Watching video on a 2 inch screen is insanity. No. It's just completely fucking stupid.
Kept me busy the last time I was stuck on a bus for a couple of hours. Killed the time with a few episodes of Family Guy.
So, are you saying there will never be a market for portable televisions with small screens? Hate to break it to you, but that already happened. Methinks you are the type who doesn't get out or travel all that much. There's a huge market for entertaining people when they have time to kill.
I wonder if this is a sign that the next generation iPods (which are bound to be out fairly soon) will have video playback.
Probably. All the other mp3 manufacturers did it a year or so ago, so Apple are about due to catch up. And runaway with the market no doubt like they did with the iPod.
Then why does just about every country in the free world allow more personal freedom? How come your government is as corrupt (if not more so) than all the rest of us? Where is the gain you have received from the second amendment, other than the highest crime rates and prison population on the planet?
I'll agree that guns are about freedom; taking away someone elses. A gun is a pussy's weapon, for those unable to fight for themselves, and for those who wish to take other peoples property. Unfortunately, your history dictates that there are untold numbers of guns in your country (we also agree on why that is the case), so it is necessary for the honest people to own one. I guess that's the difference between our point of views. In my country, you can walk down the street confidently knowing that a four-foot street punk does not have the capabilty to kill you. Worst case, they pull a knife and you can either run or fight, both options being infinately less likely to end in your death. Yours, well anyone could be packing. Growing up in that culture is bound to give you a different perspective.
can you comment on which (non winXX based) phones you've helped export contact/schedules from which didn't involve running an export using desktop software which may have come with the phone?
None, that's the problem. They all relied on a propretry export utility. It'll get you by for a one time change, but I much prefer an automatic sync between your desktop and mobile data.
ave you considered developing over-the-air synchronization tools given the claimed openness of PIM data?
If I wasn't busy with other things, I'd consider it. However, it's more of a full-on project than a one-man utility.
from what i understand there's quite a market there but getting programmatic access to PIM data from code running on the handset is somewhat cumbersome in non-(RIM|BREW) environments, especially from certain phone manufacturers.
Yup. We don't even have a base standard for getting at the data, and even then the data is often in a completely incompatible format. You'd be able to export as described above, but it's not a sync.
I honestly really like the way I hit "Sync" on my phone and it connects wirelessly to ActiveSync on the host PC, 30 seconds later everything is up to date, including directory sync of my personal files. I've looked into *nix deamons for this in the past, but it was very early days. There may be progress on this since then of course. What would be great is an OSS ActiveSync that could run on any OS and also sync with MS Office and Open Office in a transparent mannen, then others could develop phone-specific plugins for all of the various implementations. That's the missing link really.
You know what I'd do? Smile politely and be pleasant. If someone is trying to wind you up, there is no better way to counter it than to make them think it's getting nowhere. Be really nice. Laugh loudly when they are in earshot. Walk with a spring in your step.
The worst that can happen is that your boss won't be able to take it and will explode. Just avoid situations where it is just the two of you alone; always have witnesses. Work off the notice, be thankful it's over and move on with your life.
After all, it's just a job. Companies nowadays layoff employees to improve profitiablity, unlike days of old when it was a last resort. They don't give you any consessions, so why return the non-favour?
gun laws only affect law-abiding citizens, which are exactly the people that DON'T cause problems with guns.
Getting way OT, but I agree. I'm all for more laws against gun ownership here in the UK, where it's possible due to the fact there are hardly any guns in the first place. However, there are just so many guns in the USA it would be impossible to ban them. It would be as stupid as trying to ban pot. Ain't gonna work. The US is based on the idea that you can point a gun at someone and tell them what to do. Don't buck the cart now!!
So where's all this hoidy-toidy legal rights junk now? I'm still paying for the mess that was created by a manager harassing an employee near to death.
It's your own fault I'm afraid my friend. You should have left in the normal maner, read a little employment law, or seen a lawyer first. By giving them a big "fuck you", you left yourself open.
You can't just "walk out the door" and expect them to be honorable. You weren't. Your prior mistreatment is not relevant; two wrongs do not make a right. Notice periods work both ways; in redundancy you get it to find a new job, in resignation they use it to find a replacement.
You didn't deserve the paycheck, nor did you deserve unemployment. Think how both of those systems would be abused if your behaviour was acceptiable and common. Unemployment is for those who find themselves out of work through no choice of their own. You can't just quit a job and expect to get it. Otherwise, half of McDonalds retail would quit tomorrow.
Next time, line up a replacement job, or plot to bring the company/manager down that annoyed you in the first place.:-)
If you give notice, doesn't that presuppose that you had time to *consider* giving notice and, thus, had all the opportunity in the world to do whatever you wanted to their network?
That's always been my take on this, I just don't see the gain in escorting people off the site when they hand in their notice. If the get the sack or made redundant, then fair enough. Surely the chance to do some handover work outweighs the completely negligable chance of a person parting on good terms being a (unprepared) bastard? Someone that is...eeeevil... will do their nasties before reaching that point.
eventually, we will all become unimpressed with phones that don't have calendars, address books, do text messaging etc.
Nope. There is and always will be a huge market for basic phones. They just don't make slashdot front page.
Can anyone accurately predict what protocols, air interfaces, and file format standards will end up winning in this (now) mobile free for all?
I'll bite. Well, they all have mail and web access, so they are fairly standard, use IMAP for your mail of course. Files get stored on SD-cards, which is a standard format. Notes are txt files. Emails in the inbox are stored in a unique way, just like every other mail package on the planet (with the exception of direct-access stuff like Maildir of course). Recorded audio is plain wav with a choice of codecs.
The only thing that you might actually have to export manually would be contacts and schedules. Both can be dumped to XML IIRC. I've helped people export data from a variety of phones, and these things are very open compared to others it has to be said.
Thing is, I can't think of an alternative office are appliction that encompasses shedules, contacts and tasks in an easily workable format, and allows synchronization between mobile devices. I'd be happy to use one if it existed, but hate it or not, Outlook is actually very well featured. That's half the problem here; the competetion isn't all that much of a competion. Yet.
My real fear is that in the future you won't be able to get a phone without windozeXX on it, or be able to use any air interface not supported by M$ pocket-mobile-crap software.
Sure, lack of choice bites, but I wouldn't go so far as to say "pocket-mobile-crap software". Have you actually used one? Personally, I think they are the dogs bollocks and there is nothing else as good as them on the market right now. Zealotry aside, that's all that matters.
However, if "Magneto" (ok, the name is cheesy) were to add a "hibernate" funtion which wakes PDA up on incoming phone call, that would really make battery last *much* longer (so you don't need to keep it on to receive calls).
Don't they already do that? Mine (Win Mobile 2003) is in standby mode most of the time, with the battery being used to keep the memory alive, keep the phone running, and wait for scheduled wakeups.
Or, do you mean a complete hibernate, like you'd get on a laptop; i.e. the entire memory would be dumped to non-volitle storage? I've thought about that myself, but I reackon it wouldn't work. My device has 128MB of ram, which would need to be read from the storage medium when you receive a call. This would likely take at least 5 seconds, as the NV storage is slower IIRC. My cellphone operator has an upper limit of 30 seconds of ring time before it'll switch to answerphone. So, if you were to completely hibernate the PDA, you'd lose the always-on aspect of it, and potentially miss even more phone calls.
Otherwise, they just don't see the reason to, don't have the motivation to, and just plain don't care.
Nothing new, people have been running cars into the ground by not changing the oil for years. It's quite a similar analogy, preventative maintainence; handy if you are trying to convince someone to start doing it. "If you don't do this, this will happen". Keyloggers are a good one as well, worth mentioning as people might not care all that much if their PC is a spam host; instead tell them that it's logging their credit cards and address details for identity theft, and if the person is any good, they'll never know it's been done.
So all the airport security in the world, searching for box knives and zippo lighters, is only to make frightened people feel like they should be frightened, and more importantly, to take away more liberty.
I agree with everything else in your post, but you are wrong on this IMHO. The extra security, largly illusional, made people feel protected. After 2001, air passenger numbers dropped massively, and the screening made people feel as it something had been done about the problem. It's gone a long way to help bring it back up some.
As for scaring the population, colour charts and warning so vague they are bordering on surealist seem to be working quite well already!
What in the hell are you talking about? I'm reading (and writing) this post on my mobile, a little bedtime reading. Using WiFi to access broadband, the phone company isn't getting a penny from me.
When I got out of the bar tonight (where there is no reception), my phone picked up a text message from a friend who's place was on the way home from me, so I was able to pop in and say hi, then watch a movie with her. I was also able to quickly read the message and drop the phone back into my pocket in the street. Had I got an answer phone message, I would had to hold the phone up to my ear, making me a prime target for thiefs, especially as I was wandering alone late on a Friday night in this city that my nick aludes to. Otherwise, I would have just gone straight home and watched a little tv on my own. I'd say that was a result.
The night out was arranged by email, and I got notified of a slight last minute change of plans via a group text. For someone who actually has a social life, text and other gadgets are really useful. I'm a bloke, I don't chat on the phone, nor do I chat on text. Like almost every other man in the western world I use these things to arrange real-life meetings!
Yes, there are stupid people out there spending money on type-0 midi files, backgrounds and other such crap. But these same folk also spend money on silly things like MSN backgrounds, stupid rubber wrist bands and lots of other bullshit. Why blame the technology?
As for speed, well with the qwerty keyboard and predictive text, my speed would definitely be on a par with the morse guy. As someone who doesn't touchtype on a computer, I can rattle messages off just fast as I could on a regular keyboard. Granted, using a numeric keypad is lame for text entry, shit you could get crappy "organizers" (name & number) in the late eighties that used the same mechanism. But for the geek, there are some really useful and productive phones out there. I've got VNC and SSH on this, do the math.
Iraq and Kuwait? lol, that's another mistruth, you're practically illustrating my points for me! Saddam asked for permission for the US government and was told something along the lines of "we have no opinion on that". He invaded and not much happened for quite some time. Then, the ousted Kuwaiti dictatorship hired a PR firm (a US one IIRC) to persuade congress and the US public to "liberate" Kuwait. Until, this point, Saddam was considered an ally. The PR campaign culminated with the daughter of someone directly involved in US/Kuwait diplomatic relations lying before congress, stating that she witnessed Iraqi soldiers stealing incubators from Kuwaiti hospitals, leaving the babies on the floor to die. It was later proven that she wasn't even in the country at the time. Google for "iraq incubator congress" for info. This oft used tactic (babies) caused public outrage, switching public and congressional opinion in favor of the Kuwaitis. The rest is history.
Not quite the popular knowledge of the war, but that's my point. It was US weapons that rolled into Kuwait. Don't take my word on it, how about this respected source?
Shortly after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the organization Citizens for a Free Kuwait was formed in the US. It hired the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton for about $11 million, money from the Kuwaiti government. This firm went on to manufacture a fake campaign, which described Iraqi soldiers pulling babies out of incubators in Kuwaiti hospitals and letting them die on the floor. A video news release was widely distributed by US TV networks; false supporting testimony was given before Congress and before the UN Security Council. The fifteen-year-old girl testifying before Congress was later revealed to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States; the supposed surgeon testifying at the UN was in fact a dentist who later admitted to having lied. [MCA] (For more, see Nurse Nayirah.)
And I still maintain that the latest Iraq campaign was entirely counter-productive. Saddam was a bastard, that much is true, but he was never a threat to anyone. Unlike some of the other bastards our leaders seem to enjoy dealing with. Note how co-operative dictators are A-OK, despite their own continued human rights violations. It caused no end of anger, and it will only fuel the fire. Your (and my) country is responsible for the death of 25,000 "non-combatants", and the only reason that number is known is because the Geneva Convention demands it. Their family, friends and orphaned children will be the next generation of terrorists.
If you still believe that you are the just party in this fight, then I suggest you read some history. "the terrorists" are a subset of a bunch of people that we have fucked over hugely over the years. Frankly, I'm beginning to wonder if we deserve it.
Bribes? Prove they are any worse than other governments. For that matter prove they really exist.
Anyone can make a donation to a political party under guise of a "campaign contribution", which is generally done by businesses. People who expect Return on Investment. My country is no better.
The facts are hard to see without a lot of history to look at, something we won't have for a few hundred years. (and that assumes the history is recorded correctly)
What is "recorded" in most peoples minds about the US is Hollywood, which makes the US out to be a global saviour. What history you have that is real, especially the last 50 years is quite the opposite, but due to the sugar coating, the vast majority of the people are completely unaware of it. This is a dangerous state of affairs, evident in the fact that you believe the war in Iraq is valid.
The US is nothing special in regard to this self-censorship, most countries do this. It just you guys seem to have taken it a little too far now.
Have you ever heard of economic cycles? They happen to everyone. [snip] . Exchange rates are tied to economy. This is a good thing, it means when you have a bad day relative to others, the others can buy more of your stuff
Yes, and I know. However, the US isn't all that big on manufacture anymore, and the internet just evened the field for many other industries. You'll have to drop a long way before you can challenge
countries where $1 per hour is a great wage. IP and other legislation is making it less and less easy to develop new products. You really see it picking up? If you do, please say because I'm considering bailing on my investments.;-) Seriously, you obviously are closer to the issues than I am, so if you genuinely believe it's just a dip, I'd quite like to be convinced!
Tourism is huge for America. Fingerprinting visitors and treating them like criminals is not the way to encourage tourism. Neither is the bad PR that Iraq caused. Remember, post 9/11, everyone was your ally. To fuck that up is truly impressive. Making enemies and killing middle-eastern folks is what led to 9/11, I could not imagine a response to make (Iraq) that could be any more wrong!! Grossly stupid call. Unless your leaders want more terror that is, it seems to be working for them...
WMD were just one of the reasons for the war. It was big, and it didn't pan out, so you pick on it. You ignore the other reasons completely, and some of them are still valid.
Bullshit. There isn't a single reason that could not be applied to several other countries, in fact you could pin the lot on a couple of them. Only one has the second largest oil reserves on the planet. You know some economics, I presume you know of Peak Oil?
Or you could look at it this way. This isn't a big conspiracy or anything, the Project for a New American Century is all open. Iraq was in planning prior to 9/11, and this has been covered in the media. The current administration used, no ABUSED, the tragedy of 9/11 to firstly implant a casual link in the publics mind between Saddam and the terrorists involved. You can watch any speach made during the period to see this. The war was entirely propaganda from the start, even the now infamous toppling of the statue was fake.
Had I lost family on that day in 2001, I would be extremely pissed of about this. Not only have they taken a shit on ground zero and wiped their ass with the US flag, but the have incited the very hatred that is the problem in the first place. And to spin this hatred into "they hate freedom" is completely disgracefull, but it's entirely predictable. They might has well have added "they eat babies" if you are going down that tried and tested route of making war.
Who said anything about "want"? Certainly wasn't me, as you would see if you read the "tone" of my post.
The founding father's of the USA believed that dissent was key to democracy, now you are "unpatriotic" or "with the terrorists" if you sway from the party line.
Your economy speaks for itself, and if you argue that you clearly don't know anything about economics and I'll just ignore you. I only have modest investments in the US, but even I have lost thousands.
Democracy, well where to begin? OK, every US election for the past thirty years was won by the one that spent the most money. you have a two party system with little difference between them. Voters are encouraged to vote based on their religion, and if you believe that is democracy then I pity you.
but for what reason? Why are you trying to make the US seem like its on its death bed sick and can hardly move?
I?m not. What I am trying to do is improve things by raising awareness. Americans are blinkered to the views of others, it's almost a deliberate endeavor. By pointing out problems, I hope to try and get through to at least some people in a positive way.
The biggest problem is that most people, like yourself, seem to take it personally. It's not your fault that this has happened, but it is your responsibility to sort it out. Personally, I'd prefer if this took place before world war three. You have a man in the Whitehouse that not only believes in Revelations (and his Rapture, saving his own ass), AND HAS THE POWER TO BRING IT ABOUT.
We all have to live on this planet together, and we'd all appreciate if you could try and take care of your little part of it. Otherwise, I fear that you may all "take care" of us sometime.
I know its "in" to hate the USA (certainly on this site)
Sigh...it's not "in", it's a direct response to recent behaviour. I used to love the USA, I've been over many times for both business and pleasure. Not anymore though...
shows the desperation of people to show how the "USA is losing it" and this is the best they can come up with?
OK, how about:
Your government is openly corrupt, with bribes a key part of the election process
The rest of the world no longer sees the US as the pinacle of democracy
The rest of the world no longer sees the US as the pinacle of freedom
Your economy is in the crapper
Your exchange rate is in the crapper
Tourism is way down
Exports are fucked up
One in three people live below the poverty line
You invaded a resourse laiden country over a lie, and the rest of us saw through the WMD lies way back at the start
This is what we mean when it is said that the US is losing it. We've all grown up on the Hollywood vision of America, where truth and justice were core. Perhaps as a citizen, you still see things that way, but as a (terrified) obvserver, we don't. Your leadership openly misleads you to justify a war that had no other aim than the economic and strategic betterment of those who were behind it.
The US is in the terminal stages of empire. You are spread to thin, yet still your leaders are commiting resources to combat communism in the former USSR. It's all like a big game of Risk, but the problem is that your country simply cannot keep up. The leadership know this but frankly don't care, so long as the fall doesn't happen during their term. There is a really interesting article on this subject here
I want the old US back.This new one scares me; with things going from bad to worse, I can only see the US acting like a cornered animal, lashing out at others.
Not anymore. Checkout this site, they have blacklists for anti-p2p, spyware (neat), hijacked IPs, goverment agencies and so on. The spyware one is especially good, as it's the only effective block. Once you've found the spyware, you've already had your privacy compromised. Stop it from dialing home in the first place!
Germany controlled all of Europe pretty much, and was readying its forces to *invade* England. If Germany had won the Battle of Britain in the air, that invasion would no doubt have been a possibility. Only the channel and the Royal Navy really stood in the way.
Many modern historians believe that an invasion wouldn't have come for many years, if at all. The Germans lacked the ability to move armour over the channel. They did do some counter-inteligence to fake the Brits out though, make them think it was coming.
Fighting in Germany was a long ways, a major buildup and an invasion or two away still:)
He's also forgotten about hiring an extra 2 guys at least to maintain the extra machines. A selling point of this box will be that "it just works". Pay for a support contract and wammo, you've got a cheap low maintainence cluster. For people working on top-secret stuff (who else needs clusters?;-), hiring people is a risk and the vetting process is expensive.
I'd say it's fairly important for those religious people to realize thou is the familiar form, since that would change the tone of the ten commandments significantly.
Not that it matters; they weren't written in English you know! All of the holy books have been rewritten at least three times, and translated through multiple lanaguages. Micro-analysing the language is moronic! If anything, the current new testament is basically based on 16th century English, as that is when it last undertook a major rewrite. (King James) That's where you are getting all your "thou"'s!
What part of "which might not restore to normal for several hours depending on the person" did you miss?;-) For some folk it took quite a while longer than others.
Slashdot Mirror
Kept me busy the last time I was stuck on a bus for a couple of hours. Killed the time with a few episodes of Family Guy.
So, are you saying there will never be a market for portable televisions with small screens? Hate to break it to you, but that already happened. Methinks you are the type who doesn't get out or travel all that much. There's a huge market for entertaining people when they have time to kill.
Probably. All the other mp3 manufacturers did it a year or so ago, so Apple are about due to catch up. And runaway with the market no doubt like they did with the iPod.
I'll agree that guns are about freedom; taking away someone elses. A gun is a pussy's weapon, for those unable to fight for themselves, and for those who wish to take other peoples property. Unfortunately, your history dictates that there are untold numbers of guns in your country (we also agree on why that is the case), so it is necessary for the honest people to own one. I guess that's the difference between our point of views. In my country, you can walk down the street confidently knowing that a four-foot street punk does not have the capabilty to kill you. Worst case, they pull a knife and you can either run or fight, both options being infinately less likely to end in your death. Yours, well anyone could be packing. Growing up in that culture is bound to give you a different perspective.
None, that's the problem. They all relied on a propretry export utility. It'll get you by for a one time change, but I much prefer an automatic sync between your desktop and mobile data.
ave you considered developing over-the-air synchronization tools given the claimed openness of PIM data?
If I wasn't busy with other things, I'd consider it. However, it's more of a full-on project than a one-man utility.
from what i understand there's quite a market there but getting programmatic access to PIM data from code running on the handset is somewhat cumbersome in non-(RIM|BREW) environments, especially from certain phone manufacturers.
Yup. We don't even have a base standard for getting at the data, and even then the data is often in a completely incompatible format. You'd be able to export as described above, but it's not a sync.
I honestly really like the way I hit "Sync" on my phone and it connects wirelessly to ActiveSync on the host PC, 30 seconds later everything is up to date, including directory sync of my personal files. I've looked into *nix deamons for this in the past, but it was very early days. There may be progress on this since then of course. What would be great is an OSS ActiveSync that could run on any OS and also sync with MS Office and Open Office in a transparent mannen, then others could develop phone-specific plugins for all of the various implementations. That's the missing link really.
The worst that can happen is that your boss won't be able to take it and will explode. Just avoid situations where it is just the two of you alone; always have witnesses. Work off the notice, be thankful it's over and move on with your life.
After all, it's just a job. Companies nowadays layoff employees to improve profitiablity, unlike days of old when it was a last resort. They don't give you any consessions, so why return the non-favour?
Getting way OT, but I agree. I'm all for more laws against gun ownership here in the UK, where it's possible due to the fact there are hardly any guns in the first place. However, there are just so many guns in the USA it would be impossible to ban them. It would be as stupid as trying to ban pot. Ain't gonna work. The US is based on the idea that you can point a gun at someone and tell them what to do. Don't buck the cart now!!
It's your own fault I'm afraid my friend. You should have left in the normal maner, read a little employment law, or seen a lawyer first. By giving them a big "fuck you", you left yourself open.
You can't just "walk out the door" and expect them to be honorable. You weren't. Your prior mistreatment is not relevant; two wrongs do not make a right. Notice periods work both ways; in redundancy you get it to find a new job, in resignation they use it to find a replacement.
You didn't deserve the paycheck, nor did you deserve unemployment. Think how both of those systems would be abused if your behaviour was acceptiable and common. Unemployment is for those who find themselves out of work through no choice of their own. You can't just quit a job and expect to get it. Otherwise, half of McDonalds retail would quit tomorrow.
Next time, line up a replacement job, or plot to bring the company/manager down that annoyed you in the first place. :-)
That's always been my take on this, I just don't see the gain in escorting people off the site when they hand in their notice. If the get the sack or made redundant, then fair enough. Surely the chance to do some handover work outweighs the completely negligable chance of a person parting on good terms being a (unprepared) bastard? Someone that is ...eeeevil... will do their nasties before reaching that point.
Nope. There is and always will be a huge market for basic phones. They just don't make slashdot front page.
Can anyone accurately predict what protocols, air interfaces, and file format standards will end up winning in this (now) mobile free for all?
I'll bite. Well, they all have mail and web access, so they are fairly standard, use IMAP for your mail of course. Files get stored on SD-cards, which is a standard format. Notes are txt files. Emails in the inbox are stored in a unique way, just like every other mail package on the planet (with the exception of direct-access stuff like Maildir of course). Recorded audio is plain wav with a choice of codecs.
The only thing that you might actually have to export manually would be contacts and schedules. Both can be dumped to XML IIRC. I've helped people export data from a variety of phones, and these things are very open compared to others it has to be said.
Thing is, I can't think of an alternative office are appliction that encompasses shedules, contacts and tasks in an easily workable format, and allows synchronization between mobile devices. I'd be happy to use one if it existed, but hate it or not, Outlook is actually very well featured. That's half the problem here; the competetion isn't all that much of a competion. Yet.
My real fear is that in the future you won't be able to get a phone without windozeXX on it, or be able to use any air interface not supported by M$ pocket-mobile-crap software.
Sure, lack of choice bites, but I wouldn't go so far as to say "pocket-mobile-crap software". Have you actually used one? Personally, I think they are the dogs bollocks and there is nothing else as good as them on the market right now. Zealotry aside, that's all that matters.
Don't they already do that? Mine (Win Mobile 2003) is in standby mode most of the time, with the battery being used to keep the memory alive, keep the phone running, and wait for scheduled wakeups.
Or, do you mean a complete hibernate, like you'd get on a laptop; i.e. the entire memory would be dumped to non-volitle storage? I've thought about that myself, but I reackon it wouldn't work. My device has 128MB of ram, which would need to be read from the storage medium when you receive a call. This would likely take at least 5 seconds, as the NV storage is slower IIRC. My cellphone operator has an upper limit of 30 seconds of ring time before it'll switch to answerphone. So, if you were to completely hibernate the PDA, you'd lose the always-on aspect of it, and potentially miss even more phone calls.
Nothing new, people have been running cars into the ground by not changing the oil for years. It's quite a similar analogy, preventative maintainence; handy if you are trying to convince someone to start doing it. "If you don't do this, this will happen". Keyloggers are a good one as well, worth mentioning as people might not care all that much if their PC is a spam host; instead tell them that it's logging their credit cards and address details for identity theft, and if the person is any good, they'll never know it's been done.
Some say....there's an interesting documentary on this called "Outfoxed", I recommend checking it out.
I agree with everything else in your post, but you are wrong on this IMHO. The extra security, largly illusional, made people feel protected. After 2001, air passenger numbers dropped massively, and the screening made people feel as it something had been done about the problem. It's gone a long way to help bring it back up some.
As for scaring the population, colour charts and warning so vague they are bordering on surealist seem to be working quite well already!
When I got out of the bar tonight (where there is no reception), my phone picked up a text message from a friend who's place was on the way home from me, so I was able to pop in and say hi, then watch a movie with her. I was also able to quickly read the message and drop the phone back into my pocket in the street. Had I got an answer phone message, I would had to hold the phone up to my ear, making me a prime target for thiefs, especially as I was wandering alone late on a Friday night in this city that my nick aludes to. Otherwise, I would have just gone straight home and watched a little tv on my own. I'd say that was a result.
The night out was arranged by email, and I got notified of a slight last minute change of plans via a group text. For someone who actually has a social life, text and other gadgets are really useful. I'm a bloke, I don't chat on the phone, nor do I chat on text. Like almost every other man in the western world I use these things to arrange real-life meetings!
Yes, there are stupid people out there spending money on type-0 midi files, backgrounds and other such crap. But these same folk also spend money on silly things like MSN backgrounds, stupid rubber wrist bands and lots of other bullshit. Why blame the technology?
As for speed, well with the qwerty keyboard and predictive text, my speed would definitely be on a par with the morse guy. As someone who doesn't touchtype on a computer, I can rattle messages off just fast as I could on a regular keyboard. Granted, using a numeric keypad is lame for text entry, shit you could get crappy "organizers" (name & number) in the late eighties that used the same mechanism. But for the geek, there are some really useful and productive phones out there. I've got VNC and SSH on this, do the math.
Not quite the popular knowledge of the war, but that's my point. It was US weapons that rolled into Kuwait. Don't take my word on it, how about this respected source?
And I still maintain that the latest Iraq campaign was entirely counter-productive. Saddam was a bastard, that much is true, but he was never a threat to anyone. Unlike some of the other bastards our leaders seem to enjoy dealing with. Note how co-operative dictators are A-OK, despite their own continued human rights violations. It caused no end of anger, and it will only fuel the fire. Your (and my) country is responsible for the death of 25,000 "non-combatants", and the only reason that number is known is because the Geneva Convention demands it. Their family, friends and orphaned children will be the next generation of terrorists.
If you still believe that you are the just party in this fight, then I suggest you read some history. "the terrorists" are a subset of a bunch of people that we have fucked over hugely over the years. Frankly, I'm beginning to wonder if we deserve it.
Anyone can make a donation to a political party under guise of a "campaign contribution", which is generally done by businesses. People who expect Return on Investment. My country is no better.
The facts are hard to see without a lot of history to look at, something we won't have for a few hundred years. (and that assumes the history is recorded correctly)
What is "recorded" in most peoples minds about the US is Hollywood, which makes the US out to be a global saviour. What history you have that is real, especially the last 50 years is quite the opposite, but due to the sugar coating, the vast majority of the people are completely unaware of it. This is a dangerous state of affairs, evident in the fact that you believe the war in Iraq is valid.
The US is nothing special in regard to this self-censorship, most countries do this. It just you guys seem to have taken it a little too far now.
Have you ever heard of economic cycles? They happen to everyone. [snip] . Exchange rates are tied to economy. This is a good thing, it means when you have a bad day relative to others, the others can buy more of your stuff
Yes, and I know. However, the US isn't all that big on manufacture anymore, and the internet just evened the field for many other industries. You'll have to drop a long way before you can challenge countries where $1 per hour is a great wage. IP and other legislation is making it less and less easy to develop new products. You really see it picking up? If you do, please say because I'm considering bailing on my investments. ;-) Seriously, you obviously are closer to the issues than I am, so if you genuinely believe it's just a dip, I'd quite like to be convinced!
Tourism is huge for America. Fingerprinting visitors and treating them like criminals is not the way to encourage tourism. Neither is the bad PR that Iraq caused. Remember, post 9/11, everyone was your ally. To fuck that up is truly impressive. Making enemies and killing middle-eastern folks is what led to 9/11, I could not imagine a response to make (Iraq) that could be any more wrong!! Grossly stupid call. Unless your leaders want more terror that is, it seems to be working for them...
WMD were just one of the reasons for the war. It was big, and it didn't pan out, so you pick on it. You ignore the other reasons completely, and some of them are still valid.
Bullshit. There isn't a single reason that could not be applied to several other countries, in fact you could pin the lot on a couple of them. Only one has the second largest oil reserves on the planet. You know some economics, I presume you know of Peak Oil?
Or you could look at it this way. This isn't a big conspiracy or anything, the Project for a New American Century is all open. Iraq was in planning prior to 9/11, and this has been covered in the media. The current administration used, no ABUSED, the tragedy of 9/11 to firstly implant a casual link in the publics mind between Saddam and the terrorists involved. You can watch any speach made during the period to see this. The war was entirely propaganda from the start, even the now infamous toppling of the statue was fake.
Had I lost family on that day in 2001, I would be extremely pissed of about this. Not only have they taken a shit on ground zero and wiped their ass with the US flag, but the have incited the very hatred that is the problem in the first place. And to spin this hatred into "they hate freedom" is completely disgracefull, but it's entirely predictable. They might has well have added "they eat babies" if you are going down that tried and tested route of making war.
Who said anything about "want"? Certainly wasn't me, as you would see if you read the "tone" of my post.
The founding father's of the USA believed that dissent was key to democracy, now you are "unpatriotic" or "with the terrorists" if you sway from the party line.
Your economy speaks for itself, and if you argue that you clearly don't know anything about economics and I'll just ignore you. I only have modest investments in the US, but even I have lost thousands.
Democracy, well where to begin? OK, every US election for the past thirty years was won by the one that spent the most money. you have a two party system with little difference between them. Voters are encouraged to vote based on their religion, and if you believe that is democracy then I pity you.
but for what reason? Why are you trying to make the US seem like its on its death bed sick and can hardly move?
I?m not. What I am trying to do is improve things by raising awareness. Americans are blinkered to the views of others, it's almost a deliberate endeavor. By pointing out problems, I hope to try and get through to at least some people in a positive way.
The biggest problem is that most people, like yourself, seem to take it personally. It's not your fault that this has happened, but it is your responsibility to sort it out. Personally, I'd prefer if this took place before world war three. You have a man in the Whitehouse that not only believes in Revelations (and his Rapture, saving his own ass), AND HAS THE POWER TO BRING IT ABOUT.
We all have to live on this planet together, and we'd all appreciate if you could try and take care of your little part of it. Otherwise, I fear that you may all "take care" of us sometime.
I know its "in" to hate the USA (certainly on this site)
Sigh...it's not "in", it's a direct response to recent behaviour. I used to love the USA, I've been over many times for both business and pleasure. Not anymore though...
shows the desperation of people to show how the "USA is losing it" and this is the best they can come up with?
OK, how about:
This is what we mean when it is said that the US is losing it. We've all grown up on the Hollywood vision of America, where truth and justice were core. Perhaps as a citizen, you still see things that way, but as a (terrified) obvserver, we don't. Your leadership openly misleads you to justify a war that had no other aim than the economic and strategic betterment of those who were behind it.
The US is in the terminal stages of empire. You are spread to thin, yet still your leaders are commiting resources to combat communism in the former USSR. It's all like a big game of Risk, but the problem is that your country simply cannot keep up. The leadership know this but frankly don't care, so long as the fall doesn't happen during their term. There is a really interesting article on this subject here
I want the old US back.This new one scares me; with things going from bad to worse, I can only see the US acting like a cornered animal, lashing out at others.
Not anymore. Checkout this site, they have blacklists for anti-p2p, spyware (neat), hijacked IPs, goverment agencies and so on. The spyware one is especially good, as it's the only effective block. Once you've found the spyware, you've already had your privacy compromised. Stop it from dialing home in the first place!
Many modern historians believe that an invasion wouldn't have come for many years, if at all. The Germans lacked the ability to move armour over the channel. They did do some counter-inteligence to fake the Brits out though, make them think it was coming.
Fighting in Germany was a long ways, a major buildup and an invasion or two away still :)
Nonsense, it will be over by Christmas!! ;-)
He's also forgotten about hiring an extra 2 guys at least to maintain the extra machines. A selling point of this box will be that "it just works". Pay for a support contract and wammo, you've got a cheap low maintainence cluster. For people working on top-secret stuff (who else needs clusters? ;-), hiring people is a risk and the vetting process is expensive.
Not that it matters; they weren't written in English you know! All of the holy books have been rewritten at least three times, and translated through multiple lanaguages. Micro-analysing the language is moronic! If anything, the current new testament is basically based on 16th century English, as that is when it last undertook a major rewrite. (King James) That's where you are getting all your "thou"'s!
Take a current photo of Carrie Fisher.
Now take a current photo of Natalie Portman
Do it the other way around, back in the days when Carrie was hottest, you'll get a free GPS unit for the rest of your days.
Simple:
Note that the above is missing the "??? profit!" stage. What is it with slashdot? Has everyone been in for the business-sense bypass operation?
What part of "which might not restore to normal for several hours depending on the person" did you miss? ;-) For some folk it took quite a while longer than others.