I do agree with you that the 5.56 round (as from the M16 of SAW) does less damage than the 7.62 (M60); however, I still diasgree that soldiers are not trained to kill. Many of the cadences we sang during my time in the Army (not just basic training) had the common theme of killing (this is just one example). When using the.50 caliber machine gun, we were told that we could not aim at people, but could aim at the equipment that they were wearing (in order to be technically compliant with teh Geneva Conventions). Additionally, the training did not only entail the use of firearms, but also hand-to-hand combat, and various ways to kill people silently.
Incidentally, in the Army, we never referred to the ammo as "full metal jacket" (even though that's what it is technically). The terminology used in movies always makes me laugh, because it is nowhere near accurate, with very few exceptions.
One thing that most people in the US don't understand is how politics and power really works here (they have never been taught this, and certainly do not receive this information in the MSM).
Unfortunately, the vote of the ordinary person does not really count; in fact, in most states (IIRC), the people could all vote for one candidate and the electoral college folks could swing the other way. This completely disempowers the average voter. Add to that the [justifiable] uncertainty over the security of the voting machines, and the multitude of reports of election fraud in hotly contested areas, and there really is alot of evidence indicating voter disenfranchisement.
That being said, I still vote. Even though I feel as though it doesn't really count, I do want to show that there are some people in the US who are paying attention.
Your point about the lame/crappy candidates from both major parties is a good one. Just look at the Allen/Webb race here in Virginia. Allen is a racist, has voted many times in direct contravention of the wishes of his constituents, and continues to support and rubber-stamp absolutely every thing that the Bush admin wants to do. On the other hand, Webb is a "former" republican, has issues with women, doesn't really have a decent platform, and strikes me as being just as much a scumbag as Allen. What freakin choices we Virginians have! Fascist asshole #1 or fascist asshole #2.
If you have ever been in the Military you would know that a Soldiers are trained to Critly Wound people not out right "KILL"
Maybe things have changed, but when I was a soldier (3/187 Inf, 1/6 Inf), I was trained to aim center-mass. Same thing in the police academy (although there, the euphamism was "neutralize the threat). Not once, in either situation, did anybody ever train us to critically wound. That would be a sure way to get yourself or the others in your unit killed.
allaboutpopularissues.org, huh? Do you really think that people should take their opinions as fact? That the owners of this domain are not biased? Looks like a religious outfit, to me (see WHOIS, below).
At least here in the USA, we only have to deal with Bush until 2008 and then the Constitution prevents the dummy from being able to be president ever again!
Bush's opinion of the constitution: 'It's just a goddamned piece of paper'
I sure hope you're right, although I think it would be better if we didn't wait until 2008 to get him (and his cronies) out of office.
Yes - it's all that's left of the company after waves of layoffs. Perhaps this question may be better phrased as, "Does AOL have a competent marketing department?"
Based on that (via an admitted quantum leap), I can't see how a Netscape link-aggregation site can possibly succeed in the face of very popular existing sites in the same vein.
This has been the core strategy of AOL ever since they were taken over by Time Warner (yes - I know they bought TW). AOL executives see something online, and immediately give marching orders to copy it. Here are some examples:
VoIP - recently came out of beta
AOL broadband - Implemented, scrapped, and implemented again
Cheap dial-up - way after the market was already saturated
Portals, portals, more portals - aol.com getting a makeover twice a year; traffic and ad revenue not really increasing
Search - there was a big AOL push to improve their search a couple of years ago
Online music sales - way after iTunes was rolled out; limited to TW labels only
Online shopping - they were fairly early here, but with a poor implementation, and it was only available to their subscribers
Suffice it to say that this company no longer has any vision; they seem to have become a bunch of old fuddy-duddies trying to surf the wave of every fad when the wave has already broken on the beach.
Simply put, you liberals are not intellectually honest, in nearly everything you do
Oh.. the irony!:)
Of course, we liberals are biased in nearly everything we do. So are "you conservatives." If there weren't this bias on both sides, there wouldn't be any sides. Pot, meet kettle. This is not to say that either side is always correct or incorrect; this is to say that people see things different ways, and if people aren't allowed to voice their opinions, then we would have a dictatorship on our hands.
If you use this as a starting point, you'll find that one of this institute's corporate contributors is Exxon-Mobile. I wouldn't be surprised if companies auch as AT&T are also paying this guy.
FTS:
He says a flood of undiscriminated traffic to and from Youtube, Coldplay, and Victoria's Secret will bring down the Internet
The fact is, the traffic on the net is already that way, and I don't see the Internet going down. This guy is full of shit.
My Representative voted in favor of this. I already sent him a letter to let him know that I am not happy with his action. I'll be sending a letter to my senator later today demanding that he vote against this (not that it'll make a difference, but one can hope).
Software, with its millions of lines of code, is so complicated that experts don't know for sure that open source has fewer bugs, nor can they say with certainty that having fewer bugs makes open source more secure.
It seems to me that this may be all the evidence we need of astroturfing. While I don't really know for sure if this statement is true, there is a glaring omission in the article where the author neglected to compare the time-to-patch for bugs between FOSS and closed software.
Sorry - but clear text is not a legitimate a reason for this activity. As mentioned in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, it is illegal to tap into these communications without a court order:
(1) Except as otherwise specifically provided in this chapter any person who--
...
(c) intentionally discloses, or endeavors to disclose, to any other person the contents of any wire, oral, or electronic communication [emphasis mine], knowing or having reason to know that the information was obtained through the interception of a wire, oral, or electronic communication in violation of this subsection; or
...
(ii) Notwithstanding any other law, providers of wire or electronic communication service, their officers, employees, and agents, landlords, custodians, or other persons, are authorized to provide information, facilities, or technical assistance to persons authorized by law to intercept wire, oral, or electronic communications or to conduct electronic surveillance, as defined in section 101 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, if such provider, its officers, employees, or agents, landlord, custodian, or other specified person, has been provided with--
(A) a court order directing such assistance signed by the authorizing judge, or
(B) a certification in writing by a person specified in section 2518(7) of this title or the Attorney General of the United States that no warrant or court order is required by law, that all statutory requirements have been met, and that the specified assistance is required,
Simply put: It is illegal to tap any electronic communication (including email) without a court order.
This brings up an interesting idea (which, IIRC, I may have read in another post here some time ago)...
What if I put a copyright notice on all of my email, and explicitly state that it is a copyright violation to make a copy of that email for any purposes (maybe even add the "FBI Warning" for kicks). If AT&T mirrors a port through which that email travels, and the NSA reads that email, then they are reading an illegal copy of that email. Email Piracy! Think of the children! Maybe if enough people did this then there could be a class.
FBI WARNING Federal law provides severe civil and criminal penalties for the unauthorized reproduction, distribution or exhibition of copyrighted emails, web pages or slashdot posts. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and may constitute a felony of up to five years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine.
I really do hope that having the customers around in their centers does lead Intel to improving the efficiency and temerature of their processors. For now, I certainly do prefer AMD, especially for mulit-core, and am fortunate enough that the company where I work has started buying servers using this setup. These servers are really nice.:)
Proof of Concept Support: Customers can save time and resources by running proof of concepts using the state-of-the-art hardware, software and technical support offered at the program centers. Customers will be invited to actively participate at the local centers.
So... when the customers are done with their proofs of concept, will they then build out their apps on the AMD boxes in their own datacenters?
It's easy to complain about institutional shortcomings. Why doesn't anybody ever bother to inform themselves about the strengths exhibited by these same institutions? It's not like you can separate the one from the other, and keep only the good part.
Unfortunately, this is true. One thing that the military does best is logistics (as mentioned above). I know it's probably a crazy thought, but do I like to imagine how helpful the US could be if we leveraged those resources to help people, distribute food (and seeds, water, etc) to those who really need it, rather than invading other countries. I know it's not very realistic in some areas of the world, but I still like to think about it:)
I also believe that doing something like this would make people in other countries less likely to be brainwashable by the likes of Bin-Laden and other nutcases. Therefore, this would lead to less terrorism, as well. Defense spending that really helps defense.
You seem to forget that the goverment in the US is the people. Contrary to anti-american or anti-republican belief, our officials are elected and while they may not represent every single person down to the exact issue - they try their best. Our goverment does not spend the USA's money, it spends the people's money....money paid into via taxes. If you don't like how it's being spent, you have opportunities to vote for President every 4 years with congressional votes in between.
The government of the US seems to me to be the wealthy people, which is hardly representative of the average American. Add to that lobbying, corruption, and the potential for abuse in the electoral system, and I have a hard time believing that these people are really elected by the people and try their best to represent. I'm sure there are some that really do try, but very few seem to. To me, this has nothing to do with being anti-american or anti-bush|republican, it is an issue with the system that we have (but that's a discussion for another day).
2004 [budget] (figures are in millions):
Econ. Growth, Agriculture & Trade: $4,421 Global Health: $2,534 Democracy, Conflict, & Humanitarian: $1,198 based on this document US Foreign Aid
Department of Defense (DoD): $380 billion (+$15 billion or four percent). President Bush's DoD budget is $84 billion higher than the budget he inherited -- the largest increase since the Reagan Administration.
Missile defense: $9.1 billion in 2004.
So, it looke like the US government spent (of the taxpayer's money): $8.153 billion on helping people, and $404.1 billion on defense (or war, and preparation for war).
The original argument still stands: the US government spends a lot more (about 50X) on war than helping people.
Slashdot Mirror
whoosh
Incidentally, in the Army, we never referred to the ammo as "full metal jacket" (even though that's what it is technically). The terminology used in movies always makes me laugh, because it is nowhere near accurate, with very few exceptions.
Unfortunately, the vote of the ordinary person does not really count; in fact, in most states (IIRC), the people could all vote for one candidate and the electoral college folks could swing the other way. This completely disempowers the average voter. Add to that the [justifiable] uncertainty over the security of the voting machines, and the multitude of reports of election fraud in hotly contested areas, and there really is alot of evidence indicating voter disenfranchisement.
That being said, I still vote. Even though I feel as though it doesn't really count, I do want to show that there are some people in the US who are paying attention.
Your point about the lame/crappy candidates from both major parties is a good one. Just look at the Allen/Webb race here in Virginia. Allen is a racist, has voted many times in direct contravention of the wishes of his constituents, and continues to support and rubber-stamp absolutely every thing that the Bush admin wants to do. On the other hand, Webb is a "former" republican, has issues with women, doesn't really have a decent platform, and strikes me as being just as much a scumbag as Allen. What freakin choices we Virginians have! Fascist asshole #1 or fascist asshole #2.
head asplodes!
I sure hope you're right, although I think it would be better if we didn't wait until 2008 to get him (and his cronies) out of office.
If he treated her better, then she might grow to like sci-fi ;)
- VoIP - recently came out of beta
- AOL broadband - Implemented, scrapped, and implemented again
- Cheap dial-up - way after the market was already saturated
- Portals, portals, more portals - aol.com getting a makeover twice a year; traffic and ad revenue not really increasing
- Search - there was a big AOL push to improve their search a couple of years ago
- Online music sales - way after iTunes was rolled out; limited to TW labels only
- Online shopping - they were fairly early here, but with a poor implementation, and it was only available to their subscribers
Suffice it to say that this company no longer has any vision; they seem to have become a bunch of old fuddy-duddies trying to surf the wave of every fad when the wave has already broken on the beach.Of course, we liberals are biased in nearly everything we do. So are "you conservatives." If there weren't this bias on both sides, there wouldn't be any sides. Pot, meet kettle. This is not to say that either side is always correct or incorrect; this is to say that people see things different ways, and if people aren't allowed to voice their opinions, then we would have a dictatorship on our hands.
Oh, wait...
If you use this as a starting point, you'll find that one of this institute's corporate contributors is Exxon-Mobile. I wouldn't be surprised if companies auch as AT&T are also paying this guy.
FTS:
The fact is, the traffic on the net is already that way, and I don't see the Internet going down. This guy is full of shit.My Representative voted in favor of this. I already sent him a letter to let him know that I am not happy with his action. I'll be sending a letter to my senator later today demanding that he vote against this (not that it'll make a difference, but one can hope).
Well said.
Simply put: It is illegal to tap any electronic communication (including email) without a court order.
What if I put a copyright notice on all of my email, and explicitly state that it is a copyright violation to make a copy of that email for any purposes (maybe even add the "FBI Warning" for kicks). If AT&T mirrors a port through which that email travels, and the NSA reads that email, then they are reading an illegal copy of that email. Email Piracy! Think of the children! Maybe if enough people did this then there could be a class.
This Post © 2006 Bimo_Dude. All rights reserved. slashdot.org is authorized to display this post on their site.
FBI WARNING
Federal law provides severe civil and criminal penalties for the unauthorized reproduction, distribution or exhibition of copyrighted emails, web pages or slashdot posts. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and may constitute a felony of up to five years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine.
Here
I really do hope that having the customers around in their centers does lead Intel to improving the efficiency and temerature of their processors. For now, I certainly do prefer AMD, especially for mulit-core, and am fortunate enough that the company where I work has started buying servers using this setup. These servers are really nice. :)
I was going to RTFA, but methinks the web server is having health problems related to the geek lifestyle.
I also believe that doing something like this would make people in other countries less likely to be brainwashable by the likes of Bin-Laden and other nutcases. Therefore, this would lead to less terrorism, as well. Defense spending that really helps defense.
So, it looke like the US government spent (of the taxpayer's money):
$8.153 billion on helping people, and
$404.1 billion on defense (or war, and preparation for war).
The original argument still stands: the US government spends a lot more (about 50X) on war than helping people.