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"5. I am not aware of a United States chemical or biological weapons program. Perhaps you could post more information."

I've been reading books about U.S. government activities since I was serving in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam war. At that time, the government was lying to U.S. citizens about what we were doing at the base at which I was stationed in Thailand. I was shocked that the U.S. government would so easily lie, and I began to be interested in knowing more.

I've put together two articles that collect links about mostly hidden violent U.S. government activities. I've been amazed at one of the responses I've gotten: Most people have very little knowledge of U.S. government violence, even though the U.S. government has killed more than 3,000,000 since the Second World War.

The U.S. government is a world leader in biological weapons, although you don't hear about that much any more. Try visiting the U.S. Army Soldier and Biological Chemical Command. The site says, "The operational capabilities of the command include the safe, secure, storage of chemical weapons at the eight United States stockpile sites at Anniston Ala., Blue Grass, Ky., Edgewood, Md., Newport, Ind., Pine Bluff, Ark., Pueblo, Colo., Tooele, Utah and Umatillla, Ore." Most of the site is not accessible to people like you and me who pay taxes to support this. The site is written to show only the mostly defensive activities.

However, the U.S. government is heavily involved in EVERY kind of weapons manufacture. For example, see the October 29, 2002 article in The Guardian US weapons secrets exposed.

The U.S. government has a long history of encouraging and perpetrating violence. For example, see US sent biological weapons to Iraq in 1980s.

I've pulled together some links in two articles: History surrounding the U.S. war with Iraq: Four short stories and What should be the Response to Violence?

The response to violence should be to study why it occurs to make sure that you are not contributing it, and to fix the underlying problems, rather than engage in more violence. Peace cannot happen overnight. If there have been years of trouble-making, it will take years to correct. Since the present violence in Iraq began more than 50 years ago, it may be necessary to have 50 years of attempts at peace to correct it.

We are going to war with Iraq for the freedom of the people, not the plunder. Right?

Statue of Liberty if the U.S. loses. From a New Zealand anti-war protest.

New York city if the U.S. loses. From a New Zealand anti-war protest.

Microsoft Windows if the U.S. loses the war: MS Windows if the U.S. loses.

What if the U.S. loses? I happen to have a photo: G. W. Bush if the U.S. loses.

The U.S. government killed an estimated 2,000,000 people in the Vietnam war. The bombing of Cambodia killed a huge number.

I find the arguments credible that the bombing of Cambodia destabilized the society there, and the U.S. government must take some responsibility for the deaths of millions after the bombing. But only those killed directly are included in the 3,000,000. Note that no one in Vietnam or Cambodia ever directly threatened anyone in the United States. I often heard military people speculating why the U.S. was in Vietnam. Some said oil. Most said that the military was tired of waiting so long to have a war to fight.

There have been many "smaller" killings. The U.S. government killed an estimated 6,000 people in the war in Panama. Remember that? They called it Operation Just Cause.

It always shocks me when I realize that most people have no idea of the extent of the violence of the U.S. government.

For more about this, see a comment in this story by someone else: #5552921. The U.S. has a history of secret interference with the governments of other countries. Note that some of the information is from a U.S. government web site.

For links to stories about how hidden elements of the U.S. government sell everyone else on war, see What should be the Response to Violence?

U.S. government agencies like the NSA, CIA, and FBI function as a world-wide secret police force. If they make trouble, they get more attention and funding. There is a huge conflict of interest.

Big weapons makers in the U.S. like GE own media companies, so they can make sure that war is seen as necessary and even interesting and fun. For many people in the U.S. war is an adult video game. They don't really think of the pain and suffering the U.S. government has caused. The U.S. government has bombed 14 countries in 35 years and killed more than 3,000,000 people.

U.S. taxpayers pay Israel $900 per year for every man woman and child in Israel. That money must be used to buy weapons from U.S. weapons makers. So much money for war tends to prevent peace.

The U.S. interferes with needed governmental change in Saudia Arabia. I don't think violence is justified. However, Saudi friends have told me that Osama bin Laden's complaints about the U.S. government are justified.

I find it deeply painful to realize that the government of the U.S. is partly corrupt.

"Nothing is stopping the next Sun or Microsoft or Oracle or Intel from sprouting up as a home-grown venture in India, or wherever, given the supposed incredible talent and work ethics. Why haven't they?"

They haven't because the Indian Hindu culture is, in some ways, one of the most disfunctional in the world. When a U.S. company hires a Hindu worker, it usually gets someone who accepts the caste system, for example. The worker generally has a long history of accepting things the way they are and overlooking even major defects. (I spelled the word "disfunctional" because I don't like the original spelling.)

Remember that most heads of technically oriented companies are not technically knowledgeable enough to know whether a programmer is doing a good job. They hire on the basis of price and a little understanding.

What hasn't become apparent to the companies that hire Indian programmers is that they aren't getting the same quality of work as they would from U.S. citizens. Good programming requires someone who constantly asks whether what he or she is doing makes sense. Good programming requires constant creativity.

There are, of course, many Indian programmers who are excellent in every way. But most are the followers that their culture requires them to be.

The result is that programs are being written that will have to be re-written, and much sooner than they would if they were done by programmers from a culture that prizes independent thinking. The real cost of Indian programmers is higher than U.S. programmers, not lower.

The U.S. has been through something like this before. In the early 70's it became fashionable in the U.S. to hire PhDs. The reasoning was that better educated people would be better employees. But, after about 12 or 15 years, companies realized that people who had PhDs were often robotic crank-turners. Sure, some PhDs were interested in education, but most had just put in their time getting an advanced degree. The policy of hiring PhDs brought about some spectacular failures; they often did not have sufficient knowledge outside a narrow field.

We are seeing a wave of self-destruction in the United States. The U.S. government has killed perhaps 3,000,000 people and bombed 14 countries in the last 35 years. (See What should be the Response to Violence?.) United States companies are destroying themselves. (Microsoft is, for example, driving people to Linux by annoying its customers: Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going.) The U.S. is becoming a country in which law is disregarded and disrepected. (See Airplanes are safe, but laws often crash.)

"Nothing is stopping the next Sun or Microsoft or Oracle or Intel from sprouting up as a home-grown venture in India, or wherever, given the supposed incredible talent and work ethics. Why haven't they?"

They haven't because the Indian Hindu culture is, in some ways, one of the most disfunctional in the world. When a U.S. company hires a Hindu worker, it usually gets someone who accepts the caste system, for example. The worker generally has a long history of accepting things the way they are and overlooking even major defects. (I spelled the word "disfunctional" because I don't like the original spelling.)

Remember that most heads of technically oriented companies are not technically knowledgeable enough to know whether a programmer is doing a good job. They hire on the basis of price and a little understanding.

What hasn't become apparent to the companies that hire Indian programmers is that they aren't getting the same quality of work as they would from U.S. citizens. Good programming requires someone who constantly asks whether what he or she is doing makes sense. Good programming requires constant creativity.

There are, of course, many Indian programmers who are excellent in every way. But most are the followers that their culture requires them to be.

The result is that programs are being written that will have to be re-written, and much sooner than they would if they were done by programmers from a culture that prizes independent thinking. The real cost of Indian programmers is higher than U.S. programmers, not lower.

The U.S. has been through something like this before. In the early 70's it became fashionable in the U.S. to hire PhDs. The reasoning was that better educated people would be better employees. But, after about 12 or 15 years, companies realized that people who had PhDs were often robotic crank-turners. Sure, some PhDs were interested in education, but most had just put in their time getting an advanced degree. The policy of hiring PhDs brought about some spectacular failures; they often did not have sufficient knowledge outside a narrow field.

We are seeing a wave of self-destruction in the United States. The U.S. government has killed perhaps 3,000,000 people and bombed 14 countries in the last 35 years. (See What should be the Response to Violence?.) United States companies are destroying themselves. (Microsoft is, for example, driving people to Linux by annoying its customers: Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going.) The U.S. is becoming a country in which law is disregarded and disrepected. (See Airplanes are safe, but laws often crash.)

My experience is that Windows XP does not crash, but it does become unusable if you load so many programs that you begin using virtual memory. See Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going..

So, you freely admit that Windows Update collects more than is specified on their privacy page. (Denoted by the legal "information includes") "Windows Update also collects the Product ID and Product Key to confirm that you are running a validly licensed copy of Windows." - This is an admission that they don't really let you know what they're collecting, as it does not appear in the "information includes" section.

"To provide you with the appropriate list of updates, Windows Update must collect" Must?? Read on up the list. They choose to have that information sent to them for processing rather than send their informatioon to you for processing. There is no "must" involved. Unless this is another admission that The Windows dev team is not bright enough to have figured out how to do it any other way.

The HCL is huge, but if there was a copy loaded on install, with the versions, etc. current up to pressing, then simple diffs could be downloaded upon each connect. Even without this mechanism, a download of possible updates would not be prohibitively huge.

They want the titles of any file played in Media Player why??? They don't have to let you know that they do that why?? As Bush and Cheney will tell you, this is a pattern of behaviour. Another episode of a bad soap opera, and we know how it will end. XP phones home 18 ways out of the box. That doesn't bother you?? look here, and here.

Live in darkness if you must...

Hammy

"The person you have reached has been connected and is unavailable at this time."

I did some research about this and came to the conclusion that the secret agencies of the U.S. government are completely out of control: What should be the Response to Violence?

MOD THE PARENT POST UP! Corporate security depends on making the intruder do something he or she is unlikely to be able to do. It can be made very unattractive to open a computer case.

Taking advantage of this vulnerability looks a lot like normal computer use. It is possible to change the administrator password from DOS, for example, but most people don't have the software to do so. (See Windows XP may provide no local security.) This is simpler and quicker, and involves having only an easily available CD.

Quotes from the Cringely column:

"Scott McNealy will have to stumble on a new business just as he stumbled on servers and Java. This means getting new and energetic technical leadership for the company, which desperately needs another Bill Joy."

"McNealy has to ... take enormous risks and do it with élan. Only then will Sun return to greatness."

I've been studying issues of this nature for more than 30 years. What has happened to Sun has happened to Microsoft and Intel and other companies. The leaders become tired. The human brain cannot do essentially the same thing for many years without a serious rest. The human brain cannot operate in a healthy fashion if it is always being told what to do; the brain needs plenty of time to connect everything with everything else.

Cringely is not a deep thinker. He once set a goal for himself to design and build a new kind of aircraft in a month. He wasn't successful, or course.

Basically Cringely says that Scott McNealy should put a huge amount of new brainpower into Sun. On the surface this is a good idea. But it is an idea that is always true, like saying that if starving people have more money, they will eat. It is always true that a company can use more brainpower.

Effectively, all Cringely is saying is "If the problem goes away, the problem won't be there." Or, "If Sun has more brainpower, Sun won't have problems with lack of brainpower."

The real problem is that Scott McNealy and other executives don't understand the limits of the human brain. They believe they can do more with their brains than is actually possible.

The brain is subject to the limits described by Gestalt psychology. If a person stares at something long enough, it disappears from consciousness. Basically, Scott McNealy cannot hold the issues of growing a computer company in his consciousness for many years without periodic serious rest.

Gestalt is a German word for the phenomenon of how events or ideas connect in the human brain. Since wisdom is connectedness in the brain, the phenomenon is extremely important.

The phenomenon of perception is described in the book, Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality ,
by Frederick S. (Fritz) Perls, Ralph Hefferline and, Paul Goodman. This is the only book of which I am aware that describes the ideas of Gestalt psychology clearly.

There is apparently some sense inside Intel that Andy Grove got cancer because he overworked himself; at least Intel employees readily accept this idea. Intel has serious problems now with marketing. The lack of good marketing is limiting the company's understanding of how to find the necessary new technical directions. There is no one at Intel now with the brainpower to see the problems or resolve them.

Microsoft has the same problem. Microsoft executives are slowly destroying the company by being adversarial toward their customers. But Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are tired. They have been doing the same thing day and night since they were young adults. They simply don't have the brainpower to recognize the problems and fix them, particularly since fixing the problems in this case would require that they resolve inner conflict that they've had since childhood. (I wrote an article that discusses some of Microsoft's adversarial behavior: Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going.)

The problems at Sun are very common. Fairchild Semiconductor and Novell, for example, destroyed themselves in the same way. The executives reached a point where no amount of pressuring themselves could result in more useful brain activity.

Håkon,

This is very smart marketing in an industry in which marketing is usually very primitive.

As others have said, you are making your point without going to court. That's admirable.

Microsoft is so abusive that I wrote an article about the abuse so that I would have some way of explaining it to my customers: Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going.

LOL! At one time, the Swedish chef was my favorite TV character. Although I was an adult, and didn't often watch TV, I watched the Muppets more than the children in the neighborhood.

Be sure to give credit to whomever wrote the original Swedish chef software. I don't see that now on your web pages. Also, notice that the press release about the Bork edition says, "Pal A. Hvistendahl, Marcom Director". Shouldn't this be "Marketing Director"? If you mean MARketing COMmunications, that isn't an advisable word because it communicates only to people who think about marketing all the time.

I agree, but also, when there are problems, there is often not sufficient will to fix them.

This article tells about some problems in Oregon:

Airplanes are safe, but laws often crash.

Microsoft and Windows XP are worse than the CCIA says:

Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going.

Good programmers are not willing to sign the non-competition and non-disclosure agreements that Microsoft requires. They fear that would put them at risk of a Microsoft lawsuit. Even if they were found in court not to have infringed on Microsoft's contract, the cost of the lawsuit would be enormous. Also, they could lose their jobs over any such dispute. It is possible that the only real effect of Microsoft's shared source policy is to cripple an organization's best programmers, so that they cannot work in any field in which Microsoft has an interest.

Microsoft's policy of allowing government programmers to see source code is not equivalent to having open source code. A thorough review of the more than 40 million lines of source code in Windows XP is far more than even a government can attempt. It would be easy for someone to hide spy instructions that could be controlled from outside. This is not unlikely. The U.S. government's spy agencies, the CIA, NSA, and others, have an essentially unlimited amount of money. They can and do exploit any method of spying. The U.S. government has bombed 14 countries in 35 years. Organizations should not assume that those who think killing is a way of solving problems will suddenly become moral when they consider computer software.

Often it seems that Microsoft is not a software company that is sometimes abusive, but is an abuse company that sometimes supplies software.

For example, Microsoft keeps control describes ways in which Microsoft has made Windows XP more difficult for the customer.

Earlier on Slashdot today there was an article about Microsoft deliberately trying to sabotage the Opera browser.

More on this subject in What should be the Response to Violence? .

P.S.: I hope that U.S. voters begin to realize that being a senator or representative or other government leader is a big intellectual challenge. I hope the voters will start voting for people who are mentally capable of being a government leader. Those who have a history of excessive drinking (Bush and Cheney), are very sick (Cheney), and those who have never thought deeply about anything (Bush, and apparently Tauzin) should not try to be a leader of anything.

Here's my contribution to the U.S. government's new surveillance initiative, TIA (Total Information Awareness):

President of the U.S. George W. Bush DUI Arrest record #1. (Bush's Date of Birth: 07/6/46. The DOB on the record is in error.)

President of the U.S. George W. Bush DUI Arrest record #2.

Vice President of the U.S. Dick Cheney DUI Arrest record #1.

Vice President of the U.S. Dick Cheney DUI Arrest record #2.

P.S.: I hope that U.S. voters begin to realize that being a senator or representative or other government leader is a big intellectual challenge. I hope the voters will start voting for people who are mentally capable of being a government leader. Those who have a history of excessive drinking (Bush and Cheney), are very sick (Cheney), and those who have never thought deeply about anything (Bush, and apparently Tauzin) should not try to be a leader of anything.

Here's my contribution to the U.S. government's new surveillance initiative, TIA (Total Information Awareness):

President of the U.S. George W. Bush DUI Arrest record #1. (Bush's Date of Birth: 07/6/46. The DOB on the record is in error.)

President of the U.S. George W. Bush DUI Arrest record #2.

Vice President of the U.S. Dick Cheney DUI Arrest record #1.

Vice President of the U.S. Dick Cheney DUI Arrest record #2.

P.S.: I hope that U.S. voters begin to realize that being a senator or representative or other government leader is a big intellectual challenge. I hope the voters will start voting for people who are mentally capable of being a government leader. Those who have a history of excessive drinking (Bush and Cheney), are very sick (Cheney), and those who have never thought deeply about anything (Bush, and apparently Tauzin) should not try to be a leader of anything.

Here's my contribution to the U.S. government's new surveillance initiative, TIA (Total Information Awareness):

President of the U.S. George W. Bush DUI Arrest record #1. (Bush's Date of Birth: 07/6/46. The DOB on the record is in error.)

President of the U.S. George W. Bush DUI Arrest record #2.

Vice President of the U.S. Dick Cheney DUI Arrest record #1.

Vice President of the U.S. Dick Cheney DUI Arrest record #2.

P.S.: I hope that U.S. voters begin to realize that being a senator or representative or other government leader is a big intellectual challenge. I hope the voters will start voting for people who are mentally capable of being a government leader. Those who have a history of excessive drinking (Bush and Cheney), are very sick (Cheney), and those who have never thought deeply about anything (Bush, and apparently Tauzin) should not try to be a leader of anything.

Here's my contribution to the U.S. government's new surveillance initiative, TIA (Total Information Awareness):

President of the U.S. George W. Bush DUI Arrest record #1. (Bush's Date of Birth: 07/6/46. The DOB on the record is in error.)

President of the U.S. George W. Bush DUI Arrest record #2.

Vice President of the U.S. Dick Cheney DUI Arrest record #1.

Vice President of the U.S. Dick Cheney DUI Arrest record #2.

1. George W. Bush is not mentally suitable to be a leader of any kind. There is no evidence that he has ever thought deeply about anything in his life. He has been arrested 3 times. Who do you know who has been arrested 3 times who wasn't taking part in protest demonstrations?
2. Dick Cheney is not mentally suitable to be a leader of any kind. According to an acquaintance of mine who was once in the same social circle as Cheney, he has a history of womanizing and drinking. Dick Cheney is a very sick man; he has had a quadruple heart bypass; he should be letting his mind work on the malfunctions of his body, and avoiding other efforts.
3. Many Republicans are not members of a political party, they are members of a corruption organization. They only want to sell the government to whatever corrupt influence will give the most money.
4. The U.S. government already operates the biggest surveillance system the world has ever known. The U.S. government's NSA, FBI, and CIA departments spy on anyone in any country, and arrange the death of anyone they want, secretly.
5. The secret agencies of the U.S. government are, at present, the most violent force in the world. They U.S. government has invaded 14 countries and killed more than 3,000,000 million people in the last 33 years. In an article, What should be the Response to Violence?, I collected some links and explanation about this.

1. George W. Bush is not mentally suitable to be a leader of any kind. There is no evidence that he has ever thought deeply about anything in his life. He has been arrested 3 times. Who do you know who has been arrested 3 times who wasn't taking part in protest demonstrations?
2. Dick Cheney is not mentally suitable to be a leader of any kind. According to an acquaintance of mine who was once in the same social circle as Cheney, he has a history of womanizing and drinking. Dick Cheney is a very sick man; he has had a quadruple heart bypass; he should be letting his mind work on the malfunctions of his body, and avoiding other efforts.
3. Many Republicans are not members of a political party, they are members of a corruption organization. They only want to sell the government to whatever corrupt influence will give the most money.
4. The U.S. government already operates the biggest surveillance system the world has ever known. The U.S. government's NSA, FBI, and CIA departments spy on anyone in any country, and arrange the death of anyone they want, secretly.
5. The secret agencies of the U.S. government are, at present, the most violent force in the world. They U.S. government has invaded 14 countries and killed more than 3,000,000 million people in the last 33 years. In an article, What should be the Response to Violence?, I collected some links and explanation about this.

1. George W. Bush is not mentally suitable to be a leader of any kind. There is no evidence that he has ever thought deeply about anything in his life. He has been arrested 3 times. Who do you know who has been arrested 3 times who wasn't taking part in protest demonstrations?
2. Dick Cheney is not mentally suitable to be a leader of any kind. According to an acquaintance of mine who was once in the same social circle as Cheney, he has a history of womanizing and drinking. Dick Cheney is a very sick man; he has had a quadruple heart bypass; he should be letting his mind work on the malfunctions of his body, and avoiding other efforts.
3. Many Republicans are not members of a political party, they are members of a corruption organization. They only want to sell the government to whatever corrupt influence will give the most money.
4. The U.S. government already operates the biggest surveillance system the world has ever known. The U.S. government's NSA, FBI, and CIA departments spy on anyone in any country, and arrange the death of anyone they want, secretly.
5. The secret agencies of the U.S. government are, at present, the most violent force in the world. They U.S. government has invaded 14 countries and killed more than 3,000,000 million people in the last 33 years. In an article, What should be the Response to Violence?, I collected some links and explanation about this.

1. George W. Bush is not mentally suitable to be a leader of any kind. There is no evidence that he has ever thought deeply about anything in his life. He has been arrested 3 times. Who do you know who has been arrested 3 times who wasn't taking part in protest demonstrations?
2. Dick Cheney is not mentally suitable to be a leader of any kind. According to an acquaintance of mine who was once in the same social circle as Cheney, he has a history of womanizing and drinking. Dick Cheney is a very sick man; he has had a quadruple heart bypass; he should be letting his mind work on the malfunctions of his body, and avoiding other efforts.
3. Many Republicans are not members of a political party, they are members of a corruption organization. They only want to sell the government to whatever corrupt influence will give the most money.
4. The U.S. government already operates the biggest surveillance system the world has ever known. The U.S. government's NSA, FBI, and CIA departments spy on anyone in any country, and arrange the death of anyone they want, secretly.
5. The secret agencies of the U.S. government are, at present, the most violent force in the world. They U.S. government has invaded 14 countries and killed more than 3,000,000 million people in the last 33 years. In an article, What should be the Response to Violence?, I collected some links and explanation about this.

1. George W. Bush is not mentally suitable to be a leader of any kind. There is no evidence that he has ever thought deeply about anything in his life. He has been arrested 3 times. Who do you know who has been arrested 3 times who wasn't taking part in protest demonstrations?
2. Dick Cheney is not mentally suitable to be a leader of any kind. According to an acquaintance of mine who was once in the same social circle as Cheney, he has a history of womanizing and drinking. Dick Cheney is a very sick man; he has had a quadruple heart bypass; he should be letting his mind work on the malfunctions of his body, and avoiding other efforts.
3. Many Republicans are not members of a political party, they are members of a corruption organization. They only want to sell the government to whatever corrupt influence will give the most money.
4. The U.S. government already operates the biggest surveillance system the world has ever known. The U.S. government's NSA, FBI, and CIA departments spy on anyone in any country, and arrange the death of anyone they want, secretly.
5. The secret agencies of the U.S. government are, at present, the most violent force in the world. They U.S. government has invaded 14 countries and killed more than 3,000,000 million people in the last 33 years. In an article, What should be the Response to Violence?, I collected some links and explanation about this.

The biggest friends of business are business men and women. The biggest enemies of business are ... business men and women. Slashdot articles have provided many examples of business people being self-destructive.

The law in the U.S. has become corrupt, as this July 2002 article, linked at the bottom of the Inquirer article, says: Political contribution watch.

I've done some research about how law is made in Oregon: Airplanes are safe, but laws often crash. (For those who live outside the U.S.: Oregon is a U.S. state.)

Basically, it appears that the law in the U.S. is being driven by those who have a financial interest, not people who have the best interests of the country in mind.

If you bought a TV in 1970 for $400, you would likely spend another $400 in the next 4 years having it repaired. But then there was a revolution. Famous quality control expert W. Edwards Deming and others helped managers realize the importance of doing things right. Now airplane, computer, television, and drug makers, to give just a few examples, are extremely serious about quality and reliability.

The quality revolution has not yet come to the legal profession. Laws are still allowed to be sloppy. Often imperfect results are simply ignored.

The DMV laws are an example. The auto insurance law in Oregon is based on "belief" and is structured in such a way that you can lose your driver's license because of a clerical error. It doesn't seem to bother the law makers that "belief" cannot be reliably known, and the insurance companies sometimes make mistakes. Amazed? Skeptical? Have a look at Oregon law ORS 806.245 (b).

The laws define driving as a "privilege" in spite of the fact that driving is a necessary freedom for a large percentage of us. Calling driving a "privilege" supports a system in which insurance companies make more profit.

Oregon law ORS 25.750 suspends a person's driver's license for being behind in child support payments. But there are obvious problems with this. Not having a driver's license is likely to make someone, usually a man, less able to pay.

The child support law supports a common fraud: A woman convinces a man she is serious about having a relationship, when in fact she has no serious intent. Even though there is an understanding that they will not have a child, the woman deliberately becomes pregnant. The woman disconnects from the relationship, but gets paid by the man for her personal project of having a baby. The child support also supports the woman, who can quit her full-time job and get an easier part-time job to supplement the money from the man.

Your telephone always works. Electricity is always delivered. The reliability comes from investigating and correcting any problem. In contrast, there is little desire to clean up faulty laws. Lawyers don't want to disturb a system that pays them $100 to $350 an hour. Often laws are allowed to be so confusing that citizens can't understand them.

Part of the reason that laws lack quality control is that there are people who want to use the power of government to make money. If you lose your driver's license in Oregon for a reason not related to safety, once you get your license back you will have to pay about $3,000 extra to some auto insurance company, even though the risk is not greater. It is easy to construct a more perfect auto insurance law, but that would reduce the unearned profit of the insurance companies.

This scheme of using the laws to make unearned profit is used in other areas, also. In Oregon, if a car is towed because of being in a wrong parking place, the cost of the tow to the car owner is far greater the true cost. The extra money goes to the towing company.

Part of the problem of making laws is that lawmakers often don't realize that lawmaking is difficult. The author of this article has, at different times in his life, repaired the automatic flight control systems of aircraft, worked in a Physics research laboratory, and written complex computer programs. None of this is as difficult as making good laws. However, people with no experience recognize that they should not repair aircraft. In contrast, the only requirement to be elected a lawmaker is popularity, and that is considered sufficient preparation.

Why don't judges demand quality control in laws? One reason is that the legislature tells them they can't look before they decide. Oregon law ORS 183.400 (4) limits the power of the Judiciary: A DMV agency rule, for example, can only be examined to see if it (a) violates constitutional provisions, or (b) exceeds the statutory authority of the agency; or (c) Was adopted without compliance with applicable rule-making procedures.

That means that, if the DMV says that black is white, judges must pretend they don't notice. Why? Well, (a) there is nothing in the constitution that prevents someone from saying something that is obviously crazy. (b) As long as the rule is about cars or driving, it is within the authority of the DMV. (c) And, since the DMV mostly makes it own procedures, it is unlikely a rule won't be in compliance.

If you studied American government in high school, you learned that the U.S. Constitution establishes separation of powers. The executive, legislative, and judicial branches are not allowed to interfere with each other. In Oregon, there are numerous ways this sensible law is not observed.

For example, the DMV is an agency of the executive branch, but it is allowed to make rules that bind the citizen as surely as any law. The only way an agency rule differs from a law is that it is not called a law.

The DMV has its own judges called ALJs, Administrative Law Judges, who decide whether those rules have been observed. So, the DMV has departments that perform functions of all three branches of government.

The ultimate method of assuring there won't be close scrutiny of the application of law is used in Oregon: The Legislative branch doesn't give the Judicial branch enough money to operate. More than 40 people have told the author that the Courts are under-funded and under-staffed. Starving the judiciary is the surest means of preventing good judicial action.

Do you want to experience for yourself how laws are made in Oregon? The Oregon Department of Transportation is developing a system to charge by the mile for driving in Oregon, and you can participate at the February 14, 2003 meeting. ODOT plans to install GPS radio receivers in every car to track where each car goes.

GPS stands for Global Positioning System. The system uses satellite radio transmissions to show pilots or hikers their position, for example. The GPS would calculate how many miles you drove in Oregon, and you would pay when you bought gasoline. See the December 31, 2002 Associated Press article at StatesmanJournal.com: Oregon drivers may pay more: http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=541 84

Also see the Oregon government's own web site: Road User Fee Task Force, http://www.odot.state.or.us/ruftf/documents.html.)

Lawmaking is made to look very official and respectable. But underneath, it often isn't. One of the Oregon government's web pages says that ODOT's work is based partly on the "results of research of consultants from Oregon State University and Portland State University". However, it takes someone who has a minimal understanding of GPS about 10 seconds to realize that the system they are considering won't work. The GPS system depends on receiving the GPS radio signals. Anyone who covered the GPS antenna with aluminum foil would show that they had driven zero miles in Oregon, and therefore would pay no tax.

Aside from the fact that it won't work, there are so many other problems with this idea that they cannot all be listed here. For example, a system that charges by the mile will make the road taxes for SUVs the same as the cost for fuel-efficient vehicles. At present, owners of SUVs pay more because they pay a tax on gasoline. Another problem is that tracking where each vehicle goes means that there will be no privacy.

See the DMV laws for yourself:

ORS 806.245 (b): http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/806.html
ORS 25.750: http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/025.html
ORS 183.400 (4): http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/183.html

January 2, 2003, 9:56 AM, #1 (file lics001h.htm)

Michael Jennings
Futurepower
P.O. Box 14491
Portland, OR 97293-0491

503-233-7820

E-Mail: MJennings AT myrealbox DOT com

(Take out the spaces, change AT to @, and change DOT to a period to e-mail the author. The coded e-mail address helps discourage misuse of the address by computer robots that harvest email addresses for sale to those who send unwanted e-mail.)

Oregon has a lot of foolishness surrounding laws. For example, see this: Airplanes are safe, but laws often crash..

A city councilman in Portland, the largest city, tried to promote a law that would require giving people tickets for going through a yellow (not red) light. Of course, the purpose of a yellow light is to warn drivers that the light will soon be red, not to make them stop.

For a while, there was a law in Portland that said you could be fined $400 for jaywalking. This was especially foolish because there are many times when the streets of Portland are empty.

Recently I talked with a programmer friend who said that he had spent a week finding a subtle bug that mildly affected the user interface of one of his company's products.

However, when I talk with people in Oregon government about the major defects in Oregon law, they just dismiss the issue with very little thought. One recently told me something to the effect of, "It would be too difficult to make a more perfect law." Another said, "This is the legislature's responsibility," which I understood to mean, "I don't have to think about it."

Many people think that Osama bin Laden could not possibly have found support from other Arabs without the anger that comes from the U.S. government supporting the killing of Arabs in Palestine. If you are a U.S. citizen, you should know that you contribute over $900 of your money for every man, woman and child in Israel for the purpose of buying U.S. weapons from U.S. weapons manufacturers, so that they can make more profit. You contribute that amount every year. This policy is bad for Jews, it is bad the Arabs, and it is bad for U.S. citizens. Giving money for weapons to a country involved in a conflict is like throwing gasoline on a fire. There are always people who want to kill others and destroy property; for them it is like an adult video game.

See my article about this: What should be the Response to Violence? The article needs updating, but there are many links to important, well-respected news sources.

If you don't begin taking action now, the hidden forces inside the U.S. government will take over completely.

From the Slashdot story: "I personally would love to hear any ide-raid stories that slashdotters might have." I also would like to hear about this.

Here's my story: I have extensive experience with Promise controllers. An IDE mirror makes data reads faster. If you are about to do a possibly damaging operation, it is good to break the mirror, pull out one of the hard drives, and do the operation on the other drive only. Then, when craziness happens, the other drive is a complete backup.

A mirroring controller is a convenient way to make a Windows XP operating system hard drive clone. Windows XP prevents this; normally third-party software that runs under DOS is needed to make a useable full hard drive backup. See the section "Backup Problems: Windows XP cannot copy some of its own files" in the article Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going. (The article was updated today. To all those who have read the article, sorry for the previously poor wording of the section "Hidden Connections". Expect further improvements later in this section later.)

But Promise controllers are quirky. Sometimes things go wrong, and there is no explanation available from Promise. Promise tech support is surprisingly ignorant of the issues. The setup is quirky; it is difficult to train a non-technical person to deal with the controller's interface.

Mirrors are a GREAT idea, but Promise is un-promising. That's my opinion. I'm looking for another supplier, so I want to hear other's stories.

It seems to me that, if you are using Windows XP and a hardware firewall, it is better to use the ZoneAlarm software firewall. Then you can run VisualZone, and quickly see whether anything has gotten through your hardware firewall. Don't worry about ZoneAlarm's RAM use. RAM is cheap.

ZoneAlarm works well with Windows XP. It is necessary to disable Microsoft's firewall, of course; you don't want the wolf to guard the henhouse. (See the section Windows XP connects to Microsoft's computers in at least 17 ways. in the article, Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going..)

A lot of us need to run programs that don't have Linux or BSD versions. For us, Microsoft has an absolute monopoly. It's hopeless being involved in adversarial behavior with Microsoft. The company has $40 billion cash in the bank. I have ... (Looks in billfold... Moth flies out.)

One way to cope with the situation is to use two computers connected to one keyboard, mouse and monitor. Run Mozilla on Linux on a computer that is connected to the Internet. Disable internet access on the other computer running Windows XP by removing the TCP/IP protocol. Use another protocol, such as NETBEUI, for file sharing. (IOGear seems to make the best KVM switch. My experience has been that there is no video degradation with IOGear KVMs.)

My experience, and the experience of others, is that Windows XP doesn't crash, it just becomes less usable. Windows XP becomes shaky when enough programs are loaded that all of the installed memory is in use. There are other situations where Windows XP begins malfunctioning, but these are not well characterized. (Can anyone help me here?) The symptoms of the malfunction are slowness to respond to the keyboard, and disk thrashing caused by virtual memory use that sometimes takes 45 seconds or more.

The consensus seems to be, however, that Windows XP is Microsoft's best OS. The only other candidate is Windows 2000. Any comments?

The single biggest cause of instability in a system that was once stable is bad connections. Just open up the case, pull out all connectors and adapter cards a few millimeters, and push them back. That cleans the contacts.

(Download ZoneAlarm FREE for personal use.)

Ad-Aware is excellent for use with Windows XP. It gives a list of all running processes, who made the software, and where it is located on the hard drive. It's main purpose is to check for spyware. (Virus program software does not check for spyware, so you need a separate program.)

In Portland, Oregon, USA, the best Internet connection is Hevanet DSL with a Cisco 675 router from the phone company, Qwest. The Cisco 675 can be put into mode in which it is a true hardware firewall, not just a NAT device. (My only connection with Hevanet is as a satisfied customer.)

It seems to me that, if you are using Windows XP and a hardware firewall, it is better to use the ZoneAlarm software firewall. Then you can run VisualZone, and quickly see whether anything has gotten through your hardware firewall. Don't worry about ZoneAlarm's RAM use. RAM is cheap.

ZoneAlarm works well with Windows XP. It is necessary to disable Microsoft's firewall, of course; you don't want the wolf to guard the henhouse. (See the section Windows XP connects to Microsoft's computers in at least 17 ways. in the article, Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going..)

A lot of us need to run programs that don't have Linux or BSD versions. For us, Microsoft has an absolute monopoly. It's hopeless being involved in adversarial behavior with Microsoft. The company has $40 billion cash in the bank. I have ... (Looks in billfold... Moth flies out.)

One way to cope with the situation is to use two computers connected to one keyboard, mouse and monitor. Run Mozilla on Linux on a computer that is connected to the Internet. Disable internet access on the other computer running Windows XP by removing the TCP/IP protocol. Use another protocol, such as NETBEUI, for file sharing. (IOGear seems to make the best KVM switch. My experience has been that there is no video degradation with IOGear KVMs.)

My experience, and the experience of others, is that Windows XP doesn't crash, it just becomes less usable. Windows XP becomes shaky when enough programs are loaded that all of the installed memory is in use. There are other situations where Windows XP begins malfunctioning, but these are not well characterized. (Can anyone help me here?) The symptoms of the malfunction are slowness to respond to the keyboard, and disk thrashing caused by virtual memory use that sometimes takes 45 seconds or more.

The consensus seems to be, however, that Windows XP is Microsoft's best OS. The only other candidate is Windows 2000. Any comments?

The single biggest cause of instability in a system that was once stable is bad connections. Just open up the case, pull out all connectors and adapter cards a few millimeters, and push them back. That cleans the contacts.

(Download ZoneAlarm FREE for personal use.)

Ad-Aware is excellent for use with Windows XP. It gives a list of all running processes, who made the software, and where it is located on the hard drive. It's main purpose is to check for spyware. (Virus program software does not check for spyware, so you need a separate program.)

In Portland, Oregon, USA, the best Internet connection is Hevanet DSL with a Cisco 675 router from the phone company, Qwest. The Cisco 675 can be put into mode in which it is a true hardware firewall, not just a NAT device. (My only connection with Hevanet is as a satisfied customer.)

Did Microsoft give up its aggressive practices? This article gives an overview of the present state of things; judge for yourself: Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going. If Microsoft ended its aggressive practices, why continue legal action? If Microsoft continues being aggressive, why shouldn't legal action continue?

The CIA has already found evidence of Al Qaeda camps on the moon, based on anomalous magnetic fields near the crater Tycho.

While researching the article linked below, I developed the impression that Microsoft has for years allowed its programmers to submit sloppy code. Now bugs are not easily found or fixed because everything is a mess.

Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going.

"Does anyone know why we continue to support Israel?"

Should be: "Does anyone know why the U.S. government continues to support Israel?" When speaking of killers, don't say "we".

The U.S. government donates over $900 per Israeli per year of taxpayer money to Israel to buy weapons from U.S. weapons manufacturers.

George Bush could not have been elected without the support of poorly educated religious fundamentalists. These people have a goal. (I'm not kidding about this. Consider, for example, the recent 60 Minutes show on CBS TV in the U.S., in which this was discussed.) The goal is that all Jews either convert to "Christianity" or be killed. Since no well-educated Jews will convert to become ignorant Christian fundamentalists, that means that the true goal is to kill all the Jews. What better way is there to kill the 14 million Jews (total world-wide population) than to encourage them to get into a bloody battle with 1.1 billion Muslims?

The religious extremists in the U.S. don't fight the religious extremists in other countries directly. The U.S. religious extremists encourage the religious extremists in Israel and Muslim countries to fight each other. In this they are supported by the biggest weapons manufacturers in the world, for whom killing is profitable. The are also supported by those who want to accomplish hidden goals to increase their oil profits.

See this article for more about the violence of the U.S. government: What should be the Response to Violence?

For more than 20 years, as a hobby, I've been helping friends re-write their resumes. I've noticed that one factor that affects the hiring of excellent students is that their resumes usually don't communicate clearly.

People are told that resumes should be only one page. That's not true. When you write any advertisement, you should write as much as you have to say. When you finish telling the entire story, stop writing. This advice is from the famous ad man David Ogilvy, who wrote Confessions of an Advertising Man , an excellent book that is, as you would guess, easy to read. Any library should have it.

Here are PDF examples of the before and after: Original student resume, with beginning corrections. Draft of improved resume, with formatting quirkiness caused by Microsoft Word. (My friend the student did the re-writing, using my suggestions as a guide. The improved version is current as of yesterday.)

It took maybe 10 hours to develop the information. I spent the time because I am a friend. It is easy to understand that a prospective employer would not spend 10 hours getting to know every person who sends a resume.

Notice that the original resume looks like the resume of thousands of recent journalism graduates. The improved resume is an advertisement that gives a complete picture of the person being advertised. The original expects the reader to do the work. The improved version gives as much as possible and asks as little as possible from the reader.

Like the friend in the example, many students have a lot of relevant experiences.

The book Executive Jobs Unlimited is old, but includes a lot of information that is relevant to anyone's effort to write a job-getting advertisement. Most libraries have this book.

A lot of the problems in getting a job are caused by the inexperience and ignorance of the employers. Employers are often no better than applicants at communicating. They often ask for qualities expressed by buzzwords. Often what an employer really wants is very different from what is communicated. Imagine the confusion when both the applicant and the prospective employer communicate poorly.

The most difficult kind of writing is writing an advertisement. The most difficult kind of advertisement to write is an advertisement for a person. The most difficult person about whom to write is yourself. Get help if you can. Write biographies of yourself, so that you will have information to use in the job-getting advertisement. Most people have difficulty believing they are as good as they really are, I've found.

If you are interested, it is okay to mirror the resumes, but the mirror must include a link to this original Slashdot comment.

For more than 20 years, as a hobby, I've been helping friends re-write their resumes. I've noticed that one factor that affects the hiring of excellent students is that their resumes usually don't communicate clearly.

People are told that resumes should be only one page. That's not true. When you write any advertisement, you should write as much as you have to say. When you finish telling the entire story, stop writing. This advice is from the famous ad man David Ogilvy, who wrote Confessions of an Advertising Man , an excellent book that is, as you would guess, easy to read. Any library should have it.

Here are PDF examples of the before and after: Original student resume, with beginning corrections. Draft of improved resume, with formatting quirkiness caused by Microsoft Word. (My friend the student did the re-writing, using my suggestions as a guide. The improved version is current as of yesterday.)

It took maybe 10 hours to develop the information. I spent the time because I am a friend. It is easy to understand that a prospective employer would not spend 10 hours getting to know every person who sends a resume.

Notice that the original resume looks like the resume of thousands of recent journalism graduates. The improved resume is an advertisement that gives a complete picture of the person being advertised. The original expects the reader to do the work. The improved version gives as much as possible and asks as little as possible from the reader.

Like the friend in the example, many students have a lot of relevant experiences.

The book Executive Jobs Unlimited is old, but includes a lot of information that is relevant to anyone's effort to write a job-getting advertisement. Most libraries have this book.

A lot of the problems in getting a job are caused by the inexperience and ignorance of the employers. Employers are often no better than applicants at communicating. They often ask for qualities expressed by buzzwords. Often what an employer really wants is very different from what is communicated. Imagine the confusion when both the applicant and the prospective employer communicate poorly.

The most difficult kind of writing is writing an advertisement. The most difficult kind of advertisement to write is an advertisement for a person. The most difficult person about whom to write is yourself. Get help if you can. Write biographies of yourself, so that you will have information to use in the job-getting advertisement. Most people have difficulty believing they are as good as they really are, I've found.

If you are interested, it is okay to mirror the resumes, but the mirror must include a link to this original Slashdot comment.

From the Slashdot story: "Microsoft bashing aside..."

This kind of talk is nonsense! When someone says "Microsoft bashing", they are in effect apologizing for saying something negative about Microsoft. Apologizing is ridiculous. There are many negative things that can be honestly said about Microsoft. Apologizing by using the word "bashing" in the same paragraph as a legitimate complaint weakens the complaint, especially with people who are not technically knowledgeable.

In his November 15, 2002 Crypto-Gram newsletter, Bruce Schneier says "A well-written analysis of the major security/privacy/stability concerns of Windows XP" about this article: Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going.

(Bruce Schneier wrote major books about computer security: Applied Cryptography and Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World.)

The article contains only a small number of the legitimate complaints about Microsoft. I know because I wrote the article in my spare time, and there are many, many issues I have not had time to document.

Who kept Kevin Mitnick in prison? Who allows Microsoft to be abusive? It's us. It is technically knowledgeable people who allow these abuses. We could be effective in our complaints. Instead, we accept a double standard in which illogical people are allowed to be illogical, but we must be completely logical or we would lose our jobs.

If you are sure of a problem, be effective in talking about it! Get your thoughts in order. Make your communication clear. Get the job done! Write an advisory letter to a government leader. Mention your ideas everywhere a lot of people are listening.

If you prevent Microsoft from being abusive, you are being charitable toward Microsoft. The company has a self-destructive side; preventing Microsoft from being abusive helps you and I personally, helps the world, and helps Microsoft. Remember, Microsoft's abusiveness causes all technically knowledgeable people to look bad to those who are not technically knowledgeable. Those with no technical knowledge are not qualified to sort out the details. We all suffer.

If you know better than the people around you, that makes you the leader! Don't accept foolishness. Don't accept implied criticism; make the speaker state his or her opinions openly. Don't accept the terms "nerd" or "geek". Those terms are used by illogical people to weaken the power of the people who are knowledgeable.

Most people don't realize the strong technical reasons why an organization would want to consider other operating systems. Here is an article which gathers facts and links: Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going.

"... Microsoft software and other trojans..."

Well, not trojans, just dependency: Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going..

Could your problem be caused partly by hardware? Hevanet.com, the best ISP in Portland, Oregon, USA, uses a special SCSI system run with a special version of NetBSD supplied by a company in Arizona.

Retrieval of mail stresses the filesystem; Hevanet's system is a combination of OS and hardware meant to take the load.

Here's a link. On November 6, 2002, there were 31 security vulnerabilities in Microsoft Internet Explorer

The link is taken from: Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going.. If Spanish is your native language: Windows XP muestra la dirección que Microsoft está tomando.

Here's a link. On November 6, 2002, there were 31 security vulnerabilities in Microsoft Internet Explorer

The link is taken from: Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going.. If Spanish is your native language: Windows XP muestra la dirección que Microsoft está tomando.

It seems reasonable to post links to an article that shows that Microsoft customers could possibly have serious need to criticize the company, even in cases where the software works: Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going.. If Spanish is your native language: Windows XP muestra la dirección que Microsoft está tomando.

Those who criticize Microsoft face a lack of sympathy from people who are not well informed, which is most people. Typically, Microsoft users attack each other, rather than examine the issues. My research shows that this is a phenomenon that is common. Human societies do not deal well with an abuser that tries many, many small abuses, and gives up any one abuse if the opposition is too strong.

Some history: Microsoft has made huge positive contribution to the world by creating an operating system that the world could adopt as a standard for small computers. Earlier there were more than 200 versions of Unix, each with small incompatibilities with the others. Versions of earlier Unix operating systems also were too powerful to run on affordable small computers. The Unix system would boot for the first time and expect that it would be attached to a network of typically hundreds or thousands of other computers. The manuals assumed that the reader was a professional Unix administrator.

The alternative to Microsoft operating systems was the OS known as CP/M. Those who designed CP/M-based personal computers used more than 68 diskette formats, making it impossible to interchange data between different systems by diskette, without using a conversion program. Digital Research, the company that made CP/M, sometimes provided manuals in which the original was printed using a dot-matrix printer with an old ribbon. To say that DR was insufficiently attentive to business is an understatement. It was crazy, and Microsoft delivered us from that craziness.

At the same time that Microsoft was making a huge positive contribution, it was making a negative one, also. The company has a history of the kind of abuse psychologists call "testing the limits".