You may try to fake out people with your historical revisionism, but your denial of the on going corporate holocaust is a fraud, as is your obvious lack of any historical knowledge. You may wish that "only" profits are involved, but our basic history as a nation proves otherwise, albeit nowadays it's ignored, and profits at any cost is your mantra. It's one of THE main reasons we had a revolt against england and royal/corporate "rule", ie, it was abusive, and it continues to be abusive to this day.
Here is a simple page explaining some of this fraud
http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/28/usa.html
Here is a partial paste from that page:
The United States of America was born of a revolt not just against British monarchs and the British parliament but against British corporations.
We tend to think of corporations as fairly recent phenomena, the legacy of the Rockefellers and Carnegies. In fact, the corporate presence in prerevolutionary America was almost as conspicuous as it is today. There were far fewer corporations then, but they were enormously powerful: the Massachusetts Bay Company, the Hudson's Bay Company, the British East India Company. Colonials feared these chartered entities. They recognized the way British kings and their cronies used them as robotic arms to control the affairs of the colonies, to pinch staples from remote breadbaskets and bring them home to the motherland.
The colonials resisted. When the British East India Company imposed duties on its incoming tea (telling the locals they could buy the tea or lump it, because the company had a virtual monopoly on tea distribution in the colonies), radical patriots demonstrated. Colonial merchants agreed not to sell East India Company tea. Many East India Company ships were turned back at port. And, on one fateful day in Boston, 342 chests of tea ended up in the salt chuck.
The Boston Tea Party was one of young America's finest hours. It sparked enormous revolutionary excitement. The people were beginning to understand their own strength, and to see their own self-determination not just as possible but inevitable.
The Declaration of Independence, in 1776, freed Americans not only from Britain but also from the tyranny of British corporations, and for a hundred years after the document's signing, Americans remained deeply suspicious of corporate power. They were careful about the way they granted corporate charters, and about the powers granted therein.
Early American charters were created literally by the people, for the people as a legal convenience. Corporations were "artificial, invisible, intangible," mere financial tools. They were chartered by individual states, not the federal government, which meant they could be kept under close local scrutiny. They were automatically dissolved if they engaged in activities that violated their charter. Limits were placed on how big and powerful companies could become. Even railroad magnate J. P. Morgan, the consummate capitalist, understood that corporations must never become so big that they "inhibit freedom to the point where efficiency [is] endangered."
The two hundred or so corporations operating in the US by the year 1800 were each kept on fairly short leashes. They weren't allowed to participate in the political process. They couldn't buy stock in other corporations. And if one of them acted improperly, the consequences were severe. In 1832, President Andrew Jackson vetoed a motion to extend the charter of the corrupt and tyrannical Second Bank of the United States, and was widely applauded for doing so. That same year the state of Pennsylvania revoked the charters of ten banks for operating contrary to the public interest. Even the enormous industry trusts, formed to protect member corporations from external competitors and provide barriers to entry, eventually proved no match for the state. By the mid-1800s, antitrust legislation was widely in place.
In the early history of America, the corporation played an important but s
It's a start. It's certainly better than stating there's *no support* available. I've also seen later on the thread that support for open source is there from large companies. It looks like someone either didn't really want to find support, or didn't even look very hard. You can get support from a single person opn up to large shops, very large shops, and everything in between. so. Please back, it's there.
Japans economy is similar to ours, and we will always have similar problems. It's a phony, counterfeit not based on anything fiat money/fractional reserve (2% maybe in reserves) system that tries to borrow it's way to wealth with a huge amount of non productive "workers" occupying busywork "jobs" that actually contributre about nothing to the economy except acting as efficient skimmers.. It can't be done for any long period of time, it can only be run as a con game until it collapses. The banking/money/government bureaucracy system is just a huge check kiting scam, and that's it. You are seeing the slow speed collapse of those systems right now. Only one of the major bubbles has popped, and it was the smaller bubble, over valued stocks representing-almost nothing. Yet to fully pop but have been pinpricked and are leaking are the real estate bubbles, private and public pensions, insurance funding, banks hedging and derivatives, government busywork, and government promises to pay paper, based on all the other bubbles never popping, else government can not pay except by creating artificial book keeping entries and adding magical zeroes to their bottom line, which is in itself, worthless. Both the USA and Japan have those, by the cubic mile. Once all those pop, well, good luck. The temporary bonanza of getting to rape all of iraqs oil and breaking OPEC will slow it down, but still not eliminate all those bubbles popping.
Now china. China has *some* natural resources but needs import oil, same as any other industrial nation now. Their projected demands make what the US uses today look like a drop in the bucket, and these demands have to be met within ten years or so. They are also a severe command and control authoritarian dictatorship, which skews their notions of the world tremendoulsy, but doesn't slow down their actions, which will have to be aggressively expansionist, and soon. they are new at this but learning rapidly, one thing they have done is to export technician/soldiers all over the planet. These are dual use personnel, a sort of not well hidden secret. This is also why they are throwing everything they have to modernizing their military,and gaining some high ground in space, they KNOW that they will be forced to fight the US over ownership of the oil soon. The caspian turned out to be 3/4ths vaporware, it was grossly over valued and hyped, most of the exploratory wells indicate not near as much there as previously touted. Siberian fields still have massive problems to bring to market. That leaves the middle east and a few other places like venezuela and mexico to a much lesser extent.
There's going to be fighting over this stuff, and that won't help the economy either, but it will happen anyway.
ftp software you wanted to use, and why didn't you contact that person for "support"? Seems like it would have been worth an ask. It's sorta how this whole open software deal could work better, actually shell out some cash now and then to the developers if you find their products useful.
Corporations inside the united states are also supposed to serve the public interest. that USED to be important. One of the reasons we had a revolution was because the english corporations were gouging the people here, so we revolted. check the history of the english east indies company and the boston tea party. Corporations are supposed to be GRANTED a license to incorporate, it's not an automatic "right" they have to a collective of people to form an artificial person with any "rights". INDIVIDUALS, human beings have born-with rights, organizations of people organized for the purpose of conducting some business have duties and responsibilities and it's a granted license after application, and do NOT have born with rights because their corporation is a fiction, it's an artificial person, and a long time ago a few judges got bribed by them for them to say their corporation was "alive" and had "personhood".
The deal is, it's too easy and hardly ever have corporations been dissolved, which is also the right of the government (meaning we the people) to do. IF we did that easier and according to law,when these artificial person corporations cease being of the public benefit because of excessive profiteering, we wouldn't be seeing all these abuses and gougings. We regulate commerce in this nation, so YES, we could easily decide if a company was violating the terms of the corporate charter by "making too much profit", ie, "gouging" the people and by so gouging would be in violation of being of benefit to society, and that definetly falls under morals and ethics. that's reason we have so many problems now, attitudes such as you espouse, where "profit" is the ONLY factor in an incorporation. It is ONE factor, but that's the one seized on, but it's not supposed to be the only factor.
For an obvious example, Microsoft needs their corporate charter dissolved, IMO, blatant long running gouging and selling broken software and committing felonius acts. These large music and movie companies, again, chronic serial price gouging and actually engaging in fraud and deceit and bribery (payola). They should have been dissolved a long time ago and the boards of directors chucked in the pokye and disallowed from being in any other corporations, ever. And corporations donating money to political campaio\gns? That's pure bribery, anyone can see that, illegal as all get out. Buying votes, it should be illegal as hell and the ones who engage in it strung up as traitors, both the recipients and the givers. I'm completely serious,struing up, hung, treason charges, this "bribery as legal" is insane, it's nuts, it makes a mockery of the vote, and now we have a professiobnal class of politicians who's sole job is to garnner as much bribe money as possible, then to use slick PR advertising and controlling the government as a shared junta to make sure they stay in their positions to be bribed. We need to lose that stuff, like yesterday, and rein in these out of control INTERNATIONAL -not "US" but international- corporations who gouge the US citizen. Do that to a few hundred or so of the most abusive corporations and corporate/government crooks posing as "leaders", and the honest ones could make the money then, still be profitable, and consumers wouldn't be taken all the time, and the nation as a whole would be better off.
The other way, the way it's run now, is some weird form of international corporate anarchy based on bribes and blackmail mostly, it doesn't exist inside our constitutional framework, much as some people think it says that. The US is not organized anarchy, it's a union of organized individuals and states, based around that union, organized for some modicum of common good and benefit, defense, and trade. But the trade is supposed to not only be profitable for the companies and indidividuals inside those companies, but ALSO good for the nation,it's SUPPOSED to be an equal deal there, ie, they are SUPPOSED to look out for the nation, not just their international "bottom line". That's not to say they can't make m
I sincerely doubt that there's one (well, maybe one, speaking rhetorically here to make a point) person (management or investment) in the multi trillion dollar fossil fuel and nuclear industries who wants to see solar/hydrogen succeed. Oil based fuels to hydrogen, sure, nuclear heat to electric to hydrogen, sure. Solar PV panels to hydrogen, and in something that flies and sets records, showing the huge industry paradigm shattering potential?
Nope. Something tells me they wouldn't like that one tiny bit.
Too bad about the.... accident, sounded like a nifty experiment.
. go ahead, insult all you want, everything I have stated is true, it's verifiable, the information is out there to find, and usuallyeasily. I wouldn't say it if it wasn't all *true*, I'd be doing or saying something else. They lie, they kill people. Nam was based on a huge government lie, the "gulf of tonkin attack". Maybe you need drugs to be able to read, or maybe you think millions killed and sickened are just a joke, but I don't. I have too many friends in the service who got told the massive corporate/government lie that agent orange was "harmless". Those asshats lie. They lie constantly, just constantly. They lied about gulf war one, remember the "babies in the incubator" story? Turns out to be a PR fabrication to garner political support. They also lie about the casualty count, they claim around 300, but they leave out around 40 THOUSAND guys dead from gulf war syndrome. They lied for years about that, said it was "all in their heads". Yep, and all through their bodies too, poisoned "vaccinations", exposure to blown up chemical weapons (why saddam doesn't have many they have found, they all got destroyed under orders from schwarzkopf when they were found, they just don't publicize it much because they were almost all US manufactured and shipped over there), and those guys thereand down wind did it with NO PROTECTION, then add in exposure to DU munitions. Liars, saying none of that is harmful. Warren commission report with lee harvey oswald being the lone perp? Absurd. They lie. "Sneak attack" on Peral Harbor? turns out they lied, they knew it was happening, even the residents at pearl knew it was going to happen and the FBI went around and confiscated newspapers with the notices, then lied all through the war and for decades after about it. These are BIG lies, on very important subjects.
Besides that, try again, you're an AC, so who knows your motivation other than shooting the messenger. The internet is enabling the people to find out things faster and better than before, and this scares the liars, the blood profiteers, and their little drone employees who value a cheap paycheck over what is right. You might be able to fake out people younger and not with as much historical background, but don't try to fake out people old enough to have seen lie after lie exposed. They are chronic and serial liars on most important subjects historically, so we have to consider they are still lying about what's going on now. And I'll state again, they plan on forced human microschipping at some point, and this getting people to accept chips everywhere and fingerprinting and whatnot is part of the mass conditioining that is required. It's obvious as all get out.
Challenge, find one thing I have stated that is not the truth, go ahead, knock yourself out. Want some more? They lied constantly about the TWA 800 attack, government spokes liars, up and down and sideways, yet earlier this year a little fast moving story crossed the wires that they were forced to admit by lawsuits they were lying-but by then, the mass damage was done. How many examples do you need? How about the attack on the Liberty intel ship? they lied for years about that one, even ordered the poor survivors to lie or face military brig time. How about the "no live POWs" after nam? That turned out to be a lie, same as they abandoned live POWs after ww2(stalin kept all the US prisoners he found in german camps) and the korean war (both china and russia kept a lot of US prisoners), and lied about it. In the 50s and 60s they got caught at medical experimentation and mass exposure with chems, biologicals and radiologicals,some from mass spraying with airplanes over huge areas, again, they denied it. Finally in the 70s they admitted they had been lying. They are lying now about the spraying going on.
No, friend, perhaps you need to stop using drugs and wake up, or perhaps question the people you are working for and maybe stop just following any order given to you. This is brave new world on steroids coming, all this advanced tech will be used to co
eh, don't get me wrong, I said I was glad to see a variety of computers out there and especially that they can be as cheap as 200$. I just said for a lot of lower income people they already have a computer, or if they don't, perhaps they can get by with recycling a used one for like 50$, too, which is cheaper than 200$ and would still leave cash for perhaps more RAM, the monitor if they don't have one (again, used maybe) and so on. That's an option for even poorer families, just find used someplace. I'd much rather a lot of the used ones get recycled and used rather than become landfill, and a whole lot of the earlier 1s and pent 2's are out there now cheap as can be and just with some more RAM will run more modern OS. I'm only on a PP200 myself,a 1996 ibm 365, running RH 7.2, seems to work perfectly fine once I added some ram. hey, cheap and it works. Peripherals as well. The monitor I am using now is a 17 inch Dell that cost me 7 dollars, seems to work fine for example. My modem I am on cost me 5$ used. And etc. It follows the parent post I was replying to about his anecdotal of blue collars at work scrounging parts and building their own. I would agree,to blue collars used to repairing everything they have,and buying used, or scrounging free-all things I do- computers are just another set of really easy things to bolt and un bolt together. I have yet to see a computer assembly project even near as complicated as rebuilding a carb,which is in itself not all that hard in most cases, they just aren't that hard to work with technically. If you find a component that is borked, you ashcan it, look for another. Purchase used or perhaps buy your own used one from various parts, or now get a new one for cheap, I'm glad there's more choices now then say ten years ago. I've noted it as well, just from my personal anecdotal it appears that a lot of people with a desire already have computers and don't have a pressing need to upgrade-even to a very budget oriented 200$ new one. It's a mixed bag when referring to blue collars in other words, same as white or pink collars. and if you know a lot of really poor people who can't afford them,but want one for themselves or kids, the "family box", then help them out! Find a stack of old pentiums and get to work! Cannibalize them to get machines with a decent amount of RAM, load up your favorite distro and give them away or sell them cheap, you should be able to pump out decent bundles for WELL under 100 clams. They might not have burners in them or DVD players, but so what? You tell them that's possible, they can decide later what they want. Most even used now have at least a CD reader/player, that's good enough for most people to get started with.
...Leroy has been begging Apple for something newer, faster than motorolas chips for the past several years now. So, they finally got one. Well, two, on the same board, shazzam and stuff. Of course they are gonna talk that up, too, along with the new OSX version.. seems sorta...obvious.. heh
Most people I know got a computer sometime within the past 5 or 6 years, and they still have it. It costed them plenty 0 bux, it still does what they want it to do. I know quite a few people still running win95, let alone 98, it's patched, updated whatever, they live with any other inefficiencies, because it still surfs, does email, plays audio whatever and that's it. Most folks don't build their own or run out every 6 months to a year and buy a new computer, not when the old one is working and they got tons of other bills. Lot of folks are feeling that pinch now, a new computer falls into the unnecessary toy category whern they already have one they paid 1500$ for or something and it ain't broke. That's one of the reasons for flat sales. I'd like a new one,but not even gonna pay 200$ for one though, What I have works just fine and it's 6 years old now. If I had a need, for a tool, of course, but I don't do photoshop editing or anything like that, this old box still does what it needs to do, and with modern OS like linux on it, it will probably keep doing what it needs to do for awhile. I ain't askeered of it or being "left behind", and I still only got half the ram loaded that it will take, so if I *need* an upgrade, I'm one stick away-cheap in other words.. I figure I can hold out with this one for another one to two years, by then, 100$ will get ya something spiffy(er). I've had computers since the late 80s, not like I haven't spent some cash on them, just a plateau of sorts was reached a few years ago with computers in general terms, the *need* is falling now for the latest and greatest or even the cheapest. It's like some other toys, I've been through a few cell phones, I still don't know, care or use 3/4ths of the stuff the phone is capable of, and don't seem to miss it. I don't own a PDA yet, don't seem to miss it. When they get to under 100$, or even down to 50$, I might buy one, but not today and not for 500$. I like gadgets and tools, just have a different set of priorities, like right now I need a new chainsaw more than a new computer, I'd rather drop 2 to 500 clams on one of them-if I had the "spare" cash, heh. I'd rather get a new bumper winch for the jeep rather than the newest PDA. I'd rather get a half dozen more solar panels than a new "game" machine. Shoot, I'd rather pop for a couple of gold eagles before I popped for a 6-700$ new pretty specced decent whitebox. Different strokes. A lot of people are that way, I don't think it's all that unusual either. I guess people with really a lot of cash like to always upgrade every year or every other year, but nowadays there isn't that much more oomph - need to justiofy it unless it's top to your main hobby or it's required for your business, then it's swell, seems like some good deals out there. Like the new G5, heck ya I'd like to order one, ain't happening though. When you do physical labor for a living, you think of what stuff costs in terms of pain and sweat and bill paying priorities, 3 grand is a chunk o change, and a lot of sweat. 200$ for a very basic semi new machine is more like it though, I'm glad to see more reasonableness and wider choices in the market. Now if it gets to laptops that cheap....THEN you're talking, you'll get my attention then. I'll find the scratch qucikly.
I guess it's funny, there's such a widely diverse market, and it's happened so quickly. Nearest I can recall is how fast portable "transistor" radios caught on, one year, nada, next year a few, at 50 to 100$, which was serious money then, within a few more years, everyone had one, cheap as all get out. What are they now, a dollar a piece in small quantity wholesale lots? computers now are the same deal, so many out there that work well and only run 50$ used, I think that's where a lot of the sales are going. Or people get them given to them. I have a stack of older pentiums I fool with, I bought a whole pallet of them for really cheap, with a ton of other doo dads thrown in, like another stack of ibm clickers, heh. PCs are cheap now, that's why the flat new sales, there's no absolute "need" for millions of people anymore.
--I really don't want to write this but I sorta have to. Please don't take this personal, I just need to rant on this stuff and in general, it's not addressed to you just it fits as a reply here, k? It's IMPORTANT. This is WAY more important than any video game, music track, latest CPU chip, latest cellphone-any of that stuff. That stuff is FUN, it's not IMPORTANT.
OK, generic rant time
Range on these tiny chips started out a few millimeters. Then quickly got to a few inches, then a few feet, and some are much farther than that now. They started out not holding much data, now they can hold a lot. They started out saying microchips would never be small enough to implant, now it's common in pets and some special forces and some prisoners have them. This is a geek board, let's get real on tech advances. "They" , they being these high powered international goons and orgs and whatnot- started out saying your social security number was not an ID, and that it would only be used to track your social security info. They started out with no licenses, then paper licenses (I had one, no picture on it either), then picture licenses, now licenses that have your biometrics, retina scan, finger print and who knows what, DNA patterns, no idea what they got planned.. They started out with "only" a few firearms restrictions,(I remember much less crime, far fewer restrictive laws, funny how that worked out) then they added more and more and more, then they took more and more classes away and now you need a permit to get a permit to think about getting a permit, and a lot of places they just tell ya to go pound sand. Same with something as simple as owning your own property and building a regula small home, now it's a mnightmare of inspectors and bribed off councilmen and restrictions and who knows, and NO, it's just not all that much safer, it's roughly the same amount of fires and "houses collapsing", in fact, new homes are mostly built a lot crappier than they used to be in most aspects. They started out with individual repsonsibility and only elected sheriffs that everyone local knew and you could go talk to them, and if you didn't like them, you could vote the bum out and with the vote you could LOOK into the ballot box and see yes/no if it was stuffed or not.. Now they have mostly non elected helmeted black ski masked anonymous darth vader clones kicking in peoples doors and throwing in "humane grenades",no matter what ya get popped for it's gona cost you your house almost to even think about fighting it in court, juries have been castrated to nothinghood, and when you go vote some machine announces who won with absolutely zero way to check and see if you are being lied to. They started out with real money made of precious metals that couldn't be dorked with, now they have funny money *they* can re valuate up or down without asking you at the issuance of some commands on a screen.
On and on. This is one of those deals you either get it or ya don't get it. It's just one more step towards full bore dictatorial police state. I'm older than most here so I'll just say it out loud, because my frame of reference is long enough to SEE the changes and the directions, and there's NO WAY to avoid what it is, it's obvious as all get out.
YO, the government is taking over ya young guys! No %^&^&**( %%^^t!! Wake UP! It's a freeking police state heading your way, it's half way here now! It ain't NOTHING like it used to be not that long ago and it's clear as day what they are doing!! They will MAKE YOU get chipped, even if they have to run a scam "terrorist" attack or six, eventually-and soon-or you'll be a criminal if you aren't chipped or "tagged". They WILL BE telling you where to work. The laws are written and on the books, you can READ the dang things, they PLAN on using them laws, they don't write that crap for giggles. You WON'T have any say in it. This government is right at the point it kills people, it's building more "camps" now, I mean, please pick up on what "camps" means. They WILL BE tracking y
that's actually a good idea, especially if she has a large television to use for the monitor and her comfy chair. several folks I know use web tv because that's all they do, surf a little, email a little and chat. WebTv does IRC chat as well as messenger for that matter. It's perfect for them, evil empire or not. It's all my folks have, and my pops is a retired main frame hardware guy, he just doesn't want to fool with peecees of any flavor, just wants the intarweb. All of us kids have computers, but they didn't want one, finally one day my lil bro had the brainstorm of the web tv and just laid it on them, now they like it and there's no learning curve or much hassles with it.
half-or some large number- aren't finished. half or some large number are finished or completed *enough* to be useable.There's enough to use most likely, not for every single minute last possible thing you might need software for, but geez loweez there's enough to do the bulk of what needs doing. I fail to see the huge disadvantages. As to "support" (for the AC above), it's there, perhaps anyone using an open source piece of work can hire the actual code writer who started it for support, cash talks in this land, and judgiong by what I read here on slashdot, there's bunches of guys who would appreciate even part time work and might stay on call for support. Ya never know until ya ask or look. And the deal is, open source IS being used, that means people have found out how to deal with support.
so what if half the projects aren't finished? that means the other half is, and with thousands to choose from, anyone can find what they need. And which is better, finding something your business can use then you can take it from there and more-easily customize to suit, or be forced to pay for a closed source solution that you still have to do that with? Most even expensive closed source programs still require customization, I see the articles here describing all these various expensive programs, they still need admins and coders to make them work exactly how the company wants them to work. One way, the open way, is in most cases cheaper and easier, the other is much more expensive and harder to customize. Gee, tough call there.
You nailed it. It's a HUGE economic and practicality advantage in most cases for businesses. If they can maintain their competition (somehow) to keep using the expensive buggy stuff, they can pull ahead quickly. And even better if they completely "get it" and share back, they'll have the help and interest in their products they deserve, their business will do better, they can make more money and pay the help and stockholders more..on and on. I'm amazed that businesses still cling to that which just costs and costs and costs and costs and never really delivers all that well. Let em fail I say.
Although in public both the US and china insist taiwan is a sore point, I am a contrarian to that, and think it's a ruse, especially o chinas part. Taiwan they use for the foreign boogy man. The Taiwan businessmen are moving into the mainland, the takeover or "invasion" of taiwan is almost over, that invasion nonsense is for domestic rah rah and for their own military/industrial complex. Taiwan invaded the mainland in a sense, they are about part of the mainland now in all but a few things. Yes they maintain this open hostility, but day to day, nope, tons of people travel back and forth, whole factories are moving to the mainland from taiwan, they are as close as -say-the US and Canada. They use the falun gong for the internal boogy man, it's one of the excuses they use to keep tyranny in place there.. It's what most totalitarian regimes do. Look around, you'll see the US is starting to do that as well. I will admit though that is still a far out theory, but I think I;'m right, and that doesn't negate the probability of armed conflicts occurring there, but I think if that were to happen it would be part of a very large global push on several fronts, with china being only one nation in a several nation coalition against the angl/US alliance. It's a different subject really, not exactly pertinent to this.
I think you keep misunderstanding me, I am not pro red china, I am *concerned* and wary of them and their intentions and our over dependence on them economically and on losing manufacturing to them. and they ARE leapfrogging technologically, several years to our one. I am not sure how long they can keep that up until they reach rough parity, but it will happen, and most likley within a decade to a decade and a half by all projections, not mine, the experts, the people who count up those things. As to more advanced tech, here's a hint, russia sells them anything now, then they build it. they get western tech, then they build it, even improve on it. Even our close personal "ally" israel sells them advanced weapons.
Yes, we have better tech than they do,*now* what I am saying is they are catching up even faster than what most people would have admitted or predicted even just 5 years ago.
Here's another prediction for you, soon they will stop pegging the yuan to the petro dollar and switch to the euro, possibly even next month. They are doing that because they are running out of the advanced machinery they need to buy from us to set up full modern vertical manufactureing, because it's bought, it's finished, they don't need as many US dollars any longer, there are now alternative markets for them, including their biggest one, and that is internal. And if you do the research and if you look, that's about it from what they have been buying from us with their trade surplus cash, US machine tools, processes, entire factories sometimes. What else do you think they have been purchasing, and where exactly have all their factories come from? Now that they have enough, and that US and other western businessmen have overly funded them, they can stop the facades, and get down to equipping themselves across the board-IF they can get their hands on enough cheap energy and some other raw materials.
Anyway, the point is moot, what is happening is happening, youi think they aren't a threat and never will be because rome..I mean the US, is always going to be the planets premier superpower. I tend to dispute that, primarily from exactly what you see,your POV, over arrogance and an air of leet invincibility and just "because" or something. It's happened to too many nations and past "super" powers for me to ignore, You can but I certainly won't, it's just plain vanilla recorded history after all, but you are most welcome to your beliefs. We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. You are also free to run your theories past the DOD and also the PLA, both those orgs disagree with you as well, the DOD takes them way beyond seriously, and the PLA openly calls the US their primary enemy and makes no secret over their
I agree on your observations, but all in all the advantages of moz outweigh the still existing bugs and stuff on the todo lists they have.
With that said, I send webmasters polite emails when I come across a site that absolutely requires scripting. I scold them on being part of web insecurity, especially when it's a choice they make that's not based on absolute need.
Of course, it does not much good, but at least I try.
moz also needs individual image control, again, I surf images off,(most of the time anyway) there's maybe only a few a day I want to see, usually the weather radar images and perhaps a news story picture. But, have to go to preferences, wait for it to decide to change itself, go back load one image, go back turn images off again. I got spoiled by iCab individual image control it is teh schweet.
WTF, can you READ or what? We already covered this on slasherdot, and it's been all over the news. YES, bush and cheneys "hydrogen economy" is based on constructing 1 to 2 thousand small nuclear plants to make the hydrogen. You can google for yourself. That's their plan, or where exactly did you think this ocean of hydrogen was going to come from?
By a real war I mean one in which the two opposing sides are much more equal in size and capability. Iraq doesn't qualify. and I completely disagree with you on conventionals, china is catching up and fast, in fact their new tanks are considered top shelf, top of the line, rough parity almost with abrahms, unlike saddams t-55s.
And I'm glad YOU aren't in charge of the military, if you were in charge of fighting china conventionally you would be over arrogant and lose a lot of guys. I have personal friends who fought the chinese when all they had was boots and rifgles and they said it was damn dicey for awhile, and that was 50 years ago, times change, they gots that technology idea down and they pump out engineers and techs and scientists, not rap stars and football players. The US hasn't had to face ANY top shelf technology from any quarter for a long time, the last time was world war two. Serbia came the closest and even there we didn't go in on the ground, and it's a tiny nation. the past buncha wars we've used best of class against stuff two generations old or older, and in unequal numbers, and with "the homeland" not being a theatre. Any modern war with a large nation or coalition of other large nations, chances are that won't be the case, and that means it won't be a cakewalk.
And yes, this is getting into thread drift, I was merely reporting the DODs own statements and plans, I read their reports to the senate every year after they are redacted and declassified, they do not take china as some sort of pipsqueak pushover any longer, although they used to think that, but that was many moons ago.
And to get back to china in practical terms, do you really think all those hundreds of thousands of uninspected containers that have been shipped in over the last 15 years only had legally declared trade goods? You don't think they've managed to import a little *equalization in advance* and have it stashed away for "just in case" times? Or that they don't have combat engineers and special forces over here inside the "civvie" population, sleepers? How about the cubans, think they've been just hanging out for 40 years, having nothing inside CONUS? Or the north koreans? Or still the russians for that matter.
Nope, we've had an overly easy time of it so far, with no guarantee it will always be that way. That's my opinion anyway. I think the most rational point of view is to neither over nor underestimate any potential opponent, and if you err, to err on the side of caution and to over estimate their abilities and resources. That's why even in smaller wars like iraq they put so many resources into it, they probably could have won with 1/3 what they used, but really, there's no logic to that, why take the chance. China is turning into the worlds manufacturing giant, and with tech advances, they are getting bigger/faster/more efficient, I wouldn't underestimate them or their abilities, especially projected one decade time frame from today. Military hardware must be built, they get a better ROI with their economy, else no one would manufacture there. They stay organized and focused. Look at africa, with the exception of SA, not much of squat comes from there despite millions of people who would qualify as cheap labor, same as china, but china actually accomplishes things. And they've also proven they can get their hands on any tech out there, by hook or crook, saves them a ton in R&D and lets them skip entire years of time involved with it. It's a bad combo to see in a potential adversary, and especially with one who's energy needs will be greater than ours shortly, it's not like they might sorta want energy, they will NEED energy, else collapse, and all their pronouncements and efforts reflect that.
... they put hydrogen on hold for now and just went to methanol/ethanol instead. Those are just liquid fuels that work, very little in the way of changing around anything to use it as a fuel, and the same fuel from the same existing pumps and tanks at the fuel station would work both on ICE engines and on the new fuel cell electrics. Hydrogen as it's proposed is going to take manufacturing thousands of baby nukes all over, then coming up with good storage tanks, building new gas stations or add ons, and other assorted huge expense, whereas the alcohols burn "pretty" clean, and you don't have to do anything special at the station, just take like the 89 octane pumps and tanks and re label them alcohol, use them.
I have around 6 different brands of solar PV panels, one make will operate with bullets through it, that's unisolar. My dealer has one at another installation that some nimrod put a slug through, it still functions perfectly fine, albeit at slightly reduced power.
Hopefully this fuel cell tech in the rugged sense will make it to the affordable civvie market, I am interested in them. I like the no noise no moving parts of electrical generation schemes. Well, I like ALL alternative energy, I just like stuff that doesn't break or wear out easy better.
I can state it's happened, and the US did it, as well as biological warfare. I have a now deceased uncle who was a spook, before he passed on he related to me some rather interesting tidbits (not sure why, I think now he was annoyed at some of the stuff he was working on). He was mostly based in the caribbean, he told me about the spooks infecting some crops in cuba (tobacco mosaic is one he mentioned) and also their efforts to increase the size and intensity of hurricanes that hit cuba via cloud seeding, and this was back in the 60's. And they admit to operation popeye in nam, as well as chemical spraying there as well. The US has always used unconventional warfare, even though they claim they don't, and something they don't want other nations to use, but it happens anyway. Russia and their satellites used "yellow rain" and publically have companies that claim to be able to deliver rain in the form of mass thunderstorms, and etc. The world allegedly has this "no weather warfare" treaty, but like most treaties it's signed in public and ignored in private. Japan doing that modeling is interesting. Those sorts of storms are very destructive to them, but yes, being able to create and steer them on demand? Quite an achievement and great force multiplier if they can pull it off.
I'm sure it's a lot more advanced now, what with the various spraying going on, HAARP experiments, and so on and so forth. Yep, being able to own the weather is quite the weapon. Just look at what massive multi year droughts do to some areas.(the US west I am convinced is being hit on purpose for a variety of social and economic reasons for example)
Sure, they are willing to accept losses. So does the US, that's why no matter they went into afhganistan, then iraq, and will soon take over syria and iran and eventually north korea. The US has never cared about military losses,even though the seek to minimalise them, they still *do it*, else they wouldn't occur. The deal is, "losses" for these other large nations mean they gots no guys in space. I expect either big sabotage or actual destruction of any of their craft if they look to be leapfrogging the DOD in space based human access. I have no proof, it's just an opinion, but I think it's a sound opinion based on past events, current political realities, and future projections and statements. The US has quite clearly stated that they will be the only ones to militarize space. Right now they have the juice to pull that off, and if it looks like they can't or will get beat, they'll go to plan B, which is to knock the other guys out before they gain an overwhelming lead.
Maybe because I'm older, but I've never bought into "civilian" space programs, it's always been by and for the military first, the civilian aspects have always been side issues and the public facade of it, it's been a stealth military budget effort speaking of the over-all aspect of "humans in space".
Look at it this way, the US and a few other countries are now the only ones "allowed" to possess WMD, and the US just invaded and took over another nation based on that premise, that the near monopoly will remain so. I also remember when the thought of other nations besides the US having just missiles and nukes was hotly debated, we came pretty close to pre emptive strikes back in the 50s over it. Real_dang_close. I know even before that, generals like Patton wanted to go in and take soviet russia at the end of the war because he and others didn't want the russians to have rockets and then "the bomb". It didn't happen, and I bet a lot of generals wish it had now. They DON'T want to lose their (near) space monopoly, because of the huge advantages, in fact, just "access to space" can be considered a variant of a WMD. The DOD considering any other large nation having the same as they do when it comes to advanced tech gives them the buckwheats. They WILL do something about it before they can't do something about it is my best guess right now.
I can see perhaps one way he could have made money off the thing, and that would have been to collaborate with some hardware folk and come up with a more cheap dedicated router, same as the other router companies, put his distro in there, made it rugged, cheap, functional. Or gone to an embedded full distro, something that was secure in spades. People "out there" are certainly aware of security, they just are overwhelmed with how to go about it without become a full time security guru. It's a huge potential market, but I'm not seeing any major effort from any camp any place to provide it. Even the big computer vendors still don't get it, they have employees deal with their security, and wouldn't miss a thing if their box got borked, they have thousands more avaialable, whereas joe homeowner/user or small business guy is just...stuck. There just isn't a security first easy to use distro, not from anyone, open source, closed source, semi open and closed, you name it, none of them deliver.
Note, not saying it is entirely probable, but perhaps one avenue he could have explored.
As to the economy, yep, sucketh. I've had the same job over 4 years, I liked it, but it's time to move on, the boss gradually upped my workload and kept dropping the pay until now it's almost zero pay. One reason is that he as a businessman is a one trick pony, he is losing his shirt with his one type of business, whereas the new guy I'm going to work for runs 5 different businesses, all different from each other. As a consequence I've been looking around, I found this other job, pay might be very low, but the job itself looks more interesting, I get more on the side,and the provided tools are better. It will require an expensive move for me, but oh well, stuff happens. I do estate management/groundskeeping/maintenance. Physical labor, that's what makes me cash, hard work, mostly outside, dodging yellow jackets, chiggers, copperheads,poison ivy, humping rocks, running stinky machinery, fixing everything that breaks, a hundred and one jobs, for pretty dismal cash compared to salaries I see bandied about on slasherdotted. To ME, anyone who makes ANYTHING sitting around a climate controlled office is skilled and lucky,BOTH, so don't expect it to last forever, those sorts of jobs are sought after, and surprise, humans in other nations will do that work for less than you. They are also over valued almost every place, that's why cash keeps tightening. The US in particular is full of those sorts of jobs now, no wonder the economy is crashing slowly. Without some sort of locked down monopoly, it won't last and it couldn't have lasted.
Where the rubber meets the road, wealth has to be physically wrested from the ground,manufactured, and that's it. Bits and bytes need to be turned into something useful,by themselves they are bits and bytes and now the planet is awash in them, they are not as valuable as in the 60s and 70's and 80-s when few people could create them and there was more of a monopoly in their creation. IP styled work is the work that leads to the possibility of work that leads to wealth creation, it's a side issue. Anyone making full time check at that is lucky, as it's obvious it's shifting to off shore and becoming just a regular ho hum job, not an uberjob, and that's because it went from hundreds of people doing it one generation ago to now millions and millions with millions more school kids entering the market to "do it", to have a climate controlled office job of some sort.
I can have a huge stack of tools, they do nothing without picking them up and using them. Same with software, same with any other sort of job like that, someplace humans have to do the other work that provides goods and services. It's one way to get cash back out of the economy, you get it from people who have more than you but are unable or unwilling to do a lot of labor for themselves. And that's it, you have to provide something of value to get something back. As it becomes less valuable you'll get less pay. With software, downloadab
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You may try to fake out people with your historical revisionism, but your denial of the on going corporate holocaust is a fraud, as is your obvious lack of any historical knowledge. You may wish that "only" profits are involved, but our basic history as a nation proves otherwise, albeit nowadays it's ignored, and profits at any cost is your mantra. It's one of THE main reasons we had a revolt against england and royal/corporate "rule", ie, it was abusive, and it continues to be abusive to this day.
Here is a simple page explaining some of this fraud
http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/28/usa.html
Here is a partial paste from that page:
The United States of America was born of a revolt not just against British monarchs and the British parliament but against British corporations.
We tend to think of corporations as fairly recent phenomena, the legacy of the Rockefellers and Carnegies. In fact, the corporate presence in prerevolutionary America was almost as conspicuous as it is today. There were far fewer corporations then, but they were enormously powerful: the Massachusetts Bay Company, the Hudson's Bay Company, the British East India Company. Colonials feared these chartered entities. They recognized the way British kings and their cronies used them as robotic arms to control the affairs of the colonies, to pinch staples from remote breadbaskets and bring them home to the motherland.
The colonials resisted. When the British East India Company imposed duties on its incoming tea (telling the locals they could buy the tea or lump it, because the company had a virtual monopoly on tea distribution in the colonies), radical patriots demonstrated. Colonial merchants agreed not to sell East India Company tea. Many East India Company ships were turned back at port. And, on one fateful day in Boston, 342 chests of tea ended up in the salt chuck.
The Boston Tea Party was one of young America's finest hours. It sparked enormous revolutionary excitement. The people were beginning to understand their own strength, and to see their own self-determination not just as possible but inevitable.
The Declaration of Independence, in 1776, freed Americans not only from Britain but also from the tyranny of British corporations, and for a hundred years after the document's signing, Americans remained deeply suspicious of corporate power. They were careful about the way they granted corporate charters, and about the powers granted therein.
Early American charters were created literally by the people, for the people as a legal convenience. Corporations were "artificial, invisible, intangible," mere financial tools. They were chartered by individual states, not the federal government, which meant they could be kept under close local scrutiny. They were automatically dissolved if they engaged in activities that violated their charter. Limits were placed on how big and powerful companies could become. Even railroad magnate J. P. Morgan, the consummate capitalist, understood that corporations must never become so big that they "inhibit freedom to the point where efficiency [is] endangered."
The two hundred or so corporations operating in the US by the year 1800 were each kept on fairly short leashes. They weren't allowed to participate in the political process. They couldn't buy stock in other corporations. And if one of them acted improperly, the consequences were severe. In 1832, President Andrew Jackson vetoed a motion to extend the charter of the corrupt and tyrannical Second Bank of the United States, and was widely applauded for doing so. That same year the state of Pennsylvania revoked the charters of ten banks for operating contrary to the public interest. Even the enormous industry trusts, formed to protect member corporations from external competitors and provide barriers to entry, eventually proved no match for the state. By the mid-1800s, antitrust legislation was widely in place.
In the early history of America, the corporation played an important but s
It's a start. It's certainly better than stating there's *no support* available. I've also seen later on the thread that support for open source is there from large companies. It looks like someone either didn't really want to find support, or didn't even look very hard. You can get support from a single person opn up to large shops, very large shops, and everything in between. so. Please back, it's there.
Japans economy is similar to ours, and we will always have similar problems. It's a phony, counterfeit not based on anything fiat money/fractional reserve (2% maybe in reserves) system that tries to borrow it's way to wealth with a huge amount of non productive "workers" occupying busywork "jobs" that actually contributre about nothing to the economy except acting as efficient skimmers.. It can't be done for any long period of time, it can only be run as a con game until it collapses. The banking/money/government bureaucracy system is just a huge check kiting scam, and that's it. You are seeing the slow speed collapse of those systems right now. Only one of the major bubbles has popped, and it was the smaller bubble, over valued stocks representing-almost nothing. Yet to fully pop but have been pinpricked and are leaking are the real estate bubbles, private and public pensions, insurance funding, banks hedging and derivatives, government busywork, and government promises to pay paper, based on all the other bubbles never popping, else government can not pay except by creating artificial book keeping entries and adding magical zeroes to their bottom line, which is in itself, worthless. Both the USA and Japan have those, by the cubic mile. Once all those pop, well, good luck. The temporary bonanza of getting to rape all of iraqs oil and breaking OPEC will slow it down, but still not eliminate all those bubbles popping.
Now china. China has *some* natural resources but needs import oil, same as any other industrial nation now. Their projected demands make what the US uses today look like a drop in the bucket, and these demands have to be met within ten years or so. They are also a severe command and control authoritarian dictatorship, which skews their notions of the world tremendoulsy, but doesn't slow down their actions, which will have to be aggressively expansionist, and soon. they are new at this but learning rapidly, one thing they have done is to export technician/soldiers all over the planet. These are dual use personnel, a sort of not well hidden secret. This is also why they are throwing everything they have to modernizing their military,and gaining some high ground in space, they KNOW that they will be forced to fight the US over ownership of the oil soon. The caspian turned out to be 3/4ths vaporware, it was grossly over valued and hyped, most of the exploratory wells indicate not near as much there as previously touted. Siberian fields still have massive problems to bring to market. That leaves the middle east and a few other places like venezuela and mexico to a much lesser extent.
There's going to be fighting over this stuff, and that won't help the economy either, but it will happen anyway.
ftp software you wanted to use, and why didn't you contact that person for "support"? Seems like it would have been worth an ask. It's sorta how this whole open software deal could work better, actually shell out some cash now and then to the developers if you find their products useful.
Corporations inside the united states are also supposed to serve the public interest. that USED to be important. One of the reasons we had a revolution was because the english corporations were gouging the people here, so we revolted. check the history of the english east indies company and the boston tea party. Corporations are supposed to be GRANTED a license to incorporate, it's not an automatic "right" they have to a collective of people to form an artificial person with any "rights". INDIVIDUALS, human beings have born-with rights, organizations of people organized for the purpose of conducting some business have duties and responsibilities and it's a granted license after application, and do NOT have born with rights because their corporation is a fiction, it's an artificial person, and a long time ago a few judges got bribed by them for them to say their corporation was "alive" and had "personhood".
The deal is, it's too easy and hardly ever have corporations been dissolved, which is also the right of the government (meaning we the people) to do. IF we did that easier and according to law,when these artificial person corporations cease being of the public benefit because of excessive profiteering, we wouldn't be seeing all these abuses and gougings. We regulate commerce in this nation, so YES, we could easily decide if a company was violating the terms of the corporate charter by "making too much profit", ie, "gouging" the people and by so gouging would be in violation of being of benefit to society, and that definetly falls under morals and ethics. that's reason we have so many problems now, attitudes such as you espouse, where "profit" is the ONLY factor in an incorporation. It is ONE factor, but that's the one seized on, but it's not supposed to be the only factor.
For an obvious example, Microsoft needs their corporate charter dissolved, IMO, blatant long running gouging and selling broken software and committing felonius acts. These large music and movie companies, again, chronic serial price gouging and actually engaging in fraud and deceit and bribery (payola). They should have been dissolved a long time ago and the boards of directors chucked in the pokye and disallowed from being in any other corporations, ever. And corporations donating money to political campaio\gns? That's pure bribery, anyone can see that, illegal as all get out. Buying votes, it should be illegal as hell and the ones who engage in it strung up as traitors, both the recipients and the givers. I'm completely serious,struing up, hung, treason charges, this "bribery as legal" is insane, it's nuts, it makes a mockery of the vote, and now we have a professiobnal class of politicians who's sole job is to garnner as much bribe money as possible, then to use slick PR advertising and controlling the government as a shared junta to make sure they stay in their positions to be bribed. We need to lose that stuff, like yesterday, and rein in these out of control INTERNATIONAL -not "US" but international- corporations who gouge the US citizen. Do that to a few hundred or so of the most abusive corporations and corporate/government crooks posing as "leaders", and the honest ones could make the money then, still be profitable, and consumers wouldn't be taken all the time, and the nation as a whole would be better off.
The other way, the way it's run now, is some weird form of international corporate anarchy based on bribes and blackmail mostly, it doesn't exist inside our constitutional framework, much as some people think it says that. The US is not organized anarchy, it's a union of organized individuals and states, based around that union, organized for some modicum of common good and benefit, defense, and trade. But the trade is supposed to not only be profitable for the companies and indidividuals inside those companies, but ALSO good for the nation,it's SUPPOSED to be an equal deal there, ie, they are SUPPOSED to look out for the nation, not just their international "bottom line". That's not to say they can't make m
I sincerely doubt that there's one (well, maybe one, speaking rhetorically here to make a point) person (management or investment) in the multi trillion dollar fossil fuel and nuclear industries who wants to see solar/hydrogen succeed. Oil based fuels to hydrogen, sure, nuclear heat to electric to hydrogen, sure. Solar PV panels to hydrogen, and in something that flies and sets records, showing the huge industry paradigm shattering potential?
Nope. Something tells me they wouldn't like that one tiny bit.
Too bad about the.... accident, sounded like a nifty experiment.
. go ahead, insult all you want, everything I have stated is true, it's verifiable, the information is out there to find, and usuallyeasily. I wouldn't say it if it wasn't all *true*, I'd be doing or saying something else. They lie, they kill people. Nam was based on a huge government lie, the "gulf of tonkin attack". Maybe you need drugs to be able to read, or maybe you think millions killed and sickened are just a joke, but I don't. I have too many friends in the service who got told the massive corporate/government lie that agent orange was "harmless". Those asshats lie. They lie constantly, just constantly. They lied about gulf war one, remember the "babies in the incubator" story? Turns out to be a PR fabrication to garner political support. They also lie about the casualty count, they claim around 300, but they leave out around 40 THOUSAND guys dead from gulf war syndrome. They lied for years about that, said it was "all in their heads". Yep, and all through their bodies too, poisoned "vaccinations", exposure to blown up chemical weapons (why saddam doesn't have many they have found, they all got destroyed under orders from schwarzkopf when they were found, they just don't publicize it much because they were almost all US manufactured and shipped over there), and those guys thereand down wind did it with NO PROTECTION, then add in exposure to DU munitions. Liars, saying none of that is harmful. Warren commission report with lee harvey oswald being the lone perp? Absurd. They lie. "Sneak attack" on Peral Harbor? turns out they lied, they knew it was happening, even the residents at pearl knew it was going to happen and the FBI went around and confiscated newspapers with the notices, then lied all through the war and for decades after about it. These are BIG lies, on very important subjects.
Besides that, try again, you're an AC, so who knows your motivation other than shooting the messenger. The internet is enabling the people to find out things faster and better than before, and this scares the liars, the blood profiteers, and their little drone employees who value a cheap paycheck over what is right. You might be able to fake out people younger and not with as much historical background, but don't try to fake out people old enough to have seen lie after lie exposed. They are chronic and serial liars on most important subjects historically, so we have to consider they are still lying about what's going on now. And I'll state again, they plan on forced human microschipping at some point, and this getting people to accept chips everywhere and fingerprinting and whatnot is part of the mass conditioining that is required. It's obvious as all get out.
Challenge, find one thing I have stated that is not the truth, go ahead, knock yourself out. Want some more? They lied constantly about the TWA 800 attack, government spokes liars, up and down and sideways, yet earlier this year a little fast moving story crossed the wires that they were forced to admit by lawsuits they were lying-but by then, the mass damage was done. How many examples do you need? How about the attack on the Liberty intel ship? they lied for years about that one, even ordered the poor survivors to lie or face military brig time. How about the "no live POWs" after nam? That turned out to be a lie, same as they abandoned live POWs after ww2(stalin kept all the US prisoners he found in german camps) and the korean war (both china and russia kept a lot of US prisoners), and lied about it. In the 50s and 60s they got caught at medical experimentation and mass exposure with chems, biologicals and radiologicals,some from mass spraying with airplanes over huge areas, again, they denied it. Finally in the 70s they admitted they had been lying. They are lying now about the spraying going on.
No, friend, perhaps you need to stop using drugs and wake up, or perhaps question the people you are working for and maybe stop just following any order given to you. This is brave new world on steroids coming, all this advanced tech will be used to co
eh, don't get me wrong, I said I was glad to see a variety of computers out there and especially that they can be as cheap as 200$. I just said for a lot of lower income people they already have a computer, or if they don't, perhaps they can get by with recycling a used one for like 50$, too, which is cheaper than 200$ and would still leave cash for perhaps more RAM, the monitor if they don't have one (again, used maybe) and so on. That's an option for even poorer families, just find used someplace. I'd much rather a lot of the used ones get recycled and used rather than become landfill, and a whole lot of the earlier 1s and pent 2's are out there now cheap as can be and just with some more RAM will run more modern OS. I'm only on a PP200 myself,a 1996 ibm 365, running RH 7.2, seems to work perfectly fine once I added some ram. hey, cheap and it works. Peripherals as well. The monitor I am using now is a 17 inch Dell that cost me 7 dollars, seems to work fine for example. My modem I am on cost me 5$ used. And etc. It follows the parent post I was replying to about his anecdotal of blue collars at work scrounging parts and building their own. I would agree,to blue collars used to repairing everything they have,and buying used, or scrounging free-all things I do- computers are just another set of really easy things to bolt and un bolt together. I have yet to see a computer assembly project even near as complicated as rebuilding a carb,which is in itself not all that hard in most cases, they just aren't that hard to work with technically. If you find a component that is borked, you ashcan it, look for another. Purchase used or perhaps buy your own used one from various parts, or now get a new one for cheap, I'm glad there's more choices now then say ten years ago. I've noted it as well, just from my personal anecdotal it appears that a lot of people with a desire already have computers and don't have a pressing need to upgrade-even to a very budget oriented 200$ new one. It's a mixed bag when referring to blue collars in other words, same as white or pink collars. and if you know a lot of really poor people who can't afford them,but want one for themselves or kids, the "family box", then help them out! Find a stack of old pentiums and get to work! Cannibalize them to get machines with a decent amount of RAM, load up your favorite distro and give them away or sell them cheap, you should be able to pump out decent bundles for WELL under 100 clams. They might not have burners in them or DVD players, but so what? You tell them that's possible, they can decide later what they want. Most even used now have at least a CD reader/player, that's good enough for most people to get started with.
...Leroy has been begging Apple for something newer, faster than motorolas chips for the past several years now. So, they finally got one. Well, two, on the same board, shazzam and stuff. Of course they are gonna talk that up, too, along with the new OSX version.. seems sorta...obvious.. heh
%^)
Most people I know got a computer sometime within the past 5 or 6 years, and they still have it. It costed them plenty 0 bux, it still does what they want it to do. I know quite a few people still running win95, let alone 98, it's patched, updated whatever, they live with any other inefficiencies, because it still surfs, does email, plays audio whatever and that's it. Most folks don't build their own or run out every 6 months to a year and buy a new computer, not when the old one is working and they got tons of other bills. Lot of folks are feeling that pinch now, a new computer falls into the unnecessary toy category whern they already have one they paid 1500$ for or something and it ain't broke. That's one of the reasons for flat sales. I'd like a new one,but not even gonna pay 200$ for one though, What I have works just fine and it's 6 years old now. If I had a need, for a tool, of course, but I don't do photoshop editing or anything like that, this old box still does what it needs to do, and with modern OS like linux on it, it will probably keep doing what it needs to do for awhile. I ain't askeered of it or being "left behind", and I still only got half the ram loaded that it will take, so if I *need* an upgrade, I'm one stick away-cheap in other words.. I figure I can hold out with this one for another one to two years, by then, 100$ will get ya something spiffy(er). I've had computers since the late 80s, not like I haven't spent some cash on them, just a plateau of sorts was reached a few years ago with computers in general terms, the *need* is falling now for the latest and greatest or even the cheapest. It's like some other toys, I've been through a few cell phones, I still don't know, care or use 3/4ths of the stuff the phone is capable of, and don't seem to miss it. I don't own a PDA yet, don't seem to miss it. When they get to under 100$, or even down to 50$, I might buy one, but not today and not for 500$. I like gadgets and tools, just have a different set of priorities, like right now I need a new chainsaw more than a new computer, I'd rather drop 2 to 500 clams on one of them-if I had the "spare" cash, heh. I'd rather get a new bumper winch for the jeep rather than the newest PDA. I'd rather get a half dozen more solar panels than a new "game" machine. Shoot, I'd rather pop for a couple of gold eagles before I popped for a 6-700$ new pretty specced decent whitebox. Different strokes. A lot of people are that way, I don't think it's all that unusual either. I guess people with really a lot of cash like to always upgrade every year or every other year, but nowadays there isn't that much more oomph - need to justiofy it unless it's top to your main hobby or it's required for your business, then it's swell, seems like some good deals out there. Like the new G5, heck ya I'd like to order one, ain't happening though. When you do physical labor for a living, you think of what stuff costs in terms of pain and sweat and bill paying priorities, 3 grand is a chunk o change, and a lot of sweat. 200$ for a very basic semi new machine is more like it though, I'm glad to see more reasonableness and wider choices in the market. Now if it gets to laptops that cheap....THEN you're talking, you'll get my attention then. I'll find the scratch qucikly.
I guess it's funny, there's such a widely diverse market, and it's happened so quickly. Nearest I can recall is how fast portable "transistor" radios caught on, one year, nada, next year a few, at 50 to 100$, which was serious money then, within a few more years, everyone had one, cheap as all get out. What are they now, a dollar a piece in small quantity wholesale lots? computers now are the same deal, so many out there that work well and only run 50$ used, I think that's where a lot of the sales are going. Or people get them given to them. I have a stack of older pentiums I fool with, I bought a whole pallet of them for really cheap, with a ton of other doo dads thrown in, like another stack of ibm clickers, heh. PCs are cheap now, that's why the flat new sales, there's no absolute "need" for millions of people anymore.
Hmm, I have YET to make a "cluster" hmmmm.....
--I really don't want to write this but I sorta have to. Please don't take this personal, I just need to rant on this stuff and in general, it's not addressed to you just it fits as a reply here, k? It's IMPORTANT. This is WAY more important than any video game, music track, latest CPU chip, latest cellphone-any of that stuff. That stuff is FUN, it's not IMPORTANT.
OK, generic rant time
Range on these tiny chips started out a few millimeters. Then quickly got to a few inches, then a few feet, and some are much farther than that now. They started out not holding much data, now they can hold a lot. They started out saying microchips would never be small enough to implant, now it's common in pets and some special forces and some prisoners have them. This is a geek board, let's get real on tech advances. "They" , they being these high powered international goons and orgs and whatnot- started out saying your social security number was not an ID, and that it would only be used to track your social security info. They started out with no licenses, then paper licenses (I had one, no picture on it either), then picture licenses, now licenses that have your biometrics, retina scan, finger print and who knows what, DNA patterns, no idea what they got planned.. They started out with "only" a few firearms restrictions,(I remember much less crime, far fewer restrictive laws, funny how that worked out) then they added more and more and more, then they took more and more classes away and now you need a permit to get a permit to think about getting a permit, and a lot of places they just tell ya to go pound sand. Same with something as simple as owning your own property and building a regula small home, now it's a mnightmare of inspectors and bribed off councilmen and restrictions and who knows, and NO, it's just not all that much safer, it's roughly the same amount of fires and "houses collapsing", in fact, new homes are mostly built a lot crappier than they used to be in most aspects. They started out with individual repsonsibility and only elected sheriffs that everyone local knew and you could go talk to them, and if you didn't like them, you could vote the bum out and with the vote you could LOOK into the ballot box and see yes/no if it was stuffed or not.. Now they have mostly non elected helmeted black ski masked anonymous darth vader clones kicking in peoples doors and throwing in "humane grenades",no matter what ya get popped for it's gona cost you your house almost to even think about fighting it in court, juries have been castrated to nothinghood, and when you go vote some machine announces who won with absolutely zero way to check and see if you are being lied to. They started out with real money made of precious metals that couldn't be dorked with, now they have funny money *they* can re valuate up or down without asking you at the issuance of some commands on a screen.
On and on. This is one of those deals you either get it or ya don't get it. It's just one more step towards full bore dictatorial police state. I'm older than most here so I'll just say it out loud, because my frame of reference is long enough to SEE the changes and the directions, and there's NO WAY to avoid what it is, it's obvious as all get out.
YO, the government is taking over ya young guys! No %^&^&**( %%^^t!! Wake UP! It's a freeking police state heading your way, it's half way here now! It ain't NOTHING like it used to be not that long ago and it's clear as day what they are doing!! They will MAKE YOU get chipped, even if they have to run a scam "terrorist" attack or six, eventually-and soon-or you'll be a criminal if you aren't chipped or "tagged". They WILL BE telling you where to work. The laws are written and on the books, you can READ the dang things, they PLAN on using them laws, they don't write that crap for giggles. You WON'T have any say in it. This government is right at the point it kills people, it's building more "camps" now, I mean, please pick up on what "camps" means. They WILL BE tracking y
...no wonder you got some microsoft stuff, you spelled it wrong. Here, try this.
that's actually a good idea, especially if she has a large television to use for the monitor and her comfy chair. several folks I know use web tv because that's all they do, surf a little, email a little and chat. WebTv does IRC chat as well as messenger for that matter. It's perfect for them, evil empire or not. It's all my folks have, and my pops is a retired main frame hardware guy, he just doesn't want to fool with peecees of any flavor, just wants the intarweb. All of us kids have computers, but they didn't want one, finally one day my lil bro had the brainstorm of the web tv and just laid it on them, now they like it and there's no learning curve or much hassles with it.
half-or some large number- aren't finished. half or some large number are finished or completed *enough* to be useable.There's enough to use most likely, not for every single minute last possible thing you might need software for, but geez loweez there's enough to do the bulk of what needs doing. I fail to see the huge disadvantages. As to "support" (for the AC above), it's there, perhaps anyone using an open source piece of work can hire the actual code writer who started it for support, cash talks in this land, and judgiong by what I read here on slashdot, there's bunches of guys who would appreciate even part time work and might stay on call for support. Ya never know until ya ask or look. And the deal is, open source IS being used, that means people have found out how to deal with support.
so what if half the projects aren't finished? that means the other half is, and with thousands to choose from, anyone can find what they need. And which is better, finding something your business can use then you can take it from there and more-easily customize to suit, or be forced to pay for a closed source solution that you still have to do that with? Most even expensive closed source programs still require customization, I see the articles here describing all these various expensive programs, they still need admins and coders to make them work exactly how the company wants them to work. One way, the open way, is in most cases cheaper and easier, the other is much more expensive and harder to customize. Gee, tough call there.
You nailed it. It's a HUGE economic and practicality advantage in most cases for businesses. If they can maintain their competition (somehow) to keep using the expensive buggy stuff, they can pull ahead quickly. And even better if they completely "get it" and share back, they'll have the help and interest in their products they deserve, their business will do better, they can make more money and pay the help and stockholders more..on and on. I'm amazed that businesses still cling to that which just costs and costs and costs and costs and never really delivers all that well. Let em fail I say.
Although in public both the US and china insist taiwan is a sore point, I am a contrarian to that, and think it's a ruse, especially o chinas part. Taiwan they use for the foreign boogy man. The Taiwan businessmen are moving into the mainland, the takeover or "invasion" of taiwan is almost over, that invasion nonsense is for domestic rah rah and for their own military/industrial complex. Taiwan invaded the mainland in a sense, they are about part of the mainland now in all but a few things. Yes they maintain this open hostility, but day to day, nope, tons of people travel back and forth, whole factories are moving to the mainland from taiwan, they are as close as -say-the US and Canada. They use the falun gong for the internal boogy man, it's one of the excuses they use to keep tyranny in place there.. It's what most totalitarian regimes do. Look around, you'll see the US is starting to do that as well. I will admit though that is still a far out theory, but I think I;'m right, and that doesn't negate the probability of armed conflicts occurring there, but I think if that were to happen it would be part of a very large global push on several fronts, with china being only one nation in a several nation coalition against the angl/US alliance. It's a different subject really, not exactly pertinent to this.
I think you keep misunderstanding me, I am not pro red china, I am *concerned* and wary of them and their intentions and our over dependence on them economically and on losing manufacturing to them. and they ARE leapfrogging technologically, several years to our one. I am not sure how long they can keep that up until they reach rough parity, but it will happen, and most likley within a decade to a decade and a half by all projections, not mine, the experts, the people who count up those things. As to more advanced tech, here's a hint, russia sells them anything now, then they build it. they get western tech, then they build it, even improve on it. Even our close personal "ally" israel sells them advanced weapons.
Yes, we have better tech than they do,*now* what I am saying is they are catching up even faster than what most people would have admitted or predicted even just 5 years ago.
Here's another prediction for you, soon they will stop pegging the yuan to the petro dollar and switch to the euro, possibly even next month. They are doing that because they are running out of the advanced machinery they need to buy from us to set up full modern vertical manufactureing, because it's bought, it's finished, they don't need as many US dollars any longer, there are now alternative markets for them, including their biggest one, and that is internal. And if you do the research and if you look, that's about it from what they have been buying from us with their trade surplus cash, US machine tools, processes, entire factories sometimes. What else do you think they have been purchasing, and where exactly have all their factories come from? Now that they have enough, and that US and other western businessmen have overly funded them, they can stop the facades, and get down to equipping themselves across the board-IF they can get their hands on enough cheap energy and some other raw materials.
Anyway, the point is moot, what is happening is happening, youi think they aren't a threat and never will be because rome..I mean the US, is always going to be the planets premier superpower. I tend to dispute that, primarily from exactly what you see,your POV, over arrogance and an air of leet invincibility and just "because" or something. It's happened to too many nations and past "super" powers for me to ignore, You can but I certainly won't, it's just plain vanilla recorded history after all, but you are most welcome to your beliefs. We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. You are also free to run your theories past the DOD and also the PLA, both those orgs disagree with you as well, the DOD takes them way beyond seriously, and the PLA openly calls the US their primary enemy and makes no secret over their
I agree on your observations, but all in all the advantages of moz outweigh the still existing bugs and stuff on the todo lists they have.
With that said, I send webmasters polite emails when I come across a site that absolutely requires scripting. I scold them on being part of web insecurity, especially when it's a choice they make that's not based on absolute need.
Of course, it does not much good, but at least I try.
moz also needs individual image control, again, I surf images off,(most of the time anyway) there's maybe only a few a day I want to see, usually the weather radar images and perhaps a news story picture. But, have to go to preferences, wait for it to decide to change itself, go back load one image, go back turn images off again. I got spoiled by iCab individual image control it is teh schweet.
WTF, can you READ or what? We already covered this on slasherdot, and it's been all over the news. YES, bush and cheneys "hydrogen economy" is based on constructing 1 to 2 thousand small nuclear plants to make the hydrogen. You can google for yourself. That's their plan, or where exactly did you think this ocean of hydrogen was going to come from?
By a real war I mean one in which the two opposing sides are much more equal in size and capability. Iraq doesn't qualify. and I completely disagree with you on conventionals, china is catching up and fast, in fact their new tanks are considered top shelf, top of the line, rough parity almost with abrahms, unlike saddams t-55s.
And I'm glad YOU aren't in charge of the military, if you were in charge of fighting china conventionally you would be over arrogant and lose a lot of guys. I have personal friends who fought the chinese when all they had was boots and rifgles and they said it was damn dicey for awhile, and that was 50 years ago, times change, they gots that technology idea down and they pump out engineers and techs and scientists, not rap stars and football players. The US hasn't had to face ANY top shelf technology from any quarter for a long time, the last time was world war two. Serbia came the closest and even there we didn't go in on the ground, and it's a tiny nation. the past buncha wars we've used best of class against stuff two generations old or older, and in unequal numbers, and with "the homeland" not being a theatre. Any modern war with a large nation or coalition of other large nations, chances are that won't be the case, and that means it won't be a cakewalk.
And yes, this is getting into thread drift, I was merely reporting the DODs own statements and plans, I read their reports to the senate every year after they are redacted and declassified, they do not take china as some sort of pipsqueak pushover any longer, although they used to think that, but that was many moons ago.
And to get back to china in practical terms, do you really think all those hundreds of thousands of uninspected containers that have been shipped in over the last 15 years only had legally declared trade goods? You don't think they've managed to import a little *equalization in advance* and have it stashed away for "just in case" times? Or that they don't have combat engineers and special forces over here inside the "civvie" population, sleepers? How about the cubans, think they've been just hanging out for 40 years, having nothing inside CONUS? Or the north koreans? Or still the russians for that matter.
Nope, we've had an overly easy time of it so far, with no guarantee it will always be that way. That's my opinion anyway. I think the most rational point of view is to neither over nor underestimate any potential opponent, and if you err, to err on the side of caution and to over estimate their abilities and resources. That's why even in smaller wars like iraq they put so many resources into it, they probably could have won with 1/3 what they used, but really, there's no logic to that, why take the chance. China is turning into the worlds manufacturing giant, and with tech advances, they are getting bigger/faster/more efficient, I wouldn't underestimate them or their abilities, especially projected one decade time frame from today. Military hardware must be built, they get a better ROI with their economy, else no one would manufacture there. They stay organized and focused. Look at africa, with the exception of SA, not much of squat comes from there despite millions of people who would qualify as cheap labor, same as china, but china actually accomplishes things. And they've also proven they can get their hands on any tech out there, by hook or crook, saves them a ton in R&D and lets them skip entire years of time involved with it. It's a bad combo to see in a potential adversary, and especially with one who's energy needs will be greater than ours shortly, it's not like they might sorta want energy, they will NEED energy, else collapse, and all their pronouncements and efforts reflect that.
... they put hydrogen on hold for now and just went to methanol/ethanol instead. Those are just liquid fuels that work, very little in the way of changing around anything to use it as a fuel, and the same fuel from the same existing pumps and tanks at the fuel station would work both on ICE engines and on the new fuel cell electrics. Hydrogen as it's proposed is going to take manufacturing thousands of baby nukes all over, then coming up with good storage tanks, building new gas stations or add ons, and other assorted huge expense, whereas the alcohols burn "pretty" clean, and you don't have to do anything special at the station, just take like the 89 octane pumps and tanks and re label them alcohol, use them.
I have around 6 different brands of solar PV panels, one make will operate with bullets through it, that's unisolar. My dealer has one at another installation that some nimrod put a slug through, it still functions perfectly fine, albeit at slightly reduced power.
Hopefully this fuel cell tech in the rugged sense will make it to the affordable civvie market, I am interested in them. I like the no noise no moving parts of electrical generation schemes. Well, I like ALL alternative energy, I just like stuff that doesn't break or wear out easy better.
I can state it's happened, and the US did it, as well as biological warfare. I have a now deceased uncle who was a spook, before he passed on he related to me some rather interesting tidbits (not sure why, I think now he was annoyed at some of the stuff he was working on). He was mostly based in the caribbean, he told me about the spooks infecting some crops in cuba (tobacco mosaic is one he mentioned) and also their efforts to increase the size and intensity of hurricanes that hit cuba via cloud seeding, and this was back in the 60's. And they admit to operation popeye in nam, as well as chemical spraying there as well. The US has always used unconventional warfare, even though they claim they don't, and something they don't want other nations to use, but it happens anyway. Russia and their satellites used "yellow rain" and publically have companies that claim to be able to deliver rain in the form of mass thunderstorms, and etc. The world allegedly has this "no weather warfare" treaty, but like most treaties it's signed in public and ignored in private. Japan doing that modeling is interesting. Those sorts of storms are very destructive to them, but yes, being able to create and steer them on demand? Quite an achievement and great force multiplier if they can pull it off.
I'm sure it's a lot more advanced now, what with the various spraying going on, HAARP experiments, and so on and so forth. Yep, being able to own the weather is quite the weapon. Just look at what massive multi year droughts do to some areas.(the US west I am convinced is being hit on purpose for a variety of social and economic reasons for example)
BHC is pretty funny man!
Sure, they are willing to accept losses. So does the US, that's why no matter they went into afhganistan, then iraq, and will soon take over syria and iran and eventually north korea. The US has never cared about military losses,even though the seek to minimalise them, they still *do it*, else they wouldn't occur. The deal is, "losses" for these other large nations mean they gots no guys in space. I expect either big sabotage or actual destruction of any of their craft if they look to be leapfrogging the DOD in space based human access. I have no proof, it's just an opinion, but I think it's a sound opinion based on past events, current political realities, and future projections and statements. The US has quite clearly stated that they will be the only ones to militarize space. Right now they have the juice to pull that off, and if it looks like they can't or will get beat, they'll go to plan B, which is to knock the other guys out before they gain an overwhelming lead.
Maybe because I'm older, but I've never bought into "civilian" space programs, it's always been by and for the military first, the civilian aspects have always been side issues and the public facade of it, it's been a stealth military budget effort speaking of the over-all aspect of "humans in space".
Look at it this way, the US and a few other countries are now the only ones "allowed" to possess WMD, and the US just invaded and took over another nation based on that premise, that the near monopoly will remain so. I also remember when the thought of other nations besides the US having just missiles and nukes was hotly debated, we came pretty close to pre emptive strikes back in the 50s over it. Real_dang_close. I know even before that, generals like Patton wanted to go in and take soviet russia at the end of the war because he and others didn't want the russians to have rockets and then "the bomb". It didn't happen, and I bet a lot of generals wish it had now. They DON'T want to lose their (near) space monopoly, because of the huge advantages, in fact, just "access to space" can be considered a variant of a WMD. The DOD considering any other large nation having the same as they do when it comes to advanced tech gives them the buckwheats. They WILL do something about it before they can't do something about it is my best guess right now.
I can see perhaps one way he could have made money off the thing, and that would have been to collaborate with some hardware folk and come up with a more cheap dedicated router, same as the other router companies, put his distro in there, made it rugged, cheap, functional. Or gone to an embedded full distro, something that was secure in spades. People "out there" are certainly aware of security, they just are overwhelmed with how to go about it without become a full time security guru. It's a huge potential market, but I'm not seeing any major effort from any camp any place to provide it. Even the big computer vendors still don't get it, they have employees deal with their security, and wouldn't miss a thing if their box got borked, they have thousands more avaialable, whereas joe homeowner/user or small business guy is just...stuck. There just isn't a security first easy to use distro, not from anyone, open source, closed source, semi open and closed, you name it, none of them deliver.
Note, not saying it is entirely probable, but perhaps one avenue he could have explored.
As to the economy, yep, sucketh. I've had the same job over 4 years, I liked it, but it's time to move on, the boss gradually upped my workload and kept dropping the pay until now it's almost zero pay. One reason is that he as a businessman is a one trick pony, he is losing his shirt with his one type of business, whereas the new guy I'm going to work for runs 5 different businesses, all different from each other. As a consequence I've been looking around, I found this other job, pay might be very low, but the job itself looks more interesting, I get more on the side,and the provided tools are better. It will require an expensive move for me, but oh well, stuff happens. I do estate management/groundskeeping/maintenance. Physical labor, that's what makes me cash, hard work, mostly outside, dodging yellow jackets, chiggers, copperheads,poison ivy, humping rocks, running stinky machinery, fixing everything that breaks, a hundred and one jobs, for pretty dismal cash compared to salaries I see bandied about on slasherdotted. To ME, anyone who makes ANYTHING sitting around a climate controlled office is skilled and lucky,BOTH, so don't expect it to last forever, those sorts of jobs are sought after, and surprise, humans in other nations will do that work for less than you. They are also over valued almost every place, that's why cash keeps tightening. The US in particular is full of those sorts of jobs now, no wonder the economy is crashing slowly. Without some sort of locked down monopoly, it won't last and it couldn't have lasted.
Where the rubber meets the road, wealth has to be physically wrested from the ground,manufactured, and that's it. Bits and bytes need to be turned into something useful,by themselves they are bits and bytes and now the planet is awash in them, they are not as valuable as in the 60s and 70's and 80-s when few people could create them and there was more of a monopoly in their creation. IP styled work is the work that leads to the possibility of work that leads to wealth creation, it's a side issue. Anyone making full time check at that is lucky, as it's obvious it's shifting to off shore and becoming just a regular ho hum job, not an uberjob, and that's because it went from hundreds of people doing it one generation ago to now millions and millions with millions more school kids entering the market to "do it", to have a climate controlled office job of some sort.
I can have a huge stack of tools, they do nothing without picking them up and using them. Same with software, same with any other sort of job like that, someplace humans have to do the other work that provides goods and services. It's one way to get cash back out of the economy, you get it from people who have more than you but are unable or unwilling to do a lot of labor for themselves. And that's it, you have to provide something of value to get something back. As it becomes less valuable you'll get less pay. With software, downloadab