F. Dietz
dietz@cs.rochester.edu
| 14sci.space |
In article <5086@cvbnetPrime.COM>, cvalcour@ptex.Prime.COM (Sorry I missed
the posting) wrote:
>
> Could some kind soul please email me a copy of mlb.c
>
> Thanks
> Chris V.
> ------------------------------------------------------
> cvalcour@ptex.Prime.COM
> ------------------------------------------------------
mlb.c is archived on the Internet Baseball Archive
anoymous ftp to eucalyptus.cc.swarthmore.edu (130.58.67.44)
you must use your full email / username id as a password
cd ./baseball/schedules
it's filed as mlb-schedule-program.c for clarity
schedules pre-generated for east-coast times are there as text files as
well, and a couple of teams' TV schedules -- please send me more TV info if
you have it on other teams.
- matt
Matt Wall * wall@cc.swarthmore.edu * Hey, I gotta job here, OK?
---------------------------------------------------------------
April 6, 1993: Boston Red Sox seize first place.
| 9rec.sport.baseball |
>>>>> On 5 Apr 93 11:24:30 MST, jbrown@batman.bmd.trw.com said:
:> God is eternal. [A = B]
:> Jesus is God. [C = A]
:> Therefore, Jesus is eternal. [C = B]
:> This works both logically and mathematically. God is of the set of
:> things which are eternal. Jesus is a subset of God. Therefore
:> Jesus belongs to the set of things which are eternal.
Everything isn't always so logical....
Mercedes is a car.
That girl is Mercedes.
Therefore, that girl is a car?
-Heikki
| 0alt.atheism |
dla@se05.wg2.waii.com (Doug Acker) writes:
: ..continuing on my build problems, I got stuck here build xterm...
:
: gcc -fpcc-struct-return -o xterm main.o input.o charproc.o cursor.o util.o tabs.o screen.o scrollbar.o button.o Tekproc.o misc.o VTPrsTbl.o TekPrsTbl.o data.o menu.o -O2 -R/usr/wgep/X11R5.sos5/lib${LD_RUN_PATH+\:$LD_RUN_PATH} -L../.././lib/Xaw -lXaw -L../.././lib/Xmu -lXmu -L../.././lib/Xt -lXt -L../.././extensions/lib -lXext -L../.././lib/X -lX11 -L/usr/wgep/X11R5.sos5/lib -lsocket -lnsl -ltermcap
: Undefined first referenced
: symbol in file
: index /usr/ucblib/libtermcap.a(termcap.o)
: rindex /usr/ucblib/libtermcap.a(termcap.o)
: ld: fatal: Symbol referencing errors. No output written to xterm
: *** Error code 1
: make: Fatal error: Command failed for target `xterm'
:
: Any clues for help?
Either:
* Add -lucb -lelf to the list
or
* #define index() and rindex() to strchr() and strrchr() respectively.
Both use same args. Former are bsd, latter are SysV.
--
+==============================Ahold NV===============================+
| Room 146 , Ankersmidplein 2, 1506 CK Zaandam, The Netherlands, EEC |
| Dick.Heijne@ccsds.ahold.nl - Tel: +31 75 592151, Fax: +31 75 313030 |
+=====================================================================+
| 5comp.windows.x |
ron.roth@rose.com (ron roth) writes:
|JB> romdas@uclink.berkeley.edu (Ella I Baff) writes:
|JB>
|JB> Ron Roth recommends: "Once you have your hypoglycemia CONFIRMED through the
|JB> proper channels, you might consider the following:..."
|JB> [diet omitted]
|JB>
|JB> 1) Ron...what do YOU consider to be "proper channels"...this sounds suspiciously
| I'm glad it caught your eye. That's the purpose of this forum to
| educate those, eager to learn, about the facts of life. That phrase
| is used to bridle the frenzy of all the would-be respondents, who
| otherwise would feel being left out as the proper authorities to be
| consulted on that topic. In short, it means absolutely nothing.
An apt description of the content of just about all ronroth's posts to
date. At least there's entertainment value (though it is
diminishing).
| 13sci.med |
In article <1993Apr23.151855.7011@starbase.trincoll.edu>, () writes:
> Go to hell. I'm no "government [-] following fanatic." Your sweeping
> generalizations evince your own ignorance. What were they supposed to do?
> Just let him be?
You're sitting in your home reading a good book. Your neighbors think
you're a quiet, upstanding citizen. A random person anonymously calls
the authorities and tells them you beat your children, sleep with all
the neighbor wimmen, and own a bunch of "nasty 50mm machine guns."
Now what are they supposed to do?
> Fuck him. Fuck the ATF, too. They should've done it right
> the first time.
Ah, I see. They're supposed to send 100 men in horse trailers with
automatic weapons, storm onto your roof, and throw grenades at your
house with no warning. Then, after subjecting you to noise torture
and telling the national news media for a month what a filthy son of
a bitch you are, they're supposed to gas you and knock your house
around a bit until they manage to collapse it, cause a fire, or
something equally conclusive.
Hope your neighbors don't tumble to this -- at least none of them that
might have a craving for a ringside seat at some cheap but dramatic
local entertainment at someone else's expense. Or maybe even
PARTICULARLY at your expense.
At least they won't have to read you your rights, Joe -- obviously you
had no use for them anyway.
> joe.kusmierczak@mail.trincoll.edu
--
cdt@rocket.sw.stratus.com --If you believe that I speak for my company,
OR cdt@vos.stratus.com write today for my special Investors' Packet...
| 16talk.politics.guns |
Jerry Kaufman writes:
>The Bible says that He looks on the heart as the
>final measure. From that perspective, in a grading context, the heart is
>the final test.
Very true. One might also say that life is an Open Book Test.
| 15soc.religion.christian |
Has anyone got an active filter design program that runs on an IBM PC ??
Something that will easily let me specify bandpass filter parameters,
and it will give me the appropriate component values ??
It has to be public domain, if anyone has one, could you mail it to me.
Thanks in advance,
Scott
u9035710@wraith.cs.uow.edu.au
P.S. It can run under windows if necessary.
| 12sci.electronics |
F O R S A L E
================
Triumph Spitfire '76, 1500
- Convertible
- 54,000k original miles
- Burgandy Color
- Wooden Dashboard
- No rust
- Garage kept
- Heater
- Chrome bumpers(not the black plastic crap)
- Brand new top
- Asking $3,000 --negotiable
* Mechanically the car is in a very good shape and it is running
very-very strong(if you know what I mean)...:)
* Plenty of catalogs and manuals are coming with the car
If you are interested in the car please reply to this message.
I AM NOT INTERESTED OR WILLING TO SELL ANY PARTS.
The car is in a very good condition to strip it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
George.
georged@astro.ocis.temple.edu
| 6misc.forsale |
Brent Irvine (irvine@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu) writes:
> cdt@sw.stratus.com (C. D. Tavares) writes:
> >mfrhein@wpi.WPI.EDU (Michael Frederick Rhein) writes:
> >
> >> >napalm, then let the wood stove inside ignite it.
> >> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >> As someone else has pointed out, why would the stove be in use
> >> on a warm day in Texas.
> >
> >Do YOU eat all your food cold?
> Ever hear of electric ovens or microwaves? Very popular.
> Electric stoves outside metro-areas especially.
oh, i see. electricity is a natural right & our wonderful government
would -never- cut off the power to the people they were besieging.
are you really this dumb, or just acting like it for the sake of
argument?
jason
--
`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`
`,` "True love is better than anything, except cough drops." `,`
`,` - The Princess Bride (book), by William Goldman `,`
`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,`,` steiner@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu `,`,`,`
| 16talk.politics.guns |
In article <C5xy2x.35G@world.std.com> artc@world.std.com (Art Campbell) writes:
>bergman@panix.com (Mark Bergman) writes:
>
>>To those of you who have the BMW heated handgrips:
>
>> What are they like during the summer? Yes, you
>> wiseguy, I mean while they are off!
>
>> Are they comfortable?
>They're a hard rubber-like compound. I always wear some kind of glove
>(fingerless) on the hottest days. Given those two factors,
>They're OK, but certainly not cushy.
When I needed heated grips I made them from pieces of an old bicycle
inner tube and a cheap electric heating pad from the drugstore, on top
of foam grips: soft *and* warm. Cheaper by about a factor of 5, too.
-- David Karr (karr@cs.cornell.edu)
| 8rec.motorcycles |
In article <noringC5Fnx2.2v2@netcom.com> noring@netcom.com (Jon Noring) writes:
>In article Tammy.Vandenboom@launchpad.unc.edu (Tammy Vandenboom) writes:
>
>>Here's a potentially stupid question to possibly the wrong news group, but. .
>>
>>Can men get yeast infections? Spread them? What kind of symptoms?
>>Similar as women's? I have a yeast infection and my husband (who is a
>>natural paranoid on a good day) is sure he's gonna catch it and keeps
>>asking me what it's like. I'm not sure what his symptoms would be. .
>
>The answer is yes and no. I'm sure others on sci.med can expand on this.
>
>Jon
I know from personal experience that men CAN get yeast infections. I
get rather nasty ones from time to time, mostly in the area of the
scrotum and the base of the penis. They're nowhere near as dangerous
for me as for many women, but goddamn does it hurt in the summertime!
Even in the wintertime, when I sweat I get really uncomfy down there. The
best thing I can do to keep it under control is keep my weight down and
keep cool down there. Shorts in 60 degree weather, that kind of thing. And
of course some occasional sun.
Lost Boy
| 13sci.med |
Scott D. Sauyet (SSAUYET@eagle.wesleyan.edu) wrote:
: The same works for the horrors of history. To claim that Christianity
: had little to do with the Crusades or the Inquisition is to deny the
: awesome power that comes from faith in an absolute. What it seems you
: are doing twisting the reasonable statement that religion was never
: the solitary cause of any evil into the unreasonable statement that
: religion has had no evil impacts on history. That is absurd.
Scott,
Until this paragraph I would willingly amend my earlier statements,
since your point(s) are well made and generally accurate. This last
part though slips into hyperbole. Since I've discussed my objections to
such generalizations before, I really don't feel I need to do it
again. If you haven't seen those posts, ask Maddi, she saves
everything I write.
Bill
| 0alt.atheism |
From: Center for Policy Research <cpr>
Subject: Assistance to Palest.people
U.N. General Assembly Resolution 46/201 of 20 December 1991
ASSISTANCE TO THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
---------------------------------------------
The General Assembly
Recalling its resolution 45/183 of 21 December 1990
Taking into account the intifadah of the Palestinian people in the
occupied Palestinian territory against the Israeli occupation,
including Israeli economic and social policies and practices,
Rejecting Israeli restrictions on external economic and social
assistance to the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian
territory,
Concerned about the economic losses of the Palestinian people as a
result of the Gulf crisis,
Aware of the increasing need to provide economic and social
assistance to the Palestinian people,
Affirming that the Palestinian people cannot develop their
national economy as long as the Israeli occupation persists,
1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on assistance
to the Palestinian people;
2. Expresses its appreciation to the States, United Nations bodies
and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations that have
provided assistance to the Palestinian people,
3. Requests the international community, the United Nations system
and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to
sustain and increase their assistance to the Palestinian people,
in close cooperation with the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO), taking in account the economic losses of the Palestinian
people as a result of the Gulf crisis;
4. Calls for treatment on a transit basis of Palestinian exports
and imports passing through neighbouring ports and points of exit
and entry;
5. Also calls for the granting of trade concessions and concrete
preferential measures for Palestinian exports on the basis of
Palestinian certificates of origin;
6. Further calls for the immediate lifting of Israeli restrictions
and obstacles hindering the implementation of assistance projects
by the United Nations Development Programme, other United Nations
bodies and others providing economic and social assistance to the
Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory;
7. Reiterates its call for the implementation of development
projects in the occupied Palestinian territory, including the
projects mentioned in its resolution 39/223 of 18 December 1984;
8. Calls for facilitation of the establishment of Palestinian
development banks in the occupied Palestinian territory, with a
view to promoting investment, production, employment and income
therein;
9. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General
The General Assembly at its 47th session, through the Economic and Social
Council, on the progress made in the implementation of the present
resolution.
-----------------------------------------------
In favour 137 countries (Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
Japan, Africa, South America, Central America and Asia) Against:
United States and Israel Abstaining: None
| 17talk.politics.mideast |
In article <1993Apr19.203616.21280@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu>,
ece_0028@bigdog.engr.arizona.edu (David Anderson) wrote:
>
> In article <930419.103239.5M4.rusnews.w165w@mantis.co.uk> mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew) writes:
> >
> >Prove that you exist, Frank.
> >mathew
>
> Cogito, ergo sum. :)
OK. Prove you _think_.
--
Lefty (lefty@apple.com)
C:.M:.C:., D:.O:.D:.
| 19talk.religion.misc |
There are two conflicting reports about a pitcher that is
either in the Jays' farm system or the Braves'. His name is Bill Taylor.
He was picked up by the Jays, but had to be offered back to the Braves
before they were able to send him to the Syracuse Chiefs.
One report says that the Braves took him back and assigned him
to Richmond. The other says that he is on the Chiefs' roster. Which one is
right?
| 9rec.sport.baseball |
I have an old Apple RGB Monitor for a IIGS which
looks a whole lot like the 12" Monitor. I have the
sneaking suspicion that if I had the right cable I
could use it on my Mac.
Does anyone know if my suspicions are correct or
am I just full of it.
mkd
| 4comp.sys.mac.hardware |
In a prior article naoumov@physics.unc.edu (Sergei Naoumov) writes:
> Hey guys!
> I work on many stations and would like this name and current logname
> to be in a title of Xterm when it's open and a machine name only
> when it's closed. In other words, I want $HOST and $LOGNAME to appear
> as a title of opened XTerm and $HOST when XTerm is closed.
> How can I do it?
[Apologies if I'm answering something already answered in the FAQ.
Our news feed has been losing a lot of articles lately - so I haven't
seen the FAQ lately to check.]
Two ways:
1) When you start the xterm, you can use command line options:
-n ICON_NAME To set the icon label
-T WINDOW_TITLE To set the window title
-title WINDOW_TITLE Equivalent to -T WINDOW_TITLE
2) You can use escape sequences to change things on the fly:
The basic escape sequence is:
ESC ] <P> ; <SOME_ARBITARY_TEXT> BEL
where ESC and BEL are the ASCII ESCAPE and BELL characters,
<P> is an ASCII decimal digit -- '2', '1', or '0', depending
on whether you are trying to set the window or icon title,
or both, and <SOME_ARBITARY_TEXT> is your desired label string.
Hence, this command will set the window & icon title:
echo "\033]0;YOUR_TITLE_GOES_HERE\007\c"
To set just the icon title:
echo "\033]1;YOUR_TITLE_GOES_HERE\007\c"
To set just the window title:
echo "\033]2;YOUR_TITLE_GOES_HERE\007\c"
Of course, you may have to fiddle with exact syntax,
depending on how the echo command works on your system
and what shell you are using (I've shown System-V semantics
under Bourne or Korn shells).
[Hint for Sun OS users: use /usr/5bin/echo instead of
/bin/echo or Csh's built-in echo. Otherwise you'll have
to embed literal ESC and BEL characters in the string
instead of using convenient octal sequences.]
If you want your titlebar updated continously, say to show
your current directory, hostname, or somesuch, then you'll
have to see if you can coerce your shell into spitting out
the appropriate escape sequences when it prompts for commands.
Sometimes you can just put the appropriate escape sequence
in the prompt string itself, sometimes not ...
+-------------------------------------------------------+------- /// -----+
| Mark Lanzo KD4QLZ lanzo@tekelec.com 919-460-5576 | \\\/// |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---- \XX/ -------+
| 5comp.windows.x |
In article <1993Apr17.200602.8229@leland.Stanford.EDU> addison@leland.Stanford.EDU (Brett Rogers) writes:
>In article <steph.735027990@pegasus.cs.uiuc.edu> steph@pegasus.cs.uiuc.edu (Dale Stephenson) writes:
>>>Smith, Ozzie .742 .717 .697 .672 .664 0.701
>> The Wizard's 1988 is the second highest year ever. Still very good,
>>but I don't like the way his numbers have declined every year. In a few
>>years may be a defensive liability.
>
>That's rich... Ozzie Smith a defensive liability...
Why not? Brooks Robinson is a defensive liability too, and Ted
Williams is a weak hitter. Even great players decline as they age.
-Valentine
| 9rec.sport.baseball |
[Joe, why don't you put your username on your account?]
On Mon, 26 Apr 1993 17:48:19 GMT, joe.kusmierczak@mail.trincoll.edu wrote:
> Then the ATF discovers he doesn't have proper permits for some of his
> purchases and failed to pay some taxes on them.
Or claims to have discovered so... It would hardly be the first time
they raided someone based on incorrect evidence.
> Was it a 'no-knock?' I really haven't heard anything on that. But clearly
It was a "no-knock", according to the Associated Press report.
Here's something I found in my collection:
Excerpts from an article in the Knoxville News-Sentinel Final
Edition Monday, March 1, 1993 (the byline is associated press):
WACO, Texas - Fierce gun battles erupted Sunday as more than 100
law officers tried to arrest the leader of a heavily armed
religious cult. At least four federal agents and two cult members
were reported killed. [...]
The gun battles began when federal agents hidden in livestock
trailers stormed the sect's head-quarters Sunday morning,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
witnesses said. The agents had warrants to search for guns and
explosives and to arrest Howell, said Les Stanford of the ATF in
Washington. [...]
Witnesses said the law officers stormed the compound's main home,
throwing concussion grenades and screaming "Come out," while three
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
National Guard helicopters approached. For a moment, there was no
response. Then the shooting began.
I think "storming the sect's head-quaters" and "throwing concussion
grenades" qualifies as a no-knock (or perhaps an illegal assault).
> he was not just another guy minding his own business. Hell, give them all
> the guns in the world if they don't bother anyone. But he was a scary sort,
> don't you think? The sort of person you'd want your daughter to date? I
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Probably not. But then again, neither are you.
> Then he fired on the ATF. That's not just a little mistake, or some
> red-white-and blue American defending his home against Big Brother. That
> shit doesn't fly. Anyone with his background that will shoot and kill
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
And just what is "his background"? What prior crimes had he been
CONVICTED of?
> Federal Law Enforcement officials is not some good citizen whose crusade
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sorry, BATF are "Federal TAX Enforcement officials". They're not
police, nor do they have police powers.
--
Charles Scripter * cescript@phy.mtu.edu
Dept of Physics, Michigan Tech, Houghton, MI 49931
-------------------------------------------------------------
"... The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part
which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance
of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such
misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public
liberty. ..." Thomas Jefferson, Nov. 13, 1787
| 16talk.politics.guns |
I'm looking for code that will generate a minimum-volume oriented
bounding box for an arbitrary polyhedron. Anyone know of such code?
Why? I'm converting objects from
one modelling system into another, and the destination system is object
oriented. So I want to represent each object in its own coordinate system,
that of its bounding box, with the objects then translated and rotated
appropriately, this being the representation used in the destination
system.
John Nagle
| 1comp.graphics |
In article <1993Apr21.114335.7071@ousrvr.oulu.fi>, golf@phoenix.oulu.fi (Jouko Kylmaoja) writes:
|> I watched the game Germany-Czechs in WC today...and i was astonished about
|> the behaviour of the German audience!
|> The German team got a few penalties in the last period and the crowd went
It was not just those penalties. Most of all it was the penalty the referee didn't
call on the Czechs right before their first goal.
|> grazy! They threw coins, extra pucks and other trash into the rink...is
|> that stupid or what?? I guess the Canadian referee (one of the
|> Isostar-bros ;) gave the German team a penalty for that, but it didn't help
|> much.
|> I guess the Germans just are proud over their Nazi-Kill-'em-All-Everyone-
Don't you think it's quite silly to call it a Nazi attitude, when some people
throw coins on the ice? Hey, I don't approve the behavior of these guys,
especially not in a WC game, but I can't see any reason for using the word 'Nazi'
in this connection.
|> But-Us-Germans-Sucks attitude...they just seem to have that kind of attitude
|> in every possible sport (remember the European champs in Stockholm in soccer)
Soccer hooligans are not just a German problem (remember the world cup in Italy).
Again: there's a big difference between throwing coins and smashing shop-windows
or fighting with other so-called 'fans', who come to a WC just to see if the
Dutch or the English or the Germans are the best bruisers.
Which other sports are you talking about? I don't think soccer is 'every possible
sport'.
|> It really pisses me off!
|> I do not mean that every single German has this attitude that sucks, but
|> most of them seem to do...
How many Germans do you know? Do you think 200 out of 10000 is 'most of them'?
If you hear about some white policemen beating a black man in the US, what do you
think about the Americans? 'Most of them' like beating blacks?
|>
|> Jokke Kylmaoja
|> golf@phoenix.oulu.fi
|>
Robert
| 10rec.sport.hockey |
In article <RENS.93Apr22153654@stimpys.imsi.com> rens@imsi.com (Rens
Troost) writes:
>> In this giant bally-ho over this Clipper chip I noticed a rather
>> disturbing trend in some of the E-mail and posts I've tossing back and
>> forth.
>
>Me too. A tendency on the part of some people to hide their head in
>the sand.
I never advocated "hiding in the sand." I'm advocating a peaceful
solution while a peaceful solution is possible. Unless you want blood on
your hands.
>How many people do you want jailed for their convictions, for their
>insistence on real privacy? Why sit by quietly while the preconditions
>for a real civil war are put in place by a short-sighted government.
Read the above.
>> Everybody is jumping up and down and screaming about it, and I'm worried
>> that people are going to reach for their hammers and rifles before their pens
>> and paper.
>
>The terminal is mightier than the pen :)
I type corrected. (:-)
>Really? I guess you mean the U.S. revolution. How about England,
>India, Mexico, France, Holland....
English revolution-> what revolution? They never had one.
India-> If they could get around their religion restrictions
Mexico-> Point Taken, I forgot about this one.
France-> Napoleon Bonepart would have something to say about this.
Holland-> I didn't know they had one, won't comment because I don't know
enough.
>> That's not very good odds.
>
>You are misinformed. But this whole issue is off the topic.
Actually, I consider the issue on topic. When you start gambling with
fire crackers, sooner or later, somebody is going to lose a hand.
>When the cops kick in your door for using PGP, tell them that. All
>we're doing here is exercising our (so-called, rapidly narrowing)
>right to free speech.
Fine. Exercise the right to free speech. That's great! But don't resort
to armed violence until there's no other possibility.
>Perhaps you should talk to the government about that. Or are you a
>disciple of David "The cops are our FRIENDS" Sternlight?
No. I believe there are bad cops, and good cops. There are bad people,
and good people. (And all that grey inbetween.)
I have had the pleasure of knowing a police officer who did his best to
uphold the laws he swore to defend. I have also seen what happens when
police power is abused.
Don't generalize in either direction. It just causes problems.
>The implied threat of the illegalization of private crypto, the
>not-so-subtle subtext of the clipper announcement, is what worries me.
>I don't want my children growing up in a police state.
Me either. Nice can of worms, ain't it?
--
Jerry Han-CRC-DOC-Div. of Behavioural Research-"jhan@debra.dgbt.doc.ca"
///////////// These are my opinions, and my opinions only. \\\\\\\\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\\ A proud and frozen member of the Mighty Warriors Band ////////
"Memories of those I've left behind, still ringing in my ears."-Genesis-
| 11sci.crypt |
In article <1993Apr04.225107.39364@watson.ibm.com>
strom@Watson.Ibm.Com (Rob Strom) writes:
(Deletion)
>
>The thread "Biblical Rape" was initiated by David O Hunt.
>Here is his posting:
>In article <8feu_KO00XsF0kpc5p@andrew.cmu.edu>, David O Hunt <bluelobster+@CMU.EDU> writes:
>|> I'm pretty sure I've seen biblical rules for when it's allowable to rape
>|> prisoners, what the codes are about that, etc. Could some more
>|> knowledgable soul than I please let me know some references?
>
>He asked a very narrow question, and I gave a very narrow answer.
>
Yes, sorry. I have got that wrong. My apology.
(Deletion)
>No. David Hunt's post didn't mention a god, nor did my response.
>You were the first to bring up the idea of the Bible being "given
>by god". Most Jews don't believe this in any literal sense.
>
So? No fun, but I must have met the minority then.
And "given by god" refers to any action whereby a god
god causes or better effects something.
Rob, I am not intimate with Jewish theology, but I understand
that you are a Messianic Jew. Correct me if I am wrong, but
it appears that the views of Messianic Jews on metaphysics
is different to that of the majority of Jews. While Jewish
theology overall is quite distinct from the Christianic god
views, I have heard that it is possible for Jews to attribute
evil to their god, an no-no for Christians, the Bible is
still seen as effect of the interaction of some god with man.
(Deletion)
>No. I thought we agreed that though Jews disagree,
>there are a set of core beliefs that they do agree upon,
>one of which is that the commandments are accessible
>and written in the language of the time, and another
>of which is that there must be a legal system to update them.
>
The context was metaphysics, even when the process of adapting
the commandments is not transcendent, the justification of the
process lie in metaphysic specualtion. I wonder how you break
out of the shackles of having metaphysics in your system.
(Deletion)
>Could you explain this with respect to the original commandments
>being discussed --- that is, the commandment that says if
>you feel like raping a woman prisoner, you should instead
>wait and marry her? What about "the way this commandment
>is given" invalidates it?
>
Is is in a book that commands to commit genocide among other
reprehensible deeds. The context is repulsive, and it is
foul play, IMO, to invoke some relatively enlightened passages
as an example for the content of the whole book.
(Big deletion)
>|>
>|> The point is that I see that there is a necessary connection
>|> between the theology you use and the interpretation of the Bible.
>|>
>
>Only very loosely. My interpretation of the Bible is
>based on a long tradition of Jewish scholars interpreting
>the Bible. Theology doesn't really enter into it ---
>there are Jewish atheists who interpret the laws of
>charity essentially the same way I do.
>
No, not the interpretation of some laws, but the interpretation of
the bible. As in the example that Sodom and Gomorrha mean argue
with god. The whole idea that it is metaphorically and yet allows
you to argue with a god (whatever that means, that alone is a theo-
logic question) is proof of a theology used.
>|> >You pose another metaphysical riddle!
>|>
>|> No, you do.
>|>
>
>Well, you wrote this:
>|> Fine. So we have some major spirit with neither absolute power
>|> nor absolute knowledge. And, as it appears, limited means or will
>|> to communicate with us. Some form of spiritual big friend.
>|> Do you admit that using god in this context is somewhat unusual?
>|>
>|> Am I right in the assumption that it cannot have created the
>|> universe as well? And that the passages in the Bible referring
>|> to that or its omnipotence are crap?
>
>That's what I meant by the "riddle".
>
It is an important question in the light of what for instance the
passage witrh Sodom and Gomorrha means. Either there is some connection
between the text, the fact that it exists, and your interpretation of
it, or it is purely arbitrary.. Further, the question is why is has
one to carry the burden of Biblical texts when one could simply write
other books that convey the message better. You might answer that one
can't becuase some peculiar Biblical information might be lost, but
that holds true of every other book, and the question remains why has
the Bible still a special place? Can't it be replaced somehow? Is it
ok to bargain the dangerous content of the Bible against some other
message that is included as well?
(Deletion)
>|> Do you see the danger in doing so? Especially with the metaphers used
>|> in the Bible?
>
>I think the danger of doing so is less than either the
>danger of having a frozen system of laws, or having no laws.
>
Sorry, but there are worse systems does not say anything about if
one could not have a better system.
(Deletion)
>If we
>read two stories about the importance of helping the poor,
>and in one God is a spirit, and in the other God has a body,
>which is more important, helping the poor, or resolving
>the contradiction about the corporeal nature of God?
>
If we read two stories in the Bible, one that god commands people
to kill children for being idolaters and another where god kills
children directly, what is more important to resolve, the message that
children are to be killed or if it has to be done by god?
And the argument you have given is a fallacy, while it may not be important
in the context you have given to find out if god is corporeal or not, it
can be crucial in other questions. Religious believers resolve contradictions
with that they choose one of the possibilities given in an arbitrary way,
and have the advantage of being able to attribute their decision to some
god.
One cannot resolve questions by the statement do what is good when what
is good depends on the question.
Benedikt
| 0alt.atheism |
Bruce Dubbs (bdubbs@cs.tamu.edu) wrote:
> Another comment. At least you have IBM consultants trying to help.
> I've never heard of Microsoft sending customer engineers to a
> client's organization to help solve problems. (Could be wrong, but if
> they do its not common knowledge.)
Microsoft has a division called Microsoft Consulting that does what
IBM FEs (field engineers) do.
However, neither company just up and sends consultants to client sites.
Both companies charge very high hourly rates for on-site consulting unless
the client has already paid an annual service contract.
+--------------------+----------------------------+----------------------+
| Barton Wright | Molecular Simulations Inc. | Voice (617) 229-9800 |
| bwright@msi.com | Burlington, MA 01803-5297 | FAX (617) 229-9899 |
+--------------------+----------------------------+----------------------+
| 2comp.os.ms-windows.misc |
In article <2775@snap> paj@uk.co.gec-mrc (Paul Johnson) writes:
>
>I recall reading of a phonograph which used mechanical amplification.
>Compressed air was squirted out of a valve which was controlled by the
>pickup. The result was noisy and distinctly lo-fi, but much louder
>than a conventional phonograph. It tended to wear the disks out
>pretty quickly though.
This was the Pathe you are thinking of, although there were other imitators.
It didn't wear the disks any more than conventional acoustic designs, but
it did have a high noise level due to the continual hiss of escaping air.
There are a lot of them still operating, and they are pretty ingenious.
There was a pneumatic amplifier designed by Alexander Graham Bell, as well,
but I don't know if it was ever constructed.
--scott
| 12sci.electronics |
Read Issue #2 of Wired Magazine. It has a long article on the "hype" of
3DO. I've noticed that every article talks with the designers and how
"great" it is, but never show any pictures of the output (or at least
pictures that one can understand)
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Kirk Membry "Our Age is the Age of Industry"
rutgers!viamar!kmembry - Alexander Rodchenko
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
| 1comp.graphics |
In article <C5K7nK.7tv@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, rkoffler@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu (Bighelmet) writes:
>csc2imd@cabell.vcu.edu (Ian M. Derby) writes:
>
>
>>Since someone brought up sports radio, howabout sportswriting???
>
>I happen to be a big fan of Jayson Stark. He is a baseball writer for the
>Philadelphia Inquirer. Every tuesday he writes a "Week in Review" column.
>He writes about unusual situations that occured during the week. Unusual
>stats. He has a section called "Kinerisms of the Week" which are stupid
>lines by Mets brodcaster Ralph Kiner. Every year he has the LGTGAH contest.
>That stands for "Last guy to get a hit." He also writes for Baseball
>America. That column is sort of a highlights of "Week in Review." If you
>can, check his column out sometime. He might make you laugh.
Might? You'd have to have no sense of humor at all not to! My favorite
stuff are the Zero Heros, players who haven't hit homers in a long time,
the LGTGAH (who is that named after, I can't remember), and the box score
line of the week. Incidentally, I just found out that the column has been
moved to Sundays. I get my Dad to send it to me up here in Boston every
week. Great stuff!
Adam "A Phaithful Phillies Phan" Levin
| 9rec.sport.baseball |
In article <7975@blue.cis.pitt.edu> genetic+@pitt.edu (David M. Tate) writes:
>mss@netcom.com (Mark Singer) said:
>>
>>We know that very, very few players at this age make much of an impact
>>in the bigs, especially when they haven't even played AAA ball.
>
>Yes. But this is *irrelevant*. You're talking about averages, when we
>have lots of information about THIS PLAYER IN PARTICULAR to base our
>decisions on.
Do you really have *that* much information on him? Really?
>Why isn't Lopez likely to hit that well? He hit that well last year (after
>adjusting his stats for park and league and such); he hit better (on an
>absolute scale) than Olson or Berryhill did. By a lot.
I don't know. You tell me. What percentage of players reach or
exceed their MLE's *in their rookie season*? We're talking about
1993, you know.
>
>As for rushing... If there really is a qualitative difference between the
>minors and the majors that requires a period of adjustment (and I don't
>believe there is), then wouldn't you rather waste Lopez's 22-year old good
>season than his 23-year old very good season or his 24-year-old excellent
>season? The sooner you get him acclimated, the more of his prime you get to
>use.
If that were your purpose, maybe. Offerman spent 1992 getting
acclimated, if you will. The Dodgers as a team paid a big price
that season. Perhaps they will reap the benefits down the road.
Do you really think they would have done what they did if they
were competing for a pennant?
>
>>>Lopez was hitting .588 over 17 AB when he was cut from spring
>>>training. What does he have to do to earn a chance? Maybe not a full
>>>time job, but at least a couple starts and a few AB for him to prove
>>>his worth?
>>
>The point was not that 17 AB is a significant sample, but rather that he
>hadn't done anything in spring training to cause even a blockhead manager
>to question whether his minor league numbers were for real, or to send him
>down "until he gets warmed up".
For a stat-head, I'm amazed that you put any credence in spring
training. Did you notice who he got those 10 (!) hits off of, or
are you going to tell me that it doesn't make a difference?
>>The kid *will* improve playing at AAA,
>
>Just like Keith Mitchell did?
Wait a minute. I missed something here. First, forget Keith
Mitchell. Are you saying that a kid who moves from AA to AAA
and then does not improve would have been better off making a
direct leap to the majors? If a player does well at AA and then
does not improve at AAA, isn't that a sign that maybe he doesn't
belong in the bigs?
Now, Keith Mitchell. As I recall (no stat books handy - surprise!)
he jumped from AA to Atlanta in 1991. He did so well that he was
returned to the minors, where he didn't do very well at all. Now
his career is in jeopardy. So how does he fit in with your
point. Good MLE's in AA. Moved him right to the big club. Now
he's one step away from being traded or moved out of baseball.
Duh.
>That was me, and you so far your only counter-proposal is that they
>really don't understand how good Lopez is, or overvalue experience,
>or some combination of the two. I think my interpretation was more
>flattering to the organization.
Well, I've cast my lot. Certainly you may understand better how
good Lopez is. And I may overvalue experience. But neither one
of us runs a baseball team.
-- The Beastmaster
--
Mark Singer
mss@netcom.com
| 9rec.sport.baseball |
craige@sad.hp.com (Craig Eid) writes:
>These things should have been done a long time ago, but it took a real
>businessman (ex - Safeway President Peter Magowan) to figure it out. Just
>like he used to tell his checkers, "If the customers don't come back, I don't
>need as many checkers". This isn't a knock on Bob Lurie - he was a competent
>businessman but he didn't deal much with the general public.
Interesting article, Craig. It's amazing how hard it is to get baseball
teams to understand how to properly market their teams and treat their
customers. No other business could ever get away with the 19th century
attitudes that most current owners display in running their clubs. I guess the
owners look at baseball's high growth rate and ask why it's necessary
to bring 20th century business practices into the game, but they don't
realize how much more growth the game is capable of and how much they
pay in terms of long-term popularity by not doing better by the game
and its fans.
Greg
| 9rec.sport.baseball |
In article <1qtk84$rn5@picasso.cssc-syd.tansu.com.au> gpatapis@boyd.tansu.com.au writes:
>In article 14595639@wl.aecl.ca, harrisp@wl.aecl.ca () writes:
>>I use DESQview/X and I think it is great. Where it really shines (IMHO) is
>>to let unix users log into a pc and run dos and windows applications with
>>the display going to their screens.
>>You'll need to get:
>>DESQview/X v 1.1
>>DESQview/X v 1.1 $275 suggested retail
>>DESQview/X to Other X Systems v 1.1 $200 suggested retail
>>
>>You also must be running a supported network (FTP softwares PCTCP,
>>Novell Lan workplace for dos, Sun Microsystems PC-NFS, Beame and WHiteside,
>>Wollongong pathway TCPIp or HP Microsoft Lan Manager)
>>
>>if you don't have any of this network stuff, Quarterdeck will give you a
>>copy of Novell TCPIP transprot for dos with the Network manager.
>>
>>You can get more info by sending email to (appropriately) info@qdeck.com.
Actually, info@qdeck.com is our customer service department. If you have
technical questions, you can write to support@qdeck.com.
>>In my opinion, if you want to have other people logging in and running
>>applications at your pc, you'll want to have a 486 33 with 16 Megs of RAM.
>>Also, the Xwindows software in DESQviewX really seems to like an ET 4000
>>(TSENG Labs chipset) based graphics card. Personally, I found that things
>>ran better with a SCSI drive in the pc than with ESDI drives, but that is
>>my experience only
>
>What sort of traffic is generated with the X-calls? I am curious to find
>out the required bandwidth that a link must have if one machine running
>DV/X is supporting multiple users (clients) and we require adequate response
>time. Anyone have any ideas ??
I expect the limiting factor will be your server machine, not the network
itself. To give you a real-world example, here at Quarterdeck we have
roughly 100 people using DVX to talk to a bunch of unix boxes, novell
file servers, and each other. It's not _too_ much of a load on our
Ethernet (with maybe 4 concentrators, so you have 20-30 people on each
segment). If you had a badly loaded net, or the apps you wanted to run
were very network intensive, you could run into some slowdowns.
But the biggest problem would be the machine itself. Say you have a 486
33 with plenty of ram and a fast hard disk and network card. If you have
10 people running programs off it, you're going to see some slowdowns
because you're now on (effectively) a 3.3 MHz 486. Of course, DVX will
attempt to see if tasks are idle and make sure they give up their time
slice, but if you have 10 working programs running, you'll know it.
Having said that, if you can tweak the programs being run (by adding
in calls to give up time slices when idle and that sort of
thing), you could probably run 15-20 people on a given machine before
you started seeing slowdowns again (this time from network bandwidth).
It all really depends on what the programs are doing (ie. you're going
to see a slowdown from X-bandwidth a lot sooner if your apps are all
doing network things also...)
--
Quarterdeck Office Systems - Internet Support - Tom Bortels
Pricing/Ordering : info@qdeck.com | Tech Questions : support@qdeck.com
BBS: (310) 314-3227 * FAX: (310) 314-3217 * Compuserve: GO QUARTERDECK
Q/Fax: (310) 314-3214 from touch-tone phone for Technotes On Demand!
| 5comp.windows.x |
douglas craig holland (holland@CS.ColoState.EDU) wrote:
: In article <C62D8r.C7p@demon.co.uk> Graham Toal <gtoal@gtoal.com> writes:
: >In article <1rf04s$jqu@sol.TIS.COM> mjr@tis.com (Marcus J Ranum) writes:
: >: I'd really like to see such a thing developed so that interactive
: >:internet talk radio could be done. Ideally, though, it should be a general
: >:purpose device. It should be a general purpose enough device that nobody
: >:should be able to balk at its widespread use. Obviously, to make it easy
: >:for homebrewers, it should use pretty common hardware.
:
: Why don't we move down even further toward the masses by setting this
: up on an IBM PC clone(probably needs to be a 386 or a 486) with a
: sound blaster and a V.32bis modem. Those components are very widely
I concur for a PC to PC version. BUT for a interactive thing like
internet talk radio?!?! It makes me cringe at the amount of hogging such
a thing would do to the bandwidth of the internet. I mean 15 meg files getting
floated around for internet talk radio is bad enough. I have a solution; use
the phone system; take your electronics and use them on point to point
conversations through the phone and thats it. If you need to tell someone
something secret and very important wouldn't it make more sense to write it
out concisely? And if it's just a quick "YO" then use a code word and spend
your twenty cents.
Those good ol analog systems like Shortwave, Telephones, and TV's have
a use don't gunk up a nice digital packet network trying to emulate them!
Baxter
Baxter.
| 11sci.crypt |
bredell@tdb.uu.se (Mats Bredell) writes:
>In the official paper I got from Apple about the new docking station, Apple
>themselves called it the "DuoDock Plus".
What paper is that? It's been on the price list here at Dartmouth
since they released it and it has never been called the "DuoDock Plus."
-Hades
| 4comp.sys.mac.hardware |
Hi!
I need a Windows 3.1 driver for the Matrox PG-1281 CV
SVGA card.
At the moment Windows runs only in the 640x480 mode.
If you have a driver for this card, please send it
with the OEMSETUP.INF to
bockamp@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE
Thanks!
--
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Florian Bockamp ''' |
| bockamp@informatik.tu-muenchen.de (o o) |
+---------------------------------------------oOO--( )--OOo-------+
| - |
| "It's not a bug, it's an undocumented feature!" |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| 1comp.graphics |
Andrew L. Roberts (robertsa@unix2.tcd.ie) wrote:
: What exactly does the windows bitmap format look like? I mean, how is
: the data stored: width, height, no. of colours, bitmap data? I couldn't
: find anything in ths user manual, is there any other reference material
: which would give me this information?
: Thanks,
: Andrew
Try the windows multimedia development kit, it has most of the file formats defined
| 2comp.os.ms-windows.misc |
>>Admittedly an irrelavent question:for how long should the drill be running?
Miles Per Hour. Spin the drill at 100 miles per hour. You say you want
25,000 miles? 25,000/100 = 250 hours = 10.42 days.
| 12sci.electronics |
My sunroof leaks. I've always thought those things were a royal pain.
Can anyone provide any insight ?
I know the seal isn't great. Maybe I could weld the stupid thing shut.
hk
| 7rec.autos |
>>An ideal item would be an LED array for which each LED is about 1/2" square.
>>(Yes very coarse) This is for distance viewing, but on a window.
>>Any pointers of suggestions would be much appreciated.
>
>What, pray tell, are you putting together? And what about costs? And does it
>have to be transparent as in totally transparent? Or just transparent enough
>to allow light from the other side to shine through?
Yes it has to be very clear (like it wasn't there). And of course, cost is
always a factor. I am trying to get an idea of the feasability of such an
idea. But I don't want to give too much away.
-Mark
| 12sci.electronics |
In article <737257015@marlin.cs.duke.edu> wiener@duke.cs.duke.edu (Eduard Wiener) writes:
> culture was in Russia proper, not in the Ukraine. I think
> all these attempts to prove that Russians are descendants of
> Finns, Ukrainians of Tatars, Bulgarians of Bashkirs, and
> Croats of Iranians are based more on speculation than evidence.
Owieneramus. Always has to stick his 'ASALA/SDPA/ARF' made nose into
every discussion with non-points and lies. Well, still anxiously
awaiting...
Source: Cemal Kutay, "Ottoman Empire," vol. II., p. 188.
"The atrocities and massacres which have been committed for a long time
against the Muslim population within the Armenian Republic have been
confirmed with very accurate information, and the observations made by
Rawlinson, the British representative in Erzurum, have confirmed that
these atrocities are being committed by the Armenians. The United States
delegation of General Harbord has seen the thousands of refugees who came
to take refuge with Kazim Karabekir's soldiers, hungry and miserable,
their children and wives, their properties destroyed, and the delegation
was a witness to the cruelties. Many Muslim villages have been destroyed
by the soldiers of Armenian troops armed with cannons and machine guns
before the eyes of Karabekir's troops and the people. When it was hoped
that this operation would end, unfortunately since the beginning of
February the cruelties inflicted on the Muslim population of the region
of Shuraghel, Akpazar, Zarshad, and Childir have increased. According
to documented information, 28 Muslim villages have been destroyed in the
aforementioned region, more than 2,000 people have been slaughtered,
many possessions and livestock have been seized, young Muslim women
have been taken to Kars and Gumru, thousands of women and children who
were able to flee their villages were beaten, raped and massacred in the
mountains, and this aggression against the properties, lives, chastity
and honour of the Muslims continued. It was the responsibility of the
Armenian Government that the cruelties and massacres be stopped in order
to alleviate the tensions of Muslim public opinion due to the atrocities
committed by the Armenians, that the possessions taken from the Muslims
be returned and that indemnities be paid, that the properties, lives,
and honour of the Muslims be protected."
Serdar Argic
'We closed the roads and mountain passes that
might serve as ways of escape for the Turks
and then proceeded in the work of extermination.'
(Ohanus Appressian - 1919)
'In Soviet Armenia today there no longer exists
a single Turkish soul.' (Sahak Melkonian - 1920)
| 17talk.politics.mideast |
Dan Sorenson writing:
...
DS>I'd rather not get into the Nationalized Medical Care debate
DS>here, but I find it amazing that criminals often live better than the
DS>rest of the population, in some aspects, and that we're paying for
^^^^
DS>them to do so. As an example, in November I had my annual dental
...
Here, you are somewhat in error.....in ALL respects we are paying. When we
are not paying for their countryclub incarceration, we are paying with our
lives and belongings as their prey. Upon what would they practice their
nefarious predatory acts if not for the citizens of this country. What is
amazing to me is the mindset of those who overtly and covertly perpetuate
a justice system (har) that essentially mandates that some of us offer up
ourselves as that prey while they suitably insulate themselves from the
preyground.
---
. OLX 2.2 . Church of Crime & Justice....come, let us prey!
----
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ye Olde Bailey BBS 713-520-1569 (V.32bis) 713-520-9566 (V.32bis) |
| Houston,Texas yob.sccsi.com Home of alt.cosuard |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 16talk.politics.guns |
Trying to pin point a hardware problem with my disk, Maxtor
7213AT. Group files get corrupted on a regular basis.
Only happens on this drive, D had only one corrupt file
in over a year and it was under the control of winword on C.
32-bit disk access and smartdrive are off. Since installation
of dblspace problem has turned from an annoyance to a reason for
murder.
Since the most frequent files corrupted are the *.grp files,
are these the last thing written to when exitting Windows?
Also, are there any pd/shareware utilities available that do
a more thorough job than dos 6, NDD 4.5, etc? DOS 6 and
Win 3.1 compatable.
Thanks
--
Mike Hayes |"Knowledge is good." - Faber College Motto
WWW |"Knowledge and Thoroughness" -Rensselear Poly Motto
Unemployed Tech, |"No, thank YOU!" -Groucho Marx, 'A Day at the Races'
Driven to banging my head against engineering physics for 4 years.
| 2comp.os.ms-windows.misc |
In article <SLAGLE.93Apr5075759@sgi417.msd.lmsc.lockheed.com> slagle@lmsc.lockheed.com writes:
>In article <1993Apr2.185755.17803@isc-br.isc-br.com>, steveh@thor.isc-br.com (Steve Hendricks) writes:
>
>> Thanks to Kim for following up. I was hoping that someone would bring up
>> the issue of cost compensation. The problem with the argument is that it
>> fails to explain why kidney dialysis (RD) services have expanded massively in
>> the last decade. After all, no one is forcing private providers to offer
>> this service. If they are losing money on the treatment (which according
>> to information I've collected from several providers they are not) why
>> would they not simply limit their losses by cutting back on services
>> (engage in effective rationing of supply) rather than expand the coverage
>> to a larger market that must then be compensated by raising prices in
>> other areas?
>
>Perhaps there is a competitive advantage in there after all. Would
>not reputable and dedicated physicians prefer to affiliate with an
>institution that offers dialysis services? Would they not therefore
>tend to admit patients in greater numbers to an institution that
>offered a full range of diagnostic and treatment options?
Undoubtedly. In fact, it is the fact that hospitals frequently compete
for physicians rather than for patients that (in part) complicates and
undermines a simplistic free-market analysis of the market for medical care.
>Hospitals tend to lose money on all sorts of high-tech, high-price
>machinery. They manage to make it up on other charges.
Once again, there is no evidence that this is true in regard to kidney
dialysis. Although price controls have promoted an expansion of services
to a much greater volume of patients, RD is still a profitable service.
Otherwise, one would expect to see evidence of rationing rather than the
vast expansion that has occurred.
>
>> Remember, the notion that you can lose a little on each treatment but
>> make it up in volume is not good economics even in a free market. :)
>
>Then how do you explain why grocery stores routinely offer an
>array of products at prices below cost? Are not grocery stores
>embedded in a relatively free market?
Can you spell "loss leader?" I knew you could. Grocery stores do not
attempt to make up the loss on an individual product by selling more of
it. In fact, your argument above is that kidney dialysis is a loss leader
for other medical treatments where lost revenue can be regained.
But the evidence does not support this contention. Rather, it appears that
price controls have disciplined the market by forcing an expansion of
service and development of improved lower-cost technology to provide
comparable benefits. Providers continue to profit from RD, they simply
make less on each treatment than they would have if the price had
risen at the rate that uncontrolled treatments have.
There is no question that had price controls forced the price of RD
substantially below its actual cost that some or all of the doomsday
predictions of free-market advocates would have been seen -- restriction
of service, lagging technological development, etc. Likewise, it appears
that in the VA and armed forces medical care systems, where providers
are government agencies, some of these negative impacts may occur.
(RD patients in the VA system in Spokane, for example, must travel to
Seattle, 300 miles away, for treatment.)
The bottom line, however, is that this is an example of government
intervention (of a rather extreme sort) that appears to have had beneficial
results for both providers and consumers. Claims that "government
bureaucracy" inevitably leads to undesirable outcomes in the marketplace
should take such such cases into account.
jsh
>
>=Mark
--
Steve Hendricks | DOMAIN: steveh@thor.ISC-BR.COM
"One thing about data, it sure does cut| UUCP: ...!uunet!isc-br!thor!steveh
the bulls**t." - R. Hofferbert | Ma Bell: 509 838-8826
| 18talk.politics.misc |
osprey@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu (Lucas Adamski) writes:
>In article <7306@pdxgate.UUCP> idr@rigel.cs.pdx.edu (Ian D Romanick) writes:
>>What kind of polygons? Shaded? Texturemapped? Hm? More comes into play with
>>fast routines than just "polygons". It would be nice to know exaclty what
>>system (VGA is a start, but what processor?) and a few of the specifics of the
>>implementation. You need to give more info if you want to get any answers! :P
>I don't want texture mapped, cause if I did I'd asked for them. :) Just
>a simple and fast routine to do filled polygons. As for the processor, it'd
>be for a minimum of a 286... maybe 386 if I can't find a good one for 286s.
>Ideally, I want a polyn function that can clip to a user-defined viewport,
>and write to an arbitrary location in memory. Of course the chances of
Ok It is for a game that is 3d and you have listed the characteristics
that you are looking for. I think you may have left out a few
important parameters.
The polygons are all convex.
They have less than N sides. (you are drawing meshes walls doors etc.)
I believe that the algorithms you can get that will only draw convex
polygons can be much more efficient than those that can draw
concave / self intersecting polygons.
This efficiency can largely be attributed to the fact that
simple convex polygons only have a left and a right edge on each scan line.
Complex (figure 8 type polygons) can be a bit trickier.
The less than N sides specification especially if it is a very small
number like 3 or 4 allow othe optimisations to be made.
Thus for a high speed game application I think you are looking for
code that exploits and is hence limited to drawing simple convex
polygons.
>finding something like that are pretty remote, so I guess I'd need the source
>with it. Oh, and I guess it would need to be in ASM otherwise it'd be too
>slow. I've seen some polygon routines in C, and they've all been waaay too
>slow. Its for a 3D vector graphics program. I've been hunting high and low
It may have been that they were very general purpose algorithms.
If you limit yourself to 3 or four sided simple convex polygons
I think you might be suprised how fast a c algorithm with a
asm block move to fill each scan line might actually be.
>for a polyn function in ASM, and I can't find one anywhere that I can use.
>I've found one or two polyn functions, but my ASM is pretty bad, so I won't
>even try to rewrite them. :)
> //Lucas.
| 1comp.graphics |
In article <1993Apr23.163129.53125@gmuvax.gmu.edu>, lcarr@gmuvax.gmu.edu
wrote:
>
> Hi.
> I've been seeing all these articles about changing
> brake fluid and I am wondering if this is really necessary.
> I have an 86 Toyota Corolla SR5, with 94000 and I am in the
> process of doing preventative maintenance and I was
> wondering if this was something that I should add to
> my list of things to do.
> Any information would be greatly appreciated. I really
> love this car and would like to keep it for as long as
> possible.
>
> Thanx...
>
> -lisa
>
> sign me... only a manual will do..
Amplifying on Jeff Goss's answer, the absorbed water will rust your
brakelines and master cylinder and calipers and you could suddenly lose all
your brake fluid.
| 7rec.autos |
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