Well, I just happened to be reading my school's EE and ECE program handbook yesterday, and it just happens to have the IEEE code of ethics in it. I don't know if he's a member of the IEEE, but it wouldn't suprise me if he is. It reads:
We, the members of the IEEE, in recognition of the importance of our technologies in affecting the quality of life throughout the world, and in accepting a personal obligation to our profession, its members and the communities we serve, do hereby commit ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree:
1. to accept responsibility in making engineering decisions consistent with the safety, health and welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public or the environment;
2. to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest whenever possible, and to disclose them to affected parties when they do exist;
3. to be honest and realistic in stating claims or estimates based on available data;
4. to reject bribery in all its forms;
5. to improve the understanding of technology, its appropriate application, and potential consequences;
6. to maintain and improve our technical competence and to undertake technological tasks for others only if qualified by training or experience, or after full disclosure of pertinent limitations;
7. to seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and correct errors, and to credit properly the contributions of others;
8. to treat fairly all persons regardless of such factors as race, religion, gender, disability, age, or national origin;
9. to avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or malicious action;
10. to assist colleagues and co-workers in their professional development and to support them in following this code of ethics.
Approved by the IEEE Board of Directors August 1990
That's Slashdot for you: a story about a video game industry legend turns into a thesis on left-handedness. And completely speculative, too, it's not like Mr. M. himself went on a long rant about how hard it was being left-handed.
Slashdot: Rants by nerds. Stuff we made up.
Quick, somebody make a Simpsons reference so this story's Slashdot quotient will be complete!
But then I'm sure Sun will fly a plane over their headquarters with a banner saying, "Hey Microsoft: WE SHOT JFK. FUCK YOU"
and totally trash the X-Box by comparing it to their high-send servers. "X-Box? Yea, that's what yo' momma does! Try the Sun Fire E20K, it's smaller, cooler and cheaper than that suck-ass X-Box 3-shitty, yo."
And then Scott McNealy's head will explode from the insanity!
He could be on a stage, covered in sweat and jumping up and down. His lines would be,
"DELL!! DELL!! DELL!! DELL!! DELL!! WHOOOOOOOOO!!!! I HAAAATE THAT COMPANY!!!! WHOOOOOOOO!!!!"
Then he can pick up his own feces and start throwing them at a cardboard cutout of Michael Dell.
Or he could give a keynote speech at a convention, and as he's about to leave, turn around, and say, "Oh, one other thing. Dell sucks." and then leave the stunned audience, who are still trying to grasp what he said.
the Constitution is there to establish the powers of a government, of the United States of America. It is *NOT* there to 'give' rights to anyone, foreign or domestic. Therefore the fact that the first sentence is directed at the people of the United States does not deprive or grant any rights to foreigners apart from citizens.
If anything, what that sentence is really saying is, "We the people of the United States are willing to bear the burden of having this government because it will provide us with benefits of liberty and defense".
The rights mentioned in the bill of rights apply to all, because they are not derived from the constitution, but are inalienable and granted by "our creator".
Shit like *this* is why the founders originally did not want to include the things in the Bill of Rights. Too many people seem to think the constitution is a document that's there to "provide them with rights".
and yes, it is against law to go against a treaty that has been ratified and signed. Constitution Article 6, "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."
I just have to respond to this. My LUG, the Group of Linux Users, Memphis, is currently trying to set up some computers at a local church with about 50 survivors, to use as a web terminal to find services, contact relatives, etc.
We are using Knoppix because it's easy to set up, doesn't require as much maintenence, and we don't have to worry about people installing stuff. Of course this rules out IE, so we are using FireFox.
Thankfully, the FEMA page actually renders in FireFox properly once you have it fake the UserAgent string, but it's ridiculous that we have to do this.
So that's at least 50 people that could have been affected by this, and we're only in Memphis, where about 10,000 people have come from the gulf region. There are undoubtedly many more in Memphis itself who can only contact FEMA over the web, and tens of thousands all over the south.
It's not really reasonable that FEMA be able to handle millions of call in such a short period, but it is reasonable to ask that their web page follow web standards, not to mention Federal regulations about accesibility. Especially since they seem to be going out of their way to block non-IE 6 browsers.
So this is not a show-stopper for us, but one more hurdle. We have to worry about which gov't services require IE and which ones follow their own goddamn regs.
Wow, that is really creepy. For those wondering, the big ride on the upper right is a huge wooden coaster, which was very rickety and thrilling.
From the top, just before the plunge, I could see the big white building with the NASA logo in the distance. I remember thinking, "Oh cool", and then falling into sheer terror as the coaster began its plunge.
The big area in the center used to be a pond where people used to ride boats. There were lots of koi and other fish in there, I guess they're scattered everywhere now. The straight white thing next to the center used to be a bungee ride that took you over the water. I guess I won't get a chance to ride that now:P
Apparently the NASA facility where they build the shuttle's fuel tanks has been damaged. Hopefully it is not too bad, but it is very wierd seeing places you have been underwater like this. I know these aren't as important as the people whose lives have been ruined, but it doesn't quite sink in like seeing places where you have such great memories with friends inundated like this.
I don't blame Bush for this, but *someone*, or lots of someones, were asleep at the wheel when this happened.
Dude, I've been taping the news coverage off and on since Monday because I knew it was going to be bad. In fact, I thought the initial storm damage would be worse, though I didn't think the aftermath would devolve into anarchy like this. I was guessing 10,000+ dead, actually.
I thought that because of discussions I'd had with people in my Linux user's group, at least several months ago. These are not metereologists or disaster specialists, but regular intelligent computer geeks. The fact that New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen was common knowledge, or at least an open secret for people who cared to find out.
There had been several close calls in recent years, and the predicted damage had never been light. There was even a time when the main highway out to the west had been closed for repairs when a storm came in, and people saying the casualties could have been in the hundreds of thousands if the storm hadn't missed them.
Any intelligent person could have seen that a hurricane hitting New Orleans would have been pretty bad. The pumps that keep water out of the city have to be constantly operating because otherwise regular rainwater accumulates in the city's levee walls, and there is just enough capacity to deal with heavy rain. A category 5 hurricane hitting them would have been predicted to cause massive flooding even if the levees didn't break, precisely because the levees would have trapped all the rainwater *inside* the city, though it's obviously not as bad as when the levee broke and all the water from the lake flooded in.
Now, I don't blame Bush personally for not knowing all this offhand, but someone - FEMA, DHS, NOAA or the state or city - should have been screaming at Bush to get federal troops and supplies ready to deploy, and he should have been too busy to play the fricking guitar for a photoshoot.
I don't know who's responsible the most for the lack of preparation, but rest assured that this thing will have a investigation like the 9-11 commission, and heads will roll for it.
More modern studies have shown that education, upbringing, and even the availability of abortion (which reduces the number of badly-cared for kids) affects crime rate, intelligence, etc. much more. If race or genetics is a factor, it is apparently much less than other factors.
No, it has not been proven *not* to be a factor. In the same vein, creationism has not been disproven, it has merely been superceded by more plausible theories in the scientific consensus.
Even if he says it isn't about genetic superiority, it's going to be read by many as saying exactly that. It's about as useful as a study that says "Earth really is flat (for very small samples of the surface)".
since when "political correctness" is somehow important or even relevant to the validity of study?
What the fuck does 'political correctness' have to do with it? When a guy goes around espousing theories that were debunked long ago, I tend not to waste my time with it. I don't go around arguing with creationists and flat-earthists, either.
Seriously, whenever some crackpot theory on genetic superiority or inferiority of men/women/Europeans/autistics/geeks/etc. is posted, a bunch of Slashdotters come out of the woodwork to proclaim that this proves they are superior, and anyone questioning them must be politically correct or something.
I suspect this is because the typical Slashdotter feels himself to be superior to others, and thinks this is something innate. These genetic theories only serve to reinforce that, so of course they're popular on Slashdot.
My first impressions are that he's basically an idiot.
I know I should withhold judgement on a scientific study until I've read the methedology and study, but come on - criminal traits genetically inherited? Race-based intelligence studies? This sounds like a classic case of someone who ascribes to genetics what is caused by upbringing and social factors such as education.
Wow, if you think women are treated 'better' because they attract creepy men, you must have some wierd idea of better. How many times have you seen a girl get hit on by her boss/coworker/janitor and thought, 'damn, I wish he was hitting on me'?
I thought so.
No, just because you're not gay doesn't change things - girls have about the same kind of reaction to creepy guys hitting on them as straight guys being hit on, if not worse. At least guys have less worries about rape.
They are not, NOT "civilians."... your attempt to lump them in with the populace dilutes that critical distinction, and endangers the innocents in the latter group.
Look, I know this is Slashdot, and people wander off topic, but you are talking about legal/ethical issues, and he was talking about psychological issues. The topic is about using videogames to treat PTSD, remember?
Let's set aside the rabid anti-war "OMG!! US is sl4ught3ring 3v3ry1! OMG!!!1eleven" stuff.
WTF? Acknowledging that civillians are killed in combat = l337 speak? If you think that's worth belittling like AOLers, maybe you should go play Counter-stike and take it out on people there. Might help with your PSPS - post Slashdot post stress.
My grandpa was going to an engineering school - forgot whether it was HS or college, he was in his teens at the time. He says he remembers thinking the war was lost when his professors told him they were working on making planes out of wood and glue because they were running out of aluminum. This must have been late in the war, early '45 maybe.
Remember that Doolittle's raid was pretty small, smaller than what the Germans had been throwing against the Brits since '40 or the allies against Germany. It was seen (rightly) by the Japanese as a symbolic act, not a real major attack. It wasn't until the B-29s came that they started seriously thinking about an allied invasion.
I'm guessing part of the historical effect the bombing had on the Japanese had to do with how in a short period of time they went from thinking 'our islands are invulnerable to attack' to the mass bombings, evacuations of children to the countryside, and training civillians to desparately resist an allied invasion.
Must agree, my friends who have a PSP say that if you're just interested in games, it's not worth it. The only satisfied friend is one who uses it mostly to watch video while excercising. The quality of video you can see on the PSP is actually quite impressive, that things has the best screen I've seen on a portable device. Considering that it's only a bit higher in price than most personal video players, I would recommend it for video for anyone.
Also, if you like games, check out 'Bleach' if it cdomes out over here. It's a fighting game that's pretty cool, though it controls a bit differently than Capcom or SNK games.
No, it's more like taking really sexy, translucent lingere which lets you see all the important parts that you would drool over if it was on a hot chick, and putting it on the Dell Dude.
In his book "In the beginning was the command line", Neal Stephenson wrote that some newspaper articles would be indecipherable to someone who had lived in a cave for the past 50 years, because it talks about "software", "operating systems", and "windows vs. apples".
Now I am trying to figure out what someone who has lived in a cave since the Eisenhower era would make of this headline, "Honeymonkeys Discover Undisclosed Vulnerability".
1) more people died previously in (single) conventional bomb strikes (firebombings);
My grandpa actually survived the Tokyo firebombing, but I don't have time to go into details...
Some people seem to be wondering why there is so much attention given to the bombs, and not to other bombings or battles, in Japan.
I think there is a similarity between the effects of the nuclear bomb and the attacks on 9-11. Before someone flames me for comparing the two attack's victims, let me explain. The reason the Japanese still talk about those particular attacks more than the Tokyo firebombings is largly psychological. Before the a-bomb, Japan had thought of itself as largly protected from invasion, much as America thought itself far removed from the mideast's politics. The a-bomb is what finally shattered that illusion, and it is because of this shock that it is still remembered. The Tokyo bombings were probobly more significant militarily and casualty-wise, but the a-bombs had a cultural significance far beyond firebombs. It's somewhat like how 9-11 is symbolized by the twin towers being hit, but the Pentagon attack is overlooked because there is no footage of it for the media to display.
The point of the bombs was to show American might and that it would be impossible to resist them; Japan had thought of itself as a 'holy nation' that could withstand any storm, but the Americans unleashed god-like powers with the a-bomb and showed that Japan's nationalist superstitions were no match for American science.
It's for that and other cultural reasons having to do with the surrender that the A-bombs are remembered, though of course the regular bombings are too.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, I just happened to be reading my school's EE and ECE program handbook yesterday, and it just happens to have the IEEE code of ethics in it. I don't know if he's a member of the IEEE, but it wouldn't suprise me if he is. It reads:
We, the members of the IEEE, in recognition of the importance of our technologies in affecting the quality of life throughout the world, and in accepting a personal obligation to our profession, its members and the communities we serve, do hereby commit ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree:
1. to accept responsibility in making engineering decisions consistent with the safety, health and welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public or the environment;
2. to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest whenever possible, and to disclose them to affected parties when they do exist;
3. to be honest and realistic in stating claims or estimates based on available data;
4. to reject bribery in all its forms;
5. to improve the understanding of technology, its appropriate application, and potential consequences;
6. to maintain and improve our technical competence and to undertake technological tasks for others only if qualified by training or experience, or after full disclosure of pertinent limitations;
7. to seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and correct errors, and to credit properly the contributions of others;
8. to treat fairly all persons regardless of such factors as race, religion, gender, disability, age, or national origin;
9. to avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or malicious action;
10. to assist colleagues and co-workers in their professional development and to support them in following this code of ethics.
Approved by the IEEE Board of Directors
August 1990
That's Slashdot for you: a story about a video game industry legend turns into a thesis on left-handedness. And completely speculative, too, it's not like Mr. M. himself went on a long rant about how hard it was being left-handed.
Slashdot: Rants by nerds. Stuff we made up.
Quick, somebody make a Simpsons reference so this story's Slashdot quotient will be complete!
You think that's bad?
:(
I bought a GameCube, and it was exactly 63 worse than my old N64
But then I'm sure Sun will fly a plane over their headquarters with a banner saying, "Hey Microsoft: WE SHOT JFK. FUCK YOU"
and totally trash the X-Box by comparing it to their high-send servers. "X-Box? Yea, that's what yo' momma does! Try the Sun Fire E20K, it's smaller, cooler and cheaper than that suck-ass X-Box 3-shitty, yo."
And then Scott McNealy's head will explode from the insanity!
Also, Scott McNealy could star in a few ads.
He could be on a stage, covered in sweat and jumping up and down. His lines would be,
"DELL!! DELL!! DELL!! DELL!! DELL!! WHOOOOOOOOO!!!! I HAAAATE THAT COMPANY!!!! WHOOOOOOOO!!!!"
Then he can pick up his own feces and start throwing them at a cardboard cutout of Michael Dell.
Or he could give a keynote speech at a convention, and as he's about to leave, turn around, and say, "Oh, one other thing. Dell sucks." and then leave the stunned audience, who are still trying to grasp what he said.
The ironic part is, that's not even a real quote.
No, really.
Trust me, I'm a poster on Slashdot.
Hey uneducated fuckwad,
the Constitution is there to establish the powers of a government, of the United States of America. It is *NOT* there to 'give' rights to anyone, foreign or domestic. Therefore the fact that the first sentence is directed at the people of the United States does not deprive or grant any rights to foreigners apart from citizens.
If anything, what that sentence is really saying is, "We the people of the United States are willing to bear the burden of having this government because it will provide us with benefits of liberty and defense".
The rights mentioned in the bill of rights apply to all, because they are not derived from the constitution, but are inalienable and granted by "our creator".
Shit like *this* is why the founders originally did not want to include the things in the Bill of Rights. Too many people seem to think the constitution is a document that's there to "provide them with rights".
and yes, it is against law to go against a treaty that has been ratified and signed. Constitution Article 6, "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."
I just have to respond to this. My LUG, the Group of Linux Users, Memphis, is currently trying to set up some computers at a local church with about 50 survivors, to use as a web terminal to find services, contact relatives, etc.
We are using Knoppix because it's easy to set up, doesn't require as much maintenence, and we don't have to worry about people installing stuff. Of course this rules out IE, so we are using FireFox.
Thankfully, the FEMA page actually renders in FireFox properly once you have it fake the UserAgent string, but it's ridiculous that we have to do this.
So that's at least 50 people that could have been affected by this, and we're only in Memphis, where about 10,000 people have come from the gulf region. There are undoubtedly many more in Memphis itself who can only contact FEMA over the web, and tens of thousands all over the south.
It's not really reasonable that FEMA be able to handle millions of call in such a short period, but it is reasonable to ask that their web page follow web standards, not to mention Federal regulations about accesibility. Especially since they seem to be going out of their way to block non-IE 6 browsers.
So this is not a show-stopper for us, but one more hurdle. We have to worry about which gov't services require IE and which ones follow their own goddamn regs.
Don't worry, I'm sure Superman will save us! Or not.
Wow, that is really creepy. For those wondering, the big ride on the upper right is a huge wooden coaster, which was very rickety and thrilling.
:P
From the top, just before the plunge, I could see the big white building with the NASA logo in the distance. I remember thinking, "Oh cool", and then falling into sheer terror as the coaster began its plunge.
The big area in the center used to be a pond where people used to ride boats. There were lots of koi and other fish in there, I guess they're scattered everywhere now. The straight white thing next to the center used to be a bungee ride that took you over the water. I guess I won't get a chance to ride that now
Apparently the NASA facility where they build the shuttle's fuel tanks has been damaged. Hopefully it is not too bad, but it is very wierd seeing places you have been underwater like this. I know these aren't as important as the people whose lives have been ruined, but it doesn't quite sink in like seeing places where you have such great memories with friends inundated like this.
Well, he'll have no trouble running his methane power plant now, will he? Free fuel in the streets!
Stay tuned for an encore presentation of Mad Max: Beyond Superdome. Twenty thousand enter, one city leaves!
I don't blame Bush for this, but *someone*, or lots of someones, were asleep at the wheel when this happened.
Dude, I've been taping the news coverage off and on since Monday because I knew it was going to be bad. In fact, I thought the initial storm damage would be worse, though I didn't think the aftermath would devolve into anarchy like this. I was guessing 10,000+ dead, actually.
I thought that because of discussions I'd had with people in my Linux user's group, at least several months ago. These are not metereologists or disaster specialists, but regular intelligent computer geeks. The fact that New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen was common knowledge, or at least an open secret for people who cared to find out.
There had been several close calls in recent years, and the predicted damage had never been light. There was even a time when the main highway out to the west had been closed for repairs when a storm came in, and people saying the casualties could have been in the hundreds of thousands if the storm hadn't missed them.
Any intelligent person could have seen that a hurricane hitting New Orleans would have been pretty bad. The pumps that keep water out of the city have to be constantly operating because otherwise regular rainwater accumulates in the city's levee walls, and there is just enough capacity to deal with heavy rain. A category 5 hurricane hitting them would have been predicted to cause massive flooding even if the levees didn't break, precisely because the levees would have trapped all the rainwater *inside* the city, though it's obviously not as bad as when the levee broke and all the water from the lake flooded in.
Now, I don't blame Bush personally for not knowing all this offhand, but someone - FEMA, DHS, NOAA or the state or city - should have been screaming at Bush to get federal troops and supplies ready to deploy, and he should have been too busy to play the fricking guitar for a photoshoot.
I don't know who's responsible the most for the lack of preparation, but rest assured that this thing will have a investigation like the 9-11 commission, and heads will roll for it.
More modern studies have shown that education, upbringing, and even the availability of abortion (which reduces the number of badly-cared for kids) affects crime rate, intelligence, etc. much more. If race or genetics is a factor, it is apparently much less than other factors.
No, it has not been proven *not* to be a factor. In the same vein, creationism has not been disproven, it has merely been superceded by more plausible theories in the scientific consensus.
Even if he says it isn't about genetic superiority, it's going to be read by many as saying exactly that. It's about as useful as a study that says "Earth really is flat (for very small samples of the surface)".
since when "political correctness" is somehow important or even relevant to the validity of study?
What the fuck does 'political correctness' have to do with it? When a guy goes around espousing theories that were debunked long ago, I tend not to waste my time with it. I don't go around arguing with creationists and flat-earthists, either.
Seriously, whenever some crackpot theory on genetic superiority or inferiority of men/women/Europeans/autistics/geeks/etc. is posted, a bunch of Slashdotters come out of the woodwork to proclaim that this proves they are superior, and anyone questioning them must be politically correct or something.
I suspect this is because the typical Slashdotter feels himself to be superior to others, and thinks this is something innate. These genetic theories only serve to reinforce that, so of course they're popular on Slashdot.
My first impressions are that he's basically an idiot.
I know I should withhold judgement on a scientific study until I've read the methedology and study, but come on - criminal traits genetically inherited? Race-based intelligence studies? This sounds like a classic case of someone who ascribes to genetics what is caused by upbringing and social factors such as education.
I thought we were past all this crap, along with Eugenics, Phrenology and other biological determinist pseudoscience.
He will have to come up with some damn good evidence if he wants to convince me of such ideas.
Wow, if you think women are treated 'better' because they attract creepy men, you must have some wierd idea of better. How many times have you seen a girl get hit on by her boss/coworker/janitor and thought, 'damn, I wish he was hitting on me'?
I thought so.
No, just because you're not gay doesn't change things - girls have about the same kind of reaction to creepy guys hitting on them as straight guys being hit on, if not worse. At least guys have less worries about rape.
Sneaky Hobbittesses, afters my preciousss CAD worksstationssss...
They are not, NOT "civilians." ... your attempt to lump them in with the populace dilutes that critical distinction, and endangers the innocents in the latter group.
Look, I know this is Slashdot, and people wander off topic, but you are talking about legal/ethical issues, and he was talking about psychological issues. The topic is about using videogames to treat PTSD, remember?
Let's set aside the rabid anti-war "OMG!! US is sl4ught3ring 3v3ry1! OMG!!!1eleven" stuff.
WTF? Acknowledging that civillians are killed in combat = l337 speak? If you think that's worth belittling like AOLers, maybe you should go play Counter-stike and take it out on people there. Might help with your PSPS - post Slashdot post stress.
See, he should have just done the usual, and made two camps, Foobar Enterprise Camp, and Foobar Core Camp.
One would be the professional thing, and the other would be the one where all the bozos go.
I swear I'm not a bitter Debianite or anything : )
My grandpa was going to an engineering school - forgot whether it was HS or college, he was in his teens at the time. He says he remembers thinking the war was lost when his professors told him they were working on making planes out of wood and glue because they were running out of aluminum. This must have been late in the war, early '45 maybe.
Remember that Doolittle's raid was pretty small, smaller than what the Germans had been throwing against the Brits since '40 or the allies against Germany. It was seen (rightly) by the Japanese as a symbolic act, not a real major attack. It wasn't until the B-29s came that they started seriously thinking about an allied invasion.
I'm guessing part of the historical effect the bombing had on the Japanese had to do with how in a short period of time they went from thinking 'our islands are invulnerable to attack' to the mass bombings, evacuations of children to the countryside, and training civillians to desparately resist an allied invasion.
Must agree, my friends who have a PSP say that if you're just interested in games, it's not worth it. The only satisfied friend is one who uses it mostly to watch video while excercising. The quality of video you can see on the PSP is actually quite impressive, that things has the best screen I've seen on a portable device. Considering that it's only a bit higher in price than most personal video players, I would recommend it for video for anyone.
Also, if you like games, check out 'Bleach' if it cdomes out over here. It's a fighting game that's pretty cool, though it controls a bit differently than Capcom or SNK games.
No, it's more like taking really sexy, translucent lingere which lets you see all the important parts that you would drool over if it was on a hot chick, and putting it on the Dell Dude.
*pause for image*
"Dude, you're getting a dick!"
In his book "In the beginning was the command line", Neal Stephenson wrote that some newspaper articles would be indecipherable to someone who had lived in a cave for the past 50 years, because it talks about "software", "operating systems", and "windows vs. apples".
Now I am trying to figure out what someone who has lived in a cave since the Eisenhower era would make of this headline, "Honeymonkeys Discover Undisclosed Vulnerability".
"Honey... monkey? Vulnerability? Undisclosed? uuuuh?" *HEAD EXPLODES*
(Full text of In the Beginning... is on Stephenson's site)
Scenes from a future court:
IP Lawyer: "And where did the Nvidia driver touch you, Linux? Was it... your private interfaces?"
Linux: "I... I don't want to..."
IP Lawyer: "It's okay, Linux, it's okay... here, show us on this Tux plushie where the bad Nvidia driver touched you."
1) more people died previously in (single) conventional bomb strikes (firebombings);
My grandpa actually survived the Tokyo firebombing, but I don't have time to go into details...
Some people seem to be wondering why there is so much attention given to the bombs, and not to other bombings or battles, in Japan.
I think there is a similarity between the effects of the nuclear bomb and the attacks on 9-11. Before someone flames me for comparing the two attack's victims, let me explain. The reason the Japanese still talk about those particular attacks more than the Tokyo firebombings is largly psychological. Before the a-bomb, Japan had thought of itself as largly protected from invasion, much as America thought itself far removed from the mideast's politics. The a-bomb is what finally shattered that illusion, and it is because of this shock that it is still remembered. The Tokyo bombings were probobly more significant militarily and casualty-wise, but the a-bombs had a cultural significance far beyond firebombs. It's somewhat like how 9-11 is symbolized by the twin towers being hit, but the Pentagon attack is overlooked because there is no footage of it for the media to display.
The point of the bombs was to show American might and that it would be impossible to resist them; Japan had thought of itself as a 'holy nation' that could withstand any storm, but the Americans unleashed god-like powers with the a-bomb and showed that Japan's nationalist superstitions were no match for American science.
It's for that and other cultural reasons having to do with the surrender that the A-bombs are remembered, though of course the regular bombings are too.