Business model is the same as any other perfect enterprise in this country: have people throwing money at you for doing nothing because it's the law. GREED.
In the words of Lewis Black: "Piggy, piggy, piggy, fuck, piggy, piggy." or "Even the greediest people in the world said: 'Wow...that's fuckin' greedy!'"
Seriously, I could deal with only getting Comedy Central and History Channel, and maybe two or three others. And if I'm bored and even the internet cannot satiate, there's always over-the-air channels. I hate shelling out 90 bucks a month to Comcast when I only watch a tiny slice of the vast array of the crappy crap-pie, when I could be spending the cost above internet (a surplus of around 40 bucks) on consumables like *gasoline*.
Not to mention commit assault. Even touching someone is technically assault, and if they act forcibly and are not designated security personnel, I'd think they could be charged.
...how does it feel to be the most-liked lawyers in the world? Now all you have to do is kick Jack Thompson's ass and you're surely starting the lawyer hall of fame or get the Nobel Sticking-It-To-The-Man prize.
"VNV Nation... fills that void now for me." "If a band repeats themselves, that too gets old."
I foresee Ronan Harris, et al, joining Misters Gore and Smith quite soon. You can only request "Chrome" so many times at the club. He can only sing that G to F monotone voice so many times before it gets on me.
Then again, Gary Numan is a bit guilty of that too, but I'm not admitting to the same paradigm, although his new stuff is a far cry from "The Pleasure Principle" and Tubeway Army (ramble ramble...)
Yes. It's pretty bad when you play by the same basic rules as the bad guys (shoot first, ask questions later or never). And Bush (and his worshippers) wonder why (or disregard that) it's important to extend rights to terror suspects like the right to an attorney...because if we're promoting the rule of law, then we should lead by example, not by exception. Sure, we don't hack people's heads off with machetes, we just repeatedly drown them within an inch of their life.
Rove is a neo-con (which is a euphemism for "fascist"), which is damn near a polar opposite of Ron Paul. We will never see the two cooperate voluntarily.
Incidentally, Ron Paul is the only Republican I could vote for and still be able to sleep at night. That party is sufficiently fractured that they should consider an official fragmentation into old school republicanism and neo-conservatism factions. And I guess the Libertarians among them should come out of the closet.
"Compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe" - Einstein (via Civ IV)
However, you've strayed far from the original point of pure capitalism being (or not being) fundamentally described by the example of the imitation of form and function (and improvement thereof) by the Chinese of the iPhone (among other products). If they take a popular product and emulate its strong points (and purportedly improve its weak ones), how is that not pure capitalism? Violation of copyright by SE Asia is definitely nothing new...and "cheating" earlier mentioned about the Yuan's lack of inflation is another good example of where Adam Smith economics start to fail. It isn't cheating, but it isn't "fair" either. It's an exploit...a wall hack...etc.
Perhaps instead of "capitalism" (means of production, ownership of property, and so on), a more apt term may have been "free market economics" (free trade, laissez-faire, etc.). That is a slight distinction which I failed to mention at the inception of this sub-thread. But it's fun to rip on those who believe one extreme is better than a mixed economy (per Keynes, et al), be they communist or capitalist. Free market vs fair market. I was a bit aghast said "my administration supports free and fair trade...", as they are asymptotically mutually exclusive...free != fair.
Well, more than that, CopWatch...keep an eye on 'em. I think it's good to publicize this as well, as it will discourage criminals, but it may also point out places that are vulnerable.
In any event, I'd prefer the police look at "independent" factors and correlation to recorded crimes than "community policing" where they stop people and then see if they can find anything suspicious. Bravo to the police...if they park in front of a likely target, it'd probably discourage crime, thusly proving its effectiveness if the trends noticeably change. This may be an interesting one to keep an eye on.
Now, how does selling a counterfeit under someone else's name fit in to your view of capitalism?
Pure, unfettered greed from pure, unfettered competition. I guess all those laissez-faire capitalists forgot about China, huh? Doesn't work so well without the Man there to *gasp* regulate business!!! "But that's SOCIALISM!!" Oh noes!
Just because the quality *might* be shit won't stop people from buying cheaper a knock-off. Unregulated competition is the definition of pure capitalism as any Milton-loving Libertarian or Republican (Mitt Romney?) would tell you. Can't have your cake and eat it too, I suppose is the moral.
Pfft, goddamn constitution. Just those liberal activist judges again, protecting your rights. WTF?! Soon they'll be telling California they have to stop their police from breaking up lawful gatherings! Guns will be legal again*! Cats and dogs, together at peace! What are we coming to!?!?
*Legal being a relative term to how they are currently "legal", overall, though that is a stretch of the word...
Well, if there is less diversity Euromericans, there must be more cousinfuckery going on, which would explain why people seem to get stupider and stupider, despite the availability of education and technology in the West*.
*Except in rural and urban capitalist areas where nobody cares if the poor are neither educated nor high tech...it ain't their fault.
I work for a small company (~50 in the corporate office), and top management refuses to flat out fire our contractor despite mountains of incompetence because we've got too much money into them and their shit software that does not work very well, if at all.
I'm somewhat of a generalist (minus pretty web GUI's...), and my boss and I agree we can outdo (performance- and time-wise) the contractor through the entire cycle.
FTA: "Experts use better tools and care deeply about their craft. They aren't assembling bits on an assembly line, they are crafting a unique product to solve a unique problem. Experts are lazy, they work smarter rather than harder. Experts prefer the easiest solution that gets the job done. Experts aren't interested in creating complex solutions simply to have the complexity, that misguided egoism is the territory of more junior developers. They often get it right the first try and almost always on the second one."
This is the sad truth of my job: replace "experts" with my name and "more junior developers" with "our off-shore developers led by an American" and you have a pretty solid description of our development story. Locally, I *am* the dev team, and that doesn't really bother me as we aren't an IT company. My boss and I agree with this article: we should axe the clowns overseas and get one more *good* developer in here.
Then again, having these bozos arounds just makes me look even better, but it's not worth the headaches, and I'd frankly rather just write ALL the code and make it bulletproof and completely end-user configurable and operable. So in the words of the GGGGP: sigh.
Well, hopefully I can afford not to die then, and there's the off chance that insurance would actually cover it.
Then again, maybe pharmaceutical researchers would be more concerned with fixing AIDS than of old men's flaccidity if marketability weren't their primary concern. Most ED-men can afford to fix their willy...the majority of those with AIDS can't even afford a proper diet, let alone palliative treatments. I guess it's their own fault, so fuck 'em. (no pun intended)
The ratio has flipped from what it was in Vietnam, due to advances in medical technology. Hence why there is relatively little reporting on the subject of wounded soldiers from Iraq...it's sort of a new thing. Most of them would be dead with 1960's and 70's technology. People still measure death as if it's the only casualty worth talking about...how many guys do we have with prosthetic limbs or a ruined mind? Thousands. Tens of thousands.
At least these robots are remote controlled. I'm a bit wary of autonomous mobile "SWORDS"...anyone seen Screamers? Then again, it's just a miniature land based UACV with smaller weapons. Although I wouldn't be surprised if the insurgents and militias devise some creative method of turning a combat robot into a free machinegun, as mentioned earlier.
We can only hope that this move will not make Microsoft think they can get away with releasing certain other anticipated titles early without ironing out the details...
Having been both a college radio DJ and unsigned band member, I have to agree. Independent radio is great, because both the station and the actual DJ's are permitted freedom in format and content of their programming. Our daytime was fairly strictly formatted to college rock, but in the evening, our specialty programs broke the mold (I had a show specializing in industrial for 2 years). I made an effort to get local bands some airtime, as well as lesser known national acts, both by playing their tracks as well as doing interviews (either via phone or live in the booth).
I know of national acts (and I myself have done the same) that collaborate with other musicians across the country to produce some phenomenal music. "I am such a Luddite when it comes to making music. All I can do is write at the piano." I think that speaks for itself...if you're a low tech person, you're not going to be able to collaborate online. But for those of us who can record at home or are programmers, it's not only realistic, it's MUCH more cost effective when you aren't backed by an enormous recording contract. I don't mean to knock his composition method, but it isn't the only one that can produce excellent music. All the music from one project of mine is completely free (shameless plug: http://www.plasmacrash.com), and was all composed at the computer or sequencer deck.
And considering the crap they play on mainstream radio, I'm proud not to be associated with it. I write music because I enjoy doing it for the sake of creating art (and I have an axe to grind)...this is why people should write music...not for sales or fame. I hate pop, but evenso, I recognize the importance and skill of Elton John...but he needs to wake up and smell the coffee of the internet age, where "good music" actually has a chance if it isn't mass-marketable...because niche markets will be so much happier, leading to more diversity and variety than the top 40 bubble-gum bullshit.
You know, that actually does stand up to my "Law": Any conspiracy theory that does not allow for the government to be completely incompetent cannot be true.
If not, then what is to stop man-in-the-middle from "borrowing your cable connection", so to say? I'd think encryption would be necessary for preventing stream splitting on the way to the customer. I guess it's also a question of net neutrality as well (packets are packets, so long as they ain't got child porn in 'em).
Nobody said they were suing for damages...a suit (especially in government) can merely end up in the court ordering something to be done. So, it may not be illegal to *not* enforce the law, but it *IS* illegal to disobey a court order.
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Business model is the same as any other perfect enterprise in this country: have people throwing money at you for doing nothing because it's the law. GREED.
In the words of Lewis Black: "Piggy, piggy, piggy, fuck, piggy, piggy." or "Even the greediest people in the world said: 'Wow...that's fuckin' greedy!'"
Seriously, I could deal with only getting Comedy Central and History Channel, and maybe two or three others. And if I'm bored and even the internet cannot satiate, there's always over-the-air channels. I hate shelling out 90 bucks a month to Comcast when I only watch a tiny slice of the vast array of the crappy crap-pie, when I could be spending the cost above internet (a surplus of around 40 bucks) on consumables like *gasoline*.
Ah yes...but battery is automatically assault (hence assault and battery). Assault just sounds cooler.
But you are indeed correct.
Not to mention commit assault. Even touching someone is technically assault, and if they act forcibly and are not designated security personnel, I'd think they could be charged.
Now the ninja turtles can fight cybercrime from home!
...how does it feel to be the most-liked lawyers in the world? Now all you have to do is kick Jack Thompson's ass and you're surely starting the lawyer hall of fame or get the Nobel Sticking-It-To-The-Man prize.
"VNV Nation ... fills that void now for me."
"If a band repeats themselves, that too gets old."
I foresee Ronan Harris, et al, joining Misters Gore and Smith quite soon. You can only request "Chrome" so many times at the club. He can only sing that G to F monotone voice so many times before it gets on me.
Then again, Gary Numan is a bit guilty of that too, but I'm not admitting to the same paradigm, although his new stuff is a far cry from "The Pleasure Principle" and Tubeway Army (ramble ramble...)
Huh, I always thought it was "magickist", like a magician who does magick instead of magic.
"Winamp...it really whips the llama's ass."
Yes. It's pretty bad when you play by the same basic rules as the bad guys (shoot first, ask questions later or never). And Bush (and his worshippers) wonder why (or disregard that) it's important to extend rights to terror suspects like the right to an attorney...because if we're promoting the rule of law, then we should lead by example, not by exception. Sure, we don't hack people's heads off with machetes, we just repeatedly drown them within an inch of their life.
Rove is a neo-con (which is a euphemism for "fascist"), which is damn near a polar opposite of Ron Paul. We will never see the two cooperate voluntarily.
Incidentally, Ron Paul is the only Republican I could vote for and still be able to sleep at night. That party is sufficiently fractured that they should consider an official fragmentation into old school republicanism and neo-conservatism factions. And I guess the Libertarians among them should come out of the closet.
Mod this parent up too.
"Compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe" - Einstein (via Civ IV)
However, you've strayed far from the original point of pure capitalism being (or not being) fundamentally described by the example of the imitation of form and function (and improvement thereof) by the Chinese of the iPhone (among other products). If they take a popular product and emulate its strong points (and purportedly improve its weak ones), how is that not pure capitalism? Violation of copyright by SE Asia is definitely nothing new...and "cheating" earlier mentioned about the Yuan's lack of inflation is another good example of where Adam Smith economics start to fail. It isn't cheating, but it isn't "fair" either. It's an exploit...a wall hack...etc.
Perhaps instead of "capitalism" (means of production, ownership of property, and so on), a more apt term may have been "free market economics" (free trade, laissez-faire, etc.). That is a slight distinction which I failed to mention at the inception of this sub-thread. But it's fun to rip on those who believe one extreme is better than a mixed economy (per Keynes, et al), be they communist or capitalist. Free market vs fair market. I was a bit aghast said "my administration supports free and fair trade...", as they are asymptotically mutually exclusive...free != fair.
Well, more than that, CopWatch...keep an eye on 'em. I think it's good to publicize this as well, as it will discourage criminals, but it may also point out places that are vulnerable.
In any event, I'd prefer the police look at "independent" factors and correlation to recorded crimes than "community policing" where they stop people and then see if they can find anything suspicious. Bravo to the police...if they park in front of a likely target, it'd probably discourage crime, thusly proving its effectiveness if the trends noticeably change. This may be an interesting one to keep an eye on.
Now, how does selling a counterfeit under someone else's name fit in to your view of capitalism?
Pure, unfettered greed from pure, unfettered competition. I guess all those laissez-faire capitalists forgot about China, huh? Doesn't work so well without the Man there to *gasp* regulate business!!! "But that's SOCIALISM!!" Oh noes!
Just because the quality *might* be shit won't stop people from buying cheaper a knock-off. Unregulated competition is the definition of pure capitalism as any Milton-loving Libertarian or Republican (Mitt Romney?) would tell you. Can't have your cake and eat it too, I suppose is the moral.
GP is right.
Don't get between college students and their cherished activities of nebulous legality! Especially if they are geeks as well.
Pfft, goddamn constitution. Just those liberal activist judges again, protecting your rights. WTF?! Soon they'll be telling California they have to stop their police from breaking up lawful gatherings! Guns will be legal again*! Cats and dogs, together at peace! What are we coming to!?!?
*Legal being a relative term to how they are currently "legal", overall, though that is a stretch of the word...
Is there a "durr" tag? Or perhaps "heresyoursign"? Too bad it wasn't this easy for Galileo.
Well, if there is less diversity Euromericans, there must be more cousinfuckery going on, which would explain why people seem to get stupider and stupider, despite the availability of education and technology in the West*.
*Except in rural and urban capitalist areas where nobody cares if the poor are neither educated nor high tech...it ain't their fault.
I work for a small company (~50 in the corporate office), and top management refuses to flat out fire our contractor despite mountains of incompetence because we've got too much money into them and their shit software that does not work very well, if at all.
I'm somewhat of a generalist (minus pretty web GUI's...), and my boss and I agree we can outdo (performance- and time-wise) the contractor through the entire cycle.
FTA: "Experts use better tools and care deeply about their craft. They aren't assembling bits on an assembly line, they are crafting a unique product to solve a unique problem. Experts are lazy, they work smarter rather than harder. Experts prefer the easiest solution that gets the job done. Experts aren't interested in creating complex solutions simply to have the complexity, that misguided egoism is the territory of more junior developers. They often get it right the first try and almost always on the second one."
This is the sad truth of my job: replace "experts" with my name and "more junior developers" with "our off-shore developers led by an American" and you have a pretty solid description of our development story. Locally, I *am* the dev team, and that doesn't really bother me as we aren't an IT company. My boss and I agree with this article: we should axe the clowns overseas and get one more *good* developer in here.
Then again, having these bozos arounds just makes me look even better, but it's not worth the headaches, and I'd frankly rather just write ALL the code and make it bulletproof and completely end-user configurable and operable. So in the words of the GGGGP: sigh.
Well, hopefully I can afford not to die then, and there's the off chance that insurance would actually cover it.
Then again, maybe pharmaceutical researchers would be more concerned with fixing AIDS than of old men's flaccidity if marketability weren't their primary concern. Most ED-men can afford to fix their willy...the majority of those with AIDS can't even afford a proper diet, let alone palliative treatments. I guess it's their own fault, so fuck 'em. (no pun intended)
The ratio has flipped from what it was in Vietnam, due to advances in medical technology. Hence why there is relatively little reporting on the subject of wounded soldiers from Iraq...it's sort of a new thing. Most of them would be dead with 1960's and 70's technology. People still measure death as if it's the only casualty worth talking about...how many guys do we have with prosthetic limbs or a ruined mind? Thousands. Tens of thousands.
At least these robots are remote controlled. I'm a bit wary of autonomous mobile "SWORDS"...anyone seen Screamers? Then again, it's just a miniature land based UACV with smaller weapons. Although I wouldn't be surprised if the insurgents and militias devise some creative method of turning a combat robot into a free machinegun, as mentioned earlier.
Verdict: cool, but scary.
We can only hope that this move will not make Microsoft think they can get away with releasing certain other anticipated titles early without ironing out the details...
Like the latest version of Windows?
Having been both a college radio DJ and unsigned band member, I have to agree. Independent radio is great, because both the station and the actual DJ's are permitted freedom in format and content of their programming. Our daytime was fairly strictly formatted to college rock, but in the evening, our specialty programs broke the mold (I had a show specializing in industrial for 2 years). I made an effort to get local bands some airtime, as well as lesser known national acts, both by playing their tracks as well as doing interviews (either via phone or live in the booth).
I know of national acts (and I myself have done the same) that collaborate with other musicians across the country to produce some phenomenal music. "I am such a Luddite when it comes to making music. All I can do is write at the piano." I think that speaks for itself...if you're a low tech person, you're not going to be able to collaborate online. But for those of us who can record at home or are programmers, it's not only realistic, it's MUCH more cost effective when you aren't backed by an enormous recording contract. I don't mean to knock his composition method, but it isn't the only one that can produce excellent music. All the music from one project of mine is completely free (shameless plug: http://www.plasmacrash.com), and was all composed at the computer or sequencer deck.
And considering the crap they play on mainstream radio, I'm proud not to be associated with it. I write music because I enjoy doing it for the sake of creating art (and I have an axe to grind)...this is why people should write music...not for sales or fame. I hate pop, but evenso, I recognize the importance and skill of Elton John...but he needs to wake up and smell the coffee of the internet age, where "good music" actually has a chance if it isn't mass-marketable...because niche markets will be so much happier, leading to more diversity and variety than the top 40 bubble-gum bullshit.
You know, that actually does stand up to my "Law": Any conspiracy theory that does not allow for the government to be completely incompetent cannot be true.
If not, then what is to stop man-in-the-middle from "borrowing your cable connection", so to say? I'd think encryption would be necessary for preventing stream splitting on the way to the customer. I guess it's also a question of net neutrality as well (packets are packets, so long as they ain't got child porn in 'em).
Nobody said they were suing for damages...a suit (especially in government) can merely end up in the court ordering something to be done. So, it may not be illegal to *not* enforce the law, but it *IS* illegal to disobey a court order.