There is absolutely nothing that you can put away for decades and expect to be useful. Your requirements are not simple - they'll actually very, very hard to meet, even if you want to throw a lot of money at the problem.
Wrong. He should pick out the most important photos, and have them printed to archival paper. He could then print all the the important documents to paper.
I have tens of thousands of photos on my hard drives, but most of them are near duplicates, bad exposures, or have some other flaw. I have a few hundred really good ones. I've printed them and they are in a drawer with all my pre-digital camera photo prints. Easy. Paper is still the best archival tech we have. It isn't a difficult solution, but it does require a bit of prioritizing.
Actually the process of diagnosing any failure is like this. When you have a cataclysmic software bug do you settle on your first explanation, or do you make a quick hypothesis, check it, reject it, then come up with another as facts dictate?
Well if you are the government the first thing you do is delete the software a thoroughly and quickly as possible, then you start fresh with some super simplified assumptions and reach a conclusion that is physically impossible.
The government put a tremendous effort into cutting up and hauling off ALL of the structural steel and getting it recycled in far off lands. This prevented any forensic analysis of the physical evidence. Now all anyone has to go on is eyewitness reports, photos, videos, and a few small bits of physical evidence.
Then NIST created a still secret software model of the buildings and and then modified the "initial conditions" until they got the desired result, which was of course that the impact of the planes was exclusivly responsible for the collapse. In order to get their desired result they had to conclude a variety of things that were disproven by their own tests. They had to then cook up reasons to ignore their own test data. The reasons tend to be things like "the test data was not consistent with building collapse." Which can be translated as the test data was not consistent with our theory of the building collapse. You may also find it interesting to learn that they did not examine the actual events of the collapse. So they were able to ignore the orange hot molten metal pouring out of the building corners a few minutes before collapse, the pyroclastic flow of debris during the collapse, the ejection of structural steel in relatively small sections at high horizontal speed from the collapse, the eyewitness reports of explosions, the fact that the buildings collapsed faster than is consistent with the law of conservation of momentum, and many other elements of physical evidence which undermine the official story.
I haven't yet had a chance to read the, just released, WTC7 report. I'll hazard a guess that NIST had to go through a similar process of contortion, selective use of evidence, and obfuscated computer models to reach a politically acceptable set of conclusions.
Check out Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth ae911truth.org. Just read the right column on the main page.
My 5 year old has had a computer for 3 years. In fact I'm using it right now. My boss gave us a ~2001 IBM X40, their answer to the iMac. It has an lcd screen with the motherboard behind the screen and the drives etc in the base. It ran win98 and was totally hosed. The OS was unusable. It was accessing the drive every 2 seconds, and was impossibly slow. I gave up trying to fix that and installed edubuntu. It has a bunch of educational software included. I hated Gnome. I learned that mostly edubuntu is setup for easy networking for classrooms, so I installed kubuntu, and the education software from the installer program. One day he said, "Dad I want my computer to be blue." We took the case apart and painted the case blue. He's put stickers all the way around the screen bezel. It is our primary tv/dvd player. I've set up icons on the desktop that take him to a few different flash based games sites, like disney, thomas the tank engine, and the Doctor Who website. He loves these games. Most of the edubuntu games are for 5 and up, but a few are great even for a 2 year old.
I set up a link on his desktop to open a text editor so he can write things.
I gave him an email from my domain and set up thunderbird. He doesn't use this much.
He has a pictures folder with pics we've taken of him. He has a video folder with videos of him. I digitized an ancient CVR of Benji. He loves that movie. I did the same with the Wizard of Oz, another favorite.
He is perfectly comfortable with unpluging all the wires, getting me to move it to his room and setting back up by himself.
On my computer (winXP) we bought an inexpensive program called pixel whimsey. You run it and it takes over the keyboard and mouse completely. It's a sort of drawing program that is animated. each key on the keyboard does something. For instance you can paint something and make it rain and the drawing will melt. It's hard to describe with out sounding like total stoner. It's fun. To close the program you have to type "Qq". Short of spitting up on the keyboard or pouring juice on the cpu the kid wont screw up your computer.
Pagers work well in hospitals partly because hospitals have typically have hardwired phones all over the place. Years ago I had a pager for work. I called it my leash. The boss would occasionally yank on the leash and I would have to go on a hunt for a payphone. That would be nearly impossible today. Payphones are almost impossible to find anymore.
I think Palin hit closer to home for most voters. I'm sure most people don't know what the Bush Doctrine [youtube.com], read a paper [youtube.com], or could name a supreme court decision they agreed with [youtube.com], or have any clue about international relations [youtube.com].
This voter can.
Bush Doctrine = we can invade countries that haven't attacked us
News source = BBC online, Guardian Online, NY Times, SF Crummycle, the Marin IJ (Palin couldn't name ANY new source)
Good Sup. Court decision = Miranda, and that Detainees have Habeus Corpus rights, and that the 2nd amendment describes a personal right
and on that last one I could go on for hours.
But am I qualified to be VP (and therefore Pres?) probably not, but I am MUCH more qualified that that moron from Alaska.
It's not like Joe the plumber was expected to know these things. Palin was running for high office! Those were not only reasonable questions they were totally softball questions. I would argue that the press never got a chance to ask tough questions of Palin, because she failed to to even comprehend what they were asking when they lobbed softball questions her way.
People keep saying that the vote and the election were all about Obama. I disagree. I think Obama's win was because most people were voting against a continuation of Bush policies, and because they were terrified of the possibility of a President Palin.
Although it'd be nice to believe that a socialist poltician got his money from the masses, it's not true. Obama's pockets were lined by George Soros's MoveOn.org, . Do some searches like 'obama campaign finance fraud' and 'obama foreign donations'.
Boy there are sooo many things wrong with this statement.
First, though I would like it if Obama really was a socialist he isn't. He isn't even close. Anyone who believes that a progressive income tax is socialism has no understanding of what socialism is.
Next, George Soros is a dyed in the wool capitalist. He would not support a real socialist candidate.
Next, Move On does not belong to George Soros. It is controlled by a small cabal of people that could be characterized as "progressive democrats." What is special about MoveOn, is that they were really the first organization that really leveraged some effective techniques for on-line organizing and on-line fund raising. They were in the right position to tap into the very deep current of disgust at the Bush policies. They are also not very democratically controlled, and often make dumb tactical mistakes.
Last, drinking the Fox news cool-aid that typically leads to the kinds of irrational thinking displayed above, also causes bigotry, irrational fears, and eventually permanent brain damage. You really ought to lay off that stuff and pick a safer recreational drug like sniffing gasoline or mainlining speedballs.
I think there should be a cabinet position, The Secretary of Science and Technology. Put the EPA, NSF, etc. under that department. One of the key positions would be Undersecretary for Information Services (who would be like a CIO) Of course the first time we get another republican in the white house they'd probably pick Sarah Palin to be the Sec of S&T. Oh well.
What about 10" floppies? What about cassette tapes? My Atari 400 had cassette tapes.
Don't forget analogue formats, 33rpm, 45rpm, 78rpm, and 16rpm audio disks. Ooh Edison cylinders, don't forget them!
The real blame lies with the 1990s president who repealed the Glass-Steagall of 1933 w
The majority of this can be put onto bad lending practices and the bundling and selling of these loans.
Actually both of you are right. The market deregulation that passed in Nov of 1999, and was signed by Clinton, allowed these financial institutions to speculate with near unlimited leveraging in the derivatives market (particularly the credit default swaps). That is what built the house of cards which is currently falling on our heads. The totally insane lending and even crazier repackaging of bad loans as AAA rated securities is what lead to the bottom level of cards being yanked out.
Incidentally had the 1999 market deregulation not passed that year, it would have reared it's ugly head again the next and it would certainly have been full of even more deregulation madness.
Watch your heads, there are something like 60 trillion dollars of impossible to value credit default swaps hanging out there waiting to come crashing down on us. Makes the $0.7 trillion bailout seem paltry. And that's nothing compared to the over one half quadrillion market for derivatives, that is equally shaky. Most of those derivatives are leveraged to the tune of 60:1. Leveraging in the range of 10:1 to 20:1 is what lead to the stock market crash of 1929. This ain't anywhere near being over with.
First it was the tech bubble, then the housing bubble, next is the derivatives bubble. But look! We have something to make all that look like small change, the cosmic bubble. I bet the taxpayer is going to take it up the rear over that one as well.
I'm not a huge DMCA expert, but I remember a few bits. If someone like youtube gets a DMCA takedown notice they have to take the material down. If the person who put it up sends a notice saying it isn't in violation then youtube must put it back up.
Does anyone know where to find info on writing a "put it back up" letter? It seems like this would be a good time to make a youtube video on how to respond to DMCA notices. I wonder if youtube sent copies of the notices to each of the users with removed content? I think they are required to, but since IANAL I can't say categorically.
A contract cuts both ways. People were ranting about personal responsibility when that family got hit by $18k roaming charges a few stories ago by AT&T. Companies need to hold themselves to the contract too, they signed the contract saying they'll provide a service under the given terms, so when a user takes advantage of it they have nothing to complain about. If they have oversold their capacity that is solely the ISPs problem.
The devil is in the details in both cases. Despite the fact that the ad for your service claimed unlimited bandwidth, the contract most likely does not.
noscript has a relatively new feature. Click on the blocked video and it'll ask you if you wanna turn on the scripts needed to run the vid. It's nice because I hate the script guessing game.
I'm glad you got some enjoyment out of my comment. Though I wasn't intending to be funny. Mussolini described fascism as the union of state and corporate interests. The current administration has moved us very far in that direction. This would include things like multi-billlion dollar no-bid contracts to favored contractors, privatization of much of the military, an attempt to privatize social security, massive deficit spending, and record growth of the federal government. Additionally they used a terrible disaster to advance an authoritarian agenda. They instituted large scale domestic spying. They removed the restriction on the military operating domestically. They have 'disappeared' people, both domestically and foreign. They torture. They started a major war by invading a country that wasn't a threat, and did so under manufactured pretenses. It sounds a lot like a big move towards fascism, and maybe I missed it, but none of that struck me as very funny.
And I agree that Obama is a bit scary but he is scary in a "misguided policy direction" kind of way. McCain is scary in a "I'm f'n cracked and I have my twitchy finger on the Button" kind of way.
If you recall, tons of people said "Both Al Gore and George Bush are lame politicians" in 1999.
That's exactly how I felt in 2000. Tweedle Dee Vs. Tweedle Dum. Republicrat vs. Demopublican. Boy was I wrong. I was Demopublican vs. Fascist. I thought W was gonna be like his Dad, which wasn't a good thing, I didn't expect him to be a wannabe Mussolini or Franco.
Actually in response to the original question, the best thing that people in general could do would be to recapture the Republican party from the crazy neoconservatives, and return it to it's conservative roots.
The more I learn about him [Obama], the more I view him as just another politician.
I agree and that's why I'm gonna vote for him with enthusiasm. See the other guy isn't just another politician. He's scary. I am truly frightened by John McCain. He has a vicious temper, and I believe lots of deep seated psychological problems. And who could blame him he was tortured for years, and he sang like a bird. Even to the point of making propaganda for the VC. Again I cannot blame him for that, but that sort of thing leaves wounds that don't go away. Can you imagine the hatred, guilt, and fear that must grip him? There are few people on the planet that I would scare me more with his/her finger on the button than Mr. McCain.
I know that what I have just said is part of the worst tradition of American politics, but the simple fact is this. When I hear that they are tied in the polls, I get sick to my stomach. I would honestly rather have 4 more years of Cheney/Bush than 4 years of McCain.
and if it was done the other way would you feel the same about it?
I'd feel... well exactly how I feel because it has been done, many times. There was a widespread phone banking effort in heavily Democratic areas in Florida in 2000 reminding people to vote, on the following Tuesday. If you want to read a laundry list of such abuses, read the Conyers Committee Report on the elections in Ohio in 2004.
There is even more to it than just having a unified environment. I challenge anyone to name one thing that Vista can do and XP can't that my small consulting company needs. Most of our PCs are at least 6 years old at this point and that's just fine. They run Word, Excel, Acrobat, Autocad, email, firefox, and the occasional data download software that comes with some measuring equipment. What more could we possibly need?
I love this idea, "have DOS3.3 installed." When I had a DOS computer you picked which DOS by sticking the appropriate floppy in the floppy drive when you turned the dang thing on. I didn't have a hard drive in a computer until Windows3.1 came along in my 486-33 with a 487 math co-processor. That thing was a speed demon. Most of the games I had were unplayable because things happened too quickly.
ID is not philosophy either. Philosophy (as defined in wikipedia) is "the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, justice, beauty, validity, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions (such as mysticism or mythology) by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned argument."
There is nothing rational or systematic about ID it is clearly mysticism. It starts from a belief (god created man) and then tries to sell it using crap sciencism. It is nothing more than religion trying to imitate science. If ID "should be taught" what about flat-earth-ism? What about the many other very common religious beliefs? Should they all be taught as fact as well? Where should we stick them? P.E.? Home economics? If religious beliefs are to be taught in school the place they belong is in a comparative religion class. ID could be covered under the topic of "how contemporary Christianity interacts with public policy in the US.
In order to argue a flat earth you'd have to deny pretty much everything we know about the physical sciences. And coincidentally in order to deny evolution you have to deny pretty much everything we know about the life sciences. But I suppose that to someone with a pathetic education (include most American adults and children these days) believing in science involves as much faith as believing in some white haired dude who created it all in 6 days, or hat the earth rests on a a turtle and it's turtles all the way down.
This is one of the many ways that a failed education system hurts us all. In the 21st century debate still rages on about things that have been proven hundreds and sometimes thousands of years ago.
Slashdot Mirror
There is absolutely nothing that you can put away for decades and expect to be useful. Your requirements are not simple - they'll actually very, very hard to meet, even if you want to throw a lot of money at the problem.
Wrong. He should pick out the most important photos, and have them printed to archival paper. He could then print all the the important documents to paper.
I have tens of thousands of photos on my hard drives, but most of them are near duplicates, bad exposures, or have some other flaw. I have a few hundred really good ones. I've printed them and they are in a drawer with all my pre-digital camera photo prints. Easy. Paper is still the best archival tech we have. It isn't a difficult solution, but it does require a bit of prioritizing.
Actually the process of diagnosing any failure is like this. When you have a cataclysmic software bug do you settle on your first explanation, or do you make a quick hypothesis, check it, reject it, then come up with another as facts dictate?
Well if you are the government the first thing you do is delete the software a thoroughly and quickly as possible, then you start fresh with some super simplified assumptions and reach a conclusion that is physically impossible.
The government put a tremendous effort into cutting up and hauling off ALL of the structural steel and getting it recycled in far off lands. This prevented any forensic analysis of the physical evidence. Now all anyone has to go on is eyewitness reports, photos, videos, and a few small bits of physical evidence.
Then NIST created a still secret software model of the buildings and and then modified the "initial conditions" until they got the desired result, which was of course that the impact of the planes was exclusivly responsible for the collapse. In order to get their desired result they had to conclude a variety of things that were disproven by their own tests. They had to then cook up reasons to ignore their own test data. The reasons tend to be things like "the test data was not consistent with building collapse." Which can be translated as the test data was not consistent with our theory of the building collapse. You may also find it interesting to learn that they did not examine the actual events of the collapse. So they were able to ignore the orange hot molten metal pouring out of the building corners a few minutes before collapse, the pyroclastic flow of debris during the collapse, the ejection of structural steel in relatively small sections at high horizontal speed from the collapse, the eyewitness reports of explosions, the fact that the buildings collapsed faster than is consistent with the law of conservation of momentum, and many other elements of physical evidence which undermine the official story.
I haven't yet had a chance to read the, just released, WTC7 report. I'll hazard a guess that NIST had to go through a similar process of contortion, selective use of evidence, and obfuscated computer models to reach a politically acceptable set of conclusions.
Check out Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth ae911truth.org. Just read the right column on the main page.
My 5 year old has had a computer for 3 years. In fact I'm using it right now. My boss gave us a ~2001 IBM X40, their answer to the iMac. It has an lcd screen with the motherboard behind the screen and the drives etc in the base. It ran win98 and was totally hosed. The OS was unusable. It was accessing the drive every 2 seconds, and was impossibly slow. I gave up trying to fix that and installed edubuntu. It has a bunch of educational software included. I hated Gnome. I learned that mostly edubuntu is setup for easy networking for classrooms, so I installed kubuntu, and the education software from the installer program. One day he said, "Dad I want my computer to be blue." We took the case apart and painted the case blue. He's put stickers all the way around the screen bezel. It is our primary tv/dvd player. I've set up icons on the desktop that take him to a few different flash based games sites, like disney, thomas the tank engine, and the Doctor Who website. He loves these games. Most of the edubuntu games are for 5 and up, but a few are great even for a 2 year old.
I set up a link on his desktop to open a text editor so he can write things.
I gave him an email from my domain and set up thunderbird. He doesn't use this much.
He has a pictures folder with pics we've taken of him. He has a video folder with videos of him. I digitized an ancient CVR of Benji. He loves that movie. I did the same with the Wizard of Oz, another favorite.
He is perfectly comfortable with unpluging all the wires, getting me to move it to his room and setting back up by himself.
On my computer (winXP) we bought an inexpensive program called pixel whimsey. You run it and it takes over the keyboard and mouse completely. It's a sort of drawing program that is animated. each key on the keyboard does something. For instance you can paint something and make it rain and the drawing will melt. It's hard to describe with out sounding like total stoner. It's fun. To close the program you have to type "Qq". Short of spitting up on the keyboard or pouring juice on the cpu the kid wont screw up your computer.
Pagers work well in hospitals partly because hospitals have typically have hardwired phones all over the place. Years ago I had a pager for work. I called it my leash. The boss would occasionally yank on the leash and I would have to go on a hunt for a payphone. That would be nearly impossible today. Payphones are almost impossible to find anymore.
I think Palin hit closer to home for most voters. I'm sure most people don't know what the Bush Doctrine [youtube.com], read a paper [youtube.com], or could name a supreme court decision they agreed with [youtube.com], or have any clue about international relations [youtube.com].
This voter can. Bush Doctrine = we can invade countries that haven't attacked us
News source = BBC online, Guardian Online, NY Times, SF Crummycle, the Marin IJ (Palin couldn't name ANY new source)
Good Sup. Court decision = Miranda, and that Detainees have Habeus Corpus rights, and that the 2nd amendment describes a personal right
and on that last one I could go on for hours.
But am I qualified to be VP (and therefore Pres?) probably not, but I am MUCH more qualified that that moron from Alaska.
It's not like Joe the plumber was expected to know these things. Palin was running for high office! Those were not only reasonable questions they were totally softball questions. I would argue that the press never got a chance to ask tough questions of Palin, because she failed to to even comprehend what they were asking when they lobbed softball questions her way.
People keep saying that the vote and the election were all about Obama. I disagree. I think Obama's win was because most people were voting against a continuation of Bush policies, and because they were terrified of the possibility of a President Palin.
The "Fairness Doctrine" was shown to the door by the Reagan Administration. The news organizations do not have a responsibility to be unbiased.
Another way of looking at it:
Obama spent most of his energy, ad money, and speeches focusing on himself (and his vague policies.)
McCain spent most of his energy, ad money, and speeches focusing on Obama.
So even the McCain campaign was biased.
But if we consider his pick for Chief of Staff, Rahm(bo) Emmanuel. Steve Ballmer might fit in better. Both are well known for having violent tempers.
Although it'd be nice to believe that a socialist poltician got his money from the masses, it's not true. Obama's pockets were lined by George Soros's MoveOn.org, . Do some searches like 'obama campaign finance fraud' and 'obama foreign donations'.
Boy there are sooo many things wrong with this statement.
First, though I would like it if Obama really was a socialist he isn't. He isn't even close. Anyone who believes that a progressive income tax is socialism has no understanding of what socialism is.
Next, George Soros is a dyed in the wool capitalist. He would not support a real socialist candidate.
Next, Move On does not belong to George Soros. It is controlled by a small cabal of people that could be characterized as "progressive democrats." What is special about MoveOn, is that they were really the first organization that really leveraged some effective techniques for on-line organizing and on-line fund raising. They were in the right position to tap into the very deep current of disgust at the Bush policies. They are also not very democratically controlled, and often make dumb tactical mistakes.
Last, drinking the Fox news cool-aid that typically leads to the kinds of irrational thinking displayed above, also causes bigotry, irrational fears, and eventually permanent brain damage. You really ought to lay off that stuff and pick a safer recreational drug like sniffing gasoline or mainlining speedballs.
I think there should be a cabinet position, The Secretary of Science and Technology. Put the EPA, NSF, etc. under that department. One of the key positions would be Undersecretary for Information Services (who would be like a CIO) Of course the first time we get another republican in the white house they'd probably pick Sarah Palin to be the Sec of S&T. Oh well.
What about 10" floppies? What about cassette tapes? My Atari 400 had cassette tapes. Don't forget analogue formats, 33rpm, 45rpm, 78rpm, and 16rpm audio disks. Ooh Edison cylinders, don't forget them!
The real blame lies with the 1990s president who repealed the Glass-Steagall of 1933 w
The majority of this can be put onto bad lending practices and the bundling and selling of these loans.
Actually both of you are right. The market deregulation that passed in Nov of 1999, and was signed by Clinton, allowed these financial institutions to speculate with near unlimited leveraging in the derivatives market (particularly the credit default swaps). That is what built the house of cards which is currently falling on our heads. The totally insane lending and even crazier repackaging of bad loans as AAA rated securities is what lead to the bottom level of cards being yanked out.
Incidentally had the 1999 market deregulation not passed that year, it would have reared it's ugly head again the next and it would certainly have been full of even more deregulation madness.
Watch your heads, there are something like 60 trillion dollars of impossible to value credit default swaps hanging out there waiting to come crashing down on us. Makes the $0.7 trillion bailout seem paltry. And that's nothing compared to the over one half quadrillion market for derivatives, that is equally shaky. Most of those derivatives are leveraged to the tune of 60:1. Leveraging in the range of 10:1 to 20:1 is what lead to the stock market crash of 1929. This ain't anywhere near being over with.
First it was the tech bubble, then the housing bubble, next is the derivatives bubble. But look! We have something to make all that look like small change, the cosmic bubble. I bet the taxpayer is going to take it up the rear over that one as well.
I'm not a huge DMCA expert, but I remember a few bits. If someone like youtube gets a DMCA takedown notice they have to take the material down. If the person who put it up sends a notice saying it isn't in violation then youtube must put it back up.
Does anyone know where to find info on writing a "put it back up" letter? It seems like this would be a good time to make a youtube video on how to respond to DMCA notices. I wonder if youtube sent copies of the notices to each of the users with removed content? I think they are required to, but since IANAL I can't say categorically.
A contract cuts both ways. People were ranting about personal responsibility when that family got hit by $18k roaming charges a few stories ago by AT&T. Companies need to hold themselves to the contract too, they signed the contract saying they'll provide a service under the given terms, so when a user takes advantage of it they have nothing to complain about. If they have oversold their capacity that is solely the ISPs problem.
The devil is in the details in both cases. Despite the fact that the ad for your service claimed unlimited bandwidth, the contract most likely does not.
noscript has a relatively new feature. Click on the blocked video and it'll ask you if you wanna turn on the scripts needed to run the vid. It's nice because I hate the script guessing game.
I'm glad you got some enjoyment out of my comment. Though I wasn't intending to be funny. Mussolini described fascism as the union of state and corporate interests. The current administration has moved us very far in that direction. This would include things like multi-billlion dollar no-bid contracts to favored contractors, privatization of much of the military, an attempt to privatize social security, massive deficit spending, and record growth of the federal government. Additionally they used a terrible disaster to advance an authoritarian agenda. They instituted large scale domestic spying. They removed the restriction on the military operating domestically. They have 'disappeared' people, both domestically and foreign. They torture. They started a major war by invading a country that wasn't a threat, and did so under manufactured pretenses. It sounds a lot like a big move towards fascism, and maybe I missed it, but none of that struck me as very funny.
And I agree that Obama is a bit scary but he is scary in a "misguided policy direction" kind of way. McCain is scary in a "I'm f'n cracked and I have my twitchy finger on the Button" kind of way.
They're both Pro-
War
Big Government
PATRIOT Act
Domestic Spying
Corruption
"Free Trade" Agreements
Israel
American Empire
Federal Reserve
If you recall, tons of people said "Both Al Gore and George Bush are lame politicians" in 1999.
That's exactly how I felt in 2000. Tweedle Dee Vs. Tweedle Dum. Republicrat vs. Demopublican. Boy was I wrong. I was Demopublican vs. Fascist. I thought W was gonna be like his Dad, which wasn't a good thing, I didn't expect him to be a wannabe Mussolini or Franco.
Actually in response to the original question, the best thing that people in general could do would be to recapture the Republican party from the crazy neoconservatives, and return it to it's conservative roots.
The more I learn about him [Obama], the more I view him as just another politician.
I agree and that's why I'm gonna vote for him with enthusiasm. See the other guy isn't just another politician. He's scary. I am truly frightened by John McCain. He has a vicious temper, and I believe lots of deep seated psychological problems. And who could blame him he was tortured for years, and he sang like a bird. Even to the point of making propaganda for the VC. Again I cannot blame him for that, but that sort of thing leaves wounds that don't go away. Can you imagine the hatred, guilt, and fear that must grip him? There are few people on the planet that I would scare me more with his/her finger on the button than Mr. McCain.
I know that what I have just said is part of the worst tradition of American politics, but the simple fact is this. When I hear that they are tied in the polls, I get sick to my stomach. I would honestly rather have 4 more years of Cheney/Bush than 4 years of McCain.
and if it was done the other way would you feel the same about it?
I'd feel... well exactly how I feel because it has been done, many times. There was a widespread phone banking effort in heavily Democratic areas in Florida in 2000 reminding people to vote, on the following Tuesday. If you want to read a laundry list of such abuses, read the Conyers Committee Report on the elections in Ohio in 2004.
There is even more to it than just having a unified environment. I challenge anyone to name one thing that Vista can do and XP can't that my small consulting company needs. Most of our PCs are at least 6 years old at this point and that's just fine. They run Word, Excel, Acrobat, Autocad, email, firefox, and the occasional data download software that comes with some measuring equipment. What more could we possibly need?
I love this idea, "have DOS3.3 installed." When I had a DOS computer you picked which DOS by sticking the appropriate floppy in the floppy drive when you turned the dang thing on. I didn't have a hard drive in a computer until Windows3.1 came along in my 486-33 with a 487 math co-processor. That thing was a speed demon. Most of the games I had were unplayable because things happened too quickly.
ID is not philosophy either. Philosophy (as defined in wikipedia) is "the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, justice, beauty, validity, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions (such as mysticism or mythology) by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned argument."
There is nothing rational or systematic about ID it is clearly mysticism. It starts from a belief (god created man) and then tries to sell it using crap sciencism. It is nothing more than religion trying to imitate science. If ID "should be taught" what about flat-earth-ism? What about the many other very common religious beliefs? Should they all be taught as fact as well? Where should we stick them? P.E.? Home economics? If religious beliefs are to be taught in school the place they belong is in a comparative religion class. ID could be covered under the topic of "how contemporary Christianity interacts with public policy in the US.
In order to argue a flat earth you'd have to deny pretty much everything we know about the physical sciences. And coincidentally in order to deny evolution you have to deny pretty much everything we know about the life sciences. But I suppose that to someone with a pathetic education (include most American adults and children these days) believing in science involves as much faith as believing in some white haired dude who created it all in 6 days, or hat the earth rests on a a turtle and it's turtles all the way down.
This is one of the many ways that a failed education system hurts us all. In the 21st century debate still rages on about things that have been proven hundreds and sometimes thousands of years ago.