But it won't always be this way. When I joined the USAF in 1980, I was on the trailing edge of communications technology (analog) and the cutting edge as well (British Telecom's digital telephone lines). The digital lines were so quiet, they had to introduce noise into them so that they didn't seem dead or disconnected at lulls in conversation. I kept up with the changes through the years, as the digital revolution brought the world into a global communications web that is now 24/7/365.25. I'm still with it (Network Engineer), but I'm finding that the gray matter takes "a bit" longer to wrap around a new concept.

All too soon, the communications field is damping down once again with established standards and the once rising "stars" working hard to get proper compensation for their hard work keeping up with technical expertise. I wonder what the next 20 years will hold and how well I'll be able to adapt. I really want to get a first-rate pension and retire in style. Technology is a mother...

Way too quick to attempt the quashing of OSS, my little corporation! Only just yesterday had we learned of your attempts at imprisoning of the common man with DMCA and ACTA. Now, just now in an attempt of the equivalent of a "one-two" punch do you try to destroy what is left of our very liberty with a lobbyist group! Just how much is the populace capable of absorbing prior to a public lynching?

Y'all will probably kill my karma for this, but: Established dogma is more acceptable than a new theory. Hear me out! If it were proven that "god is in the machine" (ex deus machina) to a group of individuals that don't believe in god but rather; a higher belief in an ultimate creator (one who creates and steps back allowing the course of events to fall as they may), then said group would obviously reject any belief, theory or proof that god is alive and well and influences their daily lives. Think about it. If I were to raise you to believe that god exists but not as a deciding factor but rather as an observer of his experiment, would you not reject out of hand any other individual that came along and insisted that the very same guiding hand that created you is determining which way you should/will live your life?

This is what I believe the author of this article is premising. Sorry to ramble. I hope you can see what I'm attempting to hypothesize.

I forgot about that period of time. In 1981 I bought a VIC-20 (don't laugh) for 90 dollars at K-Mart. By the time I got to Japan in 1984, I had a C64 with cassette and 12 inch color monitor. While in Japan, I built several Apple II/][+ knockoffs for friends with parts purchased in Akihabura. I considered it game over in 1986 as the Amiga 1000 that I'd acquired, was slowly being overtaken by the IBM architecture (can you say "yuck!"?), with EGA graphics then VGA graphics and soundblaster cards. It's utterly amazing that the Van Neumann architecture continues to rule the computer roost.

My point here is that in the 70's, there was Apple and mainframes. By the 80's there were arcade consoles, home computers and the like. By 1988, there was Apple and IBM architecture. All the other computers were dust-binned or in the case of the Amiga soon to be. In a span of 10 years, we saw an entire generation of thought become obsolete. What a time in history!

Wow! They must have had limited resources at your school at the time. In 1978, I was the part-time sysop of an IBM S/32 (16K of core memory). The other kids in my Data Processing class would use 8 inch floppy disks with their programs on them (COBOL), as entered by the "typing pool" on IBM 36's and line up for batch processing. Being the sysop, I was able to monopolize the first 3 days of the week with my assignment using the S/32's console and green screen VDU and put out my assignment, extra credit and extra extra credit. I got an A+ (the plus was merely the instructor's tacked on opinion as it didn't count). After Wednesday, the lines would be long (there were about 12 kids in the course), as the rest of the class entered their now "last minute" assignments.

With all due respect, the carriers have enough on their hands currently to not bother with this. Unless the priority of the information becomes tantamount, in which case we would see a scenario like "Gee that's a nice geo loco information gathering program you've got there. A shame something might happen to it".

In short, 30 million tax payer dollars are going into this effort. I can think of a lot of better things that 30 million dollars could go into instead of a few individuals' bank accounts. As a tax payer, I insist that the Music Companies pay a reward to the hard working people who made it possible for them to do this.

Yes all 2 of the current Linux users might download it and you'll have a mighty botnet!

I see... The US doesn't own the New York property. So based upon your reasoning, The NATO bases aren't owned by the the European Nations that they are hosted upon...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN_Building

So the land where the UN building is at and the upkeep for the building (built by US with US materials by US construction workers), isn't an issue here?

The more that they control the sooner that Joe Sixpack becomes aware that he can't watch what he wants to. When the sales of entertainment drop below a sustainable figure and the MPAA/RIAA flogs their congress-critters to pass even more draconian laws, only then will the populace wake up from their Pop-culture stupor and vote the congress-critters out of office.

Heck, maybe they'll even grab up the CEOs of the various "entertainment" community and put them up against the wall. Followed shortly by the ambulance chasers with an apperegio of a few financial institutions' COOs as well.

You spelled "you're" wrong.

I agree. I simply can't believe that it's gone this far. Is the current generation so hung up on entertainment that they can't band together and lobby (harass) their respective representatives? I see the next generation flaunting the "rules" whenever and wherever they can, but it's not in the spirit of Jefferson who commented that "a little rebellion now and then is a good thing" to Madison in regards to Shay's Rebellion.

No longer do I see earnest learning with the spirit of improving oneself, instead I see profiteers.

The very institutions of learning; Universities and Colleges are _giving_ out sheepskins for dollars. Some still value their grade points and will refuse to pass, but others...

I realize that "Joe Six-Pack" is alive and well, that issues with a technical bent are beyond a certain group of technophobes, but I just can't understand when it equates to a loss of the very freedoms and liberties that our forefathers held dear being tossed by the very individuals that are elected to protect them for mere piddling material gains.

I'm sickened.

Truly.

Want to know who the next President of the USA/USR/EU is? Just ask the corporations, they'll tell you with their special vote: Monetary Units of whatever currency the candidate prefers.

What will happen when China weighs in with their marker? The future isn't looking very bright...

Yeah, joke about overlords. Pass off the Draconian measures to an antiquated business system. Explain that the new sharing isn't theft but a system of "Nottingham redistribution of wealth". I don't think those that have and will continue to consume the power base will permit it for much longer.

The bottom line is money.

It sucks to have to face the reality that in an almost infinite universe, a spiral galaxy's arm (one of many) of which an insignificant blue planet, (third from the sun), spins that there are such small minded individuals that are incapable of seeing future generations and simply not caring for the inhabitants that they're borrowing resources from. All to get a few material possessions or to feel that they have importance. Yes, they even think that digital watches are still pretty neat.

To the future generations we leave a legacy of distrust, distaste and disgust. They in turn will do the same for the next, until the life-form known as Homo Sapiens will be no more.
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“Believing in Father Christmas is important,” says Pratchett. “It trains our imaginations on the little lies so we can believe the big lies like justice [and] truth.” - UK Times.