Its possible that the girl pressing charges "is" an agent ("CIA" other "friendly countries" government agency) with the primary mission of getting Assange in an akward position to smear his name and discredit him and wikileaks along with it.
Sleeping with someone is not necessarily outside of the call of duty in the intelligence service.
If anything this attack on Assange validates the decision of other wikileaks participants for keeping their identities secret to protect themselves.
I don't know about you but I think its pretty courageous (probably bordering on stupid) to piss off the US government. Their reach extends almost anywhere in the world and they have the time and resources to turn your life into a living hell.
They are tracking my IP now... knock knock... oh oh.
This is the delusion of the American neo-conservatives. The truth is he doesn't pay more taxes than the average American (or not significantly more so). It ties in perfectly with the "american dream": "If you work hard enough you to will be rich." (if you're an American and you're not rich yet it's your fault: you're just not working hard enough. It's not corporations and government (bought by said corporations) that are screwing you, you just have to work harder. Oh and don't forget to do as you're told and vote for your local neo-con, so he/she can go to Washington and can continue represent your local corporate interests.
The difference is his country is spending money on educating their citizens, rather than spending billions on subsidizing an entire military industrial complex. His country is also not spending billions on bailing out banks that squandered our money after lobbying the government to deregulate the banking industry, and then proceeding to prove why the original regulation was there in the first place.
My guess is that in his country voter participation is higher than 50% and that they vote for what is in their interest (not in corporate interests) likely his countries government isn't as bought because the politicians know that they'll get tossed out on their asses if they don't listen to voters (who haven't been brain washed to vote against their best interests).
BTW Hint, hint: If you make an average middle class income or less, you get significantly more benefits (child care, education, health care, labour rights, etc...) in a social democracy then you pay in taxes, since most tax systems are generally progressive (aka the more you make the more you pay, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_tax ) . The Europeans have figured this out and are active voters and think for themselves (for the most part) which is why the have 35 hr work weeks, 6 weeks vacation, free health care and almost free education.
The wealth a society creates can be divided more evenly, rather than being concentrated in the hand of the few.
This training program only has some merit in the absence of free education for everyone, in that it offers those with little opportunity to begin with a faint hope clause.
Otherwise its just the start of a pyramid scheme. Aka we'll pay you a few dollars to bust your as and learn on your own --> then if we think your good enough we'll let you work for us for 80+ hrs / week --> after that "if you work hard enough you can become rich" --> most likely though we'll burn you out and throw you away like used toilet paper. After all we have an endless supply of new kids to feed to the "training mill". Sounds a lot like the "American Dream" (Scheme) recycled.
Bend over and we'll help you help us screw you for profit in exchange for faint hope.
Yes and the Toyota Prius has been around since err
1997.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prius)
and it was sold worldwide since 2001 (I'm assuming that includes the US).
If the US had technology companies run by engineers and technical people rather than lawyers and accountants perhaps they would chose "innovation" over "litigation" as a business strategy.
The sad truth is that even if someone at GM or Ford had the same idea in 1997 or earlier the bean counters and lawyers would have axed a hybrid in favour of more profitable SUVs..
If you don't believe me look at who's on the board at GM, do a search for engineer in this article: (http://www.finchannel.com/news_flash/Oil_&_Auto/43476_New_Slate_of_GM_Board_of_Directors_Members_Selected_/) funny... almost no engineers...
VS at Daimler: (http://www.daimler.com/dccom/0-5-7158-1-65184-1-0-0-0-0-0-8-7145-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html) 4 out of 5 on the management board have engineering backgrounds..
Hmmm.
Stealing US ideas... what ideas? The idea to sue everybody... maybe I should patent "patent troll law suits" and sue all the patent lawyers (after all it is a "business process" and a "unique" invention)...
Denmark generates 19% of _ALL_ its electrical energy requirements using wind. Spain and Portugal 9%, Germany 6%. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power)
You'll see the US consumes almost TWICE as much energy per person as Germany.
For environmental issues (like CO2 emissions) efficient energy use is at least as important as how you generate it.
The news here is not that the US is the biggest installed capacity, but the rapid growth of wind power. In Environmental terms both Germany and the US still only generate a small amount of their electricity by wind power (less than 10%).
So there's still a lot of work to be done to lessen the dependency on non renewable energy sources like coal etc...
but most people (not just nerds) could learn something in a course like this...
The truth is not just Nerds could use this type of a course, but other people as well.
In my own experience a course like this would have saved me a lot of painful learning after university when I entered the working world.
BTW they teach courses like this in business school too they just call them something fancier like "interpersonal management" instead of "social skills for nerds", and they are very popular courses.
There's interesting evidence to support that IQ is only an indicator of success up to a point. Once you have enough IQ points to make it into university a much stronger indicator of success is your Emotional Intelligence (ability to deal with people).
I used to mock the importance of EI skills (much like many of you posting here) because I didn't understand them myself and how to learn about EI. I was afraid of dealing with people and acknowledging that my EI skills needed improvement (although I didn't admit it to myself at the time).
It's a long road to learn how to behave and practice the skills, and requires a certain mindset. For me I just thought about it as how to "hack humans" (including myself) to get social interactions between me and the rest of the world to work better.
I started to read certain books, and started to acknowledge that if a social interaction didn't work out that maybe I needed to change my behavior (even if its to manage the other persons bad behavior).
Here are just a few books that I found interesting:
"People Watching", Desmond Morris "How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships", Leil Lowndes "Emotional Intelligence", Daniel Goleman "Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis", Eric Berne "Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without giving in", Roger Fisher and William Ury
There's many more and I cant remember all of them.
Then the other thing I did is to seek out environments where I could experiment by changing my behavior (be careful what you do at work though... it might not be the best place to start).
You can join a public speaking club, or any other social club where you meet normal people, pick something that interests you.
I found keeping a diary about any interactions that went badly was useful. It helped me recognize certain behavioral patterns I got stuck in or when people "pushed my buttons". That helped me understand what I needed to try changing next time.
Note: a lot of the changes I made didn't work, but I learned from them and through trial and error I learned what to do with different people. It's and iterative and often painful process, that you get better at the more you do it (not unlike programming;) ).
What I've found with the "nerds" that have worked for me is that they fall into two categories (there's definitely not a normal distribution)
1) (about 20-40%) Those that have developed acceptable social skills and Emotional Intelligence to deal with other people and get what they want are usually happier, easier to work with and more likely to get promoted and be successful in their job (and keep their jobs). Often they end up being "translators" and team leads for less adapted individuals.
2) (the balance) those that are missing out on their true potential (often really smart guys) because they cant communicate to get the resources, support they need, or even to explain a good solution to a less technically gifted boss. Mostly they are frustrated by what they cant do because of "dumb" colleagues or "dumb" bosses.
The reality is if you are smarter than your boss than you can learn the necessary EI on how to interact with him/her to manage the relationship. By getting better at communicating with your boss you can gain influence and get them to do what makes sense and also learn when to respect their answer and accept a "no" without taking it as a personal attack (sometimes th
People do not know enough about Islam, or Muslims, and they don't know enough Arabs in person...
Or about many other cultures other than their own. And they do not know their history.
Human instinct is to be afraid of what you do not understand... a 10,000 years ago being curious and investigating the noise in bushes gets you eaten by the animal lurking there... running in terror at the slightest noise helped you're genes reproduce and survive.
The problem is that in the modern world these instincts aren't really appropriate any more (99.99 % of the time) and are being systematically exploited by people in power to feed and support a culture of fear and uncertainty.
We've seen this strategy in history again and again to use ignorance and instinctive fear to divide and conquer.
White against black, Christian against Muslim... whatever dividing lines you choose...
and while we are paralyzed with fear of each other the corporations and politicians do what they want.
They use the fear to justify taking away our basic rights in the name of security...
The truth is that with FREEDOM, comes RESPONSIBILITY and that the only difference between a police state and an open democratic society is the loss of YOUR rights. Neither are more secure against terrorists... (in fact the police state is already practicing terrorism against its own citizens).
I'm not afraid to travel to the US because of Muslim terrorists any more than I am of the plane I'm in getting struck by lightning...
Frankly US border officers or the idea of Armed Air Marshals and FBI officers with unlimited rights to arrest search etc scares me much more...
The reality is that extreme fanaticism (whether religious or otherwise) is usually a product of extreme poverty, lack of hope and/or desperation. Normal people with day jobs that can feed their families don't go strap explosives to themselves and blow up buildings or planes...
That is the real issue. If global hunger was eliminated and basic rights where there for everyone (including basic education) then fanatical cultures or religions would have a hard time finding anyone to follow their suicidal ideas.
This is a clear case of racial profiling and is just another sign of the lost rights of American citizens (in the name of security).
They organize typically 4 month summer exchanges and have a large international presence.
If you're looking for a cost effective exchange check with your university career center and international center, many of them already have "exchange partners" with other universities including arrangements for little or no fees (you will still have to pay the cost of living, although many help with that too).
I suspect that the US will be among the most expensive destinations, look at other english speaking countries like, Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc... you don't have to go third world to make it affordable.
Good point. I take it the email is steve.jobs@apple.com???:)
One other thing I think I will also remind Apple about...
Who do people ask what computers to buy?
In manay cases they ask their neighbourhood geek (aka slashdot reader)...
Many of the geeks that were first to switch, where the ones to support a move to apple in the first place and they told their friends ( I know I did, I personally caused 2 people to switch and there's one more thinking of buying a mac because of my advice)... as the geeks switch away their advice will change as well.
Now that the OS is becoming less important (with VMs and enough CPU power) and people have already switched once from windows to apple, a jump to linux isn't that big a jump anymore...
There are already PCs available preloaded with linux... too.
Actually I've avoided anything HD particularly for that reason (DRM)...
I'm hoping that before I'm forced to change because normal DVDs aren't available anymore that the industry will have come to its senses (wishful thinking I know...:} ) and be producing technology without DRM crippling features.
I don't know about you but "nothing more" than _not_ being able to use the technology I paid for the way I want to use it is a big deal.
The next step after DRM is in place is to charge you again for every copy of a movie or song you already own. In other words you cant copy music from you CD collection to your MP3 player or your PC and listen to it. DRM will prevent that. You will have to pay again for each copy...
After that... the next step is to charge "per play" 5 cents every time you listen to the song...
Then the next step is to create cycle of new player technologies and the next generation player won't play the previous generations content and you'll have to pay for the music again...
It's a slippery slope once you accept lock in...
The only way to send a message is not to buy crippled hardware. If a technology won't sell then it sends a clear message.
I'd rather give up some features in a product than my freedom to use it the way I want.
For all those slashdoters that work at apple: Make sure you let your Marketing department know that this has cost them a long time customer.
I have a powerbook G4 and I recently bought a mac mini for my wife.
I was planning to get a new Macbook for Xmas.
However hearing about this has changed my mind. I will not let a company dictate what my fair use rights are. I'm disappointed, its so short sighted on Apples part. Technology companies should stick to technology and let our courts and elected members of government worry about our rights and rights of content producers (admittedly they haven't done a good job either).
I moved away from Windows because of this (that and stability issues). I know from the Windows media player 10 or higher behaviour that it won't let me play is my own content (I created it, I own the copyright) and home videos over a projector...
It's bad enough when I have to change software, in this case an open source player (VLC) solved the problem for me. If the "crippleware" is OS and hardware based the only thing at that point is to chose an uncrippled product.
It's too bad. Apple does do a good job with hardware etc.. I've been very satisfied with the Powerbook G4 I have.
I will now be looking at a nice small laptop with an AMD CPU running Linux (probably Ubuntu). If anyone has any suggestions let me know.:)
In Canada to get a wiretap the following is required (to my knowledge):
1) Reasonable suspicion that a crime is or has been committed.
2) A warrant signed by a Judge (oversight).
Canada still has a democracy.
In a police state "preventing crime" takes precedent over peoples rights to privacy, freedom of movement and association. The idea is "crime is prevented through surveillance and control."
This is a clear cut case of where everyone argues "oh its ok" we violated everyones rights, after all we stopped "TERRORISTS" for hurting people.
Every Americans rights are threatened when it is "ok" to monitor just one conversation.
Translation: "the ends justify the means."
This is the talk of people that have given up their rights in exchange for a a false sense of security and control (because they are afraid and feel out of control).
The truth is that freedom and control are at opposite ends of the spectrum. You cannot have true freedom in a controlled environment (you have the illusion of freedom).
We control the environments of our children to protect them from harm, but we leave them as much an illusion of freedom as we can, but even they find the boundaries. At some point after teaching them as much as we can we let them go into the world and TRUST them to start to manage the dangers and risks themselves as ADULTS.
So ask yourself America: Are you a nation of children that needs protection by a false parent "the state", or are you Adults and can be trusted to handle democracy, freedom and the risks that come with that?
Many more people die in car accidents then of terrorist acts. If you're ok with monitoring private calls, really our taxes should be spent on speed limiters, black boxes and remote ignition kill switches for vehicles, so that the state can protect us from ourselves when we go too fast and cause accidents. (oh and don't get me started on firearms...) Of course that would mean loosing your illusion of freedom in a trade off for a real gain in safety and security.
Wiretapping without Judicial oversight is a true loss of freedom with a limited gain in safety. It does not affect your illusion of freedom until you test the boundaries (disagree with the parent state).
If we give up our rights and begin to act like children, then democracy has failed and the Terrorists have succeed in damaging our society far more than we acknowledge. After all the objective of Terrorists is to cause "terror and fear" in the hope that it will change things to support their agenda.
The issue is not whether wiretapping is useful or not. It is. However being able to wiretap is a great power. With that power comes responsibility and the possibility for misuse and abuse. This is why oversight is needed (much like we can vote for a new government every 4-5 years).
The true issue is the lack of oversight (transparent processes that hold people accountable). As and Adult I am willing trust other Adults working to protect me as long as sufficient oversight exists to make sure abuses of power are prevented (or at least exposed and corrected). With oversight the control of wiretapping remains in my hands (admittedly indirectly through law) without it I become a child with the illusion of freedom being watched over by someone else.
You're right the key thing about the longevity or stability of piece of software is that there is a community of developers to work on it.
That being said if you look at source forge projects you'll find that many of the open source projects only have a few core developers, but still remain and are useful (rather than disappearing in some corporate lock down). It doesn't take a huge core group of developers for software to survive, what it takes is a large enough user base.
Also, the community around MySQL would like not have come together if people though that they wouldn't have control over the code they contribute. In general one doesn't see large lines of people volunteering to work on corporate owned software, unless its also under an open source license.
The open source license is probably one of the reasons that MySQL community has a chance of surviving despite the introduction of new corporate partner (SUN), because the developers rights to their previously written code are protected by the GPL and cant be taken away.
Forking the code is not always permanent, there have been many cases where forks eventually flow back into product, or ideas from forks are adapted in the mainstream. The reality is that although forking may lead to some duplication of work (and can be disruptive in the short term), ultimately it keeps good developers coding even when they are in disagreement about something, and that usually in the long term works better than people walking away because they don't have control.
As for SUN furthering MySQL... they are but maybe not the way you think they should be. I suspect that their main interest is in providing their enterprise customers with a Solaris compatible version that can run larger DBs rather than improving it for smaller users. Perhaps from a code standpoint they have no intent to invest more resources than they already do.
That being said having a big name like SUN stand behind a piece of software will likely lead to more enterprise acceptance and users (which will increase the user base and probably help the software).
For me the key reasons I use MySQL is because: 1) it works and does what I want 2) its open source so I know it will remain around even if SUN finds some other DB they like better or goes out of business (worst case I have the source code). 3) I don't have to worry about licensing costs or issues as much (eg. do I have enough seat licenses etc.)
Lets agree to disagree. Even though I forked your comment.;)
The way to get around windows installs is to install kvm and create a virtual machine. patch it and set it up the way you like, with all the software etc... then zip up a copy of the drive image.
create samba share to store all your data files separate from the image.
run windows in kvm (advantage is you have linux available too) and when it gets hosed, just replace the image file with a fresh unzipped one.
OK I admit it doesn't really work well for gaming but for most other things it makes it easy. (Since VM Machine hardware never changes, there are no calls to Microsoft).... (yes its off topic)...
Security depends both on the voting / counting process and on the technology (this is true for paper ballots as well). The problem is when the technology can easily be changed in a hidden way that is unverifiable by elections officials.
A simple machine, that has been tested and verify can be sealed with stickers with signatures of election officials.
A machine (think diabold) with all kinds of inputs (think keyboard plugs) and complexity (think OS, DB etc...) cannot be easily sealed and verified by election officials.
I found two interesting articles about India's EVM
The two things I found interesting: 1) EVM cost = $230 (hard to tamper with, and relies on election officials to keep secure)
2) Diebold cost = $3300 (easier to tamper with, and relies on election officials to keep secure)
This points out two things: voting systems don't have to be complicated or expensive to work well, and that security depends both on the machine and the voting process.
Just like with paper ballots the election officials need to ensure security of the voting and counting process.
In Canada we have some electronic voting at the municipal level in some cities (mostly optical scan machines).
But I guess setting up a few signature servers and basic processes that control "secure email" would be to much of a hassle for people sending around their holiday pictures...
Besides what do I know I just searched google for 2 min, and they are the US government....
Hmmm... Maybe thats the problem. If its not a $10 Billion boondoggle with some cool codename then the Defense industry wouldn't exist in the first place. (That and maybe the US would stop having to invade small middle eastern countries to justify its military spending).
They both have shitty service and behave like monopolies.
I finally switched to uniserve (ca.inter.net) a company based out of Montreal (I think).
I can highly recommend them. I was totally floored by their excellent service. $5 cheaper per month the first year (then the same price with modem rental), tech guys that speak English, support Mac OS X, windows, and even linux! Helpful friendly and polite.
They even walked me through how to configure my ADSL modem as a bridge so I could use my router behind it (its default configuration was as a router).
After every tech call to them, I received a follow up call 23-48 hrs later with them checking that the problem had been resolved to my satisfaction!
The only two problems I had were caused by Bell: One was on start up. Bell "forgot" to activate the line. Uniserve explained honestly to me that their hands were tied for any Bell issue Bell "requires" 48hrs to fix it.
The second problem was an outage caused by Bell (Bell claimed a "snow storm" damaged system... which ironically happened two days earlier on the Saturday and my internet was fine the day after on Sunday. Monday it died. Personally I think Bell throttled my ISP to almost zero since the error was a time out error (modem live lights worked) so they could give Bell business customers access while I waited for them to fix other lines that had failed on the weekend and Bell had not bothered to fix them.
I take uniserve's word over Bell, their service an support any other time has been consistent and outstanding.
Where as all previous experiences with Bell have been well... lets say leaving a lot to be desired.
If the CRTC reinstates Bells monopoly ISP service will go to crap.
Rogers vs Bell. What kind of competition is that?
The truth is if Bell or Rogers actually listened to their customers and gave them the service they want then they wouldn't have to worry about competition.
I will be writing my MP.
Note: I do not work for uniserve, and no I wasn't halucinating they actually called me back!
I don't get it. Since when does your ability to pay determine whether you need medical care?
Oh wait. We're talking about a third world country, no wait that's not right... it must be the US.
Only they would have sufficiently divided and apathetic voters that allow bought politicians to put corporate profit before the well being of human beings.
Trust me this is one problem the Market cant solve.
BTW before you scream about cost... No one in need of essential medical treatment (even an uninsured American) is turned away because they don't have the means to pay in Canada. Everyone in Canada is insured, and our medical system costs about half as much per capita. That and Canadians out live Americans by 3-5 years on average despite a harsher climate.
Yes our health care system is not perfect, and you'll hear Canadians complain about wait times (just like they complain about weather and just about anything else) but when it comes to voting for national hero's Tommy Douglas is still number 1 (he helped pioneer universal national medicare) and every time a Canadian government has so much as hinted to do anything other than improve our medical system they've been tossed out on their asses.
Doctors should assess patients based on their need for medical treatment, period.
I know its a strange concept but before you call us socialist commies look at the British, French, German or any other successful first world nation's medical system and you'll be surprised to find it's similar.
Universal medicare is not unaffordable, it's just not as profitable when corporations have to negotiate with a single government insurer about what its going to cost.
If you dish it out, you shouldn't be surprised when something comes back your way.
Again I agree with the post above I feel sorry for some of the employees caught in the middle, but have little sympathy for the company.
When you actively seek to disrupt somebody else's activities (legal or not), especially with questionable tactics it won't make you popular and there is going to be backlash.
Law enforcement activities should be left to law enforcement officers that have been empowered by democratically elected governments and are accountable for their methods and activities. When individuals or companies begin acting as vigilantes ( URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigilante ) it undermines the very stability and fairness of a legal system. Fair applications of law require law enforcement and police officers to follow a legal process that minimizes the effect an investigation has on innocent bystanders, all further controlled by legal system and the judiciary.
I find it most disconcerting that a government law enforcement entity (New York Attorney General's Office) is apparently supporting this vigilante behaviour by turning a blind eye to let someone else do their dirty work.
There is no doubt that some people are using P2P networks to commit acts of piracy but that does not justify disrupting P2P networks and affecting innocent bystanders, using P2P for legitimate purposes.
I agree with the suggestion to get binocs first and a good star guide first. Wait about 6 months before you buy a telescope and go out with the amateur club (you signed up for) and look through different peoples telescopes and see what the trade offs are.
If you absolutely want a telescope now (for viewing only) you can get a 6 inch dobsonian (newtonian mount) for that money which is a good all around scope for observing, this scope won't have a mount you can do long exposure photography with.
In general: Main criteria for scopes is resolution (NOT MAGNIFICATION) (think pixels) which is a direct function of the quality of the mirror (fractions of wave length). Magnification will only make something small -> bigger not sharper or clearer, in fact with atmospheric effects above about 100X it can actually make things worse)
After resolution, light gathering ability (size --> diameter of lense/mirror --> aperture) is the most important.
For planets realistically with atmospheric effects you won't be able to reliably observer more than 200X magnification normally. (Rule of thumb you need 25 mm of aperture (diameter of lense/ mirror) per ~40X magnification).
For deep sky objects (galaxies, nebulae, clusters) you usually observer at a magnification starting with binocs at 7-10X and then telescopes starting at around 30X- 80X magnification. The key for deep sky objects is aperture - aperture - aperture, the bigger the diameter of the scope the more you will see, and the fainter objects will be.
Also think how you will use it. If the scope won't be moved then size doesn't matter. But if you need to be able to take it on the bus, or it needs to fit in your car... that's a consideration too.
Although there are fantastic custom mirrors, and high end telescope manufacturers out there, for your purposes a middle of the road (think meade or celestron) volume manufacturer is likely your best bet.
Also buy USED from a reputable telescope dealer (Know what telescopes cost new before you go). Most people look after there telescopes and optics haven't changed much in the past 20 yrs or more. I would find a telescope dealer (think big cities) that sells used telescopes and tell them what you're looking for. Good ones will call you when something comes in on consignment.
Unless you want a "dial a galaxy mount" (ie will find stuff for you) you are likely to get far more for you money with a used scope. I bought an 8" schmidt casegrain with eye pieces for about $1500 (ten years ago) when the set up new would have cost me well over $3500!!! It still works great for me even now.
Don't forget to save some money for eye pieces, they are half the telescope system.
Remember astronomy is a learning hobby it rewards patience. Learn the constellations first.
The question to be put to Senators was not "Does god exist" but rather whether they choose to accept a widely accepted and used scientific model (or set of laws and theories) about evolution, backed by observational and empirical evidence, or whether they opt to ignore facts and evidence when they conflict with the teachings of their chosen faith (creationism or otherwise).
Ultimately there are different questions that are answered by science and by faith. However there is often overlap as the guardians of faith (religious organizations, priests etc...) explain phenomena also explained by science and scientists. Often this occurs as the body of scientific knowledge expands through discovery and provides alternate explanations for things already explained in religion.
This has occurred many times in the past and will again occur in the future. Although it appears that science and faith are in opposition to each other, they seek to answer fundamentally different needs and questions.
Science exists as a method and tool for humans to understand their environment on the basis of experimentation and empirical (observable and repeatable) evidence. In many areas science fails to provide answers and explanations. By its nature it can only prove what can be observed and repeated in experiments, but cannot disprove other theories and explanations.
Faith and religion on the other hand exists to help people feel happy and secure by providing explanations to unanswerable open questions. As such since these types of questions cannot be answered based on empirical evidence, they are answered through philosophy and other answers that ask the questioner to have "faith" and chose to believe an explanation without supporting evidence. In doing so they eliminate the discomfort associated with the unknown, by providing an answer to an unanswerable question.
When faced with the unknown,
a scientist will answer: "I don't know, lets see what we can measure and observe and perhaps we can find an explanation."
However most humans want a better answer than "I don't know" especially when it comes to matters such as life, death the meaning of life, our purpose etc...
Science and faith both serve important functions in society and are both needed, what is important to understand where the boundaries between the two should lie.
Much of our modern society (and its technology) has been made possible through the application of science. As a result it is important to have leaders in power that understand that and have a sufficient understanding of the strengths and limits of science, and where science ends and faith begins.
Evolution is part of the core of scientific knowledge explaining how life developed. Given that this explanation overlaps with existing religious explanations and faith (about life and why we're here etc...) it is not surprising that there is conflict.
If I have faith and believe that I am "bullet proof" and I choose to ignore the physics of fast moving metal objects (ie. bullets) and simply argue my faith is correct, it will not protect me from being shot and killed if my faith is incorrectly placed.
If I am presented with evidence that bullets can in fact kill me, if I chose to except that my faith may have provided a wrong answer then my behaviour is rational. As things become "known" and answerable by science, I revise my faith to reflect this new reality (something that religious organizations have done before, they even forgave Galileo).
In the context of evolution and genetics there are many factors that can just as easily lead to death as the bullet can. For example if the evolutionary process can create new deadly bacteria (causing illness) resistant to certain antibiotics, and I choose to ignore this and argue the new bacteria are "an act of God" (or offer some other explanation) then I may overuse existing antibiotics, or ban research into the evolutionary factors creating these new deadly bacteria resulting in deaths that could
Ironically one of the reasons I bought an apple is because the 12" PPC offered the most compact powerful machine that was well built that I could find at the time (plus it looked cool).
I actually searched about linux compatibility before buying, but Apple switched the graphics card to NVIDIA for the 12" and I didn't notice till later.. Then I thought ok I'll get the NVIDIA close source builds like I did for my PCs... then found out PPC builds didn't exist.
Apparently Sleep and video behaviour is better with the ATI cards with people getting twin head displays working with the 15" G4s, and iBooks with ATI cards.
Network support is there including wireless (BCM4300 = Airport Extreme), even WEP and WPA.
Much of it worked straight off with the 6.10 ubuntu install (although I'd install 6.06 now since ubuntu discontinued PPC support and 6.06 provides long term support).
I figure if my PPC lasts me another 1-2 yrs, then the MacBook + Linux issues will be worked out... or Dell will have something...
I'm guessing Isight will be an issue... not sure. I know that getting other cameras working with iChat was a disaster...
Slashdot Mirror
Its possible that the girl pressing charges "is" an agent ("CIA" other "friendly countries" government agency) with the primary mission of getting Assange in an akward position to smear his name and discredit him and wikileaks along with it.
Sleeping with someone is not necessarily outside of the call of duty in the intelligence service.
If the US will kidnap (arrests of convenience, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2982640.ece ) or assassinate ( http://www.brusselstribunal.org/IsraelDeathSquadsIraq.htm ) people they are more than willing to send someone to smear someone to discredit them.
If anything this attack on Assange validates the decision of other wikileaks participants for keeping their identities secret to protect themselves.
I don't know about you but I think its pretty courageous (probably bordering on stupid) to piss off the US government. Their reach extends almost anywhere in the world and they have the time and resources to turn your life into a living hell.
They are tracking my IP now... knock knock... oh oh.
There's a number of people that have turned old TV antennas into radio telescopes.
Here's an example:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Poor-Man-s-Radio-Telescope/
For more just google "DIY radio antenna"
There's even online stores that sell everything you need:
http://www.radioastronomysupplies.com/radio_astronomy_supplies.php
It could be an interesting project.
This is the delusion of the American neo-conservatives. The truth is he doesn't pay more taxes than the average American (or not significantly more so). It ties in perfectly with the "american dream": "If you work hard enough you to will be rich." (if you're an American and you're not rich yet it's your fault: you're just not working hard enough. It's not corporations and government (bought by said corporations) that are screwing you, you just have to work harder. Oh and don't forget to do as you're told and vote for your local neo-con, so he/she can go to Washington and can continue represent your local corporate interests.
The difference is his country is spending money on educating their citizens, rather than spending billions on subsidizing an entire military industrial complex. His country is also not spending billions on bailing out banks that squandered our money after lobbying the government to deregulate the banking industry, and then proceeding to prove why the original regulation was there in the first place.
My guess is that in his country voter participation is higher than 50% and that they vote for what is in their interest (not in corporate interests) likely his countries government isn't as bought because the politicians know that they'll get tossed out on their asses if they
don't listen to voters (who haven't been brain washed to vote against their best interests).
BTW Hint, hint: If you make an average middle class income or less, you get significantly more benefits (child care, education, health care, labour rights, etc...) in a social democracy then you pay in taxes, since most tax systems are generally progressive (aka the more you make the more you pay, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_tax ) . The Europeans have figured this out and are active voters and think for themselves (for the most part) which is why the have 35 hr work weeks, 6 weeks vacation, free health care and almost free education.
The wealth a society creates can be divided more evenly, rather than being concentrated in the hand of the few.
This training program only has some merit in the absence of free education for everyone, in that it offers those with little opportunity to begin with a faint hope clause.
Otherwise its just the start of a pyramid scheme. Aka we'll pay you a few dollars to bust your as and learn on your own --> then if we think your good enough we'll let you work for us for 80+ hrs / week --> after that "if you work hard enough you can become rich" --> most likely though we'll burn you out and throw you away like used toilet paper. After all we have an endless supply of new kids to feed to the "training mill". Sounds a lot like the "American Dream" (Scheme) recycled.
Bend over and we'll help you help us screw you for profit in exchange for faint hope.
Yes and the Toyota Prius has been around since err
1997.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prius)
and it was sold worldwide since 2001 (I'm assuming that includes the US).
If the US had technology companies run by engineers and technical people rather than lawyers and accountants perhaps they would chose
"innovation" over "litigation" as a business strategy.
The sad truth is that even if someone at GM or Ford had the same idea in 1997 or earlier the bean counters and lawyers would have axed a hybrid in favour of more profitable SUVs..
If you don't believe me look at who's on the board at GM, do a search for engineer in this article: (http://www.finchannel.com/news_flash/Oil_&_Auto/43476_New_Slate_of_GM_Board_of_Directors_Members_Selected_/)
funny... almost no engineers...
VS at Daimler: (http://www.daimler.com/dccom/0-5-7158-1-65184-1-0-0-0-0-0-8-7145-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html)
4 out of 5 on the management board have engineering backgrounds..
Hmmm.
Stealing US ideas... what ideas? The idea to sue everybody... maybe I should patent "patent troll law suits" and sue all the patent lawyers (after all it is a "business process" and a "unique" invention)...
Denmark generates 19% of _ALL_ its electrical energy requirements using wind.
Spain and Portugal 9%, Germany 6%.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power)
The US has a total installed capacity of 695 GW ( http://www.allcountries.org/uscensus/965_electric_energy_net_generation_and_installed.html )
25 GW wind / 695 GW installed = 3.5%
Incidentally 56% of the US's generating capacity is coal powered (can you say CO2 green house gases).
So the US produces 3.5% of its energy needs by wind, still behind Denmark 19%, Spain and Portugal 9%, ... and oh ya and Germany 6%.
If you want meaningful numbers you should look at energy consumption per person:
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electricity_consumption)
You'll see the US consumes almost TWICE as much energy per person as Germany.
For environmental issues (like CO2 emissions) efficient energy use is at least as important as how you generate it.
The news here is not that the US is the biggest installed capacity, but the rapid growth of wind power. In Environmental terms both Germany and the US still only generate a small amount of their electricity by wind power (less than 10%).
So there's still a lot of work to be done to lessen the dependency on non renewable energy sources like coal etc...
Just my 2 cents.
but most people (not just nerds) could learn something in a course like this...
The truth is not just Nerds could use this type of a course, but other people as well.
In my own experience a course like this would have saved me a lot of painful learning after university when I entered the working world.
BTW they teach courses like this in business school too they just call them something fancier like "interpersonal management" instead of "social skills for nerds", and they are very popular courses.
There's interesting evidence to support that IQ is only an indicator of success up to a point. Once you have enough IQ points to make it into university a much stronger indicator of success is your Emotional Intelligence (ability to deal with people).
I used to mock the importance of EI skills (much like many of you posting here) because I didn't understand them myself and how to learn about EI. I was afraid of dealing with people and acknowledging that my EI skills needed improvement (although I didn't admit it to myself at the time).
It's a long road to learn how to behave and practice the skills, and requires a certain mindset. For me I just thought about it as how to "hack humans" (including myself) to get social interactions between me and the rest of the world to work better.
I started to read certain books, and started to acknowledge that if a social interaction didn't work out that maybe I needed to change my behavior (even if its to manage the other persons bad behavior).
Here are just a few books that I found interesting:
"People Watching", Desmond Morris
"How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships", Leil Lowndes
"Emotional Intelligence", Daniel Goleman
"Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis", Eric Berne
"Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without giving in", Roger Fisher and William Ury
There's many more and I cant remember all of them.
Then the other thing I did is to seek out environments where I could experiment by changing my behavior (be careful what you do at work though... it might not be the best place to start).
You can join a public speaking club, or any other social club where you meet normal people, pick something that interests you.
I found keeping a diary about any interactions that went badly was useful. It helped me recognize certain behavioral patterns I got stuck in or when people "pushed my buttons". That helped me understand what I needed to try changing next time.
Note: a lot of the changes I made didn't work, but I learned from them and through trial and error I learned what to do with different people. It's and iterative and often painful process, that you get better at the more you do it (not unlike programming ;) ).
What I've found with the "nerds" that have worked for me is that they fall into two categories (there's definitely not a normal distribution)
1) (about 20-40%) Those that have developed acceptable social skills and Emotional Intelligence to deal with other people and get what they want are usually happier, easier to work with and more likely to get promoted and be successful in their job (and keep their jobs). Often they end up being "translators" and team leads for less adapted individuals.
2) (the balance) those that are missing out on their true potential (often really smart guys) because they cant communicate to get the resources, support they need, or even to explain a good solution to a less technically gifted boss.
Mostly they are frustrated by what they cant do because of "dumb" colleagues or "dumb" bosses.
The reality is if you are smarter than your boss than you can learn the necessary EI on how to interact with him/her to manage the relationship. By getting better at communicating with your boss you can gain influence and get them to do what makes sense and also learn when to respect their answer and accept a "no" without taking it as a personal attack (sometimes th
People do not know enough about Islam, or Muslims, and they don't know enough Arabs in person...
Or about many other cultures other than their own.
And they do not know their history.
Human instinct is to be afraid of what you do not understand... a 10,000 years ago being curious and investigating the noise in bushes gets you eaten by the animal lurking there... running in terror at the slightest noise helped you're genes reproduce and survive.
The problem is that in the modern world these instincts aren't really appropriate any more (99.99 % of the time) and are being systematically exploited by people in power to feed and support a culture of fear and uncertainty.
We've seen this strategy in history again and again to use ignorance and instinctive fear to divide and conquer.
White against black, Christian against Muslim... whatever dividing lines you choose...
and while we are paralyzed with fear of each other the corporations and politicians do what they want.
They use the fear to justify taking away our basic rights in the name of security...
The truth is that with FREEDOM, comes RESPONSIBILITY and that the only difference between a police state and an open democratic society is the loss of YOUR rights. Neither are more secure against terrorists... (in fact the police state is already practicing terrorism against its own citizens).
I'm not afraid to travel to the US because of Muslim terrorists any more than I am of the plane I'm in getting struck by lightning...
Frankly US border officers or the idea of Armed Air Marshals and FBI officers with unlimited rights to arrest search etc scares me much more...
The reality is that extreme fanaticism (whether religious or otherwise) is usually a product of extreme poverty, lack of hope and/or desperation. Normal people with day jobs that can feed their families don't go strap explosives to themselves and blow up buildings or planes...
That is the real issue. If global hunger was eliminated and basic rights where there for everyone (including basic education) then fanatical cultures or religions would have a hard time finding anyone to follow their suicidal ideas.
This is a clear case of racial profiling and is just another sign of the lost rights of American citizens (in the name of security).
IASESTE Arranges work abroad expriences
and they can likely recommend study abroad programs
http://www.iaeste.org/network/index.html
They organize typically 4 month summer exchanges and have a large international presence.
If you're looking for a cost effective exchange check with your university career center and international center, many of them already have "exchange partners" with other universities including arrangements for little or no fees (you will still have to pay the cost of living, although many help with that too).
I suspect that the US will be among the most expensive destinations, look at other english speaking countries like, Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc... you don't have to go third world to make it affordable.
HP came out with a new LCD display and (also in notebook form) that displays billions of colors.
This beats even apples cinelerra displays:
http://www.macobserver.com/review/2008/06/17.1.shtml
HP press release (on the notebook):
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2008/080811xa.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN
Many people don't know about it yet but it appears to be making waves..
Possibly apple is getting to comfortable with it's new marketshare.
Personally I will be looking at the displays as an alternative, when I buy yet a bigger monitor...
(disclosure: I work for EDS an HP company, as a consultant)
Good point. I take it the email is steve.jobs@apple.com??? :)
One other thing I think I will also remind Apple about...
Who do people ask what computers to buy?
In manay cases they ask their neighbourhood geek (aka slashdot reader)...
Many of the geeks that were first to switch, where the ones to support a move to apple in the first place and they told their friends ( I know I did, I personally caused 2 people to switch and there's one more thinking of buying a mac because of my advice)... as the geeks switch away their advice will change as well.
Now that the OS is becoming less important (with VMs and enough CPU power) and people have already switched once from windows to apple, a jump to linux isn't that big a jump anymore...
There are already PCs available preloaded with linux... too.
Actually I've avoided anything HD particularly for that reason (DRM)...
I'm hoping that before I'm forced to change because normal DVDs aren't available anymore that the industry will have come to its senses (wishful thinking I know... :} ) and be producing technology without DRM crippling features.
I don't know about you but "nothing more" than _not_ being able to use the technology I paid for the way I want to use it is a big deal.
The next step after DRM is in place is to charge you again for every copy of a movie or song you already own. In other words you cant copy music from you CD collection to your MP3 player or your PC and listen to it. DRM will prevent that. You will have to pay again for each copy...
After that... the next step is to charge "per play" 5 cents every time you listen to the song...
Then the next step is to create cycle of new player technologies and the next generation player won't play the previous generations content and you'll have to pay for the music again...
It's a slippery slope once you accept lock in...
The only way to send a message is not to buy crippled hardware. If a technology won't sell then it sends a clear message.
I'd rather give up some features in a product than my freedom to use it the way I want.
For all those slashdoters that work at apple: Make sure you let your Marketing department know that this has cost them a long time customer.
I have a powerbook G4 and I recently bought a mac mini for my wife.
I was planning to get a new Macbook for Xmas.
However hearing about this has changed my mind. I will not let a company dictate what my fair use rights are. I'm disappointed, its so short sighted on Apples part. Technology companies should stick to technology and let our courts and elected members of government worry about our rights and rights of content producers (admittedly they haven't done a good job either).
I moved away from Windows because of this (that and stability issues). I know from the Windows media player 10 or higher behaviour that it won't let me play is my own content (I created it, I own the copyright) and home videos over a projector...
It's bad enough when I have to change software, in this case an open source player (VLC) solved the problem for me. If the "crippleware" is OS and hardware based the only thing at that point is to chose an uncrippled product.
It's too bad. Apple does do a good job with hardware etc.. I've been very satisfied with the Powerbook G4 I have.
I will now be looking at a nice small laptop with an AMD CPU running Linux (probably Ubuntu). If anyone has any suggestions let me know. :)
Thanks.
Found these... thought they might be of interest.
ISRO Press Release
http://www.isro.org/pressrelease/Nov14_2008.htm
Pictures fro Chandrayaan Moon Impact Probe
http://www.isro.org/pslv-c11/photos/moon_images.htm
The Hindu Article (with diagrams of ISRO Chandrayaan probe)
http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/15/stories/2008111550580100.htm
I'd be curious to know how what percentage of their staff are PR guys (probably way less than NASA), rather than engineers etc...
In Canada to get a wiretap the following is required (to my knowledge):
1) Reasonable suspicion that a crime is or has been committed.
2) A warrant signed by a Judge (oversight).
Canada still has a democracy.
In a police state "preventing crime" takes precedent over peoples rights to privacy, freedom of movement and association. The idea is "crime is prevented through surveillance and control."
This is a clear cut case of where everyone argues "oh its ok" we violated everyones rights, after all we stopped "TERRORISTS" for hurting people.
Every Americans rights are threatened when it is "ok" to monitor just one conversation.
Translation: "the ends justify the means."
This is the talk of people that have given up their rights in exchange for a a false sense of security and control (because they are afraid and feel out of control).
The truth is that freedom and control are at opposite ends of the spectrum. You cannot have true freedom in a controlled environment (you have the illusion of freedom).
We control the environments of our children to protect them from harm, but we leave them as much an illusion of freedom as we can, but even they find the boundaries. At some point after teaching them as much as we can we let them go into the world and TRUST them to start to manage the dangers and risks themselves as ADULTS.
So ask yourself America: Are you a nation of children that needs protection by a false parent "the state", or are you Adults and can be trusted to handle democracy, freedom and the risks that come with that?
Many more people die in car accidents then of terrorist acts. If you're ok with monitoring private calls, really our taxes should be spent on speed limiters, black boxes and remote ignition kill switches for vehicles, so that the state can protect us from ourselves when we go too fast and cause accidents. (oh and don't get me started on firearms...) Of course that would mean loosing your illusion of freedom in a trade off for a real gain in safety and security.
Wiretapping without Judicial oversight is a true loss of freedom with a limited gain in safety. It does not affect your illusion of freedom until you test the boundaries (disagree with the parent state).
If we give up our rights and begin to act like children, then democracy has failed and the Terrorists have succeed in damaging our society far more than we acknowledge. After all the objective of Terrorists is to cause "terror and fear" in the hope that it will change things to support their agenda.
The issue is not whether wiretapping is useful or not. It is. However being able to wiretap is a great power. With that power comes responsibility and the possibility for misuse and abuse. This is why oversight is needed (much like we can vote for a new government every 4-5 years).
The true issue is the lack of oversight (transparent processes that hold people accountable). As and Adult I am willing trust other Adults working to protect me as long as sufficient oversight exists to make sure abuses of power are prevented (or at least exposed and corrected). With oversight the control of wiretapping remains in my hands (admittedly indirectly through law) without it I become a child with the illusion of freedom being watched over by someone else.
You're right the key thing about the longevity or stability of piece of software is that there is a community of developers to work on it.
That being said if you look at source forge projects you'll find that many of the open source projects only have a few core developers, but still remain and are useful (rather than disappearing in some corporate lock down). It doesn't take a huge core group of developers for software to survive, what it takes is a large enough user base.
Also, the community around MySQL would like not have come together if people though that they wouldn't have control over the code they contribute. In general one doesn't see large lines of people volunteering to work on corporate owned software, unless its also under an open source license.
The open source license is probably one of the reasons that MySQL community has a chance of surviving despite the introduction of new corporate partner (SUN), because the developers rights to their previously written code are protected by the GPL and cant be taken away.
Forking the code is not always permanent, there have been many cases where forks eventually flow back into product, or ideas from forks are adapted in the mainstream. The reality is that although forking may lead to some duplication of work (and can be disruptive in the short term), ultimately it keeps good developers coding even when they are in disagreement about something, and that usually in the long term works better than people walking away because they don't have control.
As for SUN furthering MySQL... they are but maybe not the way you think they should be. I suspect that their main interest is in providing their enterprise customers with a Solaris compatible version that can run larger DBs rather than improving it for smaller users. Perhaps from a code standpoint they have no intent to invest more resources than they already do.
That being said having a big name like SUN stand behind a piece of software will likely lead to more enterprise acceptance and users (which will increase the user base and probably help the software).
For me the key reasons I use MySQL is because:
1) it works and does what I want
2) its open source so I know it will remain around even if SUN finds some other DB they like better or goes out of business (worst case I have the source code).
3) I don't have to worry about licensing costs or issues as much (eg. do I have enough seat licenses etc.)
Lets agree to disagree. Even though I forked your comment. ;)
It allows for disagreements to be resolved by disagreeing, even when there are corporations with lots of lawyers involved.
You can still fork it. No easy corporate lock down is possible.
The way to get around windows installs is to install kvm and create a virtual machine. patch it and set it up the way you like, with all the software etc...
then zip up a copy of the drive image.
create samba share to store all your data files separate from the image.
run windows in kvm (advantage is you have linux available too) and when it gets hosed, just replace the image file with a fresh unzipped one.
OK I admit it doesn't really work well for gaming but for most other things it makes it easy. (Since VM Machine hardware never changes, there are no calls to Microsoft). ... (yes its off topic)...
Security depends both on the voting / counting process and on the technology (this is true for paper ballots as well). The problem is when the technology can easily be changed in a hidden way that is unverifiable by elections officials.
A simple machine, that has been tested and verify can be sealed with stickers with signatures of election officials.
A machine (think diabold) with all kinds of inputs (think keyboard plugs) and complexity (think OS, DB etc...) cannot be easily sealed and verified by election officials.
I found two interesting articles about India's EVM
The two things I found interesting:
1) EVM cost = $230 (hard to tamper with, and relies on election officials to keep secure)
2) Diebold cost = $3300 (easier to tamper with, and relies on election officials to keep secure)
This points out two things: voting systems don't have to be complicated or expensive to work well, and that security depends both on the machine and the voting process.
Just like with paper ballots the election officials need to ensure security of the voting and counting process.
In Canada we have some electronic voting at the municipal level in some cities (mostly optical scan machines).
A comparison of EVM and Diebold
http://techaos.blogspot.com/2004/05/indian-evm-compared-with-diebold.html
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Voting_Machines
The issue is not about cost. The issue is crappy design, and politics in the selection of voting machine vendors.
I would have though that emails of this nature would be:
1) encrypted since they are sensitive themselves and at the very least
2) signed with a GPG or PGP signature that allows verification of the author.
Email encryption.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_encryption
They can even do it for Free.
http://www.mozilla-enigmail.org/
or buy a PGP solution from someone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy
But I guess setting up a few signature servers and basic processes that control "secure email" would be to much of a hassle for people sending around their holiday pictures...
Besides what do I know I just searched google for 2 min, and they are the US government....
Hmmm... Maybe thats the problem. If its not a $10 Billion boondoggle with some cool codename then the Defense industry wouldn't exist in the first place. (That and maybe the US would stop having to invade small middle eastern countries to justify its military spending).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boondoggle_%28project%29)
I've used both Rogers and Bell.
They both have shitty service and behave like monopolies.
I finally switched to uniserve (ca.inter.net) a company based out of Montreal (I think).
I can highly recommend them. I was totally floored by their excellent service. $5 cheaper per month the first year (then the same price with modem rental), tech guys that speak English, support Mac OS X, windows, and even linux! Helpful friendly and polite.
They even walked me through how to configure my ADSL modem as a bridge so I could use my router behind it (its default configuration was as a router).
After every tech call to them, I received a follow up call 23-48 hrs later with them checking that the problem had been resolved to my satisfaction!
The only two problems I had were caused by Bell:
One was on start up. Bell "forgot" to activate the line. Uniserve explained honestly to me that their hands were tied for any Bell issue Bell "requires" 48hrs to fix it.
The second problem was an outage caused by Bell (Bell claimed a "snow storm" damaged system... which ironically happened two days earlier on the Saturday and my internet was fine the day after on Sunday. Monday it died. Personally I think Bell throttled my ISP to almost zero since the error was a time out error (modem live lights worked) so they could give Bell business customers access while I waited for them to fix other lines that had failed on the weekend and Bell had not bothered to fix them.
I take uniserve's word over Bell, their service an support any other time has been consistent and outstanding.
Where as all previous experiences with Bell have been well... lets say leaving a lot to be desired.
If the CRTC reinstates Bells monopoly ISP service will go to crap.
Rogers vs Bell. What kind of competition is that?
The truth is if Bell or Rogers actually listened to their customers and gave them the service they want then they wouldn't have to worry about competition.
I will be writing my MP.
Note: I do not work for uniserve, and no I wasn't halucinating they actually called me back!
I don't get it. Since when does your ability to pay determine whether you need medical care?
Oh wait. We're talking about a third world country, no wait that's not right...
it must be the US.
Only they would have sufficiently divided and apathetic voters that allow bought politicians to put corporate profit before the well being of human beings.
Trust me this is one problem the Market cant solve.
BTW before you scream about cost... No one in need of essential medical treatment (even an uninsured American) is turned away because they don't have the means to pay in Canada. Everyone in Canada is insured, and our medical system costs about half as much per capita. That and Canadians out live Americans by 3-5 years on average despite a harsher climate.
Yes our health care system is not perfect, and you'll hear Canadians complain about wait times (just like they complain about weather and just about anything else) but when it comes to voting for national hero's Tommy Douglas is still number 1 (he helped pioneer universal national medicare) and every time a Canadian government has so much as hinted to do anything other than improve our medical system they've been tossed out on their asses.
Doctors should assess patients based on their need for medical treatment, period.
I know its a strange concept but before you call us socialist commies look at the British, French, German or any other successful first world nation's medical system and you'll be surprised to find it's similar.
Universal medicare is not unaffordable, it's just not as profitable when corporations have to negotiate with a single government insurer about what its going to cost.
If you dish it out, you shouldn't be surprised when something comes back your way.
Again I agree with the post above I feel sorry for some of the employees caught in the middle, but have little sympathy for the company.
When you actively seek to disrupt somebody else's activities (legal or not), especially with questionable tactics it won't make you popular and there is going to be backlash.
Law enforcement activities should be left to law enforcement officers that have been empowered by democratically elected governments and are accountable for their methods and activities. When individuals or companies begin acting as vigilantes ( URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigilante ) it undermines the very stability and fairness of a legal system. Fair applications of law require law enforcement and police officers to follow a legal process that minimizes the effect an investigation has on innocent bystanders, all further controlled by legal system and the judiciary.
I find it most disconcerting that a government law enforcement entity (New York Attorney General's Office) is apparently supporting this vigilante behaviour by turning a blind eye to let someone else do their dirty work.
There is no doubt that some people are using P2P networks to commit acts of piracy but that does not justify disrupting P2P networks and affecting innocent bystanders, using P2P for legitimate purposes.
I agree with the suggestion to get binocs first and a good star guide first.
Wait about 6 months before you buy a telescope and go out with the amateur club (you signed up for) and look through different peoples telescopes and see what the trade offs are.
If you absolutely want a telescope now (for viewing only) you can get a 6 inch dobsonian (newtonian mount) for that money which is a good all around scope for observing, this scope won't have a mount you can do long exposure photography with.
In general:
Main criteria for scopes is resolution (NOT MAGNIFICATION) (think pixels) which is a direct function of the quality of the mirror (fractions of wave length). Magnification will only make something small -> bigger not sharper or clearer, in fact with atmospheric effects above about 100X it can actually make things worse)
After resolution, light gathering ability (size --> diameter of lense/mirror --> aperture) is the most important.
For planets realistically with atmospheric effects you won't be able to reliably observer more than 200X magnification normally. (Rule of thumb you need 25 mm of aperture (diameter of lense/ mirror) per ~40X magnification).
For deep sky objects (galaxies, nebulae, clusters) you usually observer at a magnification starting with binocs at 7-10X and then telescopes starting at around 30X- 80X magnification. The key for deep sky objects is aperture - aperture - aperture, the bigger the diameter of the scope the more you will see, and the fainter objects will be.
Also think how you will use it. If the scope won't be moved then size doesn't matter. But if you need to be able to take it on the bus, or it needs to fit in your car... that's a consideration too.
Although there are fantastic custom mirrors, and high end telescope manufacturers out there, for your purposes a middle of the road (think meade or celestron) volume manufacturer is likely your best bet.
Also buy USED from a reputable telescope dealer (Know what telescopes cost new before you go). Most people look after there telescopes and optics haven't changed much in the past 20 yrs or more. I would find a telescope dealer (think big cities) that sells used telescopes and tell them what you're looking for. Good ones will call you when something comes in on consignment.
Unless you want a "dial a galaxy mount" (ie will find stuff for you) you are likely to get far more for you money with a used scope. I bought an 8" schmidt casegrain with eye pieces for about $1500 (ten years ago) when the set up new would have cost me well over $3500!!! It still works great for me even now.
Don't forget to save some money for eye pieces, they are half the telescope system.
Remember astronomy is a learning hobby it rewards patience. Learn the constellations first.
Good luck, enjoy the dark skies.
The question to be put to Senators was not "Does god exist" but rather whether they choose to accept
a widely accepted and used scientific model (or set of laws and theories) about evolution, backed by observational and empirical evidence, or whether they opt to ignore facts and evidence when they conflict with the teachings of their chosen faith (creationism or otherwise).
Ultimately there are different questions that are answered by science and by faith. However there is often overlap as the guardians of faith (religious organizations, priests etc...) explain phenomena also explained by science and scientists. Often this occurs as the body of scientific knowledge expands through discovery and provides alternate explanations for things already explained in religion.
This has occurred many times in the past and will again occur in the future. Although it appears that science and faith are in opposition to each other, they seek to answer fundamentally different needs and questions.
Science exists as a method and tool for humans to understand their environment on the basis of experimentation and empirical (observable and repeatable) evidence. In many areas science fails to provide answers and explanations. By its nature it can only prove what can be observed and repeated in experiments, but cannot disprove other theories and explanations.
Faith and religion on the other hand exists to help people feel happy and secure by providing explanations to unanswerable open questions. As such since these types of questions cannot be answered based on empirical evidence, they are answered through philosophy and other answers that ask the questioner to have "faith" and chose to believe an explanation without supporting evidence. In doing so they eliminate the discomfort associated with the unknown, by providing an answer to an unanswerable question.
When faced with the unknown,
a scientist will answer: "I don't know, lets see what we can measure and observe and perhaps we can find an explanation."
However most humans want a better answer than "I don't know" especially when it comes to matters such as life, death the meaning of life, our purpose etc...
Science and faith both serve important functions in society and are both needed, what is important to understand where the boundaries between the two should lie.
Much of our modern society (and its technology) has been made possible through the application of science. As a result it is important to have leaders in power that understand that and have a sufficient understanding of the strengths and limits of science, and where science ends and faith begins.
Evolution is part of the core of scientific knowledge explaining how life developed. Given that this explanation overlaps with existing religious explanations and faith (about life and why we're here etc...) it is not surprising that there is conflict.
If I have faith and believe that I am "bullet proof" and I choose to ignore the physics of fast moving metal objects (ie. bullets) and simply argue my faith is correct, it will not protect me from being shot and killed if my faith is incorrectly placed.
If I am presented with evidence that bullets can in fact kill me, if I chose to except that my faith may have provided a wrong answer then my behaviour is rational. As things become "known" and answerable by science, I revise my faith to reflect this new reality (something that religious organizations have done before, they even forgave Galileo).
In the context of evolution and genetics there are many factors that can just as easily lead to death as the bullet can. For example if the evolutionary process can create new deadly bacteria (causing illness) resistant to certain antibiotics, and I choose to ignore this and argue the new bacteria are "an act of God" (or offer some other explanation) then I may overuse existing antibiotics, or ban research into the evolutionary factors creating these new deadly bacteria resulting in deaths that could
Ironically one of the reasons I bought an apple is because the 12" PPC offered the most compact powerful machine that was well built that I could find at the time (plus it looked cool).
I actually searched about linux compatibility before buying, but Apple switched the graphics card to NVIDIA for the 12" and I didn't notice till later.. Then I thought ok I'll get the NVIDIA close source builds like I did for my PCs... then found out PPC builds didn't exist.
Apparently Sleep and video behaviour is better with the ATI cards with people getting twin head displays working
with the 15" G4s, and iBooks with ATI cards.
Network support is there including wireless (BCM4300 = Airport Extreme), even WEP and WPA.
Much of it worked straight off with the 6.10 ubuntu install (although I'd install 6.06 now since ubuntu discontinued PPC support and 6.06 provides long term support).
I figure if my PPC lasts me another 1-2 yrs, then the MacBook + Linux issues will be worked out... or Dell will have something...
I'm guessing Isight will be an issue... not sure. I know that getting other cameras working with iChat was a disaster...