You better hope they have good luck. They're fighting for YOUR right to privacy and more importantly, that the law should be upheld. Even my conservative friends claim they believe firstly that the law is inviolate, so this is hardly even a partisan issue.
EVERY American should be indignant that their rights have been, and continue to be, illegally violated, with impunity. I'm even starting to feel sorry for y'all.
Whatever "lobbying" was being done previously, it seems to have been completely effective. Many countries have signed, without dispute, so-called "free" trade agreements which essentially codify every US-corporate-friendly dream that could be devised by the Bushites - including DMCA-ish and software patent provisions, to speak of 2 issues in the IT area. In non-IT areas, similar capitulations are even worse. Pharmaceuticals, agriculture, all get twisted into poisonous American corporatised pretzels, to pave the way for overpriced patent drugs and monstrosities such as GM products (which should be flat-out illegal anywhere). It's as if the "sovereign" countries didn't even read the agreements, let alone take heed of the public outry that always accompanies them.
It must be so easy for them, when the signatories are Bush-puppet governments such as the Howard government in Australia (thankfully rejected at last) and Harper (which malignancy we should pray is thrown out tomorrow, or at least held safely to a minority).
Let's be honest. "Globalisation" never meant anything more or less than "America buys your stuff cheap, you buy America's stuff dear". The world does not need Wal-Mart, Microsoft, McDonald's, or any other substandard, exploitative American brand. The height of absurdity is Wal-Mart selling rice to Indians. What do the Wal-Marts in China sell? Crappy plastic Chinese crap back to the Chinese? The whole concept is absurd. What is Wal-Mart even doing in Canada?
The ultimate irony is that those tilting the playing field towards the USA, and who would most vehemently deny the insuperable insult to sovereignty that these agreements represent, also claim to believe in a "free market" - the Bushites, the Reaganites, the Friedmanites, the corrupt fuckwads, the ignorant lying Sarah and Todd Palins, the criminal Cons and neo-Cons whose chickens, we hope, are coming home to roost at last. If you're wondering why you're having trouble competing - maybe it's because you're not competitive! Top example - Microsoft can't compete on merit. They have to be anti-competitive; and you betcha they love them some FTA help. Pity they got caught at it.
But perhaps as the world wises the hell up, we finally see some logic in Bush's response: More lobbying. "Bring it on", in the Texan moron's famous catchphrase: Just expect more pushback!
When will everybody figure out that Microsoft has one strategy, one plan, one idea only: LOCK-IN. That's the Alpha and Omega, folks.
Gates' 3rd grade report card: "Does not play nicely with other children. Claimed to have earned $98,126 during the school year by 'monetizing' student notebooks but we decided not to investigate after William installed a new refrigerator and jacuzzi in the staff room. We hope your son will be with us for Grade 4!"
Secrecy is the hallmark of your government. There are good reasons for this. Bush-Cheney would be dangling by piano wire at this moment if the American public could freely see into what they've done and how they did it. (Actually there's more than enough of what we know they've done.)
It's one reason why a Democrat isn't permitted to be elected; Obama-Biden have threatened to prosecute criminal acts under Bush-Cheney. You can bet that puts the fear of god into them. Too many powerful people have too much to lose.
Citizens of other nationalities cannot safely travel to, or stop over, in the US.
(Ask Maher Arar and the several other Canadians who were kidnapped at the border, and sent by US authorities to Syria to be tortured. And they are only the ones we know about.)
And if you did, MySQL would do just fine. Ask Slashdot, Wikipedia, Flickr, Yahoo!, Google, YouTube, US Census, SABRE, Travelocity, Digg, Facebook, Mytrix, LiveJournal, Neopets, Mixi.jp, Linden Labs, SLAC (planning a 10+ PB store) and many other customers (http://www.mysql.com/why-mysql/case-studies/).
Not to mention many of Sun's present and future customers - hence the $1b acquisition.
...Yet remains right wing to those outside the US. Like all of your popular media, CNN falls far short, in questioning government and policy, of what ordinary attention to public interest, and common ethics, would require.
FOX, as we all know, is Murdoch, who murdered mainstream journalistic discourse in Australia and the UK long before he started attacking it in the USA.
"MONOPOLY IS a terrible thing--until you have it." Those were the words of right-wing media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox TV, Fox News, Century Fox studios and the New York Post, among many others media outlets.
... Murdoch sounded as innocent as a lamb when he told the Senate Commerce Committee that relaxing regulations would be a great thing for consumers--and swore that he wasn't about to add to his empire. "I have no plans for anything other than the what I have before you today," said Murdoch--prompting several senators to burst out laughing.
... FCC Chair Reed Hundt warned that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 would allow "a few companies to buy all the radio licenses in the country."
Hundt was right. Since the law passed, Clear Channel Communications has expanded from owning about 40 radio stations in 1995 to approximately 1,200 outlets today--almost 1,000 more than its closest competitor. All told, Clear Channel controls the audience share in 100 of 112 radio markets in the U.S.
Slashdot Mirror
n/t
Going after your criminal Government, do you?
That said, Obama/Biden might. In fact, it's your only chance.
You better hope they have good luck. They're fighting for YOUR right to privacy and more importantly, that the law should be upheld. Even my conservative friends claim they believe firstly that the law is inviolate, so this is hardly even a partisan issue.
EVERY American should be indignant that their rights have been, and continue to be, illegally violated, with impunity. I'm even starting to feel sorry for y'all.
You remember - the unnecessary war of aggression, waged on false pretences, that most people* found abhorrent?
(*counting non-Americans)
You can't beat /.
Miss the memo?
Warrantless surveillance of American domestic communications has been going on for years.
Not only has it been comprehensively abused (to exactly nobody's surprise), the spying infrastructure has no legal reason to exist.
That sinister sound you hear is Nixon laughing at you, wearing a Dick Cheney mask.
That the logical absurdity of the law's intention is neatly summed up in its name.
Which reminds me, how is the good old War on Terror going? Is it time to start the War on Greed yet? What about the War on Absurdity?
Whatever "lobbying" was being done previously, it seems to have been completely effective. Many countries have signed, without dispute, so-called "free" trade agreements which essentially codify every US-corporate-friendly dream that could be devised by the Bushites - including DMCA-ish and software patent provisions, to speak of 2 issues in the IT area. In non-IT areas, similar capitulations are even worse. Pharmaceuticals, agriculture, all get twisted into poisonous American corporatised pretzels, to pave the way for overpriced patent drugs and monstrosities such as GM products (which should be flat-out illegal anywhere). It's as if the "sovereign" countries didn't even read the agreements, let alone take heed of the public outry that always accompanies them.
It must be so easy for them, when the signatories are Bush-puppet governments such as the Howard government in Australia (thankfully rejected at last) and Harper (which malignancy we should pray is thrown out tomorrow, or at least held safely to a minority).
Let's be honest. "Globalisation" never meant anything more or less than "America buys your stuff cheap, you buy America's stuff dear". The world does not need Wal-Mart, Microsoft, McDonald's, or any other substandard, exploitative American brand. The height of absurdity is Wal-Mart selling rice to Indians. What do the Wal-Marts in China sell? Crappy plastic Chinese crap back to the Chinese? The whole concept is absurd. What is Wal-Mart even doing in Canada?
The ultimate irony is that those tilting the playing field towards the USA, and who would most vehemently deny the insuperable insult to sovereignty that these agreements represent, also claim to believe in a "free market" - the Bushites, the Reaganites, the Friedmanites, the corrupt fuckwads, the ignorant lying Sarah and Todd Palins, the criminal Cons and neo-Cons whose chickens, we hope, are coming home to roost at last. If you're wondering why you're having trouble competing - maybe it's because you're not competitive! Top example - Microsoft can't compete on merit. They have to be anti-competitive; and you betcha they love them some FTA help. Pity they got caught at it.
But perhaps as the world wises the hell up, we finally see some logic in Bush's response: More lobbying. "Bring it on", in the Texan moron's famous catchphrase: Just expect more pushback!
But we'd prefer if you'd just Bugger off.
What those fake Internet diplomas were good for.
And that's why they are irrelevant. Totally.
Do you really want to run a Microsoft product, period? Come on, it's 2008, not 1978.
thanks.
When will everybody figure out that Microsoft has one strategy, one plan, one idea only: LOCK-IN. That's the Alpha and Omega, folks.
Gates' 3rd grade report card: "Does not play nicely with other children. Claimed to have earned $98,126 during the school year by 'monetizing' student notebooks but we decided not to investigate after William installed a new refrigerator and jacuzzi in the staff room. We hope your son will be with us for Grade 4!"
Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn't be a plane bomber for quite some time
There is little reason to wait for a 'real' passport when thousands are stolen and forged annually: 3,000 Blank British Passports Stolen
But I agree, the 'liquid bomb' hysteria was ridiculous.
Secrecy is the hallmark of your government. There are good reasons for this. Bush-Cheney would be dangling by piano wire at this moment if the American public could freely see into what they've done and how they did it. (Actually there's more than enough of what we know they've done.)
It's one reason why a Democrat isn't permitted to be elected; Obama-Biden have threatened to prosecute criminal acts under Bush-Cheney. You can bet that puts the fear of god into them. Too many powerful people have too much to lose.
Does anyone intelligent actually believe anything on FOX News anyway? There's an elect-the-Republican angle in here somewhere.
Hmm... Fear? Check. Blame China? Check. I'm sure they'll work Terrorists and Mexicans and the French into this somehow. Blah.
And First/Business always gets metal cutlery (and glassware).
But the O.P. is presumably a US citizen.
Citizens of other nationalities cannot safely travel to, or stop over, in the US.
(Ask Maher Arar and the several other Canadians who were kidnapped at the border, and sent by US authorities to Syria to be tortured. And they are only the ones we know about.)
Don't carry your laptop. Encryption won't help you.
Don't underestimate upcoming transactional engines, specifically Jim Starkey's Falcon (which is nearing readiness), PBXT and future versions of Maria.
Plus the mature InnoDB engine is not going away any time soon.
not everyone needs a multi-terabyte database
And if you did, MySQL would do just fine. Ask Slashdot, Wikipedia, Flickr, Yahoo!, Google, YouTube, US Census, SABRE, Travelocity, Digg, Facebook, Mytrix, LiveJournal, Neopets, Mixi.jp, Linden Labs, SLAC (planning a 10+ PB store) and many other customers (http://www.mysql.com/why-mysql/case-studies/).
Not to mention many of Sun's present and future customers - hence the $1b acquisition.
The Constitution is there for a reason.
Programming Erlang
If we wanted to run crappy Microsoft technologies, we'd just go buy Windows, wouldn't we?
Your precious little synergies (poisonous little stratagems) may please your masters but they don't make Microsoft relevant.
CNN trended left in the early 90's
...Yet remains right wing to those outside the US. Like all of your popular media, CNN falls far short, in questioning government and policy, of what ordinary attention to public interest, and common ethics, would require.
FOX, as we all know, is Murdoch, who murdered mainstream journalistic discourse in Australia and the UK long before he started attacking it in the USA.
None of this is new. Real journalism doesn't get air time in the conglomerates. You still have NPR... for now.