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Personally a lot of the Chinese I know think of the Taiwanese as people who can't speak proper Mandarin...They also believe that Taiwan should be part of China again.

85% of the Taiwanese consider themselves "Chinese" and also support the idea that Taiwan is part of China. They also support the idea that Tibet is part of China.

Remember Tibet? That place is where the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) have tortured and killed Tibetan nuns and priests. Please visit the websites for Amnesty International and Tibet Online.

While the Chinese PLA is committing gross violations of human rights in Tibet, the Taiwanese support a Taiwanese constitution that insists on integrating Tibet into China. Furthermore, the Taiwanese education system teaches Taiwanese children that Tibet is part of China.

In the United States of America (USA), the majority of spies who steal American technology to give to Beijing were born or grew up in Taiwan. Another unusual aspect of these spies is that the majority help Beijing for no financial gain whatsoever. They help Beijing simply because they consider themselves Chinese and because, according to the spies, China is the motherland.

Please read "Understanding Taiwan: Security Threat to the USA".

The time has come to end the hypocrisy and the nonsense from Taiwan. Americans should cancel the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and should stop selling weapons to Taiwan.

... from the desk of the reporter

Western ideas are not meaningless notions. They simply mean nothing to corrupt communist officials. Western ideals have been adopted by South Koreans, Japanese and Taiwanese. If these ideas were meaningless, all of these countries would remain dictatorships.

Taiwan is not a nation; rather, it is a province of China. About 15% of the people in Taiwan are descended from the folks who went to the island after 1949. The remaining 85% of the people in Taiwan are descended from the folks who resided on the island before 1949. Historians label the first group "Chinese" and label the latter group "Taiwanese".

However, in terms self-identification, 85% of the people in Taiwan consider themselves "Chinese". They support (eventual or immediate) unification with China. 15% of the people in Taiwan reject calling themselves "Chinese"; they consider themselves strictly "Taiwanese" and support (eventual or immediate) independence.

The key issue here is that the future of Taiwan is determined by the majority: i.e. the 85% who support the notion of "One China". Hence, the constitution of Taiwan clearly states that both Taiwan and Tibet are part of China. The Taiwanese support nearly all the geopolitical objectives of China.

What we have here is that there are 2 governments claiming to be the true government of "One China". One government is in Taipei. The other government is in Beijing. Without question, the joke is the government in Taipei. The majority of the Chinese people in China (which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan) expelled the Taiwanese government in 1949.

Shortly after the Korean government became democratic in the early 1990s, the Korean people recognized the joke in Taipei and immediately terminated relations with Taiwan and recognized the government in Beijing as the proper government of China.

The Taiwanese have made a mockery of Americans by manipulating them for more than 40 years. Please read the "Reality of Taiwan". While the Chinese army beats and kills Tibetan nuns, the Taiwanese insist that Tibet is part of "One China". The Taiwanese constitution states so, and the Taiwanese education system teaches children so. At the same time, the Taiwanese government demands that the United States of America (USA) sell weapons to it. Meanwhile mid-ranking officers retired from the Taiwanese military travel to Beijing to secure lucrative jobs in exchange for revealing the secrets of American weapons sold to Taiwan.

Enough is enough.

The time has come to end the nonsense. Let us follow the lead of the South Koreans and terminate relations with Taiwan immediately . Cancel the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and stop selling weapons to Taiwan. Require all Taiwanese nationals to present a Beijing passport.

... from the desk of the reporter

Western ideas are not meaningless notions. They simply mean nothing to corrupt communist officials. Western ideals have been adopted by South Koreans, Japanese and Taiwanese. If these ideas were meaningless, all of these countries would remain dictatorships.

Taiwan is not a nation; rather, it is a province of China. About 15% of the people in Taiwan are descended from the folks who went to the island after 1949. The remaining 85% of the people in Taiwan are descended from the folks who resided on the island before 1949. Historians label the first group "Chinese" and label the latter group "Taiwanese".

However, in terms self-identification, 85% of the people in Taiwan consider themselves "Chinese". They support (eventual or immediate) unification with China. 15% of the people in Taiwan reject calling themselves "Chinese"; they consider themselves strictly "Taiwanese" and support (eventual or immediate) independence.

The key issue here is that the future of Taiwan is determined by the majority: i.e. the 85% who support the notion of "One China". Hence, the constitution of Taiwan clearly states that both Taiwan and Tibet are part of China. The Taiwanese support nearly all the geopolitical objectives of China.

What we have here is that there are 2 governments claiming to be the true government of "One China". One government is in Taipei. The other government is in Beijing. Without question, the joke is the government in Taipei. The majority of the Chinese people in China (which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan) expelled the Taiwanese government in 1949.

Shortly after the Korean government became democratic in the early 1990s, the Korean people recognized the joke in Taipei and immediately terminated relations with Taiwan and recognized the government in Beijing as the proper government of China.

The Taiwanese have made a mockery of Americans by manipulating them for more than 40 years. Please read the "Reality of Taiwan". While the Chinese army beats and kills Tibetan nuns, the Taiwanese insist that Tibet is part of "One China". The Taiwanese constitution states so, and the Taiwanese education system teaches children so. At the same time, the Taiwanese government demands that the United States of America (USA) sell weapons to it. Meanwhile mid-ranking officers retired from the Taiwanese military travel to Beijing to secure lucrative jobs in exchange for revealing the secrets of American weapons sold to Taiwan.

Enough is enough.

The time has come to end the nonsense. Let us follow the lead of the South Koreans and terminate relations with Taiwan immediately . Cancel the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and stop selling weapons to Taiwan. Require all Taiwanese nationals to present a Beijing passport.

... from the desk of the reporter

Remember the incident at Tienanmen Square in 1989. After it happened, the Americans and other Westerners froze or curtailed investments into mainland China. Even the Japanese followed suit, and for the first time after 1945, the Japanese condemned China. Western nations like Japan and the USA immediately slapped economic sanctions against China.

What did the Chinese in Taiwan and Hong Kong do? The Taiwanese immediately seized this window of opportunity and accelerated financial and technological investments into China. The Taiwanese provided any money or technology that the Westerners refused to provide . Since 1989, Taiwanese investment into mainland China has grown at double-digit rates. As of 2003, the Taiwanese have invested more than $50 billion into more than 50,000 businesses into mainland China.

Furthermore, the Taiwanese request and receive preferential treatment when they invest in China. By contrast, American companies do not receive preferential treatment. The Chinese government occasionally punishes American companies because the American government sells weapons to Taiwan. While the Taiwanese demand that Americans sell them weapons, the Taiwanese insist that Tibet is part of China: the Taiwanese constitution says that Tibet is part of China.

The time has come to stop this nonsense. The Americans should cancel the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and stop selling weapons to Taiwan. The Taiwanese have exploited American generosity and naiveness. Americans should not allow Taiwanese hypocrisy to hurt American business opportunities in China.

... from the desk of the reporter

Remember the incident at Tienanmen Square in 1989. After it happened, the Americans and other Westerners froze or curtailed investments into mainland China. Even the Japanese followed suit, and for the first time after 1945, the Japanese condemned China. Western nations like Japan and the USA immediately slapped economic sanctions against China.

What did the Chinese in Taiwan and Hong Kong do? The Taiwanese immediately seized this window of opportunity and accelerated financial and technological investments into China. The Taiwanese provided any money or technology that the Westerners refused to provide . Since 1989, Taiwanese investment into mainland China has grown at double-digit rates. As of 2003, the Taiwanese have invested more than $50 billion into more than 50,000 businesses into mainland China.

Furthermore, the Taiwanese request and receive preferential treatment when they invest in China. By contrast, American companies do not receive preferential treatment. The Chinese government occasionally punishes American companies because the American government sells weapons to Taiwan. While the Taiwanese demand that Americans sell them weapons, the Taiwanese insist that Tibet is part of China: the Taiwanese constitution says that Tibet is part of China.

The time has come to stop this nonsense. The Americans should cancel the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and stop selling weapons to Taiwan. The Taiwanese have exploited American generosity and naiveness. Americans should not allow Taiwanese hypocrisy to hurt American business opportunities in China.

... from the desk of the reporter

The government on Taiwan is not the legitimate government of China. The majority of Chinese expelled the Taiwanese government out of China in 1949. The Taiwanese government ransacked China and stole all the national treasures of China during the flight to Taiwan.

However, the government of Taiwan does support nearly all the geopolitical objectives of mainland China. While the Taiwanese demand that the Americans sell weapons to them, the Taiwanese insist that Tibet is part of China. Meanwhile, the Chinese soldiers are beating and killing Tibetan nuns. Taiwanese hypocrisy is disgusting. (The Taiwanese constitution states explicitly that Tibet is part of China.)

Instead of supporting the Taiwanese government, the Americans should terminate their relationship with Taiwan. The American government should end the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and require all Taiwanese nationals to produce a Beijing passport if they wish to apply for a visa to the USA.

... from the desk of the reporter

The government on Taiwan is not the legitimate government of China. The majority of Chinese expelled the Taiwanese government out of China in 1949. The Taiwanese government ransacked China and stole all the national treasures of China during the flight to Taiwan.

However, the government of Taiwan does support nearly all the geopolitical objectives of mainland China. While the Taiwanese demand that the Americans sell weapons to them, the Taiwanese insist that Tibet is part of China. Meanwhile, the Chinese soldiers are beating and killing Tibetan nuns. Taiwanese hypocrisy is disgusting. (The Taiwanese constitution states explicitly that Tibet is part of China.)

Instead of supporting the Taiwanese government, the Americans should terminate their relationship with Taiwan. The American government should end the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and require all Taiwanese nationals to produce a Beijing passport if they wish to apply for a visa to the USA.

... from the desk of the reporter

Engineers knew the boosters were being operated outside of their specifications.

Huh? Please don't tell me you're talking about the SSMEs operating at 104%. See item A.3. O'wise, what performance specs were being violated?

Yes. The Taiwanese support the concept of voting for their president. However, the Taiwanese also support the geopolitical objectives of Beijing. The Taiwanese have told both Japan and the Philippines to back off from the Senkaku Islands and the Spratly Islands, repectively, because they are Chinese territory.

Please read "Reality of Taiwan".

Furhermore, mid-ranking officers retired from Taiwan's military have gone to Beijing to obtain lucrative jobs in exchange for revealing the performance characteristics of American weapons sold to Beijing. The report by the U. S. Department of State does not mention this fact because the purpose of that report is only to describe the state of human rights in Taiwan. The Taiwanese do indeed support integrating Tibet into mainland China. The Taiwanese education system teaches Taiwanese children that Tibet is part of China. It is hypocritical, and it is disgusting.

Finally, the report by the U. S. Department of State does not mention the fact that the Justice Department has placed Taiwan on a list of nations that are hostile intelligence threats. That list includes Syria and Libya.

The Taiwanese have one of the highest rates of software piracy in the world. This piracy is what causes Taiwanese computers to be especially succeptible to Trojan horses, worms, etc. Pirated software is far more likely to be contaminated with viruses and the like. So, when you download pirated software, you run the risk of your computer being violated by an intruder. The Taiwanese got what they deserved; anyone who uses pirated software should be penalized.

Also, please read "Reality of Taiwan". The Taiwanese support all the geopolitical objectives of mainland China; the Taiwanese constitution explicitly states that Tibet is an integral part of China (while Chinese soldiers regularly torture and kill Tibetan nuns). In short, we should ignore all Taiwanese complaints about China.

Taiwan is a security threat to the United States of America (USA). Would we in the West be concerned about Trojan horses being spread to computers in North Korea or Libya? No. So, we should not be concerned about Trojan horses being spread to computers in Taiwan.

The Taiwanese government reporting (to the "Taipei Times") the spread of Trojan horses to Taiwan from China is just political spin for manipulating a Western audience. This spin is intended to garner support for Taiwan. Let us not be stupid. We must see Taiwan for what it is: it is a security threat to the USA. The majority of spies arrested in the USA for stealing sensitive American military technology and giving it to Beijing were born or grew up in Taiwan. Please read "Reality of Taiwan".

Finally, when the USA and other Western countries like Japan slowed or curtailed investments in mainland China in order to punish Beijing for the Tienanmen Square incident of 1989, the Taiwanese seized this window of "opportunity" and immediately sent financial and technological investments into China. The Taiwanese completely thwarted the American economic sanctions against China. Taiwan is a strong supporter of China . Starting from 1989, Taiwanese investments into mainland China have skyrocketed; the Taiwanese have invested more than $50 billion dollars into more than 50,000 businesses in mainland China.

Let us ignore Taiwanese complaints about Trojan horses from China.

... from the desk of the reporter

The Taiwanese have one of the highest rates of software piracy in the world. This piracy is what causes Taiwanese computers to be especially succeptible to Trojan horses, worms, etc. Pirated software is far more likely to be contaminated with viruses and the like. So, when you download pirated software, you run the risk of your computer being violated by an intruder. The Taiwanese got what they deserved; anyone who uses pirated software should be penalized.

Also, please read "Reality of Taiwan". The Taiwanese support all the geopolitical objectives of mainland China; the Taiwanese constitution explicitly states that Tibet is an integral part of China (while Chinese soldiers regularly torture and kill Tibetan nuns). In short, we should ignore all Taiwanese complaints about China.

Taiwan is a security threat to the United States of America (USA). Would we in the West be concerned about Trojan horses being spread to computers in North Korea or Libya? No. So, we should not be concerned about Trojan horses being spread to computers in Taiwan.

The Taiwanese government reporting (to the "Taipei Times") the spread of Trojan horses to Taiwan from China is just political spin for manipulating a Western audience. This spin is intended to garner support for Taiwan. Let us not be stupid. We must see Taiwan for what it is: it is a security threat to the USA. The majority of spies arrested in the USA for stealing sensitive American military technology and giving it to Beijing were born or grew up in Taiwan. Please read "Reality of Taiwan".

Finally, when the USA and other Western countries like Japan slowed or curtailed investments in mainland China in order to punish Beijing for the Tienanmen Square incident of 1989, the Taiwanese seized this window of "opportunity" and immediately sent financial and technological investments into China. The Taiwanese completely thwarted the American economic sanctions against China. Taiwan is a strong supporter of China . Starting from 1989, Taiwanese investments into mainland China have skyrocketed; the Taiwanese have invested more than $50 billion dollars into more than 50,000 businesses in mainland China.

Let us ignore Taiwanese complaints about Trojan horses from China.

... from the desk of the reporter

The Taiwanese have one of the highest rates of software piracy in the world. This piracy is what causes Taiwanese computers to be especially succeptible to Trojan horses, worms, etc. Pirated software is far more likely to be contaminated with viruses and the like. So, when you download pirated software, you run the risk of your computer being violated by an intruder. The Taiwanese got what they deserved; anyone who uses pirated software should be penalized.

Also, please read "Reality of Taiwan". The Taiwanese support all the geopolitical objectives of mainland China; the Taiwanese constitution explicitly states that Tibet is an integral part of China (while Chinese soldiers regularly torture and kill Tibetan nuns). In short, we should ignore all Taiwanese complaints about China.

Taiwan is a security threat to the United States of America (USA). Would we in the West be concerned about Trojan horses being spread to computers in North Korea or Libya? No. So, we should not be concerned about Trojan horses being spread to computers in Taiwan.

The Taiwanese government reporting (to the "Taipei Times") the spread of Trojan horses to Taiwan from China is just political spin for manipulating a Western audience. This spin is intended to garner support for Taiwan. Let us not be stupid. We must see Taiwan for what it is: it is a security threat to the USA. The majority of spies arrested in the USA for stealing sensitive American military technology and giving it to Beijing were born or grew up in Taiwan. Please read "Reality of Taiwan".

Finally, when the USA and other Western countries like Japan slowed or curtailed investments in mainland China in order to punish Beijing for the Tienanmen Square incident of 1989, the Taiwanese seized this window of "opportunity" and immediately sent financial and technological investments into China. The Taiwanese completely thwarted the American economic sanctions against China. Taiwan is a strong supporter of China . Starting from 1989, Taiwanese investments into mainland China have skyrocketed; the Taiwanese have invested more than $50 billion dollars into more than 50,000 businesses in mainland China.

Let us ignore Taiwanese complaints about Trojan horses from China.

... from the desk of the reporter

I'll be the first to admit it, Freenet rocks. But Ian Clarke, when he's not busy letting us swap mp3's without worry of RIAA persecution, is not jesus. He's a flawed, perhaps very flawed, human being, and the way this whole thread has been spent lauding him has left me a bit nauseated.

Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that his business ventures like Uprizer are in the black, and that he's not just run out of money.

That doesn't make him any less of an abusive, manipulative jerk. (Sorry for the Geocities URL, if anyone reads this instead of modding it troll maybe I can find a decent mirror somewhere)

So thanks for Freenet, Ian, it's a great tool. It's just a pity that you're one, too.

Electronic voting systems were flaunted as a way to avoid these problems.

Unfortunately, electronic systems cannot fix these problems because they all stem from the stupidity of some Americans. If they are so stupid as to be unable to follow simple instructions on completing a paper ballot, then their opinion on the "best candidate" is likely to be irrelevant. They are unlikely to be able to pick the "best candidate".

Further, these ignorant Americans will be unlikely to follow the simple instructions for completing an electronic ballot as well. The electronic system might prevent them from selecting multiple political candidates, but they will still, somehow, end up in being unable to select the candidate that they want.

... from the desk of the reporter

Let the OZ jokes flow:

"Bring me the router of the wicked switch of the Qwest!"

Although, I am starting to wonder. Has anyone checked to see if this ISP has a record of resisting RIAA subpeonas? Perhaps the RIAA levelled it after acquiring cloudbuster equipment.

This sounds just like the spin line Circuit City put forward for Divx. It didn't seem to work very well then, but the commercials themselves were really anemic now that I think about it.

Heh. That site is a satire but it's really not that much different from actual advertisement materials I remember seeing and reading.

Ravi

Justice does not stop there. Since we require American companies like IBM to abide by stringent environmental and work regulations that protect both the environment and American workers, we must also require foreign companies like Acer from Taiwan province (located in China) to abide by the same stringent environmental and work regulations. Otherwise, IBM will be at a competitive disadvantage against companies like Acer. Acer products are cheaper than IBM products simply because Acer does not pay the cost of protecting the environment or the employees.

At the same time, non-Westerners like the Koreans and the Chinese simply do the care about the environment or the health of employees. Please read the environmental report card produced by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. All the Taiwanese and Korean companies received a failing grade on the issue of poisoning both the environment and their workers.

How can Westerners force non-Westerners like the Taiwanese and Koreans to enact and to enforce the same stringent environmental and work regulations that Westerners apply to Western companies like IBM? Simple. We boycott products made by Taiwanese or Korean companies. Please remember that when you buy products make in a particular country, you effectively support the value system in that country. Do not buy products made in either China or Korea.

If you have qualms about this boycott, please re-read the environmental report card produced by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

... from the desk of the reporter

Assholes like you are the reason that the arabs rightly think that they can walk all over westerners and slit their throats while you chant peace songs. Fuck you and I hope somebody close to you gets raped and killed as soon as possible.


excuse me sir, but you are so full of shit, you are the asshole around here, and Arabs are peace loving people, being unlucky enough to have a blood drinking cold blooded murderer called Sharon the pig living next by.

The best solution is a build-to-order (BTO) CD. Specifically, the major music companies band together and set up a BTO booth at Target or Walmart. The consumer selects the songs that he or she wants, and the BTO booth burns the songs into the CD at the time of purchase. Each song would be individually priced. The neat thing about this approach is that it is essentially a just-in-time (JIT) system. Neither Target nor Walmart needs to maintain a huge floor space just to hold pre-recorded CDs. The store sells exactly what the consumer wants to buy, and the store manager never needs to worry about returning unsold CDs to the manufacturer. The financial savings to the store can be passed to the consumer in the form of even lower CD prices.

Furthermore, the songs themselves would be stored in a central database at the headquarters of Walmart or Target. They would be downloaded by a high-speed intranet to the computer burning the CDs in the BTO booth in each individual store.

An alternative to the BTO booth is a BTO web site. The consumer selects the songs that she wants. They are then burned into the CD, and the CD is shipped to the consumer.

... from the desk of the reporter

The PowerPC 970 shatters the myth that you absolutely need H-1Bs because supposedly there is not enough talented American engineers to do the work. By nearly all metrics, the PowerPC 970 is competitive with the very best processors produced by H-1B-dominated companies like AMD and Athlon.

The Apple G5 may be slightly more expensive than an equivalent system based on an AMD/Intel microprocessor, but the Apple G5 is worth cost. Buying the Apple G5 supports the more traditional American work environment at IBM as opposed to the brutal, cutthroat environment at Intel.

... from the desk of the reporter

He later played the voice for Tennesee Tuxedo a cartoon penguin, with a walrus sidekick

Since we live in the West, the biggest issue is the unethical behavior of SCO and its managers. We have justifiably criticized them for trying to extort money via these ridiculous invoices. However, we need to go beyond criticizing only them. They actually work for someone: the shareholders.

Yes. The SCO shareholders own SCO and ultimately decide whether McBride keeps his job. The shareholders are the most guilty party in these pump-and-dump and extortion schemes hatched by SCO managers since the shareholders have the power to terminate the employment of McBride. The list at LionShares indicates the 15 financial institutions holding the largest number of shares of the SCO Group. Together, they hold 15% of the total outstanding shares. These financial institutions must immediately hold a special session of shareholders in order to terminate the employment of the managers (like McBride) at SCO group.

We, Slashdotters, should check our mutual funds immediately. If they own any shares of the SCO Group, then we should transfer the money out of those funds. Furthermore, there are several socially responsible mutual funds (SRMFs). We must bring the unethical behavior of the SCO group to the attention of the SRMF managers. They are bound, by the terms of their SRMFs, to sell all shares of the SCO Group.

... from the desk of the reporter

Slashdot has relativitally high traffic, whereas, say... som e stupid Geocities page has very little. As a result, Slashdot is far more dangerous in this matter. It's a matter of degree.

The end of our oil supply is near!

(Reality: if we're using up our oil, why aren't reserves decreasing?)

this is about the best I can find

I am also a database fan. However, I don't think non-geek users would take quickly to SQL to find stuff.

I have kicked around the idea of a "logic grid" for querying tablized stuff without a query language. Horizontal would represent "and" connections, and vertical would represent "or". A "not" box would be down at the bottom, along with other specialized things. Perhaps a date-range input box could be down there also for creation date and modification date (I did not consider dates in my write-up, which I linked to in a nearby message. Here is the link again).

IMO the hardest part is not the database setup itself, but creating "acceptable" user interfaces for it. Then again, are we talking about stuff for ourselves only, or for general office workers?

I have pondered the same thing. Being a relational fan, I of course lean toward sets instead of (or in addition to) trees. Here is my webpage describing various post-tree approaches and interfaces:
http://www.geocities.com/tablizer/sets1.htm (I know, geocities sucks, but there are too many links to it already to switch.)

Basically capital has failed to open space as a frontier due to capital welfare in the form of protection of asset concentrations paid for out of taxes on things other than asset concentrations themselves.

The Coalition for Science and Commerce's work on space policy reform and fusion policy reform led to the realization that capitalization of technology required a radical restructuring of the tax code.

The result was a white paper titled "A Net Asset Tax Based On The Net Present Value Calculation and Market Democracy". Essentially the biggest economic problem civilization faces is the fact that those who acquire wealth can buy political favoritism in the form of taxes on everything _but_ wealth itself. This results in everyone paying the cost (in blood and money) of defending the legal rights of asset concentrations that are untenable militarily or morally. Stated another way: Wealth is not income. Its possession isn't protected for free. That's why taxes pay for police and armies and should be based on possession of wealth rather than its transfer (or its creation).

The fact that welfare for capital is an inescapable feature of existing political entities has created the wrong kind of economic heirarchy in the world at the wrong point in history. The insanely zero-sum mentality infecting the leadership of the world, while solar energy streams past the Earth in quantities orders of magnitude over what we could even conceive of using on Earth will be investigated by future historians as the only worth-while subject to understand of this era.

Here are the important excerpts from the aforementioned 1992 white paper:

The government should tax net assets, in excess of levels typically protected under personal bankruptcy, at a rate equal to the rate of interest on the national debt, thereby eliminating other forms of taxation. Creator-owned intellectual property should be exempt.

...With the exception of basic functions of government and the pay down of debt, the government budget should be dispersed to citizens as cash, rather than being spent in government programs or even limited in the form of vouchers. This is "market democracy" in which the citizens and their markets, rather than central planning and politics, influence the selection of goods and services to be capitalized and provided.

...In reality, we are surrounded by "frontiers" in many dimensions. Few have the profound implications of a physical frontier such as the American west or space, but all share in common the attribute that proprietary access to them is restricted by government so as to prevent unproductive hoarding.

In the case of technological frontiers, this problem is solved by limiting the patent claims to 17 years. An inventor can sit on an invention doing nothing with it for up to 17 years, but beyond that time, its use cannot be inhibited by the inventor. In practice, most inventors are so eager to see their invention brought into widespread use, they endanger their own claim. The patented technique is unique among frontier claims in that it's use is not inherently limited -- techniques are not "resources", and in that it is truly the creation of the inventor -- not an emergent phenomenon of civilization and nature.

But in other areas, such as radio frequency and orbital slots, the analogy with frontier "land" is almost perfect.

The NAT, unlike George's land tax, makes it possible for the government to open up all frontiers to private claim and development. Claimants must simply define and register the nature of the property rights that they wish to claim so

Basically capital has failed to open space as a frontier due to capital welfare in the form of protection of asset concentrations paid for out of taxes on things other than asset concentrations themselves.

The Coalition for Science and Commerce's work on space policy reform and fusion policy reform led to the realization that capitalization of technology required a radical restructuring of the tax code.

The result was a white paper titled "A Net Asset Tax Based On The Net Present Value Calculation and Market Democracy". Essentially the biggest economic problem civilization faces is the fact that those who acquire wealth can buy political favoritism in the form of taxes on everything _but_ wealth itself. This results in everyone paying the cost (in blood and money) of defending the legal rights of asset concentrations that are untenable militarily or morally. Stated another way: Wealth is not income. Its possession isn't protected for free. That's why taxes pay for police and armies and should be based on possession of wealth rather than its transfer (or its creation).

The fact that welfare for capital is an inescapable feature of existing political entities has created the wrong kind of economic heirarchy in the world at the wrong point in history. The insanely zero-sum mentality infecting the leadership of the world, while solar energy streams past the Earth in quantities orders of magnitude over what we could even conceive of using on Earth will be investigated by future historians as the only worth-while subject to understand of this era.

Here are the important excerpts from the aforementioned 1992 white paper:

The government should tax net assets, in excess of levels typically protected under personal bankruptcy, at a rate equal to the rate of interest on the national debt, thereby eliminating other forms of taxation. Creator-owned intellectual property should be exempt.

...With the exception of basic functions of government and the pay down of debt, the government budget should be dispersed to citizens as cash, rather than being spent in government programs or even limited in the form of vouchers. This is "market democracy" in which the citizens and their markets, rather than central planning and politics, influence the selection of goods and services to be capitalized and provided.

...In reality, we are surrounded by "frontiers" in many dimensions. Few have the profound implications of a physical frontier such as the American west or space, but all share in common the attribute that proprietary access to them is restricted by government so as to prevent unproductive hoarding.

In the case of technological frontiers, this problem is solved by limiting the patent claims to 17 years. An inventor can sit on an invention doing nothing with it for up to 17 years, but beyond that time, its use cannot be inhibited by the inventor. In practice, most inventors are so eager to see their invention brought into widespread use, they endanger their own claim. The patented technique is unique among frontier claims in that it's use is not inherently limited -- techniques are not "resources", and in that it is truly the creation of the inventor -- not an emergent phenomenon of civilization and nature.

But in other areas, such as radio frequency and orbital slots, the analogy with frontier "land" is almost perfect.

The NAT, unlike George's land tax, makes it possible for the government to open up all frontiers to private claim and development. Claimants must simply define and register the nature of the property rights that they wish to claim so

Woo, now I can add a Linear Cockpit System to my Gundam.

...Or not.

Woo, now I can add a Linear Cockpit System to my Gundam.

...Or not.

The system can be used to recognize a particular face when it is standing alone. Consider, for example, a photo of a face sent along with an visa application to the American embassy. Please read "World: Asia-Pacific China backs embassy protests". In 1999, Serbians committed gross human-rights violations against the Kosovars in Kosovo; the Chinese fully supported the Serbians in their campaign of terror. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) under American command attempted to stop the slaughter by knocking out Serbian military units. NATO deliberately attempted to avoid hitting civilian targets in Serbia, but some bombs accidentally hit the Chinese embassy.

Shortly thereafter, the Chinese in both China and outside China erupted into ugly, violent protests. The Chinese throw stones and other projectiles at the American embassy in China. The Chinese also attacked some Americans. " The residence of the US Consul General in the south-western city of Chengdu was stormed and partially burned ."

How could the Americans in China have responded to this nonsensical violence? The Americans should have done the following.

1. Pull out cameras and take pictures of all the protestors.
2. Scan the photos into a computer and transmit them to Washington.
3. Henceforth, when a Chinese submits an application for a visa to travel to the USA, use the face-recognition system to determine whether the photo of the applicant matches any of the protestors. If there is a match, then the application will not be approved.
4. At the American embassy, grab a megaphone and loudly announce, "Attention protesters. We are using a face-recognition system. Any protestor applying for a visa to the USA will be denied entry into the USA. We are taking pictures right now. "

... from the desk of the reporter

When desktop publishing become popular, pundits predicted that it would reduce the demand for paper since what you publish would be saved in soft form -- i. e. a digital file on a computer disk. The pundits said that, in the bad old days before personal computers, you were forced to type or write everything on paper, and of course, producing paper contaminates the environment and increases the rate of destroying trees. Unfortunately, the predictions about reducing paper consumption were wrong because people tended to print everything that they developed in their latest incarnation of Microsoft Word. Consumption of paper actually increased significantly after personal computers and desktop publishing came into vogue.

The problem was distribution. There really was no convenient way to distribute the digital file. When person A transferred a digital file to person B, a floppy disk containing the digital file is also transferred. If you transferred a floppy disk, you would think, "I might as well just print the document. It does not have many pages."

Then, came the Internet. It provides a convenient way to transfer the digital file. The transmission mechanism is also soft -- i. e. digital. The floppy disk is physical: you can touch it and feel it. In short, personal computers alone provide only the means to create soft media. Personal computers plus the Internet provide an end-to-end solution in which the creation and delivery of media is 100% soft -- i. e. 100% digital.

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Forget the CD. The environment comes first.

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The problem is not the shuttle per se. The problem is quality engineering at NASA. Note that the Hubble Telescope and several later NASA projects have been plagued with quality-control problems. Please read about a horrendous engineering mistake in "Metric mishap caused loss of NASA orbiter".

The only way to fix the quality problem is to (1) increase funding to NASA projects so that American engineers are not overworked and (2) increase competition for NASA. One way to increase funding for NASA is to rescind the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and to shut down the American Institute in Taiwan , saving about $17,000,000. This money can then be earmarked for NASA. In short, there is simply much wasted money in Washington. If we can recover the wasted money, then we can set it aside for NASA.

As for increasing competition, we could encourage Japan to spend heavily on its own space shuttle. Over the last 10 years, the Japanese government has wasted billions of dollars on useless public works projects that do little prop up the economy. A far better use for that money is researching and building re-usable space-entry vehicles. The resulting competition with NASA would significantly improve the quality of engineering at NASA. (Note that the last 15 years of competition with Toyota has signficantly improved the quality of automobiles produced by General Motors.)

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"It already is! Recall that work is measured in joules (distance of mass per time)."

You're one of those people who doesn't understand why the Beer and Ice Cream Diet isn't working for them, aren't you?

Who's the more foolish; the fool or the fools that mod him up?

The solution therein proposed is to:

The government should tax net assets, in excess of levels typically protected under personal bankruptcy, at a rate equal to the rate of interest on the national debt, thereby eliminating other forms of taxation. Creator-owned intellectual property should be exempt.

I went on to describe market democracy:

With the exception of basic functions of government and the pay down of debt, the government budget should be dispersed to citizens as cash, rather than being spent in government programs or even limited in the form of vouchers. This is "market democracy" in which the citizens and their markets, rather than central planning and politics, influence the selection of goods and services to be capitalized and provided.

As to what humans are good for:

In reality, we are surrounded by "frontiers" in many dimensions. Few have the profound implications of a physical frontier such as the American west or space, but all share in common the attribute that proprietary access to them is restricted by government so as to prevent unproductive hoarding.

In the case of technological frontiers, this problem is solved by limiting the patent claims to 17 years. An inventor can sit on an invention doing nothing with it for up to 17 years, but beyond that time, its use cannot be inhibited by the inventor. In practice, most inventors are so eager to see their invention brought into widespread use, they endanger their own claim. The patented technique is unique among frontier claims in that it's use is not inherently limited -- techniques are not "resources", and in that it is truly the creation of the inventor -- not an emergent phenomenon of civilization and nature.

But in other areas, such as radio frequency and orbital slots, the analogy with frontier "land" is almost perfect.

The NAT, unlike George's land tax, makes it possible for the government to open up all frontiers to private claim and development. Claimants must simply define and register the nature of the property rights that they wish to claim so that others can avoid overlapping claims or negotiate easements.

Naturally, there are many such abstract property rights which are now in use by people, although unclaimed. The principle of first use, like first to invent in patent law, should be the criteria for priority on a claim. "Use" should include not only direct physical utilization, but declaration of intent to use the property right via claim.

NAT liability begins with the date that the claim is protected under law.

Finally, the U. S. Constitution contains a provision for patents of invention and copyright along with a prohibition on patents of nobility. In a very real sense, the "royalties" collected by inventors for their inventions and artists for their creative works are the basis for a new definition of "nobility" upon which the United States culture is founded. In the United States, nobility is in the creative act rather than in the mere possession of land or titles conferred by the authorities. Just as the land of old world nobility was protected from the normal contention of the marketplace, so the "creative spark" of inventors, researchers and creative writers should be protected.

Indeed, given the need for inventors and artists to focus their energies on creative rather than acquisitive disciplines, special protections are far more necessary than they were for the old world nobility, which possessed exceptional acquisitive capabilities. For this reason, patents of invention and copyrights, when possessed by their creators, should be treated as vital posse

There is no good engineering reason to build an independent operating system (OS) -- i. e. one which is independent of Linux. However, there seem to be political reasons.

... from the desk of the reporter

Poor spiders. When in close confines, do you diagnose then with Arachnapobia or Autophobia (fear of yourself)?

By contrast, UNIX failed to gain significant marketshare against the onslaught of Windows because there were simply too many incompatible operating systems called UNIX.

If this Japan-China-Korea operating system (JCKOS) gains any significant share in Asia, then we will have 2 incompatiable operating systems: JCKOS and Linux. JCKOS will be similar to Linux but incompatible with it.

What could be the motivation for this stupidity? Japanese society, as a whole, is a Western society, and Japan has slowly been moving from a 2nd-rate Western nation to a 1st-rate Western nation like the United States of America (USA). Unfortunately, due to Japan's proximity to Asian countries like the brutal totalitarian regime called China, there has always been a tension between (1) Japanese bureaucrats who lean towards Asia and (2) Japanese bureucrats who lean towards the USA and the rest of the West. The Western Japanese have usually prevailed over the Asian Japanese. A key example is the USA-Japan defense treaty.

Unfortunately, occasionally, the Asian Japanese prevail in certain matters. We, Slashdotters, should send an e-mail to the Japanese embassy in our Western nations and tell them that this idea for an independent JCKOS is hurtful and harmful to the open-source movement. Also, do the Japanese really want to work with a brutal totalitarian regime like the Chinese, who have routinely beat and kill Tibetan nuns? (reference: Amnesty International and Tibet Online).

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They forgot one other fad: Mr.T Ate My Balls (and original site). I have to admit, I never got that one.

1. Material violating the copyright laws exists on the web.
2. A search engine provides a hypertext link to the infringing material.

Does "facilitation" constitute violation of the law? To look at that question. Let us look at another analogy.

1. Consider a hypothetical company, "Martian Software". It deliberately and illegally copies software and sells them to customers.
2. The Yellow Pages carries an advertisement for "Martian Software". The advertisment includes a phone number, an address, and a map explaining how to go to the address of "Martian Software".

By analog, the search engine in the original example is not violating the law by merely providing a link to the infringing material. We, Slashdotters, should petition the ACLU to defend the search-engine company.

... from the desk of the reporter

... "player piano" is two nouns stuck together. Like "driver car" - it just makes no sense.

<pedantic>
So "shower curtain" doesn't make sense either? What do you say instead, "shower's curtain," or maybe "showery curtain?"

Nouns modifying other nouns become adjectives.
</pedantic>

First seen on Stardate 41386.4 in the TNG episode "The Last Outpost", the Ferengi have proven themselves to be capitalists who can be counted on appearing wherever there is even a hint of profit. They are considered a neutral race, with no affiliation to any other political power in the Galaxy. Known for their shiftiness and marked materialism, the Ferengi's disrepute preceedes them, so the discovery of the Gamma Quadrant is seen as an unprecedented opportunity to exploit naive new worlds for profit.
Source : http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Nebula/4156/infirm ary/xeno/ferengi.html

It seems quite fit indeed ! McBride even looks like one in some details of his face...
Go for it Malda, make our day.

American fears are unfounded. Numerous universities like Virginia Tech have trained a generation of American (not foreign) students in building the finest supercomputers. MIT, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and Virginia Tech (to name just a few) have launched large-scale research projects staffed by top American graduate students. Their work became the foundation of several generations of multiprocessors.

By contrast, very few (if any) Japanese universities conduct large-scale research projects to build high-performance supercomputers. The Japanese government has tended to avoid funding this kind of research. Worse, there is little collaboration between industry and academia in Japan. Yet, precisely this kind of collaboration is needed for such large-scale projects: e.g. Virginia Tech is enlisting the help of Apple computer.

American companies lead by scientists trained at MIT and CMU could easily design a computer that outperforms the Earth Simulator. These companies simply have chosen to not do so because there is far more profits to be garnered by building commercial supercomputers geared for database transactions. In fact, the highest-performance commercial supercomputers nearly all come from the United States of America (IBM).

The 21st century remains Pax Americana, not Pax Asia. The hordes of immigrants trying to get the hell out of Asia and into the USA underscores this fact.

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Here's possibly one of the best sites on the net about the philosophy of designing shareware. Note that copy protection is not the answer!

http://semicolon.com/ShareSuccess/Shareware1.html

Basically, the author does triage. There are 3 types of people: those who will always pay, those who will never pay (pirates), and those who might pay. He focuses on trying to convince the latter group, and doesn't waste time with copy protection schemes that will just annoy the honest users and not stop the pirates.

What's wrong with copy protection:

http://www.toad.com/gnu/whatswrong.html

Some typical attack methods:

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Barracks/3030/co pyfail.htm
http://fravia.anticrack.de/advanced.htm

You might want to read all of these before deciding if your efforts on copy protection are really worth it in the long run.

http://semicolon.com/ShareSuccess/SharewareLinks.h tml

The author of the first link has a page of more links that are also very good.

The benefit of replacing expensive RISC processor-based Unix hardware with commodity Intel boxes is one of the biggest factors driving Linux adoption

Linux servers and workstations have rapidly increased their share of the market at the expense of Sun Microsystems. According to "IBM steals server sales from Sun", the sales of Sun servers running Solaris dropped by a whopping 19% from 2nd quarter of 2002 to 2nd quarter of 2003. Yet, the sales of Linux servers increased by a sizeable 40%.

The bell tolls. It tolls ominously for Sun.

... from the desk of the reporter