Slashdot Mirror

In developing news, Slashdot.org has released yet another non-SCO related article. Slashdotters are drooling at the incoming news "There on a roll now dude. A few more articles without the mention of SCO? I didn't think I would see the day" stated a fp'er..

"Ok so maybe we misunderestimate the potential of Slashdot, but answer me this, If a tree falls in an ocean does it make a splash? We here Texans, here in Texas, which of course is in the United Nations of America, value sites like Slashdot. At least they don't post forged articles". stated Slashdotter daprez.

Slashdot once upon a time was one of the hottest sites on the net, and the site which now boasts close to 600+ thousand users (most of which are duplicate users) is slowly going down the toilet. "Well I doubt if it is going to go away, if it did most of the admins there would likely commit suicide or something. I just want to see it go back to the basics and focus on news. Sure SCO is news, but do we really need it shoved down our throats four to five times?" stated another user via IRC who wished to remain anonymous.

So for those who are interested in real news, such as how China will replace every citizens ID cards with Digital Cards, you can read this here, or if you care about the NSA possibly backdooring all software, you can read that too by clicking here. The CIA's statement on WMD? Sure right here, however, if your looking for another SCO article, stay tuned one will be availble within the hour.

Numerous request were sent to Slashdot administrative staff who never responded to our e-mails. We feel for them, and will make sure to send them carfare when the company goes under so they'll be able to get to the unemployment office.

2003 Slashdotter Strikes Back News

In developing news, Slashdot.org has released a non-SCO related article. Slashdotters are ecstatic at the incoming news "Oh man I really thought it was the end of the road there for a minute, I mean last week was bad, but as of Sunday, I don't know how many SCO based articles they posted. I think it's somewhere in the low hundreds though" stated a user who wished to remain anonymous.

"It's exciting for the moment, but I know these morons will just post some other sickening story about a company that's about to go under any god damned moment". stated fx0rspy.

Slashdot once upon a time was one of the hottest sites on the net, and the site which now boasts close to 600+ thousand users (most of which are duplicate users) is slowly going down the toilet. "Well I doubt if it is going to go away, if it did most of the admins there would likely commit suicide or something. I just want to see it go back to the basics and focus on news. Sure SCO is news, but do we really need it shoved down our throats four to five times?" stated another user via IRC who wished to remain anonymous.

So for those who are interested in real news, such as how China will replace every citizens ID cards with Digital Cards, you can read this here, or if you care about the NSA possibly backdooring all software, you can read that too by clicking here. The CIA's statement on WMD? Sure right here, however, if your looking for another SCO article, stay tuned one will be availble within the hour.

Numerous request were sent to Slashdot administrative staff who never responded to our e-mails. We feel for them, and will make sure to send them carfare when the company goes under so they'll be able to get to the unemployment office.

(c) 2003 Disgruntled Slashdotter

If you 506 million is right, with 260} of them in the US, that still gives us a majority, albeit not a large one.

Of course I doubt the literacy of the rest of the 506 million is as high as 97%.

To quote Eisenhower again "If the United Nations once admits that international disputes can be settled by using force, then we will have destroyed the foundation of the organization and our best hope of establishing a world order"
Mighty Ironic :)
I was in New York recently and took the guided UN tour. I don't remember the exact figures but they had a chart detailing how much it would cost to provide the world with clean drinking water, prevent major, currently curable crippling diseases (like polio) etc. And the total cost for the project was less than what the world annually spent on arms (military..)
I've spent a lot of time in Pakistan and they have a huge debt problem , paying interest alone which saps the budget. Total debt of $50 billion with a GDP roughly 4-5 times that. Wonder if somehow could call a moratorium on war and spend that money just for a year on two on fixing the world. Incidentally america spends roughly the same amount of money the rest of the world combined spend on arms.

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." -Martin Luther King Jr.

A dupe bug would bring the economics of such a system crashing down.

Interestingly, the article's authors came up with a solution to the problem of software bugs, though I don't think it was their intention:

- Farms/Forestry: Farms produce perishable food, wood, or textile items in predictable quantities that may vary with the weather. Farms may be damaged or destroyed by war, mismanagement or natural disasters.

Just imagine a "software bug" in the context of the original "bug": an insect that causes big trouble (think Biblically, as in plagues of locusts).

Someone hacks into the system and steals $5,000 of real-world l00t? Bad news for local farmers, a cloud of hungry grasshoppers devoured your fields yesterday. Estimated damages are g$1 million ($5,000 real-world).

Game designer conference... in Barbados? News flash: last night's thunderstorms spawned an F5 tornado that tore through the center of Avatarville. No PKs, but damage is estimated in the g$Millions.

[FBI | SEC | DEA] investigation? We're sorry, but a record-shattering earthquake destroyed all your possessions, the bank where your money was kept, and by the way, You Are Dead.

As for myself, if I wanted that level of uncontrollable risk, I'd play Real Life.

1) You have the right to question the vendor of a product your buying and determine whether or not you want this.
2) No one is making this a standard it is a company doing what they want, so I don't see the big hoorah around this
3) It might actually come in handy considering if someone were kidnapped, this could be a possible method of determining their whereabouts.

Sure there are pros and cons behind this, but it isn't anything new. Now if this were any longer I would rant on about Applied Digital Solutions' Digital Angel product, and how the DOJ is looking into using them in the future.

That is truly newsworthy. Besides one could set up their own triangulator to do the same thing if they really wanted to track you. Expensive yea, but it's doable without going through some company

Starving to death? Where did you get these stats from. If this were the case it would be an epidemic talked about on the news 24/7. Don't fall for some propaganda being thrown out there by certain groups. See one thing I've noticed is, if you look for certain things you will find them. I'm sure if you took some time to look for how well India's economy is doing, and how their people are not starving, I'm sure you will find this.

Now to answer your question about bringing those people down here, do you know how much redtape is involved in bringing someone over here? Do you have any idea about the costs of this, let alone the mention of doing so only to have that person leave for another co. the minute they get here?

Remembering the dot com boom, people in Santa Clara were working for 10 different companies in one year, and the attitude of those hiring them, was "Well if he worked for some many companies, he must be that good." bullshit. Why bring someone down into a revolving door of employment when most would rather remain where they are.

Columbia is not Colombia.

The Antarctic Treaty of 1959/1961 neither recognizes nor disputes the claims made by those 7 (or any other) nation. The United States and Russia both reserve the right to make territorial claims. See the CIA World Factbook for more info.

Short story is, you'd catch a lot of shit from about 30 countries if you tried setting up an independent nation on Antarctica.

> Indian Universities are of very poor quality, just to bring your typical Indian male arrogance down a notch.

And i believe you have attended one to know better? Allow me to vouch that i have attended universities in three countries and The University of Pune, is top notch.

And i noticed u chose to bring down my typical Indian male arrogance with a bout of good old fashioned stereotyping.

> Also, I suspect you are in the U.S. sucking off the teat of those who you mock.

Really now, u do know what international student fees are like... right? And no financial aid at this university or anywhere in this state. i pay over (no hyperbole) 4 times the fees of a local resident student. And im not even counting the financial aid that local students get. Couple to that 1/10th the buying power (as mentioned in earlier posts to this article). Now whose sucking whose teat?

> Your country has a billion people, 56% unemployment rate and a 52% literacy rate. It is nothing to brag about. If it was, you would still be living there.

What measure of unemployment rate are u considering? Just because a person does not get a paycheck which he cashes in at a bank does not imply that he/she is unemployed. i'll shed a little light on that 50 something percent unemployment rate u dug up. Hows 8.8% sound. Enlighten yourself. Fyi: the unemployment rate has fallen by 2% in the last couple of years. Historically, India has never had an umemployment rate above 30%.

The simple truth is that a VERY LARGE part of the workforce is employed in the "unorganised sector". Enlighten yourself more on the issues before flinging out cocktail party numbers.

The illiteracy numbers have declined steadlily during the last half century. And here's a plan. Why don't we dump those 48% illiterates (thats about 480 million) in your hometown and u try to educate them in less than two generations!

.... And we are still on topic. with technology such as this broadband distance learning... the literacy drive might be successful is less than the projected number of generations.

1,284,303,705 (July 2002 est.)

They've failed as a communist party

India. Government type: federal republic. Population: 1,045,845,226. GDP per capita: $2,540. Literacy: 52%. Life expectancy: 62.2 years.

China. Government type: Communist state. Population: 1,284,303,705. GDP per capita: $4,600. Literacy: 81.5%. Life expectancy: 71.86 years.

Don't get me wrong, China sucks wang, but I'd hardly call it a failure.

They've failed as a communist party

India. Government type: federal republic. Population: 1,045,845,226. GDP per capita: $2,540. Literacy: 52%. Life expectancy: 62.2 years.

China. Government type: Communist state. Population: 1,284,303,705. GDP per capita: $4,600. Literacy: 81.5%. Life expectancy: 71.86 years.

Don't get me wrong, China sucks wang, but I'd hardly call it a failure.

In a democracy ... If everyone wants to speed them what's the point of setting a speed limit? Isn't that against the will of the people?

What country do you live in? The United States is not a democracy. According to the CIA the US government is described as a "federal republic; strong democratic tradition."

Granted, this might be one of the closest things to a democracy that we may ever see, but it is still not a democracy.

It's a key difference, and your speeding example can support this. I don't want people zipping by my house at 100mph but there are hundreds of millions of people in this country who could care less about my house.

While I have no idea how much of Iraq's infrastructure we took out in the recent war (and, apparently, neither does the CIA, read from below link), I bet it was probably a pretty healthy amount. And seeing as they didn't have that much to begin with, this might actually be a very great thing for Iraq and her people. Since the country's comm. systems were already pretty lacking, and since a presumably fair amount of said systems we're damaged/destroyed, this provides Iraq with a golden opportunity to have a rebuilt, ultra modern communications system. If we do it right, Iraq could very well have one of the most technologically advanced comm. systems ever designed. And the people of Iraq, at least based on this story, seem more than willing to embrace the technology and as such would probably be willing to try out the newest communications technology. This would be the perfect time and place to test new/unproven technologies and if they work well, we could adopt them here in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. Make the best of a bad situation.

Actually, when you consider that most Chinese and a good number of Indianpeople speak English, 50% is fairly accurate.

The current world population (estimated).

Actually, when you consider that most Chinese and a good number of Indianpeople speak English, 50% is fairly accurate.

The current world population (estimated).

• less expensive
• Clean: no polution
• less radiation than coal burning, unless you go swimming in the waste pools

• waste disposal issues
• France uses it to power 77% of their country and nobody wants to be associated with those guys. (joke)

Incidently, those numbers are from the end of 2001, grossly outdated in the Internet context. Here's a more up-to-date (for the most part) and way more elaborate list from the 2002 CIA factbook. It's also apparently more conservative, since the numbers quoted for the USA and Germany are both lower, significantly so for the USA (165 instead 185 millions). I doubt the number of users has fallen in either country in the last two years...

Anyway, it's fairly save to say that if every American user turned off the file sharing option, it'd have a tremendous effect on the global filesharing equations, even if there are more European than American nodes[1]. Also Europe seems to be heading a similar route with the EUCD - which would leave the Asian nodes.

[1] Which isn't necessarily true - there probably are more or less P2P users per 1000 Internet users in Europe than in the USA. Interesting question actually ... I'd wager that copyright violation is more common here than in the USA, at least that's the impression I sometimes get from Internet boards: I've seen lots of youths and young people who say copyright violation is wrong (and act accordingly), while I don't think I've met any German computer user under the age of 25 who does not, on occasion, commit thought theft. On the other hand, broadband Internet access and flat fee services used to be rare around here, although that's gotten better to a point where I assume (I'm sure there's data) broadband usage is on about the same level as in the USA.

Fine. You can just live in poverty just like 13%[1] of all Americans.

[1] Source: CIA World Factbook 2002

Well, the per capita GDP is $26,600 for Germany and $36,300 for the USA. Note that these numbers are from different years.

OTOH, Germany has a growth rate of 0.4%, while the USA has 0.3% (again, different years).

Well, the per capita GDP is $26,600 for Germany and $36,300 for the USA. Note that these numbers are from different years.

OTOH, Germany has a growth rate of 0.4%, while the USA has 0.3% (again, different years).

1. USA - $10.082
   
2. China - $6
   
3. Japan - $3.55
   
4. India - $2.66
   
5. Germany - $2.184
   
6. France - $1.54
   
7. UK - $1.52
   
8. Italy - $1.438
   
9. Brazil - $1.34
   
10. Russia - $1.27

Apollo wasn't as expensive as you might think. According to this NASA page, total funding for the Apollo program was less than 20 billion dollars (which would equal about 100 billion of today's dollars).

In contrast to that, last year's US GDP was about USD 10 trillion. It's just a matter of will - the state's administration doesn't really have an interest in space exploration.

We are not a democracy for chrissakes. When we people learn the difference?

A few links:
Link #1
Link #2
Link #3
Scary quote #4
Scary quote #5
Quote #6
And from our own government:
Link #7

We are not a democracy. Get it through your head. Democracy is a terrible for mof government where 51% of the people take rights away from the other 49%.

Give everyone on Earth one square meter of space. That's about enough space to stand, or even sit comfortably. There are roughly 6.3 billion people on Earth. To give everyone 1m^2 would require 6.3x10^9 m^2. This could be accommodated by a square with sides 79,400m long (around 50 miles).

Cuba's area is 110,860 km^2, or 1.1x10^11 m^2, which is enough to give each person on Earth a luxurious 17.6m^2 of space, or around 158 sq ft -- about the size of a bathroom or small bedroom.

According to the CIA the external debt is worth $862'000'000'000
but this figure has not been update since 1995.

There is no such place as Slovania. There is Slovenia and Slovakia. There are also Pennsylvania and Transylvania; maybe you were thinking about those. But there is no Slovania. Sorry.

There is no such place as Slovania. There is Slovenia and Slovakia. There are also Pennsylvania and Transylvania; maybe you were thinking about those. But there is no Slovania. Sorry.

Then again, what the hell do I know? I'm just another Slashdotter... What I'm really trying to get at is: CAN YOU IMAGINE A BEOWULF CLUSTER OF THESE?!?! WELL, CAN YOU?! Now that is the question that remains to be answered!

I hope that made sense, or something.

Then again, what the hell do I know? I'm just another Slashdotter... What I'm really trying to get at is: CAN YOU IMAGINE A BEOWULF CLUSTER OF THESE?!?! WELL, CAN YOU?! Now that is the question that remains to be answered!

I hope that made sense, or something.

This is a lesson they haven't learned yet in Japan where the national debt is HUGE and their economy is just barely staying afloat.

Current US national debt: (as of 15 July) $6.67 trillion

Current Japanese national debt is claimed to be in excess of 140% of their GDP, which the CIA World Factbook lists as $3.55 trillion, making their estimated debt about $4.97 trillion.

So, yeah, their economy is in bad shape, but ours is fast approaching similar straits and we *aren't* seeing the same kind of innovation the Japanese experience. While I agree that government regulation isn't necessarily the answer to this, I'm not sure if we can always trust free enterprise either. It certainly seems like Japanese companies are more interested in pushing the envelope than American companies are.

And I hardly think these technologies are being "forced down people's throats," either, since I would assume you have a choice whether or not you want to subscribe to broadband -- it's not like the cost is inextricably included with the cost of an apartment or something. Aren't a lot of Slashdotters (myself included) pining for the opportunity to vote with our hard-earned dollars *for* 12MB/s broadband? Since when have corporations listened to us?

... ice (as a water source) or life, in Svalbard. Worse, the life - seal, polar bear, fox, and walrus - is potentially hazardous to equipment.

I'm living slightly to south from Estonia. I do not agree with some ideas in some postings - specifically, about Estonia leading the ex-USSR and/or Baltics (Lithuania/Latvia/Estonia) regions.

Cultural differences aside (Estonians are Ugro-Finnic, others are Balts, none of them Slavs), the three countries are similar in size, economic conditions, they share same recent history (post WWI independence, pre-WWII Soviet occupation, 1991 restoration independence, economy recovery and upcoming EU membership.

Looking at economics, GDP growth in Estonia in 2002 (5.8%) was the slowest among its Baltics neighbors (Latvia 6.1%, Lithuania 6.7%) for second year in a row, while GDP-per-capita (9240 in "purchasing power standards", roughly equal to euros) was similar to Latvia's (7750) and Lithuania's (8960), even Belarus or Iran, yet a far cry from European Union average (23210).

This despite the fact that Estonia does lead Baltic states in internet usage. By June 2002, 66% Estonian companies and 19% people had internet conections at home (in Latvia 36% and 3%, in Lithuania 49% and 4%).

Don't make bold statements before checking facts.

Tax at $1 a head on 1.5GP netts you a lot more spendable than $1 a head on 300MP.

Population: 160,145 (July 2002 est.) (CIA World FactBook)

Not exactly numbers a major coporation might be desperate for.

That won't work either then. The CIA is chartered for foreign intelligence only. (See the CIA Mission Statement for more.) If the CIA handles anything domestic, they get in trouble with Congress big time.

And still US are making 500 000 000 000 $ (yes, that much 0's !) deficit in international exchanges each year !

Exports:
$723 billion f.o.b. (2001 est.)
Imports:
$1.148 trillion f.o.b. (2001 est.)

-> 425 billions deficit in 2001 (but it just increases with every year)

CIA World Factbook

Amazingly, they stayed by 1995 for eternal debt:

Debt - external:
$862 billion (1995 est.) .....You work harder, but still lose Money ? ... Welcome to (over)Consumer Society !!!!

Yup, they are quite smart. They've found that the cheapest way to extract oil from difficult areas is to buy themselves a puppet government that will underwrite the costs and pass the (now non-negotiable) bill to us.

i mean its not like anyone has
found any
actual plans or
parts
to build uranium refinement equipment in Iraq - key to building ACTUAL nuclear bombs.

Saddam obviously never had any intention of doing that.

i mean its not like anyone has
found any
actual plans or
parts
to build uranium refinement equipment in Iraq - key to building ACTUAL nuclear bombs.

Saddam obviously never had any intention of doing that.

i mean its not like anyone has
found any
actual plans or
parts
to build uranium refinement equipment in Iraq - key to building ACTUAL nuclear bombs.

Saddam obviously never had any intention of doing that.

i mean its not like anyone has
found any
actual plans or
parts
to build uranium refinement equipment in Iraq - key to building ACTUAL nuclear bombs.

Saddam obviously never had any intention of doing that.

Ok, this is a serious question, not an attempt to start a flame war or anything, but why does this always happen to MS systems? I use a Mac and have only had to work with Windows at my college and a few other times here and there. I've NEVER seen a live Mac trojan or worm and have only ever encountered one virus (the 666 one) that wasn't really malicious and only added some extra resources labeled "(Box thingy)666" in an application's resource fork that caused an application to run a little slower. And that was 4 or 5 years ago in OS 7.5 or 8.

Now, I understand the "security through obscurity" theory that basically says Mac's have far fewer virii problems than PCs because not nearly as many people use Macs, but that's sort of a dead idea nowadays. While we don't have nearly the numbers of any MS OS, by Apple's numbers, there are 7 million users of OS X, which makes the current number of users in the OS X community about as large as the populations of Hong Kong (7,303,334) or Switzerland (7,301,994), and about 1 million more people than the pop. of Israel (6,029,529). (Go on, check my numbers.) And just for good measure, add to that the fact we now have a more or less Unix based OS and therefore must have some common ground with numerous other OSes. It's not like we're a tiny little niche to go after, or one that no one knows how to program for. Hell, Apple even gives away developer tools to write out and compile programs. So why don't we ever see any worm, trojan, or virus outbreaks for OS X?

Despite another poster's math, it's actually about 100 sq. miles (260 * 0.6214 * 0.6214). According to the CIA fact book, it's actually one of the world's largest coral islands.

Still, with an estimated population of 2134 as of July 2002, it has fewer people than our local high school, so by that measure it's pretty darn small. A typical desktop class computer could process the tax returns for the entire country.

4. Numbers are geographically fixed.
eg, in the UK all mobile numbers begin with 07xxx

From the Cia World Fact Book:

United Kingdom: slightly smaller than Oregon

We are talking about much smaller areas here. The US is such a big country, with a lot of landmass, it is a lot harder to manage.

Billing: Another thing to think about in the number portability, is billing. For instance, I get my phone in NY, then swith providers when I move to CA and port my number. So know when I dial someplace in CA, with a NY number is that Roaming, how is the billing computed? When my friends call me from NY, they pay a local call, but how is the billing computed? That is going to be one of the major stumbling blocks to this.

Here on the South Sandwich Islands" we've been using this technology for some time, the results have been remarkable, shop lifting has been totally eliminated, none of our department stores ever run out of stock, and the only drawback seems to be a small localised outbreak of testicular cancer. But most people seem to agree that its benefits far outweigh its drawbacks.

Serious question: where do they get the electricity from? Do they have fossil-fuel burning generating stations on the island, or ... or what?

According to this entry in the CIA Factbook, 100% of their electricity is generated via fossil fuel generating stations.

However, there are apparently plans for a large wind farm.

CIA Factbook entry for Niue

I know; you're kidding. But Niue is at 19 02 S, 169 52 W (link contains many useful facts about Niue). Where are the bird planning on migrating to?