This is already done, often times by design. Traffic from Alaska and Hawaii are both often routed internationally by default. Also, anyone working for a global or multinational company will frequently send correspondence through international servers, even for emails between two US citizens.
My biggest issue with this is domestic internet communication is semi-routinely routed through other countries and the eavesdropping program has no way to tell whether the 4th amendment is being violated.
Basically, the court just gave permission to the NSA to dragnet anything they want without a warrant so long as they can demonstrate there is a possibility that the communication was to or from a foreigner.
Good luck with that. I would like the same thing, but it just isn't going to happen.
Re:Yeah but KDE doesn't work.
on
Qt Becomes LGPL
·
· Score: 1
As an avid Ubuntu user, I can attest to that. The package manager is nice, the dist. is easy to use, but it's not very fault tolerant and there are some wigged out packages.
For instance, I can't uninstall Ubuntu's package for proprietary Nvidia drivers because it says it needs to remove the kernel to remove Nvidia(wtf indeed). Their fundamental policies regarding proprietary drivers is wonky, considering there are really not a lot of people against proprietary hardware drivers on linux.
The distribution has a lot going for it, but really needs some polish.
I'm not generally advocating socialism. Quite the opposite.
I'm saying for the government to use our tax money and invest it in a company and in return the citizens get a GPL, LGPL or BSD program that is of great value.
Lets say just for instance the feds bought Lotus Notes/Domino from IBM for $150 million and 5,000 medium businesses moved to Linux, with Exchange being Window's last foothold on their desktops.
Each company only needs to save $30,000 in licensing costs before there is a net benefit to society. The cost to taxpayers as a whole is about $1.50. My guess is that many medium businesses would save substantially more than $30,000 by dumping Exchange, even if they STAY with Windows.
What do you think those companies will do with their extra $30,000? Hire another employee maybe? Who can say, but the overall effect on the economy is a positive one. I can tell you this though. Simply dumping whatever ridiculous amount of money Obama wants to spend as a stimulus package into software development will only foster job growth in the highly paid, educated CS demographic. My plan of "buying back" software to give it to small-medium businesses will foster job growth in the SMB arena - the area that needs job growth most desperately.
I would like the feds to set up a grant program for corporations with noteworthy software programs willing to GPL/LGPL/BSD license their closed source programs and assign their relevant patents to public domain.
Basically, the federal government would be "buying" the program from the corporation that developed it and the people would win. Eligibility would have to be determined by a broad spectrum panel of IT/CS professionals from business and academia and would be based on net benefit to the government and the citizens, taking into account whether adequate OSS projects already exist to cover that use.
A few good examples:
Adobe Acrobat - There really is no PDF editing program with anything close to the capabilities of Adobe's Acrobat product. OSS alternatives exist but most have very limited functionality in comparison. The net benefit to corporations and governments alike would be tremendous.
SolidWorks, AutoCAD - OSS alternatives exist but are not truly competitive.
Lotus Domino/Notes - Like it or not, its one of the most popular enterprise mail/scheduling suites out there, popular with large corporations and schools. With some OSS developer time, it could be the Exchange killer.
These are just a few examples. I'm sure there are hundreds more. A good place to start is just poll companies who can't switch to Linux on the desktops and you'll get a hit-list of programs that the OSS community has yet to develop.
With the remaining money, they should sink that into federal work study grants for CS students to work on open source software. Given that companies have a lot of overhead compared to schools and there would be no oversight for private companies or persons to spend that money appropriately - this is the best option.
I think everything the president does should be recorded in a place where judicial or legislative review can occur. Obviously only certain people should have access, such as federal judges, the SCOTUS and a senate committee or two. And yes, I mean even for national secret type stuff. It is the responsibility of the executive branch to fulfill obligations set forth by laws enacted by the legislative branch and in accordance with decisions by the judicial branch. If there is no transparency, there is tyranny.
Just think how interesting it would be to read emails between Bush/Cheney & the Justice Dept. regarding interrogation techniques, or the prelude to invading Iraq, or the events surrounding 9/11(still a gazillion unanswered questions). If a bipartisan senate committee had access to that information, I bet Bush would have been impeached quickly.
Wouldn't it be better to simply accept and welcome the layoffs?
If you're the one getting laid off, take the opportunity to go back to school and get a/another degree in something you really want to do. Right now, state and federal grants abound for displaced, laid off or otherwise unemployed workers. If you really liked what you do but are destined to lose your job, its not as enjoyable but try to find a position in a company that will value your skills.
If you're not the one getting laid off, just be aware that typically your job is MORE stable, not less after the layoff. I know it sucks to see your friends go, I've been through it twice now at 2 companies(one multi-national services company and regional manufacturing company).
In both cases, morale went up after layoffs because everyone was busier and the future was brighter. Management in both cases chose to let go some overpaid long-timers who just weren't as efficient as the 5-15 year crowd as well as some real newbies who were getting paid poorly but were also just not productive yet.
Take solace in that IBM is bloated and has a lot of weight to shed.
I think they're more interested in collecting federal income tax from people who farm e-currency for a living and sell it online.
Luckily the majority of people who do this professionally are not US citizens.
I don't think even the IRS could get laws passed that would tax virtual assets since the consumer never owns them according to the game publishers Terms of Service.
1) While its certainly true that minimum wage hasn't kept up with inflation, the average salary is closer. The salary for those with higher education has exceeded inflation for some time now, although I believe even they will see a short to medium term stagnation in income.
As you have probably noticed, the housing market was highly inflated. The housing bubble collapse was merely an adjustment of values. A lot of people will lose houses they purchased but didn't plan on keeping for the long term because they can't afford their loans. The long term effect is that people who made homestead purchases with the intent of occupying them for 5 years will never be able to sell at their mortgage principle and face either taking on a large debt from the upside down loan(if they have the credit to do this), or claiming bankruptcy.
Sadly, the banks aren't doing enough with the $700B they were given to help those who just need a little assistance(as opposed to people who purchased houses with 5 year ARM's with the intent of short term reselling, gambling on the value of the house going up).
I know a few realtors in my area and they have reached a consensus. The housing inventory in my area is going DOWN, which is good, but the percentage of homes they show which are bank owned is going up dramatically. The banks are taking huge losses by selling these foreclosed homes on the currently highly deflated market as opposed to taking a loss and helping the previous owner keep their home.
This is a tragedy of epic proportions.
2) I'm no bankruptcy lawyer, but my understanding was that bankruptcy doesn't cover some medical costs. The theory being that medical debts don't affect the debtors credit rating the same way as normal debt. I'm certain maintaining health insurance for a family can cost a small fortune right now with and even without employer assistance. This is certainly a big reason for so many un/under-insured citizens, but I'm not sure how that would affect bankruptcy.
When faced with a decision to keep a roof over your head or health insurance, most people simply go without insurance.
A year from now, people won't be talking about Crysis anymore. Bigger and better games will be out. Such is the nature of the gaming industry.
The fact that Crysis has great graphics doesn't mean its a great game. As an avid gamer for over 20 years, I can say without a doubt that on average there is no correlation between good graphics and good games.
In addition to my 20 years of gaming, I've got a 5 digit UID. I am therefore an authoritative source on the subject.
I'll bite, at the expense of undoing about 8 mod points.
The book is based on presumptions and faulty logic. It may be true if you have 2 earners you're twice as likely to be affected by layoff or other employment related economic interruption. However, with 2 earners you're only losing 40-60% of your household income in the face of a layoff, versus 100% for a 1 income. This makes a 2 earner household more resilient.
The real reason for for skyrocketing bankruptcy in middle income households with children is the exploding cost of goods along with unbridled middle class spending. For almost 2 generations, families have been moving more frequently from house to house using each one as a short term credit card based on the faulty assumption that the value of the house will NECESSARILY go up. They use that equity to pay off some debt, but each time they get a raise or other windfall they purchase a newer bigger better house with a 3rd garage stall or a 4th bedroom or a bigger yard.
Regardless of the number of incomes in the house, its important that people make rational fiscal decisions which includes setting a reasonable budget. When they find themselves making much more than their budget, they should be investing it in short to medium term CD's(for now) to reinvest into their mortgage or blow down their debt.
No, children aren't the cause of bankruptcy. Its more likely that there is a correlation between fiscal irresponsibility and those who have children.
While I'm sure there are some surprising uses for corpses, I can assure you testing fire suits is not one of them.
They are tested using sophisticated bipedal structures of gelatin and/or elastopolymers that resemble the human body in rigidity and thermal decomposition properties. Those mannequins have hundreds or thousands of pressure and temperature sensors over them to determine how much protection fabrics can provide and where they are ineffective.
Its a scam though to encourage anyone to buy a more efficient TV to replace an acceptably good working TV. $18 per year over the life of the TV is probably $125, nothing close to the cost of even producing the newer more efficient TV.
My point is, it's more wasteful for the environment for people to replace good working TV's than save the $18 per year in electricity.
I've bought XP twice already with new computers but got sick of the activation bullshit after upgrading motherboards and pirated the corporate edition to avoid it.
So I paid for XP twice and got XP Corp. Illegal? Yep.
Stripping as a career is not economically rational.
As a person with several strippers for friends, let me enlighten you on market forces in this industry.
Stripper income can be strongly affected by people's perception of the health of the local economy. This effect has a negative correlation with population, meaning that clubs in small towns are even more sensitive to economic change. Belt-tightening can happen in strip clubs the same as anywhere else.
Last but not least, strippers age. As they get older, the physical requirements of the job become too difficult, particularly pole/cage dancing. As you age, you become less desirable and working in premier clubs becomes impossible. The end result for many strippers is they move from seedy to seedier clubs, turn to hooking or simply get a day job. The years spent stripping doesn't help them get a good job either, since the ability to spin around a pole at 1 RPM doesn't help them operate a computer or balance a register.
Working as a stripper for a long term career is a fiscally irrational decision, given that the income is neither stable nor will last for the duration of the time you need money. However, stripping your way through college is a rational decision and I support college-going women's decision to be strippers.
Yeah but the GP wasn't really right. The court systems are only as open as you can afford. There were real costs associated with obtaining the mountains of court transcripts for Groklaw. Much of that cost was borne by a relatively small number of participants who resided near the relevant courthouses.
Without the persistent action of a small number of people and PJ's tenacity, Groklaw wouldn't have ever gotten off the ground.
In this day and age, it's a travesty court transcripts aren't published for free on the internet to be truly accessible to the public.
You wouldn't know if a US citizen was sent to gitmo.
First - the military controls what names appear on their lists. Who is to say they couldn't send a US citizen to gitmo and list them under the name of a wanted Moroccan?
Second - the Bush(jr) administration is an easy target for conjecture since they have a history of erosion of civil liberties and are one of the most secretive administrations about national security matters.
Third - perhaps you haven't heard of extraordinary rendition. There is nothing to say the federal government couldn't 'disappear' someone if they wanted to. If you need any evidence, look at the Maher Arar case where a Canadian was intercepted at JFK international, rendered to Syria by the CIA and tortured in Syria. If the US had sufficient cause, they could do this to an American. If its done in secret and can't even be challenged in a court of law, how do you know the "sufficient cause" bar hasn't been lowered?
Frankly, I'm a little surprised the EFF hasn't dropped its case and prodded Al-Haramain to let it take over their case.
The EFF is very well equipped for this type of suit. Also, standing to bring forth the suit is a huge advantage. I certainly believe the probability that the wiretapping program intercepts communication between US citizens should be all the standing thats needed. Judges may not agree however.
Slashdot Mirror
This is already done, often times by design. Traffic from Alaska and Hawaii are both often routed internationally by default. Also, anyone working for a global or multinational company will frequently send correspondence through international servers, even for emails between two US citizens.
My biggest issue with this is domestic internet communication is semi-routinely routed through other countries and the eavesdropping program has no way to tell whether the 4th amendment is being violated.
Basically, the court just gave permission to the NSA to dragnet anything they want without a warrant so long as they can demonstrate there is a possibility that the communication was to or from a foreigner.
Good luck with that. I would like the same thing, but it just isn't going to happen.
As an avid Ubuntu user, I can attest to that. The package manager is nice, the dist. is easy to use, but it's not very fault tolerant and there are some wigged out packages.
For instance, I can't uninstall Ubuntu's package for proprietary Nvidia drivers because it says it needs to remove the kernel to remove Nvidia(wtf indeed). Their fundamental policies regarding proprietary drivers is wonky, considering there are really not a lot of people against proprietary hardware drivers on linux.
The distribution has a lot going for it, but really needs some polish.
Without the GPL, it would just be another Minix clone.
There is a reason that Linux took off, not the least of which is the relatively permissive licensing.
I'm not generally advocating socialism. Quite the opposite.
I'm saying for the government to use our tax money and invest it in a company and in return the citizens get a GPL, LGPL or BSD program that is of great value.
Lets say just for instance the feds bought Lotus Notes/Domino from IBM for $150 million and 5,000 medium businesses moved to Linux, with Exchange being Window's last foothold on their desktops.
Each company only needs to save $30,000 in licensing costs before there is a net benefit to society. The cost to taxpayers as a whole is about $1.50. My guess is that many medium businesses would save substantially more than $30,000 by dumping Exchange, even if they STAY with Windows.
What do you think those companies will do with their extra $30,000? Hire another employee maybe? Who can say, but the overall effect on the economy is a positive one. I can tell you this though. Simply dumping whatever ridiculous amount of money Obama wants to spend as a stimulus package into software development will only foster job growth in the highly paid, educated CS demographic. My plan of "buying back" software to give it to small-medium businesses will foster job growth in the SMB arena - the area that needs job growth most desperately.
It isn't socialism - it's just good business.
Basically, the federal government would be "buying" the program from the corporation that developed it and the people would win. Eligibility would have to be determined by a broad spectrum panel of IT/CS professionals from business and academia and would be based on net benefit to the government and the citizens, taking into account whether adequate OSS projects already exist to cover that use.
A few good examples:
These are just a few examples. I'm sure there are hundreds more. A good place to start is just poll companies who can't switch to Linux on the desktops and you'll get a hit-list of programs that the OSS community has yet to develop.
With the remaining money, they should sink that into federal work study grants for CS students to work on open source software. Given that companies have a lot of overhead compared to schools and there would be no oversight for private companies or persons to spend that money appropriately - this is the best option.
IMO, the whole thing is bullshit.
I think everything the president does should be recorded in a place where judicial or legislative review can occur. Obviously only certain people should have access, such as federal judges, the SCOTUS and a senate committee or two. And yes, I mean even for national secret type stuff. It is the responsibility of the executive branch to fulfill obligations set forth by laws enacted by the legislative branch and in accordance with decisions by the judicial branch. If there is no transparency, there is tyranny.
Just think how interesting it would be to read emails between Bush/Cheney & the Justice Dept. regarding interrogation techniques, or the prelude to invading Iraq, or the events surrounding 9/11(still a gazillion unanswered questions). If a bipartisan senate committee had access to that information, I bet Bush would have been impeached quickly.
Fuck twitter.
No seriously, I hope they relocate to the Mediterranean and get their cables cut every week.
Well, you start by killing them. Typically, a few minutes later you could get them to sit still.
Sometimes they twitch!
Wouldn't it be better to simply accept and welcome the layoffs?
If you're the one getting laid off, take the opportunity to go back to school and get a/another degree in something you really want to do. Right now, state and federal grants abound for displaced, laid off or otherwise unemployed workers. If you really liked what you do but are destined to lose your job, its not as enjoyable but try to find a position in a company that will value your skills.
If you're not the one getting laid off, just be aware that typically your job is MORE stable, not less after the layoff. I know it sucks to see your friends go, I've been through it twice now at 2 companies(one multi-national services company and regional manufacturing company).
In both cases, morale went up after layoffs because everyone was busier and the future was brighter. Management in both cases chose to let go some overpaid long-timers who just weren't as efficient as the 5-15 year crowd as well as some real newbies who were getting paid poorly but were also just not productive yet.
Take solace in that IBM is bloated and has a lot of weight to shed.
By my rough calculations, WoW has generated over $3.6 billion in revenue.
Putting the demarcation line at "sold" instead of total revenue is just reverse-enron-accounting bullshit.
I think they're more interested in collecting federal income tax from people who farm e-currency for a living and sell it online.
Luckily the majority of people who do this professionally are not US citizens.
I don't think even the IRS could get laws passed that would tax virtual assets since the consumer never owns them according to the game publishers Terms of Service.
1) While its certainly true that minimum wage hasn't kept up with inflation, the average salary is closer. The salary for those with higher education has exceeded inflation for some time now, although I believe even they will see a short to medium term stagnation in income.
As you have probably noticed, the housing market was highly inflated. The housing bubble collapse was merely an adjustment of values. A lot of people will lose houses they purchased but didn't plan on keeping for the long term because they can't afford their loans. The long term effect is that people who made homestead purchases with the intent of occupying them for 5 years will never be able to sell at their mortgage principle and face either taking on a large debt from the upside down loan(if they have the credit to do this), or claiming bankruptcy.
Sadly, the banks aren't doing enough with the $700B they were given to help those who just need a little assistance(as opposed to people who purchased houses with 5 year ARM's with the intent of short term reselling, gambling on the value of the house going up).
I know a few realtors in my area and they have reached a consensus. The housing inventory in my area is going DOWN, which is good, but the percentage of homes they show which are bank owned is going up dramatically. The banks are taking huge losses by selling these foreclosed homes on the currently highly deflated market as opposed to taking a loss and helping the previous owner keep their home.
This is a tragedy of epic proportions.
2) I'm no bankruptcy lawyer, but my understanding was that bankruptcy doesn't cover some medical costs. The theory being that medical debts don't affect the debtors credit rating the same way as normal debt. I'm certain maintaining health insurance for a family can cost a small fortune right now with and even without employer assistance. This is certainly a big reason for so many un/under-insured citizens, but I'm not sure how that would affect bankruptcy.
When faced with a decision to keep a roof over your head or health insurance, most people simply go without insurance.
A year from now, people won't be talking about Crysis anymore. Bigger and better games will be out. Such is the nature of the gaming industry.
The fact that Crysis has great graphics doesn't mean its a great game. As an avid gamer for over 20 years, I can say without a doubt that on average there is no correlation between good graphics and good games.
In addition to my 20 years of gaming, I've got a 5 digit UID. I am therefore an authoritative source on the subject.
I'll bite, at the expense of undoing about 8 mod points.
The book is based on presumptions and faulty logic. It may be true if you have 2 earners you're twice as likely to be affected by layoff or other employment related economic interruption. However, with 2 earners you're only losing 40-60% of your household income in the face of a layoff, versus 100% for a 1 income. This makes a 2 earner household more resilient.
The real reason for for skyrocketing bankruptcy in middle income households with children is the exploding cost of goods along with unbridled middle class spending. For almost 2 generations, families have been moving more frequently from house to house using each one as a short term credit card based on the faulty assumption that the value of the house will NECESSARILY go up. They use that equity to pay off some debt, but each time they get a raise or other windfall they purchase a newer bigger better house with a 3rd garage stall or a 4th bedroom or a bigger yard.
Regardless of the number of incomes in the house, its important that people make rational fiscal decisions which includes setting a reasonable budget. When they find themselves making much more than their budget, they should be investing it in short to medium term CD's(for now) to reinvest into their mortgage or blow down their debt.
No, children aren't the cause of bankruptcy. Its more likely that there is a correlation between fiscal irresponsibility and those who have children.
While I'm sure there are some surprising uses for corpses, I can assure you testing fire suits is not one of them.
They are tested using sophisticated bipedal structures of gelatin and/or elastopolymers that resemble the human body in rigidity and thermal decomposition properties. Those mannequins have hundreds or thousands of pressure and temperature sensors over them to determine how much protection fabrics can provide and where they are ineffective.
Its a scam though to encourage anyone to buy a more efficient TV to replace an acceptably good working TV. $18 per year over the life of the TV is probably $125, nothing close to the cost of even producing the newer more efficient TV.
My point is, it's more wasteful for the environment for people to replace good working TV's than save the $18 per year in electricity.
What if I'm both?
I've bought XP twice already with new computers but got sick of the activation bullshit after upgrading motherboards and pirated the corporate edition to avoid it.
So I paid for XP twice and got XP Corp. Illegal? Yep.
Unethical? Not to me it isn't.
Stripping as a career is not economically rational.
As a person with several strippers for friends, let me enlighten you on market forces in this industry.
Stripper income can be strongly affected by people's perception of the health of the local economy. This effect has a negative correlation with population, meaning that clubs in small towns are even more sensitive to economic change. Belt-tightening can happen in strip clubs the same as anywhere else.
Last but not least, strippers age. As they get older, the physical requirements of the job become too difficult, particularly pole/cage dancing. As you age, you become less desirable and working in premier clubs becomes impossible. The end result for many strippers is they move from seedy to seedier clubs, turn to hooking or simply get a day job. The years spent stripping doesn't help them get a good job either, since the ability to spin around a pole at 1 RPM doesn't help them operate a computer or balance a register.
Working as a stripper for a long term career is a fiscally irrational decision, given that the income is neither stable nor will last for the duration of the time you need money. However, stripping your way through college is a rational decision and I support college-going women's decision to be strippers.
Most courts do not make rational decisions in this respect, but sometimes they get it right.
http://bbs.clubplanet.com/clubbing-other-areas/285444-oregon-supreme-court-overturns-ban-live-sex-shows.html
Oregon is a great example of the court choosing freedom of expression over the very vocal religious conservatives.
Yeah but the GP wasn't really right. The court systems are only as open as you can afford. There were real costs associated with obtaining the mountains of court transcripts for Groklaw. Much of that cost was borne by a relatively small number of participants who resided near the relevant courthouses.
Without the persistent action of a small number of people and PJ's tenacity, Groklaw wouldn't have ever gotten off the ground.
In this day and age, it's a travesty court transcripts aren't published for free on the internet to be truly accessible to the public.
You wouldn't know if a US citizen was sent to gitmo.
First - the military controls what names appear on their lists. Who is to say they couldn't send a US citizen to gitmo and list them under the name of a wanted Moroccan?
Second - the Bush(jr) administration is an easy target for conjecture since they have a history of erosion of civil liberties and are one of the most secretive administrations about national security matters.
Third - perhaps you haven't heard of extraordinary rendition. There is nothing to say the federal government couldn't 'disappear' someone if they wanted to. If you need any evidence, look at the Maher Arar case where a Canadian was intercepted at JFK international, rendered to Syria by the CIA and tortured in Syria. If the US had sufficient cause, they could do this to an American. If its done in secret and can't even be challenged in a court of law, how do you know the "sufficient cause" bar hasn't been lowered?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/19/AR2007101900835_pf.html
The law must be reviewed, executed and challenged under the light of day or it will slowly erode our liberty.
Frankly, I'm a little surprised the EFF hasn't dropped its case and prodded Al-Haramain to let it take over their case.
The EFF is very well equipped for this type of suit. Also, standing to bring forth the suit is a huge advantage. I certainly believe the probability that the wiretapping program intercepts communication between US citizens should be all the standing thats needed. Judges may not agree however.
No can do.
However, we may be able to dupe this tomorrow and then again a few years from now when its on Digg.
Thanks for your understanding,
The Management