He concludes, "So overall, Opera seems to be the fastest browser for windows. Firefox is not faster than Internet Explorer, except for scripting, but for standards support, security and features, it is a better choice. However, it is still not as fast as Opera, and Opera also offers a high level of standards support, security and features."
Wilton-Jones tested both version 1.0 and version 1.5 of Firefox. Does anyone have any thoughts on the performance of version 2.0?
Among the telecommunications companies, stands only 1 decent company: Qwest.
In a recent news article, the "Los Angeles Times" reports, "USA Today, which disclosed the program this week, reported that Qwest had refused to turn over its phone records because it believed it would be illegal. Qwest urged the NSA to get a court order, but the agency refused, the newspaper reported.
In a statement Friday, the attorney for former Qwest Chief Executive Joseph Nacchio said the government approached the company in the fall of 2001 seeking access to the phone records of Qwest customers, with neither a warrant nor approval from a special court established to handle surveillance matters.
'Mr. Nacchio concluded that these requests violated the privacy requirements of the Telecommunications Act,' attorney Herbert J. Stern said."
I encourage everyone to support Qwest by making it their preferred telecommunications provider.
Interestingly, AT&T is one of the companies that eagerly gave the customers' telephone records to the government. AT&T is also affiliated with Yahoo DSL via AT&T's merger with Pacific Bell. No one should be surprised at the connection between AT&T and Yahoo. Yahoo is the company that assisted Beijing in arresting and imprisoning several reporters in China.
I encourage everyone to use Qwest as the preferred telecommunications provider and to use either MSN or Google as the preferred search engine. Use your economic might to defeat
tyranny.
Even if Yahoo is subject to the laws of Beijing, the management (including Chief Yahoo, Jerry Yang) of Yahoo can still make significant attempts to thwart Chinese violations of human rights. In a 2005 report titled "Information supplied by Yahoo! helped journalist Shi Tao get 10 years in prison", Reporters without Borders states, "Tests carried out by Reporters Without Borders seem to indicate that the servers used for the Yahoo.com.cn e-mail service, from which the information about Shi was extracted, are located on the Chinese mainland."
Keeping the servers in the United States of America (USA) would ensure that any Chinese policeman (a.k.a. thug) seeking e-information must first submit his request through American
diplomatic channels. Of course, once the Chinese thug's request reaches the Americans, the Americans will just flush the request down the toilet.
News reports (like the recent one) about censorship in China appear frequently in this forum. The best that we and other Westerners can do is to apply subtle pressure to the Chinese people, not just Beijing, to reform.
However, we can do little more.
Freedom in China ultimately depends on the citizenry. Barring external intervention, the future of a people are determined by the people. Period.
The story repeated itself in all of Eastern Europe. Once it was free from the external intervention of the Soviet Union, the Eastern Europeans collectively decided that they wanted freedom, and they got it. They forced their authoritarian governments out of power.
The story is quite different in China. No one is imposing authoritarian rule on China. If the Chinese people wanted to enjoy the same democracy and human rights that we have in the West, then the Chinese people could get democracy and human rights tomorrow. The problem is that most Chinese either support authoritarianism or are indifferent to it. President Hu Jintao (the dictator of China), all by himself, cannot impose authoritarian rule on China. Hu has a lot of supporters.
That is the difference between Eastern Europe and China. I respect the Eastern Europeans.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has a web page offering an artist's rendition of the supersonic jet plane. There is also a picture of a scaled-down model of the plane. The model was successfully tested in late 2005.
A little bit of mental morphing of the image could transform it into the pre-Federation Enterprise (NX-01). Will the Vulcans make first contact in Tokyo?
About 2 months ago, the management of Microsoft and Google testified, under oath in front of a Congressional committee, that they fully supported freedom of speech/press and that they greatly regret being "forced" by Beijing to censor their Internet content. If both companies indeed regret such censorship, then I fully expect them to fund this Canadian effort to bust the Chinese firewall.
Moreover, I fully expect that the majority of the funding for this Canadian effort will come from Microsoft and Google. I expect that both companies will be (if they are not already) the prime backers of this effort if their management do honestly regret the previous censorship.
According to a special investigative report by the "Washington Times",
"Contagious diseases are entering the United States because of immigrants,
illegal aliens, refugees and travelers, and World Health Organization
officials say the worst could be yet to come".
The author the report further states,
"In 2003, nearly 26 percent of foreign-born TB patients in the United States were from Mexico".
The author also warns, "Federal data suggest that as many as 10 percent of the approximately 1,000 Mexicans who emigrate to the United States daily probably are infected with Chagas, said Dr. Louis V. Kirchhoff, a Chagas specialist and a professor at the University of Iowa's medical school". Chagas is fatal and kills you via a set of debilitating chronic conditions which manifest themselves decades after initial infection.
DAldredge (2353) incorrectly stated, "This isn't about being green,..." On the contrary, the CNN report mentioned in the lead article starting this thread of discussion talks explicitly about recycling.
In that report, note that Apple received the second highest score in the category of "DISPOSAL CHAIN". That category indicates the degree to which a company will audit
the entire disposal chain (including work sub-contracted to suspicious companies
in China, Taiwan Province, and Korea) to ensure that recycling of old computer equipment
is done in accordance with the most ethical, most responsible practices.
Finally, the recent decision by Apple management to take back old equipment
for free is probably due to the tireless efforts of the Silicon
Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) and other groups in the Computer TAKE-BACK Campaign (CTBC). When Steve Jobs gave the keynote speech
at the 2005 graduation ceremony at Stanford University, CTBC flew a banner over the ceremony. The banner exclaimed, "STEVE - DON'T BE A MINI PLAYER - RECYCLE ALL E-WASTE".
In 1994, Intel's Pentium processor suffered from a division error. Intel handled the problem by initially requiring customers to "prove" that the error caused a serious impact on the customers' lives before Intel would agree to replace the defective chips. Later, after much pressure and lost credibility, Intel agreed to replace all the defective chips without requiring the customer to "prove" his case.
AMD has a unique opportunity to do the right thing: offering to replace all the defective chips. If AMD does the right thing, then it will only help AMD in its litigation against Intel and in various attempts to increase marketshare. After all, would you not prefer to buy from a reputable company instead of a dishonest, shifty company?
Surpluses and shortages of labor are a normal part of the free market. Surpluses correct the overpricing of labor, and shortages correct the underpricing of labor. When the government attempts to "fix" the shortage by importing foreign workers, say, H-1B workers, and injecting them into the labor market, the government actually damages the operation of the free market.
When the government counteracts the corrective force of the shortage, the government inevitably suppresses wages and salaries or prevents them from rising higher. This phenomenon is well explained in standard textbooks about economics.
The correct way to handle the shortage of high-tech labor is to prohibit the government from intervening in the labor market. Specifically, Washington should terminate the H-1B program. Washington should also terminate the the free flow of goods and services between the United States (which is a relatively free market) and (relatively) non-free markets like India and Mexico.
When the American government allows the free flow of goods and services (e.g., outsourcing) between India and the United States, the
Indian government intervention that has destroyed the economy of India and that, hence, has produced millions of underemployed Indians damages the operation of the free market in the USA. Specifically, Indian workers in the non-free market of India now determines the pricing of labor in the American labor market.
Washington should promote and protect the operation of the American free market by allowing free trade between the United States and only other (relatively) free markets like Canada and Japan. The free market itself will correct any shortage of computer scientists by dramatically raising wages and improving working conditions, thus attracting more people to become computer scientists. Wages eventually will rise to a point at which the supply of computer scientists satiates the demand.
Similar comments apply to the market for unskilled labor. To resolve any labor shortage, the free market will automatically produce more unskilled labor by raising wages and improving working conditions -- if the government stops importing Mexican illegal aliens to eliminate labor shortages. When Washington floods the unskilled-labor market with illegal aliens, Washington inevitably damages the normal corrective force of a labor shortage and, hence, damages the operation of the free market.
The free exchange of goods and services (including labor) between the United States and India damages how the (relatively) free market operates in the United States. The (relatively) non-free market in India has destroyed much of its economy. The majority of Indians are unemployed or underemployed. Although the news reports describing the tech boom in India is accurate, that boom is largely restricted to the tech sector. The remainder of the Indian economy is in terrible shape. Indian government intervention in that economy generates hordes of desperate labor that flood into the United States or into the Indian tech sector.
The final result is that, due to the free flow of services (including labor in the form of outsourcing) between the United States and India, Indian government intervention now indirectly damages the operation of the American free market (for high-tech labor), suppressing wages and diminishing working conditions.
You see a similar phenomenon in the unskilled-labor market. Mexican government intervention in the Mexican economy generates hordes of desperate labor that floods the American market for unskilled labor. The presence of Mexican illegal aliens in the American market suppresses wages and diminishes working conditions as American employers exploit a nearly limitless supply of desperate workers willing to work for slave wages in dangerous or grueling conditions.
No job in America is safe from this destruction to the free market.
You should select the job doing the kind of work that most interests you. In your spare time on the weekend, stay abreast of international news. Vote for populist politicians who support free trade between the United States and only other (relatively) free markets like Canada and Japan, not Mexico nor India. Support policies that terminate trade between the United States and (relatively) non-free markets like Mexico or India.
Also support policies that compel Washington to aggressively intervene in both the Mexican government and the Indian government. The nature of the intervention should be at least as aggressive as the Mexican meddling (by Vicente Fox and his corrupt ilk) in the American Congress. Washington should eliminate Mexican politicians and Indian politicians who promote the economic destruction that has generated hordes of desperate labor fleeing to the United States.
This technology is just a short step from "designer" people. Eventually, you will be able to create the type of kids or soldiers which the parents or the army wants.
The above 3 technologies come directly from "Star Trek: The Original Series". Is there a cosmic reason for the sudden confluence of 3 key elements of Star Trek?
Gene Roddenberry's insight into the future is nearly impeccable. I am almost expecting first contact with the Vulcans.
1. U.S. Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789
2. Torture Victim Prevention Act (TVPA) of 1991
The family of the reporter arrested by the Chinese Gestapo can sue Yahoo! under both laws. They enable foreigners, in an American court, to sue foreign entities which commit violations of human rights.
I have one word of advice to the family. Namely, the family can (under both laws) and should sue Jerry Yang, in addition to Yahoo!. Yang expressly supported the actions of the company and has repeatedly bragged about Yahoo!'s entry into China. Yang also has $1 billion of net worth.
Show, to Yahoo! and Jerry Yang, the same mercy that Yahoo! and Yang showed to the reported arrested and tortured by Beijing.
The American government has an annual budget exceeding $2 trillion, yet according to MSNBC, the government cannot buy an adequate number of translators. (If Washington paid a translator salary of $200,000, hordes of translators would suddenly appear out of the woodwork.) Further, if these Iraqi documents are so vital, I would expect the American government to keep them under wraps. I would not want the enemy to know that we have them in the event that those documents tell us what the enemy's next move is.
This story simply does not add up.
The real story behind this story is that the American government is doing one of two things: (1) psy-ops (i.e. psychological warfare) against the enemy or (2) political games to improve support for the Iraqi war effort.
Washington knows that the Muslim fascists monitor worldwide news sources. Washington may be publicizing these documents in an effort to hint (to the fascists) that (1) these documents are just the tip of the iceberg and (2) there are additional documents (in our possession) that indicate where the fascists are hiding and what their next moves are.
Alternatively, Washington knows that some pro-war Republican/Democratic bloggers will scan these documents. Further, Washington knows that on, say, page 15 (of the documents), there is a tidbit or blatant statement asserting that Saddam Hussein had planned to create weapons of mass destruction all along. Washington hopes that the bloggers will find page 15 and will start hollering about how right we were to invade Iraq. In short, the bloggers are mindless automatons, and Washington has just skillfully manipulated public opinion.
More to the point, the distance between San Francisco (in California, USA) and London (in England) is about 5000 miles. That same passenger jet at mach 7 can bring its passengers from London to San Francisco in about 1 hour. The trip would be much cheaper than that offered by a subsonic plane because 1 hour is only enough time for cheap snacks like airline peanuts and Coca-Cola whereas a 14-hour flight would mean an expensive (but low-quality) dinner tray.
On the other hand, a 1-hour flight would facilitate global infidelity. An errant British businessman could fly to San Francisco, have dinner and sex with his squeeze, and then return to London within 4 hours.
The article has two sets of contradictions. Consider the following statements taken directly from the article.
1. "Students have always poured into the most lucrative and promising careers. If IT salaries doubled tomorrow, college students might give IT another look and start switching majors; the flow of newly minted technologists would quickly increase."
The above quote is factually correct and describes how a free market works. In the labor market, a shortage of labor is a power force that boosts wages and improves working conditions. Eventually, wages rise sufficiently high that new workers enter a particular labor market (e.g. the market of computer programmers).
However, certain politicians oppose the idea of a free market for labor. When a labor shortage arises in the market for high-tech labor, such politicians attempt to damage the correcting force of the shortage by injecting H-1B workers into the market. When a labor shortage arises in the agricultural sector, such politicians attempt to damage the correcting force of the shortage by injecting illegal aliens into the market for unskilled labor. Both actions damage the ability of the labor market to function properly and, hence, suppress wages and working conditions.
A shortage of labor is not something that needs "fixing" by government intervention. The government does not intervene when there is a labor surplus -- like the surplus in the automobile sector (which is undergoing massive layoffs). Why does the government intervene when there is a labor shortage? Shortages are never permanent and require no government intervention in the form of H-1B workers or illegal aliens.
That observation takes us to the second quote.
2. "Former Intel CEO Craig Barrett has stated that wage differentials aren't the issue and that Intel would hire more U.S. engineers if it could find them."
That quote is a bald-faced lie. There is no shortage of engineers at the proper salary. Intel management can find plenty of American engineers if Intel management doubled salaries and boosted working conditions by, for example, eliminating the bell curve that managers use to "grade" employees. See quote #1 above. Quote #1 contradicts quote #2.
Intel simply does not want to raise salaries or to boost working conditions.
Intel's lie takes us to the third quote.
3. "That sentiment was backed up by IT leaders at the Premier 100 conference, where 70% said that they hire the most qualified workers, regardless of citizenship."
This quote is accurate. Contrary to the stated intentions of managers wanting to increase the H-1B cap, most managers do not hire Americans even if they are qualified. If both an American applicant and an H-1B applicant is qualified for a job, the manager will choose the applicant that is more qualified. That approach directly contradicts the stated intentions of managers from companies like Intel: the stated intention is that a manager will hire an American applicant meeting the qualifications but not necessarily offering better qualifications than a qualified H-1B applicant.
The H-1B program is a way for American companies to suppress wages and to avoid improving working conditions. The H-1B program damages the correcting force of shortages. A shortage in a free market is a normal force that requires no intervention by the government to "fix".
H-1B workers come from countries like India and China, which do not have free markets. The Indian and Chinese governments have damaged their own economies by suppressing free markets. H-1B workers represent indirect intervention in the American free market by the Indian and Chinese governments. Their actions damage how the labor market should work in the American free market.
ExxonMobile and its supporters in Washington state, "The earth belongs to man; he can wreck the earth in any way that he sees fit".
Before 2050, we will know which bit of wisdom is the right wisdom. By 2030, we will have burned up all easily retrieved oil. Significant portions of Artic and Antartic ice shelves will have melted away.
Unless we do something now to create carbon-neutral energy processes and to achieve zero-population growth, we -- rich and poor alike -- will face a miserable future of unstoppable climatic catastrophes.
This whole story is odd. The American government has an annual budget exceeding $2.0 trillion, yet that same government cannot seem to buy top-notch translators graduating from the academic pentagon: Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale University, University of Illinois (at Urbana-Champagne), and University of Wisconson (at Madison)?
I call, "BS", on this story.
The American government already knows what those documents state, in the Iraqi language. The purpose of presenting those documents to the public is to slyly hint, to the Iraqi insurgents, that Washington has even more documents and, more importantly, all the detailed information about their whereabouts and their next set of moves. Washington hopes that this threat just might scare the insurgents into leaving Iraq. Basically, Washington is doing psy-ops (psychological warfare) on the Internet.
The situation in Iraq is dire. Lacking sufficient troops to quell the insurgency, Washington just might exit Iraq, leaving it to spiral into civil war. The latest reports talk about Shiite death squads rounding up Sunnis and executing them. Sometimes, American soldiers are caught in the cross fire.
Washington will do everything (including psy-ops) that it can up until 2007 January 1, the start of the next presidential campaign season. After 2007 January 1, Washington will pull the troops out of Iraqi. On this matter, the veto-proof majority of Republicans and Democrats are united, and they will pull the troops out of this mess. The only people who disagree are George Bush, Condoleeza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld.
The current dispute between London and Washington is similar to the dispute that arose between Washington and Japan over the development of Japan's first indigenous fighter, the F-2, in the 1980s. At the time, Washington adamantly objected to the idea of Tokyo developing its own fighter aircraft without participation from American defense companies. Following years of exaggerated fears of Japanese hi-tech domination, Washington feared that this new fighter would be superior to anything that American companies could develop. So, Washington wanted access to the development program. Tokyo relented, and Washington basically forced Tokyo to use an existing American fighter as the basis of the development program.
Once the agreement for joint American-Japanese development was reached, Washington had a change of heart. It refused to give, to Tokyo, the source code for the fly-by-wire computer program that controls the flight of the F-16.
The following summarized the American hypocrisy in 1985.
1. Washington did not want Tokyo to develop its own, possibly superior, weapons system.
2. Once Tokyo agreed to work with the Americans on the weapons system, Washington wanted to ensure that Tokyo would not have access to critical technologies: e.g. fly-by-wire computer algorithms.
That attitude from the 1985 is alive and well in 2006 -- in the form of the current dispute between Washington and London. Washington seems to want its allies to be permanently dependent on American weapons technology.
What kind of BS is that?
Both London and Tokyo should ignore Washington's hypocritical position and should promptly lock Washington out of English and Japanese fighter-aircraft development. Once Washington sees that both the English and the Japanese can develop fighter aircraft that is actually superior to American jet fighters, then Washington will treat London and Tokyo as allies on equal footing.
Right now, Tokyo is deliberating on the fighter to replace its aging F-4 Phantoms. Hopefully, Tokyo will not succumb to American pressure and will design a 100% all-Japanese interceptor.
In 2005, ZDNet UK interviewed Jon von Tetzchner, the chief executive of Opera Softare. In response to a question about why the free version of Opera blinds the user with advertisements, he responded, "A lot of people don't like our ads, which is sad as we don't have a rich sugar daddy like the Mozilla Foundation. They [the Mozilla Firefox team] don't have to think about money as they're being funded. We're not being funded". Tetzchner was close to the truth. Apparently, the real sugar daddy is Google.
Safari has Apple. Internet Explorer has Microsoft. Firefox has Google. All 3 companies have the resources to fund development of their free browsers.
Opera is the stand out -- in the rain. Opera has Opera Software, but Opera Software is a tiny 230-person company. Unless the anti-establishment mavericks in tech communities like SlashDot aggressively support Opera by buying commercial Opera-Software products, Opera just might disappear, being squeezed to death by the big 3 browers: Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox.
Having used Internet Explore, Firefox, and Opera, I can swear that Opera is the fastest, most compact browser for the Windows environment. I hope that the best-marketed product (i.e. either Internet Explorer or Firefox) will not extinguish the technically best product (i.e. Opera). Still, business history has not been kind to the technically best products: e.g., DEC's Alpha processor and Sony's Betamax.
There is another angle to the controversy of SAP versus Oracle. I agree that Oracle products are probably slightly more cost effective than SAP products. The reason is that Oracle has an aggressive, Darwinian work environment in which workers are pressured to produce. During performance reviews, the manager subjects all her workers to a Bell curve.
By contrast, SAP has a kinder, gentler work environment that is subject to Germany's rules supporting a slightly socialist economy. The German products may not be as good as the American products, but at least, the German workers are happier than their American workers.
In the SlashDot forum, many participants rail against the brutal competition posed by Indian workers who work for a fraction of the pay and benefits that American workers enjoy. If you are such a participant, then surely you prefer buying SAP products over Oracle products since SAP treats its workers far better than Oracle.
On the other hand, if you believe that Americans should reduce their salaries to the level of the Indian salary and that Americans should dramatically increase their working hours to the level of the average Indian engineer's working hours, then surely your must prefer Oracle products. After all, the ends (i.e. cheap, high-quality products) justifies the means (i.e. brutalizing the workers).
The prize was quite belated, but fortunately, Peter Naur received it before he died. The reason for the unreasonable delay is that prizes are political. The person DEF who receives the "right" support and the "right" letter of commendation from the "right" people has a much better chance of receiving a prize (from IEEE, ACM, Seymour Cray Engineering Award Committee, etc.) than the person GHI who receives no such support even though person GHI's achievement is more scientifically amazing than person DEF's achievement.
Take the example of John Hennessy. What exactly did he accomplish apart from what his graduate students developed? Yet, through politics, he was able to transform his students' work into his own success. He received the Seymour Cray Engineering Award and was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering.
Returning to ALGOL 60, its syntax has been used as the de-facto standard for describing computer algorithms from 1960 to 1990. ALGOL is inspiration behind Pascal. Further, ALGOL is the first computer language to be designed by actual computer scientists instead of hackers.
I am glad that justice prevailed even though it was belated. Peter earned a prize that was actually well deserved. His ALGOL 60 was key milestone in the development of computer science.
Unfortunately, Gary Kildall did not receive the prize that he deserved while he was alive. William Gates buried him -- figuratively and literally. The Software Publishers Association gave Kildall an award after he died.
A good compromise is to extend the Sullivan Principles (SP) to human rights in China. For years, American companies doing business in South Africa
at the height of its apartheid perversion abided by the SP and treated African
workers fairly, irrespective of the color of their skin. The key is that the
American companies presented a united front abiding by principles of civil rights.
Western companies like Google, Microsoft, and the like could present a unified
front in dealing with Beijing. They could agree to Western Principles (WP), an
expanded version of the SP. Specifically, these companies agree to not assist
the Chinese government, in any way, to abridge human rights. If Beijing retaliates
by kicking Google out of China, then Beijing will expel all the other signatories
to the WP. In this way, no Western company will gain an economic advantage over any
other Western company.
How should we handle Taiwanese companies? Long before Yahoo's indifference to human rights in China, Taiwanese companies have routinely ignored human rights in China. In fact, when Western governments and companies curtailed their investments in order to punish Beijing for the incident at Tienanmen Square in 1989, the Taiwanese actually accelerated investments into China, thwarting Western
economic sanctions against Beijing.
If Western companies abided by WP but Taiwanese companies ignored WP and human rights, then the Taiwanese companies would enjoy an economic advantage (in China) over Western companies. How can we deal with this situation? We boycott all products manufactured by or sold by Taiwanese companies. The boycott will level the playing field.
As the slowing sales of Dell computers indicate, the personal-computer market in the developed world (e.g. USA, Japan, and Europe) has reached saturation. Gateway represents surplus capacity. It always leads to only 1 conclusion: liquidation.
One unrealistic possibility for Gateway is to focus on the developing countries like China, but companies like Lenovo have the home-court advantage. Lenovo has close relationships with Taiwanese computer-chip manufacturers (who also sell their wares to the Chinese military in Beijing). Lenovo can also exploit ultra-low-cost labor in China.
How can Gateway compete against Lenovo? Gateway cannot. IBM could not and sold its PC division to Lenovo.
Since the Cell is now integrated into the military apparatus of the best-funded military aparatus in the world, the Cell will live essentially forever. For the same reason, Ada (i.e. the computer language) will live forever even though few people in industry use the language.
By the way, Cell is also IBM's answer to Sun's Niagara. For years, Sun touted Niagara as a new revolution in computing: Niagara is supposedly the first commercially viable processor to use hordes of cores to quickly executed multithreaded applications.
Yet, Cell also uses hordes of cores. Though the Cell is 1 complex general-purpose POWER core plus 8 simple supporting specialized cores, IBM could easily downgrade the 1 complex core to a simple core (thus yielding additional silicon area) and upgrade the 8 simple specialized cores to 8 simple general-purpose cores. The hard part is linking the 9 cores together, but IBM already solved that problem when it created the Cell. (Intel is also working on a processor with hordes of cores.) If Niagara-based servers ever become popular, IBM is already prepared to launch a general-purpose Cell-based server.
The difference between the Cell and the Niagara is that the American military uses Cell, not Niagara. The American military will subsidize research on Cell.
Slashdot Mirror
He concludes, " So overall, Opera seems to be the fastest browser for windows. Firefox is not faster than Internet Explorer, except for scripting, but for standards support, security and features, it is a better choice. However, it is still not as fast as Opera, and Opera also offers a high level of standards support, security and features. "
Wilton-Jones tested both version 1.0 and version 1.5 of Firefox. Does anyone have any thoughts on the performance of version 2.0?
In a recent news article, the "Los Angeles Times" reports, " USA Today, which disclosed the program this week, reported that Qwest had refused to turn over its phone records because it believed it would be illegal. Qwest urged the NSA to get a court order, but the agency refused, the newspaper reported.
In a statement Friday, the attorney for former Qwest Chief Executive Joseph Nacchio said the government approached the company in the fall of 2001 seeking access to the phone records of Qwest customers, with neither a warrant nor approval from a special court established to handle surveillance matters.
'Mr. Nacchio concluded that these requests violated the privacy requirements of the Telecommunications Act,' attorney Herbert J. Stern said. "
I encourage everyone to support Qwest by making it their preferred telecommunications provider.
Interestingly, AT&T is one of the companies that eagerly gave the customers' telephone records to the government. AT&T is also affiliated with Yahoo DSL via AT&T's merger with Pacific Bell. No one should be surprised at the connection between AT&T and Yahoo. Yahoo is the company that assisted Beijing in arresting and imprisoning several reporters in China.
I encourage everyone to use Qwest as the preferred telecommunications provider and to use either MSN or Google as the preferred search engine. Use your economic might to defeat tyranny.
In a 2006 report titled "Still no reaction from Yahoo! after fourth case of collaboration with chinese police uncovered", Reporters without Borders pleaded, "Reporters Without Borders called on Yahoo! to withdraw its Internet servers from China as a fourth case was revealed of the company's collaboration with Chinese police that led to the jailing of a cyberdissident."
Keeping the servers in the United States of America (USA) would ensure that any Chinese policeman (a.k.a. thug) seeking e-information must first submit his request through American diplomatic channels. Of course, once the Chinese thug's request reaches the Americans, the Americans will just flush the request down the toilet.
Note that although both Google and Microsoft have censored their search engines in China, both Google and Microsoft continue to keep their servers in the United States of America. Yet, Yahoo continues to keep their servers (serving the Chinese market) in China. Yahoo has thus far refused to move its servers to the USA.
However, we can do little more.
Freedom in China ultimately depends on the citizenry. Barring external intervention, the future of a people are determined by the people. Period.
Back in 1989, Czechoslovakia had a population of about 15.6 million. In November of that year, 800,000 citizens assembled in Prague and demanded freedom. 800,000 is about 5% of the nation's population.
The story repeated itself in all of Eastern Europe. Once it was free from the external intervention of the Soviet Union, the Eastern Europeans collectively decided that they wanted freedom, and they got it. They forced their authoritarian governments out of power.
The story is quite different in China. No one is imposing authoritarian rule on China. If the Chinese people wanted to enjoy the same democracy and human rights that we have in the West, then the Chinese people could get democracy and human rights tomorrow. The problem is that most Chinese either support authoritarianism or are indifferent to it. President Hu Jintao (the dictator of China), all by himself, cannot impose authoritarian rule on China. Hu has a lot of supporters.
That is the difference between Eastern Europe and China. I respect the Eastern Europeans.
A little bit of mental morphing of the image could transform it into the pre-Federation Enterprise (NX-01). Will the Vulcans make first contact in Tokyo?
Moreover, I fully expect that the majority of the funding for this Canadian effort will come from Microsoft and Google. I expect that both companies will be (if they are not already) the prime backers of this effort if their management do honestly regret the previous censorship.
I expect nothing of Yahoo. Reporters without Borders declares, "Now we know Yahoo works regularly and efficiently with the Chinese police". If Buddhism has any validity, the managers (including the Yahoo chief, Jerry Yang) at Yahoo will be receiving their just karma in the next life.
The author the report further states, " In 2003, nearly 26 percent of foreign-born TB patients in the United States were from Mexico ".
The author also warns, "Federal data suggest that as many as 10 percent of the approximately 1,000 Mexicans who emigrate to the United States daily probably are infected with Chagas , said Dr. Louis V. Kirchhoff, a Chagas specialist and a professor at the University of Iowa's medical school". Chagas is fatal and kills you via a set of debilitating chronic conditions which manifest themselves decades after initial infection.
How has Apple handled recycling?
According to the "The 2005 Computer Report Card" by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, "Apple, Dell, Gateway, and HP are the companies that use recyclers that have signed the Electronic Recyclers Pledge of Stewardship. To learn more about the Recycler Pledge go to: http://www.svtc.org///cleancc/recycle/recycler_ple dge.htm".
In that report, note that Apple received the second highest score in the category of "DISPOSAL CHAIN". That category indicates the degree to which a company will audit the entire disposal chain (including work sub-contracted to suspicious companies in China, Taiwan Province, and Korea) to ensure that recycling of old computer equipment is done in accordance with the most ethical, most responsible practices.
Note that Apple management actually signed the Electronics Recycler's Pledge of True Stewardship, committing to the gold standard of ethical, responsible recycling.
Finally, the recent decision by Apple management to take back old equipment for free is probably due to the tireless efforts of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) and other groups in the Computer TAKE-BACK Campaign (CTBC). When Steve Jobs gave the keynote speech at the 2005 graduation ceremony at Stanford University, CTBC flew a banner over the ceremony. The banner exclaimed, "STEVE - DON'T BE A MINI PLAYER - RECYCLE ALL E-WASTE".
AMD has a unique opportunity to do the right thing: offering to replace all the defective chips. If AMD does the right thing, then it will only help AMD in its litigation against Intel and in various attempts to increase marketshare. After all, would you not prefer to buy from a reputable company instead of a dishonest, shifty company?
When the government counteracts the corrective force of the shortage, the government inevitably suppresses wages and salaries or prevents them from rising higher. This phenomenon is well explained in standard textbooks about economics.
The correct way to handle the shortage of high-tech labor is to prohibit the government from intervening in the labor market. Specifically, Washington should terminate the H-1B program. Washington should also terminate the the free flow of goods and services between the United States (which is a relatively free market) and (relatively) non-free markets like India and Mexico.
When the American government allows the free flow of goods and services (e.g., outsourcing) between India and the United States, the Indian government intervention that has destroyed the economy of India and that, hence, has produced millions of underemployed Indians damages the operation of the free market in the USA. Specifically, Indian workers in the non-free market of India now determines the pricing of labor in the American labor market.
Washington should promote and protect the operation of the American free market by allowing free trade between the United States and only other (relatively) free markets like Canada and Japan. The free market itself will correct any shortage of computer scientists by dramatically raising wages and improving working conditions, thus attracting more people to become computer scientists. Wages eventually will rise to a point at which the supply of computer scientists satiates the demand.
Similar comments apply to the market for unskilled labor. To resolve any labor shortage, the free market will automatically produce more unskilled labor by raising wages and improving working conditions -- if the government stops importing Mexican illegal aliens to eliminate labor shortages. When Washington floods the unskilled-labor market with illegal aliens, Washington inevitably damages the normal corrective force of a labor shortage and, hence, damages the operation of the free market.
The final result is that, due to the free flow of services (including labor in the form of outsourcing) between the United States and India, Indian government intervention now indirectly damages the operation of the American free market (for high-tech labor), suppressing wages and diminishing working conditions.
You see a similar phenomenon in the unskilled-labor market. Mexican government intervention in the Mexican economy generates hordes of desperate labor that floods the American market for unskilled labor. The presence of Mexican illegal aliens in the American market suppresses wages and diminishes working conditions as American employers exploit a nearly limitless supply of desperate workers willing to work for slave wages in dangerous or grueling conditions.
No job in America is safe from this destruction to the free market.
You should select the job doing the kind of work that most interests you. In your spare time on the weekend, stay abreast of international news. Vote for populist politicians who support free trade between the United States and only other (relatively) free markets like Canada and Japan, not Mexico nor India. Support policies that terminate trade between the United States and (relatively) non-free markets like Mexico or India.
Also support policies that compel Washington to aggressively intervene in both the Mexican government and the Indian government. The nature of the intervention should be at least as aggressive as the Mexican meddling (by Vicente Fox and his corrupt ilk) in the American Congress. Washington should eliminate Mexican politicians and Indian politicians who promote the economic destruction that has generated hordes of desperate labor fleeing to the United States.
On 2005 August 24, Slashdot reported that Washington is working to develop laser cannons (i.e. "phasers").
On 2006 January 5, Slashdot reported that Washington is working to develop warp engines.
Now, on 2006 April 1, Slashdot is reporting about a technology that will enable us to create "supermen", like those described in the Star-Trek episode titled "Space Seed".
The above 3 technologies come directly from "Star Trek: The Original Series". Is there a cosmic reason for the sudden confluence of 3 key elements of Star Trek?
Gene Roddenberry's insight into the future is nearly impeccable. I am almost expecting first contact with the Vulcans.
1. U.S. Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789
2. Torture Victim Prevention Act (TVPA) of 1991
The family of the reporter arrested by the Chinese Gestapo can sue Yahoo! under both laws. They enable foreigners, in an American court, to sue foreign entities which commit violations of human rights.
I have one word of advice to the family. Namely, the family can (under both laws) and should sue Jerry Yang, in addition to Yahoo!. Yang expressly supported the actions of the company and has repeatedly bragged about Yahoo!'s entry into China. Yang also has $1 billion of net worth.
Show, to Yahoo! and Jerry Yang, the same mercy that Yahoo! and Yang showed to the reported arrested and tortured by Beijing.
This story simply does not add up.
The real story behind this story is that the American government is doing one of two things: (1) psy-ops (i.e. psychological warfare) against the enemy or (2) political games to improve support for the Iraqi war effort.
Washington knows that the Muslim fascists monitor worldwide news sources. Washington may be publicizing these documents in an effort to hint (to the fascists) that (1) these documents are just the tip of the iceberg and (2) there are additional documents (in our possession) that indicate where the fascists are hiding and what their next moves are.
Alternatively, Washington knows that some pro-war Republican/Democratic bloggers will scan these documents. Further, Washington knows that on, say, page 15 (of the documents), there is a tidbit or blatant statement asserting that Saddam Hussein had planned to create weapons of mass destruction all along. Washington hopes that the bloggers will find page 15 and will start hollering about how right we were to invade Iraq. In short, the bloggers are mindless automatons, and Washington has just skillfully manipulated public opinion.
P.S.
Another version of this story was already published by SlashDot on March 19.
More to the point, the distance between San Francisco (in California, USA) and London (in England) is about 5000 miles. That same passenger jet at mach 7 can bring its passengers from London to San Francisco in about 1 hour. The trip would be much cheaper than that offered by a subsonic plane because 1 hour is only enough time for cheap snacks like airline peanuts and Coca-Cola whereas a 14-hour flight would mean an expensive (but low-quality) dinner tray.
On the other hand, a 1-hour flight would facilitate global infidelity. An errant British businessman could fly to San Francisco, have dinner and sex with his squeeze, and then return to London within 4 hours.
1. " Students have always poured into the most lucrative and promising careers. If IT salaries doubled tomorrow, college students might give IT another look and start switching majors; the flow of newly minted technologists would quickly increase ."
The above quote is factually correct and describes how a free market works. In the labor market, a shortage of labor is a power force that boosts wages and improves working conditions. Eventually, wages rise sufficiently high that new workers enter a particular labor market (e.g. the market of computer programmers).
However, certain politicians oppose the idea of a free market for labor. When a labor shortage arises in the market for high-tech labor, such politicians attempt to damage the correcting force of the shortage by injecting H-1B workers into the market. When a labor shortage arises in the agricultural sector, such politicians attempt to damage the correcting force of the shortage by injecting illegal aliens into the market for unskilled labor. Both actions damage the ability of the labor market to function properly and, hence, suppress wages and working conditions.
A shortage of labor is not something that needs "fixing" by government intervention. The government does not intervene when there is a labor surplus -- like the surplus in the automobile sector (which is undergoing massive layoffs). Why does the government intervene when there is a labor shortage? Shortages are never permanent and require no government intervention in the form of H-1B workers or illegal aliens.
That observation takes us to the second quote.
2. " Former Intel CEO Craig Barrett has stated that wage differentials aren't the issue and that Intel would hire more U.S. engineers if it could find them ."
That quote is a bald-faced lie. There is no shortage of engineers at the proper salary. Intel management can find plenty of American engineers if Intel management doubled salaries and boosted working conditions by, for example, eliminating the bell curve that managers use to "grade" employees. See quote #1 above. Quote #1 contradicts quote #2.
Intel simply does not want to raise salaries or to boost working conditions.
Intel's lie takes us to the third quote.
3. " That sentiment was backed up by IT leaders at the Premier 100 conference, where 70% said that they hire the most qualified workers, regardless of citizenship ."
This quote is accurate. Contrary to the stated intentions of managers wanting to increase the H-1B cap, most managers do not hire Americans even if they are qualified. If both an American applicant and an H-1B applicant is qualified for a job, the manager will choose the applicant that is more qualified. That approach directly contradicts the stated intentions of managers from companies like Intel: the stated intention is that a manager will hire an American applicant meeting the qualifications but not necessarily offering better qualifications than a qualified H-1B applicant.
The H-1B program is a way for American companies to suppress wages and to avoid improving working conditions. The H-1B program damages the correcting force of shortages. A shortage in a free market is a normal force that requires no intervention by the government to "fix".
H-1B workers come from countries like India and China, which do not have free markets. The Indian and Chinese governments have damaged their own economies by suppressing free markets. H-1B workers represent indirect intervention in the American free market by the Indian and Chinese governments. Their actions damage how the labor market should work in the American free market.
Washington should allow
ExxonMobile and its supporters in Washington state, " The earth belongs to man; he can wreck the earth in any way that he sees fit ".
Before 2050, we will know which bit of wisdom is the right wisdom. By 2030, we will have burned up all easily retrieved oil. Significant portions of Artic and Antartic ice shelves will have melted away.
Unless we do something now to create carbon-neutral energy processes and to achieve zero-population growth, we -- rich and poor alike -- will face a miserable future of unstoppable climatic catastrophes.
I call, "BS", on this story.
The American government already knows what those documents state, in the Iraqi language. The purpose of presenting those documents to the public is to slyly hint, to the Iraqi insurgents, that Washington has even more documents and, more importantly, all the detailed information about their whereabouts and their next set of moves. Washington hopes that this threat just might scare the insurgents into leaving Iraq. Basically, Washington is doing psy-ops (psychological warfare) on the Internet.
The situation in Iraq is dire. Lacking sufficient troops to quell the insurgency, Washington just might exit Iraq, leaving it to spiral into civil war. The latest reports talk about Shiite death squads rounding up Sunnis and executing them. Sometimes, American soldiers are caught in the cross fire.
Washington will do everything (including psy-ops) that it can up until 2007 January 1, the start of the next presidential campaign season. After 2007 January 1, Washington will pull the troops out of Iraqi. On this matter, the veto-proof majority of Republicans and Democrats are united, and they will pull the troops out of this mess. The only people who disagree are George Bush, Condoleeza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld.
Once the agreement for joint American-Japanese development was reached, Washington had a change of heart. It refused to give, to Tokyo, the source code for the fly-by-wire computer program that controls the flight of the F-16.
The following summarized the American hypocrisy in 1985.
1. Washington did not want Tokyo to develop its own, possibly superior, weapons system.
2. Once Tokyo agreed to work with the Americans on the weapons system, Washington wanted to ensure that Tokyo would not have access to critical technologies: e.g. fly-by-wire computer algorithms.
That attitude from the 1985 is alive and well in 2006 -- in the form of the current dispute between Washington and London. Washington seems to want its allies to be permanently dependent on American weapons technology.
What kind of BS is that?
Both London and Tokyo should ignore Washington's hypocritical position and should promptly lock Washington out of English and Japanese fighter-aircraft development. Once Washington sees that both the English and the Japanese can develop fighter aircraft that is actually superior to American jet fighters, then Washington will treat London and Tokyo as allies on equal footing.
Right now, Tokyo is deliberating on the fighter to replace its aging F-4 Phantoms. Hopefully, Tokyo will not succumb to American pressure and will design a 100% all-Japanese interceptor.
Safari has Apple. Internet Explorer has Microsoft. Firefox has Google. All 3 companies have the resources to fund development of their free browsers.
Opera is the stand out -- in the rain. Opera has Opera Software, but Opera Software is a tiny 230-person company. Unless the anti-establishment mavericks in tech communities like SlashDot aggressively support Opera by buying commercial Opera-Software products, Opera just might disappear, being squeezed to death by the big 3 browers: Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox.
Having used Internet Explore, Firefox, and Opera, I can swear that Opera is the fastest, most compact browser for the Windows environment. I hope that the best-marketed product (i.e. either Internet Explorer or Firefox) will not extinguish the technically best product (i.e. Opera). Still, business history has not been kind to the technically best products: e.g., DEC's Alpha processor and Sony's Betamax.
By contrast, SAP has a kinder, gentler work environment that is subject to Germany's rules supporting a slightly socialist economy. The German products may not be as good as the American products, but at least, the German workers are happier than their American workers.
In the SlashDot forum, many participants rail against the brutal competition posed by Indian workers who work for a fraction of the pay and benefits that American workers enjoy. If you are such a participant, then surely you prefer buying SAP products over Oracle products since SAP treats its workers far better than Oracle.
On the other hand, if you believe that Americans should reduce their salaries to the level of the Indian salary and that Americans should dramatically increase their working hours to the level of the average Indian engineer's working hours, then surely your must prefer Oracle products. After all, the ends (i.e. cheap, high-quality products) justifies the means (i.e. brutalizing the workers).
Take the example of John Hennessy. What exactly did he accomplish apart from what his graduate students developed? Yet, through politics, he was able to transform his students' work into his own success. He received the Seymour Cray Engineering Award and was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering.
Returning to ALGOL 60, its syntax has been used as the de-facto standard for describing computer algorithms from 1960 to 1990. ALGOL is inspiration behind Pascal. Further, ALGOL is the first computer language to be designed by actual computer scientists instead of hackers.
I am glad that justice prevailed even though it was belated. Peter earned a prize that was actually well deserved. His ALGOL 60 was key milestone in the development of computer science.
Unfortunately, Gary Kildall did not receive the prize that he deserved while he was alive. William Gates buried him -- figuratively and literally. The Software Publishers Association gave Kildall an award after he died.
Western companies like Google, Microsoft, and the like could present a unified front in dealing with Beijing. They could agree to Western Principles (WP), an expanded version of the SP. Specifically, these companies agree to not assist the Chinese government, in any way, to abridge human rights. If Beijing retaliates by kicking Google out of China, then Beijing will expel all the other signatories to the WP. In this way, no Western company will gain an economic advantage over any other Western company.
How should we handle Taiwanese companies? Long before Yahoo's indifference to human rights in China, Taiwanese companies have routinely ignored human rights in China. In fact, when Western governments and companies curtailed their investments in order to punish Beijing for the incident at Tienanmen Square in 1989, the Taiwanese actually accelerated investments into China, thwarting Western economic sanctions against Beijing.
If Western companies abided by WP but Taiwanese companies ignored WP and human rights, then the Taiwanese companies would enjoy an economic advantage (in China) over Western companies. How can we deal with this situation? We boycott all products manufactured by or sold by Taiwanese companies. The boycott will level the playing field.
One unrealistic possibility for Gateway is to focus on the developing countries like China, but companies like Lenovo have the home-court advantage. Lenovo has close relationships with Taiwanese computer-chip manufacturers (who also sell their wares to the Chinese military in Beijing). Lenovo can also exploit ultra-low-cost labor in China.
How can Gateway compete against Lenovo? Gateway cannot. IBM could not and sold its PC division to Lenovo.
Since the Cell is now integrated into the military apparatus of the best-funded military aparatus in the world, the Cell will live essentially forever. For the same reason, Ada (i.e. the computer language) will live forever even though few people in industry use the language.
By the way, Cell is also IBM's answer to Sun's Niagara. For years, Sun touted Niagara as a new revolution in computing: Niagara is supposedly the first commercially viable processor to use hordes of cores to quickly executed multithreaded applications.
Yet, Cell also uses hordes of cores. Though the Cell is 1 complex general-purpose POWER core plus 8 simple supporting specialized cores, IBM could easily downgrade the 1 complex core to a simple core (thus yielding additional silicon area) and upgrade the 8 simple specialized cores to 8 simple general-purpose cores. The hard part is linking the 9 cores together, but IBM already solved that problem when it created the Cell. (Intel is also working on a processor with hordes of cores.) If Niagara-based servers ever become popular, IBM is already prepared to launch a general-purpose Cell-based server.
The difference between the Cell and the Niagara is that the American military uses Cell, not Niagara. The American military will subsidize research on Cell.