* The SEC investigations and sanctions against almost every major financial corporation in America for illegal/unethical activity - which are also heavy advertisers and thus, won't be mentioned by name even if a story on the issue is reported.
You haven't been watching CNBC in the last few years. There have been many stories shown on that cable channel about SEC investigation of abuses at Wall Street firms.
#1: Wealth Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy and Democracy
And that inequality is caused by confiscatory tax codes in many nations. Given that the average American has to part with approaching half their yearly wages just to pay Federal, state and local taxes combined, no wonder why the middle class is having problems keeping up income-wise nowadays. As a result, the lower classes are leery of getting into better economic status, and the rich can afford to hire financial advisors and lawyers to keep their income and wealth hidden from tax authorities.
It's high time we drastically simplify income tax systems so we have a no-deduction tax system of no income tax up to poverty income level, 3-4 percent tax up to median income level, and 6-7 percent above that. Just the savings from not having to deal with a complicated tax code will save in the USA alone over US$250 billion per year in compliance costs.
I think the biggest gains for Linux comes at the server level, where the stability of Linux and its very low licensing costs have made gains especially against commercial UNIX variants like Solaris. Of course, it helps that IBM (still a highly-respected name in the computer industry) is heavily pushing Linux for their Big Iron machines on the AS/400 and S/390 architectures.
Alas, Linux is not quite there with desktop machines, especially for home users who want to connect scanners, digital still cameras and digital camcorders. I don't expect Linux to be useful to home users until a number of Linux projects that make it very easy to connect external multimedia devices are completed over the next few years under the Linux Standard Base (LSB) auspices.
I think the primary reason why people ARE trying Mozilla/FireFox is the fact that you can do tabbed browsing, essentially opening multiple windows to view multiple web pages without having to open a new instance of the web browser.
A secondary reason why Mozilla has become more popular is the fact that with the release of Mozilla 1.6, Mozilla is actually usable on most web sites out there, even difficult-to-render ones like ESPN.com.
Given the major rumor that Microsoft may be working on a next-generation stand-alone web browser to replace Internet Explorer 6.01 SP1, if Microsoft incorporates tabbed browsing that will pretty much kibosh most of the desirability of Mozilla in a New York minute.
Here's an interesting question: has Microsoft released new OEM install or full-install CD-ROM's of Windows XP Home Edition or Professional Edition that incorporates all the Service Pack 2 code? I haven't heard of such a release yet....
Take a look at the population density of Canada, especially in eastern provinces. Stay in the areas of high population density and you can easily put in broadband Internet complete with the last mile connection to your home. Let's see how much broadband is available in the sparsely-populated northern half of Canada.
The sheer size of the USA makes it difficult for everyone to have broadband Internet access, especially if you have to hard wire the so-called last mile connection to your home. The last mile connection is already there in larger metropolitan areas using cable TV lines and phone lines upgraded for DSL, but that doesn't quite work for the whole country, especially in mountainous areas, rural areas, and new housing developments.
To solve the last mile connection issue, the USA has only one way to go: wireless. Fortunately, the arrival of 802.16 WiMax standard and its related 802.20 standard for mobile operation will finally allow large-scale adoption of broadband Internet in the USA, since we eliminate the expensive last mile hardwired connection issue.
We can do the initial 802.16/802.20 setups by using the same cellphone antenna towers already in place; it's relatively cheap to add extra antennas to extend the 802.16/802.20 range.
the VC-1 codec (aka VC-9, aka WMV9 Advanced Profile) can provide similar quality to MPEG-2 at half the bitrate. This means that content providers could do a project with a cheaper, single layer disc instead of a dual layer disc for longer projects.
I think the fact the Microsoft codec can provide high-quality video storage compression at much lower bitrates than MPEG-2 means that with VC-1 and the variable-depth "pit" technology for storing data on optical discs, it might even be possible to store an entire 1080-line progressive-scan 2-hour HD-DVD movie on a single layer DVD-sized disc!:-)
For those who don't know what variable-depth pit recording is, it means not only do you vary the size of the "pits" horizontally but also vary the "pit" depth, too. This could allow a increase in storage capacity by a factor of four or higher, which means you can get the potential equivalent of 32 GB of data storage for video on a single-layer disc using the VC-1 codec.
What's interesting about the Atlas V is that it uses the Russian-built RD-180 main engine, an engine derived from the RD-173 used on Russian rockets.
By the way, an interesting tidbit: the Russians developed the rocket engines in an extremely ingenious fashion. Instead of building the rocket test stand out an an open area per US practice, they built a number of special buildings that looked like a regular factory but with extensive exhaust dissipation and noise-dampening systems just right outside Moscow to test the rocket engines. That way, the rocket engine test activities wouldn't attract the attention of US spy satellites.
I think the reason why we're hitting the 350-400 GB limit is the fact current 3.5" hard drives are still using the 1/3-height form factor, the form factor pioneered by Conner Peripherals before they became part of Seagate some years ago.
If we were to accept 1/2-height form factor again (most system cases can accept 1/2-height 3.5" drives), we could probably put in as much as six disc platters per disk drive and push the storage capacity to 600 GB or higher. Thanks to today's disk drive technologies, the power consumption would probably be not much more than 1/3-height drives and the thanks to cooler-running drive motors, heat dissipation shouldn't be a major issue.
It would have been funny if someone hacked the WiFi connection to that bike and instead of painting anti-Bush messages it would paint Vote Bush! and Kerry is a liar!
You might want to try one of today's diesel engines (European diesels, not the big 3 truck diesel crap).
Actually, GM's Duramax turbodiesel engine (jointly developed with Isuzu) is a superb engine. It's been quite popular for light truck applications in the last few years and I'm hoping GM will make the Duramax engine available on their SUV line soon.
I do agree that the current generation of diesel engines sold in Europe are excellent engines. They rarely produce the clattering sound common with older diesel engines, and thanks to the application of the latest the fuel-delivery systems and exhaust emission controls, offer superb performance and very low emissions. With the phasing in of low-sulfur diesel fuel in the USA starting next year, we'll see these engines in the US market by the fall of 2006 at latest.
Question: are you talking about power steering that uses an electric motor instead of a fluid-based system?
Most of the new high-end BMW and Mercedes-Benz cars now use power steering systems powered by an electric motor due to the fact they weigh much less than traditional power steering systems.
Thanks to the phasing in of low-sulfur gasoline (petrol) and diesel fuel here in the USA starting in 2005, we can apply the latest in fuel-delivery systems and exhaust emission controls to improve fuel efficiency AND reduce harmful exhaust emissions.
In the case of gasoline engines, the switch to direct fuel injection (where fuel is directly injected into the combustion chamber) could improve fuel efficiency in the range of 15 to 20 percent!:-) Thanks to the arrival of low-sulfur fuels, it means we can use the latest in ceramic catalytic converters that will also reduce exhaust emissions to Super Ultra-Low Emissions Vehicle (SULEV) levels without worries about sulfur compounds ruining the catalytic converter.
In the case of diesel engines, the arrival of low-sulfur diesel fuel means we can use common-rail direct fuel injection for very precise fuel delivery and also use the latest in diesel engine catalytic converters that will remove diesel exhaust particulates in addition to dramatically reducing other harmful exhaust gases. By switching minivans, SUV's and light trucks to these new cleaner diesel engines it means these class of vehicles can get 35-50 percent improvements in fuel efficiency compared to the current gasoline engines being used.
Also, here's a question the OpenOffice.org folks need to answer: can they import MS Word files in the Word 97 format (which is used in all versions of Word since Word 97) into OpenOffice without losing all the complicated formatting that was done in Word?
There has been a practice to sink the cleaned-up remains of old ships to use them to create artificial reefs. I believe that has been done off the coast of Florida with great success, and other parts of the world are doing this also.
....And showed some amazing geological formations that looked like dried riverbeds and water-carved deep canyons, most serious planetary astronomers assumed that some time in the distant past water flowed on Mars. The fact that the two Mars Exploration Rovers has shown that it's more than likely we did once have liquid water on Mars means that the chances are good that life of some sort did evolve on that planet, though when the planet's atmosphere thinned the surface water vanished and what water is left on that planet is likely found about 1 meter or more under the surface of the planet.
My guess is that right now what the two MER's have seen will help guide the final design of the Mars Science Laboratory lander, a larger lander (about the size of a subcompact car) powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) for operations lasting over a year and fitted with all kinds of highly advanced probes, including possibly a soil sampler that uses a special drill to probe up to 1,000 mm into the ground for soil samples. I believe that MSL will likely provide the definite answer on just how much simple lifeforms are still existing on Mars living off the water trapped in the soil.
The PowerPC and its related POWER CPU architecture will still be around for one reason: IBM.
After all, IBM invented the POWER CPU architecture, and they're using this CPU architecture for many of their larger big iron machines.
Also, the PowerPC CPU is still much-liked for its very powerful FPU section, something that makes for impressive work on programs that demand a lot of FPU power like illustration and multimedia editing programs that run on the current generation of Apple Macintosh machines.
There are some differences between what the Swift Boat Veterans and what the radical Left are wanting to do, though.
First of all, the Swift Boat vets are NOT advocating acts of civil disobedience bordering of violence (and probably crossing that border, too) that some of the radical Left are advocating. Remember what happened in 1968 and 1999 when a small group of anarchists turned what was supposed to be peaceful protest into violent confrontations with the police and causing quite a lot of property damage? If we have a repeat of that at the Republican National Convention, those images shown on TV will turn off many "swing" voters and they'll end up voting against Senator Kerry in no time flat.
I really hate to invoke Godwin's Law, but the tactics of the radical Left today reminds me so much of what I read in William Shirer's book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. This is especially true of Hitler's public speeches during the 1920's and 1930's and the propaganda tactics that Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels so masterfully implemented in the same period. (shaking head)
The more grotesque, destructive and hate-filled RNC protests turn out to be, the more votes that get swung to Bush. We'll see how it plays out.
I think the actions of the radical Left groups are actually going to turn off a lot of support for Senator Kerry if the Democratic National Committee doesn't distance themselves from them. Does anyone remember the riots in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the protest that turned very ugly during the 1999 World Trade Organization conference in Seattle? These ugly scenes played right into the hands of the people who want law and order, and probably contributed a bit to the Presidential wins of Richard Nixon in 1968 and President Bush in 2000.
These "hacktivists" are going to be grouped among the anarchists, which will defeat their aims.
....It would primarily be implemented on IBM S/390, AS/400, and other big iron machines running customized Linux software.
Alas, the big loser would interestingly NOT be Microsoft, but someone like Sun Microsystems. Certainly, Dell Computer could be a winner here (selling large rack-mounted servers preloaded with Linux server editions), and IBM would certainly be a winner here, too.
That's because we haven't seen a plethora of damaging exploits against Linux-based systems yet.
Once Linux becomes more popular you KNOW somebody out there is going to wreak havoc on Linux-based systems by using the vulnerabilities of various Linux-based programs.
The fact that Windows XP Service Pack 2 puts limits on outbound incomplete TCP connections means the spread of viruses will be dramatically reduced, especially working in conjunction with WinXP SP2-compliant versions of commercial antivirus programs out there.
People are so used to be the "loose" security of Windows XP SP1 and earlier that when Microsoft did tighten down security with SP2, they're all complaining for all the wrong reasons.
Slashdot Mirror
* The SEC investigations and sanctions against almost every major financial corporation in America for illegal/unethical activity - which are also heavy advertisers and thus, won't be mentioned by name even if a story on the issue is reported.
You haven't been watching CNBC in the last few years. There have been many stories shown on that cable channel about SEC investigation of abuses at Wall Street firms.
#1: Wealth Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy and Democracy
And that inequality is caused by confiscatory tax codes in many nations. Given that the average American has to part with approaching half their yearly wages just to pay Federal, state and local taxes combined, no wonder why the middle class is having problems keeping up income-wise nowadays. As a result, the lower classes are leery of getting into better economic status, and the rich can afford to hire financial advisors and lawyers to keep their income and wealth hidden from tax authorities.
It's high time we drastically simplify income tax systems so we have a no-deduction tax system of no income tax up to poverty income level, 3-4 percent tax up to median income level, and 6-7 percent above that. Just the savings from not having to deal with a complicated tax code will save in the USA alone over US$250 billion per year in compliance costs.
I think the biggest gains for Linux comes at the server level, where the stability of Linux and its very low licensing costs have made gains especially against commercial UNIX variants like Solaris. Of course, it helps that IBM (still a highly-respected name in the computer industry) is heavily pushing Linux for their Big Iron machines on the AS/400 and S/390 architectures.
Alas, Linux is not quite there with desktop machines, especially for home users who want to connect scanners, digital still cameras and digital camcorders. I don't expect Linux to be useful to home users until a number of Linux projects that make it very easy to connect external multimedia devices are completed over the next few years under the Linux Standard Base (LSB) auspices.
Oh wow! A person I know from BASFA actually winning a Hugo? Congratulations to Cheryl Morgan! (big thumbs up)
I think the primary reason why people ARE trying Mozilla/FireFox is the fact that you can do tabbed browsing, essentially opening multiple windows to view multiple web pages without having to open a new instance of the web browser.
A secondary reason why Mozilla has become more popular is the fact that with the release of Mozilla 1.6, Mozilla is actually usable on most web sites out there, even difficult-to-render ones like ESPN.com.
Given the major rumor that Microsoft may be working on a next-generation stand-alone web browser to replace Internet Explorer 6.01 SP1, if Microsoft incorporates tabbed browsing that will pretty much kibosh most of the desirability of Mozilla in a New York minute.
Here's an interesting question: has Microsoft released new OEM install or full-install CD-ROM's of Windows XP Home Edition or Professional Edition that incorporates all the Service Pack 2 code? I haven't heard of such a release yet....
Wrongo. :-)
Take a look at the population density of Canada, especially in eastern provinces. Stay in the areas of high population density and you can easily put in broadband Internet complete with the last mile connection to your home. Let's see how much broadband is available in the sparsely-populated northern half of Canada.
Let's face it folks.
The sheer size of the USA makes it difficult for everyone to have broadband Internet access, especially if you have to hard wire the so-called last mile connection to your home. The last mile connection is already there in larger metropolitan areas using cable TV lines and phone lines upgraded for DSL, but that doesn't quite work for the whole country, especially in mountainous areas, rural areas, and new housing developments.
To solve the last mile connection issue, the USA has only one way to go: wireless. Fortunately, the arrival of 802.16 WiMax standard and its related 802.20 standard for mobile operation will finally allow large-scale adoption of broadband Internet in the USA, since we eliminate the expensive last mile hardwired connection issue.
We can do the initial 802.16/802.20 setups by using the same cellphone antenna towers already in place; it's relatively cheap to add extra antennas to extend the 802.16/802.20 range.
the VC-1 codec (aka VC-9, aka WMV9 Advanced Profile) can provide similar quality to MPEG-2 at half the bitrate. This means that content providers could do a project with a cheaper, single layer disc instead of a dual layer disc for longer projects.
:-)
I think the fact the Microsoft codec can provide high-quality video storage compression at much lower bitrates than MPEG-2 means that with VC-1 and the variable-depth "pit" technology for storing data on optical discs, it might even be possible to store an entire 1080-line progressive-scan 2-hour HD-DVD movie on a single layer DVD-sized disc!
For those who don't know what variable-depth pit recording is, it means not only do you vary the size of the "pits" horizontally but also vary the "pit" depth, too. This could allow a increase in storage capacity by a factor of four or higher, which means you can get the potential equivalent of 32 GB of data storage for video on a single-layer disc using the VC-1 codec.
What's interesting about the Atlas V is that it uses the Russian-built RD-180 main engine, an engine derived from the RD-173 used on Russian rockets.
By the way, an interesting tidbit: the Russians developed the rocket engines in an extremely ingenious fashion. Instead of building the rocket test stand out an an open area per US practice, they built a number of special buildings that looked like a regular factory but with extensive exhaust dissipation and noise-dampening systems just right outside Moscow to test the rocket engines. That way, the rocket engine test activities wouldn't attract the attention of US spy satellites.
I think the reason why we're hitting the 350-400 GB limit is the fact current 3.5" hard drives are still using the 1/3-height form factor, the form factor pioneered by Conner Peripherals before they became part of Seagate some years ago.
If we were to accept 1/2-height form factor again (most system cases can accept 1/2-height 3.5" drives), we could probably put in as much as six disc platters per disk drive and push the storage capacity to 600 GB or higher. Thanks to today's disk drive technologies, the power consumption would probably be not much more than 1/3-height drives and the thanks to cooler-running drive motors, heat dissipation shouldn't be a major issue.
It would have been funny if someone hacked the WiFi connection to that bike and instead of painting anti-Bush messages it would paint Vote Bush! and Kerry is a liar!
You might want to try one of today's diesel engines (European diesels, not the big 3 truck diesel crap).
Actually, GM's Duramax turbodiesel engine (jointly developed with Isuzu) is a superb engine. It's been quite popular for light truck applications in the last few years and I'm hoping GM will make the Duramax engine available on their SUV line soon.
I do agree that the current generation of diesel engines sold in Europe are excellent engines. They rarely produce the clattering sound common with older diesel engines, and thanks to the application of the latest the fuel-delivery systems and exhaust emission controls, offer superb performance and very low emissions. With the phasing in of low-sulfur diesel fuel in the USA starting next year, we'll see these engines in the US market by the fall of 2006 at latest.
Question: are you talking about power steering that uses an electric motor instead of a fluid-based system?
Most of the new high-end BMW and Mercedes-Benz cars now use power steering systems powered by an electric motor due to the fact they weigh much less than traditional power steering systems.
Redesign the engine for better fuel efficiency.
:-) Thanks to the arrival of low-sulfur fuels, it means we can use the latest in ceramic catalytic converters that will also reduce exhaust emissions to Super Ultra-Low Emissions Vehicle (SULEV) levels without worries about sulfur compounds ruining the catalytic converter.
Thanks to the phasing in of low-sulfur gasoline (petrol) and diesel fuel here in the USA starting in 2005, we can apply the latest in fuel-delivery systems and exhaust emission controls to improve fuel efficiency AND reduce harmful exhaust emissions.
In the case of gasoline engines, the switch to direct fuel injection (where fuel is directly injected into the combustion chamber) could improve fuel efficiency in the range of 15 to 20 percent!
In the case of diesel engines, the arrival of low-sulfur diesel fuel means we can use common-rail direct fuel injection for very precise fuel delivery and also use the latest in diesel engine catalytic converters that will remove diesel exhaust particulates in addition to dramatically reducing other harmful exhaust gases. By switching minivans, SUV's and light trucks to these new cleaner diesel engines it means these class of vehicles can get 35-50 percent improvements in fuel efficiency compared to the current gasoline engines being used.
Also, here's a question the OpenOffice.org folks need to answer: can they import MS Word files in the Word 97 format (which is used in all versions of Word since Word 97) into OpenOffice without losing all the complicated formatting that was done in Word?
Yes, I'm not kidding about this.
There has been a practice to sink the cleaned-up remains of old ships to use them to create artificial reefs. I believe that has been done off the coast of Florida with great success, and other parts of the world are doing this also.
....And showed some amazing geological formations that looked like dried riverbeds and water-carved deep canyons, most serious planetary astronomers assumed that some time in the distant past water flowed on Mars. The fact that the two Mars Exploration Rovers has shown that it's more than likely we did once have liquid water on Mars means that the chances are good that life of some sort did evolve on that planet, though when the planet's atmosphere thinned the surface water vanished and what water is left on that planet is likely found about 1 meter or more under the surface of the planet.
My guess is that right now what the two MER's have seen will help guide the final design of the Mars Science Laboratory lander, a larger lander (about the size of a subcompact car) powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) for operations lasting over a year and fitted with all kinds of highly advanced probes, including possibly a soil sampler that uses a special drill to probe up to 1,000 mm into the ground for soil samples. I believe that MSL will likely provide the definite answer on just how much simple lifeforms are still existing on Mars living off the water trapped in the soil.
The PowerPC and its related POWER CPU architecture will still be around for one reason: IBM.
After all, IBM invented the POWER CPU architecture, and they're using this CPU architecture for many of their larger big iron machines.
Also, the PowerPC CPU is still much-liked for its very powerful FPU section, something that makes for impressive work on programs that demand a lot of FPU power like illustration and multimedia editing programs that run on the current generation of Apple Macintosh machines.
There are some differences between what the Swift Boat Veterans and what the radical Left are wanting to do, though.
First of all, the Swift Boat vets are NOT advocating acts of civil disobedience bordering of violence (and probably crossing that border, too) that some of the radical Left are advocating. Remember what happened in 1968 and 1999 when a small group of anarchists turned what was supposed to be peaceful protest into violent confrontations with the police and causing quite a lot of property damage? If we have a repeat of that at the Republican National Convention, those images shown on TV will turn off many "swing" voters and they'll end up voting against Senator Kerry in no time flat.
I really hate to invoke Godwin's Law, but the tactics of the radical Left today reminds me so much of what I read in William Shirer's book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. This is especially true of Hitler's public speeches during the 1920's and 1930's and the propaganda tactics that Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels so masterfully implemented in the same period. (shaking head)
The more grotesque, destructive and hate-filled RNC protests turn out to be, the more votes that get swung to Bush. We'll see how it plays out.
I think the actions of the radical Left groups are actually going to turn off a lot of support for Senator Kerry if the Democratic National Committee doesn't distance themselves from them. Does anyone remember the riots in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the protest that turned very ugly during the 1999 World Trade Organization conference in Seattle? These ugly scenes played right into the hands of the people who want law and order, and probably contributed a bit to the Presidential wins of Richard Nixon in 1968 and President Bush in 2000.
These "hacktivists" are going to be grouped among the anarchists, which will defeat their aims.
....It would primarily be implemented on IBM S/390, AS/400, and other big iron machines running customized Linux software.
Alas, the big loser would interestingly NOT be Microsoft, but someone like Sun Microsystems. Certainly, Dell Computer could be a winner here (selling large rack-mounted servers preloaded with Linux server editions), and IBM would certainly be a winner here, too.
That's because we haven't seen a plethora of damaging exploits against Linux-based systems yet.
Once Linux becomes more popular you KNOW somebody out there is going to wreak havoc on Linux-based systems by using the vulnerabilities of various Linux-based programs.
The fact that Windows XP Service Pack 2 puts limits on outbound incomplete TCP connections means the spread of viruses will be dramatically reduced, especially working in conjunction with WinXP SP2-compliant versions of commercial antivirus programs out there.
People are so used to be the "loose" security of Windows XP SP1 and earlier that when Microsoft did tighten down security with SP2, they're all complaining for all the wrong reasons.