Date: 01/27/2005 07:25 AM
From: Jay Kumar (jk_n@sify.com)
Subject: Opera, the Forgotten Browser
It has always been a paradox in life, that the best technology or idea is at most not very popular and lacks following ("Opera, the Forgotten Browser," Jan. 26, 2005). Look at windoze, a piece of lousy software which has great following. Look at IE, a bloatware which can't perform as fast as Opera (less than 10 MB, with mail).
We just have to stick it out. Pursue our goals without loosing hope. I have been using Opera since version 5 onwards. I have in my own way spread the word around. With the version 8 beta which I am using on SuSE Linux 9.0 platform I find the features great. I wish the Opera team all the best.
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Date: 01/26/2005 05:12 PM
From: Dave (don198@hotmail.com)
Subject: Wikipedia Faces Growing Pains
Quote:
Any member of the Wikipedia community can write an entry, which then can be edited by other members ("Wikipedia Faces Growing Pains," Jan. 10, 2005). Entries are never finished, given that anyone can make edits to any of them. But that also means there is no final authority who signs off on the accuracy of entries; veracity is assumed to come from the self-policing nature of the community."
Where did you get such nonsense? I wrote a piece on someone famous, and it took me the better part four hours to complete. When I got up the next morning and looked for my effort, it had been wiped out, and in its place were derogatory and demeaning comments. They replaced what took me four hours with what they call the ugly duckling of Wikipedia.
That censoring, cutting apart and ridiculing, was not by other members in the sense of raw recruits to Wikipedia, but some heavyweight overseers who have a ruthlessness unrivalled in the Mafia. After trying to get some kind of explanation why Wikipedia encourages people to have a go at creating an article, then has these bruisers come and tear your efforts apart, I was immediately warned, then banned. I was told I could e-mail the staff, which I did, but so far have not had any reply. And I don't expect any.
I'm afraid that Wikipedia is not the innocent set-up that people think it is. If you don't believe me, then don't talk from a distance without the experience of taking Wikipedia at their word and editing or "creating" an article.
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Date: 01/27/2005 02:30 AM
From: Anthony Knee (anthony@broadwayhouse.com)
Subject: Improvised Bombs Baffle Army
You have got to wonder what tree the army is barking up with reports like this("Improvised Bombs Baffle Army," Jan. 26, 2005).
Either this information is deliberately misleading, or they are incompetent.
Sniffing particles.... The Americans already have a device for this; it's called a bloodhound! They are used successfully every day in drug operations, finding missing persons, etc, etc.
Also, lets have a look at these remotes that are being talked about. Well, cell phones always reveal their locations to base stations. Problem solved, just ask the local base station where the mobiles are. Base stations can know where a cell phone is to within 0.5 m. Forget about what you see on 24 – most of that is inaccurate.
The best thing for the Americans to do is transmit high-powered triggers periodically. They know what chips are used in toys; they know what frequencies are used. Send them out and watch the bombs blow up in the faces of the makers.
So, is the army scared, incompetent or stupid, or are they misinforming us? I will let you decide.
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Date: 01/27/2005 07:17 AM
From: Jason Ross (JasonSRoss@gmail.com)
Subject: Opera, the Forgotten Browser
The reason why Opera is the forgotten browser is because no one wants two versions of a browser, ad-supported and paid ("Opera, the Forgotten Browser," Jan. 26, 2005). They want one browser, and ads built into a browser do chase away customers. I'm not anti-capitalism. If Mozilla required payment, even an annual payment, I would gladly pay. But charging 39 bucks? Opera is not the computer geeks' browser, it's the yuppies' browser. I would even go as far as to keep Internet Explorer as long as you keep it updated. Thirty-nine bucks! Cut it down to 20, throw up a Paypal link and this thing would sell like hot cakes.
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