It might interest everybody to know that people in China have more freedom and rights than what you people in America have these days. It's a nice country and lovely people too; I think I'll move over there...
'They are about as disconnected from the trends and about as ill equipped (informationally as well as mentally) to predict future trends as is possible outside of living in a tribe in papua new guinea that still eats human flesh'
Ah, so people in New Guinea eat human flesh? What else can you tell us, apart from their being 'mentally ill equipped'? But of course, 'if they look like niggers and they smell like niggers', isn't that what you say? Never mind, keep your bigotry for yourself, please
I don't believe broadband technology is going away, but the dreamed up marvels, like video streaming on demand, ip radio and other bandwidth hogging are probably not going to last. Just like e-business is probably never going to take off in any big way (except perhaps b2b) - I suspect most people like to go shopping in person.
It seems to have something to do with the browser! I normally use Netscape 6 - it doesn't show the number of comments. But when I start my old Netscape 4.7, it's there.
Listen, guys - Linus never really asked to be famous, remember? It may surprise an American, but some people just don't like being famous (all I 'know' about Americans comes from Hollywood; apparently you lot can't get enough attention;-)
In most of the world fame comes at a price - everybody expects you to be a leader or even a 'deity', everybody has an opinion about you and wants your opinion. This makes it very hard to be just a normal guy; 'Linus said this', 'Linus said that', 'Linus farted and scratched his belly'. However, as taxing as it can be to be famous in, say, Europe or Asia, it is infinitely worse in America, where the public seems to believe that they have a constitutional right to poke their noses into famous people's private lives and up their arses. If Linus appears tired of something that's probably the reason.
So, if you guys respect him or maybe even like him, allow him some peace.
Actually the 'proper' plural is whatever most people end up using. The truth is, there probably never was a plural of the word 'virus' in latin, as it was a 'mass noun' (just like eg. 'water'). Personally I prefer either 'viruses' or 'vira'; they both 'feel right' - 'vira' is often used in medical literature. I don't like 'viri' or 'virii' because they are clearly wrong (ie they already have another meaning).
- don't worry. What they are talking about is climate, not weather. It's a bit like predicting that this winter is going to be colder than this summer - it doesn't require as much precision as predicting the weather: when it will rain or snow, the windspeed, cloud cover etc etc.
This is an incredibly powerful machine. In fact, when they tested it a while ago, there way a programming error, and before they succeeded in turning the thing off, it had caused a heatwave in much of Europe!
Maybe I'm stupid - but what has actually changed? In my lifetime I have seen and read reports of hundreds of thousands of innocent people dying a meaningless death at the hands of ruthless and evil people all over the world. Plus of course natural catastrophes. The only difference was that it didn't happen in America or Europe.
That's one thing; while I honestly don't think freedom and privacy are as sacred as you Americans do, I must say that the initiatives that are being contemplated are simply stupid. 'The Authorities' - who knows what that is going to mean some time in the future - want backdoors etc etc. Surveillance like that is going to be incredibly unwieldy and probably rather less useful than they hope. And a number of innocent people will come under suspicion, simply because they express certain opinions, use a certain jargon, say certain jokes or whatever. E-commerce is going to be difficult too.
Of course this won't worry me; I don't elive in e-commerce anyway. And I will probably move to China, that's one place where the US government won't boss me around;-)
Potato belongs to the genus Solanum, all of which tend to contain solanin. Solanin is as far as I remember not an alkaloid, but a saponin; it isn't hallucinogenic (saponins are 'soap-like'; the effect is similar to eating a bar of soap).
There are several hundred closely related species of solanum (forming the subgroup 'potatoe') as well as a number of solanums that are less closely related. Some potato species have very small tubers, some species are epiphytes (grow in trees!) etc. etc. There are purple potatoes that are actually deeply blue-purple (almost black) all the way through; they taste fine, but it is a bit strange to eat food of that color. They would be interesting for fish and chips.
- if you have followed the development in this research there's nothing really fantastically incredible in this. A shame that you Americans can only use cultures that are contaminated with mouse cells.
The real issue here isn't whether one can produce blood in quantities - this is probably never going to be relevant, really. But we are on the brink of discovering how to produce organs on demand, and how to repair brain damages etc. Possibly even from a person's own stem cells - even adults contain stem cells, and apparently some of these are more flexible than previously thought.
The biggest hindrance right now appears to be 'ethical' scruples - this seems very odd to me, considering the total lack of any kind of ethics and moral that is common amongst politicians and religious leaders (yes, I actually said that). How can anyone blame, say, Jehovah's Witnesses for denying their children blood transfusions in this context?
The ethics in this is quite simple to figure out, I think. What is most important: the very real benefits that this research will give us, or the concerns about the 'human life' that is destroyed when they extract stem cells from an already aborted fetus? Hell, each time you wipe your behind you discard more human cells than what we're talking about here.
1. Patenting mechanical and electronic devices may make sense - those things are relatively simple, and it is relatively doable to a new gadget is actually new. Also there tends to be fewer of them, so the job of comparing things isn't quite as big. But software patents and gene patents will come roaring like a tsunami, and each new case is incomprehensibly complicated. They will die from information overload.
2. This kind of patenting is unfair and unreasonable etc etc. Need I elaborate? I think every thinking person (except for those who have money invested in such patents) feels this. This is not the right way to protect the investments.
I think we (America and un-America;-) should do the right thing: say no to software- and gene patents. Open source will probably take care of the software patents anyway. But these absurd gene patents - all medical companies should be required to place their results in public domain. Once they get over the initial whining about how unfair it is and how little they will invest in new research, they will get right back to work as usual. Of course they will; they still want to make money, right? If not, somebody else will, I'm sure.
So the DMCA makes it a 'crime' to create something that may or may not be used to commit a crime. Wow. 'We think you or somebody else may intend to commit a crime using you code.' - guilty on suspicion, isn't it? This reminds me about the old horror stories about the Soviet Union and their supposed mind police.
The article asks whether the common American cares about this at all. Perhaps not - judging from the president you've got stuck with, you people don't care shit about 'This great country of ours'. What happened to the American spirit? Or perhaps that was just another Hollywood invention? Something that is nice to boast of when you have visitors from the other side of the pond, something conveniently tucked away in 'history' - I can understand that; it's a little too revolutionary, almost COMMUNIST to go on the barricades and fight for your rights. But America was founded by a revolution, or did I misunderstand that?
But what do I care? After all I am not American; unamerican, you might say (or un-American, as somebody kindly corrected me - I think it was 'Anonymous Coward'). And 'since when has America's internal affairs become the concern of foreigners'? To answer the last first: USA's internal affairs became the concern of everybody outside America the moment Sklyarov was arrested, just to mention one example. And why do I care - apart from the fact that I would now be very reluctant about going to America, all things considered? America has recently become more and more of a mindless giant; or so it seems: trying to bully everybody about 'American interests' - mind you, not 'the interests of the American citizens', but the interests of American money-hoarders. The people who, among other things oppress your freedom with DMCA and tap your emails at work.
Where does this end? You can choose not to do anything - then USA will become another Soviet Union, where 'freedom' means that if you're smart, you just shut up and watch your back. Or you can choose to do something: grab hold of the freedom you have at least in principle, and make it real. Show some spirit: American spirit.
I knew, of course, that a word like 'unamerican' in the title would give me a bit of attention.
First of all, you Americans take yourselves too serious. Over here we tend to be more relaxed, with the possible exception of the French (whoops, here I go again). We all make mistakes, we have to be able to laugh at ourselves - and allow others to laugh at us too.
Secondly - every government spies, and we all know this. That's not what I am after. But I hate hypocrisy, and no government is better at it than the American. Extremely 'religious' and moralizing on the surface, but filthy on the inside. And this country wants to be the world's light? Bear with me for a second while I control my laughter.
Don't get me wrong - I don't 'hate America' and I don't particularly praise China. But if you guys want the respect of the world, be respectable. You want to tell us all about thruth? Be truthful. You want to tell us about democracy? Be a democracy, then. You want to tell us about freedom? Learn something about freedom first, for God's sake.
Of course they wouldn't do anything as unamerican as spying and lying about too! The for example that incident with the Chinese - that was ourely an accident. And it was their fault too; remember, they are commies.
Don't you agree? If you do, you're my pal, and I'll do you a real favour: here in London there's this magnificent bridge, Tower Bridge, that's going to be for sale soon. It's not quite official yet, but just let me know if you're interested. I might get you in before the other buyers...
How about this: BSA attacks a company supposedly because a disgruntled employee reports the company. But it wouldn't be illegal for a person n this company to make this report incorrectly, would it? If BSA receives loads of reports that turn out to be unfounded, that might break their terror strategy.
Isn't it just very, very strange that there is any such thing as adverts carried by e-mail/SMS/etc? I mean, who would, after receiving yet another stupid email about some bogus product, want to actually buy the thing? Can anybody remember ever receiving a spam mail that produced any positive interest in the product offered?
Having read through the replies to this article, I must say, once again, that I am stunned by the attitude that appears to be generic amongst Americans: That in this world there's nothing good, true, innovative, etc etc except for 'The American Way'.
So, the Japanese are against innovation... Come to think of it, the Chinese are just as bad, but the of course they are 'commies' and 'subversive';-) And we Europeans are the worst of all, I'm sure, since we assume that we can challenge NATO and the American economy by going our own ways.
Seen from outside USA, I suspect the Americans are seen as superficial, hasty, condescending, not too concerned about truth and a lot of other things. Remember that what we see as specifically American is Hollywood films that, at best, present wildly inaccurate versions of reality; we see politicians that are obviously and grossly dishonest and hypocritical; we see enormously bloated companies that relentlessly and shamelessly steal and crush everything in their way; we see an advertising 'culture' where anything but honesty is allowable.
I think we are well advised to stay just a little bit on the conservative side.
Good grief! How can anyone NOT see that Microsoft are simply and plainly greedy, predatory, amoral etc etc? No offence, but this seems to be a specifically American phenomenon: the ability to close the eyes and 'believe' obvious lies. Like 'Linux is for commies and hippies'. As I understand, the American concept of 'communism' (which incidentally is unrelated to communism and socialism elsewhere, just like US 'christianism' vs. christianism elsewhere; etc etc), is that is all about 'subversion', 'totalitarianism' and being 'undemocratic' - but surely, it is Microsoft that put these traits on display?
I wouldn't worry about smart tags, MS Passport, Office XP or the other rubbish they try to stuff down people's throats. These things are relying too much on huge, ultrafast machines, broadband connections etc, so when these things inevitably foul up, the users will be lost. And meanwhile, as they muck about with sorting out the problems, the freeware world goes on. And on, and on...
Don't get me wrong - I'm not a communist (but I'm not scared shitless by it either), and I don't 'hate America'. But I honestly think that you Americans have this very big problem. Why not open your eyes, and keep them open? It's not dangerous, even if it implies some humbling insights into the nature of yourselves?
Slashdot Mirror
It might interest everybody to know that people in China have more freedom and rights than what you people in America have these days. It's a nice country and lovely people too; I think I'll move over there...
Ah, so people in New Guinea eat human flesh? What else can you tell us, apart from their being 'mentally ill equipped'? But of course, 'if they look like niggers and they smell like niggers', isn't that what you say? Never mind, keep your bigotry for yourself, please
I don't believe broadband technology is going away, but the dreamed up marvels, like video streaming on demand, ip radio and other bandwidth hogging are probably not going to last. Just like e-business is probably never going to take off in any big way (except perhaps b2b) - I suspect most people like to go shopping in person.
It seems to have something to do with the browser! I normally use Netscape 6 - it doesn't show the number of comments. But when I start my old Netscape 4.7, it's there.
In most of the world fame comes at a price - everybody expects you to be a leader or even a 'deity', everybody has an opinion about you and wants your opinion. This makes it very hard to be just a normal guy; 'Linus said this', 'Linus said that', 'Linus farted and scratched his belly'. However, as taxing as it can be to be famous in, say, Europe or Asia, it is infinitely worse in America, where the public seems to believe that they have a constitutional right to poke their noses into famous people's private lives and up their arses. If Linus appears tired of something that's probably the reason.
So, if you guys respect him or maybe even like him, allow him some peace.
Actually the 'proper' plural is whatever most people end up using. The truth is, there probably never was a plural of the word 'virus' in latin, as it was a 'mass noun' (just like eg. 'water'). Personally I prefer either 'viruses' or 'vira'; they both 'feel right' - 'vira' is often used in medical literature. I don't like 'viri' or 'virii' because they are clearly wrong (ie they already have another meaning).
- don't worry. What they are talking about is climate, not weather. It's a bit like predicting that this winter is going to be colder than this summer - it doesn't require as much precision as predicting the weather: when it will rain or snow, the windspeed, cloud cover etc etc.
This is an incredibly powerful machine. In fact, when they tested it a while ago, there way a programming error, and before they succeeded in turning the thing off, it had caused a heatwave in much of Europe!
That's one thing; while I honestly don't think freedom and privacy are as sacred as you Americans do, I must say that the initiatives that are being contemplated are simply stupid. 'The Authorities' - who knows what that is going to mean some time in the future - want backdoors etc etc. Surveillance like that is going to be incredibly unwieldy and probably rather less useful than they hope. And a number of innocent people will come under suspicion, simply because they express certain opinions, use a certain jargon, say certain jokes or whatever. E-commerce is going to be difficult too.
Of course this won't worry me; I don't elive in e-commerce anyway. And I will probably move to China, that's one place where the US government won't boss me around
There are several hundred closely related species of solanum (forming the subgroup 'potatoe') as well as a number of solanums that are less closely related. Some potato species have very small tubers, some species are epiphytes (grow in trees!) etc. etc. There are purple potatoes that are actually deeply blue-purple (almost black) all the way through; they taste fine, but it is a bit strange to eat food of that color. They would be interesting for fish and chips.
only testing - sorry
My goodness, am I happy not to live in the US. Does it strike anybody else as odd, that they have more real freedom in China than in America?
The real issue here isn't whether one can produce blood in quantities - this is probably never going to be relevant, really. But we are on the brink of discovering how to produce organs on demand, and how to repair brain damages etc. Possibly even from a person's own stem cells - even adults contain stem cells, and apparently some of these are more flexible than previously thought.
The biggest hindrance right now appears to be 'ethical' scruples - this seems very odd to me, considering the total lack of any kind of ethics and moral that is common amongst politicians and religious leaders (yes, I actually said that). How can anyone blame, say, Jehovah's Witnesses for denying their children blood transfusions in this context?
The ethics in this is quite simple to figure out, I think. What is most important: the very real benefits that this research will give us, or the concerns about the 'human life' that is destroyed when they extract stem cells from an already aborted fetus? Hell, each time you wipe your behind you discard more human cells than what we're talking about here.
So would I - but I don't think MS are able handle the task.
1. Patenting mechanical and electronic devices may make sense - those things are relatively simple, and it is relatively doable to a new gadget is actually new. Also there tends to be fewer of them, so the job of comparing things isn't quite as big. But software patents and gene patents will come roaring like a tsunami, and each new case is incomprehensibly complicated. They will die from information overload.
2. This kind of patenting is unfair and unreasonable etc etc. Need I elaborate? I think every thinking person (except for those who have money invested in such patents) feels this. This is not the right way to protect the investments.
I think we (America and un-America
The article asks whether the common American cares about this at all. Perhaps not - judging from the president you've got stuck with, you people don't care shit about 'This great country of ours'. What happened to the American spirit? Or perhaps that was just another Hollywood invention? Something that is nice to boast of when you have visitors from the other side of the pond, something conveniently tucked away in 'history' - I can understand that; it's a little too revolutionary, almost COMMUNIST to go on the barricades and fight for your rights. But America was founded by a revolution, or did I misunderstand that?
But what do I care? After all I am not American; unamerican, you might say (or un-American, as somebody kindly corrected me - I think it was 'Anonymous Coward'). And 'since when has America's internal affairs become the concern of foreigners'? To answer the last first: USA's internal affairs became the concern of everybody outside America the moment Sklyarov was arrested, just to mention one example. And why do I care - apart from the fact that I would now be very reluctant about going to America, all things considered? America has recently become more and more of a mindless giant; or so it seems: trying to bully everybody about 'American interests' - mind you, not 'the interests of the American citizens', but the interests of American money-hoarders. The people who, among other things oppress your freedom with DMCA and tap your emails at work.
Where does this end? You can choose not to do anything - then USA will become another Soviet Union, where 'freedom' means that if you're smart, you just shut up and watch your back. Or you can choose to do something: grab hold of the freedom you have at least in principle, and make it real. Show some spirit: American spirit.
I knew, of course, that a word like 'unamerican' in the title would give me a bit of attention.
First of all, you Americans take yourselves too serious. Over here we tend to be more relaxed, with the possible exception of the French (whoops, here I go again). We all make mistakes, we have to be able to laugh at ourselves - and allow others to laugh at us too.
Secondly - every government spies, and we all know this. That's not what I am after. But I hate hypocrisy, and no government is better at it than the American. Extremely 'religious' and moralizing on the surface, but filthy on the inside. And this country wants to be the world's light? Bear with me for a second while I control my laughter.
Don't get me wrong - I don't 'hate America' and I don't particularly praise China. But if you guys want the respect of the world, be respectable. You want to tell us all about thruth? Be truthful. You want to tell us about democracy? Be a democracy, then. You want to tell us about freedom? Learn something about freedom first, for God's sake.
Of course they wouldn't do anything as unamerican as spying and lying about too! The for example that incident with the Chinese - that was ourely an accident. And it was their fault too; remember, they are commies. Don't you agree? If you do, you're my pal, and I'll do you a real favour: here in London there's this magnificent bridge, Tower Bridge, that's going to be for sale soon. It's not quite official yet, but just let me know if you're interested. I might get you in before the other buyers...
How about this: BSA attacks a company supposedly because a disgruntled employee reports the company. But it wouldn't be illegal for a person n this company to make this report incorrectly, would it? If BSA receives loads of reports that turn out to be unfounded, that might break their terror strategy.
Isn't it just very, very strange that there is any such thing as adverts carried by e-mail/SMS/etc? I mean, who would, after receiving yet another stupid email about some bogus product, want to actually buy the thing? Can anybody remember ever receiving a spam mail that produced any positive interest in the product offered?
Having read through the replies to this article, I must say, once again, that I am stunned by the attitude that appears to be generic amongst Americans: That in this world there's nothing good, true, innovative, etc etc except for 'The American Way'. So, the Japanese are against innovation... Come to think of it, the Chinese are just as bad, but the of course they are 'commies' and 'subversive' ;-) And we Europeans are the worst of all, I'm sure, since we assume that we can challenge NATO and the American economy by going our own ways.
Seen from outside USA, I suspect the Americans are seen as superficial, hasty, condescending, not too concerned about truth and a lot of other things. Remember that what we see as specifically American is Hollywood films that, at best, present wildly inaccurate versions of reality; we see politicians that are obviously and grossly dishonest and hypocritical; we see enormously bloated companies that relentlessly and shamelessly steal and crush everything in their way; we see an advertising 'culture' where anything but honesty is allowable.
I think we are well advised to stay just a little bit on the conservative side.
Good grief! How can anyone NOT see that Microsoft are simply and plainly greedy, predatory, amoral etc etc? No offence, but this seems to be a specifically American phenomenon: the ability to close the eyes and 'believe' obvious lies. Like 'Linux is for commies and hippies'. As I understand, the American concept of 'communism' (which incidentally is unrelated to communism and socialism elsewhere, just like US 'christianism' vs. christianism elsewhere; etc etc), is that is all about 'subversion', 'totalitarianism' and being 'undemocratic' - but surely, it is Microsoft that put these traits on display?
...
I wouldn't worry about smart tags, MS Passport, Office XP or the other rubbish they try to stuff down people's throats. These things are relying too much on huge, ultrafast machines, broadband connections etc, so when these things inevitably foul up, the users will be lost. And meanwhile, as they muck about with sorting out the problems, the freeware world goes on. And on, and on
Don't get me wrong - I'm not a communist (but I'm not scared shitless by it either), and I don't 'hate America'. But I honestly think that you Americans have this very big problem. Why not open your eyes, and keep them open? It's not dangerous, even if it implies some humbling insights into the nature of yourselves?
So one can't even use IE?