Friday, June 25, 2004

Islam believes in self-defence too. In Saudi Arabia the government's response to attacks on foreign workers is to allow them to carry firearms. Any chance of that happening in London? I can get a foreign passport if necessary. However, foreign contractors for the Saudi government will not be allowed to carry weapons because they are under the protection of the State. Good luck to them. On balance, I think I would swap the British Home Secretary for his Saudi counterpart:... [Samizdata.net] The original story contains this quote: "In principle, a Saudi has the right to carry a weapon if he has a permit. Likewise, a foreign resident, if he felt in danger, could get a permit to carry a weapon," the prince said in remarks reported by the official Saudi Press Agency. Interesting choice of words. A Californian also has the right to carry a weapon if he has a permit--in principle. Of course, in practice, you have to be very rich and powerful to get a permit. I wonder if the Saudis intend to take their "principle" seriously, or if this is just lip-service--like the US government with armed airline pilots. 1:53:54 PM    comment () Watched The Fog of War starring former US Secretary of Defense, Robert MacNamara. More interesting than I thought it would be. One bit of history it revealed about the Vietnam war is that the enemy, the North Vietnamese, thought they were re-fighting a war for independence with colonial France, that's why they were such a fierce enemy. The US was fighting a war with the USSR and China to prevent communist dominance of all of southeast Asia and all small nations in the world. The famous Domino Theory. The former Vietnamese foreign minister reveals that they hated the Chinese, and had been at war with them for a thousand years. MacNamara says if they had known this, the Vietnam war never would have happened. [Scripting News] Since the relationship between Vietnam and China is well-known to anyone with even the slightest knowledge of Southeast Asia, McNamara is essentially admitting that they knew absolutely nothing about thesituation they were getting involved in. 10:42:36 AM    comment () SkypeOut Active. SkypeOut is active. Click on Skype "Tools" and "Go to my Account Page". It was simple to spend my first 10 Euros. My account took a few minutes for my Skype dialer to show the credit. I then dialed New Zealand for a couple of quick test calls. I didn't experience any noticable latency on these calls. The wideband Skype sound was missing the low's and highs I'm accustomed to. I also had to adjust the volume way up to make it work. A quick look at the forum suggests not all calls are going through without latency; particularly when directed to a cellphone. I'm a little surprised they are not releasing it with a Beta minutes bonus. The rates are competitive although not the only low rates out there. Note charged rates are rounded up to the next minute. This is a game versus offering it as a charge vs the second. The longer the call the less it matters. However those wasted no message answerphone calls will get you. My billing list showed a number that was impossible to dial. Ie not enough digits. It was a did not connect. There was no feedback at the skype dialer to wrong number. There is also no "clear" button on the dialer and Americans will find it strange that there is a + or 00 before the country code. I tried to create a PSTN conference call to two PSTN lines and couldn't. Not sure if this should be possible. Don't expect it to be perfect! Like the Skype software itself, the SkypeOut service is currently in a beta testing phase. So please be patient if you notice irregularities or inconsistencies with the SkypeOut service, voice quality, and this webstore ‰¥ä which may occasionally be inaccessible. We apologize in advance for these inconveniences and would be grateful if you take the time to report your problems or suggestions using our Report a Problem Form. However, be assured that all credit card transactions are 100% secure, authorized and handled by our third party payment partner. Buy SkypeOut credit [Unbound Spiral] I'll have to give this a try when I get home, perhaps by calling my office phone. 10:15:16 AM    comment ()

© Copyright 2006 Ken Hagler. Last update: 2/15/2006; 2:02:16 PM.