If I were a gambler, I would have to say that you came from a lower middle class background, with socially conservative parents. The only way that you could get into college was on a full atheletic (basketball or football) scholarship. One of the benefits of being on the varsity team for four years was that you really spent very little time studying or attending classes, since you were part of one of the main "profit centers" for your school. I suspect that you barely managed to get into professional sports after you "graduated", A more or less permanent injury sidelined your sports career, but you managed to parley your connections into a reasonably comfortable job. But you blame the college and your professors for failing to actually educate you while you were there. This same chip-on-the-shoulder has gotten you into a few minor scrapes with the law, primarily bar brawls. But you have (like your parents) always voted Republican. No doubt you feel somewhat confused (and angry) when the news media and "those liberal politicians" keep talking about the rule of law, and upholding the US Constitution and Bill of Rights while attacking "your President". And your admiration for Britney Spears increased ten-fold when you heard her quoted on Fox News "...that we should just trust our President in all that he does..."
I would really recommend that you remove your "blinders", and start reading a lot more: Thomas Paine, John Q. Adams, Benjamin Franklin, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and some more modern books written by former government insiders, as well as the 9-11 Commission Report. Please feel free to come back and engage in a thoughtful discourse on these subjects when you have educated yourself to think for yourself in a manner your college education has failed to do.
The ECHELON program is still being used today, except that the Bush regime has expanded it from it's original mission statement of "Intercepting Overseas CONINTEL" to "Intercepting ALL CONINTEL, Including Domestically Against American Citizens".
The US Senate committee that began (01/20/2006) investigating this illegally expanded program revealed that the Bush regime's CONINTEL program has been directed against domestic political opposition, including a Quaker anti-war group in Miami/Dade County.
These are not the actions of a democratically elected government sworn to uphold the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the rule of law. These are the actions of a regime that siezed power illegitimately in November 2000, and has been using the unchecked and expanding power of the Executive Branch to not only wage an illegal foreign war, but also to consolidate and maintain a totalitarian regime.
The Republican Party, especially those closest to the Bush regime and their ardent followers, have become very adept at revisionist history. The absolutely attrocious attacks by conservative political hacks ( 527(?) organizations ) upon political rivals (McCain and Kerry) serve as a good illustration of the current series of attacks against (Murtha, Pelosi, and Clinton). Their "defense by aggressive offense" can be seen in the defense of DeLay before the House Ethics Committee, how they have conducted their optional war in Iraq, their handling of their human rights abuses torture and rendition program, handling of revelations of their massive & illegal domestic spying program, and now their defense regarding the Abramoff Bribery Scandal.
At every turn of events, it would appear that their tactics have succeeded, at least with the American people, who apparently prefer the rigidly organized fascist elements of the Republican Party over the discordent disorganization of the Democratic Party. It has been said that only the victors write their history. The future of democracy in the USA, based upon the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and rule of law cannot allow the Bush regime to succeed.
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R) Texas, used accurate demographics of the state of Texas in order to gerrymander that state into voting districts that yielded 5 additional Republican seats in the US House of Representatives. When the Texas legislature's Democratic representatives went AWOL in protest of the gerrymandering (only one year after a court-ordered political partitioning took effect in Texas), King Dubya's Department of Homeland Security was called upon to assist the Texas Rangers in rounding up those politicians in order to achieve a quorum in the legislature. Similarly accurate national demographics can (and will) be used by the regime currently in power to similarly gerrymander those other states where a majority Republican legislature makes such politically motivated changes possible.
Every domestic political action, legislative or otherwise, that the regime currently in power has employed has had the same narrow focus of consolidation of power, and preserving its concentration in the Executive Branch to maintain that power. The National Republican Party has a master plan for total power that they have adhered to, in the face of their historically disorganized Democratic opposition. A world-class act of totalitarianism that outperforms both Potin's Russian Federation and the PRC Politboro in finese and effectiveness.
Yet again I am reminded that a terrorist that originated in a repressive religious fundamentalist oil-rich country engaged in domestic terrorist actions against a secular amoral country, resulting in the emergence of a repressive religious fundamentalsit government siezing power in an oil-dependent country.
This very same oil-dependent country whose regime currently in power has never brought to justice those persons who engaged in an anthrax attack (domestic WMD attack) against the liberal press and liberal political opposition, which has trampled the Constitution and Bill of Rights all in the name of national security.
The very same oil-dependent country whose regime currently in power has waged an illegal and immoral war against a secular amoral but oil-rich country that dared to threaten with military force against that very same repressive religious fundamentalist oil-rich country.
The very same oil-dependent country whose regime currently in power has spent (or committed to spend) a half-trillion dollars in a foreign war while failing to provide the most basic border security, seaport security, or air cargo security all in the name of preserving their mantra of a smaller federal government
The very same oil-dependent country whose regime currently in power has launched their very own "religious thought police" to crush any immoral behaviour amongst it's population that might offend either corporate special interests or the moral fiber of the religious fundamentalist oligarcy that now runs the country, to the extent of shredding the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and any semblance of personal privacy.
And now, that very same terrorist (whom our feckless/fearless leader deemed inconsequential in the war on terror) that originated in a repressive religious fundamentalist oil-rich country has publically announced that that very same oil-dependent country (the USA) whose regime currently in power has done little/nothing to thwart another domestic terrorist attack, but only a matter of planning and logistics.
One is reminded that a period of 8-1/2 years elapsed between this terrorist's first unsucessful attack upon the NYC World Trade Center and the second far more spectacular and successful attempt. Does the phrase "the emperor has no clothes" not draw a parallel thought process that every measure the regime currently in power has engaged in to fight the "war on terror" has done everything to eviserate the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and every last vestige of personal privacy without actually doing anything to effectively counter new acts of domestic terrorism?
There is no doubt in my mind that history will not judge kindly the George W. Bush presidency, presuming, of course, that democracy and the rule of law actually survives in the USA.
The recent revelations about this administration's illegal domestic spying program puts J. Edgar Hoover's fascist "black-bag" and wire- tapping program to shame, let alone the minor "bump in the road" File-gate fiasco of the Clinton administration. That there is a perfectly workable legal avenue for wiretapping under FISA regulations only serves to emphasize this administration's total disdain for either Congressional or Judicial oversight.
American democracy was not crushed by the falling Twin Towers on 9-11-2001. Instead, it has been mortally wounded by the Bush administration's "death by a thousand cuts". A Congress that was not so willfully AWOL from it's Constitutional duties would already have brought forth articles of impeach- ment against this tyrannical regime, but then Dubya is not William J. Clinton.
Misappropriation of $750 Million earmarked by Congress for the war in Afghanistan for the run-up to the invasion of Iraq; Corruption of USA intelligence agencies to obtain false justification for the illegal invasion of Iraq and the brutalization of it's citizens; Outright fabrication and falsehoods perpetraited upon the Congress, the American people, and the United Nations regarding the "imminent threat" that Iraq posed; Unilateral abbrogation of the Geneva Accords without Congressional approval; Failure to perform his duty as Commander-in-Chief to wage this illegal war in a manner consistent with Western (and Christian) moral values; Failure to provide timely and complete information to the Congress as requested;... the list could easily go on for several more paragraphs without much effort.
The biggest question in my mind is how the Dubya regime can simultaneously justify the continued poorly managed war in Iraq, while failing to secure the USA's borders, seaports, and air cargo against future terrorist tactics. If any president in the last 150 years deserved impeachment and trial for treason against this country, the US Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, it is George W. Bush.
Ahhhh! Spoken like a "true blue" "red state" Republican. No doubt you will fit in quite well in the Republican controlled state of Florida, or in the broader Republican controlled USA. Congratulations!
Instead of looking at global warming as the unmitigated environmental disaster that it truly represents, just put on those rose-coloured glasses and look at all the new business opportunities... ocean-front real estate development in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains and the Urals. New agribusiness megafarms in Siberia and northern Canada. All all those displaced millions of people can be viewed as new tenants in your mega mile high condos -- and all of them customers of your "solient green".
Think of the humanity! Millions of dead or displaced who happen to live in current coastal or island communities. Force 5 hurricanes and Boxer Day tsunamis that strike all across the planet. Rapid desertification of large portions of the agrigable land. Disease and misery rampant amongst a half billion refugees.
More than a mere "pinch", I would say.
The entire assault on the public's access to facts, including the DMCA, has been a means of controlling the dissemination of historical truth. Whether it is a website collating cookies, any corporate entity collecting and maintaining user/customer databases -- all these databases are now considered proprietary IP that falls under the protection of the DMCA. Any individual providing information regarding their opinions, buying patterns, work experience, or political views are no longer private data that can be expected to be considered prilveleged information -- it is all collaited and included into commercial databases available for sale (or rent).
The sophistication of the methods used to extract information from these databases determines everything from shaping political campaigns based upon regional demographics to the packaging used for that next jar of peanut butter.
The current regime in power in the USA has skillfully used such information to divert the voting public's attention from real life-changing economic policies to nearly insignificant points of regional social mores. From it's infantcy in early 2001, this administration has shut down the flow of information from "our" government to a trickle -- a trickle that has been uniformly filtered through their central political agendas. The faulty information that took the country to war has never been properly attributed to the political agenda they had already formed. The abuse of prisoners at Guantanemo Bay and Abu Graeb Prison concerns this administration far less than the fact that such information became public. The violation of constitutional protections by this administration's illegal spying on American citizens domestically does not trouble Dubya or his cronies, but the public disclosure of such information will result in prosecution and prison time.
Knowledge is power, and the dissemination of such power into the hands of the public, or worse into the hands of political opposition, cannot be tolerated by this regime. In what way have your fears about government excesses not already been realized? Tyranny by any other name still has the same result, as does treason against the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.
XFS is a mature, stable, and very versitile filesystem. This FS shines best when used with fast disks and battery-backed caching RAID controllers. I am using it quite successfully with Slackware 10.1, and cheap IDE RAID controllers for homebrew NAS, as well as a PostgreSLQ server. SGI was very generous in releasing XFS source and dedicating resources to the OSS community. The CXFS, or Cluster XFS version of this filesystem would rock Linux if/when it becomes available.
I have had my Ti-Powerbook (1 GHz / 1 GByte / 60 GByte) for 3 years. The only problem I have had with it is the internal modem, at nearly 3 years. Now that it is out-of-warranty, I will never leave it plugged in during a severe thunderstorm, let alone keeping it on-line.
When Apple decides to stop supporting the Ti-Powerbook (or any G3/G4/G5 computer), I expect I will wind up running whatever OpenBSD flavor is current.
Considering the time of year, no doubt some Marriott PHB who was looking for some extra X-Mas cash decided to "sell their list". While many companies have absolutely no qualms about selling customer information (AKA creating a new "profit center"), I am more inclided to believe that the backup tapes were lost or stolen, rather than a conscious effort to create a new corporate profit center.
Then again, John Poindexter's "Total Information Awareness" project (entirely DoD databases) was morphed into "MATRIX", which was designed to make use of multiple commercial (and commercially available) databases. So, perhaps, it was was merely an "extra patriotic" Marriott employee.
Considering recent events in the news (non-FISA approved wiretapping), perhaps one possibility is just as scary as the other...
The parent poster REALLY DOES "get it". Globalization is truly the corporate world's race to continuously seek their least expensive labor, regardless of the negative economic and social impact upon their nation of origin. Unfortunately, most politicians gravitate their attention towards those constituents that provide the greatest amount of funds needed for re-election. The real solution to the ravages of globalization will only come with either (1) offshore outsourcing corporate management, which will provide corporations broader prospective, or (2) a revolution by the displaced working classes against the political system that is attempting to economically enslave them.
I would like to point out that the IT industry is not alone in the effects of globalization, the amoral behaviour of corporations, and the immoral behaviour of politicians. The Dubya regime's failure (through claims of poverty while waging the costly, immoral & illegal Iraqi war) to enforce existing laws regarding the influx of illegal aliens, and against the employers that hire them, has resulted in downward wage pressure in the domestic labor market for everything from carpenters, electricians and plumbers to construction workers and auto technicians.
Free enterprise in a regulated and lawful society would predict that in-demand labor skills in short supply would drive labor costs up. Dubya's "wild, wild west" corporate free-for-all regarding enforcement of existing laws has turned that premise on its' ear. Perhaps some other/. reader could explain why the minimum wage has not changed in 10 years, or how education, health care, and fuel costs rising at double digit rates has so little effect upon the consumer price index.
My personal opinion is that the politicians and their statisticians have "cooked the books", not unlike census data including illegal aliens being used to determine the number of Congressmen per state in the House of Representatives.
There are "...lies, damn lies, and statistics...".
The parent poster's unlikely premise of college students starting a peasant revolt, as the basis for Dubya/CIA/DHS/FBI/NSA investigating a student for wanting Mao's "Little Red Book" evokes !WTF!.
If I didn't know any better, we have corporate national socialist running the USA these days, and what is good for GM or WAl-Mart is good for the country. Considering that China is one of the USA's largest suppliers, largest customers, and largest creditors, you would think that the PRC (China) is the USA's newest bestest friend.
What's next? Any college student caught studying Taoism or Confucianism will be turned over to the neo(Con)artist religious fundamentalist Inquisition and put on trial for blasphemy?
From the parent poster and TFA, it would appear that India will not be able to keep up with the demand for IT workers. The prevalent theory about agrarian societies driving demand for larger families (as opposed to middle class tradesmen) would appear to be contrary to the best interests of India. Perhaps the next generation of Indians that have grabbed the IT "brass ring" will produce larger families, if only to help their country meet demand for IT workers.
One may presume that the PRC (People's Republic of China) performed a real source code security audit on MS Windows back when their government was granted access three plus years ago.
One might also conclude that the PRC government's move toward their very own linux distribution, Red Dragon Linux, is a result of that MS source code security audit.
While that does predate Microsoft's release of Windows XP Pro SP2, there seem to be enough other vulnerabilities in MS OSes that the PRC has not, at least publically, halted adoption of Red Dragon Linux. Any OS that can be CCS EAL-4 certified for security based upon the premise that the computer reside on a "friendly" network is IMHO worthless. However, this certification would seem to provide all the justification necessary for the US DHS (Department of Homeland Security) to sign with MS on a multi-year $6 Billion USD contract.
IMHO, it provides yet another reason (besides the current state of the USA's border, seaport, and air cargo security) to consider the DHS oxymoronic.
Isn't it an ironic twist of fate that the former United States of America was considered a democratic republic, with the two main political parties being Republican and Democrat?
The USA is no longer governed by an elected government "of, by, and for the people", but has become twisted form of corporate national socialism. The corporations buy the Representatives, Senators, Governors and Presidents to do their bidding, rather than follow the best interests of "we, the people".
The independent press, the final check against governmental excess in a democracy, is now largely in the hands of only a few media conglomerates. Between corporate "infomercials" and taxpayer paid-for government propaganda pawned off as real, righteous, and independent news, it is difficult for the average citizen to discern between BS and the truth in the news. Federal monies appear to be scarce when it comes to a social safety net, or equal enforcement of the law under justice, as opposed to executive veto of prevailing laws by fiscal strangulation (illegal immigration, identity theft, corporate fraud, growing power of monopolist corporations, voter disenfranchisement and vote fraud, etcetera).
An optional (, by UN standards, illegal,) war for oil profiteers, based upon lies and deceit, had become a war on the potential terror of WMD, and then morphed into a "war for freedom" (for Halliburton?). The planning stages never advanced beyond ()defeat Saddam, ()encourage happy populous to sell us oil cheap, ()use Halliburton to rebuild Iraq with Iraqi oil monies. $200 Billion USD, 1,300 USA armed forces killed, 16,000 USA armed forces wounded, 75,000 Iraqi civilian dead, and the regime currently in power still has no idea how to ()win the hearts & minds of the Iraqis, or ()extricate the USA from the Iraqi conflict.
No, the location in New Mexico is perfect for handling (what will be) this corporation's largest customer - the USA's Department of Homeland Security. When completed, I predict that this spaceport will be used to deport illegal aliens without the burdeon of rampant recidivism.
An added benefit is that when the regime currently in power renditions(TM) "enemies of the state", they will damn well not be talking to the press afterwards.
There WILL BE NO monopolistic corporate breakups with the regime currently in power (or for that matter, any other neo(Con)artist oligarcies.) Too bad, but that very same stranglehold by the two TweedleDee and TweedleDum political parties is also just as strong as ever.
The USA stopped being a capitalist system (as is commonly defined) back when the neo(Con)artist faction of the GOP gained control of both houses of Congress, ca 1998. While it is still unofficially "corporate national socialism", only the "company" name really needs to be changed to make it official. The People's (for the people not of the people) Democratic (neither big "D" or little "d" democratic) Republic (for and of the corporations) of the United (united in fear of the newfound power of government) States (totally subservient to THE STATE) of North America (bingo! finally geographically correct) doesn't have a particularly pleasant ring to it, but then we the people can get used to anything THE STATE forces down our collective throats -- just look at the brutally ambivalent hypocracy of government sanctioned torture by parties or allies unnamed.
A war on terror has been turned into a war on citizen rights; the war against WMD has been turned into a war for democracy; the blatent war for oil profits has been turned into a war for the "hearts & minds" of the Iraqi people (who keep drawing the short straw for the whipping post); the blatent class warfare of the Katrina response in NO and the Gulf Coast has been turned into a frenzied feeding by Dubya's MFCs (Most Favored Contractors); the rape of the Middle Class through continuous tax breaks for the wealthy has been turned into trickle-down economics job growth; the destruction of the Middle Class through offshore outsourcing and illegal imported domestic labor has been turned into business opportunities; etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. All of which has been blanketed in a blizzard of propaganda funded by the government and carried out by corporate allies/sponsors of the regime.
Hey! What's not to like? Listen carefully to your Uncle Sam, and be happy.
Considering the times in which we live, the price differential is understandable. It will cost $25 Billion USD if it is only the US government and the universities convert, while issuing yet another Federal unfunded mandate (like "No Child Left Behind" or Medicare/Medicaid requirements passed to the states). But it will cost $75 Billion USD (estimated) if the entire conversion to IPv6 is turned over to "most favored" government contractors.
Anyone want to place a bet on exactly what each "Class C" IP address range will cost the average American taxpayer? The regime currently in power has a penchant for passing the greatest fiscal burdeon on to those already most heavily taxed (or their children and grandchildren). The promise of ubiquitous USA broadband internet and the era of "every appliance internet aware" have thus far fallen far short of the mark.
As an already overburdeoned USA taxpayer, anticipation of my "share" of the conversion cost to IPv6 makes me happy just to have IPv4 and NAT.
I would agree with the parent poster's remarks, up to the point that government should have no part in the consumers' decision making process.
One of the most insidious business organizations, the American Medical Association, has gone out of its way to help protect the reputation of bad, even dangerous, medical professionals. They are like the Mafia in that no one outside the organization can or will speak out against the bad doctors or medical professionals. There are only a handful of states in which malpractice suits and medical board reviews are available to the public, via publically accessible websites. The result is that a small fraction of medical institutions and professionals that have absolutely no business being in the medical profession are driving up the liability insurance for all doctors. A doctor whose license to practice is stripped away in one state due to malfeasance/manslaughter can easily move to another state to victimize even more unwitting patients.
"Death by misadventure" (, to borrow a British witticism), covers a lot of patient deaths in the USA, and most of those doctors and hospitals keep getting away with it, largely due to the AMA mafia.
The original Coca-Cola formula not only had real cane sugar for sweetner, but also had far more carbonation. A frosty 6 ounce glass bottle of Coca-Cola, when chugged on a hot summer day, would burn all the down and actually quench your thirst.
The closest more recent beverage was Jolt Cola, before they switched from cane sugar to high fructose corn syrup. Since virtually all USA soft beverage producers have forsaken their customers (IMHO) by switching to high fructose corn syrup, I have stopped being their customer. I believe that they have switched far more than the sweetner they use in their formula, because their modern beverages no longer actually quench my thirst like that old 6 ounce bottle of Coke.
The soft beverage makers have fattened their bottom line, as well as Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), who I believe furnishes most of the corn syrup. But I cannot help but wonder if the change in drink formula to corn syrup isn't also a contributing factor in today's obesity "epidemic".
Any nation voluntarily losing core competencies isn't just a poor idea, it is a sign of its' eventual demise.
Imagine a nation that reliquishes its ability to feed its' own people, or of a country that gives up on its' core industries (aluminum, steel, chemicals, electronics, or manufacturing) just because it can been done more cheaply elsewhere. Or a nation that hires contractors/mercenaries to protect their borders or to fight their wars.
International commercial ties and economic alliances have a historically 100% chance of changing, frequently for the worse, for one or more of the parties concerned. Trade wars and/or hot wars sometimes takes decades to evolve and may reach a tipping point well before a government becomes aware of the situation.
The Roman Empire failed through government corruption, a loss of its national identity, and reliance upon foreign mercenaries to protect itself. The USA's economic embargo of Imperial Japan had predictable but ignored results that led to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Just because a task can be, in the short term, done more cheaply by another country or by private enterprise, does not mean that there are not forseeable potential negative consequences for following that path. Does anyone out there really think that an Airbus or Boeing or Halliburton as a private corporation would not, at some point, have views/policies/goals that might be in direct contradiction to the wishes of their client government?
I have to totally agree with the parent poster. This is far less a new Intel technical initiative and far more a new marketing initiative -- for TCPA.
Considering the history of the Wintel monopolistic hegenomy, why should I as an IT professional accept at face value ANY third party control over the computers I govern, much less a hardware "solution" whose keys are held by whom (besides Intel)?
I would place far greater trust in an OS that supports memory segmentation between execute-only, read-only, and read-write, as well as a software "tripwire" equivalent, and signed OS and application updates, NOT TCPA.
PHBs who continue to accept new hardware "initiatives" from OEMs that operate in close collaboration with (repeatedly) convicted software monopolists risk not only their jobs, but also the continued financial health of the corporations that they run. Of course, considering the widespread application of the Peter Principle within that strata of management, any job loss invariably results in a golden parachute and even more lucrative job offers.
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Interesting point of view you have.
If I were a gambler, I would have to say that you came from a lower middle class background, with socially conservative parents. The only way that you could get into college was on a full atheletic (basketball or football) scholarship. One of the benefits of being on the varsity team for four years was that you really spent very little time studying or attending classes, since you were part of one of the main "profit centers" for your school. I suspect that you barely managed to get into professional sports after you "graduated", A more or less permanent injury sidelined your sports career, but you managed to parley your connections into a reasonably comfortable job. But you blame the college and your professors for failing to actually educate you while you were there. This same chip-on-the-shoulder has gotten you into a few minor scrapes with the law, primarily bar brawls. But you have (like your parents) always voted Republican. No doubt you feel somewhat confused (and angry) when the news media and "those liberal politicians" keep talking about the rule of law, and upholding the US Constitution and Bill of Rights while attacking "your President". And your admiration for Britney Spears increased ten-fold when you heard her quoted on Fox News "...that we should just trust our President in all that he does..."
I would really recommend that you remove your "blinders", and start reading a lot more: Thomas Paine, John Q. Adams, Benjamin Franklin, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and some more modern books written by former government insiders, as well as the 9-11 Commission Report.
Please feel free to come back and engage in a thoughtful discourse on these subjects when you have educated yourself to think for yourself in a manner your college education has failed to do.
I call "BullShit!" on the parent poster.
The ECHELON program is still being used today, except that the Bush regime has expanded it from it's original mission statement of "Intercepting Overseas CONINTEL" to "Intercepting ALL CONINTEL, Including Domestically Against American Citizens".
The US Senate committee that began (01/20/2006) investigating this illegally expanded program revealed that the Bush regime's CONINTEL program has been directed against domestic political opposition, including a Quaker anti-war group in Miami/Dade County.
These are not the actions of a democratically elected government sworn to uphold the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the rule of law. These are the actions of a regime that siezed power illegitimately in November 2000, and has been using the unchecked and expanding power of the Executive Branch to not only wage an illegal foreign war, but also to consolidate and maintain a totalitarian regime.
The Republican Party, especially those closest to the Bush regime and their ardent followers, have become very adept at revisionist history. The absolutely attrocious attacks by conservative political hacks ( 527(?) organizations ) upon political rivals (McCain and Kerry) serve as a good illustration of the current series of attacks against (Murtha, Pelosi, and Clinton). Their "defense by aggressive offense" can be seen in the defense of DeLay before the House Ethics Committee, how they have conducted their optional war in Iraq, their handling of their human rights abuses torture and rendition program, handling of revelations of their massive & illegal domestic spying program, and now their defense regarding the Abramoff Bribery Scandal.
At every turn of events, it would appear that their tactics have succeeded, at least with the American people, who apparently prefer the rigidly organized fascist elements of the Republican Party over the discordent disorganization of the Democratic Party. It has been said that only the victors write their history. The future of democracy in the USA, based upon the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and rule of law cannot allow the Bush regime to succeed.
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R) Texas, used accurate demographics of the state of Texas in order to gerrymander that state into voting districts that yielded 5 additional Republican seats in the US House of Representatives. When the Texas legislature's Democratic representatives went AWOL in protest of the gerrymandering (only one year after a court-ordered political partitioning took effect in Texas), King Dubya's Department of Homeland Security was called upon to assist the Texas Rangers in rounding up those politicians in order to achieve a quorum in the legislature. Similarly accurate national demographics can (and will) be used by the regime currently in power to similarly gerrymander those other states where a majority Republican legislature makes such politically motivated changes possible.
Every domestic political action, legislative or otherwise, that the regime currently in power has employed has had the same narrow focus of consolidation of power, and preserving its concentration in the Executive Branch to maintain that power. The National Republican Party has a master plan for total power that they have adhered to, in the face of their historically disorganized Democratic opposition. A world-class act of totalitarianism that outperforms both Potin's Russian Federation and the PRC Politboro in finese and effectiveness.
Yet again I am reminded that a terrorist that originated in a repressive religious fundamentalist oil-rich country engaged in domestic terrorist actions against a secular amoral country, resulting in the emergence of a repressive religious fundamentalsit government siezing power in an oil-dependent country.
This very same oil-dependent country whose regime currently in power has never brought to justice those persons who engaged in an anthrax attack (domestic WMD attack) against the liberal press and liberal political opposition, which has trampled the Constitution and Bill of Rights all in the name of national security.
The very same oil-dependent country whose regime currently in power has waged an illegal and immoral war against a secular amoral but oil-rich country that dared to threaten with military force against that very same repressive religious fundamentalist oil-rich country.
The very same oil-dependent country whose regime currently in power has spent (or committed to spend) a half-trillion dollars in a foreign war while failing to provide the most basic border security, seaport security, or air cargo security all in the name of preserving their mantra of a smaller federal government
The very same oil-dependent country whose regime currently in power has launched their very own "religious thought police" to crush any immoral behaviour amongst it's population that might offend either corporate special interests or the moral fiber of the religious fundamentalist oligarcy that now runs the country, to the extent of shredding the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and any semblance of personal privacy.
And now, that very same terrorist (whom our feckless/fearless leader deemed inconsequential in the war on terror) that originated in a repressive religious fundamentalist oil-rich country has publically announced that that very same oil-dependent country (the USA) whose regime currently in power has done little/nothing to thwart another domestic terrorist attack, but only a matter of planning and logistics.
One is reminded that a period of 8-1/2 years elapsed between this terrorist's first unsucessful attack upon the NYC World Trade Center and the second far more spectacular and successful attempt. Does the phrase "the emperor has no clothes" not draw a parallel thought process that every measure the regime currently in power has engaged in to fight the "war on terror" has done everything to eviserate the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and every last vestige of personal privacy without actually doing anything to effectively counter new acts of domestic terrorism?
There is no doubt in my mind that history will not judge kindly the
... the list could easily go on for several more paragraphs
George W. Bush presidency, presuming, of course, that democracy and
the rule of law actually survives in the USA.
The recent revelations about this administration's illegal domestic
spying program puts J. Edgar Hoover's fascist "black-bag" and wire-
tapping program to shame, let alone the minor "bump in the road"
File-gate fiasco of the Clinton administration. That there is a
perfectly workable legal avenue for wiretapping under FISA regulations
only serves to emphasize this administration's total disdain for either
Congressional or Judicial oversight.
American democracy was not crushed by the falling Twin Towers on 9-11-2001.
Instead, it has been mortally wounded by the Bush administration's "death
by a thousand cuts". A Congress that was not so willfully AWOL from it's
Constitutional duties would already have brought forth articles of impeach-
ment against this tyrannical regime, but then Dubya is not William J.
Clinton.
Misappropriation of $750 Million earmarked by Congress for the war in
Afghanistan for the run-up to the invasion of Iraq; Corruption of USA
intelligence agencies to obtain false justification for the illegal
invasion of Iraq and the brutalization of it's citizens; Outright
fabrication and falsehoods perpetraited upon the Congress, the American
people, and the United Nations regarding the "imminent threat" that Iraq
posed; Unilateral abbrogation of the Geneva Accords without Congressional
approval; Failure to perform his duty as Commander-in-Chief to wage this
illegal war in a manner consistent with Western (and Christian) moral
values; Failure to provide timely and complete information to the Congress
as requested;
without much effort.
The biggest question in my mind is how the Dubya regime can simultaneously
justify the continued poorly managed war in Iraq, while failing to secure
the USA's borders, seaports, and air cargo against future terrorist tactics.
If any president in the last 150 years deserved impeachment and trial for
treason against this country, the US Constitution, and the Bill of Rights,
it is George W. Bush.
Ahhhh! Spoken like a "true blue" "red state" Republican. No doubt you will fit in quite well in the Republican controlled state of Florida, or in the broader Republican controlled USA. Congratulations! Instead of looking at global warming as the unmitigated environmental disaster that it truly represents, just put on those rose-coloured glasses and look at all the new business opportunities... ocean-front real estate development in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains and the Urals. New agribusiness megafarms in Siberia and northern Canada. All all those displaced millions of people can be viewed as new tenants in your mega mile high condos -- and all of them customers of your "solient green". Think of the humanity! Millions of dead or displaced who happen to live in current coastal or island communities. Force 5 hurricanes and Boxer Day tsunamis that strike all across the planet. Rapid desertification of large portions of the agrigable land. Disease and misery rampant amongst a half billion refugees. More than a mere "pinch", I would say.
Wow! A triple booting Intel-based Mac laptop! Yes! But does it also run Solaris 10 x86?
The entire assault on the public's access to facts, including the DMCA, has been a means of controlling the dissemination of historical truth. Whether it is a website collating cookies, any corporate entity collecting and maintaining user/customer databases -- all these databases are now considered proprietary IP that falls under the protection of the DMCA. Any individual providing information regarding their opinions, buying patterns, work experience, or political views are no longer private data that can be expected to be considered prilveleged information -- it is all collaited and included into commercial databases available for sale (or rent).
The sophistication of the methods used to extract information from these databases determines everything from shaping political campaigns based upon regional demographics to the packaging used for that next jar of peanut butter.
The current regime in power in the USA has skillfully used such information to divert the voting public's attention from real life-changing economic policies to nearly insignificant points of regional social mores. From it's infantcy in early 2001, this administration has shut down the flow of information from "our" government to a trickle -- a trickle that has been uniformly filtered through their central political agendas. The faulty information that took the country to war has never been properly attributed to the political agenda they had already formed. The abuse of prisoners at Guantanemo Bay and Abu Graeb Prison concerns this administration far less than the fact that such information became public. The violation of constitutional protections by this administration's illegal spying on American citizens domestically does not trouble Dubya or his cronies, but the public disclosure of such information will result in prosecution and prison time.
Knowledge is power, and the dissemination of such power into the hands of the public, or worse into the hands of political opposition, cannot be tolerated by this regime. In what way have your fears about government excesses not already been realized? Tyranny by any other name still has the same result, as does treason against the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Amen to that!
XFS is a mature, stable, and very versitile filesystem. This FS shines best when used with fast disks and battery-backed caching RAID controllers. I am using it quite successfully with Slackware 10.1, and cheap IDE RAID controllers for homebrew NAS, as well as a PostgreSLQ server. SGI was very generous in releasing XFS source and dedicating resources to the OSS community. The CXFS, or Cluster XFS version of this filesystem would rock Linux if/when it becomes available.
I have had my Ti-Powerbook (1 GHz / 1 GByte / 60 GByte) for 3 years. The only problem I have had with it is the internal modem, at nearly 3 years. Now that it is
out-of-warranty, I will never leave it plugged in during a severe thunderstorm, let alone keeping it on-line.
When Apple decides to stop supporting the Ti-Powerbook (or any G3/G4/G5 computer), I expect I will wind up running whatever OpenBSD flavor is current.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Considering the time of year, no doubt some Marriott PHB who was looking for some extra X-Mas cash decided to "sell their list". While many companies have absolutely no qualms about selling customer information (AKA creating a new "profit center"),
I am more inclided to believe that the backup tapes were lost or stolen, rather than a conscious effort to create a new corporate profit center.
Then again, John Poindexter's "Total Information Awareness" project (entirely DoD databases) was morphed into "MATRIX", which was designed to make use of multiple commercial (and commercially available) databases. So, perhaps, it was was merely an "extra patriotic" Marriott employee.
Considering recent events in the news (non-FISA approved wiretapping), perhaps one possibility is just as scary as the other...
The parent poster REALLY DOES "get it". Globalization is truly the corporate world's race to continuously seek their least expensive labor, regardless of the negative economic and social impact upon their nation of origin. Unfortunately, most politicians gravitate their attention towards those constituents that provide the greatest amount of funds needed for re-election. The real solution to the ravages of globalization will only come with either (1) offshore outsourcing corporate management, which will provide corporations broader prospective, or (2) a revolution by the displaced working classes against the political system that is attempting to economically enslave them.
/. reader could explain why the minimum wage has not changed in 10 years, or how education, health care, and fuel costs rising at double digit rates has so little effect upon the consumer price index.
I would like to point out that the IT industry is not alone in the effects of globalization, the amoral behaviour of corporations, and the immoral behaviour of politicians. The Dubya regime's failure (through claims of poverty while waging the costly, immoral & illegal Iraqi war) to enforce existing laws regarding the influx of illegal aliens, and against the employers that hire them, has resulted in downward wage pressure in the domestic labor market for everything from carpenters, electricians and plumbers to construction workers and auto technicians.
Free enterprise in a regulated and lawful society would predict that in-demand labor skills in short supply would drive labor costs up. Dubya's "wild, wild west" corporate free-for-all regarding enforcement of existing laws has turned that premise on its' ear. Perhaps some other
My personal opinion is that the politicians and their statisticians have "cooked the books", not unlike census data including illegal aliens being used to determine the number of Congressmen per state in the House of Representatives.
There are "...lies, damn lies, and statistics...".
The parent poster's unlikely premise of college students starting a peasant revolt, as the basis for Dubya/CIA/DHS/FBI/NSA investigating a student for wanting Mao's "Little Red Book" evokes !WTF!.
If I didn't know any better, we have corporate national socialist running the USA these days, and what is good for GM or WAl-Mart is good for the country. Considering that China is one of the USA's largest suppliers, largest customers, and largest creditors, you would think that the PRC (China) is the USA's newest bestest friend.
What's next? Any college student caught studying Taoism or Confucianism will be turned over to the neo(Con)artist religious fundamentalist Inquisition and put on trial for blasphemy?
From the parent poster and TFA, it would appear that India will not be able to keep up with the demand for IT workers. The prevalent theory about agrarian societies driving demand for larger families (as opposed to middle class tradesmen) would appear to be contrary to the best interests of India. Perhaps the next generation of Indians that have grabbed the IT "brass ring" will produce larger families, if only to help their country meet demand for IT workers.
One may presume that the PRC (People's Republic of China) performed a real source code security audit on MS Windows back when their government was granted access three plus years ago.
One might also conclude that the PRC government's move toward their very own linux distribution, Red Dragon Linux, is a result of that MS source code security audit.
While that does predate Microsoft's release of Windows XP Pro SP2, there seem to be enough other vulnerabilities in MS OSes that the PRC has not, at least publically, halted adoption of Red Dragon Linux. Any OS that can be CCS EAL-4 certified for security based upon the premise that the computer reside on a "friendly" network is IMHO worthless. However, this certification would seem to provide all the justification necessary for the US DHS (Department of Homeland Security) to sign with MS on a multi-year $6 Billion USD contract.
IMHO, it provides yet another reason (besides the current state of the USA's border, seaport, and air cargo security) to consider the DHS oxymoronic.
Isn't it an ironic twist of fate that the former United States of America was considered a democratic republic, with the two main political parties being Republican and Democrat?
The USA is no longer governed by an elected government "of, by, and for the people", but has become twisted form of corporate national socialism. The corporations buy the Representatives, Senators, Governors and Presidents to do their bidding, rather than follow the best interests of "we, the people".
The independent press, the final check against governmental excess in a democracy, is now largely in the hands of only a few media conglomerates. Between corporate "infomercials" and taxpayer paid-for government propaganda pawned off as real, righteous, and independent news, it is difficult for the average citizen to discern between BS and the truth in the news. Federal monies appear to be scarce when it comes to a social safety net, or equal enforcement of the law under justice, as opposed to executive veto of prevailing laws by fiscal strangulation (illegal immigration, identity theft, corporate fraud, growing power of monopolist corporations, voter disenfranchisement and vote fraud, etcetera).
An optional (, by UN standards, illegal,) war for oil profiteers, based upon lies and deceit, had become a war on the potential terror of WMD, and then morphed into a "war for freedom" (for Halliburton?). The planning stages never advanced beyond ()defeat Saddam, ()encourage happy populous to sell us oil cheap, ()use Halliburton to rebuild Iraq with Iraqi oil monies. $200 Billion USD, 1,300 USA armed forces killed, 16,000 USA armed forces wounded, 75,000 Iraqi civilian dead, and the regime currently in power still has no idea how to ()win the hearts & minds of the Iraqis, or ()extricate the USA from the Iraqi conflict.
No, the location in New Mexico is perfect for handling (what will be) this corporation's largest customer - the USA's Department of Homeland Security. When completed, I predict that this spaceport will be used to deport illegal aliens without the burdeon of rampant recidivism.
An added benefit is that when the regime currently in power renditions(TM) "enemies of the state", they will damn well not be talking to the press afterwards.
There WILL BE NO monopolistic corporate breakups with the regime currently in power (or for that matter, any other neo(Con)artist oligarcies.) Too bad, but that very same stranglehold by the two TweedleDee and TweedleDum political parties is also just as strong as ever.
The USA stopped being a capitalist system (as is commonly defined) back when the neo(Con)artist faction of the GOP gained control of both houses of Congress, ca 1998. While it is still unofficially "corporate national socialism", only the "company" name really needs to be changed to make it official. The People's (for the people not of the people) Democratic (neither big "D" or little "d" democratic) Republic (for and of the corporations) of the United (united in fear of the newfound power of government) States (totally subservient to THE STATE) of North America (bingo! finally geographically correct) doesn't have a particularly pleasant ring to it, but then we the people can get used to anything THE STATE forces down our collective throats -- just look at the brutally ambivalent hypocracy of government sanctioned torture by parties or allies unnamed.
A war on terror has been turned into a war on citizen rights; the war against WMD has been turned into a war for democracy; the blatent war for oil profits has been turned into a war for the "hearts & minds" of the Iraqi people (who keep drawing the short straw for the whipping post); the blatent class warfare of the Katrina response in NO and the Gulf Coast has been turned into a frenzied feeding by Dubya's MFCs (Most Favored Contractors); the rape of the Middle Class through continuous tax breaks for the wealthy has been turned into trickle-down economics job growth; the destruction of the Middle Class through offshore outsourcing and illegal imported domestic labor has been turned into business opportunities; etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. All of which has been blanketed in a blizzard of propaganda funded by the government and carried out by corporate allies/sponsors of the regime.
Hey! What's not to like? Listen carefully to your Uncle Sam, and be happy.
Yes! Ada is outdated and Java is dead, quoth Evans Data Corp. But who in the bloody hell is Evans Data Corp, and why should I believe them?
BTW, what does Netcraft have to say about Java? (They have been right about sooo many things, like BSD.)
Considering the times in which we live, the price differential is understandable. It will cost $25 Billion USD if it is only the US government and the universities convert, while issuing yet another Federal unfunded mandate (like "No Child Left Behind" or Medicare/Medicaid requirements passed to the states). But it will cost $75 Billion USD (estimated) if the entire conversion to IPv6 is turned over to "most favored" government contractors.
Anyone want to place a bet on exactly what each "Class C" IP address range will cost the average American taxpayer? The regime currently in power has a penchant for passing the greatest fiscal burdeon on to those already most heavily taxed (or their children and grandchildren). The promise of ubiquitous USA broadband internet and the era of "every appliance internet aware" have thus far fallen far short of the mark.
As an already overburdeoned USA taxpayer, anticipation of my "share" of the conversion cost to IPv6 makes me happy just to have IPv4 and NAT.
I would agree with the parent poster's remarks, up to the point that government should have no part in the consumers' decision making process.
One of the most insidious business organizations, the American Medical Association, has gone out of its way to help protect the reputation of bad, even dangerous, medical professionals. They are like the Mafia in that no one outside the organization can or will speak out against the bad doctors or medical professionals. There are only a handful of states in which malpractice suits and medical board reviews are available to the public, via publically accessible websites. The result is that a small fraction of medical institutions and professionals that have absolutely no business being in the medical profession are driving up the liability insurance for all doctors. A doctor whose license to practice is stripped away in one state due to malfeasance/manslaughter can easily move to another state to victimize even more unwitting patients.
"Death by misadventure" (, to borrow a British witticism), covers a lot of patient deaths in the USA, and most of those doctors and hospitals keep getting away with it, largely due to the AMA mafia.
Bravo!
The original Coca-Cola formula not only had real cane sugar for sweetner, but also had far more carbonation. A frosty 6 ounce glass bottle of Coca-Cola, when chugged on a hot summer day, would burn all the down and actually quench your thirst.
The closest more recent beverage was Jolt Cola, before they switched from cane sugar to high fructose corn syrup. Since virtually all USA soft beverage producers have forsaken their customers (IMHO) by switching to high fructose corn syrup, I have stopped being their customer. I believe that they have switched far more than the sweetner they use in their formula, because their modern beverages no longer actually quench my thirst like that old 6 ounce bottle of Coke.
The soft beverage makers have fattened their bottom line, as well as Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), who I believe furnishes most of the corn syrup. But I cannot help but wonder if the change in drink formula to corn syrup isn't also a contributing factor in today's obesity "epidemic".
Any nation voluntarily losing core competencies isn't just a poor idea, it is a sign of its' eventual demise.
Imagine a nation that reliquishes its ability to feed its' own people, or of a country that gives up on its' core industries (aluminum, steel, chemicals, electronics, or manufacturing) just because it can been done more cheaply elsewhere. Or a nation that hires contractors/mercenaries to protect their borders or to fight their wars.
International commercial ties and economic alliances have a historically 100% chance of changing, frequently for the worse, for one or more of the parties concerned. Trade wars and/or hot wars sometimes takes decades to evolve and may reach a tipping point well before a government becomes aware of the situation.
The Roman Empire failed through government corruption, a loss of its national identity, and reliance upon foreign mercenaries to protect itself. The USA's economic embargo of Imperial Japan had predictable but ignored results that led to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Just because a task can be, in the short term, done more cheaply by another country or by private enterprise, does not mean that there are not forseeable potential negative consequences for following that path. Does anyone out there really think that an Airbus or Boeing or Halliburton as a private corporation would not, at some point, have views/policies/goals that might be in direct contradiction to the wishes of their client government?
I have to totally agree with the parent poster. This is far less a new Intel technical initiative and far more a new marketing initiative -- for TCPA.
Considering the history of the Wintel monopolistic hegenomy, why should I as an IT professional accept at face value ANY third party control over the computers I govern, much less a hardware "solution" whose keys are held by whom (besides Intel)?
I would place far greater trust in an OS that supports memory segmentation between execute-only, read-only, and read-write, as well as a software "tripwire" equivalent, and signed OS and application updates, NOT TCPA.
PHBs who continue to accept new hardware "initiatives" from OEMs that operate in close collaboration with (repeatedly) convicted software monopolists risk not only their jobs, but also the continued financial health of the corporations that they run. Of course, considering the widespread application of the Peter Principle within that strata of management, any job loss invariably results in a golden parachute and even more lucrative job offers.