Yes and their responsability is to the truth not to a government, a judicial system or a (weak) person who's willing to sacrifice freedom for security.
The US health care system is the one which cost the most in the world and according to the UN (WHO) it's far from the best. In fact, in overall efficiency, it's in 37th while France is at first place. So I guess France is the model to follow.
Because for people who want to start a web hosting business but who don't know to much about computer and don't want to spend a lot of time searching for information, Windows is a LOT easier to manage. In the end it costs them less to buy a Windows licence than to spend hours reading some obsolete how-to in order to backup their data or set-up a cheap IDE RAID. They probably tried Linux to save money but realized they couldn't handle it.
I agree that people who don't know much about computers shouldn't start a web hosting business but you'd be surprised by the number of people who think they are knowlegeable because they know about the "defrag" thing.
Without proper documentation, the idea of inspecting and fixing an open source project is only wishful thinking. Reading thousands of pages of code (written by someone else) is fun but it takes far to much time to consider this option seriously. It's like searching for a specific information in a reference book without an index. Now I'd like to know... How many times have you seen a simple design specification for an open source project?
So here's the problem : because there's no documentation, a "regular" user (like a network administrator) cannot look at the internals of a program as it would take to much time but, on the other hand, a good cracker who target a specific program can scrutinize a project to find a flaw somewhere. Do the math.
Well supported through traditional (read: idiot proof) channels.
People *think* it's well suported but is it? When XP came out I had some problems with the combination Windows XP, Office 2000 and NT 4 server. Calling Microsoft was a waste of time (as usual) and I had to wait about 3 months before the problem was solved.
I don't know for big business, but for small business, support means the tech guy (me)... which means support for OpenOffice is as good as the one for MS Office. I agree that right now there's only a few people who can offer support for OpenOffice but here in Montreal it's not that hard to find and it doesn't cost more than MS Office support.
This idea of support is only an illusion.
Reasonably well designed UI and functionality.
There's a few minor differences between MSO and OOo but nothing extraordinary. It's certainly not a reason for using pirated copies of MSO.
Client and customer familiararity.
Not sure what you mean by that. I agree most PHB have a sheep mentality (which is not surprising as they don't know squat about computers) and that's a problem for OpenOffice. But most of my clients have trust in me so it's not THE problem.
Expected longevity (Microsoft will be around for a while).
Do you expect OOo or Linux to die next year? Once again it's a perception problem not something real and PHB could understand this if they were forced to think.
If something *really* goes wrong, you've got a company to blame
Yes and in my case I'm the one who get to be blamed. But let's be honest... even when all those macro-virus were a serious problem did you see any PHB blaming Microsoft? The blame game works when you blame one of your colleague but not when you blame a company that YOU chose.
The value may be there in other places for OS, but businesses will continue to be more conservative and rely on old and proven (relatively) methods.
As far as I know Linux is OS... and there's a lot of business who are using Linux servers. You're right about the "old and proven methods" (this what I call the sheep mentality) but if tomorrow all pirated copies of MSO stop working, you can be sure a lot of people whould switch to OOo. Most PHB who use pirated copies of MSO will come to the conclusion that all those reasons are not worth the price of a licence.
They don't switch to OpenOffice because the bottom line is the only thing that matters. Switching from pirated versions of MS Office to a free OpenOffice cost money. I charge only $35CDN an hour for OpenOffice (installation and documents conversion), I offer 2 days of free formation on site and a special 16 hours (in 4 hours blocks) of support for $320CDN (mainly for psychological reasons). It's not much but when you add the cost of a temporary productivity loss you end up with a bottom line of $5000 to $20,000 for 20 employees (depending on their job, their salary, their ability to learn and, most importantly, their ego). Sure, in the long run switching to OpenOffice is a good choice for a lot of small business but there is very few "decisions makers" who care about the long term, particularly when a pirated MS Office is "free".
And before anyone try's to point out the cost/open source issue: In business that doesn't mean squat.
I agree for the open source part but for the cost issue I have one word for you : piracy.
Re:Performance doesn't come directly from 64 bits
on
Is Prescott 64-bit?
·
· Score: 1
Hmmm... I think you're preaching to a converted here! The first processor I learned was the 6502 (well, at least it was the first I really used); then I learned the 68000 and I was impressed by how powerful it was; then, because of all the hype, I decided to learn the 386, expecting to see the same kind of improvement I saw going from the 6502 to the 68000... At first I was shocked by the 386 (what the fuck is this piece of shit)... Then it was denial (it's not possible : I must have the wrong book)... Then it was bargainning (if I read the book 2 or 3 more times I will get it and realize how good a 386 is)... Then it was fear (I DON'T GET IT!!!)... After was anger (I hate all those fucking morons who think a 386 is a great piece of hardware)... Then despair (computer science is not for me)... And finally Acceptance (people are stupid, I'm the only intelligent being on earth and I'll simply forget about assembly).
Re:Performance doesn't come directly from 64 bits
on
Is Prescott 64-bit?
·
· Score: 1
I really don't see how AMD is going to stay on Moore's curve with such a shitty instruction set architecture
I'm not an expert in processor architecture but I believe every x86 processor since the pentium (pro?) has a RISC core.
Your comment was moderated flamebait but i think it should have been funny... I'm the one who is anti-microsoft and I was replying to your (IMO) pro-microsoft comment!
I program using Visual Studio.Net, so I do happen to have some expertise in the area we are discussing.
We were discussing politics (not programming) and, as a computer consultant who has to take politics into consideration when giving advices, I have, as you put it, some expertise in the area we were discussing. (BTW I think all this bragging about "expertise" is only rhetoric but hey! we're here to play, right?)
That point is: it is GOOD BUSINESS to interoperate.
Maybe... But it is even better business to use your quasi-monopoly to shut out competition.
So, Microsoft is going to interoperate because Microsoft doesn't like getting shut out of markets.
What market? I could understand about WebSphere but Mozilla and Linux? Anyway, as I said, people love Microsoft so if there is an interoperability problem between a Microsoft product and something else, people will blame the other company... so it seems Microsoft has nothing to gain with interoperability.
BTW (hint : here's the "insightful" part) you do know that Microsoft is under scrutiny by the EU, right?
Bill Gates (to himself): "Hmm... Everyone hates me, and everyone is aligned against me
This may be true in Slashdotland (where being anti-Microsoft makes you look cool) but in the real world about everyone just love Microsoft. For about everyone in the real world, when there's a bug with a Microsoft product it's the computer's fault or the technician's fault... But when there's a bug with a product from another company it's because it's a crappy product. In the real world, where image is everything, saying Microsoft is a good company makes you look serious and professional.
Here's a quote from http://www.nal.usda.gov/ric/faqs/ruralfaq.htm : "The Census Bureau classifies 61.7 million (25 percent) of the total population as rural, [...] According to the Census definition, 97.5 percent of the total U.S. land area is rural"
I'm not a math expert but to me this means that 75% of Americans live in 2.5% of the land area. Obviously the US also has concentrated areas of high population density.
I don't know for the english speaking community but for anyone writing in french you can always use a program like Antidote. It integrates with Writer and it's far better than the one with MS Office.
Re:We really need a different language
on
Secure Programming
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Are you somehow recommending a kernel be written in something else than C?
Personally I never understood why C was so popular. In particular I never understood why people thought of C as a powerful language. I don't know about the parent post, but for me I do recommend writing a kernel with something else. A mix of Ada and assembly would be my choice (yes, I know I'll get flamed for saying "Ada").
but you have to realize that unless the underlying infrastructure is built (on some low level language), you can't have high level languages.
I'm not sure what you mean by this (you don't mean you can only write a compiler from assembly, right?) but what's the difference between C and another high level language? (except for the fact it's easier to write a C compiler than an Ada95 compiler)
buffer overflow isn't the only security hole in the world
No but they are really "popular". Also don't forget about simple bugs that could be found at compile time by using a more powerful language than C.
Yes, I know you can have good programming practice in C. You can have good programming in assembly too. Unfortunately a programming language comes not only with syntax rules but also with a "culture"... and let's be honnest, C "culture" is not about good programming pratice.
No, you are an idiot because you apparently fail to understand that finding a couple dozen people willing to hijack four planes,
Oh yeah. Finding 20 people is real hard. Last time I heard on the news that several thousands made it to some al qaeda training camp. Just look at the number of suicide bomber in palestine and maybe you'll realize they could have found 200 without any difficulty if they wanted to.
training them to fly the planes
Al Qaeda didn't trained them. They learn to fly in the US. Question : how many people learn to fly each year?
selecting targets
Oh yeah. Once again real hard! I mean it's not like buildings are hard to find in the US!
and identifying appropriate routes,
I remember playing Flight Simulator II (yes I'm that old) : and having fun flying between the twin towers. Strange, but I don't remember spending days to "calculate" the path to New York...
infiltrating a foreign nation
Oh my God! If you knew the number foreign nations I already infiltrated!
and executing the actual hijacking
You mean going to the cockpit is that hard? Ok I've never done this part but I'm pretty sure I could find my way... I heard the cockpit is always in front of the plane.
all involved a high level of coordination and communication.
What for? I mean last month I had to go to the airport to pick up my parents and it tooks about 30 seconds to my mother to say "We're arriving at this airport, this day, at this time with this flight". and you know what? I was able to make it. Am I a genius or what! BTW I'm pretty sure most of the terrorists who were on those plane learned what they were going to do only a few days before september 11th. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if some of the terrorists didn't even know they were going to crash.
You can easily march down Main St. by yourself. That doesn't mean that organizing a city parade is something easy that would not be within the scope of our local security forces to interdict.
We're not talking about a city parade. We're talking about 19 people! Moreover 19 people who keep a low profile.
I'm sorry but you don't have to be a genius to plan something like this. You just need money.
What "info"?
Haven't you heard of the famous "Phoenix FBI memo"?
The FBI has been relegated to investigating domestic homicides. Pre-911 they barely even functioned in domestic intelligence gathering.
9/11 was not the first terrorist attack in the US. Tell me who did investigate on the previous ones?
"Absence of an impeding force upon a person's ability to excercise their natural rights."
This means nothing if you don't define what is a "natural right". No serioulsy... think about it. What do YOU think freedom means.
Now, let me ask you a question, would you, on Sep. 12 2001, have thought that in the next two years there would be *NO* successful terrorist attacks on American soil?
As any sane person, I thought this was a possibility. Nothing more. Not everybody's crazy, you know...
We're all experiencing huge pains in the rectal area because the taxman in France is voracious, but we have to stay here (or perhaps go to Canada later, but right now we're staying here)
If you're afraid of taxes I'm not sure Canada is the place for you. Sure, it's very easy to start a business and it's almost free... but (personal) income taxes are higher than France (unless you're very rich).
911 was a coordinated attack involving many people and lots of planning
This is bullshit. What was so hard about it? Finding a place to buy enough box cutters? Sure you have to rent an apartment, buy food... Oh my God! I must be a genius because I can do the exact same things!
Like it or not, a more powerful FBI could have prevented 911
Like it or not, the FBI could have prevented 911 without any additional power. They already had all the info.
What "freedom" do you lack today that you had three years ago?
What is freedom? Answer that question and you'll understand.
Do you seriously trust Ascroft less than Osama Bin Laden?
It's not a question of trust... It's a question of who is the most dangerous for me.
I'm not American but as an athiest I'm pretty sure Bin Laden would be very happy to kill me. But the fact is he's powerless. Sure he could give some money to a terrorist to bomb something but demagogy apart, this is insignificant. He doesn't have nuclear weapons, chemical weapons are less effective than a bomb and the problem with planes could be solved simply by a stupid door. There is still problems with, for example, trains but again it could be solved with simple solutions. I agree it won't be cheap but even if it cost 50 billions it means less than $200 per person.
On the other hand there's Ashcroft. He don't want to kill me but for "security reasons" he wants to control me. And the problem is, even if I live in Canada, he can. He has the power to make sure I never cause trouble to people in power and never voice my opinion (sure I can say wathever I want but only as long as I don't disturb anything which in the end is exactly the same).
God loving patriot
Bin Laden is also a God loving patriot. He was rich and could have lived in a beautiful house in California if he wanted to. But he choose to fight for God and his country. So I'm sure you understand that I really don't trust "God loving patriots".
If these "scientists" that we don't allow to enter our country choose to work for Osama
No these scientists won't work for Bin Laden but they will simply work for their country and help their country instead of helping the US. Of course, as I'm not american, I see nothing wrong with this...
The problem with most people is they feel they are not needed. They feel they have no value and no power over other people. So each time the phone ring, they hope it's someone who will say "I'd like to see you" or "I need your help" (as long as the person calling has value and power, of course). And they don't want that person to call someone else because they didn't answer the phone! Oh, no!
you guys have seen the ingame movies? Looks very nice
Personally I was disappointed when I saw those movies. There's no real shadows (don't know the technical term for this). So I'll wait for Deus Ex 2 and Doom 3 benchmark to know what card I must buy.
This may piss them off enough that they may look to other forms of entertainment
Haven't you heard of DVD? People are already looking at other forms of entertainment and this is why the RIAA is fighting to make sure consumer spend all their money on CD instead of spending some on CD and some on DVD. Sure, they may piss off some people in the process, but they believe their choice is : lose some sales because a few angry people are boycotting their product or lose a lot of sales because people are buying DVD with the money they saved by sharing CD instead of buying them.
Science is the setting, the characters are the story.
No. If science is only the setting then it's the same old story that we have in every other genre. If so then what's the point of science fiction? Decor? I'm sorry but, as you said, what is important in a novel is characters. Decor is irrelevant.
For me, science fiction is about what our lives will be in the future. Its about what science will do to our lives. It's about what we'll become, what will be our moral values. This is why I love science fiction : it shows me what I could have been, what I would believe in, if I was living in a technologicaly more advance society.
Rama was great, even though the ending made me want to puke
I don't know if you're talking about the ending of the first novel or the ending of the serie (I never read the other books) but I think Rendez-vous with Rama was utterly boring except for the ending which was one of the best I ever read.
We allready use OpenOffice for all our end user's here
How did you make the switch? I did some tests with OpenOffice and some of my clients who don't want to spend money on licences... It's hell! Not because OpenOffice is bad (I don't use MS Office anymore) but because most people are completely computer illiterate. As soon as the smallest thing changes they're lost! Half of them think that File/Print/Select PDF printer is too complicated so they keep sending SXW files to people who use MS Word. The worst part is since they try to find a excuse for their incompetence they're constantly bitching OpenOffice (and me, of course). If OOo had a perfect MS Word filter I guess change in a large (i.e. more than 2 people) organization could be possible but until then it's a lot of trouble and in a short term period paying for an MS upgrade cost a lot less than switching to OOo (particularly because people would use the "I'm learning the new program" excuse to not do their work).
So you're saying because a handful of companies are doing bad things [...] we shouldn't implement this feature?
Why not? There's only a handful of people doing bad things with guns but I still can't buy an assault riffle and carry it with me for my protection. And you know what? I think this is a good thing (even though I would really like to have the one I had when doing my military service).
Slashdot Mirror
Time for the press to be responsible too
Yes and their responsability is to the truth not to a government, a judicial system or a (weak) person who's willing to sacrifice freedom for security.
The US health care system is the one which cost the most in the world and according to the UN (WHO) it's far from the best. In fact, in overall efficiency, it's in 37th while France is at first place. So I guess France is the model to follow.
We're still using a keyboard designed to lessen the chance of hammers jamming and this guy is hoping to replace X ?
Because for people who want to start a web hosting business but who don't know to much about computer and don't want to spend a lot of time searching for information, Windows is a LOT easier to manage. In the end it costs them less to buy a Windows licence than to spend hours reading some obsolete how-to in order to backup their data or set-up a cheap IDE RAID. They probably tried Linux to save money but realized they couldn't handle it.
I agree that people who don't know much about computers shouldn't start a web hosting business but you'd be surprised by the number of people who think they are knowlegeable because they know about the "defrag" thing.
Without proper documentation, the idea of inspecting and fixing an open source project is only wishful thinking. Reading thousands of pages of code (written by someone else) is fun but it takes far to much time to consider this option seriously. It's like searching for a specific information in a reference book without an index. Now I'd like to know... How many times have you seen a simple design specification for an open source project?
So here's the problem : because there's no documentation, a "regular" user (like a network administrator) cannot look at the internals of a program as it would take to much time but, on the other hand, a good cracker who target a specific program can scrutinize a project to find a flaw somewhere. Do the math.
Well supported through traditional (read: idiot proof) channels.
People *think* it's well suported but is it? When XP came out I had some problems with the combination Windows XP, Office 2000 and NT 4 server. Calling Microsoft was a waste of time (as usual) and I had to wait about 3 months before the problem was solved.
I don't know for big business, but for small business, support means the tech guy (me)... which means support for OpenOffice is as good as the one for MS Office. I agree that right now there's only a few people who can offer support for OpenOffice but here in Montreal it's not that hard to find and it doesn't cost more than MS Office support.
This idea of support is only an illusion.
Reasonably well designed UI and functionality.
There's a few minor differences between MSO and OOo but nothing extraordinary. It's certainly not a reason for using pirated copies of MSO.
Client and customer familiararity.
Not sure what you mean by that. I agree most PHB have a sheep mentality (which is not surprising as they don't know squat about computers) and that's a problem for OpenOffice. But most of my clients have trust in me so it's not THE problem.
Expected longevity (Microsoft will be around for a while).
Do you expect OOo or Linux to die next year? Once again it's a perception problem not something real and PHB could understand this if they were forced to think.
If something *really* goes wrong, you've got a company to blame
Yes and in my case I'm the one who get to be blamed. But let's be honest... even when all those macro-virus were a serious problem did you see any PHB blaming Microsoft? The blame game works when you blame one of your colleague but not when you blame a company that YOU chose.
The value may be there in other places for OS, but businesses will continue to be more conservative and rely on old and proven (relatively) methods.
As far as I know Linux is OS... and there's a lot of business who are using Linux servers. You're right about the "old and proven methods" (this what I call the sheep mentality) but if tomorrow all pirated copies of MSO stop working, you can be sure a lot of people whould switch to OOo. Most PHB who use pirated copies of MSO will come to the conclusion that all those reasons are not worth the price of a licence.
They don't switch to OpenOffice because the bottom line is the only thing that matters. Switching from pirated versions of MS Office to a free OpenOffice cost money. I charge only $35CDN an hour for OpenOffice (installation and documents conversion), I offer 2 days of free formation on site and a special 16 hours (in 4 hours blocks) of support for $320CDN (mainly for psychological reasons). It's not much but when you add the cost of a temporary productivity loss you end up with a bottom line of $5000 to $20,000 for 20 employees (depending on their job, their salary, their ability to learn and, most importantly, their ego). Sure, in the long run switching to OpenOffice is a good choice for a lot of small business but there is very few "decisions makers" who care about the long term, particularly when a pirated MS Office is "free".
And before anyone try's to point out the cost/open source issue: In business that doesn't mean squat.
I agree for the open source part but for the cost issue I have one word for you : piracy.
Hmmm... I think you're preaching to a converted here! The first processor I learned was the 6502 (well, at least it was the first I really used); then I learned the 68000 and I was impressed by how powerful it was; then, because of all the hype, I decided to learn the 386, expecting to see the same kind of improvement I saw going from the 6502 to the 68000...
At first I was shocked by the 386 (what the fuck is this piece of shit)...
Then it was denial (it's not possible : I must have the wrong book)...
Then it was bargainning (if I read the book 2 or 3 more times I will get it and realize how good a 386 is)...
Then it was fear (I DON'T GET IT!!!)...
After was anger (I hate all those fucking morons who think a 386 is a great piece of hardware)...
Then despair (computer science is not for me)...
And finally Acceptance (people are stupid, I'm the only intelligent being on earth and I'll simply forget about assembly).
I really don't see how AMD is going to stay on Moore's curve with such a shitty instruction set architecture
I'm not an expert in processor architecture but I believe every x86 processor since the pentium (pro?) has a RISC core.
Your comment was moderated flamebait but i think it should have been funny... I'm the one who is anti-microsoft and I was replying to your (IMO) pro-microsoft comment!
.Net, so I do happen to have some expertise in the area we are discussing.
I program using Visual Studio
We were discussing politics (not programming) and, as a computer consultant who has to take politics into consideration when giving advices, I have, as you put it, some expertise in the area we were discussing. (BTW I think all this bragging about "expertise" is only rhetoric but hey! we're here to play, right?)
That point is: it is GOOD BUSINESS to interoperate.
Maybe... But it is even better business to use your quasi-monopoly to shut out competition.
So, Microsoft is going to interoperate because Microsoft doesn't like getting shut out of markets.
What market? I could understand about WebSphere but Mozilla and Linux? Anyway, as I said, people love Microsoft so if there is an interoperability problem between a Microsoft product and something else, people will blame the other company... so it seems Microsoft has nothing to gain with interoperability.
BTW (hint : here's the "insightful" part) you do know that Microsoft is under scrutiny by the EU, right?
Bill Gates (to himself): "Hmm... Everyone hates me, and everyone is aligned against me
This may be true in Slashdotland (where being anti-Microsoft makes you look cool) but in the real world about everyone just love Microsoft. For about everyone in the real world, when there's a bug with a Microsoft product it's the computer's fault or the technician's fault... But when there's a bug with a product from another company it's because it's a crappy product. In the real world, where image is everything, saying Microsoft is a good company makes you look serious and professional.
Here's a quote from http://www.nal.usda.gov/ric/faqs/ruralfaq.htm : "The Census Bureau classifies 61.7 million (25 percent) of the total population as rural, [...] According to the Census definition, 97.5 percent of the total U.S. land area is rural"
I'm not a math expert but to me this means that 75% of Americans live in 2.5% of the land area. Obviously the US also has concentrated areas of high population density.
I don't know for the english speaking community but for anyone writing in french you can always use a program like Antidote. It integrates with Writer and it's far better than the one with MS Office.
Are you somehow recommending a kernel be written in something else than C?
Personally I never understood why C was so popular. In particular I never understood why people thought of C as a powerful language. I don't know about the parent post, but for me I do recommend writing a kernel with something else. A mix of Ada and assembly would be my choice (yes, I know I'll get flamed for saying "Ada").
but you have to realize that unless the underlying infrastructure is built (on some low level language), you can't have high level languages.
I'm not sure what you mean by this (you don't mean you can only write a compiler from assembly, right?) but what's the difference between C and another high level language? (except for the fact it's easier to write a C compiler than an Ada95 compiler)
buffer overflow isn't the only security hole in the world
No but they are really "popular". Also don't forget about simple bugs that could be found at compile time by using a more powerful language than C.
Yes, I know you can have good programming practice in C. You can have good programming in assembly too. Unfortunately a programming language comes not only with syntax rules but also with a "culture"... and let's be honnest, C "culture" is not about good programming pratice.
No, you are an idiot because you apparently fail to understand that finding a couple dozen people willing to hijack four planes,
Oh yeah. Finding 20 people is real hard. Last time I heard on the news that several thousands made it to some al qaeda training camp. Just look at the number of suicide bomber in palestine and maybe you'll realize they could have found 200 without any difficulty if they wanted to.
training them to fly the planes
Al Qaeda didn't trained them. They learn to fly in the US. Question : how many people learn to fly each year?
selecting targets
Oh yeah. Once again real hard! I mean it's not like buildings are hard to find in the US!
and identifying appropriate routes,
I remember playing Flight Simulator II (yes I'm that old) : and having fun flying between the twin towers. Strange, but I don't remember spending days to "calculate" the path to New York...
infiltrating a foreign nation
Oh my God! If you knew the number foreign nations I already infiltrated!
and executing the actual hijacking
You mean going to the cockpit is that hard? Ok I've never done this part but I'm pretty sure I could find my way... I heard the cockpit is always in front of the plane.
all involved a high level of coordination and communication.
What for? I mean last month I had to go to the airport to pick up my parents and it tooks about 30 seconds to my mother to say "We're arriving at this airport, this day, at this time with this flight". and you know what? I was able to make it. Am I a genius or what! BTW I'm pretty sure most of the terrorists who were on those plane learned what they were going to do only a few days before september 11th. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if some of the terrorists didn't even know they were going to crash.
You can easily march down Main St. by yourself. That doesn't mean that organizing a city parade is something easy that would not be within the scope of our local security forces to interdict.
We're not talking about a city parade. We're talking about 19 people! Moreover 19 people who keep a low profile.
I'm sorry but you don't have to be a genius to plan something like this. You just need money.
What "info"?
Haven't you heard of the famous "Phoenix FBI memo"?
The FBI has been relegated to investigating domestic homicides. Pre-911 they barely even functioned in domestic intelligence gathering.
9/11 was not the first terrorist attack in the US. Tell me who did investigate on the previous ones?
"Absence of an impeding force upon a person's ability to excercise their natural rights."
This means nothing if you don't define what is a "natural right". No serioulsy... think about it. What do YOU think freedom means.
Now, let me ask you a question, would you, on Sep. 12 2001, have thought that in the next two years there would be *NO* successful terrorist attacks on American soil?
As any sane person, I thought this was a possibility. Nothing more. Not everybody's crazy, you know...
We're all experiencing huge pains in the rectal area because the taxman in France is voracious, but we have to stay here (or perhaps go to Canada later, but right now we're staying here)
If you're afraid of taxes I'm not sure Canada is the place for you. Sure, it's very easy to start a business and it's almost free... but (personal) income taxes are higher than France (unless you're very rich).
911 was a coordinated attack involving many people and lots of planning
This is bullshit. What was so hard about it? Finding a place to buy enough box cutters? Sure you have to rent an apartment, buy food... Oh my God! I must be a genius because I can do the exact same things!
Like it or not, a more powerful FBI could have prevented 911
Like it or not, the FBI could have prevented 911 without any additional power. They already had all the info.
What "freedom" do you lack today that you had three years ago?
What is freedom? Answer that question and you'll understand.
Do you seriously trust Ascroft less than Osama Bin Laden?
It's not a question of trust... It's a question of who is the most dangerous for me.
I'm not American but as an athiest I'm pretty sure Bin Laden would be very happy to kill me. But the fact is he's powerless. Sure he could give some money to a terrorist to bomb something but demagogy apart, this is insignificant. He doesn't have nuclear weapons, chemical weapons are less effective than a bomb and the problem with planes could be solved simply by a stupid door. There is still problems with, for example, trains but again it could be solved with simple solutions. I agree it won't be cheap but even if it cost 50 billions it means less than $200 per person.
On the other hand there's Ashcroft. He don't want to kill me but for "security reasons" he wants to control me. And the problem is, even if I live in Canada, he can. He has the power to make sure I never cause trouble to people in power and never voice my opinion (sure I can say wathever I want but only as long as I don't disturb anything which in the end is exactly the same).
God loving patriot
Bin Laden is also a God loving patriot. He was rich and could have lived in a beautiful house in California if he wanted to. But he choose to fight for God and his country. So I'm sure you understand that I really don't trust "God loving patriots".
If these "scientists" that we don't allow to enter our country choose to work for Osama
No these scientists won't work for Bin Laden but they will simply work for their country and help their country instead of helping the US. Of course, as I'm not american, I see nothing wrong with this...
Unfortunately some people live by the phone
The problem with most people is they feel they are not needed. They feel they have no value and no power over other people. So each time the phone ring, they hope it's someone who will say "I'd like to see you" or "I need your help" (as long as the person calling has value and power, of course). And they don't want that person to call someone else because they didn't answer the phone! Oh, no!
you guys have seen the ingame movies? Looks very nice
Personally I was disappointed when I saw those movies. There's no real shadows (don't know the technical term for this). So I'll wait for Deus Ex 2 and Doom 3 benchmark to know what card I must buy.
This may piss them off enough that they may look to other forms of entertainment
Haven't you heard of DVD? People are already looking at other forms of entertainment and this is why the RIAA is fighting to make sure consumer spend all their money on CD instead of spending some on CD and some on DVD. Sure, they may piss off some people in the process, but they believe their choice is : lose some sales because a few angry people are boycotting their product or lose a lot of sales because people are buying DVD with the money they saved by sharing CD instead of buying them.
Science is the setting, the characters are the story.
No. If science is only the setting then it's the same old story that we have in every other genre. If so then what's the point of science fiction? Decor? I'm sorry but, as you said, what is important in a novel is characters. Decor is irrelevant.
For me, science fiction is about what our lives will be in the future. Its about what science will do to our lives. It's about what we'll become, what will be our moral values. This is why I love science fiction : it shows me what I could have been, what I would believe in, if I was living in a technologicaly more advance society.
Rama was great, even though the ending made me want to puke
I don't know if you're talking about the ending of the first novel or the ending of the serie (I never read the other books) but I think Rendez-vous with Rama was utterly boring except for the ending which was one of the best I ever read.
We allready use OpenOffice for all our end user's here
How did you make the switch? I did some tests with OpenOffice and some of my clients who don't want to spend money on licences... It's hell! Not because OpenOffice is bad (I don't use MS Office anymore) but because most people are completely computer illiterate. As soon as the smallest thing changes they're lost! Half of them think that File/Print/Select PDF printer is too complicated so they keep sending SXW files to people who use MS Word. The worst part is since they try to find a excuse for their incompetence they're constantly bitching OpenOffice (and me, of course). If OOo had a perfect MS Word filter I guess change in a large (i.e. more than 2 people) organization could be possible but until then it's a lot of trouble and in a short term period paying for an MS upgrade cost a lot less than switching to OOo (particularly because people would use the "I'm learning the new program" excuse to not do their work).
So you're saying because a handful of companies are doing bad things [...] we shouldn't implement this feature?
Why not? There's only a handful of people doing bad things with guns but I still can't buy an assault riffle and carry it with me for my protection. And you know what? I think this is a good thing (even though I would really like to have the one I had when doing my military service).