That is an important thing to remind people of who support that "tort reform".
I'm a Canadian. Working in the USA I started to get a feeling why there are so many lawsuits. You go to work and it really is seen as a sort of individuals competitive duty to maintain their own safety standards. There is a desperation and lack of regard for safety rules unless they are legally mandated (and then they are enforced like crazy like putting baby warning stickers on every random plastic bag as if that would be helpful). So for a poor desperate worker without a safety net the options are go broke or sue. Most just go broke but an industrious few manage to sue. And nowhere in that process does common sense come in: why is this happening, how to resonably fix it. It's all just a war to cover your own ass.
Why is the USA so broken!?
Maybe something about Ayn Rand being the 2nd most influential book after The Bible!?
We should all watch the latest Adam Curtis documentaries!
I'm pretty happy with my bottom end Huawei bar phone. Pretty well thought out (has the software drivers to interface with windoze via USB built in). A lot better than the LG phone I was using but to be fair it is newer. The best thing about it is it is a lot more in the realm of open standards so I can interface with it via linux and things aren't locked down in an innovation stifling way. Now if the software was all open-source/easier to update I could fix a few bugs and it would be perfect. (like getting the ssh to work, making the key lockout period work better, a bunch of minor stuff)
I went to a Fine Arts School and so the computing was pretty poorly supported by the school administration overall IMO. But they did assume you might be on a Mac. They had Mac labs and windoze labs. In those days wifi would have been a luxury and I never looked into it, but I also don't see how your OS would really matter for the wifi unless there is some special windoze/mac software they require?
Anyway, my only experience was that I wanted to ssh connect to the school's servers to get my files rather than have to use the clunky ftp. They let me do this and helped me out a little the first few years I was there but in my last years they changed to not supporting ssh maybe because they didn't want to deal with the security and it was such a small number of people using it.
I was not ridiculed. They did say that it was up to me to figure out problems if I wasn't using Mac/Linux. However, in those first years when they were supporting ssh the IT people did give me some tips on connecting to ssh via terminal (I was still learning that stuff then) and seemed to be generally impressed and interested that I was using linux... I think it was a nice change from the daily grind of walking windoze users through the menu they can't find so they liked answering my more "esoteric" techy questions.
Actually come to think of it they were biased against windoze because they didn't want to help me with PuTTY but they were happy to give Unix command line tips!
Laptop touchpads are a prime example. I'm pretty use to the gestures on my Asus EEE. But my wife's Dell is very different. She can't use mine. I can barely use hers (i'm more willing to figure it out). And of course not all of the gestures work that well in the Linux. How do you even discover the gestures? They don't print a list of them in any easy to access place. So we use USB plugin mouse whenever possible.
I think this news is a reflection (excuse the pun) of people becoming more aware of the issue. I bought "returned" "new" laptop with a glossy screen. I sort of thought that matt would be better for glare but the choice of the returned laptops is limited so I went with it. I now realise from using it how terrible it is in any sort of light. (works great in the dark) So in the future I would demand matt and complain if the option weren't there. This is probably the same deal with everyone. It wasn't that long ago that buying a laptop became normal instead of a luxury/high-end purchase. Experience takes time. As for the manufacturers preferring gloss, that is probably because the shiny sells and it takes longer for manufacturers to react to trends. They will change in a few cycles.
Good luck to the claimants. This is a satirical lawsuit to prove how ridiculous a claim one could conceivably make - right? Anyone with common sense looks at this and says that it is funny and a good reason to look at how patents over-reach, right? This is satire, not real life?
Obviously a fast switch of batteries is a better idea. I don't want to wait 15 minutes or even 5 to recharge. Then they can have fast chargers dedicated and efficient to re supply the batteries. I know batteries are expensive so the biggest obstacle is just figuring out a credit/ID system so that people can be trusted to trade $1000 batteries quickly.
It doesn't follow that the impact on any one user is greater, though.
So??? Are you an atomic superman not impacted by society or other people!? Seriously, this individualist free market ideology is pretty far-flung now. Now we think that it's OK if all those around us have problems as long as we don't? Ever trade goods much? No job?
What a bunch of lunatics thinking they are so omnipotent in their "secret" knowledge they can outsmart everyone by being so secretive. The only real benefit to this that I can see is that (presuming they are able to be as secretive as they claim, a big if) the obvious inevitable downsides to this strategy will not be obvious to the public because they are secret. Basically, by taking the whole world off their bench and pretending to be able to do the work of the wider public in secret they will inevitablely fail in the most embarrassing ways. But if they keep it secret then the embarrassment won't be made public and their public funding can continue. So basically the best approach for them is to do nothing while pretending (secretly!) to be very busy. Then they won't make mistakes because they haven't done any real work. Secrecy for the sake of secrecy! Somehow these machinations remind me of the logic in the novel Catch-22. Glad to hear institutional insanity is alive and well 70 years later.
It's dispiriting to read all the geeks and "smart" people who would rather prove how clever they are by putting down isohunt than actually help or, you know, care. Whatever technical BS arguments you may want to make opposing the RIAA/MPAA scams should be a duty that takes precedence over quipping on how much "pirate" this or that.
You KNOW how computers work (they are copying machines) and you know how hypocritical is the quest to protect the "content" or "IP" of the very richest only.
The reason it is called weed is because it is and yes, it is potent. Obviously a wild plant is not going to be as intensely potent as something bred for potentcy and grown in "optimal" conditions. However, the potency is plenty sufficient. The same goes for Papovar Somniferum aka the Opium Poppy. The DEA and other anti-drug liars like to say things like it is a "fact" that these plants do not grow wild except in Colombia or some place like that. But that is just their little way of rationalising their absurd law that actually criminalises weeds. Because these plants are so prolific and common it is common for "innocent" people to be growing them in their garden - especially the poppy flower. The only difference between "evil" drug cultivation and "innocent" flower gardening is the awareness of the full use of the plant. Hence, it is the knowledge that makes it illegal. Effectively the DEA then has the job of fighting against knowledge with disinformation or "drug facts" that conflate Heroin with Opium, Hemp with THC Cannabis etc etc.
As well, the prohibition is what leads to the higher potency as more dense narcotic effect is really most useful when you have contraband that needs to be hidden. Heroin, crack, and other high potency drugs are going to be a lot less popular if they are legal. Alcohol is a good analogy. Alcohol is partially criminalised. For underage drinkers it is, adults not. Adults mostly drink beer and wine with relatively low potency. If they drink hard liquor it is more often a sipping drink or mixed with flavours that weaken the potency. Underage drinking is a different story. The cheapest most potent gutrot is the best formula for booze when your supply is limited. Of course its not like this across the board (for instance addicts) but generally when people are allowed to take what they prefer (instead of just what they can get their hands on) they are going to choose something more moderate. One could go on.
... how about you suck it up, acknowledge you got caught, and pay the fine?
99.9999% of these people are guilty of an illegal act. Pretending otherwise is ridiculous and deliberately trying to avoid that point.
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
Right, you can't make a criminally bad Hollywood movie if you want respect or people to not copy it. People will. And various RIAA/MPAA "you are a bad guy" flak BS will continue to have negligible effect as planned.
They actually profit from our free sharing of their terrible movies. Until "piracy" the movie business was dying. Now it's doing well because they get free publicity and distribution. And they get imbecile to convince a few of the gullible into paying a premium tax on top of the profit they already make from you sharing. Free publicity = more sales. Lost potential revenue from all the copies people don't pay for is BS that's like saying I thought of the iphone 10 years ago when I painted my cell phone white apple owes me. The lost potential calculation is there to hide that they pay zero for you advertising/distributing their movie and they make 100% of the sales that result from that free promotion.
Actually $150K puts you in the top 15% of US income and $215K puts you in a group numbering less than 7% of US households. Everywhere, but especially in the US, people like to think they are richer than they are and that their potential to be rich is greater than it is. This is why so many Americans vote against their class interests - they all think they might one day be millionaires so they don't want an estate tax for when that happens, and they think they won't get sick and old like everyone else.
Or maybe you're looking at the sex ads? I look at the sex/personal ads too from time to time, I've never acted on one but they are interesting to observe. Anyway most of those are fake.
But otherwise I don't see much fake stuff. Lots of people sell tools and electronics, stuff for parents. It's a great free system and craigslist is very altruistic to do it without fees (except in NY or something like that?). You just hate craigslist and you don't use it much because you don't know what you are talking about. Obviously it doesn't work for everything (the catagories you mention)
I do find that calling and emailing back and forth to arrange viewing an item then picking it up is quite time consuming. It gives one an appreciation of the value of retail space and the premium we pay for it. It would be a very sad day if craigslist were overcome with spam.
I do think it varies by location too. In Vancouver, BC I think there was less spam than in Eugene, OR which is interesting because Eugene is a lot smaller but I think the spammers target the USA slightly more. (we have some spam too)
I'm really curious as to weather, looking back after the dust eventually settles, this will be seen as a good move on the establishments part. My suspicious is that no, this will galvinise people. Also, there is much criticism of modern dissent that we just sit in front of our TV screens and whine to each other. When we can't do that... Probably there is more people around able to actually do something concrete. On the other hand communication is vital, and that is certainly curtailed here. So it's a really interesting strategy.
And taking off the cold blooded analyst hat: More power to them in Egypt! Maybe democracy will catch on here too? (I'm in Canada)
There is no money for the public good. We've got buckets of it for privatisation boondoggles and welfare for Billionaires.
We should be rolling in it. We've lived through prosperous times. We have a lot of wealth and capacity. But the money gets spent on wars and corporate welfare.
So counterproductive! We need safe carfree cities. Electric or whathaveyou green magic cars are NOT any better than what we have now.
1) Moving the emissions from the tailpipe to the coal power plant smoke stack is not a big improvement.
2) trashing useful cars and building lots of new ones with lightweight, rare energy intensive materials is terrible for everyone.
3) Green cars are the ultimate greenwash - there to convince us that cars are still sustainable at all which is the big lie
4) The efficiency paradox: If we have more efficient cars we will simply have more cars overall negating any gains from efficiency
5) Green cars do nothing to address the safety, land use, hyper-mobility, city-planning, social problems, exercise problems, health problems... in short they are all sensation and no substance.
It doesn't have to be this way. In fact, look at the huge subsidy and corporate welfare required to keep the car system going. It would be easier for us to let it die as it should. End Car Era!
Why would a kamakaze bomber need remote detonation? Wouldn't they be better at timing and instigating it themselves? This story is a little too neat. I doubt the truth of it. Also, it's pretty sick how people are proud to laugh at something like this. Those people say they like the Achmed character of Jeff Dunham. I think the terrorists are right after reading that. People who like Jeff Dunham aren't really people you can reason with, blowing them up is the only option.
People often discount the persuasive power of disinformation and advertising. Everyone thinks they are above the frey and would not be swayed by some ridiculous commercial or fallacious news flak. But unless you put a lot of effort into keeping tabs on all the situations the liars are yelling about constantly, at a certain point and pretty often your opinion is based on mostly or entirely BS facts and you just can't make a contrary decision to that stuff if your grounding is not in reality.
Unfortunately there are plenty people who don't have the time or technical inclination to bother to be a sharing "pirate." Many of this large group is highly suggestible about P2P FUD. IMO the RIAA/MPAA anti-sharing lobby has had the same strategy for a long time - having realised long ago that any more concrete strategy is an "uphill battle" Their strategy is symbolic: 1) be harshly over the top punitive to a few symbolic example pirates as punishment. The odds may be 1 in 14*10^6 but people still buy lottery tickets because the prize is so big. 2) target those facilitating the technology like indexing sites (napster, mininova, pirate bay etc) and put out BS fake torrents or any other thing that makes the task of sharing technically a little bit more difficult. It doesn't matter if the strategy is trivial for a typical slashdot type user to subvert (not a very high bar) the point is to make it difficult enough for that large group of computer users who NEED to be asked "is the machine turned on" when they call tech support to be out of the loop and so only a relative minority will be sharing and the anti-drugs style pointless crusade can continue without a majority of opposition.
Slashdot Mirror
That is an important thing to remind people of who support that "tort reform".
I'm a Canadian. Working in the USA I started to get a feeling why there are so many lawsuits. You go to work and it really is seen as a sort of individuals competitive duty to maintain their own safety standards. There is a desperation and lack of regard for safety rules unless they are legally mandated (and then they are enforced like crazy like putting baby warning stickers on every random plastic bag as if that would be helpful). So for a poor desperate worker without a safety net the options are go broke or sue. Most just go broke but an industrious few manage to sue. And nowhere in that process does common sense come in: why is this happening, how to resonably fix it. It's all just a war to cover your own ass.
Why is the USA so broken!?
Maybe something about Ayn Rand being the 2nd most influential book after The Bible!?
We should all watch the latest Adam Curtis documentaries!
I'm pretty happy with my bottom end Huawei bar phone. Pretty well thought out (has the software drivers to interface with windoze via USB built in). A lot better than the LG phone I was using but to be fair it is newer. The best thing about it is it is a lot more in the realm of open standards so I can interface with it via linux and things aren't locked down in an innovation stifling way. Now if the software was all open-source/easier to update I could fix a few bugs and it would be perfect. (like getting the ssh to work, making the key lockout period work better, a bunch of minor stuff)
I went to a Fine Arts School and so the computing was pretty poorly supported by the school administration overall IMO. But they did assume you might be on a Mac. They had Mac labs and windoze labs. In those days wifi would have been a luxury and I never looked into it, but I also don't see how your OS would really matter for the wifi unless there is some special windoze/mac software they require?
Anyway, my only experience was that I wanted to ssh connect to the school's servers to get my files rather than have to use the clunky ftp. They let me do this and helped me out a little the first few years I was there but in my last years they changed to not supporting ssh maybe because they didn't want to deal with the security and it was such a small number of people using it.
I was not ridiculed. They did say that it was up to me to figure out problems if I wasn't using Mac/Linux. However, in those first years when they were supporting ssh the IT people did give me some tips on connecting to ssh via terminal (I was still learning that stuff then) and seemed to be generally impressed and interested that I was using linux... I think it was a nice change from the daily grind of walking windoze users through the menu they can't find so they liked answering my more "esoteric" techy questions.
Actually come to think of it they were biased against windoze because they didn't want to help me with PuTTY but they were happy to give Unix command line tips!
Laptop touchpads are a prime example. I'm pretty use to the gestures on my Asus EEE. But my wife's Dell is very different. She can't use mine. I can barely use hers (i'm more willing to figure it out). And of course not all of the gestures work that well in the Linux. How do you even discover the gestures? They don't print a list of them in any easy to access place. So we use USB plugin mouse whenever possible.
And black face paint
I think this news is a reflection (excuse the pun) of people becoming more aware of the issue. I bought "returned" "new" laptop with a glossy screen. I sort of thought that matt would be better for glare but the choice of the returned laptops is limited so I went with it. I now realise from using it how terrible it is in any sort of light. (works great in the dark) So in the future I would demand matt and complain if the option weren't there. This is probably the same deal with everyone. It wasn't that long ago that buying a laptop became normal instead of a luxury/high-end purchase. Experience takes time. As for the manufacturers preferring gloss, that is probably because the shiny sells and it takes longer for manufacturers to react to trends. They will change in a few cycles.
The days of programming a turtle are over!
Good luck to the claimants. This is a satirical lawsuit to prove how ridiculous a claim one could conceivably make - right? Anyone with common sense looks at this and says that it is funny and a good reason to look at how patents over-reach, right? This is satire, not real life?
Obviously a fast switch of batteries is a better idea. I don't want to wait 15 minutes or even 5 to recharge. Then they can have fast chargers dedicated and efficient to re supply the batteries. I know batteries are expensive so the biggest obstacle is just figuring out a credit/ID system so that people can be trusted to trade $1000 batteries quickly.
It doesn't follow that the impact on any one user is greater, though.
So??? Are you an atomic superman not impacted by society or other people!? Seriously, this individualist free market ideology is pretty far-flung now. Now we think that it's OK if all those around us have problems as long as we don't? Ever trade goods much? No job?
What a bunch of lunatics thinking they are so omnipotent in their "secret" knowledge they can outsmart everyone by being so secretive. The only real benefit to this that I can see is that (presuming they are able to be as secretive as they claim, a big if) the obvious inevitable downsides to this strategy will not be obvious to the public because they are secret. Basically, by taking the whole world off their bench and pretending to be able to do the work of the wider public in secret they will inevitablely fail in the most embarrassing ways. But if they keep it secret then the embarrassment won't be made public and their public funding can continue. So basically the best approach for them is to do nothing while pretending (secretly!) to be very busy. Then they won't make mistakes because they haven't done any real work. Secrecy for the sake of secrecy! Somehow these machinations remind me of the logic in the novel Catch-22. Glad to hear institutional insanity is alive and well 70 years later.
It's dispiriting to read all the geeks and "smart" people who would rather prove how clever they are by putting down isohunt than actually help or, you know, care. Whatever technical BS arguments you may want to make opposing the RIAA/MPAA scams should be a duty that takes precedence over quipping on how much "pirate" this or that.
You KNOW how computers work (they are copying machines) and you know how hypocritical is the quest to protect the "content" or "IP" of the very richest only.
The reason it is called weed is because it is and yes, it is potent. Obviously a wild plant is not going to be as intensely potent as something bred for potentcy and grown in "optimal" conditions. However, the potency is plenty sufficient. The same goes for Papovar Somniferum aka the Opium Poppy. The DEA and other anti-drug liars like to say things like it is a "fact" that these plants do not grow wild except in Colombia or some place like that. But that is just their little way of rationalising their absurd law that actually criminalises weeds. Because these plants are so prolific and common it is common for "innocent" people to be growing them in their garden - especially the poppy flower. The only difference between "evil" drug cultivation and "innocent" flower gardening is the awareness of the full use of the plant. Hence, it is the knowledge that makes it illegal. Effectively the DEA then has the job of fighting against knowledge with disinformation or "drug facts" that conflate Heroin with Opium, Hemp with THC Cannabis etc etc.
As well, the prohibition is what leads to the higher potency as more dense narcotic effect is really most useful when you have contraband that needs to be hidden. Heroin, crack, and other high potency drugs are going to be a lot less popular if they are legal. Alcohol is a good analogy. Alcohol is partially criminalised. For underage drinkers it is, adults not. Adults mostly drink beer and wine with relatively low potency. If they drink hard liquor it is more often a sipping drink or mixed with flavours that weaken the potency. Underage drinking is a different story. The cheapest most potent gutrot is the best formula for booze when your supply is limited. Of course its not like this across the board (for instance addicts) but generally when people are allowed to take what they prefer (instead of just what they can get their hands on) they are going to choose something more moderate. One could go on.
we gotta move these microwave ovens!
whatever, who pays you to say that nonsense?
... how about you suck it up, acknowledge you got caught, and pay the fine?
99.9999% of these people are guilty of an illegal act. Pretending otherwise is ridiculous and deliberately trying to avoid that point.
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
Right, you can't make a criminally bad Hollywood movie if you want respect or people to not copy it. People will. And various RIAA/MPAA "you are a bad guy" flak BS will continue to have negligible effect as planned.
They actually profit from our free sharing of their terrible movies. Until "piracy" the movie business was dying. Now it's doing well because they get free publicity and distribution. And they get imbecile to convince a few of the gullible into paying a premium tax on top of the profit they already make from you sharing. Free publicity = more sales. Lost potential revenue from all the copies people don't pay for is BS that's like saying I thought of the iphone 10 years ago when I painted my cell phone white apple owes me. The lost potential calculation is there to hide that they pay zero for you advertising/distributing their movie and they make 100% of the sales that result from that free promotion.
I meant to cite this table:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States#Household_income_in_the_U.S.
Actually $150K puts you in the top 15% of US income and $215K puts you in a group numbering less than 7% of US households. Everywhere, but especially in the US, people like to think they are richer than they are and that their potential to be rich is greater than it is. This is why so many Americans vote against their class interests - they all think they might one day be millionaires so they don't want an estate tax for when that happens, and they think they won't get sick and old like everyone else.
Or maybe you're looking at the sex ads? I look at the sex/personal ads too from time to time, I've never acted on one but they are interesting to observe. Anyway most of those are fake.
But otherwise I don't see much fake stuff. Lots of people sell tools and electronics, stuff for parents. It's a great free system and craigslist is very altruistic to do it without fees (except in NY or something like that?). You just hate craigslist and you don't use it much because you don't know what you are talking about. Obviously it doesn't work for everything (the catagories you mention)
I do find that calling and emailing back and forth to arrange viewing an item then picking it up is quite time consuming. It gives one an appreciation of the value of retail space and the premium we pay for it. It would be a very sad day if craigslist were overcome with spam.
I do think it varies by location too. In Vancouver, BC I think there was less spam than in Eugene, OR which is interesting because Eugene is a lot smaller but I think the spammers target the USA slightly more. (we have some spam too)
I'm really curious as to weather, looking back after the dust eventually settles, this will be seen as a good move on the establishments part. My suspicious is that no, this will galvinise people. Also, there is much criticism of modern dissent that we just sit in front of our TV screens and whine to each other. When we can't do that... Probably there is more people around able to actually do something concrete. On the other hand communication is vital, and that is certainly curtailed here. So it's a really interesting strategy.
And taking off the cold blooded analyst hat: More power to them in Egypt! Maybe democracy will catch on here too? (I'm in Canada)
There is no money for the public good. We've got buckets of it for privatisation boondoggles and welfare for Billionaires.
We should be rolling in it. We've lived through prosperous times. We have a lot of wealth and capacity. But the money gets spent on wars and corporate welfare.
So counterproductive! We need safe carfree cities. Electric or whathaveyou green magic cars are NOT any better than what we have now.
1) Moving the emissions from the tailpipe to the coal power plant smoke stack is not a big improvement.
2) trashing useful cars and building lots of new ones with lightweight, rare energy intensive materials is terrible for everyone.
3) Green cars are the ultimate greenwash - there to convince us that cars are still sustainable at all which is the big lie
4) The efficiency paradox: If we have more efficient cars we will simply have more cars overall negating any gains from efficiency
5) Green cars do nothing to address the safety, land use, hyper-mobility, city-planning, social problems, exercise problems, health problems... in short they are all sensation and no substance.
It doesn't have to be this way. In fact, look at the huge subsidy and corporate welfare required to keep the car system going. It would be easier for us to let it die as it should. End Car Era!
Why would a kamakaze bomber need remote detonation? Wouldn't they be better at timing and instigating it themselves? This story is a little too neat. I doubt the truth of it. Also, it's pretty sick how people are proud to laugh at something like this. Those people say they like the Achmed character of Jeff Dunham. I think the terrorists are right after reading that. People who like Jeff Dunham aren't really people you can reason with, blowing them up is the only option.
Well said.
People often discount the persuasive power of disinformation and advertising. Everyone thinks they are above the frey and would not be swayed by some ridiculous commercial or fallacious news flak. But unless you put a lot of effort into keeping tabs on all the situations the liars are yelling about constantly, at a certain point and pretty often your opinion is based on mostly or entirely BS facts and you just can't make a contrary decision to that stuff if your grounding is not in reality.
Unfortunately there are plenty people who don't have the time or technical inclination to bother to be a sharing "pirate." Many of this large group is highly suggestible about P2P FUD. IMO the RIAA/MPAA anti-sharing lobby has had the same strategy for a long time - having realised long ago that any more concrete strategy is an "uphill battle" Their strategy is symbolic:
1) be harshly over the top punitive to a few symbolic example pirates as punishment. The odds may be 1 in 14*10^6 but people still buy lottery tickets because the prize is so big.
2) target those facilitating the technology like indexing sites (napster, mininova, pirate bay etc) and put out BS fake torrents or any other thing that makes the task of sharing technically a little bit more difficult. It doesn't matter if the strategy is trivial for a typical slashdot type user to subvert (not a very high bar) the point is to make it difficult enough for that large group of computer users who NEED to be asked "is the machine turned on" when they call tech support to be out of the loop and so only a relative minority will be sharing and the anti-drugs style pointless crusade can continue without a majority of opposition.
I think so. Still lots of hits at the top of search results though. And plenty fake new torrents with that title.