Saddam never changed, though. He was an evil, ruthless bastard when we put him in power, we knew how he would act, and we didn't care until he turned against the status quo.
But you know what the real bitch of it is? Poor old Saddam never actually did any of the stuff he wanted us to think he was going to do. There just weren't any WMD's, and really there never were ever going to be any. I think history's final review will show that he was actually the most 'effective' ruler of that province in a very, very long time. Sometimes, like when you're forcing three disparate people to share the wealth of one tiny corner of an otherwise inhospitable province, it really could be that a despot is the best choice.
Agreed, at worst he may have wanted WMDs, but no-one underneath him was game to tell it wasn't going to happen.
It's no accident that Hussein represented a (beleaguered) minority - choosing a minority to represent the interests of a foreign government is a strategy used since the Romans, and perfected by the British.
The Hussein family certainly used gas against Kurdish rebels - and I'm not going to defend that. I'd only point out that those rebels were encouraged, funded, and ultimately left to be slaughtered by US interests - to demonstrate that the situation is *never* clear-cut and simple. There are more than two sides in these games - and the people who cope the rough end of the stick are *always* mere puppets. Only simpletons fail to see that not only are the issues complex - they are our (human) history and that the same issues we see on a national scale, are the same ones that blight us on a local scale. Race, language, culture, and geography are the blinkers that prevent us from seeing that the cause of these problems is competition - corruption, war, and conspiracy are the side-effects of a necessary and *good* thing.
Saddam never changed, though. He was an evil, ruthless bastard when we put him in power, we knew how he would act, and we didn't care until he turned against the status quo.
Unlike you, I am a true patriot and love my country, which is why I tell the truth instead of going along with the lies. Yes, America, that foreign policy DOES make you look like a ruthless bitch, sorry.
And you sir, are the reason why, despite the claims of fucktards - we (non-US citizens) don't all hate Americans. Those that can chew gum and walk recognise the difference between the actions and influences of business and other vested interests, and nations as a whole.
Those that claim otherwise are just ducking the issue - power corrupts - and ignorance, and apathy, empowers corruption.
Patriotism *is* the last refuge of scoundrels - it is *not* the exclusive preserve of scoundrels though. There's a critical difference (fortunately).
Sorta like Saddam Hussein and his sons running Iraq. But Jesus, did America catch hell for doing something about it. We still are.
If it's one thing I've learned, dictators are protected by larger nations so that they may be used like pawns and creating stalemates in global diplomacy. Nice huh?
Um, of no particular relevance, but.... how did Hussein gain power in the first place? And, yes, I *know* the answer, your failure to even consider it robs you of any credibility.
Because you cannot bring about Democracy by force. Either the people are ready for it or they are not, and the single best test of "are they ready" is that they overthrow the tyrant (bonus points for NOT filling him full of holes, but trying him in a civilized manner)
Perhaps you can't bring democracy by force, but you can prepare them for it, as the UK proved in India and Hong Kong. We'll have to watch Iraq to see if the original premise is proved false or not.
Well, wait. If we consider the cases of Germany and Japan, actually, they prove pretty definitively that you can bring democracy as a result of bringing force.
The UK brought democracy to India? and Hong Kong? I'm all for the idea that freedom, liberty, and democracy are the results of struggle and sacrifice - but you really, really need to learn a little history.
Hint: Belgium didn't bring democracy to the Congo, Britain, Germany and Russia *didn't* bring democracy to the Middle East either.
Don't attribute to democracy what can be explained as a rear-guard action.
I watched fascinated as a desktop tech attempted to get more mileage out of a laser toner by shaking it -= then when that failed, held it over his head, stood underneath and prised it open with a screwdriver. When I finished laughing (not that the inhalation of toner is healthy) I suggested using the hottest possible water to clean the toner out of his clothes. The following week the same person rolled out a number of new PCs, and connected them to the network with 5 metre cat5 cables - when I went up to fix the alleged routing problem I found he'd used his "nouse" (and muscles) to stretch the cables. The job sheet clearly said 10m cables, guess he was just lazy. Oh, another time he "discovered" that an entire batch of new replacement hdds was dodgy - by hooking them up one-by-one, with the the drives sitting on the metal case (shorting the circuitry) and booting the test machine. Finally, in response to all the complaints his father stepped in a moved him out of Desktop support - to Project Management. No surprise that company went into receivership the following year. (I'm looking at you Adam!).
Then there was the new starter in the server room - not 15 minutes after being read the rules on *not* touching the mainframes or the tape robots ("just stick to labeling blank tapes") he climbed into a tape robot "to see how it worked". It was only luck and a lot of micro-switches that prevented the robot from tearing his head off. (there's a special place in Hell for people who "look" with their fingers). I should have seen the signs when he first tried to install Outlook on his PC - I asked wtf he was doing - he replied that the "don't fuck with the equipment" rules were only for people who weren't computer experts (he held a MSCE), and that surely everyone knew Lotus was an "end-of-life" product.... One guess who the employer was (manufacturer of said mainframes and tape robots).
Both these people are still employed (elsewhere) in the industry, the latter is considered an IT industry authority in the local PC user's group.
Hmmmm? Did Your big mouth and skimming get you into a jam again?? Absolutely. You burned yourself fool.
Now don't be so hard on clone52431 - even fucktards serve a purpose, if only to remind us of the inequity of nature, and as compelling arguments in favour of retroactive abortion.
A stopped clock is right twice a day, and his clock is stopped on economic disaster. Wake me up when he can correctly predict upturns too, and then he might have something interesting going on.
Keep sleeping. If you can write, operate a browser, and are incapable of recognising satire, and, basic comprehension, then you need all the rest you can get.
Hint: someone who predicts 13 events, and is only right 3 times, is a failure. For a visual representation of failure - look in the mirror (sigh).
Anybody else think the whole "oh noes, Wikileaks might tell the truth about something, those bastards!" and the whole "they're traitors! (by being open and honest when gov't doesn't want to be, what treachery)" is completely overinflated and overblown?
Yes.
I don't think the referenced article lives up to it's headline either.
Floyd Abrams sucks dick, and, is a lame writer.
The Wall Street Journal published that as news! 'I'm shocked and flabbergasted' (ironic quotes). About the closest thing to an actual argument in the (referenced) story is a comparison between Daniel Ellsberg not publishing everything, and Wikileaks who have not published everything. Nothing Wikileaks (or Julian Assange) has done weakens journalism - it's just shown them up as weak. Even when it comes to writing articles designed to discredit the leaks they can't do better than aiming for an individual.
Guess that'll now allow the Murdoch Press to point to it as an authoritative source. 'Oh wait' - it is the Murdoch Press.
At this point, does everyone not know that both Lamo and Manning are gay? Do you really think that Manning cares if you release the logs about his complaints about DADT? His fight with his boyfriend? Lamo's own prurient rant? The only thing that could be considered personal is the names of their partners. Redact them, and release.
Or are you waiting to be compelled at trial to release the full logs to have something more to write about?
Should the logs ever actually be leaked - how suprised would you be if the unreleased material was not about Manning. Note how few points Greenwald raised that Wired addressed. Claiming the high ground of "protecting the source" after betraying the source is a scumbag act. The sort of act performed by people who may well have engineered Mannings' arrest - oh wait, that's the sort of shit "Vigilant" and duh J35t3r do.
If 70 million slashdot users sign up in the next few hours, then I can post a new slashdot story "How Tony's Possessed game Drew 70 Million Players In Less Than a DAY"...
Or just lie and say they did, then maybe they will.
the Facebook economy has been acquiring an increasingly Darwinian shape
Um, Darwinian evolution does not reward the most populous species, but the one that is best adapted to its environment. In Facebook terms, this would mean that the funnest game would be the best promoted. What's happening here is decidedly un-Darwin-like.
This one of those evolutionary plateaus... (I hope)
They clearly made a secret deal with Facebook to promote their game while keeping the "good will" for being small.
Deals like this one are creating a virtual monopoly that cripple the smaller, more honest, dev teams that really maintain a fresh gaming environment.
You make a compelling argument. It's not fair, let's do something now - just let me investigate this Facebook thing first...[opens new tab, types in URL]
Somehow I doubt that all the computing machines in the word combined have the necessary processing power to computationally simulate *everything* that happens on the planet, even when if we try to limit the variables. So I'll just go ahead and assume the science team will compromise on a flawed model which produces equally flawed results.
Every model is flawed according to that definition.
They'll try to simplify the earth, and model it... and hopefully it can predict future events with a certain degree of certainty.
I agree that the word "everything" is too strong... but it's just sad and silly that the entire Slashdot forum attacks these guys because they said this.
There is some value in this exercise. Just like you can model an ant colony, you can probably model the world. We're all awfully predictable anyway.
If nothing else - the failures will be useful. It's likely there'll be other demands for large-scale modeling in the future.
I can see a few ways how this could happen. E.g. run the wrong copy batch, the "public" one instead of the "private" one. Maybe a careless drag and drop copying process (your finger never slipped from the mouse button?). There's so many ways to have a file end up where it should not be...
I sincerely hope that's not the scenario. Though it sometimes seems like a disturbingly common practice to have a system (or lack thereof) in place that makes that possible. I guess I'll have to dig through the mailing lists to answer my own question. (not that I don't trust Mozilla, just curious)
"The consequences of chess are fuck all - ditto the collateral damage. Where's the commitment in a board game? "
That is entirely dependent on the players. People have died over virtual objects in World of Warcraft, the consequence and the commitment is entirely one of perspective.
After due consideration, and thinking back to my youth when I allowed a flatmate to host "Empires At Arms" games.... I'll concede to war-like;-p
If they are so isolated from you, why do you care enough about them to post that diatribe?
What does one (sophistic) thing have to do with the other?
Won't examining your own motivations provide a suitable answer? Or are you just trying to make some sort of obscure, petty, and asinine point? Are you unable to understand the difference between a (somewhat tongue in cheek) description of *some* intellectuals and *all* intellectuals. Your implied opinion of me says nothing about me, and speaks volumes of you.
Dear moderator - how the fuck was that a troll. Dick.
Actually, it's probably just the opposite. After the BSD backdoor story and after the Wikileaks cables, maybe Russia is concerned about using Microsoft Windows. Of course, Microsoft would *never* work with the NSA/FBI/CIA/Control/Chaos on back-doors that undermine the security of Russia... I can't imaging why they would want their own operating system...
[dons tin foil hat] Do you think already having the source code to Windoof, and the source code to GNU/Linux, that the Russians may have based their choice on reasons other than licensing costs?
I applaud the timely and transparent response - and I admit I'm heavily biased in favour of (F)OSS.
I've looked (quickly) but been unable to find details on how this was able to occur - do any Slashdot readers know? Could you post or point to the information please.
This is all I could find out:-
We have identified the process which allowed this file to be posted publicly and have taken steps to prevent this in the future. We are also evaluating other processes to ensure your information is safe and secure.
Also - what, if any, steps are being taken to prevent it happening again?
I have no regrets, I had no bad experiences and I think hallucinogens should be legal.
The "you'll look back and facepalm" comment was because what I was replying to sounded exactly like all the pseudo-profound stuff that myself and others used to spout, so stereotypical but seemingly so important.
In the end it really isn't.
Agreed! The biggest insights I had were that we take in huge amounts of data, but filter out most. That what we do perceive is flawed (confabulated). That most of life is trivia, and that knowledge somehow becomes a "profound insight". I remember laughing so hard I cried when I realised that the more obvious something was - the more profound that knowledge was. On the plus side - those insights made it hard to get over excited about sport, drama, and politics without recognizing it as foolish to think the achievements/actions of others is any reflection of us.
Slashdot Mirror
Saddam never changed, though. He was an evil, ruthless bastard when we put him in power, we knew how he would act, and we didn't care until he turned against the status quo.
But you know what the real bitch of it is? Poor old Saddam never actually did any of the stuff he wanted us to think he was going to do. There just weren't any WMD's, and really there never were ever going to be any. I think history's final review will show that he was actually the most 'effective' ruler of that province in a very, very long time. Sometimes, like when you're forcing three disparate people to share the wealth of one tiny corner of an otherwise inhospitable province, it really could be that a despot is the best choice.
Agreed, at worst he may have wanted WMDs, but no-one underneath him was game to tell it wasn't going to happen.
It's no accident that Hussein represented a (beleaguered) minority - choosing a minority to represent the interests of a foreign government is a strategy used since the Romans, and perfected by the British.
The Hussein family certainly used gas against Kurdish rebels - and I'm not going to defend that. I'd only point out that those rebels were encouraged, funded, and ultimately left to be slaughtered by US interests - to demonstrate that the situation is *never* clear-cut and simple. There are more than two sides in these games - and the people who cope the rough end of the stick are *always* mere puppets. Only simpletons fail to see that not only are the issues complex - they are our (human) history and that the same issues we see on a national scale, are the same ones that blight us on a local scale. Race, language, culture, and geography are the blinkers that prevent us from seeing that the cause of these problems is competition - corruption, war, and conspiracy are the side-effects of a necessary and *good* thing.
Saddam never changed, though. He was an evil, ruthless bastard when we put him in power, we knew how he would act, and we didn't care until he turned against the status quo.
Unlike you, I am a true patriot and love my country, which is why I tell the truth instead of going along with the lies. Yes, America, that foreign policy DOES make you look like a ruthless bitch, sorry.
And you sir, are the reason why, despite the claims of fucktards - we (non-US citizens) don't all hate Americans. Those that can chew gum and walk recognise the difference between the actions and influences of business and other vested interests, and nations as a whole.
Those that claim otherwise are just ducking the issue - power corrupts - and ignorance, and apathy, empowers corruption.
Patriotism *is* the last refuge of scoundrels - it is *not* the exclusive preserve of scoundrels though. There's a critical difference (fortunately).
Sorta like Saddam Hussein and his sons running Iraq. But Jesus, did America catch hell for doing something about it. We still are.
If it's one thing I've learned, dictators are protected by larger nations so that they may be used like pawns and creating stalemates in global diplomacy. Nice huh?
Um, of no particular relevance, but.... how did Hussein gain power in the first place? And, yes, I *know* the answer, your failure to even consider it robs you of any credibility.
Because you cannot bring about Democracy by force. Either the people are ready for it or they are not, and the single best test of "are they ready" is that they overthrow the tyrant (bonus points for NOT filling him full of holes, but trying him in a civilized manner)
Perhaps you can't bring democracy by force, but you can prepare them for it, as the UK proved in India and Hong Kong. We'll have to watch Iraq to see if the original premise is proved false or not.
Well, wait. If we consider the cases of Germany and Japan, actually, they prove pretty definitively that you can bring democracy as a result of bringing force.
The UK brought democracy to India? and Hong Kong? I'm all for the idea that freedom, liberty, and democracy are the results of struggle and sacrifice - but you really, really need to learn a little history.
Hint: Belgium didn't bring democracy to the Congo, Britain, Germany and Russia *didn't* bring democracy to the Middle East either.
Don't attribute to democracy what can be explained as a rear-guard action.
putting hot electronics in the fridge or freezer for breif periods does sometimes help. its just colder... its not freakin raining in the fridge...
Yeah, (I've done it) but it really is a good idea to put them in sealed plastic bags first....
I watched fascinated as a desktop tech attempted to get more mileage out of a laser toner by shaking it -= then when that failed, held it over his head, stood underneath and prised it open with a screwdriver. When I finished laughing (not that the inhalation of toner is healthy) I suggested using the hottest possible water to clean the toner out of his clothes. The following week the same person rolled out a number of new PCs, and connected them to the network with 5 metre cat5 cables - when I went up to fix the alleged routing problem I found he'd used his "nouse" (and muscles) to stretch the cables. The job sheet clearly said 10m cables, guess he was just lazy. Oh, another time he "discovered" that an entire batch of new replacement hdds was dodgy - by hooking them up one-by-one, with the the drives sitting on the metal case (shorting the circuitry) and booting the test machine. Finally, in response to all the complaints his father stepped in a moved him out of Desktop support - to Project Management. No surprise that company went into receivership the following year. (I'm looking at you Adam!).
Then there was the new starter in the server room - not 15 minutes after being read the rules on *not* touching the mainframes or the tape robots ("just stick to labeling blank tapes") he climbed into a tape robot "to see how it worked". It was only luck and a lot of micro-switches that prevented the robot from tearing his head off. (there's a special place in Hell for people who "look" with their fingers). I should have seen the signs when he first tried to install Outlook on his PC - I asked wtf he was doing - he replied that the "don't fuck with the equipment" rules were only for people who weren't computer experts (he held a MSCE), and that surely everyone knew Lotus was an "end-of-life" product.... One guess who the employer was (manufacturer of said mainframes and tape robots).
Both these people are still employed (elsewhere) in the industry, the latter is considered an IT industry authority in the local PC user's group.
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1927208&cid=34689212
Hmmmm? Did Your big mouth and skimming get you into a jam again?? Absolutely. You burned yourself fool.
Now don't be so hard on clone52431 - even fucktards serve a purpose, if only to remind us of the inequity of nature, and as compelling arguments in favour of retroactive abortion.
:-)
A stopped clock is right twice a day, and his clock is stopped on economic disaster. Wake me up when he can correctly predict upturns too, and then he might have something interesting going on.
Keep sleeping. If you can write, operate a browser, and are incapable of recognising satire, and, basic comprehension, then you need all the rest you can get.
Hint: someone who predicts 13 events, and is only right 3 times, is a failure. For a visual representation of failure - look in the mirror (sigh).
Floyd Abrams sucks dick, and, is a lame writer.
I forgot... middle school is out for break, isn't it?
(yawn) Still wanking over your computer magazines and creating multiple usernames to try and moderate your own posts as "interesting"?
Anybody else think the whole "oh noes, Wikileaks might tell the truth about something, those bastards!" and the whole "they're traitors! (by being open and honest when gov't doesn't want to be, what treachery)" is completely overinflated and overblown?
Yes.
I don't think the referenced article lives up to it's headline either.
Floyd Abrams sucks dick, and, is a lame writer.
The Wall Street Journal published that as news! 'I'm shocked and flabbergasted' (ironic quotes). About the closest thing to an actual argument in the (referenced) story is a comparison between Daniel Ellsberg not publishing everything, and Wikileaks who have not published everything. Nothing Wikileaks (or Julian Assange) has done weakens journalism - it's just shown them up as weak. Even when it comes to writing articles designed to discredit the leaks they can't do better than aiming for an individual.
Guess that'll now allow the Murdoch Press to point to it as an authoritative source. 'Oh wait' - it is the Murdoch Press.
there's a toe-jam joke there somewhere...
At this point, does everyone not know that both Lamo and Manning are gay? Do you really think that Manning cares if you release the logs about his complaints about DADT? His fight with his boyfriend? Lamo's own prurient rant? The only thing that could be considered personal is the names of their partners. Redact them, and release.
Or are you waiting to be compelled at trial to release the full logs to have something more to write about?
Should the logs ever actually be leaked - how suprised would you be if the unreleased material was not about Manning. Note how few points Greenwald raised that Wired addressed. Claiming the high ground of "protecting the source" after betraying the source is a scumbag act. The sort of act performed by people who may well have engineered Mannings' arrest - oh wait, that's the sort of shit "Vigilant" and duh J35t3r do.
If 70 million slashdot users sign up in the next few hours, then I can post a new slashdot story "How Tony's Possessed game Drew 70 Million Players In Less Than a DAY"...
Or just lie and say they did, then maybe they will.
Not that *that* could 'ever' happen.
the Facebook economy has been acquiring an increasingly Darwinian shape
Um, Darwinian evolution does not reward the most populous species, but the one that is best adapted to its environment. In Facebook terms, this would mean that the funnest game would be the best promoted. What's happening here is decidedly un-Darwin-like.
This one of those evolutionary plateaus... (I hope)
Heavens, no.
They clearly made a secret deal with Facebook to promote their game while keeping the "good will" for being small.
Deals like this one are creating a virtual monopoly that cripple the smaller, more honest, dev teams that really maintain a fresh gaming environment.
You make a compelling argument. It's not fair, let's do something now - just let me investigate this Facebook thing first...[opens new tab, types in URL]
Aw crap.
contact to see if formed his own survival prospects the top. Or were, and some of the b7efore playing to
What's the matter kiddo? 4chan been laughing at ya again, and your little sister done locked you in the boot?
Wake me when they can accurately predict yesterday's situation with just the data from up to 3 days ago for more than 1 month in a row.
It's been done already. I can't remember the economists name - but he correctly predicted the last market crash.
I checked him out at the time - turns out he correctly predicted thirteen of the last three economic downturns.
The Semantic Web (to the extent that anybody has made it work at all) does not generalise very well
If the Semantic Web is even partially written by the sort of people who post comments on youtube - we are royally fucked.
Somehow I doubt that all the computing machines in the word combined have the necessary processing power to computationally simulate *everything* that happens on the planet, even when if we try to limit the variables. So I'll just go ahead and assume the science team will compromise on a flawed model which produces equally flawed results.
Every model is flawed according to that definition.
They'll try to simplify the earth, and model it... and hopefully it can predict future events with a certain degree of certainty.
I agree that the word "everything" is too strong... but it's just sad and silly that the entire Slashdot forum attacks these guys because they said this.
There is some value in this exercise. Just like you can model an ant colony, you can probably model the world. We're all awfully predictable anyway.
If nothing else - the failures will be useful. It's likely there'll be other demands for large-scale modeling in the future.
I can see a few ways how this could happen. E.g. run the wrong copy batch, the "public" one instead of the "private" one. Maybe a careless drag and drop copying process (your finger never slipped from the mouse button?). There's so many ways to have a file end up where it should not be...
I sincerely hope that's not the scenario. Though it sometimes seems like a disturbingly common practice to have a system (or lack thereof) in place that makes that possible. I guess I'll have to dig through the mailing lists to answer my own question. (not that I don't trust Mozilla, just curious)
"The consequences of chess are fuck all - ditto the collateral damage. Where's the commitment in a board game? "
That is entirely dependent on the players. People have died over virtual objects in World of Warcraft, the consequence and the commitment is entirely one of perspective.
After due consideration, and thinking back to my youth when I allowed a flatmate to host "Empires At Arms" games.... I'll concede to war-like ;-p
If they are so isolated from you, why do you care enough about them to post that diatribe?
What does one (sophistic) thing have to do with the other?
Won't examining your own motivations provide a suitable answer? Or are you just trying to make some sort of obscure, petty, and asinine point? Are you unable to understand the difference between a (somewhat tongue in cheek) description of *some* intellectuals and *all* intellectuals. Your implied opinion of me says nothing about me, and speaks volumes of you.
Actually, it's probably just the opposite. After the BSD backdoor story and after the Wikileaks cables, maybe Russia is concerned about using Microsoft Windows. Of course, Microsoft would *never* work with the NSA/FBI/CIA/Control/Chaos on back-doors that undermine the security of Russia... I can't imaging why they would want their own operating system...
[dons tin foil hat] Do you think already having the source code to Windoof, and the source code to GNU/Linux, that the Russians may have based their choice on reasons other than licensing costs?
I applaud the timely and transparent response - and I admit I'm heavily biased in favour of (F)OSS.
I've looked (quickly) but been unable to find details on how this was able to occur - do any Slashdot readers know? Could you post or point to the information please.
This is all I could find out:-
We have identified the process which allowed this file to be posted publicly and have taken steps to prevent this in the future. We are also evaluating other processes to ensure your information is safe and secure.
Also - what, if any, steps are being taken to prevent it happening again?
I have no regrets, I had no bad experiences and I think hallucinogens should be legal.
The "you'll look back and facepalm" comment was because what I was replying to sounded exactly like all the pseudo-profound stuff that myself and others used to spout, so stereotypical but seemingly so important.
In the end it really isn't.
Agreed! The biggest insights I had were that we take in huge amounts of data, but filter out most. That what we do perceive is flawed (confabulated). That most of life is trivia, and that knowledge somehow becomes a "profound insight". I remember laughing so hard I cried when I realised that the more obvious something was - the more profound that knowledge was. On the plus side - those insights made it hard to get over excited about sport, drama, and politics without recognizing it as foolish to think the achievements/actions of others is any reflection of us.