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One Million AOL discs to be returned to AOL
nicedream writes "Two guys from California are trying to give AOL a taste of its own medicine. They're asking people to send them AOL discs, and they're going to drop them off at the company's doorstep once they collect 1 million discs. My favorite quote: "We're going to AOL and say, 'You've got mail"." seems like a better taste would be to dial out and use all 1000 free hours. A million people do *that* and I bet they'd stop filling our mailboxes with the landfill of tomorrow.
proust
Twenty Years of Fahd: Saudi Economic Heavyweight Awaits Political Reform
Ruler Has Led Country Though Boom Times, Political Turmoil
By Omar Hasan
RIYADH (AFP) -
Despite political turmoil and two Gulf wars, Saudi Arabia has grown into a regional economic power in the two decades of King Fahd's rule, but the oil-rich kingdom is still awaiting genuine democratic reforms.
Celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the ailing monarch's accession to the throne have been overshadowed by the anti-terror campaign in Afghanistan and strains in relations with the United States, the kingdom's main ally.
Since suffering a stroke in 1995, King Fahd has delegated much of his powers to his crown prince and half-brother, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, who has been running the day-to-day affairs of this vast kingdom.
But during the reign of King Fahd, Saudi Arabia has developed into an important economic power, backed by its position as home to the world's largest proven oil reserves and an OPEC kingpin.
Oil revenues grew from just $1.2 billion in 1970 to $104 billion in 1980, but dropped again to about $50 billion this year. Yet Gross National Product has grown from just $6 billion in 1970 to $163 billion in 2000.
Khaled al-Fayez, chief executive officer of Bahrain-based Gulf International Bank (GIB), said in an article on King Fahd's rule that instability in oil prices over the past two decades has resulted in sharp fluctuations in public spending in Saudi Arabia.
The contribution of oil revenues to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell from 70 percent in the mid-1970s to less than one-third last year. Non-oil revenues' share grew as a result to 67 percent in 1999.
The kingdom has launched the "Gas Initiative" giving exploration rights to several International Oil Companies (IOCs) to produce natural gas in three major fields with initial investments estimated at $25 billion.
Total investments over the next 30 years are estimated to exceed $100 billion and generate some 1.6 million jobs for Saudis.
Unemployment however has been soaring, accelerated by rapid rates of education and population growth. Estimates put the current unemployment rate at 15 percent despite concerted efforts by the kingdom to nationalize many jobs.
There are some seven million foreigners in the kingdom with their remittances reaching around $18 billion annually.
Oil remains the main source of income,contributing more than 80 percent to the budget. The government is still reeling under the heavy burden of a sizeable internal debt of over $160 billion.
Saudi Arabia has been denied membership in the World Trade Organization for failing to meet important terms, mainly opening up the telecommunications, aviation, oil, wholesale, retail, insurance, banking and other sectors to competition.
In the past few years Riyadh has embraced a number of reforms by setting up the Supreme Economic Council, the Supreme Petroleum Council and the General Investment Authority which has so far granted foreign investors projects worth some $9 billion.
But the only major political reform to be introduced was the setting up in 1993 of a Consultative Council following the 1991 Gulf War and which has an advisory role. Its appointed membership was expanded to 120 earlier this year.
But trade unions are still not allowed in the kingdom, and Saudi audiovisual media have remained largely in the hands of the government, with only state-run TV and radio stations. The press, although private, practices a strict form of self-censorship and normally reflects the government's views.
"I believe the government must reform. This is what the Saudi people need now, before something is imposed on us from outside," a Saudi Islamist political activist said.
"The ongoing events in the world following the September 11 terror attacks in the U.S. might help accelerate positive change in this kingdom," he said on condition of anonymity.
But the influential religious establishment does not want to see reforms that might affect the kingdom's status as the birthplace of Islam's Prophet Mohammed, and the base of the rigorous fundamentalist Salafi/Wahhabi movement.
"The message of Prophet Mohammad is the most important pillar of this country ... and the Salafi school constitutes the foundation of existence and movement for the state," Sheikh Saleh bin Hameed, imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, recently said in a sermon.
Slashdot: where old news is good news.
If everyone that wanted to, in the world, had a program that turned off caching and loaded up AOL every 5 minutes, would they put us all in prison?
F43r 0wr l33t 4rmy!!!!
PhysicsGenius, are you posting anonymously now?
taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
... but:
:)
Can they make a beowulf cluster out of those million cd's?
And also:
1.-Send a million cd's to people that don't want them.
2.-Very few people will use the service, but it will pay for costs plus a little income.
3.-Profit!
Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
oh my god. how did this get modded up so high.... do people not know they're plastic? jesus christ. no offense to the original poster, though... you were just correcting the guy... but who the hell would waste mod points on that?
sig - .
I'm wondering that myself.
people as dumb as the person you corrected, I guess. It has already been proven that they exist on slashdot :)
"Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson