Sure, and they should, but every dollar the government they either have it via force (taxes) or fraud (money printing). The government should be trying to reduce itself rather than growing.
If you reduce the power that the government has, you eliminate corporate abuses because all corporate abuses need the government.
The difference between a megacorporation and the government are huge. Walmart does not force you to purchase its products or face imprisonment, but thanks to the recent Supreme Court ruling the government can. You can choose never to support a megacorporation or any corporation if you so choose. For example, I don't buy Sony products because of their policies with DRM and rootkits and removing features (as in the PS3), that means Sony doesn't get a penny from me. On the other hand, there are numerous things that I don't agree with the US government with, yet they force me to pay taxes (essentially stealing) via the barrel of a gun.
Saying that corporations are dangerous is incorrect. Corporations are only dangerous with government power, reduce government power and you reduce any damage that corporations can do to nothing.
So? The constitution is routinely ignored as to make it nearly useless. Consider the recent health care ruling which the US Supreme Court basically said its ok for the government to financially charge you not only for something you do, but something that you don't do and calls it a "tax", meaning that financially there are no boundaries.
If the government even mentions the word "terrorist" they're allowed to ransack basic civil liberties, wiretap civilians without warrant, judges that will give a warrant for even the slightest shred of evidence, etc.
What good are constitutional protections when they go unused? Consider the constitution of North Korea:
Article 67. Citizens are guaranteed freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, demonstration and association. The State shall guarantee conditions for the free activity of democratic political parties and social organizations.
Article 79. Citizens are guaranteed inviolability of the person and the home and privacy of correspondence. No citizens can be placed under control or be arrested nor can their homes be searched without a legal warrant.
Now, compare that to the UK without a formal constitution or true bill of rights. Despite the flaws in the UK, I think there's a lot more freedom of speech, press, assembly, demonstration, association, and privacy in the UK than there is in North Korea.
You mean like the "mummy's curse" or a million other death threats that ancient cultures showed for their tombs filled with riches? If you dig up a structure that is:
A) Ancient
B) Hard to get into
C) Filled with all sorts of warning messages
Would you think that it was:
A) A dangerous death trap
Or
B) A place where the ancients held their treasure.
I guess that most people would choose B.
In all honesty though, I think that this is a moot point, if civilization collapses, basic principles such as how to make a Geiger counter and radioactivity would most likely survive the collapse or at least be rediscovered before people would be drilling into nuclear waste storage sites.
To be honest, I think the answer may be to vote for a third party (Green, Libertarian, Constitutionalist, etc.) and look at places to live elsewhere. Despite what the media tries to tell you, the "third world" isn't just grass huts and civil wars. Granted, you might not have a Starbucks every 3 blocks but most of those countries are truly more free and they have many more opportunities. Plus the cost of living is much lower.
Windows Phone 7 (the successor to Windows Mobile) is a whole lot better than Windows Mobile, its not perfect, but it does a few things a bit better than Android and iOS and is about the only real upgrade of an OS that's better in every respect that I've ever seen aside from the upgrades of OS 9 to OS X and WIndows 9x to Windows NT.
Um... Isn't this why Firefox was created to prevent the bloat of Netscape and make a browser that just... browsed? Why not make this a plugin?
Why can't someone make a better browser than Firefox but make it as customizable? I've tried using Chrome and found that even basic options don't exist. And Opera really isn't that much better than Firefox.
Yep, BlackBerry used to be the "cool" phone to get back when everyone else who owned a smartphone was stuck with the old Windows Mobile. A lot of people back then had BlackBerries who weren't really corporate users, they just wanted the best smartphone, which in the early start of the smartphone was the BlackBerry. Then the iPhone came out, then the flood of Android phones. For business users Android phones and the iPhone have become more and more business centered over time. When it comes down to it, why would anyone who isn't tied into BBES even consider a BlackBerry today? With the problems with BBES, why would any corporation choose that over its competitors?
RIM ignored the generic consumer in favor of selling their products in the business space. At first it worked because no other phone could do well in the business space and back when the only choices were Windows Mobile (the old, slow, unstable Windows Mobile) or BlackBerry many chose BlackBerry even if it wasn't the ideal smartphone, it was better than the competition. Then Apple released the iPhone which was consumer focused, no longer could RIM keep the consumers who just wanted a smartphone because there was a better option. Soon Android started appearing everywhere and iPhones got a whole lot more business friendly. All the while RIM was selling outdated hardware, an outdated UI, next to no developer support, and any time they tried to innovate it was a half-hearted attempt that failed (remember the storm?).
In a nutshell, why is RIM broke? Because no one wants to buy a BlackBerry because an iPhone/Android does the job a whole lot better.
If you want the Microwriter, I think there is something called CyKey that is pretty much the same thing, I looked on their site and although the site hadn't been updated for a few years it appears you still can order a CyKey with a USB connection for around $100.
I really don't see multi-screen gaming really catching on because of the simple fact that a lot of people don't have a whole heck of a lot of space, especially in the "core" gamer demographic who tend to either be living with their parents or living in a cramped apartment. Desktops aren't exactly space savers and decent sized monitors aren't easy to fit 3 or more on a normal sized desk.
It seems interesting that Hong Kong has been very vocal recently in criticizing Beijing. In fact, it seems interesting that 1 country 2 systems has been maintained for so long with little change, especially since it is clear that Hong Kong (and Macau) has it much better than mainland China, for example, life expectancy in mainland China is only 73, in Hong Kong it is 82, nearly a decade of difference. Between the vast differences in wealth and standard of living in the 2 areas of China, I'm really surprised that those in mainland China don't rise up and demand the system that Hong Kong has. Do the Chinese not equate the system of government to the greater wealth and health of Hong Kong? Or do they simply not have the facts to compare the two?
So what? He provided a good service to millions. A company has very little to do with the personality of the creators. A good product is a good product even if it was created by someone you wouldn't admire.
Sadly there is nothing not under the USSA's tyrannical jurisdiction with the exception of countries such as North Korea. Even "safe" jurisdictions such as Switzerland have treaties with the US government.
So? What about people selling CD burners? VHS recorders?
Kim Dotcom simply provided a service that could be used both "legally" and "illegally" and being a good provider of a service made money. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. On the other hand, the people suing him (US department of "justice") obtained their vast wealth through theft of property, and fraud.
The difference is the USPS is a government sponsored monopoly where legally you cannot compete with them. If they decide to increase the price of stamps to $15 a piece, they can do that and there's not much that anyone can do about it since it is illegal to deliver mail except by the USPS.
In fact, a guy named Lysander Spooner made a competitor to the US post office called the American Letter Mail Company, it did everything better than the USPS, faster delivery, cheaper rates, less waste, etc. but it was shut down because of the monopoly that the USPS has.
ISPs are not the same. While arguably many have monopoly status due to the fact that the government gave them massive amounts of money to "modernize" the US, there is nothing preventing me from starting a better, more privacy friendly ISP aside from the startup costs.
That is all well, but the US is not a free market when it comes to ISPs because the government gave out massive amounts of moneys to large corporations to "modernize" the US which means that in many areas there are only 1 or 2 ISPs, both megacorporations and no other ISP can compete with them either by law or because they already had such a large competitive advantage by having all the infrastructure basically paid for by theft (taxes). We need to not make this mistake again and cut off all taxpayer support to ISPs and other private companies in order to allow the free market to work, otherwise you have a mess like we have today.
Exactly, the only monitoring ISPs will do is due to either government mandated crap, or government-sponsored lawsuits (RIAA/MPAA) due to their horribly outdated intellectual "property" laws.
Ah yes, because Microsoft steals ~25% of my income. Microsoft forces me at gunpoint to buy a PC and an Xbox, saying that if I don't buy a PC I have to pay them even more for the "privilege" to not have a PC. I forgot that Microsoft goes around arming drug cartels and propping up dictators. I also forgot that Vista drones are firing missiles at unarmed civilians.
The government, by definition is a parasite. The rich can be parasitic by relying on the government, the poor can be parasitic by relying on the government. The poor can have no parasitic effect if they do not rely on the government and same with the rich. It just so happens that in the US the "poor" (lets face it, the "poor" in the US are rich compared to a large chunk of the world) enjoy using the parasite of the government to encourage it to steal more.
Which is why we need to simply abolish patents in the first place.
There's no redeeming quality with patents anymore. If you have a good idea, put it in a product. Any modern product is much more than just the general concept. If we needed patents to have success, why are there generics of just about everything AND the "brand name". If patents were needed, everyone would buy Kangaroo Krunch (a hypothetical generic to Captain Crunch) that sells for 25% less than Captain Crunch rather than Captain Crunch since both are nearly 100% identical.
A product's success does not just come from a novel idea, or a set of novel ideas but it comes from execution, marketing and support.
Sure, but how many ISPs really have the resources to fix this problem? After all, an ISP deals with the network side of things, not fixing viruses. If the ISP's DNS server is down, you call your ISP. If the ISP cut a fiber optic cable and your internet is down, you call your ISP. If your HDD is broken, you don't call your ISP. If you get a virus, you don't call your ISP. Etc.
Sadly, aside from a few local places, most of the "big chain" tech support people are extortionists and by the time "Geek Squad" is done "fixing" your computer, you could already upgrade to a newer machine (which is what they want) where the salesmen will use lies and manipulations. Of course, Geek Squad and Best Buy's salesmen are good for the humor value, I asked one of them what the clock speed of one computer was and he said "Eastern standard time of course"...
Yeah, because that will teach them the right message. There are thousands of viruses out there that say "YOU'VE BEEN INFECTED WITH 2312312434 VIRUSES, PURCHASE TOTALLY LEGIT REGISTRY-SCANNER TO FIX" adding a legitimate message only confuses users.
In fact, if I recall correctly, the major variants of DNS changer pop up windows saying you need to install X malware that pretends to fix problems.
The EU's currency is a mess and is breaking up. Many EU countries are implementing currency controls. Economically the EU is dead.
The EU gets some things right but a lot of things wrong. Like the new law put in effect that you have to display an annoying message if you use cookies. If you don't want cookies, disable them in your browser. An option that has existed since cookies were invented.
The problem isn't that it involves risk, it is that things that are "completely safe" eventually get abused to the point that they are no longer safe. X-Rays can cause cancer, but we know that x-rays cause cancer and therefore doctors/dentists are more reluctant to use them. Back when X-rays were considered 100% safe, we used them to see how well shoes fit! And other novelties.
Is terahertz radiation safer than x-rays? Quite possibly. If we use terahertz radiation to excess will it be safer than x-rays? Quite possibly not.
Yep, I bought one just to get the unlimited data before it went tiered and it was terrible. It ran an outdated version of Android to begin with and by the time it updated it was still 2 versions behind... Ended up rooting it and it ran pretty good except the battery started failing near the end of its life and playing music would run the battery down just about as much as playing a game would, I suppose my Captivate Glide has the same problem, it just has a longer lasting battery.
It had a lot of nifty features that I wish my current phone had, namely that there was an LED notification if you got a text. Back-track was an interesting concept, though I never actually ever used it. But yes, it was crippled by software (including the fact it could only search Yahoo at first) and the fact you couldn't install anything outside of the market.
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Sure, and they should, but every dollar the government they either have it via force (taxes) or fraud (money printing). The government should be trying to reduce itself rather than growing.
Except for the fact that corporations:
A) Only have voluntary power/wealth
B) Must use the government to abuse its power
If you reduce the power that the government has, you eliminate corporate abuses because all corporate abuses need the government.
The difference between a megacorporation and the government are huge. Walmart does not force you to purchase its products or face imprisonment, but thanks to the recent Supreme Court ruling the government can. You can choose never to support a megacorporation or any corporation if you so choose. For example, I don't buy Sony products because of their policies with DRM and rootkits and removing features (as in the PS3), that means Sony doesn't get a penny from me. On the other hand, there are numerous things that I don't agree with the US government with, yet they force me to pay taxes (essentially stealing) via the barrel of a gun.
Saying that corporations are dangerous is incorrect. Corporations are only dangerous with government power, reduce government power and you reduce any damage that corporations can do to nothing.
If the government even mentions the word "terrorist" they're allowed to ransack basic civil liberties, wiretap civilians without warrant, judges that will give a warrant for even the slightest shred of evidence, etc.
What good are constitutional protections when they go unused? Consider the constitution of North Korea:
Article 67. Citizens are guaranteed freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, demonstration and association. The State shall guarantee conditions for the free activity of democratic political parties and social organizations.
Article 79. Citizens are guaranteed inviolability of the person and the home and privacy of correspondence. No citizens can be placed under control or be arrested nor can their homes be searched without a legal warrant.
See: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_North_Korea_(1972)
Now, compare that to the UK without a formal constitution or true bill of rights. Despite the flaws in the UK, I think there's a lot more freedom of speech, press, assembly, demonstration, association, and privacy in the UK than there is in North Korea.
You mean like the "mummy's curse" or a million other death threats that ancient cultures showed for their tombs filled with riches? If you dig up a structure that is:
A) Ancient
B) Hard to get into
C) Filled with all sorts of warning messages
Would you think that it was:
A) A dangerous death trap
Or
B) A place where the ancients held their treasure.
I guess that most people would choose B.
In all honesty though, I think that this is a moot point, if civilization collapses, basic principles such as how to make a Geiger counter and radioactivity would most likely survive the collapse or at least be rediscovered before people would be drilling into nuclear waste storage sites.
To be honest, I think the answer may be to vote for a third party (Green, Libertarian, Constitutionalist, etc.) and look at places to live elsewhere. Despite what the media tries to tell you, the "third world" isn't just grass huts and civil wars. Granted, you might not have a Starbucks every 3 blocks but most of those countries are truly more free and they have many more opportunities. Plus the cost of living is much lower.
Windows Phone 7 (the successor to Windows Mobile) is a whole lot better than Windows Mobile, its not perfect, but it does a few things a bit better than Android and iOS and is about the only real upgrade of an OS that's better in every respect that I've ever seen aside from the upgrades of OS 9 to OS X and WIndows 9x to Windows NT.
Um... Isn't this why Firefox was created to prevent the bloat of Netscape and make a browser that just... browsed? Why not make this a plugin?
Why can't someone make a better browser than Firefox but make it as customizable? I've tried using Chrome and found that even basic options don't exist. And Opera really isn't that much better than Firefox.
Yep, BlackBerry used to be the "cool" phone to get back when everyone else who owned a smartphone was stuck with the old Windows Mobile. A lot of people back then had BlackBerries who weren't really corporate users, they just wanted the best smartphone, which in the early start of the smartphone was the BlackBerry. Then the iPhone came out, then the flood of Android phones. For business users Android phones and the iPhone have become more and more business centered over time. When it comes down to it, why would anyone who isn't tied into BBES even consider a BlackBerry today? With the problems with BBES, why would any corporation choose that over its competitors?
RIM ignored the generic consumer in favor of selling their products in the business space. At first it worked because no other phone could do well in the business space and back when the only choices were Windows Mobile (the old, slow, unstable Windows Mobile) or BlackBerry many chose BlackBerry even if it wasn't the ideal smartphone, it was better than the competition. Then Apple released the iPhone which was consumer focused, no longer could RIM keep the consumers who just wanted a smartphone because there was a better option. Soon Android started appearing everywhere and iPhones got a whole lot more business friendly. All the while RIM was selling outdated hardware, an outdated UI, next to no developer support, and any time they tried to innovate it was a half-hearted attempt that failed (remember the storm?).
In a nutshell, why is RIM broke? Because no one wants to buy a BlackBerry because an iPhone/Android does the job a whole lot better.
If you want the Microwriter, I think there is something called CyKey that is pretty much the same thing, I looked on their site and although the site hadn't been updated for a few years it appears you still can order a CyKey with a USB connection for around $100.
I really don't see multi-screen gaming really catching on because of the simple fact that a lot of people don't have a whole heck of a lot of space, especially in the "core" gamer demographic who tend to either be living with their parents or living in a cramped apartment. Desktops aren't exactly space savers and decent sized monitors aren't easy to fit 3 or more on a normal sized desk.
It seems interesting that Hong Kong has been very vocal recently in criticizing Beijing. In fact, it seems interesting that 1 country 2 systems has been maintained for so long with little change, especially since it is clear that Hong Kong (and Macau) has it much better than mainland China, for example, life expectancy in mainland China is only 73, in Hong Kong it is 82, nearly a decade of difference. Between the vast differences in wealth and standard of living in the 2 areas of China, I'm really surprised that those in mainland China don't rise up and demand the system that Hong Kong has. Do the Chinese not equate the system of government to the greater wealth and health of Hong Kong? Or do they simply not have the facts to compare the two?
So what? He provided a good service to millions. A company has very little to do with the personality of the creators. A good product is a good product even if it was created by someone you wouldn't admire.
Sadly there is nothing not under the USSA's tyrannical jurisdiction with the exception of countries such as North Korea. Even "safe" jurisdictions such as Switzerland have treaties with the US government.
So? What about people selling CD burners? VHS recorders?
Kim Dotcom simply provided a service that could be used both "legally" and "illegally" and being a good provider of a service made money. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. On the other hand, the people suing him (US department of "justice") obtained their vast wealth through theft of property, and fraud.
The difference is the USPS is a government sponsored monopoly where legally you cannot compete with them. If they decide to increase the price of stamps to $15 a piece, they can do that and there's not much that anyone can do about it since it is illegal to deliver mail except by the USPS.
In fact, a guy named Lysander Spooner made a competitor to the US post office called the American Letter Mail Company, it did everything better than the USPS, faster delivery, cheaper rates, less waste, etc. but it was shut down because of the monopoly that the USPS has.
ISPs are not the same. While arguably many have monopoly status due to the fact that the government gave them massive amounts of money to "modernize" the US, there is nothing preventing me from starting a better, more privacy friendly ISP aside from the startup costs.
That is all well, but the US is not a free market when it comes to ISPs because the government gave out massive amounts of moneys to large corporations to "modernize" the US which means that in many areas there are only 1 or 2 ISPs, both megacorporations and no other ISP can compete with them either by law or because they already had such a large competitive advantage by having all the infrastructure basically paid for by theft (taxes). We need to not make this mistake again and cut off all taxpayer support to ISPs and other private companies in order to allow the free market to work, otherwise you have a mess like we have today.
Exactly, the only monitoring ISPs will do is due to either government mandated crap, or government-sponsored lawsuits (RIAA/MPAA) due to their horribly outdated intellectual "property" laws.
Ah yes, because Microsoft steals ~25% of my income. Microsoft forces me at gunpoint to buy a PC and an Xbox, saying that if I don't buy a PC I have to pay them even more for the "privilege" to not have a PC. I forgot that Microsoft goes around arming drug cartels and propping up dictators. I also forgot that Vista drones are firing missiles at unarmed civilians.
The government, by definition is a parasite. The rich can be parasitic by relying on the government, the poor can be parasitic by relying on the government. The poor can have no parasitic effect if they do not rely on the government and same with the rich. It just so happens that in the US the "poor" (lets face it, the "poor" in the US are rich compared to a large chunk of the world) enjoy using the parasite of the government to encourage it to steal more.
Which is why we need to simply abolish patents in the first place.
There's no redeeming quality with patents anymore. If you have a good idea, put it in a product. Any modern product is much more than just the general concept. If we needed patents to have success, why are there generics of just about everything AND the "brand name". If patents were needed, everyone would buy Kangaroo Krunch (a hypothetical generic to Captain Crunch) that sells for 25% less than Captain Crunch rather than Captain Crunch since both are nearly 100% identical.
A product's success does not just come from a novel idea, or a set of novel ideas but it comes from execution, marketing and support.
Sure, but how many ISPs really have the resources to fix this problem? After all, an ISP deals with the network side of things, not fixing viruses. If the ISP's DNS server is down, you call your ISP. If the ISP cut a fiber optic cable and your internet is down, you call your ISP. If your HDD is broken, you don't call your ISP. If you get a virus, you don't call your ISP. Etc.
Sadly, aside from a few local places, most of the "big chain" tech support people are extortionists and by the time "Geek Squad" is done "fixing" your computer, you could already upgrade to a newer machine (which is what they want) where the salesmen will use lies and manipulations. Of course, Geek Squad and Best Buy's salesmen are good for the humor value, I asked one of them what the clock speed of one computer was and he said "Eastern standard time of course"...
Yeah, because that will teach them the right message. There are thousands of viruses out there that say "YOU'VE BEEN INFECTED WITH 2312312434 VIRUSES, PURCHASE TOTALLY LEGIT REGISTRY-SCANNER TO FIX" adding a legitimate message only confuses users.
In fact, if I recall correctly, the major variants of DNS changer pop up windows saying you need to install X malware that pretends to fix problems.
Not really.
The EU's currency is a mess and is breaking up. Many EU countries are implementing currency controls. Economically the EU is dead.
The EU gets some things right but a lot of things wrong. Like the new law put in effect that you have to display an annoying message if you use cookies. If you don't want cookies, disable them in your browser. An option that has existed since cookies were invented.
The problem isn't that it involves risk, it is that things that are "completely safe" eventually get abused to the point that they are no longer safe. X-Rays can cause cancer, but we know that x-rays cause cancer and therefore doctors/dentists are more reluctant to use them. Back when X-rays were considered 100% safe, we used them to see how well shoes fit! And other novelties.
Is terahertz radiation safer than x-rays? Quite possibly. If we use terahertz radiation to excess will it be safer than x-rays? Quite possibly not.
Yep, I bought one just to get the unlimited data before it went tiered and it was terrible. It ran an outdated version of Android to begin with and by the time it updated it was still 2 versions behind... Ended up rooting it and it ran pretty good except the battery started failing near the end of its life and playing music would run the battery down just about as much as playing a game would, I suppose my Captivate Glide has the same problem, it just has a longer lasting battery.
It had a lot of nifty features that I wish my current phone had, namely that there was an LED notification if you got a text. Back-track was an interesting concept, though I never actually ever used it. But yes, it was crippled by software (including the fact it could only search Yahoo at first) and the fact you couldn't install anything outside of the market.