From the linked list:Secrecy level: High. Two reporters from the local newspaper are the only media who've been inside the compound and written about it (See "Inside the World of Google"): Google treats any and all details as though they belong to the National Security Agency.
Well.... I know they were trying to be funny, but the authors could be more correct that they might have known given the history of Google (startup partially funded by CIA $$s) and how tight they are with NGIA (Google Earth projects), CIA etc..., it would not surprise me to see Google working intimately with NSA. After all, Google has been competing with NSA for PhD mathematicians for some time now (and winning) and it seems like a natural fit. Of course such a "hypothetical" collaboration would raise all sorts of ethical questions, but assuming one could appropriately compartmentalize those concerns, it could certainly be mutually beneficial.
Personally, I'd like to think that this little project (when complete) will certainly contribute to the creation of one or more of the Seven Wonders of the IT world. After all, we all have little wetware parallel supercomputers sitting in the backs of our eyes that can process massive amounts of data, pre-encode it, filter it and more all while dealing with a certain level of data corruption, particularly in disease.
From TFA: The average male Slashdot user probably looks a lot like our model -- but has more acne and bigger glasses. Users are 23 years old but look twice their age and steadfastly refuse to accept the fact that Windows is actually not a bad operating system. Far from being lovable dorks, the Slashdotters have a vicious streak. They hunt like spiders, awaiting the arrival of an article from their victims -- usually a hapless news reporter. The second moderators accept a story, they pounce -- pedantry, suspicion and anonymity their weapons of choice.
If you read the other entries, it is less an info piece and more of a fluff piece for c/net to blow their own horn when you get to the end. How do articles like this get posted to Slashdot?
That said, while there are those of us that have been around since '98 or so, many Slashdot users that started participating in this forum back have continued to participate and additionally have created their own blogs. All in all, I'd have to say that whether or not I visit a website says less about me than the content that goes into my blog does.
Here's the deal.... While I acknowledge that there is a potential risk of engagement (and the big Navy folks desperately want this possibility to be the case), I have a tough time thinking that China will allow the PLA to escalate this much given the financial commitments that Chinese industry is trying to maintain and expand with the West..... especially prior to the Olympics. That said, I expect more "defense" related activity in the guise of IT based attacks and probes from the PLA rather than traditional military actions in the future.
It will be interesting to see just what form the response to these sorts of attacks will take. Hard-liners will want old school military war games and confrontation, but I suspect steps like US and EU invalidation of Chinese purchased US and EU debt and economic sanctions will be far more effective.
Remember though that once the money leaves your pocket and becomes the carriers money, it is no longer yours. So, if you look at it in terms of not revenue out of your pocket, but revenue out of the carriers pocket then it is a different story. What Apple is guaranteeing the carriers is that even though it is money out of their pocket, the iPhone is sooo kick ass great that it will result in higher overall revenues for the carrier that result from more customers.
With respect to current customers, there is the issue of carriers maintaining customers and preventing them from leaving. Traditionally, they have done this through outrageous contracts that lock (Americans at least) into long term contracts. Alternatively, if they simply provided a better business experience with good tools, customers would be less willing to leave.
Its not quite that simple... The record companies are interested in absolute profits, that is true. However, these absolute profits can be maximized through a happy medium of selling the occasional blockbuster (song, movie, TV show) combined with a more Long Tail model of selling to a wider audience. This may mean more diversification in media companies rather than more consolidation, but that is not necessarily a bad thing in terms of profits. Also, remember that the iPod, iPhone, iWhatever is a widget that stores media not just songs. I first wrote about the concept of an iPod as a media storage device back in 2002 here and elaborated on this in 2005 here . Essentially, I relate that the iPod is a media device and database container capable of storing much more than just music. It's not about the raw storage per se after a certain point, but the experience of participation, managing information and navigating it that makes the iPod so special.
Seems obvious that since Apple makes the hardware they should profit from it, and since the artists make the songs they should profit from them... but then, I have a question for you (or any other shareholder): Why do you think Applet should get a cut from *calls* made with an iPhone?
Profit margins, while still high particularly for data are comparatively speaking starting to thin just a bit as more carriers step into markets once dominated by a single carrier. This is principally because of market saturation, right? After all, how many people do you know who do not own a cell phone? So, any increase in profits are going to be made by selling services or by taking customers from other carriers. Apple was able to tell the traditional cell phone carriers that they could guarantee bringing X number of customers to the carrier in return for letting the carrier add the iPhone to their product line and in return for that, they could expect some degree of profit sharing.
That business model is completely different from the media business model...
To my knowledge (accumulated from the popular press and talking to some folks at Apple in addition to being a shareholder) is that Apple makes almost nothing on the sale of the music itself, believing that the majority of the profits gained from media should go to the artists and producers themselves. Understandably, the recording industry wants to maintain its profitability, and for that matter Apple would like them to maintain their profitability as Apple is not interested in producing media content. Apple's interest here is that if there is an insufficient supply of affordable, quality media content, then people buy that content and need devices to enjoy that content in addition to having to manage it. Apple then gets to sell lots of widgets that help us to effectively manage that content and better our lives. But Apple rather than the media companies appears to be more willing to be an advocate for the consumer and understands that music, television, etc... beyond a certain price point will decrease sales because people are simply not willing to pay $5 for a TV show or $3-5 for a song. When this happens, Apple sells fewer widgets => bad.
Of course the risk for many of the media companies who fashion themselves as middlemen rather than true content producers is that Apple will simply cut them out of the deal and function as the clearinghouse for media, allowing even more of the profits to go to the artists. How do these media companies defend themselves against this? Its simple really... go back to the model that first got record companies, television studios and movie studios in business. *Create* and produce new, high quality entertainment, music, movies that are driven not principally by profits, but by the desire to tell a story, engage a listener, make a difference. At that point, the profits will come and Apple can even help them to make this happen by producing enabling technologies at ever lower price points, which results in increased profits.
These stats seem to hold up with what i am seeing on the stats for Jonesblog in that the majority of readers seem to be women looking for recipes , pictures of animals and interestingly, travel while the majority of searches from males tend to be stuff like guns , airplanes , cars and an inordinate amount of traffic searching for hot women that somehow hit this page . Stereotypes are sad, but true I suppose in some areas. The interesting thing that really surprised me was that I had to include a notice in my FAQ on my "status" as I've had more than one unsolicited request for a date from visitors to the blog.
Any government or office within the government (intelligence and other appropriately sensitive agencies aside) who are proud of their work should be encouraged and willing to discuss openly with the people who give them the authority and resources to do their jobs.
This whole issue of lack of transparency is becoming a larger and larger problem with the government and again.... if we are not careful will result into a slide into fascism. Transparency of government is one of the bedrocks of a democracy, hell, even a republic. The current Whitehouse administration has dramatically accelerated this move towards fascism and again, I have to quote Milton Mayer's book They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1939-1945 where an anonymous professor said "What happened was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to be governed by surprise, to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believe that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. "
This sort of thing is a classic fascist move where *free* representatives from government are not allowed to speak to a *free* press. Granted, if you are in the uniformed services or currently employed by a federal office engaged in sensitive work (one of the dozen or so intelligence agencies), then this sort of censorship is acceptable. However, this administration has censored publicly funded scientists engaged in research that potentially impacts upon political policy of the current administration and now National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration officials from talking? One has to wonder just what it is that Bush and Co. want to keep from the American people. What is NHTSA hiding from us?
What moves like this do is open the possibility of lack of oversight when it comes to issues of bribes, coercion and worse. Imagine if a powerful automotive manufacturer were to have a fundamental safety problem with one of their automobiles. Without access by the public and the free press whose job it is to ask the hard questions, we open ourselves up to abuse, manipulation and more unpleasantness than you may imagine.
People need to become more involved in politics, get rid of your disillusionment of representative government and make a difference. Don't be sheep and become satisfied with the current state if you are not happy with it and help, but don't be stupid about it. Work within the system because with the current administration, they will view any extreme political moves as a justification for expanding their controls even further over the populace. Demand more of our politicians. Expect transparency, honesty and be more willing to support impeachment of those officials who do not represent the will of those who elected them. Look beyond single issues in those candidates whom you vote for. Don't be seduced by claims of piety or religious devotion as one mans beliefs are another's anathema. I am not saying that religion is bad as I possess strong spiritual beliefs, but be wary of those who wear religion on their sleeves. And do not accept as this NHTSA official maintains that the only way to say anything is if it is off the record. Ms. Nason, you are a government employee working for an office whose role is to protect the American citizen, save lives and prevent injury. You are not entitled to any special protection under the Constitution than the rest of us and you ultimately answer to the American people, not a transient senior government official intent on building a political legacy. Shame on you for gagging the scientists under your watch whose duty it is to serve the American people and report to them on issues related to safety and well being on the roads and highways.
He and his pals not only have done their best to tear up the bill of rights (except the 2nd amendment, of course)
Actually, Dubya did say that he would sign the assault weapons ban if it got to his desk. Don't forget that Bush I also instated the 10rd magazine ban and banned all foreign made assault rifles from being sold in the USA. So, even those single issue voters who vote for gun rights on top of everything else made a mistake in voting for him... Which should say something about the two party system.
And if you think any of that is going to change by electing Democrats, you've got another thing coming.
Republicans....Democrats.... it does not matter. What matters is that we as a people take back those freedoms granted to us. Remember that the Constitution was not so much a document that granted individual rights, rather it was a document that described what government can and could not do. To paraphrase Jim Garrison who was speaking of Nazi Germany when he said that it was not a German phenomenon, "It is not a Republican/Democratic phenomenon, it is a human phenomenon and the slide to a proto-fascist state can happen here."
"What happened was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to be governed by surprise, to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believe that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. " ~ an anonymous German Professor from 'They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1939-1945', by Milton Mayer
The slow slide to fascism began some time ago, but has really accelerated over the past six years or so. We have fewer rights now than ever before in the USA and I fear for where we are going.
For instance:
1) We now torture as part of imprisonment along with imprison people without the protections that the Geneva Convention provides and appear to detain people without formally charging them or letting them know what they are being charged with.
2) We have a fear mongering national obsession with security that despite all the money and bureaucracy spent and created still leaves us wide open to security threats while taxing business and limiting travel. Threat levels are increased without justification to apparently further political goals.
3) We have politicized education and science for political gain while at the same time stifled scientists from telling the facts/truth/scientific findings.
4) We have completely conflated religion and government funneling money into religious groups with strong ties into the government.
5) Taxation is only low for corporate and the most wealthy, while at the same time we have suppressed labor power and limited funding for intellectual and artistic pursuits.
6) We have rampant government corruption and funneling of government "no-bid" contracts to companies with strong ties to government.
7...... How much more do we have to add to really start becoming scared?
so it's dd with a GUI and you're paying for it...?
Absolutely, yes. Because we have students that rotate through the lab that cannot navigate their way around a CLI initially. To get things done with them, we given 'em GUI apps then migrate them to harder things. Besides, I find SuperDuper! to be actually faster and easier to use with a GUI than with the CLI and I am happy to fairly compensate the authors for their work in increasing my productivity.
For years, I have ordered all of my systems with at least two hard drives. For laptops, I order an additional external drive. Currently, I have a very simple protocol: I use OS X and clone the entire hard drive with operating system to a second hard drive with SuperDuper! It is fast, it is easy and if the laptop dies, I can simply boot directly from the backup drive, be back up and running and I don't even have to reinstall applications or set all my preferences. It's like nothing ever happened. By the way, I also use this approach for all my workstations. Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Shirt Pocket software other than being a satisfied customer.
The problem comes in when you equate "citizen" with "consumer".
Hey, once governments started conflating economies with their *rights* to exist, the calculation of citizen and consumer became inevitable. You will find this as far back in history as you can find organized monetary systems. The problem of course is when companies start thinking of themselves as governments or government entities with certain *rights* that supersede those of citizens. Occasionally, companies and governments forget that they exist because of who their clients or citizens are, and when that happens you have two outcomes: Fascism and state/corporate sponsored war or revolution... take your pick.
Yet another example of where DRM harms the consumer. This has happened now with Microsoft and their music service among other examples and now Google with their video service. Once companies (and governments) stop thinking of all their customers and citizens as criminals, we might start getting somewhere. This is not about business protection, it is about providing services that protect and enrich peoples lives that are being selected voluntarily. You (companies and governments) do not have a *right* to me as a customer or a citizen, but you exist at the customers or citizens pleasure. Once we manage to get that concept across, garbage like DRM will go away.
Actually, that was the crux of my point. The common (read: unintelligent) approach that many people take to resolving conflict is simple aggression. So my point/joke/jab was simply that perhaps we should level the playing field by giving license to women to simply take care of business. It's like that scene in Indiana Jones where the good Dr. Jones has skillfully dispatched aggressor after aggressor with testosterone, fists and brains only to come across some guy wielding dual swords that wants to engage in a little testosterone fueled display himself. Indy just shoots him and gets it over with....
I say we just give any and all female hires shiny new Sig sidearms with a license to shoot anyone (especially upper management) that harasses them. Seriously though, as one who has had to instigate actions against individuals senior to myself for sexual harassment of colleagues, the issue of unwelcome environments is well known. Fortunately, things are getting progressively better as I have been seeing an uptick in the number of seriously qualified individuals who happen to be women among the alpha users of the IT community (PhD candidates in Computer Science). But in the interim, I would discourage women from feeling that they have to "out-boy the boys" as that behavior simply compounds the problem and makes legal issues more complex leading to the likelihood that if problems do arise, everybody gets fired. Besides, the type of person that would engage in locker-room behavior may in fact be encouraged by a woman stooping to that level. I would also encourage women to be as vocal as necessary in meetings and not reserve comments for those times when you think that what you say is representative of genius. Just do your job, be professional, ask questions when necessary and remember that you do not have to tolerate any bullshit that your male colleagues do not have to endure.
Slashdot Mirror
From the linked list:Secrecy level: High. Two reporters from the local newspaper are the only media who've been inside the compound and written about it (See "Inside the World of Google"): Google treats any and all details as though they belong to the National Security Agency.
Well.... I know they were trying to be funny, but the authors could be more correct that they might have known given the history of Google (startup partially funded by CIA $$s) and how tight they are with NGIA (Google Earth projects), CIA etc..., it would not surprise me to see Google working intimately with NSA. After all, Google has been competing with NSA for PhD mathematicians for some time now (and winning) and it seems like a natural fit. Of course such a "hypothetical" collaboration would raise all sorts of ethical questions, but assuming one could appropriately compartmentalize those concerns, it could certainly be mutually beneficial.
Personally, I'd like to think that this little project (when complete) will certainly contribute to the creation of one or more of the Seven Wonders of the IT world. After all, we all have little wetware parallel supercomputers sitting in the backs of our eyes that can process massive amounts of data, pre-encode it, filter it and more all while dealing with a certain level of data corruption, particularly in disease.
Mod up. *Very* funny.
From TFA: The average male Slashdot user probably looks a lot like our model -- but has more acne and bigger glasses. Users are 23 years old but look twice their age and steadfastly refuse to accept the fact that Windows is actually not a bad operating system. Far from being lovable dorks, the Slashdotters have a vicious streak. They hunt like spiders, awaiting the arrival of an article from their victims -- usually a hapless news reporter. The second moderators accept a story, they pounce -- pedantry, suspicion and anonymity their weapons of choice.
If you read the other entries, it is less an info piece and more of a fluff piece for c/net to blow their own horn when you get to the end. How do articles like this get posted to Slashdot?
That said, while there are those of us that have been around since '98 or so, many Slashdot users that started participating in this forum back have continued to participate and additionally have created their own blogs. All in all, I'd have to say that whether or not I visit a website says less about me than the content that goes into my blog does.
Here's the deal.... While I acknowledge that there is a potential risk of engagement (and the big Navy folks desperately want this possibility to be the case), I have a tough time thinking that China will allow the PLA to escalate this much given the financial commitments that Chinese industry is trying to maintain and expand with the West..... especially prior to the Olympics. That said, I expect more "defense" related activity in the guise of IT based attacks and probes from the PLA rather than traditional military actions in the future.
It will be interesting to see just what form the response to these sorts of attacks will take. Hard-liners will want old school military war games and confrontation, but I suspect steps like US and EU invalidation of Chinese purchased US and EU debt and economic sanctions will be far more effective.
Remember though that once the money leaves your pocket and becomes the carriers money, it is no longer yours. So, if you look at it in terms of not revenue out of your pocket, but revenue out of the carriers pocket then it is a different story. What Apple is guaranteeing the carriers is that even though it is money out of their pocket, the iPhone is sooo kick ass great that it will result in higher overall revenues for the carrier that result from more customers.
With respect to current customers, there is the issue of carriers maintaining customers and preventing them from leaving. Traditionally, they have done this through outrageous contracts that lock (Americans at least) into long term contracts. Alternatively, if they simply provided a better business experience with good tools, customers would be less willing to leave.
Its not quite that simple... The record companies are interested in absolute profits, that is true. However, these absolute profits can be maximized through a happy medium of selling the occasional blockbuster (song, movie, TV show) combined with a more Long Tail model of selling to a wider audience. This may mean more diversification in media companies rather than more consolidation, but that is not necessarily a bad thing in terms of profits. Also, remember that the iPod, iPhone, iWhatever is a widget that stores media not just songs. I first wrote about the concept of an iPod as a media storage device back in 2002 here and elaborated on this in 2005 here . Essentially, I relate that the iPod is a media device and database container capable of storing much more than just music. It's not about the raw storage per se after a certain point, but the experience of participation, managing information and navigating it that makes the iPod so special.
Seems obvious that since Apple makes the hardware they should profit from it, and since the artists make the songs they should profit from them... but then, I have a question for you (or any other shareholder): Why do you think Applet should get a cut from *calls* made with an iPhone?
Profit margins, while still high particularly for data are comparatively speaking starting to thin just a bit as more carriers step into markets once dominated by a single carrier. This is principally because of market saturation, right? After all, how many people do you know who do not own a cell phone? So, any increase in profits are going to be made by selling services or by taking customers from other carriers. Apple was able to tell the traditional cell phone carriers that they could guarantee bringing X number of customers to the carrier in return for letting the carrier add the iPhone to their product line and in return for that, they could expect some degree of profit sharing.
That business model is completely different from the media business model...
To my knowledge (accumulated from the popular press and talking to some folks at Apple in addition to being a shareholder) is that Apple makes almost nothing on the sale of the music itself, believing that the majority of the profits gained from media should go to the artists and producers themselves. Understandably, the recording industry wants to maintain its profitability, and for that matter Apple would like them to maintain their profitability as Apple is not interested in producing media content. Apple's interest here is that if there is an insufficient supply of affordable, quality media content, then people buy that content and need devices to enjoy that content in addition to having to manage it. Apple then gets to sell lots of widgets that help us to effectively manage that content and better our lives. But Apple rather than the media companies appears to be more willing to be an advocate for the consumer and understands that music, television, etc... beyond a certain price point will decrease sales because people are simply not willing to pay $5 for a TV show or $3-5 for a song. When this happens, Apple sells fewer widgets => bad.
Of course the risk for many of the media companies who fashion themselves as middlemen rather than true content producers is that Apple will simply cut them out of the deal and function as the clearinghouse for media, allowing even more of the profits to go to the artists. How do these media companies defend themselves against this? Its simple really... go back to the model that first got record companies, television studios and movie studios in business. *Create* and produce new, high quality entertainment, music, movies that are driven not principally by profits, but by the desire to tell a story, engage a listener, make a difference. At that point, the profits will come and Apple can even help them to make this happen by producing enabling technologies at ever lower price points, which results in increased profits.
These stats seem to hold up with what i am seeing on the stats for Jonesblog in that the majority of readers seem to be women looking for recipes , pictures of animals and interestingly, travel while the majority of searches from males tend to be stuff like guns , airplanes , cars and an inordinate amount of traffic searching for hot women that somehow hit this page . Stereotypes are sad, but true I suppose in some areas. The interesting thing that really surprised me was that I had to include a notice in my FAQ on my "status" as I've had more than one unsolicited request for a date from visitors to the blog.
Who are we kidding, he's gotta have privileged information. With a name like Joop Houtkooper, he has *got* to be an alien. :-)
(Just kidding there Joop)
Any government or office within the government (intelligence and other appropriately sensitive agencies aside) who are proud of their work should be encouraged and willing to discuss openly with the people who give them the authority and resources to do their jobs.
This whole issue of lack of transparency is becoming a larger and larger problem with the government and again.... if we are not careful will result into a slide into fascism. Transparency of government is one of the bedrocks of a democracy, hell, even a republic. The current Whitehouse administration has dramatically accelerated this move towards fascism and again, I have to quote Milton Mayer's book They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1939-1945 where an anonymous professor said "What happened was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to be governed by surprise, to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believe that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. "
This sort of thing is a classic fascist move where *free* representatives from government are not allowed to speak to a *free* press. Granted, if you are in the uniformed services or currently employed by a federal office engaged in sensitive work (one of the dozen or so intelligence agencies), then this sort of censorship is acceptable. However, this administration has censored publicly funded scientists engaged in research that potentially impacts upon political policy of the current administration and now National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration officials from talking? One has to wonder just what it is that Bush and Co. want to keep from the American people. What is NHTSA hiding from us?
What moves like this do is open the possibility of lack of oversight when it comes to issues of bribes, coercion and worse. Imagine if a powerful automotive manufacturer were to have a fundamental safety problem with one of their automobiles. Without access by the public and the free press whose job it is to ask the hard questions, we open ourselves up to abuse, manipulation and more unpleasantness than you may imagine.
People need to become more involved in politics, get rid of your disillusionment of representative government and make a difference. Don't be sheep and become satisfied with the current state if you are not happy with it and help, but don't be stupid about it. Work within the system because with the current administration, they will view any extreme political moves as a justification for expanding their controls even further over the populace. Demand more of our politicians. Expect transparency, honesty and be more willing to support impeachment of those officials who do not represent the will of those who elected them. Look beyond single issues in those candidates whom you vote for. Don't be seduced by claims of piety or religious devotion as one mans beliefs are another's anathema. I am not saying that religion is bad as I possess strong spiritual beliefs, but be wary of those who wear religion on their sleeves. And do not accept as this NHTSA official maintains that the only way to say anything is if it is off the record. Ms. Nason, you are a government employee working for an office whose role is to protect the American citizen, save lives and prevent injury. You are not entitled to any special protection under the Constitution than the rest of us and you ultimately answer to the American people, not a transient senior government official intent on building a political legacy. Shame on you for gagging the scientists under your watch whose duty it is to serve the American people and report to them on issues related to safety and well being on the roads and highways.
He and his pals not only have done their best to tear up the bill of rights (except the 2nd amendment, of course)
Actually, Dubya did say that he would sign the assault weapons ban if it got to his desk. Don't forget that Bush I also instated the 10rd magazine ban and banned all foreign made assault rifles from being sold in the USA. So, even those single issue voters who vote for gun rights on top of everything else made a mistake in voting for him... Which should say something about the two party system.
Careful. African Americans and women can own property, vote, and enjoy the rights....
Indeed. I should have qualified that to say that we have fewer rights now than at any time before in the last 50 years.
And if you think any of that is going to change by electing Democrats, you've got another thing coming.
Republicans....Democrats.... it does not matter. What matters is that we as a people take back those freedoms granted to us. Remember that the Constitution was not so much a document that granted individual rights, rather it was a document that described what government can and could not do. To paraphrase Jim Garrison who was speaking of Nazi Germany when he said that it was not a German phenomenon, "It is not a Republican/Democratic phenomenon, it is a human phenomenon and the slide to a proto-fascist state can happen here."
"What happened was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to be governed by surprise, to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believe that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. " ~ an anonymous German Professor from 'They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1939-1945', by Milton Mayer
Papers please!
The slow slide to fascism began some time ago, but has really accelerated over the past six years or so. We have fewer rights now than ever before in the USA and I fear for where we are going.
For instance:
1) We now torture as part of imprisonment along with imprison people without the protections that the Geneva Convention provides and appear to detain people without formally charging them or letting them know what they are being charged with.
2) We have a fear mongering national obsession with security that despite all the money and bureaucracy spent and created still leaves us wide open to security threats while taxing business and limiting travel. Threat levels are increased without justification to apparently further political goals.
3) We have politicized education and science for political gain while at the same time stifled scientists from telling the facts/truth/scientific findings.
4) We have completely conflated religion and government funneling money into religious groups with strong ties into the government.
5) Taxation is only low for corporate and the most wealthy, while at the same time we have suppressed labor power and limited funding for intellectual and artistic pursuits.
6) We have rampant government corruption and funneling of government "no-bid" contracts to companies with strong ties to government.
7...... How much more do we have to add to really start becoming scared?
so it's dd with a GUI and you're paying for it...?
Absolutely, yes. Because we have students that rotate through the lab that cannot navigate their way around a CLI initially. To get things done with them, we given 'em GUI apps then migrate them to harder things. Besides, I find SuperDuper! to be actually faster and easier to use with a GUI than with the CLI and I am happy to fairly compensate the authors for their work in increasing my productivity.
For years, I have ordered all of my systems with at least two hard drives. For laptops, I order an additional external drive. Currently, I have a very simple protocol: I use OS X and clone the entire hard drive with operating system to a second hard drive with SuperDuper! It is fast, it is easy and if the laptop dies, I can simply boot directly from the backup drive, be back up and running and I don't even have to reinstall applications or set all my preferences. It's like nothing ever happened. By the way, I also use this approach for all my workstations. Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Shirt Pocket software other than being a satisfied customer.
I should have also pointed out photo coverage of last years even here and the 2005 event here.
I'll have photos up on Jonesblog in the next couple of days on this effort and others out at the Bonneville Salt Flats here .
The problem comes in when you equate "citizen" with "consumer".
Hey, once governments started conflating economies with their *rights* to exist, the calculation of citizen and consumer became inevitable. You will find this as far back in history as you can find organized monetary systems. The problem of course is when companies start thinking of themselves as governments or government entities with certain *rights* that supersede those of citizens. Occasionally, companies and governments forget that they exist because of who their clients or citizens are, and when that happens you have two outcomes: Fascism and state/corporate sponsored war or revolution... take your pick.
Yet another example of where DRM harms the consumer. This has happened now with Microsoft and their music service among other examples and now Google with their video service. Once companies (and governments) stop thinking of all their customers and citizens as criminals, we might start getting somewhere. This is not about business protection, it is about providing services that protect and enrich peoples lives that are being selected voluntarily. You (companies and governments) do not have a *right* to me as a customer or a citizen, but you exist at the customers or citizens pleasure. Once we manage to get that concept across, garbage like DRM will go away.
Actually, that was the crux of my point. The common (read: unintelligent) approach that many people take to resolving conflict is simple aggression. So my point/joke/jab was simply that perhaps we should level the playing field by giving license to women to simply take care of business. It's like that scene in Indiana Jones where the good Dr. Jones has skillfully dispatched aggressor after aggressor with testosterone, fists and brains only to come across some guy wielding dual swords that wants to engage in a little testosterone fueled display himself. Indy just shoots him and gets it over with....
Shut up. Your blog has cheesecake [utah.edu] and flowers [utah.edu] on it. What do you know about being a man?
Ah, but I also have guns and ground support aircraft with even bigger guns and million dollar microscopes and cars and more cars and hot women on my blog.
I'm quite comfortable with who I am, but are those links man enough for you?
Hrmmm,
I say we just give any and all female hires shiny new Sig sidearms with a license to shoot anyone (especially upper management) that harasses them. Seriously though, as one who has had to instigate actions against individuals senior to myself for sexual harassment of colleagues, the issue of unwelcome environments is well known. Fortunately, things are getting progressively better as I have been seeing an uptick in the number of seriously qualified individuals who happen to be women among the alpha users of the IT community (PhD candidates in Computer Science). But in the interim, I would discourage women from feeling that they have to "out-boy the boys" as that behavior simply compounds the problem and makes legal issues more complex leading to the likelihood that if problems do arise, everybody gets fired. Besides, the type of person that would engage in locker-room behavior may in fact be encouraged by a woman stooping to that level. I would also encourage women to be as vocal as necessary in meetings and not reserve comments for those times when you think that what you say is representative of genius. Just do your job, be professional, ask questions when necessary and remember that you do not have to tolerate any bullshit that your male colleagues do not have to endure.