It is not the parents that have turned the USA's public education system into (more or less) a juvenile babysitter service. Unless, of course, it's really the parents' fault for not coughing up the money to send their kids to private schools, where they might actually learn something.
Almost every time I go into a store (, and especially a fast food restaurant) I am constantly reminded of inadequate learning when the cashier is confronted with making change. They almost never figure out a problem with the correct change when they have keyed it in wrong -- whatever the electronic cash register says is correct. Like trying to hand back change for a $20 when they still have my $10 bill sitting on the register (doh!).
Is that "Ivy League" mediocre GPA, or "run-of- the-mill state uninversity" GPA? The reason I ask is because it can make the difference in the school loan debt of (perhaps) $80K USD. If you are a second year student & not planning immediately on that advanced degree, you might want to switch out to a blue collar job like plumber or electrician -- these jobs will not be outsourced overseas (, although they may be taken over by the influx of illegal aliens.)
Many of the CS and IT jobs are going away, more or less permanently. This means that you will be competing with a larger prospective employee field for a lower wage position than you had originally considered. The "mediocre GPA" implies either a lack of competitive drive, or else a lack of ability -- I am assuming here that it is the latter. The competition for those few "good" IT jobs is fierce these days, and will only get worse. You can crack down, and turn those "Cs" into "As", and then plan immediately to get into grad school -- a good place to be if you are an optimist that thinks the job market will improve (ha, ha, ha).
(You might consider switching to law school --
since there can never really be too many
lawyers. But that takes a load of debt, too.)
Judging by the current job trend, you may need that BS degree just to compete for a waiter position in a restaurant. I would not recommend trying to migrate to where those IT jobs will be, because you will never be able to pay off your student loans that way (, and who really wants to live in a third world country for third world wages, anyway?) In case you haven't been paying too much attention to the news, or to emerging financial trends, the USA just "lost" a trade war with the EU, Canada, and Far East. The huge (and growing) national debt, and balance of trade deficit, has put the USA on the cusp of a modern economic depression -- a collapse of the Japanese banking industry (tettering for nearly 20 years), a Chinese or EU pull-out from the USA's bond markets, or another major domestic terrorist attack, would individually (or combined) push the USA's economy onto the proverbial "crapper". If you think energy (gas, fuel oil, nat.gas) prices are high now, just wait until the USA's dollar devalues in direct relation to our debt.
Yes, the report originated from the DHS, which by function (if not design) is another government oxymoron. This is why, after 3+ years, airline cargo and (port) container cargo are still not inspected, and why there are more illegal border crossings today than before 9-11-2001. Billions (USD $$) more to be spent on a theater missile defense system, but cut back on the Clinton "100,000 more police on the streets" program, and no real additional attention spent on what container cargo comes into our ports. Any country (or entity) with a nuclear device, and willing to use it on the USA's homeland is not going to want a ballistic missile tracked back to their home, so the first use of nukes in the USA will be via container cargo, or else a suitcase nuke carried across an illegal border crossing.
From all appearances, Michael Moore's movie, "Fahrenheit 9-11" was right on target regarding the Bush administration's real intentions -- all the homeland security hype was/is mostly just "bull-hockey". And a clever re-election campaign ploy swallowed by the USA's voters, hook, line, and sinker.
Sure. And NASA, at the time, thought that it was doing the "right" thing about contamination. The only problem is, is that autoclaving and UV irradiation DOES NOT KILL all microbal life. It only makes the "survivors" the very toughest of the bunch. Microbiologists have discovered microbes living more than a mile underground that eat rock! And oceanographers have found microbes thriving in the hot vents of the ocean floor, where their thermometers have literally melted. Re-examination of both the sterilization process and the materials used, NASA has reached the conclusion that 100% sterility (no microbal life) on stars-bound craft was not possible. That said, there is no reason to believe that some "cross-pollination" between Earth and Mars has not been going on since the beginning of time. Any attempt that NASA or ESA (or PRC) makes to return "samples" to Earth will only accelerate that process. The "war of the worlds" is going on right now, but on Mars, and at the microbal level, ever since we landed craft there. Like the line from the "Alien" movie series stated... "they were with us the entire way". The push to put men on Mars will far outweigh the ability to detect and preserve whatever life already existed on Mars, anyway. And for true "terraforming" to commence there, someone is going to have to make the decision to massively and deliberately contaminate Mars with microbes.
Both terrorists AND illegal aliens have made use of the vast differences in ID requirements between the states, as well as enforcement. Considering the number of incidents reported over the past 4 - 5 years regarding malfeasance on the part of government employees (SS Admin, and Dept. of Motor Vehicles especially), it is no wonder that identity theft is such a "growth" industry in this country. While the Metro DC area's largest immigrant population is Hispanic, just recently a document (Birth Cert., Driver Licenses, & Passports) conterfeiting ring was broken up that generated more than $2M USD, and generated new identities for more than 1,900 Indonesians residing in this region. That only helps to illustrate the depth of the problem.
A national ID card system, based upon Photo, Facial Recognition, and Finger Prints, and digitally signed and encrypted would go a long way towards eliminating identity theft here. I do not think that a "smart card" is really a good idea, due to privacy concerns. I would rather not have sensitive information (medical and financial) available stored on the card -- not really needed to ascertain a person's ID.
Microsoft (, and many other high tech companies,) never used to get involved much in politics, aside from the occassional need for intervention in foreign trade matters. Campaign contributions from high tech companies has soared in the past 5 - 6 years (, especially Microsoft). That bit of business with the DoJ regarding "monopolies" provided the high tech companies with a "wake-up call". Of course, the deeper the corporation's pockets, the more "mother's milk" of politics can be spread around. Think that there was no correlation between campaign contributions and the outcome of the DoJ case against Microsoft? Don't be naive. Microsoft stalled long enough for their "venue" to change to a more complacent political party in power. At that point, as I recall, Microsoft got a deal that they "might" have written themselves, for all it cost them. At some point, it was looking like they were on the verge of being split up into 2 or 3 different companies. Instead, they got a "pass".
Someone here at/. should start a pool on just how long NOAA will hold this position. In today's political climate, it is not very difficult to imagine that all that taxpayer-funded weather forcasting (and research) will wind up being commercialized, and "public" data being held hostage to secrecy and the DMCA (under the guise of "national security"). As if anyone with a barometer, a wet bulb, and a window wouldn't eventually figure out the weather.
This is the spector of "obsolesence" to be held over those countries that now have the USA's outsourced IT jobs -- in 15 - 20 years, they, too, will be looking for new employment (if they don't keep their pricing structure competitive with what the market will be "willing" to pay.)
I would be very happy for the (parent) to tell me exactly how "entertainment and learning" will be "gainful employment". The last time I checked, the USA was making a decidedly right wing turn away from the public social safety net, populism, or any government provided services. The last time I checked, communism has fallen out of favor in the (former) USSR and the PRC -- only DPRNK and Castro's Cuba have survived (barely). What you are really saying is that the "gentrified" senior managers, corporate officers, and major shareholders of the still successful IT companies will be living the "life of Reilly", while the peons will be providing all the super-cheap (former IT labor force) will be doing all their domestic work. (Why immigrate to China or India, when you can get really, really cheap domestic servants here in the USA?) Certainly explains the massive influx of illegal aliens AFTER 9-11, based upon your "blue skies" scenario.
And, hey, it isn't just the public libraries, city road maintenence, or city police, either. One of the big projects that GW Bush and the World Bank/IMF have been shoving down other countries' gullets is privatization of public water and sewer services.
Invariably, this is promoted as "reducing public debt" while privatizing "public services". The results have been fairly consistent -- reduction of the public workforce, and in a few years, the cost to the public for water and sewer services has gone up by 250 - 300%. The quality of service (e.g. water quality) frequently goes down, also.
In the good old USA, GW Bush has been busy sub- contracting parts of the IRS (and now the TSA) out to private industry (, not to mention sole source contracting in the Iraqi war). The combination of new (improved) government secrecy and an insulating layer of legal contract has reduced public accountability. The dark underside of globalization is the goal of making the world safe for multinational corporate takeover of (normally) government services, at great profit for the few (instead of the public at large).
It's called "Corporate National Socialism", but with a globalized target subject people.
Sorry to sound cynical, but one must assume that John Poindexter (of "Total Information Awareness" fame) or his cronies have moved over to the Dept. of Education. The primary (albeit, unstated) goal would be to track the USA's foreign students (enrollment, attendance, visas, work permits), but there *could* be a secondary goal -- intended for R/W/B American students. Tracking what these students read, view online, who they associate with -- is right in line for the USA Patriot Act.
Of course, a database of these students could also be handy for the oft-denied rejuvenation of the draft, as well as a list of likely prospects for recruitment into the military -- students over-burdeoned with credit card debt might be pursuaded to join the ROTC for some extra cash from Uncle Sam. From there, into the all-volunteer military in a few easy steps.
TIA (& Poindexter) might have vanished into the woodwork, but his ideas live on in the DHS -- who are working on a national "database of databases" that will effectively end most of what was known as "personal privacy".
to download all the MS security patches and service packs to a GNU/linux box (or an OS X Mac), then apply all the needed lock-downs off-line.
The same holds true for most *nix boxes (including GNU/linux) as well. Never install a new *nix system (bare iron) while connected to the internet (or even intranet in most places). Damn fine way to get "rooted" before you've finished spinning CDs.
It's the same in America, really. We have children who learn to IM and SMS before they even learn proper spelling and sentence structure. Back nearly a generation, the problem was less rampant, and a major point of contention with various educators was the use of ubonics. Now children mostly get some training with phonetics, and then jump into IM and SMS with both feet. Some of the book reports and essays today are so full of slang and abbreviations that they don't make sense to any of the "older" generations. It's no wonder that jobs are being outsourced overseas, especially to countries where English is not the primary language -- school graduates over there can actually construct meaningful thoughts in easily comprehended sentence structure.
There is such a thing as too much technology at too early an age. I have a nephew that can't write a simple note (with proper spelling), but can IM and SMS all day long with his friends. He's 15 years old, and a product of the Texas (Bush & Co.) educational system.
The success of a F/OSS graphics card may hinge on its flexibility and expandability, rather than on trying to compete directly with state-of-the-art Nvidia or ATI products. Think outside the box, and the world might beat a path to your door.
How about H/W accelerated 2D graphics, combined with H/W based OpenGL, but with a twist? Implement a "transputer-type" ability to gang multiple PCI boards, using a very high speed bus (internal, and with an external break-out capability). Ability to impliment either a video wall, or ganged GPUs for a single display would be hot.
Ability to input/output video (including HDTV) would be nice. Having adequate on-board memory for multiple Z-buffers would be essential, but having some memory expansion capability for other purposes would be great. (Using FPGAs opens the possibility of using the board(s) for offloading other computing tasks besides video.)
An on-board general purpose DSP, as well as 16-bit AD/DA (beyond the FPGA), perhaps as a daughtercard could be "useful" for those other computing tasks requiring I/O.
I would think that having a JTAG port on the board for single-step debugging would be advantageous for F/OSS development efforts.
Finally, employing an embedded OpenBoot (forth) capability for configuration discovery (and also driver tweeking) could provide the basis for the debugging aspects.
In short, a well-rounded SBC that just happens to be a very capable graphics controller, and all F/OSS based. Such a board (or multiple boards) would find a ready home in my computer. With features like those mentioned, a $250 - $300 price range wouldn't be out of line.
Many of Microsoft's new software patents are (arguably) based upon "prior art" that the USPTO should have recognised. Microsoft (and any other company seeking very general software patents) are presumably working on the premise that during the time between the "patent pending" status, gaining USPTO approval and a patent, and its eventual elimination through the judicial review process, the ability to "restrict & prevent" other companies' access to the "software patent" is worth a lot of money. So long as the legal costs incurred through the judicial process is less than the perceived monetary gain from "squatting" on an invalid "software patent", this USPTO merry-go- round will continue. What is really needed is legislation to seriously penalize the "squatter" with monetary damages that would far exceed the perceived gain from their "window of opportunity". Of course, even with such legislation, some companies (like Microsoft) that have very deep pockets would still make the gamble. Enough losing lawsuits (and the penalties) would eventually draw the ire of the shareholders, the SEC, and the FTC.
Re:Not actually based on a joke.
on
Tin Foil Passports?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
A tin foil wrapper should actually work, as well as a lead foil wrapper. Better still, save the metallized ziplock bag that your video card probably came in, and use it. Dual purpose -- keep RFI out, as well as moisture. If you have money to burn, buy a nice gold or silver cigarette case of the right dimensions.
BTW: I don't think that you would actually need to drag a chain behind you to stay at earth ground -- that's what the Faraday cage does. Old fashioned Faraday cages did have problems -- they generally use a wire mesh of some particular size, which doesn't stop ALL RF signals. That is why all the "spooks" use walk-in steel safes...
The last successful Windows upgrade that I did was from NT4SP6 to 2KProSP1. Copious verified backups to the server, several Vallium washed down with a single malt scotch, and I was ready. BTW, all my "serious" work is now done on either GNU/linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, or OpenBSD -- I wouldn't trust any MSFT OS product ever again.
I would not want to be the IT manager trying to explain this cockup, but he/she has my sympathy.
I'm certain that that expensive "Western" college education that you borrowed money to get can EASILY be paid off with the big paycheck you're going to get from that Indian IT company. And the storage company that you trusted all of your worldly possessions with will happily accept rupees, and a 1/10 of the per month agreed to storage payment. Oh, and God help you if you should get sick while over there working in India -- most Western medical plans will not cover your overseas "deployment". (Well, you could rely on the herbal remedies available locally -- just put enough money aside to have your body shipped home to Mum and Pop.)
Intel has been busy pouring money into chip founderies in China and India, as well as motherboard assembly facilities in China.
They have been making some other rather bad management decisions over the past 5 years, including their utter and total reliance upon the overpriced and underperforming Itanium (ia64) processor. That, and also focusing so much on processor clock speed (marketing) instead of total throughput.
IMHO, Intel has pissed away almost as much customer good will as Microsoft has in the last half-decade. It isn't too hard to see that AMD's star is ascending, and with good reason.
Why bother with the tinfoil hat to guard against cellphone-induced brain tumors -- now we have to worry about playing "Russian Roulette" with our cellphones.
The Israeli MOSAD has (from time to time) used cellphones packed with C-4 explosive to "reach out and touch" a HAMAS terrorist.
Now, you can be any "Joe Schmoe" and have an IED up against your head -- goody, just one more thing to have anxieties about.
Looks like just one more step into the twilight zone -- Next step: Corporate National Socialism.
Between the "Bono" copyright ammendment, DCMA, USA Patriot Act (I), etcetera, no IP can be allowed out in the wild -- this is yet another step in the corporate endrun around any "fair use" and "prior art". Expect various "unnamed" corporations to use this to crush the F/OSS competition.
(1) make certain to use a postscript
color laser printer (2) print to file instead of printer (3) run sed on resultant output file (4) copy new file to the color laser
printer (5) profit
And for a Mac OS X computer, perhaps:
(1) make certain to use a postscript
color laser printer (2) select output to native PDF format (3) run sed on resultant output file (4) copy new file to the color laser
printer (5) profit
of course, intel is very nearly like microsoft. each has competition that they either don't like to acknowledge, or are willing to use whatever means necessary (FUD, IP, etc) in a vain attempt to maintain market share.
intel's off-again/on-again stance regarding the inclusion of WiFi in their Centrino product does not inspire any longterm confidence in their commitments (just as with microsoft's commitment to data security). it is all about market share, and the quest for the almighty buck.
what is really needed is a F/OSS project dedicated to hardware that the commercial vendors consider too valuable as IP to make available. the ready availability of hybrid analog/digital chip cores, as well as the very capable current gen FPGAs, the two biggest sore points for F/OSS support could eventually be open source -- video and WiFi should be the initial targets, IMHO.
surely, you jest! 300 million wouldn't even cover the costs for the symposium to kick off the feasability study. bush & co (warsRus) has already kicked in over 6 billion dollars for new (non-Reagan) work on a (theatre) missile defense system. so far, the only tests that have worked have been the ones that have been "billed" as "demonstrations". "leaked" reagan-era intel touted soviet land- based laser cannon capable of destroying USA satellites in HEO. $6B for a non-functional missile defense system, but not a red cent more for seaport & container cargo security.
sounds to me more like the justification for yet another bush initiative, the militarization of earth orbit. it's the usual thing -- beat the american people over the head with exaggerated or fake threats in order to pry more money out of the taxpayers for the military-industrial complex.
Okay, so lets say that we now have a working space elevator technology. What possible reason could there be for such an elevator on the moon (at 1/6th Earth gravity)?
The whole idea behind such technology is to cheaply lift material into orbit. The only thing the moon has (right now) is moon dust, and once those first samples came back at tremendous cost, what's the point? Just how much moon dust would be necessary to satisfy the demand on Earth? Even marketing the stuff on eBay has got to have some limit to demand.
The space elevator, then, is intended to lift "valuable" cargo into orbit -- not just junk. A permanent moon colony that uses solar smelters to create (mainly aluminum) building materials would still be more expensive than lifting from Earth -- there is no water and no air on the moon, and a space elevator would still be needed here to supply moon colonists/miners/refiners those life-sustaining resources.
A better scenario would be the use of Earth's resources, space elevators, and NEO spaceship construction to go where the real resources are in the solar system -- the asteroid belt and (possibly) Mars.
The best long term interests of the USA is not to thumb its nose at the Kyoto Treaty.
Of course, turning the Arctic Circle into new shipping lanes can come in handy when most agricultural production of NA shifts to northern Canada. USA's real estate developers will have a field day touting "ocean front property" in Arizona. And the US Army Corp of Engineers will have several decades of new construction work to build dikes.
It would seem that the downside of ignoring Kyoto would have a huge impact on the rest of the world. Holding the USA responsible for the climactic devastation could prove to be far more expensive than the costs to comply. Considering that a majority of the world's population lives in coastal regions, the loss of habitat will drive up population density, strain availability of resources, and will likely spawn many new wars.
Slashdot Mirror
What?
It is not the parents that have turned the
USA's public education system into (more
or less) a juvenile babysitter service.
Unless, of course, it's really the parents'
fault for not coughing up the money to
send their kids to private schools, where
they might actually learn something.
Almost every time I go into a store (, and
especially a fast food restaurant) I am
constantly reminded of inadequate learning
when the cashier is confronted with making
change. They almost never figure out a
problem with the correct change when they
have keyed it in wrong -- whatever the
electronic cash register says is correct.
Like trying to hand back change for a $20
when they still have my $10 bill sitting
on the register (doh!).
Is that "Ivy League" mediocre GPA, or "run-of-
...
the-mill state uninversity" GPA? The reason I
ask is because it can make the difference in
the school loan debt of (perhaps) $80K USD.
If you are a second year student & not planning
immediately on that advanced degree, you might
want to switch out to a blue collar job like
plumber or electrician -- these jobs will not
be outsourced overseas (, although they may be
taken over by the influx of illegal aliens.)
Many of the CS and IT jobs are going away, more
or less permanently. This means that you will
be competing with a larger prospective employee
field for a lower wage position than you had
originally considered. The "mediocre GPA"
implies either a lack of competitive drive, or
else a lack of ability -- I am assuming here that
it is the latter. The competition for those few
"good" IT jobs is fierce these days, and will
only get worse. You can crack down, and turn
those "Cs" into "As", and then plan immediately
to get into grad school -- a good place to be
if you are an optimist that thinks the job
market will improve (ha, ha, ha).
(You might consider switching to law school --
since there can never really be too many
lawyers. But that takes a load of debt, too.)
Judging by the current job trend, you may need
that BS degree just to compete for a waiter
position in a restaurant. I would not recommend
trying to migrate to where those IT jobs will be,
because you will never be able to pay off your
student loans that way (, and who really wants
to live in a third world country for third world
wages, anyway?) In case you haven't been paying
too much attention to the news, or to emerging
financial trends, the USA just "lost" a trade
war with the EU, Canada, and Far East. The huge
(and growing) national debt, and balance of trade
deficit, has put the USA on the cusp of a modern
economic depression -- a collapse of the Japanese
banking industry (tettering for nearly 20 years),
a Chinese or EU pull-out from the USA's bond
markets, or another major domestic terrorist
attack, would individually (or combined) push
the USA's economy onto the proverbial "crapper".
If you think energy (gas, fuel oil, nat.gas)
prices are high now, just wait until the USA's
dollar devalues in direct relation to our debt.
Just my (depreciated) $00.02 worth
Yes, the report originated from the DHS, which
by function (if not design) is another government
oxymoron. This is why, after 3+ years, airline
cargo and (port) container cargo are still not
inspected, and why there are more illegal border
crossings today than before 9-11-2001. Billions
(USD $$) more to be spent on a theater missile
defense system, but cut back on the Clinton
"100,000 more police on the streets" program,
and no real additional attention spent on what
container cargo comes into our ports. Any country
(or entity) with a nuclear device, and willing to
use it on the USA's homeland is not going to want
a ballistic missile tracked back to their home,
so the first use of nukes in the USA will be via
container cargo, or else a suitcase nuke carried
across an illegal border crossing.
From all appearances, Michael Moore's movie,
"Fahrenheit 9-11" was right on target regarding
the Bush administration's real intentions --
all the homeland security hype was/is mostly
just "bull-hockey". And a clever re-election
campaign ploy swallowed by the USA's voters,
hook, line, and sinker.
Sure. ... "they were
And NASA, at the time, thought that it was
doing the "right" thing about contamination.
The only problem is, is that autoclaving and
UV irradiation DOES NOT KILL all microbal life.
It only makes the "survivors" the very toughest
of the bunch. Microbiologists have discovered
microbes living more than a mile underground
that eat rock! And oceanographers have found
microbes thriving in the hot vents of the ocean
floor, where their thermometers have literally
melted. Re-examination of both the sterilization
process and the materials used, NASA has reached
the conclusion that 100% sterility (no microbal
life) on stars-bound craft was not possible.
That said, there is no reason to believe that
some "cross-pollination" between Earth and Mars
has not been going on since the beginning of
time. Any attempt that NASA or ESA (or PRC)
makes to return "samples" to Earth will only
accelerate that process.
The "war of the worlds" is going on right now,
but on Mars, and at the microbal level, ever
since we landed craft there. Like the line from
the "Alien" movie series stated
with us the entire way".
The push to put men on Mars will far outweigh
the ability to detect and preserve whatever
life already existed on Mars, anyway. And for
true "terraforming" to commence there, someone
is going to have to make the decision to massively
and deliberately contaminate Mars with microbes.
Both terrorists AND illegal aliens have made
use of the vast differences in ID requirements
between the states, as well as enforcement.
Considering the number of incidents reported
over the past 4 - 5 years regarding malfeasance
on the part of government employees (SS Admin,
and Dept. of Motor Vehicles especially), it is
no wonder that identity theft is such a "growth"
industry in this country. While the Metro DC
area's largest immigrant population is Hispanic,
just recently a document (Birth Cert., Driver
Licenses, & Passports) conterfeiting ring was
broken up that generated more than $2M USD, and
generated new identities for more than 1,900
Indonesians residing in this region. That only
helps to illustrate the depth of the problem.
A national ID card system, based upon Photo,
Facial Recognition, and Finger Prints, and
digitally signed and encrypted would go a long
way towards eliminating identity theft here.
I do not think that a "smart card" is really a
good idea, due to privacy concerns. I would
rather not have sensitive information (medical
and financial) available stored on the card --
not really needed to ascertain a person's ID.
Case in point:
Microsoft (, and many other high tech companies,)
never used to get involved much in politics,
aside from the occassional need for intervention
in foreign trade matters. Campaign contributions
from high tech companies has soared in the past
5 - 6 years (, especially Microsoft). That bit
of business with the DoJ regarding "monopolies"
provided the high tech companies with a "wake-up
call". Of course, the deeper the corporation's
pockets, the more "mother's milk" of politics
can be spread around. Think that there was no
correlation between campaign contributions and
the outcome of the DoJ case against Microsoft?
Don't be naive. Microsoft stalled long enough
for their "venue" to change to a more complacent
political party in power. At that point, as I
recall, Microsoft got a deal that they "might"
have written themselves, for all it cost them.
At some point, it was looking like they were on
the verge of being split up into 2 or 3 different
companies. Instead, they got a "pass".
Exactly so.
/. should start a pool on
Someone here at
just how long NOAA will hold this position.
In today's political climate, it is not
very difficult to imagine that all that
taxpayer-funded weather forcasting (and
research) will wind up being commercialized,
and "public" data being held hostage to
secrecy and the DMCA (under the guise of
"national security"). As if anyone with
a barometer, a wet bulb, and a window
wouldn't eventually figure out the weather.
This is the spector of "obsolesence" to be held
over those countries that now have the USA's
outsourced IT jobs -- in 15 - 20 years, they, too,
will be looking for new employment (if they don't
keep their pricing structure competitive with
what the market will be "willing" to pay.)
I would be very happy for the (parent) to tell
me exactly how "entertainment and learning" will
be "gainful employment". The last time I checked,
the USA was making a decidedly right wing turn
away from the public social safety net, populism,
or any government provided services. The last
time I checked, communism has fallen out of favor
in the (former) USSR and the PRC -- only DPRNK
and Castro's Cuba have survived (barely). What
you are really saying is that the "gentrified"
senior managers, corporate officers, and major
shareholders of the still successful IT companies
will be living the "life of Reilly", while the
peons will be providing all the super-cheap
(former IT labor force) will be doing all their
domestic work. (Why immigrate to China or India,
when you can get really, really cheap domestic
servants here in the USA?) Certainly explains
the massive influx of illegal aliens AFTER 9-11,
based upon your "blue skies" scenario.
And, hey, it isn't just the public libraries,
city road maintenence, or city police, either.
One of the big projects that GW Bush and the
World Bank/IMF have been shoving down other
countries' gullets is privatization of public
water and sewer services.
Invariably, this is promoted as "reducing public
debt" while privatizing "public services". The
results have been fairly consistent -- reduction
of the public workforce, and in a few years, the
cost to the public for water and sewer services
has gone up by 250 - 300%. The quality of service
(e.g. water quality) frequently goes down, also.
In the good old USA, GW Bush has been busy sub-
contracting parts of the IRS (and now the TSA)
out to private industry (, not to mention sole
source contracting in the Iraqi war). The
combination of new (improved) government secrecy
and an insulating layer of legal contract has
reduced public accountability. The dark underside
of globalization is the goal of making the world
safe for multinational corporate takeover of
(normally) government services, at great profit
for the few (instead of the public at large).
It's called "Corporate National Socialism", but
with a globalized target subject people.
Sorry to sound cynical, but one must assume that
John Poindexter (of "Total Information Awareness"
fame) or his cronies have moved over to the
Dept. of Education. The primary (albeit, unstated)
goal would be to track the USA's foreign students
(enrollment, attendance, visas, work permits),
but there *could* be a secondary goal -- intended
for R/W/B American students. Tracking what these
students read, view online, who they associate
with -- is right in line for the USA Patriot Act.
Of course, a database of these students could
also be handy for the oft-denied rejuvenation
of the draft, as well as a list of likely
prospects for recruitment into the military --
students over-burdeoned with credit card debt
might be pursuaded to join the ROTC for some
extra cash from Uncle Sam. From there, into
the all-volunteer military in a few easy steps.
TIA (& Poindexter) might have vanished into the
woodwork, but his ideas live on in the DHS --
who are working on a national "database of
databases" that will effectively end most of
what was known as "personal privacy".
to download all the MS security patches
and service packs to a GNU/linux box (or
an OS X Mac), then apply all the needed
lock-downs off-line.
The same holds true for most *nix boxes
(including GNU/linux) as well. Never
install a new *nix system (bare iron)
while connected to the internet (or even
intranet in most places). Damn fine way
to get "rooted" before you've finished
spinning CDs.
It's the same in America, really. We have
children who learn to IM and SMS before they
even learn proper spelling and sentence
structure. Back nearly a generation, the
problem was less rampant, and a major point
of contention with various educators was the
use of ubonics. Now children mostly get some
training with phonetics, and then jump into
IM and SMS with both feet. Some of the book
reports and essays today are so full of slang
and abbreviations that they don't make sense
to any of the "older" generations. It's no
wonder that jobs are being outsourced overseas,
especially to countries where English is not
the primary language -- school graduates over
there can actually construct meaningful thoughts
in easily comprehended sentence structure.
There is such a thing as too much technology
at too early an age. I have a nephew that can't
write a simple note (with proper spelling), but
can IM and SMS all day long with his friends.
He's 15 years old, and a product of the Texas
(Bush & Co.) educational system.
The success of a F/OSS graphics
card may hinge on its flexibility
and expandability, rather than on
trying to compete directly with
state-of-the-art Nvidia or ATI
products. Think outside the box,
and the world might beat a path to
your door.
How about H/W accelerated 2D
graphics, combined with H/W
based OpenGL, but with a twist?
Implement a "transputer-type"
ability to gang multiple PCI
boards, using a very high speed
bus (internal, and with an
external break-out capability).
Ability to impliment either a
video wall, or ganged GPUs for
a single display would be hot.
Ability to input/output video
(including HDTV) would be nice.
Having adequate on-board memory
for multiple Z-buffers would
be essential, but having some
memory expansion capability
for other purposes would be great.
(Using FPGAs opens the possibility
of using the board(s) for offloading
other computing tasks besides video.)
An on-board general purpose DSP,
as well as 16-bit AD/DA (beyond the
FPGA), perhaps as a daughtercard
could be "useful" for those other
computing tasks requiring I/O.
I would think that having a JTAG
port on the board for single-step
debugging would be advantageous
for F/OSS development efforts.
Finally, employing an embedded
OpenBoot (forth) capability for
configuration discovery (and also
driver tweeking) could provide the
basis for the debugging aspects.
In short, a well-rounded SBC that
just happens to be a very capable
graphics controller, and all F/OSS
based. Such a board (or multiple
boards) would find a ready home
in my computer. With features like
those mentioned, a $250 - $300 price
range wouldn't be out of line.
Many of Microsoft's new software patents
are (arguably) based upon "prior art" that
the USPTO should have recognised. Microsoft
(and any other company seeking very general
software patents) are presumably working on
the premise that during the time between the
"patent pending" status, gaining USPTO approval
and a patent, and its eventual elimination
through the judicial review process, the ability
to "restrict & prevent" other companies' access
to the "software patent" is worth a lot of
money. So long as the legal costs incurred
through the judicial process is less than the
perceived monetary gain from "squatting" on an
invalid "software patent", this USPTO merry-go-
round will continue. What is really needed is
legislation to seriously penalize the "squatter"
with monetary damages that would far exceed the
perceived gain from their "window of opportunity".
Of course, even with such legislation, some
companies (like Microsoft) that have very deep
pockets would still make the gamble. Enough
losing lawsuits (and the penalties) would
eventually draw the ire of the shareholders,
the SEC, and the FTC.
A tin foil wrapper should actually work,
...
as well as a lead foil wrapper. Better
still, save the metallized ziplock bag
that your video card probably came in,
and use it. Dual purpose -- keep RFI
out, as well as moisture. If you have
money to burn, buy a nice gold or silver
cigarette case of the right dimensions.
BTW: I don't think that you would actually
need to drag a chain behind you to stay
at earth ground -- that's what the Faraday
cage does. Old fashioned Faraday cages did
have problems -- they generally use a wire
mesh of some particular size, which doesn't
stop ALL RF signals. That is why all the
"spooks" use walk-in steel safes
Amen!
The last successful Windows upgrade that I did
was from NT4SP6 to 2KProSP1. Copious verified
backups to the server, several Vallium washed
down with a single malt scotch, and I was ready.
BTW, all my "serious" work is now done on either
GNU/linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, or OpenBSD -- I
wouldn't trust any MSFT OS product ever again.
I would not want to be the IT manager trying to
explain this cockup, but he/she has my sympathy.
Right-O.
I'm certain that that expensive "Western"
college education that you borrowed money
to get can EASILY be paid off with the big
paycheck you're going to get from that Indian
IT company. And the storage company that you
trusted all of your worldly possessions with
will happily accept rupees, and a 1/10 of the
per month agreed to storage payment. Oh, and
God help you if you should get sick while over
there working in India -- most Western medical
plans will not cover your overseas "deployment".
(Well, you could rely on the herbal remedies
available locally -- just put enough money aside
to have your body shipped home to Mum and Pop.)
Thanks, but no thanks.
Intel has been busy pouring money into chip
founderies in China and India, as well as
motherboard assembly facilities in China.
They have been making some other rather bad
management decisions over the past 5 years,
including their utter and total reliance upon
the overpriced and underperforming Itanium
(ia64) processor. That, and also focusing
so much on processor clock speed (marketing)
instead of total throughput.
IMHO, Intel has pissed away almost as much
customer good will as Microsoft has in the
last half-decade. It isn't too hard to see
that AMD's star is ascending, and with good
reason.
Exactly.
Why bother with the tinfoil hat to guard
against cellphone-induced brain tumors --
now we have to worry about playing
"Russian Roulette" with our cellphones.
The Israeli MOSAD has (from time to time)
used cellphones packed with C-4 explosive
to "reach out and touch" a HAMAS terrorist.
Now, you can be any "Joe Schmoe" and have
an IED up against your head -- goody, just
one more thing to have anxieties about.
Looks like just one more step into the
twilight zone --
Next step: Corporate National Socialism.
Between the "Bono" copyright ammendment,
DCMA, USA Patriot Act (I), etcetera, no
IP can be allowed out in the wild -- this
is yet another step in the corporate endrun
around any "fair use" and "prior art".
Expect various "unnamed" corporations to
use this to crush the F/OSS competition.
Win32 OS (esp XP) -- you're SOL.
For linux/unix box, perhaps the following:
(1) make certain to use a postscript
color laser printer
(2) print to file instead of printer
(3) run sed on resultant output file
(4) copy new file to the color laser
printer
(5) profit
And for a Mac OS X computer, perhaps:
(1) make certain to use a postscript
color laser printer
(2) select output to native PDF format
(3) run sed on resultant output file
(4) copy new file to the color laser
printer
(5) profit
of course, intel is very nearly like microsoft.
each has competition that they either don't
like to acknowledge, or are willing to use
whatever means necessary (FUD, IP, etc) in a
vain attempt to maintain market share.
intel's off-again/on-again stance regarding the
inclusion of WiFi in their Centrino product does
not inspire any longterm confidence in their
commitments (just as with microsoft's commitment
to data security). it is all about market share,
and the quest for the almighty buck.
what is really needed is a F/OSS project dedicated
to hardware that the commercial vendors consider
too valuable as IP to make available. the ready
availability of hybrid analog/digital chip cores,
as well as the very capable current gen FPGAs,
the two biggest sore points for F/OSS support
could eventually be open source -- video and
WiFi should be the initial targets, IMHO.
surely, you jest!
300 million wouldn't even cover the costs
for the symposium to kick off the feasability
study.
bush & co (warsRus) has already kicked in over
6 billion dollars for new (non-Reagan) work on
a (theatre) missile defense system. so far,
the only tests that have worked have been the
ones that have been "billed" as "demonstrations".
"leaked" reagan-era intel touted soviet land-
based laser cannon capable of destroying USA
satellites in HEO. $6B for a non-functional
missile defense system, but not a red cent more
for seaport & container cargo security.
sounds to me more like the justification for yet
another bush initiative, the militarization of
earth orbit. it's the usual thing -- beat the
american people over the head with exaggerated
or fake threats in order to pry more money out
of the taxpayers for the military-industrial
complex.
Okay, so lets say that we now have a working
space elevator technology. What possible
reason could there be for such an elevator
on the moon (at 1/6th Earth gravity)?
The whole idea behind such technology is to
cheaply lift material into orbit. The only
thing the moon has (right now) is moon dust,
and once those first samples came back at
tremendous cost, what's the point? Just how
much moon dust would be necessary to satisfy
the demand on Earth? Even marketing the stuff
on eBay has got to have some limit to demand.
The space elevator, then, is intended to lift
"valuable" cargo into orbit -- not just junk.
A permanent moon colony that uses solar smelters
to create (mainly aluminum) building materials
would still be more expensive than lifting from
Earth -- there is no water and no air on the
moon, and a space elevator would still be needed
here to supply moon colonists/miners/refiners
those life-sustaining resources.
A better scenario would be the use of Earth's
resources, space elevators, and NEO spaceship
construction to go where the real resources
are in the solar system -- the asteroid belt
and (possibly) Mars.
The best long term interests of the USA is
not to thumb its nose at the Kyoto Treaty.
Of course, turning the Arctic Circle into
new shipping lanes can come in handy when
most agricultural production of NA shifts
to northern Canada. USA's real estate
developers will have a field day touting
"ocean front property" in Arizona. And
the US Army Corp of Engineers will have
several decades of new construction work
to build dikes.
It would seem that the downside of ignoring
Kyoto would have a huge impact on the rest
of the world. Holding the USA responsible
for the climactic devastation could prove to
be far more expensive than the costs to comply.
Considering that a majority of the world's
population lives in coastal regions, the loss
of habitat will drive up population density,
strain availability of resources, and will
likely spawn many new wars.