Under Windows? Chrome and IE both start up in way less than a second (actually, basically instantly). That's understandable for IE... after all it pre-loads a lot of its libraries when Windows starts. Chrome though is very fast to start. It's basically like launching Notepad or Calc... no perceivable delay.
Firefox is 'slow' to start though (a few seconds). I understand why that is (it is a vastly more capable and expandable browser than the other two). But for a quick lookup on the Web, I find myself going for Chrome every time (if available), or IE.
Under Linux I'm not sure, but I'd guess Opera is pretty quick. I have an Ubuntu machine, but I use FF3 on that so I'm not qualified to talk of any other Linux browser. FF3 on Ubuntu actually seems to start up somewhat faster than under Windows though.
A lot of this is because we have a small population and a LARGE body of old law inherited from English common law. In America, a far greater proportion of what was originally common law has been codified into statutes.
A smaller, less litigious population also means that fewer opportunities arise for courts to apply a modern eye to some of these laws. So I guess the 'refresh rate' of our laws is slower than in larger countries. The right case to challenge a stupid law needs to come before the courts before things will get changed, but that 'right case' might involve some pretty uncommon circumstances.
Also many of these 'stupid-sounding legal issues' as they are reported on Slashdot are sensationalised, or the summary misses a crucial point (or half the story!). This applies to any legal stories on Slashdot, not just ones originating from.AU.
Australian law by and large is well thought-out... just sometimes a bit slow to get updated to deal with issues surrounding new technologies. Our IP law in particular is in need of an overhaul (although incidentally, it was made a lot worse by the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement signed a few years ago, which required us to adopt some DMCA-style provisions).
The Australian governmental system has its strong points - it's a lot less susceptible to vote-buying and big business influence than the US system. Partly that's because we don't directly elect a head of state resident or even the Prime Minister (which understandably in most Americans' opinion is a bad thing). So we don't have the need to spend huge amounts of money promoting candidates (look at the money spent by Obama/McCain on their campaigns last year... I'd be surprised if our major parties spent 1% of that when we have elections).
Heh, even I have to admit that there's quite a few Australia-sourced stories on/. these days. Not that I mind it (I'm Australian), but it's noticable.
I think a fair quota for Australia should be 1 in 15 stories. Based purely on comparative population - Australia has 22 million people, US ~300 million, so around 15x as many.
Of course that doesn't leave room for all the other countries, so my theory needs a lot of work...
Well I'm qualified as one... but I don't currently practice law. I'm a university lecturer... specifically, Information Technology Law and IP Law. So saying 'IAAL' is slightly naughty of me since I'm not actually representing clients et al. at this point, I just have the necessary qualifications.
You'll need to use an ISP that still has a fully operational newsgroup server (including binaries groups), with decent retention.
In the US these are virtually non-existent these days. So you'll need to pay 10-20 bucks a month to use Giganews or some other pay server unfortunately.
My ISP still has proper newsgroups with all groups including binaries, and 200 days retention (which is basically equivalent to the pay servers). But I'm not in the US. And even in my country, my ISP is in the minority these days. Synching all those huge binaries groups every day simply costs ISPs too much bandwidth with very little payoff (since most people don't use/know about Usenet).
Unfortunately the relevant part of Australian intellectual property law is a bit of a relic from the 'olden days' and actually doesn't bother to distinguish between a creative work, and merely publishing a fact. So things like telephone directory data and train timetables CAN in fact be considered copyrighted here.
Yes it's utterly ridiculous. The Australian Law Reform Commission is looking at this as a matter of priority in its review of Australian IP law, and it's likely to get changed within the next 5-10 years. But for now, that's the state of affairs.
Er... the 'proposed' filter is only that. Proposed. Just an idea in some retarded luddite Senator's head. And just recently has pretty much been assured of dying a slow death in the Senate since the Liberals and all the minor parties are voting against it. 90% of the public is against it. So that saga is basically over and has resulted in no filter.*
And my internet is perfectly fast thank you (~20 Mbit, very low contention ratio, and no DPI or P2P throttling like seems to be common in some other places). (Yes I have a monthly download limit, but I never even get close to it even when doing a fair bit of P2P, and I can always pay another 10 bucks or whatever for a higher limit if I need to... big deal).
There's a lot that sucks about Australia I'm sure. But you could say that of anywhere. And the 'filtering' is not one of those things since it, well, doesn't exist.
* Not to say that we should rest on our laurels though. The filter proposal is pretty much dead for now, but we need to make sure it stays that way.
Well in Canberra (capital city of Australia), most government departments in the Parliamentary Triangle (where all the major/important Government departments area) are connected by a such a dedicated fibre network, that is completely physically separated from the Internet and other public networks This is particularly the case in the defence/intelligence precinct (which is a cluster of buildings in one particular suburb).
Interestingly I tried Googling it and couldn't find much at all. But it exists... I've used it myself as a contractor to several AU Federal Govt. departments. So you could use this kind of encryption on a network like that I imagine.
But yeah, this technology seems like it wouldn't have huge application outside of these rare, special types of networks.
Guess where a great deal of the US's intelligence data is collected from. Hint: it's a large, dry country within long-range radio distance from China.
Guess where that data gets transmitted back to the US from? Hint: several top-secret joint US-Australian bases located in various places in Central Australia (i.e. the middle of nowhere)
And guess which country has more access to intelligence sharing with the US than any other allied nation (except for the UK)?
Australia's geographic position means a LOT of US intelligence data either is sourced from here or flows through here. So it's in all allied countries interests to have good encryption here;)
Aha so someone else out there other than me had noticed this little annoyance. I use Chrome full time (yep... as my sole browser). It has its shortcomings but it's fast, lightweight and pretty. FF has all the fancy extensions stuff but frankly I don't really use any of them so I don't miss it.
Anyway, to get back on topic, I don't think it's a huge deal because I never physically CLICK stop, and haven't for years and years. In most browsers you just mash the Esc key instead, which is way quicker than clicking 'Stop' no matter where it is on the screen.
Add to that the fact that unless there are server problems, most sites are done loading in a second or two these days, and I suppose Stop truly does get less use than it used to.
BTW, I've found the Australians to be the closest to Americans in terms of worldview and viewpoints about things like rules and authority. I wonder if it because we share a common approach to creating a large country as a nation of immigrants.
Heh:) I've always thought the same. I meet many Americans over the years (in America) that have never met an Australian before. After a while they often comment that I 'sound British, but act American'.
Truth is, other than our accent and a few traditions we have as a result of our UK origin, Australia is the 'closest' country to America in the world, as far as worldview/pop culture/attitudes etc, and increasingly language (we pick up most new US slang / terminology but not that much from the UK anymore).
And we are pretty similar structurally too. Both similar in land areas. Both Federations of states that were originally separate colonies (you have 50, we have 6... but same principle). You had to fight for your independence, we just asked for it admittedly. But both countries were built on immigration, by people trying their luck in a new, far-away frontier. So there's quite a bit of similarity there.
We poke fun at each other on Slashdot a bit of course. But I've travelled to a lot of countries and the US and Australia are really very close. Closer than either is to the UK, these days.
Upper idwest / Great Lakes / WI MN MI IL IA. 2001-2009 (I'm there every year for several months).
And yes I'm quite sure the differences are historical. America fought for its independence. Most Commonwealth nations simply asked for it, and was granted it by the UK Govt. So we probably have less attachment to certain symbols as a result. Hell Australia still has the UK flag in the corner of its, and most people don't really care. (Some do, but most probably don't even think it's an important issue).
And as for those white trash, yeah you see them on the news. But they seem to be an isolated thing... limited to certain areas in Sydney and Brisbane in particular. Don't think you'll find that happening in Perth/Hobart/Adelaide/Canberra very much.
It's a matter of degree I suppose. We are probably a bit more tacky than NZ or the UK in that regard. But seriously man, multiply it by 50 and you might get close to what the south and midwest of the US are like. It's not even comparable.
Also what part of Australia are you in? Can't say I've ever seen a flag/sticker on a car or truck here, and I can think of only one or two household flags in the entire city (and people think they are weird). I'm in Canberra. I imagine more working class areas would be a bit more in-your-face when it comes to patriotism though (i.e. a flag on the ute!).
Some seem a bit... overstated though lol. For example, your post offices almost always have a flag. Which is fine (although they never have a flag in Australia or the UK).
But seems funny when right next door is a Perkins or something with an ASTRONOMICALLY HUGE flag (I mean like, bigger than a double decker bus sized flag on top of a pole as thick as an oak tree and 10 times as tall). Common sight in the midwest. Every gas station, fast food place, or other random retail establishment has one, and they all try and outdo each other on size.
And there you have the actual government buildings with their tiny (by comparison) flags. Just seemed amusing:)
We also have national holidays during which the majority of people fly a flag, it's possible you were noticing this. President's Day, Veteran's Day, or the Fourth of July. But that's only a couple days a year.
I'm aware of that. It's not like I've just visited the US for short periods. I've spent YEARS at a time there;)
I'd wager that if you came to the US with a camera, and took a thousand random pictures of a thousand random locations, you'd see the exact same number of US flags as you would Aussie flags if you did the same in Australia
Nowhere near it. You're probably right about WA though. I suspect the coastal areas (both west and east) are a lot less flag waving than the midwest. I spend most of my time in the US in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan... Great Lakes area basically. And in many towns they have a flag hanging from every single street light along most streets (this was in the 2001-2006 period... apparently the 'flags everywhere' only got installed after 9/11 but have stayed ever since). Furthermore, around every 2nd or 3rd house has a full sized flagpole in the front yard (or one of those little ones that stick out from the wall, for smaller dwellings).
So yeah it does depend on where you are of course. But in Australia virtually noone has a flagpole at home. Literally 1 in 100,000 I'd say (I can think of only 2 or 3 that I've ever seen in my life here)
Oh and by the way, no criticism intended. That's just how the US is. I was just observing a difference. If that's what you guys like to do over there I'm all for it:)
Australia is equally difficult to get into, I'll grant you that. But the difference is, Australia has a nice government website that you plug a few details in and it tells you exactly what visas you can try to apply for and a step by step approach to do it, including PDFs of all the forms you'll need etc: http://www.immi.gov.au/
On the other hand, trying to navigate the US government's immigration website(s) is a nightmare. There's no simple, step by step guide to what to do. It's just a mess of random forms and information about various visas which may or may not apply to your situation.
PS. This might have changed, but I'm going on the investigation I did a couple of years ago when I looked into moving from Australia to the US myself in order to marry my US girlfriend. It seemed to complicated, so in the end, she actually immigrated to Australia and we now live here.
No kidding. You can't even arrive on the visa waiver program anymore without applying beforehand for a travel authority. You need to do this even if you aren't actually going to the US, but you merely transit or change to another plane in a US airport! Argh!
Insightful comment (haven't got any mod points unfortunately though).
I feel the same way about my home country (Australia). Australians deep down are quite patriotic, but it is a quiet, learned patriotism, rather than the overt 'God bless America' flag-waving culture you see in the US. If you asked us, we wouldn't say we were patriotic. But most would, as you say, defend it to the death if there was a real threat. Life is just too good here to give up easily, it truly is one of the world's best places to live (Canada is nice too BTW from what I've seen):)
I'm qualified to talk about this distinction I think, because my wife is in fact an American who has just recently permanently moved here to Australia with me. (Incidentally she's well educated, a good example of the brain drain out of the US). I've also spent a lot of time in the US myself, both for business and pleasure.
I think the US a wonderful country with some of the friendliest people you will find anywhere. But the first time I visited I could not BELIEVE the awful, tacky, in-your-face patriotism. Flags from every freaking house (here, flags are pretty much just for government buildings etc). HUGE flags on the side of highways and stuff for no apparent reason (why? seriously, why?). In a way, the US displays its national symbol so much and so often that it loses it's importance and meaning I think. Here, we treat our flag with a great deal of respect and use it only for official occasions. And I think it is more symbolic and meaningful because of that.
So I think your last comment "You can't force anyone to love a country, but you can let them", is a perfect summation. In most countries, people come to love their country gradually and deeply, because they genuinely think it's a wonderful place. In the US though it does seem as if patriotism is more... indoctrinated into people.
Australia also DID use CDMA for more than a decade, particularly in rural areas (supplemented by 2GSM in towns and cities). CDMA was rolled out as a replacement for the original analogue mobile phone network.
But CDMA networks in Australia have now been turned off for good, replaced by 850MHz (Telstra) or 900/1800 MHz (Vodafone/Optus/3/etc) 3GSM nationwide (the various 2GSM networks still operate alongside this though).
So CDMA has historically had more use than people think. But yeah I think these days it's North America and South Korea that are principal users of it. China and a other places also have a few CDMA networks but I don't think they are the predominant type of network in those locations. GSM is really as close as you can get a to a global standard. A quadband GSM phone will pretty much work anywhere on Earth.
Facebook doesn't make you Googlable
on
Linked In Or Out?
·
· Score: 1
Well I don't know about LinkedIn, but I'm quite a heavy user of Facebook, using my real name. But if I Google that full name, I get... nothing (well nothing that actually relates to me).
Facebook, and any other social networking site worth a damn, have privacy options. They are quite good actually. Use them and max them out. One of those is not to expose your details to external search providers (which I actually think is turned to 'don't allow' by default on FB).
What I do have is a chat/gaming/IRC alias though that I also use extensively on less privacy-conscious sites. And if I google THAT, I get hundreds of hits. But I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be easy to tie that alias to my real name, since I don't mix and match using those two pieces of ID.
Slashdot Mirror
Under Windows? Chrome and IE both start up in way less than a second (actually, basically instantly). That's understandable for IE ... after all it pre-loads a lot of its libraries when Windows starts. Chrome though is very fast to start. It's basically like launching Notepad or Calc ... no perceivable delay.
Firefox is 'slow' to start though (a few seconds). I understand why that is (it is a vastly more capable and expandable browser than the other two). But for a quick lookup on the Web, I find myself going for Chrome every time (if available), or IE.
Under Linux I'm not sure, but I'd guess Opera is pretty quick. I have an Ubuntu machine, but I use FF3 on that so I'm not qualified to talk of any other Linux browser. FF3 on Ubuntu actually seems to start up somewhat faster than under Windows though.
Lol I got wooshed. First time!
Still clueless as to why, though.
A lot of this is because we have a small population and a LARGE body of old law inherited from English common law. In America, a far greater proportion of what was originally common law has been codified into statutes.
A smaller, less litigious population also means that fewer opportunities arise for courts to apply a modern eye to some of these laws. So I guess the 'refresh rate' of our laws is slower than in larger countries. The right case to challenge a stupid law needs to come before the courts before things will get changed, but that 'right case' might involve some pretty uncommon circumstances.
Also many of these 'stupid-sounding legal issues' as they are reported on Slashdot are sensationalised, or the summary misses a crucial point (or half the story!). This applies to any legal stories on Slashdot, not just ones originating from .AU.
Australian law by and large is well thought-out ... just sometimes a bit slow to get updated to deal with issues surrounding new technologies. Our IP law in particular is in need of an overhaul (although incidentally, it was made a lot worse by the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement signed a few years ago, which required us to adopt some DMCA-style provisions).
The Australian governmental system has its strong points - it's a lot less susceptible to vote-buying and big business influence than the US system. Partly that's because we don't directly elect a head of state resident or even the Prime Minister (which understandably in most Americans' opinion is a bad thing). So we don't have the need to spend huge amounts of money promoting candidates (look at the money spent by Obama/McCain on their campaigns last year ... I'd be surprised if our major parties spent 1% of that when we have elections).
Not a theologian, and not a mod on Wikipedia.
Heh, even I have to admit that there's quite a few Australia-sourced stories on /. these days. Not that I mind it (I'm Australian), but it's noticable.
I think a fair quota for Australia should be 1 in 15 stories. Based purely on comparative population - Australia has 22 million people, US ~300 million, so around 15x as many.
Of course that doesn't leave room for all the other countries, so my theory needs a lot of work...
Well I'm qualified as one ... but I don't currently practice law. I'm a university lecturer ... specifically, Information Technology Law and IP Law. So saying 'IAAL' is slightly naughty of me since I'm not actually representing clients et al. at this point, I just have the necessary qualifications.
You'll need to use an ISP that still has a fully operational newsgroup server (including binaries groups), with decent retention.
In the US these are virtually non-existent these days. So you'll need to pay 10-20 bucks a month to use Giganews or some other pay server unfortunately.
My ISP still has proper newsgroups with all groups including binaries, and 200 days retention (which is basically equivalent to the pay servers). But I'm not in the US. And even in my country, my ISP is in the minority these days. Synching all those huge binaries groups every day simply costs ISPs too much bandwidth with very little payoff (since most people don't use/know about Usenet).
Unfortunately the relevant part of Australian intellectual property law is a bit of a relic from the 'olden days' and actually doesn't bother to distinguish between a creative work, and merely publishing a fact. So things like telephone directory data and train timetables CAN in fact be considered copyrighted here.
Yes it's utterly ridiculous. The Australian Law Reform Commission is looking at this as a matter of priority in its review of Australian IP law, and it's likely to get changed within the next 5-10 years. But for now, that's the state of affairs.
Disclaimer: IAAL.
Er ... the 'proposed' filter is only that. Proposed. Just an idea in some retarded luddite Senator's head. And just recently has pretty much been assured of dying a slow death in the Senate since the Liberals and all the minor parties are voting against it. 90% of the public is against it. So that saga is basically over and has resulted in no filter.*
And my internet is perfectly fast thank you (~20 Mbit, very low contention ratio, and no DPI or P2P throttling like seems to be common in some other places). (Yes I have a monthly download limit, but I never even get close to it even when doing a fair bit of P2P, and I can always pay another 10 bucks or whatever for a higher limit if I need to ... big deal).
There's a lot that sucks about Australia I'm sure. But you could say that of anywhere. And the 'filtering' is not one of those things since it, well, doesn't exist.
* Not to say that we should rest on our laurels though. The filter proposal is pretty much dead for now, but we need to make sure it stays that way.
I have no problem with Americans calling us Aussies, since we often use the term to refer to ourselves as well.
But it would be nice if they pronounced it right. It's said 'Ozzie' (like Ozzy Osbourne), not 'ahh-sie'. The 's' is more like 'z'.
NB. Some Americans do say it right. But 90% don't.
Well in Canberra (capital city of Australia), most government departments in the Parliamentary Triangle (where all the major/important Government departments area) are connected by a such a dedicated fibre network, that is completely physically separated from the Internet and other public networks This is particularly the case in the defence/intelligence precinct (which is a cluster of buildings in one particular suburb).
Interestingly I tried Googling it and couldn't find much at all. But it exists ... I've used it myself as a contractor to several AU Federal Govt. departments. So you could use this kind of encryption on a network like that I imagine.
But yeah, this technology seems like it wouldn't have huge application outside of these rare, special types of networks.
Guess where a great deal of the US's intelligence data is collected from. Hint: it's a large, dry country within long-range radio distance from China.
Guess where that data gets transmitted back to the US from? Hint: several top-secret joint US-Australian bases located in various places in Central Australia (i.e. the middle of nowhere)
And guess which country has more access to intelligence sharing with the US than any other allied nation (except for the UK)?
Australia's geographic position means a LOT of US intelligence data either is sourced from here or flows through here. So it's in all allied countries interests to have good encryption here ;)
Aha so someone else out there other than me had noticed this little annoyance. I use Chrome full time (yep ... as my sole browser). It has its shortcomings but it's fast, lightweight and pretty. FF has all the fancy extensions stuff but frankly I don't really use any of them so I don't miss it.
Anyway, to get back on topic, I don't think it's a huge deal because I never physically CLICK stop, and haven't for years and years. In most browsers you just mash the Esc key instead, which is way quicker than clicking 'Stop' no matter where it is on the screen.
Add to that the fact that unless there are server problems, most sites are done loading in a second or two these days, and I suppose Stop truly does get less use than it used to.
BTW, I've found the Australians to be the closest to Americans in terms of worldview and viewpoints about things like rules and authority. I wonder if it because we share a common approach to creating a large country as a nation of immigrants.
Heh :) I've always thought the same. I meet many Americans over the years (in America) that have never met an Australian before. After a while they often comment that I 'sound British, but act American'.
Truth is, other than our accent and a few traditions we have as a result of our UK origin, Australia is the 'closest' country to America in the world, as far as worldview/pop culture/attitudes etc, and increasingly language (we pick up most new US slang / terminology but not that much from the UK anymore).
And we are pretty similar structurally too. Both similar in land areas. Both Federations of states that were originally separate colonies (you have 50, we have 6 ... but same principle). You had to fight for your independence, we just asked for it admittedly. But both countries were built on immigration, by people trying their luck in a new, far-away frontier. So there's quite a bit of similarity there.
We poke fun at each other on Slashdot a bit of course. But I've travelled to a lot of countries and the US and Australia are really very close. Closer than either is to the UK, these days.
Upper idwest / Great Lakes / WI MN MI IL IA. 2001-2009 (I'm there every year for several months).
And yes I'm quite sure the differences are historical. America fought for its independence. Most Commonwealth nations simply asked for it, and was granted it by the UK Govt. So we probably have less attachment to certain symbols as a result. Hell Australia still has the UK flag in the corner of its, and most people don't really care. (Some do, but most probably don't even think it's an important issue).
And as for those white trash, yeah you see them on the news. But they seem to be an isolated thing ... limited to certain areas in Sydney and Brisbane in particular. Don't think you'll find that happening in Perth/Hobart/Adelaide/Canberra very much.
It's a matter of degree I suppose. We are probably a bit more tacky than NZ or the UK in that regard. But seriously man, multiply it by 50 and you might get close to what the south and midwest of the US are like. It's not even comparable.
Also what part of Australia are you in? Can't say I've ever seen a flag/sticker on a car or truck here, and I can think of only one or two household flags in the entire city (and people think they are weird). I'm in Canberra. I imagine more working class areas would be a bit more in-your-face when it comes to patriotism though (i.e. a flag on the ute!).
Some seem a bit ... overstated though lol. For example, your post offices almost always have a flag. Which is fine (although they never have a flag in Australia or the UK).
But seems funny when right next door is a Perkins or something with an ASTRONOMICALLY HUGE flag (I mean like, bigger than a double decker bus sized flag on top of a pole as thick as an oak tree and 10 times as tall). Common sight in the midwest. Every gas station, fast food place, or other random retail establishment has one, and they all try and outdo each other on size.
And there you have the actual government buildings with their tiny (by comparison) flags. Just seemed amusing :)
We also have national holidays during which the majority of people fly a flag, it's possible you were noticing this. President's Day, Veteran's Day, or the Fourth of July. But that's only a couple days a year.
I'm aware of that. It's not like I've just visited the US for short periods. I've spent YEARS at a time there ;)
I'd wager that if you came to the US with a camera, and took a thousand random pictures of a thousand random locations, you'd see the exact same number of US flags as you would Aussie flags if you did the same in Australia
Nowhere near it. You're probably right about WA though. I suspect the coastal areas (both west and east) are a lot less flag waving than the midwest. I spend most of my time in the US in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan ... Great Lakes area basically. And in many towns they have a flag hanging from every single street light along most streets (this was in the 2001-2006 period ... apparently the 'flags everywhere' only got installed after 9/11 but have stayed ever since). Furthermore, around every 2nd or 3rd house has a full sized flagpole in the front yard (or one of those little ones that stick out from the wall, for smaller dwellings).
So yeah it does depend on where you are of course. But in Australia virtually noone has a flagpole at home. Literally 1 in 100,000 I'd say (I can think of only 2 or 3 that I've ever seen in my life here)
Oh and by the way, no criticism intended. That's just how the US is. I was just observing a difference. If that's what you guys like to do over there I'm all for it :)
Australia is equally difficult to get into, I'll grant you that. But the difference is, Australia has a nice government website that you plug a few details in and it tells you exactly what visas you can try to apply for and a step by step approach to do it, including PDFs of all the forms you'll need etc: http://www.immi.gov.au/
On the other hand, trying to navigate the US government's immigration website(s) is a nightmare. There's no simple, step by step guide to what to do. It's just a mess of random forms and information about various visas which may or may not apply to your situation.
PS. This might have changed, but I'm going on the investigation I did a couple of years ago when I looked into moving from Australia to the US myself in order to marry my US girlfriend. It seemed to complicated, so in the end, she actually immigrated to Australia and we now live here.
No kidding. You can't even arrive on the visa waiver program anymore without applying beforehand for a travel authority. You need to do this even if you aren't actually going to the US, but you merely transit or change to another plane in a US airport! Argh!
Insightful comment (haven't got any mod points unfortunately though).
I feel the same way about my home country (Australia). Australians deep down are quite patriotic, but it is a quiet, learned patriotism, rather than the overt 'God bless America' flag-waving culture you see in the US. If you asked us, we wouldn't say we were patriotic. But most would, as you say, defend it to the death if there was a real threat. Life is just too good here to give up easily, it truly is one of the world's best places to live (Canada is nice too BTW from what I've seen) :)
I'm qualified to talk about this distinction I think, because my wife is in fact an American who has just recently permanently moved here to Australia with me. (Incidentally she's well educated, a good example of the brain drain out of the US). I've also spent a lot of time in the US myself, both for business and pleasure.
I think the US a wonderful country with some of the friendliest people you will find anywhere. But the first time I visited I could not BELIEVE the awful, tacky, in-your-face patriotism. Flags from every freaking house (here, flags are pretty much just for government buildings etc). HUGE flags on the side of highways and stuff for no apparent reason (why? seriously, why?). In a way, the US displays its national symbol so much and so often that it loses it's importance and meaning I think. Here, we treat our flag with a great deal of respect and use it only for official occasions. And I think it is more symbolic and meaningful because of that.
So I think your last comment "You can't force anyone to love a country, but you can let them", is a perfect summation. In most countries, people come to love their country gradually and deeply, because they genuinely think it's a wonderful place. In the US though it does seem as if patriotism is more ... indoctrinated into people.
Hmm I don't think Japan is going to be overwhelmed by rising ocean levels very soon. It's mostly mountainous.
I suppose the coastal cities (most of the big ones) are in trouble. But Japan as an island itself? Not going anywhere.
Australia also DID use CDMA for more than a decade, particularly in rural areas (supplemented by 2GSM in towns and cities). CDMA was rolled out as a replacement for the original analogue mobile phone network.
But CDMA networks in Australia have now been turned off for good, replaced by 850MHz (Telstra) or 900/1800 MHz (Vodafone/Optus/3/etc) 3GSM nationwide (the various 2GSM networks still operate alongside this though).
So CDMA has historically had more use than people think. But yeah I think these days it's North America and South Korea that are principal users of it. China and a other places also have a few CDMA networks but I don't think they are the predominant type of network in those locations. GSM is really as close as you can get a to a global standard. A quadband GSM phone will pretty much work anywhere on Earth.
Well I don't know about LinkedIn, but I'm quite a heavy user of Facebook, using my real name. But if I Google that full name, I get ... nothing (well nothing that actually relates to me).
Facebook, and any other social networking site worth a damn, have privacy options. They are quite good actually. Use them and max them out. One of those is not to expose your details to external search providers (which I actually think is turned to 'don't allow' by default on FB).
What I do have is a chat/gaming/IRC alias though that I also use extensively on less privacy-conscious sites. And if I google THAT, I get hundreds of hits. But I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be easy to tie that alias to my real name, since I don't mix and match using those two pieces of ID.