As for who did the deed? Unlikely to be the FSB, particularly not if the Po210 traced back to Russia;)
Unless they wanted plausible deniability while sending a chilling message at the same time. In the world of political intrigue and assassinations, it's hard to say.
I still prefer a gas stove to an electric one. Instant heat on/off and also for adjusting the temperature. It's not a huge deal, but I would never argue that electric stoves are more desirable.
You've jumped from "the plotonium can be traced to Russia" to having proven that Putin is behind it. That's quite a leap there. I'm not saying he doesn't look suspicious, but there are people who could have ulterior motives for making it look like Putin. All the players use dirty tricks; unfortunately, the truth is often hard to find.
BTW, nobody believes that FSB has killed Litvinenko. They are not that sloppy.
It's quite possible that the Russian government wanted the assassination to be traceable to Russia. Then they can officially deny involvement (because the polonium could have been obtained on the black market), and still leave people suspicious. It sends a chilling message to other high profile speakers that would speak out against the Russian government.
Then again, it could have been a false flag attack, or a private hit. The truth is hard to come by.
A signed fax may be better than an e-mail. This is the kind of knowledge you pay a lawyer for.
It's really insane for people to have to seek out a lawyer and pay for legal advice for common issues such as this. This is where the internet and sharing information should help. I'd say asking on Slashdot is a good start. I'm sure if he keeps poking around he'll find some good advice by others who were faced with the same problem.
Besides the money, the other problem with hiring a lawyer is that you may end up getting bad advice. It would be better to get a view from many people, hopefully some of whom have already talked to lawyers.
Seriously, this is how he argues. I could find lots more examples. You can't listen if you call people who hold a disagreeable position fucking idiots.
Still, the BitKeeper experience resulted in a better development tool being made so I can't really call it a loss other than annoying people by making them learn new tools every so often.
You forget how he totally backstabbed a fellow open-source developer, for, get this, letting users access their data with free software! This coming from the guy who cloned Unix. The hypocrisy is just stunning. Torvalds knifes Tridgell
Don't get me wrong, despite his flaws he does a good job heading up the Linux kernel. And Bill Gates was very successful with Microsoft. I still wouldn't want either as my president, that's for sure.
If I had to pick geek icons for office I'd like to see Linus as President and RMS as vice president. Mr. Torvalds is a very good leader - he motivates people, he listens to people, he does a good job at picking others to lead under him.
Maybe he's good at the other two, but he's not a good listener. He comes off as very stubborn and kind of a dick. Just look at what happened with BitKeeper. There are plenty of other examples.
He's the richest man in the world. His money was attained via predatory and monopolistic practices. Yes, I'm glad he's willing to give lots of money to charity, but big deal, even the mafia has been known to "give back" to the community.
The biggest problem with your car analogy is that people can easily switch cars they buy. In fact, when they go to buy a new car, they are forced to choose which one they want. They don't have to worry about which gas station to use, or if the steering wheel will come on the right or the left.
With Vista it will come pre-installed on the computer. It will have good device support. It will run their games and other apps they currently use. Unless Microsoft completely fucks up Vista, the switch is not going to happen.
It is uglier and comes with a bunch more crap I have to turn off
It can't be any uglier than the cartoon look that came with XP, though thankfully in XP you could change it back to the classic look. Did they keep the classic look as an option with Vista?
As a software engineer, I would have expected you to rely less on sanity tests, and more on formal verification. That's what we did in the (few) software engineering courses that I took.
In the real world very little software is formally verified. It's very expensive and time-consuming, and the vast majority of programmers don't know how to do it. Most projects just cannot afford it.
You're making too big a deal out of his "software engineer" label. There's no such thing as a software engineer, in the sense that for software there's nothing like the standards that engineers have to meet in other disciplines.
But the biggest reason I see for developers not being so good at testing, is that they are of the mind set that they try to show how the SUT does work. Not really in the least bit helpful, that is what your unit tests should have been doing.
I have no idea what "SUT" stands for, but testing basic functionality is also important at higher levels than units. Integration testing seems to be the common phrase, though Wikipedia also mentions systems testing (not that I can discern a difference).
While full-time testers are often made fun of, ("Those who can't code, test."), or it is considered a secondary role that developers can perform on their own, there is no replacement for an experienced tester.
I've run across a few excellent QA people. They're extremely valuable if you can find them.
I live in that tiny little place caleed "the rest of the World", and I can guarantee you this war was considered a disgrace ever since your president started talking about it. Face it, nobody bought Bush's crap outside of the US, in spite of the great effort from our media corporate machine to convince us otherwise.
Actually, I'm willing to bet "the rest of the World" for the most part believed Saddam had the weapons (since he was caught with them before, and hadn't had inspections for years), but believed the threat of invasion and inspection teams were enough to keep a lid on him, and that a pre-emptive war was immoral. I'll admit the bullshit about fighting terrorism and bringing liberty to the people of Iraq was pretty transparent though.
Clinton broke the "no scandals allowed" rule when he got elected even after being a draft dodger and pot smoker. Most Americans have probably driven at least once when they shouldn't have. Nobody's perfect, and the stuff you mention doesn't concern me in the least.
No, there are much better reasons to not vote for Bush, that have to do with politics, not personal failings.
It wasn't too long ago that Slashdot for the most part ridiculed Stallman. I think he's rallied his fanbase and gained some new ones with GPL3 and anti-DRM.
Seriously, paragraphs are a good thing. You talk about "contributing to the dialog", but part of dialog is communicating in an effective manner. Consider that a post is written once, but read many times more.
Warranty is different. I use the product it breaks, i should get a refurbed product since my product was used. I buy a new product, it doesn't work. I should get a new product.
"Warranty is different" than what? Warranty covers both cases: new products you buy and those products after they have been used. If Nintendo had fixed your product instead of sending you a new one, you wouldn't have received a "new" system; instead, you get your refurbished system back. Instead of doing that, they gave you a comparable system, since the machines have just been launched. It's not like they gave you somebody's system that had been used for a year.
Now if the refurbished system was dinged up enough that it bothered you, you could call Nintendo and complain. However, it sounds like in your case that it was obvious to you that it wasn't a brand new system, and it was this fact alone that bothered you. I'd say Nintendo was reasonable here (with the exception of the "already registered" thing -- they should really wipe that out when they refurbish boxes; maybe you can give them feedback on that?).
Use Windows-M to minimize suff to get to your desktop, and you'll get used to the Windows key in no time. Depending on how often you lock your screen, Windows-L is nice too.
Slashdot Mirror
Unless they wanted plausible deniability while sending a chilling message at the same time. In the world of political intrigue and assassinations, it's hard to say.
I still prefer a gas stove to an electric one. Instant heat on/off and also for adjusting the temperature. It's not a huge deal, but I would never argue that electric stoves are more desirable.
You've jumped from "the plotonium can be traced to Russia" to having proven that Putin is behind it. That's quite a leap there. I'm not saying he doesn't look suspicious, but there are people who could have ulterior motives for making it look like Putin. All the players use dirty tricks; unfortunately, the truth is often hard to find.
It's quite possible that the Russian government wanted the assassination to be traceable to Russia. Then they can officially deny involvement (because the polonium could have been obtained on the black market), and still leave people suspicious. It sends a chilling message to other high profile speakers that would speak out against the Russian government.
Then again, it could have been a false flag attack, or a private hit. The truth is hard to come by.
It's really insane for people to have to seek out a lawyer and pay for legal advice for common issues such as this. This is where the internet and sharing information should help. I'd say asking on Slashdot is a good start. I'm sure if he keeps poking around he'll find some good advice by others who were faced with the same problem.
Besides the money, the other problem with hiring a lawyer is that you may end up getting bad advice. It would be better to get a view from many people, hopefully some of whom have already talked to lawyers.
This is pretty typical: FUCKING IDIOTS
Seriously, this is how he argues. I could find lots more examples. You can't listen if you call people who hold a disagreeable position fucking idiots.
You forget how he totally backstabbed a fellow open-source developer, for, get this, letting users access their data with free software! This coming from the guy who cloned Unix. The hypocrisy is just stunning. Torvalds knifes Tridgell
Don't get me wrong, despite his flaws he does a good job heading up the Linux kernel. And Bill Gates was very successful with Microsoft. I still wouldn't want either as my president, that's for sure.
Maybe he's good at the other two, but he's not a good listener. He comes off as very stubborn and kind of a dick. Just look at what happened with BitKeeper. There are plenty of other examples.
He's the richest man in the world. His money was attained via predatory and monopolistic practices. Yes, I'm glad he's willing to give lots of money to charity, but big deal, even the mafia has been known to "give back" to the community.
The biggest problem with your car analogy is that people can easily switch cars they buy. In fact, when they go to buy a new car, they are forced to choose which one they want. They don't have to worry about which gas station to use, or if the steering wheel will come on the right or the left.
With Vista it will come pre-installed on the computer. It will have good device support. It will run their games and other apps they currently use. Unless Microsoft completely fucks up Vista, the switch is not going to happen.
It can't be any uglier than the cartoon look that came with XP, though thankfully in XP you could change it back to the classic look. Did they keep the classic look as an option with Vista?
In the real world very little software is formally verified. It's very expensive and time-consuming, and the vast majority of programmers don't know how to do it. Most projects just cannot afford it.
You're making too big a deal out of his "software engineer" label. There's no such thing as a software engineer, in the sense that for software there's nothing like the standards that engineers have to meet in other disciplines.
I have no idea what "SUT" stands for, but testing basic functionality is also important at higher levels than units. Integration testing seems to be the common phrase, though Wikipedia also mentions systems testing (not that I can discern a difference).
I've run across a few excellent QA people. They're extremely valuable if you can find them.
This was great -- geek reference goes mainstream: "Again, despite the punditry out there, the so-called neocons are not Borg."
Actually, I'm willing to bet "the rest of the World" for the most part believed Saddam had the weapons (since he was caught with them before, and hadn't had inspections for years), but believed the threat of invasion and inspection teams were enough to keep a lid on him, and that a pre-emptive war was immoral. I'll admit the bullshit about fighting terrorism and bringing liberty to the people of Iraq was pretty transparent though.
Clinton broke the "no scandals allowed" rule when he got elected even after being a draft dodger and pot smoker. Most Americans have probably driven at least once when they shouldn't have. Nobody's perfect, and the stuff you mention doesn't concern me in the least.
No, there are much better reasons to not vote for Bush, that have to do with politics, not personal failings.
Some relevant quotes:
On getting married: "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?"
On prostitution: "You're not paying for the sex; you're paying them to leave."
It wasn't too long ago that Slashdot for the most part ridiculed Stallman. I think he's rallied his fanbase and gained some new ones with GPL3 and anti-DRM.
My first impression of Oblivion was: God these characters look like shit. Maybe in the "next gen" after this one they'll fix it.
You're right, the war has been lost. "cracker" never caught on. Give it up already.
Seriously, paragraphs are a good thing. You talk about "contributing to the dialog", but part of dialog is communicating in an effective manner. Consider that a post is written once, but read many times more.
"Warranty is different" than what? Warranty covers both cases: new products you buy and those products after they have been used. If Nintendo had fixed your product instead of sending you a new one, you wouldn't have received a "new" system; instead, you get your refurbished system back. Instead of doing that, they gave you a comparable system, since the machines have just been launched. It's not like they gave you somebody's system that had been used for a year.
Now if the refurbished system was dinged up enough that it bothered you, you could call Nintendo and complain. However, it sounds like in your case that it was obvious to you that it wasn't a brand new system, and it was this fact alone that bothered you. I'd say Nintendo was reasonable here (with the exception of the "already registered" thing -- they should really wipe that out when they refurbish boxes; maybe you can give them feedback on that?).
Ugh, I couldn't get beyond watching 10 seconds of that guy bowling. Looks lame.
And what the hell is "dependency taking"? Is this a Microsoft term?
Use Windows-M to minimize suff to get to your desktop, and you'll get used to the Windows key in no time. Depending on how often you lock your screen, Windows-L is nice too.