Absolutely! Lets make a repair license! Better yet, why not make a USER license, allowing only people who have such, to buy and or use a computer....
Better yet, Library licenses! or for those more in tune with Amerika's new direction, Knowledge access licenses! We can start teaching children only what they NEED to KNOW, can't be too careful
you never know one of them might become a terrorist.
Come ON! We live in a free country right? We don't want to snoop on our neighbors, And we dont want to watch everyone
And we'd never ask the traveling public for ID like former eastern block countries.....
It was tried before. Remember the Civil War? Irregardless of the evils of slavery, I believe the South was justified in their cecession.
The same argument that the founding fathers used in their revolt against the crown applied there as well.
The basic argument is "My forefathers cannot give up my rights to self determination for all time to ANY government."
Lastly the Army WOULD shoot you, and you would be on the nightly news in a blurb such as
"And in other news today a terrorist attack on Washington was thwarted by regiments of the United States Army. It is unclear at this time how many terrorists were killed but White House officials commented that the group was linked to Al-queda."
Yes, the world could be a better place if people had to earn the right to reproduce. But here's the rub:
Someone has to create the criteria.... How do you choose the criteria, and how can you trust them to choose the right criteria?
Also, what may be the right criteria in one circumstance, (say non-violence) may suddenly become counter productive (say an alien invasion? just as a lark) or better yet a natural resistance to a new disease....
The gorillas "choice" is a convenient out. To say that they as individuals could choose slavery for their entire species is as valid as the argument Britain gave against America rebelling. Or to say that some Africans "chose" slavery and thus all their descendants must be slaves.
There is ALWAYS a choice. We as beings can do ANYTHING we wish including fight for our principals.
I would be much more interested to see what would happen if the shoe were on the other foot. Say the galactics thought that Chimps should be OUR patrons. Somehow I don't think we'd be as peacefull and copacetic with that situation.
The humans, chimps and dolphins are ALL spectacular specimens to use your phrase. Only those coming from the approved genetic lines get the opportunity to go into space.
As for the success of his society, according to his own words that society has existed for HUNDREDS of millions of years. Is it vital? No. does it work? Yes. Therefore it is a success.
And no humanity is NOT the exception. They are perfectly willing to work in collusion with what they see as an evil system to ensure their own survival. This is the same argument the death camp guards used. "I was only following orders I did not wish to be killed."
The humans in his stories either suffer from moral relativism, or do not really care about the "freedom" they complain about since it is the chimps and dolphins which find themselves on the short end of the stick.
Did the elves or the men offer to sell the hobbits into slavery if Sauron would just go away? No they fought against impossible odds choosing death rather than submission.
Brin's novels:
Earth sells gorilla's into 100,000 years of slavery to ensure an alliance and their survival.
2nd point
Let's flip Brins premise for LOTR around and look at his books from the galactics perspective. Yes he tries to paint galactic society as flawed, but look at the facts:
They have a fuedal basis for their galactic government which has kept a general peace throughout the universe for hundreds of millions of years. They have strict rules protecting species from extinction, giving all life a chance. Those races which fail to become civilized are destroyed, including their PATRON races. This society obviously works, and works well else it would not have stayed viable over hundreds of millions of years. So how flawed can it really be?
Does it lack vitality? Certainly. But does it accomplish its primary purpose? I would have to say yes, it keeps interstellar war to a minimum, protects native life, and promotes the GENERAL welfare of all.
Indeed as you said the Galactic Society is not evil, merely a fuedal system, and in his story the aliens can not yet comfortably class where humanity belongs in the scheme of things.
Yet humanity is willing to compromise its moral beliefs in order to stay alive. I would have to say that selling an entire race into servitude regardless of circumstance must be classed as an evil act. Wouldn't you?
It is not a meritocracy. Ask Jojo the chimp who while he can understand spoken language cannot talk with the use of the speaking machine. Jojo is enourmously helpful, and could rightly be called a hero in the novel.
Problem is Jojoes DNA does not measure up to uberchimp version 6.66 result? no little Jojoes....
In a meritocracy, even the handicapped could have a place provided they can get the job done, and done well. In Brin's world, sorry it's all in your genes.....
Thus although some may fall from grace, the presumption and thus the opportunity, wealth, power and prestige go to the offspring of the "Superior" Lineage.
My point about fuedalism is, the individuals in Brins novels are essentially from Noble families. Indeed the Blue card families are even eager to have a Green card join them. It has nothing to do with love or freedom or mutual interest. It has only to do with merging their line into a superior one.
Brin takes the most important act of being an individual able to make choices about existence, and turns it into a business transaction.
Selective breeeding, divine right, whatever. Both are based upon the presumption that your lineage is superior to anothers.
And no the reproductive rights in his book were determined by a council who got to choose the criteria for desirability. Not the individuals.
Whether you call it fuedalism, eliteism, meritocracy etc. They are ALL based upon the same core principal. I.E. some are more fit to rule than others. While this may be a true statement, this is what Brin knocks LOTR for, and then his books use the same idea cloaked in a veil of science as justification.
As to your point about the probies. I totally disagree with you.
In the book, probies are sufferred to live at societies whim. They live under constant watch, do menial jobs, and are denied what we take for granted as basic rights. I ask you, how would you behave in a similar circumstance?
Would you care to EARN the right to reproduce? How about the ability to speak freeely? Should you have to earn the right to live based upon an arbitrary set of criteria?
Indeed we can see that the criteria are very arbitrary in his books. How you ask? When the Avian's make a deal with the probationary chimp to test for the next level of uplift, they are willing to give him reproductive rights, in return for naming them as protectors.
Brin's world is an ultrafascist dystopia. Again, I like his books, my point is to turn the critical eye back upon his work.
Brin's heroes are the very definition of fuedalism. ALL his heroes are the "Best of Breed" The dolphins in sundiver, the chimps in uplift, etc. ONLY the best and brightest are allowed off-planet and reproductive privledges.
They have these privledges by "divine right" through inheritence. The only time we read about the lesser beings is the "probie" chimps, or dolphins, which are cast as evil for daring to want the same reproductive rights.....
Now if Brin were serious about the message, it would be the PROBIES who proved of value, not the Uberchimps!
Sure the humans and their clients rail about the "injustice" of the system, but to the characters in the book it is more of an intellectual injustice because they have PASSED the test. You don't hear these upstanding examples fighting for the rights of the Probies. Quite the contrary. The probies are reviled, and portrayed as convenient villians blocking the progress of the race as a whole.
Please, they do romanticize his fuedal/fascist world of eugenics. The best individuals are determined by a "council" based upon certain genetic criteria. God help the poor slob who doesn't fit the mold....
Yes the humans do go out exploring to verify knowledge, but they have NO choice but to play by the galactic rules.
They sell the gorilla's into slavery to save their skins. The use the selfsame fuedal rules to save themselves in the war against the bird people (sorry forget the races name at the moment) using the protection of the library etc when it is convenient.
They cover up the mass extinctions caused by man which in and of itself would doom humanity according to the galactic rules.
I don't think the chimps or neo-dolphins would put quite that happy face on it. Remember they can't reproduce without a green or white card.
Also it is implied in the books that HUMANS are under the same sort of strictures. Particularly in Sundiver.
Indeed the irony I find in Brin's books is the very survival of humanity is at stake, Reproduction is tightly regulated, so much so that it is The Nazi's view of eugenics distilled to an even higher level of control, and yet
The human council sends explorers out and they throw humanity into crisis after crisis where the fate of humanity and ALL its client races hangs in the balance EVERY time.
Now I don't know about you, but if I were a dolphin or chimp the above would PISS me off.
The biggest Irony is Brin rails against fuedalism in the LOTR and yet what is his STABLE, enummerably old, and highly organized galactic society built upon? FUEDALISM. The supposedly Evil galactic society has brought stability and general peace to the entire universe for hundreds of millions of years. I say we take his universe apart and look at it from the galactics point of view. Then see how he likes it......
Ask yourself why 9/11 happened.
It happened because the USA is poking its nose
into other countries affairs.
You want the best way to stop another 9/11?
Stop funding things like this :
the School of the Americas
Did you know that literally EVERY right wing coup
which took place in South America over the past 50-60 years was led by a graduate from this place?
It's graduates include such stellar persons as
Manuel Noriega.
Now think about this, let's say China occupied
Washington D.C. Would that piss you off?
Well, take that analogy and multiply by a thousand
to get an idea of how pissed some muslims might be that we are in their holiest land of Mecca...
Now throw in the fact that we gave Israel roughly
$11,000.00 total per PERSON since 1949 :
Peace Facts
And yet we tell the world we are unbiased.
And some people here honestly wonder WHY others
hate us?????
We support corrupt regimes like Saudia Arabia, when it is in our interest. Why is Iran pissed at us, take a look at the Shah's corrupt regime.
In addition, we GAVE Saddam his Bio Terror weapons
stock back in the 80's to help him against Iran
during their war. Don't believe that? Look it up.
During the Reagan era we sent them bio weapons cultures, which at the time even some of the administration questioned.
You don't need to shred the constitution to protect America, Just go back to the strict
"Friend to all, Ally to none" vision upon which
America was founded.
But hey, who am I? Just someone who'll get rounded
up the first time they go through asking :
"Papers Please." I'm sure you'll be unscathed and blissfully unaware watching that latest Survivor Episode. Until they come for You.
You state that it will take 20G's this is not quite true. When you put in a patent request, it should cost a couple hundred bucks at most.
I have read that the process takes about 2 years before they will get back to you saying YEA or NAY. It is at that point that you must come up with the money for the patent.
The trick is patent PENDING. Once you have put in the request your invention is protected (assuming that the patent office comes back in 2 years to grant the request)
If you believe it will work, then scrape up the dough for the application. Once you have applied, you can then get third party verification, or release your own application to test the market, and still be protected.
P.S. if you are in the USA, check out the Small Business Association, and their SCORE program. This should get you on the right track.
I remember reading somewhere in your agreement with Qwest that you could not provide standard phone over their subloops.
My question is what is your take regarding the limitation above and packet based Voice over IP, since it is now possible for yourself or an unrelated third party provide VOIP on your DSL lines?
IMO it is the height of human arrogance to assume that we are the only intelligent life in the universe. Given the astronomical number of stars out there, IMO the most reasonable assumption is life has arisen elswhere and will continue to do so. It may be a very rare occurance, but to argue that this solar system out of trillions of trillions is the only one perfect enough to harbor life seems to smack of a religious ferver for humanism much like a devout catholic or southern baptist has for their beliefs......
Yes it probably could be done almost everywhere, assuming you can get one person to play "Mussolini of the Desktops" and stop users from adding stupid crap like screensavers etc. Hell man if we could get national hardware and software standards we could probably run on 5-10% of budgets.....
Think about bank ATMS they are almost NEVER down. Why? They are hardware and software specced and designed to do a straightforward task.The same can be done with PC's but it would mean taking the "Personal" out of Personal Computers.
Use performance metrics (at least with new hardware)
If person "A" can run daily report in 10 minutes on the old hardware and 3 on the new that will translate in 30 hours worth of time the employee could be using more productively. At 20.00 an hour that is 600.00 worth of time. It does not take too many of these instances to justify upgrading a machine.
one man's "freedom fighter" is another man's terrorist.....
This is also fairly interesting:
When Arafat addressed the UN General Assembly in November 1974, he said very accurately: "Most of you who are here in this Assembly hall were once considered terrorists". Gerald Clarke then observed in 'TIME' (Nov 25, 1974): "What makes terrorism respectable? The main criterion is success. Algeria's Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika is currently president of the UN General Assembly because terrorism got its way in Algeria."
Clarke's 1974 article continued: "Oppressed peoples have often turned to violence as the first step in their fight for nationhood... Thus it is quite possible, if an independent state is ever established, that statues of Arafat will some day be erected in the plazas of Nabulus like the plaques and statues of Eamon de Valera in Ireland and Emiliano Zapata in Mexico... A leader of the Mau Mau terrorist campaign against the British in Kenya now sits in the Cabinet of President Jorno Kenyatta, and the Mau Mau is officially regarded as a heroic freedom movement".
Oxford historian Alastair Buchan observed wryly: " Respectability depends on whose side you're on. To the Turks, Lawrence of Arabia was a terrorist".
Gerald Clarke further noted: "Ironically, Israel itself might not exist today had it not been for terrorists. The Irgun Zvai Leumui and the Stern Gang, two militant Jewish groups of the '30s and '40s, pressured the British to give up their mandate over Palestine through bombs and assassinations and tried to force the Arabs out through simple murder. Lord Moyne, British administrator for the Middle East, was killed in 1944 in Cairo by the Stern Gang which also assassinated Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte, UN mediator in Palestine, in 1948".
The London "ECONOMIST" (Jan 21, 1989) stated: "...Israel's current Prime Minister, Mr. Yitzhak, Shamir, was a senior member of the Stern Gang," and in 1998 the UK " TELEGRAPH ", in an article "The Violent Birth of a Jewish State", featured a British poster of the WANTED TERRORIST Shamir. Moreover, the 1992 Associated Press obituary of Israel's former Prime Minister Menachem Begin reported that he was the head of Irgun and was " hunted by the British in Palestine as a terrorist", and "TIME" (March 23, 1992) in its obituary reported that Begin in 1943 " took command of the Jewish underground terrorist organisation Irgun" and "The British put a $30,000 price tag on his head but never captured him."
We have given Isreal enormous support over the years. Aid, military aid, diplomatic etc.
I have a real problem with the fact that they classify Arafat as a terrorist (for fighting against occupation) while at the same time they ignore that their founding fathers were classified as terrorists by the British (who ruled the country at the time) Either they are both terrorists or neither is....
Our support for ANY country should be based upon the democratic ideals and institutions which that country is based upon, NOT upon their natural resources (Ala Saudia Arabia).
Slashdot Mirror
Absolutely! Lets make a repair license! Better yet, why not make a USER license, allowing only people who have such, to buy and or use a computer.... Better yet, Library licenses! or for those more in tune with Amerika's new direction, Knowledge access licenses! We can start teaching children only what they NEED to KNOW, can't be too careful you never know one of them might become a terrorist. Come ON! We live in a free country right? We don't want to snoop on our neighbors, And we dont want to watch everyone And we'd never ask the traveling public for ID like former eastern block countries.....
Now YOU are a terrorist....
It was tried before. Remember the Civil War?
Irregardless of the evils of slavery,
I believe the South was justified in their cecession.
The same argument that the founding fathers used in their revolt against the crown applied there as well.
The basic argument is "My forefathers cannot give up my rights to self determination for all time to ANY government."
Lastly the Army WOULD shoot you, and you would be on the nightly news in a blurb such as
"And in other news today a terrorist attack on Washington was thwarted by regiments of the United States Army. It is unclear at this time how many terrorists were killed but White House officials commented that the group was linked to Al-queda."
And that would be that......
I can see slashdot getting a visit in the near future for their server logs......
"Uberwachung macht Frei"
or
"Surveillance is freedom"
Coming to an internment camp near you........
Yes, the world could be a better place if people
had to earn the right to reproduce. But here's the rub:
Someone has to create the criteria....
How do you choose the criteria, and how can you trust them to choose the right criteria?
Also, what may be the right criteria in one circumstance, (say non-violence) may suddenly become counter productive (say an alien invasion? just as a lark) or better yet a natural resistance to a new disease....
The gorillas "choice" is a convenient out.
To say that they as individuals could choose slavery for their entire species is as valid as the argument Britain gave against America rebelling. Or to say that some Africans "chose" slavery and thus all their descendants must be slaves.
There is ALWAYS a choice. We as beings can do ANYTHING we wish including fight for our principals.
I would be much more interested to see what would happen if the shoe were on the other foot. Say the galactics thought that Chimps should be OUR patrons. Somehow I don't think we'd be as peacefull and copacetic with that situation.
The humans, chimps and dolphins are ALL
spectacular specimens to use your phrase.
Only those coming from the approved genetic lines get the opportunity to go into space.
As for the success of his society, according to his own words that society has existed for HUNDREDS of millions of years. Is it vital? No.
does it work? Yes. Therefore it is a success.
And no humanity is NOT the exception. They are perfectly willing to work in collusion with what they see as an evil system to ensure their own survival. This is the same argument the death camp guards used. "I was only following orders I did not wish to be killed."
The humans in his stories either suffer from moral relativism, or do not really care about the
"freedom" they complain about since it is the chimps and dolphins which find themselves on the short end of the stick.
1st point
:
:
:
LOTR
Did the elves or the men offer to sell the hobbits into slavery if Sauron would just go away?
No they fought against impossible odds choosing death rather than submission.
Brin's novels
Earth sells gorilla's into 100,000 years of slavery to ensure an alliance and their survival.
2nd point
Let's flip Brins premise for LOTR around and look at his books from the galactics perspective. Yes he tries to paint galactic society as flawed, but look at the facts
They have a fuedal basis for their galactic government which has kept a general peace throughout the universe for hundreds of millions of years. They have strict rules protecting species from extinction, giving all life a chance. Those races which fail to become civilized are destroyed, including their PATRON races. This society obviously works, and works well else it would not have stayed viable over hundreds of millions of years. So how flawed can it really be?
Does it lack vitality? Certainly. But does it accomplish its primary purpose? I would have to say yes, it keeps interstellar war to a minimum,
protects native life, and promotes the GENERAL welfare of all.
Indeed as you said the Galactic Society is not evil, merely a fuedal system, and in his story the aliens can not yet comfortably class where humanity belongs in the scheme of things.
Yet humanity is willing to compromise its moral beliefs in order to stay alive. I would have to say that selling an entire race into servitude
regardless of circumstance must be classed as an evil act. Wouldn't you?
It is not a meritocracy. Ask Jojo the chimp who
while he can understand spoken language cannot talk with the use of the speaking machine.
Jojo is enourmously helpful, and could rightly be called a hero in the novel.
Problem is Jojoes DNA does not measure up to uberchimp version 6.66 result? no little Jojoes....
In a meritocracy, even the handicapped could have a place provided they can get the job done, and done well. In Brin's world, sorry it's all in your genes.....
Thus although some may fall from grace, the presumption and thus the opportunity, wealth, power and prestige go to the offspring of the
"Superior" Lineage.
My point about fuedalism is, the individuals in Brins novels are essentially from Noble families. Indeed the Blue card families are even eager to have a Green card join them. It has nothing to do with love or freedom or mutual interest. It has only to do with merging their line into a superior one.
Brin takes the most important act of being an individual able to make choices about existence, and turns it into a business transaction.
Selective breeeding, divine right, whatever.
Both are based upon the presumption that your lineage is superior to anothers.
And no the reproductive rights in his book were determined by a council who got to choose
the criteria for desirability. Not the individuals.
Whether you call it fuedalism, eliteism, meritocracy etc. They are ALL based upon the
same core principal. I.E. some are more fit to rule than others. While this may be a true statement, this is what Brin knocks LOTR for, and then his books use the same idea cloaked in
a veil of science as justification.
As to your point about the probies. I totally disagree with you.
In the book, probies are sufferred to live at societies whim. They live under constant watch,
do menial jobs, and are denied what we take for granted as basic rights. I ask you, how would you behave in a similar circumstance?
Would you care to EARN the right to reproduce?
How about the ability to speak freeely?
Should you have to earn the right to live based
upon an arbitrary set of criteria?
Indeed we can see that the criteria are very arbitrary in his books. How you ask? When
the Avian's make a deal with the probationary chimp to test for the next level of uplift,
they are willing to give him reproductive rights, in return for naming them as protectors.
Brin's world is an ultrafascist dystopia.
Again, I like his books, my point is to turn the critical eye back upon his work.
Stop and think about this:
Brin's heroes are the very definition of fuedalism. ALL his heroes are the "Best of Breed"
The dolphins in sundiver, the chimps in uplift, etc. ONLY the best and brightest are allowed
off-planet and reproductive privledges.
They have these privledges by "divine right" through inheritence. The only time we read about
the lesser beings is the "probie" chimps, or dolphins, which are cast as evil for daring to want the same reproductive rights.....
Now if Brin were serious about the message, it would be the PROBIES who proved of value, not
the Uberchimps!
Sure the humans and their clients rail about the "injustice" of the system, but to the characters in the book it is more of an intellectual injustice because they have PASSED the test. You don't hear these upstanding examples fighting for the rights of the Probies. Quite the contrary. The probies are reviled, and portrayed as convenient villians blocking the progress of the race as a whole.
Please, they do romanticize his fuedal/fascist world of eugenics. The best individuals are determined by a "council" based upon certain genetic criteria. God help the poor slob who doesn't fit the mold....
Yes the humans do go out exploring to verify
knowledge, but they have NO choice but to play by the galactic rules.
They sell the gorilla's into slavery to save their
skins. The use the selfsame fuedal rules to save themselves in the war against the bird people (sorry forget the races name at the moment) using
the protection of the library etc when it is convenient.
They cover up the mass extinctions caused by man
which in and of itself would doom humanity according to the galactic rules.
I don't think the chimps or neo-dolphins would
put quite that happy face on it. Remember they
can't reproduce without a green or white card.
Also it is implied in the books that HUMANS are under the same sort of strictures. Particularly in Sundiver.
Indeed the irony I find in Brin's books is
the very survival of humanity is at stake,
Reproduction is tightly regulated, so much so
that it is The Nazi's view of eugenics distilled
to an even higher level of control, and yet
The human council sends explorers out
and they throw humanity into crisis after crisis
where the fate of humanity and ALL
its client races hangs in the balance EVERY time.
Now I don't know about you, but if I were a dolphin or chimp the above would PISS me off.
The biggest Irony is Brin rails against fuedalism in the LOTR and yet what is his STABLE, enummerably old, and highly organized galactic
society built upon? FUEDALISM. The supposedly Evil galactic society has brought stability and general peace to the entire universe
for hundreds of millions of years. I say we take his universe apart and look at it from the galactics point of view. Then see how he likes
it......
Well gee then I guess we shouldn't wax romantic about his fuedal/fascist world of uplift either eh?
Not knocking uplift, a great read, but come on!
The world he's built is just as deterministic and
ordered as LOTR if not more so.....
Ask yourself why 9/11 happened. It happened because the USA is poking its nose into other countries affairs.
You want the best way to stop another 9/11? Stop funding things like this : the School of the Americas Did you know that literally EVERY right wing coup which took place in South America over the past 50-60 years was led by a graduate from this place? It's graduates include such stellar persons as Manuel Noriega.Now think about this, let's say China occupied Washington D.C. Would that piss you off? Well, take that analogy and multiply by a thousand to get an idea of how pissed some muslims might be that we are in their holiest land of Mecca...
Now throw in the fact that we gave Israel roughly $11,000.00 total per PERSON since 1949 :Peace Facts And yet we tell the world we are unbiased.
And some people here honestly wonder WHY others hate us????? We support corrupt regimes like Saudia Arabia, when it is in our interest. Why is Iran pissed at us, take a look at the Shah's corrupt regime. In addition, we GAVE Saddam his Bio Terror weapons stock back in the 80's to help him against Iran during their war. Don't believe that? Look it up. During the Reagan era we sent them bio weapons cultures, which at the time even some of the administration questioned.You don't need to shred the constitution to protect America, Just go back to the strict "Friend to all, Ally to none" vision upon which America was founded.
But hey, who am I? Just someone who'll get rounded up the first time they go through asking : "Papers Please." I'm sure you'll be unscathed and blissfully unaware watching that latest Survivor Episode. Until they come for You.America's New Motto?
"One Flag To Rule Them All....."Yes, it can end up costing you big bucks.
However if he has no money to do it that way
do you have another option for him?
You state that it will take 20G's this is not quite true. When you put in a patent request,
it should cost a couple hundred bucks at most.
I have read that the process takes about 2 years before they will get back to you saying YEA or NAY. It is at that point that you must come up with the money for the patent.
The trick is patent PENDING. Once you have put in the request your invention is protected (assuming that the patent office comes back in 2 years to grant the request)
If you believe it will work, then scrape up the dough for the application. Once you have applied, you can then get third party verification, or release your own application to test the market, and still be protected.
P.S. if you are in the USA, check out the Small Business Association, and their SCORE program.
This should get you on the right track.
But now thanks to the All-American Patriot Act, we can monitor you and other potential thought criminals and no longer care if you whine.
This Message Brought to you by the
Office of Homeland Security,
"Making Today a Better Place Tomorrow!"
I remember reading somewhere in your agreement with Qwest that you could not provide standard phone over their subloops.
My question is what is your take regarding the limitation above and packet based Voice over IP,
since it is now possible for yourself or an unrelated third party provide VOIP on your DSL lines?
IMO it is the height of human arrogance to assume
that we are the only intelligent life in the universe. Given the astronomical number of stars
out there, IMO the most reasonable assumption is life has arisen elswhere and will continue to do so. It may be a very rare occurance, but to argue that this solar system out of trillions of trillions is the only one perfect enough to harbor life seems to smack of a religious ferver for humanism much like a devout catholic or southern baptist has for their beliefs......
Yes it probably could be done almost everywhere, assuming you can get one person to play "Mussolini of the Desktops" and stop users from adding stupid crap like screensavers etc. Hell man if we could get national hardware and software standards we could probably run on 5-10% of budgets.....
Think about bank ATMS they are almost NEVER down. Why? They are hardware and software specced and designed to do a straightforward task.The same can be done with PC's but it would mean taking the "Personal" out of Personal Computers.
Use performance metrics (at least with new hardware)
If person "A" can run daily report in 10 minutes
on the old hardware and 3 on the new that will
translate in 30 hours worth of time the employee
could be using more productively. At 20.00 an
hour that is 600.00 worth of time. It does not
take too many of these instances to justify
upgrading a machine.
Imagine a
BEEOWOLF cluster of these!!!
Yes yes, I will beear the stings and
arrows of outrageous punning.....
do some reading about british palestine.
:
... Thus it is quite possible, if an independent state is ever established, that statues of Arafat will some day be erected in the plazas of Nabulus like the plaques and statues of Eamon de Valera in Ireland and Emiliano Zapata in Mexico ... A leader of the Mau Mau terrorist campaign against the British in Kenya now sits in the Cabinet of President Jorno Kenyatta, and the Mau Mau is officially regarded as a heroic freedom movement".
Here is some interesting material
http://www.mediamonitors.net/gowans38.html
one man's "freedom fighter" is another man's terrorist.....
This is also fairly interesting:
When Arafat addressed the UN General Assembly in November 1974, he said very accurately: "Most of you who are here in this Assembly hall were once considered terrorists". Gerald Clarke then observed in 'TIME' (Nov 25, 1974): "What makes terrorism respectable? The main criterion is success. Algeria's Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika is currently president of the UN General Assembly because terrorism got its way in Algeria."
Clarke's 1974 article continued: "Oppressed peoples have often turned to violence as the first step in their fight for nationhood
Oxford historian Alastair Buchan observed wryly: " Respectability depends on whose side you're on. To the Turks, Lawrence of Arabia was a terrorist".
Gerald Clarke further noted: "Ironically, Israel itself might not exist today had it not been for terrorists. The Irgun Zvai Leumui and the Stern Gang, two militant Jewish groups of the '30s and '40s, pressured the British to give up their mandate over Palestine through bombs and assassinations and tried to force the Arabs out through simple murder. Lord Moyne, British administrator for the Middle East, was killed in 1944 in Cairo by the Stern Gang which also assassinated Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte, UN mediator in Palestine, in 1948".
The London "ECONOMIST" (Jan 21, 1989) stated: "...Israel's current Prime Minister, Mr. Yitzhak, Shamir, was a senior member of the Stern Gang," and in 1998 the UK " TELEGRAPH ", in an article "The Violent Birth of a Jewish State", featured a British poster of the WANTED TERRORIST Shamir. Moreover, the 1992 Associated Press obituary of Israel's former Prime Minister Menachem Begin reported that he was the head of Irgun and was " hunted by the British in Palestine as a terrorist", and "TIME" (March 23, 1992) in its obituary reported that Begin in 1943 " took command of the Jewish underground terrorist organisation Irgun" and "The British put a $30,000 price tag on his head but never captured him."
We have given Isreal enormous support over the years. Aid, military aid, diplomatic etc.
I have a real problem with the fact that they classify Arafat as a terrorist (for fighting against occupation) while at the same time they ignore that their founding fathers were classified as terrorists by the British (who ruled the country at the time) Either they are both terrorists or neither is....
Our support for ANY country should be based upon the democratic ideals and institutions which that country is based upon, NOT upon their natural resources (Ala Saudia Arabia).