Slashdot Mirror

That's because Canada is two nations, not just one.

What about a situation where someone is completely wrong about what you did and they ruin your life? Check out this article that came out last summer.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/14/news/korea. php

Even the exaple in this article, where they had the name, address, email, picture, arial photo of the guys home, licence and registration is very scary. What if his car had been stolen, and then all this information is now public record?

The problem with vigilante justice is it's not thinking justice, it does not wait for the facts and that is really dangerous.

The community version of this going too far or something similar can be called gang stalking or orgainised stalking and it can ruin someone's life. These sites have their place, but some go too far, and no one knows where to draw the line.

But then again, almost everybody who would ever want an mp3 player has one by now. Putting it that way, it's probably more difficult to enter an already saturated market.

The whole thing reminds me of the XBox: MS didn't sell many units at first, and we were laughing at them. But now, the XBox360 is already outselling the Wee and the Playstation3 (although not the PS2).

When the last time this system would have saved an aircraft?

She and other members of Congress are hoping to equip all US commercial passenger liners with this system in 20 years, at a cost of billions of dollars. Is this good common sense or the costly future of a society hobbled by fear of terrorism?

"The fact that you are here, writing that, means they are democracies, or at least you have free speech. Go say that in China, or another real regime, and watch what happens"

We have free speech as long as we don't excercise it.

Jailed for blogging ..
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/27/opinion/eds age.php

Blogger arrested at Atlantica conference
br> http://oldmaison.blogspot.com/2006/06/my-few-hours -in-jail-with-saint-john.html

French Blogger Arrested Then Sued
http://www.webpronews.com/news/ebusinessnews/wpn-4 5-20050513FrenchBloggerArrestedThenSued.html

Canadian blogger arrested trying to enter the US.
http://www.ensight.org/archives/2005/03/17/the-end -of-the-story/

... government is not after you.

That's a lame excuse for violations of your rights and it does not save you from real harm. When you give government the power to intimidate and harass, they might use it on people who are fighting for your rights.

Some interesting reading:

1. Atlantic on MLK wiretap
2. A better article on the same subject, drawing parallels to current policy.
3. An LA Times article on just how bad things got.
4. UK harassment of nonviolent protesters
5. The UK police state. The power to abuse has not stopped crime or terrorism.
6. Secret prisons, how bad it has gotten today.
7. They will take your laptop, just a small reminder of how it works.

The list of current issues goes on and on. When you allow government to abuse you, it will.

It's all web 3.0 now. 2.0 was a flawedconcept, go with 3.0. It is the most reliable, most secure, largest ROI and lowest TCO http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/23/business/we b.php

It leverages collaborative synergies in an open and proprietary way to deliver value for interactive component architecture.

It is so now, so modern so YOU! The smart set are 3.0!

Seriously, does anyone doubt me when I say that IT is just like the fashion industry?

That's why in 6 months I hope to be done with it.

Muwahahahahaha... Tell that to Mogadishu. Tell that to Beirut. Tell that to Baghdad, Paris, and Amsterdam. Tell that to Banda Aceh. Tell that to Indonesia. And oh yeah... remember to tell your grandkids when they get drafted to fight for Christendom, as it were. I'm sorry, but they will NOT be enforcing any kind of Sharia on this Redheaded Rebel.

And I'm allergic to bees, so my chances are pretty good. Especially since I'm 10 miles from Tijuana.

I don't watch Faux News... I read Das Interwebs... :P Where the hell did they come up with that anyways? A few of my favorites:

http://www.drudgereport.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
http://news.google.com/
http://www.haaretz.com/
http://www.msnbc.com/
http://thehill.com/
http://www.iht.com/
http://my.yahoo.com/ - of course, customized for worldwide RSS.


Grow up and open your eyes to the world reality. Not just the one you see in your four walls. Try working with some people from different parts of the world. Especially men from the worker caste in India that don't know anything about how to work with Females. One peed all over the bathroom IN OUR OFFICE, because the young janitorial Mexican girl knocked on the door while he was taking a leak. He was offended, so he whizzed all over all of the porcelain. Oh, and he was Muslim too... he would accost any woman he saw wearing a crucifix... and since we have a lot of Filipinas here, it was awful. Needless to say, it STILL took us 2 months of protesting to get HR to do something about him. I particularly enjoyed bringing in bacon and egg muffin sammies and eating them right in front of him. Oh, did I mention that he was in the cube next to me.. this is how I know all this.

My favorite foreigners that I've ever worked were with practically brothers... we even shared an office. One was a Christian Iranian, the other a Sunni Iraqi, and they surfed (in the ocean) together daily. I miss them both so much... and they treated HUMANS with a dignity and respect I've never seen since. Sad. I learned a lot from them.

It's not the terrorism I worry about, it's the FORCED IMPOSITION of Sharia on societies that are too vulnerable to know better. Women are being beaten in the public square now in Banda Aceh, and no one cares... the UN let them take it over... and now, they are beaten to death for meeting with a man in public. FUCK THAT SHIT maynard. FUCK IT ALL... I will give MY rotten ass life to make sure that NO ONE must suffer under such injustice. *sigh* Even you. Especially you... too damned ignorant to know better.. either that, or you're blinded by decades of such imposition already.

It doesn't make much sense to start thinking of locations in terms of colonization unless there is some real practical drive for it.

http://www.iht.com/articles/1993/02/05/cosm.php

I always think of this when people talk about global warming or solar power.

I seem to recall that even volunteers frag.. (news article about soldier accused of killing superior in Iraq)

What is the scale of the solutions for the inconvenient truth? 4 Terawatts of global electricity usage and 13 Terawatts of total power. 50% of world electricity is from coal. Coal kills over 400,000 people per year directly from pollution. (Other sobering statistics in the report, called "Connecting Asia," include estimates of 6.4 million work years lost annually in China to air pollution, 178,000 premature deaths in major cities every year caused by the use of high-sulfur coal and the fact that 52 urban river stretches have been so contaminated that they are no longer suitable for irrigation. Those numbers do not necessarily incorporate the effects of deforestation, overgrazing, dust clouds, desertification and the strains of the great increase in internal migration and tourism. Add in rural deaths and deaths from other countries like the 27,000 that the American lung association estimates for the United States and you get well over 400,000 per year.) Solar power added 1.7 GW of power in 2005. Wind power added 12 GW of power in 2005. Existing nuclear power plants can be up-powered fairly easily by 50% This would add 160GW of power globally. Then we need to build more than the 50 or so reactors that are planned for the next 15 years. Mostly planned in China and India. GE and Hitachi are talking about being able to make 100 reactors in the next 20 years. There are several other makers of nuclear reactors France's Areva, the world's largest maker of nuclear reactors, and Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd said they would cooperate in this sector. Toshiba Corp. completed a $4.2 billion deal to take control of Westinghouse, the U.S. power plant unit of British Nuclear Fuels. We need to develop Thorium liquid flouride reactors which do not produce transuranic waste (the 10,000 year waste) and can process that waste we do have and which does not have the proliferation issues. We transition in 10-20 years to better reactors but we use what we have now to take care of the coal and climate problems first. We still push ahead as fast as we can with conservation, biofuels, solar, wind and other climate friendly energy options.

"There are not enough engineers with the appropriate skill sets."

That would be the skill set that includes an MS in Software Engineering and a willingness to work for $10/hour.

"The IT work force is not skilled enough and almost never can be skilled enough," said Robert Cresanti, undersecretary of commerce for technology

And just why would that be, Mr. Cresanti?

Lack of education? I'm sure that college costs rising 6.3% from last year for public colleges, and 5.9% for the very expensive private colleges has nothing to do with it.

Oh, but college enrollment is off. I'm sure that has nothing to do with the media drumbeat announcing that entry level engineering positions are being offshored, reducing interest in college majors leading to software and IT positions. [1][2]

Of course, even getting into these college programs requires a high school education with a strong grounding in the fundamentals of mathematics and science. This seems to be a problem area for United States high schools. [3]

Or are you just proclaiming that the US Commerce Department thinks this is an area Americans just can't compete in? Perhaps American nationals should just know their place in life and stick with "Would you like fries with that?" Hey, even H1B Visa Guy has to eat somewhere. At least your suppliers of Freedom Fries will be secure in their ability to find new employees.

1. http://www.computerworld.com/printthis/2006/0,4814 ,111202,00.html
2. http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos110.htm#outlook
3. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/25/news/scienc e.php
4. http://www.ed.gov/inits/TIMSS/overview.html

Please have, even just a cursory, look at a good scientific abstracting service. You'll find there is no debate, there are no two sides of the aisle. The science is unambigious, the planet is warming.

Moreover, I challenge you to find current papers published in a reputable peer-reviewd journal which pruport the notion that human activity is unrelated to the increasing atmopsheric C02, or that increasing atmospheric C02 is unrelated to the observed warming.

"The discoveries have stirred a little- known dispute that, if resolved, could have major implications. At issue is whether the findings back or undermine the prevailing view on global warming. One side foresees a looming crisis of planetary heating; the other, temperature increases that would be more nuisance than catastrophe.

Perhaps surprisingly, both hail from the same camp: scientists who study the big picture of Earth's past, including geologists and paleoclimatologists."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/12/16/news/profil e.php
"Inspired by those discussions, Pavel invented the device known today as the Walkman. But it took more than 25 years of battling the Sony Corporation and others in courts and patent offices around the world before he finally won the right to say it: Andreas Pavel invented the portable personal stereo player."

Was the court ideal? Certainly not. Was it a sham, a "kangaroo court"? From the IHT:

Lawyers and human rights advocates broadly agreed that the Iraqi tribunal's proceedings frequently fell short of international standards for war crimes cases. But even critics of the trial said the five Iraqi judges who heard the case had made a reasonable effort to conduct a fair trial in the face of sustained pressure from Iraqi political leaders for a swift death sentence. American lawyers pointed to substantial evidence offered by the prosecution implicating Saddam in the crimes against humanity with which he had been charged. "Did this meet the standards of international justice?" asked Jonathan Drimmer, who teaches war crimes law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington. "The answer is no. But to look at the ultimate verdict, it certainly is consistent with the evidence presented." Miranda Sissons, a senior associate at the International Center for Transitional Justice, a group that has been severely critical of some of the trial proceedings, said, "This was not a sham trial," and added, "The judges are doing their best to try this case to an entirely new standard for Iraq."

Did the US have control over the court proceedings? Again, from that IHT article:

Accusations by Saddam's supporters that the trial was manipulated by U.S. officials were not borne out, American lawyers who followed the case said. An office organized by the U.S. Embassy helped the tribunal with the investigation and provided legal and logistical assistance. But the Iraqi judges frequently ignored their advice and generally insisted on sticking with familiar procedures from the Iraqi justice system.

• I don't want my comp to be taken untill somone desides I can havit back.
• I don't want to sponsor a warmongoring government
• Getting a visa is a major PITA compaired to other countries.

Whoops ; Here are the examples I meant to include in my previous post.

Venezuela[1], Brazil[2], Extremadura and other regions of Spain[3], New Zealand[6], Bulgaria & Madeconia[4], and China[5], India. Development is often a worldwide effort, much like academic research.

For example, while I have only done a little FLOSS development, I've never met any of my collaborators in person.
    Thailand Cities: Vienna, Munich, Geneva, Bergen[7]. Peru, Paris:almost.

[1] http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-08 -30-011-26-NW-LL-PB
[2] http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=26006
[3] http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8485 - Good Read.
[4] http://www.foss.bg/news.php?id=2
[5] http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20031117S0015
[6]
[7] http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/13/t13_2.php

now that Chinese labor unions are infiltrating foreign businesses it's probably time to move to another more business friendly nation.

Haven't you noticed that NASA funding has got little smaller during last few years?

No, I haven't. Looks like it has grown slightly since 2000. Thanks President Bush!

about conquring space and such, space will belong to Chinese.

Last I saw the Chinese were grovelling to collaborate with the US in manned space flight and were spurned.

For three years the government argued that he was actually on a scouting mission to set off a dirty bomb somewhere in the U.S yet failed to charge him with any criminal activity.

After those three years, and after spending who knows how much money trying to defend their case, they dropped all charges against him, released him from military jail and sent him to the civilian court system where they finally charged him, along with four others, with "conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim persons in a foreign country ... for the purpose of opposing existing governments and civilian factions and establishing Islamic states under Sharia (Islamic law), and material support for terrorism," according to the indictment. CNN link

My point was not whether the guy was guilty or not, but rather that government didnt' charge him with anything, simply held the guy for three years, and then spent money defending its actions against lawsuits filed by not only his attorney, but the ACLU and other organizations, then finally relented because the courts were starting to rule against its position. In other words, just like the crux of this article, they knew they couldn't win and so changed their position to make it seem like they had a victory but only after spending taxpayer dollars doing so.

I could just have easily used the issue of no-bid contracts by Halliburton and its subsidiaries which are costing the taxpayers millions, if not billions, of dollars in cost overruns, missing equipment, unsubstantiated work and other related matters. In fact, Bunnatine ("Bunny") Greenhouse, the top official at the US Army Corps of Engineers in charge of awarding government contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq, was demoted because she spoke out about the abuses of the bidding contract. Asia Times Online link and International Herald Tribune link.

I was only tyring to come up with other cases in which the U.S. government spent tons of money defending their actions and finally dropped the case which is similar to what the ACLU supposedly did to the taxpaer. Also, that the government doesn't need the ACLUs help in wasting taxpayer dollars considering that the Republican-led House, Senate and White House are doing very well on their own.

In related news, a Norwegian company promises cheaper high-purity silicon:

International Herald Tribune: Norway's Orkla group to build new plant to produce high-purity silicon for solar cells

Aftenposten: Orkla goes solar

This isn't as bad as when pirates pirated an entire company: NEC. Yeah, they had fake buildings, fake manufacturing facilities, fake executives, everything.

Ah, plasmacutter.

After spending a week reading things of substance, I view you as the dessert - an article without substance, but a little sweet... ahh...

This is an "after the fact" call, and all crimes regardless of severity are investigated and when possible the perpetrators are brought to justice. This is also NOT the argument you were making in your earlier post.

Your earlier post said it was perfectly "ok" to shred the bill of rights and the constitutional provisions against overstep of government power if it prevented crimes before they happened.

I'll say this again: "Minority report anyone?"

As usual, this is just too rich, my boy.

Perhaps you were unaware that plotting murder is, in itself, a crime? Would you suggest that the police shouldn't attempt to stop those plotting a murder? Or do you prefer Steven Spielberg to set your political ideas?

They don't do this with speeding, they don't even do it with murder, but I guess it's ok whenever they shriek "national security" at the top of their ultrafascist lungs.

They don't arrest people for planning murder? Are you sure about that?

In Canada, it's punishable by life in prison. In the U.S., laws vary from state to state, but generally the penalty is quite severe.

Are these laws "shredding the bill of rights"? Are they punishing people for thought? Do people have the right to plot murder? At what point should we take action to prevent an act of murder, as the knife is pulled, as the finger moves to the trigger, as the plane approaches a building?

A "wait and see" approach is absurd, stupid, and unsurprisingly what you advocate. People don't have the right to plot murder, no more than they have the right to shout "fire" in a crowded theatre (unless, of course, there is a fire).

people who are arrogant enough to wander around calling other people stupid to their face are usually the ones who need to expand their wisdom, I advise you to do so.

Ah, this is my favorite part. Coming right after the "ultrafascist" bit.

Why don't you "expand [your] wisdom" by not arguing that every thing that doesn't reinforce your truly idiotic view of the world is part of a vast, extreme right wing conspiracy and that, perhaps, things might go a little beyond the class warfare you so earnestly love.

I call you stupid because you ignore the facts and the world around you. I call you stupid because you compare a Steven Spielberg flick to actual crime. I call you stupid because you believe that the Council on Foreign Relations is an extreme right organization. I call you stupid for a variety of reasons, and you richly deserve the title.

Now keep on slash stalking away, my good boy. You'll give me entertainment for weeks to come.

Have a look at what unsupervised wiretapping has lead to in Italy.

Wonder no more, breaking news from today:

The publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, its Spanish-language sister paper, has resigned, saying he had lost control of his newsrooms over a growing controversy involving payments from the Bush administration to some reporters at El Nuevo Herald for their commentary broadcast on the anti-Castro outlets Radio Marti and TV Marti.

Apparently, at least one editor thinks that the government paying reporters to say what it wants is a "free press."

But Humberto Castello, editor of El Nuevo Herald, said reporters' mission was to serve as advocates for democracy and to inform their Cuban listeners of "what is going on." Those listeners "have no free press," he said. "They have no other opportunity to listen and to be informed."

Sony has lost half its market value in the past six years, dumbass. This means that $150 million would be quite a bit less as a percentage of its revenue. Why don't you come back when you learn some basic arithmetic, k?

According to this article:

"The Arctic is undergoing nothing less than a great rush for virgin territory and natural resources worth hundreds of billions of dollars..."

"...In 2001, Russia made the first move, staking out virtually half of the Arctic Ocean, including the North Pole. Moscow sought to bolster its claim by sending a research ship north to gather geographical data. On Aug. 29, it reached the pole without the help of an icebreaker - the first surface ship ever to do so."

That was my feeling exactly, as I live in The Netherlands as well.
About time we start considering weird ideas like raising our land by injecting acid into the lime bedrock:
http://www.iht.com/articles/1993/01/12/dike.php
(It's from 1993... Why don't we follow up on these kind of things? It would even solve a chemical waste problem.)

Xinhua News Agency, long a mouthpiece for China's Communist Party, is getting a boost from the Beijing government in its quest to become an international media power.

The regulations give Xinhua a virtual monopoly over the distribution inside China of news, information and other services from foreign agencies. Their release comes as the communist leadership has clamped down on mainstream media and the Internet, firing and even arresting aggressive reporters and editors.

"Xinhua, which is a government propaganda arm, is not rolling in money and they're looking for ways to get rich, to make Xinhua a player."

Xinhua "has the right to select the news and information released by foreign news agencies in China and shall delete any materials mentioned in the items above," it said.

The recent NYT/ IHT article gives a different and more detailed account of the current HP mess.

From Leak, inquiry and resignation rock a boardroom
By Damon Darlin [Miguel Helft contributing] The New York Times / September 7, 2006
Reprinted in the International Herald Tribune

>>
[....]

After Hurd succeeded Fiorina, the leaks stopped.

But in January, an article appeared on the technology news Web site CNET about a management meeting. The report described the company's strategy in dealing with the chip makers Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, as well as possible acquisitions. It struck a nerve among the top executives not only because strategy was revealed but because leaks could open the company up to charges of securities violations because of selective disclosure of information.

Dunn, who had been named chairwoman after Fiorina's ouster, wanted to restore the trust among the board members - a trust that had been tested as the company went through three years of infighting, beginning with a proxy fight over its acquisition of Compaq Computer. Perkins, according to a top company executive, was as enthusiastic as Dunn was to catch the leaker.

[....]
Dunn, the former head of Barclay Global Investors, ordered a further investigation in January. But this time, it was turned over to the company's office of general counsel, which turned to a consulting firm with "substantial experience in conducting internal investigations," as the company described it. Hewlett-Packard has refused to name the firm, but said it had used it before.

According to a Hewlett-Packard filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, the consulting firm then subcontracted the work to another group of investigators to obtain information about phone calls between Hewlett-Packard directors and outsiders.

When the investigators were done, the results were presented to the full board, which includes Hurd. The evidence pointed to George A. Keyworth II, the board's longest-serving member, with 20 years' service. H.P. said that Keyworth admitted being the source of the leak and that the board, after discussion, asked him to resign. He refused.

At that point, Perkins announced his own resignation. Both Perkins's representatives and company officials say Perkins accused Dunn of betraying him. According to Perkins's spokesman, it was because Dunn had agreed to handle the matter privately and quietly. But Viet D. Dinh, Perkins's lawyer on this matter, also said that Perkins was upset with the extent of the investigation. He was the sole member to object.
[....]

Perkins's resignation was reported by Hewlett-Packard, which gave no cause. Perkins took nearly a month off, spending most of the time on his yacht.

[From an earlier section of the article: " Perkins, who was briefly married to the best-selling author Danielle Steel and recently wrote a racy novel titled "Sex and the Single Zillionaire," did not respond to requests for comment. A representative said Perkins was in the Mediterranean on his new $100 million 287-foot yacht, the Maltese Falcon, and did not want to be disturbed." 8~D]

When he returned to Silicon Valley in June, he pressed the company to amend its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission to reflect the reason for his resignation - a request it rebuffed until Wednesday - and agitated for H.P. to investigate its methods. The Wilson Sonsini firm was asked by a board committee to do the job.

What Perkins did not know at the time - indeed, H.P. said no one on the board did - was that the leak investigators had used a form of subterfuge known as "pretexting," or false pretenses, to obtain the directors' official phone records. That was revealed in an e-mail response when Perkins directly asked Larry W. Sonsini, the chairman of Wilson Sonsini, about the investigative methods.

The Wilson Sonsini investigation concluded that the use of pr

"Likely to be resistance?" There is certain to be resistance.

Examining the Japanese History Textbook Controversies, A textbook example of change in China, US court upholds Hindu organisation's contention on textbooks

Surprisingly, this is NOT the biggest PS3 news today. The biggest news is that they drastically cut their expected numbers at launch in Japan and North America. And I mean drastically.

Japan: 100,000 units
North America: 400,000 units

To put that in perspective, the Nintendo DS handheld system is selling at an average of 125,000 units per week in Japan right now. If the numbers keep up, the PS3 will not even be top hardware seller on its launch week.

I can't think of a single thing Sony has done right in this launch.

One ironic fact is that China is the leading exporter in IT products (OECD figures). Their biggest customers? Japan and the U.S., naturally.

I had to log in.

The International Tribune is carrying the same story.

Prior to 2000, stories about death by overwork were not uncommon in Japan. The Japanese government recently enacted a law that effectively limits the amount of overtime that engineers may be forced to work. A recent article by the "New York Times" refers to the issue of limiting overtime.

Other articles commenting on this matter suggest that the law restricts overtime by requiring companies to pay engineers increased wages for each additional hour beyond 8 hours per day. According to one source, each hour of overtime must be paid 125% of standard pay.

Is there any chance that the California government will limit overtime in the same lucrative way (i.e., lucrative for the employees)?

For those who CBF paging through ads...

http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articl es/2006/08/14/news/korea.php

No, not really.

Current copyright law is too severe, but arguing that the concept is wrong just makes you look silly.

Oh?

sure that they would be able to recover thoses costs by haveing the right to control how and by whom it is produced
This is a fallacy. Revenue is not magically generated by having control over production, nor is control over production a guarantee of profit.

Explain to me how even the current patent system hurts the inventor.

In many ways, but mainly because the patent system has become a game for the Big Guys who can afford the law suits or defend themselves by using their own patents. Small inventors with one or two patents don't stand a chance. This article is but one example of this scenario. The way the multi-nationals use cross-licensing as a legal way of creating cartels is also pretty sickening (I recommend the excellent book Information Feudalism by Peter Drahos and John Braithwaite for more on that).

For a more general discussion around the patent system and some of it's problems, I direct you to a few references on the topic:

http://wiki.ffii.org/Martin041109En
http://www.quebecoislibre.org/000902-3.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/story/0,73 69,665969,00.html
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020805/newman200207 25
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/21/business/wh o.php
http://www.dklevine.com/general/intellectual/again st.htm
http://www.cepr.net/publications/intellectual_prop erty_2004_09.htm

I found this article to be a better overview of the whole story.

If your government or seller or whatever doesn't trust you, doesn't even try in the least, how the hell are you supposed to trust him? The most logical path would be to fully distrust him.

Given how often and severely government suppliers and contractors like Halliburton, Bechtels-Parsons, etc engage in all manner of willful, obvious fraud- anyone in the government that trusts their supplier is most likely benefitting in some way from the fraud. I think the challenge wouldn't be to name all the suppliers/contrators that are accused/guilty of fraud, but rather to find those who AREN'T.

Hell, even companies like Boeing are in on the act, though I think the public has generally forgotten about the whole Boeing billing scandal, but investors haven't (though probably only because the settlement cost Boeing a good chunk of change.)

Used to be "war profiteer" would result in you being unable to show your face in public ever again; the shame of taking advantage of the nation's defenses, et al. Now, investors don't care as long as you don't hurt the bottom line getting caught, and the public soon forgets. Same thing with the WTC scene thefts (firefighters, police, FBI, and government officials all the way up to Rumsfeld helped themselves to "mementos" or had people do it for them. Then there were the emergency services companies that shipped tons of relief supplies out of NYC and sold them for hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit.)

Its easy for someone to point fingers at people that have stood out and done outstanding things and claim cheating. Consider the facts, however. Armstrong has been tested for performance enhancing drugs more times than any athlete on the entire planet and has never once tested positive. If you've got no more beef with someone other than that they have won where winning seemed impossible it behooves you to not throw allegations around that are unfounded and unproven. Greg LeMond won because he used superior bike technology and was the best. Laurent Fignon came out with no aero-helmet on that last time trial in 1989, his pony tail flapping in the wind, with no aero bars and a classical riding position. Lemond had tri-bars on his bike, an aerodynamic helmet, and a aerodynamic riding position. Even if the two riders were roughly as strong as each other, of course LeMond won.

I wouldn't be so naive to say that there is no possibility that any of the three you mentioned were doping. But I personally, and I suspect you, have no serious evidence in my position to point empty allegations towards them.

As to Floyd, here is an interesting article on how Phonak is dealing with dopers within its team: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/17/sports/bike .php It seems that Floyd could be putting his job very much on the line within Phonak if he is doping. So until proven guilty, I'll assume innocence.

that is why google is building the new complex.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/13/business/se arch.php I think they are eithier using it as a defenisve lookout, or they are using microsoft employees because they intended to strike first with detailed maps provided by the defectors.

Could be... But based on what I've seen in the past week with the A380, these days it seems that all Boeing needs to do to get an advantage over Airbus is to sit back and wait for EADS incompetence, overconfidence and corruption to bollocks things up for them. No corporate espionage required.

Airbus executive exercises millions in stock options weeks before A380 delays announced
Airbus May Lose $3 Billion A380 Order After Delays
Crisis talks on Airbus focus on production

If you want to read the Sidekick story without having to log in at the NY Times, the same reporter (Nicholas Confessore) has written another article, delivered up by the good folks over at the International Herald Tribune.

Support login-free reading on the Internet!

Agreed, speaking of our corresponding party in Sweden, we would hardly have a debate now on a political level without them.

See also here for example:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/18/business/le vies.php

(although I'm not sure the topic at hand -- levies -- may be such a good idea as it's hard to efficiently distribute fairly among the proper copyright holders along with it couldn't be a general levy due to all who don't file share)

I've noticed Google page loads seem a hell of a lot slower lately than say one year ago. I'm not sure why, some folks blame Analytics, but it seems that sometime front page loading drags. I've turned off personalised search and it's about the same.

It's gotten so bad at times that I'm able to open a second tab, load then execute the same search on yahoo! before Google presents its front page.

In a recent IHT article, Schmidt first admitted problems, mentioning "Those machines are full. We have a huge machine crisis." .

The Register also raised several complaints from users about the (negative) impact of recent changes.

I think Google should take a pause, and reinforce their core business before heading out to capture new markets. Their aggressive growth strategy threatens to turn them into the Microsoft of internet computing; get there first, capture the market and worry about quality later.

One should really blame poor translation and propagandists on that line.

Actually, the conclusion of Brommer, after looking at translation issues, is that he very much did say so, but that he didn't go as far as to declare war.

Not to sound like a Google fanboi, but seems that they're now re-thinking.

The original article is on IHT, my favorite news site...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/01/yourmoney/m p3.php

I didn't read the NYT article but seeing that the author listed is from IHT I assume they've just syndicated it, in full hopefully.