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You really do want them to have it. by kippy · 2003-01-29 06:47 · Score: 3, Insightful · on Dude! Where's My Plutonium?

Even if Japan is on the level, some of their neighbors are not.

I'd much rather like Japan to know where it is rather than not because of the fact that they are on the level.

WAR ON PIRACY by teamhasnoi · 2003-01-27 16:54 · Score: 2, Insightful · on P2P File Sharing Could Cost You A Bundle

Let's see. We've had the War on Terrorism, the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty a War on Pornography and a War on 21,000,000 other things.

Have we won ANY of these wars?

How about a war on those who would call a war for anything.

The 'war on piracy' (wait for the MassMedia catchphrase) will be another failure, brought to you by those who would profit by its existence. Just like all the other 'War on' groups.

Hey Ashcroft, how about a war on puritanical Fundamentalists who see art as pornography, and symbols of fair Justice as dirty, masturabatory 'distractions' that should be covered up. Loser.

The American people want to see some titty.

Shame vs. Effort by /Idiot\ · 2003-01-27 14:04 · Score: 1 · on Shutting down Kazaa

It was once said that there is no shame in not knowing, just not finding out.

For more info on the Republic of Vanuatu: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ nh.html

Re:Where? by epicstruggle · 2003-01-26 04:59 · Score: 2, Informative · on Shutting down Kazaa

Here is the correct link

Re:says who? by big_groo · 2003-01-24 02:42 · Score: 4, Informative · on South Pole to Get Highway

Basically, yes - and they've reserved the right to do just that.

Check out the CIA World Factbook entry on the US here.

Scroll down to the very end and read 'Internationl Disputes'.

Re:Wrong Steve by nathanm · 2003-01-23 18:37 · Score: 1 · on Elect Steve Jobs President of the United States

Feel free to substitute neo-imperialism for imperialism if that makes you feel better. Quibbling over semantics is boring, so I won't stand on the word.

Neo-imperialism? WTF? That's a new one, did you just make that up?

Conceptually the US holds most of the world's nations in thrall. US law supercedes the laws of Guam and the US Virgin Islands even though those nations have no vote in the US.

The laws of Guam and the USVI are US law, because they are US territories. You're correct they don't vote for President, but their inhabitants are US citizens, and they pay no federal income taxes. If they wanted their independence, they could. The Philipines, the Federated States of Micronesia, and others used to be US territories, but they voted to become independent, so we let them. The issue comes up in Puerto Rico regularly, but they vote to remain a US territory.

US law reaches into most of the world's countries -- from countries that would fail without being propped up by US military support,

What does foreign aid, military or otherwise, have to do with US laws?

to indictment of foreign citizens who have no business interactions with the US over violations of US law,

If you're talking about Dmitry Sklyarov, I agree that was incredibly ridiculous on the part of the US, but I think that was a rare case.

to coercion through fear and threats of force to stances on foreign policy,

Besides terrorists and Saddam Hussein, nobody else in the world is afraid we'll use force against them. America has been very reluctant to use force throughout our history.

the US interferes with other countries sovereignty.

Give me one good example.

In the sense that empires remove from their occupied countries the right to self determination, there are very few countries in the world that aren't subjugated to US neo-imperialism.

Name just one country that's subjugated to our control.

If I call that imperialism, rather than neo-imperialism, then it is only because the latter is more difficult to write.

It may be more difficult to write, but it'll be that much harder to persuade anyone if you keep making baseless accusations, then back-pedal and say you meant something else, i.e. a term you invented.

Re:Wrong Steve by nathanm · 2003-01-23 18:37 · Score: 1 · on Elect Steve Jobs President of the United States

Feel free to substitute neo-imperialism for imperialism if that makes you feel better. Quibbling over semantics is boring, so I won't stand on the word.

Neo-imperialism? WTF? That's a new one, did you just make that up?

Conceptually the US holds most of the world's nations in thrall. US law supercedes the laws of Guam and the US Virgin Islands even though those nations have no vote in the US.

The laws of Guam and the USVI are US law, because they are US territories. You're correct they don't vote for President, but their inhabitants are US citizens, and they pay no federal income taxes. If they wanted their independence, they could. The Philipines, the Federated States of Micronesia, and others used to be US territories, but they voted to become independent, so we let them. The issue comes up in Puerto Rico regularly, but they vote to remain a US territory.

US law reaches into most of the world's countries -- from countries that would fail without being propped up by US military support,

What does foreign aid, military or otherwise, have to do with US laws?

to indictment of foreign citizens who have no business interactions with the US over violations of US law,

If you're talking about Dmitry Sklyarov, I agree that was incredibly ridiculous on the part of the US, but I think that was a rare case.

to coercion through fear and threats of force to stances on foreign policy,

Besides terrorists and Saddam Hussein, nobody else in the world is afraid we'll use force against them. America has been very reluctant to use force throughout our history.

the US interferes with other countries sovereignty.

Give me one good example.

In the sense that empires remove from their occupied countries the right to self determination, there are very few countries in the world that aren't subjugated to US neo-imperialism.

Name just one country that's subjugated to our control.

If I call that imperialism, rather than neo-imperialism, then it is only because the latter is more difficult to write.

It may be more difficult to write, but it'll be that much harder to persuade anyone if you keep making baseless accusations, then back-pedal and say you meant something else, i.e. a term you invented.

Re:SA more progressive than the US? by Ancil · 2003-01-20 20:38 · Score: 1 · on South African Gov't Declared An Open Source Zone

Just out of curiousity, are you yourself South African linving in South Africa?

I've never been to South Africa. My description based on a friend who grew up there, and joined the French Foreign Legion to get a passport and get the heck out of SA.

But hey, you don't need a friend who went to war in Angola (funny story: his unit caused an international incident with Zamibia by getting lost). A cursory examination of the CIA Factbook reveals a life expectancy of 45 years and infant mortality of 61 per 1000 births. Yikes.

Or offering your expert commentary from a safe distance much as you accuse me of doing?

There's nothing inconsistent about saying "South Africa is a shambles, I'm not going there". It's a bit more suspect to say "I've been avoiding South Africa for almost ten years, but it's way ahead of the US!"

Bottom Line: Progressive laws don't mean shit when basic things like murder and rape are out of control. More liberals in the US could remember this too. And, to be fair, more conservatives could remember that enforcing laws costs money, but in the long term it's a good investment.

Canada - The Better Choice Upstairs by Anonymous Coward · 2003-01-16 04:56 · Score: 0 · on The New Face of Global Competition

I'm actually 100% serious here for those short-sighted thoughtless managers who really feel that gutting their organization is their only hope.

Comparison

Canada - Approximately 40% less expensive than development in the United States

India - Approximately 40% less expensive than development in the United States

Canada - Worldclass education system that spans the entire population

India - Spotty and poor coverage education system that is for the wealthy

Canada - 18.5 million phones for a population of 30 million. Excellent telephone infrastructure that was the world's first (in concert with the system in the US)

India - 27.7 million phones for a population of 1,045 million people.

Canada - One of the world's best data backbones and data distribution throughout the entire country. Data is cheap.

India - Data coverage is spotty at best, and requires global spanning for things like video conferencing. Most connections require traversing multiple data carriers (whereas between most Canadian centers and American centers is a single carrier)

Canada - Stable, peaceful nation with natural geographical protection.

India - Could be in a nuclear conflict with Pakistan tomorrow.

Canada - One of the world's least corrupt criminal and political systems.

India - Horrendously corrupt political and criminal systems. Maybe your big development center will be shut down because your competitor paid several thousand rupies to a politician.

Canada - Buys almost entirely from the US, meaning that every dollar spent here generally goes right back to the US.

India - Buys very little from the US, and most dollars that go to India go there to build a competitor that my, ironically, eventually put companies like Oracle and Sun out of business. These companies are basically sponsoring their own demise.

I won't even both comparing as there is no comparison . The only reason why anyone would even imagine going to India today is because it's the big thing they read about in articles like this. The reality, though, is that Canada is a better choice both from a moral choice, but DEFINITELY from a practical choice.

Canada - The Better Choice Upstairs by Anonymous Coward · 2003-01-16 04:56 · Score: 0 · on The New Face of Global Competition

I'm actually 100% serious here for those short-sighted thoughtless managers who really feel that gutting their organization is their only hope.

Comparison

Canada - Approximately 40% less expensive than development in the United States

India - Approximately 40% less expensive than development in the United States

Canada - Worldclass education system that spans the entire population

India - Spotty and poor coverage education system that is for the wealthy

Canada - 18.5 million phones for a population of 30 million. Excellent telephone infrastructure that was the world's first (in concert with the system in the US)

India - 27.7 million phones for a population of 1,045 million people.

Canada - One of the world's best data backbones and data distribution throughout the entire country. Data is cheap.

India - Data coverage is spotty at best, and requires global spanning for things like video conferencing. Most connections require traversing multiple data carriers (whereas between most Canadian centers and American centers is a single carrier)

Canada - Stable, peaceful nation with natural geographical protection.

India - Could be in a nuclear conflict with Pakistan tomorrow.

Canada - One of the world's least corrupt criminal and political systems.

India - Horrendously corrupt political and criminal systems. Maybe your big development center will be shut down because your competitor paid several thousand rupies to a politician.

Canada - Buys almost entirely from the US, meaning that every dollar spent here generally goes right back to the US.

India - Buys very little from the US, and most dollars that go to India go there to build a competitor that my, ironically, eventually put companies like Oracle and Sun out of business. These companies are basically sponsoring their own demise.

I won't even both comparing as there is no comparison . The only reason why anyone would even imagine going to India today is because it's the big thing they read about in articles like this. The reality, though, is that Canada is a better choice both from a moral choice, but DEFINITELY from a practical choice.

Not only that, but... by ackthpt · 2003-01-13 18:05 · Score: 5, Insightful · on Hollywood Muscles Aussie ISPs Over Movie Downloading

(OK, I submitted this, but 97% of my submissions get the circular file so ...)

Proving once again that U.S. government and businesses recognize no boundaries, CNN (among others) carries tidings of U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson refusing to drop a copyright infringement suit against Kazaa owner Sharman Networks Ltd. (based in Austrailia, incorporated in Vanuatu) brought by the music (RIAA, no doubt) and movie (MPAA, also, no doubt) industries. Perhaps Sharman Networks spokeswoman, Kelly Larabee, should consider the fate of Manuel Noriega and how 21 million (where do they come up with these numbers?) americans are at risk of subversion by wanton music and movie swapping. Battle of the Coral

Not only that, but... by ackthpt · 2003-01-13 18:05 · Score: 5, Insightful · on Hollywood Muscles Aussie ISPs Over Movie Downloading

(OK, I submitted this, but 97% of my submissions get the circular file so ...)

Proving once again that U.S. government and businesses recognize no boundaries, CNN (among others) carries tidings of U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson refusing to drop a copyright infringement suit against Kazaa owner Sharman Networks Ltd. (based in Austrailia, incorporated in Vanuatu) brought by the music (RIAA, no doubt) and movie (MPAA, also, no doubt) industries. Perhaps Sharman Networks spokeswoman, Kelly Larabee, should consider the fate of Manuel Noriega and how 21 million (where do they come up with these numbers?) americans are at risk of subversion by wanton music and movie swapping. Battle of the Coral

Re:Most Chinese DO have TVs by 56 · 2003-01-10 18:11 · Score: 2, Informative · on Nintendo To Sell Old Consoles To China?

China has:

400,000,000 Televisions:

and

1,284,303,705 People

Source: The CIA World Factbook 2002

Government Lisencing and Monitoring would be good! by The_Guv'na · 2003-01-09 10:14 · Score: 2 · on Mandated Regulation/Certification for Computer Repair?

Imagine that, by law, an image of your hard drive must be sent to the government, your DNA swabbed from your input devices, and bugs/keyloggers routineley installed if they find any sign of terrorist or criminal activities or intentions....

Such as:

Browsing of terrorist or dissenting, un-patriotic, or otherwise not wholesome all-american websites.
Use of any audio/video compression technology other than lisenced and government approved encoding protocols. No matter if you have no pirate material, If you have the ability and tools, you're dangerous enough!
Any expression of dissenting or un-patriotic views or opinions in your messenger histories, message board/newsgroup postings, emails, or slashdot poll votes.

Naturally, copies of your drive image will always be sent immediateley to the proper authorities for America's protection.

As we all know, no Saudi funded terrorist group could even dream of affording it's own bunch of nutbars to read up on some HOWTOs and sort out their own computers.

Have A Nice Day!(tm)

Ali

Re:What we need, is to get rid of the monopolies. by Eristone · 2003-01-08 21:14 · Score: 2, Insightful · on Customer-owned Networks: ZapMail & Telecoms

5 years ago Japanese schoolgirls had cheap cellphones with more power than your cheap cell phone. It can hardly be called "progress" when we continue playing "keep up with the Joneses" so to speak.

It's easier to implement infrastructure changes when the area you have to deal with is slightly smaller than California. It's all those empty (sans people) miles of desert, mountain and farm land that hold back a lot of things because it's downright expensive to cover the whole of the U.S.

You'll notice that you don't get digital cellular reception everywhere in the country - a whole bunch of places will drop back to analog - or just drop - once you get away from the Interstate highways. Take a look at the coverage maps for Verizon, AT&T and Sprint.

Re:cell phones by enkidu · 2003-01-04 00:42 · Score: 2 · on Cell Phones and Broadband 'Net Win in S. Korea

Uhm, "mostly flat country"? You haven't been there have you? Yes, the western and southern EDGES of the country are "flat" but the middle to eastern part is pretty rough terrain. The maximum heights aren't high because the area is small, but the terrain is incredibly rough. Heck, there were guerillas hiding out in some mountains 10 fucking years after the Korean War. To quote from the CIA World Book entry "Terrain: mostly hills and mountains; wide coastal plains in west and south". Or how about another source with a map and description:"Around 80% of the Korean Peninsula is covered by mountains while South Korea has a rugged and mountainous terrain... Only 15% of the land area is covered by plains, which are mostly located along the coast."

The reason its cheap to set up cells is simple population density. Also makes it cheap to run Broadband to every house in the country. AFAIK, South Korea put down fiber optic (I think 6 or 10 fibers) alongside every single power line over the last 10 years (new and retrofit). The power company then leases out those lines in a relatively non-discriminatory manner. Makes for a very cost effective high speed network.

EnkiduEOT

Too bad you can't see beyond your own nose... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-12-29 14:55 · Score: 0 · on CDMA 2000 1x Comes to India

Mark this as a troll if you must, but the truth of the matter is that I am pointing to facts and Slashdot can make a decision for itself. Unforunately, people like "metlin" forget that their country needs to be brought up from 3rd world status and that will not happen by giving people cell-phones. Most of the achievements in the Western world have come from hardwork and a sincere desire to change. Technological advances were created with the evolution of society not by handing them technology.

It troubles me to read posts such as yours since it shows a complete disrespect for the millions that are suffering due to poverty. I have no need to argue with you other than point you and the rest of the slashdot community to the CIA World fact book which breaks down how dire the situation is through hard numbers:

Here

Furthermore, human rights abuses run rampent:

Here

It continues in a report to the U.S. Congress:

Here

And more:

Here

Caste violence, Gujrat, etc:

Here

VJP, the current prime minister has been trying to force his parties Hindu fundamentalist agenda and it is working. They have successfully led to the genocide of thousands of peasants of non-Hindu religious decent.

Re: Right to Keep and Bear Arms by SillySlashdotName · 2002-12-27 10:06 · Score: 1 · on Deliberation of "National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace"

Anyone without military training and sophisticated weapons equipment can't make a damned bit of difference in a real war against a real military. When the constitution was written, they could. I challenge you to defend yourself against an incoming cruise missile with your assault rifle. Don't think the enemy will be stupid enough to send in troops for you to whack until he's glassed your city one or twice from several thousand miles away. .

I am not sure what you are smoking , but it must be good sh*t.

Can you say VietNam? I knew you could.

There are several "reasons" for war - to take what someone else has, to prevent them from takng what you have, to exert your will on another nation or people, or 'for one people to disolve the political bands which have bound them with another', etc. (I didn't say they were all GOOD reasons...) "glassing" my city from several thousand miles away using conventional nuclear devices will render the area uninhabitiable for several centuries and useless for ANYBODY; in addition, as I live in midwest USA, doing so would render hugh amounts of farmland unusable for any purpose; doing so with non-nuclear devices will destroy the infrastructure and presumably kill the people - unless you are waging war for territory for your own people to live in, and expect the entire world to allow it, you have just destroyed what you were fighting over.

In VietNam the people were able to make the price of waging war high enough that the US stopped sending troops and declared a cease fire; two years later the south was over run - we did not win that one. Note that no cities were 'glassed' - partially for political reasons, but also partly because the 'enemy' was not found only in the cities, but mainly in the boondocks, and that the US forces were generally better equipt and supplied than the opposing forces.

Also note that in Desert-Storm there were no cities 'glassed' even once, either.

Re: Right to Keep and Bear Arms by SillySlashdotName · 2002-12-27 10:06 · Score: 1 · on Deliberation of "National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace"

Anyone without military training and sophisticated weapons equipment can't make a damned bit of difference in a real war against a real military. When the constitution was written, they could. I challenge you to defend yourself against an incoming cruise missile with your assault rifle. Don't think the enemy will be stupid enough to send in troops for you to whack until he's glassed your city one or twice from several thousand miles away. .

I am not sure what you are smoking , but it must be good sh*t.

Can you say VietNam? I knew you could.

There are several "reasons" for war - to take what someone else has, to prevent them from takng what you have, to exert your will on another nation or people, or 'for one people to disolve the political bands which have bound them with another', etc. (I didn't say they were all GOOD reasons...) "glassing" my city from several thousand miles away using conventional nuclear devices will render the area uninhabitiable for several centuries and useless for ANYBODY; in addition, as I live in midwest USA, doing so would render hugh amounts of farmland unusable for any purpose; doing so with non-nuclear devices will destroy the infrastructure and presumably kill the people - unless you are waging war for territory for your own people to live in, and expect the entire world to allow it, you have just destroyed what you were fighting over.

In VietNam the people were able to make the price of waging war high enough that the US stopped sending troops and declared a cease fire; two years later the south was over run - we did not win that one. Note that no cities were 'glassed' - partially for political reasons, but also partly because the 'enemy' was not found only in the cities, but mainly in the boondocks, and that the US forces were generally better equipt and supplied than the opposing forces.

Also note that in Desert-Storm there were no cities 'glassed' even once, either.

Similar situation in Syria by Anonymous Coward · 2002-12-25 05:44 · Score: 0, Troll · on Roblimo Abroad: Pushing Linux' Prospects In Jordan

Here in Syria we have a very primitive infrastructure. Using free software is one way to cut costs. I'm promoting free software everywhere I go. Some problems we have is that most programs aren't full unicode aware, but we're working on patches that we then submit to the authors.

Mike Bouma : mike@talk21.com

Re:One last bit by MacAndrew · 2002-12-22 09:10 · Score: 1, Offtopic · on Louisiana Team Finds Arc Royal

Since 1950 Puerto Rico is a commonwealth -- not a territory, although it is a territory for certain purposes and a state for others. I can't find a definitive reference fast enough. CIA Factbook

More:

Interesting Facts:
The term "United States" when used in a geographical sense on official documents, acts and/or laws; includes the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa.

The U.S. has twelve unincorporated territories, also known as possessions, and two commonwealths. The major possessions are American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. All of these have a non-voting representative in the U.S. Congress. The major commonwealths are Puerto Rico and the Northern Marianas. Commonwealths have their own constitutions and greater autonomy than possessions, and Guam is currently in the process of moving from the status of unincorporated territory to commonwealth. The residents of all of these places are full U.S. citizens, with the exception of those on American Samoa who are U.S. nationals, but not citizens. (U.S. Commonwealths/Territories: American Samao, Baker Island, Howland Island, Guam, Jarvis Island, Kingman Reef, Midway Islands, Navassa Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Palmyra Atoll, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands (St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas), and Wake Island).

Puerto Rico has its own Olympic team and competes in the Miss Universe pageant as an independent nation.

I think Virginia and Massachusetts also refer to themselves as commonwealth. I don't know the significance if any.

As for statehood, PR should be accorded self-determination, as was every present state in the union. I assume our territories would have remained territories had they so chosen. Personally I would make statehood or somethinghood for DC a greater priority. DC residents do pay fed taxes, yet are like PR disenfranchised (remember the old "not taxation without representation" jingle? :). I live across the river from DC and am more aware of their plight.

I don't think we should dump PR merely on revenue grounds. Think of the precedent. We'd have to dump Iowa, too! (Farm subsidies) (Just kidding -- some of the poorest states must be a net drain, though)

Re:Non-issue. by F.Prefect · 2002-12-10 08:49 · Score: 1 · on Human vs Computer Intelligence

23% illiterate in the US? You must be counting children under 3 years of age or something. The CIA World Factbook reports a 97% literacy rate for persons over 15 in the U.S. I guess it's just fashionable to believe that the U.S. citizenry are all drooling morons.

Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls by cioxx · 2002-12-08 22:30 · Score: 5, Funny · on Kiwi Geeks Seek Domain

Here are my thoughts on this SLD (Second Level Domain) proposal: It's unnecessary.

Hear me out. New Zealand has 3,908,037 people, give or take a few. I seriously doubt there are even 5,000 geeks who would get those domains. No one would pass up an opportunity to aquire .com domain or any other TLD. This idea is very specialized, hence serves no purpose.

Besides, all my friends from NZ have .com/.net/.org domains already.

I do have a proposal on what type of domains New Zealand government should implement, since the topic came up.

*.holycowmyinternetisslow.nz - for people who are still on 28.8k dialup modems inside of New Zealand
*.udpmatch.nz - for packet kiddies who are looking for a mate
*.neal.nz - will be reserved for Cowboy Neal in case he ever moves there
*.sheep.nz - hot sheep erotic fanfiction
*.cliche.nz - will serve as the domain for humor sites incorporating "beowulf cluster" and "In Soviet Russia" jokes all the time!
*.rom.nz - domain for Romainians who are considering moving to New Zealand to trade ROMS and Emulators for Atari 9600

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some NZ official to see these suggestions and put them on a fasttrack.

Re:is there by plumby · 2002-12-07 23:28 · Score: 2 · on SmartEiffel 1.0 Released

There was no Vietnam war. It was an armed conflict between the US and the Communist influences in the area.

It may not have been declared a war by the US Government, but it was certainly a war as far as the Vietnamese were concerned, and the CIA consider it a war "His study shows that CIA analysts had a firm grasp of the situation in Vietnam and continually expressed doubts that heightened US military pressure alone could win the war."

there was no new expansion into South Vietnam

Huh? So who was streaming into Saigon (now Ho Chi Mihn City - named after the communist leader in the north - might give you a clue) as the US troops fled from their embassy? The entire country has been united under communuist rule since 1975. Or are you suggesting that there was no new expansion outside of Vietnam, such as in Cambodia, where the Vietnamese invaded in 1978 to fight the US-supported Khmer Rouge. (you might want to read "Heroes" by John Pilger for eye witness accounts of both events)

And are you seriously claiming that the US achieved their objectives in Vietnam? They must really teach you some strange things at school over there.

Re:screen shots by DCowern · 2002-12-05 23:11 · Score: 3, Informative · on Angry Spirited Away Fans Strike Back

My source disagrees. It looks more like 126 million... not thousand.

Re:I have another suggestion... by (trb001) · 2002-11-27 08:13 · Score: 2 · on Is SEVIS Likely to Cause Problems For Foreign Students?

Ummm, no, you're wrong. Here's the first thing that I found doing a basic search...landed on the CIA's numbers. That says 14.1. That means that for every 1000 people, 14.1 new people are born every year. The death rate, however, is here, at 8.7. Since they're both with respect to 1000 people, we can directly compare them. FYI, 14.2 is greater than 8.7 by 5.5. So for every 1000 people, our population goes UP by 5.5 per year. Granted, I'll attribute a lot of that to the immigrants and minorities that have way too many children for their own good, but the majority is still good American citizens.

Get your facts straight, GiMP.

--trb

Re:I have another suggestion... by (trb001) · 2002-11-27 08:13 · Score: 2 · on Is SEVIS Likely to Cause Problems For Foreign Students?

Ummm, no, you're wrong. Here's the first thing that I found doing a basic search...landed on the CIA's numbers. That says 14.1. That means that for every 1000 people, 14.1 new people are born every year. The death rate, however, is here, at 8.7. Since they're both with respect to 1000 people, we can directly compare them. FYI, 14.2 is greater than 8.7 by 5.5. So for every 1000 people, our population goes UP by 5.5 per year. Granted, I'll attribute a lot of that to the immigrants and minorities that have way too many children for their own good, but the majority is still good American citizens.

Get your facts straight, GiMP.

--trb

Iraqi Geeks by daviddennis · 2002-11-22 06:30 · Score: 3, Interesting · on On the Possibility of Information Warfare?

Let's get real here.

According to The CIA's World Factbook:

Population 24 million
Phone lines 675,000 (2.8% of the population)
Internet accounts 12,500 (0.052% of the population)

If you consider that Internet access is obviously determined by political reliability, not technical prowness, how many Iraqi geeks with Internet access do you think exist?

I know Iraq could have a special elite Geek Squad or something, but normally you need a pretty good pool of applicants to recruit from. In the case of Iraq, I don't see it as fertile ground for geeks to get needed experience, however motivated they may be to help Saddam.

Also, we know cracking is all about trial and error, and Iraqi geeks are bound to be intimidated by Saddam's "succeed or we kill you" policy. That doesn't exactly encourage the hacker ethic, does it?

So no, I'm afraid Iraqi mastery of this subject is a pipe dream. I could believe Al Queda operatives could conduct cyberwar, because most of them are in fairly free countries and could take advantage of people's grievances and resentments to learn.

But not Iraq. Forget Iraq.

D

Re:India ... by Mignon · 2002-11-20 05:24 · Score: 2 · on Indian State Switches to Linux

we're only talking about one state here

The "profile" link on the state's portal page reports the population as "6,03,85,118." I'm not familiar with this notation, but I'm guessing that means about 60 million people. This strikes me as a reasonably large state - about 17th the total population (of 1.045 billion, according to the CIA) while there are 28 Indian states.

Re:Good ol' Slashdot Duality by RealAlaskan · 2002-11-14 07:13 · Score: 2 · on Taiwan Asks Microsoft To Open Windows Source

That's Taiwan, our ally , not Mainland China, the oppressive enemy power.

Therefore, isn't the fact that Microsoft's closed source policies stand in the way of China's attempts at fullscale net censorship, a good thing?

That's not the issue, MS's policy wouldn't stand in the way, and doing the right thing for the wrong reason shouldn't buy one any moral credit.

CIA's World fact book by StalinJoe · 2002-11-12 07:16 · Score: 2, Informative · on Where's the Open Data?

Lots of great links there, but you left out The CIA's world fact book. They publish as much as they can so that anyone (including their own agents) can access the needed information, from anywhere. World Fact Book http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index .html

'Free as in beer' will be unstoppable by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-11 08:48 · Score: 0 · on Microsoft Targeting Indian Developers

"About a quarter of the population is too poor to be able to afford an adequate diet."

"India has large numbers of well-educated people skilled in English language; India is a major exporter of software services and software workers."

-CIA

The invisible hand will force OSS/Linux in India to grow and prosper at Microsoft's expense.

Re:We should make energy more expensive by goon+america · 2002-11-11 06:53 · Score: 2 · on Global Warming will Open Northwest Passage

BTW. I saw a protest plackard on TV saying Americans are over 100 times more polluting to the world than the inhabitants of Bangladesh.

I'd like to see that person with the plackard give up his/her lifestyle for one of a Bangladeshi.

Some tips:
Look for a job in the red-hot rice-farming sector. If you're lucky you can be one of the 65% of inhabitants that have jobs.
There are plenty of ways to stretch your $10/week paycheck. Make your house out of mud, and rebuild it after the flood season every year.
Severe overpopulation has its benefits. You will always have plenty of available roommates.

CIA world factbook

Aren't most geeks cat people? by bluethundr · 2002-11-08 19:35 · Score: 4, Interesting · on How Looks Your Geekroom?

Many in this community are dog people, but is it my imagination that a higher percentage of geeks are cat people? It's either a startling coincidence or my life represents a real Nielsen-style rating as to the percentage of computer volken who like the furry little beasts...

This observation began for me when once I lived in an apartment complex with an exclusive population of nerds. It was the mid 90s at that time. Before I got there it was just a couple of Mac II-Ci's with phone-net (!!!) flowing out of the windows. I'm pretty sure we had the first network in the little beach-town of Seaside Park, NJ.

Eventually, there were 7 units each with Ethernet dangling from window-sill to window-sill. And only 500 feet from the beach! With a tremendous view of the Ocean from a kickin' deck upon which we would regularly grill mahi-mahi and the like whilst imbibing on food-breaks from endless network gaming and hacken (and more imbibing). It was bloody Nirvana!...but I digress.

All were tiny little cracker box apartments (we were beginning our tech careers at that point) that at the peak of geek occupancy housed a motley collection of Macintoshen, NT boxen, 1 NeXT machine (mine, a slab serving a 400dpi laser printer and also playing the part of a shuh-WEET NIS server), a couple of Linux box0rz and an Amiga 2000. PowerBooks galore. All nic'd and sharing the the love.

Nearly every apartment was populated with at least one cat, and in one case at least a bloody-stinkin' (emphasis on the "stinkin'" pheeeyew!) cat colony! I, resident mac-geek with a love of code and 3-d, had two...Lumpy and Jake. Neighbor James, who was an NT tech with a penchant for work-related travels to Kazakhstan on occasion, had two as well...Simba (a 22 pound orange basketball with legs and a tail) and Mim (tiny little fucker, even as a full-grown feline).

My friend Ian had a cat named Mr. Beau... Mr. Beau's special talent was vomiting on technology. Yup. If the thing flipped bits in some manner, and it was in Ian's apartment, that shit was getting vomited on. No negotiations. Also, beer was likely to have been spilled on said equipment at some point, but that I believe was (mostly)the fault of the humans about the place.

My friend Mark who also lived there was a 300lb pro wrestler who could lift full grown men over his head in addition to his impressive geek abilities. Adding to those formidable(and imposing)wrestling talents was a steady gig as Mac/NT/Network tech. The guy was also a 3-d rendering guru who made valuable additions to the old Ambrosia game Escape Velocity. He and his (then pre-) wife housed the afore mentioned (sHt1nKeN!) colony of kitties who (despite their numbers...and lovely odor!) managed to not vomit on the tech nearly so often. All the other guys had cats too. Not nearly as smelly.

Since those days, I've worked with a fair number of techs and the sampling of overlap between the cat-ownership and tech communities seemed to grow larger with the more tech-geeks I've met as time passed.

If I might posit a guess, I'd say it had something to do with the independant nature of both beasties. Here I speak of techie cr3tins (myself included) the race of kitt33z. Both seem to have a strongly independant sense of self. The solitary nature of bit-dribbling andromorphs is evinced most strongly by the the noticeable high percentage of said who also play musical instruments. When you think about it, in order to develop ability in either (music or tech), you have to spend a lot of time with yourself thinking, playing, experimenting. Cats, while not much on the thinking or tip seem to be quite competent at being on their own. Far more than dogs anyway in that respect...

Re:International observers in Florida by ncc74656 · 2002-11-06 06:08 · Score: 2 · on Indecision 2002

the person in charge of certifying the election was a state campaign leader for that candidate

And every move she made followed the law exactly and withstood intense international scrutiny.

Furthermore, if Katherine Harris was such a slimeball, what are the odds that she would've won her House race?

Prior to being president that father was the head of the nation's secret police.

So?

The notion that the CIA is some sort of "secret police" is absurd. They're not even permitted to assist the FBI and state & local law enforcement. Even the military isn't restricted to that extent (while the posse comitatus act prohibits the armed services from directly carrying out law-enforcement duties, they are permitted to provide technical assistance).

Re:Taxes by lars_stefan_axelsson · 2002-11-01 04:14 · Score: 2 · on EU Studies Linux Migration

I wonder where you are getting your information from. The OMB [whitehouse.gov] figures state that only 17% ($368 billion out of total $2.128 Trillion)of the fiscal year 2003 budget is allocated to defense spending.

Well, how about the CIA? The CIA factbook lists the following figures (percent of GDP) Sweden: 2.1%, US: 3.2%, UK: 2.32%, France: 2.57%, and Germany: 1.38%.

Thus, as percentages go you range from 24% to 131% greater expenditure military wise, than some European countries. The actual dollar values are of course a different story.

Just for comparison with Sweden and social spending. Our military cost on the average about as much as our housing interest rebate program (aka rent control). Which is to a large extent responsible for delayed "gettoisation" of our larger cities. (Though we'll see for how much longer, unfortunately.)

How much say a halving of the US military expenditure (to German levels) could bring in the form of social reform to the US, I have no idea. Though it'd be an interesting academic exercise.

Re:Is it just me... by Bloodmoon1 · 2002-10-30 11:48 · Score: 1 · on Homing In On Laser Weapons

You do raise some good concerns, but really there's almost zero chance any other countries, freinds or foes, will get ahold of working laser weapons (Not to mention, there is a big difference between Stingers and AKs and JDAMs and Apache choppers). And the reason? The almighty dollar. In the article, one Air Force official says the Air Force alone has spent $4.5 Billion dollars on developing a high powered laser weapon. And that's just the AF, who knows how much the Army and Navy have put in, or how much has went in covertly under a black project. Now for the U.S., $4.5 billion is a drop in the pan. Our defense budget for next year is going to be $355.4 billion. So that $4.5 billion is only about 1-1.5% of our defense budget. Not much. But our defense budget is about 10 times more than any other country. The country that spends the second most on defense is China, and they might spend upwards of $60 billion a year, but most countries that can afford to spend a good amount on defense spend around $30 billion, and on average, whatever they spend comes to around 3% of their GDP (The US included).

I get the following numbers from the CIA World Factbook 2002. Just to give you an idea, our $355 billion budget is, combined, more than:

China: Officially spends $20 billion but actual defense spending more likely ranges from $45 billion to $65 billion. So we'll just say $65 billion for ease of use.
United Kingdom: $31.7 billion
France: $46.5 billion
Germany: $38.8 billion
Italy: $20.2 billion
Spain: $8.6 billion
Canada: $7.8 billion
Japan: $40.7 billion
Australia: $9.3 billion
Brazil: $13.4 billion
Argentina: $4.3 billion
Columbia: $3.3 billion
Mongolia: $24.3 billion
Israel: $8.8 billion
Iran: $9.7 billion
Egypt: $4.4 billion
Iraq: $1.3 billion
South Africa: $1.8 billion
Pakistan: $2.5 billion
India: $12 billion

And about $1 billion in change from our U.S. budget minus all the above named countries. And the moral of the story? We can afford to spend more on just one weapon project then some countries can on their entire defense budget, and this is why we don't have to worry about this falling into the wrong hands. That's why there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of dirt cheap assault rifles in the mid-east and south-east Asia, but the only place you can find an entire bomber wing of $2 billion dollar B-2 Spirit stealth bombers is in Missouri. An AK-47 in America can sell for between $300-$1800 depending on what shape it's in and how good it is, and I'm sure one can be made for much less and purchased for less than that in countries where they are legal to sell brand new. If laser based weapons do live up to the hype, they will essentially be the new nuclear weapons. Everyone will want them, but due to the cost and technology involved, almost no one will be able to have them. This is what Rumsfeld really means when he talks of weapons other countries can't emulate. Of course they can't, they can't afford to. To make these weapons, they would have to inflate their defense budgets so much they would crush their economy and countries. So with these weapons it will probably be, as another poster noted with nukes, another 50-60 years before most countries can afford them, and by then, this will look like stone age technology to us.

Just remember, Iraq once had the 4th largest military in the world. On paper, they should have put up a good fight. However, we had vastly superior technology (and people, IMHO), and, well, you see where they are today.

Re:A few things about India by kfishy · 2002-10-26 22:02 · Score: 1 · on India Officially Launches Simputer

actually, it's slightly over 1 billion people as of July 2002.

Re:Quote by PyroMosh · 2002-10-26 20:05 · Score: 3, Interesting · on Proposed Next-Generation Space Station

Just one?

The Panama Canal.

Lockheed Martin's X-33 single-stage-to-orbit reusable launch vehicle concept.

NASA's Mars Global Surveyor

The NEAR space probe (and it was delivered 9 months ahead of schedule!)

The World Trade Center recovery effort.

The US Navy's Super Hornet (upgrade to the old F/A-18 Hornet Naval strike fighter)

The U2 Spy Plane

Also, I remember hearing from the Discovery Chanel or TLC or Discovery Wings or something that the F-117 Stealth Fighter was developed under budget, but I can't seem to find a reliable link.

Golden Grove Prison at St. Croix in the US Vigrin Islands.

The Grand Staircase-Escalante monument in Utah.

It happens. It's rare percentage wise, but it does happen all the time. With the exception of the last two, which I only found out from google searching for links for the rest, I knew of all of these off of the top of my head, so it's not a big secret or anything. Just think of all the mundane projects that come in under budget too. Government buildings, roadways, etc.

Re:Not again... by Alsee · 2002-10-26 12:07 · Score: 2 · on Proposed Next-Generation Space Station

Depends wether you use Metric or Imperial measurements and convert properly

THE WORLD FACTBOOK 2002 has a handy translation table to ensure proper conversion between US units and international units.

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P.S. by Alsee · 2002-10-24 14:18 · Score: 4, Funny · on Cascading Molecules Drive IBM's Smallest Computer

For Americans who are unfamiliar with international units such as an Azerbaijan, it slightly smaller than Maine.

The CIA website provides a convient and fairly comprehensive translation table between US units and international units.

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Re:Benchmarks please by Alsee · 2002-10-24 14:13 · Score: 5, Funny · on Cascading Molecules Drive IBM's Smallest Computer

Your size comparisons are meaningless to me.
*LoC == Standard metric unit of information (Library of Congress). Size of unit varies from year to year.

Exactly! did you also notice...

so small that 190 billion could fit atop a standard pencil-top eraser 7mm (about 1/4-inch) in diameter.

pencil-top eraser?!? What the hell kind of unit is that? Everyone knows that the standard units of area are football fields, US states, and obscure counties! I want to know how many of these things would would fit in one Azerbaijan!

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Saudis worse off than "oppressed" Paletinians by Phronesis · 2002-10-20 07:47 · Score: 2 · on US Secrecy Efforts Hurting Scientific Research

Saudi Arabia has a vast oil wealth and generates a great deal of income. But this money is hoarded by the royal family and their close associates. The common man, on the other hand, lives a rather poor and meager existence

Just to emphasize what you're saying, according to the CIA World Factbook, both life expectancy at birth and infant mortality are significantly worse in Saudi Arabia than Palestinians in the occupied West Bank . The average oppressed Palestinian can expect to live four years longer than the average Saudi and Saudi babies have twice the infant mortality rate of Palestinian ones. Things are even worse in Egypt, where Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's personal physician and tutor in terrorism and militant Islamic fundamentalism, was born and raised.

While it's true that most of the Islamic Terrorists in the news came from privileged middle-class or wealthy families, they come from countries with tremendous gaps between the rich and poor, and this gap has been found to be one of the best statistical indicators of the level of violence within a society.