you're talking about another war in another era. The analogy might hold a tiny shred of substance IF Iraq was a relentlessly expansionist power like Hitler's germany. Remember, the US attack was a totally preventive attack. It was not a response to some attempt by Hussein to take over the world. It was, many would argue, totally unprovoked. Iraq, by 2003, was totally contained as any kind of threat to its neighbors (hell, Iraqi authorities were not even allowed to fly over huge parts of their own country).
Sorry; you're misinformed. You're saying the one sarin rocket that was found -- and even US generals admitted the Iraqis didn't seem to have any idea what this thing was -- is evidence of Iraqi WMD threatening enough to the US to justify an invasion? Hell, there are rednecks in Idaho stockpiling more chemical weapons than have been found in Iraq! What's more, the sarin weapon found was a binary weapon, that most observers agreed was probably manufactured in the US and probably sold to Saddam by a US or German company before the 1991 Gulf War. The question to be asking is not whether there is evidence of WMD ever existing in Iraq but rather whether there was a large enough WMD program existing in 2003 that it was a significant threat to the US, and the answer to that question is clearly and resoundingly "NO."
As for al-Qaeda, again, you're misinformed. The 911 commission found no significant COOPERATION between SADDAM HUSSEIN'S GOVERNMENT and al Qaeda. That is very different from saying no ties at all between Iraq and al Qaeda. Of course there have been "ties"; al Qaeda is a very successful international terrorist organization partly because it attempted to cultivate ties to intelligence agencies around the world. All the evidence is that such attempts failed with respect to Saddam Hussein's government. Hell, there are "ties" between al Qaeda and the CIA that are more significant than those claimed in Iraq! While the panel did find that there was communication between these parties, no evidence suggests there was cooperation and in fact much evidence suggests that the relationship between these two entities was rather hostile. The CIA disputes the specific claims of one of the 911 Commission members (hardly the "most liberal" one, as you say), and the evidence that many raise about Kurdish cooperation with al Qaeda in northern Iraq hardly supports the case. Even if that evidence is true, that area was not under Saddam Hussein's control at all since the 1991 war, when it became part of a "no-fly" zone. Did you even read the 911 Commission's comments on the issue?
So you're saying the invasion was justified not because of WMD (which never materialized), not because Saddam had ties to al Qaeda (which everyone with a clue agrees that he did not), and not because we would "liberate" Iraq (since we've been against having local elections from the beginning even though many in Iraq have been begging for them, we've shut down newspapers, we're installing a handpicked leader who has been working with the CIA for years, but rather because it might increase the number of linux users in the world. About 10,000 Iraqi civilians dead, exactly 841 American soldiers dead, who knows how many civilian contractors, and over $119 billion spent, and it is worth it why? Because there will be more people recompiling their linux kernels on a saturday night!
You'll have to forgive the Iraqis if they aren't yet jumping for joy about the open source revolution; they may have other things on their minds right now.
if you've been paying any attention at all to anything that has happened in Iraq since their so-called liberation you'd know that most Iraqis want us out and that the longer we stay the stronger more radical forces like al-Sadr get. Even the Washington Post is reporting that the handover is a joke. Most Iraqis recognize the CPA as a puppet of the occupation rather than as an indigenous government. It is spectacularly stupid to put into power a long time exile with open CIA contacts and expect the Iraqis to welcome him as their new leader. The security situation is a nightmare. Like everyone else, I'm glad the thug Saddam is gone too, but what we've left is a power vacuum that is quickly being filled with radical elements on both sides and laying the groundwork for civil war. Meanwhile, US companies are basically looting the country's wealth, doing their best to squeeze every last penny out of the country before the handover becomes official.
I think it's really cool that linux is gaining ground in Iraq, but the grandparent poster is correct -- linux isn't going to stop the the looting, it's not going to solve the security situation, it's not going to work without electricity, and it's not going to bring freedom or stability to a nation teetering on the brink of civil war.
Jihadux: The only linux distribution optimized for jihad. You can recompile your kernel, browse the web for beheading videos with Konqueror, and type letters in OpenOffice, which delivers the office productivity tools you need to destroy all Zionists and Crusaders.
So the wire connecting the adapter to the stereo is neat and clean?
On another note, it's interesting how much they're hyping the supposedly excellent "sound quality" of the iPod. I love my iPod, but sound quality here is almost entirely a factor of the encoding of the music rather than the iPod. When it comes down to it, the iPod is just a hard drive with headphones. It stores the music and hopefully doesn't introduce too much noise in the connection to the speakers, but a crappy mp3 recording is not going to mysteriously sound so much better when played on an iPod as opposed to any other digital music player.
Don't forget AirTunes/Airport Express. My pointless speculation is that the next generation iPod will have WiFi so it functions as (among other things) a remote control for iTunes on your G5 in the other room with the 250-gig music library....
Anyway, he sums it up like this. 60% of the people want us there, 20 percent don't care and would like us to get out as soon as we can and the reamaining 20% are completely insane and un/miseducated fanatics.
And the methodology for his study is what? And he defines "fanatic" how? No disrespect meant to your friend there, but the plural of "anecdote" is not "data." Back here on earth, more credible studies paint a much bleaker picture of Iraqi sentiment towards the occupation.
I installed it yesterday on a Mac OS X 10.3.4 with no problem. Copied the app off the mounted dmg and then double clicked it, and there it was. Played with it for about 30 seconds before returning to Eudora which kicks its ass as far as I'm concerned. I love the mozilla browsers; use Camino constantly, but for email Eudora is where it's at.
is a honkin' server in your trunk just to listen to music. A server *and* a laptop. I guess it didn't occur to him to just plug the laptop directly into the cassette deck that he has the E450 plugged into. Or, here's an idea, get an iPod! (And a car stereo with AUX input so you're not playing through a crappy cassette deck). In response to why you wouldn't want this in your trunk -- it's damn easy to steal (even has wheels to wheel it away).... on a completely unrelated note, if this thing is stolen, you might need to worry about an RIAA lawsuit for distributing copyrighted music....
Come on.... everyone knows that slackware's real giant leap was when it jumped from version 4 to version 8, leapfrogging over the other popular linux distributions of its day, which were still at a lowly version 7.x....
Slashdot Mirror
I suggest the first place to cut would be the bikinis for the massage girls.
you're talking about another war in another era. The analogy might hold a tiny shred of substance IF Iraq was a relentlessly expansionist power like Hitler's germany. Remember, the US attack was a totally preventive attack. It was not a response to some attempt by Hussein to take over the world. It was, many would argue, totally unprovoked. Iraq, by 2003, was totally contained as any kind of threat to its neighbors (hell, Iraqi authorities were not even allowed to fly over huge parts of their own country).
As for al-Qaeda, again, you're misinformed. The 911 commission found no significant COOPERATION between SADDAM HUSSEIN'S GOVERNMENT and al Qaeda. That is very different from saying no ties at all between Iraq and al Qaeda. Of course there have been "ties"; al Qaeda is a very successful international terrorist organization partly because it attempted to cultivate ties to intelligence agencies around the world. All the evidence is that such attempts failed with respect to Saddam Hussein's government. Hell, there are "ties" between al Qaeda and the CIA that are more significant than those claimed in Iraq! While the panel did find that there was communication between these parties, no evidence suggests there was cooperation and in fact much evidence suggests that the relationship between these two entities was rather hostile. The CIA disputes the specific claims of one of the 911 Commission members (hardly the "most liberal" one, as you say), and the evidence that many raise about Kurdish cooperation with al Qaeda in northern Iraq hardly supports the case. Even if that evidence is true, that area was not under Saddam Hussein's control at all since the 1991 war, when it became part of a "no-fly" zone. Did you even read the 911 Commission's comments on the issue?
That's cool but, if you actually want to use your wifi connection, you're gonna need to get your laptop out.
So you're saying a regular kayak (without the "war") is somehow not technological?
You'll have to forgive the Iraqis if they aren't yet jumping for joy about the open source revolution; they may have other things on their minds right now.
And how is open source inconsistent with "respect for IP"?
I think it's really cool that linux is gaining ground in Iraq, but the grandparent poster is correct -- linux isn't going to stop the the looting, it's not going to solve the security situation, it's not going to work without electricity, and it's not going to bring freedom or stability to a nation teetering on the brink of civil war.
Jihadux: The only linux distribution optimized for jihad. You can recompile your kernel, browse the web for beheading videos with Konqueror, and type letters in OpenOffice, which delivers the office productivity tools you need to destroy all Zionists and Crusaders.
... but I did get a +5 insightful on slashdot once. Does that count?"
This one has 3132 CPUs.
The adapter frees your car from messy wires
So the wire connecting the adapter to the stereo is neat and clean?
On another note, it's interesting how much they're hyping the supposedly excellent "sound quality" of the iPod. I love my iPod, but sound quality here is almost entirely a factor of the encoding of the music rather than the iPod. When it comes down to it, the iPod is just a hard drive with headphones. It stores the music and hopefully doesn't introduce too much noise in the connection to the speakers, but a crappy mp3 recording is not going to mysteriously sound so much better when played on an iPod as opposed to any other digital music player.
Don't forget AirTunes/Airport Express. My pointless speculation is that the next generation iPod will have WiFi so it functions as (among other things) a remote control for iTunes on your G5 in the other room with the 250-gig music library ....
As if hotmail and yahoo are in any position to point the finger at anyone for privacy issues!
And the methodology for his study is what? And he defines "fanatic" how? No disrespect meant to your friend there, but the plural of "anecdote" is not "data." Back here on earth, more credible studies paint a much bleaker picture of Iraqi sentiment towards the occupation.
I installed it yesterday on a Mac OS X 10.3.4 with no problem. Copied the app off the mounted dmg and then double clicked it, and there it was. Played with it for about 30 seconds before returning to Eudora which kicks its ass as far as I'm concerned. I love the mozilla browsers; use Camino constantly, but for email Eudora is where it's at.
That's what the wheels are for. No more difficult than pushing a loaded shopping cart.
is a honkin' server in your trunk just to listen to music. A server *and* a laptop. I guess it didn't occur to him to just plug the laptop directly into the cassette deck that he has the E450 plugged into. Or, here's an idea, get an iPod! (And a car stereo with AUX input so you're not playing through a crappy cassette deck). In response to why you wouldn't want this in your trunk -- it's damn easy to steal (even has wheels to wheel it away). ... on a completely unrelated note, if this thing is stolen, you might need to worry about an RIAA lawsuit for distributing copyrighted music....
Great idea! This will be wonderful, especially after somebody releases a hack that makes iTunes think you have a particular CD in the drive...
Is the name of the album: "Contraband."
That doesn't answer the question; how many people actually read that sticker or have any idea what it means?
Of course not. Everyone knows it was all a hoax. Why do you think the Saturn V never got off the ground?
Am I the only one who read the headline and imagined this giant baby walking slowly toward a rack of computers?
What should I do with my copy of Slackware 4.0 then, genius?
Come on.... everyone knows that slackware's real giant leap was when it jumped from version 4 to version 8, leapfrogging over the other popular linux distributions of its day, which were still at a lowly version 7.x....