The SARS epidemic is an example of a bad decision by society. Still, the finger of blame should not be pointed at all of human society. Human society has, in general, responded well to this epidemic. Look at the lightning speed at which Western society identified and contained the illness.
The finger of blame falls squarely on Chinese society. Read "China and SARS" by "The Economist". The majority of Chinese in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China support Beijing, and the Chinese in Beijing deliberately hid the extent of the epidemic and directly caused it to spread to the rest of the world.
The point is that there is nothing inevitable about human disasters: overpopulation, SARS epidemic, etc. We can all choose to act like Westerners and prevent a disaster. The alternative is to act like the Chinese and to rush headlong into disaster.
The choice is ours. Let's choose to be Westerners.
The underlying problem is overpopulation. If there were only 1 person in this world, he could not damage the earth regardless of how stupid his decisions might be. However, when there are 6 billion people, the cumulative effect of the 6 billion stupid decisions would destroy the earth.
The depletion of fish stock is an excellent example. 6 billion people catching and eating fish every day without regard to the existing fish supplies would deplete the oceans of fish.
Even as we speak, several varieties of fish are on the verge of distinction.
When Intel introduced the software emulator for the IA-32 (i. e.
the x86 32-bit architecture), Intel just opened the window for
IBM to re-enter the desktop market. Emulators are simple to write;
they need to be simple because, otherwise, the emulation would
be too slow. IBM should seize this window of opportunity to
write an x86 software emulator for the IA-32 and to package it with
their RedHat Linux distribution. Imagine a desktop with the PPC 970
powerhouse running IA-32 applications. Sweet.
Given the superior performance of the PPC 970 over the Itanium,
the emulated IA-32 would probably be equivalent to a 2.0 GHz
Xeon.
Actually, there is no reason that a hacker from the Free Software
Foundation could not write a simply IA-32 emulator for the IBM PPC 970.
Are there any takers?
Sun, however, will not be able to do the same because the implementation
of the UltraSPARC III is rather poor. Its IA-32 emulation performance would
be worse than a 80486.
A critic writes, "You should watch your potentially racist rhetoric there. It
sounds like you are saying that Chinese people are naturally against the idea of
freedom. ".
One of the problems with Chinese thinking is that the Chinese consider
Americans or, in general, Westerners to be only "Whites" or "Blacks". The
Chinese do not consider, say, Vietnamese to be Americans. So, to the Chinese,
praising Americans means praising only "Whites" or "Blacks". The Chinese way of
thinking is racist. This observation is another reason why Westerners are
radically different from non-Westerners like the Chinese. For the record, when we Americans praise
Western society, we are praising all the ethnic groups in Western society. Let's stop thinking and
acting like the Chinese, okay? This matter is
not an issue of race but is an issue of culture.
The critic further writes, "First of all, Taiwan is also populated by Chinese,
and they
have grown out of an opressive military regime into a fairly well functioning
democracy ".
Let's consider the following.
The constitution of the Chinese living in Taiwan supports the integration of
both Tibet and Mongolia into mainland China. While Tibetans suffer and die at
the hands of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the Chinese in Taiwan support
integrating Tibet into "One China".
The Chinese son of the chairman of a powerful conglomerate in
Taiwan has joined with the son of Jiang Zemin, the butcher of Tibet,
to build an advanced silicon-wafer factory in Shanghai.
(reference:
"Sons of
prominent Chinese
team up on chip venture")
Senior Chinese military officials retired from the Taiwanese military have gone to
mainland China
and given military secrets about the American F-16 fighter jet to the Beijing government.
(reference: "Sons of
prominent
Chinese team up on chip venture")
The Chinese from "poor, little, scared" Taiwan have invested more than
$50 billion into more than 50,000 businesses in mainland China. How did
this phenomenon happen? Immediately, after the Tienanman Square incident
back in June 4, 1989, the American government and businesses curtailed
investments in mainland China. The Taiwanese (and the other Chinese in
Hong Kong) seized this window of opportunity and accelerated investments
into mainland China. The rate of investments from Taiwan into China has
skyrocketed to the present levels; investments continue to grow at
double-digit rates.
In 1999, the "Wall Street Journal" reported that
of all the Chinese arrested and convicted of stealing American military
technology to give to Beijing, the majority of these Chinese came from Taiwan.
Please read
"Crypto
Smuggle Scheme Busted" for an example of Chinese (from Taiwan) who
were recently arrested for attempting to smuggle American military technology
to mainland China.
Do we really want the USA to become like Taiwan, the Chinese "democracy"?
Thanks, but no thanks.
Please read "national
statistics about Singapore" at World Atlas.
About 80% of the population in Singapore considers itself "Chinese".
Most of them support the Singaporean laws that suppress civil liberties and
human rights.
Examples include the periodic banning of "The
Economst", arresting people holding a peaceful demonstration against
the government, encouraging eugenics (i. e. breeding "smart" people), etc.
The former prime minister, Lee Quan Yew, had implemented a policy of eugenics.
These and other shocking examples of civil-rights/human-rights violations are described at
"Singaporean-statistics web page" by Freedom House. Singapore
has a law called the Internal Security Act. It is the Chinese version of the Patriot Act and is a clear violation of civil liberties. Further, most Chinese
support the Singaporean laws. They even support the laws that banned or
restricted "Time Magazine", "Far Eastern Economic Review", and "The Economist".
Singapore is an example of what the Chinese have done. It is also an example
of what the United States must never become.
We Americans must protest the
Patriot Act and its variants. We must support civil liberties and human rights.
Otherwise, our society will degenerate into a place like Singapore or, worse, China.
The Patriot Act is one of those pieces of legislation which
tests the mettle of being an American or, in general, a Westerner.
What makes us different from non-Westerners like the Chinese is
that when our basic freedoms are violated, we protest. We support
the ACLU. We support Amnesty International. In short, we support basic human
rights and civil liberties.
What will become of the USA if we allow the Patriot Act to continue
suppressing our freedoms? Think "China" or "Chinese society".
The Chinese in Singapore regularly ban "The
Economist", a reputable journal. The Chinese will throw you into
prison for holding a peaceful demonstration against the government.
Note that the Patriot Act curtails the Freedom of Information Act.
What happens when government prevents its own citizens from knowing
the activities of the government? Think "Chinese government". The
Chinese in Beijing covered up the lethal illness called "Sudden
Accute Respiratory Syndrome", and this coverup engendered the
proliferation of the SARS epidemic to all corners of the globe.
Read "China
and SARS". Indeed, the majority of Chinese believe that "maintaining
social order [is] more important than democracy". This "maintaining social order" means "restricting freedom of speech, press, and assembly". Read
"Poll:
Hong Kong residents optimistic".
Both Singapore and the USA are modern societies in terms of technology.
Yet, most people prefer to live in the USA, not Singapore, because
of the openness and freedom in American society.
What distinguishes us Americans from the Chinese is our willingness
to support freedom of thought and speech and to support openness in our
own government. Otherwise, the USA will degenerate into a nation like
Singapore or, worse, China.
We should trust CNN, Time, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, etc. because historically their information has been accurate. They have a policy of firing reporters who fabricate stories. It is a matter of trust and integrity.
The following accusation indicates discomfort with the results of a report.
Personally I don't trust CNN's content. They
very often don't have a clue about what
they're talking about, and often push an
agenda outright.
Well, too bad. I trust the CNN reporter more than I trust your groundless accusation.
The report by the CNN reporter is consistent with other behavior by the Chinese in Hong Kong. During 10 years prior to 1997, the Chinese were totally silent on the matter of creating an independent Republic of Hong Kong. No group held a demonstration demanding independence. You will not find even 1 news article (from a reputable Western source) indicating that a large group of Chinese in Hong Kong held a demonstration clamoring for independence. Surprised? Most Americans are surprised.
For a long time, Americans mistakenly believed that the Chinese in Hong Kong want to be independent of China. Now, we have both a poll (by CNN/Time) and an observation (that there were no demonstrations clamoring for independence) to prove that the Chinese in Hong Kong cheered the Chinese government and supported unification.
The success of the online news media is great news.
The online news has proved to be a wonderful tool in
simply educating people. Consider what life was like
15 years ago. When we talk to our friends, we might
recall some fact that we read, but we might not be able
to recall all its details or its source. With online
news coupled with general search engines like Google or
coupled with a Website-specific search engine, we can easily find
the article that we read and can easily refer it to our
friends (via e-mail ) or a more general audience (via
Slashdot, e.g.).
Here is an example.
Consider "Poll:
Hong Kong residents optimistic". I have been able to
refer this article to several friends and acquaintances
over the course of several years. Unlike an article from
an old newspaper, the online article will not be lost or
will not disappear with time. The article is shocking and dispels
many of the myths about Chinese society. Before reading
the article, most Americans believed that the Chinese
are like, well, Americans. After reading the article,
most Americans believe otherwise. The majority of Chinese in Hong Kong
(to the shock of many Americans reading the article) actually
cheered the Chinese government and supported the unification of
Hong Kong and mainland China.
Anyhow, by ensuring that we all have an accurate picture of the
world, as citizens of Western society, we can better ensure
that Western governments enact legislation that best
deals with other nations and peoples. Better immigration
policy would be one result of the new online news.
AMD will likely drop the 3DNow! instructions in successors to the Athlon 64. AMD is unlikely to allow pride to get in the way of a faster clock frequency.
Another problem with supporting such a large instruction set is the debugging time. It is the primary reason that the Athlon 64 was delayed so long. In modern chip design, the fun part (i. e. the actual design) is about 20% of the development time. The other 80% is the debugging time. If the number of transistors increases by, say, 10%, then the deugging time may increase by 30%.
3DNow! had its use as a marketing tool to show that AMD can take leadership. Beyond that, 3DNow! is no longer justified since SSE2 and SSE can do whatever 3DNow! does.
Apologists for China immediately throw out cultural relativism to support any Chinese behavior: stealing intellectual property (i. e. pirating movies, pirating software, etc.), occupying Tibet, etc.
However, as soon as we use cultural relativism to, say, prohibit any Chinese immigration into the United States of America (USA), the apologists (of whom most are Chinese) are up in arms. They condemn us Americans for narrow-mindedness. Why? We can certainly use cultural relativism to justify why we must prevent Chinese from coming into the USA and contaminating Western culture.
Sure. If the Chinese really believe in cultural relativism, they are free to stay in China (and to stay out of the United States) and to steal and copy anything that they want from other Chinese. This widespread disregard for intellectual property will effectively end innovation in China. Its quality of life will stagnate. Meanwhile, in the West, we shall keep all the technology to ourselves as our Western nations prosper. Some future technologies on the horizon are the cure for AIDS and spinal-cord damage.
Even "Geeks" Know the Threats (e. g. China) to USA
on
Nuke-Lobbing
·
· Score: 1
Even "geeks" know that the world outside of the West is
hostile. We need to be prepared to use all methods that
are necessary. "All methods" includes dropping nuclear bombs
via the "goofy loop", shooting depleted-uranium shells, etc.
Remember these famous words: "The price of freedom is eternal
vigilance." Let us not forget our obligations to our fellow citizens
in the West even if we are "geeks".
10 Years Won't Solve Chinese Piracy of Movies
on
Foiling Cinema Pirates
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Most of the pirated copies of movies end up in distribution
channels in the software-piracy capital of the world. That
capital is the triad of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. In
Chinese society, most Chinese believe that stealing
movies, software, and other forms of intellectual property
is perfectly acceptable. For example, Huawei (a Chinese company)
recently stole the software that Cisco developed to control
its routers. The Chinese at Huawei copied the software
line for line -- even duplicating the same errors.
Here are some links to reputable sources that underscore
the problem in Chinese society.
Please read "
Singapore implicated as piracy hub". This article has a
chart showing that the rate of movie piracy for China, Hong Kong,
and Taiwan is 91%, 25%, and 44%, respectively. Contrast these shocking figures
with figures for normal Western countries like Australia and
Japan; their rate of movie piracy is 8%.
Please read
"
China Learns to Say, 'Stop, Thief!'". It explains that Chinese society
has a software piracy rate of 92% in 2002 and claims that this figure is an
improvement over the rate of 94% in 2001.
This problem of pirating movies and software is a cultural problem,
not a legal problem. Most Chinese simply believe that stealing
intellectual property is acceptable.
Your article, "Spy Suspect Led an Active, Prominent Life", was rather interesting. This Chinese was very persistent and spent nearly 20 years in helping Beijing to spy in the USA. With such persistence, it is imperative that organizations like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) pull funding from groups employing foreigners of suspect loyalty.
Slashdot Mirror
The finger of blame falls squarely on Chinese society. Read "China and SARS" by "The Economist". The majority of Chinese in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China support Beijing, and the Chinese in Beijing deliberately hid the extent of the epidemic and directly caused it to spread to the rest of the world.
The point is that there is nothing inevitable about human disasters: overpopulation, SARS epidemic, etc. We can all choose to act like Westerners and prevent a disaster. The alternative is to act like the Chinese and to rush headlong into disaster.
The choice is ours. Let's choose to be Westerners.
The depletion of fish stock is an excellent example. 6 billion people catching and eating fish every day without regard to the existing fish supplies would deplete the oceans of fish. Even as we speak, several varieties of fish are on the verge of distinction.
The world is overpopulated.
Please read "Inside the IBM PowerPC 970" by "ARS Technica". The PowerPC 970 clocks at 1.8 gigahertz.
Actually, there is no reason that a hacker from the Free Software Foundation could not write a simply IA-32 emulator for the IBM PPC 970. Are there any takers?
Sun, however, will not be able to do the same because the implementation of the UltraSPARC III is rather poor. Its IA-32 emulation performance would be worse than a 80486.
One of the problems with Chinese thinking is that the Chinese consider Americans or, in general, Westerners to be only "Whites" or "Blacks". The Chinese do not consider, say, Vietnamese to be Americans. So, to the Chinese, praising Americans means praising only "Whites" or "Blacks". The Chinese way of thinking is racist. This observation is another reason why Westerners are radically different from non-Westerners like the Chinese. For the record, when we Americans praise Western society, we are praising all the ethnic groups in Western society. Let's stop thinking and acting like the Chinese, okay? This matter is not an issue of race but is an issue of culture.
The critic further writes, " First of all, Taiwan is also populated by Chinese, and they have grown out of an opressive military regime into a fairly well functioning democracy ".
Let's consider the following.
-
-
-
-
-
Do we really want the USA to become like Taiwan, the Chinese "democracy"? Thanks, but no thanks.The constitution of the Chinese living in Taiwan supports the integration of both Tibet and Mongolia into mainland China. While Tibetans suffer and die at the hands of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the Chinese in Taiwan support integrating Tibet into "One China".
The Chinese son of the chairman of a powerful conglomerate in Taiwan has joined with the son of Jiang Zemin, the butcher of Tibet, to build an advanced silicon-wafer factory in Shanghai. (reference: "Sons of prominent Chinese team up on chip venture")
Senior Chinese military officials retired from the Taiwanese military have gone to mainland China and given military secrets about the American F-16 fighter jet to the Beijing government. (reference: "Sons of prominent Chinese team up on chip venture")
The Chinese from "poor, little, scared" Taiwan have invested more than $50 billion into more than 50,000 businesses in mainland China. How did this phenomenon happen? Immediately, after the Tienanman Square incident back in June 4, 1989, the American government and businesses curtailed investments in mainland China. The Taiwanese (and the other Chinese in Hong Kong) seized this window of opportunity and accelerated investments into mainland China. The rate of investments from Taiwan into China has skyrocketed to the present levels; investments continue to grow at double-digit rates.
In 1999, the "Wall Street Journal" reported that of all the Chinese arrested and convicted of stealing American military technology to give to Beijing, the majority of these Chinese came from Taiwan. Please read "Crypto Smuggle Scheme Busted" for an example of Chinese (from Taiwan) who were recently arrested for attempting to smuggle American military technology to mainland China.
Examples include the periodic banning of "The Economst", arresting people holding a peaceful demonstration against the government, encouraging eugenics (i. e. breeding "smart" people), etc. The former prime minister, Lee Quan Yew, had implemented a policy of eugenics. These and other shocking examples of civil-rights/human-rights violations are described at "Singaporean-statistics web page" by Freedom House. Singapore has a law called the Internal Security Act. It is the Chinese version of the Patriot Act and is a clear violation of civil liberties. Further, most Chinese support the Singaporean laws. They even support the laws that banned or restricted "Time Magazine", "Far Eastern Economic Review", and "The Economist".
Singapore is an example of what the Chinese have done. It is also an example of what the United States must never become.
We Americans must protest the Patriot Act and its variants. We must support civil liberties and human rights. Otherwise, our society will degenerate into a place like Singapore or, worse, China.
What will become of the USA if we allow the Patriot Act to continue suppressing our freedoms? Think "China" or "Chinese society". The Chinese in Singapore regularly ban "The Economist", a reputable journal. The Chinese will throw you into prison for holding a peaceful demonstration against the government.
Note that the Patriot Act curtails the Freedom of Information Act. What happens when government prevents its own citizens from knowing the activities of the government? Think "Chinese government". The Chinese in Beijing covered up the lethal illness called "Sudden Accute Respiratory Syndrome", and this coverup engendered the proliferation of the SARS epidemic to all corners of the globe. Read "China and SARS". Indeed, the majority of Chinese believe that "maintaining social order [is] more important than democracy". This "maintaining social order" means "restricting freedom of speech, press, and assembly". Read "Poll: Hong Kong residents optimistic".
Both Singapore and the USA are modern societies in terms of technology. Yet, most people prefer to live in the USA, not Singapore, because of the openness and freedom in American society. What distinguishes us Americans from the Chinese is our willingness to support freedom of thought and speech and to support openness in our own government. Otherwise, the USA will degenerate into a nation like Singapore or, worse, China.
The following accusation indicates discomfort with the results of a report.
Well, too bad. I trust the CNN reporter more than I trust your groundless accusation.The report by the CNN reporter is consistent with other behavior by the Chinese in Hong Kong. During 10 years prior to 1997, the Chinese were totally silent on the matter of creating an independent Republic of Hong Kong. No group held a demonstration demanding independence. You will not find even 1 news article (from a reputable Western source) indicating that a large group of Chinese in Hong Kong held a demonstration clamoring for independence. Surprised? Most Americans are surprised.
For a long time, Americans mistakenly believed that the Chinese in Hong Kong want to be independent of China. Now, we have both a poll (by CNN/Time) and an observation (that there were no demonstrations clamoring for independence) to prove that the Chinese in Hong Kong cheered the Chinese government and supported unification.
Here is an example. Consider "Poll: Hong Kong residents optimistic". I have been able to refer this article to several friends and acquaintances over the course of several years. Unlike an article from an old newspaper, the online article will not be lost or will not disappear with time. The article is shocking and dispels many of the myths about Chinese society. Before reading the article, most Americans believed that the Chinese are like, well, Americans. After reading the article, most Americans believe otherwise. The majority of Chinese in Hong Kong (to the shock of many Americans reading the article) actually cheered the Chinese government and supported the unification of Hong Kong and mainland China.
Anyhow, by ensuring that we all have an accurate picture of the world, as citizens of Western society, we can better ensure that Western governments enact legislation that best deals with other nations and peoples. Better immigration policy would be one result of the new online news.
Another problem with supporting such a large instruction set is the debugging time. It is the primary reason that the Athlon 64 was delayed so long. In modern chip design, the fun part (i. e. the actual design) is about 20% of the development time. The other 80% is the debugging time. If the number of transistors increases by, say, 10%, then the deugging time may increase by 30%.
3DNow! had its use as a marketing tool to show that AMD can take leadership. Beyond that, 3DNow! is no longer justified since SSE2 and SSE can do whatever 3DNow! does.
However, as soon as we use cultural relativism to, say, prohibit any Chinese immigration into the United States of America (USA), the apologists (of whom most are Chinese) are up in arms. They condemn us Americans for narrow-mindedness. Why? We can certainly use cultural relativism to justify why we must prevent Chinese from coming into the USA and contaminating Western culture.
Sure. If the Chinese really believe in cultural relativism, they are free to stay in China (and to stay out of the United States) and to steal and copy anything that they want from other Chinese. This widespread disregard for intellectual property will effectively end innovation in China. Its quality of life will stagnate. Meanwhile, in the West, we shall keep all the technology to ourselves as our Western nations prosper. Some future technologies on the horizon are the cure for AIDS and spinal-cord damage.
Nations outside of the West have no qualms whatsoever in using nuclear force against us. For example, in 1995, the Chinese threatened to drop a nuclear bomb on Los Angeles. Please read "Chinese general told threat against U.S. unacceptable". The Chinese have proactively obtained sensitive information about our military technology and national security. They intend to undermine our society. Please read " Military secrets on sale to China" and "Spy Suspect Led an Active, Prominent Life".
Remember these famous words: "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Let us not forget our obligations to our fellow citizens in the West even if we are "geeks".
Here are some links to reputable sources that underscore the problem in Chinese society.
Please read " Singapore implicated as piracy hub". This article has a chart showing that the rate of movie piracy for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan is 91%, 25%, and 44%, respectively. Contrast these shocking figures with figures for normal Western countries like Australia and Japan; their rate of movie piracy is 8%.
Please read " China Learns to Say, 'Stop, Thief!'". It explains that Chinese society has a software piracy rate of 92% in 2002 and claims that this figure is an improvement over the rate of 94% in 2001.
This problem of pirating movies and software is a cultural problem, not a legal problem. Most Chinese simply believe that stealing intellectual property is acceptable.
Your article, "Spy Suspect Led an Active, Prominent Life", was rather interesting. This Chinese was very persistent and spent nearly 20 years in helping Beijing to spy in the USA. With such persistence, it is imperative that organizations like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) pull funding from groups employing foreigners of suspect loyalty.