Posts by b shubin

Reaper aerial killbot harvests its first fleshies

Not personal, just business

a whole new meaning to that phrase.

seems like every month, there are ever more increasingly impersonal, high-tech ways of spontaneously killing groups of people one has never met, with governmental sponsorship and on a war-theater scale.

mercenaries, killbots and proxy wars - i do believe i see the shape of conflicts to come. next up is a war that continues for a full century, and barely ever makes the news, as it is mainly a profit center, like some described on nationstates.net forums.

NetApp vends $3k iSCSI storage array

Commodity

one can buy a single box from Coraid for about the same price, use commodity SATA drives, and get 7TB out of it (more as the drive sizes go up, of course). it will also scale to 4095 boxes on one storage system. truly, a product that is good enough at the right price point, so truly great.

this low-end play is too little, too late. now that other vendors are commoditizing this space, NetApp and other premium storage players will have less market share and more pressure.

i'm sure they miss the old days, when they could charge 10 to 50 times as much for exactly the same system. i bet they'd love some protectionist legal action just now...

VoIP is Dead. It's just another feature, now

Plus ca change

@ Tim J

i named it WTTP because the customer is now the premises, no matter where that is. the last mile to the mobile phone is a cellco monopoly. now, i did say "in the US", in case you weren't reading or paying attention, so i am discussing the US problems with consumer-level VoIP, like it says in my post. much of it still applies to other countries, perhaps somewhat less so to the UK.

wired or wireless, a connection is owned by one company, and that company provides connectivity for the service of no other carrier. one can switch carriers, but one has to get a SIM or phone that is locked to the new carrier, who again has exclusive control over the WTTP, the premises being wherever one is at any given moment.

mobile access is not ubiquitous in the US (and in many other countries), so where the user is, makes a big difference (thus the idea of customer as premises, a geographic location); just ask anyone who has a Nextel phone. in some places, one's carrier has no service, and another carrier may - but the user has no service except if the cellco allows one's phone to roam to the other network, provided the two cellcos have an agreement and/or the user has a compatible unlocked phone (and they usually charge a premium for roaming, when they allow it at all). the cellco owns the spectrum, so they own the last mile to the mobile device.

there is more competition than in the wired market, but not by much, as spectrum-licensee oligopolies create the same lock-in situation that enables dominant wired carriers to kill and/or eat the likes of Skype and Vonage with impunity.

there are parallels between the mobile and the wired markets, which is what the article was about, and it mentioned Shirky's thoughts, which i'm guessing you didn't read. perhaps another attempt at the article is in order for you, you seem to have missed some of it.

Fatuous optimism

it has always been about the "last mile".

that whatever-to-the-premises (WTTP - look, i coined an acronym!) medium has always been a monopoly, as long as there have been incumbents. it will probably continue to be so, until that WTTP is commoditized and delivered competitively (which seems unlikely for wired media).

in the US, incumbents have corrupted the regulatory regime to the point where they have no prospects of significant competition for that WTTP. barring what contract lawyers call a MAC (material adverse change), this will likely continue.

i was always skeptical of the idea that VoIP will be revolutionary for the consumer. end-to-end QoS is still uncommon enough to be expensive at the consumer level, and there is no incentive to light enough fiber to deliver contention-free bandwidth (which would make QoS unnecessary); Verizon is the only carrier running fiber to the curb. because VoIP is so vulnerable to latency, it was always hostage to the owners of the WTTP.

it is amusing to read the techno-utopians' fantasies. technology is especially prone to bubbles, because deep knowledge and broad understanding of the context in which every technology is adopted (or not) are very uncommon. fortunately, there is always a reality check at the end of the bubble (listen for the "pop", watch Vonage slowly go bankrupt paying patent fees to the incumbents). unfortunately, many people lose their jobs, their money, or both.

Alan Greenspan called it "irrational exuberance". for anyone who still thinks this bubble is the real deal, i have some tulip bulbs to sell you, they're going to take off big real soon...

Carmack's X-Prize rocket explodes on pad

Waste not, want not

quite correct, it is indeed reusable. a slight explosion followed by a fire does not change the recyclable nature of the device.

one merely has to disassemble, melt, cast, and make a new one. can be done anywhere, i think the Moon already has facilities for this.

just like the man says.

Paris Hilton heads for the cryogenic freezer

Apropos

do bodily fluids count as a "mark upon the world"?

in the US, many people (well, "persons", in the legal sense - i don't really consider that crowd evolved or sophisticated) certainly consider Mr. Clinton's secretion quite relevant, even today.

if so, then surely she has left quite a number of marks already...

TV-Links man was arrested under trademark laws

Mislabeled package

perhaps a better acronym for this copyright organization would be FICTION, or even FANTASY (this case certainly seems whimsical enough).

the F would stand for "fools", the I for "idiots", C for "cretins", T for "tools", A for "arseholes", S for "sheetheads" (ee:=i, but the filter doesn't know that), etc. Y is, of course, "youth" (all catchy acronyms have this).

and while i'm throwing stones, i don't suppose the police still serve their intended purpose, to protect and serve society? truly, they find so many ways to transcend their founding principle, it gives new meaning to "scope creep".

Proposed blogging law outrages Italian netizens

Cradle of "liburdy"

the US has a much more enlightened (and streamlined) approach.

since all communications are now monitored, if the Powers really don't like what you posted (or said, or filmed, or linked to, etc.), a three-letter agency will visit, and if they can convince the Emperor that you are an enemy combatant, you will "softly and silently vanish away", to be not-tortured at a secure, undisclosed location.

Europeans are so quaint.

The first rule of Reg Club is...

I think I got it...

it goes like so:

i shall bitchslap the trolls and feed them my coat, so as to avoid involvement in a land war in Asia between fanboys and apologistas.

oh, and i shall not talk about Reg Club out of respect for Chuck Norris's "IT angle", either (oops).

right, i'll get my grapefruit (gf) then, and be on my way...

Bubbly billygoat-bursting boffinry brouhaha at MoD

Submerged perspective

i scuba (certified, trained, classwork, etc.), so perhaps some hands-on perspective is useful.

as a hobby, scuba is among the least casual and spontaneous, more expensive, time-consuming, demanding and potentially fatal interests a human can have. the content of the forms one has to sign before a dive shop will provide service, makes it explicitly clear that, if the diver is in less-than-optimal health, there is a substantial risk of damage or death, and the facility is not liable for any of it.

having said that, a knowledgeable, experienced, rational diver who follows recommendations given in training, dives with a local guide and a companion, and doesn't show off, is far less likely to get into trouble than, say, someone driving a car. scuba is an interesting, enjoyable, relaxing, and exceedingly odd experience, entirely unlike anything else i've ever done.

one of the things they make clear in training is that, if i ever have to surface immediately from over 20 feet of depth, i am unlikely to do so without permanent damage, and possibly death, hyperbaric chamber or no. this is just how it is, and one accepts the risk. my certification instructor was a survivor of decompression sickness, or "the bends" as it is commonly known, and a very conservative diver.

for professionals, the risk is part of the job, so a bit of a different bag. i hope they find a way to continue this research in some useful form.

i also hope they don't use experimental animals to do it, but it is not my ethical decision to make. ask Mary Kay about the rabbits (credit: Bloom County).

Google updates desktop for Linux

F(ormality)lame

@ Ex Pat (ExTREMELY PatHETIC?)

i think i can speak for all "linux freaks" when i say:

FLAME FLAME FLAME flamety-FLAME flame Micro$oft FLAME The Great Evil FLAME flame flame Bill Gate$ FLAME FLAME burn in Hell flame FLAME Satan flame wibble arrrgh bark ROARRRR!

and furthermore:

lurv LURV (sick twisted obsessive) LURRRV Saint Google lurv LURV David and Larry lurv Tux lurv LURV The Prophet Linus LURV lurv lurv FSF LURV Open Source LURV lurv Stallman lurv lurv LURV The Great Horned God GNU lurv slobber cuddle smooch warm-fuzzy AWWWWW!

be that as it may, i'll stick with what works for me (Linux/*BSD/OS X), thanks. over 20 years of experience supporting MS products (just had to deal with their latest excretion, Vista Home, this past weekend, for my sister-in-law), ranging from embedded devices to datacenter AD/middleware, drove me to the dark side. i need and want something that works like an appliance (think microwave); i have no time to tweak (registry hacking is such fun), massage, update (MS OS), update (AV), update (antimalware), reboot, reboot, beg and cajole, just to keep the box operational.

i am NOT trying to persuade you to switch to anything. PLEASE stay right where you are (on Windows), and do not pollute your mind with useless facts. the longer everyone else takes to get into my area of expertise, the less competition i have, the more experience and knowledge i will acquire, the less competition i will have in the future. MS fanboys shouting their belligerent ignorance to the world are good for me.

carry on.

Curl mounts Silverlight and AIR challenge

Nonstandard

@ Steven Hewittt

proceed to www.google.com, and type in the following, exactly as you see here:

define: technical standard

then click on "search".

the definition of "standard" within the IT sphere is rather formal. it is likely that .NET is the dominant methodology within the monoculture wherein you operate; this does not make .NET a standard.

furthermore, "widely adopted", "rich documentation", and "good community support" do not a standard make. the .NET framework is part of Microsoft's walled garden (porting efforts have been rather feeble so far, and have received ambivalent support from the MotherShip). Windows is also not a standard: even MS marketing reps wouldn't call Vista a standard.

WiFi is a standard. TCP/IP is a standard. HTML is a standard.

.NET is NOT a standard.

MS bashing has nothing to do with it, i just don't like FUD.

"Standard" redefined

again.

news flash: man who makes living off particular Microsoft technology, describes that particular Microsoft technology as a "standard", despite the company's long history of corrupting, sabotaging and ignoring technology standards.

same man also says that other technologies are "fringe", and implies that they are inferior.

i think i've seen this somewhere before. certain terms spring to mind, like "conflict of interest", "sock puppet" and "bias".

is there an acronym, YAPW, as in "Yet Another Pathetic Wanker"? seems to fit.

History dictates future of virtualization

Merit in ubiquity

this is the "invisible" test, very well-known and time-honored.

if a technology is truly compelling, it proceeds rapidly from [1] bleeding-edge ideation, through [2] evaluation, [3] pilot, [4] adoption, [5] standardization, and [6] commoditization, to [7] ubiquity, and thus becomes invisible, because it is present in every case. at that point, it becomes necessary to specify when the technology is NOT present, otherwise everyone assumes that the technology is active.

to give a good example from the management field, when i was in college, TQM (Total Quality Management) was a hot new methodology. just a few years later, if it was mentioned at all, people had to look it up, then nod and say, "oh, yes, of course we do that..."

it was an obvious, effective concept, that went from [1] to [7] in a very short time; now, almost no one remembers what the original term was.

if virtualization is truly a compelling technology, it will "vanish" in a comparably short time. of course, the idea is something of a late bloomer, considering it was first implemented in the Mainframe Age (late Cretaceous? i am old...); still, i think the commentator is right, and technological ubiquity is indeed imminent.

3Com sues 3Com over 3Com buyout

And why not?

at least if the Chinese take over the Moon, they may do something constructive with it.

the US hasn't had much use for it in the last 50 years, except for that one moment during the pissing match...er, "Space Race". since then, they've been too busy watching TV and bombing other countries.

please, have at it. perhaps then, i will have some hope of getting off-planet within my lifetime...

Beijing's Olympian censorship machine laid bare

Capitalism

does just what it says on the box: makes money. lots of money.

money for upper classes in the West, money for the well-connected in China, money for OPEC, bribes and campaign contributions for the necessary politicians, and that's most of it right there.

nowhere in the principles of capitalism will you find passages dealing with human rights, freedom of expression, or any sort of social conscience. it's all about wealth. this is the dark side of globalisation without conditions (China was allowed to join the WTO, despite not having met a whole slew of open-market and liberalization requirements, with the blessing of most western nations, especially the US).

make no mistake, this is exactly the outcome the West chose. now, the developed world will sigh, and wring its hands, and frown anxiously...and do nothing. the leverage is gone.

it is unfortunate that the Chinese government doesn't take a page from Russia, where the powers-that-be take the attitude that anyone can say whatever one likes, as long as the people presently in charge can continue to run the place.

now that is a sensible attitude.

a PR campaign as extensive and intensive as what the Chinese are running, will always have holes, inconsistencies, and blowback. no one will really buy the notion that a country with a million-man army and a long track record of brutal, frequently excessive repression, is suddenly warm-fuzzy, Olympics or no.

AT&T to deliver IBM services for $1bn a year

Borg

@ Daniel

unfortunately, this is no hallucination (and seeing as the party you mentioned is conducting a hokey "medium produces Utopian message" web 2.0 research project, he'd be better off smoking something rather potent).

the US has not seen a monopolist of this magnitude for almost 20 years. the pre-breakup AT&T puts Microsoft in the shade.

i hope they're warmer and fuzzier now, otherwise we will have a real beast on our hands, a Standard Oil of telecom.

Death Star is back

those of us that remember the breakup, will know this for what it truly is.

behold the most authoritative confirmation yet.

after all the takeovers, there was much speculation. has the evil returned? has the corporate superweapon been rebuilt? assembled from updated, improved components, is the new version impervious where the old one was weak?

indeed, it is true: witness the new AT&T, with US$119.3 billion in revenue projected for 2007. there is nothing to fear from the US Department of Justice now (the man in charge of DOJ antitrust activities is a former lawyer for Microsoft in its own antitrust proceedings). all the Jedi are gone...

cue the obligatory quote:

"That's no moon..."

i am an old geek.

The War on Terror's professional witness

Witless for the prosecution

yes, the subject is spelled correctly.

this is from the "intent is equivalent to action" school of thought crime. the argument is the same for those who obtain a copy of The Anarchist's Cookbook, the Qu'ran, or The Little Red Book of Mao (ask for that last one from a US library, and you may receive a visit from Homeland Security, absolutely free! see here > http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/12/17/213003.shtml).

it is deeply ironic that most of the defendants in these show trials are so incompetent and naive, they are more of a danger to themselves than to anyone else. If Osama thought such people could be associated with his organization (the man is a master of media manipulation), he would probably have them killed just to protect his reputation.

it is even more ironic that these fools are convicted by "a jury of their peers". that jury would have to be just as ignorant as the defendant, so some twit with an agenda can show up and yell "Boo!", and thereby obtain a guilty verdict.

truly, if a man of such dubious qualifications can be considered an expert witness (or an "expert" anything, other than a demagogue), the Western systems of jurisprudence are fundamentally broken. these "thought crime" verdicts are more characteristic of tin-pot dictatorships and established totalitarian regimes (China/Falun Gong, Robert Mugabe/everybody, Kim Jong Il/everybody, etc.), which makes the practice even more absurd here (or maybe not, with Dubya at the helm).

So, what's the first rule of Reg Club?

IT angle

---thou shalt not ask what "the IT angle" of a story may be.---

if you do, you will get flamed, and rightly so. if you fear diversions, perhaps you should go read a technical manual - they're good at staying on message.

New euro coin stuffs Turkey

Struggling the other way

the elections handed the reigns of government to a party with deep religious roots. the Turkish army is the only remaining substantial bastion of secularism. a majority of the electorate seems to be headed away from secularism, not towards it.

i hope what we just got from Glenn is sarcasm, otherwise the Reg reader demographic is substantially dumber than i thought it was. i imagine, even if the US managed to somehow join the EU (cut to image of pigs flying over a frozen hell), Texas would still have to be excluded, much like Saudi Arabia.

Vanessa Hudgens net smut: your children are at risk

Misdirection

the media is doing its job, as dictated by the respective parent companies. about 98% of all print, radio and broadcast media in the US is owned by 5 large corporations.

if they weren't talking about her, they'd have to talk about real news, like the economy, the war, the standard of living, the demise of the Bill of Rights, corruption, cronyism, patronage, the sorry excuse for a foreign policy, environmental destruction, national debt, trade deficit, the mortgage mess, the government spending deficit, the sorry state of "Homeland Security", some more corruption, lobbyists writing legislation, right-wing nutjobs setting government policy, the 80M+ people without health insurance, the absurd price of oil, pollution, our faith-based president, Guantanamo Bay, lies, damned lies and statistics, yet more corruption...

you know, stuff you find on Mother Jones, The Nation, Bill Maher, Colbert and the Daily Show, maybe a couple of other obscure corners...AND NOWHERE ELSE.

well, except in the foreign media, of course.

EC competition commissioner slams US dissing

Mature nation

@ Lars

actually, the US experienced maturity, responsibility, and a social conscience briefly, around the time of WWII, and has since lapsed into decadence, characterized by long periods of narcissistic oblivion, punctuated by brief moments of horrified self-awareness and occasional diversions into fear-driven aggression.

this is best exemplified by the Baby Boom generation, most of whom refused to reach psychological adulthood, and basically have remained at the maturity level of a 17-year-old boy well into their 50s. of course, now, with their depleted savings and retirement funds, foreclosed houses, offshored jobs, failing Social Security, and privatized Medicare, they wonder how they managed to piss the country away on shopping, wars and tax cuts.

behold the Roman Empire redux, in fast-forward, complete with a mad Emperor, a deadlocked legislature, and a corrupt judiciary. the Huns and Goths are due any minute.

Not so free with the speech

it is free speech when a private citizen says it. this is VERY different.

this is paid commercial speech, from a senior official of the US judicial system.

the Assistant AG is NOT a private citizen, he speaks as a government employee, or in this case, a corporate whore who should have kept his gob shut, because of his obvious conflict of interest. it is this sort of behavior (well, besides Gitmo and the like) that makes the US Department of Justice look like such a partisan, corporatist joke.

he should have looked up "recuse" in the dictionary, then did what it says. the political implications of his statement just make it worse, especially considering how touchy the EU can be about its sovereignty. newly minted political entities tend to be that way until they mature (yes, i am older than the EU).

to be fair, he is a fairly typical lawyer-lobbyist.

UCL preps clustered Dell supercomputer

Unfortunate reference

there was once a sunday toon on userfriendly.org, with the theme of mergers no one wants to happen, starring the Dell Dude (remember him? before he got busted with the jazz ciggies). the plot was a union between Dell Computer and the US Christian Evangelical Church, and the tag line was,

DUDE, YOU'RE GOING TO HELL...

Rackable starts moving ICE

Matter of time

erm, look, if you put $1M worth of IT in a container (which, by definition, is more easily portable than a datacenter - part of the selling proposition), it is only a matter of time before people figure out how to steal it. this is the most visually tempting theft target since the Alienware laptop. difficult, maybe, impossible, no.

maybe some chav will have a clever day and make off with one, i'd love to see that story in the news.

physical security for these things will be just as big a deal as it is for the company safe or safety deposit box - your company's data is in there, so the risk is actually much, much greater.

i imagine insuring this asset is going to be rather pricey, too. almost tempted to call Lloyd's and ask.

Supermicro debuts super quiet server blade

A stealth freight train

lessee, 50db...that's not exactly a whisper, it is more common for midrange gaming rig fans.

so 10 devices producing 50db each, eating a combined 1500W.

if this will truly be a "personal" technology in your office, yeah, just sits there in a corner, no one will notice a thing. and you thought your datacenter was noisy and had cooling problems.

NEC ships HydraStor grid storage platform

Second thoughts

was going to get one for my basement datacenter, but had a rethink. it would quadruple the utility bill for the house.

At the Toyshop of Doom

Don't be a tool

@ sick:

death tech - brought to you by the same species that invented the spear, the flint ax, and the bow, and proceeded to use it on other humans, not just the animal prey and predators these things were originally (supposedly) intended for.

you're a bit late to the party.

the wheel is used in many mechanical applications, starting with transportation; it was also used for torture and execution.

the syringe is used to inject curative agents subcutaneously and intravenously; it is also used to administer lethal injection, to spread disease (HIV, hep) or to feed a drug habit.

electricity is essential to most functions in our post-industrial civilization; it is also used to torture and murder people.

an inanimate object has no intent. the Ebola virus is more dangerous to a human in the same room, than a loaded gun. actually, if the human becomes ill from the Ebola, the gun may provide a faster, more merciful release.

objects are meaningless without context.

as for the person who provided the traditional "damn librul" remark, after you're done grunting and scratching yourself, please consider that liberal does not mean pacifist. i am a former US Army NCO, my views are decidedly left of neo-conservative (pro-choice, pro-human-rights, anti-Iraq-war, non-religious, pro-environment-conservation, anti-imperialist, gays do not threaten my marriage, etc.), and my idea of gun control (aside from hitting my target) is teaching firearms safety to anyone old enough to hold a gun, mandatory training, no exceptions, except for the mentally challenged and the legally blind. too many kids in the US get killed by other kids, who don't know how not to play with guns.

an anti-gun sentiment is meaningless out of context. maybe this person had a very negative experience associated with guns. could be a purely emotional knee-jerk reaction. much like your snap generalization, actually.

Colombian armed robber targets karate school

Fish/barrel

obviously, the twit failed to case the joint properly.

a common guideline in martial arts sparring practice is that nailing your opponent by surprise from behind is not good form. this guideline does not apply to opponents wielding firearms, and pretty much any other weapon.

one kidney shot, delivered with serious intent, and this guy would forget about anything he was holding in his hand, firearm included. he would be too busy writhing around on the floor, puking. it usually feels like your guts are about to fall out.

the funniest part is that any student above a white belt, knows how to apply this method. not everyone would have the presence of mind to use the knowledge in a situation like this, but it only takes one person.

TV's iPod moment?

Content and delivery

if any truly effective content provider would consider either [1] a tight partnership with a best-of-breed delivery technology provider, or [2] vertical integration around a best-of-breed technology, they can then have an infrastructure they will need to succeed in this space. they will still need good-to-great content.

it is a cliche that subscription services (cable, satellite, IPTV, etc.) deliver more channels showing nothing worthwhile. everyone has heard it, and most people have said or thought it. this leads to the obvious conclusion: good content is king, and great content is god. usual content is merely filler. the winner in this space will create good-to-great content by taking risks (some failure is unavoidable) and producing genuinely new and interesting programming. this is the Paxman half of any hypothetical success story.

there is another side to this strategy, just as essential: technology for mass delivery of media. the mechanism has to be commodity-priced; easy to deploy and use; technologically effective and efficient; stable, reliable and secure; ubiquitously available; and very effectively marketed. this is the Cerf half of the success.

only by doing both correctly can a company or partnership achieve the ubiquity and demand that all the companies in this space claim as their goal.

Nepal fixes Boeing 757 with goat sacrifice

This is the future

and a new technology services career is born.

this one really will require high priests - i always wanted to see that on a business card.

and if the sacrifice doesn't work, the priest can always intone, "THE GODS ARE ANGRY, we must now sacrifice all who complain." that'll shut them up.

Germans plan 578m-high überpyramid

Obligatory pun

it's a dying business.

i'll get my coat...

US in move towards GPS-based air traffic control

System failure

whether located by GPS or radar, an onboard electrical systems failure that takes out the fly-by-wire mechanisms in Airbus birds (Boeing is probably much the same) will quickly result in a crater and giblets.

when the hydraulic control systems for altitude go, the plane is going down.

maybe if they make the GPS durable like the black box, and put a communicator in it (maybe male it buoyant, too), the rescue operation would be able to find survivors more easily and quickly.

India cheers satellite launch

Priorities

@ Kamal Hashmi

the estimates for funding of domestic US abstinence-only education range from 1 to 1.75 billion USD over the last 11 years, depending on whom you ask. funding for foreign medical aid programs is supposed to be $1 billion a year, and 33% of that has to be abstinence-only education, or the funds are withheld.

the impact of this policy is negligible domestically and catastrophic internationally.

http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/welfare/abstinence.asp

http://www.republicoft.com/2007/05/18/abstaining-from-reality/

i think the US would be better off investing this money into India's space program. NASA could use their booster rockets for free, to make the US space program more effective (it's rather inadequate just now, what with all the war and abstinence education spending).

Could be worse

the money India spends on its space program (and therefore national prestige, something very important to huddled masses) is a fraction of what the US spends on sexual abstinence education over the same period of time.

the latest surveys indicate that females exposed to this education are from 4 to 6 times more likely to engage in sexual acts, depending on the act. i'd say putting up satellites is a better investment.

we can talk about the military budget, too (one trillion USD spent on the Iraq war so far - what's the return on that investment?), but that would be too easy.

Venus Express celebrates 500 days around Venus

Nostalgia

in the proudest telnet tradition, when the satellite is at the furthest end of the link and only gets the 22Kbps, it should use the bandwidth to send the following:

.......llllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggggggggggggggg.....................

China looking to develop scramjet missile tech

China, Russia and the US

@John:

there's a difference between a "trading partner" relationship and putting all manufacturing into another country, to which you owe lots of money.

to put it quite simply, the US can't go to war with China, as the US economy can not sustain itself without Chinese imports. there are other reasons, but that is the most obvious. the US economy would implode within a few weeks at most, as distribution and retail outlets shut down for lack of product.

Russia has nothing to fear from China, they're good friends now, and may well become one country in all but name within the next 10 to 20 years.

Fait accompli

superweapon research has more utility in pushing the envelope in civilian and space applications, than it does in making superweapons (although that's a nice bonus). the Chinese are not likely to ever use said superweapons, because a conflict that would require superweapon use is so very unlikely, in the present political and economic situation.

globalization has succeeded beyond the US Republicans' wildest wet dreams. over 90% of everything is now manufactured in China or elsewhere overseas, over half of everything is designed and/or developed overseas by multinationals, and the US produces very little domestically.

one of the unintended consequences of this is that the national debt now stands at 9 trillion USD, and a good chunk of that was borrowed from China (the US is now in the comical position of also owing money to Mexico - how the mighty have fallen). skilled jobs are being offshored as quickly as outsource recruiters can hire people, and India, China and Russia have lots of engineers to work on all the superweapon research the Chinese can afford (India and China are graduating tens of thousands of technology-degreed professionals every year); they have plenty trained technologists left over, to pick up offshored design and development work from the US.

the US and China are inseparable economically, and the prospect of conquering and occupying China is uniquely unappealing (1.2bn population, large standing army, cohesive society, nuclear weapons, advanced technology, vast and difficult geography, a long history of conflict and hardship...). US foreign policy has created a political environment that has resulted in the first Chinese-Russian mutual defense treaty ever (giving the Chinese first access to Russian weapons, research and technology), and China looks to remain totalitarian at least until it completes its transition to a post-industrial information and services economy, to go with its enormous manufacturing capacity.

the US has created a colossal Chinese tail, that now wags the American dog. anyone who complains about technology sold to the Chinese through the back door (i'm looking at you, Webster), has somehow failed to notice the bulk of knowledge transfer going out the front door.

the Chinese engineers that attended the conference, most likely gave presentations on the unclassified parts of the research, to troll for ideas to resolve some of the bugs and problems they have encountered during development. it is naive to think that they would discuss anything classified, or give out the full scope and progress of their research program.

additionally, when one considers the sorry state of US gov't security in general, and military security in particular (Windows server shares and ftp directories with all-access permissions, unprotected by firewalls, come immediately to mind), it is silly to pretend that the US has many secrets from the Chinese, especially because, with the US educational system in decline, many of the engineers working in the US are likely to be Indian, Chinese, Russian, or other foreign-born.

there's not much left to keep secret. the horse has bolted, folks, and the barn has rotted and fallen apart. there is no door left to close.

the country is owned, like the US colonies were owned by the British Empire, though for different reasons. US colonies were a market for British goods, a taxable population, a dumping ground for criminals and nonconformists, and a source of raw material and slaves; the present US is a market for Chinese goods, a source of intellectual property and industrial/economic expertise, and a good place to spend all that capital created by the Chinese economic miracle. Lenovo-IBM and Acer-Gateway buyouts are just a sneak preview of what is to come. in 10 to 20 years, the US will likely be a largely Hispanic nation working for Chinese-owned corporations, and considering the present US economic and financial situation, that would be the optimal, best-case scenario.

anyone in the US who wants to have a future in politics or management, would be wise to learn to speak Spanish, Mandarin, or both.

Newest Ubuntu dubbed 'Hardy Heron'

Sense of proportion

some people really need to be wired to a slice of angel cake (credit: Douglas Adams).

if the biggest problem with a leading desktop Linux distribution (that also does servers and long-term support) is the clunky release naming scheme, i think we have finally come up with a MS-killer.

not that Vista surprised me.

MS ditched the code base 60% through the development process (because it turned into a monstrosity even they couldn't sell), and baked the current form together in about 2 years, under the watchful eye of Allchin (kind of a Sauron analogy, yeah), then drop-kicked the result out the door, as Allchin quickly and fairly quietly retired from the company.

i was quite puzzled why anyone was disappointed by the result: a bloated, buggy WinXP 2 with fewer drivers, some tweaks and the Aero interface.

considering what the development process is like (the MS management and decision structure is, by accounts of former insiders, a hideous nightmare of bureaucracy and disfunction), getting thousands of code monkeys (for that is how they are treated, not being management) to fly in formation to produce those millions of lines of code, and do it well (code is efficient, maintainable, modular and functional, with few bugs), with no peer review or individual responsibility (it's all "teams" and committees in there), is simply absurd.

the Windows cycle will continue:

[1] release barely-finished, bloated software, without many of the originally promised features;

[2] patch this software for a few years to fix bugs and add functionality originally promised, retroactively producing some documentation in the process;

[3] paste together next bloated, unfinished version and put lipstick (or Aero, if you like) on it (don't call it a pig, please, you'll hurt its feelings);

[4] release with much fanfare and claims of revolutionary functionality, security and ease of use (duplicate some features competitors had for a while, that people really like).

MS has prospered this long thanks to the powerful human herd instinct. the company will likely continue to do well, as long as that instinct continues to trump rational thought and practical considerations.

eBay hard drive spills out governor's campaign documents

Amateur technicians deliver amateur results

this man should seek other employment. he does not belong in IT.

since he had functional hardware, there's an easy solution.

a free utility, provided as image download, can boot from floppy, CD, DVD, USB, and flash, provides various levels of DoD-level secure wipe:

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Plants will make greenhouse effect flooding worse

More irony

thank you, Iain. there is much to that peeing analogy that the rest of the public (like Wade, above) prefers to ignore.

speaking of Wade, it is worth noting that my posts are not condensed for easy reading. people who do not [1] read the whole post, [2] think of a worthwhile, thoughtful response, and [3] express themselves coherently (without foaming at the mouth), are encouraged to skip posts like mine altogether. any time someone brings up "eco-nazis", i have to wonder whether these crunchy hippies common in the environmentalist movement have initiated a totalitarian regime, killed thousands or millions of people, and this somehow didn't make the news.

my point was that "global warming", "greenhouse effect", and other pithy sound-bites used to describe the changes observed in our environment, are inadequate and misleading. the best one i have seen is "climate change", because it comes closest to communicating what is happening.

the climate over large areas of the planet is changing. we should study these changes intensely, to the best of our ability, so that we can adapt more effectively and less painfully, as a species.

an example of this is the current race to claim the Arctic region. Canada's part of the Northern Passage is projected to be clear of ice within 30 years (possibly much sooner). this will have a noticeable political, economic and social impact on human activity. now is a good time to consider the implications of this change, so we can adjust optimally to this new reality.

on a somewhat related subject (yes, back to peeing in the pool again), treating our place of residence responsibly is just prudent and logical; it has little to do with environmentalism, and much to do with electricity and sanitation.

Irony

the industry lobbyists in the US came up with some good spin in the 1990's to take the wind out of global-warming predictions. they decided to call it "climate change" and not "global warming", to remove the negative loading of the original term.

unfortunately, they turned out to be entirely correct, and "climate change" looks like a more accurate description.

storms are more common, sudden and severe. seasonal temperatures are more extreme. droughts, flooding and hurricanes have become more widespread and destructive. this just describes North America, where i've been living for the last 27 years. for example, in Pennsylvania, around Philadelphia, tornadoes occurred once a decade, 27 years ago. now, tornadoes are seasonal there, and occur every year. cloud formations in PA, over the same time frame have changed to resemble those in Arizona (was there for Army training for a while). some of this is quite strange.

i see the same weather trends in the news in the last 20 years, and on the noaa.gov website (the US gov't Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). the stories on news.google.com from the Far East and Pacific region paint a similar picture.

whether we will be able to accurately predict these changes is another matter.

on the other hand, the argument that we shouldn't pee in our own pool (that is, defile the planet we live on) seems rather obvious to me. until we direct much more funding into space travel research (as opposed to war), and find other worlds we can move to (and a method for all of us to go there), we should probably be somewhat more careful with the only planet we have.

Challenging the mobile clichés

Priorities

so there you go, saying the emperor has no clothes, in defiance of managers and prima donnas everywhere. this is a sacred cow you are messing with. just who do you think you are?

you are, of course, exactly correct. IT and mobile technology is implemented so that site employees can work more effectively onsite, and offsite employees can work more effectively offsite. it is an enabler, but for most organizations (which lack the maturity to evolve), it is not a transformer.

your second point is probably the least popular and the most accurate description of the mobile tech state of affairs. employees of the organization, from IT tech, to clerk, to CEO, conveniently ignore one simple fact: they are paid to do a job, to serve the needs and interests of the organization.

to those people, i say this: your employer is not Santa Claus. if you want a particular tech toy, it is not in the interests of the company to buy it for you and to support it. you can buy it and support it, in your personal life and with your own money, where you get to make decisions for yourself, and deal with the consequences thereof.

the organization's primary interest in mobile technology is to enable offsite workers to meet the needs of the organization. to this end, the key determining factors in most mobile technology decisions are functionality, stability, reliability, security, manageability, and cost (scalability is significant for larger mobile groups). the order of priority varies according to the individual situation.

please note that the list does not include "shiny", "cool", "happiness", "mp3", "video", "camera" or "fashionable". most IT departments are neither staffed nor trained to support all the shiny objects people want, in addition to handling all the other IT project and support responsibilities; in fact, most IT departments are understaffed, under-trained, burned out (or close to it) and demoralized.

if the prima donnas really want all that wonderful stuff, they can get a separate budget and outsource their entire mobile tech infrastructure. the outsourcer will charge per hour on a best-effort basis, and that way everyone can see the real cost of this nonsense, but also please keep track of prima donna downtime and see how much that is costing the company.

i know what the cost and the impact is, as i have seen it at my last employer. that's why i'm starting my own business now, i got tired of working for idiots on an inadequate salary (no OT or comp time either), and getting abuse for it. once people pay hourly, they understand the real cost. saves me the ulcers.

Boy racer cuffed for 140mph YouTube jaunt

What a maroon

this actually deserves a Bugs Bunny quote.

in prehistoric days, this sort would be weeded out of the gene pool by saber-tooth tigers or something similar (ironic that the tiger had a smaller brain than this hormone-drenched twit). too bad we can't stick him in a coliseum with something large and aggressive, so he can get some stupid out of his system, or die in the process, as an example to others...

i'd be happy to film that and post it on YouTube.

adapted for our industrialized society, i'd like to do thus:

your honor, the jury unanimously finds the deficient...um, defendant guilty of idiocy on two counts.

[1] the defendant is an idiot for filming himself doing something he knows is illegal and guaranteed to attract police attention - the "low-hanging fruit" class of offense.

[2] the defendant is an idiot for posting said film where the entire industrialized world can get at it with minimal effort - the "too dumb to remain at large" class of offense.

judge, we recommend he be sentenced to a month of daily beatings until unconscious, administered by fellow chavs, a series of 30 parts, to be posted on YouTube for all to see.

bailiff, please take this fool away so members of the jury don't fall off their chairs laughing...

Legacy of Ashes - the undoing of the CIA

Ugly reality

i suppose, when your outfit becomes known as "the Company" (which was quite a while ago for the CIA), it should clue someone that the organization is becoming as short-sighted, careerist and and conformist as many other large US companies.

another "slam-dunk", or rather "own goal".

as for negotiation, the US only "negotiates" through armed force. i doubt sanity will return any time soon.

The Return of iTuneski

Subscription models

personally, never used iTuneski, but i am an eMusic subscriber.

for about 30 cents a track, i can download individual tracks, the bit rate varies but is mostly pretty good, and there is no DRM.

my music taste doesn't follow the mass market anyway (and i don't eat at McDonalds, either), so no loss there, and everybody is happy, especially me.

never bought music from iTunes (bought Daily Show and Colbert Report, though). DRM is a dealbreaker for me, generally. i bought Richard Dawkins on mp3 just to avoid DRM.

and i wouldn't touch the new Napster (or any of its imitators) with a barge-pole.

Sensible legal opinion

sorry, not used to those, i live in the US.

a court actually applied the laws of the jurisdiction in which the event occurred, instead of caving to the "sole remaining Superpower" and the lobbyists that run it.

now there's something you don't see every day.

whether the law is practical and fair is another matter, but US law has rarely been practical or fair recently (DMCA, Patriot, FISA, etc.), so that discussion has nowhere to go.

whatever can effectively push down the average cost of a digital download is fine by me at this point. content is still impractically expensive, considering the very low promotion and distribution costs for online media. net win for the customer.

Gonzo a goner, but NSA surveillance here to stay

Fitting monument

we already have a monument to Gonzo: Gitmo.

if the US ever vacates Guantanamo Bay, i hope Cuba turns it into a historic site, like how Europe did with Auschwitz, Treblinka and Buchenwald. over the gate, instead of "Arbeit macht frei", they can put "the Bill of Rights came here to die". the guest barracks can have a plaque that says "Alberto Gonzalez may or may not have slept here (it's classified)."

as for the Dubya Bush Presidential Library, you can already find one nearby, anywhere you are in "the greatest nation in the world".

it looks very much like a liquor store, but don't be confused, it is what you seek.

inside, you will find highly portable literature about alcoholic beverages, and one or two hundred samples of the more potent libations. have a bottle or three right away, and you can experience what it's like to be Dubya. as a bonus, you can dress in a surplus Air National Guard uniform, and pass out hugging the toilet, for extra authenticity. while you're unconscious, have your picture taken, so you can show your kids what it's like to be President of the US.

wow, that was way too easy.

NSA surveillance and the dream police

Evil empire

as a Soviet expatriate (and current US resident), i have a severe, prolonged case of deja vu.

when this sort of thing went on in the (now defunct) USSR, the US gov't said it was BAD, VERY BAD, and the people who did it were EVIL, and it was WRONG...

now the US gov't has suspended habeas corpus, defies the Geneva Convention, ignores due process, and spies on its own citizens, and these credulous cattl...erm, patriots are saying, "what's the problem?"

maybe human rights are just so last-millennium...quaint, really. no use for them in the New World Order.