U.S. Government Developed the iPod 614
ezavada writes "Engadget reports that in a speech at Tuskegee University, President Bush claims that government research developed the iPod." From the article: "While we have to gratefully acknowledge the efforts of government agencies such as DARPA in some of the fields mentioned by the President, we also feel obligated to point out the accomplishments of private companies in the US and abroad, including IBM, Hitachi and Toshiba -- not to mention the Fraunhofer Institute, which developed the original MP3 codec ..."
Que expected Bush flaming... (Score:1, Insightful)
Absurd (Score:5, Insightful)
That's a long long way from claiming to have "invented the iPod".
This whole story is a waste of space. It doesn't even mention Ponies.
Misleading title (from original article) (Score:5, Insightful)
The title of the article is incorrect; the US government didn't develop the iPod. It just helped fund the development of certain technologies at various research labs and universities that private corporations picked up and further developed on.
In other news early this morning, the US government helped develop Linux. More details come later.
Haha (Score:3, Insightful)
Sounds like a (bad) joke to me (Score:5, Insightful)
The bold type is mine. I doubt that the single reason that things like signal compression were funded was because it was necessary to develop the iPod. It seems like these things could be more useful in military/computer/communications/etc. spheres than in personal entertainment.
Does this sound like a (bad) joke taken out of context to anybody else? Don't we have editors for this sort of thing?
Baltika
--
http://www.pancakelane.com/ [pancakelane.com]
Logical disconnect (Score:3, Insightful)
"the government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression."
Yes, that seems reasonable enough. The government does lots of research, much of which benefits private companies.
"They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod."
The thing about this statement, is that they don't actually state a reason. They say there was a reason, then they go on to say that the research resulted in the ipod. The result is not a reason.
The sheer vagueness and lack of point to this article makes me want to smack whoever wrote it.
-1: Troll (Score:5, Insightful)
What he did say, according to the article, was: "the government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod."
I don't think there's anything outrageous or untrue in there. And it's so short an excerpt that it's impossible to say what the overall tone of the speech was. Quite possibly this was taken out of context.
So an obviously partisan article and an inept Slashdot summary. Don't bother to read TFA.
Since this will obviously raise the spectre of the "Al Gore invented the internet" meme, I'd like to take the opportunity to remind people that Robert Kahn and Vincent Cerf (who arguably did invent the internet) have defended Gore's actual statement, with the observation that: "No other elected official, to our knowledge, has made a greater contribution over a longer period of time."
He did not say they invented the iPod.. (Score:2, Insightful)
So he's only claiming the funding of research for ingredients that would eventually be used in the iPod. He's not claiming that they have developed the iPod. Sounds like press hype to me.
Re:Logical disconnect (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sounds like a (bad) joke to me (Score:5, Insightful)
That could read two ways:
i. They did so for one and only one reason which was...
ii. They did so for one reason, but it turned out that...
Reading (ii) seems far more likely to me. It sounds more like poor phrasing than a poor joke to me (though you may well be right). But the article "helpfully" omits the broader context of the speech.
I'm no fan of the US president. But it irritates me to see the personality attacks instead of substantive policy attacks.
Re:Absurd (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:US government Invented the iPod (Score:4, Insightful)
The "full compliance" demand was manufactured by the US administration as an excuse to invade Iraq. According to Hans Blix (head of UN inspection teams) they complied well enough, not perfect, though. Moreover, much of the information the inspection teams was given from USA was very wrong or outright lies designed to provoke a reaction from the Iraqi government.
Where Saddam stopped, USA continued, and committing many war crimes as well. Why do you think that USA is so hated by the general population in the Middle-East?
Re:US government Invented the iPod (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:From tactical to practical (Score:2, Insightful)
This is Slashdot. It is de rigeur that we criticize GWB early, often and continuously, even when it's patently obvious to anyone with more than a pea-brain that GWB was making a joke.
Re:US government Invented the iPod (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:US government Invented the iPod (Score:2, Insightful)
Because we are portrayed as the white, Christian west, the source of all the woe in the Middle East. Because we are the white devil. Because they have been rabble roused into hating us the same way we are continuously rabble roused into hating them. Because we side with Israel.
Because we have power. Because we are not afraid to use that power. Because we know embargoes and condemnations from the UN will NOT stop Iran from producing nuclear weapons, because people will sell around the embargo and no one cares what the UN says. Because the latest people to use our power have used it like a broadsword and not like a scalpel. Because we are the new Rome.
Because we are human and we make mistakes.
Because we want our way of life to remain the same. Because we can choose to be Christian or Muslim. Because we can say what we want. Because we can depose our entire government by stepping to the other side of a curtain and checking the other box. Because we won the Cold War.
Because we lost the Vietnam War.
Because we could fix all of our problems at home at the expense of ignoring everyone else abroad, but we still have the homeless, the illiterate, the destitute and ghettos.
Now mod me down, because I am not part of the group think and my ideas and opinions burn you eyes.
Actually (Score:4, Insightful)
Now, Apple did an astoundingly good Job(s) in taking the existing clunky models and making a sleek, user friendly player out of more-or-less existing technologies, but by no means were they the inventors of the portable mp3 player.
Re:US government Invented the iPod (Score:5, Insightful)
USA has a long history of toppling democracies, crushing popular movements and installing/supporting dictatorships in the Middle-East and elsewhere.
These US policies are backlashing fairly often. The USA mostly created, trained and financed those very same groups they are hunting down in their so-called "war on terror". During the Soviet occupation of Afganistan, billons of dollars was poured into these networks. US specialists in terrorism, guerilla/urban warfare and insurgency trained what is to become their enemies.
USA through their puppet governments are crushing down hard on any popular movement for social improvement, democracy or worker rights. Socialists, union activist, academics or generally any on the left side are hunted down and prosecuted. What remains are radical religious movements that hardly stand for any social progress. Yet another backlash. A good example of this is Iran where the brutal US installed was toppled.
The list goes on and on.
Re:Whoa... (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, the US politics are more people's business then you might realize as it impacts more people then just Americans.
I mean if your family gets shot in the face by Americans -in your country, at your home!-, it becomes your business.
When oil-prices skyrocket because your president feels he has to go murder some people, then it becomes your business, if your president doesn't feel like trying to do something at pollution -being the head of the country with the highest pollution rate- then it becomes everyone's business.
btw, it's business. It's a shame you don't even master your own language added to your ignorance.
Re:US government Invented the iPod (Score:5, Insightful)
It's good that you remind us how bad the Baath regime was. But it shouldn't affect our view of the policies we're pursuing. It's also important not to "shift the goalposts" when evaluating the success of a policy. You have to judge it by its ostensible purpose, otherwise there's no accountability for failure. You might as well ask to be lead around like a pack of sheep.
There's no doubt that Hussein's regime, by any reasonable standard, was evil. But that wasn't the purpose of the war; nor was Iraq the only evil regime in the world, or even the worst regime. It was supposedly the most dangerous regime. The stated purpose of the war was to preempt the transfer of WMD to Al Qaeda. If you doubt this, check out this presidential speech [whitehouse.gov]:
and
and
and finally:
The speech even conjures up the "mushroom cloud" which was so in evidence in the run up to the war, and connects it to the 9/11 attacks.
Judged on its own terms then, the policy was a failure. None of the evidence that was cited has panned out; in fact it is now clear that much of it had already been disproven when it was cited at the time, the only question being whether the knowledge of this had reached the policy making levels of the Administration. Either way you answer the question, it's not a happy scenario.
It is posssible that Sadaam had a covert WMD program, which moved its stocks and equipment to a third country, Syria as some have suggested. It's not very likely in my opinion, but less likely things have happened in the past. I could spin a pluasible sounding scenario which would explain this unlikely event, although spinning is far from proving, as we're learning to our regret. But assuming that the WMD program was taken out of the country, then the policy was if anything a worse failure than if the weapons never existed. Because now we don't know where they are, and the most likely country doesn't just have tenuous ties to Al Qaeda: it keeps its own pet terrorist groups.
Re:US government Invented the iPod (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny, but I see your opinion every time I tune into Fox News.
It always kills me to see the same black and white debate on the same issue. Absolutely nobody in America can stand politically in the middle, or concede that either side might have some valid point.
Re:some other things bush said... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:US government Invented the iPod (Score:5, Insightful)
The WMDs had been used extensively, with our support, during the Iran-Iraq war
Re:US government Invented the iPod (Score:3, Insightful)
Frankly, we're there now, and we're failing to control the same forces he had to deal with. His tactics may have been utterly brutal, but they appear to have worked for the most part, where we seem doomed to stay there forever to prop up the iraqi government against factions of the iraqi people.
Also, when talking about genocide, we have to remember that hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, were killed by the economic sanctions we put in place after Kuwait, according to some organizations.
In all, this whole situation is a whole lot murkier than most people are willing to admitand just saying "that regime was evil", especially in that reigon of the world, is an almost meaningless statement.
Cute. (Score:3, Insightful)
Now let me ask: How many real-life Japanese people do you actually know? I bet the answer is: "none". I, on the other hand, know quite a few, tourists and exchange students I've met, and immigrants and their descendants I've gotten to know long-term. (Admittedly, I may have an unfair advantage. I live in San Francisco now, and used to live in Honolulu.) And they are among the nicest, most decent, generous and intelligent people I've known. And they are nothing like the stereotype that people like you try to present.
In summary, kindly FOAD plz. K thx.
cya,
john
Re:US government Invented the iPod (Score:3, Insightful)
That's why they had such crappy equipment.
Re:Jimmy Carter couldn't pronounce it either (Score:3, Insightful)
And you're right
Re:Want to read more? (Score:1, Insightful)
A UCLA/Stanford study proved that most of the media leaned left, and polls taken showed over 80% of journalists calling themselves Democrats.
Gitmo (Score:3, Insightful)
If it's so fucking nice, why did they have to use a secret place where no one can have any oversight? Why not use a prison on US soil? You fucking anonymous coward tightasses have no fucking clue, you're just knee-jerk dickwads who are so stupid you can't even tell when we're ALL getting our freedoms taken away. Fucking cocksucker.
Liberal media? That's because the inevitable result of DOING THE FUCKING RESEARCH IS TO BECOME LIBERAL. Remember how we slashdotters say to RTFA? Well, these reporters are the ones doing the investigating and know what's going on. But they have editors and other higher ups who are beholden to the corporate power structure. The reporters might be liberal (good for them) but the media in general isn't, unless you're listening to Air America radio. The media are owned by the same forces taking over our country - business interests who have manipulated crazy fundamentalists into being on their side. Mussolini himself defined fascism as the merger of state and corporate power. In an open and free country, EVERYONE should be outraged a place like Gitmo exists.
Re:US government Invented the iPod (Score:3, Insightful)
Partly because many of them think the US is a nation full of Christians. I'm not saying that people who live in countries in the Middle East are bad people or hateful by nature, but keep in mind that we are talking about countries which for the most part are theocracies. All this stuff about freedom of religion that we've developed in the West during the last few centuries since the days of the Protestant Reformation mostly doesn't apply in the Middle East yet. 400-500 years ago in Europe, the Protestant Reformation was going on, people were challenging the state religion and getting burned at the stake for stuff like translating the Bible into English. That gives you an idea of what humans are capable of when someone disagrees with their beliefs, and some similar stuff is going on in the Middle East right now. In fact, consider the recent case of Abdul Rahman [wikipedia.org], who was put on trial in Afghanistan for converting to Christianity, for which the penalty was to be death. He was released, but what's significant is that it even went to trial and that there were many people in favor of having him executed. Read the Wikipedia article and see how many supporters he had within Afghanistan.
Once again, I'm not saying that Islamic people are bad, but at the same time, it's important not to lie to ourselves about what kinds of attitudes are out there. They may not be representative of the views of all Islamic people, but they are out there, and not they are not that far from the mainstream in certain areas.
The ironic thing about all this is that not that many people in the US actually care that much about Christianity. Sure, there are plenty of people who are Christians, but church membership has been slowly but steadily dropping over the course of the last few decades, and Christianity has lost a whole lot of influence in mainstream culture.
Re:US government Invented the iPod (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, and it's even worse yet if the cops gave it to you in the first place!
YOU should read more (Score:1, Insightful)
You clearly haven't read the Geneva convention. Go read it. [unhchr.ch] Maybe next time you won't sound like an 8th grader spouting off crap he read on Daily Kos or something.
For the benefit of others, who may be interested in actually knowing the facts of the matter... a POW is defined as follows...
***"Now, as to the media leaning left, you have to be kidding me. Show me any real study and the result, coward."
Something like 90% of the Washington press corp votes Democrat, and twice as many self-identify as liberals as the general population.
Here [people-press.org] is at least one poll of journalists that you could find for your self if you really wanted to know the answers to your questions.
And another [people-press.org], showing that they are way to the left of the general public on the Iraq war. Furthermore, if you don't trust the journalist themselves, the public, by a 5:3 margin perceives the media as being biased to the left. This margin handily exceeds the margin by which the public self-identifies as conservative (not to be confused with Republican).
Article
Not the USA (Score:3, Insightful)
In all honesty I find the ratio of Americans I dislike to those I like is probably about the same as locals here, but I find their corporate practices (esp RIAA/MPAA/Sony/etc), military machine, and government policies/corruption detestable. But then again, so do many of the more educated Americans.
Re:YOU should read more (Score:2, Insightful)
Such as? Are you saying that Saddam hadn't systematically violated his cease-fire agreement? Are you saying that he had accounted for all of his illegal weapons? If so, direct me to the source, because as of UNSC resolution 1441, that was not the case, and in fact large quantities were unaccounted for. Hans Blix, in his final report to the security council, reiterated that many bio and chem weapons were unaccounted for.
Are you saying that Saddam wasn't harboring known al-Qaeda operatives? al-Zarqawi, for example. Are you saying he wasn't harboring the bombmaker for the original WTC attack, who mysteriously killed himself by shooting himself multiple times in the head just before the invasion? Are you saying that Saddam really wasn't funding suicide bombers? Are you saying that Saddam didn't have contacts with al-Qaeda (more docs have been coming out recently to affirm this, by the way)?
The whole world knew what would be found in Iraq, yet Bush et al. steamed on anyway.
That is the most uninformed, or blatantly revisionist, statement I have seen on slashdot today, and that is saying a lot. I ask you simply to provide a SINGLE reputable source that indicates that a major western nations intel services thought that Saddam had no WMDs. You won't find one, of course, because you just made that up out of nowhere. But you have to at least look now, lest you appear to be a complete fool.