"...illegally conspired to limit production and raise prices in an effort to block widespread adoption of Rambus' technology"
"I can say in all honesty that I didn't buy rambus because the cost was too damn hi"
If RAMBUS is right, and manufacturers artificially raised prices because the margins were too slim, you've just proven their point. It's one thing for one individual company to not market a new technology. When they all choose not to, that smells fishy. And since RAMBUS allegedly has emails proving the other companies all agreed (that is, conspired) to not use RAMBUS' new chip designs, that pretty much seals the deal. Even the FTC judge from the previous court case said he thinks the chip makers being sued crossed the line.
First off, the Crusades were justified to stop the rampaging Muslim hordes were who so tolerant they killed everyone in their path. Second, I hardly think the people who unleashed the Armenian genocide can be considered "tolerant". Third, there's a reason "the bloody Turk" was so reviled throughout eastern Europe.
As for whether standing up in the cafe can change anything or not, yes, it can. Sure, he might be executed, even tortured. But the West is free today because men in the past dared to do that exact same thing. If the Arabs want freedom for their children, they're gonna have to take some chances. "Freedom ain't free."
Or was that a Freudian slip, and you meant to write "who deplores the taking of innocent lives"? If so, why don't you try this thought experiment, Abdul: when you hear that someone has killed a mother and her four children as they drove down the road, what is your initial response? What about when you find out they were Jewish settlers, living in Gaza? Does this change your outlook on the crime?
I can safely say that if I heard that Americans had done something heinous like that, then they should be treated as criminals, with no ifs ands or buts. In fact, earlier in this thread I said the American MPs who were caught molesting Iraqis prisoners should be tried for rape, then executed. 'Cause ya see, Abdul, civilized people get outraged when their own people commit crimes against humanity. They don't offer up lame ass excuses for deplorable behavior. Until you people get your collective head out of your ass and start treating criminals the way God intended, noone in their right mind is going to believe you when you say you "deplore the taking of innocent lives" (when you manage to say it correctly).
Next time a fanatic blows himself up, along with the 20 people closest to him, I want you to go your local cafe and tell everyone who will listen that the man was a monster who deserves to rot in hell. If you aren't willing to do that, then you're complicit in his actions, and deserve the same fate. Jesus, whom I'm sure you respect, stated repeatedly that luke warm actions are not enough, you have to take a stand and do the right thing, no matter the consequences. That's true martyrdom, and the MidEast would be a better place if you and your countrymen learned that lesson, and fast.
If you care to continue this discussion, feel free to email me at cory@waddingham.org.
You know, not everyone in a country supports the actions of everyone from that country.
That's true, however how many Egyptians stand up and say "it's wrong to kill Jews"? Not many. In fact, anytime someone (like me) tries to condemn suicide bombers and their ilk, the usual apologetic answer is to claim Israelis deserve to be butchered like animals.
Contrast that with the example you cited of MPs abusing prisoners in Iraq. Pretty much everyone, from the top down, in America wants those goons in prison, or worse (personally, I want them tried for rape and executed).
The truth of the matter is that most Egyptians support destroying Israel. Pretending that isn't the case, or shouting down someone who insists it with name calling, doesn't solve anything.
Egyptians, and Arabs in general, are not our friends, and we should not be encouraging them to advance their tech base. Instead, we should be isolating their economies and starving their people until they stop trying to kill us and our real friends. If the situation were reversed, they wouldn't hesitate to kill all of us.
Or more to the point, what is the first thing users want to do after the system is installed and running?
Just a guess, but probably the thing they want to do before installing Linux: kill Jews. Judging by their own newspapers and TV, all Egyptians want nothing more than to kill every Jew in the world, so why should we waste our precious time helping them overcome their technological hurdles, which happen to be the only thing keeping them from overrunning Israel.
Sorry to spoil the lovefest, but just because someone wants to use Linux doesn't mean they've stopped being a bloodthirsty monster.
That's nothing. You should check out the new 2005 Fnord's coming out next year. Reactive armor that propels shrapnel in a 10' wide cone, autotracking and -firing weapon mounts, even a self-destruct mechanism.
What with the lax educational system that the U.S. seems to have, not to mention to grossly misappropriated funding by Federal and State gov'ts, it comes as no shock that the country is falling behind others in the realm of scientific research
Couldn't agree more about misappropriation of funds. In fact, I'll go one further and suggest the Federal government get out of the education business entirely. Congress is pretty much incapable of doing anything other than sending pork back to their home districts, and the President, whoever he (or even she, Condi in '08*), is going to be more concerned with winning political points than getting any actual work done. It's the nature of the job. If you can accept both of those as givens, it's a short step to realizing that the Feds shouldn't be setting any education standards or goals, at all. And if they're not doing that, they should then lower the tax burden so that people can afford to send their kids to private schools (you'd be surprise how cheap it can be to send your kid to a decent private school).
If the government *has* to be involved in education, then just issue vouchers to each parent for their kid(s), and let the parents decide which school in their area best meets their children's needs. Who knows better what a kid needs to learn, the parent who lives with him/her and loves him/her more than life itself, or some bureaucrat living hundreds, or even thousands, of miles away? (At this point, someone will chime in with the "but what about parents who don't love their children"...the obvious answer is that those kids will be fucked under any system, so why drag everyone else down to their level and condemn us all?)
Someone is likely to jump on the word "vouchers" above and start screaming like a lunatic that you'd then be supporting a "religion". Well, guess what, Sparky? The First Amendment of the Constitution only says Congress can't establish a national church, it doesn't say the government can't pay money to churches in the same programs as other non-profit or for-profit businesses (schools run by churches are a little of both, even if the church itself is non-profit). As long as they keep the program open to *any* group, no matter their religious doctrine (political doctrine is different, we don't need any madrassas over here training would be terrorists), there's no Constitutional issue.
*who wouldn't love it if the first black Presidential candidate was not only a woman, but also a Republican?
Actually, resolution 1441, the UNSCR which gave the US permission to attack, only said Saddam had to cough up the missing weapons (weapons which had disappeared after he kicked the weapons inspectors out back in '98-'99). The onus wasn't on us to find the weapons, it was on him to produce them, or prove they had been destroyed. He did neither, so we went in to take him out.
Besides, as an anonymous poster pointed out, the article clearly states where we've found actual weapons. Not "starter kits", not "precursors", but actual full blown weapons. Keep ignoring it if you want, but even Sen. Kerry has changed his tune (see this article...the article is published by the GOP, but the quote is from Kerry's recent appearance on Hardball).
In short, this race is pathetic, and deserves to extinguish itself. The sooner the better.
If you truly believe that, I have a bathtub and exacto knife you're welcome to borrow, anytime.
I prefer to think that most people will use nanotech for good. Nanotech is just a tool, like anything else, and can be used for good or evil. Since people are, mostly, good (for evidence of this, I point to the fact that we still exist and our standard of living across the globe continues to improve), I believe that nanotech will usher in a golden age of opportunity for all.
But they're not blocking an entire country, they're blocking a single ISP. Of course, that ISP is a monopoly, so most, if not all, of the public in Spain will be effected. Plus, the fact that that ISP is the largest in a given country because of a state granted monopoly is probably one of the reasons they haven't responded to anything short of blacklisting.
And while I hate to say it, and I know it sounds like flamebait (and maybe it is, I'm not sure), I have to point out that the recent Spanish elections have proven that Spaniards will bow to overt pressure very quickly. I'm not saying putting their largest ISP in a blacklist is at all the same thing as terrorists killing innocent people. All I'm saying is that the Spainards have proven themselves to have no backbone, so doing something extreme, like cutting them off from the Internet, virtually guarantees they will crack down on spammers in very short order.
That's odd, I thought the drivers in NASCAR races turned left mostly because they race on oval tracks in America. I'm sure if NASCAR suddenly became popular in Britain or Australia, they'd all be making right hand turns.
That's a bit like saying pick-pockets aren't the problem, it's people who don't watch their own ass all the time.
Your analogy makes no sense. I think a better one would be, whom do you blame when the hens get eaten: the fox that was guarding the hen house, or the dumb ass farmer who hired the fox in the first place?
Not to excuse the incompetent greedy fucks at Diebold, but they're only a symptom of the larger problem. The real problem is that the government types who are making decisions about going to evoting know fuck-all about how computers work, and are not interested/capable of any real oversight (the "magic box" can't be wrong, can it?). Couple that with the natural human tendency to get as much return on as little investment as possible, and it's almost as bad as setting up a dingo farm next to a day care center.
Afterall, consider that Diebold is one of the largest makers of ATMs in the world. Ever wonder why they can make ATMs that don't screw up your checking account balance every time you withdraw funds? Simple: banks are accountable to their customers, share holders, and various government agencies to not screw up people's finances. If someone went to the ATM and it reported they only had $18,181 (a reference to a previously reported bug on the upper limits of counted votes), when in fact they had ten times that much, there'd be a huge outcry (if the reverse happened, the bank would eventually catch it, and again there'd be a huge outcry, at least internally to the vendor). So, again, the problem isn't that Diebold is greedy (which they are) or stupid (which they are), but that the people to whom they are directly accountable (the various county registrars) have no clue what the hell they're doing.
No, it's just that in London, an American acting totally insane won't get noticed
Something tells me that, with people scaling the sheer cliffs of the local sidewalk, the Ministry of Silly Walks, Gumbies shouting, and other oddities, nothing anyone does in Britain would be viewed as "insane".
"Rocketman Eric Scott shot 46 metres into the air in London and promptly claimed a world record. Scott, 41, from Dallas, Texas, donned his red and white jumpsuit and zoomed into the north London sky in his bid to achieve the highest human elevation using a Rocketbelt." (emphasis added)
So Wile E.'s record still stands as the highest non-human elevation.
Eh, it's anecdotal evidence. Anyone who bases major life decisions on such deserves whatever cruel outcome fate has in store for them. I was just commenting that it's interesting.
I was told that I would be considered if I agreed to quit college and to never attempt to get a degree. I stuck it out, got a degree, and now I'm making about $30k less a year than if I had went with Microsoft.
Hmmmm....Bill Gates dropped out of college, and is now the richest man in the world. You finished your degree, and are now making $30k less than you were offered to drop out yourself. Interesting data points, no?
This person appears to have the thinking skills of a duck.
No kidding (although that is a little insulting to ducks). I stopped reading the article when he claimed that the Iraqis use the GPS system to guide their missiles in the first Gulf War.
Hey, moron, here's a news flash: the Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) are less than 10 years old. Even we didn't use GPS to guide bombs the first time around!
Slashdot Mirror
Go read your post again:
"...illegally conspired to limit production and raise prices in an effort to block widespread adoption of Rambus' technology"
"I can say in all honesty that I didn't buy rambus because the cost was too damn hi"
If RAMBUS is right, and manufacturers artificially raised prices because the margins were too slim, you've just proven their point. It's one thing for one individual company to not market a new technology. When they all choose not to, that smells fishy. And since RAMBUS allegedly has emails proving the other companies all agreed (that is, conspired) to not use RAMBUS' new chip designs, that pretty much seals the deal. Even the FTC judge from the previous court case said he thinks the chip makers being sued crossed the line.
First off, the Crusades were justified to stop the rampaging Muslim hordes were who so tolerant they killed everyone in their path. Second, I hardly think the people who unleashed the Armenian genocide can be considered "tolerant". Third, there's a reason "the bloody Turk" was so reviled throughout eastern Europe.
As for whether standing up in the cafe can change anything or not, yes, it can. Sure, he might be executed, even tortured. But the West is free today because men in the past dared to do that exact same thing. If the Arabs want freedom for their children, they're gonna have to take some chances. "Freedom ain't free."
I'm an Egyptian who deplores innocent lives.
Yeah, well, that's really the problem, isn't it?
Or was that a Freudian slip, and you meant to write "who deplores the taking of innocent lives"? If so, why don't you try this thought experiment, Abdul: when you hear that someone has killed a mother and her four children as they drove down the road, what is your initial response? What about when you find out they were Jewish settlers, living in Gaza? Does this change your outlook on the crime?
I can safely say that if I heard that Americans had done something heinous like that, then they should be treated as criminals, with no ifs ands or buts. In fact, earlier in this thread I said the American MPs who were caught molesting Iraqis prisoners should be tried for rape, then executed. 'Cause ya see, Abdul, civilized people get outraged when their own people commit crimes against humanity. They don't offer up lame ass excuses for deplorable behavior. Until you people get your collective head out of your ass and start treating criminals the way God intended, noone in their right mind is going to believe you when you say you "deplore the taking of innocent lives" (when you manage to say it correctly).
Next time a fanatic blows himself up, along with the 20 people closest to him, I want you to go your local cafe and tell everyone who will listen that the man was a monster who deserves to rot in hell. If you aren't willing to do that, then you're complicit in his actions, and deserve the same fate. Jesus, whom I'm sure you respect, stated repeatedly that luke warm actions are not enough, you have to take a stand and do the right thing, no matter the consequences. That's true martyrdom, and the MidEast would be a better place if you and your countrymen learned that lesson, and fast.
If you care to continue this discussion, feel free to email me at cory@waddingham.org.
You know, not everyone in a country supports the actions of everyone from that country.
That's true, however how many Egyptians stand up and say "it's wrong to kill Jews"? Not many. In fact, anytime someone (like me) tries to condemn suicide bombers and their ilk, the usual apologetic answer is to claim Israelis deserve to be butchered like animals.
Contrast that with the example you cited of MPs abusing prisoners in Iraq. Pretty much everyone, from the top down, in America wants those goons in prison, or worse (personally, I want them tried for rape and executed).
The truth of the matter is that most Egyptians support destroying Israel. Pretending that isn't the case, or shouting down someone who insists it with name calling, doesn't solve anything.
Egyptians, and Arabs in general, are not our friends, and we should not be encouraging them to advance their tech base. Instead, we should be isolating their economies and starving their people until they stop trying to kill us and our real friends. If the situation were reversed, they wouldn't hesitate to kill all of us.
Or more to the point, what is the first thing users want to do after the system is installed and running?
Just a guess, but probably the thing they want to do before installing Linux: kill Jews. Judging by their own newspapers and TV, all Egyptians want nothing more than to kill every Jew in the world, so why should we waste our precious time helping them overcome their technological hurdles, which happen to be the only thing keeping them from overrunning Israel.
Sorry to spoil the lovefest, but just because someone wants to use Linux doesn't mean they've stopped being a bloodthirsty monster.
Anyone can summarize a few usenet posts and throw in enough filler and footnotes to make it 12 pages.
Yeah, but how many people can do that in Powerpoint? I mean, give the poor kid some credit, it's Powerpoint for cryin' out loud!
That's nothing. You should check out the new 2005 Fnord's coming out next year. Reactive armor that propels shrapnel in a 10' wide cone, autotracking and -firing weapon mounts, even a self-destruct mechanism.
You can check 'em out here.
What with the lax educational system that the U.S. seems to have, not to mention to grossly misappropriated funding by Federal and State gov'ts, it comes as no shock that the country is falling behind others in the realm of scientific research
Couldn't agree more about misappropriation of funds. In fact, I'll go one further and suggest the Federal government get out of the education business entirely. Congress is pretty much incapable of doing anything other than sending pork back to their home districts, and the President, whoever he (or even she, Condi in '08*), is going to be more concerned with winning political points than getting any actual work done. It's the nature of the job. If you can accept both of those as givens, it's a short step to realizing that the Feds shouldn't be setting any education standards or goals, at all. And if they're not doing that, they should then lower the tax burden so that people can afford to send their kids to private schools (you'd be surprise how cheap it can be to send your kid to a decent private school).
If the government *has* to be involved in education, then just issue vouchers to each parent for their kid(s), and let the parents decide which school in their area best meets their children's needs. Who knows better what a kid needs to learn, the parent who lives with him/her and loves him/her more than life itself, or some bureaucrat living hundreds, or even thousands, of miles away? (At this point, someone will chime in with the "but what about parents who don't love their children"...the obvious answer is that those kids will be fucked under any system, so why drag everyone else down to their level and condemn us all?)
Someone is likely to jump on the word "vouchers" above and start screaming like a lunatic that you'd then be supporting a "religion". Well, guess what, Sparky? The First Amendment of the Constitution only says Congress can't establish a national church, it doesn't say the government can't pay money to churches in the same programs as other non-profit or for-profit businesses (schools run by churches are a little of both, even if the church itself is non-profit). As long as they keep the program open to *any* group, no matter their religious doctrine (political doctrine is different, we don't need any madrassas over here training would be terrorists), there's no Constitutional issue.
*who wouldn't love it if the first black Presidential candidate was not only a woman, but also a Republican?
The person voted out is either the nerd, minorities, or the guy with the red shirt.
So I guess Erkel would be completely screwed?
Dubya and his cuz have seriously undermined this, especially in this country.
What's this? Bush's cousin is somehow involved with Diebold? This is the first I've heard of this, can you give more details?
Actually, resolution 1441, the UNSCR which gave the US permission to attack, only said Saddam had to cough up the missing weapons (weapons which had disappeared after he kicked the weapons inspectors out back in '98-'99). The onus wasn't on us to find the weapons, it was on him to produce them, or prove they had been destroyed. He did neither, so we went in to take him out.
Besides, as an anonymous poster pointed out, the article clearly states where we've found actual weapons. Not "starter kits", not "precursors", but actual full blown weapons. Keep ignoring it if you want, but even Sen. Kerry has changed his tune (see this article...the article is published by the GOP, but the quote is from Kerry's recent appearance on Hardball).
In short, this race is pathetic, and deserves to extinguish itself. The sooner the better.
If you truly believe that, I have a bathtub and exacto knife you're welcome to borrow, anytime.
I prefer to think that most people will use nanotech for good. Nanotech is just a tool, like anything else, and can be used for good or evil. Since people are, mostly, good (for evidence of this, I point to the fact that we still exist and our standard of living across the globe continues to improve), I believe that nanotech will usher in a golden age of opportunity for all.
what other tech from anime will we see soon.
Dear God, don't let it be anything involving tentacles and/or school girls.
But they're not blocking an entire country, they're blocking a single ISP. Of course, that ISP is a monopoly, so most, if not all, of the public in Spain will be effected. Plus, the fact that that ISP is the largest in a given country because of a state granted monopoly is probably one of the reasons they haven't responded to anything short of blacklisting.
And while I hate to say it, and I know it sounds like flamebait (and maybe it is, I'm not sure), I have to point out that the recent Spanish elections have proven that Spaniards will bow to overt pressure very quickly. I'm not saying putting their largest ISP in a blacklist is at all the same thing as terrorists killing innocent people. All I'm saying is that the Spainards have proven themselves to have no backbone, so doing something extreme, like cutting them off from the Internet, virtually guarantees they will crack down on spammers in very short order.
That's odd, I thought the drivers in NASCAR races turned left mostly because they race on oval tracks in America. I'm sure if NASCAR suddenly became popular in Britain or Australia, they'd all be making right hand turns.
That's a bit like saying pick-pockets aren't the problem, it's people who don't watch their own ass all the time.
Your analogy makes no sense. I think a better one would be, whom do you blame when the hens get eaten: the fox that was guarding the hen house, or the dumb ass farmer who hired the fox in the first place?
Clicky click
Free speech, LOL...well thats a debate for another day, but as a CEO of a public company, that may be a whole different story
No kidding. Go ask Martha Stewart what she thinks of free speech protections for executives.
Here's a useful Google link for ya, that might help you understand the grandparent's original point about Baystar's dynasty:
define: sarcasm
Not to excuse the incompetent greedy fucks at Diebold, but they're only a symptom of the larger problem. The real problem is that the government types who are making decisions about going to evoting know fuck-all about how computers work, and are not interested/capable of any real oversight (the "magic box" can't be wrong, can it?). Couple that with the natural human tendency to get as much return on as little investment as possible, and it's almost as bad as setting up a dingo farm next to a day care center.
Afterall, consider that Diebold is one of the largest makers of ATMs in the world. Ever wonder why they can make ATMs that don't screw up your checking account balance every time you withdraw funds? Simple: banks are accountable to their customers, share holders, and various government agencies to not screw up people's finances. If someone went to the ATM and it reported they only had $18,181 (a reference to a previously reported bug on the upper limits of counted votes), when in fact they had ten times that much, there'd be a huge outcry (if the reverse happened, the bank would eventually catch it, and again there'd be a huge outcry, at least internally to the vendor). So, again, the problem isn't that Diebold is greedy (which they are) or stupid (which they are), but that the people to whom they are directly accountable (the various county registrars) have no clue what the hell they're doing.
No, it's just that in London, an American acting totally insane won't get noticed
Something tells me that, with people scaling the sheer cliffs of the local sidewalk, the Ministry of Silly Walks, Gumbies shouting, and other oddities, nothing anyone does in Britain would be viewed as "insane".
Didn't you read the submission blurb?
"Rocketman Eric Scott shot 46 metres into the air in London and promptly claimed a world record. Scott, 41, from Dallas, Texas, donned his red and white jumpsuit and zoomed into the north London sky in his bid to achieve the highest human elevation using a Rocketbelt." (emphasis added)
So Wile E.'s record still stands as the highest non-human elevation.
Eh, it's anecdotal evidence. Anyone who bases major life decisions on such deserves whatever cruel outcome fate has in store for them. I was just commenting that it's interesting.
I was told that I would be considered if I agreed to quit college and to never attempt to get a degree. I stuck it out, got a degree, and now I'm making about $30k less a year than if I had went with Microsoft.
Hmmmm....Bill Gates dropped out of college, and is now the richest man in the world. You finished your degree, and are now making $30k less than you were offered to drop out yourself. Interesting data points, no?
This person appears to have the thinking skills of a duck.
No kidding (although that is a little insulting to ducks). I stopped reading the article when he claimed that the Iraqis use the GPS system to guide their missiles in the first Gulf War.
Hey, moron, here's a news flash: the Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) are less than 10 years old. Even we didn't use GPS to guide bombs the first time around!