> Now we wait to see if the US Government tries to step in...oh what a show this is becoming.

Granted Slashdot is tech oriented but you can't look at the Google episode in isolation and expect to understand the entirety of it. Grievances with China have been building for a decade now. Things changed drastically when the Chinese insulted Obama during his trip to Beijing last November and they followed it up by publicly embarrassing him when they sunk the Copenhagen accords a month later. Eyes were opened and whatever goodwill between the Obama administration and China evaporated. The two countries may make token efforts to get along where they can but things have fundamentally changed and it has to do with much bigger economic issues than just Google.

Put the Google stuff (which first emerged shortly thereafter) in this context. People can argue endlessly about whether Google is being hypocritical on flip-flopping on censorship. It is besides the point. The real issue here is corporate espionage, fair play in Chinese market, trade issues, etc.

The next big thing is due out on April 15th. No, not your taexs. The Treasury department is due to release its biannual report on cheating trade nations. Even though China should have been on that list semi-permanently for a decade or more the US has always allowed them to slide. The big question is whether they allow it again this time. If China goes on the list it the first step to trade sanctions and possibly tariffs on Chinese goods. If you read the new lately China is screaming bloody murder and throwing every smoke bomb in their arsenal out to the press.

So yeah, this show is becoming interesting but it going to be much bigger than Google.

> you might want to reread your statement with "me" instead of "them".

Most people do. Here is what they see about financial holdings in the US:

Top 1% owns 43%

Next 19% owns 50%

Bottom 80% owns 7%

Most people see no "me" in those statements.

> However if a company doesn't do this things, then the stockholders sue saying that the CEO's were not doing their best to maximize profits.

A situation which could be remedied by changes to some laws. More importantly would be getting Wall Street off companies backs so they can plan more than 3 months out. The latter has less to do maximizing corporate profits than the Street's own interests, profits, and bonuses.

Yet again proving that, alone, a broadband connection in the basement is insufficient to connect people with reality.

Bah. As if in the US's case the "country" has anything to say about it. China has some notion of "country" and keeps its companies aware of it. The US is owned lock, stock and barrel by corporations who throw around terms like country and patriotism when it is convenient for them - usually when they need some cannon fodder and tax payer funding to defend or acquire what is in their corporate interest.

Those beneficent corporate titans, always thinking of the little guys. How could I have forgotten their altruistic intentions?

> the USA CIA has not trained and sponsored the Chinese government.

We can credit the corporations, the banks, and bonehead economists for this one.

If you weren't so anxious to make a straw man out of me you could have surmised that we probably in general agree.

Voting isn't enough. Working strictly from within a system that is already compromised won't work on its own. It may keep some lunatics out of office but it won't change things.

Mass protests, 3rd parties, jury nullification, mass boycotts, organized labor, civil disobedience, etc., are required. Sorry, I just don't know how obvious that needs to be before people accept it. A wholly corporate two-party system is never going to undercut its interests until it is forced to do so.

If you don't like it, VOTE FOR SMARTER CONGRESSPEOPLE.

I can't be only one who is tired of this advice.

At what point do people admit that they can push the button on the machine all they want but it won't make it actually DO anything? The mechanism is broken. At this point its only function is to pacify us and make us think we have some vestige of control when we know in our hearts that we have none. Voting has become the great national corporate Suggestion Box where people ask to be treated with respect, get raises, and find a better health care provider but 3 months later get a breathlessly excited memo about how all the great suggestions led to 5 beautiful new picnic tables in the quad.

Power and money never concede anything until they are forced to do so. When the game is as rigged as the election process it not only allows them to do nothing but they laugh at how utterly gullible we are.

Now maybe it appeals to you and maybe it doesn't, but certainly it has its uses

For some people and some companies there may be use cases.

For me, and many others, cloud computing is nothing more than exploitation of the reality of slow consumer connections. Give the world 25 Mbs (up & down) connections in addition to sub $100/terabyte storage and the need for cloud computing approximates zero.

This has a lot of complicated requirements. If you scan through the pdf "DARPA's Military Networking Protocol" link in the article I don't see how this doesn't extend well beyond 3 years and $42 million. E.G. "As deliverables, performers must provide protocol implementations that replace or modify both the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) for the user level devices and the Network Controllers."

Throw in the pace of defense companies move and it would be a miracle.

This is proof that life once existed on the moon.

It proves that the moon was once an interstate Stuckey's on the way to other galaxies. They just didn't find the low carb pecan log roll. It was only one shelf over.

It's near DC...

Not to mention some of the "secret bunkers" and "undisclosed locations". Chances are that any plausible enemy knows about them but could always use more info on how they are supplied, etc.

The major connection I see between WV, VT, and Wyoming is mountains. Things get dug deep into mountains.

"In all seriousness we need to consider what ramifications this might have regarding NAZI NAZI NAZI HITLER HITLER HILTER Doodle Doodle Dee Wubba Wubba Wubba Kplang!"

Sounds like what your imaginary girlfriend screams during the imaginary act.

I'm most worried about the government itself, thank you.

Well thankfully this was the Swiss government. The US would never use some of the billions poured into the new "Cyberwar" to do exactly the same thing. We have laws and high government officials always get brought to justice over things like this...