For your information, Australia and New Zealand* are not "papers please"' countries either; but you can't "come back" to Australia from overseas (including New Zealand) without a valid Australian passport. I'm not sure if that's the case in New Zealand, but I suspect it is so as well. I fail to see the problem with requiring people coming from "abroad" required to have a passport. I know people who studied in the US in the 80s who have obtianed a drivers licence from some state where they used to live. The licence does not have an expiry date. So, when they travel to the US, they use the passport for initial entry, and then just use the "American" drivers licence for everything else. They have not lived in the US since 1986.
* Note: The relationship between Australia and New Zealand is quite interesting; they are different countires, yet they tend to do things together quite often. People can travel freely between the two, work without special permits, and I'm not sure if it is still the case, also have access to the free education and healthcare of both countries. Effectively, you can do anything except vote if you live in the other country.
I actually don't care much what the American government wants to do for American Passports. What annoys me most is the way the American Government treats non-Americans when entering the US. I have a fairly legitimate australian passport, it is too old to be used to go to the US. Fair enough, but I don't actually want to go to the US, I want to go to Canada. The majority of flights from Australia to Canada will TRANSIT in the US. Well, what do you know. There is no such thing as TRANSIT in the US anymore. (for those who don't know, Transit means waiting in an airport for another INTERNATIONAL connecting flight.) Basically all travellers will have to pass through customs, get photographed and finger printed. It is really really annoying; I have to now fly through Japan or Korea or some other place adding hours to an already long flight. But, that is their choice. They've just lost one visitor (granted out a few million).
I went to the WBEL website, got re-directed to Whiteboxlinux.net and this is what I saw: I've been actively involved in the CentOS community for the past several months. As most of you know I've become disinterested in WBEL. CentOS is nearly the same as WBEL with a few minor exceptions: updates occur in a timely fashion (usually 24 hours), the developers are accessible (even if via IRC), and there is an active community (again in IRC atm). CentOS has launched a new dedicated site at http://www.centos.org I have prepared a migration page for moving from wbel to CentOS. http://www.centos.org/modules/smartfaq/faq.php?faq id=19
To get respect in an organisation, ironically, often means shelving your self respect. Too often, the only way to plug in to the corporate ladder means selling out to a life of brown-nosing and playing the game.
I actually have to disagree with you there. Selling out on principles to "fit in" or "play the game" only diminishes your likelihood of earning respect. Respect has to do with your ability to "do the right thing", both technically and ethically. I think there is a big difference between respect and "liking". I have worked with quite a lot of people that I actually liked, but not respected because they were always doing things that I thought were dishounest (copying software, taking things home etc.
As an example, everyone in my group knew that I wouldn't give out software for people to copy and take home. They respected me for this (although maybe not liked me for it). I know because some of them actually said that. However, I also used to go out of my way to make sure that they get any help they need if I could offer it. (by the way, this included obtaining corporate licenses for software that allowed home use for the employees!)
...The rules make sure the cabling is done safely and that the cabler has the skills to do the job. Cabling which is installed incorrectly can result in your phones, faxes, Internet or alarm systems not working properly. Faulty cabling can also increase the risk of safety hazards such as electrocution.
It's like the building regulators saying your electrical wiring should be done by a professional. This is a "cover". Basically, if DIY and something goes wrong, the insurance company may not fork out the cash if they can argue that the "work was not fully compliant". There is no one to stop you from doing your own cabling (or electrical wiring for that matter). I have done all these (installed additional phone sockets, networked a small office and insallted electrical wiring) and I am still not a licensed cabler! No one's knocked down my doors yet.
All this is in my own house. For an office suite, all I can say, is that there is a traditional middle eastern saying: give your bread to the baker (to bake) even if he ate half of it. In other words, get the professionals to do it. And for crying out loud, go get more quotes.
First it would depend on what a person does. I'd imagine someone working in prepress would be rather unproductive in Linux, given the lack of tools, but the same would not be true of a PERL developer.
Talking about pre-press. I work for a multi-lingual publishing compmnay. We use inDesign. It pretty much has the same interfaces and shortcuts between the Mac and the PC. However, the Mac clearly wins when it comes to accented fonts. On the Mac, you'd press option(alt)+e followed by an e, and you get è while on a PC you need to press alt+0233 (on the numeric pad) to get the same result.
For this reason, the Mac for us is actually more functional (not just more familiar).
Yes, I think that's how most people decide to buy computers - word of mouth from trusted friends & family
I wish it was the case. I keep telling my brother in law to buy a Mac for his kids because it has a lot of benefits and it actually costs less than a similar PC. But, they've only seen a Mac at my brother's place. They've never seen a Mac at work, so they always decide to buy a PC. Once every couple of months, somthing breaks because my nephew or neice installed something new they downloaded or were given by their friends.
I've given up telling them what to buy. What's the use? They never listen, because I always tell them not to go with what "every one else is doing" - anything from software choice to peripherals...
This just shows how "elitist" some of the commenters are; they all pretty much seem to be saying that, the police or the government don't know what they're legislating. Of course, some of the regulations can not be fully enforced, but that does not mean they shouldn't be legislated. I have worked for one of the top 3 ISPs in Australia, and they do work quite closely with the police. This is mainly in the tracking side of things: threatening emails, spam, etc. By the way, you seem to have misunderstood the fines part of the article. The fines are not for using an ISP to access CP, but it is for not disclosing who is accessing CP when they find out. It is essentially an extension of the existing child abuse legislation: if you suspect abuse, you have to report it!
After all, they are made up of communications companies. See their website. In all fairness, it would make sense to move control to the ITU. Even though there will be a lot of people who will complain about a "political body", ie the UN controlling such things. Sure the UN is a Polititcal Body. So is any government, if you haven't already noticed; but the UN does more than just political work. think UNICEF, UNESCO, FAO, WHO, and the list goes on. Is there going to be political influences in the ITU if it controls ICANN? Sure, just as there is now. If I had a say in this, I'll vote yes. They are the body to control worldwide tele/data communications.
PC-Crash sounds like a dodgy name. They could've used engineering programs like: CATIA, Pro Engineer, Strand/Straus, or any other FEA (Finite Element Analysis) program and apply the right forces to the element to come up with a half decent result. However, if you've ever used any of them, you'd know the immensity of constructing an accurate model. I can't judge PC-Crash. Maybe it is useful and accurate, however, the blurb says it was not "certified" or accepted for the senario it was used for. I think this goes back to using the right tool for the job. "Nothing to see here, move along!" is probably the right thing to say for this article.
I actually know someone who uses an underarm holster rig to hold his mobile phone. It's not a bad idea really considering that he actually uses it when wearing "overalls" and works with chainsaws. It is also concealed but close to the chest (sensitive area) so he can feel the vibration even when working in noisy surroundings.
There's this email virus hoax about the file in windows that looks like a tedyy bear which is supposed to be a "virus". It's one of those "irish viruses", literally asking the user to delete their own files. Anyay, I thought I'll do the ritght thing by the people I was supporting at the time, and drafted an email which basically copied the contents of the hoax email and advising people not to follow the instuctions because it is a hoax. The clincher is that the subject of the email was HOAX this is not true... What happens, they read the contents, skipped my section about not following the instructions and they went about deleting the file! To make things worse, the group that I sent the email to forwarded it to a whole heap of people who I didn't know. My phone number was in the signature, and I started getting calls from people saying they've followed my instructions and deleted the file... It made our whole IT Department laugh at the silliness of people who don't read their emails properly! Eventually, I started advising my recipients to not-please forward my emails without my approval.
I work for an IT company with only two letters in it's name. This is my story, salary wise, over the last 4 years. First off, there was a global freeze on salary increases (supposed to have been only short term) Then, some part of the company (and the outsorced contract we worked for) lost a fair bit of money, so we were asked to "work half an hour less a day" and cut our wages by about 12%. Then after about 4 years working through an agency, I was absorbed into the permanent workforce. As a result, my oncall rate was reduced by about 70% which meant that I lost about 30% of my monthly wages in real terms. Finally, we were withdrawn from the outsourced contract, and I changed positions. I currently do not have any oncall, or overtime work. This is a further 20% reductions. I am now earning what I was earning in 2000. It sucks, but at every stage the market was quite depressed in Australia, and looking for a suitable job was daunting. I have had my review recently, and in a month or so I'll find out if my salary has been increased. If not, or if not to a satisfactory level, then I'll have to let my boss know that I'll be moving on.
I do not want to argue or respond to your responses for Bin laden's letter. In a way I agree with you. What I want to do is comment on your misguided view of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.
Sadly, there are far too many Muslims who do not want to simply work out a few philosophical differences with the Israelis, they want to kill them, all of them if possible. What makes it especially troubling is that Araft turned down a peace for land deal in which they could have had about 98% of what they wanted. It is likely that real peace won't be possible until Araft has passed on.
Although like you say, many muslims want to see Israel disappear, the ones that matter actually have a different view. The Palestinians have repeatedly stated that they want a two state solution. They are being generous enough by saying to the Israelis, "you can keep what you took from us by force, just leave us alone".
Also, in relation to you comment about being satisfied with 98% of the land offer. You obviously have not though this one through. Would you be satified if your coountry was invaded and the invading army said, "look we'll give you peace, just let us keep only 2%"? Didn't think so. Besides, people who say things like that have absolutely no idea about the value of "the land" (or in hebrew: eretz) for people who have lived there for hundreds and thousands of years. I will not attempt to explain it, because it is more than: "it means a lot to me!"
Actually, a "registered" business is not the same as an incorporated company. You could be a "sole trader" or a home business, all you will need (if you wish) is to register a business name. In Australia this makes business transactions using your personal name and your business name synonimous. It also helps protect your business name (at least in your state).
In Australia, to get a.com.au domain name you need to be a "registered" business or the owner of a trademark. If the same is applied to.com TLD(non-mommercial entities should not use it), then most of the problems would disappear. Also, like someone else suggested, maybe American companies if they start using the.us TLD, it will free up a lot of space. Another problem I have with these new TLD is their naming. They are too "English". Come on, travel is an English word; so is name, biz, museum. To me it appears to be not fair. The original TLD were sot of "common" to most the western languages.
If? From all the news reports we hear about, one would've thought that many of the people in Guantanamo Bay are political prisoners. After all, they are denied a real trial! But then again, "to the victor belong the spoils".
Retrospect for Windows
on
EMC Buying Dantz
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Well that's concerning, because if they're buying it for Windows features... well, the Mac stuff may be "de-prioritised"
Doesn't always have to be that way. Don't forget that Dantz was already developing it for both platforms. The good thing about Retrospect is that it worked pretty much the same way on both platforms. Also another reason for Retrospect's success on Windows is it's ease of use compared to Windows Backup (at least the one that came with NT4)
I am not an American It really amazes me (an Australian) how convoluted your election system is. I do not claim that our system is the best, but at least it is simple. When I change addresses, I have to notify the Electoral Comission of my new address. Based on that, they tell me which electorate I can vote in for local, state and federal elections. All voting in Australia uses the same system. There are no varieties in the method.It is simple and proven. (Actually, they even sell their services to corporation that need to conduct internal voting, such as shareholder votes etc) That is why there are extremely rare cases of voting irregularities here. From the outside, the American system is so confusing, irregular and disorganised that it actually is a pain just to keep track of what's going on. It is really amazing that in a federal election, voting is controlled on a county basis or even a state basis. But then again, like I said, I am not an American, so maybe, I'm missing something.
Sure, some matches up... but it's not like there aren't errors as well...
Matthew claims that the birth of Jesus occurred during the reign of Herod the Great of Judea, a puppet king of the Romans, whom we know died in 4 B.C
Before I start nitpicking, it might pay for you to investigate the source of this error. Might it have been an error in the conversion from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar? Besides, if you search on "Jesus" on Wikipedia, you'll see "C 6-4BC". The C stands for circa means about.
Then we'll have the usual problem with Non-US people griping about how unfair it is that it only covers US politics (I'm assuming here) as well as put in their two bits ON US politics. It's going to be messy!
I'm surprised you see this as a problem. As an Australian, I take great pleasure in reading news stories about Australia from foreign media (and the odd comment on Slashdot). Outsiders usually have a lot of insight and can see more of my country than we do. So, as an outsider myself, I can tell you (Americans) relax, open up. Go see the world. There is more to the world than just your country. Besides, half the world's problem would be less severe if you took more interest in other countries apart from "what's in it for me".
What about Wile Coyote? He's always concocting something new (chemistry) or designing/building some new device (engineering). This is good science. He never gives up.
Like someone else pointed out this project is funded by the UNDP which is not aimed at developed countries (US included) but at developing countries. These countries are the ones usually lauded by most people here on Slashdot as the ones to benefit most from Linux adoption. Although, I can see this product being quite useful to most people who are new to Linux.
Slashdot Mirror
For your information, Australia and New Zealand* are not "papers please"' countries either; but you can't "come back" to Australia from overseas (including New Zealand) without a valid Australian passport. I'm not sure if that's the case in New Zealand, but I suspect it is so as well.
I fail to see the problem with requiring people coming from "abroad" required to have a passport. I know people who studied in the US in the 80s who have obtianed a drivers licence from some state where they used to live. The licence does not have an expiry date. So, when they travel to the US, they use the passport for initial entry, and then just use the "American" drivers licence for everything else. They have not lived in the US since 1986.
* Note: The relationship between Australia and New Zealand is quite interesting; they are different countires, yet they tend to do things together quite often. People can travel freely between the two, work without special permits, and I'm not sure if it is still the case, also have access to the free education and healthcare of both countries. Effectively, you can do anything except vote if you live in the other country.
I actually don't care much what the American government wants to do for American Passports.
What annoys me most is the way the American Government treats non-Americans when entering the US. I have a fairly legitimate australian passport, it is too old to be used to go to the US. Fair enough, but I don't actually want to go to the US, I want to go to Canada. The majority of flights from Australia to Canada will TRANSIT in the US. Well, what do you know. There is no such thing as TRANSIT in the US anymore. (for those who don't know, Transit means waiting in an airport for another INTERNATIONAL connecting flight.) Basically all travellers will have to pass through customs, get photographed and finger printed.
It is really really annoying; I have to now fly through Japan or Korea or some other place adding hours to an already long flight.
But, that is their choice. They've just lost one visitor (granted out a few million).
I went to the WBEL website, got re-directed to Whiteboxlinux.net and this is what I saw:q id=19
I've been actively involved in the CentOS community for the past several months. As most of you know I've become disinterested in WBEL. CentOS is nearly the same as WBEL with a few minor exceptions: updates occur in a timely fashion (usually 24 hours), the developers are accessible (even if via IRC), and there is an active community (again in IRC atm).
CentOS has launched a new dedicated site at http://www.centos.org
I have prepared a migration page for moving from wbel to CentOS. http://www.centos.org/modules/smartfaq/faq.php?fa
I am confused now. Who's who?
To get respect in an organisation, ironically, often means shelving your self respect. Too often, the only way to plug in to the corporate ladder means selling out to a life of brown-nosing and playing the game.
I actually have to disagree with you there. Selling out on principles to "fit in" or "play the game" only diminishes your likelihood of earning respect. Respect has to do with your ability to "do the right thing", both technically and ethically. I think there is a big difference between respect and "liking". I have worked with quite a lot of people that I actually liked, but not respected because they were always doing things that I thought were dishounest (copying software, taking things home etc.
As an example, everyone in my group knew that I wouldn't give out software for people to copy and take home. They respected me for this (although maybe not liked me for it). I know because some of them actually said that. However, I also used to go out of my way to make sure that they get any help they need if I could offer it. (by the way, this included obtaining corporate licenses for software that allowed home use for the employees!)
From the FAQs on the site:
...The rules make sure the cabling is done safely and that the cabler has the skills to do
the job.
Cabling which is installed incorrectly can result in your phones, faxes, Internet or alarm systems not working properly. Faulty cabling can also increase the risk of safety hazards such as electrocution.
It's like the building regulators saying your electrical wiring should be done by a professional. This is a "cover". Basically, if DIY and something goes wrong, the insurance company may not fork out the cash if they can argue that the "work was not fully compliant".
There is no one to stop you from doing your own cabling (or electrical wiring for that matter). I have done all these (installed additional phone sockets, networked a small office and insallted electrical wiring) and I am still not a licensed cabler! No one's knocked down my doors yet.
All this is in my own house. For an office suite, all I can say, is that there is a traditional middle eastern saying: give your bread to the baker (to bake) even if he ate half of it. In other words, get the professionals to do it. And for crying out loud, go get more quotes.
First it would depend on what a person does. I'd imagine someone working in prepress would be rather unproductive in Linux, given the lack of tools, but the same would not be true of a PERL developer.
Talking about pre-press. I work for a multi-lingual publishing compmnay. We use inDesign. It pretty much has the same interfaces and shortcuts between the Mac and the PC. However, the Mac clearly wins when it comes to accented fonts. On the Mac, you'd press option(alt)+e followed by an e, and you get è while on a PC you need to press alt+0233 (on the numeric pad) to get the same result.
For this reason, the Mac for us is actually more functional (not just more familiar).
Yes, I think that's how most people decide to buy computers - word of mouth from trusted friends & family
I wish it was the case. I keep telling my brother in law to buy a Mac for his kids because it has a lot of benefits and it actually costs less than a similar PC. But, they've only seen a Mac at my brother's place. They've never seen a Mac at work, so they always decide to buy a PC. Once every couple of months, somthing breaks because my nephew or neice installed something new they downloaded or were given by their friends.
I've given up telling them what to buy. What's the use? They never listen, because I always tell them not to go with what "every one else is doing" - anything from software choice to peripherals...
This just shows how "elitist" some of the commenters are; they all pretty much seem to be saying that, the police or the government don't know what they're legislating.
Of course, some of the regulations can not be fully enforced, but that does not mean they shouldn't be legislated.
I have worked for one of the top 3 ISPs in Australia, and they do work quite closely with the police. This is mainly in the tracking side of things: threatening emails, spam, etc.
By the way, you seem to have misunderstood the fines part of the article. The fines are not for using an ISP to access CP, but it is for not disclosing who is accessing CP when they find out. It is essentially an extension of the existing child abuse legislation: if you suspect abuse, you have to report it!
After all, they are made up of communications companies. See their website.
In all fairness, it would make sense to move control to the ITU. Even though there will be a lot of people who will complain about a "political body", ie the UN controlling such things. Sure the UN is a Polititcal Body. So is any government, if you haven't already noticed; but the UN does more than just political work. think UNICEF, UNESCO, FAO, WHO, and the list goes on.
Is there going to be political influences in the ITU if it controls ICANN? Sure, just as there is now.
If I had a say in this, I'll vote yes. They are the body to control worldwide tele/data communications.
PC-Crash sounds like a dodgy name.
They could've used engineering programs like: CATIA, Pro Engineer, Strand/Straus, or any other FEA (Finite Element Analysis) program and apply the right forces to the element to come up with a half decent result. However, if you've ever used any of them, you'd know the immensity of constructing an accurate model.
I can't judge PC-Crash. Maybe it is useful and accurate, however, the blurb says it was not "certified" or accepted for the senario it was used for.
I think this goes back to using the right tool for the job.
"Nothing to see here, move along!" is probably the right thing to say for this article.
For that, you'll need a holster rig...
I actually know someone who uses an underarm holster rig to hold his mobile phone. It's not a bad idea really considering that he actually uses it when wearing "overalls" and works with chainsaws.
It is also concealed but close to the chest (sensitive area) so he can feel the vibration even when working in noisy surroundings.
What about the combined Mac/PC machines like the LC630/Dos or the original Powermacs. They were a good idea, but I wonder how many they sold?
and smetimes miss the whole point of the email.
There's this email virus hoax about the file in windows that looks like a tedyy bear which is supposed to be a "virus". It's one of those "irish viruses", literally asking the user to delete their own files.
Anyay, I thought I'll do the ritght thing by the people I was supporting at the time, and drafted an email which basically copied the contents of the hoax email and advising people not to follow the instuctions because it is a hoax. The clincher is that the subject of the email was HOAX this is not true...
What happens, they read the contents, skipped my section about not following the instructions and they went about deleting the file!
To make things worse, the group that I sent the email to forwarded it to a whole heap of people who I didn't know. My phone number was in the signature, and I started getting calls from people saying they've followed my instructions and deleted the file...
It made our whole IT Department laugh at the silliness of people who don't read their emails properly!
Eventually, I started advising my recipients to not-please forward my emails without my approval.
I work for an IT company with only two letters in it's name.
This is my story, salary wise, over the last 4 years.
First off, there was a global freeze on salary increases (supposed to have been only short term)
Then, some part of the company (and the outsorced contract we worked for) lost a fair bit of money, so we were asked to "work half an hour less a day" and cut our wages by about 12%.
Then after about 4 years working through an agency, I was absorbed into the permanent workforce. As a result, my oncall rate was reduced by about 70% which meant that I lost about 30% of my monthly wages in real terms.
Finally, we were withdrawn from the outsourced contract, and I changed positions. I currently do not have any oncall, or overtime work. This is a further 20% reductions.
I am now earning what I was earning in 2000.
It sucks, but at every stage the market was quite depressed in Australia, and looking for a suitable job was daunting. I have had my review recently, and in a month or so I'll find out if my salary has been increased. If not, or if not to a satisfactory level, then I'll have to let my boss know that I'll be moving on.
Sadly, there are far too many Muslims who do not want to simply work out a few philosophical differences with the Israelis, they want to kill them, all of them if possible. What makes it especially troubling is that Araft turned down a peace for land deal in which they could have had about 98% of what they wanted. It is likely that real peace won't be possible until Araft has passed on.
Although like you say, many muslims want to see Israel disappear, the ones that matter actually have a different view. The Palestinians have repeatedly stated that they want a two state solution. They are being generous enough by saying to the Israelis, "you can keep what you took from us by force, just leave us alone".
Also, in relation to you comment about being satisfied with 98% of the land offer. You obviously have not though this one through. Would you be satified if your coountry was invaded and the invading army said, "look we'll give you peace, just let us keep only 2%"? Didn't think so. Besides, people who say things like that have absolutely no idea about the value of "the land" (or in hebrew: eretz) for people who have lived there for hundreds and thousands of years. I will not attempt to explain it, because it is more than: "it means a lot to me!"
Actually, a "registered" business is not the same as an incorporated company. You could be a "sole trader" or a home business, all you will need (if you wish) is to register a business name. In Australia this makes business transactions using your personal name and your business name synonimous. It also helps protect your business name (at least in your state).
In Australia, to get a .com.au domain name you need to be a "registered" business or the owner of a trademark. If the same is applied to .com TLD(non-mommercial entities should not use it), then most of the problems would disappear. Also, like someone else suggested, maybe American companies if they start using the .us TLD, it will free up a lot of space.
Another problem I have with these new TLD is their naming. They are too "English". Come on, travel is an English word; so is name, biz, museum. To me it appears to be not fair. The original TLD were sot of "common" to most the western languages.
Now that we have an updated Netatalk, will we also get an updated Webmin module.
Please, please also update the Webmin module.
Out of curiosity, does anyone know if Apple developers (officially or not) contribute to Netatalk development?
But then again, "to the victor belong the spoils".
Well that's concerning, because if they're buying it for Windows features... well, the Mac stuff may be "de-prioritised"
Doesn't always have to be that way. Don't forget that Dantz was already developing it for both platforms. The good thing about Retrospect is that it worked pretty much the same way on both platforms. Also another reason for Retrospect's success on Windows is it's ease of use compared to Windows Backup (at least the one that came with NT4)
I am not an American
It really amazes me (an Australian) how convoluted your election system is. I do not claim that our system is the best, but at least it is simple.
When I change addresses, I have to notify the Electoral Comission of my new address. Based on that, they tell me which electorate I can vote in for local, state and federal elections. All voting in Australia uses the same system. There are no varieties in the method.It is simple and proven. (Actually, they even sell their services to corporation that need to conduct internal voting, such as shareholder votes etc)
That is why there are extremely rare cases of voting irregularities here. From the outside, the American system is so confusing, irregular and disorganised that it actually is a pain just to keep track of what's going on. It is really amazing that in a federal election, voting is controlled on a county basis or even a state basis. But then again, like I said, I am not an American, so maybe, I'm missing something.
Sure, some matches up... but it's not like there aren't errors as well...
Matthew claims that the birth of Jesus occurred during the reign of Herod the Great of Judea, a puppet king of the Romans, whom we know died in 4 B.C
Before I start nitpicking, it might pay for you to investigate the source of this error. Might it have been an error in the conversion from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar? Besides, if you search on "Jesus" on Wikipedia, you'll see "C 6-4BC". The C stands for circa means about.
Then we'll have the usual problem with Non-US people griping about how unfair it is that it only covers US politics (I'm assuming here) as well as put in their two bits ON US politics. It's going to be messy!
I'm surprised you see this as a problem. As an Australian, I take great pleasure in reading news stories about Australia from foreign media (and the odd comment on Slashdot). Outsiders usually have a lot of insight and can see more of my country than we do. So, as an outsider myself, I can tell you (Americans) relax, open up. Go see the world. There is more to the world than just your country. Besides, half the world's problem would be less severe if you took more interest in other countries apart from "what's in it for me".
What about Wile Coyote? He's always concocting something new (chemistry) or designing/building some new device (engineering). This is good science. He never gives up.
Like someone else pointed out this project is funded by the UNDP which is not aimed at developed countries (US included) but at developing countries. These countries are the ones usually lauded by most people here on Slashdot as the ones to benefit most from Linux adoption. Although, I can see this product being quite useful to most people who are new to Linux.