But finding a few terrorists by mass surveillance of the phone calls and email messages of 300 million Americans is mathematically impossible
That's an interesting* assertion that I see no proof of in the linked article. And of course, it rests what feeble attempts at proof on (a) complete guesswork and (b) the assumption that phonetapping is the only factor in identifying terrists. That entire article is a complete nonsequiter.
People tend to clump in certain social networks, and phones calls are a decent way of determining this.
This is exactly what the NSA is using the records for. No one is sitting there recording 2 billion phone calls a day. They're building a large call graph and using it as an investigative aid.
I don't know if it's a great name either, but names for products don't need to be descriptive. 'XBox', as noted is a fine name. So is 'iPod.' So is 'Rational Rose.' Etcetera.
Sorry, I calls 'em like I sees 'em. I see a guy who thinks the system is broken (and it is) and won't lift a finger to try and change it. You've detailed a lot of excuses about how it can't make a difference and blah blah blah but that's all just an excuse. Your vote and participation does make a difference, especially in local elections. I can excuse missing a presidential election, but local elections affect you far more directly than national ones and your vote is actually significant.
Like everyone else said, that's not a solid state disk. If you google the part number, it comes up as a Thinkpad part number. As far as I know, no thinkpads had solid-state hard drives.
After some point, you really have to wonder if Princess Peach doesn't want to be kidnapped. Once or twice, ok, sure, Bowser is a real jerk. Eventually, you gotta figure that the Princess must not really mind it so much, if you get my drift.
I'm not really arguing over the JCP. I don't know that much about it, just vague impressions that it's simply a mouthpiece for Sun. I don't really care much one way or the other, truth be told. My only point was that.net was an open standard. I probably should have read farther up the parent tree before I replied, but there you have it.
Right up until Microsoft drudges up a patent for WinForms or some other technology not covered by ECMA standard.
That's why I added the "currently" disclaimer - everyone is rightfully distrustful of MS in this arena. As for whether I think.net is a wise gamble, I guess that'd depend on what I was wagering.
No, every library hasn't been submitted to ecma, but then again Mono isn't supporting every library, nor is it supporting vb.net. These are quibbles -.net is (currently, at any rate) for all intents and purposes an open standard.
"No, it isn't too late, because no, I am not a part of it. "
Unless you're someone who isn't affected by American politics, yes, you are.
"In fact, I feel I AM doing my part by not voting. They like to moan about low voter turnout these days. Hey, you know what? Give us something worth voting for and not the same old sack of trash and we just might make it to the polls."
You think politicians care about low voter turnout? Nowhere in the US system is an incentive for candidates to encourage high voter turnout. Keeping people who'd vote for the other guy home is just as important as getting people who'll vote for you to the polls.
The result is an utter mess that I, personally, will have no part in.
Too late, you're already in it.
It's awfully convenient to just say "oh, they're all clowns, what's the use?" and tune out, isn't it? It just absolves you of any responsibility and you get to complain about how "those damn dirty politicians" keep screwing you. Sure, you did nothing to oppose their election, and sure, you actually got up on your high horse about how it's your right as an American to just sit back and drift with the flow, but dammit, the flow didn't take you where you wanted! Lousy politicians!
I grew up in the city. If there's on thing that pisses me off, it's people that post definitions of common words, as if to imply they were imparting deep wisdom unto the masses.
yeah. if only there was some way we could have -helped- people like Newton and Erdos. Instead of frittering away their lives as social misfits, we could have guided them into happy, fulfilling lives.
Reading books like "The Golden Bough" or "Animal Farm" or any of those dusty old books by old, dead white men just encourages mental laziness - you're sitting there, reading words without any kind of interaction on your own. Also it reinforces eurocentric patriarchical values, which is bad.
Compared to Gran Tourismo 3, where you're mentally actively engaged in racing a really fast car or Donkey Konga, where you're using your powers of mental thinking to their utmost to make an ape jump and run using conga drums, reading some dumb book just so you can talk to people and look smart about knowing some old junk is plain stupid.
They wanted to bring the country into a civil war with the Golden Mosque bombings and related attacks, they have failed.
I dunno, I'm hearing a lot of people saying that the situation there now is essentially a slowly-simmering civil war, just waiting for the US to leave. A lot of these people are the shrill, overreacting types I tend to not listen to closely to, but some friends I trust are saying the same thing. Again, it's hard to say way over here, but I'm skeptical about long-term success there.
I don't want to press the iraq-vietnam analogy very far at all, because I think they're dissimilar in many, many aspects.
I think our success can only be measured by our ability to give Iraq the ability to defend themselves and our ability to make Iraq free. To that end, Iraq has had free elections, we've incorporated the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites into the government and we training of their military is ongoing.
My impression of the popularly elected government is that it is immensely fragile and that, for the majority of Iraqis, is essentially switching one strong Saddam for many small ones. Oh, and also their power and water don't work and they're shelled every now and then. I don't imagine that the Iraqi government will survive long in the power vaccuum when the US leaves. I hope I'm wrong, and I very well could be. It's hard to judge what things are actually like there there's so much noise.
What progress can insurgents really say they have made since the start of the war?
That they've been an immensely destabilizing influence? Which is really their goal. They obviously can't fight the US toe-to-toe, hence the adoption of the Maoist tactics.
You could have said the same thing about Vietnam until close to the end. It's classic Maoist tactics and just saying "We're still there" really doesn't mean much. Mao saw that Western democracies just don't have the patience for 12 years of war over things that don't directly concern them. And he's right.
The US simply refuses to learn from history that the enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend, much as the friend of your enemy is not necessarily your enemy. Syngman Rhee, Dihn Diem, Noriega, now here. It's the broken goddamn record of foreign policy.
Slashdot Mirror
That's an interesting* assertion that I see no proof of in the linked article. And of course, it rests what feeble attempts at proof on (a) complete guesswork and (b) the assumption that phonetapping is the only factor in identifying terrists. That entire article is a complete nonsequiter.
*by 'interesting' I mean 'stupid'
This is exactly what the NSA is using the records for. No one is sitting there recording 2 billion phone calls a day. They're building a large call graph and using it as an investigative aid.
http://www.cogitoinc.com/articles/gsn.htm
Pairing with Dell. Paring with Dell makes it sound like they're making pies.
Mmmmm. Googledell pie.
I don't know if it's a great name either, but names for products don't need to be descriptive. 'XBox', as noted is a fine name. So is 'iPod.' So is 'Rational Rose.' Etcetera.
whoa, hey, has anyone else noticed that "wii" sounds a lot like toddler slang for either pee or penis?
Man, I really would have expected a lot more jokes about this. How was this rich treasure trove of humor overlooked?!?
Sorry, I calls 'em like I sees 'em. I see a guy who thinks the system is broken (and it is) and won't lift a finger to try and change it. You've detailed a lot of excuses about how it can't make a difference and blah blah blah but that's all just an excuse. Your vote and participation does make a difference, especially in local elections. I can excuse missing a presidential election, but local elections affect you far more directly than national ones and your vote is actually significant.
"on sale for $160 USD for 32GB size of it."
Like everyone else said, that's not a solid state disk. If you google the part number, it comes up as a Thinkpad part number. As far as I know, no thinkpads had solid-state hard drives.
After some point, you really have to wonder if Princess Peach doesn't want to be kidnapped. Once or twice, ok, sure, Bowser is a real jerk. Eventually, you gotta figure that the Princess must not really mind it so much, if you get my drift.
Right up until Microsoft drudges up a patent for WinForms or some other technology not covered by ECMA standard.
That's why I added the "currently" disclaimer - everyone is rightfully distrustful of MS in this arena. As for whether I think .net is a wise gamble, I guess that'd depend on what I was wagering.
the CLI is the heart of .net, as you know.
.net is (currently, at any rate) for all intents and purposes an open standard.
No, every library hasn't been submitted to ecma, but then again Mono isn't supporting every library, nor is it supporting vb.net. These are quibbles -
because it's not a proprietary standard
http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/ecma/
Drag and drop and accordion panes are totally unintuitive.
hyperlinks, tables and full page refreshes were good enough for my grandpappy and they're good enough for me!
I'm far more likely to mistake your 'disgust for the game' for laziness.
"No, it isn't too late, because no, I am not a part of it. "
Unless you're someone who isn't affected by American politics, yes, you are.
"In fact, I feel I AM doing my part by not voting. They like to moan about low voter turnout these days. Hey, you know what? Give us something worth voting for and not the same old sack of trash and we just might make it to the polls."
You think politicians care about low voter turnout? Nowhere in the US system is an incentive for candidates to encourage high voter turnout. Keeping people who'd vote for the other guy home is just as important as getting people who'll vote for you to the polls.
"but no way in hell are you going to get enough people to waste their time to make progress."
Not in a country full of people like you, no.
Too late, you're already in it.
It's awfully convenient to just say "oh, they're all clowns, what's the use?" and tune out, isn't it? It just absolves you of any responsibility and you get to complain about how "those damn dirty politicians" keep screwing you. Sure, you did nothing to oppose their election, and sure, you actually got up on your high horse about how it's your right as an American to just sit back and drift with the flow, but dammit, the flow didn't take you where you wanted! Lousy politicians!
Well, I guess your posts about how books don't activate your brain kind of start to make sense now.
I grew up in the city. If there's on thing that pisses me off, it's people that post definitions of common words, as if to imply they were imparting deep wisdom unto the masses.
yeah. if only there was some way we could have -helped- people like Newton and Erdos. Instead of frittering away their lives as social misfits, we could have guided them into happy, fulfilling lives.
I was hoping for a return of Cranky Steve's Haunted Whorehouse map reviews. :mad:
Reading books like "The Golden Bough" or "Animal Farm" or any of those dusty old books by old, dead white men just encourages mental laziness - you're sitting there, reading words without any kind of interaction on your own. Also it reinforces eurocentric patriarchical values, which is bad.
Compared to Gran Tourismo 3, where you're mentally actively engaged in racing a really fast car or Donkey Konga, where you're using your powers of mental thinking to their utmost to make an ape jump and run using conga drums, reading some dumb book just so you can talk to people and look smart about knowing some old junk is plain stupid.
I dunno, I'm hearing a lot of people saying that the situation there now is essentially a slowly-simmering civil war, just waiting for the US to leave. A lot of these people are the shrill, overreacting types I tend to not listen to closely to, but some friends I trust are saying the same thing. Again, it's hard to say way over here, but I'm skeptical about long-term success there.
I think our success can only be measured by our ability to give Iraq the ability to defend themselves and our ability to make Iraq free. To that end, Iraq has had free elections, we've incorporated the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites into the government and we training of their military is ongoing.
My impression of the popularly elected government is that it is immensely fragile and that, for the majority of Iraqis, is essentially switching one strong Saddam for many small ones. Oh, and also their power and water don't work and they're shelled every now and then. I don't imagine that the Iraqi government will survive long in the power vaccuum when the US leaves. I hope I'm wrong, and I very well could be. It's hard to judge what things are actually like there there's so much noise.
What progress can insurgents really say they have made since the start of the war?
That they've been an immensely destabilizing influence? Which is really their goal. They obviously can't fight the US toe-to-toe, hence the adoption of the Maoist tactics.
You could have said the same thing about Vietnam until close to the end. It's classic Maoist tactics and just saying "We're still there" really doesn't mean much. Mao saw that Western democracies just don't have the patience for 12 years of war over things that don't directly concern them. And he's right.
The US simply refuses to learn from history that the enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend, much as the friend of your enemy is not necessarily your enemy. Syngman Rhee, Dihn Diem, Noriega, now here. It's the broken goddamn record of foreign policy.
... but I don't really think that was the theory the Iraq war was launched on.