Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 17th Nov 2011 23:20 UTC
The saga surrounding SOPA will be dominating the headlines for a while yet, and today is no different. First of all, and most importantly, the European Parliament has adopted a resolution against SOPA, while also calling for net neutrality to become part of EU law. Second, and this is also interesting, we now have a list of software companies which are against freedom of speech on the web. Unsurprisingly, Apple and Microsoft are on this list. Update: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has spoken out against SOPA. Update II: Tumbler's anti-SOPA message on their website generated almost 90000 (!) phone calls to representatives. Amazing.
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Member since:2005-06-29
However, fact remains: Protestant/Germanic+Nordic countries have very sound financial policies and very little corruption.
Oh how I wish that were so in the U.S.! The American Catholic church, of course, has come under fire in the past decade for corruption and conspiracy surrounding the sexual allegations against church leaders.
The Protestants are perhaps a little better on those grounds, but they overwhelmingly (especially here in the southern states) want to stay in the early 20th century as far as morality law is concerned, and corruption among Protestants is rampant at the state and local level all across the country.
On both sides, there's no such thing as fiscal responsibility at the moment.
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As an aside, I find it quite odd that there are more than a few Catholic congress members but so far only one Catholic president, and it was quite controversial when he was elected. Then again, we've had Unitarian and (suspected) atheist presidents too. In the distant past, some chose not to affiliate with a church until they left office, and some were accused of being one thing (atheist, Deist, etc) when they were actually of a more common Christian background.
Gotta love this country of ours. *rolls eyes*
RE[4]: Good on the EU!
by demosthenese on Fri 18th Nov 2011 15:23
in reply to "RE[3]: Good on the EU! "
Member since:2011-02-01
France? Belgium? I wouldn't class as corrupt. What about Eire? Huge financial mess but not a country I would count as suffering from corruption.
Is southern Germany more corrupt than northern Germany? Or has this nothing more to do with religion than the commenter's own religious prejudice.
Member since:2010-02-18
Is southern Germany more corrupt than northern Germany?
Generally speaking that's true.
Or has this nothing more to do with religion than the commenter's own religious prejudice.
It still has nothing to do with religious prejudice but, as stated in the comment, with culture.
The so-called "christian" party that keeps a stronghold on Bavaria for 50+ years can do pretty much whatever they want (including large scale corruption) and still get reelected with a comfortable margin. But they're weaker these days and need a minor partner, and in the other southern state they've been shown the door in March.
Protestants.. well, they protest at some point ;-)
Not saying that there's no corruption in the northern parts of Germany, but either their smarter at hiding their tracks, they're really less corrupt than in the south, or they're dumped more quickly (and thus weigh their benefits by corruption with the risk of losing officed more).
Member since:2009-05-19
I'm culturally Russian Orthodox, why would I place the biggest turd on my own cultural background? Not knowing it is really not the case.
But, hey, unlike most people in the world I have the luxury of being brought up in a wildly multicultural family. And when I say wildly I mean: Christians, Muslims, Jews and Buddhists all mixed but not merged...
What about Eire?
Currently living in Dublin for a few months, I can tell you that the Irish have a very "unique" outlook on corruption. By my standards, which are set to those of Scandinavians, this country has a lot of corruption. In fact, much more than their "orange brethren" from the north.
RE[5]: Good on the EU!
by Neolander on Sun 20th Nov 2011 11:31
in reply to "RE[4]: Good on the EU! "
Member since:2010-03-08
Greetings from France ! Let me introduce you to Areva, Servier, l'Oréal, and their friends in the government 
(I personally find this link between former religion and corruption quite suspictious, but I wouldn't say that we have no serious corruption problems in France)
Edited 2011-11-20 11:40 UTC
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/20/13 6:17 UTC, submitted by MOS6510
"In the first episode of Microsoft's new film series 'On the Whiteboard', Editor Pamela Woon chats with two-time Oscar winner Randy Thom about the (often underestimated) importance of sound in human-technology interactions. Thom, the lead sound designer at Skywalker Ranch who worked on films such as The Incredibles, Castaway and Forrest Gump, says that people rarely consider the significance of those signature sounds that come from their trusty devices, whether it be a cell phone, a computer or a tablet."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 23:02 UTC, submitted by M.Onty
"Microsoft has sensationally abandoned its controversial plans to restrict the sharing of XBox One games, and has also removed daily online authentication requirements for its forthcoming console", reports The Guardian. They had no choice. Still a good move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 22:28 UTC
"A snippet of code in the Steam digital distribution platform has revealed that Valve may be planning to let users easily share their games with friends in the future. The Verge has verified the code's authenticity, which was originally spotted by a member of the NeoGAF gaming forum; the code references a 'shared game library' and a notification that would alert a user when their games are currently in use by a borrower." This would change the, uh, game.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.More News »
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Member since:
2005-06-29
It's not crap. This divide into three regions is actually pretty damn accurate - especially the Catholic vs. Protestant countries. Don't be fooled by the religion-based dividing line - this is about *cultural* differences, not *religious* differences. A better way may be to say Germanic+Nordic countries vs. Romanic countries.
However, fact remains: Protestant/Germanic+Nordic countries have very sound financial policies and very little corruption. Catholic/Romanic countries, on the other hand...
Edited 2011-11-18 13:05 UTC