human CO2 emissions are causing climate change, just like the world's climatologists have been saying.
Because, you know, 5,000 years ago at the beginnings of the Roman civilization, we had nuclear power plants and coal fired power plants and automobiles and international jet flights and space travel. And the Romans didn't do anything about curbing CO2 emisions at the time - and look what happened to them!
If you want to understand Open Source, you have to understand the minds of the great artists, the great scientists, and the great philosophers.
Why did Einstein work so hard on the Theory of Relativity and then give away the results for free? Why did Michaelangelo spend so many hours of pain-staking detailed work on the Sistine Chapel? Why did Plato and Socrates work so hard at trying to form the basis of logic?
If you think it had anything to do with money, you are wrong. Sure, they got paid a reasonable amount of money. But they were never paid anything close to what they were worth.
Did they do it for fame? No. Again, that was not the principle motive behind Einstein and the others. Einstein didn't set out to make himself famous. The same could be said for the others.
No, what motivated them was their own curiosity and dedication to things beautiful. They wanted to create something useful and beautiful and wonderful. They didn't mind that they may not get paid for what it was worth, or that they would not get the respect they deserved. They were satisfied that they were able to do something wonderful, and allowing others to enjoy it was even more satisfaction.
Ask a programmer next time why they do what they do. If they say money, then they probably don't enjoy their job. If they say fame, they are a liar. But if they say that they want to create something useful or good or that just plain works, then you have found the right answer.
So why Open Source? By distributing the software via an Open Source method, more people will use their software and use it in ways they couldn't have anticipated. By allowing people to build on their software, or merely the ideas of the software, they have made their own effort even more productive and useful.
I've played the game several times. It is very difficult. It is fast-paced. The game is constantly in flux.
You are assigned to a squad of about four people. Depending on the type of squad, you get different equipment.
If you work together as a team, you survive. If you try to go Rambo, you get killed. If your squads work together, you win quite easily. If the squads want to do their own thing, they can get killed.
it is rather realistic. For instance, if you try to shoot while running, you won't hit the broad side of a barn. If you drop to the ground, take a breath, and aim, you will do quite well. If you throw a grenade in your friend's lap, he dies. It's pretty cool.
And you don't respawn in the games. If you die, you get to spend the rest of the game watching your teammates as a third-person. There is a big incentive not to die early on.
As far as a war-time culture, yes it is important. War is not all about killing. It is about working together and losing yourself in the team. It is about putting someone else's priorities before your own. Yes, people die. Yes, you will kill people. But even the Spartans knew that war was about teamwork and how teamwork meant you would survive when the enemy would not.
Any idiot (like myself) can fumble through doing this stuff on Windows.
I left windows 4 years ago because quite frankly, Linux was easier to use.
As far as computers go, I know some things, but I don't know other things. All I know is that hard drives come in different sizes. I never understood the other numbers they throw at you. I believe that's a good thing. I subscribe to the Einstein school of philosophy - keep things as simple as possible.
My company "awarded" me with a Windows laptop. I can't figure the thing out. Just yesterday I was browsing and the thing turned off. There was a flash of a blue screen. Yes, I believe this is the latest version of XP, with all the patches. I don't personally do the patches - the laptop is remotely administered. I still have problems with various things that are easy in Linux. (I had to install GViM and Mozilla and Open Office to get working applications. Word crashes too often for my tastes. No, I do not turn off my laptop at night. Am I supposed to do that? Why can't I leave my work unsaved and open over the weekend? It works in Linux? I've had my browser open for the past three months without a problem on Linux!)
Even then, I can't figure out how to get IM working properly. In the end, I just turned it off. It still comes on once in a while. I thought windows was supposed to be easy? Why is something simple like disabling IM so difficult?
The thing boots up and tells me I have to install an update. Only I don't have administrator privileges. Do I want to install it anyway? How should I know? It doesn't matter either way. If I press any button, it says "Can't install". This is easier?
Every once in a while, the thing gets in a weird state. I have to run a specific command to get IVPN working from the console. So I hit "Run..." and then type in "cmd" but nothing happens this time. What's wrong? Why isn't IE coming up? Maybe I can see the processes: CTRL-ALT-DEL. Why is that window coming up? Mozilla is still working, so my computer isn't toast... I thought this was supposed to be easier!
Don't feed the trolls. This guy is so far removed from reality that you can't reason with him. Besides, he is doing our party a favor by believing all of those obvious lies. If he only realizes what the rest of America thought of him...
As for the real Republican party, you only have to walk ten steps to see the effects of it. Afghanistan, once under shariah by the Taliban, is now free and democratic. Iraq, once under the murderous tyrannnical despot Hussein, is on track for elections. Al Qaeda and ALL major terrorist rings are on the run. The United States has yet to be hit by another terrorist attack, while Spain has been hit by two. North Korea is looking at regime change (bet you didn't know that, did you!) China is cooperating with the US and looks like they will be our ally against North Korea. The US has unprecedented influence in the old Soviet Union, with Yuschenko likely the next president of the Ukraine. The economy is doing better than it did in the 80's, which was better than it did in the 90's. Unemployment is at all-time lows. There's this new concept of an ownership rather than rent society, where people own things rather than borrow them. More and more people are owning their own homes or their own businesses or their own retirements. National crime rate is at a low. Taxes have been significantly cut for everyone, and it looks like it will get cut again. Social Security is finally going to get the overhaul it needed 30 years ago to keep it solvent. Medicare now covers prescription drugs, thus reducing the cost of medical care for our seniors. I can go on and on.
All signs point to a nation led by a party that is doing wonderful things in the world.
About the negatives. Is there corruption? There is always some corruption. If there weren't any, our nation would be carried up into heaven like Enoch's city of ancient times. However, the level of corruption at national levels seems to be at a low. The kinds of corruption we hear about are things that are very minor compared to ten years ago.
Foreign opinion of us isn't too favorable. But I don't hold the opinions of French, Russian, and Chinese officials with too much weight, especially because of the multi-billion dollar scandal they were involved in that undermined the US' foreign interests. (Hint: Kofi Annan is being asked to resign because of this scandal.) Also, when we discover fresh military equipment from our so-called allies being used against us, it causes me to wonder why we call them allies in the first place. You should conduct the opinion polls in the place where it matters. Go ask the Afghans or Iraqis what they think of us. Or cross the border into neighboring Iran and ask them what they would like us to do. (Hint: During the Afghan bombing raids, they would paint "BOMB US NEXT!" on their rooftops. Betcha didn't hear that either?) Go ask your local Iraqi who is an expatriot living in the US what they think of the US. You should check the pro-Bush rallies at state capitals and in DC if you want to find them. Betcha didn't hear that either?
Go ahead and allow the left to ignore all of the good things and focus on rumors and unsubstantiated claims. The more the far-left does it, the more the republicans will win in '06 and '08. (Hint: We may get that 60 seat majority in the senate as early as 2006. Count the number of red states, and multiply by 2. That comes to over 60.) Remember, the keyword of Bush's presidency is "misunderestimate". The left, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Saddam, and Kim Jong Il are all doing a great job misunderestimating our president.
You can show me all kinds of wonderful data about how your software is the absolute best thing in the world. I may believe what you're saying. But I am going to verify that the software does what I need to do. I am also going to verify your claims.
I can't accept anything without verifying it. When I go to buy clothing, I do what I can to get the right size and style, but I also verify that it is the right size and style. When I buy meat, I still smell it before I cook it even if it is supposedly fresh that day. When I do anything, I trust but verify.
If these guys are really doing what you are talking about, then that is a problem. It is not because it is an ethics violation (it is, and that is very serious in and of itself.) It is because WHEN they get caught, it will cause irreparable damage, possibly far more so than the cost of doing things right. You may lose your job due to economic reasons due to management's questionable practices.
In fact, if you think about it, all of ethics is just behaving in your best interests. It is not in a company's best interest to sell a shoddy product or misrepresent their product, no matter what the marketing droids or peanut counters say.
Yes, and I use it to record notes in my lab book I use at work. I record all sorts of things I discover there. Some entries are several pages long with charts and graphs and tables and diagrams. Try doing that in a few minutes in Word or OpenOffice.
The best part is I don't have to worry about backing up my lab books. The only real threat is fire, and it is no more dangerous than it is to CDs or hard drives.
While the cursive handwriting of the 1700's and early 1800's may seem curious to us (notably, the tall 's' that looks like an 'f'), it is a very easy style that is neat, legible, and painless. Notice how there are very few back strokes.
For those who are wondering, cursive is what you use when you get sick of trying to write in print legibly and quickly without getting carpal tunnel. Every culture has it. It's unfortunate it isn't common knowledge anymore in the US. Handwriting is a wonderful skill. It used to be people would judge others based on their handwriting skills in addition to their oratory.
I read somewhere that the last time we had global warming the ancient civilizations were formed - Egypt, Babylonia, etc... These civilizations formed in what should've been the hottest places on the planet.
Which means one of two things: Either we humans live best in 120-150 degree whether (doubtful) or global warming will increase rainfall and fertility in those regions (likely).
Seeing as how we're coming out of a little ice age, I am looking forward to snowless winters and wet summers and an extended growing cycle. It'll help solve the world's starvation problem, and may even bring some species back that are on the brink of extinction.
Boy oh boy, I'd go study up some more on the topic of North/South Korea.
Some surprising recent news is that the government isn't supporting the godlike status of Kim Jong-Il, and there are actually people putting up posters demanding democracy, and getting away with it!
The interesting thing is that all the advances of the modern age have been rebranded as North Korean advances. For instance, the information age is a North Korean invention. The Space Shuttle was created by the North Koreans. It's like Al Gore's paradise come true!
100 degrees Fahrenheit used to be the body temperature of humans. They calibrated their instruments wrong, and so it actually ended up being 98.1 or whatever it is. 0 degrees Fahrenheit was the temperature of salt water freezing. This is water that was completely saturated with salt at 1 atm of pressure (sea level). The British figured it's easier to measure the temperature of salt water than pure water because getting pure water is very hard.
So does English, but I don't want to get into that.
In Korean, one of the past tenses roughly translates to "I saw that such-and-such happened" where "saw" can also mean "recall", "observed", "definitely concluded", or some other version of absolute proof. It is used pretty much only for testifying of fact. It really isn't that common in daily speech. Mostly they say, "such-and-such happened" without trying to claim a source or witness to it. Or they'll also come out and say literally, "I saw that such-and-such happened."
In English, we just say, "I saw that such-and-such", and by admitting to the method of observation we are admitting to its validity. I like the English way better, frankly, because in order to testify of fact, you have to admit to the method of the obtainment of that fact. (And also because it's my native language!)
Now that I think about it, the electoral college is good for a reason. Can you imagine a national recount? It would be absolutely terrible. Even a state-wide election is hard enough to run.
Why don't we just have electors for the governor's seat? We can send one elector from each legislative district, and then have them choose the governor. This way, a recount would only be warranted in districts that are close. (Districts in WA are about 100,000 people). Since the voting is much more local, it is much less subject to fraud and thus the unwarranted accusation of fraud.
As a manager, you are going to be responsible for coordinating the activities of developers, business people, testers, and system administrators. You're first rule is: I don't know nothing about nothing.
Your experts are going to be your business people, developers, testers, and sysadmins. Listen to what they have to say. Don't poo-poo anybody because they are not good communicators.
Once you have mastered the art of listening and understanding what people want and need, then you get to start trying to wrestle them to get on the same page. But you can't do that unless you listen first.
In companies where the tech team drives the tech, I have seen a group of computers set aside for experimentation. They won't spend too much time on it, but from time to time, they'll try something out to see if it is promising.
If you can find a company where mangement listens to tech, it is usually pretty easy to justify this experimentation lab environment. You still have to show how having it is better than not having it, and how much it will cost over the next three years. But that's no different than any other project in techland.
Companies where the upper management drives tech decisions are generally not the best places to work. I tend to avoid them. I guess I've been lucky because of my particular micro-field (e-commerce perl programmer), while others I know always end up in top-down organizations (java programmers).
The smaller fighter is always at a disadvantage. I remember sparring with my Tae Kwn Do instructor. I am about 6'4" and 230 pounds - not a small person. He was about 5'4" and roughly half my weight.
First, he couldn't get close enough to get a good hit on me. I could kick at him from a much farther distance. He had to leave a lot of room between myself and him if he wanted to catch his breath.
Was I slower than him? No, not really. I was bigger, but I had a lot more strength as well. My feet and fists could move at least as fast as his. My clothes snap just as much as his does when we punch or kick.
Second, he had to charge at me when he wanted to attack. This left plenty of time for me to get in a defensive posture, or to prepare to sidestep and counterattack. Or, I could attack him during his charge.
Third, the sheer mass of my body left his attacks wanting. My forearm weighed enough that I could stop his strongest kicks before they reached my body. My attacks could not be repelled. When I put my weight behind an attack, his only option was to dodge it. Sure, he was fast, but not that fast. And one good knock and he would've been done.
Now, I'm going to tell you a secret about big guys. In genereal, they are really docile and kind, and really like to avoid fighting or any kind of physical confrontation. Little guys have to be punks in order to get respect. They have to go 100% full strength into any physical confrontation if they expect to survive. Big guys generally start off about half strength and only notch it up to full strength when they are seriously threatened.
I'll tell you why this is. I can't tell you how many times I have hurt people accidentally, just screwing around. Ever since elementary school, I had to be very careful about how I used my size and weight. My friends who were little knew that they could go full-strength on my and I wouldn't get hurt.
Now that I am full grown and have children and a wife, I have to be very very careful not to hurt them. Imagine what would happen if I accidentally knocked one of them - either I didn't see them or I tripped and fell into them. I could easily send them to the hospital.
Hi, were the Union of Concerned Scientists. And we're very concerned about the recent plans to put dangerous weapons in space.
Our concern is well founded. The last time someone put weapons in space, we saw... well... no one's ever done that, but we're concerned about it anyway.
You have to listen to use because, see, we're a union. And not just a union of jack-booted gestappo thugs like the AFL-CIO, we're scientists and we can put death rays in space and stuff.
Here's the problem. We signed those treaties with a foreign power that no longer exists.
Plus, the USSR has violated most of those treaties anyway, nullifying them.
Yes, we rule by force, because force is the only thing communists and terrorists understand. Just like you train a dog with snacks and a choke chain, we govern those around us with subsidies and the military.
A long time ago the brightest minds got together and asked a question: How do we secure America? The answer was obvious: Be stronger than everyone else, pose a threat to everyone else, and eliminate any threats to us through diplomacy and military action.
So Fox called it right before anyone else? I never understood what everyone complained about. I remember that night, and Florida was called for Gore before the polls even closed. Who has egg on their face for that?
You may not know of this, but there is something called a "background check". They go and visit all the people you've met for the past ten years of your life and interview them. They peruse records you don't even know that exist. They tap your phones, watch your email, know when and what you are doing at all times.
I'm sorry, but you can't slip through this unless you are bona fide an American citizen who has never said anything bad about the country and has never associated with those who have.
The "Zeppelin" you speak of is called AWACS. It's ultra-powerful radar mounted on an aircraft that flies very high for long durations. You only need one in the air at a time and it is the eyes and ears on the battlefield.
The radar is so powerful and the computers onboard so good that they identify every object on the ground, including individuals, and track their movements real-time. I believe they were using a single one to handle both the conflict in Iraq and in Afghanistan. I hear rumors that they can read newspapers lying on the ground, do facial checks like the do in Las Vegas, and even identify what weapons an individual is wearing underneath their clothing. Imagine that - just start scanning the populace from miles in the sky to find the man you are looking for. "Searching.... Searching.... Found." And imagine this. Troops surround a building and take cover. Lieutenant calls in, "How many inside? What do they have?" "There's six, two on the north side, two in the middle, and two on the south. The ones on the south picked up an RPG."
The only place to hide is underground or in the masses. Saddam thought he had it made with is extra-tough reinforced bunkers. Then we brought out the MOAB minutes before the battle started. Do you remember the media blitz on that? They talked about how the MOAB penetrates deep underground, releases a gas into the chamber and tunnels, then ignites it to incinerate anyone underground. Saddam knew when he heard that this his special German built bunkers weren't safe, so he started to move and try to hide.
That's when we moved in the infantry. They worked like detectives, working house to house, person to person. Relentlessly, they pursued him with a vigor that only a bunch of well-trained 20 year old kids from the South and the Mid-West have. That's the second secret of our military. Our tech is great, but you occupy ground with boots and brains, not steel and gunpowder. In a way, the entire military structure and technology is there to serve the boots and brains on the ground.
We have these "tools" as our bargaining chips. "I'll see your nuclear program and raise you certain death if you fail to meet our demands of disarmament. Worse, we'll capture you and parade you before the world, and then hold a trial where you are convicted and executed. You can drop out of this game now, or you can try to raise the bet, or you can call."
I have often wondered about what exactly goes into the technology we take for granted.
The thought experiment I perform is to imagine what it would take to get the end product from absolutely nothing except the stuff around you found naturally. Working in the basement of the University of Washington physics laboratory, I often wondered how someone would build a milling machine or an industrial lathe. You can cut wood with rudimentary tools, and making crude iron or steel tools isn't too complicated, but how would construct a precise machine with all the guages and dials and electric motors and so on?
It sure brings me to a realization of just how far we have come from slogging about in mud and eating rats like we did in the dark ages. Our world is so complicated that no one person can understand more than a small fraction of it. Everyone is a specialist of one sort of another, even the garbage collectors and sewage system maintainers. Every generation of worker brings ingenuity to the job, and bit by bit their job becomes more and more complicated yet efficient.
Soon, will we each have a small chunk of humanity's experience in our skulls? Will we rule an insanely complicated world governed by machines and processes no one can fully understand? Or have we already come to that point?
Nope, they wouldn't need to do this. A lot of things that the military and CIA and FBI spend money on aren't on the public budget. Sometimes, even congresscritters can't get a hold of it. The way it works is the military asks for a ton of money for research and development on projects. They don't even explain what they project is, except to say that it is in the interests of national security, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Congress and the president are willing to set aside a few percent of the total military budget for this kind of research. Sure, it may not have great oversight at the time, but eventually they have to publicize what they did with the money.
What are the chances of 2 Texas oilmen (financially supported by many more oilmen) giving us a coherent national energy policy which frees us from dependency on oil and the Middle East?
I'll ask you a question first: What are the chances of two doctors financially supported by doctors and their doctoring of creating a plan to lower health care costs while increasing the level of health care for everyone in the country?
See, you can't treat the oil companies like they are the enemy any more than doctors, farmers, or any other profession is your enemy. Oil companies do two things: (1) find oil for cheap (2) deliver it to the US for cheap. The ones who can find more oil cheaply and get it into the marketplace for cheap make more money.
They know why oil prices are going up. (Hint: If there is a scarce resource, and the supply goes down, all things being equal, the price will go up.)
They know how to fix the oil problem. (Hint: If there is a scarce resource, and the supply goes up, all things being equal, the price will drop.)
They worked hard to get the problem fixed. Unfortunately, the American people value a few acres of uninhabited tundra than the fuel in their cars.
Now there is another crisis. The supply of oil in the middle east can potentially (if not already) fall into the hands of our enemies. They can squeeze the supply of oil to our country shutting off all industry and sending us into economic ruin that is unprecedented in our country. Without oil, there won't be the plastic bags at the checkout stand. Without oil, people won't have warm apartments in the middle of New York winter. Without oil, our economy will crumble.
So they send in troops to introduce a new concept to the Middle East: stability and democracy. Well, it's not new, it's just that the current example (Israel) is a pariah.
If we didn't have the insight into the oil industry that these people had, we would have far more severe problems than we do now. Right now, the middle east is producing record levels of oil. They have opened the spiggot all the way and there still isn't quite enough. With someone else in power who won't put an emphasis on oil supply, we would be in serious trouble.
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human CO2 emissions are causing climate change, just like the world's climatologists have been saying.
Because, you know, 5,000 years ago at the beginnings of the Roman civilization, we had nuclear power plants and coal fired power plants and automobiles and international jet flights and space travel. And the Romans didn't do anything about curbing CO2 emisions at the time - and look what happened to them!
If you want to understand Open Source, you have to understand the minds of the great artists, the great scientists, and the great philosophers.
Why did Einstein work so hard on the Theory of Relativity and then give away the results for free? Why did Michaelangelo spend so many hours of pain-staking detailed work on the Sistine Chapel? Why did Plato and Socrates work so hard at trying to form the basis of logic?
If you think it had anything to do with money, you are wrong. Sure, they got paid a reasonable amount of money. But they were never paid anything close to what they were worth.
Did they do it for fame? No. Again, that was not the principle motive behind Einstein and the others. Einstein didn't set out to make himself famous. The same could be said for the others.
No, what motivated them was their own curiosity and dedication to things beautiful. They wanted to create something useful and beautiful and wonderful. They didn't mind that they may not get paid for what it was worth, or that they would not get the respect they deserved. They were satisfied that they were able to do something wonderful, and allowing others to enjoy it was even more satisfaction.
Ask a programmer next time why they do what they do. If they say money, then they probably don't enjoy their job. If they say fame, they are a liar. But if they say that they want to create something useful or good or that just plain works, then you have found the right answer.
So why Open Source? By distributing the software via an Open Source method, more people will use their software and use it in ways they couldn't have anticipated. By allowing people to build on their software, or merely the ideas of the software, they have made their own effort even more productive and useful.
I've played the game several times. It is very difficult. It is fast-paced. The game is constantly in flux.
You are assigned to a squad of about four people. Depending on the type of squad, you get different equipment.
If you work together as a team, you survive. If you try to go Rambo, you get killed. If your squads work together, you win quite easily. If the squads want to do their own thing, they can get killed.
it is rather realistic. For instance, if you try to shoot while running, you won't hit the broad side of a barn. If you drop to the ground, take a breath, and aim, you will do quite well. If you throw a grenade in your friend's lap, he dies. It's pretty cool.
And you don't respawn in the games. If you die, you get to spend the rest of the game watching your teammates as a third-person. There is a big incentive not to die early on.
As far as a war-time culture, yes it is important. War is not all about killing. It is about working together and losing yourself in the team. It is about putting someone else's priorities before your own. Yes, people die. Yes, you will kill people. But even the Spartans knew that war was about teamwork and how teamwork meant you would survive when the enemy would not.
Any idiot (like myself) can fumble through doing this stuff on Windows.
I left windows 4 years ago because quite frankly, Linux was easier to use.
As far as computers go, I know some things, but I don't know other things. All I know is that hard drives come in different sizes. I never understood the other numbers they throw at you. I believe that's a good thing. I subscribe to the Einstein school of philosophy - keep things as simple as possible.
My company "awarded" me with a Windows laptop. I can't figure the thing out. Just yesterday I was browsing and the thing turned off. There was a flash of a blue screen. Yes, I believe this is the latest version of XP, with all the patches. I don't personally do the patches - the laptop is remotely administered. I still have problems with various things that are easy in Linux. (I had to install GViM and Mozilla and Open Office to get working applications. Word crashes too often for my tastes. No, I do not turn off my laptop at night. Am I supposed to do that? Why can't I leave my work unsaved and open over the weekend? It works in Linux? I've had my browser open for the past three months without a problem on Linux!)
Even then, I can't figure out how to get IM working properly. In the end, I just turned it off. It still comes on once in a while. I thought windows was supposed to be easy? Why is something simple like disabling IM so difficult?
The thing boots up and tells me I have to install an update. Only I don't have administrator privileges. Do I want to install it anyway? How should I know? It doesn't matter either way. If I press any button, it says "Can't install". This is easier?
Every once in a while, the thing gets in a weird state. I have to run a specific command to get IVPN working from the console. So I hit "Run..." and then type in "cmd" but nothing happens this time. What's wrong? Why isn't IE coming up? Maybe I can see the processes: CTRL-ALT-DEL. Why is that window coming up? Mozilla is still working, so my computer isn't toast... I thought this was supposed to be easier!
Don't feed the trolls. This guy is so far removed from reality that you can't reason with him. Besides, he is doing our party a favor by believing all of those obvious lies. If he only realizes what the rest of America thought of him...
As for the real Republican party, you only have to walk ten steps to see the effects of it. Afghanistan, once under shariah by the Taliban, is now free and democratic. Iraq, once under the murderous tyrannnical despot Hussein, is on track for elections. Al Qaeda and ALL major terrorist rings are on the run. The United States has yet to be hit by another terrorist attack, while Spain has been hit by two. North Korea is looking at regime change (bet you didn't know that, did you!) China is cooperating with the US and looks like they will be our ally against North Korea. The US has unprecedented influence in the old Soviet Union, with Yuschenko likely the next president of the Ukraine. The economy is doing better than it did in the 80's, which was better than it did in the 90's. Unemployment is at all-time lows. There's this new concept of an ownership rather than rent society, where people own things rather than borrow them. More and more people are owning their own homes or their own businesses or their own retirements. National crime rate is at a low. Taxes have been significantly cut for everyone, and it looks like it will get cut again. Social Security is finally going to get the overhaul it needed 30 years ago to keep it solvent. Medicare now covers prescription drugs, thus reducing the cost of medical care for our seniors. I can go on and on.
All signs point to a nation led by a party that is doing wonderful things in the world.
About the negatives. Is there corruption? There is always some corruption. If there weren't any, our nation would be carried up into heaven like Enoch's city of ancient times. However, the level of corruption at national levels seems to be at a low. The kinds of corruption we hear about are things that are very minor compared to ten years ago.
Foreign opinion of us isn't too favorable. But I don't hold the opinions of French, Russian, and Chinese officials with too much weight, especially because of the multi-billion dollar scandal they were involved in that undermined the US' foreign interests. (Hint: Kofi Annan is being asked to resign because of this scandal.) Also, when we discover fresh military equipment from our so-called allies being used against us, it causes me to wonder why we call them allies in the first place. You should conduct the opinion polls in the place where it matters. Go ask the Afghans or Iraqis what they think of us. Or cross the border into neighboring Iran and ask them what they would like us to do. (Hint: During the Afghan bombing raids, they would paint "BOMB US NEXT!" on their rooftops. Betcha didn't hear that either?) Go ask your local Iraqi who is an expatriot living in the US what they think of the US. You should check the pro-Bush rallies at state capitals and in DC if you want to find them. Betcha didn't hear that either?
Go ahead and allow the left to ignore all of the good things and focus on rumors and unsubstantiated claims. The more the far-left does it, the more the republicans will win in '06 and '08. (Hint: We may get that 60 seat majority in the senate as early as 2006. Count the number of red states, and multiply by 2. That comes to over 60.) Remember, the keyword of Bush's presidency is "misunderestimate". The left, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Saddam, and Kim Jong Il are all doing a great job misunderestimating our president.
It's like Reagan used to say: trust, but verify.
You can show me all kinds of wonderful data about how your software is the absolute best thing in the world. I may believe what you're saying. But I am going to verify that the software does what I need to do. I am also going to verify your claims.
I can't accept anything without verifying it. When I go to buy clothing, I do what I can to get the right size and style, but I also verify that it is the right size and style. When I buy meat, I still smell it before I cook it even if it is supposedly fresh that day. When I do anything, I trust but verify.
If these guys are really doing what you are talking about, then that is a problem. It is not because it is an ethics violation (it is, and that is very serious in and of itself.) It is because WHEN they get caught, it will cause irreparable damage, possibly far more so than the cost of doing things right. You may lose your job due to economic reasons due to management's questionable practices.
In fact, if you think about it, all of ethics is just behaving in your best interests. It is not in a company's best interest to sell a shoddy product or misrepresent their product, no matter what the marketing droids or peanut counters say.
Yes, and I use it to record notes in my lab book I use at work. I record all sorts of things I discover there. Some entries are several pages long with charts and graphs and tables and diagrams. Try doing that in a few minutes in Word or OpenOffice.
The best part is I don't have to worry about backing up my lab books. The only real threat is fire, and it is no more dangerous than it is to CDs or hard drives.
While the cursive handwriting of the 1700's and early 1800's may seem curious to us (notably, the tall 's' that looks like an 'f'), it is a very easy style that is neat, legible, and painless. Notice how there are very few back strokes.
For those who are wondering, cursive is what you use when you get sick of trying to write in print legibly and quickly without getting carpal tunnel. Every culture has it. It's unfortunate it isn't common knowledge anymore in the US. Handwriting is a wonderful skill. It used to be people would judge others based on their handwriting skills in addition to their oratory.
I read somewhere that the last time we had global warming the ancient civilizations were formed - Egypt, Babylonia, etc... These civilizations formed in what should've been the hottest places on the planet.
Which means one of two things: Either we humans live best in 120-150 degree whether (doubtful) or global warming will increase rainfall and fertility in those regions (likely).
Seeing as how we're coming out of a little ice age, I am looking forward to snowless winters and wet summers and an extended growing cycle. It'll help solve the world's starvation problem, and may even bring some species back that are on the brink of extinction.
Boy oh boy, I'd go study up some more on the topic of North/South Korea.
Some surprising recent news is that the government isn't supporting the godlike status of Kim Jong-Il, and there are actually people putting up posters demanding democracy, and getting away with it!
The interesting thing is that all the advances of the modern age have been rebranded as North Korean advances. For instance, the information age is a North Korean invention. The Space Shuttle was created by the North Koreans. It's like Al Gore's paradise come true!
100 degrees Fahrenheit used to be the body temperature of humans. They calibrated their instruments wrong, and so it actually ended up being 98.1 or whatever it is. 0 degrees Fahrenheit was the temperature of salt water freezing. This is water that was completely saturated with salt at 1 atm of pressure (sea level). The British figured it's easier to measure the temperature of salt water than pure water because getting pure water is very hard.
So does English, but I don't want to get into that.
In Korean, one of the past tenses roughly translates to "I saw that such-and-such happened" where "saw" can also mean "recall", "observed", "definitely concluded", or some other version of absolute proof. It is used pretty much only for testifying of fact. It really isn't that common in daily speech. Mostly they say, "such-and-such happened" without trying to claim a source or witness to it. Or they'll also come out and say literally, "I saw that such-and-such happened."
In English, we just say, "I saw that such-and-such", and by admitting to the method of observation we are admitting to its validity. I like the English way better, frankly, because in order to testify of fact, you have to admit to the method of the obtainment of that fact. (And also because it's my native language!)
Now that I think about it, the electoral college is good for a reason. Can you imagine a national recount? It would be absolutely terrible. Even a state-wide election is hard enough to run.
Why don't we just have electors for the governor's seat? We can send one elector from each legislative district, and then have them choose the governor. This way, a recount would only be warranted in districts that are close. (Districts in WA are about 100,000 people). Since the voting is much more local, it is much less subject to fraud and thus the unwarranted accusation of fraud.
As a manager, you are going to be responsible for coordinating the activities of developers, business people, testers, and system administrators. You're first rule is: I don't know nothing about nothing.
Your experts are going to be your business people, developers, testers, and sysadmins. Listen to what they have to say. Don't poo-poo anybody because they are not good communicators.
Once you have mastered the art of listening and understanding what people want and need, then you get to start trying to wrestle them to get on the same page. But you can't do that unless you listen first.
In companies where the tech team drives the tech, I have seen a group of computers set aside for experimentation. They won't spend too much time on it, but from time to time, they'll try something out to see if it is promising.
If you can find a company where mangement listens to tech, it is usually pretty easy to justify this experimentation lab environment. You still have to show how having it is better than not having it, and how much it will cost over the next three years. But that's no different than any other project in techland.
Companies where the upper management drives tech decisions are generally not the best places to work. I tend to avoid them. I guess I've been lucky because of my particular micro-field (e-commerce perl programmer), while others I know always end up in top-down organizations (java programmers).
Hell will freeze over when they begin using and . This is only a minor snowstorm.
The smaller fighter is always at a disadvantage. I remember sparring with my Tae Kwn Do instructor. I am about 6'4" and 230 pounds - not a small person. He was about 5'4" and roughly half my weight.
First, he couldn't get close enough to get a good hit on me. I could kick at him from a much farther distance. He had to leave a lot of room between myself and him if he wanted to catch his breath.
Was I slower than him? No, not really. I was bigger, but I had a lot more strength as well. My feet and fists could move at least as fast as his. My clothes snap just as much as his does when we punch or kick.
Second, he had to charge at me when he wanted to attack. This left plenty of time for me to get in a defensive posture, or to prepare to sidestep and counterattack. Or, I could attack him during his charge.
Third, the sheer mass of my body left his attacks wanting. My forearm weighed enough that I could stop his strongest kicks before they reached my body. My attacks could not be repelled. When I put my weight behind an attack, his only option was to dodge it. Sure, he was fast, but not that fast. And one good knock and he would've been done.
Now, I'm going to tell you a secret about big guys. In genereal, they are really docile and kind, and really like to avoid fighting or any kind of physical confrontation. Little guys have to be punks in order to get respect. They have to go 100% full strength into any physical confrontation if they expect to survive. Big guys generally start off about half strength and only notch it up to full strength when they are seriously threatened.
I'll tell you why this is. I can't tell you how many times I have hurt people accidentally, just screwing around. Ever since elementary school, I had to be very careful about how I used my size and weight. My friends who were little knew that they could go full-strength on my and I wouldn't get hurt.
Now that I am full grown and have children and a wife, I have to be very very careful not to hurt them. Imagine what would happen if I accidentally knocked one of them - either I didn't see them or I tripped and fell into them. I could easily send them to the hospital.
Hi, were the Union of Concerned Scientists. And we're very concerned about the recent plans to put dangerous weapons in space.
Our concern is well founded. The last time someone put weapons in space, we saw... well... no one's ever done that, but we're concerned about it anyway.
You have to listen to use because, see, we're a union. And not just a union of jack-booted gestappo thugs like the AFL-CIO, we're scientists and we can put death rays in space and stuff.
Here's the problem. We signed those treaties with a foreign power that no longer exists.
Plus, the USSR has violated most of those treaties anyway, nullifying them.
Yes, we rule by force, because force is the only thing communists and terrorists understand. Just like you train a dog with snacks and a choke chain, we govern those around us with subsidies and the military.
A long time ago the brightest minds got together and asked a question: How do we secure America? The answer was obvious: Be stronger than everyone else, pose a threat to everyone else, and eliminate any threats to us through diplomacy and military action.
So Fox called it right before anyone else? I never understood what everyone complained about. I remember that night, and Florida was called for Gore before the polls even closed. Who has egg on their face for that?
You may not know of this, but there is something called a "background check". They go and visit all the people you've met for the past ten years of your life and interview them. They peruse records you don't even know that exist. They tap your phones, watch your email, know when and what you are doing at all times.
I'm sorry, but you can't slip through this unless you are bona fide an American citizen who has never said anything bad about the country and has never associated with those who have.
The "Zeppelin" you speak of is called AWACS. It's ultra-powerful radar mounted on an aircraft that flies very high for long durations. You only need one in the air at a time and it is the eyes and ears on the battlefield.
The radar is so powerful and the computers onboard so good that they identify every object on the ground, including individuals, and track their movements real-time. I believe they were using a single one to handle both the conflict in Iraq and in Afghanistan. I hear rumors that they can read newspapers lying on the ground, do facial checks like the do in Las Vegas, and even identify what weapons an individual is wearing underneath their clothing. Imagine that - just start scanning the populace from miles in the sky to find the man you are looking for. "Searching.... Searching.... Found." And imagine this. Troops surround a building and take cover. Lieutenant calls in, "How many inside? What do they have?" "There's six, two on the north side, two in the middle, and two on the south. The ones on the south picked up an RPG."
The only place to hide is underground or in the masses. Saddam thought he had it made with is extra-tough reinforced bunkers. Then we brought out the MOAB minutes before the battle started. Do you remember the media blitz on that? They talked about how the MOAB penetrates deep underground, releases a gas into the chamber and tunnels, then ignites it to incinerate anyone underground. Saddam knew when he heard that this his special German built bunkers weren't safe, so he started to move and try to hide.
That's when we moved in the infantry. They worked like detectives, working house to house, person to person. Relentlessly, they pursued him with a vigor that only a bunch of well-trained 20 year old kids from the South and the Mid-West have. That's the second secret of our military. Our tech is great, but you occupy ground with boots and brains, not steel and gunpowder. In a way, the entire military structure and technology is there to serve the boots and brains on the ground.
We have these "tools" as our bargaining chips. "I'll see your nuclear program and raise you certain death if you fail to meet our demands of disarmament. Worse, we'll capture you and parade you before the world, and then hold a trial where you are convicted and executed. You can drop out of this game now, or you can try to raise the bet, or you can call."
I have often wondered about what exactly goes into the technology we take for granted.
The thought experiment I perform is to imagine what it would take to get the end product from absolutely nothing except the stuff around you found naturally. Working in the basement of the University of Washington physics laboratory, I often wondered how someone would build a milling machine or an industrial lathe. You can cut wood with rudimentary tools, and making crude iron or steel tools isn't too complicated, but how would construct a precise machine with all the guages and dials and electric motors and so on?
It sure brings me to a realization of just how far we have come from slogging about in mud and eating rats like we did in the dark ages. Our world is so complicated that no one person can understand more than a small fraction of it. Everyone is a specialist of one sort of another, even the garbage collectors and sewage system maintainers. Every generation of worker brings ingenuity to the job, and bit by bit their job becomes more and more complicated yet efficient.
Soon, will we each have a small chunk of humanity's experience in our skulls? Will we rule an insanely complicated world governed by machines and processes no one can fully understand? Or have we already come to that point?
Nope, they wouldn't need to do this. A lot of things that the military and CIA and FBI spend money on aren't on the public budget. Sometimes, even congresscritters can't get a hold of it. The way it works is the military asks for a ton of money for research and development on projects. They don't even explain what they project is, except to say that it is in the interests of national security, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Congress and the president are willing to set aside a few percent of the total military budget for this kind of research. Sure, it may not have great oversight at the time, but eventually they have to publicize what they did with the money.
This is probably just one of those instances.
We'll free your country next.
What are the chances of 2 Texas oilmen (financially supported by many more oilmen) giving us a coherent national energy policy which frees us from dependency on oil and the Middle East?
I'll ask you a question first: What are the chances of two doctors financially supported by doctors and their doctoring of creating a plan to lower health care costs while increasing the level of health care for everyone in the country?
See, you can't treat the oil companies like they are the enemy any more than doctors, farmers, or any other profession is your enemy. Oil companies do two things: (1) find oil for cheap (2) deliver it to the US for cheap. The ones who can find more oil cheaply and get it into the marketplace for cheap make more money.
They know why oil prices are going up. (Hint: If there is a scarce resource, and the supply goes down, all things being equal, the price will go up.)
They know how to fix the oil problem. (Hint: If there is a scarce resource, and the supply goes up, all things being equal, the price will drop.)
They worked hard to get the problem fixed. Unfortunately, the American people value a few acres of uninhabited tundra than the fuel in their cars.
Now there is another crisis. The supply of oil in the middle east can potentially (if not already) fall into the hands of our enemies. They can squeeze the supply of oil to our country shutting off all industry and sending us into economic ruin that is unprecedented in our country. Without oil, there won't be the plastic bags at the checkout stand. Without oil, people won't have warm apartments in the middle of New York winter. Without oil, our economy will crumble.
So they send in troops to introduce a new concept to the Middle East: stability and democracy. Well, it's not new, it's just that the current example (Israel) is a pariah.
If we didn't have the insight into the oil industry that these people had, we would have far more severe problems than we do now. Right now, the middle east is producing record levels of oil. They have opened the spiggot all the way and there still isn't quite enough. With someone else in power who won't put an emphasis on oil supply, we would be in serious trouble.