But my real point was that it is unlikely that the EU will ever attempt to go much beyond limited trade embargoes in dealing with the US. The notion of the EU trying to step into a "balancing" super-power role is silly. Most European nations are more worried about France and Germany's creeping, extra-constitutional EU takeover than they are about the US.
Why would there be an armed conflict between EU and the US? Because France, to retaliate against the US for some reason or other suspends enforcing intelletual property laws against US media???
No kidding, any country could do a lot of harm to the US by simply not protecting US intellectual property...
No political will. Setting aside the problems of states like Ireland, Switzerland and Finland - states with a firm tradition of military neutrality - the will to expend the economic resources in order to achieve parity with the US simply isn't there
And what good would it be for? Another pissing-contest cold war? Unlike the Soviet Union, the European Union is not hell-bent into converting the whole world to communism.
The US certainly won't invade Europe. What advantage would they get?
No, the US is strong-arming itself just because it is AFRAID. It is afraid of the rest of the world, generally because people are afraid of what they don't understand, and if there is something the americans are severely lacking, is the ability to understand others. The same comment goes for the british, too, and is exemplified with theyr half-hearted all brakes-on adhesion to the European Union.
Yeh. Hitler had the right idea, was just a little haevy-handed bringing it altogether. Go EU go! With your sociopathic urge to unite, barely hidden anti-semitism, and nationalistic chest thumping (I suppose that should be multi-nationalistic, continentalistic? I dunno) you have everything it takes to bring his vision to fruition.
The cultural diversity over there beats the shit out of U.S. Hollywod-generated monotony any day. But again, when one doesn't know about something, he sure cannot see it...
There are days I'm glad there is an ocean between us.
My, my. I've never seen bile covered glasses before. But how they do color the world!
Red, white and blue (ha! like France). More specifically, red and white stripes with white stars on a blue background.
...to open a second front against companies like this, and just refuse to buy their products?
Boycotts never work. 'cause there's always a sucker that will plunk down green on the table for the shit. This is why you should pirate the stuff. You get the shit and the make gets fuck-all.
The DMCIA is an US law, and it only affects 5% of the population.
If they're unfortunate enough to be on U.S. soil, developpers only have to host their stuff outside of the USA where the DMCIA doesn't apply, that's all.
"The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it".
Government said it is looking at changing the copyright act to make uploading infrindgement but until such time it is *legal*, and thus not criminal, to upload in Canada.
Not very likely. The current federal government is a minority one, and therefore, more urgent issues WILL be addressed...
I don't see the record industry crumbeling in Canada, strange...huh? In fact, it maybe in a country's interest to remove copyright and let stupider countries chain their citizens to prevent copyright abuse while they get the content for free
Oh, they bitch for sure, but no one listens... And given that they enjoy a lot of government money, they won't do anything harsh like saying that their customers are criminals...
Not necessarily the technological challenge. A highway is far from being a vacuum of information. It is a fairly standardised enviroment with many constraints and fairly predictable behaviour. [robotic] Cars have been able since the late 90s to drive more than 90% of the time to drive amongst normal traffic
The main reason is, companies don't want to be liable for the risk.
This is where open-source software could shine. All car makers get together to develop an open-source guiding system, and it could be continuously refined, allowing customers to update their cars. The liability regarding the guidance system would be shared amongst all makers, thus making it more attractive to individual car makers.
In fact, we could already emulate this model to a certain extent if hitch-hiking was socially acceptable. Need to go to a city a few hundred miles away? Head toward the highway and hitch. Give the driver a few dollars to cover gas and the inconvenience.
If hitching was socially acceptable, it wouldn't take any time at all to find a ride, we would save the environment, and maybe make new friends.
Too scared to hitch or pick someone else up? Are you too scared to ride next to someone on a bus, train, or plane? The only difference is there is a person with the responsiblity of piloting the vehicle. Smart cars could remove this responsibility.
What one could do is setup a database of willing drivers, where travellers could ask for a small reasonable fee for drivers going some direction. Carkackers could be deterred simply by having their names on file for a given day and trip. Oh wait, this already exists.
Computers wont ride your ass at 95 mph flashing their lights at you (sorry, I was only doing 85 in the 55, jeez). They also wont change lanes without turn signals, forget to check their blind spots, and talk on their cell phones.
They won't need any turn signals. Or headlights for that matter... Imagine cruising down the Interstate though Vermont during a full-moon night and no headlights on to give glare...
Boy is that overdue!!! If the roads could tell the cars how to drive themselves, there would be no traffic jams caused by one driver braking for nothing on an overcrowded road. Cars and trucks could run faster at closer intervals, thus increasing capacity without widening roads.
But, most importantly, much, much, much less accidents due to careless handling and overspeeding.
Highways could have specific lanes reserved only for automated cars; eventually manual-only cars would be banned from certain higways.
Despite all that I could never take it back. I tried to take the cat back 24 hours after I bought it but I got about 2km down the road before everything was too blurry from the sudden onrush of water obscuring my vision. http://pldaniels.com/photos/2004092001/mpic00008.j pg
Looks just like mine, 12 years ago... I just finished this website and for a while I didn't have the product logo so I put my own cat's picture on the page. The client said that's cute and didn't ask to remove the picture...
To confine a cat to the inside is to deny a cat its' true nature.
Perhaps, but then they won't run the risk of running into dimensional transmogrifiers*.
* Some people call them cars, I call them dimensional transmogrifiers, because they turn 3-dimension cats into 2 dimension cats.
--- F. Frederick Skitty
Well, since copying CDs from the library and downloading music is expressly permitted in Canada (and sharing has not been deemed illegal), I cannot very well be a criminal, dont'cha think?
Er, the X-15 was the last in a series of supersonic aircraft going back to machines like the X-1. It was not built in isolation.
So are Burt Rutan's planes; he built several highly unusual and innovative aircraft before spaceship one... Even when the Wright brothers built their flyer there was the experience of Otto Lilienthal and Clément Ader (whose Avion - yuk! - gave the french language the word for airplane).
The X-15 had pilots wear suits developed from spacesuits and had no room for passengers.
Er, spacesuits were developped FROM the X-15 pressure-suits... And so were the attitude thrusters used on the Mercury capsules (and many other subsystems). In fact, the X-15 also served as a test-bed for many things used in the U.S. space program.
SpaceShipOne has no need for spacesuits and takes passengers.
Not me, thank-you very mich...:)
The X-15 could also not go up into space and then fall back down again safely.
SpaceShipOne can do this.
??? Er ??? Like the X-15, it doesn't take-off by itself (the X-15 was hauled by a B-52, spaceship one by a special - and just as wierd - aircraft)
So when you sid "same capabilities" you meant "not a lot like it" right?
Well, they're pretty similar in terms of flight profile (but I understand that the X-15 didn't go as high, but it went faster, though). So it seems that a comparing the two is not an unreasonable thing to do, given their similar flight profiles...
Slashdot Mirror
Why would there be an armed conflict between EU and the US? Because France, to retaliate against the US for some reason or other suspends enforcing intelletual property laws against US media???
No kidding, any country could do a lot of harm to the US by simply not protecting US intellectual property...The US certainly won't invade Europe. What advantage would they get?
No, the US is strong-arming itself just because it is AFRAID. It is afraid of the rest of the world, generally because people are afraid of what they don't understand, and if there is something the americans are severely lacking, is the ability to understand others. The same comment goes for the british, too, and is exemplified with theyr half-hearted all brakes-on adhesion to the European Union.All this confirms what more and more people throughout the world think: the US is a rogue nation.
Piracy sends the affected company running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads lopped-off. Witness the RIAA!!!!
The US reneged it's signature when kiddy-shrub was intronized by the Supreme Court.
The southeastern US saw plenty of hurricane devastation lately.
1+1=2
If people kick the shrub out, the US will stand a better chance at ratifying the Kyoto accord and remove the wasteful SUVs from the roads.
This will help reduce climate change through greenhouse gases.
And mean less damage for the US.
But that's only if the voters are able to figure out "1+1=2"The US reneged it's signature when dubya? was intronized by the Supreme Court.
The southeastern US saw plenty of hurricane devastation lately.
1+1=2
If people kick the shrub out, the US will stand a better chance at ratifying the Kyoto accord and remove the wasteful SUVs from the roads.
This will help reduce climate change through greenhouse gases.
And mean less damage for the US.
But that's only if the voters are able to figure out 1+1=2...If they're unfortunate enough to be on U.S. soil, developpers only have to host their stuff outside of the USA where the DMCIA doesn't apply, that's all.
"The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it".
That would work wonders in hurricane season!!!
Such an obvious bunch of crock would not stand a chance in a proper patent office. This is patently a business method, not an industrial process!!!
But, most importantly, much, much, much less accidents due to careless handling and overspeeding.
Highways could have specific lanes reserved only for automated cars; eventually manual-only cars would be banned from certain higways.Perhaps, but then they won't run the risk of running into dimensional transmogrifiers*.
* Some people call them cars, I call them dimensional transmogrifiers, because they turn 3-dimension cats into 2 dimension cats.--- F. Frederick Skitty
Well, since copying CDs from the library and downloading music is expressly permitted in Canada (and sharing has not been deemed illegal), I cannot very well be a criminal, dont'cha think?