This is the reason why most people won't hire PhD's for engineering jobs. They have spent way too much time in academia to understand the market. Step down from that position you put yourself into and understand that cloud computing is not about the hardware per se, but the software that can be build on top of it. We are witnessing the promise of a Beowulf cluster and you say that building the largest facility in the planet is irrelevant?
So if somebody builds thousands of miles of highways it's not impressive either, since it's just infrastructure? The Chinese have done exactly that and for a fraction of the cost here in the US. Dude, wake up, building facilities like this allows a myriad of services available for business, government, etc.
Judging by your comment about the iPhone, you seem to be either a smartass or in total disconnect of reality. An iPhone represents smartphones as whole and that along cloud computing, is driving most of the investments in a lot of industries, like video game companies, or even Netflix. Look at the tech job offers they have, they all are related to cloud computing and data in one way or another.
And you are assuming automatically that they guy did rape them. If you are from Sweden I would like to tell you in all honesty, what a moronic attitude you have towards issues like this. Women that feel betrayed are a force to be reckoned with, and what you qualify as "rape" is an insult to everybody's intelligence. A woman that was truly raped would immediately go to the authorites and stay away from whoever attacked her, or on the other hand, try to forget it ever happened and never talk about it in public. That didn't happen in this case, and based on the timing of the accusation I believe it's pretty safe to bet that the case has been politically motivated.
Such abuses of the legal system should be frowned upon, much like that legal case of that woman against McDonalds because she got burned by hot coffee after she spilled the cup. It is a waste of taxpayer's money in either case.
As far as the money scam theory of yours, try to RTFM next time, like for instance http://www.fsilaw.com/~/media/Files/The%20Julian%20Assange%20Defence%20Fund.ashx where they explain why they need the money.
To be honest, I couldn't care less about Assange. To me, he is either very brave or very stupid thinking he can change the world, and he will either get in jail, killed or somehow diminished like most free thinkers before and probably after him. The stupidity surrounding the case is so extreme that I have been tempted to send money to his "Defence Fund". Bah, I think I'm starting to care.
Better step down from that high moral ground you set up for yourself. Especially after the number the US Govt pulled on Wikileaks. Also, it doesn't help that the US has very warm relations with Colombia and Mexico, countries where murdering journalists and real kleptocracy can be seen alongside the drug trade all over the economy. So what's your point, really?
Arquimedes was indeed Sicilian, but that's considered Greek since Syracuse, capital of Sicily was a Greek nation state, part of the Hellenistic civilization.
Let's be honest, with Linux you save money but with Windows you focus on what you really want to do, since even if somebody doesn't know how to use Office, they are looked upon as ignorants. When you deploy OpenOffice, those "ignorants" have the excuse to pass the blame on you. So sometimes, especially when it comes to government deployments and lazy employees, it's just better to stick with Microsoft or whatever the common cultural denominator in technology is.
As I said before, of course this has a propaganda spin, but to even think that Venezuela govt could actually manage such a feat, is to place too much hope on a government who can't even run public utilities companies right. Electricity shortages everywhere, restrictions to acquire foreign currency that has hampered business in general, inflamatory rethoric on presidential speeches that divides the population, and the list goes on and on, but the thing that sticks out the most is incompetence. So nuclear development implies a degree of organization that Chavez is unable to do. My message to all Americans is to relax, ignore him in the media and everywhere else and watch him fall out of power starting with the upcoming Congress elections on the 26th, and then on the presidential one in 2012. Everybody here in Venezuela has too much of his leftist crap already.
On the opposite hand, the whole thing might be a bunch of lies because who cared to confirm if even those people exist, that's right, no one. Just copy and paste from whatever the FBI gave them. In either case Chavez is still an ass and the US govt still manipulates people through the media. Just another day in the world.
It is dirty tricks since all they could have done is said, we got this people for espionage and they are being processed. Making it Hollywood like, generates headlines and the smear campaign they wanted in the first place, since I for one, even question that such a couple even exists. Even if it does, in the end is just politicians using country resources to fight each other. As a Venezuelan, I cannot wait until people throw Chavez out of power but that still makes this piece of news a joke.
The funny thing is that people think that Chavez is some kind of evil mastermind of sorts. If he actually gets a nuclear bomb plan, his bureacracy will make sure that nothing comes out of it. Hell, he cannot even make electricity work well in this country and even the national airline aircraft are dropping like flies from the skies. Seriously, most incompetent Venezuelan politician ever, the only thing he's good at is giving speeches that makes people believe he's actually doing something.
As a Venezuelan living in Venezuela, I can confirm this. He still has support of people that rely on the Venezuelan equivalent of government food stamps, but hey, those people will support a trained monkey if it gives them money. Upcoming congress elections on the 26th will actually tell us how popular Chavez really is in Venezuela.
Oh and that Argentinian couple is really stupid. To think that the Venezuelan government could actually pull something like this off. They cannot even make electricity work in the country, or even simple paperwork for every day tasks. Just the thought of them creating a nuclear bomb is ridiculous.
I am in Venezuela and can tell you that the rig incident in Venezuela was handled much more gracefully than what they show in that link. They managed to break the main pipe and close it before the platform leaned over. The captain of the platform, who is American by the way, was congratulated by Chavez in public TV since he stayed until the very last moment on the platform, only jumping into the water after the platform was over a 45 degree inclination angle. The Venezuelan navy also did a pretty good by-the-book rescue operation, so I don't know why is there so much negativity in the reports I see in the links posted.
As far as the problem in the US, I kind of disagree bringing a nuclear physicist to do what can probably be solved by an emergency contract with the Norwegians, by far the best of the world in that field. But I guess when there are no tried solutions, a good idea counts no matter where it comes from.
I don't think you have played console games since in order to achieve the quality of graphics in a PC that you get in an XBOX360 or a PS3, you'll have to bleed some real money, and then expect that everything works just fine after major technical hassles like upgrading, getting new drivers, rebooting, etc.
Electronic voting has been implemented successfully in Venezuela. The machines are based on Windows XP Embedded and the voting process is done via a touchscreen. After you cast the vote, two paper ballots get printed, one for you and one that goes into a box. Whenever they need to do recounts they use the memory of the machine plus the printed records, while representatives of each party monitor the process. It is a big leap forward when it comes to getting the results, since they are transmitted to the Electoral Council headquarters through a dedicated network. As an added protection from fraud, a biometrics machine was implemented before you actually enter the voting booth. The fingerprint-hunter as people call it, has a database of people registered to vote on a county, and checks the fingerprint with the national ID card information like the name and birthdate (also stored in the database) so that no dead people or unregistered voters are allowed to vote (which contrary to all logic they have been able to do it before). It also prevents people from voting twice with either the same national ID card or with cloned IDs.
Criticism over automation has been mostly against the fingerprint-hunter, which the opposition says can be used to target who is voting for who. The government says that it is impossible since the fingerprint-hunter is not connected to the voting machine and are totally unrelated. In any case, the opposition claims that a system with rules that every mortal can understand is better than full automation while the government claims that the machines are immune to the dirty tricks of the past and that is the only reason to hate them so much.
It must be noted that the National Electoral Council is a full branch of power in Venezuela on the same level as the executive, legislative or judiciary. As such, they have full control over the software and machines in a non-partisan way, since even in a country with extreme political polarization like Venezuela, the board of directors of the Electoral Council includes opposition and pro-government members.
The Russians were far ahead in this field. This "mysterious forcefield" is nothing more than the US version of the Russian Arena system fitted in T-90 tanks since 1995. There are even videos on the web showing some fire tests which are truly impressive. If you find them you can see anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) get destroyed or thrown out of course by this special cannon matched to a radar system. When activated it creates a field of protection around the tank where anything approaching the tank at certain speeds of enough size gets an automatic response from the system.
They also have an electro-optical jammer system called Shtora-1 which is far more interesting in my opinion than this active protection system.
I'm from Venezuela and I'm on the VELUGs developer's list. I can tell you that there are quite a few developments in the server area in most government departments/ministries.
One cool thing that happened not so long ago, was one of their IT people posting questions to our mailing list asking stuff about PostgreSQL and PHP.
I think Linux has a lot of potential on the private sector, we just need more help from the BSA, so that they can bust pirated copies of Windows. When people start spending so much money in M$ software we'll see lots of linux specialists popping up in no time.
Perhaps my very f1rst post:-) and just to remind the editors to actually use a spellchecker (Institue).
The link has either been/.ed already or there is a problem with it. Somebody send me a cached copy please.
When Microsoft cares to release Windows Media Player, Microsoft Messenger and stuff like that for Linux, maybe then I would consider spending some time for them. I will have to add to that list the promotion of incompatible web pages (read OCX or IE based).
Although I like the idea from a technical side and they open source approach they are adopting, I wonder if it is really that hard to make a new device that's not a blatant copy of the iPod design.
This is becoming ridiculous and Slashdot must not give in in this kind of anti-corporate propaganda. First of all, Dell is not bundling spyware and it is simply saying that it will not support software that they did not supply. This is the same as getting a virus in your computer and then calling Dell because your BrandX antivirus stopped working.
Having said that, of all the brand PCs I've had, I ended up reinstalling Windows from scratch and then just the applications I wanted. Amazingly enough, my iBook defaults were good as they only had about two games and Internet Explorer, which you can easily remove:).
I used to work with GemPlus contactless cards and we used a DLL for most of the functions. Later on, TLP drivers became available with support for Linux and since it was based on serial ports it was a snap to configure it. If you plan to go with JavaCard just make sure you are using Java all the way. For small embedded stuff I still prefer C, especially when you are dealing with contactless stuff and multiple collisions of cards.
This is the reason why most people won't hire PhD's for engineering jobs. They have spent way too much time in academia to understand the market. Step down from that position you put yourself into and understand that cloud computing is not about the hardware per se, but the software that can be build on top of it. We are witnessing the promise of a Beowulf cluster and you say that building the largest facility in the planet is irrelevant?
So if somebody builds thousands of miles of highways it's not impressive either, since it's just infrastructure? The Chinese have done exactly that and for a fraction of the cost here in the US. Dude, wake up, building facilities like this allows a myriad of services available for business, government, etc. Judging by your comment about the iPhone, you seem to be either a smartass or in total disconnect of reality. An iPhone represents smartphones as whole and that along cloud computing, is driving most of the investments in a lot of industries, like video game companies, or even Netflix. Look at the tech job offers they have, they all are related to cloud computing and data in one way or another.
And you are assuming automatically that they guy did rape them. If you are from Sweden I would like to tell you in all honesty, what a moronic attitude you have towards issues like this. Women that feel betrayed are a force to be reckoned with, and what you qualify as "rape" is an insult to everybody's intelligence. A woman that was truly raped would immediately go to the authorites and stay away from whoever attacked her, or on the other hand, try to forget it ever happened and never talk about it in public. That didn't happen in this case, and based on the timing of the accusation I believe it's pretty safe to bet that the case has been politically motivated. Such abuses of the legal system should be frowned upon, much like that legal case of that woman against McDonalds because she got burned by hot coffee after she spilled the cup. It is a waste of taxpayer's money in either case. As far as the money scam theory of yours, try to RTFM next time, like for instance http://www.fsilaw.com/~/media/Files/The%20Julian%20Assange%20Defence%20Fund.ashx where they explain why they need the money. To be honest, I couldn't care less about Assange. To me, he is either very brave or very stupid thinking he can change the world, and he will either get in jail, killed or somehow diminished like most free thinkers before and probably after him. The stupidity surrounding the case is so extreme that I have been tempted to send money to his "Defence Fund". Bah, I think I'm starting to care.
Better step down from that high moral ground you set up for yourself. Especially after the number the US Govt pulled on Wikileaks. Also, it doesn't help that the US has very warm relations with Colombia and Mexico, countries where murdering journalists and real kleptocracy can be seen alongside the drug trade all over the economy. So what's your point, really?
Arquimedes was indeed Sicilian, but that's considered Greek since Syracuse, capital of Sicily was a Greek nation state, part of the Hellenistic civilization.
Let's be honest, with Linux you save money but with Windows you focus on what you really want to do, since even if somebody doesn't know how to use Office, they are looked upon as ignorants. When you deploy OpenOffice, those "ignorants" have the excuse to pass the blame on you. So sometimes, especially when it comes to government deployments and lazy employees, it's just better to stick with Microsoft or whatever the common cultural denominator in technology is.
As I said before, of course this has a propaganda spin, but to even think that Venezuela govt could actually manage such a feat, is to place too much hope on a government who can't even run public utilities companies right. Electricity shortages everywhere, restrictions to acquire foreign currency that has hampered business in general, inflamatory rethoric on presidential speeches that divides the population, and the list goes on and on, but the thing that sticks out the most is incompetence. So nuclear development implies a degree of organization that Chavez is unable to do. My message to all Americans is to relax, ignore him in the media and everywhere else and watch him fall out of power starting with the upcoming Congress elections on the 26th, and then on the presidential one in 2012. Everybody here in Venezuela has too much of his leftist crap already.
Best comment by far. Lmao.
On the opposite hand, the whole thing might be a bunch of lies because who cared to confirm if even those people exist, that's right, no one. Just copy and paste from whatever the FBI gave them. In either case Chavez is still an ass and the US govt still manipulates people through the media. Just another day in the world.
It is dirty tricks since all they could have done is said, we got this people for espionage and they are being processed. Making it Hollywood like, generates headlines and the smear campaign they wanted in the first place, since I for one, even question that such a couple even exists. Even if it does, in the end is just politicians using country resources to fight each other. As a Venezuelan, I cannot wait until people throw Chavez out of power but that still makes this piece of news a joke.
The funny thing is that people think that Chavez is some kind of evil mastermind of sorts. If he actually gets a nuclear bomb plan, his bureacracy will make sure that nothing comes out of it. Hell, he cannot even make electricity work well in this country and even the national airline aircraft are dropping like flies from the skies. Seriously, most incompetent Venezuelan politician ever, the only thing he's good at is giving speeches that makes people believe he's actually doing something.
As a Venezuelan living in Venezuela, I can confirm this. He still has support of people that rely on the Venezuelan equivalent of government food stamps, but hey, those people will support a trained monkey if it gives them money. Upcoming congress elections on the 26th will actually tell us how popular Chavez really is in Venezuela. Oh and that Argentinian couple is really stupid. To think that the Venezuelan government could actually pull something like this off. They cannot even make electricity work in the country, or even simple paperwork for every day tasks. Just the thought of them creating a nuclear bomb is ridiculous.
I am in Venezuela and can tell you that the rig incident in Venezuela was handled much more gracefully than what they show in that link. They managed to break the main pipe and close it before the platform leaned over. The captain of the platform, who is American by the way, was congratulated by Chavez in public TV since he stayed until the very last moment on the platform, only jumping into the water after the platform was over a 45 degree inclination angle. The Venezuelan navy also did a pretty good by-the-book rescue operation, so I don't know why is there so much negativity in the reports I see in the links posted. As far as the problem in the US, I kind of disagree bringing a nuclear physicist to do what can probably be solved by an emergency contract with the Norwegians, by far the best of the world in that field. But I guess when there are no tried solutions, a good idea counts no matter where it comes from.
I don't think you have played console games since in order to achieve the quality of graphics in a PC that you get in an XBOX360 or a PS3, you'll have to bleed some real money, and then expect that everything works just fine after major technical hassles like upgrading, getting new drivers, rebooting, etc.
Electronic voting has been implemented successfully in Venezuela. The machines are based on Windows XP Embedded and the voting process is done via a touchscreen. After you cast the vote, two paper ballots get printed, one for you and one that goes into a box. Whenever they need to do recounts they use the memory of the machine plus the printed records, while representatives of each party monitor the process. It is a big leap forward when it comes to getting the results, since they are transmitted to the Electoral Council headquarters through a dedicated network. As an added protection from fraud, a biometrics machine was implemented before you actually enter the voting booth. The fingerprint-hunter as people call it, has a database of people registered to vote on a county, and checks the fingerprint with the national ID card information like the name and birthdate (also stored in the database) so that no dead people or unregistered voters are allowed to vote (which contrary to all logic they have been able to do it before). It also prevents people from voting twice with either the same national ID card or with cloned IDs.
Criticism over automation has been mostly against the fingerprint-hunter, which the opposition says can be used to target who is voting for who. The government says that it is impossible since the fingerprint-hunter is not connected to the voting machine and are totally unrelated. In any case, the opposition claims that a system with rules that every mortal can understand is better than full automation while the government claims that the machines are immune to the dirty tricks of the past and that is the only reason to hate them so much.
It must be noted that the National Electoral Council is a full branch of power in Venezuela on the same level as the executive, legislative or judiciary. As such, they have full control over the software and machines in a non-partisan way, since even in a country with extreme political polarization like Venezuela, the board of directors of the Electoral Council includes opposition and pro-government members.
The Russians were far ahead in this field. This "mysterious forcefield" is nothing more than the US version of the Russian Arena system fitted in T-90 tanks since 1995. There are even videos on the web showing some fire tests which are truly impressive. If you find them you can see anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) get destroyed or thrown out of course by this special cannon matched to a radar system. When activated it creates a field of protection around the tank where anything approaching the tank at certain speeds of enough size gets an automatic response from the system. They also have an electro-optical jammer system called Shtora-1 which is far more interesting in my opinion than this active protection system.
I'm from Venezuela and I'm on the VELUGs developer's list. I can tell you that there are quite a few developments in the server area in most government departments/ministries.
One cool thing that happened not so long ago, was one of their IT people posting questions to our mailing list asking stuff about PostgreSQL and PHP.
I think Linux has a lot of potential on the private sector, we just need more help from the BSA, so that they can bust pirated copies of Windows. When people start spending so much money in M$ software we'll see lots of linux specialists popping up in no time.
Perhaps my very f1rst post :-) and just to remind the editors to actually use a spellchecker (Institue).
The link has either been /.ed already or there is a problem with it. Somebody send me a cached copy please.
I second this motion. Webmonkey has been a great resource. Regards,
When Microsoft cares to release Windows Media Player, Microsoft Messenger and stuff like that for Linux, maybe then I would consider spending some time for them. I will have to add to that list the promotion of incompatible web pages (read OCX or IE based).
Although I like the idea from a technical side and they open source approach they are adopting, I wonder if it is really that hard to make a new device that's not a blatant copy of the iPod design.
This is becoming ridiculous and Slashdot must not give in in this kind of anti-corporate propaganda. First of all, Dell is not bundling spyware and it is simply saying that it will not support software that they did not supply. This is the same as getting a virus in your computer and then calling Dell because your BrandX antivirus stopped working. Having said that, of all the brand PCs I've had, I ended up reinstalling Windows from scratch and then just the applications I wanted. Amazingly enough, my iBook defaults were good as they only had about two games and Internet Explorer, which you can easily remove :).
You must be on drugs. I've converted songs this way and they sound the same wherever I play them.
I used to work with GemPlus contactless cards and we used a DLL for most of the functions. Later on, TLP drivers became available with support for Linux and since it was based on serial ports it was a snap to configure it. If you plan to go with JavaCard just make sure you are using Java all the way. For small embedded stuff I still prefer C, especially when you are dealing with contactless stuff and multiple collisions of cards.
Latino drivers can kick your ass anytime. Just try to drive in Caracas or Rio de Janeiro and then talk about good drivers.