Almost every country's military uses a small flag. Usually in the same colors you would expect from the original flag. I guess as long as the sign is reasonable, it would be acceptable?
Commercial companies affix their logos onto cars, clothes, and computers that most people can recognize from a distance with a glance. Something about that size on a uniform seems reasonable. Though i'm sure there's a committee somewhere that debated on this and drafted a 100 page document : /
You got it backwards. Captured Combatants are "protected" under the Geneva Convention. Even from torture. If a fighter does not meet the criteria of a combatant they can't be protected by the document. Don't think it's easy to lose that protection. Here's how to qualify:
Article 4
A. Prisoners of war, in the sense of the present Convention, are persons belonging to one of the following categories, who have fallen into the power of the enemy:
1. Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces.
2. Members of other militias and members of other volunteer corps, including those of organized resistance movements, belonging to a Party to the conflict and operating in or outside their own territory, even if this territory is occupied, provided that such militias or volunteer corps, including such organized resistance movements, fulfil the following conditions:
(a) That of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates;
(b) That of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance;
(c) That of carrying arms openly;
(d) That of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.
3. Members of regular armed forces who profess allegiance to a government or an authority not recognized by the Detaining Power....
6. Inhabitants of a non-occupied territory, who on the approach of the enemy spontaneously take up arms to resist the invading forces, without having had time to form themselves into regular armed units, provided they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war.
Sorry, it's much longer, i just left in some of the important parts. So from this list a spy, assassin, or terrorist wouldn't be considered a protected combatant.
EVE is a good example of a virtual economy. It isn't based on RL cash (thankfully!). But it has player created banks, loaning institutions, corporate espionage, politics, and even War to consume goods and enforce politics... or just to kill helpless empire folks : /
But it really does have a complex economy. Typical buy/sell orders on the market. Free form Contracts for anything under the sun (including scams!). Stock/Shares in companies that pay dividends. And a rediculously long supply chain to produce items. On top of it all there's giant space battles and pirates attacking poor traders (who aren't paying attention to local!)
I agree, the VA's system works very well. You can get lab work done in one clinic and every doctor you'll meet from that day forward (no matter where they are) will have access to it. Including X-Rays and all the fun stuff.
OT: I had to get shots in a clinic that still used paper records once... i left that place poked full of holes : / Tetanus booster, HIV, and god knows what else
The only shots i've ever escaped is flu (dodge it everytime!) and the dreaded Anthrax. Worst shot ever is smallpox though, it's like babysitting an open sore : /
My quick test is much slower than yours. Took 6min to copy a 1gb file (with torrents going). That's what, maaybe 3mB/s? I'm on a 100mbit router and the NAS is on a gigabit router. Lots of little files are the same speed it looks like.
The drives are currently in JBOD i think.. raid 0/1 might be a lot faster? Either way, i can't see it competing with the Synology 108.
My housemate has something similar. It's the typical NAS with two drives, but the cool part is the web interface. You can c&p torrent urls straight into it and even manage all your existing torrents through the web interface. So every computer in the house has a central torrent location. When it's time to play L4D we don't have to go around checking which machine is sucking all the band, we just log into the NAS and pause the torrents.
I'd say the d-link beats the Microsoft research team's device (even though gumstix is awesome). No pc required and it can sit anywhere on your network.
I started with RedHat 6.2 (late 90's) on my first homebuilt box (AMD k6-2 400mhz and 3dFX voodoo 3000). The winmodem i had didn't work so i dug out an old external 28.8kbps modem that stayed connected 24/7 on our second phone line. So cool. I downloaded everything needed for Enlightenment.. took a week. I kept the checklist in my pocket at ALL times and checked on it at school (through telnet, it was like magic).
The first time Enlightenment came up i had a geekgasm. Just knew that i was a linux geek for life. RPM hell drove me to Gentoo and i've been there ever since.
[Laughs] Right, kick ass. Well, don't want to sound like a dick or nothin', but, ah... it says on your chart that you're fucked up. Ah, you talk like a fag, and your shit's all retarded.... Don't worry scrote! There are plenty of 'tards out there living really kick ass lives. My first wife was 'tarded. She's a pilot now.
There is an actual limit to a soldier's usefulness in a high stress environment. Everybody is built differently so they use historical to make time limits for deployments. That being said, you could always volunteer to stay longer.
It's also a good idea to keep fresh eyes and ideas coming into the area. Not to mention new equipment (and the training to use it!).
43,000 / 20 (millions) = 2,150 per person over 8 years that's 268.75 per person / year so 23.39$ per person, per month during the 8 years of building.
Obviously that's if everyone in the country was paying for this new internet. Also, can you imagine the interest that money is going to grow during the building?! 43bil, wow
It's not quite as bad as being stranded in the desert with no water. The Iraqi people are actually pretty friendly, in my experience. Worst case scenario, bumming a ride or walking isn't too bad. Besides, have you seen their holidays?! They shut down half the interstate and walk for miles and miles to journey to Karbala.
I agree that there are more effective ways of waging war but WP is but one tool in an arsenal, not the main weapon. Also, WP does not violate the Geneva Convention at all UNLESS it is used to target a civilian population. Like firebombing a city or napalming vast areas. Indiscriminate use would be illegal. But that isn't just WP, it's a LOT of things.. like land mines.
But i think what makes WP such a hot topic is Fallujah. It WAS a civilian area. The US gave ample time and warning for the population to leave safely before hand though. So everyone within the city after that point would have been considered a combatant. Even though we know that isn't true.. there will always be civilians mixed in, right? That's why the use of WP is such a big deal. If there was 100 clearly identified enemy combatants.. the Geneva Convention wouldn't bat an eye if they all burned to the ground. But because it took place in a formerly occupied city it's iffy.
It's possible WP was used as an offensive weapon in Fallujah, i don't know. But i honestly have the feeling it was not.
Again, it doesn't work that way, there are Rules of Engagement every soldier MUST follow. You cannot use deadly force unless it is to prevent the loss of life of either yourself or another. Then there's a whole set a steps you have to go through. Verbal, non-lethal, presentation of deadly force, and lastly deadly force. Unless they point a gun at you (or somebody else), deadly force isn't authorized.
I'm just saying that the sort of scenario you presented isn't real life. You would probably say something like "everyone point to the guy with a gun" Then make him disarm, go through the steps, ending with killing him if he makes it escalate that high.
The US Army isn't that way man. We train every day, we're professionals. Every shoot house i've ever run had civies mixed with targets. Every multi-million dollar MOUT site i've run through had "actors" to play civilians and other well trained soldiers as opfor. Take a look at the Zussman, top of the line man. They literally trained us to clear buildings EXACTLY like you are talking about. Nobody went into a building freaking out or shooting wildly. Practice makes perfect.
I don't know of anyone who ever knowingly shot an innocent. I don't know of anyone who would allow such an act to stand. Eventually, every act sees the light of day.. nothing can hide forever.
I completely agree that it shouldn't be used in civilian areas. That the chance of collateral damage goes way way up and we could risk killing/injuring unintended targets. But it should remain as a valid weapon of war, imo. It's a tool. Any tool can be used in an improper way, unfortunately.
Though i haven't personally seen WP go off before. I know the Army has many types of flares and smoke screen devices.. i can't imagine why they would use an incendiary as a either? Dual use munition i guess.
FMZ, i have actually seen what happens when a bomb turns a kid into legos. You, sir, don't know what you're talking about. Your description of US troops is cold and simply untrue. There have been so many, so many many Iraqi's killed by other Iraqis. The deathtoll of Sunni against Shi'ite is larger than you think.
You read something in his paragraph that didn't exist. He never said "once we are at war we can kill all the civilians we want" or anything close to it. In fact, your entire reply was based upon that one sentence that wasn't actually in his comment at all.
It's ok to be passionate about a subject but please read what he said and argue against his points... at a minimum.
When ambulation comes out (and it will) i hope you'll come play. But as far as story goes.. there is a LOT of meta gaming going on. Lots of forums, killboards, spies everywhere, and tons of 3rd party apps to support in-game stuff. Stories are made every day but you have to take a step back to see them.
The M113(1960's tech) was supposed to have been largely replaced by the M2/3 Bradley in the eighties. During the Iraq War the M113 came back in a big way.. it just works too well. The M3 is overdesigned and too heavy. This sort of thing sounds exactly like the Shuttle and Capsule scenario. Maybe there's a pattern to it.
the Starcraft spawn is a limited version of the game. They cannot play singleplayer or create a new multiplayer game. It's like letting your friends take home some of the game pieces from your boardgame. They can say ooh, i have part of the game but they can't even play it.
You don't have much experience with Valve yet.. they honestly are cool guys. They replaced the original Half-Life multiplayer system (WON) with Steam so everyone could continue playing. They battled Sierra/Vivendi for distribution rights on their own game. I'm pretty sure Gabe owns valve completely.. it's not publicly traded.. no shareholders, none of that.
Look at TF2 for example.. free updates! They have no obligation to provide free updates but they do.. and everyone loves them for it. This sort of thing wouldn't be practical with a typical CD installation. Valve can make a ton of little changes and push it to us overnight (unless you don't autoupdate). Patches and bug fixes constantly roll in. They don't have to wait until they've gathered enough fixes and publish a patch that bumps the version up a notch.
Honestly, the only other gaming company that compares to Valve is CCP.
I think you are confused. Valve would just remove Steam authentication.. not any DRM placed inside each game. 3rd Party games are still free to use their own DRM and some do.
When i was a kid i figured out that you could manually dial Compuserve numbers and not "login". They wouldn't kick you for 2 hrs. I had a sweet IBM Thinkpad and Compuserve was damn near everywhere.. it was great when traveling around. A 1-800 number would tell me the local compuserve dial up too. That internet was a different world from this one though.
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Almost every country's military uses a small flag. Usually in the same colors you would expect from the original flag. I guess as long as the sign is reasonable, it would be acceptable?
Commercial companies affix their logos onto cars, clothes, and computers that most people can recognize from a distance with a glance. Something about that size on a uniform seems reasonable. Though i'm sure there's a committee somewhere that debated on this and drafted a 100 page document : /
You got it backwards. Captured Combatants are "protected" under the Geneva Convention. Even from torture. If a fighter does not meet the criteria of a combatant they can't be protected by the document. Don't think it's easy to lose that protection. Here's how to qualify:
Article 4
A. Prisoners of war, in the sense of the present Convention, are persons belonging to one of the following categories, who have fallen into the power of the enemy:
1. Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces.
2. Members of other militias and members of other volunteer corps, including those of organized resistance movements, belonging to a Party to the conflict and operating in or outside their own territory, even if this territory is occupied, provided that such militias or volunteer corps, including such organized resistance movements, fulfil the following conditions:
(a) That of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates;
(b) That of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance;
(c) That of carrying arms openly;
(d) That of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.
3. Members of regular armed forces who profess allegiance to a government or an authority not recognized by the Detaining Power. ...
6. Inhabitants of a non-occupied territory, who on the approach of the enemy spontaneously take up arms to resist the invading forces, without having had time to form themselves into regular armed units, provided they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war.
Sorry, it's much longer, i just left in some of the important parts. So from this list a spy, assassin, or terrorist wouldn't be considered a protected combatant.
EVE is a good example of a virtual economy. It isn't based on RL cash (thankfully!). But it has player created banks, loaning institutions, corporate espionage, politics, and even War to consume goods and enforce politics... or just to kill helpless empire folks : /
But it really does have a complex economy. Typical buy/sell orders on the market. Free form Contracts for anything under the sun (including scams!). Stock/Shares in companies that pay dividends. And a rediculously long supply chain to produce items. On top of it all there's giant space battles and pirates attacking poor traders (who aren't paying attention to local!)
I agree, the VA's system works very well. You can get lab work done in one clinic and every doctor you'll meet from that day forward (no matter where they are) will have access to it. Including X-Rays and all the fun stuff.
OT: I had to get shots in a clinic that still used paper records once... i left that place poked full of holes : / Tetanus booster, HIV, and god knows what else
The only shots i've ever escaped is flu (dodge it everytime!) and the dreaded Anthrax. Worst shot ever is smallpox though, it's like babysitting an open sore : /
My quick test is much slower than yours. Took 6min to copy a 1gb file (with torrents going). That's what, maaybe 3mB/s? I'm on a 100mbit router and the NAS is on a gigabit router. Lots of little files are the same speed it looks like.
The drives are currently in JBOD i think.. raid 0/1 might be a lot faster? Either way, i can't see it competing with the Synology 108.
My housemate has something similar. It's the typical NAS with two drives, but the cool part is the web interface. You can c&p torrent urls straight into it and even manage all your existing torrents through the web interface. So every computer in the house has a central torrent location. When it's time to play L4D we don't have to go around checking which machine is sucking all the band, we just log into the NAS and pause the torrents.
Just went and looked at it. It's a D-link DNS 323 (company link: http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=509).
I'd say the d-link beats the Microsoft research team's device (even though gumstix is awesome). No pc required and it can sit anywhere on your network.
I started with RedHat 6.2 (late 90's) on my first homebuilt box (AMD k6-2 400mhz and 3dFX voodoo 3000). The winmodem i had didn't work so i dug out an old external 28.8kbps modem that stayed connected 24/7 on our second phone line. So cool. I downloaded everything needed for Enlightenment.. took a week. I kept the checklist in my pocket at ALL times and checked on it at school (through telnet, it was like magic).
The first time Enlightenment came up i had a geekgasm. Just knew that i was a linux geek for life. RPM hell drove me to Gentoo and i've been there ever since.
[Laughs] Right, kick ass. Well, don't want to sound like a dick or nothin', but, ah... it says on your chart that you're fucked up. Ah, you talk like a fag, and your shit's all retarded. ...
Don't worry scrote! There are plenty of 'tards out there living really kick ass lives. My first wife was 'tarded. She's a pilot now.
I thought it was a hilarious movie : )
There is an actual limit to a soldier's usefulness in a high stress environment. Everybody is built differently so they use historical to make time limits for deployments. That being said, you could always volunteer to stay longer.
It's also a good idea to keep fresh eyes and ideas coming into the area. Not to mention new equipment (and the training to use it!).
43,000 / 20 (millions) = 2,150 per person
over 8 years that's 268.75 per person / year
so 23.39$ per person, per month during the 8 years of building.
Obviously that's if everyone in the country was paying for this new internet. Also, can you imagine the interest that money is going to grow during the building?! 43bil, wow
Actually, Baghdad is surprisingly close. Take a look at this: http://www.maplandia.com/iraq/al-anbar/al-fallujah/
It's not quite as bad as being stranded in the desert with no water. The Iraqi people are actually pretty friendly, in my experience. Worst case scenario, bumming a ride or walking isn't too bad. Besides, have you seen their holidays?! They shut down half the interstate and walk for miles and miles to journey to Karbala.
I agree that there are more effective ways of waging war but WP is but one tool in an arsenal, not the main weapon. Also, WP does not violate the Geneva Convention at all UNLESS it is used to target a civilian population. Like firebombing a city or napalming vast areas. Indiscriminate use would be illegal. But that isn't just WP, it's a LOT of things.. like land mines.
But i think what makes WP such a hot topic is Fallujah. It WAS a civilian area. The US gave ample time and warning for the population to leave safely before hand though. So everyone within the city after that point would have been considered a combatant. Even though we know that isn't true.. there will always be civilians mixed in, right? That's why the use of WP is such a big deal. If there was 100 clearly identified enemy combatants.. the Geneva Convention wouldn't bat an eye if they all burned to the ground. But because it took place in a formerly occupied city it's iffy.
It's possible WP was used as an offensive weapon in Fallujah, i don't know. But i honestly have the feeling it was not.
Again, it doesn't work that way, there are Rules of Engagement every soldier MUST follow. You cannot use deadly force unless it is to prevent the loss of life of either yourself or another. Then there's a whole set a steps you have to go through. Verbal, non-lethal, presentation of deadly force, and lastly deadly force. Unless they point a gun at you (or somebody else), deadly force isn't authorized.
I'm just saying that the sort of scenario you presented isn't real life. You would probably say something like "everyone point to the guy with a gun" Then make him disarm, go through the steps, ending with killing him if he makes it escalate that high.
The US Army isn't that way man. We train every day, we're professionals. Every shoot house i've ever run had civies mixed with targets. Every multi-million dollar MOUT site i've run through had "actors" to play civilians and other well trained soldiers as opfor. Take a look at the Zussman, top of the line man. They literally trained us to clear buildings EXACTLY like you are talking about. Nobody went into a building freaking out or shooting wildly. Practice makes perfect.
I don't know of anyone who ever knowingly shot an innocent. I don't know of anyone who would allow such an act to stand. Eventually, every act sees the light of day.. nothing can hide forever.
I completely agree that it shouldn't be used in civilian areas. That the chance of collateral damage goes way way up and we could risk killing/injuring unintended targets. But it should remain as a valid weapon of war, imo. It's a tool. Any tool can be used in an improper way, unfortunately.
Though i haven't personally seen WP go off before. I know the Army has many types of flares and smoke screen devices.. i can't imagine why they would use an incendiary as a either? Dual use munition i guess.
We are trying to have a discussion about WP, FMZ. Not a shouting contest.
FMZ, i have actually seen what happens when a bomb turns a kid into legos. You, sir, don't know what you're talking about. Your description of US troops is cold and simply untrue. There have been so many, so many many Iraqi's killed by other Iraqis. The deathtoll of Sunni against Shi'ite is larger than you think.
You read something in his paragraph that didn't exist. He never said "once we are at war we can kill all the civilians we want" or anything close to it. In fact, your entire reply was based upon that one sentence that wasn't actually in his comment at all.
It's ok to be passionate about a subject but please read what he said and argue against his points... at a minimum.
You are mistaken. WP is not a banned weapon of war. Chemical weapons, however, are. WP is a thermal weapon, not a toxin or poison.
When ambulation comes out (and it will) i hope you'll come play. But as far as story goes.. there is a LOT of meta gaming going on. Lots of forums, killboards, spies everywhere, and tons of 3rd party apps to support in-game stuff. Stories are made every day but you have to take a step back to see them.
The M113(1960's tech) was supposed to have been largely replaced by the M2/3 Bradley in the eighties. During the Iraq War the M113 came back in a big way.. it just works too well. The M3 is overdesigned and too heavy. This sort of thing sounds exactly like the Shuttle and Capsule scenario. Maybe there's a pattern to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3_Bradley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M113
the Starcraft spawn is a limited version of the game. They cannot play singleplayer or create a new multiplayer game. It's like letting your friends take home some of the game pieces from your boardgame. They can say ooh, i have part of the game but they can't even play it.
You don't have much experience with Valve yet.. they honestly are cool guys. They replaced the original Half-Life multiplayer system (WON) with Steam so everyone could continue playing. They battled Sierra/Vivendi for distribution rights on their own game. I'm pretty sure Gabe owns valve completely.. it's not publicly traded.. no shareholders, none of that.
Look at TF2 for example.. free updates! They have no obligation to provide free updates but they do.. and everyone loves them for it. This sort of thing wouldn't be practical with a typical CD installation. Valve can make a ton of little changes and push it to us overnight (unless you don't autoupdate). Patches and bug fixes constantly roll in. They don't have to wait until they've gathered enough fixes and publish a patch that bumps the version up a notch.
Honestly, the only other gaming company that compares to Valve is CCP.
I think you are confused. Valve would just remove Steam authentication.. not any DRM placed inside each game. 3rd Party games are still free to use their own DRM and some do.
When i was a kid i figured out that you could manually dial Compuserve numbers and not "login". They wouldn't kick you for 2 hrs. I had a sweet IBM Thinkpad and Compuserve was damn near everywhere.. it was great when traveling around. A 1-800 number would tell me the local compuserve dial up too. That internet was a different world from this one though.