Slashdot Mirror

As the developer of Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux, I would want to try and run my livecd linux on any machine, to turn it into a linux box. Problems would be partitioning an existing Windows XP hard drive, so I can have a swap partition, and a partition to do "knoppix tohd=/dev/hda3" for instance. I have QTParted, but have not tried it on a XP filesystem. Might work, might fowl XP up, don't know.
The other problems might be just getting the sound system to work, on many machines I have no problem, on some laptops, no sound. Strangely, I can plug in USB headphones, and I get sound.
I have stayed with the 2.4 kernel, so I can run on many older machines. I note that 3% of my website visitors still run '98. They need to try my knoppix remaster and use that instead if possible, for security reasons, viruses, trojans, etc. being a problem with '98.
I have a HP Pavilion 6330 with 128 MB RAM, and that box does just fine, sound, etc. all working with linux. Tried Slax, it has the later 2.6 kernel, and is very slow, to the point of being almost useless.
With a desktop computer, one can change graphics and sound cards, and get linux up and running very well indeed. No so with a laptop.
All sorts of strange problems can come up, I have a Toshiba 4015CDS machine, and my linux will boot on it, and run with the "tohd" cheatcode, but the second time around, it will not run from that "tohd" setup. Why, I don't know. Linux folks often won't talk about little problems like that, I don't see why I shouldn't let that be known.

The PCMCIA modem in the Toshiba works perfectly, I do use dial-up almost all the time, but do have one machine around here on a Comcast cable modem. I use that to download the competion, and see how they run. Lots of suprises there, some just won't run on many boxes, others are not well put together with useful applications. I have to write a lot of my own applications to get things done the way I want. Eventually, that pays off, and that is the beauty of linux as compared to Windows.

Windows computers are successful because the engineers work out all of the software/hardware issues, and you just buy it, and turn it on, and there is your desktop, ready to go.

I have some screenshots in the signature below, I have a time keeping them up to date with the changes I am making. For instance, I do have seven mouse cursor themes now, built-in, these are kde-look.org cursor themes, and one can switch from one to another in seconds, in the default IceWM window manager. The screenshot shows only 6.

The Getting Started Guidehas 147K of details, that document is hosted on geocities, they provide a sniffer so I can see the OS's, browsers, screen resolution, etc.
I do note that most use 1024x768 now, so my wallpapers match that.
Three of the wallpapers can download from rapidweather.com server, so I can change those from time to time.
I have a wallpaper control center that handles downloaded wallpaper images in a livecd linux setup, allowing easy placement in the "configs.tbz" restoration tarball if need be.

I have moved on from just getting my remaster to run on various computers, to adding applications, and getting them to release /ramdisk memory once the app is closed.

I want to be able to run the machine for hours, using each of the three web browsers, and be able to do "df" and show that I have returned to my starting /ramdisk use. If I am not using an application, I don't want leftovers hanging around. That's hard to do, but I am getting very close.

Guarddog Firewall? On by default, and pre-configured so the user does not have to use the Guarddog interface to set it up.

We say Linux is more secure than Windows, and we need to be able to provide an OS where "online banking" can be done much safer than on Windows. So, even livecd linux needs a firewall.

-- Rapidweather

I have three browsers available in my knoppix remaster.
Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.4, preconfigured with 8 RSS feeds.
Flock 0.7.1, no RSS feeds.
Opera 9.01, 13 RSS feeds.

Opera boots the fastest, but once the RSS feeds get active, right away, older computers need a minute or two to get them downloaded on dialup, before the browser is responsive again. Best way to do it is to click on a link right away, and let the whole mess download, RSS feeds (with small pictures) and the web page. Also, E-Trade won't work in Opera 9.01, you cannot log in. Otherwise it's great, and works very well on an older machine with only 128 MB RAM, with 64K cache Pentium II or AMD processor.

Mozilla Firefox is great, just takes a little longer to boot up.
Tried the Beta of 2.0, it had very tiny fonts in the toolbars, etc. that I could not fix.
Don't have those in 1.5.0.4, so cannot figure out where that problem comes from.
The RSS feeds load up very fast, and since they do not have the complete summaries and small picture that Opera has, only story titles, you get your RSS feeds up and running quickly, even on dial-up.

Flock is very nice also, I don't put RSS feeds in it, so it is less complicated to use.

I have all three running under control scripts, that only load the browser's home directory files when the user starts the browser, and then deletes the ~/.flock, ~/.opera when the browser is closed. Firefox is excepted, to allow saving that configuration.

I hesitated quite a bit upgrading Opera 8.54 to Opera 9.01, since it is slow on flash games, and has an expanded RSS feed setup that can slow the browser down initially on older computers. Didn't know about the E-Trade site being defective until Opera 9.01 was "in there".

Just my luck that Firefox 2.0 won't be acceptable because of the tiny toolbar fonts.

As far as memory used, I do cut back considerably on the default /ramdisk files and directories, to give some room there. Doing "df" gives 624 /ramdisk before any applications or browsers are started, and I seem to have reached a point where I cannot go any lower. With Firefox 1.5.0.4 up and running a while, "df" gives 4824 /ramdisk or 3% on a 256 MB box. The initial figure of 624 is way down into 1% on that 256 MB RAM box.

--Rapidweather

I usually copy a small area that will do to cover the spot, and paste it there, then blend it in, zooming in if necessary. Here is a web page that has an image at the top that I processed with GIMP (in my Knoppix remaster, screenshots below). I removed some junk furniture on one side of the building, re-arranged some shrubs, and removed the next door home that was visible through the trees. When another Doctor was added to the clinic, I added her name to the sign.

No, I don't have her picture, but if you want to take your dog or cat to her for treatment, call first for an appointment.

It's really trendy here on /. to whine about SUV's in terms of energy consumption, but, the fuel burned by an SUV pales beside what a semi full of goods headed into the city burns.

The average SUV weighs 4242 lbs and gets 19 MPG. Larger ones like the Escalade are rated at 13 MPG in the city. The cargo for your average grocery store trip is, let's say, 100 lbs. A tractor-trailer rig is somewhere around 25,000 pounds empty, gets 5-6 MPG when loaded, and carries up to 40,000 lbs cargo. Let's assume that the average is half that. If I did the math right, moving groceries by semi is then 57 times more efficient.

As a kicker, truckers use 13% of fuel purchased in the US versus 63% for cars and other light vehicles. So you're right about the "pale" part, but it appears to be the other way around.

It's really trendy here on /. to whine about SUV's in terms of energy consumption, but, the fuel burned by an SUV pales beside what a semi full of goods headed into the city burns.

The average SUV weighs 4242 lbs and gets 19 MPG. Larger ones like the Escalade are rated at 13 MPG in the city. The cargo for your average grocery store trip is, let's say, 100 lbs. A tractor-trailer rig is somewhere around 25,000 pounds empty, gets 5-6 MPG when loaded, and carries up to 40,000 lbs cargo. Let's assume that the average is half that. If I did the math right, moving groceries by semi is then 57 times more efficient.

As a kicker, truckers use 13% of fuel purchased in the US versus 63% for cars and other light vehicles. So you're right about the "pale" part, but it appears to be the other way around.

Isn't this old news?

Oh, wait. Nevermind. That was a spacesuit as a satellite.

Eh, that's an honest mistake; inflatable spacestations and orbiting spacesuits are practically the same thing.

--

Falun Dafa is good!

And yet the worst fishing site on geocities is still up-- since something like 1998? Someone's asleep at the wheel.

I thought my use of KN*CKERS in addition to KN*CKERS would have demonstrated my familiarity with the sketch... In any case, "Semprini?" is the next spoken line after the display of the word "Semprini": http://www.geocities.com/pythoninsanity/Season2Epi sode4.html?200610/

I've always thought they needed to fill in the old advertisement area on the right side of the "main bar".
From what I am looking at now in Opera 9.01, the buttons only fill in about 40% or less of the main bar area. and they are all over on the left side.

I do have Opera 9.01 in my Knoppix Remaster, and am using the "shared-qt" version. I did have a problem with the "static-qt" version in tests, it was not compatable with the 7 kde-look.org mouse cursor themes I have built-in to the remaster.
Everything mouse-cursor-wise is fine now, Opera will display the theme chosen, in the browser. Before you got a very small cursor inside the browser, when downloading a web page, and Opera would only use your default cursor theme, not any other you switched to, even if you closed Opera and started again.

They have a lot of nice features in Opera 9.01, in KDE, you get an Opera icon next to the clock that you can click to instantly minimize/maximize the Opera window.

I put 13 RSS news feeds in Opera, and there is a short delay in the response of the browser on older computers while the feeds download the stories, immediately on bootup of Opera. That happens also when they get more stories. Very nice, however, you can have something to look at while a web page downloads. You get a small picture with some of the stories, and that takes extra bandwidth, but is a nice touch. You did not get the pictures with Opera 8.54. I did drop my default "df" /ramdisk useage to compensate for the extra space that the Opera 9.01 ~/.opera will take to handle all those feeds.

For those of you using another flavor of livecd linux, I have a short howto for trying out Opera, with a link to the Opera "weekly", at my blog here. That how-to should work with Kanotix Linux, although I have not tried it there. I often save the Opera directory and the ~/.opera to a usb memory stick, for use next time or on another box. It is a temporary way to test Opera without actually "installing" it.

-Rapidweather

http://www.geocities.com/ifihhome/articles/mj002.h tml/

National Geographic did an entire feature about the caste system in India.

I won't deny that those at the lowest caste levels are cruelly oppressed. But it is not the case that there are unified group of "haves" oppressing a smaller minority of "have nots". You have dozens of caste groups that despise and distrust each other. The closer together in the social ladder two castes are, the more violent is the oppression of the higher. But just like it is socially appealing for the poor to scapegoat the castes below them for competing with them, it's also been politically appealing to scapegoat the small minority on top. Because doing so doesn't take anything away from the more populous castes at the middle to near top of the social ladder. It's especially convenient when the people at the top of the social ladder no longer have political or economic power.

http://uk.geocities.com/thetomcatslair/Entertainme nt/DRM/drm.html

Choice quotes:

First off, you need to download a few free programs: Windows Media Player (although I'm sure you've got this - it's bundled with every version of Windows since 98), the Nero Fast Burning Plugin (details from wmplugins.com and download from here), ...

This process does NOT work with Windows Media Player 10. See the FAQ Page for details.

Another possibility is that you bought the tracks from Napster. If so, Napster charge you extra to allow you to copy the song to a CD, and therefore, you can't remove the DRM using the method shown on my website.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=78454

* Backup music files from Napster/other companies that allow CD burning:

        * Download the songs from Napster
        * Burn the songs to a CD e.g. using Nero
        * Rip the CD to MP3 e.g using Easy CDDA Creator
        * Convert to any format you like e.g. using again Easy CDDA Creator

Now I am perhaps reading this wrong, but it sure sounds like you need a third party software called "Nero" to burn a CD. It is possible that the purpose of this software is to make a disk image to avoid using a real CD, however not ONCE have I seen anybody say "use WMP to burn a CD". Also it is pretty obvious that the WMA DRM allows a track to be marked as "can't make a CD from this".

This won't cost you much time, take a look at my screenshots in the signature link below.

It's a Knoppix remaster, and "X" pops up quick, ready to go. I don't leave my machines on, I have to go places, so when I return I like to turn on the box, enter a quick "cheatcode", and very soon, my desktop is up and running.

Very secure, check out the Getting Started Guide.

It's not "installed", the OS runs from the CD, _but_ you can easily copy it to a spare hard drive partition with a cheatcode such as:

knoppix tohd=/dev/hdd7

Only takes a couple of minutes, then you do not run the OS from the CD anymore, except to "bootstrap" it, takes only seconds, then you run from the hard drive!

On the newer 7200 drives, it flys!

Firefox, Opera, Flock, Thunderbird, GIMP: all included.

1) The issue of abortion is the ultimate case study in the right of people not to be ruled by others' moral beliefs, whether religious or otherwise.

(A) On the one hand, you have women who might desire an abortion, but could be prevented by legislation based upon a certain set of moral beliefs. That is certainly an undesirable situation.

(B) On the other, you have unborn children who are as deserving of legal protection as any other "blob of cells" that functions as a human being; yet, they might be denied their legal protection because of legislation -- in my state of Maryland -- based on a certain set of legal beliefs. That is also an undesirable situation.

In either case, the moral beliefs of one person or group will have a significant effect on the future life of another person. It is incorrect to argue that people who believe that (A) is more tolerable than (B) are "religious nutjobs", or are even trying to impose their beliefs on others. Many, like myself, feel that we must support the lesser of two evils, until a third solution appears. Isn't that what real ethical decision-making is all about?

2) The belief that humans are people from conception transcends religious boundaries. It is true that certain religions -- notably, Catholicism -- promote that view. However, it is also true that some atheists and pagans hold that life begins at conception. That was the official position of the AMA prior to 1973 (no position is held now), and it was the official position of most of the US legal system prior to 1972.

Bottom line: you can't divide up the world into "all the idiots that disagree with me" and "the reasonable people that agree with me."

Yo may also take a look to my own simulator of Ant's food-gathering behaviour:

http://www.geocities.com/chamonate/hormigas/antfar m

It tries to emulate the usual ants, that find the food and the way back using pheromone traces.

"I say "probably never" not because I'm a troll, but rather because you have to consider the nature of financial applications: they're difficult to write and require innumerable persnickety design detail to get right."

Wouldn't Table Oriented Programming be a way to handle that aspect in a simple fashion?

...yet you seem to be unable to create a working link...

Slightly offtopic, but the DSL version of dillo is not the standard version; it's patched to support frames and tabs . . . which makes it a heck of a lot nicer to use (albeit bigger) than the standard dillo.

Not everyone in SF gets a license first: Salvage 1 for example.

Freelancing though probably will come about once there are one or more corporate space stations. There are a few reasons for this:

1. The big money is in the lift vehicles, controlled drop vehicles and the station itself. Asteroid hopping vehicles will be relatively inexpensive to build and operate.

2. The corporations don't have to take responsibility for the independant operators. The operators can either be miners or just finders or both. Corporations will only pay for delivery not for unproductive time.

3. Space stations will become the new corporate towns with the new corporate stores and Tennesee Ernie Williams music will see a revival in popularity.

Will stop there as I don't want to completely outline a new science fiction novel for someone or a new future business model. On second thought maybe I should on the latter and patent it.

Right on, Mr. Griffin.

Introduction

Americans need a frontier, not a program.

Incentives open frontiers, not plans.

If this Subcommittee hears no other message through the barrage of studies, projections and policy recommendations, it must hear this message. A reformed space policy focused on opening the space frontier through commercial incentives will make all the difference to our future as a world, a nation and as individuals.

I got my start remastering DSL, often winding up with 75 MB or so once I put Firefox, etc. in there.
I then switched to Knoppix 3.4, using the 2.4 kernel to support older hardware as mentioned.
Here is my Getting Started Guide, also have a technical blog here.
There are some screenshots available there.
One post that I need to draw your attention to is the one about "testcd" for Knoppix remasters. I did run into problems with some versions of DSL using isolinux, in that they would not boot on many of my older computers, due perhaps to the "testcd" problem. It is extremely important that any knoppix remaster pass that test, or there will be complaints concerning no-booting on boxes that used to run the distro flawlessly in an earlier syslinux version.
For that reason, DSL often offers syslinux versions alongside isolinux versions.
I don't feel that I have to, since I pass "testcd" 100%, and mine boots on all my older boxes, in addition to the newer P4 ones.
One clue that I did take from DSL is to include lots of custom-made applications, found nowhere else. That makes a remaster different, and not just a re-arrangement of stock applications.
I do have a bright yellow boot: command line against a black background, making it easy to enter long cheatcodes when trying out a new build. So many knoppix builds have a pale gray boot: command line with black background, very hard to see what you are doing!

Also, see the main screenshots page link in my signature, below.

There's a reference the kids won't get. I remember it well, though.

"Everytime Mickey gets close to falling into PD congress will suddenly find it in their interest to extend copyright..."

Arrrghhh.....Our first pirate party act, will be to capture that scurrvy ridden rodent, and have him walk the plank....yarrr....


Not if the Ninja party has anything to say about it.
I've heard Disney just signed Masaaki Hatsumi http://www.geocities.com/mrdsouza/hatsumi.html as their first line of
defense..

*ducks*

Actually, it's not hard if you use "overflow:hidden". Check out this page for an example.

I'm seriously disapponited in the accuracy of this article. The mistakes here are egregious to the point where malice can be attributed instead of plain laziness. For instance, let's start at the start of the article:

>> After a false start with CORBA 1.0, which was not interoperable and provided only a C mapping, the OMG (Object Management Group) published CORBA 2.0 in 1997.

First as this reference clearly shows [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBRA_Organization], CORBA had its roots since very early times and had its origins in Tibet. In fact, the article glosses over several structural revision in glibbly stating that 2.0 was published in 1997. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I._Joe)

Later on, when in the article it states:

>> Microsoft never embraced CORBA and instead chose to push its own DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model).

It fails to mention the reason why... serious IP issues (prior art: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.P.E.C.T.R.E.] and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion_of_Doom).

There were also serious leadership problems as well. Several power struggles within the group ensured a reputation of uncertainty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpentor).

It also fails to make the connection to the real reason why its not so prominant today (See Red Shadows http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_Commander).
That being said, at least in 2006, you still see some remnants (http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Station/6563/cobr a.html).

Microsoft has at least 2 really big problems deriving from the same fundamental reality: Everyone needs their OS to interoperate with the bulk of the information industry.

The first problem is ethical and really goes beyond the scope of my professional opinions to my public opinions about the support of property rights. Suffice to say, I have no trouble with someone who goes after a natural monopoly position and succeeds. I have a problem with someone who then refuses to use that position of success to fix the bug in the society that made them inordinately rich and their technology inordinately influential.

The second problem is technical, which is what my argument here is really all about.

Basically Microsoft's code bloat problem derives from its monopoly position. This may seem like a truism since all of the software "profession" suffers from code bloat, but only Microsoft can take this to monopolistic proportions -- proportions that make Ma Bell's monopolistic complexities of yore look Spartan.

So Microsoft has this problem and it has many programmers (contributing to the code-bloat problem). It also has mountains of cash.

So how can Microsoft bust its own monopoly position turning its many programmers and mountains of cash into succinct code?

Monetary Incentives for the Programmers, ala the C-Prize:

S = size of uncompressed code-base
P = size of program outputting the uncompressed code-base
R = S/P (the compression ratio).

Award monies in a manner similar to the M-Prize:

Previous record ratio: R0
New record ratio: R1=R0+X

Fund contains: $Z at noon GMT on day of new record
Winner receives: $Z * (X/(R0+X))

What happens very rapidly is the programmers first apply their skills to maximally refactoring the code. What falls out is a series of legacy API layers written atop a tight core.

They'd have to spend more money on code testing to verify the compressed code-bases of the competing teams actually worked to spec but the results should be quite gratifying.

Microsoft has at least 2 really big problems deriving from the same fundamental reality: Everyone needs their OS to interoperate with the bulk of the information industry.

The first problem is ethical and really goes beyond the scope of my professional opinions to my public opinions about the support of property rights. Suffice to say, I have no trouble with someone who goes after a natural monopoly position and succeeds. I have a problem with someone who then refuses to use that position of success to fix the bug in the society that made them inordinately rich and their technology inordinately influential.

The second problem is technical, which is what my argument here is really all about.

Basically Microsoft's code bloat problem derives from its monopoly position. This may seem like a truism since all of the software "profession" suffers from code bloat, but only Microsoft can take this to monopolistic proportions -- proportions that make Ma Bell's monopolistic complexities of yore look Spartan.

So Microsoft has this problem and it has many programmers (contributing to the code-bloat problem). It also has mountains of cash.

So how can Microsoft bust its own monopoly position turning its many programmers and mountains of cash into succinct code?

Monetary Incentives for the Programmers, ala the C-Prize:

S = size of uncompressed code-base
P = size of program outputting the uncompressed code-base
R = S/P (the compression ratio).

Award monies in a manner similar to the M-Prize:

Previous record ratio: R0
New record ratio: R1=R0+X

Fund contains: $Z at noon GMT on day of new record
Winner receives: $Z * (X/(R0+X))

What happens very rapidly is the programmers first apply their skills to maximally refactoring the code. What falls out is a series of legacy API layers written atop a tight core.

They'd have to spend more money on code testing to verify the compressed code-bases of the competing teams actually worked to spec but the results should be quite gratifying.

Actually, I have as small personal page for people who are looking for me to find me. It is here. I am probably the only person in the world with a page that lists my name and my elementary school name. If you do a search on these terms "JOSEPH COTTON SEABREEZE" in google, you will not find my page. If you do a search in yahoo, then there it is at the top. So Google is not king, by any marker other than market share.

Amateur Hammond Organ Recital Hero!

Okay, take it away, skutters!

It's been done.

I saw something unusual when I saw (again) Blade Runner.

When examining the photo with the ESPER machine, I observed that the photo was transformed into 3d in someway. In fact I remember the mirror, perhaps in a future a mirror inside the photo can apport information of the 3D scene...

The ESPER machine:

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Boulevard/7920/ bladeea2.html (spanish, sorry, but it has a diagram of the scene, where "espejo" means "mirror", there is a convex mirror)
http://www.brmovie.com/FAQs/BR_FAQ_Terminology.htm (some information in english)

It suddenly come to my mind when I read this announcement...

I post here once a year, so I am not registered, and forgive my spanglish :lol:

Egocentrico.

The first transistor radios were from the US. I have old RCA, Zenith, and GE radios (i collect them) dating in the late 1950's, well before the Japanese (sony etc) came out. We now think of transistor radios as Japanese because they took over the market thru the near-slave-level wages that they were paying their workers in the early 60's.

I invented the walkman in 1964. I was in the fourth grade. I soldered a 1/4 inch jack to my shortwave style headphones, and inserted it into my 6 transistor radio. I walked to school, rode my bike, etc. with them on. It was great. Everyone considered me to be geekey geek, even before the term was invented. I was picked last for sports, etc. Oh well.

LOOK UP JOSEPH COTTON SEABREEZE ON GOOGLE. Why doesn't it return my page? Now go to yahoo and do the same.

Drapeaux blanc? C'est quoi, ca?

http://www.geocities.com/icaddict.geo/index.html

Why don't you consider 100 seconds instead of 10 seconds? This would require about 2000 watts, about the size of a medium room heater or microwave oven. This time span is just under two minutes, and yet uses household current levels. Doable. I would buy this device today. Is not sooner.

sig: me - do a search for Joseph Cotton Seabreeze in google and in yahoo. Where am I in google? Nowhere. Why is that? This page must be the only one on the internet with these words.

I was so hardcore, I'd find ways around the limitations of the game engine. I was always pissed off that the best you could do was parallel tracks, and that low-reliability trains could even bring those to a halt.

I discovered that, even though the game doesn't support it, you can build automatic parallel switching trunk lines if you're willing to devote the extra land required. WARNING: back in the day I hosted this on my buddy's old Geocities site, please tread lightly.

You can also do fun things like switch over to world-encompassing single-rail loops, and build distributed industries. This way, your commodity trains are always carrying a load, and are making much higher earnings to upkeep ratio. You can even adapt the switching mechanism I outlined in the link above to these lines without requiring so much land.

On microscopic examination, the substance was seen to consist of tiny circular particles that resembled spores. The sample was therefore transferred to the microbiology laboratory of the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI). The spores were found to grow well in algal culture medium. The alga was identified as a specie belonging to the genus Trentepohlia. The region in Changanacherry from where the red rain was reported was found to be densely vegetated with plenty of lichen on trees, rocks and lampposts. Samples of lichen collected from there also were cultured in the microbiology laboratory of TBGRI. The study showed that the lichen collected from the site gave rise to algae similar to the ones cultured from the spores obtained from the rain water samples. The spores in the rainwater, therefore, most probably are of local origin.

Read the whole thing if you're interested.

Well, that's the difference: as much as I dislike Google, they just got it right: Google Video offers easy download.
Fortunately for all the other video services there is the UnPlug Firefox Extension.

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/2060/freewh eel.html

It turns out that a medieval philosopher named William of Ockham may have provide the route to artificial intelligence in his famous Ockham's Razor. As it turns out, this has now been shown to be central to very definition of abstract intelligence and could provide the basis of a prize award like the X-Prize that could solve the AI problem far more effectively than the Turing Competition.

They do a lot worse all the time. I'd like you to list one reaction even remotely similar to the staged protests over the Mohammed photos in the Jyllandsposten. Just one.

Take a look at this page that shows some of the devices christian officials used to burn and rip the penises off of people they suspected might not be christians. Aside from the inquisition, the members of the christian religion have been motivated by their religious beliefs to commit innumerable atrocities, from the crusades to the guy who shot up a gay bar last week.

I seriously doubt christians in small town america would behave any better if positions were reversed, and by positions I don't mean they were shown blasphemous pictures. I mean if their neighboring countries who happen to be mostly the same religion had just been invaded by foreigners who scorn their religion and seem intent on controlling the area. If they were under real threat of conquest, facing forces greater both in number and technology, and they had just taken into their homes refugees fleeing the bombings and death. If they had just lost family and friends and if the blasphemous pictures mirrored the excuses for invading the neighboring country, i.e Jesus eating a dead baby, after some press had read their government should be overthrown because it is made up of Christains who encourage baby eating.

Given those circumstances, how do you think americans would react down at the Iranian embassy? Would there be christian ministers putting themselves between the rock throwing hicks and the foreign embassy, as muslim clerics did? I like to think so. Would american officials try to pacify the people or would they capitalize on it and try to ride the outrage to more power? Probably some of both, just like in the muslim nations.

The problem with comparisons like yours are that they generally only account for one action, not the fear and anger and state of mind of the people as the result of what has been happening in the middle east; largely what the US has been doing in the middle east.

What you imply is that if a culture suppresses criticism from itself, it should be immune from all criticism.

I read no such implication in the parent post. Rather, only that there is a difference in the way it is received.

Further, you imply that the validity of a critique depends not on what it says but on who says it. That's ad-hominem.

No, it isn't. In rhetoric it might be, but this is not the arguments of two individuals, rather it is judging the credibility of information sources. In the former only the argument matters, but in the latter, given that we are not omniscient and do not have infinite time to hunt down the truth or falsehood of everything we read, it is a very valid criteria.

It's standard leftist ideology, and it's amazing that any person can espouse it and claim to be educated; the cognitive dissonance required to hold it should break any functioning mind.

This is the logical fallacy, "argument by association." The aforementioned argument says one thing, from which you assume the person making the argument holds a whole series of additional beliefs since all people to which you apply the label "leftist idealist" all hold identical beliefs... and since they all hold those beliefs, some of which you disagree with, you'll assume all their arguments are incorrect. You have heard the phrase "ad hominem," great. Now please go read a book on critical thinking and/or logical discourse that explains it and the basic precepts of logic, before you try to attack others on that basis. It can go a long way towards understanding what is and is not valid in conflicting assertions and in finding the facts and making logical decisions.

There is some truth in their stories. Why not leave it "on the news stands" for educated people to determine what is right?

Why can we not look into the bad things muslim extremists do? They do blow stuff up, why should they not be held accountable? Is CNN doing anything like that?

And mohammed was apparently a pedophile, if you believe multiple sources online. There are numerous web sites supporting the "alleged" fact that mohammed was a pedophile. Google "mohammed pedophile" (until they decide to unlink "hate sites")

Some quotes from web pages:

His third wife was 6 years old when he married her and 9 when he consummated the marriage. To say that Mohammed was a demon-possessed pedophile is not an attack. It's a fact." (quoted from Murder for Fun and Prophet) http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b1muhammadca .htm [hyperhistory.net]

[T]he Prophet (Muhammed) married her (Aisha) when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death)."
(Hadith, Sahih Bukhari 7:62:64) http://www.geocities.com/AntiJihad/mo_pedo.html [geocities.com]

Volume 7, Book 62, Number 64: Sahih Bukhari Aisha: that the Prophet married her when she was six
years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with
him for nine years (i.e. till his death). http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/muhtpammed.htm [papillonsartpalace.com]

Maybe they are all lies. Maybe the original source books are lies. Whatever. It is out there and may be true. How can you check stuff like that.

Is it racist to have a new site that states "Various online sources are saying blah, here are the sites." ? I think it is bad for google to start censoring news. They should have a little check box (like safe search) in your preferences to allow you to search all sites, not just leftw wing PC sites.

There are numerous web sites supporting the "alleged" fact that mohammed was a pedophile. Google "mohammed pedophile" (until they decide to unlink "hate sites")

Some quotes from web pages:

His third wife was 6 years old when he married her and 9 when he consummated the marriage. To say that Mohammed was a demon-possessed pedophile is not an attack. It's a fact." (quoted from Murder for Fun and Prophet) http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b1muhammadca .htm

[T]he Prophet (Muhammed) married her (Aisha) when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death)."
(Hadith, Sahih Bukhari 7:62:64) http://www.geocities.com/AntiJihad/mo_pedo.html

Volume 7, Book 62, Number 64: Sahih Bukhari Aisha: that the Prophet married her when she was six
years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with
him for nine years (i.e. till his death). http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/muhtpammed.htm

Maybe they are all lies. Maybe the original source books are lies. Whatever. It is out there and may be true. How can you check stuff like that.

Is it racist to have a new site that states "Various online sources are saying blah, here are the sites." ? I think it is bad for google to start censoring news. They should have a little check box (like safe search) in your preferences to allow you to search all sites, not just leftw wing PC sites.

"I've tried sticking to MVC in a desktop application I'm working on, and I've found it quite hard to integrate the three layers."

Allen Holub agrees with you. So do others TOP may be an alternative (Tablizer is a /. poster).

Real Christians use Jesux.

There have been many other fires in predominately steel buildings, and none have collapsed, especially after one hour or even ten hours of fires.

How is it possible that every building that fell came straight down?

When the second tower was hit, the plane didn't hit close to the center as the first one did. Wouldn't the concentration of jet fuel cause one side of the building to collapse and then fall over?

How is it possible that all three buildings fell in nearly perfect symmetry?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHZEGutg1FM&search= pull%20building

There have been many other fires in predominately steel buildings, and none have collapsed, especially after one hour or even ten hours of fires.

How is it possible that every building that fell came straight down?

When the second tower was hit, the plane didn't hit close to the center as the first one did. Wouldn't the concentration of jet fuel cause one side of the building to collapse and then fall over?

How is it possible that all three buildings fell in nearly perfect symmetry?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHZEGutg1FM&search= pull%20building

Except FEMA claims that it was primarily fire damage that caused the collapse.

Which makes sense, as for the building to fall straight down as it did the core of the building would have had to have been damaged, while if the damage to the south side was critical to the collapse either that side would have fallen while the rest remained upright or it would have fallen over rather than implode.

Except FEMA claims that it was primarily fire damage that caused the collapse.

Which makes sense, as for the building to fall straight down as it did the core of the building would have had to have been damaged, while if the damage to the south side was critical to the collapse either that side would have fallen while the rest remained upright or it would have fallen over rather than implode.

Except FEMA claims that it was primarily fire damage that caused the collapse.

Which makes sense, as for the building to fall straight down as it did the core of the building would have had to have been damaged, while if the damage to the south side was critical to the collapse either that side would have fallen while the rest remained upright or it would have fallen over rather than implode.

Except FEMA claims that it was primarily fire damage that caused the collapse.

Which makes sense, as for the building to fall straight down as it did the core of the building would have had to have been damaged, while if the damage to the south side was critical to the collapse either that side would have fallen while the rest remained upright or it would have fallen over rather than implode.