"GoDaddy tries to confuse non-technical people by offering services they don't need and presenting them as valuable."
I work nights. Sometimes, I'm actually in the shop to listen to the radio. It seems that every 15 minutes, one company or another is pitching some worthless product, trying to scare the dumb consumer into purchasing some "security" product.
"Hi, I'm former Police Chief Frazzle Brain. Did you know that online indentity theft is the fastest growing crime in America? Send me $100 and I'll protect you!"
Can't help wondering how many clueless people send him the money . . . .
There has been a tool in most states since long before 9/11, allowing the cops to come into your house and search at any time, with or without a warrant. Your friendly local game commission dude is a member of law enforcement. He accompanies many raids, here in Arkansas. The laws regarding game are considered "special". If the game commission thinks you've poached a deer, they can come in, search your house, and find it, at gunpoint, all without a warrant. The cops want to make a drug bust? No warrant necessary. Just call the game warden, tell the warden there's some suspicion that some guy poached a deer, and, oh yeah, there may be drugs and/or guns in the house, so we'll accompany you for "protection".
Few people seem to realize that the erosion of rights has been going on for decades, rather than just the past nine years.
"This, to me, is implicit proof that global warming deniers don't actually doubt global warming, they are just advancing ideas that benefits a corporate agenda."
I've yet to see any "implicit proof" of man-made global warming. Bring it on. Convince the deniers. Need I remind you that we are in an interglacial? The climate can be EXPECTED to warm, til it peaks, then starts cooling, until we see the next ice age. When do we see the peak? Long after anyone reading this post is dead, I'm sure. And, if every single human on earth died of some new disease this year, the process would go on without our presence.
Hmmm. Spying school administrators instilling fear and paranoia, or a caring father who pretended not to see some of the crazier stuff his kids did? Tough decision. Paranoid sons who are afraid to go out, or to say anything, or smart alec punks who DO go out and speak their minds? That's a really tough decision.
I have a hard time justifying anything this Orwellian, no matter what spin someone puts on it. Caring school administrators? Tell me, exactly what it is that the administrator "cares" about? Let's keep in mind, there are good administrators, and there are bad. The best administrators will have the child's best interest in the forefront of his mind at all times. The worst administrators will only think about how he can USE the kid to further his own career. He'll be perfectly willing to throw several dozen kids under a bus, if those actions can be shown in a light that HIS bosses like.
Doesn't that sound like what happened here? Some knuckleheaded kid staged getting high, for the benefit of the camera, and that "caring administrator" fell all over himself bringing swift punishment to the kid.
With buffoons like this as an example, we certainly don't need any more "caring administrators".
No matter what the kid was or was not doing in the privacy of HIS OWN HOME, legal or not, it is HIS BUSINESS, and the business of his family. Unless a judge granted a warrant to keep the kids under surveillance 24/7 the school is 100% in the wrong. No matter how crazy kids get, if they are behind closed doors, they are good to go. Believe me - my boys did some wild crap when they were younger. Actually - they still do, sadly.
"Probable cause"? The schools aren't supposed to be part of law enforcement, so "probable cause" doesn't apply to them, or to this case.
Yes, I know - more and more cases are being publicized, in which communities blame the schools for the actions of the kids. Some school administrators seem to respond to this by trying to become law enforcement agents, but the fact remains, they are separate and distinct from any recognized law enforcement agency.
Probable cause to believe some kid is up to no good? Talk to the local sheriff or police chief. The school's responsibility begins and ends right there.
Actually - I might be. A lot of people on here say bad things about *nix systems, and I don't discount everything they have to say about everything in the world just because of it. In fact, there are two posters here that I pay attention to, because they DO have a lot of good stuff to say - just none of it about *nix. If I allowed my prejudices and their prejudices to rule my mind, there's a good deal of stuff that I would never have learned from them.
Let's remember - opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, and they all stink. Mine and yours included, of course.;^)
I can't argue that the guy seems to have spread FUD - but how much of it was really FUD?
I, personally, had little luck making Vista run on my machines. On the very same hardware, Win7 runs nicely. I get the same low scores for my hardware, because I don't have recent gaming video cards - but Win7 runs nicely.
So, again, how much of the anti-vista stuff was really FUD? Not much, I suspect. Even a fraud can be right sometimes.
I don't think it's the OS at all, to be perfectly honest. It's the philosophy behind the methods of development.
Proprietary software written for *nix is oftentimes little, if any, better than proprietary software written for Windows. How have those binary-only drivers treated you, in the past? Yes, EVERYONE says that driver x works a charm - but it screws up YOUR display, and you have to drop back to CLI to fix it.
The entire problem can be more accurately described as open-source vs closed-source.
In the open world, you can write really crappy code, and everyone will see it, and everyone KNOWS you write crappy code. If the program has any merits at all, then someone will make an attempt to clean it up, and make it work better. At which point, people begin to take notice of it, it grows, and yet MORE people are looking at the code.
Closed world? There may well be only 1, or 2, or 3 people in the WORLD who have access to the source. If they write a crappy coded program, it will remain crap forever. It won't even matter if the program actually has any merit - the code will be crap, period.
Windows is, after all, just software. And, there are a limited number of people with access to that code. Apparently, NONE of them has ever been induced to release that code to the public. The only way to get it, is to reverse engineer, or decompile it. And, there are dozens of idiotic laws against that sort of thing.
It must be wonderful to have enough money to buy politicians by the trainload . . .
Are you one of those who can't stand nasty bath water, so you throw the baby out with the bath water?
OF COURSE people have done things wrong. In fact, some people sit in boardrooms, and decide to sell defective vehicles, because they can settle out of court when people get killed, for less than it would cost to build a vehicle without those defects. Have you stopped driving, or riding in cars?
Heads on pig poles sound fitting for some of the blatant blunders that have been committed - but where do you plan to stop? Not until everyone who has ever supported or developed or even researched nuclear energy? Smart plan, genius. There will be no one left to build your safe nuclear plants.
I said it during the Cold War, and I'm happy to say it again: MORE NUKES! LESS KOOKS!
Yeah, I've heard a lot of reasons not to have nukes of any sort - bombs, reactors, you name it. The best reason I've ever heard, was Chernobyl. A perfectly good plant was destroyed by idiots stretching the envelope. And, yes, there will be more idiots in the future.
But, even Chernobyl doesn't convince me that nuclear plants are bad. It only convinces me that we need to weed out the idiots, and prevent them from making decisions about how a plant should be run. Don't allow morons to power up to max, then try to do an emergency shutdown, then try to crank it up to max power again, just to see if they can.
Fission, and eventually, fusion, are indeed the energy sources of tomorrow.
If that runs contrary to the greenies' agenda, well, tough titty. Al Gore should have invented fission, instead of the intarwebz, then he could make money on Obama's new nuclear policy.
That is why I amended my statement - they've invested to few resources, to late. They aren't going to make some huge comeback now. I just can't see it happening. MS can't offer some "killer app" that just makes the rest of the market fall to pieces.
I may not have a clue what is required to compete in the phone market. But, I'll offer you a wager. I'm willing to bet that at the end of 2012, MS hasn't captured any appreciable mobile phone market. "Appreciable" meaning 10% or greater than they already have.
Have you turned on a free broadcast television channel lately? Seen any stupid Microsoft commercials? They are a little bit interesting, if you give them any thought. A decade ago, MS didn't buy much, if any, television airtime. Or, radio, for that matter. They relied on other advertising media that were cheaper by orders of magnitude. You can reach a lot of geeks in a Geek Today magazine, at a price that MS would call "petty cash". Today, they are spending significantly more money on advertising. Why?
Could it be that their market is being eroded?
No, I don't really know what it takes to compete in a global market, be it phones, operating systems, applications, whatever. But, I'm smart enough to read obvious indicators, like the bombardment of advertising coming from Redmond.
I'm also smart enough to notice that Windows Mobile isn't going anywhere real fast.
To be perfectly honest - Microsoft has seen it's best days, and they are not the innovative* company that they once seemed to be.
Now - please explain how it is so obvious to you that I don't understand what it takes to compete, based on the fact that I'm doing some compiling, on a FreeBSD platform? Does that fact somehow reveal the full depth, width, and thoroughness of my education and experience, or, you're just taking potshots at someone and something that you don't like?
*innovative would encompass the old "Embrace, extend, extinguish" philosophy, of course.
Me too. Just what I wanted, a Microsoft Phone. Mobile BSOD, right? Need a hit of Blue, just turn your phone on. Whether a person likes Microsoft or not (I don't, of course - I'm typing in a Links browser, while a wait for a FreeBSD to compile some stuff, lol) they are late to the phone game. Or, more accurately, they are putting to few resources into the market, to late. Everyone and their dog already has a phone on the market, precious few of which rely on Microsoft applications, let alone a MS OS. Dumping a zillion cheap MS phones on the market might hurt their main competitors some, but it isn't going to make MS any real money.
USians? Get real. We're "Americans". Or Yanks. USians?
Yes, China IS going to own us, if our people don't wake up and smell the coffee. We are at war right now, and no one in the US seems to realize it. Part of the problem is, almost no one understands what the fuck "assymetrical" warfare is.
I don't claim to really understand it, but I'm at least aware of it, and I'm aware of a lot that China is doing.
As for your comments about Haiti - they, like much of the world, have depended on US aid for generations now. And they will continue to do so. Let's imagine that the US economy falls to pieces. Where will Haiti go for aid? China? Russia? Get real.
When our economy fails, so will several governments around the world. Worse, in places like Haiti, it will mean a lot of suffering, and a lot of death.
Keep that in mind, when you start bashing America.
And, this kind of thing makes me want to cry. The "greatest nation on earth" has come to mean "the easiest place in the world to build a monopoly with which to rape the consumer".
You would think that since Al Gore invented the interwebz, he would have more interest in seeing it properly developed in his home country. But, no, he's off diddling the world with his global warming nonsense instead.
Does anyone stop to think that if the government required the telcos to build that last mile to every home in America, the unemployment rates would go down some? It takes warm bodies to do the grunt work - many of which are drawing unemployment right now.
Uh-huh. Sure, but remember, the corporations are busy eroding the tax base. It costs them a penny or two to bribe a politician to enable them to save dollars by the bucket load.
Government can screw things up like no one else can, you are right. But, on the other hand, NO ONE has the slightest interest in protecting American jobs, the American tax base, the American standard of living - or anything else. It should be clear by now that the interests of Corporate America are separate and distinct from the interests of Americans. Government's interests are more nearly aligned to the interests of American voters than are Corporate America's interests.
Seriously, though, things are going to get worse before they get better. If they ever get better. I'm half afraid that no one will wake up before our wealth is depleted. We're like some rich guy's wastrel son - blowing the family fortune, and only understanding after the money is gone that there will BE NO MORE.
'It's not a given that we will continue to be the epicenter of innovation.'
All I can say is, "Welcome to the real world!" The corporations broke the power of labor in the steel industry around '82 or '83. I heard men saying "Let them move their steel mill to (pick your favorite 3rd world nation), they'll be back, because NO ONE can make steel like we do!"
The steel workers learned, and so can the techies.
Offshoring is such a wonderful practice. Only problem is, when they can hire labor for pennies a day, who is going to be bringing home a paycheck with which to buy their products? The economy is still going downhill, and it will continue to do so, until we INVEST in America. Giving jobs away to 3rd world nations just helps to bleed us more rapidly.
Phht. It amazes me that no one in government has figured this out yet, or figured out how to stop all the offshoring.
Tank. Chain saw. Alright, I might accept a bulldozer blade, because it's been done. But, a chainsaw? Come on - - - -
As for the grenades - I'd rather just have some crowbars. I'm sure you know about XKCD - there are many drawings of those space crowbars. Kinetic energy is pretty awesome - no need to carry around all those explosive charges, putting yourself at risk.
That link is as good a place as any to start, if you're interested in it.
With a military background, I was moderately impressed when it destroyed a missile. Only moderately, because we routinely shot down our own Tartar missiles when they turned around, and targeted US!
They, they shot down artillery rounds. Without finding the video I watched, I can't recall the size of the artillery rounds, but they were fairly large, fairly slow, with long trajectories that were easy to plot with the computing power available to THEL.
The real stunner was when THEL destroyed a series of mortars. Quite small, and hard to see, let alone track. Relatively short flight time, compared to most missiles or artillery, despite the fact that mortars are quite in comparison.
The video I saw were little more than several cuts pasted together - you didn't get a real "feel" for the hardware, because so much was left out, or edited out. The (intended) impression was that THEL was able to knock each of these successive targets out of the air, with little to no effort.
No matter whether that intended impression is true or not - what THEL did do was impressive. Shooting down a Tartar missile was a minor challenge, one that we pulled off because we ALWAYS tracked it with the guns, from launch to target. We anticipated it turning on us. Incoming artillery or mortars would have been way beyond your capabilities. Incoming missile under real life combat conditions? We'd probably shoot 99's - meaning we would probably get a bunch, but one would eventually get past the guns.
(BTW - I'm talking about 5 inch 54 caliber main guns on a destroyer - not those close in defense systems that ships have today.)
Heh. I'm wondering why anyone is concerned about it myself.
Welcome FAST Customers
On April, 25, 2008, Microsoft completed its acquisition of FAST Search & Transfer, opening a new chapter in enterprise search. By combining the innovation and agility of FAST with the discipline and resources of Microsoft, our customers get the best of both worlds: market-leading products from a trusted technology partner.
So - they acquired something less than two years ago, now they decide they don't like it, can't support it, and many of us never knew about it to start with. To my knowledge, I've never made use of it. Unless it was used on the net by some god-awful behind-the-scenes server.
For the most part, Google has satisfied all my search requirements for years now. Do they use FAST? Didn't think so, LOL
Maybe you haven't noticed the disparity in the world's population in the time of the Romans, and today?
Keeping your woman barefoot and pregnant means starvation in just another generation or two. Keeping your woman barefoot and pregnant already means starvation in some parts of the world. Try to keep up - we don't have unlimited resources, and we can't breed like roaches or rats.
I call bogus bullshit. First, for substituting "blacks" for "gayboys". "Gay is not the new black" is the title of an excellent article by a black who is also gay. Google it, and read it. Or not, as you wish. But don't substitute "black" for "gay" if you wish to be taken even half seriously.
As for substituting "black" for "female" - that is far less offensive, but still off target. You see - both women and blacks had very important roles in building this nation. Both groups have been honored less than they deserve, and both groups are now beginning to get some of the honor they deserve.
Your link is interesting, and it gives some credence to the idea that culture influences percentages more than genetics do. But, only some credence. As has already been noted somewhere in this discussion, right here in the US of A our mothers (in my case) and grandmothers (in the cases of most slashdot readers) stepped up and took over all the jobs that were left behind when all the men went off to war in 1942. They proved, beyond any reasonable doubt, that they COULD do the same jobs as men, and in a lot of cases, did those jobs more efficiently.
Yet - when the men came home, the girls (my mother, I'm talking about here) got all googly eyed and silly, they quit their jobs, and were more than happy to play house for their newly captured men.
Was that PURELY CULTURAL, or were there underlying genetic reasons for that?
I suggest that those figures you link to reflect a lot more than just cultural differences. I suggest that they also reflect decisions made out of necessity, and that not ALL those women necessarily WANT to be in their positions.
In short, the people arguing so hard against my views see or imagine cultural pressures that they don't like, so they want to create new cultural pressures that will force women to do things differently. And, meanwhile, the guys are supposed to sit down, shut up, and just accept what's going on.
Since I mentioned my own Mama - I'll add that she would be very much offended if she were told that she did things just because people "expected" them of her. She is a very independent woman, who, among other things, raised a daughter to be just as independent. Big sister is a retired state police officer. Funny thing about Sis, though. She worked hard to become a cop, and she drove a patrol car for several years, and did all the nasty work that ANY cop has to do. But, her goal from day one was to get into an office job. NOT a management position, mind you. She NEVER had any interest in becoming a lieutenant, or a captain, and certainly NOT a colonel. Her goal was to get an office job within the state police, and she got it after - uhhhmm - I think it was 8 years on patrol.
Me? I *could* have been a cop. But, you couldn't have FORCED me into an office!
Slashdot Mirror
"GoDaddy tries to confuse non-technical people by offering services they don't need and presenting them as valuable."
I work nights. Sometimes, I'm actually in the shop to listen to the radio. It seems that every 15 minutes, one company or another is pitching some worthless product, trying to scare the dumb consumer into purchasing some "security" product.
"Hi, I'm former Police Chief Frazzle Brain. Did you know that online indentity theft is the fastest growing crime in America? Send me $100 and I'll protect you!"
Can't help wondering how many clueless people send him the money . . . .
There has been a tool in most states since long before 9/11, allowing the cops to come into your house and search at any time, with or without a warrant. Your friendly local game commission dude is a member of law enforcement. He accompanies many raids, here in Arkansas. The laws regarding game are considered "special". If the game commission thinks you've poached a deer, they can come in, search your house, and find it, at gunpoint, all without a warrant. The cops want to make a drug bust? No warrant necessary. Just call the game warden, tell the warden there's some suspicion that some guy poached a deer, and, oh yeah, there may be drugs and/or guns in the house, so we'll accompany you for "protection".
Few people seem to realize that the erosion of rights has been going on for decades, rather than just the past nine years.
"This, to me, is implicit proof that global warming deniers don't actually doubt global warming, they are just advancing ideas that benefits a corporate agenda."
I've yet to see any "implicit proof" of man-made global warming. Bring it on. Convince the deniers. Need I remind you that we are in an interglacial? The climate can be EXPECTED to warm, til it peaks, then starts cooling, until we see the next ice age. When do we see the peak? Long after anyone reading this post is dead, I'm sure. And, if every single human on earth died of some new disease this year, the process would go on without our presence.
Hmmm. Spying school administrators instilling fear and paranoia, or a caring father who pretended not to see some of the crazier stuff his kids did? Tough decision. Paranoid sons who are afraid to go out, or to say anything, or smart alec punks who DO go out and speak their minds? That's a really tough decision.
I have a hard time justifying anything this Orwellian, no matter what spin someone puts on it. Caring school administrators? Tell me, exactly what it is that the administrator "cares" about? Let's keep in mind, there are good administrators, and there are bad. The best administrators will have the child's best interest in the forefront of his mind at all times. The worst administrators will only think about how he can USE the kid to further his own career. He'll be perfectly willing to throw several dozen kids under a bus, if those actions can be shown in a light that HIS bosses like.
Doesn't that sound like what happened here? Some knuckleheaded kid staged getting high, for the benefit of the camera, and that "caring administrator" fell all over himself bringing swift punishment to the kid.
With buffoons like this as an example, we certainly don't need any more "caring administrators".
*cough cough*
No matter what the kid was or was not doing in the privacy of HIS OWN HOME, legal or not, it is HIS BUSINESS, and the business of his family. Unless a judge granted a warrant to keep the kids under surveillance 24/7 the school is 100% in the wrong. No matter how crazy kids get, if they are behind closed doors, they are good to go. Believe me - my boys did some wild crap when they were younger. Actually - they still do, sadly.
"Probable cause"? The schools aren't supposed to be part of law enforcement, so "probable cause" doesn't apply to them, or to this case.
Yes, I know - more and more cases are being publicized, in which communities blame the schools for the actions of the kids. Some school administrators seem to respond to this by trying to become law enforcement agents, but the fact remains, they are separate and distinct from any recognized law enforcement agency.
Probable cause to believe some kid is up to no good? Talk to the local sheriff or police chief. The school's responsibility begins and ends right there.
Actually - I might be. A lot of people on here say bad things about *nix systems, and I don't discount everything they have to say about everything in the world just because of it. In fact, there are two posters here that I pay attention to, because they DO have a lot of good stuff to say - just none of it about *nix. If I allowed my prejudices and their prejudices to rule my mind, there's a good deal of stuff that I would never have learned from them.
Let's remember - opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, and they all stink. Mine and yours included, of course. ;^)
I can't argue that the guy seems to have spread FUD - but how much of it was really FUD?
I, personally, had little luck making Vista run on my machines. On the very same hardware, Win7 runs nicely. I get the same low scores for my hardware, because I don't have recent gaming video cards - but Win7 runs nicely.
So, again, how much of the anti-vista stuff was really FUD? Not much, I suspect. Even a fraud can be right sometimes.
"Microsoft Windows users are known as the road-kill of the Information Superhighway for a reason," - Freeuser
I'm strongly tempted to use that as my sig. Road-kill, or the smell of piss in the subway? Tough decision . . . .
My opinion?
I don't think it's the OS at all, to be perfectly honest. It's the philosophy behind the methods of development.
Proprietary software written for *nix is oftentimes little, if any, better than proprietary software written for Windows. How have those binary-only drivers treated you, in the past? Yes, EVERYONE says that driver x works a charm - but it screws up YOUR display, and you have to drop back to CLI to fix it.
The entire problem can be more accurately described as open-source vs closed-source.
In the open world, you can write really crappy code, and everyone will see it, and everyone KNOWS you write crappy code. If the program has any merits at all, then someone will make an attempt to clean it up, and make it work better. At which point, people begin to take notice of it, it grows, and yet MORE people are looking at the code.
Closed world? There may well be only 1, or 2, or 3 people in the WORLD who have access to the source. If they write a crappy coded program, it will remain crap forever. It won't even matter if the program actually has any merit - the code will be crap, period.
Windows is, after all, just software. And, there are a limited number of people with access to that code. Apparently, NONE of them has ever been induced to release that code to the public. The only way to get it, is to reverse engineer, or decompile it. And, there are dozens of idiotic laws against that sort of thing.
It must be wonderful to have enough money to buy politicians by the trainload . . .
Are you one of those who can't stand nasty bath water, so you throw the baby out with the bath water?
OF COURSE people have done things wrong. In fact, some people sit in boardrooms, and decide to sell defective vehicles, because they can settle out of court when people get killed, for less than it would cost to build a vehicle without those defects. Have you stopped driving, or riding in cars?
Heads on pig poles sound fitting for some of the blatant blunders that have been committed - but where do you plan to stop? Not until everyone who has ever supported or developed or even researched nuclear energy? Smart plan, genius. There will be no one left to build your safe nuclear plants.
I said it during the Cold War, and I'm happy to say it again: MORE NUKES! LESS KOOKS!
Yeah, I've heard a lot of reasons not to have nukes of any sort - bombs, reactors, you name it. The best reason I've ever heard, was Chernobyl. A perfectly good plant was destroyed by idiots stretching the envelope. And, yes, there will be more idiots in the future.
But, even Chernobyl doesn't convince me that nuclear plants are bad. It only convinces me that we need to weed out the idiots, and prevent them from making decisions about how a plant should be run. Don't allow morons to power up to max, then try to do an emergency shutdown, then try to crank it up to max power again, just to see if they can.
Fission, and eventually, fusion, are indeed the energy sources of tomorrow.
If that runs contrary to the greenies' agenda, well, tough titty. Al Gore should have invented fission, instead of the intarwebz, then he could make money on Obama's new nuclear policy.
That is why I amended my statement - they've invested to few resources, to late. They aren't going to make some huge comeback now. I just can't see it happening. MS can't offer some "killer app" that just makes the rest of the market fall to pieces.
I may not have a clue what is required to compete in the phone market. But, I'll offer you a wager. I'm willing to bet that at the end of 2012, MS hasn't captured any appreciable mobile phone market. "Appreciable" meaning 10% or greater than they already have.
Have you turned on a free broadcast television channel lately? Seen any stupid Microsoft commercials? They are a little bit interesting, if you give them any thought. A decade ago, MS didn't buy much, if any, television airtime. Or, radio, for that matter. They relied on other advertising media that were cheaper by orders of magnitude. You can reach a lot of geeks in a Geek Today magazine, at a price that MS would call "petty cash". Today, they are spending significantly more money on advertising. Why?
Could it be that their market is being eroded?
No, I don't really know what it takes to compete in a global market, be it phones, operating systems, applications, whatever. But, I'm smart enough to read obvious indicators, like the bombardment of advertising coming from Redmond.
I'm also smart enough to notice that Windows Mobile isn't going anywhere real fast.
To be perfectly honest - Microsoft has seen it's best days, and they are not the innovative* company that they once seemed to be.
Now - please explain how it is so obvious to you that I don't understand what it takes to compete, based on the fact that I'm doing some compiling, on a FreeBSD platform? Does that fact somehow reveal the full depth, width, and thoroughness of my education and experience, or, you're just taking potshots at someone and something that you don't like?
*innovative would encompass the old "Embrace, extend, extinguish" philosophy, of course.
Me too. Just what I wanted, a Microsoft Phone. Mobile BSOD, right? Need a hit of Blue, just turn your phone on. Whether a person likes Microsoft or not (I don't, of course - I'm typing in a Links browser, while a wait for a FreeBSD to compile some stuff, lol) they are late to the phone game. Or, more accurately, they are putting to few resources into the market, to late. Everyone and their dog already has a phone on the market, precious few of which rely on Microsoft applications, let alone a MS OS. Dumping a zillion cheap MS phones on the market might hurt their main competitors some, but it isn't going to make MS any real money.
USians? Get real. We're "Americans". Or Yanks. USians?
Yes, China IS going to own us, if our people don't wake up and smell the coffee. We are at war right now, and no one in the US seems to realize it. Part of the problem is, almost no one understands what the fuck "assymetrical" warfare is.
I don't claim to really understand it, but I'm at least aware of it, and I'm aware of a lot that China is doing.
As for your comments about Haiti - they, like much of the world, have depended on US aid for generations now. And they will continue to do so. Let's imagine that the US economy falls to pieces. Where will Haiti go for aid? China? Russia? Get real.
When our economy fails, so will several governments around the world. Worse, in places like Haiti, it will mean a lot of suffering, and a lot of death.
Keep that in mind, when you start bashing America.
And, this kind of thing makes me want to cry. The "greatest nation on earth" has come to mean "the easiest place in the world to build a monopoly with which to rape the consumer".
You would think that since Al Gore invented the interwebz, he would have more interest in seeing it properly developed in his home country. But, no, he's off diddling the world with his global warming nonsense instead.
Does anyone stop to think that if the government required the telcos to build that last mile to every home in America, the unemployment rates would go down some? It takes warm bodies to do the grunt work - many of which are drawing unemployment right now.
Uh-huh. Sure, but remember, the corporations are busy eroding the tax base. It costs them a penny or two to bribe a politician to enable them to save dollars by the bucket load.
Government can screw things up like no one else can, you are right. But, on the other hand, NO ONE has the slightest interest in protecting American jobs, the American tax base, the American standard of living - or anything else. It should be clear by now that the interests of Corporate America are separate and distinct from the interests of Americans. Government's interests are more nearly aligned to the interests of American voters than are Corporate America's interests.
Seriously, though, things are going to get worse before they get better. If they ever get better. I'm half afraid that no one will wake up before our wealth is depleted. We're like some rich guy's wastrel son - blowing the family fortune, and only understanding after the money is gone that there will BE NO MORE.
'It's not a given that we will continue to be the epicenter of innovation.'
All I can say is, "Welcome to the real world!" The corporations broke the power of labor in the steel industry around '82 or '83. I heard men saying "Let them move their steel mill to (pick your favorite 3rd world nation), they'll be back, because NO ONE can make steel like we do!"
The steel workers learned, and so can the techies.
Offshoring is such a wonderful practice. Only problem is, when they can hire labor for pennies a day, who is going to be bringing home a paycheck with which to buy their products? The economy is still going downhill, and it will continue to do so, until we INVEST in America. Giving jobs away to 3rd world nations just helps to bleed us more rapidly.
Phht. It amazes me that no one in government has figured this out yet, or figured out how to stop all the offshoring.
Tank. Chain saw. Alright, I might accept a bulldozer blade, because it's been done. But, a chainsaw? Come on - - - -
As for the grenades - I'd rather just have some crowbars. I'm sure you know about XKCD - there are many drawings of those space crowbars. Kinetic energy is pretty awesome - no need to carry around all those explosive charges, putting yourself at risk.
Everyone needs a hobby. If he's parroting idiocy, so be it. It's better than SOME hobbies he might take up. Peeping Tom, for instance . . .
Anyway, on subject - I was more impressed with what I've seen of THEL http://www.missilethreat.com/missiledefensesystems/id.63/system_detail.asp
That link is as good a place as any to start, if you're interested in it.
With a military background, I was moderately impressed when it destroyed a missile. Only moderately, because we routinely shot down our own Tartar missiles when they turned around, and targeted US!
They, they shot down artillery rounds. Without finding the video I watched, I can't recall the size of the artillery rounds, but they were fairly large, fairly slow, with long trajectories that were easy to plot with the computing power available to THEL.
The real stunner was when THEL destroyed a series of mortars. Quite small, and hard to see, let alone track. Relatively short flight time, compared to most missiles or artillery, despite the fact that mortars are quite in comparison.
The video I saw were little more than several cuts pasted together - you didn't get a real "feel" for the hardware, because so much was left out, or edited out. The (intended) impression was that THEL was able to knock each of these successive targets out of the air, with little to no effort.
No matter whether that intended impression is true or not - what THEL did do was impressive. Shooting down a Tartar missile was a minor challenge, one that we pulled off because we ALWAYS tracked it with the guns, from launch to target. We anticipated it turning on us. Incoming artillery or mortars would have been way beyond your capabilities. Incoming missile under real life combat conditions? We'd probably shoot 99's - meaning we would probably get a bunch, but one would eventually get past the guns.
(BTW - I'm talking about 5 inch 54 caliber main guns on a destroyer - not those close in defense systems that ships have today.)
Embrace, extend, and what, exactly? Oh yeah - EXTINGUISH FAST!! Tell me it isn't so - wasn't Microsoft turning over a new leaf, or something? Phhht.
Heh. I'm wondering why anyone is concerned about it myself.
Welcome FAST Customers
On April, 25, 2008, Microsoft completed its acquisition of FAST Search & Transfer, opening a new chapter in enterprise search. By combining the innovation and agility of FAST with the discipline and resources of Microsoft, our customers get the best of both worlds: market-leading products from a trusted technology partner.
http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/en/us/fast-customer.aspx
So - they acquired something less than two years ago, now they decide they don't like it, can't support it, and many of us never knew about it to start with. To my knowledge, I've never made use of it. Unless it was used on the net by some god-awful behind-the-scenes server.
For the most part, Google has satisfied all my search requirements for years now. Do they use FAST? Didn't think so, LOL
Maybe you haven't noticed the disparity in the world's population in the time of the Romans, and today?
Keeping your woman barefoot and pregnant means starvation in just another generation or two. Keeping your woman barefoot and pregnant already means starvation in some parts of the world. Try to keep up - we don't have unlimited resources, and we can't breed like roaches or rats.
I call bogus bullshit. First, for substituting "blacks" for "gayboys". "Gay is not the new black" is the title of an excellent article by a black who is also gay. Google it, and read it. Or not, as you wish. But don't substitute "black" for "gay" if you wish to be taken even half seriously.
As for substituting "black" for "female" - that is far less offensive, but still off target. You see - both women and blacks had very important roles in building this nation. Both groups have been honored less than they deserve, and both groups are now beginning to get some of the honor they deserve.
Your link is interesting, and it gives some credence to the idea that culture influences percentages more than genetics do. But, only some credence. As has already been noted somewhere in this discussion, right here in the US of A our mothers (in my case) and grandmothers (in the cases of most slashdot readers) stepped up and took over all the jobs that were left behind when all the men went off to war in 1942. They proved, beyond any reasonable doubt, that they COULD do the same jobs as men, and in a lot of cases, did those jobs more efficiently.
Yet - when the men came home, the girls (my mother, I'm talking about here) got all googly eyed and silly, they quit their jobs, and were more than happy to play house for their newly captured men.
Was that PURELY CULTURAL, or were there underlying genetic reasons for that?
I suggest that those figures you link to reflect a lot more than just cultural differences. I suggest that they also reflect decisions made out of necessity, and that not ALL those women necessarily WANT to be in their positions.
In short, the people arguing so hard against my views see or imagine cultural pressures that they don't like, so they want to create new cultural pressures that will force women to do things differently. And, meanwhile, the guys are supposed to sit down, shut up, and just accept what's going on.
Since I mentioned my own Mama - I'll add that she would be very much offended if she were told that she did things just because people "expected" them of her. She is a very independent woman, who, among other things, raised a daughter to be just as independent. Big sister is a retired state police officer. Funny thing about Sis, though. She worked hard to become a cop, and she drove a patrol car for several years, and did all the nasty work that ANY cop has to do. But, her goal from day one was to get into an office job. NOT a management position, mind you. She NEVER had any interest in becoming a lieutenant, or a captain, and certainly NOT a colonel. Her goal was to get an office job within the state police, and she got it after - uhhhmm - I think it was 8 years on patrol.
Me? I *could* have been a cop. But, you couldn't have FORCED me into an office!
Culture, or genetics?