Just a little debunking of the Canadian communications infrastructure myth.
We advanced technologically *with* the Americans. We installed telephone systems along side the Americans. We upgraded to digital telephone systems as well as the Americans. We Implemented our cellphone networks on the same types of systems as the Americans.
From every little hamlet, to every major city, there is telephone connectivity. We had an infrastructure that dates back to *shortly after* the invention of the telephone.
At each major technological evolution, our infrastructures were replaced - just like the Americans. Of course there were always some hold-outs - I think that rotary service was still available as recently as 8 years ago (still available as special service where required, at added expense).
The argument of "it's costly to roll over new..." doesn't wash, as Canada has a lower population density for areas that it delivers signal to, and yet still manages to introduce the technology / replace the outdated gear, and provide the new services. Sure, there are still areas where ISDN is the highest speed available, but we have a large landmass, and a small population. We'll get to them when we can.:)
The *real* reason that high speed connectivity isn't as available in the US? Corporations aren't interested in spending money to replace an infrastructure that the bulk of it's customers aren't willing to pay extra for. Perhaps it's time to use the enormous power of your population to force the mega-corporations to offer the services that you want.
As an aside, our towns are not *mostly* restricted to the American border, as we have communities dotting our countryside - similar to the United States. And, while it is true that we have a major trunk that runs coast to coast connecting the larger cities, we have major branches running north/south into each province (and subsequently, the territories) to provide coverage for as many of these communities as possible.
Your infrastructure will only improve when you demand it. We did.
Look asshole - I believe in freedom of choice. Children that are killed this way is NOT by choice. Your parents decided to have you. They planned for it, prepared for it. What if they discovered that the doctor killed the child during labor, and there was nothing that they could do about it?
That is the problem. Don't blow things out of proportion, and you won't get flamed back.
California is overpopulated because of it's location. Not because my neighbour had kids. Same thing in Florida. Same thing Hamburg. Same thing in Athens.
I'm not sure who pissed in your cornflakes, but you need to learn to look at this from a realistic perspective.
It's not YOUR quality of life. Whether or not a family in China makes a decision to have a 3rd child does not affect you in any way.
If you have trouble with lines in California, move to one of your mythical "10 acre" lots in another state - if you can afford one. Nobody is forcing you to live in the big city. It's really too bad that your parents didn't subscribe to partial birth abortions. Maybe we can convince her to enroll you in a retroactive abortion program.
I appologize for posting out of sequence, but I am alarmed by the types of responses...
Most posts seem to be of the: 1. "I'm glad I'm not in China, their government wants to monitor them" 2. "Oh my $diety, this is bad for the world, China is going to $terrible_action"
[rant] First: This type of 'monitoring' has been occuring in the United States (and presumably other nations) for around 20 years, getting more granular as the technology matures. You/we/they tell yourself that this bird is being used to keep us safe, and is never going to pointed to your Kentucky home. The government doesn't care what "you" do. Actually, they do.
Second: There are other more horrific things that occur in China that the world continues to turn a blind eye to. "Partial birth abortions" spring to mind. We do wait until technologies that may affect us is in question before denouncing China? Why don't we get on our soap boxes sooner to eliminate other atrocities? [/rant]
Xenophobia is a dangerous thing. There is so much that we don't know - about China, and other nations that we are in various confrontations with. We react without attempting to fully understand. It's almost like "I've made up my mind, don't try to confuse me with the facts."
Maybe one day we will stop the war machines and sit down to talk.
Interesting how "civilized European governments" were the cause of wars. You seem to forget, with an incredible bias, that the United States has had many battles within itself in it's short history. They even invaded Canada! Are you suggesting that this occurred before the US was civilized?
Also, you made two statements that seem to contradict each other: Quote:"we can still tell our government when to back off". Quote:"many Americans disapprove of the war in Iraq".
You claim to have power over the government, but are unable to stop them from going to war...
I hope that, some day soon, the blinders will come off, and people will realize that countries who throw their weight around are often the cause of instability, not the solution to it. Right now the world's focus is on the middle-east, but they aren't the only ones guilty of this behaviour.
If we (global - not just US) don't learn from history, we are destined to repeat it. Let's get off of our high horses before we fall off.
The portion about "history" is 100% correct. The portion about hegemony is more of an editorialized comment. I would have mod'd it at funny.
Perhaps if it had said "Obtaining hegemony"...
The United States have a large military machine, but their nation operates with huge deficits. The biggest kid on the playground often gets his way, but that does not make him the leader.
The US has had some good leaders in the past, but so have other countries. Strong leaders that have been respected. It is unfortunate that the current President is not. Hopefully he will realize that bigger guns, more expensive toys, and invasions / conquests are not the way to garner respect.
My only fear.... (NOTE - THIS IS A SCIENCE FICTION MUSING - NOT A RECOMMENDATION) After this 'constellation' is in place, the US government will create a malignant law that somehow negates their huge debts to other countries and their people, sieze control of all foreign interests on their soil, and declare themselves "leader" of the "free" world.
Sure - it's a little extreme, but I'm an extreme guy.
A large percentage of 'headline' humour falls into this type of word-play. The pronounciation isn't as important as it's proximity.
Additional forms of wordplay might include pattern repetition. An example might be "Lloyd's Lloses Llamas" as a headline if Lloyds of London had to settle a claim to a llama farmer.
If it's in print, it's not how it sounds, but how it looks.
Actually Greenblat doesn't smear any products in his responses.
He is merely saying that his product *will* be the next generation of blah blah blah.
He does not, at any point, say anything negative about PostgreSQL or MySQL. In fact, it is abundantly obvious that he is not interested in smearing these two products. He knows that his product will both directly compete with, as well as need to interoperate or exchange data with, these products.
I agree that he has not discussed any of the potential advantages of the Ingres database. There may not be any, or he may be unable to convey what sets his product apart from the competitors. But suggesting that he is lying, is a little over the top.
It is also interesting to suggest that comfort and familiarity would be restrictions for the slashdot crowd. The bulk of this community appears to embrace change (and their new CA overlords - sorry, couldn't resist). In fact, it is change that draws most of us to the IT industry.
Maybe you have read more into his statements than is actually there?
Up here in Canada, debt collectors are prohibited from contacting anyone other than the person with the debt.
Your friend would find himself unemployed, and facing stiff fines / legal action after his first call to my boss.
It is unfortunate that some people still abuse their "power" as a debt collector, and threaten the type of action that you have listed. Sadly, most consumers are unaware of their rights.
A myopic viewpoint is best hidden behind AC status.
It is important to note that there are entire industries that utilize beverage-only refrigeration devices. These devices are running while the shop is closed and there are no customers with which to provide a cold beverage to. As an example, each and every soft-drink vending machine provides refrigeration.
As for me, I prefer a cold beverage to a cool beverage. I haven't been subject to stomach cramps yet, but I'll keep you posted.
I think that you've hit the nail on the head here. The amount of energy required to constantly refrigerate a beverage vs. the cost required to 'instantly' make a non-refrigerated beverage cold.
Additionally, people who are mobile would find enormous benefit. A can of "water" or sports drink on a hot day of cycling would be well worth the $.50 surcharge that this market might expect.
However, if the surcharge is greater than 50% of the current market price, it may not fly.
My first introduction with Alphas were running Windows NT 3.something. That was the least stable OS, but the machines kicked some serious butt as raster(ized) image processors (RIPs). Back around 93 I think.
The company that I was working for cut back, and I found myself looking for work. At the same time, thousands of other IT workers were handed their walking papers in my city. I was an unemployed IT manager - not in high demand during a period of downsizing.
Long after my severance and savings expired (I do have wife/kids), I had an opportunity to work in construction (I was about 30 pounds underweight - I'm kinda surprised they hired me). I don't think that I ever worked harder in my life. The idea of just giving up and letting the government help me was tempting. Really tempting. Operating a shovel (read = ditch digging) was enough to put food on the table.
Unfortunately, up here in Canada, that kind of work is seasonal, and that job ended in November.
It was December of 2002 before I found an IT job - UNIX Analyst. It was the first reasonable job offer that I received in 11 months, and I jumped at the opportunity. I have been working for the same company since. If I hadn't found this job, it's possible that I might not have gotten back into IT...
In retrospect, I see changes that I could have made along the way that would have better prepared me for that extended period of unemployment. But I didn't know that it would take me 11 months to find work in my field. I could have moved into a less expensive apartment, interviewed for lower paying IT positions earlier on rather than holding out for my ideal job, etc.
I wasn't making an excuse for welfare, nor arguing it's pros / cons.
There are similar problems in Canada, and they are not restricted to our First Nations people. We are a multi-cultural society with all races / religions / creeds supping from the welfare pot as circumstance dictate. It is unfortunate that some people abuse it, and unfortunate that the system is addictive.
We require a solution that would tend to the needs of those who *require* assistance. At the same time, we need to educate those who *expect* assistance to be more productive members of society.
Coming from slashdot, I'm not surprised that the bulk of posts are written from atop a high horse.
Being poor is not something that people wallow in. It is simply a state that people find themselves in. Most people do not strive to be poor. If the have a computer, they likely bought / got it prior to their current state of affairs.
Sometimes the effects are gradual. Sometimes there are mass lay-offs that occur that shut down entire towns. Mines, automotive factories, etc. can create instant poverty by closing shop. It's not pretty, and considering that a large percentage of people live paycheck to paycheck, it's not surprising that people don't know how to live 'poor'.
Snide comments about why people are poor are not solutions to poverty. They only prove that you lack a serious understanding of how the real world operates.
It is unfortunate that there will always be people out there looking to take advantage of a situation.
The unfortunate truth in our 'capitalistic' societies (North/South America, Europe, Australia), is that the bulk of 'profits' are not reinvested, but rather withdrawn and squandered - either by shareholders, or by executives.
The implications of a switch to F/OSS are related to a single industry that did not exist in it's current state until 20-30 years ago. The suggestion is that instead of trading dollars/euros/etc., you are trading your investment in development. Time spent working becomes the currency vs. a theoretical world economy dollar.
If I work for one hour coding in Canada, and you work for one hour writing the same code in Hungary, should it not be traded on the basis of equal value in this global environment?
IMHO, the move to F/OSS may indeed cause fiscal harm to a single industry that has extorted a great deal of wealth without a proportional reinvestment in the market that created it. Such is the price of progress.
2 years ago I worked at a remote mining site in northern BC on my ThinkPad. Used an orinoco wireless access point to access the LAN / WAN. That WAN spoke to the world over a VoIP link (a la Cisco) via Anik1 (Satellite) terminated in Vancouver. In the Vancouver office we had a nice little NAT / Firewall setup to points beyond.
I surfed slashdot from the tailings dam - not something I'd recommend, as the smell will get to you after a while. I voted in polls from the landing strip while waiting for supplies.
Although not incredibly robust (the signal was weak, and required line-of-sight for connectivity, etc.), it kept me up to date on stuff that mattered.
Slashdot Mirror
Just a little debunking of the Canadian communications infrastructure myth.
:)
We advanced technologically *with* the Americans. We installed telephone systems along side the Americans. We upgraded to digital telephone systems as well as the Americans. We Implemented our cellphone networks on the same types of systems as the Americans.
From every little hamlet, to every major city, there is telephone connectivity. We had an infrastructure that dates back to *shortly after* the invention of the telephone.
At each major technological evolution, our infrastructures were replaced - just like the Americans. Of course there were always some hold-outs - I think that rotary service was still available as recently as 8 years ago (still available as special service where required, at added expense).
The argument of "it's costly to roll over new..." doesn't wash, as Canada has a lower population density for areas that it delivers signal to, and yet still manages to introduce the technology / replace the outdated gear, and provide the new services. Sure, there are still areas where ISDN is the highest speed available, but we have a large landmass, and a small population. We'll get to them when we can.
The *real* reason that high speed connectivity isn't as available in the US? Corporations aren't interested in spending money to replace an infrastructure that the bulk of it's customers aren't willing to pay extra for. Perhaps it's time to use the enormous power of your population to force the mega-corporations to offer the services that you want.
As an aside, our towns are not *mostly* restricted to the American border, as we have communities dotting our countryside - similar to the United States. And, while it is true that we have a major trunk that runs coast to coast connecting the larger cities, we have major branches running north/south into each province (and subsequently, the territories) to provide coverage for as many of these communities as possible.
Your infrastructure will only improve when you demand it. We did.
Look asshole - I believe in freedom of choice. Children that are killed this way is NOT by choice. Your parents decided to have you. They planned for it, prepared for it. What if they discovered that the doctor killed the child during labor, and there was nothing that they could do about it?
That is the problem. Don't blow things out of proportion, and you won't get flamed back.
California is overpopulated because of it's location. Not because my neighbour had kids. Same thing in Florida. Same thing Hamburg. Same thing in Athens.
I'm not sure who pissed in your cornflakes, but you need to learn to look at this from a realistic perspective.
Take your head out of your ass before replying...
It's not YOUR quality of life. Whether or not a family in China makes a decision to have a 3rd child does not affect you in any way.
If you have trouble with lines in California, move to one of your mythical "10 acre" lots in another state - if you can afford one. Nobody is forcing you to live in the big city. It's really too bad that your parents didn't subscribe to partial birth abortions. Maybe we can convince her to enroll you in a retroactive abortion program.
Ass hat.
I appologize for posting out of sequence, but I am alarmed by the types of responses...
Most posts seem to be of the:
1. "I'm glad I'm not in China, their government wants to monitor them"
2. "Oh my $diety, this is bad for the world, China is going to $terrible_action"
[rant]
First: This type of 'monitoring' has been occuring in the United States (and presumably other nations) for around 20 years, getting more granular as the technology matures. You/we/they tell yourself that this bird is being used to keep us safe, and is never going to pointed to your Kentucky home. The government doesn't care what "you" do. Actually, they do.
Second: There are other more horrific things that occur in China that the world continues to turn a blind eye to. "Partial birth abortions" spring to mind. We do wait until technologies that may affect us is in question before denouncing China? Why don't we get on our soap boxes sooner to eliminate other atrocities?
[/rant]
Xenophobia is a dangerous thing. There is so much that we don't know - about China, and other nations that we are in various confrontations with. We react without attempting to fully understand. It's almost like "I've made up my mind, don't try to confuse me with the facts."
Maybe one day we will stop the war machines and sit down to talk.
From www.homestarruner.com, spoken by same:
Homestarrunner. It's dot com.
Still makes me laugh!
Also, you made two statements that seem to contradict each other:
Quote: "we can still tell our government when to back off".
Quote: "many Americans disapprove of the war in Iraq".
You claim to have power over the government, but are unable to stop them from going to war...
I hope that, some day soon, the blinders will come off, and people will realize that countries who throw their weight around are often the cause of instability, not the solution to it. Right now the world's focus is on the middle-east, but they aren't the only ones guilty of this behaviour.
If we (global - not just US) don't learn from history, we are destined to repeat it. Let's get off of our high horses before we fall off.
The portion about "history" is 100% correct. The portion about hegemony is more of an editorialized comment. I would have mod'd it at funny. Perhaps if it had said "Obtaining hegemony"...
That viewpoint is interesting.
The United States have a large military machine, but their nation operates with huge deficits. The biggest kid on the playground often gets his way, but that does not make him the leader.
The US has had some good leaders in the past, but so have other countries. Strong leaders that have been respected. It is unfortunate that the current President is not. Hopefully he will realize that bigger guns, more expensive toys, and invasions / conquests are not the way to garner respect.
My only fear....
(NOTE - THIS IS A SCIENCE FICTION MUSING - NOT A RECOMMENDATION)
After this 'constellation' is in place, the US government will create a malignant law that somehow negates their huge debts to other countries and their people, sieze control of all foreign interests on their soil, and declare themselves "leader" of the "free" world.
Sure - it's a little extreme, but I'm an extreme guy.
A large percentage of 'headline' humour falls into this type of word-play. The pronounciation isn't as important as it's proximity.
Additional forms of wordplay might include pattern repetition. An example might be "Lloyd's Lloses Llamas" as a headline if Lloyds of London had to settle a claim to a llama farmer.
If it's in print, it's not how it sounds, but how it looks.
It's artistic license -
Beta ~ Betta' ~ Better
"Better not make money"
Thought this was self evident...
Actually Greenblat doesn't smear any products in his responses.
He is merely saying that his product *will* be the next generation of blah blah blah.
He does not, at any point, say anything negative about PostgreSQL or MySQL. In fact, it is abundantly obvious that he is not interested in smearing these two products. He knows that his product will both directly compete with, as well as need to interoperate or exchange data with, these products.
I agree that he has not discussed any of the potential advantages of the Ingres database. There may not be any, or he may be unable to convey what sets his product apart from the competitors. But suggesting that he is lying, is a little over the top.
It is also interesting to suggest that comfort and familiarity would be restrictions for the slashdot crowd. The bulk of this community appears to embrace change (and their new CA overlords - sorry, couldn't resist). In fact, it is change that draws most of us to the IT industry.
Maybe you have read more into his statements than is actually there?
Wow, that would suck!
Up here in Canada, debt collectors are prohibited from contacting anyone other than the person with the debt.
Your friend would find himself unemployed, and facing stiff fines / legal action after his first call to my boss.
It is unfortunate that some people still abuse their "power" as a debt collector, and threaten the type of action that you have listed. Sadly, most consumers are unaware of their rights.
A myopic viewpoint is best hidden behind AC status.
It is important to note that there are entire industries that utilize beverage-only refrigeration devices. These devices are running while the shop is closed and there are no customers with which to provide a cold beverage to. As an example, each and every soft-drink vending machine provides refrigeration.
As for me, I prefer a cold beverage to a cool beverage. I haven't been subject to stomach cramps yet, but I'll keep you posted.
I think that you've hit the nail on the head here. The amount of energy required to constantly refrigerate a beverage vs. the cost required to 'instantly' make a non-refrigerated beverage cold.
Additionally, people who are mobile would find enormous benefit. A can of "water" or sports drink on a hot day of cycling would be well worth the $.50 surcharge that this market might expect.
However, if the surcharge is greater than 50% of the current market price, it may not fly.
It is quite likely that this person has mistaken VMS with VAX. Unfortunately, an all too common mistake.
My first introduction with Alphas were running Windows NT 3.something. That was the least stable OS, but the machines kicked some serious butt as raster(ized) image processors (RIPs). Back around 93 I think.
I suddenly feel old.
I am Pentium of Borg
Division is futile
You will be approximated
(stolen from a sig - circa Pentium I)
Interesting that when confronted with humour about your post that you strike back with an alarming pettyness that is truly insulting.
Unlike the person that you were flaming, you have mimicked the stereotype that you suggest in your post.
It's a sad day for trolls...
I was in a similar position in January of 2002.
The company that I was working for cut back, and I found myself looking for work. At the same time, thousands of other IT workers were handed their walking papers in my city. I was an unemployed IT manager - not in high demand during a period of downsizing.
Long after my severance and savings expired (I do have wife/kids), I had an opportunity to work in construction (I was about 30 pounds underweight - I'm kinda surprised they hired me). I don't think that I ever worked harder in my life. The idea of just giving up and letting the government help me was tempting. Really tempting. Operating a shovel (read = ditch digging) was enough to put food on the table.
Unfortunately, up here in Canada, that kind of work is seasonal, and that job ended in November.
It was December of 2002 before I found an IT job - UNIX Analyst. It was the first reasonable job offer that I received in 11 months, and I jumped at the opportunity. I have been working for the same company since. If I hadn't found this job, it's possible that I might not have gotten back into IT...
In retrospect, I see changes that I could have made along the way that would have better prepared me for that extended period of unemployment. But I didn't know that it would take me 11 months to find work in my field. I could have moved into a less expensive apartment, interviewed for lower paying IT positions earlier on rather than holding out for my ideal job, etc.
Judge not, lest you be judged.
Valkyrie needs food. Badly.
Valkyrie is about to die...
I used to love that gmae!
I wasn't making an excuse for welfare, nor arguing it's pros / cons.
There are similar problems in Canada, and they are not restricted to our First Nations people. We are a multi-cultural society with all races / religions / creeds supping from the welfare pot as circumstance dictate. It is unfortunate that some people abuse it, and unfortunate that the system is addictive.
We require a solution that would tend to the needs of those who *require* assistance. At the same time, we need to educate those who *expect* assistance to be more productive members of society.
Coming from slashdot, I'm not surprised that the bulk of posts are written from atop a high horse.
Being poor is not something that people wallow in. It is simply a state that people find themselves in. Most people do not strive to be poor. If the have a computer, they likely bought / got it prior to their current state of affairs.
Sometimes the effects are gradual. Sometimes there are mass lay-offs that occur that shut down entire towns. Mines, automotive factories, etc. can create instant poverty by closing shop. It's not pretty, and considering that a large percentage of people live paycheck to paycheck, it's not surprising that people don't know how to live 'poor'.
Snide comments about why people are poor are not solutions to poverty. They only prove that you lack a serious understanding of how the real world operates.
It is unfortunate that there will always be people out there looking to take advantage of a situation.
9962146
Snipped from www.dictionary.com (capitalism)
accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained
The unfortunate truth in our 'capitalistic' societies (North/South America, Europe, Australia), is that the bulk of 'profits' are not reinvested, but rather withdrawn and squandered - either by shareholders, or by executives.
The implications of a switch to F/OSS are related to a single industry that did not exist in it's current state until 20-30 years ago. The suggestion is that instead of trading dollars/euros/etc., you are trading your investment in development. Time spent working becomes the currency vs. a theoretical world economy dollar.
If I work for one hour coding in Canada, and you work for one hour writing the same code in Hungary, should it not be traded on the basis of equal value in this global environment?
IMHO, the move to F/OSS may indeed cause fiscal harm to a single industry that has extorted a great deal of wealth without a proportional reinvestment in the market that created it. Such is the price of progress.
My 2 cents Canadian
That depends...
2 years ago I worked at a remote mining site in northern BC on my ThinkPad. Used an orinoco wireless access point to access the LAN / WAN. That WAN spoke to the world over a VoIP link (a la Cisco) via Anik1 (Satellite) terminated in Vancouver. In the Vancouver office we had a nice little NAT / Firewall setup to points beyond.
I surfed slashdot from the tailings dam - not something I'd recommend, as the smell will get to you after a while. I voted in polls from the landing strip while waiting for supplies.
Although not incredibly robust (the signal was weak, and required line-of-sight for connectivity, etc.), it kept me up to date on stuff that mattered.