LOL. Why is this flamebait? Not like most Yanks would know (Wish I could find a link to the video on YouTube with the Yanks identifying Australia as France...).
Previous revisions of Flash Player for Linux preformed very poorly compared to the win32 versions (even the win32 verison in crossover office did a better job).
Yeah, Tinic ranted about that on his blog a while ago, saying he used wine for Flash on Linux (before v9, obviously) -- and he's a FlashPlayer engineer. His entry about this beta release addresses performance. He says he's not happy with the current state of font rendering speed yet, but that it beats the Windows version by 20% with other stuff. They're still working on it.
Over all, you should see better performance of existing content, thanks to the new rendering engine introduced in v8. This is especially true for SWFs (competently) written for v8 and using cacheAsBitmap -- not rerendering vectors every frame seems to improve performance. Who would have thought...
The second performance increase will probably take a while to become common: FP9 comes with a new, JIT compiled VM. The old one is still included for backwards compatibility, but once FP9 has a good install base and is supported by developers making scripting-heavy stuff, you should definitely notice the performance increase -- it's much, much faster.
If somebody feels like playing with it, there's the free (beer) Flex SDK on the Adobe site somewhere. However, I'd like to recommend haXe, a Free (capital F) compiler for a very fine language, with a great type system, that I really enjoy coding in. It supports Flash 6 to 9, the Free NekoVM, and can generate JavaScript (Yes! Typed!). Windows users can use the FlashDevelopplugin, for the rest of us there's Eclipse with EHX.
Rapid results for election commentary on cable news.
But that takes all the fun out of it. I actually like exit polls, projections and so on. I get all excited when they say they have a new extrapolation based on the latest results. I enjoy watching a tight race for hours. I hate watching sports, but just have a thing for bar graphs and politics.
Yeah but I highly doubt many Europeans believe such rights are immutable.
Oh, we do. Our (German) constitution even has mechanisms that make parts of it, namely the very beginning where the rights are specified, unchangeable. So, limiting these rights would require not to change the constitution, but to replace or void it, in which case the population has a constitutional right to resistance. (Of course that right would be granted by a constitution which would then be no longer enforced, but it would still serve as a legal and philosophical basis to justify support for armed rebellion, both for civil servants and the military, who swear an oath on the constitution.)
Certainly in the US our courts decide in a pragmatic way how to solve issues where rights conflict. However at the same time these rights are in some sense our natural rights. We are giving up some rights for the sake of society and security. And for some they feel they are stripped away of such rights unfairly.
It's exactly the same here. Only, your First Amendment prohibits Congress from passing laws limiting Free Speech, while our (again: German) Basic Law's Article One gives Human Dignity the top priority, and a later article guarantees a "special protection" for minorities. When these rights clash, like with Freedom of Expression or the prohibition of cencorship, the courts decide just like they would in the US -- not by automaticall ruling in favour of one or the other, but by weighting them against each other.
Yes from the eyes of a European but to a typical American it is more seen along the lines of good vs evil. There is no room for debate.
True, and this Good vs Evil thing is what most Europeans would say is what distincts Americans from us. "They see everything as Black and White."
In American politics it is a different philosophy, rights come from nature (or God). In Europe rights come from social institutions and society.
I think you forget that this philosophy has its roots in Europe. But you're right that the emphasis of institutions and society is stronger. It's not where our rights come from, just like in the US they are seen as natural, but it's what enforces those rights. In this Europeans go further than Americans, by demanding rights to shelter, food and medical attention from the state as well -- so, yes, this is a stronger emphasis on society vs the individual.
You have to understand that this concept is very hard for Americans to wrap their head around. Americans tend to think in absolutes. It stems from our deeply religious past but also that our founding fathers believed in "natural rights"; there are certain "inalienable" rights that exist independent of our human institutions. This belief motivated the framers of our Constitution to codify these rights in the Bill of Rights.
I don't think we really see it that differently in Europe. It's just that where these rights conflict, like here Freedom of Speech and Human Dignity or the Right to Live, the priorities are different in some rare cases ("Hate Speech" really is the only one I can think of).
So when you say something like "well it's up to society to determine what are rights and what should be prohibited" simply does not compute to most Americans. Our rights are our rights by some "divine right" and not to be determined by the whims of society.
But it seems like society does that all the time. I'd say that with Sex and Drugs, you're generally better off in Europe. In Germany we don't have a general speed limit. We're allowed beer at 16. You can say swear words and show nudity on TV. There are several parties you can vote for to represent you in parliament...
From an outside perspective, it seems there are parts of US society which have a huge influence on what must be considered, if not illegal, then at least political or commercial suicide.
Maybe you are not aware, but there is no free speech in Europe, at least not like in the US. It is not uncommon to get in trouble for written text or speech.
It is very uncommon to get in trouble for written text or speech. To get in trouble, what you say or write must have the potential to cause violence against minorities.
The reason is of course the Nazi history, which led to a stronger emphasis of the protection of an individual's dignity and safety.
However, there was an interesting verdict in Germany recently, where public display of anti-constitutional symbols (read: the swastika, SS runes or similar) is illegal except for educational or artistic purposes. The owner of a mail-order shop was fined 3600 euros for selling anti-nazi items that contained the swastika (crossed out, thrown in a trash can, etc). The court ruled it was commercial distribution of an anti-constitutional symbol. Reactions to the verdict were between disbelieve and outrage and the Minister of Justice suggested that if the verdict holds, the law would have to be changed.
If you read the article, it talks about child pornography as well, so I do not say it was unfair in this case.
See, and that's quite a similar thing. One could argue child pornography was freedom of expression, at least as long as the children weren't harmed. But luckily, society has agreed on giving the protection of children a higher priority than pedophiles' "right" to look at such material. Similarly, European societies have agreed on giving the protection of minorities a higher priority than racists' "right" to express their hatred against them -- because last time we didn't, it didn't turn out well.
What a society deems acceptable, or what it considers an individual's fundamental right, is based on it's culture and historic experience. Europe's history was very violent, with millions brutally murdered by the Nazis out of hatred against political, religious and racial minorities. That this experience had an effect on its culture can't come as a surprise to anyone. That this is reflected in its laws is only natural, especially since these laws have been written directly after WW II.
Likewise, what US society sees as its fundamental rights, like "unlimited" Free Speech (which really isn't unlimited at all), or the "right" to bear arms, has its roots in the experience of King George's reign. Its strong Christian roots, on the other hand, have resulted in laws against sexual expression which most Europeans would find utterly ridiculous, like that you're not allowed to sell penis shaped vibrators in Texas and that you have to pretend dildos are to educate about proper condom use.
There is an open reference by the sswf author, there is swfmill which supports almost all tags up to Flash 8, flasm which supports all action tags for the old VM (up to Flash 8) and haXe which can compile for both the old and the new one (plus, btw, it's a very nice language which can also generate JavaScript and Neko for the open source, JIT-compiling NekoVM). The player would have to support some proprietary protocols (e.g., to stream videos), for code see red5. And of course there's Gnash.
That's just to name a few, there are others. There is plenty of code out there to generate and modify content, the official specification isn't needed for a player.
You refer to the Kyoto protocol? The treaty that hasn't actaully changed the emissions output by any signing countries but has cost them oodles of money? Yeah, the US sure missed the boat on that one... They could have made a difference
I don't know where you have heard that, but it's definitely not true. Granted, by 2003 the EU15 only managed to achieve 1.7% out of the pledged 8% by 2010, but major economies like Germany are on their way (18.5% out of 21%) or already have met their goal like the UK (13.3% out of 12.5%). In the same timeframe, the US gained 13.3%.
Source here.
How do these Germans know so much about the atomic nucleus? Did Neils Bohr leave them a working model or something? The German contribution to nuclear physics seems really disproprtionate to their actual population. Is there something unusually German about the model they committed us all to when they kicked off the science in the 1800s?
I'm not sure about the proportionality to the population, 82mn actually is one of the larger populations, and that Bohr was Danish has been mentioned already. Also, I don't have the impression that there is a lot of nuclear research coming from Germany these days. A century ago, yes, curtesy of a few bright minds coming together, but nowadays it seems pretty leveled.
Nuclear Physics isn't something that seems like a promising career path in Germany today. The first reactors have been switched off already, others will follow. Their operational time might get extended beyond the current deadline, depending on the political climate, but I doubt there will be any new ones built (of course, that doesn't mean German companies can't built nuclear reactors in other countries -- they do). Maybe, since we don't put any efforts into, shall we say, "Nuclear Appliances for Military Use", there is more scientific capacity for civil research. Maybe it's a side effect of the chemical industry, which is quite strong over here. Or that our chancellor not only can pronounce "nuclear" but also knows what it means (she's a physicist, about the only thing I like about her).
Then again, AFAIK Germany together with the Netherlands and Brazil is among the only countries with an industrial scale fuel cycle apart from the five original Nuclear Powers, and nuclear safety was one of the dominating domestic issues for about a decade. Finally, its one of those things government funded research is needed because it's basic research without apparent specific commercial applications interesting for private companies.
In any case, considering the condition our universities are in, that question probably won't be asked a couple of years from now.
Why is it that I rarely read comments like the parent post from outside the US and people convinced we're in a holy war?
The former: resignation, the latter takes a bit longer to explain:
The US is, compared to any other western society, extremely religious (that Bush actually used the word "crusade" to refer to the Iraq War didn't exactly help, either). Granted, there are quite religious countries in Europe, too (Poland, Ireland and Italy), but not to the same extend, and they seem to be more successful separating it from politics.
You can compare survey data of various aspects of life between countries, and you will find that religion is not as important in Europe as it is in the US. For example, if you look at the results of the question "How important is god in your life?" for the US, Iran, and secular European countries like France or Germany ("Old Europe") the US' relative similarity to Iran, compared to Europe, is striking (sorry, no direct link to the graphs is possible, but trust me it's worth the effort).
I also found a poll that said 45% of Americans believe in the biblical creation, 38% in ID creationism, and only 13% that no god had part in it. In a German poll with the same questions the results were 12%/25%/61% (link in German).
The relatively common references to god even by mainstream US politicians, along with the Good/Evil classification, let many things appear religiously motivated, even if not intended. I assume those Americans that don't share the mainstream's religiousity perceive that rhetoric as as frightening as I do.
When there's a culture that believes westerners are the devil, peaceful integration is very difficult to accomplish.
Well, bombing them probably doesn't help making them see us in a more positive light, either.
Peaceful integration is the only way. You can't force somebody to share your believes.
[Bush] had a very difficult decision to make. He could either let things continue to happen organically and knowingly face more 9/11 incidents or he could make a desperate attempt to speed up the integration.
The key to preventing "more 9/11 incidents" lies in understanding the terrorists' motivation. The US' military presence in the Middle East, along with the support for oppressive regimes as in Saudi Arabia and what is seen as agressive Israeli politics/military actions, is a major factor.
I'd like to expand on Iraq in particular because it seems to bring out the most cynical of viewpoints. There are so many people blaming us for the current state of Iraq. I can understand blaming us for Iraq no longer being under Saddam's control and therefore introducing freedoms that the people never had. Nobody seems to want to put any responsibility on the Iraqis themselves.
The US chose to attack Iraq, and as the occupying power carries the responsibility to provide security for the parts of the population not taking part in the fighting. The US created a power vacuum and different factions try to fill it -- that was predicted by many people who opposed the war from the very beginning. You can put some of the blame on Jaafari & Co., on the terrorists, or on the insurgency if you believe resistance was unexpected, but not on the Iraqi people as a whole.
They have many more freedoms that they never had before.
That depends. Actually many women, especially in the Shiite south, probably would point out several freedoms they have lost. Saddam was bad, but he was secular (which, incidently, is why the islamists hated him).
Also, elections are not the same a
I don't quite understand it, either, but for other reasons.
About the conservative groups, my guess is that they would prefer to ban porn alltogether, and a.xxx TLD would make it more difficult to demand this because filtering, if wished, would be easy. I don't think porn companies -- at least the serious ones -- even want to get around filters (minors don't have credit cards, and office workers... I don't want to go there, really...). If you look at their sites (uhm... not that I have... a friend told me... *cough*) you will find it is quite common for them to support adult content filters. Since many of them are in the US the current initiative to enforce age checks is a serious threat to their business. A.xxx TLD would help them, IMHO, precisely because of the easy filtering. The argument is about how easy it is for minors to find porn on the web and how effective filters are. Filters that go by the.xxx TLD would obviously be very effective, so it would become possible to say that non-xxx TLD based sites with adult content are required to have age checks while.xxx TLD based ones are not, because browsers could come with an easy to use filter which enables the parents to set up a password that is reqired to be entered to allow.xxx TLD sites for the session.
Don't get me wrong -- I don't like filters and mandatory age checks, either. It's just that I^H my friend doesn't like to pull out his credit card for age verification, but believes that sooner or later mandatory age checks will come. Also, easy filtering for parents is not too bad because it encourages the youth to learn, e.g. to make their own über-porn-surf-thumbstick-Linux system or hidden firefox installation to get around the filter.
If I was to get into the porn business and there was a.xxx TLD, I'd go for it.
From tomorrow? Is it April fools anywhere in the world yet?
Try date -u and you will see that it is in fact April Fool's Day.
Note that April Fool's Day, as defined by the International April Pranksters Association, goes by UTC, not by local time zones. Because IAPA is not widely recognized as an international standards body and many people's problems to understand time zones, this has led to some problems since its introduction in 2002. It is especially uncertain for regional publications, which are reluctant to adopt the new standard because they fear to irritate their audience.
One example is the Hubsborough Gazette, which famously spread confusion on the evening of March 31st, 2004 (EST) when an article claiming that aliens have attacked the Whitehouse appeared on their website. Despite the seemingly obvious nature of the hoax, many believed it and called the authorities or local clergery for guidance. One family even is reported to have spent two weeks in their backyard bunker. Since then, the editor has announced that they will only publish April Fool's articles during the hours when April 1st of their local time zone and UTC overlap, and take down articles afterwards. Many publications have followed their example in the following years.
Slashdot, which serves an international audience, of course sticks to the IAPA standard -- maybe in a (presumably failed) attempt to beat Digg at least once a year.
What is most interesting about this is the flow on effect this technology will have in civilian applications. The military get to do the hard yards, reap the first fruits and eventually the tech will become more price realistic and available for civilian use- safer airliners, trains, cars and so on. Maglev tech has been promised for years, now it looks like it will get some time in the sun.
There already is a commercial Maglev line, from Shanghai to the airport. A few days ago they announced they want to extend it to Hangzhou, in Germany a connection from the Munich airport to the city is planned.
You can watch a video of the Transrapid. There are other systems available, too, like the JR-Maglev.
If you want something futuristic, the Swiss plan to begin building a test track for a Vector Train, a Maglev in a partial vacuum tunnel, in 2020.
It calls itself the People's Republic. You decide which is more of a travesty.
More of a travesty? I don't know. China usually isn't a standard I go by (that was the other point I was trying to make with my post, in case you missed it).
Jackass.
Well, for that I'll give a bonus statistic that also includes absolute figures.
If you're your new to Linux, I'd opt for trying both Unbuntu and Fedora Core, to get a feel for RPM and DPKG based environments). Once your done with that I'd maybe try something like FreeBSD (which is where Gentoo's 'ports' system came from anyway - though there are two primary ways to manage software in FreeBSD).
I switched to Linux a bit more than half a year ago and found Gentoo to be a good way to learn. I considered Ubuntu, but since a housemate is a long time Gentoo user I figured it would be easier to get help from him should I encounter problems if I used it, too. Turned out it wasn't necessary (luckily -- he was gone for a few weeks when I installed), probably because I built a new desktop box and checked every part for good Linux support before I bought.
My experience was very positive, much easier than I had expected. The Gentoo manual really is good. It felt like it took me by the hand, guided me through the installation, and introduced me to my new OS. When I was done I had the feeling to know where everything was and what it was about, not like I was dealing with a blackbox. That said, it was good to have a working system next to me so I could comfortably read the docs in firefox.
Who knows, maybe I was just lucky that I didn't run into problems a quick google couldn't fix (thanks to all those who write howtos for the wiki, btw!). If you want to get started with Linux, spend a weekend with Gentoo and see if it works for you. You should have a reasonable general technical interest, but don't have to be a genius or anything. If everything fails, you can still install Ubuntu and at least learned something on the way.
Germany is just weird with their speech laws. Anything Nazi related is a huge no-no.
And your basis for this statement is...?
I mean, have you ever been to Germany? Read German press? Watched German TV?
You're not allowed to deny the Holocaust in Germany. You're also not allowed to display a swastika if it's not in a historic, educational or art context, i.e. you mustn't raise a nazi flag in front of your house if it's not for, say, a movie set. Some selected nazi symbols, e.g. the SS runes or shouting "Sieg Heil" with a raised arm fall under similar restrictions. You're not allowed to print copies of "Mein Kampf", but that's because the state of Bavaria claims the copyright and doesn't give permission, not because of a specific law.
It's thoroughly tought in school, a common subject of documentaries, magazine articles and movies, and a pretty normal topic in my social environment, which leads me to the conclusion that you have no idea what you're talking about.
Wouldn't people (apart from Germans, or those that speak German) go to bmw.com anyway?
You do realise BMW is a German company and selling a quarter of their cars at home, don't you?
www.bmw.com is a portal, with links to invertor relations and so on. You can get to the country sites from there, and the international site happens to be available in German, but generally, using your local country domain directly will take you to a consumer site, in your langue, with localised pricing. Consumers usually expect a big company to have a local version of their site.
Anyway, this is about search results, not the location bar. Linked sites on bmw.de will simply not show up.
I have a database-driven Flash project coming up, and I can buy Flex if I have a good reason to, but if Laszlo will work it would sure be nice.
Flexbuilder 2 is for Flashplayer 8.5, which is at "prerealese" at the moment. The Linux version is being worked on, but I guess it'll take a while, and then it will take time for users to install it.
In any case, you can download the (Windows-) Beta already and compare.
I used to be a professional Flash geek and I can't tell what the hell Flex is. I dunno if this is an inherited Macromedia name or an Adobe name - probably Macromedia, as I found a lot of their tool names to be cryptic and uninspiring. Blah blah 'rich applications' blah blah blah. Blah blah same hype as 'AJAX' except with Flash wedged in.
So, you don't know what it is but state it's the "same hype as 'AJAX' except with Flash wedged in"?
But Flash has been going down this "platform" route for the past several revisions, with increasingly more annoying UI in the editor for animators - the 5->MX transition threw a bunch of speedbumps right in the middle of the animation workflow, and they seem to be slated to linger forever. I keep hoping the Adobe buyout will mean they actually fix the editor UI to not require about twice the clicks it used to for basic symbol-oriented animation...
If you want to make animations, Flex will disappoint you. There isn't even a timeline. It's targeted at developers, not designers, but yes, it's a Macromedia product.
Personally, I think it's great. The compiler is written in Java, so it works on Linux, too. The next Flashplayer (8.5) has new VM with JIT compiling, and is much, much faster than the old one (they'll skip v8 and are working on a Linux version for 8.5 already).
Yeah, it really depends on the details. DRM could mean it has a Watermark, but no other restrictions. That could potentially cause problems for people exercising the right to a "Private Copy" (that includes copies for friends made from an original) German consumers have, but it would be acceptable, IMHO, if there was a mechanism to ensure protection against physical theft of my storage media of choice (consumer friendly, i.e. not a crypto FS).
If DRM means there is no way to tell if I still will be able to watch it 20 years from now, I'd be willing to pay, say, two or three days worth of the rental price. Finally, if I can't play it on Linux it's of no use to me at all, and I wouldn't even bother downloading if it was free.
In any case, if I can buy a DVD for the same price, guess what I'm going to do...
(gjoe b upssfou, mjlf j ep opx)
The GVU - German Federation Against Copyright Theft, was founded in late 1984 by companies that hold a stake in the German film market. Its members include national subsidiaries of US majors as well as independent companies. suppliers such as post-production and replication companies, as well as national and international industry associations and lobbies. In response to developments in multimedia, the GVU also offers its services to other industries affected by copyright infringements, and interactive software manufacturers/vendors have also joined the GVU as a result.
Slashdot Mirror
LOL. Why is this flamebait? Not like most Yanks would know (Wish I could find a link to the video on YouTube with the Yanks identifying Australia as France...).
Oh, you must be talking about this little gem. There is another good one, too.
Previous revisions of Flash Player for Linux preformed very poorly compared to the win32 versions (even the win32 verison in crossover office did a better job).
Yeah, Tinic ranted about that on his blog a while ago, saying he used wine for Flash on Linux (before v9, obviously) -- and he's a FlashPlayer engineer. His entry about this beta release addresses performance. He says he's not happy with the current state of font rendering speed yet, but that it beats the Windows version by 20% with other stuff. They're still working on it.
Over all, you should see better performance of existing content, thanks to the new rendering engine introduced in v8. This is especially true for SWFs (competently) written for v8 and using cacheAsBitmap -- not rerendering vectors every frame seems to improve performance. Who would have thought...
The second performance increase will probably take a while to become common: FP9 comes with a new, JIT compiled VM. The old one is still included for backwards compatibility, but once FP9 has a good install base and is supported by developers making scripting-heavy stuff, you should definitely notice the performance increase -- it's much, much faster.
If somebody feels like playing with it, there's the free (beer) Flex SDK on the Adobe site somewhere. However, I'd like to recommend haXe, a Free (capital F) compiler for a very fine language, with a great type system, that I really enjoy coding in. It supports Flash 6 to 9, the Free NekoVM, and can generate JavaScript (Yes! Typed!). Windows users can use the FlashDevelop plugin, for the rest of us there's Eclipse with EHX.
1983, actually.
Rapid results for election commentary on cable news.
But that takes all the fun out of it. I actually like exit polls, projections and so on. I get all excited when they say they have a new extrapolation based on the latest results. I enjoy watching a tight race for hours. I hate watching sports, but just have a thing for bar graphs and politics.
Yeah but I highly doubt many Europeans believe such rights are immutable.
Oh, we do. Our (German) constitution even has mechanisms that make parts of it, namely the very beginning where the rights are specified, unchangeable. So, limiting these rights would require not to change the constitution, but to replace or void it, in which case the population has a constitutional right to resistance. (Of course that right would be granted by a constitution which would then be no longer enforced, but it would still serve as a legal and philosophical basis to justify support for armed rebellion, both for civil servants and the military, who swear an oath on the constitution.)
Certainly in the US our courts decide in a pragmatic way how to solve issues where rights conflict. However at the same time these rights are in some sense our natural rights. We are giving up some rights for the sake of society and security. And for some they feel they are stripped away of such rights unfairly.
It's exactly the same here. Only, your First Amendment prohibits Congress from passing laws limiting Free Speech, while our (again: German) Basic Law's Article One gives Human Dignity the top priority, and a later article guarantees a "special protection" for minorities. When these rights clash, like with Freedom of Expression or the prohibition of cencorship, the courts decide just like they would in the US -- not by automaticall ruling in favour of one or the other, but by weighting them against each other.
Yes from the eyes of a European but to a typical American it is more seen along the lines of good vs evil. There is no room for debate.
True, and this Good vs Evil thing is what most Europeans would say is what distincts Americans from us. "They see everything as Black and White."
In American politics it is a different philosophy, rights come from nature (or God). In Europe rights come from social institutions and society.
I think you forget that this philosophy has its roots in Europe. But you're right that the emphasis of institutions and society is stronger. It's not where our rights come from, just like in the US they are seen as natural, but it's what enforces those rights. In this Europeans go further than Americans, by demanding rights to shelter, food and medical attention from the state as well -- so, yes, this is a stronger emphasis on society vs the individual.
You have to understand that this concept is very hard for Americans to wrap their head around. Americans tend to think in absolutes. It stems from our deeply religious past but also that our founding fathers believed in "natural rights"; there are certain "inalienable" rights that exist independent of our human institutions. This belief motivated the framers of our Constitution to codify these rights in the Bill of Rights.
I don't think we really see it that differently in Europe. It's just that where these rights conflict, like here Freedom of Speech and Human Dignity or the Right to Live, the priorities are different in some rare cases ("Hate Speech" really is the only one I can think of).
So when you say something like "well it's up to society to determine what are rights and what should be prohibited" simply does not compute to most Americans. Our rights are our rights by some "divine right" and not to be determined by the whims of society.
But it seems like society does that all the time. I'd say that with Sex and Drugs, you're generally better off in Europe. In Germany we don't have a general speed limit. We're allowed beer at 16. You can say swear words and show nudity on TV. There are several parties you can vote for to represent you in parliament...
From an outside perspective, it seems there are parts of US society which have a huge influence on what must be considered, if not illegal, then at least political or commercial suicide.
It is very uncommon to get in trouble for written text or speech. To get in trouble, what you say or write must have the potential to cause violence against minorities.
The reason is of course the Nazi history, which led to a stronger emphasis of the protection of an individual's dignity and safety.
However, there was an interesting verdict in Germany recently, where public display of anti-constitutional symbols (read: the swastika, SS runes or similar) is illegal except for educational or artistic purposes. The owner of a mail-order shop was fined 3600 euros for selling anti-nazi items that contained the swastika (crossed out, thrown in a trash can, etc). The court ruled it was commercial distribution of an anti-constitutional symbol. Reactions to the verdict were between disbelieve and outrage and the Minister of Justice suggested that if the verdict holds, the law would have to be changed.
If you read the article, it talks about child pornography as well, so I do not say it was unfair in this case.
See, and that's quite a similar thing. One could argue child pornography was freedom of expression, at least as long as the children weren't harmed. But luckily, society has agreed on giving the protection of children a higher priority than pedophiles' "right" to look at such material. Similarly, European societies have agreed on giving the protection of minorities a higher priority than racists' "right" to express their hatred against them -- because last time we didn't, it didn't turn out well.
What a society deems acceptable, or what it considers an individual's fundamental right, is based on it's culture and historic experience. Europe's history was very violent, with millions brutally murdered by the Nazis out of hatred against political, religious and racial minorities. That this experience had an effect on its culture can't come as a surprise to anyone. That this is reflected in its laws is only natural, especially since these laws have been written directly after WW II.
Likewise, what US society sees as its fundamental rights, like "unlimited" Free Speech (which really isn't unlimited at all), or the "right" to bear arms, has its roots in the experience of King George's reign. Its strong Christian roots, on the other hand, have resulted in laws against sexual expression which most Europeans would find utterly ridiculous, like that you're not allowed to sell penis shaped vibrators in Texas and that you have to pretend dildos are to educate about proper condom use.
That's just to name a few, there are others. There is plenty of code out there to generate and modify content, the official specification isn't needed for a player.
I don't know where you have heard that, but it's definitely not true. Granted, by 2003 the EU15 only managed to achieve 1.7% out of the pledged 8% by 2010, but major economies like Germany are on their way (18.5% out of 21%) or already have met their goal like the UK (13.3% out of 12.5%). In the same timeframe, the US gained 13.3%.
Source here.
I'm not sure about the proportionality to the population, 82mn actually is one of the larger populations, and that Bohr was Danish has been mentioned already. Also, I don't have the impression that there is a lot of nuclear research coming from Germany these days. A century ago, yes, curtesy of a few bright minds coming together, but nowadays it seems pretty leveled.
Nuclear Physics isn't something that seems like a promising career path in Germany today. The first reactors have been switched off already, others will follow. Their operational time might get extended beyond the current deadline, depending on the political climate, but I doubt there will be any new ones built (of course, that doesn't mean German companies can't built nuclear reactors in other countries -- they do). Maybe, since we don't put any efforts into, shall we say, "Nuclear Appliances for Military Use", there is more scientific capacity for civil research. Maybe it's a side effect of the chemical industry, which is quite strong over here. Or that our chancellor not only can pronounce "nuclear" but also knows what it means (she's a physicist, about the only thing I like about her).
Then again, AFAIK Germany together with the Netherlands and Brazil is among the only countries with an industrial scale fuel cycle apart from the five original Nuclear Powers, and nuclear safety was one of the dominating domestic issues for about a decade. Finally, its one of those things government funded research is needed because it's basic research without apparent specific commercial applications interesting for private companies.
In any case, considering the condition our universities are in, that question probably won't be asked a couple of years from now.
The former: resignation, the latter takes a bit longer to explain:
The US is, compared to any other western society, extremely religious (that Bush actually used the word "crusade" to refer to the Iraq War didn't exactly help, either). Granted, there are quite religious countries in Europe, too (Poland, Ireland and Italy), but not to the same extend, and they seem to be more successful separating it from politics.
You can compare survey data of various aspects of life between countries, and you will find that religion is not as important in Europe as it is in the US. For example, if you look at the results of the question "How important is god in your life?" for the US, Iran, and secular European countries like France or Germany ("Old Europe") the US' relative similarity to Iran, compared to Europe, is striking (sorry, no direct link to the graphs is possible, but trust me it's worth the effort).
I also found a poll that said 45% of Americans believe in the biblical creation, 38% in ID creationism, and only 13% that no god had part in it. In a German poll with the same questions the results were 12%/25%/61% (link in German).
The relatively common references to god even by mainstream US politicians, along with the Good/Evil classification, let many things appear religiously motivated, even if not intended. I assume those Americans that don't share the mainstream's religiousity perceive that rhetoric as as frightening as I do.
When there's a culture that believes westerners are the devil, peaceful integration is very difficult to accomplish.
Well, bombing them probably doesn't help making them see us in a more positive light, either.
Peaceful integration is the only way. You can't force somebody to share your believes.
[Bush] had a very difficult decision to make. He could either let things continue to happen organically and knowingly face more 9/11 incidents or he could make a desperate attempt to speed up the integration.
The key to preventing "more 9/11 incidents" lies in understanding the terrorists' motivation. The US' military presence in the Middle East, along with the support for oppressive regimes as in Saudi Arabia and what is seen as agressive Israeli politics/military actions, is a major factor.
I'd like to expand on Iraq in particular because it seems to bring out the most cynical of viewpoints. There are so many people blaming us for the current state of Iraq. I can understand blaming us for Iraq no longer being under Saddam's control and therefore introducing freedoms that the people never had. Nobody seems to want to put any responsibility on the Iraqis themselves.
The US chose to attack Iraq, and as the occupying power carries the responsibility to provide security for the parts of the population not taking part in the fighting. The US created a power vacuum and different factions try to fill it -- that was predicted by many people who opposed the war from the very beginning. You can put some of the blame on Jaafari & Co., on the terrorists, or on the insurgency if you believe resistance was unexpected, but not on the Iraqi people as a whole.
They have many more freedoms that they never had before.
That depends. Actually many women, especially in the Shiite south, probably would point out several freedoms they have lost. Saddam was bad, but he was secular (which, incidently, is why the islamists hated him).
Also, elections are not the same a
About the conservative groups, my guess is that they would prefer to ban porn alltogether, and a
Don't get me wrong -- I don't like filters and mandatory age checks, either. It's just that I^H my friend doesn't like to pull out his credit card for age verification, but believes that sooner or later mandatory age checks will come. Also, easy filtering for parents is not too bad because it encourages the youth to learn, e.g. to make their own über-porn-surf-thumbstick-Linux system or hidden firefox installation to get around the filter. .xxx TLD, I'd go for it.
If I was to get into the porn business and there was a
Just use this link instead.
Try date -u and you will see that it is in fact April Fool's Day.
Note that April Fool's Day, as defined by the International April Pranksters Association, goes by UTC, not by local time zones. Because IAPA is not widely recognized as an international standards body and many people's problems to understand time zones, this has led to some problems since its introduction in 2002. It is especially uncertain for regional publications, which are reluctant to adopt the new standard because they fear to irritate their audience.
One example is the Hubsborough Gazette, which famously spread confusion on the evening of March 31st, 2004 (EST) when an article claiming that aliens have attacked the Whitehouse appeared on their website. Despite the seemingly obvious nature of the hoax, many believed it and called the authorities or local clergery for guidance. One family even is reported to have spent two weeks in their backyard bunker. Since then, the editor has announced that they will only publish April Fool's articles during the hours when April 1st of their local time zone and UTC overlap, and take down articles afterwards. Many publications have followed their example in the following years.
Slashdot, which serves an international audience, of course sticks to the IAPA standard -- maybe in a (presumably failed) attempt to beat Digg at least once a year.
There already is a commercial Maglev line, from Shanghai to the airport. A few days ago they announced they want to extend it to Hangzhou, in Germany a connection from the Munich airport to the city is planned.
You can watch a video of the Transrapid. There are other systems available, too, like the JR-Maglev.
If you want something futuristic, the Swiss plan to begin building a test track for a Vector Train, a Maglev in a partial vacuum tunnel, in 2020.
More of a travesty? I don't know. China usually isn't a standard I go by (that was the other point I was trying to make with my post, in case you missed it).
Jackass.
Well, for that I'll give a bonus statistic that also includes absolute figures.
Yeah, but China doesn't call itself "The Land of the Free (TM)".
I switched to Linux a bit more than half a year ago and found Gentoo to be a good way to learn. I considered Ubuntu, but since a housemate is a long time Gentoo user I figured it would be easier to get help from him should I encounter problems if I used it, too. Turned out it wasn't necessary (luckily -- he was gone for a few weeks when I installed), probably because I built a new desktop box and checked every part for good Linux support before I bought.
My experience was very positive, much easier than I had expected. The Gentoo manual really is good. It felt like it took me by the hand, guided me through the installation, and introduced me to my new OS. When I was done I had the feeling to know where everything was and what it was about, not like I was dealing with a blackbox. That said, it was good to have a working system next to me so I could comfortably read the docs in firefox.
Who knows, maybe I was just lucky that I didn't run into problems a quick google couldn't fix (thanks to all those who write howtos for the wiki, btw!). If you want to get started with Linux, spend a weekend with Gentoo and see if it works for you. You should have a reasonable general technical interest, but don't have to be a genius or anything. If everything fails, you can still install Ubuntu and at least learned something on the way.
And your basis for this statement is...?
I mean, have you ever been to Germany? Read German press? Watched German TV?
You're not allowed to deny the Holocaust in Germany. You're also not allowed to display a swastika if it's not in a historic, educational or art context, i.e. you mustn't raise a nazi flag in front of your house if it's not for, say, a movie set. Some selected nazi symbols, e.g. the SS runes or shouting "Sieg Heil" with a raised arm fall under similar restrictions. You're not allowed to print copies of "Mein Kampf", but that's because the state of Bavaria claims the copyright and doesn't give permission, not because of a specific law.
It's thoroughly tought in school, a common subject of documentaries, magazine articles and movies, and a pretty normal topic in my social environment, which leads me to the conclusion that you have no idea what you're talking about.
Try it.
You do realise BMW is a German company and selling a quarter of their cars at home, don't you?
www.bmw.com is a portal, with links to invertor relations and so on. You can get to the country sites from there, and the international site happens to be available in German, but generally, using your local country domain directly will take you to a consumer site, in your langue, with localised pricing. Consumers usually expect a big company to have a local version of their site.
Anyway, this is about search results, not the location bar. Linked sites on bmw.de will simply not show up.
Flexbuilder 2 is for Flashplayer 8.5, which is at "prerealese" at the moment. The Linux version is being worked on, but I guess it'll take a while, and then it will take time for users to install it.
In any case, you can download the (Windows-) Beta already and compare.
So, you don't know what it is but state it's the "same hype as 'AJAX' except with Flash wedged in"?
But Flash has been going down this "platform" route for the past several revisions, with increasingly more annoying UI in the editor for animators - the 5->MX transition threw a bunch of speedbumps right in the middle of the animation workflow, and they seem to be slated to linger forever. I keep hoping the Adobe buyout will mean they actually fix the editor UI to not require about twice the clicks it used to for basic symbol-oriented animation...
If you want to make animations, Flex will disappoint you. There isn't even a timeline. It's targeted at developers, not designers, but yes, it's a Macromedia product.
Personally, I think it's great. The compiler is written in Java, so it works on Linux, too. The next Flashplayer (8.5) has new VM with JIT compiling, and is much, much faster than the old one (they'll skip v8 and are working on a Linux version for 8.5 already).
If DRM means there is no way to tell if I still will be able to watch it 20 years from now, I'd be willing to pay, say, two or three days worth of the rental price. Finally, if I can't play it on Linux it's of no use to me at all, and I wouldn't even bother downloading if it was free.
In any case, if I can buy a DVD for the same price, guess what I'm going to do...
(gjoe b upssfou, mjlf j ep opx)
The GVU - German Federation Against Copyright Theft, was founded in late 1984 by companies that hold a stake in the German film market. Its members include national subsidiaries of US majors as well as independent companies. suppliers such as post-production and replication companies, as well as national and international industry associations and lobbies. In response to developments in multimedia, the GVU also offers its services to other industries affected by copyright infringements, and interactive software manufacturers/vendors have also joined the GVU as a result.