You have a lot of facts wrong, and I'll try, as a Frenchman, to give you more insight, especially in France's internal politics.
First, the unit(s) from France we actually French Foreign Legion, not French nationals. Second, they were artillery units which pretty much precludes them from being in front of anything.
The "Foreign Legion" (Légion étrangère) is first an infantery unit. Of course, it has some artillery, but it is not its primary function.
Now, about the first Gulf war, let me remind you of the French troops engaged:
12000 terrest army men, composed of infantery, artillery, and a big division of light tanks (700 tanks, US had 2000 tanks)
2400 marine men, with cruisers, destroyers, and a carrier
1100 air force men
A lot of the 12000 terrest army men were from the Légion étrangère, but the marine, the air force, and a part of infantry were from the regular army, not the Légion.
They clearly were not only artillery, and, I repeat, they were the ones that went the furthest (thanks to the guy that told me the spelling:) ) in the desert, penetrating it more than any other nation.
I fail to see how you can conclude that they were only artillery that couldn't be in front. Quite the contrary in fact.
France has had to turn to the UN for help in the Ivory Coast.
Pretty much like the US is currently doing with Irak, where, after deciding they would go alone are now starting to plead for international support ?
Yes, it's a lot easier to blindly affect damage than to logistically win a war. And the USA, with the greastest army in the world, and a military budget higher than the rest of the world combined are also struggling to do it. But France has historically showed that given the same ressources as the US is capable of more efficiency for occupation operations.
Oh, and nobody claimed that France could alone occupy Irak, it doesn't pretend to. Don't deduct that they can't do efficient military operation, the US didn't cheer France's army in Gulf war 1 and in Afghanistan for nothing.
It also takes a willingness to incur casualties, a willingness to sacrifice
Actually, the US army is certainly the least willing to have casualities of all armies. It has a tendency to bomb everything to the ground (including civilians) rather than risk losing a few men. Don't confuse willingness to take combat damage with willingness to engage massive funds in a war seen as unnecessary.
France didn't go to Irak for politic reasons, and certainly not for military reasons.
I find it unlikely that even if it wanted to it could maintain the levels of troops required for sustained combat operations.
It is currently demonstrating the contrary in Afghanistan.
It is my belief that in their heart-of-hearts, the French just are not willing. Could this be a reaction to the death of so many Frenchmen during WWI? Could be.
You have a point here : French don't want to go to war, because they know what war is. France (like most of Europe) has known way too well what a war on its soil means. America doesn't know that as well, and the horror of war are indeed much more present in European's minds than in American's ones.
However, unlike you, I consider this a good thing.
Now, on the part where you clearly show your lack of understanding of French politics:
First, a small point :
France was making too much money off of oil-for-food to kill that cash cow.
Please note that about all countries involved in oil-for-food (US included) abused it and took that for a cash cow. This isn't a French particularity (unlike what many Americans o
And what if he lost his life in a stupid war that was not engaged to defend your country ? Look at Vietnam, your country didn't engage there to defend itself, yet a lot of young men died. I'm sure you would not be so eager to have your child die in such a conflict.
And, to this point, the Bush administration has showed that it is very capable of declaring a war without good reasons. If the only war the US fought were about self-defense, the world would be much nicer, and terrorist wouldn't find it so easy to recruit new kamikazes willing to sacrifice to kill Americans.
And that, in my eyes, is the greatest danger of the Bush administration (and I say administration, since I believe more every day that Bush the man is just a stupid puppet in the hands of corrupt and dangerous men).
I don't know if it was the purpose of this bill, but, indeed, countries with draftees in their army tend to engage way much less in armed conflicts, since it automatically triggers a social movement of parents not willing to see their child die. That was even the reason some people opposed the end of draft in some European countries.
Neither the French nor the Germans have demonstrated any real ability to deploy a large number of troops at all, let alone for an extended trip to the desert.
Altrough there is no way that France will deploy troops for this war, I kindly remind you that in Gulf War 1, the French were present, and were the one who went the farest (sp?) in the desert. They penetrated further in Irak than any other nation, USA included.
Don't confuse the unwillingness to enter a war that 99% of the population opposes with its inability to do so.
The French army, while certainly a lot less as mighty as the American one is still not a joke, by far. They have good equipment, good training, and can be efficient in conflict (unless against the Germans, happily, we are now friendlier with the Germans than ever).
That precision done, you won't in fact see French troops in Iraq. The idea here is that we did everything to prevent the war, and that means we don't have a duty to go there and fix what the Bush adminstration has fucked up. And I totally agree with that.
This system has given France at previous presidential election a second round with Chirac vs Le Pen, while the vast majority would have tought about Chirac vs Jospin in 2nd round. Le Pen got there because votes on the left were scattered among multiple candidates, with every such voter wanting to vote Jospin at 2nd round. And all the voters of the small candidates regretted their choice afterward, since they felt they got robbed. (Actually, they weren't robbed, they were just too stupid to understand the election process)
It has generated such a polemic here that people spoke about reforming the election process, blamed the second round on polls, and there even was one movement that called for the cancelling of the election.
Believe me, 2 round simple choice method is far from perfect, we tasted it here.
>Because if you read the whole thing in context you can clearly see that when we bombed Osama out of Afghanistan he would have up and moved his training and operations right into Iraq. Bush took care of that and in the process showed the rest of the middle eastern countries what would happen if they thought to support Osama.
Basically, you are saying that you support your country bombing another country that *COULD HAVE* helped in the futur one of your ennemy, killing thousands in the process, just to show that no one gets on your way ?
Imagine if other countries did the same. Everybody would be at war with everybody. China would attack US and Europe because they supported some of China's dissident. Israel would invade Latin America, since some SS escaped there after WW2 etc...
Gee, even in the examples I gave at least it's not some 'may come one day' supposition, it's facts.
A more raisonnable comparison might be Canada invading the US because the US could have helped the dreaded Serial Bear Killer.
The sad thing about this is that by having your government doing what it did, killing thousands to show that no one should even THINK about being on the way of the US, you have given (and you're still giving) people reasons to hate the US.
I pretty sure that the iraqi civilian that has suffered and lost half his family due to Saddam, and that is now suffering and losing his last family to US bombs and chaos caused by the US will think about revenge. And since he can't carpet bomb the US like you did to his country, he might now think about doing some Kamikaze attack.
You had the whole world support to chase Bin Laden, why did you go for another guy instead, and bombing his country and citizens on the way ? Face it, there was no valid (from a human POV) reason to invade Irak but to impose US in the region. The US has acted like an imperialist, which is already the reason part of the world hate the US.
The US should change its view of the world and realize that the time where you could act in some part of the world and not suffer at home is over. And that to stop terrorism, you have to stop people having reasons to want to die to get revenge. The world has changed, and big bombs can't stop people with a knife to hijack a plane. Big bombs only motivate more people to get knifes and damage the US.
As a summer job I did some delivery for a newspaper here. I worked 5 hours at night to deliver 250 newspapers. A trip of 45 km. Add to that the price of fuel, and you'll see that, in fact, it is really expensive to deliver newspapers so that customers get them at their breakfast.
Oh and that was in Paris' suburbs, in summer, meaning I had few kilometers to do, and no traffic jam. Given the fact that US cities are much bigger than European ones, I let you imagine how much real money it costs to get you that newspaper for your breakfast.
At 40$/month, they don't rob you, really. It's a very fair price. Don't forget that newspapers can't be delivered by postal. Who would like a 2 days old newspaper coming at 12.00am ?
Given the bad acceptance of Microsoft's licencing scheme in the IT, it was time Microsoft did something about it. It's not enough IMHO, but still.
What I like about current situation is that the appearance of solid competitors (around Linux) and the scrutinity of judiciary entities (namely EU), we might have a real free market again in the OS field. That would be great, no matter who the winner is. Free market is always better than a vorace monopoly, and I'd like to see real progress in the field, which can only occur in a competitive market.
I think the next few years will be very interesting, indeed. Imagine if we had as much offering in the OS field as in say the gaming field.
I think we should form an European association, a la NRA, where we promise to all vote against any party pushing for software patents, regardless of all other issues.
We are a lot to oppose software patents, and if we unite and call for vote against all parties supporting software patents, we will be heard. No political party can loose millions of vote in European elections, with their huge absention rates.
If we organize, we are strong enough to stop this outright corruption of "our" officials. I will tomorrow write a letter to my representative, stating him that should he opposes software patents, he'll get my vote, and that should he supports software patents, he'll never get my vote. I will also try to contact any association in my country (France) to see if we can organize some counter-power.
I am ashamed of this shit, I am ashamed of my government, and I am ashamed to be a citizen of such a corrupt system.
I won't leave a world to my children where they can't express mathemacial equations (software is just that) without being sued. I think i've never fell that motivated to engage in political action.
To all you slashdot europeans : do not drop arms. The fight is not over yet, and the incoming elections give us much power. We shall unite and fight. We shall not let software become patentable.
The less scrupulous owners would put the less desireable rares back in the packs and reseal them.
Actually, back in the days, they didn't even have to open the booster packs : the old expansion had bad schrinkwrap that would allow you to see the cards inside without opening it. IIRC, Legends was the last expansion with such faulty schrinkwrap.
I personnaly know some vendors that confessed me doing that at the time, and I did verify : you really could see inside once you got the trick.
Ok, this is absolutly offtopic, but I couldn't resist.
The sig of parent is : "Les Francais sont des singes de capitulation qui mangent du fromage."
This can be translated (minus the grammar errors) in English by : "French people are cheese eating surrendering monkeys."
What is the problem with you guy ? How can this french racism be justified ?
Is that some type of knee-jerk reaction because you were insulted that the French governement had the balls to openly take the stake of 90% of the world population by opposing war in Irak ? Was it because the French governement (along with German, Russian... governments) though that it was not clear Irak had WMP ? Looks like they were right.
Or are you just trying to show your complete lack of any notion of History, Humanity, toughfullness, rightfulness and veracity ?
Or maybe you cut and pasted a sentence you don't understand ? That seems unlikely.
Now, about the new fashion of describing French as cowardly, may I remember you that France got defeated by German army, the most powerful one at that time, which also defeated all Europe ? Do I need to remember you that Russia was a way more efficent combattant of Germany than the US ? Do I also remember you that the USA got smacked by Vietnam, Somalia..., which were certainly not great powers, just random people fighting for their freedom ?
This kind of attitude only shows the world that the US has quite a number of ignorant, infantile and downright people in it. Happily, I know that there also are a lot of informed and insightful people in the USA, but, much to my dismay, those intelligent people seem to be in minority. This is very sad.
I remember seeing a few days ago on Slashdot a Brit defending France (a Brit defending France !) that very accuratly reminded the few arrogant and stupid American here that French men died to help the US become independent. Those French men died to help you get rid of the Brit, in the name of Freedom. Freedom that once upon a time was the characteristic of two countries : France and USA.
How come Bush, or should I say his neo-con silt, has be able to make you forgive about the long frienship that existed between France and the USA ? How can a few bonehead, who lied to the US population and to the world, make you forget ? Didn't you learn History and Geography in school ? Or are you now taught that what is not American is evil if it doesn't share all the ideas of your President ?
I know that there are a lot of informed, intelligent people here on Slashdot from all over the world (France and USA included), and I am shocked that someone can make such stupid and racist rant his sig. I was delighted that a Brit took the time to make points against such racist rants, but I fear that too many people do not try to educate the few stupid racist left. Or maybe I am an utopist, and maybe I should learn that there are people who will never be educated, who will never look at History, and who prefer baseless racism to intelligent criticism of their government's actions.
This is very sad that such sigs can exist on Slashdot without raising more than eyebrows. And I fear that stupid people such as parents are voters in the most powerful country in the World. Such power ought to be in hands of responsible people, not stupid and arrogant racists.
Replying to myself :
> Pi does not equal to (16/9)
Of course, slashdot ate my square sign. I've got an idea : after you guys learn about some 200 years old metric system, what about learning about 8 bits ASCII and page codes ? The would allow for accents, which are used even in English.
Well, I don't want to sound rude, but 99% of the world knows that metric paper sizes (and all metric mesures for that matter) are way more clean and nice than stupid, outdatted empire and non-conventionnal mesures.
And for the anecdote about 2 sheets of A4 = 1 sheet of A3, I remember learning that in elementary school.
How is that *news* for nerds ? Metric paper sizes are here since before the oldest slashdotter was born !
Next stories : "It looks like the Persian were wrong ! Pi does not equal to (16/9) !", "New units discovered : the meter !"
Your slippery rope would be right except for one thing : I do backups of my datas on CD. Each time I do that, I have to pay a tax to compensate for the piracy I could have done.
Since I've already paid via the tax, why souldn't I download music ?
I don't pay the BSA when I buy a blank CD, and I don't copy their stuff.
I do pay a tax on blank CD to music association, so when I copy music, I've alreay paid it.
Your argument would only be good if I hadn't alreay paid for the right to copy music.
The day the music industry accepted to receive money for each backup of my business data I do, that day they lost the right to complain when I go and downlaod some music. I've paid it via blank CD.
I am born on December 31. When I go to a party for new year's day, there is always one buddy that says happy birthday to me. Then all other guests come to me and asks : "really it's your birthday ? What day were you born ? Januray 1st ?".
Apparently, they think that since we party the 31 for the 1st, then saying happy birthday to me on the 31 means I'm born the 1st.
So, now, when someone asks me if it's my real birthday on the 31 when everyone grats me, I answer : "no I am born on April 1st, but people wish me a nice birthday on Dec 31".
Let's hope that Microsoft won't be able to buy its way out like it did in the US.
Seriously, I'd like to see Europe calm down Microsoft. Let's them compete on pure merits, and stop quashing competition. One can only hope that in a few years, you will be able to choose between different OS, without locking oneself out of a lot of content.
I know that some alternatives start to emerge, and that you can now play a lot of videos on Linux, but the Microsoft lockin is still very strong.
Europe slapping Microsoft could mean more money from investors in rivals, thus leading in acceleration of competition's offerings.
A good thing, IMO.
>This is no different [...] having an email program that alerts the department of homeland security
Actually, it is VERY VERY different. This piece of code won't alert anyone. It won't phone home.
>It's our right to have all of the finest tools for breaking every law imaginable so long as we do not exercise them
And how is this right trampled ? You can hack the software to bypass the protection. And it won't be a crime to do so.
Noboby will burst in your room if you remove this piece of software.
However, if you remove this piece of software AND if you print counterfeit money, then it's perfectly clear that you WANTED to counterfeit, and you'll go to jail.
This piece of software is here to prevent "accidental" counterfeiting.
It's a good compromise : by default, you can't print bills. If you know what you're doing (ie the bill you want to print is REALLY legal), you can hack the software, and do it. The only thing you can't do is have your wife/kid/husband/whatever print two 5$ bill for printing invation card, only to discover that one guest gave the bill to grocery, and police is here to get your butt in jail.
As long as it is not a crime to bypass the software, I really fail to see the problem.
Basically, it's the government equivalent of OpenBSD : by default, you can't do much, and if you take action, you can do whatever you want, including shooting yourself in the foot.
This is a genuine question : how is it a bad thing ?
For me, that means two things:
1) if you want to do some parody bill, well, you'll still can, you'll just have to make sure that even from far it looks like parody.
2) 15 years old kids that get drunk for the first time and think that it is a good idea to make some cheap bill to get that coke free won't go 15 years in jail.
This thing just means that if you want to make false money, you'll have to dig a little bit. And if you do, it's clear that you wanted to counterfeit, and you'll go to jail.
On the other hand, some kid won't be able to pool a cheap prank that can get him in serious troubles. Good chances are that he'll think "hey, if i've got to go to www.falsemoney.ze, maybe the police/secret service/whatever will notice, so maybe I shouldn't".
Remember, this thing is not, has never been, and will never be to deter mafias from counterfeiting. It's just to make it hard enough for Joe Schmoe that he has to think about his actions, and then decide that it would be stupid to risk 15 years for a prank.
Let me tell you why your solution is in no way interchangeable with this advancement.
My mother has Parkinson's. When she was born, nobody took some stem cells. With this advance, she has some real hope to get healthier. And, believe me, this hope is so rare with such disease.
And it's not just Parkinson. There are millions of people that are ill (of neurone-dying desease), from which nobody took stem cells at birth, and who can now hope to get healthier.
In theory, a non-outsourced developer can do the same mistake. But there is something important called relationship and trust.
If a developer is in-house, if he has talked to clients, project manager, if he had be given a lecture on how the data is sensitive, you can bet that this developer will not mistakenly post that data on the web. Sure he can be corrupted, but that's not what happened here.
On the other hand, if some code-monkey receives some coding to do for an unknown company, in an unknown place, for an unknown application, and he is given a set of data not knowning what it is, then he might publish his data without knowning what he is doing.
The "outsource" stuff is important, not because of some "save jobs" issue, but because it implies the developer should never had received this data in the first place.
If some company/government entity outsources some programming job, it should give said developers only fake datas. And administration jobs with access to the real datas should be done by trusted guys.
I am really curious to see how many people will fall for that blatent election whoring.
This sounds very much like some "let's do like we did in those old good days, where we were so happy and we sent people to the moon". Never mind that those days were not so sweet, memory blurs the bad stuff.
I am not american, but should I be one, I would prefer a future candidate to speak about the big balance problem rather than some funky imaginary mission to mars. Specially since it's not the first time a US president smokes some crack, tells people "we go to mars", then do squat. Who did that first, Reagan, Bush Sr ?
I would like to believe that this sort of stupid blatant election whoring only happens in a corrupt democracy like the USA has become, but hey, democracies in Europe are as corrupts. And even if they don't speak about Mars, Europe's policians are very good too with election whoring.
Damn it, I'm ashamed that democracies have come this low. Chirac declaring war on unemployment, Bush talking about Mars, Blair struggling with public opinion about his lies, is there still a country where candidates are serious and not stupid whores ? They look like fools trying to get the Lie Of The Day that will make them more popular with some uninformed and unintereted elector.
Are we so dumb that we let our democracies become that ?
I really feel insulted when they try tricks like the three mentionned do.
Here is a quick and dirty translation of the link given by parent, since it's in French.
CD copy protection condamned.
TGI, Nanterre, 2003/09/02
(TGI is Tribunal de Grande Instance, the french court for those cases)
Facts
Due to "plaintes" (basically people complaining and/or filling suit) on the impossibility to play some CD on certain car cd players, the UFC-Que Choisir association (UFC is an association created to defend custumers) filled suit against EMI Music France, producer of said CD.
Decision
The Tribunal of Nanterre accepted UFC's complain.
Juges looked at the juridic's "vice cache". "The 'vice cache' is the delivery of a merchandise that looks correct in respect with displayed properties, but contains an anomaly that restrains its usage".
It has been demonstrated by the court that the litigeous CD was not working properly on every player. "This anomaly restricts the normal utilisation and thus consitute a 'vice cache' in the sense of Article 1641".
Commentary
Court's decision shows the contradiction between rights of custumers and copyright holders.
Copyright holders have the legal right to put copy protection mechanism. Article 6 of EU-Directive of 2001/05/22, which should be translated in French law by 2002/12/22 sets the juridical framework of copy protection mechanisms. But, this right must not contradict rights of custumers. In this case, it was the custumer's right to listen to his CD on any player (car player, computer CDROM,...). Having bought a CD that can't be read everywhere means by this decision that you are entitled to a refund.
In a similar but hypothetical situation, the presence of copy protection mechanisms can interfer with the custumer's right to make private backups. Such a right is written in French law, by Article L 122-5 of French's copyright code. The conciliation of this copy protection mechanisms and of the right of the custumer to backup is actually a hot debate.
It should be noted that the Court of Nanterre has already condamned EMI Music France, in June 2003. EMI was tried and condamned at that time for mascadaring sold product. This is illegal as of Article L 213-1.
End of translation.
So, in France, EMI has been tried twice already, and was condamned by the courts twice. Looks like this copy protected CD are having a very hard time here in Europe.
Slashdot Mirror
You have a lot of facts wrong, and I'll try, as a Frenchman, to give you more insight, especially in France's internal politics.
:
:) ) in the desert, penetrating it more than any other nation.
:
First, the unit(s) from France we actually French Foreign Legion, not French nationals. Second, they were artillery units which pretty much precludes them from being in front of anything.
The "Foreign Legion" (Légion étrangère) is first an infantery unit. Of course, it has some artillery, but it is not its primary function.
Now, about the first Gulf war, let me remind you of the French troops engaged
12000 terrest army men, composed of infantery, artillery, and a big division of light tanks (700 tanks, US had 2000 tanks)
2400 marine men, with cruisers, destroyers, and a carrier
1100 air force men
A lot of the 12000 terrest army men were from the Légion étrangère, but the marine, the air force, and a part of infantry were from the regular army, not the Légion.
You can find a summary of the troops engaged here : (sorry, link in French) http://www.quid.fr/2000/Q030440.htm.
They clearly were not only artillery, and, I repeat, they were the ones that went the furthest (thanks to the guy that told me the spelling
I fail to see how you can conclude that they were only artillery that couldn't be in front. Quite the contrary in fact.
France has had to turn to the UN for help in the Ivory Coast.
Pretty much like the US is currently doing with Irak, where, after deciding they would go alone are now starting to plead for international support ?
Yes, it's a lot easier to blindly affect damage than to logistically win a war. And the USA, with the greastest army in the world, and a military budget higher than the rest of the world combined are also struggling to do it. But France has historically showed that given the same ressources as the US is capable of more efficiency for occupation operations.
Oh, and nobody claimed that France could alone occupy Irak, it doesn't pretend to. Don't deduct that they can't do efficient military operation, the US didn't cheer France's army in Gulf war 1 and in Afghanistan for nothing.
It also takes a willingness to incur casualties, a willingness to sacrifice
Actually, the US army is certainly the least willing to have casualities of all armies. It has a tendency to bomb everything to the ground (including civilians) rather than risk losing a few men. Don't confuse willingness to take combat damage with willingness to engage massive funds in a war seen as unnecessary.
France didn't go to Irak for politic reasons, and certainly not for military reasons.
I find it unlikely that even if it wanted to it could maintain the levels of troops required for sustained combat operations.
It is currently demonstrating the contrary in Afghanistan.
It is my belief that in their heart-of-hearts, the French just are not willing. Could this be a reaction to the death of so many Frenchmen during WWI? Could be.
You have a point here : French don't want to go to war, because they know what war is. France (like most of Europe) has known way too well what a war on its soil means. America doesn't know that as well, and the horror of war are indeed much more present in European's minds than in American's ones.
However, unlike you, I consider this a good thing.
Now, on the part where you clearly show your lack of understanding of French politics
First, a small point : France was making too much money off of oil-for-food to kill that cash cow.
Please note that about all countries involved in oil-for-food (US included) abused it and took that for a cash cow. This isn't a French particularity (unlike what many Americans o
If he lost his life defending our country
And what if he lost his life in a stupid war that was not engaged to defend your country ? Look at Vietnam, your country didn't engage there to defend itself, yet a lot of young men died. I'm sure you would not be so eager to have your child die in such a conflict.
And, to this point, the Bush administration has showed that it is very capable of declaring a war without good reasons. If the only war the US fought were about self-defense, the world would be much nicer, and terrorist wouldn't find it so easy to recruit new kamikazes willing to sacrifice to kill Americans.
And that, in my eyes, is the greatest danger of the Bush administration (and I say administration, since I believe more every day that Bush the man is just a stupid puppet in the hands of corrupt and dangerous men).
I don't know if it was the purpose of this bill, but, indeed, countries with draftees in their army tend to engage way much less in armed conflicts, since it automatically triggers a social movement of parents not willing to see their child die. That was even the reason some people opposed the end of draft in some European countries.
Neither the French nor the Germans have demonstrated any real ability to deploy a large number of troops at all, let alone for an extended trip to the desert.
Altrough there is no way that France will deploy troops for this war, I kindly remind you that in Gulf War 1, the French were present, and were the one who went the farest (sp?) in the desert. They penetrated further in Irak than any other nation, USA included.
Don't confuse the unwillingness to enter a war that 99% of the population opposes with its inability to do so.
The French army, while certainly a lot less as mighty as the American one is still not a joke, by far. They have good equipment, good training, and can be efficient in conflict (unless against the Germans, happily, we are now friendlier with the Germans than ever).
That precision done, you won't in fact see French troops in Iraq. The idea here is that we did everything to prevent the war, and that means we don't have a duty to go there and fix what the Bush adminstration has fucked up. And I totally agree with that.
2 round elections are not perfect either.
This system has given France at previous presidential election a second round with Chirac vs Le Pen, while the vast majority would have tought about Chirac vs Jospin in 2nd round. Le Pen got there because votes on the left were scattered among multiple candidates, with every such voter wanting to vote Jospin at 2nd round. And all the voters of the small candidates regretted their choice afterward, since they felt they got robbed. (Actually, they weren't robbed, they were just too stupid to understand the election process)
It has generated such a polemic here that people spoke about reforming the election process, blamed the second round on polls, and there even was one movement that called for the cancelling of the election.
Believe me, 2 round simple choice method is far from perfect, we tasted it here.
>Because if you read the whole thing in context you can clearly see that when we bombed Osama out of Afghanistan he would have up and moved his training and operations right into Iraq. Bush took care of that and in the process showed the rest of the middle eastern countries what would happen if they thought to support Osama.
...
Basically, you are saying that you support your country bombing another country that *COULD HAVE* helped in the futur one of your ennemy, killing thousands in the process, just to show that no one gets on your way ?
Imagine if other countries did the same. Everybody would be at war with everybody. China would attack US and Europe because they supported some of China's dissident. Israel would invade Latin America, since some SS escaped there after WW2 etc
Gee, even in the examples I gave at least it's not some 'may come one day' supposition, it's facts. A more raisonnable comparison might be Canada invading the US because the US could have helped the dreaded Serial Bear Killer.
The sad thing about this is that by having your government doing what it did, killing thousands to show that no one should even THINK about being on the way of the US, you have given (and you're still giving) people reasons to hate the US.
I pretty sure that the iraqi civilian that has suffered and lost half his family due to Saddam, and that is now suffering and losing his last family to US bombs and chaos caused by the US will think about revenge. And since he can't carpet bomb the US like you did to his country, he might now think about doing some Kamikaze attack.
You had the whole world support to chase Bin Laden, why did you go for another guy instead, and bombing his country and citizens on the way ? Face it, there was no valid (from a human POV) reason to invade Irak but to impose US in the region. The US has acted like an imperialist, which is already the reason part of the world hate the US.
The US should change its view of the world and realize that the time where you could act in some part of the world and not suffer at home is over. And that to stop terrorism, you have to stop people having reasons to want to die to get revenge. The world has changed, and big bombs can't stop people with a knife to hijack a plane. Big bombs only motivate more people to get knifes and damage the US.
As a summer job I did some delivery for a newspaper here. I worked 5 hours at night to deliver 250 newspapers. A trip of 45 km. Add to that the price of fuel, and you'll see that, in fact, it is really expensive to deliver newspapers so that customers get them at their breakfast.
Oh and that was in Paris' suburbs, in summer, meaning I had few kilometers to do, and no traffic jam. Given the fact that US cities are much bigger than European ones, I let you imagine how much real money it costs to get you that newspaper for your breakfast.
At 40$/month, they don't rob you, really. It's a very fair price. Don't forget that newspapers can't be delivered by postal. Who would like a 2 days old newspaper coming at 12.00am ?
This tax was discussed by French's Ministry of Culture, but was vetoed by former Prime Minister Jospin. So, in fact, this tax never existed.
Given the bad acceptance of Microsoft's licencing scheme in the IT, it was time Microsoft did something about it. It's not enough IMHO, but still.
What I like about current situation is that the appearance of solid competitors (around Linux) and the scrutinity of judiciary entities (namely EU), we might have a real free market again in the OS field. That would be great, no matter who the winner is. Free market is always better than a vorace monopoly, and I'd like to see real progress in the field, which can only occur in a competitive market.
I think the next few years will be very interesting, indeed. Imagine if we had as much offering in the OS field as in say the gaming field.
I am European.
I think we should form an European association, a la NRA, where we promise to all vote against any party pushing for software patents, regardless of all other issues.
We are a lot to oppose software patents, and if we unite and call for vote against all parties supporting software patents, we will be heard. No political party can loose millions of vote in European elections, with their huge absention rates.
If we organize, we are strong enough to stop this outright corruption of "our" officials. I will tomorrow write a letter to my representative, stating him that should he opposes software patents, he'll get my vote, and that should he supports software patents, he'll never get my vote. I will also try to contact any association in my country (France) to see if we can organize some counter-power.
I am ashamed of this shit, I am ashamed of my government, and I am ashamed to be a citizen of such a corrupt system.
I won't leave a world to my children where they can't express mathemacial equations (software is just that) without being sued. I think i've never fell that motivated to engage in political action.
To all you slashdot europeans : do not drop arms. The fight is not over yet, and the incoming elections give us much power. We shall unite and fight. We shall not let software become patentable.
The less scrupulous owners would put the less desireable rares back in the packs and reseal them.
Actually, back in the days, they didn't even have to open the booster packs : the old expansion had bad schrinkwrap that would allow you to see the cards inside without opening it. IIRC, Legends was the last expansion with such faulty schrinkwrap.
I personnaly know some vendors that confessed me doing that at the time, and I did verify : you really could see inside once you got the trick.
If a company does some stupid shit on their site, well, that's their problem.
However, if some convincted monopolist volontary block competitors' browsers, to protect its monopoly, then it's downright illegal.
Read the article. It is obvious that it is volontary.
Ok, this is absolutly offtopic, but I couldn't resist.
... governments) though that it was not clear Irak had WMP ? Looks like they were right.
..., which were certainly not great powers, just random people fighting for their freedom ?
The sig of parent is : "Les Francais sont des singes de capitulation qui mangent du fromage."
This can be translated (minus the grammar errors) in English by : "French people are cheese eating surrendering monkeys."
What is the problem with you guy ? How can this french racism be justified ?
Is that some type of knee-jerk reaction because you were insulted that the French governement had the balls to openly take the stake of 90% of the world population by opposing war in Irak ? Was it because the French governement (along with German, Russian
Or are you just trying to show your complete lack of any notion of History, Humanity, toughfullness, rightfulness and veracity ?
Or maybe you cut and pasted a sentence you don't understand ? That seems unlikely.
Now, about the new fashion of describing French as cowardly, may I remember you that France got defeated by German army, the most powerful one at that time, which also defeated all Europe ? Do I need to remember you that Russia was a way more efficent combattant of Germany than the US ? Do I also remember you that the USA got smacked by Vietnam, Somalia
This kind of attitude only shows the world that the US has quite a number of ignorant, infantile and downright people in it. Happily, I know that there also are a lot of informed and insightful people in the USA, but, much to my dismay, those intelligent people seem to be in minority. This is very sad.
I remember seeing a few days ago on Slashdot a Brit defending France (a Brit defending France !) that very accuratly reminded the few arrogant and stupid American here that French men died to help the US become independent. Those French men died to help you get rid of the Brit, in the name of Freedom. Freedom that once upon a time was the characteristic of two countries : France and USA.
How come Bush, or should I say his neo-con silt, has be able to make you forgive about the long frienship that existed between France and the USA ? How can a few bonehead, who lied to the US population and to the world, make you forget ? Didn't you learn History and Geography in school ? Or are you now taught that what is not American is evil if it doesn't share all the ideas of your President ?
I know that there are a lot of informed, intelligent people here on Slashdot from all over the world (France and USA included), and I am shocked that someone can make such stupid and racist rant his sig. I was delighted that a Brit took the time to make points against such racist rants, but I fear that too many people do not try to educate the few stupid racist left. Or maybe I am an utopist, and maybe I should learn that there are people who will never be educated, who will never look at History, and who prefer baseless racism to intelligent criticism of their government's actions.
This is very sad that such sigs can exist on Slashdot without raising more than eyebrows. And I fear that stupid people such as parents are voters in the most powerful country in the World. Such power ought to be in hands of responsible people, not stupid and arrogant racists.
Replying to myself : > Pi does not equal to (16/9) Of course, slashdot ate my square sign. I've got an idea : after you guys learn about some 200 years old metric system, what about learning about 8 bits ASCII and page codes ? The would allow for accents, which are used even in English.
Well, I don't want to sound rude, but 99% of the world knows that metric paper sizes (and all metric mesures for that matter) are way more clean and nice than stupid, outdatted empire and non-conventionnal mesures.
And for the anecdote about 2 sheets of A4 = 1 sheet of A3, I remember learning that in elementary school.
How is that *news* for nerds ? Metric paper sizes are here since before the oldest slashdotter was born !
Next stories : "It looks like the Persian were wrong ! Pi does not equal to (16/9) !", "New units discovered : the meter !"
Your slippery rope would be right except for one thing : I do backups of my datas on CD. Each time I do that, I have to pay a tax to compensate for the piracy I could have done.
Since I've already paid via the tax, why souldn't I download music ?
I don't pay the BSA when I buy a blank CD, and I don't copy their stuff. I do pay a tax on blank CD to music association, so when I copy music, I've alreay paid it.
Your argument would only be good if I hadn't alreay paid for the right to copy music.
The day the music industry accepted to receive money for each backup of my business data I do, that day they lost the right to complain when I go and downlaod some music. I've paid it via blank CD.
I am born on December 31. When I go to a party for new year's day, there is always one buddy that says happy birthday to me. Then all other guests come to me and asks : "really it's your birthday ? What day were you born ? Januray 1st ?".
Apparently, they think that since we party the 31 for the 1st, then saying happy birthday to me on the 31 means I'm born the 1st.
So, now, when someone asks me if it's my real birthday on the 31 when everyone grats me, I answer : "no I am born on April 1st, but people wish me a nice birthday on Dec 31".
Let's hope that Microsoft won't be able to buy its way out like it did in the US.
Seriously, I'd like to see Europe calm down Microsoft. Let's them compete on pure merits, and stop quashing competition. One can only hope that in a few years, you will be able to choose between different OS, without locking oneself out of a lot of content.
I know that some alternatives start to emerge, and that you can now play a lot of videos on Linux, but the Microsoft lockin is still very strong.
Europe slapping Microsoft could mean more money from investors in rivals, thus leading in acceleration of competition's offerings.
A good thing, IMO.
I beg to differ.
>This is no different [...] having an email program that alerts the department of homeland security
Actually, it is VERY VERY different. This piece of code won't alert anyone. It won't phone home.
>It's our right to have all of the finest tools for breaking every law imaginable so long as we do not exercise them
And how is this right trampled ? You can hack the software to bypass the protection. And it won't be a crime to do so.
Noboby will burst in your room if you remove this piece of software.
However, if you remove this piece of software AND if you print counterfeit money, then it's perfectly clear that you WANTED to counterfeit, and you'll go to jail.
This piece of software is here to prevent "accidental" counterfeiting.
It's a good compromise : by default, you can't print bills. If you know what you're doing (ie the bill you want to print is REALLY legal), you can hack the software, and do it. The only thing you can't do is have your wife/kid/husband/whatever print two 5$ bill for printing invation card, only to discover that one guest gave the bill to grocery, and police is here to get your butt in jail.
As long as it is not a crime to bypass the software, I really fail to see the problem.
Basically, it's the government equivalent of OpenBSD : by default, you can't do much, and if you take action, you can do whatever you want, including shooting yourself in the foot.
This is a genuine question : how is it a bad thing ?
:
For me, that means two things
1) if you want to do some parody bill, well, you'll still can, you'll just have to make sure that even from far it looks like parody.
2) 15 years old kids that get drunk for the first time and think that it is a good idea to make some cheap bill to get that coke free won't go 15 years in jail.
This thing just means that if you want to make false money, you'll have to dig a little bit. And if you do, it's clear that you wanted to counterfeit, and you'll go to jail. On the other hand, some kid won't be able to pool a cheap prank that can get him in serious troubles. Good chances are that he'll think "hey, if i've got to go to www.falsemoney.ze, maybe the police/secret service/whatever will notice, so maybe I shouldn't".
Remember, this thing is not, has never been, and will never be to deter mafias from counterfeiting. It's just to make it hard enough for Joe Schmoe that he has to think about his actions, and then decide that it would be stupid to risk 15 years for a prank.
Let me tell you why your solution is in no way interchangeable with this advancement.
My mother has Parkinson's. When she was born, nobody took some stem cells. With this advance, she has some real hope to get healthier. And, believe me, this hope is so rare with such disease.
And it's not just Parkinson. There are millions of people that are ill (of neurone-dying desease), from which nobody took stem cells at birth, and who can now hope to get healthier.
This is really great news.
So, basically, in order to avoid being seen as some psycho by a few students, he looks like an asshole to the whole world.
This slashdot publicity should really help him regain his reputation !
Well, yes and no.
In theory, a non-outsourced developer can do the same mistake. But there is something important called relationship and trust.
If a developer is in-house, if he has talked to clients, project manager, if he had be given a lecture on how the data is sensitive, you can bet that this developer will not mistakenly post that data on the web. Sure he can be corrupted, but that's not what happened here.
On the other hand, if some code-monkey receives some coding to do for an unknown company, in an unknown place, for an unknown application, and he is given a set of data not knowning what it is, then he might publish his data without knowning what he is doing.
The "outsource" stuff is important, not because of some "save jobs" issue, but because it implies the developer should never had received this data in the first place.
If some company/government entity outsources some programming job, it should give said developers only fake datas. And administration jobs with access to the real datas should be done by trusted guys.
I am really curious to see how many people will fall for that blatent election whoring.
This sounds very much like some "let's do like we did in those old good days, where we were so happy and we sent people to the moon". Never mind that those days were not so sweet, memory blurs the bad stuff.
I am not american, but should I be one, I would prefer a future candidate to speak about the big balance problem rather than some funky imaginary mission to mars. Specially since it's not the first time a US president smokes some crack, tells people "we go to mars", then do squat. Who did that first, Reagan, Bush Sr ?
I would like to believe that this sort of stupid blatant election whoring only happens in a corrupt democracy like the USA has become, but hey, democracies in Europe are as corrupts. And even if they don't speak about Mars, Europe's policians are very good too with election whoring.
Damn it, I'm ashamed that democracies have come this low. Chirac declaring war on unemployment, Bush talking about Mars, Blair struggling with public opinion about his lies, is there still a country where candidates are serious and not stupid whores ? They look like fools trying to get the Lie Of The Day that will make them more popular with some uninformed and unintereted elector.
Are we so dumb that we let our democracies become that ?
I really feel insulted when they try tricks like the three mentionned do.
Here is a quick and dirty translation of the link given by parent, since it's in French.
...). Having bought a CD that can't be read everywhere means by this decision that you are entitled to a refund.
CD copy protection condamned.
TGI, Nanterre, 2003/09/02
(TGI is Tribunal de Grande Instance, the french court for those cases)
Facts
Due to "plaintes" (basically people complaining and/or filling suit) on the impossibility to play some CD on certain car cd players, the UFC-Que Choisir association (UFC is an association created to defend custumers) filled suit against EMI Music France, producer of said CD.
Decision
The Tribunal of Nanterre accepted UFC's complain. Juges looked at the juridic's "vice cache". "The 'vice cache' is the delivery of a merchandise that looks correct in respect with displayed properties, but contains an anomaly that restrains its usage".
It has been demonstrated by the court that the litigeous CD was not working properly on every player. "This anomaly restricts the normal utilisation and thus consitute a 'vice cache' in the sense of Article 1641".
Commentary
Court's decision shows the contradiction between rights of custumers and copyright holders.
Copyright holders have the legal right to put copy protection mechanism. Article 6 of EU-Directive of 2001/05/22, which should be translated in French law by 2002/12/22 sets the juridical framework of copy protection mechanisms. But, this right must not contradict rights of custumers. In this case, it was the custumer's right to listen to his CD on any player (car player, computer CDROM,
In a similar but hypothetical situation, the presence of copy protection mechanisms can interfer with the custumer's right to make private backups. Such a right is written in French law, by Article L 122-5 of French's copyright code. The conciliation of this copy protection mechanisms and of the right of the custumer to backup is actually a hot debate.
It should be noted that the Court of Nanterre has already condamned EMI Music France, in June 2003. EMI was tried and condamned at that time for mascadaring sold product. This is illegal as of Article L 213-1.
End of translation.
So, in France, EMI has been tried twice already, and was condamned by the courts twice. Looks like this copy protected CD are having a very hard time here in Europe.
Me too, I concluded an agreement with this guy, about my Iron Bar(TM). Whenever I meet him, he lets me beat the hell out of him with my Iron Bar(TM).
Rumours are that I have agreements with other spammers too, they just love my Iron Bar(TM).
Iron Bar(TM), the ultimate solution to construtive talks with spammers.