"I hope you live in a big city right down the street from him. Now say again you want him freed."
I wish I were. If he moved next door to me, I would immediately walk over and give the man a hug and thank him. He is the test case that will (hopefully) stop future administrations from trying to annihilate the Bill of Rights. He might be guilty, he might not be; I don't know and I can't make a sound judgement, nor can anyone else. Our government has taken away our right to judge him, and taken away his right to be judged by us.
If I were a judge and the case were handed to me, I'd order him freed immediately and order an investigation into his treatment in this brig. At this point, I don't care if he stepped off the plane with the bomb in his hands - you've violated virtually ever rule of law regarding the treatment of a suspect. Not only that, you've violated the spirit of the Material Witness law. In which court case was he to be testifying? To what crimes was he a witness? The answer, much the same as most of the other answers from the DoJ lately, is "we don't know."
Feel free to cower behind despots like Aschcroft. If you're too afraid to live free and too cowardly to engage in the difficult task of securing democracy for ALL, then bow down to your masters. I don't think I'm alone when I say that I'm more terrified of my own government than I am of the "terrorists." This "heightened alert" that was put out today was lapped up by the media conglomerate lapdogs, who so dutifully played into Ashcroft's hands by terrifying the public into submission with fantastic stories of imminent death and destruction.
Your problem in particular is that you have continued to soak-in the ever-flowing river of hysterical cries of the Bush Administration. You've been trained for the last 12 months to believe that the price for security is less freedom. You've been told again and again that your benevolent government would never do anything not in your best interests, and that whatever laws are passed that may restrict freedom don't actually apply to you; only to those terrorists guys. You've been lulled by the soothing words of those in power who tell you that everything will be alright if you do as we say and don't ask questions. Well guess what, I'm asking questions, and I'm demanding answers.
I love my country. I love it enough to risk my own personal safety by speaking out against our despotic attorney general. It hurts me to think that everything our ancestors built for us could be destroyed; not by a foreign enemy, but by elected leaders. Folks, people make mistakes, and we made a big one putting these people in charge. I supported Bush all the way until the beginning of this year. Now I look at all that has happened and I say to myself, "my God, what have we done?"
The truth is that our best defence against any aggressor is now, and always has been our freedom. In the War of 1812, the White House and many other buildings in our capital city were burned to the ground. Our capital was nothing more than a smoldering ruin. Did we junk our Constitution? Did we enact sweeping changes in our laws? No. Our ancestors had the courage to stand by their convictions, and stood in the face of certain destruction proclaiming that they will either live as free men, or die. To those men whose faces we see carved into stone at Mount Rushmore, freedom was more important than life. Let history never judge us as the cowards who hid in fear, but as patriots and defenders of liberty who continued the proud tradition of staring death in the face and refusing to back down from our ideals. Sept 11 shocked us out of our complacency; don't let anyone use it as an excuse to destroy the very thing we puport to hold so dear.
So yes, I do wish I lived close to Jose Padilla's home. I would feel no less safe there than I do sitting right here. And at least then I'd have the chance to thank him for all he's done for our country, and to apologize for what we have done to him. If 200 million Americans raised their voices in chorus, calling for the freedom of Padilla, he would be home tomorrow. It is as much our fault that he sits in that brig as it is our government's. So what do you say we make sure it never happens again?
"LIBERTY + SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL: This only applies to non-US citizens."
I'm sure that's very reassuring to Jose Padilla, the American Citizen who was born and raised in the US, who was arrested in Chicago in May and is now sitting in a US Military brig without any charges against him, and with no access to a lawyer or to his family. Oh wait, he probably can't read this. Hmm....
"The web will become largely text only for people without a new machine and windows."
Really? Well since you put it that way, I'm officially changing my stance on hardware DRM and going for full compliance!
*Open browser* (message): Your computer is not DRM compliant. Please enable DRM to get the full internet experience. *click cancel* (message): Are you sure? Advanced internet features such as talking, moving pornography advertisements and pop-up windows will be unavailable. *smile* *click cancel* *browse in peace for the first time in years*
We're getting there, still not quite "there" yet though...
"There is no reason to not use that dark fibre, and no reason to assume that it wouldn't be used. In fact, it would be ignorant to think it would just go wasted, never touched, because it can fill the roll it's needed for just as well as this new plastic fibre, possibly better, as we do not know the throughput on this new fibre. Also, from a cost standpoint, no matter how cheap it is to lay this new fibre down, corps have already eaten the cost of laying that dark fibre. It would be foolish to lay down new fibre when there is perfectly good fibre already laid, just waiting to be lit up."
People have been saying this for years, and yet companies continue to lay new fibre without ever turning on the dark fibre already available. This article has some excellent information on why I'm right. To quote a nice part of it, "...companies that installed fiber conduits in the late 1980s to latecomers who started installing cables last year.... Most of the fiber is unused and many of the companies that installed it are struggling.... the conventional wisdom among telecom experts is that about 95 percent of the nation's fiber is unused, or "dark." "
On to the next silly response...
"...couldn't qualify as a rant... and your two lines were not a) a violent or extravagant speech or writing or b) a speech or piece of writing that incites anger or violence.
Perhaps you could call it a bit sarcastic, but definately not a semi rant, rant, or a raving. "
Well, now let's see if this holds true. If we click here and go to the noun, we find, "1 a : a bombastic extravagant speech" Ok, let's go further. If you click here, you'll see that it says bombastic means "overblown". And if you click right over here, we'll see where extravagant means, "2 a : exceeding the limits of reason or necessity" (as in, overblown). So a rant is... Something which is overblown and exceeds the limits of reason or necessity. Sort of like saying we should chop up all the dark fibre? I think so...:)
I find your lack of faith disturbing.
I think you'll find something more fitting to your personality either here, or there, or maybe here, or perhaps there, or here.
And as for 3 people being wrong, and you being right? Please check here.
From the text of your post, I see three main points:
First, I am wrong. Nevermind that the post was a semi-rant about the computer industry's annoying habit of replacing a product before it was used in the first place. And nevermind the fact that you never provide any evidence or reasoning, logical or otherwise, to dispute what I have said. Your arrogance is surpassed only by your paranoia, which brings me to the next point.
Second, there is a massive conspiracy by the editors to make money. Now, I'm not Taco's accountant, but I don't think he's catching up to Bill Gates anytime soon thanks to slashdot. They may make questionable decisions from time to time, but the fact remains that they're maintaining a FREE website for our enjoyment. If you don't like it, go elsewhere. Until now, I would have difficulty naming a major mistake they've made with this site, but I now see the one huge mistake that has yet to be corrected: allowing you to moderate.
Thirdly, the moderators who modded me up (there were two so far) are both wrong. Well, that's three people who are, according to you, wrong, and once again we have a statement of opinion made without the benefit of any supporting arguments.
It must be nice to allow one's self to become so amazingly dillusional. Thank you, and you have a nice day!:)
"Personally I wish there was a simple (forgive the phrase) plug n' play version of a RAID. Just a low cost "black box" high-speed system/OS disk...naturually the capacity doesn't have to be that great, just 10G would be fine.
Does anyone know of a product like this?"
Take a pair of 7200RPM IDE drives with 8MB caches, get a $50 promise RAID controller, plug, stripe, play.
Maxtor already has a 160GB hard drive. The 8MB cache is a nice touch, but once you get to storage levels this high, it's usually dead storage anyway. What do I mean by that? I mean you're throwing a ton of stuff on there, not using it for your system drive (I hope).
Personally, I'm up to 630GB and running a bit low on space (about 220GB free last I checked). Let me know when we get 1TB hard drives, then I'll jump up and down.
"Given the current political situation, a more appropriate quote may be "They may take our freedom, but they will never take our LIVES!!!""
It's getting better. Anyone catch Law and Order last night? An ex US military soldier tied up and killed an arab man who he had been tracking for a while. His defense? He was defending the lives of Americans against a terrorist. The more they looked into it, the more the dead man appeared to be a terrorist (tons of money from foreign accounts, talking in code on a pre-paid untraceable cell phone, etc). The jury eventually found him guilty after a stunningly brilliant cross-examination by the prosecutor, and an equally impressive closing by the same. Basically, he posed the question, "how much of our humanity are we willing to give up for the war on terrorism." He also made some wonderful remarks about how those who came before us preserved their ideals in the face of destruction (lest we forget that our enemies burned the White House and other buildings to the ground during the war of 1812), and that we shouldn't be the generation to succumb to fear. A very powerful and refreshing episode that brings hope to those who, like me, almost lost faith in the American peoples' love of freedom and democracy.
My sig is a quote from the movie Braveheart. Anyone who has it on DVD should really listen to the speech he makes where that statement is called aloud. It's actually very relevant to the current struggle we face to have courage and could just as easily had been said by a great leader on Sept 12, 2001. If anyone's seen a great leader around lately, please let me know?
Wasn't that the price of a 30-second commercial during the last couple years of Seinfeld?
As nice as this is, a million dollars just isn't going to cut it against BigMedia. Until we make this a national policy issue, one where actual numbers of voters are involved, we're pretty much screwed. Until then though, I suppose a million bucks can fund some studies and research to strengthen our position from a logical standpoint once the public realizes that they're being screwed.
"Getting into a barfight dosn't seem like something the borg would do."
Well, you get a little Romulan Ale in them, and next thing you know, they're ripping off each others' arms and slurring "youwll be assmilatd" at one another at the top of their pseudo-organic lungs.
Sure it is; although not directly. The problem is two-fold from all I've seen/heard/read from Islamic fundamentalists. First of all, the freedom itself is offensive. This is basically the same old "you're not like us, we must be right, you are lower than us" argument. I'm not sure of any nation that isn't guilty of that one. Taken by itself, this doesn't appear to be a huge issue. But where the problem comes in is when information about your freedom-loving culture enters a restrictive society and becomes a "corruptive influence".
Take the example of two children whose parents have different philosophies about raising kids. Little Johnny's parents believe in disipline and conditioning to get him prepared for life, whereas little Billy's parents believe that everyone needs to learn from their own mistakes first-hand, and therefore should be given plenty of slack so they can make said mistakes. Now, little Johnny has to be in the house by 6pm every night for dinner, and has to be in bed by 9. His TV-watching is monitored by his parents, who forbid him from watching anything with violence, foul language, or sexual content, so as to shield him from negative influences. Little Billy's parents would really appreciate it if he was home before midnight so they don't have to worry about him, and he can feel free to watch whatever he wants on TV, because he "needs to be exposed to it at some point anyway".
Now, little Johnny's parents probably think little Billy's parents are a couple of hippy tree-huggers who don't know the first thing about raising kids, and who will probably turn out half a dozen felons before they're done. Little Billy's parents probably think little Johnny's parents are a couple of uptight, pretentious "losers" whose kid will end up pushing pencils for the next 40 years.
Already, there is a difference of opinion, but that doesn't mean they cannot be civil with one another. After all, just because someone else doesn't know how to raise a kid, doesn't mean it affects you, right? Well, that's all well and good until little Johnny comes home wanting to watch Terminator 2, "because Billy said it was so cool!". Johnny also wants to know why he has to be in so early when "Billy doesn't have a curfew!" and "Billy doesn't have a bedtime!". Wow, suddenly little Johnny realized that the things he dreams of make up someone else's reality. Now little Johnny's parents are on the phone wanting to know "why the hell your little loud-mouth bastard kid has to go telling our son about Terminators, and bedtimes, and curfews."
Well, the same thing happens in societies. It's all well and good to look at other cultures that you find inferior, until your kids come home wanting to be like them. In the specific case of the Islamic world, our freedoms (especially when it comes to sexuality and womens' rights) are seen as completely immoral and downright filthy. In a culture where women are often seen as less than animals, we allow them to elect our leaders. We also allow them to wear what they wish, travel without a male family member, and (my goodness!) have sex with whoever they please.
There wasn't a problem until western cultures, and especially American culture started hitting big in the Middle East and other areas. Now there's decension where there was tranquility. Now there is a hint of teenage rebellion where before there was loyalty and integrity. Now the secret is out that these places where women are equals to men are not myths or jokes, but instead are real places. Even the Bin Laden family got into the act. They actually changed clothes during the flights back and forth to the US. They'd start with traditional Muslim clothing coming out of Saudi Arabia, and change into jeans and shirts on their way to the US, and then change back to Muslim clothing on their way back to Saudi Arabia.
Think it's silly to think that'd cause outrage and hatred? Take a good look at John Walker Lindh. Here's a guy who started out as your average American kid, and was drawn in by a foreign culture. Their "corruptive influence" turned him into what we would consider our enemy, and looked how the people of this country were ready to hang him for it. Regardless of what role (if any) he played against American soldiers, the very idea that he could support those so drastically different from us sparked rage and anger throughout the country. And this was someone that none of us knew. Just think how you would feel if it was your brother, or your sister, or a close friend who was drawn into a culture counter to ours'. Think of the anger you'd feel. Does it justify killing someone? Absolutely not. But make no mistake, it is our culture of freedom that is hated, and it is our very freedom that was attacked.
And for goodness sakes, can we PLEASE re-open the damn Statue of Liberty? Can we stop being so damned scared? Please? There's a reason New Hampshire's motto reads, "Live Free or Die." Maybe we all need to sit down and think about what it means for our priorities after Sept 11.
"Giving up some freedom can in fact give you some security, and we all do it all the time. I am not allowed to go around shooting people - if I do the cops come and arrest me. This is a compromise of my absolute freedom, but one that I (and the vast majority of other people) are very happy to make."
That's not giving up freedom so much as it is respecting the freedom of others - in this case the freedom to live. If you want a case study in why giving up freedom for security does not work, take a look at Israel. Their entire population is forced into military service, soldiers patrol the streets at all times with orders to hold anyone who appears suspicious, and now they're building a giant wall around themselves.
Looking at all that, the "let's trade some freedom for security" people need to understand something about the Israeli government's tactics. They are not preventing the terrorist attacks.
Our best defence against terrorism is, and has always been, our freedom. That's why Al Qaeda hit us instead of Israel. That's why we continue to be a target - our freedom scares the hell out of them.
Re:One of my favourite quotes...
on
Want Freedom?
·
· Score: 2
"Well, yes, he suspended habeas corpus...and the Constitution said he could. Article I, Section 9, Clause 2:
The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it."
And in Ex parte Milligan, we learned that the Constitution gives him the right to suspend Habeus Corpus only when the courts cease to function. Milligan was set free. Have a nice day.
Re:One of my favourite quotes...
on
Want Freedom?
·
· Score: 3, Informative
"he did, in fact, suspend the right of habeas corpus"
Later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, I might add. See Ex parte Milligan. For the lazy, Ex parte Milligan was a declaration by the Supreme Court following the Civil War which stated a number of things, not the least of which were: the military cannot act as a judiciary in any place where the courts are able to function, no one (not even the President) may suspend Habeus Corpus so long as there is a functional government, and last but not least - the military cannot try a citizen who is not connected with the military.
This is, of course, something that was overlooked when Jose Padilla, who is an American citizen, and supposedly has some rights, was transferred to a military brig with little more than casual remarks from the government (Bush called him a "bad guy" - yes, he really did use those words).
In comments for a story about broadband via power cables, I link to a picture of an ethernet cable with a powercord-like end on it, and two moderators think this is somehow offtopic? Just what is on topic?
Trade-in... how quant. No, I didn't "miss" it, I ignored it. That's like a medic promising to bring you a band-aid, and instead offering you a new leg for $99.
After paying over $500 for this burner, I don't see the reason to spend an additional $99 to attain the functionality that was promised with the first burner. Now, I'm sure HP is expecting us to all be used to paying more money for functionality that was promised in an earlier product (listening, Mr Gates?), but I'd like to see a little truth in advertising for once. I'm not some cheapskate looking for a free ride, I'm one of the folks who financed the R&D for the 200i with my high-dollar purchase of their first-gen product. It was advertised as being able to burn DVD-r's with a future firmware upgrade. I understand that they probably can't be held legally accountable for not owning up to that, but at least Phillips chose to take the moral high road by offering a free (as in beer) trade-in for first-gen purchasers of their own DVD+RW product. I wouldn't even mind paying the shipping to send the drive to HP, where they could either modifiy the drive (with a warrantee of course) or send me a new drive with the promised functionality. You know, advertisers should really be jumping all over this kind of thing, as it hits them the hardest. If you cannot believe the advertisement, then it has little or no effect on your purchasing decisions. I've bought many products from HP, but as it stands right now, this will be the last. I'm not much revenue to HP by myself, but I'd imagine they've lost a large number of people who usually buy first-gen products over this.
Now just please tell me when HP is going to own up to their promise to provide owners of the DVD 100i the capability to burn DVD-r's (one way or another). At this point, I'm leaning towards avoiding any first generation product offered from anyone, and specifically avoiding any and all HP purchases in the future. If you're going to promise something, make sure it's possible first; and don't edit the FAQ later without so much as telling anyone to make it look like you never promised what you did, in fact, promise. Remember, the people who buy the first-gen products are the ones who help shape what hits mainstream.
Life is less important than liberty. It was less important in 1776, it was less important in 1812, it was less important in 1859, and it is less important now. To hell with the "war on terror" if its cost is Americans' freedom. People in the Soviet Union, people in China, people in North Korea; they're all alive, none free. Live free or die; think about it.
(I mention the Soviet Union because it was one of the most visible totalitarian states of the recent past.)
If you find out she's the judge in your case, cry. By the way she handles M$ and the DoJ, I'm guessing she wakes up every morning with the same thought on her mind: "Whose ass am I going to kick today?" Excellent work, Colleen!
I guess one of AMD's engineers finally noticed that Intel had passed them in performance, so they put the Hammer CPUs down for 5 minutes to slide back up to the top of the performance charts. Pity that Intel is supposedly releasing the 1.8's next Monday. Personally, I'm all for AMD coasting along with Athlon, so long as they're really throwing all their efforts into Hammer.
Slashdot Mirror
"I hope you live in a big city right down the street from him. Now say again you want him freed."
I wish I were. If he moved next door to me, I would immediately walk over and give the man a hug and thank him. He is the test case that will (hopefully) stop future administrations from trying to annihilate the Bill of Rights. He might be guilty, he might not be; I don't know and I can't make a sound judgement, nor can anyone else. Our government has taken away our right to judge him, and taken away his right to be judged by us.
If I were a judge and the case were handed to me, I'd order him freed immediately and order an investigation into his treatment in this brig. At this point, I don't care if he stepped off the plane with the bomb in his hands - you've violated virtually ever rule of law regarding the treatment of a suspect. Not only that, you've violated the spirit of the Material Witness law. In which court case was he to be testifying? To what crimes was he a witness? The answer, much the same as most of the other answers from the DoJ lately, is "we don't know."
Feel free to cower behind despots like Aschcroft. If you're too afraid to live free and too cowardly to engage in the difficult task of securing democracy for ALL , then bow down to your masters. I don't think I'm alone when I say that I'm more terrified of my own government than I am of the "terrorists." This "heightened alert" that was put out today was lapped up by the media conglomerate lapdogs, who so dutifully played into Ashcroft's hands by terrifying the public into submission with fantastic stories of imminent death and destruction.
Your problem in particular is that you have continued to soak-in the ever-flowing river of hysterical cries of the Bush Administration. You've been trained for the last 12 months to believe that the price for security is less freedom. You've been told again and again that your benevolent government would never do anything not in your best interests, and that whatever laws are passed that may restrict freedom don't actually apply to you; only to those terrorists guys. You've been lulled by the soothing words of those in power who tell you that everything will be alright if you do as we say and don't ask questions. Well guess what, I'm asking questions, and I'm demanding answers.
I love my country. I love it enough to risk my own personal safety by speaking out against our despotic attorney general. It hurts me to think that everything our ancestors built for us could be destroyed; not by a foreign enemy, but by elected leaders. Folks, people make mistakes, and we made a big one putting these people in charge. I supported Bush all the way until the beginning of this year. Now I look at all that has happened and I say to myself, "my God, what have we done?"
The truth is that our best defence against any aggressor is now, and always has been our freedom. In the War of 1812, the White House and many other buildings in our capital city were burned to the ground. Our capital was nothing more than a smoldering ruin. Did we junk our Constitution? Did we enact sweeping changes in our laws? No. Our ancestors had the courage to stand by their convictions, and stood in the face of certain destruction proclaiming that they will either live as free men, or die. To those men whose faces we see carved into stone at Mount Rushmore, freedom was more important than life. Let history never judge us as the cowards who hid in fear, but as patriots and defenders of liberty who continued the proud tradition of staring death in the face and refusing to back down from our ideals. Sept 11 shocked us out of our complacency; don't let anyone use it as an excuse to destroy the very thing we puport to hold so dear.
So yes, I do wish I lived close to Jose Padilla's home. I would feel no less safe there than I do sitting right here. And at least then I'd have the chance to thank him for all he's done for our country, and to apologize for what we have done to him. If 200 million Americans raised their voices in chorus, calling for the freedom of Padilla, he would be home tomorrow. It is as much our fault that he sits in that brig as it is our government's. So what do you say we make sure it never happens again?
"LIBERTY + SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL:
This only applies to non-US citizens."
I'm sure that's very reassuring to Jose Padilla, the American Citizen who was born and raised in the US, who was arrested in Chicago in May and is now sitting in a US Military brig without any charges against him, and with no access to a lawyer or to his family. Oh wait, he probably can't read this. Hmm....
"The web will become largely text only for people without a new machine and windows."
Really? Well since you put it that way, I'm officially changing my stance on hardware DRM and going for full compliance!
*Open browser*
(message): Your computer is not DRM compliant. Please enable DRM to get the full internet experience.
*click cancel*
(message): Are you sure? Advanced internet features such as talking, moving pornography advertisements and pop-up windows will be unavailable.
*smile*
*click cancel*
*browse in peace for the first time in years*
We're getting there, still not quite "there" yet though...
... Most of the fiber is unused and many of the companies that installed it are struggling. ... the conventional wisdom among telecom experts is that about 95 percent of the nation's fiber is unused, or "dark." "
:)
"There is no reason to not use that dark fibre, and no reason to assume that it wouldn't be used. In fact, it would be ignorant to think it would just go wasted, never touched, because it can fill the roll it's needed for just as well as this new plastic fibre, possibly better, as we do not know the throughput on this new fibre. Also, from a cost standpoint, no matter how cheap it is to lay this new fibre down, corps have already eaten the cost of laying that dark fibre. It would be foolish to lay down new fibre when there is perfectly good fibre already laid, just waiting to be lit up."
People have been saying this for years, and yet companies continue to lay new fibre without ever turning on the dark fibre already available. This article has some excellent information on why I'm right. To quote a nice part of it, "...companies that installed fiber conduits in the late 1980s to latecomers who started installing cables last year.
On to the next silly response...
"...couldn't qualify as a rant... and your two lines were not
a) a violent or extravagant speech or writing
or
b) a speech or piece of writing that incites anger or violence.
Perhaps you could call it a bit sarcastic, but definately not a semi rant, rant, or a raving.
"
Well, now let's see if this holds true.
If we click here and go to the noun, we find, "1 a : a bombastic extravagant speech"
Ok, let's go further. If you click here, you'll see that it says bombastic means "overblown". And if you click right over here, we'll see where extravagant means, "2 a : exceeding the limits of reason or necessity" (as in, overblown).
So a rant is... Something which is overblown and exceeds the limits of reason or necessity. Sort of like saying we should chop up all the dark fibre? I think so...
I find your lack of faith disturbing.
I think you'll find something more fitting to your personality either here, or there, or maybe here, or perhaps there, or here.
And as for 3 people being wrong, and you being right? Please check here.
Thankyoupleasedrivethrough
"How do you back-up 630gb?"
Short answer? You don't. Long answer is, "using CD-r's for most things, and DVD+RW's for the things that don't fit on CD-r's."
From the text of your post, I see three main points:
:)
First, I am wrong. Nevermind that the post was a semi-rant about the computer industry's annoying habit of replacing a product before it was used in the first place. And nevermind the fact that you never provide any evidence or reasoning, logical or otherwise, to dispute what I have said. Your arrogance is surpassed only by your paranoia, which brings me to the next point.
Second, there is a massive conspiracy by the editors to make money. Now, I'm not Taco's accountant, but I don't think he's catching up to Bill Gates anytime soon thanks to slashdot. They may make questionable decisions from time to time, but the fact remains that they're maintaining a FREE website for our enjoyment. If you don't like it, go elsewhere. Until now, I would have difficulty naming a major mistake they've made with this site, but I now see the one huge mistake that has yet to be corrected: allowing you to moderate.
Thirdly, the moderators who modded me up (there were two so far) are both wrong. Well, that's three people who are, according to you, wrong, and once again we have a statement of opinion made without the benefit of any supporting arguments.
It must be nice to allow one's self to become so amazingly dillusional. Thank you, and you have a nice day!
"Personally I wish there was a simple (forgive the phrase) plug n' play version of a RAID. Just a low cost "black box" high-speed system/OS disk...naturually the capacity doesn't have to be that great, just 10G would be fine.
Does anyone know of a product like this?"
Take a pair of 7200RPM IDE drives with 8MB caches, get a $50 promise RAID controller, plug, stripe, play.
Or, get a single 9GB Cheetah X15.
Maxtor already has a 160GB hard drive. The 8MB cache is a nice touch, but once you get to storage levels this high, it's usually dead storage anyway. What do I mean by that? I mean you're throwing a ton of stuff on there, not using it for your system drive (I hope).
Personally, I'm up to 630GB and running a bit low on space (about 220GB free last I checked). Let me know when we get 1TB hard drives, then I'll jump up and down.
"Given the current political situation, a more appropriate quote may be "They may take our freedom, but they will never take our LIVES!!!""
It's getting better. Anyone catch Law and Order last night? An ex US military soldier tied up and killed an arab man who he had been tracking for a while. His defense? He was defending the lives of Americans against a terrorist. The more they looked into it, the more the dead man appeared to be a terrorist (tons of money from foreign accounts, talking in code on a pre-paid untraceable cell phone, etc). The jury eventually found him guilty after a stunningly brilliant cross-examination by the prosecutor, and an equally impressive closing by the same. Basically, he posed the question, "how much of our humanity are we willing to give up for the war on terrorism." He also made some wonderful remarks about how those who came before us preserved their ideals in the face of destruction (lest we forget that our enemies burned the White House and other buildings to the ground during the war of 1812), and that we shouldn't be the generation to succumb to fear. A very powerful and refreshing episode that brings hope to those who, like me, almost lost faith in the American peoples' love of freedom and democracy.
My sig is a quote from the movie Braveheart. Anyone who has it on DVD should really listen to the speech he makes where that statement is called aloud. It's actually very relevant to the current struggle we face to have courage and could just as easily had been said by a great leader on Sept 12, 2001. If anyone's seen a great leader around lately, please let me know?
Wasn't that the price of a 30-second commercial during the last couple years of Seinfeld?
As nice as this is, a million dollars just isn't going to cut it against Big Media. Until we make this a national policy issue, one where actual numbers of voters are involved, we're pretty much screwed. Until then though, I suppose a million bucks can fund some studies and research to strengthen our position from a logical standpoint once the public realizes that they're being screwed.
So let me get this straight; all the dark fibre we have in the states is now obsolete and therefore useless? Great, thanks, just checking.
"Don't bother lighting it up now, boys, just chop it up good when we start laying the new stuff."
"Getting into a barfight dosn't seem like something the borg would do."
Well, you get a little Romulan Ale in them, and next thing you know, they're ripping off each others' arms and slurring "youwll be assmilatd" at one another at the top of their pseudo-organic lungs.
"it's not freedom which scares the terrorists."
Sure it is; although not directly. The problem is two-fold from all I've seen/heard/read from Islamic fundamentalists. First of all, the freedom itself is offensive. This is basically the same old "you're not like us, we must be right, you are lower than us" argument. I'm not sure of any nation that isn't guilty of that one. Taken by itself, this doesn't appear to be a huge issue. But where the problem comes in is when information about your freedom-loving culture enters a restrictive society and becomes a "corruptive influence".
Take the example of two children whose parents have different philosophies about raising kids. Little Johnny's parents believe in disipline and conditioning to get him prepared for life, whereas little Billy's parents believe that everyone needs to learn from their own mistakes first-hand, and therefore should be given plenty of slack so they can make said mistakes. Now, little Johnny has to be in the house by 6pm every night for dinner, and has to be in bed by 9. His TV-watching is monitored by his parents, who forbid him from watching anything with violence, foul language, or sexual content, so as to shield him from negative influences. Little Billy's parents would really appreciate it if he was home before midnight so they don't have to worry about him, and he can feel free to watch whatever he wants on TV, because he "needs to be exposed to it at some point anyway".
Now, little Johnny's parents probably think little Billy's parents are a couple of hippy tree-huggers who don't know the first thing about raising kids, and who will probably turn out half a dozen felons before they're done. Little Billy's parents probably think little Johnny's parents are a couple of uptight, pretentious "losers" whose kid will end up pushing pencils for the next 40 years.
Already, there is a difference of opinion, but that doesn't mean they cannot be civil with one another. After all, just because someone else doesn't know how to raise a kid, doesn't mean it affects you, right? Well, that's all well and good until little Johnny comes home wanting to watch Terminator 2, "because Billy said it was so cool!". Johnny also wants to know why he has to be in so early when "Billy doesn't have a curfew!" and "Billy doesn't have a bedtime!". Wow, suddenly little Johnny realized that the things he dreams of make up someone else's reality. Now little Johnny's parents are on the phone wanting to know "why the hell your little loud-mouth bastard kid has to go telling our son about Terminators, and bedtimes, and curfews."
Well, the same thing happens in societies. It's all well and good to look at other cultures that you find inferior, until your kids come home wanting to be like them. In the specific case of the Islamic world, our freedoms (especially when it comes to sexuality and womens' rights) are seen as completely immoral and downright filthy. In a culture where women are often seen as less than animals, we allow them to elect our leaders. We also allow them to wear what they wish, travel without a male family member, and (my goodness!) have sex with whoever they please.
There wasn't a problem until western cultures, and especially American culture started hitting big in the Middle East and other areas. Now there's decension where there was tranquility. Now there is a hint of teenage rebellion where before there was loyalty and integrity. Now the secret is out that these places where women are equals to men are not myths or jokes, but instead are real places. Even the Bin Laden family got into the act. They actually changed clothes during the flights back and forth to the US. They'd start with traditional Muslim clothing coming out of Saudi Arabia, and change into jeans and shirts on their way to the US, and then change back to Muslim clothing on their way back to Saudi Arabia.
Think it's silly to think that'd cause outrage and hatred? Take a good look at John Walker Lindh. Here's a guy who started out as your average American kid, and was drawn in by a foreign culture. Their "corruptive influence" turned him into what we would consider our enemy, and looked how the people of this country were ready to hang him for it. Regardless of what role (if any) he played against American soldiers, the very idea that he could support those so drastically different from us sparked rage and anger throughout the country. And this was someone that none of us knew. Just think how you would feel if it was your brother, or your sister, or a close friend who was drawn into a culture counter to ours'. Think of the anger you'd feel. Does it justify killing someone? Absolutely not. But make no mistake, it is our culture of freedom that is hated, and it is our very freedom that was attacked.
And for goodness sakes, can we PLEASE re-open the damn Statue of Liberty? Can we stop being so damned scared? Please? There's a reason New Hampshire's motto reads, "Live Free or Die." Maybe we all need to sit down and think about what it means for our priorities after Sept 11.
"Giving up some freedom can in fact give you some security, and we all do it all the time. I am not allowed to go around shooting people - if I do the cops come and arrest me. This is a compromise of my absolute freedom, but one that I (and the vast majority of other people) are very happy to make."
That's not giving up freedom so much as it is respecting the freedom of others - in this case the freedom to live. If you want a case study in why giving up freedom for security does not work, take a look at Israel. Their entire population is forced into military service, soldiers patrol the streets at all times with orders to hold anyone who appears suspicious, and now they're building a giant wall around themselves.
Looking at all that, the "let's trade some freedom for security" people need to understand something about the Israeli government's tactics. They are not preventing the terrorist attacks.
Our best defence against terrorism is, and has always been, our freedom. That's why Al Qaeda hit us instead of Israel. That's why we continue to be a target - our freedom scares the hell out of them.
"Well, yes, he suspended habeas corpus...and the Constitution said he could. Article I, Section 9, Clause 2:
The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it."
And in Ex parte Milligan, we learned that the Constitution gives him the right to suspend Habeus Corpus only when the courts cease to function. Milligan was set free. Have a nice day.
"he did, in fact, suspend the right of habeas corpus"
Later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, I might add. See Ex parte Milligan. For the lazy, Ex parte Milligan was a declaration by the Supreme Court following the Civil War which stated a number of things, not the least of which were: the military cannot act as a judiciary in any place where the courts are able to function, no one (not even the President) may suspend Habeus Corpus so long as there is a functional government, and last but not least - the military cannot try a citizen who is not connected with the military.
This is, of course, something that was overlooked when Jose Padilla, who is an American citizen, and supposedly has some rights, was transferred to a military brig with little more than casual remarks from the government (Bush called him a "bad guy" - yes, he really did use those words).
In comments for a story about broadband via power cables, I link to a picture of an ethernet cable with a powercord-like end on it, and two moderators think this is somehow offtopic? Just what is on topic?
It's real!
Trade-in... how quant. No, I didn't "miss" it, I ignored it. That's like a medic promising to bring you a band-aid, and instead offering you a new leg for $99.
After paying over $500 for this burner, I don't see the reason to spend an additional $99 to attain the functionality that was promised with the first burner. Now, I'm sure HP is expecting us to all be used to paying more money for functionality that was promised in an earlier product (listening, Mr Gates?), but I'd like to see a little truth in advertising for once. I'm not some cheapskate looking for a free ride, I'm one of the folks who financed the R&D for the 200i with my high-dollar purchase of their first-gen product. It was advertised as being able to burn DVD-r's with a future firmware upgrade. I understand that they probably can't be held legally accountable for not owning up to that, but at least Phillips chose to take the moral high road by offering a free (as in beer) trade-in for first-gen purchasers of their own DVD+RW product. I wouldn't even mind paying the shipping to send the drive to HP, where they could either modifiy the drive (with a warrantee of course) or send me a new drive with the promised functionality. You know, advertisers should really be jumping all over this kind of thing, as it hits them the hardest. If you cannot believe the advertisement, then it has little or no effect on your purchasing decisions. I've bought many products from HP, but as it stands right now, this will be the last. I'm not much revenue to HP by myself, but I'd imagine they've lost a large number of people who usually buy first-gen products over this.
Only if your roomate is using rocket-propelled grenades to get into your fridge.
Now just please tell me when HP is going to own up to their promise to provide owners of the DVD 100i the capability to burn DVD-r's (one way or another). At this point, I'm leaning towards avoiding any first generation product offered from anyone, and specifically avoiding any and all HP purchases in the future. If you're going to promise something, make sure it's possible first; and don't edit the FAQ later without so much as telling anyone to make it look like you never promised what you did, in fact, promise. Remember, the people who buy the first-gen products are the ones who help shape what hits mainstream.
"It was all done to protect American lives."
Life is less important than liberty. It was less important in 1776, it was less important in 1812, it was less important in 1859, and it is less important now. To hell with the "war on terror" if its cost is Americans' freedom. People in the Soviet Union, people in China, people in North Korea; they're all alive, none free. Live free or die; think about it.
(I mention the Soviet Union because it was one of the most visible totalitarian states of the recent past.)
If you find out she's the judge in your case, cry. By the way she handles M$ and the DoJ, I'm guessing she wakes up every morning with the same thought on her mind: "Whose ass am I going to kick today?" Excellent work, Colleen!
Judging by the corporate scandals coming to light as of late, that figure is probably close to the CEO's yearly salary.
I guess one of AMD's engineers finally noticed that Intel had passed them in performance, so they put the Hammer CPUs down for 5 minutes to slide back up to the top of the performance charts. Pity that Intel is supposedly releasing the 1.8's next Monday. Personally, I'm all for AMD coasting along with Athlon, so long as they're really throwing all their efforts into Hammer.