....and here in Canada we go to the opposite extreme. Here an 80 year old man can legaly have sex with a 14 year old girl (or an 80 year old woman with a 14 year old boy I suppose), and can even document it if the images are intended for personal use and are not shared with others. Now, which one of these systems is better?
The Bomb Squads of the other cities didn't RECEIVE any calls, or they would have responded in the same manner. And how exactly do you "evaluate the possibility that the thing even is a bomb before evacuating the populace" without being able to physically examine the thing? What, you think the bomb squad has some magical CIA spy satellite that they can use to detect explosives from the comfort of their lay-z-boys? Seriously, give your head a shake and start fresh. Obviously you're totally oblivious about police procedures, but you can't be THIS devoid of common sense.
Eh, no Mr Bomb expert, we shouldn't "detonate" everything, but when the police get a possible bomb called in, they have to take it seriously. If they treat it like a real bomb and it turns out to be a hoax, the worst that happens is that they waste some time, people get excited, and clueless idiots on slashdot get a new topic to rant and rave about. On the other hand, if they treat it like a joke and it turns out to be a real bomb, the bomb squad suddenly gets reduced in size, some women and kids get to cry over flag-draped coffins, and assholes everywhere get to mutter and laugh about "dumb cops".
Since you're such an explosives expert, why don't you outline what changes should be made to bomb-squad policy in order to avoid these incidents in the future? Hell, I've got an idea! Next time they have a bomb threat, they can just call up you and the other slashdot nerds! Your linux experience will come in real handy while you're on your hands and knees, with your face inches away from what could be a live explosive. Then you can show all those dumb comps what a joke their job really is!
Let's put it back to you: And then next year when some maniac makes (billboards, mailboxes, bicycles, a backpack he's wearing, his own briefcase in his hand) with a block of C4 attached, who will you hold responsible when it kills, because the PD doesn't randomly search everyone/thing you see on the street, in a constant bombhunt?
There is a MASSIVE difference between failing to defuse a bomb because you had no way to know about it, and failing to defuse a bomb that people called in and told you about, but you just decided not to take it seriously. How would you propose handling these situations, exactly.
Alright, I finally located a public tracker, so here it is. I pulled out all the commercial apps (or at least I think I did) but replaced some of 'em with free ones, so the majority of the functionality should still be there. Enjoy!
The ONLY "logical fallacy" I committed was ad-hominem, and I was quite aware of it, thanks. In certain cases, refuting the argument is unnecessary, and ad-hominem becomes more fun, less time consuming, and just as effective. I don't bother trying to refute the claims of animal-freedom zealots either, I just call them a bunch of friggin' loons and leave it at that. Why waste your time disputing an argument when rational people will see it's irrationality anyway?
Since you were civil though, I will take the time to answer you. It seems our biggest misunderstanding is on the definition of "abuse". You seem to define abuse as "tracking someone without their consent". I define it as doing something with that information. For instance:
Let's say a cop decides to place a tracking device on my vehicle for no reason. He gets lucky and manages to track me to a well known gang house. So far he hasn't really abused my rights - all he's done is follow me. On my way home he pulls me over and finds 200 lbs of cocaine in my vehicle. NOW it's an abuse of my rights - but here comes the good part: when the case goes to court, he still needs to justify WHY he pulled me over and why he planted the tracking device in the first place.
This is the same as a case we had in my city a few months back - a black man in an SUV got pulled over for no reason, drugs and a weapon were found in his vehicle, and he was charged. However, because the police officer couldn't provide a valid reason for pulling him over in the first place, all charges had to be dropped. As much as I hate the thought of a criminal being let go on a technicality, it was the right decision for the courts to make, and legally speaking the guy has every right to sue the police department for violating his rights.
So will this technology be abused? Sure, all police powers are abused at some point, and this one will be no different. There have always been some bad cops, and there always will be. Will it be abused systemically though? Not without some major changes to the legal code and the constitution. And when it IS abused by an individual, there is enough accountability in the system that it will be caught and corrected the majority of the time.
So in summary, that is why warrants for the use of GPS tracking devices are unnecessary. There are other reasons too ofcourse, but this should be the easiest one to understand.
Spending a 10th of what you currently spend would give you a military of 300,000 tops, including active, reserve, and national guard. Compare that to China's 6 million active and reserve.
The biggest problem with a massive decrease would be exactly what people bitch about these days. When you finally DID end up mobilizing your military, you'd have to recruit like mad and re-instate the draft. This would lead to a decrease in level of training and professionalism, which would result in an increase in crimes and human rights abuses as well as a major increase in US casualties. Lower budget also means less equipment and less R&D, so your new draftees would be going to war without all the fancy weapons and armour that we're used to these days, and their technology would at best be on-par with your enemies, if not a couple generations behind them.
Decreasing the military only seems like a good idea until you actually have to go to war. Then everyone's pointing fingers trying to blame someone else for endangering the nation.
Because we always deal with the easy solutions first. What are you, a child? This is like saying that most fires will burn out of control too quickly for any individual to fight 'em, therefore we shouldn't bother having fire-extinguishers. It's just stupid.
Right. And then next year when some maniac makes the same device, only this time attaches a block of C4 to it, who will you hold responsible when it blows up a few dozen of your fellow citizens?
Tell ya what, give me your address and I'll personally drop off a package at your front door. Then you can try and figure out whether it's got explosives in it or not. For added fun, you can also try and figure out whether it's wired to a pressure or mercury switch that'll set it off if you try to move it. Maybe one of your kids will see it first, before you even get home. Then you'll have the pleasure of explaining to the media how happy you are that your kid was the one who detonated it, instead of those silly cops over-reacting and sending in the bomb-squad.
This kind of action is only considered an "over-reaction" when it turns out to be a false alarm.
*sigh*
Einstein, without all that money that was "wasted on the military" over the last couple centuries, you could kiss your modern lifestyle goodbye. I understand that you hippie-love-children have a problem with rational thought, but just trust me on this one, ok? Getting your country conquered is not a good way to ensure an improvement in the environment.
Well, I already got my final +1, without doing any work:)
Seriously, I'd be happy to put it up on a torrent site, but the problem is that:
a) I'd first need to make damn sure I clean all my personal settings from all the programs (such as the firefox password manager).
and
b) I'd have to remove some of the programs which are actually commercial programs that I've paid for and then made portable.
I can probably set up a slimed down version if you want though. Let me know.
That's fine, you're certainly entitled to your paranoia. You probably also don't trust cops not to abuse the ability to pull people over for speeding, or affect arrests without a warrant. My comment was aimed more at people who are actually able to look at their own beliefs and evaluate them honestly.
Internet mIRC, Miranda IM, qm - Quick Mailer, Thunderbird Portable, Opera , read_IE_proxy, VNC server for Win32, VNCViewer, ChrisControl, GreatNews: the intelligent rss reader, FollowMeIP (Show External IP),
File Transfer Quick 'n Easy FTP Server 3.0, Portable WackGet, FTP Wanderer, HTTP File Server, utorrent,
System pstools, MyUninstaller, Autostart program viewer, Dependency Walker, DiskRecon, DiskImage, PassWordRenew, RegEdit PE, RegScanner, Registry Monitor, TreeSize Professional, ImageExplorer, Tola's patching engine v1.8, AbsoluteShield File Shredder, Removes hard to remove files, WhyReboot,
HD Tools HDHacker, HDD Temperature Monitor, HDSpeed, HD Tune, Partition Table Doctor 3.0, Partition Table Editor for Windows, PartitionInfo Windows NT Version, Symantec GhostCast Server for Windows, Symantec Ghost Explorer, Symantec Ghost,
Info / Benchmark Game XP, ClockGen, CPU-Z Application, aida32, everest, USB Browser, Parmavex WinAudit, RightMark Memory Analyzer, ServiWin Service and Driver manager,
Copy / Undelete ActiveUndelete, Restoration, Unstopable Copier, BadCopy - Disk & CD Data Recovery Utility, raid,
Maintanance / Repair Windows XP SP2 TCP/IP patch, ClamWin Portable, CCleaner Portable, xp-AntiSpy, Norton WinDoctor, Norton Disk Doctor, Ad-Aware SE, JkDefrag, Disk Analysis and Cleanup Utility, WinsockFix,
Security TrueCrypt, Keylogger Detector, KeePass Password Safe v1.05, Omziff, Internet Explorer Passwords Viewer, WirelessKeyView, pcANYWHERE password, PasswordsPro, SAMInside, SAMInside, pwdump2,
Windows Shortcuts edit_lmhosts, System, Add or Remove Programs, Computer Management, Services, Performance, Display, Network Connections, Printers and Faxes, Sounds and Audio Devices,
Games lwwin, zetrix, rh, Bridging_the_Gap_v1, Process Explorer, My Computer, DSynchronize, DM2, Firefox, x2 - explorer replacement,
> Fact: If you notice it you will either be sent on a 5150 as "paranoid"
This is a fact. I've proven it through personal experience at least three times.
'nuff said. If you're interested, I make professional mind-ray deflection devices using a nano-molecular weave of super-fine tinfoil fibres. For only $29.99 you too can be free of CIA mind control influence!
Trust me on this: the cops have absolutely no interest in where you're going. All you paranoid maniacs need to stop thinking that you're the centre of the universe, and assuming that everyone wants to know everything about you. We don't. You're irrelevant and useless, and we have no interest in you whatsoever. If you're crazy enough, we might be marginally interested in you as a source of amusement, but that's about it.
Police are only interested in where you've been or where you're going if they have a reason to suspect you of a crime. And if they suspect you of a crime, they can already track your movements - it's called surveillance (you know, like the "steakout" in your favourite holywood trash-flick). Police have never needed a warrant to track your movements for the simple fact that there is no such thing as a right to "privacy of movement"! Nor should there be. If you're moving around in public, people will see you. Period. The only restraint placed on police use of GPS surveillance should be the need to have probable cause.
No, you're right. I'd say about 10-20% of the modern day "peace" movement are still adherents of the communist movement. Another 15% are clearly fascist in nature, as demonstrated by their behaviour at the rallies. A further 20% attend only as a chance to voice their anti-semitic views in a forum where they can pretend that they're not being anti-semitic, only "critical of Zionism". And the rest are mainly paranoid-delusional imbeciles who think corporate interests are ruining the world, anyone right of Chomsky is evil, and that the way to fix this is by giving the government more money, but less control over individual freedoms. I'd say maybe 2% of the protesters I've met are actually rational individuals with a decent, logically thought out point to make.
As far as communism goes though, while the majority might not be communists any more, the organizational structure behind most groups and rallies is still communist. If you doubt this, do some research on "ANSWER".
And as for Marx, the guy was actually a proponent of capitalism. Most "communists" don't really understand Marx. If he were here today, he'd be at the rallies beating the ANSWER kids to death with their own signs.
Ah. So this is really just another "Microsoft is unsafe" rant. Well. That's been done to death, all the dumb claims have been answered, and people still continue spreading the myths. Whatever. I'm not getting into a pointless religious argument with an Open-Source zealot.
Christ. Let me guess - you still own a betamax machine, right?
These decisions are more difficult that simply looking at competing products and seeing which one is "superior". If you can't understand that there are literally dozens of factors which play into these decisions then I don't know what else I can say to you. As a quick overview: businesses need to consider long term support costs, compatibility with other users, and re-training costs for their employees. Those would be the minimal considerations for a business thinking of moving to a new product, and for 99% of them switching away from MS Office is not worthwhile. It's the same reason most businesses won't switch to linux - it's simply not viable for most companies.
We value conf.....listen stinkynuts, standards have nothing to do with conformity, and everything to do with making day-to-day life possible. If you "don't want to conform", fine, feel free. Wear a clown costume to work, cook your breakfast on top of your VCR, make up your own language, and fuel your car with lemonade. Me, I can maintain my individuality while still following common-sense standards.
The mill threatened to move overseas/interstate if it had to spend money and went so far as to infiltrate "enemy" community groups in order to discredit them.
If these "enemy" groups spewed the same kind of nonsense that you just did, they didn't need to be infiltrated in order to be discredited - their own words are enough. It's funny, but I always seem to see the 9/11 conspiracy theorists bitching about how the big bad government has infiltrated them in order to discredit their claims. Same with all the "peace" groups, extremist environmental organizations, and animal welfare groups. Well I call bullshit. There's nobody infiltrating your groups, you're just surrounded by idiots! And guess what, you're probably about as stupid as those you associate with - you just don't see it, and it makes you feel better to blame it on "infiltrators" and "disinfo agents".
Attacking google for this behaviour is like kicking the cat after a bad day, if you want to attack "evil" there are plenty of targets, corporations that lay the planet to waste and supply waring tribes with modern weapons. They destroy lives and feed from the public trough rather than create meaningfull employment and a nice pot of tax money.
Arms companies provide plenty of meaningful employment, and generate a hell of a lot of tax revenue. The fact that they're also selling weapons to some back-asswards idiots in Shithole City, Central Africa, is irrelevant. In case you haven't noticed, people over there are more than happy to slaughter each other with machetes and rocks. Selling them modern weaponry doesn't change anything other than creating jobs for us and making the murders less brutal. If you'd ever seen someone chopped apart with a machete, you'd realize that handing his executioner a rifle is an act of mercy in comparison. Besides which, the peace movements commie heroes sell more weaponry to the rest of the world than the western world could ever hope to match. There's a reason why the AK-47 is the worlds most prevalent assault-rifle, and no, it's not made in America.
The crap these places spew and the fairy tale propoganda they use to justify it, is IMHO "evil", but try telling that to anyone who's livelyhood depends on it. Try telling the guy at the nuclear missle plant or the biological warfare lab that his work is "evil" and he will claim he is "preseving freedom" or some such rationalization, to him the thought of not planning for nuclear war is "evil".
The only "fairytale propaganda" here is the idea that creating a product is "evil". Moral relativists constantly point to the guy creating nuclear missiles for their own nations defence and call him "evil", while creating excuses for terrorists and mass murderers, and refusing to condemn them. Very few people seem to understand what the world "evil" means any more. Looks like it'll take another world-war for you to start to understand again.
Slashdot Mirror
....and here in Canada we go to the opposite extreme. Here an 80 year old man can legaly have sex with a 14 year old girl (or an 80 year old woman with a 14 year old boy I suppose), and can even document it if the images are intended for personal use and are not shared with others. Now, which one of these systems is better?
Discuss.
The Bomb Squads of the other cities didn't RECEIVE any calls, or they would have responded in the same manner. And how exactly do you "evaluate the possibility that the thing even is a bomb before evacuating the populace" without being able to physically examine the thing? What, you think the bomb squad has some magical CIA spy satellite that they can use to detect explosives from the comfort of their lay-z-boys? Seriously, give your head a shake and start fresh. Obviously you're totally oblivious about police procedures, but you can't be THIS devoid of common sense.
Eh, no Mr Bomb expert, we shouldn't "detonate" everything, but when the police get a possible bomb called in, they have to take it seriously. If they treat it like a real bomb and it turns out to be a hoax, the worst that happens is that they waste some time, people get excited, and clueless idiots on slashdot get a new topic to rant and rave about. On the other hand, if they treat it like a joke and it turns out to be a real bomb, the bomb squad suddenly gets reduced in size, some women and kids get to cry over flag-draped coffins, and assholes everywhere get to mutter and laugh about "dumb cops".
Since you're such an explosives expert, why don't you outline what changes should be made to bomb-squad policy in order to avoid these incidents in the future? Hell, I've got an idea! Next time they have a bomb threat, they can just call up you and the other slashdot nerds! Your linux experience will come in real handy while you're on your hands and knees, with your face inches away from what could be a live explosive. Then you can show all those dumb comps what a joke their job really is!
Alright, I finally located a public tracker, so here it is. I pulled out all the commercial apps (or at least I think I did) but replaced some of 'em with free ones, so the majority of the functionality should still be there. Enjoy!
This seems like a good time to link to James Randi's Project Alpha Hoax.
You had to go and get all reasonable, didn't you?
The ONLY "logical fallacy" I committed was ad-hominem, and I was quite aware of it, thanks. In certain cases, refuting the argument is unnecessary, and ad-hominem becomes more fun, less time consuming, and just as effective. I don't bother trying to refute the claims of animal-freedom zealots either, I just call them a bunch of friggin' loons and leave it at that. Why waste your time disputing an argument when rational people will see it's irrationality anyway?
Since you were civil though, I will take the time to answer you. It seems our biggest misunderstanding is on the definition of "abuse". You seem to define abuse as "tracking someone without their consent". I define it as doing something with that information. For instance:
Let's say a cop decides to place a tracking device on my vehicle for no reason. He gets lucky and manages to track me to a well known gang house. So far he hasn't really abused my rights - all he's done is follow me. On my way home he pulls me over and finds 200 lbs of cocaine in my vehicle. NOW it's an abuse of my rights - but here comes the good part: when the case goes to court, he still needs to justify WHY he pulled me over and why he planted the tracking device in the first place.
This is the same as a case we had in my city a few months back - a black man in an SUV got pulled over for no reason, drugs and a weapon were found in his vehicle, and he was charged. However, because the police officer couldn't provide a valid reason for pulling him over in the first place, all charges had to be dropped. As much as I hate the thought of a criminal being let go on a technicality, it was the right decision for the courts to make, and legally speaking the guy has every right to sue the police department for violating his rights.
So will this technology be abused? Sure, all police powers are abused at some point, and this one will be no different. There have always been some bad cops, and there always will be. Will it be abused systemically though? Not without some major changes to the legal code and the constitution. And when it IS abused by an individual, there is enough accountability in the system that it will be caught and corrected the majority of the time.
So in summary, that is why warrants for the use of GPS tracking devices are unnecessary. There are other reasons too ofcourse, but this should be the easiest one to understand.
Spending a 10th of what you currently spend would give you a military of 300,000 tops, including active, reserve, and national guard. Compare that to China's 6 million active and reserve.
The biggest problem with a massive decrease would be exactly what people bitch about these days. When you finally DID end up mobilizing your military, you'd have to recruit like mad and re-instate the draft. This would lead to a decrease in level of training and professionalism, which would result in an increase in crimes and human rights abuses as well as a major increase in US casualties. Lower budget also means less equipment and less R&D, so your new draftees would be going to war without all the fancy weapons and armour that we're used to these days, and their technology would at best be on-par with your enemies, if not a couple generations behind them.
Decreasing the military only seems like a good idea until you actually have to go to war. Then everyone's pointing fingers trying to blame someone else for endangering the nation.
Naw, couldn't be.
Because we always deal with the easy solutions first. What are you, a child? This is like saying that most fires will burn out of control too quickly for any individual to fight 'em, therefore we shouldn't bother having fire-extinguishers. It's just stupid.
Right. And then next year when some maniac makes the same device, only this time attaches a block of C4 to it, who will you hold responsible when it blows up a few dozen of your fellow citizens?
Tell ya what, give me your address and I'll personally drop off a package at your front door. Then you can try and figure out whether it's got explosives in it or not. For added fun, you can also try and figure out whether it's wired to a pressure or mercury switch that'll set it off if you try to move it. Maybe one of your kids will see it first, before you even get home. Then you'll have the pleasure of explaining to the media how happy you are that your kid was the one who detonated it, instead of those silly cops over-reacting and sending in the bomb-squad.
This kind of action is only considered an "over-reaction" when it turns out to be a false alarm.
*sigh* Einstein, without all that money that was "wasted on the military" over the last couple centuries, you could kiss your modern lifestyle goodbye. I understand that you hippie-love-children have a problem with rational thought, but just trust me on this one, ok? Getting your country conquered is not a good way to ensure an improvement in the environment.
Well, I already got my final +1, without doing any work :)
Seriously, I'd be happy to put it up on a torrent site, but the problem is that:
a) I'd first need to make damn sure I clean all my personal settings from all the programs (such as the firefox password manager).
and
b) I'd have to remove some of the programs which are actually commercial programs that I've paid for and then made portable.
I can probably set up a slimed down version if you want though. Let me know.
That's fine, you're certainly entitled to your paranoia. You probably also don't trust cops not to abuse the ability to pull people over for speeding, or affect arrests without a warrant. My comment was aimed more at people who are actually able to look at their own beliefs and evaluate them honestly.
What software would I like to see loaded up? Well, here's what's on MY USB stick:
Accesories
Calcute, Converber, Convert, Guillotine, Launchy, Boot Floppy Creator, WinRAR, Rejar, XN Resource Editor, Resource viewer, decompiler & recompiler., Universal Extractor, Allway Sync, pathsync, Batcher, Bulk Rename Utility, DataTool, XpAssociate,
Internet
mIRC, Miranda IM, qm - Quick Mailer, Thunderbird Portable, Opera , read_IE_proxy, VNC server for Win32, VNCViewer, ChrisControl, GreatNews: the intelligent rss reader, FollowMeIP (Show External IP),
File Transfer
Quick 'n Easy FTP Server 3.0, Portable WackGet, FTP Wanderer, HTTP File Server, utorrent,
Scanners
Network Stumbler, Angry IP scanner, MozillaCookiesView, IPNetInfo, HTTP Get Headers, SuperScan 4 Beta 1, SmartSniff, CurrPorts, NetStat Live, trout (Trace Route), WhoisThisDomain,
Uniform Server
Start Main Server, Stop Main Server, Start SlimFTPd, Stop SlimFTPd,
Media
CD / DVD
DvdReMake Pro, DVD Shrink 3.2, IFO-file editor, MuxMan, Windows XP Virtual CD, PowerISO, CDex CD-Ripper, BonkEnc Audio Encoder, Nero InfoTool, DVDINFOPro, Alcohol 120%, Standalone CD/DVD Burner, DeepBurner, EasyDVDBurner,
Graphics / Imaging
IrfanView, XnView, PaintStar, Portable GIMP, Resize, animagic32, Analyzer, LiquidIcon Editor, FSCapture, SnIco Editor, ColorCop, SmartMorph,
Audio
XMPlay, coolplayer, 1by1, Foobar2000, Easy MP3 Alarm Clock, mpTrim, WakeMeUP,
Video
Ant Movie Catalog, VLC Media Player, VLC Media Player - no skins, Media Player Classic, VirtualDub,
Office
Notepad++ : a free (GNU) source code editor, TED Notepad for Windows, UltraEdit-32 Professional Text/Hex Editor, ICEReaderRetail, Foxit Reader Pro, PdftkBuilder, TreePad Lite, Spell Magic, Total Organizer,
OpenOffice
OpenOffice.org, Writer, Calc, Base, Impress , Math , Draw ,
System
pstools, MyUninstaller, Autostart program viewer, Dependency Walker, DiskRecon, DiskImage, PassWordRenew, RegEdit PE, RegScanner, Registry Monitor, TreeSize Professional, ImageExplorer, Tola's patching engine v1.8, AbsoluteShield File Shredder, Removes hard to remove files, WhyReboot,
HD Tools
HDHacker, HDD Temperature Monitor, HDSpeed, HD Tune, Partition Table Doctor 3.0, Partition Table Editor for Windows, PartitionInfo Windows NT Version, Symantec GhostCast Server for Windows, Symantec Ghost Explorer, Symantec Ghost,
Info / Benchmark
Game XP, ClockGen, CPU-Z Application, aida32, everest, USB Browser, Parmavex WinAudit, RightMark Memory Analyzer, ServiWin Service and Driver manager,
Copy / Undelete
ActiveUndelete, Restoration, Unstopable Copier, BadCopy - Disk & CD Data Recovery Utility, raid,
Maintanance / Repair
Windows XP SP2 TCP/IP patch, ClamWin Portable, CCleaner Portable, xp-AntiSpy, Norton WinDoctor, Norton Disk Doctor, Ad-Aware SE, JkDefrag, Disk Analysis and Cleanup Utility, WinsockFix,
Security
TrueCrypt, Keylogger Detector, KeePass Password Safe v1.05, Omziff, Internet Explorer Passwords Viewer, WirelessKeyView, pcANYWHERE password, PasswordsPro, SAMInside, SAMInside, pwdump2,
Windows Shortcuts
edit_lmhosts, System, Add or Remove Programs, Computer Management, Services, Performance, Display, Network Connections, Printers and Faxes, Sounds and Audio Devices,
Games
lwwin, zetrix, rh, Bridging_the_Gap_v1, Process Explorer, My Computer, DSynchronize, DM2, Firefox, x2 - explorer replacement,
And all of it menued under PStart.
lol
:)
well, at least you're a funny spelling nazi
Trust me on this: the cops have absolutely no interest in where you're going. All you paranoid maniacs need to stop thinking that you're the centre of the universe, and assuming that everyone wants to know everything about you. We don't. You're irrelevant and useless, and we have no interest in you whatsoever. If you're crazy enough, we might be marginally interested in you as a source of amusement, but that's about it.
Police are only interested in where you've been or where you're going if they have a reason to suspect you of a crime. And if they suspect you of a crime, they can already track your movements - it's called surveillance (you know, like the "steakout" in your favourite holywood trash-flick). Police have never needed a warrant to track your movements for the simple fact that there is no such thing as a right to "privacy of movement"! Nor should there be. If you're moving around in public, people will see you. Period. The only restraint placed on police use of GPS surveillance should be the need to have probable cause.
No, you're right. I'd say about 10-20% of the modern day "peace" movement are still adherents of the communist movement. Another 15% are clearly fascist in nature, as demonstrated by their behaviour at the rallies. A further 20% attend only as a chance to voice their anti-semitic views in a forum where they can pretend that they're not being anti-semitic, only "critical of Zionism". And the rest are mainly paranoid-delusional imbeciles who think corporate interests are ruining the world, anyone right of Chomsky is evil, and that the way to fix this is by giving the government more money, but less control over individual freedoms. I'd say maybe 2% of the protesters I've met are actually rational individuals with a decent, logically thought out point to make.
As far as communism goes though, while the majority might not be communists any more, the organizational structure behind most groups and rallies is still communist. If you doubt this, do some research on "ANSWER".
And as for Marx, the guy was actually a proponent of capitalism. Most "communists" don't really understand Marx. If he were here today, he'd be at the rallies beating the ANSWER kids to death with their own signs.
Ah. So this is really just another "Microsoft is unsafe" rant. Well. That's been done to death, all the dumb claims have been answered, and people still continue spreading the myths. Whatever. I'm not getting into a pointless religious argument with an Open-Source zealot.
Christ. Let me guess - you still own a betamax machine, right?
These decisions are more difficult that simply looking at competing products and seeing which one is "superior". If you can't understand that there are literally dozens of factors which play into these decisions then I don't know what else I can say to you. As a quick overview: businesses need to consider long term support costs, compatibility with other users, and re-training costs for their employees. Those would be the minimal considerations for a business thinking of moving to a new product, and for 99% of them switching away from MS Office is not worthwhile. It's the same reason most businesses won't switch to linux - it's simply not viable for most companies.
We value conf.....listen stinkynuts, standards have nothing to do with conformity, and everything to do with making day-to-day life possible. If you "don't want to conform", fine, feel free. Wear a clown costume to work, cook your breakfast on top of your VCR, make up your own language, and fuel your car with lemonade. Me, I can maintain my individuality while still following common-sense standards.
Arms companies provide plenty of meaningful employment, and generate a hell of a lot of tax revenue. The fact that they're also selling weapons to some back-asswards idiots in Shithole City, Central Africa, is irrelevant. In case you haven't noticed, people over there are more than happy to slaughter each other with machetes and rocks. Selling them modern weaponry doesn't change anything other than creating jobs for us and making the murders less brutal. If you'd ever seen someone chopped apart with a machete, you'd realize that handing his executioner a rifle is an act of mercy in comparison. Besides which, the peace movements commie heroes sell more weaponry to the rest of the world than the western world could ever hope to match. There's a reason why the AK-47 is the worlds most prevalent assault-rifle, and no, it's not made in America.
The only "fairytale propaganda" here is the idea that creating a product is "evil". Moral relativists constantly point to the guy creating nuclear missiles for their own nations defence and call him "evil", while creating excuses for terrorists and mass murderers, and refusing to condemn them. Very few people seem to understand what the world "evil" means any more. Looks like it'll take another world-war for you to start to understand again.
What's that thing, like 2 karats? Doesn't look like you could do much with it....
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophy.