Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Heat, Thought, Time
It's the incredible edible, heavy-investment waffle double gainer! steevo.com writes: "Intel has decided to stay with Rambus. Say it ain't so! Details are at C-NET.
Time was when ... wilkinsm writes: "When I tuned my shortwave to 5 Mhz today, I learned that NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) is currently doing a open survey on the time and frequency user community. I encourage all of you unix admins that use the network time protocol to show your support and fill the online survey out."
Has the code been tossed out with the bathwater? nonAI writes: "The Israeli company, which promoted a competition against an AI, closed its gates, as reported by an Israeli economic magazine (sorry, babelfish doesn't help). That's the end for the Child Machine HAL."
Now imagine you know of a freewheeling, opinionated discussion board ... Wael Islam, a member and volunteer with IslamWay.com, writes with some words on the objections B'nai Brith Canada raised to postings on IslamWay's message boards.
"In IslamWay.com discussion board we've more than 4000 Member and at the time of the media attack there was more than 28,000 posts!! Bnai Brith didn't only take one of the posts, but even took a statement out of context to prove that IslamWay.com is a terrorist website! ...
... The discussion post was between two people who were fighting each others by words, one called the other one that you are a hypocrite, so the other one was very angry so he told him - I'm just giving the meaning- : Let's see who is the hypocrite, Come with me to Afghanistan and let's train ourselves there .. so the person meant that army exercises will be a way to prove who is the coward and who is the brave!"
The people who attacked IslamWay.com based on the Discussion Board post didn't clarify that it was mentioned in the discussion board, and they just said a post on IslamWay.com."
Of course, we could require that all public communications be approved in advance, licensed, and inoffensive.
Please resume watching your educational audio-visual materials. echoSpades writes: "I guess I wasn't the only one to be annoyed with Apple's DVD playback. Apple's website has a small text link to info about a class action suit against them: 'There is a proposed settlement of a class action lawsuit against Apple Computer, Inc. involving issues with DVD playback in earlier models of the Apple iMac DV, iMac DV SE and Power Mac G4 computers."
A couple of minutes ago, slashdot seemed to be down for a few minutes -- i got the "internal configuration error" blah blah -- did anyone else see it?
Last time I checked, cdrom.com, one of, if not the busiest file sites on the net ran FreeBSD. And, if I recall correctly, it can handle 3600 simultaneous users with ease.
Then again, what else would you expect from a site whose very foundation is built upon neo-linux-zealotism?
It is unwise to crtitise that which that of which you have little understanding and knowlege. Even Bushie hasn't done that (yet).
Zero Sum (don't amount to much). [root@localhost]
On with tonight's rant:
There is a lot of debate, analysis, planning, work, sacrifice and struggle ahead for America in its battle against global terrorism. The first few days, in the wake of the September 11, 2001 tragedy, I saw well reasoned debate, much of which I agreed with. America seemed to have the right attitude about rooting out the fanatical zealots that had wrought so much death, destruction, suffering, and which if unchecked will cause far more. Four or five days later I see we are dangerously off message. Everywhere I look now I see American flag waving, and often accompanied with the phrase "God Bless the USA."
Nationalism and religious extremism is what motivated these misguided men. We must not answer it with nationalism and extremism of our own. This must not become Our-God versus Their-God. Say that we have one of the best governmental systems in the world, if not the best, and I will not argue. Extend this to say we are right and just because God favors our form of government or vise versa, and you will be no better than they, using religion to guide us into acts of retribution instead of justice.
Am I saying not to retaliate? No. I think terrorism must be rooted out everywhere for the sake of a safer and most just world. We cannot stop at fighting Islamic extremists in middle-east locations. We must tell the IRA, no more. We must look within our own borders and stop soldiers of fortune, eager to engage in the fight for the sake of the fight. We must not turn a blind eye to the plight of lower Africa just because we have no pressing concerns there, not just because it is right, but also because one day we will have interests there.
We must make sure our governmental agencies are not funding terrorists for short-term goals by calling them freedom fighters. Perhaps they are, but if we support them covertly, we are no better than those we must now deal with. If a cause is just then America must not be secretive or indirect in its support. We may have to choose our fights, and these may from time to time involve the practicality of considering if American interests are at stake (we cannot be everywhere at one), but the first question must always be "is this just?" The second question must then always be "is this a just way to achiever our goals?"
I warrant if you where to burn an American flag in public at the moment, you risk being put in the hospital if not the morgue. My point is not the burning the American flag is a good thing to do, but that it is easy to do the absolute wrong thing for what you think are just reasons, in this case assaulting someone because they have disrespected a symbol you hold dear. Certainly, the terrorists that have fought and died think they are doing the right thing. Dismissing them as evil, and making their Holy War our Holy War will pull us down into a morass from which there is no escape.
War must from time to time be waged by freedom loving people, but don't do it in God's name and don't make the American flag a surrogate for God. God is not for war of any kind. Most of Christianity's most cherished biblical figures are martyrs that refused to fight. I do not advocate turning the other cheek in this case, but to persecute a war with God in the rallying cry will surely keep us from our most basic goal here -- to prevent religious fanaticism from motivating men to barbaric acts.
Letter To Iran