IBM was founded, built, financed, and supported by Western countries, principally the US, UK, Japan, and Germany. The US, especially, protects IBM's intellectual property, provides a secure environment for business, and enormous amounts of government contracts. The great bulk of IBM's customers are in the West.
Oh. So IBM shouldn't employ people from India because they would be betraying Western civilization, which somehow includes Japan. That's the most persuasive argument I've read yet.
He doesn't. Smith was a rogue agent created by the Oracle in order to force this very situation. And the Oracle doesn't always "foresee" the future, she just manipulates others by claiming that she can.
(In Revolutions, Smith addresses the Oracle as "mom" when she calls him a bastard, and the Architect tells the Oracle that she plays a "dangerous game".)
Watch Revolutions. He asks the Oracle, and the Oracle tells him that essentially Neo has root access to the machine mainframe thanks to his encounter with the Architect.
No, I think your idea is a lame ending. Zion doesn't have to be a literal computer program in order for it to be a system of control, I think it was subtle and made sense the way it was.
In Hong Kong, you cannot burn the Chinese flag or vote for your leaders. In Holland you must pay higher taxes and I don't think you can express certain fringe political viewpoints. In Israel the police powers are like Patriot Act on crack. In Switzerland you must enlist in the military. In (Soviet?) Russia, you can't effectively campaign for office unless your name is Vladimir Putin, to say nothing of the police powers (the KGB is still around, it just has a nicer-sounding name). In France, you can't put a sign out unless the sign is written in proper French.
Sure, some countries have some freedoms better than the US, but in aggregate, the US is pretty high up there.
Look, the United States itself has never been under any military threat since World War II, which means that the vast majority of surviving veterans, no matter how honorable their service, did absolutely nothing to protect the freedom of the American people. They did a great deal to protect the freedom of the South Korean people, the Kuwaiti people, and perhaps the Afghan and Iraqi people, and they're people too so maybe it was important to protect their freedoms. But the idea that we have the military to thank for our freedom is absurd. And you think all Americans should be obligated to serve two years? You would enslave millions into military service in the name of freedom? Read some history. Standing armies have never been an asset to freedom, they have only been a threat.
Actually that would be an interesting measure of performance for future computers, to see how quickly they could fully render the planet Earth like the Earth Simulator. 2 planet Earths a second would mean that for every second two full renderings could be completed, which seems like a pretty good rate (real-time for many practical purposes).
In short: Wayne Industries, in the movie, is shown to be a defense contractor. They design these things for the government, but the government ends up not using them in many cases. If stealth bombers can remains secret for over a decade while being speculated upon, designed, manufactured, deployed, and used in combat operations without anyone being the wiser, I don't think it's any more difficult for a single company, unbeknownst to anyone else, to outfit a single Batman. I have a more in-depth post about that here.
Engineers who work for the sort of military contractors that develop that sort of equipment are not just "somebody in R&D". They are persons who the federal government has trusted security clearances to after the FBI thoroughly interviews every person they have ever known and gained a very accurate picture of their character. They are instructed, and expected, never to speak about their work, not even to their families.
Pretty much no one talked about the stealth fighter before the government acknowledged its existence five years after initial operating capability in 1983. Despite this, a large team of brilliant engineers built and tested the thing and a publicly owned US corporation managed to have a small production run of them manufactured, while the United States government managed to purchase and operate them with probably hundreds of personnel--pilots, mechanics, base personnel, security guards, flight controllers, even the guy standing out on the runway waving batons around to direct landing aircraft. Add to that a handful of commanding officers all the way up the chain of command.
So, yes. In essence, a handful of Batsuits and any other equipment Batman needs could easily be manufactured by Wayne Industries for Batman's personal use without anyone being the wiser. And since Wayne Industries is (at least in part) a military contractor according to the film, I'm sure accounting has a line item for projects they are not allowed to publicly disclose, and I'm sure they have employees, policies, and procedures designed precisely for the purpose of keeping some of their operations secret.
Key to this, of course, is a strict "need to know" policy, so most of the people involved would have no idea that Bruce Wayne is Batman, although probably some number of them would know or figure out that Wayne Industries was Batman's secret outfitter. But overall? Yeah, Bruce Wayne's identity can plausibly be kept a secret.
The kind of "democracy" where a single unelected political party controls the government and Lenin gets to order executions? Don't have any illusions about the Bolsheviks. Allied intervention in the Russian civil war didn't stop the Bolsheviks from setting up a democracy if that's really what they wanted.
That reminds me of the time I used a poorly-administered Linux system and decided to write off the entire platform, and proceed to troll on Slashdot about it.
This is Slashdot. We are geeks. Nationality aside, we don't see machines as "symbols", we see them as tools. There is nothing spiritual about the hydrogen bomb, it is simply a device. What matters is what it's used for. Blowing up Russia is usually wrong. Terraforming Mars? That depends on how much of an environmentalist you are.
Also remember that he didn't have to be a Sith Lord per se to be working for Sidious and starting the clone army. He could have done that first and then when Maul died Sidious was ready to offer him the job. Since Sidious (in the guise of Palpatine) also manages to quickly gain an interest in Anakin as early as Episode I, it isn't out of the question that Sidious has potential new apprentices lined up long before his apprentice at the time dies.
He probably is also keeping in mind the fact that Anakin is going to be his apprentice eventually, so by design all the apprentices before Vader are just transitory. (After all, Darth Plagueis could influence the midichlorians to create life, and that's how Anakin was conceived, so his entire existence was likely a Sith plot from the beginning.)
Did it take 20 minutes to copy a 17 MB file, too? As someone who has used Mac OS X continually since 2001, you're full of shit. Textedit opens each and any HTML file (you might have to configure it to open them in plaintext mode, I did it once 3 years ago and haven't worried about it since), and while there is an "are you sure?" dialogue when you try to change a file extension, unless you were on a restricted user account (and probably not even then) there was a "yes I'm sure" button that you missed. Sounds like you came into the project with enough prejudice to make you stupider than the average Mac user. Congratulations.
No, Dooku was just a disaffected ex-Jedi, he didn't become a Sith Lord until after Maul died. In fact, I don't think Dooku left the Jedi until after Qui-Gon died (that upset him greatly, as Qui-Gon was his former apprentice, I believe).
Yes, but you have to go back and forth either way, and if you're on a dual monitor, reaching the other screen is going to be relatively fast regardless. And yes, the keyboard is going to be faster either way, but that's a red herring, we were discussing whether it's easier to hit an in-window menu or a top-of-the-screen menu with the mouse.
Just try telling the software engineers that. I wouldn't be surprised if the title "engineer" isn't worth something in the tens of thousands per year and two to three inches of metaphorical penis size.
Slashdot Mirror
IBM was founded, built, financed, and supported by Western countries, principally the US, UK, Japan, and Germany. The US, especially, protects IBM's intellectual property, provides a secure environment for business, and enormous amounts of government contracts. The great bulk of IBM's customers are in the West.
Oh. So IBM shouldn't employ people from India because they would be betraying Western civilization, which somehow includes Japan. That's the most persuasive argument I've read yet.
Because it's illegal? Also, were you trying to make a point? Also, what kind of sick bastard rapes a dog?
Yes, obviously being able to write code and bring down remote servers requires a complete knowledge of physics, especially EM phenomenon.
He doesn't. Smith was a rogue agent created by the Oracle in order to force this very situation. And the Oracle doesn't always "foresee" the future, she just manipulates others by claiming that she can.
(In Revolutions, Smith addresses the Oracle as "mom" when she calls him a bastard, and the Architect tells the Oracle that she plays a "dangerous game".)
Why could Neo kill Sentinels in real life?
Watch Revolutions. He asks the Oracle, and the Oracle tells him that essentially Neo has root access to the machine mainframe thanks to his encounter with the Architect.
No, I think your idea is a lame ending. Zion doesn't have to be a literal computer program in order for it to be a system of control, I think it was subtle and made sense the way it was.
Well, World War II technically (the Phillippines were US soil at the time, and Japan seized them as well as some of the Aleutian Islands).
In Hong Kong, you cannot burn the Chinese flag or vote for your leaders. In Holland you must pay higher taxes and I don't think you can express certain fringe political viewpoints. In Israel the police powers are like Patriot Act on crack. In Switzerland you must enlist in the military. In (Soviet?) Russia, you can't effectively campaign for office unless your name is Vladimir Putin, to say nothing of the police powers (the KGB is still around, it just has a nicer-sounding name). In France, you can't put a sign out unless the sign is written in proper French.
Sure, some countries have some freedoms better than the US, but in aggregate, the US is pretty high up there.
So did King Charles
You mean King George III, who was defeated by American militia and the French military.
Santa Ana
Texas militia.
The Kaiser, Hitler
With some significant foreign assistance.
Hirohito
Defeated by the American physicists and engineers of the Manhattan Project.
Gorbachov
Never faced the US in a shooting war. Caused the political collapse of his own country.
Moammar Khadafi
Never faced the US in a full-scale shooting war, despite a minor skirmish with the US Navy.
The Entire Taliban
Escaped mostly unharmed into the hills of Afghanistan. Quickly forgotten.
Saddam Hussein.
With significant foreign assistance the first time. The second time, he was disarmed and his country's economy was destroyed by a decade-long embargo.
Blah blah blah...
Look, the United States itself has never been under any military threat since World War II, which means that the vast majority of surviving veterans, no matter how honorable their service, did absolutely nothing to protect the freedom of the American people. They did a great deal to protect the freedom of the South Korean people, the Kuwaiti people, and perhaps the Afghan and Iraqi people, and they're people too so maybe it was important to protect their freedoms. But the idea that we have the military to thank for our freedom is absurd. And you think all Americans should be obligated to serve two years? You would enslave millions into military service in the name of freedom? Read some history. Standing armies have never been an asset to freedom, they have only been a threat.
No, because you're using iTunes, which reads off your local hard drive. The iPod is just a mobile backup of the same music and data.
Actually that would be an interesting measure of performance for future computers, to see how quickly they could fully render the planet Earth like the Earth Simulator. 2 planet Earths a second would mean that for every second two full renderings could be completed, which seems like a pretty good rate (real-time for many practical purposes).
In short: Wayne Industries, in the movie, is shown to be a defense contractor. They design these things for the government, but the government ends up not using them in many cases. If stealth bombers can remains secret for over a decade while being speculated upon, designed, manufactured, deployed, and used in combat operations without anyone being the wiser, I don't think it's any more difficult for a single company, unbeknownst to anyone else, to outfit a single Batman. I have a more in-depth post about that here.
Engineers who work for the sort of military contractors that develop that sort of equipment are not just "somebody in R&D". They are persons who the federal government has trusted security clearances to after the FBI thoroughly interviews every person they have ever known and gained a very accurate picture of their character. They are instructed, and expected, never to speak about their work, not even to their families.
Pretty much no one talked about the stealth fighter before the government acknowledged its existence five years after initial operating capability in 1983. Despite this, a large team of brilliant engineers built and tested the thing and a publicly owned US corporation managed to have a small production run of them manufactured, while the United States government managed to purchase and operate them with probably hundreds of personnel--pilots, mechanics, base personnel, security guards, flight controllers, even the guy standing out on the runway waving batons around to direct landing aircraft. Add to that a handful of commanding officers all the way up the chain of command.
So, yes. In essence, a handful of Batsuits and any other equipment Batman needs could easily be manufactured by Wayne Industries for Batman's personal use without anyone being the wiser. And since Wayne Industries is (at least in part) a military contractor according to the film, I'm sure accounting has a line item for projects they are not allowed to publicly disclose, and I'm sure they have employees, policies, and procedures designed precisely for the purpose of keeping some of their operations secret.
Key to this, of course, is a strict "need to know" policy, so most of the people involved would have no idea that Bruce Wayne is Batman, although probably some number of them would know or figure out that Wayne Industries was Batman's secret outfitter. But overall? Yeah, Bruce Wayne's identity can plausibly be kept a secret.
Just like Superman III ;)
The kind of "democracy" where a single unelected political party controls the government and Lenin gets to order executions? Don't have any illusions about the Bolsheviks. Allied intervention in the Russian civil war didn't stop the Bolsheviks from setting up a democracy if that's really what they wanted.
That reminds me of the time I used a poorly-administered Linux system and decided to write off the entire platform, and proceed to troll on Slashdot about it.
This is Slashdot. We are geeks. Nationality aside, we don't see machines as "symbols", we see them as tools. There is nothing spiritual about the hydrogen bomb, it is simply a device. What matters is what it's used for. Blowing up Russia is usually wrong. Terraforming Mars? That depends on how much of an environmentalist you are.
I don't think that's the kind of Jobs he was seeking.
Also remember that he didn't have to be a Sith Lord per se to be working for Sidious and starting the clone army. He could have done that first and then when Maul died Sidious was ready to offer him the job. Since Sidious (in the guise of Palpatine) also manages to quickly gain an interest in Anakin as early as Episode I, it isn't out of the question that Sidious has potential new apprentices lined up long before his apprentice at the time dies.
He probably is also keeping in mind the fact that Anakin is going to be his apprentice eventually, so by design all the apprentices before Vader are just transitory. (After all, Darth Plagueis could influence the midichlorians to create life, and that's how Anakin was conceived, so his entire existence was likely a Sith plot from the beginning.)
Did it take 20 minutes to copy a 17 MB file, too? As someone who has used Mac OS X continually since 2001, you're full of shit. Textedit opens each and any HTML file (you might have to configure it to open them in plaintext mode, I did it once 3 years ago and haven't worried about it since), and while there is an "are you sure?" dialogue when you try to change a file extension, unless you were on a restricted user account (and probably not even then) there was a "yes I'm sure" button that you missed. Sounds like you came into the project with enough prejudice to make you stupider than the average Mac user. Congratulations.
No, Dooku was just a disaffected ex-Jedi, he didn't become a Sith Lord until after Maul died. In fact, I don't think Dooku left the Jedi until after Qui-Gon died (that upset him greatly, as Qui-Gon was his former apprentice, I believe).
Yes, but you have to go back and forth either way, and if you're on a dual monitor, reaching the other screen is going to be relatively fast regardless. And yes, the keyboard is going to be faster either way, but that's a red herring, we were discussing whether it's easier to hit an in-window menu or a top-of-the-screen menu with the mouse.
Just try telling the software engineers that. I wouldn't be surprised if the title "engineer" isn't worth something in the tens of thousands per year and two to three inches of metaphorical penis size.
Dude, the close button is still on the window that the button's associated with. Have you ever actually used Mac OS X?