Wow, great idea. If only the Russians had thought of that.
No, wait... they did.
But it's OK, because the Taliban won't take all of the food that is available for themselves.
No, wait... they do.
A bit diferent this time - Afganistan has been having a drout for the last for years and everybody has pretty much slaughtered their own sheep. During the Russian fiasco, there were three sheep per capita, now it's down to.5 . And, if it's anthing like Vietnam in the '80s, after 4 years of starvation, all the small fauna have been killed for food already. So as nasty as it it - starvation is a real issue that anyone at 12,000 feet in Afganistan this year. Unless the Taliban have good caches in the mountains, there isen't much food for them to swipe form the population: the food stores of Afgnanistan have been estimated at atound 2 weeks on the inside and 4 at the outmost.
PS. Congrats rogerborg! You diden't resort to calling people rednecks - well done. Keep up the good work!
Another thing to consider - the food supplies in Afganistan are down to nothing. If we could keep the Teliban et al running around like chickes in the high-lands, we could just starve them to death. There isn't much to eat at 12,000 feet this winter.
He who fights monsters must take care that he does not become a monster himself.
Agreeed. Thats the truly hard part - I hope we live up to our own ideals. I hope our democracy dosen't get caught in a feed-back cycle - were we elect jerks and slowly become jerks, then we elsect evil and become evil. But right now, in general, and in my own dumb opinion, the life of a free citizen is more precious and treasured than that of an enslaved subject. The world could use some more free people.
an innocent American is not worth more than an innocent Afghani or Iraq
I know what you are trying to say, that all life is precious and has the same potential. And I agree. But, and I qualify this heavily, a person filled with ideas of equality and freedom is worth more to the future of this planet than someone who is filled with hate and authoritarinism. Hopefully we can subvert their evil culture and replace it with somting better without 'killing them all.'
If a culture is so depraved that a significant quantity of their people feels the need to kill large quantities of people, than that culture of hate should be irradicated by either subversion or military means. If subversion dosen't work, the we need to destroy that culture and rebuild it. See Japan and Germany for good examples of rebuilding a culture, see Iraq and and post WWI Germany for examples of festering cultures we allowed to survive.
There is some evidence of this already, in that it now appears that there may have been other hijackings planned that didn't happen because the hijackers backed out.
I wonder.. I had this thought that maby a nice little old lady started a conversation with one of the hijackers. The highjacker diden't want to talk much, but started anyways, so as not to appear suspicious. Maby the little old lady melted his heart a bit. Maby he saw a well behaved child in the row in front of him.
The ports collection would come in usefull if apt-get or rpm somehow didn't work properly for you. The ports system seems very robust on my FreeBSD box - it takes a long time to compile some of the larger programs, but after coming back after a long cofee break, I've never encountered a problem. It would be a great backup to have around just in case.
The trouble with Windows 2000 software RAID is that you boot disk can't be a part of the RAID array. I'd recommend the Windows 2000 software raid over the Promise ATA RAID cards - they are software too, they just hook themselves to the BIOS. The Promise ATA solution has been flaky in the two instalations I have used it - I had to use IBM's DFT to make the two IBM drives communicate to the Promise FastTrack controller in UDMA 2 mode - otherwise they would get corrupted. I've had very good luck with 3Ware's hardware products, highly recomended!
VNC on Windows is cool - but VNC served from a computer with X-Windows is absolutly amazing. Microsoft is kina tight-lipped about the inerworking of Windows, and VNC sometimes has trouble detecting when the screen has changed, so it has to resort to polling the screen. This introduces a bit of lag in the equasion - with any X-Widnwos (Linux, *BSD, Solaris) VNC gets notified when thing change, and accessing an Xsession over VNC over a LAN is just like being there.
The first paragraph of Microsoft's Fronpage EULA says, "This Software Product is licensed, not sold. "
To be fair - the question of "if retail software is sold with an implicit license to use, or requires a license to be agreed to after the purchase" is a question that hasn't been decided by the courts. Currently, retail Software is treated like a CD, Video or Book - you get to use the copy they sold to you. You don't get to copy it because they have the copyright. Recently the BSA has been making the argument that EULA are real contracts with the argument that "Everybody does it, so it must be right." Only a court case, or law like the UCITA will decide this issue. Please read my following rebuttal with the consideration that i'm only correct if the court rules that retail software is like a CD, video or a book.
Microsoft would love for you to think that they are not selling you a product, but just try returning your product for a full refund under terms of their EULA, and they will tell you that you are stuck with it (Search for google for Windows Refund Day). They claim that you didn't 'license' the product from Microsoft and are hence entitled for a refund, but that you purchased it from the store.
Microsoft has very clever counsel - for example: if you read the text on the CD they - it says "Don't Make Illegal Copies of this Disk", note that it doesn't say, "Making Copies of this disk is illegal." They are very precice in their wording in order not to run afoul of the law. It is legal to make a backup of your CD.
The claim that "This software is licensed not sold" is vastly different than "Use of this software is illegal without agreeing to the supplemental EULA." The license they are referencing it their statement is the implicit license to use the software that you obtained by the retail purchase of the software, not the supplemental EULA. As for the "not sold" - They are correct, but somewhat misleading, in that they didn't sell you "FrontPage" - you would then have the copyright, they sold you a copy of FrontPage.
Again, untill the courts decide, it would be smart to treat EULA like they were legal and don't agree to any that are not reasonable, but don't depend on them to limit damages in software that you create and try to licence to your users with an click-tough(unsigned) EULA.
Argh! You mean all those Ascii Goatse.cx posts on Slashdot could have hidden messages - those sneaky bastards! Hiding information in someones bum is not nice!
That doesn't mean Microsoft has "ceded" their rights to FrontPage; it means that you no longer have the right to use it.
You don't need a license to USE FrontPage - you only need a license to COPY FrontPage. Microsoft doesn't have a 'use-rights' on FrontPage, it has a copyright on FrontPage. Microsoft sells copies of FrontPage, and people who purchase them are allowed to use them. GM sells Corvettes - you get to use them, but you don't get to copy them without a license. (Corvettes are copyrighted and patented works). There is a small group of people who feel that because you don't run software off the CD-Rom, you need a license to copy it onto your hard-drive and a license to copy it the software into ram. These are the same people who think they can renounce their US citizenship and not pay the IRS it's due. The only way you can cede you right to use things you have purchased legally, is if you sign a contract (physically or digitally) or a nasty laws get passed.
First of all, I'm wondering where you got the notion that I don't care about the Iraqi people. Granted, one of my friends is Iranian born and I do know how to cuss in Farsi, - but that still doesn't mean that I don't care about the people of Iraq. I had the opportunity to travel to Tokyo; I had to wonder what weird act of fate made Japan and the USA mortal enemies only 50 years ago. I hope my children will travel to Baghdad and have the same thoughts.
Let me make a suggestion - if you confront someone who has a differing viewpoint, try to point out solutions to the problem that make sense from your adversaries view. Browbeating people with facts they *already know* doesn't produce results, especially when you present only one side of the facts. For instance, you and I probably have a *lot* of middle ground. I'm disgusted that we treat Iraq like we treated Germany after WWI - instead we should have treated Iraq like we treated Germany after WWII - we should have instituted a massive rebuilding campaign in Iraq. Labeling people, as "Mass Murderers" isn't going to change minds - their first reaction is to walk away, and from the comfort of their own home, solidify their viewpoint. Your goal should be to change the minds of your advisories, but the way you go about it, will only harden their hearts. Keep in mind that a lot of opinions are not formed on facts, but emotions.
Another suggestion, calling somebody a 'Redneck' doesn't get you too far - if you truly have prejudice in your heart, it's best to purge yourself of it, and if you can't do that, at least pretend to be civil.
Your comment is saying that Visual Basic is a replacement for Access on Windows because it does everything Access does and more. duh, it's a programming language.
Obviously, you have never programmed with Visual Basic or Access. Otherwise you'd know that Access uses Visual Basic as it's programming language.
Delphi/Kylix are wonderful environments, not only due to their language, but also due to the included libraries, and the well-written visual IDE.
The strengths of Access (easy GUI design and report design) are the strengths of Delphi/Kylix. The weakness of Access (mediocre language, poorly written libraries) are gone in Delphi/Kylix.
To say Kylix is an Access replacement is truly misleading. Kylix is a version of Delphi for Linux.
You are correct, Kylix is not an Access replacement - it's a bridge out of the whole entire Microsoft lock-in. With Kylix and VNC, I can access a Kylix app with Mac OS 7 - X, Windows 3.1 , Windows 9x, Windows NT, Solaris, *BSD, BeOS, Epoc. Hell, even a $199 ThincNIC can use the app. When you access a Kylix app though VNC - your flaky Windows box can crash, you can reboot, and your application will be where you left it. Hell, you can shut down your Windows box, fire up *BSD and you application will be where you left it.
I've made a lot of money thought the years making Access applications for small companies - they been flaky, but usefull. I've been really enjoying the last 9 months - I can give my customers not only usefull solutions but high-quality solutions with Kylix.
The Access killer you're looking for on Linux is called Kylix. http://www.borland.com/kylix/ It does everything Access does except it doesn't crash randomly and it doesn't corrupt flat-file databases. There is more of a learning curve for Kylix - but once you're past the "Make a Recipe Program For Grandma" stage, Kylix is more logical and more organized
Probably! A bluetooth gateway ~$80 and a blootooth CF receiver ~$40 will most likely be less expensive than a CF 802.11 card ~$160. Blootooth chipsets are really cheep compaired to 802.11 chipsets, and would be great for the battery life of your hand-held or laptop. Of course, if you need it now - 802.11 is the way to go.
On Lawn - I posed a critique of why the gentleman in question is so filled with hate that he has to lash out at people who disagree with him.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=21687&cid=2315 154 Basically, it boils down to self lothing for his own inaction.
You impress me with your mediocrity - every normal citizen writes, contributes and discusses. You're certainly not unique in that regard.
You still haven't answered the question - I imagine it's difficult to admit that your *actions* are no different that your peers regardless of how much you scream and shout.
Here is the question that your guilty conscience found too heart wrenching to answer: How many supplies have you run past the US/UK embargo into Iraq?
It you *truly* were concerned with the death of people in Iraq - you'd be helping directly, *now*, not bitching on Slashdot. Unfortunately for your cause, you're all talk and no action. By your own standards, your inaction has branded you with the guilt of Iraqi death.
Perhaps, this is why you are so filled with hate?
Hate for your own impotence in the face the hard decision to work and suffer to help someone else - the kind of hate that you can't deal with, so you transfer to others.
I think that works well in the UK - but here in the states, our passports are so forgeable, I'm suprised you let us in to your country. I'm not kidding when I say that I could make one in a week - right down to the 'sneeky' ultra violet ink that we're not supposed to know about. My old US passport, issued in the '80's would acttually be hard to copy - it has the passport number drilled into the pages so you can't reuse it's pages.
what will they do to a woman wearing a burqua? Prevent her from flying?
Good points, but I think businesses can mandate a dress code if they want - Most uber-fancy resturants will kick you out if you don't have a jacket and tie, and even McDonald's will won't serve you without shoes and shirt. I don't tink banks would serve you if you had a balaclava (ski mask) on your head. Even so, you are correct, that such a code would raise serious religious issues.
If we were really smart, we'd actually keep the face recognition system a hidden as possible - we would catch a few people who diden't realise it's effectivness. A good place to do it would be when you walk through the metal detectors - you're facing front and one more camera woulden't get too much notice there.
Actually a Bluetooth gateway to the internet/ethernet would be better in most respects: A palm device really dosen't need such high speed connection to a network like 802.11 provides, and Bluetooth is much better suited for battery consumption. Of course if you needed to make a Beowulf cluster of Palm units - go for the 802.11;)
For me, the reason I have a problem with automated face recognition system in normally public places is due to the overwhelming sense of being watched, of being catagorised and of being snooped upon. Dont get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing with your logical arguments, there is no expectation of privacy in public places - but there is somthing sinister about being watched by inhuman eyes. It's just an element that I don't think we need. When I stop and smell the roses in a park, I don't want to feel "watched and protected." So my argument that survalence is wrong is not logical - it's emotional.
Slashdot Mirror
No, wait... they did.
But it's OK, because the Taliban won't take all of the food that is available for themselves.
No, wait... they do.
A bit diferent this time - Afganistan has been having a drout for the last for years and everybody has pretty much slaughtered their own sheep. During the Russian fiasco, there were three sheep per capita, now it's down to
PS. Congrats rogerborg! You diden't resort to calling people rednecks - well done. Keep up the good work!
Another thing to consider - the food supplies in Afganistan are down to nothing. If we could keep the Teliban et al running around like chickes in the high-lands, we could just starve them to death. There isn't much to eat at 12,000 feet this winter.
Agreeed. Thats the truly hard part - I hope we live up to our own ideals. I hope our democracy dosen't get caught in a feed-back cycle - were we elect jerks and slowly become jerks, then we elsect evil and become evil. But right now, in general, and in my own dumb opinion, the life of a free citizen is more precious and treasured than that of an enslaved subject. The world could use some more free people.
I know what you are trying to say, that all life is precious and has the same potential. And I agree. But, and I qualify this heavily, a person filled with ideas of equality and freedom is worth more to the future of this planet than someone who is filled with hate and authoritarinism. Hopefully we can subvert their evil culture and replace it with somting better without 'killing them all.'
If a culture is so depraved that a significant quantity of their people feels the need to kill large quantities of people, than that culture of hate should be irradicated by either subversion or military means. If subversion dosen't work, the we need to destroy that culture and rebuild it. See Japan and Germany for good examples of rebuilding a culture, see Iraq and and post WWI Germany for examples of festering cultures we allowed to survive.
I wonder.. I had this thought that maby a nice little old lady started a conversation with one of the hijackers. The highjacker diden't want to talk much, but started anyways, so as not to appear suspicious. Maby the little old lady melted his heart a bit. Maby he saw a well behaved child in the row in front of him.
I hope somthing like that happend.
The ports collection would come in usefull if apt-get or rpm somehow didn't work properly for you. The ports system seems very robust on my FreeBSD box - it takes a long time to compile some of the larger programs, but after coming back after a long cofee break, I've never encountered a problem. It would be a great backup to have around just in case.
The trouble with Windows 2000 software RAID is that you boot disk can't be a part of the RAID array. I'd recommend the Windows 2000 software raid over the Promise ATA RAID cards - they are software too, they just hook themselves to the BIOS. The Promise ATA solution has been flaky in the two instalations I have used it - I had to use IBM's DFT to make the two IBM drives communicate to the Promise FastTrack controller in UDMA 2 mode - otherwise they would get corrupted. I've had very good luck with 3Ware's hardware products, highly recomended!
Cool - I diden't know Palm had a VNC viewer!
things to ponder:
VNC on Windows is cool - but VNC served from a computer with X-Windows is absolutly amazing. Microsoft is kina tight-lipped about the inerworking of Windows, and VNC sometimes has trouble detecting when the screen has changed, so it has to resort to polling the screen. This introduces a bit of lag in the equasion - with any X-Widnwos (Linux, *BSD, Solaris) VNC gets notified when thing change, and accessing an Xsession over VNC over a LAN is just like being there.
To be fair - the question of "if retail software is sold with an implicit license to use, or requires a license to be agreed to after the purchase" is a question that hasn't been decided by the courts. Currently, retail Software is treated like a CD, Video or Book - you get to use the copy they sold to you. You don't get to copy it because they have the copyright. Recently the BSA has been making the argument that EULA are real contracts with the argument that "Everybody does it, so it must be right." Only a court case, or law like the UCITA will decide this issue. Please read my following rebuttal with the consideration that i'm only correct if the court rules that retail software is like a CD, video or a book.
Microsoft would love for you to think that they are not selling you a product, but just try returning your product for a full refund under terms of their EULA, and they will tell you that you are stuck with it (Search for google for Windows Refund Day). They claim that you didn't 'license' the product from Microsoft and are hence entitled for a refund, but that you purchased it from the store.
Microsoft has very clever counsel - for example: if you read the text on the CD they - it says "Don't Make Illegal Copies of this Disk", note that it doesn't say, "Making Copies of this disk is illegal." They are very precice in their wording in order not to run afoul of the law. It is legal to make a backup of your CD.
The claim that "This software is licensed not sold" is vastly different than "Use of this software is illegal without agreeing to the supplemental EULA." The license they are referencing it their statement is the implicit license to use the software that you obtained by the retail purchase of the software, not the supplemental EULA. As for the "not sold" - They are correct, but somewhat misleading, in that they didn't sell you "FrontPage" - you would then have the copyright, they sold you a copy of FrontPage.
Again, untill the courts decide, it would be smart to treat EULA like they were legal and don't agree to any that are not reasonable, but don't depend on them to limit damages in software that you create and try to licence to your users with an click-tough(unsigned) EULA.
Help! I keep searching for Babes on image.google.com - but Babe Ruth keeps showing up. Yech!
Argh! You mean all those Ascii Goatse.cx posts on Slashdot could have hidden messages - those sneaky bastards! Hiding information in someones bum is not nice!
You don't need a license to USE FrontPage - you only need a license to COPY FrontPage. Microsoft doesn't have a 'use-rights' on FrontPage, it has a copyright on FrontPage. Microsoft sells copies of FrontPage, and people who purchase them are allowed to use them. GM sells Corvettes - you get to use them, but you don't get to copy them without a license. (Corvettes are copyrighted and patented works). There is a small group of people who feel that because you don't run software off the CD-Rom, you need a license to copy it onto your hard-drive and a license to copy it the software into ram. These are the same people who think they can renounce their US citizenship and not pay the IRS it's due. The only way you can cede you right to use things you have purchased legally, is if you sign a contract (physically or digitally) or a nasty laws get passed.
First of all, I'm wondering where you got the notion that I don't care about the Iraqi people. Granted, one of my friends is Iranian born and I do know how to cuss in Farsi, - but that still doesn't mean that I don't care about the people of Iraq. I had the opportunity to travel to Tokyo; I had to wonder what weird act of fate made Japan and the USA mortal enemies only 50 years ago. I hope my children will travel to Baghdad and have the same thoughts.
Let me make a suggestion - if you confront someone who has a differing viewpoint, try to point out solutions to the problem that make sense from your adversaries view. Browbeating people with facts they *already know* doesn't produce results, especially when you present only one side of the facts. For instance, you and I probably have a *lot* of middle ground. I'm disgusted that we treat Iraq like we treated Germany after WWI - instead we should have treated Iraq like we treated Germany after WWII - we should have instituted a massive rebuilding campaign in Iraq. Labeling people, as "Mass Murderers" isn't going to change minds - their first reaction is to walk away, and from the comfort of their own home, solidify their viewpoint. Your goal should be to change the minds of your advisories, but the way you go about it, will only harden their hearts. Keep in mind that a lot of opinions are not formed on facts, but emotions.
Another suggestion, calling somebody a 'Redneck' doesn't get you too far - if you truly have prejudice in your heart, it's best to purge yourself of it, and if you can't do that, at least pretend to be civil.
Obviously, you have never programmed with Visual Basic or Access. Otherwise you'd know that Access uses Visual Basic as it's programming language.
Delphi/Kylix are wonderful environments, not only due to their language, but also due to the included libraries, and the well-written visual IDE.
The strengths of Access (easy GUI design and report design) are the strengths of Delphi/Kylix. The weakness of Access (mediocre language, poorly written libraries) are gone in Delphi/Kylix.
To say Kylix is an Access replacement is truly misleading. Kylix is a version of Delphi for Linux.
You are correct, Kylix is not an Access replacement - it's a bridge out of the whole entire Microsoft lock-in. With Kylix and VNC, I can access a Kylix app with Mac OS 7 - X, Windows 3.1 , Windows 9x, Windows NT, Solaris, *BSD, BeOS, Epoc. Hell, even a $199 ThincNIC can use the app. When you access a Kylix app though VNC - your flaky Windows box can crash, you can reboot, and your application will be where you left it. Hell, you can shut down your Windows box, fire up *BSD and you application will be where you left it.
I've made a lot of money thought the years making Access applications for small companies - they been flaky, but usefull. I've been really enjoying the last 9 months - I can give my customers not only usefull solutions but high-quality solutions with Kylix.
The Access killer you're looking for on Linux is called Kylix. http://www.borland.com/kylix/ It does everything Access does except it doesn't crash randomly and it doesn't corrupt flat-file databases. There is more of a learning curve for Kylix - but once you're past the "Make a Recipe Program For Grandma" stage, Kylix is more logical and more organized
Probably! A bluetooth gateway ~$80 and a blootooth CF receiver ~$40 will most likely be less expensive than a CF 802.11 card ~$160. Blootooth chipsets are really cheep compaired to 802.11 chipsets, and would be great for the battery life of your hand-held or laptop. Of course, if you need it now - 802.11 is the way to go.
And the other 6% of statistics are made up the spot!
I suspect passports which are difficult to forge is technically easier than automated face recognition.
Agreed. We should do the easy stuff before the questionble stuff.
On Lawn - I posed a critique of why the gentleman in question is so filled with hate that he has to lash out at people who disagree with him. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=21687&cid=2315 154 Basically, it boils down to self lothing for his own inaction.
You impress me with your mediocrity - every normal citizen writes, contributes and discusses. You're certainly not unique in that regard.
You still haven't answered the question - I imagine it's difficult to admit that your *actions* are no different that your peers regardless of how much you scream and shout.
Here is the question that your guilty conscience found too heart wrenching to answer: How many supplies have you run past the US/UK embargo into Iraq?
It you *truly* were concerned with the death of people in Iraq - you'd be helping directly, *now*, not bitching on Slashdot. Unfortunately for your cause, you're all talk and no action. By your own standards, your inaction has branded you with the guilt of Iraqi death.
Perhaps, this is why you are so filled with hate?
Hate for your own impotence in the face the hard decision to work and suffer to help someone else - the kind of hate that you can't deal with, so you transfer to others.
I think that works well in the UK - but here in the states, our passports are so forgeable, I'm suprised you let us in to your country. I'm not kidding when I say that I could make one in a week - right down to the 'sneeky' ultra violet ink that we're not supposed to know about. My old US passport, issued in the '80's would acttually be hard to copy - it has the passport number drilled into the pages so you can't reuse it's pages.
Good points, but I think businesses can mandate a dress code if they want - Most uber-fancy resturants will kick you out if you don't have a jacket and tie, and even McDonald's will won't serve you without shoes and shirt. I don't tink banks would serve you if you had a balaclava (ski mask) on your head. Even so, you are correct, that such a code would raise serious religious issues.
If we were really smart, we'd actually keep the face recognition system a hidden as possible - we would catch a few people who diden't realise it's effectivness. A good place to do it would be when you walk through the metal detectors - you're facing front and one more camera woulden't get too much notice there.
Actually a Bluetooth gateway to the internet/ethernet would be better in most respects: A palm device really dosen't need such high speed connection to a network like 802.11 provides, and Bluetooth is much better suited for battery consumption. Of course if you needed to make a Beowulf cluster of Palm units - go for the 802.11 ;)
For me, the reason I have a problem with automated face recognition system in normally public places is due to the overwhelming sense of being watched, of being catagorised and of being snooped upon. Dont get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing with your logical arguments, there is no expectation of privacy in public places - but there is somthing sinister about being watched by inhuman eyes. It's just an element that I don't think we need. When I stop and smell the roses in a park, I don't want to feel "watched and protected." So my argument that survalence is wrong is not logical - it's emotional.