In the game Postal, the player assumes the role of a homicidal maniac, where killing bystanders is entirely the point. Not illegal, though it was banned from CompUSA and Walmart..
-- PaxTech
"I've said it before, and I'll say it again : Democracy simply doesn't work." -- Kent Brockman
When I was working tech support for a certain insurance company, they decided to let a whole group of 10-12 people go. Instead of calling them into a meeting first, the brass had their network accounts all locked before they came in. Our management had orders not to re-enable the accounts or tell the users what was going on. Some seemed to know what was going on, but others just thought it was a network outage. They all waited until after lunch to be told they were laid off.
The worst part, though, is that one of the employees laid off was BLIND. Yes, BLIND. They fired a blind lady. She had worked for the company 13 years. Fired her dog, too.
She had text-to-speech software on her machine that was owned by her personally and had taken me quite a while to install. It had a floppy disk copy-protection scheme that required you to move the key back on to the disk when uninstalling it, so I had to go up to her desk and remove the key for her. They had called her a cab, but NO ONE was around to carry her things, which included a braille scanner (heavy as hell) and several boxes of books and papers. So it fell to me to go get a cart, load it with her stuff, and escort the blind woman and her dog outside and wait for her cab.
I'd like to say I went right back inside and quit on principle, but I waited two weeks so I could take all my vacation time and get my bonus.
The fact that in other western countries taxes are higher than in the US is completely irrelevant. I consider US taxes high because I do not feel I receive services commensurate with the amount I have to pay. The point is that when some country in a nice climate offers me decent infrastructure, safety, and whatever else I decide my government should provide, at reasonable cost, then I will move.
Right now, government charges what they want because you can't move somewhere better. At some point in the next 5-10 years, more and more people's business will be conducted on the net. For example, I do website development. I could perform my job functions pretty much anywhere, if I could get a good net connection. If I can work anywhere and make the same amount of money, why would I choose to live in a country that taxes such a large portion of it away?
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PaxTech Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. -- Diderot
For the last 50 years, the USA served a purpose, and served it well. There was an 800 pound gorilla out there (the USSR) that wanted to take EVERYONE'S property and freedom. The solution was the US government, who just took a PERCENTAGE of people's property and freedom. As deals go, this was a good one : Give up SOME so you can be protected from those who would take ALL. It proved to be a better economic model, and was the reason for US victory in the Cold War.
Now, however, we are still paying this protection money even though the 800 pound gorilla died of starvation.. Why? Because if we don't, our government puts us in prison. The US and USSR were never opposites, they just differ in the degree of theft they perpetrate on their victims^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcitizens.
Once the Net starts enabling people to move out of high-tax jurisdictions like the US while maintaining a high income level, it will all start falling apart. I plan on leaving the country in about 5-7 years.
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PaxTech Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. - Diderot
I'm actually rereading the series right now, and the reasoning as I understand it is that a hobbit had to be the ringbearer due to hobbits' greater resistance to the corrupting effects of the One Ring.
The complaint you make is that hobbits are relatively weak compared to the wizards and elves, but this weakness is exactly what enabled them to carry the ring without great harm. The Ring would have magnified Gandalf's power greatly, but would also have corrupted him beyond redemption. Hobbits are resistant to this corruption, as shown by Gollum's survival of years of ownership of the Ring. Not to say that Gollum was not corrupted, but the same corruption would have taken mere weeks or months with an elf or wizard owner, culminating in their death.
FWIW, the Christmas 2001 theatrical release of The Fellowship of the Ring will be simultaneous worldwide. If they can do it, why can't studios do it with all their films?
Actually, the outcome is determined by the media conglomerates who report the outcome. Votescam has the details.
Re:See what happens when you rely on NT
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Microsoft Cracked
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· Score: 1
Think about it... It's easy when you have two machines on each desk, one hooked to the companywide network and the internet for email and browsing, and a separate dev machine on the dev network.
Nice try. Abraham Lincoln's Republican party was a third party candidate in the 1860 election.
Of course, we had a civil war afterwards, so we all might want to think twice about this third party stuff..
PaxTech
Re:So what your sayin is....
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Trigger Happy
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· Score: 1
If Nader actually had a chance to win, I'd never vote for him. I think you exaggerate slightly when you say "green party == communist party", but only slightly. Yet I will vote for Nader. A vote for Nader is a vote against the current political status quo. Nader has no chance to win, but he has a chance to do well enough to act as a wake-up call to those who have bought and paid for our current political masters. Besides, Nader does hold some geek friendly positions on issues such as the drug war, privacy, and campaing finance reform.
--
Pax This post brought to you by the letters K and B, and the number 420.
*Nobody* starts a band because they want to make money. The odds of making a lot of money from being in a band are extremely low.
However, the odds of getting chicks rises exponentially once you are in a band, even if it's just a local bar band.
Therefore, as long as girls will put out for a guy with a guitar, guys will make music.
--
Paxtech
"Professor Frink, Professor Frink, he'll make you laugh, he'll make you think He likes to run, and then the thing.. with the.. person.."
The problem I think most Libertarians have with the Republican party is that it is contaminated by the religious right. What right-minded libertarian could vote for a party with a pro-censorship, anti-choice, pro-christian platform?
No serious libertarian could place their vote for either the Dems or Repubs..
Lars contends that $16 cd prices are determined by the market, and that 'stealing' music is not the way to fight $16 cd prices. I beg to differ. The market has changed. Napster, and technologies like it, are the new reality. You can try to fight it, but for every Napster you slay, three clones will pop up to take its place. You can't destroy the demand by destroying the provider, another will take its place. When the record companies see internet music trading draining their profits, and realize that legal battles are only draining them of more money without having a significant effect on the volume of music trading, they will be forced to lower their prices to an equilibrium point at which people are more willing to pay X dollars for a cd than go to the hassle of downloading the songs from the net. It's basic economics, baby! Supply and demand! Downloading songs from Napster is exactly the way to fight $16 cd prices. Goddamnit, what other weapons do we have? Finally, the consumer has the power to screw the record companies, instead of the other way around!
Actually, I recall reading about how Lars had a shitload of British metal albums when he met James, and how James would sleep over and stay up all night making tapes of those albums.. How is that different from what Napster allows users to do?
You're 100% right.. When I was younger, all I used my computer for was gaming. If games had been as easy to get working as they are now, I might never have learned anything more about computers at all.
It all started when I had to buy QEMM to get Ultima Underworld to work..:)
Pax
Re:Just flout the law. It worked for Prohibition.
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Protesting DMCA
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· Score: 1
Umm.. maybe for alcohol prohibition, but people have been flouting drug prohibition for decades, and has that been repealed yet? What's taking so long?
Putting our heads in the sand and ignoring bad laws is all well and good, until you're the one that gets made an example of, and you find yourself doing life in prison without parole for a minor offense..
Think it couldn't happen? Ask Douglas Lamar Gray, sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for the purchase of one pound of marijuana. Or perhaps Gloria Van Winkle, sentenced to life for selling $40 worth of cocaine.
When we ignore unjust laws, politicians just raise the penalties for breaking those laws, often to absurd extremes. Since 99% of us don't get caught, should we just hope we never end up in the unlucky 1%? Pax Save me, Jebus!!!!!!!!!
Yes, but if one cannot own intellectual property, where is the incentive to create any? In all the discussions of this topic, I've yet to see any kind of real solution that allows for the free exchange of IP while ensuring rewards for the author.
Is the solution a matter of price? i.e. CDs are too expensive, so music lovers download MP3s rather than paying for the songs. If music was cheaper, would most of us pay for it? Why would we if it still can be obtained for free? Sure, some might, but I'd bet most people would go for the free download.
The world is becoming more digital all the time. Soon e-books will become common, and the big publishing houses will be pulling the same crap as the MPAA and RIAA. What's needed is a way to ensure the content creator is compensated without giving the lion's share to some media conglomerate.
What is the solution? If we, the consumers, don't come up with a viable alternative, what choice do the IP authors have but to submit to the corporate attempts to deprive us of our consumer rights? At least the corporations are making sure the authors get something.
I don't think we'll see any companies "throwing in the towel". There's too much money at stake. Just because none of these companies have successfully prevented consumers from copying IP so far doesn't mean they won't eventually succeed. What kind of encryption will the eventual successor to DVD have? You can bet it won't be some chintzy 40 bit encryption next time.
If we want our rights to IP to be preserved, we have to fight for them, and the first step is to get the content creators on our side.
I definitely saw this when I was younger.. They simulcast the audio on FM radio, so it was like stereo TV, before there was stereo TV. I remember thinking it was pretty bad, the only thing slightly Star Wars about it were those damn Ewoks.. Ack!
Slashdot Mirror
Actually Fox doesn't have NHL hockey anymore. Good riddance.. stupid glowing puck.. Agh.
Go Devils!!!!
--
PaxTech
--
PaxTech
"I've said it before, and I'll say it again : Democracy simply doesn't work." -- Kent Brockman
The worst part, though, is that one of the employees laid off was BLIND. Yes, BLIND. They fired a blind lady. She had worked for the company 13 years. Fired her dog, too.
She had text-to-speech software on her machine that was owned by her personally and had taken me quite a while to install. It had a floppy disk copy-protection scheme that required you to move the key back on to the disk when uninstalling it, so I had to go up to her desk and remove the key for her. They had called her a cab, but NO ONE was around to carry her things, which included a braille scanner (heavy as hell) and several boxes of books and papers. So it fell to me to go get a cart, load it with her stuff, and escort the blind woman and her dog outside and wait for her cab.
I'd like to say I went right back inside and quit on principle, but I waited two weeks so I could take all my vacation time and get my bonus.
--
PaxTech
I never seem to have mod points when I stumble on a good post like this..
--
PaxTech
Right now, government charges what they want because you can't move somewhere better. At some point in the next 5-10 years, more and more people's business will be conducted on the net. For example, I do website development. I could perform my job functions pretty much anywhere, if I could get a good net connection. If I can work anywhere and make the same amount of money, why would I choose to live in a country that taxes such a large portion of it away?
--
PaxTech
Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. -- Diderot
Now, however, we are still paying this protection money even though the 800 pound gorilla died of starvation.. Why? Because if we don't, our government puts us in prison. The US and USSR were never opposites, they just differ in the degree of theft they perpetrate on their victims^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcitizens.
Once the Net starts enabling people to move out of high-tax jurisdictions like the US while maintaining a high income level, it will all start falling apart. I plan on leaving the country in about 5-7 years.
--
PaxTech
Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. - Diderot
I'm actually rereading the series right now, and the reasoning as I understand it is that a hobbit had to be the ringbearer due to hobbits' greater resistance to the corrupting effects of the One Ring.
The complaint you make is that hobbits are relatively weak compared to the wizards and elves, but this weakness is exactly what enabled them to carry the ring without great harm. The Ring would have magnified Gandalf's power greatly, but would also have corrupted him beyond redemption. Hobbits are resistant to this corruption, as shown by Gollum's survival of years of ownership of the Ring. Not to say that Gollum was not corrupted, but the same corruption would have taken mere weeks or months with an elf or wizard owner, culminating in their death.
--
Paxtech
FWIW, the Christmas 2001 theatrical release of The Fellowship of the Ring will be simultaneous worldwide. If they can do it, why can't studios do it with all their films?
--
PaxTech
Actually, the outcome is determined by the media conglomerates who report the outcome. Votescam has the details.
Think about it... It's easy when you have two machines on each desk, one hooked to the companywide network and the internet for email and browsing, and a separate dev machine on the dev network.
PaxTech
Nice try. Abraham Lincoln's Republican party was a third party candidate in the 1860 election.
Of course, we had a civil war afterwards, so we all might want to think twice about this third party stuff..
PaxTech
If Nader actually had a chance to win, I'd never vote for him. I think you exaggerate slightly when you say "green party == communist party", but only slightly. Yet I will vote for Nader. A vote for Nader is a vote against the current political status quo. Nader has no chance to win, but he has a chance to do well enough to act as a wake-up call to those who have bought and paid for our current political masters. Besides, Nader does hold some geek friendly positions on issues such as the drug war, privacy, and campaing finance reform.
--
Pax
This post brought to you by the letters K and B, and the number 420.
*Nobody* starts a band because they want to make money. The odds of making a lot of money from being in a band are extremely low.
However, the odds of getting chicks rises exponentially once you are in a band, even if it's just a local bar band.
Therefore, as long as girls will put out for a guy with a guitar, guys will make music. -- Paxtech "Professor Frink, Professor Frink,
he'll make you laugh, he'll make you think
He likes to run, and then the thing.. with the.. person.."
Ah, but if you were driving down the street in your banana, how many pancakes would it take to shingle a white roof, true or false?
The problem I think most Libertarians have with the Republican party is that it is contaminated by the religious right. What right-minded libertarian could vote for a party with a pro-censorship, anti-choice, pro-christian platform?
No serious libertarian could place their vote for either the Dems or Repubs..
PaxTech
Lars contends that $16 cd prices are determined by the market, and that 'stealing' music is not the way to fight $16 cd prices. I beg to differ. The market has changed. Napster, and technologies like it, are the new reality. You can try to fight it, but for every Napster you slay, three clones will pop up to take its place. You can't destroy the demand by destroying the provider, another will take its place. When the record companies see internet music trading draining their profits, and realize that legal battles are only draining them of more money without having a significant effect on the volume of music trading, they will be forced to lower their prices to an equilibrium point at which people are more willing to pay X dollars for a cd than go to the hassle of downloading the songs from the net. It's basic economics, baby! Supply and demand! Downloading songs from Napster is exactly the way to fight $16 cd prices. Goddamnit, what other weapons do we have? Finally, the consumer has the power to screw the record companies, instead of the other way around!
Pax
Actually, I recall reading about how Lars had a shitload of British metal albums when he met James, and how James would sleep over and stay up all night making tapes of those albums.. How is that different from what Napster allows users to do?
Pax
It all started when I had to buy QEMM to get Ultima Underworld to work.. :)
Pax
Putting our heads in the sand and ignoring bad laws is all well and good, until you're the one that gets made an example of, and you find yourself doing life in prison without parole for a minor offense..
Think it couldn't happen? Ask Douglas Lamar Gray, sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for the purchase of one pound of marijuana. Or perhaps Gloria Van Winkle, sentenced to life for selling $40 worth of cocaine.
When we ignore unjust laws, politicians just raise the penalties for breaking those laws, often to absurd extremes. Since 99% of us don't get caught, should we just hope we never end up in the unlucky 1%? Pax Save me, Jebus!!!!!!!!!
Is the solution a matter of price? i.e. CDs are too expensive, so music lovers download MP3s rather than paying for the songs. If music was cheaper, would most of us pay for it? Why would we if it still can be obtained for free? Sure, some might, but I'd bet most people would go for the free download.
The world is becoming more digital all the time. Soon e-books will become common, and the big publishing houses will be pulling the same crap as the MPAA and RIAA. What's needed is a way to ensure the content creator is compensated without giving the lion's share to some media conglomerate.
What is the solution? If we, the consumers, don't come up with a viable alternative, what choice do the IP authors have but to submit to the corporate attempts to deprive us of our consumer rights? At least the corporations are making sure the authors get something.
I don't think we'll see any companies "throwing in the towel". There's too much money at stake. Just because none of these companies have successfully prevented consumers from copying IP so far doesn't mean they won't eventually succeed. What kind of encryption will the eventual successor to DVD have? You can bet it won't be some chintzy 40 bit encryption next time.
If we want our rights to IP to be preserved, we have to fight for them, and the first step is to get the content creators on our side.
PaxTech
I definitely saw this when I was younger.. They simulcast the audio on FM radio, so it was like stereo TV, before there was stereo TV. I remember thinking it was pretty bad, the only thing slightly Star Wars about it were those damn Ewoks.. Ack!