Re:Whenever I look up at our great politicians...
on
Lawsuits Suck
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· Score: 1
As I like to say, "If I had a loaded bazooka for every asshole in this world, there'd be a lot less assholes and a gigantic pile of empty bazookas."
Sadly, things just don't work that way. --Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
Re:Who really needs a lesson
on
Lawsuits Suck
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· Score: 2
Problem is, they rejected us! So we built a place of our own where we could get together freely to escape the crap that the future members of the "real world" heaped on us. And now that they see that you can make money off it, they want it all. We built it, it's our home, and I think we're due some consideration for that fact.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
Doesn't matter if they're legally allowed or not. If you couldn't pay your legal bills to defend against the suit (or the award when the default judgement goes through), they win.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
Yeah, that would explain my experiences with the job websites. I have yet to be contacted by anyone but headhunters when I use those sites. And I haven't even gotten as far as a phone interview for potential jobs that I didn't have some sort of direct line on (a contact in the organization who was close to the position that needed to be filled). Really makes me wonder.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
Only one who is of the theological mind set ever bothers to capitalize the "T" in truth.
Au contraire, mon ami. I use the capital "t" to distinguish between "Truth" and "truth", and it doesn't necessarily have to do with theology. As I see it, "Truth" is the structure of the universe, the underlying set of laws that make everything tick. Some of it we know, some of it we're working on, some of it is unknowable. Now I understand that this definition superficially agrees with the poster you replied to, but since the existence of god falls into the "unknowable" category, argument about it is futile. With that out of the way, "truth" is simply accurately witnessing to your perception of "Truth", and doing so is everyone's responsibility as to not tell the "truth" is to deny the structure of reality.
Anyway, just thought I'd point that out.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
Exactly. I'd say just give Nader a chance. If he screws up, we can always vote him out in four years. That's how the system works, right?
I've come to belive that Libertarianism is another word for not wanting to be responsible for the worst evils of unrestrained capitalism. "It ain't my fault folks, I'm for freedom!" With freedom comes the responsibility to make proper ethical decisions, and I find die-hard Libertarians (especially the Silicon Valley crowd) woefully lacking in that important quality.
Heck, I'd vote Reform before I'd vote Libertarian. The non-Buchanan Reform party, at any rate.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
So from what I understand from reading a couple of those, the search for the Higgs Boson is similar to the search for proof of the "luminous ether" that occured in the late 19th century?
For those unfamilar with the concept, the reasoning went something like this: if light is a wave (this is before the particle/wave duality became accepted), then it must be transmitted by something we cannot see, since you can't have waves in a vacuum. Thus, there had to be some sort of "luminous ether" which tranmits light waves. This has been disproven of course, but the Higgs Boson seems to be a similar apporoach to explaining the mass of particles.
'Course... Just as disproving the "luminous ether" theory by experimentation brought us to our current understanding of quantum mechanics, I suppose there's no reason not to try to verify the Higgs' existence.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
I can do the same thing by ripping my own CDs, setting up a shoutcast/icecast streamer, but requiring a password to activate the streaming so that not just any joe schmoe can abuse my collection.
And if the RIAA were to get wind of it, you'd have lawyers up your ass so fast you wouldn't have time to gasp. As long as it's digital transmission, the content providers want to squash it dead or demand that they get to "control the vertical and the horizontal".
Why do they consider digital versions to have such magical properties? Yeah, yeah, you can go on about how a digital copy doesn't degrade. But answer me this... I haven't had a single floppy survive with its data totally intact for over a year. My CD's have pinholes burned through the media, and a head crash == game over for a hard drive. Digital storage is not forever. Even the tape archives from just decades ago are disintegrating as we speak. I don't see the distinction.
*sigh* I just realized I was comparing apples to oranges there. You may slap me now...
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
Hey, if it is, I can't wait to see what he does with Trinity and Aberrant. Aberrant especially... "Novas" start popping up all over the place with godlike powers... Normal people without the powers become afraid of the novas and the changes they cause in daily life, so the powers that be try to find ways to control or exterminate them. Just substitute the word "Geek" for the word "Nova", and you have another made-for-Katz White Wolf RPG... Heh.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
With the price being random per individual customer, Amazon has already managed to shoot the comparison sites out of the water without even unleashing the lawyers. Consider: How do you know that the comparison site quotes Amazon's best price for an item? Or worse yet, what if Amazon quotes the comparison site a low price, and when you've blindly ordered, you find that you've actually paid more? Amazon has managed to totally FUD the comparison sites, forcing you to go to their site directly. And then they can collect info on what you're personally interested in, so they manage to get some money out of the process even if you don't make a purchase.
How evil.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
Well, I get the feeling that if they had their druthers, they wouldn't broadcast. But up until the advent of digital technologies, it hasn't been practical to try to control things at the level that they're attempting now. They'd rather you have to watch their advertising and pay them for the priviledge.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
Hrm... I have to disagree with your last point there. To paraprhase what you said:
The "Agricultural Age" changed the way that food was produced.
The "Industrial Age" changed the way industrial products were produced.
The "Information Age" has not changed the way industrial products are produced.
I have to call that a non-sequitur. The change from the "Agricultural Age" to the "Industrial Age" did not fundamentally change how food was produced, but how it was packaged and distributed. I would argue that the "Information Age" has caused a fundamental change, to wit:
The "Agricultural Age" changed the way food was produced.
The "Industrial Age" changed the way industrial products are produced.
The "Information Age" has changed the way information is produced.
And interestingly enough, this change is affecting the way industrial products are packaged and distributed. Would the:Cue:Cat! situation have been possible before the fundamental changes that have come with the "Information Age"? I think very concept of a "loss-leader" business model would have been unthinkable in the "Industrial Age".
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
I scanned that letter and knew that it fairly reeked of bullshit. But now I'm fairly sure that the letters are unenforceable. Notice: "...the district court has granted a permanent injunction against..."
1) As far as I understand it, only 2600 is enjoined by that ruling!
2) Which district court? Being a student of urban legend, my alarm bells would be going off at that lack of detail.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
I hope it's because we as a group have a clue and know that that would only blow up in our faces. Yeah, give the MPAA more ammunition to brand us as criminals and pirates. Give them the opportunity to claim concrete losses and damages. You thought the judicial system was the MPAA's lapdog before? Sheesh.
My hopes rest on the higher courts being clueful. If they're not, it's time to emigrate.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
They could've been like Larry Niven's Kzin... An intellingent race lands on the Kzin homeworld. The Kzin promptly steal the ship enslave the crew, and start a glorious campaign of galactic conquest until stopped by a group of bloodthirsty but brainwashed monkeys. Hey, the universe is big like that.
--Fesh --Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
I would argue that anyone who doesn't buy all the components separately and put them together him/herself is much more likely to want Windows. Think of the tech support calls the mom-n-pops would have to field if they preloaded Linux... Not to mention that the mom-n-pops themselves probably don't have the expertise to set up Linux systems for everyday desktop use.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
As long as they keep paying for it. That's what we're all ticked off about. It's like somebody breaking into my apartment and taking any books off my shelves that I didn't pay subscription on that month.
And then there's the whole point of negative return thing... How long do you rent the content before you've paid more for it than you would have to get it in dead tree format? My guess is not long. But you still have to pay to have the option of maybe using it in the future. And that, my friend, stinks like yesterday's diapers.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
I enjoy computing in general, the challenge of problem-solving, and the translation of those solutions into code. However, the particular job I have bores the hell out of me. I'd like to be somewhere else, but whenever I look for a new job I only manage to get a hold of third-party headhunters who consistently fail to get results. Maybe my resume is weak or I'm not as skilled as I think I am. I don't know. But I have to get the bills paid (student loans and all), so I'm stuck working in an environment that I don't enjoy, on things that really don't interest me... Argh.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
Check out "Up!", a "Bob the Angry Flower" cartoon dealing with these. While you're there, check out the rest of the comics at the Bob the Angry Flower Homepage. Bob rules!
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
Slashdot Mirror
Sadly, things just don't work that way.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
Au contraire, mon ami. I use the capital "t" to distinguish between "Truth" and "truth", and it doesn't necessarily have to do with theology. As I see it, "Truth" is the structure of the universe, the underlying set of laws that make everything tick. Some of it we know, some of it we're working on, some of it is unknowable. Now I understand that this definition superficially agrees with the poster you replied to, but since the existence of god falls into the "unknowable" category, argument about it is futile. With that out of the way, "truth" is simply accurately witnessing to your perception of "Truth", and doing so is everyone's responsibility as to not tell the "truth" is to deny the structure of reality.
Anyway, just thought I'd point that out.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
I've come to belive that Libertarianism is another word for not wanting to be responsible for the worst evils of unrestrained capitalism. "It ain't my fault folks, I'm for freedom!" With freedom comes the responsibility to make proper ethical decisions, and I find die-hard Libertarians (especially the Silicon Valley crowd) woefully lacking in that important quality.
Heck, I'd vote Reform before I'd vote Libertarian. The non-Buchanan Reform party, at any rate.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
For those unfamilar with the concept, the reasoning went something like this: if light is a wave (this is before the particle/wave duality became accepted), then it must be transmitted by something we cannot see, since you can't have waves in a vacuum. Thus, there had to be some sort of "luminous ether" which tranmits light waves. This has been disproven of course, but the Higgs Boson seems to be a similar apporoach to explaining the mass of particles.
'Course... Just as disproving the "luminous ether" theory by experimentation brought us to our current understanding of quantum mechanics, I suppose there's no reason not to try to verify the Higgs' existence.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
And if the RIAA were to get wind of it, you'd have lawyers up your ass so fast you wouldn't have time to gasp. As long as it's digital transmission, the content providers want to squash it dead or demand that they get to "control the vertical and the horizontal".
Why do they consider digital versions to have such magical properties? Yeah, yeah, you can go on about how a digital copy doesn't degrade. But answer me this... I haven't had a single floppy survive with its data totally intact for over a year. My CD's have pinholes burned through the media, and a head crash == game over for a hard drive. Digital storage is not forever. Even the tape archives from just decades ago are disintegrating as we speak. I don't see the distinction.
*sigh* I just realized I was comparing apples to oranges there. You may slap me now...
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
Huh? *scratches head*
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
How evil.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
The "Agricultural Age" changed the way that food was produced.
The "Industrial Age" changed the way industrial products were produced.
The "Information Age" has not changed the way industrial products are produced.
I have to call that a non-sequitur. The change from the "Agricultural Age" to the "Industrial Age" did not fundamentally change how food was produced, but how it was packaged and distributed. I would argue that the "Information Age" has caused a fundamental change, to wit:
The "Agricultural Age" changed the way food was produced.
The "Industrial Age" changed the way industrial products are produced.
The "Information Age" has changed the way information is produced.
And interestingly enough, this change is affecting the way industrial products are packaged and distributed. Would the :Cue:Cat! situation have been possible before the fundamental changes that have come with the "Information Age"? I think very concept of a "loss-leader" business model would have been unthinkable in the "Industrial Age".
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
1) As far as I understand it, only 2600 is enjoined by that ruling!
2) Which district court? Being a student of urban legend, my alarm bells would be going off at that lack of detail.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
My hopes rest on the higher courts being clueful. If they're not, it's time to emigrate.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
They could've been like Larry Niven's Kzin... An intellingent race lands on the Kzin homeworld. The Kzin promptly steal the ship enslave the crew, and start a glorious campaign of galactic conquest until stopped by a group of bloodthirsty but brainwashed monkeys. Hey, the universe is big like that. --Fesh
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
And then there's the whole point of negative return thing... How long do you rent the content before you've paid more for it than you would have to get it in dead tree format? My guess is not long. But you still have to pay to have the option of maybe using it in the future. And that, my friend, stinks like yesterday's diapers.
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy
--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy