Comment: Re:Large Deployments (Score 1) 180
Comment: Re:correct response: "OK, put me on the list." (Score 4, Informative) 508
Actually, you are wrong. Spain has a GDP foreign debt of 284% and Germany has a GDP foreign debt of 176%. The US have 101%, and they are in much better finantial shape than many strong countries in EU.
The "Foreign debt to GDP" numbers reflects the relative size of the countries financial systems and should not be seen as liabilities as this debt is collateralized. The better numbers to compare for "financial shape" are the "Govt debt to GDP" levels, respectively 67%, 83% and 100%. Additionally one should look at the current account for the countries in question. This shows a why Spain is in trouble even if its debt to GDP ratio is relatively small (67%).
Comment: Re:Gee, maybe Europe should clean up its own messe (Score 1) 969
Iran was about British oil--specificaly, a company called "BP", as in "British Petroleum"--not US oil, period. To claim that US oil interests were the cause of US intervention in Iran is just ridiculous.
Really? You do seem to ignore the fact that Anglo-Iranian lost it's oil monopoly and was forced into a joint venture with amongst others Gulf Oil, Socony-Mobil, Esso, Standard Oil of California, and Texaco after the coup?
And "intervention" amounted to little more than organizing a protest; the Iranian government was on its last leg anyway.
Hardly. Mosaddegh was apparently viewed as a hero at the time. He would have easily won any new election.
Stop watching FOX.
I don't watch Fox. But you obviously should stop listening to European neo-Marxist propaganda.
Fact is, most of the trouble spots in the world are the result of European fascism, European colonialism and European socialism.
Really? You sure sound like someone that watches Fox a lot. Please explain which trouble spots are caused by European Socialism.
The US is trying its best to keep things running, but Americans and American tax payers are running out of patience. If Europe doesn't like the way it's going, Europe should pay for its own damned military
The EU has a combined military budget of appx. 300 billion USD. That is about the same amount as the combined budgets of China, Russia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, India and Brazil together. Europe can defend itself just fine. It takes a whiny and ignorant American to pretend otherwise.
Comment: Re:Easily explainable: Nokia (Score 1) 371
That we like a GUI that is minimal, usable, has sane defaults (and keyboard shortcuts), and doesnt get in your way?
You just described OSX.
If thats not implying that Microsoft cant make great software, I dont know what is.
Microsoft has an extremely long history of churning out mediocre software which people hailed as "fantastic". You seem to have forgotten the Outlook back when it tended to auto-execute email attachments. You know - back when retrieving a deleted mail from Exchange included a database restore. Back when Word seemed to lay out its documents differently from PC to PC. (It still does). Remember Vista which people loathed? People on this site now claim it was "great". *sigh*
Comment: Re:Easily explainable: Nokia (Score 1) 371
Thunderbird is absolute garbage compared to outlook, and Evolution is worse. What would you recommend as a good integrated groupware product? Preferably one that can handle about 3 GB of email, by the way.
Zimbra.
And no, Mac Mail doesnt count. Its terrible in its own way.
Why?
Comment: Re:Crazy vs. Evil (Score 1) 571
It's not about dying at the moment of exposure, it's about how it affects your body as a whole. DDT has been linked to diabetes and is a neurotoxin, endocrine disruptor, and suspected carcinogen (just to name a few). These things kill people.
First, CITATION NEEDED because I'm calling bullshit. I need something from a real live science source, not Rachel Carson, Green Peace or the Sierra Club.
Citations can be found in the Wikipedia article: "However, for younger women—exposed earlier in life—the third who were exposed most to p,p'-DDT had a fivefold increase in breast cancer incidence over the least exposed third.."
And I need something more than simply "linked to". I want actual cases of real people developing these problems due to exposure to DDT and it must show more deaths than the hundreds of millions caused by the stuff that DDT prevented, like mosquito born illnesses.
Carcinogens usually don't leave smoking guns. That does not mean that carciogens are harmless. As for the "deaths of hundreds of millions caused by the stuff that DDT prevented", you should read up on DDT resistant mosquitos.
Comment: Re:How funny that I already corrected you (Score 1) 333
The VLC developer made the claim because Apple's TOS is incompatible with the GPL. Apple is 100% to blame for that incompatibility.
Actually, the VLC developer that made the claim was unaware that Apple had actually changed it's TOS to accomodate FOSS licenses. See discussion on the VideoLAN list around October / Novemer 2010. Also take a look at Jean-Baptiste Kempf's legal analysis in the latter link.
It turns out that the last stumbling block - as explained in a comment above - is that the GPL license specifically dictates you can’t block the user's ability to redistribute binaries himself. This is conflicts with the iOS security model of only allowing software that is signed by a special certificate (or other enterprise certificates).
Now consider if VLC changed their license to be consistent with the app store TOS. VLC would be allowed on the app store, but it would no longer be free software.
This is plainly wrong, as only GPL licensed software has trouble with this model. Fres software under e.g. Apache, Mozilla or BSD licenses are easily distributed through the App Store.
Comment: Re:Ohhhh shit (Score 1) 344
- - Electric cars have lower operating costs. Nissan estimates 5 year operating cost for the Leaf will be US$1,800 versus US$6,000 for a gas car.
- - Modern electric cars have the same passenger room as regular cars. Take a look at the Renault Fluence Z.E. or the Opel Ampera.
- - Modern electic cars can easily reach and exceed the speed limit. A Shelby Aero EV can reach 208mph (albeit for a short period).
- - Electric cars can have great range using e.g. a QuickDrop system to change to fresh batteries in appx. 3 minutes. Fast Charging is also an alternative, but is rumoured to actually wear out your battery faster.
- - An electric car has currently a higher sticker price and a higher TCO than a gas car. This is offset by a low center of gravity, extremely few moving parts making them a breeze to service and the warm fuzzy feeling you get from driving an BEV.
I test drove a Nissan Leaf this summer and it was actually a great drive.
Comment: Re:So... (Score 1) 69
We wrote off the $31 billion (half a trillion dollars in today's money) we loaned to you during WW2, then loaned you some more money.
This is not entirely correct. The "money written off" was actually supplies and war material from USA and Canada sent to Britain. Britain paid in kind by effectively handing over export rights to the commonwealth, reverse lend-lease transfers, giving away basing rights and let's not forget Roosevelts initial plan - carrying the battle against the Nazis so you wouldn't have to.