I agree. They pay for billboard space, so why not pay me to advertise to my Children. The schools get money to advertise to my children, so why can't I get in on this??
From the article that I didn't read: Cellphones have played a major role in the constant jousting between terrorists and intelligence agencies. In their requests for more investigative powers, Attorney General John Ashcroft and other officials have repeatedly cited the importance of monitoring portable phones. Each success by investigators seems to drive terrorists either to more advanced -- or to more primitive -- communications.
Yes, it's a knee jerk reaction, but it's one that is indeed based on the article. I couldn't find the text in the article that says that the US wouldn't do this. After all, I was writing in the hypothetical.
(Took me a little longer to swath through the info you pointed to than AC above)
To your links, I should like to see something better. So, I dilligently did a search, and maybe government sources aren't your friend. So I figure maybe one conspiracy site deserves another.
Between these two non-government entities, both having belief in the conspiracy view - the divergence of facts is too great for me to fathom. I am left somewhere in the middle, believing myself that the NTSB probably found the culprit. If there were a cover-up, it would seem that they would have been given impirical evidence (planted by the appropriate agency) to clearly show exactly what it was supposed to be. The NTSB official report was not conclusive. Although Section 1.12.7 of the official NTSB report is very good reading. I expect more than this out of a cover-up conspiracy.
Basically, because the NTSB report is not conculsive, there is no convincing you that your position is wrong, and there is no convincing me
that it was definately a cover-up.
While this is "not news" in the format of the technically possible, it's the first time a significant operation was based primarily on this type of tracking.
What I would be much more interested in would be - how many Americans of Arab decent happened to purchase the same phone? Just because an Arab decides to get a pre-paid phone with International capabilits - were they then automatically brought under suspicion. I'll put money on, yes.
The sad part, and the reason the story is interesting to me, is the injustice caused by this sort of "investigative style".
What's to stop this conversation: We found that most terrorists choose to wear light colored cotton clothing, and they look like they are of Arab decent. Create a file for anybody you find that matches this profile. Look into their background. If they sell expensive rugs, this could be a front, investigate where they buy their rugs from.
Uh, O.K. I read the link, several times. I really, truely don't see what you are expecting me to see. (Maybe this is my own personal short-sightedness), but I'm trying to figure out how chaning the labor policies for an Intelligence sub-department links to a radar feed about TWA flight 800?
The NTSB Flight 800 Page seems to have the evidence contrary to your own beliefs, and if you are really nice, and try not to sound like you are a conspiracy theorist, they may let you see the evidence for yourself, under a press pass - or "I'm a collage student writing a paper on", etc. Of course, there have been plenty of (non-government employed) people whom have already seen it, and it's probably been warehoused, but no harm in trying. What I'm saying here, is if you show me proof, I'm on your side, until then - I'm letting you know what I'm basing my beliefs on.
The article clearly states that comparing these mail clients to Outlook XP would be most usefull (find the FAQ section at the bottom of the article). If you just plopped down $700 per seat on Office 03, then there's little chance you'll be searching for another Mail client anytime soon.
I also happen to agree with the author on that point.
That's called CHECKS AND BALANCES. The government was created in that way. Majority rule doesn't always respect the rights of others, and the Judicial branch is there to guarantee those rights. For this reason, a judge doesn't define criminal guilt, the judge is there to protect the rights of the defendant while guilt is determined by a jury of his peers.
determine their candidates...
mostly done during a vote on a party convention, and the people going to those conventions are determined by the local party groups of members by whatever method the single local party group thinks is fitting (Even if it is "who has the time to go to that convention?").
You have just described the 'caucus' systems that many States in the US use (Iowa for instance). However due to state laws that oversee the election process, the caucus (or primary - depending on the state) is standardized across the parties.
Basically, in a state with primaries, any party member may show up at one of the local meetings, and volunteer to become a delegate (delegates are those whom go to a party convention).
In a state with a caucus system, the voting process, and the party meeting are done at the same time, in an open matter. Everyone in a party has a chance to debate the issues before committing to a vote this is voluntary. At the same time, you are offered the opportunity to become an attendee to the County Level convention From here the differences cease again. The county convention feeds the state convention, and the state convention feeds the national convention.
See, not so different afterall! Of course, many American citizens don't actually know how it works either.
Some states don't, some states do - but either way there are laws that force political party leadership to keep the process open.
In the case of states with a Caucus system (Iowa, for instance) the party itself pays for the organization of the caucus.
Bottom line is that if a law is passed forcing parties to run their organziation in a particular way, then that law may need to have provisions to pay for that organization.
Some states, like Minnesota, have passed laws designed to make it easier for a Third Party to gain legitimate "major party status". This trend seems to be continuing. In any case, most states end up with third party candidates on the final ballot through petition (signature drives).
There is still an overall legal advantage to the two major parties, but this is slowly being corrected. Bottom line, if the majority of US citizens have a problem with it, it will change quickly. So, far, a minority of citizens care (heck a minority of citizens even vote). Truth != Troll
To vote in a primary election, you have to be a party member. At least that's the idea (some states do not "lock" party membership - but I won't go into details unless I see that question). When a US citizen registers to vote, the registration includes a place for that indivudual to choose what party they are going to register with. Said individual can opt to leave this blank, or can choose one of the two major parties (Republican or Democrat), or can choose one of the multiple smaller parties (Independence, Green, Socialists, Communists, etc, etc, if I left your party out, please don't flame me).
If X party has organized (For most states this means to have gotten enough signatures) then that party can issue a primary ballot.
If the party on an individuals voting registration is holding a primary, that person is allowed - as a member of that party - to vote in said primary election. If that individual opted to not list a party membership, then the only dis-advantage of this condition is that said individual may not be part of the primary election process.
Individuals whom do not choose a party membership can still influence whom is on the ballot through signature drives. Most states have a registered voter threshold after which a petitioned candidate will be listed on the final ballot. Finally, if an individual's preferred candidate still did not make the cut, there is a form to write in your candidate's choice.
Please, if I've missed anything huge, I apologize.
A "smell" panel. Four people to judge the scent of each item to go aboard a space craft. That seems a bit much. Further, if (as they say) everything smells stronger in space, it seems like a "2.4" average rating (between easily detectable and annoying) would be way to high. For me, I wouldn't want anything over a 1.0 to make it through.
I wonder what other jobs somebody like this would do though? How would you qualify for this type of Nasa "mission".
This is actually the basis of the long success of UNIX in general. Several very small and specialized functions that can all interact in a standarized way.
sed
awk
tex
cut
- They can all do text formatting, but each in a slightly different way. All of these are standard, not because any are better, but because each has it's own strengths.
I don't buy the SCO payoff (maybe discount) theories. Basically, this is part of an old addage: "There is no such thing as bad publicity."
How many people are SlashDot readers, and have never heard of EV1? (plenty)
And maybe some don't run Linux, and maybe don't care about the SCO debate, and hey, look at this big hosting provider - big enough for SlashDot to post info on them, front page...
Maybe they look up EV1 for an offsite distributed hosting project.
Now consider that Slashdot is not the only 'often checked-front page' that is covering this story. Guaranteed, they'll gain far more business than they'll loose in the long run because of this stunt.
I agree with most of your post, but would like to point out that the bandwidth they are stealing is not surplus. In fact, on a saturated network, SPAM still comes through just as fast, but I sure as heck can't download the SpamAssassin source code fast enough.
I block using ordb (doesn't help much). So, I need to filter content, too.
I for one, fully, 100% admit that you've caught me on that one. I am quite the UNIXy geek, but that's obvious by my simply writing my opin in defense of the author.
If I had mod points, I wouldn't be able to give one to you anyway, because I've already posted in this story - never-the-less - insightful.
I will admit that I'm looking at this from the perspective of the article. There are few total dead ends. Yes, the fact that the dialogs don't follow an established STANDARD does hurt the usability, but I don't think that they are BAD, unless you are absolutely trained to the [Windows/KDE/Gnome/Mac] way of doing things.
So, I'll concede that they are not the best examples of usability, but I do think that they avoid all of the points that the article was ranting about.
On an ancient UNIX terminal in my Mom's cubicle (some 20 years back).. there was a text adventure game where you walked around a space ship - and nobody else was aboard. I remeber walking into a new room, and the program would unexpectedly exit. Different from the terse, "your dead" after opening the air-lock.
Yeah, I know my memory is foggy, and not very helpfull but does anybody know what that game could have been? Anybody know if there's a playable version of the same game somewhere?
It may be ugly, but in every case (save the shot behind the fetchmailconf link) there is a separate help button for every item. The "designed" link has a perfect example of a "probe for supported", as he is asking for in his article.
Here's where I cave a little... On the last screen shot, it did take me a little too long to figure out that the password being asked for is listed in the topmost sub-section. However, I'm confident that the help button would have told me what I'm looking for.
If anything, mrroach's post does point out smartly that the article is a plug to "do things more like I do". Yeah, not so "pretty", but sure as feces, it won't get Aunt Tilly too flustered.
It boils down to this (and yes, I really have been involved in Open Source projects, without actually submitting patches).
If you have the ability to see how an interface could be improved for a particular Open Source project, I strongly encourage you to join the development mailing list, and start engaging the developers with your questions. I have seen very few projects with a GUI where the developers will not listen to constructive UI ideas.
NOTE: "This Sucks", is NOT a constructive criticism. Don't demand, don't be a jerk, but do point out what text and or features would make a dialog box or interface window more usefull. Stick around, and someone might actually ask your opinion on other things as well. If you are at the right place (a development mail list), there's a good chance somebody who can create a patch will start working on your good suggestion.
Most of all, be patient. Linux was not built in a day.
Slashdot Mirror
On an off-topic note - what Linux HDTV tuner do you use, and how open are the drivers?
I agree. They pay for billboard space, so why not pay me to advertise to my Children. The schools get money to advertise to my children, so why can't I get in on this??
Yes, it's a knee jerk reaction, but it's one that is indeed based on the article. I couldn't find the text in the article that says that the US wouldn't do this. After all, I was writing in the hypothetical.
To your links, I should like to see something better. So, I dilligently did a search, and maybe government sources aren't your friend. So I figure maybe one conspiracy site deserves another.
Between these two non-government entities, both having belief in the conspiracy view - the divergence of facts is too great for me to fathom. I am left somewhere in the middle, believing myself that the NTSB probably found the culprit. If there were a cover-up, it would seem that they would have been given impirical evidence (planted by the appropriate agency) to clearly show exactly what it was supposed to be. The NTSB official report was not conclusive. Although Section 1.12.7 of the official NTSB report is very good reading. I expect more than this out of a cover-up conspiracy.
Basically, because the NTSB report is not conculsive, there is no convincing you that your position is wrong, and there is no convincing me that it was definately a cover-up.
What I would be much more interested in would be - how many Americans of Arab decent happened to purchase the same phone? Just because an Arab decides to get a pre-paid phone with International capabilits - were they then automatically brought under suspicion. I'll put money on, yes. The sad part, and the reason the story is interesting to me, is the injustice caused by this sort of "investigative style".
What's to stop this conversation: We found that most terrorists choose to wear light colored cotton clothing, and they look like they are of Arab decent. Create a file for anybody you find that matches this profile. Look into their background. If they sell expensive rugs, this could be a front, investigate where they buy their rugs from.
The NTSB Flight 800 Page seems to have the evidence contrary to your own beliefs, and if you are really nice, and try not to sound like you are a conspiracy theorist, they may let you see the evidence for yourself, under a press pass - or "I'm a collage student writing a paper on", etc. Of course, there have been plenty of (non-government employed) people whom have already seen it, and it's probably been warehoused, but no harm in trying. What I'm saying here, is if you show me proof, I'm on your side, until then - I'm letting you know what I'm basing my beliefs on.
Kindest regards.
I also happen to agree with the author on that point.
That's called CHECKS AND BALANCES. The government was created in that way. Majority rule doesn't always respect the rights of others, and the Judicial branch is there to guarantee those rights. For this reason, a judge doesn't define criminal guilt, the judge is there to protect the rights of the defendant while guilt is determined by a jury of his peers.
Yes, the Minnesota ballots are cast this way. It's anonymous, secure and verifyable.
- They hand me a piece of paper and a pen.
- I fill in the bubble, next to my candidate
- I put the ballot into the computerized machine, that keeps my paper ballot
- If I filled out the bubble in-correctly, it beeps at me, and spits the ballot back
- Assuming I didn't do anything wrong, then I can see the electronic "number of votes:" counter go up by one
- I return the pen
- I get a red "I voted" sticker
What's wrong with that? Why does every vote have to be cast directly into a computer?? I like the ballot reader method.You have just described the 'caucus' systems that many States in the US use (Iowa for instance). However due to state laws that oversee the election process, the caucus (or primary - depending on the state) is standardized across the parties.
Basically, in a state with primaries, any party member may show up at one of the local meetings, and volunteer to become a delegate (delegates are those whom go to a party convention).
In a state with a caucus system, the voting process, and the party meeting are done at the same time, in an open matter. Everyone in a party has a chance to debate the issues before committing to a vote this is voluntary. At the same time, you are offered the opportunity to become an attendee to the County Level convention From here the differences cease again. The county convention feeds the state convention, and the state convention feeds the national convention.
See, not so different afterall! Of course, many American citizens don't actually know how it works either.
In the case of states with a Caucus system (Iowa, for instance) the party itself pays for the organization of the caucus.
Bottom line is that if a law is passed forcing parties to run their organziation in a particular way, then that law may need to have provisions to pay for that organization.
There is still an overall legal advantage to the two major parties, but this is slowly being corrected. Bottom line, if the majority of US citizens have a problem with it, it will change quickly. So, far, a minority of citizens care (heck a minority of citizens even vote). Truth != Troll
If X party has organized (For most states this means to have gotten enough signatures) then that party can issue a primary ballot.
If the party on an individuals voting registration is holding a primary, that person is allowed - as a member of that party - to vote in said primary election. If that individual opted to not list a party membership, then the only dis-advantage of this condition is that said individual may not be part of the primary election process.
Individuals whom do not choose a party membership can still influence whom is on the ballot through signature drives. Most states have a registered voter threshold after which a petitioned candidate will be listed on the final ballot. Finally, if an individual's preferred candidate still did not make the cut, there is a form to write in your candidate's choice.
Please, if I've missed anything huge, I apologize.
1) Create talking devices, and tune them so that they are not ignored. 2) ???? 3) Profit!
I wonder what other jobs somebody like this would do though? How would you qualify for this type of Nasa "mission".
- sed
- awk
- tex
- cut
- They can all do text formatting, but each in a slightly different way. All of these are standard, not because any are better, but because each has it's own strengths.How many people are SlashDot readers, and have never heard of EV1? (plenty)
And maybe some don't run Linux, and maybe don't care about the SCO debate, and hey, look at this big hosting provider - big enough for SlashDot to post info on them, front page...
Maybe they look up EV1 for an offsite distributed hosting project.
Now consider that Slashdot is not the only 'often checked-front page' that is covering this story. Guaranteed, they'll gain far more business than they'll loose in the long run because of this stunt.
I block using ordb (doesn't help much). So, I need to filter content, too.
If I had mod points, I wouldn't be able to give one to you anyway, because I've already posted in this story - never-the-less - insightful.
Touche! That's a very good point - using the articles wording, even.
So, I'll concede that they are not the best examples of usability, but I do think that they avoid all of the points that the article was ranting about.
Yeah, I know my memory is foggy, and not very helpfull but does anybody know what that game could have been? Anybody know if there's a playable version of the same game somewhere?
Here's where I cave a little... On the last screen shot, it did take me a little too long to figure out that the password being asked for is listed in the topmost sub-section. However, I'm confident that the help button would have told me what I'm looking for.
If anything, mrroach's post does point out smartly that the article is a plug to "do things more like I do". Yeah, not so "pretty", but sure as feces, it won't get Aunt Tilly too flustered.
If you have the ability to see how an interface could be improved for a particular Open Source project, I strongly encourage you to join the development mailing list, and start engaging the developers with your questions. I have seen very few projects with a GUI where the developers will not listen to constructive UI ideas.
NOTE: "This Sucks", is NOT a constructive criticism. Don't demand, don't be a jerk, but do point out what text and or features would make a dialog box or interface window more usefull. Stick around, and someone might actually ask your opinion on other things as well. If you are at the right place (a development mail list), there's a good chance somebody who can create a patch will start working on your good suggestion.
Most of all, be patient. Linux was not built in a day.