Canadian Spying Case Proves Floppy Drive Isn't Dead Yet

ugh by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 02:31 · Score: 0, Troll

you're doing the underpants gnomes joke wrong.

an hero.

Cas and carry. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 02:39 · Score: 0

Jack Harris, the NDP's defence critic told the CBC: "Canadians need to know how a Canadian naval officer could walk in and out of one of the most secure places in Canada, Trinity, with a thumb drive. You can't walk out of a diamond mine with diamonds in your pocket."

The modern day equivalent is sneaking out integrated circuits and other high dollar, but small electronics from various places in the distribution chain.

Re:Cas and carry. by h4rr4r · 2012-10-11 02:48 · Score: 1

I betting getting diamonds out of a mine can be done the same way as a USB drive, swallow them.

Make fun of them all you want. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 02:41 · Score: 5, Insightful

But frankly, the fact that they aren't blowing billions of dollars on having bases in the Middle East, supporting an "ally" that stabs them in the back every chance they get while still doing things that stir up trouible - like stealing other people's land, and the fact that I've never heard protestors in a Muslim country yell, "Death to Cananda!" or a Latin/South American say something bad about a Canadian.

If it weren't for us, the US, I bet their lives would be much more peaceful.

I'll take their problems anyday.

Re:Make fun of them all you want. by interval1066 · 2012-10-11 02:55 · Score: 4, Insightful

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada's_role_in_the_Afghanistan_War

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Re:Make fun of them all you want. by scorp1us · 2012-10-11 03:04 · Score: 1

I am slightly envious of them in this regard. If they only had better weather I'd probably move there.

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Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Dishevel · 2012-10-11 03:11 · Score: 4, Insightful

To be fair. It is not at all a forgone conclusion that if the US were to not do these things that other countries would not have to step up their defense spending.
I think that the US having to spend all this money allows allies to spend considerably less.

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Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:20 · Score: 3, Informative

I know it's hard for people to actually be informed on topics before they speak, but you may want to research how in the past decade or so Canada has very much gone from a "peace keeper" to a "peace maker". They were one of the first countries pushing for military intervention in Libya and their conservative government is only going to continue that going forward.
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by mister_playboy · 2012-10-11 03:30 · Score: 0

I think that the US having to spend all this money allows allies to spend considerably less.
What exactly is the value of having allies with a tiny fraction of our military capability?
Too many of our relationships are still being defined by World War II or the Cold War. We need a serious foreign relations update, to reflect current realities rather than simply having American taxpayers foot the bill for countries entirely capable of looking after themselves.

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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Dishevel · 2012-10-11 03:37 · Score: 0

Not saying you are wrong here.
Just pointing out to the "Other countries can get by with a small military " hippy, peace mother fuuckers that someone has to do it.
Might not have to be us but someone will.

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Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by daem0n1x · 2012-10-11 03:37 · Score: 5, Insightful

I live in one of those "other countries". As far as I'm concerned, we don't need any of your "defence spending", so feel free to cut it as much as you want. I'm pretty sure a few billion people agree with me.
The only thing your "defence spending" is defending is the big pockets of the military-industrial complex.
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by DarthVain · 2012-10-11 03:49 · Score: 4, Insightful

We only told Bush to go to hell when they wanted us to help invade Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. When the US and the UN asked us to go to Afghanistan we agreed.
However note, our current conservative government wanted to go to Iraq also but didn't have power then.
As to the whole "Death to Canada" thing, I would like to think it is because we are nice people, but more than likely we are just insignificant compared to the US in world influance. :(
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Dishevel · 2012-10-11 03:50 · Score: 1, Insightful

Again. You can agree with it or not.
But if you live in Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Poland, Isreal, Taiwan or a bunch of other places if the US were to just go away tomorrow defense spending in those countries would need to go up.
Maybe not France, they can give up for a very low cost in defense spending.

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Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by DarthVain · 2012-10-11 03:51 · Score: 2

However also I believe we are in general a more multicultural and secular people (I could just be making this up, no citations). So its not a big Jesus VS Mohammad kind of thing. Of course I doubt radicals make much distinction between one type of "unbeliever" and another...
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by dintech · 2012-10-11 04:24 · Score: 1

Death to Canada! (this is sung to the tune of Blame Canada in the Middle East)
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by dintech · 2012-10-11 04:27 · Score: 4, Insightful

What exactly is the value of having allies with a tiny fraction of our military capability?
Because not all conflict needs to be resolved militarily?
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by SETY · 2012-10-11 04:29 · Score: 1

Not that I really disagree, but from Canada's point of view who is a serious threat? China launching a marine invasion and holding the second biggest country on earth? The only serious threat to Canada is the USA and that war would be over rather quickly, so why bother with a huge military to defend against that?
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Dekker3D · 2012-10-11 04:39 · Score: 1

Maybe with all the snow, they've learned to just... chill...
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:40 · Score: 0

LOL, with exception of Israel, and even there it's not about defense spending but what amounts to gifts in money and in kind. Poland doesn't bloody care about US military spending, neither does Japan, Canada, Germany, France nor even Taiwan.
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:58 · Score: 1

In other words, we got involved with the UN-authorized war in Afghanistan, whereas we stayed out of the dubiously-justified Iraq war.
For what it's worth, we also had a minor role in the war in Libya. I noticed during the celebrations in Benghazi after the fall of Ghaddafi that among the flags being waved was a Canadian one. Rather a surprising sight.
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by mister_playboy · 2012-10-11 05:07 · Score: 1

Then we I think we can agree it would be extremely unfortunate to have the US dragged into Turkey vs Syria because of NATO.
Now contemplate the original reason for NATO's existence... What exactly are we using it for in 2012?

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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 05:16 · Score: 0

As for "multicultural," well, not really. From Wikipedia:

According to the 2006 census, the country's largest self-reported ethnic origin is Canadian (accounting for 32% of the population), followed by English (21%), French (15.8%), Scottish (15.1%), Irish (13.9%), German (10.2%), Italian (4.6%), Chinese (4.3%), First Nations (4.0%), Ukrainian (3.9%), and Dutch (3.3%).
So that's almost 84% people whose ancestors came from western Europe—almost 88% if you want to throw in eastern Europe too. Canada is pretty homogenous.
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Vanderhoth · 2012-10-11 05:39 · Score: 1

With global warming Canada is the place to be.

Joking aside, we only had three snow storms here in Halifax, Nova Scotia last year, as opposed to near weekly snow storms twenty years ago. Hell, it's 15 deg C out right now (about 60 deg F), 10 deg C is coat weather, when I was young enough to go trick-or-treating, 20 to 25 years ago,I wore a winter coat and remember snow on the ground. I haven't seen snow before November 11th in at least five years and even then it was just one day snow fall, the next day warm and sunny no snow on the ground.
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Vanderhoth · 2012-10-11 05:46 · Score: 3, Interesting

I hate to say it, but most of the money Canada does spend on defense is mainly to keep the US from starting conflicts here. My Dad is retired Navy and has always told me most of our ships are required to keep the American's out of our arctic territories. I do believe the Americans are the biggest threat to Canada, as the state of the world currently stands. Of course there's always another bully waiting to take the current ones place.
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by ColdWetDog · 2012-10-11 06:01 · Score: 3, Insightful

But if you think the mosquitoes are bad now. wait until the entire country is a pestilential swamp. You'll be begging for snow.

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Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by AwesomeMcgee · 2012-10-11 06:07 · Score: 1

I know, all that maple syrup; our troops wouldn't stand a chance! Gives me the heebeejeebee's just thinking about Canada's first strike: the great syrup flood of NYC... all those poor people encased forever in maple deliciousness :(
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by AnonyMouseCowWard · 2012-10-11 06:08 · Score: 1

Actually you got it just right. It used to be that the only serious threat was the US (because they might want, uh, huge.. tracts of land...), although now with the Arctic melting Russia might show up.

Also, if the US comes up here, the war might not end that quickly. The Canadian military, as little as they are, might be better prepared for resistance in winter, and invading/keeping such a large territory is difficult. And if not? The US will try to bring more baseball/American football in, and if you freaking dare touch the holy sanctity of hockey, you'll have the entire population up in arms. Beware of rabidly polite Canadians, eh.
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by ColdWetDog · 2012-10-11 06:11 · Score: 1

Of course we're you're biggest threat. Just think of us as your psychotic big brother, off his meds and rooting around your room for pocket change.
Pleasant nightmares!

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Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by ColdWetDog · 2012-10-11 06:12 · Score: 1

Peru? You must be American.

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Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Vanderhoth · 2012-10-11 06:31 · Score: 1

You make an excellent point.
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Vanderhoth · 2012-10-11 06:34 · Score: 1

rooting around your room for pocket change.
Well you won't find it, we spent it on a nerf baseball bat for defense.
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Em+Adespoton · 2012-10-11 08:08 · Score: 1

Shh! Canada is the land of ice and snow, where we have to melt our way out of the front door each morning to get to our dogsleds!
Do you really want MORE foreigners realising Canada is the place to be???
Think of the black flies....
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Em+Adespoton · 2012-10-11 08:15 · Score: 1

I think you'll find Canada's demographics have changed significantly in the past 6 years. But it doesn't really matter... we don't agree with the US "melting pot" theory of society in Canada; we go for the "ethnic mosaic" model, which means that while the people themselves may be mostly european, the culture and society reflects cultures from around the world.
Of course, the city and non-city populations are significantly different with respect to both culture and ethnic origin....
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by jheath314 · 2012-10-11 08:57 · Score: 2

Maybe not France, they can give up for a very low cost in defense spending.
Number of US soldiers killed before the courageous Americans cut and run from Vietnam: 47,000
Number of French soldiers killed before the army mutinied in WWI (refusing to engage in pointless offensives, fighting only to maintain defense): 978,000
Talk all you like about French cowardice, my dear armchair General, but when the going gets tough it is the Americans who get going... straight for the exits.

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Procrastination Man strikes again!
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 09:26 · Score: 0

I would point out that when the French army mutinied large tracts of what had been French territory on 27th July 1914 where still occupied by a belligerent foreign power. So your "pointless" offensives where actually about recovering sovereign French territory. It was not till the last days of the First World War that the Germans where finally evicted from French territory.
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 09:28 · Score: 0

If it weren't for us, the US, I bet their lives would be much more peaceful.
I'll take their problems anyday.
In "On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace", Donald Kagan argued that the best way to minimize war/conflict is for there to be one major power that imposes it. It was true of the Roman Empire and of the American Hegemony.
While it is true there have been conflicts (often with the US involved), you should go back and look at Europe between the years 1100 and 1950. It was a situation of many mostly-equal powers, and they were generally at each others throats. If you though the US involvement in Afghanistan has been long, England and France had something called The Hundred Years' War.
The US is by no means completely peaceful (and often supported really bad people), but without a Hegemony we'd probably see North and South Korea going at it, China going in Taiwan and parts of the Philippines / South China Sea. Russia involving itself with Georgia, Belarus, and the Ukraine again (not to mention possibly Poland). Want to know what many Arab countries would be doing to Israel (and how Israelis would be retaliating)?
No, the situation is not pretty right now, but the power of the US would be replaced by someone else (probably more ugly) if the the Americans went away.
Laws are there (in part) to keep men's appetites in check. What is there to keep the appetites of countries and cultures in check?
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by robsku · 2012-10-11 09:33 · Score: 1

To USA: Please stop - I don't think any of the "allies" have asked for this kind of "help" - and let's see how it goes?

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In capitalist USA corporations control the government.
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by robsku · 2012-10-11 09:41 · Score: 1

I doubt the rest would care, but you're probably right about Israel - and I'd like to see that, maybe they would actually need to consider acting up... Israel isn't that praised outside the USA, even if their enemies aren't really liked any better.

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In capitalist USA corporations control the government.
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 09:43 · Score: 0

What exactly is the value of having allies with a tiny fraction of our military capability?

reasons:
Because those countries have specialized in a particular task, like surveillance and intelligence-gathering, or indigenous collaboration and government infrastructure. Which is vital when the war doesn't have a front line.
So the minority player can provide support services like fuel transport while the Americans follow their usual Kill, crush 'n' destroy policies.
So the allies can see the effect of the USA's economic imperialism.
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 12:17 · Score: 0

Yes, because it only got tough after 10+ years of fighting. I'm sure you do realize the only war that America has been involved in longer than Vietnam is Afghanistan, right?
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by fustakrakich · 2012-10-11 15:04 · Score: 1

But when traveling, wear one of these

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“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by fustakrakich · 2012-10-11 15:11 · Score: 1

I do believe the Americans are the biggest threat to Canada...
And 200 years was a very short time ago...

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“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by jaymemaurice · 2012-10-12 03:40 · Score: 1

To be fair, it seems many group Canada and the U.S. together or often just call us all "the west"

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120 characters ought to be enough for anyone
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by jaymemaurice · 2012-10-12 03:49 · Score: 1

Feeding the appetite for war, of course. We can't do too many things at once and a country at war with someone/something will be united instead of at war with itself.

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120 characters ought to be enough for anyone
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by dintech · 2012-10-12 05:54 · Score: 1

I think Turkey is more than capable of levelling Syria on it's own. It might become an issue if Russia wades in though...
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by redlemming · 2012-10-12 06:24 · Score: 1

While it is true there have been conflicts (often with the US involved), you should go back and look at Europe between the years 1100 and 1950. It was a situation of many mostly-equal powers, and they were generally at each others throats.

An excellent point.
Another good example is the The Peloponnesian War: the relatively equal strengths of the Athenian and Spartan alliances were what made this war last so long and be so devestating. For that matter, the history of the Greek city-states in general provides many examples of the point you make.
The Chinese had a similiar period, known as the Warring States period. Different scholars use different dates to describe this period, but it was roughly 250 years. So the situation you describe is not by any means unique to Europe.
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by dyfortune · 2012-10-13 00:46 · Score: 1

American allies are usually perfectly fine to defend themselves. I know one of the reasons for the ANZUS treaty was America was the only country that had the power to successfully attack Australia. If America did pull out of these countries there goes favorable negotiating conditions for trade and such, there goes safe sea lanes, there goes a safe oil supply, up will go the proliferation of weapons and with it tension and possibly war. I really think America gains a lot more selling weapons and pushing their laws on allies then what would be gained from a solely continental defence strategy.
Re:Make fun of them all you want. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-14 22:52 · Score: 0

Remember the justification for going into Iraq? WMDs, and all that?
We know Saddam had chemical weapons because he gassed the kurds. Where did they go? Oh that's right, they might have gone to Syria -- the same Syria which is about to be taken over by the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization. What's that you say? Terrorists and WMDs are a bad mix? Well, maybe the world needs to sweep on into Syria, and pickup any stray WMDs before the terrorists get them.
_That's_ what NATO is for.

Stone Ghost by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 02:41 · Score: 0

STONEGHOST (fka Intelink-C) is the joined classified intelligent of Canada, US, UK, Australia. Wait I thought BBC said there were 5 "eyes"...

Re:Stone Ghost by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 02:45 · Score: 1

New Zealand is the 5th partner.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by h4rr4r · 2012-10-11 02:45 · Score: 1

The Bering Sea is between Alaska and Russia. What are the Canadians doing with that information?

So... by JustAnotherIdiot · 2012-10-11 02:46 · Score: 1

Because the floppy drive was used once, suddenly it's not a dead technology?

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What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?

Re:So... by flyingsquid · 2012-10-11 03:08 · Score: 4, Insightful

The internet has definitely changed the espionage game. If you think about it, the entire premise of Star Wars falls apart completely in an internet society. The movie starts out with Vader trying to recover the plans for the Death Star which are stored on R2D2, and then the entire middle of the movie involves trying to physically transport R2 to the Rebels to allow them to stage an attack. If the Empire had internet, then the rebel spies would have just uploaded the plans for the Death Star to the Rebel Alliance, and you'd skip straight to the final scene of the movie.
Re:So... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:17 · Score: 1

It was the best SneakerNet available. Probably the Empire would find any base station transmitting that far before it could finish. Plus we haven't exactly finished work on those deep-space FTL network, either.
Re:So... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:35 · Score: 1

Exactly, we will always need the SneakerNet.
US Supreme Court Says Wiretapping Immunity Will Stand
Re:So... by jd2112 · 2012-10-11 03:37 · Score: 3, Funny

The AutoCAD file for the Death Star must have been humongous. Transmiting a file that large would have exceeded their data caps.

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Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Re:So... by jader3rd · 2012-10-11 03:51 · Score: 1

If the Empire had internet, then the rebel spies would have just uploaded the plans for the Death Star to the Rebel Alliance, and you'd skip straight to the final scene of the movie.
You're assuming a free and open internet (or holonet as described in the books), that wouldn't have been monitored by the Empire. With the Empire monitoring all communications a transfer of Death Start plans would have informed the Empire to the location of both the sender and the receiver.
Re:So... by hack++slash · 2012-10-11 04:02 · Score: 2

They could have modulated the death star ray to transmit data.

Perhaps they did and some idiot turned up the gain when transmitting a threat to Alderaan...

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To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
Re:So... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:11 · Score: 0

I realize parent and grandparent are mostly joking but the internet has not solved the problem of moving around very large amounts of data, quite on the contrary. The disk sizes have been growing much faster for the last 30 years than the network bandwidth. Even today when there is a larger amount of data, it's transferred physically, not over IP.
And to continue the hilarity, refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFC_1149
Re:So... by PhotoJim · 2012-10-11 04:18 · Score: 2

Until there are 50-cent, rewritable at will and without hassle, flat storage media, floppy disks still have some utility. Obviously the utility is declining because of their limited capacity, but I still use 'em. I throw adequate-res photos of clients' property into their insurance files. Way faster and easier than burning an optical disc.
USB flash drives are just as convenient, but they're still too pricey for some applications. If you could buy tens-of-megabyte thin, flat flash drives for tens of cents each, I'd buy a case of them.
Re:So... by Beardo+the+Bearded · 2012-10-11 04:52 · Score: 3, Informative

No.
I work with point clouds for scanning military vessels. That's what the data on the screen in Star Wars shows, point clouds.
Each compartment IRL is a couple of GB of data. The Death star, assuming 1000 compartments, would require several Terabytes of point cloud information in order for it to be useful to the Alliance. We have trouble moving individual compartments around our 1000 Network and it's just easier to move stuff around on portable hard drives.

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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Re:So... by WuphonsReach · 2012-10-11 06:02 · Score: 1

Bulk USB drives can be had for as low as $1-$2 each. Which is about what 1.44MB floppy disks used to cost.

SD and micro SD cards can be had for below $1 each.

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Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
Re:So... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 06:28 · Score: 0

I'd like to think that transmitting a few terabytes of data would be no problem to people that can build a Deathstar.
Re:So... by kelemvor4 · 2012-10-11 06:45 · Score: 1

I realize parent and grandparent are mostly joking but the internet has not solved the problem of moving around very large amounts of data, quite on the contrary. The disk sizes have been growing much faster for the last 30 years than the network bandwidth. Even today when there is a larger amount of data, it's transferred physically, not over IP.
And to continue the hilarity, refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFC_1149
I think that depends on how you define "very large amounts of data" and where you are moving it to. Since upgrading to FIOS quantum, I regularly move over 1TB a month across my home connection. Generally at work with even larger connections I move a few GB of data to vendors across the country; and that's not counting the data moved across the internet by the other hundred thousand or so employees. The only times I even use physical media are when I have to install an OS, want to perform an offline backup, or transfer data from a non connected device like a digital camera. I considered myself a holdout, too; having only eliminated floppy drives from my computers about 5 years ago. Even when extreme security is concerned, a secure private network or even a secure virtual private network is still probably a better option than using physical media.
Re:So... by kelemvor4 · 2012-10-11 06:52 · Score: 1

I know several photographers that just use SD cards for this purpose. 1GB SD cards sell on amazon.com for literally 1 cent, and 16GB cards from respected brands like sandisk are only $5usd. You must be using really low res photos, even compressed jpg images from my somewhat outdated (and decidedly not professional grade) 12mp Nikon D90 are far too large to fit a single image on a floppy disk.
Re:So... by damien_kane · 2012-10-11 06:54 · Score: 1

They could have modulated the death star ray to transmit data.
Communication lasers (those used to transmit data over short distances like within a star system) are used regularly in SF over shorter distances (like a few dozen km) as weapons.
Within those shorter distances, the beam is still powerful enough (read: not yet attenuated/diffracted so much) that it can cut through the hull of another ship (or melt the power-supply of a General Products hull)
Re:So... by PhotoJim · 2012-10-11 09:02 · Score: 1

They're low-res and perfectly adequate for our purposes. They're roughly 400 kB each in JPG format.
The RAW files from my Nikon D800 are over 40 megabytes (even the JPGs are 11-12 MB), but we have no need for such resolution. The photos get viewed on a computer screen and that's it.
The 1 GB SD cards (or even smaller) might do fine - I'll have a look on eBay.
Re:So... by Beardo+the+Bearded · 2012-10-11 09:37 · Score: 1

Based on their hologram technology, no, they have some serious bandwidth problems.

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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Re:So... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 10:00 · Score: 0

... entire premise of Star Wars falls apart completely in an internet society.

No the same problem exists: Transferring the plans from the spy to the enemy leaders. That takes time and communication infrastructure. In both cases, the empire can overtake the enemy and destroy their assets.
SneakerNet is a form of security by obscurity, where the plans are hidden by a chain of custody. The alternative is steganography/encryption where the plans are hidden by a secret algorithm/key.
Re:So... by unitron · 2012-10-11 21:17 · Score: 1

But most of us live in places where the local phone and cable companies don't know FiOS from BIOS.

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I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

Canada Has A Military? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 02:49 · Score: 0

In other news, most governments systems are either accessed by so many people, or so antiquated, as to make this kind of thing easy. The Canadians could do a lot worse than following some basic advice on keeping hold of their sensitive information!
http://360is.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/wikileaks-lessons-for-uk-information.html

AG

Risk mitigation by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 02:51 · Score: 5, Funny

TO ALL EMPLOYEES:

Effective immediately, all documents must be at least 1.46 MB in size.

- The mgmt

P.S. Nobody even THINK about installing PKZIP, k?

Re:Risk mitigation by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:25 · Score: 0

Well, to be pedantic, the actual capacity of the most recent incarnation (DS/DD or whatever) of standard floppy is 2MB unformatted, which you can actually almost all of if you just tar a file on it and don't bother with the pesky filesystem part.
Re:Risk mitigation by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:54 · Score: 0

Extended Density crams a whopping 2.88MB onto a 3.5" floppy! The future is here in force.
Re:Risk mitigation by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 05:04 · Score: 0

Most of the recent floppy disk quality has gone done ever since the brand name manufacturers have gone out of that market.
Word of the day: Unknown
Re:Risk mitigation by MtHuurne · 2012-10-11 07:04 · Score: 1

It's not the file system taking up that space, it's the room between sectors. You can fit more sectors into a track, but I think it won't be readable without a special driver then. Same for larger sectors. You can also add more tracks, going up to 82 (from 80) should work with most disks and drives and that might work without a special driver.
Re:Risk mitigation by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 13:51 · Score: 0

The war is over and the future won. Past never even had a chance, man.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · 2012-10-11 02:55 · Score: 3, Funny

Spying on Sarah Palin's house.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 02:59 · Score: 2, Informative

Canada and the US have several joint RADAR installations in the arctic.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:00 · Score: 0

Can we all agree that the penis measuring game that is military worship is played out and out dated for 2012?

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Antipater · 2012-10-11 03:01 · Score: 5, Informative

In World War I, a war where battles would often be counted as a loss by both sides, the Canadians never lost a battle. By the end of the war, the Germans had a network of spies dedicated to finding out what part of the line the Canadians were being sent to, because that was where the next attack would come from.

In World War II, the influx of volunteer Canadian pilots kept the RAF from being attritted into nothingness during the Battle of Britain. On D-Day, the Canadians at Juno Beach faced stiffer resistance than any other beachhead except Omaha - by day's end they had penetrated deeper into France than any of the other four beachheads. Later, it was the Canadians who drove the German Fifteenth Army, at that time the last fully cohesive German unit in the region, off their superbly-fortified position overlooking (and denying naval access to) the port of Antwerp, which the Allies desperately needed for supplies and which the British had failed to open.

You can joke all you want, but you seriously don't want to fuck with the Canadian military (and no, I'm not Canadian).

--
Everything is better with chainsaws.

No way to avoid it! by aglider · 2012-10-11 03:01 · Score: 1

Almost all ways to peruse digital documents involve a copy to be done somewhere. That copy can be somehow defended against unwanted accesses. But if I am allowed to make a copy-of-the-copy, then security is gone: there's no way to defend the second level copy any more. It doesn't matter whether it's text, a picture, a map, a formula, an MP3 or a digital movie.

--
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.

False flag? by Russ1642 · 2012-10-11 03:01 · Score: 4, Insightful

Is it just me or does the author not know what false flag means?

Re:False flag? by nitehawk214 · 2012-10-11 03:53 · Score: 2

Is it just me or does the author not know what false flag means?
Its a semaphore code?

--
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:08 · Score: 4, Insightful

Well put, Antipater. Nice to see someone who studies real history, not just the US classroom version!

Although, you could have mentioned how we kicked Yankee arse in 1812.....

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:11 · Score: 2, Informative

Dear Canadian Fan.

Have you ever heard of the Dieppe Raid?

Sincerely,

A Canadian

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:11 · Score: 3, Informative

He had access to Stone Ghost: "It's a computer system that links the five eyes. The five eyes are the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. All their information is shared on the Stone Ghost computer." (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/10/10/ns-delisle-spy-hearing.html) So it's not just Canadian secrets.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:11 · Score: 0

You forgot to mention Dieppe.

(Or maybe you didn't forget.)

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:15 · Score: 0

Actually we did have quite a large quantity of maple syrup stolen from our reserves a month ago:

http://i.imgur.com/2nnZJ.jpg [imgur.com]

$3000 a month? by SilverJets · 2012-10-11 03:22 · Score: 2

This piece of shit sold out my country for a lousy $3000 a month?

Re:$3000 a month? by TheCarp · 2012-10-11 03:38 · Score: 2

Meh, and your government probably paid people in other countries to do the same. Not a big deal really....everybody is doing it, then pretending to be surprized when it happens to them. Piece of shit? Only if people within the government work with equivalent shitbags elsewhere.
Frankly, I don't care too much when people do the same to "my country". Damned government doesn't have our interests at heart anyway, why should I care what happens to them and their secrets? Not my problem.

--
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Re:$3000 a month? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:59 · Score: 0

That's why I'm a good security risk. I'd want billions to do any sort of spying. I don't think anyone would pay billions for any secrets hiding out there.
I'd also demand payment up front before I did anything. After all, I wouldn't trust them to pay me after I gave them the information. Of course, then I might just decided to take the money and run. I figure with billions, I could manage to keep myself safe.
For an additional fee, I might be persuaded by my government to turn over false information. So long as I get to keep all the money of course.
My Captcha was virtuous. Sometimes I think the Captcha generator is psychic.
Re:$3000 a month? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:12 · Score: 1

Ask your MP how much his/her price is. It will be lower than you expect.
Re:$3000 a month? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:42 · Score: 1

Meh, and your government probably paid people in other countries to do the same.
Actually, no. Canada does not have a spy agency that recruits spies in foreign countries.
There is the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, https://www.csis.gc.ca/index-eng.asp, and the much less well known Communications Security Establishment Canada, http://www.cse-cst.gc.ca/index-eng.html.
The Communications Security Establishment is analogous to the US NSA. They gather signals intelligence & break codes.
Re:$3000 a month? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:44 · Score: 0

Yes, but that's tax free money. With income tax in Canada that's like making $6K/month in pre tax income.

Hrrmm.. ok you're right. It's a pittance. I can make that much as a lead dev no problem. Maybe this guy only had a high school education?
Re:$3000 a month? by Beardo+the+Bearded · 2012-10-11 04:56 · Score: 1

Harper's selling us out for $26k a month. Is that a better amount?

--

---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Re:$3000 a month? by Beardo+the+Bearded · 2012-10-11 05:13 · Score: 1

When he tried to break it off, they said, "Oh, no problem. By the way, totally unrelated matter, here's a picture of your daughter walking to school.
"Just thinking out loud, I wonder how much a girl like that would sell for in Russia. Anyway, yeah sure, if you want to stop spying for us, that's... oh, you're going to keep it up? That's cool too."
The stuff I know is freaking boring*. Part of OpSec is for me to simply divulge everything I know, then when the captors fall asleep, we just quietly walk out of the room.
*It's also not classified.

--

---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Re:$3000 a month? by jbr439 · 2012-10-11 09:10 · Score: 1

This piece of shit sold out my country for a lousy $3000 a month?
That was my reaction when I saw the news last night.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:24 · Score: 1

You and what army?

Oh yeah, the British army. Never underestimate the effect that a core of well trained profession soldiers can have on battles that would have otherwise been militias and conscripts.

I'm safe from spying. by lxs · 2012-10-11 03:29 · Score: 1

All my sensitive files are exactly 1.45MB.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:29 · Score: 0

Sounds like the Canadian classroom version is just an offshoot of the European classroom.

War in the Pacific? Never heard of it, but (X Country) was obviously the reason the war in Europe was won!

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:31 · Score: 0

Well put, Antipater. Nice to see someone who studies real history, not just the snarky pop culture whore version!

FTFY.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by mister_playboy · 2012-10-11 03:32 · Score: 4, Funny

Although, you could have mentioned how we kicked Yankee arse in 1812.....

Canada wasn't a country until 1867.

We'll liberate you yet, don't worry. Most of you have placed yourself in easy reach along the border already... :)

--
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:32 · Score: 0

no, for sure, you must be a german *g

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:38 · Score: 1

The Canadians (well, really the British) won because they successfully repulsed the US invasion.
The US won because they stopped the retaliatory British attacks (ask why the White House is white).
The only losers were the North American natives.

Re:Timothy has more partners than an Indian can co by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:53 · Score: 0

Waste a modpoint on me. You only make me more powerful. (Think about that statement.)

I suppose if we mod you up...

Reminds me of a joke... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 03:57 · Score: 0

Q: What does an old computer and an old prostitute have in common?
A: They both take 3.5inch floppies!

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:00 · Score: 0

Well, since Canada and the US happen to be allies, Canada happens to have information on the whereabouts of a great deal of US forces. They're privy to details on NATO missions also. Canada could be just an easier way to spy on the US.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:02 · Score: 2, Informative

I think the Polish and New Zealander's would like to discuss who "kept the RAF from being attritted into nothingness". And I'm pretty sure the British would not consider having around 1900 of their 2350 pilots left at the end of the Battle of Britain as being "attritted into nothingness".

I don't see how triumphant and selective reporting of war time events is any better coming from Canadians than it is from Americans.

Article is wrong, guy used a thumb drive by OAB_X · 2012-10-11 04:03 · Score: 1

The article is wrong. Grep the CBC article for 'thumb drive'. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/10/10/ns-delisle-spy-hearing.html

Re:Article is wrong, guy used a thumb drive by OAB_X · 2012-10-11 04:41 · Score: 1

Or the CBC is internally inconsistent and can't figure out if he used a floppy drive, thumb drive or both.
Re:Article is wrong, guy used a thumb drive by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:52 · Score: 0

The secured machine from which he stole the information apparently had only a floppy drive. He collected the data, put it on the floppy disk, put the floppy disk into a different machine, then copied it from that second machine to a thumb drive which he took off the facility.
The answer is "he used both".
Re:Article is wrong, guy used a thumb drive by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 05:26 · Score: 0

It's a pretty standard setup in secure environments. The write-protect switch allows you to take in unclassified information easily into a classified environment without having to worry about classified information being written to said floppy. Sure, a CD-R is just as good here, but sloooooow to write (all the extra actions necessary with the finalizing and whatnot), expensive (monetarily early on, time wise still), and not rewriteable.
Re:Article is wrong, guy used a thumb drive by sackbut · 2012-10-11 05:53 · Score: 1

It is also interesting that supposedly he did not actually transmit the data he stole directly to his handlers. He would write a synopsis (mostly about Russian mobsters) and send that via email. It couldn't have been that much raw data, unless the data itself was somehow detectable in an email or attachment via CSE or NSA.
Re:Article is wrong, guy used a thumb drive by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 08:05 · Score: 0

Even stranger than that. He had an e-mail account, and would write stuff into it in the "drafts" folder. Then a Russian agent would subsequently log in to the e-mail account and retrieve the information from there. There never was any e-mail transmission to intercept. It was presumably only HTTP traffic.
Re:Article is wrong, guy used a thumb drive by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 09:34 · Score: 0

No, it's not wrong. Your linked article just has less information. He got the info out on a thumb drive, as your link states, but there was another step before that: "Information presented at Delisle's bail hearing detailed how Delisle would browse for material on the secure computer at Trinity, save it in the notepad feature, then transfer it to a floppy disk drive. He would take the floppy out of the secure computer, transfer it to an unsecure system and make a USB copy."

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by OAB_X · 2012-10-11 04:05 · Score: 2

And that could possibly be only because Broc died. He had supported Tecumseh in his bid for 'nationhood', but got himself killed in a battle. His superiors were not as grateful to the native leader as the guy who was fighting alongside them was. However, what would one generals belief do in London? It's unclear.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:28 · Score: 0

Nope, we don't forget. What you might think of as a defeat, we think of as a sacrifice. A sacrifice for the greater good, without the pomp and the ceremony and the breast beating. http://www.globalnews.ca/dieppe+uncovered/6442694158/story.html

Re:Dumb article by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:33 · Score: 0

you fucking yankies are dropping in reading skills too

You got to HAVE some reading skills before you can drop them...

Not all dead by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:34 · Score: 0

It's only mostly dead.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:35 · Score: 0

Canada wasn't a country until 1867.

Canada became a Dominion in 1867.

Damn Yankee whippersnappers...

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:35 · Score: 2, Funny

We'll liberate you yet, don't worry. Most of you have placed yourself in easy reach along the border already... :)

Are you really so naive?? 95+% of our 35m people (err, shock troopers hardened in the north working as jumberjacks and hunting bears with knives to survive or skinning beaver tails) is within 100km of the border. When an order is given, these troops will sweep down to the Gulf, only pausing for a minute to burn the whitehouse twice.

Easy access goes both ways, eh? :) No wander US gov't is freaking out and spending billions on the northern border.

CAPTCHA: decimate

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 04:46 · Score: 0

It was a defeat and a sacrifice. If they had met their objectives it would have been a victory and a sacrifice. If they had committed suicide it would have been just a sacrifice. As it was, they had every intention of winning but failed to do so.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 05:15 · Score: 0

When the time comes, the US will take over Canada by sending letters to the heads of all the provinces. The letter will read something like Congratulations, you are now the governor of the great state of X. Please forward all tax revenue to the IRS at the following address.

Letters will also be sent to the members of parliament offering them time shares in Florida.

It could be years before the average Canadian figures out their country has been taken over.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by DarthVain · 2012-10-11 05:23 · Score: 1

I believe Dieppe was in WWI, didn't we lose that one, or was it we won, but the losses were so agrevious?

Also on the WWI front, so far as Canadians go, Billy Bishop was a WWI fighter ace that was Canadian. Not only did he have more kills than anyone else (in the entire war from any country), it wasn't even close. Everyone hears about the "Red Baron" but he couldn't hold a candle to Billy's accomplishments (I believe it was something like 50+ planes, just looked it up 72!). He also had the distinction of actually surviving the war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Bishop

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by dstyle5 · 2012-10-11 05:53 · Score: 1

It could be years before the average Canadian figures out their country has been taken over.

It won't take long to figure it out actually. When we see President Romney addressing the nation on TV and our currency all looks the same again we'll know immediately the huge mistake we've made.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Antipater · 2012-10-11 06:05 · Score: 1

Dieppe was World War 2, not World War 1. And Bishop's 72 victories puts him at #4 in the war, and #2 of those who survived. The Red Baron had 80, and France's Rene Fonck (who also survived) had 75.

--
Everything is better with chainsaws.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 06:28 · Score: 0

Can we all agree that the penis measuring game that is military worship is played out and out dated for 2012?

No.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 06:31 · Score: 0

shock troopers hardened in the north working as jumberjacks and hunting bears with knives to survive

I thought canadians hunted bears with only their cocks to survive.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 06:37 · Score: 0

And we'll just play Celine Dion through our south-facing LRAD units deployed along the border.

We are more than ready to accept your pre-emptive surrender.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 07:23 · Score: 0

We just want to make sure the STAYS there!

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by DarthVain · 2012-10-11 07:53 · Score: 1

Red Baron the video game as a learning tool must have lied to me! Maybe it generated stats from the game, I thought they were historical... (or maybe it was made in Canada...)

As for Dieppe, I blame our troops wearing the same sort of helmets in both war film footage!

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Em+Adespoton · 2012-10-11 08:16 · Score: 1

Can we all agree that the penis measuring game that is military worship is played out and out dated for 2012?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vxDDcTc64c

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Em+Adespoton · 2012-10-11 08:25 · Score: 1

Heh... except for the fact that Canada had both U-Boats in the St. Lawrence and Japanese off of Vancouver Island... and took hits on both shores. The PTO was part of WWII, but not one Canada was really fighting in... after all, Canada wasn't being threatened in any way by Japan until after Pearl Harbour -- and by that point the US was already in full swing and needed no help. Of course, Canadian scientists were still busy helping the US with weapons, intel, perimiter defense, etc -- but since this isn't troops, it doesn't tend to make the history books.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-11 09:32 · Score: 0

Although, you could have mentioned how we kicked Yankee arse in 1812.....

Canada wasn't a country until 1867.

We'll liberate you yet, don't worry. Most of you have placed yourself in easy reach along the border already... :)

Try it. We'll just march down to D.C. and burn down the White House... again. :)

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by jabuzz · 2012-10-11 09:40 · Score: 1

My favourite is the one where American's thing that they saved the U.K. from invasion by Germany. Sorry to disappoint but operation Sea Lion was permanently postponed on the 17th September 1940 months before for the USA entered the war and thanks to Ultra we knew it was postponed.

Go read the wikipedia page on Operation Sea Lion to see why an invasion of Great Britain was realistically outwith the reach of the Germans at any point.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Rudisaurus · 2012-10-11 12:26 · Score: 1

It could be years before the average Canadian figures out their country has been taken over.

Wait, what??? When did that happen?

--
licet differant, aequabitur

Their IT director should be slapped by enlefo · 2012-10-11 16:53 · Score: 2

Gross negligence on behalf of the tech staff. Disabling ports and drives is basic level security stuff.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-12 06:21 · Score: 0

Don't forget Vimy Ridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vimy_Ridge

An important aspect to this victory where everyone else had failed was due to Lieutenant-General Sir Julian Byng breaking down class barriers. He included the lower ranking soldier in the battle planning and supplied them with maps and other things that were NOT standard practice in those days.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by redlemming · 2012-10-12 06:47 · Score: 1

The PTO was part of WWII, but not one Canada was really fighting in... after all, Canada wasn't being threatened in any way by Japan until after Pearl Harbour -- and by that point the US was already in full swing and needed no help

Pearl Harbor was in 1941. 1942 was the darkest year of the war for the Allies. The US was not "in full swing" until mid 1943.

There was a significant campaign in Alaska in 1942-1943, including a major amphibious invasion (Attu) and a major naval battle (Komandorski Islands). I don't know to what extent the Canadians participated in the earlier actions, but there were over 5000 Canadian troops, including some elite units, in the invasion force for Kiska.

It would be fair to say that Canadian help was of less potential use in the PTO, not from lack of ability -- given the superb record of the Canadian troops -- but rather because Australia and New Zealand were already making major commitments in that area, also had superb troops, and were much closer to the majority of the action. Stopping the Japanese in the PTO was a joint effort by many nations.

It is interesting to note that Australian militia units, not regular army, were tasked with slowing down the Japanese in New Zealand, as the regular army troops had been committed to the African desert and Malaysia, and were not immediately available due to the time it would take to get them shipped back to the South West Pacific.

Re:What secrets do the Canadians have? Maple syrup by redlemming · 2012-10-12 09:39 · Score: 1

My favourite is the one where American's thing that they saved the U.K. from invasion by Germany. Sorry to disappoint but operation Sea Lion was permanently postponed on the 17th September 1940 months before for the USA entered the war and thanks to Ultra we knew it was postponed

You over-simplify, like many Americans do in reverse.

Ultimately, the Germans were unsuccessful in defeating the RAF during 1940 more as a result of the short range of their fighters than any other single reason. The Allies faced exactly the same problem later in the war, and developed long range fighter technology to solve it. These long range fighters shattered the Luftwaffe and made the D-Day invasion possible.

It's not an unreasonable assumption to suppose the Germans would have eventually been able to develop the same technology, had they not been distracted. Improving their drop tank technology might have been a simple way to start -- that's not an area I know much about, so I can't be specific.

Consider how much technology the German's managed to develop later in the war despite being bombed around the clock ...

The same is true for developing effective air-dropped naval torpedoes and armor piercing bombs, especially with the potential for technology transfers from Italy, which was already starting to deploy the superb Sparviero torpedo bomber during the same time as the 1940 "Battle of Britain".

The Germans were distracted by the threat from Russia, primarily by the Russian threat to Germany's single oil supply, see Viktor Suvorov's book on Stalin for details.

It is also worth remembering that Britain, with its many Victorian-era industries, and a long history of poor labor-management relations, had extremely serious problems with producing high technology in the quantities needed for the war (which consumed equipment at prodigious rates). For example, a large percentage of critical components for the Spitfire and Hurricane fighters and other high technology systems came from overseas sources, including the USA. Britain could produce these components, it just couldn't do so in large enough quantities. British military historian Corelli Barnett wrote a book on this, "The Audit of War", that provides more details.

I'm not going to discuss the war at sea, except to note that at one point Britain came within a few weeks of running out of aviation gasoline, and the USA was playing an important role both in fighting the war at sea and in shipping fuel to Britain. In fact, so many tankers were required that the US battleship fleet (reconstituted after Pearl Harbor) was unable to participate in the fight against the Japanese for a long time as there weren't enough tankers left to supply the British, the US Navy battleships, and the US Navy aircraft carriers. The US Navy decided the carriers were more valuable ...

Thus, in the short term, Britain was able to defend itself, but over the long term, Britain's survival depended not only on the undeniable courage and skill of her own people (plus the Free French, the Poles, the Canadians, and so forth), but also upon the involvement of other powers, including a massive and critical contribution by the USA. World War 2 was a team effort.

Canadians triumphed over southern invaders twice by Paul+Fernhout · 2012-10-12 15:16 · Score: 1

"The only serious threat to Canada is the USA and that war would be over rather quickly, so why bother with a huge military to defend against that?"

Agreed, considering Canada has already repulsed invasions from the southern border twice, so it could probably do it a third time even easier... :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Canada_(1775)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812#Invasions_of_Upper_and_Lower_Canada.2C_1812

Those who, like in Canada, invest mainly in intrinsic security and mutual security are generally in a much more secure position over the long term than those who foolishly invest mainly in extrinsic and unilateral security like sadly has been the recent custom of those to the immediate south of Canada.
http://www.pdfernhout.net/recognizing-irony-is-a-key-to-transcending-militarism.html

--
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.

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