To put some perspective on your comment - although there are some ISPs which do have a cap of 15-30, or even 50gb... there are also quite a few providers who offer a premium service with no cap. Zen Internet is a good example - it costs a bloody fortune, but you can download however much you like. If the ISP offends you after, you can also leave with 1 months notice. There is also no secret cap that I am aware of - and I downloaded several hundred gigabytes in some months. Virgin's cable service is also uncapped, and it is significantly cheaper, although I don't know if they have an secret cap like some ISPs do.
The difference between the UKs internet and the US's internet is that the UK has competition, and the US has monopolies and duopolies for service in a given area. We might have to pay more - but you *can* get what you want.
This is *exactly* how the UK system for DSL works. British Telecom administers the infrastructure, and many, many ISPs offer service through BT's lines. It doesn't prevent some ISPs from having draconian policies, but there is certainly enough competition to have both restrictive and open policies. Cheap and expensive.
Internet service is not a natural monopoly/duopoly. It can be a competitive enviroment and fair to consumers.
And guess what it required - govenment legislation to remove BT's original monopoly on the telephone infrastructure.
Fortunately, in spite of you having thrown out the game in question - you still own it and can still play it, follow the instructions from SScorpio, and you can have your game back. Isn't Steam wonderful.
I do believe you just claimed that student loans (almost free education) was a bad thing... Well, only in that making education 'almost' free is only 'almost' good enough. But you can go to your happy place in the dark ages.
Anyone who believes that the average person should be *less* educated should be sent to a third-world country to reconsider how nice education is.
I do believe your post claims that both low-income jobs AND welfare should be thrown out, I appreciate your natural selection instinct, and think you'd be first against the wall when the revolution came. And it would come hard.
You've got to be a troll, right? Surely someone can't actually believe this crap and be capable of mostly correct spelling and grammar? Hell, someone who believed that probably couldn't operate a light switch, much less a PC.
Err...no. Minimum wage means that the companies can't pay people less than subsistance for jobs, and can't take advantage of the fact that there are always more people than jobs - or at the very least it's a common situation.
Without minimum wage, companies can pay a pittance of a wage to the people already struggling to find employment, and can also abuse those workers with impunity, because a worker who can barely afford to pay for housing, food and electricity with a job sure as hell isn't going to quit unless they've got somewhere better to go to already.
The fact that immoral companies are willing to circumvent minimum wage by abusing workers without legal recourse does not make it fair to let them abuse all workers equally.
Television - Plays console games and internet videos, only ads are in games and ones I download willingly. Radio - gone Internet - Adblock and NoScript, thank you.
So, yeah - some of us really do try to live in an advertising-light world.
That would have to be a hardware hack, the (moderately competent) police do not access your harddrive through your OS or while it's in your machine. And data changing itself even through a hardware mechanism would be clear tampering with evidence.
Solution: Minimum wage increase - if benefits are supposed to cover the minimum acceptable level of income for someone to live on (and that's certainly what they represent here in Oceania - erm, the UK) then full time employment should not be permitted to pay less than that. Of course you could argue that would hurt the economy or some bullshit like that, but the fact is that $7/hour is a piss-poor wage and *that* is what makes people sit on the dole for a lifetime. Some of them probably are too lazy to work - but most of them are too lazy to work for less money, significantly less respect, and much more effort. Plus there are costs involved with working such as travel, eating at work, etc - in other words it's not the benefits that create the problem, it's the lower-class worker exploitation that $7/hour represents. Plus, how much enthusiasm can you have for a job where the manager might fire you just because he's in a bad mood that day?
Wow, such a long post - virtually no content - one godwin, one '[Needs Citation]', one 'Muhaha I have money', one 'Go USA, screw the rest of you' and one argument that works against you more than for. Oh yeah, that last one was your main point: if drug trials are so expensive, then maybe they should be government funded rather than paid for by companies, since everyone benefits from them. And the real reason for your post is subtle, but there - you're just worried that socialist health care might make you a little communist (and are unaware that you already are a little communist, and a little socialist). So yeah, my opinion is that people who can afford should share a little of that with those who cannot. Your opinion seems to be that people who cannot afford should be seen and not heard.
What makes you assume people get their opinion on healthcare from the media - I get my opinion on the US's ludicrous healthcare from friends of mine who are victims of the system. And these are normal, healthy people, who suffer from the same sort of occasional illness that I do - and yet they will avoid going to the doctors over some things they shouldn't because it can cost a fair bit, and because of how insurance works (premiums) and because on rare occasions some bureocratic mixup puts them in thousands of dollars of debt. Everybody gets sick, everybody needs healthcare. Don't charge the people who get unlucky and need healthcare more. Don't charge the poor for the privilege of not dying - or else some of them will not be able to afford it. The US healthcare system is fucked, evil and greedy, deal with it.
So, we have impressionable kids playing games that teach that you MUST rape little girls to succeed.
Sorry, but if you've got your kids playing your porn games, then the problem is not what those porn games are. If you're in a country with legal guns, then I assume that if your kids got their hands on the firearm - you wouldn't blame the hole in their leg on the firearm. You'd put the damn thing out of reach.
Stop trying to discuss gaming issues with respect to children who shouldn't see them or play them. It's not relevant. If they are playing them, it's a case of bad parenting.
If your friends think it's rude not to let them borrow your stuff, it's probably because you borrow their stuff, or they help you out regularly and they expect some give and take.
What religion is your current president? What religion is the one before that? What religion is the one before that? What religion is the one before that?
Yes, let's assume that the advert is telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That's what a published demo is, an advert. And lately, it seems all demos are tending towards the quality of US TV ads - "Buy this game! Buy this game! Buy this game! Demo over, now get your ass to the shops, prole." Crappy demos are hurting companies' sales, for example, I saw more of Killzone 2 in a 10 minute 'let's see what this is like' at a friends house, than I got in the 5 minute crappy demo of the same game. A £35/£50 purchase should be an informed one, not a shot in the dark. Then there's the fact that any PC game is non returnable (which I'm sure has to be illegal somehow) - resulting in no-refund purchases based on intentially skewed information. If that not okay for a £1 sandwich, it's not okay for a £35 game. So I think anyone using a copy as a demo of the game is on better moral ground than the publishers/developers. People who copy, play, finish and delete without paying are doing something wrong - even more so if they then spend the money on some other luxury product that could not be pirated. But I agree with the other posters, piracy is not theft and shouldn't be equated with such as it's stealing schrodinger's money from his wallet in the unopened room with an RIAA lawyer inside.
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To put some perspective on your comment - although there are some ISPs which do have a cap of 15-30, or even 50gb ... there are also quite a few providers who offer a premium service with no cap.
Zen Internet is a good example - it costs a bloody fortune, but you can download however much you like. If the ISP offends you after, you can also leave with 1 months notice. There is also no secret cap that I am aware of - and I downloaded several hundred gigabytes in some months.
Virgin's cable service is also uncapped, and it is significantly cheaper, although I don't know if they have an secret cap like some ISPs do.
The difference between the UKs internet and the US's internet is that the UK has competition, and the US has monopolies and duopolies for service in a given area. We might have to pay more - but you *can* get what you want.
This is *exactly* how the UK system for DSL works.
British Telecom administers the infrastructure, and many, many ISPs offer service through BT's lines.
It doesn't prevent some ISPs from having draconian policies, but there is certainly enough competition to have both restrictive and open policies. Cheap and expensive.
Internet service is not a natural monopoly/duopoly. It can be a competitive enviroment and fair to consumers.
And guess what it required - govenment legislation to remove BT's original monopoly on the telephone infrastructure.
Fortunately, in spite of you having thrown out the game in question - you still own it and can still play it, follow the instructions from SScorpio, and you can have your game back.
Isn't Steam wonderful.
I do believe you just claimed that student loans (almost free education) was a bad thing...
Well, only in that making education 'almost' free is only 'almost' good enough.
But you can go to your happy place in the dark ages.
Anyone who believes that the average person should be *less* educated should be sent to a third-world country to reconsider how nice education is.
I do believe your post claims that both low-income jobs AND welfare should be thrown out, I appreciate your natural selection instinct, and think you'd be first against the wall when the revolution came. And it would come hard.
You've got to be a troll, right? Surely someone can't actually believe this crap and be capable of mostly correct spelling and grammar?
Hell, someone who believed that probably couldn't operate a light switch, much less a PC.
That's what a UPS, and a virus and malware scanner are for.
Handwriting is dead.
Err...no.
Minimum wage means that the companies can't pay people less than subsistance for jobs, and can't take advantage of the fact that there are always more people than jobs - or at the very least it's a common situation.
Without minimum wage, companies can pay a pittance of a wage to the people already struggling to find employment, and can also abuse those workers with impunity, because a worker who can barely afford to pay for housing, food and electricity with a job sure as hell isn't going to quit unless they've got somewhere better to go to already.
The fact that immoral companies are willing to circumvent minimum wage by abusing workers without legal recourse does not make it fair to let them abuse all workers equally.
Television - Plays console games and internet videos, only ads are in games and ones I download willingly.
Radio - gone
Internet - Adblock and NoScript, thank you.
So, yeah - some of us really do try to live in an advertising-light world.
Sony proves one of these wrong, Microsoft the other.
That would have to be a hardware hack, the (moderately competent) police do not access your harddrive through your OS or while it's in your machine. And data changing itself even through a hardware mechanism would be clear tampering with evidence.
If they just stop fighting fires for a few days, some of the public would be more educated.
Others would simply be less stupid than before.
Solution: Minimum wage increase - if benefits are supposed to cover the minimum acceptable level of income for someone to live on (and that's certainly what they represent here in Oceania - erm, the UK) then full time employment should not be permitted to pay less than that.
Of course you could argue that would hurt the economy or some bullshit like that, but the fact is that $7/hour is a piss-poor wage and *that* is what makes people sit on the dole for a lifetime. Some of them probably are too lazy to work - but most of them are too lazy to work for less money, significantly less respect, and much more effort. Plus there are costs involved with working such as travel, eating at work, etc - in other words it's not the benefits that create the problem, it's the lower-class worker exploitation that $7/hour represents.
Plus, how much enthusiasm can you have for a job where the manager might fire you just because he's in a bad mood that day?
If you spend that much time looking at the interface, you need to buy better movies.
There was a 'play' button on the PS2 interface, right?
Wow, such a long post - virtually no content - one godwin, one '[Needs Citation]', one 'Muhaha I have money', one 'Go USA, screw the rest of you' and one argument that works against you more than for.
Oh yeah, that last one was your main point: if drug trials are so expensive, then maybe they should be government funded rather than paid for by companies, since everyone benefits from them.
And the real reason for your post is subtle, but there - you're just worried that socialist health care might make you a little communist (and are unaware that you already are a little communist, and a little socialist).
So yeah, my opinion is that people who can afford should share a little of that with those who cannot.
Your opinion seems to be that people who cannot afford should be seen and not heard.
Your post seems to imply that Scotland does not have cities...
What makes you assume people get their opinion on healthcare from the media - I get my opinion on the US's ludicrous healthcare from friends of mine who are victims of the system.
And these are normal, healthy people, who suffer from the same sort of occasional illness that I do - and yet they will avoid going to the doctors over some things they shouldn't because it can cost a fair bit, and because of how insurance works (premiums) and because on rare occasions some bureocratic mixup puts them in thousands of dollars of debt.
Everybody gets sick, everybody needs healthcare.
Don't charge the people who get unlucky and need healthcare more.
Don't charge the poor for the privilege of not dying - or else some of them will not be able to afford it.
The US healthcare system is fucked, evil and greedy, deal with it.
So, we have impressionable kids playing games that teach that you MUST rape little girls to succeed.
Sorry, but if you've got your kids playing your porn games, then the problem is not what those porn games are.
If you're in a country with legal guns, then I assume that if your kids got their hands on the firearm - you wouldn't blame the hole in their leg on the firearm. You'd put the damn thing out of reach.
Stop trying to discuss gaming issues with respect to children who shouldn't see them or play them. It's not relevant. If they are playing them, it's a case of bad parenting.
Where in this case, "Being a dick" is defined as someone doing something that's going to make them profit and you lose money.
If your friends think it's rude not to let them borrow your stuff, it's probably because you borrow their stuff, or they help you out regularly and they expect some give and take.
I wish I had mod-points for this statement.
It won't ... awaken latent mutant powers in angsty teenagers, even if it got exposed, released, etc.
Aww...
Actually, there is one, but it requires 9 months foresight.
And that's the kinda creepy stalkerish behaviour that the earlier threads were against.
What religion is your current president?
What religion is the one before that?
What religion is the one before that?
What religion is the one before that?
Let me know when you get the point
Yes, let's assume that the advert is telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
That's what a published demo is, an advert.
And lately, it seems all demos are tending towards the quality of US TV ads -
"Buy this game! Buy this game! Buy this game! Demo over, now get your ass to the shops, prole."
Crappy demos are hurting companies' sales, for example, I saw more of Killzone 2 in a 10 minute 'let's see what this is like' at a friends house, than I got in the 5 minute crappy demo of the same game.
A £35/£50 purchase should be an informed one, not a shot in the dark.
Then there's the fact that any PC game is non returnable (which I'm sure has to be illegal somehow) - resulting in no-refund purchases based on intentially skewed information.
If that not okay for a £1 sandwich, it's not okay for a £35 game.
So I think anyone using a copy as a demo of the game is on better moral ground than the publishers/developers.
People who copy, play, finish and delete without paying are doing something wrong - even more so if they then spend the money on some other luxury product that could not be pirated.
But I agree with the other posters, piracy is not theft and shouldn't be equated with such as it's stealing schrodinger's money from his wallet in the unopened room with an RIAA lawyer inside.
You need to go research the topic as the three strikes rule does not involve a court, at all.
You need to be accused by the RIAA, or another copyright body, three times. And they don't need much evidence at all to decide that you're guilty.
And if you've been accused by the RIAA of pirating 3 times, they need to stop making false accusations to scaremonger people.