I thought they did go over why the Cylons were gunning for humans. Don't you remember Adama's speech? He talked about how humans tried to play God, and then when our inventions didn't go the way we wanted, we tried to erase what we'd done. Didn't he go on to say that the only question not answered about the Cylon attack was why the human race deserved to go on, when we go around murdering each other and generally being nasty?
I thought he covered a reason pretty well. Humans had tried to eliminate the Cylon 'mistake.' This is often a premise in Science Fiction to cause AI to turn on its master/creater/whatever. I can think of dozens of movies offhand, not to mention plenty of books. No different with the mini-series.
I disagree. You can't ADD a hard drive to one very easily, although I was able to piggy back a hard drive to the cheapest emachine that money could buy (our client's decision, not ours), and I've personally upgraded memory and a processor on one.
For the average client, an emachine is all they need, and whether you like it or not, they work. We've had some installed at client's workplaces for years and have had NO problems. I also like how they don't include lots of unnecessary crap on the install (other than the usual services you'll have to disable). Just the base install, without MusicMatch, adware, etc.
Granted, this is all in the past 2 years or so that I've seen a drastic improvement. My dad bought one four years or so ago, and it's not that great of a machine. The company's methods and quality have changed, however.
For those of you interested though, I wouldn't purchase one right now. I'd wait until Windows XP 64 is included in their bundle. That way, you don't have to pay an additional $ 199.99 or so for the upgrade when it comes out.
The average end user does not set up a multi-million dollar corporate Windows network, and those people that do have almost always learned from someone who has set up a Windows network or have IT/IS experience, college degrees, etc. And, to insinuate the tools are not already provided in Linux is equally as ridiculous. I've not seen a recent (as in last 3 years) end-user targetted Linux distribution that didn't already have Samba available, and if this admin didn't copy the conf files for PAM, Samba, and whatever other custom job he/she had from other computer that were already properly configured, then that's his/her fault/oversight/whatever, not the OS. The fact is that WINDOWS admins are so used to the WINDOWS control panel and quick access functions, that they are trying to configure the stations through Windows techniques - which btw, PAM and Samba have a GUI administration interface if they wish to configure the workstation through KDE, Gnome, etc. Heck, they can even install Webmin and point their Windows browsers to the IP address of the workstation that needs configuring.
If these admins had any sense, they would make a proper, custom install CD for all new Linux machines. If they don't know how, they can most certainly ask. I understand that, in most cases, Linux has more configuration options, and so, many Windows/Linux hybrid solutions may seem to put Linux in an interesting light, but that doesn't mean that configuring Linux with Windows networks has to be a pain. Just like setting up a Windows network, setting up a Linux or Linux/Windows hybrid network just takes a little practice.
Are you retarded? That's what he was saying. He said that Americans aren't sheep, they are more like cows going to slaughter. The only reason that I see your post fit to be 'Funny' is because you made a stupid reply. Do moderators mod up every stupid reply? If so, I should have much better karma;).
... shouldn't have read that with enthusiasm... I just went browsing through Dell's website looking at what kind of prices to expect on a half terabyte memory sale... LOL! Mondays...
I just talked with an engineer who told me that padding is not even really a requirement of the RC4 or ARC4 algorithm, and that there are implementations of it, such as a nice 160 bit implementation, that use no padding whatsoever. I'm pleased with that description, and all such arguments against RC4 in my mind have subsided, especially since the truth of the matter on the implementation concerns is that no matter what algorithm was implemented in the situations I mentioned earlier, most of the holes would probably still have existed. Poor engineering is poor engineering.
In other words, both of you are right, and I am wrong. Enjoy;).
I have a few problems with the RC4 algorithm, only one of which I'll talk about. It's not implemented poorly in one or two protocols, but several. If it's that hard for engineers to implement properly, then my brain simply thinks "Don't use that protocol! It's not worth it!" Perhaps, it's an okay protocol. Perhaps, there are just too many engineers that don't know how to implement it properly.
Thank you for your time,
Quadgoatboy
P.S. As a side note, I don't know about you, but I just don't trust a protocol that padds itself 64 times on a 32 bit key. That just kind of... creeps me out:D. Yeah, yeah, I'm paranoid, but isn't anyone who uses encryption.
Not quite. RC4 has several pretty serious flaws, both in design and popular implementation. Do you remember when it single-handedly rendered SSH1 useless?
Padding your keys with any number, especially zero, is not a good encryption scheme. Did I mention that RC4 calls for this? It did wonders for the Windows password file. LOL!
Want more examples? Email me. It's just not a good algorithm. Unless under some kind of special condition, AES, Blowfish, or something else should be used instead.
No, WEP stands for Wireless Equivalent Privacy, and it certainly has nothing to do with good encryption (uses RC4). What the WEP tries to (poorly) gaurantee is that clients are authenticated with the access point, server, whatever. Unfortunately, it is a one-way authentication that only validates the client, not the access point or server. What that means is that if you get a rogue access point with a bigger signal than the legitimate access point, the client will authenticate with the rogue access point, giving away passwords, encryption keys, etc. Throw in the fact that most wireless networks use shared keys, and you have just set yourself up for a security disaster. SSL gateway will not really help you if you have a man in the middle attack. If the man in the middle can grab the authentication key, it can masquerade as a legitimate user and possibly find out even more great things. If you want more info, check out "Wireless Network Security" published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Department of Commerce.
As far as encryption goes, WEP even gives away 24 bits of the encryption key with the IV (Initialization Vector). If you want a good list of the problems with wireless, check out section 3.3.2 of the document I mentioned. If you'd like a checklist of things you can do to lessen your security risks with wireless, check out sections 3.8 and 3.9. Of course, they include things like eye scanners and fingerprint scanners to even access a room with wireless capabilities, but most of those recommendations can be implemented by small to medium businesses with small amounts of technology capital.
Thank you for your time,
Quadgoatboy
I'm in the wrong business. Exactly why do we give a crap about Lindows demanding a prominent position in a conference paid by them for a very small amount of people? Who cares?
On a completely different note, did anyone notice how the spokesperson for Lindows said that this was a conference about "desktop Linux for customers who'll use it, not for programmers who'll develop it".... So why aren't consumers invited? They're inviting programmers and people from other companies who'll sit around and act like they're interested in each other's products.
Does anyone else find this amusing? You know, that any of the Microsoft researchers would have time to research this while such a monstrous security audit was going on?:-)
Our LINUX webserver has had over 96,000 Nimda attacks since September 18th of last year, with peak days of about 4,000 attacks a day since we started logging. Of course, since we are not running Windows, we have never been infected by Nimda, but still, that is an enormous number of attacks. That I know of, we have yet to have an Apache attack, or any Linux-based, or Linux-intended attack, much less one that succeeded.
On a rather pathetic side note, I just set up a brand new webserver yesterday, and it has already received over 100 Windows-intended attacks. Again, since this new webserver runs Linux, my system was not compromised, but for a system online for less than 24 hours to get 100 Windows-intended attacks, that is incredible.
Re:article illustrated something about family...
on
Tracking Mafiaboy
·
· Score: 1
I don't believe this shows why good family life generally fosters good behavior in kids. In fact, the article never mentioned anything about how this kind of thing never happens in 'regular' homes. If anything, the article might have hinted that kids can sometimes go astray in dysfunctional settings. However, it does not say anything about how good family life generally fosters good behavior in kids.
You know, I don't think that Americans are going to stop getting flak from people like the one that posted this story to slashdot until they just grow up. Americans are not the only countries that would have scored poorly on such a test, and I'm actually surprised that 40% of a very limited poll (I wasn't polled and I'm an American) did well.
You don't think that ignorance survives in your area of the world? Let's see a few examples:
After the school shooting in Germany, do you know what students there had to say?
Thomas Rethfeldt, 18, was in the school at the time of the shooting. "I never thought anything like this could ever happen in a place like Erfurt," he added in a quiet, shaken voice. "I thought this must be a bad film. I thought this kind of thing only happened in America."
Well, it sounds to me like your educational systems are simply pointing a finger at the United States and saying, "Don't worry kids. That kind of thing only happens in America. We've been without rape, murder, pillaging, and crime for thousands of years. Just sit back and cast stones at the Americans."
I just simply could not believe what I was reading. Let's forget that there have been school shootings in Bosnia and Britain and concentrate on what might seem like unrelated murder to you: Dueling.
Dueling was actually considered a sport, a way to gain merit and status, and a legal way to settle legal disputes all across Europe and the world, for that matter. Did even 40% of Europe think that this was a bad way to settle disputes at the time? Heck no. Not only was it accepted, it was a freaking spectacle to the public.
Now, how does this relate to school shootings? Duels were usually instigated by an action against one's family, status, and/or pride. Thus, duels were more likely than not fueled by vengeance and ambition. And what motives do you think drove this 19 year old kid to murder 12 teachers, 5 students, and have 500 more rounds that could have been used on others if he hadn't have been locked in a room? Vengeance for being expelled from school and temporarily barred from academic achievement, and Ambition to put his name in the record books by producing one of the most horrific school shootings ever perpetrated.
Wouldn't you say that history is just as important as science? If Europeans were being properly schooled in history do you think they would so seriously overlook the fact that murder has existed in every (including their freaking own) society in nearly every type of situation and place for thousands and thousands of years?
Now, I find it even more aggrivating that my colleagues in the computer science world can sit back and point at the rest of the world's ignorance when they've designed such awe-inspiring works of genius as:
'No keyboard detected. Press enter to continue.'
You cannot tell me that any of you know everything. I would like to see a proper sampling of your culture's 'scientific knowledge' or even history, mathmatics, or common rhetoric scores years after your official education has stopped. The reason for such scores is three-fold.
1. The human mind, although constantly learning new material, is quite incapable of retaining everything, and in fact, when people begin devoting their lives to the study or perfection of a single profession, their retained proportion is considerably lopsided toward their career choice. Thus, if someone wants to be a fantastic plumber, they will more than likely maintain a vast amount of excellent plumbing knowledge, while the rest of their knowledge base weakens. You don't think that plumbing is something worth dedicatign your intellect to? Then, go ahead and jiggle that handle for the rest of your life and blame the 'stupid', simple plumbing for not working.
2.) Society needs such specialized people to grow. Just as society needs those who study the heavens, program computers, and conduct mock nuclear explosions in simulators to further its progress, society needs plumbers, firemen, policemen, fishers, etc. Plumbers and fishers don't need to know that the Earth revolves around the sun. That's why society created people like you for. It certainly does not need people like you to sit back and critique how it operates, and how it needs to operate to create a harmonious society.
3) The test was more than likely ill-worded, and many people are horrible test takers. Let's take the example question for instance.
"Does the Earth revolve around the sun every 365 days?"
Such a question might seem trivial to you, but what about Leap Year? Last I checked the Earth most certainly does not revolve around the sun every 365 days. The Earth revolves around the sun at around 365 1/4 days.
A person could thus have been put in a situation where they thought, "Well, what if it's trying to trick me. I should put down 365 1/4 or 366, or should I say 366 counting Leap Year, or..."
Is it funny that some people don't know what you may feel is basic science? No. Is it necessary for those people to know basic science to perform their jobs? No. You don't have to know how gravity works to know that you can walk across the Earth without floating into the air. You don't have to know anything about the constants applied in trajectory algorithms to know how to throw a ball from your hand to the mitt of your friend. If these people did know about Thermodynamics, it might in some way affect their lives, but it is not necessary for them to live.
The point is that you are no better than anyone else because you know more about your field of science or even general science. You simply no more than that person in that field, period. Any attempts at making those persons feel bad for knowledge that they do not know or need is simply an attempt by you to boost your own ego and make someone else feel bad, when there is no need for it.
Eisenhower was involved in a different theater of war with a much different crowd of people. Quite frankly, he didn't understand the situation Halsey, MacArthur and the Pacific fleet were facing.
Quotes number two and three, Admiral William D. Leahy.
That there were opponents to the bombs then, as there definitely are now, is not under dispute, neither will anything that is said on Slashdot change your opinion. You are steadfast in your decision, and I applaud you for holding your ground in what you believe in.
As you well know, anyone on the other side of the argument can present various quotes of other opinions that go against your stances, but what does that really accomplish? By all accounts, especially his own, Truman was very troubled with dropping such a terrible device on a nation that simply refused to admit they were beaten.
Quote number 4, Winston Churchill.
I believe you have actually taken this out of context. The quote, which his feelings about the bomb he explains in his memoirs, was his way of saying that the bombs didn't defeat Japan. Japan already had no chance at winning the war, but they just had too much pride, and their type of warfare required an honorable end to the war.
The last quote I'm not quite sure of. I'll have to look more into that. Many modern authors have noted that the atomic bombs were more than likely dropped as soon as they were to prevent the Soviet Union from having a powerful claim to the Japanese islands. As would become quite clear in the coming Cold War, the United States needed the Japanese islands as a naval and air launching base to check the Soviet power in the East Asian theater of operations. If the Soviet Union had repulsed the Japanese from Manchuria and successfully invaded any of the Japanese islands, the U.S.'s claims to the Japanese islands as a major Asian naval base would have been greatly diminished. What's really not helpful about the quote is the '...' which could really be anything. If the quote you mentioned indeed backs up the general feeling that you are saying, then the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey team must have grossly overestimated the effects of the sea blockade on Japan's morale and underestimated their fighting resolve. If you could provide the whole quote, or even better yet, if you could point me to the source of the quote, I would be very appreciative.
To conclude, you're not an idiot, and I don't believe you're full of shit. You might be misinformed, but then again, all of us are in some if not all areas. Although you may have strong moral convictions about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Emperor Hirohito was not of the same opinions as his staff, and especially that of Admiral Yamamoto. An unconditional surrender, at the time before the bombings, was completely unacceptable to him (Hirohito) and he readied the Japanese homeland for an all-out repulsion of any invasion force (and rightfully so. This was their homeland.) Women and children were armed, and as has been brought up earlier, Emperor Hirohito ordered everyone in the country to take at least one American with them and never surrender. Those are very strong orders, and the Japanese nation would have followed those orders until either their Emperor were found and proven dead or they were dead.
Due to Anonymous Coward's demands, "w00-frickin-w00" has changed its name to "l33tw00" for cosmetic reasons;).
Re:Are some people complaining a bit too much?
on
The Eyes Have It
·
· Score: 1
I haven't seen a more true paragraph on this story than your fourth paragraph. We really are fighting an uphill battle, on solid ice, with marbles being rolled down the hill, and our swords sticking in our sheaths. No matter how many of these 'security' measures we come up with, we are still not going to stop or even thwart the actions of 9/11 like terrorists.
IMHO, I believe that the responsibility of rooting out potential terrorist belongs to observant U.S. citizens and the CIA, FBI, and related organizations. 9/11 did more than just shake up the airline industry. The CIA especially was brought back to life, and its pathetic restrictions were lifted.
In the future, I hope we see more cooperation between law enforcement and intelligence agencies toward the thwarting of terrorism. I believe that that is the only viable way to protect us.
What are your opinions of Microsoft's policies to date? Do you feel that Microsoft even has a monopoly, and if so, in which area(s) does Microsoft have a monopoly in? To the best of your knowledge, do you have any questionable past statements that Microsoft's lawyers could currently turn against you? Finally and most importantly, if you could be any of the following animals, which would you be: a) a shark, b) a penguin, or c) a squirrel?
I'm afraid that last question is a trick question. If you answered c, you are obviously a part of the conspiracy to take over the world. If you answered b, you are obviously trying to jump on the Linux bandwagon and will do the world no good, since you will more than likely be shot down by Microsoft's lawyers quite quickly, and any effectiveness in your proposed capacity would be stifled. If you answered a, you might just be able to hang in there with the rest of the predators, so let's hope this fight doesn't leave the murky water!;)
Slashdot Mirror
I thought they did go over why the Cylons were gunning for humans. Don't you remember Adama's speech? He talked about how humans tried to play God, and then when our inventions didn't go the way we wanted, we tried to erase what we'd done. Didn't he go on to say that the only question not answered about the Cylon attack was why the human race deserved to go on, when we go around murdering each other and generally being nasty?
I thought he covered a reason pretty well. Humans had tried to eliminate the Cylon 'mistake.' This is often a premise in Science Fiction to cause AI to turn on its master/creater/whatever. I can think of dozens of movies offhand, not to mention plenty of books. No different with the mini-series.
Quadgoatboy
I disagree. You can't ADD a hard drive to one very easily, although I was able to piggy back a hard drive to the cheapest emachine that money could buy (our client's decision, not ours), and I've personally upgraded memory and a processor on one.
For the average client, an emachine is all they need, and whether you like it or not, they work. We've had some installed at client's workplaces for years and have had NO problems. I also like how they don't include lots of unnecessary crap on the install (other than the usual services you'll have to disable). Just the base install, without MusicMatch, adware, etc.
Granted, this is all in the past 2 years or so that I've seen a drastic improvement. My dad bought one four years or so ago, and it's not that great of a machine. The company's methods and quality have changed, however.
For those of you interested though, I wouldn't purchase one right now. I'd wait until Windows XP 64 is included in their bundle. That way, you don't have to pay an additional $ 199.99 or so for the upgrade when it comes out.
Just my two cents.
Quadgoatboy
If these admins had any sense, they would make a proper, custom install CD for all new Linux machines. If they don't know how, they can most certainly ask. I understand that, in most cases, Linux has more configuration options, and so, many Windows/Linux hybrid solutions may seem to put Linux in an interesting light, but that doesn't mean that configuring Linux with Windows networks has to be a pain. Just like setting up a Windows network, setting up a Linux or Linux/Windows hybrid network just takes a little practice.
Thank you for your time,
Quadgoatboy
Quadgoatboy
On a brighter note, at least our networking products won't have to be rewritten... Caffeine... Where the heck is the caffeine?...
Quadgoatboy
I don't know if it is underappreciated, but it's something...
Quadgoatboy
In other words, both of you are right, and I am wrong. Enjoy ;).
Thank you for your time,
Quadgoatboy
However, RC4 has had some setbacks recently.
A paper on attacking RC4
A more theoretical attack paper
A paper describing an attack that requires some guessing and probability theory
I have a few problems with the RC4 algorithm, only one of which I'll talk about. It's not implemented poorly in one or two protocols, but several. If it's that hard for engineers to implement properly, then my brain simply thinks "Don't use that protocol! It's not worth it!" Perhaps, it's an okay protocol. Perhaps, there are just too many engineers that don't know how to implement it properly.
Thank you for your time,
Quadgoatboy
P.S. As a side note, I don't know about you, but I just don't trust a protocol that padds itself 64 times on a 32 bit key. That just kind of... creeps me out :D. Yeah, yeah, I'm paranoid, but isn't anyone who uses encryption.
http://www.ipsec.co.jp/products/ssh/cert/vulnerabi lity.html
Here is an even cuter, step-by-step explanation of how to BRUTE-FORCE CRACK the IV and RC4 encryption in less than 1 MINUTE!
http://www.dachb0den.com/projects/bsd-airtools/wep exp.txt
and the author even provides you with some auditing tools... for your network of course!
http://www.dachb0den.com/projects/bsd-airtools.htm l
Padding your keys with any number, especially zero, is not a good encryption scheme. Did I mention that RC4 calls for this? It did wonders for the Windows password file. LOL!
http://etudiant.univ-mlv.fr/~ecorreia/toto.html
Want more examples? Email me. It's just not a good algorithm. Unless under some kind of special condition, AES, Blowfish, or something else should be used instead.
Thank you for your time,
Quadgoatboy
Actually, you are correct. My bad. It does stand for Wired Equivalent Privacy.
No, WEP stands for Wireless Equivalent Privacy, and it certainly has nothing to do with good encryption (uses RC4). What the WEP tries to (poorly) gaurantee is that clients are authenticated with the access point, server, whatever. Unfortunately, it is a one-way authentication that only validates the client, not the access point or server. What that means is that if you get a rogue access point with a bigger signal than the legitimate access point, the client will authenticate with the rogue access point, giving away passwords, encryption keys, etc. Throw in the fact that most wireless networks use shared keys, and you have just set yourself up for a security disaster. SSL gateway will not really help you if you have a man in the middle attack. If the man in the middle can grab the authentication key, it can masquerade as a legitimate user and possibly find out even more great things. If you want more info, check out "Wireless Network Security" published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Department of Commerce. As far as encryption goes, WEP even gives away 24 bits of the encryption key with the IV (Initialization Vector). If you want a good list of the problems with wireless, check out section 3.3.2 of the document I mentioned. If you'd like a checklist of things you can do to lessen your security risks with wireless, check out sections 3.8 and 3.9. Of course, they include things like eye scanners and fingerprint scanners to even access a room with wireless capabilities, but most of those recommendations can be implemented by small to medium businesses with small amounts of technology capital. Thank you for your time, Quadgoatboy
On a completely different note, did anyone notice how the spokesperson for Lindows said that this was a conference about "desktop Linux for customers who'll use it, not for programmers who'll develop it" .... So why aren't consumers invited? They're inviting programmers and people from other companies who'll sit around and act like they're interested in each other's products.
It's just B.S. Let it go.
Does anyone else find this amusing? You know, that any of the Microsoft researchers would have time to research this while such a monstrous security audit was going on? :-)
LOL
Just messing with you, Mike.
Nimda stats on our server
On a rather pathetic side note, I just set up a brand new webserver yesterday, and it has already received over 100 Windows-intended attacks. Again, since this new webserver runs Linux, my system was not compromised, but for a system online for less than 24 hours to get 100 Windows-intended attacks, that is incredible.
I don't believe this shows why good family life generally fosters good behavior in kids. In fact, the article never mentioned anything about how this kind of thing never happens in 'regular' homes. If anything, the article might have hinted that kids can sometimes go astray in dysfunctional settings. However, it does not say anything about how good family life generally fosters good behavior in kids.
You don't think that ignorance survives in your area of the world? Let's see a few examples:
After the school shooting in Germany, do you know what students there had to say?
Thomas Rethfeldt, 18, was in the school at the time of the shooting. "I never thought anything like this could ever happen in a place like Erfurt," he added in a quiet, shaken voice. "I thought this must be a bad film. I thought this kind of thing only happened in America."
Well, it sounds to me like your educational systems are simply pointing a finger at the United States and saying, "Don't worry kids. That kind of thing only happens in America. We've been without rape, murder, pillaging, and crime for thousands of years. Just sit back and cast stones at the Americans."
I just simply could not believe what I was reading. Let's forget that there have been school shootings in Bosnia and Britain and concentrate on what might seem like unrelated murder to you: Dueling.
Dueling was actually considered a sport, a way to gain merit and status, and a legal way to settle legal disputes all across Europe and the world, for that matter. Did even 40% of Europe think that this was a bad way to settle disputes at the time? Heck no. Not only was it accepted, it was a freaking spectacle to the public.
Now, how does this relate to school shootings? Duels were usually instigated by an action against one's family, status, and/or pride. Thus, duels were more likely than not fueled by vengeance and ambition. And what motives do you think drove this 19 year old kid to murder 12 teachers, 5 students, and have 500 more rounds that could have been used on others if he hadn't have been locked in a room? Vengeance for being expelled from school and temporarily barred from academic achievement, and Ambition to put his name in the record books by producing one of the most horrific school shootings ever perpetrated.
Wouldn't you say that history is just as important as science? If Europeans were being properly schooled in history do you think they would so seriously overlook the fact that murder has existed in every (including their freaking own) society in nearly every type of situation and place for thousands and thousands of years?
Now, I find it even more aggrivating that my colleagues in the computer science world can sit back and point at the rest of the world's ignorance when they've designed such awe-inspiring works of genius as:
'No keyboard detected. Press enter to continue.'
You cannot tell me that any of you know everything. I would like to see a proper sampling of your culture's 'scientific knowledge' or even history, mathmatics, or common rhetoric scores years after your official education has stopped. The reason for such scores is three-fold.
1. The human mind, although constantly learning new material, is quite incapable of retaining everything, and in fact, when people begin devoting their lives to the study or perfection of a single profession, their retained proportion is considerably lopsided toward their career choice. Thus, if someone wants to be a fantastic plumber, they will more than likely maintain a vast amount of excellent plumbing knowledge, while the rest of their knowledge base weakens. You don't think that plumbing is something worth dedicatign your intellect to? Then, go ahead and jiggle that handle for the rest of your life and blame the 'stupid', simple plumbing for not working.
2.) Society needs such specialized people to grow. Just as society needs those who study the heavens, program computers, and conduct mock nuclear explosions in simulators to further its progress, society needs plumbers, firemen, policemen, fishers, etc. Plumbers and fishers don't need to know that the Earth revolves around the sun. That's why society created people like you for. It certainly does not need people like you to sit back and critique how it operates, and how it needs to operate to create a harmonious society.
3) The test was more than likely ill-worded, and many people are horrible test takers. Let's take the example question for instance.
"Does the Earth revolve around the sun every 365 days?"
Such a question might seem trivial to you, but what about Leap Year? Last I checked the Earth most certainly does not revolve around the sun every 365 days. The Earth revolves around the sun at around 365 1/4 days.
A person could thus have been put in a situation where they thought, "Well, what if it's trying to trick me. I should put down 365 1/4 or 366, or should I say 366 counting Leap Year, or..."
Is it funny that some people don't know what you may feel is basic science? No. Is it necessary for those people to know basic science to perform their jobs? No. You don't have to know how gravity works to know that you can walk across the Earth without floating into the air. You don't have to know anything about the constants applied in trajectory algorithms to know how to throw a ball from your hand to the mitt of your friend. If these people did know about Thermodynamics, it might in some way affect their lives, but it is not necessary for them to live.
The point is that you are no better than anyone else because you know more about your field of science or even general science. You simply no more than that person in that field, period. Any attempts at making those persons feel bad for knowledge that they do not know or need is simply an attempt by you to boost your own ego and make someone else feel bad, when there is no need for it.
Thank you for your time,
"I send you this file in order to have your advice"
And oila! You've just got yourself 400,000 distributed computers working on your project.
*sigh*
Eisenhower was involved in a different theater of war with a much different crowd of people. Quite frankly, he didn't understand the situation Halsey, MacArthur and the Pacific fleet were facing.
Quotes number two and three, Admiral William D. Leahy.
That there were opponents to the bombs then, as there definitely are now, is not under dispute, neither will anything that is said on Slashdot change your opinion. You are steadfast in your decision, and I applaud you for holding your ground in what you believe in.
As you well know, anyone on the other side of the argument can present various quotes of other opinions that go against your stances, but what does that really accomplish? By all accounts, especially his own, Truman was very troubled with dropping such a terrible device on a nation that simply refused to admit they were beaten.
Quote number 4, Winston Churchill.
I believe you have actually taken this out of context. The quote, which his feelings about the bomb he explains in his memoirs, was his way of saying that the bombs didn't defeat Japan. Japan already had no chance at winning the war, but they just had too much pride, and their type of warfare required an honorable end to the war.
The last quote I'm not quite sure of. I'll have to look more into that. Many modern authors have noted that the atomic bombs were more than likely dropped as soon as they were to prevent the Soviet Union from having a powerful claim to the Japanese islands. As would become quite clear in the coming Cold War, the United States needed the Japanese islands as a naval and air launching base to check the Soviet power in the East Asian theater of operations. If the Soviet Union had repulsed the Japanese from Manchuria and successfully invaded any of the Japanese islands, the U.S.'s claims to the Japanese islands as a major Asian naval base would have been greatly diminished. What's really not helpful about the quote is the '...' which could really be anything. If the quote you mentioned indeed backs up the general feeling that you are saying, then the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey team must have grossly overestimated the effects of the sea blockade on Japan's morale and underestimated their fighting resolve. If you could provide the whole quote, or even better yet, if you could point me to the source of the quote, I would be very appreciative.
To conclude, you're not an idiot, and I don't believe you're full of shit. You might be misinformed, but then again, all of us are in some if not all areas. Although you may have strong moral convictions about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Emperor Hirohito was not of the same opinions as his staff, and especially that of Admiral Yamamoto. An unconditional surrender, at the time before the bombings, was completely unacceptable to him (Hirohito) and he readied the Japanese homeland for an all-out repulsion of any invasion force (and rightfully so. This was their homeland.) Women and children were armed, and as has been brought up earlier, Emperor Hirohito ordered everyone in the country to take at least one American with them and never surrender. Those are very strong orders, and the Japanese nation would have followed those orders until either their Emperor were found and proven dead or they were dead.
Group image 1
Group image 2
Woo member Blake
Woo member Remmie
Here is his girlfriend's pic. Nice couple ;).
Due to Anonymous Coward's demands, "w00-frickin-w00" has changed its name to "l33tw00" for cosmetic reasons ;).
IMHO, I believe that the responsibility of rooting out potential terrorist belongs to observant U.S. citizens and the CIA, FBI, and related organizations. 9/11 did more than just shake up the airline industry. The CIA especially was brought back to life, and its pathetic restrictions were lifted.
In the future, I hope we see more cooperation between law enforcement and intelligence agencies toward the thwarting of terrorism. I believe that that is the only viable way to protect us.
And let's not forget the furry feet... What? What do you mean I'm the only one?! ;)
I'm afraid that last question is a trick question. If you answered c, you are obviously a part of the conspiracy to take over the world. If you answered b, you are obviously trying to jump on the Linux bandwagon and will do the world no good, since you will more than likely be shot down by Microsoft's lawyers quite quickly, and any effectiveness in your proposed capacity would be stifled. If you answered a, you might just be able to hang in there with the rest of the predators, so let's hope this fight doesn't leave the murky water! ;)