I agreed with all the parent posts. Don't escalate without having discussed it with the program manager.

See it from their perspective, they also want what is best for the project. They want to ensure the project is on time and on budget... and a success. So you need to explain how your approach is better and how it will lead to a successful approach. A program manager will often do this because they don't understand the product/solution being developed. So explain what a good set up would be and why, and include examples of where this has worked for you before.

Also be aware that you may not get your way. Create a strategy for this situation. Ensure that you are in a position lead the technical piece. Ensure you have your ass covered when the shit hits the fan due to the PMs approach by documenting your approach.

First I would take the verbal approach with the PM. They may take a lot of talking to. Then if you think you have resistance follow up with and email. The email does not need to be pages, just short and sweet. Explain your position with 3 or 4 points, and how it would lead to a successful project.

What vpn provider do you use? We are on holiday in china and use things like googlemaps, gmail, tourist guides that use google maps. It is very frustrating. Even the android app store is not working (play.google.com). I have tried many vpn providers but they all appear blocked, tor dors not work either.

Actually, I think my initial score was 3, now it's 2, ... I'm just waiting till it's -1.

Hmmm, do you have the scientific papers to back this up? I believe you are just making an assumption, like people used to assume the Earth was flat. I agree that this is currently the easiest explanation, but no-one has actually come up with a reasonable theory for it. It's the "I feeling" that I refer to as consciousness, to my knowledge there is no physical explanation of its mechanism. How does the universe allow for this awareness, the "I feeling"?

I definitely agree with the article, it's not so much what we know about the universe, but what we don't know that is really interesting.

My biggest wonder is consciousness. What is it? How does it work? If I am conscious, does this mean the universe is conscious? Am I conscious? Is consciousness only available in higher order complex physical structures (like higher order mammals), or is it possible in lower order structure too, like rocks? I have to say that this there is not a big effort to solve this question. For me it's the most important question to answer, and most interesting. Where do you start to answer such a question? Of course many great thinkers have tried to answer the question, but at the moment it's little more than just philosophy.

Another interesting question is: How the heck does the universe exist?

This is just a phased array antenna (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phased_array). The applications of a phased array allow you to have a direct "beam" to the transmitting tower, which means that you can use significantly less power, and possibly transmit over a larger distance. The idea has been around for a long time, almost 100 years.

It will be interesting if they get this to work, especially for mobile devices like laptops and mobile phones, because when you move your phone you need to immediately redirect the signal "beam" towards the transmitter / receiver. If you miss, you lose your signal. Not only that, calculating the direction of the beam and requires you to regulate frequency and intensity of hundreds of the transmitters on the phased array, this calculation will create a superposition of waves in one direction and cancellation of the waves in the other in the other directions. Hence a "beam" in one direction. The calculation of direction of the "beam" is computationally intensive, but I presume it could be optimised using a lot of hard coding.

Regardless if the US produce evidence or not. The Megaupload saga can be considered a success by the US authorities, MPAA, etc. Because they have destroyed Megaupload and all alternate providers like Megaupload are shaking in their pants. They have one this battle. But the war rages.