Sorry, if I implied it was too simple, but read even the first 46 pages of Imperial Hubris and come back and tell me we are making fewer mistakes. Perhaps in raw numbers of our own people killing our people, but even there I have my doubts. Incidents like this are too often suppressed.
Our major problem is that we are fighting our enemies in the wrong places and incompetently. And I am not blaming the troops - the errors are at the highest levels.
"...nuclear weapons. The BIG DADDY of scary weapons. Only used twice. Never used since."
Dumb luck, I am afraid: a couple of Rand Corporation analysts that come out of a theater after seeing "Dr. Strangelove" said '... that's a documentary...'.
On both the Russian and U.S. side for a long period each thought these were <i>usable</i> weapons. It was only much later when more enlighten people observed thermonuclear blasts that they realized there would be no winner. Afterwards real efforts were made to avoid accidental war (singular). Unfortunately, no such controls and safeties exist on the Indian subcontinent.
On a little more chilling note there are significant groups that would not be upset with a nuclear war, due to their religious beliefs.
Look up an article about the U.S. Marines being cut to pieces by the U.S. Air Force while taking enemy fire (NYT). Messages were sent to the AF pilots to cease, but they continued to attack. I guess they were having to much fun. [That is not completely my snide observation.]
I bring this up because, the marines have a unique vehicle that should have been recognizable from the air. Moreover, this is a repeat of experiences of the first Gulf War. Supposedly these problems were solved. However, those among the honored dead are in that state due to persistent screwups. If saying it isn't so suffices for you, then you are totally misinformed or are a true believer.
We have real problems that robots alone are not going to solve. When you have idiots at the controls at the very highest levels and a media that repeats their stupid assertions. How can they ever recognize they have created a situation that can only progressively worse? Hitting the right target is not easy particularly when your enemy understands you better than we them. It appears to me we have a prescription for disaster. This is spoken by a person that believed that the Iraq adventure could possibly be successful and benefical to the Iraqi populous.
If ignorance is your guide it is all to easy to repeatedly hit the wrong targets whether by remote control, robotic or in person. That's where we are now.
Elminst: your humor is too subtle for both the moderation and the adjacent reply.
If anything this above post is anti-elitist. Let me translate: "Who are you going to make fun of when you lose your easy target of AOL users?"
I know some very smart people that are both better coders and more knowledgeable on some topics than I - despite that for their own reasons have stayed with AOL.
i don't know where i would be in life without aol coasters.
Don't waste them! Now that you can burn your own CD's and DVD's the latest dics holders from AOL are a nice item. They are very high quality, however, I lost my touch and broke the last one trying to get at the liner on the bottom. They can send all they want to me! That way I will not feel bad breaking one or two. Moreover, I recycle all the enclosed cardboard; wish I could do the same with the discs.
The ACLU is fighting a portion of the Patriot act right now, however, it cannot explicitly publish the sections it is fighting due to the current P.A. forbids it!!
Let's say you or someone you knew ran afoul of some section due to an innocent action on your part. What makes you think you could legally comment/mention/inform others of your predicament? It might be that you would be locked away with no <I>rights</I> to communicate with <B>anyone</B>.
I have a question of you: Do you happen to work for our misnamed Department of Justice?
The content is essentially: the web site may never be activated due to management and legal issues. The spokesperson refused to supply either the specific reasons or flatly state the site will never open.
So much speculation and comments on so little substance. Indeed, you need a different headline on this story.
There are a lot of pages that render bad in firefox apart from slashdot.org.
What is s/he talking about? Then I realized I was on Mozilla - so I went to another session where I opened/. on an already open FF. It looks better than on Mozilla (albeit an older version of Moz.)!
The idea basicly makes sense, however, would completely new, unexpected observations simply be classified as a system error? Discoveries in science manytimes happen when experiments do not go as expected.
Assuming all the code is killed they may actually improve by finally doing it right. [That ranks with believing the W when he said he intended to rebuild Iraq and leave.]
Assuming too their marketing departments are not populated by robots. By marketing alone they could recover fully while they awaited new and better software.
<b><i>They will be bigger and better than ever!</i></b>
I think I know the switch you are talking about, however, at 120 mph I doubt that I would be able to find it. Moreover, I did not realize that it was a power switch until you pointed it out. Nonetheless, driving in the congested part of the N.E. part of the U.S. I do not even consider using cruise control.
If you are so fearful of the energy sucked out of the winds that might cause the onset of an ice age or worse, why don't you just burn some more fossil fuels to even it out with green house warming?
Is it just that you are comfortable with the present practices and see not apparent harm? Or do you just fear change?
Unfortunately, well lit buildings at night probably kill a lot more in a few evenings than a wind farm does in years. That's not to say it does not deserve a solution, but why are ignorant of the former?
Smart cars and highways coupled with charge to use fees according to both the traffic demand (e.g. rush hours) and the available facility is quite a rational goal. However, to assume these are coupled permanently with individual ownership of the vehicles need not be true.
Private ownership may become the exception not the rule it seems to be now. In some areas currently, a group of people have access rights to the same vehicle and need to schedule their use and the location of the vehicle to operate it. They pay in proportion to their use and perhaps the stress on the vehicle.
Another option could be part of a car pool where the charges are moderated by having a privately owned vehicle being charged only for a fraction of the trips made. While the "owner" may be recorded in the range of 33 - 25% of the trips, the other riders would be anonymous.
Further, it just might make more sense to live much closer to the site of one's employment or use remote methods to connect and interact when necessary.
The world that allows complete tracking would be a limited subset. Indeed as long as cash is an option transit cards would probably not be traceable to an individual. Even in the current model with an individually owned vehicle, not all roads could be economically made into a "smart" highways.
While these programs and intentions are secret now, it is not too hard to discern those pushing them. Become politically active to counter them. Become a proponent for population control, because it is the increasing demand for discrete resources that drives these programs.
I happen to think that it would be an improvement to make nearly all major roads toll roads. Moreover, the fees paid should be determined by: traffic density and available overall space. Furthermore, I am certain that the flow of traffic would be improved by computer control over individuals that <I><B>think</B></I> they multi task well. Just looking in the rear view mirror or ahead watching the knob twiddlers or cell phone distracted users computer control would be an improvement. Computer control could save property, time and lives. Moreover, the race car drivers that zoom by at 85 dodging thru multiple lanes on a curving highway only to drop to 35 upon seeing a police car are a danger to everyone.
In a crowded world with an enlarging population enamored with the automobile I think the problems are inescapable. I would prefer less of a crowd, more privacy and I would even give up my privately owned vehicle if that were the price.
Vonage has been difficult to contact to resolve a problem with my voice mail. I cannot connect to a human there even with three tries by phone. Moreover, despite over a week from the date sending the first email (two emails sent to date) I have gotten no response other than the automated answer. At this point I just need to recycle my voice mail to reset and record the pin number. Obviously I created the problem, but a reset should not be that difficult to obtain.
"...needs 2-3 refreshes to even manage to render poorly in Firefox. Black on black text and margin errors and blank screens..."
Since, most of my time using FireFox until very recently was scanning slashdot - I wonder about where you are attributing blame is valid. I have seen none of those problems on either FF or an older version of Mozilla that I use routinely.
However, I suspect the core difference is that I connect to the web from a Linux machine.
The government shouldn't be rolling out our new communications lines unless they're going to be free (as in roads), maintained by the governmet...
Free as in? Free beer or access - with all the construction companies vying to build and repair roads at our expense with left overs for political 'contributions' how can it be free. It costs a pile of cash to open and keep these roads in a minimal state allowing access.
Most roads, bridges and ferry service were in private hands and the cash cow character of these holdings resulted in abuse. Hence, government sponsorship was meant to counter this misuse of power, however, as in campaign reform the abuse of power has shifted its center.
Local action, with community support seems to me to be one of the better means to encourage competition. It just might keep a few companies to be a bit more cautious in their billings, because a spin off company might do them in with the cheers of their former 'customers'.
Read the first link, from what I remember reading at best it was for a particular building 105 mph winds and another was only good to 95 for another building. However, like so many other items these buildings did not seem to match their supposed specifications. That is, assuming there were no high speed wind gusts above those quoted.
Of more interest, read the comment in the article where they fear repairs may not be made prior to the potential arrival of the next major Atlantic storm: Ivan.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry, if I implied it was too simple, but read even the first 46 pages of Imperial Hubris and come back and tell me we are making fewer mistakes. Perhaps in raw numbers of our own people killing our people, but even there I have my doubts. Incidents like this are too often suppressed.
Our major problem is that we are fighting our enemies in the wrong places and incompetently. And I am not blaming the troops - the errors are at the highest levels.
"...nuclear weapons. The BIG DADDY of scary weapons. Only used twice. Never used since."
...'.
Dumb luck, I am afraid: a couple of Rand Corporation analysts that come out of a theater after seeing "Dr. Strangelove" said '... that's a documentary
On both the Russian and U.S. side for a long period each thought these were <i>usable</i> weapons. It was only much later when more enlighten people observed thermonuclear blasts that they realized there would be no winner. Afterwards real efforts were made to avoid accidental war (singular). Unfortunately, no such controls and safeties exist on the Indian subcontinent.
On a little more chilling note there are significant groups that would not be upset with a nuclear war, due to their religious beliefs.
Look up an article about the U.S. Marines being cut to pieces by the U.S. Air Force while taking enemy fire (NYT). Messages were sent to the AF pilots to cease, but they continued to attack. I guess they were having to much fun. [That is not completely my snide observation.]
I bring this up because, the marines have a unique vehicle that should have been recognizable from the air. Moreover, this is a repeat of experiences of the first Gulf War. Supposedly these problems were solved. However, those among the honored dead are in that state due to persistent screwups. If saying it isn't so suffices for you, then you are totally misinformed or are a true believer.
We have real problems that robots alone are not going to solve. When you have idiots at the controls at the very highest levels and a media that repeats their stupid assertions. How can they ever recognize they have created a situation that can only progressively worse? Hitting the right target is not easy particularly when your enemy understands you better than we them. It appears to me we have a prescription for disaster. This is spoken by a person that believed that the Iraq adventure could possibly be successful and benefical to the Iraqi populous.
If ignorance is your guide it is all to easy to repeatedly hit the wrong targets whether by remote control, robotic or in person. That's where we are now.
Elminst: your humor is too subtle for both the moderation and the adjacent reply.
If anything this above post is anti-elitist. Let me translate: "Who are you going to make fun of when you lose your easy target of AOL users?"
I know some very smart people that are both better coders and more knowledgeable on some topics than I - despite that for their own reasons have stayed with AOL.
i don't know where i would be in life without aol coasters.
Don't waste them! Now that you can burn your own CD's and DVD's the latest dics holders from AOL are a nice item. They are very high quality, however, I lost my touch and broke the last one trying to get at the liner on the bottom. They can send all they want to me! That way I will not feel bad breaking one or two. Moreover, I recycle all the enclosed cardboard; wish I could do the same with the discs.
Why do they stay with AOL???
I thought it's a Law of physics: inertia.
> And Mickey Mouse is everywhere ...
No only in your voting machine.
The ACLU is fighting a portion of the Patriot act right now, however, it cannot explicitly publish the sections it is fighting due to the current P.A. forbids it!!
Let's say you or someone you knew ran afoul of some section due to an innocent action on your part. What makes you think you could legally comment/mention/inform others of your predicament? It might be that you would be locked away with no <I>rights</I> to communicate with <B>anyone</B>.
I have a question of you: Do you happen to work for our misnamed Department of Justice?
The content is essentially: the web site may never be activated due to management and legal issues. The spokesperson refused to supply either the specific reasons or flatly state the site will never open.
So much speculation and comments on so little substance. Indeed, you need a different headline on this story.
These vehicles have killed by remote control already.
There are a lot of pages that render bad in firefox apart from slashdot.org.
/. on an already open FF. It looks better than on Mozilla (albeit an older version of Moz.)!
What is s/he talking about? Then I realized I was on Mozilla - so I went to another session where I opened
I only read the summary, and the photos seemed to show exactly the same robot.
I was searching the messages to see if anyone noticed. I did not have time to read the full IEEE article - do they have the same error?
The idea basicly makes sense, however, would completely new, unexpected observations simply be classified as a system error? Discoveries in science manytimes happen when experiments do not go as expected.
Please save us some time bringing up a player that cannot work. I have to do a search to find RealPlayer 10.
If it's windows media or apple player only, some us using only Linux would know not to bother.
Assuming all the code is killed they may actually improve by finally doing it right. [That ranks with believing the W when he said he intended to rebuild Iraq and leave.]
Assuming too their marketing departments are not populated by robots. By marketing alone they could recover fully while they awaited new and better software.
<b><i>They will be bigger and better than ever!</i></b>
I think I know the switch you are talking about, however, at 120 mph I doubt that I would be able to find it. Moreover, I did not realize that it was a power switch until you pointed it out. Nonetheless, driving in the congested part of the N.E. part of the U.S. I do not even consider using cruise control.
It is also possible to divert, frighten and disturb others into expending their energy in non-productive pursuits.
I may be wrong, but if I am: sell your google stock!
If you are so fearful of the energy sucked out of the winds that might cause the onset of an ice age or worse, why don't you just burn some more fossil fuels to even it out with green house warming?
Is it just that you are comfortable with the present practices and see not apparent harm? Or do you just fear change?
Unfortunately, well lit buildings at night probably kill a lot more in a few evenings than a wind farm does in years. That's not to say it does not deserve a solution, but why are ignorant of the former?
Smart cars and highways coupled with charge to use fees according to both the traffic demand (e.g. rush hours) and the available facility is quite a rational goal. However, to assume these are coupled permanently with individual ownership of the vehicles need not be true.
Private ownership may become the exception not the rule it seems to be now. In some areas currently, a group of people have access rights to the same vehicle and need to schedule their use and the location of the vehicle to operate it. They pay in proportion to their use and perhaps the stress on the vehicle.
Another option could be part of a car pool where the charges are moderated by having a privately owned vehicle being charged only for a fraction of the trips made. While the "owner" may be recorded in the range of 33 - 25% of the trips, the other riders would be anonymous.
Further, it just might make more sense to live much closer to the site of one's employment or use remote methods to connect and interact when necessary.
The world that allows complete tracking would be a limited subset. Indeed as long as cash is an option transit cards would probably not be traceable to an individual. Even in the current model with an individually owned vehicle, not all roads could be economically made into a "smart" highways.
While these programs and intentions are secret now, it is not too hard to discern those pushing them. Become politically active to counter them. Become a proponent for population control, because it is the increasing demand for discrete resources that drives these programs.
I happen to think that it would be an improvement to make nearly all major roads toll roads. Moreover, the fees paid should be determined by: traffic density and available overall space. Furthermore, I am certain that the flow of traffic would be improved by computer control over individuals that <I><B>think</B></I> they multi task well. Just looking in the rear view mirror or ahead watching the knob twiddlers or cell phone distracted users computer control would be an improvement. Computer control could save property, time and lives. Moreover, the race car drivers that zoom by at 85 dodging thru multiple lanes on a curving highway only to drop to 35 upon seeing a police car are a danger to everyone.
In a crowded world with an enlarging population enamored with the automobile I think the problems are inescapable. I would prefer less of a crowd, more privacy and I would even give up my privately owned vehicle if that were the price.
A bit of perspective:
1.) What goes down is soon goes up with AT&T.
2.) Vonage has its faults:
Vonage has been difficult to contact to resolve a problem with my voice mail. I cannot connect to a human there even with three tries by phone. Moreover, despite over a week from the date sending the first email (two emails sent to date) I have gotten no response other than the automated answer. At this point I just need to recycle my voice mail to reset and record the pin number. Obviously I created the problem, but a reset should not be that difficult to obtain.
I am using RealPlayer 8 and it's fine using Mdk 9.1.
I just wish stories would mentioned when links would allow only MS Windows Media, <i>c.f.</i> space.com.
"...needs 2-3 refreshes to even manage to render poorly in Firefox. Black on black text and margin errors and blank screens..."
Since, most of my time using FireFox until very recently was scanning slashdot - I wonder about where you are attributing blame is valid. I have seen none of those problems on either FF or an older version of Mozilla that I use routinely.
However, I suspect the core difference is that I connect to the web from a Linux machine.
The government shouldn't be rolling out our new communications lines unless they're going to be free (as in roads), maintained by the governmet...
Free as in? Free beer or access - with all the construction companies vying to build and repair roads at our expense with left overs for political 'contributions' how can it be free. It costs a pile of cash to open and keep these roads in a minimal state allowing access.
Most roads, bridges and ferry service were in private hands and the cash cow character of these holdings resulted in abuse. Hence, government sponsorship was meant to counter this misuse of power, however, as in campaign reform the abuse of power has shifted its center.
Local action, with community support seems to me to be one of the better means to encourage competition. It just might keep a few companies to be a bit more cautious in their billings, because a spin off company might do them in with the cheers of their former 'customers'.
Read the first link, from what I remember reading at best it was for a particular building 105 mph winds and another was only good to 95 for another building. However, like so many other items these buildings did not seem to match their supposed specifications. That is, assuming there were no high speed wind gusts above those quoted.
Of more interest, read the comment in the article where they fear repairs may not be made prior to the potential arrival of the next major Atlantic storm: Ivan.