Wednesday, the Georgia Governor signed into affect House Bill 89. This bill deals with several amendments and fixes to the Georgia codes regarding firearms, weapons, and citizens carrying firearms. The most noticeable change for normal law abiding citizens is the addition of sections 16-11-127e & f :
(e) A person licensed or permitted to carry a firearm by this part shall be permitted to carry such firearm, subject to the limitations of this part, in all parks, historic sites, and recreational areas, including all publicly owned buildings located in such parks, historic sites, and recreational areas and in wildlife management areas, notwithstanding Code Section 12-3-10, in wildlife management areas notwithstanding Code Section 27-3-1.1 and 27-3-6, and in public transportation notwithstanding Code Sections 16-12-122 through 16-12-127; provided, however, that a person shall not carry a firearm into a place prohibited by federal law. (f) A person licensed or permitted to carry a firearm by this part shall not consume alcoholic beverages in a restaurant or other eating establishment while carrying a firearm. Any person violating this subsection shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Meaning, a person who has a Georgia Carry License may bring a gun into parks, on marta, and into restaurants (where alcohol sales are less than 50% revenue) as long as the person is not drinking .... and I think it says somewhere else it has to also be carry concealed. Another section (very long worded) gives back more rights to a citizen wanting to keep a gun in a locked glove box of a privately owned car.
The recent youtube video "Soldier girl on the marta train"
came at a great time. Though that video shows only a bit of misdemeanor assault, much worse can happen in the confined spaces of a marta train. Also, before this amendment, criminals know a law abiding citizen isn't going to have a gun or knife on the train ... and won't have one after leaving a train station of getting off a bus. Now, a criminal has to think twice about approach someone on or near marta just for a few bucks in their wallet.
People are hootin and hallerin claiming this restoration of a second amendment right will bring all kinds of public endangerment and will be the downfall of society. Criminals already have the weapons on the train and buses. This just levels the playing field slightly and lets someone who is licensed to carry a gun to do their thing.
Abraham writes: "My fascination with Tesla started in elementary school, when my science teacher compared Tesla and Edison. I decided to pay my tribute to the wizard with a patent drawing on an electric magnetic motor, submitted by Tesla in the late 1800's."
WILLIAM SHATNER - SHATNER HATED BEDDING STAR TREK FANS
Topic: Humor
5:19 pm EDT, May 15, 2008
The 77-year-old, who shot to fame as Captain Kirk in the original 1960s TV show, insists he couldn't enjoy flings with the series' most devoted followers because he was so turned off by their bizarre bedroom behaviour.
Study: Cox, Comcast Internet subscribers blocked - Yahoo News
Topic: Telecom Industry
5:17 pm EDT, May 15, 2008
A study released Thursday found conclusive signs that file-sharing attempts by subscribers of Cox Communications were blocked, along with customers at Comcast and Singapore's StarHub.
Of the 788 Comcast subscribers who participated in the study, 62 percent had their connections blocked. At Cox, 54 percent of subscribers examined were blocked, according to Krishna Gummadi at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Saarbruecken, Germany. The institute examined the network connections of 8,175 Internet subscribers around the world.
Philadelphia-based Comcast is the country's second-largest Internet service provider, with 14.1 million subscribers. Atlanta-based Cox Communications is the fourth-largest, with 3.8 million. It is part of privately held Cox Enterprises Inc.
Robotic suit could usher in super soldier era - Yahoo News
Topic: Science
5:12 pm EDT, May 15, 2008
Jameson — who works for robotics firm Sarcos Inc. in Salt Lake City, which is under contract with the U.S. Army — is helping assess the 150-pound suit's viability for the soldiers of tomorrow. The suit works by sensing every movement the wearer makes and almost instantly amplifying it.
The Army believes soldiers may someday wear the suits in combat, but it's focusing for now on applications such as loading cargo or repairing heavy equipment. Sarcos is developing the technology under a two-year contract worth up to $10 million, and the Army plans initial field tests next year.
Before the technology can become practical, the developers must overcome cost barriers and extend the suit's battery life. Jameson was tethered to power cords during his demonstration because the current battery lasts just 30 minutes.
But the technology already offers evidence that robotics can amplify human muscle power in reality — not just in the realm of comic books and movies like the recently debuted "Iron Man," about a wealthy weapons designer who builds a high-tech suit to battle bad guys.
Green on black terminal windows are the way they are for the same reason old oscilloscopes and radar displays were green on black - it's more cost effective to make a cathode ray tube that glows green. For a long damn time, all terminals came green-on-black, simply because that was the cheapest way to pair a CRT with a keyboard, and hardware terminals were what they used back before PC's were popular. Or invented.
The result of this was horrific eyestrain. Yes, some people can handle bright colored text on a black background. Most get eyestrain or worse, migraines. This is especially so if you switch from green-on-black to black-on-white (like a printed page).
Typists and transcriptionists and grad students and pretty much anyone who needed to refer to a printed reference hated it. In the early '80s, color monitors were pretty much crap for text (too fuzzy, not enough resolution) so there was a boom in the production of "amber" monitors. These used monochrome CRTs that phosphoresced a muted yellow-orange. This wasn't quite as jarring to the eyes.
Then someone came up with paper-white monochrome CRT's, and that was pretty much all she wrote for greenscreens.
Geeks keep it alive, because of nostalgia and tradition. It's looks high-tech and cool, because there was a time when it was high-tech and cool - and because there is an association with Unix, and by extension, Linux. What's more Unix than a DEC vt100 terminal hooked up to a PDP-11? Nothing. That's about as close to the metal as you can get without a soldering iron.
But, please, for the sake of your eyes and the eyes of others, don't pretend there is any inherent advantage to green-on-black for the vast majority of users.
