Too late. My last roommate was a car audio guy studying mechanical engineering while I was in electrical engineering. As time went by I started asking him about all the components he was using for his system. I managed to help him on a few things and he pointed out some clever stuff that made sense and I thought kinda cool (like how he'd often take two speaker wires and a third unused wire and braid them so no resonance would occur).
The one thing* that sort of soured our relationship was a gold-plated power distributer block he had. This thing was about 2" long and had one hole on the end where you inserted a line from the + terminal on the car battery and then a second hole on the top where you could plug in whatever you wanted to power. The thing is though, it was gold plated (cause I'm sure for 2" distances gold plating makes all the difference in the world compared to copper), it could hand a 1/4" diameter cable in each of the two terminals (like powerlines use for 240V, except it was 12V), and it cost $25. I would have used a paperclip. I wanted to mount that thing on a pedestal saying "NASA Hammer Award."
* there were other things, such as the time I got kicked out his car for wanting a defensible reason I couldn't put his squirrel in the glove box, the time I tried to convince him that putting the thermostat at 50 would not cool the apt. down any faster than if it was put at 70 (which ended when I wrote an cruel note on the thermostat saying democrats always overcompensate and leave people freezing), or the time when I forgot to put his loaf of bread back in the microwave where he liked keeping it
Literally speaking the cabling won't matter at all. Whether the resistance of your wires is high or low the electrons are going to travel through it at the same rate. What may be a worry is freak occurances of inductance between wires which could possibly mess with your data, but I'm not sure how common that is. The signal is digital so it's going to be either a 1 or a 0 depending on the voltage of the line, and it's usually difficult to make the voltage do something as drastic as go from +5 to 0 or +5 to -5.
I always have to laugh anytime I go to the store and look at the number of things that say digital nowadays. Wal-Mart sells digital telephone cable for your computer to connect to the wall as if 5 feet of high quality cabling with gold plated tips is going to make a difference in the 30-odd mile trip to your ISP. A friend of mine boasted his "digital" headphones to me once and I had to beat him down to the opinion that "there must be something better about them, so I'm happy" (this sort of pacifist optimism is the bane of IT in general).
Best Buy sells Monster digital audio cables at something like $20 for a 5-ft cable. I had to argue with my father trying to convince him that the cheap RCA cables we already had back at home would be perfectly capable of communicated a digital signal the 5 inches between the DVD player and the receiver. I could have ripped two wires from a speaker cable to connect the two devices and would have gotten just as good sound.
People don't seem to want to realize that digital implies lossless or error-corrected. They don't understand that the "premium quality sound" transmitted between devices can be done using the cheapest electronics equipment available.
It can be as simple as sending back browsing habits so cookies can, even, be not so far away from some spyware then,
Or it can just send credit card details or other browsing habits or snoop in places it shouldnt. All without "taking control" of another computer.
Without taking control? Did the user send in their personal records and browsing habits voluntarily?
Your scope is out of whack. Those things are called "taking control." You're talking about "taking complete control." A court would know the difference.
For once this is a computer law that doesn't supplant technical solutions. Now, spyware that installs itself without you knowing it works only because a technical flaw in the computer and you can penalize it all you want but you won't be getting rid of the vulnerability.
For other things which piggy-back on other programs this seems to be the only feasible way. Since it technically gets installed by hand there's really no hole to plug.
As much as virii and spyware (malware in general) is a problem there should be a clear distinction between what can be penalized and what can't. Things that prey on the gullibility of users should definitely be outlawed like any other con artist's scam. Things that have technical solutions should really rely on technical solutions. Don't fall into the habit of thinking that a strong law will plug your security holes for you.
If squirrels are getting into your birdfeeders don't advocate municipal squirrel destruction, buy a birdfeeder with a squirrel guard. (If you want to shoot the squirrels anyway that's your own prerogative.)
You must have missed item 10 in there list. A virus that thwarts the onset of AIDS in HIV carriers. The number of people to die in the tsunami was chump change compared to AIDS deaths.
But it also discovered a few more to puzzle over, such as an unexplained clumping of material within the rings, revealed by unique close-up images.
Am I the only one who saw the obvious in the picture they provided. It's extremely apparent that that "odd clumping" merely marks the beginning of a track much like the record that went into space with Voyager. There's only one thing to do: drag a needle across the surface of it so we can hear what they have to say.
However, the other article said that it is backward compatible with ipv4, are they using some kind of NAT then, or is it just backward compatible in the sense that the Chinese network can read of ipv4 networks.
yeah, that'll translate well...
Chinese guy: let's browse over to Slashdot... His computer: Hey 66.35.250.150, I'm FEDC:BA98:7654:3210:FEDC:BA98:7654:3210 and I want all your base to belong to me. Or maybe just you're index.html. Slashdot server: WTF? What's all that "FEDC" gobbly-gook supposed to mean? Don't you try to set us up the bomb by giving us 128 bits. We only accept 32! We're not gonna even try to respond. Fucking cats.
Alzheimers occurs late in life; before the 20th century, the vast majority of people didn't live long enough to get it, whether or not they played Go.
A) Not true. Infant mortality rates were atrocious which put the average age down rather low. If you could get past your childhood years you could live quit a while. B) Today there are several thousand professional players. The rate of Alzheimers is at least 5%. A good portion of the pro players are well into their years and yet there are no cases of Alzheimers or senile dementia among the group.
It's symptoms were simply considered to be general old age 'senility.'
Go has been proven to reverse the effects of senile dementia. And pretty recently too.
I very much doubt you have formal records to back up your statement.
1612 was used because that's how far back formal records of Go playing in Japan go. It's an official state game, they keep pretty good track.
CORRELATION != CAUSATION
Go has been show to literally reverse the effects of senile dementia. Like, they sat down a group of people getting it, taught them Go (only about 2 rules in the game yet miles more complex than chess) and they no longer were getting senile dementia.
True, quit literally it is not Go that stops mental illnesses. It's using both halves of your head that do it which is why chess players get Alzheimers and Go players don't. Look up Bridge and Alzheimers and you should find plenty of stuff showing Bridge stops it too.
The Phantom Game Service will be delivered over broadband to a Windows XP Embedded-based receiver that sits with other devices in the room where family members go for entertainment.
Nearly two dozen leading game publishers have committed to provide content for the Phantom Game Service, including Atari, Codemasters, Eidos and Vivendi Universal.
Show attendees can also see Phantom in the Microsoft Corp. booth in the Central Hall, No. 7145.
Whatever they've got, they've managed to get whatever a "commitment" is worth out of some pretty solid game publishers as well as space in NVIDIA and Microsoft booths at the show. It also looks like they're letting game publishers cut a lot of middle-men out of the way (except for the publisher, of course (like Valve didn't do)) by putting games over broadband. They've got that going for them at least. Before Half-Life 2 went out over Steam this was never on such a scale before.
Plus they've already managed to sue a few people which shows they've got some dice. They'll get along really pretty with the likes of that crowd. Unfortunately though, I remember when it was first announced, and I remember Linux being mentioned. Now it'll sit in a MS booth which may be awesome for them but is a little tragic for everyone who hoped getting a Linux console out there would lead to better Linux game support.
By the time I'm writing this it's probably well over 500 hundred but that's still a puny number considering there are more than 1,000,000 registered Slashdot users. Since I'm at home for the holidays I'll be installing this on the 'rent's computer before I go back to my tabletop penguin.
if they also implement a system where you have to step into a giant glass tube (a la The Jetsons or Futurama) and if your ID is incorrect it tubes you off to the nearest holding cell.
I'd would first get xplanet as the desktop background with 5 min updates and weather maps enabled. Then I'd fire up Karamba with your other goodies and place those around the screen.
Wait, what am I saying... AOL's Instant Messenger gives me stocks, news, weather and all sorts of other crap without me even asking for it. Just fire up the program and you'll be bombarded. There's your answer!
A) Not platform independent. B) The verb "hired" was used in conjunction with "Sloncek" C) Closed beta, key based access, potential for ads
This is so stupid. Will someone please start up a competitor on Sourceforge? Or at least implement this tech in freenet or something. The idea isn't all that far out, *I* even thought of it last summer in my own slightly sucky way.
Like the Cleveland article said... Hawk said the laser had to have been fairly sophisticated to track a plane traveling at that altitude.
Am I the only one that has used a green laser for a legitimate purpose? Interestingly enough, that legitimate purpose (which seems to be one of two *only* legitimate purposes) seems to be the only way to carry out such a damaging illegitimate use which is what must have happened here... Someone strapped the laser to the side of a telescope! I do it so that I can use the green light to point at a spot in the sky and then not have to fiddle about finding that spot through the scope. It's just a matter of getting a plane in your sight and turning a knob to keep it locked in (funny that the DMCA can prevent me from telling you how to get around a copyright protection mechanism but I can't be touched for describing how to blind a pilot flying at 8,500 feet).
The other legitimate purpose I mentioned has to do with Pink Floyd and a fog machine... which once again can immediately lead to illegitimate activities.
The original story I heard didn't name names but I've finally figured it out, all I knew was that it was pharmaceutical....
The most recent news is that Sanofi-Aventis has been laying off people in New Jersey despite promising 2,000 new jobs created by it's merger. Apparently the SEC was a little upset that the company's merger didn't turn out as well as it was supposed to, which is where the French connection comes in...
The merger happened when Sanofi-Synthélabo made a hostile takeover bid of 48B euros for Aventis. During the three-month battle between the two companies the French government saw that Novartis (Swiss) was looking to buy Aventis as well so they managed to convince Sanofi-Synthélabo to raise their bidding price to 55B euros which made Aventis agree to the Sanofi-Aventis merger.
Oh, I see. You think this road is economically good? I already tackled that one here.
Suffice to say, I think this road is good for *the* economy, just not *our* economy. For !Texas this thing kinda sucks.
If only they could extend the road and only have exits in Mexico and Canada...
Anyhow, the AC option shouldn't be used for stereotypical "conservative" militism. Stop being an asshat and look up the word conservative. For instance, what if told you I believe the best way to protect America is to hand out weaponry to whatever citizen without a violent criminal record requests it so that we become the most badass motherfuckers on the planet when it controlling crime (I do believe that too!). By definition that would make me extremely liberal, but I judge things by American stereotype to be better understood. And by the way, the Good Lord(tm) would have you turn the other cheeck and accept a terrorists into your home.
Here's what I hear has been happening in France... Every now and then some non-French company wants to buy a French company. The French government immediately steps in and makes a second French company buy the first French company the foreign company was interested in thereby creating a much larger French company which is no longer small enough for the foreign company to buy. When a German pharmaceutical company (Germany has some of the largest in the world) wanted to buy a French one the French government got a separate French pharmaceutical company to buy it instead. The intended effect of all these forced mergers seems to be to get France back into competition with other countries.
If you don't believe me look into the history of France Telecom which purchased Wanadoo, Orange, and Equant (the last two were previously foreign owned but operated in France). The thing about the purchases of these is that France Telecom now owes a billion euros back to the government for illegal subsidies.
Another classic example of Little Man's Syndrome is Vivendi Universal.
The Knights Templar had a massive amount of wealth and loaned it to kings and people all around the world effectively making them the first bank. Philip the Fair (French) got together with the Pope to have them rounded up and killed. Before then they were big-time movers and shakers in European governments and by Papal bull were allowed to do things like levy taxes and receiving tithes.
The Dutch East Indies company was comparable to the Guild (Dune reference) in their control over trade around the world. There's more to it, but they were satisfied with their control.
When Standard Oil was broken up into it's subsidiaries you had 5 American companies plus the British Shell Oil looking into South America for new prospects. Because companies had become so heavily aligned with specific countries the only way for one company to be able to prospect on what was thought to be fertile ground was by getting the country they worked in to expand its borders in that direction. At least two wars were started in South America in order to expand a border onto prospective new ground. In both of those wars it was found that there was no oil there anyway and the governments sponsoring the wars got paid nothing in return for their actions.
There was this guy named Rhodes who got a scholarship named after him. He basically got the British government to protect him as he invaded Zulu territory for diamonds. He simultaneously sold the Zulu some firearms which, upon notice by the British, made them important enough to wipe out. From then on that diamond operation has controlled the interests of South Africa.
Today's offenders: OPEC, U.S. media conglomerates, varying world telecoms, Microsoft, and China (a giant unionized manufacturing company, they count right?)
I'm sorry, I didn't get to the part where Cintra would relinquish ownership in 50 years.
Re:Five words for stupid people who are opposed:
on
The Super Superhighway
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I'm conservative and I oppose it because I think it's wrong. They're going to declare eminent domain so that a private company can build a money machine with no plans on turning it back over to the government which represents the people whose property was extracted.
Plus I'm a little put off by the mention of broadband transmission cable. The U.S. uses something like 1/10th of the bandwidth created during the.com boom, so what good are broadband transmission cables besides as a buzz words? Texas already gets FTTP in many places. Any more bandwidth and the MPAA is likely to sue them.
Re:And for those who don't think this is so great.
on
The Super Superhighway
·
· Score: 1
Since most of the traffic sounds like it will be between Mexico and Oklahoma there shouldn't be anything wrong with it being a toll road. I'd expect it to allieviate the traffic pressure on busy roads you already use while getting money out of traffic that doesn't necessarily belong to Texas.
The important part is when the road will be turned over to the government. At some point those toll roads are going to be paid off and that Eminent Domain declared by the government should be used *for* the government.
What really strikes me as humourous is that it essentially intends to equalize the economies on either end of the corridor. Collin Powell said a couple days ago that the U.S. has already done great things for the countries affected by the tsunamis by having so much of its manufacturing done by them. This is true and greater bandwidth through Texas will accelerate that trend in Mexico as well.
Slashdot Mirror
Too late. My last roommate was a car audio guy studying mechanical engineering while I was in electrical engineering. As time went by I started asking him about all the components he was using for his system. I managed to help him on a few things and he pointed out some clever stuff that made sense and I thought kinda cool (like how he'd often take two speaker wires and a third unused wire and braid them so no resonance would occur).
The one thing* that sort of soured our relationship was a gold-plated power distributer block he had. This thing was about 2" long and had one hole on the end where you inserted a line from the + terminal on the car battery and then a second hole on the top where you could plug in whatever you wanted to power. The thing is though, it was gold plated (cause I'm sure for 2" distances gold plating makes all the difference in the world compared to copper), it could hand a 1/4" diameter cable in each of the two terminals (like powerlines use for 240V, except it was 12V), and it cost $25. I would have used a paperclip. I wanted to mount that thing on a pedestal saying "NASA Hammer Award."
* there were other things, such as the time I got kicked out his car for wanting a defensible reason I couldn't put his squirrel in the glove box, the time I tried to convince him that putting the thermostat at 50 would not cool the apt. down any faster than if it was put at 70 (which ended when I wrote an cruel note on the thermostat saying democrats always overcompensate and leave people freezing), or the time when I forgot to put his loaf of bread back in the microwave where he liked keeping it
Literally speaking the cabling won't matter at all. Whether the resistance of your wires is high or low the electrons are going to travel through it at the same rate. What may be a worry is freak occurances of inductance between wires which could possibly mess with your data, but I'm not sure how common that is. The signal is digital so it's going to be either a 1 or a 0 depending on the voltage of the line, and it's usually difficult to make the voltage do something as drastic as go from +5 to 0 or +5 to -5.
I always have to laugh anytime I go to the store and look at the number of things that say digital nowadays. Wal-Mart sells digital telephone cable for your computer to connect to the wall as if 5 feet of high quality cabling with gold plated tips is going to make a difference in the 30-odd mile trip to your ISP. A friend of mine boasted his "digital" headphones to me once and I had to beat him down to the opinion that "there must be something better about them, so I'm happy" (this sort of pacifist optimism is the bane of IT in general).
Best Buy sells Monster digital audio cables at something like $20 for a 5-ft cable. I had to argue with my father trying to convince him that the cheap RCA cables we already had back at home would be perfectly capable of communicated a digital signal the 5 inches between the DVD player and the receiver. I could have ripped two wires from a speaker cable to connect the two devices and would have gotten just as good sound.
People don't seem to want to realize that digital implies lossless or error-corrected. They don't understand that the "premium quality sound" transmitted between devices can be done using the cheapest electronics equipment available.
I'd save a fortune on car stereo...
It can be as simple as sending back browsing habits so cookies can, even, be not so far away from some spyware then,
Or it can just send credit card details or other browsing habits or snoop in places it shouldnt. All without "taking control" of another computer.
Without taking control? Did the user send in their personal records and browsing habits voluntarily?
Your scope is out of whack. Those things are called "taking control." You're talking about "taking complete control." A court would know the difference.
For once this is a computer law that doesn't supplant technical solutions. Now, spyware that installs itself without you knowing it works only because a technical flaw in the computer and you can penalize it all you want but you won't be getting rid of the vulnerability.
For other things which piggy-back on other programs this seems to be the only feasible way. Since it technically gets installed by hand there's really no hole to plug.
As much as virii and spyware (malware in general) is a problem there should be a clear distinction between what can be penalized and what can't. Things that prey on the gullibility of users should definitely be outlawed like any other con artist's scam. Things that have technical solutions should really rely on technical solutions. Don't fall into the habit of thinking that a strong law will plug your security holes for you.
If squirrels are getting into your birdfeeders don't advocate municipal squirrel destruction, buy a birdfeeder with a squirrel guard. (If you want to shoot the squirrels anyway that's your own prerogative.)
You must have missed item 10 in there list. A virus that thwarts the onset of AIDS in HIV carriers. The number of people to die in the tsunami was chump change compared to AIDS deaths.
But it also discovered a few more to puzzle over, such as an unexplained clumping of material within the rings, revealed by unique close-up images.
Am I the only one who saw the obvious in the picture they provided. It's extremely apparent that that "odd clumping" merely marks the beginning of a track much like the record that went into space with Voyager. There's only one thing to do: drag a needle across the surface of it so we can hear what they have to say.
However, the other article said that it is backward compatible with ipv4, are they using some kind of NAT then, or is it just backward compatible in the sense that the Chinese network can read of ipv4 networks.
yeah, that'll translate well...
Chinese guy: let's browse over to Slashdot...
His computer: Hey 66.35.250.150, I'm FEDC:BA98:7654:3210:FEDC:BA98:7654:3210 and I want all your base to belong to me. Or maybe just you're index.html.
Slashdot server: WTF? What's all that "FEDC" gobbly-gook supposed to mean? Don't you try to set us up the bomb by giving us 128 bits. We only accept 32! We're not gonna even try to respond. Fucking cats.
A truly benign white worm would be a marvel on a level with cold fusion.
Realistically though, white worms are the kudzu of computer science.
and more specifically, a calling card. Those things can be so dirt cheap it's amazing (compare to cheapest cellular service).
Alzheimers occurs late in life; before the 20th century, the vast majority of people didn't live long enough to get it, whether or not they played Go.
A) Not true. Infant mortality rates were atrocious which put the average age down rather low. If you could get past your childhood years you could live quit a while.
B) Today there are several thousand professional players. The rate of Alzheimers is at least 5%. A good portion of the pro players are well into their years and yet there are no cases of Alzheimers or senile dementia among the group.
It's symptoms were simply considered to be general old age 'senility.'
Go has been proven to reverse the effects of senile dementia. And pretty recently too.
I very much doubt you have formal records to back up your statement.
1612 was used because that's how far back formal records of Go playing in Japan go. It's an official state game, they keep pretty good track.
CORRELATION != CAUSATION
Go has been show to literally reverse the effects of senile dementia. Like, they sat down a group of people getting it, taught them Go (only about 2 rules in the game yet miles more complex than chess) and they no longer were getting senile dementia.
True, quit literally it is not Go that stops mental illnesses. It's using both halves of your head that do it which is why chess players get Alzheimers and Go players don't. Look up Bridge and Alzheimers and you should find plenty of stuff showing Bridge stops it too.
Check this out, it's referenced with links.
From the Yahoo article:
The Phantom Game Service will be delivered over broadband to a Windows XP Embedded-based receiver that sits with other devices in the room where family members go for entertainment.
Nearly two dozen leading game publishers have committed to provide content for the Phantom Game Service, including Atari, Codemasters, Eidos and Vivendi Universal.
Show attendees can also see Phantom in the Microsoft Corp. booth in the Central Hall, No. 7145.
Whatever they've got, they've managed to get whatever a "commitment" is worth out of some pretty solid game publishers as well as space in NVIDIA and Microsoft booths at the show. It also looks like they're letting game publishers cut a lot of middle-men out of the way (except for the publisher, of course (like Valve didn't do)) by putting games over broadband. They've got that going for them at least. Before Half-Life 2 went out over Steam this was never on such a scale before.
Plus they've already managed to sue a few people which shows they've got some dice. They'll get along really pretty with the likes of that crowd. Unfortunately though, I remember when it was first announced, and I remember Linux being mentioned. Now it'll sit in a MS booth which may be awesome for them but is a little tragic for everyone who hoped getting a Linux console out there would lead to better Linux game support.
By the time I'm writing this it's probably well over 500 hundred but that's still a puny number considering there are more than 1,000,000 registered Slashdot users. Since I'm at home for the holidays I'll be installing this on the 'rent's computer before I go back to my tabletop penguin.
Also, laser light is different then searchlights because the light is polarized. So you can see the beam better from one way versus the other.
That makes me curious about what kinds of polarized filters *aren't* on the windshields of planes.
if they also implement a system where you have to step into a giant glass tube (a la The Jetsons or Futurama) and if your ID is incorrect it tubes you off to the nearest holding cell.
That would be kinda neat.
I'd would first get xplanet as the desktop background with 5 min updates and weather maps enabled. Then I'd fire up Karamba with your other goodies and place those around the screen.
Wait, what am I saying... AOL's Instant Messenger gives me stocks, news, weather and all sorts of other crap without me even asking for it. Just fire up the program and you'll be bombarded. There's your answer!
A) Not platform independent.
B) The verb "hired" was used in conjunction with "Sloncek"
C) Closed beta, key based access, potential for ads
This is so stupid. Will someone please start up a competitor on Sourceforge? Or at least implement this tech in freenet or something. The idea isn't all that far out, *I* even thought of it last summer in my own slightly sucky way.
Like the Cleveland article said...
Hawk said the laser had to have been fairly sophisticated to track a plane traveling at that altitude.
Am I the only one that has used a green laser for a legitimate purpose? Interestingly enough, that legitimate purpose (which seems to be one of two *only* legitimate purposes) seems to be the only way to carry out such a damaging illegitimate use which is what must have happened here... Someone strapped the laser to the side of a telescope! I do it so that I can use the green light to point at a spot in the sky and then not have to fiddle about finding that spot through the scope. It's just a matter of getting a plane in your sight and turning a knob to keep it locked in (funny that the DMCA can prevent me from telling you how to get around a copyright protection mechanism but I can't be touched for describing how to blind a pilot flying at 8,500 feet).
The other legitimate purpose I mentioned has to do with Pink Floyd and a fog machine... which once again can immediately lead to illegitimate activities.
The original story I heard didn't name names but I've finally figured it out, all I knew was that it was pharmaceutical....
The most recent news is that Sanofi-Aventis has been laying off people in New Jersey despite promising 2,000 new jobs created by it's merger. Apparently the SEC was a little upset that the company's merger didn't turn out as well as it was supposed to, which is where the French connection comes in...
The merger happened when Sanofi-Synthélabo made a hostile takeover bid of 48B euros for Aventis. During the three-month battle between the two companies the French government saw that Novartis (Swiss) was looking to buy Aventis as well so they managed to convince Sanofi-Synthélabo to raise their bidding price to 55B euros which made Aventis agree to the Sanofi-Aventis merger.
Oh, I see. You think this road is economically good? I already tackled that one here.
Suffice to say, I think this road is good for *the* economy, just not *our* economy. For !Texas this thing kinda sucks.
If only they could extend the road and only have exits in Mexico and Canada...
Anyhow, the AC option shouldn't be used for stereotypical "conservative" militism. Stop being an asshat and look up the word conservative. For instance, what if told you I believe the best way to protect America is to hand out weaponry to whatever citizen without a violent criminal record requests it so that we become the most badass motherfuckers on the planet when it controlling crime (I do believe that too!). By definition that would make me extremely liberal, but I judge things by American stereotype to be better understood. And by the way, the Good Lord(tm) would have you turn the other cheeck and accept a terrorists into your home.
Here's what I hear has been happening in France... Every now and then some non-French company wants to buy a French company. The French government immediately steps in and makes a second French company buy the first French company the foreign company was interested in thereby creating a much larger French company which is no longer small enough for the foreign company to buy. When a German pharmaceutical company (Germany has some of the largest in the world) wanted to buy a French one the French government got a separate French pharmaceutical company to buy it instead. The intended effect of all these forced mergers seems to be to get France back into competition with other countries.
If you don't believe me look into the history of France Telecom which purchased Wanadoo, Orange, and Equant (the last two were previously foreign owned but operated in France). The thing about the purchases of these is that France Telecom now owes a billion euros back to the government for illegal subsidies.
Another classic example of Little Man's Syndrome is Vivendi Universal.
*ahem*
The Knights Templar had a massive amount of wealth and loaned it to kings and people all around the world effectively making them the first bank. Philip the Fair (French) got together with the Pope to have them rounded up and killed. Before then they were big-time movers and shakers in European governments and by Papal bull were allowed to do things like levy taxes and receiving tithes.
The Dutch East Indies company was comparable to the Guild (Dune reference) in their control over trade around the world. There's more to it, but they were satisfied with their control.
When Standard Oil was broken up into it's subsidiaries you had 5 American companies plus the British Shell Oil looking into South America for new prospects. Because companies had become so heavily aligned with specific countries the only way for one company to be able to prospect on what was thought to be fertile ground was by getting the country they worked in to expand its borders in that direction. At least two wars were started in South America in order to expand a border onto prospective new ground. In both of those wars it was found that there was no oil there anyway and the governments sponsoring the wars got paid nothing in return for their actions.
There was this guy named Rhodes who got a scholarship named after him. He basically got the British government to protect him as he invaded Zulu territory for diamonds. He simultaneously sold the Zulu some firearms which, upon notice by the British, made them important enough to wipe out. From then on that diamond operation has controlled the interests of South Africa.
Today's offenders: OPEC, U.S. media conglomerates, varying world telecoms, Microsoft, and China (a giant unionized manufacturing company, they count right?)
For the war I presume?
I'm sorry, I didn't get to the part where Cintra would relinquish ownership in 50 years.
I'm conservative and I oppose it because I think it's wrong. They're going to declare eminent domain so that a private company can build a money machine with no plans on turning it back over to the government which represents the people whose property was extracted.
.com boom, so what good are broadband transmission cables besides as a buzz words? Texas already gets FTTP in many places. Any more bandwidth and the MPAA is likely to sue them.
Plus I'm a little put off by the mention of broadband transmission cable. The U.S. uses something like 1/10th of the bandwidth created during the
Since most of the traffic sounds like it will be between Mexico and Oklahoma there shouldn't be anything wrong with it being a toll road. I'd expect it to allieviate the traffic pressure on busy roads you already use while getting money out of traffic that doesn't necessarily belong to Texas.
The important part is when the road will be turned over to the government. At some point those toll roads are going to be paid off and that Eminent Domain declared by the government should be used *for* the government.
What really strikes me as humourous is that it essentially intends to equalize the economies on either end of the corridor. Collin Powell said a couple days ago that the U.S. has already done great things for the countries affected by the tsunamis by having so much of its manufacturing done by them. This is true and greater bandwidth through Texas will accelerate that trend in Mexico as well.