Reading Slashdot From Strange Locations 1006
aarrieta writes "I was thinking about the location of Slashdotters around the world. Many of us read /. from our houses/offices/schools. But I guess there are people reading Slashdot from non-traditional places/sites (an oil platform in the middle of the sea, Antarctica, the ISS, etc?) But what's the strangest place you've ever read Slashdot from, or the most remote place you're currently reading it from?"
I'm writing this from Antarctica (Score:5, Interesting)
I can top this (Score:5, Funny)
You can find out exactly where I am here [nasa.gov].
I have (Score:5, Interesting)
Top that.
ok, I'll try (Score:5, Funny)
I'm using 28k dial-up... now that's remote! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I'm using 28k dial-up... now that's remote! (Score:4, Interesting)
The best part? Using jigdo to assemble Debian ISO's at about 750 characters per second over the same connection. Where we worked the bandwidth Nazis were 'making examples' out of some people for downloading large files, so I actually assembled the ISO's of all of the CD's for Debian Woody for the Alpha, and Debian Potato for the i386, mostly over slow connections. Needless to say, it slowed down my Slashdot browsing significantly.
BTW, when you have a slow connection that drops frequently, jigdo is a lifesaver. I would download for the 1.5 hour train ride each direction at 9,600 bps, then go home and resume downloading over my 26,400 bps dialup connection. Only when I was working late did I dare connect to download through the WAN, and then only for a few minutes a day.
Re:I'm writing this from Antarctica (Score:5, Funny)
You mean all those 503 errors? No, the rest of us get them too.
Say hi to Tux for us!
I once read Slashdot from.. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I once read Slashdot from.. (Score:4, Funny)
I dont read slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm writing this from Antarctica (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I'm writing this from Antarctica (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I'm writing this from Antarctica (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm writing this from Antarctica (Score:4, Interesting)
Umm, Geostationary satellites are positioned over the equator and not reachable from the poles. Any other orbit would cross the equator and would not be in a poar region 100% of the time. What part of the orbits did he not know?
It made sense to me. A geostationary satellite over the North pole either would not be stationary and be on a polar orbit visiting both the north and south poles (Synchrnous polar orbit) or would simply fall down due to gravity since it wasn't orbiting at all.
Now if you could link to a swarm of satellites with orbits like the GPS system, then there is a chance of 24 hour coverage.
Re:I'm writing this from Antarctica (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I'm writing this from Antarctica (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I'm writing this from Antarctica (Score:5, Funny)
So when they say their Internet connection is down, they aren't kidding.
Re:I'm writing this from Antarctica (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I'm writing this from Antarctica (Score:3, Informative)
A normal geostationary satellite is not visible from the south pole (it is a few degrees
Re:I'm writing this from Antarctica (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I'm writing this from Antarctica (Score:5, Interesting)
Black Island [bedouinboundaries.com]
The connection is a T1 that goes from town to Black Island via point-to-point microwave. Part of the T1 is used to carry voice telecom, fax lines, and MPEG-encoded television from the US.
Black Island was chosen because it can see (looking north) over the large bulk of Mt Erebus to make LOS with a geosync bird at the equator. See photo on the page, above. That's the dish in the dome, and you can see how high up the horizon Mt Erebus protrudes. McMurdo is at 77.88 degrees south, so a equatorial sat is still above the horizon.
Pole, at a full 90 degrees south cannot see a real equatorial geosync bird. But, birds that are decaying in orbit become highly variable in the N/S direction, so they appear to wobble up and down on the horizon. When it's up, it's usable. There are no mountains or ground clutter at Pole, so it only has to be up a little bit. Geosync birds do not move in the E/W direction, so the dish only has to track up and down. A previous poster who described the dish spinning around to track the horizon is sniffing skua dung.
I participated in a project [nasa.gov] to try to establish other lines of communication out of McMurdo via the NASA TDRS sats. I think I'm the sitting guy in this photo [nasa.gov].
Black Island is 'uninhabited', but people stay there for various periods of time to keep an eye on troublesome equipment. They brew a lot of beer there, during the down times.
I was present during the season of the construction of the current dome and dish on Black Island (though I was not at BI itself at the time). During a critical period of construction, part of the dome was finished, but it still had gaps in it. A massive storm (Herbie) came up, and shredded the whole dome with 120+Mph winds, spreading debris for miles. A new dome had to be flown in at the last minute, and landed in a heavy cargo plane on the rapidly-melting ice runway. But the new system has worked very well for the last 10 years, and McMurdo has excellent connectivity.
Re:Cell Phone Friendly Version (Score:5, Informative)
http://slashdot.org/palm/ [slashdot.org]
The strangest place was.. (Score:5, Funny)
But it'll never happen again honey, I promise!
Re:The strangest place was.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The strangest place was.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The strangest place was.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The strangest place was.. (Score:5, Funny)
Be Careful (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Be Careful (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The strangest place was.. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The strangest place was.. (Score:3, Funny)
Newlywed, though, makes the list because of one reason: it's the only game show with an urban legend. Supposedly, Eubanks once asked the question, "Where is the strangest place you and your husband ever made whoopee?" One female contestant answered, very simply, "Up the butt, Bob" (or, in other versions, "That'd be the butt, Bob"). Eubanks swears it never happened, other people say they saw it. Eubanks has ruined his credibility on this issue by stating "I could have sold a million 'Up T
Re:The strangest place was.. (Score:3, Informative)
It isn't exactly an urban legend (Score:3, Funny)
The snopes.com article discusses various issues concerning the whole case.
I once posted to Slashdot from (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I once posted to Slashdot from (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I once posted to Slashdot from (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I once posted to Slashdot from (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I once posted to Slashdot from (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I once posted to Slashdot from (Score:3, Insightful)
strange but I'm sure very common... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:strange but I'm sure very common... (Score:5, Funny)
Birthing another slashdot trooper...
Re:strange but I'm sure very common... (Score:5, Funny)
New logo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:strange but I'm sure very common... (Score:3, Funny)
I think trying to crap as fast as you can may give you hemorrhoids, though.
The Toilet (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The Toilet (Score:3, Funny)
IN INDIA (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:IN INDIA (Score:5, Funny)
Strangest place (Score:5, Funny)
In the butt?
For those who don't get the reference (Score:5, Informative)
Some of the questions were tame, e.g. "Ladies, what is your favorite type of seafood?" If a guy's wife answered "Shrimp" but he had predicted "Flounder" they didn't get a point. You get the idea.
Well, on one episode, the question for the ladies was: "What's the strangest place you've ever made whoopee?" (This was back in the '70s, you couldn't say "made love" or "had sex" on TV, so they would say "whoopee.") They were going for answers like "the kitchen table," or "the movie theater."
They got to one woman and she answers, "In the butt."
Hilarity ensued.
--
Rate Naked People [fuckmeter.com] at FuckMeter! (Not Safe For Work)
Re:For those who don't get the reference (Score:5, Funny)
You know, it's a good thing you put that "not safe for work" discalimer on your sig. Otherwise, I'd have no idea that rating people at FuckMeter.com would be at all objectionable. Thanks for the warning.
well that explains it... (Score:5, Funny)
Top of a 100' antennea (Score:5, Interesting)
Deep Underground (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Deep Underground (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Deep Underground (Score:3, Interesting)
Like... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Like... (Score:3, Funny)
Scotland (Score:5, Interesting)
the pooper (Score:4, Funny)
One day I coudn't find anything interesting within reach and had already memorized not only the ingridients to my shampoo and conditioner, but the location of their corporate headquarter too. I pulled out a 25ft CAT 5 cable, one end into the switch, and the other end into my thinkpad X22 3Lb laptop.
It was a good poop, and I learned alot that day.
Nick
Re:the pooper (Score:4, Funny)
I hope you learned that plastic does absorb odors...
-Adam
Highway: Home Server + DNS + SMS + Email Gateway (Score:5, Interesting)
"new SMS to 003436". "CMD S" for slashdot news command. 10 seconds later I get 2-4 SMS messages giving me the slashdot headlines. I've done this from a cottage, a highway coach, toilets in dingy bathrooms.
Re:Highway: Home Server + DNS + SMS + Email Gatewa (Score:3, Informative)
last summer i was quite a lot away from home and wrote tens of comments from the 3650 of mine on slashdot(and so, commenting on slashdot while fishing, listening to grandparents endless ramblings & etc).
from a skiing elevator too..
Re:Highway: Home Server + DNS + SMS + Email Gatewa (Score:3, Funny)
Unfortunately, this has led me to read Slashdot while driving.
DAMN YOU, WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY!
Svalbard (Score:4, Interesting)
Just for fun, I pulled up Slashdot on my Treo 600.
Surprisingly, both Telenor and Norway NetCom had very good GSM/GPRS coverage in and around Longyearbyen (the main city on Svalbard, pop. ~1500). I think this is probably the northernmost GSM service area in the world, at 78 degrees north.
-j
Me!? I'm a -1 troll!!! (Score:5, Funny)
The summit of Mauna Kea (Score:5, Interesting)
If I had sumbitted a good story this morning... (Score:5, Funny)
Hmm. (Score:5, Funny)
The tally so far... (Score:5, Funny)
"In Soviet Russia" : 890,560
"While commuting" : 5,109
"While stuffing face with food" : 4,483
"While watching pr0n" : 1,294
"While having sex (solo)" : 1,154
"Inside Michael Moore's colon" : 27
"Inside George Bush's head" : 25
"Hiding in the rafters at the Democratic convention... my God, the gas! The gas and hot air and bullshit are suffocating me! : 1
"While having sex (with partner)" : 0
Re:The tally so far... (Score:5, Funny)
Damn, the echoes must be terrible.
Driving on the highway.. (Score:4, Funny)
booze + wireless = endless ranting about "amazing" stuff.
1100 feet from the man (Score:5, Interesting)
About halfway through I remembered that 802.11b was blanketing the area and wondered whether I had a signal. Although it was over a thousand feet from the camp areas, the conditions were perfect. So I checked e-mail and Slashdot; odd how a geek finds comfort when he's far from home.
The nudey Bar (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The nudey Bar (Score:5, Funny)
Can't tell where.... (Score:5, Funny)
Can't tell where it was, but the speed was 150 mph ;-).
Regards, Martin
Re:Can't tell where.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Russia, Nepal, Dutch Harbor (Score:4, Interesting)
Kathmandu, Nepal at an internet cafe. I wouldn't consider it terribly strange or remote though.
in Dutch Harbor, a southernmost island on the alaskan aleutian chain (unalaska) on a rather slow dial-up.
Don't know how I pulled it off... (Score:5, Interesting)
I was in the Bahamas and they didn't have any internet access... I could use my cell phone though I had to dial a special extension to reach into the USA... I rigged the IR port on my IIIc to use the IR port on my phone as a modem and dial out.... I checked my email, took a peek at Slashdot (or what I could see from it) and logged off...
2 weeks later, a bill for $78.00 for overseas calls and internet usage... It was worth it for the koolness factor
Underground in a coal mine (Score:5, Interesting)
Theater! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Theater! (Score:3, Funny)
The "Stans" (Score:3, Interesting)
On a 386 laptop... (Score:5, Interesting)
From the top a tower on top of mountain (Score:3, Interesting)
Stravinsky Fountains, Paris (Score:5, Interesting)
I even met the guy who's point it is. He's on the third floor to the right of the police station. I asked him if it bothered him that I was on his wifi and he said, "Pas de tout" ("Not at all").
PS - Go easy on him, turn off images while browsing.
Translation: (Score:4, Funny)
From a Van Halen concert (Score:5, Funny)
Luckily my box seats were free and I had my Blackberry with me.
It's full of light... (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know how much longer my body can take the bombardment of these intense rays of heat and light. Man was not designed to undergo such a harsh and cruel environment. The people around me walk with no regard for their fate. Not knowing that little by little this intense heat is killing them just as it is me.
It is for the better of those in my local D&D group that I am undergoing this experiment. I know, one day, that my dice will be saved in remembrance of this great and perilous journey.
What strange species is this? It has long hair and smells nice. And it's skin even has color.
I# los#ng signa########## [end of line]
The OPerating room (Score:3, Interesting)
The strangest place of all... (Score:5, Funny)
Hello. (Score:5, Funny)
If you could smell me now... (Score:3, Funny)
Sure, I could read it on my Treo 600, but that would be cheating. And slow.
*light=not so light. The Dell Inspiron 1100 w/ 15" screen is like 10 lbs.
Two Places Stand Out (Score:3, Interesting)
1. In a stand while hunting deer - I purposely placed a deer stand where it could get a CDMA cell connection to surf on my Treo 300 and hunt at the same time. Pr0n and firearms, no place but Texas!
2. MDRS [marssociety.org], the only thing strange about there was that none of my other crewmates had ever heard of
Far north Japan, over a *really slow* dialup (Score:3, Interesting)
In a fire? (Score:5, Interesting)
So, we drag our line to where we need to be, mostly blind. We've got a thermal imager with us, so we can see what's going on, but most of the time is spent staring at... nothing, just smoke wafting in our faces, along with faint glow from the imager display.
After about 10 minutes of this I'm bored out of my skull, and I realized I'd stuffed my IPaq in my shirt pocket before putting on my gear. The ambient smoke only allowed you to see about 4 feet, but the temperature was tolerable... so I whipped it out, and... detected an open wifi, lmao. So, slashdot is hard enough to read on an IPaq, but throw in wearing full gear with an SCBA in a medium smoke condition, it was probably one of the stranger places I've read slashdot. Had fun, though, I managed to get AIM up and send off a few lines to the wife.
And no, trying to read it with a thermal imager doesn't work
JC Penny? (Score:3, Interesting)
For extra geek points, I'rn able to do this by way of my HP iPaq 2215 PocketPC, which has a Bluetooth link with my Motorola V600 phone, which in turn has a GPRS Internet link with AT&T
(of course it took me 15 minutes to write this silly post with the damned hand writing recognition software!)
Off the coast of Africa (Score:4, Interesting)
Really nice to be looking out at a moonlit volcano while reading inane Slashdot comments
Re:Funny you should ask (Score:5, Funny)
-prator
Re:Funny you should ask (Score:3, Insightful)
Slashdot is a news service.
That's pretty much all there is to it.