Obama is a prototypical tyrant/power abuser, like Clinton was.
He promises unrealistic things to manipulate other people.
George W. Bush dealt with hard realities and stabilized a nation. It's currently heresy to agree with that, and other people will try to use guilt and moderation points to intimidate you into agreeing.
However, the current economic mess is Clinton's legacy, not Bush's. There have been no terrorist attacks, and the police state people have been nattering about hasn't appeared.
History makes fools look like the dilettantes they are, and it will do the same for Obama: he was a media and popular darling among the uninformed, but is a fundamentally corrupt person with a very shady past and no tangible ideas, and he introduces America to the disorganization that will lead it to become a failed third-world state (as Spengler, Toynbee and Plato tell us).
The rest of the world is celebrating Obama from Schadenfreude, because they want to see the USA humbled and weakened.
Among those of us who work with computers, of course we're going to pick the Linux variant.
But for the your average person, what makes a computer valuable to them is their favorite software. Windows XP installs quickly, runs that software, doesn't crash much, and with newer security measures is unlikely to get infected.
For Linux to compete, it should aim at producing distributions that support as much hardware as XP, have similar friendly installations, and possibly -- dear god did I say it -- run XP software, because win32 is the biggest software base in the world and it's what users want.
Societies have a life cycle starting with strong leaders and ending with populist democracy.
Populist democracy makes self-centered people. They are neurotic and obsessed with the trivial. As a result, democracies become unable to hold any consensus, at which point they are taken over by tyrants.
Historians know of this cycle, but they also know it is socially unacceptable to mention that our empire might be slowly dying. For references, see the work of Arnold Toynbee, Oswald Spengler and Plato.
Personally, I am most concerned with these issues:
* Meritocracy that promotes the best, not the preferred victims and downtrodden.
* Government having less power through having fewer social welfare programs.
* Legalize drugs in California, so the drug-related mayhem can all go there.
* Allow states to have greater rights in determining abortion, drug legalization, gay marriage and other trivial issues (issues not related to direction of the nation as a whole).
* Find a workable plan that balances privacy and the need to enforce laws regarding content piracy. I would suggest licensing fees as fines.
* Balance the menace of other wannabe superpowers like Russia and China.
* Continue our friendship and defense of Israel, the state created to prevent genocide of the Jewish people.
Although it is political suicide to say it, I am happy with the job George W. Bush has done.
* The economic downturn is not his fault; these are periodistic cycles.
* The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq cannot be "won," but we eliminated safe home-bases for future terrorists of the Islamic stripe. 9/11 was not avenged so much as a deterrent established.
* Our educational system is so politically divided there is no hope of fixing it. I used to complain about "No Child Left Behind" until I realized the politics of education have ruined public education, probably permanently. Now I'm working toward school vouchers.
* The Patriot Act and TSA ended up not being a big deal and we can see them backing off, not because of some citizens' protest, but because they managed to deter terrorism.
I would like to vote for Ron Paul, but if that is not an option, I will vote for John McCain or Ralph Nader (his take on deep ecology is closest to mine, and this is my most important issue).
One thing I will not do is go into denial about the future of America and Europe. These are societies on a downward cycle, and they lack the will to pull out.
By choosing Joe Biden as their vice presidential candidate, the Democrats have selected a politician with a mixed record on technology who has spent most of his Senate career allied with the FBI and copyright holders, who ranks toward the bottom of CNET's Technology Voters' Guide, and whose anti-privacy legislation was actually responsible for the creation of PGP.
Advertising within videos shown online is always going to be a failure. Online videos are not linear. We can fast forward, skip around, or go to another page.
TV is linear, at least without TiVo or MythTV. You have to watch what's there, so you mute and leave the room for commercials. (Does anyone like commercials? The witty ones are fun -- the first time of 800 times you'll see them.)
They need to adapt to online reality. Sell banner ads and Google ads, or Amazon referrer links. That's the online reality. TV is for dinosaurs;)
In 1984, it was governments that were the "oppressor."
Now we see how willing business is to cut losses via shoplifting, make collecting data from customers easier, and make money from resale of privacy data.
Maybe they should just call these "RL cookies" as they serve the same function... except not edible like the namesake of the online tracking token.
Soon nothing will exist without being "owned," and not in the 0\/\//\/3> sense. Owned like capital, stock certificates, and "rights" that means anyone doing anything slightly similar must bend over for the iron glove of pleasure through pain.
Because there were so many people using it. It's not the client, but centralizing on one that can work on a broad range of platforms and get the most broadband users online. Audiogalaxy was great because you could find anything, and you could find anything because the people were there. These clients don't pick the songs, users do. And users is the determining factor in a powerful p2p network. Steaming sheepdom, I know.
They need to control their brands. Britney Spears is a face, a person, and a phrase that almost millions of media-fed-heads on earth recognize. Napster and other communications channels break the tight hold music companies have on controlling image and thus value of their brands. I support any encrypted, distributed network for the general purpose of disseminating information; like a shovel, it can be used to plant or to kill and that is the user's concern and not that of the service. Besides, with the new anti-terrorism legislation, Napster and other services as anonymous will be a thing of the past.
I find only BAUDOT survives the interruptions of our communications systems these days. Anyone using 300 baud or above is subject to all forms of magnetic interference.
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Obama is a prototypical tyrant/power abuser, like Clinton was.
He promises unrealistic things to manipulate other people.
George W. Bush dealt with hard realities and stabilized a nation. It's currently heresy to agree with that, and other people will try to use guilt and moderation points to intimidate you into agreeing.
However, the current economic mess is Clinton's legacy, not Bush's. There have been no terrorist attacks, and the police state people have been nattering about hasn't appeared.
History makes fools look like the dilettantes they are, and it will do the same for Obama: he was a media and popular darling among the uninformed, but is a fundamentally corrupt person with a very shady past and no tangible ideas, and he introduces America to the disorganization that will lead it to become a failed third-world state (as Spengler, Toynbee and Plato tell us).
The rest of the world is celebrating Obama from Schadenfreude, because they want to see the USA humbled and weakened.
When nations lack shared values, they collapse, and in the chaos tyrants and oligarchs prevail, reducing them to failed third world states.
Toynbee, Spengler and Plato agree on this.
America is now at a stop point:
Most white people voted for McCain, showing their values.
All but 5% of black people voted for Obama, showing their values.
( http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#USP00p1 )
These values are incompatible, and it is oppression to both groups to have the values of one group picked to rule us all.
Pluralism does not work. Historically, it has not, and the only examples we have of it are from dying states.
America will have to end pluralism, and either fragment or find a dominant ideology, or it will become a failed state.
Among those of us who work with computers, of course we're going to pick the Linux variant.
But for the your average person, what makes a computer valuable to them is their favorite software. Windows XP installs quickly, runs that software, doesn't crash much, and with newer security measures is unlikely to get infected.
For Linux to compete, it should aim at producing distributions that support as much hardware as XP, have similar friendly installations, and possibly -- dear god did I say it -- run XP software, because win32 is the biggest software base in the world and it's what users want.
Guerrilla wars mean you are fighting against an asymmetric enemy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_warfare
The goal then becomes to stabilize the community and apprehend leaders of the insurgents.
Iraq is already "won" because the regime was deposed, and as in Afghanistan, it has crippled their ability to launch a second attack.
The question is not how many died on 9/11, but how to prevent future attacks by convincing insurgents there would be consequences.
Societies have a life cycle starting with strong leaders and ending with populist democracy.
Populist democracy makes self-centered people. They are neurotic and obsessed with the trivial. As a result, democracies become unable to hold any consensus, at which point they are taken over by tyrants.
Historians know of this cycle, but they also know it is socially unacceptable to mention that our empire might be slowly dying. For references, see the work of Arnold Toynbee, Oswald Spengler and Plato.
Personally, I am most concerned with these issues:
* Meritocracy that promotes the best, not the preferred victims and downtrodden.
* Government having less power through having fewer social welfare programs.
* Legalize drugs in California, so the drug-related mayhem can all go there.
* Allow states to have greater rights in determining abortion, drug legalization, gay marriage and other trivial issues (issues not related to direction of the nation as a whole).
* Find a workable plan that balances privacy and the need to enforce laws regarding content piracy. I would suggest licensing fees as fines.
* Balance the menace of other wannabe superpowers like Russia and China.
* Continue our friendship and defense of Israel, the state created to prevent genocide of the Jewish people.
Although it is political suicide to say it, I am happy with the job George W. Bush has done.
* The economic downturn is not his fault; these are periodistic cycles.
* The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq cannot be "won," but we eliminated safe home-bases for future terrorists of the Islamic stripe. 9/11 was not avenged so much as a deterrent established.
* Our educational system is so politically divided there is no hope of fixing it. I used to complain about "No Child Left Behind" until I realized the politics of education have ruined public education, probably permanently. Now I'm working toward school vouchers.
* The Patriot Act and TSA ended up not being a big deal and we can see them backing off, not because of some citizens' protest, but because they managed to deter terrorism.
I would like to vote for Ron Paul, but if that is not an option, I will vote for John McCain or Ralph Nader (his take on deep ecology is closest to mine, and this is my most important issue).
One thing I will not do is go into denial about the future of America and Europe. These are societies on a downward cycle, and they lack the will to pull out.
By choosing Joe Biden as their vice presidential candidate, the Democrats have selected a politician with a mixed record on technology who has spent most of his Senate career allied with the FBI and copyright holders, who ranks toward the bottom of CNET's Technology Voters' Guide, and whose anti-privacy legislation was actually responsible for the creation of PGP.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10024163-38.html
Advertising within videos shown online is always going to be a failure. Online videos are not linear. We can fast forward, skip around, or go to another page.
TV is linear, at least without TiVo or MythTV. You have to watch what's there, so you mute and leave the room for commercials. (Does anyone like commercials? The witty ones are fun -- the first time of 800 times you'll see them.)
They need to adapt to online reality. Sell banner ads and Google ads, or Amazon referrer links. That's the online reality. TV is for dinosaurs ;)
That "Anonymous Coward" guy is MEAN.
Let's be good sheygetz and go die for Israel!
The propaganda may be good, but no thanks. Death to all insane religions & their followers!
In 1984, it was governments that were the "oppressor."
Now we see how willing business is to cut losses via shoplifting, make collecting data from customers easier, and make money from resale of privacy data.
Maybe they should just call these "RL cookies" as they serve the same function... except not edible like the namesake of the online tracking token.
Soon nothing will exist without being "owned," and not in the 0\/\//\/3> sense. Owned like capital, stock certificates, and "rights" that means anyone doing anything slightly similar must bend over for the iron glove of pleasure through pain.
Because there were so many people using it. It's not the client, but centralizing on one that can work on a broad range of platforms and get the most broadband users online. Audiogalaxy was great because you could find anything, and you could find anything because the people were there. These clients don't pick the songs, users do. And users is the determining factor in a powerful p2p network. Steaming sheepdom, I know.
They need to control their brands. Britney Spears is a face, a person, and a phrase that almost millions of media-fed-heads on earth recognize. Napster and other communications channels break the tight hold music companies have on controlling image and thus value of their brands. I support any encrypted, distributed network for the general purpose of disseminating information; like a shovel, it can be used to plant or to kill and that is the user's concern and not that of the service. Besides, with the new anti-terrorism legislation, Napster and other services as anonymous will be a thing of the past.
I find only BAUDOT survives the interruptions of our communications systems these days. Anyone using 300 baud or above is subject to all forms of magnetic interference.