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http://www.harmful.org/homedespot/newtdr/NEWtdrARC HIVE/cosplay/charafestarchive.htm

(halfway down the page) "the BEST MOMENT OF THE WHOLE CONVENTION was when the 2 roving bands of Hitlers happened to run into each other. .. it was like, 'wow, you're hitler too?? top of the morning to ya!!' they were so happy!! all taking each other's pictures and shit. . . then they got their picture taken ALL TOGETHER, with A STUFFED PANDA THROWN IN FOR NO REASON. i did not manage to capture this on film so i will now kill myself."

And one for the road.

http://www.comics.aha.ru/rus/stalin/1.html

Artful, actually. But strange to someone with a usa viewpoint.

I know. I mean, if Congress didn't extend copyrights, then we'd end up with comics like Stalin vs. Hitler. Oh, wait. That already happened.

Anyone remember the day SGI sold their soul to M$ if an attempt to ensure the survival of OpenGL with Fahrenheit.

Most of the American public seems surprisingly uneducated about Russia and the current political sutiation there. For most of you, Russia is still the enemy that is going to launch its nuclear missiles any moment. Wake up!

Russia is a democratic country now, even though it's plagued by dirty politics, the Russian mafia and corruption. These things are inevitable in every society that is expiriencing such a major change in its structure and ideology. Almost everybody in Russia accepts the Western values of democracy and freedom. The young people wear jeans, watch mostly American movies and chat on EFnet. There are some exceptions, but doesn't America have its Neonazis and KKK guys too?

After being exposed to the Western culture for more than a decade, now it's part of the Russian life. Take a look at some of these links:
Russian Babylon5 fan club
Russian X-Files fan site
Russian DVD online store

Almost 90% of the movies sold in Russia are Western movies. Obviously, if all the Russians just hated the West, they wouldn't like these movies. I'm pretty much sure that most of the Russian soldiers will not fight in a war with the West - they will simply see no reason for it. Communism in Russia is dead. The ideology does not matter any more. All that matters is the economy.

This is were the problem lies. Russia used to be one of the worlds's major economic powers, competing only with the US. This is no longer true. The economic system had to be changed completely. Almost every part of the system broke. Rebuilding the economy will be hard and it will take at least a couple of decades. Till then life for most of the Russians will be miserable and poor.

Think about this: You are a Russian guy. You never paid much attention to ideology, never really believed in all of this communism/capitalis junk. All that you want is to have a nice house, car, enough money for your chidlren and so on. It's basicly the same stuff that drives most of the people on earth. 10 years ago you had a job, free health care, free education for your childer. You were not rich, but none of your peers was rich, so you didn't feel bad. Than, after 1990 everything changed. Your country, which used to be a super power in the world affairs, is no longer any special. You are poor. You look at all the mafia guys around you, who driver BMWs and live in palaces. You don't like it. Then you look at the USA, and see how good your life can be. Not everybody drives a BMW there, but buying a car is not a problem. You probably need to spend your yearly income just to byu some crappy car from the 80s. The people who clean shit and vomit at McDonalds earn more than you. You might be smart, but it does not matter. You feel that you have less chance of success, just because you are born here and not on the other side of the Atlantic. What about the equal opportunity? This is not fun. You don't like this.

It's true that pretty much everybody in the developing world. Most of the world population (especially the young people feel really angry about this) - it's not envy, it's just the feeling that thigs are not fair. Things are not right. The difference between Russia/Eastern Europe and the rest of the world is that the people thare USED TO be relatively rich. Poverty didn't exist, at least not to the extent it exist now. Although you had to sacrifice your freedom for it, your economical situation wouldn't be bad at all. You would get free health care, you would send your children to college - for free.

The ideology is no longer an issue, but being poor is still not fun. Especially when you REMEMBER having a better life.

I hope this will help some of you to understand Russia better. They are just people - like you and me - who want to enjoy their life. That's all.

P.S. Disclaimer: I am not Russian. But I still know what I'm talking about.

What d.net obscurity-apologists are saying is that this problem can't be solved openly, and THAT is an insult to open source. If you believe them, you'd better run out and buy a proprietary encryption package because pgp isn't safely closed like the d.net client.

I don't understand how so many of the people who champion for open source and see the benefits in all other areas can turn around and root for security through obscurity just because it's d.net.
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It turned out that the incredibly high key-rates were generated by a bogus client. Read what happened in Dave McNett's .plan or read how the mystery was revealed by Maxxim Kochegarov from Russian Team.