Ah... see I have no experience with either since they don't offer service in my area... My choices are locals or Verizon (with a very very small Sprint footprint not worth mentioning).
It's nice to know other vendors aren't quite so barbaric...
Heck I don't want to take even a basic digital camera hiking, mountain biking, skiing, or anywhere else after I lost my old 3 MP Olympus canoing (water level was to low for several parts of the trip and we managed to tip it... twice due to rocks)... Someone is probably happy at a 'free' camera if anyone ever found the water proof bag it was in...
That said I know people take their Pro cameras everywhere and anywhere... It's all a matter of how important such things are to them and how much they want a picture of 'X'...
I know the difference between RAID/SAN/NAS and can manage a cluster... Though I don't recall off the top of my head what cidr is... My experience however is in Linux/Windows as their are zero places locally to learn true UNIX and it's not really something you can learn at home (well at least not without footing the bill for an outdated server soem company wants to sell off via ebay or some such)...
I have no interest in living in India hwoever, so how about taking someone with related skills and training them in the areas they don't have experience in so you can actually find suitable talent...?
Network admin with 6+ years experience with Windows 2k3, datacenter, and exchange 2003, as well as 10+ years experience in linux (several varients/distributions listed) 10+ years experience in Disaster Recovery Preperation At least a Bacheloer's Degree in Computer Science (or related field) 6+ years experience in Oracle/DB2 5+ years experience with VERITAS 5+ years experience with Terminal Services/Citrix 5+ years in 'end user support' Microsoft Certifications in Exchange, SQL Server, Windows 2k3 Server, Windows XP Desktop A+, Cisco, and preferably Linux certified Preferably fluently speak Spanish as well as english Willing to be on call 24/7
Their is more, but that was taken straight out of a ad for a local company wanting a temporary (6 month) Network Admin... This nearly godlike (as several qualifications mark 6+ year experience in 2003 software, any qualified for this garbage is definately godlike) person would recieve a salary equal to $35k/year (before taxes of course and since the job is for 6 months that's actually $17.5k).
It's all just silly... I meet some of those requirements (10 years with linux, 5 years 'end user support', willing to be on call 24/7, and willing to work for $35k/year), partially meet others (3 years experience with windows server 2k3, datacenter, and exchange 2k3, 2 years experience in Oracle/DB2, and SQL server), and could meet others (I could get my certs given enough money to actually afford taking them all, and VERITAS and Citrix could both be learned given access to them, and since I took 3 years of french given enough time I could probably learn acceptable Spanish). I actually applied for this job speficially tailoring my resume to show it matching their listed needs and implying I could learn anything I wasn't already skilled/experienced in. I got a 'polite' letter explaining that my abilities did not match the job and so I would't be recieving an interview... This same ad has run for 6 months nowas obviously they refuse to take an applicant who can't immediately meet their (unrealistic) demands.
hmm I'm not sure you have that quite right, because I meet almost all of your requirements (minus the first, I attended DeVry for 3 years and then graduated from a tech school rather than go to a 'non-state university) & I still have trouble finding an IT job willign to pay me 25-30k/year...
Now granted I live near the fourth largest city in Pennsylvania (that's Erie btw), which is not known for it's tech industry... But 4 of your five qualifications hasn't helped me at all... Also I've found being black or even latino (though more often indian and I don't mean the native kind) has often helped others looking at the same jobs as me get in where I couldn't (because it fills that companies quota and makes them look 'progressive'). Male or nor doesn't matter... Though if you are a woman they will use it as an excuse to pay you 5k+ less per year... Not sure about the teeth...
Optional #3 is more problematic than you think... At least if you are doing this on a WIndows Home (or Pro machine not on a windows domain network). Why? Because a limited account in windows per SP2 can't even access the CD drive(s)... I went to do this for my SO's computer so her son could have a limited account to play his games on... But the limited user account can't even access the stupid CD drive to let him get by the disc in CD issue all games have these days... God save us from the people stealing copies of Ispy for kids to play on a PC after all... Anyways that one won't work unless your setting up a server using active directory to customize things so they would have access...
The problem with that comes from parents like mine:
* They want to be able to go to the store and buy new software to do task x, y, or/and z * My dad wants to play the occasional Solo FPS (for all that he's nearly 60 he loves the original half-life and doom and plays the newer incarnations... * Want to be able to run software that is often non-Mac compatable (ie my mom gets educational stuff from the state since she works at a day care and it's always been PC only) * occasionally want hardware to do X function (which is often not Mac compatible or supported)
These are all things that Macs just tend to lack in...
That's all without begining to discuss people like one of my clients who I built a PC for (primarily so they could do limited DB stuff like what Access can handle and have TV out to power a small TV)... However after they managed to kill Win XP SP2 within a week (with nearly 6000 Adware/spyware apps running) I insisted they run firefox with adblock/filtersetG, no java, and no script... Only to have them complain that 'web pages didn't look the same' (which wasn't true, just the browser looked different... but they considered it a change in the look of the webpages themselves) and switch back to IE... To which my response was "No more support if it crashes, I'm only supporting the hardware". But I can see sitting them in front of a Mac... "I can't find anything! Webpages don't look the same! Give em back my PC!"
Well the whole $10/lb is pretty much made up from the fact the last time I bought some meat it cost me something like $7... I assumed their was a pound of it.... Which their probably wasn't... It was probably something like $3/lb or $3.5/lb...
I'm far more likely to buy bags of pre-breaded/spiced/etc chicken for the meat in my diet than ground beef... Or any other cow based meats (steaks, ribs, etc)... I'm not much of a cook unles sit can be microwaved (this is a huge understatement, I've burnt mac and cheese) or cooked on a grill... It's probably a really bad thing my girlfriend is almost as bad a cook as I am...
"Hell, I even convinced my not-so-techie brother to pledge and he did. And also consider that we're not from the USA. We're from a part of the world where USD 300 is a higher percentage of our nett income."
Um... Well here is some news for you... I live in the US and make more than minimum wage (I make ~$10/hr, which is considered good where I live) and $300 is just slightly less than 1/3rd my total monthly income... We all don't earn 6 figure salaries just because we live in the US. To put it in perspective: $300 is slightly less than my car payment every month, almost equal to the cost of food for a month (& no that's not really alot of food, 1 lb of ground beef costs nearly $10 so it all adds up really quick), and is less than most peoples rent (average rent being ~$400/month for a very basic apartment).
I barely get by, I don't have the extra cash lying around to spend $300 on a pair of laptops I will never use...
Other AV's work just fine without these tools Symantec and McAfee demand. This is not an issue of MS crowding out a critical component from potential competitors to take market share. This is MS making an attempt to do what they promised (ie secure windows more than they have in the past). Whether I agree with the method MS is taking or not, this has more to do with Symantec and McAfee being whiny brats that refuse to give up 'control' of 'security' to the ones who should have been doign that job in the first place. The compnent they want access to is the layer that provides basic system protection and notification to the user about the systems staus, so they can use their own interface on it with whatever they decide is important to be their. I don't trust either side to really get it right, but at least in this I don't see any point what so ever to allow the other companies access where they really don't need to be. This will not make people more secure, this is about McAfee and Symantec having to face reality that certain parts of the system don't function like they used to and whining all over the place that they changed things is stupid.
That's actually an issue that efects alot of free Firewalls in windows... They just can't handle the load from torrents very well and eventually fail or turn your computer into a slow POS and force you to restart... It's actually the reason I switched to using the crappy windows firewall, as it's the only firewall that only protects one way (which I know is a bad thing, but it's tracking a high number of inbound and outbound connections that causes the issue between most software firewalls and torrent software, so eliminating the extra load solves the problem). My linux box just doesn't have the storage space of my windows PC (the windows PC being for gaming is faster and has alot more space). Of course I sit behind a router, but routers don't stop everything (from having run ZoneAlarm and seeing the results pre & post router, the router cuts the number of inbound issues in half), so it still makes sense to run at least soem basic firewall protection on the PC itself...
Anyways... Most firewalls for windows just can't handle the stress of torrent software for any extended period, other than basic ones like MS's firewall...
You forgot that revolution has been a crime for a considerably long time now... One the FBI keeps tabs on. Overthrowing the government as is, would have the existing government hunting you down well before the movement gained any real traction... The media would then paint you as a terrorist and make sure no one would ever consider you a good example (except as a good example of what happens to wackos).
You do realize your signature both on the card and on a copy of the sales reciept has nothing to do with security, right...?
On the back of the card it's only there to validate that you agree to the terms of the use of the card... That's it's only purpose... Amazingly even if you don't accept (either by signing with a phrase rather than your name or leaving it blank) they'll still take your card... Well most will... A few places actually read the terms of use and understand that a incorrectly signed or unsigned card is effectively invalid...
The copy on the receipt is for transaction disputes... So if you say you didn't buy that big screen TV from 'Fred's Appliances' (or other fictional company) they will in turn ask the store for a signed copy of the receipt as proof you did in fact buy that TV...
A decade or so ago someone got the 'brilliant' idea these were actually adding security to the cards, but it wasn't the banks saying that... The only 'security' feature I've seen hyped by a bank was credit/debit cards with your picture on it... Which is hardly a secure thing... What if your in an accident in the five or so years a card is valid these days and your face gets messed up... Should you have to redo all your credit cards...? Or any of a number of things could change your appearance enough to convince an idiot you aren't you just by a picture... I mean who really looks liek their picture on their drivers license...?
Actually when you think about it, this is nearly the perfect way for MS to get people to pay monthly for running windows... Oh sure, not everyone will use it, but it's a start for them... That has been a goal of theirs for a very long time now, but they couldn't come up with a good method to do it. This is perfect for them.
Combine that with patching the OS like you mentioned and it make them look like they are taking security seriously, while recieving yet more cash from customers... It's a great scheme for MS. The elimination (if you actually beleive it will 'eliminate' anyone) of Symantec and McAfee would be a nice side benefit. Of course the reality is neither copy should worry about replacing MS's built-in controls, since it will have next to zero impact... But they know perfectly well they can use this to hurt MS and make them look poor and defenseless compared to the jugernaught MS represents... So they'll wring this oppurtinty for everything it's worth...
My employer uses Surfcontrol (it's a charter school btw) and this drives me nuts, because it will block anything from games.slashdot.org... Including things like yesterdays story about school banning tag on school porperty due to lawsuits... There is zero access to the internet that isn't filtered and even as one of two tech people running the entire show I can't exactly go against the state, the school board, and the administrators and disable it just long enough to read an article, no matter how stupid the blocking of a particular site is...
I should also mention that their is zero reason to block much of anything... All the PC's in the entire building are open to the rest of the room, so as long as someone pays any attention to where a child is going online they can be stopped from going anywhere bad without any need for blocking software... In fact I'd argue it would be considerably better to do something beyond just blocking what may be 'bad sites', blocking sites doesn't teach kids why the shouldn't go there it just keeps them from going there...
Re:This is soo sad, its not even funny..
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Most cultures have some form of this game... As someone who has studied Japanese culture (in particular) I could show you some very ancient variants of tag from their that would be recognizable to anyone today (figuring they could understand the Japanese phrases used to donate 'It' in a game of tag).
Re:This is just taking things too far
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Strangely (or not so strangely) this is becoming more and more common, with teachers deciding that children are faking injuries to avoid class... Which does in fact happen (happened when I was a kid), but the lack of desire to learn is apparently so ingrained now that faking injuries has become a defacto way of avoiding classes...
I think encouraging kids to learn so they don't want to fake injuries would go a long way to curing this issue...
Unfortunately the government in general seems to only want to support the parents who overreact and coddle their children... Not to mention I've watch people become grand parents and then decide their children can't raise their own kids because they let their kids get hurt... Which is so Ironic when I know perfectly well those same grand parents had no problems lettign their kids get hurt (or hurting them themselves in a couple cases).
1 set of grand parents I know went so far as to sue for custody of their grandchild because the mother of said child let him play in the front yard unsuperzised at six years old. Said grand parents used to let their own youngest son do whatever for the most part and when he did things wrong beat him... He turned out pretty screwed up which explains why he couldn't manage to stay with the woman he got pregnant with hsi own child. But now the grand parents are 'saints' who can do no wrong and want to take a child away from a mother who cares and loves her son... The funny thing is the government has repeatedly suggested that the grandparents are potentialy a better pair to raise the grandchild because the woman is a single mother working to make it on her own, rahter than two retirees...
They didn't go after (& won't go after) AMD because they've had a very long standing cross-patent agreement with them going back to the original transmeta product launch...
Doesn't make much sense to go after a business partner...
I'll only comment on D, having been in a similiar circumstance (ie needing a laywer and not being able to pay for it) before. In my case it was fairly small (as far as misdemenors go), but I had no idea what to do to argue my case (other than general knowledge about the court process) and I wanted a lawyer to help out... But I was poor at the time and couldn't afford a lawyer, so I went looking for anyone who did freebie work... In the end I spent a week searching various ways for such lawyers in my area who work without a fee and I coudln't find any. 2 years ago (around a year and a half after I lost the case in question), I randomly came across an article in the paper discribing a law firm that did pro bono work like I needed and which I foudn out had existed at the time... But they had failed compeltely to advertise in any way I tried to find them, and so they proved useless because I never knew they were there... Just because you know they exist, doesn't mean she knew they exist...
I do however agree that she should have done something to defend herself (however bad that may have been as proved by my case), but I can understand how to a known law-savvy person these things happen...
No one else may blame China if they backed out (though many asian countries probably would, for a variety fo reasons)... However internally it would be a big loss of face... Something chinese often do care about. It's one thing to be wrong, it's another entirely to be wrong and everyone knows it.
China backing out is like saying to the world "Yeah we were stupid for supporting them originally", they seriously don't want to have to tell the world that. Or even suggest it internally in more than the most private of forums.
That view (which is based on knowing many chinese people and their cultural take on things) would suggest they will try to distance themselves from any discussion of North Korea, it's their way of 'saving face'. If pushed who knows what would happen... For or against is hard to say, but distancing themselves right now does make the most sense culturally...
Um their constitution doesn't forbid them, they will of the people has historically been against it... That has changed in teh last decade however and in fact they have voiced that any agression by China would lead to them producing more nuclear weapons than china could ever hope to field (said in 2002, though that's not the exact quote) and for nearly ten years their have been several military reports that in fact they do have nuclear potential in their subs (the degree is the question, is it simply tactical or is it full fledged ICBM style nukes...). It's been remarked militarily that it's awfuly funny that japanese subs have full launch capabilities for weapons they 'supposedly' don't carry, which probably has alot of weight to the argument that in fact they are armed with sych weapons.
Do some more research on the subject, you seem at least a decade behind...
The reason the US has that sort of poverty is because the cost of living has only increased while the basic wage has stayed the same... My girlfriend faced this directly just awhile ago... She makes a couple dollars an hour over minimum wage which equals ~$880 month. That has to cover her and her two kids (well her sons father pays ~$100/month in child support so ~$980 including that). On the other hand while she was in school (& only because of her two kids) she recieved ~$1200 a month between Welfare, SSI, & child support... All of which she lost (except child support) for taking her new job. If she didn't have kids (like me) then she would have recieved nothing other than possibly unemployment which lasts for up to 6 months (not enough time to complete post-secondary school).
It is far far more tempting to live on welfare+SSI for any unmarried, child supporting person than it is to work... and every single person on such things counts as being 'in poverty'... This doesn't include the people getting 'rich' off of having kids, I've seen people on Welfare+SSI live way better than me... But their kids look like they sleep in the gutter while the parents wear suits and drive the latest craz in luxury cars... All of which still figure into the poverty statistics...
Um last I knew Japanese submarines did in fact contain a nuclear arsenal... So they need no new nuclear weapons... I've never heard anything about land based nukes in Japan, but there isn't much sense to use land based nukes in Japan (with the cost of land insanely high anyways). Whether these are conventional (which I doubt) or tactical nukes is awfully hard to say, and doing a seatrxh today brings up to many articles relating to the main topic (aka North Korea's nuclear test) making it hard to find the information.
Also (thanks to the US) South Korea does have nukes. Namely a group of US special forces who sit on a cache of nuclear weapons... But these forces are at the command of the South Korean president.
China may not like North Korea much at the moment, but they have signed some fairly hefty military alliance pacts with North Korea in the past. I would suggest they are most likely to want to avoid any attention atm over North Korea and the facts of what they have promised should North Korea get 'bullied' by other countries.
Taiwan really is the true wild card, they would love to cause troubel for China... It's almost a national past time in Taiwan... Supposedly (depending on what reports you believe) they also have a nuclear arsenal already... Though actively admiting to it is something they have no interest in doing...
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Ah... see I have no experience with either since they don't offer service in my area... My choices are locals or Verizon (with a very very small Sprint footprint not worth mentioning).
It's nice to know other vendors aren't quite so barbaric...
Most of them in the US...
Heck I don't want to take even a basic digital camera hiking, mountain biking, skiing, or anywhere else after I lost my old 3 MP Olympus canoing (water level was to low for several parts of the trip and we managed to tip it... twice due to rocks)... Someone is probably happy at a 'free' camera if anyone ever found the water proof bag it was in...
That said I know people take their Pro cameras everywhere and anywhere... It's all a matter of how important such things are to them and how much they want a picture of 'X'...
I know the difference between RAID/SAN/NAS and can manage a cluster... Though I don't recall off the top of my head what cidr is... My experience however is in Linux/Windows as their are zero places locally to learn true UNIX and it's not really something you can learn at home (well at least not without footing the bill for an outdated server soem company wants to sell off via ebay or some such)...
I have no interest in living in India hwoever, so how about taking someone with related skills and training them in the areas they don't have experience in so you can actually find suitable talent...?
Or from the other end of IT:
Network admin with 6+ years experience with Windows 2k3, datacenter, and exchange 2003, as well as 10+ years experience in linux (several varients/distributions listed)
10+ years experience in Disaster Recovery Preperation
At least a Bacheloer's Degree in Computer Science (or related field)
6+ years experience in Oracle/DB2
5+ years experience with VERITAS
5+ years experience with Terminal Services/Citrix
5+ years in 'end user support'
Microsoft Certifications in Exchange, SQL Server, Windows 2k3 Server, Windows XP Desktop
A+, Cisco, and preferably Linux certified
Preferably fluently speak Spanish as well as english
Willing to be on call 24/7
Their is more, but that was taken straight out of a ad for a local company wanting a temporary (6 month) Network Admin... This nearly godlike (as several qualifications mark 6+ year experience in 2003 software, any qualified for this garbage is definately godlike) person would recieve a salary equal to $35k/year (before taxes of course and since the job is for 6 months that's actually $17.5k).
It's all just silly... I meet some of those requirements (10 years with linux, 5 years 'end user support', willing to be on call 24/7, and willing to work for $35k/year), partially meet others (3 years experience with windows server 2k3, datacenter, and exchange 2k3, 2 years experience in Oracle/DB2, and SQL server), and could meet others (I could get my certs given enough money to actually afford taking them all, and VERITAS and Citrix could both be learned given access to them, and since I took 3 years of french given enough time I could probably learn acceptable Spanish). I actually applied for this job speficially tailoring my resume to show it matching their listed needs and implying I could learn anything I wasn't already skilled/experienced in. I got a 'polite' letter explaining that my abilities did not match the job and so I would't be recieving an interview... This same ad has run for 6 months nowas obviously they refuse to take an applicant who can't immediately meet their (unrealistic) demands.
hmm I'm not sure you have that quite right, because I meet almost all of your requirements (minus the first, I attended DeVry for 3 years and then graduated from a tech school rather than go to a 'non-state university) & I still have trouble finding an IT job willign to pay me 25-30k/year...
Now granted I live near the fourth largest city in Pennsylvania (that's Erie btw), which is not known for it's tech industry... But 4 of your five qualifications hasn't helped me at all... Also I've found being black or even latino (though more often indian and I don't mean the native kind) has often helped others looking at the same jobs as me get in where I couldn't (because it fills that companies quota and makes them look 'progressive'). Male or nor doesn't matter... Though if you are a woman they will use it as an excuse to pay you 5k+ less per year... Not sure about the teeth...
Optional #3 is more problematic than you think... At least if you are doing this on a WIndows Home (or Pro machine not on a windows domain network). Why? Because a limited account in windows per SP2 can't even access the CD drive(s)... I went to do this for my SO's computer so her son could have a limited account to play his games on... But the limited user account can't even access the stupid CD drive to let him get by the disc in CD issue all games have these days... God save us from the people stealing copies of Ispy for kids to play on a PC after all... Anyways that one won't work unless your setting up a server using active directory to customize things so they would have access...
The problem with that comes from parents like mine:
* They want to be able to go to the store and buy new software to do task x, y, or/and z
* My dad wants to play the occasional Solo FPS (for all that he's nearly 60 he loves the original half-life and doom and plays the newer incarnations...
* Want to be able to run software that is often non-Mac compatable (ie my mom gets educational stuff from the state since she works at a day care and it's always been PC only)
* occasionally want hardware to do X function (which is often not Mac compatible or supported)
These are all things that Macs just tend to lack in...
That's all without begining to discuss people like one of my clients who I built a PC for (primarily so they could do limited DB stuff like what Access can handle and have TV out to power a small TV)... However after they managed to kill Win XP SP2 within a week (with nearly 6000 Adware/spyware apps running) I insisted they run firefox with adblock/filtersetG, no java, and no script... Only to have them complain that 'web pages didn't look the same' (which wasn't true, just the browser looked different... but they considered it a change in the look of the webpages themselves) and switch back to IE... To which my response was "No more support if it crashes, I'm only supporting the hardware". But I can see sitting them in front of a Mac... "I can't find anything! Webpages don't look the same! Give em back my PC!"
Well the whole $10/lb is pretty much made up from the fact the last time I bought some meat it cost me something like $7... I assumed their was a pound of it.... Which their probably wasn't... It was probably something like $3/lb or $3.5/lb...
I'm far more likely to buy bags of pre-breaded/spiced/etc chicken for the meat in my diet than ground beef... Or any other cow based meats (steaks, ribs, etc)... I'm not much of a cook unles sit can be microwaved (this is a huge understatement, I've burnt mac and cheese) or cooked on a grill... It's probably a really bad thing my girlfriend is almost as bad a cook as I am...
"Hell, I even convinced my not-so-techie brother to pledge and he did. And also consider that we're not from the USA. We're from a part of the world where USD 300 is a higher percentage of our nett income."
Um... Well here is some news for you... I live in the US and make more than minimum wage (I make ~$10/hr, which is considered good where I live) and $300 is just slightly less than 1/3rd my total monthly income... We all don't earn 6 figure salaries just because we live in the US. To put it in perspective: $300 is slightly less than my car payment every month, almost equal to the cost of food for a month (& no that's not really alot of food, 1 lb of ground beef costs nearly $10 so it all adds up really quick), and is less than most peoples rent (average rent being ~$400/month for a very basic apartment).
I barely get by, I don't have the extra cash lying around to spend $300 on a pair of laptops I will never use...
*cough* Anti-MS Zealot *cough*
Other AV's work just fine without these tools Symantec and McAfee demand. This is not an issue of MS crowding out a critical component from potential competitors to take market share. This is MS making an attempt to do what they promised (ie secure windows more than they have in the past). Whether I agree with the method MS is taking or not, this has more to do with Symantec and McAfee being whiny brats that refuse to give up 'control' of 'security' to the ones who should have been doign that job in the first place. The compnent they want access to is the layer that provides basic system protection and notification to the user about the systems staus, so they can use their own interface on it with whatever they decide is important to be their. I don't trust either side to really get it right, but at least in this I don't see any point what so ever to allow the other companies access where they really don't need to be. This will not make people more secure, this is about McAfee and Symantec having to face reality that certain parts of the system don't function like they used to and whining all over the place that they changed things is stupid.
That's actually an issue that efects alot of free Firewalls in windows... They just can't handle the load from torrents very well and eventually fail or turn your computer into a slow POS and force you to restart... It's actually the reason I switched to using the crappy windows firewall, as it's the only firewall that only protects one way (which I know is a bad thing, but it's tracking a high number of inbound and outbound connections that causes the issue between most software firewalls and torrent software, so eliminating the extra load solves the problem). My linux box just doesn't have the storage space of my windows PC (the windows PC being for gaming is faster and has alot more space). Of course I sit behind a router, but routers don't stop everything (from having run ZoneAlarm and seeing the results pre & post router, the router cuts the number of inbound issues in half), so it still makes sense to run at least soem basic firewall protection on the PC itself...
Anyways... Most firewalls for windows just can't handle the stress of torrent software for any extended period, other than basic ones like MS's firewall...
You forgot that revolution has been a crime for a considerably long time now... One the FBI keeps tabs on. Overthrowing the government as is, would have the existing government hunting you down well before the movement gained any real traction... The media would then paint you as a terrorist and make sure no one would ever consider you a good example (except as a good example of what happens to wackos).
You do realize your signature both on the card and on a copy of the sales reciept has nothing to do with security, right...?
On the back of the card it's only there to validate that you agree to the terms of the use of the card... That's it's only purpose... Amazingly even if you don't accept (either by signing with a phrase rather than your name or leaving it blank) they'll still take your card... Well most will... A few places actually read the terms of use and understand that a incorrectly signed or unsigned card is effectively invalid...
The copy on the receipt is for transaction disputes... So if you say you didn't buy that big screen TV from 'Fred's Appliances' (or other fictional company) they will in turn ask the store for a signed copy of the receipt as proof you did in fact buy that TV...
A decade or so ago someone got the 'brilliant' idea these were actually adding security to the cards, but it wasn't the banks saying that... The only 'security' feature I've seen hyped by a bank was credit/debit cards with your picture on it... Which is hardly a secure thing... What if your in an accident in the five or so years a card is valid these days and your face gets messed up... Should you have to redo all your credit cards...? Or any of a number of things could change your appearance enough to convince an idiot you aren't you just by a picture... I mean who really looks liek their picture on their drivers license...?
Actually when you think about it, this is nearly the perfect way for MS to get people to pay monthly for running windows... Oh sure, not everyone will use it, but it's a start for them... That has been a goal of theirs for a very long time now, but they couldn't come up with a good method to do it. This is perfect for them.
Combine that with patching the OS like you mentioned and it make them look like they are taking security seriously, while recieving yet more cash from customers... It's a great scheme for MS. The elimination (if you actually beleive it will 'eliminate' anyone) of Symantec and McAfee would be a nice side benefit. Of course the reality is neither copy should worry about replacing MS's built-in controls, since it will have next to zero impact... But they know perfectly well they can use this to hurt MS and make them look poor and defenseless compared to the jugernaught MS represents... So they'll wring this oppurtinty for everything it's worth...
My employer uses Surfcontrol (it's a charter school btw) and this drives me nuts, because it will block anything from games.slashdot.org... Including things like yesterdays story about school banning tag on school porperty due to lawsuits... There is zero access to the internet that isn't filtered and even as one of two tech people running the entire show I can't exactly go against the state, the school board, and the administrators and disable it just long enough to read an article, no matter how stupid the blocking of a particular site is...
I should also mention that their is zero reason to block much of anything... All the PC's in the entire building are open to the rest of the room, so as long as someone pays any attention to where a child is going online they can be stopped from going anywhere bad without any need for blocking software... In fact I'd argue it would be considerably better to do something beyond just blocking what may be 'bad sites', blocking sites doesn't teach kids why the shouldn't go there it just keeps them from going there...
Most cultures have some form of this game... As someone who has studied Japanese culture (in particular) I could show you some very ancient variants of tag from their that would be recognizable to anyone today (figuring they could understand the Japanese phrases used to donate 'It' in a game of tag).
Strangely (or not so strangely) this is becoming more and more common, with teachers deciding that children are faking injuries to avoid class... Which does in fact happen (happened when I was a kid), but the lack of desire to learn is apparently so ingrained now that faking injuries has become a defacto way of avoiding classes...
I think encouraging kids to learn so they don't want to fake injuries would go a long way to curing this issue...
Unfortunately the government in general seems to only want to support the parents who overreact and coddle their children... Not to mention I've watch people become grand parents and then decide their children can't raise their own kids because they let their kids get hurt... Which is so Ironic when I know perfectly well those same grand parents had no problems lettign their kids get hurt (or hurting them themselves in a couple cases).
1 set of grand parents I know went so far as to sue for custody of their grandchild because the mother of said child let him play in the front yard unsuperzised at six years old. Said grand parents used to let their own youngest son do whatever for the most part and when he did things wrong beat him... He turned out pretty screwed up which explains why he couldn't manage to stay with the woman he got pregnant with hsi own child. But now the grand parents are 'saints' who can do no wrong and want to take a child away from a mother who cares and loves her son... The funny thing is the government has repeatedly suggested that the grandparents are potentialy a better pair to raise the grandchild because the woman is a single mother working to make it on her own, rahter than two retirees...
They didn't go after (& won't go after) AMD because they've had a very long standing cross-patent agreement with them going back to the original transmeta product launch...
Doesn't make much sense to go after a business partner...
I'll only comment on D, having been in a similiar circumstance (ie needing a laywer and not being able to pay for it) before. In my case it was fairly small (as far as misdemenors go), but I had no idea what to do to argue my case (other than general knowledge about the court process) and I wanted a lawyer to help out... But I was poor at the time and couldn't afford a lawyer, so I went looking for anyone who did freebie work... In the end I spent a week searching various ways for such lawyers in my area who work without a fee and I coudln't find any. 2 years ago (around a year and a half after I lost the case in question), I randomly came across an article in the paper discribing a law firm that did pro bono work like I needed and which I foudn out had existed at the time... But they had failed compeltely to advertise in any way I tried to find them, and so they proved useless because I never knew they were there... Just because you know they exist, doesn't mean she knew they exist...
I do however agree that she should have done something to defend herself (however bad that may have been as proved by my case), but I can understand how to a known law-savvy person these things happen...
No one else may blame China if they backed out (though many asian countries probably would, for a variety fo reasons)... However internally it would be a big loss of face... Something chinese often do care about. It's one thing to be wrong, it's another entirely to be wrong and everyone knows it.
China backing out is like saying to the world "Yeah we were stupid for supporting them originally", they seriously don't want to have to tell the world that. Or even suggest it internally in more than the most private of forums.
That view (which is based on knowing many chinese people and their cultural take on things) would suggest they will try to distance themselves from any discussion of North Korea, it's their way of 'saving face'. If pushed who knows what would happen... For or against is hard to say, but distancing themselves right now does make the most sense culturally...
Um their constitution doesn't forbid them, they will of the people has historically been against it... That has changed in teh last decade however and in fact they have voiced that any agression by China would lead to them producing more nuclear weapons than china could ever hope to field (said in 2002, though that's not the exact quote) and for nearly ten years their have been several military reports that in fact they do have nuclear potential in their subs (the degree is the question, is it simply tactical or is it full fledged ICBM style nukes...). It's been remarked militarily that it's awfuly funny that japanese subs have full launch capabilities for weapons they 'supposedly' don't carry, which probably has alot of weight to the argument that in fact they are armed with sych weapons.
Do some more research on the subject, you seem at least a decade behind...
The reason the US has that sort of poverty is because the cost of living has only increased while the basic wage has stayed the same... My girlfriend faced this directly just awhile ago... She makes a couple dollars an hour over minimum wage which equals ~$880 month. That has to cover her and her two kids (well her sons father pays ~$100/month in child support so ~$980 including that). On the other hand while she was in school (& only because of her two kids) she recieved ~$1200 a month between Welfare, SSI, & child support... All of which she lost (except child support) for taking her new job. If she didn't have kids (like me) then she would have recieved nothing other than possibly unemployment which lasts for up to 6 months (not enough time to complete post-secondary school).
It is far far more tempting to live on welfare+SSI for any unmarried, child supporting person than it is to work... and every single person on such things counts as being 'in poverty'... This doesn't include the people getting 'rich' off of having kids, I've seen people on Welfare+SSI live way better than me... But their kids look like they sleep in the gutter while the parents wear suits and drive the latest craz in luxury cars... All of which still figure into the poverty statistics...
Um last I knew Japanese submarines did in fact contain a nuclear arsenal... So they need no new nuclear weapons... I've never heard anything about land based nukes in Japan, but there isn't much sense to use land based nukes in Japan (with the cost of land insanely high anyways). Whether these are conventional (which I doubt) or tactical nukes is awfully hard to say, and doing a seatrxh today brings up to many articles relating to the main topic (aka North Korea's nuclear test) making it hard to find the information.
Also (thanks to the US) South Korea does have nukes. Namely a group of US special forces who sit on a cache of nuclear weapons... But these forces are at the command of the South Korean president.
China may not like North Korea much at the moment, but they have signed some fairly hefty military alliance pacts with North Korea in the past. I would suggest they are most likely to want to avoid any attention atm over North Korea and the facts of what they have promised should North Korea get 'bullied' by other countries.
Taiwan really is the true wild card, they would love to cause troubel for China... It's almost a national past time in Taiwan... Supposedly (depending on what reports you believe) they also have a nuclear arsenal already... Though actively admiting to it is something they have no interest in doing...