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The Beast of Brussels

'No nickname' Ian writes "If you live in Europe you should definitely read this story about a government supercomputer. It's written by Andy McCue from silicon.com and entitled: IT Myths: Does the 'Beast of Brussels' know everything about us? Basically, in Europe there are rumours of an EU-owned super-computer which stores and process information on every European citizen. The piece debunks the rumour and finds out its roots are actually in a work of fiction - but there is some interesting comment from privacy activists who suggest it may not be too wide of the mark. Simon Davis of Privacy International goes so far as to suggest such computer may have existed - if perhaps not on the same 'three storey-high' magnitude."

10 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. How RedHat's Linux Can Defeat Micr$oft's Windoze by Michael's+a+Jerk! · · Score: -1, Troll

    Hi,

    I've always used Windowz and I consider myself an exceptional Visual
    Basic programmer, so I know computers pretty good. In fact I got an A-
    in my programming class last term. But I'm a little wary of how much
    power Microsoft has in the computer field. Many of my friends use
    RedHat and I've recently installed it on my machine at home. Although
    I haven't had as much chance to play with it as I'd like, I've been
    greatly impressed.

    This weekend I gave some thoughts to the things that are wrong with
    Linux. I hope no one minds having some flaws pointed out. I'd like to
    help make RedHat stronger so it can conquer MS. Hopefully RedHat will
    hear this (crossing fingers) and address these. I think with a little
    effort, RedHat's Linux can defeat Microsoft's Windows! :)

    To begin with, there are too many different flavors of RedHat.
    Browsing a list on Amazon, I saw they made varients under the
    codenames of Mandrake, Debian and Slackware, just to name a few. I
    know that I'm very new to RedHat so maybe this is obvious but it seems
    like RedHat should just sell a few different flavors of its operating
    system. Perhaps one for the desktop and one for a server? Could
    someone explain why RedHat produces dozens of different versions of Linux?

    Secondly did you know that anyone can view the source code to Linux! I
    think that RedHat shouldn't make its code available. After all, what
    keeps Microsoft from stealing RedHat's ideas and putting it into
    Windows? My friend says that FreeBSD stole the TCP/IP stack from DOS a
    long time ago and Microsoft is always looking for revenge for that.
    Plus it seems to me like RedHat is just giving away its ideas for
    free. And what keeps hackers or terrorists from tampering with the
    code and putting a virus in every computer?

    On a related note, why doesn't RedHat write Linux in assembly? My
    friend says that's what Microsoft does for Windows, and that's why
    Windows is faster and more stable than Linux.

    Next RedHat definitely should kill -9 (ha, ha!) the command line.
    Microsoft finally gave up DOS when Windows 2000 came out. I'm suprised
    that RedHat hasn't migrated away from...whatever its version of DOS is
    called (Bash, I think?) But maybe this is planned for a futurerelease?
    Finally Linux needs games! RedHat will never be successful in the home
    without games. They should also tell M$ to release a version of Office
    for Linux too. And Internet Explorer!

    Have a nice day! Go Linux!!

    --

    I'm not Seth.

  2. Michael's A Jerk! is NOT AN IDIOT, ASSHAT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    That just happened to be some unfunny material.

  3. Good Job Michael. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Imaginary computers. Now there's some "Stuff that Matters."

  4. Re:Very nice colors by ExEleven · · Score: 0, Troll

    Your right, slashdot has no incarnation of free speech anymore.

  5. q. What's better than a dead nigger? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    a. A HUNDRED dead niggers!

    1. Re:q. What's better than a dead nigger? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
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  6. This is old news. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    There was an article about a European version of Carnivore over a year ago.

  7. Re:Shortest book I ever read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Q: How many gears does a german tank have ???

    A: one... reverse.

  8. Ok you want us to know you are a geek... by floydman · · Score: 0, Troll

    Ok, your a geek

    --
    The lunatic is in my head
  9. Re:Impossible for all the wrong reasons... by heironymouscoward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yes, that is a good point. Saying '11/9/03', or better, using the ISO standard '2003/11/09' for all references to this date would make the discussion much clearer. Excellent comment!

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une signature