"they arent that fast. I've got a 9000 class *server* and its slower than my dual 500 abit bp6. parisc stuff is sloow."
Servers generally aren't designed with raw processing power in mind. Maximum I/O is the design goal and the processor is just one piece of the puzzle.
Case in point; where I work, we have an RS/6000 F30. It only has a lowly 166mhz POWERpc, but for database operations, it kicks the shit out of our IBM Netfinity PII400.
I have a feeling that that "slow" PARisc HP9000 would make your BP6 look silly for similar operations.
It'll not argue that many tech workers are getting shafted; I think we (SlashDot readers) are in agreement on this point.
I believe that for the most part, "geeks" tend to be very hard workers with a strong work ethic. It is also my belief that many of the people who are drawn to technology jobs are of the personality type that is a bit insecure.
When I was in my teens, working at Wendy's and McDonalds, I worked my ass off. It was physically intensive, uncomfortable work. It was hard work and it FELT like it. Fast forward to the year 2000; I make a meager 42k as a Unix/NT/Network/PC Support admin. I work roughly 50 to 60 hours a week; I deal with customer problems, endless streams of luser problems (caps lock anyone?), maintain and "cultivate" our servers and network and am responsible for everything that runs on electricity in my office, save the lights and Coke machine.
I know I work hard. I know I work DAMN hard, but it just doesn't feel like it. I've got 20 or so projects and requests on my board at any one time, but I still feel like I'm not working hard enough. I've got 6 high priority issues I'm working on (given to me by multiple managers) that are all supposed to receive my UNDIVIDED attention; yet no matter how late I stay, I still feel like it's not enough.
I think it's part of our nature to work hard; it's a shame that so many employers are exploiting people with a solid work ethic. There was a time when you were rewarded for hard work, now companies have learned that if they play the game right; they reap the reward for your effort.
"He's a pepper, she's a pepper........aw, to hell with it!"
"zero isn't even, it's just not odd, so the next day with all evens will have to wait until 2/2/2222 I'm afraid."
If you assume 0 isn't an even number, then today is not an even day because it is 2/2/2000; see all those zeros? Today is an all even day just like Feb. 4,6,8,20,22,24,26 and 28 will be.
"pentium cpus are 600mhz+, while lame so called enterprise cpus from sun are only 400mhz."
This clueless statement reveals the depth of your knowlege. Megahertz is the most WORTHLESS way to rate a processor's performance. A 400mhz UltraSparc stomps the crap out of the fastest pentium available. Which is more powerful, 600 pounds of gunpowder or 400 lbs. of TNT?
Please read the white papers before you spew pure fiction.
I agree that this is one gnarly piece of big iron, but how much time and money is being devoted to the refinement of the computer models used forcast the weather? A weather forecaster friend mentioned in conversation that most of the models are pretty good at predicting summertime trends, but in the winter(the NGM and ETA especially), most fail miserably.
Here in the Ohio valley, weather is unpredictable enough, but winter weather is especially bizarre. It would be nice if the local forcasters had higher quality data and had to rely on their "gut feeling" less. It really sucks to wake up to a 1/2 inch of sleet frozen to the road when the forecaster assured the city we would only see light flurries!
If nothing else, imagine the babes you could get with that kind of computing power at your disposal. "Hey baby, wanna check out my gigaflop"?
I cannot believe no one has mentioned Caffrey's Irish Ale! It's a damn fine beer (bottled by Guiness) that has the same cool widget in the can and has the same surging bubble effect.
Caffrey's......the OTHER kick ass, funky, bubbly ale.
Re:Content control -- DIY? $15? Not for long.
on
AOL Nation
·
· Score: 1
"Today's modem-based ISPs will be completely unable to compete with Time Warner and its cable modems, and DSLs are way too expensive to consider as an alternative to cable...."
I thought I should interject that in southwest Ohio, Cincinnati Bell offers 384/768kbps for $40 a month. If that's not competetive, I don't know what is. Also, unlike cable modem users, my bandwidth is mine alone; I share it with no one.
I've heard many horror stories about saturated cable networks (not that my telco is managing ADSL very well); I can't wait to see what happens when the system is flooded with hundreds of thousands of AOL users! BWAHAHAHAHA! If I were a current RoadRunner subscriber, I'd be afraid that the merger will interject some really half-witted policies that make it even harder for non Micros~1 users to use the network (e.g. stupid Windows based log in clients).
Does this mean I might be able to resurrect my CISC AS/400 model 9404? Even though it's obsolete, IBM still wants thousands of dollars for the O/S for this beast.
There are tons of old CISC AS/400's out there that could be put to good use if there was something other than OS/400 (for the price) to run on it. Since the "Linux on AS/400" project seems to be going nowhere, this might be my only hope.
Even if it never runs again, my 9404 makes a K-Rad night stand.
If an entity set up a site with credit card verification or a current online vendor took donations via credit card, I for one would donate right now. The exchange fee problem would be overcome and the act of donating would be so easy there would be no excuse NOT to send a few bucks.
Human laziness coupled with the "SlashDot Effect" could save a whole hell-of-alot of penguins.
I experienced a catastrophic Y2K failure.
on
Apocalypse Not
·
· Score: 1
I discovered a serious Y2K related flaw in the human body......
Like many people did that night, I spent the last few hours of 1999 preparing myself with special Y2K compliant, non date specific "Tanqueray" and "Absolut" system patches. As the end of the last hour of the last year of the century drew nearer, I poured one last "Y2K assurance" directive and knocked it back for good luck. The horror that followed should make it all too clear to you that there WERE serious Y2K problems.
After the clock ticked past 12:00, I quietly sighed in relief as my friends and I realized the apocalypse had not come this night. All my systems were up and running and I was confident the date change had happened smoothly and was now behind me. Oh how I was wrong!
About an hour and one half after "Y2K", I detected some anomalies that were traced back to the "Tanqueray" and "Abolut" system enhancements. Within five minutes, my system had slowed to all but a crawl and very unexpectedly, my stomach core dumped! The debug was an uninterpretable mess, so it revealed little more than the other bits of code that had been applied with my "Y2K enhancements". Although I experienced said core dump, I was confident that it was an isolated experience and moved my debilitated system to bed for nightly system maintenence.
Through the night, my stomach core dumped 5 more times: only after a days worth of emergency "Pepto Bismol updates" was my stomach brought back under control. Even then, it took yet another day to return my system to normal operating perameters.
The moral of the story is: Yes Virginia, some of us (the stupid ones at least) DID experience serious Y2K related problems.
"I wanted to meet stimulating and interesting people of an ancient culture, and kill them." --Full Metal Jacket
While I agree that this is another example of the classic Katz rant and do not see the world through his lens, I do agree with the gist of his tyrade.
I think the protests are the first manifestation of a growing segment of the population who is fed up with the corruption and unbridled greed we see today. The advent of internet has, for the first time in history, given people a way to share their thoughts and ideas with so many with such great ease.
I doubt there are few if any people here on Slashdot that believe capitalism and democracy do not work. On the contrary, I think the average Netizen is fiercely loyal to the pricipals and ideals this country was founded upon and is sickend to see the extent they have been twisted and corrupted. Capitalism and Democracy work. They work because they spread the power to all of us. Ideally, any Joe with a good idea could start a business and grab his share of the American pie. Any Tom, Dick or Laura (have to be PC, eh?) with an idea about our governtment could, in theory, be able to rally the people together and effect a change in our government. Or at least that's the way it was supposed to be.
We now live in the age of the special interest and the business lobby. These two demons usurp the power our nations founding fathers gave us by quietly recentralising it. You see, we live in an age of faux democracy and pseudo-freedom; the "common man" can speak his mind only if it serves the interest of the power mongers.
Who are the power mongers? They are the politicians who have forgotten that their job is to do the bidding of the American people. They are the elite businessmen who line the pockets of weak willed politicians in an effort to sway the goverment favor towards them. They are the small group that has been given special rights and powers that allow them to override the will of the majority. They are the mega-merger conglomerates that control the vast majority of what you see and hear. They are the bastards who seek power by bridling our freedoms and riding their way to the top on our backs.
I believe in capitalism, it works; nobody can have too much wealth or freedom. If you earned it, it's yours; if it bothers you, talk about it! I want nothing more than for every business in this country to be wildly successful, but they MUST climb thier way to the top while remaining loyal to the rules we (the people) have set for them. As soon as a business or group directs the governments path away from the will of the majority, the power of democracy slowly bleeds away.
The internet is the last place people have to speak their mind and voice their views; it was the last great communication medium untainted by government regulation and corperate influence. The internet is nearing the verge of gov't control; it's close to becoming another dumbed down, corperate controlled media/propaganda outlet and people are piss of about it. The last place you *don't* have to be politicaly correct is in danger and Seattle was a wake up call that there are those of us who are sick of the corruption and will not take it anymore.
Seattle was just the tip of the iceberg.
p.s. Yeah, my spelling and punctuation are problably suspect; I don't have all day to proofread.
"Restrictions of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."
-- Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas (Served 23 years)
Re:Nerd = studious ; Geek = weird
on
Geeks vs. Nerds
·
· Score: 1
I couldn't have said it better! Both geeks and nerds are usually above average, but the geeks tend to be more passionate and eccentric. Perhaps it's a left brain, right brain thing; the nerds seem to be pure engineers while geeks tend to have a bizarre artistic flair.
To put it simply, a nerd looks a a potato and sees a starchy tuber; a simple food. A geek looks a potato and sees an object that deserves to be jammed down a pvc pipe and ejected @ 1150 fps with 125 psi of compressed air.
I think what sets a geek and a nerd apart is confidence. While the nerd may be sharp as a tack, he/she is usually socially inept and is very uncomfortable about it. The geek on the other hand, has matured to the point that he/she has a bit of social skill, has no interest in the whims of the latest "fashion", is aware of his/her shortcomings and has long since learned that the people who pass judgement are the last people in society one should be listening to.
[Kbyrd Said] "...how many of you have a voice scrambling system for your phone"?
Acutally, I remember hearing that PGP inventor Phil Zimmermann (it may have been someone else) wrote a phone scrambler that used your PC's sound card. Can anyone back me up on this?
In response to the "Raven" article, I think the standard should not include hooks for tapping; if a goverment wants to spy on it's citizens, make it an effort to do so. Internet standards are there to "get the job done" efficiently and quickly, not to advance political agenda. The internet is a global entity and as such, should not be intimidated by the local bully (which happens to be the U.S. in this case).
Several/. posters have raised the issue that printed source code may one day be considered machine readable and therefore illegal to export. This of course stretches the bounds of constitutionality, but is a grey enough area to be held up in a court system populalated by the pseudo-socialist ninnies currently running it.
Should printed (crypto) source code be restricted, I say we up the stakes yet another level; fire up your Mac (or whatever machine/OS gets your jumbly stiff) and have the machine *SPEAK* the source code. Simply record the output and mail a copy to whoever you please or play it over the phone. Although the recording might make for some boring listening, it would be spoken word and therefore any attempts to restrict it would be very clear-cut violation of the constitution. Should some old decomposing pile of bones masquerading as a congressman raise the point that a machine made the recording, simply enlist a few intrepid souls to read and record the code; what will the gov't do then, decree that spoken work is machine readable and therefore subject to their control? Can you say "Violation of my constitutional rights"? I knew you could!
With a bit of tweaking, I'm sure one could get ViaVoice to transcribe the recording. Voila! Stupid law circumvented once again!
I believe that every effort the gov't makes to restrict crypto (and ANY free speech) should be challenged and every loophole exploited. The effect of this is they must address the holes and tighten their grasp on us. Once this happens, the issue will become a pure free speech issue and will be forced to a head.
"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers".
Slashdot Mirror
"they arent that fast. I've got a 9000 class *server* and its slower than my dual 500 abit bp6. parisc stuff is sloow."
Servers generally aren't designed with raw processing power in mind. Maximum I/O is the design goal and the processor is just one piece of the puzzle.
Case in point; where I work, we have an RS/6000 F30. It only has a lowly 166mhz POWERpc, but for database operations, it kicks the shit out of our IBM Netfinity PII400.
I have a feeling that that "slow" PARisc HP9000 would make your BP6 look silly for similar operations.
"People may hate to admit it, but Sun hardware is probably the most reliable hardware out there."
I hate to nitpick and Sun does make some great hardware, but do you really believe they outdo IBM's RS/6000 and Dec's (Compaq) vernerable VAX?
I don't think so.
"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumb"--Plato
It'll not argue that many tech workers are getting shafted; I think we (SlashDot readers) are in agreement on this point.
I believe that for the most part, "geeks" tend to be very hard workers with a strong work ethic. It is also my belief that many of the people who are drawn to technology jobs are of the personality type that is a bit insecure.
When I was in my teens, working at Wendy's and McDonalds, I worked my ass off. It was physically intensive, uncomfortable work. It was hard work and it FELT like it. Fast forward to the year 2000; I make a meager 42k as a Unix/NT/Network/PC Support admin. I work roughly 50 to 60 hours a week; I deal with customer problems, endless streams of luser problems (caps lock anyone?), maintain and "cultivate" our servers and network and am responsible for everything that runs on electricity in my office, save the lights and Coke machine.
I know I work hard. I know I work DAMN hard, but it just doesn't feel like it. I've got 20 or so projects and requests on my board at any one time, but I still feel like I'm not working hard enough. I've got 6 high priority issues I'm working on (given to me by multiple managers) that are all supposed to receive my UNDIVIDED attention; yet no matter how late I stay, I still feel like it's not enough.
I think it's part of our nature to work hard; it's a shame that so many employers are exploiting people with a solid work ethic. There was a time when you were rewarded for hard work, now companies have learned that if they play the game right; they reap the reward for your effort.
"He's a pepper, she's a pepper........aw, to hell with it!"
11/31/99: What an odd day That was!
"zero isn't even, it's just not odd, so the next day with all evens will have to wait until 2/2/2222 I'm afraid."
If you assume 0 isn't an even number, then today is not an even day because it is 2/2/2000; see all those zeros? Today is an all even day just like Feb. 4,6,8,20,22,24,26 and 28 will be.
"a quad xeon p3 600 smokes a 30cpu sun E6500 with their latest 400mhz cpus. sun cpu performance is
pathetic."
This is an obvious troll. I give up.
Ever hear of SpecInt?
"pentium cpus are 600mhz+, while lame so called enterprise cpus from sun are only 400mhz."
This clueless statement reveals the depth of your knowlege. Megahertz is the most WORTHLESS way to rate a processor's performance. A 400mhz UltraSparc stomps the crap out of the fastest pentium available. Which is more powerful, 600 pounds of gunpowder or 400 lbs. of TNT?
Please read the white papers before you spew pure fiction.
What have you been smoking? EIDE beats SCSI/Fiber? OK, and your TRS-80 can run circles around a POWER3 RS/6000 as well, right?
What a Troll!
I agree that this is one gnarly piece of big iron, but how much time and money is being devoted to the refinement of the computer models used forcast the weather? A weather forecaster friend mentioned in conversation that most of the models are pretty good at predicting summertime trends, but in the winter(the NGM and ETA especially), most fail miserably.
Here in the Ohio valley, weather is unpredictable enough, but winter weather is especially bizarre. It would be nice if the local forcasters had higher quality data and had to rely on their "gut feeling" less. It really sucks to wake up to a 1/2 inch of sleet frozen to the road when the forecaster assured the city we would only see light flurries!
If nothing else, imagine the babes you could get with that kind of computing power at your disposal. "Hey baby, wanna check out my gigaflop"?
"Ah, child, you're too young to remember old-fashioned flashbulbs."
Maybe, but I'm not.
"Nothing but aluminum wire in aglass&plastic envelope, and man! were those suckers bright. Nothing, and I mean nothing burns like aluminum
in oxygen."
I seem to remember the ball of wire in old flash bulbs being Magnesium. I would dare say Magnesium burns a whole heckofalot better than aluminum.
An any case, the aluminum layer in a CD is very thin and the plastic burns quite well once it's started.
I cannot believe no one has mentioned Caffrey's Irish Ale! It's a damn fine beer (bottled by Guiness) that has the same cool widget in the can and has the same surging bubble effect.
Caffrey's......the OTHER kick ass, funky, bubbly ale.
"Today's modem-based ISPs will be completely unable to compete with Time Warner and its cable modems, and DSLs are way too expensive to consider as an alternative to cable...."
I thought I should interject that in southwest Ohio, Cincinnati Bell offers 384/768kbps for $40 a month. If that's not competetive, I don't know what is. Also, unlike cable modem users, my bandwidth is mine alone; I share it with no one.
I've heard many horror stories about saturated cable networks (not that my telco is managing ADSL very well); I can't wait to see what happens when the system is flooded with hundreds of thousands of AOL users! BWAHAHAHAHA! If I were a current RoadRunner subscriber, I'd be afraid that the merger will interject some really half-witted policies that make it even harder for non Micros~1 users to use the network (e.g. stupid Windows based log in clients).
Does this mean I might be able to resurrect my CISC AS/400 model 9404? Even though it's obsolete, IBM still wants thousands of dollars for the O/S for this beast.
There are tons of old CISC AS/400's out there that could be put to good use if there was something other than OS/400 (for the price) to run on it. Since the "Linux on AS/400" project seems to be going nowhere, this might be my only hope.
Even if it never runs again, my 9404 makes a K-Rad night stand.
If an entity set up a site with credit card verification or a current online vendor took donations via credit card, I for one would donate right now. The exchange fee problem would be overcome and the act of donating would be so easy there would be no excuse NOT to send a few bucks.
Human laziness coupled with the "SlashDot Effect" could save a whole hell-of-alot of penguins.
I discovered a serious Y2K related flaw in the human body......
Like many people did that night, I spent the last few hours of 1999 preparing myself with special Y2K compliant, non date specific "Tanqueray" and "Absolut" system patches. As the end of the last hour of the last year of the century drew nearer, I poured one last "Y2K assurance" directive and knocked it back for good luck. The horror that followed should make it all too clear to you that there WERE serious Y2K problems.
After the clock ticked past 12:00, I quietly sighed in relief as my friends and I realized the apocalypse had not come this night. All my systems were up and running and I was confident the date change had happened smoothly and was now behind me. Oh how I was wrong!
About an hour and one half after "Y2K", I detected some anomalies that were traced back to the "Tanqueray" and "Abolut" system enhancements. Within five minutes, my system had slowed to all but a crawl and very unexpectedly, my stomach core dumped! The debug was an uninterpretable mess, so it revealed little more than the other bits of code that had been applied with my "Y2K enhancements". Although I experienced said core dump, I was confident that it was an isolated experience and moved my debilitated system to bed for nightly system maintenence.
Through the night, my stomach core dumped 5 more times: only after a days worth of emergency "Pepto Bismol updates" was my stomach brought back under control. Even then, it took yet another day to return my system to normal operating perameters.
The moral of the story is: Yes Virginia, some of us (the stupid ones at least) DID experience serious Y2K related problems.
"I wanted to meet stimulating and interesting people of an ancient culture, and kill them." --Full Metal Jacket
"Not many people know this, but
Earthlink is owned by Scientology."
You are mistaking Earthlink with Mindlink. I believe Mindlink is owned by the "Church" of Scientology
Checkmate. :)
"Even the great grand-father UNIX
was invented by AT&T, back when they were a monopoly."
Yeh, but so what? Linus is so damn brilliant that he would have created Linux anyway.
Feel free to moderated this post straight to hell.
While I agree that this is another example of the classic Katz rant and do not see the world through his lens, I do agree with the gist of his tyrade.
I think the protests are the first manifestation of a growing segment of the population who is fed up with the corruption and unbridled greed we see today. The advent of internet has, for the first time in history, given people a way to share their thoughts and ideas with so many with such great ease.
I doubt there are few if any people here on Slashdot that believe capitalism and democracy do not work. On the contrary, I think the average Netizen is fiercely loyal to the pricipals and ideals this country was founded upon and is sickend to see the extent they have been twisted and corrupted. Capitalism and Democracy work. They work because they spread the power to all of us. Ideally, any Joe with a good idea could start a business and grab his share of the American pie. Any Tom, Dick or Laura (have to be PC, eh?) with an idea about our governtment could, in theory, be able to rally the people together and effect a change in our government. Or at least that's the way it was supposed to be.
We now live in the age of the special interest and the business lobby. These two demons usurp the power our nations founding fathers gave us by quietly recentralising it. You see, we live in an age of faux democracy and pseudo-freedom; the "common man" can speak his mind only if it serves the interest of the power mongers.
Who are the power mongers? They are the politicians who have forgotten that their job is to do the bidding of the American people. They are the elite businessmen who line the pockets of weak willed politicians in an effort to sway the goverment favor towards them. They are the small group that has been given special rights and powers that allow them to override the will of the majority. They are the mega-merger conglomerates that control the vast majority of what you see and hear. They are the bastards who seek power by bridling our freedoms and riding their way to the top on our backs.
I believe in capitalism, it works; nobody can have too much wealth or freedom. If you earned it, it's yours; if it bothers you, talk about it! I want nothing more than for every business in this country to be wildly successful, but they MUST climb thier way to the top while remaining loyal to the rules we (the people) have set for them. As soon as a business or group directs the governments path away from the will of the majority, the power of democracy slowly bleeds away.
The internet is the last place people have to speak their mind and voice their views; it was the last great communication medium untainted by government regulation and corperate influence. The internet is nearing the verge of gov't control; it's close to becoming another dumbed down, corperate controlled media/propaganda outlet and people are piss of about it. The last place you *don't* have to be politicaly correct is in danger and Seattle was a wake up call that there are those of us who are sick of the corruption and will not take it anymore.
Seattle was just the tip of the iceberg.
p.s. Yeah, my spelling and punctuation are problably suspect; I don't have all day to proofread.
"Restrictions of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."
-- Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas (Served 23 years)
I couldn't have said it better! Both geeks and nerds are usually above average, but the geeks tend to be more passionate and eccentric. Perhaps it's a left brain, right brain thing; the nerds seem to be pure engineers while geeks tend to have a bizarre artistic flair.
To put it simply, a nerd looks a a potato and sees a starchy tuber; a simple food. A geek looks a potato and sees an object that deserves to be jammed down a pvc pipe and ejected @ 1150 fps with 125 psi of compressed air.
Ammonia+Iodine=Fun for the kiddies!
I think what sets a geek and a nerd apart is confidence. While the nerd may be sharp as a tack, he/she is usually socially inept and is very uncomfortable about it. The geek on the other hand, has matured to the point that he/she has a bit of social skill, has no interest in the whims of the latest "fashion", is aware of his/her shortcomings and has long since learned that the people who pass judgement are the last people in society one should be listening to.
[Kbyrd Said] "...how many of you have a voice scrambling system for your phone"?
/dev/hell
Acutally, I remember hearing that PGP inventor Phil Zimmermann (it may have been someone else) wrote a phone scrambler that used your PC's sound card. Can anyone back me up on this?
In response to the "Raven" article, I think the standard should not include hooks for tapping; if a goverment wants to spy on it's citizens, make it an effort to do so. Internet standards are there to "get the job done" efficiently and quickly, not to advance political agenda. The internet is a global entity and as such, should not be intimidated by the local bully (which happens to be the U.S. in this case).
---Complaints may be directed to
Several /. posters have raised the issue that printed source code may one day be considered machine readable and therefore illegal to export. This of course stretches the bounds of constitutionality, but is a grey enough area to be held up in a court system populalated by the pseudo-socialist ninnies currently running it.
Should printed (crypto) source code be restricted, I say we up the stakes yet another level; fire up your Mac (or whatever machine/OS gets your jumbly stiff) and have the machine *SPEAK* the source code. Simply record the output and mail a copy to whoever you please or play it over the phone. Although the recording might make for some boring listening, it would be spoken word and therefore any attempts to restrict it would be very clear-cut violation of the constitution. Should some old decomposing pile of bones masquerading as a congressman raise the point that a machine made the recording, simply enlist a few intrepid souls to read and record the code; what will the gov't do then, decree that spoken work is machine readable and therefore subject to their control? Can you say "Violation of my constitutional rights"? I knew you could!
With a bit of tweaking, I'm sure one could get ViaVoice to transcribe the recording. Voila! Stupid law circumvented once again!
I believe that every effort the gov't makes to restrict crypto (and ANY free speech) should be challenged and every loophole exploited. The effect of this is they must address the holes and tighten their grasp on us. Once this happens, the issue will become a pure free speech issue and will be forced to a head.
"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems
will slip through your fingers".
--Princess Leia
>Yeah, I know what you mean. Here in the UK I sometimes get the feeling that we're a province of the >US...
You should be so lucky; if you were a province of the United States, you'd have enumerated (constitutional) rights. As it is, you don't.