Subj : Re: How much should I charge for fixed-price software contract? To : comp.programming From : Richard Heathfield Date : Sun Aug 21 2005 12:12 am Randy Howard wrote: > Richard Heathfield wrote > (in article > ): > >> In my view, the USA got off pretty lightly. This was an international >> incident. Wars have been started over less. > > Oh my. This /is/ a hot button for you. You have to be joking. It could have gone like this: "And in today's news... Randy Howard, a programmer from Tar Heel, North Carolina, was arrested by Russian police whilst speaking at a convention of programmers in Moscow. Mr Howard had been discussing certain programming techniques with his Russian audience, drawing on his work in the US for examples of how to control nuclear reactors safely. In Russia it is against the law to write software to control nuclear reactors unless you are employed by the State specifically for that purpose. Mr Howard wrote his reactor control programs in the USA, but the Russians don't seem to care. The Russian ambassador to the US has been summoned to the White House to explain this outrage, and a number of Senators have been discussing the possibility of grain sanctions against Russia. The Navy is on full alert, and the Pentagon is watching developments with care." A mild exaggeration, no doubt. But the point is that such behaviour by the Russians would indeed be outrageous (and inexplicable). But because it's Americans doing it, it seems to be okay to some Americans. That's called "special pleading". > >> Freedom of speech is fundamental. So is the concept of national >> sovereignty. The Sklyarov incident shows that the US Government is >> prepared to ride rough-shod over both. > > Well that much has been obvious for a very long time. What is > less obvious possibly, but much more important is that the US > voting population is willing to accept it, provided it occurs > slowly enough. Yep. Like the frog who can't tell that he's being boiled alive, provided you raise the temperature slowly enough. (No, I have never tried this experiment. I am relying on good old urban mythology here, as I have no desire to be responsible for the death of a frog.) -- Richard Heathfield "Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29/7/1999 http://www.cpax.org.uk mail: rjh at above domain .