put at least some of the responsibility on the general public I felt the same way at one time until I began to think in terms of a business m0del.
you deserve what you get The technique is diversionary. The taxpaying public is saddled with debt which they had no opportunity to opt out of. The taxpaying public is then distracted with vaporous issues. With the assent of popular opinion (which can be completely manufactured if necessary, eg. the Iraq war) money can be allocated. The allocation of that (tax) money serves to maintain social relationships and funnel money to preferred social groups.
I can't really hold the general public responsible anymore. They're trapped in the banker's game. I can't honestly expect everyone to quit their jobs and hold the fort against the eviction/foreclosure notices served by paid public servants.
PreemptiveStrikelyric: "There's a game out there and the stakes are high. And the guy who runs it figures the averages all day long and all night long. Once in a while he let's you steal a peek. But if you stay in the game long enough you've got to lose. And once you've lost there's no way back. No way at all..."
no anything People can carry a pencil taped to the inside of their leg and squeeze a pad of paper between their cheeks. If the information is that sensitive then even a hand-scrawled note would be disasterous.
the question is why is our society moving so intently towards a system when the citizens NEED to do it, in order to feel safe With respect to these transitions (eg. increased surveillance) it is not our society. It is the society of those who write the laws. The need to feel safe is an alibi.
Mankind has demonstrated, again and again, that if something can be done then it will, eventually, be done. Whatever justification is supplied for these directives the bottom line is: the bottom line. Information (eg. network logs) creates data. Data can be made to say anything. There is money to be made in making data say what the people with money want it to say. If justice is ever enforced it is a secondary consequence. The primary goal is always to allocate money to promote someone's bottom line.
The common users in Europe will simply need to accept that there are now new sets of standards by which authorities can meddle in the affairs of the public. Either initiate a revolution or adjust behavior accordingly.
if he gets more than 1% of his charges returned as chargebacks, VISA refuses to ever let him do business with a domestic bank again Who offers a form of chargeback insurance to the merchants? The whole system is such a racket that someone must be working that angle.
Credit card companies aren't having any difficulty finding people to lend money to at exorbitant rates. The illusion of a multi-trillion dollar federal debt, passed along to the taxpaying public through taxes, is a convenient business m0del, n'est-ce pas?
The only notable thing here is that all customers pay, not just the ones who use a credit card Some pay more equally than others, though. It works like a pyramid scheme. The government uses the same principle: it is the reason why we have hundreds of different hidden taxes in thousands of different places.
"We screw the other guy to pass the savings on to you."
Credit card companies are branches of banks (who else has money to lend?). They are affiliated, strongly, with insurance and investment companies. Just as any other large corporation when one division suffers a loss then, in nothing more than the ledger book, the losses are distributed amongst the other divisions.
Think about that next time the interest rates on home mortgages goes up, or the premium on the insurance plans, or when the quality of service for medical insurance goes down, or when the price of motor fuel goes up...
These things happen because the businesses are recouping losses. Why are credit card rates so high?
How do you suppose they'll handle compromised systems, proxies, or VPNs? If I root someone else's system and am knowledgeable enough to cover my tracks how do they propose to track me down? The FP also mentioned the Slashdot effect. How do you think they could handle a network of web pages which, when visited, all make requests from the targetted server (similar to pay-per-click scamming)?
I'm homeless. While I have experience building LFS (since 2.2) and could accomplish the task you suggest my laptop was stolen over the summer and I have no way to buy the USB key or access a system which could be used to build it.
That's debatable. Some of them qualify for this heading but, without a poll or statistics to back it up, you're just calling names.
> sticking it to the man
What's the man done for me lately? When's the last time taxes went down? When's the last time the price of a cheeseburger went down? When's the last time the tax code didn't work out in the same way as a pyramid scheme?
The library here in La Jolla is already halfway there thanks to a little program called CyberSitter. 90% of everything I click on results in "IE cannot display this page" though, sometimes, if I click reload enough times I'm able to recieve enough page text and click stop before CyberSitter receives whatever part of the page it is which causes the page to be dumped.
> I don't consider it "mugging" that some record company exec wants to charge me $20 for a CD
Why not? If you accept, at face value (ha!), their price for a CD then why can they not accept, at face value, that people have the technology to copy and share music?
Metallica, Madonna, Nirvana, and Michael Jackson made it big because their fans could freely share their work by dubbing cassette tapes. In today's networked world the major media companies flood us with "sharing is bad" but, at the same time, the business speculators know darn well that free advertising saves them more money than sharing ever could take away.
People steal. Choose your battles. Your employer steals from you. Your government steals from you. Your supermarket steals from you. Like most of today's population you only see half of the stealing reality.
The other side of the theory is that everyone gets mugged, in some form or another, all the time. The important battle lines are drawn when people decide which types of mugging, perpetrated by whom, committed against whom, and done how often are worth chasing after.
Today's American society does away with those considerations and simplifies its choice to one criteria: convenience. Everyday muggers (P2P networks and common citizens) are much easier to shake down than billion dollar corporate marauders who have social and legal connections to make their prosecution significantly more difficult.
In terms of solving the relevent math covered in the study of Quantum Mechanics and Molecular Spectroscopy (senior Inorganic Chem II at my alma mater), pumping energy into an electron is computationally similar to accelerating an object of 1000 kg mass to 60 mph over the span of time required to travel 250 feet and then nearly instantaneously pumping enough energy to double the velocity in the span of time represented by the distance travelled in one more inch.
Slashdot Mirror
I can't really hold the general public responsible anymore. They're trapped in the banker's game. I can't honestly expect everyone to quit their jobs and hold the fort against the eviction/foreclosure notices served by paid public servants.
Preemptive Strike lyric: "There's a game out there and the stakes are high. And the guy who runs it figures the averages all day long and all night long. Once in a while he let's you steal a peek. But if you stay in the game long enough you've got to lose. And once you've lost there's no way back. No way at all..."
Mankind has demonstrated, again and again, that if something can be done then it will, eventually, be done. Whatever justification is supplied for these directives the bottom line is: the bottom line. Information (eg. network logs) creates data. Data can be made to say anything. There is money to be made in making data say what the people with money want it to say. If justice is ever enforced it is a secondary consequence. The primary goal is always to allocate money to promote someone's bottom line.
The common users in Europe will simply need to accept that there are now new sets of standards by which authorities can meddle in the affairs of the public. Either initiate a revolution or adjust behavior accordingly.
> Swimming lost in your own metaphors ...you will be Yoda observes.
...interest of an elected vigilante with too much free time, money, and social clout for their own good.
> spare me the
> Interest rates on mortgages are tied to the bond market
Would you dare to use the word "only"? Of course not.
> That's just ignorant on your part
Don't be naive.
> who holds bonds...Anyone can buy them
Would you like to point out who holds more bonds?
> you can buy your own mortgage even if you want to
Who still holds the title for the land (in the event of a complete default of will)?
> Demonstrate 'snotty wanna-be know-it-all Libertarian' for me
Demonstrate disdain and pride.
> The government is not your friend, no, but neither is it your enemy
The individuals empowered by the government may be. I can't be everyone's best friend.
"We screw the other guy to pass the savings on to you."
Credit card companies are branches of banks (who else has money to lend?). They are affiliated, strongly, with insurance and investment companies. Just as any other large corporation when one division suffers a loss then, in nothing more than the ledger book, the losses are distributed amongst the other divisions.
Think about that next time the interest rates on home mortgages goes up, or the premium on the insurance plans, or when the quality of service for medical insurance goes down, or when the price of motor fuel goes up...
These things happen because the businesses are recouping losses. Why are credit card rates so high?
How do you suppose they'll handle compromised systems, proxies, or VPNs? If I root someone else's system and am knowledgeable enough to cover my tracks how do they propose to track me down? The FP also mentioned the Slashdot effect. How do you think they could handle a network of web pages which, when visited, all make requests from the targetted server (similar to pay-per-click scamming)?
Demonstrate "arrogant and dismissive lackey" for me.
Why should a citizen be asked to leave when the politicians are the traitors?
The true test of a PhD is how convincingly s/he can make the data, no matter what it is, say whatever s/he wants it to say.
The record companies don't have a natural right to demand that people buy their product. It's called a capitalist economy for a reason.
I'm homeless. While I have experience building LFS (since 2.2) and could accomplish the task you suggest my laptop was stolen over the summer and I have no way to buy the USB key or access a system which could be used to build it.
> rebellious non-conformists
That's debatable. Some of them qualify for this heading but, without a poll or statistics to back it up, you're just calling names.
> sticking it to the man
What's the man done for me lately? When's the last time taxes went down? When's the last time the price of a cheeseburger went down? When's the last time the tax code didn't work out in the same way as a pyramid scheme?
> I'm entering into a mutually beneficial arangement
By mass producing and mass distribution the recording labels are entering into a mutually beneficial arrangement with the consuming public.
Door swings both ways unless you're drinking the Kool-Aid.
> RIAA claims
Maybe they're paranoid.
The library here in La Jolla is already halfway there thanks to a little program called CyberSitter. 90% of everything I click on results in "IE cannot display this page" though, sometimes, if I click reload enough times I'm able to recieve enough page text and click stop before CyberSitter receives whatever part of the page it is which causes the page to be dumped.
> I don't consider it "mugging" that some record company exec wants to charge me $20 for a CD
Why not? If you accept, at face value (ha!), their price for a CD then why can they not accept, at face value, that people have the technology to copy and share music?
Metallica, Madonna, Nirvana, and Michael Jackson made it big because their fans could freely share their work by dubbing cassette tapes. In today's networked world the major media companies flood us with "sharing is bad" but, at the same time, the business speculators know darn well that free advertising saves them more money than sharing ever could take away.
People steal. Choose your battles. Your employer steals from you. Your government steals from you. Your supermarket steals from you. Like most of today's population you only see half of the stealing reality.
If the people at the pub agree with you when you talk politics.
Head for the hills!
The other side of the theory is that everyone gets mugged, in some form or another, all the time. The important battle lines are drawn when people decide which types of mugging, perpetrated by whom, committed against whom, and done how often are worth chasing after.
Today's American society does away with those considerations and simplifies its choice to one criteria: convenience. Everyday muggers (P2P networks and common citizens) are much easier to shake down than billion dollar corporate marauders who have social and legal connections to make their prosecution significantly more difficult.
In terms of solving the relevent math covered in the study of Quantum Mechanics and Molecular Spectroscopy (senior Inorganic Chem II at my alma mater), pumping energy into an electron is computationally similar to accelerating an object of 1000 kg mass to 60 mph over the span of time required to travel 250 feet and then nearly instantaneously pumping enough energy to double the velocity in the span of time represented by the distance travelled in one more inch.