No. Terry's cerebral cortex had completely disintegrated. There was nothing to re-activate. No amount of praying or injecting or stimulating her could have changed the fact that her brain was simply no longer capable of higher-level thoughts, as the part responsible for such thought had 'turned to jelly'.
Personally, I'm all for spying. The more the better.
In a democratic, open society, it's not your call to say that you want other people spied on. You might want people to spy on you. That's your right. But you can't force these invasions of privacy onto others. People's lives, friends, conversations and going-ons are their own. They do not belong to the state.
Remember, it was the great Ben Frainlin who said, "those who are willing to trade liberty for security deserve neither!"
Then I say that Ben Frainlin was an idiot, whoever he was.
The biggest threat to my security, and everyone else's security on the planet is the threat of war, as a policy of the United States. The numbers prove it. The 9/11 attacks killed a couple of thousand Americans. It was a vigilante effort, and was probably the most harm they could have hoped to have caused. The US have killed hundreds of thousands in Iraq since the invasion, and are directly responsible for millions starving due to UN sanctions that strangled the country for 10 years. And that's jut Iraq. The US are the only ones who have used atomic weapons. They dropped 2 weapons of mass destruction on Japan, and they argue for their right to do it again. They spread radioactive waste in the form of depleted uranium. They use chemical weapons such as napalm and white phosphorous. Just who's security are you talking about here? What you're trying to argue is that your right to security demands that everybody else's is violated!
The next biggest threat also comes from the US and their allies, in the form of an absolute breakdown of democracy and secular society, and an emergence of a fascist state run by religious fanatics. Curiously, this is what they claim they are supposed to be protecting us from.
Lastly, liberty and security are the same thing, therefore trading liberty is trading security, and a lot more besides. It is better to live a short but free life than a long but oppressed life. I also reject the idea that this invasion of our privacy is actually delivering increased security. From where I'm sitting, the world is looking like a more and more dangerous place every day. The neo-cons certainly aren't having a pacifying effect, are they?
I say that if you remove the neo-cons from power and make some attempt to address the horrible injustices their kind have caused, the threat posed by the boogey-man terrorists will disolve. They are a product of hatred of US foreign policy.
It's not like the US government has exactly been leading the way on demonstrating restraint with respect to bugging. They bug everyone calling into and out of the US. They keep aggregate data for the purpose of dragnetting the stuff later for evidence of links to terrorism. They even bug members of the United Nations ( not that I have a great deal of respect for them, but still... at least most other people do ). Why wouldn't they bug China. And yes, why wouldn't China bug the US. It's an insane system. A paranoid, power-hungry system.
Sure, it would be good if it were possible. But this seems like a pretty straight-forward issue to me... you're not allow to distribute the 2 together.
Also, I'm pretty sure that a majority of people are connecting to the internet via a router of some type. If not, then I would at least say that anyone seriously considering Gentoo had better get themselves broadband ( and hence a router ) real quick:) Connecting through a broadband router is simply a matter of loading the kernel drivers for you ethernet card, and running dhcpcd... which Kororra does for you.
I admit it's not a perfect solution. But it's the best of the bunch.
Lastly, XGL working with the open-source DRI drivers for r200 cards ( as well as Intel cards ), and I assume it will start working for others soon.
Why not allow users to download the latest kernel modules after booting from the CD? This is how Gentoo installs everything anyway - download it when you need it.
Of course, this depends on your definition of 'distributing'. One could argue that by providing a link to the offending modules in an ebuild, you are 'distributing' it. At least you're distributing metadata about it.
But seriously, I don't see the problem here. Can't include kernel modules that are easily downloadable? Fine. Get the user to download them. Or even get the Kororra system to download them automatically when it boots.
It's not the union's fault that your jobs are going overseas. If you're as big a capitalist appologist as I suspect you are, then it's YOUR fault that your jobs are going overseas.
You see it's your lack of concern for the welfare of others - both inside and outside your country - that is pushing jobs offshore. In the almightly 'free market' system where there are NO minimum conditions and NO unions, the cheapest labour gets employed. That's what capitalism is all about. Businesses will go for the cheapest labour.
Now, where are all your clothes made? China, right? You buy them because they're cheap, right? Do you care about the horrific poverty that you're forcing upon slave labourers in China and the rest of the world over when you buy from companies that lock people into these jobs? No, you don't. You claim that you're actually helping these people buy giving them a job! You have no problem with their oppression, and you have no problem with the capitalist model that's overseeing the migration of jobs to cheaper shores. So maybe it's time to shut the fuck up about your jobs going overseas, and start cheering about how good the economy is going. Don't worry, you can always join the fucking army:)
But back to the argument that unions are pushing jobs overseas, then yes, in a VERY limited respect, this is true. They are keeping YOUR wages and working conditions above those in 3rd world countries. And yes, if you take away the unions and accept a wage of $US1 per day, then perhaps the jobs will stop going offshore. That's what you want, isn't it?
The above bug is only 3 years old, however. Give it time...
Considering the above, in what sense do we call nautilus a 'file manager'? We could call it a 'filesystem approximator' or something. I'm running a small ( 8 PC ) Linux-on-the-desktop testbed in our sales department. They've all got gnome desktops. But we have to use konqueror as the file manager! Sad but true.
My Dad's had a theory along these lines ( very similar, actually ) for years. He wrote a letter on the topic to the university where Stephen Hawking hangs out ( can't remember which one it is now ), and they gave him a lifetime subscription to a science journal they produce. Cool:)
If scientists can have a theory where everything explodes, contracts & explodes, then why not little parts of the universe doing the same thing.
Of course this doesn't exactly satisfy our curiosity - there are still questions of where matter & energy came from, if there was a beginning of time, etc, but somehow I don't think these are ever going to be explained in a way that people can digest in an ordinary state of consciousness. The ultimate nature of the universe is far more bizarre than we could possibly imagine.
But anyway, this theory of multiple big bangs & contractions makes perfect sense to me.
If you haven't done anything wrong then you don't have anything to worry about
A more accurate version is:
If you have never disagreed and will never disagree with the current or any future government, then you don't have anything to worry about
A National ID card, by itself, does very little to invade our privacy. The problem is that they're not just introducing a card - they're introducing a centralised database to store information on those who have a card. It's the database - and the fact that it's centralised AND implemented by the federal governmnent that has people worried.
You want examples?
The Australian and US governments have demonstrated time and again what they think about civil liberties and the right to free speech. Check out the new sedition laws, where you can get 7 years for saying "I support the right of Iraqis to resist the illegal occupation forces". And then if someone tells someone else about this case, then they get 7 years gaol as well! Google for Australia and sedition.
More examples?
Google for Scott Parkin. He's an American anti-war and anti-corruption activist. He was arrested on the word of the PM that he was 'of bad character', held in solitary confinement for a couple of days, sent back to the US, and charged $10,000 for the privilege. There was never any public scrutiny of what made him 'of bad character', but clearly it was his anti-war and anti-corruption ( he hates Halliburton with a passion ) that got him into trouble. But what if he were sent to Guantanimo Bay instead of back to the US? He very well could have been, and it would be illegal ( punishable by 7 years in gaol ) for anyone to even ASK about it, not to mention speculate or... God forbid... TALK about it.
It's against this backdrop of absolute disdain for core values of freedom of speech and democracy that the National ID card is being introduced. What surprises me is that there are always idiots who are willing to lap it up in the name of preventing terrorism, fraud etc. If you want to crack down on terrorism, address the massive injustices in the world. If you want to ease the burden of fraud, then don't bother going after welfare fraud... it's small fries... go after corporate fraud. Go after the oil cartels, the entertainment cartels, the arseholes like Packer ( now dead, thankfully ) and Murdock who pay less tax than I do. Don't try to tell me that these attacks on my privacy, freedom of speech and freedom of political association are all to by benefit. Bullshit!
Yes it's a disgrace, and an indictment of the 2-party system, that the 'liberals' are behind this push.
The UK blows... Look at the healthcare system you have. You're damn likely to die while waiting for treatment for shit like cancer.
I'm in Australia, actually, but I get your point. We're heading in that direction very fast. The Liberals ( conservative party here, interesting choice of names ) spent $50 million of taxpayers money before the last election on a glossy brochure which was sent to every household in Australia, telling us how they're 'Strengthening Medicare'. They are of course doing the opposite.
There are still some remnants of the welfare state put in place by Whitlam, but every single government since the Liberal coupe which got rid of Whitlam has attacked it. Medicare is almost gone, while at the same time, people are dropping out of private health insurance because it's becoming too expensive. There is, of course, no regulation of costs that health insurers charge, and as a result, insurance has risen by 2-3 times the rate of inflation for years.
Anyway, as they say, "Regime change begins at home". I of course can't legally advocate the kind of 'regime change' that Howard, Bush & Blair believe in, as that is 'sedition'.
I realise that there is a small group of idiots who think it's halarious to repeat this joke ad-nauseum when the opportunity arises. Fine.
The problem is that the opportunity has not arisen. Do some research on what the Soviets actually were. They were the best democratic institutions yet assembled. People of the UK, US and Australia should take some valuable lessons from the Soviet era ( of course before Stalin took over ) before attempting to impose 'democracy' on the rest of the world.
The statement 'much the same as the Democrats in the US' says it all.
The Labor party has no connection to the working class. It's more interested in seducing big business and the Christian fundamentalists than taking on real issues that actually affect people.
Take their comment on 'violence'. They showed NO such opposition to the violent ( not to mention ILLEGAL ) invasion of Iraq. Then they claim that violence on the internet is the problem? I don't fucking think so!
Others here will be quick to point out that content filters are as effective as pissing into the wind. Clearly labor has no-one of a technical nature in their entire party, or someone would have shot this idea down when it first started. But of course this last statement assumes that Labor is a democratic organisation. It isn't. The in-fighting over Crean vs Bomber Beazley touched on the issue, but they predictably 'burried the hatched' and it's back to business as usual... attacking civil liberties, selling out to the moral right, corrupt deals with big business ( Sydney tunnel ), etc.
In conclusion, Labor is fucked. Try a REAL working class party: http://www.iso.org.au
It's laughable to hear Americans such as yourself beating your chest over the superiority of your so-called 'democracy', completely oblivious to the fact that your 2000 elections were anything but democratic - even by the embarassingly lapse standards your constitution calls for.
It's great that major terrorist plots such as this are being foiled, but I wish more scrutiny was given to payments coming *in* to bank accounts.
For example, the Bin Laden Group is Dubya's biggest financial backer, and has repeatedly rescued him from bankruptcy.
I would also like to see far more scrutiny of payments from weapons manufacturers, oil companies, tabacco companies, mining companies, etc, to political parties. It's clearly *these* payments that are at the *root* of terrorism. Emperor Dubya and his gang of war criminals are far too keen to treat the symptoms of these issues ( the rise of Islamic fundamentalism ) instead of addressing the cause - themselves and their financial backers.
Disdain for the importance of human rights. If that were the case, you would not have been able to type this.
Read up on Scott Parkin. Then google up on 'US torture camps'.
Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause. Um... when they fly planes into buildings, they move from "scapegoat" to "terrorist". If you can't unify against your enemies, how do you unify at all?
Who exactly flew the planes into your buildings? The Iraqis? No. The Afghanis? No. The Iranians? No. It's claimed that Al Queda was responsible, but the US government did everything they could to prevent any sort of investigation into what actually happened. There is ample evidence that repeated warnings of an immanent attack were ignored - people were even told to stop raising warnings about this particular attack. The US airforce were told to stand down. There is even evidence that one of the planes ( which resembles a US military aircraft ) had explosives onboard, and *they* were responsible for the towers coming down. I say ( and a lot of people are starting to agree with me ), that Bin Laden ( Emperor Dubya's biggest financial backer ) was invited to attack the WTC and Pentagon, and promised safety in return.
Rampant sexism. How on earth do you come up with this one? Can you name me an administration that has had women placed in higher positions? (as opposed to under the desk)
That bitch Rice is the exception that proves the rule. She's not female anyway.
A controlled mass media. This is my favorite. I had no idea that Rove and Bush were controlling the media. You'd think they'd stop some of the bashing they recieve every single day.
You really are deluded. I've listened to the 'Voice of America' broadcast. It's a fucking joke, as is the rest of the so-called 'independant' media. Where, for example, is the discussion of impeachment over Dubya's breaking of numerous laws? The media were certainly on the case over Clinton. Where is the analysis of the illegal wars you are involved in. One would think that with over 50% of the population now against the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, that a balanced media would spend some time on the issue - apart from repeating government BS about the flourishing democracy and roses sprouting from the graves of Iraqi children. Your media is one of your most frightening points.
Obsession with national security. Well, yeah! As opposed to what, acting French? That's right, they clamped down to. What country is not obsessed with national security? National security is the president's number one job!
I rest my case.
Religion and ruling elite tied together. I don't recall a whole lot of religion in 1940's Germany.
We're not talking about Germany. Keep on the ball.
Power of corporations protected. If you want a job, businesses must be protected. Would you suggest that we have a government take over of private property...
Actually, being a revolutionary socialist, that's exactly what I suggest. Thanks for asking:)
I mean evil corporations? I think that was tried before and it didn't do a whole lot for civil liberties.
Yes it did. It pushed the world into the 20th century. The Russion Revolution achieved a lot for people everywhere. They were the 1st to get an 8 hour working day, *real* freedom of religion, homosexual relationships legalised, freedom of political association. They even managed to pull out of World War 1. Of course the shit hit the fan once the rest o
Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
Disdain for the importance of human rights.
Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.
Rampant sexism.
A controlled mass media.
Obsession with national security.
Religion and ruling elite tied together.
Power of corporations protected.
Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.
Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
Obsession with crime and punishment.
Rampant cronyism and corruption
Fraudulent elections.
Sounds like America to me.
You're so swamped in hysteria and paranoia
Oh bullshit! I'm not hysterical. I'm just pointing out that your country is fucked up. Deal with it without namecalling.
you wouldn't recognize a real fascist if one was standing beside you
I think this might apply to you before me. As for standing next to fascists, I tried to when Emperor Dubya came to Canberra, but the fucking police wouldn't let me get anywhere near him. Next time...
It was passed by an overwhelming majority because an overwhelming majority in both parties agree wholeheartedly with pushing the US further towards a fascist state... and they don't have far to go.
The Democrats are absolutely pathetic. They handed the 2000 election to the Republicans on a silver platter. They rolled over and played dead in the last elections. They made a point of pretending that there was NO opposition to the wars in the middle east. They pushed strong anti-war candidates and slotted in a pro-war candidates. They attacked Bush from the right in arguing that he wasn't doing enough to protect the world from terrorism, win the war in Iraq, etc, etc.
The problem is that the Democrats are a party that defends big business interests - just like the Republicans, only a litle less competent. This is why less than 50% of Americans vote - they realise that it doesn't matter who you vote for, the same people keep winning... and those people aren't ordinary workers.
Americans should take a good look at their 2-party system, and ponder what democracy is supposed to be about, and consider the difference between the two. It's a huge gap, and it's increasing at an alarming rate. Thank God the US hasn't been so successful at exporting their brand of democracy to the rest of the world.
Some scientists worry that even with a bunch of new antibiotics hitting the market, there still aren't enough and they want legislation to make it easier for companies to develop them.
Is it really the scientists asking for this? Surely scientists understand the relationship between antibiotic use and the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria? I would say it would be the scientists' employers who are PUSHING as hard as they can to relax all laws that stand in their way of creating & marketing their latest patented product.
Or maybe this is just the part of me that is 'incompatible with US values' talking? HAIL CAPITALISM!
There are a plethora of bugs plaguing Linux-on-the-desktop. I know, because I've moved our sales department to a Linux desktop. Let me tell you: there are serious problems.
- Nautilus doesn't correctly check permissions of files it's deleting, and gives incorrect 'permission denied' errors. This bug is 5 years old! It prevents people from... wait for it... being able to delete files with their file manager. Did I mention that it's 5 years old? http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40990
Most of the above bugs are over 1 year old, and have basically never been touched by a gtk+ developer. Of course, over the period of the past year, there have been numerous major gtk+ releases, as well as numerous major gnome releases. The problem is that fixing critical bugs doesn't "scratch anyone's itch", so nothing gets done.
I imagine people would recommend that I try out QT instead of gtk+, but the licensing doesn't really suit me ( have to pay big dollars for a commercial license ), and I'm not convinced that the situation would be any different anyway.
After watching the 'progress' of the above bugs for over a year, I can tell you now why people aren't developing any applications for Linux-on-the-desktop: because the desktop is too fucking bug-ridden, and that doesn't appear to be about to change.
The simple fact that WOMD aren't there hasn't stopped 'em yet:) The ideas is to create the belief in WOMD, which can later be used as the pretext for wars, assaults on civil liberties, and silencing critics. These 'tests' do just that. And spending taxpayers' money on military research for non-existent threats is always good too - it gives you a good excuse for cutting unnecessary bloat out of the budget, such as health care, education, and other so-called 'rights' that those whining commies whinge so much about... so un-american of them...
We're not highly unionised, no. I know of 1 particular workplace that IS highly unionised, but they'd be the odd ones out.
IT workers certainly aren't conscious of being a part of the working class. They make the common mistake of considering themselves to be somehow above the working class, probably due to their income. My income, for example, is quite good. My working conditions are even better - I have a very supportive employer, and upper management even look kindly upon my activism, for example in the antiwar movement. In my current position, therefore, I don't see how a union would directly benefit me. HOWEVER, I realise that I may not be in my current position forever. I may not even be in the IT industry. My relationship to the union and other IT workers, and all workers in general, is one of solidarity. I stand alongside them in their struggles for better conditions, and in particular in defense of the new IR laws which come into effect in July.
This stance - of solidarity instead of just self-interest - is the stance that IT workers haven't yet taken on, hence the terribly poor union membership. Of course, there are other reasons why people have abandoned the unions or not turned to unions in the 1st place. I certainly have no illusions about them being a particularly progressive force. Their support of the Australian Labor party despite decades of 'economic rationalism' under Hawke & Keating is enough to send people away in droves...
The last comment is about you 'never been approached to join' a union. In places like IT call centres, I can imagine a union representative turning up and making a sales pitch. In other areas - for example in our company where there are only 2 IT workers - it simply is not feasible for union reps to tour every single company looking for members. The IR laws also further hinder union access to workplaces, making the likihood of you being approached even less. This doesn't, however, preclude you from approaching them. As the Howard government and successive Labor governments increase the attacks on our 'way of life', I expect more people will be forced to take a more militant stance and actively seek out their union in seach of a method of defense.
The is the standard 'divide and conquer' bullshit that our so-called 'leaders' turn to when their policies are becoming too much for the population to handle and they need to divert our attention.
Immigrants aren't the problem. They are people, just like all the other... people... already in the country.
For Australians worried about their pay and working conditions, the real problem is the current government and their buddies in big business that have rammed their Industrial Relations changes through the senate. Australian Workplace Agreements ( AWAs ) guarantee lower wages for ALL, by giving us the 'choice' of bargaining away working conditions that have been won over decades of hard struggle. Of course the government argues that we are only being given the 'choice' to throw away conditions previously guaranteed by law, but in reality, the choice is not ours, but the employer's. This is particularly the case since our right to collectively bargain has been removed. Without the ability to collectively bargain, how can we expect to get anywhere, or even maintain our current position? Instead of standing together to fight for our rights, we will be competing with each other for a job.
THIS point - that we are now competing with each other for a job - is what is so fucking hypocritical about the claims in the Age's article - because they are in fact true of ALL workers, and not only a problem caused by immigrant workers. Where was The Age when the federal government and Business Council of Australia were pushing for their IR changes? They were the fucking cheer-leaders! They were berating unionised workers and telling their readers that workers should 'get with the program' and 'get over' unions, which were a thing of the past. They were telling us that we shouldn't worry about being thrown into the deep-end of the job market with no safety-net, because the wonders of the free market would provide for all!
And now The Age play on this fear of competition for jobs leading to decreased wages because it fits their agenda of whipping up racist sentiment, such as the horrible abberation that we had at Cronulla just a couple of weeks ago. Make no mistake: The Age doesn't give a flying fuck about the wages of workers. They are more interested in the bigger-picture issues such as invading other countries to steal their natural resources, privitise their assets and plant the neo-conservative flag in the soil. To achieve this, though, they need to turn Australians against foreigners, and turn worker against immigrant worker.
The opensource R100, R200 & R300 drivers were written by the DRI developers. ATI provided some incomplete and contradictory documentation for the R100 & R200 to some select developers who had to sign an NDA. All the coding has been done by DRI developers. The R300 has been completely reverse-engineered.
Now. Check out all 3 drivers. They not only work, but they work incredibly well. In fact they are faster and more stable than ATI's drivers, except for in some key areas... usually areas where more documentation is required.
The simple fact is that the very thing you're saying is impossible - opensource developement of top-quality drivers - has already happened. Not only that, despite your suggestion that they're not up to it, R300 developers continue to reverse-engineer and code for the current and upcoming cards from ATI. Pretty neat, eh? Check out the list of apps the R300 can run - you'll be surprised.
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No. Terry's cerebral cortex had completely disintegrated. There was nothing to re-activate. No amount of praying or injecting or stimulating her could have changed the fact that her brain was simply no longer capable of higher-level thoughts, as the part responsible for such thought had 'turned to jelly'.
In a democratic, open society, it's not your call to say that you want other people spied on. You might want people to spy on you. That's your right. But you can't force these invasions of privacy onto others. People's lives, friends, conversations and going-ons are their own. They do not belong to the state.
Then I say that Ben Frainlin was an idiot, whoever he was.
The biggest threat to my security, and everyone else's security on the planet is the threat of war, as a policy of the United States. The numbers prove it. The 9/11 attacks killed a couple of thousand Americans. It was a vigilante effort, and was probably the most harm they could have hoped to have caused. The US have killed hundreds of thousands in Iraq since the invasion, and are directly responsible for millions starving due to UN sanctions that strangled the country for 10 years. And that's jut Iraq. The US are the only ones who have used atomic weapons. They dropped 2 weapons of mass destruction on Japan, and they argue for their right to do it again. They spread radioactive waste in the form of depleted uranium. They use chemical weapons such as napalm and white phosphorous. Just who's security are you talking about here? What you're trying to argue is that your right to security demands that everybody else's is violated !
The next biggest threat also comes from the US and their allies, in the form of an absolute breakdown of democracy and secular society, and an emergence of a fascist state run by religious fanatics. Curiously, this is what they claim they are supposed to be protecting us from.
Lastly, liberty and security are the same thing, therefore trading liberty is trading security, and a lot more besides. It is better to live a short but free life than a long but oppressed life. I also reject the idea that this invasion of our privacy is actually delivering increased security. From where I'm sitting, the world is looking like a more and more dangerous place every day. The neo-cons certainly aren't having a pacifying effect, are they?
I say that if you remove the neo-cons from power and make some attempt to address the horrible injustices their kind have caused, the threat posed by the boogey-man terrorists will disolve. They are a product of hatred of US foreign policy.
It's not like the US government has exactly been leading the way on demonstrating restraint with respect to bugging. ... at least most other people do ).
They bug everyone calling into and out of the US. They keep aggregate data for the purpose of dragnetting the stuff later for evidence of links to terrorism.
They even bug members of the United Nations ( not that I have a great deal of respect for them, but still
Why wouldn't they bug China. And yes, why wouldn't China bug the US.
It's an insane system. A paranoid, power-hungry system.
Sure, it would be good if it were possible. But this seems like a pretty straight-forward issue to me ... you're not allow to distribute the 2 together.
:) Connecting through a broadband router is simply a matter of loading the kernel drivers for you ethernet card, and running dhcpcd ... which Kororra does for you.
Also, I'm pretty sure that a majority of people are connecting to the internet via a router of some type. If not, then I would at least say that anyone seriously considering Gentoo had better get themselves broadband ( and hence a router ) real quick
I admit it's not a perfect solution. But it's the best of the bunch.
Lastly, XGL working with the open-source DRI drivers for r200 cards ( as well as Intel cards ), and I assume it will start working for others soon.
Why not allow users to download the latest kernel modules after booting from the CD? This is how Gentoo installs everything anyway - download it when you need it.
Of course, this depends on your definition of 'distributing'. One could argue that by providing a link to the offending modules in an ebuild, you are 'distributing' it. At least you're distributing metadata about it.
But seriously, I don't see the problem here. Can't include kernel modules that are easily downloadable? Fine. Get the user to download them. Or even get the Kororra system to download them automatically when it boots.
It's not the union's fault that your jobs are going overseas. If you're as big a capitalist appologist as I suspect you are, then it's YOUR fault that your jobs are going overseas.
:)
You see it's your lack of concern for the welfare of others - both inside and outside your country - that is pushing jobs offshore. In the almightly 'free market' system where there are NO minimum conditions and NO unions, the cheapest labour gets employed. That's what capitalism is all about. Businesses will go for the cheapest labour.
Now, where are all your clothes made? China, right? You buy them because they're cheap, right? Do you care about the horrific poverty that you're forcing upon slave labourers in China and the rest of the world over when you buy from companies that lock people into these jobs? No, you don't. You claim that you're actually helping these people buy giving them a job! You have no problem with their oppression, and you have no problem with the capitalist model that's overseeing the migration of jobs to cheaper shores. So maybe it's time to shut the fuck up about your jobs going overseas, and start cheering about how good the economy is going. Don't worry, you can always join the fucking army
But back to the argument that unions are pushing jobs overseas, then yes, in a VERY limited respect, this is true. They are keeping YOUR wages and working conditions above those in 3rd world countries. And yes, if you take away the unions and accept a wage of $US1 per day, then perhaps the jobs will stop going offshore. That's what you want, isn't it?
Nautilus can't perform simple tasks such as deleting files and folders:
...
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=108307
The above bug is only 3 years old, however. Give it time
Considering the above, in what sense do we call nautilus a 'file manager'? We could call it a 'filesystem approximator' or something. I'm running a small ( 8 PC ) Linux-on-the-desktop testbed in our sales department. They've all got gnome desktops. But we have to use konqueror as the file manager! Sad but true.
My Dad's had a theory along these lines ( very similar, actually ) for years. He wrote a letter on the topic to the university where Stephen Hawking hangs out ( can't remember which one it is now ), and they gave him a lifetime subscription to a science journal they produce. Cool :)
If scientists can have a theory where everything explodes, contracts & explodes, then why not little parts of the universe doing the same thing.
Of course this doesn't exactly satisfy our curiosity - there are still questions of where matter & energy came from, if there was a beginning of time, etc, but somehow I don't think these are ever going to be explained in a way that people can digest in an ordinary state of consciousness. The ultimate nature of the universe is far more bizarre than we could possibly imagine.
But anyway, this theory of multiple big bangs & contractions makes perfect sense to me.
A more accurate version is:
A National ID card, by itself, does very little to invade our privacy. The problem is that they're not just introducing a card - they're introducing a centralised database to store information on those who have a card. It's the database - and the fact that it's centralised AND implemented by the federal governmnent that has people worried.
You want examples?
The Australian and US governments have demonstrated time and again what they think about civil liberties and the right to free speech. Check out the new sedition laws, where you can get 7 years for saying "I support the right of Iraqis to resist the illegal occupation forces". And then if someone tells someone else about this case, then they get 7 years gaol as well! Google for Australia and sedition.
More examples?
Google for Scott Parkin. He's an American anti-war and anti-corruption activist. He was arrested on the word of the PM that he was 'of bad character', held in solitary confinement for a couple of days, sent back to the US, and charged $10,000 for the privilege. There was never any public scrutiny of what made him 'of bad character', but clearly it was his anti-war and anti-corruption ( he hates Halliburton with a passion ) that got him into trouble. But what if he were sent to Guantanimo Bay instead of back to the US? He very well could have been, and it would be illegal ( punishable by 7 years in gaol ) for anyone to even ASK about it, not to mention speculate or
It's against this backdrop of absolute disdain for core values of freedom of speech and democracy that the National ID card is being introduced. What surprises me is that there are always idiots who are willing to lap it up in the name of preventing terrorism, fraud etc. If you want to crack down on terrorism, address the massive injustices in the world. If you want to ease the burden of fraud, then don't bother going after welfare fraud
I'm in Australia, actually, but I get your point. We're heading in that direction very fast. The Liberals ( conservative party here, interesting choice of names ) spent $50 million of taxpayers money before the last election on a glossy brochure which was sent to every household in Australia, telling us how they're 'Strengthening Medicare' . They are of course doing the opposite.
There are still some remnants of the welfare state put in place by Whitlam, but every single government since the Liberal coupe which got rid of Whitlam has attacked it. Medicare is almost gone, while at the same time, people are dropping out of private health insurance because it's becoming too expensive. There is, of course, no regulation of costs that health insurers charge, and as a result, insurance has risen by 2-3 times the rate of inflation for years.
Anyway, as they say, "Regime change begins at home". I of course can't legally advocate the kind of 'regime change' that Howard, Bush & Blair believe in, as that is 'sedition'.
I realise that there is a small group of idiots who think it's halarious to repeat this joke ad-nauseum when the opportunity arises. Fine.
The problem is that the opportunity has not arisen. Do some research on what the Soviets actually were. They were the best democratic institutions yet assembled. People of the UK, US and Australia should take some valuable lessons from the Soviet era ( of course before Stalin took over ) before attempting to impose 'democracy' on the rest of the world.
The statement 'much the same as the Democrats in the US' says it all.
... attacking civil liberties, selling out to the moral right, corrupt deals with big business ( Sydney tunnel ), etc.
The Labor party has no connection to the working class. It's more interested in seducing big business and the Christian fundamentalists than taking on real issues that actually affect people.
Take their comment on 'violence'. They showed NO such opposition to the violent ( not to mention ILLEGAL ) invasion of Iraq. Then they claim that violence on the internet is the problem? I don't fucking think so!
Others here will be quick to point out that content filters are as effective as pissing into the wind. Clearly labor has no-one of a technical nature in their entire party, or someone would have shot this idea down when it first started. But of course this last statement assumes that Labor is a democratic organisation. It isn't. The in-fighting over Crean vs Bomber Beazley touched on the issue, but they predictably 'burried the hatched' and it's back to business as usual
In conclusion, Labor is fucked. Try a REAL working class party: http://www.iso.org.au
I believe it is you who have fallen for the myth.
It's laughable to hear Americans such as yourself beating your chest over the superiority of your so-called 'democracy', completely oblivious to the fact that your 2000 elections were anything but democratic - even by the embarassingly lapse standards your constitution calls for.
It's great that major terrorist plots such as this are being foiled, but I wish more scrutiny was given to payments coming *in* to bank accounts.
For example, the Bin Laden Group is Dubya's biggest financial backer, and has repeatedly rescued him from bankruptcy.
I would also like to see far more scrutiny of payments from weapons manufacturers, oil companies, tabacco companies, mining companies, etc, to political parties. It's clearly *these* payments that are at the *root* of terrorism. Emperor Dubya and his gang of war criminals are far too keen to treat the symptoms of these issues ( the rise of Islamic fundamentalism ) instead of addressing the cause - themselves and their financial backers.
Yes. That's the point. Everyone's doing it.
Read up on Scott Parkin. Then google up on 'US torture camps'.
Who exactly flew the planes into your buildings? The Iraqis? No. The Afghanis? No. The Iranians? No. It's claimed that Al Queda was responsible, but the US government did everything they could to prevent any sort of investigation into what actually happened. There is ample evidence that repeated warnings of an immanent attack were ignored - people were even told to stop raising warnings about this particular attack. The US airforce were told to stand down. There is even evidence that one of the planes ( which resembles a US military aircraft ) had explosives onboard, and *they* were responsible for the towers coming down. I say ( and a lot of people are starting to agree with me ), that Bin Laden ( Emperor Dubya's biggest financial backer ) was invited to attack the WTC and Pentagon, and promised safety in return.
That bitch Rice is the exception that proves the rule. She's not female anyway.
You really are deluded. I've listened to the 'Voice of America' broadcast. It's a fucking joke, as is the rest of the so-called 'independant' media. Where, for example, is the discussion of impeachment over Dubya's breaking of numerous laws? The media were certainly on the case over Clinton. Where is the analysis of the illegal wars you are involved in. One would think that with over 50% of the population now against the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, that a balanced media would spend some time on the issue - apart from repeating government BS about the flourishing democracy and roses sprouting from the graves of Iraqi children. Your media is one of your most frightening points.
I rest my case.
We're not talking about Germany. Keep on the ball.
Actually, being a revolutionary socialist, that's exactly what I suggest. Thanks for asking :)
Yes it did. It pushed the world into the 20th century. The Russion Revolution achieved a lot for people everywhere. They were the 1st to get an 8 hour working day, *real* freedom of religion, homosexual relationships legalised, freedom of political association. They even managed to pull out of World War 1. Of course the shit hit the fan once the rest o
Sure I do. Have a got at these features, taken from http://www.omnicenter.org/warpeacecollection/faci
Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
Disdain for the importance of human rights.
Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.
Rampant sexism.
A controlled mass media.
Obsession with national security.
Religion and ruling elite tied together.
Power of corporations protected.
Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.
Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
Obsession with crime and punishment.
Rampant cronyism and corruption
Fraudulent elections.
Sounds like America to me.
Oh bullshit! I'm not hysterical. I'm just pointing out that your country is fucked up. Deal with it without namecalling.
I think this might apply to you before me. As for standing next to fascists, I tried to when Emperor Dubya came to Canberra, but the fucking police wouldn't let me get anywhere near him. Next time
It was passed by an overwhelming majority because an overwhelming majority in both parties agree wholeheartedly with pushing the US further towards a fascist state ... and they don't have far to go.
... and those people aren't ordinary workers.
The Democrats are absolutely pathetic. They handed the 2000 election to the Republicans on a silver platter. They rolled over and played dead in the last elections. They made a point of pretending that there was NO opposition to the wars in the middle east. They pushed strong anti-war candidates and slotted in a pro-war candidates. They attacked Bush from the right in arguing that he wasn't doing enough to protect the world from terrorism, win the war in Iraq, etc, etc.
The problem is that the Democrats are a party that defends big business interests - just like the Republicans, only a litle less competent. This is why less than 50% of Americans vote - they realise that it doesn't matter who you vote for, the same people keep winning
Americans should take a good look at their 2-party system, and ponder what democracy is supposed to be about, and consider the difference between the two. It's a huge gap, and it's increasing at an alarming rate. Thank God the US hasn't been so successful at exporting their brand of democracy to the rest of the world.
Good question. ... who knows?
They've been revised down, I suppose. As for why, though
Is it really the scientists asking for this? Surely scientists understand the relationship between antibiotic use and the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria? I would say it would be the scientists' employers who are PUSHING as hard as they can to relax all laws that stand in their way of creating & marketing their latest patented product.
Or maybe this is just the part of me that is 'incompatible with US values' talking? HAIL CAPITALISM!
There are a plethora of bugs plaguing Linux-on-the-desktop. I know, because I've moved our sales department to a Linux desktop. Let me tell you: there are serious problems.
... wait for it ... being able to delete files with their file manager. Did I mention that it's 5 years old? http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40990
- Nautilus doesn't correctly check permissions of files it's deleting, and gives incorrect 'permission denied' errors. This bug is 5 years old! It prevents people from
- Multiple, crippling bugs in gtk+ prevent any serious application development:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=317387
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=156017
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=308474
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=161837
Most of the above bugs are over 1 year old, and have basically never been touched by a gtk+ developer. Of course, over the period of the past year, there have been numerous major gtk+ releases, as well as numerous major gnome releases. The problem is that fixing critical bugs doesn't "scratch anyone's itch", so nothing gets done.
I imagine people would recommend that I try out QT instead of gtk+, but the licensing doesn't really suit me ( have to pay big dollars for a commercial license ), and I'm not convinced that the situation would be any different anyway.
After watching the 'progress' of the above bugs for over a year, I can tell you now why people aren't developing any applications for Linux-on-the-desktop: because the desktop is too fucking bug-ridden, and that doesn't appear to be about to change.
The simple fact that WOMD aren't there hasn't stopped 'em yet :) The ideas is to create the belief in WOMD, which can later be used as the pretext for wars, assaults on civil liberties, and silencing critics. These 'tests' do just that. And spending taxpayers' money on military research for non-existent threats is always good too - it gives you a good excuse for cutting unnecessary bloat out of the budget, such as health care, education, and other so-called 'rights' that those whining commies whinge so much about ... so un-american of them ...
Idiot.
What planet are YOU from? Some people have an incredible talent for soaking up the most regressive, reactionary shit that goes around.
We're not highly unionised, no. I know of 1 particular workplace that IS highly unionised, but they'd be the odd ones out.
...
IT workers certainly aren't conscious of being a part of the working class. They make the common mistake of considering themselves to be somehow above the working class, probably due to their income. My income, for example, is quite good. My working conditions are even better - I have a very supportive employer, and upper management even look kindly upon my activism, for example in the antiwar movement. In my current position, therefore, I don't see how a union would directly benefit me. HOWEVER, I realise that I may not be in my current position forever. I may not even be in the IT industry. My relationship to the union and other IT workers, and all workers in general, is one of solidarity. I stand alongside them in their struggles for better conditions, and in particular in defense of the new IR laws which come into effect in July.
This stance - of solidarity instead of just self-interest - is the stance that IT workers haven't yet taken on, hence the terribly poor union membership. Of course, there are other reasons why people have abandoned the unions or not turned to unions in the 1st place. I certainly have no illusions about them being a particularly progressive force. Their support of the Australian Labor party despite decades of 'economic rationalism' under Hawke & Keating is enough to send people away in droves
The last comment is about you 'never been approached to join' a union. In places like IT call centres, I can imagine a union representative turning up and making a sales pitch. In other areas - for example in our company where there are only 2 IT workers - it simply is not feasible for union reps to tour every single company looking for members. The IR laws also further hinder union access to workplaces, making the likihood of you being approached even less. This doesn't, however, preclude you from approaching them . As the Howard government and successive Labor governments increase the attacks on our 'way of life', I expect more people will be forced to take a more militant stance and actively seek out their union in seach of a method of defense.
The is the standard 'divide and conquer' bullshit that our so-called 'leaders' turn to when their policies are becoming too much for the population to handle and they need to divert our attention.
... people ... already in the country.
Immigrants aren't the problem. They are people, just like all the other
For Australians worried about their pay and working conditions, the real problem is the current government and their buddies in big business that have rammed their Industrial Relations changes through the senate. Australian Workplace Agreements ( AWAs ) guarantee lower wages for ALL, by giving us the 'choice' of bargaining away working conditions that have been won over decades of hard struggle. Of course the government argues that we are only being given the 'choice' to throw away conditions previously guaranteed by law, but in reality, the choice is not ours, but the employer's. This is particularly the case since our right to collectively bargain has been removed. Without the ability to collectively bargain, how can we expect to get anywhere, or even maintain our current position? Instead of standing together to fight for our rights, we will be competing with each other for a job.
THIS point - that we are now competing with each other for a job - is what is so fucking hypocritical about the claims in the Age's article - because they are in fact true of ALL workers, and not only a problem caused by immigrant workers. Where was The Age when the federal government and Business Council of Australia were pushing for their IR changes? They were the fucking cheer-leaders! They were berating unionised workers and telling their readers that workers should 'get with the program' and 'get over' unions, which were a thing of the past. They were telling us that we shouldn't worry about being thrown into the deep-end of the job market with no safety-net, because the wonders of the free market would provide for all!
And now The Age play on this fear of competition for jobs leading to decreased wages because it fits their agenda of whipping up racist sentiment, such as the horrible abberation that we had at Cronulla just a couple of weeks ago. Make no mistake: The Age doesn't give a flying fuck about the wages of workers. They are more interested in the bigger-picture issues such as invading other countries to steal their natural resources, privitise their assets and plant the neo-conservative flag in the soil. To achieve this, though, they need to turn Australians against foreigners, and turn worker against immigrant worker.
I disagree.
... usually areas where more documentation is required.
The opensource R100, R200 & R300 drivers were written by the DRI developers. ATI provided some incomplete and contradictory documentation for the R100 & R200 to some select developers who had to sign an NDA. All the coding has been done by DRI developers. The R300 has been completely reverse-engineered.
Now. Check out all 3 drivers. They not only work, but they work incredibly well. In fact they are faster and more stable than ATI's drivers, except for in some key areas
The simple fact is that the very thing you're saying is impossible - opensource developement of top-quality drivers - has already happened. Not only that, despite your suggestion that they're not up to it, R300 developers continue to reverse-engineer and code for the current and upcoming cards from ATI. Pretty neat, eh? Check out the list of apps the R300 can run - you'll be surprised.