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Comment: Re:Reassembling the Soviet Union (Score 1) 282

by Anonymous Bullard (#46482103) Attached to: Russia Blocks Internet Sites of Putin Critics

Sadly, Russia is turning more and more to Soviet ways. Putin was even rehabilitating Stalin.

Well the West, thanks to the upstanding duo of Nixon & Kissinger, "rehabilitated" Mao's empire already in the mid-seventies and helped the fine western industrialists relocate their ("means of") production over to the PRC while helping their own profit margins in the process, at least for a while.

Mao Zedong, despite having achieved double the body count of Stalin, doesn't even need rehabilitation as his "Communist" Party's princelings have continued to rule the empire, albeit now under new and improved nationalist-corporatist style policies. Nothing wrong with that in the 21st century, right?

Mao also successfully (re-)incorporated the vast western territories of Tibet, South Mongolia and East Turkestan (chin. "Xinjiang") to the Han Chinese empire; Tibet actually well after WWII in 1950-51. Nice grab of Lebensraum, natural resources and new geo-political/military influence over South and Central Asia... and they're still militarily claiming control of massive maritime territories extending deep into South-East Asia and of course large areas belonging to both north-western and north-eastern provinces of India.

China's national (and increasingly international) media is naturally still totally harnessed to spreading CCP's nationalist propaganda.

I have zero sympathy for Putin or his policies to rebuild the Soviet/Russian Empire through threats and military aggression, but hey, the West (USA, EU et al) have okayed and are of course currently perfectly fine with the People's Republic of China doing all these things. The key lesson learned has been that business always wins in the end over morality or international law. We often reap what we sow.

Should we be surprised if a Soviet-groomed KGB agent turned Russian authoritarian strongman feels that his regime deserves the same imperial carte blanche priviledges both domestically and over their smaller/weaker/more peaceful neighbours as China has been afforded (essentially with zero concessions)?

My old signature below may seem totally pointless to many, but the West set their tone already some forty years ago and the only reason the western democracies are now even considering diplomatic and economic sanctions seems to be that Ukraine happens to be located in eastern Europe, unlike those inconsequential (former) neighbours of China.

Comment: Re:I wonder (Score 2) 143

by Arker (#46479627) Attached to: A Look at the NSA's Most Powerful Internet Attack Tool
It depends, if you are an actual employee I understand the pay is not really spectacular. The benefits, however, are outrageous. And these days of course the government has gotten into outsourcing too, and most of their workers are contractors, not employees. The contractors are obviously paid well, and if theoretically they have less job security practically their programs are only set to expand.

Anyway, regardless of position, you could probably make more money in the private sector if you are really motivated to go out and make the next big thing. But this sort of job is about more than compensation. It draws people that really believe in the cause (who eventually become disillusioned, and sometimes become whistleblowers) along with amoral sociopaths that get off on power. Unfortunate that the latter stand a much better chance of being promoted and the former of being waterboarded, seems backwards somehow, but oh well.

Comment: Re:Reason to use Metro (Score 1) 162

by Arker (#46479569) Attached to: VLC Finally Launches App For Windows 8
Yeah, someone beat me to it, but anytime I see Metro I use a keyboard shortcut and I get back to work.

I suppose I actually do use it in a sense though - as that is where windows search has gone. But again I am hardly using that unusable excuse for an interface, it's just win-foobar on the keyboard and go.

I still find it funny that in 2014 Microsoft has now decided to sell an OS that is only usable from the keyboard, but it doesnt slow me down at all.

Comment: Re:454 / 16 (Score 0) 110

by Arker (#46479241) Attached to: Conservation Communities Takes Root Across US
Supply them with their entire diets? No, not even close, obviously.

It is enough to supply them with a few regular tidbits though. "Luxury veges", as another poster said. A few tomatos, a few berries, stuff that can really spice up the staples, and stuff that people with more money than sense spend a FORTUNE on when you figure in that they are looking for this absurd little 'organic' label and paying accordingly.

Obviously it sounds like they must be importing a lot of their packages from offsite but it probably does produce enough to be profitable. But the main point to it is obviously atmosphere.

Comment: Re:Fixing healthcare.gov? (Score 0) 221

by Arker (#46469115) Attached to: Silicon Valley's Youth Problem
"You do realize that insurance only works because there is a pool of healthy people who take out less than they put in. When the day comes that you need insurance you will appreciate how it works."

You realize that the correct word for what you describe here is not 'insurance' right?

It's 'pyramid scheme.'

Real insurance would involve ONLY healthy people, who pay enough as a group to cover the costs of the predictable subgroup that wind up needing catastrophic care later on.

Using a pyramid scheme to pay for routine health care and then calling it 'insurance' as a cover just makes it obvious this system was designed by fraudsters.

Comment: Re:And what a source! (Score 1) 22

by Arker (#46465175) Attached to: "Progressive politics is rooted in racism."
My apologies, you are correct, I had mentally attributed the wrong identity to you and I do apologize for the confusion.

"Holy leap of logic, batman! If you are trying to make a point you need to fill in the blanks."

I assume you mean to say you are not aware of the circumstances surrounding the drafting and passage of the Mulford act?

Simply googling black panthers gun control will give you several thousand hits, many from left wing organizations I assume you will find more credible than the others, but the story is widely reported and well documented.

The Black Panthers organized militias to defend their neighborhoods, they asserted their second amendment rights, and the California political establishments, both sides, united thunderously to strip them of those rights in response. That was in 1967.

Comment: Re:Just for a browser? (Score 1) 238

by Arker (#46464897) Attached to: Google To Replace GTK+ With Its Own Aura In Chrome
A lot of truth there but not this:

"Well, it used to be that Android was basically a linux distro."

No, it really never was. Because when you say a linux distro what you are actually thinking of is a GNU distro, and android never attempted that at all. It's always been it's own wierd little proprietary linux offshoot and I guess it's nice that people are starting to see it that way, but it's silly to pretend it's a change, it was this way from the start.

Comment: Re:directfb-lite and other webkit ports (Score 1) 238

by Arker (#46464685) Attached to: Google To Replace GTK+ With Its Own Aura In Chrome
Pardon what may be a stupid question, but does the FB port need X-Windows at all?

If not just run multiple browser windows using multiple virtual consoles, Alt-F1 Alt-F2 etc switches back and forth. You could have chrome in one terminal, bitchX in the next, editor of choice in the third, and so on.

Comment: Re:And what a source! (Score 1) 22

by Arker (#46464421) Attached to: "Progressive politics is rooted in racism."
"As desperately as he has tried to get me to, I have never, not once, called smitty racist. Even as many times as he has called me racist without anything to support his claim, I have never called him one."

So what was this?


"Wow, if your beliefs are rooted in such certainty, then obviously what other people observe must automatically be wrong, right?"

Not at all. They must be seeing things from a different point of view somehow. It may not be a *better* point of view - but it's possible it could be, and at least it might be something interesting.

I think that's the difference between me and most of the partisans for either side. I am actually fine with disagreement, I find it interesting, as long as it can sustain a conversation on a somewhat higher level than 'nuhuh' 'uhuh'

As to the policy itself, it's mostly an insulting annoyance for rural folks (though we, and I think not without cause, worry that it will slide down the slope and become worse) but not yet a truly enormous, practical problem on a day to day basis. For a great many minority residents of US citizens, it is a daily threat. Decent citizens in our urban slums (of any color, but obviously demographics means this hits minorities disproportionately) are caught in a cruel trap between the cops and the criminals.

It's no mistake that the modern era of victim disarmament laws started in California and were aimed directly at the Black Panther Party.
