Wow... this guy is going to get people killed...

Err... one of the incidents you mentioned occurred in china, and not only was it worse than the others put together, it doesn't even have a firm fatalities figure (70+, wtf kind of lack of transparency is that?).

You're not exactly helping your point.

Citation needed. While it is true that it is hard to produce quality products in a short time span, the mere fact a project has dragged on and on does not imply it is higher quality.

What?? Is this like the BS theory that we only use 10% of our brains or something? I don't know about you, but i regularly see CPU use well over 10% (sometimes even 100%!). The notion that you can throw away CPU cycles because they are cheap is wrong. It has always been wrong. It probably will always be wrong. It's the "640k should be enough for everyone" argument in disguise.

BSD achieved commercial success in the 90s. In 2001 its use exploded with the release of OS X. HURD is nowhere near where BSD was in the mid to late 90s. No one uses it for anything serious. It's not even remotely comparable.

Finally something i more or less agree with... except you are mistaking this development for an admission the microkernel philosophy is correct. It is nothing of the sort. It is simply a recognition that for some tasks, userland is more appropriate than the kernel. That is all. The mistake the microkernel people made was assuming *all* operating system services could be shoved into userland and that this was somehow a good idea. For a while, research was focused on attempting to fix the intrinsic performance issues that resulted... apparently the approach now is to hand-wave them away? The real world will continue to use operating systems with a design intended to solve *real* problems not fictitious problems of CS elegance.

I think most people will admit there are interesting ideas in HURD. And we'll continue to shamelessly rip off those good ideas. I don't think anyone disputes the role a toy research OS can play in the development of new ideas. But the microkernel itself is *not* a new idea. It's decades old and has been *rejected* as a dead end.

Yes, still useless. IMAE (I am an engineer) and engineers who blindly trust simulation because that's all they know scare the shit out of me. Engineering is a real world discipline, not a theoretical science. I'd trust an engineer who's never gotten his hands dirty about as much as a surgeon who's never operated on a real patient.

Was that meant to be an Australian accent?

I don't think its at all surprising that we care more about rich Asians than poor Blacks. "Asian" and "Black" here are not necessary. We are rich and hence we identify more with the Japanese than victims of natural disasters in poor countries.

It's bizarre when people accuse you of favoritism when you care about one disaster more than another. I have a right to care about what i want to care about. I would care more about an event that affected family or friends than one that affected people i do not know. That extends to countries i share cultural traditions with vs ones i don't.

Anyone with half a clue knows the french military has been potent for centuries. There's a reason they're a permanent member of the security council. Them getting rolled in WWII was embarrassing but then, then it took the combined might of how many countries to finally bring the germans down? Lets not pretend they were defeated by a bunch of amateurs with slingshots. America was pretty seriously unprepared for WWII when it broke out and took a couple of years of building up the army to be able to credibly challenge germany. It's easier to mock other countries for being conquered when you've got enough natural defense (read:ocean and size) to make invasion impractical.

That said, the jokes are hilarious. Which is why they exist. :P

So we use hydrogen instead. It's a more buoyant gas anyway.

I think it's interesting to contrast the investigations of engineering and aerospace failures with financial failures. Will the ultimate causes of the GFC (global financial crisis) be nearly as well investigated as this accident that claimed 7 lives and a few billion in vehicle? Seriously, 7 suicides are all that are required to make the current situation a far far greater crisis (it already obviously is in dollar terms).

I think you'll find that most Australians are actually against the net filtering and probably against stupid rulings like this. We've had two governments now who seem to think they can act without a mandate on issues they believe are "right". Are we stupid for not standing up to them and telling them to piss off? You bet. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like it's a problem we can simply vote away, there isn't a party here that isn't braindead on these issues.

As opposed to the brilliant job all the real economists have done?

Not sure i agree. Pax americana has hardly been peaceful. Frankly i don't think the chinese are all that interested in world domination by military force, they're accomplishing much the same goal economically anyway. And the russians... they're like the middle east, get the world off oil and they're impotent.

I certainly don't think america should just disappear off the face of the earth, and it's a bit of a strawman argument. I think the backlash is more directed at the american trend to constantly pat yourselves on the back and proclaim yourselves the greatest country on earth. Whatever happened to speaking softly and carrying a big stick?

Great countries don't have to constantly remind everyone how great they are. In fact, that's a strong sign of an empire in decline.

Default or hyperinflate, which amounts to the same thing, yep. That only helps if you think america's underlying economy is sound and without the debt servicing burden, you'd be fine. I'd argue without the spending that results from cheap credit, you'd be in for one heck of a painful correction. IMHO, the sudden inability to borrow money will hurt much more than you'll be helped by not needing to service the debt.