You are exaggerating the cost of the licence, at he moment it is below €20.00 / month, for special cases less than €6.00 / month.
Most EU countries have public broadcasters paid form such charges or public money.
The resulting programming is in many cases better than the competing commercial stations, prime examples are Germany and the UK.
I call bullshit on that . . . the programs on ARD and ZDF just plain suck. Like I said, stuff for the Thomas Gottschalk crowd. I pay for cable, and get my news from CNN, N-TV, N24 and Phoenix. I mostly watch documentaries on the same channels. I never watch ARD or ZDF . . . so why should I pay for them? Oh, ZDF has a great show with a neo-Nazi apologist named Guido Knopp, called ZDF History [sic] . . . sure, I'll pay 20€ per month, to support the Nazi cause! In case you want to debate this, the father of a friend of mine is a Professor of History at the University in Dresden. He tells the truth about Guido Knopp.
So why not make access to ARD and ZDF optional . . . you would have to pay a monthly fee for access to their programs? No one would do it, because what they offer is crap. Just ask RTL, RTL2, Pro7, Sat1, Tele5 (they are a hoot and a half, with their trash movies), ARTE, Vox, RTL Nitro, Prosieben Maxx (Akte X!), Kabel eins, etc . . .
People watch those channels, because they offer what people want to see. Not what some government bureaucrat wonks think that they would like to watch.
For the folks in the US . . . PBS offers great programming, but bugs you a bit a couple times a year for funding. Now imagine, PBS could tax everybody in the nation that has a TV, and offer programming that nobody wants to see.
Welcome to Germany. Don't ask us about the emissions from our VW cars . . .
When I first arrived in Germany, in 1986, folks told me that the GEZ had trucks with equipment that could detect a house that was receiving TV signals without paying for a "license" to watch TV. To those who are not familiar with television in Germany, the GEZ is a government extortion agency who charge 100€ per month for your right to watch crap game shows, hosted by a daft twat named Thomas Gottschalk.
So, what are they going to do . . . send out trucks which can detect "illegal" [sic] monitoring of foreign channels? In WWII, it was illegal to listen to Allies radio programs . . . "propaganda". In the former East Germany, the well loved DDR, with Volkshelden like Erich Honecker and Erich Mielke, viewing television from West Germany, "The Federal Republic of Germany", aka "FROG", was also illegal.
It's Godwin time! Germany needs to drop these restrictions that stem from a Nazi past.
What's next . . . are they going to place restrictions on astronomers as to what stars in the sky that they can look at . . . ?
But in Germany, "Alles was nicht ausdrücklich erlaubt ist . . . ist verboten!"
There was a 70's Gerry and Sylvia Anderson ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ) TV series called "UFO" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ). It featured a jet rocket plane on the tip of a submarine, which was called "Skydiver" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ). Oh, and didn't "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" have a "Flying Sub"? But wait, there's still more . . . now that I think about it, the Japanese actually built a submarine/aircraft carrier combo menu plate. Their idea was to use this to bomb New York City or Washington DC. One problem: the planes could take off . . . but not land. Oh, well, coming from the nation that featured Kamikaze pilots, this was no big deal.
I actually prefer Anderson's model special effects as opposed to the CGI stuff that we have today. And Ray Harryhausen clay monsters? Awesome!
But please tell me where the prole/elite line is drawn? Is there a law which sets out what kind of person is Elite, and what kind is Prole. Are pop-stars elite? Or actors? Lawyers? Maybe just top Lawyers? Because I'm very interested in knowing about this line.
The NSA spied on Hillary Clinton for a long time . . . and didn't like the stuff that they saw. So when she wanted something that would be even difficult for the NSA to crack . . . they said no. They wanted easy access to the stuff that she was doing.
Why are they in such a hurry to send meatbags there ?
NASA has announced that the first passengers to Mars will not be volunteers, but they will be drafted for the mission. You have no choice . . . you're on a one-way trip to Mars.
NASA's current picks are Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
That's why they are in such a hurry. Gotta get that rocket launched before November.
It would be funny if we later found out that wasn't the intended flight plan.
I'm guessing that the intended flight plan is about detailed as those of my bottle rockets on New Year's Eve. Stick it in the bottle. Light the fuse. Hope that it will land somewhere that will scare the Japanese.
When North Korea starts placing nukes on these missiles, with no idea where they will land . . . well, that's time to upgrade your tinfoil hat to a lead hat.
As a big of old Shaw brothers Kung Fu films, I immediately thought: "Ha! Drunken Tweeter Style!" (Zui Quan). For those who have not heard of Kung Fu "Drunken Boxer Style", Wikipedia describes it like this:
The technical features of zui quan are based on imitating a drunkard. The main body method is called sloshing, which refers to "Hollow Body, Wine Belly" concept, as though the body is hollow and the lower abdomen (; dantian) is filled with wine (instead of Qi), which travels through the body adding power to the movements. The postures are driven by weight and momentum of the whole body, staggering around, creating sudden power from awkward positions, and fluidity in the movements and transitions from one pose to another. Drunken body style seems peculiar and off-balance, but it is actually in balance.
Appearing to be drunk confuses the opponent. It's like an Internet troll, when someone pretends to be right or left wing, a racist or a racist of color to bait and hook people to come out. There's probably something that you can achieve by appearing to be tweeting while drunk. I haven't thought about it much, but Trolls will figure out some way to use it to their advantage.
You can go to CNN or Reddit but you won't get the same level of discussion
Exactly! I don't come here to read the news, but to read what Geeks and Nerds think of the news. I wouldn't mind if a story was posted about Kim Kardashian's butt. Someone would post that he is completing his Ph.D. in the theoretical geometry of feminine butts. Another would post that he is with a CSI unit as a Crackology expert.
Slashdot has an incredible wealth of expert knowledge . . . and I will read just about anything the folks here want to say about anything.
It sounds like a "Subprime Car Leasing" program. When the drivers can't pay back the money they owe, GM will go bankrupt again . . . and guess who gets to pay for it . . .
Well, Deutche Telekom is (or was) the German State telephone company
"Was". It was privatized a long time ago. So there is no direct control of the Deutsche Telekom by the German government.
Of, course, when the German government asks Deutsche Telekom for a "favor", they are not going to say no. Especially if there are some laws backing the government up. There's another set of secret squirrels in Germany called "Verfassungsschutz", which means something like "protection of the constitution". They have broad powers for snooping on folks that are deemed enemies of the state.
Deutsche Telekom runs one of the biggest ISPs in Germany: T-Online. Part of their RADIUS platform is a component called "LI" . . . "Lawful Interception". The spooks can directly access this, without any assistance from the T-Online operator. And, in fact, LI even hides and obfuscates the taps that are in place. So if a drug cartel smuggled in a rogue T-Online operator, this person would not be able to tell the drug cartel that they were being spied on. The other ISPs in Germany probably do the same thing. It was my understanding that ISPs are required to support Lawful Interception.
Pretty sneaky, eh?
Now, lets get back to the MS cloud . . . are clouds in Germany also required to support Lawful Interception? If so, a BND->NSA transfer would be a cakewalk. (BND = Bundesnachrichtungdienst, the German NSA & CIA in one package).
Were they wearing brown shirts when they "declared war" on a candidate exercising his right to free speech?
The irony here, is that the Nazis used disruption to come to power. The Nazis only had a few folks in parliament, but through disruption, they managed to derail the democratic process and grind the operation of government to a halt.
I bet these "protesters" would be surprised to learn that they are using tried and trusted methods of the Nazis.
And the most famous "Total War" speech I can think of was the one made by Joseph Goebbels.
Even Bernie said on the weekend, "You have a right to protest. You do not have a right to disrupt."
Now if only the people who think they are supporting him would only listen to him.
Slashdot Mirror
You are exaggerating the cost of the licence, at he moment it is below €20.00 / month, for special cases less than €6.00 / month. Most EU countries have public broadcasters paid form such charges or public money. The resulting programming is in many cases better than the competing commercial stations, prime examples are Germany and the UK.
I call bullshit on that . . . the programs on ARD and ZDF just plain suck. Like I said, stuff for the Thomas Gottschalk crowd. I pay for cable, and get my news from CNN, N-TV, N24 and Phoenix. I mostly watch documentaries on the same channels. I never watch ARD or ZDF . . . so why should I pay for them? Oh, ZDF has a great show with a neo-Nazi apologist named Guido Knopp, called ZDF History [sic] . . . sure, I'll pay 20€ per month, to support the Nazi cause! In case you want to debate this, the father of a friend of mine is a Professor of History at the University in Dresden. He tells the truth about Guido Knopp.
So why not make access to ARD and ZDF optional . . . you would have to pay a monthly fee for access to their programs? No one would do it, because what they offer is crap. Just ask RTL, RTL2, Pro7, Sat1, Tele5 (they are a hoot and a half, with their trash movies), ARTE, Vox, RTL Nitro, Prosieben Maxx (Akte X!), Kabel eins, etc . . .
People watch those channels, because they offer what people want to see. Not what some government bureaucrat wonks think that they would like to watch.
For the folks in the US . . . PBS offers great programming, but bugs you a bit a couple times a year for funding. Now imagine, PBS could tax everybody in the nation that has a TV, and offer programming that nobody wants to see.
Welcome to Germany. Don't ask us about the emissions from our VW cars . . .
In Soviet Russia a naked and petrified Natalie Portman pours hot grits down YOU!
"Nudes for Nerds . . ."
When I first arrived in Germany, in 1986, folks told me that the GEZ had trucks with equipment that could detect a house that was receiving TV signals without paying for a "license" to watch TV. To those who are not familiar with television in Germany, the GEZ is a government extortion agency who charge 100€ per month for your right to watch crap game shows, hosted by a daft twat named Thomas Gottschalk.
So, what are they going to do . . . send out trucks which can detect "illegal" [sic] monitoring of foreign channels? In WWII, it was illegal to listen to Allies radio programs . . . "propaganda". In the former East Germany, the well loved DDR, with Volkshelden like Erich Honecker and Erich Mielke, viewing television from West Germany, "The Federal Republic of Germany", aka "FROG", was also illegal.
It's Godwin time! Germany needs to drop these restrictions that stem from a Nazi past.
What's next . . . are they going to place restrictions on astronomers as to what stars in the sky that they can look at . . . ?
But in Germany, "Alles was nicht ausdrücklich erlaubt ist . . . ist verboten!"
There was a 70's Gerry and Sylvia Anderson ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ) TV series called "UFO" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ). It featured a jet rocket plane on the tip of a submarine, which was called "Skydiver" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ). Oh, and didn't "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" have a "Flying Sub"? But wait, there's still more . . . now that I think about it, the Japanese actually built a submarine/aircraft carrier combo menu plate. Their idea was to use this to bomb New York City or Washington DC. One problem: the planes could take off . . . but not land. Oh, well, coming from the nation that featured Kamikaze pilots, this was no big deal.
I actually prefer Anderson's model special effects as opposed to the CGI stuff that we have today. And Ray Harryhausen clay monsters? Awesome!
What does Betteridge's law of headlines say . . . ?
But is it 3D printed, and can you buy it with Bitcoins, and is it MDsolar powered, or powered by nukes . . . ?
Correlation is not causation!
I have been reading Slashdot too long.
But please tell me where the prole/elite line is drawn? Is there a law which sets out what kind of person is Elite, and what kind is Prole. Are pop-stars elite? Or actors? Lawyers? Maybe just top Lawyers? Because I'm very interested in knowing about this line.
If you have to ask . . . you don't belong . . .
The NSA spied on Hillary Clinton for a long time . . . and didn't like the stuff that they saw. So when she wanted something that would be even difficult for the NSA to crack . . . they said no. They wanted easy access to the stuff that she was doing.
Yeah, but I'll bet the government sweetened the deal: "You give us your source code, we'll give you some juicy government contracts."
"Tastes better . . . lasts longer . . . "
Why are they in such a hurry to send meatbags there ?
NASA has announced that the first passengers to Mars will not be volunteers, but they will be drafted for the mission. You have no choice . . . you're on a one-way trip to Mars.
NASA's current picks are Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
That's why they are in such a hurry. Gotta get that rocket launched before November.
It would be funny if we later found out that wasn't the intended flight plan.
I'm guessing that the intended flight plan is about detailed as those of my bottle rockets on New Year's Eve. Stick it in the bottle. Light the fuse. Hope that it will land somewhere that will scare the Japanese.
When North Korea starts placing nukes on these missiles, with no idea where they will land . . . well, that's time to upgrade your tinfoil hat to a lead hat.
Uh-oh . . . you should read the fine print in the EULA . . . your feet are now property on the Nike Corporation!
I'm holding out until they throw in The Ginsu and The Spiral Slicer . . .
. . . "But wait, there's still more!"
I guess you've never heard of the infamous Ken Thompson Hack: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TheKenT...
Skimming through the source code is not enough. However, using Open Source enables a bunch of eyes to review the code.
As a big of old Shaw brothers Kung Fu films, I immediately thought: "Ha! Drunken Tweeter Style!" (Zui Quan). For those who have not heard of Kung Fu "Drunken Boxer Style", Wikipedia describes it like this:
The technical features of zui quan are based on imitating a drunkard. The main body method is called sloshing, which refers to "Hollow Body, Wine Belly" concept, as though the body is hollow and the lower abdomen (; dantian) is filled with wine (instead of Qi), which travels through the body adding power to the movements. The postures are driven by weight and momentum of the whole body, staggering around, creating sudden power from awkward positions, and fluidity in the movements and transitions from one pose to another. Drunken body style seems peculiar and off-balance, but it is actually in balance.
Appearing to be drunk confuses the opponent. It's like an Internet troll, when someone pretends to be right or left wing, a racist or a racist of color to bait and hook people to come out. There's probably something that you can achieve by appearing to be tweeting while drunk. I haven't thought about it much, but Trolls will figure out some way to use it to their advantage.
You can go to CNN or Reddit but you won't get the same level of discussion
Exactly! I don't come here to read the news, but to read what Geeks and Nerds think of the news. I wouldn't mind if a story was posted about Kim Kardashian's butt. Someone would post that he is completing his Ph.D. in the theoretical geometry of feminine butts. Another would post that he is with a CSI unit as a Crackology expert.
Slashdot has an incredible wealth of expert knowledge . . . and I will read just about anything the folks here want to say about anything.
"Nudes for Nerds", indeed.
Only buy routine items online. For anything that requires a bit of discretion, buy it at a physical store with cash.
I wouldn't be surprised if the FBI and NSA start requiring retailers to log cash purchases on their systems.
Guess who had $50 million to waste on lawyers. Not Caldera.
Guess who had more than $50 million to waste on lawyers for Caldera . . . the answer lies in some secret bank accounts in the Cayman Islands.
Darl McBride doesn't go to bed hungry.
The biggest danger of a drone is the loose nut behind the controller.
A while back, RC helicopters were expensive and difficult to fly. Only serious folks did it.
Now, they are so cheap and easy to fly, that folks with too much money, and too little common sense can make a public nuisance of themselves.
It sounds like a "Subprime Car Leasing" program. When the drivers can't pay back the money they owe, GM will go bankrupt again . . . and guess who gets to pay for it . . .
Well, Deutche Telekom is (or was) the German State telephone company
"Was". It was privatized a long time ago. So there is no direct control of the Deutsche Telekom by the German government.
Of, course, when the German government asks Deutsche Telekom for a "favor", they are not going to say no. Especially if there are some laws backing the government up. There's another set of secret squirrels in Germany called "Verfassungsschutz", which means something like "protection of the constitution". They have broad powers for snooping on folks that are deemed enemies of the state.
Deutsche Telekom runs one of the biggest ISPs in Germany: T-Online. Part of their RADIUS platform is a component called "LI" . . . "Lawful Interception". The spooks can directly access this, without any assistance from the T-Online operator. And, in fact, LI even hides and obfuscates the taps that are in place. So if a drug cartel smuggled in a rogue T-Online operator, this person would not be able to tell the drug cartel that they were being spied on. The other ISPs in Germany probably do the same thing. It was my understanding that ISPs are required to support Lawful Interception.
Pretty sneaky, eh?
Now, lets get back to the MS cloud . . . are clouds in Germany also required to support Lawful Interception? If so, a BND->NSA transfer would be a cakewalk. (BND = Bundesnachrichtungdienst, the German NSA & CIA in one package).
It's all rather sad really as there's no way in hell I'm putting any of these devices into my home.
If you do put any of these devices into your home . . . it won't be your home for much longer.
My Schrodinger's Clock was total crap . . . it would always tell me two different times simultaneously.
Were they wearing brown shirts when they "declared war" on a candidate exercising his right to free speech?
The irony here, is that the Nazis used disruption to come to power. The Nazis only had a few folks in parliament, but through disruption, they managed to derail the democratic process and grind the operation of government to a halt.
I bet these "protesters" would be surprised to learn that they are using tried and trusted methods of the Nazis.
And the most famous "Total War" speech I can think of was the one made by Joseph Goebbels.
Even Bernie said on the weekend, "You have a right to protest. You do not have a right to disrupt."
Now if only the people who think they are supporting him would only listen to him.
OK, can I at least pay with my own 3D printed coins then . . . ?