What is your area of expertise? Because I am an intelligence analyst and quite well-read in this area. I've been to Iraq a few times as an analyst. I've read their newspapers, listened to their phone calls, analyzed detainee reporting, etc etc etc. I think I know a thing or two here.
The well-educated and well-off among them hate us just as much. UBL was a billionaire engineer. The 9/11 conspirators initially met in coffee houses in Europe; these were not poverty-stricken desperate people. They also hate us for being successful when they "know" they are Allah's chosen. I've heard this described as cognitive dissonance, which is one of the better explanations out there I think. Part of their brain knows they are destined for greatness, the other sees how far behind the West they are. The result is a violent backlash against reality.
Poverty is a problem, yes. But they say with great frequency that they hate our freedom. It has made us loose, it has corrupted our women, it has made our children fat and indolent, etc. The appreciation of individual freedom we take for granted in America and Europe is not part of their culture.
Give people an education, give them hope that they can make their lives better and the problem goes away.
Not quite. Morocco has the biggest problem in all of Africa in human trafficking, despite having one of the highest standards of living. The relative difference in standards of living between Morocco and nearby Europe has apparently prompted many people to sneak into Europe for a better chance at life. As long as we are better off than they are, it doesn't matter if they get an education or hope.
Attila Dimedici beat me to it, but I'll say it too. China is building their military anyway. Do you think not keeping up is a winning strategy?
And Osama didn't use the guns we provided him against us in 9/11. High-tech stuff we gave them, like MANPADS, were designed to become non-operable in a few years at most specifically so they couldn't be used against us in another conflict. He used commonly available items, ingenuity, determination, and money he made in construction. Without a Cold War, we would likely still have highly capable enemies, and probably more. There would be no reason for people not to attack us if we had no means to defend ourselves.
So let's rewind history. What would have happened if we didn't build our military? Might the USSR have seen this as weakness and attacked us? We survived the Cold War precisely because of the arms race, not in spite of it.
but comments along the lines of "They hate us because we are free" speak much truth.
Bush gets so much criticism because of statements like this, but it is very true. They see our freedom as the antithesis to Sharia Law and responsible for our moral decay.
What about Al Qaeda and related groups who vowed to wipe the US off the map back in '90s, when we had a peaceful President? They don't care about our stance on Iraq, or how much we help the Palestinians, or whether we're in Saudi Arabia. They have promised to not stop fighting until "the flag of Islam flies over the White House." Granted, one can question the suitability of space-based weapons in this fight, but let's not forget we have a lot of determined and resourceful enemies, regardless of the last administration.
Yeah, well people are far more complicated than computers but don't require legions of engineers to keep running. I don't fall over dead when I forget where my keys are. I don't die when I get a simple virus. We can make better computers that don't require this kind of maintenance, but I guess the first step is trying instead of making them intentionally hard to use to justify your job.
What about the Morthans? As in more than human? They could colonize their own planet and breed a class of warriors the likes of which humans have never seen.
I don't think anyone's screaming just yet, and perhaps he's right that we don't need or want ONE distro. But how about a little less fragmentation? Having hundreds of distros, not all of which work with each other, is probably not helping mainstream adoption. I mean, what's the niche that Puppy serves that Feather doesn't, and vice versa?
Agreed. And from what I remember, the size of the Ubuntu distro was set at one CD. So if they make the move to a DVD (I mean, c'mon, it's 2009 people), they could fit Kubuntu, Net Book Remix, and whatever else you'd want on one disk. Add an Android distro (Abuntu?) to the family and presto! Linux for everyone!
Wow, you really like keeping up with current events, huh? Camp X-Ray was shut down almost 7 years ago. Those images of orange jump suited inmates walking around behind a chain link fence with tents in the background that the media keep playing are 7+ year old footage of the temporary Camp X-Ray. Camp Delta is the permanent facility used since Camp X-Ray shut down in April 2002.
I had heard about this at a law enforcement/fraud analysis/intelligence analysis conference a while back. Basically, ALL the major sites were running in the open. Before all the crackdowns, I guess they thought the anonymity of the web meant they were untouchable. After the FBI cracked down on a bunch, they got wise and went underground.
With rising gas and oil prices, Russia has a lot more money now than it did when it started the space tourism business. Maybe that's curtailed a little recently, but I think it will pick up again when OPEC cuts production. They could probably swing this on their own now.
None of that excuses having MS Office and IE on every single machine where Open Office and FF would do just as well, if not better. We're finally getting FF 2.x on a fair amount of SIPR machines, which is cool and everything, but we can do a lot better.
Any schmuck can have a good sounding plan. What I want to know is, does Obama have any guiding principles behind the talk, or is he going to sell out to the highest bidder? McCain took beatings for his men for 5 years. That says something about his character. Nader refuses to take money from corporations or DoD contractors. That says something about him. Not to mention his rather long history as a consumer advocate. Nader's actions speak louder than words.
Obama has some nice-wounding words and a less than impressive list of actions. He voted Present more times than I can remember as a state senator instead of taking stands on issues. He supported the retro-active pardon of phone companies. I'm glad you're not worried, because I am.
I also work in the intelligence community, and agree that things like Intellipedia and Jabber show a top-down push for open source. But then everywhere I've worked we have Windows machines with Office, MS servers, hell even CENTCOM is going to Vista for some reason. Many of the key programs we use for intelligence analysis are closed-source proprietary programs, like Analyst's Notebook and ArcGIS. Even where there's communal unclass machines, they run Windows XP and Office, despite it being the perfect place for Linux or at least Open Office. There's been some great strides moving towards open source, but we have such a long long way to go.
1. I can't help but know he's charasmatic from all the media coverage. I don't need to listen to his speeches to know that.
2. Sure, being charismatic is an important characteristic in a leader, but perhaps having some political experience would help. Or having stood his ground on a key issue, or having written key legislation. Or something. But frankly I'm not seeing anything of substance other than the aforementioned charisma and being black.
He possesses an enormous amount of charisma and motivates people and fills them with hope.
So do faithhealers, used car salesmen, and other con artists. I purposely avoided listening to the speeches of Obama, McCain, and the man for whom I ultimately voted, Nader, so I was not swayed by their charisma. I read speeches the day after, and Obama's have just been vague ramblings about hope and change with absolutely no substance. When you remove his gazes, body language, and pauses-for-effect, there's just nothing left. There was even an article on here a while back about how researches measured "spin" (ie, lying) and found Obama to have the most in his speeches.
I have instead looked at their actions, or lack thereof in Obama's case. He's done little to nothing of significance in his career besides be black and has consistently supported the rights and interests of corporations over the interests of the American people. For those of you who think he's to going to make great changes, please point to ONE thing he has done, not said.
I hope so. I've been trying for days to get it to work in Ubuntu. I tried sudo apt-get cornficker and that didn't work. I didn't see it in the repositories. Anyone know of a good way to install it?
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, the kind you use at the automated ATM machine.
I used to live in Norfolk, Virginia, and I never thought they would have resorted to this.
Wow, you've really got a knack for bad analogies. First the coffee-heat-and-laptop remark, now this. Great choice picking out a username.
Oh, I almost forgot. Frist ps0t!
just like the Segway did!
Who's the one kidding? Are you seriously this ignorant of Linux, and computers in general? Or did I just earn a whooooosh?
The well-educated and well-off among them hate us just as much. UBL was a billionaire engineer. The 9/11 conspirators initially met in coffee houses in Europe; these were not poverty-stricken desperate people. They also hate us for being successful when they "know" they are Allah's chosen. I've heard this described as cognitive dissonance, which is one of the better explanations out there I think. Part of their brain knows they are destined for greatness, the other sees how far behind the West they are. The result is a violent backlash against reality.
Poverty is a problem, yes. But they say with great frequency that they hate our freedom. It has made us loose, it has corrupted our women, it has made our children fat and indolent, etc. The appreciation of individual freedom we take for granted in America and Europe is not part of their culture.
Give people an education, give them hope that they can make their lives better and the problem goes away.
Not quite. Morocco has the biggest problem in all of Africa in human trafficking, despite having one of the highest standards of living. The relative difference in standards of living between Morocco and nearby Europe has apparently prompted many people to sneak into Europe for a better chance at life. As long as we are better off than they are, it doesn't matter if they get an education or hope.
Attila Dimedici beat me to it, but I'll say it too. China is building their military anyway. Do you think not keeping up is a winning strategy?
And Osama didn't use the guns we provided him against us in 9/11. High-tech stuff we gave them, like MANPADS, were designed to become non-operable in a few years at most specifically so they couldn't be used against us in another conflict. He used commonly available items, ingenuity, determination, and money he made in construction. Without a Cold War, we would likely still have highly capable enemies, and probably more. There would be no reason for people not to attack us if we had no means to defend ourselves.
So let's rewind history. What would have happened if we didn't build our military? Might the USSR have seen this as weakness and attacked us? We survived the Cold War precisely because of the arms race, not in spite of it.
but comments along the lines of "They hate us because we are free" speak much truth.
Bush gets so much criticism because of statements like this, but it is very true. They see our freedom as the antithesis to Sharia Law and responsible for our moral decay.
What about Al Qaeda and related groups who vowed to wipe the US off the map back in '90s, when we had a peaceful President? They don't care about our stance on Iraq, or how much we help the Palestinians, or whether we're in Saudi Arabia. They have promised to not stop fighting until "the flag of Islam flies over the White House." Granted, one can question the suitability of space-based weapons in this fight, but let's not forget we have a lot of determined and resourceful enemies, regardless of the last administration.
Yeah, well people are far more complicated than computers but don't require legions of engineers to keep running. I don't fall over dead when I forget where my keys are. I don't die when I get a simple virus. We can make better computers that don't require this kind of maintenance, but I guess the first step is trying instead of making them intentionally hard to use to justify your job.
What about the Morthans? As in more than human? They could colonize their own planet and breed a class of warriors the likes of which humans have never seen.
I don't think anyone's screaming just yet, and perhaps he's right that we don't need or want ONE distro. But how about a little less fragmentation? Having hundreds of distros, not all of which work with each other, is probably not helping mainstream adoption. I mean, what's the niche that Puppy serves that Feather doesn't, and vice versa?
Agreed. And from what I remember, the size of the Ubuntu distro was set at one CD. So if they make the move to a DVD (I mean, c'mon, it's 2009 people), they could fit Kubuntu, Net Book Remix, and whatever else you'd want on one disk. Add an Android distro (Abuntu?) to the family and presto! Linux for everyone!
It was tongue and cheek in that he was hoping it was a prank call. Look at the "from the x dept." line.
taking steps to close camp X-Ray
Wow, you really like keeping up with current events, huh? Camp X-Ray was shut down almost 7 years ago. Those images of orange jump suited inmates walking around behind a chain link fence with tents in the background that the media keep playing are 7+ year old footage of the temporary Camp X-Ray. Camp Delta is the permanent facility used since Camp X-Ray shut down in April 2002.
I had heard about this at a law enforcement/fraud analysis/intelligence analysis conference a while back. Basically, ALL the major sites were running in the open. Before all the crackdowns, I guess they thought the anonymity of the web meant they were untouchable. After the FBI cracked down on a bunch, they got wise and went underground.
With rising gas and oil prices, Russia has a lot more money now than it did when it started the space tourism business. Maybe that's curtailed a little recently, but I think it will pick up again when OPEC cuts production. They could probably swing this on their own now.
None of that excuses having MS Office and IE on every single machine where Open Office and FF would do just as well, if not better. We're finally getting FF 2.x on a fair amount of SIPR machines, which is cool and everything, but we can do a lot better.
Any schmuck can have a good sounding plan. What I want to know is, does Obama have any guiding principles behind the talk, or is he going to sell out to the highest bidder? McCain took beatings for his men for 5 years. That says something about his character. Nader refuses to take money from corporations or DoD contractors. That says something about him. Not to mention his rather long history as a consumer advocate. Nader's actions speak louder than words.
Obama has some nice-wounding words and a less than impressive list of actions. He voted Present more times than I can remember as a state senator instead of taking stands on issues. He supported the retro-active pardon of phone companies. I'm glad you're not worried, because I am.
I also work in the intelligence community, and agree that things like Intellipedia and Jabber show a top-down push for open source. But then everywhere I've worked we have Windows machines with Office, MS servers, hell even CENTCOM is going to Vista for some reason. Many of the key programs we use for intelligence analysis are closed-source proprietary programs, like Analyst's Notebook and ArcGIS. Even where there's communal unclass machines, they run Windows XP and Office, despite it being the perfect place for Linux or at least Open Office. There's been some great strides moving towards open source, but we have such a long long way to go.
OK,
1. I can't help but know he's charasmatic from all the media coverage. I don't need to listen to his speeches to know that.
2. Sure, being charismatic is an important characteristic in a leader, but perhaps having some political experience would help. Or having stood his ground on a key issue, or having written key legislation. Or something. But frankly I'm not seeing anything of substance other than the aforementioned charisma and being black.
He possesses an enormous amount of charisma and motivates people and fills them with hope.
So do faithhealers, used car salesmen, and other con artists. I purposely avoided listening to the speeches of Obama, McCain, and the man for whom I ultimately voted, Nader, so I was not swayed by their charisma. I read speeches the day after, and Obama's have just been vague ramblings about hope and change with absolutely no substance. When you remove his gazes, body language, and pauses-for-effect, there's just nothing left. There was even an article on here a while back about how researches measured "spin" (ie, lying) and found Obama to have the most in his speeches.
I have instead looked at their actions, or lack thereof in Obama's case. He's done little to nothing of significance in his career besides be black and has consistently supported the rights and interests of corporations over the interests of the American people. For those of you who think he's to going to make great changes, please point to ONE thing he has done, not said.
I hope so. I've been trying for days to get it to work in Ubuntu. I tried sudo apt-get cornficker and that didn't work. I didn't see it in the repositories. Anyone know of a good way to install it?