Iain Banks (sadly, RIP) was a lover of whisky, whiskey not so much. There's a difference.
Iain M. Banks (1954-2013) was a Scottish writer best known for the Culture series of science fiction novels
Perhaps best known in this particular forum, but the intelligent reader will be doing himself a disservice if he neglects his non-SF work written under his name without the "M." in the middle. IMO, some of these are by far his best work. My personal favourites are The Crow Road and Complicity. His latest (and last) book, The Quarry, which I've just started reading, seems pretty good too.ain M. Banks (1954-2013) was a Scottish writer best known for the Culture series of science fiction novels
Blaming a whistleblower is one thing, while acting for all intents and purposes like an international terrorist is another. (For those who are too lazy to look for a citation, see here for a succinct synopsis).
All the major players spy on each other. Even their allies.
In the past, the convention was to spy on governments or their agencies (who might or might not be spies themselves).
A sledgehammer approach whereby the US imagines that it is somehow OK to spy on citizens of other nations, on a wholesale basis, with no regard to "probable cause" or any of those other convenient elisions is totally unconscionable.
Suspension of data sharing is nothing more than a mumble where real sanctions should be applied. They should be quarantining all human traffic from or to the US, and banning all trade. If the US administration does not choose to operate by civilised rules, then it should be treated as the international pariah that it has become.
While on the face of it, "US considered hostile" might be taken as flamebait, it would seem at the moment to be an accurate characterisation.
A nation (or to be fair, its administration) that continually bullies its own people and citizens of other nations cannot expect to be treated as anything but a pariah. Trouble is, I don't see any other governments having the courage to stand up to the US.
I had a hangonaminute moment when you referred to him as Dr. Linus Torvalds. But Wikipedia tells us he has honorary doctorates from Helsinki and Stockholm Universities...
I find all of these whines about nVidia somewhat amusing, in that they have been the most prominent of technology manufacturers who have taken the trouble to support Linux for many years. OK, the laptop I'm using right now has an Intel GPU, but I've lost count of the number of perfectly good nVidia cards I've had to replace, only for the simple reason that motherboard replacements don't have slots that fit them. I have never yet had one break.
Ask anyone who has struggled with marginally-supported graphics cards (Anyone remember SiS?) in the earlier days of Linux, and you will find many (myself included) who breathed a sigh of relief when nVidia came along with proper cards with drivers that actually worked.
It would indeed be computationally intensive, but most people have to put a bit of effort into crafting an effective regular expression, and since the majority of people are lazy, Google's servers would be unlikely to be overloaded with requests at any single time.
In fact, this need not necessarily even be done in real-time. An approach could be for the user to submit the request, and Google could email back the results when it has sufficient resources to process it. Nothing wrong with taking a step backwards to the batch-mode processing of my earlier career, when this could actually save time. This would also mitigate or obviate any effects of some miscreant using this in an attempt to DDOS Google.
After all, Google is supposedly big on producing "beautiful technology", and this could be pretty neat.
America is similar to many nations in having a political system dominated by two right-wing parties, both playing to the red-neck reactionaries who make up the majority of the swinging voters. The left-right divide isn't just simplistic, it's non-existent, since any left-wing adherents are relegated to the category of loony whack-jobs.
In the United States, the people ARE the government.
Isn't that an incredibly stupid thing to say, since the whole case arises from a public airing of a range of unconscionable and dishonourable things the Government has done? Unless you really believe every man, woman and child in your nation is inherently evil, and you're proud of it.
You don't think it benefits our country for the people to know when our government commits crimes?
Indeed. The parent (and GP) seem to be under the illusion that Assange is American, whereas in fact, he is Australian. The whole issue arises from the US Government's toxic attitude to other sovereign nations and their citizens. Whatever one might think of his (or Wikileaks') sources, Assange is not a traitor to the US. All he has done is expose some of their dirty dealings to the light of day.
I can understand why the US Government might not care for that, but they could always try behaving less dishonourably.
Given that he had already embezzled $50,000 from Wikileaks, I guess it was just the icing on top. There's no ideology in it, the guy's just a common criminal.
Slashdot Mirror
Iain M. Banks (1954-2013) was a Scottish writer best known for the Culture series of science fiction novels
Perhaps best known in this particular forum, but the intelligent reader will be doing himself a disservice if he neglects his non-SF work written under his name without the "M." in the middle. IMO, some of these are by far his best work. My personal favourites are The Crow Road and Complicity. His latest (and last) book, The Quarry, which I've just started reading, seems pretty good too.ain M. Banks (1954-2013) was a Scottish writer best known for the Culture series of science fiction novels
Do you think they will let their trained terriers in the US Govt. allow that?
I don't know, it depends on whether you're talking about a Cairn terrier or a Jack Russell. Either would be preferable for election as President.
...that guy has access to source code used on most military bases!
So do you. And your point is?
so it's easier to blame a whistleblower.
Blaming a whistleblower is one thing, while acting for all intents and purposes like an international terrorist is another. (For those who are too lazy to look for a citation, see here for a succinct synopsis).
All the major players spy on each other. Even their allies.
In the past, the convention was to spy on governments or their agencies (who might or might not be spies themselves).
A sledgehammer approach whereby the US imagines that it is somehow OK to spy on citizens of other nations, on a wholesale basis, with no regard to "probable cause" or any of those other convenient elisions is totally unconscionable.
Suspension of data sharing is nothing more than a mumble where real sanctions should be applied. They should be quarantining all human traffic from or to the US, and banning all trade. If the US administration does not choose to operate by civilised rules, then it should be treated as the international pariah that it has become.
They did not make it harder to pay for DVD's off Amazon, or downloads via iTunes etc.
They didn't need to. Those sites already employ geoblocking, so diddling around with methods of payment is redundant.
A virtual beer to you, sir, for picking up the reference. Sometimes the kids around here can really make you feel your age. :D
American Express?
Certainly, sir.
And would you like to rub my tits too?
While on the face of it, "US considered hostile" might be taken as flamebait, it would seem at the moment to be an accurate characterisation.
A nation (or to be fair, its administration) that continually bullies its own people and citizens of other nations cannot expect to be treated as anything but a pariah. Trouble is, I don't see any other governments having the courage to stand up to the US.
I would bet that media companies protecting their current, quite flawed, distribution model is the motivation behind stopping payments. Not spying.
Hmmm. I'm not sure I understand how making it harder for people to pay for content is protecting anything.
No, I am just terrible with money. :-}
IBM used to (in the UK at least) pay monthly in advance.
I don't know when that was, but I did a spell there for IBM in the mid-'80s when the rate was monthly in arrears.
Fortnightly payments are pretty much standard in Australia. I lived for years with the monthly cycle in Europe, and I always found it a struggle.
The US can not trample all over it's[sic] allies...
The US can't even really count on having any allies, the way it's been behaving for the last few years.
Oh dear. here we go again...
I had a hangonaminute moment when you referred to him as Dr. Linus Torvalds. But Wikipedia tells us he has honorary doctorates from Helsinki and Stockholm Universities...
That includes accidently killing an ubuntu upgrade part way through.
You've done that? Far out.
:)
I've never been able to stick with Ubuntu for more than an hour, much less upgrade it...
I find all of these whines about nVidia somewhat amusing, in that they have been the most prominent of technology manufacturers who have taken the trouble to support Linux for many years. OK, the laptop I'm using right now has an Intel GPU, but I've lost count of the number of perfectly good nVidia cards I've had to replace, only for the simple reason that motherboard replacements don't have slots that fit them. I have never yet had one break.
Ask anyone who has struggled with marginally-supported graphics cards (Anyone remember SiS?) in the earlier days of Linux, and you will find many (myself included) who breathed a sigh of relief when nVidia came along with proper cards with drivers that actually worked.
After all, there's only one of her.
I'm still running 2.0.36, you insensitive clod!
It would indeed be computationally intensive, but most people have to put a bit of effort into crafting an effective regular expression, and since the majority of people are lazy, Google's servers would be unlikely to be overloaded with requests at any single time.
In fact, this need not necessarily even be done in real-time. An approach could be for the user to submit the request, and Google could email back the results when it has sufficient resources to process it. Nothing wrong with taking a step backwards to the batch-mode processing of my earlier career, when this could actually save time. This would also mitigate or obviate any effects of some miscreant using this in an attempt to DDOS Google.
After all, Google is supposedly big on producing "beautiful technology", and this could be pretty neat.
America is similar to many nations in having a political system dominated by two right-wing parties, both playing to the red-neck reactionaries who make up the majority of the swinging voters. The left-right divide isn't just simplistic, it's non-existent, since any left-wing adherents are relegated to the category of loony whack-jobs.
In the United States, the people ARE the government.
Isn't that an incredibly stupid thing to say, since the whole case arises from a public airing of a range of unconscionable and dishonourable things the Government has done? Unless you really believe every man, woman and child in your nation is inherently evil, and you're proud of it.
You don't think it benefits our country for the people to know when our government commits crimes?
Indeed. The parent (and GP) seem to be under the illusion that Assange is American, whereas in fact, he is Australian. The whole issue arises from the US Government's toxic attitude to other sovereign nations and their citizens. Whatever one might think of his (or Wikileaks') sources, Assange is not a traitor to the US. All he has done is expose some of their dirty dealings to the light of day.
I can understand why the US Government might not care for that, but they could always try behaving less dishonourably.
Given that he had already embezzled $50,000 from Wikileaks, I guess it was just the icing on top. There's no ideology in it, the guy's just a common criminal.