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There's an Hudson's Bay Company installer for the Wii? WTF?

trace the evolution of the hudson bay company into modern canada: i don't see the mass of canadian citizens as serfs of a corporation. the colonizaiton of mars under corporate provenance would probably have a similar uncontroversial and mundane development arc. in fact, any such corporate colonization of mars under government oversight would probably consult a historical study of the hudson bay company directly as a model for potential pitfalls to avoid

i'm sorry, but in reailty, the balance between individual rights and corporate provenance isn't so difficult or immobile. there is no massive conflicts, and the hudson bay company still exists today: what was once the corporate master of much of north america is now simply a department store. but of course, you read most science fiction, or talk to a paranoid schizophrenic, or even consult certain lowest common denominator youth subcultures, and you get the impression that corporations are these unstoppable sociopathic vampires out to turn you into an unthinking slave. hardly. reality is just not that interesting, sorry

You can be a socialist Slashdotter and hate that they treat their employees, their suppliers, and their supplier's employees (i.e. fire your American staff and relocate to Indonesia or we're dropping your product) like shit.
Or you can be a privacy-advocate Slashdotter and hate that they want RFID tags in everything.

Or you can be a Republican or Libertarian Slashdotter and admire that Wal-Mart opposes government interference in business (you do NOT tell Wal-Mart how to operate).
Or you can be an apolitical Slashdotter and just agree that, for some products, it's the cheapest place to go.

I'm the socialist Slashdotter. I know it's not much better but if I need something that I know is at a big retailer I make the trip to Zeller's first. SILE (Solution Involving Least Evil)

"I'm with the Hudson Bay company, and we have diliquent accounts going back to 1630." The salesman thinks about it for a second. He replies, "When was the last time you collected on one of them?"

While the Hudson's Bay Company is quite old, some of the accounts it did business with long ago (cities, churches, governments, universities) are still around. I don't know if they are on the delinquent accounts list though :)

And the Hudson's Bay Company, established in 1670, and still going strong.

Heh. The Hudson's Bay Company (aka "The Bay") should sue 'em for "diluting their trademark", as they've had the name for hundreds of years before eBay came up with their "arbitrary and fanciful" one.

"Paul said he simply disagreed that a non-profit company is more secure than a for-profit company."

I'm a skeptic.

The only 300-year-old company I can think of is the Hudson's Bay Company, and that's certainly a for-profit outfit. I don't think there is anything else resembling a business that old, except possibly a bank or two in Italy.

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The public's fear seems to center on government, not corporate, intrusions of privacy, although polls show that fear of companies misuse of personal data is growing rapidly.

Have you been studying your history?

England's history is filled to the brim with revolts by powerful barons (see Magna Carta , Oliver Cromwell ) against weak kings who were consequently unable to see their power (and thus the power of the State) constantly eroded. The net result is that during the industrial revolution, when the bourgeois seized economic power, they frowned upon the power of the state to interfere with their profits. The british empire is filled with private corporations that had their own armies to enforce their own justice over conquered lands (like the East India Company, the Hudson's Bay Company - which still exists to this day); of course in no way that "justice" is geared towards the well-being of the people who lived there first - for example, the HBC forbade indians to trade furs amongst themselves (as they did for thousands of years), but instead, they had to SELL them (for trinkets) to the HBC, and, of course, indians had to buy it from them if they needed furs).

The net result is a mindset which sees all evil in whatever the State does, and turns a blind eye to the worst abuses by private citizens, a, perhaps, every private citizens aspires to be a Bill Gates.

With such a mindset, it's no suprising that citizens see nothing wrong in being screwed by private enterprise (after all, they might, one day, become big enough to screw smaller fry) but jump to the ceiling each time the government steps in to protect smaller people.

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..or "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch" as the master of Grok advised us in "The moon is a Harsh Mistress", his brilliant work on freedom in a post modern society over 30 years ago. Geez seems like sci-fi deja-vu day for me. Well, just read my sig...

Anyways, seems I have to remind my 20-something coworkers of maxims like this daily. If they tell you it's free it ain't...., Air Miles is NOT a way for you to get cheap flights, and Teddy's Club "Z" points aren't just about free TV's and stuff, its all about giving your personal private information away for free while the big corporations taking it tell you that little sample packet of new shampoo is a valuable real prize. Its all about *them* knowing you bought condoms last week on the way home from the bar, and something slightly more embarrassing a few days later.

While grabbing some links for this post, I came across something that while not completely summing up these thoughts, gave me an idea: let's call us all, no matter what decade we were born in, part of Generation "Z".

Okay, so this is all kinda off topic right? Not quite, remember the subject? Seems there are some young folks who realize the truth of that acronym, and are taking these supposed Free Lunches into their own hands, molding them into something which reveals their true nature and at great personal risk, sharing them with the rest of us...for free. Ironic, isn't it?

Going on means going far

..or "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch" as the master of Grok advised us in "The moon is a Harsh Mistress", his brilliant work on freedom in a post modern society over 30 years ago. Geez seems like sci-fi deja-vu day for me. Well, just read my sig...

Anyways, seems I have to remind my 20-something coworkers of maxims like this daily. If they tell you it's free it ain't...., Air Miles is NOT a way for you to get cheap flights, and Teddy's Club "Z" points aren't just about free TV's and stuff, its all about giving your personal private information away for free while the big corporations taking it tell you that little sample packet of new shampoo is a valuable real prize. Its all about *them* knowing you bought condoms last week on the way home from the bar, and something slightly more embarrassing a few days later.

While grabbing some links for this post, I came across something that while not completely summing up these thoughts, gave me an idea: let's call us all, no matter what decade we were born in, part of Generation "Z".

Okay, so this is all kinda off topic right? Not quite, remember the subject? Seems there are some young folks who realize the truth of that acronym, and are taking these supposed Free Lunches into their own hands, molding them into something which reveals their true nature and at great personal risk, sharing them with the rest of us...for free. Ironic, isn't it?

Going on means going far