This is just too beautiful, you're like two warships warily circling one another in the dark, unable to pinpoint each other's location.
This is one of the greatest metaphors i ever read/heard! Continue reading...
Unfortunately our poster has you at a disadvantage; perhaps this may be of assistance. I'd like to say "Ironically, it was Monty Python all along," but I'm not sure that's a good example of irony but if it actually was then I'm even less sure I'd get away with it.:-)
The irony is that some fellow Slashdoters complain all the time because i keep mention that i am Greek... all the time!
It is not the first time that i had a communication problem with "barbarians", not because of language (even if i am a Greek with terrible English) but because of "missing the joke". I served as a conscript in the Greek special forces (that's why i posted that video with the Greek marines), and i had some training with USA/UK S.F. guys for NATO reasons. One of the most "failed communications" (that almost cost us our life) was while i was inside a boat at night trying to pinpoint a "friendly" boat (with USA/UK guys) somewhere in Italy, but using "informal natural language" (instead of the NATO formal codified) that started with jokes (that the other guys missed, while i was missing theirs) and ended in a situation where we could not even understand when we were making jokes and when we were serious... and believe me, at the end we were really serious!
I will take my revenge from you barbarians: in some other post i will make a reference to Aristophane...
By the way, and because of your metaphor: military seaman or something like that?
a) What makes you think that "we are begging for your money"? This whole issue is for giving us money so we can give it back to you (we have a budget surplus for our internal needs, we use the loans only to pay back the older loans), and by that no bankruptcy is declared (which would mean some disturbance for ALL).
b) What makes you think that buying some (much needed for our special defence needs) fleet of hovercrafts is a bad idea? Keeping ourselves capable to defend against Muslims is the best idea in the world... you (i guess you are from an EU civilized nation, since you wrote "your money") should do the same!
c) What makes you think that having Greeks protecting Europe from Muslims does not worth paying for? Only a moron can not understand this...
There is a major difference between targeted spying and shameless mass indiscriminate surveillance of humanity that the five eyes.. US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and even Canada (I'm Canadian)... have been up to the last few years. Orwell's villains could only dream of the the spying capabilities extremists in our own governments are unethically engaged in.
Let me inform you about "humanity" (in which i belong as a Greek) mister Canadian: we ("humanity") spy on you ("the five eyes.. US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and even Canada").
I realy respect the fact that you feel bad about your actions (by the way: stereotypes... a Canadian apologizing!), but this is the reason that i trust you (all five) more spying on me, the Greek, than all the others (even my European partners) who do the same...
Nice pasta.
Are you going to post this in every story about the CIA?
The only other story i have posted about "spy things" was just yesterday, but *this* is different from the other (and i have few more also... i keep them for the future, so i can keep myself "original"!).
note: both the stories that i already posted (and those that i keep for the future!) are true - "spy things" happen very often between friends and allies, like Greece and USA are.
Few years ago the Greek Intelligence Agency discovered an apartment full of "mirrored" (i.e., cloned, used to intercept the original) mobile phones belonging to top Greek state's executives (including one of the prime minister's) - everyone understood who was spying on us Greeks (that apartment was next to the USA embasy in Athens... plus, we managed to find the CIA guy who organized the operation, now retired - no need to write his name, but it is known, as is his current address). Of course no Greek liked that, but: the job of any spy is to spy! We have Greeks spying USA, sometimes they capture our spies, we capture theirs, and since we are friends and allies... we exchange our captured spies (that most of the times, in friendly cases, are staying in some hotel until the issue is resolved, not in a prison cell), most times even without the public ever finding out that an "incident" ever happened (diplomats have many stories!).
This is "wikileaks drama" - I prefer "world peace", but let's not pretend that the Yankees are the only "bad guys" when in reality everyone does it... they just are more capable from (most) of the rest of us.
O.K., dude, thanks, now i get it, sorry about that, i am using a flawed English to Greek dictionary where "The problem with hovercrafts is that they tend to get full of eels" is translated as "Eureka"
One guy writes about "eels", you write about a "tele" (you mean the Greek word?)... i don't understand anything!
Can some "barbarian" fellow Slashdoter explain what a Greek like me is missing about the meaning of those "cryptic words"?
The problem with hovercrafts is that they tend to get full of eels.
Hmmm... to be honest i don't understand how that could happen (if you don't mean something else, that i also don't understand...), but: why would that be a problem? Eels are delicious (at least for us Greeks)!
Since i find all those "hoverboards" lame, a hovercraft (i.e., working over water): the (Russian) Zubr - for example, as used by the Greek Marines (we bought most of the Russian fleet years ago).
This "hoverboard" prototype works over a metalic base - i can only think of it as a "train", if ever used for something practical.
Re:The problem is that landfills are too cheap
on
Recycling Is Dying
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· Score: 1
You may want to read my reply to an actual (i believe) Gypsy, and mostly what HE wrote!
Well, what your "Gypsy" wrote, was an AC being a smartass. Let's try to keep the stereotypes to a lower level on this site.
To be honest i believe now that this "Gypsy" was just a smartass. Why i do believe that? Because you know: "Gypsy-Slashdot"...! Stereotypes (a Greek word by the way) "just work" - i understand your good advise, but... (from the same "Gypsy" discussion)
we must at least use the right term: theft
Ok, you made your point. I too have (fill in ethnic stereotype here) coming around at night poking through the trash. As long as they don't make a mess I'm not going to go out there and chase them off. "There but for the grace of God go I", etc. I do understand that it can hurt the economics of the local recycling business. I don't really know how to resolve the issue without being draconian.
Unfortunately, this problem is solved only by being draconian - i understand the drama of any "Jean Valjean", but when you have my fellow Greeks telling me that "the poor Gypsies/illegal immigrants must live also", and in the same time accuse the recycling businesses as "greedy"... we must at least use the right term: theft.
Re:The problem is that landfills are too cheap
on
Recycling Is Dying
·
· Score: 0
I generally think of your mention of your nationality as something between an identifying tagline and a running gag. I don't find it a problem.
I really appreciate your reply my friend. Yes, i mention my nationality (in a USA based and mostly English speaking site) as an identifying tagline (as a personal "thing", but also it is obvious that, while there are many things common between cultures, some different "points of view" exist because of cultural differences - not something bad...) AND a running gag (i understand that writing so often "me the Greek, you the barbarians" needs people of some humor -and culture...- to tolerate, but even if it is bad humor... it is humor - plus, by mentioning that i am Greek i think that my comments seem to fellow barbarian Slashdoters as authoritative because subconsciously they attribute them to my famous great ancestors!).
Anyway, i never hide that i am a (Greek) Nationalist: i use the nationality of each person as an extra "filter", but in the same way i can find bad things about any nationality (Greek included), i can find good also (for most of them...). In a "generalizing people through specializing nationalies" way.
And after all that, a Greek saying: "Thank Zeus that i was born a Human and not a Beast, a Man and not a Woman, a Greek and not a Barbarian" - again: i appreciate your reply my dear "barbarian"!
This (in English) is the latest (March 2015) official data from the "Greek State's Human Resources Record" (everyone who gets paid by the Greek state) - note: there are also historical data going back few years, plus: the data are checked by EU partners and other international organizations (i.e., they are honest!).
OECD's latest data is from 2013, but i used it for comparison of Greece to other states (e.g., USA, Germany) - compiling such data is problematic but you can get a general idea (and if you use my newest link you can confirm that it is accurate enough)
Not sure if joking. Sounded entirely bullshit to me, I checked Wiktionary which actually places it as coming from drone in the sense of a bee which is entirely different in each language.
I know one source isn't enough to conclude bullshit but it was devoid of the sense of superiority that you displayed and my experience is that people who think they're smart are generally idiots.
I don't know if i am an idiot (i may be), and i admit that (between funny and serious) my comment had a spirit of Greek over "barbarians" (i do it all the time in Slashdot!), but i was not joking about the etymology - i can't write the German "treno" word exactly (it's an "e" with a line above!), nor the Greek "thrinos" (Slashdot and unicode are not friends yet!).
Receiving big, nice paychecks, often 13-15 paychecks a year and many being able to retire in their 50's.
It used to be one extra monthly paycheck per year for everybody, until few years ago (now it is stoped), and the "retire in their 50's" was not so common as believed (and when true it was more like: "retire in their very late 50's").
Obviously, this is not a sustainable model.
But try to take some of that away, reduce the grants, incomes and pensions to levels that the Greek economy can actually sustain, and all of Greek media starts being indignant about it, blaming Germany and Europe for all this shit.
I have been working in the Java / C# world for the past decade[...] I am willing to brush up on my C/C++ skills if necessary butwant to spend as much time as possible developing the unique and potentially innovative parts of my project.
>> Your country owes money, your country needs to pay money.
> I agree.
What is this but pointless drivel? I mean, do you feel the need to assert everything you do or do not believe in?
As a fellow Slashdoter already replied to you: "It's called a discussion. Perhaps you should learn how one is structured in a civil manner."!
Some fellow Slashdoter wrote a reply to me (NOT anonymously), where he felt the need to remind me about this issue since i am a Greek (it was a bit off-topic -not much... the summary mentions "Greece's economy"-, but i also go very off-topic very often, so...), and since i try to always reply (especially to fellow Slashdoters, but even to anonymous like you!)... i replied!
If i write to you "your country [you] owe[s] money, your country [you] need[s] to pay money" ("your country" means "you" as you understand), you will let it unanswered? I take it a little personal, because it is personal! Anyway, i repeat again a part of what the other Slashdoter wrote: "civil manner"!
Just want to mod you down for being a deadbeat Greek.
I respect that Sir (especially since you do NOT post as an "anonymous coward")! Unfortunately i think that, even if you had mod points, you can't mod me down since you already made a comment on this story... sorry about that.
Your country owes money, your country needs to pay money.
I agree.
Your poor and destitute can go suck ass as us freemarketer's are concerned.
Greece is still among the most rich countries of the world (keep in mind that it is our state which is in trouble, no so much the citizens).
The job of the NSA is to spy and if they don't spy on everything spyable they aren't doing their job. Can't even figure out why this would worthy of a./ headline.
I don't disagree with you, both about the NSA and "/.", even while i am a Greek (from the summary: "capture officials in Paris talking candidly about Greece's economy"). We Greeks spy on the French, they spy on us, we both spy on USA, USA spy on both of us...
Few years ago we had a Greek spy captured by our friends the USA while spying them, we Greeks waited for a while until we captured a fine spy gentleman from USA spying us Greeks, and as friends and allies we solved this "little issue" like gentlemen do: we exchanged our spies and continued our fine relation (and spying on each-other)... no wikileaks shit, no drama... you send your diplomats to drink some Ouzo in Athens, we send ours for some bourbon, the thing was solved with mutual understanding that "shit happens"!
What exactly most Slashdoters expect from NSA, to sing songs about world peace? They are spies, they spy!
People nowdays use this general term ("drone") for any remotely guided unmanned aircraft/helicopter/etc, but i think this term should be used for the special military case where a remotely guided unmanned aircraft/helicopter/etc kills people IF we examine the term etymologically (and now my dear barbarians prepare for one more of my usual Greek language "things"): the English "drone" comes from the German "treno" which originates from the Greek "thrinos" (meaning -with my bad English-: what you feel -e.g., sad, sick- and how you act -e.g., crying, beating youself, wanting to die-... when a loved one is dead!).
I am a Greek Nationalist - since it is illegal for me to express my views in Europe (e.g., the Quran and the Hadiths order Muslims to hate and kill non-Muslims because... Muhammad was evil), and i can go to jail based on our "hate-speech" gag laws, even if i just write facts (e.g., Muhammad raped a 9 years old girl when he was more than 50 years old, and Muslims believe that this is blessed by Allah, and the Quran and the Hadiths teach that Muslims should also rape girls as Muhammad did), not just my opinion (e.g., the world must protect itself from Muslims), can fellow Slashdoters advise me if it is a valid defence to claim "the undo button did not worked"?
note: my/. karma suffers right now, so please don't down-mod me - it is not my fault... no "undo button" exists in Slashdot!
After that "perspective" i retract my statement in shame as totally invalid - sorry, i was not trying to misinform, it was just my huge ignorance for the details Sir.
MSS failed in that all the companies that built MSS networks went bankrupt and were purchased for pennies on the dollar.
While i don't know details i believe that this is true.
They're only profitable today because the current MSS providers essentially got their networks for close to free.
I must disagree in some degree. I mentioned that i am Greek (some Slashdoters are tired of me mentioning that all the time, but there is a reason!), and the largest commersial maritime fleet in the world -i.e., the Greek (o.k., this is some Greek pride, but a *relevant* fact also!)- is using this network for our people in sea to talk to their families: they pay good money for this - even if the network was not used as planed originaly (i.e., from the "general population"), they have a good income capable to sustain the operation (and even make a profit capable to cover even the original investment in time?) by charging more some "special customers". I understand that what you describe is a fact, but i think that the original investors could make a profit now IF they had enough available money to avoid bankruptcy (but i don't insist in that statement because i don't know details Sir).
Re:The problem is that landfills are too cheap
on
Recycling Is Dying
·
· Score: 1
Do you ever have a comment that doesn't proclaim your living in Greece?
Yesterday i made i comment about the new Linux kernel, where i did not mentioned my nationality (i did not thought it was relevant) - but in this story about recycling the Slashdot summary mention a Greek lady, which is maried to a Greek guy that has recycling companies in both Greece and USA, plus... you, instead of replying in that comment, you choose to reply in a comment about Gypsies!
I mean really, part of the point of the web was to break down the nationalistic mentality, and your response is to scream about Greece and ask everyone `where are you from.' It's gotten really tiresome.
All the comment i made in this story started from "Score 0" (baaad/. karma... don't ask!), all up-modded, even to "5 Interesting", and: you reply to a comment i made as a reply to someone trying to teach me how Guypies are called, even while i personaly know Gypsies that are call themselves... Gypsies! Even a Gypsy made a comment as a reply to me where he calls himself... Gypsy! It is abvious to me that the guy does not know shit about the matter (probably because he lives somewhere without Gypsies?), but he feels he is an expert in the issue: and the issue in question is "nationalistic"! Well, i think that "part of the point of the web" IS to communicate with people of different cultures/nationalities - take this chance and ask me about Greeks/Europeans and even Gypsies... but please: don't complain about mentioning my nationality (out of cultural honesty) in a sub-discussion about nationalities...
MSS did not failed, it just did not succeed in the way advertised to the public back then - it is still operational, having enough "special" customers, and not just from one nation (e.g., from USA Special Forces -but i, a Greek, as ex-S.F. guy, can use it also in the NATO alliance if needed-, to the world's bigest maritime fleet -the Greek!- for communicating with families... and no need even to be "of the right team": Russians can use it also!). Keep in mind that nowdays internet is everywhere, and the original idea is more relevant for the "general public" (just people traveling with airplanes are enough to provide an sustainable income). You can't have towers everywhere, plus: they may even cost more! In Africa they have more towers than cable for the same reason... we may soon find ouselves in a situation where satelites cost less than towers, even if towers will have better technical properties, as cable has from towers.
Slashdot Mirror
This is just too beautiful, you're like two warships warily circling one another in the dark, unable to pinpoint each other's location.
This is one of the greatest metaphors i ever read/heard! Continue reading...
Unfortunately our poster has you at a disadvantage; perhaps this may be of assistance. I'd like to say "Ironically, it was Monty Python all along," but I'm not sure that's a good example of irony but if it actually was then I'm even less sure I'd get away with it. :-)
The irony is that some fellow Slashdoters complain all the time because i keep mention that i am Greek... all the time!
It is not the first time that i had a communication problem with "barbarians", not because of language (even if i am a Greek with terrible English) but because of "missing the joke". I served as a conscript in the Greek special forces (that's why i posted that video with the Greek marines), and i had some training with USA/UK S.F. guys for NATO reasons. One of the most "failed communications" (that almost cost us our life) was while i was inside a boat at night trying to pinpoint a "friendly" boat (with USA/UK guys) somewhere in Italy, but using "informal natural language" (instead of the NATO formal codified) that started with jokes (that the other guys missed, while i was missing theirs) and ended in a situation where we could not even understand when we were making jokes and when we were serious... and believe me, at the end we were really serious!
I will take my revenge from you barbarians: in some other post i will make a reference to Aristophane...
By the way, and because of your metaphor: military seaman or something like that?
a) What makes you think that "we are begging for your money"? This whole issue is for giving us money so we can give it back to you (we have a budget surplus for our internal needs, we use the loans only to pay back the older loans), and by that no bankruptcy is declared (which would mean some disturbance for ALL).
b) What makes you think that buying some (much needed for our special defence needs) fleet of hovercrafts is a bad idea? Keeping ourselves capable to defend against Muslims is the best idea in the world... you (i guess you are from an EU civilized nation, since you wrote "your money") should do the same!
c) What makes you think that having Greeks protecting Europe from Muslims does not worth paying for? Only a moron can not understand this...
There is a major difference between targeted spying and shameless mass indiscriminate surveillance of humanity that the five eyes.. US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and even Canada (I'm Canadian)... have been up to the last few years. Orwell's villains could only dream of the the spying capabilities extremists in our own governments are unethically engaged in.
Let me inform you about "humanity" (in which i belong as a Greek) mister Canadian: we ("humanity") spy on you ("the five eyes.. US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and even Canada").
I realy respect the fact that you feel bad about your actions (by the way: stereotypes... a Canadian apologizing!), but this is the reason that i trust you (all five) more spying on me, the Greek, than all the others (even my European partners) who do the same...
Nice pasta. Are you going to post this in every story about the CIA?
The only other story i have posted about "spy things" was just yesterday, but *this* is different from the other (and i have few more also... i keep them for the future, so i can keep myself "original"!).
note: both the stories that i already posted (and those that i keep for the future!) are true - "spy things" happen very often between friends and allies, like Greece and USA are.
This is "wikileaks drama" - I prefer "world peace", but let's not pretend that the Yankees are the only "bad guys" when in reality everyone does it... they just are more capable from (most) of the rest of us.
Drop your panties, Sir William. I cannot wait until lunchtime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
O.K., dude, thanks, now i get it, sorry about that, i am using a flawed English to Greek dictionary where "The problem with hovercrafts is that they tend to get full of eels" is translated as "Eureka"
Maybe you need a Slashdot License. They come from the Ministry of Housinge.
I beg you, let's stop it now Sir, we may accidentally write the world's funniest joke... and you know how dangerous that is!
What's on the tele then?
One guy writes about "eels", you write about a "tele" (you mean the Greek word?)... i don't understand anything!
Can some "barbarian" fellow Slashdoter explain what a Greek like me is missing about the meaning of those "cryptic words"?
The problem with hovercrafts is that they tend to get full of eels.
Hmmm... to be honest i don't understand how that could happen (if you don't mean something else, that i also don't understand...), but: why would that be a problem? Eels are delicious (at least for us Greeks)!
This "hoverboard" prototype works over a metalic base - i can only think of it as a "train", if ever used for something practical.
You may want to read my reply to an actual (i believe) Gypsy, and mostly what HE wrote!
Well, what your "Gypsy" wrote, was an AC being a smartass. Let's try to keep the stereotypes to a lower level on this site.
To be honest i believe now that this "Gypsy" was just a smartass. Why i do believe that? Because you know: "Gypsy-Slashdot"...! Stereotypes (a Greek word by the way) "just work" - i understand your good advise, but... (from the same "Gypsy" discussion)
we must at least use the right term: theft
Ok, you made your point. I too have (fill in ethnic stereotype here) coming around at night poking through the trash. As long as they don't make a mess I'm not going to go out there and chase them off. "There but for the grace of God go I", etc. I do understand that it can hurt the economics of the local recycling business. I don't really know how to resolve the issue without being draconian.
Unfortunately, this problem is solved only by being draconian - i understand the drama of any "Jean Valjean", but when you have my fellow Greeks telling me that "the poor Gypsies/illegal immigrants must live also", and in the same time accuse the recycling businesses as "greedy"... we must at least use the right term: theft.
I generally think of your mention of your nationality as something between an identifying tagline and a running gag. I don't find it a problem.
I really appreciate your reply my friend. Yes, i mention my nationality (in a USA based and mostly English speaking site) as an identifying tagline (as a personal "thing", but also it is obvious that, while there are many things common between cultures, some different "points of view" exist because of cultural differences - not something bad...) AND a running gag (i understand that writing so often "me the Greek, you the barbarians" needs people of some humor -and culture...- to tolerate, but even if it is bad humor... it is humor - plus, by mentioning that i am Greek i think that my comments seem to fellow barbarian Slashdoters as authoritative because subconsciously they attribute them to my famous great ancestors!).
Anyway, i never hide that i am a (Greek) Nationalist: i use the nationality of each person as an extra "filter", but in the same way i can find bad things about any nationality (Greek included), i can find good also (for most of them...). In a "generalizing people through specializing nationalies" way.
And after all that, a Greek saying: "Thank Zeus that i was born a Human and not a Beast, a Man and not a Woman, a Greek and not a Barbarian" - again: i appreciate your reply my dear "barbarian"!
OECD's latest data is from 2013, but i used it for comparison of Greece to other states (e.g., USA, Germany) - compiling such data is problematic but you can get a general idea (and if you use my newest link you can confirm that it is accurate enough)
If you want more info i can give you.
Not sure if joking. Sounded entirely bullshit to me, I checked Wiktionary which actually places it as coming from drone in the sense of a bee which is entirely different in each language.
I know one source isn't enough to conclude bullshit but it was devoid of the sense of superiority that you displayed and my experience is that people who think they're smart are generally idiots.
I don't know if i am an idiot (i may be), and i admit that (between funny and serious) my comment had a spirit of Greek over "barbarians" (i do it all the time in Slashdot!), but i was not joking about the etymology - i can't write the German "treno" word exactly (it's an "e" with a line above!), nor the Greek "thrinos" (Slashdot and unicode are not friends yet!).
... because 25% of the Greek population and their cousins is employed by the state, twiddling their thumbs or something,
Based on OECD, Employment in general government as a percentage of the labour force (some selective countries):
source
Receiving big, nice paychecks, often 13-15 paychecks a year and many being able to retire in their 50's.
It used to be one extra monthly paycheck per year for everybody, until few years ago (now it is stoped), and the "retire in their 50's" was not so common as believed (and when true it was more like: "retire in their very late 50's").
Obviously, this is not a sustainable model. But try to take some of that away, reduce the grants, incomes and pensions to levels that the Greek economy can actually sustain, and all of Greek media starts being indignant about it, blaming Germany and Europe for all this shit.
I agree.
I have been working in the Java / C# world for the past decade [...] I am willing to brush up on my C/C++ skills if necessary but want to spend as much time as possible developing the unique and potentially innovative parts of my project.
What you think?
>> Your country owes money, your country needs to pay money. > I agree.
What is this but pointless drivel? I mean, do you feel the need to assert everything you do or do not believe in?
As a fellow Slashdoter already replied to you: "It's called a discussion. Perhaps you should learn how one is structured in a civil manner."!
Some fellow Slashdoter wrote a reply to me (NOT anonymously), where he felt the need to remind me about this issue since i am a Greek (it was a bit off-topic -not much... the summary mentions "Greece's economy"-, but i also go very off-topic very often, so...), and since i try to always reply (especially to fellow Slashdoters, but even to anonymous like you!)... i replied!
If i write to you "your country [you] owe[s] money, your country [you] need[s] to pay money" ("your country" means "you" as you understand), you will let it unanswered? I take it a little personal, because it is personal! Anyway, i repeat again a part of what the other Slashdoter wrote: "civil manner" !
Just want to mod you down for being a deadbeat Greek.
I respect that Sir (especially since you do NOT post as an "anonymous coward")! Unfortunately i think that, even if you had mod points, you can't mod me down since you already made a comment on this story... sorry about that.
Your country owes money, your country needs to pay money.
I agree.
Your poor and destitute can go suck ass as us freemarketer's are concerned.
Greece is still among the most rich countries of the world (keep in mind that it is our state which is in trouble, no so much the citizens).
The job of the NSA is to spy and if they don't spy on everything spyable they aren't doing their job. Can't even figure out why this would worthy of a ./ headline.
I don't disagree with you, both about the NSA and "/.", even while i am a Greek (from the summary: "capture officials in Paris talking candidly about Greece's economy"). We Greeks spy on the French, they spy on us, we both spy on USA, USA spy on both of us...
Few years ago we had a Greek spy captured by our friends the USA while spying them, we Greeks waited for a while until we captured a fine spy gentleman from USA spying us Greeks, and as friends and allies we solved this "little issue" like gentlemen do: we exchanged our spies and continued our fine relation (and spying on each-other)... no wikileaks shit, no drama... you send your diplomats to drink some Ouzo in Athens, we send ours for some bourbon, the thing was solved with mutual understanding that "shit happens"!
What exactly most Slashdoters expect from NSA, to sing songs about world peace? They are spies, they spy!
People nowdays use this general term ("drone") for any remotely guided unmanned aircraft/helicopter/etc, but i think this term should be used for the special military case where a remotely guided unmanned aircraft/helicopter/etc kills people IF we examine the term etymologically (and now my dear barbarians prepare for one more of my usual Greek language "things"): the English "drone" comes from the German "treno" which originates from the Greek "thrinos" (meaning -with my bad English-: what you feel -e.g., sad, sick- and how you act -e.g., crying, beating youself, wanting to die-... when a loved one is dead!).
note: my /. karma suffers right now, so please don't down-mod me - it is not my fault... no "undo button" exists in Slashdot!
After that "perspective" i retract my statement in shame as totally invalid - sorry, i was not trying to misinform, it was just my huge ignorance for the details Sir.
MSS failed in that all the companies that built MSS networks went bankrupt and were purchased for pennies on the dollar.
While i don't know details i believe that this is true.
They're only profitable today because the current MSS providers essentially got their networks for close to free.
I must disagree in some degree. I mentioned that i am Greek (some Slashdoters are tired of me mentioning that all the time, but there is a reason!), and the largest commersial maritime fleet in the world -i.e., the Greek (o.k., this is some Greek pride, but a *relevant* fact also!)- is using this network for our people in sea to talk to their families: they pay good money for this - even if the network was not used as planed originaly (i.e., from the "general population"), they have a good income capable to sustain the operation (and even make a profit capable to cover even the original investment in time?) by charging more some "special customers". I understand that what you describe is a fact, but i think that the original investors could make a profit now IF they had enough available money to avoid bankruptcy (but i don't insist in that statement because i don't know details Sir).
Do you ever have a comment that doesn't proclaim your living in Greece?
Yesterday i made i comment about the new Linux kernel, where i did not mentioned my nationality (i did not thought it was relevant) - but in this story about recycling the Slashdot summary mention a Greek lady, which is maried to a Greek guy that has recycling companies in both Greece and USA, plus... you, instead of replying in that comment, you choose to reply in a comment about Gypsies!
I mean really, part of the point of the web was to break down the nationalistic mentality, and your response is to scream about Greece and ask everyone `where are you from.' It's gotten really tiresome.
All the comment i made in this story started from "Score 0" (baaad /. karma... don't ask!), all up-modded, even to "5 Interesting", and: you reply to a comment i made as a reply to someone trying to teach me how Guypies are called, even while i personaly know Gypsies that are call themselves... Gypsies! Even a Gypsy made a comment as a reply to me where he calls himself... Gypsy! It is abvious to me that the guy does not know shit about the matter (probably because he lives somewhere without Gypsies?), but he feels he is an expert in the issue: and the issue in question is "nationalistic"! Well, i think that "part of the point of the web" IS to communicate with people of different cultures/nationalities - take this chance and ask me about Greeks/Europeans and even Gypsies... but please: don't complain about mentioning my nationality (out of cultural honesty) in a sub-discussion about nationalities...
MSS did not failed, it just did not succeed in the way advertised to the public back then - it is still operational, having enough "special" customers, and not just from one nation (e.g., from USA Special Forces -but i, a Greek, as ex-S.F. guy, can use it also in the NATO alliance if needed-, to the world's bigest maritime fleet -the Greek!- for communicating with families... and no need even to be "of the right team": Russians can use it also!). Keep in mind that nowdays internet is everywhere, and the original idea is more relevant for the "general public" (just people traveling with airplanes are enough to provide an sustainable income). You can't have towers everywhere, plus: they may even cost more! In Africa they have more towers than cable for the same reason... we may soon find ouselves in a situation where satelites cost less than towers, even if towers will have better technical properties, as cable has from towers.