Unless Oracle explicitly spends resources to develop OpenSolaris, it will fade away and die in the "open" space as Linux is the biggest fish there. The typical geek who builds a freeware application builds it for Linux first since Linux is the dominant freeware operating system.
So, what is the chance that Oracle will spend resources on OpenSolaris? The probability is exactly 0.
Oracle -- along with Intel and Cisco -- is notorious for viewing engineers as dots on a graph and rating them on a bell curve, firing the bottom 10% annually. These companies do not waste any money or time on "underperformance" by either engineers or products. If a product does not produce any revenue, then it is abandoned.
This shark-like mentality has gained popularity in recent years among American companies.
Please read the essay titled "Arms Control Amnesia" and published by the "Wall Street Journal".
A member of the bipartisan Congressional Strategic Posture Commission -- headed by former secretaries of defense William J. Perry and James R. Schlesinger -- warns that the preliminary agreement signed by Barack Obama guts part of the American nuclear arsenal but does not demand significant gutting of the Russian nuclear arsenal. Two points of serious note are (1) nuclear launchers and (2) tactical nuclear weapons.
Nuclear launchers are mechanisms for launching the intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Russians are demanding that we Americans reduce the number of our launchers to 500, but the Russians were already (before the signing of this agreement) planning to reduce the number of launchers to close that number because they cannot afford to replace the launchers that must be shutdown due to reaching the end of their operational life. In other words, the Russians do not make any sacrifice on this matter but demand that the Americans make all the sacrifices.
As for tactical nuclear weapons, the Russians successfully insisted that these weapons be removed from coverage in this preliminary agreement. The Russians have a 10-to-1 advantage over us Americans in tactical nuclear weapons.
Before you even market the computer program that you have written, you should first find a way to ensure that your program will not be easily pirated. One possibility is the following.
1. Embed security within your program. Generate (1) a version of the program with a unique lock and (2) a unique password (for that unique lock) for each customer who buys your program. Sell it by allowing the customer to download it.
2. Create a binding, toughly worded contract that each customer must sign by hand.
The aim of point #1 is to be able to trace the source of each pirated copy of your program. (The password that activates it immediately identifies the customer who pirated it.) You slaved for years to create it. You deserve all the profits.
The aim of point #2 is to facilitate suing the customer identified by the method implied in point #1.
I am not optimistic about this vaccine. HIV mutates at an astonishing rate, and I doubt that one brand of vaccine can prevent an infection.
Right now, we in America -- of all places -- have a silent crisis: an HIV epidemic. Read the shocking article published recently by "The Washington Post". About 3% of the residents of the District of Columbia is infected with HIV. That percentage is roughly the percentage in Uganda and parts of Kenya.
The only way to eradicate this virus is either (1) universal mandatory testing for all Americans and visitors to America (followed by tough enforcement of laws prohibiting unsafe behavior by those who are infected) or (2) a gene therapy that transfers the natural immunity enjoyed by a few Europeans to the American population. As for point #1, mandatory testing is taboo and would never be implemented. As for point #2, a small percentage of Europeans have a cellular mutation that prevents HIV infection.
Hackers target Microsoft software only because it is much more popular than non-Microsoft software. The mentality of the typical hacker is that he gets a cheap thrill from injuring the most people. If his worm or virus caused $1 billion of damage and if a prominent newspaper like the "Wall Street Journal" published a story about the damage, then he would become orgasmic. Maximum damage -- and, hence, maximum orgasm -- is achieved by targetting the software that most people use.
This attitude is little different from that of a terrorist. The typical terrorist aims for maximum publicity. He craves it.
Nature has processes that compose and decompose living things. For example, sex produces a Slashdotter. The Slashdotter consumes the food of nature, grows, and matures. After the Slashdotter dies, we bury him in a forest without a coffin. Bacteria will decompose his body. Wild animals may smell the body, dig it up, and feed on it. The Slashdotter came from the dust, and he will return to the dust.
Now, compare that process to the man-made process of building, say, a computer. From the dust, we assembles a computer. After it becomes old and useless, we bury it in a landfill. The computer does not decompose and does not return to the dust. Worse, some of the junk that we bury in these landfills actually poison the land.
Clearly, man-made processes contain only 1 part of the 2-part process. That 1 part is the composition. Man-made processes have traditionally not involved decomposition.
In order for us to be truly "green", we should mimic nature and should always use a 2-part process: composition and decomposition. Each product that we buy must be designed to facilitate the often neglected 2nd part: decomposition. Of course, we, as consumers, should pay the full cost of both parts. Right now, we typically pay just the 1st part: composition. Indeed, the ultra-cheap $600 computer produced by slave labor in China would likely cost $1200 if we included the cost of decomposition.
This issue is not mere idle philosophy. When we finally exhaust all the available copper and other metals in the mines, we must dig up all the crap in the landfills and recycle it to extract the metals. This recycling is the aforementioned decomposition. We eventually must pay the cost of decomposition.
The article by the "Vancouver Sun" does not mention anything about a paper trail. Yet, a paper trail is vital to ensuring that the votes can be counted in a re-count if someone disputes the count generated by an electronic voting machine.
The silliness of the electronic voting machine -- and, also, online voting -- is that these contraptions are intended to (1) protect a voter from his own stupidity and (2) protect a voter from his own laziness. Frankly, why should we care if a voter is too stupid or too lazy to vote?
This entire electronic voting craze began after some voters in Florida could not follow simple instructions (on the voting ballot) in the American presidential election of 2000. Because they lacked the intelligence to follow simple instructions, they created ballots that were ambiguous.
These instructions are not rocket science. They are written so that a child in 8th grade can understand them. If a voter lacks even the intelligence to follow simple instructions, he likely lacks the intelligence to comprehend foreign policy and domestic policy. The loss of his vote is not a loss to democracy. An uninformed vote by an idiot would actually damage our democracy.
The other issue is the lazy voter. This online voting proposal mentioned by the "Vancouver Sun" is supposed to cater to him. Well, if a voter is too lazy to vote, then he is likely too lazy to make an effort to understand foreign policy and domestic policy. The loss of his vote is not a loss to democracy.
The bottom line is that paper ballots work just fine. We should continue to use them. Forget the electronic voting machines and online voting. They are far less safe and less reliable than mere paper ballots.
After Barack Hussein Obama became president, his supporters were expecting a 100% change in how government operates. The reality is that Obama is no better than George W. Bush. Both men take the same dishonest approach to government and differ only in the sense that each person is pursuing a different political agenda.
Most independent voters who voted for Hillary Clinton or wanted to vote for Michael Bloomberg knew what would happen if Obama took office. Our worst fears have been realized.
An early example showing the real Obama is found in a quite startling essay published by the "Wall Street Journal". The Justice Department, under the leadership of Obama, dismissed a "civil lawsuit for voter intimidation against the New Black Panther Party. The Black Panthers weren't content to endorse Barack Obama. They sent their members to the polls last November to 'patrol election sites.' Fox News aired a video of two Black Panthers in military-style uniforms in a Philadelphia precinct. One of them was carrying a nightstick.... The complaint the Justice Department filed in January (before Messrs. Obama and Holder took over) says the Panthers made 'racial threats and racial insults' to voters and 'menacing and intimidating, gestures, statements and movements directed at individuals who were present to aid voters.' One witness, Bartle Bull, a civil-rights lawyer who worked with Charles Evers in Mississippi in the 1960s, called it the worst voter intimidation he had ever seen.".
The latest example showing the real Obama is this attempt by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to censor opposing opinions. In this case, the EPA claims that the critic, Alan Carlin (BS Physics-Caltech, PhD Econ-MIT), is not a "real" scientist. Yet, Dr. Carlin has a Bachelor's degree in physics from Caltech and a Doctorate in (intensively mathematical) economics from MIT. The Caltech degree, by itself, puts Dr. Carlin in league with the very best. The training that went into that Bachelor's degree is equivalent to a Master's degree (in physics) from a lesser university.
Personally, I believe that global warming is real, but I -- as an educated Westerner -- respect the dissenting opinion of reputable scientists like Dr. Carlin. I oppose censoring them.
Note that the Bush administration attempted the same kind of censorshop in the other direction. According to a report by the "New York Times", the Bush administration had censored a NASA climatologist who was warning about the certainty of global warming.
Here's the bottom line. The emperor has changed, but his clothes remain the same. Hopefully, President Nicolas Sarkozy can save us American voters from our stupidity in electing the worst political candidates -- time after time.
One of the toughest aspects of calculus-based physics is teaching how to intuit it. Space-based games (i. e., ones involving the behavior of light, planets, and other celestial entities) written to conform to actual physics laws would be a fun way to teach students how to intuit physics.
This generation of students is just damned lucky to have access to such computing power. In the old days, the most readily accessible computing power was an 8080 hobbyist board. Simulating the universe on that is impossible. The students of that era were stuck with just manipulating integrals and derivatives.
No country is 100% free, but the most free countries are located in the West. If freedom of speech is your primary concern, then the United States is likely the "most" free. Speech is generally not censored. Both the Reverend Jeremiah Wright (of Trinity United Church of Christ) and the leaders of the Daughters of the American Revolution are free to make speeches.
You are free to say that you love America or that you hate America. Most Americans respect free speech. It is codified in our constitution, and the Supreme Court has consistently favored free speech.
The flip side of that freedom is that you are also free to die or, more likely, free to suffer serious health problems, and no one will care. The USA is undergoing the worst recession in decades. Many families have lost health insurance due to job loss. They cannot afford COBRA-mandated health insurance. The end result is that minor medical problems endured by insurance-less folks are simply ignored. These problems can eventually become lethal. For example, a tiny lump in a woman's breast can lead to death within a few years years.
In Europe, the state places more restrictions on speech, but the state also tends to provide more support to you in times of crisis.
Now, here is a revolutionary idea: tying more freedoms with more support from the state. In other words, the state provides universal healthcare but, at the same time, supports your right to utter any kind of speech that you want.
This revolutionary idea is taking hold in France. President Nicolas Sarkozy greatly admires American freedoms but supports state-sponsored social welfare programs like universal healthcare. I would bet good money that he personally wants to maximize freedom of speech -- including allowing outright condemnation of Islam. Such condemnation is considered hate speech in some European countries, and anyone who utters such speech can be banned from entry into those countries.
To test the use of the new lithium batteries as bombs, we could just connect the anode to the cathode. Then, we physically observe the explosive force.
I was warned that car batteries can explode if you short-circuit them in this way.
Steve Jobs is another example of how wealth buys health and an easy life.
The USA has several organ-transplant centers. In theory, patients can enter their name into the waiting list of any or all centers.
Practically speaking, most patients enter their name into the waiting list of the single most accessible center. The patients then arrange to live near the center as their name approaches the top of the list. Physicians cannot just freeze a liver for a week until you can arrange a plane ticket to reach the center. Livers are perishable items.
Due to the aforementioned cost and logistical issues, patients are effectively restricted to only 1 center. However, Steve Jobs -- with his billions of dollars -- can enter his name into all the waiting lists of all the centers. He can hire a private jet service to take him to any center immediately.
One thing that Microsoft has done well is to maintain continuity with the past. The desktop of Windows 95 is still available on all consumer versions of Windows up to Windows 7. In Windows 7, you can select the "classic" appearance for the desktop to get the Windows-95 look and feel.
Most people -- except tech geeks -- do not want to learn a new way of doing things once they learn a particular way that suits their needs.
Moreover, learning takes time and money. If your company has 100,000 employees, then training them to use a new desktop can cost millions of dollars.
If GNOME developers want Linux to take a significant share of the consumer market, then they must ensure continuity with the past. Before they embark on the next super-duper upgrade of the desktop, they should spend some time in asking their grandmothers what they want in the next super-duper GNOME desktop. Grandma's advice could help a lot.
Even if Beijing required every computer to be installed with filtering software, the typical consumer can just take his pirated copy of Windows XP and use it to do a fresh installation of the operating system, creating a clean, blank slate without any censoring software. China is, after all, the software piracy capital of the world. If a Chinese customer has the intellect to overcome various anti-piracy mechanisms and to rip DVDs, then he surely has the intellect to install a fresh copy of Windows XP.
Given the user friendliness of the Windows installer, installing Windows XP should be quite easy.
After Oracle agreed to buy Sun Microsystems, many analysts claimed that Oracle intended to become another IBM by selling all components in the typical server room and by supporting those components with the same kind of high-value customer service.
Well, the analysts were wrong. Without warning, Oracle just abruptly terminated a product line on which its customers may have built their entire information-technology infrastructure. This kind of approach to customer service is not how IBM treats its customers.
Look at how IBM handled the sunsetting of OS/2. IBM issued a warning long in advance of ceasing sales and distribution of the product. Then, after the termination date, IBM continues to sell service contracts to support the product if a customer continues to need support.
Hmmm. Maybe the time has come to short my Oracle stock.
If you want more information about the Liberal Party of Canada, just visit their web site.
The "liberal" in "Liberal Party" has the traditional American meaning and is not used in the European sense. In Europe, a "liberal" is one who favors market liberalization: lower taxes, less regulation, and longer work hours. For example, France's Nicolas Sarkozy was accused of being a "liberal" when he ran in the presidential election.
The mathematics education in K-12 in the USA typically includes the following sequence.
0. arithmetic
1. algebra I
2. geometry
3. algebra II
4. trigonometry
5. elementary analysis (includes some probability and statistics)
6. calculus
The above mathematics sequence is typically plug-and-chug: plug some numbers into some formulas and produce a result. No thinking is required.
What is sorely needed is a course in discrete mathematics between geometry and algebra II. Discrete mathematics teaches the most fundamental mathematical concept: methods of reasoning about mathematics. Not surprisingly, discrete mathematics includes plenty of proofs.
Discrete mathematics is not only a foundation of math but is a foundation of computer science. All the important ideas in data structures and finite automata require an understanding of discrete mathematics.
The Supreme Court of the USA (SCOTUS) should not be driven by ideology. The role of the judge is simply to apply the law impartially. Note that if SCOTUS had applied the law impartially in the early half of the 20th century, SCOTUS would have ruled that laws enforcing segregation are illegal.
Consider the case of the firefighters in New Haven. If the SCOTUS decides this case on the sole basis of the legal statutes (that government shall not hire or promote on the basis of skin color), then the results of the exam will be upheld. All the white firefighters and the 1 Hispanic firefighter should be promoted. If the SCOTUS decides this case on the basis of ideology (i. e., the idea that racial quotas are in the best interest of the USA regardless of the law), then the results of the exam will be rescinded, denying promotion to the firefighters.
These days, the SCOTUS is expected to be ideological. So, political parties, lobbyists, and any other political critter will try his hardest to support a candidate (for justice of SCOTUS) who (1) is willing to make a decision on the basis of ideology and (2) exhibits the ideology that the political critter supports.
The Internet war in Iran is only the 3rd such incident. The Internet war involving Georgia and Russia was the 2nd incident.
The 1st such war involved Estonia and Russia (and its sympathizers). The war was sparked by the moving of a bronze statue of a Russian soldier on April 27, 2007. Russians in both Russia and elsewhere were outraged. According to the article published by "The Guardian", "The [Internet] attacks have been pouring in from all over the world, but Estonian officials and computer security experts say that, particularly in the early phase, some attackers were identified by their internet addresses - many of which were Russian, and some of which were from Russian state institutions."
Note that Estonia was part of the democratization wave that swept Eastern Europe around 1990. The Kremlin had brutalized and occupied Estonia for about 45 years. If an Estonian had opposed the occupation, Russian "security" forces would have killed him. Thousands of Estonians died at the hands of the Russian occupiers.
Despite this decades-long tyranny, the Estonians revolted against their Russian occupiers and established a liberal Western democracy and a free market in 1991.
That is how people act when they truly want freedom and free markets.
By contrast, in 1979, after the Iranians overthrew the despotic government supported by Washington, the Iranians immediately established a brutal Islamic theocracy.
That is how people act when they reject both freedom and free markets.
Cultures are different. Estonian culture and Iranian culture are different. The Iranian people are 100% responsible for creating a brutal theocracy. They are 100% responsible for the terrorist acts funded and conducted by Tehran.
An apologist for the Iranians wrote, "Because the despot whom the Americans supported had previously crushed on all opposition until the gang around Khomeini was the strongest, and such became the obvious leader of the opposition. After the opposition had won the revolution, the strongest party then turned on the others. Not because it had the majority behind them, but because it had violent force."
For 70 years, the Kremlin systematically exterminated people who opposed communism. The Kremlin "crushed... all opposition [to communism] until the gang [supporting communism] was the strongest". Yet, in 1991, the Russian people removed communist government. Today, the government of Russia is seriously flawed, but the overwhelming majority of Russians do not support re-establishing the communist government.
The Iranians are radically and uniquely different from the Russians, the Vietnamese, and the Eastern Europeans. The Iranians are 100% responsible for creating a brutal Islamic theocracy in Iran.
The noisy demonstrations are not about the kind of election that we enjoy in the West. Read the article titled " Iran's Potemkin Election".
In Iran, the Revolutionary Guards (RG) -- effectively, a council of religious enforcers -- determine who can run for the office of president. The demonstrators in the streets of Iran are not complaining about the theocracy. Indeed, most Iranians love a brutal theocracy. The demonstrators are complaining that one of the candidates approved by the RG did not get all the votes that were cast for him.
Complaining only about the "rigged" election is like complaining only about the bad sound from a cheap radio in a car but ignoring the fact that the car has a broken transmission.
Note the following. After the Kremlin exited Eastern Europe in 1989, the peoples of each nation in Eastern Europe rapidly established a genuine democracy and a free market. Except for Romania (where its people killed their dictator), there was no violence.
That is how people act when they want freedom and free markets.
In 1979, after the Iranian people overthrow the despot whom the Americans supported, the Iranians immediately established a brutal, authoritarian theocracy.
That is how people act when they reject both freedom and free markets.
Cultures are different. Eastern-European culture and Iranian culture are different. The Iranians bear 100% of the blame for the existence of a tyrannical government in Iran.
Now, look at Vietnam. According to a reliable source, "approximately 20 million gallons of [agent orange] were used in Vietnam between 1962 and 1971 to remove unwanted plant life and leaves which otherwise provided cover for enemy forces during the Vietnam Conflict."
This injustice (committed by the Americans) in Vietnam occurred 10 years after the injustice in Iran. The injustice in Vietnam occurred over a 10-year period.
The Americans doused large areas of Vietnam with agent orange, poisoning both the land and the people. Yet, the Vietnamese do not channel their energies into seeking revenge (by, e. g., building a nuclear bomb) against the West. The Vietnamese do not aid and abet terrorist groups seeking to kill Americans. Rather, the Vietnamese are diligently modernizing their society. They will reach 1st-world status (i. e., a prosperous liberal Western democracy) long before the Iranians.
Cultures are different. Vietnamese culture and Iranian culture are different. The Iranians bear 100% of the blame for the existence of a tyrannical government in Iran.
Oracle will discard the entire hardware division (of Sun), not just the processor departments.
Unlike Sun (which will no longer build processors), Fujitsu does build processors and the servers that incorporate them. Building the processors gives Fujitsu engineers intimate knowledge of how the chips work and enables the engineers to optimize the processors' connection to the rest of the server ecosystem. Lacking this ability, Sun engineers will not be able to build servers that match the capabilities of Fujitsu's computers.
The logical conclusion is that Oracle will jettison the entire hardware divison. That is not surprising. Oracle was mainly interested in Sun's software products (e. g., the operating system) and Sun's customer lists. Larry Ellison was willing to overpay for Sun (buying the hardware division in the process) simply because he and Scott McNealy are good friends.
Note that Sun once boasted that it employed about 1000 (?) microprocessor engineers. Sun claimed that it had the largest processor team outside of Intel. Apparently, quantity does not necessarily lead to quality.
The Soviet Union brutalized Eastern Europe for 40 years. Allied with the army of the Kremlin, the authoritarian governments of Eastern Europe, from 1950 until 1988, killed their own citizens as they tried to flee. For 40 years, the Eastern Europeans suffered under the brutal yoke of oppression.
Then, after the Kremlin exited Eastern Europe in 1989, the peoples of each nation in Eastern Europe rapidly established a genuine democracy and a free market. Except for Romania (where its people killed their dictator), there was no violence.
That is how people act when they want freedom and free markets.
In 1979, after the Iranian people overthrow the despot whom the Americans supported, the Iranians immediately established a brutal, authoritarian theocracy.
That is how people act when they reject both freedom and free markets.
Cultures are different. Eastern-European culture and Iranian culture are different. The Iranians bear 100% of the blame for the existence of a tyrannical government in Iran. We should condemn Iranian culture and its people.
According to the facts, "approximately 20 million gallons of herbicides were used in Vietnam between 1962 and 1971 to remove unwanted plant life and leaves which otherwise provided cover for enemy forces during the Vietnam Conflict."
The injustice (committed by the Americans) in Vietnam occurred 10 years after the injustice in Iran. The injustice in Vietnam occurred over a 10-year period.
The Americans doused large areas of Vietnam with agent orange, poisoning both the land and the people. Yet, the Vietnamese do not channel their energies into seeking revenge (by, e. g., building a nuclear bomb) against the West. Rather, the Vietnamese are diligently modernizing their society. They will reach 1st-world status (i. e., a prosperous liberal Western democracy) long before the Iranians.
Cultures are different. Vietnamese culture and Iranian culture are different. The Iranians bear 100% of the blame for the existence of a tyrannical government in Iran. We should condemn Iranian culture and its people.
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So, what is the chance that Oracle will spend resources on OpenSolaris? The probability is exactly 0.
Oracle -- along with Intel and Cisco -- is notorious for viewing engineers as dots on a graph and rating them on a bell curve, firing the bottom 10% annually. These companies do not waste any money or time on "underperformance" by either engineers or products. If a product does not produce any revenue, then it is abandoned.
This shark-like mentality has gained popularity in recent years among American companies.
A member of the bipartisan Congressional Strategic Posture Commission -- headed by former secretaries of defense William J. Perry and James R. Schlesinger -- warns that the preliminary agreement signed by Barack Obama guts part of the American nuclear arsenal but does not demand significant gutting of the Russian nuclear arsenal. Two points of serious note are (1) nuclear launchers and (2) tactical nuclear weapons.
Nuclear launchers are mechanisms for launching the intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Russians are demanding that we Americans reduce the number of our launchers to 500, but the Russians were already (before the signing of this agreement) planning to reduce the number of launchers to close that number because they cannot afford to replace the launchers that must be shutdown due to reaching the end of their operational life. In other words, the Russians do not make any sacrifice on this matter but demand that the Americans make all the sacrifices.
As for tactical nuclear weapons, the Russians successfully insisted that these weapons be removed from coverage in this preliminary agreement. The Russians have a 10-to-1 advantage over us Americans in tactical nuclear weapons.
1. Embed security within your program. Generate (1) a version of the program with a unique lock and (2) a unique password (for that unique lock) for each customer who buys your program. Sell it by allowing the customer to download it.
2. Create a binding, toughly worded contract that each customer must sign by hand.
The aim of point #1 is to be able to trace the source of each pirated copy of your program. (The password that activates it immediately identifies the customer who pirated it.) You slaved for years to create it. You deserve all the profits.
The aim of point #2 is to facilitate suing the customer identified by the method implied in point #1.
Right now, we in America -- of all places -- have a silent crisis: an HIV epidemic. Read the shocking article published recently by "The Washington Post". About 3% of the residents of the District of Columbia is infected with HIV. That percentage is roughly the percentage in Uganda and parts of Kenya.
The only way to eradicate this virus is either (1) universal mandatory testing for all Americans and visitors to America (followed by tough enforcement of laws prohibiting unsafe behavior by those who are infected) or (2) a gene therapy that transfers the natural immunity enjoyed by a few Europeans to the American population. As for point #1, mandatory testing is taboo and would never be implemented. As for point #2, a small percentage of Europeans have a cellular mutation that prevents HIV infection.
In addition to creating an atmosphere on earth, comets may also have seeded life.
This attitude is little different from that of a terrorist. The typical terrorist aims for maximum publicity. He craves it.
Now, compare that process to the man-made process of building, say, a computer. From the dust, we assembles a computer. After it becomes old and useless, we bury it in a landfill. The computer does not decompose and does not return to the dust. Worse, some of the junk that we bury in these landfills actually poison the land.
Clearly, man-made processes contain only 1 part of the 2-part process. That 1 part is the composition. Man-made processes have traditionally not involved decomposition.
In order for us to be truly "green", we should mimic nature and should always use a 2-part process: composition and decomposition. Each product that we buy must be designed to facilitate the often neglected 2nd part: decomposition. Of course, we, as consumers, should pay the full cost of both parts. Right now, we typically pay just the 1st part: composition. Indeed, the ultra-cheap $600 computer produced by slave labor in China would likely cost $1200 if we included the cost of decomposition.
This issue is not mere idle philosophy. When we finally exhaust all the available copper and other metals in the mines, we must dig up all the crap in the landfills and recycle it to extract the metals. This recycling is the aforementioned decomposition. We eventually must pay the cost of decomposition.
The silliness of the electronic voting machine -- and, also, online voting -- is that these contraptions are intended to (1) protect a voter from his own stupidity and (2) protect a voter from his own laziness. Frankly, why should we care if a voter is too stupid or too lazy to vote?
This entire electronic voting craze began after some voters in Florida could not follow simple instructions (on the voting ballot) in the American presidential election of 2000. Because they lacked the intelligence to follow simple instructions, they created ballots that were ambiguous.
These instructions are not rocket science. They are written so that a child in 8th grade can understand them. If a voter lacks even the intelligence to follow simple instructions, he likely lacks the intelligence to comprehend foreign policy and domestic policy. The loss of his vote is not a loss to democracy. An uninformed vote by an idiot would actually damage our democracy.
The other issue is the lazy voter. This online voting proposal mentioned by the "Vancouver Sun" is supposed to cater to him. Well, if a voter is too lazy to vote, then he is likely too lazy to make an effort to understand foreign policy and domestic policy. The loss of his vote is not a loss to democracy.
The bottom line is that paper ballots work just fine. We should continue to use them. Forget the electronic voting machines and online voting. They are far less safe and less reliable than mere paper ballots.
Let's keep the paper ballots.
Most independent voters who voted for Hillary Clinton or wanted to vote for Michael Bloomberg knew what would happen if Obama took office. Our worst fears have been realized.
An early example showing the real Obama is found in a quite startling essay published by the "Wall Street Journal". The Justice Department, under the leadership of Obama, dismissed a "civil lawsuit for voter intimidation against the New Black Panther Party. The Black Panthers weren't content to endorse Barack Obama. They sent their members to the polls last November to 'patrol election sites.' Fox News aired a video of two Black Panthers in military-style uniforms in a Philadelphia precinct. One of them was carrying a nightstick. ... The complaint the Justice Department filed in January (before Messrs. Obama and Holder took over) says the Panthers made 'racial threats and racial insults' to voters and 'menacing and intimidating, gestures, statements and movements directed at individuals who were present to aid voters.' One witness, Bartle Bull, a civil-rights lawyer who worked with Charles Evers in Mississippi in the 1960s, called it the worst voter intimidation he had ever seen.".
The latest example showing the real Obama is this attempt by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to censor opposing opinions. In this case, the EPA claims that the critic, Alan Carlin (BS Physics-Caltech, PhD Econ-MIT), is not a "real" scientist. Yet, Dr. Carlin has a Bachelor's degree in physics from Caltech and a Doctorate in (intensively mathematical) economics from MIT. The Caltech degree, by itself, puts Dr. Carlin in league with the very best. The training that went into that Bachelor's degree is equivalent to a Master's degree (in physics) from a lesser university.
Personally, I believe that global warming is real, but I -- as an educated Westerner -- respect the dissenting opinion of reputable scientists like Dr. Carlin. I oppose censoring them.
Note that the Bush administration attempted the same kind of censorshop in the other direction. According to a report by the "New York Times", the Bush administration had censored a NASA climatologist who was warning about the certainty of global warming.
Here's the bottom line. The emperor has changed, but his clothes remain the same. Hopefully, President Nicolas Sarkozy can save us American voters from our stupidity in electing the worst political candidates -- time after time.
This generation of students is just damned lucky to have access to such computing power. In the old days, the most readily accessible computing power was an 8080 hobbyist board. Simulating the universe on that is impossible. The students of that era were stuck with just manipulating integrals and derivatives.
Life is unfair. I hate it.
You are free to say that you love America or that you hate America. Most Americans respect free speech. It is codified in our constitution, and the Supreme Court has consistently favored free speech.
The flip side of that freedom is that you are also free to die or, more likely, free to suffer serious health problems, and no one will care. The USA is undergoing the worst recession in decades. Many families have lost health insurance due to job loss. They cannot afford COBRA-mandated health insurance. The end result is that minor medical problems endured by insurance-less folks are simply ignored. These problems can eventually become lethal. For example, a tiny lump in a woman's breast can lead to death within a few years years.
In Europe, the state places more restrictions on speech, but the state also tends to provide more support to you in times of crisis.
Now, here is a revolutionary idea: tying more freedoms with more support from the state. In other words, the state provides universal healthcare but, at the same time, supports your right to utter any kind of speech that you want.
This revolutionary idea is taking hold in France. President Nicolas Sarkozy greatly admires American freedoms but supports state-sponsored social welfare programs like universal healthcare. I would bet good money that he personally wants to maximize freedom of speech -- including allowing outright condemnation of Islam. Such condemnation is considered hate speech in some European countries, and anyone who utters such speech can be banned from entry into those countries.
I was warned that car batteries can explode if you short-circuit them in this way.
The USA has several organ-transplant centers. In theory, patients can enter their name into the waiting list of any or all centers.
Practically speaking, most patients enter their name into the waiting list of the single most accessible center. The patients then arrange to live near the center as their name approaches the top of the list. Physicians cannot just freeze a liver for a week until you can arrange a plane ticket to reach the center. Livers are perishable items.
Due to the aforementioned cost and logistical issues, patients are effectively restricted to only 1 center. However, Steve Jobs -- with his billions of dollars -- can enter his name into all the waiting lists of all the centers. He can hire a private jet service to take him to any center immediately.
Life just is not fair.
Most people -- except tech geeks -- do not want to learn a new way of doing things once they learn a particular way that suits their needs.
Moreover, learning takes time and money. If your company has 100,000 employees, then training them to use a new desktop can cost millions of dollars.
If GNOME developers want Linux to take a significant share of the consumer market, then they must ensure continuity with the past. Before they embark on the next super-duper upgrade of the desktop, they should spend some time in asking their grandmothers what they want in the next super-duper GNOME desktop. Grandma's advice could help a lot.
Given the user friendliness of the Windows installer, installing Windows XP should be quite easy.
Well, the analysts were wrong. Without warning, Oracle just abruptly terminated a product line on which its customers may have built their entire information-technology infrastructure. This kind of approach to customer service is not how IBM treats its customers.
Look at how IBM handled the sunsetting of OS/2. IBM issued a warning long in advance of ceasing sales and distribution of the product. Then, after the termination date, IBM continues to sell service contracts to support the product if a customer continues to need support.
Hmmm. Maybe the time has come to short my Oracle stock.
The "liberal" in "Liberal Party" has the traditional American meaning and is not used in the European sense. In Europe, a "liberal" is one who favors market liberalization: lower taxes, less regulation, and longer work hours. For example, France's Nicolas Sarkozy was accused of being a "liberal" when he ran in the presidential election.
0. arithmetic
1. algebra I
2. geometry
3. algebra II
4. trigonometry
5. elementary analysis (includes some probability and statistics)
6. calculus
The above mathematics sequence is typically plug-and-chug: plug some numbers into some formulas and produce a result. No thinking is required.
What is sorely needed is a course in discrete mathematics between geometry and algebra II. Discrete mathematics teaches the most fundamental mathematical concept: methods of reasoning about mathematics. Not surprisingly, discrete mathematics includes plenty of proofs.
Discrete mathematics is not only a foundation of math but is a foundation of computer science. All the important ideas in data structures and finite automata require an understanding of discrete mathematics.
Consider the case of the firefighters in New Haven. If the SCOTUS decides this case on the sole basis of the legal statutes (that government shall not hire or promote on the basis of skin color), then the results of the exam will be upheld. All the white firefighters and the 1 Hispanic firefighter should be promoted. If the SCOTUS decides this case on the basis of ideology (i. e., the idea that racial quotas are in the best interest of the USA regardless of the law), then the results of the exam will be rescinded, denying promotion to the firefighters.
These days, the SCOTUS is expected to be ideological. So, political parties, lobbyists, and any other political critter will try his hardest to support a candidate (for justice of SCOTUS) who (1) is willing to make a decision on the basis of ideology and (2) exhibits the ideology that the political critter supports.
The 1st such war involved Estonia and Russia (and its sympathizers). The war was sparked by the moving of a bronze statue of a Russian soldier on April 27, 2007. Russians in both Russia and elsewhere were outraged. According to the article published by "The Guardian", "The [Internet] attacks have been pouring in from all over the world, but Estonian officials and computer security experts say that, particularly in the early phase, some attackers were identified by their internet addresses - many of which were Russian, and some of which were from Russian state institutions."
Computerworld published an article about the incident. The Estonian government convicted an ethnic Russian (living in Estonia) of the crime. However, other cyber thugs (working for the Kremlin) also contributed to the attack, but these criminals live outside Estonia and are beyond the reach of its justice system.
Note that Estonia was part of the democratization wave that swept Eastern Europe around 1990. The Kremlin had brutalized and occupied Estonia for about 45 years. If an Estonian had opposed the occupation, Russian "security" forces would have killed him. Thousands of Estonians died at the hands of the Russian occupiers.
Despite this decades-long tyranny, the Estonians revolted against their Russian occupiers and established a liberal Western democracy and a free market in 1991. That is how people act when they truly want freedom and free markets.
By contrast, in 1979, after the Iranians overthrew the despotic government supported by Washington, the Iranians immediately established a brutal Islamic theocracy. That is how people act when they reject both freedom and free markets.
Cultures are different. Estonian culture and Iranian culture are different. The Iranian people are 100% responsible for creating a brutal theocracy. They are 100% responsible for the terrorist acts funded and conducted by Tehran.
For 70 years, the Kremlin systematically exterminated people who opposed communism. The Kremlin "crushed ... all opposition [to communism] until the gang [supporting communism] was the strongest". Yet, in 1991, the Russian people removed communist government. Today, the government of Russia is seriously flawed, but the overwhelming majority of Russians do not support re-establishing the communist government.
The Iranians are radically and uniquely different from the Russians, the Vietnamese, and the Eastern Europeans. The Iranians are 100% responsible for creating a brutal Islamic theocracy in Iran.
In Iran, the Revolutionary Guards (RG) -- effectively, a council of religious enforcers -- determine who can run for the office of president. The demonstrators in the streets of Iran are not complaining about the theocracy. Indeed, most Iranians love a brutal theocracy. The demonstrators are complaining that one of the candidates approved by the RG did not get all the votes that were cast for him.
Complaining only about the "rigged" election is like complaining only about the bad sound from a cheap radio in a car but ignoring the fact that the car has a broken transmission.
Note the following. After the Kremlin exited Eastern Europe in 1989, the peoples of each nation in Eastern Europe rapidly established a genuine democracy and a free market. Except for Romania (where its people killed their dictator), there was no violence.
That is how people act when they want freedom and free markets.
In 1979, after the Iranian people overthrow the despot whom the Americans supported, the Iranians immediately established a brutal, authoritarian theocracy.
That is how people act when they reject both freedom and free markets.
Cultures are different. Eastern-European culture and Iranian culture are different. The Iranians bear 100% of the blame for the existence of a tyrannical government in Iran.
Now, look at Vietnam. According to a reliable source, "approximately 20 million gallons of [agent orange] were used in Vietnam between 1962 and 1971 to remove unwanted plant life and leaves which otherwise provided cover for enemy forces during the Vietnam Conflict."
This injustice (committed by the Americans) in Vietnam occurred 10 years after the injustice in Iran. The injustice in Vietnam occurred over a 10-year period.
The Americans doused large areas of Vietnam with agent orange, poisoning both the land and the people. Yet, the Vietnamese do not channel their energies into seeking revenge (by, e. g., building a nuclear bomb) against the West. The Vietnamese do not aid and abet terrorist groups seeking to kill Americans. Rather, the Vietnamese are diligently modernizing their society. They will reach 1st-world status (i. e., a prosperous liberal Western democracy) long before the Iranians.
Cultures are different. Vietnamese culture and Iranian culture are different. The Iranians bear 100% of the blame for the existence of a tyrannical government in Iran.
Unlike Sun (which will no longer build processors), Fujitsu does build processors and the servers that incorporate them. Building the processors gives Fujitsu engineers intimate knowledge of how the chips work and enables the engineers to optimize the processors' connection to the rest of the server ecosystem. Lacking this ability, Sun engineers will not be able to build servers that match the capabilities of Fujitsu's computers.
The logical conclusion is that Oracle will jettison the entire hardware divison. That is not surprising. Oracle was mainly interested in Sun's software products (e. g., the operating system) and Sun's customer lists. Larry Ellison was willing to overpay for Sun (buying the hardware division in the process) simply because he and Scott McNealy are good friends.
Note that Sun once boasted that it employed about 1000 (?) microprocessor engineers. Sun claimed that it had the largest processor team outside of Intel. Apparently, quantity does not necessarily lead to quality.
Then, after the Kremlin exited Eastern Europe in 1989, the peoples of each nation in Eastern Europe rapidly established a genuine democracy and a free market. Except for Romania (where its people killed their dictator), there was no violence.
That is how people act when they want freedom and free markets.
In 1979, after the Iranian people overthrow the despot whom the Americans supported, the Iranians immediately established a brutal, authoritarian theocracy.
That is how people act when they reject both freedom and free markets.
Cultures are different. Eastern-European culture and Iranian culture are different. The Iranians bear 100% of the blame for the existence of a tyrannical government in Iran. We should condemn Iranian culture and its people.
The injustice (committed by the Americans) in Vietnam occurred 10 years after the injustice in Iran. The injustice in Vietnam occurred over a 10-year period.
The Americans doused large areas of Vietnam with agent orange, poisoning both the land and the people. Yet, the Vietnamese do not channel their energies into seeking revenge (by, e. g., building a nuclear bomb) against the West. Rather, the Vietnamese are diligently modernizing their society. They will reach 1st-world status (i. e., a prosperous liberal Western democracy) long before the Iranians.
Cultures are different. Vietnamese culture and Iranian culture are different. The Iranians bear 100% of the blame for the existence of a tyrannical government in Iran. We should condemn Iranian culture and its people.