In general though, the US has been getting a little techy about the growing independence of the supra-EU state.
The thing that really worries me is - what happens if the USA starts losing it's pole position in the world? The world is changing - China is becoming stronger and Europe is finally getting it's act together.
The reason I find this so worrying is because I believe the current administration is the USA are capable of starting a third world war just to try to get back to top dog position. And the public in the USA seem so easily manipulated these days that I'm sure the administration could get them to buy into the idea if the USA starts to look weak.
President Ed Black wrote letters to Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, telling them he knew they had been asked to "take extraordinary actions" because of the European decision.
When I read stuff like this it makes me think "get stuffed USA". No disrespect to the nice Americans reading this, but your current administration is too big for it's boots. Don't tell us how the USA is all about freedom and then try to bully us into doing what you want us to do.
I'm not sure which would be better, 2 strong parties, like in the US, or dozens of small parties forming coalitions, like in India.
I believe Israel is also similar to India in this sense.
I'm not a big fan of the two party system (the UK is much like the US in this respect), because it divides everything into left or right, black or white. The opposition always tends to feel the need to support the opposite of whatever the current administration stands for. That's why I encourage people to vote for minor parties - if nobody does because "they'll never win" then we will always be stuck with the two party system. (UK folks - vote Liberal Democrat in the next elections!)
Some "third-world" countries have difficulty keeping track of their population, in other words, some people simply are not registered on any lists. For those countries, using biometrics for voting actually makes sense, as it allows for "unregistered" people but disallows them from voting twice. In fact, it's a bit of a paradox - biometrics could actually be the answer for those people who don't like the government keeping records on them.
You assume that to be the case. What if it isn't true?
The USA has many of the best researchers partly because you've been able to take the cream from other countries by offering higher salaries. What if that isn't the case in the future?
It could work like that. But I was thinking of something simpler - try to deliver via a secure P2P connection, if that doesn't work, then deliver by email. For this to work it needs to be simple - the client needs to be able to find out how to connect via P2P just from the email address. And it needs to be fairly transparent to the user.
However, the great thing about the approach is that it is modular, so other methods could be added and OSS messaging projects could spawn and evolve within a framework.
Email does have reliable delivery. however it's only reliable to the MX host. After that, it's out of your hands.
It is either reliable or it isn't. It isn't.
Unfortunately non-static IPs for most users and AUPs prohibiting long-running network servers put the damper on that little plan.
You don't seem to get what I'm saying. It would try the best method (secure, reliable), if that didn't work, it would try the next best method (email?). So the message goes by the best available method. That's the whole point of what I'm saying.
I used to work programming software that basically transmitted information between banks. I learnt one very simple thing that I think could be really helpful for the OSS community: Separate the message from the method of delivery.
Banks are obviously really paranoid about security. They also really need messages to get through, quickly. In the software that I worked on, you would basically configure it with a priorty list of methods that it could use to transmit the message. So the most secure and failsafe method would be the one it tried first. If that didn't work it would try other methods, gradually going down the list, which usually ended with Fax being the most primitive method.
So how is this relevant to the OSS community? Well, we all know email is pretty much broken. Businesses want message delivery that is 1) secure and 2) reliable. Email is neither. With OSS email clients, we should change our mentality a bit and treat them instead as messaging clients, with email being just one of the methods it might use to send the message. The first thing it might try would be a secure, peer-to-peer connection with the recipient of the message. If all OSS email clients followed the same standard - perhaps based on this WASTE code? - soon most messages might be sent by a better manner than email.
One day very soon, Microsoft is going to come out with a "better email". The OSS community will bitch about it, and then if it takes off they will try to copy it. I'd much prefer we did the innovating and MS had to copy... Come on guys!
even though it's the greatest country in the world
Most people think where they live is the greatest country in the world, so you're just like everyone else in that respect!
Re:This is necessary
on
Weapons in Space
·
· Score: 1, Flamebait
Humans are naturally antagonistic. Violence is our nature.
Well, that's true of Americans. But just because it's true of you, doesn't mean it's true everywhere in the world.
I know I'm going to get slated for saying this, but in many countries in Europe the people are not violent by nature. Nor are Canadians. Or Australians or Kiwi's.
Because Ms. Edmonds didn't say the Bush administration knew about the 9/11 attacks before the happened.
She effectively did. She said that they had information that there were planned attacks with aeroplanes against skyscrapers in the short term before September 11.
She was brought in AFTER 9/11 to clear a backlog of untranslated documents
True. Two days after.
But these were UNTRANSLATED DOCUMENTS, so nobody knew what information they contained.
But that's not what she is saying. She is saying that she saw documentation that showed that they knew, prior to 9/11, that there might be such an attack. And she said that in her testomony she was quite clear about which documents she was referring to, and it would be easy to confirm what she was saying.
I think the CIA/NSA/FBI frowns on translators revealing information
Yep, I can understand that. However, if what she is saying is true, this is a huge news story and definately "in the public interest".
She has testified before the commission investigating intelligence failures before 9/11, in private. But that wasn't good enough for her, so she went to the UK media.
Yes, I expect because she thought there would be a cover-up. Remember, this information could be embarassing to both the Rublicans and the Demoncrats. Both parties might want it covered up.
I think if what she says is true then she did the right thing going public about it. However, no doubt she is now going to get smeared, because that's what happens when someone speaks out, at least in the USA and UK.
Have Europeans accepted the poor things their countries did in the past?
I think the answer to that is yes. I am a brit and have had many German friends, and there certainly a great deal of repentance in Germany about the past.
Apparently your government has used a law to stop this story in the press.
To correct a misunderstanding in my own post - I believe they have obtained a gagging order against Sibel Edmonds, not against the press.
However, I still think it most odd that this story has been front page news in the UK, and has a full second page devoted to it in the Spanish paper I just brought, and yet there is no sign of it in many of the principal USA sources I look at (CNN, Foxnews, NY Times etc). It looks to me like there's some kind of pressure being put on the USA press not to print this story.
Another thing that suffers from this type of mentality is long term R&D. Japan has had many very long term R&D projects which has been criticised by outsiders as being too long term.
I've just been watching a Japanese robot demo on the TV. Very impressive. I think the fruits of there long term investment in robotics R&D will be seen in the next decade.
This reminds me of something a successful businessman told me about accountants: "Accountants know the cost of everything, and the value of nothing".
A problem occurs when people look at a spreadsheet of accounts and think it represents a business. It doesn't. A classic illustration of this is Marks & Spencer's returns policy. If you buy a pair of trousers from Marks & Spencers and then once you've got them home decide they don't fit or whatever, you can return them, no questions asked. To an accountant, this is just a cost. There is no identifiable figure in the accounts that you can point to and say, there's the benefit of that cost. And yet many people shop there because of the policy.
This coming from the man who thought the internet wasn't important and that 640K should be enough for anyone.
My prediction - in the next few years, perhaps as early as 2005 - Microsoft are going to start posting declining profits. The financial press is going to be shocked and say no one saw it coming.
Slashdot Mirror
In general though, the US has been getting a little techy about the growing independence of the supra-EU state.
The thing that really worries me is - what happens if the USA starts losing it's pole position in the world? The world is changing - China is becoming stronger and Europe is finally getting it's act together.
The reason I find this so worrying is because I believe the current administration is the USA are capable of starting a third world war just to try to get back to top dog position. And the public in the USA seem so easily manipulated these days that I'm sure the administration could get them to buy into the idea if the USA starts to look weak.
Why the hell is this modded +5 Insightful? This guy hasn't got a clue about the costs involved in corporate level IT.
President Ed Black wrote letters to Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, telling them he knew they had been asked to "take extraordinary actions" because of the European decision.
When I read stuff like this it makes me think "get stuffed USA". No disrespect to the nice Americans reading this, but your current administration is too big for it's boots. Don't tell us how the USA is all about freedom and then try to bully us into doing what you want us to do.
Yep, SCO's stock seems to be zooming up this morning.
I don't get it either.
Lemme get this right.
I was talking hypothetically. No country does this yet. However, I don't see why it shouldn't be possible in the near future.
I'm not sure which would be better, 2 strong parties, like in the US, or dozens of small parties forming coalitions, like in India.
I believe Israel is also similar to India in this sense.
I'm not a big fan of the two party system (the UK is much like the US in this respect), because it divides everything into left or right, black or white. The opposition always tends to feel the need to support the opposite of whatever the current administration stands for. That's why I encourage people to vote for minor parties - if nobody does because "they'll never win" then we will always be stuck with the two party system. (UK folks - vote Liberal Democrat in the next elections!)
Some "third-world" countries have difficulty keeping track of their population, in other words, some people simply are not registered on any lists. For those countries, using biometrics for voting actually makes sense, as it allows for "unregistered" people but disallows them from voting twice. In fact, it's a bit of a paradox - biometrics could actually be the answer for those people who don't like the government keeping records on them.
A guy on my hall gave up his fraternity secrets for sex.
This means nothing to me or I guess most people outside of the USA. What are "fraternity secrets"? Us deprived rest-of-the-worlders don't have them.
Are they chocolates?
Which crucuilly includes, in the US more than anywhere else, the freedom to be wrong.
Some Americans these days really have no idea how full of bullshit they are.
in the new, the US has the field to itself
You need to get out (of your country) more...
I know this is sometimes hard for Americans to understand, but the US is not the only nation with advanced research and development.
Most people, in most countries, are fairly ignorant. Sorry but it's true. True in the USA and true everywhere else.
The US can do R&D like no other.
You assume that to be the case. What if it isn't true?
The USA has many of the best researchers partly because you've been able to take the cream from other countries by offering higher salaries. What if that isn't the case in the future?
Something like this?
It could work like that. But I was thinking of something simpler - try to deliver via a secure P2P connection, if that doesn't work, then deliver by email. For this to work it needs to be simple - the client needs to be able to find out how to connect via P2P just from the email address. And it needs to be fairly transparent to the user.
However, the great thing about the approach is that it is modular, so other methods could be added and OSS messaging projects could spawn and evolve within a framework.
Email does have reliable delivery. however it's only reliable to the MX host. After that, it's out of your hands.
It is either reliable or it isn't. It isn't.
Unfortunately non-static IPs for most users and AUPs prohibiting long-running network servers put the damper on that little plan.
You don't seem to get what I'm saying. It would try the best method (secure, reliable), if that didn't work, it would try the next best method (email?). So the message goes by the best available method. That's the whole point of what I'm saying.
I used to work programming software that basically transmitted information between banks. I learnt one very simple thing that I think could be really helpful for the OSS community: Separate the message from the method of delivery.
Banks are obviously really paranoid about security. They also really need messages to get through, quickly. In the software that I worked on, you would basically configure it with a priorty list of methods that it could use to transmit the message. So the most secure and failsafe method would be the one it tried first. If that didn't work it would try other methods, gradually going down the list, which usually ended with Fax being the most primitive method.
So how is this relevant to the OSS community? Well, we all know email is pretty much broken. Businesses want message delivery that is 1) secure and 2) reliable. Email is neither. With OSS email clients, we should change our mentality a bit and treat them instead as messaging clients, with email being just one of the methods it might use to send the message. The first thing it might try would be a secure, peer-to-peer connection with the recipient of the message. If all OSS email clients followed the same standard - perhaps based on this WASTE code? - soon most messages might be sent by a better manner than email.
One day very soon, Microsoft is going to come out with a "better email". The OSS community will bitch about it, and then if it takes off they will try to copy it. I'd much prefer we did the innovating and MS had to copy... Come on guys!
even though it's the greatest country in the world
Most people think where they live is the greatest country in the world, so you're just like everyone else in that respect!
Humans are naturally antagonistic. Violence is our nature.
Well, that's true of Americans. But just because it's true of you, doesn't mean it's true everywhere in the world.
I know I'm going to get slated for saying this, but in many countries in Europe the people are not violent by nature. Nor are Canadians. Or Australians or Kiwi's.
Because Ms. Edmonds didn't say the Bush administration knew about the 9/11 attacks before the happened.
She effectively did. She said that they had information that there were planned attacks with aeroplanes against skyscrapers in the short term before September 11.
She was brought in AFTER 9/11 to clear a backlog of untranslated documents
True. Two days after.
But these were UNTRANSLATED DOCUMENTS, so nobody knew what information they contained.
But that's not what she is saying. She is saying that she saw documentation that showed that they knew, prior to 9/11, that there might be such an attack. And she said that in her testomony she was quite clear about which documents she was referring to, and it would be easy to confirm what she was saying.
I think the CIA/NSA/FBI frowns on translators revealing information
Yep, I can understand that. However, if what she is saying is true, this is a huge news story and definately "in the public interest".
She has testified before the commission investigating intelligence failures before 9/11, in private. But that wasn't good enough for her, so she went to the UK media.
Yes, I expect because she thought there would be a cover-up. Remember, this information could be embarassing to both the Rublicans and the Demoncrats. Both parties might want it covered up.
I think if what she says is true then she did the right thing going public about it. However, no doubt she is now going to get smeared, because that's what happens when someone speaks out, at least in the USA and UK.
Have Europeans accepted the poor things their countries did in the past?
I think the answer to that is yes. I am a brit and have had many German friends, and there certainly a great deal of repentance in Germany about the past.
Apparently your government has used a law to stop this story in the press.
To correct a misunderstanding in my own post - I believe they have obtained a gagging order against Sibel Edmonds, not against the press.
However, I still think it most odd that this story has been front page news in the UK, and has a full second page devoted to it in the Spanish paper I just brought, and yet there is no sign of it in many of the principal USA sources I look at (CNN, Foxnews, NY Times etc). It looks to me like there's some kind of pressure being put on the USA press not to print this story.
Why are we so willing to comprimise our rights?
Hey, I thought you guys had freedom of speech? If so, why is it that virtually no USA based media is reporting that an FBI insider, Sibel Edmonds, has said that the Bush administration knew about the 911 attacks before they happened. Apparently your government has used a law to stop this story in the press.
Freedom of speech indeed!
Another thing that suffers from this type of mentality is long term R&D. Japan has had many very long term R&D projects which has been criticised by outsiders as being too long term.
I've just been watching a Japanese robot demo on the TV. Very impressive. I think the fruits of there long term investment in robotics R&D will be seen in the next decade.
This reminds me of something a successful businessman told me about accountants: "Accountants know the cost of everything, and the value of nothing".
A problem occurs when people look at a spreadsheet of accounts and think it represents a business. It doesn't. A classic illustration of this is Marks & Spencer's returns policy. If you buy a pair of trousers from Marks & Spencers and then once you've got them home decide they don't fit or whatever, you can return them, no questions asked. To an accountant, this is just a cost. There is no identifiable figure in the accounts that you can point to and say, there's the benefit of that cost. And yet many people shop there because of the policy.
Troll? I was being serious. And joking.
I'd love you more if you just gave me the money...
This coming from the man who thought the internet wasn't important and that 640K should be enough for anyone.
My prediction - in the next few years, perhaps as early as 2005 - Microsoft are going to start posting declining profits. The financial press is going to be shocked and say no one saw it coming.