136,000 is very close, when there are over 100,000 "provisional" votes to resolve, most of which were for Kerry. You know, the african americans that the Republicans didn't want to have vote so they "challenged" them? Those won't be resolved for up to 10 days (it is different in different states, and I don't know Ohio's regulations).
There was also historic levels of absentee balloting all over the country (many being people distrusting the electronic machines). These also won't be counted for up to ten days. And apparently to Kerry, they don't count at all.
So in addition to the exit polls indicating a lot of fraud going on, there are a lot of uncounted votes. Without a massive audit, which thankfully somebody thought of, there would be no way to tell who won according to the actual will of the people.
Which is supposed to be what counts, not who the networks want to win or who the sitting president wants to win.
Homage to his most sacred majesty, Godzilla, God of the Atom and King of Monsters, On this his 50th birthday! All hail the Golden Jubilee of the King of Monsters!
As a slashdotter, I think we have the responsibility to actually listen to "Mosh" and act responsibly. The republicans can sink to their own filthy level of voter fraud and intimidation by themselves. There are two ways to stop them:
1) Get out the vote, and overwhelm any cheating the bad guys can do. That kind of cheating works great if the candidates are tied (which every wishful poll in the country would have you believe). The more people get out to vote for Kerry, the less chance cheating can throw the election. So don't go to those polls alone: bring your friends, family, and anyone else you can (without forcing, kidnapping, or bribing them, of course). Give Kerry a landslide from the people those polls don't count.
2) Join the efforts by various rights groups to help monitor and protect voting polls and voters.
Personally, I think Eminem delivered the true October surprise. He's right too, the coming of the King of Terror began in a schoolroom, it's reign should end there too, with the only real swing state that matters: the youth of America.
There is hope Kerry can win, and not only from sports omens. Leading Hindu astrologers and a noted Hindu mystic believe that Kerry is going to win, Bush will never again be president, and Kerry will end terrorism and bring world peace! The sun and the moon have even endorsed Kerry.
"The last hope is to fight by ourselves."
Belebera, "Mothra 3: King Ghidora Attacks"
From a business standpoint, long term, outsourcing is as stupid as shooting yourself in the foot.
Sure, you can save a little money, and pay your CEO more. But you are throwing a whole lot of good people out of the workforce in the country whose economy you depend on. These people, especially in IT, tend to have a good bit of disposable income when employed. When unemployed, their lack of spending, en masse, pulls the economy down. Your sales, and everyone else's sales go down, endangering your company's profitability.
So what if that country's economic bubble bursts big time? You think you can just move to India, where salaries are going up from all the outsourcing. Only then, you have to outsource to another country to keep your costs low. India's bubble bursts, then the next country, then the next, etc. Corporate raiders become country raiders in a race to the bottom.
Sure, if the entire world becomes poverty stricken, you can probably get families to sell their kids to you as slaves out of desperation (it's happened before). But who, in this ruined economic landscape, is going to buy your products? Or pay for the education of new workers?
Once upon a time, there was a wise business man who did things very different. He invented new, more productive manufacturing processes, and he cut costs by bringing most manufacturing inhouse and by having his product assembled in local markets by local people. Instead of keeping them all for himself, he passed the savings on to his customers and his employees (in the form of higher wages). He made sure he would have customers by paying his employees enough to afford his products. He had the pick of the best employees by paying more than double what anyone else paid, lowering the working hours from 9 to 8 hours a day, and introducing a profit sharing program to reward productivity. To insure he had well educated workers in the future, he created one of the world's largest foundations that gave (and still gives) grants for education and R&D.
His name? Henry Ford.
In six days: The Golden Jubilee of Godzilla, King of Monsters!
Let's see, if you combine the alleged abilities of the V-Chip, the Hollings bill (to put DRM in everything - fortunately shelved), and TVs sending out SOS signals, you get....
Chuck EyePea had just got a brand new TV and satellite system for his birthday. He couldn't wait to use it, but he wasn't going to be there for his favorite show. So he tried to set his new system up to record it...
The door busts open, and in rush a bunch of police and paramilitary types.
"Step away from the remote, son. Slowly."
"But I..."
"Save it for the judge!"
The cop snaps up the new remote and punches a code into it. The TV proudly announces:
"Welcome to IP Court TV! Judge John will hear your case in two minutes."
Chuck looks like he wants to say something, but a glare from the cop silences him. Judge John comes on the screen.
"My data shows that you were trying to violate the IP rights of a broadcaster. Please explain yourself."
"I was just trying to timeshift a program like I always do..."
The screen went blank as the TV shut itself off. Chuck was visibly upset:
"Hey, don't I get a lawyer? You can't just try someone in their living room!"
"Now, son, you know PATRIOT III abolished the frivolous use of legal services by consumers. Legal services can only be used for serious corporate matters, and the corps. all outsource. If it makes you feel better, you might get out in 65 years, if you behave really well."
"65! Whatever happened to fifty years? And parole?"
"Chief Justice Ashcroft declared positive parole unconstitutional. Now all sentences have to be served in full, with negative parole. If you only do 65 years on a 50 year sentence, you are doing good."
No, the above is not currently reality (that I know about). But you can bet the RIAA, MPAA, and Ashcroft have wet dreams about this stuff.
If you don't like it, work to stop it. Now is a good time to start.
--- In America, even the AntiChrist can become president. And currently - is.
Honestly, what is so important about market share? Apple is making a tidy profit, has a nice wad of money in the bank, is hiring new people, makes a great product, and has happy customers. If their market share is only 1.7%, well that means they have tons of growing room. Sounds like a good company in good shape to me, and they also sound like a lot nicer a company than most.
Technology: after the PC crash in fall 2000, Apple's competitors hunkered down and shed workers by the thousands. Apple invested in R&D, and came out with OSX, G5, and new iMac designs. I see no reason for that successful strategy to not continue in better times.
Development: The Macintosh has tons of good software. There are the big names already mentioned. There are all the shareware and freeware programs (just take a gander at VersionTracker). Thanks to Apple being savvy about Unix and Open Source, there is also a ton of software being ported over from Linux.
If you are all that amped by market share, Apple does have 82% of the mp3 player market.
"No one's going to die, mister. Mothra's going to come and save us." Taiki Goto, "Mothra", December 14, 1996 (Released in Japan six days before Apple's surprise announcement of the return of Steve Jobs.)
There is always one or more other sides, especially if the one and only right side is using too much caps lock and getting hysterical.;)
Other Side #1: I dutifully went to the site the UN maintains on global warming. Quite frankly, I was not impressed. They were playing pretty loose with their data. If you guys want to quickly convince the rest of the planet, you are going to have to make better charts than that.
Other Side #2: The people who talk about our climate naturally fluctuating, and that our data set is too small, have a point. You might want to tune in. Back in the 1970's, for instance, the science of the time was indicating an approaching ice age!
Other Side #3: The folks worrying about Permian Extinction #2 coming in the next 100 years can relax. The crater for the asteroid that actually caused the Permian Extinction (the worst mass extinction event ever) has been found this year. Global warming is not going to, in and of itself, smash another asteroid on our heads.
Other Side #4: Most of what is cited as means of reducing global warming are worthwhile environmental endeavors in their own right. Reducing pollutants in the air (including greenhouse gasses), replanting forests, cleaning up the oceans, and ditching polluting fossil fuels that are going to run out soon anyway, are all noble environmental goals that don't need a cliquish tag or mass hysteria to get people to agree with. Corporations are another thing, but then they hardly seem very reasonable these days when it comes to what is best for their workers, their customers, or the environment.
Other Side #5: Be wary of stupid environmentalism. There are good, wise, effective ways to help our planet, and there are stupid ways. As an example of a stupid way: British animal rights people "liberated" the animals from a fur factory. Thousands of the poor things ran into the roads, got run over, starved, were killed by wild animals, etc. Always proceed wisely, not rashly, or you will do more harm than good.
I can imagine a country refusing outsourcing quite easily.
Keep in mind that these are not permanent jobs going to India and staying. Outsourcing/offshoring is a race for the bottom. As soon as a cheaper country presents itself, those jobs will be just as gone as they are in the US. Mexico learned this the hard way when manufacturing went there, then left for other countries, and eventually settled in China (for the moment) at US$0.16 an hour with no worker rights, time off, or perks.
Given that a country has to invest heavily in education to get the IT jobs, only to lose them and suffer economic hardship later, it is stupid to embrace outsourcing.
A better tactic would be the one the US initially used: create a market in your own country for your IT talent, and use your best minds to build a bright future for your country and for them.
I hope India has some plan for handling things when the jobs move away. Trust me, I am not happy about being out of work for over a year, and I do not wish bankruptcy on anyone.
Police and fire deal with plenty of property issues as well as life and death situations.
A big corp. may be able to better afford Microsoft's "premium" deal, than a small business. Both, however, suffer lost productivity and damaged data due to bugs, and both pay for the product.
I'm sure city governments would love to sell big businesses a "premium protection package". But the small business owner also pays taxes, and isn't going to be happy when their office burns down or is robbed while the police and fire people are paying a "courtesy" call to the premium big business down the street.
"At this moment, it (Millennium) has control of systems all over the world.
And...we can't do a damn thing to stop it."
Miyasaka, "Godzilla 2000 Millennium" (Japanese version)
I "forgot" India workers, because they live in India, and I was responding to claims that the US was going to be a winner in this nightmare.
But yes, Indian IT workers are quite middle class now. Their salaries are really going up. As short term winners, they are doing great. There are companies lining up to sell them stuff.
One problem, the now much more expensive (a nice little salary boom from all that demand) Indian IT workers are now looking less desirable for offshoring. These corporations want as close to slave labor as they can get. They moved on with manufacturing to cheaper countries (16 cents/hour in China with no worker rights), they will do the same for IT. I will feel bad for India when that happens just as I feel bad for my country now (and being out of work for over a year, I feel very bad). No one should have their job ripped away due to corporate greed.
As for gas, expect your groceries, and everything else, to go up soon. Why? Because you may not buy much gas, but every product and foodstuff that requires transport to market, needs to spend money on gas (diesel, jet fuel, etc.) to get there. As gas prices go up, everything will go up. Say hello to inflation, lethal inflation if your salary is low or your debt is high. (Or better yet, find some substitute power source that doesn't derive from oil, clean energy being my preference.)
Chief Tsujimori: "I won't let you get away. I will never let you escape." Godzilla elegantly lifts his tail skyward to give her the "finger", crashes it down on the water, and submerges. "Godzilla X Megagiras", 2000 (Japanese Version)
I'm not an economist either, but I do understand a few basics:
US workers unemployed by offshoring make 0, lowering the average wage.
US workers finding new employment find the glut of unemployed workers (low supply + high demand) and the low wages in India devaluing their wages. Again, the average wage is also lowered.
US workers with existing employment find their wages frozen, their benefits cut, their hours longer and more stressful (to both compensate for the extra work of downsizing, and for goofs from offshore workers), and their job security nonexistent.
The only "winners" are the CEO and his cronies whose salaries go up, their benefits go up, and laughing is heard in the vicinity of the bank. Note that few if any of these people are US IT workers, or do much work at all.
As for as cost of living goes, that depends on inflation. With high gas prices, that will be going up, up, up, and the cost of living will tag along.
So US IT workers will "win" high cost of living, low wages, debt (to make ends meet), savings and credit consumed by the unemployed, and bankruptcy.
But if it makes you feel any better, those CEOs won't make off like quite the bandits they want to be. You see, offshore workers have done a great job learning the business of offshoring US companies. So good in fact, that IBM consulting, for instance, is now having to compete for business with their own offshore workers who have formed a nice little consultant company of their own. The fun thing is, the Indian consulting company can of course, under bid IBM. Gotcha!
Unfortunately, for us IT workers in the US, that is only going to drive wages lower as companies like IBM are forced to compete with Indian consultant companies on their way to the bottom.
The only way off this nightmare escalator? Stop treating employees like costs to cut, and start treating them like your company's most valuable resource (remember Human Resources?). Then you can hire quality people, pay them what they are worth, and compete on quality. Then everyone is a "winner"!
Don't think quality works? Who survived the fall 2000 PC crash the best, with the fewest layoffs, a quick return to profitability, and billions in the bank? Apple! Apple kept their prices up, focused on quality instead of the sub $500 PC, and worked feverishly to bring out OS X to build a future. The rest of the companies slashed workers by the tens of thousands, and huddled in their storm shelters. When they came out, the only thing left standing and thriving was the Apple tree, laden with fresh, high quality, fruit.
"No one's going to die, mister. Mothra's going to come and save us." Taiki Goto, "Mothra", December 14, 1996 (Released in Japan six days before Apple's surprise announcement of the return of Steve Jobs.)
The International Court, which the US quite stubbornly refuses to ratify, tends to be more concerned with the following:
Crimes Against Peace - such as starting an aggressive war on a hoax without Security Council authorization or provocation.
War Crimes - Geneva Convention stuff, such as killing civilians, bombing water and sanitation supplies, keeping POWs after a war is over, not giving POWs their rights.
Crimes Against Humanity - torture and genocide.
So, which do you think warez fits under? Maybe they need a Crimes against Corporations heading to fit copyright stuff under? (Yuck!)
"Ridiculous, you have no claim. I'll sue you for interfering with private enterprise." Kumoyama, Happy Enterprises, "Mothra vs. Godzilla", 1964
H-bombs the scale of Bravo (1954 test on Bikini - 1000 times the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima) do have the power to create nuclear hurricanes. Nuclear hurricanes are capable of killing with the radiation alone a hundred miles from Ground Zero, making them far worse than normal hurricanes. Generating a nuclear hurricane is not going to help you much.
Hurricanes are a force of nature with the fury of an angry god. There are only three things we humans can presently do about them:
1) Secure your stuff as best you can 2) Flee to shelter 3) Pray
"Our people.. stricken with disease.
You.. you played with the fires of the gods.
And you dare to come here and ask us for help!
You betrayed us! You expect us to trust you after what you have done?" Infant Island Chief, "Godzilla vs. Mothra" (US Version), 1964 (For the 10th anniversary of Bravo.)
I'm not a "get rich quick" kid (being in the bottom 10% of wages here in the midwest means you don't get rich at all). I've been working as a programmer (with various job titles) since 1986. I started programming years earlier, as a hobby. I decided to be a programmer because I wanted to do something I like to do, and because my handicaps didn't get in the way.
Of course the degree, my love of programming, my skills, and my years of experience didn't prevent me from being laid off over a year ago. I still program as a hobby, and to keep my skills sharp. But the bank doesn't take love or hobbies as mortgage payments, and neither do the utilities or the grocery store. Like most adults, I have to provide for myself, and to do that, it seems I need a job.
Unlike your "get rich kids", I can't even consider one of those rewarding jobs in construction or plumbing because of my handicaps. Programming is what is rewarding to me. It is what I can do and am good at. Heck, I'm even a good deal. But I can't hold out forever...
Much as thinking about those unprofessional "get rich quick" kids may make you feel smug, I suspect my situation is a lot more common than you think. Companies don't care whether you are in it for riches or love, or even how good you are, when they decide they don't want an in-house programmer anymore. It's a "business" decision (read: toss ethics and common sense in the dumpster along with the poor programmer).
Because today, removing Bush from office is a more important goal than any of the other candidates' platform might be.
Really? But what if the other candidate's:
Platform is nearly identical to Bush's, especially in the area some disagree with most: the Iraq war. Kerry would take Bush's war and run with it, only with more troops, and possibly be a bit more efficient with it.
Use of fear mongering to manipulate the people is the same as Bush's. After all, you wouldn't buy the "anybody but Bush" line if you weren't so afraid.
Suppression of free speech is nearly the same as Bush's. Bush has his free speech zones, as does Kerry. Only Kerry decorated his in early Gitmo.
Don't get me wrong. I wished we impeached the entire administration months ago. They so richly deserve it. But replacing the Mongol King and his band of megalomaniacs with a new Mongol King and his band of slightly more sane megalomaniacs out to do the same thing "only better" makes no sense.
The real enemies of the USA are not just the "terrorists" (though those guys badly need to be caught and given a fair trial and a nice long prison sentence), and they aren't just Bush and his administration. I will name the principle enemies of our nation: Fear, Deceit, Greed, Hate. No matter who you get in office, you have to take a stand against those four. Fear and Deceit are used to control people and together with Hate stampede them into war. War feeds the Greed of the powerful. Those four operate at all levels of government, not just the highest office, for power corrupts.
If you study the last century of our country's history and compare it to the ideals of the founders, you will find a lot of instances where we have strayed far from the founders' dream. Bush made the flaws all the more visible, but they were there before him. Getting rid of Bush, even in exchange for an absolute saint would not solve all the problems. This country desperately needs some major reforms. Getting rid of the four enemies above (especially in your own heart), voting for the best person for every office you can vote for, and educating yourself and others on the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights is a good place to start.
If anybody asks, I'm pro-USA, pro-Liberty, pro-Justice, pro-Peace, and all heart.;)
The words of John Quincy Adams ring as true as the Liberty Bell:
"She [America] well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.
The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force....
She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit....
[America's] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace."
John Quincy Adams on U.S. Foreign Policy
Speech to the U.S. House of Representatives on July 4, 1821, in celebration of American Independence Day.
Yes, Microsoft sent out a flock of plastic winged litterbugs on roller skates to plaster the town with large plastic stickers while screaming at the top of their lungs. Their total fine: $50. There was no jail time involved.
Out of fairness, I expect this bicycle group to be fined no more than $50, and no one to do jail time. Especially since their vandalism is water soluble, and Microsoft's 20" plastic stickers weren't.
"The path of peace is yours to discover for eternity." Japanese version of "Mothra" (1961)
Why do it that way? Convenience for the programmer becomes lock in and pain for the user. And no wonder they get corrupted so often.
Because lock in is the desired feature. Once it is achieved, user pain is irrelevant: they are locked in.
You have to have Word for that! Yeah, as "easy" as buying Word.
Exactly. Microsoft doesn't mind you reading their.doc files, as long as you have purchased Word. It's part of the lock in thing.
Shinoda: "The age of Millennium."
Io: "What does that mean?"
Shinoda: "A thousand year kingdom. It wants to create a home for itself. There is one flaw in its plan: Godzilla."
"Godzilla 2000 (vs.) Millennium" (Japanese version)
(The US version took out a lot of references to the true name of the alien monster (Millennium) and its true identity: Microsoft!)
My facts can be easily verified by the use of a good recent encyclopedia and various news sources for the past two years. If I am an idiot, so are they.
BTW, see shlaf's posting for justification of my disclaimer.
shlaf:
By your argument there would be no American (USA) people. Being an American (USA), I beg to differ.
Some Palestinian Arabs (to differentiate them from Israeli Arabs who are citizens of Israel) kill innocent civilians with suicide bombs. The Israeli government kills innocent civilians with attack helicopters they got from the US. Both types of killing are equally brutal and evil, and both need to stop. That doesn't mean that all Palestinians or all Israelis are killers. There are good people in both groups.
It also doesn't invalidate the technique of removing the reasons people join terror groups as a valid way to fight Terror and win. It's not about appeasement, it's about cutting off a fire's supply of fuel.
Don't give me any Nazi crap. My dad was a sergeant and my aunt a nurse-captain in the US army in World War II! Anyway, I'm not the one looking for a "final solution" to a certain Middle Eastern non-people, or building walls though their non-lands. After all, a brutal, sub-human, non-people won't be missed (not that they were the first to be called that). And so the abused becomes the abuser, and the cycle of violence began by the Nazis continues. And so my family's fight against it continues, though I prefer words as my sword.
My values are justice, liberty, and peace. The virtues I aspire to are wisdom, courage, and greatest of all, compassion. Peace is my goddess. My enemy is Terror itself, not people.
Islam is, I'm sure, a beautiful religion for her followers. But I am happy with my beautiful, rainbow-winged goddess, who protects her blue, white, and gold egg: the Earth.
My wish for Israelis, Palestinians, and all the good hearted peoples of the Middle East is peace, prosperity, and happiness.
"Lola, kindness is not enough, look for the reason of hatred and anger.
When you find and understand that, love becomes the strongest power..." Belabera on defeating the King of Terror, "Mothra 3: King Ghidora Attacks"
Relax guys, it's just King Ghidora, the God from Space, Destroyer of Worlds, King of Terror, and Guardian God of the Heavens, etc. This year (December 20) is his 40th birthday, and he is mad because he got left out of "Godzilla: Final Wars". Attempts to point out that "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidora: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack" was his 40th birthday bash (it was set in 2004 and he was really cool in it) have fallen on three pairs of deaf dragon ears. Everyone keeps going on about that attention grabbing charcoal grey dinosaur and his 50th birthday, but no one remembers poor King Ghidora and his 40th.
So he has been acting out a bit. Three naked eye comets this summer, the discovery of Planet X (Sedna) and several very large old craters here on Earth, fireballs, many close asteroid flybys, etc.: I'm beginning to lose count of it all.
Happy Birthday (early), King Ghidora! May you get the three-headed gold tone G4 iMac from Apple I know you wanted, and the "Rebirth of King Ghidora Trilogy" from Toho. (Just don't destroy my house, please!)
"The thousand year dragon king. King Ghidora." Yuri, "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidora: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack" (Japanese version)
Sadr is no terrorist! When the poor, the recently unemployed (thanks to the US and their occupational government), the dispossessed Shiites wanted to fight, Sadr made the al-Mahdi Army out of them, and channeled their anger into peaceful protest. The US provoked them to anger beyond Sadr's control twice (by such freedom loving activities as closing down their newspaper). Then yes, they did fight, as a resistance force. If you haven't checked the Geneva Convention lately, it gives them every right to fight an occupation of their country. Everytime things get to the fighting stage, Sadr tries to negotiate a peaceful solution. He's no saint, but he isn't a terrorist either.
For those ignorant of such matters (I'm not because I looked it up), al-Mahdi is a relative of Mohammed who is supposed to return to fight injustice and tyranny, and to establish an era of peace. Everytime there is injustice or an occupation, the resistance (peaceful or not) invokes the name of al-Mahdi.
BTW, Sadr has a right to be in that shrine. He is distantly related to the guy the shrine honors. He is also the son of the Sadr that lead a rebellion against Saddam, the Sadr that was killed in that very shrine!
Bin Laden doesn't give a d*mn about your precious "freedom" (which apparently includes shutting down newspapers and ordering reporters out of Najaf on threat of being shot!). Bin Laden wants the infidel US bases away from Mecca (done). He wants the secular governments of Arab countries overthrown (partly done in Iraq and Afghanistan courtesy of the US). He also hates Israel and US support for its occupation of Palestinian lands and attacks on Palestinian people.
Sadr wants the US, its Coalition, and its puppet governments out of Iraq so they can have some nice elections, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, etc.
Iran, well that is a long story. Back in the 1950s, Iran had a nice democratically elected government, which the US hated. So in our first experiment in meddling (except for the creation of Israel), we sent the CIA in there to destabilize the government and put the Shah of Iran back in power. While this helped the US in the Cold War, the people of Iran, on the verge of a bright future of freedom, found themselves cursed instead with grinding poverty, police terror, and torture. Thousands died, because of the US. From this old sin of ours, springs forth Iran's current hatred and distrust of the US, and a dark and fearsome child: Terrorism!
In modern day Iran, the nuclear crisis has reached a new level: Israel and the US have threatened to bomb Iran's alleged nuclear facilities. Iran, for their part, has warned that the US has no monopoly on preemption: Iran will bomb Israel's nuclear weapon's facilities and attack the US in Iraq if they have reason to believe the US and Israel are going to carry out their threats. If the US and Israel don't quit making stupid threats and do some backpedaling, the US and Iran could be in a hot war by the end of the year!
As for cleaning our house, the Geneva Conventions are the house rules we wrote. The Nazis of old would love to see us breaking them, torturing innocents, becoming just like them! Abu Graibe probably gave Bin Laden a warm fuzzy too. Egypt is certainly grateful for the new torture techniques that they are now eagerly applying to their own people.
The more we torture, the more husbands we drag away in the middle of the night, the more countries we ruin, the more kids we shoot to bits in their parent's arms, the more anger we breed. The more anger, the more terror. You can't win this dirty. You can't hope to save freedom by destroying it. A complete withdrawal, not only from Iraq, but from the whole of the Middle East, especially of military support for Israel, might break the cycle and at least stop the creation of new terrorists. Otherwise, we continue to make terrorists faster than we can kill them: a war we can never win.
And then you can give this fancy training technology to fire fighters. At
American consumers need jobs, or they will stop consuming. Which, as the AC says, will result in a whole lot more poor people in the third world.
Offshoring puts IT people in the US out of work, permanently (unless they have other skills or the resources to retrain for something that hasn't been offshored yet). Even if they do work again, it is at a lower salary. All that consuming power that IT people had here will be gone. And thus, third world people will be poorer. Not much of a benefit to them, is it?
But it gets more fun. Corps are now eyeing the "new" middle class in India (all those Indian IT people) as their new consumer group. But in order for them to have decent consuming power, they need some money. If you pay them enough to be your consumers, they loose their value as replacements for US workers. The jobs move, followed by the Corps looking for some new consumers to keep them in business.
So the US is now (extrapolating to everything that could be offshored - basically most of the good paying jobs) getting in touch with their inner third worlder. India's bubble has burst, leaving the country devastated. Our corporate locusts have moved on, looking for near slave wage workers and rich consumers, all in the same people.
In days of yore, a primitive form of capitalism was practiced where countries tried to be fairly self sufficient, and maintain a good trade balance: where exports equalled or exceeded imports. Back then, we also had such trite folk wisdom as "customers are always right", and "employees are a valuable resource of the company". Primitive though it may have been, it worked, and the US was mostly prosperous. If it worked for a bunch of rustic former colonial rebels, maybe it would work for India too (once a proud civilization, now fellow former colonial rebels). Then everybody could have jobs and be prosperous.
Hint: it would be nice if people wised up to this before some serious economic damage is done.
"Ridiculous, you have no claim. I'll sue you for interfering with private enterprise." Kumoyama, Happy Enterprises, "Mothra vs. Godzilla", 1964 Poor, Kumoyama. Lost his "claim" to Mothra's egg. Lost his fortune. Lost his life (to his boss). Let's hear it for "private enterprise"!
After last Monday, Japan is a far less likely site. In case you don't get the news from Japan, the Mihama No. 3 nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture had a little steam accident, to the tune of four deaths and seven people badly burned. While non-radioactive (so their government says), it was the second fatality accident at a Japanese nuclear plant in five years, the other being the Tokai Criticality Accident in 1999 that killed two, and resulted in the evacuation of hundreds of people (due to a cloud of radiation emanating from an open bucket of nitric acid and way too much uranium that was fissioning when it wasn't supposed to). Both accidents were the result of gross human stupidity (Mihama: an unrepaired badly corroded high pressure/high temperature steam pipe; Tokai: bucket, uranium, no safety precautions whatsoever).
With such a safety record, the Japanese people are very leery of new nuclear projects, of any kind. A fuel reprocessing project is already in danger of being scrapped. ITER will probably have to look elsewhere.
Godzilla did a very nice educational movie ("Godzilla vs. Megaguirus" - US spelling) on how fusion power plants are the same as fission from his perspective: he can track them both down very easily (fusion gives off gamma radiation and a neutron that makes anything it smacks into radioactive), and both use *his* atom, which he is very territorial about. One does not argue with large, territorial, carnivorous dinosaurs with the power of a god. Swear off the atom, fission and fusion, forever, and go play with nice clean energy like wind, water, or solar. Then Godzilla will leave you alone and go have a nice nap at the bottom of the sea for a few decades.
If you do not heed Godzilla, then you will have typhoons, the sinking of fishing boats, sea quakes that derail trains and start refinery fires (until you shut that *bleep* leaky plant down), and full scale nuclear plant attacks like Tokai and Chernobyl. In short, the wrath of a very angry god of the atom.
Shinoda: "Is Godzilla showing his hatred toward man-made energy?" Godzilla: "Human! Impertinent! I rule the Atom!" "Godzilla 2000 Millennium" (Japanese version)
They can anticipate all the disasters they want to. They didn't occur. This one did. People died. As soon as Prometheus starts, the dead people and large shuttle pieces will be accompanied by a nuclear reactor. It looks to me like NASA can use all the analysis they can get to prevent that from happening.
What NASA really needs is someone with knowledge and common sense they can float things by:
"Okay. We want to slop on some tiles using guys with glue guns (formula for glue attached). Then we are going to slop some extremely flammable super cold fuel into a warm tank so it really splashes all over them there tiles. The fuel will expand and pry off some of the tiles. They will fall as the shuttle is massively accelerating, and fall so frequently that it will be a normal occurrence. Being foam, we don't think they will cause any damage when they hit, but who knows. So, are we okay with this?"
Hopefully the independent sensible soul tasked with double checking this procedure will go "Yikes!", get them to change this (like fixing the gluing process to make the tiles really stick, and pre-cooling the tank so the very cold liquid hydrogen doesn't make a mess), and maybe even order a review of NASA's slop and splash "safety" culture.
Otherwise, one day you are going to be wishing Mothra's red juice was available on store shelves.
Sonora:"New Godzilla reading. He's moving inward toward Tokai." Shinoda: "The nuclear plants, I knew it. Sonora: "Afraid so." Yuki: "Well, that's just lovely. Another Chernobyl." "Godzilla 2000" (No, the 1999 Tokai Criticality Accident was only the second biggest in criticality fatalities and stupidity to Chernobyl.)
I doubt most slashdot readers are ignorant of copyright laws, the founders distrust of the concept, and the decision to only include copyright in the US Constitution as a carrot to promote innovation.
I imagine most slashdot readers are aware of the abuses of copyright law: the endless extensions, the DMCA, stifling of free speech and fair use, impoverishment of the public domain, the lack of rights for the creators of content (publishers using contracts and work-for-hire to take the copyrights for themselves). All of which are extensively documented on Slashdot.
I imagine most slashdot readers are well aware of campaigns by copyright holders (the publishers) to use them to extort money from mostly innocent people (as few cases go to court and so the allegations of infringement are unproven).
While it has been a while, I imagine at least some slashdot readers remember Microsoft's terroristic marketing campaigns to scare customers into buying too many licenses just to be "safe" from audits.
If you don't, AC, maybe you should use your computer for something "useful".;)
It is good that libraries are going to be educating youngsters in Fair Use. After all, libraries are the sacred temples of Fair Use.
As for the media sharks, remember the Yahlen? Quit being mean, or your yachts are belong to Mothra! (To be used in the Queen of Monster's thirty-eight year old War on Mean Terrorists.) "Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster", 1966
IBM has been a friend of Linux and open source in general, true. Personally, I love Eclipse, and "Peace, Love, and Linux". I truly hope they stay a good friend of Linux.
But, IBM has a history of liking cheap/free labor a bit too much. In Nazi Germany, it was allegedly concentration camp slave labor. Open source, despite its many good attributes and good intentions, also provides IBM with free labor. Now IBM is running off to India and other places for cheap labor. I would love to say IBM has reformed since the bad old days. Recent behavior indicates that might not be as much the case as we would like.
Keep in mind that just because the jobs are in the US, they may not be open to US citizens. There is such a thing as an H1B visa.
When having a very big shark like IBM as your friend, keep a careful eye on them. They might just bite you.
"Ridiculous, you have no claim. I'll sue you for interfering with private enterprise." Kumoyama, Happy Enterprises, "Mothra vs. Godzilla", 1964
Good "business" consists of things like "the customer is always right", "it is less expensive to keep a customer than it is to get a new one", and "a business' most valuable resource is its employees". Obviously the "business" you are shouting about ignores this time-tested wisdom.
If programming is such a devalued resource that programmers should be paid little and treated like dirt, then why are salaries going up in India, making them a nice balloon economy? Salaries going up in India indicate that programmers are indeed a valuable resource, and that they probably deserved the wages they got in the USA. (As a little reality check, not all of us made $80K+ salaries - my all time high in the Midwest was $40K.)
The word "business" does not give anyone the right to act unethically or illegally. Business is not above the law, and it is certainly not above justice. The robber barons of old got smacked down, the trusts got busted, the Nazis and their offerings of concentration camp slave labor to companies like IBM ended on VE day. The day of the greedy shark mega-corps will come to an end too. Their business, and their evil, is not sustainable.
Seeing that such evil is an aberration rather than the way of things, I suggest that you might want to adapt. As a start, I would recommend growing a heart.
"The path of peace is yours to discover for eternity." Japanese version of "Mothra" (1961)
Slashdot Mirror
136,000 is very close, when there are over 100,000 "provisional" votes to resolve, most of which were for Kerry. You know, the african americans that the Republicans didn't want to have vote so they "challenged" them? Those won't be resolved for up to 10 days (it is different in different states, and I don't know Ohio's regulations).
There was also historic levels of absentee balloting all over the country (many being people distrusting the electronic machines). These also won't be counted for up to ten days. And apparently to Kerry, they don't count at all.
So in addition to the exit polls indicating a lot of fraud going on, there are a lot of uncounted votes. Without a massive audit, which thankfully somebody thought of, there would be no way to tell who won according to the actual will of the people.
Which is supposed to be what counts, not who the networks want to win or who the sitting president wants to win.
Homage to his most sacred majesty, Godzilla,
God of the Atom and King of Monsters,
On this his 50th birthday!
All hail the Golden Jubilee of the King of Monsters!
As a slashdotter, I think we have the responsibility to actually listen to "Mosh" and act responsibly. The republicans can sink to their own filthy level of voter fraud and intimidation by themselves. There are two ways to stop them:
1) Get out the vote, and overwhelm any cheating the bad guys can do. That kind of cheating works great if the candidates are tied (which every wishful poll in the country would have you believe). The more people get out to vote for Kerry, the less chance cheating can throw the election. So don't go to those polls alone: bring your friends, family, and anyone else you can (without forcing, kidnapping, or bribing them, of course). Give Kerry a landslide from the people those polls don't count.
2) Join the efforts by various rights groups to help monitor and protect voting polls and voters.
Personally, I think Eminem delivered the true October surprise. He's right too, the coming of the King of Terror began in a schoolroom, it's reign should end there too, with the only real swing state that matters: the youth of America.
There is hope Kerry can win, and not only from sports omens. Leading Hindu astrologers and a noted Hindu mystic believe that Kerry is going to win, Bush will never again be president, and Kerry will end terrorism and bring world peace! The sun and the moon have even endorsed Kerry.
"The last hope is to fight by ourselves."
Belebera, "Mothra 3: King Ghidora Attacks"
From a business standpoint, long term, outsourcing is as stupid as shooting yourself in the foot.
Sure, you can save a little money, and pay your CEO more. But you are throwing a whole lot of good people out of the workforce in the country whose economy you depend on. These people, especially in IT, tend to have a good bit of disposable income when employed. When unemployed, their lack of spending, en masse, pulls the economy down. Your sales, and everyone else's sales go down, endangering your company's profitability.
So what if that country's economic bubble bursts big time? You think you can just move to India, where salaries are going up from all the outsourcing. Only then, you have to outsource to another country to keep your costs low. India's bubble bursts, then the next country, then the next, etc. Corporate raiders become country raiders in a race to the bottom.
Sure, if the entire world becomes poverty stricken, you can probably get families to sell their kids to you as slaves out of desperation (it's happened before). But who, in this ruined economic landscape, is going to buy your products? Or pay for the education of new workers?
Once upon a time, there was a wise business man who did things very different. He invented new, more productive manufacturing processes, and he cut costs by bringing most manufacturing inhouse and by having his product assembled in local markets by local people. Instead of keeping them all for himself, he passed the savings on to his customers and his employees (in the form of higher wages). He made sure he would have customers by paying his employees enough to afford his products. He had the pick of the best employees by paying more than double what anyone else paid, lowering the working hours from 9 to 8 hours a day, and introducing a profit sharing program to reward productivity. To insure he had well educated workers in the future, he created one of the world's largest foundations that gave (and still gives) grants for education and R&D.
His name? Henry Ford.
In six days:
The Golden Jubilee of Godzilla, King of Monsters!
Let's see, if you combine the alleged abilities of the V-Chip, the Hollings bill (to put DRM in everything - fortunately shelved), and TVs sending out SOS signals, you get....
Chuck EyePea had just got a brand new TV and satellite system for his birthday. He couldn't wait to use it, but he wasn't going to be there for his favorite show. So he tried to set his new system up to record it...
The door busts open, and in rush a bunch of police and paramilitary types.
"Step away from the remote, son. Slowly."
"But I..."
"Save it for the judge!"
The cop snaps up the new remote and punches a code into it. The TV proudly announces:
"Welcome to IP Court TV! Judge John will hear your case in two minutes."
Chuck looks like he wants to say something, but a glare from the cop silences him. Judge John comes on the screen.
"My data shows that you were trying to violate the IP rights of a broadcaster. Please explain yourself."
"I was just trying to timeshift a program like I always do..."
"You filthy repeat offending pirate! Fifty years!"
The screen went blank as the TV shut itself off. Chuck was visibly upset:
"Hey, don't I get a lawyer? You can't just try someone in their living room!"
"Now, son, you know PATRIOT III abolished the frivolous use of legal services by consumers. Legal services can only be used for serious corporate matters, and the corps. all outsource. If it makes you feel better, you might get out in 65 years, if you behave really well."
"65! Whatever happened to fifty years? And parole?"
"Chief Justice Ashcroft declared positive parole unconstitutional. Now all sentences have to be served in full, with negative parole. If you only do 65 years on a 50 year sentence, you are doing good."
No, the above is not currently reality (that I know about). But you can bet the RIAA, MPAA, and Ashcroft have wet dreams about this stuff.
If you don't like it, work to stop it. Now is a good time to start.
---
In America, even the AntiChrist can become president.
And currently - is.
Honestly, what is so important about market share? Apple is making a tidy profit, has a nice wad of money in the bank, is hiring new people, makes a great product, and has happy customers. If their market share is only 1.7%, well that means they have tons of growing room. Sounds like a good company in good shape to me, and they also sound like a lot nicer a company than most.
Technology: after the PC crash in fall 2000, Apple's competitors hunkered down and shed workers by the thousands. Apple invested in R&D, and came out with OSX, G5, and new iMac designs. I see no reason for that successful strategy to not continue in better times.
Development: The Macintosh has tons of good software. There are the big names already mentioned. There are all the shareware and freeware programs (just take a gander at VersionTracker). Thanks to Apple being savvy about Unix and Open Source, there is also a ton of software being ported over from Linux.
If you are all that amped by market share, Apple does have 82% of the mp3 player market.
"No one's going to die, mister. Mothra's going to come and save us."
Taiki Goto, "Mothra", December 14, 1996
(Released in Japan six days before Apple's surprise announcement of the return of Steve Jobs.)
There is always one or more other sides, especially if the one and only right side is using too much caps lock and getting hysterical. ;)
Other Side #1: I dutifully went to the site the UN maintains on global warming. Quite frankly, I was not impressed. They were playing pretty loose with their data. If you guys want to quickly convince the rest of the planet, you are going to have to make better charts than that.
Other Side #2: The people who talk about our climate naturally fluctuating, and that our data set is too small, have a point. You might want to tune in. Back in the 1970's, for instance, the science of the time was indicating an approaching ice age!
Other Side #3: The folks worrying about Permian Extinction #2 coming in the next 100 years can relax. The crater for the asteroid that actually caused the Permian Extinction (the worst mass extinction event ever) has been found this year. Global warming is not going to, in and of itself, smash another asteroid on our heads.
Other Side #4: Most of what is cited as means of reducing global warming are worthwhile environmental endeavors in their own right. Reducing pollutants in the air (including greenhouse gasses), replanting forests, cleaning up the oceans, and ditching polluting fossil fuels that are going to run out soon anyway, are all noble environmental goals that don't need a cliquish tag or mass hysteria to get people to agree with. Corporations are another thing, but then they hardly seem very reasonable these days when it comes to what is best for their workers, their customers, or the environment.
Other Side #5: Be wary of stupid environmentalism. There are good, wise, effective ways to help our planet, and there are stupid ways. As an example of a stupid way: British animal rights people "liberated" the animals from a fur factory. Thousands of the poor things ran into the roads, got run over, starved, were killed by wild animals, etc. Always proceed wisely, not rashly, or you will do more harm than good.
I can imagine a country refusing outsourcing quite easily.
Keep in mind that these are not permanent jobs going to India and staying. Outsourcing/offshoring is a race for the bottom. As soon as a cheaper country presents itself, those jobs will be just as gone as they are in the US. Mexico learned this the hard way when manufacturing went there, then left for other countries, and eventually settled in China (for the moment) at US$0.16 an hour with no worker rights, time off, or perks.
Given that a country has to invest heavily in education to get the IT jobs, only to lose them and suffer economic hardship later, it is stupid to embrace outsourcing.
A better tactic would be the one the US initially used: create a market in your own country for your IT talent, and use your best minds to build a bright future for your country and for them.
I hope India has some plan for handling things when the jobs move away. Trust me, I am not happy about being out of work for over a year, and I do not wish bankruptcy on anyone.
Police and fire deal with plenty of property issues as well as life and death situations.
A big corp. may be able to better afford Microsoft's "premium" deal, than a small business. Both, however, suffer lost productivity and damaged data due to bugs, and both pay for the product.
I'm sure city governments would love to sell big businesses a "premium protection package". But the small business owner also pays taxes, and isn't going to be happy when their office burns down or is robbed while the police and fire people are paying a "courtesy" call to the premium big business down the street.
"At this moment, it (Millennium) has control of systems all over the world.
And...we can't do a damn thing to stop it."
Miyasaka, "Godzilla 2000 Millennium" (Japanese version)
I "forgot" India workers, because they live in India, and I was responding to claims that the US was going to be a winner in this nightmare.
But yes, Indian IT workers are quite middle class now. Their salaries are really going up. As short term winners, they are doing great. There are companies lining up to sell them stuff.
One problem, the now much more expensive (a nice little salary boom from all that demand) Indian IT workers are now looking less desirable for offshoring. These corporations want as close to slave labor as they can get. They moved on with manufacturing to cheaper countries (16 cents/hour in China with no worker rights), they will do the same for IT. I will feel bad for India when that happens just as I feel bad for my country now (and being out of work for over a year, I feel very bad). No one should have their job ripped away due to corporate greed.
As for gas, expect your groceries, and everything else, to go up soon. Why? Because you may not buy much gas, but every product and foodstuff that requires transport to market, needs to spend money on gas (diesel, jet fuel, etc.) to get there. As gas prices go up, everything will go up. Say hello to inflation, lethal inflation if your salary is low or your debt is high. (Or better yet, find some substitute power source that doesn't derive from oil, clean energy being my preference.)
Chief Tsujimori: "I won't let you get away. I will never let you escape."
Godzilla elegantly lifts his tail skyward to give her the "finger", crashes it down on the water, and submerges.
"Godzilla X Megagiras", 2000 (Japanese Version)
I'm not an economist either, but I do understand a few basics:
US workers unemployed by offshoring make 0, lowering the average wage.
US workers finding new employment find the glut of unemployed workers (low supply + high demand) and the low wages in India devaluing their wages. Again, the average wage is also lowered.
US workers with existing employment find their wages frozen, their benefits cut, their hours longer and more stressful (to both compensate for the extra work of downsizing, and for goofs from offshore workers), and their job security nonexistent.
The only "winners" are the CEO and his cronies whose salaries go up, their benefits go up, and laughing is heard in the vicinity of the bank. Note that few if any of these people are US IT workers, or do much work at all.
As for as cost of living goes, that depends on inflation. With high gas prices, that will be going up, up, up, and the cost of living will tag along.
So US IT workers will "win" high cost of living, low wages, debt (to make ends meet), savings and credit consumed by the unemployed, and bankruptcy.
But if it makes you feel any better, those CEOs won't make off like quite the bandits they want to be. You see, offshore workers have done a great job learning the business of offshoring US companies. So good in fact, that IBM consulting, for instance, is now having to compete for business with their own offshore workers who have formed a nice little consultant company of their own. The fun thing is, the Indian consulting company can of course, under bid IBM. Gotcha!
Unfortunately, for us IT workers in the US, that is only going to drive wages lower as companies like IBM are forced to compete with Indian consultant companies on their way to the bottom.
The only way off this nightmare escalator? Stop treating employees like costs to cut, and start treating them like your company's most valuable resource (remember Human Resources?). Then you can hire quality people, pay them what they are worth, and compete on quality. Then everyone is a "winner"!
Don't think quality works? Who survived the fall 2000 PC crash the best, with the fewest layoffs, a quick return to profitability, and billions in the bank? Apple! Apple kept their prices up, focused on quality instead of the sub $500 PC, and worked feverishly to bring out OS X to build a future. The rest of the companies slashed workers by the tens of thousands, and huddled in their storm shelters. When they came out, the only thing left standing and thriving was the Apple tree, laden with fresh, high quality, fruit.
"No one's going to die, mister. Mothra's going to come and save us."
Taiki Goto, "Mothra", December 14, 1996
(Released in Japan six days before Apple's surprise announcement of the return of Steve Jobs.)
The International Court, which the US quite stubbornly refuses to ratify, tends to be more concerned with the following:
Crimes Against Peace - such as starting an aggressive war on a hoax without Security Council authorization or provocation.
War Crimes - Geneva Convention stuff, such as killing civilians, bombing water and sanitation supplies, keeping POWs after a war is over, not giving POWs their rights.
Crimes Against Humanity - torture and genocide.
So, which do you think warez fits under? Maybe they need a Crimes against Corporations heading to fit copyright stuff under? (Yuck!)
"Ridiculous, you have no claim. I'll sue you for interfering with private enterprise."
Kumoyama, Happy Enterprises, "Mothra vs. Godzilla", 1964
H-bombs the scale of Bravo (1954 test on Bikini - 1000 times the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima) do have the power to create nuclear hurricanes. Nuclear hurricanes are capable of killing with the radiation alone a hundred miles from Ground Zero, making them far worse than normal hurricanes. Generating a nuclear hurricane is not going to help you much.
Hurricanes are a force of nature with the fury of an angry god. There are only three things we humans can presently do about them:
1) Secure your stuff as best you can
2) Flee to shelter
3) Pray
"Our people.. stricken with disease.
You.. you played with the fires of the gods.
And you dare to come here and ask us for help!
You betrayed us! You expect us to trust you after what you have done?"
Infant Island Chief, "Godzilla vs. Mothra" (US Version), 1964
(For the 10th anniversary of Bravo.)
I'm not a "get rich quick" kid (being in the bottom 10% of wages here in the midwest means you don't get rich at all). I've been working as a programmer (with various job titles) since 1986. I started programming years earlier, as a hobby. I decided to be a programmer because I wanted to do something I like to do, and because my handicaps didn't get in the way.
Of course the degree, my love of programming, my skills, and my years of experience didn't prevent me from being laid off over a year ago. I still program as a hobby, and to keep my skills sharp. But the bank doesn't take love or hobbies as mortgage payments, and neither do the utilities or the grocery store. Like most adults, I have to provide for myself, and to do that, it seems I need a job.
Unlike your "get rich kids", I can't even consider one of those rewarding jobs in construction or plumbing because of my handicaps. Programming is what is rewarding to me. It is what I can do and am good at. Heck, I'm even a good deal. But I can't hold out forever...
Much as thinking about those unprofessional "get rich quick" kids may make you feel smug, I suspect my situation is a lot more common than you think. Companies don't care whether you are in it for riches or love, or even how good you are, when they decide they don't want an in-house programmer anymore. It's a "business" decision (read: toss ethics and common sense in the dumpster along with the poor programmer).
An AC wrote:
Really? But what if the other candidate's:
Platform is nearly identical to Bush's, especially in the area some disagree with most: the Iraq war. Kerry would take Bush's war and run with it, only with more troops, and possibly be a bit more efficient with it.
Use of fear mongering to manipulate the people is the same as Bush's. After all, you wouldn't buy the "anybody but Bush" line if you weren't so afraid.
Suppression of free speech is nearly the same as Bush's. Bush has his free speech zones, as does Kerry. Only Kerry decorated his in early Gitmo.
Don't get me wrong. I wished we impeached the entire administration months ago. They so richly deserve it. But replacing the Mongol King and his band of megalomaniacs with a new Mongol King and his band of slightly more sane megalomaniacs out to do the same thing "only better" makes no sense.
The real enemies of the USA are not just the "terrorists" (though those guys badly need to be caught and given a fair trial and a nice long prison sentence), and they aren't just Bush and his administration. I will name the principle enemies of our nation: Fear, Deceit, Greed, Hate. No matter who you get in office, you have to take a stand against those four. Fear and Deceit are used to control people and together with Hate stampede them into war. War feeds the Greed of the powerful. Those four operate at all levels of government, not just the highest office, for power corrupts.
If you study the last century of our country's history and compare it to the ideals of the founders, you will find a lot of instances where we have strayed far from the founders' dream. Bush made the flaws all the more visible, but they were there before him. Getting rid of Bush, even in exchange for an absolute saint would not solve all the problems. This country desperately needs some major reforms. Getting rid of the four enemies above (especially in your own heart), voting for the best person for every office you can vote for, and educating yourself and others on the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights is a good place to start.
If anybody asks, I'm pro-USA, pro-Liberty, pro-Justice, pro-Peace, and all heart. ;)
The words of John Quincy Adams ring as true as the Liberty Bell:
John Quincy Adams on U.S. Foreign Policy
Speech to the U.S. House of Representatives on July 4, 1821, in celebration of American Independence Day.
Yes, Microsoft sent out a flock of plastic winged litterbugs on roller skates to plaster the town with large plastic stickers while screaming at the top of their lungs. Their total fine: $50. There was no jail time involved.
Out of fairness, I expect this bicycle group to be fined no more than $50, and no one to do jail time. Especially since their vandalism is water soluble, and Microsoft's 20" plastic stickers weren't.
"The path of peace is yours to discover for eternity."
Japanese version of "Mothra" (1961)
cascadingstylesheet wrote:
Because lock in is the desired feature. Once it is achieved, user pain is irrelevant: they are locked in.
Exactly. Microsoft doesn't mind you reading their .doc files, as long as you have purchased Word. It's part of the lock in thing.
Shinoda: "The age of Millennium."
Io: "What does that mean?"
Shinoda: "A thousand year kingdom. It wants to create a home for itself. There is one flaw in its plan: Godzilla."
"Godzilla 2000 (vs.) Millennium" (Japanese version)
(The US version took out a lot of references to the true name of the alien monster (Millennium) and its true identity: Microsoft!)
AC:
My facts can be easily verified by the use of a good recent encyclopedia and various news sources for the past two years. If I am an idiot, so are they.
BTW, see shlaf's posting for justification of my disclaimer.
shlaf:
By your argument there would be no American (USA) people. Being an American (USA), I beg to differ.
Some Palestinian Arabs (to differentiate them from Israeli Arabs who are citizens of Israel) kill innocent civilians with suicide bombs. The Israeli government kills innocent civilians with attack helicopters they got from the US. Both types of killing are equally brutal and evil, and both need to stop. That doesn't mean that all Palestinians or all Israelis are killers. There are good people in both groups.
It also doesn't invalidate the technique of removing the reasons people join terror groups as a valid way to fight Terror and win. It's not about appeasement, it's about cutting off a fire's supply of fuel.
Don't give me any Nazi crap. My dad was a sergeant and my aunt a nurse-captain in the US army in World War II! Anyway, I'm not the one looking for a "final solution" to a certain Middle Eastern non-people, or building walls though their non-lands. After all, a brutal, sub-human, non-people won't be missed (not that they were the first to be called that). And so the abused becomes the abuser, and the cycle of violence began by the Nazis continues. And so my family's fight against it continues, though I prefer words as my sword.
My values are justice, liberty, and peace. The virtues I aspire to are wisdom, courage, and greatest of all, compassion. Peace is my goddess. My enemy is Terror itself, not people.
Islam is, I'm sure, a beautiful religion for her followers. But I am happy with my beautiful, rainbow-winged goddess, who protects her blue, white, and gold egg: the Earth.
My wish for Israelis, Palestinians, and all the good hearted peoples of the Middle East is peace, prosperity, and happiness.
"Lola, kindness is not enough, look for the reason of hatred and anger.
When you find and understand that, love becomes the strongest power..."
Belabera on defeating the King of Terror, "Mothra 3: King Ghidora Attacks"
Relax guys, it's just King Ghidora, the God from Space, Destroyer of Worlds, King of Terror, and Guardian God of the Heavens, etc. This year (December 20) is his 40th birthday, and he is mad because he got left out of "Godzilla: Final Wars". Attempts to point out that "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidora: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack" was his 40th birthday bash (it was set in 2004 and he was really cool in it) have fallen on three pairs of deaf dragon ears. Everyone keeps going on about that attention grabbing charcoal grey dinosaur and his 50th birthday, but no one remembers poor King Ghidora and his 40th.
So he has been acting out a bit. Three naked eye comets this summer, the discovery of Planet X (Sedna) and several very large old craters here on Earth, fireballs, many close asteroid flybys, etc.: I'm beginning to lose count of it all.
Happy Birthday (early), King Ghidora! May you get the three-headed gold tone G4 iMac from Apple I know you wanted, and the "Rebirth of King Ghidora Trilogy" from Toho. (Just don't destroy my house, please!)
"The thousand year dragon king. King Ghidora."
Yuri, "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidora: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack" (Japanese version)
Sadr is no terrorist! When the poor, the recently unemployed (thanks to the US and their occupational government), the dispossessed Shiites wanted to fight, Sadr made the al-Mahdi Army out of them, and channeled their anger into peaceful protest. The US provoked them to anger beyond Sadr's control twice (by such freedom loving activities as closing down their newspaper). Then yes, they did fight, as a resistance force. If you haven't checked the Geneva Convention lately, it gives them every right to fight an occupation of their country. Everytime things get to the fighting stage, Sadr tries to negotiate a peaceful solution. He's no saint, but he isn't a terrorist either.
For those ignorant of such matters (I'm not because I looked it up), al-Mahdi is a relative of Mohammed who is supposed to return to fight injustice and tyranny, and to establish an era of peace. Everytime there is injustice or an occupation, the resistance (peaceful or not) invokes the name of al-Mahdi.
BTW, Sadr has a right to be in that shrine. He is distantly related to the guy the shrine honors. He is also the son of the Sadr that lead a rebellion against Saddam, the Sadr that was killed in that very shrine!
Bin Laden doesn't give a d*mn about your precious "freedom" (which apparently includes shutting down newspapers and ordering reporters out of Najaf on threat of being shot!). Bin Laden wants the infidel US bases away from Mecca (done). He wants the secular governments of Arab countries overthrown (partly done in Iraq and Afghanistan courtesy of the US). He also hates Israel and US support for its occupation of Palestinian lands and attacks on Palestinian people.
Sadr wants the US, its Coalition, and its puppet governments out of Iraq so they can have some nice elections, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, etc.
Iran, well that is a long story. Back in the 1950s, Iran had a nice democratically elected government, which the US hated. So in our first experiment in meddling (except for the creation of Israel), we sent the CIA in there to destabilize the government and put the Shah of Iran back in power. While this helped the US in the Cold War, the people of Iran, on the verge of a bright future of freedom, found themselves cursed instead with grinding poverty, police terror, and torture. Thousands died, because of the US. From this old sin of ours, springs forth Iran's current hatred and distrust of the US, and a dark and fearsome child: Terrorism!
In modern day Iran, the nuclear crisis has reached a new level: Israel and the US have threatened to bomb Iran's alleged nuclear facilities. Iran, for their part, has warned that the US has no monopoly on preemption: Iran will bomb Israel's nuclear weapon's facilities and attack the US in Iraq if they have reason to believe the US and Israel are going to carry out their threats. If the US and Israel don't quit making stupid threats and do some backpedaling, the US and Iran could be in a hot war by the end of the year!
As for cleaning our house, the Geneva Conventions are the house rules we wrote. The Nazis of old would love to see us breaking them, torturing innocents, becoming just like them! Abu Graibe probably gave Bin Laden a warm fuzzy too. Egypt is certainly grateful for the new torture techniques that they are now eagerly applying to their own people.
The more we torture, the more husbands we drag away in the middle of the night, the more countries we ruin, the more kids we shoot to bits in their parent's arms, the more anger we breed. The more anger, the more terror. You can't win this dirty. You can't hope to save freedom by destroying it. A complete withdrawal, not only from Iraq, but from the whole of the Middle East, especially of military support for Israel, might break the cycle and at least stop the creation of new terrorists. Otherwise, we continue to make terrorists faster than we can kill them: a war we can never win.
And then you can give this fancy training technology to fire fighters. At
American consumers need jobs, or they will stop consuming. Which, as the AC says, will result in a whole lot more poor people in the third world.
Offshoring puts IT people in the US out of work, permanently (unless they have other skills or the resources to retrain for something that hasn't been offshored yet). Even if they do work again, it is at a lower salary. All that consuming power that IT people had here will be gone. And thus, third world people will be poorer. Not much of a benefit to them, is it?
But it gets more fun. Corps are now eyeing the "new" middle class in India (all those Indian IT people) as their new consumer group. But in order for them to have decent consuming power, they need some money. If you pay them enough to be your consumers, they loose their value as replacements for US workers. The jobs move, followed by the Corps looking for some new consumers to keep them in business.
So the US is now (extrapolating to everything that could be offshored - basically most of the good paying jobs) getting in touch with their inner third worlder. India's bubble has burst, leaving the country devastated. Our corporate locusts have moved on, looking for near slave wage workers and rich consumers, all in the same people.
In days of yore, a primitive form of capitalism was practiced where countries tried to be fairly self sufficient, and maintain a good trade balance: where exports equalled or exceeded imports. Back then, we also had such trite folk wisdom as "customers are always right", and "employees are a valuable resource of the company". Primitive though it may have been, it worked, and the US was mostly prosperous. If it worked for a bunch of rustic former colonial rebels, maybe it would work for India too (once a proud civilization, now fellow former colonial rebels). Then everybody could have jobs and be prosperous.
Hint: it would be nice if people wised up to this before some serious economic damage is done.
"Ridiculous, you have no claim. I'll sue you for interfering with private enterprise."
Kumoyama, Happy Enterprises, "Mothra vs. Godzilla", 1964
Poor, Kumoyama. Lost his "claim" to Mothra's egg. Lost his fortune. Lost his life (to his boss). Let's hear it for "private enterprise"!
After last Monday, Japan is a far less likely site. In case you don't get the news from Japan, the Mihama No. 3 nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture had a little steam accident, to the tune of four deaths and seven people badly burned. While non-radioactive (so their government says), it was the second fatality accident at a Japanese nuclear plant in five years, the other being the Tokai Criticality Accident in 1999 that killed two, and resulted in the evacuation of hundreds of people (due to a cloud of radiation emanating from an open bucket of nitric acid and way too much uranium that was fissioning when it wasn't supposed to). Both accidents were the result of gross human stupidity (Mihama: an unrepaired badly corroded high pressure/high temperature steam pipe; Tokai: bucket, uranium, no safety precautions whatsoever).
With such a safety record, the Japanese people are very leery of new nuclear projects, of any kind. A fuel reprocessing project is already in danger of being scrapped. ITER will probably have to look elsewhere.
Godzilla did a very nice educational movie ("Godzilla vs. Megaguirus" - US spelling) on how fusion power plants are the same as fission from his perspective: he can track them both down very easily (fusion gives off gamma radiation and a neutron that makes anything it smacks into radioactive), and both use *his* atom, which he is very territorial about. One does not argue with large, territorial, carnivorous dinosaurs with the power of a god. Swear off the atom, fission and fusion, forever, and go play with nice clean energy like wind, water, or solar. Then Godzilla will leave you alone and go have a nice nap at the bottom of the sea for a few decades.
If you do not heed Godzilla, then you will have typhoons, the sinking of fishing boats, sea quakes that derail trains and start refinery fires (until you shut that *bleep* leaky plant down), and full scale nuclear plant attacks like Tokai and Chernobyl. In short, the wrath of a very angry god of the atom.
Shinoda: "Is Godzilla showing his hatred toward man-made energy?"
Godzilla: "Human! Impertinent! I rule the Atom!"
"Godzilla 2000 Millennium" (Japanese version)
They can anticipate all the disasters they want to. They didn't occur. This one did. People died. As soon as Prometheus starts, the dead people and large shuttle pieces will be accompanied by a nuclear reactor. It looks to me like NASA can use all the analysis they can get to prevent that from happening.
What NASA really needs is someone with knowledge and common sense they can float things by:
"Okay. We want to slop on some tiles using guys with glue guns (formula for glue attached). Then we are going to slop some extremely flammable super cold fuel into a warm tank so it really splashes all over them there tiles. The fuel will expand and pry off some of the tiles. They will fall as the shuttle is massively accelerating, and fall so frequently that it will be a normal occurrence. Being foam, we don't think they will cause any damage when they hit, but who knows. So, are we okay with this?"
Hopefully the independent sensible soul tasked with double checking this procedure will go "Yikes!", get them to change this (like fixing the gluing process to make the tiles really stick, and pre-cooling the tank so the very cold liquid hydrogen doesn't make a mess), and maybe even order a review of NASA's slop and splash "safety" culture.
Otherwise, one day you are going to be wishing Mothra's red juice was available on store shelves.
Sonora:"New Godzilla reading. He's moving inward toward Tokai."
Shinoda: "The nuclear plants, I knew it.
Sonora: "Afraid so."
Yuki: "Well, that's just lovely. Another Chernobyl."
"Godzilla 2000"
(No, the 1999 Tokai Criticality Accident was only the second biggest in criticality fatalities and stupidity to Chernobyl.)
I doubt most slashdot readers are ignorant of copyright laws, the founders distrust of the concept, and the decision to only include copyright in the US Constitution as a carrot to promote innovation.
;)
I imagine most slashdot readers are aware of the abuses of copyright law: the endless extensions, the DMCA, stifling of free speech and fair use, impoverishment of the public domain, the lack of rights for the creators of content (publishers using contracts and work-for-hire to take the copyrights for themselves). All of which are extensively documented on Slashdot.
I imagine most slashdot readers are well aware of campaigns by copyright holders (the publishers) to use them to extort money from mostly innocent people (as few cases go to court and so the allegations of infringement are unproven).
While it has been a while, I imagine at least some slashdot readers remember Microsoft's terroristic marketing campaigns to scare customers into buying too many licenses just to be "safe" from audits.
If you don't, AC, maybe you should use your computer for something "useful".
It is good that libraries are going to be educating youngsters in Fair Use. After all, libraries are the sacred temples of Fair Use.
As for the media sharks, remember the Yahlen? Quit being mean, or your yachts are belong to Mothra!
(To be used in the Queen of Monster's thirty-eight year old War on Mean Terrorists.)
"Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster", 1966
IBM has been a friend of Linux and open source in general, true. Personally, I love Eclipse, and "Peace, Love, and Linux". I truly hope they stay a good friend of Linux.
But, IBM has a history of liking cheap/free labor a bit too much. In Nazi Germany, it was allegedly concentration camp slave labor. Open source, despite its many good attributes and good intentions, also provides IBM with free labor. Now IBM is running off to India and other places for cheap labor. I would love to say IBM has reformed since the bad old days. Recent behavior indicates that might not be as much the case as we would like.
Keep in mind that just because the jobs are in the US, they may not be open to US citizens. There is such a thing as an H1B visa.
When having a very big shark like IBM as your friend, keep a careful eye on them. They might just bite you.
"Ridiculous, you have no claim. I'll sue you for interfering with private enterprise."
Kumoyama, Happy Enterprises, "Mothra vs. Godzilla", 1964
Good "business" consists of things like "the customer is always right", "it is less expensive to keep a customer than it is to get a new one", and "a business' most valuable resource is its employees". Obviously the "business" you are shouting about ignores this time-tested wisdom.
If programming is such a devalued resource that programmers should be paid little and treated like dirt, then why are salaries going up in India, making them a nice balloon economy? Salaries going up in India indicate that programmers are indeed a valuable resource, and that they probably deserved the wages they got in the USA. (As a little reality check, not all of us made $80K+ salaries - my all time high in the Midwest was $40K.)
The word "business" does not give anyone the right to act unethically or illegally. Business is not above the law, and it is certainly not above justice. The robber barons of old got smacked down, the trusts got busted, the Nazis and their offerings of concentration camp slave labor to companies like IBM ended on VE day. The day of the greedy shark mega-corps will come to an end too. Their business, and their evil, is not sustainable.
Seeing that such evil is an aberration rather than the way of things, I suggest that you might want to adapt. As a start, I would recommend growing a heart.
"The path of peace is yours to discover for eternity."
Japanese version of "Mothra" (1961)