It's a dark, dark path to go down, and one I suggest you avoid.
When I was in high school, I played a lot of D&D, and I saw Pat Robertson offering a brochure on the subject, so I called up the 700 Club and requested a copy. It told about three kids who had done themselves in, after playing D&D. It also mentioned that some eight million or so kids were playing on a regular basis..
Of course, if you divide three into eight million, it makes a pretty good case for D&D as a suicide prevention measure.
Hopefully, much more than that. With Animation setting the bar higher than it's been in forty years, I'm looking for the rest of Disney to turn around, and offer the quality we all remember from when Walt was running the show.
Trying to do entertainment in the venture capital style has been the main reason for the flood of dreck we've been seeing from hollywood for decades. Sequels, repackaging of Shakespeare and the Bronte sisters, butchering great books, etc.. Disney's going to be making movies with decent story lines, and the rest of Hollywood is going to have to hire some writers. I can't wait.
If you want security and you must run windows apps, the only way to achieve it is to run windows under VMWare or Virtual PC on Linux, BSD, or Mac OS X.
This is why I stick to trade papers like EE Times. It's mostly about technology, and I've rarely seen them report on something that didn't eventually ship (even if it took a couple of years).
Mohammed Atta had a passport and credit cards, and there's no indication that he was reluctant to show them as he got on a plane at Logan airport on 9/11. Same with the shoe bomber.
your concealed weapon could help the other passengers resist terrorists.
BINGO!
The thing that was most desperately needed on each of the planes hijacked on 9/11, was a decent person who was armed, and willing to act. Attempting to disarm the public throws away the natural advantage of good people outnumbering bad people.
Hijacking is over. After 9/11, there will never be another successful hijacking, because people now know that the plane crashing isn't the worst thing that can happen. The perps already switched to trying to shoot planes down with surface-to-air missles, just a couple of months later. If they want to use an airplane as a weapon in the future, they'll recruit airline pilots with squeaky-clean records to do the deed. Think the USA is going to ban all flights from muslim countries?
Even if the perps were still attempting to take over aircraft, the best way to ensure that they couldn't succeed, is for as many civilians as possible to be armed and trained. A couple of years ago, Palestinian terrorists used to shoot people in crowds in Israel. They had to give up that tactic and switch to firing rockets, because there were enough civilians carrying their own weapons that the perp would usually be killed by the bystanders within seconds of taking out his weapon.
Actually, the biggest issue in the case seems to have been ignored, which is that a law may not be a secret. Gilmore demanded to see the law or regulation which required him to show ID, and the government refused to show it to him.
What google should have done, is set up its chinese-language service in the United States, and leave it up to the people in China to find ways to circumvent censorship (and you better believe they would).
If China was a free-market capitalist society, you'd be correct; but as a socialist oligarchy, those businesses are essentially composed of 100% slave labor, with every dollar they take in being government property.
You're rather out of date, there. This is true of north Korea, but it hasn't been true of China for a couple of decades.
I view the Chinese government in much the same way as I would view a tumor. It is malignant, and if its host (the Chinese people) benefits, then the tumor benefits as well, to an extent. Nevertheless, I wouldn't starve a cancer patient as a way to fight the cancer.
China will become a free country, because moral issues gain attention when people have moved beyond the immediate crisis of being able to feed themselves. The wealthier they become, the better educated they become, and the less the middle class will be willing to do as they're told. We saw this happen in Taiwan, in Korea, in Japan, and many other places.
Ruling a nation of peasants is far easier than ruling a prosperous country of people who have rising expectations.
Slashdot Mirror
It's a dark, dark path to go down, and one I suggest you avoid.
When I was in high school, I played a lot of D&D, and I saw Pat Robertson offering a brochure on the subject, so I called up the 700 Club and requested a copy. It told about three kids who had done themselves in, after playing D&D. It also mentioned that some eight million or so kids were playing on a regular basis..
Of course, if you divide three into eight million, it makes a pretty good case for D&D as a suicide prevention measure.
-jcr
I haven't seen many level 3 C programmers, or level 10 pizza deliverymen.
I am a ninth-level Mechanic, and a sixth-level Cabinetmaker! Fear my wrench and router!
-jcr (third-level Plumber, second-level Drywall Hanger, too!)
Um... Says you!
-jcr
Well - Disney animation, at least.
Hopefully, much more than that. With Animation setting the bar higher than it's been in forty years, I'm looking for the rest of Disney to turn around, and offer the quality we all remember from when Walt was running the show.
-jcr
Trying to do entertainment in the venture capital style has been the main reason for the flood of dreck we've been seeing from hollywood for decades. Sequels, repackaging of Shakespeare and the Bronte sisters, butchering great books, etc.. Disney's going to be making movies with decent story lines, and the rest of Hollywood is going to have to hire some writers. I can't wait.
-jcr
I think Apple is already doing this
Nope. When I worked there, it was made very clear to us that Apple doesn't talk about security as a reason to switch. We emphasized ease of use, etc.
-jcr
If you want security and you must run windows apps, the only way to achieve it is to run windows under VMWare or Virtual PC on Linux, BSD, or Mac OS X.
-jcr
Your statement assumes that the government has no idea of who Atta was.
No, my statement asserts that identifying him failed to prevent the crime.
But if you know who Mohammed Atta is, and you know what he wants to (potentially culled from intelligence), it might prevent an attack.
If you already know that, and you haven't arrested him by the time he shows up to get on the plane, what's the point?
The long and short of it is, the only purpose to demanding ID is to force a habit of docility on the public.
-jcr
Why would he? Disney's a smaller company than Apple now, and it doesn't have nearly the growth prospects.
-jcr
It's called the "media" because it's mediocre.
This is why I stick to trade papers like EE Times. It's mostly about technology, and I've rarely seen them report on something that didn't eventually ship (even if it took a couple of years).
-jcr
No. You're wrong.
No, I'm quite sure he had ID and credit cards. It was widely reported at the time.
How would we know who he was if we didn't check his ID?
Please explain how knowing who he is prevented him from crashing the airplane into the WTC.
-jcr
Many of the tech, research and trader workstations at some of the large banks went NeXT.
Yes, those banks made great customers, back in my road-warrior days.
-jcr
Ten years ago I would have said, "When they pry it from Michael Eisner's cold, dead hands."
Ten years ago, Disney had no prospect of being liberated from Eisner. He'd done an amazing job of packing the board of directors with his supporters.
Then again, twenty years ago, who thought the Berlin Wall would come down?
-jcr
so you're probably looking at explosive decompression and loss of plane in such a case.
"Explosive decompression" is a hollywood myth.
-jcr
Mohammed Atta had a passport and credit cards, and there's no indication that he was reluctant to show them as he got on a plane at Logan airport on 9/11. Same with the shoe bomber.
Maybe checking ID doesn't really help.
-jcr
your concealed weapon could help the other passengers resist terrorists.
BINGO!
The thing that was most desperately needed on each of the planes hijacked on 9/11, was a decent person who was armed, and willing to act. Attempting to disarm the public throws away the natural advantage of good people outnumbering bad people.
Hijacking is over. After 9/11, there will never be another successful hijacking, because people now know that the plane crashing isn't the worst thing that can happen. The perps already switched to trying to shoot planes down with surface-to-air missles, just a couple of months later. If they want to use an airplane as a weapon in the future, they'll recruit airline pilots with squeaky-clean records to do the deed. Think the USA is going to ban all flights from muslim countries?
Even if the perps were still attempting to take over aircraft, the best way to ensure that they couldn't succeed, is for as many civilians as possible to be armed and trained. A couple of years ago, Palestinian terrorists used to shoot people in crowds in Israel. They had to give up that tactic and switch to firing rockets, because there were enough civilians carrying their own weapons that the perp would usually be killed by the bystanders within seconds of taking out his weapon.
-jcr
I can't honestly say that I'm terribly disturbed that people are scrutinized more if they don't have ID when flying on a plane.
You're not paying attention. The ID fetish has nothing to do with catching terrorists. Its only purpose is to require docility from the public.
Mohammed Atta and the rest of the 9/11 perps were travelling under their own names. They had ID, they had credit cards.
-jcr
Actually, the biggest issue in the case seems to have been ignored, which is that a law may not be a secret. Gilmore demanded to see the law or regulation which required him to show ID, and the government refused to show it to him.
-jcr
I concur.
What google should have done, is set up its chinese-language service in the United States, and leave it up to the people in China to find ways to circumvent censorship (and you better believe they would).
-jcr
It's like having to choose between having a heart, a brain, and a stomach. You need them all.
-jcr
Caught up to what?
Integer and floating-point performance. Their SIMD implementation is still inferior to the PPC's Altivec, but you can't have everything.
-jcr
If China was a free-market capitalist society, you'd be correct; but as a socialist oligarchy, those businesses are essentially composed of 100% slave labor, with every dollar they take in being government property.
You're rather out of date, there. This is true of north Korea, but it hasn't been true of China for a couple of decades.
-jcr
so why don't they band together and do something about it?
Because they didn't want to get slaughtered, perhaps?
The last time they went so far as to protest, the thugs killed a few thousand people with tanks and machine guns.
The only people who can change that live there.
This is true, and we should help them in any way that we can.
-jcr
I view the Chinese government in much the same way as I would view a tumor. It is malignant, and if its host (the Chinese people) benefits, then the tumor benefits as well, to an extent. Nevertheless, I wouldn't starve a cancer patient as a way to fight the cancer.
China will become a free country, because moral issues gain attention when people have moved beyond the immediate crisis of being able to feed themselves. The wealthier they become, the better educated they become, and the less the middle class will be willing to do as they're told. We saw this happen in Taiwan, in Korea, in Japan, and many other places.
Ruling a nation of peasants is far easier than ruling a prosperous country of people who have rising expectations.
-jcr
Woz built the Apple I and the Apple II, but without Jobs and Markkula, you never would have heard of either of those machines.
Steve Jobs is why Apple became a business, and Mike Markkula is why it became a large business.
-jcr