I guess that's vaguely my point. Windows will never truly be finished. It will be abandoned when its no longer useful to work on it. I would say that 80% of Windows Vista works and/or looks the same as Windows 95. However, I would guess that since Windows 95 was created, the total amount of work spent on windows has exploded by thousands of percent with comparably small interface changes.
The final version will be when computing goes beyond the need for Windows. -Communism was a huge threat during the 20th century. As were anarchists, they were bombing and assassinating left right and centre. Communism is not really a threat, and there are no real serious anarchists anymore. Was it because of the fight against communists and anarchists, or because economic and social realities made those ideologies redundant. That is what has to happen with religious fundamentalist terrorism. They have to become idologically redundant, and fighting with military means can't work because they FEED off the violence. They upload the videos of explosions (no matter whether they are caused by them or us) and they use it for propaganda recruitment and funding.
Good question. But it's probably like any project with an evolving scope. For instance, Microsoft Windows... Will there ever be a final version? There's just a point at which someone says "this is good enough" and they move on to something else. The war in Iraq (every war, really) will be like that. There'll be a point at which the cost and the "rewards" just don't justify further action. Maybe we reached that point already. The last little bit will take a lot more effort than the first bit.
But is this a "project" that can be completed at all? And what if the last 20% that needs to be done hasnt even begun yet? The war in Iraq is just like digging a big hole in dry sand. The more that is dug, the more sand is falling in.
The war with what became Al Q'aida began long before America knew there was a problem... Embassy bombings happened in the 1980s. What the religious radicals wanted was to put a wedge between people of their own sects and everybody else, and they finally succeeded on 9-11. Invading Iraq played right into their hands, making the US from a victim into the aggressor again.
I guess that's vaguely my point. Windows will never truly be finished. It will be abandoned when its no longer useful to work on it. I would say that 80% of Windows Vista works and/or looks the same as Windows 95. However, I would guess that since Windows 95 was created, the total amount of work spent on windows has exploded by thousands of percent with comparably small interface changes.
The final version will be when computing goes beyond the need for Windows. -Communism was a huge threat during the 20th century. As were anarchists, they were bombing and assassinating left right and centre. Communism is not really a threat, and there are no real serious anarchists anymore. Was it because of the fight against communists and anarchists, or because economic and social realities made those ideologies redundant. That is what has to happen with religious fundamentalist terrorism. They have to become idologically redundant, and fighting with military means can't work because they FEED off the violence. They upload the videos of explosions (no matter whether they are caused by them or us) and they use it for propaganda recruitment and funding.
Good question. But it's probably like any project with an evolving scope. For instance, Microsoft Windows... Will there ever be a final version? There's just a point at which someone says "this is good enough" and they move on to something else. The war in Iraq (every war, really) will be like that. There'll be a point at which the cost and the "rewards" just don't justify further action. Maybe we reached that point already. The last little bit will take a lot more effort than the first bit.
I can't say.
But is this a "project" that can be completed at all? And what if the last 20% that needs to be done hasnt even begun yet? The war in Iraq is just like digging a big hole in dry sand. The more that is dug, the more sand is falling in.
Like most "projects", 80% of the work takes about 20% of the effort, and the last 20% of the work takes 80% of the effort.
The war with what became Al Q'aida began long before America knew there was a problem... Embassy bombings happened in the 1980s. What the religious radicals wanted was to put a wedge between people of their own sects and everybody else, and they finally succeeded on 9-11. Invading Iraq played right into their hands, making the US from a victim into the aggressor again.
Who knows?
I honestly don't know.