I am not American, Australian actually and live primarily in the UK, but is seems to me that our countries (including the US) are missing the point!
What the hell is the point defending things, preventing information falling into the hands of terrorists etc if you are destroying the very way of life you are trying to protect.
Flame away, but, it does strike me that Sep 11 was a tremendously "successful" terrorist action in terms, not so much of the event itself (although, from the instigators perspective, that can hardly be seen as a failure), but in terms of our reaction to it. It is now almost a matter of routine that more and more of our public and private rights are taken away from us and information is restricted to us.
(The recent bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta has been used to refuel the flames in Aussie politics).
Who is doing the most damage to our way of life? Us or them?
These aren't of course unique ideas, but they are ones that should never be forgotten.
Small disclaimer: I of course abhor terrorism in all its forms, when I refer to "success" I simply refer to the level to which the instigators objectives have been met.
Small note on disclaimer: It does bother me the level of paranoia is such at the moment that I feel the need to have the write the last paragraph and basically declare myself to be a reasonable human being who wishes no harm to anyone lest anybody make the assumption otherwise.
Wind required to spin is probably very little, ie, it would have to be very nicely balanced, and, once you got it moving (remember there is a total of 54 tonnes of blades here!!!) the rotational momentum must be incredible.
What would be interesting to know is, how much wind is needed to produce 5MW!? Someone feel like doing the physics to work out how much wind would be required to hit a disk 1/2rd of this size (roughly - aviation theory, it is why you feather dead props, windmilling a dead prop produces the drag of a disk about 1/2 it's size) of that size would be required (at 1013Hpa sea level of course) to produce 5MW at 100% efficiency.
Also, if you want to see prettier pictures, I advise you to wait a couple of days, then come back and take another look - they have already changed them to smaller different ones in the "brace yourself Shiela, it is pissing slashdotters" frame of mind.
Well, you run into a pretty reasonable point here. I find, that as a general rule, my desktop (laptop normally) is dual boot. Commercial reality when consulting, demands you occasionally need to run some proprietry windows only software (timekeeping and expense loggers/help desk ticket things are the most common).
Every now and again there is a powerpoint or project file that won't open properly under any of my standard Linux suite of apps, so a reboot is in order there as well.
That being said, my home machines are only ever linux unless they are used for gaming - but, desktop machines for home tend to be a lot easier to buy without windows anyway (and the shop as a general rule assumes you are pirating it anyway!)
Even the most diehard Linux fan (assuming he or she gives way to the occasional commercial reality of dealing with MS-centric countries) must occasionly hit the second option in the grub menu.
Lest we also forget, the slashdot audience is hardly going to be the typical case - we are one of the few sections of the community who are less likely to "need" to pirate Windows.
OK, colour me not too bright, but I cannot see why pre-installed Linux is being targeted here by Gartner - their claim doesn't seems to be, pre-installing Linux is the same as shipping the machine with no OS whatsoever.
To continue with their premise, any machine sold with no OS (or Linux) installed is destined for pirated software which would imply by there logic, if you want to take it all the way down the line, that there should be an international mandate that no machine should be sold without paying the MS tax.
To be doubly sure, the only way to ensure this MS tax was paid in full would be to make sure that all PC components had a markup on them to allow for a the price of a copy of Windows on a fully assembled machine (otherwise home built machines would be "tax exempt") - it just all gets a bit silly.
It would be interesting to know where these numbers come from (on both sides of this argument), and, how they can possibly be verified.
It simply comes down to a case of MS saying: "You public who don't buy from us, and who we by some weird twist of logic, try to link with the opensource community, are probably stealing from us". Their claim is probably in part true, but to link it with the opensource community is mistifying.
Oh - and then, shock horror, the opensource community comes back with: "We don't steal from you" (probably true on the whole) "and those who buy Linux desktops don't steal from you either" (probably, at least, significantly false).
Oh - for the purposes of this comment it has been assumed that the independant research company Gartner is independently researching for the independent entity of Microsoft.
And where did you get the idea that China is the worlds largest polluter - "common knowledge" is that it is the US by a long golden chalk.
I stand corrected, I was just wandering around trying to find a reference to to worlds worst polluter and had great difficulty finding it. This material just isn't that commonly available - people not interested in it?
After great effort, I found this which contains the phrase "China is the second-biggest producer of greenhouse gases, after the United States".
This is also worth a read - containing the line: Furthermore, the U.S. for over 20 to 25 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, for just 4 to 5 percent of the world's population.
I strongly agree with jeffehobbs above though, progress is progress with or without the US, China (which I didn't realize to my own discredit) and India (apparently).
While this is good news, I hope it isn't seen by governments as an excuse to ease their environmental burdens in favour of bowing to economic/corporate pressures, and, I really hope it isn't seen as yet another excuse by the US government to duck out for even longer on signing the Kyoto Accords.
I realize the above accords don't directly affect the ozone layer, but, ask anyone on the street - the hole in the Ozone layer and the "Greenhouse Effect" are the same thing right? Maybe the hole lets more heat in or something...
It is a sad state of affairs when one feels so cynical, that the first thing that occurs when a hint of good news comes along, is, how will those in power exploit this?
I use Garmin's Mapsource quite a bit which, whilst not being the prettiest, turns detail off as you zoom out and adds it as you zoom in, which sounds like it could be helpful.
It isn't cheap, but, I am sure if you contacted their PR department and explained what you wanted to do with it, they would have a hard time coming off as anything other than heartless and moneygrabbing should you they refuse to give you a gratis/cheap copy.
The North American web demo of their maps (link near the top right) does similar and may even do the trick, and, is free to use.
As for large screen helping, a cheap projector and a dark room would be a better logical alternative than a big screen it would seem to me, but then again, I hardly know whereof I speak.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/01/netflix_ti vo_deal/ has some more info (albeit in a shorter article). It mentions that copy protection will be a bit a priority and that it should be easier to enforce than on anything as openly standard as PCs.
I can neither agree nor disagree with you entirely.
Certainly the oppressive regime thing is another major factor. While lavish lifestyles of those at the tops of such administrational structure are undoubtably inequatable and morally reprehensible, I find it difficult to believe that they are a significant factor in the grand scheme of things. What certainly is a massive factor if we are talking standard of life for the general populace (and not the economy as a whole) is the overwhelming military spending that occurs in spite of lack of clean water (as you mention) and lack of decent sewerage facilities, healthcare etc etc... the list goes on and on but I would consider those to be at the top of the list.
You are also correct, IMHO, on the crippling debt, but, I maintain, the money flow due to patents is a significant one - essentially they allow foreign companies own and operate manufacturing plants and whatnot in less fortunate companies and take pretty much all the money out barring a few neagre sheckels for local wages and tax. Difficult to pay your debts when you don't get the full rewards for the product you are producing.
What I find most interesting, from an unemotional viewpoint, is why we are so fussy about trademark, copyright and patent law.
If you think about it, we (and by we, I mean, the Europeans, Americans and Antipodeans among others) enjoy a standard of life far higher than our African/Aisan/South American counterparts. Why is this so:
Certainly oil and other natural resources play a significant role, but, I think the main thing that maintains the imbalance is patent and copyright law. People in third world countries can produce things for the same prices as we can - or even cheaper, market them in much the same way and can attain similar standards of education (the privileged few initially).
What keeps them "down in the hole" is the constant flow of money back to the aforementioned "lucky countries" who hold the patents.
So, if we start to let even the hint of trademark, copyright or patent violation start to occur, we risk a slow steady slide away from out massive privilege. Governments and courts must be aware of this and I believe that in certain cases they act accordingly.
I am not casting moral judgement here, beyond to say that most cultures tend to vehemently (and often brutally) protect their privileges.
Just an interesting sociological phenomenon methinks.
National service is a repugnant concept unto itself. Frankly I don't care whether you got out of it for completely selfish reasons, genuine medical reasons or as some sort of protest against the very idea, I am just pleased that you did.
How anybody can be an advocate of forcing someone to spend their time and energy to kill people or assist those doing the killing in some sort of misguided notion of compulsary patriotism is utterly beyond me.
If not wanting to hurt others or put myself into situations where I am likely to suffer injury is cowardly then damn right, put a massive stamp across my forehead and paint a bright yellow stripe up my back, but you sure as hell aren't gonna get me to join the armed forces unless I have good reasons of my own for doing so.
As for taxpayers footing the bill, bloody oath they should, if the taxpayers are trying to force someone to do something that they are not legally required to do then I fail to see any reason on earth why they, the taxpayers, shouldn't cough up for attempting to maintain an injustice. How else do you think systems get shaken up and reevaluated. Ahhh... you come from that world were only those with the cash to back their beliefs have a right to assert their rights and or principles.
Slashdot Mirror
I am not American, Australian actually and live primarily in the UK, but is seems to me that our countries (including the US) are missing the point!
What the hell is the point defending things, preventing information falling into the hands of terrorists etc if you are destroying the very way of life you are trying to protect.
Flame away, but, it does strike me that Sep 11 was a tremendously "successful" terrorist action in terms, not so much of the event itself (although, from the instigators perspective, that can hardly be seen as a failure), but in terms of our reaction to it. It is now almost a matter of routine that more and more of our public and private rights are taken away from us and information is restricted to us.
(The recent bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta has been used to refuel the flames in Aussie politics).
Who is doing the most damage to our way of life? Us or them?
These aren't of course unique ideas, but they are ones that should never be forgotten.
Small disclaimer: I of course abhor terrorism in all its forms, when I refer to "success" I simply refer to the level to which the instigators objectives have been met.
Small note on disclaimer: It does bother me the level of paranoia is such at the moment that I feel the need to have the write the last paragraph and basically declare myself to be a reasonable human being who wishes no harm to anyone lest anybody make the assumption otherwise.
Wind required to spin is probably very little, ie, it would have to be very nicely balanced, and, once you got it moving (remember there is a total of 54 tonnes of blades here!!!) the rotational momentum must be incredible.
What would be interesting to know is, how much wind is needed to produce 5MW!? Someone feel like doing the physics to work out how much wind would be required to hit a disk 1/2rd of this size (roughly - aviation theory, it is why you feather dead props, windmilling a dead prop produces the drag of a disk about 1/2 it's size) of that size would be required (at 1013Hpa sea level of course) to produce 5MW at 100% efficiency.
Also, if you want to see prettier pictures, I advise you to wait a couple of days, then come back and take another look - they have already changed them to smaller different ones in the "brace yourself Shiela, it is pissing slashdotters" frame of mind.
Well, you run into a pretty reasonable point here. I find, that as a general rule, my desktop (laptop normally) is dual boot. Commercial reality when consulting, demands you occasionally need to run some proprietry windows only software (timekeeping and expense loggers/help desk ticket things are the most common).
Every now and again there is a powerpoint or project file that won't open properly under any of my standard Linux suite of apps, so a reboot is in order there as well.
That being said, my home machines are only ever linux unless they are used for gaming - but, desktop machines for home tend to be a lot easier to buy without windows anyway (and the shop as a general rule assumes you are pirating it anyway!)
Even the most diehard Linux fan (assuming he or she gives way to the occasional commercial reality of dealing with MS-centric countries) must occasionly hit the second option in the grub menu.
Lest we also forget, the slashdot audience is hardly going to be the typical case - we are one of the few sections of the community who are less likely to "need" to pirate Windows.
OK, colour me not too bright, but I cannot see why pre-installed Linux is being targeted here by Gartner - their claim doesn't seems to be, pre-installing Linux is the same as shipping the machine with no OS whatsoever.
To continue with their premise, any machine sold with no OS (or Linux) installed is destined for pirated software which would imply by there logic, if you want to take it all the way down the line, that there should be an international mandate that no machine should be sold without paying the MS tax.
To be doubly sure, the only way to ensure this MS tax was paid in full would be to make sure that all PC components had a markup on them to allow for a the price of a copy of Windows on a fully assembled machine (otherwise home built machines would be "tax exempt") - it just all gets a bit silly.
It would be interesting to know where these numbers come from (on both sides of this argument), and, how they can possibly be verified.
It simply comes down to a case of MS saying: "You public who don't buy from us, and who we by some weird twist of logic, try to link with the opensource community, are probably stealing from us". Their claim is probably in part true, but to link it with the opensource community is mistifying.
Oh - and then, shock horror, the opensource community comes back with: "We don't steal from you" (probably true on the whole) "and those who buy Linux desktops don't steal from you either" (probably, at least, significantly false).
Oh - for the purposes of this comment it has been assumed that the independant research company Gartner is independently researching for the independent entity of Microsoft.
And where did you get the idea that China is the worlds largest polluter - "common knowledge" is that it is the US by a long golden chalk.
I stand corrected, I was just wandering around trying to find a reference to to worlds worst polluter and had great difficulty finding it. This material just isn't that commonly available - people not interested in it?
After great effort, I found this which contains the phrase "China is the second-biggest producer of greenhouse gases, after the United States".
This is also worth a read - containing the line:
Furthermore, the U.S. for over 20 to 25 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, for just 4 to 5 percent of the world's population.
I strongly agree with jeffehobbs above though, progress is progress with or without the US, China (which I didn't realize to my own discredit) and India (apparently).
While this is good news, I hope it isn't seen by governments as an excuse to ease their environmental burdens in favour of bowing to economic/corporate pressures, and, I really hope it isn't seen as yet another excuse by the US government to duck out for even longer on signing the Kyoto Accords.
I realize the above accords don't directly affect the ozone layer, but, ask anyone on the street - the hole in the Ozone layer and the "Greenhouse Effect" are the same thing right? Maybe the hole lets more heat in or something...
It is a sad state of affairs when one feels so cynical, that the first thing that occurs when a hint of good news comes along, is, how will those in power exploit this?
I use Garmin's Mapsource quite a bit which, whilst not being the prettiest, turns detail off as you zoom out and adds it as you zoom in, which sounds like it could be helpful.
It isn't cheap, but, I am sure if you contacted their PR department and explained what you wanted to do with it, they would have a hard time coming off as anything other than heartless and moneygrabbing should you they refuse to give you a gratis/cheap copy.
The North American web demo of their maps (link near the top right) does similar and may even do the trick, and, is free to use.
As for large screen helping, a cheap projector and a dark room would be a better logical alternative than a big screen it would seem to me, but then again, I hardly know whereof I speak.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/01/netflix_ti vo_deal/ has some more info (albeit in a shorter article). It mentions that copy protection will be a bit a priority and that it should be easier to enforce than on anything as openly standard as PCs.
Should be cool though
I can neither agree nor disagree with you entirely.
:)
Certainly the oppressive regime thing is another major factor. While lavish lifestyles of those at the tops of such administrational structure are undoubtably inequatable and morally reprehensible, I find it difficult to believe that they are a significant factor in the grand scheme of things. What certainly is a massive factor if we are talking standard of life for the general populace (and not the economy as a whole) is the overwhelming military spending that occurs in spite of lack of clean water (as you mention) and lack of decent sewerage facilities, healthcare etc etc... the list goes on and on but I would consider those to be at the top of the list.
You are also correct, IMHO, on the crippling debt, but, I maintain, the money flow due to patents is a significant one - essentially they allow foreign companies own and operate manufacturing plants and whatnot in less fortunate companies and take pretty much all the money out barring a few neagre sheckels for local wages and tax. Difficult to pay your debts when you don't get the full rewards for the product you are producing.
If you don't like my principles, I have others
What I find most interesting, from an unemotional viewpoint, is why we are so fussy about trademark, copyright and patent law.
If you think about it, we (and by we, I mean, the Europeans, Americans and Antipodeans among others) enjoy a standard of life far higher than our African/Aisan/South American counterparts. Why is this so:
Certainly oil and other natural resources play a significant role, but, I think the main thing that maintains the imbalance is patent and copyright law. People in third world countries can produce things for the same prices as we can - or even cheaper, market them in much the same way and can attain similar standards of education (the privileged few initially).
What keeps them "down in the hole" is the constant flow of money back to the aforementioned "lucky countries" who hold the patents.
So, if we start to let even the hint of trademark, copyright or patent violation start to occur, we risk a slow steady slide away from out massive privilege. Governments and courts must be aware of this and I believe that in certain cases they act accordingly.
I am not casting moral judgement here, beyond to say that most cultures tend to vehemently (and often brutally) protect their privileges.
Just an interesting sociological phenomenon methinks.
National service is a repugnant concept unto itself. Frankly I don't care whether you got out of it for completely selfish reasons, genuine medical reasons or as some sort of protest against the very idea, I am just pleased that you did.
How anybody can be an advocate of forcing someone to spend their time and energy to kill people or assist those doing the killing in some sort of misguided notion of compulsary patriotism is utterly beyond me.
If not wanting to hurt others or put myself into situations where I am likely to suffer injury is cowardly then damn right, put a massive stamp across my forehead and paint a bright yellow stripe up my back, but you sure as hell aren't gonna get me to join the armed forces unless I have good reasons of my own for doing so.
As for taxpayers footing the bill, bloody oath they should, if the taxpayers are trying to force someone to do something that they are not legally required to do then I fail to see any reason on earth why they, the taxpayers, shouldn't cough up for attempting to maintain an injustice. How else do you think systems get shaken up and reevaluated. Ahhh... you come from that world were only those with the cash to back their beliefs have a right to assert their rights and or principles.