That's like suing the phone company for what someone said on the phone.
The TV networks got sued/fined over the "wardrobe malfunction" with Janet Jackson, which is a better analogy. The phone network is private; TV and web are broadcast. Different rules, though the web should have it's own rules. For example, if someone complains about an unreasonable slanderous post, I'd say it would be fair to expect the site owner to investigate it at the very least. If you are the one ultimately in control of the data, you are the only one able to remove it.
I can do it with bluetooth, but I have to pair it first (grrrr). In the bad old days of ir, all he had to do was point his phone at my laptop press send, then I accepted the transmission and it magically appeared on my desktop. Sweet.
That is a gross over-simplification. IR doesn't "just work", except perhaps in Windows XP. Even if you do get it going, it's still limited to modem-like speeds. Getting "Fast IR" (4meg) working is a joke; I once worked in a laptop factory and had to monitor the IRDA testing setup down on the production lines. In controlled-conditions, with single-tasking custom testing software, we still had problems getting reliable communication from otherwise perfect built products. I investigated things like distance, ambient light etc in order to bring down the high erronous failure rate. In the end I think 7 inches was the opimum distance for Fast IR.
So, this is me, in a lab with two laptops (one known-good) hooked up on a specially designed test harness. And it still is unreliable! Good luck getting it to work reliably on the street!
Granted, newer OS's make this all easier and it runs "out-of-the-box", but IRDA has thoroughly earned it's "piece of shit" ranking in my mind. Maybe I'm just bitter at it's complete imcompatibility with "consumer IR" protocols; if it could interface with TV's etc and input stimulus from other remotes, it might have had a use over the years. This simple functionality was omitted for some reason or other. Now, BT and WiFi kick it's butt up and down the ball-park in the things that matter; speed and reliability. IR will have to nail both of these to stand a chance however I don't think your "fire and forget" use will be popular enough to make it mainstreem.
Look, just buy a PDA!! Bluetooth, WiFi, GSM (on the phone ones), removable & cheap flash storage, games, communication software, networking. Video/music, eBooks. Great, your iPod runs doom, that's neat and all but the rest of us are living in the days of multi-tasking operating systems.
Apple is releasing an iPod cell phone, while Nokia is releasing a tablet computer with no cell phone capabilities.
I dount Nokia are making a tablet PC. It will be made by another company and released under the nokia brand; this type of thing is extremely common. I remember there was once a point when there were only four widescreen TV-tube factories in the world, and all the manufactures sourced their parts from them. I'm stitting here with two Triniton displays in front of me (tell-tale black horizonal lines at 1/3 and 2/3 positions), yet neither is branded by Sony.
The Discovery Channel ran a great little series on the Amazon Rain Forest. In one episode they used time lapse photography to show the slow sure growth of an Epiphyte that chose as its host one of the largest giant trees of the Rain Forest.
That sounds fascinating, can you provide any more info on the show, e.g. title? I had a google for it, but to no avail and I'd really like to see this footage.
Looking for seasons of tv shows, for instance, was an episode-by-episode ordeal and I could hardly ever find half of what I was looking for.
http://www.emule-help.com/verified.htm
I use both BT and eMule. I use the former for something popular and current, but a lot of what I download is obscure music that would never be found on BT. eMule has retention, torrents die after a few weeks usually.
And it was the actual show, not child porn, which happened rather frequently on eDonkey.
Emule makes it simple to spot fakes and corrupt files. Right click on the file in your transfers section, click on details, then click the file name tab.
Pfft, fakes? I've never had a fake on eMule since I switched to using ed2k link sites. All verified links, whole seasons of shows. The best site, http://www.the-realworld.de/ has just been taken offline unfortunately. It had complete runs of every series you could possibly imagine. "select all", "download. The links then appear in ed2k. You need to switch on the ed2k handler in eMule plus for this to work; ed2k: becomes a protocol with a system handler just like http:
These sites make things much faster as they are popular. The files linked inherently have more sources because they are better known.
"one is non-Iraqi, therefore more are". Nice reasoning. Pity the facts don't back up that point-of-view.
Fighting back? Is that what they call blowing up markets, driving car bombs into crowds of kids, shooting politicians working on the constitution, and loading up houses on the Syrian boarder with fake Iraqi police cars and ambulence full of Iranian-made exposives?
Yup. Viva la Resistance. Go read a history book, resistance movements don't wear uniforms and line up to die in front of the enemy. I'm not condoning their actions, just pointing out HISTORY that predicted it. They are disrupting the police, the government, national resources and the occupiers. Textbook resistance. What, were you expecting roses?
As for kids, bah, the US has killed far more children in this war. "Smart bombs" is 100% double-speak, you have been conditioned to not consider your own innocent casualties. Mostly becase it's bad for ratings and ratings is god to TV news.
You'll recall the millions of people in that country that participated in the recent election, and will be doing the same when they act to democratically ratify their new constitution.
"they voted, therefore they are on our side", nice reasoning again. The vote turnout has NO BEARING WHATSOEVER on whether they agree with your invasion. They are just getting on with life in whatever way possible. Besides, there is so much inner hatred between the different ethnic groups, the election will be utterly worthless as it's even more bi-partisan than your self-delusion of a "democracy". Americans don't even know what democracy looks like; here's a hint, it isn't a two horse race where the horses are all members of the same secret societies.
His take on democracy? "Evil" and "un-Islamic."
Our take on Islam? "Evil" and "unamerican". Oh, they have a different view from me, I must impose mine on theirs. That's text-book facism, go look it up.
How many more shops or sidewalks, or gatherings of kids do you think he'll have to blow up in order for a typical resident of Baghdad to suddenly realize that his view of the world is the rational one?
Won't ever happen, because their views are so predisposed to US dropping bombs on them. See how you felt on 9-11? That's how they feel every day! The anti-US sentiment is growing there, not decreasing, regardless of how horrific the insurgent attacks are. Yours are more common and bigger.
Please understand I am not defending their actions, merely rationalising them. Understanding the problem helps, and if you understood it, you would not be for more war. It's a cycle of violence, and you guys just took a massive step backwards. Iraq alone will fuel anti-US sentiment for at least 50 years amoung many communities. You could stike every terrorist dead this instant but this action guarantees several generations more will be willing to follow.
They don't want to "destroy us". They want us to stop kicking off coups in their countries. As you have done on numerous occasions. Stop doing that and they will stop hating you. They have all said that publicly, yet never once have our media reported the text of these speaches etc. This is except for some of the most extreme nutballs who want to kill us all. However, they are inconsequential and have no power; just like most Christians who would like to see all arabs dead are in the minority. Our media will hapilly show a man with a hook for an hand bitching about "death to the west", but they won't show the ones on our side who say the same shit right back. We get presented with the image of the nutball as though it is the norm. It's not, Bin Laden etc are all from the "get out of my country and I'll go away" camp. His beef? Your troops in Saudi, which are there to protect the unpolular, brutal and undemocratic dictatorship leadership of which you and your president are oh-so-good-friends with. From personal experience, I'd bet there m
The sensibilities that shaped the GC are very removed from the scenario where a rich kid from Jordan hops out of his car
Bull, the USA invaded, they are fighting back. And "they" are mostly Iraqi's, despite what your leaders might want you to believe r.e. popular Iraqi support. The fighting in Iraq is no different to the resistance in WW2. Civilians forced into war performing insurgent attacks on troops and infrastructure. NOTHING new, so the GC is still just as applicable. The GC has specific sections on these non-uniformed combatants.
I mean, that beats the hell out of having to send a bunch of grunts in on the ground for a house-to-house firefight that ends up impacting everyone in the area
Still doesn't beat the hell out of starting a war however...you can't blame a scenario of your own making for anything. You invaded, stick the the rules of the GC goddammit!
it makes it harder to know, right that minute, how many IED factory workers were just removed.
That's not my point. The civilian death-toll is over 26,000 last I checked, however NOT ONCE has this ever been mentioned on the news. Enemy counts (as you say) aren't even known, let alone "reported". They are "selling" the war without listing the side-effects.
What's "out of line" to you? A live broadcast that identifies what street they're standing on
Em, anything that's not the party line? As in "we are winning, it's all going well la la la [puts hands over ears]". They are reporting what they are told to report and are merely an extension of the armed services own reporters.
So, you haven't noticed that we are turning into the Soviets in the 60's? Here's how our "official" news progress as the FACTS emerge (through non-official sources). This was 1 or 2 months ago in Afganistan.
no, we did not lose a helicopter
a heli has crash landed
a heli has exploded mid-air, cause unknown
a heli was hit by a "lucky" SAM
Spot the pattern? Yes, they did actually say "lucky" when they grudingly admitted that they had lost the entire crew and marines. Sounds awfully like that "there are no infidels in Bagdad" madman to me. No news unless it's good news. Deny deny deny until can't deny it due to overwhelming evidence. Embedded reporting is completely and utterly worthless for the same reason. All it does do however is provide images for the dramatic music and graphics that the networks use to keep the people glued to the screen. Lots of muzzle-flash along with red, white & blue and no facts.
As I said, if you are watching the embeds and think you know what's going on, you are a moron. You'd be glued to Lord Haw Haw in WW2 or that Iraq propaganda guy I mentioned earlier, if only you'd been born in a different place.
What's more, have they made plasma look good yet? I've never seen a plasma display which looked good.
I wholeheartedly agree. Plasma displays look like shit, they have a neon quality to the image that is completely artificial, I have never seen one I liked. It's as bad as the CRT TVs with "digital enhancement" and 100Hz gimmics, it does nothing to improve the quality of the image.
But what we have now is better stats, embedded reporters, and an changed ethic about a lot of this.
Bullshit. Where are these stats? Were are the figures? The injured count? The death counts (on both sides as required by the Geneva Convention)?
If you think embedded reporters are anything other than PR shrills working directly with the military then I worry about how naive you are. These people exist to reguritate the propaganda; step out of line and you get sent home with all access rights (interviews, White House Press Room etc) suspended permanmently.
Friendly fire stats? Fuck, we'll be lucky if we ever even find out the truth about any of the other less contraversial ones. The army and our leaders have lied every step of the way; why change, it seems to be working just fine...
Well, I too live in the UK, and all three of my plastic cards have had new PIN's due to the chip&pin changes. All came with payroll style tear-apart things, however one or two may have been delivered inside an innocent envelope. I could check; some are in my "to be shredded" pile still. I have never seen one that wasn't in some proprietry and specific packaging that is obvious where tampering has taken place. Actually, I was impressed by one of the Visa ones I got, it was one of the peel-off sicky labels that you can't put back down as the pattern was completely destroyed by the removal.
Still, the original poster I replied to seemed to imply that you'd get a page of A4 in a windowed envelope with the PIN in plain text.:-)
i never liked shredding, sure it deters the common theif but its still a puzzle and like a puzzle it can be put back together
Paper mache is completely unnessesary. If someone was out to get you to the point they are reconstructing your sheddings, it would be much easier for them to pick your home lock and get the details off a statement while you are in work. Burning etc is overkill, just shred them in with a whole pile of other shreddings, e.g. use the office shredder.
I think you miss the point. They use the imaging technique to see under the foil scratch-off thing, without scratching it off. That pretty much tells you what you have won, that's the point! You never tried holding it up to a light, just to see if you could spot a winner?
Criminal steals mail, retrieves the valuable information, and forwards the untampered letter to the original recipient.
Exactly. (Emphasis mine). Of course, you have someone mentioning getting windowed envelopes to repost it...what, is that guy like 12 years old or something? PIN numbers don't come in standard envelopes; they are more like wage slips in that they have to be torn open and that there is no way you are putting them back together.
If a PIN number arrives at mine and it looks as though it's been tampered with, the bank gets a phonecall and the card/pin are rendered useless. This task is all about attacking without being caught. Sure, you can blow up the safe, but it's not very covert!
That was murder, not terrorism. Where I'm from, Prodestants kill Catholics and vice-versa almost every time there is an old-firm soccer match. Literally, mostly stabbings. Woopie do, racist/religious violence has been around since the dawn of time and will be present in almost every multi-cultural country. It's not the work of terror cells however, just a nutter with a gun/knife. Some of the most famous people in history have had their lifes ended that way. Was John Lennon the subject of a terrorist attack by your definition?
Their ideology that drives them to attack the Phillipines and America and London is. That is the common denominator.
No. They have political views and they use the ideology to make others tag along. Much like the KKK, the anti-abortion bombers and any other Christian wackos. Even Bush plainly plays on the Christian support, he references "God" in almost every speach. The jihaders really don't like us messing about in their country, that's all there is to it. They don't like democracy, however largly they don't want to enforce their way on others. Sure, there are guys with hooks for hands babbling on about a world of islam, but how's that any different from the recent comments on US TV suggesting that certain South American presidents should be assasinated? Seeing the extreme Christian view on western TV is a rarity, however much time is given to the nutjobs in the Islamic world.
The UK was never the target of Islamic terrorism prior to getting involved in Iraq. That is a undebatable fact. The US is due to your support of Israel, the Saudi Royal Family (and dictators), the US troops in Saudi backing up that investment, and now the "jihad" in Iraq (as they see it). Teh bad guys have clearly stated their beefs, but clearly it's not in our leaders benefit to respond to them. Instead they say things like "they hate freedom" as they know we will stand sholder to sholder to defend it. Perhaps one day we'll get a news service that calls the bullshit for what it is.
What NATO terrorism are you referring to, during the Cold War?
Em, all of it? The mujahideen? The anti-socialist death squads trained at "The School of the Americas". Multiple attacks on Cuba. You sound like a motivated person, a google for that phrase should find you some articles you'd find interesting. The declasified training manuals are terrifying. What's your major? "Oh, just kidnapping and torture for political gain"...
The USA has a dark history WRT to terrorism. Also, read up on the IRA, who have had to pack in their terrorist activites. This is largely because funding from the USA (e.g. the green bucket full of change on St Pat's Day in NYC) largely dried up after 9/11. Things change when you are on the receiving end for a change...
Why do you think the NSA tryed to stop the spread of encryption around the world? PGP? Are we all asleep here? Computers were largely invented to further warfare, cracking enemies networks would be top of the TODO list.
That explains the terrorist activity in the Phillipines and Thailand. Bush the elder's attack on Iraq.
YEAH, cos like EVERY terrorist on the planet is a part of the SAME GLOBAL NETWORK!! OMG, GWB save me!!
So, what's the IRA and McVey's excuse? Terrorism comes from all backgrounds. The anti-US terrorism is 100% the product of your foreign policies. Whether those policies were just is another debate, however there is a clear cause and effect. They don't hate freedom, they just hate you. Until the UK got involved in Iraq, we have NEVER had a suicide bomber. There was not a single case of Islamic terrorism. Now we have suicide bombs on the transport network and armed police everywhere. But it's because they hate freedom right? Must be terrible in Denmark, Holland, Canada, France, Austrialia etc, they also have freedom. Oh wait, they don't have Islamic terrorism...hang on, our leaders are lying to us, arghhh!!
What do you think the US government is doing to the Chinese??!? Christ, the damn US government spies on it's own citizens more than anyone else on Earth.
It was only a few years ago that a US spyplane made an emergency landing in China. How would you feel if there were Chinese spyplanes 6km off the coast of Florida 24/7? The hyprocracy in this topic is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Nah, the real story is "we want to keep our populations under control and the best way to do that under a democracy is to breed enemies for the people to rally against". Like China. You'd think with all the "freedom" and "democracy" that wouldn't be possible, but propaganda is a strange beastie.
Hence the reason why the general population hates China, Russia, France, N. Korea and Iran. So long as they aren't hating the clear local government corruption, it's all good, right? We need them to protect us from the bad men, wahhhh, I want my mommy!!
Russian Communism was no match for decentralized American Capitalism, focused in centralized American Federalism.
Russian Communism was largely defeated by terrorist actions on behalf of NATO, chiefly the USA. You can't bitch about others terrorism when you are the largest practicioner of it on the planet.
I suggest you get a history book about something called "The Cold War". It's cold for a reason; there was no outright war, just war between your proxies e.g. the Afgan civil war. The CIA openly did things that they knew would increase the chance of Soviet invasion, I believe an official was quote in saying something along the lines of "we want to give Russia it's own Vietnam".
Doesn't using the word "gatekeeper" imply that without Google, the information wouldn't be available? That really isn't the case..
Nah, there is more than one gate. Some aren't as big, some are misleading, some are over-abused. If you stick to one however, your options are limited. I wouldn't even know who to go to nowadays should google fail to find what I want; when I've tried Yahoo and my old retro favourites (AltaVista still around I see), I've never found something new. That's the power Google has, even though it's for "good" reasons.
Google is the "gatekeeper" because it's the easiest, quickest way to find what you're looking for on the net. If Yahoo was markedly better, people would switch (back) in droves
I disagree, Joe Sixpack is a creature of habit, hence my Xerox and Hoover references. Most of them get confused if you swap IE for Firefox for them...
IMHO this whole Google paranoia meme is pretty laughable. Seems like people need to fret about some big corp threatening to take over
Agreed. Really silly when there are many non-IT companies raping the world right now. You wanna fight a worthwhile fight? Rockafeller or Harliburton is where it's at; not Google or MS.
the once-favorite whipping boy Microsoft is seemingly on the ropes
I defo don't agree with that; they will be just as powerful in 5 years as now, if things tick along as they are. Sure Linux is gaining popularity, and macs are "chic", however they are still very very small markets. People who buy a computer will by a MS PC. People who buy macs will buy macs. Hell, Linux is only just hitting the less-geeky people in my dev team now. It's years away for grandma.
There's a difference between a monopoly on search engine services and a monopoly in the OS space.
Yes. Google is FAR more powerful. Who cares of Word vs. ClarisWorks, which is the bottom line of the OS market. We're talking about being the gatekeeper for the majority of information retrieved via the net. That's WAY more power than Bill Gates dollars could EVER buy. Google may even end up more powerful than the media conglomerates combined, as they will be the stepping stone on the way.
Sure, if they become "teh evil", then we'll switch. Many of the other blog readers will also switch. But Joe Sixpack will still be Googling for replacement bags for his Hoover and toner for his Xerox.
Slashdot Mirror
The TV networks got sued/fined over the "wardrobe malfunction" with Janet Jackson, which is a better analogy. The phone network is private; TV and web are broadcast. Different rules, though the web should have it's own rules. For example, if someone complains about an unreasonable slanderous post, I'd say it would be fair to expect the site owner to investigate it at the very least. If you are the one ultimately in control of the data, you are the only one able to remove it.
That is a gross over-simplification. IR doesn't "just work", except perhaps in Windows XP. Even if you do get it going, it's still limited to modem-like speeds. Getting "Fast IR" (4meg) working is a joke; I once worked in a laptop factory and had to monitor the IRDA testing setup down on the production lines. In controlled-conditions, with single-tasking custom testing software, we still had problems getting reliable communication from otherwise perfect built products. I investigated things like distance, ambient light etc in order to bring down the high erronous failure rate. In the end I think 7 inches was the opimum distance for Fast IR.
So, this is me, in a lab with two laptops (one known-good) hooked up on a specially designed test harness. And it still is unreliable! Good luck getting it to work reliably on the street!
Granted, newer OS's make this all easier and it runs "out-of-the-box", but IRDA has thoroughly earned it's "piece of shit" ranking in my mind. Maybe I'm just bitter at it's complete imcompatibility with "consumer IR" protocols; if it could interface with TV's etc and input stimulus from other remotes, it might have had a use over the years. This simple functionality was omitted for some reason or other. Now, BT and WiFi kick it's butt up and down the ball-park in the things that matter; speed and reliability. IR will have to nail both of these to stand a chance however I don't think your "fire and forget" use will be popular enough to make it mainstreem.
These will have hard-drives before long...
I dount Nokia are making a tablet PC. It will be made by another company and released under the nokia brand; this type of thing is extremely common. I remember there was once a point when there were only four widescreen TV-tube factories in the world, and all the manufactures sourced their parts from them. I'm stitting here with two Triniton displays in front of me (tell-tale black horizonal lines at 1/3 and 2/3 positions), yet neither is branded by Sony.
That sounds fascinating, can you provide any more info on the show, e.g. title? I had a google for it, but to no avail and I'd really like to see this footage.
http://www.emule-help.com/verified.htm
I use both BT and eMule. I use the former for something popular and current, but a lot of what I download is obscure music that would never be found on BT. eMule has retention, torrents die after a few weeks usually.
And it was the actual show, not child porn, which happened rather frequently on eDonkey.
Not had a fake in years. Click the link above...
Pfft, fakes? I've never had a fake on eMule since I switched to using ed2k link sites. All verified links, whole seasons of shows. The best site, http://www.the-realworld.de/ has just been taken offline unfortunately. It had complete runs of every series you could possibly imagine. "select all", "download. The links then appear in ed2k. You need to switch on the ed2k handler in eMule plus for this to work; ed2k: becomes a protocol with a system handler just like http:
These sites make things much faster as they are popular. The files linked inherently have more sources because they are better known.
Google for "ed2k". This is the fourth link: http://www.emule-help.com/verified.htm . Very tasty...
"one is non-Iraqi, therefore more are". Nice reasoning. Pity the facts don't back up that point-of-view.
Fighting back? Is that what they call blowing up markets, driving car bombs into crowds of kids, shooting politicians working on the constitution, and loading up houses on the Syrian boarder with fake Iraqi police cars and ambulence full of Iranian-made exposives?
Yup. Viva la Resistance. Go read a history book, resistance movements don't wear uniforms and line up to die in front of the enemy. I'm not condoning their actions, just pointing out HISTORY that predicted it. They are disrupting the police, the government, national resources and the occupiers. Textbook resistance. What, were you expecting roses?
As for kids, bah, the US has killed far more children in this war. "Smart bombs" is 100% double-speak, you have been conditioned to not consider your own innocent casualties. Mostly becase it's bad for ratings and ratings is god to TV news.
You'll recall the millions of people in that country that participated in the recent election, and will be doing the same when they act to democratically ratify their new constitution.
"they voted, therefore they are on our side", nice reasoning again. The vote turnout has NO BEARING WHATSOEVER on whether they agree with your invasion. They are just getting on with life in whatever way possible. Besides, there is so much inner hatred between the different ethnic groups, the election will be utterly worthless as it's even more bi-partisan than your self-delusion of a "democracy". Americans don't even know what democracy looks like; here's a hint, it isn't a two horse race where the horses are all members of the same secret societies.
His take on democracy? "Evil" and "un-Islamic."
Our take on Islam? "Evil" and "unamerican". Oh, they have a different view from me, I must impose mine on theirs. That's text-book facism, go look it up.
How many more shops or sidewalks, or gatherings of kids do you think he'll have to blow up in order for a typical resident of Baghdad to suddenly realize that his view of the world is the rational one?
Won't ever happen, because their views are so predisposed to US dropping bombs on them. See how you felt on 9-11? That's how they feel every day! The anti-US sentiment is growing there, not decreasing, regardless of how horrific the insurgent attacks are. Yours are more common and bigger.
Please understand I am not defending their actions, merely rationalising them. Understanding the problem helps, and if you understood it, you would not be for more war. It's a cycle of violence, and you guys just took a massive step backwards. Iraq alone will fuel anti-US sentiment for at least 50 years amoung many communities. You could stike every terrorist dead this instant but this action guarantees several generations more will be willing to follow.
They don't want to "destroy us". They want us to stop kicking off coups in their countries. As you have done on numerous occasions. Stop doing that and they will stop hating you. They have all said that publicly, yet never once have our media reported the text of these speaches etc. This is except for some of the most extreme nutballs who want to kill us all. However, they are inconsequential and have no power; just like most Christians who would like to see all arabs dead are in the minority. Our media will hapilly show a man with a hook for an hand bitching about "death to the west", but they won't show the ones on our side who say the same shit right back. We get presented with the image of the nutball as though it is the norm. It's not, Bin Laden etc are all from the "get out of my country and I'll go away" camp. His beef? Your troops in Saudi, which are there to protect the unpolular, brutal and undemocratic dictatorship leadership of which you and your president are oh-so-good-friends with. From personal experience, I'd bet there m
Bull, the USA invaded, they are fighting back. And "they" are mostly Iraqi's, despite what your leaders might want you to believe r.e. popular Iraqi support. The fighting in Iraq is no different to the resistance in WW2. Civilians forced into war performing insurgent attacks on troops and infrastructure. NOTHING new, so the GC is still just as applicable. The GC has specific sections on these non-uniformed combatants.
I mean, that beats the hell out of having to send a bunch of grunts in on the ground for a house-to-house firefight that ends up impacting everyone in the area
Still doesn't beat the hell out of starting a war however...you can't blame a scenario of your own making for anything. You invaded, stick the the rules of the GC goddammit!
it makes it harder to know, right that minute, how many IED factory workers were just removed.
That's not my point. The civilian death-toll is over 26,000 last I checked, however NOT ONCE has this ever been mentioned on the news. Enemy counts (as you say) aren't even known, let alone "reported". They are "selling" the war without listing the side-effects.
What's "out of line" to you? A live broadcast that identifies what street they're standing on
Em, anything that's not the party line? As in "we are winning, it's all going well la la la [puts hands over ears]". They are reporting what they are told to report and are merely an extension of the armed services own reporters.
So, you haven't noticed that we are turning into the Soviets in the 60's? Here's how our "official" news progress as the FACTS emerge (through non-official sources). This was 1 or 2 months ago in Afganistan.
Spot the pattern? Yes, they did actually say "lucky" when they grudingly admitted that they had lost the entire crew and marines. Sounds awfully like that "there are no infidels in Bagdad" madman to me. No news unless it's good news. Deny deny deny until can't deny it due to overwhelming evidence. Embedded reporting is completely and utterly worthless for the same reason. All it does do however is provide images for the dramatic music and graphics that the networks use to keep the people glued to the screen. Lots of muzzle-flash along with red, white & blue and no facts.
As I said, if you are watching the embeds and think you know what's going on, you are a moron. You'd be glued to Lord Haw Haw in WW2 or that Iraq propaganda guy I mentioned earlier, if only you'd been born in a different place.
I wholeheartedly agree. Plasma displays look like shit, they have a neon quality to the image that is completely artificial, I have never seen one I liked. It's as bad as the CRT TVs with "digital enhancement" and 100Hz gimmics, it does nothing to improve the quality of the image.
Or a false allegation retrieved from a fellow villager under the influnce of torture...
Bullshit. Where are these stats? Were are the figures? The injured count? The death counts (on both sides as required by the Geneva Convention)?
If you think embedded reporters are anything other than PR shrills working directly with the military then I worry about how naive you are. These people exist to reguritate the propaganda; step out of line and you get sent home with all access rights (interviews, White House Press Room etc) suspended permanmently.
Friendly fire stats? Fuck, we'll be lucky if we ever even find out the truth about any of the other less contraversial ones. The army and our leaders have lied every step of the way; why change, it seems to be working just fine...
Still, the original poster I replied to seemed to imply that you'd get a page of A4 in a windowed envelope with the PIN in plain text. :-)
Paper mache is completely unnessesary. If someone was out to get you to the point they are reconstructing your sheddings, it would be much easier for them to pick your home lock and get the details off a statement while you are in work. Burning etc is overkill, just shred them in with a whole pile of other shreddings, e.g. use the office shredder.
I think you miss the point. They use the imaging technique to see under the foil scratch-off thing, without scratching it off. That pretty much tells you what you have won, that's the point! You never tried holding it up to a light, just to see if you could spot a winner?
Exactly. (Emphasis mine). Of course, you have someone mentioning getting windowed envelopes to repost it...what, is that guy like 12 years old or something? PIN numbers don't come in standard envelopes; they are more like wage slips in that they have to be torn open and that there is no way you are putting them back together.
If a PIN number arrives at mine and it looks as though it's been tampered with, the bank gets a phonecall and the card/pin are rendered useless. This task is all about attacking without being caught. Sure, you can blow up the safe, but it's not very covert!
That was murder, not terrorism. Where I'm from, Prodestants kill Catholics and vice-versa almost every time there is an old-firm soccer match. Literally, mostly stabbings. Woopie do, racist/religious violence has been around since the dawn of time and will be present in almost every multi-cultural country. It's not the work of terror cells however, just a nutter with a gun/knife. Some of the most famous people in history have had their lifes ended that way. Was John Lennon the subject of a terrorist attack by your definition?
Their ideology that drives them to attack the Phillipines and America and London is. That is the common denominator.
No. They have political views and they use the ideology to make others tag along. Much like the KKK, the anti-abortion bombers and any other Christian wackos. Even Bush plainly plays on the Christian support, he references "God" in almost every speach. The jihaders really don't like us messing about in their country, that's all there is to it. They don't like democracy, however largly they don't want to enforce their way on others. Sure, there are guys with hooks for hands babbling on about a world of islam, but how's that any different from the recent comments on US TV suggesting that certain South American presidents should be assasinated? Seeing the extreme Christian view on western TV is a rarity, however much time is given to the nutjobs in the Islamic world.
The UK was never the target of Islamic terrorism prior to getting involved in Iraq. That is a undebatable fact. The US is due to your support of Israel, the Saudi Royal Family (and dictators), the US troops in Saudi backing up that investment, and now the "jihad" in Iraq (as they see it). Teh bad guys have clearly stated their beefs, but clearly it's not in our leaders benefit to respond to them. Instead they say things like "they hate freedom" as they know we will stand sholder to sholder to defend it. Perhaps one day we'll get a news service that calls the bullshit for what it is.
Em, all of it? The mujahideen? The anti-socialist death squads trained at "The School of the Americas". Multiple attacks on Cuba. You sound like a motivated person, a google for that phrase should find you some articles you'd find interesting. The declasified training manuals are terrifying. What's your major? "Oh, just kidnapping and torture for political gain"...
The USA has a dark history WRT to terrorism. Also, read up on the IRA, who have had to pack in their terrorist activites. This is largely because funding from the USA (e.g. the green bucket full of change on St Pat's Day in NYC) largely dried up after 9/11. Things change when you are on the receiving end for a change...
Yeah, the US should start spying too, that would be a really novel idea. Maybe you should write to your congressmen and suggest it.
Or you could try paying attention for a week or two.
Why do you think the NSA tryed to stop the spread of encryption around the world? PGP? Are we all asleep here? Computers were largely invented to further warfare, cracking enemies networks would be top of the TODO list.
YEAH, cos like EVERY terrorist on the planet is a part of the SAME GLOBAL NETWORK!! OMG, GWB save me!!
So, what's the IRA and McVey's excuse? Terrorism comes from all backgrounds. The anti-US terrorism is 100% the product of your foreign policies. Whether those policies were just is another debate, however there is a clear cause and effect. They don't hate freedom, they just hate you. Until the UK got involved in Iraq, we have NEVER had a suicide bomber. There was not a single case of Islamic terrorism. Now we have suicide bombs on the transport network and armed police everywhere. But it's because they hate freedom right? Must be terrible in Denmark, Holland, Canada, France, Austrialia etc, they also have freedom. Oh wait, they don't have Islamic terrorism...hang on, our leaders are lying to us, arghhh!!
It was only a few years ago that a US spyplane made an emergency landing in China. How would you feel if there were Chinese spyplanes 6km off the coast of Florida 24/7? The hyprocracy in this topic is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Hence the reason why the general population hates China, Russia, France, N. Korea and Iran. So long as they aren't hating the clear local government corruption, it's all good, right? We need them to protect us from the bad men, wahhhh, I want my mommy!!
Russian Communism was largely defeated by terrorist actions on behalf of NATO, chiefly the USA. You can't bitch about others terrorism when you are the largest practicioner of it on the planet.
I suggest you get a history book about something called "The Cold War". It's cold for a reason; there was no outright war, just war between your proxies e.g. the Afgan civil war. The CIA openly did things that they knew would increase the chance of Soviet invasion, I believe an official was quote in saying something along the lines of "we want to give Russia it's own Vietnam".
Nah, there is more than one gate. Some aren't as big, some are misleading, some are over-abused. If you stick to one however, your options are limited. I wouldn't even know who to go to nowadays should google fail to find what I want; when I've tried Yahoo and my old retro favourites (AltaVista still around I see), I've never found something new. That's the power Google has, even though it's for "good" reasons.
Google is the "gatekeeper" because it's the easiest, quickest way to find what you're looking for on the net. If Yahoo was markedly better, people would switch (back) in droves
I disagree, Joe Sixpack is a creature of habit, hence my Xerox and Hoover references. Most of them get confused if you swap IE for Firefox for them...
IMHO this whole Google paranoia meme is pretty laughable. Seems like people need to fret about some big corp threatening to take over
Agreed. Really silly when there are many non-IT companies raping the world right now. You wanna fight a worthwhile fight? Rockafeller or Harliburton is where it's at; not Google or MS.
the once-favorite whipping boy Microsoft is seemingly on the ropes
I defo don't agree with that; they will be just as powerful in 5 years as now, if things tick along as they are. Sure Linux is gaining popularity, and macs are "chic", however they are still very very small markets. People who buy a computer will by a MS PC. People who buy macs will buy macs. Hell, Linux is only just hitting the less-geeky people in my dev team now. It's years away for grandma.
Yes. Google is FAR more powerful. Who cares of Word vs. ClarisWorks, which is the bottom line of the OS market. We're talking about being the gatekeeper for the majority of information retrieved via the net. That's WAY more power than Bill Gates dollars could EVER buy. Google may even end up more powerful than the media conglomerates combined, as they will be the stepping stone on the way.
Sure, if they become "teh evil", then we'll switch. Many of the other blog readers will also switch. But Joe Sixpack will still be Googling for replacement bags for his Hoover and toner for his Xerox.