I mean, besides that whole concept of "liberty" and stuff... oh, and they:
*aided us with ships and arms in our most important time in removing King George from the colonies
*provided money for the expansion of our navy to defend our trade to the Barbary Coast
*became our number one trade partner when no king's nation was buying American goods
*admired and respected us that they acted in same manner to start a revolution for their people
*loved us so much that they gave us the Statue of Liberty, and we loved them so much all of our fashions and opinions came from France
*is our oldest national friend, and the first place that really recognized our sovereignity
opened our cultural gates to Europe when we needed help
*has been our staunch ally on the security council, believed with us that the spread of communism in Vietnam was so important that they got involved first, almost religiously backed our initiatives until we freaked out and launched a war unprovoked
*generally put up with our crap, and we them, for generations, out of FRIENDSHIP
*And most importantly, they would LISTEN TO US AND WE THEM WHEN WE DISAGREED
Besides that, what has France ever done for us. And by saying "done for us" I mean the LAST TWENTY MINUTES. After all, America is not good on remembering the truth about France and America, who were, at one time, the only two democracies backed into a corner in the world, struggling for the freedoms of their citizens.
NEVER FORGET THAT.
Take that you anti-France bastards. We're old friends, it is about time you honored the contract, and listened to your friends, you petulant children.
By the way, we had larger influences in Iraq than you think. Read a little.
Why does there always have to be this "1% of the population liked it so bring it back" mentality!?
Why are they desperate? Television is dying. The evidence is all around you. I know there are more channels than before, but before the internet, and DVDs becoming cheaper by the day, and the Tivo blasting out all of the commercials, television was sitting pretty. It had your attention. Lets do an example:
Q: Who sponsored the Little Orphan Annie radio show in the Golden Age of Radio? A: Ovaltine.
Everyone knows this. Why is this fact special? THIS WAS BEFORE I WAS BORN. I even know about ads before I was born. I was forty years too late, and I never even heard it with my own ears. That is the power of singular attention. The whole nation had its attention. The whole nation heard "Ovaltine," and "Little Orphan Annie." You can practically not seperate the two. That, my friends, is the influencing power that television longs to have again.
I work in TV. If you ever get to see the kind of syndication magazines that show all of the new direct to syndication shows that are just scrambling to get on to WGN-TV at 3am just to dodge syndex rules, you would understand that all of this CHOICE is making people NOT CHOOSE TV.
You can bring anything around no matter how small as long as it has a guaranteed audience with a guaranteed demographic saying "we will watch it every night it is on and sit through the commercials waiting" attitude.
The proof? Infomercials. Who cares? The 200 people that bought it do. The company that sold 200 is excited as hell.
I know that the reason that people thought that they could bring back Farscape (and they did) was how they knew that Sci-fi had FANS. Pissing off those fans is BAD. It's especially bad when you are thinking that most people who watch a lot of TV also have 50 channels to chose from, and those Farscape fans are suddenly stuck on the custom Harley Davidson show on Discovery.
Trust me, television networks want ad revenue. Eyes are only a part of that equation. What if you could deliver three thousand people nationwide that would buy your plasma TV guaranteed every time you ran the ad? RUN IT! Who cares if only four thousand people are watching! RUN IT! It works!
I hear a lot of speculation that the Wrights were not the first powered flight. Well then, where is the proof? Really. Where is it? The Wrights have PLENTY OF PROOF. All of these talks and speculation were created to debunk the fact that two guys in a bicycle shop did something that the US Gov't and 50 thousand US dollars (50k! in 1903!), as well as other governments were trying to do top secret couldn't do. Then all of these crackpots say that there was a goof, that they flew the skies. RIIIGHT.
It all comes down to proof. The proof is there. The Wrights had machines that they made themselves that created tables to show wing lift and speed. They attempted it with German tables, but they were wholly inaccurate. So as good little scientists, they did it themselves. The propellar design (another wing, designed with heavy math) was created by the Wrights, as well as the control scheme. All of these tools they used still work today. They still exsist today. These guys took notes, the rest of the world didn't think that was as necessary as making something that looked like a bird.
A lot of people talk about proof. Well, let me say this. The Wrights were some of the best amateur scientists ever. Period. They took a little bicycle shop and some tools and then THEY DID THE MATH while the rest of the world was still thinking, "how should this thing be shaped?"
The proof is still there people. Where are all of these other crackpot fliers? Are they around? Do they work? Did anyone ever do anything but print about them.
My grandfather told me about his father who went to see the Wrights as a boy when they toured (yes, toured) the country. They offered anyone $100 to fly with them. No one came forward. They thought they were nuts. What they saw defied reason at the time.
Someone said this: One wonders what poeple 5000 years from now will say about our time. They might remember the Chinese (or New Zealanders perhaps) as the real fathers of space travel -- and make a brief footnote for the academics about a certain event in 1969.
Well, there is always going to be a flag up there, and the bottom half of a lunar lander. The last time I checked, that is all the proof you need. I bet it has US Gov't stamped all over it. Probably a couple of dates written on it too.
Guys, this is all about proof and speculation.
We live in a world of FACTS. Slashdotters should be the more understanding bunch about this subject. The facts, and diligence towards those facts, is what seperates your civilization from space travel and worshipping 'dark wolf the moon God' every time there is an eclipse.
The US's record in Latin America is laughable, such as the 1973 CIA-backed coup in Chile [cnn.com] that overthrew the democratically elected President President Salvador Allende in favour of a facist dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, who then proceeded to tortured and murdered tens of thousands. If that's the kind of example you want to bring up of how the US helps bring self-determination to the world then perhaps you want to think twice.
Perhaps you need to read a history book, and not forget to mention that Allende was a SOCIALIST.
Look, I don't mean to bust out the history book here, but if you know anything about the history of Chile you have to understand that the US backed that butcher Pinochet because the US couldn't stomach backing a socialist double-butcher like Allende. No matter how you slice it, at the time that the US was fighting communist pop-ups the world over, they had just taken a good, hard look at what socialist leaders like Joseph Stalin could do, and well, let's say that the prospect of those guys popping up all over the world was not a happy thought.
I think that is hilarious that you think that you can ignore the fact that it was in the time where people like Che Guevarra were running around in South America starting insurgencies, and that you can just ignore the ENTIRE HISTORY of the region at a time when the US was knee deep in its 'not im my back yard' anti-Communist agenda.
Yeah, the US did horrible things back then. The sixties were a turbulent time in the Cold War. Everyone knows that. You make scant mention of it... like Communism in South America didn't exsist, and that all of the terrible, terrible things that we did in South America somehow didn't bring about Democracy for an ENTIRE CONTINENT AND ETHNIC GROUP.
Look, Latin America has always been a wonderful friend, there was no way that we were going to let it turn into the absolute freaking paradise that Cuba has become, where one man rules FOREVER. And whether you like to admit it or not, Communism is no one's friend. You can't gloss over Allende without mentioning him being a socialist, and then not mention what SOCIALISTS DO, which is some pretty un-socialist things, like killing their "comrades" and "peers."
It was a bad choice between two terrible butchers. But sure as you and I are standing here, that choice was the best of two terrible choices that had to be made. Otherwise you probably would have all of Latin America and South America under the rule of communists, would you have been a lot happier with that?
Please, are there any farkers from down there with some insight please?
kippy- The shuttles are old. They are general purpose vehicles that have been overworked, and should have been replaced. -later- What has the shuttle program gotten us but dead astronauts, a few satilites and vital data on ants sorting tiny scrwes in space?
You've got to be kidding.
Honestly, you need to read about the space shuttle before you start bouncing such tripe out on us. We're talking manned spaceflight here, something that actually looks more like spaceflight than just putting some payload on the back of an Estes model rocket you shot off in your back yard. I am terribly sorry that science hasn't caught up with your dreaming yet, but NASA is full of zealots that are doing their best to get our society into the space age as much as possible, with minimal funding. If you are complaining, may I suggest you get yourself a wind tunnel, several degrees in mathematics, a degree in astrophysics, fifty years of experience, and BUILD YOUR OWN FREAKING ROCKETS.
It's twits like you that complain about modernization while the geniuses plod along trying to make a difference. Please don't let your stupid expectations ever effect their intense work in REALITY.
By the way, GM called. They said that they are sorry about the delay, and your hovercar just got in out of backorder.
How about designing a display mounted on the motorcycle instead? We're familiar and comfortable with gauges already. This would reduce distraction, and increase safety.
And that said super-duper motorcycle would be out on the street about.6 nanoseconds unattended before being promptly stolen.
You can take your helmet in with you to dinner, or when shopping.
Then just pop the jammer enough to remove the signal the moment that someone decides to get obnoxious. Case closed.
If someone gets a cell phone call in a theatre and runs out, that is respectable, although the vast majority of cells should be ON VIBRATE ALL THE TIME, and not playing some damn song that makes you think "is that Limp Bizkit? I think that's Limp Bizkit. What was I thinking about again?"
Zap them when they are offensive, not on the possibility of offending. That is extreme.
Also, the last time I checked, people on some of these new phones can message send. They should have an option that says message only, if you want to leave a phone number or message, which I bet many do.
Look, don't ruin someone's life by running the thing all the time, just jam their stupid conversation when they ruin your movie or dinner.
And since you freaks scream "1984!!! BIG BROTHER!!!" every time the government scratches its ass, much less when they actually do anything, you're right, we're not going to have the capability to stop one single person in an undisclosed location from doing something that requires no overt or hostile action aside from the explosion itself.
You people don't even know what you want. First you scream freedom, then you scream security. Can't have both at top capacity. At a certain point they become mutually exclusive.
Well, considering that this country was founded on fighting a control freak like King George who restricted and taxed the freedoms of its people, and that WWI, WWII, and Korea were about freaks that restricted freedoms, then I would suggest you look back at a FARKING HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE about why you feel so inclined to give away your freedoms for a little security AT ALL UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.
There is strong historical evidence to prove that dictators and kings cause wars. There is also even stronger historical evidence to prove that innocent boys get drafted into wars to die on both sides for some reason that is more about a dictator's greed and schlong size than his merits as a leader. The equation goes a little like this: Weirdo gets in power. Weirdo takes all the power. Weirdo takes your son and decides to put a rifle in his hand. Son dies. Weirdo gets to leave country and sit on beach in some other weirdo's country for rest of life. Son never comes back from dead.
Lose your freedoms? Then you should have "property of" stamped on your forehead. Your goverment and leaders eventuality is to ship you off. This CONCLUSION is as inevitable as the fucking sun coming up tomorrow. It is backed up in historical fact for generations. You will have someone you know get killed for mom and apple pie for NO APPARENT REASON if you let these people take all of your freedoms away. You will be sitting in the back of a cargo truck in a military base thinking to yourself, "hell, I don't even know where this place is on a map. What the hell are we doing here?"
But no, you morons, you "I would die to protect my country" morons don't realize that there is no purpose in dying for your country. You trade in your life, YOUR ONLY LIFE, for a pre-emptive war against some unreasonable twits, and our unreasonable twit leaders think its great. Do American servicemen get oil money for this? HELL NO! They get a second class trip home in a box with a extra medal and a plot at a national cemetary. I guarantee that the Bush and Cheney family is going to make a handsome living out of all of this. Really, they should go to federal prison for duping the American people and lying in a manner that caused Americans to die.
Saddam is not Hitler. Saddam is not even Kim Il Jong. This is a personal war. Our boys are caught in the middle of it, along with Iraqis and the racist a-holes that are attacking it.
It's a flag, people. Fabric and ideas. Just jumping up and saying "freedom!" doesn't excuse the deaths of others on either side. That is the same crap that got the Romans to truncate the skulls of countless other people, for what? A lifestyle? This king and country crap is as old as dirt. It has been around for generations.
Doing what you're told doesn't make you free. Giving up your rights for security is not an acceptable answer. It is only a matter of time before anything that can be abused, will. Need the proof of that? Go to a public toilet. Give the car keys of your brand new sports car to your teenage child. People have been like this for millenia. All of that rhetoric, all of that "he died for freedom" crap. EXPLAIN TO ME IN TINY DETAIL HOW GETTING SHOT IN BAGHDAD, OR SOMALIA, OR AFGHANISTAN, OR WHEREVER IS DEFENDING FREEDOM. This is a time where we send men off to die for a cause our leaders KNEW WAS BOGUS, AND IMPLIED THE BOGUS FACTS TO PLY THEIR CONSTITUENTS, and then restrict
On a more serious note, what about tactical bombing - you blow up bridges to deny the enemy choice within the battlezone. You attack dams to deny the enemy water, etc.
You attack and destroy a dam and most likely you are going to cause a natural disaster short of a nuclear explosion.
Thousands would drown in the subsequent water rush. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps. Attacking a dam and releasing that kind of kinetic energy on an innocent civilian populace is the VERY FREAKING DEFINITION OF A WAR CRIME.
Think about it.
By the way, Al-Qaeda could ram a plane into the side of most dams, and all the dam would do is smile at them. Holding back the water is the larger issue than the plane. It would take more than the biggest U-haul truck to blow a dam.
Either way, if you're going to blow a dam, then I would suggest you use nukes. It'll do less damage.
I particularly love the parts where the US Patenet office is granting patents to companies and giving them powers that the federal government doesn't even have. Levying charges on internet transactions? INSANE!
"I, uh, patented, uh, communication on the internet. You see, if you're communicating in ANY WAY WHATSOEVER, you owe me a rather large chunk of your profits. My lawyers will be over shortly to inspect your ledgers. Also, you will have to initiate a new tracking system where all information will be flagged to me. Says right here that I own the IDEA OF INFORMATION OVER A INTERNATIONAL NETWORK. Nobody else patented it!"
When you grant a patent for all forms of monetary transfer via internet, you are really setting yourself up for a future where corporations THAT YOU CANNOT VOTE ON have more power than the government over you, with more cash, and more influence, and with a total disregard for their constituency.
I think it rather funny that Orwell spoke of a future where the populace was controlled by the government, and in reality, it is starting to look like it is all being handed off to corporations, who can control you without regulaion, and certainly not have taxes taken off of their profits.
All the federal government wants to do now is charge Greenpeace with piracy and protect oil interests.
This is about the whole keep it in the States vs. Maylasia thing.
I know nothing about this industry so I'll just let someone take this:
Is there really that much of a economy of scale for moving a chip plant to Maylasia? I see that industry of creating and manufacturing processors and other computer whatnots to be EXTREMELY quality oriented work where the clock, quality, and price are an paramount. It looks like a tightrope act.
So my question becomes this: with all of that quality and issue at stake, does moving to Maylasia really make that much difference? It would seem to me that the capital investment is maximum and labor is not the largest factor (once again, I don't know). If you are looking for educated workers, I wouldn't think that Maylasia would be as good as America... but I may be wrong.
I just don't get all of this corporate moving. If you make shower flip-flops, I could see it. But if you make anything with a real standard that can't be found in a Wal-Mart, I just don't get it.
Either way, someone please explain.
Thank you AMD. By the way, I will continue buying AMD because I like it.
(Reuters)- Miss Digital World deletes herself after nude photo appears to press.
Internet Police today say they found the hard drive space where Aki Ross's Body has been found. Ross, crowned Miss Digital World, disappeared after winning the title, when the controversial website www.akirossnude.com opened up days after her crowning. Police say that members of Ross's development team could not find her anywhere. Police started the investigation moments after members of SquareSoft said she was missing, and was no longer found in the backups.
Police and authorities found Ross several days later in an abandoned and dilapidated part of an ancient server farm, the victim of an apparent self-inflicted deletion. CSI was dispatched to the server, but said there was little to investigate, as much of her was already overwritten. The lone artifact of her deletion was a READ ME file she left, explaining the pain of her nude renders had caused her, and that she never imagined that something so innocent in the early parts of her film career would come back against her later.
Aki Ross was four years old. Her film credits include Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and nothing else. The other cast members of Final Fantasy could not be reached for comment.
We nerds are the destruction of all society!
Rejoice in your power! It's all just numbers, but they don't know that! It is the downfall of Rome! Watch it burn! Please. Spare me the dramatics from the Senators and the people that pay them to make things happen like Jack Valenti.
Honestly, I have never seen such a society fearful of the neighborhood geek (the onese that make fun of you most are grateful to have around when their computer goes belly up during fantasy football trade time).
We are the nerds, but I have never thought that the ones that would get pushed off the monkey bars in gradeschool, or stuffed in lockers would be practically branded as Al-Qaida. Honestly, this is all too interesting to not laugh at. Amazing. If Ben Franklin was born today he would have been burning away on his keyboard right now, doing something that would, "contribute to criminal activity."
The rest of society is strangely gripped with fear so much of us losers in their basements that they are passing law after law trying to control the very ideas and thoughts of people, and make that this country is founded on a criminal offense. It is a great time to be a geek. Lots of power, lots of responsibility. Many say this is all bad. I think they have no idea what they are talking about. We are just the first Phoenix rising from the ashes to make a new, society that will be coming from the old. This is not a new process. This happens in every civilization about every hundred years. I for one am happy to be here to see it.
Something good will definitely come out of this. Certainly, I see that a lot of bad corporate practices, bad politicians, and bad people will get in a whole lot of hot water over the ideas that these bills and laws bring about.
And no, they cannot take away all of the freedoms of the world, because if they do, payback will be a real bitch. Being a leader is walking a tightrope, if you screw up, you'll get adjusted even faster than you thought you would. Look at Bush. The man is practically scrambling. SCRAMBLING. This geeks are evil thing will be adjusted soon enough when they realize that society has always had people like us around, and they have always been heretics... at least to the status quo Pat Robertson's and power broker Bill Gates's of their time.
NEVER, EVER, EVER underestimate the masses. This will work itself out. Trust me. You are not a slave, and no, they cannot shoot you and make this all go away like they used to. This is just a transitory time. As usual, it pays in the end to be a free thinker and use your brain. So don't freak so much. Things are going to be better soon enough.
It seems to me that all of the new Windows with connectivity is really waiting for something more malicious than your average virus or trojan to come along and really screw with you.
This new office set up just smells like another moment of doom. Although office products and software have been the usual "start up pick file work and close file" category, it just smells funny to me.
I think it has more to do with the passengers...
on
Farewell To The Concorde
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
When the Concorde killed all of those people, you have to ask yourself who can afford a six thousand dollar ticket?
Rich... very, very rich people. Their families can hire very, very, very expensive lawyers to make a corporation pay very, very, dearly for their mistake. Think of the lawyers for the families that they can afford. Add that to the cost of running a supersonic, high-end aviation service. It just isn't possible anymore.
Yeah, if one of the regular world dies in a plane crash, we can probably get a class action settlement for burial expenses and some change from the airline. You can bet your sweet tail that when a group of people that wealthy die in a plane crash, that there will be an entire nation of lawyers after your corporation. The Concorde was getting expensive. I guarantee after all of the rich people died it got outrageously expensive to operate.
This time, please do something really useful, not only doing such silly thing as DOS'ing windowsupdate
You can for instance, delete necessary files for Internet connection... in this case Microsoft will be in a *real* shit if nobody can connect the internet to download patches! They'll maybe have to send MILLIONS of CD by mail!
Therefore, people will be *really* annoyed and may think it's time to switch to another more reliable OS.
You know what? You're evil. You probably don't consider yourself evil, just like the people that support Al-Qaeda consider themselves evil, but let there be no doubt about it. You're evil. Most who are evil really couldn't ever consider their actions evil. You are advocating a concerted attack on others. You are supporting the destruction of others property and disruption of their lives for your social agenda... for your personal opinion of how the world should be, without asking them what should be done. That is, by definition, selfish and evil.
You are advocating force and disruption as change, and it isn't even a good change. Most common users CAN'T USE LINUX. They simply cannot handle it all yet, they don't have years of computer experience necessary to run it.
Your analogies that destruction is a motive for positive social change are tantamount to putting a gun next to a person's head and telling them something like "How about my form of government? How about my style of computing?" That kind of FORCED activity is the kind of thing that China and other nations that squash people's human rights excel at. Cmon. Realize that you are advocating the destruction of property here on a global scale. The Chinese come into their homes disrupting their lives, dictating the terms of their behavior, and leashing their options. You're basically telling them what they need to do by hurting people. That makes you evil.
You are saying that forcing people to lose their work and data is a good thing for them. You are saying that rendering their computers useless is a good thing for them. You personally like the idea that others will suffer for your personal agenda. Well, I don't.
ANALOGY:
This is like saying that you don't like the current way that stoplights are working, so you sabotage them nationwide. All the people that might die? SO WHAT, HUNH?
You need serious help. Locking you up would be my opinion of "serious help." It's self-righteous a-holes like you that keep tearing down what we all need to build to be a civilization.
Yeah, you want the computer revolution, but you want it your way, and advocate force to do it......don't count many of us in on that future.
The entire health care industry was 7.5 million. That means every hospital, health care supplier, doctor, nurse, nursing home, and other member of the entire industry.
By their numbers, there are more than double the number of telemarketers than there are in all aspects of the legal profession in the United States.
I would now strongly suggest that they are lying to you.
Messing with a Federal Judge is going to get you in some serious trouble. DON'T DO IT!
He was most likely applying the law as it pertained right now. He is tied. Circuit to Federal level judges don't bend the law. So don't think that he is doing this because he is getting paid. Trust me. If he is a high judge he is getting paid well.
He is upholding and making decisions about the law.
He cannot change the law. That is the job of congress, who let all of these telcos do all of these shady phone practices for years before your phone became a useless, crappy, devalued freakin' ring box that calls more from marketers than anything else. I know before I PAID to have telemarketer block on my phone, I would get about EIGHT CALLS A DAY. Blame the regulators, not the judge.
EITHER WAY, IT IS NOT THE JUDGE'S PROBLEM THAT THE LAW IS FAULTY. AND MY FRIENDS, THE LAW IS FAULTY.
See? This is why we have laws in the US that protect you specifically even if you don't agree witht the masses. YOUR RIGHTS ARE PARAMOUNT. You cannot bitch when the Telemarketers are doing the same right now. WE JUST GOTTA CHANGE THEM NOW.
I personally can't wait till the telemarketers go down in flames, but don't hang a judge that is following the letter of a law that needs to be modernized.
Taxing information restricts information by adding a cost to your information and ideas. That is in effect charging for ideas to everyone not just companies that have consultants. America was founded on the ability of not being charged to death or hounded for expressing your ideas. That culture is what made us invent things that no one else did, like say, planes, manufacturing lines, the telephone, the television, a man on the moon, and the freaking internet.
Besides, bandwidth and information is a two way avenue, that now borders on macrogroups, which we are in right now. Who's responsibility is it to pay?
The next time a worm writer decides to flood the internet with a 45% increase in overall volume and YOU GET TAXED FOR IT, then you'll change your tune.
Should I pay for all of the spam I get? Even with SpamAssasin that is bandwidth that has to get to me before I kill it. So I should be taxed for an A-hole like Alan Ralsky who freeloads off of the system and jams my inbox?
I think you and the politicians of the world should tax REAL THINGS. Just a humble suggestion.
Slashdot Mirror
I mean, besides that whole concept of "liberty" and stuff... oh, and they:
*aided us with ships and arms in our most important time in removing King George from the colonies
*provided money for the expansion of our navy to defend our trade to the Barbary Coast
*became our number one trade partner when no king's nation was buying American goods
*admired and respected us that they acted in same manner to start a revolution for their people
*loved us so much that they gave us the Statue of Liberty, and we loved them so much all of our fashions and opinions came from France
*is our oldest national friend, and the first place that really recognized our sovereignity
opened our cultural gates to Europe when we needed help
*has been our staunch ally on the security council, believed with us that the spread of communism in Vietnam was so important that they got involved first, almost religiously backed our initiatives until we freaked out and launched a war unprovoked
*generally put up with our crap, and we them, for generations, out of FRIENDSHIP
*And most importantly, they would LISTEN TO US AND WE THEM WHEN WE DISAGREED
Besides that, what has France ever done for us. And by saying "done for us" I mean the LAST TWENTY MINUTES. After all, America is not good on remembering the truth about France and America, who were, at one time, the only two democracies backed into a corner in the world, struggling for the freedoms of their citizens.
NEVER FORGET THAT.
Take that you anti-France bastards. We're old friends, it is about time you honored the contract, and listened to your friends, you petulant children.
By the way, we had larger influences in Iraq than you think. Read a little.
What does the academy have against the Matrix, anyway?
Probably that it sucked so bad that even the public noticed.
Remember? They added animation into the categories, didn't they?
Why does there always have to be this "1% of the population liked it so bring it back" mentality!?
Why are they desperate?
Television is dying. The evidence is all around you. I know there are more channels than before, but before the internet, and DVDs becoming cheaper by the day, and the Tivo blasting out all of the commercials, television was sitting pretty. It had your attention. Lets do an example:
Q: Who sponsored the Little Orphan Annie radio show in the Golden Age of Radio? A: Ovaltine.
Everyone knows this. Why is this fact special? THIS WAS BEFORE I WAS BORN. I even know about ads before I was born. I was forty years too late, and I never even heard it with my own ears. That is the power of singular attention. The whole nation had its attention. The whole nation heard "Ovaltine," and "Little Orphan Annie." You can practically not seperate the two. That, my friends, is the influencing power that television longs to have again.
I work in TV. If you ever get to see the kind of syndication magazines that show all of the new direct to syndication shows that are just scrambling to get on to WGN-TV at 3am just to dodge syndex rules, you would understand that all of this CHOICE is making people NOT CHOOSE TV.
You can bring anything around no matter how small as long as it has a guaranteed audience with a guaranteed demographic saying "we will watch it every night it is on and sit through the commercials waiting" attitude.
The proof? Infomercials. Who cares? The 200 people that bought it do. The company that sold 200 is excited as hell.
I know that the reason that people thought that they could bring back Farscape (and they did) was how they knew that Sci-fi had FANS. Pissing off those fans is BAD. It's especially bad when you are thinking that most people who watch a lot of TV also have 50 channels to chose from, and those Farscape fans are suddenly stuck on the custom Harley Davidson show on Discovery.
Trust me, television networks want ad revenue. Eyes are only a part of that equation. What if you could deliver three thousand people nationwide that would buy your plasma TV guaranteed every time you ran the ad? RUN IT! Who cares if only four thousand people are watching! RUN IT! It works!
TV. In a nutshell.
The NZ inventor / pilot didn't get the word out, there weren't a whole lot of witnesses, and the plane doesn't exist anymore.
Where I come from, we call that bullshit.
I hear a lot of speculation that the Wrights were not the first powered flight. Well then, where is the proof? Really. Where is it? The Wrights have PLENTY OF PROOF. All of these talks and speculation were created to debunk the fact that two guys in a bicycle shop did something that the US Gov't and 50 thousand US dollars (50k! in 1903!), as well as other governments were trying to do top secret couldn't do. Then all of these crackpots say that there was a goof, that they flew the skies. RIIIGHT.
It all comes down to proof. The proof is there. The Wrights had machines that they made themselves that created tables to show wing lift and speed. They attempted it with German tables, but they were wholly inaccurate. So as good little scientists, they did it themselves. The propellar design (another wing, designed with heavy math) was created by the Wrights, as well as the control scheme. All of these tools they used still work today. They still exsist today. These guys took notes, the rest of the world didn't think that was as necessary as making something that looked like a bird.
A lot of people talk about proof. Well, let me say this. The Wrights were some of the best amateur scientists ever. Period. They took a little bicycle shop and some tools and then THEY DID THE MATH while the rest of the world was still thinking, "how should this thing be shaped?"
The proof is still there people. Where are all of these other crackpot fliers? Are they around? Do they work? Did anyone ever do anything but print about them.
My grandfather told me about his father who went to see the Wrights as a boy when they toured (yes, toured) the country. They offered anyone $100 to fly with them. No one came forward. They thought they were nuts. What they saw defied reason at the time.
Someone said this:
One wonders what poeple 5000 years from now will say about our time. They might remember the Chinese (or New Zealanders perhaps) as the real fathers of space travel -- and make a brief footnote for the academics about a certain event in 1969.
Well, there is always going to be a flag up there, and the bottom half of a lunar lander. The last time I checked, that is all the proof you need. I bet it has US Gov't stamped all over it. Probably a couple of dates written on it too.
Guys, this is all about proof and speculation.
We live in a world of FACTS. Slashdotters should be the more understanding bunch about this subject. The facts, and diligence towards those facts, is what seperates your civilization from space travel and worshipping 'dark wolf the moon God' every time there is an eclipse.
The US's record in Latin America is laughable, such as the 1973 CIA-backed coup in Chile [cnn.com] that overthrew the democratically elected President President Salvador Allende in favour of a facist dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, who then proceeded to tortured and murdered tens of thousands. If that's the kind of example you want to bring up of how the US helps bring self-determination to the world then perhaps you want to think twice.
Perhaps you need to read a history book, and not forget to mention that Allende was a SOCIALIST.
Look, I don't mean to bust out the history book here, but if you know anything about the history of Chile you have to understand that the US backed that butcher Pinochet because the US couldn't stomach backing a socialist double-butcher like Allende. No matter how you slice it, at the time that the US was fighting communist pop-ups the world over, they had just taken a good, hard look at what socialist leaders like Joseph Stalin could do, and well, let's say that the prospect of those guys popping up all over the world was not a happy thought.
I think that is hilarious that you think that you can ignore the fact that it was in the time where people like Che Guevarra were running around in South America starting insurgencies, and that you can just ignore the ENTIRE HISTORY of the region at a time when the US was knee deep in its 'not im my back yard' anti-Communist agenda.
Yeah, the US did horrible things back then. The sixties were a turbulent time in the Cold War. Everyone knows that. You make scant mention of it... like Communism in South America didn't exsist, and that all of the terrible, terrible things that we did in South America somehow didn't bring about Democracy for an ENTIRE CONTINENT AND ETHNIC GROUP.
Look, Latin America has always been a wonderful friend, there was no way that we were going to let it turn into the absolute freaking paradise that Cuba has become, where one man rules FOREVER. And whether you like to admit it or not, Communism is no one's friend. You can't gloss over Allende without mentioning him being a socialist, and then not mention what SOCIALISTS DO, which is some pretty un-socialist things, like killing their "comrades" and "peers."
It was a bad choice between two terrible butchers. But sure as you and I are standing here, that choice was the best of two terrible choices that had to be made. Otherwise you probably would have all of Latin America and South America under the rule of communists, would you have been a lot happier with that?
Please, are there any farkers from down there with some insight please?
kippy-
The shuttles are old. They are general purpose vehicles that have been overworked, and should have been replaced.
-later-
What has the shuttle program gotten us but dead astronauts, a few satilites and vital data on ants sorting tiny scrwes in space?
You've got to be kidding.
Honestly, you need to read about the space shuttle before you start bouncing such tripe out on us. We're talking manned spaceflight here, something that actually looks more like spaceflight than just putting some payload on the back of an Estes model rocket you shot off in your back yard. I am terribly sorry that science hasn't caught up with your dreaming yet, but NASA is full of zealots that are doing their best to get our society into the space age as much as possible, with minimal funding. If you are complaining, may I suggest you get yourself a wind tunnel, several degrees in mathematics, a degree in astrophysics, fifty years of experience, and BUILD YOUR OWN FREAKING ROCKETS.
It's twits like you that complain about modernization while the geniuses plod along trying to make a difference. Please don't let your stupid expectations ever effect their intense work in REALITY.
By the way, GM called. They said that they are sorry about the delay, and your hovercar just got in out of backorder.
How about designing a display mounted on the motorcycle instead? We're familiar and comfortable with gauges already. This would reduce distraction, and increase safety.
And that said super-duper motorcycle would be out on the street about
You can take your helmet in with you to dinner, or when shopping.
Then just pop the jammer enough to remove the signal the moment that someone decides to get obnoxious. Case closed.
If someone gets a cell phone call in a theatre and runs out, that is respectable, although the vast majority of cells should be ON VIBRATE ALL THE TIME, and not playing some damn song that makes you think "is that Limp Bizkit? I think that's Limp Bizkit. What was I thinking about again?"
Zap them when they are offensive, not on the possibility of offending. That is extreme.
Also, the last time I checked, people on some of these new phones can message send. They should have an option that says message only, if you want to leave a phone number or message, which I bet many do.
Look, don't ruin someone's life by running the thing all the time, just jam their stupid conversation when they ruin your movie or dinner.
And since you freaks scream "1984!!! BIG BROTHER!!!" every time the government scratches its ass, much less when they actually do anything, you're right, we're not going to have the capability to stop one single person in an undisclosed location from doing something that requires no overt or hostile action aside from the explosion itself.
You people don't even know what you want. First you scream freedom, then you scream security. Can't have both at top capacity. At a certain point they become mutually exclusive.
Well, considering that this country was founded on fighting a control freak like King George who restricted and taxed the freedoms of its people, and that WWI, WWII, and Korea were about freaks that restricted freedoms, then I would suggest you look back at a FARKING HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE about why you feel so inclined to give away your freedoms for a little security AT ALL UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.
There is strong historical evidence to prove that dictators and kings cause wars. There is also even stronger historical evidence to prove that innocent boys get drafted into wars to die on both sides for some reason that is more about a dictator's greed and schlong size than his merits as a leader. The equation goes a little like this: Weirdo gets in power. Weirdo takes all the power. Weirdo takes your son and decides to put a rifle in his hand. Son dies. Weirdo gets to leave country and sit on beach in some other weirdo's country for rest of life. Son never comes back from dead.
Lose your freedoms? Then you should have "property of" stamped on your forehead. Your goverment and leaders eventuality is to ship you off. This CONCLUSION is as inevitable as the fucking sun coming up tomorrow. It is backed up in historical fact for generations. You will have someone you know get killed for mom and apple pie for NO APPARENT REASON if you let these people take all of your freedoms away. You will be sitting in the back of a cargo truck in a military base thinking to yourself, "hell, I don't even know where this place is on a map. What the hell are we doing here?"
But no, you morons, you "I would die to protect my country" morons don't realize that there is no purpose in dying for your country. You trade in your life, YOUR ONLY LIFE, for a pre-emptive war against some unreasonable twits, and our unreasonable twit leaders think its great. Do American servicemen get oil money for this? HELL NO! They get a second class trip home in a box with a extra medal and a plot at a national cemetary. I guarantee that the Bush and Cheney family is going to make a handsome living out of all of this. Really, they should go to federal prison for duping the American people and lying in a manner that caused Americans to die.
Saddam is not Hitler. Saddam is not even Kim Il Jong. This is a personal war. Our boys are caught in the middle of it, along with Iraqis and the racist a-holes that are attacking it.
It's a flag, people. Fabric and ideas. Just jumping up and saying "freedom!" doesn't excuse the deaths of others on either side. That is the same crap that got the Romans to truncate the skulls of countless other people, for what? A lifestyle? This king and country crap is as old as dirt. It has been around for generations.
Doing what you're told doesn't make you free. Giving up your rights for security is not an acceptable answer. It is only a matter of time before anything that can be abused, will. Need the proof of that? Go to a public toilet. Give the car keys of your brand new sports car to your teenage child. People have been like this for millenia. All of that rhetoric, all of that "he died for freedom" crap. EXPLAIN TO ME IN TINY DETAIL HOW GETTING SHOT IN BAGHDAD, OR SOMALIA, OR AFGHANISTAN, OR WHEREVER IS DEFENDING FREEDOM. This is a time where we send men off to die for a cause our leaders KNEW WAS BOGUS, AND IMPLIED THE BOGUS FACTS TO PLY THEIR CONSTITUENTS, and then restrict
On a more serious note, what about tactical bombing - you blow up bridges to deny the enemy choice within the battlezone. You attack dams to deny the enemy water, etc.
You attack and destroy a dam and most likely you are going to cause a natural disaster short of a nuclear explosion.
Thousands would drown in the subsequent water rush. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps. Attacking a dam and releasing that kind of kinetic energy on an innocent civilian populace is the VERY FREAKING DEFINITION OF A WAR CRIME.
Think about it.
By the way, Al-Qaeda could ram a plane into the side of most dams, and all the dam would do is smile at them. Holding back the water is the larger issue than the plane. It would take more than the biggest U-haul truck to blow a dam.
Either way, if you're going to blow a dam, then I would suggest you use nukes. It'll do less damage.
I particularly love the parts where the US Patenet office is granting patents to companies and giving them powers that the federal government doesn't even have. Levying charges on internet transactions? INSANE!
"I, uh, patented, uh, communication on the internet. You see, if you're communicating in ANY WAY WHATSOEVER, you owe me a rather large chunk of your profits. My lawyers will be over shortly to inspect your ledgers. Also, you will have to initiate a new tracking system where all information will be flagged to me. Says right here that I own the IDEA OF INFORMATION OVER A INTERNATIONAL NETWORK. Nobody else patented it!"
When you grant a patent for all forms of monetary transfer via internet, you are really setting yourself up for a future where corporations THAT YOU CANNOT VOTE ON have more power than the government over you, with more cash, and more influence, and with a total disregard for their constituency.
I think it rather funny that Orwell spoke of a future where the populace was controlled by the government, and in reality, it is starting to look like it is all being handed off to corporations, who can control you without regulaion, and certainly not have taxes taken off of their profits.
All the federal government wants to do now is charge Greenpeace with piracy and protect oil interests.
You know what? When I was a child we were free.
Things better change soon.
This is about the whole keep it in the States vs. Maylasia thing.
I know nothing about this industry so I'll just let someone take this:
Is there really that much of a economy of scale for moving a chip plant to Maylasia? I see that industry of creating and manufacturing processors and other computer whatnots to be EXTREMELY quality oriented work where the clock, quality, and price are an paramount. It looks like a tightrope act.
So my question becomes this: with all of that quality and issue at stake, does moving to Maylasia really make that much difference? It would seem to me that the capital investment is maximum and labor is not the largest factor (once again, I don't know). If you are looking for educated workers, I wouldn't think that Maylasia would be as good as America... but I may be wrong.
I just don't get all of this corporate moving. If you make shower flip-flops, I could see it. But if you make anything with a real standard that can't be found in a Wal-Mart, I just don't get it.
Either way, someone please explain.
Thank you AMD. By the way, I will continue buying AMD because I like it.
>>>>>>
DAYLOG (2/2/04 Early)
Feb. 2nd, 2004-
(Reuters)- Miss Digital World deletes herself after nude photo appears to press.
Internet Police today say they found the hard drive space where Aki Ross's Body has been found. Ross, crowned Miss Digital World, disappeared after winning the title, when the controversial website www.akirossnude.com opened up days after her crowning. Police say that members of Ross's development team could not find her anywhere. Police started the investigation moments after members of SquareSoft said she was missing, and was no longer found in the backups.
Police and authorities found Ross several days later in an abandoned and dilapidated part of an ancient server farm, the victim of an apparent self-inflicted deletion. CSI was dispatched to the server, but said there was little to investigate, as much of her was already overwritten. The lone artifact of her deletion was a READ ME file she left, explaining the pain of her nude renders had caused her, and that she never imagined that something so innocent in the early parts of her film career would come back against her later.
Aki Ross was four years old. Her film credits include Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and nothing else. The other cast members of Final Fantasy could not be reached for comment.
>>
We nerds are the destruction of all society!
Rejoice in your power! It's all just numbers, but they don't know that! It is the downfall of Rome! Watch it burn! Please. Spare me the dramatics from the Senators and the people that pay them to make things happen like Jack Valenti.
Honestly, I have never seen such a society fearful of the neighborhood geek (the onese that make fun of you most are grateful to have around when their computer goes belly up during fantasy football trade time).
We are the nerds, but I have never thought that the ones that would get pushed off the monkey bars in gradeschool, or stuffed in lockers would be practically branded as Al-Qaida. Honestly, this is all too interesting to not laugh at. Amazing. If Ben Franklin was born today he would have been burning away on his keyboard right now, doing something that would, "contribute to criminal activity."
The rest of society is strangely gripped with fear so much of us losers in their basements that they are passing law after law trying to control the very ideas and thoughts of people, and make that this country is founded on a criminal offense. It is a great time to be a geek. Lots of power, lots of responsibility. Many say this is all bad. I think they have no idea what they are talking about. We are just the first Phoenix rising from the ashes to make a new, society that will be coming from the old. This is not a new process. This happens in every civilization about every hundred years. I for one am happy to be here to see it.
Something good will definitely come out of this. Certainly, I see that a lot of bad corporate practices, bad politicians, and bad people will get in a whole lot of hot water over the ideas that these bills and laws bring about.
And no, they cannot take away all of the freedoms of the world, because if they do, payback will be a real bitch. Being a leader is walking a tightrope, if you screw up, you'll get adjusted even faster than you thought you would. Look at Bush. The man is practically scrambling. SCRAMBLING. This geeks are evil thing will be adjusted soon enough when they realize that society has always had people like us around, and they have always been heretics... at least to the status quo Pat Robertson's and power broker Bill Gates's of their time.
NEVER, EVER, EVER underestimate the masses. This will work itself out. Trust me. You are not a slave, and no, they cannot shoot you and make this all go away like they used to. This is just a transitory time. As usual, it pays in the end to be a free thinker and use your brain. So don't freak so much. Things are going to be better soon enough.
It seems to me that all of the new Windows with connectivity is really waiting for something more malicious than your average virus or trojan to come along and really screw with you.
This new office set up just smells like another moment of doom. Although office products and software have been the usual "start up pick file work and close file" category, it just smells funny to me.
It is absolutely precious.
She looks like a female Scrooge.
When the Concorde killed all of those people, you have to ask yourself who can afford a six thousand dollar ticket?
Rich... very, very rich people. Their families can hire very, very, very expensive lawyers to make a corporation pay very, very, dearly for their mistake. Think of the lawyers for the families that they can afford. Add that to the cost of running a supersonic, high-end aviation service. It just isn't possible anymore.
Yeah, if one of the regular world dies in a plane crash, we can probably get a class action settlement for burial expenses and some change from the airline. You can bet your sweet tail that when a group of people that wealthy die in a plane crash, that there will be an entire nation of lawyers after your corporation. The Concorde was getting expensive. I guarantee after all of the rich people died it got outrageously expensive to operate.
This time, please do something really useful, not only doing such silly thing as DOS'ing windowsupdate
You can for instance, delete necessary files for Internet connection... in this case Microsoft will be in a *real* shit if nobody can connect the internet to download patches!
They'll maybe have to send MILLIONS of CD by mail!
Therefore, people will be *really* annoyed and may think it's time to switch to another more reliable OS.
You know what? You're evil. You probably don't consider yourself evil, just like the people that support Al-Qaeda consider themselves evil, but let there be no doubt about it. You're evil. Most who are evil really couldn't ever consider their actions evil. You are advocating a concerted attack on others. You are supporting the destruction of others property and disruption of their lives for your social agenda... for your personal opinion of how the world should be, without asking them what should be done. That is, by definition, selfish and evil.
You are advocating force and disruption as change, and it isn't even a good change. Most common users CAN'T USE LINUX. They simply cannot handle it all yet, they don't have years of computer experience necessary to run it.
Your analogies that destruction is a motive for positive social change are tantamount to putting a gun next to a person's head and telling them something like "How about my form of government? How about my style of computing?" That kind of FORCED activity is the kind of thing that China and other nations that squash people's human rights excel at. Cmon. Realize that you are advocating the destruction of property here on a global scale. The Chinese come into their homes disrupting their lives, dictating the terms of their behavior, and leashing their options. You're basically telling them what they need to do by hurting people. That makes you evil.
You are saying that forcing people to lose their work and data is a good thing for them. You are saying that rendering their computers useless is a good thing for them. You personally like the idea that others will suffer for your personal agenda. Well, I don't.
ANALOGY:
This is like saying that you don't like the current way that stoplights are working, so you sabotage them nationwide. All the people that might die? SO WHAT, HUNH?
You need serious help. Locking you up would be my opinion of "serious help." It's self-righteous a-holes like you that keep tearing down what we all need to build to be a civilization.
Yeah, you want the computer revolution, but you want it your way, and advocate force to do it...
I just checked the US Labor statistics.
As of 2000 129 million were employed.
The entire health care industry was 7.5 million. That means every hospital, health care supplier, doctor, nurse, nursing home, and other member of the entire industry.
By their numbers, there are more than double the number of telemarketers than there are in all aspects of the legal profession in the United States.
I would now strongly suggest that they are lying to you.
100 telemarketing companies (and their 2 paltry million employees)
Please. The US population is near 291 million.
Don't tell me that these one hundred companies employ more people than Wal-Mart. That is bull.
More than one out of 150 Americans are telemarketers? I don't think so.
One hundred companies divided by two million. Why, that's only TWENTY THOUSAND EMPLOYEES PER COMPANY.
LIARS! LIARS! LIARS!
Never ever trust information from a known enemy.
Messing with a Federal Judge is going to get you in some serious trouble. DON'T DO IT!
He was most likely applying the law as it pertained right now. He is tied. Circuit to Federal level judges don't bend the law. So don't think that he is doing this because he is getting paid. Trust me. If he is a high judge he is getting paid well.
He is upholding and making decisions about the law.
He cannot change the law. That is the job of congress, who let all of these telcos do all of these shady phone practices for years before your phone became a useless, crappy, devalued freakin' ring box that calls more from marketers than anything else. I know before I PAID to have telemarketer block on my phone, I would get about EIGHT CALLS A DAY. Blame the regulators, not the judge.
EITHER WAY, IT IS NOT THE JUDGE'S PROBLEM THAT THE LAW IS FAULTY. AND MY FRIENDS, THE LAW IS FAULTY.
See? This is why we have laws in the US that protect you specifically even if you don't agree witht the masses. YOUR RIGHTS ARE PARAMOUNT. You cannot bitch when the Telemarketers are doing the same right now. WE JUST GOTTA CHANGE THEM NOW.
I personally can't wait till the telemarketers go down in flames, but don't hang a judge that is following the letter of a law that needs to be modernized.
Taxing information restricts information by adding a cost to your information and ideas. That is in effect charging for ideas to everyone not just companies that have consultants. America was founded on the ability of not being charged to death or hounded for expressing your ideas. That culture is what made us invent things that no one else did, like say, planes, manufacturing lines, the telephone, the television, a man on the moon, and the freaking internet.
Besides, bandwidth and information is a two way avenue, that now borders on macrogroups, which we are in right now. Who's responsibility is it to pay?
The next time a worm writer decides to flood the internet with a 45% increase in overall volume and YOU GET TAXED FOR IT, then you'll change your tune.
Should I pay for all of the spam I get? Even with SpamAssasin that is bandwidth that has to get to me before I kill it. So I should be taxed for an A-hole like Alan Ralsky who freeloads off of the system and jams my inbox?
I think you and the politicians of the world should tax REAL THINGS. Just a humble suggestion.
Can you remember the last time that Congress actually prohibited a form of taxation?
Well, Congress no. America, yes.
Yeah, some time around 1773 in Boston harbor... the last time I checked. They also did a decent job all the way up to 1787 as well.
Oh, and the 1860's were bad for individual state taxation. But we fixed that too.