I disagree. I administer a heterogenous network of around 450 machines, over which I have limited control (guess where I work...)
Around 400 of these machines are Windows boxes, the remainder mainly Mac. The Mac's aren't a problem when it comes to viruses for 3 reasons:
Most viruses are written for Windows - I guess it's easier, and Win32 has the market share
OS X (of which >90% of the Macs I worry about are) is fairly bolted down. More so than most other OS's - Windows, Linux, UNIX, etc.
Most 'consumer' (i.e. Joe/Josephine Bloogs) users of Macs don't have pretensions of knowing the hell what's going on under the bonnet, so they ask me before doing something stupid, like opening a dodgy attachment. This pleases me - I wish (some of) my Windows users wouldn't be so damn stupid!
Realistically, if your primary concern is the security of the US, then the best policy is isolationism, not global intervention.
That was what you thought before 9/11.
Plus, it wouldn't exactly be the best policy for us Europeans, whenever we need the US.
You're very right in saying that an isolationist US foreign policy would not be a good thing for Europe (as it wasn't in the '30's, pre-WW2).
However I think it's fair to say that US foreign policy has been pretty strongly interventionist since the end of WW2. Sometimes more so, sometimes less so, but sufficiently so to annoy significant proportions of the world. The global nature of the cold war really left little option but to adopt such a policy.
BTW, personally I think US interventionism is, on balance, a good thing - please don't think I'm US-bashing!
As the original submitter of this story, I'm gratified by the amount of debate it's spawned:-)
However, a few points in reply to various comments in the thread (I'm sorry they're not posted appropriately)
Someone mentioned 'why is this news?' and gave some arguments for why the site was blocked to non-US clients. In turn:
They didn't want the site 'slash-dotted' - errrm, that's why it's being hosted by Akamai
They were protecting against DoS attacks - see above, and either way, getting your web-site to issue a 403 is not a good way to protect against DoS attacks
GW's web-site isn't relevant to non-American voters - true, we can't vote, or influence your vote (despite the Guardian's lamentably naive efforts). However, it is very much the case that GW's actions have a huge impact on those outside the US - just ask The Black Watch, going in to clean-up Falluja (just in time for the US elections). It's pretty unrealistic to expect the rest of the world to not be very interested in the elections of the most powerful & influential country in the world!
For whatever reason, it's undeniably a PR disaster.
Someone else mentioned that us Europeans should be grateful to America for saving our asses from each other, not least during the cold war. This can't be argued, and I think you'll find that despite our whining, we are grateful for America's effort and sacrifice. (Although the cold war was more of a NATO thing - both the UK and France had/have sufficient nuclear capabilities to cause the Kremlin pause - in the case of the French, they were independently developed & controlled).
Which raises an interesting point - are the various terrorist organisations threatening the US/West/CIS just taking up the vacuum left by the collapse of the USSR as a superpower. Newton's 3rd law applied to geopolitics?
The USA is fighting a 'war on terrorism'. Take it from a limey, whose country has been through 25-odd years of Irish republican terrorism - you can't win a war on terror, certainly not by conventional military engagement. Especially not with such a large, dispersed enemy as religious fanaticism. No mistake, you're not fighting Al Qaeda - they're just the current manifestation of a greater malaise, which will continue almost indefinitely if the west follows its current path. Realistically, if your primary concern is the security of the US, then the best policy is isolationism, not global intervention.
Oh well, all interesting stuff - let's see what happens next week!
"For something I just heard of today, it sounds quite clever."
It sounds bl**dy terrifying to me!
The timing & reliability has got to be pretty good. Think about it - they start the engines and release the tether, fine. They start the engines and the tether doesn't release in time - fun ride for the balloonists. They release the tether and the engines don't/are slow starting - rocket will probably be plunging earthward like a large lump of metal.
You're spot-on there. Reading the race review in Autosport, with all the stats and charts showing relative positions is *more* interesting than the race itself.
However, is this right? Should reading a review on paper (now that Autosport.com has gone subscription - grrrrrrr!!) be more enjoyable than the race itself?
I don't know - it's a bit different I suppose, between interesting and enjoyable.
Maybe, but one of the best things I've seen on TV this year were the (lamentably short) scenes of Montoya having a go at passing Klien during the European GP - pure, no holds barred, racing - push, push, push at every opportunity, don't let him relax for a moment, push, push, push, he'll make a mistake soon enough, push, push, push.... That was fantastic to watch, even if it was only for 6th, 7th, 8th place....
You seem to be missing the point - it's not whether we have sufficient oil or not, it's that the consequences of burning this oil (be it in powergen or transport) are the problem. Specifically CO2 production - which is a major greenhouse gas. It's the global warming caused by the greenhouse gases which is the issue.
Unfortunately even cracking the oil to lighter hydrocarbons such as short-chain alkanes and alkenes (meth-, eth-. but-, prop- ane and ene) doesn't really help. Sure they produce around half (still far too much) the CO2 when burnt efficiently than heavy oils, but the alkanes and alkenes are around 25 times more potent greenhouse gases than CO2, so even a small amount of leakage could undo the benefit. Of course, there's also a significant energy input required to crack the feed-stock, whether you're using thermal or catalytic processes.
'Alternative' energy sources such as solar (either thermal or PV), wind and tidal are all interesting and in the correct environments beneficial, but they are no real solution unless we all cut our energy demands hugely - and that means losing home aircon for a start, turning-off all unused electrical equipment (all the TV/VCRs on standby here in the UK require a mid-sized power station to power!).
Ultimately we are too reliant on energy as a society for the current state of the art in alternative energy solutions to provide. Fission, and in the longer term (possibly) fusion are the only real solutions - and today, tomorrow, next year, next decade, it's fission power which can stop the problem worsening. Even if we cut CO2 emissions to virtually zero today, we still have a big problem which will take many centuries for the environment to return to equilibrium.
In the scheme of things having to deal with increased nuclear waste is a small price to pay. As far as reactor safety is concerned there are many tools and techniques to reduce the risk of a serious accident to an insignificant level. For a start using intrinsically safe reactor designs such as the Canadian CANDU units.
Forget SUVs, forget the Kyoto protocols, this is a serious issue in need of serious solutions!
"This thing got 'iPod Killer' written all over it." - nope, it's got iPod rip-off written all over it! I know imitation is flattery and all that, but wrap an iPod in carbon fibre and make the buttons square.....
...in (almost) every school in the UK. Pretty much each and every British geek of my generation (i.e. born in the early '70's) cut their computing teeth on first the 6502 BBC Micro, then the Acorn Archimedes.
I dunno - I work in IT, use a Mac (home and work) and am not, by any stretch of the imagination, particularly artistic! Neither for that matter are friends of mine who work in network ops for a big IT multinational, and choose Mac for their own machines.
(I only 'switched' from Windows about 18 months ago, and at first found some things on the Mac annoying; now I find the lack of consistency on Windows far more infuriating.)
Well, the rack maybe worth saving, but reusing patch panels is a recipe for dodgy connections - punchdowns don't like repeated use.
In my last job, which involved cabling quite a few commercial spaces in London, UK, people very rarely took cabling cabinets or patch panels with them. They did often cut the cables though, which always annoyed me (as it's so pointless) but then it made us more money when we had to recable the whole joint.
Aha, but it's not a Mac Tax I'm paying, it's a beauty tax! My desktop/laptop needs beauty, so I pay the tax. My server doesn't, so it's on 4.8-RELEASE.
Slashdot Mirror
I disagree. I administer a heterogenous network of around 450 machines, over which I have limited control (guess where I work...)
Around 400 of these machines are Windows boxes, the remainder mainly Mac. The Mac's aren't a problem when it comes to viruses for 3 reasons:
I have to worry about 400-odd Windows boxes on public IPs at work - where else to find out about the latest Window's vulnerability than /.
Really, I'm being serious. Window's haters are far quicker at pointing out Window's flaws than Window's lovers!
Many good points.
Thanks!
Realistically, if your primary concern is the security of the US, then the best policy is isolationism, not global intervention.
That was what you thought before 9/11. Plus, it wouldn't exactly be the best policy for us Europeans, whenever we need the US.
You're very right in saying that an isolationist US foreign policy would not be a good thing for Europe (as it wasn't in the '30's, pre-WW2).
However I think it's fair to say that US foreign policy has been pretty strongly interventionist since the end of WW2. Sometimes more so, sometimes less so, but sufficiently so to annoy significant proportions of the world. The global nature of the cold war really left little option but to adopt such a policy.
BTW, personally I think US interventionism is, on balance, a good thing - please don't think I'm US-bashing!
As the original submitter of this story, I'm gratified by the amount of debate it's spawned :-)
However, a few points in reply to various comments in the thread (I'm sorry they're not posted appropriately)
For whatever reason, it's undeniably a PR disaster.
Which raises an interesting point - are the various terrorist organisations threatening the US/West/CIS just taking up the vacuum left by the collapse of the USSR as a superpower. Newton's 3rd law applied to geopolitics?
Oh well, all interesting stuff - let's see what happens next week!
"For something I just heard of today, it sounds quite clever."
It sounds bl**dy terrifying to me!
The timing & reliability has got to be pretty good. Think about it - they start the engines and release the tether, fine. They start the engines and the tether doesn't release in time - fun ride for the balloonists. They release the tether and the engines don't/are slow starting - rocket will probably be plunging earthward like a large lump of metal.
Some mighty cojones required.
Moof! Moof!
Ditto my '96 E34 525 - but I love* her all the same :)
ACey
* - No silly, not 'that' kind of love!
Oh, for some mod points at this moment... +1 funny.
ACey & his Bayerische wagen.
You're spot-on there. Reading the race review in Autosport, with all the stats and charts showing relative positions is *more* interesting than the race itself.
However, is this right? Should reading a review on paper (now that Autosport.com has gone subscription - grrrrrrr!!) be more enjoyable than the race itself?
I don't know - it's a bit different I suppose, between interesting and enjoyable.
Maybe, but one of the best things I've seen on TV this year were the (lamentably short) scenes of Montoya having a go at passing Klien during the European GP - pure, no holds barred, racing - push, push, push at every opportunity, don't let him relax for a moment, push, push, push, he'll make a mistake soon enough, push, push, push.... That was fantastic to watch, even if it was only for 6th, 7th, 8th place....
..typical Negroponte - jumping on the bandwagon way after everyone else has a seat - look how long it took the MIT media lab to get a website.
Which button is it for "engine blow up" - this seems to be the McLaren way this season :)
ACey
Not that I'm complaining - the Maccas are at least a distraction from the pretty poor showing of my favoured team, BMW/Williams.
Grrrrr - Godiva are Belgian, not Dutch!!!!
You seem to be missing the point - it's not whether we have sufficient oil or not, it's that the consequences of burning this oil (be it in powergen or transport) are the problem. Specifically CO2 production - which is a major greenhouse gas. It's the global warming caused by the greenhouse gases which is the issue.
Unfortunately even cracking the oil to lighter hydrocarbons such as short-chain alkanes and alkenes (meth-, eth-. but-, prop- ane and ene) doesn't really help. Sure they produce around half (still far too much) the CO2 when burnt efficiently than heavy oils, but the alkanes and alkenes are around 25 times more potent greenhouse gases than CO2, so even a small amount of leakage could undo the benefit. Of course, there's also a significant energy input required to crack the feed-stock, whether you're using thermal or catalytic processes.
'Alternative' energy sources such as solar (either thermal or PV), wind and tidal are all interesting and in the correct environments beneficial, but they are no real solution unless we all cut our energy demands hugely - and that means losing home aircon for a start, turning-off all unused electrical equipment (all the TV/VCRs on standby here in the UK require a mid-sized power station to power!).
Ultimately we are too reliant on energy as a society for the current state of the art in alternative energy solutions to provide. Fission, and in the longer term (possibly) fusion are the only real solutions - and today, tomorrow, next year, next decade, it's fission power which can stop the problem worsening. Even if we cut CO2 emissions to virtually zero today, we still have a big problem which will take many centuries for the environment to return to equilibrium.
In the scheme of things having to deal with increased nuclear waste is a small price to pay. As far as reactor safety is concerned there are many tools and techniques to reduce the risk of a serious accident to an insignificant level. For a start using intrinsically safe reactor designs such as the Canadian CANDU units.
Forget SUVs, forget the Kyoto protocols, this is a serious issue in need of serious solutions!
3Com SuperStack 3 Switch 4400 - pre v.4 firmware is free to download, for v.4 you need to pay for a support contract.
I phoned 3Com support and asked "Why?"
Apparently because "since the Enron affair, 3Com are afraid of giving software away for free". I spilt my coffee.
"This thing got 'iPod Killer' written all over it." - nope, it's got iPod rip-off written all over it! I know imitation is flattery and all that, but wrap an iPod in carbon fibre and make the buttons square.....
ACey
...in (almost) every school in the UK. Pretty much each and every British geek of my generation (i.e. born in the early '70's) cut their computing teeth on first the 6502 BBC Micro, then the Acorn Archimedes.
I dunno - I work in IT, use a Mac (home and work) and am not, by any stretch of the imagination, particularly artistic! Neither for that matter are friends of mine who work in network ops for a big IT multinational, and choose Mac for their own machines.
(I only 'switched' from Windows about 18 months ago, and at first found some things on the Mac annoying; now I find the lack of consistency on Windows far more infuriating.)
Well, the rack maybe worth saving, but reusing patch panels is a recipe for dodgy connections - punchdowns don't like repeated use.
In my last job, which involved cabling quite a few commercial spaces in London, UK, people very rarely took cabling cabinets or patch panels with them. They did often cut the cables though, which always annoyed me (as it's so pointless) but then it made us more money when we had to recable the whole joint.
Erm, I think you'll find the Rolls Royce Olympus engine is a turbojet, not a ramjet.
Concorde Powerplant page.
P.S. There's an 'e' on the end of Concorde as well - it's in French.
I just played that the same time over the top of a stream from boombastic radio in iTunes. Works remarkably well over some mellow funky jazzy riffs :)
Aha, but it's not a Mac Tax I'm paying, it's a beauty tax! My desktop/laptop needs beauty, so I pay the tax. My server doesn't, so it's on 4.8-RELEASE.
It's all good.