Slashdot Mirror

My bet is that if MS had to develop IE from scratch Netscape would still be in the game.

If Netscape had a browser that was as good as IE it would still be in the game. Bob Cringley has a good article about how Microsoft's competitors complain more about Microsoft than competing with them.

VC's probably overstate their talents but at least they're willing to risk other people's money in ways that banks can't or won't (and if anyone who started up a business on a credit card can attest it is nerve-wracking).

Now if people could only come up with some clever Open Source Funding models.

LL

He mentions that Sony is taking/took a $1 billion hit on it, about $100 per machine.

The other thing you have to keep in mind, is that successful games make a lot of revenue. Part of the cost of developing the game is the development platform, which they'd have to pay Nintendo/Sony for (last I heard, MS was giving away kits for free, and just plain funding people to make games for the X-Box). And on top of that, they make licensing fees.

Nintendo (Yamauchi, check the depths of cube.ign.com for quotes) has said that Nintendo is in the business of making games- not gaming hardware. The hardware is just an enabler for people to buy their games. So they take a loss, and make it up on the games. It may work better for Nintendo than others, since they have their own very strong in-house game development houses. That is their business, games. That's what they try to make money from. It's not the computer industry :P

There is an article on the PBS web-site about this very thing. Doesn't seem to be too complicated.

It is widely believed that the bridge actually existed in China centuries ago, but it's actual design was a bit of a mystery. Using the famous painting as a guide, they were able to come up with a feasable design using wood and ropes. They eventually built a full sized bridge in a Chinese village. The bridge was remarkably strong for a millenium-old design.

NOVA has to be one of the coolest shows around...

It is widely believed that the bridge actually existed in China centuries ago, but it's actual design was a bit of a mystery. Using the famous painting as a guide, they were able to come up with a feasable design using wood and ropes. They eventually built a full sized bridge in a Chinese village. The bridge was remarkably strong for a millenium-old design.

NOVA has to be one of the coolest shows around...

It is widely believed that the bridge actually existed in China centuries ago, but it's actual design was a bit of a mystery. Using the famous painting as a guide, they were able to come up with a feasable design using wood and ropes. They eventually built a full sized bridge in a Chinese village. The bridge was remarkably strong for a millenium-old design.

NOVA has to be one of the coolest shows around...

It is widely believed that the bridge actually existed in China centuries ago, but it's actual design was a bit of a mystery. Using the famous painting as a guide, they were able to come up with a feasable design using wood and ropes. They eventually built a full sized bridge in a Chinese village. The bridge was remarkably strong for a millenium-old design.

NOVA has to be one of the coolest shows around...

See Cringley's comments on the reverse-engineering history of the IBM BIOS. Note that this article was written before the DMCA.

How long before the broadband group gets scrapped too? First excite, then who knows?

You've been told by your government and your biased media that Bin Laden is indeed responsible, and that the talibans have supported him. Now, pray tell, have you seen any proof?
No.

Perhaps you were misinformed. That's the only non-insulting explanation I can think of. If you read this entire post and don't believe any of it then I'd be truely fasinated to hear your explanation. Don't forget to explain why anyone would go through all this effort against uninvolved parties.

I did this search using evidence+linking+bin+laden. 3,360 matches returned. I quit after the first 20 results. I'm sure you'll dismiss some of these items, but don't overlook the guilty verdicts in the embassy bombings near the bottom. :) The only reason Bin Laden wasn't tried in court years ago is because the Taliban are protecting him. Note, any link below longer than 1 line is merely to provide the source of the quote.

"Federal authorities have identified more than a dozen hijackers of Middle Eastern descent in Tuesday's bombings and gathered evidence linking them to Osama bin Laden". Oh yeah, US gov and US media are all lying. Ummm, could you remind me why they'd want to let the actual guilty parties keep blowing stuff up? " Within 48 hours some 4,000 special agents and 3,000 support personnel were assigned to the case, with about 400 FBI laboratory specialists deployed to examine the forensic evidence." There must be over 10,000 people involved in this conspiracy, not even counting everyone in the media.

"A German government spokesman said Wednesday that German, British, French and Israeli secret services had also linked the Saudi dissident to the world's worst terrorist atrocity." Ummm, I guess that means Germany, England, France, and Isreal are part of the conspiracy too? Could you give me a clue why?

During an active investigation eveidence is kept confidential. Here's the leak that prompted a major lockdown on information: "A US Senator Orrin Hatch has said that FBI official intercepted telephone calls, which indicated bin Laden had been involved in plotting the attacks on New York and Washington." Damn, would have been helpful if other operatives in the US phoned Al-Qaida too. I guess that's the end of that source of evidence.

The specific evidence may not be public, but governments are getting to see it. "Meanwhile, the U.S. began providing its allies with what some governments said is clear evidence linking Saudi-born Osama bin Laden to the Sept. 11 attacks. Some reports said that evidence includes records of communications by bin Laden's aides, notes left by suicide hijackers before the attacks, and reports that some of the hijackers received training in bin Laden's military camps."
and "information linking Osama bin Laden with the terrorist's plot. Britain's Tony Blair has seen it. Pakistan's top leaders have seen it. Some evidence has even been published on the Internet." I guess we have to add Japan and Pakistan to the conspiracy list.

"Authorities are also reported to have been gathering evidence that some of those involved in Tuesday's attacks may also have been behind, among others, the bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen and the Millennium bombing plot on U.S. soil." Oh yeah, must be more dis-information.

Specific public evidence hard to come by on in any active investigation, but there's plenty of evidence on the 1998 embassy bombings available. Take a look at this declassified summary of findings of the FBI investigation into the Kenya and Tanzania embassy bombings on August 7, 1998. Written November 18, 1998. There was enough evidence to indict Bin Laden and others on murder and other charges. "In total, the U.S. government has public indictments against 26 members of bin Laden's international group, Al Qaeda. Of those men, three have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with the U.S. government as witnesses. Four were tried this year [and convicted]. Six are in custody in the U.S. or abroad and are awaiting trial. Thirteen, including bin Laden himself, are fugitives. The six other bin Laden associates in custody include several high-ranking members of Al-Qaeda." August 1997 raid on El Hage's house in Nairobi yielded this letter linking Bin Laden to the cell that bombed the embassy.

And Bin Laden implicates himself: "journalists with access to bin Laden said he and his followers openly boasted in recent months that they were preparing for attacks against the United States in retaliation for American support of Israel.
A videotape has been circulating in the Middle East for several months in which bin Laden recites a victory poem about the Cole bombing, and then issues a call to arms: 'To all the Mujah: Your brothers in Palestine are waiting for you; it's time to penetrate America and Israel and hit them where it hurts the most.'" and I still say the video Bin Laden released afterwards amounts to a confession and promise to continue.

You've been told by your government and your biased media that Bin Laden is indeed responsible, and that the talibans have supported him. Now, pray tell, have you seen any proof?
No.

Perhaps you were misinformed. That's the only non-insulting explanation I can think of. If you read this entire post and don't believe any of it then I'd be truely fasinated to hear your explanation. Don't forget to explain why anyone would go through all this effort against uninvolved parties.

I did this search using evidence+linking+bin+laden. 3,360 matches returned. I quit after the first 20 results. I'm sure you'll dismiss some of these items, but don't overlook the guilty verdicts in the embassy bombings near the bottom. :) The only reason Bin Laden wasn't tried in court years ago is because the Taliban are protecting him. Note, any link below longer than 1 line is merely to provide the source of the quote.

"Federal authorities have identified more than a dozen hijackers of Middle Eastern descent in Tuesday's bombings and gathered evidence linking them to Osama bin Laden". Oh yeah, US gov and US media are all lying. Ummm, could you remind me why they'd want to let the actual guilty parties keep blowing stuff up? " Within 48 hours some 4,000 special agents and 3,000 support personnel were assigned to the case, with about 400 FBI laboratory specialists deployed to examine the forensic evidence." There must be over 10,000 people involved in this conspiracy, not even counting everyone in the media.

"A German government spokesman said Wednesday that German, British, French and Israeli secret services had also linked the Saudi dissident to the world's worst terrorist atrocity." Ummm, I guess that means Germany, England, France, and Isreal are part of the conspiracy too? Could you give me a clue why?

During an active investigation eveidence is kept confidential. Here's the leak that prompted a major lockdown on information: "A US Senator Orrin Hatch has said that FBI official intercepted telephone calls, which indicated bin Laden had been involved in plotting the attacks on New York and Washington." Damn, would have been helpful if other operatives in the US phoned Al-Qaida too. I guess that's the end of that source of evidence.

The specific evidence may not be public, but governments are getting to see it. "Meanwhile, the U.S. began providing its allies with what some governments said is clear evidence linking Saudi-born Osama bin Laden to the Sept. 11 attacks. Some reports said that evidence includes records of communications by bin Laden's aides, notes left by suicide hijackers before the attacks, and reports that some of the hijackers received training in bin Laden's military camps."
and "information linking Osama bin Laden with the terrorist's plot. Britain's Tony Blair has seen it. Pakistan's top leaders have seen it. Some evidence has even been published on the Internet." I guess we have to add Japan and Pakistan to the conspiracy list.

"Authorities are also reported to have been gathering evidence that some of those involved in Tuesday's attacks may also have been behind, among others, the bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen and the Millennium bombing plot on U.S. soil." Oh yeah, must be more dis-information.

Specific public evidence hard to come by on in any active investigation, but there's plenty of evidence on the 1998 embassy bombings available. Take a look at this declassified summary of findings of the FBI investigation into the Kenya and Tanzania embassy bombings on August 7, 1998. Written November 18, 1998. There was enough evidence to indict Bin Laden and others on murder and other charges. "In total, the U.S. government has public indictments against 26 members of bin Laden's international group, Al Qaeda. Of those men, three have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with the U.S. government as witnesses. Four were tried this year [and convicted]. Six are in custody in the U.S. or abroad and are awaiting trial. Thirteen, including bin Laden himself, are fugitives. The six other bin Laden associates in custody include several high-ranking members of Al-Qaeda." August 1997 raid on El Hage's house in Nairobi yielded this letter linking Bin Laden to the cell that bombed the embassy.

And Bin Laden implicates himself: "journalists with access to bin Laden said he and his followers openly boasted in recent months that they were preparing for attacks against the United States in retaliation for American support of Israel.
A videotape has been circulating in the Middle East for several months in which bin Laden recites a victory poem about the Cole bombing, and then issues a call to arms: 'To all the Mujah: Your brothers in Palestine are waiting for you; it's time to penetrate America and Israel and hit them where it hurts the most.'" and I still say the video Bin Laden released afterwards amounts to a confession and promise to continue.

You've been told by your government and your biased media that Bin Laden is indeed responsible, and that the talibans have supported him. Now, pray tell, have you seen any proof?
No.

Perhaps you were misinformed. That's the only non-insulting explanation I can think of. If you read this entire post and don't believe any of it then I'd be truely fasinated to hear your explanation. Don't forget to explain why anyone would go through all this effort against uninvolved parties.

I did this search using evidence+linking+bin+laden. 3,360 matches returned. I quit after the first 20 results. I'm sure you'll dismiss some of these items, but don't overlook the guilty verdicts in the embassy bombings near the bottom. :) The only reason Bin Laden wasn't tried in court years ago is because the Taliban are protecting him. Note, any link below longer than 1 line is merely to provide the source of the quote.

"Federal authorities have identified more than a dozen hijackers of Middle Eastern descent in Tuesday's bombings and gathered evidence linking them to Osama bin Laden". Oh yeah, US gov and US media are all lying. Ummm, could you remind me why they'd want to let the actual guilty parties keep blowing stuff up? " Within 48 hours some 4,000 special agents and 3,000 support personnel were assigned to the case, with about 400 FBI laboratory specialists deployed to examine the forensic evidence." There must be over 10,000 people involved in this conspiracy, not even counting everyone in the media.

"A German government spokesman said Wednesday that German, British, French and Israeli secret services had also linked the Saudi dissident to the world's worst terrorist atrocity." Ummm, I guess that means Germany, England, France, and Isreal are part of the conspiracy too? Could you give me a clue why?

During an active investigation eveidence is kept confidential. Here's the leak that prompted a major lockdown on information: "A US Senator Orrin Hatch has said that FBI official intercepted telephone calls, which indicated bin Laden had been involved in plotting the attacks on New York and Washington." Damn, would have been helpful if other operatives in the US phoned Al-Qaida too. I guess that's the end of that source of evidence.

The specific evidence may not be public, but governments are getting to see it. "Meanwhile, the U.S. began providing its allies with what some governments said is clear evidence linking Saudi-born Osama bin Laden to the Sept. 11 attacks. Some reports said that evidence includes records of communications by bin Laden's aides, notes left by suicide hijackers before the attacks, and reports that some of the hijackers received training in bin Laden's military camps."
and "information linking Osama bin Laden with the terrorist's plot. Britain's Tony Blair has seen it. Pakistan's top leaders have seen it. Some evidence has even been published on the Internet." I guess we have to add Japan and Pakistan to the conspiracy list.

"Authorities are also reported to have been gathering evidence that some of those involved in Tuesday's attacks may also have been behind, among others, the bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen and the Millennium bombing plot on U.S. soil." Oh yeah, must be more dis-information.

Specific public evidence hard to come by on in any active investigation, but there's plenty of evidence on the 1998 embassy bombings available. Take a look at this declassified summary of findings of the FBI investigation into the Kenya and Tanzania embassy bombings on August 7, 1998. Written November 18, 1998. There was enough evidence to indict Bin Laden and others on murder and other charges. "In total, the U.S. government has public indictments against 26 members of bin Laden's international group, Al Qaeda. Of those men, three have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with the U.S. government as witnesses. Four were tried this year [and convicted]. Six are in custody in the U.S. or abroad and are awaiting trial. Thirteen, including bin Laden himself, are fugitives. The six other bin Laden associates in custody include several high-ranking members of Al-Qaeda." August 1997 raid on El Hage's house in Nairobi yielded this letter linking Bin Laden to the cell that bombed the embassy.

And Bin Laden implicates himself: "journalists with access to bin Laden said he and his followers openly boasted in recent months that they were preparing for attacks against the United States in retaliation for American support of Israel.
A videotape has been circulating in the Middle East for several months in which bin Laden recites a victory poem about the Cole bombing, and then issues a call to arms: 'To all the Mujah: Your brothers in Palestine are waiting for you; it's time to penetrate America and Israel and hit them where it hurts the most.'" and I still say the video Bin Laden released afterwards amounts to a confession and promise to continue.

OPB mentioned last week during their pledge drive that they pay about $800,000 a year to NPR; NPR charges them based on how many listeners they have (according to surveys and such). Of course, OPB also buys radio programming from PRI and other organizations, and television programming from PBS and others.

Around 10% of OPB's radio listeners are contributing members. OPB gets 51% of their revenues from member contributions. Last week, 7,000 listeners pledged a little over $500,000.

These are the kinds of numbers we should be hearing from Slashdot.

There is an article by Cringely the pulpit : The Death of TCP/IP, Why the Age of Internet Innocence is Over which explain the symbiosis between MS and the viruses. It has already been slashdotted on TCP/MS, We'll Cure What Ails You.

Perhaps, but I doubt bin Laden is a big Marx fan. Besides, it's a cause and effect relationship. You can't get generate the critical mass necessary to "undermine the public's faith in the target government" in the western world without causing a media sensation. So, this is really a pedantic argument.

Also, bin Laden's specific goals can be found in his interviews and "press releases":
"We say to the Americans as people and to American mothers, if they cherish their lives and if they cherish their sons, they must elect an American patriotic government that caters to their interests not the interests of the Jews. [...] This is my message to the American people. I urge them to find a serious administration that acts in their interest and does not attack people and violate their honor and pilfer their wealth." (more here)

So, it can be surmised that bin Laden's ultimate goal is not to cause a revolt by American people against the US government, but rather to draw attention to the policies of the US government that he disagrees with, in the hopes that the American people will agree with him, then use the existing system, as it was designed, to affect changes in those policies. A subtle, but very distinct difference.

Perhaps the most disturbing outcome of this whole affair (besides, of course the deaths of thousands of innocent people), is the opportunism (as you mentioned) that we're seeing in its wake.

"I, Cringely" has an interesting article here on rolling your own DSL connection. The basic idea is to rent a "dry copper pair," basically wires you can use for whatever you want. If someone on your side of your telephone companies Central Office has broadband available, this might be something to seriously look into.

but the distance wasn't so far, only 10km. He used telescopes to find a neighbor who was close enough to telco for DSL (Cringely wasn't), then hooked the neighbor up for free and mounted 21dB-gain directional Yagi antennas.

The story's an interesting read.

See Reach Out and Touch Someone and some more followups in Cringely/Old Hat. Admittedly, he used 802.11b wireless for less than 10 miles, but maybe you can extend the technology somehow.

One followup which might be of interest is the suggestion to become the broadband supplier for your town: Roll Your Own: Not Only Can You Do Your Own DSL, Here's How to Become a Broadband Tycoon at the Same Time -- if you could do that and get enough 802.11b customers locally (meaning no wires to string), you could justify some up-front costs.

HTH

See Reach Out and Touch Someone and some more followups in Cringely/Old Hat. Admittedly, he used 802.11b wireless for less than 10 miles, but maybe you can extend the technology somehow.

One followup which might be of interest is the suggestion to become the broadband supplier for your town: Roll Your Own: Not Only Can You Do Your Own DSL, Here's How to Become a Broadband Tycoon at the Same Time -- if you could do that and get enough 802.11b customers locally (meaning no wires to string), you could justify some up-front costs.

HTH

See Reach Out and Touch Someone and some more followups in Cringely/Old Hat. Admittedly, he used 802.11b wireless for less than 10 miles, but maybe you can extend the technology somehow.

One followup which might be of interest is the suggestion to become the broadband supplier for your town: Roll Your Own: Not Only Can You Do Your Own DSL, Here's How to Become a Broadband Tycoon at the Same Time -- if you could do that and get enough 802.11b customers locally (meaning no wires to string), you could justify some up-front costs.

HTH

US forgien policy sucks - US embassies get bombed

World trade gets screwed at the controls of the US
Trillion dollar bet - WTC gets taken down.
Pentagon and supposed Capitol Building attack - Military and lawmakers

News Media Propoganda - Anthrax attacks (SUN and NBC - What did Tom Brokaw say that caused him to get a letter?)

Microsoft Licensings - Anthrax attack (Microsoft proven anti-trust with US and anti-competitive investigations in EU)

Hell, that's a pretty loud message system huh?

But by seeing the pattern and the message being Spelt across the US, concern about anthrax effecting US mail is less a
concern than mail bombs. Maybe there is more concern about just being fair.

-Fantastic Lad

4. Geek factor. It is oh, so cool to be able to 'sign' an email, and advertise your public key.

I maintain at least 1 active keypair. I put it out on distributed key server groups. I post it on web servers. I use it to encrypt private communications.

But I use it very sparingly when it comes to signing email. I have to see a really good reason to verify who I am before I sign anything. If paranoia causes one to take up using PGP, its an even more selective paranoia that causes one to not use all its potential.

So why am I so paranoid? After watching the subpoenas fly a couple of years ago, I've decided that I'd prefer to make it a little more difficult to prove any bad attitude really is mine. Granted, there's other ways to try and link email to an individual. But why make it a habit to provide that trail for every mail list post, friendly banter, and interoffice discussion message you fire off?

And that's a really important point - a majority of our (or at least mine) email is of a fire-and-forget, trivial nature. Its less a written letter and more a verbal conversation encapsulated in text. Without the bandwidth hit of wav file attachments. In this informal environment, things are often said... or ideas expressed... that one would not set to a permanent record. Yet email, and other forms of electronic communication, have an odd way of sticking around far beyond its intended life.

Do you really need to give a lawyer the means to prove them came from you? And sure, there are other ways to link an email to an individual. But I'd prefer to make anyone giving me a hard time jump through those extra hoops.

As a side note, memo and file retention policies existed well before email became an indispensable tool to business. Email only compounds the problem these policies were really designed to address (and no, storage of files isn't the real issue here). With the lines slowly fading between personal and professional data, it might be worthwhile to think about your own home shredder and review your own document retention policy.

Of course - this all doesn't cover the real reason all this signing happens. Geek appeal. That's easy to handle. Include your PGP Key ID and fingerprint in your .sig and business cards. Stylish and practical, with a bit of geek attitude.

Gotta love Monty Python!

1. Linux is his hobby.
   He just wants to make something cool and have fun with it. That's the whole agenda. Linux is not about competion for Linus--and, please, "world domination" is a joke! As others have put it, "Chase the dream, not the competition".

2. He only really cares about the kernel.
   When he says "Linux", he's usually not talking about the whole system the way most of us are. You say, "well, the only point of the kernel is to serve as the foundation for the rest of the system"; but that's not the way Linus et al think. They mostly want to build a beautiful kernel. Ask a glibc developer if you doubt this. (They'll say Linus doesn't give a flying fig about user-space, which is an exaggeration, but....)

None of this should be a revelation. Read what Linus has said during any of the last ten years.

-Fantastic Lad

I wish there were a way to contact you directly instead of making an off topic post, but your sig is pretty weak. Where are you getting that number?? Somalia was obviously a fiasco, but I've NEVER heard the claim that the US killed 7000 Somalians. See for example the Frontline website for reference. If you are going to say something so controversial, you should point to a link with some info.

Roomer Busting site

I leave it up to the reader to read the following articles and put the pieces together for themselves to see the action/reaction balance going on.

US Koran site

CIA report (note religion percentage)

Muslim culture (outside Afganistan):site 1
site 2

Trillion Dollar bet

Problems caused by trillion dollar bet:

abcnews may 98

cnn may 98

Bigger than the Trillion Dollar BET - x3?

Current 2 year US stock market link comparing the DOW with the S&P and most important the NASDAQ. You can tell where the money went and also know what the dot coms were all about.
finance.yahoo.com graph

National Security Agency total system crash finally reported August 29th 2001

Losing freedoms:SSSCA

Yeah...um, why don't you go ahead and give me the oil export numbers for Afghanistan then. Just the simple stuff, you know, millions of barrels exported per year, etc.

Oh that's right, there are no oil exports from Afghanistan. Maybe there's some other dark government secret you can dig up for me.

Alright, you got it, ooo you got me. There are no oil exports from Afghanistan yet. But they have been planned for quite a long time.

And mostly plans have been made to move both natural gas and oil through the region from former Soviet republics. But since I am nothing but an idiot conspiracy theorist, you might not want to read the documents from the Department of Energy like I have said in other posts.

From the Department of Energy website:

In February 1998, the Taliban announced plans to revive the Afghan National Oil Company, which was abolished by the Soviet Union after it invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Soviet estimates from the late 1970s placed Afghanistan's proven and probable oil and condensate reserves at 95 million barrels. Oil exploration and development work as well as plans to build a 10,000-bbl/d refinery were halted after the 1979 Soviet invasion.

The Soviets had estimated Afghanistan's proven and probable natural gas reserves at up to 5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) in the 1970s. Afghan natural gas production reached 275 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d) in the mid-1970s.


In January 1998, the Taliban signed an agreement that would allow a proposed 890-mile, $2-billion, 1.9-billion-cubic-feet-per-day natural gas pipeline project led by Unocal to proceed. The proposed pipeline would have transported natural gas from Turkmenistan's 45-Tcf Dauletabad natural gas field to Pakistan, and most likely would have run from Dauletabad south to the Afghan border and through Herat and Qandahar in Afghanistan, to Quetta, Pakistan


Besides the gas pipeline, Unocal also had considered building a 1,000-mile, 1-million barrel-per-day (bbl/d) capacity oil pipeline that would link Chardzou, Turkmenistan to Pakistan's Arabian Sea Coast via Afghanistan. Since the Chardzou refinery is already linked to Russia's Western Siberian oil fields, this line could provide a possible alternative export route for regional oil production from the Caspian Sea. The $2.5-billion pipeline is known as the Central Asian Oil Pipeline Project. For a variety of reasons, including high political risk and security concerns, however, financing for this project remains highly uncertain

Pumping Oil Out Of Central Asia

The Geopolitics of Oil In Central Asia

Caspian Sea Oil and Gas Production

The oil behind Bush and Son's campaigns

Consortium formed to build Central Asia gas pipeline

So why dont you go ahead and read those little ditties I dug up for you as you requested and remember: its easy to use a search engine, so why not try and use one before copping some sort of attitude about me being some wacko who is full of shit.

I quote you:

Maybe there's some other dark government secret you can dig up for me.

It aint dark, its right at your fingertips.

Do you have an attribution for that quotation? March 2000 was well-after Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and the primary source for your quotation seems to be this web site.

Reagan revealed he had Alzheimer's in 1994 and no longer appeared in public after that point. According to PBS, Reagan was unable to recognize anyone except Nancy on February 4, 2000.

You people may like to look at Bob's article from August 30 which quite neatly explains where Excite@Home finds itself.

Remind me to buy stock in Cringely if he ever IPOs.

(Is it considered part of the pre-IPO quiet period to be featured on a nationial television special?)

(Is it considered part of the pre-IPO quiet period to be featured on a nationial television special?)

That was neither a nuclear nor chemical weapon we used. It was just a conventional warhead on a cruise missile.

Point taken, but it was still a civilian target... and I'm getting to that.

Furthermore, that's not even a civilian target, it was a part of Al Qaeda, and a place they manufactured chemicals for use in chemical weapons. Furthermore, it was a precision strike, designed to minimize incidental civilian casualties.

Furthermore, that was Clinton's claim, and it didn't pan out. To this day, no concrete proof has come out indicating chemical weapons were even developed at the site. The plant was transferred to a new owner five months before the attack, and the CIA completely missed that. One person was killed, the night watchman; the U.S. is damned lucky they didn't strike during the day. He should never have been killed in the first place, thanks to bad intelligence and Clinton's need to divert everyone's attention away from a stained blue dress. In fact, the Sudanese government asked for an investigation into the American claims; the U.S. blocked it.

Their justification for thinking the Al Shifa plant was a chemical weapons factory? A single soil sample, supposedly taken nine months before the attack, a claim that has been questioned and/or refuted, depending on who you ask.

Now, you shut the fuck up until you get a clue. For starters, try looking for sources of news and information outside of CNN, and don't blindly trust information from a government that has been caught in exaggerations and lies when it serves the purposes of the state, and/or the individuals that make it up.

In Ellison's case, his hammer is Oracle. Is he opportunistic? Sure, but he's probably trying to help. No doubt, he too knew some of the people working in the WTC or the Pentagon. Eric Raymond also suggested a preventive measure to deter hijackers: arming the citizenry. Unfortunately, threatening to kill suicide bombers won't stop them, but firing guns in a highly pressurized tube is very likely to stop the plane.

Of course, the problem with ID cards, FAA regulations and crypto laws is that criminals aren't bounded by law. I don't know why this is a hard concept for our leaders to understand, but apparently it's a real coconut-scratcher.

I haven't heard of a solution that will prevent a future attack like the one that happened on 9/11. This problem has a lot more to do with human nature than technology or politics.

It will be fun to see how the worm-writing people will use XP. It could be the decline of m$ in the business market.

Interesting also to see how the ISPs will react to DOS attacks.

"Windows XP runs EVERYTHING at root, which means every program (and even the trojans hidden within that program) has full access to all Windows services, including more advanced network services than ever before. Where Windows ME is generally limited to UDP- and ICMP-flooding, for example, Windows XP can jump straight to the main event -- http flooding aat port 80. "Cringely

"If Windows ME is a gun, Windows XP is a loaded gun.", Cringely

It will be fun to see how the worm-writing people will use XP. It could be the decline of m$ in the business market.

Interesting also to see how the ISPs will react to DOS attacks.

"Windows XP runs EVERYTHING at root, which means every program (and even the trojans hidden within that program) has full access to all Windows services, including more advanced network services than ever before. Where Windows ME is generally limited to UDP- and ICMP-flooding, for example, Windows XP can jump straight to the main event -- http flooding aat port 80. "Cringely

"If Windows ME is a gun, Windows XP is a loaded gun.", Cringely

Ooooh! I can't wait for a 3D shooter in the style of Picasso's "Guernica", or Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase". How about an axe-only level done in the style of medieval paintings? Of course, concerned parents everywhere would scream bloody murder at Hieronymus Bosch Quake.

Einstein did not help build the bomb. He wrote an influential letter to Roosevelt supporting the bomb effort. He made some contribution to gaseous diffusion, which is used to refine Uranium into weapons-grade material. That was the extent of Einstein's contribution. He did not work on the Manhattan Project.

Another misconception about the bomb is that relativity theory (E=mc^2) is somehown necessary for the design or conception of a nuclear device. This is simply untrue. Follow this link if you doubt the veracity of the previous sentence. Bomb design is based on basic nuclear physics, and the energy release can be calculated from electrostatic considerations.

It wasn't just Japanese Americans who were sent to internment camps or to prison for resisting the draft (as incredible as it sounds, the U.S. Government conscripted men from the camps for military service). German Americans were also imprisoned. German Americans have never been redressed.

A good essay by Good Ole' Bob Cringely on exactly this same point. He focuses on the FAA's approach to increased regulation, but I think the analogy is clear (I hope).

Cringely has an excellent piece on hastily carried-out laws. Everyone screams, "something must be done," so they start doing what they can with very little fore thought.

Quoting Jefferson on this would just be hella redundant... but let's hope some actual thinking goes into any new legislation: if it was in place before the WTC tragedy, would the attack have been prevented? At what cost are we making these new laws?

Hey kids, let's play Mad Libs!!!

Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered *BSD troll community when last month the DEA confirmed that *BSD trolls account for 99 percent of LSD use worldwide. Coming on the heels of the latest High Times survey which plainly states that none of them have a clue as to which end of a joint to light, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD trolling is collapsing in complete disarray, as further exemplified by failing a recent drug test.

You don't need to be Bob Cringely to predict this *BSD troll's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD trolling faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD trolling because *BSD trolls are frying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD trolls. As many of us are already aware, *BSD trolls continue to lose brain cells. Lysergic acid flows like a river of dreams. Anonymous Coward is the most endangered of them all.

Let's pull some numbers out of my ass.

I've seen this same lame cut and paste troll message about 7000 times since I first noticed it. How many *BSD trolls are there? Let's see. The number of *BSD troll posts on Slasdot is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1 BSD story. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 opportunities for this lamer to defecate from his oral orifice. But this annoying little prick continues to operate on less than half a brain. Therefore there are about 700 comestains on his sheets and he wonders why no women will even look at him. A recent BSD troll lost about 80 percent of his grey matter to crack smoking. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 brain cells left in his otherwise empty head. This is consistent with the number of crashes his favorite toy OS has undergone in the past year *cough*Windows*cough*.

Due to the problem of keeping a reliable supply of acid handy, negative cash flow and so on, a BSD troll went out and picked up some contaminated drugs on the street. Now the BSD troll is also dead, its corpse turned black and rotting on the floor.

All major surveys show that *BSD trolling has steadily declined in intellignece, not that it ever had any. *BSD trolling is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD trolling is to survive at all it will be because it keeps the BSD troll baiters amused. *BSD trolling continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD trolls are dead.

The kids are back. The kids are back. Ohhh watch out, the kids are back.

The way things are headed, the U.S. will surely become an oppresive state in the next few decades, as all your civil liberties are stolen from right under your noses. The people will then rebel against the government and the rich aristocrats running the country, and this uprising and rebellion will be considered terrorism. The founding of America was an act of terrorism to the British!

To resolve situations like this, you need pressure from the U.N. and other powerful nations to listen to the people -- listen to the "terrorist's" demands, because they do represent the views of the people -- and see what can be done about it. The Palestinian people want their land back. And Osama Bin Laden just wants the U.S. out of Saudi soil, mainly because the U.S. is helping the House of Saud remain in power, and ofcourse, because the U.S. doesn't do anything about the Palestinian situation.

Ofcourse, this whole thing could have been prevented if the U.S. hadn't been so arrogant into thinking everything it did was right, and for the good of mankind!

I think it would stupid to take down Osama Bin Laden without resolving his list of demands, and I fear this will cause a long drawn out war resulting in serious tensions between the East and the West!

Let's just hope it never gets to that point!

I stand corrected on the missile comment, however the US involvement, and the subsequent disappearance of (ten years later than I thought) did play a massive role in the bad feelings currently hosted towards the US.
I again apologize for the rectal-cranial obstruction which I showed, and bow before your knowledge on the situation.
For those as misinformed as I am, please read this PBS article

A shout out to the /. who posted this one 1st.
How the celebrating 'arabs' was shot in 1991! [indymedia.org.il]

Post it as many times as you want, there is no proof whatsoever in that article. It is less credible than a poorly written slashdot post: no evidence, no links, no documentation.

Meanwhile the mainstream INTERNATIONAL press has closely documented that the Palestinian celebrations are real:

Fox

PBS

Middle East News Line

Your foolish radical left wing fairy tales are melting in the sunlight of unbiased international journalism. When your statements are revealed as lies, what does that say about your motivations?

If we do not effectively retaliate against the terrorists, they will continue to attack us up to and including using nuclear weapons. Picture the face of the pilot of plane two, expertly banking his plane so that the maximum amount of fuel would be deposited in the building. Imagine what he would do with a Ryder truck and a nuclear weapon.

He would drive to Los Angeles with a smile on his face. This WILL happen if people like you are allowed to poison the public with lies.

Here's to stopping you.

Although paying attention to the news is worthwhile (and was necessary for the first day or two to understand the magnitude of the situation), thinking strategically about some of the issues that will be addressed is a good idea. In particular for this forum, thinking about the tradeoffs of software freedom and security is a good idea.

I recommend reading comp.risks for an ongoing forum about risks to the public with computer systems.

Code , by Lawrence Lessig will help you think about more general public policy issues.

If you are interested in Usama Bin Laden, check out this accompanying website to a Frontline special . It has interviews from last week in response to the WTC and Pentagon incident.

Also, I recommend looking at a white paper America's National interests 2000 which was written by many individuals on Bush's staff, to get an insight for how they might think about this problem. It also does a good job illuminating what national interests are, as well as deals with some of the conflicts between national interests and national values.

Another paper: Catastrophic Terrorism: Elements of a National Policy co-authored by John Deutsch, former CIA head.

In the midst of all the pressure to create more security, don't forget individual liberties .

If anyone has good links about how to deal with this on an international level, that would be fantastic. I am sure one of the reasons this effort will take so long is because it will also include strategic alliances that will extend to the electronic sector.

Yes, Osama bin Laden said something like this. However, he is not the source. U.S. senator from Oregon Wayne Morse said this in 1964. He was arguing against the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Why does a Saudi Arabian like bin Laden care about the activities of the U.S.? In interviews, he has said that he is against the U.S. support for what he considers to be a corrupt Saudi Arabian government. I certainly would be unlikely to give credibility to anything bin Laden said. However, Saudi Arabian friends have privately made similar criticisms. That's what made me take notice.

Mostly, however, I have little independent knowledge of news events. Like everyone, I depend on news sources. I thought that the September 13, 2001 PBS TV show about these issues was interesting. Here is a quote from a transcript of the show "Hunting bin Laden":

"NARRATOR: Muslim fundamentalists say that America's alliance with King Fahd is akin to America's disastrous alliance with the Shah of Iran. When King Fahd, like the Shah, is forced from power, they say, Americans will be on the wrong side of history."

and here's another quote:

"NARRATOR: Already, critics of the Saudi government point out the king has managed to turn the world's largest oil producer into a debtor nation."

People like bin Laden say that the U.S. government is supporting a corrupt dictatorship. Is there a lie in this? The U.S. government is supporting an anti-democratic government. The terrorists say this is the reason they feel motivated to terrorism.

My own opinion is that I think the initiators of violence are crazy, mentally decentered. However, if Americans support U.S. independence from England in 1776, they might also be sympathetic to other people's desire to have representational government.

Please consider what the narrator of the PBS show said again: Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil-producing nation, with only 14,000,000 inhabitants, actually owes money.

I have absolutely zero sympathy for terrorist violence. However, the situation is so black and white that it is difficult not to think that there is some truth in the terrorist's complaints.

In 1967 I was hitch-hiking on Ta Khli Air Base in Thailand. A U.S. pilot who was flying daily bombing missions to Hanoi gave me a ride. He told me he thought the bombing of Hanoi was pointless. He said that Hanoi was almost always covered with fog, and that he could not see what he was bombing. So, don't feel that you are having a radical viewpoint if you oppose U.S. military or political involvement. Plenty of others have come before you. In a democracy, it is the citizens' responsibility to think independently and make their views known.

I, Cringely's "A Man With a Hammer" is relevant I think.