But I think it's not a question of the 'right to exist' of either nation anymore. It's a question of whether we, if we call ourselves a civilized species, should allow "might is right" to be an acceptable way of running our civilization.
By March 1949, a classified CIA report declared Palestine was a 'Long Range Disaster'. The Agency report read in part:
'The establishment of the State of Israel by force, with intimidation of the Arab governments by the US and USSR, with the cutting off of the British arms and ammunition (the Arabs only source of supply), with ample sources for Israel of munitions and finance, the Israeli battle victory is complete, but it has solved nothing.
If boundaries to an Israeli State, any boundaries, had been set and guaranteed by the Great Powers, peace might return to the area. On the contrary, we have actually a victorious state which is limited to no frontiers and which is determined that no narrow limits shall be set. The Near East is faced with the almost certain prospect of a profound and growing disturbance by Israel which may last for decades......Instead of restoring the boundaries of the province of Judea as they were in 70 A.D., the Israeli leaders now state freely though usually unofficially, their demand for an ever expanding empire. Their present possessions are regarded by them as only a beachead into the Arab and Muslim World â" a large part of which they plan to exploit. They are not prepared to live off what the land will yield as the Arabs do......Alone among the Great Powers, Britain has been working on a plan to restore a balance between the forces in Palestine, but it already appears that this plan is doomed to fail. Zionist pressure in the USA, Anglophobia in Iraq and Egypt, and above all, Russia's determination to prolong chaos in the Near East and to complete the discrediting of British and American Diplomacy, combine to work against the policy of the British Government and its collaborators --King Abdulla of Trans-Jordan and the Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri al Said.[115]
Also from the same article:
Palestine's land surface was approximately 26,320,505 dunums (26,320 km2), of which about one third was cultivable. By comparison, the size of modern day Israel (as of 2006) is 20,770,000 dunums (20,770 km2) (Geography of Israel). The land in Jewish possession had risen from 456,000 dunums (456 km2) in 1920 to 1,393,000 dunums (1,393 km2) in 1945[72] and 1,850,000 dunums (1,850 km2) by 1947 (Avneri p. 224).[73]
The history of Palestine is not as simple and one-sided as you present here with such convenience. Without knowing the correct and complete history of the religious, geographic, and political aspects of the conflict, a proper understanding and debate of the current situation is impossible.
The first thing a beginner needs to learn is the concept of an algorithm: that it is possible to order the computer to do something, step-by-step. They need to start with the basics of program flow and control. Pointers and classes are way too advanced concepts.
The second thing that is important is interactivity. For a beginner, the best reward is to be able to see the results of their coding. Trial and error is very important. Interpreted languages are good at this. Colors, shapes, sounds, and movement are very important to grab and hold a child's attention. That's why I think QBASIC is good for this purpose. Once the child is hooked, they can be given other languages to play with. I would suggest Python (for algorithms) and Visual Basic (for GUI development).
In my opinion, concepts like memory management and OOP should be introduced only once a genuine interest in programming has been established and demonstrated.
I don't know what you're talking about. Seriously.
The "Go" button, at the right end of the address bar, acts as a "Stop" button while the page is loading.
And when I hover on a link, I can see the target in the bottom-left corner of the browser window.
As far as I remember, both functions have been there from day 1. If I'm wrong then maybe you just need to run an update?
I agree. Kubuntu 8.10 will be better off with KDE3 as the default. But they should provide a readily accessible, one-click-away, KDE4 installer so that those who want to try bleeding edge can do so without too much trouble. Freedom of Choice is what makes Open Source what it is.
But no software is supported forever. Especially corporate software. Once the vendor stops supporting Office 97, your organization will be forced to upgrade to the next version or try something else (generally speaking). This is one similarity between traditional software and SaaS.
I know you're talking in terms of individual-owned software rather than organization-owned. A SaaS analogy of your point could be that SaaS providers provide an option for users to keep using a particular version/snapshot of the software. The provider may or may not charge these users for usage of online resources(servers), but not for software updates/upgrades/support. I'm no expert, but isn't virtualization supposed to make this real easy?
I've been using iGoogle since forever. I switched to the new developer's sandbox as soon as they made it available for users. I didn't really like it that much. I used it for some time, realized I didn't need some of the new functionality, and just modified an available Greasemonkey (Firefox) script to get a hybrid layout with the best of both worlds.
Now that the new version is live, and many users are complaining, I guess some will take similar action.
Sorry, but I smell language-based racism. Other than that, most Indians do speak English, and the number of English speakers in China is also growing very rapidly.
Indian wages will rise and US wages will fall until they're in parity....... I have a very pessimistic view of the future of this planet...
If Indian wages rise and US wages fall, the future of this planet is bad?
Firethorn:
but on the other hand we have much more effective medical(if expensive), cell phones, faster computers, bigger TVs, etc...
Dude, all those "cell phones, faster computers, bigger TVs, etc." are manufactured in Asia (China mostly). Indians and Chinese have as good access to the latest electronics as you guys. Maybe some can't afford it, but like BitterOldGUy said, wages are going up over there. Medical care is also improving in Asia, but I agree they won't be able to match Western standards for some time.
Umm. There are (hacked) stand-alone versions of IE5 and IE6 available. I've been using them for testing. I can't remember where I downloaded them from, but I'm sure Google knows.
As for IE7, I think Firefox's IE Tab extension can do that. Also, I'm not sure but I heard there's an option in IE8 to render using the IE7 engine?
I'm sure other posters can help with more (and useful) information.
Bloating is not the solution, but checking the "enable feature X" checkbox beats searching for the actually good ones...
I believe all they need to do for that is to have a list of say the top 10 most popular extensions listed in the Get Add-Ons Tab (Tools > Add-ons), instead of a list of random recommended extensions.
but hey they were little Jews who might grow up and join the military someday so I guess they are fair game no?
No. I already made clear where I stand on that. Please don't twist my point. The point I was trying to make is that the line very often DOES get pretty gray.
but how bad could they be given the fact that Fatah is seeking asylum in Israel from Hamas?
That hasn't got anything to do with Israel killing civilians and calling it "collateral damage". But anyway, imho the only party that has anything to gain from the civil war in Palestine is Israel. And it's not like the US and Israel don't have a hand in deepening the rifts between Hamas and Fatah.
steered clear of Israel / Palestinians
Yes, sorry, I commented a bit out of context.
A suicide bomber who is targeting a military asset is, imho a 'freedom fighter'. A suicide bomber who targets a bus full of civilians is a terrorist. A man who kills an enemy soldier is a freedom fighter, a man who beheads a journalist because he is Jewish is a terrorist... Are you seeing the difference?
You see, what I object to is this. Even though you're being logical and trying to be unbiased about how you look at it, when you say "a bus full of civilians" people automatically go for "Muslim suicide bomber... bus full of children... equals Muslims are terrorists". What about saying something like "cluster bombed a village"? No, because people don't want to hear "US/Israel kill civilians... equals US/Israel also terrorists". Or instead of saying "beheads a journalist because he is Jewish" why don't you say "kills a pedestrian because has a beard and a turban"?
I find a lot of bias in discussions like these... all I'm asking for and trying to add to it is a little balance.
Oh I see. So when Isreali soldiers kill a couple of civilians along with each "military" target, that's where the line grays out? Military service is mandatory for all Israelis over 18... now let's see how good you are at picking a "civilian" soldier from one in uniform.
I agree that killing women, children, and the elderly is not justified in any way. But why don't you also speak up when Palestinian/Lebanese/Iraqi women, children, and elderly are killed in the name of fighting the terrorist threat?
The Northern Alliance is just as corrupt and ruthless as the Taliban. Don't think you're doing the country a favor by switching one bad regime with another, and killing thousands of civilians in the process. http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/asia/afghan-bck1005.htm#uf
I don't believe assassinating Osama Bin Laden was/is going to stop the extremists from doing what they do. Neither do I believe crushing Afghanistan was/is the solution. Maybe we can come up with a REAL solution if we REALLY want to solve the REAL problems. What are the REAL problems? Widespread illiteracy and seriously skewed wealth distribution.
You should read up a bit on Microsoft's new GUI philosophy for Windows. They are moving towards making the GUI more intuitive by taking context of use into account. In so doing, they are doing away with the oh-so-familiar File/Edit/.../Help menubar from their apps and introducing novel and intuitive GUI cues (e.g. Tab Bar in Internet Explorer, the "Ribbon" in Office 2007).
Now about that screenshot.
Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer go pretty well together in terms of looks. Even so, they are two different applications, optimized for two different tasks (unlike say Konqueror).
Notepad is supposed to be as barebones as possible, so the old menubar works. Even so, I'm guessing they'll upgrade it to the no-menubar look with the next Windows.
Media Player and Live Messenger are consistent with the no-menu, intuitive GUI look. All tasks you need to perform in these apps are easy to see and in context.
Outlook is one of Microsoft's most important apps. So I'm pretty sure it's going to get the Ribbon treatment by the next release of Office. It's a major shift in GUI design paradigm, and Microsoft is the one doing it, not Apple. At least give the guys some credit when they genuinely deserve it. Visio will also get the new look soon, but it's at the end of the pipeline.
The two Visual Studio windows are open in different contexts, so the menubar adjusts itself accordingly. Personally, I find that feature pretty friendly. I'm getting a feeling these Visual Studio windows were thrown just for the heck of trolling.
Basically, it's going to take one or two more releases for Visual Studio (and Expression Blend, etc.) to really fit in with Microsoft's new GUI design philosophy. And from how they've adapted Word/Excel/Powerpoint/etc. to the new look (i.e. fabulous job) I am convinced they're going to do as great a job with the remaining apps as well.
For those who are not very familiar with the evolution of VB:
VB.NET was a whole new chapter in VB history. Many of those who liked VB syntax (e.g. old BASIC/VB coders) yet required OO capabilities to go with it were more than happy to adopt VB.NET. As an added advantage, they could be a part of a mainstream development platform and get goodies like.NET libraries, etc.
So I don't really find it surprising that VB has gained the footing it has. I use C#.NET a lot, but everything I can do in C#.NET I can do in VB.NET (as opposed to classic VB vs. classic C++ for example).
And since a human has to program the machine, the machine cannot be a better musician than the person or persons who programmed it. As a programmer, I can tell you that oftentimes the results a good program generates surprise even the author.
Anyway, in this case, the program has been trained using 300 real songs. That's where more of the artistic nature of the program lies, and not necessarily with the programmer.
Slashdot Mirror
What you say makes sense.
But I think it's not a question of the 'right to exist' of either nation anymore. It's a question of whether we, if we call ourselves a civilized species, should allow "might is right" to be an acceptable way of running our civilization.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_Palestine
By March 1949, a classified CIA report declared Palestine was a 'Long Range Disaster'. The Agency report read in part:
'The establishment of the State of Israel by force, with intimidation of the Arab governments by the US and USSR, with the cutting off of the British arms and ammunition (the Arabs only source of supply), with ample sources for Israel of munitions and finance, the Israeli battle victory is complete, but it has solved nothing.
If boundaries to an Israeli State, any boundaries, had been set and guaranteed by the Great Powers, peace might return to the area. On the contrary, we have actually a victorious state which is limited to no frontiers and which is determined that no narrow limits shall be set. The Near East is faced with the almost certain prospect of a profound and growing disturbance by Israel which may last for decades... ...Instead of restoring the boundaries of the province of Judea as they were in 70 A.D., the Israeli leaders now state freely though usually unofficially, their demand for an ever expanding empire. Their present possessions are regarded by them as only a beachead into the Arab and Muslim World â" a large part of which they plan to exploit. They are not prepared to live off what the land will yield as the Arabs do... ...Alone among the Great Powers, Britain has been working on a plan to restore a balance between the forces in Palestine, but it already appears that this plan is doomed to fail. Zionist pressure in the USA, Anglophobia in Iraq and Egypt, and above all, Russia's determination to prolong chaos in the Near East and to complete the discrediting of British and American Diplomacy, combine to work against the policy of the British Government and its collaborators --King Abdulla of Trans-Jordan and the Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri al Said.[115]
Also from the same article:
Palestine's land surface was approximately 26,320,505 dunums (26,320 km2), of which about one third was cultivable. By comparison, the size of modern day Israel (as of 2006) is 20,770,000 dunums (20,770 km2) (Geography of Israel). The land in Jewish possession had risen from 456,000 dunums (456 km2) in 1920 to 1,393,000 dunums (1,393 km2) in 1945[72] and 1,850,000 dunums (1,850 km2) by 1947 (Avneri p. 224).[73]
The history of Palestine is not as simple and one-sided as you present here with such convenience. Without knowing the correct and complete history of the religious, geographic, and political aspects of the conflict, a proper understanding and debate of the current situation is impossible.
I recommend everyone to read the article I quoted from, along with this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947%E2%80%931948_Civil_War_in_Mandatory_Palestine
I disagree. For several reasons.
The first thing a beginner needs to learn is the concept of an algorithm: that it is possible to order the computer to do something, step-by-step. They need to start with the basics of program flow and control. Pointers and classes are way too advanced concepts.
The second thing that is important is interactivity. For a beginner, the best reward is to be able to see the results of their coding. Trial and error is very important. Interpreted languages are good at this. Colors, shapes, sounds, and movement are very important to grab and hold a child's attention. That's why I think QBASIC is good for this purpose. Once the child is hooked, they can be given other languages to play with. I would suggest Python (for algorithms) and Visual Basic (for GUI development).
In my opinion, concepts like memory management and OOP should be introduced only once a genuine interest in programming has been established and demonstrated.
LOGO turtle. Also, Python turtle.
The Matrix?
Unless it blocks all ads save for the ones from Google.
Since I find Google ads less obnoxious, I can live with that.
I don't know what you're talking about. Seriously. The "Go" button, at the right end of the address bar, acts as a "Stop" button while the page is loading. And when I hover on a link, I can see the target in the bottom-left corner of the browser window. As far as I remember, both functions have been there from day 1. If I'm wrong then maybe you just need to run an update?
I agree. Kubuntu 8.10 will be better off with KDE3 as the default. But they should provide a readily accessible, one-click-away, KDE4 installer so that those who want to try bleeding edge can do so without too much trouble. Freedom of Choice is what makes Open Source what it is.
the new Network Manager (manage wired, Wi-Fi, VPN, and cellular broadband connections in one place)
What about Bluetooth?
But no software is supported forever. Especially corporate software. Once the vendor stops supporting Office 97, your organization will be forced to upgrade to the next version or try something else (generally speaking). This is one similarity between traditional software and SaaS.
I know you're talking in terms of individual-owned software rather than organization-owned. A SaaS analogy of your point could be that SaaS providers provide an option for users to keep using a particular version/snapshot of the software. The provider may or may not charge these users for usage of online resources(servers), but not for software updates/upgrades/support. I'm no expert, but isn't virtualization supposed to make this real easy?
I've been using iGoogle since forever. I switched to the new developer's sandbox as soon as they made it available for users. I didn't really like it that much. I used it for some time, realized I didn't need some of the new functionality, and just modified an available Greasemonkey (Firefox) script to get a hybrid layout with the best of both worlds. Now that the new version is live, and many users are complaining, I guess some will take similar action.
Sorry, but I smell language-based racism. Other than that, most Indians do speak English, and the number of English speakers in China is also growing very rapidly.
Indian wages will rise and US wages will fall until they're in parity. ... ... I have a very pessimistic view of the future of this planet ...
If Indian wages rise and US wages fall, the future of this planet is bad?
Firethorn:
but on the other hand we have much more effective medical(if expensive), cell phones, faster computers, bigger TVs, etc...
Dude, all those "cell phones, faster computers, bigger TVs, etc." are manufactured in Asia (China mostly). Indians and Chinese have as good access to the latest electronics as you guys. Maybe some can't afford it, but like BitterOldGUy said, wages are going up over there. Medical care is also improving in Asia, but I agree they won't be able to match Western standards for some time.
Umm. There are (hacked) stand-alone versions of IE5 and IE6 available. I've been using them for testing. I can't remember where I downloaded them from, but I'm sure Google knows.
As for IE7, I think Firefox's IE Tab extension can do that. Also, I'm not sure but I heard there's an option in IE8 to render using the IE7 engine?
I'm sure other posters can help with more (and useful) information.
Bloating is not the solution, but checking the "enable feature X" checkbox beats searching for the actually good ones...
I believe all they need to do for that is to have a list of say the top 10 most popular extensions listed in the Get Add-Ons Tab (Tools > Add-ons), instead of a list of random recommended extensions.
But (as Master Yoda once said) â" There is another. His name is Jim Zemlin and he is the Executive Director of The Linux Foundation."
Another there is. Jim Zemlin his name is ...
That's like saying standardize the Linux Desktop...
in 1983, [...] if you wanted porn you had to print it out and hold it two feet in front of you.
Boy am I glad I wasn't even born then! And NOW I get why VLC Player provides a color ASCII art video output mode! Oldies geek fetish!
But you show me where an Israeli soldier went after school kids (as a primary target) and Ill condemn them as much as anyone.
Oh, please. And there's a LOT more where this comes from: http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2007/09/06/isrlpa16781.htm
but hey they were little Jews who might grow up and join the military someday so I guess they are fair game no?
No. I already made clear where I stand on that. Please don't twist my point. The point I was trying to make is that the line very often DOES get pretty gray.
but how bad could they be given the fact that Fatah is seeking asylum in Israel from Hamas?
That hasn't got anything to do with Israel killing civilians and calling it "collateral damage". But anyway, imho the only party that has anything to gain from the civil war in Palestine is Israel. And it's not like the US and Israel don't have a hand in deepening the rifts between Hamas and Fatah.
steered clear of Israel / Palestinians
Yes, sorry, I commented a bit out of context.
A suicide bomber who is targeting a military asset is, imho a 'freedom fighter'. A suicide bomber who targets a bus full of civilians is a terrorist. A man who kills an enemy soldier is a freedom fighter, a man who beheads a journalist because he is Jewish is a terrorist... Are you seeing the difference?
You see, what I object to is this. Even though you're being logical and trying to be unbiased about how you look at it, when you say "a bus full of civilians" people automatically go for "Muslim suicide bomber... bus full of children... equals Muslims are terrorists". What about saying something like "cluster bombed a village"? No, because people don't want to hear "US/Israel kill civilians... equals US/Israel also terrorists". Or instead of saying "beheads a journalist because he is Jewish" why don't you say "kills a pedestrian because has a beard and a turban"?
I find a lot of bias in discussions like these... all I'm asking for and trying to add to it is a little balance.
Oh I see. So when Isreali soldiers kill a couple of civilians along with each "military" target, that's where the line grays out? Military service is mandatory for all Israelis over 18... now let's see how good you are at picking a "civilian" soldier from one in uniform.
I agree that killing women, children, and the elderly is not justified in any way. But why don't you also speak up when Palestinian/Lebanese/Iraqi women, children, and elderly are killed in the name of fighting the terrorist threat?
The Northern Alliance is just as corrupt and ruthless as the Taliban. Don't think you're doing the country a favor by switching one bad regime with another, and killing thousands of civilians in the process. http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/asia/afghan-bck1005.htm#uf
I don't believe assassinating Osama Bin Laden was/is going to stop the extremists from doing what they do. Neither do I believe crushing Afghanistan was/is the solution. Maybe we can come up with a REAL solution if we REALLY want to solve the REAL problems. What are the REAL problems? Widespread illiteracy and seriously skewed wealth distribution.
I agree. Batman was more than physical ability. He was a gifted scientist too. A polymath of sorts.
Now about that screenshot.
Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer go pretty well together in terms of looks. Even so, they are two different applications, optimized for two different tasks (unlike say Konqueror).
Notepad is supposed to be as barebones as possible, so the old menubar works. Even so, I'm guessing they'll upgrade it to the no-menubar look with the next Windows.
Media Player and Live Messenger are consistent with the no-menu, intuitive GUI look. All tasks you need to perform in these apps are easy to see and in context.
Outlook is one of Microsoft's most important apps. So I'm pretty sure it's going to get the Ribbon treatment by the next release of Office. It's a major shift in GUI design paradigm, and Microsoft is the one doing it, not Apple. At least give the guys some credit when they genuinely deserve it. Visio will also get the new look soon, but it's at the end of the pipeline.
The two Visual Studio windows are open in different contexts, so the menubar adjusts itself accordingly. Personally, I find that feature pretty friendly. I'm getting a feeling these Visual Studio windows were thrown just for the heck of trolling.
Basically, it's going to take one or two more releases for Visual Studio (and Expression Blend, etc.) to really fit in with Microsoft's new GUI design philosophy. And from how they've adapted Word/Excel/Powerpoint/etc. to the new look (i.e. fabulous job) I am convinced they're going to do as great a job with the remaining apps as well.
For those who are not very familiar with the evolution of VB: .NET libraries, etc.
VB.NET was a whole new chapter in VB history. Many of those who liked VB syntax (e.g. old BASIC/VB coders) yet required OO capabilities to go with it were more than happy to adopt VB.NET. As an added advantage, they could be a part of a mainstream development platform and get goodies like
So I don't really find it surprising that VB has gained the footing it has. I use C#.NET a lot, but everything I can do in C#.NET I can do in VB.NET (as opposed to classic VB vs. classic C++ for example).
Anyway, in this case, the program has been trained using 300 real songs. That's where more of the artistic nature of the program lies, and not necessarily with the programmer.