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More here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/20 03628279_danny21.html

I was curious, so I looked it up myself: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/20 03628279_danny21.html?syndication=rss

Starting at 8 a.m. last Thursday, federal Border Patrol agents blocked the highway outside town. For four hours, every car, truck and bus driving south on Highway 101 was pulled off the road and all passengers questioned. seven undocumented workers, who were shipped to a detention center in Tacoma.

Carted off 160 miles to not even a jail, but a detention center.

Maybe that's just a way of saying that Starbucks is the real winner here.

I am sorry to hear that your mom got cancer and I hope that she is well now, or if not there yet then, on the road to recovery. I am also glad to hear that she got the assistance for the treatment that she so deserved. Cancer is a condition I wish on no person. Did you see the link: ? I am sorry to sound cynical but I suspect Microsoft is not being altruistic but reacting to bad press and a previous lawsuit. The laws governing permanent temporary employees are very muddied.

Looks like he's spitting the dummy now that he is out of the loop. MS are not a search company

http://www.live.com/?searchonly=true&mkt=en-US

MS dont want to be a search company

• The Battle For Better Search (April 2005)
• New Microsoft Browser Raises Google's Hackles (May 1 2006)
• Microsoft Wants More Search Share (October 27 2006)
• Microsoft puts Live services into the Labs (January 26 2006)

but as is the way when you are a perceived are the dominant IT player you must be seen to 'compete' with all the 'upstarts' to keep the share holders happy

• Online Search Hits All-Time High; Google Dominant
• (March 3 2006)
• Yahoo! gives up quest for search dominance (January 24 2006)
• Does search engine's power threaten Web's independence? (October 31 2002)

so your business heads gob off about how stupid the opposition business heads are.

Right. That's why google has to be "fucking kill"ed instead of just being allowed to die on its own.

I think most people are going to be very surprised when they realise where MS see their future and while they are currently getting slaughtered in many sections of the press over Vista they are quietly laying the ground work for the next phase, which is largely why there has been so little reaction from Redmond to the adverse press.

Vista IS the groundwork for the next phase. Everything Microsoft does is intended to extend their control over the market. Not a surprise, but still true.

Even worse, statistics are abused for the purposes of making a point more dramatically. Here in Washington State, there is currently a controversy of statistics regarding snowpack levels. Syopsis: The numbers being bandied about are that Washington State's snowpack levels have decreased 50% over the past century.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/20 03618979_warming15m.html

This happens over and over again, but all too often, if the cause seems noble (such as anti-smoking advertising), people are willing to overlook blatent factual errors (otherwise known as *lies*). It's frustrating to me personally, because while I think that certain global warming issues (especially the percentages caused by humans) may be overstated, I don't want to close any sound scientific debate dealing with such potentially serious issues. Even beyond that, limiting pollutants and striving for a small ecological footprint can be nothing but good for the short-term environment, such as the quality of our air or water.

But many well-meaning environmentalists continue to play fast-and-loose* with the facts - thus damaging the credibility of important issues for the general public.

* Probably the only context on the Internet in which this word is used correctly

The empirical evidence that is presented in the GP is incorrect. Here's a reference for you with accurate information.

Please note a few things...

• It took several seasons to plow the ash under and it was impractical to truck out. Several seasons is not "fairly quickly".
• They mention a farm size of 600 acres. In areas of the midwest it can be 10 - 50 times that size, meaning less people and equipment to clear the ash.
• They mention that the ash was 3 inches deep - not 3 feet - in the hardest hit areas. Crops can grow through 3 inches of debris, but not 3 feet.

Several of my relatives farm, and it took them a few days to dig out their home/machine shed/barn from a few feet of snow - using their tractors with giant snow blowers. Ash that would clog everything would be a nightmare. Now multiply that by 500 or 1000 and you get the effort to clear the fields. Actually it is worse, since you would have to truck the ash out since there is nowhere to blow it to that is "out of the way".

You obviously think everyone is an idiot.

Some people don't have time to read 8 hours of fucking news every day to meet your standards.

One should take in all sources of news and make up their own minds.

Ok, I read the article and the problem is that someone at Microsoft will say one thing such as..

Microsoft is a far cry from the days when president and CEO Steve Ballmer publicly declared Linux a "cancer"

and then does the opposite spreading patent FUD.

Or how about this line..

Microsoft is crafting a multifaceted plan to approach open source from a number of different levels: Linux as an operating system competitor; interoperability with Linux in mixed environments;

while still trying to kill interoperability..

Microsoft is like the Aliens in the movie Mars Attacks. "We come in peace... We come in peace..." while they are running around killing people.

and then theres people like you. "Come on they're trying!" quoting all these articles...

Look at what Microsoft DO not what they SAY

One of the first things the group learned was that more than 12 medicines are on the market for the respiratory syndrome, and all are effective.

I knew which they were referring to without reading the summary, let alone the article.

Having a narrow field of interest, such as in electronics, one may readily conclude "PCBs" mean "printed circuit boards". However if some knows or has a wider field of interest then no, it isn't really possible to know what they mean by "PCBs". For instance I have an interest in the Inuits of northern Canada, and PCBs are building up in the blood of Inuits causing health issues. The Monodon monoceros or norwhale which the Inuit hunt for sustenance bioaccumulates PCBs from the prey they consume. PCBs end up it mother's milk thus in babies when they drink the milk. Polar bears are also showing high levels of PCBs in them. Another whale showing high levels are the Orca or Killer Whales of Pugot Sound.

So it's not really easy to know what is meant by the use of "PCB" without at least a summary. Now maybe not everyone knows this, but some do. I've learned of it, PCBs in whales, from my interest interest in marine biology. In high school, it was a hard decision what career field to go into, after taking both a programming and a marine biology class it was either marine science or computer engineering.

Do you honestly believe that the Jews of Germany didn't try to counter the hate literature as you suggested?

I'd say it was wildly successful. But the truck doesn't turn on a dime. There's far less anti-semitism in the US and Europe these days. You can't change attitudes by banning speech, but a focused effort over more than 50 years with common sense reasoning (and a lot of hefty propaganda, to be honest) did the trick.

And where is *your* proof? :)

My proof? The US government has a long history of causing substantial harm to its citizens. It has a record of abusing power once obtained. And the same holds for other governments. Further, when you consider the Patriot Act, there's no power there that the US government needs to perform its duties. And a lot of crap like getting book lists from libraries and such (hint: if law enforcement has probable cause they can easily get this information with a warrant). And finally, these laws just don't pass common sense reasoning. You need to impose on the rights of hundreds of millions of people so that your job of finding the bad apples is slightly easier? How about you first do your job and catch these people. If the evildoers are actually using strategies that make it impossible for law enforcement to catch them, then those strategies will come to light and we can fix that problem.

Also, there seems to quite a record of bungling concerning the 9/11 terrorists. Several of them had entered on expired visas and FBI agents had been searching for a few of these people at the time the attacks occured. If the government had been competent and responsive, they would have caught several before the attacks (they did catch one to be honest). Might not have stopped it, but it would have made the hurdle higher. Also, I think the security of the pre-9/11 plane (particularly the unsecured hatch to the cockpit) didn't help.

In the original piece Torkington raised the question of whether the term "open source" had lost any meaning because of companies that use the label yet largly restrict user interaction.

Just because some people disagree with or don't understand the term "open source" doesn't mean it becomes worthless. All it means is that some people don't quite get it yet.

It's like the word "extreme", which marketing has over the last few years beaten to death. Extreme doesn't mean anything anymore to most people - the mind simply edits it out. But that doesn't mean that the word is suddenly broken. It still means what it means, it's just that we're desensitized to the word through repeated misuse.

It's much the same way with open source. When you repeatedly misuse the term, it loses meaning. A good example is everybody's favorite, Microsoft. They use the term as a negative. Then turn around and use it as a positive, albeit in a somewhat misunderstood way.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/304595_dow nload22.html

As a student at Northern Illinois, I am pleased to announce that we are number 13 on the list. I also find it very interesting that Purdue takes a "Eh, it's to much work to care" stance: "Some schools aggressively warn students after they receive complaints. Others don't. Purdue, which has received 1,068 complaints so far this year but only 37 in 2006, said it rarely notifies students accused by the RIAA because it's too much trouble to find alleged offenders." Its to bad that most schools instead take the stance that if you even have something shared you are as guilty as cheaters.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/304595_dow nload22.html

What about Windows Defender, Vista, etc.?? http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/247483_msft defender08.html

Interesting response reported by Todd Bishop, Seattle PI: In response to Red Hat CEO, Matthew Szulik's comments dismissing the impact of the Microsoft-Novell deal on Red Hat, Microsoft director of corporate communications, Jeff O'Mara, told Todd Bishop/Seattle-PI that many customers are leaving Red Hat and looking for a Microsoft-Novell solution for a variety of reasons. http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archi ves/111803.asp

Humans will be lucky if we can even colonise the moon. Hell, we can't even colonise Antarctica.

More likely, we'll be fighting each other over meaningless bullshit (like which cognac is the top choice of North Korean leaders) and wasting our tax money to pay farmers not to grow grain (or paying bonuses to NASA contractors for goods and services that are too late and over-budget).

Here in the US, the FAA will try to prevent people like the the astronaut farmer from lift-off. How are we supposed to actually get off the planet?

Nice FUD job though. Gotta get those ad impressions going.

I live in BFE Idaho where the guy who handles your bill of sales is also a notary. Watch closely the next time you buy a car at a _licensed dealership_. Private party sales have no such requirement.

Of course, this doesn't accomplish anything if the notary is a crook.

...in Enumclaw.

Lovely. My Captcha was "trough."

Can't believe I remembered the enumclaw stallions reference:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/20 02384648_farm16m.html

Then forbid people with criminal records from carrying guns, let people without criminal records carry them (is the current law like this?)

How is it idiocy to raise alarms over a bunch of mysterious symbol-coded boxes appearing without warning throughout major population areas? If you leave a bulging paper sack on the floor in the middle of a crowded mall, people will get concerned. The advertisers should have known better.

If the boxes really were part of an organized campaign of planted explosives, the government would be cheered for its foresight and training. When it's nothing, people like you shrug it off because it didn't turn out tragic this time. That's the price the authorities pay for protecting the people as the people demand.

So tell me, have you actually seen any of the "boxes"? They weren't boxes at all; they were flat boards with lights. Batteries were attached to the bottom. That's right: the fattest part was the clearly visible power source.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20070131/226S uspicious_Devices_NY204_612959731012007.jpg

Note that this is lying flat on a table. WHERE DO YOU PUT THE BOMB?

"To us, they're so obviously not suspicious," said King County sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart. "They're not suspicious devices or packages. We don't consider them dangerous." ... Neither Seattle police nor the King County Sheriff's Office received 911 calls regarding the figures, authorities said.

The biggest idiocy perpetrated in this incident was by the people who didn't think far enough ahead to anticipate that this was going to happen

"To us, they're so obviously not suspicious," said King County sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart. "They're not suspicious devices or packages. We don't consider them dangerous."

The Associated Press reported that road workers in Woodinville found the figures, which are an advertising gimmick for a late-night TV show on the Cartoon Network. Urquhart could not confirm where the obscene-gestured whatsits were found.

"I haven't actually seen them; I don't know how many there are or where they were found," Urquhart said. "I just know they're lighted cartoon figures. This is a joke. I really don't know the promotional point."

Last year, King County's median average home cost $405,000.00.

My wife works for a title company as an escrow agent in the area, and homes selling for over one million dollars is surprisingly common.

They're also the most productive! http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/302397_grum pyworkers05.html

It's like Homer said. You can use facts to prove anything.

They're also the most productive! http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/302397_grum pyworkers05.html

>Processor serial numbers are about as innocuous as a privacy concern as if you used your grocery store loyalty card. To say that someone is going to target you because you have a certain loyalty to the grocery store is ludicrous.

The dangers of grocery store loyalty cards include going to jail.

Why did Sierra (Leisure Suit Larry, Kings Quest, Police Quest, Space Quest) and Lucasarts (The Dig) ever give up on the Adventure game in the first place, and why can't they save it?

racism by the majority is rightfully condemned, but some minorities seem to be able to get away with inciting hatred.

No, in order for somebody to give, a) they must want to help their fellow human beings

The legal machinery in this country will always expand upon any new law to the point of lunacy.

Currently the DCMA is being used as a way to stifle competition rather than its original intent of keeping content "safe", as well as other abuses. It's not different than how the Patriot Act is being used to bust drug dealers rather than combat terrorism.

As soon as the law sees a new tool, it will use it to the maximum. When you give them a hammer and tell them it's to pound nails, don't be surprised when they use it as a door opener.

For a really spooky read, do some Google work for forfeiture abuses. Here's a good place to start.

Yeah. A kid getting into a secure area would be inconceivable .

But probably wouldn't need that since there's a wireless access point somewhere around there.

What a poorly written article. Did this asshat even bother to read the pdf with the emails these quotes were taken from?

In an email chain to a couple of MS employees, expressing his dissatisfaction with a Creative Zen player, he tried out, Jim Allchin said: i think I should talk with Jobs. Right now, I think I should open up a dialog l~or support of the iPOD. Unless something changes, the iPOD will drive people away from WMP.

This is a far cry from Microsoft as a corporation actually considering a partnership. There's a much better article here, with a link to the actual emails (PDF). That Bloomberg article is a pile of shit.

What a poorly written article. Did this asshat even bother to read the pdf with the emails these quotes were taken from?

In an email chain to a couple of MS employees, expressing his dissatisfaction with a Creative Zen player, he tried out, Jim Allchin said: i think I should talk with Jobs. Right now, I think I should open up a dialog l~or support of the iPOD. Unless something changes, the iPOD will drive people away from WMP.

This is a far cry from Microsoft as a corporation actually considering a partnership. There's a much better article here, with a link to the actual emails (PDF). That Bloomberg article is a pile of shit.

Via Googling, I found the full email via http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/ at http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/libra ry/PX08636.pdf.

He was complaining about how bad the Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra was vs. the iPod back then. To be fair, I'm pretty sure an iTunes install makes you reboot too. I'm guessing he was just pointing that out that in theory, out of the box, if you use WMP, you shouldn't need a reboot.

Via Googling, I found the full email via http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/ at http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/libra ry/PX08636.pdf.

He was complaining about how bad the Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra was vs. the iPod back then. To be fair, I'm pretty sure an iTunes install makes you reboot too. I'm guessing he was just pointing that out that in theory, out of the box, if you use WMP, you shouldn't need a reboot.

"It is manifestly apparent that the use of a radio-cassette player to record songs played over free radio does not threaten the market for copyrighted works as does the use of a recorder which stores songs from private radio broadcasts on a subscription fee basis," she said.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/APWires/headlines /D8MOFEGO0.html

qz

techniques to prevent fraud, like requiring IDs, purging voter rolls of people who've died or moved, or using ballots that can be actually recounted (like punch cards) are actually attempts by the Republicans to suppress Democratic voters.

-- purging the voter rolls of dead people or people who moved is the right thing to do. Else someone could say that they are Mr. Smith (who died or moved away)and vote. There have been numerous accounts of poeple voting who have died.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/206969_dead07. html
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a rticle?AID=/20061029/NEWS01/610290381/1006/NEWS01

But if you are dead, you don't get to vote anymore. And if you move, vote in the area you move to.

Because, just because you need ID to buy a booze or cigs doesn't mean it's reasonable to require ID to vote.

-- again people should have something to say where they live and that they are who they say they are. Every time I voted I have been asked to show proof of who I am. A voter register card is part of the proof. A drivers license or school ID, passport, military ID are others forms. The voter card to say that person ABC is supposed to vote at that place. And something to proove that you are person ABC. This goes back to 1988. I remember my mother being asked to show ID and her card back in 1976 so all of a sudden this is republicans suppressing Democratics?

See the David Horsey editorial cartoon in the Seattle P-I:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/horsey/viewbydate.as p?id=1529

"Posted by FHardison at 1/11/07 9:20 p.m. Hello, this is Frosty E Hardison. This is typical. All you can see is a snapshot of a persons life and you can make these comments? As with any interview, an entire 45 minute conversation is boiled down to a three sentence of sound bites or a blurb that only exerpts the most abject sensationalistic thing the interviewee has to say - to sell a newspapaer. If you would REALLY be interested in what was said in the interview - I took better notes on the subject." Sourced at Seattle P-I - comment #112698

Frosty's notes don't paint him in much brighter colors than the 3 sentences posted by the original reporter I'm afraid...

If you didn't catch it here's David Horsey's take on it:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/horsey/viewbydate.as p?id=1529

You're worried about loss of property when they review your political leanings?

Alcohol schmalcohol indeed.

Drunk driving fatalities total 17,000 a year, 39% of all fatal crashes.

Phones account for 1,032 fatalities a year, or 0.3% of all fatal crashes.

What was Toyota thinking? I can't believe they got distracted with something so insignificant...

He didn't say random you did.
So how about video games, most of them involve damaging something, but thats not real damage. Ever shot things at the fair? In particular I am thinking of the machine gun trying to shoot out a red star. shooting bottles, burning stuff perhaps. I'm not a hunter but I did like to fish so I guess I can't complain if you put a bullet in bambi...

Then there is the violence in movies or in the hanging of saddam husain, yes saddams death was real and so were the deaths of around 80 other iraqi's the same day. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/ 2003503163_iraq31.html
I feel more sympathy for those 80 who were victims of saddams political career in one way or another.

I'm sorry to say the texas defence "he needed killin" applies to many politicians living and dead. There are too many people dead from the choices made by politicians, Do GW and Tony Blair keep count of the people killed by thier decisions I wonder.

Anyway straying a little too far from the point here, which is certain acts of violence are completely harmless and enjoyable. while others are most definately not. Video games are probably not harmful, unless your jack thompson. Boxing is an interesting form of controlled violence, I think most boxers enjoy it even when they lose.

I think I've explored the subject enough to show that the original proposal about violence made a basic error in suggesting the answer was either yes or no. It really does depend on circumstances and type of violence. From 2 children shouting bang bang at each other in a game of cowboys and indians to the Hanging of Saddam to the killing of animals in a slaughter house and the blowing up of random strangers. violence can be enjoyable, sexually pleasurable, traumatic abusive and terrifying and depraved. There is no hard and fast rule even in the extreme. Even in countrys without the death penalty are there any that don't authorise the use of deadly force in some circumstances? The answer appears to be it depends...

Finally does attacking someone elses viewpoint count as violence or harmless fun? Is this a violent post?

While the average drug cost's between .8 and 2 billion dollars to develop. The cost are pretty simular I would say.

Most of the money in actual development is caused by the amount of care taken in developing the drug, There is a definite wish not to kill people. Now if we could only reduce the cost of advertising.

In hindsight, it would have been fair to mention that Microsoft is doing more and more to cooperate with the F/OSS community, both in the interests of its customers (who face the challenge of integrating Microsoft and OSS software stacks), its own public image, good old-fashioned opportunity and (I suspect anyway) a fundamental desire on behalf of some of its employees to be a part of something bigger.